The Senior Service kicked off 2018 with a tantalizing twang, with their single ‘Slingshot’ released on the Damaged Goods label. Swiftly followed up by their equally delicious and intoxicating Hammond driven second long player King Cobra in the spring. I’ve come to expect nothing less than the best from Messrs. Day, Barker, Hartley and Howard. Indeed, the same can be said of another Barker/Hartley/Howard combo, add singer Chris Hearsey, and you get Sergeants Mess. They released their much overdue 2013 track ‘‎Couldn't I Be Yours’ back in February on Spinout DJ Lee Grimshaw’s brand new label, Spinout Nuggets. A solid debut release for an exciting new venture!

Spring was quite an exciting time gig-wise, mainly in the shape of the much anticipated Beat Bespoke Weekend headliners The Mummies. They’d split up not long after I first became a fan, in the early/mid ‘90s. So this was my first time seeing them play live. The gig was nothing short of amazing, and everything I had expected it to be – fuzzy, frantic, and filthy in your face garage punk. The only downside was the horrendously long queue at the venue due to the incredibly slow security checks (i.e. two door staff checking in 800 odd people) thus missing the support act, The Baron Four. Personally I’m not a fan of bigger events such as this, as (for me) it takes away from the whole experience of seeing a band, however, in this instance it was fun fun fun, with a fab after party, and definitely one of my favourite gigs this year.

April saw Aire Valley’s topper most masked & caped instrumental combo - The Razerbills, release their much anticipated La Tombe EP on Squirrel Records – they advise us to ‘listen in complete darkness whilst wearing your Razerbill mask’ which comes as an option with the disc. If you haven’t already got a copy, then you’d better be pretty quick (and that’s a matter of fact) as there are only a few remaining. They also played a twistin’ twang-tacular set at The Shipley Shakedown (Shipley Social Club, venue of the year!); and at The Bottom Rung’s Halloween Spooktacular. Such an inspiring band – I cannot help but adore them. Horror themed band Ms. Boom? Yes please!   

Edinburgh based garage miscreants The Nettelles released their stinging debut single ‘I’m Over You’ on Spinout Nuggets in May, and subsequently headlined at the Girls Rock School Edinburgh showcase, giving a performance with extra bite.  

Medway’s beat and garage goddess Ludella Black also released her blistering 3rd LP in May Till You Lie In Your Grave on Damaged Goods and I was sad to have missed her show at Weirdsville in July.

On to festivals. Although I didn’t make it overseas this year, I attended my very first Hipsville in Margate, The Franklin Fest in Edinburgh, Beatwave in Hastings and even made a half hour visit to the Worthing Surf Festival!  So many fantastic bands – highlights were The Beatpack and Les Bof at the Franklin, The Mirage Men, Neuvo Ramon 5, The VooDooms and The Overboards at Beatwave and the lovely Lily Zeller with Chrome Reverse at Hipsville.

It would be impossible to sum up my 2018 without mentioning The VooDooms. They’ve pretty much doom-inated social media this year, and have played all over the UK. You can read my review of their debut LP Destination Doomsville on Trashwax here, it pretty much says it all. Horror themed band? Yes please! Looking forward to more Va-Va-Doom-ing in 2019!   

Another band there has been much of a buzz about the fuzz this year (and rightly so) are San Diego’s ‘60s- crazy punkers The Night Times. Their Debut single ‘I Don’t Mind’ on Outro Records, sold out faster than a toupee in a hurricane. Luckily, I managed to acquire one from ever reliable State Records. Can’t wait to see them play next year.

Later this year I was thrilled to see Les Envahissuers play at The Bottom Rung club in Edinburgh with Les Bof! It was quite a mesmerising performance. Again, plenty of fun, fuzz and frolics ‘My Gorilla’ has been an ear worm ever since, and Nataly De Lovely certainly lived up to her name (I don’t mind admitting that I have a bit of a girl-crush!). All that, and the new singer/guitarist had to be found at the last minute, but you would never have known. Go see them live if you ever get the chance, and buy their album Garage Monkeys on Soundflat Records.   

A band to definitely watch out for next year are Spanish Duo Los Retumbes. You can read all about this perfect pairing here. They’ve just secured a support slot with garage rock legends The Morlocks and will be playing in Newcastle and Edinburgh respectively in early March. Their debut single is out now on Family Spree Recordings.  

The Sensation Seekers first LP Jerk Beat was propelled onto the unsuspected masses in November on the Back To Beat label of Norway – describing themselves as instrumentalists (which I can confirm is true) ‘it’s what you’d get if you stuck a Hammond, harp and guitar in the Hadron Collider and fired them full pelt at each other’ (thanks Mr. Ellis for the quote) – it’s a far our Hammond hootenanny for the heppest of cats.   

Other stand-out gigs this year were the legendary 5678s in Glasgow, the scary (but in a good way) Rev Beatman & Sister Nicole Izobel Garcia in Edinburgh, The Courettes & Oh! Gunquit at Weirdsville and The Galileo 7 blowing the roof off at The Fratcave in Hastings – Holy tintinnabulation! Last but my no means least, the aforementioned and Graham Day And The Gaolers at the Damaged Goods 30th Anniversary celebrations at The Lexington. Check out the Retro Man Blog for the low down on that night. The year nicely bookended by Mr. Day et al – who’d of thought it? What a great way to end 2018.  

What will 2019 bring? For me – listening to more records, more gigs, putting on my own gigs, more festivals (overseas this time yay!) – Possibly a release by a certain girl band I know AND if it’s anything like 2018, I think I may need to re-mortgage my wee bachelorette pad!

Los Retumbes are a tumultuous twosome from the Basque Country (which, for those who don’t know, is neatly nestled next to the southern French border in northern Spain). Formed in 2017, Mr. & Mrs. Retumbes recorded and released their first single earlier this year.

To give you the reader, some background, Ana and I met on Facebook a few months ago. We got chatting, and the rest is history. Luckily for me her brother lives near Edinburgh, and she and Andres are regular visitors to the city. I met with them during their recent trip ...

Ms B: Los Retumbes is a fairly recent project for you both, and you have cited your sound as ‘between Link Wray and The Clash’, could you expand on that for the readers?  

LR: Our influences are from early rock and roll, Link Wray, Bo Diddley, Little Richard to ‘70’s punk. But also surf music and ‘60s garage. There are many kinds of music in Los Retumbes!

Ms B: ...but what style of music was it which really got you into what you’re doing now with Los Retumbes?

LR: (Andres) Punk rock, because in the town where we are from (Barakaldo) the musical scene is punk, punk and punk.

Ms B: ...does that include ‘60s punk, or is it more ‘70s driven?

LR: ...from ‘70s to now. It’s a very particular style of punk, only from our city, but there are punk bands in the town (Distorsion, Parabellum) who are famous all over Spain. One particular band (Parabellum) are still playing to the present day.

Ms B: ...are they a political punk band? (thinking of the Basque conflict 1959-2011).

LR: Today no, but in the past yes. There was a thing called Radical Basque Rock, it was very important in the ‘80s/’90s, and the place where we live was very influenced, and there were many bands playing that kind of music. It was not only political lyrics, and they sang in both Spanish and Basque.

Ms B: ...so how did you get into the music of the ‘60s?

LR: Since the beginning (Andres) mostly listened to punk bands, about 20 years ago he started to listen to other styles of music.

Ms B: ...did you have garage bands visiting your town, or did you have to travel?

LR: We are the only garage band in our town! There is a band called The Paniks from (Bermeo & Barakaldo) who are ‘western’ garage, and The Lie Detectors, but in our town/Basque Country, there are no other bands. The bands that make garage music are based more in the East and South of Spain.    

Ms B: Your other band, The Brand New Sinclairs, seem to have a distinctly Mod flavour …

LB: We started Brand New Sinclairs 11 years ago. We were in the Mod scene, and the music in the beginning was more rhythm & blues and beat, and very accepted by the Mods. With the years, maybe because we are more open to other music, we have changed. The drummer and bass player are different from the originals, and they have bought more rock and roll and garage, so we’ve changed. Although the music is still very ‘60s, it’s changed.

Ms B: Let’s talk about your Los Retumbes new EP. I see that it’s produced by Jorge Explosion aka Jorge Munoz-Cobo, formally of the formidable Dr. Explosion. Wow - that’s pretty impressive indeed. I saw them play at the Frat Shack in London about 20 years ago, and they were pretty crazy. Big fan of Dr Explosion.

LB: Us too! We were very pleased to go and record the EP with Jorge. We wrote to him, and Andres (all the time) was saying ‘this band has to record with Jorge - this is a must’. It is a great move for this kind of music. We wrote to him, and we didn’t know if he would respond because Jorge only works with the kind of music he likes. If he doesn’t like it, he won’t do it. We were no-one, we were very young (in terms of how long the band had been together), we wrote to him and we thought he was not going to write back. But he liked it, and he’s brilliant! When we were recording he said ‘you are going to do this’ and he makes songs ‘bigger’. (Andres) ‘I say he’s a freak and he’s a genius!’.

Ms B: Wow… Super. Has Jorge helped to push you into the wider garage world?

LB: Jorge speaks several times a year on a radio show called (El Sótano, Radio3) he talked about Los Retumbes and our track ‘Surfing Fukushima’ as he likes it very much, and on Facebook he wrote about us; ‘pay attention to this band’ etc. He’s helped very much. He’s put us on the map, no one knew us before, so it was very important to us.

Ms B: ...yes, I can see why. He has a lot of credibility, and contacts all over the world.

LB: Yes, that’s right.

Ms B: So, when you were recording with Jorge, what was the process? What kind of equipment did you use? Was it recorded in Jorge’s own studio, Estudios Circo Perotti?

LB: Yes, it was his studio, in a basement. It’s very small. He has two levels, the second level for reverb. He has a big tank for reverb. With Jorge, you start recording, and as you are playing, he’s thinking about what he’s going to do with those songs. But the first thing he did was check our equipment, (Ana) and he took my toms and he started playing and he was an hour deciding what was the correct formation, and finally he said ‘hmm, we are not going to use your equipment, we are going to use mine’. That’s why I have bought (from Ebay) the same equipment that I used to record, because he didn’t like mine.

Ms B: Did he get you to record live?

LB: Yes, it’s all recorded live. I was in the sound booth, Andres was with with Jorge in the office, one amp was in the wardrobe, and one in the toilet! (Andres) Because when recording with the amp in the toilet, it sounds great because of the echo. (Ana) To play at the same time was difficult, because I was playing in a different part of the studio, so I had to twist around to see him.

Ms B: ... was it all analogue equipment?

LB: Yes, all analogue, vintage equipment. Recorded on magnetic tape (shows a picture of reel to reel tape machine). There was no digital equipment, just at the end of the mixing he had to put it on the computer to give us MP3’s. (Showing pics - Ana) this is my set-up, and I had many microphones!

Ms B: ...what an amazing experience!

LB: Yes. A very good experience.

Ms B: Moving onto band No.3, Anita y Los Peleles ... I’ve seen pictures - you’re all in stripes. Very traditional.

LB: (Ana) We are a rock and roll band for the family. Not just for kids, but parents. We have the same lineup as The Sinclairs. Years ago there was a project called ‘rock n roll bands for kids’ so that kids can listen to another kind of music, not the horrible kind of music they are forced to listen to. They called the Brand New Sinclairs three or four times, and asked us to play our music, but particularly aimed at kids. So we played our music, and two or three covers. Kids liked it very much. It was very different and very beautiful. So, as we liked it so much we said we don’t like that people think that BNS are a band for kids, so why don’t we prepare another set list, and have another band just for that purpose. So, Anita y Los Peleles, it means Anita and the Fools. A fool that does everything I tell them to do, it’s funny and sweet at the same time. We do all covers, rock and roll songs from ‘50s to ‘70s, twist, and we change the lyrics to be suitable for children under 18. I change them completely. If the lyrics are okay, then I just translate them (to Spanish) for songs that are Latin, they are perfect, we don’t change them. It’s a different experience. It’s rock and roll, but it’s not rock and roll, because you have to measure every movement and measure your words, but I like it very much. I like playing with kids, because not for them it’s with them, and they dance with you. So there’ll be a kid who goes home and asks her parents for a guitar.

Ms B: ...that’s brilliant. Sowing the seeds…

LB: Yes, and the parent’s like it as well.

Ms B: Tell me about the record label, Family Spree Recordings.

LB: They are a new label, but they are working very hard. They run it as a family. There is very little distribution in Spain, or specialised record shops, but you can buy it from Family Spree Bandcamp. There’s a limited run - and half have sold already. The label promotes us, and we’ve been played in France and Greece, but no one knows how they came by the recordings!

Ms B: What does the future hold for Los Retumbes?

LR: First of all, we’ll release our new videoclip made in Scotland (you saw it first!)

Then we are going to have some gigs to introduce the EP everywhere we can, hope in Edinburgh soon. And after that, play, play, play and play, and meanwhile record again!

Ms B: Lastly, in your own words describe your band…

LR: Los Retumbes are a married couple who live in a house full of books, records and guitars. They kill boredom by playing music fast and loud!

Ms B: Thank you to Ana and Andres, it’s been a pleasure.

Please check out their Facebook page here, and their EP is available from Family Spree Recordings bandcamp page. Los Retumbes will be playing in Edinburgh early next year, date TBC. I hope you’re as excited as I am.

I get plenty of acts asking me how they can promote their next show or their new release. I always give the same answer; “Get yourself a PR”. And the bands always give the same answers to me; “We can’t afford it” or “We don’t know how to do it”. PR is pricey, no doubt, but you’ll get nowhere without it. Nothing will be written about you, or your music, if you don’t have one. That’s the reality of the situation. If you are not willing to spend money promoting your music, then you are not serious about it. Get out now and save the time and effort for yourself and for us.

But if you are genuinely strapped, and are in this for the long haul, then I’ll get you started. I will now show you how to write a Press Release that will get published. In an ideal world, the music would speak for itself but that is not good enough. All of your favourite bands have great PR behind them. Even the ones that say they don’t.

So you have booked your headline show, or have your single/EP/album ready for release. We’ll do this for a single but the format is identical for any circumstance.

First write yourself a headline, which includes the name of your band. It can be a pun, or make a point, or be whatever you want, as long as it is short and publishable. A simple [BAND NAME Release ‘SINGLE TITLE’] will do nicely.

 Next, copy in a picture of the band or the single cover (gig poster if relevant). Put it in the body of the email. You can put a link, attachment, or dropbox link in as well, but the one in the body of the email is probably the one that will get used.

 Next put a link to the song on YouTube and Soundcloud. These are the most commonly used and most easily embedded media for websites. You can include the Spotify/ Bandcamp/ etc if you like. Don’t use a tinyURL or anything, post the exact link. Writers and editors can then embed them whichever way their particular website works.

 Then tell us about the single. When is it coming out? Is it from an album? Is it following up another single? Does it rock hard? Is it a booty shaker? Is it a rip-roaring party record? Is it super serious subject matter? We don’t know, and the readers won’t know unless you tell us. So tell us.

 Next, tell us about your band. We don’t need your life story but describe your sound in 10 words. Where are you based? Have you released anything before or is this your debut single? Tell us that [OUR BAND have played FESTIVAL NAMES, as well as playing VENUE NAMES, and have shared stages with BANDS THAT PEOPLE MIGHT HAVE HEARD OF].

 Next, tell us if you have any planned future releases or gigs to promote the single.

 Next, a member of the band should tell us a bit about the single. What is it about? What happened when you were recording it? Did you work with anyone interesting while making it? E.g. [BAND MEMBER JOE BLOGGS says of the new single “we had a great time recording it. It’s a song that means a lot to us because X. Working in STUDIO NAME was a great honour. We could feel the history of those other bands that recorded there]”.

This whole thing should be 200-500 words. That’s all we need. If you follow those instructions and then send that press release to every blog, paper and magazine that you can think of, you will get coverage (unless you are very unlucky, or your music is totally unlistenable). Then you’ll have a quote or two for your next poster or PR campaign; “[A Rip-Roaring Party Record - Musos’ Guide]”.

It may seem disingenuous or phoney, but this is the game. And if you don’t play by the rules, your band will fail. You can start by writing one about your next release or gig and sending it to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Good luck!

Bearded Theory Spring Gathering is back at its iconic home of Catton Park nestled in the National Forest for their 11th outing. They have six main music stages being The Pallet, Magical Sounds, Woodland, Maui Waui, Convoy Cabaret and One Big Showcase. They have several smaller venues including Something Else Tea Tent, The Ship, Rogues Hideout, Magic Teapot, Alpaca, Creative Intentions to name just a few. We’ll be live tweeting Friday, Saturday, and Sunday (@musosguide), as well as bringing you reviews from all three days here at Musos' Guide.

The line-up is pretty great with legends like Robert Plant, The Jesus And Mary Chain, Jimmy Cliff, The Membranes and Therapy? Other festival staples like Fun Lovin’ Criminals, Jesus Jones, The Coral and Altern-8 join the relative newcomers like Sleaford Mods, Idles, Jake Bugg, Rews, Pins and The Winachi Tribe for a very promising three days of dancing and merriment.

The Winachis are headlining the Showcase stage on Saturday night, and we spoke with singer Liam Croker about the festival, headliner Robert Plant, and the band’s adventures in Hollywood.

“Bearded Theory festival is one of our big dates. It’s one I’ve been wanting to go to. It’s really eclectic. The line up this year is mind blowing. I was thinking about going anyway just to watch the bands. We got an email form the Academy Of Music And Sound and we’d been picked out of 2000 applicants to headline their stage on Saturday night at Bearded Theory and wow, what an honour that is! From planning to go and watch to headlining one of the stages, we’re over the moon. It’s the introducing stage. We’re at that point now where we’re headlining those sort of stages. We’ve been around for about 3 and a half years now. We’re getting to that point where we’re headlining these stages and looking to break in to the bigger ones too.

I saw Robert Plant in March in Hollywood. We were touring in California and our manager and sound engineer brought us to see him in this really small theatre. There were only about 300 people in this wee theatre with Robert Plant. It was surreal. He was amazing. He’s still got it. And he had a pair of really tight pants on so it looked like he had a massive chopper. What a dude!

It’s been a hell of year. We went out to America in March and came home to play two really big home town shows and we just did a massive show in Warrington town centre last weekend. It was the Warrington Music Festival. Us and Fun Lovin’ Criminals were the two main acts. We did that on Saturday. We don’t get to play our home town much so it turned into a big carnival. Now we’re gearing up to do a full UK tour from May until September.

The first time we went out to America, we were working with Danny Saber, the producer. He’d worked with Black Grape, The Rolling Stones and David Bowie. We were working with Danny when we met Harry (Bridgen). Then Harry came on board and has been managing the band since.

We went back out here in 2016. We did the video for our single a room with a zoo with Tommy Flanagan from Sons Of Anarchy. Tommy’s a fan of the band. Our manager says Tommy approached him about being in the video. He said he had a little break in his schedule and if you can get the lads to LA within this time, I’d be able to do it. Tommy was great to work with. It looks like I’m riding through the desert on the back of that horse but that’s Tommy’s garden. It’s fucking enormous. That’s his actual horse too. It’s called Zeus. The video for ‘A Room With A Zoo’ and the horse is called Zeus, quite an interesting coincidence. The first scenes are done in East LA, in a rough neighbourhood, in a warehouse. The Tommy scenes were done at his ranch in Malibu. His next door neighbour is Will Smith or somebody. I went from a council estate in Warrington to being on a back of a big white horse in Tommy Flanagan’s back garden within a week. The craziest Tuesday afternoon I ever had. What an experience!

And then we went back again in March of this year and did a tour of California. We got a new guitarist and his first show was headlining The Harvard And Stone at Hollywood Boulevard, no pressure there! His name is Mike Bee. I’ve known Mike since we were in our late teens, a long time. Our old guitarist, Jamie, had to leave and Mike stepped in. It’s been a very easy transition into the band. We broke him in in America and he’s coming out with us again. It’s all good.

The equipment company, Behringer, we did a live session for them which you can see on YouTube. They launched a new series called artist profiles. They get a new artist and you talk about your career and stuff. We launched that series while we were in LA. It was an honour. We are going back. I can’t go into it too much but this year we’ll be back in LA for another round. While we were out there we did some work in the studio with a producer called John X. He’s worked with Danny, with all those big names. We did a track with him called ‘Funky But Chic’ and we’ll be launching that back in the States. In the coming months, all will be revealed.”

Bearded Theory runs May 24 - 27 and tickets are available here.