Month: July 2024

Singles Round Up 2024 – Part 5 – May

July 24, 2024 By neilho27@sky.com

I am so unbelievably behind it’ll be Halloween soon and I’ll still be at Easter… I’m still working month’s behind in singles round ups, and about 6 months behind in album and EP reviews. I’m putting that down to shit like life getting in the way, but I’ll also use the excuse that there is so much fantastic new music out there by bands old and new that I can’t keep up with the sheer volume of music to listen to, which to be fair, ain’t that far from the truth.

My May (yeah I know, May, that was like months ago, literally…) round up follows, as does a playlist of all the songs on Tidal.… Read the rest

Scorpio Leisure – Audio Pleasure- album release gig – review

July 20, 2024 By neilho27@sky.com

All Photos courtesy of Trevor Pake

I Believe in Scorpio Leisure

2024 continues to be a dick of a year for so many reasons, and yeah, my mood is more negative than positive at the moment. Ironically I started this blog as a way of managing my mental health and mood through writing about my favourite subject… but my output is worse than ever because I’ve slipped into old habits in managing, or should that be not managing, said mental health. 

As I reached the end of another working week, my “peopling” quota for the week had reached critical mass, so on arriving at Edinburgh’s Voodoo Rooms I ditched my usual objective of being stage front and slipped quietly to the back of room with my pint of Tennents to enjoy the soothing and entrancing rhythms of Accident Machine, providing just the right balance of helping  dissipate the stresses and anxieties of the week, and to build up the anticipation for the main event. … Read the rest

Junk Pups, Apologies and National Playboys – live in Nice n Sleazy, Glasgow

July 14, 2024 By neilho27@sky.com

I’ve not been at many gigs recently so a Saturday night in Sleazys was a most welcome release from the pressures of life that are sent to try us. And after missing a couple of Junk Pups recent performances, including their appearance at the Variety Bar for Crowded Flat’s third birthday celebrations, having this most extraordinary of bands at the centre of the nights entertainment made it all the better.

Glasgow’s Junk Pups were bookended by Apologies from Falkirk and Edinburgh’s National Playboys. Apologies were the first band on the bill, playing what I believe was only their second or third gig as a four piece.… Read the rest

Scorpio Leisure – Audio Pleasure – Album review

July 7, 2024 By neilho27@sky.com

The witching hour edges ever closer. The album launch gig (or should I say release gig – especially for Coco) for this majestic brooding masterpiece in Edinburgh’s Voodoo Rooms on 19th July looms large. I for one am expecting nothing less than a spectacular show from this singularity unconventional quartet who are currently one of Scotland’s most exciting music exports. To coin a phrase oft made by the bands manager “you should go”! 

Audio Pleasure is a uniquely bewitching album from a band like no other, each member brings something different to the mix from their varied backgrounds in several Scottish bands from across the decades.… Read the rest

GIFTSHOP – A Bunch of Singles – album review

July 3, 2024 By neilho27@sky.com

It is fitting for my favourite Queens, NYC band with such a strong back catalogue of exquisitely infectious singles to finally release an album celebrating that fact. But Bunch of Singles isn’t just an opportunity for Giftshop to pull all their singles together into one place. As the first song on the album states it is More Than That, taking the compelling urgency demonstrated on their singles of the last few years and mixing in a handful of new songs packed with a crunching commotion and occasionally a hint of tender emotion, both of which are demonstrated on their cover of Radiohead’s anthem for the dispossessed and weirdos worldwide.… Read the rest