Band

Reverend and The makers release sizzling new single, High.

14th Dec 2022 — Leave a comment

Why feel low when you can feel good?

Jon McClure, frontman of Reverend the Makers captured in Sheffield by Steve Schofield

A soul filled symphony, takes you back to lounging on a beach in summer High, by Reverend and the Makers, is the track we all need to smoke to escape these winter blues. (Don’t smoke, it’ll decrease how long you can listen to this banger for)

The heat this single brings burns with social commentary, showing us a clear world view. It sets diehard fans a challenge, demonstrating the sound of Rev cannot be pinned down or pigeonholed. Ever experimental this track lends itself to a blend of funk and classic soul. The psychedelic synths could almost convince a listener that everything is good, we are floating, light, above it all, but listen closer between the fluffy smoke clouds. This is an immersion into a haunted psyche. 

The pressure of one’s own potential can crush us, we are in the graveyard of who we could have been. Lead singer, Jon McClure laments, referencing his previous track heavy weight champion of the world, who he may have felt he could have been/ who he was in his youth, when he confesses, he never was that guy. The person you wanted to be is merely a watercolour daydream, a drug induced trip you bought the wrong ticket for.

It’s insightful, poetic and foreboding. Why try to change when you can escape it? Life is dark, we lose, we burn out, we breakdown, give it our all and get none. No one will blame you for needing a vice. So, get high, keep tripping over who you could have been instead of trying to be that person. Once again, these legends encapsulate the constant battle between what is and what could have been perfectly.

Or perhaps I am thinking too deeply into it all and it is simply about having a good time, enjoying the heat and being in love, after all Jon has described it as being about “lazing around on a sunny day with your lover getting stoned”. Our narrator has come to terms with who is and forgotten who he is not, for if we always try to be something else we undermine the achievements this version of us has met.

Either way you interpret the single it is undoubtedly set to get you BOUNCIN at their upcoming gigs!

After a 4-year hiatus, Reverend and the makers are set to tour the UK in 2023. The gigs will run from 2nd February until 17th February 2023 hitting venues in Brighton, Northampton, Cardiff, Norwich, Liverpool, Birmingham (sold out), Bristol, London (sold out), Glasgow, Newcastle & Manchester before concluding with a sold out homecoming show in Sheffield on February 17th. Get your tickets quick!

High is the second track to be announced from the band’s upcoming album Heatwave in The Cold North which is set to be out on April 28th, 2023. You can pre-order it here. 

Follow my TikTok to see the moment I almost got a photo with Jon.

BLOODWORM leaves you ‘Alone In Your Garden’

2nd Dec 2022 — Leave a comment

Their latest single leaves you brave in the face of the unknown.

Though our dark and damp high streets may be lifted with twinkling Christmas lights and foggy with the smell of roasting chestnuts and melted chocolate,winter has not yet fallen upon us . Autumn tries to linger, clawed trees cling to the skies as stubborn as summer’s ghost, we are forced to watch as the final brown leaves fall through the veil. The gradual demise of a season as the year slowly comes to a close can leave us all feeling slightly forlorn as we reflect on the previous 12 months. This retrospective outlook we are gripped by is echoed perfectly in the gothic punk instrumentals of East-Midlands based band, Bloodworm.

Alone in your garden Bloodworm

Days fall short and shadows grow darker, this plummet into the inevitable unknown inspired the bands’s latest single ‘Alone in your garden’.Band members Chirs Walker, George Curtis ad Euan Stevens,perfectly capture an ear with an intro that echoes a train coming up to it’s station, a drum beat that promises you’re on track to your desired destination.

The foreboding doom and inkling of victory imbued in the melody lull a listener into themselves. We sit lamenting the loss of a longed for loved one, damning the inevitable burial or final wave as the train pulls away.But one must seek comfort in the potential of a garden. Amongst the trees and crowded shrubberies things are born while others are buried, there is grown in these leaves and defiance in the soil.

Inpirsed by greats such as The Cure and Siousxse and The banshees, Bloodworm protests for more punk antics. Heralding change and making space in the industry, perhaps the rebelliousness that punk breathes is what we all need as 2022 comes to a close.

The birth of Bloodworm began the band’s pattern of defying the odds when their identity blossomed in the unlikeliest of places; A shed, where originally, they started as a grunge band before finding themselves more fit for gothic punk.

From the shed the band have gone on to support acts such as the Lounge society and LIFE at sold out shows in Nottingham.They have headlined at The Bodega with support from OTALA and with 2023 promising more up coming support slots, (in January they are set to support household names The Cool Greenhouse,(tickets here) , it is no wonder why Dean Jackson from BBC Radio Nottingham said he “absolutely loved it” when he listened to one of their previous bangers’ Cemetry Dance”- listen and hear for yourself.

The Denabys- Indie band from South Yorkshire takeover Spoons

3rd Nov 2022 — Leave a comment

With the nights drawing in and a wardrobe full of sweaters now is perhaps the perfect time to revisit the well missed heat of summer with The Denabys debut track Sunshine.

Bask in the warmth this single brings. A collage of synths and gentle drumbeats, a musical mosaic to moments in the sun, carefree, jacket free you’re with your friends having fun, spending time with a loved one. There is no work nor school, just the heat and the days ahead. This summer spirit is sure to have you dancing, humming the chorus whilst your stuck in traffic on a drizzly Tuesday. An audible armour against the 9-5.

Whereas the indie quartets second release, My life, reeks of reality, having bills to pay and mouths to feed. There is no reason to rejoice so you may swell rebel, and the best way to do that is to dance.Revisit yourself on your days off, rediscover the places buried under newfound responsibilities, you may be an adult now but you define what that means.

The band, based in Doncaster, are soon to headline Record Junkie in Sheffield, supported by the phenomenal damian luke & the sweet beast. Buy tickets here. This comes shortly after a wild night in Mansfield supporting household name The Publics at The Stag and Pheasant whether spoons. Seeing this lot in your local spoons on a Friday night is a sight you just have to move to.