Album Of The Week - The Lilacs - Keeping Up With The Joneses

Keeping Up With The Joneses is the debut album from Wigan indie-rock band The Lilacs, packed with infectious melodies, huge guitar hooks and energetic, anthemic choruses. Blending stories of young love, misspent youth and growing up in the North, it captures the band’s working-class roots while exploring a world obsessed with comparison. Featuring re-recordings of fan favourites Vicarage Road and Grace, alongside eight new tracks, it’s a confident, guitar-driven indie record built for singing along at the top of your voice. 

Yes this is a new post not an archive but we couldn’t not highlight this fantastic new release 

Check out this Wax and Bean exclusive with numbered signed Slice and belly band. https://tinyurl.com/yphydwfm

We will be talking a lot more about the lovely crew from Wax & Beans in future posts 

Check out The Lilacs Stripped back record store tour: https://upthelilacs.com/pages/live

The Past Was Yours…….

BANGING DRUMS: THE ARCHIVES (AND SOME NEW STUFF!)

Banging Drums has been around since 2012, albeit on a fairly rare basis for much of that time!

I originally started it when I was out of work, with the idea of creating a punk-style fanzine in blog form. Looking back, I’m not sure the idea translated quite as well as I’d hoped, but along the way I managed to collect a load of interviews with bands and some genuinely cool people.

Then I started working again, life took over, and the blog gradually took a back seat.

Around 2022, I had another go at getting things moving, but for one reason or another, it never really got off the ground.

Fast-forward to 2026, and here we go again!

As we head towards 2027, I’ll have spent somewhere in the region of 37 years collecting music, records and memorabilia. Alongside that, I’ve spent 14 years working in the events industry, which has given me plenty of experiences, encounters and stories of my own along the way.

So, welcome to the third incarnation of Banging Drums: THE ARCHIVES!

And yes, there’ll be some new stuff thrown into the mix, too.