Deacon Blue’s addition to Dreamland’s Summer Series of gigs may have been a little late, coming a few weeks after the confirmation of Simple Minds, Madness, Bryan Adams, Limp Bizkit and Manic Street Preachers, but since the Scottish pop band haven’t ever played in Margate before, this additional date on their 2024 tour is a most welcome one.
It’s approximately 7pm on a slightly overcast summer evening and a few rather unassuming figures wander onto Dreamland’s massive Scenic Stage. They are Britpop legends The Bluetones, a band who were never as good at generating their own press as Oasis, and never had the pin-up status of Sleeper’s Louise Wener, but their best singles were among the Britpop scene’s finest, and as musicians, their 60s meets 90s jangle was always exceptionally tight. This is actually their second visit to Margate in under a year – they played the Dreamland Ballroom back in October 2023, playing the whole of their ‘Return To The Last Chance Saloon’ album – but, tonight, their support slot with Scotland’s Deacon Blue promises to be just as special.
The self titled full length album from Boston’s Stars Like Ours was the ultimate throwback, in the best possible way. The band’s sound recycled bits of Letters To Cleo, The Muffs, Other Star People and other 90s alternative groups with love, and gave the listener a record that absolutely overflowed with nostalgia. If nothing else, it proved that a combination of fuzzy alt-rock guitars and bubblegum inflected choruses just never gets old, but luckily, Stars Like Ours showed off a tightness and skill for well written hooks that also helped the material to stand beyond any nostalgic feelings.
Welcome back to the Real Gone Singles Bar, the place where we explore some of the individual mp3s and other bits that have landed in our inbox over the previous few weeks. This time around, among other things, our popular feature casts a spotlight onto a huge piece of funk, a few singer songwriters, a very commercial slice of goth metal and a welcome arrival on the pop scene…
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A musical project helmed by multi-instrumentalist Ali Jafri, The Shadow Majlis’ debut album ‘The Departure’ defies easy categorisation. The material takes in elements of goth, rock, world music and even dub reggae to create a cornucopia of sound with subtle layers that offer the listener something different on each play.