The Big One-Seven pt. 2

My fleeting time as a seventeen year old is drawing to an end and the harsh, cold grips of adulthood are quickly closing in.
Some time ago I compiled a list of tracks featuring my great age, as I think you can agree it is a suspiciously commonly reoccurring theme in songs  and I wished to investigate further; is it the catchiness of a tri-syllabic word that holds the appeal? Is the idea on the cusp of being an adult and yet still in youth just a fascinating concept?
It turns out my song-searching wasn’t particularly comprehensive because I have since come across yet more of the same ilk. So here goes (again).

I saw Her Standing There by The Beatles
Line: Well, she was just seventeen / You know what I mean / And the way she looked was way beyond compare
I guess we just have to consider that the ‘60s were a time of looser morals and considerably less-strict child protection laws, if you know what I mean.

17 by Youth Lagoon
Line: Oh, when I was seventeen / My mother said to me / "Don't stop imagining. The day that you do is the day that you die"
The threat of death for lax imagination is quite a lot of pressure to put on your child who’s just trying to get through their A Levels, surely?

Seventeen by Marina and the Diamonds
Line: Could never tell you what happened / The day I turned seventeen / The rise of a king and the fall of a queen
The correlation between her ageing a year and the sudden change in royal reign is not explained, so we can only assume it was the result of a catastrophic sweet-seventeenth-gone-wrong. Unless of course it’s a metaphor and there wasn’t really some sort of profiterole explosion in the presence of prestigious party guests, but whatever.

Evening Sun by The Strokes
Line: You're the pretty smartest captain of the team / I love you more than being seventeen
It must be questioned to what extent this can be taken as a compliment considering how much the enjoyment of being seventeen is severely severed by UCAS and realising how little you know about the Vietnam War the night before your History AS exam and that frustrating wait until your 18^th  birthday upon which you can finally join your mates on a night out.

Girls by The 1975
Line: They're just girls breaking hearts / Eyes bright, uptight, just girls / But she can't be what you need if she's seventeen
Yeah man, like, get someone your own age. Jeez.

Jubilee by Blur
Line: He dresses incorrectly, no-one told him seventeen / Not keen on being like anyone else
So he’s pursuing individuality, good for him. You only have to pass by a large group of tracksuit-clad teenage boys walking down the high street or observe that everyone has the same mobile phone to see that this is lacking in today’s culture.

Carmen by Lana Del Rey
Line: Carmen, Carmen, staying up til morning / Only seventeen, but she walks the streets so mean
Well, our generation is always being told that we’re growing up too fast, I suppose.

T-Shirt Weather by Circa Waves
Line: So we talk till we're sick / Seventeen went far too quick
The Number 17 bus goes far too quick when you get up late and it sets off before you get to the stop, leaving you to sprint after it, completely undignified.

Mac DeMarco @ Beacons Metro Review

Mac DeMarco @ Beacons Metro
Albert Hall, Manchester
With: Spring King, Horsebeach, The Big Moon, Kevin Morby

Canadian singer Mac DeMarco returns to Manchester for a memorable gig involving stage dives, bras, and remarkable rock covers.

Fresh from releasing mini-LP Another One and back on the road around the UK, DeMarco and his equally as intriguing band are back in the city for the second time this year after a slot at Parklife Festival earlier this summer. Ever a man of interest, the show takes just a few unexpected twists along the way.
The crowd are here early for tonight’s exciting support line-up, which includes the up and coming in the UK indie scene found in Spring King and Manchester’s own Horsebeach, the impressive all-girl rock quartet The Big Moon hailing from London, and American folk rock musician Kevin Morby; up the ante by hosting the event in the beautiful 2000-capacity Albert Hall, formerly a historic gothic chapel, and you’ve got yourself quite a show.
DeMarco and co open with The Way You’d Love Her lifted straight from his latest release, and it is immediately evident that even with songs graceful and melodic he can achieve quite a reaction from a room. More than a few members of the crowd in question seem to have come dressed for the occasion, clad in loose dungarees and donning caps embroidered with cigarettes in the style of their idol.
Played next are tracks picked from across his albums, including No Other Heart, A Heart Like Hers, and to particular appreciation, Ode to Viceroy. Undergarments are thrown on stage at numerous points during the set, and what else is there to do but hang them from the handle of your guitar and strap a bra around your head like a deerstalker for three songs.
 Mid set and a cover of Rammstein’s Du Hast takes the show on a turn to the electrifying. I’ve Been Waiting For and the one everyone’s been waiting for Chamber of Reflection follow suit, before a closer from Still Together. DeMarco makes a spectacular stage dive during the extended version of the last of these, which sees the fans unleash into a scramble.
After they exit the stage, it becomes apparent to the band that the night is still young. Near-deafening chants recall DeMarco et al back to exercise their efforts in what turns out to be a spectacular unplanned encore lasting a good half-hour. DeMarco takes it up a notch and, with an air of taking the mick out of oneself, performs Metallica’s Enter Sandman intercut with the riff from Smoke on the Water.

Blossoms Review

Blossoms
The Old Fire Station, Carlisle, 9^th June 2015

The Stockport band head north for a pleasing intimate gig.

It would be an impressive feat if you found someone who proclaimed Cumbria to be a thriving music capital. Heck, it seems like in tour managers’ eyes no one even exists in that obviously desolate, empty region above Manchester and below Glasgow. Perhaps this is the reason for rock five-piece Blossoms attracting a reasonably small audience when they oh so bravely dared to venture into this previously unmarked territory for tonight’s gig. Tonight’s gig, however, showed that an unsold-out venue for them is really rather undeserved.
The venue in question is newly opened, transformed into an arts centre from a working fire station. One of the band’s catchiest songs, Cut Me and I’ll Bleed, kicks in to start the show, and to the staging area do the crowd only then move in. Next is a breeze through songs which emit a nostalgic, almost psychedelic feel, including Smoke and new track Charlemagne. The paced is slowed and the acoustic guitar is out for melodic love tune My Favourite Room.
“Is anyone going to T in the Park tomorrow?” asks frontman Tom Ogden, to the room’s gaggle. “Too expensive, eh? Us too.” This isn’t strictly true, as fortunately for Blossoms they do not have to fork out £200-odd for a T ticket; instead they are actually playing it. This follows a string of prestigious performances, including support slots for Courteeners and The Charlatans at Heaton Park and Castlefield Bowl respectively.
Ogden introduces each member of the band in turn throughout the set; Charlie Salt on bass and backing vocals, lead guitarist Josh Dewhurst, Joe Donovan on drums with their signature sound being pumped through the songs with the help of Myles Kellock's keys. The five-piece, once labelling themselves as a 'Stockport supergroup', seem to don a uniform of dark clothing and stick-thin legs. Future single Blown Rose is played ahead of the provocative ‘60s-style You Pull A Gun On Me. Infectious debut Blow closes the set, complete with an extended, passionately-performed instrumental.

Summertime is new album time

This week marks the global launch of a brand-spanking new music release day. Yep, shift over Monday, because it’s finally Friday’s chance to shine. Whilst, in fairness, this isn’t particularly life-altering, it is a reminder that in a world of streaming and, most recently, Apple Music-ing, the album is still an important and much loved part of our music consumption, so here are just a few great ones to get ready for this summer.

1. Best Friends – Hot. Reckless. Totally Insane.
Release Date: 10^th July
Known for their rousing riffs (and simply beautiful cover artworks), the Sheffield band put forward a pleasing debut that takes us on a ride through dreamy summer tracks to percussion-packed bangers. If you’re swift, you can grab the very limited first pressing of the vinyl, which comes in a mesmerising blue pattern.

2. Tame Impala – Currents
Release date: 17^th July
Leaders of today’s psyche-rock scene Tame Impala are back, and, boy, are we excited. Let It Happen and the stripped-back ‘Cause I’m a Man emulate a continuation of their endeared sound, but suggest for their third LP the five-piece have explored new paces and some new levels of groove, and effectively pulled it off.

3. Mac Demarco – Another One
Release date: 7^th August
Another album from the Canadian singer-songwriter? Well, if you must. Available to fans just ahead of a short but sought-after string of UK tour dates, Demarco’s latest offering is sure to be just as melodic and as captivating as his previous ones. When pre-ordered on iTunes, it even comes with a whopping seven bonus instrumental tracks, if you’re yearning for more.

4. The Strypes – Little Victories
Release date: 21^st August
Considering they’re all still in their teens, it’s rather impressive that the Irish foursome are already onto their second album, and yet here it is, in all its revved-up, bluesy glory. A slightly more mature, polished vibe comes off the band’s most recent songs (see A Good Night's Sleep and a Cab Fare Home and Eighty Four) compared to those off their debut, Snapshot, so hopefully this record will see them be up there with the elite of their field.

5. FIDLAR – Too
Release date: 4^th September
Currently, only one song from this album has been revealed to the world, but listen to 40oz On Repeat just once and you will be rushing to pre-order it immediately because the skate-punk yanks are finally back with a bang, bringing their trademark catchy repetition and thrashing choruses with them.

6. The Libertines – Anthems For Doomed Youth
Release date: 4^th September
We’ve done our waiting, almost twelve years of it in fact, and within our sights is a day many of us believed would never come - a new Libs album. Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you will know that Pete Doherty is at long last clean after having gone through rehab in Thailand, where (what we hope to be) a masterpiece has been written and recorded. Teamed with a video looking like a scene from an Inbetweeners reunion movie some twenty years down the line, latest single Gunga Din is an instant anthem, and will be track-listed alongside fresh tapings of songs both new and old, the latter including Seven Deadly Sins and You’re My Waterloo. Needless to say, the world is waiting and is ready to give its verdict - will it be a tired-out flop attempt to resurrect the past, or comeback brilliance?

Blur Review

Blur
Empress Ballroom Blackpool, 10^th June 2015

The Britpop sensation perform the second of three warm-up shows in one of Lancashire’s favourite venues.
This month Blur will headline of few prestigious British Summer Time festival slots at Hyde Park, but have chosen first to bless the Blackpool stage in preparation, performing in the seaside city for the very first time. Excitement in the region has not only reached the Britpop survivors who lived through its heyday, but also hoards of teens, bearing the band’s infamous logo across their chests.
As fitting with the cover of latest (and first in twelve years) No.1 album The Magic Whip, which features an ice-cream cone made up of fluorescent lights and replicated in the gleaming lights behind the stage, the foursome walk out in front of their fans to an ice-cream van edition of Greensleeves, as well as to deafening cheers. Concealing half of Damon Albarn’s face is a pair of brightly-coloured novelty ‘Blackpool’ glasses, which he will later toss into the crowd, unleashing a fight-to-the-death scramble to retrieve them.
Blur launch straight into recent single Go Out and the ecstatic reaction of the audience is induced. However, disaster strikes not five minutes later when the front barrier breaks from the impact of the cramped crowd, forcing an immediate halt mid-way through of There’s No Other Way. The band rush through the rest of the song after a temporary fix, before announcing a quick break to secure it properly. Even without their presence on stage, the audience are undeterred and continue to chant the chorus.
Back on track, and songs picked straight from the last LP, including Lonesome Street and Thought I Was a Spaceman, are merged successfully with older ones, He Thought of Cars and Trimm Trabb to name a couple, chosen from a discography of hits spanning some twenty-five years. Both are welcomed with equal warmth, with every lyric lolling off many of the room’s tongues. Twice bassist-turned-cheesemaker Alex James wistfully lights up a cigarette on stage, whilst Albarn makes at least three appearances at the barrier, entering the crowd.
High-impact hits are all Blur leave the fans with before the encore. Beetlebum sees a mass singalong, fuelled by passion and a love of the music legends facing them, and Tender becomes an instant highlight for many. Predictably, the consecutive pairing of Parklife and Song 2 takes it up a notch, or perhaps eighty; immediately the pit sees a frenzy of euphoric movement. The nostalgic knock back to the mid-nineties is continued with a closing double whammy of To the End and This Is a Low.
And the encore is just a good. Stereotypes kicks it off again, followed quickly by the stereotype-spouting Girls & Boys. The Universal concludes the set perfectly, and is performed with such heart that in those four minutes everyone present seems to forget that it featured in an irritating British Gas advert.

Courteeners Heaton Park Review

Courteeners
Heaton Park, Manchester, 5^th June 2015
Support: Blossoms, Bipolar Sunshine, Peace

“Breathe it in, Manchester.” coos Courteeners frontman Liam Fray to the 25,000-strong crowd. Tonight Heaton Park hosts the most notable and biggest gig in the band’s history, and fans have come from far and wide to witness what Fray himself has dubbed their own Spike Island.
The foundations of the following weekend’s Parklife Festival have been utilised for the event, with the main stage, assembled from shipping containers, being where tonight’s acts will dwell. Such acts, handpicked by Courteeners, consist of fellow Greater Manchurians Blossoms and Bipolar Sunshine, along with indie band Peace from Digbeth.
Opening the show are Blossoms, who present themselves in from of the gradually growing crowd with a wave and play single Cut Me and I’ll Bleed. Psychedelic guitar riffs are rife as they breeze through their pleasing set, which includes You Pulled a Gun On Me and Smoke, interrupted only by vocalist Tom Odgen’s jokey ad lib spoken with a strong northern twang, reminiscing perhaps something of a younger pre-Americanised Alex Turner. The band’s uniform of black and long hair kicks back to a sixties vibe, subtly reflected in their sound. Debut single Blow closes the short but well-rounded set.
Next up is Bipolar Sunshine, real name Adio Marchant, who adopted his pseudonym in 2013 after having been co-vocalist of Manchester six-piece Kid British. As well as selecting tracks from his string of EPs, including Drowning Butterflies and the dreamy Where Did The Love Go?, Sunshine performs a remixed cover of Tear For Fear’s Mad World, treating the song to an injection of his rhythmic style.
Despite having a very different sound to Courteeners, the set goes down well with the crowd, and is concluded with hit single Daydreamer.
Peace complete the evening’s support acts, and are joined on stage by Superfood’s Dom Ganderton, as well as a replacement drummer due to the absence of an unwell Dom Boyce. The band open with Gen Strange taken from their recent second album Happy People, and followed by other new tracks including Lost On Me and the catchy Money. Older songs, namely Lovesick and Wraith, receive a lively response. Singalongs are the real highlight; the delicate California Daze and Someday unite the Peace fans of the crowd, but a cover of Champagne Supernova grabs everyone’s attention.
Finally it is time for the moment everyone has been waiting for. Rapturous applause greets Courteeners (Fray, along with drummer Michael Campbell, guitarist Dan Moores, and Mark Cuppello on the bass) as they waltz on stage confidently to Oasis’s Morning Glory. High energy among the spectators is immediately induced as the band launch into Are You in Love With a Notion? and, throwing back to debut album St. Jude, fan-favourite Cavorting, followed by Push Yourself.
Pyrotechnic flares are, with their inevitable presence, already out and blazing seemingly in their dozens, resulting in an onscreen message warning against them, threatening ejection from the park for their forbidden use.
Summer is fitting with evening’s weather, which fortunately is completely devoid of rain, and, along with Please Don’t, sees the crowd chanting each word.
The pace is taken up again by the song “for the shit hipsters”, Fallowfield Hillbilly, alongside Lose Control. A brass band appear on stage to accompany the quartet in performing hits to the enormous gaggle of fans.
The nostalgic Take Over the World and touching Small Bones, taken from latest album Concrete Love, are played before Fray goes solo for a small acoustic set of Acrylic and Yesterday, Today & Probably Tomorrow.
The remaining songs of the epic gig arrive in a wave of high impact. Fans echo the chorus of the biggest song of the night, Not Nineteen Forever, with such heart that it would be surprising if it is not heard by half of Manchester. The show ends with an unforgettable confetti-covered rendition of What Took You So Long?.
From performing in small clubs to playing a sell-out gig in front of thousands of dedicated fans in just eight years, along with having four hit albums under the belt along the way, Courteeners prove that, despite the critics, they’re definitely not going away any time soon.

The Wombats Review

The Wombats
O2 Academy Liverpool, 18^th April 2015

How do you end your guilt-free freedom with a bang before the perils of the dismal exam season initiate? How else but seeing everyone’s fourteen-year-old-self’s favourite band, the resilient indie-pop phenomenon that won’t stop giving The Wombats at their homecoming show.
The trio’s most recent gift to fans is third album Glitterbug, which fuses their recognisable upbeat quirk with a slightly more mature and laid-back style, proving themselves to be just as worth the hype now as they were when the band first received it upon capturing our hearts all those years ago.
A sunny Saturday in Liverpool is the setting for the show, and the queue of eager fans (many having hurried straight from the band’s instore acoustic performance and album signing in the city’s centre) is vast.
The Wombats finally arrive on stage to break into 2013 single Your Body Is a Weapon. The surprisingly vigorous crowd is immediately activated upon first hearing the catchy choruses they have loved since their tweens.
Older tracks Jump Into the Fog, 1996, and the massive Moving to New York go down a treat with the lively spectators. Equally welcomed are newer tracks Greek Tragedy and This Is Not a Party, with many already knowing every punning and narrative lyric. The nostalgia-inducing Techno Fan and Headspace slow the pace only slightly before a launch straight back into The English Summer and the classic party anthems that started it all, including Kill the Director and Tokyo (Vampires and Wolves), interrupted only by a little singalong to the sweetly melodic Little Miss Pipedream.
The end of tonight’s gig is nigh and there is only one song everyone in the room is waiting for; at long last those infamous guitar strums echo around the room and Let’s Dance to Joy Division begins. Whether or not the band do in fact take sentiment in singing the line “I’m back in Liverpool / and everything feels the same” when it is genuinely appropriate, the track certainly reminisces with the audience as such, closing the show on an epic high.
The days of chirpy indie-rock which graced the charts just a few years ago (you know, the days of Klaxons, The Pigeon Detectives, Razorlight, and of course tonight’s hometown heroes) may not be in their high right now, but The Wombats have proved their continued success by fighting through and are just as catchy, as crowd-pleasing, and as simply brilliant as ever.