Each week we like to champion the music scene with ten songs in our playlist that all have a connection to the RaW (Reading and Wokingham) area and sometimes beyond. We’ve got three new entries this week, connected with the area. As always, we have a wide variety of musical styles, but we think they’re all worth a listen and we hope you find something new to enjoy as well as maybe getting out to experience the thrill of live music.
1. Only The Poets – I Keep on Messing up – Live at O2 Brixton Academy –
We love local bands, and we love it when local bands make it big. We were privileged to see Only The Poets respecting their roots with gigs in the Purple Turtle and then Reading Uni, followed by a sold-out show at O2 Brixton Academy, with a special £1 ticket price, as well as getting a top-10 album. They’ve just started a European tour and released a live album from the Brixton show, from which this is the lead track. They’ve got some changes coming after the tour, watch this space! https://www.facebook.com/onlythepoets
2. Mull Historical Society – Dopamine Eyes –
Mull Historical Society is a project of multi-instrumentalist and writer Colin MacIntyre. His latest album, In My Mind There’s a Photograph, was a series of collaborations with well-known authors, where each author wrote about a photograph with significance for them, and Colin used that as the basis for a song. The basis for this track was what Irvine Welsh (Trainspotting, Filth) wrote about a photo that captured his first meeting with his now wife. Mull Historical Society performed recently at South Street Arts Centre, courtesy of Heavy Pop. https://www.facebook.com/ mullhistorical
3. A Better Life, Holly Taymar – Under the Setting Sun –
We’ve long been fans of the A Better Life project by Phil Daniels, which focuses on producing chillout electronic music, and in fact featured this track when it was first released in 2024. We’re featuring it again because Phil saw the opportunity to improve even further on the version released on The Light album, and he’s remastered this restful and relaxing track with languid vocals by Holly Taymar. https://www.facebook.com/abetterlifemusic
4. Perfect Beasts – Perfect Beasts –
Day 3 of Wokingham Festival has traditionally been MC’d by well known Planet Rock radio presenter Darren Redick and this year to add to his role, Darren had a very special treat for everyone. His band, Perfect Beasts, played a brilliant live set showing that Darren clearly has many talents. Playing bass, he was joined in the band by a super group of musicians. On drums was Steve Hales, who also played an amazing set with Kepler Ten, mega musician Nick Andrew played guitar whilst impressive new front person, Stuart Simpson provided vocals and guitar. The epic title track of their debut album, entitled simply Perfect Beasts closed the set in fine style with the band being joined on stage by dancing dinosaurs!- https://perfectbeasts.co.uk
5. Nicole Allan – Put ‘em Up –
Here’s another great piece of original Americana from local legend Nicole Allan, one of the tracks on her latest EP, Tomorrow Comes, her third release of the year. She’s also been busy with live gigs and organising events including the open mic at The Butler. In this track Nicole lays out a spirited manifesto of defiance, with boxing metaphors and freight train references alongside jangly guitar solos. You can see Nicole taking part in Sokafest around Reading on 10th October. https:// www.instagram.com/nicoleallan95/
6. Lab 4 – Concept of Love (Alex Mo Remix) –
This is a brilliant remix of the classic track from trance legends, Lab 4 (and entirely unconnected with the track below of the same name from Ibibio Sound Machine!). The original version stormed the clubs in the early 2000’s and this more recent remix enhances it even further! Last Sunday Future Transmissions hosted the latest in their series of incredible afternoon Day Raves featuring legendary DJ’s at Reading Facebar. – https://www.facebook.com/ftransmissions
7. Ibibio Sound Machine – Concept of Love –
The other weekend had perfect weather for Down At The Abbey, which returned to the Reading Abbey ruins after a couple of years off, to round off the festival season, and once again provided a great selection of music. Ibibio Sound Machine, from London, got the crowd
dancing along to their fusion of styles, including afrobeat and drum-and-bass, with their aim to promote love, unity and resistance through music. https://www.facebook.com/IbibioSoundMachine
8. White Label – Don’t Say Goodbye –
At Reading Pride the Colours and Fires stage, named in memory of Sophie Sheehan, had a host of local musicians performing. We caught White Label’s set, which included this, their latest single which also features on their just-released EP Imaginary Jokes. Talking of festivals, Toby and Joe met at Reading Festival and decided they should form a band. This track deals with a relationship that perhaps has gone stale, but maybe there’s still some hope. They play at the Wheat Sheaf in Slough on October 3rd. https://www.instagram.com/whitelabeltheband/
9. Verdagears – Ballad of a Return –
To complete a trio of end-of-season festivals, the Purple Turtle hosted the Radio Wigwam X Festival, celebrating 10 years of the internet and DAB radio station promoting grassroots music. One of the young bands they’ve helped nurture (as have we, in our own way) is Verdagears, who have impressed from their very first performances and who get better with each gig, and this latest single shows off their developing grunge-influenced sound. https://www.instagram.com/ verdagears/
10. Arthur Brown – Nature –
Arthur certainly showed that he is a force of nature as he stunned the Wokingham Festival crowd with an incredible set! What a lovely man he is too! He took the time to speak to fans afterwards and the huge smiles on the faces of those who met him was heartwarming to see. Ok, we know we’ve included this song before but it’s from his new album of the same name and he performed a brilliant version of it at the festival and it’s a great track – so here it is again – https:// www.thegodofhellfire.com
You can listen to all the songs featured in our Spotify playlist at https://bit.ly/rawsoundstoday
