The British summer may be getting off to a non-existent start but summery things are happening – English weather be damned – starting with one of our favourite festivals of the year, The Great Escape. Champion of the little guy, this new music festival sees venues across Brighton co-ordinating in the biggest showcase of...
The crammed-in crowd of eager ears awaiting The James Riley Band’s set tonight at The Bedroom Bar demonstrates a pay-off for the hard work in the lead up to the launch of the debut, Lay Me Down EP. “You met me at a festival, I was dressed in a cowboy hat and skirt,” declares...
Let me get the negative out of the way right off the bat: this was a gig to forget. And I think no-one would like to forget it more than Lissie. It was unprofessional and downright disappointing. If that’s enough negative for you, please skip to the fourth paragraph. If you’re still with me,...
“I think we must be the most English band of all time,” says the Leisure Society’s Christian Hardy as he politely suggests some audience participation towards the end of their set at Queen Elizabeth Hall. Profusely thanking everybody for coming, explaining how the next song is about a night out in Burton on Trent...
“Dog is dead!”, a dyslexic’s version of Neitzche’s famous phrase, was the cry of the night at KOKO on an almost summery evening in north London. The floor was heaving and the three layers of balconies and theatre boxes were overflowing with people waiting to see this up-and-coming fivesome. Riled by the excellent...
That The Staves’ two-day residency at London’s Scala coincides with a brief heat wave in the capital may be no coincidence: more warmth radiates from the audience to the stage and back again over the course of their set than is generated by an entire British summer. For the Watford-born Staveley-Taylor sisters, this is...
Four years is a long time in music, and an especially long time to go without one of your favourite artists. To say Nancy Elizabeth’s return, nearly four years after the release of her second album Wrought Iron, has been hotly anticipated at FFS Towers, would be putting it mildly. But now it’s time...
There are some abilities that all children of folkie parents have in common. Knowing the words to most of ‘Tempted and Tried’ by Steeleye Span. Being able to hold their own at a ceilidh. Having a favourite Christmas song that dates back to the 16th century. And knowing that Fairport Convention are the folk...
Emily Barker previewed forthcoming album 'Dear River' for three nights in London this March, and FFS was there for every last one of them.
We recently caught John Smith electrify a building so old and precious that it was delicately blasphemous of him to do so, really. He played a stonking set to in the endlessly beautiful (and sold-out) St Pancras Old Church, flanked by frightening iconography and aided by gorgeously talented double-bass-player John Thorn. Before we were...
#78 Natalie Evans - Library Days May 20th, 2013
#77 Dodos - Confidence May 19th, 2013
#76 The Wood Brothers - Midnight Rider May 18th, 2013