I love The Pineapple Thief. I’ve been following them since 2014’s Magnolia (and yes, I know I was late to the party) and have been catching up with their back catalogue and new releases over the last 6 years. (Fun…
View More The Pineapple Thief – Hold Our Fire
The classic pop division of Cherry Red Records have recently released this trio of classic Kim Wilde albums, spanning her self-titled debut album from 1981, Select from 1982 and Catch as Catch Can from 1983. Now, I know this page…
View More Kim Wilde – Kim Wilde / Select / Catch as Catch Can
Released towards the end of last year, this debut album from Liverpool-based, piano-driven progressive trio Exploring Birdsong is one that has been highly awaited by many people, myself included. I first encountered Exploring Birdsong live at HRH Prog in November…
View More Exploring Birdsong – The Thing With Feathers
There’s a story that says that everyone who saw the Sex Pistols play the Free Trade Hall in Manchester went out the following day, bought guitars and formed punk bands (it may be apocryphal) and the numbers of people who…
View More Dreams to Fill the Vacuum – The Sound of Sheffield 1977-1988
O2 Academy, Bristol Wednesday, 20th November 2019 It’s been 50 years since Daevid Allen started the psychedelic behemoth that is Gong, and as the band head into their 50th year, with a wonderful new album The Universe Also Collapses, and…
View More Steve Hillage Band / Gong
Here’s a really interesting ‘twofer’ from the extended Hawkwind universe. Recorded live in London in 2014, these two live discs take a trip down memory lane with Alan Davey, a member of Hawkwind from 1984 to 1996 and again from…
View More Alan Davey’s Psychedelic Warlords – Hall of the Mountain Grill/Captain Lockheed & the Starfighters Live
I’ll admit to having an interesting relationship with Haken, having absolutely loved their ’80s inspired album Affinity, whilst I felt Vector was a bit of a step backwards for them, so having heard Richard Henshall, a mainstay of the band,…
View More Richard Henshall – The Cocoon
The follow up to last year’s The Last Harvest see’s this Canterbury scene inspired band gain a couple of new members (drummer James Hall and woodwind player Chris Egan). It was recorded over a 40 day period, where the band…
View More The Kentish Spires – Sprezzatura
The Exchange, Bristol Sunday, 31st March 2019 I was due to be joined by my TPA compatriot and fellow scribe Tony Colvill at this event, however car trouble sadly conspired against him (like HRH – he’ll do anything to avoid…
View More That Joe Payne / Doris Brendel
Debuting in 2015 with their critically acclaimed album Hyedology, Symphony of Pain (vocalist Tracie Laws and classically trained multi-instrumentalist Pam Chowhan) return with their follow up album, Virology, a darker, harder and more powerful beast of an album. This time,…
View More Symphony of Pain – Virology