“This is the kind of stupidity that sets us apart from every other band,” says James frontman Tim Booth as he launches the band’s encore by playing a brand new, unreleased track. It’s the final risk taken in a show defined by the band’s willingness to break the rules and try something new, strategies which may just be at the core of their massive longevity as they play to a packed-solid Motorpoint Arena, more than forty years into their careers as a band. About an hour and a half prior to...

The Wakefield indie rock legends come through town on the tour for their brand new album, Selling a Vibe, with support from Courting. Liz Clarke reports. I love it when a support band seemingly does not care that they’re the opening act and that a majority of the crowd will not know who they are, and this was exactly the experience I had watching Liverpool’s Courting , performing with a desire to merge with the crowd that many would reserve for their most hardcore fans. Throughout their set,...

A true trailblazer and master of many crafts, the artist and filmmaker Gina Birch is a woman who lives life on her own terms. As a founding member of a true "Favourite Band's Favourite Band," The Raincoats, she paved the way along with the likes of The Slits for a female and feminist voice to become commonplace in punk. Today, she releases equally boundary and button-pushing solo music, and was recently the face of the seminal Women in Revolt! exhibition which toured London, Edinburgh and...