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Diary Dates
The Soundhouse Summer Sessions – Every Saturday
The Soundhouse
The Soundhouse Summer Sessions are back every Saturday afternoon throughout the summer. Join them for an afternoon of outdoor music from some of the best local live acoustic acts, with free entry, outdoor stage, dog friendly and family friendly.
Sunday afternoon gigs at The Donkey
Another one for a sunny weekend, don’t miss the free Sunday afternoon gigs at The Donkey on Welford Road. Starting from 3pm, when it’s sunny the music will move to their outdoor stage so you can soak up the tunes and the sun with a few beers and a bite from their food menu.
Weller v The Who featuring Heavy Sol – Friday 18 August
The Donkey
Heavy Sol are a 5 piece live band from Leicester covering top tunes from the likes of Paul Weller, Oasis, Ocean Colour Scene, The Who, The Jam and Small Faces!
Ginger Wildheart – Saturday 19 August
The Musician
Ginger Wildheart remains one of the UK’s most prolific singer/songwriter/guitarists. Best known through his work with The Wildhearts, Ginger Wildheart has spent the last twenty years writing and recording some of Britain’s best rock music and building a fanatical following.
You Me At Six – Tuesday 22 August
O2 Academy Leicester
Pop-punk heroes, You Me At Six are back with their huge album, ‘Truth Decay’ and intimate warm-up shows ahead of their appearance at Reading and Leeds 2023.
Crazyhead – Saturday 26 August
The Donkey
Enjoy a dose of garage punk from Leicester’s Crazyhead. Their songs range in theme from trenchant social commentary to the surreal, but always with an underlying vein of black humour. Though lumped in with the largely media-created grebo scene, they were more influenced by the garage rock of the late 1960s, as well as bands like The Ramones, The Stooges and Captain Beefheart.
The Della Grants (Acoustic) – Friday 1 September
The Guildhall
Performing acoustically in a beautiful setting, don’t miss The Della Grants at The Guilhall.
Bluesmusicfan.com – “The blues world need to hear this band in a big way…” Blues Review (USA) – “Spectacular guitar based Blues/Rock.” Blues Rock Review (USA) – “Get ready for The Della Grants 9/10”
Aziz Ibrahim – Saturday 2 September
The Donkey
Former guitarist with Simply Red and The Stone Roses, and sometime collaborator with Ian Brown. Now a solo artist in his own right, Aziz has a unique East meets West sound and his guitar playing has been described as Ravi Shankar crossed with Jimi Hendrix.
Witch Fever – Saturday 9 September
The Soundhouse
Manchester all female punk band Witch Fever provide big grungy riffs and totally manic performances.
Trevor Nelson’s 90s and 00s Mixtape – Friday 15 September
O2 Academy
One of the country’s top r’n’b and hip-hop devotees. Resident DJ at Funk at Sound and regular contributor on Radio 1 and MTV. He is without question the main man in all that’s hiphop, RnB, soul and reggae related, while his 1xtra breakfast show is usually what rouses you out of bed in the morning.
Gengahr – Monday 25 September
O2 Academy
Gengahr create effortlessly smooth and melodic indie-rock that journeys along a laidback sun-kissed path with a sound that could easily stem from influences drawn from icons such as The Smiths and Modest Mouse, to the more recently revered Unknown Mortal Orchestra and Youth Lagoon.
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INTERVIEW: The Wonky Portraits
This weekend sees the Punk Weekender take over Leicester city centre. As part of the event, Jubilee Square will come alive with live music, food and drinks on Saturday 19 August. One of the acts performing will be The Wonky Portraits, an all-female band who formed as part of The Unglamorous project, which aims to bring together local women of all ages through music.
We caught up with drummer, Abi Masih, to find out more about it all.
How would you describe The Wonky Portraits to somebody who’s never heard you?
Exciting, fresh, relevant, lots of fun and energetic. We’re all female too.
Tell us about The Unglamorous Project and how you got involved?
I met Ruth Miller at a record fair on a cold January weekend. At the stall she said to me,”You look like someone who could be in a punk band.” But I couldn’t play any instruments! Ruth showed me some videos and it was really inspiring. I have teenagers at home who play instruments, so I knew I had to pick something different to them, and I picked the drums. I started going to meet the others for rehearsals at Frog Island every Sunday and it’s just great fun. I went from never playing an instrument to now performing live with a band. It’s been a wonderful way to make new friends as well.
What are you most looking forward to about the Punk Weekender?
I’ve never played an outdoor gig before so that’s very exciting, although a little scary too. Plus, of course, playing at the O2 Academy is huge for us! We can’t wait for Sunday’s closing gig.
How supportive is the Leicester music scene to new artists coming through?
It’s been incredibly supportive. There are so many stereotypes of music scenes being male dominated and I really think Leicester breaks that mould. We’ve had incredible support from the local scene.
What’s your favourite thing about being in The Wonky Portraits?
It takes me away from my everyday life as a teacher. I get to be completely myself and just have so much fun. I think we’re all at our most creative when we’re having fun so it’s wonderful to experience that.
What advice would you give to other women looking to get involved in music?
Do it. We have lots of newcomers and many people have never played an instrument ever before (including myself!). You can start from 0 and really challenge yourself but do it whilst having fun and making new friends. The women involved range from mid-twenties to mid-seventies and it’s very inspiring to see.
The Wonky Portraits will be performing as part of the Punk Weekender on Saturday 19 August. You can catch them at 4pm at Jubilee Square. They will also be performing at the O2 Academy as part of the closing gig on Sunday.
For full info on the events and activities happening as part of this weekend’s festival visit the Rage & Revolution website.
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WEEKLY PLAYLIST
Check out this week’s playlist featuring the best of Punk Rage and Revolution.
Have a listen and get in touch to tell us which tracks you’re loving.