Brown Horse | Ollie Cook And The Hogwash
Birmingham Sunflower Lounge
27th January 2026
As part of Independent Venue Week, one of independent music’s most strident acts brings their live sound to one of the UK’s most iconic small venues. Sam Lambeth reviews.
Nothing fills your heart quicker than seeing a small venue packed to the rafters on a miserable Tuesday night. The Sunflower Lounge is one of Birmingham’s most iconic small venues and is a perfect representation of resilience. It feels a natural choice to embody Independent Venue Week.
It also feels natural to have one of Birmingham’s ascending talents beginning proceedings. Freshly minted to iconic London label Hand in Hive, Ollie Cook And The Hogwash have quite rightly accrued an army of adoring fans for their jagged but lugubrious brand of slacker rock. The obvious touchstones – Neil Young, Wilco – loom large, but the delightfully shambolic, shaggy melodies of Pavement and MJ Lenderman keep songs swirling and surprising.
Having supported Brown Horse on their previous two visits to the Second City, Cook and co must at least be on WhatsApp group chat terms with the headliners. They’re a natural fit. A slacker-infused melancholy runs through recent single Home Video and there’s no doubt there are more great things to come.
You can’t accuse Brown Horse of resting on their, erm, hooves. The Norfolk band produce records at such a furiously fast canter that they make Guided By Voices look lazy. They take to the Sunflower Lounge stage and waste no time in announcing their new album, Total Dive – their third record in as many years. Airing a batch of unheard newbies could be a disaster, but the five-piece’s robust take on alt country means the swelled Sunflower Lounge crowd eat up anything they have to offer.
New single Blizzards is a taut, wistful rocker that serves as a suitably stormy opener. Hares – “as in the rabbits,” clarifies singer Patrick Turner, lest any audience members thought it was a ditty about pubes – aches with longing. The centrepiece comes in Comeback Loading, a stirring anthem that continues to take the group’s country-infused raw charge and hone it to perfection. It’ll no doubt be an album highlight.
Turner is a chipper and polite host, and does a good job of laughing at the Brummie banter that emerges during the numerous downtimes spent tuning. The rest of the band display their multifarious musical talents, with Emma Tovell’s pedal steel adding lachrymose melodic beauty to the group’s blazing guitars.
The soaring Corduroy Couch somehow brings together all of the sadness and joy of teenage nostalgia. Radio Free Bolinas is brooding and downbeat. Meanwhile, older cuts Stealing Horses has the barroom spit and sawdust of Drive-By Truckers, and the sprawling closer Outtakes breaks into Crazy Horse territory.
Building a prolific back catalogue, Brown Horse’s majesty will continue to run and run.
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Brown Horse can be found via their Bandcamp page, as well as Facebook and Instagram.
You can find Ollie Cook and The Hogwash via Instagram and Bandcamp.
All words by Sam Lambeth. Sam is a journalist and musician. More of his work for Louder Than War is available on his archive.
All photos by Paul Reynolds. He can be found on Instagram.
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