Journalist and Music Promoter
The annual Brit Awards takes over The O2, London next Wednesday 20th February, and here’s my lowdown on who’s been nominated and for what, who’s due to be performing on the night, and a look into some of the artists to watch out for, with my pick for each award.
Continue reading “Brit Awards 2019: Nominees, Who’s Performing, Ones to Watch”
As the rain began to fall, Monarchy took to the South Beach stage, and in-front of a sizeable crowd put on an incredible performance. They weaved in and out of new and old tracks, whilst covering the likes of Nirvana and Outkast, even producing a mosh pit in the crowd at one point. Despite slightly clashing with similar sounding band Pet Shop Boys and the rain persistently falling, the crowd grew and grew, getting more into the set as it went on. Here’s a few shots and a short video of the show:
Continue reading “Photos/Video: Monarchy @ FIB Benicàssim Festival 2018”
Now in its third year Mad Cool Festival has already delivered some stunning line-ups, with the likes of The Who, The Prodigy, Foo Fighters and Green Day all featuring in past editions of the Madrid-based festival. This year was perhaps one of the most stacked line-ups to date, not only in the small history of the festival, but also compared to other festivals around Europe. Spanning across seven different stages this years edition featured some amazing acts, from Tame Impala and Arctic Monkeys, to Depeche Mode and Pearl Jam. But where most of the attention was drawn to the headline acts, and I guess understandably so, this year also featured a bunch of fantastic up-and-coming bands too. Both local and international artists took to the two smaller stages, called the ‘Mondo Sonoro Stage’ and the ‘Thunder Bitch Stage’, and it was here where I had the pleasure of discovering these five new (to me) bands.
Continue reading “Feature: 5 New Bands Discovered at Mad Cool Festival”
Since 2008, National Public Radio have hosted an online live music series called ‘Tiny Desk Concerts’. Featuring artists from all genres, the show has starred musicians such as Chance The Rapper, Sampha and Cigarettes After Sex, to name a few. The format continues to routinely deliver, allowing artists to perform a few of their favourite tracks in an intimate office enviroment. After watching Jorja Smith‘s mesmerising performance in her latest Tiny Desk Concert, I decided to pick out five of my favourite sets from recent months.
Continue reading “Feature: 5 Recent NPR Tiny Desk Concerts to Check Out”
Kanye West & Kid Cudi – Kids See Ghosts
Whatever your opinion of Kanye West is, you can’t deny that he has made some great music. The enigmatic figure, love him or hate him, loathe his manipulation of the media and outspoken personality, his relationship with Kim Kardashian, he’s an artist who has consistently released good music, whilst pushing boundaries and often changing perspectives. On ‘Kids See Ghosts’ he is joined by long-term collaborator Kid Cudi, who like Kanye is returning to music after battling depression.
Parcels –
I saw these guys whilst at All Points East festival in London last weekend and fell in love with them straight away. Their infectous grooves are undeniably influenced by the great Bee Gees and electronic duo Daft Punk, who they have recently worked with on their single ‘Overnight’. Originaly from Byron Bay in Australia, they’re now based in Berlin.
Continue reading “Feature: 5 Bands That I’ve Recently Discovered, And Love”
A little over two years ago I had the pleasure of interviewing Rag’n’Bone Man at The Joiners in Southampton. He was touring his latest EP, ‘Disfigured’, and was preparing for another sold out show.
As I walked to the venue I remember being very nervous, it was my first ever face-to-face interview and I was unsure what to expect. The interview time was arranged a few hours before the opening of the doors, so my first task was to figure out how to get in… After a few trial and errors I found a fire escape round the back and to the side, this was my opening. Rory and his team were in a meeting, discussing various subjects about the night ahead. After an awkward hello and a brief explanation of what the hell I was doing there, it was established that an interview had been scheduled… Rory abruptly came over with a beaming smile and introduced himself. All the nerves and built up tension that I had been feeling slowly eased away, as we entered into deep conversations about his roots in the hip-hop scene in Brighton with Rum Committee, attending open mics at Slipjam B and forming friendships with local MCs and DJs. Speaking fondly of his time in Brighton, he explained how he quickly became embedded in the hip-hop community.
As the new season gets underway across Europe we at Off The Post News take a look at some of our young Englishman flying the flag abroad. Here is a list of ten players to look out for over the coming season:
Continue reading “Feature: 10 Englishman playing abroad to look out for this season”
When it comes to looking at English players who have played abroad in the past, tales of mix fortunes are ever present. On the one hand, you’ve got the success of players such as Gary Linekar at Barcelona, Kevin Keegan at Hamburg (winning two consecutive European player of the year awards during his time there) and Glenn Hoddle’s successful spell at French side Marseille, but on the other hand you’ve got many who have struggled to adjust to playing in a foreign league. Michael Owen had a very slow start to life at Real Madrid and only managed 18 goals from 41 games; Jonathan Woodgate had one of the worst starts in history, scoring an own goal and then being sent off for two bookable offences on his debut, in an equally torrid spell for the Spanish giants, both seeking refuge quickly back to English football at Newcastle and Middlesbrough respectively. Back in the early days, when perhaps we as nation weren’t so open minded about European football, calling Ajax, A Jax and so forth, Paul Gascoigne arrived in the capital of Italy, signing for Lazio and greeting the chairman with an Italian phrase ‘tua figlia, grande tette’, which translates to ‘your daughter, big tits’.
Continue reading “Feature: An Englishman(s) Abroad (and the lack of)”
