Wrexham Central Station, 5 March 2008

The most hyped UK acts at the moment is Duffy who hails from North Wales. I can’t think of another artist who has appeared twice in a single season on Jools Holland’s Later TV show, or one that has received so much airplay, and zoomed to the top of the charts [...]

For a while now I’ve been hoping that the real Alison Goldfrapp would be revealed on record following three albums displaying diverse styles. But perhaps with Alison that’s the whole point… Blessed with a quite extraordinary voice (that I’ve witnessed on stage on a couple of occasions) I’ve never really understood where she stands musically, [...]

Cave has rightly earned the title of ‘most productive musician’ following last year’s studio and two film soundtrack album releases. And for Cave, quality has not been sacrificed for quantity. All three albums met with universal acclaim, and rightly so. With critical success comes an aggressive confidence that screams out from the tracks of this [...]

“That is, by a country mile, the best record I’ve heard in three months doing this show.”– Phill Jupitus on In This Chair

From the sound of her voice and songs you’d think that Critchley hails from America’s Mid-West, and not from her hometown of Liverpool. She has a good voice and, as the PR material keeps telling me, she looks great. But the big test is the quality of the songs because it really doesn’t matter how [...]