BIG SPECIAL @Key Club, Leeds, May 8th 2024, LIVE REVIEW

Photo: Isaac Watson 

My only previous Key Club visit was a raucous Saturday afternoon IDLES appearance at a Live @ Leeds festival many moons ago that practically razed the place to the ground. 

 

No pressure then for West Midland duo BIG SPECIAL whose razor-sharp kitchen-sink-full-of-Special-Brew single ‘Shithouse’’ first piqued my interest. With debut long player ‘Post Industrial Hometown Blues’ gleaming on the shelves and a 30-date sell out UK tour underway, things seem to be happening for Walsall based frontman Joe Hicklin and his batshit Brummie mate from college, drummer Callum Moloney.  

John Robb - Do You Believe in the Power of Rock & Roll? Live from The Old Woollen, Leeds, 28/4/2024

Ever wish you’d been born ten years earlier? An unusual phenomenon perhaps but while I’ve got you, please allow me a moment’s elaboration. In my case, emerging a decade sooner would have seen my formative years immersed in the nation’s Beatlemania thrall instead of the fab four as a fading memory, my early teens coinciding with glam, my late teens punk and post punk instead of hair metal…..bah! 

Fat Dog @The Fulford Arms, York, May 6th 2024 (LIVE REVIEW)

Credit: Tom White

London quintet Fat Dog have bemused and frustrated some dull press types because they can't be neatly popped into their tidy little boxes of shiny new bands. London quintet Fat Dog have outraged some fans of other bands when they supported certain acts on tour recently and basically blew their headliners off the stage. London quintet Fat Dog have been causing quite a bit of a stir it’s fair to say. Is it a serious jaunt into the world of rock and roll or are they just having a bit of a laugh (at our expense?). I don’t really know, and don’t really care. It’s an infectious racket and it needs to be heard.