Live review: Stornoway storm away at the finale
The queue is long outside the Oxford Town Hall come seven o’clock, going right around the corner. It’s hard to establish the audience demography; the tickets say “all ages” and…
Running out of inc.: no world by inc.
It is challenging not to use some pretty repulsive terms – sensuous, slick and smooth, for example – when describing no world. The production is impeccable and the aura so…
Pushing the ire away: Push the Sky Away by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds
“Well, if I were to use that threadbare metaphor of albums being like children, then Push The Sky Away is the ghost-baby in the incubator and Warren’s loops are its…
Storning-away through Cowley: Interview with Stornoway
Few bands have come to amass such a loyal Oxford fan-base than Stornoway. Although the band doesn’t actually come from Oxford – Jon Ouin met Brian Briggs as post-graduates at…
Local Heroes: Interview with Truck Store
Hi Truck Store! You’re known as a big deal here in Oxford . So what and who exactly are you? We are Oxford’s only independent record store and music hub…
Between rock and a hard piece
Apart from benign tribal rivalries exhibited in college JCRs during the six nations, nationalism is hardly fashionable in Oxford. Imagine that, in a moment of library-induced despair, you are transported…
Foals on (holy) fire
Back in the heady days of 2007, it might have been tempting to think that Foals leapt onto the stage fully-formed. Here was a band with a distinct sound, partying…
A Bloody good comeback
Last week, My Bloody Valentine released their first album since seminal sophomore record Loveless in 1991. After disbanding in 1997, owing to a lack of creativity and the withdrawal of…
