The Dirty Strangers – ‘Country ‘N’ West Ten’ (Dirty Stranger Records)

The Dirty Strangers – ‘Country ‘N’ West Ten’ (Dirty Stranger Records)

The latest slab of pure good time rock n roll from the mind n soul of Alan Clayton is with us, and this timeless sound of honest-to-goodness is a burst of sunshine on a rainy day, a kind gesture from an old friend, and, believe it or not, album number seven. Let’s be honest, we know what we’re in for, and that’s exactly why we’re here: it’s honest rock n roll from the heart, no pretence, no bullshit, no new sounds because that’s progress; it’s just the roots of rock n roll poured out of the instruments and into your ears through your speakers. Alan knows the power of rock n roll, and he’s not afraid to use it. In the right hands, it’s the best thing in the whole fuckin’ world, and right from the first song, the class is there to hear, and the good times rinse through the speakers. ‘Learning To Be Legal’ has Alan leading the band through the mid-tempo rocker with a ton of beautiful keys wheezing into the trading of licks before Alan’s slur caresses our ears with the charm of the best bar band in ole London town, dishing up the best night out you could hope for. The production is loose and loud, but the balance is spot on (I don’t know why it’s taken mr Stranger so long to get control of the desk and pull those faders.

‘Turn Of The Tide’ is a rocker borrowed from the best and just oozes class as Guy Griffin duels with John Rollason, ably supported by some wonderful honky tonk courtesy of Micky Gallagher, but hold onto your horses ‘If You Won’t Leave Me I’ll Find Someone Who Will’ is an acoustic tale of love and life with some electric guitar twisted through those big cowboy chords, with Marnie Rollason assisting Alan with some finely placed haunting vocals.

‘Pirates Don’t Get Pensions’ is the cheeky chappie adding some fiddle to his rock n roll elbow. Sure there are obvious Stones n Faces comparisons to be found round plenty of corners throughout the Dirty Strangers’ decades of service, but if you are going to lean on any band you might as well look to the top table and go main line some of the good stuff.

If it’s some dirty slide n roll you’re after, then turn the speakers up for ‘Shtum ‘, where the band is stripped back and cut loose. The ebb and flow of this album is prominent, and after the storm of ‘Shtum’, ‘Diamonds’ is something of a tough guy’s ballad or a gentler-paced cut. I didn’t see Ronnie Lane featured on the album, but ‘Weekend Treat’ is exactly that, with Lane’s scratch guitar leading the way. ‘Get Wild’ has Griffin back for some more riff-a-rama before the band really does cut loose on ‘Nothing Doing’, sounding like the bastard child of ‘Last Time’, and I love the sound of that rhythm guitar hacking away through an overdriven amp, wonderful stuff.

As we head into the final third, it’s that ebb and flow that really works, breaking up the album and changing gears is a beautiful thing. Remember early doors, I mentioned the acoustic ‘If You Won’t Leave Me’ Well, it’s back for the full band treatment, sounding like chucking out time in the best bar on the planet, and I have to mention the lyrics and how bloody charming they are. It’s time to pull up a bar stool, pour yourself another and let Alan tell you a story.

‘Turkey Bone’ is the penultimate offering, setting the tone for Crimbo before the album says adios with the wonderful tone of Brian James, Alan’s great friend, who we sadly lost not that long ago, as they romp through ‘Sheperds Bush City Limits’, adding texture and a fair amount of rock n roll dirt to proceedings and signing off another awesome record from The Dirty Strangers up the R’s n all that, and God bless The Dirty Strangers and all who’ve sailed on board delivering the noise, the beautiful noise over the last 45 years but who cares time is nothing but a number and Brian and Scott Mulvey playing on the closing number is fitting as delving back through those years picking out tunes to strip back and rework has been an absolute triumph and as they say the proof is in the pudding and here is your serving.

Of course, I’m going to tell you to buy this record it’ll make your collecting 100% cooler and better sounding, and this self-produced rework is a banger. Buy It!

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Author: Dom Daley

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Levellers announce ‘Levelling The Land 35th anniversary’ remixed and expanded album release

Levellers announce ‘Levelling The Land 35th anniversary’ remixed and expanded album release

Remixed and expanded album release coming out on October 16th 2026.
‘Fifteen Years (Outtake)’ is out now – listen to it and pre-order the 35th Anniversary Edition album formats by clicking HERE.

Brighton folk-rockers Levellers have been one of Britain’s most enduring and best-loved bands for nearly 40 years. And part of that incredible success has been built on the timeless anthems that comprised their platinum-selling, second album Levelling The Land, which celebrates its 35th anniversary in 2026.

Recorded at Ridge Farm studios in Surrey over the summer of 1991, it was produced by Al Scott, who was charged with translating the band’s incendiary live performances into something more refined within the recording environment. Featuring the huge hit singles ‘One Way’, ‘15 Years’ and ‘Far From Home’, Levelling The Land redefined the UK’s musical landscape providing the soundtrack for a society fed up with the twin evils of Thatcherite politics, and the post-80’s pre-grunge musical wasteland.

Released just a couple of months later, the album also included fan favourites that have grown in stature over the years such as ‘The Game’, ‘Liberty Song’, ‘The Riverflow’, ‘Boatman’ and the incendiary ‘Battle Of The Beanfield’. Its enormous commercial success is testament to both the strength of the band’s songwriting and performance, and Al Scott’s superb production skills. However, both parties knew that the album didn’t truly capture the power of Levellers live.

As founding member and fiddle player Jon Sevink reveals, “We had 24 tracks of analogue tape to work with and we used them all. But music in the early 1990s was bound by technology. We were told by the record company that too much bass would overload people’s tiny TV and car speakers, making them fart and rattle. Subsequently low frequencies were removed from the EQ which we felt left a slightly disappointing listening experience, particularly when compared to modern recording.

“The advances in music mixing technology have now given us a ‘wider’ stereo image to listen to, allowing for more space in the music between instruments and voices. So I called Al Scott with the idea to remix the album from the original multi-tracks so it sounds current, but – really importantly – without losing sight of the album that everyone knows and loves. He was immediately up for it and in my opinion has done the perfect job.”

The new remixed version of the album will be released on a single vinyl edition, reflecting the tracklisting of the original album. The specially expanded CD version of the album comes as a 3CD package, featuring an array of bonus tracks including B-sides, out-takes and demos. Many of these have been lost for decades and were re-discovered in the process of remixing the album.

Jon Sevink continues, “The digital transfers of the 2” reels of tape also contained unfinished versions of songs and some unheard music. So I put a call out to the rest of the band to search through cupboards and drawers for any cassette tapes or other material that might relate to the early 90s. Soon after, I received a small package in the post from Charlie

(Heather, drummer) containing a few old cassettes, mostly uninspiring but one labelled ‘Demos of the LP’. The track listing on the box revealed it was indeed demo versions of ‘Levelling The Land’. This tape had been in Charlie’s possession, unheard for nearly 30 years and now we had material for this expanded release.

“So forget the anniversary, it’s just a number after all. Far more important is that this definitive collection of material is finally seeing the light of day. Songs as relevant today as they were in 1991. Sounding great!”

Levelling The Land features one of the most striking pieces of album art of the last forty years, an image which has also adorned hundreds of thousands of t-shirts around the world. Designed and created by bassist Jeremy Cunningham, it followed on from the artwork he created for debut album A Weapon Called The Word.

Jeremy says, “I thought for our second album I could expand the Levellers artistic world a bit. So I kept the same two figures from ‘Weapon’ but instead of them confronting each other, on ‘Levelling The Land’ they’re dancing together. But they’re dancing through a broken world. To the left is kinda idyllic countryside with sunshine and a viaduct but the river running out of it disappears into a mass of cooling towers, high rise and low rise housing projects and a benefits office. The other river running out of both backgrounds is a road – and it’s that our figures have chosen to dance out of the wasteland on.

“The artwork is the same as the music on the album – it juxtaposes all these ideas … and the bottom line is weighty lyrics but played over pop music. Both the artwork and the music came from the same place. Expanding the Levellers ‘world’.”

Warrior Soul/Gypsy Pistoleros – The Fulford Arms, York – 29th September 2026

Warrior Soul/Gypsy Pistoleros – The Fulford Arms, York – 29th September 2026

Here at RPM, there are many underground artists we admire and regard as legends, Warrior Soul mouthpiece Kory Clarke is one such dude. Kory has been keeping the Warrior Soul name alive for well over 3 decades. The politically charged band burst onto the scene back in 1990 with their debut album ‘Last Decade, Dead Century’, and their unique brand of outspoken, anarchic art rock saw a collection of great albums in the early 90s.

While the line-up has changed, the stiff middle finger of Kory Clarke is still raised in defiance as his band continue to release quality albums and tour extensively.

They celebrate the 35th anniversary of sophomore album ‘Drugs, God & The New Republic’ with a European tour playing the album in full. With a handful of UK dates booked, it would be crazy for me to miss the night when New York meets Olde York.

First up we have Gypsy Pistoleros who’ve undergone quite a transformation in recent years. The self-proclaimed ‘greatest flamenco glam punk band ever’ have now rebranded themselves as ‘the world’s only glam punk goth n’ roll outlaws’. Fair play, whatever the branding, Wolverhampton wonderer Gypsy Lee Pistolero is still at it, delivering sleazy rock n’ roll like all the (mostly) forgotten cool cats did back in the day. It’s clear he grew up on the same music as you and I.

They may look like a Temu Kiss (the bassist sports actual fairy wings), but the sound and delivery are dark, sleazy and the most fun you can have with leather clothes on. The onstage humour is as tongue-in-cheek as the stage costumes. “We don’t dress like this every day”, states Lee in one of many between-song monologues, before ripping the piss out of Adam Ant with his moves.

‘Dark Faerie Tales’ sounds like Faster Pussycat when Taime first went all goth and industrial on us, ‘The Ballad Of Thomas Shelby’ is a glitter-drenched stomper with more “woah-whoa’s” than an 80’s Bon Jovi single, and their cover of Dexy’s ‘Come On Eileen’ is the glam punk/pop crossover you didn’t realise you needed.

A full-on, high-energy rock n’ roll show with crowd participation, riffs and hooks aplenty- what’s not to like?

Warrior Soul take to the stage and jam out a killer intro piece. Kory Clarke swaggers through the crowd to the front of the stage, a bottle of red wine in his hand, and just watches his band rock out for a moment or two with his back to the audience.

He then grabs a mic, takes stage centre, a defiant fist in the air and shouts in that unmistakable raspy voice, “We are the government, and we rock n’ roll!”. They kick into ‘Interzone ’, and it’s clear from the off that this band mean business.

The diminutive frontman is a flash of blonde hair, gold shades and leather bellbottoms. He weaves rock n’ roll shapes and delivers that enigmatic, frontman thing like all good rock stars should. Next up ‘Drugs, God & The New Republic’ takes things down a notch before ‘The Answer’ takes it back up again. It seems we are getting the album in sequential order, nice!

Joining Kory are fellow New Yorker Adam Dubin, Italian guitarist Parker Barrow and Lowdrive guitarist John Hodgson. Longtime bassist Christian and drummer Ivan Tambac make up the ranks. The band are tight, and the staying power of these songs shines, reminding me what a great fucking album it is, all killer, no filler. Lyrically ahead of its time, musically powerful and still as relevant as it was in the last century.

Highlights are plenty: ‘Real Thing’ sounds great, those dynamics work well live, ‘Hero’ is as emotive as you like, and ‘The Wasteland’ is a surefire blast of 90’s punk metal.

All eyes are trained on the main man, making the most of the claustrophobic stage space he has. He eyes the audience as he spits and snarls his way through a killer set, gesticulating and articulating wildly and with as much passion as when he wrote those words.

Once the full album is done, we get more. ‘The Drug’ is a high-energy blast of acid punk, jammed out and extended, giving Kory time to drop to his knees, swig some wine and pass it to his bassist. ‘Punk & Belligerent’ is exactly what it says on the tin, and probably the best song of the night. ‘Losers’ is the all-encompassing anthem we all raise our hands and sing to, and set closer ‘Love Destruction’ is a sublime way to end a 1-hour 40-minute set, no encores needed.

Both bands had to work for it tonight. And at times both frontmen seemed a bit bemused about it. I’m sometimes left wondering if this is just a Northern thing or a national issue at gigs. Have we forgotten how to loosen up and have fun these days?

But in an age when people think nothing of paying £200 to see a nostalgia act on a big screen in an enormodome, I’m happy to say I saw a rock n’ roll legend give his all in a sweaty pub in my town for less than £20, and personally it was one of the gigs of the year.  

Author: Ben Hughes

Peter Hook & The Light play Joy Division

Peter Hook & The Light play Joy Division

UNKNOWN PLEASURES & CLOSER

SUNDERLAND FIRE STATION

FRIDAY 21 MAY 2027

PETER HOOK & THE LIGHT have announced a date at Sunderland Fire Station on Friday 21 May 2027 which will see the band play both Joy Division studio albums, Unknown Pleasures and Closer, in their entirety. The Sunderland date comes ahead of a full UK and Ireland tour next year, alongside further tours in North and South America, France and Asia, that will likewise celebrate both albums in full.

Sunderland tickets will go on sale at 10:00am on Monday 5 October HERE

Unknown Pleasures was released in 1979 and was followed by Closer in 1980, with recording for the latter completed shortly before Ian Curtis passed away and released shortly afterwards. The albums have since entered the folklore of musical history and regularly feature in the higher echelons of the Greatest Albums of All Time lists as compiled by both critics and public alike. They launched a legacy that refuses to fade, adorned with artwork that spawned a million t-shirts, production from Martin Hannett that sounds as precise and as ahead of its time today as it did back then, and both albums remain a constant influence on virtually every noteworthy band of the past four decades.

The Unknown Pleasures & Closer dates in 2027 follow another staggering run of live shows this year, taking in tours of the EU – visiting the Netherlands, Germany, Poland, the Czech Republic, Austria, Croatia, Slovenia and Belgium – an Australian and New Zealand tour in early summer and a 24-date tour of the USA and Canada in late summer, alongside numerous festivals in the UK and worldwide.

As a founding member of both Joy Division and New Order, Peter Hook was recently inducted into the prestigious Rock & Roll Hall of Fame for 2026, as voted for by fans of both bands. An award ceremony will be held in Los Angeles in November to mark the occasion.

Peter Hook first revisited the seminal Joy Division album Unknown Pleasures back in May 2010 for a commemorative charity concert and has followed it each year by performing subsequent albums from the repertoire of his bands, Joy Division and New Order. That dedication to his back catalogue has now seen him move through Unknown Pleasures, Closer, Still, Movement, Power Corruption & Lies, Low Life, Brotherhood, Technique, Republic, the Substance albums and Get Ready. Having toured each album extensively, the band have now amassed over 1000 concerts.

Among the many highlights since Peter Hook reintroduced his repertoire to a legion of audiences across the world, both new and old, have been appearances at Benicassim, Primavera Sound, Bestival, Kendal Calling, Victorious, Latitude and Rebellion, alongside extensive touring in Europe, the UK, China, Japan, North and South America, Australia and New Zealand to great acclaim from both fans and critics alike.

Pic – Rhona Murphy.

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Electron – ‘Is This Worth Living For?’ (Self Release)

Electron – ‘Is This Worth Living For?’ (Self Release)

Electron are a London-based duo who originally hail from Portugal. Their second album, Is This Worth Living For?, is about to be unleashed, and it’s a superb chunk of modern metal.

Jason Payne (guitar/vocals) and Joanna Hyde (bass/vocals) base their songs around the experiences of many young people these days…feeling detached, alone, and searching for some kind of purpose. The music is very well written with virtuoso performances. I’m not sure if the band has used an actual drummer on the album, or if the drums are programmed. The production from Romesh Dodangoda (Florence Black, Nova Twins, Bring Me The Horizon) is punchy and crystal clear.

Electron have a unique sound. They switch from crushing heaviness to Depeche Mode-style electronic moods with ease. There are plenty of singalong anthems in the mix too. Jason describes the inspiration behind the album: “The motivation behind these tracks came from hating the idea of a perfect life or world portrayed on social media,” begins Jason about the new album. “Everything and everyone seem to be so fake; it feels like we’re constantly being pushed towards what society expects us to be – there’s no room for individuality.

People have a hard time accepting and loving themselves for who they really are or look like. As we started writing, it propelled us to question: who are we? What are we doing here, and where do we go to? Metaphysics and existentialism are the strongest themes and emotions on this record. Because in a world that we can’t relate to, we’re left to wonder where we really belong.”

The album opens with the fantastic Trap. When it arrives, the heaviness is devastating, but the light and shade of the track is very effective. A catchy chorus makes the song memorable after the initial listen. Lie To Me mixes the electronic element of the band with monster guitar riffs perfectly. Brilliant stuff.

Jason sums up the next track: Dying To Feel Alive – “With all this modern-day disconnection, we’re left feeling increasingly isolated, day by day. We strive for meaningful connections, conversations, emotions… But sometimes everything feels fake and unreal.”

You Betray is a mid-paced epic with another earworm of a chorus. Electron mixes up the different foundations of their songs so well, you know they are essentially a metal band, but they could easily be an amazing dark electronic band. Toxic is another absolute banger of a track. A huge anthemic chorus and a Godzilla-sized riff make it a real standout tune. Another highlight of the album is the guest appearance of Skindred’s Benji Webbe on the track Taken. Benji’s ragga vocal delivery works perfectly. We get live versions of Burning Inside, Echoes Of A Dying World and You Betray to conclude the album.

Overall, Is This Worth Living For? is a very strong effort from Electron. The seemingly easy transition between musical styles makes for an interesting listen. I look forward to seeing what happens next for Electron. 

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Author: Kenny Kendrick