LTW newsletter 114

Hail Warriors!

As we sail the fervent oceans in our longships of desire our mystical Viking gaze is broken by the twitching of the ravens at the front of our ornate ship.  Ctaching the black oily birds mood change one rustic throated individual shouts ‘land ahoy’! We peer into the sea mist and salty spray and see a thin strip of land in the distance. This commotion causes the oars to hit the water harder as the final rush of adrenaline pushes us towards the finishing line. ‘Land Ahoy’ we yell again and again and ‘break the mead’ as the ravens are become even more agitated with excitement and the drums beat harder…’the Vikings are coming, the viking are coming’ goes the chant…

Enough of what it feels like to be on tour as you finally close in on the venue after hours of driving and onto this weeks business. 

Its 31 years since the Stone Roses Second Coming album that confounded critics and fans and yet is loved by many was released in December 1994. The marmite album that saw the band add a heavier sound to their chassis was all too easily dismissed after their five years in the wilderness. It didn’t help that in some ways they had been usurped by Oasis as the leading band in the country and yet its full of hidden gems as our reassessment points out.

It’s a sad week for music heads losing several key figures and larger than life characters that really did change the culture. The big one was Mani from the Stone Roses and Primal Scream and we will miss him around town and his comments on the Louder Than War Facebook page. The true measure of the man was that every single comment on Facebook talked about the sheer joy that his presence gave to people whether it was playing his bass or just filling a room with his joy de vivre. In Manchester his death cut deep  and we tried to come to terms with it with words.

We also lost the punk rock fashion designer and punk rock priestess Pam Hogg whose charismatic presence was only matched by her clothes that were a wild and audacious splash of colour in an all to grey world. Pam was punk rock through and through - an agitator and a catalyst with a sense of beautiful danger.

We also lost Andrew Lauder the legendary A and R who signed Can, Neu, Hawkwind, Dr Feelgood and the Stranglers and started Radar records in a long and brilliant career as well as Jimmy Cliff the reggae legend who transcended his genre with a massive international appeal that broke Jamaican music internationally.

It makes you realise you have to celebrate people whilst they are still here so it was a thrill when Adam Ant finally came to town after postponing last year’s show. Adam was on great form and his band are a well drilled machine and the sold out crowd were taken for a trip down memory lane with Adam’s unique brand of pop that was still somehow subversive and brilliantly flamboyant.

So far SEA POWER  HOUSE Of ALL  EVIL BLIZZARD  BENEFITS  IMMERSION have been announced for our Louder Than War Live festival - more names to be announced soon…buy tickets now! Hurry!

Irish pop/country crossover star CMAT waved goodbye to small venues with a joyous set of bangers.  Sometimes, when you watch an artist on the way up, you can feel it in the air as there is a discernible hum of anticipation. As this mainly young hipster crowd waited for Ireland’s latest pop star Caira Mary-Alice Thompson – aka CMAT – they were tightly wound and she delivered. 

After Husker Du Bob Mould returned to the scene with Sugar who honed the sound down to a melodic high velocity rush thats saw them signed to Creation Records and a series of well received releases that have seen the singles boxed up for this reissue.

Australian Beth Seymour returns with Outside, You’d Love Me To Death, her second album in less than 3 months, following You Wouldn’t Like It Inside My Head.  2025 has been a year to remember the singer described as ‘Australia’s queen of power pop and punk’. Having already released her debut album, the full length You Wouldn’t Like It Inside My Head reviewed here in August, she follows it up with the release of Outside, You’d Love Me To Death. 

New Manchester band Foxglove are getting talked about due to their honed down crafted euphoric indie pop. We decided to investigate.