‘Bug Blood’ by Premium Leisure: The album to get you through the week
I find myself wondering if it’s shameful to love Autumn, for when I admitted this at one of the music festivals, it led to my friends condemning me handily.
At the last of an incredibly long, hot summer, where at Glastonbury I felt like a simple shorts and T-shirt wasn’t cool enough and at Forwards, where a Dune-inspired dust cloud engulfed me and the crowd, I welcomed the cool solace of the later months.
Apparently, that’s not allowed. In the modern world, where every Summer is occupied by an album, thanks for that Charli, it’s deemed deeply uncool to embrace its end and reclude back to the introspection of Autumn. But that’s exactly why I embrace it, the introspection. The clocks go back sure, but in that extended darkness, you’re given time to put on the headphones and sink into an entire record the way a busy summer just doesn’t seem to allow you.
But more importantly, with that change comes the stripping away of rangey, often terrible-sounding festival stages. Of course, come Spring of 2026, I will be writing something that entirely contradicts this attitude. I will be ramping up my energy, revelling in the promise of upcoming festivals and giving you my must-see acts as whatever dustbowl will next welcome my presence, but right now, having exhausted the circuit, I crave the damp walls of a small 100-cap venue.
When those venues shelter you from the dark bleakness of the winter months, keeping us suitably fed until the next festival season rolls around, true musical magic happens. It’s where I’ve made some of my closest friends, conducted some of my favourite interviews and perhaps, most importantly, seen some of my favourite artists.
As a regular in the Bristol circuit, it goes without saying that one of the artists in question is Willie J Healey. His 2020 album Twin Heavy remains one of my favourite albums from what I consider to be the halcyon days of my gig-going career, and the noodling guitar lines on ‘Songs For Joanna’ still remind me of time spent in the glorious rooms of my city’s DIY venues.
While I wholeheartedly believe that particular album will safely get you through this week, there’s a more criminally unrecognised record that lives within its orbit, worthy of your attention. Healey’s guitarist Chris Barker released the record Bug Blood in 2023 under the moniker Premium Leisure, capturing that very same charming noodling energy of his Oxford counterpart, but with the rawness of a conventional debut record.
“The set-up is pretty simple, little to no synthesised elements, just a group of musicians that like to play together, bounce off each other and make each other giggle, with a silly lick or two,” Barker said in reference to the album. But make no mistake, this is no record cobbling together ideas with hesitance or youthful freshness, but is testament to a guitarist who has spent years mastering his craft in the studio and onstage, but now with the confidence to funnel it into his own soundscape. The licks are catchy and the arrangements are masterfully crafted, leaving me constantly wondering, how the hell has this only got a handful of streams?
So, as the seasons continue to change and we prepare to embrace the hidden charm of damp and DIY gigs, do me a favour and give this record a few more streams, if you truly love music; you absolutely won’t regret it.
