Tag: Talk in Code

Pet Shop Boys, Actually with Talk in Code at the Tree House

Having to unfortunately miss Devizes’ blues extravaganza on Friday, I crossed the borderline on Saturday to get my prescribed dosage of Talk in Code…with a Pet Shop Boys tribute thrown in for good measure…..

Two classic tracks into their set at Frome’s little sister venue to the Cheese & Grain, The Tree House, Pet Shop Boys, Actually from Shropshire hailed their support act as better than them. Self-deprecating isn’t unheard of, rare for music acts, but the bottom line is, I’ve heard far worse tributes than The Pet Shop Boys, Actually, actually. 

For Talk in Code, though, it was an accolade fully deserved, as they did what they do as fantastic as ever, and thrilled more than their fanbase at the modest venue. The other attendees, there for classic pop they cherish, found Talk in Code fitted like a glove, despite their songs being original, because they have a timeless universal appeal, and their unique synth-pop spin on indie provides it with a defining eighties feel.

It’s an ideal opportunity to reopen the perpetual debate I have with myself over the worth of tribute acts, even cover bands too, against those producing original music. Like any tribute act, the value of their performance hinges predominantly on the individual and their association with the act they’re attributing. Whether a tribute act is good is far more subjective than an original act; based upon personal reflection. “It’s comfort music,” Talk in Code guitarist Snedds expressed to me outside the venue; agreed, personally I’m impartial to The Pet Shop Boys, therefore passably comforted.

They broke through in the middle of electronica. I brought and loved my 7” of West End Girls in 85, others did too as it hit number one, and the duo walked away with awards. Though the Pet Shop Boys created their own take on electronica, much like Madness did with Two-Tone, were hugely successful with it, and again like Madness, they continued the template way past the trend fizzling the competition out. Such a practice causes division, you attain a fan following, whereas mild observers tend to consider if the uniformed style gets repetitive, especially over decades. I’m of that mindset, hence my impartiality.

So here at this rather snazzy tree house, carpeted and significantly more congenial, hospitable than the big cheese, but smaller and rather more conventional than Frome’s hipster and counterculture reputation, being situated within a housing estate fashioned sports bar, The Vine Tree, a fair crowd of Pet Shop Boys diehards gathered amidst regulars and “Talkers” for a cracking night in a nice, welcoming and universal pub.

Often to miss the support act is unfortunate, for this gig it would’ve been sacrilege. Talk in Code were on fire as ever, blasting out their cheerful tunes, frontman Chris wiggling moves in his Adidas uniform and rightfully boasting of their success at The Wiltshire Music Awards, outside our county! It’s a lively show I will never tire of, and if I have to witness tribute acts too, if by some miracle I make eighty, will someone please wheel me over to a tribute act show to Talk in Code?!

As for The Pet Shop Boys, Actually, prior I considered if The Pet Shop Boys is quite a simple act to make a tribute from, compared to other eighties acts; call up a proficient keyboardist, buy him a BOY cap, don a tuxedo and white scarf and play musical statues! Although they tended to lightheartedly play their accomplishment down, they made a brilliant job out of it. As those pop classics came through adept and nimble, I paused to consider if my opinion of the Pet Shop Boys isn’t a smidgen harsh; through the splendour of this tribute I saw them in a refined light, and that is a true sign of a proficient tribute act, and their worth. 

Interestingly, they adopted a female singer too, to soften the vocals to match Neil Tennant’s camp tones, and to play the incredibly tricky part of Dusty Springfield for What Have I Done to Deserve This? Likely the trickiest part of the show. To my approval, Pet Shop Boys, Actually covered a Beloved track too, a kind of raver’s answer to The Pet Shop Boys, and they thumped out the newer, technologically progressed tunes after a workout of eighties classics, and returned to the hits for an outstanding finale; someone get me one of those jackets that looks like I got stuck in a carwash!

If you go to see a tribute act with expectations of precisely recreating the magnitude of the original act, you’re an idiot and will be let down in most cases! If you go to see a tribute act open-mindedly, with your priority on having fun, nine times out of ten you will, especially if you hold a passion for the act being attributed. Use your noddle, don’t see Pet Shop Boys Actually if you’re hoping for a tribute to Slipknot, but do if you like The Pet Shop Boys, and you’ll find they’re really rather good!

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Rooks; New Single From M3G

Chippenham folk singer-songwriter, M3G (because she likes a backward “E”) has a new single out tomorrow, Friday 19th December. Put your jingly bell cheesy tunes…

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Talk in Code Down The Gate!

What, again?! Another article about Talk in Code?! Haven’t they had enough Devizine-styled publicity?! Are their heads swelling?! 

Didn’t that crazy toothless editor catch them at The Vic in Swindon just last week? And now The Southgate in Devizes? Isn’t that his second home anyway?!

Hold back your keyboard warrior typing fingers from those vicious comment sections, critic, I will attempt to answer these burning questions I falsely imagine straining from your lips, in a short piece about a Sunday gig well worth mentioning…..

Yes, again, it is another article about Talk in Code. It’s either that or I risk playing a brain training game on my phone; it’s Monday, and my brain refuses instruction.

Yes, they’ve been showered with love from us, but being this an opinion based blog, I reserve my right to express my honest opinion; they deserve it! I have succumbed to being a T-shirt embossed “talker,” a more family fashioned classification than fanbase.

If the idiom of enlarged heads implies they have a conceited, exaggerated sense of self-importance due to our consistent splatters of flattery, that’s the biggest untruth you could suggest about them. I only said it in ironic jest; woe is me for my fractured sense of humour; pinch of salt, please!

Whilst their performances are showy, that’s pop; they’re the most down to earth bunch you’ll ever have the pleasure to meet … .especially musicians!! Observe them engaging with their audience, young to old. Observe the attention they attract wherever they happen to play as being a product of their universal brilliance. If they appear excitable about this, it derives from their dedication, motivation, and the deserved positive feedback from their audience, not a two-bit blogger!

So what, yeah I was at the Vic last week for their awesome single launch gig, when I said it was the  best I’ve ever seen them play, suggesting perhaps because it was on their home turf. I’m considering taking this back after catching them yesterday, for two reasons, firstly but less important, Swindon is only home to two of them, Snedds is home here in Devizes, or as near as dammit. Secondly, pop grows on you, the more you listen the more the hook catches you, and they have this down to a T, so maybe the level of skill they’ve attained has now become standard as more fans amass;  it certainly seemed that way Sunday at the Southgate. They rocked it with professional ease, just as they did the Vic, as they always do, and it was only a Sunday afternoon at Devizes’ answer to the O2 arena. Given the actual O2, I predict they’d rock that one, too!

Matter of fact, I’ve not been down the Gate for what feels like ages, honest, mum! This occasion was purely circumstantial; I was in town to attend the dress rehearsal of an emotionally sobering play at the Wharf. It is fantastically evocative and reflects a sad time for me personally. See the review to understand, and go see the play. I needed cheering up, and being that it ended when the gig was kicking off, I thought I could sit in the back row and scribe some thoughts on my phone with a pint. It didn’t quite work out this way, not for the want of trying, because Talk in Code’s sound is irresistible, and yeah, it cheered me up a treat.

I’ve not been down The Gate recently, what with a summer season of festivals, a family holiday and inflation mugging us all off. But being the Southgate is so insatiably irresistible, friendly, and  affordable too by comparison, I slip back into its gorgeous rustic appeal like a glove, anyone would.

I’ve stated numerous times how my honest opinion casts it as the best pub locally, these facts stick more than mud, and perhaps it hasn’t been that long, it only feels like it has! George seemed to remember me as a gullible accessory to doggie biscuit snatching crimes. Autumn drawing in, save me the cosy chair.

All hail Talk in Code and The Southgate too. The first play top class indie-pop within a more humble local scene than following a national pop star and praying you can mortgage your home for a ticket to see. The latter is a cathedral to our humble scene, and lively pub culture too, with a rich history of showcasing local musical talent, one all our writers have been disciples of since day dot.

There’s so many artists still to mention, pinky promises I will, all in good time, but a Talk in Code gig at The Gate, despite catching them only last week, was still too good not to drop into!

Tidy: Talk in Code at The Vic with Riviera Arcade and Flora Flora

It was only ever supposed to be a single launch gig but it could’ve been for a gold-crested gatefold triple LP, because Talk in Code were larging it last night at their hometown premier venue, Swindon’s Victoria. The crowd was ecstatic and the atmosphere was highly flammable…..strike a light!

If witnessing a great band on their own turf adds a communal elevation to the thrill of seeing them at all, Talk in Code certainly pulled out all the stops, even if the je-ne-sais quoi of these masters of indie-pop perform with sublime quality anywhere they happen to appear.

If this crossing the friend barrier themed quintessential grower, More Than Friends sits perfectly into their eighties vibe discography, we were leaked forthcoming singles might venture somewhere slightly different, but right here, now, at The Vic, Talk in Code was rewarded equal rapturous praise in throwing it out there as they were marching triumphantly through their beloved anthems.

Tunes which, like the best memorable pop, have universal and timeless appeal. At a Talk in Code gig you could mute the sound and still comprehend that the individual takes what they want from their style by observing the diversity of the demographic present. Here, this tight group of musicians evoke memories of everything gorgeous about eighties pop from Ah-Ha to Simple Minds, for me. One generation younger, especially when they backtracked to Oxygen, might wallow in nineties indie, and likewise youth will recognise their own contemporary influences.

If homeliness provides confidence to experiment, we were treated to something I’ve never seen Talk in Code do before; as the band Twix breaked, dynamic Adidas- sponsored frontman Chris Stevens proved he was no one trick pony, and blessed the Vic with an immaculate acoustic number, an original he called We Remain.

If appreciation was a pair of knickers, Talk in Code would have a visible panty line, as devotee “Talkers” in blue sunglasses and merch amassed between Vic regulars, equally relishing their vibrant, danceable and electric hoedown! And all took home a CD embossed goodie bag akin to a toddler’s birthday party, save a slice of squashed sponge cake!

Yet if there’s an honourable family-fashioned ambience surrounding this band, where Talkers would follow them to the four corners of the globe, else create Lego fan-videos or shower them with deserved fondness, the mood for a quality evening was pre-set by two awesome support acts TiC cherrypicked.

Gloucestershire soloist, songwriter and model Flora Flora opened the gig with acoustic splendour. New to me, I’m now keenly following her socials. Not because she took control of my phone from my intoxicated sausage fingers to ensure I did, though she did, but because I’ve since come to realise there’s subsequent levels to her talent than the perfection of her rocking performance last night!

An inspiring Gen Z Swifty wordsmith, crafting evocative songs praised and played by our hero James Threlfall on BBC Introducing. A new one drops on streaming platforms on 29th August but is available now on Bandcamp, Need to Say; it’s far more ethereal than Flora Flora’s edgier performance, and you’ll be foolish not to bookmark it as a favourite; fill your ankle-length boots.

Penultimate act, Bristol-Swindon longstanding five-piece rockers Riviera Arcade, I must confess, I preconceived to be a fair, hard rock band; they certainly came out like one. It only took near to the completion of the first song for me to come to complex reasoning why they’re punching well above that weight. Multi-layered precision with captivating guitar riffs set me contemplating subtle nods to eighties mod or punk, sometimes skanking, but still, it heralded heavier rock. They’ve a 2022 album Gone By Ten on stream, so you can hear what I’m waffling about.

An interesting and certainly unique style which, while I was thinking The Police or Costello, they finalised their set of beguiling originals with an apt and superbly delivered cover of The Stones’ Paint it Black, a perfect summary to their ethos. I returned home as a newfound fan, a bit wobbly on my feet and Notra-Dame bells ringing in my ears fan, but deffo a fan!

Talk in Code was officially on the best form I’ve ever had the pleasure to witness, but it was the combination of acts, venue and atmosphere which famed this fantastic night too; The Vic is renowned for doing so, historically. Owner Darren Simons assured me, though the venue is up for grabs, it’s only going to someone prepared to continue in his shoes, so this flagship to Wiltshire live music should thankfully continue to reign; dodge magic roundabouts and onwards to The Shuffle!

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Talk in Code Announces New Single; More Than Friends

Atmospherically anthemic and reinforced with that infectious rhythmic groove we’ve come to love Talk in Code for, More Than Friends is chockfull of it, and it’s their latest single, to be released on Friday 22nd August 2025 via Regent Street Records….

Even if you’re accounted for now, happily married and matured like a fine wine, the recollections of a blossoming relationship and the eagerness versus apprehension it provokes will never be pushed down a dark alley of your memory lane; successful or epic fail, they live inside the mind forever, I’m afraid! Frontman, Chris Stevens said of the single, “we’ve all been there, in a situation waiting for the other to make the first move, to validate our feelings, or save face!”

I could tell you a few stories, but will save you the agony! Especially as the earliest would be set in the eighties, about getting hot under the collar over girls in rah-rah skirts, leg warmers and dippy-boppers! But that’s the beauty of this song’s simple premise; if you’re older the irresistible eighties feel to the sound assists you in extracting the emotions needed to savour a memory or two, and you’ll stare back up at your Morten Harket or Kim Wilde poster, should the blu-tac not have dried out, praying they’ll bless you with a cure to your longing!! Billy Joel, you charlatan, it isn’t that easy to tell her about it!

Whereas if you’re younger and, as gen z generally are, far more practical to be praying to Smash Hits pullout posters, you might relate the song’s narrative to a newfound emotion, sharable on TikTok. But the eighties vibe still functions as a mechanism, because, let’s face it, musical innovators of the eighties are the catalysts to contemporary pop. I was careful here not to suggest eighties music was better, though with my rose-tinted specs on, the thought was! 

And that’s what makes Talk in Code so universally engaging; it bridges a needed gap between eighties new wave electronica and nineties indie pop. In goes the synths, guitars riffs, the immortal choruses and rousing hooks, and what it exhausts is fresh and pumping, modern yet as timeless as Chris’s Adidas jackets, like someone slipped a rocket between the bum cheeks of Tony Hadley, and whip, zoom he’s top of the download chart faster than you could cry Oasis.

For the reflective mood to the band’s artistry, which this track seems to strengthen, More Than Friends might be considered typical for the band’s direction, but as ever, they are growers, and after a listen or three you’ll find the quintessential is challenged with each new release, because this band are tight, they’re professional, and bounded by great PR, management, and a truly loyal fanbase. A base which will be singing this back to them, in blue sunglasses, at their numerous live performances within the next month!

The single’s launch party is at the Vic, Swindon, on Friday 22nd August. Tickets HERE

Another cracker, Talk in Code. For everyone else, pre-save it HERE!

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Live in Pewsey, at the First Oak-Fest

Amidst another packed summer weekend’s schedule laid that lovable large village Pewsey’s turn to shine; always a law unto itself, things went off; if it’s good enough for King Alfred…..

The Royal Oak has filled a gap, hosting quality regular music nights under the production of Wiltshire Music Events, but this Saturday was the true test, transforming it into an inaugural carpark-festival, an icing on an already delicious lardy cake, though equally a learning curve.

Programming by Eddie Prestidge, so passionate about spreading word of musicians south of the county, inevitably overbooks, as is his desire to showcase as many as feasible. He called me Friday, delightedly informing me George Wilding was added to the already jammed schedule; but how will he fit him in?! 

Thinking big; quality stage production, security, generous VIP hospitality, two food outlets, and hopeful punters would flood the site. The latter being the only dubious thing about the event. All the right ingredients there, comparable, the price reasonable, certainly got your money’s worth, but to debate only a sprinkling were attracted is opening a Pandora’s box to a general plight of austerity, flooding the festival market, or a combination of the two; every man and his dog are putting them on and there’s only so many individuals can reasonably attend.

Therefore, established festivals may well appeal over the risk of testing a new one, but I was assured here, as I suggested you should be too; Wiltshire Music Events has hosted many great ones in various locations; your money goes on production and ensuring musicians are paid their fair share, something sadly overlooked by other organisers. CrownFest and Salisbury Market Place were the most memorable, plus, whenever The Marley Experience is in the area that’s where I’m gonna be, sir! 

A win-win for me, who was due to attend the fantastic Minety but work and family commitments shadowed this; possibly an argument supporting pub mini-festivals over larger established festivals. Convenience for the middle-aged wrought with unpredictable employment culture or family commitments, above the intense arrangements necessary for a three-day camping extravaganza, such as the beautiful Minety. The mini-festival goer can be spontaneous; it’s Saturday, my only day off, sleeping in a tent is for younger nutters. I’ve  been otherwise occupied on recent weekends, so, like Peter Pan in spirit but not in body, I’m determined to make up for it this weekend!

There I be, Pewsey, dammit, in an apt Bob Marley tee, watching the grand finale ignoring the timetable; Bird is The Word captured the moment on camera! The Marley Experience professionally captivated and caused the slight crowd to appear larger, with their infectious and irresistible homage to Bob Marley & The Wailers; a matchless show, the band tight, expressive and clearly adoring the limelight of what a decade of dedication has perfected into a sublime tribute act.

But there was magic in the air prior, which opened with Pewsey-own The Little Big Band, and was followed by Rosie Jay and Leon Daye, all of which, due to aforementioned commitments, I missed; and I love Rosie Jay. Though her last single we reviewed was a duet with Salisbury’s award-winning newcomer Lucas Hardy, and on that ground alone I was delighted to catch the end of his superb set. With George Wilding penultimately added, I saw a similarity in Lucas to George’s early years, a natural and unpretentious talent who can engage an audience with a guitar and smile.

Returning from cruising tours, George Wilding doesn’t plan, doesn’t need to, he just charms as usual; if he’s an interactive human jukebox, he’s one of those polished decorative American ones from the fifties. Shout your requests, George knows it, or will give it a try, make it his own, and you’ll love him for it, you won’t be able to help yourself!

Between those two, then, a basic four-piece setup from Andover with a repertoire of rock classic covers sprinkled with a folk tinge, called The Tipsy Gypsies. Their music commanded I’d come to the right place. The premise sounds simple, the effect was far from it. They owned the stage with accomplished showmanship, stylised renditions, and a barrelful of fun.

Gypsies tipsy perfect for what would follow, a Somerset Pogues tribute known as The Phogues. Now things were going to really liven up, as, warts, a spilled round of whiskey shots, and all, were divinely caricatured. The Pogues uniquely blended Irish folk with punk, others mimicked it, overshadowing the blueprint. When Phogues return to the originators, you recall why it was copied aplenty; a stern yet fun reminder to the heyday of Shane and band’s drunken skullduggery, and the music which somehow spawned from it!

Despite being off-season, they told me they had to do “that song,” and I supposed they did. So, between Streams of Whiskey, Fiesta, Sickbed of Cuchulainn and just about every favourite Pouges song of mine, they drafted in the assistance of unsuspecting Claire Grist, singer and self-proclaimed “right tit” of Bird is the Word music promotion, to be Kirsty MacColl, and who made a good job of it. Was their female vocalist absent? No, it’s a gimmick to invite anyone from the audience to take the position, they explained to me, but hey, they didn’t need gimmicks, they did a fine job of bellowing out the beloved Pogues songs far sober than the originals ever did.

Time for a change of direction, as local indie-pop favourites Talk in Code rocked up for a lengthy set of eighties-inspired synth-rock bombs, ate complimentary curry, and lit up the stage with their electric presence. If you’ve come to an event expecting cover bands, Talk in Code don’t go there, but their infectious originals cause you to wonder if you’ve heard them before, on some Now, That’s What I Call Music compilation album from 1986. Here’s the lads in perfect sync, jumping, flaunting their perfection, as ever, doing what they love and engaging any audience from roughneck boater to FullTone Festival punter; they never fail to obtain admiration.

Time pushing on, George Wilding entertained while The Marley Experience prepared, and did their amazing thing, exploding the finale with irresistible reggae vibes. Oak Festival, Pewsey Live, or whatchamacallit, could’ve been more affordable, by skipping on some of the magic, but they chose to showcase the lot, that paid off to those there, but I suspect, as videos and images emerge, folk not there will be wondering how and why they missed it. They could have overplayed their social media promotion, and a striking poster might’ve been advantageous, yet I believe there’s a delicate balance which sees one event sellout and another left threadbare, and it’s debatable what causes this. For what it’s worth, I’ve seen lesser attended first time festivals, much less, and the slight crowd’s merriments made for a population tenfold from the reality!

There was a kebab van, but the delicious waft of curry from a stand, by Tale of Spice on Pewsey’s North Street, twisted my arm. There was little in alternative entertainment, insufficient pub loos, but with concentration on the lineup, this was a welcoming, fun and lively occasion, a showcase of Wiltshire Music Events’ quality and varied artists, and petty issues one can shrug off uncaringly when the vibe is this alive. 

Pewsey rocked into the cooling night, possibly later than planned, but no one whined on social media, because this is Pewsey, not Devizes; a carnival village where rather than rant you cannot hear your pin drop, you get your slippers on and join in! 

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Are We Still in Rowde?! RowdeFest 25 Sunny Overview

Images by Hans Shell, Ruth Wordley, Helen’s PolarPix and Bird is the Word

If you’re going to write on a subject you must research it, but if you’re going to write well about it you need to get involved in order to understand the details often hidden to outside observers….

I learned this a year into creating Devizine, when I decided to hold an anniversary gig. Event organiser Dean Czerwionka basically held my hand through it, as I hadn’t a Scooby-Doo of the immensity of variables involved. Since then, I’ve dug myself deeper into the practical, to understand those obstacles and overcome them, so when being critical, I’m aware of how much work goes into putting events on.

Did you seriously buy that baloney?! Really, I’m an attention-seeking party animal who loves to showcase, whenever feasible, the talents of those I spend hours tapping my keyboard to review, then steal all the credit for it! The whole balancing on a learning curve stuff is only a bonus ball! But it is a delight, whenever the opportunity arises, to witness the actualities of my labour, and one such opportunity occurred yesterday, a short walk from my home.

Rowdefest happened Saturday in my village, an idea to retain aspects of a traditional fete yet modernise it to reflect a mini-festival, in which I had to get my foot in the door of.

Feedback has been overwhelmingly positive, but for myself and the committee, Rowdefest 2025 started months ago, with tea, cake and planning at Barbara’s house. Then, an amount of WhatsApp messages, a Facebook chat coordinating the band’s specs with Simon Stockley, the solo sound engineer worth an entire team of professionals.

RowdeFest Committee pose at the end!

Then there’s the mountains I didn’t climb; Clare’s tribulations to provide a bar, Liz’s organisational skills to provide food vans, sponsors and collect raffle prizes, Kirsty creating a book stall, Geraldine and Angie tying things together, tea, cake and a photo exhibition in the church, chairperson Sue binding our meandering meetings into some kind of order, and so much more from many villagers and parish councillors mucking in, till the point on Friday I was driving a milk-float down Rowde Court Road with a huge tent on it and it all suddenly felt real!

Event organising with a team is wrought with disagreements, problem solving, worries which drag you to examine speculating weather apps daily, and fingers-crossed assurances everything will be alright on the night….thankfully it was, so Rowde was blessed with a hugely successful, beautiful occasion. An equally huge thanks and congratulations must go to all involved in its making, but none so much as our chief, Barbara. Even if one of them was me, I still reserve the right to report on it, for there is no flattery necessary, feedback from others gives me the confidence to say this was as fantastic as I perceived it as!

Devizes Jubilee Morris Dancers

For me personally, it was all about community merriment, and of course, the entertainment. Under the premise we wanted lively bands I took to organising a lineup consisting entirely of tried and tested locally sourced talents, and calling in a few favours! Opening the event then, the Devizes Jubilee Morris Dancers arrived, did their thing literally with bells on, and got the blossoming crowds engaging in a final routine.

Between the two Morris dancing sections, Mat Fucci of Fucci Fit teased the crowds with a workout, and under the beating sun they got as physical as Olvia Newton-John in 1981, or near to it!

ANdrew Hurst with Lucianne Worthy

Then the live music started with my wildcard, the experimental imaginations of music scholar and tutor, Andrew Hurst. With exceptional bassist Lucianne Worthy, they whisked the audience through multi-instrumental tangents, wonderfully.

Talk in Code

Usually a headline act next, and it was only 3pm, with the crowds still on our village’s own delicious Rowdey Cow ice cream rather than ciders! Wiltshire’s finest indie-pop darlings, Talk in Code kindly pepped it up, making a pitstop on their way to Swindon’s Castle venue. Blasting their eighties pop flavoured originals gorgeously across our small playing field was an indicator this was going to go off rather different from your average village fete!

That was my doing, and apologise if it came as a shock to some sensitive residents. What attendees didn’t witness was me, once being informed about their complaints, slightly sulking in guilt behind the scenes. Yes, what started as a village fete had now gone full-blown festival, which I believed was the intention and well advertised as such. My resolution was, other than gorging on biscuits, that, in times like this, we have to go with the majority. As the huge crowd gathered, of all ages, appeared to be lapping it up, dancing and cherishing every moment, coupled with the expressions of delight I witnessed on the faces of some disabled children in wheelchairs when I held the gate open for them, well, they counteract a billion complainers for me, and I’m certain there was far, far fewer of them than that!

Talk in Code with Peggy-Sue Ford of Don’t Stop the Music radio show

Talk in Code shines like a beacon to everything dedication can achieve on our local circuits, and their reputation builds with every appearance; I was overjoyed to see them, as, like anyone they meet, they’ve become my friends. The second act tends to be more modest with their skills, but The Sarah C Ryan Band will always be one of my most favourite bands. They deliver a sublime melodious panache in style and sound, the kind I liken to Fleetwood Mac, but my daughter suggested Florence and The Machine; either works.

The Sarah C Ryan Band

Through cooler originals and the odd cover, Sarah and her band held the crowd spellbound, after wondering if anything would equal Talk in Code, now they were assured I had many more tricks up my sleeve!

Thieves

WIth the crowd simmered, time to allow Thieves to do their thing. Semi-acoustic vibes, I’d go out on a limb and suggest this is the finest Americania you’ll find around these waters. Authentic bluegrass to rootsy blues, this wonderfully accomplished four-piece vocal harmonise on a level which left our unsuspecting attendees around the hay bales spellbound and those in the know nodding impressively. It was the set to end all sets, setting the scene to bliss, as I wandered receiving everyone’s approval, but I had one more band yet to introduce.

Burn The Midnight Oil

Given the chance, Talk in Code might’ve headlined, safe in the knowledge of what they will deliver. Despite knowing front-girl Chrissy Chapman for many years, and fondly reviewing her vocal collaborations on drum n bass tunes, when she put together Burn The Midnight Oil I met with the original lineup to interview them and hear a little rehearsal, but regrettably, I still hadn’t had the opportunity to tick them off my must-see list.

Okay, so, I took a chance here, suspecting they’d be good, and heard all the good reports, but I didn’t begin to imagine just how good. Burn the Midnight Oil totally rocked the finale, with fantastic originals slipped unnoticed into a set of covers, they made the perfect end to the day. Dressed in a divine white dress of sentimental value to Chrissy, she took her accomplished band and the audience on an elevated hour plus expedition of bluesy rock which no one wanted to ever come to an end. It was total and utter dynamite!

Alannah Myles’ Blue Velvet rang out across our playing field, as we gathered the committee and volunteers to be cheered before an encore. Chrissy has a confident stage presence. Her interactions with the audience were so professional, I had to take a double-look to check if it was still my dear friend up there!

But, that’s the magic right there, to take our talented locals and celebrate their skills as they deserve to be celebrated, allow them to shine with the freedom of expression to deliver works they’ve written and composed, disperse them with classics if they wish to, and introduce the quality of local talent to audiences which may not have the opportunity to follow our local live music scene. That was my objective, as that is alway my objective, and I thank the Rowdefest committee for allowing me to do that in my own village, rather than hiking up Dunkirk Hill again, or trekking further afield; Bradford-on-Avon had a town music festival on, at a level our village couldn’t compete with, but those at RowdeFest wouldn’t have cared at that point; it was magical.

Bramblerose Designs

Okay, I’m still at one thousand feet about what we accomplished yesterday, but I don’t believe time will water my excitement down. This should go down in the village history books, and if not, it will always be remembered by me. Again my sincere thanks goes to all involved, the committee, the attendees which included MP Brian Matthew, and our media friends Bird is the Word, Peggy-Sue Ford and Alan Watters of our village magazine, but especially the acts and Simon, who came to my rescue; thank you all, for your time, dedication and for superbly rocking my village! 

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The Oak Festival; The Best Thing to Hit Pewsey Since…..?!

Yet to witness it myself but heard on the grapevine, the blossoming liveliest place to be in Pewsey at the moment, is, apparently the Royal Oak. Wiltshire Music Events, who brought us CrownFest in Bishops Cannings and sold out Devizes Corn Exchange with The Marley Experience, has been at the forefront of furnishing the pub with gigs from the growing wealth of talent on their books. Tempted to drop by and check it out asap, but if all else fails, Saturday July 5th sees them holding a debut mini-festival, which is double-underlined on my personal calendar……

The Oak Festival is an all dayer boasting seven bands, food and outside bar, but it’s the lineup which will really wow. Three, no, thirty yeses from me, to The Marley Experience headlining, being smitten with Bob Marley & The Wailers since day dot and after much deliberation, these guys recreate their music and vibe with such unprecedented precision it’s unmissable.

There’s also a lively Irish folk element to the festival with The Tipsy Gypsies, and Pouges tribute, The Phogues, both I’ve yet to tick off my must-see list, but they also dive into indie with the blues edge of The Leon Daye Band, and our favourite-most indie-pop masters Talk in Code, who need no introduction here neither further praise; forget sliced bread, they’re the most electrifying exciting local act we have.

There’s two acoustic singer-songwriters too, Lucas Hardy who I’ve heard only good things about, and Salisbury’s Rosie Jay, who with her poignant writing and exquisitely unique delivery overnight clocked into our all-time hall of fame here at Devizine!

Early bird tickets at an extremely reasonable £25 are available until 1st Feb, HERE.

Later the price goes up but only slightly, to £32.50, which, once you’ve seen The Marley Experience, you’ll realise the ticket stub was worth it just to see them alone, and why I’m all excited about this one!

It could be the best thing to happen in pea island since carnival, since the coronation of Alfred the Great; trust me on this one!!

Harder to Breathe; New Single from Talk in Code

It’s been a fantastic summer for Wiltshire’s indie-pop favourites Talk in Code. I think I’ve caught them live at least four times, and only once blagged a lift home from guitarist Snedds, of which is customary to drunkenly chew his ears off on as many random subjects the journey time will allow; I guess that officially makes me a “talker?!”

But hey, nights drawing in, back to recorded sound, and Talk in Code have a new single, Harder to Breathe, out this Friday, 4th October 2024; it is still 2024, right?!

Again this one follows the irresistible building template of the band, bridging the gap between 80’s new wave electronica and 90’s indie pop. This one, I believe, really harnesses the band’s objectives of creating timeless pop with dynamic eighties synth and guitar combos. The effect is akin to iconic producers like Peter F Wolf or Narada Walden; Harder to Breathe evokes blissful recollections of songs from the peak of the era, from Go West to Madonna, and we’ll never stop dancing to them; try to stop me, I double-dare you!

Harder to Breathe is another universally exemplary precedent of this original timeless anthem ethos Talk In Code are achieving. The sound reaches that blinkered emotion of ones infatuation suffocating the object of their desires, at least in a pop-tastic fashion, as is the theme. At least I think it does, it’s been a long time since anyone was infatuated with me, but once upon a long time ago, believe it or not, some did; funny old world, isn’t it?! No one was even paying them!!

Frontman Chris Stevens said of the single, “we want to evoke the feelings you have when you meet people that have a huge impact on your life; being overwhelmed, lust, falling in love…the song addresses if it is simply instinctual to gamble with matters of the heart.”

A versatile force live, able to suit a variety of festivals and venues, it’s been a great summer, but the fun doesn’t stop, this tune matches the gusto of their performances, in the comfort of your own home; give it a listen, just don’t try to stop me from dancing!

Pre-Save this beauty HERE. Return Friday in diddy-boppers and rah-rah skirt, I know I will!

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Jol Rose’s Ragged Stories

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Vince Bell in the 21st Century!

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Swindon Gets Shuffling!

Despite the population of Devizes throwing confetti and paint at each other in their most celebrated annual ritual, I believe I picked the right weekend to visit Swindon; deffo, or are they always ‘aving it there?!

The Wildcats whipped butt at their first league game of the season on Friday, but my Saturday was dedicated to exploring the arts, something criticised stereotypically by outsiders. I could sigh, with partial agreement, historically perhaps. Swindon caressed industrial boom, somewhere along the line forgoing its arts and culture. This is changing, and fast, the Shuffle is a skeleton key opening said transpose.

What’s not thankfully changed is Old Town, while central Swindon is unrecognisable compared to twenty years ago. Just as Swindon Paint Fest has decorated the walls with impressive street art, the Swindon Shuffle is the event pushing the town’s boundaries in locally sourced live music. There’s few annual events in Wiltshire showcasing entirely local music, I best liken the Shuffle to The Bradford Roots Festival at the Wiltshire Music Centre. Save, this is spread across the choicest pubs in Swindon rather than under one purpose-built complex.

And it is a mammoth simultaneous exhibition of musical talent, a taster of what the county offers, of which it’d be impossible to witness entirely; best I approach this diary-like, apologies to the many bands I missed. We’re talking over seventy acts spread across nine venues for this four-day beast in its eighteenth year, and it remains free, fundraising via donation buckets for Prospect Hospice. 

Available for the Saturday only, my intention is to take as big a bite of it as I can, taste some known favourites and cross a number of must-sees off my ever-growing list.

Swindon Shuffle is a beautiful thing, a convention for local musicians, promoters, media types and aficionados. I stepped off the bus at The Tuppenny, in a hurry and frustrated I’d now missed Sienna Wileman and likely Chippenham’s singer-songwriter Meg, to bump into Sienna’s father Richard, big Shuffle chief Ed Dyer on the door, and luckily, Meg’s dad Paul; the latter meaning Meg was still playing and I managed to catch the last few songs of this unique and emotive rising star.

This tavern was bustling yet functioning happily, a crowd immersed in Meg’s magical words, set the stage for Americana soloist Jol Rose, up next. Something of a Swindon optimistic Dylan, he retains his concentrated narrative songs in favour of the more lighthearted ditties and banter to appease, though there was a poignant one on the Gaza conflict, but whichever his outlook, Jol is a proficient entertainer and skilled master of his craft.

Breaking familiar territory, new one for me, David Corrigan of The Astral Ponies followed, with an inspiring set of acoustic versions of his band’s songs. The dilemma of going tried and tested against treating the Shuffle as a voyage of discovery set in; solved by the next few hours whereby acts I’m making a beeline for I’m aware of but yet to see live. I tend to get over-excited about such prospects, and figured drinking cider like water might help.

Make no mistake, I could’ve cemented myself in at The Tuppenny, such is its comfy atmos, but, hot on this must-see list, Swindon’s Afro-Latin collective Zambalando are due in a coffee shop on Commercial Road called Baristocats, so I’m moving on. The café was bustling and I was early, recalling a Facebook post that the Midlife Krisis sound system was set up in the courtyard of Level III, exterior to the Shuffle program. I thought I’d temporarily breach the Shuffle and check. Bass rolling down the street like the millennium never happened, I turned one corner to find a throbbing little afternoon rave going on, with their symbolic milk-float fronted DJ booth, a wall of sound and smiley ravers giving it some.

Observing street art of city magnitude I left assured, Shuffle or no, Swindon has embraced diverse arts on a level unrivalled by its recent history. Only the thought of Zambalando dragged me away from the old skool vibes, but upon arrival back at Baristocats it seemed they’d cancelled. Nevertheless I commandeered a sofa, tea and toastie, chatting to Swindon’s premiere reggae/ska keyboardist Erin Bardwell, who’s collective Subject A played the Shuffle on Thursday. Baristocats are hip, make a damn fine toastie, and XTC’s keyboardist Barry Andrews, aka Stic Basin, was taking us on a blissful journey of ambient dub.

If I’m complimenting Swindon, may as well include some infrastructure too, for tucked behind the now commercialised Regent Circus is the steep Prospect Hill, ingeniously with a pub at both the top and bottom. This would be my resting place for the duration, the short distance from the Beehive to the Castle manageable, if uphill, to switch between multi-musician Richard Wileman & singer and saxophonist Amy Fry’s gorgeous experimental jazz-come-psychedelia at the Beehive, and Liddington Hill who’ve created their own subgenre, Celtic-grunge, and were currently giving it what’s for at The Castle. Allowing me to cross two must-sees off my list. Liddington Hill was brilliantly loud and in your face, everything I’d imagined and more, and crowds gathered to salute that.

Unlike the Beehive, I was unfamiliar with the Castle, yet felt immediately at home; it had been invaded by both ‘Talkers’ awaiting the headliner, and cheesemakers from Calne, real ones! It’s fine, off territory, no dispute, love The Real Cheesemakers’ hilarious wurzel take on heavy rock, and boy did they blast it superbly!

Only good things heard about the next band were certainly not fibs. The Belladonna Treatment is a remedy for an off-balance in indie-rock, pop and punk; all subgenres were subtly intertwined idiosyncratically, and beguilingly delivered to sardine-packed admirers, and a new fan here. Unfortunately Trunk, the penultimate act at the Castle I had to miss due to an emergency burger mandate. It’d be fifteen minutes wait at the chippy, I was content, it’s opposite the Victoria, Swindon’s stalwart music venue and one I unusually gravitate towards.

Age thing, the lineup was particularly heavy and aimed at the younger demographic at the Vic tonight, NervEndings headline, and I’m well aware of their force of nature as they spawned in Devizes, adding our quintessential blues module to their furiously yet accomplished sound. A whistlestop no longer than a burger on a grill, enough to note it was equally as packed and having it there as the Castle, Lucky Number Seven were ensuring it.      

But if you know me well enough you’ll know if indie-pop virtuosos Talk In Code are there, so am I. It’s a march back to the Castle for a grand finale of eighties-tinged goodness. I never doubt, Talk in Code pulled it out of the bag, the place was thumping, the crowd were jumping, and the end, for me, to Swindon Shuffle was the icing on an exceptionally tasty cake.

The show continued Sunday, had to miss Concrete Prairie, Courting Ghosts, Cooper Creek, Leon Daye, and others, but I believe I took a fair bite out of this extravaganza, this local music expose, certainly enough to know if you only spend one weekend a year in Swindon, you’d be best advised to make it this one.

You can still donate online to Swindon Shuffle’s fund for Prospect Hospice HERE.

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My Complaint About Devizes’ Full-Tone Festival!

Images Used With Permission of Gail Foster

Chief organiser of the Full-Tone Festival, Jemma Brown has always been high on my list of local folk of admiration, but went a notch higher Sunday upon delivering a sly quip on stage, in retaliation to a lone keyboard warrior inanely slating the festival on Facebook, while the majority of locals, and visitors from afar, basked in the sunshine and glory of what was the ultimate, (and possibly final of this kind,) showcase of our fantastic homegrown Full-Tone Orchestra, their momentous accomplishment, and all the gorgeous gubbings which went with it!

I was sunbathing on a Muck & Dunder deckchair at the time, enjoying one of their Piña Coladas, the like only they seem to know how to create this side of the Atlantic Ocean, and a hearty chuckle impulsively launched from my cake hole. Oh my, the audacity of the ranting warrior caused a desire in me to march that silly sausage down to the breath-taking stage, allowing them to observe, even if momentarily, a sixty-piece orchestra harmoniously labouring sublimely, while a local youth sings their heart out at the most memorable, prestigious, and significant opportunity of their lives so far, to the tears of joy from their mum in the audience, overwhelmed with pride, and the smiles from those enjoying it, then ask this ranting nobody to confirm their complaint was not driven solely by selfish jealousy!

A neighbour of mine has a tendency to rev his motorbike in his garden. I cannot fathom why he needs to do this, neither appreciate the noise, but to ramble on about it on social media isn’t going to achieve anything but further verbal conflict. All I know is when you’re within the range of that stage, the divine acoustics immerse you, and even if it’s not your cuppa, you cannot deny the magnitude of the moment, just one weekend of it was all that was ever asked, the musical might of something you rarely get in Devizes, or anywhere for that matter.

Then, you turn away at your own free will, and note though it may have appeared so, you are not trapped in the Royal Albert Hall, you’re still on the familiar Green in Devizes, and deckchairs surrounds you like a day in a park, teetering with locals, spellbound and appreciating said moment. That is the magic of the Full-Tone Festival; go grab yourself a G&T or a Rowdy Cow ice cream, maybe get your face painted, return whenever you feel like it. It’s neither a sitting concert because of the freedom to come and go, nor a day in the park, because there’s a mahoosive and effective seamless programme of wonderful and varied music waving across the site; it is unique, iconic, and symbolic of everything great about Devizes.

All comes at a price, though, is another I hear plenty. Comparatively not so. Look around you, it’s over the pound mark for a Crunchie bar in a petrol station, and your average festival or a two-hour pop star’s gig will triple the price tag of Full-Tone’s three day extravaganza, if not more. You can only reasonably complain if your ears and eyes are shut.

Look! Look at that extravagant stage, wonder how many lines the technicians are juggling, watch the procession of musicians coming and going from the stage akin to the precision and order of an ant’s nest, though in pretty frocks! Consider every sidestall and those relentlessly working to serve you, the security, the first aid, the unison of everything coming together as it did, is both costly and executed with such professionalism I cannot fault it neither reason why anyone else would complain; it would be insanity to do so. Even conductor Anthony Brown waving his baton around for two solid days is enough to sympathise with any repetitive strain injury he’s likely to have developed!

Though I must say again, it was a shame it clashed with the Devizes Scooter Rally, an event also dear to my heart. In such, there were large chunks of both I missed in a desperate attempt to attend the two. I missed the Friday night, when Jemma’s Devizes Dance Academy replayed their musical Six, accompanied by the fantastic Ruby Darbyshire and Devizes indie popsters Nothing Rhymes With Orange, but console myself safe in the knowledge based on past experience, this would be a guaranteed chicken dinner.

There were so many elements I sadly missed. I know our prodigy Jess Self knocked it out of the Green with Annie’s Tomorrow, but I was made up by catching Six performers Ruby Phipps and Lisa Grime’s sublime solos during the James Bond theme section. Amidst the pro singers, these local youths held their own, and walked nervously but magnificently through it like it was butter on hot toast. There was the jazz big band on Sunday to make up for missing a Beatles tribute duo, and again, Talk in Code I know would’ve smashed it.

There’s simply too much to put every detail into words, but as an overall assessment based on what I witnessed or was gutted to be told how great what I missed was, The Full-Tone Festival again was a spectacular community event on a scale Devizes arguably hasn’t seen since the Boto-X, and the Green looked once again as full as the first paid Full-Tone Festival was three years ago. It will be a shame to see the Green fallow next year, but we look forward to the prospect of it returning in whatever different shape it’ll be.

Notwithstanding the financial gain from visitors to the town and local businesses this attracts, alone for it’s sheer capacity for not only providing a showcase for the orchestra, which will again venture out to the cities to perform at their prestigious venues, and attract the big names within the theatrical, classical and opera to grace our town, but also for showcasing upcoming local talent, Full-Tone receives no complaint from me, (the headline was just a sneaky clickbait trap, ha-ha!) Neither could I justify writing a single negative word about it. If I had to, it would be that we cannot do it bimonthly!

It was, as it has been each time, a fantastic event, and is loved by so many. Look again at dancers dancing, somehow, to the Chariots of Fire theme, kids in fairy wings, the old fellow napping in a deck chair with a bucket hat over his face…look and take heed of everyone, enjoying themselves ….my hat would come off to everyone involved, if it didn’t risk a sunburned bald patch!

Oh, go on then, everyone involved deserves a factor 50 sunblock, because you shine so bright!

See, I’m done and dusted with whinging; yep, that satirical rant column from many years ago, that I ask Jemma if she remembers, upon my request for more ammo, how she replied, rather I could highlight the positive things happening in town, and how that ended up with me meeting them at a rehearsal for a newly formed orchestra in Rowde school hall? Not that I’m blaming anyone for Devizine, I’ll take that rap(!!), more so thinking, wow, how far Full-Tone has come from that acorn, and how I’ve followed that inspirational progression.

Fantabulous and all and every synonym Microsoft Word will match it with, but what’s more to say? Please, if inclined, add your own thoughts to my waffle on the social media shares and I’ll transform them onto the bottom here. Help me create a fuller overview, tell me why you think Full-Tone Festival will be seriously missed from our event calendar next year and what you enjoyed about this one, thank you, and thank you Full-Tone and everyone who helped make this such a memorable occasion.

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Talk in Code & Laissez Faire at The Southgate, Devizes

Gallivanting through festival season omits crucial visits to my local watering hole; I’ve missed it sooo much, and now feel thoroughly refreshed… with a hint of hangover!

With Ian dispatched on the 49 to My Dad’s Festival in Swindon, and a double-whammy of FullTone and Scooter Rally pending next weekend, leaves me a free Saturday to enjoy a cider or five down my favourestmost tavern The Southgate.

They’ve ciders leftover from Beer Festival for three quid a pint, my favourite poison, and being my favourestmost indie popsters Talk In Code are doing their thang there, it’s a no-brainer; favourites all round.

Hardly been an age since giving Chris, Snedds, Titch, and Jambo some deserved attention on Devizine, being Minety was only a fortnight ago, but they’re a band I never tire of seeing. Plus I was interested to see how this would play out, being while the Gate is renowned for hosting original acts such as Talk in Code will insist on doing, there’s a common epoch to appease the blues aficionados of Devizes, else provide quirky alternatives like folk or jazz. Talk in Code is decidedly matured pop with indie roots, using subtle backing tracks to create ambience, so I worried the unusual fit might fail to create a sensation. I stand corrected and should never have doubted.

Such is their ability and universal appeal, to slot as neatly into something like FullTone and another such different shape like The Southgate. With two forty-five minute sets, a longer shift than usual, Talk in Code decided to warm the crowd by dipping into their more indie-rock back catalogue, and deliver the newer songs of a more eighties pop rock vibe towards the finale. Arguably, this could’ve been reversed as an audience younger than the Southgate regulars attended to begin with,  to even out later. On the other hand the later songs infuses the party and rouses the crowd better, so by the beginning of the second half any concerns I might have had were quashed, and Talk in Code brought the house down with a jumping frenzy from a more diverse demographic than usual in the pub.

Such humbling merriment is, after all, what the Southgate vibe has always been about, and achieves as a standard; one damn fine reason among others why it’s my favourite pub.

It’s a world apart from standing on a stage with the audience at some distance away, to cram yourself into the Gate’s legendary alcove and literally have an audience so close to kiss you! It can be daunting, it might expose tricks you can hide on stage, but when played right, it’s the communal relationship creating an atmosphere you cannot attain with an audience standing twenty feet away from the stage. Talk in Code are utterly flexible on this. They need not adapt to suit the surrounding, but rather, what they deliver guarantees to work on any level of location and set.

And the sum of it all did produce another memorable gig at the trusty Southgate. Kicked off with an impressive support set by Bristol indie-rock trio Laissez Faire, a new one to me who could’ve easily taken a headline slot, and regularly does elsewhere. With a harder rock edge than Talk in Code, they had an acute sense of balance in bringing frenzied bridges and even-paced melodies. Their original compositions taking a hint of grunge, were confidently delivered and adroit, with attention to wider appeal than simply thrashing something out, I detected equally proportioned nods to the punker side of eighties mod rock as well, which is always a win for me.

Yet another top night’s entertainment for free, that you’d gladly buy a ticket for, at the dependable Southgate; they never fail to please. Laissez Faire, an introduction to a name to keep a keen eye on, followed by a band we’ve tracked the progress of for many years, and with a building mass of followers dubbed Talkers, on a local level at the very least, provide such a universal sound it’s impossible to ignore their success. Talk in Code by name, but there’s no cryptic mystery as to why they’re one of the very best bands on the circuit.

The Pleasure was all Minety!

Broke my Minety Music Festival cherry, and it was gurt lush! When it comes to live music and festivals, I initially set a high bar. My first concert was Springsteen in ‘87, and aside from traveller’s free parties, my first festival was Glastonbury. These days hedonism is reduced to finding smaller local festivals to savour, enjoy a pint or four; I’m done with tired feet trudging acres of tents, and what’s more, paying a king’s ransom for a multitude of elements I’m unlikely to witness because it’s all going off simultaneously; my eyes were kaleidoscopic anyway.

Though I miss those heady days, finding middle ground is tricky. The disambiguation of “festival” today is such a pub putting a man with a guitar under a gazebo and flogging undercooked hotdogs off a barbecue constitutes a festival, apparently. No, I need at least a taste of the heyday; monumental fun yet diverse, hassle-free adequate attractions without the notion I’m being taken for a mug. If my want was an ice cream, sure I’ve found some single scoop cones of vanilla, some even plop a flake into it, but this weekend I found the ultimate brownie, millionaire rocky road sundae; everything I want and expect from a festival, topped in caramel and sprinkled with Space Dust, close by, and easy to access in a tall glass. It’s called Minety Music Festival, near Malmesbury, and they’re so amicable they even supply those long-handled spoons to dip right into the chocolate sauce at the bottom; meaning, it was good to the end.

The intention was only a taster, pop down on the Sunday, check it out, report my findings, but I got a scrumptious bellyful from this alone. Minety is undoubtedly the best all-rounder local festival I’ve seen, period. It’s unfortunate the previous years I’ve advertised this on our event calendar and thought, now there’s a thing, but I hadn’t plunged in. It all now seems so foolish to have passed it off. Nearly all the bands we love and promote on Devizine have graced a stage here. Of them those lovely indie popsters Talk In Code bunged me on their guestlist, and it’s hardly Timbuktu, rather a twenty-five minute drive away; arm twisted, it’s now for me to justify my reasons for telling you how bloody fantastic Minety is, but it is.

Starter for ten, everything is bound around the edges of one gigantic field, you cannot get lost in a maze of tents. Between three stages everything you could possibly want from a festival is there. Kids are spoiled, something often overlooked at others; climbing wall, circus workshop, arts/crafts tents, storytelling, inflatables, face painting, arty kidz, and a cosy tent called the Tree House with an abundance of instruments to try; I swear bands were formed in there. Youths tended to dance or chill at a wonderfully decorated DJ venue, hosted by an eclectic online radio station, the Incapable Staircase, me too; Peter Pan, me, y’know!

I chose to dine there, takeaway Thai curry from a stall with a restaurant in Purton, on cushions thrown outside, next to a bathtub once filled with free waffles, now just furry pillows. Which brings me to my next reasoning; value for money. Food options were incalculable, any street food you fancy, but Minety also supplied a café flogging beans on toast for a pound fifty, or burgers for three quid, and pints at the bar were £4.50, cheaper than some pubs. There was never the archetypal downer you were open to being ripped off, leaving enough in your pocket to consider browsing the great festival stalls of gifts, cakes, or clothes.

Everything has its place at Minety, it’s their seventh year, subtracting those we don’t mention. They know what they’re doing, and the attention to detail was immaculate, equating to a tremendous vibe of positivity. The mammoth task of organising something on this scale was putty in their hands, and I salute them for this and the given concept of booking a handful of averagely known names for headliners and leaving the rest to supporting local acts; this is my third and final reasoning to why Minety is fantastic, and that should be plentiful to tempt you.

Ergo, our loveable poptastic indie darlings Talk in Code, who absolutely and definitely knocked it out of the farm, by the way, preceded a gorgeous set from reunited nineties giants Sleeper, who I favoured over the grand finale of Irish rock band Ash, but others might argue this and quite rightly so, as both rocked. And this was just Sunday, other nights The Feeling headlined, with Elles Bailey and The Chase.

But Minety is also smooth around the edges, as you wander tent to tent. There were a few must-sees for me, Swindon’s grunge newcomers I See Orange were awesome as predicted, in a tent hosted by Chippenham’s Kandu Arts, and The Sarah C Ryan Band were equal, euphorically cool at the Minety stage. Then there’s the discovery element, whereby a number of bands have now come to my attention, none more so than Arkansaw Jukebox, who play singalong pop classics from Spice Girls to Queen, albeit in a bluegrass fashion, and when it’s time to cover a country classic, Country Roads takes on a ska offbeat to make Toots blush! This tenet of jollification brought the tent down.

Others noteworthy were Hooch, blasting some danceable covers, reimagining the Faithless classic, a youthful semi-gothic four-piece called Pavilion, and nineties Seattle grunge-inspired The Rain City Project, with astute Pearl Jam and Nirvana covers. With the range on offer as vast as acts booked, and hurtling between them as fast as my ageing legs will take me, it’d need an essay length review to cover all, and you’ll be bored shitless before I reach my epic conclusion; festivals are a “you had to be there” thing, apologies to those I may’ve missed mentioning.

But if that popular shirtless tattooed entertainer Jimmy Moore covering the theme to Spongebob, Spice Girls on banjos, stripy stilt walk jugglers with bowler hats, or more upcoming young bands than you’d catch at a college talent show won’t satisfy you, or just this idea of wandering few steps to get from drum n bass at the aforementioned Staircase, to some middle-agers, Chippenham’s Free Spirits, in the Kadu Arts tent enjoy an enjoyable recital of Dire Straits doing the walk of life, and a conglomerate of kindly North Wilts and South Gloucestershire freakshow punters out to revel isn’t enough to rock your boat, you need to downsize your vessel, skipper, because Minety’s boot fits me; a blindingly stupendous do. I’m tempted, if not feel it compulsory to dust off my dome tent and do the whole shebang next year, even if it finishes me off for good!

Busy on the festival circuit Talk in Code are regulars here. Though they expressed a history of unpreventable technical mishaps, this year they were third from top billing, full of zest and gave the sublime show we love them for. The crowd were pumping along with their engaging and original poptastic stage show, “Talkers” or not, a presence improving with every appearance, and proving them far more than musical fluffers for the following headliners. But as the story goes, I didn’t witness a single band at Minety which would make me look the other way.

In conclusion, if before Minety I held a dilemma of what’s best between coughing up dollar for multiple elements you’re unlikely to catch because they’re spread over multiple arenas miles apart, or a cheaper single stage plan whereby you get to see everything, if you wanted to or not, Minety is the middle ground. Centred in a single field, and averagely sized, it’s no trouble to saunter stage to stage, and being scheduled at different quarter of an hour timings, convenient should you have a change of heart. This, tripled with a buzzing aura, plentiful attractions, and a program delivered with clear intention of entertaining, and motivated by a desire to include local or upcoming acts, is cherries on the sundae, and for it Minety Music Festival is well worthy of your attention. If you only do one festival annually, Minety would make the perfect choice.

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Swindon Branch of Your Party is Growing

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No Rest For JP Oldfield, New Single Out Today

It’s been six months since Devizes-based young blues crooner JP Oldfield released his poignant kazoo-blowing debut EP Bouffon. He’s made numerous appearances across the circuit since and created an impressive following. Today sees him on the next leg of his musical journey, a brand new single aptly titled No Rest….. If the kazoo created a…

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Reflections From the  Costa Blanca to Amesbury!

There’s something to be said for the function duo route with universal appeal, you could be working somewhere hot! Powerhouse vocal harmony duo Reflections are back in the UK after ten successful years on the Costa Blanca…. Bringing the very best of the 60s, 70s & 80s, from Cher, Neil Diamond, Cliff Richard, The Carpenters,…

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DOCA’s Early Lantern Workshops

Is it too early for the C word?! Of course not, Grinch! With DOCA’S Winter Festival confirmed for Friday 28th November this year, there will be a number of creative workshops and makery sessions, not forgetting the creation of those wonderful handmade lanterns for the parade; here’s some early sessions in which you can get…

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Joyrobber: an anonymous songwriter releasing debut track

When I first heard about Joyrobber, a one man, faceless and nameless musical project it’s fair to say my interested was piqued, and it’s fair to say that the press release I’ve seen is only creating more questions… The project got underway in the summer of this year when the artist (whoever they might be)…

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Frome based band, Bellwether, to release new single

Formerly known as Judas Goat and the Bellwether, the now renamed band have announced the release of their latest single, “Drill Baby Drill” (coming out on the 27th November). I was given the pleasure of listening to it and you really couldn’t ask for anything better… The band themselves have gained a loyal fanbase with…

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Winter Festival & Lantern Parade Confirmed for Devizes

Photograph by Simon Folkard It’s been a rocky road for Devizes Outdoor Celebratory Arts (DOCA) these last few years, and I didn’t mean the crushed biscuits and marshmallows sort! Cuts to Arts Funding has meant the unfortunate cancellation of a large part of their annual free event programme. Townsfolk and The Town Council have both been…

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I See Orange….And Doll Guts!

There was a time not so long ago when I See Orange was the most exciting new band in Swindon. Their latest offering released at the end of August, a single entitled Doll Guts, truly positions them way above that pedestal and I predict and hope, onto the international market…. Though there’s a nod to…

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Talk in Code are All In for New Single

Swindon indie pop virtuosos Talk in Code released their brand new single, All In, Yesterday, via Regent Street Records. And We. Love. Talk in Code here at Devizine Towers….

Bridging the gap between eighties new wave electronica and nineties indie pop, Talk in Code are producing original timeless anthems. All In is unarguably their finest example to date.

With an upbeat euphoric ambience and a racing chorus to a rousing hook, it hints at Sam Fender but relishes in reminiscence of the memorable pop of A-Ha or Spandau Ballet; one can almost envision a comic book drawing of a distressed Morten Harket, banging his head on a doorframe; ah, school disco era seems like yesterday!

The narrative is one of hope for a rekindled romance, that maturity will warrant it successful this time around. The mood is optimistic, creating an engaging, danceable riff with pulsating rhythms under a shimmering soundscape.

Recorded with Sam Winfield at Studio 91, Newbury (Amber Run, The Amazons, Fickle Friends) The track is the fifth release on Regent Street Records, in partnership with Phoenix Music International and Horus Music. All In continues to ascend Talk in Code to beguiling pop greatness.

Frontman, Chris Stevens said of the single, “the song’s narrative takes us through a journey of recovery from adversity and mistakes over the sound of a pulsating rhythms and glistening soundscapes enough to want to hit the dancefloor ‘Mr. Brightside’ style!”

“We feel it’s a true statement of our thumping, upbeat anthems we’ve become renowned for.”

Talk in Code have been supported by BBC Introducing and Amazing Radio networks together with achieving editorial streaming playlist placements with Apple Music, Soundcloud and FLO. Live they are a versatile force able to suit a variety of festivals and venues, and they extensively tour. Highlights this summer are Minety Music Festival, Home Farm Fest, Napton Festival, Aston Clinton Beer Festival, Box Rox, and The FullTone Festival.

Talk in Code Down The Gate!

What, again?! Another article about Talk in Code?! Haven’t they had enough Devizine-styled publicity?! Are their heads swelling?!  Didn’t that crazy toothless editor catch them at…

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FullTone Festival’s Youth-Supporting Extra Day Announced

As if the FullTone Festival isn’t exciting enough for Devizes, the Town Council has allowed them an extra day, on the Friday 26th July…..

Seeing as everything should be set up and ready to roll for Saturday morning, it seemed a shame not to make use of this iconic stage and tech, so an extension to the festival has been added, with live music from 6pm, and it supports local youth talent.

Six: Teen Edition by Devizes Music Academy

Though FullTone stresses it does all depend on advance ticket sales, for both events. Tickets for the Friday on its own are £20, or £10 for under 18. If you buy your festival tickets together with the Friday you will receive a discount code for 20%, if you have already bought tickets for The Fulltone Festival, email jemma@fto.org.uk who will send you the code. The cut off date for this additional Friday is the 30th June, so make sure you’ve booked it by then.

Fulltone Festival 2023 Day Two

You should note, this fifth year of the Fulltone Music Festival will be the last one in its current form. I’ve personally had this contemplation for a while; as the FullTone Orchestra branches out, playing the cities and big towns, as it has been, surely it’s inevitable that the magic will rub-off with audiences further afield and they’ll come to Devizes for the festival if there are to be ones in the future; fingers, toes crossed. Spending their cash here on hotels, restaurants and shops is a great thing for the town, and reason enough to support it.

Talk in Code

But if my humble reasoning, and two days already sussed with guests like opera legend Carly Paoli, We Will Rock You star Kerry Ellis and Ricardo Afonso, indie popsters Talk in Code, a Beatles tribute and more orchestral concerts than Anthony can shake his shaky baton at, isn’t enough to entice you, note the Friday has local punker heroes Nothing Rhymes With Orange from 7pm, followed by Devizes Music Academy’s inaugural showcase Six: Teen Edition, replayed from sell-out dates at the Corn Exchange back in April.

Nothing Rhymes With Orange

I’m told the historical Gen Z party play performance, of which you can read about HERE, will have the same young cast as last time, Ruby Phipps, Amelie Smith, Jess Self, Kelsey Husband, Mia Jepson and Lisa Grime. Alongside Southampton Youth Orchestra opening the festival on the Sunday, we love that FullTone are giving young people a massive platform to perform at this, what could sadly be, the final Fulltone as it currently stands.

Six: Teen Edition by Devizes Music Academy

Obviously I think they should give me the last encore of the Sunday so I can perform my interpretation of Nessun Dorma in the style of Luciano Pavarotti, as I regularly do in the shower. But as its competence and calibre is largely debatable, usually by my kids trying to study in the next room and the neighbour’s howling dog, I will understand if they decline the offer. Imagine, if you will, as I can see it now, me on that colossal stage….. “Tramontate, stelle! Tramontate, stelle! All’alba vincerò, vincerò, vincerò!” Then, mic-drop, bath towel drop, whatever you think the ticket price is worth…..maybe, or no, perhaps just leave it to the professionals and keep this exclusively as a shower performance? It will, after all, be an amazing weekend without it, really!

Fulltone Festival 2023 – Day One

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Something Of Nothing; New Single From Talk in Code

Swindon indie popsters Talk in Code return tomorrow (1st March) with a new single, Something Of Nothing …..hold tight to your Deely-Boppers, things are about to get eighties around here….

Every time Talk in Code releases a single I find myself pondering deeper into what makes good pop, and if the word pop is a suitable term to use to describe a song at all. Wikipedia defines ‘pop’ as a “genre of popular music,” a rather incontrovertible statement, being it defines ‘genre’ as “a conventional category that identifies pieces of music as belonging to a shared tradition or set of conventions.” Find me ‘shared conventions’ between Elvis’s Heartbreak Hotel and Doja Cat’s Agora Hills, other than both were commercially produced? If they weren’t ‘pop’ they would hardly fall into the same category. They’re styles apart, separated by time and influences, ergo ‘popular,’ at the time, and that’s an epoch, not a genre.

I’d argue pop is only a genre when thinking outside its own sphere, ie; classical, jazz, folk. Ergo, everything else is pop, making pop a blanket term. Not all pop songs are popular, even if the intention was; singles flop, or, era depending, they become timeworn. Ah, but we were discussing ‘good pop’ and for that there’s two distinct categories.

Category one is throwaway, only encapsulating briefly, fitting with a current trend. Think of those songs you bought back when, but you’re now horrified you liked them, compared with those songs you consider classics, and will still drag you down to the dancefloor today. I bet you thought of more classics than the once trendy ones, because the latter you block from your mind, until some radio DJ spins it and you think, did I really like that shite?! Therefore, good pop breaks the very rule of pop, it’s not trending, rather it’s timeless. Ask yourself why tribute acts are big business, or a current act feels the need to sample an eighties electronica riff, it’s nostalgia.

Talk in Code often cite The Killers and The 1975 as influences, and certainly their root lies in another ambiguous genre, indie. Indie to me implies nineties dance-indie or Britpop, but whenever I hear a new TIC single I’m contemplating eighties electronica pop, more with every release.

Something Of Nothing is no exception, it accentuates the euphoria of an eighties dancefloor filler, and wouldn’t sound out of place on a chart hits compilation of 1986. By the opening bars I thought Ah-Ha were making a comeback, I thought Roxette might sing. The fact that when I addressed this eighties influence with the band they were agreeable, despite citing nineties influences themselves; it’s what you want to hear, meaning one thing, that their sound is timelessly classic, ergo, good pop.

If it was so, that this tune was on a mid eighties hits album, I’m assured it would be a smash and Bruno Brookes would be introducing them on Top of the Pops. Equally with a nineties one. Talk in Code cherrypicks from era-spanning memorable and timeless pop songs, garnishing them with contemporary freshness.   

Subject is equally perennial for any good pop, they blurb this one as, “taking things at face value, over analysing and the scene of one person wanting more than the other from a relationship.” Woody Guthire wrote this lyric, “and it’s hard and it’s hard, ain’t it hard, To love one that never did love you?” in 1941, again, recurring themes are so because they’re eternally popular subject matter, ergo good pop!

The song will be available via Regent Street Records on all streaming platforms from tomorrow, 1st March. Recorded with Sam Winfield at Studio 91, Newbury. Talk in Code take their dynamic show on the road,  7th July – Minety Festival, 20th July – Southgate Inn, Devizes, 27th July – Fulltone Festival, Devizes, 2nd August – The Three Horseshoes, Bradford On Avon, 3rd August – The Castle Inn, Swindon and 26th August – Box Rocks, Box. The act which can neatly slip into these diverse events, can equally thrill an audience at say, FullTone, or the Three Horseshoes, proves my waffling point, I think!

Pre-save it HERE!

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Swindon Rocks for Children In Need

Saturday 4th November

Underground, 73 Commercial Road, Swindon, SN1 5NX

Swindon’s biggest indie pop Talk In Code are working alongside Underground, based on Commercial Road in Swindon, our local live music venue to run a “Swindon Rocks for Children In Need” live music charity event on Saturday 4th November.  

With four local bands on the bill (Talk In Code, Kotonic, Mirrored Faces and The Dirty Smooth) this promises to be a fantastic celebration of the best original music from Swindon and a fabulous charity fundraiser for Children In Need.

Talk in Code at the Fulltone Festival. Image Gail Foster

Tickets are just £7.00 from https://www.seetickets.com/tour/swindon-rocks-for-children-in-need and everyone will receive a free raffle ticket on entry for our big Children In Need raffle with some amazing prizes from Swindon Town FC, Swindon Wildcats, STEAM Museum Swindon and many local businesses who have pledged their support. Local businesses who wish to donate a raffle prize may contact lindsey@talkincode.co.uk  

Save the date! Saturday 4th November and get your tickets now to support Children In Need and Swindon’s local original music scene!

Swindon band Talk In Code in race to Glastonbury Pilton Party; show offs!

Those cheeky popsters who rocked up at my 50th with a beanie hat present from their own merch range and expected me to parade around wearing it like I was their personified billboard, yeah them, the fantabulous Talk in Code, well, right, haven’t seen them since, say they’ve been busy on the festival scene, when all of a sudden without a drop of notice, tell me they’re travelling to Pilton this Saturday, 17th June, and we all know what happens there!

Turns out Swindon’s toppermost indie-pop band are playing in the first heat of the Glastonbury Pilton Party competition to audition to win a coveted slot at the Glastonbury Pilton Party, held on the Worthy Farm site, home of the world-famous Glastonbury Festival; show offs!

This Glastonbury Pilton Party is held in early September, and previous headliners have included Liam Gallagher, Elbow, Fatboy Slim and Bastille. Talk In Code have been chosen from hundreds of hopefuls to audition, and I say, while it’s a bit warm for a beanie, thank you so much for my hat, and, oh yeah, also for playing an absolute blinder at the Three Crowns, I feel honoured and it will be a day if I hadn’t have overindulged in Thatcher’s Hazes I will never forget.

But all this aside, as I cannot be bought by showering me with gifts, in my book, Talk in Code would remain the best band in Swindon even if they dunked me in a bath of hot & sour piranhas in just my mankini till I cried like a baby, so I wanted to wish them all the very best of luck, and I hope you will join me in wishing them all the very best of luck, bloody good luck to them!

It’s all going down at Pilton Club, a stones throw from the Glastonbury Festival Site on Saturday 17th June. Tickets to come and support Swindon’s best indie pop band are available from HERE. 

Talk In Code are thrilled to be flying the flag for Swindon at this prestigious event, and I know they’ll knock ’em for six, and if not I want an inquiry as to why not. If you can’t make this, I get that, bit short notice, you should have a listen to Talk in Code, who have amassed over 400,000 streams and been added to over 700 Spotify playlists, HERE.

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Song of the Week: Talk in Code

You can’t stay on the sunny side of the street; you’ve got to cross over at some point. But if the blurb I’m sent for Talk in Code’s latest single Hindsight suggests they’re showing “a darker side,” don’t run off with the notion they’ve come over all Radiohead.….

Taken from their second album, The Big Screen our single of the week is out on Friday 31st March, but you know how it goes, you can pre-save on the streaming platforms. And do, because yeah, so it’s perhaps a cliché theme of biblical teachings; penitent, should-have-known-better sentiments returned unto you with a cold, hard slap in the chops, but wake up, we’ve all been there, and Talk in Code project it with finesse, as ever, and of course it’s cradled in the uniformed indie-pop synth style. A chic instantly recognisable and beguiling, every Talk in Code single is ageless and unhindered from pigeonholing, it’s darn good pop, dammit!

Image: Helen PolarPix

Atmospheric thumper describes it best on the publicity, anthemic soundscape with swirling synths, shimmering guitars and soaring vocals. Recorded with Sam Winfield at Studio 91, Newbury (Amber Run, The Amazons, Fickle Friends) and out on Regent Street Records, continuously ascending, Talk in Code go from strength-to-strength and Hindsight exhibits precisely this.

https://www.facebook.com/talkincode/videos/1350060825774735/

Pre-save it HERE, and you’ll wake up Friday singing a new song!

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Popular award-winning artisan chocolate business Hollychocs has announced that its Beanery Café will close on Saturday 23rd August, marking exactly two years since its opening…

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Full-Tone Festival Announce 2023 Line-up

The Full-Tone Orchestra have released details of the 2023 line-up for their annual extravaganza, The Full-Tone Festival on Devizes Green, August bank holiday. It’s all on a rather smashing looking poster, unalike darker past posters with neon text, this time with a fresh use of pastel colours on white background, all very Degas I must say. While rain drizzles down our windows, let’s have a nose at what it says on there, shall we, and think of summer?!

A couple of years ago I published one of many list-type articles on the topic of forthcoming local festivals. Ah, phooey, it sparked a debate on social media because I didn’t include Devizes-own Full-Tone Festival, though the event did receive a sovereign preview of its own. My argument at the time was my definition of a festival was of multiple activities happenings across multiple sectors, therefore classing Full-Tone Festival, despite being named Full-Tone Festival, more in line with the word concert.

A technicality I’ve since altered my perspective of, and aside pigeonholing, for recent similar articles I’ve adopted the more causal, universal, and a smidgen double-entendre tagline, “Big Ones,” to encompass largescale events without categories, precisely so we can include things like Pewsey Carnival, and of course, The Full-Tone Festival. And in this, here’s the thing, who wants their event to be typecast and categorised? The Full-Tone Festival is what it is, and that “is” is something spectacular, annually happening now on our very turf, but mostly for point of this argument, something totally unique.

And of my technicality, Full-Tone acts as both sides of the debate, yes it shows off the incredible talent and togetherness of the Full-Tone Orchestra, an ensemble which will voyage to impressive venues like Wells Cathedral and Bath Abbey this year, but also showcases diverse local and national acts. Their social media posts boast “it’s going to be SUCH an amazing weekend of music! 50 musicians and singers, over 100 rotating over the weekend, plus some pretty amazing guests!” If you got it, flaunt it, darling! But honestly, it’s a highly impressive weekend, and they’ve every right to show it off!

Full-Tone Festival opens on the Saturday, for example, showcasing a set of classical proms, and features Full-Tone chief organiser Jemma Brown with her new vocal quartet, The Four Sopranos, consisting of Lucia Pupilli, Tabitha Cox, and Teresa Isaacson too.

Local rock n roll legends and regulars at Full-Tone, Pete Lamb and The Heartbeats are the first guests, followed by the orchestra taking off again for the ever-popular “big TV and movie themes” section, of which I always look forward to Jurassic Park the most, don’t know why, just do. Any comments on social media suggesting it’s because I’m a dinosaur will be deleted!

If, so far critics could cough up the “samey” tosh, I’d argue possibly, but certain elements of this event have become welcomed stalwarts, and why change it just to please them? We love it just the way it is! Besides, here’s a totally new one on me, The House Iguanas promises “massive bonkers brilliant sax, DJ and bongos,” and with that, could you ask for anything more diverse?

Saturday night closes with the reappearance of the orchestra’s The Ultimate Dance Anthems, which being they only scootered around last year with nineties pop hits, for me, personally, and literally from the sheer eruption of enthusiasm of the crowd of previous years, I’m sure will be a very welcomed return, with glowsticks.

If Saturdays showcases the orchestra foremost, I must say it’s more diverse this year, and, Sunday tends to focus on other acts more, anyways. Though the orchestra opens the day with the “Big Sound” section of this remarkable concert manifold, North Wiltshire big band 41 Degrees take over straight after. They’re the wedding function band of the wedding you’d never forget, with a spanning repertoire from Duke Ellington and Glenn Miller, through Rat Pack and Weather Report, to the Killers and Oasis. There’s nothing like big band pop covers, often showing shame to the originals, and this sounds cool as.

A highlight of last year’s Devizes Street Festival, those funky mavericks of Mardi Gras and New Orleans jazz, The Brass Junkies revisit our soil, and remember; brass is class.

Time for the Full-Tone Orchestra to finish off their pizzas and get back onto that notable stage for a section of West End Musical hits. It must be exhausting, blowing into that brass, precisely plucking those strings and whatever else they need to do to create these massive sounds, not forgoing conductor Anthony Brown must be at risk of repetitive strain injury over the weekend.

Wowzers, and I’ve not got to the best bit, least what I think is the best bit, because this info was leaked to me by the band, but sworn to secrecy I couldn’t even blow my own trumpet and act all smarmy about, until now, so I will, thank you; Talk in Code play the finale guest set. A mighty local indie-pop band which, if you don’t know you must be new to Devizine, and I urge you pay more attention in future! Yes, forgive my plug, but they are coming to my birthday party at the Three Crowns on March 4th, and YOU are all welcome, but again, and in summary to the Full-Tone Festival as a whole, playing up on that breath-taking stage, with matchless acoustics is something else, and well worth the ticket stub. There’s nothing else quite like it in Devizes.

If Talk in Code have that stylised knack of capturing something decidedly eighties within their original material, Sunday aptly closes with the orchestra one final time, giving it whooping eighties bangers, which by then if you’re not completely satisfied, I suggest you urgently seek professional medical attention!

Early bird tickets are HERE, or at Devizes Books. Kids under 14 go free with a paying adult, £45 for the weekend (£35 before the 31st January), £35 for the day. And there it is, apologises for waffling, but it is all terribly exciting!

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Talk in Code: The Big Screen

Talk in Code’s second album has been out a while, overdue to mention it……

January 2019, and I find myself making several eighties cultural references in reviewing Resolve, the debut album by Wiltshire’s own Talk in Code. A band which turned my aged preconceptions of the “indie” pigeonhole on its head.

For me, wedged in the nineties, imaginings of that somewhat depressing outlook of the riot-grrrl, the post-gothic period of indie my rave fixation required an abhorrence of by default. Though it was hardly mods and rockers in that era, as in we didn’t fight, “ravers” and “indie kids” simply didn’t recognise each other until the remerging of the crossover, through the likes of the Chemical Brothers and Prodigy, yet, reflecting, it was always there with Madchester and the progressive Primal Scream’s Screamadelica.

So, who’s up to debate it, does any of it matter now? I likely chewed the ears off of guitarist Alastair Sneddon on the most memorable occasion of a road trip with the band last March! We’re in a period where the trend is to cast-off that nineties flavour in favour of citing influences like U2 and Simple Minds, and I’m game for that, even if the band tend to name more modern inspirations.

The point is, Talk in Code build on this ethos, their sound ever strives towards it, ergo, everything after Resolve increasingly adds to this method, of its standout single Oxygen and its gorgeous dreamy emotions akin to a John Hughes soundtrack, and gradually onward. Yet somehow this panache isn’t regressive, forgive the eighties references, it’s retaining freshness in the contemporary, just allowing a serious nod toward early to mid-eighties feelgood pop.

It’s a fashion which Talk in Code hooked me onto bands like Longcoats, Daydream Runaways and Atari Pilot too, and a scene has developed to the point Swindon’s pop darlings are now Talk in Code; they played the Coleview Music Festival this weekend, entertained crowds during the interval of the Wildcats ice-hockey game at the Link, and generally, the excitement is consistently blossoming for them, and deservedly so.

Back on our outing to Portsmouth they stressed the importance of both gigs and recording, and since their connection to Regent Street Records, there was a keenness in the band to grab wider appeal in anticipation of the forthcoming album, The Big Screen. The release of it was pushed back to accommodate this collaboration but has been up-for-grabs since last month. Having already reviewed many of the tracks of singles I’ve been biding my time, apologies to Talk in Code, but here it is….

To begin, The Big Screen has had nearly as many singles coming off it as Jacko’s Bad, yet the comparisons end there. The opening title-track though, is exclusive, and it rings as the perfect intro as all the shaping I’ve described above. Illogical chronologically follows, their last single released, which I defined at the time as summing up “their undeviating style, upbeat and optimistic,” and suggested it was more danceable than the previous singles.

One of my personal favs follows, Talk Like That, came out back in January 2020, of which I suggested would “blow your diddy-boppers off!” Track four is Hindsight, an album track, perhaps, least one I haven’t heard of, but again, listening to it everything just falling so neatly into place. Talk in Code are so stylised, this flows as an album rather than a collection of singles, and nothing here will disappoint.

April 2020’s single Courage (Leave it Behind) is followed by a cooling new song, Someone Else’s Shoes, which takes on the Wham boys at their earlier best. This is a drifter, but yeah, I said Wham, I don’t know about you, but it got me reminiscing the greatness of Everything She Wants, a hidden gem of their discography often obscured by later hits.

But Save It returns to paced euphoric, and one can’t go wrong towards the finale, as the last three tracks are recently celebrated singles. The Molly Ringwald moment of Young Loves Dream, autumn during lockdown’s neon song Secret and ending on the summery Taste the Sun, dripping in fun, and sunshine…. club tropicana’s drinks are free, y’ know? And in that, a certain moreish finesse we’ve come to accept as standard from Talk in Code shines on.

In all, despite reviewing the singles as and when they were released, it’s worth revisiting as together in the compilation of The Big Screen, you can hear what I’ve been waffling on about with each and every single review, about the tightness of the band to create this uniformed joyous chic of universal pop appeal. Honest, in a Tardis, feels like you could pull out a Smash Hits poster of Talk in Code and blu-tac it to your wall, and your dad will approve. Whatever did happen to Terrence Trent D’Arby?!

Get the album here, s’ only seven quid.

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Talk In Code Return to Swindon for a Homecoming Show & Album Release

We love ‘em here at Devizine, and Swindon-based indie pop quartet, Talk In Code are set to return to The Victoria in Old Town Swindon on Saturday 23rd September for a massive homecoming celebration show following a packed summer of festival appearances at Lechlade Festival, Minety Festival, Home Farm Festival, Taunton Pride, Box Rocks, Great West Fest and many Foodies Festivals all over the UK…..

The band have spent the summer playing to packed audiences across Wiltshire and all over the UK, supporting esteemed names such as Jesus Jones, Cast, Scouting For Girls, My Life Story, Blue and The Feeling.

Talk In Code, recently signed to London based Regent Street Records, released their instantly danceable, upbeat single “Illogical” in June of this year, playing a headline set at Pimms In The Park at Lydiard Park on release day.

Image: Helen’s PolarPix

The gig at The Victoria on 23rd September will also see the release of the bands new single “The Big Screen” and also their third album of the same name which will be available to purchase on CD on the night.

Chris Stevens, lead vocalist said “Swindon is our home, and it feels so right to be returning to The Victoria, which is one of our favourite venues to play.. Darren and Violet from The Victoria have been incredibly supportive of Talk In Code over the years and we cannot think of a better place to showcase our new album than The Vic! We are proud to be Swindon!”

Join Talk In Code for what promises to be an incredible night of live music, with support from Riveria Arcade and Tom Moore.

Tickets are just £6.00 in advance from https://www.seetickets.com/event/talk-in-code-riviera-arcade-tom-moore/the-vic/2319587 Listen to Talk In Code here.

Ah, my road trip with Talk in Code!

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The only person who isn’t going to love this is Mr Spock! Swindon’s Talk in Code released a new single today, Illogical, their first release on Regent Street Records, since signing at the beginning of the year……

Only seconds of a Tangerine Dream fashioned intro elapses before the boys’ flare that uniformed indie-pop at you; the kind they’ve grown into and we’ve come to love them for. Again, Illogical sums up their undeviating style, upbeat and optimistic, each new title shimmeringly fresh and more astute to the “code.”

Built-in euphoric backing consecrates this imitable style; yeah, there’s tinges of eighties pop while retentive of the contemporary knowhow, so to have discovered it on an “Hits Album” of the era would’ve likely caused a seizure of excitement for the listener, and a technical enquiry call from Kraftwerk for the band.

Recorded and produced with Sam Winfield and Tom Millar at Studio 91 (Amber Run, The Amazons, Fickle Friends), the ‘guilty by design’ theme connotes relationship complexity, contradiction and confusion. Yet, as with universal pop formula, their leitmotifs pale by the energetic beat, until the bridge which winds down and highlights subtle narrative. Talk in Code find that perfect balance, which I why I tip them one of the very best on our local circuit. More so, the theme of the song seems to suggest this.

But their strive for wider appeal is deservedly paying off independently amassing 170k streams and over 600 Spotify playlist adds, radio airplay from Amazing Radio and BBC Introducing, and thriving festival appearances.

If you’re expecting covers at their gig, you might be disappointed, but Talk in Code’s beguiling singles are immediately palpable by effect, and will have you thinking you’ve heard them before; “catchy” is a word I try to avoid, but is apt. Illogical is perhaps more danceable then their power-pop previous single, Young Love’s Dream, and more akin to 2020’s Talk Like That. With such an amazing discography gradually building, probably best now to compare Talk in Code singles with Talk in Code singles rather than cite influences. Progression is the only issue here is, each one seems to better the previous and each new one binds this aforementioned uniform style.

“Analysis please, Mr Spock……”

“Given variables, Captain, it would be illogical to find fault with this new Talk in Code single!”    

Showing off the day I made a rubbish roadie on the road with Talk in Code!

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Marlborough’s Lamb Announce LambFest

Contrary to popular belief, particularly my kids, I was young once, and back in that iron age I used to live in a motte-and-bailey hillfort in Marlborough; not a lot of people know that, except for the one’s who know that, and even they’ve probably blocked it from their memories.

Yes, Merlin-Borough, famous for a wide high street, a mound and a fair about mops, just fifteen miles from Devizes but a six hour bus journey with two changes, somehow perceived being on another planet for Devizions. But I promise you, it’s a lovely town and the only reason I left was because I found said bus stop.

Back then, you either risked shopping in Somerfield or waited for the final seconds of Waitrose’s hours of business to nip in and blag whatever they had duly reduced;  every night was like Ready, Steady Cook, and you were Ainsley Harriott.

Entertainment was the pub, which I had no quarrels about. My regular watering hole was The Green Dragon, until I matured enough to upgrade to The Lamb, at about 18. It has been a mainstay in Marlborough life for as long as I know, a welcoming and dependable tavern run by the only recently retired Vyv.

Sporadically we’d have free live music, and it was there us crafty little ravers perchanced to become fans of Swindon’s legendary Two-Tone band The Skanxters. So popular the sound that Marlborough formed it’s own ska band, Ska Trouble. But if there’s one unforgettable homegrown band it was Pants, as they were as the name suggests. Heavy metal covers of current pop songs came to a head with a thrashed version of the Mr Blobby song; man, we’ll never get that magic back.

Or will we? Pants are still on the circuit, and they’re still shit but proud, recently making me bath up toast commenting on social media at a G&H journalist’s report on Vyv’s retirement in which only frontman Moose Harris got a mention, like the others, whoever the fuck they are, had deserved some credit.

You can see for yourself, as The Lamb announce LambFest today, with Pants on the washing line and a whole host of others. Saturday 11th and Sunday 12th June is the dates, it’s free but in aid of men’s mental health, and as well as Pants they promise Swindon’s premiere indie-pop darlings, Talk in Code, the one and only Gaz Brookfield, and Marlborough’s popular Kova me Bad. Interestingly, Mark Colton’s new Ian Dury tribute make their first appearance outside Swindon too.

Inside there’s acoustic acts, including the bearded third of the Lost Trades, Jamie R Hawkins. Heck, it continues Sunday with said Pants and Swindon’s punk ensemble Navago Dogs.

By the state of this fantastic lineup of local talent, dammit, this one’s calling me, tugging on my raw appetite for live music and cider. Which is a shame, because my pass for the glorious Mantonfest just came through and that’s in June too. Marlborough folk are going to assume I’ve moved back, and that terrible fake news bulletin could be just the one to push them over the edge of Merlin’s Mound.

On The Road With Talk in Code!

You know that millennial movie, Almost Famous, set mid-seventies, where Rolling Stone Magazine mistake a nerdy teenager for a music journalist and send him on the road with an outrageous prog-rock band? It was nothing like that. Neither did it resemble 200 Motels, where a man dressed as a vacuum cleaner convinces you Ringo Starr is actually Frank Zappa in some freaky acid flashback. But I did have an awesome adventure yesterday, on the road with local premier indie-pop favs, Talk in Code.…..

There were no campervans with CND slogans painted on the side-door, no sign of Goldie Hawn’s daughter unfortunately, and though my bubbles of anachronistic pre-imaginings burst, it allowed me to chart the regular labour of a touring band, rather than my usual practise of slouching up halfway through a performance with lame excuse. For if I’m going to write on the subject, I need to comprehend the inner workings, and the thoughts of a band going to a gig; even though I’m far from teenage music journalist with an advance from Rolling Stone!

So, by dinnertime I’m lone with guitarist Alastair Sneddon at the steering wheel, hereafter referred to as “Snedds,” with an amp case knocking in the rear of his car, and distracted by my inane waffling, weaving between musical subjects, badly following his sat-nav to Portsmouth.

Likely the eldest of this four-piece band, Snedds is a family man with a wealth of musical experience. He fondly recalls playing in cover bands, jazz and blues groups and our chat swifts across his past, musical influence brushing off on his children, current past gigs and local venues, to the importance, or insignificance of pop culture, the mainstream music industry and current trends of listening to music from streaming platforms to amplification to listening through phone speakers; we could’ve chatted all night on his passionate chosen subject, least it perceived to reduce the travel time.  

Before I knew it, we were awkwardly parked on a busy street in Southsea. Awash with cheesy club type pubs, restaurants, kebab houses and chippies, lies an equally misplaced theatre to our right, and a more traditional looking city tavern, The Lord John Russell, which will be our venue for the evening. Like a true roadie I felt a sense of haughtiness as I assisted lugging equipment through the already bustling pub; make way, yes, I’m with the band, ladies control yourselves!

But nothing felt ostentatious for the band as they amassed their kit in a corner, greeted each other and the promoter; here’s a tight working team despite the geographic distance between them. Talk in Code are part from Swindon, Reading and Devizes, but here they are with an excited air of anticipation brewing. There’s a trio of bands on tonight, Talk in Code are second on, while the first are already sound checking, locally based to Portsmouth, Southerlies are a seven-piece covers band, fusing Americana with punchy hooks into contemporary pop; they proficiently delivered their set with good male-female vocal harmonies, and being local I observe they attracted a fanbase.

Quite eclectic then, to switch to Talk in Code’s more electronica indie-pop, which as I discussed in the car with Snedds, perpetually seemed to fuse conventional nineties indie sound to a more inimitable eighties synth-pop style with every new tune. Yet tricker still was the notion the Talkers insist to play only their originals, which would be unknown to this rather heterogenous crowd. Besides, frontman Chris gets his fill of covers with the Britpop Boys.

Seems Friday live music nights are relatively new-fangled for the Lord John Russell, with a promoter keen to create the venture, the pub also adhered to cater for the pull on it’s street with screens showing sport and archetypical club music between acts. As much as market town pubs like Devizes’ Southgate work here, with a penchant for original live music and solely that, it wouldn’t work in this busy city location judging by the footfall. But a splendid, convivial and dynamic pub it was with a wide demographic.

One thing I was keen to gage from Talk in Code, the priorities and feelings towards playing a gig outside their usual stomping ground as opposed to returning to a venue like Swindon’s Victoria where a fanbase would be welcoming. They stressed the importance of both, and being their recent connection to Regent Street Records, there’s a keenness in the band to grab wider-appeal in anticipation of the forthcoming album. The release of which has been pushed back to accommodate this collaboration.

Still, all the band are united in praising recent local gigs, particularly Trowbridge Town Hall where they supported The Worried Men, and were keen to pick out the importance of the many locally-based festivals they’re booked at, from Minety to Live at Lydiard and IWild in Gloucestershire. And with appearances at places like Oxford’s HMV, things are really looking up for them post-lockdown.

And it’s easy to see why when they bounced on stage last night at the Lord John Russell, after their virtually nail-biting eagerness while the Southerlies launched into their final song, Chris already polishing his guitar and Snedds confessing the waiting game is a pet hate. A technical issue with leads to the backing tracks solved, the band applauded the previous and proficiently executed their thing, introducing themselves and delivering their songs with panache.

For me it was a blessing, being I’m aware of much of their discography, to finally get to witness them do it live, and had to stop to ponder their stage presence is as exhilarating as their recorded work. Yet, my view of the performance differed from the crowd as the band were likely new to them. Still, they got the place jumping, sprightlier, and louder than the previous band. They confessed a spirit of fair competition was unavoidable in them, yet affirmed their ethos to never do their set and bunk, in respect for other bands; Talk in Code come off as outgoing throughout and it was an honour to be welcomed into their web.

Also present, I spent time chatting connections, her background as music journalist and her fanzine making past, with manager Lyndsey. From Milton Keynes she avidly followed the group in their early years, falling in love with their sound it seemed only natural to mutually agree for her to manage. And part-time freelance photographer Helen, whose PolarPix Facebook page is dominated with Talk in Code shots. I put it to her she seems to have another band photographed then a Talk in Code one, then another Talk in Code one, then another random band. She acknowledged most of the other bands were on the same bill as TIC! A true “Talker,” as is their fanbase appellation.

Percival Elliott

A pleasant change from trudging the local circuit, as the finale was a euphoric rock band named Percival Elliott, who, with barefoot frontman on keys, executed a sublime set, the like you’d want Coldplay to achieve. In many ways here was a band apt for our own fond venues such as aforementioned Southgate and Trowbridge Town Hall. Without boast, coming highly recommended by yours truly occasionally has some clout, though there was part of me who, if in control of this triple-bill, would’ve put Talk in Code as the final band, being more upbeat popish.

We give no more review of The Lord John Russell for the sake of it being outside our boundaries, but if you’re Pompy bound this would be an ideal pub to consider, offering a variety of free live music dates on Fridays. Now I’m home, unpacked my Peppa Pig bucket and spade, but while I unfortunately didn’t see the seaside, or Kate Hudson, I was in good company with a band which goes from strength-to-strength.  

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Talk in Code; Young Loves Dreamers

Set to release their new single ‘Young Loves Dream’ on Friday 11th February across all digital platforms, Talk in Code are rinsing their inimitable and uniformed sound with anthemic pop goodness; it’s to be expected……

Coincidently, three years and one day ago Devizine reviewed this Swindon indie-pop four-piece’s album, Resolve, with the retrospective angle of eighties power-pop rock, yet subtle nods to indie shifts through the heady nineties. Though as the band progress through four further singles we’ve seen the latter dwindle and this take on a classic eighties sound coming through more and more.

Though Talk in Code is no tribute, this is progressive, refreshingly contemporary and exclusively perfected, a hi-fidelity ambience where instruments simply meld as flawlessly as those eighties’ gods of pop. An era of one-hit-wonders, accepted, but those who succeeded beyond this point did so by creating a defining sound, so no youth would confuse their Spandau Ballet with their Human League, and this is precisely where Talk in Code now stand; nowadays we compare their singles with their previous singles rather than cite influences, because their uniqueness is peerless.  

The reason why, I consider, the band strive with matchless momentum on the local circuit, having headlined three of Wiltshire’s largest music events last year, the big named bookings of pop-fused Mfor at Lydiard Park, the memorable rock for cancer Concert At The Kings and Swindon’s homegrown talent showcase, the Shuffle. Also, it is why Talk in Code have shared billings with Scouting For Girls, Sophie Ellis-Bextor, Craig David, SAS Band, 10cc and Lindisfarne, why devotees are dubbed “talkers” and they’ve accumulated 180,000 Spotify streams, or added to over 700 Spotify playlists.

So, this new single, ‘Young Loves Dream’ is of no exception, it gloriously follows the formula, which is, as suggested, key to their brilliance. It booms straight in, breaks when it needs to and reaches an undefinable bridge, flowing nicely with steady BPMs, and a bright, uplifting vibe. As suggested by the title, it’s romantically themed, exploring the hopefulness of youth; an ode to the potentials of initial infatuation, prior to the twists and turns life throws at you. In that, the mood of the enriching instrumentation reflects the vocals sublimely, and will have you pondering that butterfly moment of early romance, you know the kind of emotion which will make you hug the pillow in their absence, as their scent lingers, or, oh, was that just me?!

Anyway, where was I? Oh yeah, all the previous singles we’ve fondly reviewed can be found on this here Spotify link, and with this progressive new track, will make up part of ‘The Big Screen,’ Talk in Code’s second album, due on Friday 15th April, playing the launch at Swindon’s Level 3, Swindon, on Saturday April 16th 2022.

Just prior, I’m hopeful we can set up an interview with Chris and the band, one crucial question will be what’s in a name, as Talk in Code’s style is never cryptic, you need not untangle painstaking poetic wordplay, it is good, honest pop kept simple, and they do it so well it’s mainstream in the making. Love’s Young Dream takes this pattern and truly celebrates it, projecting positive evolution for this radical band.

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Top Twenty Local Music CDs For Christmas

Bag yourself some of our recommended long players for your friends, family or even yourself this Christmas and help a local musical talent.

Look at him, Grumpus Maximus, slouching on his sofa-throne investigating the inside of his y-fronts with one hand and clasping a tinnie with the other. He’ll need Google maps to find his local watering hole when things return to normal, and if he has to endure Kirstie Allsopp for one more half-hour episode he’ll threaten to relocate to his shed for the yule. What do you get for someone like pops this Christmas, or anyone who’s lost the will of independent thought due to the modest inability to enjoy the odd fellow and guitar down their pub of choice, for that matter?

How about this suggestion; buy a CD from a local hero? Because not only will you cheer the old bugger up enough for him to consider shaving once a week, but you’ll be putting your hard-earned shekels into the hands of a local independent creative sort, who, without revenue from standing in a draughty pub alcove singing the blues, really needs some pocket money right now.

It’s not my idea, I say let them scavenge for dead flies on their filthy windowsills while insanely mumbling a ditty about minute pixies invading grassroot venues. Thanks to our reader, George for this suggestion. Of course, this is the 21st century, or so I’ve been informed, and nowadays next to nothing is physical. Much as we find the online format or download accessible, you can’t wrap an online stream up with a pretty bow and put it under your tree. So, our list is restricted to the ones putting out a CD copy; that’s a compact disc to youngsters, or even, dare I say it, vinyl, you know, some archaic listening format.

But how, ye cry. I’m going to provide links where I can, but another shot is your local indie record store; for if they care one iota for music, they’ll stock a range of locally sourced sounds. If they don’t tell them to, without swearing.

Here’s an ideal template to use: “the brilliant, one and only Vinyl Realm Music Store in old Devizes town stocks many local artist discs, so I suggest if you want to be half as good as them, you’d consider it.” And that, is one good place to start; open the yellow door on Northgate Street, turn to your right and by the window there’s a stand with some local outpourings on. If you get lost ask one of the owners, they bite but not hard. I know, shopping is beneath you, be aware they have an online service and will deliver, cos they’re nice like that.

Am I waffling now? I tend to tangent, like to, did you come here for that, or are you looking for some music options? Very well, sit quietly, or stand noisily if you like, and I shall begin…. hopefully before Boxing Day. But oi, bear in mind this isn’t a top twenty countdown, I just used that as the title for clickbait. I’ve not put these in any kind of hierarchy or rank, just listed alphabetical by artist name, to prove I know my A, B, C!

Billy Green 3: Still

Released at the beginning of this year, Devizes post-Britpop trio produce a beguiling sound that could’ve come straight from indie’s finest hour. It’s scooterist, with a taste of mod and soul, but it’s passionately scribed and delivered proudly. Review. Buy@ Vinyl Realm.

Chris Tweedie: Reflections

Affectionately reviewed at the beginning of the month, Melksham-based monarch of chill, Chris Tweedie has produced a mind-blowing album. If you like Mike Oldfield, Crosby, Stills and Nash, or George Harrison, you need to check this one out. Review. Buy.

Cracked Machine: Gates of Keras

Hometown space-rock has never been so good. This is the outfit’s second album, and its journey of spacey rock like no other. Fans of Pink Floyd or the Ozrics will relive every minute of their misspent youth and clamber to the loft to find their fractural posters and chillum! Review. Buy.

Erin Bardwell: Interval

This year, without his Collective, Swindon’s rock steady keyboard virtuoso blessed us with this unique lockdown inspired bundle of distant memories over sparse two-tone and reggae beats. If you think this genre can be samey, you’ve not heard Erin Bardwell. This album is one of a kind. Review. Buy.

George Wilding: Being Ragdollian

Let the arguments begin, this 2013 EP is the definitive George Wilding. One not to collate tracks to an album, the EP may only contain three songs, but their brilliance makes up for at least ten mediocre ones. You can grab this at Vinyl Realm.

Joe Edwards: Keep on Running

Whilst it’s had glowing international reviews, locally I feel this is severely unacquainted. Though I did say at the time of review I’ll be hard pressed to find another ‘album of the year,’ back in May, this still stands. This is melancholic Americana played out with utter perfection, and I will never tire of its authentic and sublime stories. Review. Buy.

Jon Amor: Colour in the Sky

Though we fondly reviewed Jon’s latest album just yesterday, like I said, that’s one which is only on download at the moment. Take his 2018 masterpiece of quirky electric blues as red, red as his telephone; this is the must-have album for every fan of local music. You can buy this in Devizes Books as well as Vinyl Realm, or you can buy online. Here’s a review from all those heavenly years ago, when Devizine was funny.

The King Dukes: Numb Tongues

Out in 2018, if you like your music with a taste of old-timey soul and blues, The King Dukes of Bristol do this with bells on. Numb Tongues is lively and memorable. Review. Buy.

Little Geneva: Eel Pie

Freshly produced and lively sixties mod-blues-rock done supremely, Little Geneva are Bristol-based but the Docherty brothers have the Devizes connection, enough to debut this down the Bear’s Cellar Bar a few years ago, and boy, was it a sweaty and memorable night! Buy.

Mr Love & Justice: Watchword

Mr Love himself, Swindon’s Steve Cox’s 2009 album is a must, a classic, even though I haven’t reviewed it, because it’s dated, its gorgeous acoustic goodness extends beyond atypical country-rock sounds and branches into many genres, even bhangra at one point. You can find this in Vinyl Realm for a mere fiver.

Mr Tea & The Minions: Mutiny!

Oh my, this chunk of energetic Balkan-ska influenced Bristol folk is breathtakingly good. I reviewed it last year, haven’t gotten over it yet! Review. Buy.

Paul Lappin: The Boy Who Wants to Fly

Breezy Britpop acoustics shine throughout this ingeniously written debut from Swindon’s Paul Lappin. Highly recommended and all-round good vibes. Review. Buy.

Phil Cooper: These Revelation Games

Trow-Vegas legend, Phil Cooper really gives it some with his latest offering, rocking out the lockdown. Review. Buy.

Ruzz Guitar’s Blues Revue: Live at the Louisiana

No list would be complete without a bit of Ruzz Guitar and the gang; guitar by name and nature. This album captures his skill where he does it best, live. Rock n roll the night away as if you were there; this is a must have album for blues and rock n roll fans. Review. Buy.

Sound Effects: Everyday Escapism

Self-penned Irish-fashioned folk at it’s most divine, Swindon duo Cath and Gouldy classic here. This is sweet and thought-provoking. Review. Buy.

Strange Tales: Unknown to Science

I’m unsure how old this is, but I do recall Pewsey singer Sally Dobson running back to her car to get me a copy at the long-lost Saddleback Festival. With Paul Sloots, Strange Tales are a wonderful if occasional electronica gothic-rock duo, and Unknown to Science is a spookily glorious album. Review. Buy or at Vinyl Realm.

Talk in Code: Resolve

True, Swindon’s darlings of indie-pop have come along way since this 2018 album, fashioned closer each time to retrospective eighties electronica, Resolve stands as a testament to their dedication, but more importantly highlights their roots in indie-rock. Review. Buy.

Tamsin Quin: Gypsy Blood

Man-about-Devizes, surely, you’ve a copy of this already? Tamsin Quin’s debut 2018 debut album is something kinda wonderful, eight self-penned nuggets of goodness introduces you to the now one third of the Lost Trades and personifies anything that was awesome about our local music circuit. A local classic. Review. Available in Vinyl Realm, or online.

The Lost Trades: EP

When three of our most loved local musicians officially bonded, debuting at the Pump just prior to lockdown, it was clear all their talents combined into this one project and could only ever be a winner. We highly anticipate the debut album, but for now, this five track EP will whisk you to a better era of folk harmonies. All original songs, there’s a taste of Phil, Jamie and Tamsin’s song writing talents, though each track wouldn’t look out of place on the Oh Brother Where Art Thou? soundtrack. Review. Buy.

Ya Freshness & the Big Boss Band: Knockout

Boots and braces time, get skanking to the loud and proud ska sound of Ya Freshness and the Big Boss Band. This is joyful, fun and chockful of ska and rock steady riddims from 2018. We eagerly await a new double-album promised from these Bristol misfits of ska, but for now, this is great. Review. Buy.

No way is this list exhaustive; I’ve basically run this off adlib and will no doubt suddenly think, “oh bugger, I forget this or that.” But I’ve nailed it down to twenty, which was tricky. Do feel free to add a comment on something I might have overlooked, and apologises if I did. Remember, it should be available as physical copy. This is an interactive article!

Message my advice line if you’re still in the dark for a pressie for Dad. Helpful hint, look through his old records. If you see one of a pig floating above Battersea power station, or a plain black album with a spectrum shining through a triangle, try Cracked Machine. If you see lots of black and white chequered patterns or a naked girl’s torso with Tighten Up written across her abdomen, try Erin Bardwell or Ya Freshness. And if you see a rather splendidly busty woman carrying a hosepipe and various decorating equipment, try The Lost Trades; best of luck!

Talk in Code’s Secret

New single from Swindon’s indie-pop darlings, and, as foreseen, it’s blinking marvellous, Gloria.

“Eighties,” I yell, but my daughter corrects me. It’s a tune from Miley Circus, apparently. Story checks out, searched YouTube for it. Now I’m distracted from reviewing Talk in Code’s new single, Secret, by her suggestive gyrations in a black studded swimsuit and equally studded elbow-length gloves. Only from a health and safety perspective, you understand. Metallic studs are unsuitable for swimwear, gloves would fill with water; I should warn her PR.

When behind the wheel of Dad’s taxi, my daughter plays DJ; curse that built-in Bluetooth function. Least I can pretend I’m hip with the kids by distinguishing my George Ezras from my Sam Fenders. “Ah,” but I clarify, “I didn’t mean that, I meant it sounds like something from the eighties.” She agrees, tells me they’re all inspired from the eighties. “Like, Blondie,” I add, she’d have to Google that, but she watched The Breakfast Club and Uncle Buck, she is aware of the style of sound demarcated by eighties electronica pop.

Refrained from telling her about these guys though, some things are best left in the past.

If a retrospective inclination influenced by the decade of Danny Kendal v Mr Bronson, Rubik’s cubes and skinhead Weetabix characters is good for you, ok, look no further than upcoming local bands like Talk in Code and Daydream Runaways. I’ve often grouped these two on this very notion, and I’m delighted to note via my comparison, the Daydreamers are supporting the Talkers at Level III in Swindon on November 20th, my only annoyance is that it’s a Friday and I can’t make it.

To differentiate, Daydream Runaways take a rock edge, the like of Simple Minds, but Talk in Code seem to strive for the electronica angle of bands like Yazoo and The Human League. They do it far better than well though, and if I branded it, “sophisticated pop with modern sparkle,” their last single, Taste the Sun, back in July, embodied this more than anything previous. So, here we are again with another belter which adds to this uniform style, though the climate may not be so clement, Secret sparkles too.

It snaps straight in, this aforementioned feel-good 80s electronica guitar pop sound, and it’s so beguiling and catchy it’s certain to appeal wide, agelessly. If I was attending a local festival and Talkers took the stage, I’d imagine my daughter and I would dance together, and right now with her tastes directed to my odium, calculatingly sweary modern pop R&B, this would be a miracle! I do not twerk.

Secret is right out of a John Hughes movie then, a stuck record comparison I say to near-on every release by them and Daydream Runaways too, but this undeviating style is consistently cultivating and improving. Lyrically it’s characterised by the same simple but effective theme of optimistic romance, and a bright, catchy chorus, as every classic pop song should.  

The band cite pop classics such as King of Wishful Thinking, How Will I Know and Alexander O’Neal’s Criticise as evaluations. I can only but agree, but add, those can be cringingly timeworn, whereas, this is not Dr Beat, no need for an ambulance sound effect, and the Talker guys don’t got no hairspray, this is renewed and exhilarating for a modern generation.

You can pre-save TALK IN CODE’s brand new 80’s infused indie pop belter, on the platform of your choice and listen in full, but it’s not released until November 16th. Yeah, I know right, I’m so lucky to have these things in advance, but with Secret I can guarantee by the time it comes your way, I’ll still be up dancing to it, perhaps my daughter too. Care to join me on the dancefloor? But oi, watch the handbag, Miley, and don’t yank my diddy-boppers, I’m no that kind of guy; saving myself for Gloria Estefan.

Daydream Runaways and their Crazy Stupid Love

There’s no fooling me, no quixotic baseball-wielding delinquent is going to sway me in giving my honest opinion on Daydream Runaway’s forthcoming single; it’s just a drawing, guys!

It might well be coming a cliché on Devizine, that Daydream Runaways send me over their latest single, tell me they think it’s their best yet, I agree and tell you it’s their best single yet. But I’m at a stalemate, because I’m likely to say once again, the new single from Daydream Runaways is their best yet, for the simple reason, the new single from Daydream Runaways is their best yet!

Ah, sure sign of natural progression from a young band always striving to improve, Crazy Stupid Love is out on Friday 2nd October on streaming platforms and it will be the first single from their upcoming EP. Given this strength of this song, and inclining it’ll have a running narrative, I’m highly anticipating the EP, with bells on. Meanwhile I have to concoct some words on why I think it’s their best single yet, rather than just repeating the same sentence. Well, technically I don’t have to, but I will because I want to.

Image by Van

I wouldn’t have to if you could hear what I’m hearing, that’s the fluky bit about doing this. While it’s not always this seamless; I occasionally receive tunes which make me shudder, though delight when these guys message me as I can guarantee it’ll be a non-shudder experience.

So, if I called their second single Fairy Tale Scene, “catchy melody, pop-tastically, with slight eighties, pre-indie label overtones,” Closing the Line as “a progressive step into local topical subject matter. An emotive and illustrative indie rock track akin to Springsteen’s woes of factories shutting,” and I said Gravity, “pushes firmer towards a heavy rock division,” then Crazy Stupid Love is the counterbalance, calibrating the best elements of their previous singles and weighing them equally. In this feat, it defines a forming style, a signature, I reckon, in which to base future releases.

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Inspired by characters in a hit Hollywood film of the same name, which I’ve not seen, the guys claim “the song is set to be the sound of a Post-Lockdown world.” I hope so, but it fondly reminds me of a time of yore, pre-nineties indie and Britpop, back to the days of Simple Minds and U2; no bad thing. For, just like the moment Judd Nelson sticks Molly Ringwald’s earing in his lughole, these bands were beguiling, memorable and emotive. Crazy Stupid Love is like them, infectiously uplifting, and with a coming-of-age narrative, articulating moods of a youthful, verboten romance, it suits.

Surprisingly dicey too, it also creates a mysterious character within the narrative, namely Chad, intended to market the single with a hashtag #whoischad. We can’t see his mug on the cover, but the likelihood it’s Brad’s alter-ego, just because he rhymes with Chad and he’s wearing the same baseball jacket in the accompanying photoshoot is slight. With a penchant for fireworks he carries a baseball bat to a fairground, and anyone who does such is surely asking for trouble. But, I dunno, Brad just doesn’t seem the type!

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This self-produced nostalgic nugget has those swirling harmonies, chiming guitars and an infectious chorus hook, to compare it to those eighties greats. But akin to what Talk in Code are putting out, it retains the modernism and freshness, acting as a nod to influences rather than a tribute.

In mentioning this to the Talkers they hadn’t heard of Daydream Runaways, but now I’m pleased to hear they’re supporting Talk in Code for an exclusive gig at Swindon’s Vic in November. Did I connect this, guys? Because if so, it makes me proud, sound wise I believe it’s a perfect match. Though BBC Wiltshire’s Sue Davis also has taken a big shining to the Runaways, asking them back on the 3rd October. Just, you dark horse, you, leave the baseball bat at home, Brad, I mean Chad. In my experience the Beeb pay for your parking if you ask, so no need to get nasty. Tut, always the quiet ones!

Super single, guys and look forward to catching up with you soon.

Talk in Code Taste the Sun

Back in January 2019, I was dead impressed with Talk in Code’s debut album Resolve, and labelled it “sophisticated pop with modern sparkle.” I offered the track “Oxygen,” as best example of how, like classic pop anthems should, its instantaneous catchiness gets stuck in your head. To compare and contrast that favourite from the album with the upcoming release from this Swindon indie-pop four-piece, it’s clear they’ve come an incredibly long way to enhancing and refining that fashion.

Reflecting back, Resolve has the definite “indie” sound of the nineties, only dipping a toe in the pool of eighties synth-pop. I felt this coming, each track they release sounds more like an iconic mid-eighties sugary hit, and Taste the Sun dives right in. It supplements my “sophisticated pop with modern sparkle” label much more.

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Recorded just before lockdown at Studio 91 in Newbury, the band define the theme as “about waking up and smelling the coffee, a feeling that change is coming and the relief when that change is made for the greater good.” Nothing wrong with that inspiring concept, but perhaps nothing original; writing style they stick to a model template, but the sound is invigorating. In a word, it’s refreshing, like the zest of a sparkling iced fruit drink on a humid holiday afternoon, it encompasses all that is glorious about pop. Blooming with good time, summery vibes, Taste the Sun is the sort of lively “Wham” anthem a younger you would’ve retained from a holiday camp disco, and evermore evoke a fond memory of a fleeting romance.

That said in the best manner possible. Talk in Code is a well-oiled machine, refining that classic sound for a new generation and, most importantly, extracting and binning any cliché or cringeworthy elements. You know the sort, listen to any eighties pop now and wince at a particularly ill-thought out component, be it a castoff sample, badly grafted rap or, worse still, a “talky” part; “I thought I told you, Michael, I’m a lover not a fighter!”

Yet I find similar with today’s pop, and hold my daughter accountable! “Why they doing that bit?” I grumpily whinge. “What bit?” she retorts. It’s like a repetitive synthesised single word, or randomly placed high-hat making me shudder. Talk in Code use the acuteness of “indie” to eliminate said pop crime, use pop for catchiness and throw something back at you with universal appeal. It’s true, I concern myself at the prospect of taking my daughter to a pop festival, be it I’m cowering at her modern taste, or she’s dragging me away from something I like the sound of. Talk in Code is something we could both agree is great, and throughout reviewing their singles, Taste the Summer is perhaps the prime example of this notion.

Released on Monday 27th July, on digital download at http://www.talkincode.co.uk and on iTunes, Spotify, Amazon Music and all digital platforms. Go on, you have a listen, and I challenge you to find something bad to say about this sparkling, uplifting nugget of pop; because I can’t!

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Courage (Leave it Behind) New Single from Talk in Code

As predicted, the void where live music reviews used to sit will be filled with an abundance of releases from our local music circuit. I’ve a backlog building at Devizine Tower; here’s the first this week, from Swindon’s indie-pop four-piece Talk in Code, and much as we’ve enjoyed watching streams of Chris in his car, yeah, this is more like it, cool.

Some pensive prose swathed in the upbeat eighties-fashioned synth-pop we know Talk in Code have mastered. Courage (Leave it Behind) offers a “wake-up call,” as the press release defines, yet does so with all the hallmarks of another catchy anthem. This lockdown-themed leitmotif hails what you’re probably questioning yourself, “it’s that feeling of realising something is not right and has to be changed. But, knowing what needs to happen and taking action are two very different things…”

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The world will undoubtedly be the different after this pandemic, the unity binding us could potentially tear us apart; did Joy Division predict this?! If not, there’s a ghost, least an inspiration from those early eighties new romantics fused into this contemporary tune, and again, just like the previous singles, while Talk in Code songs sound as if they’d slot into the background of a John Hughes coming-of-age movie, listen again, they also ring modernism in both production and subject.

From its inaugural piano, through its beguiling beat to this cliff-hanging finale which leaves the question open to interpretation, this is an uplifting song; I expected no less though. “Finding the strength to make a change and every bit relevant to these challenging times,” as the blurb continues, is surely up to us, pop doesn’t preach as it once did, rather stages the dilemma for you to solve, and that, in a way makes it that bit up-to-date, rather than a retrospective eighties tribute.

For that reason, Talk in Code are pushing boundaries rather than dwelling, and the reason which found them on BBC Introducing In The West, on The OFI Monday Show, The Premium Blend Radio Show, Swindon 105.5 and Frome FM. It is the reason why the Ocelot, Dave Franklyn of Dancing About Architecture, The Big Takeover, and oh yeah, us, are singing their praises.

Providing optimism as a theme to this single is a biting reality, and Talk In Code still hope to play some of the fifteen festivals that were booked into this year, including M for, Daxtonbury, Concert at the Kings and Newbury Beer Festival along with a showcase for Fierce Panda/Club Fandango, to be rescheduled for later in 2020; hygienically rinsed fingers crossed, and toes.

COURAGE (Leave It Behind) will be released tomorrow, 30th April, on digital download at www.talkincode.co.uk and on iTunes, Spotify, Amazon Music and all digital platforms.

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Two Family Friendly Festivals in Swindon

If family-friendly festivals these days are two-to-a-penny, and you pop with the kids, like you are a kid, one thing is certain, and cool, you don’t gotta trek miles to catch one. Swindon has two upcoming I’d like to mention, if I may?

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Firstly, a massive congratulations to Talk in Code, Swindon’s own indie-pop outfit rising to fame through excellence and dedication, we will be hearing a lot more from them methinks. They open the main stage at M is for Festival in Lydiard Park on 27th July. Alongside a plethora of contemporary pop acts such as Years and Years, Ella Eyre, HRVY, Becky Hill, Phats & Small, Jahmene Douglas and another BBC Music Introducing in the West upcoming band, She Makes War. Oh, not forgetting Top Loader will be dancing in the moonlight.

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Tickets start at thirty quid, under fives go free, which isn’t half bad for such a grand line up, in such a nice setting too.

But if you’re all like Phats and who now, or years and years too far back, you could rustle up some hairspray and don your old leg warmers for Red Sky Promotions may just have the family festival for you, like as early as next week; I don’t think I’ll find my diddy-boppers in time, they’re in the loft somewhere.

Eighties fans, who isn’t? Bookmark 29th June, and grab a ticket for The Back to the Eighties Festival at the Old Town Bowl, in Old Town Gardens.

Throughout the day until 6pm all kids can have festive fun with everything from hair braiding, 80’s neon face paints and glitter designs, hair sparkles and hair chalk colouring, temporary transfer and glitter tattoos to neon nails and more, free of charge. Relax, you’ll even get to create your own T-shirt memento of the day.

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There will be stalls, food, drink and a host of other activities to accompany the musical time machine that the festival promises to be.

The day offers a range of 80’s music delivered in unique ways; opening with Sonore String Quartet rendering classic songs into lush classical sounds, 80:Three deliver two sets of pop gems, Emily-Jane Sheppard will bring her solo singer-guitarist set of classic covers and the headline act is the awesome Ghetto Blasters, a lively brass ensemble popping and rocking their way through the decade. DJ’s will be spinning all the tunes you love from the era; big chart favourites to half-forgotten gems will play between the main acts.

Your ZX Spectrum may not load this page, but tickets are here; £25 for adults, £15 for the nippers, and a price range for groups of four or more. Wham!

 

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Talk in Code Announce Tour Dates

Beginning of January, I reviewed Swindon indie popsters, Talk in Code’s second album, Resolve; blinking catchy it is too. Now, they’ve announced they’re heading out on the road for a RESOLVE Tour.

“Talk in Code write throwaway pop songs you’ll want to listen to forever – how cool is that?”
-Dave Franklin, Swindon Advertiser

The February and March tour to promote Resolve will be stopping off at The Cellar Bar in Devizes on Friday 1st March.

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The four-piece, who have supported names such as Catfish & The Bottlemen, Jesus Jones, Embrace, My Life Story and Toploader, are making waves in the indie music scene, having been featured on BBC Introducing, BBC 6 Music, Q Magazine Track of The Day, The Premium Blend Radio Show, and BBC Radio Wiltshire, with a session booked on Swindon 105.5FM later this month.

Talk in Code released Resolve in December 2018, with a homecoming show at Swindon’s Victoria. Now the band are talking their own unique blend of shimmering synth-led indie pop out on the road with a string of dates in the South, and a number of festival bookings throughout the summer all over the UK:

 
RESOLVE Tour Dates:

Thursday 28 February – JAGS Bar, Southsea, Portsmouth
Friday 1 March – Cellar Bar, Devizes
Saturday 2 March – Spice of Life, Soho, London
Thursday 14 March – Facebar, Reading
Friday 15 March – University of Gloucestershire, Cheltenham
Saturday 16 March – The Horn, St Albans
Saturday 30 March – Level III, Swindon (with The Britpop Boys)

RESOLVE album link:
https://soundcloud.com/talkincode/sets/talk-in-code-resolve/s-shw7Z

 

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