The Leeds Tealights Record an Album : LIVE! : A Review

Henry Clarke on 26 March 2025

I have always been curious about The Tealights, Leeds’ own sketch comedy student group. I have never had the chance to see them whilst always aware of their chaos. So, of course, when I was invited to see their recent sketch comedy show “The Leeds Tealights Record An Album Live” at the Lending Room I jumped at the opportunity to see this enigmatic ensemble be silly. 

The show’s first opener, Queenie Cowen, was brilliant. Handling the stage with confidence yet relatability, it was clear she had done this before. She already had me in stitches.  I noticed she was also involved in the production of the Tealight’s later performance, which makes sense as her clear, conceptual and relatable comedic beats established the tone seen in the show throughout. The next opener, Harry Ozin, was seemingly less experienced but his at times awkward and deadpan delivery made for a brilliant payoff. His humour leaned into self-deprecation and subtle absurdity, catching the audience off guard and questioning what he was going to say next. Who doesn’t love two funny people being funny before more funny people come and be funny?

The Tealights show was one that made me feel about 50 pints down whilst I was sober. The sketches are clean, conceptual, stupid whilst simultaneously relatable and pop culture savvy. It’s a rare mix that I feel is unique to student comedy and the space we were in. A room full of supportive friends and family and comedy lovers like myself made for an excellent springboard for the group to play off. I particularly enjoyed one sketch where a member accidentally calls the teacher ‘mum’ and falls to the floor in a desperate cry for help. So relatable and something everyone can laugh at.

Image Credits: The Leeds Tealights

Also, of course, the sketch where The Gryphon was front and centre—being read on the toilet, naturally. There are clear acting skills from the Tealights too, strengthening their comedy through serious commitment to the bit. I won’t spoil too much, as I’m sure they will be back with a new show very soon. Just know you’ll leave equally enthused and confused. I can assure you that these guys will go on to do huge things with the clear talent from all involved, and I would jump to see them again. And no, that’s not a reference to the Gary Barlow song.

Thank you to The Tealights for a fantastic evening! Follow them on Instagram @leedstealights to see what they are up to!

Words by Henry Clarke

Love Island 2025: A Winter-Summer of Drama, Romance, and Reality TV’s Most Unpredictable Show. But Has Love Island Outgrown Itself?

Maicey Navarro Griffiths on 11 March 2025

Ekin-Su Cülcüloğlu is the standout Queen of Love Island All Stars 2025. Whilst we all enjoy the drama, has Love Island lost its original entertainment value after so many seasons?


Ekin-Su is cementing herself as the undeniable queen of the villa once again. While Ekin-Su is undoubtedly a master at creating chaos, what truly sets her apart from other contestants on Love Island is her ability to think strategically. She’s not just playing for a potential romance; she’s playing the long game. Her gameplay is calculated, but it’s also sprinkled with moments of authenticity—whether it’s her emotional moments in private chats or the genuine connection she shares with Curtis Pritchard and the girls.

Has Love Island gone on for too long?

As the UK’s most notorious reality TV dating show, Love Island has earned its place in the pop culture hall of fame. Whether you’re watching it for the drama, the romance, or the utterly ridiculous moments, Love Island continues to hold its audience captive season after season. But in 2025, with the second season of Love Island All Stars, the show has reached a new level of excitement, reuniting some of the franchise’s most iconic contestants. With the likes of returning fan-favourite contestants Ekin-Su Cülcüloğlu, Curtis Pritchard, Casey O’Gorman, Gabby Allen, Kaz Crossley, Elma Pazar and Luca Bish it has been a good season, but with its 12 th season overall has Love Island simply been going for too long?


Love Island arguably reached its peak on season 5 – aka Molly Mae’s season. Molly Mae emerged as the most successful of all love islanders, with multiple companies, a docuseries and a net worth of 6 million and counting. Many girls have eagerly followed her path in hopes of her level of fame, and whilst girls like Ekin-Su, Molly Smith, Maura Higgins and Millie Court have done very well post-love Island, none have done as well as Molly Mae. An issue with Love Island in recent years is the increasing number of people going on for fame, and therefore are too aware of the cameras, and wanting to avoid a bad rep and thus damage their chances of money and fame, they become staged. The dramas of the earlier seasons cannot be recaptured. The drama is still entertaining but lacks a feeling of genuineness.


Love Island is a battle for fame, followers, and long-term relevance. Arguably with Love Islanders returning the race for clout, it is more intense. Though according to Ekin-Su on Sunday 9 th ’s episode “I don’t need clout”. The contestants finding “true love” seems almost secondary to their desire to stay relevant and famous, a second grab for fame. Some feel a bit too aware of the cameras, trying to become meme-worthy or likeable, which detracts from the authenticity that made the show so compelling in its earlier seasons. Ekin-Su creates some much-needed excitement, but it’s hard not to wonder if the formula has grown stale. For those still invested in the drama, it remains unmissable television, but years of controversies have dampened it. The show has faced repeated scrutiny over its portrayal of relationships, body image, lack of diversity and mental health. Despite its efforts to address these issues in recent years—through casting some more diverse contestants and increasing psychological support for its stars, there is still far to go.

Love Island All Stars 2025

Watching Ekin-Su re-enter the villa, it’s impossible not to appreciate her evolution as both a reality TV star and a social media powerhouse. She is playing the game like a seasoned pro. Ekin-Su is a name that has become synonymous with Love Island after her unforgettable appearance and eventual winner of the 2022 season. Her fiery personalityand unapologetic attitude made her a standout figure. Let’s be real—Ekin-Su was never shy about stirring the pot and arguably made season 8 and now All Stars season 2 what it is. Between her sneaky moves and explosive confrontations, she is always at the heart of the drama.


Ekin-Su, who is arguably the best known from this year’s line-up, walked in as the first night bombshell, with a dazzling pearl dress, and immediately got to pick 3 newly coupled up men to triple date with. True Ekin-Su fashion. If you watched Love Island on the 3rd of February, aka- the infamous heart rate challenge, you would have seen Ekin-Su wow the audience and fellow love islanders alike. Saving the best for last, she entered the fire pit, dressed in a fiery red devil costume, she recreated her season 8 balcony crawl. Whilst all the women performed impressive and sexy dances, Ekin-Su was arguably the standout and certainly put in the most effort out of the girls. However, it was Curtis who won the challenge, raising 6 out of 8 of the girl’s heart rates. The two of them are certainly this year’s dramatic power couple. This heart-rate challenge additionally caused more drama than in previous years, with Ekin-Su kissing Sammy – Elma’s partner, despite saying she would not kiss him at Elma’s request. This caused some arguments, but she did apologise in the end. Where would Love Island be without a bit of drama anyway?


Whether you love her or love to hate her, Ekin-Su’s time on Love Island All Stars 2025 has provided plenty of explosive moments, undeniable chemistry, and, of course, drama that only a star like her can deliver. Moments such as kissing Curtis mid-argument, swirling her drink at him and her love triangle with Curtis and Danielle. Plus, who can forget the drama over the kissing challenge with Curtis announcing ‘I haven’t kissed this girl’ after every kiss, have held us to the screen. While Ekin-Su’s fiery nature and Curtis’s suave, smooth-talking demeanour seem like an unexpected match, their dynamic has quickly become one of the most intriguing storylines of the season. Curtis has always had a more laid-back persona compared to Ekin-Su’s fiery presence has complemented each other well.

Highlights of the season

At first glance, Ekin-Su and Curtis might seem like an unlikely pairing. However, Curtis, who competed on Love Island 2019,  known for his dancing, romance with Amy Hart and Maura Higgins, and his coffee making, provided the same level of drama himself. But as the season progresses, it becomes clear that their chemistry is more than just surface-level, there’s an undeniable spark between them. What makes their connection even more intriguing is the fact that both Ekin-Su and Curtis are seasoned Love Island veterans—meaning they’re aware of the public scrutiny and the game mechanics at play. But despite the strategic element, it’s clear that their relationship, at least for now, feels more authentic than expected, with her crying after Elma took the pie challenge too far and Curtis rushed to her defense, Ekin-Su and Curtis became a pairing we didn’t know we needed. Though I have doubts about their ability to stay together in the long term, they make for good TV.


Another surprising couple to come out of this year are Casey O’Gorman and Gabby Allen. With this being Casey’s third winter love island in a row, he finally seems to have grown up.

When Casey O’Gorman first entered the Love Island villa in 2023, he was one of the most talked-about contestants of the season—not just because of his good looks, but due to his infamous “playboy” persona and flirtatious ways. Flash forward to Love Island All Stars 2025, and Casey, now a three-time Love Island contestant, is showing a side of himself that viewers have never seen before. What makes the pair so compelling is how much Casey have evolved since his previous stints. Known for being somewhat immature and entangled in a few dramatic love triangles, his third season feels different. No longer the man-child who plays the field, Casey has shown a level of maturity and introspection that adds depth to his relationship with Gabby. Gone are the shallow flirtations and self-centred antics of the past. Instead, we’re seeing a more grounded, thoughtful version of Casey—someone who’s
ready to settle down and is now closed-off and, perhaps more surprisingly, is genuinely connecting with Gabby on an emotional level. Gabby and Casey to win!


Plus, Luca Bish’s emotional side seems to have been drawn out this winter too, being more open, raw and honest. During his 2022 stint, Luca was often perceived as being somewhat emotionally guarded and was criticised for his rude persona at times. He was the “cool” guy who kept his emotions in check, which at times made him hard to read. He’s done something that very few male reality TV stars are willing to do—he’s cried on camera twice. 
A season full of Love Island’s signature drama and romance has kept us entertained, but with a sense that the show is starting to wear thin. Still, fans of the series won’t want to miss the chaos and chemistry that only Love Island offers.

The Hellp at Corsica Studios: On Seeing and Meeting the Most Important Band in the World

Jasper Harvey on 3 March 2025

I meet up with my friend Astro at a Spoons in South London around 7, looking to get a few pints in before the show. It’s his 20th birthday, and luckily a few months earlier I’d been rewarded for staying up until 2am with 2 tickets to see our favorite band The Hellp. The tickets sold out in under a minute, but thankfully I was quick on the draw. As we drink our coronas, we look around and see how many other fans have had the same pre-show idea. For every normal guy just trying to have a cheap pint at this spoons, there is a parallelled skinny jean leather jacket wearing young person, doing their best to emulate The Hellp’s uniform. I tell Astro that right now this might be the most esoteric Wetherspoons in the country. We mingle with a few of them, wondering who the opener will be as the band had posted a graphic with the subsequent shows’ supporting acts, but only 7 asterisks for tonight’s show. Astro thinks that the asterisks mean there’s no opener, but I hold out hope that they’re standing in place for damon r., an artist they’ve collaborated with before. When 8 o’clock rolls around, we make our pilgrimage to Corsica Studios, shaking on the walk over partly from the brisk British cold but also in anticipation. 

Before I get into the show itself, a bit about The Hellp. Despite having been releasing music since 2015, the Los Angeles based band only released their debut album LL in September  2024. They’ve released and later removed a couple EPs from streaming services over the years, but have been influential among great artists since their inception, with the music video for their song Confluence having been a major inspiration for Frank Ocean when he worked on Blonde (2016). In a world where so many choose to hide behind a layer of irony in everything they do, Noah Dillon and Chandler Ransom Lucy are unwaveringly determined to be completely sincere in their artistic output. In the few interviews they’ve given, they emphasize how seriously they take their art and how nothing they do or say is a joke. Above all else, the duo want to create something “real and beautiful” that they believe culture is lacking at the moment. The Face magazine has claimed that with their unconditionally genuine attitude, they “could be the last cool band on earth”, and I think I’d be inclined to agree. While they often reject categorization into any specific genre, when pushed for a way to describe their music the pair have called it “America”. Through all this, they’ve amassed a fanbase that cult is almost not a strong enough word for. 

We get to the venue and take our places standing shoulder to shoulder with the other skinny jean and leather jacket wearing devotees, and the agonizing wait for the band to perform begins. The venue’s smoke machines are working overtime. Astro is proven right when there turns out not to be an opener. Oh well. They show up around 9:20. 20 minutes late, but I don’t care. Good things come to those who wait. As soon as the pair hits the stage, the place explodes. 

Their presence up there is entrancing, illuminated in flashes of white, red, orange and blue. Noah belts out lyrics and flails around the stage erratically, like a man possessed, while Chandler hunches over countless knobs and monitors composing an electronic symphony unlike anything I’ve ever heard before. After a few songs, Noah pauses to apologize to the fans. There’s something wrong with his mic apparently. The distortion is off, or maybe the feedback. The crowd doesn’t seem to care though, and I’m with them on that. To my untrained non-musically inclined ears this sounds like the greatest concert I’ve ever been to. They play around further with the mic for a bit before it’s back to business, strobe lights flashing harshly, anthem after anthem. Most of the setlist is from their eclectic new album LL, but they sprinkle in a few older tracks too like Lord Jesus and Height. Each song is better than the last, and hearing them live feels like hearing them for the first time again. The energy in the venue reaches a crescendo with their final song, Ssx. The crowd knows every lyric, screaming the refrain “Feels like a memory of what we had”. I feel like when this concert ends and becomes just a memory of what we had, it will be one of my most treasured. Chandler works his magic on the synths, elongating the song, and the pair slink off stage sans goodbye during its drawn out ending. They leave us begging for more. 500 people are all chanting their names. After a minute or two, the duo return to stage for “one more song”, like we all knew they would. They launch into Go Somewhere, my favorite song of theirs, although it’s a very close race, and the crowd holds onto every word, wishing it would never end. Clearly they lied to us because shortly after the song finishes, Chandler kicks off Tu Tu Neurotic, their most popular track and the energy in the place reaches a new peak. It seamlessly transitions into their remix of Lady Gaga’s Just Dance, and the two say their final goodbyes, for real this time. They reach their hands out into the mob, which surges forward as if being summoned by some supernatural force, before pulling themselves away and disappearing into the darkness. Hot, sweaty and dehydrated, the crowd finally takes a moment to breathe. 

Making our way out of the venue, I stop to buy a hoodie to replace the merch of theirs I’d lost in a fire earlier this year, and the guy running the booth tells everyone I’m the last customer. We join what seems like half the crowd outside chain smoking waiting around for their chance to meet Noah and Chandler. We recognize and chat with a few people we’d met earlier or at shows of artists with whom The Hellp share a fanbase. It seems that despite neither of us living in London, Astro and I have become recognizable faces in this underground electronic dance music scene. After twenty minutes or so, the crowd has largely dispersed, leaving only about a dozen devotees. The doors to the venue open and two sweaty tall skinny jeans and Celine leather jacket wearing rock stars walk out before being politely surrounded. For two people that a subsection of the internet loves to hate on, they are some of the nicest and most genuine guys I’ve ever met. Chandler asks every fan who stuck around to meet them where they’re from and what their deal is. It catches a few people around me off guard just how willing they are to speak to everyone. He notices and compliments the California flag I’m holding, happy to see people from his home state. Astro and I talk to him about our neighborhoods in LA, and he tells us that NorCal has much better Mexican food than SoCal, which I don’t believe for a second but I’ll take his word for it since I’ve hardly been to the former. A fan tells Noah he’s working on a music video for their song RllyNice, and Noah tells him “he better make it really fucking good” and that he always checks out what fans send him. We take a picture with both of them holding the flag. Gotta represent. They both say the audio for the show was terrible, apologizing profusely. “That was like a 65/100”, Noah tells us. He’s the expert and I’m just a fan but if that was The Hellp at 65%, I’m not sure if I can imagine how good they’d be at 100. Noah lets us all know that they’re ramping things up in 2025; no more releasing one single a year, or disappearing for years at a time. They promise appearances at festivals in Europe and the States over the summer and new music soon. We all tell them we can’t wait. As I’m writing this, the band have just announced they’ll be playing at Coachella this year, so it seems they’re sticking to their word. 

If you don’t know The Hellp, get to know, because I have a feeling that after a decade of cult status, the genius of their project is starting to breach containment. 

Words by Jasper Harvey.

Sports Team on their upcoming album: “The first record we’ve made that doesn’t sound like six idiots”

Ruby Smith on 8 December 2024

Ahead of a UK tour this month and the release of their third album Boys These Days in February, Ruby Smith caught up with Sports Team’s Alex Rice (vocals) and Rob Knaggs (lyrics, backing vocals, rhythm guitar) to discuss new music, offending people at their record label, and the hottest curry in Leeds. 

Like their music, Alex Rice and Rob Knaggs are equal parts funny, honest, and sincere. They speak to me on a sunny October afternoon after a comical meeting with their label: “Every campaign you have a word with your press and radio people and someone will always suggest you do a gig on the Thames, and that finally happened again today. You have to talk people down from that being an entertaining idea. Rob I think offended someone at our label; he said ‘Ah that sounds like something Circa Waves would do’ and the guy was like ‘I think I worked on that campaign!’”.

It is no surprise that gigs play a significant role in the campaign for the band’s upcoming album. Live performance is a cornerstone of Sport Team’s identity; they are reputed as one of the most exhilarating and raucous acts in the UK. The Mercury-nominated six-piece indie rock group blend punchy guitar riffs and catchy melodies with witty, observational lyrics that offer sharp commentary on the absurdity of everyday life. Their shows are a celebration of the chaos of being young in Britain. 

The raw energy of Sports Team gigs is captured in the group’s latest single, ‘Condensation’ – a lively track stacked with swaggering riffs and infectious excitement. Alex explains the importance of concerts to the band’s sound: “It is too much pressure to just rely on the music… When we first started playing there was always a sort of terror at not entirely knowing what to do with yourself when you’re on stage and it comes out as that sort of frantic energy you get. When we were getting into music as kids, the gigs were the bits we remembered. Going into London for a night with your mates and seeing these people we thought were heroes actually playing 500 cap rooms in London being like, ‘wow that was the greatest night of my life’. So I think when you see a bit of yourself in the crowd you’re playing to that’s always incredible. And it just feels more tangible as well; a lot of music now can get very about the streams report or radio report and stuff like that and if you do a press interview on Zoom or whatever it is, but it’s the live bit that feels very real.” 

In contrast to the pulsating physicality of ‘Condensation’, the previous single is a shimmering, glossy tune that oozes sophistication. ‘I’m in Love (Subaru)’ glistens with the romanticisation of a Subaru Impreza, while a cynical dissatisfaction lurks behind the new car dream. Sonically, the polished and poppy elements mark a turn for the band. 

While smouldering saxophone is a new feature, the glamorisation of mundanity is not. Whether singing about the M5, Wetherspoons, or Aldershot Municipal Gardens, Sports Team have always aimed to be the talisman for “Clarkson-core suburbs in middle England”. Alex explains, “We grew up in suburbs in boring towns in England and I think the whole kind of The Strokes style music that we grew up listening to was designed to make that feel like the least cool thing in the world”. Sports Team strive to “give value back to the way a lot of people live”. 

Even as their career grows and they play to larger crowds across the world, nothing about the band’s outlook has changed. Their music has, according to Alex, “always come from a place of quite specific experience, and I think that’s where more where music is going now. People want to hear about the specific: they want to hear a specific roundabout reference, they want to hear a specific bar reference. I think those are the songs we love as well – when you create a mythology around the stuff that exists in your very particular life.” 

He compares it to country music: “All that’s really doing is taking very prosaic stuff and making it everything. It is saying that tiny thing that happened in your life is important. I think that’s where our music has stayed – mythologising little things.” 

Rob has a “vision of some kid sat in their room in America thinking about Aldershot and thinking ‘oh I wish I could visit there one day’. The glamour of that place.” 

America to Aldershot is a lengthy pilgrimage, Aldershot to Leeds less so. The band feel very connected to this city: “I really like the Brudenell and we’ve played Live at Leeds loads of times.” Rob enthuses. “Al [Greenwood] our drummer is from there so it’s a city I feel like we know really well and enjoy coming back to”. Lucky for him, Sports Team return to Leeds on the 23rd November to play a sold out show at The Wardrobe. 

The last time the band performed in Leeds was memorable not only for the gig but also for the antics beforehand. Rob reminisces: “We got a little bit over excited in some of the pubs and were drinking quite a lot, so we had to eat something to get ourselves ready for the show. So we went to this restaurant and had what was claiming to be the hottest curry in Leeds… The chef came out at the end and shook our hands, crying, unbelievably red, everyone in the restaurant on their feet clapping. It was beautiful.” “Yeah we got a certificate for it!” Alex adds.

Spicy curries are not a habitual pre-gig tendency for the group, but when asked about post-gig rituals Alex confesses the first thing they do after coming off stage is always the same: microanalyse. “Talk every bit down, try and get hold of a desk mix, and analyse mistakes. Our bassist Oli [Dewdney] gets quite adamant, it is funny to say to him something like ‘You missed the third root note in the second track’ and just make it up and he will spend the rest of his week fixating on getting hold of a desk mix to prove that untrue.” 

Harsh critique is not only done to mess with mates, but is a genuine part of the band’s rehearsal method. Rob explains “we have a process we like to call a witch hunt. When something is sounding bad you go round in a circle and everyone has to play what they were playing really slowly while everyone else stands there and critiques it, which is quite horrible actually.” 

Clearly, Sports Team do not shy away from intense processes to produce results. Their upcoming album, Boys These Days, was created in Norway with producer Matthias Tellez (previous work includes Girl in Red and CMAT). Rob describes how the process differed from their other records: “we’re using the studio more as an instrument in its own right. Rather than doing 50 different guitar pedals to get a certain guitar tone there’s a bit more freedom to play around with different sounds and not necessarily have everything live in the room.” Their earlier music “had this super Pavement-y kind of slacker-y sound… you would go to the studio after 7pm with 2 cases of beer and by the time you’d finished them the song would be done. And it sort of sounds like that – there’s a kind of ramshackle element to it… On our first records we always sort of thought of ourselves as these polymaths, you know like we were the modern day reincarnations of Steely Dan or whatever. I think this is maybe the first record we’ve made that doesn’t sound like six idiots with guitars and drums and stuff in a room.” 

On the other hand, “in some senses the process was kind of similar … It’s always just about trying to enjoy yourself. When you go into a studio for a month, you just want to be having fun and surprise yourself”. 

As a result the album is “quite an insane mix of things”. Rob reveals that the songs range from “country western” to “very ACDC rock” to a tune in which “Riceys voice goes quite ethereal, it kind of sounds like Daughter”. Genre is dead. Sports Team are very much alive.

Words by Ruby Smith

Michael Kiwanuka at Brudenell: Small Changes Brings Soul To The Social Club

Francesca Lynes on 8 December 2024

To experience live the heavenly sounds of Michael Kiwanuka in the intimate gig space at the Brudenell Social Club was nothing short of a privilege. As we awaited for Kiwanuka to step onto the stage, the anticipatory chatter around me grew. But there was a shift in atmosphere once the set began; the hushed, focussed faces in the crowd around me confirming that I was not alone in understanding just how joyously momentous the evening was. 

As I arrived at what Kiwanuka would later call this ‘legendary venue’, I could see the queue snaking from the door almost to the security gate. In the November cold, I pulled my jacket tighter and my hat lower – unaware of the rich warmth of the gig that would follow the chilly wait. 

Inside, mid-century table lamps, an old television, and a homely worn rug, all bathed in the blue stagelights contributed to the intimate, almost cosy atmosphere and added to the crowd’s building anticipation. For the first of the two sold-out shows of the evening, the crowd huddled in as first the band, then Michael Kiwanuka, walked onto the stage. Smiling throughout, Kiwanuka glanced to his band for reassurance before uniting them in the start of ‘Lowdown (part i)’, my personal favourite from the new album, Small Changes (2024). 

Kiwanuka’s unique voice matched and occasionally exceeded his recorded versions, as the best live music can, but the standout figures from the set were the two female backing vocalists, Emily Holligan and Simone Daley-Richards. Filling the space with harmonies that voluminise an impressive discography, the three voices layered together culminated in an altogether spiritual musical experience. At one point, I closed my eyes to hear the richness of soul and sound in the finger-plucking intro to ‘Light’ (from 2019’s Mercury Prize winning album Kiwanuka) and allowed myself to be surrounded by the glorious gospel-esque harmonies. The magnitude of the sound produced was underplayed by the down-to-earth stage setting, the low-key on-stage communication and the familiar atmosphere built by Kiwanuka. The crowd are equally enamoured, phones only taken out of pockets by a small few who wished to save just a few moments of the performance on video.  

Kiwanuka is singular: his traditional style timelessly melds into carefully thought-through experimentalism. Despite this excellence, a sense of familiar warmth remains integral to the set: the backing singers gently tapping tambourines, Kiwanuka’s voice layered over perfectly. Many artists choose not to speak in between songs which can be effective but Kiwanuka spoke with the crowd briefly but genuinely. When Kiwanuka compliments his time visiting Leeds, a man in the crowd playfully shouts ‘Where’ve you been?’ to which Kiwanuka laughs and the audience laughs along, entirely settled into the comfort of the evening. In the times where it is just Kiwanuka’s voice carrying us through the melody, I occasionally noticed the band members watching him with a look of admiration that mirrored the faces in the crowd. 

Amid the noise of post-punk and Brat-pop dominating current music trends (I still have space for these both!), Kiwanuka’s exploration of music is in some way as warm and comforting as his homely set, but with a truly transcendentally uplifting sonic atmosphere that is a genuine treat. Listening back to Michael Kiwanuka’s discography after the concert I am reminded of the exceptional qualities in his music, yet I find myself yearning for the all-consuming ambience of the live experience. There really is nothing like it.

Words by Francesca Lynes.

Deftones: Down With The Kids 

Thomas Taylor Shenton on 8 December 2024

Thomas Taylor-Shenton explores Deftones’ legacy ahead of their huge Crystal Palace show next summer.

Earlier this month, alternative metal mainstays Deftones announced a their one-off headline show at Crystal Palace, London in June 2025. This announcement had the band’s British fans equally as confused and as excited, as, despite hints at a new album, it’s been four years since the release of their last album, Ohms(2020), and there have been no rumours of a UK tour. Not only that, LA pop-rockers Weezer are supporting, along with the London hardcore group, High Vis. 

I know for certain this shock announcement had my die-hard Dad bouncing off the walls with elation (probably putting his knee out in the process), but it also had me pondering over what the band’s actual demographic is these days. There’s no denying that TikTok has been a big influence in the relatively recent Deftones resurgence, with teens lip syncing to tunes like My Own Summer and Cherry Waves or posting thirst traps of Chino Moreno. To someone unfamiliar with Deftones, it could be assumed that they are a relatively young band, due to the combination of timeless music, and sheer amount of new, younger generation fans. How wrong they’d be. 

Deftones released their first album, Adrenaline in 1995, and have since put out 8 more studio albums, including Around the Fur and White Pony. I reckon if you spend no more than five minutes on campus you’d spot at least one Around the Fur tee. I was recently discussing the band’s rising popularity within my generation with my Dad (who I think is desperately trying to gate keep them, although he won’t admit it), and at first it came as a surprise to him how loved they are by people my age. They never really broke the mainstream in terms of album charts, until their third album White Pony hit number 3 in the states in 2000, and have been releasing music for nearly thirty years, but the truth is they are more popular than ever before. I genuinely think Deftones are one of those bands that are just cool, and wearing their merch would appear to just make you cool, not all dissimilar to wearing those Nirvana smiley face tees that provoke accustory “name three songs” conversations.

On a personal level, I’ve always felt a connection to Deftones. I first heard Koi No Yokan when I was 7 years old and fell in love instantly, always asking for it to be played in my Dad’s car. The album really is music fit perfectly for a 7 year old, none of that kids bop nonsense. Because of this, it makes myself, even me, at 19 year old, feel strange about their rise imbued to TikTok fame, so one can only imagine how confused a fan from a similar generation to my Dad, who have been following the band since their formation, would be. 

However, as disingenuous the influence of social media on a band’s popularity can sometimes seem, I believe the role it has played on the resurgence of Deftones is a blessing in disguise and loyal fans can only be excited about their favourite band gaining somewhat of a spotlight in the world of modern music, and can only be optimistic about what the band are yet to produce in the future. 

Come the 29th June, it will be very interesting to see the mixture of generations that making up the crowd in London, but the volume of younger people is certain to be refreshing to those older generation fans in attendance, and there’s no doubt that everyone lucky enough to experience the show, whether they’ve been a fan for life or area TikTok newbie, will be full of Adrenaline.

Words by Thomas Taylor-Shenton.