4.52am Issue: 018 22nd January 2017

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Welcome to Issue 018
Welcome to Issue 018
I’m guessing if you are reading this that
the chances of the world ending last Friday
may have been a little overdone, and so
this week I’m more than pleased to say
that we have the brilliant Shawn James as
our featured artist, which I must admit is a
bit of a buzz.
We are again visiting the Signature-land of
Gretsch Guitars and this time sees us
checking out Duane Eddy and his latest
6120.
As far as guitars go, we take a closer look
at Rabswood Guitars, and move further
forward with our Guitar Build with a bucket
load of stain and Danish Oil and some
beautifully engineered parts from Guique.
As for the music, well…
Hope you enjoy it…
All at 4.52am

CONTENTS
FEATURES:
Shawn James
A New Legend
RabsWood Guitars
Half and Half
Stone Deaf FX
Fig Fumb Paracentric Fuzz
Builders Corner
Staining Elvis
Builders Corner
Guique Guitar Parts
Duane Eddy
Gretsch Signature 6120
MUSIC:
Julia Jacklin
Someday
Catherine McGrath
Say You Love Me
Blanket
Acacia
The Bottom Line
I Still Hate You
Malka
Breakout
AC/DC
Noise Pollution

SHAWN JAMES
A New Legend
I mentioned in last week’s issue that I
had only recently ‘discovered’ Shawn
James and his wild and deep mixture of
gospel, urban soul and traditional blues,
and noticing that the chap himself was
soon to be reaching these shores, I
thought it was a good time to have a chat
and see what is happening.
If you haven’t heard Shawn and his band
the Shapeshifters yet, you are missing a
real treat. Over the last few years, he has
recorded a solo (pre-band) album, and
then three of the most soul-tearing EPs
I’ve heard in years. More recently a band
album, which is nothing short of
incredible. But you only need to check out
his videos on YouTube to see that he is
an intense and incredibly gifted singer
and guitarist, but more importantly that
he is writing some of the most interesting
and authentic sounding blues songs
around. The man has a soul a whole lot
older than his 30 years would dictate, and
it was his songwriting we started by
talking about quite literally the evening
before he caught a jet ‘plane over to
Europe for the start of is tour.
Can you tell me when you knew
you wanted to be a
singer/songwriter?
“I don’t think I knew that I wanted to
be a singer/songwriter til I was a bit
older. I had always played music
growing up but never fully wrote a full
song til I was in my 20’s. I had written
lyrics and sang for a couple bands I was
in before then though.
My mother noticed my talent with
singing when I was very young and put
me in Choir, Orchestra, & Opera
training while also going to black
gospel churches on the southwest side
of Chicago on the weekends. In the
churches, I witnessed the power that
music could have over people in a
different way than the more classical
side. At the time I didn’t appreciate the
balance of both as much as I do now.”
Can you tell me about your
influences?
“I’m all over the place honestly!
I listen and take influence from many
genres from classical masterpieces to
soul music to metal to rap to jazz, blues
& so many more. I’ve always been that
way and I think it shows in the differing

projects I’ve released solo and also with
my band The Shapeshifters.”
You started playing with bands at
16 years old, what sort of music
was that? Were you writing at that
point or was it more of a cover
thing?
“It was mainly Rock bands. I was writing
lyrics but not really involved in the full
songwriting process. I would just put my
layer over what they had written.”
You recorded Shadows when you
were what, 26, so you’d been
playing in bands for a decade by
then. That is a serious and heavily
themed album - did it feel as
though you had to get the miles
under your belt to be able to
produce something like that? How
much did your own experiences
growing up feed into that?
“Shadows was an album that I probably
couldn’t have put out before I moved to
Arkansas in 2012. I didn’t feel as though
I was ready to really represent what I
wanted that album to be before then.
There were absolutely a lot of heavy
songs that dealt with some things I
needed to get off my chest from my
past. It can be a very dark, sad album at
times but also a hopeful one at the same
time.”
Shawn’s song The Wanderer was used
by Harley Davidson for an advertising
campaign. How cool was it that
Harley Davidson used the
Wanderer?
“I didn’t see it coming and it was a great
surprise. They did a good job of making
me look cooler than I really am haha.”
Moving forward a little while, you
got the Shapeshifters together. Was
having a band something that you’d
always had in mind, or did it just
happen?
“I knew that I wanted to do it eventually
but it definitely just happened once I
moved to Fayetteville. I met so many
talented musicians in the group of friends
I’d made there that it was a “no brainer”
to expand.”
The Bear, Wolf and Hawk EPs were
incredibly powerful and vibrant, and
looking at the time period they came
out over, you had basically recorded
what could have been a doubleconcept
album in a matter of
months. Did it feel as though things
were really moving at that point?
“Thank you. The Wolf was written in 2011
before I left Illinois for the 2nd time. My
family was going through a hard time and
I can now see how it affected the feeling
of the Wolf EP. The Bear and the Hawk
were done quite quickly in comparison to
the writing of the wolf and building the
band to put it together. Things were
definitely moving fast once The Bear was
released.”

Has writing/recording gotten
easier over time, and how does the
writing work in the context of the
band - are you still writing all of the
songs or does that alter?
“I think it has gotten easier as I write
more honestly. I write all the songs
(except for Eating Like Kings) and then
the band builds up on them with what
they feel from it. “
Can you tell us about the
writing/recording of The Gospel
According to Shawn James & The
Shapeshifters?
“I wrote those songs in a month around
November/December of 2014 after we
got back from our 2nd European tour.
The band worked on them til February
2015 when we recorded at a friend’s
studio in Arkansas. The Gospel to me
was the album we really wanted to play
live at that time and I feel that it was
much more energized and heavy than
anything we had put out. We had a blast
making it.”
You are about to start a major
European Tour including the UK –
have you played over here before?
“We’ve been to Europe with my band 3
previous times but we haven’t got to the
play the UK yet! I’m absolutely excited
to get to explore all the areas since I’ve
never been to any.”
Do you consider yourself a guitarist
first or is it just a tool of the trade to
you and you are more of a
songwriter?
“I consider myself first and foremost a
vocalist. then songwriter. The guitar
playing is definitely a tool I use to build
songs so that I can sing over them.”
What gear are you using now?
“For the band, I just got sponsored by
Mesa Boogie and that’s incredible so I’ll
be using a 2x12 Roadster combo on top
of a 4x12 rectifier cab. (beefy and loud!)
I also use a Reverend electric guitar
called the Spacehawk.
For the acoustic side of things, I use 2
guitars and recently got sponsored by
both companies as well.
The resonator is a Republic Guitars model
and the acoustic I use is an Alvarez Yairi.”
You can catch Shawn at a series of Solo
dates in the UK:
March 31 st – The Con (London)
April 1 st – The Station (Cannock)
April 2 nd – Trillians (Newcastle)
April 4 th – Chameleon (Nottingham)
April 6 th – Hammer & Anvil (Birmingham)
April 8 th – Cobblestones (Bridgwater)
April 10 th – Bannermans (Edinburgh)
Find out more HERE

Shawn James

Shawn James & The Shapeshifters

RABSWOOD GUITARS
Half & Half
We had a quick look at some of the
beautiful guitars Rabswood are coming
up with a few issues ago, but I have to
admit I really am quite taken by his half
and half style Doublecuts, which have got
to be one of the most interesting designs
I’ve seen in a long while.
Speaking to Rabs, the chap himself, you
soon realise that he is very much coming
from the Gibson side of the fence, but
that he only ever sees that as a starting
point, and is constantly rethinking what
has become accepted, received wisdom.
The half and half approach isn’t just a
design thing – being different for the
sake of it – but is a good example of
how Rabs sees things,
“The Half and Halfs are my own design
based on the classic Double Cutaway
shape but with my own unique twist in
that its made with two halves of
different types of wood, in this case
Ash and Utile with the Ash side being a
harder wood than Utile it will offer a
slightly better Treble response on that
side .”

Rabs also has a refreshing approach to
the specification of the pickups and
hardware, and again is willing to look for
performance ahead of reputation, so
whilst he is a lover of Schaller hardware
he isn’t a slave to the brand, and he is
more than happy to use a variety of
pickups – if they sound good is all that
matters. The first Half and Half used
Gibson pickups, whilst other build have
used IronGear or whatever the customer
really wants fitted.
All in all, Rabswood are doing something
interesting and I’m more than happy to
watch them follow their own path and
see where it takes them.
Specification:
Solid Ash and Utile half and half body
2-ply binding
Ash and Utile neck with thick D shape
Rosewood fretboard with a 12" radius
Mother of pearl inlays
500k CTS pots
Russian 0.022 PIO capacitors
Gibson Mini Humbuckers
24.75" scale length
Tru Oil and Ebony filler natural finish
Schaller tuners
Switchcraft toggle switch and input jack
Wraparound Tune O Matic bridge
Find out more at their web site HERE

STONE DEAF FX
Fig Fumb Paracentric Fuzz
OK, I’m going to be totally honest here –
when it comes to UK Pedal Building
companies, I can’t honestly say that I
know them all.
I know some, and I’ve learned more, but
to be totally frank about it, who has the
time to check them all out? OK, maybe
you do, but I don’t.
Not that I don’t want to, but back in the
dark days when if it wasn’t Boss it was
Ibanez or Dod, things were simpler. I
even had a brief love-in with a Rocktek
Distortion at one point. We still talk, its
cool. However, I’m starting to think that
I may be missing out on a few things that
could delight, as after my article last
week about the rather wonderfilled Nine
of Swords Fuzz, a friend of mine who
shall remain nameless as he has an ego
that doesn’t need feeding, delivered unto
me a Stone Deaf FX pedal with a rather
catchy name – Fig Fumb Paracentric Fuzz
– and basically blew me away.
Now don’t get me wrong, for me the
ThorpyFX Fallout Cloud and the
aforementioned Nine of Swords 3D Astro
Beast are still at the pinnacle of all things
fuzz, but my god if we are talking about
useful and usable options without
disappearing down the cartoon
toytown-ness of Mr Zvex, this is almost
surreal in its capabilities. I can honestly
say, for a rare moment in my life I was
agape and generally speech-deprived.
It is scary how good this pedal is, but
as a Big Muff, well, it is ludicrous.
And in truth it is hard to remember that
it is a Big Muff at all. OK, the posh
equaliser means that you can easily
(and I mean noticeably) nail all of the
classic Muff tones without much effort
at all.
In fact it is almost too easy – a Big Muff
is meant to be a pain in the arse,
surely? – but the key to its brilliance is
the in-built noise gate that instantly
turns so many of those ‘could have
been great’ tones you always come
across with a Muff, but that are just too
noisy to be practical, into genuine
contenders. There are sounds here that
you have heard on classic records that
you would never manage to drag out of
your average Muff outside of a
recording studio, and all of a sudden
you can be knocking them out down
the local jam night, or at Wembley
without any worries.

That is seriously cool – they have turned
a Muff into a top-notch effect, that is
stylish in the extreme. And to be totally
honest, you would think that would be
enough for anybody, but the chaps at
Stone Deaf FX clearly like to offer
something just a bit more special than
special itself, and have gone so much
further than simple functionality.
For you can expand on what the Fig
Fumb can do by plugging in Stone Deaf’s
own Expression Pedal, which opens
things up even further.
Immediately you find yourself Wah-ing
like a good ‘un and exploring all manner
of Doom. I found that setting the
Bandwidth knob on the main pedal so
that you are starting with a Cocked Wah
tone, has a brilliant effect with the
expression pedal that lets you reverse
what you would expect a normal wah to
sound like. With a little bit of echo you
are suddenly in some quite strange
places and again, noise-wise the gate
makes this a serious and professional
recording option straight away. It
doesn’t end there though, as it isn’t just
a basic wah that the expression pedal
offers, you can also get a quite brilliant
Phaser effect too – again, some serious
flexibility with some very usable tones.
In other news, the option to either Cut
or Boost the level by upto 20db is very
useful, and a really nice touch is that the
Noise Gate can be switched off and on
via its own footswitch. Stone Deaf
suggest this is good for alternating
between rhythm (with it on) and lead
with it off, and this is a good call as
especially for some heavy work the gate
tightens the rhythm perfectly, whilst
switching it off opens your lead work up
massively with all that beautiful sustain
we all know and love.
To summarise, I talked about the other
fuzzes as they have been occupying my
mind for a while now, and they really
won’t be going anywhere soon. But in the
Fig Fumb, Stone Deaf have created
something I never realised I wanted quite
so much – a usable Muff – but then with
so much more. I always loved the Black
Russian Muff, and have bought and sold
far too many of the years, wooden boxes
and all, but they have always
disappointed, in fact so many fuzz pedals
have over the years, but I really can see
this staying on my nascent board
alongside the other two. Are three fuzzes
too many? I don’t know, care or even
contemplate it.
I genuinely think that if you are in the
market for a fuzz you have to check this
out.
I just hate to think how many more
pedals I’m going to end-up buying at this
rate.
Go see for yourself HERE what Stone
Deaf FX have going on, but then you
probably knew already, let’s face it.

BUILDERS CORNER
Staining Elvis
OK, it has taken a little while for me to get
going with this, but I couldn’t look at it
standing forlornly in the corner any more
without doing something, and of course
the Spitfire Scratchplate is now in the UK
too – if Customs ever find it – and I was
going to look silly if there wasn’t a
finished body to nail it too.
But what to do?
Well, obviously we are looking at making
an Elvis Costello homage, in a similar
vein to the Fender Custom Shop one, so
in a way I had two examples to think
about when it came to the finish.
On Elvis’ original guitar, as we’ve said
before he sanded the original sunburst
finish off, and then refinished it with a tin
of varnish from a DIY shop. That was
walnut and if you check out the videos
from back in the day, when the camera
got close, I’m guessing he used a
wallpaper paste brush as it was a little,
err, functional. Not that it matters.
So that was option one.
Option two on the other hand was a little
more subtle, and we get that by looking at
the Fender Custom Shop version. For
this they of course didn’t need to remove
an old finish, and instead stained the
body walnut, before giving it a
beautifully thin nitrocellulose lacquer
finish.
Out of the two, well, I really didn’t want
to do a nitrocellulose finish as firstly,
I’ve got nowhere to do it at the moment,
and secondly I didn’t want to wait to get
somebody else to do it.
However, I didn’t really want to go the
Ronseal route either, as whilst I like
functional, it would be a shame in this
case.
In the end I went pragmatic, and had
decided that a simple wood stain and
then Tru-Oil or Hard Wax Oil would do
the job nicely, and like a younger Elvis,
I went down to my local Homebase to
see what was on offer.
And needless to say, whilst they had
stain they didn’t have Tru-oil or Hard
Wax oil, and rather than wait for an online
order, I decided to forget about
taking two bottles into the shower and
went for a Tinted Danish Oil instead.
Obviously, they had every colour apart
from Walnut, so I went instead for a
Dark Oak, which is a slightly moodier
looking colour with a touch of green in
there somewhere when compared to
walnut.

Which to be totally honest is pretty good
as far as I’m concerned, as on ash I think
a Dark Oak stain looks better anyway.
I must admit I was a little nervous about
how the colour would come out. I’ve
used stains many times but never one
that has been mixed with the oil like this,
but after giving the body a light sand and
a good going over with a ‘Tack Cloth’ to
make sure there was no debris left, I
simple rubbed on the Danish Oil
following the grain on one side of the
body, and was impressed from the off as
even the first coat started to bring the
grain out beautifully.
Using oil like this, I’ve always found that
putting quite a lot on for the first couple
of times, leaving it a while and then
wiping away the excess, gives you a
really good starting point, and I was
pleased to see that the same is true of
the Danish Oil as it has been with the
other sorts I’ve used more often. You
want to then go onto to doing light coats
and letting it build up until you have a
nice shiny finish. This I did over a couple
of days, only using some wire wool
toward the end to get rid of any bumps
that were there before the final coats
went on.
Once both sides were done, I’ve used a
coloured Bri-Wax – pine of all things – as
that seems to finish the oil off nicely and
definitely lets you buff the finish to a
good shiny sheen, which is nice.
And it really is as simple as that.
One thing I hadn’t thought through was
that I also decided to break from the
original template and stain and oil the
neck too.
Now I suppose I should have gone for a
light amber, but I had a Monster Relic
neck a while ago that was quite
beautifully aged, and despite it being
maple and rosewood, had had the maple
stained darker.
Now if I had sanded the neck a little more,
perhaps my first attempt would have
gone better than it did, but I didn’t, or
rather only did it lightly, and I ended-up
with something that did in fact look old,
but also a touch patchy.
Obviously, I have sanded this back a little
and upped the dose, and I am really
pleased with it, but the delay means it has
a way to go, so you’ll have to look at that
another week.
Either way, we have a body, and we
almost have a neck too, so if HM
Customs will give up our slice of celluloid
heaven, we could be getting somewhere.
I really should look at some other parts
now, times are a moving.

BUILDERS CORNER
Guique Guitar Parts
All those weeks ago when we were taking
the time to have a look at Don Ricci’s
stunning Hot Rod Guitars, I almost
glossed over the quality of some of the
parts (mainly as I was afeared for my life,
it has to be said.)
However, I have spent a lot of time
thinking about how we make sure that the
Elvis Costello Homage Jazzmaster,
really is even better than the real thing,
and I couldn’t help but come back to the
Don’s work, as it were.
So taking my cue from the man himself, I
looked again at a couple of parts that you
probably don’t think about much, but are
just as important as anything else.
Now, on a Jazzmaster, we all love the
look of the white Witches hat knobs, I’ve
got them on my own, but in truth, I really
prefer proper flat topped Telecaster ones.
They are just as good as it gets, and there
we are.
For the EC Jazzmaster then, my initial
thought had been to go for Strat or
Witches hats, but then I remembered the
rather awesome knob (can’t believe I just
typed that) on the Green Meanie, and
wondered whether the company who
made it, Guique, did anything as boring
as making a silver one.
Checking their rather cool web site, I
saw that they did and so ordered a pair.
Looking around the site, I also realised
that the Don had used their Strap Pins
too, and as luck would have it this
happened before I hit the buy button,
so I grabbed a pair of those too – also
in boring silver.
Now don’t get me wrong, I’m not hung
up on silver – my sparkly purple Les
Paul Junior will be getting a set of
purple knobs and pins in the not too
distant future – but for the EC I thought
that silver was best. That’s all.
But what is so special about them, I
hear you wonder?
Well, for a start they are beautifully
produced. They are one of those things
that even sloppy laymen like myself
can see has been engineered rather
than knocked out by the thousand.
Engineering just about covers it too, as
Guique definitely have that
background, and the parts are made
from aircraft quality aluminium, and
believe me it shows.
It is of course the little things that make
a difference, and the fact that for
instance the strap pins come with their
own Torx key as the screws used are a

little bit more sophisticated and a whole
lot more likely to last a while than the
cream-cheese type that usually ship with
such things. And similarly, the knobs
arrive with their own allen key, and will
quite simply fit anything.
Well thought through in every way.
One thing I really like about Guique
though is that they aren’t in a rush, and
since I first looked at them a while ago,
whilst they have added a couple of new
products – they do the most beautiful
Les Paul scratch plates and pickup rings
– they are obviously only releasing new
lines as and when they are perfect. If
only other companies would take the
time to do it once and do it right, it would
make life so much easier.
So in terms of the Elvis Costello, things
are starting to move, we have a body that
is finished, we have a scratchplate in the
Custom warehouse, and we have knobs
and strap pins on their way. I even have
a set of Sperzel locking tuners, a Ye olde
Jazzmaster bridge and a tremolo,
although some of those are up for
discussion, I fear.
Game on, all over again.
You really should pay Guique a visit.
Their work is beautiful and their prices are
far too cheap to stay that way for long.
Really, right now, go and check them out
over THERE.
You’ll thank me for it.

DUANE EDDY
Gretsch Signature 6120
Growing-up, there weren’t loads of
records in our house, but one that was
always there was a copy of Duane Eddy’s
1960 album, Songs of Our Heritage
which always fascinated me for two
reasons, firstly that it was an
instrumental and the guitar on it sounded
compelling, like nothing else I had heard
at that time and secondly because it was
blue vinyl and I don’t think I’d ever seen
coloured vinyl before. (As it happened
there was a Dave Brubeck record on red
vinyl but it took a lot more years before I
gave that one a listen and found out.)
The odd thing was that whilst my musical
tastes developed over the following
years, I would often listen to Duane
Eddy’s album, without really looking any
further. It was just an old one, how could
that be as exciting as U2 and the Smiths?
It felt quite odd then when ‘Peter Gunn’
got a reworking by Art of Noise and
Duane appeared on Top-of-the-Pops
looking a lot younger than I ever
imagined he would and sounding
amazing.
All of a sudden my secret was out in
the open and to be totally honest I
wasn’t sure whether I liked it or not.
Like finding other people liked
Hieronymus Bosch or Dalton Trumbo,
it is hard to feel special when
everybody else knows your secrets,
after all.
Now of course, I realise just what a prat
I was (am) and that Duane basically
invented and popularised a lot of what
has come since, and it is only right that
he has been recognised with Signature
guitars from Guild, Gibson and Gretsch
over the years, and no doubt helped
their sales many times too.
But it was always a Gretsch that he
really looked right playing – a 6120 like
Chet Atkins – and it is cool to see this

one that Gretsch have on the books now.
Recently reissued with some quite swish
new black and white finishes, this comes
under Gretsch’s Professional Series,
which means that it has a proper
‘Lacquer’ finish to it and that it is made in
the USA rather than overseas.
It is of course a proper hollow body, so
you’ll have to learn to work around
potential feedback, but I must admit I’ve
always preferred the hollow Gretsches
to the ones they have recently been
making with a centre block. Totally
understand the idea behind them, but
then I prefer a Casino to a Dot or a 330
to a 335, so it is just a matter of taste I
guess.
What do sound beautiful on the Duane
Eddy model though are the Dynasonic
pickups. I’ve never quite gotten my head
around all the different types of Gretsch
pickups, but these single coils with the
hollow body just instantly give you *that*
sound, and I can’t imagine you’d be
playing this guitar unless that is what you
want. Not that it is a one trick dobbin, it
can do everything, and I must admit I
spent as much time playing “Love
Removal Machine”” as I did “Movin’ n’
Groovin’” but even if that sound is the
only one you use this for, it is definitely
worth it just for that.
The twang is the thang, after all.
Other appointments are as you’d expect
on a high end Gretsch, the rosewood of
the fretboard is beautiful and set-up and
finish is perfect on the one I tried too. The
binding is absolutely flawless, Gibson
should try poaching some people from
Gretsch-land to show them how it is
done.
One thing I rarely hear mentioned is what
a delight the neck is on these guitars and
on all the Gretsches I’ve played at
different price points. The stated shape
here is a ‘U’ and it really does remind me
of a good old Telecaster in a way, not as
rounded as some but you barely know
you are playing it as it fits like a chamois
glove. In summary, an awesome guitar
and a genius player.

JULIA JACKLIN
Someday
It seems a long time since Julia Jacklin
graced the cover of the first issue of
4.52am, and I don’t suppose time has
exactly stood still with her either. So it is
great to see that the lass will be back on
these shores in the coming months as she
is off on tour as well as doing the odd
festival.
Better still, she decided to celebrate by
sharing a wicked cover of The Strokes
seminal (I read that somewhere)
‘Someday’ and how cool is that?
This she recorded for an Australian Radio
Show – Triple J’s.
Talking about the track, Julia said,
“It was the first song I ever heard by The
Strokes when I was around 12 years old
at my next door neighbour’s house. A
song that came at the time when you're
starting to figure out what music you
actually like, not just what you're told to
like. It was super nice to revisit it so many
years later when I'm a musician myself”.
You can see Julia at the following
venues, be there or be, well,
somewhere else I guess and vaguely
cuboid.
Feb 22 - Green Store Door, Brighton
Feb 23 - Soup Kitchen, Manchester
Feb 24 - Bodega, Nottingham
Feb 25 - Whelan's, Dublin, Ireland
Feb 27 - King Tuts, Glasgow
Feb 28 - Headrow Houes, Leeds
March 1 - Louisiana, Bristol
March 2 - Scala, London, UK

CATHERINE MCGRATH
Say You Love Me
I’m not sure how I managed to miss
Catherine McGrath’s E.P ‘One’ when it
came out in December, but I’m certainly
making-up for it now as her mixture of
country and indie-folk, is quite a beautiful
thing to be beholden by.
Hailing from Northern Ireland, her
parents run the Fiddler’s Green Festival
and at 19 she has already made many
appearances at the festival and beyond
and you can certainly see there are
elements of folk in the country tapestry
she is wrapping herself in.
As with many artists now, she owes a
debt to both Taylor Swift and Ed Sheeran
and got her big break by uploading videos
of her countrified versions of other
people’s songs to YouTube.
It is interesting how this has become the
new route to success, and the
gatekeepers of old – the record labels and
their agents, the DJs and Music
Magazines have been replaced by sharpeyed
chaps who specialise in finding
talent on-line – and it was one of these,
Instrumental, that recognised her as
something special, and helped her along
the way.
Whatever you feel about the way
people get there now, or in the past, I
think cream still rises and at least this
way the public sometimes really does
get what the public wants.
Anyway, Catherine is seriously
talented, writes and plays beautiful
music and is playing a few dates in the
coming months, and if you are around
they are well worth checking out
methinks:
January 30 th
The Social, Great Portland Street
February 6th
Gold Dust at Hoxton Bar & Kitchen
Supporting Una Healy from the
Saturdays:
February 15 th
St. Pancras Old Church, London
February 16 th
Sugar Club, Dublin
Find out more HERE

BLANKET
Acacia
We’ll be running a proper review of the
new blanket album, “Our Brief
Encounters” in a week or two, but seeing
the new video they have released for
‘Acacia’ which comes from it, I couldn’t
help but get a little premature.
Sorry about that, it has never happened
to me before.
If you have not come across them before,
blanket fill a beautiful gap between rock
and ambient, and in Acacia it is a very
inward looking song, with a
contemplative lyric focussing on the
passing of time.
Steven Pellatt explains,
“We all have relationships; some that are
spiritual, some that we cannot prevent,
some that we wish were longer, or
shorter.
The video is about the fragility of human
relationships, fate and what we’re left
with to look back on once we’ve lost
something from our lives.”
You can pre-order the album HERE
The album is launched at the Bootleg
Social in Blackpool on the 9 th February

THE BOTTOM LINE
I Still Hate You
The Bottom Line are 4.52am regulars it
seems, and I have to say that they are
one of my favourite bands right now,
despite the fact that I managed to miss
their mini tour recently (like the fool I
am.)
Their 5 track EP ‘I Still Hate You’ is
absolutely brilliant, and I really do think
that they are one of a handful of bands
that could do something special in 2017
– one to watch, indeed.
I love the fact that whilst it would be easy
to link them with the Green Days of the
world, their songwriting is at another
level and the energy and undertone of
humour is something a bit special.
I look forward to Bono giving the chaps
a shout to record an anti-Trump song
in the near future
It has to happen, you know it, we know
it.
Thinking of the EP itself, ‘Pull Me Out’
is a gold-plated classic already in this
house, and I like the fact that they also
included an acoustic track, which
maybe isn’t punk (unless the Levellers
are punk) but it definitely showcases
the quality of their song-writing. For
me though it is ‘Insecure’ that is the top
of the pile, a perfect song in every way.
You genuinely will fall in love with that
one.
Go check them out HERE and THERE
they are well worth your time.

MALKA
Breakout
If you remember the rather fantastic-yetfolksome
6 Day Riot, Malka may seem a
little familiar as she used to front them
and write a large portion of their songs.
These days Malka has transformed into a
High Priestess of politico-pop, and from
her forthcoming album she has just
released ‘Breakout’, with some of the
coolest guitar tones and thermo-dynamic
rhythms you’ll have ever heard.
This is a seriously cool song, but Malka
always has a message and in ‘Breakout’ it
is no different, as she explained,
“The new album has a lot of political
references - it is impossible to sit back
and see what is happening with the plight
of refugees, the dismantling of the NHS
and the political changes in the UK and
US and not feel affected. This single is
about hope, striving for a better life and
believing/dreaming that things might
change.”
Personally, I can’t wait to hear the album,
it is going to be something a wee bit
special…
‘Breakout’ was released on the 20 th
January – find it HERE
Malka has a gig too..
SERVANT JAZZ QUARTERS, DALSTON
– FEB 7th
You can find out more HERE and let’s
face it, you really should.
Malka’s debut album ‘Marching to
Another Beat’ is available OVER THERE

AC/DC
Noise Pollution
I’m not sure that it was the first single I
ever bought, but it was certainly the first
one that I got with my own money and
because I was totally in awe of the sound
of the guitars when I’d heard it on BRMB,
our local radio station back then.
I went into Woolworths in Cotteridge, 99p
in my pocket, and determined to find the
AC/DC single, but when I got to the
counter they also had Motorhead’s ‘Ace of
Spades’ on the rack, so it was decision
time. Both had picture covers (not always
the case at that point, but definitely a
consideration) and I must admit I
dithered. I was with another kid from my
class at school, and in the end I bought
the AC/DC one and he got Motorhead,
and we agreed to record them onto tapes
for the other, but never did, scared that
it would kill music if we did, I’m sure.
When I got home, I had precisely 45
minutes without parental supervision, so
it quickly got put on my Nan’s old
Stereogram (looking like a sideboard
from Eastern Europe just after the war)
and played it loud, leaving the arm off
so that it kept repeating.
The ‘B’ Side was ‘Hells Bells’, which I
don’t think I listened to for a few
weeks, but loved when I finally did, but
even today the opening bars of ‘Rock
‘n’ Roll..’ make me sit still, like
something special is happening,
something important that will change
things. And it did, it really did.