Gorillaz - Top 10 Deep Cuts
With over a quarter of a century and nine albums under their belt, Gorillaz have built an expansive and ever-evolving catalogue. Yet, if there is one thing we know about (spoiler) Damon Albarn, it is that we have barely scratched the surface of his songwriting archive. Music seems to flow effortlessly from him, rarely a year passing without the release of at least one new project under one of his many creative identities.
With such a prolific history, keeping up can be a challenge, especially when remixes enter the mix. To celebrate their ninth album, The Mountain, CLASH has delved into the band’s extensive archive to spotlight ten of their finest deep cuts.
https://www.clashmusic.com/features/gorillaz-top-10-deep-cuts/
Big Special - Live at Electric Bristol, 24th February 2026
The state of bands in 2026.
The Big Special-curated bill for their tour is impressive. On the back of their well-received second album and some standalone singles, the duo are gathering momentum.
Both support acts, GANS and Good Health Good Wealth, released debut albums last year but haven’t done much touring in support, presumably for reasons of expense.
As such, this tour feels less like a traditional gig and more like a state of the nation address for bands in 2026.
Seven musicians across three bands (one pulling a double shift), made up of two ‘drummers’, two ‘guitarists’ (three if you count Big Special’s Joe Hicklin when he straps one on for a couple of songs), two singers, one saxophonist and barely any bass guitar to speak of.
Of course, they are all doing much more than play just one instrument; they whiz back and forth in their own space on stage, turning dials or pressing keys.
https://www.live4ever.uk.com/big-special-electric-bristol-review/
Mogwai - Live at the Beacon, Bristol, 22nd February 2026
Given the noise maelstrom that’s about to occur, there is something quietly disarming about the way Mogwai take to the stage.
No grand entrance, no attempt to rouse the crowd, just a few waves before the brooding, spectral keyboard of ‘God Gets You Back’ pulses into life and the audience falls into a near-instant hush.
‘Hi Chaos’, also taken from recent album The Bad Fire, follows with a slow, deliberate climb, the pressure building throughout.
Stoic as ever, Stuart Braithwaite, Barry Burns, Dominic Aitchison and Martin Bulloch are almost imperceptible as their dynamics swell, locked together in a steady volcanic ascent that eventually tips into distortion.
The set is a healthy balance of new and old material to keep everyone happy. ‘Drive The Nail’, from As the Love Continues (2021), is epically windswept and serrated, its guitar lines scraping against a dense rhythmic undertow.
In contrast, the piano-led ‘Friend Of The Night’, from 2006’s Mr Beast, offers a reminder of the band’s melodic instincts but siphoned through their unique blend of shoegaze and prog.
https://www.live4ever.uk.com/mogwai-bristol-beacon-gig-review/
Gorillaz - The Mountain
As we know by now, 25 years in, Gorillaz albums are usually defined by a theme, be that a dystopian concept, pop immediacy or the unmistakable melancholy of Damon Albarn.
The Mountain attempts to hold all three at once in what is their most ambitious effort yet; their ninth studio record is expansive yet intimate, cartoonish yet devotional: vast in both scope and sentiment.
At its heart lies the death of parents for both Damon Albarn and Jamie Hewlett. In the former’s case, Keith Albarn’s love of Hindu art and Ravi Shankar shaped the album’s spiritual direction following the Blur man scattering his ashes in Varanasi.
The result is a meditation on mortality and samsara (the cycle of life, death and rebirth) with Anoushka Shankar (daughter of the legendary Ravi) and her sitar acting as both musical guide and symbolic bridge.
At surface level, the Gorillaz narrative finds Murdoc et al retreating from fame to mystical highlands, but the real journey spanned London, Devon, New Delhi, New York and beyond.
https://www.live4ever.uk.com/gorillaz-the-mountain-album-review/
Westside Cowboy - Live at The Exchange, Bristol - 6th February
The most recent winners of Glastonbury’s Emerging Talent content, Manchester’s Westside Cowboy claim to offer a new genre of music (Britanicana, if you will), albeit with tongue firmly placed in cheek.
Tonight, drummer Paddy Murphy’s cry of ‘Westside Cowboyyyyy’ (as per their social media) signals the start of an hour of expertly crafted blend of American roots music and British indie rock that they are proud to convey.
Taking to the stage to Jackie Wilson’s ‘Your Love Keeps Lifting Me Higher And Higher’, the song choice sets an upbeat tone. Rather than aiming for grandeur, it generates a singalong which helps to frame the set as a communal experience.
Westside Cowboy open with a cover of Santo & Johnny’s ‘Midnight Cowboy’, reworked with a jerkier, more angular edge that strips away most of the track’s sentimentality.
A tension builder, it succeeds in setting the tone before they quickly pivot to their own material.
https://www.live4ever.uk.com/westside-cowboy-bristol-gig-review/
Mandy, Indiana - URGH
English/French quartet Mandy, Indiana’s second album URGH was informed by a period of both physical and emotional strain.
While the band were working on the record drummer Alex Macdougall underwent surgery for a hernia and later had half of his thyroid removed.
Meanwhile, vocalist Valentine Caulfield was dealing with a condition that caused significant vision loss in one eye.
The experiences unfolded alongside long, demanding recording sessions, and understandably inform the album’s focus.
Rather than softening their approach, Mandy, Indiana have emerged with a more deliberate and refined sound.
https://www.live4ever.uk.com/mandy-indiana-urgh-album-review/
Suede - Live at the Beacon, Bristol - 2nd February 2026
After a run of limited shows promoting their latest album Antidepressants in the autumn, Suede are currently on a full UK tour showcasing the second in their ‘black and white’ trilogy alongside selected tracks from across their career.
Suede walk on to a pulsing version of ‘Disintegrate’ from their new album, a synthetic throb that primes the room before a single member appears. The crowd falls instinctively into time, clapping along as if summoned. When they take the stage and launch into the track proper it’s with the confidence of a group long past needing to prove anything.
Brett Anderson drops the microphone after the first line, the first of several occasions he does so (Live4ever counted three). However, it’s no omen.
Anderson sings much of the early set from stage left, prowling and gesturing, already restless. Perhaps because it’s a Monday night the first attempted singalong falls flat, despite the lyrics helpfully glowing on the screen.
https://www.live4ever.uk.com/suede-bristol-beacon-gig-review/
Justin Hawkins Rides Again - Live at Cheltenham Town Hall - 29th January 2026
For those unaware, Justin Hawkins, lead singer and guitarist of The Darkness, has a side hustle as a YouTuber.
While it might be tempting to scoff at a former Reading Festival headliner being ‘reduced’ to such a platform, Hawkins’ videos are packed with genuine industry insight, artist interviews and thoughtful, in-depth analysis of songs across all genres. Put simply, it’s catnip for musos.
So, while The Darkness prepare for a busy year (a Southern Hemisphere tour followed by supporting Iron Maiden at Knebworth, and not to mention a winter arena run back home) Hawkins has repurposed his channel into a one-man stage show, touring theatres across the UK.
Whatever people may have said about The Darkness (and in the early 2000s, plenty was said), few can deny their musicianship, honesty or humour.
https://www.live4ever.uk.com/justin-hawkins-cheltenham-town-hall/
Cast - Yeah Yeah Yeah
Galvanised by last year’s Oasis support shows in much the same way Richard Ashcroft was before them, Cast return with their eighth album, their fourth in the second act in their career.
That said, the Liverpudlians hardly needed re-energising after a perfect hat-trick of the warm reception to 2024’s Love Is The Call, the Oasis shows, and an autumn tour commemorating 30 years of their debut, yet their new offering still crackles with fresh momentum, flecked with a new swagger. Recorded in Spain with the legendary Youth, it captures a band both riding positive momentum and drawing confidently on experience.
Perhaps it was the knowledge that some of these songs would be tested in stadiums, but the opening stretch is unapologetically big, bold, and built for scale. Opener ‘Poison Vine’, debuted live at Heaton Park last summer alongside the legendary P.P. Arnold, is full of intent, its glam-rock sheen elevated by her presence, adding gravitas and class as always. The anthemic ‘Don’t Look Away’ follows, with John Power reaching impressively high notes as Liam ‘Skin’ Tyson’s sky-kissing guitar lines soar, capped by an outro with self-referential ‘Yeah yeah yeah’s.
Dust - Live at The Exchange, Bristol, 24th January
On a cold, wet January night Australian band Dust take to the stage in the basement of The Exchange without much ceremony, but from the opening moments they are focused and direct.
The angular guitars of opener ‘Drawbacks’ cut sharply while the band locks into a tight, forward-driving rhythm.
The song moves quickly and purposefully, establishing the controlled, restless core of their live sound, built on momentum rather than theatrics.
That sense of propulsion continues on ‘New High’ which pumps steadily, allowing space for the rhythm section to drift and recalibrate. The bass is prominent, holding the track together with an insistent groove.
Dust’s arrangements feel well-rehearsed but not rigid, giving each section room to breathe rather than on their recent debut album, Sky Is Falling, where the sound is denser.
‘Swamped’ is more confrontational, with a skank-inflected delivery, adding a broader palette to what has thus far been contemporary post-punk.
https://www.live4ever.uk.com/dust-exchange-bristol-gig-review/
Arctic Monkeys - Opening Night
Arctic Monkeys return with ‘Opening Night’, their first new single in over three years.
A fuzzy beat ushers in dexterous, dusk-hued guitar lines, putting the guitars firmly back front and centre for the first time in a decade.
As ever, Alex Turner’s characteristically oblique lyrics invite decoding (‘Try not to wake up sleeping dogs just because you’re your own little hall of famer,’) before opening into a chorus drenched in band harmonies that evoke the warmth of peak Fleetwood Mac.
Disarmingly catchy and refreshingly direct, ‘Opening Night’ should hopefully silence some of the critics they’ve amassed since AM. If not quite the sleazy rock of those halcyon years, it’s good to hear that Turner and company haven’t quite forgotten their roots.
As the opening track on War Child’s Help (2) compilation, recorded over one week in November, it bodes well for the album’s stellar lineup, featuring Fontaines D.C., The Last Dinner Party, Cameron Winter, Pulp, Depeche Mode and many, many more.
They’re back. Thank the Lord.
Sleaford Mods - The Demise Of Planet X
And they thought things were bad when they started out.
Who better to soundtrack the seemingly inevitable erosion of the UK’s spirit than Sleaford Mods?
The Demise Of Planet X sees Jason Williamson and Andrew Fearn confronting grim times by sharpening, rather than dulling, their creative edge.
Their ninth album together features more guests, textures and exposed vulnerability than any previous record, slightly nudging them into unfamiliar but fertile terrain.
‘The Good Life’ immediately stakes out that restlessness, with Gwendoline Christie’s terrifying laugh announcing the unease of life and ushering in a three-character psychodrama played out within a single psyche: Williamson’s own.
Big Special’s warm chorus offers a vision of happiness and calm while the lyricist’s trademark fast-paced fury circles it like a saboteur.
https://www.live4ever.uk.com/sleaford-mods-planet-x-album-review/
The Molotovs - Live at Thekla, 9th January 2026
So hot they’re steaming, Southend duo The Molotovs had a remarkable 2025 – recording their debut album, supporting the likes of Blondie and The Damned – and look set to continue their hot streak well into 2026, straight out of the traps with an early-year tour.
The graft started early for the pair, and the effort is impossible to deny: siblings Matt and Issey Cartlidge were apparently immersed in music from their early teens, raised on their parents’ record collection of quintessentially British acts such as the Buzzcocks, The Undertones, The Jam, The Specials, Madness, etc.
By 2020 they were performing live, but when lockdown closed venues they busked wherever they could. A backstory rooted in persistence rather than privilege, it shows in how comfortable they are onstage.
That said, their youth (Matt is 17, Issey 19) doesn’t quite align with the mythology already surrounding them.
The Molotovs are regularly framed as prodigious outsiders, but they are also a band that has benefited from rapid exposure.
https://www.live4ever.uk.com/the-molotovs-bristol-thekla-review/
Interview - Jason Williamson
There’s no doubt about it, 2025 has been yet another tough year, socially and politically.
Despite the Labour Party having been in power for less than 18 months (surely a fraction of the time required to undo 14 years of neglect and rampant opportunism), there is a feeling that things in the UK are getting worse still, not helped by events over the Atlantic, in Eastern Europe, the Middle East and Africa.
There’s undoubtedly a despondency in the air as the seeds of the 2010s bloom into global insecurity.
While never the most optimistic of outfits, Sleaford Mods have noticed, and it informs much of their new album The Demise Of Planet X, which is themed around a post-apocalyptic landscape.
Unfortunately, Jason Williamson doesn’t feel the album is particularly metaphorical.
“We’re in it, aren’t we? This is it,” he ponders while speaking to Live4ever. “I often wonder what it was like in the 1920s, where people started to feel this dread.”
https://www.live4ever.uk.com/sleaford-mods-live4ever-interview/
Babyshambles - Live at the o2 Academy, 9th December 2025
Peter Doherty has always been consistent and prolific; either through playing gigs or rattling out material at a steady pace for over two decades.
Yet 2025 has been remarkable even by his standards. A solo album and tour in the spring preceded yet another summer of touring with The Libertines, while the last few months of the year have been taken up with a reunited Babyshambles playing their first shows for over a decade.
At this penultimate show of the tour in Bristol (December 9th), he was ubiquitous all evening, acting as a ringmaster rather than just frontman.
The night began in a haze of synths courtesy of Keeley, her slinky electro-pop drifting across the room while Doherty watched from stage right, half-hidden in his own little dressing room.
https://www.live4ever.uk.com/babyshambles-bristol-academy-review/
2025’s Best Film Soundtracks
A trip to the cinema represents one of the few ways we can truly switch off in 2025 – phones are placed on silent, the outside world can wait, and for two hours (or more) we can surrender to the narrative on-screen. The growth and evolution of film soundtracks has only accentuated this – artists such as Nick Cave and Warren Ellis have built shadow catalogues out of it, with the film world reaching out to some of the best musicians of the present era.
Looking back on another trip round the sun, CLASH writer Richard Bowes picks out 2025’s best film soundtracks.
https://www.clashmusic.com/features/2025s-best-film-soundtracks/
The Beatles Anthology at 30
After John Lennon’s assassination, The Beatles’ cultural stock remained high, but their reputation began to falter through the 1980s and early 1990s. With the ‘cool one’ gone, the public was left to judge the band by Paul McCartney’s creative misfires (Give My Regards To Broad Street, ‘The Frog Chorus’), Ringo Starr’s struggles with alcoholism, and George Harrison’s embrace of middle-of-the-road rock with The Traveling Wilburys.
Still, the uneven output of the surviving members couldn’t tarnish The Beatles’ unquestionable legacy, even as they began to be taken for granted. In 1992, Apple Corps revived an abandoned 1971 documentary project, The Long And Winding Road. Originally a 90-minute film compiled by Apple manager and longtime friend Neil Aspinall, it featured interviews, concert clips, and television footage, albeit without direct participation from any of the Beatles.
https://www.clashmusic.com/features/anthology-is-the-moment-the-beatles-ascended-their-modern-peak/
Interview - Dan Jennings
Thankfully it’s been half a decade since the UK was in the midst of the second of three lockdowns because of the COVID pandemic.
And while you undoubtedly and understandably try and block out those long, dark months, there were some reasons to be cheerful.
The podcast boom for one. With time to spare and little else to do, countless enthusiasts took to the airwaves to share their wisdom on a variety of different subjects, and music was no different.
Yet while many ventures fell by the wayside, one former broadcaster lasted the course.
“My background was always audio, I worked in the broadcasting space for a long time,” explains Dan Jennings, creator of the Desperately Seeking Paul (Weller) podcast.
https://www.live4ever.uk.com/author-dan-jennings-live4ever-interview/
Simple Thing Festival - 8th November 2025
The only real issue with Bristol’s Simple Things Festival is abundance.
There’s simply too much good music, too many must-see acts and too many painful clashes, such as this year’s scheduling duel between Dry Cleaning and Adult DVD.
Yet that’s part of any festival’s charm, and this year’s is a mad scramble through Bristol’s best venues, breathlessly trying to catch a band, racking up the step count while often hearing of a barnstorming set that, typically, you missed.
The first band your correspondent is able to catch is My First Time, a local outfit whose sound is akin to Rage Against The Machine gate-crashing a Franz Ferdinand rehearsal.
https://www.live4ever.uk.com/adult-dvd-vlure-simple-things-review/
Daniel Avery - Live at the Beacon, Bristol, 7th November 2025
With the Simple Things festival officially underway, a dark, pulsing energy filled the Bristol Beacon on Friday night as Scaler and Daniel Avery brought two distinct visions of electronic intensity to the venue’s main hall.
Both acts pull at the boundaries of live dance music, merging the mechanical with the emotional, but both finding beauty in the noise.
Locals Scaler, who have evolved from their earlier industrial dance-rock beginnings and have expanded their live act (now featuring five musicians lined up across the stage), now channel something more refined yet no less ferocious.
Apparently determined to be more than just a support act their set, largely based around new album Endlessly, was less a gig more like an exorcism.
https://www.live4ever.uk.com/daniel-avery-bristol-beacon-review/