SpideWriter

New Durutti Album Out 31st July 2026 Album Review My immediate response to this album of newly released, but not necessarily new compositions, was that Renascent is a near perfect album for these Dog Days of summer.  I have played and replayed the collection in its entirety repeatedly since the moment I clicked on the opening file, Echoes in The Memory . The brief introductory track has a deceptive beginning. It is slow to build and slightly threatening in tone. It develops, with a change of tempo, into what might be a musical synopsis of the complete album. The brevity of the first track and its broken rhythm leads beautifully into the cool of Your Shadow at Morning , where  use of steady piano chords working through a series of cycles, provides the background to some finely-etched guitar details, before the piano eases its way into the foreground, completing a wholly satisfying piece.  Harold Budd would have been proud to issue this in his creative prime. Vini Reilly (...

Dereham Blues Festival 2026 Dereham: Wednesday 1st July / Sunday 5th July 2026 Will Wilde: Harp-led Blues at Dereham Memorial Hall 1st July 2026  Whoah, the summer we have been having has been real Blues country weather!  The unrelenting, enervating heat and hot breezes, have set up the 14th Dereham Blues Festival perfectly. Five straight days and nights of the finest, free, live blues music in the country are on the way in the old market town and it looks like all its hours will be blessed with good weather for wandering from pub to pub to cricket club and the Ellenor Fenn Garden to soak up the free music on offer.  The whole shebang kicked off last night with another stunning opening show at the Dereham Memorial Hall . It was sold out  of course.  The star attraction for the opening night was Will Wilde and his band, who hail from the Brighton.  Will’s specialism is playing the blues harp, the entry level instrument for so many to blues musicians. Whet...

Zero BPM (Beats Per Minute) Drone Festival The Church Piano Bar, Redwell Street, Norwich NR1 This was less festival, more celebration.  There was the popping of corks for the ‘soft opening’ of Norwich’s latest live music venue, converting St Michael at Plea, smack in the heart of the city, from an evangelical tea, cake and event venue into a dedicated ‘quality’ jazz and blues venue.  There was also champagne metaphorically cracked open on the hull of Zero BPM (Zero Beats Per Minute) to launch an enthralling drone music mini-festival, which I hope can be expanded to be run over a couple of days in the not too distant future, whether in St Michael at Plea, or any other setting. The Zero BPM concept is excellent.  Stimulating, challenging, provocative and food for thought and subsequent conversation.  It would be fun to have more time to talk with performers, organisers and other audience members about what has been played and heard.  The i...

Danielle Nicole Band, Ross Stewart & The Shunters, Rockavox Dereham Blues Festival 2023, The Memorial Hall, Dereham   Wednesday, 5 th  July 2023   With an itinerary of Camden Town, Dereham, somewhere in Sweden (via Oslo to a destination that was not clear to the guitarist, Brandon Miller), the intrepid Danielle Nicole Band from Kansas City, have had to face up to some logistical challenges in the past few days.  Happily, such challenges were pushed aside by Nicole and her band and the evening ended with roars of appreciation and a standing ovation from the knowledgeable audience who had been totally engrossed in the show from the opening beats. Danielle Nicole Band, Ross Stewart with Doreen and Stewart Aitken of  The Dereham Blues Festival 2023 (Photo: Caroline Stewart) On the night, there were two other issues to address.  Firstly, where to get a drum kit from in Dereham, less than 24 hours before headlining the gig?  Award winning...