BREVIEW: Dragpunk Presents Candyland @ The Nightingale Club 06.04.18

Words & illustrations by Emily Doyle

On Friday 6th April, queer art collective Dragpunk took over the middle floor of The Nightingale Club. This was the venue for their brand new performance night, Dragpunk Presents. For the uninitiated, we caught up with host Amber Cadaverous – who began by explaining the origins of the group’s name.

Amber Cadaverous / Illustration by Emily DoyleThe ‘drag’ in Dragpunk recognises that, “drag artistry is the expressive and creative art for anyone regardless of their gender, sexual identity and orientation,” tells Cadaverous, “it knows no gender but subverts and mocks all gender and art norms.” The collective’s values of “expressive, individual freedom that is anti-establishment and anti-mainstream society,” are where the ‘punk’ comes in.

Whether your interest is makeup, performance art, drag art, queer politics, or you’re simply in need of a safe space for fun, self-expression, and excitement, we want to provide this,” continues Cadaverous. “We plan and run all events as safe space for those across the LGBTQ+ community and allies. We only encourage fun and freedom – dress how you want and be who you want. We welcome all of those who just want to feel the love of a community.

Birmingham is our home, and Birmingham is brimming with art and creativity that needs an outlet and a voice.Lilith / Illustration by Emily Doyle

The theme for tonight is Candyland. Paul Aleksandr runs the door. Head to toe in neon pink, complete with bedazzled facial hair, he offers cakes and sweets to guests as they arrive. Hands are stamped and drinks are bought.

Around midnight, Cadaverous totters on stage. She wears platform heels, a paint splattered prom dress, and an enormous purple wig topped with an even bigger pink bow. Her face is painted with a Glasgow smile and heavily lined eyes, but her excitement about the evening shines through. She welcomes and introduces fellow Dragpunk, Lilith.

Lilith looks like she’s stepped straight out of your MySpace top friends from 2004. She’s dressing up a cinched and contoured club kid look with buckets of kimo-kawaii accessories. A dynamic routine to Blood on the Dance Floor’s ‘Candyland’ sets the tone (and the pace) for the night. Strobe lights illuminate her backcombed wig.

Eva Lution / Illustration by Emily DoyleEva Lution follows, serving a look described by Cadaverous as “glamour granny”. Her glamour is certainly timeless, as she performs the evening’s most articulate lip sync to ‘A Spoonful of Sugar’. Lution’s floor length gown ripples across the stage. It looks effortless, but the costume designer and fashion student later confirms that it was sewn by her own fair hands. When the music switches to Def Leppard, Lution shrugs the gown to the floor. She reveals fishnets and thigh high boots. This girl is no granny.

Ginny Lemon brings a change of pace to the stage next. Some may remember Lemon from an appearance on ITV’s X Factor in 2017, or perhaps from her regular turn as a host at The Village Inn on Hurst Street. Either way, her face is not one you’ll forget in a hurry. Looking like the bastard daughter of Marge Simpson and Velma from Scooby Doo, Lemon emerges from the DJ booth gesticulating along to Tori Amos’ ‘Sugar’ followed by ‘Candy Shop’ by Madonna. These go down like a delicious citrusy treat with the crowd, but her original composition (an a cappella ode to biscuits) is even better.Ginny Lemon / Illustration by Emily Doyle

After a short interval, the room fills again for Mama Mamba. The 2017 winner of Church of Yshee has set the bar high. She perches on the side of the stage, legs bound into a mermaid tail. The room goes quiet. ‘Part of Your World’ from The Little Mermaid fades in.

Mamba flirts with the crowd, winking and pouting throughout the lipsync while she’s photographed. She checks her flawless makeup in a shell-shaped mirror and combs a fork through her turquoise hair. Slowly, she pulls herself up onto her fins and shimmies out of the tail, flaunting the best bum on Birmingham’s drag scene. Mamba struts across the stage in a iridescent miniskirt, and when the song reaches its falsetto climax she gleefully removes her seashell bra to reveal matching nipple tassels. It’s what Walt Disney would have wanted.

Mama Mamba / Illustration by Emily DoyleA new face on the local scene, Stormy Carl’s creator describes her as “a messy woman zoomed in on.” She wears a pink satin slip which clashes against her emerald curls. If you look down, pink stripy socks peep out the top of her platform sandals. Carl has taken the evening’s theme and run with it, crafting a playful mix for her routine that features Aqua, Austin Powers, and a smattering of Spongebob Squarepants dialogue.

She drizzles caramel over herself and throws her sticky dress to the ground, untangling it from her feet as the room takes in her pink paisley bikini. Her athletic, chaotic routine leaves the crowd wondering where she’s been hiding.

Stormy Carl / Illustration by Emily Doyle

We caught up with Stormy Carl after the show for a few words. As one of Dragpunk’s female performers, she had a few words on the role of women within the scene:

Drag at its core, to me anyways, is just about playing dress up,” explains Carl. “Historically it was a way to entertain and escape from society. You can be ANYONE in drag: yourself, an egg, a celebrity, or just whatever you perceive as beautiful. I like to take the idea of ‘woman’ that society has constructed and just times it by 100.

Nora Virus opens the third and final set of the evening. A key player in Birmingham’s club kid community, Virus is a part of the Opulence collective and founder of another new drag event coming to Birmingham, Mother’s Meeting. Wearing a cropped, tie dye t-shirt and candy floss pink wig, she delights in completely desecrating ‘Pure Imagination’ from 1971’s Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory.

Nora Virus / Illustration by Emily Doyle

Beckoning fellow artist Liam Layland from the crowd, Virus invites him to reach inside the large, plush doughnut strapped around her waist and try his luck. What follows can’t be repeated here, but it ends with them skipping off stage together to the tune of ‘I’ve Got a Golden Ticket’.

Self-described ‘burlesquer and activist’, Petite, is a bundle of cardigan and big frothy petticoats. She dances to Jackie Wilson’s fitting ‘Reet Petite’, grinning at the crowd. This saccharine tone quickly dissolves when ‘Pour Some Sugar on Me’ starts playing for the second time this evening.

Petite takes this more literally than Eva Lution did and strips down to lingerie before liberally pouring a whole a bag of Tate & Lyle over her body. When the song’s over, the performers all scrabble to clear the floor of sugar, whipped cream, and cupcake crumbs in time for the final act.Petite / Illustration by Emily Doyle

The fourth and final member of the Dragpunk collective, Tacky Alex, is here to close the night. Joined on stage by Stormy Carl and Mama Mamba for a choreographed routine to Katy Perry’s ‘California Girls’, Alex begins pulling audience members up to join them. After the show, Amber Cadaverous picked this out as the highlight of her night.

Tacky Alex / Illustration by Emily DoyleIt felt so silly and fun but had a real community vibe and spirit; everyone was laughing and smiling. It just felt so right!

It seems a fitting ending to a night celebrating the playful and inclusive nature of drag as an art form; everyone left feeling pleased to see the Dragpunk team pull it off.

”There is always something really magic about seeing all your plans come to life,” Cadaverous agrees. “Our ‘Presents’ night is going to be regular throughout the year, each time with a new theme and a production showcasing local and national UK drag of all genders, sexualities and abilities… expect us to release the next theme and line up shortly! As well as our performance night we also run a queer alternative party called I’m Not Okay and our next one of those will be at Birmingham Pride in Nightingales on the Future Stage.

We are also working on some events that will run during the day and outside of club spaces so our fans and friends under 18 will be able to enjoy queer performance art and community based events. Plans include film viewings, drag makeup workshops, drag queen life drawing, open mic performance segments and more!”

For more on the Dragpunk Collective, visit www.facebook.com/dragpunkcollective

For more from The Nightingale Club, including full event listings and online ticket sales, visit www.nightingaleclub.co.uk

BPREVIEW: Dragpunk Presents: Candyland @ The Nightingale Club 06.04.18

BPREVIEW: Dragpunk presents: Candyland @ The Nightingale Club 06.04.18

Words by Emily Doyle

Local queer collective, Dragpunk, are launching a brand new performance based night – Dragpunk Presents. The inaugural event is on Friday 6th April at The Nightingale Club, with tickets priced at £4 (adv) and £6 (otd).

For direct event information, including online ticket sales, click on the following links to visit the Eventbrite ticket website or the Dragpunk Presents: Candyland Facebook Event Page.

For Dragpunk Presents’ first show, the theme is Candyland: A Celebration of Drag – with the team behind it promising ‘a happy land of modern, diverse, inclusive and utterly creative drag and performance!’. Following on from the roaring success of Dragpunk Collective’s alt queer night, I’m Not Okay, this new event will be ‘showcasing local and national UK drag of all genders, sexualities and abilities that you’ll adore!’. Looks like it’s going to be a big one too.

BPREVIEW: Dragpunk presents: Candyland @ The Nightingale Club 06.04.18Hosting Candyland is Amber Cadaverous, the DJ and performance artist known for her arresting and sometimes unsettling looks. When she’s not busy studying at Birmingham School of Art, Cadaverous is hard at work as one quarter of the Dragpunk Collective. Another bonafide drag punk, Paul Aleksandr will also be in attendance – fresh from a delightful turn at The Glee Club supporting BenDeLaCrème. Expect fishnets, body paint and butchered cuddly toys.

Also performing is Yshee Black, icon of the Birmingham scene and host of regular drag contest Church of Yshee at The Village Inn. If you were at the congregation last November you may recognise a few other faces at Candyland, including burlesque dancer Petite, club kid Nora Virus, and Church of Yshee winner Mama Mamba.

Tacky Alex will also be taking the stage at Candyland. Alex’s pastel perfect looks have been a hit at queer nights Glittershit and Second Self, with a chance to catch them at The Nightingale before she is back on stage supporting Trinity Taylor and Vander Von Odd in May.

Self-described ‘emo trash’, Lilith, will also be at Candyland – putting Siouxsie Sioux to shame with her eyes, alongside Glittershit regular, Pork Pie, who will be keeping it all a bit avant-garde.

You can also expect otherworldly looks from Stormy Carl, stunning costumery from Eva Lution, alternative glamour from Ginny Lemon, and something truly indescribable from Auntie Jamie

Candyland: A Celebration of Drag comes to The Nightingale Club on Friday 6th April, as presented by the Dragpunk Collective. For direct event information, including online ticket sales, click on the following links to visit the Eventbrite ticket website or the Dragpunk Presents: Candyland Facebook Event Page.

For more on the Dragpunk Collective, visit www.facebook.com/dragpunkcollective 

For more from The Nightingale Club, including full event listings and online ticket sales, visit www.nightingaleclub.co.uk

THE GALLERY: Rews + The Hungry Ghosts + Ed Geater at the Birmingham Review Winter Showcase @ Actress & Bishop 25.11.17

Rews + The Hungry Ghosts + Ed Geater at the Birmingham Review Winter Showcase @ Actress & Bishop 25.11.17 / Rob Hadley - Birmingham Review

 

 

 

Words by Ed King / Pics by Rob Hadley

On Saturday 25th November, Birmingham Review presented its Winter Showcase at the Actress & Bishop – a sold out live gig with Rews, The Hungry Ghosts and Ed Geater. It’s taken me more than a week to recover.

I’ve sat down to write a review of the night several times too, but how do you write a report about your own gig..? You can’t, well I can’t. But luckily our friends at Counteract can, so for Charlotte Niblett’s two cents on the Birmingham Review Winter Showcase click here – with some cracking pics from Paul Reynolds thrown in for good measure. And I have been kicking myself that in all the copy I’ve written about Ed Geater I never came up with ‘triple threat’… good work Charlotte, love that one.

Also, I kinda/sorta don’t have to write anything as the solider of Birmingham Review (or Rob Hadley as he is know in the wider world) was front row and centre for the entire evening with a camera in his hands. And if a picture paints a thousand words then there’s around 84k without you fluttering an eyelash or me hitting a key. Any more would just be rude.

There are some cherry picked pics below, but I would CAPITAL LETTER SUGGEST you check out the full Flickr of Rob’s pics by clicking on this hyperlink or the suitably subtle prompts littering this report.

Birmingham Review Winter Showcase @ Actress & Bishop 25.11.17But now you’ve got me typing away… the Birmingham Review Winter Showcase wasn’t only a chance to book three acts that are all amongst the most exciting on the national gig circuit today, it was an opportunity to put our money where our mouth is. Birmingham Review covers many corners of the city’s cultural landscape, but music is where we began and will always be an intrinsic part of our content.

Rews, The Hungry Ghosts and Ed Geater all have a real “chance at whatever metaphor you use for success”, and we’ve said so with words and pics several times before. But on Saturday 25th November Birmingham Review got to be part of that progression, even if only for one night. But what an incredible night it was.

Ed Geater opened up to an already busy room, playing the tried and tested from his portfolio such a  ‘Symmetry’ and ‘Don’t Think’ alongside a quick toe dip into some newer waters. Layering beat boxing over acoustic six string melodies, with the occasional breakbeat to keep you quite literally on toes, Geater kicked off the Winter Showcase with poise and aplomb. The Hungry Ghosts swaggered on stage for the second set, oozing with gin and mischief, and served up a fine platter of slaughterhouse blues with ‘Amerika’, ‘Lazaro’ and a slightly tweaked ‘Super King King’. Raw, raucous, and now with a cemented new line up, there is just so much to love about this band.

Then it was Rews… half way through their UK tour to promote Pyro, the duo’s corker of a debut album, and straight into a gut punching rock explosion with ‘Let It Roll’. On fire throughout the entire set, featuring album tracks including ‘Your Tears’, ‘Miss You in the Dark’ and ‘Death Yawn’ alongside the ferocious ‘Can You Feel It?’ (one of my personal favourites live), Rews quite simply nailed it – Shauna Tohill’s fearless front stage lead as Colette Williams powers through with vocals and percussion, it’s awesome stuff. Birmingham will never be quite the same again.

The other significant win at the Birmingham Review Winter Showcase was the crowd. There’s a lot of talk about ‘supporting the local music scene’ but unless you drag yourself out of the house, stick a smile on your chops, and get involved when musicians and singers are bearing their souls on stage… then talk is all that it will ever be. At the Birmingham Review Winter Showcase 175 people did all of the things I’ve just listed. And it felt phenomenal. To everyone who was upstairs at the Actress & Bishop on Saturday 25th November, I both salute and thank you.

The Birmingham Review Winter Showcase was also my swansong, as I now hand the reigns over to Helen Knott – who is taking over as Birmingham Review editor, and Damien Russell – who is coming in as Birmingham Preview editor.

I will be moving over to editor-in-chief (sounds more glamorous than it is) and focusing on the books and periodicals set for release under Review Publishing. Look out for our first titles which will be on shelf by the end of 2017: Snapshots of Mumbai – a coffee table book about the Indian megacity, and the Birmingham Music Review 2017 anthology.

We’re recruiting too, so if you know your way around a QWERTY keyboard or a DSLR please email charlotte@birminghamreview.net

Meanwhile, back at the Actress & Bishop

 

 

 

Rews at the Birmingham Review Winter Showcase @ Actress & Bishop 25.11.17 / Rob Hadley – Birmingham Review

Rews at the Birmingham Review Winter Showcase @ Actress & Bishop 25.11.17 / Rob Hadley – Birmingham Review

Rews at the Birmingham Review Winter Showcase @ Actress & Bishop 25.11.17 / Rob Hadley – Birmingham Review

Rews at the Birmingham Review Winter Showcase @ Actress & Bishop 25.11.17 / Rob Hadley – Birmingham Review

Rews at the Birmingham Review Winter Showcase @ Actress & Bishop 25.11.17 / Rob Hadley – Birmingham Review

Rews at the Birmingham Review Winter Showcase @ Actress & Bishop 25.11.17 / Rob Hadley – Birmingham Review

Rews at the Birmingham Review Winter Showcase @ Actress & Bishop 25.11.17 / Rob Hadley – Birmingham Review

Rews at the Birmingham Review Winter Showcase @ Actress & Bishop 25.11.17 / Rob Hadley – Birmingham Review

Rews at the Birmingham Review Winter Showcase @ Actress & Bishop 25.11.17 / Rob Hadley – Birmingham Review

Rews at the Birmingham Review Winter Showcase @ Actress & Bishop 25.11.17 / Rob Hadley – Birmingham Review

For more on Rews, visit www.rewsmusic.com

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The Hungry Ghosts at the Birmingham Review Winter Showcase @ Actress & Bishop 25.11.17 / Rob Hadley – Birmingham Review

The Hungry Ghosts at the Birmingham Review Winter Showcase @ Actress & Bishop 25.11.17 / Rob Hadley – Birmingham Review

The Hungry Ghosts at the Birmingham Review Winter Showcase @ Actress & Bishop 25.11.17 / Rob Hadley – Birmingham Review

The Hungry Ghosts at the Birmingham Review Winter Showcase @ Actress & Bishop 25.11.17 / Rob Hadley – Birmingham Review

The Hungry Ghosts at the Birmingham Review Winter Showcase @ Actress & Bishop 25.11.17 / Rob Hadley – Birmingham Review

The Hungry Ghosts at the Birmingham Review Winter Showcase @ Actress & Bishop 25.11.17 / Rob Hadley – Birmingham Review

The Hungry Ghosts at the Birmingham Review Winter Showcase @ Actress & Bishop 25.11.17 / Rob Hadley – Birmingham Review

The Hungry Ghosts at the Birmingham Review Winter Showcase @ Actress & Bishop 25.11.17 / Rob Hadley – Birmingham Review

The Hungry Ghosts at the Birmingham Review Winter Showcase @ Actress & Bishop 25.11.17 / Rob Hadley – Birmingham Review

The Hungry Ghosts at the Birmingham Review Winter Showcase @ Actress & Bishop 25.11.17 / Rob Hadley – Birmingham Review

For more on The Hungry Ghosts, visit www.thehungryghosts.co.uk

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Ed Geater at the Birmingham Review Winter Showcase @ Actress & Bishop 25.11.17 / Rob Hadley – Birmingham Review

Ed Geater at the Birmingham Review Winter Showcase @ Actress & Bishop 25.11.17 / Rob Hadley – Birmingham Review

Ed Geater at the Birmingham Review Winter Showcase @ Actress & Bishop 25.11.17 / Rob Hadley – Birmingham Review

Ed Geater at the Birmingham Review Winter Showcase @ Actress & Bishop 25.11.17 / Rob Hadley – Birmingham Review

Ed Geater at the Birmingham Review Winter Showcase @ Actress & Bishop 25.11.17 / Rob Hadley – Birmingham Review

Ed Geater at the Birmingham Review Winter Showcase @ Actress & Bishop 25.11.17 / Rob Hadley – Birmingham Review

Ed Geater at the Birmingham Review Winter Showcase @ Actress & Bishop 25.11.17 / Rob Hadley – Birmingham Review

For more on Ed Geater, visit www.edgeater.co.uk

For more from the Actress & Bishop, including venue details and links to event, visit www.theactressandbishop.co.uk

WRITERS/PHOTOGRAPHERS WANTED – Birmingham Review is looking for new contributors. Anyone wanting to get involved, please email a short introduction to charlotte@birminghamreview.net 

LAST FEW TICKETS: Rews + The Hungry Ghosts + Ed Geater @ Actress & Bishop 25.11.17

LAST FEW TICKETS: Rews + The Hungry Ghosts + Ed Geater @ Actress & Bishop 25.11.17

Words by Ed King

IT’S CHRISSSSSSSMAAASSSSSS…

Well, kind of, bit of an obligatory catcall in Birmingham right now. But love it or loathe it (and as inescapable as the people crushing death trap that is the German Market) it’s ‘that time of year’ again.

LAST FEW TICKETS: Rews + The Hungry Ghosts + Ed Geater @ Actress & Bishop 25.11.17And to kick Winterval in the proverbial sack (of presents… shame on you) on Saturday 25th November, Birmingham Review presents its Winter Showcase at the Actress & Bishop – a live gig with Rews, The Hungry Ghosts and Ed Geater.

Doors open at 8pm, music starts at 8:30pm, with tickets priced at £8 (advance) and £10 (on the door) plus booking fee. Tickets can still be bought via See Tickets until 12noon on Sat 25th November – for online sales, visit www.seetickets.com/event/rews-the-hungry-ghosts-ed-geater/actress-and-bishop

**LAST FEW ADVANCE TICKETS REMAINING** You might well get in on the door (it might well cost you an extra two quid) and we might well jettison a table or two, but there are less advance tickets than can be counted on two hands. So hop, skip and jump people.

And in case you need a little nudge, here’s a speed dating introduction to each act we’ve got performing at the Birmingham Review Winter Showcase – with some useful links to boot. See you, and them, at the Actress & Bishop on Saturday 25th Nov.

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Rews

Rews and their infection ‘earworms’ crawled into our subconscious back in Feb, after a stellar gig at the Flapper. To read Damien Russell’s BREVIEW of the gig, click here – to read Ed King’s INTERVIEW with Rews just before they got on stage, click here. And it seems we weren’t the only ones to go a little batshit over Rews, as everyone from a Glastonbury baked Mark Radcliffe to a Huw Stephens have been championing the duo.

Rews have recently released their debut album too – the somewhat awesome Pyro. To read Ed King’s ALBUM review of Pyro, click here. And if you’re more audio than visual (or a little from Column A and a little from Column B), the check out Rews’ official video to ‘Your Tears’ – the lead single from Pyro.

‘Your Tears’ – Rews (taken from their forthcoming debut album, Pyro) 

For more on Rews, visit www.rewsmusic.com

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The Hungry Ghosts

The Ghosts, The Ghosts, The Ghosts… Where to begin? If this band aren’t destroying the main stage at some greenfield site in the next few years then there is something SERIOUSLY WRONG with the universe. The kings and queen of slaughterhouse blues, ferocious and phenomenal on stage (and often off, for part of the set at least) The Hungry Ghosts are one of the most exciting bands playing in the Midlands today. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again.

But seeing (and hearing) is believing, so get yourself to the Actress & Bishop on Saturday 25th Nov and bear witness to this first hand. Meanwhile, amongst the coyotes and shadows of an unforgiving prairie…

‘Amerika’ – The Hungry Ghosts

For more on The Hungry Ghosts, visit www.thehungryghosts.co.uk

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Ed Geater

I felt more than a little sheepish asking Ed Geater to play the ‘support’ slot at our Winter Showcase, but he graciously didn’t flinch and said yes. So we poker faced it and casually sent him a Booking Confirmation. Playing it cool…

Beatboxer, singer songwriter, possibly Birmingham’s best collaborator, and a proper, PROPER performer – Ed Geater is a unique gem that this city should be proud to call one of their own. The Birmingham Review Winter Showcase will be Ed Geater‘s last gig for ‘a while’, as he’s hibernating to concentrate on some new material (… fe, fi, fo, fum, I smell the blood of an album)  and we are uber excite to get this man on a stage we’re promoting. Playing first, make sure you get there for doors open at 8pm – you do not want to miss a minute of Ed Geater.

‘Don’t Think’ – Ed Geater

For more on Ed Geater, visit www.edgeater.co.uk

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Birmingham Review presents its Winter Showcase at the Actress & Bishop on Saturday 25th November with Rews, The Hungry Ghosts and Ed Geater.

Advance tickets are priced at £8 (+bf) and can still be bought via See Tickets until 12noon on Sat 25th – for online sales, click here.

For more from the Actress & Bishop, including venue details and links to event, visit www.facebook.com/Actressandbishop

BPREVIEW: Rews + The Hungry Ghosts + Ed Geater @ Actress & Bishop 25.11.17

Rews + The Hungry Ghosts + Ed Geater @ Actress & Bishop 25.11.17

Words by  Ed King / Live pics by Rob Hadley & Paul Reynolds

On Saturday 25th November, Birmingham Review presents its winter showcase at the Actress & Bishop – a live gig, with Rews + The Hungry Ghosts as joint headliners, alongside Ed Geater in support.

Doors open at 7pm, with tickets priced at £8 (advance) and £10 (on the door) plus the relevant booking fee if you buy through a ticket agent. Tickets can be bought via See Tickets, Eventbrite and Music Glue – click on the name/logo of each outlet for a direct link.

 

 

Tickets are also available through the individual artists’ websites: Rews, The Hungry Ghosts, Ed Geater. Or you can buy tickets direct from Birmingham Review – contact us on info@birminghamreview.net to arrange physical ticket sales (p&p may apply).

So that’s what, where and how much sorted. Now a little more on who… Birmingham Review is lucky enough to have covered a whole smorgasbord of music across 2017, from the lava lamp delights of The Mother’s Earth Experiment to the eclectic ensembles of the Post Paradise showcases at Centrala. Rews + The Hungry Ghosts + Ed Geater @ Actress & Bishop 25.11.17But there are always those that stick in our ears for a little longer, or to quote one of our headliners: “Like a little Tequila worm that crawls in, gets drunk, and stays in there forever.”

To show how much we love what we love, we’ve invited a few of our new(ish) friends to come and play at what is, in effect, our (non-denominational) Christmas party. And we’re inviting you, for the mere price of a ticket, to come and see a few of the horses we’re backing in the New Year.

You know that friend that always goes on about having seen (INSERT NAME OF BIG BAND) when they played (INSERT NAME OF SMALL VENUE)… well this is your chance to do one better. Three better, in fact. Check out the below for a sneaky peak at the Pyramid Stage headliners of tomorrow. Or even better, come down to the Actress & Bishop on Saturday November 25th and seem then a bit more close and personal… well, up close at least.

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Rews

Rews @ The Flapper 15.02.17 / Paul Reynolds - Birmingham Review

First spotted playing at The Flapper back in February, where I got to interview the two women who are increasingly being referred to a ‘the next Royal Blood’ and Damien got to cover the gig. Seldom do you get such a good first impression, both on stage and off.

Since then Rews have gone on to storm Glastonbury (one of Mark Radcliffe’s festival highlights), nudge their way onto various national radio stations, be the first UK band signed to Marshall Records and line up an album, the actually eagerly awaited Pyro – out in November. Just don’t tell them I used an adverb. Infectious, awesome and will kick the teeth out of our Christmas party.

‘Shine’ – Rews (taken from their forthcoming debut album, Pyro) 

For more on Rews, visit www.rewsmusic.com

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The Hungry Ghosts

The Hungry Ghosts - 'Amerika/Lazaro' single launch @ Centrala 22.07.17 / Rob Hadley - Birmingham Review

It’s no surprise that WE LOVE THE HUNGRY GHOSTS at Birmingham Review. And to prove it, we’ve covered them here, here, here, and of course here. I have even had to stop myself from writing about their gigs, as my sycophantic rhetoric is in danger of repeating itself. Plus, there’s no better metaphor than a Joe Joseph metaphor and I’m tired of being outdone (I should learn the guitar to balance things out).

But all their praise is deserved; to quote Larry Love from Alabama 3, whom ‘the ghosts’ supported back in 2015, “they’re a rock band. A real fucking rock band”. Which indeed, they are. The next 24 months could be the pivotal point for a band who, and I mean this, could well land somewhere between The Rolling Stones and The White Stripes in both sound and success. All aboard the Slaughterhouse Blues Express, next stop ‘Amerika’…

‘Amerika’ – The Hungry Ghosts

For more on The Hungry Ghosts, visit www.thehungryghosts.co.uk

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Ed Geater

Ed Geater @ Hare & Hounds 24.03.17 / Rob Hadley - Birmingham Review

I first saw Ed Geater at a showcase presented by Call Me Unique (who sadly couldn’t join us on stage, but has promised to make up for it at the bar) – but his name has been buzzing around the Birmingham circuit and beyond for a while. I have never met someone who didn’t enjoy an Ed Geater gig – seriously, if you’re out there get in touch we need to emboss you in bronze.

Master of the loop pedal, a seriously talent songwriter and an overall lovely fella, if some savvy subsidiary doesn’t snap him up soon we’ll eat all the hats. Check out Giles Logan’s great interview with Mr. Geater too, ahead of his headline show Hare & Hounds homecoming hoedown…. and breathe, that we covered back in March.

‘Symmetry’ – Ed Geater

For more on Ed Geater, visit www.edgeater.co.uk/

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Birmingham Review presents its winter showcase at the Actress & Bishop on Saturday 25th November, with Rews, The Hungry Ghosts, Ed Geater. For tickets email info@birminghamreview.net, or click on the following outlets: See Tickets, Eventbrite, Music Glue

 

 

 

For more from the Actress & Bishop, including venue details and links to event, visit www.facebook.com/Actressandbishop/

For more from Birmingham Promoters, including full event listings and online ticket sales, visit www.birminghampromoters.com