Live Review: Leeds Festival 2012

It's not exactly been a vintage year for the UK's major festival circuit. Mediocre lineups, Glastonbury's absence and the odd cancellation have, truth be told, made for a rather quiet season, with no real success stories or headline grabbing antics to speak of. Reading and Leeds, the last of the summer giants can usually be relied on to liven things up, but this year even they appeared a tad underwhelming, with a pair of generic headliners topping a bill which looked average at best. This twin event's ace card, however, has always been its depth, so there was a certain inevitability in the way that the schedule became more and more attractive with each new announcement.

Album Review: The Cribs - In The Belly Of The Brazen Bull

Album Rating: B+

Icon and inspiration as he is, it's difficult to avoid the feeling that Johnny Marr's presence in The Cribs was something of a disruption. Nowhere was this more evident than Ignore The Ignorant, the one and only album on which legendary ex-Smiths man featured. Desperately attempting to entwine his distinctive jangle with the Jarmans own vigorous youthful abandon, the end result, although by no means bad, simply portrayed a band attempting to be something that it isn't. Marr's addition did bring about some positives, and did plenty to bolster the band's already impressive live shows, but sadly his main influence was to stifle much of what made the Wakefield trio such a vital force to begin with.