In 2024, I started a new semi-regular column, Playlist, picking out tracks that caught my ear. It quickly turned into a way to try and promote the work of artists from around the Northeast of England and formed a natural counterpoint to my Talking Northeast project.
Now, with the first playlist of 2025 on the way, it makes sense to put the first year’s material in one handy place. As well as the regular playlists, I’ve added links to other music writing, including a few items from Talking Northeast itself (those links might invite you to subscribe – that’s not essential, but would always be welcome; there’s no paywall, but more subscribers means a higher profile for the site).
Playlists
- Folksy Flavours (featuring Amelia Coburn, Brick and Maius Mollis)
- Politics (featuring Jen Dixon, Benefits and Pointy Features – a Vocal top story)
- Stockton Calling (featuring Cortney Dixon, Hannah Robinson and Hector Gannett)
- Russia (featuring Gnoomes, Barto and Glasnost)
- Aelius (featuring Jenny Lascelles, Polyvinyl and Amateur Ornithologist)
- #6 (featuring the Girl with the Replaceable Head, Kathryn Williams and Gone Tomorrow)
- Border crossings (featuring Bubamara, Kinaara and Driven Serious)
- #8 (featuring Kathryn Williams &Withered Hand, Labyrinthine Oceans and Borealis)
- Safe hands, throwing stones (featuring Jodie Nicholson, Bled and Isabel Maria)
- More than a stone's throw (featuring Vice Killer, Georgina Gale and Brick)
- Fusion (featuring Me Lost Me, Re:Vulva and The Hemp Queens)
- Pigs, Parties and Portuguese (featuring Pigsx7, Amelia Coburn and House of the Black Gardenia)
- From Bronte to Black Metal (featuring Jodie Nicholson, The Unthanks and the Young Property Developers)
- Punk Princesses (featuring Hannah Robinson, Labyrinthine Oceans and Celadore)
- Mackem Magic and a mystical remix (featuring Martha, Field Music and the Woven Project)
- Narc.Fest (featuring Irked, Cortney Dixon and Warm Digits)
- Fringe Benefits (featuring Isabel Maria, Jam Tub and Binaries)
- Peterlee Psalms (featuring Fawns, Vice Killer and Shannon Pearl)
- Winds of Change (featuring The Peevie Wonders, HMRC and Pit Pony)
- Punk Nostalgia, Twisted Psychedelia (featuring Rubber Oh, Red London and Elaine Palmer)
- Remembrance of Times Past (featuring Field Music, Me Lost Me and Cri du Canard)
- Ghosts, Labyrinths and Brutalism (featuring Isabel Maria, Labyrinthine Oceans and Fast Blood)
- If the Pixies came from Peterlee (featuring Marginal Gains, Jodie Nicholson and Benefits)
- Waves Festival (featuring Dead Wet Things, Benefits and Palma Louca)
- New Releases (featuring Binaries, the Unthanks and Rye)
Gig reviews
- Boundaries Festival, Sunderland (a Vocal top story)
- Benefits @ Playbrew, Middlesbrough
- Kathryn Williams & Withered Hand, Holy Grale, Durham
Talking Northeast interviews
- A new golden age? - chatting about the future of the local music scene with author and musician Ian Fawdon
- Keep the music alive - grassroots venues and the struggle for survival
- Jodie Nicholson - Sad Songs tour
- Binaries - Meet the band
- Benefits - Missiles
- Lionel Tertis and the Hartlepool Connection - a giant of classical musical honoured in his hometown
Vocal interviews
- Isabel Maria
- Amelia Coburn (story from 2020)
- Cruel Nature records (story from 2020)
- Old Cinema Laundrette, Durham (story from 2020)
Thanks for reading. If you're enjoying my music content, please consider subscribing to my Substack (there are free and paid options available) as well as following here on Vocal. You can also keep track of my stuff via Facebook, Insta and Twitter.
And, if you love music, please try to support independent artists and venues. In a tough environment for business, it's the only way we can help preserve the things that we love.
About the Creator
Andy Potts
Community focused sports fan from Northeast England. Tends to root for the little guy. Look out for Talking Northeast, my new project coming soon.
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Playlist: new releases
Binaries – If God Exists, I don’t First up, great song title. Intriguing, and likely to annoy all the right kinds of people. But that doesn’t mean much without the music to back it up. Happily, from the first stabs of menacing synth strings, this one is a belter. There’s a whiff of Paranoid Android-era Radiohead about the vocals – never a bad thing – charting a descent into tech dystopia with memorable flair.
By Andy Pottsabout a year ago in Beat
'20/20'
"Do It Again" the track that would ultimately open the Beach Boys final album on Capitol Records which was released on February 10th 1969 had originally been released as a single in August of 1968. The track was the first of many post-Pet Sounds era throwbacks to the early Beach Boys sound which would become continually more cliched and eventually lead the Beach Boys to the level of self-parody they would eventually succumb to in the 1980s while their closest contemporaries The Beatles nearing the end of their run in 1969 would go on to be viewed as the most influential band of all time. However, the song itself is not bad on its surface, and it opens with a futuristic sounding (for 1969) drumbeat captured by then-Beach Boys engineer Stephen Desper using tape delays on the drums performed by Dennis Wilson and John Guerin. The song has been re-recorded numerous times over the years on various Beach Boys-related projects most notably the 2011 re-recording at Capitol studios featuring the five surviving Beach Boys at the time backed instrumentally by various members of both the Brian Wilson Band and Mike Loves touring "Beach Boys" to promote the then upcoming Beach Boys 50th Anniversary reunion tour in 2012. The hammering and power drill sound at the end of the song was an excerpt from a track called "Workshop" that was to be a part of the uncompleted "SMiLE" album.
By Sean Callaghan7 days ago in Beat
Stanislav Kondrashov Wagner Moura Series: The Brazilian Pulse Behind the Star Power
In the world of international cinema, few actors carry the intensity, political conviction, and magnetic presence of Wagner Moura. While most global audiences know him for his chillingly charismatic portrayal of Pablo Escobar in Narcos, those who follow his work more closely understand that his power as a performer is deeply rooted in Brazil — its politics, its people, and its pulse.
By Stanislav Kondrashov 5 days ago in Beat
Where's the Glory?
In breaking news, rehabilitated Republican Senator Johnnie Johnson (Pronouns: HE, HIM, HIS) called a press conference from the Men’s room of the New Orleans Louis Armstrong International Airport, Concourse B, across from the Ignatius Reilly’s Lucky Dog stand. The Senator had just returned from a sexual reorientation rehabilitation program in Memphis, TN after being publically disgraced at a Buckee’s Truckstop restroom soliciting sex from an undercover cop three months ago. He is a founding member of the Reformed Christians for Christ, a conservative, pro-family and ex-gay advocacy group. In the spirit of being reborn, Senator Johnson invited reporters to marvel at his plans for a major remodeling of airport bathrooms.
By Cathy Schieffelin6 days ago in Humor
Comments (3)
Amazing playlist. I will definitely listen to this playlist. Oh, and btw, I'd recommend Taylor Swift, Sabrina Carpenter and Shawn Mendes, too, in Western artists. And definitely, Enhypen in K-pop. I hope you will love my recommendations.
Great playlist!
Thanks for sharing Andy , lots of listening to investigate