Album/Single Review - The Ginger Quiff

Xan Tyler – Holding Up Half the Sky – album launch gig review, Panopticon, Glasgow.

May 5, 2024 By neilho27@sky.com

All photos courtesy of Chris Hogge Photography

Holding Up Half the Sky is an extraordinary piece of work. An album of songs inspired by female empowerment, from Xan’s own experiences and those of inspirational women from history.

An extraordinary achievement needs to be launched in extraordinary surroundings. Where could be more unique and special than the world’s oldest surviving music hall, the place where a sixteen year old Stan Laurel first tread the boards.

This is an event that has been two years in the planning. I say event as it was much more than just a gig (a phenomenally special and emotional gig granted – not “just” a gig), this was Xan’s vision finally coming to fruition.… Read the rest

Xan Tyler – Holding Up Half the Sky – Album review

May 3, 2024 By neilho27@sky.com

This month Xan Tyler follows up her 2021 sunshine-swathed reggae-tinged album with The Mad Professor, Clarion Call, with her latest album Holding Up Half the Sky. The new album is an altogether different prospect than its predecessor, leaving behind the reggae influence and adding an intriguing gamut of alluring instrumentation, I’m no expert but is that flutes, oboes and tubas I hear being used among others to dreamily dramatic effect? The album retains the feel of basking in the sunshine, but this time musically reflecting those relaxed dog day afternoons languishing in the balmy heat with a dreamy listlessness, an album that with any luck will herald in the start of the summer after a long dreary wet winter.… Read the rest

Soapbox – Hawd That – EP review

May 1, 2024 By neilho27@sky.com

Punks no dad, no… dad’s no punk, no, my dad’s more punk than your dad. Hawd on… punk’s no deid? Or is it? Who the fuck cares anymore. Over the years the term has lost its meaning. Is it a fashion, a style, a cynical marketing ploy? The aging punk polis would argue ’til their safety pins pop, their mohawks flop and they’re ready to drop about what is and isn’t punk (how very “punk” of them), as they challenge Primark Ramones T-shirt wearing youths on their punk credentials… “Name three songs…” they’ll challenge as they close their minds to anything beyond UK82…

So let me just say this… Soapbox is PUNK as FUCK…because in the true sense of what punk stood for all those years ago, this energetic no fucks given quartet has all the credentials.… Read the rest

Singles Round Up 2024 – Part 3 – March

April 10, 2024 By neilho27@sky.com

Another month, another singles round up, and a bumper selection it is too, 61 songs in this month’s list, This month’s selection comes from a range of bands and singers from newer talent such as Dancer, Soapbox and recent BBC Introducing Scottish Act of the Year Bottle Rockets through to established legends such as Sonic Youth’s Kim Gordon, as well as home grown legends Arab Strap and the continued welcome return of James King and the Lonewolves ahead of their new album The Mortality Arcade.

The Top 25

Single of the Month

Soapbox – Fascist Bob

Several reasons for this being single of the month for March, first and foremost it’s a fucking great song cementing Soapbox as one of the best of the current crop of Scottish bands displaying a punk attitude in the true spirit of the first wave of punk, kicking against the pricks and railing against the right wing.… Read the rest

Death Valley Girls with Junk Pups and Tanzana – Broadcast

March 19, 2024 By neilho27@sky.com

The last time I caught Death Valley Girls live was on a dreich and miserable Monday night in the self same venue, but with the stage where the bar is, and vice versa. Bonnie and the band were on top form back then with local duo Run Into the Night in tow. This time around they outshone themselves with a mind-bending stellar performance.

Before the headliners took to the stage though, they already had a lot to live up to after the performances from the two support bands for the evening.

First up it was the turn of fresh faced quintet Tanzana.… Read the rest

The Laurettes – Meet Me at the Mainstage – album review

March 8, 2024 By neilho27@sky.com

What better way to celebrate both Friday and more importantly International Women’s Day than with the long-awaited debut album by The Laurettes, an album which just so happens to be hitting the airwaves and making its indelible mark on the world this weekend.

Having worked harder than just about every band I could think of on the live circuit, perhaps with the exception of Tbe Courettes, The Laurettes have tirelessly played gigs and festivals, big and small, building their reputation as a fearsome live prospect and the ultimate party starters. This has led up to where they find themselves today, paving their way to the release of Meet Me at the Mainstage, and in doing so, they have continued to make their own way up the bills of festivals left, right and centre, soon to be Mainstage headliners if their stellar trajectory continues on its current path.… Read the rest

Scorpio Leisure – Apology E.P. review

March 7, 2024 By neilho27@sky.com

2024 is set to be a bumper year for releases by some of the Scottish music scene’s rising talents. Not satisfied with the release of their self titled debut album later in the year, Edinburgh based post-punk supergroup Scorpio Leisure release their 4 track EP, Apology this month, a treat for those who have a voracious appetite for the band’s music and need an amuse-bouche to keep them going ahead of the main course.

The band is the coming together of like-minded friends and musicians from a variety of bands past and present, representing a cross section of the alternative music scene, all throwing their individual styles and influences into the melting pot and resulting in the serving up of an unconventionally unique and luscious offering in their own inimitable style.… Read the rest

Singles Round Up 2024 – Part 2 – February

March 3, 2024 By neilho27@sky.com

February was another formidable month for singles, with the round up for this month including a whopping 50 top tunes.

As usual, I’ve collected them all on a Spotify playlist, against my better judgement, for you to sample should you choose. If you like the songs, go and search out the bands music, buy their merchandise and go to their gigs. It’s the only way to ensure the future of new music and keep music venues open.

Single(s) of the Month

Here’s my top 15 singles of the month for February… at the top of the list and earning the “trophy” for single of the month is a band on the ascendency…

Junk Pups – Trophy Wife

It feels like an age since Junk Pups released their last single, Miss Behave, but have certainly not been sitting doing nothing, gigging constantly, the latest of which was headlining the last night of January’s New Year’s Revolution in King Tuts (review).… 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

Singles Round Up 2024 – Part 1 – January

February 28, 2024 By neilho27@sky.com

A new year for music and (eventually) the first round up of 2024, and what a bumper crop already for January. A massive 62 songs (OK, so some might be from the end of 2023 as I posted end of year posts early…). Anyway, we’re certainly out of the traps and off running at speed, with this list containing some well-kent names, some new kids on the block, as well as the return of some legends. All told providing a wheen of top quality tunes which succeeded in lifting the January blues. If that was January, this is set to be another cracking year for music…

The hazard of deciding to do a monthly singles round up means also trying to find the time to write up the blog… I seem to be caught in a vicious circle of promising myself I’ll spend more time on writing, then disappearing in a world of work, or spending hours overthinking things and getting fuck all done…

I’ve therefore had to make an executive decision.… Read the rest