The Dockland Pink / Liverpool Sound City 2016

THE 

Bido Lito! Presents: 

DOCKLAND 

PINK 

Bramley-Moore Dock by John Johnson 

SOUND CITY 2016 

27th - 29th May

NEW GIGS 

Liverpool Philharmonic 

May – October 

TEDDY THOMPSON 

& KELLY JONES 

Thursday 26 May 8pm 

– 

LUKA BLOOM 

Friday 27 May 8pm 

– 

BEVERLEY KNIGHT 

Sunday 29 May 7.30pm 

– 

ERIC BIBB & BAND 

Monday 30 May 7.30pm 

– 

BRIAN WILSON 

PRESENTS PET 

SOUNDS 

Tuesday 31 May 7.30pm 

– 

THE CHILLS 

Tuesday 7 June 8pm 

– 

BEN FOLDS 

WITH YMUSIC 

Support from Lera Lynn 

Wednesday 15 June 7.30pm 

– 

CHINA CRISIS 

SOLD OUT 

Friday 17 June 8pm 

Saturday 18 June 8pm 

SELLING FAST 

EXTRA DATE 

SOLD OUT 

GEORGE BENSON 

Monday 20 June 7.30pm 

– 

BURT BACHARACH 

Wednesday 29 June 7.30pm 

– 

ELVIS COSTELLO 

& THE IMPOSTERS 

Monday 11 July 7.30pm 

– 

IAN PROWSE 

Friday 15 July 8pm 

– 

LIMF: FROM THE 

SOUL LIVE WITH 

GILES PETERSON 

Thursday 21 July 7pm 

– 

MARY CHAPIN 

CARPENTER 

Wednesday 27 July 7.30pm 

– 

RODDY WOOMBLE 

Friday 16 September 8pm 

– 

KESTON KOBBLERS 

Thursday 29 September 8pm 

– 

EXPLOSIONS IN 

THE SKY 

Sunday 9 October 8pm 

SELLING FAST 

SELLING FAST 

Box Office 

liverpoolphil.com 

0151 709 3789 

Image Elvis Costello

Feel 

the 

Universe 

Ryoichi Kurokawa, unfold 

Exhibition at FACT until 15 June 

Tuesday - Sunday, 11am - 6pm / FREE 

Ryoichi Kurokawa, unfold, 2015. Photo by Brian Slater

facebook.com/o2academyliverpool 

twitter.com/o2academylpool 

instagram.com/o2academyliverpool 

youtube.com/o2academytv 

Fri 10th Jun 2016 • £20 adv 

Bad Manners 

Sat 3rd Sep 2016 • £15 adv • 7.30pm 

Animal Collective 

Fri 4th Nov 2016 • £25 adv 

The Two Mikes 

Tues 14th Jun 2016 • £16 adv 

The Brian 

Jonestown 

Massacre 

Sun 19th Jun 2016 • £17.50 adv 

Blackberry 

Smoke 

Thurs 14th Jul 2016 • 

The Maccabees 

Fri 29th July 2016 • £27.50 adv 

George Clinton 

& Parliament 

Funkadelic 

Wed 7th Sep 2016 • £28 adv 

Barenaked Ladies 

Fri 9th Sep 2016 • £20 adv 

The Enemy - 

Farewell Tour 

Tues 11th Oct 2016 • £27.50 adv 

All Saints 

Thurs 20th Oct 2016 • £29.50 adv 

Heaven 17 & 

British Electric 

Foundation 

Mon 31st Oct 2016 • £15 adv 

Augustines 

Sun 27th Nov 2016 • £14 adv 

Electric Six 

Fri 2nd Dec 2016 • £13 adv 

The Lancashire 

Hotpots 

Pub Fiction Tour 

Tues 6th Dec 2016 • £25 adv 

Levellers 

Levelling The Land 

25th Anniversary Tour 

Sat 10th Dec 2016 • £15 adv 

The Icicle Works 

Sat 17th Dec 2016 • £20 adv 

Cast 

Sat 11th Jun 2016 • £28.50 adv 

Dr. John 

Cooper Clarke 

Sat 16th Jul 2016 • £18.50 adv 

Father 

John Misty 

Sat 26th Nov 2016 • £23 adv 

Soul II Soul 

Ticketweb.co.uk • 0844 477 2000 

liverpoolguild.org 

SJM CONCERTS PRESENTS 

HARVEST SUN PRESENT 

SATURDAY 

11TH JUNE 

LIVERPOOL 

GUILD OF 

STUDENTS 

SATURDAY 16TH JULY 

LIVERPOOL GUILD OF STUDENTS 

MOUNTFORD HALL 

HARVEST SUN PROMOTIONS 

AND EVOL 

PRESENTS 

ACADEMY EVENTS & TINY COW presents 

A GOLDENVOICE PRESENTATION 

Friday 9th September 

O 2 ACADEMY LIVERPOOL 

SATURDAY 

3 SEPTEMBER 

O 2 ACADEMY 

LIVERPOOL 

Farewell Tour 2016 

Friday 28th October 2016 

LIVERPOOL GUILD OF STUDENTS 

MOUNTFORD HALL 

ticketweb.co.uk | 0844 477 2000 | o2academyliverpool.co.uk

6 

Bido Lito! The Dockland Pink 

Editorial 

Welcome back everyone. 

Sound City has come so far in such a short space of time, 

it feels strange that we’re welcoming you back for our ninth 

year. The festival has changed immeasurably since 2008, 

and so has our city – always on the up. We’re delighted that 

the fabric of Liverpool’s thriving arts and music communities 

are represented again during this year’s festival: it’s what 

makes us tick. We’re also thrilled to be working with our 

brothers and sisters from Bido Lito! again for what will 

be the sixth year in a row, bringing you all you need to 

know about Sound City 2016 in this special, one-off 

Dockland Pink magazine. 

It’s our second year down at the Liverpool Waters site 

of Bramley-Moore Dock, and we were delighted with how 

seamlessly the transition went first time around. We’ve 

got ambitious plans for our new home, and we welcome 

the challenge of incorporating this into our vision for 

Sound City. Since last year we’ve been listening to all the 

objective feedback and looking at how we can improve 

things and put together a different type of line-up. So we’ve 

brought in Freeze, who’ve been doing great things for dance 

audiences for a number of years, and various other partners 

to add more depth to the programme. Add into this 

more than 200 acts from over 25 different countries and you 

can see how easily these oft-forgotten industrial docklands 

can be brought back to life. 

I’m really happy that we’ve got Catfish & The Bottlemen 

back this year. They’re a band that we’ve supported since 

2011 when they applied on the Apply To Play scheme. Darren 

Roper, who was working on our unsigned programme at the 

time, discovered them and put them on. It’s great to see 

that a band like that are now headlining the main stage at 

Sound City five years later. Like most people, I love finding 

unearthed gems: the people and the bands that I’ve never 

heard of before that we put on for the first time at Sound 

City who then become pop stars further down the line. The 

Coral have had a longer journey to being a headliner, and 

it will be just as satisfying watching them close out the 

festival on Sunday. 

We’ve decided to move our acclaimed Sound City+ 

business and technology conference to one day, to 

make it more concise, but we’ve made sure to pack a lot 

in. We feel that what we’ve put in to one day is as much 

as we would normally put in to two days – and we’ve 

also taken some of the content from the conference and 

put it in to the festival. For example, our acclaimed 

In Conversation pieces, which everybody seems to 

love, will now take place on the festival site so that 

more people can enjoy them and get to see what they’re 

all about. 

The dockland site is also going to undergo a few changes 

this year, all to enhance your enjoyment of Sound City. We 

are working with a company called Visual Architects to add 

a splash of colour to the rustic, industrial style of Bramley- 

Moore Dock. We’ve got some really nice surprises in the way 

we’re going to use light to illuminate the stages, tents and 

spaces around the site – they’re going to be brought to life 

a lot more they’ve ever done before. Amongst all of this we 

will also be delivering a varied arts and culture programme, 

interspersed with a series of spectacles designed to entice 

and delight. We’re also working with a.P.A.t.T. on a music 

and visual performance that we’ve specially commissioned 

for Sound City which will have a nod to Prince and David 

Bowie, and there will be further nice surprises along these 

lines dotted about the festival over the weekend. It will be a 

completely immersive and total experience. 

Liverpool is our home, our playground, our incubator, a 

UNESCO City Of Music. We are helping to define the future 

of the city and put Liverpool firmly on the world map as a 

place to come and do business. We hope you fall in love 

with Sound City and ultimately with Liverpool. Have a great 

time – and see you on the dancefloor. 

WELCOME TO SOUND CITY 

David Pichilingi / CEO Sound City Photography / Michelle Roberts 

liverpoolsoundcity.co.uk

PROUD TO BE THE EXCLUSIVE 

BEER AND CIDER SUPPLIER

8 


Editorial 

WELCOME 

TO LIVERPOOL 

Christopher Torpey / Bido Lito! Editor Photography / Robin Clewley 

From the Cunard Yank to the Cosmic Scouser and beyond, 

Liverpool and its people have a long and intimate 

association with music. It’s a trait that runs deep, not 

just in the blood of the city’s inhabitants, but also woven 

tightly into our cultural make-up. This was recognised when 

UNESCO bestowed City Of Music status on Liverpool in 2015, 

citing the city’s “extraordinary musical heritage – known 

worldwide as the birthplace of The Beatles – where all 

forms of music are celebrated and cross-genre activity is the 

norm.” How many other cities have mutated as often, and as 

well, between successive musical movements as Liverpool? 

From Merseybeat at The Cavern, punk and post-punk at 

Eric’s, EDM and rave culture at Cream, the Bandwagon and 

Zanzibar years, right the way through to the contemporary 

Kazimier collective, there have been so many faces to the 

region’s musical activities. 

Liverpool is renowned for its musical influence and the 

UNESCO City Of Music status is the ultimate, and appropriate, 

accolade for a city which lives and breathes music. But what 

was primarily taken into account in its awarding was the 

here and now, and the importance of “music’s place at the 

heart of Liverpool’s contemporary culture, education and 

the economy – from the vibrant live music scene to tourism, 

music management courses and digital businesses.” 

Few cities can boast an infrastructure as supportive and 

comprehensive around its musicians as we can: even 

London, an international hub of the music industry, has a 

detachment from its homegrown artists. You only have to 

look at the opportunities available right here in Merseyside 

to see this: Liverpool International Music Festival and its 

Academy programme, which is currently nurturing the 

fantastic talents of LUMEN and ELEANOR NELLY; the funding 

of Merseyside Arts Foundation, which has provided a leg-up 

to acts like SHE DREW THE GUN, CAVALRY and BEACH SKULLS 

over the past 12 months; institutions such as LIPA and SAE 

that constantly bring talented artists to the city to study; 

businesses like Sentric and Ditto that offer professional 

industry services to budding musicians; Edge Hill University’s 

The Label Recordings, which kick-started HOOTON TENNIS 

CLUB’s rise; and all of this documented by ourselves and 

Getintothis, whose annual GIT Award highlights some of the 

great work by homegrown artists over the past year, with 

MUGSTAR, TRUDY AND THE ROMANCE, THE VRYLL SOCIETY 

and BILL RYDER-JONES among the highlighted acts for 2016. 

Music is our cottage industry. 

Each year, Sound City shines a light on all this amazing 

work, bringing an international focus to our community’s 

musical happenings. Last year’s debut outing at Bramley- 

Moore Dock was a special affair, which scooped Sound 

City the Best Metropolitan Festival gong at the UK Festival 

Awards. I’m looking forward to seeing them build on that 

for this year by adding even more life to the site: watch out 

for dance performances, aerial acrobats, breakdancing and 

various curious little pop-ups all across Bramley-Moore Dock 

over the weekend. 

The Docker’s Clock will once again be a focal point of the 

festival, as it looms above the main Atlantic Stage between 

us and Liverpool’s impressive skyline. The Grade II listed 

Gothic revival Victoria Tower was nicknamed the ‘docker’s 

clock’ because its six clock faces enabled workers and ships 

to synchronise their timepieces with ease and accuracy as 

work flowed up and down the river, bringing commerce to 

the city of Liverpool through its extensive dock network. 

Standing at the entrance to the Salisbury Dock, the Victoria 

Tower was once an important visual landmark for seafarers 

entering the city via the Mersey’s heaving waterway; now, it 

is an enduring symbol of Sound City embracing Liverpool’s 

maritime heritage, and merging it with its modern business 

and music focus. 

Beyond music, the city is thriving at the moment, with 

a genuine sense of positivity floating on the breeze 

and infusing residents and visitors alike with infectious 

optimism. This is in large part down to the wave of emotion 

unleashed by the results of the Hillsborough inquiry, a 

shrugging off of a decades-long cloud of injustice, and a 

solidarity that has been forged by an unrelenting pursuit of 

truth, justice and vindication. This has spawned a renewed, 

fierce sense of civic pride, the type that isn’t always palpable 

elsewhere in the UK. The feeling reminds me of Clive 

Martin’s fantastic 2014 article for Vice, when he wrote about 

the catharsis running through the city’s veins: “The city 

gushes pride, violence and sentimentality at a time when 

the rest of the nation seems content to sit in the corner 

quietly staring into its empty pint glass.” In summing up his 

appraisal of Liverpool’s people, Martin said that, “they see a 

city with New York-esque architecture, an immense musical 

heritage and a modern, people-led history that’s a bit more 

relatable than London’s kings, queens and Victorian serial 

killers. Liverpool is a city that is often accused of living in the 

past. It now has a great chance to escape it.” 

There’s something a little bit different about Sound City: 

it’s not ‘just another gig’. It’s frantic, hectic and anarchic, a 

festival where old faces and new collide in a blur of sounds 

and colours, and we wouldn’t have it any other way. 

Enjoy the festival; what’s more, enjoy Liverpool. 


WHERE THE GLOBAL 

MUSIC COMMUNITY 

CONNECTS 

“This year was all about up-and-coming 

artists in the way that South By used 

to be.... The industry may not be what 

it used to be, but -- thankfully or not -- 

South By is, again.” –Billboard 

SXSW 2017 PanelPicker and 

Band Applications Accepted 

Early July 2016 

SXSW 2017 Registration and Housing 

Opens August 1, 2016 

Learn More: sxsw.com/open2017 

follow us: @sxsw 

T 

Y 

Photo Credit: Christy Sanchez

10 


SOUND CITY IN BRIEF 

TICKET INFORMATION 

Ready for all that Sound City has to offer this year? Of course you are – but first of all, you’ve 

got to get in. The wristband exchange point will be situated within the box office at the 

festival entrance, just off Regent Road. The site opens at 11:30 each day (and box office at 

11:00), with last entry to the site at 16:00. Registration for Sound City+ delegates opens at 

09:30 in the Titanic Hotel. 

VISUAL ARCHITECTS 

The task of bringing Bramley-Moore Dock to life falls to event décor experts Visual 

Architects, who will be dressing the Atlantic Stage and various areas around the site. The 

team have designed and created a number of pieces to add a splash of colour to the site, 

while still utilising its urban style. Visual Architects specialise in visual manipulation and 

optical trickery so expect the weird, the wonderful and the extraordinary. 

LIVERPOOL ILLUMINATIONS 

Artists David Lynch and Ross Dalziel have 

teamed up with FACT to create an interactive 

light installation specially for Sound City, 

which will be beamed on to the outside 

wall of the Baltic Warehouse each evening. 

The laser installation, which runs from 

midday to midnight, will also include a drum 

performance by a.P.A.t.T. which will involve 

manipulation of the installation’s lasers. 

SOUND CITY MENU 

Some of Liverpool’s best coffee shops 

and restaurants will be serving up fine 

sustenance at Bramley-Moore Dock over 

the weekend, including Bold Street Coffee, 

American Pizza Slice, Chaophraya and 

Salt Dog Slims, as well as a variety of 

street food and real ale offers. Bold Street 

favourites Maray and their scrumptious 

small plates are certainly not to be missed. 

THE LABEL RECORDINGS 

Edge Hill University’s The Label Recordings 

will host two parties over the weekend. 

Brooding Liverpool five-piece CAVALRY 

are set to headline Saturday evening’s 

showcase, joined by exciting acts YOUTH 

HOSTEL and SHRINKING MINDS. Sunday 

brings moody electronic pop duo FERAL 

LOVE, playing alongside RED RUM CLUB 

and hip-shaking rockers PINK KINK. 

MERSEYRAIL SOUND STATION 

The music just keeps on coming at Sound 

City, with yet another stage offering you 

the chance to get close to the musicians. 

Merseyrail Sound Station host an intimate 

stage that will feature some of the more 

stripped-back performances, running from 

15:30 to 21:00 each day. Keep your eyes 

open for additional pop-up performances 

at Sandhills station when you arrive. 

BREAKOUT WEST 

BRAZILICA 

Some of the boldest and best acts from Western Canada drop in to Sound City on The 

Cavern Stage on Sunday as part of the Breakout West showcase. Top of the bill are twopiece 

SURF DADS, who’ll be joined by experimental pop outfit THE ZOLAS, dreamy Winnipeg 

natives LIVING HOUR (pictured), QUEEN CITY STOOP KIDS and JOE NOLAN. 

Keep your eye out for the Brazilica Festival parade at The Dome at 17:45 on Saturday. 

Brazilica is the UK’s only Brazilian festival and is known for its exuberant music, vibrant 

costumes and ecstatic atmosphere. The Brazilica team will also be hosting Samba dance 

workshops at Tim Peaks Diner at 15:30 and 16:30 on Saturday. 



11 

MAILCHIMP RECORD STORE WITH DIG VINYL 

The guys over at MailChimp have teamed up with Bold Street’s finest wax merchants 

Dig Vinyl to bring an immaculately stocked record store to the heart of Sound City. No 

self-respecting festival is complete without a mini record fair of its own, and the MailChimp 

Record Store will offer everything you vinyl junkies desire, and more. As well as special 

guest DJs entertaining crate diggers over the weekend, a series of acts are scheduled 

for some up-close-and-personal performances: BANTAM LYONS, DAN OWEN, EDEN 

ROYALS, SANKOFA, SLOW DANCER, THE LEFT BACKS and CHELOU are among those who 

you’ll be able to catch. 

TRAVEL DETAILS 

There are plenty of ways of getting to and from Bramley-Moore Dock this year. If you fancy 

a scenic walk along the Mersey, it will take around 20-25 minutes from the city centre. 

Otherwise, shuttle buses will run daily from St. George’s Mount to the festival between 11:00 

and 15:30, and back the other way at 23:30 and 01:30. The shuttle buses can be booked in 

advance for £5 return. Sandhills train station is the nearest Merseyrail link, just five minutes’ 

walk from Bramley-Moore Dock. Trains run daily, with the last return to Liverpool Central 

around 23:45. If you’re driving there will be a very limited amount of parking near the festival 

site, but there will be a taxi rank outside for local pick-ups and drop-offs. 

SCREENADELICA 

Screenadelica is a travelling exhibition celebrating the art of screen-printed gig posters. 

Since its first exhibit at Liverpool Sound City in 2010, Screenadelica has toured festivals 

around the world, including Primavera and Bestival. A true Sound City institution, 

Screendelica will add a splash of colour to the site, as well as bringing some limited 

edition prints within touching distance. 

AGE OF TRON 

Keep an eye out for a retina-bursting performance from the guys from Tron Dance in front 

of the North Stage at 22:00 on both nights. Using state-of-the-art, high-tech LED suits, the 

Tron Dancers create a show combining dance, lights and music that transports you right 

into the retro-futuristic world of Steven Lisberger's cult sci-fi film. Visit trondance.com for 

more information. 

SESAC SHOWCASE 

Performance rights organisation SESAC bring a wave of thrilling new talent to the Cavern 

Stage on Sunday, as part of their showcase highlighting some of the great songwriting 

talent they represent. Joining headliners ELIZA AND THE BEAR are Glaswegian pop/funk 

outfit WHITE, Defcon 2-signeesTHE WHOLLS, VIOLET SKIES, and electroclash force-of-nature 

ELLE EXXE. 

RYOICHI KUROKAWA 

Extending from his current _unfold exhibition at FACT, Ryoichi Kurokawa teams up with 

Sound City to present a series of short film pieces to be played in between the bands on 

the Atlantic Stage on both nights between 18:00 and 20:45. Kurokawa has combined audio 

and visuals to create mesmerising sound images which simulate synaesthesia – the ability 

to hear colours. 

Bido Lito! is Liverpool’s 

very own independent 

BONGO’S BINGO 

Johnny Bongo will be bringing his infamous 

Bongo Bingo to Sound City, complete with 

rave intervals, dance-offs and naff prizes 

(and some cash prizes if you’re lucky). You’ll 

find Johnny and his bingo in Tim Peaks 

Diner from 13:30 to 15:30 on Saturday. Leave 

your nan at home for this one. 

BRING THE FIRE 

Bring The Fire project are a group of 

Liverpool-based flow arts performers who 

are set to light up the evening with two 

special performances on Sunday. You can 

check out their exciting, fiery shows at both 

19:30 and 21:30 at the back of the Baltic 

Warehouse. 

AFTER THE PARTY’S OVER 

Still not satisfied with all that the festival 

has to offer? Worry ye not, Sound City and 

Freeze have you covered. After parties are 

scheduled to run til late each night at a 

mystery venue in the Baltic Triangle, with 

LEFTFIELD, HOT CHIP and MOUNT KIMBIE 

among those performing extended DJ sets. 

monthly music 

magazine. We’ve been 

documenting and 

celebrating the highs 

and highers of Liverpool’s thriving music 

and arts community for six years, and we’re 

delighted to be working with Sound City 

once again this year. Make sure you check 

out bidolito.co.uk for photo galleries and 

extra content over the weekend, and tweet 

us on @BidoLito when you’re out and 

about at Sound City. 

bidolito.co.uk

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FRIDAY 18TH NOVEMBER - £18.50 

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TUESDAY 7TH JUNE 

KING PRAWN 


TONY MORTIMER & HIS BAND 

THURSDAY 22ND SEPTEMBER 

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FRIDAY 23RD SEPTEMBER 

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facebook.com/manchesteracademy @mancacademy FOR UP TO DATE LISTINGS VISIT MANChesteracademy.net 

Wanted: Your Manchester Academy MEMORI25! 

What was your favourite ever gig at the Academy? Who was the most magnetic performer you’ve 

seen? Did you meet the love of your life at an Academy gig? We want to know about friendships 

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Visit mdmarchive.co.uk to find out more! 

BidoLito.259x310.MASTER.NEW.indd 1 27/04/2016 15:42

14 


Atlantic Stage 

THE CORAL 

Words / Christopher Torpey / @CATorp Photography / Tom Van Shelven / Dominic Foster 

Unlike a lot of people born in the UK in the mid-80s, my 

musical awakening didn’t come with Oasis or Radiohead or 

Massive Attack. I was a late bloomer, so it wasn’t really until 

the turn of the millennium that I ‘got’ the alternative/guitar/ 

indie thing. There was something in the faded glamour 

of The Strokes and the romantic charm of The Libertines 

that hooked me, opening up years of musical exploration 

(backwards and forwards in time) that brought a verve to my 

late teenage years. 

And then came THE CORAL. A troupe of slightly scruffy, 

slightly scally lads from the more refined half of the Wirral 

peninsula, they leapt out at me straight away as something 

relatable and real in a world of increasingly polished and 

over-commodified BritPop revivalism. I can still remember 

the first time I heard Dreaming Of You, and watching the 

quirky video for it on MTV2. It was electrifying to think that a 

group of ordinary lads from the other end of the train line to 

me could be capable of landing a Top 10 album and getting 

liverpoolsoundcity.co.uk 

tonnes of radio play, and do so by just being themselves. 

With their updated, zany version of the melancholic Scouse 

charm of The La’s, they were the perfect distillation of what 

was to become defined as the Cosmic Scouser. 

There then followed a period of critical and commercial 

success for the six-piece, releasing a string of albums through 

Alan Wills’ Deltasonic label that also housed The Zutons and 

The Dead 60s. In 2013, they even hosted their own madcap 

summer festival in New Brighton, A Midsummer Night’s 

Scream. This was a moment where The Coral and their 

audience revelled in their madcap brilliance, crystallising 

a moment in time that felt vital, necessary even. However, 

when I ask them about the show, the band themselves have 

a slightly hazier recollection of the day. “I can’t remember 

any of it,” James Skelly says, as though fighting against the 

mists of time. “I was divorced from my own mind at that 

point I think, on holiday from myself. It was just happening.” 

The memory of Skelly’s fellow songwriter in the band, Nick 

Power, is slightly better. “I’ve got really great memories of it. 

I remember my uncle Denny throwing a bag of ale over the 

wall to avoid paying!” 

Since releasing Butterfly House in 2010 – an LP that the 

band’s late, great champion Alan Wills declared as “their 

Forever Changes” – The Coral went quiet, as each of the 

members pursued their own solo endeavours: James Skelly 

set up a label (Skeleton Key) and released an album as 

The Intenders; Nick Power wrote and published two books; 

drummer Ian Skelly released one solo album, and another 

LP as Serpent Power, where he teamed up with former 

Zuton Paul Molloy; and guitarist Lee Southall followed Bill 

Ryder-Jones in making his hiatus from the band permanent 

to focus on his own solo work, paving the way for Molloy 

to fill his shoes. This expression of each of the individual’s 

extra-curricular creativity highlights the different strengths 

and characters at play in the group, giving them many – and 

varied – points of attack.


15 

Both Skelly and Power believe that this extended break 

was needed, and helped them achieve some clarity in the 

space it afforded them. “You can kind of see the bigger 

picture, and be in control of you own destiny a bit more, so 

that you know why you’re doing something,” says Power. “I 

was probably on a major label from when I was 18 to when 

I was 28, and you just forget what you’re doing it for. You’re 

not quite sure why you’re doing it or what you want out of it. 

Having a break helps you to reaffirm what you actually want 

out of music.” Skelly agrees, saying that the break has made 

him approach his music with a different mindset. “It reenergises 

you. I think we were just exhausted, really. Things 

had just become a habit. So maybe everyone was afraid of 

doing anything else because we didn’t know anything else 

– do an album, tour it – and I think we’d just got a bit stale 

and tired. So we just needed it [the break].” 

“As soon as we got 

together again and got 

a couple of tunes down, 

it was impossible to 

stop it.” 

There’s something magic about the band as a whole, 

however, and the pull to reconvene and lay down some new 

tunes was too much for them to resist. Skelly admits that he 

felt “on holiday from myself” when he was writing material 

for his solo album – and Power himself believes that their 

dynamic of working together as a group is where their real 

strength lies. “I didn’t think we’d get it together so soon, to 

be honest. But as soon as we got together again and got a 

couple of tunes down, it was impossible to stop it.” 

The band’s return was made concrete when they 

were announced as one of this year’s Sound City headliners 

at the tail end of 2015, fuelling interest in a new album, 

their first new offering for six years (save for The Curse 

Of Love, released in 2015, which feels more like a series 

of forgotten outtakes that fits more between Roots And 

Echoes and Butterfly House). Their eighth LP, Distance 

Inbetween, came to fruition in March of this year, released 

through Ignition Records. Significantly heavier and more 

driving than anything they’d done before, the record 

marks The Coral’s third stylistic evolution, from their early, 

off-kilter Beefheartian days, through to a more pastoral, 

Byrdsian sound, now finding themselves as a meatier 

proposition. The groove-based Distance Inbetween is 

certainly darker and more direct than any of the band’s 

previous material, relying on stocky, blunt, krauty 

rhythms. They’ve always been quite a filmic band that 

evoke cinematic references, but this album definitely has 

more of a rollicking soundtrack feel. “You could probably 

pull that out of quite a lot of the songs through all the 

albums,” says Skelly of this longstanding facet of their 

sound. “I think [Distance Inbetween] comes from a different 

style of soundtrack, maybe – but I’ve always thought that 

was there in The Coral. Take Music At Night, Don’t Think 

You’re The First, Secret Kiss – they’re very soundtrack-y, but 

in a different way.” 

The band, completed by long-term bassist Paul Duffy, 

have been out on the road getting to grips with their new 

songs on their first headline UK tour for almost five years, 

interspersed with a long overdue performance on Later… 

with Jools Holland. Skelly believes it was “a pretty easy 

transition” to work the songs into a state ready for live 

consumption, and they relished the challenge to take their 

fans somewhere else with their new material. “I preferred 

doing the new ones [songs], I think they translate live a bit 

better,” agrees Power. “It’s all quite direct and electric, they 

make more sense. We’ve had to bring the old songs up in 

line with them a bit more. I don’t get bored of playing the 

old songs – it was actually kind of fun making them a little 

bit heavier.” 

Being in complete control of what, when and how 

they release definitely suits The Coral, and it opens up a 

whole raft of possibilities going forwards for them. Being 

removed from that major label structure matches their 

loose, unfettered approach, and the whole process of 

putting together Distance Inbetween has been a liberating 

experience for them. “The way we’re doing it now is the way 

we always should have done it,” says Skelly. “It’s just that 

major labels are built for a certain type of artist, and we’re 

not really that type of artist.” 

“It feels better now in every respect, for me,” confirms 

Power. “There’s a better attitude artistically.” 

So far on their return, The Coral have steered clear of 

Liverpool, which has geared up this year’s Sound City 

headline show as a kind of homecoming. When asked, 

Skelly seems confident that this latest incarnation of The 

Coral is ready to make this their biggest show yet. “I think 

it’s going to be a great gig. We’ve got brilliant visuals as 

well that I think will look great on the screen behind us, 

especially when it goes dark.” Equally determined, Power 

agrees that their new visual setup is “quite demented, in a 

way. It’s out there.” 

Let’s hope that they remember this show more than they 

did the last time they played in sight of the River Mersey. 

“I think it’s going to be one of the best gigs we’ve played,” 

says Skelly with an air of assurance. “We’ll bring our side of 

it anyway.” 

Sound City, make sure you bring yours. 

thecoral.co.uk 

THE ATLANTIC STAGE | SUNDAY | 22:30 

bidolito.co.uk

16 



THE DANDY WARHOLS 

Words / Richard Lewis Photography / Scott Green 

“I never thought you’d be a junkie/Because heroin is so 

passé.” A memorable opening line for a song, especially on 

daytime radio. The track in question – Not If You Were The 

Last Junkie On Earth – was, for much of the UK, their first 

introduction to THE DANDY WARHOLS when the band’s nowclassic 

single crash-landed on the BBC Radio 1 A-list in May 

1998 (chances of this happening now: less than nil). 

Having established themselves as one of the US 

underground’s finest bands, the group went truly global 

with the colossal success of 2000 single Bohemian Like 

You, a feat consolidated by that year’s magnificent parent 

album Thirteen Tales From Urban Bohemia. Since then 

Courtney, Peter, Zia and Brent have been steadfastly doing 

things their own way, blurring genres, wrong-footing critics, 

strengthening their reputation as a stellar live act and 

inspiring scores of groups along the way. 

Presently engaged in a global trek to spread word of 

sterling, return-to-form ninth LP Distortland, the quartet 

are currently recovering between dates, Peter Holmström 

explains on the phone from his base in Portland. Closely 

associated with their home city, the title of the new LP 

refers to the changes the conurbation has undergone over 

the last decade. “Portland has changed dramatically in 

the last 10 years,” Holmström says. “It went from a pretty 

uncool backwards town to the place to be. It’s good and 

bad: we have crazy rent increases which are driving all of 

our cool friends out.” The city appears to be going through 

the same wave of gentrification as London, New York and 

San Francisco, the latter something chronicled by US indie 

rocker Kelley Stoltz and The Brian Jonestown Massacre’s 

tambourine man Joel Gion on his Apple Bonkers LP. “I really 

don’t understand what’s going on,” Holmström states. 

“Years and years ago it was a good place to work a couple 

days a week, which was all you needed to pay rent, then 

spend the rest of the time on your art.” 

Staying on the subject of Portland, the band’s studio/ 

rehearsal/all-round creative space The Odditorium, 

established with the royalties generated by Bohemian Like 

You’s inclusion on a Vodafone advert, was ravaged by storms 

last October. “It was one of those things where we kinda got 


incredibly lucky,” Holmström says. “We had just turned in 

the record probably the week before. The control room got 

destroyed, but none of the equipment got damaged. And we 

hadn’t left on tour yet. If we hadn’t been there then all the 

water that was being held up would have dumped in and 

destroyed everything. It just worked out in the best possible 

way it could have.” 

Reminiscent of superb 2003 LP Welcome To The Monkey 

House with its concise synth pop tunes, half of Distortland 

is being essayed in the band’s live sets at present, the 

composition of which have become more complicated with 

each album. “It’s so difficult. There’s so many songs that you 

can’t take out, because people will get upset! Then there’s 

the ones that we can’t take out cos various band members 

will get upset!” Holmström laughs. “Then there’s all the new 

ones. Lead single STYGGO: that was one we were playing 

together for about a year and a half and that came together 

really quick. Girls In London: I think we’re now finally getting 

it, so it works every single night after two-odd years of 

playing it!” 

Released at the pinnacle (or rather nadir) of the shit-awful 

nu-metal movement in 2000, the aforementioned Thirteen 

Tales… was as far removed from the weapons-grade faux 

angst of fellow countrymen Limp Bizkit, Korn and Deftones 

as could be imagined. The practise of releasing albums 

that define themselves against their era, something that 

continued with the synth pop-fixated …Monkeyhouse, is 

something the Dandies aim for. “That’s kind of our theory,” 

Holmström explains. “You would have thought that at the 

height of guitar bands in 2001-02 we would have made a 

guitar record, that’s what we’re pretty damn good at, but 

there was so much good guitar music at that point it was 

like, ‘Let’s do something different.’ We create what’s missing 

in our musical world.” 

Along with close buddies The Brian Jonestown Massacre, 

the band were harbingers of a new spin on psychedelia 

when the genre was largely dormant in the late 1990s 

– something which seems scarcely believable now that 

the form has resurfaced to dazzling effect. “It makes me 

happy, there’s so much more new music for me to listen 

to. I used to have to hunt around for good, cool new 

music; there’s quite a bit of it now,” Holmström 

enthuses, citing Night Beats and Suuns as current listening 

choices. 

Turning to the new LP, one of the album’s highlights, 

Catcher In The Rye, is unlikely to have been permitted during 

the lifetime of the novel’s infamously protective author J.D. 

Salinger. “It was definitely one of the books that connected 

with me as an early teenager,” Holmström explains. “We 

were all slight outsiders in high school. I wanna get that 

song down live. My parts on that are studio tricks, so I don’t 

know how I’m gonna create them live the same way.” 

Another standout, meanwhile, is Pope Reverend Jim, 

which hinges on one of the Dandies’ infectious choruses. 

Although on first impression referencing Reverend Jim 

Jones, leader of the People’s Temple which committed the 

notorious 1978 mass murder-suicide in Jonestown Guyana 

(inspiring half of The Brian Jonestown Massacre’s band 

name), the inspiration behind the track is vastly different, as 

Holmström tells us. “It’s about a character from the TV show 

[1970s US sitcom] Taxi; there’s a character named Reverend 

Jim played by Christopher Lloyd, and Courtney was just 

thinking that he’d make a good Pope. The whole Jim Jones 

thing; I was asked that in an interview a few weeks ago and 

I went, ‘Oh wow, that’s kind of interesting!’” 

Looking forward to the next tranche of dates across the 

Pond, the guitarist hopes that the band’s touring increases 

over the next few years. “It seems that the only way for 

bands to actually make a living nowadays is to keep running 

around the world, so fine by me. The tour’s a little longer 

than the ones we’ve normally been doing, everybody’s going 

home between the Liverpool show and one in Spain, but 

I’m gonna stick around and hang out, cause some trouble 

somewhere.” So if you sight a familiar-looking member of a 

notable US alt rock band holidaying on Merseyside over the 

next few months, you’ll know who it is. 

dandywarhols.com 

THE ATLANTIC STAGE | SUNDAY | 19:45

201604_UK_Liverpool_Sound-City-Festival_Ad_249x310_FA.indd 1 20/04/2016 15:54

18 



The post-industrial site of Sound City, sitting on the banks 

of the river decades after the workers left and awaiting 

the inevitable re-development into luxury apartments, 

would seem, almost by design, the most natural arena for 

a band such as SLEAFORD MODS. A good 10 years and three 

albums proper in, and Jason Williamson and Andrew Fearn’s 

disaffection and disillusionment at the world they see 

around them shows no sign of abatement. There are still 

points to be made, there’s still anger. Maybe there always 

will be. With the assistance of Fearn’s loose and 

disorientating scatter-bomb soundtrack as a canvas, 

Williamson’s vitriol still needs a channel, a spotlight. 

Variously seen, depending who you ask, as beer-spilling 

aggressor or champion of the disaffected, he sees no reason 

to take his foot off the poetic pedal now that he’s managed 

to kick the nine to five. 

“You can [slow down], in the sense that you’re destroying 

yourself; you’ve got to be wise to that,” Williamson tells 

us when we broach the subject with him. “But in terms of 

what you see, and what you think, and your attitude, that 

doesn’t change. It softens the blow a bit, having a bit more 

money, but you’ve got to keep that in check. It’s hard being 

a full-time musician, because you find yourself disconnected 

from the real world and you can’t really switch it off, 

you’re constantly thinking new things. It’s a real tough 

one, it’s hard work, it can get you. But, yeah, the attitude’s 

pretty much intact; but it’s important not to let yourself slip 

too much.” 

A new Sleaford Mods album will be with us soon. We 

live in hard times, and there can surely be no shortage of 

ideas for Williamson to shape and form: new rants, new 

chants, riffing off the state of the nation, and challenging 

his own perceptions. “It’s a mish-mash of things: one liners, 

political observations, personal stuff, the day-to-day goings 

on. I don’t need to change it up much lyrically, cos it always 

seems to shift itself on.” And his light remains undimmed 

when it comes to the Tory government, and the ongoing 

development of Cameron’s dystopian manifesto: 

“I can’t even look at the c*nts, to be honest. It’s fucked. 

They’re still in power, though. They can fuck up all they 

want, but so what? They’re still in power. Bastards like that 

won’t go away; it’s a bloodline that’s going fuckin’ nowhere. 

They might get pointed at, and laughed at, but they’re 

still alive, they’re still in power, [they] still rule. Johnson’s 

fuckin’ dangerous, cos he’s got power, and he’s thick as fuck. 

You know, sittin’ round a dinner table with him, glass of 

wine, whatever, petty talk, you might find a little personality, 

a little humanity there, but in terms of his beliefs, and how 

he thinks he should feel about the rest of the human race, 

it’s just fuckin’ unreal. They make me sick. It’s a no-win 

fuckin’ situation.” 

Evidently fired up, Williamson barrels onward, underlining 

the intent that fuels his lyrical outbursts. “I mean, in terms 

of lyrics and my opinions, and how and what I write, I try to 

not be too dogmatic about politics, cos it can work against 

itself. So I tend to just try and talk about the mood, just 

to make the observations, what I see around me. All that. 

We’ve got loads of new stuff, though, it’s just finding our 

way around it all after three albums doing what we do, the 

successes we’ve had. Things have changed a little: I’m not 

working anymore, so it’s just about getting it out there, see 

what happens. Keeping it going, finding new angles. Often, 

it writes itself, it kinda moves on its own. Something will 

reveal itself, and we just build on it.” 

“I try to not be too 

dogmatic about 

politics, cos it can 

work against itself” 

The last time Sleaford Mods played Liverpool was at The 

Kazimier in March 2015. For many sceptics, seeing them 

live was a game changer. People who’d already declared 

they didn’t get it suddenly did, such is the power of what 

Williamson and Fearn do. The connection between the band 

and the audience is personal, born out of the fact that we 

all understand the message. We’ve lived it. In fact, in some 

SLEAFORD MODS 

Words / Paul Fitzgerald / @Nothingvillem 



19 

cases, we are the message. Fearn’s sparse beats, the tinny 

electro backdrop to it all, leave the right amount of space 

for Williamson’s snarling, twisted delivery. There’s anger 

and vitriol, tales told of dead-end jobs in forgotten towns. 

Of hangovers, cheap beer, and really good times on really 

bad drugs. 

Williamson is a poet for the underclass, just as Shaun 

Ryder was before him, and produces some incredible lines 

that can only come from the darkest recesses of the darkest 

minds, such as the stunning opener from Tied Up In Nottz: 

“the smell of piss was so strong, it smelt like decent bacon” 

– just take a moment to imagine that. These are subjects 

with which Sleaford Mods are more than familiar, if not 

entirely comfortable, and it is in the live delivery that the 

effect takes hold strongest, in that physical connection: 

Williamson’s twitchy and uncomfortable way, his contorted 

face almost choking on the lyrics in its rush to get 

them out, the venom, the frenetic energy of it all, balanced 

by Fearn’s stillness at the laptop, nonchalantly sipping 

from a can, nodding through the vibes, silently admiring 

his mate’s performance. Much mention and comparison 

is made in the media with names such as Mark E. Smith 

or even Half Man Half Biscuit, and there’s a point there – 

Williamson uses wit and frustration in his lyrics – but 

in their delivery and written style those lyrics are more 

reminiscent of the gangsta rap he almost exclusively 

listens to. 

“I’m just listening to hip hop, really, not listening to much 

else. A bloke called Westside Gunn, and another guy called 

Conway The Machine, both on the same label,” he says, “just 

horrible lowest common denominator gangsta rap, but 

I really like it, can’t get myself off that, there’s something 

really quite untouchable about it. I’m not talking about 

the violence, I’m not arsed too much about that, and the 

misogyny’s horrible and fuckin’ off-putting; but the music 

and the way they deliver the raps is fuckin’ great, so that’s 

all I’m listening to at the moment.” 

Mention of the demise of The Kazimier, Liverpool’s 

growing presence as a land of opportunity for property 

developers, and the encroaching of the bulldozers in 

Wolstenholme Square does little to cheer his mood. “Yeah, 

we heard about that, it’s fuckin’ shit. I dunno. Sometimes I 

think the nightmare might slow down at some point. This 

shit is everywhere, it’s happening everywhere. There might 

be a ray of hope, something to change the course of things. 

If you think back to the 80s, it was all fuckin’ shit; everything 

got brushed under the carpet, and the masses were dulled, 

weren’t they? And then club culture took hold, and things 

felt different. Maybe we need something like that to happen 

again, a big change. Every day, the media carries this fuckin’ 

endless horrible negativity; it helps suppress people, and 

that gives people like Cameron protection around him, cos 

it dulls people, and it dulls the light; the media just works as 

a fuckin’ distraction. And there are intelligent, level-headed 

people who aren’t even fazed by all this. What the fuck are 

they on? I’m starting to think some people are born to be, I 

dunno, I won’t say socialist, but in that vein, and some just 

aren’t. Corbyn appeals to that way of thinking. I like the way 

he’s not aggressive, he treats things with a certain amount 

of reason, and that’s right. Me? I just get fuckin’ wound up 

by it all, it just makes me angry.” 

John Lydon was, of course, right. Anger IS an energy. It’s 

a good job it is too. Without it we wouldn’t have bands like 

Sleaford Mods. And, in these times, this darkness, now more 

than ever, we need bands like Sleaford Mods. 

sleafordmods.com 

THE ATLANTIC STAGE | SATURDAY | 21:00 

bidolito.co.uk

20 



CIRCA WAVES 

Words / Matt Hogarth Photography / Rachael Wright 

CIRCA WAVES are perhaps one of the biggest groups to City back in 2013,” Shudall tells us, “and it was around this 

emerge from Liverpool over recent years, having signed to time that Zane Lowe played the track, so it was a mad few 

Virgin EMI a year after forming and releasing debut album days! It was pretty bonkers. I was up all day and night 

Young Chasers the following year. Young Chasers proved working Sound City whilst I was getting calls from loads of 

a summer hit via its soaring guitars and upbeat choruses industry people…” 

seemingly purpose-built to be bellowed back at them on Within weeks the band were in the studio chatting with 

festival main stages, whilst recalling the youthful nostalgia Lowe. “You learn so quickly when you’re dropped in the 

of the likes of The Strokes and The Libertines. Its sky-scraping deep end. I’d never really done any interviews, so when I did 

anthems – like the sweltering T-Shirt Weather – were surely that everything after just seemed to be a bit easier. I mean 

the soundtrack to plenty of day trips to beach sides around we’d done the biggest interview we could!” From this point 

the UK on summer days that blind the sunglass-less and on, the band had a relentless following of A&Rs hounding 

crimson the skin of many a pale Brit. The surf-rocking them at every gig. “It got so bad that we had to start playing 

Scousers seem almost miraculously conceived, having gigs under pseudonyms including Malkovich Malkovich and 

popped out of nowhere to be crowned as the new saviours Wet Wet Wet Wet. We thought, ‘Who the fuck is going to go 

of indie; so who better to play this year’s main stage than a see a band called Wet Wet Wet Wet?’ And we were right!” 

group who can fully captivate an audience as they bask in After eventually signing to Virgin EMI, the group set off with 

the hopefully radiant sunlight and the twinkling reflection a plan for world domination. “Our ambition was to be a big 

of the Mersey? Ahead of their Sound City appearance we band around the world… and signing up to a major label 

caught up with head of the troupe, lead singer and chief [made us part of] a bigger machine. More funding meant 

songwriter Kieran Shudall, who told us about success, the that we could play gigs all over the world. Y’know, even 

impact of touring and the prospect of a new album. though we’d not sold that many records, they said, ‘You go 

Having all played in bands before forming the group, fuckin’ sell yourself!’ On an indie [label] that’d have been 

each had had some individual success, but the attention much tougher.” 

they received as Circa Waves was completely different to However, the ability to tour relentlessly to packed rooms 

the attention they’d experienced before. Barely two months globally was not quite the blessing that it initially seemed. 

after forming, one of the groups tracks was revealed by The almost non-stop tour schedule, which has seen them 

Radio 1’s Zane Lowe as his Hottest Record in the World. play shows in Europe, Japan and the States, has had a huge 

“I was working on the stage next to The Kazimier at Sound impact on the mentality of Shudall and the rest of the band: 

Joe Falconer (guitar), Colin Jones (drums) and Sam Rourke 

(bass). Homesickness and isolation set in for the young 

songwriter, which became a yearning to get back to the 

city where he was born. “With travelling, you do see things 

in a different way. For 25 years I saw me mates, family and 

girlfriend every week. Being away from all that really fucks 

you up. It makes you think.” 

Touring is a process that seems to hit a lot of bands hard 

but few have to deal with the sudden dramatic rise to fame 

with which Circa Waves have been confronted, and the 

popularity of the group seemed to become as much of a curse 

as a blessing. “It’s very strange. I think a lot of people really 

struggle with touring. The highs and lows are so extreme. 

I mean, you can’t get high without a come down. It’s so easy 

to come off stage and just drink to try and bring yourself 

down. [But] you can’t just destroy your body every night. 

You have to look after your brain because it can become 

your biggest enemy when you’re on a tour bus for eight 

hours a day.” 

Although a cliché, the introspection that comes with 

discomfort and isolation can lead to the greatest art. Having 

travelled the world and removed themselves physically 

from friends, family and lovers, on returning to their 

hometown they started to write new tracks with a darker 

edge to those found on the first album. “Young Chasers 

was a record about the past. There was a lot I had to get 

off my chest. It was an album I always wanted to write and 

release, but I don’t write songs like that anymore. I’m not 

bothered about bringing anything back. I need to show 

people I’ve got more than one trick up my sleeve. The new 

album is very present and everything that is going on in 

my weird head currently. With travelling, you do see things 

in a different way. I feel a lot more attached to Liverpool. 

The things I’m writing about now are about being in your 

late twenties. It’s not just fucking happy times anymore. 

People are suffering from mental health issues, people are 

losing people. I’m not saying the whole album will be about 

depression, but it’s certainly not just about T-shirt weather. 

I think it’s fuckin’ well better than the first record!” 

The prospect of such a record seems an exciting one in the 

career of a band who some sterner critics have dismissed 

as lightweight. The deeper and more introspective mindset 

which Shudall promises suggests that it will be their 

“difficult second album” only in terms of the issues that it 

confronts; Sound City offers us a fascinating first glimpse of 

what lies ahead. 

circawaves.com 

THE ATLANTIC STAGE | SUNDAY | 21:00 


24 


Sound City+ 

SOUND CITY+ is the festival’s one day business and 

tecnhnology conference, that brings millions of pounds of 

investment opportunities to Liverpool each year. Located 

in the iconic setting of the Titanic Hotel, Sound City+ also 

features a series of panel debates, TED-style talks and 

roundtable sessions that allow leading industry figures 

to dissect some of the most important issues in the music 

business in 2016. 

ALAN MCGEE 

Words / Paul Fitzgerald / @Nothingvillem 

In February 2016, modern-day Britain, a 33-year-old homeless 

man known to most people only as Simon, who’d been 

living on the streets of Liverpool, died in hospital 

of hypothermia. In a city of rampant and unfettered 

development, falling over itself to build ever-increasing 

amounts of accommodation in a city full of empty buildings, 

it’s staggering to know that a young man can literally freeze 

to death. Homelessness can be a silent killer: victims are 

unlikely to be graced with many column inches or obituaries. 

Society just moves on, and all too often people like Simon 

are forgotten, a mere statistic on a spreadsheet somewhere 

– or, worse still, nowhere. 

ALAN MCGEE – the founder of Creation Records, who 

propelled The Jesus And Mary Chain, Oasis, Primal Scream 

and My Bloody Valentine to massive success – sees it 

everywhere, as we all do, and wonders how close we all 

may have come at some point or other. “It seems to be 

affecting the youth worse this time, somehow,” he says, 

speaking to us on the phone from his home in Wales. “My 

parents fuckin’ hated me. I got kicked out when I was 16 

– can you imagine that now? What would you do if you 

suddenly found yourself on the streets at 16? In the 80s and 

90s, when we moved to London we lived in squats; we were 

homeless, but the difference is we were too fuckin’ daft to 

know it at the time.” 

“They don’t give a fuck, man,” he continues, getting fired 

up as he fixes his gaze on the pernicious Tory government. “I 

was in Glasgow the other week, DJing for Noel [Gallagher], 

and the city is on its fuckin’ knees. They always come for 

cities, proud cities full of proud people. They’ve got it in for 

places like Glasgow and Liverpool, man; they always have.” 

The man behind a legendary era of British music wonders 

at the seeming hand-in-hand nature of homelessness 

and the relentless march towards the gentrification of our 

city centres, leading to the removal of important cultural 

spaces. Together they’re symptomatic of these cruel 

and unforgiving times, where the pursuit of a hard-line, 

profit-driven, corporate agenda rules the roost. McGee 

agrees that Cameron seems to be enjoying himself, almost 


revelling in all this destruction and the despair he seems so 

keen to wreak. “Yeah, I think it’s something to do with being 

a total fuckin’ psychopath,” he laughs, “or sociopath, if we’re 

being polite.” 

Alan McGee can’t just stand by, however. He never 

could. He’s presented with an opportunity, and refusing 

opportunity simply isn’t in his nature. Musicians Against 

Homelessness is his new initiative, aimed at raising funds 

for the homelessness charity Crisis while simultaneously 

providing opportunities for bands to play. Support for MAH 

(@MAH_gigs) is spreading nationwide, and his hope is to 

build it into a yearly event, spread over two weeks every 

September. The project, to be launched with a gig in Leeds 

headlined by Cast, who he now manages, and his good 

friends The Farm, has already brought support from Courtney 

Love as well as The Libertines, Buzzcocks, Black Grape, Irvine 

Welsh and The Jesus And Mary Chain, with many more surely 

to follow. 

McGee feels giving young bands the chance to play is 

as important as the cause. “We’re losing music venues all 

over the country. Without these venues, what chance will 

new bands – especially working-class bands – ever have of 

gaining the oxygen of experience and learning to refine 

their craft? Hopefully, this project will give a lot of new 

bands a chance to play and to exist in a place where they 

all can shine.” 

“A lot of musicians are passionate about homelessness,” 

McGee continues. “I think we all realise just how close we 

are to it, as musicians; a lot of us have come close. In 1992, it 

could’ve gone either way for me, you know; it could’ve been 

a different story.” 

McGee is keen for bands to get on board with Musicians 

Against Homelessness too, keeping as few barriers between 

new people joining up as possible. “It’s dead simple: you 

can be a small band and pull a hundred people, whatever, 

charge a fiver in. All we ask is that you contact Ian McHale, 

he’ll tick your box – and if he ticks your box you’re part of 

the gang – then we just ask you to send the money direct to 

Crisis. Every penny goes to the charity.” 

Our conversation comes at the end of a momentous and 

historic week for Liverpool, for the families and survivors of 

the Hillsborough tragedy, and most importantly for justice 

and truth. Vindication, exoneration and relief that the 

families can finally begin the grieving process for their lost 

loved ones, after years of establishment deceit and media 

lies. McGee’s links to the city go back years, and he has 

many friends here, and in these moments, in this week of 

all weeks, he shares our pride in the battle fought by the 

families, shares our hopes for a future where they may find 

peace at last. 

“I fuckin’ love Liverpool, man. It’s always been my 

spiritual home, because of The Beatles. What you’ve done, 

you people… I think it’s a real tipping point for the way the 

Tories, or the establishment, have taken the fuckin’ piss… 

you people proved they couldn’t actually get away with 

it. The Scousers put them back in their box. For years they 

took the piss, and the people never stood aside, never, ever 

gave up, never let them win. And you know what? You fuckin’ 

beat them.” 

Alan McGee, a man whose intuition has proved itself 

on too many occasions, whose insight and grasp of the 

vibe has never disappointed, is full of admiration for this 

fight shown by the families affected by the Hillsborough 

disaster. “The families, the football fans, the musicians, the 

city, the counter-culture: everyone has fought back, and 

you’ve beaten the government, the establishment. That’s 

amazing, man. You know what, I actually think it might put 

The Sun out of business… you might actually close that 

fuckin’ paper down.” 

The cultural history books will speak well of people 

like Alan McGee. With a judiciously placed finger on the 

very pulse of music in this country for so long, coupled 

with his tenacious blind faith in what he believes, he has 

soundtracked so many of our lives. We can only hope with 

his latest prediction that his eyes are as sharp as his ears. 

Alan McGee delivers a TED talk as part of Sound City+ 

at The Titanic Hotel on Friday 27th May / from 14:00 in 

The Dream Factory.


25 

TED: SIMON PARKES THE DREAM FACTORY / 12:15 

SOUND CITY+ 

AT A GLANCE 

Of the range of TED-style talks taking place at Sound City+ this year, the one 

with SIMON PARKES is definitely a must-see. Parkes infamously bought the 

Brixton Academy venue for the nominal sum of £1 in 1983; at the time, he was 

just a 23-year-old with a quid, a love of music, and a load of enthusiasm. He’d 

need it all over the next decade: Brixton was then a centre of crime rather than 

gentrification, and Parkes had to resort to wearing a Kevlar vest on a daily basis. 

Having spent millions to resurrect the crumbling venue, it became the site for 

legendary gigs from the likes of The Clash, The Smiths, The Rolling Stones, Bob 

Dylan and David Bowie, as well as the occasional riot: chances are he’s got a 

few stories to tell. 

Words / Phil Gwyn / @Notmanyexperts 

STAGE PLAY: HOW TO ‘GET ON’ FESTIVALS BLACKSTAR SUITE / 14:00 

SOUND CITY+ takes over the Titanic 

Hotel on 27th May, bringing together a 

plethora of personalities, head honchos 

and organisations from all corners of 

the music industry. Previously known as 

the conference and spread over multiple 

days, Sound City+ has condensed the affair 

into just one packed day of panels and 

sessions tackling issues across music, 

business, technology and new media. 

First stop for many will be the Indie Label 

Market, (running all day in the Sound City+ 

marketplace) featuring a first-class clutch 

of labels including Heavenly Recordings 

(parents of Liverpool’s own Stealing Sheep 

and Hooton Tennis Club), 4AD, Domino and 

Bella Union. The North West’s finest will 

also be represented through Mancunian 

“cultural regenerator” Sways (Money, Ghost 

Outfit) and Liverpool’s Deltasonic (The Vryll 

Society, Tom Low) and Baltic Records (The 

Tea Street Band, VEYU). 

Ditto Music founder Matt Parsons 

provides another Liverpool link with a 

talk on starting his distribution solution 

and record label back in 2005 (The 

Dream Factory, 11:15). They have achieved 

unbelievable success with their hands-off 

approach since, including taking the firstever 

unsigned band into the top 40 back 

in 2007 (Koopa). As a model for retaining 

control and utilising digital techniques, they 

provide a completely modern take on being 

part of the music industry. 

Elsewhere, UK Music will be running a 

panel talking about their work and how 

the data they gather through initiatives 

such as the Bristol Live music census can 

be used to show the true financial value 

of music (Blackstar Suite, 17:30). They’ll also 

be touching on how this information can 

be used to lobby the government and help 

introduce sympathetic legislation such as 

the recent Live Music Act. 

Also returning to the festival are the 

hugely successful DJ workshops run by 

Manchester MIDI School. This year they’ve 

got house behemoth Ben Pearce (of What I 

Might Do fame) to take delegates through 

making a remix live. MIDI School’s DJ Mark 

One and Tom Lonsborough will also be 

taking budding Four Tets through all the 

basics they’ll need. 

Throughout the day, delegates will 

be able to take part in a host of one-toone 

sessions with representatives from 

festivals including Coachella, Outlook 

and Dimensions, Kendal Calling, music 

supervisors from the BBC, Lime Pictures, BT 

Sport, JWT, Big Sync and promoters including 

Sound Control, Islington Mill and Leadmill. 

Tammy Tinawi, music supervisor at global 

music services agency Big Sync Music, says, 

“This is a really dynamic approach to music 

industry networking. Ten minutes is just 

enough for a proper chat but fast enough 

to add some urgency and energy into the 

mix. It will definitely be intense, but isn’t 

that when some of the most promising 

conversations happen?” 

Add to that a multitude of other speakers, 

including the award-winning poet, teacher 

and writer Black Ice, Guy Fletcher from 

PRS, Peter Bradbury from Sky, Tom from 

music blog Goldflakepaint, and Toby from 

Transgressive/Rockfeedback, and you’ll 

be hard-pushed to find a spare minute in 

your day. 

After all that exchanged wisdom and 

networking, the day is rounded off by a 

delegate party at Constellations from 20:30. 

Entertaining delegates will be a line-up 

consisting of Liverpool’s CLEAN CUT KID, 

SAMM HENSHAW, Cameroonian musician 

and author BLICK BASSY, and pop sensation 

MAHALIA. 

The UK is awash with festivals, which both presents artists with plenty of 

opportunity to get themselves in front of the public and brings its own unique 

challenge in negotiating a fair deal to ensure they aren’t being paid only in that 

notorious currency known as ‘exposure’. Thankfully, the Musicians’ Union and 

Association of Independent Festivals are presenting a panel titled STAGE PLAY, to 

go through every step from getting on the bill to talking riders and merchandise. 

They’ll also be talking about their Fair Play For Festivals agreement which 

provides a starting point to ensuring that both parties are getting a good deal. 

DIY OR DIE: ALPHABET SUITE / 11:45 

Digital journalism pioneers Drowned In Sound and guests will be exploring 

how technology has redefined the music industry in their panel discussion 

DOING IT YOURSELF IN THE DIGITAL AGE. Recording, distribution and marketing 

can now all be done from a single laptop, but how should you go about it? Is it 

really preferable to the established music industry? And how are you supposed 

to run everything yourself while holding down a regular nine-to-five? Expect 

thoughts on all the above and more. 

SYNC WORKSHOP THE SOFA SESSIONS / 14:30 

While the music industry struggles to monetise selling and streaming music, 

opportunities across TV, film and advertising have emerged as increasingly 

important ways to fund creativity. Sound City+’s SYNC programme will cover 

the ins and outs of these opportunities via workshops, a panel and one-on-one 

sessions with industry experts. Appearing amongst a clutch of big names from 

the world of sync is the BBC’s Head of Music Licensing NICKY BIGNELL, who will 

be running a workshop helping to demystify writing for a sync brief. 

SOUND CITY+ 

HIGHLIGHTS 

bidolito.co.uk

26 


Sound City+ 

MUSIC FUTURES 

Words / Phil Gwyn / @Notmanyexperts Photography / David Andrews 

When you think of Sound City, there are a few things 

that immediately spring to mind: The Flaming Lips’ mad 

helium balloon from last year, the old days darting around 

the city centre’s backstreets to try and find then unknown 

bands like The Invisible, and the post-industrial landscape 

of their new site. One aspect of Sound City that often flies 

under the radar is their commitment to education and the 

recognition of the positive role they can play in providing 

experience and knowledge for tomorrow’s workforce in 

Liverpool, and in planting seeds for Liverpool’s creative 

economy. To this end, Sound City’s education involvement 

programme is this year providing opportunities for 

Their showcases are a hugely exciting representation of 

Liverpool music right now, with the likes of CAROUSEL, 

YOUTH HOSTEL, FERAL LOVE and PINK KINK taking to the 

Cavern Stage across Saturday and Sunday (15:00 to 17:45 on 

both days). 

When it comes to recognising the impact that festivals 

like Sound City can have for creatives, HUGH BAIRD COLLEGE 

Festival Management tutor (and bassist in Domino-signed 

Liverpool legends Clinic) Brian Campbell has personal 

experience: “In 2011, my own band headlined a night in 

St Luke’s Bombed Out Church as part of Sound City. After 

playing most venues throughout the city during our time, 

students from educational establishments including this was probably our favourite home show. So when I 

Liverpool John Moores University, Hugh Baird College, 

City of Liverpool College, Liverpool Hope University and 

Edge Hill University. 

It’s with some justification that greyer heads might 

complain of the injustice that their student experience 

consisted of a library pass and a tome on agrarian methods 

in Britain circa 1200-1400; today’s students are making the 

most of having a world-class festival on their doorstep by 

getting involved in journalism, sound production, app and 

art production, festival management, and even playing the 

festival themselves. The experience is proving invaluable as 

well: students from previous years have gone on to work 

at Sunday Best, Glastonbury, Festival No. 6 and Manchester 

Arena, amongst many others. 

EDGE HILL UNIVERSITY have had a constant presence at 

became course leader it was one of my first aims to get 

the course and students involved with Sound City, as workbased 

learning is an important element of our courses.” As a 

result, Hugh Baird College’s Festival Management students 

will be involved in the festival and Sound City+, giving them 

the same practical experience and spark of inspiration that 

Campbell had. 

The CITY OF LIVERPOOL COLLEGE have also teamed 

up with Sound City to provide their students with firsthand 

experience. Aside from hosting a showcase on the 

Cavern Stage on Sunday (12:15 to 14:45), their students 

will be exhibiting their apps and animations at Sound 

City+, and their Journalism, Photography, Performing Arts 

and Event Management students will be benefitting from 

work experience. On the subject, the college’s Principal, 

the festival over the past few years: they return again this 

year with their massively successful The Label Recordings 

running two showcases. Run by the university’s students, 

these showcases provide great hands-on experience 

for those involved, and the students complement this 

by broadening their industry knowledge by attending 

the Sound City+ conference. The Label Recordings has 

become well known for providing Edge Hill’s students 

with the chance to run a record label, and it was in fact 

at Sound City in 2014 that Heavenly Recordings boss 

Jeff Barrett spotted and subsequently signed one of 

the label’s first acts, Hooton Tennis Club. The Farm bassist 

and The Label Recordings founder Carl Hunter recognises 

the possibilities of partnering with Sound City, saying, 

“It gives North West musicians the chance to be exposed 

to hundreds of music lovers, broadcasters and, potentially, 

label representatives over the course of a weekend.” 

Elaine Bowker, is full of enthusiasm for the opportunities 

it hands their students, recognising that, “they not only 

get invaluable working experience but also build contacts 

and relationships which will stand them in good stead in 

their future careers. It’s one thing to engage in theoretical 

and academic study but it’s entirely another to apply those 

principles in what can sometimes be quite pressured 

environments.” 

Elsewhere in this magazine and at Sound City+ you’ll 

find many thoughts on the tension between economic 

development and the creative industries, and on this 

subject Bowker argues that initiatives like Sound City and 

the education they can provide can help draw both business 

and creativity into the city: “The bigger picture, of course, is 

that events like Sound City play a critical role in the city’s 

economic development, helping to drive the visitor economy, 

job creation and enterprise in the creative and cultural sector. 

Our role as a college is to ensure that the city is helping to 

nurture this creativity and producing a workforce which has 

the skills to help accelerate activity in these sectors.” 

Evidently in agreement are LIVERPOOL JOHN MOORES 

UNIVERSITY’s World of Work team, who are similarly 

committed to contributing to their students’ employability 

by getting them involved in audio visual and music 

production, journalism and events management across 

the weekend. Ten students will also be launching Sound 

City TV under the tutelage of award-winning director Glenn 

Hanstock; as part of their involvement, the students will be 

filming the entire weekend in order to produce Sound City’s 

official video. 

Over in the world of student radio, LIVERPOOL HOPE 

UNIVERSITY’s This Radio students will be milling around 

reporting on the festival and Sound City+, whilst the same 

university’s musical talents will be on show via LEFTBACKS 

(MailChimp Stage, Sunday, 12:45) and TOM VAIL (MailChimp 

Stage, Saturday, 11:00) over the weekend, and their art 

students will be decorating parts of the festival site with 

their own original work. 

That, in fact, is just the start, and if you study the lineup 

carefully you’ll find that the University of the West 

of Scotland, Leeds College of Music and University of 

Westminster are all putting artists on over the weekend as 

well: the whole of the MUSIC FUTURES programme going 

to show that Sound City, it turns out, is as much about 

education as it is about escapism 


THE TITANIC 

HOTEL 

SOUND CITY+ TIMETABLE 

BLACKSTAR SUITE ALPHABET SUITE THE DREAM FACTORY SOFA SESSIONS 

10:00 

PANEL: Ticket To Ride 

(hosted by Skiddle) 

PANEL: Do Not Wash - 

the role of the label 

TED-style talk: 

Nathalie Du Bois 

11:00 

12:00 

PANEL: Discover gems in 

the Asian Music Markets 

(hosted by UKTI) 

PANEL: DIY or DIE - 

doing it yourself in the 

digital age (hosted by 

Drowned in Sound) 


Matt Parsons 


Simon Parkes 

13:00 

PANEL: The Role Of A 

Modern Music Publisher 

(hosted by MPA) 

PANEL: Fun, Fun, Fun On 

The Autobahn - marketing 

in the digital age 

PANEL: Power To The People 

- agents and bookers 

14:00 

15:00 

PANEL: Stage Play - how 

to 'get on' at festivals 

PANEL: War Stories - 

Powerful women and 

men in the industry 

PANEL: Beyond 

Blogs (hosted by 


PANEL: The Devil Is In 

The Data (hosted by 



Alan McGee 

How To Be Successful In 

Streaming with Believe Digital 

SYNC workshop 

With Nathalie Du Bois and 

6 Degrees Entertainment 

16:00 

PANEL: Nightlife Matters - 

from acorns to oak trees 

17:00 

PANEL: Come Together 

- united we stand 

(hosted by PRS) 

PANEL: The Distant Echo 

- placing your music in 

films and television 

Help Musicians 

UK workshop 

18:00 

PANEL: Liquid Gold 

- the value of music 

in the 21st century 

(hosted by UK Music) 


Jen Otter Bickerdike 

Black Ice 

In conversation with 

Dave Haslam 

19:00

SOUND CITY TIMETABLE 

18:00 00:00 

17:00 

16:00 

15:00 

14:00 

13:00 

12:00 

Georgia 

Viola Beach 

Kyko 

Sugarmen 

Norma 

Jean Martine 

Dead 

Buttons 

Colonel 

Mustard & 

The Dijon 5 

Floating Points... 

Greg Wilson Âme 

Mano Le Tough 

Derek Kaye 

Mickey 9s False 

JUDAS 

Xam Volo 

Advertising 

1Eye Blick Bassy 

The 

Bulletproof 

Bomb 

Gallery 

Circus 

I Set The 

Sea On Fire 

Blue Saint Tom Low 

Oh Pep! 

Cavalry 

Youth Hostel 

Shrinking 

Minds 

Irene and 

The Disappointments 

Storme 

Somerville Bridges 

Atlas 

Wynd 

Barron 

In Conversation: 

Greg Wilson 

Brazilica Samba 

workshop 


Sean Adams 

Leftfield 

... Mount Kimbie (DJ set) 

DJ Koze 

Mez Seramic Levelz 

Novelist 

Young Fathers 

Carnival 

Youth 

Feral Love & 

Wake Island 

Taiwan The 

Chairman 

City Calm 

Down 

Violet Skies 

We’re No 

Heroes 

CaStLeS 

Fleur 

De Lys 

Connah 

Evans 

Cabbage 


Paddy Considine 

THE ATLANTIC STAGE 

THE BALTIC WAREHOUSE 

THE NORTH STAGE 

THE TALL SHIP 

CARGO STAGE 

THE CAVERN STAGE 

City Calm 

Down 

MAILCHIMP RECORD STORE 

TIM PEAKS DINER 

Slow 

Dancer 

Hein Cooper 

Julia 

Jacklin 

Tempesst 

Hein 

Cooper... 

Carnival 

Youth 

_RHL 

Xylaroo 

Oh Pep! 

The Left 

Backs 

23:00 

22:00 

21:00 

20:00 

19:00 

18:00 

Catfish And The Bottlemen 

SATURDAY 




Sleaford Mods 

Band Of Skulls 

Deadbear Fizzy Blood 

Spook 

School 

Johnny 

Sands 

Boo Seeka 

Buslav 

Koala Voice Leyya 

Tunacola 

Coquin 

Migale 

The Hearing Cherie & 

Renno 

Jesse Will 

Eden 

Royals 

Sankofa 

Lifafa 

Slow 

Dancer 

... Dan Owen 


Tinun’s 

Beds 

In Parks 

Blueprint Blue 

Tear 

Riding 

The Low 

THE TALL SHIP 

CARGO STAGE 




Suzie 

Stapleton 

Bongo's Bingo 

Las Aves 


Jason 

Williamson

18:00 00:00 

17:00 

16:00 

15:00 

14:00 

13:00 

12:00 

SUNDAY 

Neon Waltz 

Inheaven 

Bill 

Ryder-Jones 

C Duncan 


Anchoress 

Temenik 

Electric 


Jemmy Gerd Janson 

Henrik Schwarz 

Makes No Sense 


Barbagallo Crows 

Postaal 

Trudy 

and the 

Romance 

Miserable 

Faith 


Night 

Cafe 

Sky 

Valley 

Mistress 


Anteros 

The Lottery 

Winners 

The Stamp 

Little 

Triggers 

Oh The 

Guilt 

THE TALL SHIP 

Tally 

Spear 

Rosie 

Blackaller 

Karina 

Ramage 

Goodbye 

Brighton 

Victoria 

Caro Heir 

Kell 

Fighting 

Caravans 

Brooders 

CARGO STAGE 

Feral 

love 

Pink Kink 

Red 

rum club 

Weekend 

wars 

Skarksy 

and Such 

Caulfield 

Kiki 

Kand 


Cubes 


Hushtones 


Denis & 

Lightcraft The Night 

Aldo 

Bulp Echotape.... 

Suzie 

Stapleton 



Roisin Murphy 


Alexei Sayle 


Seymour Stein-Sire 


Dave Haslam 


23:00 

22:00 

21:00 

20:00 

19:00 

18:00 

Shura 

The Dandy Warhols 

Circa Waves 

The Coral 


Motor City Drum Ensemble 

Hot Chip (DJ set) 

2manydjs 


Peter Doherty 

Kagoule 

The Big 

Dilly Dally 

Moon 

Holy Esque 


O Captain Ropoporose 

LOCK 

She Drew 

The Gun 

Pit Ponies 

THE TALL SHIP 

Laybricks DTSQ 

The57 Patients 

Tempesst Wake island L.A. Foster 

Foxtrott 

We Are 


Night 

CARGO STAGE 

Eliza & 

The Bear 

The Wholls Elle Exxe 

White 

Surf Dads 


Zolas 

Living 

Hour 

Queen City 

Stoop Kids 

Joe 

Nolan 


The K 

Julia Jacklin Chelou 

Bantam 

Lyons 

... 




TIM PEAKS DINER Circa Waves 

Yucatan 

Hot Vestry 

The Pheromoans 

Documenta 

G.O.D 

Bear Growls Bowie Disco

30 


Map 

TICKET 

INFORMATION 

Festival walk-up prices: 

2-Day Passes – £80 

VIP 2-Day Passes - £110 

Single Day Passes - £47 

VIP Single Day Passes - £60 

• Wristbands will be 

available at the Wristband 

Exchange Point at box 

office from 11:00 on 27th 

May 2016. Queuing may be 

required. 

• The event is strictly 

over-16s only. This event 

adheres to the Challenge 

25 policy: proof of age 

may be required and 

admittance will be refused 

if not provided. The valid 

forms of ID are Passport, 

Photo Driving Licence, 

PASS Card and Military ID. 

• Sound City entrance 

grants entry to Liverpool 

Sound City 2016 branded 

gigs on a first come first 

served basis subject to 

the individual venue’s 

capacity. 

• Purchased wristbands / 

accommodation cannot be 

refunded. 

• ALL wristbands will be 

attached and clamped at 

the Wristband Exchange 

point and won’t be 

handed out without being 

attached to the customer’s 

wrist. 

• Wristbands MUST be 

collected in person by the 

lead booking name, with a 

valid proof of purchase. 

• Once on the festival site 

we will be working to a no 

re-entry policy. Last entry 

to the site will be 16:00 

each day, anyone arriving 

after then may not be 

allowed access to the site. 

• The festival reserves the 

right to add, withdraw 

or substitute artists, and 

to vary the advertised 

programme and timings 

without being liable to pay 

compensation. 

• Ticket holders consent 

to inclusion in official 

photographic, visual 

and audio promotion / 

recording of the festival. 

• Exposure to loud music 

may cause damage to 

hearing, please bring ear 

defenders / plugs if you 

require them. 


Bido scamp v2.qxp_Layout 1 25/04/2016 09:37 Page 1 

THE LABEL SHOWCASE 

CAVALRY| YOUTH HOSTEL|SHRINKING MINDS|IRENE AND THE DISAPPOINTMENTS|FERAL LOVE|PINK KINK|RED RUM CLUB| WEEKEND WARS 

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Saturday 28 th May & Sunday 29 th May, 3-6PM 

CAVERN STAGE | Hosted by BBC Introducing’s Dave Monks 

CAVALRY | YOUTH HOSTEL | SHRINKING MINDS | IRENE AND THE DISAPPOINTMENTS 

| FERAL LOVE | PINK KINK | RED RUM CLUB | WEEKEND WARS | 

The Label Recordings is the only fully industry-focused, university-based record label in the UK. We find exciting new music and launch 

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Highly Commended: Excellence and Innovation in the Arts – Times Higher Education 2015 

Industry connection partner 

for the 2016 Liverpool Sound City Festival and Conference 

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Search: The Label Recordings 

R 

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32 


Baltic Warehouse 

After last year’s geographical relocation, you might assume 

that the Sound City organisers would play it safe and simply 

bed in at their new home. Far from it: not only have they 

streamlined the event down to two days of performances 

but they’ve also decided to embrace dance culture by 

turning over the vast Baltic Warehouse to local promoters 

FREEZE and letting them get on with the job of drawing in 

the North’s dance music connoisseurs – potentially quite a 

different crowd from your average festivalgoers. 

When Freeze founder Rob Casson fancied having a go at 

a bit of DJing back in the early noughties, he certainly didn’t 

have this in mind. He’d been a regular at Cream and thought 

he’d try his hand on the other side of the decks. After picking 

up some cheap turntables he started playing at Bar Zero. 

“I’d spend all my money in HMV on a Saturday morning so I 

had something different to play that night,” he laughs, “and 

then I moved on to the Lemon Lounge, which was really 

busy, and I thought, ‘I quite like this!’” That last statement 

is somewhat typical of Casson’s understated, laid-back 

style and he admits to being a reluctant interviewee: “In 

10 years of Freeze, I’ve only done two interviews; I’m a bit 

uncomfortable with them.” 

How does an organisation that seemingly shuns 

pushy self-promotion end up being, in the words of 

dance magazine Mixmag, such “an important dance 

music institution”? The answer seems to lie in their ability 

to attract top-quality artists to an increasingly off-kilter 

set of locations and in the sheer dedication of the 

Freeze team. The team currently consists of Adam Penney, 

Naomi Hesketh and Sam Newsham, who look after the 

bar, logistics and production respectively, and Jemmy, their 

resident DJ, who, according to Casson, “has no ego, so he’s 

always happy to provide fantastic warm-up sets for the 

headline acts.” 

In 2010, having already decided it would be interesting 

to work outside the usual inner-city haunts, they found 

themselves sharing a Williamson Tunnels gig with 

promoters Harvest Sun, whose Tom Lynch informed Casson 

that they were putting on Edwyn Collins at the Anglican 

Cathedral. “Well, if they could do that,” reminisces Casson, “I 

thought ‘I want Freeze to do it.’ And we did!” 

Of course, it wasn’t quite as simple as that. When asked 

how receptive the Cathedral authorities and congregation 

were to his proposal, he admits that “there were certainly 

mixed feelings. But really it was Justin Welby [then Dean of 

Liverpool, now Archbishop of Canterbury]; he managed to 

convince the doubters.” So, dance culture benefitting from 

‘trendy vicar syndrome’? Again, not quite that simple. “We 

had meetings virtually every week for eight months, and he 

could see the benefits of bringing so many young people 

into the Cathedral who maybe would never ordinarily be 

there. And we managed to convince them that we would 

totally respect the space, and we did. The crowd were 

fantastic. Justin Welby came to the gig and loved it. We did 

workshops for local schoolkids and the unemployed and 

made it a community event.” 

The dance world took note, with Ibiza Spotlight declaring 

that “dance music simply doesn’t happen in anywhere as 

magnificent as this”, and Freeze took another step on a 

journey which has seen them put on events at the equally 

unlikely locations of Lancaster Prison, St. George’s Hall, 

Newsham Asylum and Manchester Cathedral, and almost 

taking up residence in what Casson describes as “our 

home”, the Bombed Out Church. In doing so, they have 

attracted an increasingly stellar band of globetrotting 

DJs (Todd Terje, Dixon, John Digweed, Luciano, Jamie xx, to 

name but a few) and a loyal band of supporters who are 

all too willing to embrace the shock of new and 

unconventional locations. 

What makes this success yet more impressive is that all 

the members of Freeze are involved because they love it. 

“We’ve all got good jobs,” Casson says, “which is just as 

well really ‘cos some of the gigs we put on make a loss! It’s 

funny really.” I put it to him that this is a very light-hearted 

approach to take but he laughs it off. “We see someone 

we want to put on and just go for it. We always sell out 

but sometimes that’s not enough to cover it, but the gigs 

are fantastic. It’s the combination of amazing, different 

locations and top artists that people love.” 

I ask him how the Sound City connection came about. 

“We did the Bombed Out Church on the same weekend as 

Sound City last year with Jamie xx. We sold it out, so I think 

they were impressed and approached us with the idea of 

doing the festival. It’s the first festival we’ve done and to be 

part of a home-town festival is great.” So this appears to be 

a symbiotic arrangement which sees Sound City embracing 

a different musical culture and which gives Freeze the 

opportunity to play another unique location in the wider 

context of an established festival. Looking at the line-up 

they’ve secured, this seems an opportunity they’ve grasped 

with both hands. 

Headliners and sonic powerhouses LEFTFIELD should 

test the structural integrity of the warehouse, while it will 

be interesting to see how FLOATING POINTS translates the 

fragility of debut album Elaenia to the live arena. Thrown 

into the mix are DJ sets from some true heavyweights: 

GREG WILSON brings his legendarily weird mixing skills; 

MANO LE TOUGH his eclectic mix of house, techno and disco 

(“I’ve been chasing him for 18 months,” admits Casson); 

Stuttgart’s MOTOR CITY DRUM ENSEMBLE brings muchlauded 

deep house invention (the ensemble being Danilo 

Plessow’s collection of drum machines); and ROMAN FLÜGEL 

his chameleonic techno ambience. Add in DJ sets from 

HOT CHIP, 2MANYDJS and MOUNT KIMBIE, and the overall 

impression is that the Freeze guys have quietly dropped one 

of the early summer’s hottest tickets right onto our doorsteps. 

clubfreeze.co.uk 

Freeze take over the Baltic Warehouse Stage during 

this year’s Sound City. Keep your eyes open for news of 

Freeze’s after parties each night. 

WAREHOUSE MUSIC 

FREEZE PRESENTS: BALTIC WAREHOUSE 

Words / Glyn Akroyd Photography / Robin Clewley 


34 



FLOATING POINTS 

Words / Phil Gwyn / @Notmanyexperts 

It is often said that Margaret Thatcher survived on just 

four hours of sleep a night during her stint as PM; whether 

apocryphal or not, this relentless urgency to get stuff done 

now seems to be a power being put to far less sinister use 

by FLOATING POINTS (real name Sam Shepherd), who until 

recently was splitting his time between DJing, recording 

an electronic opus, compulsively crate digging, leading an 

11-piece ensemble, running an independent record label, 

and even finding a bit of time to complete that classic parttime 

pursuit – a PhD in neuroscience. 

The now Dr Sam Shepherd greets us groggily on the 

phone even though it’s 10.30 in the morning; of course, he 

was up late in his home-made studio in Islington the night 

before, mixing. Mixing what exactly, we are duty bound 

to probe, prompting just a knowing chuckle. A handful of 

days later we find out what he was up to: a surprise new 

EP, Kuiper, the follow-up to Elaenia, by common consent 

one of 2015’s most sublime and considered albums. Kuiper 

projects Elaenia forwards along the trajectory it was on via 

twitching drum machines, restless jazz drumming, pulsing 

bass, guitars, delicate piano, floods of synth, a sweeping 

string section and rogue saxophones all over the place. The 

full postmodern orchestra, as devised by Floating Points. 

Even a year ago, this state of affairs might have seemed 


a fairly remote possibility. Despite being revered in dance 

music circles for his non-conformist approach to DJing – 

which re-contextualises funk and bossa nova records as 

dancefloor catalysts – and his Vacuum Boogie and Shadows 

EPs – which infused house music with humanity and a 

sense of space – an ambient masterpiece was not entirely 

expected. Shepherd, though, wasn’t remotely fazed about 

seeking out new musical spaces. “I’m not like, ‘I’ve got to 

keep making house bangers because that’s what everyone 

expects of me.’ As soon as I try and second-guess what the 

audience wants I think there’s no point in making music. 

You can have 1000 people there and they might look like 

they just want to hear banging techno, but then you play 

a Brazilian record and everyone goes insane. And there’s a 

pocket of, like, 20 people there for who it’s their favourite 

record ever. People’s cultural references are vast and I don’t 

think I should offend anyone by a) second-guessing them 

and b) thinking that they can’t handle it.” 

Elaenia’s flowing, almost modal-jazz-like understanding 

of space makes sound as much out of the tension in 

between the music’s elements as it does through virtuoso 

flourishes, which Shepherd says was the influence of Talk 

Talk’s seminal record Laughing Stock. All that obsessive 

digging has left an imprint on him, too. “All those records 

were made in a room, and you hear that room in the sound 

system, whereas techno, for example, is made entirely 

within the box and it’s difficult for it to have any of that 

space. My favourite electronic records have a sense of 

architectural space that they belong in, and I think that’s 

always what I’m trying to achieve.” 

Back to April 2014, when Elaenia was just a figment of 

Shepherd’s furtive imagination and a way of dispelling his 

frustration with his PhD’s lab work. His close mates knew 

he was concocting something in his studio; his close mates 

in this instance not being your standard fonts of endearing 

idiocy and football trivia, but Kieran Hebden and Dan Snaith 

(Four Tet and Caribou to me and you). Word got around, and 

before long he was being plied with offers. “Dimensions 

Festival came along and asked me to do it live in their 

amphitheatre. I’d seen the Caribou show there the previous 

year and I was like, ‘This is an insanely beautiful place!’” 

From that point, the Floating Points Ensemble was born 

out of the need to bring together a group talented enough 

to realise his vision. “I’d been doing a lot of recording with 

The Invisible and as musicians they’re this unsurpassable 

unit. Such solid players. All over the Adele album; absolutely 

insane rhythm section. Alex, the guitarist, is also a friend of 

mine who plays guitar for Hejira, who we put out on Eglo


35 

[the label Shepherd runs with Alexander Nut]. A lot of the 

wind and strings are people who went to music college in 

London. They’re very adept musicians, so I can print off some 

solo and they’ll play it right immediately, so we do these 

rehearsals and they’re just like, ‘Why are we here?’ And I’m 

like, ‘We’re not rehearsing for you, we’re rehearsing for me!’” 

“As soon as I try and 

second-guess what 

the audience wants I 

think there’s no point 

in making music.” 

Since testing the waters at Islington Assembly Hall 

last November, the ensemble have been touring the UK 

to rapturous acclaim, a process which has altered Elaenia. 

“We’ve been playing chunks of the album live, so I’ve been 

using that live experience as an impetus to write new music. 

It’s grown. It’s evolving.” This makes Shepherd probably one 

of just a handful of musicians who can compare the thrill 

of DJing to thousands of convulsing bodies to the pleasure 

of patiently constructing ambient, jazz-leaning electronica. 

Or, as Shepherd puts it, “DJing has its peaks and troughs of 

excitement: you mix something and people are like ‘Whooo!’ 

But playing live, I’ve realised, is like a constant stream of 

energy from me and everyone on stage. It has the power to 

be very intense and that power is right with you all the time. 

I’m not dissing DJing, because I love it and I think there’s an 

artistry to it, but it’s a different thing to playing live.” 

Whether DJing or playing live, all artists need spaces that 

help make their music something more than it seems on 

record, something that facilitates hedonism or introspection 

or immersion or whatever. Yet noise complaints have 

directly or indirectly stifled creative hubs such as The 

Kazimier in our own city and Plastic People in London. 

Having played such a central part in the life of Plastic 

People, as well as having DJed at The Kazimier in late 2015, 

does Shepherd think that these cultures are in danger of 

being suffocated by councils? A nerve clearly touched, he’s 

suddenly off on a fiery monologue worthy of Samuel L. 

Jackson in Pulp Fiction: 

“When Plastic People was set up it was in a very 

undesirable part of London. It’s transformed radically, and 

it’s because of places like Plastic People that it became 

culturally relevant. And then it became quite cool and people 

starting developing properties there and then they start 

complaining. It’s very difficult for a council to comprehend: 

they don’t realise that by granting planning permission in 

an up-and-coming area that they’re at risk of upsetting the 

balance between those cultural reasons that people want 

to be there. It will turn into a city of people just existing 

but not living.” 

“I think there’s more to be done by the clubs; they could 

be more sound-isolated, but that’s major engineering. 

But then I do sort of think, if you’re going to build a club, 

and clubs that we like to go to, we want a place where the 

sound system is impeccable and there’s a sprung dance 

floor, and I do often feel like a lot of clubs don’t install a 

sprung dance floor and don’t install the most impeccable 

sound system and tune it and maintain it because the reality 

is that it’s a business and they’re not making enough money 

at the bar. I know the economy of running a club intimately 

– it’s insanely difficult – but more isolation is going to help. I 

went to a club in Munich recently called Charlie, and they’ve 

built a room within a room and suspended it, and there 

were flats directly above it. They can do it; you can get up 

to almost 100dB and nobody can hear it outside the room. 

Although I think if you move to an area where there’s lots of 

clubs, and you expect to get a good night’s sleep on a Friday 

and Saturday night, and you’re going to start phoning the 

police, I think that makes you a bit of an ‘annoying person’, 

to be honest...” 

The irony of this steady trudge of commercialism over 

creativity is that, even if you only look at it economically, 

it makes no sense. “It’s insane,” Shepherd continues. “You 

imagine Plastic People being a room that holds 200 people 

that was the incubator of dubstep and dubstep being the 

instigator of EDM in America, and that being a multibilliondollar 

industry: the roots go back to that tiny room, and that 

soundsystem, and that neighbour that might complain and 

turn that whole thing around and make something nonexistent.” 

“I’ve had experiences with people complaining about 

noise and I know their character, and you’re kind of like, 

‘You really, really wanted to live here... but you’re not 

investing in the culture of the area or being a part of it, so 

why are you living here? Just because it’s cool on paper? You 

want to observe it but you never want it to actually interact 

with you?!’” 

In a sense, that is the beauty of Sound City and 

The Kazimier’s successor, the Invisible Wind Factory, 

which is also found in the post-industrial sprawl round 

Liverpool’s northern docks. Both in the city and removed 

from it, they have the now utopian appeal of being cut off 

from the world of 200-grand student flats and skin-deep 

hipsters – which is undoubtedly the best atmosphere we’ve 

got in which to be submerged in the rising tide of Floating 

Points’ deafening restraint. 

floatingpoints.co.uk 

BALTIC WAREHOUSE | SATURDAY | 17:30 

bidolito.co.uk

36 



LEFTFIELD are one of the dance world’s true pioneers, a group 

that have changed the course of electronic music history 

by developing the template for dancefloor-filling, ceilingshaking 

house/techno anthems. Having earnt respect and a 

following within the underground progressive house scene 

of the early 90s, it wasn’t until 1995 that they truly broke 

into the mainstream with their now classic album Leftism, 

and its signature hit Phat Planet (which was used to great 

effect on an iconic Guinness advert). Nominated for the 

Mercury Prize and later hailed as the 80th greatest album of 

all time by Q Magazine, Leftism – and its follow-up Rhythm 

And Stealth (1999) – propelled Leftfield to household-name 

status, and they seemed unstoppable as the show carried 

on for another seven glorious years. However, in 2002, half 

of the group (Paul Daley) left, reducing the prospects of 

any future output. Luckily for electrophiles the world over 

the dream was not dead, and last year saw the return of 

Leftfield on disc for the first time in 15 years with the release 

of their third LP Alternative Light Source. 

When we catch Leftfield’s now main man, Neil Barnes, 

over the phone it is perhaps under slightly different 

circumstances than if we’d met him at the back end of the 

90s. Instead of finding ourselves immersed in a sea of blaring 

house and ensnared in strobe lighting amongst a hoard of 

ecstatic ravers, we hear instead the becalmed sounds of 

children’s laughter and the outdoors in the background. 

The years have been kind to Barnes, allowing him to have 

enough distance from his Leftfield work to get back in the 

mindset to make music again, but also keeping him in 

touch with the movers and shakers through his regular DJ 

sets. Still, the resurrection of Leftfield as a live entity back 

in 2010 was one that was met with huge excitement, as 

Barnes was joined by long-time collaborator Adam Wren for 

a headline set at Creamfields. This, and Barnes’ continuing 

DJ sets, brought hope of a new record, a new chapter in the 

history Leftfield reignited by live performance. “There was 

[originally] no real plan to do another album,” Barnes says 

when asked if he ever thought he’d make another Leftfield 

album. “It was only after doing the live tour in 2010 that it 

became a possibility. The idea was sort of mooted to me: 

‘What about another album?’ And I didn’t really think about 

it, because I was doing it on my own now – or largely on my 

own, without Paul [Daley] – so I thought, ‘No, I’m not sure 

that’ll work’.” 

Whilst DJing around the world, Barnes rediscovered the 

catalyst he needed for a new creative output, in the form 

of Rhythm And Stealth engineer Wren. Having worked with 

Leftfield as a whole for many years it seemed only fitting 

for the old friend to fill the Daley-shaped hole. “Adam wrote 

a lot of the tracks for me as well, so it’s almost like a duo 

again in a way. There’s only so much you can do on your 

own.” With this, Barnes and Wren set about crafting the new 

album. If any Leftfield fans were worried that the group’s 

return would be in the form of an uncomfortable caricature 

of their former selves, Barnes shared the same worries. “I 

didn’t want to make a record that sounded like Leftism or 

Rhythm And Stealth, but obviously I wanted to bridge a gap 

with something, which is what that album is in a weird way. 

It’s sort of a ‘coming back’ type of record. Maybe it would 

have been easier for me to make a record more like Leftism 

– it probably would have sold a lot more – but it would have 

just been fun [for] all the guys that want to hear 90s dance 

music.” 

It is perhaps this approach to creating new music that has 

led to the album’s critical acclaim. Rather than jumping on 

the bandwagon and making an album steeped in nostalgia, 

Barnes has stayed true to the character and ideals that 

have made him who he is in the world of dance. “I suppose 

as long as I’m making music that is relevant, or has got 

some relevance, then that’s important. I mean, that’s what 

Leftfield should be doing.” By embracing innovation over 

rose-tinted 90s fetishism, he has been able to keep the 

group hurtling forwards rather than trawling backwards: 

however, he has held on to just enough of the trademark 

nuances to keep old fans happy. It doesn’t take long for 

things to feel distinctively Leftfield on Alternative Light 

Source (about 30 seconds in on its opener, Bad Radio, to 

be precise), with trademark meaty basslines and moody 

synths soon dominating; it’s a simultaneously familiar yet 

new experience. 

What makes Leftfield’s return all the more important is 

to see all their nuances with a fresh perspective, and to 

recognise how they’ve impacted the world of dance music 

today. “When I listen to some of Daniel Avery’s stuff, and 

all that stuff that’s coming out on Phantasy [Erol Alkan’s 

label], I don’t think it could have happened without Leftfield,” 

Barnes declares, expanding on this statement with: “I think 

Rhythm And Stealth is a real influence on techno. Leftfield 

invented the drop to vocals in the middle of the track... When 

we did it, the record company sent the mix back and said, 

‘Why are there no drums, where’s the track gone?!’ It’s so part 

of clubs now, but it didn’t exist [before]!” 

The live element of the band is really what seems to drive 

Barnes’ creative process, though: this is what brought him 

back to Leftfield after a 15-year hiatus and is something truly 

special. “We put on a good live show. I don’t quite know 

what people are expecting, maybe a really old-fashioned 

show, but we put on something really quite radical,” he 

muses, not wanting to give too much away. “It adds a real 

sort of strangeness to it. A lot of people said that it creates 

a gap between the performer and the audience – yeah, it 

does! But that’s good, I like that.” 

In an age where the performance of dance music can 

sometimes be considered to be stale and egocentric, Barnes 

seems to epitomise the opposite. “[It] becomes a real audiovisual 

experience, so that you’re not looking necessarily at 

the band, you’re just experiencing the music and the visual 

show, and the band are just sort of in there. It puts the 

mystery back into the performance.” And where better to 

house such a performance than in a huge warehouse in the 

semi-abandoned docklands of Liverpool – a true party city? 

Barnes seems to agree. “I can’t wait. That’s my type of gig. 

I love that warehouse type of vibe. That’s where Leftfield 

really belongs, I think. That’s where I feel most relaxed, in a 

club environment. An enclosed space, with loud music in a 

sweaty dungeon: it’s perfect.” 

leftfieldmusic.com 

BALTIC WAREHOUSE | SATURDAY / 22:30 

LEFTFIELD 

Words / Matt Hogarth Photography / Dan Wilton 


38 


The North Stage 

aren’t saying to the new generation, “Hey guys, paradise is 

in our countries! You don’t have to go and die like animals 

trying to get over the border because you think paradise is 

in France!”? Our government are really happy because then 

they can do whatever they want because people don’t really 

look at them – everyone wants to go. 

BLICK BASSY 

Words / Phil Gwyn / @Notmanyexperts Photography / Denis Rouvre 

BL!: Do you think that your music can play a part in spreading 

this message? 

BB: Absolutely, because, for me, being an artist is being 

someone who is lucky enough to be able to relay some 

good news to the people, and say, “Guys, please, believe in 

yourselves, believe in your history, believe in what you have 

because you are lucky, man. OK, we have a lot of problems, 

but guys, you are still alive today... And now is your time!” 

Apple have been justly slammed recently for their slippery 

avoidance of tax, but one thing that they can be proud of 

is bringing the music of BLICK BASSY to a wider audience. 

Fifteen seconds of Kiki’s gentle melodic drift during their 

2015 iPhone advert was all it took to endear him to a global 

audience, resulting in bookings that stretch through to 2017. 

Born in Cameroon, Bassy initially resisted the pressures 

to leave for Europe and forged a music career in his own 

country. He finally moved to France 10 years ago and put 

together his unique blend of guitar, cello, trombone and 

falsetto, which combine into something like Bon Iver 

transposed onto Cameroon. It has all the humanity and 

naked emotion you might expect from African music, but 

imprinted onto it is Bassy’s childhood and experiences of 

colonialism, his struggles as an immigrant in a sometimes 

intolerant country, and his fight to claim back the history 

and traditions of his own people. Phil Gwyn spoke to the 

man himself. 

Bido Lito!: Your most recent album, Akö, is sung entirely in 

Bassa – what is the message of the record? 

Blick Bassy: Mainly I’m talking about transmission between 

the new generation and the older one, and about education. 

Where I’m coming from in Africa, all the people are guides, 

you know, and being a guide means that you have a lot of 

responsibility; so I’m talking about education and the legacy 

that we want to give to our kids. 

BL!: Is that partly a result of your education, which taught 

you that anti-colonialists were immoral? 

BB: Yes, absolutely, because in our country people don’t have 

any idea of the real history of their own people... We have 

to start by teaching the kids the real history of guys like Um 

Nyobé, who was a fighter during French colonialism. I come 

from a tribe that Um Nyobé belonged to, and these tribes 

were described as killer tribes because they were fighting 


against the French. So in Cameroon people still think that 

our tribes are killers, because this is the official history! 

BL!: So is Akö partly about encouraging education to claim 

back your real history? 

BB: Exactly, yes. I want to say to people, “Man, we have to 

become the makers. We have to tell our story ourselves.” 

We still have some evidence. I was lucky enough to grow up 

in the village with my grandparents, and they were telling 

me stuff about how to live with the forest, with nature. But 

we took our history and we put it somewhere far away, and 

instead we decided to believe in something, in Christianity. 

And we changed seven times – we were first Catholic, and 

then we became Protestant, and then we changed again... 

And finally, today, I’m just believing in nature and my 

ancestors and humanity. 

BL!: I heard that you’re also writing a novel – what’s the 

idea behind it? 

BB: The novel is really about my view of the big lie of 

immigration, because I’m really aware of how it is to be an 

immigrant, having moved to France 10 years ago. During 

this time I was already living in France and I was stuck in 

Cameroon for nine months because France denied me a 

visa, and I was asking to myself, “How is it possible that a 

guy who was born in France at the same moment as me is 

able to go everywhere he wants? But if I just want to go in 

France or the UK to make my music and to do my job, this 

isn’t possible for me?” When Western countries decided to 

colonise Africa and sell people into slavery, I’m not sure that 

they applied for a visa. 

BL!: So do you think that young people in Africa are being 

sold an illusion that life is better in Europe? 

BB: Yeah, absolutely. How is it possible that in Africa on 

TV you see information about malaria and AIDS, but they 

BL!: Is that partly why you sing in Bassa? 

BB: This is one of the reasons. Also, in Cameroon, we have 

260 different languages and two national languages, which 

are English and French. Behind the language is the link 

between the new and the old generations. For example, my 

grandfather doesn’t speak any French, so if I speak to him, 

I have to speak in Bassa. And if he has some legacy, some 

history about our roots, he won’t be able to teach me if we 

don’t speak Bassa. Also, in music, each language has its own 

intonation, and these intonations bring something new to 

the melodies. 

BL!: Do you think that French and British colonialism had 

any effect on music in Cameroon? 

BB: I think that you can see whether the country was 

colonised by France or by Britain because they’re completely 

different. In the countries where the French were, people 

were fighting to keep their traditions and their music, 

because the French were asking people to kill their cultures 

and become a new people with French culture. 

BL!: It’s often argued that the French colonialists were 

obsessed with the idea of ‘assimilation’. 

BB: Yes, and I think it’s still the same in France; they are 

still talking about assimilation. How is this possible? Each 

human is unique. How is it possible to say, “No. Don’t be 

African, be French”? I’m really worried about that in Africa 

and our music and culture and traditions; I’m saying, “Guys, 

just be yourselves. If you want to have a career in music, 

everyone can be a star on YouTube, so just be yourselves.” 

But being yourself is complicated in a world where we want 

everyone to be the same. And to be yourself you first need 

to know who you are. 

blickbassy.com 

THE NORTH STAGE | SATURDAY | 17:30

Sound City has always had a reputation 

for picking the best of the bunch when it 

comes to emerging talent and this year 

is no different. The North Stage presents 

a selection of the current underground 

scene’s elite, from those still making their 

name to the established and iconic. 

Edinburgh punk hip hop trio YOUNG 

FATHERS (onstage at 23:00) head the bill 

on Saturday evening. They released their 

second album, White Men Are Black Men 

Too, last year to emphatic and universal 

critical acclaim that placed them firmly at 

the forefront of the alternative hip hop and 

indie worlds. The album was recorded in 

various places around the world, including 

Melbourne and London as well as Berlin 

and Edinburgh, and reflects this in its global 

sound. A seasoned touring band, their 

soulful, gripping live performance is one not 

to be missed. 

As a high-flyer of the grime renaissance, 

South London MC and producer NOVELIST 

(21:30) began to gain international attention 

in 2014 upon the release of the single 

Take Time, a collaboration with producer 

Mumdance. A rare new face behind the 

mic in a scene largely dominated by 

veterans, Novelist spits over beats with a 

contemporary spin on the angular simplicity 

of early grime production. From his early 

days on pirate radio, Nov became a regular 

feature on the likes of BBC 1 Xtra and Rinse 

FM and is currently signed to XL Recordings. 

At only 19 years of age, the Lewisham MC 

(born Kojo Kankam) has been called the 

“new face of grime” and was described by 

DJ Logan Sama as “the poster child for the 

first generation of real grime kids”. 

Singer-songwriter Sam Folorunsho, aka 

XAMVOLO (pictured), describes his music as 

“a messy mind over raw, dark jazz grooves”. 

A London native who’s been residing in 

Liverpool since 2012, Xam has been infusing 

the local music scene with his unique and 

mystical take on jazz and soul. He has gained 

the support of key industry figures off the 

back of his infectious debut EP The Closing 

Scene, which he worked on with legendary 

producer Steve Levine. “Ultimately, I want 

to create a community sharing the mindset 

I express through my music,” asserts Xam, 

onstage at 16:30. “I hope I’m able to do so. 

First, I’ve got to set the scene and show 

people what I’m all about.” 

London-based singer-songwriter 

SERAMIC continues the contemporary soul 

vibes on the North Stage. Though he has an 

enigmatic online presence (he claims “I just 

want the music to speak for itself”), the two 

tracks he currently has available – People Say 

and Waiting – speak volumes. The tracks are 

led by his vocals, occasionally accompanied 

by a gospel choir, soaring elegantly over 

minimal synths and percussion. Taking 

influence from Prince, Sly And The Family 

Stone, Funkadelic, D’Angelo, Outkast and 

Kendrick Lamar, Seramic appears on the 

North Stage at (19:30), and is certain to leave 

his own mark within this innovative lineage. 

THE NORTH 

STAGE 

SATURDAY HIGHLIGHTS 

Words / Matthew Wright Photography / Robin Clewley

40 


The North Stage 

Toronto alt rock quartet DILLY DALLY have blazed onto the 

scene over the past year, with debut album Sore drawing 

praise from all quarters for its turbulent laments. By 

melding together guttural grunge worthy of comparison 

to Pixies with the searing intensity of front-woman Katie 

Monks’ vocals, they’ve arrived at a sound simultaneously 

nostalgic and unfamiliar. Intrigued, we sent Matt Hogarth 

to grill Monks on grunge, gender, and Drake ahead of their 

appearance on the North Stage on Sunday. 

Bido Lito!: People are always comparing you to artists like 

Pixies, Kim Gordon and the Yeah Yeah Yeahs. Do you see this 

as a compliment or does the constant need to categorise 

you irritate you? 

Katie Monks: I’m not surprised when people say Pixies 

or early grunge. I mean, it’s just what I was listening to 

at the time when we were making the record, amongst 

other things. It’s the palette of sounds we were using to 

create our own picture, you know? However, I think we are 

doing something new and interesting both vocally and 

melodically. Face value – when people listen to the singles, 

yeah they get the comparisons, but I love those bands. 

BL!: As a band, you deal with many gender issues. Do 

you feel female artists within the music industry are 

disadvantaged? 

KM: We never set out to write songs about female issues, but 

I’m a girl and my songs are about my life. Like, Snakehead is 

a song for your guy friends, to try and tell them what it’s like 

to be on your period. I mean, it’s pretty chill really. In terms 

of sexism in the music industry, it’s hard for me to compare 

really. I mean, I wasn’t round in the 50s! I guess people say 

it’s got better. I can only draw from my life, but for me the 

music industry is the one place where I can be myself and 

get congratulated for it. I’m encouraged to speak my mind. I 

have no complaints, but in reality the world has a long way 

to go in terms of equality, so that’s going to seep into every 

business. Let me tell you it was a lot worse when I used to 

work as a waitress. 

BL!: What impact do you hope to have as a band? 

KM: I guess it sounds corny but just to connect with people. 

Liz [Ball, guitarist] and I were crazily obsessed fan girls 

when we were in high school and we wanna share that with 

everyone else. We want people to feel like that they can pick 

up a guitar too. The music that we make is pretty accessible 

in terms of playing it; it’s not pretentious and it’s not too 

much about the science of it all. We wanna empower people 

and make people feel like they can live their dreams. 

BL!: You recently said that Sore is an album that must be 

seen in real life. Do you thrive more off live performance 

than the recording process itself? 

KM: Absolutely, we’re a live band. Sound guys love us 

because we haven’t got 12 members, you know? What I 

mean is that we’re practical. It translates well in a small 

setting. We just love to get out on stage and, as we say in 

Canada, “giv’er”! 

BL!: In your live shows you have made Drake’s Know 

Yourself a regular track. Do you feel that Drake is the enemy 

or do you admire him? 

KM: I feel that everyone in the band has their own opinions 

on Drake and they change all the time. Depends on the 

weather, your mood, you know!? The best thing about the 

Drake cover is that when everyone’s fucking sick of hearing 

Drake everywhere we get it on stage and it feels dope to 

do it. I don’t think that anyone in the band is religious 

about Drake. I mean, he has become saturated in pop 

culture. The best bit is that everyone can relate, whether 

they love it or hate it. 

BL!: Has Toronto influenced your sound? 

KM: Totally! We moved to the city to a small flat and there’s 

a good scene there; a lot of indie labels and a lot of heavy 

music. That’s where we met Ben and Tony [Dilly Dally’s 

bassist and drummer]. I mean, we are one of the more 

poppy bands but all of our favourite live bands are from 

Toronto. It’s kind of self-sufficient because you don’t get a 

lot of touring bands, so it’s like a bubble that feeds itself. 

BL!: At the moment you’re signed to an indie label, Partisan 

Records. Is it important to you to stay independent? 

KM: Nah, we just want to work with people who we get a 

good vibe from. It doesn’t really matter at this point; we just 

want to get our message out there. I mean, everyone has 

to shop in Walmart once in a while. We’re not like, “Let’s 

be punk forever!” If more opportunities come along which 

allow us to make our art, then why wouldn’t we do that? 

At the moment we are more than happy with Partisan. We 

love those guys. They get our music, but it’s not a bold 

political statement. 

BL!: In light of that, do you feel that politics is important 

whilst in a band? 

KM: To me personally, yes, but for the band, no. I love 

the idea of creating a song that people can pull different 

meanings out of. I care more about emotional connection 

than political message. I mean, we grew up with radicals 

and protestors but we don’t want a political agenda in 

the band. Really, we just wanna make music which allows 

people to be themselves. 

BL!: Sore has seen much critical acclaim. What’s next for 

Dilly Dally? 

KM: We haven’t got any new material just yet. The plan 

for the meantime is to just tour the hell out of this 

album. I mean, we worked really hard for it, you know, 

and I’m just really proud of it. It was six years in the making 

and after it I just felt emotionally exhausted. I’m not too 

sure how much of me I have left, you know? Hopefully, 

though, when we’ve done enough touring I can get back 

to Toronto, get a nice little flat and just get down to me and 

the guitar. I’ve got imagery floating about but I need time to 

just sit and write. 

dillydallyband.com 

THE NORTH STAGE | SUNDAY | 21:30 

DILLY DALLY 

Words / Matt Hogarth Photography / David Waldnan 


THE NORTH 

STAGE 

SUNDAY HIGHLIGHTS 

Words / Matthew Wright 

Libertines and Babyshambles frontman 

PETER DOHERTY closes the North Stage this 

year with a solo set that begins at 23:00. 

Having created the contemporary indie 

rock archetype in the early 2000s with The 

Libertines (a template that remains alive 

and well to this day), Doherty has remained 

at the forefront of British songwriting as the 

singer of Babyshambles and through his 

own solo output. Having just returned from a 

sold-out tour of Europe with The Libs, where 

he appeared alongside fellow Libertine Carl 

Barât at John Cale’s performance of The 

Velvet Underground & Nico at Philharmonie 

de Paris, Doherty is currently touring Europe 

in his own right. With one solo album and 

three albums between The Libertines and 

Babyshambles, there’ll be no shortage of 

material for a classic, Arcadian singalong. 

London guitar pop gang THE BIG MOON 

(onstage at 20:30) have been active 

since April of last year, and are becoming 

increasingly known for their euphoric, 

reverb-covered anthems and exuberant 

live performances. Since their formation 

they have gained support from the likes 

of NME and DIY, released a string of selfproduced 

singles and been compared to 

everyone from PJ Harvey to The Slits. The 

Big Moon have recently returned from their 

own European tour and are heading out as 

openers for Mystery Jets this October. 

Another London favourite, garage-psych 

rockers CROWS (16:30) have been described 

by NME as “one of the UK’s most brutal and 

brilliant live bands”. They released their 

debut EP, Unwelcome Light, in March, and it 

is as dark and charged a UK punk release 

as has been heard in recent years; some 

of singer James Cox’s vocals were even 

recorded in a pitch-black hallway, though 

purely for practical reasons. Their intense 

live show is sure to be a highlight of this 

year’s North Stage. 

And if that’s not enough of the UK’s finest 

emerging garage acts for you, check 

out Nottingham experimental grunge 

three-piece KAGOULE (19:30). The group 

are childhood friends, something that 

they believe shows in the unique style, 

perspective and energy of their collective 

output. Their YouTube mixes, entitled Dr. 

Kagoule’s Musical Psychotherapy Sessions, 

display an impressively diverse taste. Their 

debut LP Urth drew upon an esoteric range 

of influences: US underground obscurities 

of the 80s and 90s, the dark folk music of 

Pentangle and playing style of Bert Jansch, 

contemporary fantasy and sci-fi literature, 

and ancient wood-cut artwork. 

Recognised as one of Glasgow’s most 

exciting and inventive new bands, 

HOLY ESQUE (18:30) make a stop at the 

North Stage in the middle of their first 

European tour. The four-piece have drawn 

comparisons to Echo & The Bunnymen and 

The Undertones, and they released their 

first album, At Hope’s Ravine, in February: a 

catchy and intelligent debut made unique 

by its colossal riffs and vocalist Pat Hynes’ 

torn vocal style. The group have toured 

extensively since they formed in 2012 and 

have earned a reputation as one of the UK’s 

fiercest live acts.

42 


The Cavern Stage 


WAKE ISLAND X FERAL LOVE 

Words / Christopher Torpey / @CATorp 

Liverpool’s musical heritage is ensconced in folklore, 

and the Cavern Club is revered at its heart for its incubation 

of the Merseybeat era. With a nod to that past and with 

a firm eye on the future, the Cavern Stage plays host to 

a number of showcases this year that bring together 

artists from across the UK and North America for a series 

of parties. 

One of the stand-out moments of this varied and exciting 

Cavern Stage bill comes at the end of Saturday night’s 

proceedings (22:30), when Liverpool-based dreamwave 

two-piece FERAL LOVE collaborate with electronic duo WAKE 

ISLAND, who base their efforts between Montreal and New 

York. Despite having never met each other in person, the 

four musicians – Adele Emmas and Christian Sandford of 

Feral Love, and Philippe Manasseh and Nadim Maghzal of 

Wake Island – have been conversing with each other via 

the nodes of the internet to work on a showpiece musical 

collaboration, which will be presented live for the first 

time here at Sound City, and will then be re-presented in 

September at the POP Montreal festival. 

We caught up with both acts ahead of their Cavern Stage 

performance to get a bit more information about a project 

that Adele described as “a bit of a mad curve ball”. 

Wake Island: “Both festivals really wanted to get artists 

from both sides to collaborate together in the hope of 

creating a cultural bridge between Liverpool and Montreal. 

When this project was proposed to us, we immediately 

jumped on board because it sounded like a really cool 

idea, and this was confirmed when we actually met 

Feral Love over the internet. We feel like this is going to be 

a fun collaboration!” 

Feral Love: “We haven’t actually met Nadim and Philippe 

in person just yet, but we’ve met through Skype and we 

speak via email and Facebook. The collaboration online so 

far has involved Nadim and Philippe recording ideas their 

end, sending them over to us, and then we do the same. So 

it’s very much been a process of back and forth. They’ll be 

arriving in Liverpool a few days before Sound City and will be 

staying with us, so we’ll get a chance to get to know them 

properly and to show them around Liverpool.” 

WI: “During our first meetings, we spent some time 

discussing the nature of the collaboration and did some 

conceptual brainstorming. Very often our songs are created 

by the two of us bouncing ideas off each other and it seems 

like we’re doing exactly that in this collaboration, with more 

composers in the process. The writing process is really 

different though, because instead of jamming together live 

we have to send each other recorded jams which we can 

add stuff to, remove stuff from and tweak parts until the four 

of us are satisfied with the product.” 

FL: “Working in a collaborative way has been a positive 

thing and has helped to push certain creative and social 

boundaries… it’s been great to try a completely different 

process. It’s taught us different ways in which to work. It’s 

taught us that turning things completely on their head and 

trying something totally new can be a great thing for the 

creative process.” 

WI: “We know that the Liverpool collaboration is going 

to shed a lot of light on the nature of the project and we 

think that it is going to guide our next performance at POP 

Montreal. Because we have more time to work on the POP 

collaboration, the performance might end up including 

more than just music, for instance, video projections or a 

documentary, although it’s still too early to know for sure 

what will happen.” 

BIDO LITO! HIGHLIGHTS... 

ELIZA AND THE BEAR SUNDAY | 23:15 

VIOLET SKIES SATURDAY | 20:20 STORME SATURDAY | 14:20 

After spending the past couple of years on the road and 

supporting the likes of Imagine Dragons, Paramore and 

Twin Atlantic, exuberant Essex rockers ELIZA AND THE BEAR 

are ready to make the step up in 2016. Their self-titled 

debut album, released in April, saw them add a gleaming, 

polished finish to their good-time vibes, with the record’s 

lead single Friends becoming their third Radio 1-playlisted 

single release in a row. Their stadium-sized ambitions will 

surely be realised soon. 


Chepstow’s VIOLET SKIES brings a sensuous and evocative 

brand of contemporary pop to the Cavern Stage this year, 

with her ambient minimalism allowing space for her 

powerful vocals to really take the lead on her moving 

ballads. “My sound balances a love for artists I grew up 

with, such as Joni Mitchell, Sting and Paul Simon, and the 

soundscapes of James Blake and Massive Attack,” says 

Violet. Since her debut single and EP, Dragons, Violet has 

played SXSW and at BBC Radio 1’s showcase at Eurosonic. 

Originally heralding from Sweden and with her musical roots 

in pop music, London-based singer songwriter STORME uses 

her melancholy lyrics, tranquil electronic soundscapes and 

soaring vocals to create a haunting aesthetic of passion and 

beauty. Storme’s first EP, Rootless, was released in October 

of last year and explores her emotions with a sense of 

euphoria, purity and unrelenting vocal strength. Still in the 

early stages of her promising career, Storme has set out to 

inspire and uplift people through her music.

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44 


Cargo Stage 

Liverpool is a port city that is used to an influx of goods and 

ideas coming through its docks, so the Cargo Stage seems 

to be the perfect place for Sound City to show off its raft 

of international showcases this year. With artists from all 

over the world being brought together on the Cargo Stage 

over the two days, there really is no excuse not to expose 

yourself to some far-flung sounds. 

You could be forgiven for not knowing where to start 

in exploring the South Korean underground music scene. 

Fortunately, KOCCA (The Korean Creative Content Agency) 

have put together the KOREA ROCKS SHOWCASE on 

Sunday, as an introduction to the scene’s finest sounds. The 

showcase cements the links between Sound City and its 

partner festival, Zandari Fest, in Seoul, and has the added 

spice of South Korean favourites Dead Buttons performing 

on the Atlantic Stage on Saturday. The Buttons recently 

played Liverpool’s FestEVOL and have released music 

internationally via locally-based label Baltic Records. 

Kicking things off at 18:00 are five-piece synth-led outfit 

WE ARE THE NIGHT, who originally formed in 2005 under 

the name Rocket Diary. Since their self-titled debut album 

release in 2014, the group have made a name for themselves 

playing their jangly pop rock numbers across the Asian 

festival scene from Incheon to Indonesia. Liverpool, be ready. 

Indie rock duo LAYBRICKS take huge swathes of their 

influences from the British alternative music scene, which 

vocalist and guitarist Kwangmin Seo and drummer Hyejin 

Yu have picked up from living in the UK for a number of 

years. Their November 2015 EP Take A Rest is a broad and 

melodic affair, stretching from slow-building ballads to 

infectious, upbeat dance numbers. Laybricks are onstage 

at 18:35, followed by DTSQ at 19:10. DTSQ, which stands for 

Delta Sequence, have their foundations in garage and punk, 

yet the group’s output also reflects their love of psychedelic 

music, new wave, techno and house. They formed in 2013 

and currently have one single and one EP under their belt. 

The trio take a hands-on approach to their music, recording 

and mixing themselves and making their own music videos 

CARGO STAGE 

Words / Matthew Wright 

and cover art, as well as being prolific remixers of other 20:20. The Seoul-based trio stop by whilst on their spring UK 

people’s music. They come to Sound City as part of their tour to make their second Sound City appearance. Calling 

2016 tour, which also includes appearances in France for their style “hybrid punk”, a punk sound that takes influences 

Nuits Sonores and in Spain for Primavera Pro. 

from new wave and pop, the group emerged as a leading 

After playing together as two parts of a trio entitled force in the Korean underground punk scene in 2006 

Rainbow Stage, 57 were formed by Yun Jun-hong and Kim with the release of their debut EP Hanging Revolution. In 

Seol in June 2014. The duo – whose name is pronounced 2010 the group created their own indie imprint, Steel Face 

“oh-chill” in Korean – are a ferocious guitar and drums Records, to release music from themselves and like-minded 

combo with more than a whiff of the muscular rock riffage artists. They have since released two LPs: 2011’s Kitsch Space 

of Biffy Clyro about them. 57 are onstage at 19:45, and the and 2015’s 18, both of which were met with critical praise. 

showcase is rounded off by PATIENTS (pictured), onstage at If you thought Korea was all about K-pop, think again. 


L.A. FOSTER SUNDAY | 22:30 

COQUIN MIGALE SATURDAY | 20:15 LEYYA SATURDAY | 21:45 

Montréal-based singer-songwriter Lesley Ann Foster brings 

a unique and melancholic brand of dance pop to the Cargo 

Stage bill this year. Foster has spent the past decade working 

as a performer, DJ and radio host in Buenos Aires and 

Montréal, and, having been a member of the groups Karneef 

and Mozart’s Sister, Foster released her first project under 

her own name last year. The Saudade EP blends influences 

of her geographic dichotomy and elements of reggaeton, 

mixed in with the sound of early-90s soul and house. 


If smart and snappy rock riffage is the kind of thing that 

gets your juices flowing, then look no further than Geordies 

COQUIN MIGALE. The quartet lean heavy on the bold and 

brash in their balls-out, muscular alt rock, with the result 

being a clutch of tracks bursting with vigorous energy. Their 

latest single, Grindie – an onslaught of feisty guitar work 

– was premiered by Huw Stephens on Radio 1 a full two 

months before the release date, marking Coquin Migale out 

as a rising force. 

This experimental Austrian electro pop duo came out of the 

blue in spring of last year when they released a series of 

tracks on Las Vegas Records. LEYYA’s first release, Superego, 

resonated particularly strongly, receiving international radio 

play and several sync placements from New Zealand to 

the US, racking up more than 700,000 Spotify plays along 

the way. Their spacey, melancholic sound – soon to be 

crystallised on debut album Spanish Disco – has led some 

to declare that Leyya start where Portishead ended up.

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46 


The Tall Ship Editorial Stage 

THE TALL SHIP 

SPONSORED BY CAPTAIN MORGAN 

Words / Matt Hogarth 

From cotton through to rock ‘n’ roll, the history of Liverpool host to a variety of acts on its decks across the weekend. 

has been carved through its docks. The ships that travelled With over a hundred years and 50,000 miles under her 

the seas bringing goods and culture from every corner of belt, she is firmly in her retirement and is the last surviving 

the globe are as much a part of Liverpool as the bricks and British-built wooden hull three-masted topsail schooner. 

mortar of the Three Graces, the iconic Liver birds and the Having moved tons of dark and dirty coal for the majority of 

people themselves. So it seems rather fitting to turn a ship her existence, the Kathleen And May will now be carrying a 

into one of Sound City’s stages as a symbol of Liverpool as new musical cargo which has its own energy and means of 

the gateway to the New World, a place where culture and warming and bringing new light to the old ship. 

diversity thrive, and a way to import and export some of the One act who are sure to fuel the fire aboard the Tall Ship 

finest musical talents the world has to offer. 

Stage this year are the tremendous SHE DREW THE GUN 

The schooner that will be in situ in the Bramley-Moore (Sunday, onstage at 20:00), who hail from the leafy suburbs 

Dock this year is the good ship Kathleen And May, playing of Wirral. The peninsula has become synonymous with a 

recent flair of musical talent from Forest Swords to Outfit, 

running through to She Drew The Gun; it seems that the 

peninsula’s water-surrounded microclimate breeds magical 

and romantic gems inspired by the romanticism of the water 

which envelops them. 

The band’s eclectic influences radiate through their 

sound, from the psych-infused melodies of Where I End 

And You Begin (an ode to lead singer Louisa Roach’s 

drunken alter ego), to the shimmering If You Could See, 

which brings to mind the understated, emotionally involved 

pop of groups like Dirty Projectors. The swirling haze of 

Since You Were Not Mine evokes a dreamlike lucidity, 

while the beautifully acerbic Poem slams you back to earth 

with its taut political rage directed at the government’s 

dehumanisation of the vulnerable. 

Unlike most bands today, they are not afraid 

to take on bigger issues including politics and the 

authoritarian nature of the Tory government alongside 

tales of drunken reflection and love. Perhaps it is this that 

has helped ensure their music hasn’t gone unnoticed; 

for some time now the group have had support from the 

likes of Steve Lamacq and Edith Bowman, but their recent 

success in winning the Glastonbury Emerging Artist Contest 

and the release of their debut album Memories Of The 

Future has seen word of their gorgeously crafted, socially 

aware dream pop spread widely. 

The decks of the Kathleen And May will provide a 

platform to some more of the region’s most thrilling talent 

on Saturday, including dreamy balladeer JOHNNY SANDS 

(20:00), soulful hip hop wizard BLUE SAINT (13:00) and 

Liverpool’s own Brian Wilson-alike TOM LOW (14:00). Keep 

your eyes peeled for some aerial acrobatics from performers 

suspended from the masts each day too, which will be 

visible from on board the ship and from the viewing platform 

on the dock. All that’s left for you to do is grab a rum cocktail, 

sit back and enjoy the show as the Kathleen And May sways 

gently at its mooring, with the Mersey beckoning beyond. 


FIZZY BLOOD SATURDAY | 22:00 

ROPOPOROSE SUNDAY | 22:00 THE STAMP SUNDAY | 15:00 

Leeds rockers FIZZY BLOOD came together through a 

mutual desire to create music that no-one had ever heard 

before. Combing raw indie punk with the overdriven 

momentum of grunge, the group have drawn comparisons 

to Queens Of The Stone Age and Pulled Apart By Horses. 

Their EP, Feast, is an ambitious debut showcasing their retro 

influences with a forward-thinking and contemporary spin. 

As festival regulars (including Download and SXSW), Fizzy 

Blood are guaranteed to hit all the right notes. 


Brother and sister duo ROPOPOROSE do not take a 

conventional approach to rock music. Or dance, electronica, 

experimental, alternative or any other strand of music you 

care to mention. Instead, Romain and Pauline work within 

the boundaries of them all, weaving a unique path through 

their scattered influences that calls to mind Vampire Weekend 

and Arcade Fire. Debut album Elephant Love is a reflection 

of their eclectic tastes as it veers from dreamy passages to 

more frenetic jigs, as befitting their bold ambition. 

Liverpool’s own indie upstarts THE STAMP have just returned 

from touring Europe as opening act for The View, having been 

personally invited to do so by The View’s Steven Morrison. 

The quartet of school friends have grown up together, 

exploring their parents’ record collections to alight upon a 

raft of artists that would go on to influence their style: Bo 

Diddley, Paul Simon, The Who, Bob Marley and The Kinks. This 

is all filtered through the band’s own slick style, a nod to 

Merseyside’s distinctive guitar-toting heritage.

48 


Tim Peaks Diner 

Ever since the construction of the Manchester Ship Canal 

back in 1894 there has been a tension between Liverpool 

and Manchester, the two industrial powerhouses of the 

North. But music and love can overpower any rivalry, 

and Sound City has a longstanding peace treaty with its 

Mancunian neighbours. Carrying the olive branch in his 

mouth is none other than bowl-headed Charlatans frontman 

Tim Burgess, who brings his now infamous travelling coffee 

shop to Sound City for the second year running. Alongside 

his own brand of delicious Fairtrade coffee, the indie legend 

has blended a classic roast of the hottest new bands and 

interesting interviews for the Sound City programme this 

year, which is sure to leave the audience reinvigorated and 

alive. All of which will be served up within a relaxing seated 

area away from some of the more manic festivities. 

One of the big coups is the hosting of Sound City’s 

famed In Conversation series, which has moved on to the 

festival site proper from the Sound City+ conference. Radio 

X’s answer to John Peel, JOHN KENNEDY, and ex-Haçienda 

DJ DAVE HASLAM will be charged with interviewing some 

interesting characters from the arts world, alongside a 

selection of artists playing this year’s festival. 

One such speaker is writer, comedian and lovable Scouser 

ALEXEI SAYLE (Sunday, 15:00). Rising to fame in the 80s with 

his anarchic, absurdist character comedy, Sayle helped spark 

the alternative scene at a time when comedy seemed to be 

coloured in beige and magnolia. Having tackled Thatcherite 

oppression in his stand-up shows and through his role in 

cutting-edge sitcom The Young Ones, Sayle has demonstrated 

that his headscape spans much further than comedy. His views 

on politics, social justice and writing will undoubtedly throw 

up some extremely insightful and jolly detours. 

If Sayle was the cutting-edge and controversial 

political figure of the 80s then Sleaford Mods are his 

modern equivalent. The band’s snarling frontman JASON 

WILLIAMSON delivers jagged social commentary in his 

lyrics and is unafraid to tackle the issues that broken Britain 

is facing (Saturday, 19:00). Ungagged and with no holds 


IN CONVERSATION... HOSTED BY RADIO X 

Words / Matt Hogarth 

barred, who knows what will happen when he sits down for production work of late. Joining her on the In Conversation 

some conversation. 

couches over the weekend are SEYMOUR STEIN, GREG 

Actor and director PADDY CONSIDINE (pictured) is one WILSON, CIRCA WAVES, plus many more guests to be 

of the most acclaimed actors of his generation. Starting announced each day. 

his career with This Is England director Shane Meadows, A series of DJ sets, workshops and film screenings across 

Midlander Considine has appeared in cult British films Dead both days will add to the relaxed vibe of the Tim Peaks Diner, 

Man’s Shoes and 24 Hour Party People, as well directing the all building up to finish-off proceedings with a rather large 

hard-hitting and award-winning film Tyrannosaur. Alongside bang. BOWIE DISCO is the last thing scheduled on the stage 

his conversation event (Saturday, 18:00), Considine will be on Sunday night, as a celebration of one of the greatest 

performing on the Tim Peaks Diner stage with his band artistic geniuses the world has ever seen. David Bowie 

Riding The Low (19:30). 

was an ever-changing entity who drove artistic and musical 

ROISIN MURPHY (Sunday, 17:00) is perhaps best known progress through glam, krautrock, disco and so much more. 

for her work as one half of 90s pop outfit Moloko, but The Bowie Disco will be a fitting chance to revel in the 

the outspoken singer-songwriter has turned her hand to Duke’s extremely diverse and extensive back catalogue. 


YUCATAN SUNDAY | 19:00 

CABBAGE SATURDAY | 23:25 DOCUMENTA SUNDAY | 21:25 

Welsh post-rock group YUCATAN have fine-tuned their 

simultaneously huge and ethereal sound over the years, even 

incorporating soaring choirs and sweeping instrumentation 

on their 2015 album Uwch Gopa’r Mynydd. Recorded in 

Snowdonia, the album’s pastoral and expansive palette 

reflects the area in which it was laid down. Their self-titled 

debut album from 2007 was also recorded in Snowdonia 

and was mastered at Sigur Rós’ studio in Iceland, and was 

described as “stunning music from a special place”. 


Acclaimed as “Manchester’s most exciting new band” by i-D 

Magazine, CABBAGE create an idiosyncratic and discordant 

brand of neo post-punk. They are a five-piece with a lot to say, 

whether it be the anti-cuts message of Austerity Languish 

or the more absurdist class commentary of Dinnerlady, 

which features lyrics about wanking into school dinners 

while working as a dinner lady at a private school. The band 

are not ones to settle for the ordinary in the performance 

department either, so expect some Cabbage chaos. 

Don’t miss Belfast drone pop group DOCUMENTA. The act 

originated as a one-off project but gradually expanded, in 

their own words, “like a badly disorganised universe”. Taking 

influence from Spaceman 3, krautrock and free jazz, the 

group’s unique wall-of-sound reverberations are a powerful 

sonic experience on record and on stage. Their LP Drone Pop 

#1 was recorded over four days in Belfast by Ben McAuley 

and the band, and features additional production from 

renowned film soundtrack producer David Holmes.

SATURDAY 

MAY 28 

SESAC 

PRESENTS 

Eliza & The Bear 

22:30 - 23:00 White 

Elle Exxe 

The Wholls 

21:00 - 21:30 

9pm - Midnight 

Bramley-Moore Dock 

23.15 - 23:45 

21:45 - 22:15 

JOIN THE REVOLUTION | SESAC.COM

BREAKING THE BEST 

NEW MUSIC IN WALES 

Horizons Showcase at The Cavern Stage 

Liverpool Sound City 

Saturday 28 May 6-9pm 

Featuring: 

Violet Skies 

We’re No Heroes 

CaStLeS 

Fleur De Lys 

Connah Evans 

Check out the 12 new artists or follow us on 

Twitter or Facebook for live festival updates: 

bbc.co.uk/horizons 

@horizonscymru facebook.com/horizonscymru 

06 Horizons - Liverpool Sound LIVE GUIDE 125x155 2016 ad.indd 1 27/04/2016 16:21

52 


VIOLA BEACH 

Words / Christopher Torpey / @CATorp 

On the morning of Sunday 14th February 2016, the world 

awoke to the tragic news that the four members of Viola 

Beach – Kris Leonard, River Reeves, Jack Dakin and Tomas 

Lowe – and their manager, Craig Tarry, had passed away in 

a car accident. The band and their manager were travelling 

back from playing Where’s The Music? Festival in Norrköping, 

Sweden, when the incident happened, leaving us all greatly 

shocked and deeply saddened. 

Viola Beach had already been booked to play Sound City 

before this tragedy occurred: in memory of the five men, the 

festival kept Viola Beach’s name on the line-up, and will 

hold a special tribute to them during the slot they were due 

to play on the festival’s main stage. Between 16:45 and 17:15, a 

set recorded just before the band died will be played out on 

the Atlantic Stage, honouring the fact that they truly deserved 

their place among the festival’s top names. 

On 2nd April 2016 at Parr Hall in Warrington, the home 

town of the four band members and their dedicated 

manager, an event too place in celebration of their lives. A 

line-up of friends, influences, peers and bands they’d played 

with came together on the night to mark the occasion, 

featuring performances from The Coral, Liam Fray, Eliza 

And The Bear, The Kooks and The Vryll Society. The most 

poignant moment came when a set recorded by Viola Beach 

was played to a cheering crowd. As the video played, their 

families took to the stage and danced to the music that is 

now the soundtrack of their memories. 

Stockport band Blossoms also played at the Parr Hall 

event, and Viola Beach were due to join up with them to 

carry on supporting them on their UK tour upon returning 

from Sweden. Calling them “a great gang and a brilliant 

band,” the members of Blossoms paid their own tribute 

to their friends and touring partners. “It’s so devastating 

and shocking. The last time we saw them was after the 

Leamington Spa show… We said our goodbyes to them as 

they headed off to Sweden. On every subsequent date on 

the tour they were due to join us on, we will mark their 

slot by playing a full audio recording of their set that was 

recorded from the Leamington Spa show. We’ll never forget 

them. Their tunes are forever in our heads; Craig, Jack, Kris, 

River and Tom - always in our hearts.” 

Craig Tarry was a well-respected manager who had just 

begun to work with Viola Beach and who represented 

some of the most exciting, up-and-coming bands in the 

country. Deltasonic Records’s Ann Heston called him “an 

amazing person” and “the most promising young manager 

in the country without doubt”. Londoners Hidden Charms, 

who also played the celebratory Parr Hall memorial, were 

managed by Craig and were also great friends with him. 

Hidden Charms’ Oscar Robertson remembers Craig with 

great fondness: “He loved what he did so much, he was 

everything to us, a brother, a mentor, at times a mother and 

a bodyguard. A true angel, selfless amazing hero of a man: 

but most importantly, a best friend.” 

It was, and still is, a truly devastating and senseless loss 

of lives that had such huge potential. Our thoughts and 

deepest sympathies go out to the families of Kris, River, 

Jack, Tomas and Craig, and we hope that they can find some 

solace in the fact that all five men were pursuing their 

dreams, and that they loved every second of it. This fitting 

tribute will give Sound City and its fans the chance to pay 

tribute to their legacy, standing as a testament to their love 

for music. 

THE ATLANTIC STAGE | SATURDAY | 16:45 


PRESENTS 

STORME 

BRIDGES 

SOMERVILLE 

ATLAS WYND 

BARRON 

at Sound City 2016 

Sound City special podcast online now at merseyrailsoundstation.com 

Get There By Train 

Check out live performances 

from fantastic new acts. 

Just look for the famous 

yellow marquee! 

OFFICIAL SHOWCASE AT 

LIVERPOOL SOUND CITY 

@ THE CAVERN STAGE 

SATURDAY 28TH MAY 12PM-3PM 

OPEN TO DELEGATES AND 

WRISTBAND HOLDERS 

#lifeinmusic 

SAMANTHA 

BARKS 

THU 

16th JUN 

7:30pm 

MATT 

CARDLE 

SUN 

10th JUL 

7:30pm 

JAMES 

BURTON 

WEEKEND 

WITH SPECIAL GUESTS 

MARTY WILDE 

AND THE JETS 

THU 28th JUL 7:30pm 

WITH SPECIAL GUESTS 

THE MERSEYBEATS 

FRI 29th JUL 7:30pm 

STARMAN 

THE DAVID 

BOWIE STORY 

THE SIMON 

AND 

GARFUNKEL 

STORY 

KATE 

RUSBY 

FRI 

5th AUG 

7:30pm 

FRI 

26th AUG 

7:30pm 

SUN 

2nd OCT 

7:30pm

HEAD TO BIDOLITO.CO.UK & CHECK OUT OUR 

SOUND CITY 2016 MINI-SITE... 

! LIVE REACTION & REPORTS FROM THE FESTIVAL 

! EXCLUSIVE SOUND CITY PODCAST 

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Tweet us over the weekend @BidoLito 

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University places 

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