Thursday 28th October 2010 @ Lakota, Bristol

Most student nights are the same old crappy cut priced drinks, cheap shots and a constant mission to snog as many people as possible, before regretting it massively hours later. Students spend hours stumbling around spilling drinks, dancing to shit 80s music, chart R&B and embarrassing themselves in front of their peers. It seems like every club has a student night every day of the week and I guess only time will tell which ones survive past the winter break. With all the mainstream cheesy ones out there, thank god there is at least one decent night: Itchy Feet!
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Saturday 9th October 2010 @ Lakota, Bristol

Back in the 90s Bristol was the coolest of the cool. As dance music started to move out of the woods, warehouses and fields and into the clubs, there was no club quite like Lakota. Glorious six deck tape packs were peddled from the back of shopping trolleys and each and every Friday and Saturday night were spent queuing outside Lakota, desperate for a slice of the perfect mix of techno and drum and bass. Those were the days and thank god some brilliant soul decided to bring back the best of the 90s rolled into a fantastic night called Relapse.

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Monday 25th October 2010 @ St Georges, Bristol

In 2000, an unassuming young man from Lancashire released a solo album called The Hour Of The Bewilderbeast. It won UK music’s greatest accolade, The Mercury Prize. Ten years and seven albums later, Damon Gough aka Badly Drawn Boy, is 41 years old and he’s still going strong. Tonight he’s with us at the stunning St George’s music hall to tour his latest album, It’s What I’m Thinking.

Dressed all in grey with his trademark beanie and shaggy beard, Badly Drawn Boy is just as unaffected, humble and honest as ever and he gets us rolling early on with a series of solo acoustic songs, recalling some of the best moments of his ten year career so far. With themes of suicide notes and friends going missing, the tone starts pretty morbidly but it is countered wonderfully by the beautiful fragility of the songs themselves and, of course, Gough’s thick Lancashire accent and dry humour; “Our new single is #1 in 45 countries – no, wait – it’s #45 in 1 country.” Watching his unshowy performance as he pulls hit after hit from his seemingly bottomless well of honest and fantastic songs, you are reminded just how much Badly Drawn Boy is one of the understated masters of acoustic indie from the past decade.
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Monday 25th October 2010 @ Anson Rooms, Bristol

It’s a pleasure these days in British music to see so many bright, new, original female voices coming out of our small nation. For every Katy Perry and Rihanna our friends across the pond throw at us, we have more than met their match with a Florence, a Lily, or even a Paloma. So perhaps it is even more of a testament that tonight’s headline act, Marina And The Diamonds, have still managed to sound original amongst our nation’s other female big hitters.

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Friday 15th October 2010 @ The Croft, Bristol
With Support From: The Fuck Buddies

Celebrating the release of their new tunes, Unforgivable and 66sexy, The Hit-Ups are partying down at The Croft. Supporting are The Fuck Buddies. If The Darkness were inspired by The Strokes or The Ramones, instead of Queen, this is what you’d get. But it’s fun and interactive. The band are setup on the dance floor, not the stage, with the audience semi-circled around them. You get a real sense of engagement with them.

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Friday 1st until Sunday 3rd and Thursday 7th until Sunday 10th October 2010 @ Bridewell Island, Bristol

And so as the last flaming tightrope is extinguished, the final remnants of thick make-up are removed, and the doorway to the crypts are closed and padlocked, Bristol finally waves goodbye to Carny-Ville, the Invisible Circus and Artspace Lifespace at Bridewell Island. It’s been a drawn-out and emotional farewell but now this is surely it. The arts initiative who tour the city inhabiting semi-derelict spaces, rejuvenating and managing them as active creation centres while throwing some of the best god damn parties Bristol has ever seen, even for them time is up.

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Wednesday 13th October 2010 @ Thekla, Bristol
With Support From: Rodeo Massacre

Although the majority of people aren’t at Thekla at 7pm on a Wednesday night, I am happy to admit that I relished in this fact, as not only did Swedish and French band Rodeo Massacre surprise me hugely in terms of their quirky rock, but perhaps even more so when lead singer Izzy Lindqwister decided to come and dance “The Creepy Dance” amongst the crowd. Izzy’s undeniably unusual yet powerful voice along with the band’s use of instruments and determined attitude really highlighted their musical flair and I can only hope to hear more of them in the future.
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Tuesday 12th October 2010 @ Academy, Bristol
With Support From: Retro Grade

A sold out gig at the Bristol Academy is usually a pretty good sign you’re in for one heck of a night. But let’s face it, any gig where you see the words Groove Armada on the line-up instantly becomes a winner for most folks.

Support for the night came from electro DJs Retro Grade. The two DJs are stuck in a little booth in the middle of the stage with what can only be described as ‘Tron-esque’ graphics projected onto it. The music truly is retro with a very 80s video game feel to it but because it was a nonstop set with no standout songs or singles to speak of, it unfortunately just became very loud background noise for most.
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Thursday 7th October 2010 @ The Louisiana, Bristol
With Support From: The Tin Pan Gang, Cut Nancy, Dan Mangan

Not only did the weather change for Thursday’s Exit Calm gig but so did the venue at the last minute. A change from the Fleece to the Louisiana for reasons unknown didn’t seem to dampen the turn out too much though, especially with support coming Bristol indie heroes The Tin Pan Gang, the edgy Cut Nancy and California born folk soloist Dan Mangan whose folk songs were some opf the wittiest I’ve ever heard. I was really here however to see what all the fuss was about with headliners Exit Calm. They are building a strong reputation as a solid British live act having supported such moody legends as Puressence so I was interested to see why.
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Thursday 7th October 2010 @ Mr Wolfs, Bristol
Featuring Performances From: Skin Suit, Ethan Ash, Suzy Condrad, Joyshop, Patch William

Born in London’s Notting Hill, Communion began as a celebration of acoustic musical talent. Mumford And Son’s keyboardist Ben Lovett and Cherbourg bassist Kevin Joneswill started the much needed Sunday relief day of jingles, jives, sways and sing songs. Those that performed included Laura Marling, Shoreline, Sons Of Noel And Adrian and Johnny Flynn. The night spread across the land to Brighton and debuted its night in Bristol a few months ago.
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