After a wash-out last year, Beacons is back with a change of location and a cracking line-up. Beacons Festival will take place over the weekend of 17-19th August on the marvellously named Funkirk Estate in Skipton. The Yorkshire Dales will provide a stunning backdrop for an impressive line-up of bands and DJs headed by Wild Beasts and Toots & the Maytals. The bill also includes:

The Felice Brothers
Patrick Wolf
Peaking Lights
Ghostpoet
Roots Manuva
Junior Boys
Errors
Lunice
Cloud Nothings
Cass McCombs
Star Slinger
Kwes
Willis Earl Beal

and many, many more…

The festival features various other attractions including Sheffield Doc/Fest screening a selection of films.

Weekend tickets are only £74.50.

http://www.greetingsfrombeacons.com/

Jim Ghedi is an acoustic guitar playing singer-songwriter; well known around these parts for his unconventional finger-picking style, which gives his music a unique flavour. Neal Heppleston is a highly-respected bass player who currently plays with Magpies and The Purgatory Players. Archipelago is their first collaboration together, and the inaugural release from The Little Mesters’ Recording Confederacy.

Archipelago opens up with the steady meanderings of ‘Harper’s Lantern’, which, from the off, transports you to a mist-shrouded island chain. As Ghedi’s vocals intrude, the nature of the beast changes into a fragile breed of folk music, with an edge reminiscent of Led Zep at their most introspective. Weighing in at just under ten minutes, it is a rather epic and magnificent beginning. On ‘Eastern Blue’, Heppleston’s jazzy bass dances with Ghedi’s Eastern strings to create a rather playful improvised number; highlighting the abilities of both musicians, before cavorting off into the Arabian night.

The only traditional track on the EP, ‘Black Waterside’, has an intricate stringed opening which flutters with a more conventional feel; Ghedi’s vocals capturing the right tone and heralding the faster tempo which drives us to its dénouement. The final track of this collection, ‘Mist on the Morning’, returns, in part, to where we began, albeit calmer and more introverted; gently growing before releasing its shackles and marching towards a triumphant finale.

Archipelago is a subtle melting pot of folk, jazz, roots and Eastern music which works sublimely. As a debut, it is an extremely impressive piece of work; almost impossible to pigeonhole and even harder to ignore.

The EP is released on 25 June and you can listen to Mist on the Morning here:

Taking place on the weekend of 6-8th July at Midland Steam Railway in (Ripley) Derbyshire, Indietracks is one of the friendliest and most unique UK music festivals. The 6th incarnation of the event sees around 50 bands playing on four stages (including a church and the railway itself), promising to be the best jamboree of Indie-pop yet. Bands already confirmed include:

Allo Darlin’
Veronica Falls
Evans the Death
Darren Hayman
Girls Names
The Just Joans
The Monochrome Set
Rose Melberg
The School
Standard Fare
This Many Boyfriends
Tigercats
The Vaselines

Tickets are a mere £67 and include unlimited steam train rides!

For further information, and to purchase tickets, visit http://www.indietracks.co.uk/index.html

Bow Wow Wow were infamous with several things in the eighties; managed by the veteran Malcolm McLaren, having a naked picture of the lead singer on the album cover at the age of 14 and going wild in the country, but tonight the memory that will mostly probably resonate, is the band’s attitude towards YouTube.

Eighteen pounds on the door, was maybe one of the Brudenell’s more expensive shows, but the spread of mix match bands made it worth the extra pennies. The crowd were as eccentric as may have been expected, and with a quirky band like Bow Wow Wow, the fans had their own unique style some dressed in bowler hats and faded pin striped suits leant from ABC in their ‘Look of Love’ video and some others were just keeping punk alive.

First offering themselves up to the crowd were political punksters Kleine Schweine.  The Little Pigs played an aggressive set full of organised energy to a fairly relaxed crowd.   With their obtuse subjects of songs, including song about the leader of the socialist party in Albania, Edi Rama, the band were bound to raise an eyebrow or few and confusion was probably a reason that the crowd were fairly static. The band weren’t put off and fought harder for the audience’s attention and despite guitarist Drew being a little under the weather, Kleine Schweine managed reignited the crowds’ passion for rebellion.

Pifco maybe should have opened the show, after the audience had been livened up through musical made up memoirs of Albania; the spoken indie synth pop seemed somewhat out of place.  The band received a warm reception from the crowd, but the Art Brut style talk singing seemed fairly lifeless after having been screamed at.  Their songs were a sombre interval from the madness before them and what was about to follow them.

For the last couple of years, revivals have been very popular and Bow Wow Wow may not have been one that had been foreseen. The band arrived on stage, minus their lead singer Annabella Lwin and for a minute you wondered if they were going to play a lyric less set.  After initial shrugs Annabella skipped onto the stage obviously still stuck in her past, wearing skimpy white frilly hot pants, a loud patterned shirt and a baseball cap with sides.  The fans swarmed the front of the stage and looked up at Annabella starry eyed reliving their youth.  She thanked the acts that had supported including “Some German Band”.  Their energy was encouraging and their performance was electric, Annabella skipped high kneed and playfully worked her mic.

The clientele in the Brudenell were fans that had traveled all over to see the gimmicky band and everyone in the room was eager to capture the band on camera, but this wasn’t welcomed by them, “excuse me please don’t film us, or put us on YouTube, it is illegal and you’re not allowed to do it”, the room reacted like pupils would have done to a teacher and camera screens popped up all over the room followed by sniggering.

The diehard fans salivated as the band took a trip to the countryside, every bit the performers the musicians focused heavily on their instruments as Annabella acted out the song, with comical expressions and large dance moves.  ‘I want Candy’ was the next song that wowed the audience and let the slightly younger members of the audience feel included.

The set was entertaining and more, it was one that hardcore fans were ecstatic to be part of and newcomers were left with a handful at laughs and strong memories of a pantomime performance.

Sat in The Lescar with their song ‘Shotgun Woman’ in my head, I quickly condense the million and one questions that I have for Dead Sons. I’ve heard rumours about them being involved in Reverend and the Makers and supporting the Arctic Monkeys. Their records also sound excitingly ballsy and reviews of them are all favourable. I just wanted to know more.

After a few minutes of pondering, Tom, Ryan and Bernie walk over to the bar, apologise for the absence of Joe and Luke, buy a drink and from here the fun begins. Within two minutes of conversation, it’s clear that they have been musicians for a long time. Tom Rowley (singer) and Joe Green (drummer) were part of ‘Milburn’, who signed to Mercury Records for a few years before splitting in 2008. Tom then went on to play for Reverend and the Makers for six months in 2009. Tom and Joe then joined with their old friend Ryan Sellers (bassist) to form The Backhanded Compliments, until they met Luke Baker and Mathew Byrne (a.k.a. Bernie) and created Dead Sons. Now that context is dealt with, let’s talk about that band.

So what’s different this time with Dead Sons? Ryan says: “Everyone’s on the same page this time.” Indeed, it’s clear that they are musically different to anything they’ve been involved in in the past.

We make more of an impact by ripping someone’s face off with the bass turned up to full than sitting with an acoustic thinking of someone you’re in love with

For a start, they are a multi-instrumental quintet. Tom, Bernie and Luke all play the guitar, Tom and Luke both play the piano/organ and Ryan, Bernie and Joe all mess around with different types of percussions, such as marimbas and glockenspiels. Right now they’re trying to figure out the best way to get all of those instruments on and off stage quickly and efficiently. I wish them the best of luck with that.

Their music has a tendency to be pretty dark, with the psychedelic sounds from an organ, mixed with dirty bass riffs. It is clear that they are influenced by the likes of Tom Waits, The Kills and Leonard Coen with their shared consensus that living on the edge and testing how far that edge goes is the best way to be.

“We probably only argue about being ridiculous.” Ryan reminisces, as I ask him about what the inspiration was behind their recent video ‘Bangonfullturn’. The video, recorded by Mark Bull from ‘Zero Below Films’, shows the quintet dressed in smart attire having a feast in a garden – whilst being watched over by a pig with a shotgun.

Theatrically themed and dramatically played, Dead Sons spent the entirety of the video barbarically eating food and throwing it at each other. “That was just one of those suggestions when I thought: why don’t we have a massive feast?” Bernie explained. “We were going to do it as a banquet, like in a massive hall but it just seemed better to do it in a garden… It were fun but it were absolutely freezing because it were filmed in January.”

Their previous music video was for ‘Shotgun Woman’. In this they choreographed a dance, which they performed as red silhouettes shadowed by red light on a black background. “When we listen to this song this is how we like to dance”: Bernie replies, after I ask them whether or not the video was to direct the moves of their fans. “We have had a few fans doing the dance though … There’s been a couple of gigs when you get to the middle eight and people start jumping.”

‘Room 54’ will be their next single to be released in June through Dead Young Records, an independent label from Leeds. They will be working with ‘Zero Below Films’ again: “It’s gonna be better than the last one I reckon.” Bernie let me quote him on that.

Their single is going to be sold on Vinyl and online. When the question of whether an album will be released any time soon was asked, they diplomatically replied: “We’re always working on it aren’t we – we’re always thinking about what we’re going to put on it in the back of our head but the physical ‘doing it’, we’re not really.”

The conversation has swiftly moved to their EP ‘Boom Booom’ that they released in October. In terms of the title, the third ‘O’ is not a typo. It was from a lyric written by Tom and it was Ryan’s idea to add the extra ‘O’. “A lot of the ideas we have we just say: ‘Should we do this?’ and they say ‘Yeah’”, Ryan explains. “The sillier the idea, the more we like it.”

Tom takes the lead in this discussion: “Luke joined for those four songs which I think has been a major addition.” Luke is at his mum’s birthday party so he couldn’t make the interview. After discussing the greatness of Luke and what I was missing out on, we returned to the EP with Bernie’s contribution: “We found ourselves thinking: ‘How daft can you make it? How far can you go?’”

“We’ve got a new song and when we first played it we were like: ‘Can we get away with that?’” Tom took back the hypothetical talking stick and continued with: “Sometime’s it’ll be a riff, sometime’s it’ll be words – there’s no formula to our songwriting really.” After this, Ryan quickly adds: “But we do like a good riff”. Tom, as agreed by Ryan, Bernie and Tom himself, is the main songwriter in the group.

They’ve been quoted in other interviews saying that they don’t want to ever play in circuit venues in Sheffield. Bernie explained: “If you put people out of their comfort zone, they’re going to have to sit up and pay attention”.  They’ve kept to this pretty well, playing in Sheffield’s Montgomery Theatre last year.

They also packed out the Bang Bang Vintage Store during the Tramlines festival last summer. “We helped to move all the stuff out and we put a gig on… we put a full sound system in a tiny shop and rammed it. It went mental.”

“We put on a gig down where we practice.” Tom goes on to tell me about their practice space at ‘Crystal Ships’, based in an old factory. Last year they put on a gig with three local bands: Velotones, The Violet May and Cult Image. There was then a club night afterwards. “We don’t know the capacity at the end but it were really good.” Ryan reminisces.

Dead Sons’ archive includes slower songs such as ‘Better than being alone.’ Although they always include epic, guitar-wrecking breakdowns, the song remains at a slow tempo with cathartic lyrics. However, they don’t play it live as Ryan explains: “Stuff like that doesn’t really work live, I’d rather just smash it.”

Bernie elaborates: “We make more of an impact by ripping someone’s face off with the bass turned up to full than sitting with an acoustic thinking of someone you’re in love with.”

Taking over once again, Ryan says: “I’m looking forward to playing the new songs live…  but I do like playing ‘Bangonfullturn’ and I quite like ‘Shotgun Woman’.” “And ‘Berlin’” Bernie adds.

It’s come to that point in the conversation to discuss the Arctic Monkeys. Dead Sons supported them last year at Don Valley along with Miles Kane and The Vaccines. There’s been a lot of speculation that the Dead Sons are similar to the Arctic Monkeys, and considering that the Dead Sons emphasise that they are influenced by the likes of Tom Waits, I wander how they feel about this speculation…

Bernie replies: “We’re always getting compared to Monkeys but what people don’t realize is that we’re a Sheffield band and we’ve got Sheffield accents… I’m not knocking the Monkeys, they’re a good band and good mates but we do our own thing.” Fair enough.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Leaving that subject well alone, we start to talk about new music. “There’s not a good modern bands that we listen to, which is a bit shit really.” Ryan reveals and elaborates: “There’s not many bands who do heavy music well I think. There’s not bands who do heavy music and have any good melodies and that. The Kills. new album is good and I like The Growlers and The Dead Weather.”

Bernie avoids the subject as I become more intrigued: “I don’t want to go into it, that’s just a bag of worms – there’s just nothing for me really.” So, what are they going to do to change it? Ryan answers:“Theres nowt we can do. As long as we’re making music that we enjoy, that’s the main thing.”

At the end of the interview, we sit back, relax and have a few drinks. There’s just one thought stuck in my head. When I asked Dead Sons the cliché question of where they would like to go with Dead Sons, Tom replied: “It would be nice to just be able to do it and not worry about money and stuff.” If Dead Sons don’t get there, I worry about who will.

http://www.deadsons.co.uk/

Dead Sons play live next on Saturday 19th May at The Leadmill, Sheffield as part of the Tramlines People’s Choice Awards 

For a decade now Download, the original Monsters of Rock festival, is undefeated at its game of providing a high pitch festival for those ready to party hard for whole weekend. Celebrating its 10^th birthday this year the line-up proves bigger and better than ever, it’s what Download is about.

With The Jim Marshall Stage packed with legendary headline performances from The Prodigy, Metallica performing the Black Album in its entirety and Black Sabbath topping off the Sunday night it’s hard not to wet yourself with pure excitement (I already have!). When you add in the other main stage acts such as Biffy Clyro, Megadeth, NOFX, Tenacious D, Black Veil Brides, Kyuss Lives!  and more than a little bit of wee is sure to find its way into your pants (I’ve already stocked up on the Tena Pads).

Further afield and let’s be honest the main stage isn’t always what it’s about as there’s several other stages that showcase the best of the rest, which include Europe, You Me At Six, Skindred, Ugly Kid Joe and Rise Against.

Bringing the north to the midlands there’s a heap of talent making their way to Donington from our neck of the woods: Terrorvision, While She Sleeps, Saxon, Lawnmower Deth, Black Spiders, Moarmozets and With One Last Breath, to name but a few.

Our top must see tips include:

• Turbowolf 
• Don Broco 
• Ghost 

  Click here to view the embedded video.

• Black Veil Brides 

  Click here to view the embedded video.

• Opeth 

  Click here to view the embedded video.

So raise a glass of warm beer – let’s make it messy whilst drinking and rocking (ir)responsibly and stick a candle on the top of Download’s cake and make sure it’s a festival not to forget.

More information on Download can be found at: http://www.downloadfestival.co.uk/

Set in the leafy suburbs of Sheffield is the Lantern Theatre; a quaint venue you wouldn’t even know was there unless you were going there for a specific reason. With only 84 seats in the theatre, a sell out was the only option for an evening with Cate Le Bon and Perfume Genius on the opening night of his UK tour.

Having recently played The Harley, Cate Le Bon appeared accompanied with only her guitar. Plunged into darkness, we could see her but she couldn’t see us. Slightly nervous and reserved in approach, she began, weaving in and out of tracks from her recently released CYRK album. An enchanting performance from Miss Le Bon provided a multitude of highlights including Julia, the two parted Ploughing Out as well as her collaboration with Gruff Rhys for Record Store Day, Time Could Change Your Mind.

There’s something rather breathtaking about Perfume Genius. As he took to the stage with buoyancy he too joked about the darkness which surrounded him and his two piece band. As he started his performance the audience were drawn in to a moving and magical experience. With songs such as Dirge and the Normal Song we witnessed a genius, whose charisma and charm unfolds in his music and within his lyrics. Heartstrings were tugged with pure emotion and with the confines of the intimate environment it was breathtaking.

The Lantern Theatre provided a wonderful setting for such a rare and engaging evening with two artists that simply stunned the audience. It was a night to remember and to appreciate music.

It is said that, ‘The music is the invention of front man and guitarist Benjamin, scoring songs for violin, piano, bass, trumpet, trombone, Saxophone and flute.’ His efforts certainly have not gone in vain, the sound is big; it overpowers you to the extent that you just follow in awe, from the epic chorus’ in ‘Dark Clouds’ to the final gentle touch of ‘Ode to Gog’.

This is an EP for the summer. I could happily sit on my garden with a glass of cider soaking up the sun and listen to this stimulating EP. Tales from Pegasus Wood could be one of the classiest things I have heard from Leeds in some time.

http://arthurrigby.bandcamp.com/album/tales-from-pegasus-wood

‘The Land’ opens with a bang with the forceful ‘Good Shop Shuts’. The chorus in this track is incredibly addictive and lodges itself firmly in your brain. The upbeat guitars create the perfect background for the infectious vocal and lyrics. ‘Good Shop Shuts’ is neatly followed by their latest single ‘Cross Country’. Full of intelligent lyrics and well structured instrumentation ‘Cross Country’ is a strong choice for release as a single.

The Wind-Up Birds then show that they are far from a one dimensional band with ‘There Won’t Always Be An England’. This is a slow stripped down track with vocals that would be comfortable in any beat poem.

Now you have had chance to settle down and think about to provocative lyrics in ‘There Won’t Always Be An England’ The Wind-Up Birds crank it up again with the gripping sing-a-long ‘Being Dramatic’. This track is so enjoyable and accessible that you find yourself singing along the entire way through. The verses on this track would be worthy choruses for many other bands and the chorus is even better.

In the same way that Akala documents his experiences of England and his surroundings through eloquent poetic raps, The Wind-Up Birds relay their experiences with a similar poetic aplomb. This is a thought provoking album in which every track is of value.

‘The Land’ is released on the 14^th of May on Sturdy Records and is available on C.D. and as a download, I highly recommend it.

http://www.thewindupbirds.co.uk/

The Brude is quiet tonight; a handful of punters floating around the door, one guy is on his laptop, a tall, posh-looking man in tweed peruses the offerings at the bar.

Jen Armstrong sits at her keyboard and begins with ‘Billie Jean’. Unfortunately, people aren’t ready to pay attention yet and she is competing with a phone conversation in the crowd whilst relating Jacko’s tale of that ever so insistent young mum. She soldiers on, displaying a strong voice and throwing herself into her work. A guitarist and a drummer playing a tea chest join her on stage and manage to navigate their way through the songs (some of which they have only just learnt). An occasionally uncooperative MacBook serves up backing tracks to pad things out. The set starts to grab the attention more as it goes but never really seems to get going.

Heart Ships are a stark contrast to the opening act. I am the embodiment of surprise when the posh guy from the bar with the (now removed) tweed jacket turns out to be singer, Ryan Cooke. He hammers vocals down the mic, out into our faces that can only be the product of him actually being some sort of repressed Nordic king who is well into his Rammstein. There is not a room in the world that this sort of pseudo-operatic wailing wouldn’t split and, at times, it is slightly difficult to listen to. However, it is also inescapably watchable.

Cooke’s vocals clamber out over the top of a sound that is a cocktail of ‘Hot Fuss’ and ‘Neon Bible’ lashed with cathedral-sized reverb. Almost every song builds and builds; swathes of guitar, keyboards, bass and pounding drums create a wall of music that is probably just about as epic as you could fit into a place the size of the Brude. There is a lot that is good here – not least the fact that they’re not your run of the mill indie band. But, the most notable thing is how much they put into each song. James Nuttall’s lead guitar weaves around the thick, almost chanting, harmonies and Josh Hannaby alternates softer, cymbal-washed drumming with thunder crack tom-abuse. All this is wrapped in the guitar, bass and keyboard floods of sound churned out by Dave Hill, Alex Papaioannou and Matt Stephenson.

It isn’t often that a band gives you the chance to decide whether you like or dislike them based entirely on their music and not just because you like ‘that kind of thing’. Heart Ships do this entirely.

The room remains divided.

As far as mood is concerned, the antithesis of Heart Ships now takes the spotlight. Francois & The Atlas Mountains don’t give us any time to get used to the change before Francois has leapt from the stage and is playing his guitar in amongst the crowd, writhing around with some crazy moves. Instantly, the wall between the musicians and the audience is broken down and it is never rebuilt. Along with Francois’ guitar, there are keyboards, synths, drums (a kit being tended to by a man in a sparkly jacket, some electronic percussion and a couple of West African tubs getting thumped) and a whole wealth of vocals contributing to this reggae/calypso/pop/funk mix. Every single member of the band looks like there is nowhere they would rather be and that in their own cheerful, nonchalant way, they will forcibly drag us along with them to wherever they’re going.

It is obvious that these guys have gigged together a lot. They are comfortable performing as a unit and that allows them the freedom to really put on a show. Almost every song begins in one place then moves off in another direction, building as it goes. The vigour of the drumming increases and the grounded sounds of a simple electric guitar and drums are blended perfectly with electronic dive bombs and distortion. Songs that start off like little Franco-Jamaican ditties end up barging past you like something The Whip would open with.

At one point they all switch instruments ready to stride on to towards the end of the set. Francois is now firing out epic synth sounds and, as the penultimate track lurches towards a climax, it feels like we’ve stumbled into a slightly lighter version of the middle four minutes of Underworld’s ‘Born Slippy’. We are in the presence of a band, dressed like kids TV presenters, raining down dirty beats all over us and, quite unbelievably, that doesn’t feel wrong in the slightest.

In the event of these guys playing somewhere near you; be there.