#rock

May 2, 2019
2 min

Wheatus @ Rescue Rooms

Wheatus, seven-piece American rock band most known for their timeless classic ‘Teenage Dirtbag,’ graced the Rescue Rooms stage last night, playing a show that was unique in comparison to anything I had previously seen. They had one of the most relaxed entrances I’ve experienced, setting up much of their own equipment and instruments, and casually walking out onto the stage, which set the tone for the kind of chilled atmosphere that would ensue for the duration of the show. On

Acoustic Rooms Weekly: Birthday Special 04/03/19

Abby Clarke

Mar 5, 2019
5 min

Acoustic Rooms Weekly: Birthday Special 04/03/19

Last night was a special Acoustic Rooms celebration evening marking the 10th birthday of the acoustic night which has featured thousands of artists since it began ten years ago. The night promised free cake alongside the usual happy hour bar prices and some extra special acts to truly highlight the talent we have on the current Nottingham music scene. The night kicked off when current Acoustic Rooms host Laurie Illingworth introduced the night and sang a couple of songs along

Feb 17, 2019
2 min

Kaiser Chiefs @ Rock City

With a discography spanning almost two decades, the Kaiser Chiefs have become loved by Generation Y, Millennials and Generation Z alike. Some of their best-known songs include “I Predict a Riot”, “Ruby” and “Oh My God”. With a prospective album releasing early 2019, they have gone on their first UK tour since 2017, stopping at Nottingham’s Rock City. The crowd inside the venue reflected their long career with people of any and every age turning out in their hundreds to suppor

Alana Mckenna

Feb 10, 2019
4 min

Don Broco @ Motorpoint Arena

As part of their UK tour, Bedfordshire rock band Don Broco headed to Nottingham’s Motorpoint Arena, which proved to be an unforgettable night of quality entertainment and music. Broco’s setlist was on point, including songs from all of their albums, which provided a range of different kinds of music, crossing over between indie, rock, pop, and even interwoven elements of R&B. Don Broco had two support acts, both of which put on a show that made the crowd buzz increasingly in

Shadows Like Strangers @ The Angel Nottingham

Abby Clarke

Feb 9, 2019
3 min

Shadows Like Strangers @ The Angel Nottingham

Last night saw the album launch show for Shadows Like Strangers’ debut album Cali. They managed to sell out The Angel in Nottingham with support from Cut the Heroics and Jetlines, whilst also raising money for GRL PWR- a charity in aid of ovarian cancer. I had never attended a gig in The Angel before and the venue itself was very interesting. They’ve cleverly converted an old chapel above the pub into a music venue with a capacity of 110, using the old area for the organ as

Preview: Peter Hook and the Light @ Rock City

Alex Barston

Feb 1, 2019
2 min

Preview: Peter Hook and the Light @ Rock City

British Rock royalty will be swinging into Nottingham next Thursday as former Joy Division and New Order bassist Peter Hook brings his solo band, Peter Hook & the Light to Rock City. As part of their wider tour, the band will be playing the New Order albums ‘Technique’ and ‘Republic’ in full as well as an opening set of Joy Division classics. The thought of a set of Joy Division songs, as a warm up, should warm the cockles of any music fan. Indeed, it was as a part of Joy Div

In conversation with Haggard Cat at Beat The Streets

Sean Hubbard

Jan 30, 2019
3 min

In conversation with Haggard Cat at Beat The Streets

Sean went down to Beat The Streets on Sunday and got a chance to have a chat with rock band Haggard Cat before their set, here’s how it went: Favourite venues in Nottingham? We absolutely love JT Soar and Chameleon, but we’re lucky to have all these independent venues like Rock City and Rescue Rooms rather than a faceless O2 Academy. Favourite Local Bands? 94 Gunships – they’ve got lots of bluegrass/shanty elements and are playing Beat the Streets later on, but most of our fa

Abby Clarke

Jan 29, 2019
4 min

Review: Beat The Streets 2019

Beat the Streets is a fantastic one-day music festival spread out around some of Nottingham’s historic music venues, with great acts on the line up and extra bits and pieces going on throughout the day all to help raise money to fight homelessness. This year was set to be another fun-filled day with some talented musicians playing from one in the afternoon all the way until eleven at night, and The Mic were there to cover it. The day started with Matthew Moore who opened the

Album Review: Drenge - 'Strange Creatures'

Tom Evans

Jan 25, 2019
4 min

Album Review: Drenge - 'Strange Creatures'

Drenge’s 3rd studio album, Strange Creatures, due for release on the 22nd February is a thoroughly rambunctious affair characterised by loud, clunky guitars and an intelligent lyrical wit. It’s a record which demands your attention with a smorgasbord of sounds for your earholes: there’s the glitchy, ‘80’s-disco-gone-wrong’ bass-lines, the purgative guitar solos and vocalist Eoin loveless’ unforgiving Derbyshire twang to name but a few examples. Following on from 2015’s Undert

Album Review: Shadows Like Strangers - 'CALI'

Abby Clarke

Jan 25, 2019
3 min

Album Review: Shadows Like Strangers - 'CALI'

The Mic got an exclusive listen to Shadows Like Stranger’s debut album ‘CALI’ which is due to be released on February 1st, after nearly four years in the making. Shadows Like Strangers themselves are still less than a year old but the four-piece pop-punk group from Nottingham have had a successful time, ending last year supporting Lacey at Nottingham’s Rock City Basement for a sold-out show. The album opens with ‘Counterpart’ which sets the scene of the album perfectly being

Dec 11, 2018
2 min

Album Review: Muse - 'Simulation Theory'

With the release of ‘Simulation Theory’, Muse brings their highly-anticipated eighth studio album. Muse was formed by Matt Bellamy, Chris Wolstenholme and Dominic Howard in 1994, in Devon. After producing a highly critically-acclaimed discography, they have managed to build themselves a continuously growing fanbase, spanning the world. Over the years they have won many awards, including two Grammy awards for ‘The Resistance’ (2009) and ‘Drones’ (2015). Despite their growing s

Abby Clarke

Dec 8, 2018
2 min

Don’t Forget Rupert @ The Bodega

Nottingham based indie-rock band Don’t Forget Rupert headlined the Bodega last night for their last show of the year, managing to sell it out just under a day before. They were supported by Ava Saint and For the Girl, also both from Nottingham, and succeeded in performing an explosion of a homecoming show. Ava Saint kicked things off with an alternative-rock/punk performance including a unique take (but not quite cover) of Brittney Spear’s ‘Toxic’. Lead singer Holly Taylor-Ga

Nov 9, 2018
5 min

Interview with Primal

The Mic caught up with Primal's guitarist Dan. You’re a Notts-based and you formed in the summer of 2017. Tell me a bit about how and where that came about? Absolutely. So, I’m the guitarist – I’m Dan. Rory is the singer and we used to go to school together. Went to all the same schools. And we were band mates really – over the previous few years we’d been in different bands and we’d always remained friends. So we got together – we were hanging out together as friends anyway

Abby Clarke

Oct 25, 2018
2 min

The Blinders @ The Bodega

After the successful release of their debut album ‘Columbia’, The Blinders have embarked on a UK tour, bringing their political punk rock music to The Bodega last night with support from Nottingham’s Those Howlin’ Sounds, and Calva Louise from London. First up were four-piece Those Howlin’ Sounds, who also released an album earlier this year. They opened with an instrumental song and had a grunge/punk feel to them. The crowd really enjoyed them and by the time their set finis

Abby speaks with George Gadd before his UK tour kicks off

Abby Clarke

Oct 23, 2018
4 min

Abby speaks with George Gadd before his UK tour kicks off

I sat down with musician George Gadd on an unusually sunny October lunch time to chat about his ten-year anniversary of performing, his upcoming UK tour and some the highlights of his time in music. Going back to the start with George’s first ever performance, he told me that he used to have “floppy emo hair” and even put on an American accent which he admits is really cringey to look back on. Apparently, there are videos out there although George assured me that they are ver

Oct 23, 2018
3 min

Interview with Estrons

“You Say I’m Too Much, I Say You’re Not Enough” is the debut album by the alternative welsh band Estrons, and two days after the release, I talked with Rhodri, the guitarrist, right after an intimate and energetic live in-store performance in Rough Trade Nottingham and chatted about the new album, touring and aliens You guys have been touring a lot, how’s that been? It’s been great! Just came back from a european tour, it’s good to be in cities I’ve been to before. We were he

Oct 2, 2018
2 min

Sleaford Mods at Nottingham's Royal Concert Hall

After a couple of years of listening to and trying to figure out Sleaford Mods and where they stand in today’s music scene and its decline in originality, it can be said with great certainty that Jason Williamson and Andrew Fearn are delivering ideas that are bold, new and often feared. As we watched the interesting choice of supporting band, Grey Hairs, an ostentatiously angry performance in which the seemingly passionate lyrics were drowned out by the rest of the band, it w

Nov 29, 2016
3 min

Johnny Lloyd – What happens if the frontman of a band goes solo?

He is wearing a large, oversized, white T-Shirt with rolled up sleeves even if he’s quite skinny. He has long, tousled hair and big brown eyes that seem to be nearly black. His hands are skilfully plucking strings on his E-guitar. This is how singer-songwriter Johnny Lloyd looks on a Saturday evening. But it’s not just an evening like any other for him, at least it shouldn’t feel like one. As a support act of The Fratellis, it’s his job to entertain the audience and get them

May 20, 2016
3 min

Dot to Dot Preview

Its less than a week until Dot to Dot returns to Nottingham to kick off the festival season! Held across almost 60 venues in Nottingham, Bristol and Manchester, the one-day-event showcases a varied line up of established and up-and-coming artists. A joy of D2D is its promotion of local artists by having headliners play all 3 cities while local bands populate the setlist of their respective cities. As previous winner of UK Festival Award for Best Metropolitan Festival, this

Apr 19, 2016
4 min

An interview with Newton Faulkner over coffee

On 15th April Newton Faulkner played Rock City, and I had the chance to interview him before the gig. When I met him he was as calm as his music, offering me coffee and being as hospitable as he could in the small artist lounge. We had an interesting chat, delving deep into his experience on the road and his musical knowledge. P: One of my favorite songs of yours is badman. N: Ah thanks, there’s been a lot of call for this I think I might bring it back for the next tour, it c