Interview - Tim Burgess
Although it’s been eight years since The Charlatans’ last album, frontman Tim Burgess has released three solo records, written several books, and spearheaded the lockdown-era phenomenon Tim’s Twitter Listening Parties, which later evolved into a spin-off show on Absolute Radio – all alongside a host of other creative ventures.
Meanwhile, Northwich’s finest haven’t exactly been idle themselves since Different Days arrived in 2017. A Best Of collection (A Head Full Of Ideas) and a post-lockdown tour kept things ticking over, though this remains the longest gap between albums in their nearly four-decade career. For the band themselves, however, the wait hasn’t felt quite so long.
“I guess we started writing it before 2023, but I keep thinking it was two and a half years ago that we started,” Burgess tells CLASH. “We had a download from above telling us we had to make a record, and so that’s what we did. We felt like we had something to say and something musically to add.”
The Clause - Victim Of A Casual Thing
The Clause have come a long way from their early days putting on DIY gigs in Digbeth, Birmingham.
What began as a group of college friends playing for their mates has evolved into a confident debut album that captures both their ambition and their limits.
Victim Of A Casual Thing is a collection of polished, guitar-led anthems that nod to mid-2000’s indie rock while occasionally revealing flashes of something more introspective beneath the surface.
The album opens with ‘Prologue’, a short cinematic scene that fades seemingly from last orders in a pub into a swirl of synths.
https://www.live4ever.uk.com/the-clause-victim-casual-thing-review/
Richard Hawley - Live at the Grand Pier, Weston, 11th October 2025
When Coles Corner first appeared in 2005, Richard Hawley’s lush orchestral pop was often labelled ‘retro’. Two decades on, it simply sounds timeless.
At the end of Weston-super-Mare’s Grand Pier, Sheffield’s favourite son (with all apologies to Messrs Cocker and Turner) revisits his breakthrough album with warmth, humour and characteristic understatement as the latest stop on the commemorative tour.
The set opens in hushed reverence with the familiar strings of the title-track sweeping through the old building.
Clad in a pale blue jacket, Hawley checks in on the crowd midway through the song with a gentle, ‘Everyone OK?’, before easing into ‘Just Like The Rain’, whose vulnerable skiffle rhythm flickers with bluegrass energy.
https://www.live4ever.uk.com/richard-hawley-live-grand-pier-review/
Richard Ashcroft - Lovin’ You
Galvanized by his special guest slot across the summer’s Oasis uber-gigs, Richard Ashcroft returns with his first album of new material in seven years. Yet little has changed: on Lovin’ You, he’s only thinking, writing, and singing about the big themes.
Best exemplified by the title of recent single ‘Lover’, the former Verve frontman once more draws inspiration from his undeniably deep love for his wife. But while the subject matter is familiar, musically there are new soundscapes, having returned to one of his favourite tricks: built around a looped riff sampled from Joan Armatrading’s ‘Love and Affection’, the track is all finger-snaps, strings, and a skull-thudding bassline, yet with soul and warmth. Shamelessly uplifting and disarmingly simple, exposure has been kind to it.
https://www.clashmusic.com/reviews/richard-ashcroft-lovin-you/
Scaler - Endlessly
Bristol’s Scaler (formerly Scalping) made their name by fusing metal instrumentation with the dark mechanics of club culture.
When they first emerged as a live act pre-lockdown, the gigs were pulverising in their intensity and the pandemic came at perhaps the wrong time for them.
Their 2022 debut Void was born in isolation, stitched together remotely, and while it showed off their ferocious energy, it sometimes leaned too heavily on blunt force, almost as if the sheer frustration of the endless days of nothingness were put to music while suffocating any nuance of life.
But on Endlessly (the band’s first release under their new name), they take a more organic and collaborative approach, recording side-by-side in the basement of Bristol’s iconic Louisiana.
The result is a more cohesive and atmospheric album, though not one without limitations.
The Beta Band - Live at the o2 Academy, Bristol - 30th September 2025
In a year of blockbuster reunions (Oasis, The Maccabees etc), The Beta Band’s return has flown curiously under the radar.
Yet one suspects that suits them just fine; Steve Mason and his cohorts have always thrived on being the outsiders, yet in the late 1990s they were perhaps indie’s most influential outfit.
21 years after calling it quits, they’ve re-emerged not with bombast or sentimentality but with the same eclecticism that made them cult heroes.
The night begins with a 10-minute intro film made up of spliced camcorder footage, including a parody of THAT scene from High Fidelity and even an appearance from Mani.
Then the four musicians wander on stage to Bowie’s ‘Memory Of A Free Festival’, dressed in boilersuits, surrounded by foliage and with enough percussion instruments to stock a music shop.
https://www.live4ever.uk.com/the-beta-band-bristol-gig-review/
GANS - Good For The Soul
“We felt connected when we met and we had ambitions that lay beyond that world,” explains GANS (‘Goose’ in German, fact fans) guitarist and vocalist Thomas Rhodes of his band’s gestation.
“We are fiercely proud of where we are from and we strongly believe in how we were raised. It’s just we have ambitions that are more Copacabana than Costa Del Dudley.”
The Black Country duo launch their mission statement on this restless and carefully constructed debut album.
Released on Peter Doherty’s Strap Originals and produced by Ross Orton (Arctic Monkeys, Working Men’s Club, Amyl & The Sniffers), Good For The Soul ambitiously blends electronics, rock and post-punk grit into an eclectic hotch-potch which remarkably never compromises on their identity or its sense of direction.
Led Zeppelin - Physical Graffiti 50th Anniversary Reissue
One of the defining rock records, when Physical Graffiti was released in 1975 it was Led Zeppelin’s first release on their Swan Song label and a double album that pulled together years of work into one sprawling, career-defining package.
Such is its importance, it has been analysed endlessly ever since but, half a century later, it still feels like the moment Led Zeppelin captured the full scope of what they could be.
The album had a troubled gestation: the initial sessions at Headley Grange in November 1973 were abandoned, while John Paul Jones had become disillusioned and was considering quitting.
Yet when they reconvened at the same location in early 1974, with John Bonham the driving force, their restless creativity yielded wonderful results.
https://www.live4ever.uk.com/led-zeppelin-phys-graffiti-50th-review/
Baxter Dury - Allbarone
Baxter Dury has built a career out of sardonic half-singing, half-snarling portraits of England’s absurdities.
On Allbarone, his ninth album and first collaboration with heavyweight producer Paul Epworth, he takes that persona to a neon-lit future.
The resulting album is Baxter Dury at perhaps his most direct; nine tracks of sharp wit, harsh beats and warped intimacy.
The opening title-track is all metallic, tick-tocking, swooping synths and a raver’s pulse, with long-term collaborator JGrrey’s vocals mirroring Dury’s own. Europop dressed in drama, it’s both accessible and unsettling.
The sheen feels almost luxurious, but beneath the incessantly repeated title lies the darker heart and theme of the record: a tension between longing and bitterness which is never resolved for the characters.
https://www.live4ever.uk.com/baxter-dury-allbarone-album-review/
Interview - Baxter Dury
Baxter Dury by Tom Beard
Across a 25-year career and 9 studio albums, Baxter Dury has carved out a singular place in British music.
His unmistakable vocal delivery, a kind of idiosyncratic sprechgesang, has become his calling card, steeped in a weary, world-wise tone that is unmistakably him.
Yet while his voice has remained a constant, Baxter Dury has long been adept at shaping soundscapes that serve his character-driven vignettes, moving between sparse, noirish backdrops and lusher, groove-heavy arrangements.
With his latest album Allbarone, he makes his boldest stylistic leap yet.
Here, the Londoner leans into the pulse of dance music and the textures of electronica, building a shimmering, restless framework for his storytelling resulting in a fizzing cocktail of loosely connected tracks gathered under what he himself dubs a, ‘Romantasy’: a quasi-dystopian space where irony, melancholy and euphoria collide.
https://www.live4ever.uk.com/baxter-dury-live4ever-interview/
Suede - Antidepressants
Galvanized by the energy from 2022’s Autofiction tour, Suede follow up their ‘punk’ album with – appropriately – their ‘post-punk’ album, with the influences said to include the music of their youth such as The Fall, Joy Division and Siouxsie and the Banshees.
As such, where Autofiction bristled with raw urgency and livewire energy, Antidepressants is a darker sequel: more neurotic but also more ambitious.
Most explicitly, on June Rain Mat Osman’s bass gothically aligns with guitarist Richard Oakes’s Bansheeisms while also fusing early U2 with The Chameleons’ etherealism.
Sadly, its elegant shimmer is cut short after just one chorus, the adage of ‘leave them wanting more’ expertly applied.
Primal Scream - XTRMNTR at 25
Released at the dawn of the 21st century, Primal Scream’s XTRMNTR was less an album than a sonic uprising, a visceral, noisy declaration of war presumed to be designed against political apathy, corporate greed, and cultural complacency.
Yet curiously, Bobby Gillespie claims it’s not a political work but a reflection of where the band were at in the late ‘90s – namely, embroiled in the UK drug culture. However, it’s a hard idea to countenance, even if it was released at the peak of neoliberalism (Blair and Clinton were at their height), an idea that now seems blissfully naïve.
Despite Gillespie’s view, XTRMNTR can be viewed as little else than a howl against systems of control and the cultural numbness that allows them to thrive. It was prophetic too, arriving just over 18 months before 9/11 and the subsequent wave of global paranoia.
The band’s evolution during the turn of the millennium (Vanishing Point to Evil Heat), was arguably Primal Scream’s most experimental yet, with XTRMNTR marking the zenith. And what a cast list; Kevin Shields, Mani, Bernard Sumner, and The Chemical Brothers all added depth and unpredictability, helping shape an abrasive but immersive sound.
https://www.clashmusic.com/features/primal-screams-xtrmntr-remains-a-howl-of-caustic-sonic-rage/
Paul Weller - Find El Dorado
Back in 2004, Paul Weller released his first covers album, Studio 150. Depending on the source, it was either the nadir of a turn-of-the-century rut that the former Jam man was working through (Both 2000’s Heliocentric and Illumination two years later were met with a muted response) or the creative spark required to set him on to a (brand) new start.
21 years later, much has changed. Still very much in the same purple patch, Weller isn’t hankering for new ideas but taking a side step after some serious crate-digging. Where ‘Studio 150’ included interpretations of several classics (‘Close To You’, ‘All Along The Watchtower’), on Find El Dorado, he’s harkening back to attempt to harness the vibe from a specific, largely-British era. As such, perhaps only ‘I Started A Joke’ (by the Bee Gees, here given a grandiose quality) is recognisable to Joe Public.
https://www.clashmusic.com/reviews/paul-weller-find-el-dorado/
Wet Leg - Moisturizer
Much like any indie-rock band of the last decade, Wet Leg return with a slight weight of expectation following their wildly successful debut, which bagged them three Grammys and two BRITs. Yet rather than reinvent their sound, the Isle of Wight five-piece have astutely built upon their strengths, bolstering rather than overhauling everything that made them such a refreshing presence when they debuted in 2022. The result is a confident, exuberant record that solidifies their status as one of the UK’s most distinctive musical voices.
While the band’s irreverent spirit and playful, impish vocal delivery remain central, there’s a noticeable expansion in thematic depth and musical texture. This second effort is driven by a newfound willingness to explore emotional vulnerability, particularly in the form of love songs, territory co-founder Rhian Teasdale once regarded with scepticism. Here, however, Wet Leg skew the well-trodden terrain through their now-trademark sardonic outlook.
Oasis - Live at the Principality Stadium, Cardiff - 4th July 2025
Oasis at Principality Stadium by Big Brother Recordings
There we were. Now here we are.
After the world stood still in August last year following the Oasis reunion announcement there has been a hankering to find out what’s next.
The tickets were released and the story immediately became about the dynamic pricing fiasco, which itself became something of a saga.
Then, late last year, Cast and Richard Ashcroft were confirmed as the support acts in the UK and Ireland. Then, nothing.
While Liam was his usual surreal self on Twitter, responding to questions but answering none, and Noel gave a handful of football-related interviews on Talksport, there was otherwise a media blackout.
Perhaps aware that the media played their part in the 2009 breakup, or maybe because there was simply no need with 41 stadium dates around the world instantly sold out.
The full Oasis band line-up (Bonehead, Andy Bell, Gem Archer, Christian Madden and Joey Waronker) was ‘revealed’ earlier in the year, but even that wasn’t official. Whether by luck or judgement, it has been a masterclass of a campaign.
https://www.live4ever.uk.com/oasis-principality-stadium-gig-review/
Glastonbury 2025
Another year, another Glastonbury ‘controversy’.
Some people still insist that politics and the arts shouldn’t mix, especially not at Glastonbury, blissfully unaware of the festival’s storied, proudly political history.
The Eavis family wear that legacy on their sleeves, as reflected by the rainbow-hued CND symbol adorning the Pyramid field in 2025.
This year the name on everyone’s lips was Kneecap. So much so, it was obvious by Wednesday morning that the West Holts field would be overwhelmed. Little did the crowd know that the Northern Irish trio would soon be upstaged.
While the festival ostensibly begins on Friday, there’s plenty happening before then: Wednesday night’s Pyramid field opening ceremony earned a mixed reception — with no sound, three giant screens and a packed field many were unaware anything was even happening on stage but the traditional fireworks that followed left little to be desired.
https://www.live4ever.uk.com/pulp-kneecap-glastonbury-2025-review/
Pulp - Live at The O2 Arena, London - 14th June 2025
Nostalgia has its place.
For some, it’s a chance to roll back the years and revel in times when life was simpler and the waist was thinner. For others, it’s a handy retirement plan.
Like most things, for Jarvis Cocker and Pulp, it’s an opportunity to cock a snook. As the frontman rises from beneath the stage, he’s disguised as his iconic cardboard cut-out from Different Class.
As on the recent AI-generated video for ‘Spike Island’, which uses the same cut-outs as its foundation, Pulp are happy to acknowledge their past, but opt to use it to create More art.
The consummate showman, Jarvis calls this Friday night show a, ‘high pressure evening’, not only is it their debut at the arena, not only is it being filmed, but it’s also his wedding anniversary – with his wife in the crowd.
Yet if there is any pressure, it only energises the band. From the outset, he has the 20,000-strong audience eating out of his hand.
https://www.live4ever.uk.com/pulp-o2-arena-london-gig-review/
Supergrass - Live at The Roundhouse, London - 22nd May 2025
Thirty years after the testosterone fuelled I Should Coco burst into the world, Supergrass are commemorating its impact.
Tonight’s (May 22nd) show, the second of three at the Roundhouse in Camden, is a reminder of just how tight, inventive and gloriously fun that the four-piece band of brothers can be.
Playing the album in order (as is practice), Supergrass open with the glam-stomp gallop of ‘I’d Like To Know’, setting a precedent for the evening: urgent, unpredictable and executed with master precision.
Less a song than a suite of rock movements crammed into four minutes (each one cut off in its prime), the crowd sing when required with nostalgic gusto but also as an eruption of communal energy.
Yet even then, it pales into significance next to the first single of the night, ‘Caught By The Fuzz’. Ever the wily showmen, Supergrass slightly delay the gallop into the final verse, Danny Goffey’s drumming characteristically pulverising and Mick Quinn’s outstanding bass playing possibly the band’s secret weapon.
https://www.live4ever.uk.com/supergrass-london-roundhouse-review/
Peter Doherty - Felt Better Alive
It can’t be a coincidence that since Peter Doherty got fully clean six years ago his output has had a renewed tightness and focus.
Born in the rural quietude of Normandy and shaped by a change in circumstances (the songs were written when wife Katia de Vidas was pregnant), Felt Better Alive maintains his purple patch.
While he’s been shrewd in his recent collaborators (Frederic Lo and a stable Libertines) who push him a way that the Puta Madres – for example – do not, this time round Liam Gallagher guitarist Mike Moore has sharpened Doherty’s trademark rawness.
The songs on this solo album are polished, structured and deliberate, yet they never lose that frayed charm that made him a compelling figure to begin with.
https://www.live4ever.uk.com/peter-doherty-better-alive-review/
Billy Nomates - Metalhorse
Life is cruel, as we all know. For Tor Maries (Billy Nomates to you and me), the last few years have been brutally relentless, with the Leicestershire-born, Bristol-based artist having to endure the passing of her father, an MS diagnosis and that Glastonbury nonsense in 2023.
More power to her then that she has returned with her strongest album yet, utilising those experiences as part of a concept album of sorts: life is a funfair, with all the associated ups and downs, if that doesn’t sound too Ronan Keating.
Previously ardently minimalist, there has been something of a sonic upgrade on Metalhorse, with a full band playing the songs, piano-led theatricality, delivering an emotionally resonant piece of work.
https://www.live4ever.uk.com/billy-nomates-metalhorse-review/