They’ve received comparisons to Joy Division and Nadine Shah, gained support from Guy Garvey and released a very strong debut with ‘Stain’. Now, indie rock newcomers Dead Wells are back with the wonderfully bleak ‘Cold Seas’.
When it comes to debut albums from the 1980s, few are as perfectly formed as Deacon Blue’s ‘Raintown’. The way the album’s songs shared a very 70s inspired level of storytelling could’ve presented a band out of time, but some very talented musicians fused Ricky Ross’s rich narratives with a musical sound that felt wholly contemporary for the era. It’s no wonder it quickly became a fan favourite,
In October, the band will set out on a UK tour where they’ll play the whole of the album from end to end, alongside other hits and album cuts. It promises a tour not to be missed. Full details can be found in the press release below. To read a review of Deacon Blue’s Margate gig from 2024, click here.
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Much like its predecessor ‘In Japan’, ‘Like To Get To Know You Well’, the second long form visual release from Howard Jones to be released in 1984, spent far too many years stuck in a VHS limbo as far as UK audiences are concerned. It was given a Laserdisc release in Japan, but would be over thirty years later that the show would finally make its hi-def debut in Britain. Eventually brought to the deserving fans via Cherry Red Records’ extensive HoJo reissue programme which has yielded – among other things – huge box sets of ‘Humans Lib’ and ‘Dream Into Action’, and a lavish 5CD set of BBC related recordings, the long overdue reissue goes the extra mile by coupling the original video material with a full CD soundtrack for the very first time.
In the spring of 2026, a year on from stand-alone track ‘The Insane Ones’, alternative rock band Amongst Liars released an enjoyable single, ‘Repair Myself’, it showed the UK act in better shape than ever when blending a fuzzy groove-laden heaviness with an almost industrial tinged mechanical quality at times, whilst clinging onto some strong vocal melodies that really helped the track become memorable.
This visit to the Real Gone Singles Bar sees the return of a cult band from the US, throws a spotlight onto a couple of superb indie pop bands and celebrates a pair of very different singer-songwriters. The eight picks represent just the tiniest fraction of submissions for the past fortnight, which should give some indication of how much new music is being shared as we head into autumn – traditionally one of the year’s busiest periods. We can promise a lot more good stuff to be unearthed from the current batch over the next fortnight, but in the meantime, we hope this selection fills your ears with something enjoyable…
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