Issue 73 / Dec 2016/Jan 2017

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Issue 73
Dec 2016/Jan 2017
Image: Laurie Shaw
Laurie Shaw
Baltic Fleet
Barberos
Psycho Comedy
Liverpool Music
Week Review

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6
Bido Lito! Dec 2016/Jan 2017
Bido Lito!
Issue Seventy Three / Dec 2016/Jan 2017
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Words
Christopher Torpey, Richard Lewis, Evan
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bidolito.co.uk
TOMORROW BELONGS TO THOSE
WHO CAN HEAR IT COMING
Editorial
On 18th December 2015, US magazine The Atlantic published an article under the headline ‘2015: The Best Year in History for the Average
Human Being’. In it, writer Charles Kenny said that, despite a number of tragedies (the Bataclan shootings, ISIS in Syria) and widespread poverty
in developing countries, 2015 “saw continued progress towards better quality of life for the considerable majority of the planet, alongside
technological breakthroughs and political agreements that suggest the good news might continue next year and beyond. Tragedy and misery
are rarer than they were before 2015 – and there is every reason to hope they will be even less prevalent in 2016.”
It’s tempting to just scoff at this comment and dismiss Kenny’s point, given what has unfolded over the past 12 months. But, in doing so, you
would be falling into a very ‘2016’ trap: the world – the actual, IRL world – can’t just be quantified by a selection of Twitterstorms and newspaper
headlines. Progress in each sector and in each country is so rapid that it’s very difficult to keep up with the massively complex web that is our
modern world. As a senior fellow at the Center For Global Development, that is part of Kenny’s job, and he actually thinks that us humans are
making a good fist of it, overall (the environment, global refugee crises and huge levels of child poverty notwithstanding). Yet, I’m sure Kenny
and his fellow analysts at the CGD will have noticed the palpable sense of anxiety of the ‘average human being’ in the Western world as we
enter the final act of 2016. It’s hardly surprising that fear has taken hold, especially when you note that the past 12 months has served us a
volatile cocktail of poverty (both real and perceived), post-truth facts, and the towering self-awareness of the internet and its myriad trolls.
Personally, I wouldn’t mind taking my chances in The Upside Down for 2017.
In looking back at this year of high intrigue and attempting to draw a thread through various notable events, we picked out some musical
milestones in our 2016 Review (pages 16-18) to put a soundtrack to some important narratives that have sprung up during the year. And in his
Brexit 2.0 leader column (page 8), our American correspondent Evan Moynihan draws some comparisons between the two votes that have
come to define all of 2016’s ills: Brexit and the US presidential election. We’re well aware that what we’ve chosen and how we’ve written
about it is highly subjective – and that’s kind of the point. We could have filled up a whole issue about the year’s tumultuous goings on, and
we were tempted to do just that. In the end, though, we thought we’d leave it to those better suited to providing that coverage (and I highly
recommend Delayed Gratification magazine in that sense), but we would really like to hear your own thoughts about the issues, records,
protests, movements, articles and banging singles that define the year 2016 for you. In December we’ll be publishing some further thoughts
from our team of contributors in an Annual Review over on our new-look website, and we want to include the selections of our readers as part
of it (yes, Silentlikeradar, that means you too – if you can refrain from personal insults for long enough to put a coherent sentence together,
that is). Tweet us, Facebook us or post us your ideas.
During her speech at the Conservative party conference in October, Theresa May gave the biggest indication yet of how far away from the
post-war consensus of enlightenment and togetherness the political centre ground has moved, when she declared: “If you’re a citizen of the
world, you’re a citizen of nowhere.” This echoes the major regression that I believe we’ve made in all of our political and societal discourse
over the past year or so, namely that we must choose one side or another. IN or OUT, Trump or Clinton, Momentum or Progress, Honey G or
Ryan Lawrie: humanity is a massively varied and complex beast, which shouldn’t be straitjacketed by boiling our broad spectrum of beliefs
into a choice between one side or another.

Illustration: Dan Kelly / theartofdankelly.com

8
Bido Lito! Dec 2016/Jan 2017
The way to combat this simplistic, divisive way of looking
at the world is to engage in debate, but even that seems to be
an art form that we’ve lost somewhere along the way. Instead
of reasoned discussion, we shout at each other from behind
our fortified positions of beliefs, and put labels on each other
for convenience (alt. right = ‘racist’, liberal = ‘social justice
warrior’). In so many ways, we’ve never been so connected
to each other, yet we’ve never felt so divided. Our reliance
on soundbites and fast news in 140 characters has made
us lazy, and this breeds a dangerous form of stubbornness
when it comes to assimilating opposing viewpoints. Without
the willingness to listen to and understand the arguments
of others, we’re in danger of becoming too entrenched in
our own beliefs. And if we can’t look beyond the borders
of our own self-constructed barriers, we’re forever doomed
to conflict.
Furthermore, what’s just as important as listening to
opinions from outside of your immediate sphere is trying to
understand the underlying motivations that might be behind
them. Anxieties over uncertain futures and an erosion
of national identity are the two biggest factors that have
arisen in our country of late, fuelling the lurch towards a
more populist right. In response to Theresa May’s comments,
philosopher Kwame Anthony Appiah expressed his worries
about how we confuse our sense of identity with our ideas
of nationality, religion and race. “It’s just an error of history to
say if you’re a nationalist, you can’t be a citizen of the world,”
Appiah said before he delivered this year’s Reith lecture on
Mistaken Identities. “Nationalism and globalisation go hand
in hand and are not, as Theresa May has said, opposing
projects… Nationality, religion, both have always been fluid
and evolving, that’s how they have survived.”
I’m going to finish by taking a leaf from Charles Kenny’s
book in putting some positive spin on looking ahead to
the new year. What we saw when bouncing from venue to
venue during Liverpool Music Week’s epic Closing Party was
the massive potential of the docklands area in the north of
the city. There’s something that just feels right about those
empty warehouses being retooled by the creative sector
and having new life breathed into them. With Liverpool City
Council’s ‘10 Streets’ Cultural Enterprise Industry Hub looking
to come online in that area of the city (between the business
district and Stanley Dock) in 2017, things are looking
decidedly rosy. Not to be left behind, the Baltic Quarter
looks to cement its position as a creative hub with the new
Northern Lights development near to the Cains Brewery
site, which is already a home to some great startups. Cities
are always evolving; they are living, breathing entities that
move in time with circumstance and opportunity. It has ever
been thus with Liverpool, and it feels like we’re on the cusp
of even more exciting developments. Talking of evolutions,
we’ll soon be unveiling a new look for Bido Lito!, both on our
fancy, facelifted digital home at bidolito.co.uk and in these
pink pages. Be prepared to get involved in the debate with
us about how we want to shape this next stage of progress
on both of these platforms.
“How many times does an angel fall?/How many people
lie instead of talking tall?”
Christopher Torpey / @BidoLito
Editor
BREXIT 2.0
Guest Column
Words: Evan Moynihan
President Donald J. Trump. It shouldn’t come as a shock, but to many people around the world it has. They believed it was
impossible, when it never really was. Now, with emotions running high, they’re looking for answers. Anyone wondering how
this could happen first needs to ask themselves why they were so convinced it couldn’t.
From the outset, Trump’s campaign was never taken seriously by the liberal media, which, if we’re being honest, is the
majority of major networks. Even after he beat 16 other candidates (the largest field in American history) to win the primary
and secure the Republican nomination, he remained a punchline. The idea of a billionaire reality TV star becoming president
seemed so ludicrous that any journalists willing to give credence to the idea risked damaging their own credibility. Still, they
hung on every word Trump said. Their main concern is viewership and, boy, do people love a good controversy. From Trump’s
standpoint, no publicity was bad publicity.
Many of Hillary Clinton’s supporters voted for her with a single issue in mind: they wanted to see a woman become
president. If we can acknowledge that fact, then we must also recognise that many of Trump’s supporters may have voted
for him with a single issue in mind as well. They may believe Trump will help get them a better job, better health insurance,
or lower their taxes. For someone struggling to make ends meet, these issues will undoubtedly feel more pressing than
simply electing a woman president just because she is a woman. It doesn’t make them sexist. Not every vote for Trump was
a vote to stop a woman from becoming president.
The last year has revealed bitter divisions in the United States. For a country founded on the grounds that “all men are
created equal”, it’s hard to accept that feelings of racism, sexism and xenophobia are still alive and well. The election helped
shine a light on a level of discrimination that has always existed. With that said, we shouldn’t automatically judge the character
of others based on who they voted for. To assume every word out of Trump’s mouth is a reflection of someone else’s morals
and values is an oversimplification.
Another thing that people still can’t seem to fathom is how the pollsters’ predictions were so wrong. A major factor in the
Trump phenomenon is the millions of people who planned on voting for him but, for fear of being crucified, wouldn’t admit
it. If they wouldn’t even tell their family and friends, why would they tell a stranger conducting a survey?
Clinton’s campaign put a huge emphasis on celebrity endorsements – several were so sure she would win, they vowed
to leave the country if she didn’t. When it seemed like everyone on TV was voting for Clinton, it started to feel like everyone
was voting for Clinton. This tactic may have worked on 18-24 year olds, but for the millions of unemployed workers around
the country fed up with Washington and Wall Street, listening to Beyoncé and Jay-Z tell them who to vote for may have only
emboldened them to vote for Trump.
Like it or not, Donald Trump will be president for at least the next four years. Part of living in a democracy is accepting the
results of an election and, if Trump isn’t at least given a fair chance, we’ll all be doomed from the start. Hopefully, he will
focus on his promises to unite the country, and leave his divisive rhetoric on the campaign trail.
I’ve always wanted to read The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy and I finally got around to starting a few days ago. It felt
appropriate while I’m in England. There’s a quote about the role of President of the Imperial Galactic Government that feels
extremely relevant. “[…] the President is always a controversial choice, always an infuriating but fascinating character. His
job is not to wield power but to draw attention away from it.” Sound like anyone?
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Peel Slowly and See…
Words: Richard Lewis
Images: Laurie Shaw
SOME
FELTED
FRUIT
Laurie Shaw
record was inspired by the concept of 30
7” records being left in the sun to melt and
“The
consequently meld into one another.” As far as
descriptions go, this one is pretty much perfect. And the man
behind it – Wirral-born, Cork-based alt. rock maven LAURIE
SHAW – is limbering up to release this audacious new LP Felted
Fruit in November, a breathless rampage through fuzzy garage
rock, psych folk and mutated pop all dispatched in concise twominute
blasts.
The record came hurtling our way recently from across the
Irish Sea, all 30 frantic tracks of it, after we’d reached out to
Shaw for more info upon hearing the infectious tune Cannibal
Girl on SoundCloud (email subject line: ‘Laurie Shaw is boss’).
There was a rumour that a friend of a friend knew Shaw from
his days growing up in Greasby, but it wasn’t until we unearthed
the umbilical cord linking him back to Merseyside’s rich musical
past that the tale really got interesting. Shaw’s old fella, Chris,
was a member of early synth-pop progenitors Dalek I Love You
in 1977-78, Eric’s luminaries who were briefly ranked alongside
OMD. Fellow founder members Alan Gill and Dave Balfe went
on to comprise half of Teardrop Explodes: while the former cowrote
Reward with Julian Cope, the latter became a record label
exec and the owner of the Country House that inspired Blur’s
most vitriolic song.
Starting out along a similar path to his dad as a teenager,
21-year-old Shaw’s work rate has been prodigious. “My dad was
doing stuff in the 80s and he always had recording stuff around
and that’s how I picked up on recording my own music,” Shaw
explains to us over the phone. “I’ve been doing it since I was 14
or 15; I just started after school. I’d get in and record some stuff
and started putting albums together. I guess when you kinda get
good at recording it just goes from there; it snowballs and you
can’t help yourself. I just enjoy doing it cos also I live in quite a
rural place; there’s not much else to do!”
The rural isolation Shaw refers to at his familial home in
the hills around Kerry is underlined by his Bandcamp bio
of recording in a ‘Mountain Retreat’
and
borne out by the out-in-thesticks
photos of where
he grew up. “I
live in Cork
itself now,
which is
about
an
hour
away,
but I go to
college here
in Kenmare,” the
singer explains. “It’s
nice to go back home at
weekends and be able to chill
out and make records.” Growing
up in such circumstances meant
Shaw had to be become musically
self-sufficient almost out of necessity. “I was in a
band when I was at school, a two-piece thing, but I mostly work

on my own. It’s not very easy or feasible to get people up here
to come and give me a hand, so I just ended up doing it myself.
I like doing it myself – maybe it’s a bit of an only child thing;
I’ve grown up making my own fun and I think that’s part of it.”
Creating music on his own clearly wasn’t an impediment
to Shaw’s output, with a staggering 57-album back catalogue
according to his label’s biog. “Yeah, that’s
true, of that time anyway,” Shaw affirms,
indicating that the figure has risen
since then. “I’ve done a ton of stuff;
I don’t think I could put a figure
on it, but I think it’s probably
in the thousands. It doesn’t
necessarily mean it’s all
good; I think that’s the
problem when people
say ‘prolific’, it doesn’t
mean you’re carrying it
all that well. This year
I’ve tried to cut down
and hold it back, so
I’m just putting out
stuff that I really
think is up to
scratch.”
Turning to Felted
Fruit, the wellspring
of the two-dozen
plus tracks is one
of the album’s
highlights. “That
was the first one I
did, actually,” Shaw says
of downbeat psych-pop
lament Lizards Will
Be. “ That
really
got the ball rolling with the record.” Following an intuitive
process, his songwriting swerves away from having a set
pattern. “Usually in the week I’d be writing lyrics and I’d go home
and build it up. It changes every time, though – sometimes you’d
have a drum line that sounds really good and I’d build on top
of that, and other times I’ve sat down and
written a full song on acoustic guitar.
I don’t think I’d be interested if
it was a specific formula; I
like the way that it’s a
law unto itself and
I just see where it
goes, y’know?”
Album
standouts
Sarcophagus
Song and
What Went
Down A t
Tiahuanaco
– the latter
inspired by the
archaeological
site in Bolivia –
point up a recently
discovered influence.
“A lot of the album was
inspired by a book by
Graham Hancock which is
all about Egypt and other
cultures as well, in terms
of a lost civilisation and
things were disrupted by a
big cataclysm. I was really
interested in the mysteries
of Egypt. I don’t
normally
let
Bido Lito! Dec 2016/Jan 2017
11
literary things creep in but that definitely did. There’s also stuff
about the current political climate throughout as well; I think
that had a knock-on effect, the idea of history repeating itself in
a way.” Elsewhere, Oh Mnemosyne! is named after the Goddess
of Memory in the Greek pantheon. “I think she’s one of the Seven
Muses. The idea of memory comes into that cos that’s such an
important part of writing.”
Contrasting with his earlier material (previous album Not
A Dry Eye In The House, containing Cannibal Girl, was issued
in June of this year), Felted Fruit stands out via its deliberately
frayed production and sonorous vocals. “All the vocals have
been pitched down; it was a way of disguising my voice,” Shaw
explains. “I wanted to make this such an obscure and weird
album that I kinda wanted it to sound like it wasn’t necessarily
me who made it, like it almost could’ve been something from
a bygone era. The other idea was that it had been recorded off
the radio and no-one knew when it was from and no-one could
turn the dial to the right frequency again.”
“I like the idea that it almost sounded like it had been melded
together,” Shaw continues, straying into the territory behind
the LP’s description. “All the songs were different entities
themselves and they’d all been chopped up into each other – I
like that aesthetic to it. I was trying to make stuff short and
snappy. When you look at a double album, the ones that fall
down have got songs that go on for too long, so maybe this is
easier to digest.”
Citing Tim Presley’s White Fence as an inspiration, Shaw
notes that the collective’s collaborations with Cate Le Bon and
Ty Segall have had a notable impact, especially the latter. “A lot
of people used to say I kind of sounded like him [Segall] and
I didn’t know who he was,” Shaw says of the restless Laguna
Beach musician. “When I discovered him I didn’t think I did, but
I really liked him anyway! I think I took a lot from that. I’ve also
always been into bands like Love and psychedelic garage rock
bands on the [legendary 60s/70s underground compilation]
Pebbles Trash box set.”
While The Coral are cited as a vital catalyst – Shaw supported
their former lead guitarist Bill Ryder-Jones in Dublin this January
– Merseyside itself is an inspiration to Shaw. “Because I moved
when I was 10 and I was taken out of where I called home,
Merseyside has become a bit mythologised in my head,” he
muses. “I came over here and didn’t fit in immediately, so that
was a place I felt like I belonged. It’s changed now, and as you
get older that goes away. I think that does still influence me
in some way though, cos over here I still feel a little bit like a
fish out of water.” Continuing the links to these parts, Chesterbased
label Sunstone Records are handling the vinyl release
of Felted Fruit.
“There’s a lot of bands and I’ve got my own little band together
who help me out when I play live,” Shaw says of the Cork gig
circuit. Introducing the group to the material, Shaw sounds far
from a taskmaster or pedantically insisting on studio-replica
performances. “I write out the chords and lyrics so they can get
a basic grip on it and I’ll give them the recordings. I like it when
they bring their own feel to it,” Shaw states. “Sometimes you
get people who have bands who are playing their stuff and they
need it exactly like the record, but I like it to be freer and for
them to bring their own personalities to it. I’m not necessarily
a bassist – I can play the bass, but I like it when people bring
their own style.”
And with the highly promising information that Shaw is
heading over to these shores for his live debut in 2017, our
time is concluded. Given the restless pace this one-man
songwriting factory works at, however, don’t be surprised
if another album hasn’t landed between now and Shaw
arriving in Liverpool in January.
Felted Fruit is released on 27th November via Sunstone
Records.
soundcloud.com/laurie-shaw
bidolito.co.uk

Words: Christopher Torpey / @CATorp
Photography: Paul Fleming
The civil parish of Charnock Richard, just a few miles
from Chorley in a quiet, leafy part of West Lancashire,
is an unobtrusive little place. You might even say it
was unremarkable, notable only for its M6 service station. It’s
an unlikely place, then, to go searching
for some enlightenment, on a fresh
Saturday morning in October. Trees and
well-manicured gardens zip past the train
window, but I hardly notice as I’m scouring
the internet on a patchy 3G signal on my
phone for some interesting nuggets of
folklore that’ll reveal some of the hidden
character of Charnock Richard. Two knights
opposing the Earl of Lancaster were captured
and beheaded here in the 14 th Century, and
the water mill at Birkacre Mill was the site
of one of Richard Arkwright’s first cotton
spinning mills right at the beginning of the
Industrial Revolution. But not much of note
since then. Hmmm.
Thankfully, I’ve got an in with someone
who has unearthed a bit of local history in the area, and has
turned it to their own good. Paul Fleming, the Widnes-born
musician behind instrumental ambient krautrock act BALTIC
FLEET, now lives in Charnock Richard, and he’s successfully
mined some of its history as inspiration for his latest album, The
Dear One. Given the way Fleming expertly crafted his storming
previous LP Towers from the feelings that his home town evoked
in him, I was confident that his new abode would have just as
much to say for itself. There was also talk of a diary, and a 19 th
Century love story. How could I resist?
When Paul Fleming meets me at the train station, he has with
him a copy of the diary, but he’s keen to show me somewhere
important before we get too lost in the book. Christ Church, the
largest church in Charnock Richard, was built in 1841 by a man
called James Darlington, a benefactor who was also responsible
for the building of a nearby chapel and a schoolhouse, situated
not far from Fleming’s house. Darlington, the author of the diary,
wasn’t a native of Charnock Richard, but he was convinced to
move and invest his money there because he fell in love with
a local girl. It was this story that attracted Fleming to the diary
in the first place, and which would ultimately get
him hooked on finding out more.
“There’s one thread going through the diary,
and it’s all about the relationship between the
author and his wife, or his love,” Fleming tells me
later on, leaning back in his chair as he thinks
back to the crucial element that hooked him in.
“He [Darlington] refers to her as ‘The Dear One’
all the way through, and then he calls her by her
name – Frances – in the in last two pages, when
she dies. And then he stops writing, he loses
inspiration. He doesn’t write anymore, he doesn’t
build anything else, his muse, his inspiration is
gone. There’s a line in there that goes something
like, ‘Now she’s gone, what is left to write? There
is nothing left to write.’ And I just found that
massively inspiring.”
Finding this tragic story was the catalyst that got Fleming’s
engines firing again, and he set about poring over the rest of
Darlington’s diaries for more words, names or stories to trigger
further inspiration for his music making. “I’m totally intrigued
by the love story, it’s what inspires the title and the core of the
album.”

Bido Lito!: Did you find it quite easy to connect with the world
James Darlington was writing about? Did you find yourself
seeping into it a bit?
Paul Fleming: A little bit. When I found out through the church
that there were these diaries, I thought, ‘Wow, this is going to
be unbelievable, like years and years of diaries, there’ll be all
sorts in here.’ And then when I actually got the diary, it was
just loads of dates and facts and I really had to dive into it to
find out things. You couldn’t read it back to front, it’s just not
an easy read. ‘Miss Olivia on her way to a visit with Miss Dodd
in London,’ that type of thing. So, I started making up these
stories, and just used my own imagination to, almost, take
these characters to another place.
BL!: Musically, how do you go about fashioning these stories
that have arisen in your head into compositions, without using
lyrics?
PF: It’s hard to explain, because you sort of go into a zone.
Music’s a total escape for me, it’s
an escape from everything in life,
and it always has been, from being
12 years old. I kind of throw lots of
things around and it’s kind of like
this cauldron of conscious and
subconscious influences: musical
influences, stories, names, the
place… it’s more about collecting
inspiration. When I’m writing
instrumental music, what I try to
do is to anchor it to something and
then just let my imagination play
out. I started picking out interesting
titles and phrases, like ‘a beautiful
chant’, use it as a title and then take
it somewhere else. And because it’s
instrumental, I feel the need to just
delve into that world, because I’m
not creating a lyrical story, so I’ve
got to… in my own mind, I’ve got to
make it more imaginative and create
the world.
the Industrial Revolution, I grabbed on to that. So, if anything,
I’m connecting more to the industries that are maybe hidden.
The North is all about industry and that’s still at the heart of
what I do. In time, I might start tapping into the landscape a
bit more and going more ambient.
The Dear One is an immensely rewarding listen, maybe
because of the amount of content in there: you can keep
coming back to it and enjoying different parts, and you’ll find
your brain sparking off something new each time – a beat or a
melody that will chime with a mood buried deep in your cortex.
The best way to enjoy the LP is to treat it like one of the magic
eye images, where you let your mind relax and fall into its
textures; that’s when all the hidden imagery jumps out at you.
If you allow your imagination to run away on the grooves and
feel the meaning that pulses through the melodies, you’ll feel
yourself charging blissfully along with echoes of Tangerine
Keeping that organic, ‘live’ sound means it keeps that feel of
being a personal journey.
“I relate it to if you bought something made out of wood
from Ikea,” he says with a hint of a smile. “There’d be loads
of stuff to bolt on and bits of plastic and three different types
of wood; or, you could go to a carpenter and he’d create
something out of a single piece of wood. And I’m hoping that
honest approach to an artistic way of producing stuff makes
[the music] last longer.”
There was also something a lot more personal at stake for
Fleming in making The Dear One, which is best illustrated by
penultimate track La Cygne. “So, this was a really weird one…
At the end of 2014, my mum passed away – well, she got ill
and then passed away quite quickly after. Her and my dad said
that they were like swans, and there was always this big thing
about the swan. And I found in the diary some references to
‘la cygne’, which is swan in French. Maybe I was looking too
deep into things almost, finding these weird, tenuous links.
But in my mind – and especially at the time
– it all just came together. I kind of found
some solace in the diary around that point.
That was my story too, and it kind of got
intertwined in this, and that spun me out
for a little bit.”
No matter which way it comes out or
what instruments are used, the best music
is always a form of storytelling. And when
you get those rare moments where both
artist and listener are going on a journey,
you get memorable music. You get music
like The Dear One.
“I listen to music all the time, like most
people do, and it does help your mood,”
Fleming says as we’re wrapping up, and
I’m preparing to leave quiet little Charnock
Richard. “It helps you sort out your own
thought processes and ideas. Music is a gift
to us all: what would the world be without
music? It would be a very boring, dry and
grey world. So, I love music, and what it
creates in everybody.”
BL!: Does having an over-arching
theme help to channel these
emotions?
PF: I think, as the albums have
progressed, the process has been
forced to get more artistic and,
for me, more imaginative and
interesting. For this album, not
having something that’s so in your
face as the towers and the industry
that I grew up with, it was very
easy to connect with that landscape because I just tapped
into what was always underneath. It forced me to be more
creative, to lose myself more than I’ve ever done really, so for
me the music’s getting more interesting as I’m being more,
almost, limited.
BL!: Would you say you’ve grown any closer to the surroundings
of Charnock Richard through the process of doing this record?
PF: I wouldn’t say so, no. I’d say I’ve learnt more about it and
I’ve looked deeper into it, so I suppose there’s a little bit more
of a connection there. But I still feel a massive connection
to the sort of wastelands between Liverpool and Manchester
where I grew up, that’s what I connect with most. So, when I
got to the top of the hill round here and saw the factories and
the towers 25 miles away, that was something that I grabbed
onto. And when I found out that the beautiful setting where
the lake and the forest are, was actually the site of the start of
Dream, Gold Panda, Max Richter and New Order flitting in
and out of earshot.
The intervening four years between The Dear One and its
predecessor Towers could easily have weighed heavily on
Fleming in making this one, but he seems to have coped
well with the high acclaim and attention it brought him
(Fleming played the Yoko Ono-curated Meltdown Festival at
the Southbank Centre in 2013 after winning the GIT Award).
Stylistically, Tuns is the closest track to that distinctive,
marching Towers drone on The Dear One – but the new album
isn’t content to stay there. Royving charges in on a great
guitar hook like a runaway train, but it’s Angel’s Shotgun
where Fleming really finds his groove, layering together
shifting beats and burbling synths with an insistent guitar
line to create an urgent track that’s underscored by an air of
mystery and foreboding. And, crucially, at no point does the
album feel over-processed, which is a key thing for Fleming.
The Dear One is out now on Blow
Up Records.
balticfleetmusic.com

love America and I hate America.” At a time when
the pendulum is about to swing drastically to the
latter for a lot of people, I’m sitting down for a
pint with Shaun Powell, the driving force behind one
of Liverpool’s most intriguing new bands, PSYCHO
COMEDY. But the Walton native is not talking about the
US presidential election, he’s already made it clear that
he finds it futile and “too easy” to comment on such
matters. Powell is talking about his concept, preferring
to refer to Psycho Comedy as such. “It is a band, but it’s
more of a concept. I don’t think that Psycho Comedy,
the music, is by any means original but I do think the
lyrics and the concept with the music is original. There’s
never been a Liverpool band that sound like us – I think
a lot of people will be surprised that we are a Liverpool
band.” Over the course of our chat, the singer is at pains
to elucidate on what he means by Psycho Comedy, the
concept, and what sets them apart from the pack.
The concept was conceived by Powell years ago,
from an idea to a name to a logo – the canine character
Varmint (more on that later) – to its guise today as a
band made up of Powell, his “soul brother” Connor
Duff on bass, Lydia McGhee on guitar, Jack Thompson
on noise guitar and Jack Williams attempting to keep
things together on drums. Despite appearing on the
support bills of some of this year’s most exciting gigs,
signing with venerable Liverpool institution Deltasonic
Records and recording with Echo & The Bunnymen
producer Gil Norton, Psycho Comedy as a unit is still in
its relative infancy. While Powell has been thinking of
the concept for much longer, it is the five-piece, made
up of fellow North Liverpool misfits, who have made
the vision a glorious, if sometimes shambolic, reality.
“Psycho Comedy as just me with a guitar would just
sound like Studio 54 or something,” Powell tells me,
New York being a constant thread and reference point
throughout our conversation. “The band are more into
psych and they inject it with a bit of that California
sound. You also have Connor on bass, who’s into
Motown and Black Sabbath. So I bring The Stooges and
he brings Sabbath.”
It’s obvious that Powell is a veracious consumer of
pop culture as well as some of its more toxic materials,
and he isn’t bashful in telling you where he wants his
band to stand in rock ‘n’ roll’s pantheon. The Bunnymen
are regularly mentioned as an influence, as are The
Rolling Stones and NYC musical touchstones Television
and Johnny Thunders. Films like Taxi Driver and Bad
Lieutenant are obviously important to Powell too in
demonstrating the breadth of his New York aesthetic,
but he is also keen to give a nod to local peers such
as FUSS and Strange Collective. For anyone who
has caught Psycho Comedy this year, some of these
influences will be obvious, from the band’s eccentric
look to the howled lyrics and the persistent rumble
of a Velvets-esque rhythm section; it’s rock ‘n’ roll as
endorsed by Warhol, infused with the damp of dingy
basements and sparked into life by a wild imagination
and an appetite for narcotic insanity. The Hummingbirds,
it ain’t. “Everyone is obsessed with having harmonies
in their songs and having three singers in the band.
With Bunnymen, McCulloch was the only singer. Some
people say to me, ‘Go ‘ead, you should get some
harmonies’ – fuck the harmonies.”
Not averse to a Gallagher-esque soundbite, Powell
fully inhabits his carefully constructed world of Psycho
Comedy, and within this world there are certain rules
like “fuck the harmonies”. Powell also follows the
gospel according to Richards, and herein separates his
ragtag collective from many of Liverpool’s lineage of
Words: Sam Turner / @samturner1984
Photography: John Johnson /
great bands: “I’d rather wear a black hat than a white hat;
Keith had it right there, didn’t he?” I agree and make a
mental note to check the reference. “I love the Beatles
and I don’t necessarily think the Stones were better than
the Beatles, but I prefer the Stones to the Beatles. That’s
the way that I’ve felt, ever since I saw the tongue [logo]
as a kid. It’s sorta like seeing a naked body for the first
time, isn’t it?”
Powell’s reverence for rock’s heritage is as infectious
as the hooks in his songs. So far, Psycho Comedy have
released a clutch of singles and each has come across as
a call to arms. He explains debut track I’m Numb, which
dropped late last year, as a coming-down dialogue with
oneself, while recent anthem One, recorded in Wales
with Gil Norton, is the sound of a real evolution for
the band. Both songs are accompanied by a simple yet
opaque video from collaborator Adam Carlton. The latter
was presented as the “alibi piece of the Psycho Comedy
concept”. It’s not always easy to follow Powell’s train of
thought, and the videos only muddy the water further.
“Psycho Comedy is a split personality,” he explains,
and that is what the character Varmint illustrates. “You
see everything through a different perspective, like a
different colour – like insanity, I suppose. I don’t want
to go down into a dungeon and get whipped like some
bands are making out [they’re doing] but really they’re
just going to the Sainbury’s the next day, you know what
I mean?”
For their Magnet support slot for Cabbage, Powell
sported a jacket with 'Life In A Northern Town'
emblazoned on the back, the title of The Dream
Academy's 1980s ode to Nick Drake. Expressing.
Expressing himself through a prism of popular cultural
references seems second nature to Powell. “I listened
to it a few days before we went to record with Gil and
I felt absolutely exhilarated. We were going to record
with a boss producer, five of us, all northern, going to
do something that not everyone does every day, fucking
happy about it.”
The singer also confirms my feeling that his dress
code is central to the Psycho Comedy conceit. “I feel a
bit out of order with myself if I don’t dress good. It’s a
concept thing. My image is absolutely vital to how I lead
my day. I can’t write a song in my pyjamas, man, I wish
I could,” he tells me, dressed in a blue velour trackie
top under a black suit and sporting faded blue/grey hair,
which, somehow, looks great.
Such an outlook almost ties all of the disparate,
madcap strands that are Psycho Comedy together. “I’d
love to sell out Madison Square Garden eventually, but
what I want now is to release the record,” he tells me.
looking visibly restless and anxious to share his vision
with the world. “I want us to stand the test of time, I want
to [be able to] look back, otherwise I’d feel irrelevant and
that’s not good for my insanity,” he says, suggesting,
perhaps aptly, he’d prefer to maintain insanity as his
default state. “I eat the same food as everyone else, so
why would I want to dress like everyone else and sound
like everyone else?”
One is out now on Spotify and iTunes. Photos were taken
on site at Ghetto Golf in Cains Brewery – thanks to Danny,
Kip and the team for all their help.
soundcloud.com/psycho-comedy

Friday 20 January 8pm
Liverpool Philharmonic Hall
KING
CREOSOTE
‘Warm, pithy, occasionally
fluttering to a falsetto…a
thing of understated beauty’
Uncut 8/10.
Box Office
liverpoolphil.com
0151 709 3789
Words: Sam Turner / @samturner1984
Photography: John Johnson / johnjohnson-photography.com

16
DAVID BOWIE
Bido Lito! Dec 2016/Jan 2017
Sony
Released: 8th January
It’s incredibly frustrating
not being able to know
the meaning of everything,
especially when we’re used
to calling up Wikipedia for
answers whenever we’re
stuck. DAVID BOWIE’s final
message to us – a glorious,
harrowing, cryptic message
– before his death from liver
cancer on 10th January could be an elaborate two-fingered salute
to our knowledge-obsessed world, packed as it is with hints,
winks and dead endings. Since Blackstar’s release on Bowie’s
69th birthday (a birthday he shares with Elvis) and the Starman’s
shocking demise two days later, people have been poring over
the meaning of the lyrics (what is the “Villa of Ormen”?), occult
symbols in the videos to Blackstar and Lazarus, and the album
artwork, which designer Jonathan Barnbrook insists still holds
one undiscovered treat for fans.
What does become apparent after several listens to Bowie’s
parting statement is that he’d evidently reconciled himself to
his fragile mortality, and faced it head on. And what better way
to sign off than to throw everything at it, and take risks that
other artists daren’t: how very Bowie. Producer Tony Visconti
recalled that they listened to a lot of Kendrick Lamar during the
making of the record – but it’s not rap or hip hop. Saxophonist
Donny McCaslin and drummer Mark Guiliana were recruited after
Bowie saw them playing in 55 Bar in New York, and the pair
add a frantic insistence to the LP – but it’s not a jazz album. LCD
Soundsystem’s James Murphy helped out with some ideas and
percussion – but Blackstar is not an electro banger. It is, in short,
everything that Bowie saw as the future of popular music. In
giving us Blackstar, he’s given us back our hope.
Christopher Torpey
BEYONCÉ
LEMONADE
Parkwood Entertainment
Released: 23rd April
Hell hath no fury like a
woman scorned. Scorned by
an unfaithful lover. Scorned
as a black woman, “the most
disrespected, unprotected
and neglected person in
America”, as observed by
Malcolm X in 1962, whose
statement you’ll find
sampled on BEYONCÉ’s
powerful, political, personal and poetic visual super-album
Lemonade.
The video for Formation unapologetically calls out violence
Michael Kirkham – Fucked Up at EBGBS
“Fucked Up in a basement in Liverpool, what’s not to
like?! You learn to ebb and flow with the crowd on
nights like this, it can get pretty intense sometimes.
But the look on the faces as people get so lost in the
music – well, it’s a buzz to capture.”
Read Dave Tate’s review of the show on page 44.
against black communities in America: the “stop shooting us”
graffiti, the references to Michael Brown and to the structural
violence against black communities in New Orleans post-Katrina,
the submerged police car. Black Lives Matter. Fast forward to the
Super Bowl halftime show: the Black Power salute, the nods to
Michael Jackson, Malcolm X and the Black Panthers. “I like my
baby heir with baby hair and afros/I like my negro nose with
Jackson Five nostrils.” This declaration of black pride on a stage
set for family-friendly neutrality stunned conservative white
America. “Racist.” (HUH?!) “Too political.”
Reportedly dealing with husband Jay Z’s infidelity (opening
track Pray You Catch Me begins “You can taste the dishonesty”),
Bey navigates waves of emotion, from hurt, to self-doubt, to
rage, to hope and a call to mobilise. She has urged fans to call
out police violence and stand in solidarity for Alton Sterling and
Philando Castile. She took the Mothers of the Movement – the
mothers of Michael Brown, Eric Garner, Oscar Grant and Trayvon
Martin – to the VMAs as her guests. Hell hath no fury like a
woman scorned; heaven probably hath no capacity for love like
these women either.
Bethany Garrett20
Phew – you’ve nearly made it through 2016, the most
tumultuous year since records began, congratulations!
The past 12 months have flown by like a highlights reel
of notable celebrity deaths, political upheaval, post-truths,
viral crazes and unlikely victors – even Leicester’s winning of
the Premier League looks like it might be overshadowed in
that department by the arrival of President Trump. It may be
remembered as the year when we reached peak internet, when
every occurrence was a meme waiting to happen; it may be
remembered as the point that the world changed and started
Mike Sheerin – Sound City
“Sound City is the highlight in the calendar for me,
but it brings its own challenges. At festivals, you
often lose the intimacy between performer and
audience. I shot this particular picture from the
mixing desk to capture the explosion of light and
the audience’s reaction with arms raised above their
heads.”
Sam Rowlands – Stormzy at Arts Club
“Arts Club was packed, and there was a problem with
the barrier so the photo pit was closed. I managed
to get myself up on the stage beside Stormzy, which
gave me the opportunity to engage with the artist in
a way a photographer rarely experiences.”
Keith Ainsworth – No Worst There Is None at
Anglican Cathedral
“This was a grand occasion with Bill Ryder-Jones'
piece of music No Worst There Is None interpreted by
IMMIX Ensemble for LightNight. After shooting close
up I found a high bridge further back in the structure
to get some wide shots to capture the scale.”

Bido Lito! Dec 2016/Jan 2017
17
ANOHNI
HOPELESSNESS
Rough Trade
Released: 6th May
FRANK OCEAN
ENDLESS
Def Jam Recordings
Released: 19th August
BLONDE
Boys Don’t Cry
Released: 20th August
Georgia Flynn – Louis Berry at Liverpool Music Week
“Photographing a gig is always that little bit more
special when it's one of your favourite artists, and
I knew it was going to be a boss gig. One thing I
love about Louis is how much he interacts with the
crowd: it’s moments like this that make for great
photographs.”
16
to eat itself and became the dystopia of Orwellian fiction; it
could even be remembered as the year of the online petition,
and it wouldn’t surprise us if there was already one calling for
2016 to resign from its role as Current Year. Whichever way you
remember it, 2016 will be seen as a turning point for us all.
We’ve revisited some of the musical milestones from the
past year to help you piece it all together, via some reviews
of 2016’s most important album releases, and a selection of
live memories from our intrepid photographers. Thanks for the
memories 2016… we think.
“If I filled up your mass
graves/And attacked your
countries/Under false
premise/I’m sorry,” sings
ANOHNI in her wonderfully
tortured and affecting
voice on Crisis, as the
lush beats and dancefriendly
electronics of cocollaborators
Hudson Mohawe and Oneohtrix Point Never dance
around a rare vulnerable moment in Hopelessness’ unflinching
dressing-down of liberal America. And she doesn’t stop there,
railing against mass, government-sponsored surveillance on
Watch Me (“I know you love me/Cos you’re always watching
me”), giving Barack Obama both barrels over his kill lists and
“executing without trial” on the angry Obama, and calling for
them to “explode my crystal guts” on Drone Bomb Me, in which
she assumes the role of a seven-year-old Afghan girl.
That she launches these attacks from an ambiguous
standpoint allows Anohni to point the finger at both those
on the left and the right for their hypocrisies and their moral
indignation. This isn’t a ‘political’ album in the parochial manner
of, say, Polly Harvey: it’s a hard-hitting reproach from a selfconfessed
ecofeminist who’s no longer afraid of stepping
on toes after a decades-long battle for acceptance as a trans
woman in a patriarchal world.
In February, Anohni wrote an essay about why she wouldn’t
be attending the Oscars ceremony after becoming the first
transgender person to be nominated for an Academy Award
(her collaboration with J. Ralph, Manta Ray, for the documentary
Racing Extinction was nominated for Best Original Song). “As a
transgendered artist, I have always occupied a place outside
of the mainstream,” she said, continuing, “I have gladly paid a
price for speaking my truth in the face of loathing and idiocy.”
Despite the advances in openness towards trans rights in 2016,
we’ve still got a long way to.
CT
Lucian Grainge’s internal
memo to the staff of Universal
on Monday 22nd August may
well be the biggest piece of
evidence in assessing the
state of the record industry
in 2016. Coming just days
after FRANK OCEAN’s double
album shoulder drop –
releasing visual album
Endless on the subscription
service Apple Music to fulfil
his contract with Def Jam (a
subsidiary of Universal Music
Group), followed 24 hours
later by the superior, more
conventional album Blonde
on his own, ‘independent’
label – CEO Grainge’s decree
banning all UMG artists from
signing “exclusive” distribution deals with streaming services still
feels like a petulant move from a man smarting from being outmanoeuvred
by one of his prized assets. Months of hype and
‘leaked’ release dates for Boys Don’t Cry – Ocean’s fabled followup
to 2012’s genre-smashing hit Channel ORANGE – fizzled into
intrigue about who’d shafted who, and how Def Jam essentially
wound up with a 45-minute, un-marketable music video stuck
behind an effective paywall on Apple’s streaming service. The fact
that Blonde went on to sell 276,000 units in its first week – only
Drake and Beyoncé have had bigger first week sales this year –
only heightened the perceived tensions.
Musically, Ocean occupies a more comfortable place on Blonde
than perhaps he’s ever done before: less prone to flitting between
ideas, more controlled and sensual in channelling his moods.
Endless wants for a structure, something – anything – for the
few brilliant moments to cling to. But you still get the sense that
the obsessive in Ocean has been quelled somewhat, and he’s
reconciled himself to his relationship with RnB. Only Frank Ocean
knows if that’s a good thing or not.
CT
John Johnson – Johnny Echols at LIMF
“The From Liverpool With Love gig at this year’s LIMF
festival was one of my musical highlights of the year.
Johnny Echols is an artist whose work with Arthur
Lee in the band Love has been a huge inspiration to
me over many years.”
Stuart Moulding – Joanna Newsom at
Philharmonic Hall
“I really like the feel of the Philharmonic: you get a
sense of history that doesn’t exist in most places.
This was taken from the back of the room. I wanted
to capture the sense of space that was created by
the backdrop and the room itself.”
Andrew AB – Omphalos at Invisible Wind Factory
“The Omphalos show was such an amazing night:
incredible interactive art and cloaked musicians were
scattered throughout, a photographer’s dream! I was
only able to go as the original photographer was
detained at the last moment, but I’m so glad I saw
what I did.”

18
Bido Lito! Dec 2016/Jan 2017
2016
M.I.A.
AIM
Polydor
9th September
LEONARD COHEN
YOU WANT IT DARKER
Columbia Records
Released: 21st October
FURTHER LISTENING
Kanye West – The Life Of Pablo
Listen to the paranoid mind of an artist wrapped up in
celebrity culture desperately trying to be one step ahead.
Refusing boats, fencing in,
dental checks, dismantling
camps and building walls
– xenophobia has crept
into our everyday lives and
made itself at home. Step
forward M.I.A. and AIM – a
hybrid-sounding celebration
of migrant culture and
resilience. Take her visually
arresting video for Borders
– placid brown bodies lying motionless on boats, attempting
to scale fences, wrapped in gold-foil shock blankets on foreign
shores. M.I.A. doesn’t shy from the imagery of the humanitarian
crisis played out on European waters and, lyrically, it’s just as
cutting and poignant – “borders”, “politics”, “police shots”,
“identities” and “your privilege” are juxtaposed with the social
media tat that keeps us immersed in our own fragile egos and at
a distance from empathy (“being bae”, “your goals”, “slaying it”).
AIM is not without controversy (a misdirected questioning of
the Black Lives Matter movement; pissing-off Paris St Germain;
scuffles with her label and MTV). But it is a scattered collection
of songs full of compassion for migrants and refugees – Survivor
touches on her own experience of coming to London as a child
refugee from Sri Lanka via India, in Freedun, featuring Zayn,
she sings that “refugees learn about patience”, and Ali R U OK?,
inspired by an overworked Uber driver, tackles the exploitative
work carried out by migrants and the obligation to send home
remittances.
In a world that feels hell-bent on inciting fear of the 'Other',
AIM is a record full of global reverb: a vital acknowledgement of
the moveable feast of migrant culture and the shit people endure.
BG
You Want It Darker coaxed
LEONARD COHEN, cold
winter air, like his one-time
lover and muse, Marianne
Ihlen, to whom he wrote as
she was dying - a letter that
brought a wandering tear
to many an eye. His words,
as ever, lay testament to
the trying and suffering and
the slithers or swathes of light that mark the human condition;
belief, loss, sensuality. The inevitable mortality played out like
King Herod and the baby boys in this year Anno Domini 2016,
Cohen himself one of the most recent casualties.
But there is a hopefulness to be found in his life and work.
Take Hallelujah. Pored over for five years, his genius belies the
instant gratification-type brilliance we so often associate with
the greats. In the arduous craft of the song, there is hope – that
perseverance can produce greatness. To grasp that Cohen only
came to terms with touring in his 70s. To know his depression
lifted. To learn he enjoyed the sensory experience of swimming.
To understand it took the help of others for Hallelujah to be
recognised. To tell a story of a Biblical hero committing two
mortal sins, adultery and murder, but to know he is forgiven.
There is hope in all these things.
Or take the final line on You Want It Darker, sung on String
Reprise/Treaty: “I wish there was a treaty between your love
and mine.” A prerequisite for that wish of a guarantee of love is
a hope for the future. Now, more than ever, we need that hope.
BG
Chance The Rapper – Coloring Book (Chance 3)
Forced the Grammys to change their submissions process
to include streaming-only releases after becoming the
first album to chart solely on streams.
Jessy Lanza – Oh No
The fears and anxieties of a generation writ large and
sprinkled over some of the most sensuous RnB you’ll hear
this decade.
Skepta – Konnichiwa
Took grime to the top of the tree by scooping the Mercury
Prize, but even then he was still overshadowed by his
mother.
Viola Beach – Viola Beach
Hats off to those in the biz for getting this album to Number
1 in memory of the four young musicians and their manager
who tragically passed away before their time.
A Tribe Called Quest – We Got It From Here… Thank You
4 Your Service
No-one expected this record after 18 years out of the
game, but the secret recordings with Phife Dawg before
his passing are as on point as they ever were.
Watch out for further views from our team of contributors on their
most memorable photos, gigs and music of 2016 over on our
new-look bidolito.co.uk.
Glyn Akroyd – Mbongwana Star at Africa Oyé
“By the time headliners Mbongwana Star hit the
stage, only the hardcore were left in the worsening
rain. I got the nod that I could shoot from the back
of the stage, and Theo Nzonza was all motion
and demanded attention. His triumphantly raised
fists at the end of one song seemed to capture his
defiance.”
Robin Clewley – Different Trains at Edge Hill station
“I’d tried to imagine what it was going to look
like before I arrived but I wasn’t prepared for the
number of people crammed in to the cobbled street.
There was little room to manoeuvre and almost no
available light – but at the same time it was an eerily
peaceful place to be for a memorable experience.”
Paul McCoy – Sleaford Mods at Mountford Hall
“The thing about this gig is that it all happened so
fast, I don’t remember a thing! You only have the first
three songs and the lights are blinding, but it’s an
intense rush with three or four other photographers
around you. Jason Williamson has got to be the most
intense performer this year!”
Read Craig G Pennington's review of this show on page 34.

HANG
THE DJ
Open deck situation / drink & food offers /
every tuesday from 6pm to late
Amateurs, pros, first-timers, shakers,
movers all-welcome / All genres respected
67 Greenland Street
Liverpool
L1 0BY
Register your slot @hang_the_dj_dj
#hangtheDJ
campandfurnace.com
@campandfurnace
0151 708 2890

20
Bido Lito! Dec 2016/Jan 2017
Words: Suart Miles O'Hara / @ohasm1
Photography: John Johnson / johnjohnson-photography.com
bidolito.co.uk

Bido Lito! Dec 2016/Jan 2017
21
The Invisible Wind Factory’s lights are at half-mast. Three
smooth and faceless figures have convened on an altar
of two drum kits and a rack of synths, one of which
has already begun burbling like bubbles racing past your rapid
descent to the abyss. The two drummers each raise an arm,
and nobody is the wiser as to whether they are saluting each
other, adjusting to their physical forms, or inviting down power
from some lofty source above. This drumstick semaphore comes
to an abrupt end as they begin their battery and we leave the
world behind.
They are – this is – BARBEROS, and they are unveiling their
new, self-titled album. Six tracks of otherworldly prog noise
and twin drum assault – ranging from the doomy chanting of
Obladen to Concerto (Reprise)’s klezmer of the damned – are
played in full here tonight, with an ensemble boosted at various
times by acolytes and musicians who have given their bodies
to the morph-suited cause. Over 45 minutes, though it could
have been longer, the closest we get to an intelligible lyric
is an older, English voice: “Yes. I think it’s started. It’s started
moving”. During the interstellar washes of sound that follow, the
only other plausibly oral noises emitted by the larval cerebrum
present are moist and chattering clicks.
Confronted by rows of spandex golems, by the time signatures
in π/4 and raging oscillators of their music, I can see the
separation of mind and body in everyone around me – hearts
are racing, but brains might as well be in jars, with time going
past slower as pulses race. At the end all goes dark, and the final
silhouette of Barberos is a chimera with mallets raised and faces
(do they have faces?) turned to look (do they have eyes?) at the
orgiastic consequences of their set.
One week on from the close encounter at IWF, I yearned to
know more. One glimpse at Barberos was addictive and I longed
to look on Barberos once more. After many hours’ exhaustive
dowsing, there was spandex before me, spandex behind me,
spandex on every side of me, and we communed. Live, there
were three of them, sometimes more. It’s hard to say how many
there were now, but their first statement rang out like grinding
stones.
“We are Barberos, not individuals. We are omni, we are one.”
But you had many more onstage with you at the album
launch, and some of them were clearly All We Are, because they
played right before you, I countered.
“For the launch, we had our friends from Stealing Sheep,
All We Are, Zombina and the Skeletones…” I get the picture.
The church of Barberos has many worshippers. But the voice
continued, “…a.P.A.t.T, The Aleph, and Ex-Easter Island Head
perform with us.” This band has penetrated further than first
seemed. One more utterance came forth: “And others. None of
them are on the album.”
If they’re a multiplicitous entity, that might explain how the
album sounds so vast with only three playing on it. Discovering
that Barberos have friends was disarming, and slowly,
tentatively, a conversation emerged. Track three, Hoyl, begins
with the awestruck voiceover mentioned above. I asked if it was
a sample or one of the three talking.
“That’s Charles Hayward.”
Of This Heat? Wow.
“And of This is Not This Heat, Camberwell Now, and a million
more amazing bands. He’s our mate.”
They don’t just have friends, they have mates. The record
checks out, and Barberos did tour with Hayward in 2012. They
seem to pop up in the real world in distant climes, with no proof
of their travelling between them. They’ve been heard in Salford,
Rheims and Caen, but they seem to favour appearing in Eastern
Europe: Russia, Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania all have reported
sightings. Rumours that the new shield covering the reactor
at Chernobyl was originally to be made of spandex cannot be
confirmed. As informally as I could, I asked Barberos for their
best live reception and, for contrast, a show where the audience
just didn’t get them. I expected there would be a few tales to
tell, but one answer came forth.
“Veliky Novgorod. A kind of cocktail bar. Everyone was sitting
down, just filming us on their phones. I think they were confused
by us. But then we DJed afterwards and they danced.” Evidently,
this band do have the human touch, assuming the crowd danced
of their own volition. The new album art, photographed by
Justė Urbonavičiūtė, displays them standing before a mysterious
erection. Hoping to bond over the beauty of concrete, I asked
for more information.
“It’s a mad old Soviet concert hall in Vilnius.”
Did you play inside it?
“It’s a mad old Soviet concert hall in Vilnius,” they repeated,
“and there are a few other brutalist buildings we really liked so
we got spandexed in front of them”. ‘Getting spandexed’, as far
as I can tell, is how Barberos assume their physical form. “It was
about minus 10 degrees in November. We took those pictures...
as quickly as possible.” Medieval theologians agonised over the
question of whether the first man, having never been born, had
a navel. It is not possible to tell, from the album’s cover, whether
the band have nipples.
How does something as transient as BARBEROS even get
recorded without the aid of the supernatural?
“We worked with Snorre Bergerud at Ymir Audio in Vilnius. He
has a studio in the national television building that was used for
orchestras to practice and record in. It is massive. He’s a genius
engineer and producer, but the room he has sounds so good.
You can hear a lot of that in the recording.”
Indeed, this album has been almost two years in the making.
Pressing is reported to have taken a long time, possibly
complicated by cursed machinery and the dwindling number
of suitable plants in places conducive to manifestations of
Barberos.
“We recorded the songs almost two years ago. We have
been touring pretty much the same set for a few years now. The
songs have naturally moved, and realigned somewhat.” I drew a
comparison to the sailing stones of Death Valley, but it was met
with silence. Perhaps such questions shouldn’t be asked. As if
the two might be related. After a while, they continued. “We’ve
become more comfortable and freer with them.” It is unclear if
Barberos were referring to the songs or the stones by this point.
Trying to categorise their sound is impossible. Any descriptor
carries so many caveats and palaeographical footnotes as to rob
the genre named of any convenient brevity. To comprehend the
sound of Barberos, one must stop trying to comprehend Barberos
at all. This approach prompted their longest pronouncement yet.
“I think our sound has changed and evolved through many
different things... life, bands we play with, bands we love, food,
dreams, and all things. We find we are often billed with very
different bands. But it seems to work. All manner of metal, jazz,
noise, electro, techno, super-experimental sound art, and weird
pop. The lot. Always alternative.”
I was surprised to hear the word ‘love’ in their answer.
Barberos then turned 45º three times in succession, each time
emitting band names on a supersonic frequency.
“Tangerine Dream. Ruins. This Heat.”
Anyone who watched Stewart Lee’s last Comedy Vehicle
will have seen the post-stand up get grilled by Chris Morris
about irony, his onstage persona, audience complicity, and
the suspension of disbelief. Eventually Morris brings him
to tears, until he’s left gibbering weakly, “This is this… this is
this”. Likewise, as with the Delphic oracle or the Vestal virgins,
you cannot ask mundane questions of Barberos and get mere
answers in return. The new album opens with The Return Of The
Ladius And The Ladius, 15 minutes and a crucial four seconds of
variously-shaped sine waves, vibrating metal, glowing portals
and (invisibly) rushing wind. What is the Ladius? I had to know.
After a few minutes, Barberos lit up and responded. The answer
was cuboid and the faces read thus:
“It is a thing. A state of mind. A feeling. An emotion. A secret.
Yes.”
I suppose that will be one for the listeners to figure out for
themselves, I thought. There was a popping sound and the
answer had gained a seventh side:
“They won’t.”
Who was I to ask inane questions, even in thought alone?
Crouching, in tears, I mumbled in realisation. Barberos is
Barberos.
BARBEROS is out now on Dream Machine Records.
barberos.bandcamp.com

Brexit, Theresa May and Donald Trump (AKA Reagan and
Thatcher 2.0), the ‘alt. Right’, recession, and the death
of some of the most influential voices of the past two
centuries. 2016 has not been the best of years; in fact, it’s been
fucking terrible. What better time, then, for CABBAGE to rear their
head, ready to take on the world? This quintet of acerbic-tongued
Mancs are fighting, kicking and screaming against the shit with a
cocktail of debauched live shows and politically critical songs that
aim to kindle the fires of a revolution. From necrophiliac royals
through to calling for the death of the US President-elect, nothing
is off limits for the cruciferous crusaders, who are here to kick
against the grain and position themselves as mouthpieces for a
youth that feel they have been fucked over by an older generation
who’ll die before feeling the real impact of their actions. In a week
of huge political and social turmoil which saw the band stepping
in for a 6Music session with Marc Riley just as Trump was being
elected in the US, Matt Hogarth caught up with Cabbage’s guitarist
Joe Martin to ask him just what the fuck was going on.
Bido Lito!: Well, 2016 has been a pretty shite year…
Joe Martin: On the whole it has, yeah, ha! It’s grim that jingoism
and nationalism seem to have taken over. It’s not particularly the
best time to be in a group.
BL!: But despite everything in the news you guys seem to
have done pretty well. You’re set to play Old Trafford with The
Charlatans next year, and you’ve already sold out dates for an
even bigger tour in 2017.
JM: It’s been great so far, yeah – not that we’ve made a fuckin’
penny out of it, though. We wrote Dinner Lady in my old flat in
Salford, and then it found its way into a BBC radio studio yesterday
[with Marc Riley]. I mean, if somebody said to me that that
would’ve happened I wouldn’t have believed them. When you’re
doing it you don’t really think about it. From afar I always used to
be jealous of people in bands, but when you’re doing it you don’t
really stop to think about it because there’s always another goal
that’s easily attainable.
BL!: So what’s the ultimate goal for Cabbage?
JM: Err, making an album in Barbados and coming back weighing
seem to take every day as it comes.
BL!: On your last EP, Uber Capitalist Death Trade, there’s a song
called Free Steven Avery which exclaims “Death to Donald Trump”.
What do you make of him becoming president?
JM: Well we’ve changed our views now, so the lyrics have
changed to “All hail Donald Trump” in some desperate attempt
to get an American visa. So yeah, if you’re reading this Donald,
well done and let us in your country…! Nah, it’s fuckin’ bizarre. I
mean, that picture of him and Nigel Farage chumming it up is a
fuckin’ jingoistic nightmare, isn’t it? It’s sad – in desperate times,
nationalism always seems to rear its ugly head. But I think it’s
due to an older generation; I might be wrong, but it seems the
younger generation aren’t too into it. It’s the people who’ve seen
every other faction fail. But I think young people are getting a lot
more fired up and hopefully it will crumble.
BL!: If Cabbage were to run for government what would your
manifesto be?
JM: For a start we’d nationalise the railways, because I’m on a
Northern Rail train at the moment and it fuckin’ stinks. Having
worked in a private school I’d abolish them as well, because they
raise these privileged kids in a world of their own. I just don’t
agree with the idea that money influences your education – which
it doesn’t, by the way. So yeah, I would abolish private schools,
nationalise private schools and throw sexists, racists and bigots
onto a massive bonfire. There’d need to be some slaying.
BL!: As a band who champion working-class intellectualism, do
you feel that the younger generation is becoming more politicised
and educated?
JM: Yeah, I think young people in this country are given a bad name.
The press seems to focus an awful lot on the antisocial aspects of
young people but fails to look at the fact that we’re becoming so
much more political and paying more attention. Just look at the
change from the likes of someone like Liam Gallagher – his views
are just so outdated. It’s the same as Arctic Monkeys, they’ve just
done what’s easy for them and just completely forgotten their
roots: all this bollocks about his only aspiration being to own
Rolls Royces and that seems to have faded away for the younger
think there’s a lot of positivity. We didn’t set out to be a political
band, it just sort of happened. It surprises us there’s not more
like us out there.
BL!: We can see that you guys have taken a lot of influence from
The Fall and you’ve played with them a few times – and are set to
do so again in January in Liverpool. Have you had any encounters
with Mark E. Smith himself?
JM: No, not at all, and I’d like to keep it that way. I always cite The
Fall as one of my favourite groups of all time and I’ve read every
book under the sun about them and I wanna keep the image of
him in my head, and that respect as well. I see The Fall as a factory
with loads of employees who have – and still do – work there,
and he’s the CEO. You wouldn’t see people hassling a boss of a
company, would you? I mean, what better way can you appreciate
him than listening to the records? There’ll never be another band
six stones? I dunno, I don’t think there is one. We can’t plan
beyond the next week let alone the next two months, so we just
generation. People in music today have bigger political ambitions
than just getting loads of money. We’re in uncertain times, but I
Death Trade is out now on Skeleton Key Records.
ahcabbage.bandcamp.com
CABBAGE
like them.
BL!: Yourselves and Mark E. Smith share a similarity in that you’re
well known for your onstage antics. What has been your maddest
gig to date?
JM: We have had some pretty good gigs, I must admit. We’re
just always bumping into each other. During the last gig we did,
Owen’s guitar head fell off because he was on my shoulders
and he dropped his guitar on its end. But I’m not sure if the true
craziest is yet to come: we like to have a level of uncertainty,
but we’re with a major management company so we can’t really
express our true destructive desires cos that’d be the end of us.
Nowadays, I don’t think there’s anything much like that. The
problem is it sort of implodes – you just have to look at bands such
as Fat Whites or Amazing Snakeheads to see that there always
seems to be some issues. But there needs to be that explosive
element in music because it’s just fuckin’ boring otherwise. Look
at GG Allin: I mean, he made the ultimate sacrifice. He should be
celebrated and his life should be seen as an artistic statement,
y’know? We’ve got a plan there, but we’d have to drop anything
before we could do it, ha ha!
Cabbage play CLUB.THE.MAMMOTH.’s all-dayer at Arts Club on 21st
January 2017 along with The Fall and Hookworms. Uber Capitalist
Words: Matt Hogarth
Photography: Paul Husband

LIVERPOOL MUSIC W
24
Bido Lito! Dec 2016/Jan 2017
We aren’t half spoilt when it comes to live music round here, especially if you like your gigs epic in scale
and cathartic for the soul. As we reached the year’s curtain call, LIVERPOOL MUSIC WEEK strode up to the
plate for its 12th edition to bring us a heady week-and-a-bit of shows to sate all but the pickiest of tastes.
Our look back at all that LMW 2016 had to offer starts off in the opulent setting of The Dome at Grand Central Hall, and
finishes up in the up-and-coming north docks area for a locally sourced and rollicking Closing Party.
Words: Tom Bell, Matt Hogarth, Dave Tate, Christopher Carr,
Debra Williams, Christopher Hughes, Jonny Winship, Stuart
Miles O’Hara, Evan Moynihan, Cath Bore, Sue Bennett.
Photography: Keith Ainsworth, Glyn Akroyd, Hannah Johns,
Mike Sheerin, Chloé Santoriello, John Johnson.
Warpaint
Gogo Penguin
Dinosaur Jr
SHOWCASE EVENTS
Look, performance and presentation are as worth championing
as anything, but, jeez, there’s a lot of that about on Liverpool
Music Week’s opening night. Hell forbid that everyone noodles
away earnestly, but save us, too, from constant demands to like
something (which is often nothing) right now. Give us a slow
burn, a proper feed occasionally and no snacking, and less of
the graphic, more concealment – and not as a ruse. Give us
WARPAINT.
This is patiently, effortlessly pressed home in the also
pleasingly out-of-time Dome at Grand Central Hall on Renshaw
Street, in which the quartet are tonight sealed. Nothing outside
of them seems to be allowed into their world – OK, except ALL
WE ARE, who seem on a good frequency at the mo and are so
assured in their mechanising of thumping drums and voices
combined into chords that they make complete sense as support.
Swaddled by an opening Bees, you’re now vibrating to
Warpaint rather than overhearing – maybe why their records
take often circuitous routes to your affections. You’re sucked
into the warren of corridors of Keep It Healthy, vortices of guitar
tunnelling down from the clearing of the mid-song breakdown.
They don’t just say they’ve “got you in the undertow”, you feel
it; you are there.
Such aural chicanery restates the initial point across the EQs.
Firstly, because the rhythm section of Jenny Lee Lindberg and
Stella Mozgawa is the best around. Second, the harmonising
of Emily Kokal and Theresa Wayman is the toppermost. Number
three, the latter pair’s spiral-stair riffs, and, four, the patience
for that slow burn.
And now for something completely different. With a body of
work spanning multiple genres and decades, JOHN CARPENTER
has long established himself as a unique, if somewhat cult,
voice within the annals of cinema history. Despite having been
bestowed with the title of Master Of Horror for his collection
of classic films such as Halloween and The Thing, Carpenter
has, throughout his career, been able to turn his hand to the
action, thriller and adventure genres with equally effective
results. Alongside his accolades as a director, Carpenter has also
garnered plaudits as the composer to the soundtracks for most
of his films. His instantly recognisable brand of crystalline, synthdriven
soundscapes has become inseparable from the aesthetic
of his movies, and with the release of his first album of original
music (2015’s Lost Themes), Carpenter has shown himself an
equally capable composer outside of his soundtrack work.
Now performing his compositions live for the first time in
his 40-plus-year career, tonight’s show stands out in that the
venue for the performance could not be any more perfect. The
supposedly haunted Liverpool Olympia, in all of its decaying
splendour, looks like it has been plucked straight from a
Carpenter movie and the crowd inside are already in good spirits.
From the opening chunky guitar riff of the Escape From New York
theme they are positively ecstatic, each new theme greeted with
a whoop from the audience as they see their favourite characters
projected onto the screen behind the band. A condensed version
of each film is played out and serves to remind us to just how
many classic cinema moments Carpenter has been responsible
for. Being able to relive the experience of watching Halloween
for the first time from behind the sofa in the presence of the man
responsible for so many sleepless nights is a magical experience
that borders on the cathartic.
Joined by his own son on second keyboards, Carpenter’s band
perform amped-up version of each film’s soundtrack with an
energy that translates them into the live realm perfectly. Drawing
from the same palette of glassy arpeggios and foreboding
synths, Carpenter showcases his ability to tell a story or paint a
surreal world just as vivid as those his movies inhabit through
his soundscapes alone. As an artist, Carpenter hasn’t always had
the praise he’s deserved. Thankfully, tonight, his fanbase are able
to provide him with more than enough.
Fast forward a couple of nights and fans of all ages are
gathered at Arts Club in hope of catching a glimpse of the
enigmatic, Neil Young-lovin’, Fender-playin’ tinnitus merchants
DINOSAUR JR. Album after album, tour after tour, J Mascis and
co. have barely let up since their 1985 debut, an ever-speeding
juggernaut who continue to crush short-lived acts with their
gargantuan sound.
But first it’s time to support our local freak scene and who
better to front it than SHEER ATTACK, a band who truly deserve
their name. Lead singer Russ is the perfect combo of Rollins and
Ozzy, a truly electric performer who seems to ricochet off every
wall he can, his frenetic pinballing soundtracked by his band’s
brutal metal/hardcore crossover. Evidence, if you needed it, that
you should always get down for the support act.
The roaring trade the venue is doing in ear-plug sales kind
of points to the direction this is going in, but before Dinosaur
Jr.’s instruments are even plugged in our ears are tested by the
deafening roars and wolf whistles that greet the Massachusetts
trio as they come on stage. Not ones for unnecessary
conversation, the group bowl headfirst into the assault, the
sound penetrating our brains with a solid spear of white noise.
The decibel meter flashes into the triple digits.
Never one known for the strength of his voice, Mascis mutters
song after song from his fixed position on the stage. At times,
the only movement you can see from him is in one of his arms
and the fingers on the other hand. But, we’re not here for Freddie
Mercury levels of stage strutting – it’s the incendiary guitarwork
we want, and Mascis doesn’t disappoint as he effortlessly
unleashes sounds with a flick of a string and the tap of a pedal.
It’s easy to see why they’re viewed in some circles as iconic, yet…
the ear-bleeding noise and lack of interaction does get a bit
tiresome. Maybe the odd bit of chat wouldn’t go amiss?
The following night we’re present to witness that the strong
yet delicate approach of Louisa Roach is still centre stage of
SHE DREW THE GUN, the addition of a full band having not
overwhelmed but enhanced it. Tonight, 11 months and a
Glastonbury performance, a Billy Bragg recommendation, a trip
to South Korea and a UK tour later, they reach an even higher
level – a heavier, grungier sound developed through extensive
guitar riffs and reverb on tracks such as their spooky new
Hallowe’en waltz with its metal-heavy ending, Louisa soloing,
head down, engrossed.
However, before we reach the grunge, the eclectic trio of

John Carpenter
Bido Lito! Dec 2016/Jan 2017
25
EEK 2016
DIY BREAKING
OUT SHOWS
Amber Arcades
MAMATUNG provide an unexpected delight. The three young
women play a variety of instruments, including the autoharp and
melodica, and harmonise beautifully. They’re folky with a worldmusic
edge; earthy, pagan beats over ethereal, sometimes otherworldly,
vocals. There’s a Wicker Man-like intensity and build-up
of apprehension in the pagan drumming – well in keeping with
the night before Hallowe’en.
SDTG’s superb set includes the intensely moving Since You
Were Not Mine and If You Could See, and a groovy Sugababes/
Jefferson Airplane mashup of Overload. The “angry songs about
the way things are” are also in evidence – Louisa’s sweet voice,
like honey flowing over the razor’s edge of her sharp lyrics,
combining to deliver a knockout, sneering, sarcastic punch to all
those who are part of the problem rather than the solution – with
Poem and Pit Pony. She ‘raps’ between songs – a “microphone
sniper” calling-out the world’s ills and those who perpetuate
them, bringing huge cheers and applause from the enthusiastic,
packed room.
Anticipation is high a few days later in Arts Club for yet more
plentiful musical festivities, showing that the stamina of the
crowd is far from flagging. Tonight’s one and only support act
is a band that are a stylistic far cry from the musical direction
of headliners GOGO PENGUIN, yet somehow they complement
the bill perfectly. DELIAH are, in short, phenomenal. They deliver
a minimal but well-composed set full of weighty, tight drum
breaks, tasty guitar lines and bass counter-melodies. They can
legitimately do neo-soul: no gimmicks, no clichéd disco-esque
cheapness, just raw, gritty beats and melodies with powerful,
lush vocals drizzled on top.
Before long, GoGo Penguin’s trio of contemporary jazzmasters
are striding through a rich set of frenetic, breakneck beats and
complex melodies – and the audience are transfixed. Not only
is this incredible music to listen to but the playing is at the
level of the virtuoso. Drummer Rob Turner offers a mesmerising
display of both blistering technique and beautiful layers of
texture, while bassist Nick Blacka and pianist Chris Illingworth
put forward both a wealth of expressive outbursts and refined,
tight melodies.
Plenty of diverse cuts from the Penguins’ three albums are
peppered throughout the set, such as newer tracks All Res
and Unspeakable World as well as older tracks One Percent,
Garden Dog Barbeque and Fanfares. The trio give everything
they have and seem to disappear into their instruments when
they play. Every pair of eyes in the room is focused intently on
the emotional, visual and audible trip.
There are few venues in Liverpool as suited to host the last
of LMW’s showcase events as Leaf’s upstairs space. Despite
the high ceiling there’s a real intimacy about the place, with
candles, sombre blue lighting and draped velvet curtains behind
the stage making it feel like we’ve been invited to something
special.
Liverpool’s own TOM LOW provides support, and his threepiece
band open with the charmingly innocent Telephone. Quirky
guitar hooks and three-way harmonies perfectly set the theme
for his dreamy yet uplifting performance.
CAT’S EYES themselves enter to the nostalgically sad Twin
Peaks theme – first, the three backing singers meander through
the crowd to take their positions on the stage, then guitarist,
bassist and tonight’s stand-in drummer Dave, Faris Badwan
and, finally, Rachel Zeffira. Upon reaching her mic, Zeffira wastes
no time in unleashing the devastating soprano voice she has
become known for, the crowd instantly falling under her spell.
We’ve been excited to see how their ornate chamber-pop studio
sound translates to a live setting for a while now, and answers
come in the form of brilliantly captive performances of Face In
The Crowd, Drag, and Standoff. Badwan’s vocals often croon
throughout them in the style of Nick Cave, the lyrical maturity
that has come since his early Horrors days now abundant.
Cat’s Eyes can brilliantly alternate between mournful
ballads of lost love and some up-tempo nightmare-pop, with
the resultant sound being something that haunts the space
between Arcade Fire and Ladytron. Zeffira’s voice is similar to
that of Helen Marnie, inspired as they both are by sixties yéyé
and the French chanson. A well-placed cover of The Beatles’
spooky Because only furthers the feeling that we’ve been privy
to something original, unpredictable, unforgettable
Away from the bright lights of the established headliners,
LMW 2016 provided us with a run of shows in Arts Club’s
Loft featuring a clutch of acts who we can be sure will
be bill-topping names in the future. Jonny Winship, Evan
Moynihan, Cath Bore and Matt Hogarth were our scouts for
the series of more intimate gigs – here’s who impressed
them…
A sporadic stream of Harley Quinns, shoddy sugar skulls
and half-arsed zombies are chugging their way down
Seel Street as we arrive at the venue on the Breaking Out
series’ opening Halloween weekend. Inside, BATHYMETRY
are already mid-flow within their own stream of scuzzy,
mix-and-match grunge rock. Their sound twists and flows
over the audience, and is well received by this early-bird
crowd.
Playing for the first time as a live band, the new,
reimagined project from AGP follow. Bar the odd hitch
and mistiming, they produce an intricate sonic wall of
punchy shoegaze rock. The powerful and delicate FERAL
LOVE are next to add their own dynamic to the support
for tonight. Drawing the biggest crowd of the night, they
enthral and enchant with thick electronic tones and Adéle
Emmas’ soaring and commanding vocals. They deliver an
impressive set, and leave as if it was their own headline
show.
By the time the Heavenly headliners AMBER ARCADES
take to the stage, the room has thinned a little and the
noise levels from the bar area behind us are heightened.
Nevertheless, the band effortlessly sail through their
set; fuzzy organs, gentle jangly guitars and Annelotte de
Graaf’s soft, deft croon float over the crowd. Come With Me
and Fading Lines act as the most rousing parts of the their
set. Harmonies are carried and delivered with a heavenly
grace; the essence and style of their brilliant EP Fading
Lines is reciprocated, but something is missing. They fail to
snare the attention of the room, as people chatter, shuffle
awkwardly or politely look on. Their sedating, dreamy pop
is lost on this crowd.
bidolito.co.uk

LIVERPOOL MUSIC WEEK 2016
CLOSING PARTY
Invisible Wind Factory, North Shore Troubadour and Meraki
It’s the last night of a run which has championed everything from pop to jazz
to soundtrack pioneers and the end is very near. Forever looking forward to
Liverpool’s future, Music Week have decided this year to look to the newest
area of cultural innovation for the setting of the fabled LMW Closing Party,
the north docklands.
With such a choice of local talent on offer across the venues, we take up
shelter first of all in Bido Lito!’s own Spiritual Bunker based at brand-new
venue Meraki, with the brilliant SHIPBUILDERS opening proceedings. They’re
better than ever tonight too, showing that they’ve managed to progress from
the familiar indie format into something more interesting and much more
diverse. Combining classic Scouse melody with some Spaghetti Western
cinema stylings, they help us forget the weather outside with a show that
makes us feel all warm inside.
Not wanting to miss anything, we rush over to quaint venue North Shore
Troubadour to catch a glimpse of the enigmatic and suave DANYE. Their slick
hair matches their effortless playing as a complement to the minimalist
psychedelic pop that they play. There’s no need to venture outside for our next
act either, as the wonderful AZUSENA is just getting started in North Shore
Troubadour’s main room. The Wirral-via-New York singer is perhaps one of the
most exciting Merseyside artists around, so with live appearances few and far
between, we think it best to catch her before she’s carted off to much larger
stages. There’s something quite captivating about the whole thing: merely a
guitar, a keyboard and one tremendous voice, they manage to hypnotise the
audience with their beautifully sparse and barren torch songs. No gimmicks
or strategy are needed, just well-written songs and the expanse for Azusena’s
creamy voice to unfold.
Back in Meraki, Norwegian trio I SEE RIVERS bring a glacial feel to the
stark room, which manages to stay heaving all night. Delicious harmonies
and winsome tones cut through to the bone, bringing an air of The Staves,
or even Sea Of Bees, to the party. SANKOFA succeed in bringing some beauty
out of Meraki’s dark and damp corners later on too, all bluesy incantations
and sleazy garage style, and it’s one in-one out for BONNACONS OF DOOM’s
groundshaking set in the venue an hour or so later.
Some of the promising acts split between the various venues tonight would
do well to take a closer look at this rise of one of the city’s greatest success
stories. CLINIC are a beacon of everything that’s great about Liverpool: creatively
pioneering, talented but most importantly, downright fucking strange. Despite
the band having been around for almost two decades, not only have they
managed to keep moving forward but, due to their iconic surgical suits, they’ve
also failed to age. They get straight to business tonight with medical efficiency,
providing the audience with quite the show, See Saw in particular sounding
timeless and well-rounded in IWF’s cavernous main room.
The Closing Party is an amazing feat, one that is a fitting end to Liverpool
Music Week’s storming run, but it isn’t half a marathon. Tonight alone offers
up enough amazing musicians from a variety of genres to power most festival
bills. But even this isn’t enough for us gig-hungry rhythm slaves; we just can’t
let final act of the night STRANGE COLLECTIVE slope off without tearing through
their infectious party psych hit Super Touchy.
When can we do it all over again?
Head to bidolito.co.uk to see a full photo gallery from this year’s festival.
liverpoolmusicweek.com
Clinic
DIY BREAKING OUT SHOWS
When LET’S EAT GRANDMA take the stage Celia Archer acknowledging with humour that
in Arts Club’s Loft, I can’t help but wonder they could cock it up big time “and none of
how often the duo get mistaken for sisters. you lot would notice”. That, as well as recent
Dressed in matching outfits and with the releases Silent Movie Susie and Cupid, plus
same long wavy locks, Rosa Walton and debut single Sucker, stand up well alongside
Jenny Hollingsworth look strikingly similar. a live favourite, a lingering interpretation of
They seem like best friends and the beginning Madonna’s Beautiful Stranger.
of their set doesn’t do anything to dispel Archer bigs up singer Juliette Jackson
that notion. They clap out a ‘Patty Cake’-style throughout the show for trooping through
rhythm over the drone of a synth before drifting this, the first night of the tour, with a cold.
into Deep Six Textbook.
“I’m going to do a dance for you now,” Jackson
Many of the songs on Let’s Eat Grandma’s announces halfway through, and proceeds to
debut album I, Gemini are built on the do a wobbly Walks Like An Egyptian shuffle.
foundation of a keyboard or synth loop. From This is appropriate, because there is something
there, they layer guitar, mandolin, xylophone, The Bangles’ Susanna Hoffs about Jackson,
saxophone, recorders, and drums to create the girl next door way out of everyone’s reach.
a haunting atmosphere. Their performance
is eccentric and unconventional. They aren’t For DIY’s final Breaking Out gig of Liverpool
virtuosos, but that’s not the point. Their Music Week 2016, we’re looking for a grand
primitive approach to a lot of these instruments hurrah of a send-off, so who better to kick
is what defines their sound and that’s not a bad off proceedings than Arts Club’s arch rivals
thing; think Meg White or Patrick Carney. QUEEN ZEE & THE SASSTONES? Their previous
One thing they have mastered is the way sets here have resulted in time spent in A&E,
they weave their vocals together. Often, and their return to the stage proves no less
they overlap two distinct lyrics or echo one compromising. The set that follows proves
another before coming together to emphasise anarchic as ever, with a face full of feedback,
a certain line. The result is powerful.
room-shattering drums and the acid tongue
These young women are willing to venture of Queen Zee – in bra and skirt – providing an
wherever the music takes them, and they play electric set. No piece of equipment is safe as
what comes naturally and sing about what cymbals cascade and mics are slammed. Their
they know. It’s psychedelic pop mixed with appearance may be brief, but it sets the bar
folklore, fairytales and teen angst – and it’s high for tonight.
uniquely their own.
Volumes raised, it’s up to INDIGO MOON to
take the challenge of following on from Queen
The Breaking Out strand of Liverpool Music Zee. Their decadent rock is lavish and rich in
Week works particularly well for the highquality
local talent who get to open for the really steals the show. A storm of swirling hair
tone but it’s lead singer Ashley Colley who
bigger, touring acts, and one band who could and bellowing vocals, she holds the audience
be in the latter category soon enough are in the palm of her hand as she relinquishes
TRUDY & THE ROMANCE. The eager puppies control to her primeval instincts.
bound onto the stage to kick of the third It’s with a pang of sadness that we notice
night of the DIY series, and it would be the the room empty a little for headlining
obvious thing to describe them as odd, but Brightonians ABBATOIR BLUES, whose rough
they are exactly that and it’s no bad thing. ‘n’ ready rock has caught the ear this year. As
Pulling in from 1950s doo-wop and rockabilly if to prove themselves to the people who have
classics, with the ghost of Gene Vincent and stayed, the quartet unfurl a barrage of harsh,
big wonderful smiles, they’re a curious joy. shoegazey guitars that prove perfect backing
Tonight we get the now familiar Baby I’m for the guttural incoherent slurs of vocalist
Blue and All My Love, as well as new song George Boorman. With audience interaction
Doghouse.
kept to a minimum and the set short and
Headliners THE BIG MOON are a delight sharp, this is a treat for those of us lucky
tonight. They play a new song, bass player enough to have witnessed it.
The Big Moon

Merry Christmas
from everyone at Buyers Club, and thank you for
your support throughout 2016
Christmas and dinner bookings available, contact info@buyers-club.co.uk for
more information. Venue bookings available now for Christmas and Spring 2017,
contact andrew@buyers-club.co.uk for more information.

30
Bido Lito! Dec 2016/Jan 2017
DEC/JAN IN BRIEF
Edited by Elliott Clay and Evan Moynihan
UNCLE ACID AND THE DEADBEATS
There is a space where proto-metal intersects with Beatlesy melodicism, and that space is called UNCLE ACID AND THE DEADBEATS. One of Britain's
most beloved cult bands, UA&TD have conceived four critically acclaimed albums, with their latest (2015’s The Night Creeper) seeing them team up with
producer Liam Watson (Tame Impala, The White Stripes). Their new label, Rise Above Records, describes the album’s 10 tracks as “psyche-frazzling
heaviness and blood-drenched pop”, which is exactly what our brains need from time to time.
Arts Club / 10th December
MR SCRUFF
Helping the Christmas diet to get a move on, Stockport’s own MR SCRUFF migrates west on Boxing Day to revive our flagging spirits with his mishmash
of funk, soul, Latin and hip hop at The Merchant. Teaming up with No Fakin’s ILLSON, Scruff promises to “keep it unreal” as he rolls up his sleeves to
bring the best of his blended samples and disco nuggets to the dancefloor for that trademark feel-good factor. Can’t wait for New Year’s Eve? You don’t
have to: bypass the cold turkey and get scruffalicious.
The Merchant / 26th December
ACCESS ALL AREAS
The pioneering charity Attitude Is Everything have been working to improve deaf and disabled people’s access to live music for the past 16 years,
working on a charter that defines guidelines for best practice across the music industry. Their latest project sees them teaming up with DaDaFest to
host a discussion event with blind and partially sighted music fans to gather further views and opinions that can influence the next stage of their
development in talks with music venues. Help our venues to become safe and enjoyable spaces for all – spread the word.
Museum Of Liverpool / 3rd December
DECLAN MCKENNA
Most teenage musicians penning songs in their bedrooms will stick to the tried-and-tested tropes of love, lust and cod-psychology, but not DECLAN
MCKENNA. The winner of the 2015 Glastonbury Emerging Talent Competition prefers to see his contemporaries as intelligent young adults rather
than dumbed-down adolescents, so he thinks nothing of tackling corruption at the World Cup (Brazil), transgender issues (Paracetemol) and religion
(Bethlehem) in his songs. None of which make for a classic major label artist, but if you’re good enough, you’re good enough.
Studio2 / 26th January
BIDO LITO! SOCIAL @ HUS WITH THE ORIELLES
The first Bido Lito! Social of 2017 is set to be a (post-Christmas) cracker with new Heavenly Recordings signees THE ORIELLES (pictured) headlining
a free gig at new Tithebarn Street venue HUS. The gig will launch Issue 74 of Bido Lito! and an exciting new format for your favourite pink magazine.
Support on the evening will come from Wirral wunderkinds THE MYSTERINES. Everyone is welcome as we celebrate a new year, new magazine and
superb new gig space for the city.
HUS / 26th January
NORTHERN LIGHTS
Baltic Creative, the engine driving the cultural and technological revolution in the Baltic Triangle, have an exciting new project in the works that
could see the area become a global hub for creative businesses. Opening on 1st December, Northern Lights is an artist-led space for makers, creators,
thinkers and performers, located close to the former Cain’s Brewery. The 45,000 square-foot abandoned warehouse has been converted into an
assortment of innovative studios and offices, and will also house a café/bar and canteen. The facility will provide space for creating and displaying
art and offers a multi-purpose events space to accommodate gigs, conferences, weddings and markets. The city just got bigger.
THRESHOLD
Details of the seventh instalment of Threshold Festival are starting to surface, and the signs are pointing towards another sterling year for the music
and arts extravaganza. The superlative multi-instrumentalist HANNAH PEEL (pictured) will headline the event, which takes place over the first weekend
of April 2017. On the back of a UK Festival Award nomination for Best Festival for Emerging Talent, Threshold also has the honour of being the first
event to take place in Baltic Creative’s brand new venue space at Northern Lights in the Baltic Triangle (see above). Further details on the event’s
line-up and visual arts programme will be unveiled over the coming months – and applications to perform are open now at thresholdfestival.co.uk.
bidolito.co.uk

Bido Lito! December 2016
31
CLUB.THE.MAMMOTH. ALL-DAYER WITH THE FALL
Everyone knows that all-dayers are the new all-nighters and promoters CLUB.THE.MAMMOTH. are spreading that gospel with an eye-watering line-up
of local and national treats at Arts Club in January. Cranky Mancunian legends THE FALL (pictured) top a bill which includes a clutch of artists blazing a
trail across the UK at the moment: distortion rock wizards HOOKWORMS, angry noise punks EAGULLS, forward-thinking guitar botherers KAGOULE
and mouthy upstarts CABBAGE among them.For any psych, fuzz, garage rock and punk fans, this needs to be inked in the diary.
Arts Club / 21st January
THE VRYLL SOCIETY
Deltasonic darlings THE VRYLL SOCIETY have been travelling at warp speed this year, and they’re gearing up for a triumphant end-of-year homecoming
gig in December to round off a buzz-worthy headline UK tour. The kaleidoscopic wallies have followed up 2015’s gloriously diaphanous Pangea EP
with three massive singles in 2016 – A Perfect Rhythm, La Jetee and Self Realization – all of which have added greater depth to their cosmic Scouse
dynamism. Support acts ZUZU, RONGORONGO and THE MYSTERINES provide an embarrassment of riches for early arrivals.
Invisible Wind Factory / 2nd December
PIRATE STUDIOS
For emerging artists hoping to further their careers, PIRATE STUDIOS will be a welcome addition to the city. The brand new rehearsal studios on Cotton
Street are opening their doors to musicians in Liverpool, offering a technological revolution in the world of music by providing artists with the space,
equipment, and flexibility they need at an affordable price. All studios are completely self-service, come with expert acoustic treatment, and will be
open 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. In addition, the spaces also allow for fully mixed and mastered live recordings of band sessions, available to
download or live stream. The difficulty of paying for studio time just got a little easier. piratestudios.co.uk
CIRCUS CHRISTMAS SPECIAL
The perfect antidote to the post-Christmas blues, Circus’ annual Christmas extravaganza is one of the things we look forward to most about the festive
period. Once again, Yousef leads a high-quality bill of selectors through nine hours of thumping, bass-heavy tunes as Circus take over all three rooms
in Camp and Furnace. Special guest SAM PAGANINI brings some sexy techno noir to Furnace while Deep Dish’s DUBFIRE (pictured) brings the global
pizzazz as one of electronic music’s glitterati, and our own LAUREN LO SUNG heads up a future techno roster in Blade Factory.
Camp and Furnace / 27th December
BLANKETS FOR THE WHITECHAPEL
Bi-monthly electronica night Emotion Wave are hosting an all-day fundraiser and launch event for the release of Blankets, a compilation album they’ve
put together featuring a diverse range of new and unreleased experimental electronic music from Liverpool and further afield. The aim of the album is
to raise funds for the Whitechapel Centre, a charity that aims to meet the needs of the homeless in Liverpool. LO FIVE, the artist behind Emotion Wave,
will be performing at the launch event alongside ISOCORE, JEAN MICHEL NOIR, DOUBLE ECHO and many more.
Frederiks / 18th December
HEEBIES WINTER FAYRE
Whether you’re on the naughty or nice list, you can celebrate Christmas early at Heebies’ Winter Fayre. Get in the holiday spirit with three floors of
crafts, gifts, live music, food, tattooists, taxidermy, and Christmas drinks on 3rd and 4th December. If you’re looking for unique gift ideas, a host of
independent makers will be showcasing their wares on the top deck, while in the basement, EBGBS will be bringing you some of the most exciting
young bands on the Liverpool music scene. Most importantly, Heebies will be donating all of the door proceeds to The Whitechapel Centre to support
those in need during the holiday season.
TATE THAT & ARTY
For a creative Christmas and an arty new year, Tate Liverpool is where it’s at. The work of French artist YVES KLEIN (pictured) is on display in what is
the nouveau realist’s first UK solo museum exhibition in more than 20 years. Born in Nice in 1928, Klein is renowned for his monochrome paintings
and an audacious flair for experimentation with new techniques. The Albert Dock gallery also plays host to the works of one of the most significant
Eastern European artists of the 20th Century with a retrospective on EDWARD KRASINSKI. Tate Exchange Liverpool also opens a programme of
experimental collaborations and events with various artists from the North West and around the globe. tate.org.uk/liverpool
THE CAVERN @ 60
On 16th January 1957, a new underground jazz bar at 10 Mathew Street hosted its opening night. When The Cavern Club closed 16 years and 292
Beatles gigs later, the reputation of ‘the most famous club in the world’ as an incubator of world-dominating Merseyside talent was sealed. Sixty years
on, the club’s history is being celebrated anew with a series of special shows in the ‘new’ Cavern Club (over the road from the original club on Mathew
Street), as well two huge History Of The Cavern events at the Philharmonic Hall with The Overtures on 15th and 16th January. What’s more, a brandnew
bronze statue of Cilla Black will also be unveiled outside the venue on the day of its 60th anniversary. cavernclub.org
bidolito.co.uk

32
Bido Lito! Dec 2016/Jan 2017 Reviews
Peaches (John Johnson / johnjohnson-photography.com)
PEACHES
EVOL @ Invisible Wind Factory
It begins with our heroine dressed as a
vagina and goes upwards from there. It begins
in a safe space for all, a blank canvas about to
be filled gratefully by those dressed as that
heroine, or parts of her, and those not as brave,
all of whom have waited a lifetime for this act
to tour this town. It begins with a promise of
something special and still gives you more than
you dare expect.
It could only be here, in this particular
mood, that we’re looking to PEACHES
for a response to the personal and political
energy lacking in others. Not answers so much as
another reality, and it takes a proper artist to offer
that. It’s embodied straight off in Rub, inspiring
and unleashing a million responses. Peaches’
haircut alone has more charisma tonight than
most acts, and there are copycat versions
reflected back at her along with variants on her
‘organic’ stage threads and props. It’s the kind
of scene that has birthed pop’s best subcultures,
the ones that kept the flame alive in dark times,
of which the present is one. IWF’s location is
probably a boon here because, far from the fries
and happy burgers, from the nightmares of Lime
Street, people have really brought their A-game
costume-wise and stated whom and just how
dishonestly our as-yet-oblivious jailers are
misrepresenting. Those Kazimier peeps knew
what they were onto, didn’t they? Their exile
here is revealed on nights like this as a liberation.
Such baggage can be borne only because the
tracks carry the visuals and the visuals transport
the tracks; the message is the medium, not vice
versa, and few pop practitioners today are as
playful or humorous as this in riding it out to and
past your city’s limits. It isn’t the wisdom so much
as the wit of Vaginoplasty that gets her past the
door attendants of our minds. The rhythms and
tones of How You Like My Cut, and of the lyrics
in general (regardless of content) against beats
alternately swaggering and hammering are the
persuasive elements tonight and allow her to
endure as, say, a feminist of her sphere. Face
it, there’s almost nothing legal left that in that
sphere hasn’t been passed off as feminist or
flipped from patriarchy to subversion in a physical
form that happens to comply with the status quo
– as Peaches has put it previously: threatening
nudity and saying nothing, whereas she’d rather
get butt-naked, which she and her dancers are
here, long before the feigned sex show (so graphic
yet so non-gratuitous) of a furious, audienceled
Fuck The Pain Away. It’s not for me to purport
to mansplain feminism, or sexuality or body
image, but it does no harm for a figurehead
to keep suggesting and ridiculing what it
perhaps isn’t. Peaches could reasonably argue
she’s just a magnet for confrontation because
she’s sane and they out there are all mad. The
recognition here at IWF – the power here – speaks
for itself.
Either that or you can’t beat crowdsurfing inside
a giant inflatable phallus, squirting something
liquidy out of the end, for winning over a crowd.
Just genuine, irreverent, unexploitative mischief,
which is in as short supply in accessible music
(which this is) as reason is in politics at the
moment. When a birthday cake arrives on stage,
we’ve somehow forgotten the world outside.
Here is Liverpool at its defiant best, the gig-going
ritual at its most meaningful, the live spectacle
bidolito.co.uk

eing literally that, and the most universal of
themes.
Makers of the pop of now and tomorrow –
vocalists, performers, songwriters, roleplayers,
magpies, The Young and self or critic-anointed
relevant – go back to your constituencies and
prepare for opposition. Look at your game,
fatherfuckers: you’re being bested out of sight,
and that tells us how relatively comfortably many
of you fit within the power structures of 2016.
As of this show, Merrill ‘Peaches’ Nisker is 50
years old.
SLOW CLUB
Girl Ray
HD Concerts @ The Magnet
Tom Bell
“You can buy our T-shirt. It has snakes on it,
and our heads.” What kind of hydra are GIRL
RAY? They’re a chimera of stomping basslines,
an onstage suitcase, synchronised 360º hopping,
and an all-hands-on-deck attitude to backing
harmonies. 6Music listeners might recognise
Ghosty’s lurches in tempo from their session
on Marc Riley’s show in March. Their set teems
with bushy brown be-sideburned 70s Hammond
organs sounds. They’re not throwbacks, though
– I’ll Make This Fun has shades of Pavement, and
they do make it fun! There’s no false modesty
about this North London quartet: they seem
genuinely thrilled to have this support slot, and
to be playing in Liverpool.
The first rule of SLOW CLUB is: you absolutely
must talk about Slow Club. Tell everyone you
can, because they’re a solid live act these
days. They’re enjoying having 10 years’ of
songs to harvest, from “golden oldie” Our Most
Brilliant Friends to Ancient Rolling Sea (off this
year’s album One Day All of This Won’t Matter
Anymore). Effortless, too, is their stagecraft.
I defy anyone to spot the seam between
Rebecca Taylor’s awkward guitar-tuning patter
and Rebecca Casanova’s suave vocal, delivered
with a Presleyan sneer.
They’re a five-piece tonight, but Slow Club’s
core is still the duo of Taylor and Charles Watson.
Sure, he plays while she sings and he sings while
she drums, but it’s when they’re both on vocals
and she sings low while he sings high, you get
a voice greater than the sum of its parts. That
said, any harmonies are judiciously employed.
While the rest of the band squat comfily on the
stage during Watson’s rendition of The Sweetest
Grape On The Vine, Taylor lingers to one side,
drifting past the microphone maybe three times
at most, to gild her voice with his.
It’s hard to spot, but American as Slow Club’s
sound may be, they are anchored on this side of
the Atlantic. Perhaps it’s the word “dashboard”
(instead of just ‘dash’) in Everything Is New or
shades of The Beatles’ Yesterday in Watson’s
fingerpicking… a clearer illustration would be
Tears Of Joy, three songs in, when the room really
comes alive. Considerably cranked up since its
appearance on 2014’s Complete Surrender, by
now it sounds of the club – by which I mean
Brian Potter’s Phoenix, not Berghain. As “the
twilight of the set” approaches (Taylor’s poetic
turn, that), the playlist positively bristles with
its hooks. One Day…, lead single on In Waves,
is followed by Two Cousins from 2011 and the
magnificent Suffering You Suffering Me. Then
they leave: the duo who supported Darts here
in 2007 are nowhere to be seen, and it’s over
all too fast.
Stuart Miles O’Hara / @ohasm1
SLEAFORD MODS
Mountford Hall
Never have a band like SLEAFORD MODS
been more essential. At a point when society
lurches in directions unfamiliar in modern
times, pop music has a responsibility to pick
up the baton. The baton of hope. The baton
of protest. The baton of holding prevalent
views, positions and fucking megalomaniacal
dynasties to account. I see little across the pop
music spectrum to give me much hope that this
challenge is being met. Fuck me, pop music is
scared to ask the question.
Jason Williamson stalks the stage like a
hunched velociraptor, sweat pouring off him,
steaming like a piping kebab spit. A silhouette
of rising perspiration and rapidly delivered
phlegm hangs around his head like a twisted
halo. His side-on delivery and exaggerated tick
– it’s so fabulously awkward. Great performers
always perch on the edge, straddling the chasm
between wonder and a bloody nose. Danger
is always present, always part of the allure.
Andrew Fearn bobs along, bottle in hand, play
finger at the ready. His bulging eyeballs tell
tales.
“Marmite,” you may say. “What on earth does
the skinny guy with the cap actually do?” is the
common retort. Fuck that. Sleaford Mods are
modern pop’s gastric band; a direct retort, a
last-ditch wake-up call to a bloated art form.
The kids are getting fat, square-eyed and
disengaged. We need this band.
In Face To Faces Williamson spits, “…in
our failure to grab hold of what fucking little
we have left we have lost the sight. And in
the loss of sight, we have lost our fucking
minds.” Despite it seeming to be to our plughole
detriment, we human beings are a tribal
species. We are drawn to our own – whether
that be an ‘own’ based on collective outlook
and shared values, or one based on some
drip-tray nationalism. In theory, this should
be for our collective betterment; however, it
takes a braver person than me to subscribe
to that view right now. I’m not alone in the

NEW
YEEZY
EVE
31 DEC 16
WWW.THEMERCHANTLIVERPOOL.CO.UK

36
Bido Lito! Dec 2016/Jan 2017 Reviews
Sleaford Mods (Paul McCoy / photomccoy.tumblr.com)
observation that, despite the supposed global we seem to be surrounded more than ever
interconnectedness our modern world brings, with amplified voices that sound just like our
v
i
n
y
l
own (like, “None of my friends voted out”). The
terrifying episode across the pond bludgeons
the point home. And tonight is a lamentable
and tragic reminder of this. Every fucker here
looks like me, is the same age as me, they
dress like me. I’m pretty sure they vote like
me, obsess about pop music like me and are
inherently flawed like me. Everyone in here is
over 30. Shit, this gig is even in a student union,
which makes the wrinkly turn out even more
depressing.
Go and see Sleaford Mods. Take your
teenagers, take your nieces and nephews. If
you don’t have any, borrow one. Play You’re
Brave on repeat at family gatherings. Print
transcripts of Face To Faces and pass them
hand to hand at the gates of your local sixth
form college. Because, for pop music to unfurl
the banner that it has historically carried – as
an international force for change, as a platform
for collectivism, to champion communality,
civil rights, women’s rights, as a platform for
social and political change – we need groups
like Sleaford Mods to connect with today’s
angry generation. It’s the hot-headed kids of
today who will pick up the baton, run with it,
and ram it up the backside of the hideous new
prevailing norms.
Craig G Pennington
RED BULL MUSIC ACADEMY
Digital Soul Boys @ The Palm House
The exotic setting of Sefton Park’s Palm
House is accentuated by striking green and
purple lighting and the stream of bass-heavy
grime, hip hop and soul being pumped out by DJ
SUEDEBROWN as the Red Bull Music Academy
tour kicks off. The Red Bull PR greeters look
slightly askance as I decline a freebie (how
could you NOT want a free can of Red Bull?). A
young, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed audience
is on the groove early and Suedebrown keeps
things uptempo for a while and then pulls it
back a little before the arrival of S.G. LEWIS.
Signed to PMR, namechecked by Pharrell
and touring on the back of recently released
debut EP Shivers, the former Chibuku resident
DJ takes to the stage, drummer and keyboard
player in tow, and launches a heavy synth
backdrop against which shimmering cymbal
rolls and a stabbing keyboard pulse. The loops
build layer on layer, and clean, fluid guitar lines
embellish the thunderous bass and vocals.
They proceed in a lighter, electro-pop vein but
– call me old fashioned – when I hear a fine,
soulful vocal performance I prefer to hear it
emanating from someone on the stage and not
a backing track; the absence of such leaves me
somewhat frustrated. They are joined later by
BISHOP NEHRU for a short, sharp, well-received
rap salvo but then play the absent-singer card
again, leaving me with a busted flush. The
crowd, however, love it.
There is immediately a more organic feeling
in the air as JAMIE WOON’s band, consisting
of drums, bass, keys and two backing singers,
take to the stage. The vocal harmonies are
watertight, and the band play with a certain
élan. Forgiven sees them hit their jazz-funk
stride, finger-snapping rhythms and sharp
backing vocals a perfect counterpoint to
Woon’s velvety croon.
Latest album Making Time is well
represented: the chilled, summery vibe of
Celebration and the late-night groove of
150 Smithdown Road, Liverpool, L15 3JR
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New Releases & Classics in Indie, Alternative, Punk & Emo
plus everything else too
Red Bull Music Academy (Diego Piedrabuena / livephotography.digital)

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38
Bido Lito! Dec 2016/Jan 2017 Reviews
Sharpness are standouts. Woon looks to be
enjoying the vibe and the surroundings. The
crowd respond, unable not to, as insistent
drum and bass rhythms push the songs
forward while jazzy keys weave complex,
elaborate patterns and Woon’s voice rises and
falls in a light, soulful cadence. Woon and his
band are, as football pundit Mickey Thomas
once remarked after a particularly memorable
passage of Welsh forward play, “quality of the
highest quality”.
Glyn Akroyd
CLUB COSMOS @ INVISIBLE WIND FACTORY
The RBMA has been pairing musical legends
and emerging beatsmiths since 1998 and
tonight’s show is no different as local DJ OR:LA
(recently described as one of the “UK’s most
underrated DJs” by THUMP Magazine), kicks
things off, flaunting her skills as high-paced
liquid sounds, funk beats and deep drums
pour from the speakers. People and smoke
start to fill the room, a cosmic scene starts
to materialise, as Red Bull’s self-described
Mirrored Kinetic Sculptures embody tonight’s
guise – Club Cosmos.
HUNEES is his ever-enthusiastic self and,
accompanied by his lunchbox mascot and
Sheelanagig
The Philharmonic Hall, Liverpool
Sunday 27th November 2016
James Yorkston
The Magnet, Liverpool –
Thursday 15th December 2016
King Creosote
Plus Charlie Cunningham
RNCM, Manchester –
Monday 16th January 2017
Ezio
The Philharmonic Hall, Liverpool –
Thursday 16th March 2017
YOUNG MARCO, takes the party in the direction
of pure party pandemonium. With Hunees’
hyper-rhythmic selections and Young Marco’s
anthem-like tracks, their set ebbs and flows,
and the crowd veer between pure bouncing
ecstasy and 2-step flowing.
Whistles and jeers ignite across the crowd
as the night’s star, Kenny Dixon Jr. AKA
MOODYMANN to adoring fans the world over,
steps up to the decks. Moodymann professes
that his live shows are just a taster of what
to expect at one of his parties back home in
Detroit; he is simply bringing his environment
to an audience, and it is certainly being felt
tonight. Hendrix’s Purple Haze grabs the
crowd’s attention immediately, as the music
is faded out for a game of singalong to ensue.
Classics ranging from MK to Michael Jackson
are played, with Moody intermittently jumping
on the mic shouting, “What’s up, Liverpool?”,
in his old school gangsta-esque tones, whilst
pouring vodka in the direction of hundreds of
raised arms (student loans must be late this
year). We are taken through a selection of old,
deeper, bassier tunes unlike DJ-Kicks, which
was released earlier this year. RBMA really put
a show on tonight in what could have been
an over-commercial setting, and what an
advertisement for the newly opened Invisible
Wind Factory.
Ian Prowse & Amsterdam
25th Anniversary show celebrating 'Fireworks' by Pele
Ruby Lounge, Manchester
Saturday 18th March 2017
Elliott Clay
SCOTT FAGAN
Philharmonic Music Room
Some 48 years after the release of his debut
album South Atlantic Blues, SCOTT FAGAN
is finally on tour to promote it after a muchvaunted
re-release, including a date at the
Philharmonic Music Room. The album saw
its initial release when Fagan was just 22 in
1968, but sank without trace, a victim of the
incredibly productive times for music of the late
60s. It took on mythical status as a lost classic,
a piece of its time, left behind and forgotten.
Until now.
Backed on the tour by Scotland’s Trembling
Bells, Fagan is more than pleased to finally
be able once more to breathe life into these
songs, this collection of sketches of his former
self, his earlier, younger days. At 70 years of
age, this is his first-ever European tour. That’s
some wait he’s had, and he’s clearly happy it’s
over: we find him in a happy and relaxed mood,
keen for us to hear these songs, which have
remained so precious to him for so long, but
with far too few opportunities to be heard.
From the opening bass guitar and organ
strains of In My Head, it’s easy to see how
these songs have taken on classic status in the
intervening years. They’re written about hard
times, living dirt poor in the Virgin Islands and
Puerto Rico as a child, and Fagan’s scratched
and languorous baritone soul vocal speaks of
too much pain, too much darkness, and too
much rum. Thankfully, he proclaims “no more
Cuba Libre, no more Bacardi, just music and
love” as he hints towards the bottle’s probable
involvement in his lengthy hiatus.
Crying is a highlight of the album, and his
voice here has lost little of the broken and
painful delivery of the 1968 release, reminiscent
of Scott Walker, or some of David Bowie’s softer
moments. It is a dark, pleading lyric, stark
and needy: “Chase away all my tears, all the
broken glass in me”. Here in the Music Room,
with Trembling Bells so obviously devoted to
and inspired by this interesting, emotive and
intuitive batch of songs, Crying, as with the
other songs, is treated with the gentle respect
it so richly deserves and it’s as much a highlight
here as on the record. The band play through
the album with an almost improvised vibe,
loose and light, but without stepping on toes,
and without overpowering the songs. Another
clear highlight for us is In My Hands, sparse and
spacious, led by Fagan’s acoustic guitar, and
stretching, tarnished vocal. The doo-wop blues
arrangement of Crystal Ball gives the band
even more room to move, and they capitalise
on the opportunity well, notably drummer Alex
Neilson, whose sticks dance across and around
the kit, energetic and enthused throughout.
There is discussion of a rock opera,
entitled Soon, which though complete was
never recorded and Fagan assures us that,
fuelled by this renewed interest in his work,
plans are in place to finally put it to tape with
Trembling Bells. He plays two pieces from it to
finish the set. With tight harmonies from the
band, it’s easy to see that Soon can take a
natural place as a follow up to South Atlantic
Blues, and the opening and closing themes
from the rock opera make for a fine climax
to this warm and welcome evening in the
company of a great writer, once lost and now,
happily, found.
Paul Fitzgerald / @NothingvilleM
GLASS ANIMALS
Pixx
EVOL @ O2 Academy
I stand behind a girl whose denim jacket
is emblazoned with a sole GLASS ANIMALS
badge on the back, and who can blame her?
Glass Animals (Mike Sheerin / michaelsheerin.photoshelter.com)
@Ceremonyconcert / facebook.com/ceremonyconcerts
ceremonyconcerts@gmail.com / seetickets.com

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40
Bido Lito! Dec 2016/Jan 2017 Reviews
The Glass Animals’ popularity has skyrocketed
with a summer of festival appearances from
Glastonbury to Bestival under their belt and
the September release of sophomore album
How To Be A Human Being, a guide of sorts to
navigating the weirdness of this 21st century.
First up is PIXX, floating us into the evening
with their spiralling, ambient melodies, which
let you drift back into a gentle sway, perfectly
summed up on Grip, which does as the title
suggests and grabs the attention of a settling
crowd. The malleability of their sound allows a
first-time listener to focus on Hannah Rodgers’
echoing voice, which produces lyrics of a selfreflective
nature with songs such as Fall In,
which takes you to dreams of the past... you
can tell it comes from real experience. With
their mashed blend of high-pitched vocals,
catchy drum beats and cut-up electronic
tones they are the perfect fit to support Glass
Animals, with music that is fun yet meaningful,
melancholy but uplifting.
Bringing the winter warmth, Glass Animals
kick off with the bubbly and bouncing Youth,
instantly engaging the crowd with funny
friends in tow who are fuzzy on a bit more
than caffeine. It’s easy to see how the Oxford
quartet have gone from strength to strength:
by shining a light on themes that speak to the
youth of today, they also create threads that
are common to us all. With lines like, “I can’t
get a job so I live with my mum” in Life Itself,
it’s no wonder they draw fans from all walks
of life. They are the fairytale many of us dream
of, making a life through creative means. It’s
incredible to think Dave Bayley nearly gave up
music to pursue a career in medicine.
Energy and Glass Animals’ gigs have become
synonymous and tonight is no different, with
cyclical drum beats that are layered on top of
smooth tones and falling samples that grow
throughout every song. Their collection of
popular tracks has grown massively with the
latest album but that doesn’t mean they don’t
treat us to sing-alongs on Hazey and Black
Mambo from 2014’s ZABA. Whether old or
new, Glass Animals’ music is a celebration of
the issues that many of us deal with and how
they shape us.
Elliott Clay
THE MAGNETIC NORTH
GetItLoudInLibraries @
Liverpool Central Library
No matter how nice a music venue may be,
as a punter there is always a feeling we’re
treated as cattle, branded upon entry or tagged
with a wristband, and counted in efficiently
with a metal clicker. When women have bags
searched and men are patted down, it’s like
we’re returning to prison from day release.
GetItLoudInLibraries gigs are less intense
affairs, all giddy smiles from librarians, and
even the security stand down and relax a bit.
Not everyone gets it tonight, though, and
when we go into the main room one bloke
plonks himself down by the stage and another
announces he’s going down into the “mosh
pit”. But there is no mosh pit, and neither is
there a need to spread legs and grimace, lads.
This is a library. It’s not how things are done
here.
THE MAGNETIC NORTH rely heavily on a
sense of place on their first two albums. The
first, 2012’s Orkney: Symphony Of The Magnetic
North, was inspired by the band’s singer Erland
Cooper’s Orkney childhood upbringing. On the
new record, The Prospect Of Skelmersdale, it is
guitarist Simon Tong’s turn, an aural love letter
to his hometown, one blighted by different
bleakness, a place where 1960s town planners
tried, and failed, to create a housing scheme
for all.
From the get-go tonight Cooper offers us
all whisky, saying the band will be offended if
The Magnetic North (Stuart Moulding / @oohshootstu)
we don’t partake. Well, we don’t want to upset on Little Jerusalem that is the real treat, a true
anyone… Singer and keyboard player Hannah melancholic beauty.
Peel explains her reconnaissance mission to Supporting Magnetic North tonight is
Skem with Cooper, taking notes, observing, FRANK COTTRELL-BOYCE, gifted a Skelmersdale
filming, before going back to Simon Tong with upbringing himself. The author’s readings from
their findings. Tong is silent on the matter his children’s books aren’t effective for us as
tonight, maybe believing concept albums adults but his essay on his affection for The
should speak for themselves.
Prospect Of Skelmersdale album and the place
The show commences with the opening itself, the facts – or myths that have become
songs from the Prospect Of Skelmersdale facts, more like – about the new town, carries a
album, Jai Guru Dev, Pennylands and A Death real charm. He talks smilingly and romantically
In The Woods. The sobriety of the library of Skelmersdale as a housing utopian dream,
suits them well, warmed and lifted tonight one crumbled.
by cello, oboe, clarinet and violin, but we’re Skem lacks the relative glamour of Liverpool.
distracted from time to time by the screen on It’s an incomplete concrete jungle, and here
the wall behind the band, soft lens images tonight in the rather grand surroundings of
and flickering, short film clips of 1970s and our city’s brand new library we’re reminded
80s Skem, young boys with impish smiles and of that. Skelmersdale, the place we’re hearing
the more familiar photograph of the girl with songs and tales about, seems even more light
the hen under her arm. We get songs from the years away.
Orkney record too, Peel playing the magical
Cath Bore / @cathbore
little music box on Old Man Of Hoy at the end.
But it’s the sad sweet loneliness of Peel’s voice
bidolito.co.uk

Reviews
Bido Lito! Dec 2016/Jan 2017
41
ANNA MEREDITH
GetItLoudInLibraries @
Liverpool Central Library
As swivel-eyed austerity bandits force
many of our local libraries to the brink, the
prospects of their inner-city equivalents are
growing fat. In recent years, central libraries
across the North West have been ambitiously
refurbished and repurposed as majestic civic
temples in a sort of cultural re-centralising
by osmosis – the resources from beloved
local branches perniciously soaked up by
ostentatious metropolitan hubs. But the
upswing to isolating the socially vulnerable
and the mobility impaired, is that young, urban
professionals like me have free access to WiFi
seven days a week. We also get to gorge on the
delights of ambitious after-hours programming
like Get It Loud, an award-winning project that
delivers ‘wow-factor’ gigs in libraries across the
region. American singer-songwriter Amanda
Palmer has also delivered a library set in this
hallowed space, and tonight, dear readers,
we’re here to see the eminently ‘experimental’
ANNA MEREDITH.
In sharp contrast to the rest of humanity,
accomplished alt-composer Meredith is having
a fairly agreeable 2016. Her first full-length LP,
Varmints, has earned her Scottish Album Of
The Year and near-panoramic acclaim from
gatekeepers at every outpost. Her transition
Anna Meredith (Mike Sheerin / michaelsheerin.photoshelter.com)
from classical/contemporary composer to the trend among her peers more half-hearted
popular electronic talent has appeared to buck transformations. Edinburgh-born Meredith, of
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42
Bido Lito! Dec 2016/Jan 2017 Reviews
course, has had an excellent foundation from
which to ascend: having gained her Master’s
degree at the Royal College Of Music, she
later served as the BBC Scottish Symphony
Orchestra’s composer-in-residence for a twoyear
stint.
It is clear from Meredith’s maximalist
inclinations on display this evening that she
learned during this time to exploit every inch
of the concert hall. Tracks like R-Type and Max
Tundra envelop our Central Library with a
barrage of arpeggios that seem to occupy each
audible frequency. This is further exemplified
by the instrumentation, which is co-opted for
range and not just for affectation: a tuba, a
cello and a recently purchased toy glockenspiel
are coarsely blended with a cursory blast of
clarinet. In waves, though, the cacophony of
disparate timbres is difficult to withstand. At
some points the sound is of a conservatoire
student’s first ensemble rehearsal: a random
assortment of prodigious players, brashly
exploring polyphonic pop in a rudimentary
fashion. I begin to question the very notion
of ‘experimental music’ and if it should be so
willingly applied to Meredith’s work, if at all.
Yes, the blend of instruments is unconventional
in this context but this is not aleatory music –
there is no element of chance, or overt moment
of improvisation. Despite the far-reaching
acclaim of an esteemed composer turned alt.
pop pioneer, there is still a sense that this set
is born on notation software and it never quite
lives up to its conception.
Phil Morris / @mauricedesade
EXPLOSIONS IN THE SKY
Entrance
Harvest Sun @ Philharmonic Hall
Support for the evening comes from
ENTRANCE, who, alone on the Philharmonic
stage, seems stranded and disconnected.
After asking that the lights be turned low,
and announcing that he won’t tune his guitar
despite it needing tuning, he fails to ignite the
interest of those who’ve emerged from the
bar, those who’ve been driven by having heard
good things about him prior to the gig. There
is undoubtedly something there, though, in his
long-drawn-out melodies and lyrical sketches.
Yet, it’s the worsening of his guitar sound –
all dissonant and detuned top end – and the
relish he seems so keen to take in his lack of
engagement with the audience which leaves,
to our mind, much room for improvement.
Maybe just a one off, a bad night, but sadly,
the bar and a stiff GnT win out in the end.
In Liverpool, there can surely be a no more
appropriate venue, nowhere better suited
for an EXPLOSIONS IN THE SKY gig than the
Philharmonic Hall. Designed with acoustics
in mind, its vast stage also provides the ideal
visual setting, the perfect grandiose backdrop
for the sheets of colour and the curtain of
light behind which the Texan five-piece
take their place. A beautiful venue designed
with beautiful music in mind, it is a marked
difference from the Barfly Loft, the venue for
their last Liverpool show, way back in 2004.
This hall is a very different place. A place where
their own brand of post-rockian cascades of
sound can tower above the audience, lifting
them through the dynamic spaces in the
music, the builds, the attack and the delay.
And what leaps, what dynamics. From delicate
minimalism one moment to huge triumphant
waves of sound in a breath, the band are
seemingly pulled along by the music in headsdown
slack-necked concentration, as the music
contorts and displaces the expectations of the
audience, pinned back in their seats, welcoming
every movement. Such is the interplay of sound
onstage and the acoustics of the majestic
venue, that at times we’re convinced we hear
melodies that maybe aren’t there, guitar lines
that maybe aren’t being played.
Each piece effortlessly blends together with
few breaks in between, again a reminder of the
classical, filmic composition of their sound. And
thereby hangs a tale. While it’s comfortable
and tidy to be able to file Explosions In The
Sky under the ‘post-rock’ label, it also seems
insubstantial in many ways. These pieces of
music are more like mini symphonies, more
devised than written, with the parts placed
in and around each other, counterpoint upon
counterpoint. The interplay between the
players, their instruments, and crucially, the
effects, surround and enfold us in drop-jawed
wonder. Added to this is the sheer volume of
those huge, crashing waves of sound, pounding
the synapses and the ears into submission, on
what must surely be one of the loudest nights
in the history of the Philharmonic Hall.
While it’s always something of an unthankful
task to highlight any specific tracks in a setlist
of highlights, special mention must go to The
Only Moment We Were Alone from The Earth
Is Not A Cold Dead Place. Here is a piece of
work some 13 years old, which reveals more
of itself on each fresh listen, perhaps more
so in the live context. From the opening crash
of cyclical distortion through the interlayered
layers of guitar, with the whole hall bathed
in a deep purple glow, each twist takes on
new life, bringing new tones and new colour.
Wilderness, taken from this year’s In The
Wilderness album, is another undoubtable
favourite, all shimmering rhythms and
reverbed piano lines, staccato guitar stabs
and huge, sweeping statements of bass drone
THE BIDO LITO! SOCIAL
THE ORIELLES
THE MYSTERINES
HUS, TITHEBARN STREET.
THURSDAY 26TH JANUARY, 7.30PM.
FREE ENTRY.

Reviews
Bido Lito! Dec 2016/Jan 2017
43
expected to be, perhaps more so. Together we
hope for a speedy return, as another 12 years
would be far too long a wait.
Paul Fitzgerald / @NothingvilleM
underneath. The new album features largely in
this performance, a work of vast beauty that’s
Explosions In The Sky (Georgia Flynn / georgiaflynn.com)
already much loved by the devotees at The Street after the show, ears still ringing, hearts
Philharmonic Hall, who crowd together in Hope still palpitating, exactly as impressed as they’d
LIVERPOOL DISCO FESTIVAL
On a Halloween weekend to remember,
Liverpool partygoers are spoilt for choice,
with massive events taking place all across
the city. Blood and gore are out for the teams
from Suncébeat and Hustle, who have put
together a disco extravaganza in a collection
of warehouse spaces and house-infused Baltic
ballrooms. Packed-out venues Constellations,
the Great Baltic Warehouse and the newly
opened Hangar 34 have been turned into a
frenzy of disco and funk where sequins and
flares take precedence over skeleton suits and
dead-bride dresses.
The first, and very welcome, surprise comes
at Hangar 34 as I walk straight into a dizzying
roller disco that feels like I’ve been blasted
through a vortex into a 70s film scene. Skating
and squeezing my way around the heaving
venues, I find that the roller disco sums up the
mood of the day perfectly as it breeds a happygo-lucky
attitude to partying. Like Hal from
YVES
KLEIN
THEATRE OF THE VOID
TATE
LIVERPOOL
21 OCT – 5 MAR 2017
I’ve got the blues
and it’s beautiful’
The Guardian
Sponsored by
Supported by Tate Liverpool Members
Yves Klein – Collaboration Harry Shunk, 1924–2006 and János Kender, 1938–2009.
Leap Into the Void, Fontenay-aux Roses, France, October 23 1960.
Artistic action by Yves Klein © Yves Klein, ADAGP, Paris and DACS, London 2016.
Collaboration Harry Shunk and János Kender © J. Paul Getty Trust.
Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles (2014.R.20)

44
Bido Lito! Dec 2016/Jan 2017 Reviews
Malcom In The Middle (minus the morph suit,
I’m not brave enough), I speed back to catch a
glimpse of the hour-long Prince and Michael
Jackson sets, where grooves spill over the floor.
With legendary spinner JOHN MORALES
beginning his set, I moonwalk on over to the
Great Baltic Warehouse, indulging in a bit of
Dutch courage to help me get my two-step on.
Morales treats us to a two-hour set of classic
after classic, with stand-out tracks like his own
edit of Jackie Moore’s This Time Baby and Rufus
& Chaka Khan’s Ain’t Nobody giving the crowd
full of flared pants and antenna-popped collars
exactly what they’re looking for.
Before the main attraction of the day,
ODYSSEY, I decide to weave from venue to venue
to check out artists that catch my eye. Over in
Constellations’ garden, DOWN TO FUNK are
doing exactly what it says on the tin, warming
the crowd and keeping them fists pumping.
SPEN & KARIZMA offer up some thumping
house beats to those wanting that heavier
get down, all the while social sardines pack
into the Gin Garden, surrounded by plumes of
smoke, chatter and fist bumps; if only this could
be the soundtrack of life. Throughout the day,
one thing remains constant: in every venue the
crowd are ready to jive to their heart’s content.
With queues snaking out the door for
Odyssey, the party vibes look ready to continue.
It’s a special moment to witness Steven Collazo
lead his legendary seven-piece band into this
magnificent setting, and he begins by greeting
us with a “Can I get a Hallelujah?!” You certainly
can. Aside from hits like Native New Yorker and
Back To My Roots, it’s the show of guitar solos,
bass slapping, keyboard flexing and vocal
melodies that really create that special crowd
interaction that seems to connect everyone
in the room. It truly does feel as if we are
witnessing the Odyssey of the late 70s.
Mythical Southport Weekenders have been
the subject of house-garage duo MASTERS AT
WORK before, and as the sun descends and the
disco ball takes over, LOUIE VEGA and KENNY
GONZALEZ shift the pace of the night before
people take their groove on over to the myriad
after parties. Unfortunately, my legs can take
no more disco and I retire my skates for another
year.
FUCKED UP
EVOL @ EBGBS
Elliott Clay
Earning their reputation as a live band of
unique intensity and ferocity, FUCKED UP have
long been regarded as one of the best acts on
the circuit. After over a decade of rampant live
shows (including a particularly memorable
one in this city only a year ago) and a string of
vibrant and ecstatic albums, the Toronto natives
are in town to mark the 10-year anniversary of
their debut LP, Hidden World, which they will
perform tonight in its entirety. Straddling the
divisions between hardcore, post-punk and
pop, the album was revelatory to those new to
Liverpool Disco Festival (Paul McCoy / photomccoy.tumblr.com)
punk and those who had grown up with it alike.
Despite tonight’s show having been moved
from its original location of the Invisible Wind
Factory, there are few venues in the city that
seem more perfectly suited to Fucked Up’s
brand of pop-tinged hardcore than down in the
basement of the newly re-developed EBGBs.
Offering a new medium-sized venue to a city
that’s sadly seen the closure of many of its
most loved spaces in the past few years, its
dark, sweaty and claustrophobic space seems
like it was built with nights like this in mind.
This being an underground cavern, the
temperature has quickly risen and by the time
Fucked Up (repping local skate label Mersey
Grit T-shirts) take to the stage, the crowd
are a powder keg waiting to be lit. Once the
chugging riffs of album opener Crusades kick
in, frontman Pink Eyes’ (AKA Damian Abraham)
infectious energy works them into a sweaty
frenzy. With a repertoire of mic tricks and
stage poses honed from thousands of hours
of live shows, Mr. Eyes has the front row of
hardcore fans eating from his hand, throwing
themselves into each other and screaming
along to each and every word. Abraham
exudes the type of energy that the best kind
of punk music has the potential to bring out
of people: aggressive, explosive but inclusive,
celebratory and cathartic. His relationship with
the audience brings everyone into the fold. He
looks audience members straight in the eye,
passes them the mic to sing along and even
offers out hugs. The cumulative effect of this
back and forth between performer and the
crushing mass of audience is a joy to behold.

Reviews
Bido Lito! Dec 2016/Jan 2017
45
to catch a breath. Not the band, however, who
push through with impressive exuberance and
energy. It would be hard to convince anyone
it’s been a decade since the early shows that
earned them their reputation, as the band are
just as vital and intense as ever.
Dave Tate / @davetate
LEVI TAFARI
Ital Fresh Food For Thought @ District
The band pummel through the remainder
of the album at a blistering pace. Tighter than
Fucked Up (Michael Kirkham / michaelkirkhamphotography.co.uk)
a snare skin, each song bleeds into the next Indeed, there are a few audience members
and the energy rarely drops from maxing out. who have to duck out at a few moments just
Celebrating the launch of Ital Fresh’s Food
For Thought winter residency at District, where
spoken word and acoustic open mic slots are
married with divine and delish Ital cuisine
(food that comes from the earth, following
Rastafarian philosophy of oneness – no meat,
no fish and nuh-uh to nasty processing),
it’s fitting that dub poet LEVI TAFARI should
take centre stage. A long-time exponent
of Rastafarian culture in our fair city and
beyond, Tafari weaves his observations of
contemporary society with tongue-in-cheek
take-offs of politics, as demonstrated in his set
opener Parliamentary Erection, which mocks
how our politicians manage to, ahem, keep up
during debates.
Every poem in his set is delivered with
such an ease of rhythm, while his words are

46
Bido Lito! Dec 2016/Jan 2017 Reviews
reason is rising star ZARA LARSSON, who
stalks on to the stage in the most brilliant
Maleficent outfit in the biggest ‘wow’ moment
of the night. I’m completely mesmerised by the
choreography of Larsson’s set as she smashes
out her biggest hits Never Forget You and Lush
Life. For such a young musician, the power in
her voice is unbelievable and the presence and
confidence she has on stage is admirable, an
inspiration. Not one person in the room can
stand still in the midst of Larsson’s wonderful
aura.
BLOSSOMS take their headline place in
yet more brilliant costumes (hats off to the
wardrobe and make-up departments) and the
loudest screams of the night. Opening with one
of their signature songs, At Most A Kiss, the lads
from Stockport are greeted by a wild crowd
that’s jumping up and down to the beat of the
song. Frontman Tom Ogden really knows how
to milk the most from his adoring audience too,
revelling in the attention as the band storm
through their biggest hits. Mayhem ensues
when Blossoms wind up with their biggest hit,
Charlemagne, which comes tinged with a bit
poignant but not pretentious and his stanzas
are accessible and engaging; it’s clear that
young and old in the audience delight in his
storytelling. The set is laced with humour too –
his uncanny take on a Scouse accent surprises
many used to hearing the Jamaican lilt in his
voice – but along with this humour, there are
serious issues to be dealt with. Recounting his
autobiographical tale of being arrested and
held in police custody in the 1980s – through
no fault of his own, but simply for being black
and in the wrong place at the wrong time –
his words seem all too relevant in light of the
multiple police shootings that have claimed
black lives in America this year.
Despite tackling serious matters, Tafari
injects warmth and positivity into a wet
winter’s night. Rhyme Don’t Pay tells of him
trying to explain to his bewildered father
that he wants to become a poet, while Unity
Creator explains the meaning behind his name,
praises his multiple identities and remaps his
ancestry without the lens of Anglocentricism.
Expressing “I am a crucial, rhythmic, poetic
conscious-raiser,” Tafari is exactly that: his
personal experiences played out in poetry carry
the attention of the whole audience, who hang
on his every word.
Bethany Garrett / @_bethanygarrett
VEVO HALLOWEEN
Bramley Moore Dock
VEVEO’s Halloween show is one of the
biggest events of the year, and Bramley
Moore Dock’s giant warehouse is the stunning
location for 2016’s version of it. The amazingly
decorated venue is full of all kinds of characters
dressed head to toe in wonderful costumes
peering intently inside the boxes of creepy
crawly weirdness. As well as the usual array of
skeletons and zombies, I’ve seen Ghostbusters,
a squid and even Donald Trump wandering
about in wide-eyed wonder at the spectacle
that’s about to unfold.
Peppy soulstress IZZY BIZU is first to take
to the stage, in the most dazzling white dress
to be seen. Her powerful voice sings echoes
around the vast space, creating a beautiful
atmosphere while the crowd start to lose
themselves in their dancing and cheering.
Bizu’s White Tiger takes it to a new level, a
huge number befitting this amazing venue.
Things are turned up a notch with arrival of the
next act: the curtain suddenly drops and the
striking figure of AURORA is standing before
us, in front of the most incredible purple
backdrop that looks like something from a
warped fairytale. Her soothing and radiant
voice illuminates the venue and causes us all
to move around in a swaying motion, creating a
magical atmosphere that chimes perfectly with
the outstanding set and costumes.
The screams and chants from the crowd
during the next set would suggest that this
is definitely a JACK GARRATT kind of audience
tonight. The BBC’s Sound Of 2016 winner has
gone from strength to strength this year; his
amazing talent for taking charge of all the
instruments in his one-man setup is quite
something to behold. The crowd around me is
growing bigger and bigger and more screaming
fans have begun to gather, an assemblage of
Zara Larsson
happy horrors dancing along to Garratt’s beat.
The countdown begins for the fourth time
and the excitement rises even higher. The
of devastation that it comes at the end of only
half a set. But it’s not to deny that the night has
been a truly incredible experience – what better
way to enjoy Halloween!
Kayleigh Lang
Aurora
bidolito.co.uk

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48
Bido Lito! Dec 2016/Jan 2017 Reviews
MEILYR JONES
Harvest Sun @ Leaf
After a triumphant gig at Studio2 earlier in
the year, there’s many an eager face around
Leaf tonight to see MEILYR JONES’ return to
the city. It’s a been monumental year for the
ex-Race Horses man with a busy tour schedule
supporting his critically-acclaimed debut solo
long player. Going it alone appears to have
given Jones a new lease of life, which he is
grasping with both hands.
Opening number How To Recognise A Work
Of Art, the single which preceded the album
2013, is evidence enough of his ascendency.
A brassy riff which wouldn’t be out of place in
the opening credits of a BBC sports highlight
show (it’s that good), biting satirical lyrics and,
tonight, a band revelling in the energy the
opener creates, set the tone for a show that
will live up to its door receipts.
There’s no shortage of drama and theatrics
to Jones’ stage manner. Between songs, the
Welshman is all sweet sincerity while, during the
huge sounds of his chamber-pop compositions,
he lives every swell, crescendo and plateau.
Each songs starts with our hero centring himself
before launching into the gypsy folk of Olivia or
the unadulterated pop of Strange Emotion. The
latter is a set highlight, with relatively sparse
instrumentation drawing attention to Jones’
poetic ode to his adopted home of Rome and
its role in delivering him to artistic satisfaction
from the ashes of his former band. Similarly,
the simple piano accompaniment to Refugees
is the perfect foil to the heartfelt plea to “Get up,
switch off, switch off your television.”
The enthusiasm is consensual, with many
singing along to every word and almost
everyone beaming with sheer joy. The band
prove they are a match for Jones’ songwriting
prowess in their virtuosic playing and swapping
between a multitude of instruments, faithfully
recreating the eclectic, big band sounds of the
album.
When Jones apologises for it being a
subdued show due to his mum and aunt being
in the audience, a fan pipes up with an enquiry
about him not cross-dressing. Jones informs the
audience member he hasn’t actually confronted
his family with that side of his life as yet and
didn’t feel this was appropriate platform. The
delivery is hilariously dry and a great way to
bring the pre-encore show to an end.
Jones is more serious when he requests
that the bar staff don’t clink glasses during the
last number, but with good reason. With band,
he steps off stage to perform the entire final
song a cappella. As with the album, Be Soft
closes the night beautifully. The record and
both live shows have ensured Jones’ stock on
Merseyside is sky high. Here’s looking forward
to his next return.
Sam Turner / @samturner1984
OFF THE RECORD
Billed as a New Music Conference and
Showcase, Manchester’s OFF THE RECORD is
a collaboration between Sound City, Louder
Than War and the team behind Kendal Calling
and bluedot festivals. Off The Record’s
daytime series of panels covers music industry
topics inclined towards new musicians and
students, although the Q&A with MPs Andy
Burnham and Steve Rotherham seems more
one for the grown-ups. The Labour Party’s
Greater Manchester and Mersey Region
metro mayoral candidates respectively insist
that their decades-long friendship will endure
should both win next May, and that they will
work together for the best interests of the
north. “We’ve both become disillusioned with
Westminster,” says Burnham in response to
a delegate passionate he should stay in the
shadow cabinet, going so far as to say, “The
North West is the country’s capital of music.
It’s London versus the North West.” Slightly
tongue-in-cheek maybe, but there is a hint of
truth in those words.
Rotherham speaks of how Liverpool “can’t
just look back and squeeze more out of The
Beatles’ legacy” and wants to focus on the
very obvious problem of “real estate becoming
expensive, forcing venues out of city centres.
Music venues act as a catalyst to make areas
more desirable,” he says, leading to closures
and land sold off for larger profit. How to stop
that happening isn’t discussed much today,
and we must remember that metro mayors
won’t be awash with piles of cash to hand out,
although Rotherham says he is passionate
about finding cheap rehearsal spaces and
venues for new bands. It’s interesting that
Burnham wants the North West music
industry to give him and Rotherham a list of
five things to tackle, speaking of “using soft
skills to open doors,” and to “get everyone
from different levels around the table.” But
what all this means in practical and real terms
isn’t terribly clear.
After the panels are over, Off The Record
promises us we’re sure to discover our
“new favourite band” within the six venues
in Manchester’s Northern Quarter hosting
over 30 artists from around the UK, chosen
by music journalists, radio presenters and
other tastemakers. Soup Kitchen, Gullivers,
The Castle, Aatma, Night & Day Café and The
Ruby Lounge have bands playing concurrently
throughout the evening, meaning we have to
make our picks selectively.
Our first stop is Soup Kitchen for London-
Liverpool soul and jazz singer XAM VOLO. He’s
a class act, but it’s like casting pearls before
swine with an early evening audience like
this. Xam Volo doesn’t disappoint, though. His
new track Money Store is a standout, along
with favourite Down. Quality. He’s followed
in the same venue by ACRE TARN, a two-piece
electronic outfit. Singer Anna supplies sweet
and clear emotive vocals on Tornados, before
she is forced to tell us a series of “it was a dark
and gloomy night” stories during a technical
hitch. Sadly, we have to slope off before she
finishes to check out THE ORIELLES back at the
Night & Day. Boomeranging between venues
in the November rain is a very different way
of spending a Friday evening of live music,
that’s for sure, but The Orielles cheer us up
considerably. Over the past year they’ve
Meilyr Jones (Jessica Greenall)
bidolito.co.uk

Reviews
Bido Lito! Dec 2016/Jan 2017
49
developed into a tight and confident trio,
playing cute, tuneful songs of surf-garage
goodness. Guitarist Henry bends and dips
and swirls, while singer Esme coolly plays
bass, oblivious to her bandmate’s antics,
drummer Sidonie supporting at the back. The
new Heavenly signees make everyone in the
room happy tonight.
Back in Soup Kitchen, SALTWATER SUN
are competent enough, but have all the
hallmarks of a band faithfully following all the
instructions on how to put a band together,
dutifully ticking each box. There is something
old before their time about them, but, alas,
the mature sound doesn’t quite suit us, so we
say hello to the Night & Day once again, where
blues singer and guitarist JOHN J PRESLEY,
despite his big voice, struggles to make
himself heard. Once the hubbub subsides,
Presley and his drummer seize their moment
and head into an ominous overture which
ironically refers to “when the rains come
down.” Presley’s vocal sounds as if it’s been
coaxed straight out of a Sergio Leone film
score, such that we half expect a bandolierwearing
Clint Eastwood to strut on stage and
pick up a bass.
To our disappointment, it’s one-in-one-out
at The Castle for CARO and the crowd don’t
seem the type to budge, so we head back to
Soup Kitchen where we find STRONG ASIAN
MOTHERS setting up. Without a guitar in
sight, we can’t help but wonder how they’ll
keep so much electronic gear in check. Co-lead
vocalist Amer’s confident theatrics contribute
to a sublime performance of electro-popfunk,
with standout tracks Out Of Love and
Stay Down deservedly receiving a roomful
of applause. A bit of a wildcard as far as
our evening’s concerned, but Strong Asian
Mothers have definitely made an impression,
especially if you’re after Prides with a bit more
aggression and a hint of the East.
Feeling invigorated, we head to Gulliver’s
to track down HER’S but instead end up on
the front row for THE PEARL HARTS. The south
London pair get straight down to it, tearing
through a ballsy set of post-grainy feedback.
Set opener The Chief is given a hero’s welcome,
with both attitude and sound reminiscent
of the incendiary Deap Vally. Vocalist Kirsty
somehow turns it up a notch for final tracks Hit
The Bottle and Blackblood, as drummer Sara
makes an attempt on the venue’s foundations,
even from upstairs.
Discover your new favourite band? Maybe,
just maybe, Off The Record confirmed
something we already knew.
Cath Bore and Will Lloyd
OMAR-S
Abandon Silence @ Invisible Wind Factory
From The Kazimier to Camp and Furnace,
Abandon Silence now make Invisible Wind
Factory its third home for a new electronic
music night entitled Echoes, and what better
way to launch it than with a colourful set
from Detroit’s OMAR-S. Making his firstever
appearance in Liverpool, the celebrated
producer of house and electronic music is
well known for transcending the modern-day
expectations of an artist. Omar can’t be found
on social media, self-releasing his music
through his own label, FXHE Records, but has
nevertheless built an acclaimed reputation
by having both an old-school and innovative
sound and technique. His unique and raw
musical identity is evident in his rich set, which
incorporates funk, soul, R&B and disco into his
deep house tracks.
On the Invisible Wind Factory’s raised
platform, engulfed in fiery red lights and
overlooking his tipsy 2am crowd, Omar engages
with his bouncing audience and graces the
night with an energising, slow-building
momentum. The simple and moody electronic
beats gradually evolve into triumphant overlays
and mixes that are uplifting and anthemic. He
begins by immediately bringing us to life with
a heavy, fast, pounding bassline that beats
in our veins and compels us to dance. This
thumping rhythm is mixed with an 80s-style
disco groove and soaring underlying vocals
honeyed over drum machines. The immense
venue suddenly shrinks down to an intimate
dancefloor, with Abandon Silence’s impressive
and surreal lighting installation hanging above;
an animated canopy seemingly brought to life
by sounds.
Although playing a traditional electronic set,
Omar continues to keep it fresh and creative.
Funky Motown undertones of female vocals are
heard beneath the repetitive house rhythms
and off-beat cymbals. His smooth transitions
allow for this fluid blending of sounds. All
the while, the installation above us presents
splashes of strobing colours and bizarre shapes
that morph to the music. Omar slows the
rhythm and the canvases go blank, but return
in the form of relaxing, firework-like bursts of
blue when he introduces a soulful, synthesised
saxophone. We have a quick breather before
the mechanical beat picks up again with
Omar’s own track, The Shit Baby. Again, a
typical deep house rhythm, but Omar keeps
us on our toes. It is overlaid with fast-paced
piano and trumpets that add an unexpected
salsa influence and South American vibe, but
complements the ongoing electronic beat of
the night. The installation again heightens
LONER NOISE PRESENTS:
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THE WYTCHES / PART CHIMP
THE COSMIC DEAD / HECK
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NORTH SHORE TROUBADOUR
DROP THE DUMBULLS
£10 Early Bird
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50
Bido Lito! Dec 2016/Jan 2017 Reviews
SOUND MATTERS
In this monthly column, our friends at DAWSONS give expert tips and advice on how to
achieve a great sound in the studio or in the live environment. Armed with the knowledge to
solve any musical problem, the techy aficionados provide Bido Lito! readers with the benefit of
their experience so you can get the sound you want. Here, Dawsons’ six-string maestro Tosin
Salako answers a question inspired by last month’s feature interview with Hooton Tennis Club.
IN ISSUE 72, HOOTON TENNIS
CLUB TOLD US ABOUT THEIR USE
OF EDWIN COLLINS’ CLASSIC
B&M FUZZ AND MU-TRON
PEDALS. WHICH FX UNITS
WOULD YOU RECOMMEND
TO GET THAT FUZZ FACTOR?
Out of the two, the answer’s in the name:
simply, the Barnes & Mullin Champion Fuzz
pedal is obviously the better of the two when
it comes to producing fuzz. The Mu-Tron,
which came out in the early 1970s, was all
about trying to get the craziness of the synth
sound yet retain the musicality. Like the
Moog synth with the keyboard at the core,
you can go overboard on the modulation and
lose the pitch-perfect piano. The Mu-Tron III
envelope filter was made famous in 1973 by
Stevie Wonder’s Higher Ground, as it showed
the funkadelic capabilities the Mu-Tron had,
producing an almost psychedelic tone. It
wasn’t until 1995 with A Girl Like You that
Edwyn Collins used the B&M Fuzz pedal and
its distortion to create the classic solo.
Hendrix and others were the first to use
fuzz back in the mid-60s, doing the crazy
stuff for which they would become famous.
Each pedal can be different in the parameters
that they use, such as the circuitry in the
pedal board, but it is always just a form of
distortion: you are overloading a signal so
it becomes too big for the channel and you
get that broken-up tone. The first to pick up
on this were probably The Kinks, who used
broken amps – and even slashed their own –
to create distortion.
Old pedals that artists used from this era
are so sought after now because simply
you can’t replicate these pedals anymore.
Infrastructure has changed so much in the
bidolito.co.uk
last 60 years and old-fashioned ways of
doing things have become obsolete. Sadly,
it’s just a by-product of human development
and is the same when we look at guitars:
the type of material or transistor used at the
time really impacts on the sound created and
it’s extremely difficult to replicate, even with
all our technology. B&M’s Champion Fuzz
unit didn’t come out until the late 70s, and
there had already been massive changes to
the pedal manufacturing process by then.
Germanium was the material used in the
earliest pedals, which started to be used
by the likes of Hendrix in 1965. However,
by 1970, silicon had taken over as the main
component and for people using these
pedals it is commonly known that the sounds
each create are wildly different.
Like B&M’s Champion Fuzz, many modern
pedals are modelled on germanium and
silicon, such as those in Dunlop’s Fuzz Face
series, which are highly recommended and
selling well all over the world. Each particular
pedal in the series has a variation in how the
bass, mid and treble sweep sounds, and what
makes the series stand out in particular is
that each pedal is manufactured to allow
the specific germanium or silicon sounds to
really broaden what sounds guitarists can
achieve with these pedals. The standout
piece has to be the JHF-1, modelled on the
pedal Mr Hendrix used himself. Due to the
fact Jimi’s name graces the pedal, there is
a high attention to engineering detail and
it has a multitude of little tweaks, creating
an end product that delivers something
special, which comes across through its
amazing tone. In the same way that the most
expensive Les Pauls are trying to emulate the
same guitars of the 50s and 60s, the Fuzz
Face is attempting to emulate vintage pedals
and the B&M pedal certainly does the job.
You can find Dawsons at their new home at
14-16 Williamson Square.
dawsons.co.uk
the change of pace with intensely bright and
vibrant colours that flash with each piano note.
Upon finishing his set, Omar steps down
from the stage and holds out a gracious hand
to his grateful crowd, who scurry forward and
reach up for a handshake. Did he enjoy the
night just as much as we did? If so, this is one
for the history books.
NICK ELLIS
Cousin Jac
Scandinavian Church
Jessica Greenall
It’s warm on the top floor of the Gustav
Adolfs Kyrka, the pointiest octagon in town, and
the space is lit with candles and soft rainbows
as Jes Wing from COUSIN JAC takes to his little
electric piano and sings us a selection of his
songs – a far cry from his show in this room
last March with a 10-piece band (“Madness,”
he tells us, although there were only seven
of them), but his piano playing is full and rich
enough to support itself, to say nothing of
his voice, perfectly suited to intimate venues.
“The ocean’s spirit is inside and over me,” he
confesses in Raised By The Sea (Wing hails
from St Ives), its double meaning multiplied
further by being sung in this dockside refuge.
The Irish Sea feels very near indeed, not for the
first time tonight.
NICK ELLIS is an old-school troubadour,
right and proper, telling all our experiences in
song and with utter conviction. His reputation
for guitar wizardry and solid Merseyside
songwriting precedes him, but that can’t
lessen the impact of his live presence. This
is the launch party for Ellis’ first full-length
album, Daylight Ghosts, and it feels like a party
with family, friends, fans, and Mellowtone
regulars packing the pews. Set (and album)
opener The Grand Illusion begins with one
everlasting chord, and nobody fingerpicks one
everlasting chord quite like Nick Ellis. When he
does start to sing, the sheer vocabulary of his
lyric is astounding, unleashing a Subterranean
Homesick Blues’ worth of words.
Hearing Lovers In July live, it seems to have
genuine weltschmerz which, though not a
guarantee of ‘classic songwriter’ status in
itself, is the same heartache found in Nick
Drake, Leonard Cohen, or Bert Jansch. Nick
Ellis himself is down to earth, clearly still
reeling from having an album out: “Getting it
out of the box on Wednesday, it feels like it’s
gone, handed over, the end of something.” For
him, perhaps, but it’s good for the rest of us
to hear the pagan instrumental Dance Of The
Cat and St. David’s Day feeling like they belong
to a set of songs, the beginning of an oeuvre.
Perhaps it’s just the venue, but the smoky
accompaniment to Carillion has the grain of
Norwegian Wood, swaying gently around
his guitar’s lower register. “I,” he cries, “had
a wonderful dream last night”, and so might
most of tonight’s audience.
Stuart Miles O’Hara / @ohasm1
LOUDON WAINWRIGHT III
Chaim Tannenbaum
Philharmonic Hall
On a dark winter night there’s nothing quite
as comforting as walking into the luxuriously
gilded and marbled interior of The Phil. The
refined affair is a far cry from seedy sweat-box
venues, and is a suitable setting for the crowd
that LOUDON WAINWRIGHT III has attracted
tonight. In attendance are a range of original
60s folk fans: some who’ve left it behind and
are back for a nostalgia trip, and others still
fully immersed in it. Wainwright has influenced
generations of musicians, with the likes of
Big Star and Bombay Bicycle Club amongst
thousands of notable fans, so it’s no surprise to
catch a glimpse of the occasional younger face.
What unites everyone in attendance, however,
is the excitement of catching a glimpse of an
Nick Ellis (John Johnson / johnjohnson-photography.com)

Reviews
Bido Lito! Dec 2016/Jan 2017
51
icon in the flesh.
around a campfire. One punter gets so excited
two shows – this celebration of The Simpsons’
(a ‘well cast’ Nelson Muntz), Joyce, Eleven et
Having spent most of his life as a philosophy
that he runs towards the stage screaming
annual Halloween-themed episode is as varied
al. The homage creates a Jacob’s ladder of pop
lecturer, support act CHAIM TANNENBAUM has
“Isrite Loudon!” before shaking his hand and
as the roster of artists involved. After listening
culture nostalgia: The Simpsons has just signed
emerged as a late-life cult folk hero. Though
returning to his seat. There’s no aloofness, no
to everyone’s favourite anti-band ORGAN
with Fox for a record 30th season. Stranger
his name may not be one that rings clear at
snobbery – everyone’s just on the same level.
FREEMAN sweat out The Stonecutters’ Song,
Things, that Twitter-clogging phenomenon, is
first, Tannenbaum has played on some of
Alongside the banter, he delivers
or QUAD COLLECTIVE’s performance of Poe’s
set just over 30 years ago in a world which,
Wainwright’s most famous albums through
monologues from his journalist father’s
The Raven, you can peruse the artworks while
though possessing only real, geographical
a long friendship that reveals itself in wry
columns that cover topics from fatherhood
drinking a Flaming Moe. Or a Red Stripe – some
Springfields, would produce the Simpsons
humour throughout the night. Breathing new
through to a good British suit. What really
people get more involved than others. The
universe before the decade was over out of
life into forgotten folk songs which only find
hits us hardest, though, is the sheer expanse
displays fall into two main categories. The first
the same zeitgeist which is now so appealing
life in live performance, Tannenbaum jumps
and diversity of Wainwright’s body of work,
is the gloriously nerdish, or the nerdily glorious,
to fans of Stranger Things. Though the last few
between old standards and his own work, all
from comedy songs through to political
such as Kill List by ‘Great Scott!’ Duffey (all the
seasons have improved, it is worth noting that
delivered with a delicate confidence. “This is
ballads. “Nowadays this song sounds a bit
artists have scarified their names for their
Dale’s print is probably a better-handled (and
going to be my last one, but it’s quite a long
like something I would say,” he chuckles with
title cards), a tableau of the characters who’ve
funnier) cultural reference than the show itself
one,” he mutters, before bowling us backwards
uneasy laughter before Motel Blues, but this
gotten it most often in the neck over the past
would be capable of producing nowadays. It
with the romanticism and isolation of a London
moment seems to link his young self with the
three decades of Halloween specials. For info,
should be noted that tonight’s exhibits are
now gone in an age of billionaire oligarchs and
Loudon Wainwright of today: decades apart but
Homer and Bart have 16 deaths each, followed
heavy on the first eight seasons. In a similar
extreme gentrification.
united in song. This may just be the secret to
by Ned Flanders with 11. The second category is
vein to Weirder Stuff is No Homers Club co-
Our appetite whetted for more rich acoustic
his seemingly eternal youthfulness.
works that use the Simpsons as a springboard
founder Ria Hell’s Glitch Krusty. It’s beautifully
ballads, we settle in once more to the rich
Matt Hogarth
for the artists’ imagination, such as Martin
simple, almost classical – the murderous Krusty
auditorium. Joining a hat stand, a banjo, a piano
‘Captain James Tiberius’ Kirke’s Ned’s Inferno,
doll sold to Homer in ToH III in glowing white
and a guitar onstage, Wainwright’s arrival is
met by deafening applause. Although he starts
his first song by saying, “This is one of my death
and decay songs,” there is a surprising amount
of life in them. At the age of 70, Wainwright
seems to have more energy than most 20 year
THE SIMPSONS’
TREEHOUSE OF HORROR
No Homers Club @ Constellations
an astonishing oil painting that could be an
‘…in response to’ the William Blake exhibit at
Tate Liverpool. Also worth a mention is Philip
Marsden’s cod-Audubon Pigeon-rat, and the
painstaking detail of Chris Zombieking’s test
tubes, each containing a foetal Simpson.
against black static. (On that note, the only
criticism of tonight is the lack of frogurt, cursed
or otherwise. But there are donuts aplenty.)
With shades of the titles to Black Mirror, it’s
subtle, old and new at once. This digital klown
could be the literal poster boy for the latest
olds, blasting out lyrics with a virility and lust
One of the more thought-provoking pieces is
success from No Homers Club.
for life that is infectious. With large levels of
The third outing by No Homers Club returns to
a print by Kay ‘Murder on the’ Dale. So familiar
conversation between each song it feels less
familiar territory after the Mesozoic spectacular
by now, the glowing red titles of Weirder Stuff
Stuart Miles O’Hara / @ohasm1
like a gig and more like a group of friends
of Isla Nublar. But it’s no retread of their first
are surrounded by yellow analogues of Dustin
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DIGGING A LITTLE DEEPER
with Sonic Yootha
We’re always interested to hear what waxy gems are lurking in the depths of the record bags of
the city’s DJs, or the kind of music they’re indulging in away from the dancefloor. This month, four
of the resident selectors from club night Sonic Yootha reveal some of the tunes that help give the
event its distinctive identity.
A monthly new wave, old rave, techno, electro, rock, pop and soul social for homos, heteros, drag
shows and don’t knows, Sonic Yootha is a fixture of 24 Kitchen Street’s buzzing dance and disco
calendar. “It takes courage to enjoy it,” says the tagline – but not when you look at the array of
tunes on offer.
THE SMITHS
BIGMOUTH STRIKES AGAIN
Shaun Duggan: THE SMITHS have always been a favourite at Sonic
Yootha. We were all teenagers in the 80s when homophobia was rife and
many felt like it was impossible to come out due to attitudes towards
gay people because of AIDS and Clause 28, which was introduced by
the Thatcher Government, and which made ‘promoting’ homosexuality
illegal. Like myself, many repressed gay people took solace in Morrissey’s lyrics and pretended
to be celibate just like him to deflect awkward questions about our sexuality. Bigmouth Strikes
Again will always remind me of Marky J – the glorious club promoter behind Garlands who died
last month – and the amazing legacy he left behind.
SYLVESTER
YOU MAKE ME FEEL (MIGHTY REAL)
Tracy Wilder: This does exactly what it says on the tin and has become
a bit of an anthem at Sonic Yootha. SYLVESTER’s streaking falsetto
grabs everyone’s attention. It’s instantly recognisable and universal
– everyone, young and old alike, knows it and for me it’s possibly the
greatest disco tune of all time. What’s even better is when we get the
whole of the house singing the chorus at the top of their voices. It’s so good for the soul!
AMY WINEHOUSE
TEARS DRY ON THEIR OWN
Ian Usher: This song always reminds me of the time we got invaded by a
funny lady who fell into the booth and informed us that we were “selling
out” and “crowd pleasing” for playing Amy. She was from That London
and kept saying she was friends with Andrew Weatherall, which just
made the situation all the more bizarre. We like to think of ourselves as
open-minded when it comes to the music policy for Yootha – or indeed,
lack of one. We cast the net wide and can play anything from Talking Heads to Mel & Kim, Peaches
to The Stone Roses – a good song is a good song.
JACKSON 5
ABC (THE REFLEX REVISION)
John Aggy: I love finding new interpretations of tracks and this is one of
my favourites. Everybody knows the original but The Reflex change the
groove, throw in a few surprises and bring it right up to date. It’s great
and the team behind the remix have a ton of other reinterpretations that
are well worth a mooch if you’re after something to give your crowd a
fresh look through an old window. In the meantime, play this loud, get up and get happy.
Sonic Yootha takes place on the third Saturday of each month at 24 Kitchen Street, open from 11pm
to 3am.
@SonicYootha
THE FINAL SAY
Words: Bethany Garrett / @_bethanygarrett
Each month we hand over the responsibility of having the final say to a guest columnist. After
hearing author and provocateur Will Self announce that art has lost its aura at FACT’s Day Of
Collisions – the cultural hub’s celebration of the interactions between art and science – Bethany
Garrett ruminates on our expectations of art.
I am no expert on art or science so I mooch lights, as you gaze into it, your own eye becomes
along to FACT’s Day Of Collisions, the opening day the centre of the cylinder, peering back at you all
of the centre’s No Such Thing As Gravity exhibition, illuminated and groovy. For me, it possessed that
with a notebook and an open mind, expecting aura Will Self couldn’t find in the exhibition. Partly
not much other than to learn something. Art and because sparkly lights are pretty as petals (simple
science: two loaded words, near-proper nouns, pleasures). But mostly because there appear to lie
almost dichotomous in their interpretation, lofty infinite nebulae within its scope.
immovable concepts. Or not.
But what should art do for us anyway? Should
No Such Thing As Gravity seeks to reconcile we go into the gallery expecting auras and
the two: attendees are assured by Monica Bello, atmospheres and to be moved? To come out
Head of Arts at CERN, home of the mammoth a changed person? To dictate how we should
Large Hadron Collider, that both endeavours share experience art belies the complexity of the
a leaning towards curiosity. The best pursuits in human mind and the potential ways in which
both realms should ask and provoke questions, we can interact with and produce art. It’s also
not give answers. The day is permeated by exclusionary, because the expectation of having
collaborations or collisions of this curious nature: some kind of grandiose response is intimidating.
first artist in residence at CERN, South Korean In short, analysis and expectation can suck the
Yunchul Kim, will work with particle theorists, fun out of everything.
animating the great unseen of the experiments One day, I would like to go to an exhibition
carried out in the Large Hadron Collider with with no writing on the wall, no explanations
miniature whirlpools of shimmering metallic of the artists’ inner turmoil for a change. Art in
substances. Gina Czarnecki, an artist, and John a vacuum. Context optional. To be enjoyed and
Hunt, Professor of Clinical Sciences at LJMU, use experienced, not analysed. I would love for the
3D printing and stem cell technology to craft works to be anonymised. Lassnigs could sit next
sculptures out of human tissue, living portraits. to Picassos and they could both hang out with
Everything seems super cool and futuristic. something some fella from down the road did.
Enter Will Self, cultural commentator/agent Experiment with a level playing field in art, rather
provocateur. Flying in the face of the exhibition’s than nod along at the chin-stroking, cultural
message, Self asserts that art and science are two capital invested into a piece that comes with
opposing, fighting parties, a bull and a matador. knowing it is by a certain artist. “This is one of his
“Nothing in this exhibition is science or art” – a later works, yah.”
big ouch for the scientists and artists sitting “Art galleries present themselves as a place to
pretty like keen schoolchildren in the front row. go and be arty” – another cutting comment from
For Self, science has diminished the value of art, Self, but, this time, it’s a sentiment I agree with.
because technology has made art replicable, We could do with losing some of the pretence.
and the particularity of any given artwork is I’m just a punter and I don’t know too much
intrinsic to its aura and its magic. Yes, he found at all. To leave a list of instructions on how to
the collection of works at FACT curated by art and recognise and reconcile with a work of art would
science specialist Rob La Frenais interesting, but contradict my beliefs about our capacities as
they didn’t emanate a hallowed aura, that, for Self, individuals (as well as see me acting well above
would deem them art. Yikes.
my station!), but I will say that I try to have no
But this is only the opinion of one eloquent expectations and keep an open mind. For me,
man. And art is in the eye of the beholder, is it No Such Thing As Gravity embodies a good
not? Quite literally in the case of Sarah Sparkes’ environment to practice this in. You do you boo.
GHost Tunnel portal, on display in the FACT lobby,
with a counterpart tucked away in the Williamson No Such Thing As Gravity runs at FACT until 5th
Tunnels network. A seemingly endless tunnel of February 2017.

& Supports
17th December
Seel Street Liverpool
Ticket Available At: Ticketweb, See, Ticketmaster, Gigantic, Ticketline,
02 AcademyBox Office. Ticket Price: £12.50 Advance, £15 Door
TOM
RUSSELL
WED
18th JAN
8:00pm
REAL
DIAMOND
THE ‘NEIL DIAMOND
ROCKS’ TOUR
SUN 22nd JAN 7:30pm
ALL STAR
SUPERSLAM
WRESTLING
WED 25th to
SUN 29th JAN
FRI 27th
JAN 7:30pm
THU 9th FEB
8:00pm
PINKED FLOYD
TRIBUTE SHOW
SAT 18th FEB
8:00pm
F:RATED
COMEDY CLUB
SUN 19th FEB
7:30pm
GERRY CROSS
THE MERSEY
AN EVENING WITH GERRY
& THE PACEMAKERS
THU 23rd FEB 7:30pm
FRI 10th FEB
8:00pm
SAT 25th FEB
8:00pm

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