• Sleaford Mods – Eton Alive

    March 12, 2019 - By 

    Jason Williamson’s response to a DWP case officer on 2013 single ‘Jobseeker’ – “I’ve got drugs to take, and a mind to break” – articulated a central anxiety in the work of Sleaford Mods: that a state of unreality, induced by whatever means possible, might be preferable to the unmediated experience of working-class life – and that the people who are supposed to help either don’t understand or, more likely, don’t care. Williamson’s lyrics have brought us to pubs, to drug-deals, to myopia and self-loathing, and Andrew Fearn’s music to what sound like some of the dingiest, strangest nightclubs in…

  • Sleaford Mods Set for Irish Tour

    November 30, 2018 - By 

    In support of their forthcoming fifth album Eton Alive, Nottingham electronic punk duo Sleaford Mods return to Ireland for a run of four shows: February 7 – Limelight 1, Belfast February 8 – The Academy, Dublin February 9 – Róisín Dubh, Galway February 10 – Dolans Warehouse, Limerick Comprised of Jason Williamson’s words & voice, and Andrew Fearn’s beats, they are, in the words of Steve Albini, “the greatest band in the world”. They manage to be one of the most engaging live acts in the world without frills, lacking so much as a proper stand for their laptop – beer crates, normally. Here’s ‘Jolly Fucker‘. Tickets go on…

  • Sleaford Mods – Sleaford Mods EP

    October 8, 2018 - By 

    When it comes to Sleaford Mods, there are two very distinct types of people in the world. Those of us who find ourselves instinctively drawn to the visceral fury and elusive musicality of the band’s butt ugly beats and those who struggle to separate the band’s sound from that of a Dragon Soup fuelled brawl out the back of an east Midlands lock-in. The duo’s excellent new EP is unlikely to challenge either camp’s perception… But this seething carnival of misplaced rage, artful profanity and darkly comic tales of divey bars and twitter feuds combines to create a vibrant rebuttal…

  • Primavera 2017

    June 8, 2017 - By 

    After 16 years, there’s no doubt that Primavera is Europe’s premier festival, for everyone from the capped-up indie kids to right-on middle-agers seeking some escapism, from the techno heads on through to High Fidelity type nerf herders and vinyl hoarders. So: how does Europe’s best music festival follow up on a last year’s best-ever edition – a mammoth lineup topped by Radiohead. Well, partially through sticking with what works – every sub-genre well catered for and then some, and not just on the three main days at Parc del Forum, but in venues across the city in the preceding weeks.…

  • Sleaford Mods – English Tapas

    March 6, 2017 - By 

    Sleaford Mods are some of the last punks standing. Their songs are slim, no muss, no fuss affairs. Like ESG before them, the pair rely on a basic setup of bass and drums to carry hip hop infused vitriol to the listener. They are lyrically snotty and upfront with tales of frustration and degradation at the hands of a society which has bred and demeaned them. What their words offer is an insight into the world of the marginalised; people feeling the impact of austerity politics, Brexit and the complacency of the South to the suffering of the North. Yet it…

  • Irish Tour: Sleaford Mods

    October 24, 2016 - By 

    In the latest installment of Irish Tour, Jonny Currie and photographers Dee McEvoy and Aidan Kelly Murphy capture the return of Sleaford Mods to Dublin and Belfast. Mandela Hall, Belfast Photos by Dee McEvoy Behold, hear the voice of one calling: prepare ye the way of the Mods. The prophecy of Divide and Brexit has been fulfilled. The importance of securing entry to key markets clogs up our newsfeeds. Meanwhile two blokes called Jason and Andrew have signed a record deal with Rough Trade this year that should project their hard-worn, under-heard music to the wider audience it deserves, without compromise. Sleaford…

  • Sleaford Mods @ Black Box, Belfast

    September 21, 2015 - By 

    Culture Night has been washed away.  The Cathedral Quarter’s cobbled streets that welcomed all ages two nights ago are now a soaking slip hazard on a subdued Sunday evening. You’ve no chance of taking shelter from the rain in the Black Box without a ticket either as tonight’s Sleaford Mods gig is a sell-out. In the words of ‘Bronx in a Six’ – “What culture? Fuck culture.” The mood in the venue is chilled but expectant. One half of the duo Andrew Fearn can be found casually chatting to people in the crowd before setting up on stage. This venue…

  • Sleaford Mods – Key Markets

    July 7, 2015 - By 

    Fresh from well received performances on the festival circuit, particularly the BBC-broadcast Glastonbury, Sleaford Mods have been exposed to a wider audience and remain masters of polarisation. They have become poster boys for the disenfranchised: they’re proud of their roots but they don’t want the music to be undermined or people to misconstrue their working-class stance as validation of lout culture. They are quick to disassociate themselves from the hooligan element, or as vocalist Jason Williamson put it: “If you’re expecting some kind of cross between This Is England and Twycross Zoo mixed in with The Firm then please do…