Live Reviews
review: Benjamin Francis Leftwich
Benjamin Francis Leftwich is a man in demand, over the past year he’s managed to build up interest across the board with critical acclaim. He’s achieved regular airplay from Radio 1 and played over 20 festivals in the summer. With his début album ‘Last Smoke Before The Snowstorm’ breaking the Top 40 in the album chart he [...]
Review: Bowling For Soup, Suburban Legends and Orange at Southampton Guildhall
Lets be perfectly honest, Bowling For Soup are never going to be the most influential band in the world. They won’t be nominated for any song writing awards and there won’t be a limited edition version of the mainstream-alternative rags with a multitude of people deeming their first listen to “My Weiner” as a life-changing [...]
review: You Me At Six, Lower Than Atlantis & Deaf Havana
A few weeks ago one misinformed journalist said rock music is dead said, if any evidence is required to prove otherwise I point you in the direction of ‘You Me At Six’. Currently on a UK tour celebrating their recent chart success with their third album ‘Sinners Never Sleep’ reaching number three in the UK [...]
review: Chapel Club, Elephant and Bear Cavalry at The Wedgewood Rooms
Our guest reviewer, Nicki Allen, went along to The Wedgewood Rooms this weekend and caught the Club NME gig. The NME night once again returned to the Wedgewood Rooms in Southsea with a very exciting and impressive line up for this Saturday night in the middle of October. First up Bear Cavalry who play to [...]
Review: The Correspondents, The Common and Astrophysics at The Cellar
We sent our Mouth of The South reviewer along to review The Correspondents latest visit to The Cellar in Southampton. Sounds like it was a good night: The first band on the bill, JOUIS, were a real musical delicacy. I did not expect a band of this calibre on this kind of evening. They had a [...]
mINtroducing: The Currents
The link between the South Coast of England and Finland dates back to the late 1970’s when the Isle of Wight’s very own Razzle became drummer for the legendary Hanoi Rocks. With trade links constructed, Southampton Football Club later benefitted from the exchange with the legendary goal keeper Antti Niemi, who made 106 appearances; [...]
Review(s): Tea and Cakes presents Matthew and the Atlas / Peggy Sue at The Railway
Two different gigs, both hosted by the wonderful ‘Tea and Cakes’, but both highlighting, for me, the perils of the ‘next big thing’ labels. Whilst Matthew and the Atlas appear to still be very much in the ascendancy, they do run the risk of being swept up in the plethora of wannabes hanging on the [...]
Review: Woven Bird takeover Pop!
For my sins I had never been to Pop! or seen Woven Bird perform live before Wednesday. Living in ‘that Lundin’ does terrible things to a man and I can only apologise to all involved. After struggling to direct the designated driver to my favourite car park (I know! Who HAS one of those?!) and [...]
Panic! At The Disco announce Southampton date as part of UK tour
Following their phenomenal performances at Reading and Leeds Festival a few weeks ago, Panic! At The Disco have confirmed that they will be returning to the UK for a headline tour kicking off on 25 January in Newcastle. The eight date tour will include shows in Leeds, Manchester, Glasgow, Birmingham, Bristol, Southampton before finishing up [...]
Review: Breathe Carolina, Tek-One, Tyler Mae and Fly Frankie Fly
I feel I want to start this review by saying where the hell were you. A very sparse Talking Heads welcomed a night of energetic beat heavy electronic love as Breathe Carolina, Tek-One, Tyler Mae & Fly,Frankie,Fly took to the stage. For those who missed out, missed out on a lot, for this show was [...]
review: Butserfest
From the grand scale of Bestival last week I arrive a little lost and bewildered at the Butserfest site. Lost in the vast Hampshire countryside this tiny festival designed for 14-20 years olds sits contrasting against the peaceful sight of the hills that surround. Looking through the lineup it’s great to see a good mix [...]
review: A Sofa City Presentation – Radioactive Bones, Sombrero Fallout, Lo-Fi Poet & more at The Talking Heads
There was a compilation tape featuring more than a dozen local bands released in the early Nineties called The Peacenik Tape – Setting Fire To Sofa City. I still have a copy in the loft somewhere but from memory it featured bands like Up Balloon Up, Tatlin, Headland, LA Cucina, The Chairs, a dance act [...]
Review: Bestival
F*CK OFF! That is my message to those idiots who go to see an act that they have no interest in, then shout their way through the set, only shutting up when the one song they’ve heard on the radio gets played. It happened twice to me over the course of the weekend, first at [...]
Review: The Lurkers, The Flying Alexanders, The Good Time Charlies at The Talking Heads
Don’t need no book on positive thinkin’. Don’t need no lecture ‘bout my drinkin’. I never realised quite how much, in essence, Southampton’s top punk’n’roll boozehounds The Flying Alexanders were like The Lurkers (aside from the fact that Arturo and Jon could be father and son.) They don’t actually sound like them, but their songs [...]
Review: Taking Back Sunday at Southampton Guildhall
This gig has been a long time coming, not only because it was rescheduled from May 12th but also because it’s the first time Taking Back Sunday have toured the UK with the original line-up since they released their breakthrough album Tell All Your Friends in 2002. I was given the chance to see them [...]
Review: Skinny Lister rule Festibelly
Festibelly celebrated it’s fourth birthday on Saturday with an increased capacity headlined by a great performance (although it was cut short) by New Young Pony Club. The festival, on the outskirts of Lymington in the New Forest only began in 2008 with a capacity of 500, but it has quickly grown and now boasts a [...]
Review: Beautiful Days
Beautiful Days is a festival that accommodates around 12,500 at the aptly beautiful Escott Park near Exeter in Devon. It’s a festival run by The Levellers, who decided to start their own festival after playing at V Festival – they were apparently not impressed at the commercialism surrounding the whole festival, especially the backstage area being bigger [...]
Review: Mark Morriss at The Railway
No Blue Tones as Frontman Mark hits Winchester To be fair, going into this gig I barely knew much other than a) Mark Morris was the lead singer of the Bluetones and b) I knew a trio of songs, maybe 5 at most. Coming out, I’d experienced one of the warmest, intimate gigs I’ve ever been [...]
Review: Endorse It In Dorset
2011 was just my third Endorse It In Dorset but 2011 has firmly cemented itself as my favourite ‘small’ festival. Much of the reasoning is all down to Scrumpy Sunday or Ladies Day. Ladies Day brings possibly the most amount of fun one could wish to have. It’s brilliant that so many grizzly and normally [...]
review: Jaguar Skills at the Orange Rooms
Friday 12th August 2011 saw the return of Jaguar Skills, the infamous masked don, to the world famous Orange Rooms in Southampton. Playing as part of his Toolroom Knights mix CD tour, this was sure to be a set not to miss. Starting the night of was a back to back set between orange rooms [...]