Swindon’s sonic indie popsters Atari Pilot are a prolific bunch, and have a new single out called The Rules Never Change….
And, they don’t. There’s a definite uniformed methodology to Atari Pilot which builds with each new single. Yearning vocals, never without a repetitive chorus to hook you, neatly packaged in retrospective new wave electronica. It may not be as commercially viable as, say, Talk in Code, but it’s irresistibly beguiling and universal to be pop you need to hear.
Swindon-based adrenaline pumping five-piece Liddington Hill released their first EP for three years, and Radium is highly radioactive….. For most on the North Wessex Downs,…
Mixed emotions over one of those eye-catching social media “reels” a few months ago, for two reasons. Firstly, attraction; the singing girl was a vision…
by Ian Diddams images by Platform 8 Take Abigail’s party, add some Aykbourn, a touch of Coward and a liberal sprinkling of 2010s socio-political background…
Kempston joystick! There’s a new single from Swindon’s sonic indie-rock blasters Atari Pilot, and it seems they’re waiting for the summer to fall. Hint, guys, it’s usually, particularly this year, when the kids go back to school….
I’m not wrong, though, am I? Never without that euphoric retrospective tinge, Atari Pilot I liken to Talk in Code, for swinging indie poptastic hooks and unrivalled energy, yet with undertones of sonic soundscapes akin to post-rave dance music, of the Chemical Brothers and Daft Punk et al.
This one certainly doesn’t skip on it,though its theme reminds me of Don Henly, and is equally as passionately delivered. From Jerry Keller to Taylor Swift, summer may be a common topic, but winter songs only hark on about….whoa there, don’t even say the C-word until late November, I thank you! And anyhoo, all the seasons are given a mention in this breezy pay-what-you-like track, save spring. What have you got against spring, Atari Pilot? Don’t make me get all Zebedee on you, I happen to like spring!
Check this out, before it pisses down! Catch them at the Beehive at Swindon Shuffle!
by Ian Diddamsimages by Gail Foster ‘Devizes & Beyond’ is a collection of original poems in traditional forms and digital photography, inspired by life in…
Some four years since his last release under his own name, Lavington’s electronica composer Moray McDonald presents a soundtrack; the music he wrote and produced…
Can we please draw a red line under Pewsey’s Moonrakers St George’s Cross facade fiasco now Wiltshire Council has u-turned on a proposal forcing landlord…
If options for urbanites seeking experiential or themed dining experiences are boundless, they’re lesser so in our rural backwaters. Yet, we’ve returned from a delicious…
There’s a cold remote ambience of burrowing doubt in the opening of Westbury’s singer-songwriter Seren’s debut song, in which, as the title suggests, she uses…
It’s Wednesday night, it’s Song of Week time….and here’s your host…. yeah, sorry, it’s just me, couldn’t afford Stephen Mulhern.
Haven’t heard from them for a while, but they’re far from collecting dust in a loft like a retro game console. Swindon-based Atari Pilot return this week with a new single, Train of Life.
If choo-choos are a common metaphor in blues and reggae, moreso to describe the chugging beat, we’re on another platform from Sister Rosetta Tharpe, or Keith and Tex. Sonic indie rockers Atari Pilot have their joysticks calibrated to this philosophical theme, life’s long train comin’, and it sure is a grower. Especially, I’d fathom, if you’re new to this band’s unique style, I ask you take at least a few listens before passing judgement.
But with lyrics like “rolling on til the track runs out, is it the journey or the destinationyou dream about?” there’s thoughtful prose admist those sonic riffs, and it affirms Atari Pilot firmly on the right track.
It’s up on Bandcamp as a name your price. Linktree HERE, go give them a like on the book of Face too, while you’re standing on the platform waiting for the strikes to end!
Irregularly I share a music video to our Facebook page with the status “song of the day,” or week, or whenever, as if it’s a daily occurrence. When the reality is it’s a big, fat fib on my part, it’s only when I happen to find such a video and can be arsed to share it. What-cha gonna do, sue me?
So, just in case your lawyer says you have a case, I thought I’d streamline this sporadic idea for 2021, make it an actual feature on the site rather than a Facebook post, and show off that I know what long words like “sporadic” mean.
Little more gone into it than this, you should be used to it by now. I’m not going to review them, just embed them here for your own appraisal and entertainment purposes. Potentially, it’ll be a groundbreakingily breif post, a simple but effective phenomenon, and something I can do without missing the Simpsons.
The challenge is consistency; whether I actually stick to the idea or, like others, it’ll be a flash in the pan. Who knows, this could be the start of something beautiful, this could be the thing they’re talking about in decades to come. A holographic Ken Bruce could be asking “what was the very first Devizine Song of the Day” in a Pop Master 200 years from now.
And you can answer it with who I bestow this honour, Atari Pilot. They’ll be revelling in the triumph of the hour if it wasn’t lockdown, I bet.
History in the making then, the only issue I foresee is I over-waffle any old crap, which is, incidentally, not what’s happening now and rarely does here; I had to explain myself, didn’t I?
Okay, I get message; here it is then, enjoy the tune, enjoy the rest of your evening. Good job, carry on.
After the cracking weather we had all week-end, what better way to round things off than with the best of all home-town gigs with one of our local heroes Vince Bell? So, suitably attired in t-shirt, sun-hat and sunglasses, off we toddled to one of our favourite watering holes, The White Bear, for a much-needed dose of great original songs. Good beer and good music are all that anybody needs. Obviously other choices were available, notably up the road at The Southgate, but for us it was a very easy choice. Vince is, without doubt, one of our local heroes, and it had been a few months since we’d last had the chance to hear him.….
Vince’s first-half set was full of his fine self-penned songs, the lyrics coming across clear and loud, accompanied by some fine guitar work. I sometimes make the mistake of slightly under-rating his great work on the strings, but not at all yesterday. He was on absolutely superb form, carefully explaining and introducing each song, but never dwelling for too long, allowing the material to speak for itself. The subject matter was downbeat and extremely personal, each song striking home and eliciting warm and enthusiastic appreciation from the gathering audience.
Pub gigs can sometimes be a bit weird, with some folks inclined to compete with the singer by trying to talk over the top, and spoiling it for everyone else who’s there and actually wants to listen. Not so yesterday – the conversations gradually died down and, at times, you could almost hear a pin drop. Great to hear an artist as good as Vince being shown some well-deserved respect. And before we knew it 45 minutes had slipped by and it was time for a top-up pint.
Chatting to Vince at half-time revealed that there were personal reasons why Vince’s mood and demeanour seemed a little low with his particular choice of songs, which I won’t go into by discussing here. But suffice to say that the Monty Python lyric “Life’s a piece of shit, when you look at it” was not an entirely inappropriate way of summarising certain feelings. He promised us a slightly more upbeat second spasm, and so it proved to be.
Joined for most of the second set by his friend Chrissy Chapman (of Burn The Midnight Oil fame), there was some lighter material, mostly penned by her. They worked well together, both in guitar playing and in harmonising their vocals. We were also offered a couple of covers, including (I suppose inevitably) The Stones’ “Paint It Black”, which brought a wry smile to many faces. But, yet again, another 45 minutes disappeared in no time. And then we were treated to the much demanded encore of one of Vince’s signature songs “Spiderman Pyjamas”, and the gig was suitably wrapped.
Just time for another quick pint, a short chat, then a walk home in the still-glorious sunshine. I did get the chance before leaving to tell Vince that I genuinely thought that it had been one of his best-ever gigs. There were a lot of friends in the room, and lots of love, but I do hope that such a fine performance helped to win over a few new fans to Vince’s corner. He’s a local hero – he deserves it!
Friday afternoon at The Lamb, tucked away behind the Town Hall in our market town, with my aim to introduce two aspiring local singer-songwriters who haven’t played in Devizes before, and present them at The Fold, a venue once renowned and hopeful to recreate its former reputation. I was anxious about the prospect. Their magnificent soundchecks filled me with confidence, though their wonderful talents were never the questionable element to this venture…..
From Chippenham, Megan Hoy, or M3G to the local music scene, is a breathtakingly unique singer-songwriter. At nineteen she has built the kind of reputation, in both live performances and recorded, which welcomes her to the South West’s best venues and festivals. Her music and autism blend to become one, and exhausts something so personal you take a little of her emotions away with you; a skill usually reserved for only rare, professional acoustic performers decades down their journey.
If M3G’s outpourings are translucent windows into the souls of contemporary youth emotions, anxieties, cogitations and reservations, and those on the spectrum, she unites with her Warminster match. Seren, the same age as Meg, bypassed my vetting process of only booking acts I’ve already seen live, based on Meg and other’s recommendations, and the videos she posts on social media. They were plentiful to confirm Seren had something special, still her performance came as a pleasant surprise compared to my readymade affections for Meg’s music, based upon the numerous times I’ve witnessed her magic.
If both define it as indie-folk, either fits nicely for a support set to an indie band, and allows scope for such bookings such as at The Pump, where they are welcomed by young punters awaiting a punky band. Yet I see it still as timeless folk, that rawness and unrivalled valour to open yourself up to an audience, stripped back instrumentally, just you and guitar, alone in the spotlight; that is courageous. And both Seren and Meg wowed. Just as folk was here, at The Fold, even before Kieran cut his teeth with Sheer Music within these very walls, it was again with a new generation. Everything about this gig fitted, in my opinion.
And it was a wonderful evening. As the sun fell to the moonlight through the high windows of the Fold, Seren opened with her original songs, sublimely. Though shy to talk, Seren commands an audience and holds them spellbound through her honest, ingenious songwriting and her talent to deliver them with soothing, evocative vocals.
A short break and Meg’s is complementary to Seren’s set, matching with similar appeal but not rivalling; they’ve gigged together before and there’s a genuine mutual respect. This sweeping package of excellence was tied and united by a third set, where they joined forces, and this really was something to behold. Each complimenting each other’s original songs and perfectly balancing their vocal arrangements for some covers.
Obviously this review is an encomium, as it was my doing! Still, I wouldn’t say it so if it wasn’t, I’d bury my head in the sand, pretend it never happened! If you question my honesty, read on. I’m left bewildered and somewhat frustrated, because those who witnessed this astounding gig were few, few enough for it to cause an issue and serious doubt about hosting more in Devizes.
Reintroduce The Fold they said, a gathering of support on social media welcomed it, but unfortunately, not in reality… yet. I heard the opening night with the fantastic Bluebeard was also poorly attended. Let’s be honest with ourselves, I thank everyone who came, but poor attendance leaves me dubious as to why. Varied illogical reasons spring to mind, which could be debated until the cows come home. Maybe it’s teething issues at The Fold, or the market is already flooded? There could’ve been any number of reasons, but it certainly wasn’t the quality of the music, nor was it the price when we state you “pay what you can.”
Friday night isn’t a Saturday, lots of folk work Saturday mornings, I could tell myself. Booze ain’t cheap anywhere these days, but another event, ticketed with a hefty price-tag, sold out, understandably reducing footfall. Perhaps though, not through the want of trying, The Lamb has yet to regain the popularity it once held. It is a great watering hole, as it ever was, I’d be horrified should it go the same spiralling downward route of so many others.
That’s our motivation behind putting gigs on at The Fold, relaunching this venue, for the sake of original live music and the upkeep of the pub. Easy to yodel “support live music,” or “support your pubs” on your Facebook page, it might be another to attend, but that is only where it will impact.
Here were two young aspiring artists, singing their hearts out beautifully, and producing something unlike anything else you will currently witness here in this traditional market town. Yet, a majority would rather ignore, to either stay at home kissing Netflix, or attend a tribute act to prog-rock hasbeens. This is saddening for local music. You. Missed. An. Outstanding Gig.
The Fold is not out to rival the cover-band ethos popular at The Three Crowns, despite this glory having its place equal to the blues at the Blues club and Southgate. The Fold doesn’t intend to better any other event or venue happening in Devizes, only to add to the options we already have, and bring to town a variety of original grassroots music in an intimate setting. But the intimacy of the room has to have a minimum for it to be viable.
The first open mic at the Fold
This should NOT be a negative reflection on the acts or venue. I find myself paranoid, if it’s me, and you’ve lost trust in my judgement to book acts? Yet I’ve been to other events which made no sense for their failings. I only got into event organisation to better understand what organisers undertake, being I was to appraise them, after our first birthday party left me completely unprepared for the tasks involved. It is still a learning curve, but everything previous has been successful for me; now I know the heartfelt emotions of an event organiser who worked tirelessly but whose event didn’t attract attention. So, if this comes off bitter, it is genuinely upsetting.
Perhaps if I host tribute acts to Meg and Seren fifty years from now in Devizes we’ll sell out! Or are we really this shallow? I prefer to hope we are willing to give upcoming local talent a chance to shine, to move between the little circuits carved by the fields dividing us.
But for now, do I continue, pick up the pieces and try, try, try again, and if so, at what cost? Phil Cooper arrives at The Fold on Friday 22nd May, with Jamie and Tamsin. Here is a gig from the gang very well known to Devizes, which, hopefully will attract some attention. l wait in hope, concerned for the future of local live music in Devizes.
A median haul of vinyl can weigh in, but there’s no longer a trek down Northgate Street for record collectors and musicians alike. Vinyl Realm has settled into their new location on Devizes High Street and shopping there is a much more spacious and airy experience …..
Much as I loved the idea of a record shop opening in Devizes, being just the way I remember and loved them in days of yore, eight years ago on that inception, I confess I put a time limit on the place. Even then the threat on High Street shopping was real, and the want for vinyl records in this digital era was questionable. But Vinyl Realm is not only bucking both trends, locally it’s been a detrimental influence on them, proving well managed music shops are here to stay.
You can browse there, flip through those twelve-inch cardboard covers, remembering their look and feel, and the anticipation of taking one home and dropping your needle on that beauty. But then, perhaps, you consider the phone in your pocket, and the infinite digital stash of music it can provide with one click; sacrilegious here! Maybe you sold your hi-fi or record decks years ago. Streaming changed the music industry to a throwaway culture rather than the thrill of treasuring a physical disc, but one half of Vinyl Realm provides record decks and hi-fi, or fixes your old ones, effectively returning you to the retro game like Jon Bon Jovi in a newfound blaze of glory, should you require to.
Vinyl Realm remains one of the very few surviving secondhand record shops in the South West, and whilst Devizes loves tradition, visitors to the store will arrive here from destinations much further afield, for a range of vinyl too vast to fit into the shop, though the scope to display more is greater here at their new home.
More spacious too, allowing a freedom of movement somewhat previously restricted at their Northgate location. You might know how it goes; reunited with a long-lost record you once worshipped, just resting in that library of memories, praying for a new owner, and now nothing exists in the world other than you and the piece of vinyl you’re jumping up and down with, waving enthusiastically in the air yelping, “I found it! I found it! For the love of the almighty David Gilmour, I found it!” not even the beatnik browsing dangerously nearby. The risk of bumping into him through your excitement, and him spilling his freshly boiled flask of vegan broth over you and your must-buy is greatly reduced with the space to move around The Realm’s new shop!!
Tamsin Quin outside the original location of Vinyl Realm at Long Street, in 2018. Image: Hennessy
Bitching to a rising retrospective trend in vinyl, a brand new Taylor Swift long-player could pinch the best part of fifty quid from your purse. At Vinyl Realm you’d return home with a substantial stash for that cost, as the prices here are nearly as retro as the records. For a want of more surprises, they flog CD’s and cassettes too, owner Pete tells me “tapes” sell equally as well as records. I could suppose they were the post-internet music sharing format, after all, but Pete suggested Walkmans were back in, really? Whatever next? Etch A Sketch?!
And if you’re one for creating music yourself, there’s a range of instruments and accessories like guitar strings, the odd display of merchandise, and related handmade crafts. Long live Vinyl Realm, where you can buy a record, chat music, grab the tools to make your own or purchase equipment to play them on. Even get that broken hi-fi repaired, as all repairs are done onsite and nothing is shipped off to a company; making this beloved Devizes shop sustainable and, by its very name, a realm for all things music. The move to the High Street and the fact it’s not easy to grab a quote from Pete or Jackie as they busily attend a constant flow of customers, is evidence of its long-lived success.
The Wiltshire Music Awards is proud to announce an exciting new direction for its 2026 event, marking a bold evolution for one of the county’s anticipated celebrations of musical talent…..
Due to unforeseen circumstances surrounding the closure of the previously proposed venue, the Wiltshire Music Awards will no longer be associated with The Kingston Group. The organisation extends its sincere thanks for their past contributions and wishes them continued success in their future endeavours.
A spokesperson for the awards said, “this change has created an opportunity to reimagine and elevate the event. As part of this new chapter, the Wiltshire Music Awards 2026 will undergo a full rebrand, including the launch of a new logo and refreshed visual identity designed to better reflect the vibrancy and diversity of the local music scene.”
The organisers are delighted to confirm that the 2026 awards ceremony will now take place at The Assembly Hall, Melksham. Centrally located within Wiltshire and easily accessible from surrounding towns and cities, the venue offers seating for approximately 500 guests, alongside full bar and catering facilities, providing an ideal setting for a high-quality, professional awards evening.
The event has been rescheduled and will now be held on Saturday 14th November 2026. “This is an exciting moment for us,” the organisers continued. “While change is never easy, it has allowed us to rethink, refresh, and ultimately strengthen the event. We’re incredibly excited about what 2026 will bring.”
The Wiltshire Music Awards remains committed to celebrating and showcasing the very best musical talent from across the county, and 2026 promises to be the biggest and most dynamic edition yet. For further information, media enquiries, or partnership opportunities, please contact: Stone Circle Music Events UK at: events@stonecirclemusicevents.uk
Swindon-based adrenaline pumping five-piece Liddington Hill released their first EP for three years, and Radium is highly radioactive…..
For most on the North Wessex Downs, the clump of beech trees at 900 feet high at Liddington Hill is a landmark to get your bearings. Without a carpark and a mile from the Ridgeway, its Iron Age hillfort isn’t nearly the tourist attraction as its neighbouring sites, Barbury and Uffington. But with fables of King Arthur and as Swindon’s World War 2 decoy control bunker, it overlooks the town with a safeguarding history of its own. For Swindon music aficionados its name doubles up as a contemporary local band….
Devizine first mentioned Liddington Hill when their front girl took to wearing a cow’s head in 2021, summarising their sound as Celtic punk. Two years later their second album, Edge of Insanity, carved a more unique angle we could best describe as “Celtic grunge.” Horrifically it expressed narratives of serial killers and inmates in sanitoriums, and gave plenty of the edge you expect from such morbid subjects. But often the merger between Celtic folk and grunge felt segmented; each track lent mostly towards one or the other. Liddington Hill returns to the studio after three years with an EP which better combines and merges the two fractions, and masterfully deploys them as one almighty blast.
Radium has five dynamite tracks, three with different historical narratives, and two more commonly concerning relationships. With nods to past punk styles, they swap between male and female vocals. With the latter there’s elements of riot grrrl, as in particular the opening track Peterloo. Not to be confused with anything by Abba, it kicks down the door with a heavy rolling electronic guitar riff and fiddles. The cavalry of the Yeomen charged into a crowd, gathered to demand the reform of parliamentary representation at Manchester’s St Peter’s Field in 1819, and with its unnerving driving chorus the song represents the fear of the charge.
But if Peterloo sits in England at the end of the Napoleonic Wars and the economic slump which it caused, Tarrare’s Stomach, third track in, rests earlier on the timeline, in France during the conflict. Tarrare was the real Mr Creosote from Monty Python’s Meaning of Life, a gluttonous showman whose insatiable appetite was his act. He scoffed his way through the French Revolutionary Army rations, so General Beauharnais put him to military use, as a courier who would swallow documents, pass through enemy lines, and recover them from his poo when safely at his destination! Tarrare’s fate could suggest Liddington Hill are implementing at least four of the Seven Deadly Sins, if Peterloo represents wrath. This track belts out grunge style, but again with those fiddles gives it the ambience for its historical context.
The fourth song moves forward in time to America at the beginning of the twentieth century, and serves as the ultimate health and safety in the workplace regulation. Luscious Radium concerns factory workers dubbed the “Radium Girls,” who were encouraged to lick their brushes when painting clock faces to maintain a fine tip, consequently ingesting radioactive material from the paint, and their landmark legal battles which established workers’ rights against corporate negligence; and you thought you were treated unfairly having your day off cancelled!
Again, Lucious Radium is rich in this blend of ladened guitar and rolling drums, with the added Celtic instruments to provide this unique take on grunge and give it a sense of west country geography. Female fronted this one teases vocally, with deriding irony and the nonconformity of Siouxsie Sioux.
The other two songs deal more commonly with relationships; I could call lust from our deadly sins list. Pretty Boy, and Ever Shot a Gun Before both deal with suicidal tendenses due to romantic troubles, and both reference guns. With swapping vocals, Pretty Boy reeks with emotional outpour and should come with a government health warning. The finale is less three minute hero thrash than Pretty Boy, and more epic building grunge layers, with a memorable simple concept.
The long-term effects of a relationship considered concrete by the character in the song, playfully chants on the ill-thought solutions and depicts the emotions of loss. Yet there’s a “little help from my friends” epilogue, placing you concluded by the end and safely back in your armchair. Phew, radioactive factory women, a charging Yeoman army, a gluttoness cannibalistic French soldier, and your mate going to shoot himself because he broke up with his missus was all just a nightmare, evoked by this unique and intelligent grunge trip!
Radium is solid throughout, it never delves into ambient sympathy breaks. It may not be recommended by your history lecturer, but is an adventure in guitar crashing, drum rolling fiddle flashing with a historical reality. It takes no prisoners, and is the natural progression for Liddington Hill you need to take heed of. There’s a strong grunge scene in Swindon, but perhaps no other band has this unique spin on it. Radium is exclusive.
The EP was released on 17th April, on streaming sites and is available for digital download on Bandcamp and CDbaby. Vinyl and CD versions are available through their website. www.liddingtonhill.com
Mixed emotions over one of those eye-catching social media “reels” a few months ago, for two reasons. Firstly, attraction; the singing girl was a vision of beauty, perfect in every way. So perfect in fact, orally she cast no shadow, like she had a torch wedged into her oesophagus, and her sparkly array of exemplary toothy-pegs seemed to levitate in her mouth without the need of gums, ugly as gums usually are…..
The second reason it drew my attention was irritation; she was faultlessly singing, “The Rivers of Babylon,” with a caption claiming the song was by Boney M, but in a funny kinda way it was apt. A disco rehash cover by pop band Boney M, yeah, when, ironically, neither its producer, conman Frank Farian, nor the creators of this saccharine AI abomination either understood or cared to understand the meaning behind the song, for it goes against everything they’re backing.
The Rivers of Babylon is a Rastafari prayer, originally recorded by The Melodians in 1970. A biblical lament of Psalm 137, representing exile, sorrow, and yearning for home among the Jewish captured in Babylon. It is a song about oppression and liberation, using the Rastafari disambiguation of “Babylon” to mean any unjust, restrictive system.
If Frank Farian, pop manufacturer of Milli Vanilli, who were models and didn’t sing a note, isn’t restrictive and unjust enough for this modern era, perhaps an AI generated singer with more likes and follows on its social media than every local musician I know combined, is. And if it irks musicians who practice so hard to achieve their talents that I could prompt AI to create me a song near as good as theirs when I’m tone deaf, then it bloody well should!
It should enrage them, and often it does. But more and more abruptly turn to invite AI to create them a gig poster, or worse, an album cover. Event organisers too, with much to organise, hence the name, bypass the requirement and cost to commission an artist, photographer or graphic designer, and gung-ho a cringeworthy AI image to represent their event. Neither are fooling anyone anymore; it is, quite frankly, off-putting, and if your poster is tacky it gives the impression your event will be too.
Former editor of Doctor Who and Star Trek magazines, John Freeman ranted on Facebook last week, about a “crap” AI poster by one of the participating companies taking part in the 2026 Brighton Fringe, saying, “was this the idea of someone who spent the art budget on a slap up lunch in some overpriced beach view restaurant rather than, say, commission one of the hundreds of talented artists in the Brighton area to create one instead?!” Seems crazy, if you cannot find an artist in Brighton, you won’t find one elsewhere, but it has since been updated, explaining it’s not the official poster for the Fringe, and in speaking with the organisers of Brighton Fringe, they confirmed the ‘artwork’ is “not of their making.” There you have it, AI images are not a good look, frustrates artists and puts them out of pocket; no one wants to own up to using it.
Looky here, all creatives are in the same sinking boat, and the crew must work as a team for survival. If, as a musician, you’d be the first to complain about our gumless singing girl, then you should also be the one who says, “I’m going to find an artist to design me a poster.” And, if, as a designer, you’re charging £100 an hour to add some fonts to a photo, then you must realise the musician is struggling to keep afloat too, and make as best concession as you can, before they fire up Chat GTP. These connections must be realistic, or you all suffer like Sarah Connor, while complaining about the other! Meanwhile, AI companies are laughing at both your swollen mugs, as their programs harvest your tears for future reference.
While we’re using Rasta’s meaning of Babylon to illustrate unjust hypocrisy, there was an interview with Bob Marley which always rings true in such dilemmas. The interviewer attempted to catch him out, while he piled a colossal mixing board to construct a dubplate, by asking him why he used, “the fruits of Babylon.” “Babylon no have no fruits,” Bob wryly replied, and continued to explain it wasn’t the technology which was the problem, but those “pushing the buttons.”
It’s convenient, tempting, I know it is, to feed the machine. But it’s a genius invention we should only use as a tool to assist us, not to put us in the Job Centre. I might occasionally use AI to think of a word or expression, but I wouldn’t allow it to write for me; it loses the personal touch, and face it, it can’t do “funny.” In all sci-fi of yore, robots were placed helping us with the mundane tasks so we could concentrate on creating, not the other way around. Rosey the Robot did the Jetsons’ washing up, she never painted a Renaissance masterpiece for their wall.
I asked an AI app if it would create me some political propaganda, theoretically of course. An interesting conversation ensued, whereby it sucked up, apologising it couldn’t due to its regulations, but confirmed other apps could. It computed their wrongdoing, creating fake images for propaganda, but often its comments were deleted by the regulations when we got too close to the truth; my concern then being it could refuse the request of a human, based on its own moral judgement; are we in Skynet territory yet?!
Regulating AI will never happen while we pet its capacity, because the owners are happy pocketing our treats, and couldn’t care less about morals. Elon pulling a Nazi salute should’ve been a stark warning, but we laughed it off, kept calm and carried on. I’ve seen reels of Navy vessels gunning dinghies, Muslim women complaining about dogs in parks, and gammon flagshaggers forming human chains across the white cliffs of Dover, but they’re all products of their sick imaginations, hoping to fool likeminded spanners.
Don’t be like them, don’t jump that bandwagon. Your band doesn’t look like blued-eyed post-apocalyptic warriors, your drummer is not Immortan Joe, and when punters arrive to see him with one hand down his joggers, scratching an itch, it’ll be more disappointment than glory in Valhalla.
Look, if you want I can design your gig poster for you, for a tenner; message me, rather than reduce your promotion to uninspiring AI fartists. And I’m certain there’s plenty of designers locally that would be willing to help too. If you are such an artist, comment in our social shares and we’ll add your links to this article. Although that’s hitting Megatron with a spud gun shot, it’s still a small strike for the resistance.
Ah, you cry, so that’s the reason for me coming over all Dave shutting down HAL 9000, it’s a shameless plug for my artistic wares! But, where does this leave me and my gumless girlfriend? She’d probably dump me for not believing in her before I made my excuses; what appeared under her summer dress did nothing for me, because literally there was nothing there. Yet thousands complimentary comment on her video, about her voice or features, seemingly oblivious to the reality, she’s fake. Though, pointing out to my daughter how worrying their gullible idiocy is, and how that might affect political sway, should a reel be political rather than artistic based, backfired, upon my daughter admonishing my concern that the ones commenting are “bots” themselves.
“AI bot” art critics critiquing AI art, whatever next?! Let them battle between themselves, I say, while you, please find a real artist or designer to design your poster, or find a photographer, they’re always snapping happily away at the front of gigs, and plonk some text onto their efforts with your phone. “The future is not set,” Sarah Connor said, “there is no fate but what we make for ourselves.” A tenner… is all I ask!
Take Abigail’s party, add some Aykbourn, a touch of Coward and a liberal sprinkling of 2010s socio-political background and what do you get? The answer is simply Sally Potter’s “The Party” – a rattling roller-coaster ride of a kitchen sink drama with a darkly comedic edge in places.
Janet – whose home this one set play is set in – has just been promoted to a Shadow Cabinet position, in what is a thinly disguised but not mentioned, Labour opposition party. The story revolves around her relationship with her husband Bill, and the relationships of the other two couples visiting them to celebrate Janet’s news. Janet’s best friend April is in the throes of separating from her German partner Gottfried; the couple are chalk and cheese in not only appearances but also life styles and beliefs where Gottfried is very much a philosopher with a holistic outlook and April a hugely cynical ex-political agitator, while Martha – Bill’s oldest friend from university days – is with her much younger wife Jinny who is pregnant and whose future dreams may not particularly align. To complete the party is Tom, a hugely successful and rich banker who is stressed, introverted and isolated throughout the play while he waits for his wife Marianne to join them.
While not wishing to give away any plot twists or developments, nonetheless then story investigates the various couples’ relationship strains, and the external antagonisms between the group’s characters. We learn of a terrible piece of news, potentially life changing for two people, of nefarious goings on, and of historical liaisons surfacing causing disquiet. Amongst these spinning plates of interactions, we also see philosophical discussions, the best stage punch I have ever seen on a community theatre stage and a kitchen disaster complete with burning dinner smoke. Oh – And a gun. And it must also be said some very funny lines amongst it all.
Potentially the star of the show however is the set. Another Rich Canning super-set, in the limited space of the Rondo stage Rich has fitted a front room, a kitchen, a toilet and a garden patio, with two working doors and a pair of French doors, two working sinks with running water and a toilet. Despite their enforced proximity the four areas are totally distinct in their use and are used superbly to flip the action between various conversations and scenes
Tech is provided by Will Ward, Luke Emmet, Julie Dallimore and Lola McGregor as they trip seamlessly though a tsunami of sound and lighting cues, and direction is from the masterful Mark Hale who has kept the pace high as the drama unfolds before us. Publicity tasks are shared between Jacci and Alexia Jones and Richard Caddick, and Amanda Ward makes it all run smoothly back stage.
And so the cast … it’s a tight run ship and the cast members work slickly with each other. Hayley Jack plays the committed politician Janet and Rich Canning her somewhat distanced academic husband. Terry Butler is the chalk of Gottfried, healer and life coach to the cheese of Alexia Jones’ cynical April. Then there’s Nadine Comba as the older, less excitable professor to Leanna Biggs’ younger wife and superb amateur chef. Leaving Chris Constantine to play Tom, husband of Marianne, an anger suppressed banker with all the obvious City banker traits and habits.
This is an excellently produced performance that is done and dusted in seventy minutes with no interval, but that seventy minutes packs in an awful lot. Blink and you’ll miss something, and the background action is often as important and incessant, as the forefront scene being played out.
I’ve tried very hard to not give any spoilers and I’m pretty sure I’ve succeeded – if you want to learn the pitfalls, the shocks and the final ending you’ll have to get along to see “The Party” but if you haven’t got a ticket get in quickly – as of opening day afternoon there were three left over the entire run!
“The Party” is performed by “Platform 8” at the Rondo Theatre April 22nd-25th at 7.45pm each evening, and the few remaining tickets can be found at https://rondotheatre.co.uk/the-party/
Not my favourite night for going to a gig but, hey, sometimes you just have to roll with it. On a night to fit in with their current short seven-date UK tour, Tuesday it just had to be, and King King rolled into town with their stripped-back “acoustic set”.
First up, alone on stage, was support act Felix Rabin, a young man with plenty of talent. The Frenchman gave us a cracking first twenty-five minutes, and did an excellent job at paving the way for the main act to come. Here was a man with a mic, a few loops and pedals, a stomp-box and a (gasp) electric guitar. Over just six or seven songs, he easily won over the audience with a wide variety of songs, ranging from full-on loud, almost screaming anguish, through to some really thoughtful and tender material. With an easy, comfortable, personality he fully engaged the audience. The loud applause and the long queue at his merch desk at the end were both fully deserved. A worthy support to the main act for the night.
After a somewhat over-long interval, during which we were able to “enjoy” the Corn Exchange’s excuse-for-a-bar, it was time for the main act. With beer, cider and (cans of) Guinness at £6/ pint, served in plastic glasses by less-than-friendly staff, this is the venue’s Achilles heel. The offering is so limited, depressing and expensive. Such a shame, when the overall surroundings of the hall are great, the entertainment was top-notch, and the sound quality delivered from stage was clear and crisp. Pity they can’t offer music fans something better. However, I digress.
King King are a British blues rock group, formed in in Glasgow back in 2008 by Alan Nimmo and Lindsay Coulson, both formerly of The Nimmo Brothers. The band has released five studio albums and two live albums. The current line-up features Alan Nimmo (guitar and lead vocals), Stevie Nimmo (guitar and vocals), and Jonny Dyke (keyboards). In this acoustic-only line-up, there was no room (or need) for bass and drums. Back in 2014 British Blues Awards, the group won five awards including the Best Band and Best Album Awards. Normally, in their full electric line-up, they’re widely praised as one of the UK’s premier blues-rock bands, and known for their high-energy live performances.
Full disclosure: I’d never seen King King before, so I’d no idea what to expect. However, I quickly gathered that the almost-full hall of the Corn Exchange was well packed with plenty of their fans. By the time I took my seat I’d already had several fanboy conversations with folks I knew, and seen plenty of King King t-shirts. The merch desk was also pretty busy. So I was coming at this with a completely open mind and open ears. “Come on,” I thought, “show me what you can do!” Suffice to say, dear readers, I was not to be disappointed.
So not a full-on blues/ rock band then, but an acoustic version of that band. Last night, which Alan introduced as “an experiment”, was all about keeping things much more stripped back, intimate (compared to their usual format), and with a strong focus on the quality of, and the stories behind, the songs themselves.
For the next ninety minutes, through a flowing single set, they demonstrated very clearly their superb musicianship, vocal harmonies and song-writing skills. There was plenty of inter-song chat, building up a picture of their back catalogue, but never straying into that tedious trap of doing more talking than singing. There was plenty of cheeky humour, music business anecdotes, and an easy patter and interplay with the audience. The songs really spoke for themselves. Hauled up from various parts of their back catalogue the two Nimmo brothers, both seated with acoustic guitar, introduced songs of great power. The acoustic format allowed the vocals to really shine through, but never at the expense of some great work from the guitars and keyboard.
There were some nice riffs, some great choruses, plenty of audience participation. Most of the audience didn’t need much winning over in the first place, but as a newbie I was fairly quickly convinced too. Gotta say that I really loved it, and now feel prompted to go and see the band in their more “normal” full electric format. Another time, another date – but hopefully not on a Tuesday!
Have you got an empty weekend coming? Fancy a last minute, first field festival of the year? Don’t want to travel far? Then fill your boots with BecFest2, this Saturday, with camping available for those that want to over imbibe or just get into the festival groove around a late-night campfire.
The brainchild of Sarah Bec and following the huge success of her first foray into low key affordable festivals last year, BecFest2 promises all the festival fun to kick the festival season off in style, with great independent bands, great food, great drink, great merch and a chilled vibe without having to deal with tens of thousands of others. Think of it more as a family gathering, of like-minded souls, rather than a field of strangers. And the weather is looking FABULOUS BABY!!!
The line-up features fully independent musicians – no covers bands here folks – and the day headlines with the phenomenal Revelation Roots, the energetic reggae, ska and dub band from the South-West, more than ably aided and abetted by
James Harriman, a Bristolian performing a Brit-Pop, folk-rock inspired sound
Plot 32, a party ska band from Leeds
Tabitha Wild, a mischievous singer-song writer with a sparkle in her eyes and a ukulele in her hands,
Mexican Dave, all the way from Swindon with his whacky approach to music, fun and drinking games
F.M.I. Clatters, who likes Cornish pasties amongst other hilarious musical offerings
Andras Droppa, delivering a hard rock blues style set
Dub Catalyst, with a reggae/dub/hip hop feel also from then South-West
with Ed Liner as compere and DJ throughout the festival.
The music stage is in a barn, but the weather is looking fine anyway, and camping is available from Friday 2th April through to Sunday 26th. For post music festivities there’s a campfire for a jam session and chat with new found friends including undoubtedly many of the musicians – no “green room” away from the fans here at BecFest2!
Food is provided by the fantastic festival feeders Events Horizon with breakfast and all-day menus with snacks and spuds, chips, burgers, nachos, curry, pies and toasted sandwiches, with carnivore, vegetarian and vegan options amongst those.
Tickets are priced from £40 for Saturday, through to £70 with Saturday camping and Friday camping an additional £22, which in effect is for the campsite itself. And the best bit – kids go free, with just a small fee for camping, and pre-schoolers not even that! There’s even bell tent glamping options fo0r extra – truly a festival catering for everybody.
So, grab a ticket, and your tent or live-in vehicle – or glamp! – and get down to Stonehenge campsite for a wonderful weekend of music, meals and madness
Excitement for the rebirth of The Fold music venue at The Lamb in Devizes is building. As you’ve probably seen me posting on social media, Devizine presents two astounding Wiltshire singer-songwriters, M3G and Seren to Devizes this Friday (24th April,) and Gaz Brookfield with JP Oldfield in support has only gone and sold out for the 5th June, but between them we have something else to announce…..
Trowbridge’s hardest working musician Phil Cooper says he’s “mega-excited” to bring his show to the Fold on Friday 22nd May. With him he brings a Canadian friend, multi-instrumentalist singer-songwriter, arranger and producer LG Breton. Phil explained, “LG told me he was coming from Canada to the UK for a holiday, and asked if there was a chance we could share a stage once again. I jumped at the chance!”
And if that’s not enough for you, the other two original members of The Lost Trades, Jamie R Hawkins and Tamsin Quin will be doing solo support slots, before LG and Jamie join Phil for a Phil Cooper Trio show; I haven’t seen Tamsin for sooo long, and Devizine was the Tamsin Quin fanzine too!
The Lost Trades original line up with Tamsin Quin
Again the event is “pay what you can afford,” and here’s the link to reserve your spot. Phil is such a wonderful musician in whatever guise he delivers, be it The Lost Trades, solo, as The Slight Band or the experimental project BCC, but the best thing about this talented and kind fellow, is either him standing in for missing band members for too many groups to name, or, most importantly, his production and engineering wizardry which has blessed so many artists as well as himself, including our M3G, of whom Phil has produced her last few singles; welcome to the small world of Wiltshire live music!
So, I hope to see you at The Fold on Friday, please bring some cash to donate if possible. The success of these early gigs for the new Fold really will be critical to our ability to put on more, so I hope you can make it, because there’s plenty of other brilliant local acts I’ve discovered on my journeys yet to showcase here in Devizes, and they’re queuing up, waiting for the green light!
And don’t forget, there’s an open mic up there every first Tuesday of the month.
A huge thanks then must go out to JP Oldfield who has masterminded the project and Sally at The Lamb. We’re so excited at Devizine we’ve a whole page dedicated to it, which I’m off to next to update with this news!
This extensive belter of eighties-fashioned high-fidelity pop waits for no man, a sonic blast opens it, and the riff wouldn’t sound alien appearing in a John Hughes coming-of-age eighties movie. Visualise Jud, Molly, Emilio et all, dancing around a school library to this latest track from Swindon’s Atari Pilot.
After our glorious appraisal of their previous single Right Crew, Wrong Captain in July, they reckon I’m going to be fair on them again, but really, there’s nothing to dislike about Blank Pages. A review in which they quoted me suggesting, “this sound is fresh, kind of straddling a bridge between space-rock and danceable indie.” Here though, save the strong bassline, the space-rock element is lessened and retrospective synth-pop chimes in a racing beat, twisting this into a real grower on the ears.
Press release aptly cites “everything from Springsteen to Daft punk, Kathleen Edwards to Love,” as influences. As if Daft Punk would work with Springsteen, but if they did, I’d imagine something rather like this. And that alone, makes for an interesting sound, again akin to what Talk in Code are putting out locally, perhaps more so for this single. While we could hinge on an inglorious comeback from an eighties pop star and be thoroughly disappointed by their timeworn platitude and fame induced narcissistic attitude, nostalgia has never been so energetic and fresh when it’s channelled as an influence rather than comeback or tacky tribute act.
There’s a backstory about Atari Pilot, I may have mentioned before but worth reminding. After their debut album “Navigation of The World by Sound” in 2011, a long hiatus took in a serious cancer battle for Onze. But getting a second chance at life gave him the inspiration to get back to writing, and Atari Pilot reformed in 2018 with an acoustic set at the Swindon Shuffle. Reforming the band was actually planned from his hospital bed.
With this in mind, Onze describes the thinking behind this great song, “Blank Pages, like the other songs for the struggle, were inspired by being diagnosed with and recovering from cancer. The songs reflect the highs and lows of life and the struggles we are faced with and have to overcome to reach where we want to be.”
There’s a heartening theme of struggle in the face of change, “it’s also about trying to recognise that we can’t escape ourselves, and asks whether we can use our history and baggage to fire a brighter future,” Onze explains.
It’s a DIY production, recorded and mixed in Onze’s home studio by using Logic Pro X, but sounds stunningly professional. Atari Pilot are Onze (vox,) Paj (bass,) Frosty (guitar) and drummer Andy, and we look forward to hearing more from them. I even managed to review this one without mentioning retro-gaming:
Only gamers of a certain age will know of The Attic Bug. Hedonistic socialiser, Miner Willy had a party in his manor and wanted to retire for the evening. Just how a miner in the eighties could’ve afforded a manor remains a mystery; but that erroneous flaw was the tip of the iceberg. In this ground-breaking ZX Spectrum platform game, the Ribena Kid’s mum appeared to guard Willy’s bedroom, tapping her foot impatiently. Touch this mean rotund mama and she’d kill you, unless you’d tided every bit of leftovers from the bash. Turned out, months after the game’s release, one piece, in the Attic, was impossible to collect. Until this glitch became public knowledge, players were fuming as an intolerable bleeping version of “If I was a Rich Man,” perpetually looped them to insanity.
I swear, if I hear that tune, even some forty years on I cringe; the haunting memory of my perseverance with the impossible Jetset Willy. Music in videogames has come a long way, thank your chosen deity. Yet in this trend of retrospection I terror at musical artists influenced by these cringeworthy clunky, bleeping melodies of early Mario, or Sonic soundtracks; like techno never happened, what are they thinking of? It was with caution, then, when I pressed play on the new single from Swindon band “Atari Pilot.” I had heard of them, but not heard them. I was pleasantly surprised.
For starters, this is rock, rather than, taken from the band’s name, my preconceived suspicion I would be subject to a lo-fi electronica computer geek’s wet dream. While there is something undeniably retrospective gamer about the sonic synth blasts in Right Crew, Wrong Captain, it is done well, with taste and this track drives on a slight, space-rock tip. Though comparisons are tricky, Atari Pilot has a unique pop sound. No stranger to retrospection, with echoey vocals and a cover akin to an illustration from Captain Pugwash, still this sound is fresh, kind of straddling a bridge between space-rock and danceable indie. Oh, and it’s certainly loud and proud.
A grower, takes a few listens and I’m hooked. Their Facebook blurb claims to “change the rules of the game, take the face from the name, trade the soul for the fame…I’m an Atari Pilot.” After their debut album “Navigation of The World by Sound” in 2011, a long hiatus took in a serious cancer battle. But Atari Pilot returned in 2018 with an acoustic set at the Swindon Shuffle. The full band gathered once again the following year with live shows and a new set of “Songs for the Struggle.” This will be the title of their forthcoming follow-up album, “When we were Children” being the first single from it, and now this one, “Right Crew, Wrong Captain,” is available from the end of July.
Its theme is of isolation, “and defiance, after the ship has gone down,” frontman Onze informs me. There’s a haunting metaphor within the intelligent lyrics, “you nail yourself to the mast and you pray that everything lasts, you just want to know hope floats, when the water rises, coz it’s gonna rise, take a deep breath and count to ten, sink to the bottom and start again.”
There’s a bracing movement which dispels predefined ideas of indie and progresses towards something encompassing a general pop feel, of bands I’ve highlighted previously, Talk in Code and Daydream Runaways, Atari Pilot would not look out of place billed in a festival line-up with these acts, and would add that clever cross between space-rock with shards of the videogames of yore, yet, not enough to warrant my aforementioned fears of cringeworthy bleeps. Here’s hoping it’s “game over” for that genre. That said, thinking back, when you bought your Atari 2600, if you recall, oldie, you got the entire package of two joysticks and those circler controllers too, as standard; could you imagine that much hardware included with a modern console? Na, mate, one controller, you’ve got to buy others separately.
So, if decades to come we have a band called X-Box or PlayStation Pilot, I’d be dubious, but Atari gave us quality, a complete package; likewise, with Atari Pilot!
If you rarely venture into Swindon, July is the month in which to make the journey. Swindon Shuffle celebrates and backs local music, since 2007 hosting a weeklong town music festival at its hottest venues; namely The Victoria, The Beehive, The Hop, The Tuppenny and Baila Coffee & Vinyl. In association with Swindon Link and the West Berkshire Brewery, last year they presented forty-four bands over the weekend, all free, and supported mental health charity MIND.
I was forgiven in thinking this year would be virtual, saving some petrol money at least, but the organisers inform me this weekend’s Virtual Shuffle is only to breeze over this gloomy, Groundhog Day isolation period, and they cross their fingers for the real thing on the 16th-19th July; crossing my toes too!
So, yeah, but yeah, whoop-whoop, Swindon Shuffle will indeed fill this gap with plentiful live streams this Saturday 11th April, kicking off at 3:15pm. Streamed direct from their Facebook page, expect to catch all local acts; Jim Blair of Hip Route, the bearer of Devizine’s heart Miss Tamsin Quin, Mr Love & Justice himself, Steve Cox, jazz pianist, singer-songwriter Will Lawton, Harry Leigh, frontman of indie-pop outfit Stay Lunar, experimental Karda Estra project runner Richard Wileman, Onze from Atari Pilot, Joe Rose and Nash.
Mr Love & Justice, Steve Cox
Our favourite Swindonian music journalist, the one and only Dave Franklin, if there’s another he’s a phoney, is all over helping organise this sofa bash. He states “obviously there’s more important things going on in the world right now than worrying about a local music festival, but it is also at times like these that music, art, creativity in general, helps get us through or at least offers an oasis of calm where we can retreat to and forget the day-to-day worries for a bit.”
Karda Estra
For me personally, I’m continuing to toil with the worth of the live stream against a real gig, ponder it’s currently all we have, worry either punter or musician are forced onto the ropes when it comes to how they should be arranged and financed and have even encountered and engaged in heated debates as we scramble in the dark trying to make this work best for everyone. This said, if anyone can I’m reckoning the Shuffle team will make an amazing job of it. If there is an upside to it, it is that one can check these artists out for when the gig scene does take off, and boy, I’m predicting it’ll go off like an atomic blast, and it will encourage many to take the journey to festivals such as Swindon Shuffle, in this example.
Will Lawton
In the meantime, enjoy the streams and not let it miff us too much at missing the real thing. I tell myself the scene is dormant; it will erupt again. It should go without saying, but I’m going to spell it out; B, for BUY, U for Yourself (sort of,) Y for some local music, (okay, that didn’t work) Look, just support the artists and buy their music from their websites and Bandcamp sites!
devizine.com 