Westside Cowboy – ‘It Goes On’ review: Manchester’s newest guitar heroes put an arm around your shoulder

Ever since their triumph at Glastonbury’s Emerging Talent Competition in April 2025, you’ll have struggled to find a buzzier British guitar band than Westside Cowboy. Packing out multiple sets at The Great Escape 2025, the Manchester-formed group were soon tied down to Island Records, Wildlife Entertainment (Arctic Monkeys, Fontaines D.C.) for management and thrown into tours with Black Country, New Road, Blondshell and Geese. Suitably, the former NME Cover stars’ self-proclaimed ‘Britainicana’ sound feels neatly perched between those three artists. READ MORE: On The Cover: Westside Cowboy’s fun-loving indie rock comes straight from the heart What arguably makes the quartet’s bog-standard concoction of bass, drums and guitars so heartfelt and immediate is their chemistry. Somewhere between a slick pub-rock band and four overexcited university students running off instinct – as they recently were – their shows radiate both joy and professionalism. Aoife Anson O’Connell (bass), Jimmy Bradbury (guitar) and Reuben Haycocks (guitar) all trade lead vocals; coupled with Paddy Murphy’s impassioned drumming, they are a band who visibly give 110 per cent for one another. Recorded in Leeds wi...