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Our latest posts
  • [ August 5, 2026 ] Can’t Live With It, Can’t Live Without It: Tom Waits Can't Live with it, Can't Live without it
  • [ August 5, 2026 ] Paul McClure “The Good And The Bad Of It” Album Reviews
  • [ August 5, 2026 ] Artists with Hearts of Gold contribute to two more albums of Neil Young covers News
  • [ August 5, 2026 ] Greg Freeman announces new album and UK dates News
  • [ August 5, 2026 ] All-star line-up for Bob Harris event announced for Royal Albert Hall in December News
HomeFeaturesThe First Time

The First Time

Features

The First Time: Stiff Little Fingers, Dundee University Students Union – 30th October 1982

July 25, 2023 Andy Davidson 0
Suspect (Memory) Device. Forty Years on. As the deadline for this post approached the old memory would not oblige. I can remember bits. Travelling to Smokey’s Nightclub in Arbroath to catch the Associates. Alan Rankine’s father […]
Features

The First Time: Alasdair Fotheringham – The Alarm + Kissing Bandits + Mercenary Skank (Exeter University, 24th January 1984)

June 30, 2023 Alasdair Fotheringham 2
Warning to all The Alarm fans so they can stop reading this now – I didn’t enjoy their part of this gig at all. But weird as it sounds, no matter how disappointing (to me) the […]
Features

The First Time: Michael Macy – The Allman Brothers, Robards Sports Arena, Sarasota, 10th April 1971

June 20, 2023 Michael Macy 4
First, let me be straight – this isn’t about the first time I ever saw a live band.  I think my first live gig was a graduation dance when I was 14. I don’t remember the […]
Features

The First Time: Kimberly Bright – Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark and The Thompson Twins, Indianapolis Convention Center, 3rd December 1985

June 14, 2023 Kimberly Bright 0
I remember more about the circumstances around the Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark/Thompson Twins Tour for Future Days concert I attended in 1985 than the performances themselves, even though I was there as a die-hard OMD […]
Features

The First Time: Sean Hannam – Depeche Mode, Wembley Arena, London, 19th November 1990  

June 6, 2023 Sean Hannam 0
Strictly speaking, this wasn’t actually the first gig I attended, but it was the first major one I can remember going to without my parents and using my own money to pay for the ticket. In […]

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our latest posts

Can’t Live With It, Can’t Live Without It: Tom Waits

Can't Live with it, Can't Live without it
August 5, 2026 2

Paul McClure “The Good And The Bad Of It”

Album Reviews
August 5, 2026 0

Artists with Hearts of Gold contribute to two more albums of Neil Young covers

News
August 5, 2026 0

Greg Freeman announces new album and UK dates

News
August 5, 2026 0

All-star line-up for Bob Harris event announced for Royal Albert Hall in December

News
August 5, 2026 0
Can't Live with it, Can't Live without it

Can’t Live With It, Can’t Live Without It: Tom Waits

August 5, 2026 2
The musical influence of Tom Waits over the last seven decades has spanned far beyond what one might define as americana. His deep, gravely voice, has been described as having been soaked in a vat of […]
Album Reviews

Paul McClure “The Good And The Bad Of It”

August 5, 2026 0
The Rutland Troubadour returns for album number four. Paul McClure, on his fourth album, decided to go to pastures new and left the rural north and travelled south to East Sussex and the fine Bex-Pop Studios […]
News

Artists with Hearts of Gold contribute to two more albums of Neil Young covers

August 5, 2026 0
Includes tracks from My Morning Jacket, Lucinda Williams and MJ Lenderman among others. Cinema Music Group, Killphonic Records, and City Slang have announced Heart of Gold: The Songs of Neil Young, Vol. 2 – Out of […]

  • Can’t Live With It, Can’t Live Without It: Tom Waits
  • Paul McClure “The Good And The Bad Of It”
  • Artists with Hearts of Gold contribute to two more albums of Neil Young covers
  • Greg Freeman announces new album and UK dates
  • All-star line-up for Bob Harris event announced for Royal Albert Hall in December
  • Live Review: Lachlan Bryan and The Wildes + Riley Catherall, The Town Hall, Kirton in Lindsey – 25th July 2026
  • Clayton Denwood “Looking for a Road”
  • Ferris & Sylvester “The Game” – going back to the beginning
  • Video: Inland Isle “White Collar Breakdown” – a dark fantasy about AI
  • Video Interview: Aaron Lee Tasjan on “Get Over It, Underdog” and Todd Snider
Billy Bragg Bob Dylan Bruce Springsteen Chuck Prophet Courtney Marie Andrews Dean Owens Drive By Truckers Emmylou Harris Jason Isbell Johnny Cash John Prine Lucinda Williams Margo Price Neil Young Peter Bruntnell Robert Vincent Ryan Adams Steve Earle Sturgill Simpson The Band The Byrds The Delines Tom Petty Wilco Willie Nelson
  • Graeme Tait: Lol. Sorry, Alan, I knew as soon as I'd chosen to cover Tom Waits for this feature you'd be a…
  • Alan Peatfield: OK, Graeme - just one observation ... the obvious one. "As a songwriter he is right up there; on the…
  • Graeme Tait: Hi Alan. Glad you approve. It was an excellent gig.

Latest interviews

Interviews

Video Interview: Aaron Lee Tasjan on “Get Over It, Underdog” and Todd Snider

August 4, 2026 0
Nashville East resident Aaron Lee Tasjan has long been a favourite of Americana UK, and with 12 albums to his name, including his latest Get Over It, Underdog, and approaching 40, he is no longer the […]
Interviews

Video Interview: American Aquarium’s BJ Barham finds “New Ways To Lose”

July 29, 2026 0
American Aquarium appear to be on a creative roll with their latest album, New Ways To Lose, getting great reviews even though it is their twentieth album in as many years. Added to this is the […]
Interviews

Interview: David Keenan on inspiration, optimism and telling stories

July 28, 2026 0
“Radiate a smile if we’re only here for a short while / no we don’t want to miss a day / cus there’s so much we must do,” sings David Keenan on Radiate a Smile, four […]

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Forty Elephant Gang “The Time We Lost” EP

May 17, 2023 0
A reflection on modern life, the effects of the pandemic and financial strains from an innovative British band. Forty Elephant Gang (intriguingly named after an all-female gang of Victorian thieves) are a very interesting British 5-piece […]
Album Reviews

Grant Earl Lavalley “From Lavalley Below” (Exit Stencil, 2017)

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Having a vinyl LP to review is a great treat, but such subjective fascinations won’t cloud any impartiality hereabouts. Much. Grant Earl Lavelly as a musical whole, pretty much sums up ‘brooding Americana’. An Ohio native, now […]
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Otis Gibbs “Hosier National” (Wanamaker, 2020)

November 16, 2020 0
In the eighteen years that have passed since the 2002 issue of his debut album, ‘49th and Melancholy’ Otis Gibbs has released a succession of albums showcasing his witty, observational, political and storytelling songs that along […]

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