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

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

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

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

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

!_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 >>

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