Feb 21

Kanye West and Jay-Z Confirm First Dates of European ‘Watch the Throne’ Tour

Kanye West and Jay-Z After the phenomenal success of their chart topping album WATCH THE THRONE, a 35 date sold out, critically acclaimed North American tour and hot on the heels of their huge success at the 2012 Grammy Awards, winning the award for ‘Best Rap Performance’ (for their track ‘Otis’), superstars Kanye West and JAY Z’s collaboration ‘The Throne’ have today announced that they will be bringing the WATCH THE THRONE tour to Europe in 2012. The European leg will visit arenas in the UK, Switzerland, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, France, Belgium, Germany and Ireland.


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Feb 18

Outfit + Swim Deep + The Mighty Young @ The Rainbow, Birmingham, UK – 18 February 2012

Outfit So what’s the state of music like in 2012 then eh? Discuss. I guess to a certain extent it depends on your age. Try as you might it’s impossible to resist the lure of the stuff that appealed to you during those formative years (13-18) and as you grow older you’re actually legally obliged to start moaning about whatever’s in the charts. The truth is that there’s a lot of crap around right now... but then again there always was. It’s only years later with the benefit of distance that we’re able to conveniently filter out the rubbish and bask in the warm glow of the good stuff. I mention all this because tonight’s gig was a perfect example of that ‘good stuff’ featuring a trio of bands that might well be operating under the radar right now but who each prove that, for all the musical effluent out there, 2012 has plenty to offer.


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Feb 17

Michael Kiwanuka’s video for his new single ‘I’m Getting Ready’ + Spring Tour Dates

Michael Kiwanuka Michael Kiwanuka has today unveiled the video for his new single 'I'm Getting Ready'. Few records make such an instant impression as 'Home Again', the debut album by Michael Kiwanuka. Immersing the listener in a sound that is both modern and at the same time as familiar as the classics, it manages to strike the balance between being contemporary and somehow utterly timeless.


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Feb 12

George Barnett and The Ninth Wave @ The Yardbird, Birmingham, UK – 12 February 2012

George Barnett And The Ninth Wave At 6ft 3 (with an unruly mop of curly brown hair adding an extra inch or two) and a ceiling that’s probably not much taller, bouncing up and down might not be the wisest thing to attempt. Somehow the hair’s owner manages to avoid serious brain damage though, even if members of the audience end the set risking their own craniums by quite literally dancing on the tables. Welcome to the world of George Barnett, a 17 year old multi instrumentalist, vocalist and producer recently described by Beardyman as “one talented muthafucka”...and he should know. Given his capacity for playing pretty much every instrument ever invented George (winner of Young Drummer of the Year way back in 2008) and his band take a similarly catholic approach to musical genres, deftly embracing everything from blues rock to piano ballads, ska, boogie woogie...sometimes in the same track. Of course all this could end up sounding like a dog’s dinner, that it doesn’t is down to George’s seemingly instinctive knack for just knowing what works.


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Feb 09

Jordan Reyne + Jack Harris @ The Hare & Hounds, Birmingham, UK – 9th February 2012

Jordan Reyne Now what we had here was a Folk Club situation. No! Don’t run away just yet. It was a small venue setting big on surprises. Jack Harris is from a sleepy, one-sheep town in rural mid-Wales. Whilst the fiery-maned, smouldering Pre-Raphaelite tressed antipodian Circe of pedal effect sonic enchantment, Jordan Reyne, hails from New Zealand. And between them both they gave us kaleidoscopic interpretations of traditional Folk, experimental multi-loop Steampunk and all thing in between and then some. Do keep up!


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Feb 06

The Black Keys + Band of Skulls @ The Apollo, Manchester, UK – 6th February 2012

The Black Keys The packed Apollo crowd of 3,500 revellers were lapping it up. From the minute they kicked off with 'Howling for You' through to the oh so catchy ‘Gold on the Ceiling’ the crowd went bonkers. ‘Little Black Submarine’ with its beautiful vocal melody and mesmerising guitar solo, was most definitely the live performance highlight from the new album.


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Feb 06

Clap Your Hands Say Yeah + Meursault @ The O2 Academy, Birmingham, UK – 6th February 2012

Clap Your Hands Say Yeah It’s good to see cult US indie band Clap Your Hands Say Yeah back in Britain, as part of a European tour, much of which is sold-out. But judging from the half-full venue, the word hasn’t spread to Birmingham, which means a lot of folk are missing out on a treat. However, the small audience seems to be made up of hard-core appreciative fans who give the band a rapturous welcome.


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Feb 02

Biohazard + Heights + Lionheart + Dripback @ The HMV Institute, Birmingham – 2nd February 2012

Biohazard With all of the other bands’ gear removed from the stage, it now looks like Biohazard sound: stripped back to the core. With the bare minimum of amps and the drum-kit behind them, Billy Graziadei takes centre-stage for lead vocals; Bobby bounces around stage right, the swirling embodiment of New York hardcore; and while Evan Seinfeld has absconded, new bassist/vocalist Scott Roberts’ towering larger-than-life presence more than fills the space he left behind. With a set that spans their entire career and peppered with a couple of tracks from their latest, ‘Reborn In Defiance’, Biohazard are both cool and powerful in their energetic straight-to-the-point delivery.


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Feb 02

Joanna Briggs + Tara Chinn + Robert Lane + Valerie Vegas @ The Hare & Hounds, Birmingham, UK – 2nd February 2012

Joanna Briggs Joanna Briggs - hmm! Her fish-net suspender stockings, kitsch cute bell-boy hat and double-buttoned breath-defying basque had me thinking Peter Gabriel and Prince, with the latter at his most disgustingly sublime erotomanic best. Her impossibly Michelangelo sculptured shoulders and mouth of Hades mascaraed eyes are an intoxicating incantation of desire. The alt. dominatrix danger Babe stage persona, bathed in ersatz Lucozade laser light and backed by a slut-bucket brutal cool band are a fearful delight. But, at the same time, there’s a seductive venerability. Imagine Debbie Harry and Captain Beefheart stroking a hungry tigress. At this gig your imagination was allowed to run wild. Feral fun for grown-up children.


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Jan 30

Roots Manuva @ The HMV Institute, Birmingham, UK – 30 January 2012

Roots Manuva My Christmas Day Facebook status read "Christmas Present list: A heavily embroidered Maharishi hoodie, lots of cash, 2 bottles of rum, the Nile Rogers autobiography, aftershave I would actually wear and tickets to Roots Manuva”. I certainly did well on the last one, as tonight's show was immense! Over the years I have seen Roots Manuva live many times, and with several different line ups, but tonight ranked up there with one of his finest performances ever. Tonight Rodney Smith was on point, highly refined and most definitely splendid.


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Jan 28

Capital Sun + The Tone Thieves + The Chris Whiting Band @ The Rainbow, Birmingham, UK – 28 January 2012

Capital Sun Slowly but surely... well, slowly at least... I’m getting back out there into Gigland and tonight was back in my old stomping ground (I attended pretty much every one of the weekly 444 club nights there a few years back), The Rainbow, which always manages to seem both further away from ‘town’ and closer to it at the same time. I reckon they keep moving it to avoid sniffy post-yuppie types moaning about all the noise it doesn’t make any more after they were forced to seal up all of the windows, doors, gaps in the floorboards etc and fit little woolly booties on the local pigeons just in case the sound of their feet on the roof disturbed someone’s ruddy beauty sleep. Gah! Good grief.


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Jan 27

The Maccabees + Trailer Trash Tracys @ The HMV Institute, Birmingham, UK – 27 January 2012

The Maccabees The Maccabees undoubted panache for celestial teen-angst agendas pureed in swathes of cathedral histrionics, basking in the ghost-light of Tate Modernesque backdrops and Radiohead/Soft Cell James Joyce dreams of sub-consciousness had to be forsaken. And they continued to get ever better Tweets tell. A sublimely good-natured, capacity Institute crowd were clearly convinced. Many thanks to Susie & Morad for review passes.


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Jan 25

The Magic Tombolinos @ The Hare and Hounds from World Unlimited Promotions, Birmingham, UK – 25 January 2012

The Magic Tombolinos Ensemble troubadours, The Magic Tombolinos*, led by founder, vocals and stax of sax, Alejandro Toledo, brought their celebratory eclectic mongrel mash up genre-busting, idiom defying music to The Hare this evening. And what fun it was and full on credit to promoters, ‘World Unlimited’ for their ever valiant, non-profit making ethos of lending deserved support for all manner of diverse artists.


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Dec 21

One Direction @ The Civic Hall, Wolverhampton, UK – 21st December 2011

One Direction Have we got a Christmas treat for you...? We got to photograph the the boy-band of the moment One Direction in Wolverhampton at the Civic Hall. We hope you enjoy the photos of Niall, Zayn, Liam, Harry and Louis, and would love to hear what you thought of the shows. Tweet @GigJunkies and we'll post the best ones, right here alongside the photos...


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