Oxford's biggest student newspaper, produced by and for members of the University of Oxford, since 1991.
Walking into the O2 Academy, it was hard to pinpoint an age demographic for the audience, but there was a uniting element. It has become a cliché to describe the DMAs as a brit pop band, but the crowd of bucket hats and slouched hoodies has made the hark back to the 90s almost unavoidable. […]
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“This is a new song,” Jorja Smith half-giggles into the mic. “It’s about how shit the government is.” The crowd goes wild – she knows her market well. Bathed in dusky yellow light on a stage reminiscent of your mum’s front room, Jorja Smith is starting a small revolution of her own. Two years after […]
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The story of jazz saxophonist John “Trane” Coltrane, is one of musical innovation and exploration. He is remembered today as one of the most influential jazz players of all time. But, as was unfortunately the case with so many of his fellow jazz musicians of the 1950s and 60s, it was one marred by addiction […]
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I entered the bar at St John’s on Wednesday for the ‘Acoustic Night’ that formed part of their arts week. The bar was lively and, as it was smaller than I had anticipated, I held out hope for the ‘soothing live music’ experience they had advertised. Yet the number of amps on stage were slowly […]
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It’s seven-thirty on a Thursday night, and I’m in line to see a band I hadn’t heard of until this week: The Night Café. The Liverpool up-and-comers have released about as many songs as I can count on two hands, and yet they’re here at the Bullingdon as part of their UK tour. They’re young […]
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With a background as a wilderness survival expert and burlesque dancer, Sam Lee is hardly your stereotypical folkie. Not one born into the tradition, London-native Lee discovered traditional British folksong through old field recordings, which he listened to in his West End dressing room, between glittery-hotpant costume changes. But to learn second-hand was not enough […]
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As a visiting student whose time is wrapping up in Oxford, I’ve started to think back on all the moments that I’ll remember most from my short eight-week stint here. Will it be my fourteenth essay of the term or my twentieth formal hall? Probably not. But amongst the memories that keep coming to mind […]
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Everything the Pains of Being Pure At Heart do seems effortless. Vocal hooks, effortless; Belle and Sebastian-esque vignettes ripe with detail and pathos, effortless; Jesus and Mary Chain feedback, Jonny Marr jangle, classics straight off a C86 compilation mixtape from the 1980s, all seem to breeze past without any exertion on the part of anyone […]
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“Are you a music journalist?” I got asked, for the first time of my life last Friday at the O2, catching me ever so slightly off guard. “Yeah. I’m actually supposed to be reviewing this gig.” “Ah, that’s sweet! For who?” Deep breath. “The OxStu.” “Ah.” And she turned around and didn’t speak another word […]
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Ryley Walker is something of an eccentric. At only 27 years old, he’s already built a solid reputation in the psychedelic rock scene for his creativity and improvisational skills: ‘The way I play is just like: first thought, best thought. And that’s a really rewarding feeling, to just improvise and have it work.’ With that […]
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Gregory Alan Isakov writes songs for travellers. He’s an indie folk singer-songwriter whose work depicts places and people you can visit with a single listen – which explains why people travelled from miles around to hear him weave his stories in London last night. The personal nature of much of his repertoire might have made […]
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The Ox Stu: What is Dreaming Squires promotions? Dreaming Squires was formed in a field in Winchester by two pretty drunk blokes who like music that doesn’t visit Oxford. It seemed like a good idea in the morning, so we went ahead with it. It’s a labour of dirty, sweaty love aimed at fostering a […]
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