The Godfathers’ new studio album ‘Alpha Beta Gamma Delta’ will be released in early April, full details coming soon! European dates for the band will be announced in the coming weeks!!
Chubby and the Gang have shared a new EP entitled ‘Labour of Love’, featuring three brand new songs, as well as a music video for lead single ‘Who Loves Ya (Coup d’état)‘. Labour of Love is available now digitally, and a special picture disc 7″ is available to pre-order now (HERE). Steve Lamacq premiered ‘Who Loves Ya (Coup d’état)’ on his BBC 6Music show yesterday evening.
The video for ‘Who Loves Ya (Coup d’état)’ was filmed and edited by the band’s tour manager, Ted Foster. Frontman Charlie Manning Walker says of the song: “We had the idea to do a Valentine’s Day single and I sort of wanted to show all the angles of love. Warts and all. Quite often it’s not such a smooth experience. Can often feel scary and insane. So I wanted to write a bubblegum song about it but also show the duality of the emotion.
Chubby and the Gang released their acclaimed second album – The Mutt’s Nuts – last year via Partisan. The album was produced by Jonah Falco of Fucked Up, and was featured on year-end lists by Rough Trade and Kerrang! (“uncompromising Brit-punk anthems”). It also earned them a spot touring with Turnstile in the UK, which they just wrapped up. Chubby and the Gang will tour throughout 2022, full dates HERE. US headline touring is set to be announced soon.
The Mutt’s Nuts followed the band’s surprise 2020 critical hit, Speed Kills. Thanks to an unrelentingly fun concoction of hardcore, pub rock, doo wop, and blues, the album cemented them as leaders in a pack of new bands coming out of a new wave of British Hardcore. Alongside classic rock and roll themes of love and loss, their lyrics are rooted in worker’s rights, inequality, police brutality, government failure and gentrification – issues that are built into the fabric of the UK, and magnified in the English capital.
Goth ‘n’ Roll pioneers THE 69 EYES have been haunting stages all over the world for 33 years and have become a truly immortal part of the dark rock/metal scene. Widely known as the Helsinki Vampires, the quintet gained several platinum albums with ‘Blessed Be’ and ‘Paris Kills’ and, as well as reaching #1 on both the album and singles charts in their home country, also plunged the world into a sinful cosmos of love, death and melancholy, while outliving any other band emerging from the goth hype of the early 2000s. By developing their sound further into sleaze rock on ‘Devils’ (2004) and ‘Angels’ (2007) and not shying away from pitch black Elvis allusions in singer Jyrki 69’s dark voice and unique onstage dance moves, the band has established a worldwide following. Over the course of over three decades, the band has toured relentlessly throughout Europe, America, Asia and Australia and released 12 full-length studio albums.
Today, THE 69 EYES announce their signing to Atomic Fire Records (worldwide excluding Finland). Get your vampire teeth sharpened as news songs and tours are in the horizon!
Singer Jyrki 69 comments this unholy new alliance: ”We are back in a full swing!! Our paths here in Helsinki crossed with our old A&R guy Gabi Hakanen who was with us when we released our highest selling albums “Devils” (2005) and “Angels” (2007), so as he heard our new demos, we sort of just continued like right after last time. So he got us on his label’s studio right away now at Vallila Music House (Hanoi Rocks’ Sami Yaffa, Ville Valo & The Agents etc). Simultaneously we also hooked up with the brand new Atomic Fire Records label which has our classic former Nuclear Blast dream team there, so this ”new” and fresh beginning for THE 69 EYES sounds like a dream, really! New big-time ROCKING music comes out very soon!”
CEO and A&R Markus Wosgien adds: „We are more than happy to welcome our beloved Helsinki Vampires, the most unique and by far coolest Gothic band in hell and on earth. We worked together for more than ten years and their latest four studio albums, and will continue now, reunited under the Atomic Fire banner. This feels like coming home to all of us and we are honored to continue our long term relationship.“
The Courettes are an explosive garage rock duo from Denmark and Brazil who blend an exciting concoction of garage, surf, 60s girlie pop and riot grrrl attitude. Completed by the husband-and-wife partnership of vocalist/guitarist Flavia Couri (from Brazil) and drummer/backing vocalist Martin Couri (from Denmark, where they are based), following the critically acclaimed release of 2021’s ‘Back In Mono’ album and a hugely successful UK tour in October of that year, the very fabulous Courettes return with a brand new single and news of a UK in June later this year.
Available on 7” (with one thousand copies on white vinyl), ‘Misfits & Freaks’ is a new recording of a stand-out track from ‘Back In Mono’, coupled with a brand-new song called ‘Killer Eyes’ on the flipside, available February 25th via Damaged Goods Records.
“Misfits & Freaks” is a song about a bittersweet concert we played on the very evening France went into its first lockdown in 2020,” explains Flavia Couri. “The pandemic broke loose in the middle of our tour and uncertainty was in the air. It felt a bit like being in a kind of science fiction film. People were partying that day as if there was no tomorrow. And it was indeed the end of the world as we knew it. We tried to capture this feeling in the video featuring some old b-movie apocalyptic scenes, while we keep on partying, singing, and dancing at the end of the world. We´ve all been struggling to keep ourselves sane, safe, strong, and sweet in the last two years. And we did it. Cheer up!”
Hot on the heels of the excitement The Courettes created last October as the UK welcomed back live music with open arms, The Courettes return in June 2022 for a full UK tour.
“Our last tour in the UK in October was really a blast. The world was opening again, the venues were packed, many shows were sold out and we had such a great time. We are looking so much forward to being back this Summer. We´ll be promoting our latest album “Back in Mono”, our new single “Misfits & Freaks” and a very special new release that is due to come out on Damaged Goods Records by the beginning of the tour. Cheer up, cheer up!”
Catch The Courettes live at the following dates:
1 June Bristol The Louisiana
2 June Portsmouth The Wedgewood Rooms
3 June Margate Margate Mod/Sixties Weekender @ Olby’s
A packed out club, sweaty drunk young people awaiting some punk rock hot off the press from Aberavon – it must be Shunko time. Heavily influenced by the lofi punk rock spewing out of the Southern Hemisphere The Shunkos have taken their lad culture and fast food obsession to the next level. ‘Meal Deal’,’Uni Mate’ and songs about bus wankers and late-night kebabs are sung back at the band by an enthusiastic audience of nerdowells intent on having a good time all of the time. It was quickly turned into a sweaty heaving mass of bodies as the band plowed on at 100 miles an hour duly held together by the Ryan boys in the rhythm section.
Frontman Mal should be called (Maladjusted) has taken control of his building site humour and spits out the words like he’s been doing this all his miserable life ‘Beer & Gear’, ‘Chippy Tea’ sounds like a one way trip to A & E but he’ll have a shed (Dermans Shed) full of new lyrics along the way.
It’s clear The Chats, Amyl And The Sniffers, Chubby & The Gang and other such punks are the go-to inspiration for these punks who also inject some surf punk into their sound and bounce around harder and faster as the songs dictate. They need to get out there and play with the likes of Pizzatramp, Slugfest and Wonk Unit it would see them go from Boys to Men and put their punk rock credentials to the test. One thing for sure is the more they play the tighter they sound and the better they get and the new songs are proof of that. Get that CD released and get out there and show the world that South Wales can do hardcore punk with the best of them.
The fact nobody under the age of 25 looked remotely grossed out as Mal took a slug of beer from someone’s sweaty slip-on van told you everything about what to expect on a shunkos night out, ‘Whats In The Box’ and ‘Big Bertha’ sounded like these ‘Little Bastards’ are on the right track to perfecting the new punk scene out of South Wales . Songs about bus rides, meal deals, favourite Currys, young lust, having a good time makes for a top Saturday night out these party animals are all about living in the moment and under such troubled times maybe now is the right time for a party, and the Shunkos are exactly what the doctor ordered for a good time, all the time. Go see em if they turn up in your town and don’t be afraid to throw yourself around just don’t lose your shoe or the singer (cough cough) will use it as his drinking horn ‘punk as fuck’ – ripper!
Author: Dom Daley (oldest in attendance by about 30 years)
As the world and his wife are slowly creating a new normal and us rock n rollers are seeing shoots of recovery, Pete Stride & Honest John Plain celebrate by entering the Heritage charts with ‘Laugh At Me’ lifted from their album ‘New Guitar In Town’. You can play the song and album on streaming site Spotify Here. It still sounds as fresh as a daisy with the happy-go-lucky piano tinkling along with the great hook and melody you’d expect from these Rock and Rollers.
Originally recorded and produced by Sonny Bono “Laugh at Me” was Sonny Bono’s only hit song as a solo artist under the name Sonny back in 1965. Pete Stride from The Lurkers’ and John Plain of The Boys decided to play together and the result is the 1980 album ‘New Guitar in Town’. “Laugh At Me” is the only single from the album and was released in 1980.
A Hit on the UK Heritage Chart – www.heritagechart.co.uk
Alongside Honest John Plain on guitars/vocals & Pete Stride – guitars/vocals were Jack Black (The Boys) on drums, Mick Talbot (Merton Parkas/Style Council) on keyboards, Howard Wall (The Lurkers) – vocals, Pete ‘Plug’ Edwards (Lurkers roadie) on vocals/harmonica and Tony Bateman – bass/vocals.
The Single (and album) was given its first-ever digital release (on Spotify, i-tunes etc) this past January. Mike Read has started to play it on his breakfast show and it has just entered the UK Heritage Chart yesterday (Sunday 13 Feb) at Number 30.
The last time I crossed paths with Ryan Hamilton was November 2019 at his annual Holiday Hoedown in Nottingham. He had short hair, hell, I had short hair! It seems a lifetime ago now, a time when Corona was just a beer and wearing a mask in a bank would’ve got you arrested.
These are trying times for us all, including our favourite Texan troubadour, but things are getting better right? Recording and releasing the ‘1221’ album over a 12-month period in lockdown has kept him sane and kept his fanbase interested, and now a return to the UK for his first live dates since the world changed appears to excite him as much as his fans.
3 dates billed as a co-headline tour with London singer/songwriter Emily Capell will see the singer play The Hyde Park Book Club in Leeds, bookended by sold out shows in Newcastle and London.
It’s my first visit to the Hyde Park Book Club, and it’s a great little venue. From the outside it looks like a supermarket, yet inside, with a small reasonably priced bar, homemade sausage rolls and cakes for sale, it has a homely atmosphere and surely the ultimate den for the student population to come and hang out, drink, and catch up on assignments. Down a precarious set of stairs, we find the basement venue. If dimly lit and void of people, it would seem the perfect ‘kill room’ for Joe Goldberg from the popular Netflix show ‘You’. But tonight, it will be the stage for 3 talented musicians.
With a shock of pink hair, an acoustic guitar and a powerful set of pipes, Brighton songstress Gina Larner warms up the crowd with an enjoyable set of folk-tinged pop ditties. Her tones sit nicely somewhere between Kate Nash and Amy Macdonald, she apologizes for chatting too much, has a cool song about daytime whisky drinking. It’s fun, she has a likeable presence, and the songs stand up to the test. A perfect opener.
We bought tickets, we turned up and we assumed one would headline and one would support. So, it was a surprise to see Ryan Hamilton and Emily Capell take to the stage together and announce a song for song face/off. I knew little of Emily’s music before tonight. I avoided researching as I wanted to view her as a new artist free of any expectations. Of course, being a big fan of Ryan Hamilton, I wasn’t expecting her to be able to compete, and in this case, boy was I wrong…oh so very wrong!
The lady with a beehive and a Gretsch guitar can certainly holds her own against the Texan with a cowboy hat and an acoustic, no problemo. Song for song and piss-take after piss-take, the duo have the room captivated for the entire set. If you have seen Ryan Hamilton bearing his soul with just an acoustic guitar, then you know what an intimate experience it can be. From the uplifting opener ‘Smarter’ to the ever cool ‘Never Should Have Moved To LA’ onto crowd favourite ‘Take It On Th Run’ (or ‘Take It Up The Bum’ as it was sung tonight) the songs are great as ever. But it’s the sadness of ‘Cheaters Never Change’ and the optimism of ‘This Is The Sound’ that really shine through tonight.
It’s by no means a sad show, and this is largely due to the comedy banter between the duo. Ryan and Emily work well together in this format, like they have been touring for months, not days. It’s like a brother/sister act of light-hearted one-upmanship that usually ends in Emily telling Ryan to sit down and shut up! Ryan’s fascination with the English language continues and Emily obliges by teaching him the meaning of words such as “skip”. Its comedy gold and maybe if the singing fails they could both have a career in stand-up!
Thye end the set as a duo tackling each other tunes and a great version of the Johnny Cash classic ‘Jackson’.
For me a great artist has to have the whole package, that certain sparkle. Well written songs, a good voice, charisma and the ability to captivate an audience. Ryan has already proven himself in that department, but to remember the hooks to songs the first time you hear then live is very rare for me, and listening to Emily’s album the morning after the show I remembered at least four of the songs she played. The likes of ‘No Worries’, ‘Ipso Calypso’ and ‘Who Killed Smiley Culture’ are quality tunes full of quirky, retro 60’s pop goodness, but with a contemporary edge. And to deliver them, out of her comfort zone, solo to an unfamiliar audience with such confidence is the sign of a star in the making.
Ryan Hamilton is an artist whose back catalogue straddles power pop and Americana with radio-friendly singles and lyrics that hit the heart and soul. His live performance, whether with a band or solo is always memorable. Emily Capell is a Clash loving, doo-wop delivering ball of quirky goodness with a killer voice and killer tunes. They live worlds apart and come from different cultures, but somehow, together they make magic and gel probably more than they realise. Let’s hope this is the start of a beautiful musical friendship and hopefully more gigs together. Ryan has already teased his return to these shores later this year, if he plays a show near you, do yourself a favour and check him out.
Rockaway Records announce the release of the brand new single and video for ‘Underground LUV’ taken from The new album ‘Something’s Got to Give’.
Produced at Perry Vale Studios by the legendary Pat Collier. The band has never sounded better. ‘Underground LUV’ is set in a world of isolation, where subway dandies strut the streets, where passion ends in fashion in a Clockwork Orange dystopia, spray-painting life in dayglo pink and yellow. This is a song of defiance and hope, fear and LUV for the 21st Century. Underground LUV is available on download from www.derellas.com, Bandcamp, iTunes, Amazon, Spotify etc.,..
Rewind to early 1985. Having yet to play a gig, a fresh-faced, ragtag, band of friends found themselves in the BBC’s Maida Vale Studios recording their own John Peel session.
Despite being young, naive, and still learning their craft, right from the off The Rose of Avalanche were churning out finely tuned slabs of sleazy, guitar-driven goth rock that belied their age and experience. Peel loved them, and followed the session by placing the band’s first single “L.A. Rain” at number 26 in his 1985 Festive 50, above songs by The Cure, The Smiths and The Sisters of Mercy. Guitarist Glenn quipped “John Peel really liked us, but then again he also thought that Teenage Kicks by The Undertones was the greatest song ever written”
From there the bands next four singles dominated the UK Independent Charts. “Goddess” matched the chart-topping debut “L.A. Rain” and was named Single of The Week by Sounds, “Too Many Castles In The Sky” went Top 5, followed by “Velveteen” and “Always There”, with The Rose invited back to The BBC to record a second session, this time for Janice Long.
Head of Chapter 22, Dean Brown said:
“We are delighted to have Rose of Avalanche join our exciting roster of bands at Chapter 22 Records. They bring with them the heritage and swagger of the 1980’s and join a list of bands they know well from that time. The ‘’BBC Sessions’ sound fantastic and we can’t wait to bring them to you this autumn”
Available for the first time since the original radio broadcasts some 30 years ago, this album contains all the tracks from their two BBC sessions, capturing the excitement and creative force of a band on the cusp of hitting the big time.
Various rumours of a reunion surfaced over the intervening years, and in August 2019 the band finally announced it was reforming the original line up. The reaction to The Rose’s triumphant return was overwhelming, and history repeated itself with the band being offered headline gigs in the UK and Europe and confirmed as main support for the UK leg of The Mission’s upcoming UK Tour.
The band will play a handful of intimate gigs this November to promote the release of the album, and are looking forward to hitting the road with The Mission again in Spring 2022.
2022 Dates with The Mission
Thursday April 14th, Manchester, Ritz Friday April 15th, Newcastle, City Hall Saturday April 16th, Glasgow, Barrowlands Sunday April 17th, Leeds, O2 Academy Tuesday April 19th, Nottingham, Rock City Wednesday April 20th, Birmingham, O2 Academy Thursday April 21st, Bristol, O2 Academy Friday April 22nd, London, O2 Shepherds Bush Empire Saturday April 23rd, London, O2 Shepherds Bush Empire
Brooklyn post-punk mainstays SAVAK have announced their fifth album, Human Error / Human Delight, which will be released on April 15, 2022, via Ernest Jenning Record Co. in conjunction with the band’s own Peculiar Works. The band have released the video for searing album opener “No Blues No Jazz” —
The band has also announced a run of U.S. tour dates beginning this March, which will see them performing at SXSW alongside stops in Boston, Philadelphia, Washington DC and more. See below for the full list of currently announced dates.
SAVAK is the two-headed beast of Sohrab Habibion and Michael Jaworski, with Matt Schulz on drums. Jaworski and Habibion have been sharing singing and songwriting duties since the band’s inception in 2015, both taking turns singing their songs while playing guitar and other various instruments. Though SAVAK’s members have done time in bands like Obits, Edsel, Holy Fuck and more, their current outfit feels like the true culmination of their songwriting powers.
Recent Comments