THE FRONT ROW

Category: Music

  • Live Review: HOT WAX, Aziya, Trout – Future Yard, Birkenhead, 9/4/2024.

    Ok, no time for fancy introductions. Strap-in. It was a busy night. We have a lot to get through. Opening artist of the night, for what turned out to be an excellent line-up at Birkenhead’s Future Yard were Trout. Trout is the nom de guerre of Cesca, a Liverpool Institute…

  • LIVE REVIEW: KEYSIDE, East Exchange, and Alex Spencer – Arts Club Loft, Liverpool, 23/3/2024.

    It was a dank, blustery March night in Liverpool, the sort of night that gives some people the blues. Doctors prescribe a fresh fruit diet, and the use of daylight-bulb lamps to those individuals. Well I believe that G.P.s should be prescribing a good dose of Keyside to them instead.…

  • Album Review: BRITS & PIECES IV – Various Artists.

    In these gloom laden times, where the majority of stories about independent music appear to be around venues closing, or bands struggling to afford the costs of touring, it’s nice to talk about a good news story. Brits & Pieces is the brainchild of music fan Marc Rossiter, whose memory…

  • Single Review: FIONA LENNON – Please Don’t Say My Name.

    2024 is shaping-up quite nicely for Liverpool singer-songwriter Fiona Lennon. She has already played a sold-out, hometown, headline show at The Kazimier Stockroom, secured a place at the city’s emerging talent showcase festival Sound City, and will be supporting Rianne Downey at Gorilla, Manchester in April. On top of all…

  • Live Review: THE CLOCKWORKS, Nixer, Borough Council – Arts Club Loft, Liverpool, 25/1/2024.

    Originally from Galway, but now fighting out of London The Clockworks are James McGregor (vocals/guitar/keyboard), Sean Connelly (guitar), Damian Greaney (drums), and Tom Freeman (bass). They are currently just embarking on an extensive 45-date UK and European tour promoting their debut album Exit Strategy. I headed along to Liverpool Arts…

  • Live Review – WULL, The Lunar Pull, Thing Wall – Future Yard, Birkenhead, 13/1/2014.

    ‘Wool (noun) – a person from outside the city of Liverpool; specifically those from areas in close proximity such as the Wirral, St Helens, and parts of Lancashire and Cheshire’. That’s a definition taken from one of those unfunny Scouse dictionaries. It’s meant to be derogatory, but Wirral band Wull…

  • Interview – CEDAR

    Bringing rock from ‘The Rock’ are Gibraltar based foursome cedar. Having honed their talents in the British Overseas Territory the band are ready to be embraced by the Motherland as they embark on their first ever UK tour. Guitarist Harry Meenagh joined us at Halfway 2 Nowhere to discuss cedar,…

  • Ultimate 2024 Summer Festival and Concert Guide

    2024 is already shaping up to be one of the best summers of the century. With huge bands taking the stage for their biggest gigs to date, through to festivals that have, for once, gone very bold with their lineups. We’re looking forward to a truly epic summer right across…

  • Live Review: HOLY COVES, THIS IS WAR!, Marseille – The Jacaranda, Liverpool, 18/11/2023.

    Friday 24th of November is the date for 6 Music’s 16th annual T-shirt Day. Never underestimate the power of merch. It was the fact that I spotted members of various bands wearing Holy Coves T-shirts that first brought the Anglesey based psych-rockers to my attention. Thanks to a top line-up…

  • LIVE: The Clause – The Ferret, Preston

    It’s safe to say it’s been a wild ride following The Clause sweaty corner to sweaty corner of intimate venues right across the country. Having seen them from as far north as Middlesborough down to as far south as Oxford I’ve certainly had some fun following these lads round over…

  • Live Review: HAIRCUT 100, Barbara, O2 Academy, Liverpool, 16/11/2023.

    Here at H2N we like to think that our role is to bring to your attention exciting new music, so it may seem slightly incongruous of us to review a band who are touring to promote an album that came out over 40 years ago. All will become clear. For…

  • Single Review: Fiona Lennon – Dreaming.

    As 2023 draws to it’s inevitable conclusion Liverpool songstress Fiona Lennon can look back on a fruitful year. Amongst other achievements she has supported fellow Scouser and indie-behemoth Jamie Webster, appeared at Y Not Festival, and released the beautiful, achingly positive break-up song Stay High. Ending the year in some…

  • Live Review: Megan Wyn, Fiona Lennon, HAIVEN – The Kazimier Stockroom, Liverpool, 3/11/2023.

    As the back-end of Storm Ciaran hit the already sodden streets of central Liverpool last Friday my spirits were undampened as I traipsed through the puddles into the welcoming, smokie, glow of The Kazimier Stockroom, warmly anticipating some cloud busting live music. First artist of the evening was American singer…

  • Festival Review: Live At Leeds 2023.

    The UK music festival season is bookended by two of the best inner-city, multi-venue celebrations of emerging musical talent out there. In April it’s Sound City in Liverpool. If It’s October then it must be Live At Leeds. The sheer depth and quality of the line-up of this year’s festival…

  • Album Review: Here We Are – Apollo Junction.

    Here We Are is the third album from Leeds indie-pop quintet Apollo Junction and follows in the tracks of Mystery (2019) and All In (2021). The band consist of Jamie Williamson (vocals/guitar), Matt Wilson (lead guitar), Jonathan Thornton (drums), Ben Hope (bass), and Sam Potter (keyboards). Speaking about Here We…

  • Live Review: THE WOMBATS, The Guest List – Arts Club, Liverpool, 15/9/23.

    First of all, let’s get the housekeeping out of the way. It’s good to have the Arts Club back on the Liverpool music scene. Closed in February of this year, the venue has been taken over by Manchester based Tokyo Industries, the team behind Gorilla and The Deaf Institute. Improvements…

  • Single Review: Crooked Ties – Enough isn’t Enough.

    Sheffield band Crooked Ties aren’t hanging about. The indie/alternative foursome formed at the the start of 2023; played their first gig in March; headlined their own hometown show at Network 3; and only last month released their debut single Don’t Let Reason Intervene. Not the type of band to let…

  • Live Review: San Quentin – The Moth Club, London,1/9/2023.

    San Quentin’s Debut EP “Feed the Ego” launch at the Moth Club, the first show in their upcoming list happening throughout September, kicked off with a bang. A band hailing from Southend-on-Sea, with a very local fanbase who managed to make it to London despite the train strikes on the…

  • Album Review: The Roadside Bandits Project – ‘The Siberian Candidate’.

    The Roadside Bandits Project is a vehicle for the endeavours of London based musician and producer Santi Arribas. It’s a vehicle packed with collaborators like Nell Bryden, Matt Johnson (Jamiroquai) and J.J. Sterry (Gang of Four). Listening to The Siberian Candidate it appears that the vehicle is travelling determinedly down…

  • Live Review: Birkenhead Live – THE LOTTERY WINNERS, ANDREW CUSHIN, The Kairos, and more – Future Yard 14/8/2023.

    I only got to taste the bread in the three show Birkenhead Live sandwich. I saw Skinny Living headline a few weeks ago, missed out on the meaty filling that was The Royston Club and Rianne Downey, but this last show of the project did more than enough to surfeit…