Name: The Loft + M.J. Hibbett @ The Big Difference Thurs 21 May £15 adv
Start: 2026-05-21T19:30:00+01:00
Location: The Big Difference

$The Loft + M.J. Hibbett @ The Big Difference Thurs 21 May \u00a315 adv$

The Loft, the seminal 1980s indie-pop/jangle band from Creation Records, has reunited with its original 1984 lineup to release Everything Changes, Everything Stays The Same (2025)
Reviews praise the new album as a mature, "unassuming masterpiece" that captures a warm, analog jangle-pop sound, despite being described as "too mellow" by some.
The album is described as a "triumphant return" with a "tougher, more mature" sound that, despite some slower, more reflective moments, still offers the band's signature "unmistakable jangle".
Members: Pete Astor (vocals/guitar), Andy Strickland (guitar), Bill Prince (bass), and Dave Morgan (drums).
Louder Than War:
The Loft look handsome but ‘dignified and old’ as the grey hair and crows feet testify in the lovely fly-on-the-studio-wall footage in the video. Blended with clips from their early days its an evocative contrast and matches the lyric (The future, the past..) and reclaims the Pop-song from the ‘youth of today’. This is class.
The Loft have become that most wonderful of things: A readymade, vintage, English (equivalent to the) Modern Lovers (the most exquisite of bands in terms of a faultless debut LP) .. and their own confident yet self-deprecating air befitting their history as the first great Creation band
They even inadvertently reference their classic ‘Up the Hill and Down the Slope’ because the Fifteen thousand bottles are piled up… you guessed it, on the hill.
The album was recorded in Hackney in August and produced by Dexys’ Sean Read with the original Loft line up of Pete Astor (guitar /vocals) Andy Strickland (guitar), Bill Prince (bass) and Dave Morgan (drums).
Feel Good Now, like its parent album, is an unassuming masterpiece.
Ged Babey, Louder Than War gig review from Bristol 2025.
The Loft however should be recognised as one of the originators of (what became known as) Indie (four skinny white boys with guitars, bass and drums playing music drawing on the very best of the 1960s and 70s and a stubborn refusal to acknowledge the synthesiser…) which doesn’t really compare to the Beatles place in Merseybeat or pop due to the historical disparity in terms of commercial success… but, y’know… to a some people, the new album and the band mean a lot. They were ‘something special’… and the fact that they are back, truly, better than ever, is remarkable. They have an authenticity, fallibility and integrity like few others.
The Loft are just utter perfection – despite and because of the odd bum note and lack of tacky rock’n’roll showmanship – it really is all about the songs.
M.J. Hibbett and the Validators. Full band show.
MJ Hibbett & The Validators have performed live on Radio One, had a Record Of The Year in Rolling Stone, an Album Of The Day on 6Music, released one of the first ever viral videos, toured the UK and Europe, featured in an Edinburgh Fringe Festival show, and recorded a science fiction rock opera, all while maintaining their complete independence from outside record labels.