2016 Hunger

The fifth album from Grammy nominees Band Of Horses, Why Are You OK comes four years after the band's last studio release and reflects the personal and professional changes that have touched the group members. Chief songwriter and lead vocalist Ben Bridwell built a home studio to remain close to his four daughters, writing these songs in the middle of the night so he could take his children to school in the morning. Produced by Jason Lytle from Grandaddy, the album features guest appearances from Dinosaur Jr.'s J. Mascis and singer-songwriter Jenn Champion.

Are you hungry to grow in a new direction that you would love to go? You are not alone. The Hunger to Grow dismisses the idea that we grow only through our work and our working years. It’s time to retire the word “retired”. Now it’s, “What’s for dessert? I’m still hungry!”

Every Matt Ulery performance, live or recorded, is an event. It’s like reading JD Salinger, or watching Ingmar Bergman films, complete with their neurotic tenderness, and the delicate framing and sense of colour of Sven Nykvist. His flamboyant recording, Music Box Ballerina was a thrillingly opulent special event of the sort that very few musicians achieve once in a career, let alone several times in rather quick succession. Jump cut to 2016 and to Festival, a recording that shows a laudable hunger to explore deeply interesting, moving repertoire of compelling quality that lies neglected apart from the attention of a few musicians who seem to have the gift of imagining aural cadence in a visual realm as well.

In the spring of 1981 Irish Republican Bobby Sands' 66-day hunger strike brought the attention of the world to his cause. Drawing on an Irish Republican tradition of martyrdom, Sands' emotive, non-violent protest to be classified as a political prisoner became a defining moment in 20th century Irish history. Sands' death after 66 days marked a key turning point in the relationship between Britain and Ireland, and brought a global spotlight to the Northern Irish conflict which eventually triggered international efforts to resolve it.

We know the statistics, but what does it feel like to be forced to turn to foodbanks for help? What does it take to get emergency food, and what's in the food parcel? This is a powerful insight into the harsh reality of foodbank use from the inside.