Best Festival: Krankenhaus

Krankenhaus continues to be my favourite festival. I seem to have become the festival’s unofficial ‘official’ photographer. Another great weekend with lots of friends, fantastic castle staff, and accommodating local pub. It strained me a bit this year. The Guardian asked the festival for photos for the morning after festival for half a dozen performances. I had to edit during the last day of the festival and into the early hours. The last day was a bit too much like work. However, this took nothing away from the joyfulness of the weekend. The festival creates such a glorious community bubble that you don’t want to leave. Outside our bubble the flag shaggers were imposing their idea of ‘Englishness’ across the country. Inside the bubble – the kind of Britain I want to live in. Every time I leave Ravenglass, I leave a little bit of me behind.

After the festival finished, we believed it was taking a year off. But then they announced a 2026 festival. Hopefully, I can find some accommodation in Ravenglass. I really don’t want to camp. But I will be there no matter what.

Best New Festival: Mutations Festival

SXSW London should have been a major milestone for the capital. The premier festival for discovering new music opening a London edition. Due to a combination of poor planning, an artist boycott and extortionate badge prices, the inaugural event fell flat on its face.

A new St Albans all-dayer made a good attempt of creating an indie festival for Hertfordshire. While it had an excellent lineup, attendance was low. I think with some tweaks, such as including local bands, they should be able to get the numbers up.

A new festival for me was the Mutations festival in Brighton. Think of it as a low key Great Escape. A multi-venue festival with a more concentrated lineup and smaller audience, guaranteeing easier access to venues and less chance of settling for watching a band I’m not interested in. However, because of this, it is a festival where I will only attend if the lineup interests me.

Best Gig: Jehnny Beth at Camden Festival

For a short time, the Savages burnt with an intense flame. The flag bearers of the post-punk revival. Then they were no more. But the flame still burns brightly in Jehnny Beth. From the first minute, she completely dominated Camden Assembly. The energy and passion she brought to the Savages were still there. Playing music from her excellent new album and featuring her long time collaborator, Johnny Hostile, she showed that she is still a force of nature.

Album of the Year: The New Eve Is Rising

Another year when my listening habits have been curtailed by daily meetings and listening to too many podcasts and audio plays when I’m walking around London. However, there were a few highlights.

Heartworms finally released their debut album, ‘Glutten for Punishment’. Maybe slightly less intense than her EPs. But it was a good debut album.

‘Constant Noise’ by Benefits, took the energy and rage of their debut album but turned down the noise and increased the beats. The perfect soundtrack for the revolution.

However, there was only one contender for album of the year. ‘New Eve Is Rising’ by the New Eves. Folk music influenced by the Velvet Underground. Folk music with angular guitars and cellos. I find there is something hypnotic about the sound they have created.

Most listened to albums

• Band of Holy Joy – Scorched Jerusalem
• Benefits – Constant Noise
• Big Special – National Average
• Goddess – Goddess
• Heartworms – Glutten for Punishment
• Jehnny Beth – You Heartbreaker, You
• Jim Ghedi – Wastelands
• Richard Dawson – End of the Middle
• Sprints – All That Is Over
• The Wants – Bastard

Best Music in a film: Sinners

Stunning use of blues and traditional Irish music. Miles Canton, gives a standout performance, both as an actor and singer, as a blue musician.

Favourite Photo: Heartworms at the Bedford Esquires

I keep coming back to this photo of Jojo from the Heartworms. I photographed her a few times over the last few years. I know that early in her set she plays a theremin and there is a point where she stares intensely. This day I only had my pocket camera and was shooting from the crowd. Although later in the year, I photographed her with full gear and from the pit. However, the combination of stage height, position and lighting meant this was the perfect capture.

2024 was The Horn’s 50th birthday. To celebrate, I aimed to attend 50 gigs. The final total was 59. As an experiment, it was a very enjoyable one, featuring touring artists such as Sleeper, Personal Trainer, Steve Mason, Dead Pony, and Divorce, plus a lot more local bands. While the quality of local bands was variable, it was nice to see the development of young talented artists. Highlights being The Skive, Deadbeat Bracket and WTKD. In 2025, I will continue the trend.

2025 is going to be a big year for the Horn. The current owners are stepping back from the business and Luke and Shane, who have done a great job of managing the Horn and programming its music are hoping to take over the business. Under their management, The Horn can only go on to new highs.

Elsewhere in Hertfordshire, Club 85’s future is no clearer. They are still open. The plans to build flats have stalled and they been offered the opportunity to buy the existing pub and club. However, I’m not convinced they will be able to find what is a considerable amount of money. Hopefully, they prove me wrong.

2024 saw a sponsor backlash for The Great Escape. After bands boycotted SXSW, some bands called into question Barclays sponsorship of TGE, causing a significant number of artists to pull out. TGE’s reaction was to put blinkers on, ignore the controversy and audience, leading to a festival where we were constantly checking the app to avoid walking across Brighton to find an artist had pulled out. Ironically, many of the bands who pulled out of the main festival, played the unaffiliated shows. Their actions probably saved the festival from more criticism. I spent most of my festival at these events leading me to question if I need to buy a ticket in future and instead make a day trip and save myself an expensive hotel. Currently, I don’t plan to attend TGE in 2025 and I’m looking for an alternative city festival.

Despite my best efforts, updates to this website has been pretty poor. By the time I get home from a gig and edited my photos, it’s 2am and the next night I’m back out gigging. I need to find a way to keep on top of the site. Hopefully, 2025 will be better.

Best Festival: Krankenhaus

Despite some horrendous weather, Krankenhaus continues to be a home away from home for Sea Power fans. 2024 was another great festival featuring artists such as Nadine Shah, Lias Sauodi, Snapped Ankles, BC Camplight, The New Eves, Islet and Lanterns on the Lake.

Best Gig: Nadine Shah at the Social

It has been another good year for gigs. It was great to catch the Kills again. Hinds were full of energy at Lafayette. Benefits new lineup and material takes them into new territory, but they are every bit as visceral as before. Snōōper‘s performance at the Moth club was chaotic. Ezra Furman at the Union Chapel felt special. Porridge Radio provided three of my favourite sets of the year. All were stripped back sets just featuring Dana. Sea Power played several great sets. Their set at the newly refurbished Brighton Corn Exchange was a fitting way to open the venue. The Murder Capital tried out new material at the Moth Club. My highlight though was one of Nadine Shah’s sets. She played the Social for a Gigs for Gaza event, something she passionately believes in and her stripped back intimate set was special.

Album of the Year: Sprints, Letter to Self

Best New Band/Artist: The New Eves

Mistakenly believing they were a Last Dinner Party adjacent band, despite hearing great things, I hadn’t been in a rush to catch them. Finally catching them at The Great Escape, I was captivated by their fresh take on alt-folk. Their set at Krankenhaus cemented my belief that they will have a strong 2025.

Favourite Photo: Abi Fry at Birmingham Town Hall

After photographing over 200 gigs, working out what is my favourite photo is difficult. In some ways, it should be a photo from Benefits gig at the George Tavern. It was basically lit via strobe. As I don’t use flash, it was a challenging gig and I did manage to get some interesting results using long exposures. But I like composed shots and there was an element of luck to these photos. I also really loved photographing the Paraorchestra playing a 360 degree concert. Lots of opportunities to capture an orchestra as they played. But my current favourite shot is of Sea Power’s Abi Fry in silhouette at Birmingham Town Hall. It’s simple but effective and despite photographing Sea Power more than any other band, something I’ve never had the opportunity to capture before.

Album of the year: Sprints, Letter to Self

The first album I listened to this year, was also my favourite. Sprints ‘Letter to Self’ was released the first weekend of the year and was a great post-Christmas tonic. It is sharp, edgy, angry, but it there are also moments of beauty that has meant I have returned to this album time and time again through the year.

Other notable albums

• Amelia Coburn – Between the Moon and the Milkman
• Barbican Estate – Viscum (EP)
• Blood Wizard – Grinning William
• Big Special – Postindustrial Hometown Blues
• Bill Ryder-Jones – lechyd Da
• Bodega – Our Brand Could Be Yr Life
• DEADLETTER – Hysterical Strength
• Drahla – Angeltape
• English Teacher – This Could Be Texas
• Erland Cooper – Carve the Runes The Be Content With the Silence
• The Bevis Front – Focus on Nature
• Gurriers – Come and See
• Hamish Hawk – A Firmer Hand
• Haley Heynderickx – Seed of a Seed
• Halo Maud – Celebrate
• Honeyglaze – Real Deal
• Loose Articles – Scream If You Wanna Go Faster
• Marcel Wave – Something Looming
• Mary In The Junkyard – This Old House (EP)
• Melts – Field Theory
• Nadine Shah – Filthy Underneath
• Pictish Trail – Follow Steps (EP)
• Porridge Radio – Clouds in the Sky
• She Drew the Gun – Howl
• Tramways. The First Exit

Another thing affecting my London gigging is the cost. Stevenage council’s redevelopment plan for the town centre seems to involve building on all the cheap long stay car parks, so car parking has shot up by £8. Add in a small increase in the price of train tickets and each gig is costing me £30 before I’ve even bought a ticket for the gig.

Because of the rising costs, I concentrated on local gigs, attending around 50 gigs across the Horn, Corn Exchange and Club 85. This had some positives. I’ve seen more local bands. But the negative is that there is only a finite number of bands in and around Hertfordshire and the quality is more variable than I experience at London venues. However, I’ve discovered quite a few interesting bands with potential and in 2024 I’m going to put more effort into local gigging. I believe it is the Horn’s 50th Birthday. I think 50 for 50 would be a good aim.

Sadly, earlier this year, we learnt that Club 85 is now on borrowed time. The owners of the venue are retiring and want to sell the land for redevelopment. Club 85’s business model has been one where they programme the venue and profit from ticket sales. Managing the bar and the bar’s revenue has always gone to the venue itself. The promoters are not in a position to offer up the sums of cash needed to persuade the owners to sell them the venue. While they are hopeful they will find a new venue. I think it will be difficult to find a similar space in Hitchin. It will be a sad loss for Hertfordshire if it does close.

Daylight Music is also under threat. We learnt late in the year that it failed in its bid for Arts Council funding. Hopefully, a follow-up bid will be successful. It would be awful to lose this series.

The second half of this year I found it difficult to find the motivation to review gigs and this website hasn’t seen many updates. Work has been busy and given how many nights I sit in front of a computer at 2am editing photos from that evening’s gig. I needed nights off away from the computer. To be honest, much of my apathy was because I was messed about by the Great Escape’s media team. They appeared to have a new team and I registered early for a photo pass. The new team actually acknowledged emails, which was an improvement and were sending me the press releases. So I played the game. Posted their lineups and retweeted their announcements. Then when it got to the point of them making a decision, they used my previous reviews as an excuse to turn me down. Why? Because I stated I had already bought an early-bird ticket. Yes, I buy tickets for everything I shoot because I am not a ‘guest list leacher’ who never pays for anything. Frankly, after the kick and being so busy at work, it killed off my enthusiasm for this website. I’m trying to rediscover my enthusiasm and I spent Christmas posting galleries to bring it back up to date. Hopefully, this year I can find a better balance.

Musically, I’ve still been listening to a lot of post-punk and the post-punk bands still dominated my gigs this year. I suspect we are at the tail end of the post-punk revival and there are signs that new bands are starting to raid other 80s genres. There’s even signs of Prog making a comeback with HMLTD releasing a concept album ‘The Worm’ and played it in full at the ICA. After the COVID years stifled new bands. I think 2024 will see an explosion of new artists and I’m looking forward to what the year will bring.

Best Festival: Krankenhaus

I only managed three festivals this year. Although I also missed the new Rally festival due to a train strike and I had to give up my ticket for the WideAwake Festival as it clashed with a wedding.

My usual pilgrimage to the Great Escape once again proved frustrating due to the queues and the fact that hotels in Brighton are now ridiculously expensive. Rockaway Beach continues to grow on me. It gives me a boost to the start of the year.

My favourite festival is once again Sea Power’s Krankenhaus festival. Despite an increase in numbers, it retained its DIY charm and relaxed friendly atmosphere. The organisers made numerous tweaks that improved the overall experience and the lineup was excellent and they seem to have finally hit on a sustainable formula.

Best Gig: Lottery Winners at the Corn Exchange Hertford

My best gig of the year goes to a band I don’t even listen to, as their music does little for me on record. Lottery Winners played the Corn Exchange in Hertford and I went along to support my local venue. But I was really pleased I did because Lottery Winners put on an extremely fun show. It is part gig and part comedy show. It is the first time I have seen a singer paint while the rest of the band played a song that didn’t feature him. If you get a chance to see one of their headline shows, go, you will not be disappointed.

Album of the Year: Benefits – Nails

Best New Band/Artist: Lael Neale

I think this was a good year for new discoveries. Lankum produced an extremely good album and were excellent at the Roundhouse. At the start of the year, Personal Trainer showed their fun side. I caught Big Special twice in 2023. I have no doubt they will be big in 2024. But it was Lael Neale’s album that I kept coming back to and I managed to catch her three times and each time I found myself entranced by her sound.

Best New Venue: The Hot Tin, Faversham

In the summer, Daylight Music held a Lost Map special in London and at the Hot Tin in Faversham. I headed down and discovered one of my favourite venues. It is an old pre-fabricated Victorian tin church that the owners live in and because of this, it is full of quirky touches. It felt like we were being welcomed into their home. Sadly, I think the venue is under threat from neighbours who don’t want the noise. I hope it survives.

Favourite Photo: Sea Power at Krankenhaus

I’ve decided to go with my favourite photo from the year. It isn’t my best shot. It captures the anarchy at the end of Sea Power’s extremely good first set at Krankenhaus, with Martin trying to ride the bear and the band having fun on the stage.

Album of the year: Nails – Benefits

Nails is not an easy listen. It isn’t meant to be. Nails is a reaction to the state of a Tory-ruled post-Brexit Britain where people are punching down rather than up. Don’t expect this album to get a five star review from the Daily Mail.

I was worried this album wouldn’t work. Live, Kingsley spits his poetry with anger and despair over industrial noise and pounding drums. Their performances are visceral. After their gigs, you feel like you’ve gone a few rounds in the ring. On Nails, Benefits have managed to capture much of this anger. No effort has been made to make the noise more musical or tone down the anger. This is why it is my album of the year. Benefits dared to produce an uncompromising album knowing it could be commercial suicide.

Most of the album attacks the notion of patriotism and politicians who sell it to us. On tracks like Traitors, there’s also that strong sense of the alienation and anger you feel if you saw through the lies. There are also swipes at the working class who have bought into these lies. No excuses are being made. As Kingsley puts it, ‘You get the future you deserve’ and it’s clear Benefits think many have been fooled into punching down, rather than up.

The surprise on the album was Council Rust. After all the noise and angst. The final track is almost ambient. Kingsley calmly explores how we sit back while we see the world around us rust away, because most of us as are alright with the life we have. After all the angst and noise. It’s a poignant way to end the album.

Most Listened to album: Star Eaters Delight – Lael Neale

Lael Neale was unknown to me before this album was released. I noticed the album in one of the Apple Music categories and on first listen, it sounded pleasant, but didn’t jump out as anything special. A few weeks later, I noticed I had listened to it more than any other recent release. Something kept drawing me in.

Star Eater’s Delight is the perfect example of how a catchy first song can draw the listener in. The album starts with infectious ‘I am the river’. There’s a familiarity about the song. But the song is breathless. It is like the song is being played at a faster speed. By the end of the song you are hooked. The album then pauses to let you get your breath back. With its church organ and religious imagery, ‘If I had no wings’ is like a familiar church hymn. One sung in an idealised wooden church with a white picket fence that is stuck in the 1950s. This format is repeated across the album. Every song feels familiar and timeless. But there’s also twist that makes them sound fresh, no matter how often you come back to the album.

Other notable albums

• Alabaster Deplume – Salty Road Dogs Victory Anthem
• Anna B Savage – inFLUX
• Baba Ali – Laugh Like A Bomb
• Band of Holy Joy – Fated Beautiful Mistakes 
• Bar Italia – The Twits
• David Julyan – Hireth
• Esben and the Witch – Hold Sacred
• Hamish Hawk – Angel Numbers
• HMLTD – The Worm
• James Yorkston, Nina Persson & The Second Hand Orchestra – The Great White Sea Eagle
• John J Presley – Chaos and Calypso
• The Kills – God Games
• Lankum – False Lankum
• M(h)aol – Attachment Styles
• Murder Capital – Gigi’s Recovery
• Mandy, Indiana – I’ve Seen A Way
• Me Lost Me – PRG
• Model/Actriz – Dogsbody
• Pale Blue Eyes – This House
• Ulrika Spacek – Compact Trauma

The year didn’t start off well, catching COVID over Christmas causing me to miss the Rockaway Beach festival at the beginning of January. In some way, catching COVID was a blessing. I felt I had some COVID protection during the first few months of the year and it helped me open up a bit more and I know I attended more gigs than I might have otherwise.

Changes to working patterns, allowing me to work from home, made it easier to get to gigs as I didn’t have to fight traffic on the A1 every evening before catching a train into London. But oddly, it seemed to reduce my enthusiasm for Friday night gigs. I often wanted to stay in and relax after a week of work. Trains were another issue this year. Weekend trains continued to be unreliable so I rarely attended Saturday night gigs. Strikes caused me to miss a few more.

One big saving grace was DICE. More promoters recognised the benefit of allowing the audience to return tickets to a waiting list. It helps reassure us that we can get our money back if we catch COVID. Despite missing several gigs this year, in most cases I didn’t lose any money as people picked them up from DICE.

Hertfordshire got a new venue, the Corn Exchange in Hertford. Managed by the excellent team from The Horn in St Albans. It has all the elements to be a great venue for Hertfordshire. Hopefully, the people of Hertford will embrace it in 2023.

The annual trip to the Great Escape proved to be a disappointment. The venues were too busy and the festival seemed to place too much emphasis on the conference attendees being allowed in first. Hopefully, they will tweak things for 2023.

Dark, gothy post-punk bands were still the major influence on me this year. But there were signs of the poppier sound that emerged in the early 80s making a comeback again. I think 2023 could see a shift to a lighter sound.

New from us, was our first online magazine. Featuring articles from the first half of the year. Unfortunately, I struggled to find the time to create an issue 2. I was out gigging too much. I enjoyed producing it, so hope I can find the time to produce future issues.

Best Festival: Krankenhaus

A festival for Sea Power fans. Featuring three sets from the band. A whole host of excellent bands. A fantastic venue, Muncaster Castle, with helpful, friendly staff. A range of other activities such as talks, fell walks, trips on a miniature train, a dog and bird of prey shows and a friendly audience. It was a very special festival.

Best Gig: Richard Dawson with Circle

The Sea Power gigs this year were special. Their Roundhouse gig was special for me. It was my first opportunity to photograph the amazing venue. But as they have won the ‘Best Festival’ award, I will focus on some of the other impressive gigs in 2023.

Benefits played their first London show. Their abrasive art-noise sound with Kingsley’s poetry challenged the listener. At each successive show, they got better and better.

A departure for us was seeing the Pet Shop Boys at the Electric Ballroom. A fun diversion from our usual gigs

Jack White released his second album of the year and played Rough Trade. I say played Rough Trade. It was a very short and sweet 15 minute set. But it was still worth queuing for 90 minutes to see Jack play such a small venue.

Richard Dawson had the time of his life playing a fun metal show with Finish metal band Circle. I got the feeling he would have had just as much fun playing to an empty room. Thankfully, we were all invited to his party and because of this I’m going to make this my gig of the year. I really didn’t know what to expect. I don’t even know if I really enjoyed the music. I just know I left the venue with a beaming smile.

Band of the year: Sea Power

Great album. Great Gigs. Great festival.

Best new band: Deadletter

Although 2022 was my first chance at catching Benefits. I was aware of their output. Deadletter on the other hand, were a new discovery when I saw them play an Independent Venue Week gig at the Social. Since then I have seen them several times. Each time, they have got better and better.

Best gig photo: Xenia Pestova Bennett

So many photos to choose from. But there is one photo I love more than any other. It is a photo of the talented composer and pianist, Xenia Pestrova Bennett playing Daylight Music. It is a music photo that doesn’t feature the piano. It shows the Xenia feeling the music as she is playing, with a steam of light through the church’s window. I love the way my exposure for the strong light on her face made the background disappear to black, putting us in her world. No distractions. Only the music.

Album Of The Year: Everything Was Forever

Album of the year: Everything Was Forever – Sea Power

Sea Power’s eighth studio album and first under their new name reflects a more mature band. Neil and Scott having lost both parents since their last outing seemed to be in a more contemplative mood that producer Graham Sutton has encouraged them to explore. Sonically this pays off with probably their most spacial album to date. The album has the usual rockers in ‘Green Goddess’, ‘Dopplerganger’ and ‘Two Fingers’, the later a reference to their dad’s habit of pouring out two fingers of alcohol. The beautiful ‘Lakeland Echo’ is a wistful walk through childhood memories of parents and Cumbria. ‘Lakeland Echo’ being the name of the local paper. On ‘Transmitter’, Martin Noble gets a chance to throw in a guitar solo. The album feels their most personal to date and that isn’t a bad thing. Having heard the material played live throughout this year. The new songs all sound brilliant live and seem to have reinvigorate the band and audience.

2nd: The Overload – Yard Act

Following the lead of bands like Dry Cleaning, James Smith speaks most of the songs weaving interesting tales full of wry comment on modern society. At no point does it become sneary, but it is angry. Six minute long Tall Poppies is a good example. The cautionary story of a handsome man who is a big fish in a small village. When you think it might turn sneary, it spins you around. ‘He wasn’t perfect, but he was one of us’, James explains after the man’s death from cancer. On Dead Horse, concern for post-Brexit England being overrun by nationalist ‘nob heads morris dancing to Sham 69’. Unethical business men, the middle-classes, the compensation society are all targets. Driving the narrative is the current trend of a post-punk bass line. Several songs make good use of breaks from relentless bass with the music fading away leaving just the vocals, to then kick back in at a different speed. All combining to create a fresh sounding debut album.

3rd: The Ruby Cord – Richard Dawson

Richard Dawson is one of those special artists who does what he wants and transcends the boundaries of ‘his genre’. Not only did he release a metal album with Circle. He returned with a majestic piece of folk-opera in the form of the ‘Ruby Cord’. The backbone of the album is the epic 41 minute long ‘The Hermit’ is without doubt my favourite piece of music from 2022. Starting slowly as almost laid back jazz, violins come in adding a discordant jeopardy, interspersed by harps creating dream-like spaces. At the 11 minute mark, Richard’s unique vocals come in with his fantasy infused lyrics. The music then switches to a more standard Dawkins folk song. Finally ending as a reflective choral piece. I can’t get enough of this song.

Honourable Mentions

• Broken Equipment – Bodega
• Hellfire – Black Midi
• Heart Under – Just Mustard
• Wet Leg – Wet Leg
• North East Coastal Town – Life
• Time Bend and Break The Bower – Sinead O’Brien
• Caroline – Caroline
• When It Comes – Dana Gavanski
• The Great Regression – Ditz
• Entering Heaven Alive – Jack White
• This Rock – Jill Lorean
• My Name is Hell – Kai Marks
• Bob Vylan Presents the Price of Life – Bob Vylan
• Beware Believers – Crows
• Stump Works – Dry Cleaning
• All Of Us Flames – Ezra Furman
• Skinny Fa – Fontaines D.C.
• Most Normal – Gilla Band
• Waterslide, Diving Board, Ladder To the Sky – Porridge Radio
• My Other People – TV Priest
• Versions of Modern Performance – Horsegirl

At the beginning of 2021, it looked like by September we would all be vaccinated with very effective vaccines and life would be returning to normal. I started to buy tickets with increased expectations. A few in July and August to tip my toes in, with an eye on restarting regular gigging in September. Then Delta hit and things changed.

Figures weren’t great in July when we opened up. So I cancelled those early gigs. I decided to give my first planned gig in August a miss and then later found out several people had come down with COVID after the gig. As August went by, it was clear the vaccines were less effective at stopping a Delta infection than they were with the original virus. While they significantly reduced deaths, many were still being hit hard by Delta and suffering long COVID. Disappointingly, it was also clear the majority of venues were not going to ask for masks, vaccine passports or lateral flow tests. Something I think was a mistake.

This changed my plans. 

I decided to try and be sensible and reduce the number of gigs to one during weekdays and Daylight Music on a Saturday. I also decided to continue to mask up and to do lateral flow tests before every gig. I figured it is no good being at the front giving the band COVID. Disappointingly at times, I’ve been the only person wearing a mask in the audience and I guess many are not doing lateral flow tests.

I think it’s fair to say, gigging in general was affected by cancellations due to COVID infections. I think I missed about half a dozen gigs between September and December due to them being cancelled or rescheduled. If I had a sniffle, I also gave the gig a miss. I also missed a few after being pinged at the LIFE gig. Then to make matters worse, the new Omicron strain hit gigging in December leading to mass cancellations. While this strain doesn’t look as deadly. It’s wiping out gigs and tours with January cancellations starting. In fact, as I write this, I’ve just had a positive test and I’ve had to cancel Rockaway Beach at the beginning of January. There’s going to be a lot of cancelations over the next month.

So this wasn’t a good year for gigging. I only managed 23 gigs this year, rather than the 60 or so I had pencilled in.

But we did get to go to gigs. 

At times I didn’t think it would ever happen. So I had to wear a mask. Doing a LFT is hardly taxing. I may have picked ‘safer’ venues with good ventilation and less reliance on tube travel. But these choices were a small price to pay to be back seeing live music.

So I guess, given where we were last year, 2021 was a good year after all. 

Best Festival: Wide Awake Festival

A new London festival and a rather fine addition to the London festival scene. From the fabulous Bad Vibrations team, the festival had a brilliant lineup featuring IDLES, Murder Capital, Dry Cleaning, Black Country New Road, Black Midi and many others. Located in Brockwell Park, the location worked really well. Definitely a festival to keep an eye on.

Best Gig: All

It’s difficult to give out a best gig this year. Just going to a gig after nearly 18 months was a life affirming experience. Returning to Daylight Music was a brilliant. Catching up with Sea Power was a tonic. Going to my first real gig with Pozi was a really life lifting a weight off me. Nadine Shah impressively owned the 100 Club, reminding us how music can be so vital. But it would be unfair to single out one gig. So this year, I’m going to give the award to gigging in general

Band of the year: Dry Cleaning

Dry Cleaning released their critically acclaimed debut album, New Long Leg. They also played a number of festivals including a great set at Wide Awake Festival. Pretty much everyone who sees them loves them. There’s something special about the way Florence delivers her stories while the rest of the band create music that spirals around her. 

Best new band: Wet Leg?

With one of the catchiest songs in years. Wet Leg show a lot of promise. I only managed to see them once and the event felt very ‘industry’. It will be interesting seeing them with normal punters later in the year.

Best gig photo: Sea Power at Derby

Let’s face it. This is what we’ve missed. It was so good to have live music back.

Album of the Year: Dry Cleaning, New Long Leg

1. New Long Leg – Dry Cleaning
2. For the First Time – Black Country, New Road
3. Bright Green Field – Squid
4. Uppers – TV Priest
5. A Common Turn – Anna B Savage

• Art of Lying – IST IST
• System – Calum Easter
• Western Spagetti – Blood Wizard
• On All Fours – Goat Girl
• Humanity – Henrik Appel
• Island – Corrina Repp
• A Common Turn – Anna B Savage (5)
• Spider Tales – Jake Blount
• Quale Futuro? – Qlowski
• Endless Boogie – Admonitions
• None Fiction – NOV3L
• Collapsed in Sunbeams – Arlo Parks
• Drunk Tank Pink – Shame
• Uppers- TV Priest (4)
• The Waves Pt.1 – Kele
• Moon-Drenched – John Dwyer
• The Obvious – Ed Dowie
• For the First Time – Black Country, New Road (2)
• New Long Leg – Dry Cleaning (1)
• Bright Green Field – Squid (3)
• Back to the Future – Sons of Kemet
• G_d’s Pee At State’s End! – Godspeed You! Black Emperor
• Welfare Jazz – Viagra Boys
• Crawler – ILDES
• Busy Guy – Stephen Fretwell