All photo’s were taken by Lense Eyes, for the full set of photo’s, click here.

To get the band into the final 5, who then get to play infront of a panel of judges in London, you need to vote for their song ‘The War Song’ by clicking this link.

By voting you can also win tickets to the festival and there will be tickets to the London gig up if they get through.

During their visit to Guildford they managed to bag themselves a slot at the Guilfest Festival, which is a popular (capacity 25,000) music and arts festival based in Guildford, Surrey on the 4th, 5th and 6th July.

The festival attracts some popular acts, and this year they have already booked The Levellers, Kula Shaker, Blondie, Fightstar, British Sea Power, Cerys Matthews, Bowling For Soup, Frank Turner and more.

For more details visit:
www.myspace.com/thecollardsmusic

For ticket information visit:
www.guilfest.co.uk

The idea of backlash is simple - to produce a magazine about music that is actually about music, regardless of genre and with no consideration of the current trends or fashions. Music should be much more than just a way to be cool or fit in – it should mean something and it should be important in its own right, for the right reasons.

There are many great bands out there who have never had a chance because, the major labels are only interested in profits and mainstream magazines would rather feature bands who have the image. It’s this imbalance we hope to address.

This is what backlash is about, to write about music, be it good or bad, with a passion for, and only for, the music.

Hopefully the writing in backlash will reflect that passion and show that music journalism can be articulate, intelligent and well-written rather than self-righteous, supercilious and shoddy.

Each issue of backlash now comes with a free compilation CD called backlashed, which is designed to compliment the wide variety of music the magazine covers. Songs by Wolf Parade, Kinski, Jawbreaker, The Black Heart Procession, Screeching Weasel, Dawn of the Replicants, Bayside and The Audition have all appeared on backlashed compilations in the past. The next CD is in the process of being compiled, but will feature, among others, The Paper Chase, The Broken Letters, Kevin Seconds, My Sad Captains and many more.

For those demanding total backlash satisfaction, the backlash website (www.backlashmagazine.com) is live and running to sate music literature appetites and constructively fill the time between issues with all the reviews and interviews we just couldn’t fit into the magazine.

We’ll also endeavour to run as many competitions and give away as much cool shit as we can feasibly (legally?) get our mitts on. Interested? You should be.

Find us on myspace (www.myspace.com/backlashmagazine) on the main site (www.backlashmagazine.com) and join us on facebook too (http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/group.php?gid=20853219738)

Interested in writing for the site?
Drop Reef an email: sherief@backlashmagazine.com

First up tonight is a young band from Chester called The Capitals. They’ve been together for about 4 years and their current line-up takes influence from The Wombats, The Pigeon Detectives and The Cribs.

The next band to take to the stage will be Danblagroyd. Born out of the late 90’s Welsh indie circuit, Danblagroyd are now to be found messing around with drum machines and sequencers in North Wales and the North West of England. In March the band made their TV debut on S4C’s “Bandit”, appearing on the sofa alongside Huw Stephens and Evans, and then performing their song “Y Wers”.

Alternative rock band A59, from Wrexham will be up next with obvious influences of Brand New and Thrice, they play an energetic and powerful live show which has resulted in A59 playing with the likes of Army Of Freshman, Punchline and The Get Go.

The penultimate performance is from Arnie, from Wrexham, who bridge the gap between indie rock and alternative blues. With influences stretching far and wide, the band comprises five friends from Wrexham who came together to write and play a kind of music that they themselves wanted to hear. Gutsy vocals and drums against an indie rock guitar framework combine with bluesy keyboards and cornet to give a thrilling and unique sound.

The last appearance of the night will be from Trader. During the past year they have continued to grow into one of the main forces on the Wrexham music scene. They have gigged around the North West and honed their sound down to a polished performance with live favourites being Annie, Bridges and Crystal Water.

Doors are 8pm, its £3 entry with a flyer (or print off the poster image above) and £4 entry on the door. Over 14s are welcome.

All photo’s were taken by Lense Eyes, who incidentally has just launched his own website: www.lenseeyes.com - take a visit!

Give your ears a treat at:
myspace.com/craigwilliams2010

Hopefully there is more to come!

Photo by Lense Eyes

Spotlight Artist

It’s quite hard to capture the attention of an audience with one acoustic guitar and one voice. It’s even harder if it’s your own material you’re capturing them with and the likelihood is they have never heard more than three of yours songs.

This is exactly what Craig Williams did when he played the wrexhammusic.co.uk Bank Holiday Special at Central Station. He earned himself a progression up the lineup after the last gig he played for us left everyone in awe of the natural talent that was shown.

Taking inspiration from The La’s, The Coral and Willy Mason, Craig’s songs include ‘Mothers Gold’, ‘Soul Glow’ and ‘Trademark Eyes’ - which are all available to download and listen to on his Myspace page:

myspace.com/craigwilliams2010

Links

Photo’s: Flickr photo’s

This week the ‘LC’ boys are supporting The Automatic along with Arnie at Central Station on Thursday. Following that, they play the WM Good Times! Festival at the end of July.

Below is a teaser of photo’s from the gig by Lense Eyes, click this link for the full set.

The Rigbys split up last year and each member went their own way; Jac went on to join Trader, Danny joined The Collards and Ben formed his solo project, Roy Destroy.

www.myspace.com/therigbystunes

It is fair to say all our Bank Holiday and birthday gigs have been absolutely heaving at Central Station! This coming Bank Holiday Sunday (May 25th) promises to be an equally amazing night of music and debauchery!

We are taking over Central Station to showcase five great local bands and are chucking in an after-show party with Neal Thompson’s Indie Rock ‘n’ Roll night until silly o’ clock!

First up, making their Central Station debut, will be Wrexham’s Sebastian Green.
Having lined up numerous gigs across the northwest, these lads finally get to bring their indie-acoustic-rock tunes to the wrexhammusic stage. Get there early so as not to miss Sebastian Green – they will be on stage at 8.30pm.

Next up will be The Company. These cheeky chaps (and girl) make a welcome return with their shambolic, raucous indie-racket! Babyshambles fans and card-carrying’ Tee shirt wearers’ alike are going to love this band. Straight from the pages of the indie 101 – you won’t be standing still!

Following the Company will be Craig Williams. The last time Craig (and brother Lance of Leaving Isaacs Shop) played for us we were genuinely gob-smacked by Craig’s voice and songwriting. Craig sounds like a strange mix of Gruff Rhys, Lee Mavers, Jeff Buckley and Damien Rice. Truly heart-felt acoustic tunes - only a fool could dismiss them as being anything other than pure class!

Parody take to the stage on May 25th with some great epic feel-good rock tunes. They’ve played for us before and it is great to have them back! It is easy to imagine tracks like “What’s Your Name” being played on American college radio stations. Don’t miss these lads!

Headlining our Bank Holiday Special will be the The Maydays. Having recently supported Twisted Wheel at Central (and having looked like the headliners!) the Maydays rightly deserve their headline slot.
Tighter than crab’s blow-hole they will no doubt storm this gig. ‘Pretty in Pink’ sounds like George Formby dancing on a hot George Foreman grill while drinking indie-rocket-fuel. A strange analogy but true! Looks like you’ll be in for a sweaty night!

Get there early to avoid disappointment!

Doors 8pm, first act onstage 8.30pm.

Sunday May 25th, Central Station, Wrexham, £5 ticket £6 door. Over 14s welcome.
Tickets are available from Yales Cafe bar or seeticket.com

An eclectic line-up of poets and musicians, all who are individually well known in North Wales, promises to be the start of some interesting artistic collaborations in the local area. Andy and Sophie use their individual interests to blend spoken word, art, poetry, photography, graphics and philosophy - and from that the TheAbsurd was born.

Andy said,

“We both have so many influences and North Wales is such a hotbed of creative talent that we wanted to provide a event where people could come to enjoy a night out and experience a real mix of music and spoken word.”

Sophie added, “The aim is to bring poetry into the local community. We have a fantastic venue in the upstairs room at Y Delyn wine bar and this is the kind of event that will have something for everybody, you don’t have to be a poetry buff to enjoy the evening!”

The couple already have the backing of The Academi (Welsh National Literature Promotion Agency) and a waiting list of performers for future events, as they will be running the night on a monthly basis from now on.

Sophie said, “We are so excited about the guest artists that will be appearing. Martin Daws was runner up in the John Tripp Award earlier on this year and is a truly inspirational performer. Also, Laura Leigh (who used to write the Evening Leader’s ‘The Scene’ column) will be playing an acoustic set and she has such a beautiful voice. We’ve got some slam poetry and some really avant-garde stuff going on too.”

Sophie first became interested in poetry when she studied a Ba Hons in English Literature at NEWI and has thrown herself into the world of the spoken word ever since. She has since had her poetry published internationally and performs at venues across the North West and Wales.

Andy has a background in design, visual arts and an unhealthy obsession with music.  He said, “We have plans to grow TheAbsurd to a full festival next summer, but for this year we are concentrating on these monthly events to build up interest and hopefully meet new artists in the local area.”

There will be limited open floor spaces available for any budding poets or musicians to get up and do a brief piece, and free tapas from 7pm.

For further information you can visit the couple’s myspace page at www.myspace.com/theabsurduk or contact sophie@theabsurd.co.uk

The next TheAbsurd events will be on May 22nd and June 19th.

Andy, James, Steve and Phill (who has recently replaced Goundry on Bass) have a few gigs lined up over the next coming months:

• 16th May - Llangollen Town Hall
• 17th May - Mad Ferret, Preston
• 23rd May - Centenary Club, Wrexham
• 31st May - 10 Feet Tall, Cardiff
• 6th June - Saki Bar, Manchester
• 19th June - Yales Bar, Wrexham
• 18th July - Nostock Festival, Hereford
• 29th August - Llangollen Balloon Festival

Links:

myspace.com/therosevilleband
www.therosevilleband.co.uk

Above is a little peak at a set of photo’s by Lense Eyes from the Mystery Jets gig at Central Station on Tuesday 6th May 2008.

For the full photo set, click here.

Below is a video of them performing ‘Diamonds in the Dark‘ at the gig:

Encompassing 2 days, 4 stages, 60 bands, and a capacity for 3000 people, The Square Festival is a new event located 50 meters from the Irish sea in the beautifully idyllic landscape of rural North West Wales on 26th-27th July 2008.

Below is the lowdown from the festival organisers:

“We want this festival to be a ran like a community, we believe the crowd are the festival; and we want them to be involved.

The crowd is encouraged to participate in the Square festival itself, with a cabaret tent being open to all of those creative people out there who fancy a show off, whether it be music, stand up comedy, poetry readings or anything else you can think of to entertain us!

At our acoustic/world music stage, you can expect Gypsy, Klezmer, European and Balkan Beats. You’re bound to hear an array of interesting beats from the continent and beyond. In the dance tent you will hear sounds from our loved and local DJs as well as other talented DJs from the South, North and East.

We are actively promoting green living, new music, Welsh music, local arts, air guitar, youth involvement, life with an open mind and free speech. Away from the music there are teepees, extreme sports demonstrations, music and art workshops, plus much more.

Proceeds from the Square festival will go towards the local community, and developing musical talent in the area.”

Ticket info

£25 early bird ticket. £35 thereafter.
Tickets are available at www.thesquarefestival.com

Give your ears a treat and listen to ‘Voila Une Femme’, ‘Age of Saints’, ‘Grossberger’, ‘Cat Knife’, ‘Castell’ at myspace.com/motherofsix

You can see them play at the following dates:
23rd May - The Racecourse, Wrexham
21st June - Frog and Nightingale, Chester