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Single Reviews - Hey Negrita - Old Britannia by Steve Rudd
	Following-up their marvellous Devil In My Shoes single in captivating style, this is the second single from Hey Negrita, a London quartet that deserves to be huge. Pushing an intriguing style of music, elements of new-wave 'Country' and 'Pop' music dominate the lush and simply lovely sound. Old Britannia Read more...

Music News - Press Release - Introducing Paparazzi Whore
	Bass driven glam punk with attitude is how people are describing Paparazzi Whore. DJ Steve Lamacq is currently playing the first track I Don't Think So from their debut album I'd Rather be Infamous Than Famous. Also, Claire Sturgess from XFM has made them Unsigned Band of the Week. Pulse Rated Hot Trax are now playing the second track Read more...

Album/CD Reviews - Ricky - High Speed Silence (Beat Crazy Records) By Nick Quantrill
	Ricky were undoubtedly one of the music industry's success stories of 2004. Sheer determination, effort and no little talent saw the band's self-released single hit the national charts and the accompanying debut album receive a four-star review in 'Q' magazine. Now signed to Beat Crazy Records, their debut release for the label, Stop Knocking The Read more...

Music News - Ricky visit Hull Schools - 20th September 2005
	Jim Lines and Gary Rex of Portsmouth based band Ricky visited Hull as part of the relentless process of recording local school children performing a football chant. This is for their forthcoming single, a football inspired indie-anthem for the 2006 World Cup finals in Germany. The premise is simple; wouldn't it be great to have the sound of a massive crowd at the beginning of the song to really add some Read more...

Music News - PRESS RELEASE - Bob Sinclair 'In The House' 3XCD Compilation (Defected Records) Release Date: 5th September 05
	Ladies and gentlemen, Bob Sinclar is In The House 20 years of frisky Parisian eclecticism shapes the first ever mix CD - plus a full-length, lounge-tinged Latin bonus disc - from music's premier playboy superstar. 'French music was always horrible,' says DJ and producer Christophe Le Friant, aka Bob Sinclar. 'I was ashamed once to have French tracks in my record case. Read more...

Album Reviews - The Answer - Keep Believin' (EP Release/ALBERT) Reviewed By Steve Rudd
	When a band like The Darkness requests that your band open for them at the Brixton Academy, then you surely know that you are onto a very good thing indeed. This is what happened to this truly awesome band in The Answer, who are busting out of Downpatrick in Ireland with a metaphorical fistful of dynamite and an aching ambition Read more...

Album Reviews - Fuji Heavy - Demo By Steve Rudd
	One of the most magnificently original and shamelessly eccentric demos that I've heard in absolutely ages, these three tracks from this refreshing Brighton band might just blow you away for good. The type of music herein is almost impossible to categorise, as the delightfully contemporary Prog-Rock Sunburn hurls itself at you in a most explosively Read more...

Album Reviews - The Apostacy - Demo By Steve Rudd
	What to expect from a band that opens up a demo with a song entitled Asparagus? Well, this slick rock-loving trio are no way as boring as asparagus, with such a tune in fact having roots in blazing Funk-Metal folds, as front man Shaun Garner sings and plays guitar as though System Of A Down are his favourite God-damned rock band since time began. Read more...

Album Reviews - Edwina Hayes - Out On My Own (Radar) By Steve Rudd
	I came to know and love the music of Edwina Hayes, who was born in Dublin, via something of a simple twist of fate. I was reading my local paper - The Driffield Times - and there was an article in there mentioning Edwina's music. Strange, I thought - I've heard of Edwina and have previously read good things about her and her music, but why Read more...

Music News - Mr Beasley - Radio 1 Tip Hull Band's Debut Single! By Matt Hill
	With Radio 1's One World show playing their debut white label single, this month Neon charts in DJ Magazine's top 40. So who are Mr Beasley and what's this new music they're making? After a few years of jamming, Bobby, Matt and Will met singer Sarah a year or so ago, and started to get some concrete ideas together. For the recent live gigs James has joined the line up on guitar Read more...

Album Reviews - Marissa Nadler - The Saga Of Mayflower May (Beautiful Happiness) By Steve Rudd
	This album certainly won't be to all tastes, and it's very unlikely that we'll hear any of Marissa's music in the charts anytime soon. Still, that is no reflection whatsoever on the quality or the originality of the music. It's simply that Marissa's music unfortunately isn't the type to really permeate into the mainstream, with one of the primary reasons being Read more...

Music, Album Reviews - A Certain Type of Person - The Great Bishop Robbery EP II By Michelle Dee
	I didn't go out today; instead I reached for the attractively packaged seven- track EP from Sheffield band A Certain Type of Person. They are a folk tinged five-piece with an eye for detail and unusual instrumentation including organs and vibraphones. At times the gentle acoustic sound is reminiscent of our own folk advocates Cowfish albeit with a more gravel laden Levellers style lead vocal. Read more...

Album Reviews - Foreign Sun Demo By Steve Rudd
	I first came to know of this Hull-based band back in 2000 when I was lucky enough to catch one of their gigs at the Hull Adelphi venue. Back then, I was stunned. Here and now, I'm gob smacked. Pretty soon after I saw the band, Foreign Sun seemed to disappear, but between then and now the band front man Rich Goldspink has been knuckling Read more...

Album Reviews - Love As Laughter - Laughter's Fifth (Sub-Pop) By Steve Rudd
	This Alternative American rock band is the brainchild of Sam Jayne, who has been releasing LAL-affiliated work since 1996, with this astonishingly brilliant 11-track LP being the band's fifth album. Laughter's Fifth was recorded in Sam's friend's basement over the course of five months in Delaware (that area in the USA that Wayne and Garth blatantly Read more...

Album Reviews - Steve Reed - I Have To Go By Nick Quantrill
	I Have To Go is the debut full-length release from Hull based singer-songwriter, Steve Reed. His debut release, And So On And So Forth was a promising, yet ultimately one-dimensional record that nevertheless showcased the potential of his considered approach to guitar pop. This new release sees significant steps Read more...

Album Reviews - David Wrench - The Atomic World of Tomorrow By Steve Rudd
	This ten-song-strong masterpiece of an LP is in a league of its own, as this David Wrench character proves to be something of an Alt-Pop-loving genius in his own right. Boldly opening with World War 4, this upbeat tune is literally out of this world and heaving with the chorus-based pop elements of Erasure and Duran Duran in their musical prime. Read more...

Album Reviews - Emma Rugg - Oceans / Depart EP By Steve Rudd
	Since Hull singer-songwriter Emma released her fabulous debut album Isolated Impression, her song writing style has changed somewhat, with this five-track EP being the perfect showcase for two brand new songs (in Oceans and Depart), along with appearances from her older tunes When I Looked At You and Prelude To The End Read more...

Singles Reviews - Chart Review 18th July 2005 with DJ Chris Plant
	Sorry I haven't done any chart reviews in a while. I've been busy with my American girlfriend. Well, we have a new Number One single this week. Just for a change it isn't a new release that has been hyped to the hills or a record bought in bulk by a small hardcore of fans that will struggle to appeal to a wider Read more...

Single Reviews - Morning Runner - Gone Up In Flames (Parlophone) By Steve Rudd
	Morning Runner are fast-becoming one of the nation's most exciting rock bands, and here they follow-up their fabulous Drawing Shapes EP with yet another masterpiece of a tune that is in truth an epic anthem. Their second single Gone Up In Flames is an upbeat and fast-paced pop-rock cut of staggering and mesmerising proportions, and their sublime and emotion-toiling sound might remind some folk of Terris. Read more...

Single Reviews - The Blue Van - Revelation of Love (TVT) By Steve Rudd
	It isn't every day that a quality rock band sails across the North Sea with such bold and ambitious intentions as Denmark outfit The Blue Van. This is their debut single which is taken from their Art Of Rolling album, with this tune being unflinchingly propelled by a rock hard angular guitar riff that attacks the senses like a sledgehammer to the groin. Read more...

Album Reviews - Ipanema - Me Me Me (Boss Tuneage Records) By Nick Quantrill
	Me Me Me is the debut mini-album from Hampshire based punk-rockers, Ipanema. Without falling wholly into the punk or rock camp, Ipanema are hammering out guitar heavy tunes that rock with the best of them, whilst still retaining an infectiously fresh melodic approach. The welding together of big guitar riffs with harmonies and up-lifting choruses maybe isn't that surprising Read more...

Single Reviews - Idlewild - El Capitan (EMI) By Steve Rudd
	Idlewild have been strutting their rock wares now for the best part of ten years, and yet their music is still constantly surprising and genuinely thrilling. This single release comes from the quintet's latest, and arguably greatest, album in Warnings/ Promises, and is even more of a sad, sad song than their Love Steals us From Loneliness anthem that has Read more...

Music, Bands - Tidy Mind Band Biog
	Tidy Mind are ... James Atkinson - Vocals/Rhythm Guitar. Lyle Jarvis - Lead Guitar. Rich titch Lovelock - Drums. little Mikey Goulding - Bass Guitar. Tidy Mind is a Psychedelic Blues-Rock band. The band came together when Lyle and James became friends a few years ago and started jamming occasionally, hoping that one day Read more...

Album Reviews - Screaming Tarts Compilation Album By Steve Rudd
	A genuinely thrilling compilation album can often be impossible to find, so this refreshing blast of largely Glam-garnished rock 'n' roll action is welcome relief indeed. Especially in this day and age when so many people still think that the pop-pouting Now releases are the ultimate be-all and end-all of compilation albums. This 17-track wonder, Read more...

Album Reviews - Jeff Caudill - Here's What You Should Do (Fortunate Son Records) By Nick Quantrill
	If evidence was ever needed that old punks don't die, they transform into singer-songwriters with an itch to scratch, Jeff Caudill personifies this. Cutting his teeth fronting acclaimed US pop-punkers Gameface, his solo career sees him ease his foot off the pedal and kick-back without losing any impact or bite. Caudill's trump-card is his ability to craft instantly memorable songs that swing with Read more...

Album Reviews - The Vultures - Rebel Yelp By Caroline Murphy Photos - 23rd April 05 at The Adelphi By Michelle Dee
	Listening to this 6+ track EP conjured up images of black drain pipes and pudding basin haircuts, the retro 60's feel seeped from every groove. The distinctive guitar riffs and rhythm in most of the tracks could have come straight from the dark and smoky atmosphere of The Cavern, and I'm sure The Vultures dream that their success will equal that of the most famous band to come Read more...

Single Reviews - Be There (Freezer Recordings) By Steve Rudd
	This single is heart-warming indie-pop music of the highest order, from a fresh quartet that is fronted by the naturally talented singer and guitarist Leon Black. The band's chirpy Be There anthem is a perfect summer-suited tune for the masses to smile along to, being an electro-edged gem - and hugely commercial to boot. B-side Prozac Generation is just as poppy, while the Dirty Blue Gene Read more...

Single Reviews - Tsar - Band-Girls-Money (TVT) By Steve Rudd
	This cracking single is taken from the band's latest album, the follow-up to their debut LP that came out some five years ago, back in the year 2000. Tsar hail from LA where they have a strong following, but more and more people over here in the UK are fast -tracking their passions in favour of Tsar and their quest for worldwide domination. Read more...

Single Reviews - The Jim Muir Slideshow - Tomorrow's World, Today (Bowmans Capsule Records) By Nick Quantrill
	Tomorrow's Word, Today is the final part of a trilogy of releases from The Jim Muir Slideshow. Conceived as a refuge from the stresses of working in the medical profession, the trilogy started with the initial aim of ensuring the sanity of its participants. A single of the week award from The Guardian Read more...

Singles Reviews - Chart Review 13th June 2005 with DJ Chris Plant
	I had an unfortunate experience on Sunday evening. A long car journey meant that just for a change I was in a position to listen to the chart show on a certain national radio station. You'll know the one I mean, the one that used to have a host that actually cared about what he was playing and what it meant for each artist to have each chart position. Read more...