LTW Newsletter 127

Warriors,

Sorry about the delay in the column…life has engulfed me in the ‘never-ending book tour’ as I took my ‘Punk Rock Ruined My Life’ memoirs all around the UK for weeks on end. It was a great jaunt and as ever great to meet many of the readers of the site and get a state of the nation peep into the flaccid underbelly of the nation’s small towns and grumpy cities! 

Everywhere I went, there was the rearguard of music heads still chasing the magic and the holy noise, and I had some great conversations in theatres, destroyed old pubs and ghost-like hotels as we celebrated the past and also remained curious about the future!

For anyone interested, my memoirs are still available, and you can get signed copies of them from here.

Meanwhile, our trusty hive of bees and writers were at as many gigs or events as possible and also getting immersed in great new releases. What was once to impossibly future has somehow still managed to stay ahead of the game and even with one remaining member, Kraftwerk still put on a stunning show of robotic sci-fi that somehow still has a very human element to its pulsating futuristic rhythms. 

Did you know that Smashing Pumpkins put a new album out at the end of 2025? It’s a good one too. Zodeon at Crystal Hall is a collection of loose, sixties-influenced neo-psychedelic pop recorded during the pandemic and left in the vault while Billy Corgan and co concentrated on grander projects. Chances are you haven’t heard about it. And Corgan is fine with that. “I almost like the idea of, ‘okay, there it is‘. And eventually people will figure it out” he says, down the line from LA, “I’m not being coy about it. I’m just saying it’s okay that nobody pays attention to it. They’ll get around to it.”

A lot of this week's debate has been over the '10 saddest songs’ piece, which sparked a lot of online debate. Of course its impossible and not a science to claim what the ten saddest releases are, and everyone has their own take on the subject, but I think this list did a pretty good job of embracing the beautiful melancholia at the heart of all great music. The list was ten songs chosen by Ged Babey from LTW as a promotional device for the forthcoming album by cult indie legend DAVEY WOODWARD – the Bristolian (on Last Night From Glasgow out in Sept 2026 (Öffnet in neuem Fenster)) which includes ‘some of the saddest songs I’ve ever heard’. There are some lighter ones: love letters to Bristol, but it could well be his equivalent to (Lou Reed’s monumentally sad masterpiece) Berlin. Davey picks his Five favourite Saddest Songs Ever.

The rave band of the moment Angine de Poitrine landed in the middle of London for a set that has received rave notices across the board for their polka dot prog that is the very much the flavour of the month, but a flavour of the month that fully deserves its status.

We were also on hand to enjoy the Pixies who breezed into Manchester’s Aviva studios for a muscular set of avante rock that still sounds as potent as ever. 

Louder Than War’s Andy Brown headed to the fifth annual Part Time Punks all-dayer at Wharf Chambers in Leeds. It’s an all-dayer curated and arranged by Erin Rumble and Jay Churchley of new wave/garage punk legends Nervous Twitch. It’s the kind of event where the DIY ethos runs to its very core, with Rumble crossing attendees’ hands on the door 20 minutes before she’s due on stage. That DIY spirit is there in the home-cooked vegan chilli, the homemade pin badges and Wharf Chambers as a venue. If you wanted a hideaway from the increasingly corporate tech bro hellscape that we live in, then this is it.

As the thirtieth anniversary of the Manchester IRA Arndale Centre bomb dawns, Martin Gray relives that day’s horrifying events whilst caught up in the city centre as it happened and experiencing the force of the blast. He also reflects with sadness and regret on the loss of many of the city’s old treasured places which were eventually swept away in the widespread regeneration which it triggered, as well as now dealing with the long term psychological effects of what happened.