Shockingly, despite having lived in Newcastle for 5 and a half years, this was my first ever gig at The Cluny. It definitely won’t be my last, as I was genuinely taken aback by how lovely the atmosphere is there. I could tell most of the crowd was made up…

Skunk Anansie – led by the force-of-nature that is Skin – remain one of the most captivating live bands around, and their latest tour sees them hitting Newcastle’s NX this April. Earlier this year Skunk Anansie released their first new material in thre…

The Redroom hail from Newcastle – and are now based in Manchester – but are they indie or are they soul? (Answer: they’re both.) Despite their tender years (lead singer Jessica Lewis-Ward is still only 21), The Redroom have been bubbling under for a co…

Billingham’s finest Megson are one of the most lauded folk duos in the UK, and their latest tour sees them swinging by the Queen’s Hall Arts Centre in Hexham and ARC in Stockton. Megson have been delighting us folk fans for twenty years now and, as the…

Brace yourself! JustKing Jones’ latest tour – the GENESIS Tour – sees him offering punters more than a concert. He’s offering punters nothing less than a transformative journey of sound, spirit and connection. Oh, yes! Jump aboard when he comes to Cluny 2…

Joan As Policewoman remains one of the most (ahem) arresting artists around and she’ll be bringing it (i.e. her amazing bunch of songs) when she visits The Glasshouse in Gateshead this April. US singer/songwriter/multi-instrumentalist Joan Wasser (aka …

HotWax made many people’s ‘Ones To Watch’ list last year and they’ve followed up that early promise with a blistering new album. They’ll be taking Stockton by storm this April. Say, “Hi! How’s it going?” to Sim-Savage (vocals/guitar), Lola Sam (bass) a…

The Candlelit Concerts at Newcastle Cathedral – featuring music by the likes of Taylor Swift, Pink Floyd, The Beatles and ABBA – are proving huge hits and you can win tickets to one of these shows of your choice if you fill in their simple survey. I’m …

Newcastle’s Nauta are being talked about in hushed tones in jazz circles and with good reason – they’re immense. What’s more, they’re all set to host an exciting new night at Gateshead’s The Central bar – beginning early May. I’ve no hesitation in labe…

Sunderland will write its own history when ‘Public Record’ – a new production developed in collaboration with the National Theatre, Sunderland Culture and Sunderland Empire – transforms The Fire Station for three days in April. The Fire Station is bei…

Durham-based Hayley McKay knows how to wear the hell out of a pair of trousers – does she not? She’s also one of the brightest stars on the UK country music scene. The sterling work that Hayley McKay has been doing on the Americana/country front hasn’t…

Do Newcastle’s Decrepit Youths look like they do things by half? (Answer: no.) There’s a moment midway through Decrepit Youths’ song ‘Black Dove’, when the monumental riffs drop out of the mix and a Geordie voice implores: “If this torture is so goddam…

This year’s Stockton Calling features 40+ artists playing six venues in the town over the course of one day. In short: gig-goers’ Christmas. A cursory glance at some of the acts that have played previous Stockton Calling events show just how much the o…

Rabble-rousers extraordinaire Kelsey Karter & The Heroines are coming to The Grove in Newcastle this April. This four-piece Australian/British band are one of the most electrifying live acts you’ll find anywhere, and their rock and roll credentials are…

Greentea Peng’s much-anticipated ‘Tell Dem It’s Sunny’ tour lands in Newcastle this April, a tour that’s sure to be bountiful with psychedelic R’n’B delights. With longer days on the horizon, the aptly named ‘Tell Dem It’s Sunny’ album – and extensive …

This April The Glasshouse is launching The Glasshouse Studios – an exciting new programme of songwriting and music production courses designed for both beginners and those who want to polish up their skills. If you’re of the opinion that The Glasshouse…

Birmingham duo GANS knock-out throbbing slabs of scuzzy indie-rock that is heavy in all the right places, and they’re bringing their raucous live show to North Shields this April. There’s nothing about GANS that isn’t mega. Cellar-deep tunes given body…

Did you know that My Fair Lady is based on a play? I didn’t. George Bernard Shaw’s Pygmalion, in turn inspired by the Greek myth about the man who makes a woman out of clay and then falls in love with her, is somewhat darker than the beloved film. It foll…

When Marius Muller killed a man by slowly beheading him, he was haunted by the sound of the man’s soul leaving his body, almost like the hum of a moth's wings. When he tells this story to John Josana, he becomes similarly haunted by the sound. When I watc…

If a combination of southern gothic, country pop and punk can exist in harmony, there could be nowhere better to catch it than at Mattiel’s performance at the Cluny this Tuesday gone. Another American to brave the great Atlantic leap over to the Cluny, An…

The 900 play a whole bunch of raucous songs, all of which have appeared in Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater videogames. Naughty but niche! See them in Sunderland in early April. I spent a huge amount of my time in the early 00s (and beyond) trying to carve, grin…

Birmingham-based Rebecca Downes has won a loyal following of fans who can’t get enough of her bluesy/rock, and she’ll be bringing the fire when she plays Stockton this early April. Rebecca Downes’ stuff feels authentic to its very core, like it’s been …

With support from Sunnbrella, an equally moody but more pop-leaning British counterpart, this Wednesday saw Texas-based alt-rock band Glare bring a bit of that Rio Grande sunshine to the Ouseburn. It's easy to sum up a band like Glare to alternative rock …

Is there anything more enjoyable than cat videos? I don’t think so, and the Star and Shadow Cinema seems to agree with me. In order to raise money for Newcastle Dog and Cat Shelter, they’ve edited together an hour-long montage of cats knocking things over…

Now that Christmas is over and pantomime season has passed, I got a chance to go down to the Theatre Royal and watch everybody’s favourite moustachioed Belgian detective do his thing. In this stage adaptation of the famous novel, Hercule Poirot tries to h…

I last went to see Dylan John Thomas just over 2 years ago at a venue that was exactly half the capacity of NX, which is where he was performing this time around. This is a testament to the Glaswegian artist’s remarkable ability to attract a rapidly growi…

It may only have been around since 1843, so a mere newcomer to Festive Season traditions, but “A Christmas Carol” does manage to pack in all the things we think Christmas ought to be about, from fond memories, forgiveness and happy endings to gigantic ro…

The Damned kicked off the first night of their UK tour in Newcastle, and everyone was excited to see that 1980s line-up back together again with David Vanian, Captain Sensible, Rat Scabies, Paul Gray and Monty Oxymoron all present and correct. First up…

As we waited for The Jesus and Mary Chain to appear on stage, a huge cloud of dry ice floated towards us. The excitement was palpable. The band – who have a new album out (‘Glasgow Eyes’) along with a memoir from founding members and song writing partners…

Given how swiftly styles of choreography and stage design can change, this revival of Ballet North’s 1992 production of “Romeo and Juliet (originally directed and devised by the late, great Christopher Gable) might have been perceived as a trip down memor…

Richard Hawley, one of the UK`s best singer/songwriters, returned to the Firestation, Sunderland on 03/12/2024, as previously promised, for a rare and intimate show for the start of his latest 2024 tour promoting his superb new 9th album “In This City The…

With our constant re-evaluation of just what “traditional” fairy tales might really be about, it was interesting to see balletLORENT offering a family-friendly dance version of Snow White, but also a grittier, more visceral variant freshly retold in words…

Benjamin Britten’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” Doesn’t so much set Shakespeare’s play to music as release the music inherent in the text, the drama and most of all, the characters. It brays, it soothes, it tricks and it celebrates, matching and enhancing …

Of the many pantos I’ve attended down through the years, this was the first time I’d seen ‘The Little Mermaid’ given the full glitzy treatment. Needless to say, fans of fish-based puns certainly weren’t left feeling short-changed. Once again – for the 19t…

It feels a bit odd writing a review of a performance by a restaurant critic. Celebrity chef Jay Rayner is at his funniest when giving hilariously scathing accounts of bad restaurants, but unfortunately there’s nothing for me to be scathing about here. Ray…

When she did her routine at Live Theatre, most of Karen Dunbar’s audience members were her fellow Scottish people, and there was a level of audience participation that was starting to make me a bit nervous. Spectators were announcing their bathroom trips,…

The Aussie four-piece shed/pub punk rock band – who have just released their ‘Cartoon Darkness’ album – are renowned for their energetic and chaotic live shows and videos, and an expectant, sold- out, Newcastle crowd certainly weren’t disappointed tonig…

It’s a relief to find Opera North director James Brining describing Mozart’s The Magic Flute as, stylistically, a bit of a jumble sale. The mad plot by Schikaneder (the original Papageno) is both fairy-tale simple (the daughter of the Queen of Night, Pami…

After recently releasing his 17th solo album ‘66’ – the title a reference to its release, which was a day after his 66th birthday – Paul Weller played two sold out nights in a row at Newcastle O2 City Hall. Weller, of course, is a bit of a music legend ha…

Put together as much through a rehearsal process of improvisation and experimentation as through a set script, director/playwright Mike Leigh’s “Abigail’s Party” was the London stage hit of the season in 1977, with the production revived within the same y…