Warriors!

It’s that time of year again when spring attempts to wrestle the winter gloom away from our streets. The never ending melancholic grey of those eternal winter months lingers on and on before being swotted aside by a few hours of sunshine and the British pile out onto the streets with that ever optimistic glee at the feeble rays of our nearby star and bathe us in their radioactive glow! ‘Rejoice spring is here!’ they cackle before the inevitable clouds gather in the sky and winter resumes its iron mantle!

But fear not, we can defeat this weather pattern with music, and as ever the gods of noise have been with us and there has been a very busy week of the high decibel stuff to celebrate!

Perhaps the best antidote to the grey skies of our inclement climate and maybe also the grey skies of Trump and the Trump Wars was the every colourful combination of styles and sounds and ideas of the current Gorillaz tour. Damon Albarn’s musical polyglot band has been a joy for a few decades now and their success has dwarfed his previous endeavours to the point where Blur can sometimes be seen as the up-and-coming band that he was in before he hit the pay dirt. The band’s current album is their best yet - a wonderful trip into a fevered mind full of 21st century pop ideas and a space for Albarn’s pop genius to really flourish and flower…the live shows match this sense of ambition as well!

We interviewed Wendy James, the charismatic singer from Transvision Vamp, who has returned with her band and has a UK tour next month. Never short of something to say, she tells her story and that of her band and of her hunger to prove her point.

Fast rising UK punk rock duo the Meffs have their own festival coming up in May that boasts a line-up of punk rock old and new in their home town of Colchester. 

Our hot tip this week is the rather wonderfully named Oh Doom… Wayne Carey has been waxing on about them with an unbridled enthusiasm…  ‘One of my tips of the year Oh Doom! are back with another stunning single that builds into crunching guitars that go off the scale, blended with haunting vocals and exemplary drumming throughout. A great cinematic gothic shoegaze tune to whet your appetite before their debut album later this year. Read on…

Evil Blizzard have long been LTW faves and the band who are hidden behind their darkly comical nightmare masks have built a big reputation with their bonkers live show, but what lies behind the masks is an equally surreal and engrossing music that has taken another giant step forward on the band’s fifth album that we believe is their best yet.

Tuesday night of the Teenage Cancer Trust week at the Royal Albert Hall is always a welcome chance to sit back and be entertained by some of our funniest comedians.  This year’s line up put together by The Cure’s Robert Smith features Maisie Adam, Bridget Christie, Jack Dee, Dom Joly, Andy Hamilton, Miles Jupp, Athena Kugblenu, Stewart Lee and Dara Ó Briain. https://louderthanwar.com/teenage-cancer-trust-comedy-night-royal-albert-hall-live-review/ (S'ouvre dans une nouvelle fenêtre)

Wu Tang Clan dropped by into the Manchester Coop arena - the biggest arena in Europe - and delivered their last ever European show that was as full of giant grooves and glorious eccentricity as ever…  

LTW editor John Robb is out on tour around the UK with his upcoming memoirs ‘Punk Rock Ruined My Life’ tour. Each night sees a two part show with the first part seeing him talk about his life and book and the second half has a special guest including Gaye Advert, Pauline Murray, The Hanley brothers, Stuart from Mogwai, the Meffs, Adam Mole and others … all details in the link below…