2022 Term Freshers

AWEtumn 2021, hope that you are having fun.

SHADE, EBGS, Liverpool Sound City Festival, 2 October 2021

Many musicians have 2022 plans pencilled since “post-lockdown” days. TheZineUK doc’s most recent pix-diary - July 2021 (thank you for the many reads, already) - felt like a new dawn.

Whether it was the necessity for heroic England FC to lose THAT historic match and open truth gates, or how Generation Tremorists are super-glued into this tapestry.

All ages, backgrounds and ability fused with all arts (i.e. “Nature”) = uniqulture in genre-fluid ACTion.

Take the force of Nature known as Tiger Mimic.

Here’s a live version of their newly released single, ‘Silence Of The Night’. The one-band dramarock scene are a gateway into the grassroots music (r)Evolution. Also, this summer, they were to be found supportively in the audience of their peers. Musicians, creators, connectors - organically they rise. Get Tiger Mimic on your #2022SoundsLike radar.

In the July issue, Tech (Flare Audio) and Industry (Music Venue Trust) threads are woven with Tim Burgess’s Twitter Listening Parties into must have audio-joy headphones (OK, we just photographed Tim through a window at The Great Escape 2017, but hey - it’s all meant to be).

Situationist magick also gifted us an early Freedom Day at SNCFest. Music world’s Jean Genie, is “The Bringer Of Sunshine”. She really did inspire warmth THAT hot, hot weekend! JG is so key to the new music scenes that this is key to our documenting. July’s saw Manchester’s SHADE start to bloom and lovely Denise Johnson never forgotten (while she also helped raise over £18,000 for Music Venue Trust).

TheZineUK story has declared an Interdependent Music Industrious. The elements consistently prove themselves. Sussex/Kent’s End Of The Trail and Kick Out The Jams are increasingly industry/media hook up hang outs - and more of us getting away from our home towns again. Check out the multi-tasking energy pulsing from Weekend Recovery as a great example.

Sneak preview of the August issue

Bruvs out supporting the sisters-fronted-pop star turns (Cruel Hearts Club, Cat SFX, Kin and Mango In Euphoria) who were playing Kick Out The Jams that evening. Ace to see The Gulps, Alan McGee and Carl Barat back at ArtBeat HQ (Amersham Arms) - amidst a flock of flock of industry and media. (Carl is also the venue’s Halloween DJ).

Sister’s are doing it for themselves.

Louise Schofield and Megan Wyn, mid September 2021, This Feeling at Isle Of Wight Festival.

In September, July’s cover star, Louise Schofield, conducted a series of chats for TheZineUK at Isle Of Wight Festival’s buzzing (and then some!) This Feeling Stage - where she also DJd.

A theme of 2021 interviews from TF’s Zone is the artists talking about the art pumped newer wave of industry mixing DIY with ethics and opportunities.

Isle Of Wight Fest head, John Giddings, acknowledges This Feeling being a rung on the ladder for artists towards bigger stages.

To The Chase, Spyres, Lock-In and The Skinner Brothers interviews the Zine And Heard playlist has been updated with Tom Lumley & The Brave Liaison and Megan Wyn conversations. What is all this if not giving hope to the near future?

This month, the (very hard working and very modern) Louise - also presented for our friends, Modern Age, at SOMA Festival and for Modern Sky at Sound City Festival - then, at Manchester’s The Yard, now hosts her own music show, Spill The Sound (first guest is Julia Bardo). Joe Cross (The Courteeners) composed the defining theme music. Interdependent.

“Lullaby Lou” is a gateway into what’s really going on - as is another of our crew, Monefa Walker, who graced September with such an awesome observation: “Let Me Tell You About Artists” - click this link for the full post, it’s a 2021 classic)

Our writer and punky Music People Party host - Monefa Walker - became a released, classical music recording artist this year (on Anita Maj’s Lil Minx Records). Keira Annee photography

Continuing to cut n paste n report, especially over the last two years has created a new, super hero cross breed of emerging artists in TheZineUK.

The cast and crew keeps growing through ups and downs, life and death, changes, failures and achievements for all of us.

Aaaahh… All those cutie pie baby faces, new to this world, courtesy of our friends, urge us to keep making as much wonder in the world as possible for decades of generation tremorists and love for children of all ages.

On the artist side, everybody is brand new again from mid July 2021 and TheZineUK, as a community of creatives, is so here for it.

Big up the high profile media getting involved over the last couple of years (NME with Music Venue Trust and the FAC, while featuring rising stars Nova Twins and Bob Vylan) who are also connected to both of these essential industry shakers - (both bands have also played Amersham Arms - the latter at this weekend’s punk rocked, New Cross wide #TillTheFest).

A uniqulture of positivity is blooming in the #FertileEnvironment - without permission of the hostile environment.

As Diary/Events Department, I’ve lived through decades when these talents/TheZineUK team weren’t yet born - I assure you NOBODY has “seen/heard it all before”, only tedious fuckwits imagine that. Note how generation tremorists like Pint Sized Punk and MASHZINE (who stage a show in New Cross on 19th October) ain’t hung up on stale journalism values.

This year, via End Of The Trail, Roobi TV, Amersham Arms and Sound City, I’ve found myself (again!) grinning in the audience of a Polarized Eyes gig. (It’s not an accident, it’s LOVE!)

Come on, friends, keep the 20s Roaring!

Me me me. Continued. From August to October I’ve adventured outta Deptford Fun City! It’s so emotional to return to cities that I’ve been free to visit all my life pre-pandemic. So many memories flood the senses. There are myriad artists at all levels, to soundtrack our times (including a 2022 Billie Eilish Glastonbury headline set).

Win fucking WIN the future.

TheZineUK day out, Friday 1st October!

Not a pic of the Manics but a reminder of the thrilled anticipation I was feeling, just going to the bar before their set.

(Dizzy Spell - TheZineUK Editor (NHS professional who also became a released recording artist this year) and myself Caffy - Events Department).

We were time out gal pals in Stoke On Trent for the Manics (thank you our Gill for the tickets and a right royal view).

We sang our hearts out to a rock band with decades of chart hits on top of their entertaining, and ever politically relevant, poignant, national treasure game).

Melancholic new album, ‘The Ultra Vivid Lament’, is affecting - yet uplifting.

Look out for actual Manics images in the next issues from our fab Dead End Doll, Lorna Cort (whose photography graces the Manic Street Preachers special edition of Record Collector). Gwan Zeenagers!

2nd October - Liverpool/Loverpool is sound.

Oliver Clare of SHADE assisting MOSES with the kit at Sound City Festival. End Of The Trail - another industry shaker with opportunies.

I was at the buzzy AF End Of The Trail Sound City Festival stage - friendly faces and fun in EBGBs - WITH guitars.

Some of us were documenting the near future of Ones To Watch off stage in the rain, between the live sets, also.

Results coming in for ALL the line up of that day (and I’m only writing this ten days later!)

I came back from Liverpool seeing light at the end of this murderous tunnel called NOW.

That hope continued on 6th October ArtBeat staged it’s first proper gig since 2019.

Yay, TheZineUK Events Department is back, gonna be looking at 2022 wishfully staging events.

Full circle back to Amersham Arms in New Cross.

Brand new exciters, Helve, headlined an electric evening - again, movershakers like the above mentioned Jeanie, Monefa alongside Lisa of Knight PR, Paul Joyzine, the band’s (key) producer Harri Chambers (Yard Act etc) and the door host we love most, Sonja Amoretti in the house. This story would not be the same without them all.

Helve then picked up a last-minute, bigger stage show supporting The Howl & The Hum at the 500+ capacity Gorilla in Manchester a few days later and release the second part of their debut single, ‘Snakes And Ladders’ on 15th October before gracing Live At Leeds Festival . (Events Department works with various artists connected by interdependence and story telling. DIY promoting is part of the picture when music media is a different concept - especially in the last decade. Adapting daily).

A minute and a half of something very much happening - as we say - under the radar and over the rainbow. We can only point you in the direction of these artists and let you have your own opinion.

Friday 8th October, SHADE released a trippy-tempo-tangent new single ‘Fallen Skies’. It was produced by Gavin Monaghan at Magic Garden Studios in Wolverhampton (“the urban Rockfield” and released on Fear Records - another of the industrious independents)

Photography by Blue Shift Studios

Heard on telly (Champions League/BT Sport) it also received ‘Track Of The Day’ accolades, XS Manchester Radio playlist and is a bona fide iTunes chart Top 5.

Saturday 9th October, they triumphantly headlined Manchester’s Night & Day with This Feeling (who are celebrating fifteen years of shaping the music world, this month).

TF have supported the band from early doors (and via this, they play the inaugural Sound Sounds Festival next April). #2022soundslike it rocks, already! I’m not the only person I know who is cautiously looking forward again.

The Newer Wave is a post-lockdown reality of artists who would not be out of place on BBC’s Later With Jools Holland (but some of them have been captured Earlier: GET ON! with Roobi TV).

WHAT a harvest above and that’s just a (pre Ghost Road Fest in November and CroCroLand hitting Manchester on 5th December!) fraction.

Now imagine involving these interwoven, blossoming stories into movies and campaigns for people power and the planet. Now is the time. Have faith in their songs . Support their good souls. Find the media who review and interview them. As they interact, harvest the potential of Britain Ireland’s Roaring 20s soundtrack of NOW. The interdependent music industrious is ON.

I repeat…

it’s an awesome AWEtumn 2021!

EBGBs, Liverpool

The Future Fest ethos punches up!

“There are SO many amazing and exciting bands within the UK alone, if anything the hard task is narrowing it down!” says Ghost Road Fest, an exciting new addition to the independent rock music festival circuit that debuts this November. More on that to follow.

Ah, but mainstream festivals…

Generic fame reflects society at mainstream level - and sells tickets.  The pandora's box of pandemica exposed so much socially and politically, music industry included, that without change from the top, an eternal circle of conversations about rebuilding better, go nowhere. With fear and loathing in las plagus, we’re a nation that needs to party, sing and dance together. Tickets will still sell if some credible curve balls thrown in, enhance reputation.

Corporate sponsors of the biggest events may see otherwise to the statements of good intent or presume that us DIY girlies ain't as good at entertaining or scouting.  The fact is, smaller festivals activate the cultural shift guidelines. “Cro Cro Land felt like a platform for tomorrow’s headliners to play a festival crowd. You know; the ones who haven’t necessarily come to see you but who fall in love with your band regardless.” (London In Stereo, whose reviewer fell for Nova Twins April 2019 - they play the main stage at Reading/Leeds Festivals this autumn)

There is often dismay at post lockdown bill announcements at a time when even next level talent is struggling. With up to three decades of the same names, old guard thinking looks dated without emerging star-turns injected as lifeblood. “Ironic there is a band on there called Scouting For Girls, which is how I feel every time I look at a festival poster.” noted Tiger Mimic of one event. This band (on the forthcoming Brits & Pieces II CD) are a face-the-stage commanding, alt-rock proposition who mix a little Queen into their tempo tangent punk. They play Jam On The Farm festival in July (tickets)

By 2021, when artists deserve acclaim for just surviving, the friction of mixing in a little risk invites extra thrill. Cosmic new discoveries please, or it's not a festival - it's just an outdoor concert in cosplay.

Impassioned independent media can decry, but still enjoy, major events. Mainstream journalists don't write/(know?) about art punky party love via a spectrum of scenes. True festival spirit is here:

Organic pioneers, the previously mentioned CroCroLand (2019, pix above), DecoloniseFest, Kick Out The Jams, This Feeling Club, Loud Women Fest etc. gift a (proven succesful) wealth of possibilities.

Eventually the “prickstock” mentality will go tits up as audiences change. “We are the future, stop fucking ignoring us”, Ms Mohammed told The Guardian newspaper (a clip from her set at the awesome and inclusively welcoming DecoloniseFest) - or, ignore and bore.

Bigger bookers, select your 2022 entry level artists with guitars from ground level curators. There’s wide acclaim to select. Hard work, talent (and (r)evolution) has EARNED it. #SaveOurVenues alumni contain (disproportionately fab) future heritage acts. Thank you John Kennedy (Radio X), a swathe of BBC Introducing/6 Music and a wealth of independent  music media who are getting this noticed.

Also take note of how the fresh scenes fizz femme power. Never mind the bollocks, here's all the genitals. At the skint bottom of some imaginary heap, largely being talked over. But… being talked about in crossbreeding spaces.  

Our voices are 4REAL. Agreeing to disagree, keeps it interesting, an all happening flourish of diversity in adversity amidst an array of achievements, often for good causes. Interdependence is where the true thrills-and-results-per-week exist. Says a DIY documentary of the action fraction.

Flavouring this surreal decade are affordable festivals with cracking guitars inclusion. Jam On The Farm (July 30th-31st) looks like a wow-some pick n mixed mix.

Autumn includes Wide Awake, (3rd September) Modern Age Music’s Soma Fest (4th) and before then, rad female fronted new ventures: ReclaimTheseStreetsFest in Sheffield on 7th August and No Man’s Land in Manchester on 14h August.

At #TheZineUK doc we are stoked to be involved in this Leeds and London weekender debuting in November…

“Ghost Road Fest was born out of an excitement to change how things are done post lockdown. I feel like with this much time off there's a real scope for change in how the industry is run. It's really disappointing there is still in 2021 an outcry for (god forbid) inclusivity within line-ups.

I've seen a few festival line ups released and it's still very male heavy - and it's not like there is only a handful of bands with female and trans representation that are 'good enough' to be playing these events! There are SO many amazing and exciting bands within the UK alone, if anything the hard task is narrowing it down!

Our festival has an 82% balance of acts with female or trans representation in - and I'd love to say I'm proud of that - but that should simply be the norm and not something to be highlighted. Alongside the festival we are also running a mentoring programme to encourage young adults to pursue their career within the music industry - something I think is very important - as they are the future of this industry and I strongly believe if you're educated within the correct surroundings then that is how you'll carry on that ethos.”

Lori of #GhostRoadFest

Written by a vintage West Indian rock chick who has promoted/booked artists and events at all levels, and is excited by the Fertile Environment.