“Trad Irish with balls”, that’s how Stoke-on-Trent’s Jugopunch describe themselves in the press pack that accompanies their new single – Cold/A fiver on the horses – and I’m not going to disagree. The three tracks presented here while strongly rooted in Irish folk like the Clancy’s also nod in the direction of fellow Anglo-Irish men, The Pogues. Think “Dirty Old Town” and “A Pair of Brown Eyes” and you get an idea of the direction the band is going in.

November 2014