Articles by Sandra Blemster

I’ve always had a soft spot for Eels ever since Susan’s House blasted out from the radio back in 1996. Taken from the wonderfully quirky and plaintive album Beautiful Freak I’ve loved their off-beat, emotionally […]

POLAR STATES will be releasing Lost, the first of 4 new EP’s on the 8th December. This will be their first release after disappearing offline earlier this year. The band formed in 2015 demoing over […]

Cindy Wilson is best known publicly for her work in the New Wave band The B52s whose career has spanned 40 years. She was one of the founding members of the innovative band contributing as […]

This month R.E.M. reissue Automatic for the People, their landmark album to celebrate its 25thAnniversary. The album will be available in a variety of formats, the most extensive of which is the Deluxe Anniversary Edition, […]

What can you write about Robert Plant that hasn’t already been said? His career has spanned an impressive almost 50 years beginning life as rock icon in Led Zeppelin. Carry Fire is his 11th solo […]

As Lou Reed wrote about his native New York, so Sugarmen pay tribute to the city of Liverpool to create a storyboard narrative of their hometown. Liverpool has an impressive back catalogue of bands throughout […]

American Brix Smith-Start is something of an iconic figure in the world of rock and to women in general. She released a best-selling autobiography in 2016 The Rise, The Fall and the Rise about her […]

Ex-lead singer of 90s cult band Mansun, Paul Draper is due on stage. It’s his second gig in fourteen years and the air is charged. Last night it was Leeds, tonight Manchester. The crowd are […]

The Verve have just released a remastered version of one of the definitive albums of 1997, Urban Hymns, and they still sound just as majestic. On hearing that beautifully orchestrated introduction on Bitter Sweet Symphony, […]

God I’m feeling old. There seems to be a spate of albums being reissued lately that I loved 20 years ago. Like Fun Lovin Criminals Come Find Yourself (last year), Radiohead’s OK Computer and now […]

The Hightown Pirates’ formed by Simon Mason release their debut album Dry and High this month. The conception began through Mason’s friendship with Mick Head (Pale Fountains and Shack) in Liverpool and also a tour […]

The lovable pop trio are back: Bob Stanley, Pete Wiggs and Sarah Cracknell with here their ninth album. St. Etienne began life in 1990 with Wiggs and Stanley originally just wanting guest singers. But in […]

1967 was considered to be the Summer of Love. It was the year of rebellion against the system. Protests broke out against the Vietnam War, and hippies gathered in Haight-Ashbury, San Francisco in their droves. […]

On the back of 2015’s Modern Nature (critically acclaimed getting into the Top Ten album chart with a lifetime achievement award from Q magazine) comes the Charlatans thirteenth album. Different Days is released on Friday […]

Welsh band the Manic Street Preachers are re-issuing their 2007 album Send Away The Tigers as a 10th anniversary album offering 2cd and a DVD bookset. The band stated Send Away The Tigers was a […]

Wire, (formed in London in October 1976) are celebrating their 40th anniversary this year and celebrate with the release of their new album Silver/Lead which has just been released on the band’s Pinkflag label. The […]

The enigmatic and creative Goldfrapp will release their seventh studio album Silver Eye this week on March 31st on Mute records. This is the follow-up to their 2013 Tales of Us. They have pooled together […]

Drummer Si Wolstencroft hardly needs an introduction. Famous on the Manchester scene for turning down the Smiths back in the early days. He played in The Patrol before they became the Stone Roses and was […]