A one-line review of half of the gigs I’ve been to in May 2025

This monthly series is probably as much for my benefit as yours. I go to a lot of gigs and it is nice to have a way to remember them all. Maybe your interest will be piqued by one of the reviews. Maybe you’ll scroll straight past. Maybe you’ll unsubscribe thinking what did I see in this blog in the first place? You can find all of my one-line gig reviews here.

The Pill and Panic Shack, Mash, Cambridge, 2 May – I’ve seen both of these bands before and it was irresistible as a double-bill, both of them are loaded with whip-smart funny angry feminist anthems and you should go and see them too.

[The Pill at Mash, Cambridge]

[Panic Shack at Mash, Cambridge]

PSA: MEN ARE FUCKING SHIT.

[Panic Shack and The Pill joint statement about inappropriate behaviour from male fans]

Danny’s Rodents, Walthamstow Town Hall, 3 May – I saw a little bit of this, they were doing Jimi Hendrix Experience cover versions before an open-air screening of Withnail and I.

[Danny’s Rodents at Walthamstow Town Hall]

I was playing at the Stow-a-thon, a 24-hour musical marathon at Ye Olde Rose and Crown in Walthamstow, which was raising money this year for the Christian Kitchen in Walthamstow, which is a charity provision that seeks to feed homeless and marginalized people in Waltham Forest, and doing so in memory of local community activist Tommy Anderson, who passed away earlier this year.

Because I wasn’t on until the early hours I didn’t get there until late, so caught a smidgeon of Chaos UK London playing some punk, and then a bit of Joey Cornish, who was doing covers of some big hits of recent years from Robbie Williams etc.

[Joey Cornish at Ye Olde Rose & Crown, Walthamstow, with the late Tommy Anderson on screen]

After that I caught a bit of Other Theresa, who did a mix of feminist spoken word and folk-ish music with bass guitar, and then it was GM4 EFL. I really enjoyed this – instrumental shoe-gazey stuff with lots of pedals.

[Other Theresa at Ye Olde Rose & Crown, Walthamstow]

[GM4 EFL at Ye Olde Rose & Crown, Walthamstow]

Mentat was on after that, playing melodic house/techno. Both Mentat and GM4 EFL could have done with being louder to be honest, although obviously for noise reasons the sets in the early hours had to be a lot quieter than on the front room stage.

[Mentat at Ye Olde Rose & Crown, Walthamstow]

After that it was m-orchestra, some fool of a Took with his laptop and ghost nonsense. The highlight was without doubt the bit where some stacked up furniture behind me on stage suddenly fell over at the end of one of my songs as if I had brought my own personal poltergeist with me. Photos courtesy of Mark Hart, who runs the always excellent Walthamstow Rock ‘n’ Roll Book Club.

[m-orchestra at Ye Olde Rose & Crown, Walthamstow]

[m-orchestra setlist and notes for the 2025 Stow-a-thon]

Tom Lynch then played for the next three hours – THREE HOURS – playing sing-a-long standards, anthems and big hits from the 60s to the 2000s plus a little bit of Irish folk, and seemingly did not need to take a break. THREE HOURS. I only played for 28 minutes and I was knackered by the end of that.

[Tom Lynch at Ye Olde Rose & Crown, Walthamstow]

I stayed on for a little bit of the morning too, catching some of Sherene Banner giving everybody a refreshing sound bath, and then Sudden Penguin getting the Monday morning shift started with some old blues covers.

You can still donate the Stow-a-thon using this link.

Tall Tales: Thom Yorke and Mark Pritchard (2025), directed by Jonathan Zawada, 8 May – Not a gig, but a screening of the film that goes with the new Thom Yorke and Mark Pritchard project. I find that for me Thom Yorke’s non-Radiohead stuff veers between the great (Atoms For Peace, most of The Smile) and “That sounds like a good song deliberately ruined by obtuse production”, and this album oscillates wildly between the two. It was nice to hear it all in one go for the first time with no distractions and with Zawada’s visuals as god intended though.

Bella and the Bizarre and Death Valley Girls, The Lexington, London, 11 May – Somehow it had escaped me that Death Valley Girls have a saxamaphone in the line-up. I hadn’t heard any Bella and the Bizarre stuff before, but both of these bands were great fun.

[Bella and the Bizarre at The Lexington, London]

[Death Valley Girls at The Lexington, London]

[Live pictures of Martin going to a whole series of all female-led gigs]

MEN STOP BEING WEIRD AND CREEPY AT GIGS AND MAKING US ALL LOOK BAD PT II: My colleague Laura Snapes wrote this – The worst gig-goers aren’t phone-wielding teens. It’s creepy blokes zooming in on female musicians

Tony Visconti and Woody Woodmansey’s ‘Holy Holy’ featuring Glenn Gregory, O2 Shepherd’s Bush Empire, London, 15 May – Glenn Gregory takes on vocal duties on a romp mostly through David Bowie’s early 1970s output, channeling the spirit and love for the original without attempting to do an impression so still sounding like the Glenn Gregory of Heaven 17. Cracking evening of top tunes played brilliantly.

[Tony Visconti and Woody Woodmansey’s ‘Holy Holy’ featuring Glenn Gregory at O2 Shepherd’s Bush Empire, London]

Find all of my one-line gig reviews here. Part two of May’s reviews is here.