Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
STILL GOING STRONG
REW BEAUTY!! ULSTER HALL GIG FOR EDITORS
It’s somewhat ironic that in a week in which we bade goodbye to the NME, a formative fixture in our lives for many years, we lead with the return of an enduring band we first read about in those very pages. The excellent Wombats burst on the scene back in 2003 and were the perfect NME cover stars. Haircuts, charm personified and armed with brilliant output, they joined the likes of Editors, The Kooks, Razorlight and The Courteeners in filling page after page of alt-indie adulation.
And while many of those contemporaries have fallen by the wayside, it could be argued that The Wombats are bigger than ever.
2015’s ‘Glitterbug’, the band’s third LP, saw a UK Top 5 Album, headline show at Alexandra Palace and well over 200 million digital streams.
Last year’s headline performance at Brixton Academy, to celebrate the tenth anniversary of platinum-selling debut album ‘A Guide To Love, Loss & Desperation’ sold-out in under 24 hours, not to mention two sold-out nights at the Sydney Opera House.
And having premiered new single, ‘Lemon to A Knife Fight’, on Annie Mac’s ‘Hottest Record’ on BBC Radio 1, The Wombats are very much continuing to assert themselves as one of the biggest and best guitar pop sensations of our time.
The track is the lead song from new Here’s your chance to bag a pair of tickets for Tuesdays gig, FOR FREE! To be in with a chance of winning them, all you have to do is email ultimateulster@mirror. co. uk with your contact details (include the best phone number to get you on) and the correct answer to the following question: LP ‘Beautiful People Will Ruin Your Life’ and is a push-pull rollercoaster of euphoria and desperation, delivered with the band’s signature animation and wit.
Written from three corners of the globe – drummer Dan Haggis in London, bassist Tord Øverland Knudsen nursing his new family in Oslo and frontman Murph in Los Angeles – Beautiful People Will Ruin Your Life was created over long distance writing sessions, supplemented by intense two-week in-person sessions in Oslo.
With the addition of producers Mark Crew (Bastille, Rag’n’bone Man) and Catherine Marks (Wolf Alice), the album finds The Wombats pushing the boundaries of alt-pop innovation with a lush, ultramodern indie soundscape wrapped in Blade Runner synths, future grooves, celestial solos and space age melodies.
Rocketing between psychedelic euphoria and dark disfunction, ‘Beautiful People Will Ruin Your Life’ captures The Wombats’ unique pairing of irrepressible hooks and tragi-comic lyricism with a newfound maturity and moving emotional depth. Together, the Liverpool-formed trio have created a record that’s still instantly sing-along but demands to be taken seriously.
The Wombats play the Limelight 1 in Belfast this coming Tuesday March 13.
Doors are 7pm (this is an early show) and tickets are £17.50. COMPLETE THE TITLE OF THE FOLLOWING WOMBATS SONG; ____ TO A KNIFE FIGHT A. LEMON
B. SAUSAGE
C. LOLLIPOP Belfast / London duo Rews have been added to the already packed line-up of Holywood’s Harmony Live 18 festival. Presently boasting a host of big-name acts like Reef, Toploader and the legendary Boomtown Rats the Co. Down festival is growing in popularity each year. The event runs from June 1-3 at the Festival Marquee in the Holywood Rugby Club grounds and promises to be the hottest ticket in town this summer. Tickets available at wegottickets.com Good news for us production journalists – turns out Editors are playing the Ulster Hall in Belfast this autumn so there must be some hope. Unfortunately it seems you need to be in a class band as well as being able to knock out puns at will. Only then do you become a headliner... enough. Editors, the band, play the Ulster Hall on October 15, tickets on sale through www. ticketmaster. ie & usual outlets and box office on 028 9033 4455 or ulsterhall. co. uk.