LTW Newsletter 34

Becalmed by Easter we sit in a bank holiday purgatory sifting the sands of time or ship wrecked on the timeless crunch of the surrounding rocks. The ancient pagan spring fest full of copulating bunnies and the symbolic eggs that was borrowed by the christians for their own own festival is a time of renewal and rebirth. The cast iron of winter has been thrown aside and the trees are full of nests and budding leaves as the UK cities start to turn green (hey! did you know that London is officially a low level forest these days? if a city has over 12 per cent woodland it gets classed as such...Manchester is not far behind - maybe we will win this Eco war in the end!)

The week before Easter saw the LTW team music cramming - there were gigs asunder and the city centres glowed with energy and life in a high decibel version of the spring thing!  It was an explosion of music and life as we ran around our venue burrows like bunnies with ear plugs...!

While you are enjoying the upcoming links of some of the writing that has been on the site in the last week enjoy some of the soundtrack of that was the week that was with John Robb's 'Old, New, Borrowed and Blue' playlist...

The talk of the town and that's the town that ain't big enough for the both of us has been Sparks. The Mael Brothers remarkable revival has seen them get the acclaim that they have always deserved and the current tour has been bringing houses down world wide. LTW were en masse at their UK shows and tried to capture the sheer adulation and love for the band whose genius is finally being embraced.

Solar Eyes are a great new band from Birmingham. Their music is the fascinating and original alchemy of twanging Wild West guitars, moody synths and filmic soundscapes. They are totally worthy of your investigation.

We may have mentioned this before in another newsletter but its great to have anew album from Australian psych band King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard. The tripped out collective seem to put a new album out every months and their 20th release in ten years that is a double has received a rave review on the site. LTW love the band and this is another instalment in their captivating trip.

Jarboe used to be in Swans and was a key part of that fascinating band's evolution. She added colour and shade to their avalanche of intensity and her vocals and keyboards and songwriting and ideas would make her the second most important member of Michael Gira's imperious vision. She has continued to be this compelling artists and we caught up with her.

Suzi Quatro was the queen of glam rock - a feisty American rocker who had been in a teenage band in her home town of Detroit and had played with the like of a pre fame Iggy Pop. By the time Mickie Most brought her to the UK, she was ready to take the scene and the songwriting team of Chinn Chapman was key to her success. She talks about all this and more on the eve of her big London show at the Royal Albert Hall here.

John Cooper Clarke is now a national treasure and the so called Salford Bard has been delivering his speed freak poems for decades. They sound funnier than ever and his love of words twisted out of shape with an added wisdom and snark made his gig in Manchester this week a career high. Lots of new poems and acidly funny observations from the sharp suited Clarke...

We were sorry to lose the wonderful Sylvia Lancaster this week. She was the campaigning mother of Sophie - the so called Goth who was murdered by heartless thugs in Lancashire a decade ago. She tried to make sense of the murder with the S.O.P.P.H.I.E. campaign that changed the law and preconceptions. We were proud to have been apart of her campaign through this website and our bands and were good friends with this wonderful woman who was thrust into a limelight she didn't want but made a difference.

What is this thing called Ghost? a melodic Swedish band whose singer dresses as an archbishop and deliver their metal tinged music to arenas across the world? Thrilling, overblown, celebratory, and often quite ridiculous, with clear nods to Alice Cooper and Kiss, Ghost’s show at the O2 in London is everything an arena rock gig should be...we sent our reviewer to investigate...

Also check out Louder Than War radio - our very own radio station - we have lots of great shows packed with the music we write about and more!