The Telescopes On the 40th anniversary of the original release of Black Sabbath’s debut album it’s a joy to find myself in a room above a pub in the centre of Birmingham just up the road from the site of the (not) infamous (enough) Henry’s Blues House. For 40 or so years ago, in a room not dissimilar to the one in which promoters The Sound of Confusion host monthly psychedelic gatherings, they key players in Sabbath, Zeppelin and Priest would be propping up the bar in a room above the Crown enjoying legendary acts of the time such as Dr Ross Harmonica Boss and Jimmy Fast Fingers Dawkins.


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Delphic Achingly cool French label Kitsuné hit the Rainbow with a double header of two of their latest discoveries ably supported by local dubby dance psych legends Old School Tie. What’s not to like eh? I suppose the gig could be on a tropical island populated by nymphomaniac porn stars and an endless supply of Weston’s Old Rosie but we can’t have everything can we? Squint a little and that forlorn looking plant in the corner of the room could almost be a palm tree and I reckon one of the security guards on the door would be up for a quick fumble if you fancied it…


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The Twilight Sad Are you sitting comfortably? Right, then I’ll begin. Once upon a time in a magical kingdom far, far away (oh alright then, it was Birmingham) there was a rather fine band called The Allies. They had more than a touch of the Arctic Monkey’s about them (no bad thing), but one or two tracks hinted at a more unusual Celtic flavoured direction. For some reason they split up (‘musical differences’ no doubt). Now several of them (there seemed to be about 97 people in The Allies) have returned as part of a brand new five piece, Goodnight Lenin.


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