The people have voted Girl Spit Doncaster’s best band for the year 2009…

Sugar³ were an infamous punk band around the Doncaster area and when this rough around the edges, ramshackle and, at times, visually shocking band imploded they left behind a two devilish souls… These charming young men went on to create the band we know today as Girl Spit.

Quickly gathering an army of converts and with a reputation for cacophonic, incendiary live sets in their first year together, I recommend you take a trip to see them before they too implode. The Priory saw their coming of age on January 27th and its hard to believe that there is only one candle on this band’s celebration cake.

Girlspit MySpace

. . . Read More

On Saturday evening, The Cribs played The Dome in Doncaster promoting their, ironically titled, Ignore the Ignorant album. Support bands for the tour were chosen by the band and on Saturday night featured Los Campesinos and 70s punk icons The Slits.

Support bands with touring bands are often just label-mate-contractually-obliged pairings rather than considered partnerships; thankfully Los Campesinos fall into the latter camp and the assembled gang of music fans (I use that term loosely) seemed to buy into the indie rockings. It was good to see that all the hype this band received was actually deserved and they delivered a set as energetic as a puppy full of Mountain Dew… The British Arcade Fire? The best sound of the entire night was wrung from the neck of a fine vintage SG of the Camp’s guitarist though I think their version of Pavement’s ‘Box Elder’ may have been lost on 99% of tonight’s crowd. A great start to the night.

Within moments of The Slits taking the stage the mood quickly swings into the realms of uneasy . . . Read More

Well well well… It seemed a long time in coming and then… BLAM! It was gone… but what an amazing night!

After five bands, two DJs, 50 free CDs, 250 stickers and countless horrific scenes later the Destroy before Reading Hallowe’en extravaganza came to a close… Firstly, thanks! It was very busy, people were awesome to each other…

First up, on the four-band bill downstairs, were Airburst – mixing 90s grunge, 70’s groove with an alt.rock lilt to their gait they made for a perfect opener. Airburst are clearly tuned in to each others rock frequencies . . . Read More

September 12th 2009

I’ve decided to go into Doncaster town centre. On race night. I alight the bus from outside my flat at 7.30pm, having taken in sustenance in the form of two cans of lager, are we allowed product placement in reviews? It was Carling, not as pleasant a beverage as Kronenbourg, but it provides the necessary lubrication for my impending journey. The first few stops are incident-free, but alas, all this changes when we get outside the Dome. Three broads, of advancing years, totter onto the bus with all the grace of a dying wildebeest. All mutton dressed as lamb, . . . Read More

Dark Sparks | We are just flies

Available on the jukebox now

Admittedly this is my first taste of Sheffield natives Dark Sparks. New single “We Are Just Flies” has a claustraphobic, darkly 80’s feel to it. Think along the lines of Depeche Mode and The Cure. In fact lyrically the song reminds me of The Cure’s “Lullaby” all spider webs and nightmareish visions albeit with heavy stop start guitar riff driving the song. Recently (according to their myspace) the band have added keyboard and a extra guitar to bolster their sound. It works, the band sound tight and dynamic, the song is well produced and singer Leigh Greenwood . . . Read More

Ten (10!) new tracks added to the jukebox . . .

Skeletons – Folks at home
That Fucking Tank – Awesome magnet
the beaus – class that drives the way (doyà remix)
Goodbye Good – Success
The Thieves – the Carnival
Mount Fabric – Drop Dead Girl
Guy Honeymoon – Worse things happen at sea
Smokers Die Younger – Spy Dry Fear
Dark Sparks – We are just flies
The Unfortunate Incident – Surrounded

Wowza… check it out!
Hit the link in the right hand menu to take a listen !

First listen: AFI – “Medicate”
Whilst I may not be considered by many to be in AFI’s “target audience” anymore, they are a band I will always have a place in my heart for. I was lucky enough to see them play in early ‘00 on the “Black Sails In The Sunset” tour at (in my opinion) the peak of their powers. I can honestly say I have never been so instantly blown away by a band before or since. It was passion it was aggression it was bodies flying everywhere… in short, it was ace!
Its easy to forget now but AFI, in the early part of this decade, really gave hardcore a shake up and inspired a whole new generation of tattooed, eyeliner wearing pretenders, which in turn helped shape the identikit “emo” image we all know and *ahem* love? today. . . . Read More

Andrew Kaye Edinburgh Diary Part 3

DAY 7

After much to-ing and fro-ing, it finally decided to be quite a nice day. The best part about Sunday is the gradual ebbing away of the weekend crown, until by 11pm the place is back to normal and you can finally find a seat in Udderbelly’s Hullabaloo. Quite fancied a game of giant Connect 4 there, but most of the yellow pieces had mysteriously vanished. Probably because they look exactly like the made-up drug Cake from Brass Eye. Who wouldn’t want their own piece of cake?

Spotted the balding one of Pappy’s FC in the Dome, and Stephen K Amos hanging round the Pleasance Courtyard. Also . . . Read More

Skeletons and the Empty Pockets
Vintage Rockbar, Doncaster, August 8 2009

When it comes to live performances Sheffield’s Skeletons and the Empty Pockets simply ooze appeal. Strutting onstage, the former thisGIRL group instantly injects 10,000 volts into the building, leaving the hairs on the back of your neck not only raised but singed to the bone. While lead singer Liam waltzes through the crowd flashing a . . . Read More

Andrew Kaye’s Edinburgh Diary – Part 2

DAY 4

Feeling increasingly blurry. Up for a stroll down the Royal Mile while the sun is out. It’s a kerrrrrazy place during the festival, if by kerrrrrazy you mean hundreds of overconfident stage school kids desperately trying to get your attention away from all the other overconfident stage school kids. Go early and they’re putting some effort into it. Go in late afternoon, it’s more, “Here’s your flyer, now piss off.”

There is also a massive quantity of street performers – mostly Australian, mostly riding unicycles. What is it with Australians and unicycles? Do they teach it in the schools over there? . . . Read More

EDINBURGH FESTIVAL DIARY

Andrew Kaye is a Doncaster-based journalist who has been attending the annual, world-famous Edinburgh Arts Festival for the last 10 years. Destroy Before Reading is proud to bring you his exclusive online diary from this year’s event for your reading pleasure.

DAY 1

Well, I have my laptop with me and I just about have a WiFi signal in my room – coming from an unsecured unknown source somewhere to the south-west of here – which means I can report to you on the 2009 Edinburgh Festival on a daily basis.

Yesterday a man walked right past me, close enough for me to wrestle him to the ground . . . Read More

Doncaster Live has come and gone for another year… Criticism is thrown every year at the organisation of this event due to the lack of local bands on the bill and the lack of publicity of what must be Doncaster’s most expensive leap into live music…

… but is this criticism justified? Is the event worthwhile? Well, according to the reviews we’ve heard from people ‘down the front’ the answer was a resounding yes!

DbR spoke to one sceptic (Robin Burns) after a day watching what Doncaster Live had to offer…

“First things first, I had to swallow some humble pie today as I enjoyed the day much more than I expected… Throughout the course of the day I managed to see Liam Brown and the Triumphs, In Fear of Olive, Eureka Machines, Go Audio, The Magic Numbers, The thieves, Winterman and Stanton…”

What were you opinions on the bands you saw?

Liam Brown: enjoyable and very easy listening fun sounds, with saxophones keyboard and lots of different percussion they were great entertainment and extremely tight as well…
In Fear of Olive: sounded great I just cant help but . . . Read More

Above Them – Those Who Paved The Way

Inhaler Records

Recently named by The Guardian as the frontrunners of the ‘Northern Grunge’ scene, Above Them are bound to come with a few demons. Labelled as the Biffy Clyro/ Hundred Reasons band from Pontefract, the group have been fighting upstream in a time where synth led indie dominates the live circuit.

Therefore it comes as a surprise to find ‘Those Who Paved The Way’ the most polished, perfected track the band have created so far. Laminated in a glossy production ‘Those Who Paved The Way’ is a slice of anti-rock which screams to its contemporaries. With a perfected vocal growl and a guitar hook to convert any conflicting fan, ‘Those Who Paved….’ is a track which swells with ease, and is about to present Above Them with their biggest fanbase yet.

Ruth Offord

Links
Inhaler Records Above Them page
Above Them Myspace

OFM LIVE REVIEW

Friday March 20th
The Priory ~ Doncaster

It seems a lifetime ago that I first saw OFM play; It was at Spider’s Web in Doncaster and they totally blew me away. At the time it was bigger-is-better mentality, bands were doing everything in their power to split the eardrums of their audiences and being as outrageous as possible – add to that the fact that this was a battle of the bands, and it seems even stranger that OFM were singing pop songs!

Since that introduction to OFM I’ve been witness to many shows since but they’ve never lived up to that first encounter. Until tonight. OFM take the stage, “If we appear to . . . Read More

Cocean: Thick as thieves
Lines in Sand: Moving away to start again

Split Single / Inhaler Records

I love vinyl records – I love the feeling of having a tangible, proper ‘record’ in your hand. It’s a romantic ideology that vinyl is the best format to release music to the masses, but the truth is that vinyl can be expensive and to be honest, even the vinyl freaks I know are buying CDs as their laziness of unwrapping a record sets in. People just sling CDs on a player – if you did this with vinyl, certainly in my house, you’d be doing three laps of the shrubbery in your pants.

Anyway… the Cocean track on this split starts with the . . . Read More

Three Torches

!_Archive Post_

Originally published in Doncaster Live Magazine 2007

Analogue Recordings is a studio known for its back to basics approach. For refusing to resort to computer technology for recording, its unique traditions attract a variety of bands. Tonight promises to display some of the best talent to have walked through the studio’s doors with six bands taking the stage in The leopard.

Trio Walker are the first to step up, with an epic, progressive set. Their powerful sound has surprising depth, and the band are striking, with bassist and vocalist Jack radiating a Warhol-esque air of mystery. next up is . . . Read More

Following on from the DIY or Die post, it seems ironic that today saw the sad news that the most stubbornly independent rock an label our generation make this announcement:

“It is with great sadness that we are reporting some major changes here at Touch and Go Records. Many of you may not be aware, but for nearly 2 decades, Touch and Go has provided manufacturing and distribution services for a select yet diverse group of other important independent record labels. . . . Read More

!_ARCHIVE POST

First published August 2007 in
Doncaster Live Magazine.
By: Adam Irwin, Ruth Offord and Richard Cook

Wedding Present

Next up at Vintage Rock Bar are The Pilgrim Fathers, but we head off to the main stage to check out The Wedding Present. A couple of people walk off not impressed, but we’re enjoying ourselves and stick around. With good reason too, for although lead singer David Gedge seems more subdued than usual the band are sounding huge, tight, professional and surprisingly hit friendly. An energetic romp through top 40 single ‘Kennedy’ gets the front rows bouncing, and the boy Gedge even gets into it for long enough to throw a few rock shapes over his guitar.

Despite it being undoubtedly Gedge’s show, the rest of the band sound fantastic, the bass is a constant kick in the chest, the drums are frantic and everything walks the fine line between collapse and triumph that makes the Wedding Present such an exciting live band. A brief exposition on the spiritual importance of . . . Read More

!_ARCHIVE POST

First published August 2007 in
Doncaster Live Magazine.
By:
Adam Irwin, Ruth Offord and Richard Cook

Ego Parade

We’ve all had enough of acoustic acts now, and want to feel some of the thrill of a full live band. So it’s off to the main stage in the Market Place, where we arrive approximately half way through the set of local boys Ego Parade. The crowd is huge, much better than was expected so early in the evening, and Ego Parade don’t disappoint, with a flawless set of bouncy future-pop hits in waiting. The crowd lap it up, the band look happy enough to burst, and we’ve just discovered that you can buy cans of lager outside The Masons Arms. Result.

From here on in,things are a complete blur. We manage to gawp as the crowd fall into the world of OPM even after they played ‘Heaven is a Halfpipe’ and a group of teenage boys attempt to start a riot. Surprisingly not because their blend of hip hop and reggae is surely a crime, but because they’re still giddy from the lemonade earlier in the day.
. . . Read More

!_ARCHIVE POST

First published August 2007 in
Doncaster Live Magazine.
By:
Adam Irwin, Ruth Offord and Richard Cook

Attention! Let’s get this clear from the start. Anyone looking for informative and insightful commentary about the Doncaster Live Festival, look away now. You can’t expect us to spend 12 hours in the vicinity of all the pubs in Doncaster market and not get ridiculously sloshed. As we sit down to write this on the Monday after the festival, our recollections of the weekend are somewhat hazy, and we’ve just made the discovery that half of our notes have disappeared. This then, is a very fractured, almost certainly made up in places, bluffers guide to Doncaster Live 2007.

It all starts sedately enough. We head to Vintage Rock Bar to enjoy an afternoon of gentle acoustic performers, before the main stage frivolities to come later. However, it’s 1.30pm, the time scheduled for the first act and the only sign of life in Vintage Rock Bar is a barmaid, and a handful of quiet drinkers. There are no acoustic guitars, and no recognisable faces. The place quickly starts to fill up though, and only a little later than expected we have our first act.

Guy Honeymoon

“We have seen the future of rock n’ roll, and his name is Guy Honeymoon”. Mr Honeymoon pleaded us to put that in the review before his set, so there you go Guy, that’s a few beers you owe us. He may not be the future of rock n’ roll as we know it, but he knows how to knock out a tune. Kicking off with old favourite ‘Wrong Side of the Tracks’, he doesn’t let either us or himself pause for breath, racing through his set at 100mph. Where Guy succeeds is in melding his love of Red Kross-esque powerpop with old school country, the results giving us a taste of something a little different to your normal hum-drum singer/songwriters.

This is the first time we’ve seen John Fontanelle do his solo thing, and this afternoon he’s in fine form. The quirky, lo-fi indie pop of his band The Fontanelles translates brilliantly to just voice and guitar. The sound for his set isn’t ideal, his voice often getting lost in the mix, and the set is far too brief for our liking, but he’s on to a winning formula and we’ll certainly be making the effort to catch him again. Set highlights? Old Fontanelles tracks ‘DC Soap’ and ‘Ecstasy’, ‘DC Soap’ sounding particularly fine.

John Fell

The beer is flowing freely now, despite our protestations that we’re working and have to pace ourselves (honest). Things are starting to get a bit hazy, but next up, if memory serves correct, is Ryan Lightfoot, formerly of Libawalks. Whereas John Fontanelle struggled to get his voice heard at times, Ryan has the opposite problem, with his vocals clear as a bell but the guitar almost non-existent above the chatter of the crowd. From what we can make out, it’s nice inoffensive pop with a summery, 60s’ish vibe. Not bad, but nothing to get overly excited about either.

After Ryan has finished, we decide to take a break and get some food to soak up the alcohol. Before we go, we catch a couple of songs by a gentleman calling himself ‘The Beast’. He must be well known because the crowd in Vintage Rock bar visibly swells as he begins his first track. The songs we hear are grungy, blues based numbers, with ‘The Beast’s vocals a Joe Cocker-esque growl. Obviously a talented chap, but we’re hungry! After a quick trip to KFC, and a detour via Wetherspoons for a quick whisky, we head back to Vintage Rock Bar and The Beast is still playing! We see him bring out a harmonica for one song with more than a passable resemblance to prime Bob Dylan.

Continued… Part Two >>

Download free mp3s

Many of the bands that have donated tracks for review and inclusion on the jukebox have been kind enough to allow us to let their material be downloaded FREE.

Terms and conditions of this download are available HERE

August 2009

Click the zip icon to download a bundle of tracks kindly donated for your enjoyment… See below for featured bands

GU Medicine | Bring it to heel
Copycat Vigilante | Kill my ambition
Three Torches | Cold hard cash
Airburst | Indie kid
Skullbone | I aint never
John Fell | DC Soap (live)
Ben OFM | The nick of the time (live)
J*R | Here’s hoping
James Foy | Never had it so good>

Saucer – 5:58

Available on the _DbR_ Jukebox

“I remember every word…
every minute…
every day…”

_DbR_ welcomes old friends Saucer… With seering highs and devastating lows their songs tore clean through the be-quiffed, gold larme arrogance of the early-00s era. In their short lifetime they wrote enormous songs that carried more weight in substance than many of their out-spoken peers. Verse-Chorus-Verse-Repeat-to-fade they were not.

This song constantly sounds on edge. Like walking . . . Read More

Copycat Vigilante – Kill My Ambition

Available on the _DbR_ Jukebox

For what feels like the umpteenth time, Doncaster mainstays Geoff Rogers and Mark West, both formerly of feedback merchants Bright Paper Werewolves and the blink-and-you-missed-it Self Destruct Sequence, have reunited.

. . . Read More

Vintage Rockbar, Doncaster, Fri 3rd October 2008

* St Deluxe *

Wielding riffs that Queens of the Stone Age would shop their dealers for, 3-piece noiseniks Walker deserve to be heard in an aircraft hangar rather than this tiny bar. Opening with “Hollow Planet”, an urgent slice of controlled feedback, they pretty much lay waste to the audience from there. “1976” is immense while “The Letter” is an ace pounding tune o’ doom. While there’s . . . Read More

Your questions answered:

• What is the jukebox?
• Can I join in?
• Can I download the songs?
• Can I contribute?

What is the jukebox?

It’s just a catalogue of songs to listen to… All tracks that are sent to us are reviewed and, if we like them, we’ll add them to the jukebox_!

Some songs are from bands that are no longer around but we think you should hear, some are from projects that will never see release… either way, have a listen, if you like something let us know!

!_Can I join in?

We’d love you to get involved, just send your track (as good quality as you can fit on an email) to us at mp3@destroybeforereading.com _ Let us know a bit about you (your myspace address isn’t enough!) also if you would be happy for users to be able to download the track for free from our server.

!_Can I download the songs?

Yes, well most of them. if we like a song enough to add it to the player and the band are happy for it to be downloaded we’ll make sure it’s available for you. Click here…

PLEASE NOTE: The recordings remain the intellectual property of the respective artists and should be treated as copyright protected unless otherwise stated.

!_Can I Contribute?

YES PLEASE! If you’re not in a band you can still be part of the show. We’re always looking for reviewers (tracks, albums, gigs or anything newsworthy), photographers and contributors… Thanks. Click here for more info