{"product_id":"westside-cowboy-it-goes-on","title":"Westside Cowboy - It Goes On","description":"\u003cp data-start=\"0\" data-end=\"152\"\u003e\u003cem data-start=\"0\" data-end=\"12\"\u003eIt Goes On\u003c\/em\u003e is the debut album from Manchester-based four-piece \u003cstrong data-start=\"65\" data-end=\"84\"\u003eWestside Cowboy\u003c\/strong\u003e, released on 21st August 2026 and produced by \u003cstrong data-start=\"131\" data-end=\"149\"\u003eLoren Humphrey\u003c\/strong\u003e.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp data-start=\"154\" data-end=\"688\"\u003eIn an age of algorithms, Westside Cowboy are pure-spirited proof of the magic that can only come from human connection. Just three years on from forming in Manchester, starting a band for the fun of it without so much as a plan to even play a gig, the quartet, \u003cstrong data-start=\"415\" data-end=\"433\"\u003eJimmy Bradbury\u003c\/strong\u003e (vocals, guitar), \u003cstrong data-start=\"452\" data-end=\"471\"\u003eReuben Haycocks\u003c\/strong\u003e (vocals, guitar), \u003cstrong data-start=\"490\" data-end=\"515\"\u003eAoife Anson O'Connell\u003c\/strong\u003e (vocals, bass) and \u003cstrong data-start=\"535\" data-end=\"551\"\u003ePaddy Murphy\u003c\/strong\u003e (drums), have crafted perhaps the year’s most exciting debut by simply figuring out what feels good and following it into the horizon.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp data-start=\"690\" data-end=\"1189\"\u003e“There’s no computer that could make \u003cem data-start=\"727\" data-end=\"739\"\u003eIt Goes On\u003c\/em\u003e. No formula to creating the joyous whack of emotion that comes from these four mates pooling their ideas and watching them fly. “If you go in with a preconceived notion of what you're doing, it’s sort of destined to fail because you’re not truly being yourself,” suggests Aoife. “So because we didn’t think we were gonna [do any of this] at the beginning, all we were thinking was: ‘What’s going to be the most enjoyable thing to play right now?’”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp data-start=\"1191\" data-end=\"1476\"\u003eAoife, Reuben and Paddy all knew each other from the \u003cstrong data-start=\"1244\" data-end=\"1279\"\u003eRoyal Northern College of Music\u003c\/strong\u003e; Jimmy and Paddy had played in a band together a few years previously. When they decided to sit in a practice room as a quartet for the first time, there was only one rule for what would follow.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp data-start=\"1478\" data-end=\"1875\"\u003e“We just wanted to make simple music. I think the reason there was such chemistry, and when we look back, even after two weeks we were really working well together, is because it was such a simple statement of intent,” recalls Reuben. “Any time we’d disagree on something, which was very rare, we’d just consult the original mission statement: if you’ve got too many chords in it, you’re wrong.”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp data-start=\"1877\" data-end=\"2493\"\u003eA purposeful reaction against the “more abstract” styles they’d individually been dallying with before, Westside Cowboy swiftly became a place for concise, straight-hitting ideas influenced by “early rock’n’roll: \u003cstrong data-start=\"2090\" data-end=\"2108\"\u003eLonnie Donegan\u003c\/strong\u003e, \u003cstrong data-start=\"2110\" data-end=\"2125\"\u003eThe Beatles\u003c\/strong\u003e and \u003cstrong data-start=\"2130\" data-end=\"2156\"\u003eThe Velvet Underground\u003c\/strong\u003e,” says Paddy. Jimmy remembers spending the bulk of 2023 playing the first five songs of an \u003cstrong data-start=\"2248\" data-end=\"2265\"\u003eElvis Presley\u003c\/strong\u003e album on repeat. “When we started the band, people would ask who was in it and we’d be like, ‘We got this guy who works in a guitar shop, only listens to Elvis and dresses like Marty McFly, you know, that guy!’” Aoife laughs.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp data-start=\"2495\" data-end=\"3010\"\u003eIf these were the solid early seeds of Westside Cowboy, then the biggest thing that’s shaped them into the exploratory, melodically robust band they are now has been their own journey. When they did start playing gigs, their first two shows were at a coffee shop and for an animal rights charity, they found that their songs were being stretched and pushed forward in real time. Paddy notes that the true crux of \u003cem data-start=\"2908\" data-end=\"2932\"\u003eKick Stones (The Boys)\u003c\/em\u003e’ propulsive, heady opening is “as much about how we made it as the lyrics”.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp data-start=\"3012\" data-end=\"3495\"\u003e“We loved the way it felt to play, but we thought we couldn’t record it like that or people would think we wanted to be a stadium rock band,” Aoife jokes. Instead, they translated it through their own lens, using a live recording of \u003cstrong data-start=\"3245\" data-end=\"3271\"\u003eThe Velvet Underground\u003c\/strong\u003e’s \u003cem data-start=\"3274\" data-end=\"3288\"\u003eWhat Goes On\u003c\/em\u003e as their primary reference point. “We always thought, if we can pull this off it could be really fun,” Paddy grins. “Taking this mad, ’70s rock thing but then having it played by a bunch of scrawny kids.”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp data-start=\"3497\" data-end=\"4235\"\u003eSince those first shows, Westside Cowboy have found themselves notching up an increasingly wild list of live milestones. Last year, they won \u003cstrong data-start=\"3638\" data-end=\"3662\"\u003eGlastonbury Festival\u003c\/strong\u003e’s prestigious Emerging Talent Competition, leading them to an opening slot on the televised Woodsies Stage. Since then, they’ve toured with \u003cstrong data-start=\"3803\" data-end=\"3830\"\u003eBlack Country, New Road\u003c\/strong\u003e and \u003cstrong data-start=\"3835\" data-end=\"3844\"\u003eGeese\u003c\/strong\u003e while later this year they’ll play their biggest headline gigs to date, including stop-offs at London’s \u003cstrong data-start=\"3949\" data-end=\"3974\"\u003eO2 Kentish Town Forum\u003c\/strong\u003e and Manchester’s \u003cstrong data-start=\"3992\" data-end=\"4007\"\u003eAlbert Hall\u003c\/strong\u003e. Winning the Glastonbury slot, says Reuben, felt like “the first moment that we realised we really were a band”. Now, with the making of \u003cem data-start=\"4145\" data-end=\"4157\"\u003eIt Goes On\u003c\/em\u003e, Westside Cowboy have underlined exactly what kind of band they want to be.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp data-start=\"4237\" data-end=\"4937\"\u003eRecorded with producer Loren Humphrey, whose credits include \u003cstrong data-start=\"4298\" data-end=\"4307\"\u003eGeese\u003c\/strong\u003e, \u003cstrong data-start=\"4309\" data-end=\"4327\"\u003eCameron Winter\u003c\/strong\u003e and \u003cstrong data-start=\"4332\" data-end=\"4347\"\u003eWunderhorse\u003c\/strong\u003e, at \u003cstrong data-start=\"4352\" data-end=\"4374\"\u003eGreenmount Studios\u003c\/strong\u003e in Leeds over a period that saw them thinking on their feet and remodelling their production into an even more directly energetic new form, there’s an urgency of feeling to \u003cem data-start=\"4548\" data-end=\"4560\"\u003eIt Goes On\u003c\/em\u003e that could only ever really happen with a young group’s debut record. “First albums are often my favourites because you can tell there’s a point to prove. You’re firing on all cylinders because you know that this may never happen again,” says Paddy. “You’re trying to create these big feelings, but all you have with you to string it together is a pencil and a Pritt Stick.”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp data-start=\"4939\" data-end=\"5504\"\u003eBig feelings are at the heart of the matter: these are songs that aim to distil the confusion, desperation and blind hope of youth into eleven tracks that hit you in the chest. Westside Cowboy describe it as “the yank”. “There’s a major key, triumphant sound to some music, like \u003cstrong data-start=\"5218\" data-end=\"5233\"\u003eArcade Fire\u003c\/strong\u003e’s debut album or \u003cstrong data-start=\"5251\" data-end=\"5270\"\u003eLCD Soundsystem\u003c\/strong\u003e’s \u003cem data-start=\"5273\" data-end=\"5288\"\u003eSomeone Great\u003c\/em\u003e, where there’s a persistence that’s contemporary and energetic, but also a simplicity,” Paddy continues. “It’s as though someone is shoving emotion into it in a way that feels like it’s reverberating,” Aoife nods.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp data-start=\"5506\" data-end=\"6312\"\u003eThe lyrics across Westside Cowboy’s debut might often be up for interpretation, but the emotion that pours out of them is clear. On \u003cem data-start=\"5638\" data-end=\"5665\"\u003eWell Done Kid, You Did It\u003c\/em\u003e they address the confusion of trying to make your way in a broken and terrifying world with the same cathartic forward motion of its central idea: that sometimes, all you can do is try your best. The rousing \u003cem data-start=\"5874\" data-end=\"5887\"\u003ePin Up Boys\u003c\/em\u003e, explains Reuben, became “heavier and more aggro” every time they played it live, a mirror to its preoccupations with the struggles of self-control. Meanwhile, though \u003cem data-start=\"6055\" data-end=\"6068\"\u003eWorried Age\u003c\/em\u003e might wear its fears in its title, there’s a sense of defiance and resistance to its steadily escalating sonic scale that feels like strength. By the track’s raucous, screaming crescendo, the only answer is to come together and dance it out.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp data-start=\"6314\" data-end=\"7111\"\u003eIn a time of terrifying division and conflict, Westside Cowboy always try to focus on what unites us. Early on in the group’s life, they co-created \u003cem data-start=\"6462\" data-end=\"6484\"\u003eNo Band Is An Island\u003c\/em\u003e: a Manchester-based collective putting on fundraising nights to spotlight both local artists and important issues via speakers from charities and direct action groups. “I think we wanted to engage with politics in a way that felt more impactful beyond the music,” notes Aoife. In their current video for \u003cem data-start=\"6789\" data-end=\"6813\"\u003eKick Stones (The Boys)\u003c\/em\u003e, they called upon the skills of \u003cstrong data-start=\"6846\" data-end=\"6859\"\u003eFC United\u003c\/strong\u003e, a splinter team that started when \u003cstrong data-start=\"6895\" data-end=\"6916\"\u003eManchester United\u003c\/strong\u003e were sold to an American corporation. “They’re very community minded and they have a similar atmosphere to what we want to be,” says Reuben. “Their ethos is ‘making friends not millionaires’.”\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Island","offers":[{"title":"Indies Exclusive 140g Red Recycled Vinyl LP","offer_id":58105460916569,"sku":"SDZ-46223","price":27.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"140g Black Recycled Vinyl LP","offer_id":58105460883801,"sku":"SDZ-46222","price":23.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"CD","offer_id":58105460851033,"sku":"SDZ-46221","price":14.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0588\/3455\/0945\/files\/UNI_20260520_1503_151230_290_v_0199957952040_008.jpg?v=1779296022","url":"https:\/\/spindizzyrecords.com\/products\/westside-cowboy-it-goes-on","provider":"Spindizzy Dublin","version":"1.0","type":"link"}