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Last Updated: 20/08/2008 15:37:16
Steve Rudd has been writing for thisisUll.com
for some time and has proved himself to be one of our most talented writers.
Steve's contributions are listed below..
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Album Reviews -
Ron Sexsmith - Retriever (Parlophone)
By Steve Rudd
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Ever since the early 90's, and the 1991 release of Grand Opera Lane, Ron
has been making sublime music - and has even had some of his songs covered
by the superstar likes of Rod Stewart and Elton John.
This 12-track album is a beautifully conceived affair, and a mixture of
upbeat
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Single Reviews - The Departure - Be My Enemy (EMI)
By Steve Rudd
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Northampton dudes The Departure are dutifully setting the rock 'n' roll-loving nation
alight with their upbeat and hugely melodic brand of excellence.
Would you be my enemy? It's easier that way!, sings versatile vocalist David Jones,
as the band behind him
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Single Reviews -
Sum 41 - We're All To Blame (Mercury)
By Steve Rudd
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After almost a year of keeping well away from the spotlight, these four Canadian boys
are back - and with a truly almighty bang.
Just because there hasn't been any Sum 41 releases for a while, though,
doesn't mean they've been living the easy life. In fact,
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Single Reviews -
The Landaus - What Ya Cryin' For (3-tracks / Dagalost) By Steve Rudd
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The Landaus, over the past year, have come to be rightfully regarded as one of the best rock 'n' roll bands in the Hull area.
This three-track single is arguably their most accomplished and impressive release so far,
fronted by the title track in What Ya Cryin For: a supremely
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Reviews, Books - The Hard Shoulder by Chris Petit
By Steve Rudd
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Focusing on how a fresh-out-of-prison man copes and slowly re-adjusts to life on the outside,
The Hard Shoulder is an exceptional novel - and primarily enthralling for being both a
thriller and poignant drama.
O'Grady is the man who has been released from prison
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Single Reviews -
The Others - Stan Bowles (Poptones)
By Steve Rudd
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These guys have reveled in one hell of a year, going to inspirational extremes in the art of
self-publicity for their Alternative poppy and punky rock 'n' roll band.
The likes of Embrace and The Libertines have long been applauded by fans for
staging secret
gigs in
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Single Reviews -
Kaiser Chiefs - I Predict a Riot (B-Unique)
By Steve Rudd
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There's no sense in beating around any bush: this Leeds five-piece is
one white-hot rock outfit - and it seems certain that these Yorkshire boys
are going to more than ingratiate themselves and their incredibly catchy
music to the masses in the coming few months.
The telltale
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Music Reviews - Biffy Clyro and This Girl at Asylum 24th September 2004 By Steve Rudd, Photos by Darren Rogers
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If only I knew that the gigs at Asylum start earlier than most gigs.
The Asylum, for those that don't know, is all swanky part and glorious parcel of
the Hull University Campus (off Cottingham Road) - and, of-late, the venue has been
welcoming a whole host of incredible talent.
The gigs there tend to start just
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Reviews, Books - Running With The Moon by Jonny Bealby
By Steve Rudd
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I was the pebble in the catapult, pulled back to breaking point, about to be sent hurtling
towards whatever destiny had in store. Total freedom. At that moment I wouldn't have
changed places with anyone. That's how Jonny Bealby felt upon arriving in
Africa with his friend
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Single Reviews - Daniel Rachel - Dear Friend (Dust Records)
By Steve Rudd
Release Date: September 27th 2004.
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Daniel Rachel, as a style-conscious solo singer-songwriter, is
truly to be treasured. I couldn't recommend his work more, so seek it here, seek it there.
Then slip it on, stand back.. and listen. No, I mean really listen.
Dear Friend is an astonishing song, crisp with twin acoustic guitar-based purity that
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Poetry - From Kathman to San Fran By Steve Rudd
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From Kathman to San Fran
Round the canyon and then some
Routine cheques withheld ransom
I'm gonna go get 'em..
From the same toilet seat, contracting curry house blues
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Album Reviews -
Koreisch - The Decaying Schizophrenic Christ Complex (Calculated Risk) By Steve Rudd
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This 14-track album is actually a re-release, although it has been remixed
and remastered and so might still appeal to folk who bought this monster the
first time around in the late nineties.
Such folk would have been of the variety that is obsessed with hardcore rock
to manic
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Album Reviews -
Three Movements - Electricity Wiped out Heaven (Calculated Risk) By Steve Rudd
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If you've got half an hour of your life to spare for this 6-track mini-album,
then good for you - it's nigh impossible to be disappointed by the raving beauty
and dynamic musicianship on offer.
The atmospheric, haunting subtlety of instrumental opener Awaken is so
breathtaking that
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Reviews, Books - David Bowie: Theatre of Music by Robert Matthew-Walker By Steve Rudd
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Although this book was published way back in 1985, it still provides a fascinating insight
into David's personal life and his music up to such a point in time, giving a summary of
the circumstances around his birth and childhood before naturally progressing onto how
he first became interested
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Album Reviews -
Hayley Hutchinson - Independently Blue (album/ R N R Music) By Steve Rudd
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This 12-track, 43-minute album is packed with some of the most beautiful and heart-breaking
songs that I've heard in years, and singer-songwriter Hayley - now living and working
from her base in York after a childhood brought up in Scotland - is only in her early twenties.
Listening to these astonishing tunes, all of which
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Album Reviews -
We Start Fires - Caught Red Handed (11 tracks/Head Girl) By Steve Rudd
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Proudly keeping the DIY punk spirit alive, Darlington quartet We Start Fires
(in which female members outnumber the male contingency three to one) aren't ones
to wait around for a record company exec to get out his chequebook.
They believe in their music to such an extent (which they
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Album Reviews -
The Boxer Rebellion - Code Red (single/ Mercury) By Steve Rudd
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These guys have led a lucky couple of years since Alan McGee spotted them playing their hearts out
in the New Bands tent at Glastonbury.
So impressed was he that he signed them up to his Poptones label, through which two severely
limited edition/ scandalously sought after
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Reviews, Books - A Cold Day In Paradise by Steve Hamilton, By Steve Rudd
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Steve Hamilton's incredibly exciting writing vibrantly blasts out of much
the same gun-toting gauntlet as Joe R Lansdale's writing, despite the fact
that both these American action-thriller novelists couldn't really live
farther apart from the other.
Lansdale lives and sets
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Music Reviews -
Morrissey and The Dead 60's on Monday 6th September at Bridlington Spa By Steve Rudd.
Photos By Darren Rogers
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What can I say, other than what an amazing night!
Support band The Dead 60's, who took on the mighty stage at
8pm sharp for their half-hour set, were so brilliant that I'd almost forgotten
that Morrissey was still to come after them. The Dead 60's
are a young quintet impeccably
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Going Down -
The Leeds Festival, Bramham Park August Bank Holiday Weekend 2004 By Steve Rudd
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One of the finest rock-orientated festivals of any given summer season, this was the second time that
the massive 3-day event was held at Bramham Park, which is a beautiful site on the eastern fringes of
Leeds - and that has previously been used for horse trials.
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Reviews, Books - The Goodbye People by Gavin Lambert,
By Steve Rudd
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Loneliness doesn't consist of not having friends. Loneliness has nothing to do with that! It's being unable to express your deepest feelings and most private thoughts.
This novel is one of my favourite pieces of fiction, with the author Lambert's fresh writing style zestfully
spurting in
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Reviews, Books - Cold In July by Joe R. Lansdale,
By Steve Rudd
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This Texan author is surely one of the hottest 'action-thriller' writers of his generation.
An expert in martial arts himself, his stories are always graced with superb plots and graphically
violent action set-pieces that he describes so well I would have thought movie producers in Hollywood
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Album Reviews -
Cathy Davey - Something Ilk (album/ Regal) By Steve Rudd
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This 14-track release is an infinitely interesting and beautifully conceived album, opened with Come Over,
which is reminiscent of the sultry sounds that Italian-born singer-songwriter Elena is making.
Complete with a cool riff and sexed-up PJ Harvey-esque swagger, this is
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Reviews, Books - Big Sur by Jack Kerouac
By Steve Rudd
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It's the little things that count. On my deathbed I could be remembering that creek day and
forgetting the day MGM bought my book.
Another classic novel from Beat-generation master Kerouac, Big Sur brings the reader up
to speed on how the writer
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Single Reviews - Yellowcard - Ocean Avenue (Parlophone) By Steve Rudd
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Release Date: September 6th 2004.
It's been one hell of a couple of years for this American pop-punk-rock quintet, and deservedly so.
This is the title track from their ever-so-popular Ocean Avenue album that was released to instant
acclaim earlier this year, and - somewhat
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Single Reviews - Sam Roberts Band - Brother Down
By Steve Rudd
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Release Date: August 30th 2004.
This guy - and his band - has long been big business in Canada from where they hail, going so far as
to be awarded with Best Artist and Best Album awards at this year's Juno Awards.
Now it's time for the UK to see and hear what all the amassed fuss
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Single Reviews - The Hot Puppies - Green Eyeliner (single/ PURR) By Steve Rudd
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Release Date: September 27th 2004.
I've got a funny feeling that this Aberystwyth quintet is about to become very well known indeed
over here in England, following a prolonged spell of relative fame in Wales, courtesy of their
last Dawn Of Man release
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Reviews, Books - Hemingway's Chair by Michael Palin
By Steve Rudd
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Bearing in mind that Michael Palin has literally travelled around the world and back (and them some),
you'd think that his debut novel might be, well, a little more exciting!
But far from setting it in hot-&-bothered LA or in and amongst the manic metropolis of Tokyo,
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Single Reviews -
The Beastie Boys, Death Cab For Cutie and The Departure By Steve Rudd
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After all these years, The Beastie Boys are still making amazing music, here
presenting the second single of 2004 from their To The 5 Boroughs album.
These Manhattan-obsessed guys have long been respected for their refreshing fusion of
rap, hip-hop and dance elements, and if
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Reviews, Films - Catwoman UK Movie Premiere at Leicester Square, London Tuesday 3rd August By Steve Rudd
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Ok, close your eyes, listen carefully and think hard. Where on earth can you see - and potentially -
meet the likes of Halle Berry, Sharon Stone, Benjamin Bratt, Will Smith and David Hasselhoff
(no, seriously!) in the space of just two days?
I'll give you a clue if you haven't sussed it out already and
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Music Reviews - Yo-Yo presents Pete Docherty and The Paddingtons At The Welly - Sat 14th Aug By Steve Rudd
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The Welly Club (about a mile away from the train station and down Beverley Road,
for those who might not know) is fast becoming the hottest venue in the city
in which to check out quality bands, both old and new.
Tonight's almost instantaneously SOLD-OUT gig was
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Music Reviews - The Displacements at the Polar Bear By Steve Rudd
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Three bands were on for what was the Polar Bear's first ever Melodic Punk/Grunge/Ska type night.
A fairly large crowd saw all girl band Black Orchid, Green Ginger and headliners Displacements all contributing to an extremely successful night.
So successful that the organiser said that despite it
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Reviews, Books - Roads by Larry McMurtry
By Steve Rudd
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Better known for his novel writing than his travel writing, Texan man McMurtry's
most famous works include the epic Western story of Lonesome Dove,
and the tear-jerking Terms Of Endearment and The Evening Star.
For much of his life he's been a keen collector of books
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Reviews, Books - Silk Dreams, Troubled Road by Jonny Bealby, By Steve Rudd
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The third and final travel book in a fascinating and most exhilarating trilogy, this
epic account follows Jonny across the mountains of heaven on the Old Silk Road, from
Kashgar to the Caspian Sea. Or thereabouts, given that the horses on which Jonny and
'friend' travel are often beset
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Single Reviews -
Ryan Adams, The Divine Comedy and The Beta Band By Steve Rudd
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Something of a bizarre choice of song for this North Carolina-hailing genius to cover,
but Ryan sings and plays this Oasis classic anthem wonderfully.. and, in doing so,
stamps an astonishingly original seal of style on the tune.
This cover version also actually features on his heart-attackingly
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Single Reviews -
Agent Blue, Cherry Falls and Elena
By Steve Rudd
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Brazenly busting out of Stoke-on-Trent, this punk-spirited rock 'n' roll bunch of boys
means business.
This is their second single, and although it is only 2 minutes 20 seconds in length,
the quality of the music more than outweighs the accompanying quantity.
Armed with
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Reviews, Books - Ash Wednesday by Ethan Hawke
By Steve Rudd
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The definition of grace is the ability to accept change.
I needed to start calculating my masculinity not by the amount of pussy I could grab,
or how many girls I could bang, but by how true I could be with one girl.
How infrequently I could lie. How often I could show up when I was needed.
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Reviews, Books - Lovely Green Eyes By Arnost Lustig
By Steve Rudd
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This is truly an extraordinary novel, written by a man who survived the horrors
of Auschwitz, and who lived in fact to tell his tale. Bizarrely though, this
isn't so much his tale as a girl's story.. a 15-year-old girl called Hanka who
lies about being a Jew to survive, and who becomes a prostitute in due course.
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Album Reviews -
Marlowe - Popularity Gel (single/ Probe Plus) By Steve Rudd
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With no fewer than eight band members involved, Marlowe songwriter and assumed ringleader
is a brave man by the name of Simon Bradshaw, who shares the vocal duties with
Chloe Mullett's sensual voice.
John Peel is alleged to be a big fan of the band, and their third album is already
on the way, so why
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Album Reviews -
Lowfive - Emergency Disaster Kit (album/ Music For Nations) By Steve Rudd
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Right from the opening tune Black Noise, the majority of this 12-track album can
best be described as radio-friendly rock 'n' roll for the masses.
Too Much Of Nothing is another bright and breezy slab of monumentally anthemic pop-rock,
while You Want It,
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Album Reviews - Razorlight - Up All Night (album/ Vertigo)
By Steve Rudd
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The rise and rise and rise and rise in popularity of Razorlight, frankly, has been utterly extraordinary.
It seems, in just a few precious weeks, that they have been elevated way above their hard-working class
roots into relative superstars, given the huge
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Album Reviews - X Is Loaded - Raw Nerve (album/ Music For Nations) By Steve Rudd
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This Bath-based band is one of the hottest and most exciting rock bands to really
step-out in the past couple of years, blasting out with sky-scraping Emo-rock guitars,
beguilingly soulful vocals (delivered by photogenic frontman Jake) and plenty of
on-stage energy necessary to enthrall anyone who has ever had
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Music Reviews- Bryan Adams, Proud Mary and Sketcher at the KC Stadium, Hull Saturday 26th June 04 By Steve Rudd
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St. Helens-based quartet Sketcher were something of a bizarre choice for the first support act
of the night, playing a damn fine brand of pop-punk music.
Still, they did what they were in a sense expected to do, and warmed-up the crowd to a
fantastic degree, with audience participation paramount (even if the extent of
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Music Reviews- The Levellers at Beverley Leisure Centre, Friday 18th June By Steve Rudd
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Spearheading the 21st celebrations of Beverley's mighty Folk Festival, I'll be honest - it took
me a while to grasp the fact that The Levellers were actually in the centre and
ready to play out their hearts, all-acoustically and in high spirits.
In support, a couple of Australian guys by the names
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Music Reviews -
The Bluetones, The Bonnitts, Bluesand at The Adelphi, Hull Thursday 17th June By Steve Rudd
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This was surely one of the greatest nights in the history of the Adelphi.
Over the past 20 years, almost every band that has been worth its weight in talent has
played here, and plenty have since gone on, in subsequent years, to become very
successful and well known indeed.. bands such as, for example, Oasis,
the Manic Street Preachers
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Music Reviews - Jet Plane Landing , Drive Like You Stole It & Delta Volts at Fibbers, York Friday 7th May 04 By Steve Rudd
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Progressive rock 'n' roll is the order of the day where the Delta Volts are concerned, their
intoxicatingly complex and mesmerising music bulldozing the foundations of all rock music that has been
and gone before.
Relying heavily and heartily on epic soundscapes and mighty guitar
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Music Reviews-York 21st April 04
Million Dead, X is Loaded, yourcodenameis:milo at Fibbers By Steve Rudd
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As the April rains raged outside, so did Newcastle quintet yourcodenameis:milo on the inside.
Strange name, you might think.. and they're an even stranger band, proudly presenting the sound of sheer carnage as three guitarists manhandle all manner of destructive and
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Music Reviews- The Levellers, The Mutts & 59 Violets at Hull City Hall - 29th March 04 By Steve Rudd
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The Levellers have to be applauded for consistently inviting some brilliant bands to support them on tour.
Back in December 2003, Brighton rockabilly outfit She Said did the honours brilliantly, and this time around - for their 14-date, Anti-Apathy UK Spring 2004 tour
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Album Reviews - The Trailers - From The Top - 7 track EP - By the Sea By Steve Rudd
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The DIY punk ethic is still alive and kicking, even down the East Coast of England in the semi-sunny seaside town of Bridlington.
While there aren't many great bands kicking-out of Bridlington at the moment (save for the mighty Goth-Rock spectacular that is Torso Horse)
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Music Reviews-
Electric Eel Shock & Antiproduct at The Kazbah, Scarborough 25th March 04 By Steve Rudd
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Antiproduct is the coolest and most exhilarating punk band since The Sex Pistols.
Stopping at nothing to put on the most entertaining show possible at every gig they play, this wacky quintet might be based in London, but they make it known loud-and-clear that they prefer
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Album Reviews - The Alarm - In The Poppyfields
(12-track album - Snapper Music - 2004) By Steve Rudd
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25 years down the punk-rock 'n' roll line and The Alarm - assembled around the ever-photogenic mainman Mike Peters - is still going strong.
In fact, the Cardiff-based Alarm's ringing louder than ever on the back of some fabulous media exposure that vaulted right around the world and back because of the fact that Mike craftily decided
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Articles - The Oscars 2004 By Steve Rudd
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The highlight of Hollywood's calendar, The Oscars seem to come around faster every year.
Our man in LA to report back to Britain on proceedings was Film 2004 face Jonathan Ross who didn't do a bad job at all, but seemed hampered by his panel of three accompanying guests in the form of Welsh (supposed) funnyman
Rob Brydon, and the impersonating duo of Ronni
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Music Band News - This is Your New Home - Superscape
(3 track single) By Steve Rudd
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Yet another of the seemingly never-ending line of genuinely brilliant bands emanating from the grand city of Hull, tucked to the East of the mighty proud county of Yorkshire, Superscape are a quintet with much to offer anybody who's sick and tired of rock bands who are obsessed with supporting the more hardcore and Emo slants..
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Poetry - When You're Ready and Resolve By Steve Rudd
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We made a pact
At the last filling station
Interstate M62..
I was so proud of you
You'd never normally say boo..
Who drove you to rebel?
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