It’s been another exceptional year for Feeder. Their tenth studio album Tallulah scored a top five placing in the UK albums chart while the subsequent promotional tour also managed to sell out nearly every show. Which is no mean feat for a band now in its twenty-fifth year of existence.

As 2019 enters its final weeks, one of the most heart warming stories in the music world centres around the rapid rise of Working Men’s Club. Hailing from the Calderdale borough of West Yorkshire that boasts the cultural havens of Hebden Bridge, Todmorden and Halifax amongst its towns and villages. If the first twelve months of their existence were about honing their crafts and finding a sound. This year has been nothing of a meteoric rise, and deservedly so.

Winter is wafting into Kristiansand, the first flecks of icy business whipping along Norway’s south-west coast, but all is toasty here at the SKMU art museum.

I was never one to follow a band around because growing up in New York, you didn’t have to. Bands came to you, and this contributed to a very snobby attitude.

“This will be the last song Adorable will ever play,” announces Peter (aka Piotr) Fijalkowski before launching into “A to Fade In.” Its haunting words (“I don’t want to be a faded memory”) depicting Adorable’s untimely demise a quarter of a century ago.

Saves the Day celebrates 20 years of Through Being Cool, with special guest Hot Rod Circuit.

It’s 18 years to the month since Melt-Banana first graced the Bodega stage, and while a few things have changed since then, their insatiable, genre transcending sonic collision hasn’t subsided one iota.

“We aren’t just a label. We’re a family.” It’s those immortal words from Crunchy Frog head honcho and founder Jesper “Yebo” Reginal that exemplify the spirit of one of Denmark’s finest musical institutions.

“We like to create souvenirs.” These are not my words but those of Jenny Thibault, one of the founders and festival directors of FME, Quebec’s largest musical showcase event.