Author: Sarah Corbett-Batson

Rebekka Karijord : Interview

I do feel like I want to be political but I’m not a super rhetorical political person but I do believe that music can be political, not in the sense that I want to sit down and write a song about a...

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Interview: Reptile Youth

'if you have a country where the same old guys have been in power for a long time then it’s going to be a shit country'...

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Splashh, Wolf Alice, Big Deal: 100 Club [Live]

With the tight jeans and pointed boots bands stagnating and the now middle-aged grebo bands reforming, East London hairdressers may hit hard times as the kids start growing out those crew cuts into...

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David Cronenberg’s Wife: Don’t Wait to be Hunted to Hide

Challenging and chillingly memorable rather than enjoyable; giving a glimpse into the lives of people we either pretend don’t exist or hysterically vilify. It personalises the men who exist in the...

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Creeping Ivies: Stay Wild

Becca has a strong, more booming voice than the punk singers, at times reminiscent of PJ Harvey or Empress of Fur. Perhaps a bit of gravel or drawl would have added to the tone, but generally it was...

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Loitered Lens: Two Gallants

Two Gallants, who hail from sunny San Francisco but take their name from a short story in Dubliners by James Joyce, lack the laid-back attitude of the former but have an abundance of the intensity of...

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Eighties Matchbox B-Line Disaster: Electric Ballroom [Live]

As they launch into the second song of the set, the filthy 'Celebrate Your Mother', members of the audience are already flinging themselves around and being dragged, sometimes minus footwear, over...

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Bruce Cockburn: Bush Hall

Back in Bush Hall, Cockburn preceded one song by saying, “the way to avoid dashed expectations is not to have any.” It was however clear that expectations were high as he took the stage...

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Chris Isaak: Hammersmith Apollo

Deliver us from surly musicians in jeans and baseball boots. Let us be blinded by mirrored suits and touched inappropriately by covers of seemingly untouchable songs. Chris Isaak Live...

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We Are Waltham Forest defeat the EDL

The end of the Victoria line proved to be the end of the road for the EDL’s misguided aspirations to flaunt their imagined superiority....

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Newrising: The Half Moon, Putney

Now call me old-fashioned but I do believe that some musical styles should not be combined. Reggae, funk and folk are all great genres of music, but like tequila, bourbon and cherry cola, some...

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Chrysalis: Taragano Theatre

Although I may not accept the central premise of Chrysalis, there is no denying that Mariana Taragano’s ability to harness the talents of others and use a collaborative approach in choreography and...

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Viza: Interview

So do they think that music can change the world? Chris told me, “I think it could. I think it allows people, it gives people an outlet. It gives people I guess the right to think freely or...

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Wanda Jackson: Interview

Would the Queen of Rockabilly be able to satisfy expectations or would it be a case of your granny’s sister grabbing the microphone at your cousin’s wedding after one too many glasses of fizz? ...

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Americana International Festival 2012

While wandering around my first ever festival, Reading 1989, I came across a stall selling a selection of badges, one of which portrayed a Confederate flag....

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Hank3: Interview/Live Review

Most bands have enough problems getting out one album at a time. Not so for Hank 3, real name Shelton Hank Williams, also know as Hank Williams the Third, and grandson of the legendary country...

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Viva le Rock/Gypsy Hotel: The Garage

I’ve always found Highbury Garage (I’m still refusing to call it Relentless Garage) a rather sterile venue, but when the evening began with a male unicyclist, Count Adriano Fettuchini, stripping...

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Tav Falco [Interview]

There's a mixed crowd at Rough Trade East, a record shop in ever-so hip Brick Lane. They're listening to Tav Falco read extracts from his new book, Ghosts Behind the Sun: Splendor, Enigma and...

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Hank3: Interview/Live Review

'when people come to see me, I want to give them a good time' Most bands have enough problems getting out one album at a time.  Not so for Hank 3, real name Shelton Hank Williams, also...

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