EVEN THE STARS TOP 20 ALBUMS OF 2018 - 20 to 11

The list that no one was waiting for. Over the next two days we reveal our top twenty albums of the year. Regular readers of the blog won't be surprised by many of these choices of course, but as we keep telling people we do this to champion music we love not to be hipster or with it or even politically correct. We start today with numbers twenty to eleven.

Black Honey - Manchester HMV - 23rd September 2018

Black Honey are on a whistlestop tour of UK record stores to promote their self-titled debut album released last Friday. Included on the tour was an early afternoon stripped down set at Manchester’s HMV where they performed a seven-song set before sitting down to sign everything and anything.

Neighbourhood Festival (The Howl And The Hum / Blossoms / Pip Blom / Neon Waltz / Billie Marten / Black Honey / Rory Wynne) - Manchester Various Venues - 7th October 2017

The second Neighbourhood Festival took place on Saturday across a dozen venues in the Oxford Road area of Manchester with a line-up that covered nationally acclaimed bands in big venues such as The Ritz and The Albert Hall to lesser-known up-and-coming bands in more intimate surroundings. It also saw the second performance of Blossoms' collaboration with composer Joe Duddell accompanied by the Royal Northern College Of Music ensemble.

EVEN THE STARS PLAYLIST 3

The third Even The Stars playlist features ten songs from artists we've been listening to recently and which we'd love to share with our readers. It features You Want Fox, Dream Wife, Heavy Heart, Annabel Allum, Caroline Lazar, Alica, Atella x Froder, Black Honey, Fickle Friends and La Bête Blooms.

Catfish And The Bottlemen / Black Honey - Halifax Victoria Theatre - 5th April 2016

Following up a massively successful debut album and taking new songs on the road when you've got an audience that's still growing and discovering you is one of the hardest things a band can face. The massive contrast between every word being sung back to you at a volume that drowns you out and baying for the next big hit versus the natural musicians' desire to reveal their latest work is one that all successful bands face at least once in their career. Catfish And The Bottlemen are at that point and tonight's gig in the intimate surroundings of Halifax's Victoria Theatre is one of the first tests of that for them ahead of the release of their second album The Ride in May.

Even The Stars Tips For 2016 - The Top Five

On the last day of the year we reveal the five acts that we expect big things from in 2016. Of last year's top three, we were the only blog to nominate Blossoms in the Blog Sound Of 2015 poll and they finished the year headlining The Ritz and close to selling out Albert Hall. We have high hopes for these five acts that we've championed during 2015 and expect big things of in 2016.

Black Honey - Manchester Soup Kitchen - 13th October 2015

For a band with only a self-released EP and single to date, it's astonishing to see Soup Kitchen practically sold out for a band generating a buzz by word of mouth on the back of some scintillating live performances. Black Honey are a band on a mission though and the gig ends in a huge stage invasion and a room full of love going their way.

Track Of The Day 2 : Black Honey - Madonna

We caught Black Honey in Manchester last week and this week they've come up with their new single Madonna, out on April 6. The song bears all their trademark loud guitars and the unique rasping breathless voice of singer Izzy.

Black Honey - Manchester Night And Day - 20th February 2015

Black Honey will rip your head off. Don't be suckered in by the sweet looking butter wouldn't melt look on Izzy's face as she climbs on stage. The minute there's a guitar strapped to her back and her bandmates kick in, she's transformed into a wild creature, prowling the stage, eyes fixated somewhere in the distance and only seconds away from letting go a blood-curdling scream.