Reviews: The Rolling Stones and Sam Fender at BST Hyde Park (pages 26-27)
The Music Magazine for students, by students. Interviews with The Amazons, Nina Nesbitt, Superorganism and more. Exclusive features and gig & festival...
About Me
Music Editor at Redbrick Newspaper and Freelance Journalist
Birmingham, UK based
Specialising in music journalism, especially pop, pop punk, indie and rock reviews and features.
Other work focuses on disability, art-history, film, TV, and books.
Featured in Gigwise and The Unwritten.
My Work
Live Review: The Big Moon | Music
Music Critic Sammy Andrews reviews the Big Moon’s live show at the O2 Academy Birmingham on the 21st September, describing it as ‘a welcome reminder of the joy that comes out of live music’
On its third rescheduled date, indie-rock quartet The Big Moon finally brought their live show to Birmingham. Initially the tour for their second studio album Walking Like We Do, their set was since updated with new tracks from their upcoming album Here is Everything. Injected with fun, the show stood as a w
The Disabled Cost of Living: Food Shopping is Even Harder When You're Gluten Free
Millions of people are currently struggling to heat their homes, pay their bills and afford food in the toughest Cost of Living Crisis the UK has seen in 30 years. In our new series, The Disabled Cost of Living, we will hear how disabled people are disproportionately affected, due to their lives already costing more and being valued as less.
During the current cost of living crisis, the price of everyday basics seems daunting enough, without having to navigate a specialist diet alongside it. Ye
Album Review: cheerbleederz - even in jest | Gigwise
even in jest is an album full of the spirit of DIY. Fluctuating between brutally honest and tongue in cheek lyrics, each song is infused with personality, making cheerbleederz stand out as a band having a blast whilst making music. This spirit is infectious, and even in jest is a debut effort from cheerbleederz that never falls flat because of it.
Following in the footsteps of those before them, even in jest sees cheerbleederz affirming an unapologetic voice in the current DIY scene. Influences
Album Review: Beach Bunny - Emotional Creature | Gigwise
At various stages of anxiety, confidence + love
Beach Bunny’s sophomore album Emotional Creature sees the group finding their feet both musically and individually. The album is an exploration of the need to grow, adapt and change, finding beauty in the vast kaleidoscope of human emotions. Arriving with a brash Y2K inspired indie rock sound, Emotional Creature is simultaneously vulnerable and confident – finding solace in the messiness of life and navigating love throughout it all.
Bursting the
Album Review: Violet Skies - If I Saw You Again | Gigwise
Taking you on an emotional journey
If I Saw You Again is a vulnerable and honest debut album from Violet Skies that sees the singer-songwriter finding her own voice. The stripped-back and intimate record is a collection of melodic piano and guitar tracks with each song feeling like an invitation into the most honest parts of the singer’s life. Covering themes from death to break-ups and first meetings, the album stands as a sense of clarity on the various paths crossed in life, with Violet Skie
Album Review: Vance Joy - In Our Own Sweet Time | Music
In his third album, In Our Own Sweet Time, Vance Joy leans into the romantic more than ever. Melding his delicate story-telling with acoustic-pop melodies, each song feels like a snapshot of a personal and intimate memory. In Our Own Sweet Time feels like the rush of a romance in the summer warmth bottled into an album.
In Our Own Sweet Time opens with the beautiful guitar patterns we are familiar with in Joy’s music. The opening track ‘Don’t Fade’ does however introduce new facets to Joy’s mus
Album Review: State Champs - Kings of the New Age | Music
If pop-punk is back, then State Champs have declared themselves the Kings of its revival in their latest album, Kings of the New Age. Offering shoutable lyrics, sun-drenched pop-punk riffs and, infectious melodies, State Champs are in full force on Kings of the New Age.
In their first studio album since 2018’s Living Proof, State Champs have returned in Kings of the New Age with one of their most energetic and fun-filled albums yet. Bursting out with the gritty guitar hook of ‘Here to Stay,’ St
Birmingham's Independent Cinema Scene | Film
Standing as one of the oldest running cinemas in the United Kingdom, The Electric Cinema is a landmark for cultural history in Birmingham. The threat of its permanent closure during the pandemic was a really sad moment for film-lovers and the rich cinematic history that the building holds. But, in November last year, news broke that Kevin Markwick had bought the cinema and planned on re-opening it in the new year. In January 2022 its doors once again opened just as they did back in 1909, and it
Book Review: Heartstopper | Culture
Alice Oseman’s Heartstopper is a heart-warming romance graphic novel that everyone needs to read at some point. Heartstopper follows Charlie Spring and Nick Nelson as they meet and fall in love. Within this is a beautiful depiction of coming of age and the navigation of identity, sexuality and mental health alongside this. The graphic novel will tug at your heartstrings in the best way possible and is certain to leave you full of joy.
The four-volume series, with the fifth to be released next y
Review: Turning Red | Film
Pixar’s latest film Turning Red is an energetic and vibrant dive into coming-of-age and self-acceptance that promises to both warm your heart and lift your spirits. From the stylisation of the animation to the film’s very own boyband, Turning Red captures what it feels like to be 13 and figuring out who you are. This is the kind of film I wish I could have had when I was 13 and discovered who I was through numerous obsessions with boybands (One Direction, I’m looking at you…).
Following Meilin
Album Review: Walt Disco - Unlearning | Gigwise
Walt Disco’s debut album is a melodramatic and self-explorative step out onto the stage. A stage show in two acts, Unlearning, pulls together entrancing production and sprawling soundscapes to interrogate love, flings, heartbreak and identity.
As much of a product of our times as it is of musical legacy, Unlearning is a debut album that both situates Walt Disco as a synth-indie/rock band and challenges our expectations of them. Produced largely in a bedroom due to the pandemic, the exploration
Album Review: Babeheaven - Sink Into Me | Gigwise
Babeheaven’s latest album sees the band leaning into a much more eclectic range of influences and sounds, melding elements of R'n'B and electro-pop into their dreamy indie sound. Atmospheric and ethereal, Sink Into Me is a melodic delve into disillusionment, loss and yearning for human connection.
Babeheaven enter Sink Into Me with ‘Heartbeat’ displaying the synths you might expect of their bedroom-pop back catalogue, and then they lift them into a rooting of jazz and R'n'B-inspired drums and m
Navigating Trend Cycles with a Chronic Illness
Twee is back, and the difference between 2014 and now is that I have a chronic illness and find myself looking onto the aesthetic more skeptically. In fact, living with a chronic illness has found me looking at the constant cycling of fashion trends with a certain layer of cynicism.
In a world where what is defined as ‘on trend’ is constantly shifting and changing, it is often difficult to navigate your illness alongside this.
I find myself looking at each of these aesthetics and asking: where
Single Review: State Champs - Everybody But You (Feat. Ben Barlow) | Music
State Champs and Neck Deep’s Ben Barlow have teamed up for ‘Everybody But You,’ a song that is bound to get stuck in your head, Music Editor Sammy Andrews reviews
State Champs and Neck Deep’s Ben Barlow have collaborated and made a song that can only be described as an insanely catchy burst of pop-punk fun. ‘Everybody But You’ is an anthem for casting off negative people and embracing joy back into your life, and State Champs deliver it with such a strong punchiness that it is guaranteed to get
Album Review: Mom Jeans - Sweet Tooth | Music
Music Editor Sammy Andrews reviews Sweet Tooth, the new album from Mom Jeans, finding it to be a nostalgic blast of ear candy that balances ideas of vulnerability and humour
Mom Jeans have taken a delve into the infectiously sweet sound of 90’s rock and pop-punk for their latest album Sweet Tooth. Drawing from the likes of Blink-182 and Fall Out Boy, Mom Jeans bring these influences into their midwestern emo leaning sound and, most importantly, have fun doing so. Playing the field between witty
The Best Films of 2021 | Film
Like many of the films on this list, The French Dispatch’s delayed release was much awaited by Wes Anderson fans, and it did not disappoint. Meticulous to the point of self-indulgence, the film chronicles the works and lives of three writers for The French Dispatch, a travelogue magazine based in the fictional town of Ennui-sur-Blasé. Each featurette depicts Anderson’s typically quirky characters, based on writers and stories from the real life New Yorker magazine, and executed with his signatur
's Picks: TV Couples | TV
For the cynical among us, Fleabag (Phoebe Waller-Bridge) felt like a kindred spirit: disillusioned by love, struggling with her attitude to sex, ultimately unable to form meaningful connections with any of the men in her life (for a Freudian reading feel free to blame her father).
And yet in Season Two she finally genuinely connects with someone – the ‘cool priest’ played by the incredible Andrew Scott. From their first meeting their chemistry is evident, and as one of TikTok’s favourite couple
TV Character Spotlight - Jess Mariano (Gilmore Girls) | TV
Gilmore Girls is arguably the ultimate comfort show – with its cosy autumnal atmosphere and lively cast of characters, it is so easy to get lost within it. Based around the mother/daughter relationship between Lorelai (Lauren Graham) and Rory Gilmore (Alexis Bledel) and Rory’s coming of age, the show navigates life in a small town brilliantly. Each character feels familiar, and the whole show feels homely, which is why when Jess Mariano (Milo Ventimiglia) bursts onto the Stars Hollow streets it
Film Picks: Festive Favourites | Slider (Film)
The writers and editors of Redbrick Film come together to recommend their favourite festive films, from classics like It’s a Wonderful Life to hidden gems such as Olive the Other Reindeer
Although the festive season is just behind us, the writers and editors of Redbrick have come together to recommend their favourite festive films for this year’s holiday season. Ideal for a cold night by the fireplace, these films are certain to tick the boxes for a heartwarming evening of entertainment!
It’s
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