American rocker Ryan Adams is probably one of the hardest working musicians in the business. His long career has recently culminated in his latest eponymous release (his 14th solo album), which has received critical acclaim and resulted in 3 Grammy award nominations. I was pleasantly surprised to find he was touring the UK and far more surprised that he had decided to grace Leicester with his presence. Naturally, I had to get a good spot front and centre for his performance. Continue reading
(Guest Author: Ailish Barker-Brown)
American Country band, Little Big Town, had an extremely successful 2014 with the release of their sixth studio album, ‘Painkiller’ of which the lead single, ‘Day Drinking’, went on to reach number 2 on Country Airplay. They also won Vocal Group of the Year at the CMA (Country Music Association) Awards in November, beating Lady Antebellum, and were invited to join the Grand Ole Opry by country legend Reba McEntire. They’re all set for a successful 2015 too, beginning with their UK ‘Painkiller’ tour and the release of their latest single, ‘Girl Crush’. I was lucky enough to get a ticket to see them perform at The Ritz. Continue reading
Dave Grohl & co. have revealed that they will be headlining Glastonbury 2015. The announcement came in their video acceptance speech for NME’s best international band award. Other winners at the awards included Kasabian for best British band and best album, Royal Blood for best live band and best new band and Jamie T for best track and best video.
image source: the Guardian
The larger-than-life character actor has joined forces with Alice Cooper and Joe Perry of Aerosmith to form a new band called “Hollywood Vampires”, named after Cooper’s former drinking club whose members included Keith Moon and John Lennon. The band are due to make their debut at the Rock in Rio festival in Brazil. Thus far no other dates have been announced. The new group comes as a surprise after Depp’s recent comments on actors turned musicians being “sickening”. It’s too soon to tell how successful this new venture will be but I’m fairly sure it will be a sight to behold.
If you’re the kind of person to get into lengthy and heated debates about music, then you’ll be used to someone interjecting with a comment along the lines of “Music is an art form, it’s all just opinion and personal taste”. It’s the kind of remark that requires some thinking time and possibly some more lengthy discussion. Saying that it’s all based on opinion does then pose us with the question as to whether there’s even such thing as good or bad music. Short answer? Yes… but It’s not quite so simple as that. Continue reading
The 57th Grammy awards have now drawn to a close, after a few surprises and some astonishing performances. ACDC opened proceedings with their first public appearance in 4 years. The evening’s performances included various duets including Sam Smith & Mary J Blige, Lady Gaga & Tony Bennett, Hozier & Annie Lennox and Ed Sheeran & Jeff Lynne. Rihanna, Kanye West and Paul McCartney premiered their collaborative song ‘FourFiveSeconds’. Sam Smith was the standout winner of the evening taking away 4 awards including Song of the Year and Best New Artist. Beck was the surprise of the evening after winning the awards for both Album of the Year and Best Rock Album for ‘Morning Phase’, beating Beyoncé, Sheeran and Smith himself. St. Vincent won the award for Best Alternative Album for her eponymous release and Jack White won Best Rock Performance. Tenacious D shockingly won the award for Best Metal Performance; the biggest upset in the category since Jethro Tull beat Metallica in 1989. Speaking of ‘1989’, Taylor Swift was notably quiet as she neither won or performed at the ceremony. A full list of categories and their various winners can be found on the Grammys website.
Two Gallants – We Are Undone
Belwood Music 