Getintothis’ end of 2015 music year in review
An unforgettable year of music comes to a close on Merseyside, Getintothis’ Peter Guy offers his annual reflection and considers 2015 a significant time of change.
Whenever there’s times of change, there’s always recriminations.
Inevitably, the news that Liverpool’s Kazimier club is to shut on New Year’s Day 2016 led to a mass outcry of anger and disbelief that the city centre was to not only lose another live music venue – but undoubtedly its most cherished.
Once again, the finger of blame was pointed squarely at developers as another independent creative hub is to close to make way for apartments. Once again, a space which actually entices people to our city is to be removed in favour of spaces which will only need to be occupied if people find a good enough reason to be enticed. The logic, once again, was as bewildering as it was infuriating.
Unlike MelloMello – which was axed with brutal abruptness, the Kazimier appeared to have a stay of execution having survived an eleventh hour reprieve in November when threatened by another potential redevelopment proposed for Wolstenholme Square. However, this proved to be a futile false dawn. While the grim inevitability pervading the Kazimier’s long-term future refused to dissipate, confirmation of its closure didn’t lessen the impact; the realisation sent a bruising shudder through anyone who cares for Liverpool’s contemporary cultural community.
The hole The Kazimier leaves is vast. To some too vast.
The reasons are as clear as they are broad. For more than seven years The Kazimier and those that operate within it have become the focal point for Liverpool’s rebirth as a city at the forefront of creative ambition. A club which holds a mere 470 capacity didn’t just consistently punch above its weight but obliterated expectations on seismic levels. Quite simply, The Kazimier‘s endeavors became a barometer by which everything else creative was measured.
In a time when some politicians are keen to stagnate new citizens settling in new places, it’s worth noting that in characteristically Liverpool fashion, the Kazimier was formed not by Scousers but by a disparate band of individuals with backgrounds in Leeds, Manchester, Oxford and with heritages as far as Russia. Schooled in the arts, five founding directors; Laura Brownhill, Sam Crombie, Laurie Crombie, Michael Lil and Venya Krutikov married their artistic, technical and educational finesse with music and club culture they’d learnt while at university before seeking out a base or playground to apply their talents. They settled on Liverpool. And a club previously known as The Continental – or ‘Conti’ – owned by former world light-heavyweight boxing champion John Conteh. A glitzy, mirror-paneled ballroom of glamour and excess recalling the type of joint Tony ‘Scarface’ Montana would frequent, the Conti lay dormant for decades before these very different new tenants would begin to transform not just the setting but the very identity of the city they would awaken. And they started as they meant to go on.
On Friday April 25 2008, the Kazimier hosted its inaugural party. It was these parties which would become the stuff of legend and cement its reputation. Reconstruct locked into a theme ‘located between a mechanical past and an electronic future‘ and, as was to become its defining characteristic, one that celebrated emerging Liverpool-based talent (in this case, residents Dogshow, pre-Outfit outfit Indica Ritual, folk-ska heads The Flicks, plus song-writers Simon Knighton and Toby Parker) combined with DIY spectacle, flights of fancy, extravagant otherworldly costume, set piece interludes (see: The Kazimier Countdown Clock) and more than a little mystery. This maelstrom of music, performance, craftsmanship, humour and hedonism wasn’t just a one-off within Liverpool – it pretty much didn’t happen anywhere in Britain outside three days in a field in Glastonbury.
There followed at irregular intervals, a series of these particularly unique happenings including a sacrilegious Pagan harvest festival (video above), a fairy-tale royal ball, a New Year’s science-fiction adventure (the Kronos its adopted theme) and a glam-rock time travelling expedition – they even found time to organise a coach trip to St Peter’s Church in Manchester for Factum Libero. Yet due to the Kazimier’s cutely enigmatic bent and this being in pre-social media times (MySpace was still very much the dominant force online), word only seeped out gradually until a small ecosystem of like-minded collectives began to take shape – with other empty nearby spaces becoming occupied or rented. The Ropewalks in Liverpool quietly began to evolve. There was a stirring, a very real awakening. Liverpool being named Capital of Culture may have happened in 2008 but Liverpool’s Capital of Subculture gradually revealed its crafty little head 18 months later.
A notable, and hugely significant, change occurred in late 2009: Korova, the club which for many Merseyside music lovers meant ‘home’ closed and the Kazimier, quietly yet quickly, began to take on more serious and steady live band bookings.
HEALTH, Delphic, Steve Mason, Villagers and, most impressively, Foals attracted a new audience while a particularly special evening saw promoters Club EVOL book the Xx bringing the band and the album of 2009 to a packed-to-the-rafters Kazimier in March 2010 as the transition from humble DIY space to genuine touring proposition was completed. It felt like a genuine moment.
This was the advent of the club’s second chapter – where the parties became less frequent and gigs became its primary concern; the temperamental (and frankly underwhelming) soundsystem was upgraded, lighting rigs were improved and the entire make-up of the club began to evolve. It was steadily being rebuilt by its directors’ hands before its audiences’ very eyes. We’ll always remember the inclusion of the finely crafted and expertly painted wooden spindles – each lovingly hand-made and inserted into the black and white banisters. Suddenly, this party playground had transformed itself into a serious live performance space.
Over the course of the next couple of years Liverpool’s live music loving public were treated to innumerable of these Kazimier moments as the city’s best promoters co-opted the club as their go-to space. A handful of our favourites include Seun Kuti and Egypt 80, Les Savy Fav and WU LYF (2011), Friends, War On Drugs, Lambchop, Jonathan Richman (2012), Suuns, Phosphorescent, Shangaan Electro and who could forget the titanic frenzy of Thee Oh Sees (2013) at Sound City.
But gigs were never intended to be the focal point for the Kazimier’s creative crew. There’s a science behind their vision using technology to craft something that fused art, performance and music that would involve a considerably new experience more central to their ethos. This endeavour could be found in projects for AND Festival (2013) as the team created Future Primed a sensory explosion marrying technology and Orwellian Big Brother ideals all in the development of HUMAN 2.0. Similarly the Krunk Fiestas and Olympic themed events brought festivities back to the agenda but it was something on a much grander scale which will perhaps go down as the Kazimier’s greatest event to date – ATALONIA or the world within a world (video below). The week long story unfolded in an abandoned warehouse on the fringe of what was to become the Baltic Triangle (pre how we know it today) and amid its desolate confines the Kazimier’s expanding team concocted a journey to several other galaxies before culminating in a weekend party capping a magnificent event rarely matched.
Key to all these projects was the audience – those that entered into the ‘worlds’ were asked to participate, almost in a role-play fantasy style which recalled the theatrical elements of their early parties in the club. If you allowed your imagination run wild, the Kazimier would do the rest.
But back to the present, and the evolution is on-going; no sooner had they expanded the club – in the summer of 2013 an urban garden was added complete with kitchen, wooden stage coaches to shelter, bee-keeping, craft ales, DJ booths, bizarre bird-tables, beer pulley systems, vintage fairs and a bandstand which would fast become one of the neatest little operations in the city hosting free gigs, mini raves, African music and perhaps most memorably the annual Korean music expos for Sound City. It’d also be the place Heavenly Recordings‘ boss Jeff Barrett would spot a new band named Hooton Tennis Club before signing them. It’d also be the place Getintothis chose to relaunch our website.
All the while, promoters and Liverpool music staples gravitated to the club which would soon become home to almost everything: No Fakin, BamBamBam and Madnice swallowed up hip hop and decamped in the club, Abandon Silence shifted from the Ship to call the Kazimier basecamp, Speakeasy and Eat Your Greens had already become residents while Married to the Sea moved from the former Masque Theatre to bring 10 Bands 10 Minutes to the Kazimier in what was the start of some kind of karaoke cult. Meanwhile, the GIT Award and FestEVOL delivered the annual best new Merseyside music showcases for several years quickly becoming cornerstones of the live music calendar. Two of the city’s key festivals – Sound City and Music Week – housed the backbone of their bills in the club while The Voodoo Ball became the must-attend Halloween spectacle (aside from the lantern parade of course) beating a path down Bold Street before lighting up the Kazimier until dawn.
Yet, most intriguingly, as the club underwent its most fervent period in its history, its directors were splintering into other projects and the ecology of the structure of the club was expanding beyond belief as layer upon layer of the inner team grew to meet demand and workload. And it was to be one of these other projects which would represent a key turning point in the club’s history – The Invisible Wind Factory. Whispers concerning a new venture had circulated for some time but it was only in November 2014 that confirmation was officially revealed on Getintothis. The resulting opening party a month later, in true Kazimier tradition, was a master-stroke with Dogshow‘s rotating airborne stage the centre-piece on a spectacular and spectacularly freezing night down the northern docks (watch our resulting video here).
Yet as the mind vividly wondered at what was next, it wasn’t news of new happenings but of the end – the final New Year’s Eve call for seven years of The Kazimier in Wolstenholme Square.
Reaction was immediate and unanimous in its incredulity, anger and frustration.
In the unfolding aftermath a renewed sense of importance was placed on the club’s workers and promoters staging events as ‘the last ever’ phrase was trotted out time and again. With every gig coming to a close a strange mixture of emotions would fill the air – and across the faces of the many regulars. There was the final Kazimier Krunk Fiesta (feature review and gallery), the last Voodoo Ball (review and gallery) and Stealing Sheep‘s hosted a memorable third Mythopoeia instalment (review and gallery). “It’s strange, man, really strange,” sighed Kazimier in-house promoter Christopher Tyler, a picture of exhausted and exhilarated resignation, when we saw him early doors for the second night of Deaf School‘s sell out gigs.
The stage is at an end following 10 Bands 10 Minutes at 5am
For many, the final Ten Bands Ten Minutes ‘best of the Kazimier‘ will be their lasting memory of the club – a night quite revelatory in both music and in capturing the spirit of the place – a mass communion singalong complete with stage-diving, crowd-surfing, tongue-firmly-in-cheek disco-dance-offs and closing with a 7am afterparty in the newly constructed Cosmolodge and a rare speech from Laurie Crombie insisting it was the start of ‘something new‘. It was all quite overwhelming.
And now there is but one final Kronos themed curtain.
Like the Kazimier creatives who have shaped our past, the time is to adopt their mantra and look forward – while tonight’s New Year’s Eve closing party is a time to embrace the moment and revel in the spectacle it’s also a chance to cherish the now vast circle of people who collectively shape the Kazimier make-up and to be thankful that they’re staying in Liverpool and already building a new future.
And that is perhaps the most exciting prospect of all.
Whether The Kazimier will go down in history as Liverpool’s ultimate super club is very much up for debate – but what’s worth noting is that while The Cavern appealed to the Merseybeat rock & rollers, Eric’s the new wave post-punks and Cream the hedonistic ravers – the Kazimier truly appealed to all; in an age where music tribes have been diluted and feeling attached ‘to a scene’ is all but at an end, the Kaz and its array of integral characters became an unequivocal musical home to everyone who said hello to Jules the Doorman and then passed through its monochrome doors.
For a retrospective photography gallery by Getintothis staffers click here.
The War on Drugs
Best 15 Gigs of 2015
In truth, we could probably have picked out a top 10 gigs that were staged at the Kazimier in 2015 and they’d better many previous end of year lists; so the likes of the much-celebrated return of The Stairs misses out as does the triumphant coming-of-age Vryll Society show, similarly, the Four Tet-assisted Abandon Silence send-off – 2015 was simply awash with stellar shows. Here’s 15 from 2015 – a genuinely first-rate year for live music in Liverpool.
1. The War On Drugs, Amen Dunes: O2 Academy, Liverpool (review)
2. 10 Bands 10 Minutes Best of The Kazimier: The Kazimier, Liverpool (review)
3. Public Enemy, Age of L.U.N.A.: O2 Academy, Liverpool (review)
4. Deaf School, The Gentle Scars, Henry Priestman: The Kazimier, Liverpool (review)
5. Arthur Russell’s Instrumentals directed by Peter Gordon: The Kazimier, Liverpool (review)
The Peter Gordon Ensemble perform Arthur Russell’s Instrumentals
6. Young Fathers, Kojey Radical, When I Am King: The Kazimier, Liverpool (review)
7. Strange Collective, Bad Meds, Ohmns, The Floormen: Kazimier Garden, Liverpool (review)
8. Sleaford Mods, Hooton Tennis Club, Sugarmen: The Kazimier, Liverpool (review)
9. KRS-One, Mad Brains: The Kazimier, Liverpool (review)
10. HEALTH, Barberos, aPAtT: The Kazimier, Liverpool (review)
11. Foals, Real Lies: Olympia, Liverpool (review)
12. John Doran reading Jolly Lad, Barberos, Krautrock Karaoke: The Kazimier, Liverpool (review)
13. Happy Mondays: O2 Academy, Liverpool (review)
14. Hooton Tennis Club, Trudy, The Orielles: The Kazimier, Liverpool (review)
15. Courtney Barnett, Big Scary, Zuzu: O2 Academy, Liverpool (review)
King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard
Best Event of 2015
In any other year, the final FestEVOL at the Kazimier would have scooped 2015’s top event honour. Another August double-header in what’s officially the best event for showcasing the best new music Merseyside has to offer all under one roof, this year’s dose was surprising in that the first offering, which on paper looked slightly less a titanic a bill, proved to be the funnest and finest glimpse into our musical futures (review and gallery). The second (review and gallery) offered stellar individual performances but ultimately lacked the full-on flow of the first. Once again hats must be tipped to the EVOL promotion team which has well and truly cemented FestEVOL as a must-not-miss, and if you’re a new North West artist, must-be-on-the-bill event in the annual live music calender.
However, Getintothis‘ event of 2015 saw a genuine love affair blossom into a full blown romance as Heavenly Recordings celebrated 25 years of bringing stellar music to the masses with almost 24-hours of live music and partying. Hosted in the Kazimier Garden and Club, Liverpool promotions team Harvest Sun cherry-picked the label’s best new offerings; the likes of Welsh music prize winner Gwenno playing alongside emerging stars Kid Wave and The Voyeurs. As label founder Jeff Barrett took to the decks, Liverpool’s Stealing Sheep presented for the first time their choreographed dance piece Legs amid krautrock sounds and new wave electronica. Capping the live music was the scuzz growl of The Wytches, a triumphant home-turf offering from Hooton Tennis Club and an incendiary, flute-prog-fusion explosion by the glorious psych Wizards of Oz, King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard. But what made the entire event so special was the vast array of people from all sections of Merseyside’s music scene (and further afar) coming together to revel in a very British musical institution – one which celebrates the quirks and magical idiosyncrasies of art and culture; a label which champions the oddballs, lunatics and mavericks – something Liverpool music heads will always feel an affinity with.
Stealing Sheep
For more reaction to Heavenly Recordings at 25 – check out our comprehensive review and picture gallery of a truly memorable day, evening and night here. For an extensive look at Heavenly‘s catalogue check out our own heavenly bird, Jamie Bowman‘s top 10.
Ann Heston receiving Alan Wills’ Inspiration Award at The GIT Award 2015
The GIT Award 2015
The fourth annual GIT Award proved another special affair. After four months of judging All We Are took this year’s trophy and £1000 cash prize. On the night, nominees D R O H N E, Gulf, Hooton Tennis Club, Roxanne Jones, Esa Shields, Sundowners, Xam Volo, Jane Weaver and We Are Catchers all played live at the Kazimier while nominees Circa Waves were also there to collect their memento. Newcomer Louis Berry followed in the footsteps of Låpsley to collect the One To Watch honour, however, the most poignant moment of the evening came when a cast of musicians including The Coral, Zutons, Vryll Society, Bill Ryder-Jones and many more gathered to play, reflect and pay tribute to Deltasonic‘s Alan Wills – a man who’s love for new music shaped an entire generation. Dave Pichilingi, CEO of Liverpool Sound City and long time friend of Alan, said, “He was such an inspiration to so many people, so many young people.” Alan’s partner Ann and the extended Deltasonic family collected this year’s Inspiration Award.
It felt like the end of a chapter in Liverpool’s recent music history. Let’s see how the new one shapes up with the fifth GIT Award kicking off in the new year. Watch our video below for this year’s highlights.
Hero of 2015
It takes a multitude of people to make a music venue tick – but ultimately if the sound sucks no one enjoys the experience. And they probably won’t return much either. As we alluded to earlier, when the Kazimier opened back in 2008 it was a purely DIY operation and over time the entire soundsystem has been drastically overhauled. Overseen by Sam Crombie, one of the city’s finest ears in the game, the change in quality from those early beginnings to what we have today is simply incomparable – and yet it’s Sam’s right-hand sound man who brings something special to proceedings. There’s an intangible aura of assurance and untouchable cool to the man they call Vibes. And it’s those vibes which are a necessary component when tackling all manner of sound missions – many of which seem a colossal undertaking for a mid-level club hosting major level artists with even greater levels of expectation.
Yet, for five years, the man who learnt his engineering craft while studying at Liverpool’s SAE Institute, has been the first man to set the club up (many a time around midday) and will very often be the last person to leave, having packed away the backline in the small hours of the early morning.
In between, he nonchalantly bobs his way through hours of live music (characteristically consuming litres of freshly squeezed fruit juice – straight from the carton) while ensuring both the artists and the audience are entertained to the highest standard of sound. It takes endurance, skill, patience, a balanced temperament, sensitivity and much more to make this happen – but the Kazimier’s in-house master technician simply takes it all in his stride – all the while plotting his next endeavour into nutritional milk shakes. But, of course.
“The Kaz has been my living room: I got the full Kaz experience and I will be forever jazzed about it,” he told Bido Lito! in their recent issue (the same one in which he used the word ‘ameliorated’). “The Kazimier and the people at the centre of it – and concentrically outside – are my family,” he added. To continue, the analogy, if the Kazimier is his living room, then he’s always handling the remote control – and almost without fail it’s worth paying close attention to the live drama unfolding.
In what’s been the Kazimier’s finest 12 months for live music and spectacle, Getintothis‘ hero of the year is sound engineer Robert Lewis.
Away from the Kazimier, Rob Lewis can be found drumming atop two cars while trailing Giants around Liverpool
Previous Getintothis Hero Honours
2014 – Christopher Tyler
2013 – Sam Wiehl
2012 – Tom Lynch
2011 – Joe Wills
2010 – Gary ‘Horse’ McGarvey
2009 – Mark McNulty
2008 – Andrew Ellis
Label of 2015
Another close run affair in the label stakes as 2015 saw regular favourites 4AD, Temporary Residence, Sacred Bones and Bella Union all excelling. But in the end it was a two horse race between Heavenly and Rocket Recordings with the latter just pipping it with an interstellar twelve months with the likes of Gnoomes‘ Ngan!, Josefin Ohrn and The Liberation‘s Horse Dance, Hills‘ Frid, Teeth Of The Sea‘s Highly Deadly Black Tarantula, Gnod‘s Infinity Machines and the mighty Hey Colossus racking up with two beasts in a wild array of explosive albums which you couldn’t help get utterly lost in.
For more jewels in Rockets’ crown, check out Patrick Clarke‘s label of love feature.
Tess Parks & Anton Newcombe at Liverpool International Festival of Psychedelia
Festivals of 2015
If 2015 proved anything, it’s that Liverpool really does love a festival. Barely a minute passed without a new one popping up. And quite frankly it was bloody knackering. I’m not entirely sure how much longer my ankle ligaments can take it..
Kicking off 2015, it proved a curious year for Threshold Festival. No longer in its infancy, and after the remarkable success story of 2014, this time around it seemed to stutter somewhat when it should have soared. Sure, it operates on a vastly smaller budget than all other Liverpool festivals but there was a slight sense of the organisers missing a trick in failing to build on the multi-media experience of previous festivals with the music programme overly reliant on rising Liverpool talent rather than a multi-faceted artist billing from previous festivals. It hardly helped it lashed down for much of the time resulting in sparse crowds during the weekend. That said, Threshold once again provided a unique platform for new Merseyside artists to hone their talents while Paddy Steer was an undeniable jewel in the live performances. Much like the landscape and venues it calls home, Threshold 2016 will look to build on its very promising beginnings.
The Flaming Lips at Sound City
The big question on many people’s lips concerning Liverpool music in 2015 was how Sound City would adapt to completely ripping up their blueprint and starting afresh. The answer was, well, pretty good – but with plenty to reflect on. By leaving the comfort of the inner city organisers knew they were being both brave and ambitious but it came at a huge risk in forgoing the lunacy of racing from venue to venue. The trade off came with a scenic dockside base and magnificent Titanic Hotel conference setting. The result saw some big spectacles (Flaming Lips, Swans, Belle & Sebastian). By some distance the finest keynote speakers. But at the expense of a genuine buzz which other Sound City’s perfectly encapsulated. The problem wasn’t that there weren’t ‘buzz’ bands playing – there were a lot (see Bad Breeding, Remi, Astronomyy, Holy Holy and many more) – but it was the site dynamic that ultimately made the experience so difficult to appreciate. Next year, sees a reduced two day festival with organisers promising bigger bands and bigger expectations. Thus far The Coral (interview) have been unveiled to headline alongside the likes of The Dandy Warhols, Sleaford Mods and homegrown lads Circa Waves.
We can’t wait to see how it all unfolds – and hope that Sound City remembers it’s USP and ultimate trump card as definitively Liverpool’s most exciting event at bringing the best new artists to our doorstep, first. You can read our comprehensive round up of Sound City 2015 here including the top 10 stand out acts of the festival. And looking ahead to 2016, you can see who our writers are tipping to headline plus their thoughts on an improved experience here.
Outside the city, our team reflected on the rollercoaster behemoth that is Glastonbury with Patti Smith seemingly the big winner while in March we took our first trip to South By South West (read our feature on what we learnt and the best bands of the festival) and were completely overwhelmed by a monster that dwarfs the aforementioned Pilton Farm experience. Paul Higham rounded up the best bits from the tenth End of the Road festival while Paul Dorrian journeyed to Iceland for the dizzying sights and sounds at ATP and finally Terri-Anne Baker reflected on another fantastical experience in Portmeirion as Festival No. 6 once again left us positively enchanted.
Elsewhere, Creamfields (feature and photo gallery) cemented its status as the UK’s best dance festival by once again being crowned top dog at the UK Festival Awards, X&Y Festival drew healthy crowds at the Arts Club, Astral Coast did its bit for the Wirral, Hope Fest once again helped out the homeless, Liverpool Calling upped its game also bagging a festival award nomination after taking over the city for one day in July while Africa Oye (review and gallery) beat the elements to once again (in the words of Del Pike) prove “essential in counterbalancing the commercial behemoths of the British Summer and prove that we don’t need big names to have a great time.”
If there’s one key thing to note about festivals in Liverpool, it’s that many of them extend after the ‘traditional’ summer slew. The August Bank holiday weekender, Liverpool International Music Festival (or LIMF to your nan), triumphed having what was unequivocally its best year yet. A few wobbles with the commissions and the odd Sefton Park incidents aside, the big hitters (Basement Jaxx proved a superlative booking) and itsLiverpool artists shining while the Bunnymen capped an eventful year with a fine display alongside the Philharmonic orchestra (review). Next year, there’s new dates, but for a look back at all our extensive LIMF coverage check the galleries and reviews here.
After several years in the wilderness, Liverpool Irish Festival, meanwhile managed to finally balance heritage with innovative contemporary, boundary-pushing new music and live spectacles in its finest festivities in recent years – relive the whole experience here as Emma Walsh absorbed the whole caboodle unfold.
Watching Liverpool Music Week unfold is a curious event in itself – it is without doubt the finest and most carefully curated festival Merseyside offers hosting first-rate artists and positioning them in the best available spaces our city has to offer. From the magnificent crossover appeal of Richard Hawley and having him play in the vastly under-utilised Grand Central Dome to the avant-garde big-hitters of HEALTH and Godspeed You! Black Emperor through to the pick-n-mix opening and closing parties *plus* the dizzying array of free shows thrown in for added value makes for something which on paper is hard to beat anywhere in the country. Exploiting the Scandinavian Church and having Josh T Pearson play, meanwhile, was a mini masterstroke. There is, however, a slight ‘but’ to all this brilliance – and that’s the very fact LMW is a marathon of music over almost two weeks – by having so much on, over such a period of time the endurance can dilute the excitement and the flow of the experience. Conversely the infamous 2011 CUC Closing Party which revelled in its utter shambolic, rock & roll bedlam will never be matched purely because Music Week has become such a professional, well-oiled machine. It seems almost churlish to suggest LMW suffers as a result but there’s no escaping that this ‘series’ of shows is purely that – a run of superb gigs which just lacks the rounded festival thrill factor.
And for that reason, our festival of 2015 is undoubtedly, Liverpool International Festival of Psychedelia – for the fourth year running the PZYK crew expertly crafted a line up which oozed with passion, nous and creativity and most crucially knew its audience. From drone to electronica, krautrock, death disco and meat-cleaver-wielding pigs there was pretty much everything for the experimental music head to soak up in two mayhem-fuelled days of cosmic culture. Put aside the music, and there was so much more – art exhibitions, screen-printing, whacked out cinema, provocative talks, crash out areas to simply relax and soak up the sights, smells and people plus a continual flow of action. From the specially created Psych Fest limited edition vinyl to (previous Getintothis hero of the year) Sam Wiehl‘s stunning artwork and festival branding, Psych Fest proved once again what an utterly absorbing festival it is – Liverpool should feel privileged to have it.
1. Liverpool International Festival of Psychedelia: various venues – day one (review and gallery) and day two (review and gallery)
2. Liverpool Music Week: various venues (complete reviews and picture galleries)
3. Festival No. 6: Review and picture gallery.
Grace Jones at Festival No. 6
Top 10 Getintothis‘ Post of 2015
It was our busiest year on Getintothis – and our first as an independent entity. We moved away from the Liverpool Echo and our new-found vitality resulted in a raft of awesome new writers, photographers and contributors, new columns and a raft of new ideas. It proved a pretty good idea with a fair whack of intriguing reads. An early entry from Sentric‘s Simon Pursehouse offered invaluable advice to artists on the the simple things – improving email ettiquette – a must-read for any musician hoping to make it. Paddy Clarke‘s reflection on the confusing state of Record Store Day struck a chord as he argued it was time for this marketing tool to take stock and reassess its values before sinking into the commercial abyss. While Shaun Ponsonby checked out the action on the day – before hanging out with Adam Ant in Dig Vinyl. Naturally. Elsewhere, Ste Knight dissected the burgeoning Baltic Triangle and its accompanying dance and club culture with photographer Martin Waters beautifully capturing the area’s new venues. Here’s ten more which seemed to strike a chord with you lot, our valued readers.
1. Issues concerning mental health is something we’ve repeatedly discussed on Getintothis and alongside Liverpool’s FACT, Beth Parker looked a little deeper into the subject back in February for her Mental Health Matters piece exploring why depression and anxiety are linked to those in the arts. Sadly, later in the year, Liverpool’s music community was once again left saddened by the untimely deaths of two young male musicians. On Friday September 11, Liverpool music gathered together to remember one, Paul ‘Geoff‘ Williams and celebrate his life while also raising awareness and funds for MIND.
2. Few artists in 2015 were eulogised more than Kendrick Lemar. And rightly so. But it was the 27 bars that his contemporary, Rapsody contributed on To Pimp a Butterfly that our man Jimmy Coultas so expertly dissected – “she’s managed to add something that he can’t, at the same time embodying many of the qualities which make the album such a captivating release, but beyond that she’s added more richness to hip-hop’s own canon of guest moments.” A masterful piece of prose, read the full piece here.
Just to reaffirm how good rap music was on the home front, the second year of hip hop was well and truly played out with the likes of Blackalicious (review), People Under The Stairs (review), De La Soul (review), Edan (review), ESG (review), Joey Bada$$ (review), Akala (review), KRS-One (review), Public Enemy (review) and more featuring on our stages.
<img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-52777" src="http://www.getintothis.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/Cosmic_Slop_2015.png" alt="Cosmic_Slop_2015" width="700" height="700" srcset="http://www.getintoth