Buckle up for what will be the wildest music story you have read in a long time. Yesterday, I went to see Panchiko live. A Nottingham group that has gained somewhat of a cult status after they went viral with their 2000-‘release’ ‘D>E>A>T>H>M>E>T>A>L’. Basically, what happened is: a group of teenagers recorded an EP in the late 90s, shared a handful of self-burned CD copies with their mates, and went on with their lives as if nothing ever happened. Not pursuing any music careers (bar 1 band member) whatsoever. They were just having fun. Jump forward to 2016, when a stranger in a charity shop picked up the EP with the appealing artwork – a black/white manga panel – and went onto an online forum to try and find any information about this completely unknown band. A whole lot of research later, Panchiko was found and quickly went viral with their incredible story. I can totally recommend reading their entire tale, which is nicely written on their Wikipedia. Absolutely wild! The moral of the story: always make sure to put effort in your album artwork. Anyway, yesterday’s gig was a lot of fun. It felt as if I was at a 2006-landfill indie gig, but with a lot of young people going wild on what’s seemingly not the most thrilling music you’ve ever heard. I was quite flabbergasted and entertained at the same time. One of my most unique concert experiences this year, for sure.