Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
WHO THE F**K IS ALICE??
TAYLORED TO YOUR LIKING This gig ain’t no Pulp fiction
Dublin duo Hudson Taylor are back in Belfast next week – November 28 to be exact. They’re playing in the fantastic Oh Yeah Centre, a venue though reasonably small, that is more than the sum of its parts. Many great bands have played there, mainly on a steep upward trajectory. The boys have been touring Europe pretty incessantly since releasing their debut album two years ago so it’ll be the perfect spot to catch the boys as they promote new single Feel It Again, their first new music since then. Happy days. Doors 6pm (early show) tickets £15 + Booking Fee, 14+ Show. www. limelightbelfast. com, www. ticketmaster. ie, Katy’s Bar & Ticketmaster outlets nationwide. Northern Ireland customers 0844 277 44 55 & Republic of Ireland customers 0818 719 300.
It’s hard to know why Wolf Alice aren’t massive. Not Taylor Swift massive or Katy Perry massive. Maybe the size of Florence + The Machine or The
1975. All the right ingredients are there – photogenic singer with a haunting and beautiful voice, cleverly crafted rock tunes with just
enough indie to stay this side of cool, folk leanings and guitars that clash and caress, lyrics about the things that matter to us all. Love, sex, life, death, you know, the minutiae. It’s a classic mix, one that has won them legions of young fans and critical acclaim by the spadeful. Yet somehow Wolf Alice have never quite managed to make that leap to the next stage. Formed in 2010 in the internet-age equivalent of an NME “singer seeks” ad, Ellie Roswell and Joff Oddie joined forces as a folk duo, twee-ed up on Johnny Flynn, before realising it was going nowhere. So they recruited a rhythm section – “friends of friends” drummer Joel Andy and bassist Theo Ellis – and the result was a rather satisfying if heavy mix of grunge and pop. Pixies-influenced stop-and-start guitars work around Rowsell’s gorgeous voice that flits between choirgirl and Bjork and all underpinned by the new boys’ pounding rock aesthetic. It’s pretty special.
It was a successful transition, too. The band’s popularity grew and they were repeatedly tipped as the next big thing without ever truly becoming the next big thing. They’re no also-rans, however. They’ve Grammy, Ivor Novello and Mercury nominations under their belts and are playing the Ulster Hall on Monday night, for example, hardly the work of a bunch of wasters. You just feel in your gut it should be more. They should be headlining the festivals instead of supporting the main act, they should be topping the charts rather than just doing well. Songs such as Fluffy, Moaning Lisa Smile, Freazy and Yuk Foo are evidence of that but sometimes it just takes that extra bit of luck – but maybe second album Visions Of A Life, released in September, will do the job. It did for us. If a secret is worth keeping then it usually gets out. So it was with the Jarvis Cocker and Steve Mackey’s Dancefloor Meditations at the Maple Leaf Club in East Belfast tomorrow night - news that was just too incredible not to be shared. This is almost sold out so if you can get tickets then keep ’em close to your chest. If you can’t and feel theft is the only remaining option, then make sure to check you victim’s chest... Doors 9pm, tickets £25 from wegottickets.com