Lisa Ward | MTTM - More Than The Music

Feb 4, 2012

Anyone Can Play Guitar

Even as a relative newcomer to the Oxford music scene, I’m all too aware of the highs, and lows, which come with the music industry, but nowhere is this better conveyed that in Anyone Can Play Guitar. Tracking the history of a small town, from the heyday of Radiohead and Ride, to the lows of Dustball, The Candyskins and countless others who almost, but never quite made it, the...

Jan 29, 2012

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28/01/2012 | Lindi Ortega – The Jericho Tave...

The Flash Player and a browser with Javascript support are needed. ‘You’re gonna know me by my little red boots’. Actually, if Lindi Ortega is going to be known for anything it’s likely to be her ability to belt out songs without missing a note, something the album doesn’t seem to capture. Whilst the album is solid, live the songs are transformed with a rhythm...

Jan 28, 2012

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24/01/2012 | Madison Violet – The Stables, M...

The Flash Player and a browser with Javascript support are needed. It has to be said, the idea of leaving a warm flat on a cold, damp Tuesday in January to see a band I know little about seemed relatively unappealing, especially since it seems as though nothing has left me longing for more recently. That is until Brenley and Lisa strike up the first chord of If I Could...

Jan 14, 2012

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10/01/2012 | Ani DiFranco – Union Chapel, Lo...

The Flash Player and a browser with Javascript support are needed. Before tonight I knew three things about Ani Difranco. 1, She has a ridiculous number of albums, 2. She’s an overt feminist and 3. I have always meant to listen to her properly but have never managed to find the time. As she launches into Little Plastic Castle I quickly learn that my laziness might...

Dec 18, 2011

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Where Are The Women?

Last month the BPI ran a wonderful story, the title of which exclaimed “Female Artists Dominate Official Albums Chart in 2011″. Great I thought, the music industry and consumers are finally waking up to the thousands of talented women out there. Imagine my dismay then as I read on only to discover that female artists now account for one in three sales in the album...

Dec 12, 2011

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09/12/2011 | The Saw Doctors – O2 Academy, O...

The Flash Player and a browser with Javascript support are needed. A Saw Doctors show is pretty much a dance-meets-karaoke session for incapacitated drunks. Whilst Tommy K has one less move than the YMCA (albeit with similar arm formed letters), Hay Wraps boasts a simple finger wave; in essence it’s a Steps concert with a little less cheese. This is by no means a...

Dec 6, 2011

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02/12/2011 | Seth Lakeman – Cheltenham Town ...

The Flash Player and a browser with Javascript support are needed. From the first few beats of tonight, there’s a sense that it’s going to be loud; even the opening drum beat mimics Queen’s We Will Rock You, a perfect summary perhaps for what unfolds. As someone who loves Seth when his arm is moving at 100mph across his fiddle, there’s a sense of dismay with the...

Nov 17, 2011

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Karine Polwart – Here’s Where Tomorrow...

‘People have this idea that folk singers are like, out in the sticks with sheep and cows and wearing wool sweaters, and I’m a bit of a stereotype. I can’t help it.’ It’s no wonder then that Karine Polwart’s latest DVD (Here’s Where Tomorrow Starts) is filmed in a variety of locations including the studio in the Borders where many of her recordings and rehearsals...

Nov 12, 2011

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08/11/2011 | KT Tunstall – Union Chapel, Lon...

The Flash Player and a browser with Javascript support are needed. Union Chapel and acoustic performances go hand in hand. It seems once an artist steps onto the stage everything is toned down a notch and given the venue’s sublime acoustics, there’s very good reason to do so. KT Tunstall is no different and as she traces through her back catalogue of material...

Nov 10, 2011

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Anyone Can Play Guitar – Interview with the ...

With the UK tour of Anyone Can Play Guitar now under way and the DVD on sale, MTTM caught up with Director Jon Spira to find out more about why it felt important to cover the history of a small town who never quite makes it on to the musical map. MTTM Anyone Can Play Guitar focuses on the music scene in Oxford, a scene which is often over looked, why did it feel important to...