After six monumentally exciting heats, we have had two of the three semi-finals. I was there as a judge for semi-final 1 but unfortunately could not make the second one. But I will be back in my judge’s wig and robes for the last semi-final on Friday, 6th October, and then the grand final on Sunday, 22nd October!
In the meantime, I can tell you that the first semi-final was, for me, the most exciting night so far and also one of the closest as far as scoring goes. It was won by HÆrtstrings, first band to qualify for the final. It was an unlucky night for Vaquelin, Attacker TV, and I Tell Lies, who all performed great. Don’t forget there will be a judges wildcard again this year so one band that missed the cut in the semis could still make it through.
I heard from my judicial colleagues that the second semi-final on Saturday was another very closely fought contest with Hunter-Gatherer coming out on top at the end. While Belle Velvet, Manic Calm, and Heavy Bloom missed the top spot, there is still the judge’s wild card to be awarded. That will be after the final semi-final. The last semi-final will feature sets from Ømmis, Fervent Red, Offbeat, and Frantics. I suggest that you be there or be a plane figure with four equal straight sides and four right angles!
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Regular readers will know that I was invited back to judge this year’s Battle Of The Bands competition at the Fulford Arms in York. It is a fabulous honour to be chosen to judge such a great contest! As I am on the judging panel, I do not think it is fair to review the shows. But I thought you might like a few updates, this is the third one and covers the final two of the six heats.
Heats 5 and 6 took place on Wednesday, 20th September, and Thursday, 21st September. The lineup for Heat 5 was Red Recluse, Manic Calm, Ømmis, and 5 Or 7. It was yet another close contest, and Manic Calm, along with Ømmis will be in the semi-finals! Heat 6 had another great lineup with Trent and the Crickets, Hunter Gatherer, Gents and Ginger, and I Tell Lies. The two acts going through to the semi-final from Heat 6 are I Tell Lies and Hunter Gatherer. Gents and Ginger initially made the cut but were unable to make any of the dates. Get yourself to the Fulford Arms on Friday, 29th September for the first of the three semi-finals! The other two semi-finals are on Saturday, 30th September, and Friday, 6th October. Check out the semi-final lineups below.
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Regular readers know that I was invited back to judge this year’s Battle Of The Bands competition at the Fulford Arms in York. Obviously, as I am on the judging panel, I do not think it is fair to review the shows. But I thought you might like a few updates, and this is the second one.
Heats 3 and 4 took place on Wednesday 13th and Thursday 14th September. The lineup for Heat 3 was Frantics, HÆrtstrings, Chased By Machines, and Uncultured. It was a very close contest, and HÆrtstrings and Frantics will be in the semi-finals! Heat 4 had another great lineup with Belle Velvet, Offbeat, Robo, and Darted. The two winners of Heat 4 were Belle Velvet and Offbeat. Get yourself to the Fulford Arms on Wednesday 20th September and Thursday 21st September for Heat 5 and 6!
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I am incredibly honoured and pleased to say that I have been invited back to judge this year’s Battle Of The Bands competition at the Fulford Arms in York. This year, it is a much bigger event with six heats, three semi-finals, and the final. Obviously, as I am on the judging panel, along with some fine people who are all a part of the music scene in York, I do not think it is fair to review the shows. But I thought you might like a quick update, and yes this one is a bit late.
The first two heats took place on Wednesday 6th and Thursday 7th September. The lineup for Heat 1 was Heavy Bloom, Attacker TV, Anthea Drive, and Someone Else’s Radio. It was, as usual, a tight contest, and Heavy Bloom and Attacker TV made it through to the semi-finals! Heat 2 had another great lineup with Fervent Red, Rockbreath, Vaquelin, and Stageminus. The winners of that heat were Vaquelin and Fervent Red. Look out for a brief post on Heat 3 and 4 very soon. Get yourself to the Fulford Arms on Wednesday 20th September and Thursday 21st September for Heat 5 and 6!
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Let’s start with the Friday lineup for this year’s Leeds Festival. Firstly though, we have now come to expect this joint headline thing for Leeds/ Reading each day of the festival. I don’t see the point, are the punters getting more value for money? That is debatable, but maybe, but not a great deal. Surely the last act to play on that particular night is the main headliner, right? Anyway, enough of the mini-rant. The Main Stage East headliner on Friday 25th August is the towering talent, Billie Eilish. Earlier in the evening Rina Sawayama will undoubtedly put on a stunning set. Also, keep an eye out for the Amazons, they come highly recommended by my daughter. Main Stage West on the Friday looks a little “safe” to me with Becky Hill followed by Imagine Dragons. However, to balance that we will be given a stonking double whammy of the magnificent Don Broco followed by the rather awesome Snuts!
The hot ones hitting the Dance Stage on Friday are likely to be Shy FX and Eliza Rose in my opinion. The Festival Republic Stage will undoubtedly host a real screamfest when Lovejoy perform the headline set. Further down the bill, you will see the sublime Tom Odell and the rather wonderful Royston Club. My pick for Radio 1 Xtra Stage is the headliner K-Trap. Of course, the BBC Introducing Stage never lets you down and the one not to miss on Friday is the Goa Express.
On Saturday the Main Stage West hosts a very early highlight when it is opened by none other than the genius and all round top bloke, Frank Turner along with the mighty Sleeping Souls. I would consider selling my grandmother to get a ticket to see Frank Turner, but as she died many years ago, I won’t be tempted! You Me At Six will bring some good noise with them and Trippie Redd will bring some fine US rap ahead of what will be a truly rambunctious set by festival stalwarts and Leeds/ Reading favourites, Foals. Over on the Main Stage East try not to miss the arch wit and supreme talent of Yard Act, who will be opening proceedings on the Saturday. I reckon Yard Act have the potential to be headliners (or joint headliners?) in the future. Later on the Main Stage East, we get to judge whether Wet Leg are as good as the hype that surrounds them. Expect the Main Stage East to be closed with a highly charged and incendiary set from Sam Fender.
The Radio 1 Dance Stage has the Murder Capital listed early on for Saturday. Dance Stage? Really? But trust me getting to see the Murder Capital at a festival is worth the weight of all the illicit substances in your rucksack, you’ll probably feel healthier for losing that stuff too. The Festival Republic Stage features an incredibly eclectic and rather excellent bunch of acts for Saturday at Leeds. Make sure that you are in attendance for Yonaka, Lauren Hibberd, and Bilk at the very least. Check out the Last Dinner Party too. Are they an industry plant? many think that they are, but personally, I don’t. However, I am keen to see whether their performance will live up to the weight of expectations and plaudits heaped on them. On the Saturday I will try and catch as many acts as I can on the BBC Introducing Stage. But whatever happens, I will definitely be there for headliner Alt Blk Era.
Of the two Main Stage lineups for Sunday 27th August, Main Stage East looks stronger for me. Likely highlights will, I think, be Baby Queen, Holly Humberstone, Nothing But Thieves, and obviously indefatigable indie rock darlings, the Killers. Main Stage West is to be headlined by perennial super subs, the 1975. Last year they filled in for Rage Against The Machine and this year they will be covering Lewis Capaldi’s slot. Apart from the 1975, I reckon that Arlo Parks will raise the East Stage’s game in the afternoon.
MK will headline the Radio 1 Dance Stage. The Festival Republic Stage hosts a classy lineup on Sunday, including Mothica, Scowl, High Vis, and Fat Dog. Then the Radio 1 Xtra Stage will be nicely smashed by Malaki and Nippa. Once again the BBC Introducing Stage has a great selection. Standouts on Sunday for me will be Hannah Grae and Hotwax.
It is since I attended my first festival, which was Reading, and I recall a stunning set from Thin Lizzy back then (in 1975!!!!) I don’t believe that the lineup for 2023 looks like one of the best on paper, but on the muddy fields of Bramham Park, it will be a different matter entirely!
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In my humble opinion companies like Viagogo are, in simple terms ticket touts that have somehow become legitimate. These companies refer to themselves as “ticket resale agencies” a rather cuddly and friendly title for what feels like industrial-level scalping. But there are other “ticket resale agencies” I hear you say. Yes, there is Stub Hub, but did you know they merged with Viagogo? There is also Seat Geek which has branched out beyond resale and is now a ticket agency in its own right. In fact, it is the ticketing partner for numerous sports teams and venues in the USA and in 2020 signed a similar deal with Liverpool Football Club in the UK. There are other scalping agencies, perhaps too many to mention.
Recently Taylor Swift tickets for her Eras tour became available on Viagogo at pretty much the same time they went on general sale, including pre-sale tickets, that smacks of some kind of high-level scam. Some were on sale for more than £3,500. The price for most legitimate tickets for her UK tour were reasonably expensive to start with, between £100 and £200. Cris Miller who owns Viagogo was asked at the time to justify the huge price of Taylor Swift tickets for her ERAS tour on his site, According to MyLondon, the BBC, and other press publications, he said that Viagogo was “ensuring that there’s a secure, safe transaction“. So does this mean safer than the more legitimate ticket agencies like Ticket Master (another company I am not a huge fan of, but they will be covered in a future article). He also stated that “There’s not going to be enough seats. So, from our perspective, ensuring that there’s a secure, safe transaction that takes place is the single most important thing“. Well, there never are enough seats to satisfy demand when artists on the scale of Taylor Swift tour, unless she played three shows a day every day for six months that is unlikely to ever change.
So, the bottom line suggested by that comment is that Viagogo is all about creaming as much money from fans as possible right? Well, that is certainly my takeaway. Miller went on to claim that “fans prefer to buy more expensive tickets on Viagogo”. Seriously? What the actual fuck is that about? How many people do you know who would honestly prefer to buy tickets at ten times the face value? I know people do, but do they prefer doing that? Of course, they don’t. Miller said, “I wake up every single day, as does everybody else that works at the company, thinking about one thing, and that’s getting fans into these events all over the world”. That might be true, but it is more likely about how much money they can scam off said fans.
Scammers like Viagogo and their ilk pay a lot of money to Google and other similar sites to promote themselves as legitimate ticker agents, falsely in my opinion. This enables them to show up on the top of page one of a Google search when you search for gigs and shows. They operate in an incredibly devious and sophisticated way to give genuine fans and ticket buyers the impression that your tickets are direct from the authorised seller. They often charge an increased base price for tickets and add an inflated booking fee. There have also been many incidents of fans buying tickets for shows only to find that on arrival at the event their tickets were not valid. This impacted fans of the Rolling Stones and Take That in the years leading up to Covid. In 2018, even the UK Government expressed negative thoughts about Viagogo when the then Minister for Digital and the Creative Industries, Margot James stated clearly on BBC Radio “Don’t choose Viagogo. They are the worst.” However, the company is now legal in the UK and that statement from Margot James was possibly the last sensible thing a UK Minister has ever said in public.
A few years before Covid I used Viagogo to purchase a ticket for the Reading Festival, that is the one and only time that I have ever or will ever use them. I had left it a bit late to get a ticket and weekend tickets had sold out. So, believing Viagogo to be a genuine fans resale company I purchased via their website. It cost me almost double the face value. Never again! I would rather not go than pay ridiculously inflated prices. This happens for almost every major event not just Taylor Swift. The same thing has impacted recent shows by Harry Styles and many UK festivals. What makes it even worse for me is that since Covid many shows struggle to sell out and having large tranches of tickets in the hands of legitimised touts and scalpers will not help change this. Late last year Rammstein mounted a successful legal fight that forbids Viagogo from selling tickets to their shows, let’s hope more artists do the same. Also last year UK independent TV channel ITV worked with the Fan Fair Alliance to discover that nearly all tickets on Viagogo’s site are supplied by just three traders, which means that only around 10% of tickets on the site were on offer by what we might call ordinary punters.
Meanwhile, there is the NME who, back in the day, were bastions of positive and liberal thinking and even recently they have written some quite strong pieces that slagged off Viagogo. But now, presumably thanks to advertising revenue, the once proud NME who, back in the day, really knew how to “stick it to the man” is licking Viagogo’s tarnished golden rim by publishing paid-for advertising features for Viagogo. Is Viagogo legitimate? Sadly, it is in most places, they currently have operations in more than 60 countries. Is it ethical? Well for me that is at best a very grey area, personally, I don’t believe that they are. Can I stop anyone from using Viagogo? No, I can’t. Can I implore people to avoid the company forever? Yes, I can and I really believe you should do some research into this awful organisation before you consider using them!
This is a screenshot taken from the Viagogo site on 27th July 2023 for Taylor Swift tickets for the Liverpool shows. These are just floor tickets!
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The Fulford Arms Battle Of The Bands event for 2022 took place from 26th October to 2nd December last year with four heats followed by the final. The final featured the four heat winners; the White Roses (Heat 1), The Palava (Heat 2), The Rosettas (Heat 3) and City Snakes (Heat 4), and the judge’s wild card, I Tell Lies. It was an absolute honour to have been a judge for this magnificent contest. Obviously, as I was judging the contest I didn’t think it was fair for me to also review it. I would like to say a huge thank you to all my fellow judges and the fabulous team at the Fulford Arms who put the whole thing together. There were plenty of prizes for the winners and I am happy to offer a cheeky little extra prize for all five finalists if you’re interested. So White Roses, Palava, Rosettas, City Snakes and I Tell Lies. If you want to be interviewed by With Just A Hint Of Mayhem give me a shout!
Huge congratulations to the Palava who won on December 2nd last year. There is a video from each of the four heat winners below, including the Palava. Unfortunately, I could not locate a video from I Tell Lies, so click here to check them out on Spotify! The event was so successful that the Fulford Arms Battle Of The Bands for 2023 is even bigger. There will be six heats (the first is on 6th September), three semi-finals, and then the Grand Final on 22nd October. The poster above provides all the dates and details of how to enter. Who is up for it? I will be judging 9 of the 10 shows this time around. It would be great to see your band there, you know what to do! As a brief footnote, I enjoyed the event so much that I was a judge at a Battle Of The Bands contest at a local school, which also happens to be where I work now too!
So, as expected, the tabloid media, particularly in the UK, have got their knickers in a right twist over the video for Sam Smith’s current single “I’m Not Here To Make Friends”. The video features drag queens, dancers, corsets, leather, a gold helicopter, nipple tassles, and amazing camp costumes, and is frankly stunning. Yes, it is sexual, but sexual with a sense of humour. This to me has a large element of Sam Smith sending themself up. Would the mainstream media have got so upset if a similar video was made by a svelte-like female pop star? Of course, they wouldn’t, but Sam came out as non-binary a couple of years back and the tabloids just love to attack anything they see as different, so basically anyone who doesn’t fit the usual heterosexual, nuclear family tropes. The tabloid media barely hides its homophobia and transphobia these days and they mix it with an element of body shaming too. I think that with this video, Sam Smith, has produced one of the finest pop videos in years, and “I’m Not Here To Make Friends” is, without doubt, a classic slice of 21st-century disco. I am an old, straight man and I bloody love the video and the tune! I have not been a huge fan of Sam Smith’s music up to now but this song has definitely won me over and the video is the icing on the cake (or maybe the tassle on the nipple!) The song and the video are direct descendent of “Relax” by Frankie Goes To Hollywood and “Outside” by George Michael. Sam Smith, you are priceless, UK tabloids, you are worthless! I would love to hear what you folks think of the video.
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A week ago I published a post called “Avalanche Party vs. Leeds Festival”. This was in relation to Rage Against The Machine cancelling their European tour including Leeds and Reading Festivals. For me, this left the Friday night lineup a bit weak. In fact, the headliners that were playing in York for Friday (tonight) are far stronger. Avalanche Party at the Crescent, Ginger Wildheart at the Fulford Arms, and even a great Motorhead tribute act, Motorheadache at the York Vaults. I had planned to leave the Leeds Festival early today to go and see Avalanche Party but unfortunately, the band has had to pull out of the gig due to unforeseen circumstances, I hope the AP boys are all ok. So now it is down to the 1975 at Leeds or Ginger Wildheart in York. No contest at all, see you later Ginger!
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I am sure you know that Rage Against The Machine have cancelled all their current European dates, including the Reading and Leeds Festivals. The bad press that their replacement as headliners, the 1975, are getting is a little OTT and unfair in my opinion. However, this change does present me with a dilemma. If Rage Against The Machine were still on the bill it would be no contest. But one of my most favourite bands, a band that I have seen more times than any other act, Avalanche Party will be playing a headline set at the Crescent in York on Friday 26th August, which is the night the 1975 will be headlining the Leeds Festival. I am not camping at the Festival site, so I will be driving home to York each night. Also, I don’t have a press pass, I am a paying punter, so therefore beholden to no one. My problem is do I drive back to York for the Avalanche Party experience? I have already bought my ticket, which was just a quid in advance, how good a deal is that? If I do drive back I will definitely miss Beabadoobee and possibly Pale Waves, two of the bands I mentioned in my Leeds Festival preview a few days ago. Weighing it all up I have decided to drive back to York to see Avalanche Party on Friday night. It won’t change my mind, but I would love to know what you would do. On the same night, Ginger Wildheart is playing the Fulford Arms in York. So in fact York has a better set of headline acts on the Friday than the Leeds Festival does. So apologies to Beabadoobee and Pale Waves but there ain’t no party like an Avalanche Party, right?
Here is what you could have had
Here is what you have
Here is what you want, and what you will get!
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With Just A Hint Of Mayhem 