Nick Linazasoro
Nick Linazasoro is a music editor at Brighton and Hove News whose coverage is defined by its volume and focus on live performance, documenting gigs, tours and festivals in granular detail across the local and wider UK scene. He also serves as music editor for Sussex News, extending that live‑music lens into neighbouring audiences with a steady stream of previews and reports. His work stands out for how thoroughly it tracks artists on stage, from small discovery nights through to major punk festivals, and for the way he uses repeat coverage to build a continuous record of a scene rather than one‑off snapshots.
A year in music
Nick’s role at Brighton and Hove News includes overseeing and contributing to round‑ups such as the “2018, A Year in Music” feature, which logged 444 performances by 369 different musical artists and provided coverage of every show. That tally illustrates a systematic approach to live music reporting, treating individual reviews and previews as parts of a larger chronology rather than isolated pieces. Within that framework, he tracks recurring performers, venues and genres, giving readers a sense of how the local circuit evolves over time. The year‑in‑review format also shows his interest in data and completeness, counting appearances and documenting breadth across styles from rock and punk to more niche sounds referenced in other live reports.
Brighton gigs and discovery nights
At Sussex News, Nick writes regular pieces about upcoming gigs, often anchored in specific nights and local bands. Headlines such as “Aircooled serve up a Valentine’s Day treat ahead of their Brighton gigs” show him using forthcoming shows as a hook to profile artists and set expectations around what audiences can expect from the performance. In “4 acts to check out at new music discovery night,” he highlights a small bill of emerging acts, drawing on context like prior coverage in national music press to frame why these artists merit attention. That discovery‑night format points to a sub‑beat centred on new and rising performers, using list‑style previews and short artist profiles to guide readers through unfamiliar names. Across these pieces, the common thread is close attention to individual events, with each article tied to a specific gig or night and written to encourage turnout and engagement with the live scene.
Band tours and festival coverage
Nick’s Brighton and Hove News work includes news items such as “POZI announce 8‑date UK tour,” where he reports on touring schedules and brings national or regional itineraries into view for his audience. These tour announcements sit alongside venue‑focused pieces like “Celebrating 7 years of Brighton’s Chalk venue,” which mark milestones for key spaces on the circuit and underline his interest in the infrastructure that supports live music as much as the artists themselves. Beyond single‑artist shows, he contributes to coverage of multi‑day events such as Rebellion R‑Fest, described as the world’s biggest punk rock music festival in the UK, where he reports live from stages as part of the Brighton and Hove News music team. That festival work expands his beat into punk and “beyond,” capturing line‑ups that range from legacy acts to contemporary bands and situating them within a broader culture of alternative music. Together, his tour previews, venue anniversaries and festival reviews form a continuum: he follows artists from small gigs through larger stages, and documents how venues and events connect those journeys.
Photography, recognition and scene presence
Nick’s coverage frequently intersects with live photography, with his name attached to image‑led posts and social media updates capturing bands in performance. An Instagram credit describing “picz by Nick Linazasoro (Brighton & Hove News) – live @midnightsaladbrighton” highlights his role in visually documenting sets as part of his reporting. Established artists and venues acknowledge his work: Kurt Vile and The Violators point fans to Brighton and Hove News and Nick’s preview of their show at Chalk, positioning his article as an authoritative guide to the gig. The Dirty Strangers publicly thank him for a “write up” and Brighton and Hove News for the press around one of their nights, showing how his reviews are picked up and amplified by performers. Brighton Centre references coverage of a sold‑out Suede show “with some stunning shots” and name‑checks Brighton and Hove News and Nick in connection with that report, underlining his presence at high‑profile events as well as smaller club shows. Alongside his editorial roles, he is active in community‑oriented music channels and groups, sharing information about live sets, jazz nights and local rock bills, which reinforces that his reporting grows out of ongoing involvement in the live music ecosystem rather than detached commentary.
Consistency across mastheads
Across Brighton and Hove News and Sussex News, Nick maintains a consistent focus on live music, with each outlet carrying gig previews, discovery‑night features and artist‑centred pieces under his byline. His dual music editor roles mean he shapes coverage strategies, deciding which shows merit a preview, how to balance emerging acts against established names, and how to aggregate individual reports into annual or seasonal overviews. Whether he is listing four acts to watch at a small discovery night or contributing to a comprehensive year‑in‑music review, the aim is steady: to record performances in real time and create a detailed, long‑running map of who is playing where, and why that matters to the broader music community.
4 more music journalists.
Abby Webster
Abby Webster zeroes in on the storytelling side of contemporary pop, writing for Billboard about how songs build worlds around K-pop groups, fictional pop stars and ambitious soundtracks. She covers K-pop projects through close, song-by-song features, like her track-by-track piece with SEVENTEEN’s Vernon and The 8 on their EP ‘V8,’ and fan-centered lists such as “7 Best Moments from BTS’ Long-Awaited Return.” She treats soundtracks and fictional acts with the same rigor, mapping the inspirations behind “The Vampire Lestat” soundtrack and profiling in-universe groups like HUNTR/X and Saja Boys as if they were chart acts. Through Chart Beat stories on projects like “KPop Demon Hunters,” she connects these releases to industry strategy, global fandom, and the business systems that turn pop narratives into durable IP.
Alex Suskind
Alex Suskind is a freelance writer and editor who covers music with concise news stories and curated release lists. He focuses on new songs, album roundups, and archival access, from Carly Rae Jepsen’s “On Wires” to Neil Young opening his full catalog to residents of Greenland. His reporting stays close to the release cycle and foregrounds the core hook of each story. He has written for Pitchfork and has freelance work in Vulture, The Guardian, The New York Times, Vanity Fair, and The Atlantic. He also covers broader arts and culture, but his music beat is built around what is newly out now or newly available.
Ali Shutler
Ali Shutler links chart pop, alternative music and fan culture with the ways songs move through festivals, streaming platforms and games. He is a freelance culture journalist specialising in music, writing news and features for NME and other music and culture titles. He covers breakout chart acts, legacy artists whose catalogues are resurfacing, and how audiences rediscover songs via TikTok, streaming or in‑game soundtracks. His reporting on streaming-era pop and live festival moments tracks virality, catalog access and fan behaviour as part of the story of a track. He also examines music, gaming and visual art crossovers, treating game soundtracks and artist-led campaigns as part of a wider cultural map. Alongside this, he profiles emerging chart artists for outlets including The Telegraph, Vice, The Independent, Dork and Upset, focusing on early-career trajectories and fan culture.
Annette Sharp
Annette Sharp is a veteran gossip and entertainment columnist known for direct, opinion-led coverage of celebrity power struggles and reputational crises across television and the music industry. She now writes high-profile columns for the masthead, after a decade on a well-read gossip column and a move to News Corp in 2008. Her real beat is the friction between public image and behind-the-scenes behaviour on flagship TV programs, including breakfast shows, reality formats and other long-running franchises. She focuses on who drives conflicts, who is exposed and who benefits, using ratings history, production decisions and industry mechanics as context. Sharp covers on-air personalities, executives, advisers and musicians, treating television and music as workplaces with competing egos, contracts and alliances, and blending reporting, media commentary and critique in a narrative column format.