SpideWriter

Single Review Two Face by Gabby Rivers Release Date: 17th August 2023 It’s here at last!  Gabby Rivers latest single is out on all streaming services. Gabby Rivers: Opening the doors on shop talk. Pic: @ellenbphotography This song has been acclaimed at recent gigs, including a Latitudes appearance and Brighten the Corners.  Two Face is a cathartic number written in response to the tedium of working in retail and how shop-talk can turn toxic when shop-talk turns to cheap gossip, where a professional smile is part of the job description. Like shop work, the song has sharp changes of pace, before it’s end-of-day,  I must absolutely get out of this place , screaming escape.  It is a dramatically structured piece of pop-rock.  Rivers and her band stroll in the front door of this number and crash out the staff exit having covered a chaotic working day in a three-minute smash and grab. The richness of the Rivers’ voice and the energy of the band, wh...

  Album Review Erasure – ‘Always’ (The Very Best of Erasure) Double Vinyl out on Mute / BMG 18th August 2023 Want to tap into a feel-good feeling, have a sing and dance until your feet are killing you? Put this record on and the best (or possibly the worst) parts of forty years are quite simply wiped away.     It is easy to forget everything that has passed since the musical phenomenon that was and is Erasure, first stepped on stage.  They blew away the gloom and dreariness that accommodated the dour technicians of early electronic music.   They made the sounds of synthesisers popular around the world and continued to do so ever since forming their duo in 1985. Erasure sang fine songs that caught the ear, but touched the soul. These were songs drawn from and essential to the burgeoning gay nightclub scene, that drove that sound sensational  onto the national Radio 1.  Out, proud, clever and loud. Listenable on a number of levels, Erasure...

Ross Stewart releases his debut single Land’s End Available online from 4th August, 2023  Ross Stewart has made quite a name for himself around East Anglia over the past couple of years.  He has cut his teeth as a guitarist playing blues, rock and soul, but everyone who has seen him perform on stage will have been knocked out by his singing too. The man can put on quite a show, whether solo or with his band, RSG . Land’s End is his debut, self-written single. It is being digitally released on Friday 4th August, 2023  with an accompanying video. The song is something fresh, lively and hopeful. Those who heard about this forthcoming release during his stunning set at Dereham Blues Festival 2023 , will be delighted by its uplifting and melodic feel. This song is a bright response to obstacles that life tends to throw at us. It will be enjoyed by anyone who has any spark of feel-good pop music in their soul. The track starts with a bright splash of jangling guitar and ...

The Annual Robin Evans Interview – July 2023 It’s another warm July Saturday and Robin Evans is up and out in the city, double-checking his preparations for the Lord Mayor’s Show, with annotated script to hand.  The event requires a light touch on the microphone and the city elders have turned again to Evans to navigate the crowds through this ever-popular event. Already with years of experience hosting and organising musical events and entertaining in his own right, Evans is aware that this is quite a responsibility for a man in his mid-twenties. “It’s looks like I have the role of Norwich City Council compere.” Evans confessed.  “I really enjoyed hosting the Christmas lights switch-on last winter and then I was asked back to do The Lord Mayor's Show for a second time, which is a great honour.”   What the city got when Evans was given the job of being public address voice to the people was someone with an eye for detail, an understanding of live performance and...

  Entrevista Diego Leon, músico y fundador del Colectivo de Artistas Perspectiva. The original article in English is available here. Norwich tiene una larga y orgullosa historia de dar la bienvenida a personas de lejanas tierras. El Strangers Hall, que fue el hogar de Thomas Southerton en el siglo XVI, recibió su apodo porque él atrajo y acogió a calvinistas holandeses que huían de perseguidores españoles hacia Inglaterra. Estos tejedores tuvieron una influencia de largo alcance en la ciudad al introducir los canarios (la fuente del apodo del club de fútbol local), nuevos estilos arquitectónicos y fortalecer la economía local mediante la aplicación de sus habilidades. Una mañana, a mediados del verano, tuve el placer de sentarme con Diego León, un músico y emprendedor cultural de múltiples talentos, para escuchar sus experiencias al mudarse a Norwich y sus ambiciones de construir conexiones entre músicos y artistas extranjeros que se encuentran viviendo en Norwich. Q...

  Album Review: I Inside The Old Year Dying by P J Harvey   Partisan Records 2023   Is it really seven years since  The Hope Six Demolition Project?  Did touring that album nearly do for PJ Harvey?  It seems that that the success of that tour turned out to be a double-edged sword. Yet, from within that draining experience, were drilled the seeds of this new album  I Inside The Old Year Dying. As Harvey's musical life began to crumble during this intense period, so closely entwined with the music biz, she had to ask herself “Do I want to carry on for the remainder of my life doing the same thing?” She realised that she had lost her spiritual connection with music and was “heartbroken.”   Heart-break is not a concept I tend to bandy about. Believe me, it is a condition that is not simply remedied and for an artist of such feeling as Harvey, if she says ‘heartbroken’ it is likely to be a pretty dark experience.   The years-long path ba...