Smokey Bastard

Seeing Your Scene vs Pay to Play #3: Smokey Bastard

Aled from Reading’s folk punk heroes Smokey Bastard felt compelled to tell us his thoughts on pay to play after our Fishlock Fridays article, letting us know that he loves a chance to have a rant on the topic. Clearly passionate on the subject, Aled takes us through, not just the lack of morals in pay […]

Jake & The Jellyfish - Dead Weight

Album Review: Jake & The Jellyfish – Dead Weight

The last album from Jake & The Jellyfish, 2013’s Credit Cards & Overdrafts, was in one word; brilliant. With a debut that strong it’s hard to see how a band could progress more. However, after what I assume is a lot of hard work, Jake & The Jellyfish have gone next level. Dead Weight is a finely […]

Fishlock Fridays #6 – Less (fun) Than Small Venues

Last Friday I was lucky enough to represent Seeing Your Scene to go see one of my favourite bands from my teens (and most likely one of your favourites too), ska-punk legends Less Than Jake. Less Than Jake played a great fun set filled of old songs, a few newbies, many laughs and much bouncing […]

Fishlock Fridays #5: Pay to Play Must Die

This week I’m going to have a big rant again, because that’s normally what I do best. It’s quite a common opinion among our punk scenes that doesn’t really exist in a DIY basis, but certainly in the local live scene in general there is something killing live music (to an extent), and it’s something […]

Fishlock Fridays #4 – Backwards Thinking is Not Punk

Punk rock is a subjective concept, I find. There is no true definition of punk; it is what you personally feel it is. However, what is certainly not punk is backwards thinking. The punk rock movement should definitely be about forward thinking, trying to make change for the better and very much importantly not excluding […]

Fishlock Fridays #3 – A year in gigs

The year is at the end, so naturally always a time to reflect on the previous 12 months, and 2014’s not been too bad, outside mundane “real life” at least. I’ve somehow managed to put on 14 gigs mostly by myself, and I thought maybe this deserves a proper reflection, rather than what Facebook wants […]

Looking back at 2014 with… Ill Gotten Gains

We caught up with Basingstoke’s finest ska-punk band Ill Gotten Gains about their 2014. How was 2014 for you? It was amazing. We played loads of great gigs across the country, made loads of new friends and had lots of fun doing it. Never a dull moment. What was the best/most memorable show you played? It’s a […]