Northeast Music Guide

The King Is Back: Ben Portsmouth Is Elvis  Currently touring Brazil following his most recent shows plus recording in the USA, Award winning Elvis - Ben Portsmouth – has already this year had a sell-out tour of Ireland, shows in Canada and Munich, with amazing sales at Belgrade, Coventry and Portsmouth Guildhall. He has also appeared at London o2 Indigo, Birmingham Barclaycard Arena, Leeds o2, Bournemouth o2, Manchester o2 and Belfast SSE Arena.  Ben, a multi-talented musician, singer and songwriter had Elvis‘s DNA in his blood from an early age. His father was an avid Elvis fan and Ben grew up on a diet of Elvis songs. Having honed his musical talent Ben started his journey as an Elvis Tribute Artist in 2005 when he formed the ‘Taking Care of Elvis’ band. Audiences and promoters quickly realised that this was someone with a special talent. He looked like Elvis, sang like Elvis and had an on stage charisma that had audiences believing at times they were watchin...

Review: Mostly Spoken, Cumberland Arms 27/11/2016 The simple surroundings of upstairs at the Cumberland provide the perfect stage for the monthly variety night of music and poetry called Mostly Spoken. Simma, who curates the night, opened with three of his original songs: the soon to be seasonal Happy New Year, delta bluesy Voodon’t and Blue Eyed Baby. Simma Tony Gadd followed with his storytelling style of poetry, about past jobs and  the 11+. Tony is an engaging performer with a lot to talk about. Tony Gadd Oonah Joslin treated us to a poem about the importance of lists, another about the inevitability of the Aber Fan disaster, and others about nightmares and Manhattan Rain, she has a great book out called 3lbs of Cells. Oonah has a way of bringing individual personalities to her poems when performing. Oonah Joslin Sam Millington was a nice surprise with his comic country songs about being lost in Ikea and the hell of call centres. Call centres was a s...

In 2017 FEED THE KID and label owners B33 Records will head off for an exciting Manchester invasion of China along with the rest of the label roster. The excursion consisting of two three month tour stints, will cover 10 major cities and will represent the first new wave of British band’s granted access to perform in the country.  Earlier this year, Mancunian blues-revivalists Feed The Kid aimed high with a single release via taste-making imprint B33 Records. Following a prologue of sell-out headline performances at some of Manchester’s most prestigious venues, Feed The Kid are back to solidify their status as the undisputed champions of primal rock and roll.  Invoking the pleasantly swampy, right in the pocket rock of the early 1970s - the group are best thought of as a sort of Manchester Clearwater Revival - closer to Hulme than the Bayou - their songs are incandescent with civic centre references and odes to this great region.The first of two tub-thumping new singl...

Two years ago, during the 2014 Americana Music Festival, three songwriters met for the first time at a café in East Nashville. What followed on from that meeting became one of the most warmly received albums of 2016 when it was released by vinyl specialists Gearbox Records. Next month, Applewood Road return to the UK to round off a triumphant year which has included performances at Glastonbury and Cambridge Folk Festival, an appearance on the Andrew Marr Show, and a UK tour with Mary Chapin Carpenter.  “Their no-frills debut album, recorded in Nashville, has rightly won them no end of admirers and the close harmonies, augmented with spartan guitar and banjo, were every bit as exquisite in this performance. Original numbers were inspirational; so too was a soaring cover of REM’s Losing My Religion.” -- The Times (review of Barbican show, July 2016)  It was a serendipitous first meeting. Emily Barker was in Nashville for AmericanaFest and had been introduced to Amy...