Category: Feature

Ex – – Imposter Syndrome – album review

December 27, 2025 By neilho27@sky.com

On Know Your Rights The Clash handily provided their listeners with a “public service announcement with guitars.” 43 years on, and on their twentieth album/EP release to date, Imposter Syndrome, the prolific Ex- provide not so much a public service announcement but a social conscience with guitars. Taking nothing away from the rest of the band, the vitality and energy of whose playing provides the indispensable soundtrack to Imposter Syndrome, Meek’s lyrics here are as essential as ever and a crucial part in what makes Ex- stand head and shoulders above the majority of their peers. As someone who is as profuse in his writing as Meek, he never fails in managing to blend his creativity with a nail on head social commentary.… Read the rest

This Questionable Life – Sucker Punch – EP Review

December 22, 2025 By neilho27@sky.com

This is the fifth EP from the band whose name unfortunately becomes more and more pertinent with each release, or may be that’s just me…

Anyway, however questionable things may be in the current dystopian times we are living through, there is always music to fall back on, giving a respite from reality, or that feeling that you’re not alone and there is hope for change. That’s the feeling from listening to this EP from This Questionable Life.

The hard-edged driving rhythm of the EP’s opening song, it’s title track, has a sense of R.E.M. in it’s melody, a punchy high-energy beat underlines some crunching riffs and sets the standard for the rest of the EP.… Read the rest

The Primevals – Best of the BBC Sessions 

December 22, 2025 By neilho27@sky.com

I’ve not written enough about Nick Godfrey and what he’s doing with Precious Recordings of London. These sessions are a testament to how important radio is as a means of exposure to bands trying to get their music heard far and wide. It’s always been a struggle to make it in an industry packed with traps and pitfalls, and even more so in this day and age with the rise of AI and corporates and streaming companies who are trying to bleed bands for as much as they can get and pay them next to nothing. BBC Radio Scotland should be ashamed of recent announcements ending several shows that have given space and exposure to hundreds of local bands over the years. … Read the rest

Miki Berenyi Trio & f.o. machete – Live in Sleazys

December 21, 2025 By neilho27@sky.com

It was the last gig of 2025 for me, so what better way to bow out than in the company of one my favourite bands who also happened to be the purveyors of one of my albums of the year (a list which I’ve not even considered yet, and given that I missed a whole chunk of the year needs a bit of thought…) and also in the presence of a singer who I last saw in what I fear was as far back as 1994 in King Tuts if my memory serves with her first band Lush, so I was well overdue a re-acquaintance.… Read the rest

Lacuna – Nest – EP review

December 19, 2025 By neilho27@sky.com

Following the success of their What If I Told You I’d Been Lying the Whole Time EP earlier in the year, featuring the sublime GQ favourite, Shelley, Lacuna continue on their ascendant arc with the brilliant Nest EP. Like Milange, whose EP Till You Drop EP I have recently reviewed there seems to be a universal acknowledgement that Lacuna are one of those bands who deserve to be huge, and the four songs here do nothing to dispel that assumption.

The EP opens with the majestic title track, a song packed with a heavy dose of lyrical mystery and intrigue, while musically the band create a sweeping cinematic soundscape that rises either immense swells and falls into quiet introspection.… Read the rest

MILANGE – Till You Drop – EP Review

December 19, 2025 By neilho27@sky.com

From the opening bars of the potent energy of  Front Row right through to the closing bars of On & On Milange had me utterly absorbed. The former, a glorious anthem celebrating live music that has you imagining you are right there front and centre, while the latter announces its arrival with a low bass rumble before forging a path of low key menace, the spoken word vocal sitting somewhere between despair and rage and the clamorous soundtrack matching it’s absorbing intensity. 

And across the five songs in between, Milange draw you in with their engaging narratives in the lyrics, and have you thrilled by the dynamic magnetism and dramatic fervour of the accompanying music.… Read the rest

Water Machine/Maz and the Phantasms/Vibrator/Junk Pups – Live Review – Palestine Red Crescent Society Benefit

December 17, 2025 By neilho27@sky.com

My third from last gig in 2025… in a year when I seem to have missed more gigs than I managed to get along to for a combination of reasons not worth going into here..Let’s just say I need to resolve to ensure 2026 is much of a shit storm than 2025…

There was the potential for me to be missing this one too, but with this line up, plus the knowledge that this would be the last ever outing for Junk Pups it was a no brainer to pull out all the stops and make it by hook or crook.… Read the rest

November Singles Round Up – Final part…

December 15, 2025 By neilho27@sky.com

While everyone else is publishing their end of year lists, as usual I’m bringing up the rear and finally publishing my final part of November’s singles round up… a part which throws up just as many pure gold nuggets as the rest of the month did. Rock, glam, punk, indie… from artists who have reached legendary status (in my eyes and ears at least) to those who are breaking though and creating some astonishingly good new music.

First up in this part is one of those who have reached legendary status. It’s Hanoi Rocks frontman Michael Monroe and the second single to be released form his new album Outerstellar due for release on the 20th February.… Read the rest

Pick of the Gigs for December

December 6, 2025 By neilho27@sky.com

For reasons too boring to go into, the last part of Novembers Singles round up hasn’t yet been completed, and the pick of the gigs for December is appearing a week into the month with some top gigs already passed…

My first week in December didn’t quite go as planned… the pattern of missing more gigs than I’ve seen in 2025 continues having missed Gutterblood’s first Glasgow gig last Wednesday. My ticket for Thursday’s gig featuring The Liminanas supported by the brilliant Scorpio Leisure also went a-begging AND even with the best will in the world I was never making t back to Glasgow for the 5pm launch of Lacuna’s new EP Nest in Assai on Friday afternoon… Let’s hope 2026 is a better year for so many reasons.… Read the rest

My Bloody Valentine – live in Glasgow

November 29, 2025 By neilho27@sky.com

I don’t remember the last time I set foot in the Hydro for a gig. I detest the place with every fibre of my being, but… it was My Bloody Valentine who, somehow with all my years of going to gigs behind me, I’ve never managed to see live before now. As I walked into the arena I remembered exactly what it was I hated. It’s a soulless cave, and despite the numbers of people in early to catch J Mascis it was devoid of any atmosphere, like a vacuum had sucked the soul from every living being…

Then J Mascis ambled onto the huge Hydro stage and all was well as he proceeded to delight and wow in equal measure with his familiar languid drawl, just him and his acoustic guitar, heavy on the effects and distortion.… Read the rest