Midnight on 9th November 1989. In images broadcast around the world, the Berlin Wall is pulled down. People across the world watched live, as the divide between East and West, between communism and capitalism, was destroyed in these instantly iconic images.

The victory of the West and its political ideology of liberalism, the fall of the iron curtain, the rise of David Hasselhoff to inexplicable national treasure status. Call it what you will, but the fall of the Berlin Wall has become recognised amongst the most important events of the twentieth century.

From the ruins of this wall, which had loomed 3.6 metres above the heads of Berliners for fi ve decades, came a 1.3km stretch to be preserved. Representing less than a hundredth of the wall’s original length, this section was to be named The East Side Gallery. Opened in 1990, the wall is the world’s longest-running and largest outdoor gallery, with a permanent exhibition of 105 murals by different painters. The gallery is intended to represent a peaceful world of expression, celebrating ideas of artistic expression and individual freedoms in the liberal tradition. It is a celebration of all that the West held (and continues to hold) dear, and all that the East renounced. It is a historical object as much as it is an art gallery.

But it’s historical import extends beyond representing a definitive moment in German history. It announces the victory of neoliberalism, of late capitalism, and individualism across the world. The communist East fell, and in the vacuum that followed the market found room to expand. The fall of the Berlin Wall represents the extinguishing of the old left, tied to utilitarian conceptions and ideas of Marxist structures. The East Side Gallery is evidence of and the direct result of a milestone in world history.

The murals occupy an interesting position – they are at once both graffiti and state sanctioned art. But where traditional graffiti challenges capitalist conceptions of ownership and private property through its choice of canvas, the East Side Gallery uses graffiti to instead symbolise a diff erent, less clear notion of freedom of expression.

The Gallery’s most famous painting, which depicts the socialist fraternal kiss between Leonid Brezhnev and Erich Honecker that sealed an international arms deal back in 1979, has been reproduced around the world. Written in Russian above the painting are the words “God help me to survive this deadly love aff air.” Beyond the tension between the visceral passion of the image and the formal context it is set within (the suits and smart presentation of the two men), the painting’s de facto role as the face of the gallery is unsurprising. It embodies all that the gallery holds dear. It re-contextualises the past through its use of the photograph, as the wall itself turns a former means of oppression into art. It’s highly political, as the gallery itself inescapably is. And it’s the site of continued reworkings of meaning, particularity in light of Russia’s ongoing anti-LGBT policies. This too the gallery itself has faced through being actually graffi tied by street artists keen to have their work exhibited on perhaps the world’s most famous wall.

After extensive and ongoing restorative work since 2009 the gallery looks to remain a huge part of Berlin’s cultural identity and a cultural touchstone recognised in Instagrams and Facebook posts across the globe. But beyond a cool point-winning backdrop for some sixth former’s interrailing status update, the East Side Gallery stands as a testament to the victory of capitalism over communism, of the power of images in a media society, and ultimately of the neo-liberal world’s ability to neutralise and utilise all that stands against it – even graffiti.

★★☆☆☆

 Two Stars

Delirium is the husky-voiced Goulding’s third studio album. After the rather confusing ‘Intro’, which is often likened to an early 7th Century Gregorian chant, Goulding slips back into more familiar shoes. There are a few rather bland synth-pop tracks, including ‘Aftertaste’, mixed in with crowd pleasers like the X-rated ‘Love Me Like You Do’ from the worryingly popular Fifty Shades of Grey. The song stands out from the rest of the album tracks for holding a convincing tune and employing only slightly repetitive lyrics.

Goulding issued an accompanying statement to the album, referring to it as an “experiment”. Having listened to it, spotting the raw experimentation is harder than finding Wally. This is not to say it’s a bad “big pop album”, but neither were her last two big pop albums. It would appear that Goulding is sometimes let down in the production of her songs, losing the smooth, crooning qualities of her vocals to a low-budget synth keyboard (I’m sure it’s actually a very expensive synth keyboard made to sound like it was free from a car boot sale), and Delirium is no exception.

True experimentation for Goulding would strip away the flashy lights and basic pop anthem beats to reveal a raw emotion of which songs like ‘How Long Will I Love You?’ have proven her capable.

Sometimes a little bit of jolty folk is just the ticket. An hour before they’re due onstage at the Bullingdon just down the road, Kent five-piece Keston Cobblers Club take to the stage in Oxford’s finest record treasure trove, Truck Store. Or, rather, they tuck themselves into the corner without mics and stomp and laugh their way through a short, sweet and very cosy set of acoustic numbers.

Laden with a limited drum kit (read: a sole snare), acoustic guitar and ukulele, the band could have been any ramshackle group of musicians pushed into this civilised setting of sofas and coffees amongst stacks of vinyl. But their somewhat alternative instrumentation adds an unforeseen flair: bass lines are taken up not by a typical string bass, but by tuba-playing Bethan Ecclestone, adding a depth and surprising bounciness to their buoyant, swelling folk-pop.

Covering Paul Simon’s ‘Graceland’ is a modern nod towards the folk tradition of sharing and re-playing songs. Sibling singers Matt and Julia Lowe’s harmonies burst through one another’s melody lines on this track, and castanets begin to get a-thumping.

Latest single ‘Win Again’ closes the set. Its lush syncopated vocal lines lead up to the dramatic, if slightly obvious, compound of ‘oohs’ as the harmonies now become four-part and really take centre stage. The close proximity yet stark deftness of these vocals is not to be messed with.

Brightly coloured children’s bells set next to a pineapple-shaped maraca highlight the crux of this band’s charm:  yes, their folk-pop is easily-listenable, with catchy riffs and gorgeous swooping melodies. But they’re a folk band – they play music for fun. And through this pounding percussion and these raucous tunes, Keston Cobblers Club take the Oxford crowd far away from the corner of a record shop on a rainy November evening, and back to the Kentish tavern and the local fiddler-come-cobbler from whom the band get their truly folksy name. 

If, like me, you hail from Watford and you discover the town has produced something beautiful, YOU.GRAB.HOLD.OF.IT. I’ve been raving about The Staves for months, less so about Vinnie Jones, Geri Halliwell and Elton. But now I can proudly add Declan Zapala to my list of home-town gems, especially since I later discover he attended my school. Zapala entertained a small crowd in the recently opened Attico Art Gallery, promoting his new album Awakenings and his performance was as visual as it was auditory. His guitar was caressed either brazenly like a sitar or tenderly like a new-born baby, depending on which angle afforded the best sound. In fact Zapala transforms the instrument beyond a guitar: his dexterity produces an entire percussion base and even a double bass such as in the song ‘Broken Rhapsody’ by loosening the strings mid-song. On the percussive guitar spectrum, with Rodrgo y Gabriela and Ben Howard at either stylistic extreme, I would place Zapala midway. He’s a solo artist, but not a singer/songwriter, and whilst his rhythm is more energetic and less mellow than Howard, the frenetic, carnival-esque fury of the Mexican duo is simply alien to the charming, lilting tributes of Zapala to his family. In fact his mother was in the audience, and the song ‘Philomena’ is dedicated to her. Glancing at her during this enchanting song, I could tell something special and personal was being communicated.

After uploading ‘Crystal’ to YouTube, Zapala was launched, and for good reason. Performed live with fierce energy, the guitar itself was in motion, every string blurred with vibration whilst the lower guitar body was intricately drummed. The beginning is like something gothic from the A Series of Unfortunate Events soundtrack, but then four minutes in, it gets super dynamic. Zapala said that The Selfish Gene inspired Crystals with questions like ‘What is life?’ and the miracle of atomic particles interpreted through percussive guitar. Throughout the evening, Zapala would warmly discuss his music, also taking the opportunity to remind us that we were on Watford High Street. Well, geographically yes, but musically we couldn’t be further. Whisked away to his locations of inspiration, we enjoyed the music of Turkish goat herders, Irish folk ballads and Spanish serenades. Zapala’s influences are both unusual and popular; Carlo Domeniconi, Eric Roche and Led Zeppelin to name a few, but the Classical element is also important. The album includes guitar renditions of Bach’s cello suite and prelude.

Innuendoes featuring lube and floppy microphones aside, I could have been attending a prosecco-fuelled mindfulness class. Nothing short of mesmerising, Zapala’s is the kind of music which releases your thoughts, particularly in ‘Sleeping Gently’ – a song written for his nephew – with the pitter-patter plucking evoking raindrops. I wonder several things: how his hands aren’t bruised…how I could possibly be in Watford…how I could write up such a unique performance… There is an incredible intelligence, strength and concentration to Zapala. Definitely worth a listen!

In a nondescript dressing room backstage at the O2 Academy, Ryan Jarman, guitarist of Wakefield trio The Cribs, tells me the story of the  band since their first show in Oxford  11 years ago.

Then, the three Jarmans, Ryan, twin Gary and younger brother Ross,  were touring relentlessly following the release of their raw and self-produced eponymous debut . They often played for free or multiple times a night in tiny venues, to hone their act and raise their profile. But Ryan is far from nostalgic for those early days, happy to move on to bigger and better things. “We’ve already had that intimacy”, he tells me.

Now, the band are playing in support of their sixth record, For All My Sisters. This is the first release following their move to Sony from the independent Wichita Recordings. “I feel like our relationship had changed a little”, Jarman explains, though alas without further elaboration . But it’s been a very positive move, he tells me.  “Because we’ve been around for so long, they know what band they’re getting, so we’re kind of more independent than before”.

More than just the label has changed since those early days. Though Ross has remained in Wakefield (where a plaque commemorates the city’s most famous musical sons), Ryan now lives in New York and Gary is based in Portland, Oregon. Ryan sees this as broadening the band’s musical horizons. “If we all still lived together, we’d have a lack of inspiration. Now we’re all very different people, who bring different things to the table.” Indeed, Ryan delights in telling me about his projects outside of The Cribs, including forming a band with his American wife as well as collaborating with Julian Casablancas of The Strokes.

But it’s not all different on this album for The Cribs. Jarman tells me how it represents something of a return to an earlier sound.  The band’s third album, Men’s Needs, Women’s Needs, Whatever, progressed from their initial lo-fi offerings (being slickly produced by Alex Kapranos of Franz Ferdinand) and  propelled them into the realm of critical and commercial success. Subsequently, ex-The Smiths and Modest Mouse guitarist Johnny Marr joined the band from 2008 to 2011. “Once that record came out, Johnny joined the band and that took us in a different direction. Then Johnny left, and that sent us off in another completely different direction”. Thus, whereas Jarman describes their previous release, In the Belly of the Brazen Bull, as “dark, heavy and sprawling”, he sees their newest record as “a bit more stripped back, a bit simpler, a bit poppier” – the follow-up to Men’s Needs… that never was.

Out on stage, Esper Scout and The Wytches warm up the crowd with a punchy style clearly influenced by heavy listening to The Cribs in their formative years (“It makes us feel old”, Jarman had told me earlier). However, they received a fairly lukewarm reception from a crowd clearly full of ardent fans awaiting their heroes. Jarman had told me they ” try to keep it as interesting as possible… we do everything to make sure this doesn’t feel like a job” by avoiding endless repetition of setlists and trying to focus on newer material. Though, of course, this is hard to balance against the demands of a crowd yearning  for the hits. Indeed, their efforts to rest fan favourite Another Number earlier in this tour were curtailed when the crowd  began to sing the characteristic riff as they attempted another song.

The band’s 90 minute set was well-received by the energetic and engaged crowd, who went wild for classics such as “Hey Scenesters” and “Mirror Kissers”, and rapidly warmed to the diverse introductions from the new album, including the catchy “Burning for No One”, the Weezer-esque “An Ivory Hand” (the album is produced by Ric Ocasek, who worked on Weezer’s Blue album) and the swirling, mesmeric “Pink Snow”,  which ended their sweaty set.

The Cribs are a remarkable band. They’ve released six albums that are each unique and special in their own way, yet they’re able to deftly blend choice pickings from each together to create a phenomenal live set. From the performance given tonight, and the bubbling enthusiasm of the Jarman brothers for their music and their fans, it’s clear this will continue for many years and albums to come.