There is a buzz of excited chatter at the Barclaycard Arena as New Jersey indie rock band, The Front Bottoms kick off with their set. Judging by their choice of band name and the subject matter of songs, they seem to centre their success on injecting humour into all aspects of their set, especially with […]

There was a distinct end of term feel to Laura Mvula’s appearance at Festival On The Close tonight. This event was the last of the inaugural running of the festival, and the last of our coverage this year. But it was also the real end of term. Rugby School has finished another year and the […]

The National Youth Jazz Orchestra (NYJO) presented their mix of swing, funk and jazz standards in our second major event at the Festival On The Close at Rugby School. One thing that you can guarantee you get from the NYJO is variety. By their very nature they have a fluid line-up, and their repertoire can […]

Perfect timing! As I enter the Academy 2 for Dead Kennedys I am greeted by an air raid siren from the PA.  Enter Otherkin to the sound of said siren. Now, if you read BrumLive regularly you will recall that I reviewed this band a few months ago at the Flapper on their own headline […]

G4 and Lesley Garrett opened Festival on the Close 2017 in Rugby tonight, representing a whole series of landmarks, and a couple of “firsts” for this writer. This is by far the biggest event of its kind that Rugby School has promoted. It may even be the biggest series of events seen in the town; […]

It is the type of heat that feels like you are standing on a thousand suns. It is sticky and muggy, with each breath sending musky warmth into the air. The sweat rolls down your back, making you shift your weight. It may sound like the beginning of a summer horror film, but for those […]

To be honest – I can’t think of any occasion where I would think of mentioning Kiefer Sutherland and That Petrol Emotion in the same sentence. There is no obvious alignment there; no connection. But tonight there was. The common denominator was heat. The last time I attended a gig in Brum when it was […]

The very talented Duke Garwood is the support act for tonight’s performance, which is unsurprising as he is a long time collaborator with Lanegan and also plays in his band. Unfortunately, I missed the beginning of the set but hearing the last couple of tracks certainly suggests the quality would have been there from the […]

It’s been two years since we’ve seen Paramore on the music scene and since then a lot has changed; members have left and old ones have come back but the fact remains, as Hayley would say  “WE ARE PARAMORE”     (No matter who’s in the band). The venue was packed to capacity and everyone was […]

You have to be fairly bold to play a set of Black Sabbath covers in Birmingham. The original heavy metal pioneers are viewed with such regard in their hometown that any band even attempting to match their reverence would normally be laughed out of the room. Not so Canada’s Bat Sabbath. The gnarly punk rockers […]