Month: September 2017

Duncan Reid & the Big Heads – Glasgow preview

September 28, 2017 By neilho27@sky.com
Duncan Reid & the Big Heads – Nice ‘n’ Sleazy, Glasgow 6th October 2017

Duncan Reid returns to Glasgow with his Big Heads this October to play a hotly anticipated gig. I say hotly anticipated as anyone who has seen the band play before will know that those with a ticket for this are in for a treat.

Last year they played in Audio with support from Heavy Drapes and The Media Whores and, in my opinion, was one of the top gig of 2016. Apologies for anyone who has read previous blog posts, I may have mentioned this several times…

Anyway, that night saw 3 sterling sets, each band was totally on form.

… Read the rest

The Media Whores – Mercury prize nominees for Dangerous Minds

September 25, 2017 By neilho27@sky.com
Who are The Media Whores?

The Media Whores are a Falkirk based “political power pop punk” band (description courtesy of Vive Le Rock) who have now have three albums to their name.

  • Debut “Starfishing”
  • 2013’s “Pornophonica” (9/10 in Vive Le Rock)
  • and latest release “Dangerous Minds” (2016) (again 9/10 in Vive Le Rock) and was also long-listed for the Mercury Music Prize.

Although Dangerous Minds has been out for a while now, it seemed like a good time to catch up with the band following the Mercury long-listing.

Band members are:

Craig A – vocals & rhythm guitar
Doogie Mackie – bass guitar & backing vocs
Martyn Heath – lead guitar & backing vocs
Andy Russell – drums

Recent shows

The Media Whores have been prominent and noticeably busy since the album release.… Read the rest

The Jesus & Mary Chain – Damage & Joy Tour – Glasgow

September 25, 2017 By neilho27@sky.com
The Jesus & Mary Chain – Live – 23rd September 2017

You wait years for one of your favourite bands to play a hometown gig. Then you see them three times within a couple of years (it would have been four if I’d managed to get a ticket for the 6Music show). Well it’s nearly hometown – I’m not sure the East Kilbride’s Bruce Hotel or The Village Inn would be big enough.

Since the Psychocandy re-union tours, The Jesus & Mary Chain have continued on a stellar resurgence resulting in some of the best live gigs in the band’s history.… Read the rest

Morrissey – Spent the Day in Bed

September 19, 2017 By neilho27@sky.com

I was wishing I had taken Mr Steven Patrick Morrissey’s advice and “Spent the Day in Bed” when I was listening in to Radio 2 for the world’s first play of his new single. I was sitting in my car on the M8 going absolutely nowhere….

Morrissey joined twitter yesterday with his cryptic first tweet being the title of the single. I must admit to be slightly concerned about Moz on twitter. He often opens his mouth and spouts a lot of mince these days. And look what Trump gets up to on Twitter….

Anyway, back to the song and thankfully, I wasn’t disappointed.… Read the rest

Gun – Favourite Pleasures is a welcome return for this Glasgow band

September 17, 2017 By neilho27@sky.com
Gun

I’ve followed Gun since the beginning. Enjoying seeing live gigs with the likes of Texas and Slide when they were all starting out. Their first album, Taking on the World, was packed full of riff laden tunes. Shame on You, Money and Better Days all songs which I still play regularly.

The three bands went on to varying degrees of success. Gun scored a number of hits and changed line-ups several times over the years. One period had Little Angels Toby Jepson on vocals. I freely admit that this part of the band’s career passed me by slightly as I was never a fan of Little Angels.… Read the rest

Daniel Wylie – Interview and new Cosmic Rough Riders album

September 12, 2017 By neilho27@sky.com
Daniel Wylie has been around the Scottish music scene for around 30 years. From his beginnings with The Thieves and their catchy debut single “Talk Your Head Off” through various incarnations of Cosmic Rough Riders and solo releases. He has just released new album as Daniel Wylie’s Cosmic Rough Riders and it is a great listen. On the album, he has enlisted the help of some other well-known names within Scottish music to record the album with.
Daniel took some time out to answer some questions for me.
New Album and previous releases
Thegingerquiff: This album is the latest in a growing list of releases from you via The Thieves, Cosmic Rough Riders/Daniel Wylie’s Cosmic Rough Riders and solo.
… Read the rest

Crimedesk and Thirteen – Album/EP reviews

September 11, 2017 By neilho27@sky.com

It’s a bit of a coincidence that I received Crimedesk’s album and Thirteen’s EP within a few days of each other.

I say this, as I’ve recently featured Drunk Gods and earlier this year I saw all 3 bands in Ivory Blacks. It was a great nights entertainment. 3 very different bands in sound but all enjoyed by a small but enthusiastic crowd.

In another coincidence, the gig should also have featured Heavy Drapes. I also wrote about recently, unfortunately they had to pull out at the last-minute.

Crimedesk – Louder…..FASTER

Crimedesk have been around and about since ’79 and are a hard-gigging 3 piece punk band from Fife featuring the 2 Alan(n)s on guitar and bass & vocals and John on drums.… Read the rest

“What have you got to be worried about?” and other unhelpful comments….

September 11, 2017 By neilho27@sky.com
Depression isn’t real!

Just recently this Twitter account has been brought to my attention.

I say Twitter account rather than using the associated name, you can see it for yourself, as I don’t want to humanise this entity in any way. The idiot appears to be devoid of any humanity whatsoever. This is just one of many tweets they have made on the subject.

Thankfully, I have never come across this nonentity before.… Read the rest

Kiss This Tarbeach NYC in Glasgow – Review

September 10, 2017 By neilho27@sky.com

I’m not long back from attending “Kiss This” in Broadcast and a huge thanks needs to go out to all involved. What a brilliant night.

I had been looking forward to seeing the 3 bands together for a while and none of them disappointed.

The warnings were out in advance all over social media – the gig was a sell-out, returns only and the first band would be on PROMPT at 8pm as it was an early curfew.

Sure enough, and true to the word, as I arrived at the venue with my mate, there was a queue of people waiting to pick up their tickets and the first band were already on.… Read the rest

Heavy Drapes – De Liberate speaks…

September 4, 2017 By neilho27@sky.com
Heavy Drapes

I’ve been banging on about Heavy Drapes for some time now. Recently things have really started going stellar for the band. They are one of the most talked about bands on the punk scene.

The band has very definite ideas, knows exactly where it wants to be. Important it has the tunes and the image that live up to those ideas. Lead singer De Liberate’s swagger and confidence is not unfounded.

Having seen the band on a number of occasions in the last couple of years, they never fail to disappoint.  Heavy Drapes have a tight sophisticated sound that doffs its cap to the classic punk 76-78 era.… Read the rest