Mental Health - The Ginger Quiff

Carol Hodge - Photographer John Middleham

Carol Hodge – Selenite Songs Tour Preview Interview

October 27, 2024 By neilho27@sky.com

I recently interviewed The Courettes after their show in Glasgow, a duo often labelled as the hardest touring band on the circuit. Closer to home another artist who seems to be touring/playing live incessantly is friend (no relation…) to these pages, Carol Hodge, who must have mornings like “today its Yorkshire it must be Selenite Songs/Steve Ignorant/The Wildhearts/rare day off at home* (*delete as appropriate).

Within that busy touring schedule Carol managed to squeeze in some time for a chat about relentless touring, part two of the Selenite Songs tour with Julia Othmer, her new album EffortLess InSecurity and being an independent touring artist.

… Read the rest

Lusty – If We Can’t Live Together, Then We Die Together – album review

February 29, 2024 By neilho27@sky.com

The follow up to I’m Gonna Make Your Death All About Me from rapper and former Happy Martyr and Rats From a Sinking Ship frontman Alex Lusty is another sombre affair, with thirteen new songs (purposefully unlucky?), which are once again raw and emotional, soul baring, no holds barred songs about the human condition and an insight into the darker and more sorrowful sides of the human psyche.

The mood of these songs swings between angry resignation, stark despair and brutal cynicism as Lusty sings his songs of life, death, love, loss, isolation and loneliness. The rawness of the songs and the vivid imagery in the lyrics suggest that many of the themes explored and the stories told come direct from personal experience. … Read the rest

The Scars, Boots For Dancing, Scorpio Leisure, Port Sulphur – Live – La Belle Angele

December 16, 2023 By neilho27@sky.com

(all black and white pictures courtesy of David Kidd)

After what was a stressful day, at the end of an exceedingly trying week, Friday was to bring relief with a Christmas Cracker in the shape of Frets Xmas gig, featuring four courses of prime cuts.

While across the cities in the East and West, carnage was ensuing with Xmas shoppers and once a year drinkers, La Belle Angele was the place to be, it was like Christmas come early, the icing on the cake, or more fittingly, the Angel at the top of the tree.

The starter set the night up perfectly, with Port Sulphur (including half of Quad 90), looking ultra cool in dark glasses.… Read the rest

Sinead O’Connor

July 27, 2023 By neilho27@sky.com

I’ve started writing this and stopped several times. I obviously didn’t know Sinead O’Connor (Shuhada Sadaqa) personally, and I don’t usually post obituaries on my blog, with the odd exception.

There is no doubt from the very first moment I saw her striking appearance and her remarkable vocal I was hooked. Mandinka was rarely off my turntable when I first bought the single and I nearly wore out my cassette of the Lion and the Cobra, the songs so affecting in their arrangements and that other-worldly vocal, ranging from delicate fragility to compellingly powerful.

Her live performances were amongst the most memorable I have seen.… Read the rest

Mental Health in music – Lewis Capaldi & Billy NoMates – a reflection

June 29, 2023 By neilho27@sky.com

Up until last weekend, I had pretty much dismissed Lewis Capaldi as a nice and funny guy, who had a great voice, but whose music was wasted on me, my most used phrase about him was along the lines of, I’d like to go for a pint but I wouldn’t buy his records..

I’m not going to say I’ve suddenly become a fan of his music, its still not for me, though I can hear its appeal, he undoubtedly has an eminently listenable voice. I would say though, that I have become more of a fan of Lewis Capaldi the man.… Read the rest

Lusty – I’m Going To Make Your Death All About Me – album review

May 27, 2023 By neilho27@sky.com

If you check in regularly with the the blog, you’ll be familiar with the music of Alex Lusty. The bequiffed tattooed rapper having appeared many times in his various guises on these pages. Most recently for the farewell from rap/rock/punk crossover band Rats From a Sinking ship, and in a variety of guises from Happy Martyr to Frigid Vinegar and Halfway People..

This solo outing from Lusty, while undoubtedly a Lusty release, is an emotional punch to the guts. Musically, a massive departure from Rats From A Sinking Ship. Stark and minimalistic, with heartbreakingly beautiful arrangements, reflecting the mood and the affecting and impactful nature of the album.… Read the rest

Be the Best Version of You

November 9, 2022 By neilho27@sky.com

I don’t know about anyone else, but I’m about done with 2022. In my head there is more about 2022 to say good riddance to (how polite Neil, say what you really mean) than there is to say bon voyage to – no 2022, I never want to fucking see you again. Yes, of course a lot of it is personal and a lot is to do with the way my bastard of a brain computes things, but nonetheless, 2022 can fucking do one. Let 2023 bring forth all it has, unleash the beast, loose the arrows, I am fucking ready for you (or at least I will be after another couple of CBT sessions…)

Of course not all of 2022 has been a car crash of a year, there have obviously been many highs, but my mental health has probably been on the descent more than it has on the ascent, resulting in me focussing on the negatives above all else.… Read the rest

A Walking Contradiction – an exercise in self sabotage

July 5, 2022 By neilho27@sky.com

I currently feel like a walking contradiction. That old physics thing about every action having an equal and opposite reaction, well physics and chemistry seem to have got caught up in a mix somewhere with me and I’m not sure the opposite reaction is supposed to happen automatically after every initial action as a matter of course.

With restrictions (if not COVID itself) a thing of the past, I feel like I should be back in a world of near normality, whatever shape or form that may take, but I still feel far from that. The COVID hangover remains, feeling like a different form of the long COVID everyone talks about, but from a mental health perspective rather than physical.… Read the rest

James Domestic – Carrion Repeating – album review

April 20, 2022 By neilho27@sky.com

James Domestic (James Scott) isn’t one to rest on his laurels. The frontman of hardcore punk band, The Domestics, he has a list of other bands/side projects the length of your arm, Carrion Repeating is his first solo offering which he describes as “post-punk pop music for weirdos”.

Swagger

How would I describe this solo project? Let me try… To me the album lives in a place somewhere between the cockney geezer swagger of Ian Dury, living in a world of John Cooper Clarke observational poetry and all bundled up with a soundtrack like the coming together of The Fall and Sleaford Mods.… Read the rest

Prioritise Pleasure (with a nod to Self Esteem)

March 15, 2022 By neilho27@sky.com

Prioritise Pleasure

Contrary to what the title of this blog may suggest, this isn’t a review of the superbly inspirational album from last year, courtesy of the upfront sass of the talented Rebecca Lucy Taylor laying her soul bare for all, with a heavy dose of honesty. (Having said that I did review the album last year and it appeared in my top 5 albums of the year).

The blog does however pickup on some of the themes visited by the album, none more so than that of its title track, Prioritise Pleasure. A mantra that we should all unabashedly live by without feeling guilty, after all if we want to help others, we can’t share from an empty vessel.… Read the rest