Kiss This - The Ginger Quiff

Red or Dead – Anarchy is Liberty album review

April 6, 2020 By neilho27@sky.com

The new album, Anarchy is Liberty, from North Wales’ acoustic punks Red or Dead is a timely comment on the current state of the planet. It proves you don’t have to scream and shout and thrash on loud electric guitars to make a point as 21^st Century anarcho punks.

I believe I made this comparison before, but the band fills the ground somewhere between Wigan folk punks The Tansads and the now legendary Levellers, with a host of ideals and influences shared with original anarcho punks, Crass and taking influence from the music of Joe Strummer and The Clash.

Zombieland

Take the first track for example, Zombieland, with Rob’s vocal delivery paying tribute to The Clash’ Magnificent Seven complete.… Read the rest

The Bikini Bottoms – Inversion/Mental Records – Graveyard Tapes Vol 2

March 9, 2020 By neilho27@sky.com

If you haven’t already made yourself familiar with them, there are a couple of compilation/companion albums you need to get yer lugs round.

The Bikini Bottoms – Inversion

First up, the companion release to one of last year’s top albums, Bikiniland from The Bikini Bottoms. Inversion is available to stream and features seven tracks; demos and live versions of songs that ended up in their polished form on the final cut of Bikiniland.

I’ve been stung before with albums that purport to be a document of the bands’ roots or sold as some amazing unearthed and unheard before demoes. On listening you realise they should have remained unearthed as you vow never to listen again to the grainy tinny shite recorded on a C90 on a battered old mono tape deck.… Read the rest

Singles Round-up

March 5, 2020 By neilho27@sky.com

Loads of great singles blasting out in the Ginger Quiff towers just now. Where to start…

The Best Bad Influence

One of the hardest gigging bands on the scene just now are the phenomenally talented three-piece The Best Bad Influence. They seem to be ubiquitous currently. Every time I look on social media, I see them announcing more live dates. If someone were to ask me to name one band I want to be huge it is this pack of young wolves, so it gave me a huge rush to see that they hadn’t only announced more live dates recently but had dropped a new single.… Read the rest

Jonzip – Blueprint – album review

March 3, 2020 By neilho27@sky.com

Glasgow punk legend Jonzip has recently been making a name for himself as a talk show host. His genial demeanour and general display of welcoming bonhomie making him perfect for the role, talking recently to IDLES frontman Joe Talbot and Southside musical empresario Alan McGee.

Fans of Jonzip the musician needn’t fear though, following on the heels of last year’s The Zips release Huh? comes a magnificent Jonzip solo release in the shape of Blueprint.

The ten tracks on offer are culled from a variety of sources from his illustrious career, different versions of songs, some appearing before in one format or another, others appearing on CD for the first time.… Read the rest

Sequence 3 6 9 – Gatefever – album review

January 12, 2020 By neilho27@sky.com

First review of 2020 and it is the impressive debut from Sequence 3 6 9, hotly anticipated around these quarters. The band features some well-kent faces from around the Scottish alt/punk scene featuring in its line up luminaries with backgrounds in acts such as The Media Whores and Nine Bullets among others. This album ticks all my boxes musically and lyrically, so it is a cracking way to bring in the new year

I have enjoyed many crossover bands in the last few years. Bands like Rats From a Sinking Ship, the aforementioned Nine Bullets and Glasgow’s The LaFontaines adding their own marks and twists to the genre.… Read the rest

The Armory Show – Live: King Tut’s Wah Wah Hut – Glasgow

October 18, 2019 By neilho27@sky.com

Now and then a gig creeps up on you, one you have been looking forward to it, but has been slightly under your radar, life takes over and the night arrives without you really realising it. You’re expecting a good performance, but then the band strike up the first chords…

Last night was a case in point, The Armory Show (not a mis-spell) surpassed all expectations, speaking to several others after the gig, I wasn’t the only one who felt that way.

Mystify

It had already been a week of revelations and back stories. Having already attended a preview of Mystify, a revealing documentary about INXS frontman, the charismatic Michael Hutchence, which filled in several blanks, revealing the tragic events which subsequently led to his behaviour changes and triggered the chain of events that led to his sad and untimely death.… Read the rest

ElectraJets Transatlantic Tales album cover

ElectraJets & Fur Dixon – Tarbeach Records new releases

September 2, 2019 By neilho27@sky.com

Vox

I have just finished reading a disturbing novel, Vox by Christina Dalcher, a frighteningly dystopian view of a future America where men have taken away all women’s rights, limiting them to speaking 100 words per day in the process.

Thankfully, we are currently in a place where strong women are celebrated, a situation reflected in the latest two releases on New York’s own Tarbeach records.

Fur & Cynthia – Bass legends

Bass playing legends of the alternative music scene Fur Dixon (The Cramps, The Hollywood Hillbillys) and Cynthia Ross (The “B” Girls, New York Junk) feature front and centre and as usual both are loud and proud, Fur on a new 7” single, preceding the vinyl release of her magnificent WTFukishima/Return 2 Sender album later in the year and Cynthia on the imminent Electrajets debut album release.… Read the rest

Delinquents – No Disguise -Video

July 31, 2019 By neilho27@sky.com

Following on from the release of the Sober on Sunday EP, and his solo single Lets Cry Like Fuck Together in the Dark, Delinquents release a video for their track No Disguise.

The video captures the verve and energy of the bands live shows, check out the video below and see if you can see yourself.

If you are Rebellion bound you can catch the band on Thursday at 3.55pm on the Arena Stage.

… Read the rest

16 Years Scottish Club Gigs in Scorland 1974-1990

Spotlight on – 16 Years: Gigs in Scotland 1974 – 1990

July 29, 2019 By neilho27@sky.com

Do you love live music?

Are you (or were you), like me, a regular gig-goer, and some of your best live experiences were in the small venues where you can see the whites of the eyes of the bands?

Did you attend club-sized gigs in the late seventies or eighties early on in a bands career?

Do you just like music and are interested in seeing pictures and other memorabilia from club gigs around Scotland?

If you answer yes to any of these questions, then there is a book for you in the off-ing. Read on to find out more, but consider as you read, the success of this venture is down to you… and you…and you…Don’t just read this, think “that sounds great”, then continue surfing the net or scrolling through facebook.… Read the rest

Adventures of Salvador – Welcome to Our Village – album review

July 28, 2019 By neilho27@sky.com

Do you miss The Fall, those undeniable grumbling vocals from the late and much loved curmudgeon Mark E Smith? If so, you could do a lot worse than get yer lugs round Adventures of Salvador, a band doing a sterling job of filling the void.

Welcome to their world…

In the space of the 3 minutes 40 seconds of opening track, Girl With the Broken Face on their Welcome to Our Village album I am dragged in several directions, the song appearing to draw on the jangly guitar sound of early Happy Mondays, through the weird genius of Eat to the twisted acerbic Manc drawl of everyone’s favourite miserable bastard the aforementioned Mark E Smith.… Read the rest