TMMP’s Top Gigs Of 2014
2014 has been a difficult time for underground live music in the UK. With small venues across the country facing all manner of issues, it was heartening to see the team behind Guildford’s Boileroom make it through an emotionally trying licence review process and move on to host some incredible gigs and community-oriented events. With any luck, 2015 will see a change in fortunes for venues like the Boileroom.
From intimate showings from ska legends to inhumanly tight math-pop sets via beatboxing virtuosity and an audience with the professor of punk, here are TMMP’s top gigs of 2014. Read more…
With Guildford venue the Boileroom facing the possibility of closure, TMMP caught up with local post-rock & chiptune innovators For Astronauts & Satellites to discuss the Boileroom and the state of the UK’s live music scene.
Last Friday night was pretty damn special. As I said before, 
It would take a hard-hearted writer to heap criticism on a track called Feels So Good – and when it’s pulled off this well, there’s really no reason to in the first place. Upbeat, bouncy, and irresistibly catchy, this is a great comeback track from a band nearly stopped in its tracks by major brain surgery. 
When viewed from the outside, alternative music venues can be easily misunderstood. Judging by the expressions of mainstream Friday night revellers heading toward Casino or Dusk or wherever, the queue of kids snaking around The Boileroom might as well have been the aliens from Mars Attacks. Some people don’t seem to understand that it’s not necessary to spray yourself orange and wear clothes so tight that you look like one of the X-Men after a Topshop makeover in order to have a good time.