Tag: Podcast

Gig Review: Behind-The-Scenes at Manchester Punk Festival 2019

A review of MPF from Sarah, who volunteers at the event. Friends, frantic dashes between venues and some top-class hardcore, including Not On Tour, Adrenalized, Svalbard, Consumed, Fair Do’s and Snuff.

Although there will be reviews aplenty, at Shout Louder we want to offer two unique perspectives on the fifth year of Manchester Punk Festival. Mark Bartlett’s given us is highlights as an MPF virgin, where as Sarah Williams is an MPF veteran who volunteers at the festival. In this edition, Sarah gives us a unique perspective from behind the scenes.

Excitement for Manchester Punk Festival begins long before the doors open to the public. Unfortunately, excitement can easily be mistaken for stress.

Weeks before the main event, I’m inundated with messages asking about guest list, accommodation, press accreditation and band recommendations. I’m only a volunteer, I’m not even one of the organisers – I can’t begin to imagine the sheer insanity of their inboxes. How they manage to keep it together in the days leading up to the festival, I will never know.

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Thursday

The hard graft starts in earnest on Thursday – the eve of the festival. I drive to Moston to join a five car convoy; our best method of transporting all the festival merchandise in the absence of ROPTM’s van. I’m blasting out Ocean Wisdom round the M60 like some boy racer on the way, which is harshly interrupted by a phonecall about a bounced band payment and a confusing artist hotel booking. We get it sorted in seconds, like pros.

Delivering the merchandise is the first time I’ve seen MPF’s brand new venue: The Union. It’s a huge, modern student building fittingly decorated in Manchester’s signature yellow-and-black. I’m shocked to see the size of the main hall. As we climb ladders to hang banners, it starts to look like a ‘real’ festival venue. It’s fucking huge. Continue reading “Gig Review: Behind-The-Scenes at Manchester Punk Festival 2019”

Podcast: Mute & One Hidden Frame

Double interview with two of melodic hardcore’s technical powerhouses.

Over the summer, Sarah got the opportunity to chat with two of the international fast-punk scene’s most stunningly melodic acts.

Firstly, at Brakrock Ecofest in Belgium, Sarah caught up with Étienne Dionne and Alexis Trépanier from Canadian technical masters Mute, a band who’ve been stunning audiences with their unrivalled guitar work for 20 years. As true legends of the tech scene they have a brilliant selection of tour tales to share with us.

Later, at Punk Rock Holiday, Sarah had a fun chat with Pekka Multaharju and Emil Stenbäck from One Hidden Frame: a brilliant melodic hardcore band from Lappeenranta in Finland and one of Shout Louder’s personal favourites.

One Hidden Frame have been going since 2002, however some of their best work has come in the form of their 2017 album Harmful Content and their recently released split EP with Thousand Oaks. We were absolutely delighted to get to chat to one another, and no doubt you’ll enjoy it too.

If you’re a fan on technical, interesting melodic hardcore, then you will love this podcast. Even if that’s not your bag musically, we’re sure you’ll love our chat.

These were the songs we played:

  • Mute – Fill The Void
  • Adrenalized – Crawling From The Ashes (feat. Étienne Dionne)
  • One Hidden Frame – Exploding Head Syndrome
  • Fullcount – The Motion (feat. Étienne Dionne)

Podcast: Revenge Of The Psychotronic Man Farewell Special

We say goodbye to Manchester DIY punk legends Revenge, in this hilarious, boozy session.

A couple of weeks ago, Sarah met up with Andy Davies, Chris ‘Big Hands’ Hinsley and Matt Woods from Manchester’s Revenge Of The Psychotronic Man down the pub. We got pissed and we talked shit… and we recorded the whole thing.

Revenge have been a band for nearly 15 years, however they’ve chosen to call it a day in 2018. We took this final opportunity to celebrate their history as a band, and to say goodbye to an act that have been overwhelmingly influential in the UK punk scene – a shining example of what can be achieved through a truly DIY approach.

You can expect talk of human pyramids, tigers, Mr Blobby and  Princess Diana… all accompanied by a healthy pint or four. We also have an exclusive announcement: listen up and you’ll get to hear the first band announcement for their farewell gig on December 8th.

These were the tunes we played:

  • Revenge… – Planet Earth II
  • Revenge… – Another Way
  • Revenge… – Booze Time
  • Bootscraper – Captain Gin vs. Victory Gin
  • Revenge… – Beer For Breakfast (Tim G Remix)

Podcast: Punk Rock Holiday Cocktail Special #2

Listen to Sarah getting drunk with Spoilers, Rebuke and Captain Trips on this second Punk Rock Holiday special.

On today’s podcast, we will be whisking you back in time to the beautiful, sun-drenched beach at Punk Rock Holiday. Sarah grabbed Spoilers, Rebuke and Captain Trips for a chat at Slovenia’s premier punk festival. Grab a drink, put your feet up and listen to us getting progressively drunker as the day goes on.

Ben Davis and Dan Goatham from Kentish punks Spoilers have just released a sterling debut album in the form of Roundabouts. They’re a hilarious bunch so we jumped at the change to discuss the album, their summer holiday plans and

We speak to Petter Mossberg and Phil Nordling from skate-punks Rebuke. We share a pina colada, discuss their 15 years as a band, the current Swedish music scene and some of the bands they currently admire.

Finally, we spoke to Rich Mayor of Portsmouth skate-punks Captain Trips. We were officially 10+ cocktails deep at the time of recording, so it’s nice to have a recorded reminder of a conversation we’d no doubt have forgotten. We cover important topics like showering, cress, sweat, flip-flops, Dean Gaffney and solo projects.

I highly recommend sticking around to the end, as Sarah’s sobriety goes rapidly downhill in quite an amusing way. As Petter quite accurately puts it, “You meet too many cocktails.”

We play the following songs:

  • Spoilers – Roundabouts (from album Roundabouts is out now on Little Rocket Records, SBAM Records and Boss Tunage)
  • Rebuke – Take To The Seas (from their album Wouldworks, out on Disconnect Disconnect Records)
  • Captain Trips – Bottom Of The River (from their EP Stand By now on Umlaut Records)

If you enjoyed this, check out our first PRH Cocktail Special with Ducking Punches, The Murderburgers and Dead Neck.

Podcast: Tom May from The Menzingers

Enjoy this in-depth chat with the frontman of Pennsylvania’s melodic punk legends The Menzingers.

Cover photo by The Shutter Happy Jose. 

While indie-punk heroes The Menzingers were touring Europe this summer, Sarah was lucky enough to catch singer and guitarist Tom May for a fantastic chat about creativity, musical growth and stealing Madonna’s tour bus (among other things).

We recorded this conversation at Brakrock Ecofest in Belgium earlier this year. Tom’s an inspiring, interesting individual and a great podcast guest; we’re sure that you’ll enjoy listening to this as much as we enjoyed recording it.

We managed to cover a lot of ground over just under an hour, plus we play new tunes from The Menzingers, Spanish Love Songs and Triple Sundae. We discussed the journey that brought The Menzingers from Alpha Kappa days up to their current After The Party incarnation, and how their current sound has developed. We covered some van-based hijinks and on-stage food poisoning. We even talked about some of Tom’s personal high points with the band, and some of his interests outside of music.

You can listen here or on Soundcloud directly. You can also subscribe to the Shout Louder Podcast on all good podcatchers, including Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, TuneIn, Stitcher and heaps more…

We played the following tunes:

  • The Menzingers – Toy Soldier
  • Spanish Love Songs – Joana, In Five Acts
  • Triple Sundae – Indecisive

Podcast: Tree from Manchester Punk Festival

We talk DIY, dogs and new music with Manchester’s tallest promoter.

As DIY giants Manchester Punk Festival have just announced the first installment of their 2019 line-up, we thought it was time for Ian ‘Tree’ Robinson to join us on the podcast.

Tree’s a staple of the Northern punk scene, known for booking regular gigs through the Anarchistic Undertones collective and tours via AU Tour Booking. He’s got years of experience in DIY bookings, plus a Northern attitude that makes him quite an entertaining guest.

We discuss Manchester Punk Festival’s changes, what he’s learned from 10 years of booking punk shows and some of our current favourite bands and labels. We also talk about Propagandhi. A lot.

P.S. The star of tonight’s show is our cover model, Bernie, who you can follow on Instagram @dci_burnside.

Continue reading “Podcast: Tree from Manchester Punk Festival”

Podcast: Dan Flanagan of Matilda’s Scoundrels & Haest

Recorded on the beach at Punk Rock Holiday, Dan and Sarah talk gigs, bands and festival antics.

As the guitarist in both TNS folk-punk favourites Matilda’s Scoundrels and new sludge punk band Haest, as well as one of the organisers of Wotsit Called Festival, Dan Flanagan is one of the most active members of our current UK DIY punk scene.

I’ve been meaning to catch Dan to record a podcast since we first got started, but we finally managed to make time while both in Slovenia at Punk Rock Holiday! Where better to record than on an deserted beach in blazing sunshine, with our feet dipped in the crystal clear river, surrounded by stunning mountains?

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Photos courtesy of Dave Sloan

Although the scenery is idyllic, you can definitely hear our hangovers in the first section of the podcast, and I struggled a bit with my battered vocal chords. Fortunately, Dan’s capable of stringing a sentence together, and we get onto a proper discussion of festival antics. We talk about the joys of Punk Rock Holiday (including Mad Caddies, Voodoo Glow Skulls, Comeback Kid and Almeida), as well as Manchester Punk Festival, Pie Race, Wotsit Called Fest and all kinda of other shenanigans.

We begin by saying we’re not doing to bad on the hangover front, but you can definitely hear the wear and tear in my battered vocal chords and the difficulty in stringing sentences together. You can hear us verbally wake up about 20 minutes in!

These are the tunes we played:

  • Matilda’s Scoundrels – Mr Martyn
  • Haest – I Didn’t Throw A Single Stone And Still I Got Pissed On
  • Bootscraper – The Family