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.

When I heard she was going to be playing some alternative arrangements with a band and in a relatively small venue with no barriers, I had to be there.

Opening for Tor was dancer Stephanie McMann, interpreting some dark and at times menacing music. It was different. While she left some of the audience bemused. I found her performance held my interest. But I don’t have the understanding of dance to interpret if her dance was good.

Tor’s band consisted of a drummer, laying down low key alt-folk type beats, and a bassist. Tor at times played guitar too. The format allowed her to always be front and centre. Her presence and voice, always the centre of my attention. The band allowed her to focus on the vocal performance and not ‘a performance’. I think at times she was finding limiting her performance to the front of the stage constraining. But the interactions you get between artists are what makes each performance unique. Tor joking, that she might be done for false advertising given that clearly she wasn’t Billy Nomates and so disowned her friends on stage to keep everything legal.

It is these little moments I think I have wanted. The backing tracks were still there. They were stripped back with the bass and drums adding a new dimension to songs we know well. But the interactions felt natural. Having backing vocals, rather backing tracks worked. The songs breathed a bit more and Tor is such a good performer, it has always seemed like she was a front person without a band, but tonight, she was a great front person.

Tonight’s set list was a mixture of new material from her forthcoming album, mixed with some older reworked material. I assume the new material is being recorded with this new setup. The new material sounded strong.

Tor shouldn’t play with a band to keep somebody like me happy. She has to create the art she wants and keeps her happy. She definitely shouldn’t listen to people (always guys) who think her performing on her own, isn’t live music, or people like me who enjoy her set but think she holds her performance back by not having a band. The reaction to her Glastonbury set was unacceptable. Her approach has always been right for her and has to continue to be what’s right for her. As I’ve still never seen her play a small venue on her own. I can’t judge if this was a ‘better performance’. Compared to her festival performances. I preferred tonight. I did think on the way home, would Billy Withmates stand out on a festival bill? For me, definitely. What is unique about Tor is her stunning voice. Tonight, it was right there front and centre without the distraction of her trying to fill the stage. But what do I know and why should she care? As long as she enjoys performing, that’s the important thing.

Set List

• Balance is Gone
• Only I Bleed
• Knives
• No
• Mind Is A Mystery
• Peter
• Emily
• Vertigo
• Blue Bones
• The Test
• Fawner
• Spite

Set List

• Wouldn’t That Make You Feel Good
• Flies
• On the Subject of Breathing
• Algorithms
• A Way
• Epilogue
• But I come back down
• The Trouble Is
• Paper Cups
• Wait
• To Be Loved
• Transparent
• Still
• To be Brave
• Help Yourself
• A Way

Opening the evening were the duo Baba Ali. They have obvious synergy with the Kills, being a duo using guitar and samples with an American singer and British guitarist. They bought their post-punk disco vibes to the Troxy. It’s very much a dark and sweaty 80s club vibe. I’m not sure the Troxy was the right venue. Having seen an intimate performance, despite their energy, some of that sweaty vibe was lost in the big space. But if you get a chance to see them play a smaller venue, definitely go and see them.

I have been hearing a lot of good things about Picture Parlour. The music I’d heard, hadn’t done much for me. But I had heard their live shows were really good. I was pleased to see them on the bill.

Musically, they didn’t do much for me. it would be easy to say they sounded a bit old fashioned, a bit ‘classic rock’, but music is recycled and old sounds become fresh again. But that’s what they felt to me.

Performance wise, they were very tight. In their front person, Katherine Parlour, they have a very strong presence. She breezes around the stage with a confident swagger you rarely see. Not brash or in your face. Somebody confidently leading their band from the front with a really good voice. It’s just a shame that despite this, I didn’t connect with their music.

It was great to catch up with the Kills. It had been far too long since I had seem them. Playing the majority of their God Games album, the new material seemed to fit in well with their back catalogue. I used to think they needed to have a live band. A few years ago they did briefly toy with a live band but this tour was just them and their amazing chemistry. It is their chemistry that makes them so special to me. They know each other so well and seem so comfortable with each other that they react to each other as if they are finishing each other’s sentences. Tonight was no different. Hopefully, I won’t have to wait so long to catch them again.

Set List

• Kissy Kissy
• U.R.A. Fever
• Love and Tenderness
• 103
• Going to Heaven
• Baby Says
• New York
• Wasterpiece
• Kingdom Come
• Hard Habit to Break
• God Games
• Black Balloon
• DNA
• LA Hex
• Doing It to Death
• Future Starts Slow
• Blank
• Better Days
• My Girls My Girls
• Sour Cherry