In profile: Dead Red Sun

These south London boys may write seven-minute instrumental epics, but don't you dare call them post-rock.

L-R: Ollie Bremner, Tom Murphy and Mike Guppy (Photo: Alex Harley)

“Sausage sandwich and a morning breakfast, extra beans?” Two plates are slammed down in front of Mike Guppy and Ollie Bremner, guitarist and bassist with instrumental rockers Dead Red Sun. Completing the trio, drummer Tom Murphy has settled for a glass of orange juice.

'There's a good chance I could not have been here' – Liam Clayton

On August 4, 2009, 23-year-old Liam Clayton was driving home to Leicestershire after visiting friends in Kingston Upon Thames, when he was involved in a car crash that almost killed him. Doctors were forced to put him into a coma for three weeks while he received specialist care. Here, Liam talks about the night that would put his life on hold for a year...

“When I didn’t get home, my mum was starting to worry. She was on the phone to the local police number, trying to find out if there’d been any hold-ups on the motorway, and they were telling her that there hadn’t. Then the girl on the phone tells her that there’s been this accident, and starts talking about what the car was. At that point, some lights start coming up the drive and my mum realises it’s the police…

Interview: Daniel Hoffmann-Gill

The Nottingham-born actor talks about slumming it as a teen and the tragedy that made him turn his life around.

(Photo: Emilie Fjola Sandy)

Across the foyer of London’s Royal Festival Hall Daniel Hoffmann-Gill cuts an imposing figure. At 6ft 6in and thick cut, the actor, playwright and director is almost a giant. However, as he says goodbye to Rich, the designer for his upcoming play Our Style is Legendary, and scans the open-plan hall for his next appointment, I can’t help but think he looks like a lost child.

I approach Hoffmann-Gill, who is dressed in a scruffy wax jacket and baggy jeans, and am greeted with a handshake and a warm smile from behind a heavy moustache. It seems the lost boy analogy isn’t too far off as he tells me about his struggle growing up in Nottingham in the 1980s.

So this is the new year... (ish)

It may seem like an age ago that you were drunkenly warbling along with that terrible English folk song that Cliff Richard kind of covered once, while doing the most impractical arm-shaking dance known to man, with people you don't like for ninety per cent of the year, just because a big clock chimed twelve times on a certain date, but believe it or not, it was only three weeks ago.

This may seem like a slightly late 'new year' blog then, but for me, tomorrow marks the real beginning for 2011 for me as I embark on the first day of my MA degree's second term, when I am told the work really starts. 

I do tend to despise those "top tips for 2011"-type features so do not fear, I will not be trying to tell you who will or who won't be hot or not this year, as I have very little authority in that field and my crystal ball isn't up to much these days anyway. It's been a been a while since my last post (*cough* BROKEN RECORD *cough*) so I thought I'd use this opportunity to give you all a rundown of what I've been up to during my blogging hiatus.

Taking back the airwaves: New TBS track leaked...

BACK FOR GOOD? Adam Lazzara,John Nolan, Shaun Cooper, Eddie Reyes and Mark O'Connell (Pic: takingbacksunday.com)

You may remember earlier this year when I wrote a post about the reforming of emo kings Taking Back Sunday and my apprehension over whether the eagerly awaited comeback album would ever compare with the band's debut Tell All Your Friends.

Although the new record isn't due out until some point next year, vocalist Adam Lazzara has given us a sneaky peak by uploading a demo of one of the tracks – bizarrely titled 'Best Places to Be a Mom' – to his sound cloud page.

  Best Places To Be A Mom by adamdamnlazzara 

Calling Four Year Strong fans. Questions?

(Photo: Chris Martin)

 Tonight I will be interviewing the bearded popcore juggernauts that are Four Year Strong for Subba-Cultcha before their only UK headline show on their European tour, at Camden's Electric Ballroom. If anyone has any burning questions for them, then leave them in a comment below or email them to me . Cheers!

'Sell out with me, oh yeah...': White Lies and Weezer attempt to answer the question of how to make music pay

The music industry is in trouble. A bold statement? Not really. It seems to be the stock phrase with artists, labels, music journalists and media analysts everywhere these days.

People are not paying for music to the same degree as they used to, and are accessing their music in other ways, mainly for free, and mainly illegally. Industry experts are looking for the answer, but at the moment, have had very little success. Despite this having been a hot topic for a while now, it has been driven home to me over the past week, with the coming together of a couple entrepreneurial  experiments that I felt failed terribly.

LOST? I am, especially when mapping the workings of Rivers Cuomo's mind.

Firstly, I popped to a show last week with my good friend James (or The Popscener as he is known to the blogosphere).