There haven’t been many good drug-related songs for a while but this new track, “No Calories In Cocaine”, from the Howl And The Hum makes up for that. It rolls along like a white powder-fueled bastard and has some great lines (no pun intended), I love the weird simplicity of “No gluten inside MDMA“. Musically it feels like a lost Waterboys track or something from Mumford and Sons if they were good. Sam Griffiths and his gang are on top form and on this evidence the new album, due out in September, will be bloody good! Yes, on the strength of this track and previous single “Same Mistake Twice” the future looks bright for the Howl And The Hum 2.0. Check out the new song and the sublime beauty of the Howl and the Hum back catalogue!
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US pop singer Sophie Truax has a new single called “Too Bad”. Based on this tune and some of her earlier singles she is, I am sure on the verge of becoming not just a pop singer, but a pop star, a huge pop star in fact! The track has a lilting summery beat overlaid with some soothing feathery vocals and is overflowing with delightful pop hooks! Does she sound like anyone else, maybe, but there are no obvious reference points for me. Check out this song and all the other great music she has created! She is also a brilliant puppet creator and TikTok sensation!
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ALT BLK ERA are going stratospheric with epic headline shows and a support slot with Tom Morello. On top of that, they have fired up the solid fuel boosters and released their best single so far. “My Drummer’s Girlfriend” is full of pop-driven punk licks and a gorgeous vocal delivery which reminds me of the Tuts and Kate Nash. Those riffs are mesmeric and stitch their way into your brain easily. I am not sure I am a fan of the potentially insane, drug-fuelled titular girlfriend in this story, but I am a huge fan of this infectious, electric firecracker of a tune from the magical and magnificent ALT BLK ERA.
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If music could kill sex offenders, abusers, and misogynists then Delilah Bon’s new single “The Internet”, would be a lethal weapon. Delilah has some sharp punk and rap influences but since her arrival, she has developed into one of the most original artists on the planet. This is the fourth single from her forthcoming second album and on those four tracks alone it is a major contender for album of the year. This is a brooding dark beat with the best Delilah ciphers so far. Speaking in the guise of female-hating keyboard warrior Harry Dick Delilah bares her fangs and aims her venom at the vile individuals that spout pathetic and worthless hate. For lines like “All these people offended by transgenders send your children to church to god-loving sex offenders” it is way above the competition and the glorious dig at professional sweaty nonce Prince Andrew is sublime. I love the way that Delilah continues to turn all the shit she takes and uses it to fight back. Good people of the world, Delilah Bon is on your side, be on hers!
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Cowgirl are Danny Trew Barton on vocals and guitar, Sam Coates also on vocals and guitar, Jack Jewers on bass guitar, and Jack Holdstock on drums. This powerhouse of a band recently released a new single, “Fading Lights”, from their forthcoming sophomore album, ‘Cut Offs’. The album will be out on 9th August and like their 2021 debut, it was recorded with Euan Hinshelwood (Cate Le Bon/A. Savage/Devendra Banhart) at Vacant TV studios in London. The single is a gorgeous marriage of garage rock, fabulously fuzzy guitar licks, Velvet Underground vibes, and harmonies that many would kill for. This song will shake up your summer party if you’ll let it. “Fading Lights” is, I believe, the true fiery harbinger of a great album!
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Tonight was a chance to see a few bands that I hadn’t seen for a while. The headliners were Pennine Suite who I last saw in January 2022. Support was from Fulford Arms Battle Of The Bands 2022 winners the Palava, I last saw them at the BOTB final in December 2022. The first act on stage was the White Roses, I last saw them in February of last year, they are not simply a rock band, they are a truly entertaining band. Each time I see them they get better and better. Vocally Eliie draws on Joan Jett’s rawness and Stevie Nicks’s completeness while Jack’s guitar is a highly original and essential part of the band’s sound. The voice harmonies evoke Fleetwood Mac. “This Town” is a great song, but the anthemic epic that closed the set was extraordinary indeed! They have a new EP due soon and on the strength of this set I reckon it will be a classy release!
The Palava have grown immensely in emotion, scope, skill, and ambition since I last saw them. Their songs have grown into more complex and wonderfully played mini-epics. There were some really great jazzy, punky, and funky licks with great use of some nicely incorporated major 7th chords in some of their tunes. They maintain an infusion of ’60s psychedelia and a pinch of 90s Indie.”Remedy” (which in its recorded version features Kitty VR) and “Lie To Me” were incredible highlights, but even those two Palava specials pale against the next single “Foreign Ground” which sounds like it will be the band’s best song to date. They looked like they were loving playing live, and that just enhanced their performance.
If I was a headliner I would not have fancied following the Palava onto the stage, but Pennine Suite raised their game and blew the fucking house down! They are a band on fire, but not just a little flame, I am talking super nova levels of heat! The set opener “Everything Begins” (what an appropriate song to start with) reminded me of the Cure. The depth of their sound grows with every gig. Louise’s keyboard licks, riffs, and motifs add huge breadth to the band. Her playing on “M.O.W.O” gives an eerie circus-like feel to the song. The new track “Manhattan” is thunderously good and needs to be a single, RIGHT NOW! Harry’s guitar was magnificent on this track and the power and drive from the mighty rhythm section of Moses and Louis is a close to perfect as you could get! The crowd was spontaneously chanting the band’s name four songs into the set. Clearly the crowd fucking love this lot and was in full voice from start to finish. There were plenty of highlights in their twelve-song set, the biggest for me was a pounding “Pass On You”. But even that was surpassed by beyond epic and truly awesome upcoming single “Tropical Fantasy”, when Pennine Suite rock out they do it like a huge bastard rock god. Frontman Nick has grown wonderfully confident over the years since I first saw him fronting the Receivers more than five years ago. He really commands his audience and the new songs are just so good. I am not sure where this thought popped up from but I would love to hear Pennine Suite do a funky cover of a Lou Reed song, maybe “Vicious” from ‘Transformer’. This was a stunning end to a brilliant night of live music.
As a footnote, I went on for a couple more drinks after the gig with Simon P from Northern Radar Promotions and Rusty and Pete from ace York band Lost Trends. Note to self, don’t do it again, and avoid a hangover from hell!
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London-based four-piece rock band Ghost Arcadia is back in the classy rock groove with their first single in 14 months, “UNDER” which hit the streets last month. It is an emotional-sounding, anthemic song with a huge sound to match the clearly massive ambition it carries. There are titanic guitar riffs, harmonic and guttural vocals from Reuben Beau Davies, and some cinematic synth patterns. This might seem a bit pop driven at times, but underneath it all it is as heavy as fuck! The band spoke about the inspiration for the track “It’s an exploration of the everyday battles we face within ourselves. From addiction to self-doubt, we all face battles at some point in our lives. The song conveys the message that even when you are at your lowest, there is still a way out; there is still a light left to guide you from the “Under”. Sometimes, we must dive into our darkest depths before we can finally find a way out.” The song is a great taster for their new EP ‘What We Become’ which will arrive later this year!
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Aside from festivals, this is one of the biggest gigs that With Just A Hint Of Mayhem has had the pleasure of reviewing. I arrived quite early and was pleasantly surprised to find out that I had a great seat. I made a couple of initial posts on social media saying that I was in Leeds to review James and that I had to sit through Razorlight first, with hindsight that was a little mean, shabby, cheap and sarcastic. Razorlight in their time attracted a degree of bad press thanks to Johnny Borrell’s outspokenness. A favourite of mine was “Compared to the Razorlight album, Dylan is making the chips, I’m drinking the Champagne” from 2004. But he was still a young man back then and the arrogance of youth and success can negatively impact many people. This is largely the classic line-up of Razorlight with Borrell as a charismatic and energetic frontman, Björn Ågren on guitars, keys, and percussion, Carl Dalemo on bass guitar and keys, and Andy Burrows on drums and backing vox. The band is strengthened further by keyboard player Reni Lane. So did I just have to sit through Razorlight? No, I didn’t, they were on top form and Borrell played to the crowd faultlessly. They played their set as though they were headlining and it was more glorious and reslpendent as a result. Newer songs like “Scared Of Nothing” hinted at a slightly poppier Velvet Underground influence. But it was the canon of hook-laden hits and classics from three top 4 albums and 5 top-ten singles. Opening with the 2006 top 3 hit “In The Morning” set the scene perfectly for an impeccably played and well-structured set. The crowd was singing along noisily from the first chorus. “Stumble And Fall” was good, but the closing three songs set the bar incredibly high, and Razorlight knocked it out of the park. “Before I Fall To Pieces” and “Somewhere Else” were stunning while the final song “America”, surprisingly their only UK number one, was stirring, emotional, and had all of us singing once again. I completely take back what I said about Razorlight before their set. This was nonpareil and sublime from a band that is back on it in a wonderful way! But I would like to say to the hundreds of people filming on their mobile phones, particularly during “America”, what the fuck are you doing? Live the moment, take in the gig, appreciate the music. You cannot appreciate a live show through a tiny screen on an electronic device. Make memories, not videos!
Finally, it was time for the main course of the evening from James after a splendid and tasty starter from Johnny Borrell and the boys. How many other bands formed back in 1982 are still selling out arenas and releasing stylish new original music regularly? Tim Booth and Jim Glennie have been a part of the band since it was formed 42 years ago, while four of the other members have been a part of James since the late eighties. The band has been an influential and important part of British music since its inception and has been ever-present apart from a short hiatus at the start of this century. I have seen James a few times over the years, and they always put on a show, so I was expecting something good at the Leeds First Direct arena. The band started modestly enough with a song that is nearly 40 years old and is about a character from Iggy Pop’s “Lust For Life”, “Johnny Yen”. The set was nicely littered with songs from the new album ‘Yummy’, eight tunes from the album were included in the 20-song set. The highlights from those were for me “Our World” and a spectacular stomp through “Life’s A Fucking Miracle”. Tim Booth made his first of many crowd-surfing excursions during that one. Booth’s own brand of dancing was clear throughout the show. No one dances with such unbridled fun and bendiness as Mr. Booth. He dances like nobody is watching but he absolutely knows that we are! “Butterfly” was beautiful, and this was the first time the band had performed it live. Before they took the stage there was an announcement saying that James would rather you did not use your mobile phone during their show. I wholeheartedly agree with that! But Tim Booth did make a concession when he introduced “Mobile God”, although I am not sure many in the crowd appreciated the irony in that. The older songs were, obviously, well received, especially the final two pre-encore tracks “Come Home” and “Sometimes”. The huge back-of-stage screen used some kind of AI (I assume) to turn the band into weird robotic characters, the really entertaining part was when they did the same to the crowd. Booth orchestrated the crowd singing an acapella take on “Sometimes” with an almost heavenly and ethereal crowd choir singing “Sometimes when I look in your eyes, I can see your soul” in almost perfect unison and harmony, with occasional support from the band and the four obscenely talented members of the Manchester Voices Inspirational Choir. The band left the stage very briefly before returning for a four-song encore beginning with “Way Over Your Head” from ‘Yummy’ and “Beautiful Beaches” from ‘All The Colours Of You’. Then it was time for “that song”, yes, the perennial anthem of the ages, “Sit Down” and clearly no one did sit down for it. We all sang along as loud as possible though. The song was stopped shortly before the end to help security and venue staff deal with a medical emergency in the crowd, with a compassionate and empathetic Tim Booth telling us what was happening. After they restarted most of the band sat on the front of the stage to listen to the crowd continue to sing this timeless tune. Booth then informed us that we were now on ‘Fergie Time’ which meant another song could be played. That song was “Laid”, perhaps my favourite James song. What a magnificent way to end an epic and dazzling set from a band that goes from strength to strength, even after all this time. I left Leeds an incredibly happy man after this show, I suspect everyone left with smiles on their faces. Roll on the next tour!
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Hannah Collins a.k.a. SCENE QUEEN takes Bimbocore to a whole new level on her debut album, ‘Hot Singles In Your Area’, which hits the pink streets on 28th June via Hopeless Records. It is stacked full of good stuff including some collaborations with WARGASM, The Ready Set, and 6arelyhuman. Whatever excites you, whatever your kink is there is something on this record for you. SCENE QUEEN says this about the album “I wrote an album about growing up in the early 2000s but not exploring my sexuality until my 20s with all the messy and chaotic situations you find yourself in when you’re trying to find yourself and your own power.” She is at the vanguard of feminism and could probably bring down the patriarchy on her own given the power in her metal/ emo/ punk/ pop anthems. To look at her you might think Barbie, and yes the look is there, but the strength is so much more like G.I. Jane.
The album kicks off with “BDSM” (I told you there was something for every kink, right?) This is a full-on metal assault with nasty, dark pop vibes. This could be the Bimbocore national anthem. Her voice is so strong on this, what a way to open. The 2023 single “18+” tackles head-on the prevalence of so many bands being misogynistic and apparently happy to use underage girls. The chorus is like Gwen Stefani on steroids with a hook that Babymetal would kill for. Misogynists and predators are going to be scared shitless when they hear “Whips & Chains”, especially when they hear the lyric “gonna nail his dick to the wall of shame” It is a glorious metal pop song, which sadly won’t be heard on mainstream radio. Another totally anthemic single from last year plays next on this record, “Pink Push-Up Bra” This tune takes metal to a mountainous new level that many of SCENE QUEEN’s male peers are probably afraid to go to. These riffs are as hard as fucking hell! She showcases her signature style when she lays into circle jerkers everywhere with “Mutual Masturbation”. This chorus was hanging around in my head for days after I listened to it. WARGASM adds something to “Girls Gone Wild” but it is still full-on energetic femme fatale fury from the high priestess of Bimbocore. The guitar solo screams hard and slaps you in the face.
“POV” is another collaboration, this time with the Ready Set. It is first-class rap metal with riffs ripped straight from the early 70s glam rock peak. The title track “Hot Singles In Your Area” starts out like a cutesy country ballad, and then it rips out the beating heart of Nashville’s finest as its sonic attack throws you from one side of your padded cell to the other. Speaking of country, SCENE QUEEN goes metallic dosey doe on “MILF”. Maybe there will be a Bimbocore country album in the future, I reckon it would outclass Beyonce’s leisurely stroll in Ole Opry territory. I would love to hear Madonna tackle a SCENE QUEEN song, perhaps “Amateur” would be a good place to start. “Stuck” featuring 6arelyhuman was a single earlier this year and it encompasses everything that a song needs to top every chart in the world. Sadly this world is full of shit so that ain’t gonna happen. But an electro-dance remix of this track would be awesome. SCENE QUEEN is an ambassador for sexual freedom and that is perhaps never more clear than on “Finger” a song that extols the virtues of self-pleasure. If you like dark, dirty, sex-fuelled, dance vibes you will fucking love “PEG”. The guitar shredding on “Oral Fixation” is a DEFCON 1 event. This has the influence of PEACHES all over it. Appropriately the album closes with a song called “Climax” it is a Bimbocore power ballad that gives you just enough time to recover from the aural blitzkrieg of the album, before spinning it again! SCENE QUEEN has metaphorical balls of steel and is not afraid to question and challenge, misogynists, haters, and genre purists. She stands up and fights angrily and passionately for LGBTQ+ people and anyone unfortunate enough to have fallen through the cracks in this often vile world. Even if you don’t know it yet, you need SCENE QUEEN in your life and you need her NOW!
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This is the third in what I hope will be a very long-running series, just like my long-running life, so far at least! I have decided to look at the most popular songs from every year I have existed. There will be some artistic licence on my part as I will always seek to include at least a few of my favourites from each year. The format will be a top ten for each year and will cover the music and songs I grew up with, came of age with, and achieved my greatest success alongside music that comforted me in bad times. This third top ten goes back to my 2nd birthday, 1961. I don’t remember actually hearing these songs back in 1961, but I have listened to them many times over the years. I have focused on the UK charts and this time the US bestseller does not feature in my list. It is “Tossin’ And Turnin'” by Bobby Lewis. My Mum’s favourite singer Elvis Presley is in the top ten at number 3. One of my Dad’s favourite songs “But I Do” is at number seven. It isn’t in the top ten but one of my favourite 1961 tunes is “You Don’t Know What You’ve Got Until You Lose It” by Ral Donner. So here is the third Rolling Back The Years With Mayhem Chart, for 1961. It has quite a few good tunes I reckon. Please get on board the Time Machine now, it will be a rough journey so bring a sick bag! If you are too scared to enter the Time Machine, click here for the playlist! The chart for 1962 will follow soon.
1 Runaway – Del Shannon 2 Walking Back To Happiness – Helen Shapiro 3 Are You Lonesome Tonight? – Elvis Presley 4 Hello Mary Lou – Ricky Nelson 5 Blue Moon – The Marcels 6 Poetry In Motion – Johnny Tillotson 7 But I Do – Clarence ‘Frogman’ Henry 8 Will You Love Me Tomorrow? – Shirelles 9 Take Good Care Of My Baby – Bobby Vee 10 Cupid – Sam Cooke
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