Seated on high-backed wooden chairs like the kings and queens of Narnia in Cair Paravel, Alela Diane and her Wild Divine hold court from the dais at St Pancras Old Church. Flanked by her husband and her father (both called…
Category: Gigs
Live | The Leisure Society (Laura Marling support) @ Winchester Cathedral
‘This place seems nice…’ quips Leisure Society co-frontman Christian Hardy, surveying the audience settling into Winchester Cathedral’s 160m Gothic nave. Before Nick Hemming’s guitar ripples reassuringly into ‘We Were Wasted’, from the band’s debut album The Sleeper. It’s a skeleton…
Live | Gruff Rhys & Y Niwl @ Shepherds Bush Empire, London
Amongst the potted palms of the mobile lobby of Gruff Rhys’s Hotel Shampoo, support band Y Niwl emit wave after wave of their own brand of crystalline surf rock. The Peter Gunn-esque ‘Pedwar’ opens the show, followed by the standout Chwech,…
Live | Petra Jean Phillipson @ St Pancras Old Church
Petra Jean Phillipson’s MySpace page boldly states: ‘Notes On Love… is NOT for AIRHEADS’. If this first, experimental yet accessible, album wasn’t for airheads then second offering, Notes on Death, is NOT for anyone who believes songs should have such…
Live | Slow Club @ Shepherds Bush Empire
How frustrating it must be to spend all your energy and creativity making a debut album that everybody loves, only to be labelled as something you never wanted to be. Slow Club managed to win hordes of wonderful fans thanks…
Live | Treetop Flyers @ Hoxton Bar and Kitchen
Treetop Flyers are in many ways the quintessential band to have emerged from the collaborative Communion stable, and their old-time country courts ever increasing attention and buzz. At the launch of not-so-new single ‘It’s About Time’, the band that seems…
Live | Austra @ Scala, 6th September
As we stand on Scala’s balcony overlooking our fellow audience members, we’re utterly transfixed by Austra. The only thing that can interrupt FFS’s state of mind is the raucous applause that separates each of their songs. Like many sailors drawn…
Festival | Bestival 2011
Sparky electro-pop and dance were more dominant than folk at this year’s Bestival, but it’s a cheerful mish-mash where sensitive strumming acts are welcomed (as long as they’re not upset by a soft background thud of drum and bass, as…
Live | The Unthanks with the Brighouse & Rastrick Brass Band @ Leeds Town Hall
We’re stepping out of our comfort zone here, all of us. FFS is not used to attending gigs – no, wait, this is definitely a ‘concert’ – in venues like the magnificent 19th century Leeds Town Hall, and while the…
Live | Michelle Stodart @ Apple Cart Festival
If The Magic Numbers are a little too ‘shiny happy people’ for you, bassist Michele Stodart’s solo foray into country and blues territory is a far grittier prospect. We may be at the underpopulated, family-orientated Apple Cart festival (littler, more…