Nite Songs

  20.     DEXY'S - "The Feminine Divine" Since he resurrected Dexy's a decade or so ago, Kevin Rowland has been on a good run of form and  The Feminine Divine  continues this purple patch. Slinky and soulful, it sees Rowland getting to grips with the passing of time, making peace with his past and celebrating the women in his life while sounding as if he's genuinely loving life to the maximum. The sound of a man who's happy with his lot and making the most of every passing day.  *** 19.     THE HANGMEN - "Stories To Tell" Now in their fourth decade of existence, it’s to the Hangmen’s immense credit that Stories To Tell stands up with their best stuff - 33 minutes of the sort of lean, fat-free rock ‘n’ roll that there’s depressingly little of in this day and age. Simple straightforward scuzz-punk howling at the moon on a lonesome night outside some dive bar, this is the sound of a band on top form. *** 18.     DUNCAN REID & THE BIG H...

So your correspondent finally makes it back to a festival a mere decade or so after his last one (well, if you discount a few trips to the Bishops Stortford Music Festival when I lived down there). Kubix Festival is now in its seventh year (discounting 2020 where Covid put paid to it) and this is your correspondent's third attempt at attending - as I mentioned, the 2020 attempt was wiped out by the pandemic and the 2021 version ended up moved back to October for the same reason. And maybe this is just a sign of me getting older but the prospect of sitting at the bottom of Penshaw Hill to watch some bands in the freezing autumn rain didn't appeal somehow. Still, better late than never... Local lads Crashed Out  are pretty much a perfect band to open this festival and draw an impressively large crowd for this point in the day. With a barrelling punk energy, they even manage to get a small moshpit going as old favourites like The Town That Died  and Jarrow Song  rub shoulder...

  So here we go then, our favourite ten albums of 2020. Big thanks once again to everyone who's given this site a read over the last six months since we set it up and taken an interest in the demented gibberings within. And quite frankly, I think we can all agree, good bloody riddance to this awful year. We'll be back in 2021 with the usual mix of reviews and features but we're going to take a few days off to recuperate after how insanely busy December has been here. We're just about caught up with our review backlog now so we figure we deserve a bit of a break! Have a great New Year whatever you do folks and we'll see you on the other side... *** 10. BEANS ON TOAST - "Knee Deep In Nostalgia" ( Bandcamp ) ( Review )/"The Unforeseeable Future" ( Bandcamp ) ( Review ) Released on the same day, these two albums show the two different sides of Beans on Toast. While Knee Deep In Nostalgia , produced by Frank Turner, was a warm and gentle full studio a...

  Duncan Reid & The Big Heads' Bombs Away  was one of the standout albums of 2017, taking the promise of its two predecessors and really fine-tuning the power-pop formula to excellent effect. Since then, they've gone through a slight line-up shift with guitarist Mauro Venegas leaving amicably and subsequently resurfacing in the Speedways to be replaced by former New Device/Yo-Yo's/Role Models man Nick Hughes. I'm pleased to report though that the change doesn't seem to have done them much harm as songs like For All We Know , Little Miss Understood  and To Live Or Live Not  keep up the pure sunshine pop of their predecessor going in fine style, both written about seizing the day while you can. Likewise, he Monkees-referencing  Ballad of a Big Head is pure '60s pop and a real joy to listen to. It's far from a one-trick pony though as Motherfucker  takes a well-earned swipe at the entitled bastards in government currently running this country into the grou...