Mosh’s 2024 End of Year Waffle

I gave up on the “top ten of the year” format some years ago because everyone does it. Plus with so much music out there now I always felt like I would be missing someone out who deserved a mention, so instead you now get a brain dump of memories, gratitude and hope for the next year.

Enter Shikari (c) Alan Swan

2024 has been… a year. Personally as well as musically, and as ever the two have been mixed up to a large extent. We’ve welcomed so many new faces to the Moshville Times team especially over the latter half of the year, with one or two others still being added over the festive period! To one in particular, I owe a huge debt of gratitude. I’ve been struggling to get out to gigs so much this year for a variety of reasons, but with my new gig buddy I’ve had a new lease of live musical life. Love you, Emma – thank you. You’ve made a huge difference to me and to the site!

In terms of live music, and partly due to Emma, I’ve spread my wings a little and covered bands I hadn’t heard of before as well as dipping a toe into some genres which are borderline “relevant” for Moshville Times. Having said that, good music is good music and this will continue in 2025. In fact I’m working on a set of features to cover non-rock/metal artists. More about that as next year progresses. If it wasn’t for boundary-pushing then I wouldn’t have enjoyed the superb Caravan Palace, Enter Shikari, or arguably even RØRY, and I have my eye on some other curveballs for next year.

Another couple of snaffles we made this year were drafting in Alan Swan after a period of time away from live photography, and Lindsay who now splits her time between ourselves, LambGoat and doing her own shiz on YouTube. We couldn’t be happier to have them with us, alongside the rest of our incredible team.

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Alan is to “blame” for me seeing Sleep Token a few weeks ago as he wanted to photograph them. I applied to review (we can’t just publish photos)… and they weren’t issuing photo passes for the tour, being the kind of band that keeps imagery closely controlled. That was a piece of good fortune as it turned out to be one of the best gigs I’ve ever seen in my life. I do recall stating that my first gig of the year, Ginger Wildheart at the now-shuttered Hard Rock Café in Glasgow, would be tough to beat. Was Sleep Token better? Oof. No. It was “as good”, but spectacularly different.

The Union Underground (c) Alan Swan

After doing some photo work at our now-seemingly annual Rocktoberfest, Angela Heeb joined the crew as well and has rattled off a staggering number of shows in a couple of months. Thanks, Angela (and Johnny)! And, yes, plans are afoot for next year’s Glasgow showcase with more details to be leaked over the coming weeks.

I finally saw The Union Underground for the first time after loving their album that only came out in 1996, and we premiered our podcast in March. It’s been a slow start as we find a space for it in the Moshville Times schedule, but we’re starting to come up with more ideas though need the time to bring them to fruition! The quiz that David and Ross hosted went down well, so expect more of them, and all of our interviews will now feature as episodes.

The Gallowgate Murders (c) Katie Frost

I can’t not mention Bloodstock, of course. As always, it’s the one time we (or at least I) get to meet up with not just several of the core MT crew, but also the majority of PR staff we work with remotely for the rest of the year. Hand on heart, and I mentioned this before, this year’s lineup wasn’t “strong” in terms of bands I personally like but that didn’t stop me having a great time anyway. I discovered a handful of bands as ever (Rupcha Farms, The Gallowgate Murders and more), and the atmosphere was as friendly and fun as it’s ever been. Bloodstock has been the “mental health event” on my calendar for a few years now, and will continue to be so for as long as I can physically get there.

This year’s event was bittersweet, though, due to the absence of a great friend and hugely respected member of the music community. Michelle Kerr, co-founder of Cosa Nostra PR and overseer of all things Press at Bloodstock wasn’t able to make it. A few weeks later we were absolutely distraught to hear that she’d passed away. The comments about her on various bands’ feeds (Slipknot, Machine Head, Black Stone Cherry… so many more), and a great story from Wednesday 13 at his Glasgow show, really got over how important and amazing a human being she was. She is still, and always will be, missed.

Towards the end of the year we also heard that Tom George of TAG Publicity had suffered a major heart attack and didn’t pull through. We’ve dealt with George and his wife for years, and his passing comes as a huge blow to the underground scene. Tom, like Michelle, was someone who 100% believed in the bands he supported and gave his all to push them as far as they could go. Rest in peace, fella.

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With 2024 almost gone, what’s up for 2025? Well, I’ve already reviewed two January releases (the previously mentioned RØRY, and Waterlines‘ debut EP) with a few more to come. Based on these alone, I have no worries about the coming twelve months. I’m pretty sure we’re also expecting new albums from Sabaton and Machine Head, two of my favourite acts, which will tie in with a single UK headline show for the former and a Bloodstock headline show for the latter. So I’m excited about those. Courtesy of my wonderful gig buddy I might also look to do more over the summer in terms of festivals as it’s been too long since I went abroad, but that’s in the planning stages.

The gig calendar is already filling up, both in terms of things I want to do and with applications from our reviewers and photographers that I really should be emailing about by now. There’s been no real slow-down in email announcements over the festive period and we’re as busy as ever!

So overall 2025 is looking pretty exciting. And it’s not even started yet!

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