Music gets the best of me

Vegan hot sauce from a UK rock band!

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You Me At Six have announced an exclusive ‘SUCKAPUNCH’ vegan hot sauce in collaboration with Lou’s Brews. The sauce is limited to 200 bottles and available exclusively through pre-orders of the band’s forthcoming new album ‘SUCKAPUNCH’, due January 15th via Underdog Records / AWAL. You can pre-order here.

The ‘SUCKAPUNCH’ sauce is the hottest Lou’s Brews have ever made, and was spearheaded by bassist Matt Barnes who said: “We have always loved our hot sauce, especially when we are on tour. It is an absolute must to spice up the super noodles and microwave meals when travelling on the tour bus. The SUCKAPUNCH sauce is a Habanero based chilli sauce with distilled vinegar, garlic, sugar and salt. It starts with a big punch of spice, before the vinegar and sweetness come through and goes great with anything that needs a little punch of fire!”

Lou’s Brews founder, Lou, said: “I jumped at the chance to collaborate with the guys when I found out they’re all a bunch of spice heads. It’s been awesome working alongside the fellas, playing around with recipe ideas, and I’m stoked for the world to try our delicious little baby.”

The hot sauce follows new single and title track from the band’s forthcoming album ‘SUCKAPUNCH’, described as “transformational” by the Metro, “epic” by the NME and “absolutely huge” by Rock Sound. Their eagerly anticipated seventh studio album will also include ‘MAKEMEFEELALIVE’ and ‘Beautiful Way’, the perfect introduction to their shape-shifting new record, already tipped as “their most radical record to date” by The Sun with DIY confirming, “this is a version of You Me At Six we’ve never seen before”.

You Me At Six are one of the biggest and most prolific British rock bands of recent times. Their 15 year career has seen four UK Gold Records and five Top Ten Albums in the UK, including Number One record ‘Cavalier Youth’. An unparalleled 17 consecutive A-List singles on BBC Radio One, multiple sold-out US headline tours, and a Number One rock song in the UK & Australia, and Top Five Rock Radio track in North America, in ‘Room To Breathe’.

Undoubted heavyweights in the live arena, the summer of 2019 saw You Me At Six play their biggest outdoor headline show to date infront of 15,000 fans at a sold-out Gunnersbury Park. Their most recent UK tour saw 40,000 ticket sales, including three nights at Brixton Academy, selling-out four months in advance in just twenty minutes. May 2021 will see the band celebrate the release of ‘SUCKAPUNCH’ with a string of underplay shows across the UK, including London’s O2 Kentish Town Forum, with support from Saint Phnx. A series of intimate album launch shows across the UK will begin on July 6th at Pryzm in Kingston Upon Thames, preceded by a special socially distanced album release show at Pryzm on January 14th. All tickets are on general sale HERE.

2021 Album Launch Show

14th January, PRYZM, Kingston (Socially Distanced Event)

2021 UK Headline Tour Dates

19th May, Barrowland, Glasgow

20th May, O2 Academy, Bristol

21st May, Academy, Manchester

23rd May, O2 Academy, Newcastle

24th May, University Great Hall, Cardiff

25th May, O2 Forum, London

2021 UK Album Launch Shows

6th July PRYZM, Kingston

7th July Metronome, Nottingham 

8th July Chalk, Brighton

9th July O2 Academy, Oxford

10th July Leadmill, Sheffield

11th July Brudenell Social Club, Leeds 

12th July Blitz, Preston 

13th July Liquid Room, Edinburgh 

14th July Fat Sam’s, Dundee 

Follow You Me At Six:

FACEBOOK | TWITTER | INSTAGRAM | WEBSITE | SPOTIFY

Vegan placard in new Culture Club music video

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Super brief news item.

Culture Club has released a new music video for their Let Somebody Love You single and there is an interesting vegan aside in the clip.

In one scene, a group of people can been seen gathering around the band as they hold signs featuring slogans and affirmations.

One placard reads ‘Only vegans are pretty’.

I’m not sure how or why this happened. I know that Boy George eats a mostly plant-based diet but I don’t know if anyone in the band identifies as vegan.

Vegan stuff is everywhere. From high street restaurants, to mainstream media, and now even to a Culture Club music video!

Watch the video below or click here if it isn’t loading.

Follow this vegan band

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One of my favourite bands out of Australia is Love Like Hate.

Heather and Sonja write, record, and perform irresisitible and atmospheric pop music.

I was encouraged to remind you about them after I saw the following Instagram post from the band.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BkD-EBrF1Ra/

Love Like Hate isn’t just a vehicle for fantastic music, the people involved are also fierce social justice advocates. Both Heather and Sonja are long term vegans and both are continually using their platform to speak out against injustice.

Please take some time to listen to Love Like Hate over on Bandcamp.

Follow Love Like Hate on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook.

New album from awesome London band

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If you hang around these parts much, you will know that I adore Colour Me Wednesday.

Colour Me Wednesday is an indie punk band from west London and they are awesome.

The band is fronted by sisters Jen and Harriet Doveton, while the current line up is rounded out by Jaca Freer and Laura Ankles.

Everything the band releases is fabulous, so it should go without saying that you should instantly listen to/buy/stream the new Colour Me Wednesday album called Counting Pennies in the Afterlife.

If I was a musician, I reckon it would piss me off royally if critics said I sound like another band or I was the new so-and-so. So you get no sort of comparisons from me to try and convince you to listen to Colour Me Wednesday.

All I’m going to say is that this music makes me happy when I listen to it and I think you will get a buzz from it, too.

Stream the album on Spotify if your personal politics permit.

Take a more ethical approach and buy the album via Bandcamp. There are bundles!

Head over to YouTube to watch the music video for the first single from the album, Sunriser. The band can be seen doing a bit of vegan grocery shopping in this video!

To speed up your eventual infatuation with Colour Me Wednesday, be sure to follow the band on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter.

Vegan food at Mighty Hoopla

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I told you about the fab vegan food line up I have helped curate for Field Day 2018, but now I have even better news!

The food line up is staying on for a third day at the incredible Mighty Hoopla festival in Brockwell Park on June 3, 2018.

As if that food isn’t enough to entice you, the musical line up on the day is phenomenal.

Acts include some of my favourite pop performers of the past few decades including Lily Allen, TLC, Belinda Carlisle, Betty Who, B*Witched, Five, and even Vengaboys!

It is so ridiculously camp!

Imagine an incredible pop fest like that AND a huge range of vegan food traders from which to choose.

This event is going to sell out extremely quickly so grab your tickets now. Book here.

New music from Colour Me Wednesday

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One of my favourite bands out of London is the fabulous Colour Me Wednesday.

This band releases some of the best music you will hear out of London and in even better news they also champion vegan causes.

Because I think it is a great idea to support independent artists (especially if they are vegan), I am sharing the link where you can pre-order the soon-to-be-released new album by Colour Me Wednesday.

Click here to order and help keep the arts alive… and hear some fucking fantastic music.

Queer vegan music

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If you sniff around these parts of the Internet often, you will know that I adore a band from West London known as Colour Me Wednesday.

Colour Me Wednesday is a super awesome feminist queer DIY music situation with the catchiest songs this side of the Hangar Lane gyratory.

As an added bonus, the band members are vegan. I just can’t get enough of them.

If you are keen to experience one of my favourite bands, you should grab a ticket for this very special preview show taking place in South London.

To celebrate the new album set to be released soon, Colour Me Wednesday is playing a one-night-only show at DIY SPACE for London on Sunday November 19, 2017.

You can buy your tickets online here.

You can follow Colour Me Wednesday on Instagram.

Yay for music!

Superstar vegan restaurant in new music video

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There is a new band releasing music in 2017 called Dreamcar and I adore what I have heard so far.

Actually, I adored this band before I had even heard a beat or bar. Dreamcar is made up of Tony Kanal, Adrian Young and Tom Dumont of No Doubt, plus Davey Havok of AFI.

No Doubt has been one of my favourite bands on the planet for a very long time and I’ve written about Tony’s veganism in the past.

Now the latest music video from this new supergroup features veganism heavily, with the band heading into a venue called ‘Vegan Club’ to play a gig and even convening in a superstar vegan restaurant in Hollywood!

Check it out above!

Dreamcar is hanging out at Crossroads vegan restaurant on Melrose in Hollywood.

This is a lovely full-circle moent for the band as Crossroads was the location for their first meeting to discuss whether they wanted to move forward with the project.

Kill For Candy is a fabulous song made even better by the vegan-centric music video.

You can watch the music video by clicking here.

Follow Dreamcar on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.

Listen to this

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Here is a musical interlude to break up your dreary day. Or to add extra value to your already awesome day. You pick!

Glasgow Vegan Beer Fest is just over a week away so I’m thrilled to finally be able to announce some news I was holding under my hat.

Attendees at the 12pm – 5pm daytime session will have the pleasure of not one but two live musical sets by irresistible Scottish band The Swizzle Sisters.

I adore the sound of this folk country band and the fact they are all animal lovers just makes it a sweeter deal to have them on board for the event (Patti and Paula are both longtime vegans while Maggie is veggie – our job is to turn her on the day!).

Have a listen to one of my favourite songs by the band.

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You can like The Swizzle Sisters on Facebook. A limited quantity of the band’s CDs will be sold on the day at the merch stand.

Buy cheap advance tickets for Glasgow Vegan Beer Fest online now for just £4 plus small booking fee.

Read about the special Mono food menu for the event here.

VBF-TWCover

Tony Kanal, Prince and being vegan

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Did you know I adore the band No Doubt?

I might even be what is called a superfan. Travel back in time and you would discover I was a member of the No Doubt fan club and I travelled to see the band live many times including shows in Brisbane, London and Houston.

The music they have created (and hopefully will continue to create) has been a huge part of my life soundtrack.

So I have established I love No Doubt. So what, right?

A few days ago I spotted a social media post by founding member, bassist and songwriter Tony Kanal. The post detailed a meeting between Tony and another musical hero of mine, Prince.

As the post was to do with Tony’s vegan journey, I reached out to him to ask if he was happy that I shared the post on here with you all.

Tony was happy.

I hope you appreciate this insight, memory and compassionate awakening as much I as did.

On Tuesday, what would have been Prince’s 58th birthday, some friends and I joined @maytejannell and @PETA to celebrate his life, legacy and compassion for animals. • • I had the chance to share a story of one of my conversations with Prince, briefly summarized here: “On No Doubt’s second visit to Paisley Park, sometime around 1999, we were working on a song with Prince called ‘Waiting Room,’ which would later be released on our Rock Steady album. We had some downtime, and Prince and I found ourselves in the studio kitchen. I asked if we could order some food, he said yes, and I said, ‘I’d like a cheeseburger please.’ He pleasantly replied, ‘Well, you can have that, but you can’t have that here.’ At the time, I didn’t give it much thought. It wasn’t till I became a vegan 12 years later and adopted the same rule at my house of ‘no animal products can be consumed here’ that I realized how significant that conversation was. Not only can I thank Prince for his music and artistry but also for that very powerful seed that he planted on my journey.” • • I was reminded that in 1999, Prince also included the following in the liner notes for his ‘Rave Un2 the Joy Fantastic’ album: “If this jacket were real wool, it would have taken 7 lambs whose lives would have begun like this … Within weeks of their birth, their ears would have been hole-punched, their tails chopped off and the males would have been castrated while fully conscious. Xtremely high rates of mortality r considered normal: 20 2 40% of lambs die b4 the age of 8 weeks: 8 million mature sheep die every year from disease, xposure or neglect. Many people believe shearing helps animals who would otherwise b 2 hot. But in order 2 avoid losing any wool, ranchers shear sheep b4 they would naturally shed their winter coats, resulting in millions of sheep deaths from exposure 2 the cold.” • • Thank you Prince.

A photo posted by Tony Kanal (@tonykanal) on

Please follow Tony on Twitter and Instagram.

Maybe while you are there, you can thank him for being kind to animals and for many years of fabulous music.

VBF-TWCover