Each week we like to champion the music scene with ten songs in our playlist that all have a connection to the RaW (Reading and Wokingham) area and sometimes beyond. This week we have four new tracks for you from acts with connections to Reading and Wokingham. As always, we have a wide variety of musical styles, but we think they’re all worth a listen and we hope you find something new to enjoy as well as maybe getting out to experience the thrill of live music.
1. Sparks – Do Things My Own Way –
It’s road-trip time! And what a road trip it was! A unique venue, Royal Hospital Chelsea, with a wonderful and special opening set in that setting from Chelsea Pensioner Singers, followed by an absolutely brilliant headlining set from those legends of quirky inventive pop and rock, Sparks. Brothers Ron and Russell Mael, who created and have led the band for nearly 60 years, were as fresh and entertaining as ever and certainly you’d never have guessed their ages from their energetic performance. They played those classic hits including Number One Song In Heaven, Beat the Clock and of course This Town Ain’t Big Enough For Both Of Us which, with Russell and Ron being backed by an immensely strong and powerful band, was stunning! The set also showed that the band have continued to produce great music throughout their long career as some of the strongest songs in their set came from their most recent albums, including this one from last year’s Mad album – https://allsparks.com
2. Blu Peter – The Pictures in Your Mind (Kadoc Mix) –
It’s time for another Day Rave!! The first two of these events have shown that a Sunday afternoon is a perfect time to dance the time away. This next event on 28th June at Reading Face Bar will be no exception as headlining the event will be DJ Blu Peter who is well known from the 90’s nu-NRG, trance and techno scenes. He was resident DJ at major London nightclubs Heaven and Turnmills. Joining him on the decks is another legend, DJ Choci, and there is support from local DJ’s Ryan Grenz and Bob Trombosis. Big shout out to Bob and the Future Transmissions crew for putting on these events – https://www.instagram.com/blupeter
3. Jervaulx Singers – Ingen vinner frem –
Something a little different, and a chance to calm down if you’ve been doing “Big fish, little fish, cardboard box” to Blu Peter. On 28th June, the Yorkshire-based Jervaulx Singers join the Reading Festival Chorus for a special concert at the Wesley Methodist Church. Ingen vinner frem is a Norwegian folk song, and gives some idea of the vocal treats in store. https:// www.facebook.com/JervaulxSingers
4. Strange Turn – The Stranger (Icarus Peel Mix) –
We went along to the recent Mordecai Smyth album launch show at Reading Face Bar and it was excellent! We are looking forward to seeing him and his band at Wokingham Festival in August. Mordecai releases his music on the internationally renowned local label, Mega Dodo Records which is run by music man John Blaney. John has also released his own album, ‘Dodo Eggs’ under the name Strange Turn and we really like the melodic and sometimes quirky psychedelic feel. This track was mixed by Icarus Peel who also performed an impressive live set with his Acid Reign band at Mordecai’s Reading show – https://megadodo.bandcamp.com
5. Not Now Norman – Feral –
Alec MacKechnie is the eponymous Crazy Cowboy who promotes events in various places including Reading. Most recent was the Crazy Cowboy Festival 11 at the Face Bar, which we were fortunate to attend, and were left wishing we’d also been to the previous 10! A well-organised event (despite the name!) with a host of great bands, most new to us; Not Now Norman came all the way from Berwick-upon-Tweed! They really need to be experienced live, but, just as flavour, this is their latest single. https://www.notnownorman.com/
6. Hawkwind – There is Still Danger There –
They’ve been going for nearly 60 years and throughout that time they have continued to be one of the leading lights of the space rock scene, and they released a new album last week entitled Psychedelic Selection. They had a couple of chart hits in the 1970’s and are still going strong today as you can hear from this track taken from their previous album, There is No Space for Us released last year on Cherry Red Records. You can see how good they still are as a live cosmic happening when the Hawkwind starship lands at Reading Hexagon on June 26th – https:// www.hawkwind.com
7. Neil Wighton – Cry an Ocean –
We know him as the guitarist in Spriggan Mist, understated, compared with the rest of the band (who isn’t?), but responsible for some compelling solos. He released his debut album, where he played most of the instruments, at the start of this year and it has garnered some very good
reviews; this is his latest single, which is a new version of one of the album tracks featuring contributions from a collection of prog musicians. https://www.facebook.com/Neilwightonmusic
8. The Unthanks – Magpie –
Sometimes we go on a road trip, like our recent visit to London, sometimes a big name comes to us, as with Midge Ure at the Hexagon, or The Unthanks at the Town Concert Hall. The Unthanks are folk group from the North East, and their repertoire covers a range of styles of folk-inflected music. This is the song that inspired the third series of Mackenzie Crook’s The Detectorists; it was written by Davey Dodds, who we had the pleasure of seeing perform a couple of times, including in Bracknell, and who sadly died earlier this year. https://www.facebook.com/TheUnthanks
9. Fawlers – slob –
We featured a few tracks from Oxford-based The Mezz, and were sorry to hear that they called it a day as a band last year. They did say they’d be carrying on as individuals, and we heard recently about a new band, Fawlers, that formed at the end of 2025 and has The Mezz’s vocalist, Benji Comley, as the frontman. They’ve not been hanging about, this is already their third single, and we hope to catch them live before long. https://www.instagram.com/fawlers.uk/
10. TRASHCAT – CALLING –
Currently based in Portsmouth, Charlotte Stokes is someone whose musical output we’ve been a fan of for some years – we first saw her at the much-missed Acoustic Couch in Bracknell. Her latest project is TRASHCAT, and this is the latest self-penned single. https:// www.instagram.com/trashcatmusic_/
You can listen to all the songs featured in our Spotify playlist at https://bit.ly/rawsoundstoday
