FREE SHOW - The Drink and Dear Pariah - 27 July

It's with great excitement that TOW is joining forces with the good folk at The Local to put on two of our current favourites. Irish guitarist and songwriter Dearbhla Minogue fronts The Drink (along with east Londoners Dan and Dave) they make grungey and melodic indie rock that gets under your skin. Then there's Somerset native Charlie Hinchliff who is Dear Pariah, she sings soulful folk rock ballads with a kick ass band behind her. 27 July, Ace Hotel Shoreditch and it's FREE!

Smoke Fairies interview and session

listen to ‘Smoke Fairies interview’ on Audioboo

Smoke Fairies are back with a stunner of a new album, simply called Smoke Fairies - near break up, lots of traveling and despair at the soul-destroying day jobs has produced a beaut. Hear live session tracks here and the girls get all introspective as we talk about the new album.

Bird to Beast, Sephine Llo free live show 17 June

The Other Woman has been working closely with The Local plotting live shows across the summer. Our first with Talk in Colour and Collectress at the Ace Hotel was a resounding success and we'll be back there at the end of July to bring you The Drink who are just superb.

In the meantime we're trying out a new venue - Topolski on the Southbank. Come along for performances from multi-talented singer songwriter Sephine Llo and Lancashire duo Bird to Beast on Tuesday 17 June, it's free and the cocktails are excellent.

Festival Pass - How The Light Gets In Festival

Since the beginning of May Festival Pass has been on Amazing Radio every Saturday afternoon with The Local's Howard Monk and myself debunking the festival scene. How do you get on the bill? Who do you need to know? How do you put on a festival? We spoke to Rob Da Bank about Bestival, Jane Beese about Meltdown, Tom Baker about Field Day and more. For the final show in the series we ran a competition for bands to play at How The Light Gets In at Hay on Wye. We took Seftel and Dear Pariah to the rain soaked festival for pies, beer and a good time had by all. We reflect on what we learned from the series and chat to our winners:

Gabby Young interview and session

It’s always a joy to welcome Gabby Young to the studio, this time without all the Other Animals, but just one – Milly McGregor, who plays violin and sings, and what a duo they make!

I could listen to Gabby Young for hours, her voice is one of the best in the business and stripped down the songs are utterly beguiling. Her new album One Foot In Front Of The Other is out in June and we’re treated to three songs on the show.

However don’t miss her playing a live show if you can, in full flight she is something to behold – you’ll be bopping and smiling like a crazy person.

Broken Twin in session

We had two session tracks from Broken Twin recorded for The Other Woman on Amazing Radio recently. The singer and pianist from Denmark has been casting her spell over critics in 2014 and her show at The Great Escape was a knock out. Prepare to be amazed!

Juanita from Howling Bells interview

Juanita Stein is frontwoman, songwriter and rockin' guitarist for Australian indie darlings Howling Bells. They've made the UK their home for ten years now, with various label homes along the way including Independiente, Cooking Vinyl and Bella Union. New album Heartstrings, their fourth, comes out on Birthday Records on 2 June. We caught up with Juanita about female producers, making London her home and becoming a mother. There's also another track from the extraordinary Mishaped Pearls debut album, plus German rapper/ producer DENA, Iceland's Samaris and of course, Sharon Van Etten. Listen again here.

Latest radio shows listen again

The Other Woman is on Amazing Radio every Sunday evening at 9pm:

There’s been much excitement at Amazing Towers as rockin’ Glaswegian duo Honeyblood released a new single, Killer Bangs is just as good as what’s come before and we’re all over it. 2014 is looking like the year for these two and we’re right behind them!

We’ve got a new single from Moulettes and Fiona Bevan too, plus Little Sparrow delivers some gorgeous country tinged folk. There’s some electronic loveliness from Sweden’s Klara Lewis too, daughter of Graham Lewis of Wire fame and doing extraordinary things with her debut album.

Congratulations to The Other Woman favourites The Tuts who’ve recently released their third EP Time To Move On. We particularly love this picture of them! They’re celebrating by playing fashion label parties in London and doing a session for our mate John Kennedy over on XFM. Perfect.

There’s also music from Kathryn Williams, in which she writes about her lack of love for the daily grind in Monday Morning from her latest album Crown Electric. You’ll also hear something new from Dum Dum Girls (sounding quite Chrissie Hynde like) and we introduce Joana Serrat, a Catalan singer who sounds a little like Laura Veirs.

You can listen again to all the most recent shows here.

Win a chance to play at How The Light Gets In

Attention bands! This summer my show with Howard Monk on Amazing Radio, Festival Pass, is giving you the chance to play live at a wonderful festival on the banks of the river Wye.

Set across 11 days with 500 events How The Light Gets In is a joint philosophy and music festival where 180 speakers and some 300 acts will be performing live across 7 stages. The music line up is already looking very strong with the likes of Mr Scruff, Emmy The Great and Moulettes all set to play and YOU COULD TOO!

Listen again to the latest shows

Sharon Van Etten

The Other Woman has a new home! We’ve moved to 9pm on Sunday evenings, as the new short series Festival Pass is going to be aired on Saturdays at 5. Check it out for your chance to play on a festival bill and to win tickets.

On the last two shows on The Other Woman we’ve had a session track from London’s Sephine Llo, Marissa Nadler‘s beautiful single Was It A Dream, and something ‘banging’ from Germany’s Nina. We delved into the session archive for another track from Charlie Hinchcliff aka Dear Pariah too, as she readies her EP for release.

An old favourite of ours makes an appearance, the wonderful Brooklyn songwriter Sharon Van Etten. She's releasing her second album soon and Taking Chances, the first single, is an excellent taster. I also can’t wait to go and be a groupie at her forthcoming UK tour.

We’ve got new music from Smoke Fairies too, the endlessly prolific duo are rockin’ out on their new album. We’re dipping into some electro-pop with sisters Say Lou Lou and also Australian native George Maple, plus, we introduce you to Manchester’s Rachel Hillary.

Listen again here or join in the fun on Sunday from 9pm.

Festival Pass with Meltdown and Field Day - free tickets!

Ruth Barnes and Howard Monk are focusing their attention on two of London’s finest festivals in Meltdown at the Southbank Centre and Field Day in Victoria Park on Festival Pass.

To help us tell the story of these very different events we’ve enlisted the help Jane Beese from Meltdown and Tom Baker from Field Day, so if you’re interested in learning about the special relationships Meltdown cultivates with it’s curators or what it takes for a new band to play Field Day, this show is for you.

Festival pass is a run of special shows giving you access to the major players in the UK festival circuit, in the second edition we’ll be playing out music from bands appearing at both Meltdown and Field Day whilst also giving you the chance to win tickets to these two great events.

Festival Pass with Rob Da Bank and ticket giveaway

BBC Radio 1 DJ, label boss and festival organiser Rob Da Bank gets things moving for my new run of shows entitled Festival Pass, on Amazing Radio, with agent and promoter Howard Monk (The Local).

Rob gives us a unique insight into the UK festival circuit, what it takes to be successful as an independent and how he decides his line-ups. Originally kicking off Bestival over a decade ago, the small festival went from strength to strength and even spawned a little sibling in the ever popular Camp Bestival. Don’t forget we’re giving you the chance to go for free!

We're also giving away tickets to all our upcoming featured festivals - this Saturday we feature Meltdown and Field Day, so you'll find tickets to those too here.

Bethia Beadman in session

Described by Amanda Palmer as sitting somewhere between Cat Power, Nick Drake and Scott Walker, London based Bethia Beadman reveals her new video for Mary exclusively here on Amazing Radio. The new album Chinatown is soaked in Phil Spector-esque production and big, strong melodies. There’s no acoustic noodling here, this is the sound of a confident artist who is poised for greatness album number three.

Bird to Beast in session

On first hearing Bird to Beast's single Elephant, you cannot help but break out into a joyful whoop and start singing along like a maniac. It's *that* catchy, it's *that* beautifully crafted and honed, it's worthy of the great pop masters, I reckon Lennon would have been envious. Married couple Sam and Hannah Hird are the talent behind Bird to Beast, and 2014 will be a special year for them, having already garnered radio and online attention - the only way is up for this pair. I snagged a session with them for Amazing Radio in 2013 that thought best to hang onto it until the single release - so here it is for your listening pleasure:

The Other Woman & The Local present...

I'm very excited to be putting on three fantastic bands in association with The Local. On April 27th - London experimental quartet Collectress headline, with a new album to plug, then using electronics, harp, cello and more there's TOW favourites Talk in Colour and taking a break from TV soundtracks and Levi's ad campaigns we also have Megan Wyler on the bill - all will perform at The Ace Hotel in London's Shoreditch. I'll be deejaying - it's FREE.

Festival Pass on Amazing Radio

Over the next 6 weeks I'm hosting a new show on Amazing Radio with agent and promoter Howard Monk (The Local) - Festival Pass.

We're getting under the skin of our favourite festivals and asking the organisers how they do it, but more importantly how do YOU get to play on the bill. Do you need an agent? Do they actually listen to every last submission they receive?

As well as giving away tickets to Camp Bestival, Meltdown, Field Day, Barn on the Farm and The Great Escape - we're also running a competition where you and your band could play at How The Light Gets In.

All you need to do to enter is upload a killer track to your Amazing Tunes profile like this:

Artist Name - Track Titles (Festival Pass) ... and you'll be in the running.

Intl Women's Day with Little Boots - listen again

Our guest on The Other Woman to celebrate International Women’s Day was Victoria Hesketh aka Little Boots. The electronic musician and On Repeat Records founder has been on a whirlwind trajectory from Brit’s Critics Choice nominee (and major label deal) to true independence. Little Boots has railed against the misogyny she experienced in the industry and is now fiercely independent and outspoken about what women in the great grinding mainstream machine go through. With an excellent ear for an electro-pop hit, she’s playing us some of her latest favourites and we’re getting to the bottom of it all…

listen to ‘Intl Women's Day - Little Boots Special’ on Audioboo

Sephine Llo in session

The gorgeous Sephine Llo is in session on this week's The Other Woman on Amazing Radio – the sound engineer turned awesome songwriter and musician is facing 2014 full steam ahead with her new EP Flame, out on Tape Club Records, and has an album set for later this summer. With an interest in weird and wonderful instruments which aid the song writing process, her songs are intricate and very beautiful. Listen to the session tracks below:

Listen again with Howard Monk

This week we chat to Howard Monk who runs brilliant live music nights and manages talent as The Local. He bigs up some artists he’s loving right now including The Other Woman favourite Sophie Jamieson, New Zealander Tiny Ruins, Rachael Dadd (a new single!) and introduces us to Catalan singer and musician Clara Sanabras. We’ve got new music from Marissa Nadler, Hurray for the Riff Raff and Smoke Fairies… it doesn’t get better than that! You can listen again to the show here.

Lilies on Mars interview

This week we meet duo Lilies on Mars in an East London pub. The girls are over here from Italy playing some shows and we’re loving their new single Dream of Bees (especially the Julia Kent remix which gets a spin too).

We also dig into our session archive and play one from San Francisco’s Jessica Pratt who recently graced Simon Raymonde‘s show with her presence. There’s also music from Bristol’s Rachael Dadd and London rockers The Drink… listen again here!