Warriors Newsletter 29

Another insane week on our planet as Putin invaded Ukraine. It's an appalling pointless situation full of tragedy and cruelty. Over the years we have met and seen many Ukrainian bands play as well as many Russian bands. We have been in touch with many of our friends in both countries and they are as appalled with Putin's shitty war as we are. We also interviewed a friend of ours from a band called Black Balloon who is stuck in his home city of Kyiv waiting for the bombs and the siege.

We also heard from Alan Erasmus - one of the founder's of Factory Records - who at the age of 72 set out to Ukraine to see if there was anything he could do. It's an amazingly brave move from Alan and we hooked him up with our Ukrainian friends.

The hideous scenes of carnage and heartbreak and shitty lying from Putin has made our lives feel small and redundant but we must continue. This week I was at Fat Tuesday Festival in Hastings - a five day event that showcases the arts and culture of the seaside town. The festival showcases great events like a march and some really great new young bands like Hotwax and Blabbermouth - there's a whole lot of cool stuff going on down there as the review describes.

Touring this week were ExTC - the band put together by XTC's brilliant drummer Terry Chambers to play that legendary back catalogue from one of the greatest bands to emerge from post punk. the gig is really recommended,

The Libertines popped up to play a show as well with their fans in London breathing a collective sigh of relief as frontman Pete Doherty soldiered on through illness to play a hit-packed setlist at a sold-out Kentish Town Forum.

There's been a couple of great keynote albums this week...Tears For Fears who remerged from the ether with a stunning work and Johnny Marr who continues to keep moving instead of wallowing in his glorious past.

Fat White Family sparked a whole new scene into action with their brilliantly wonk rock that matched their off kilter lifestyle that has all been captured in a new book. There are two miracles in this brutally honest account of the rise and spectacular fall of Fat White Family, who despite their chaotic existence remain one of the more interesting British bands this century.

Stormzy is one of the cultural icons of our ties - the grime superstar with a political consciousness who puts his money with his mouth is and has announced new tour dates.

We remembered Mark Hollis from Talk Talk whose flickering genius has become so influential in this brilliant in depth piece of writing from Simone the bassist from Primal Scream.

We are sad to hear of the death of the great Nicky Tesco, the frontman from the members who quirky new wave songs with clever and funny lyrics resulted in a brief chart flurry. It brought back memories of how much we loved their debut album and also what a good guy Nick was as we kept in touch with over the years.