Popnews! There are new releases lined up from two proponents of Oxford pop music, Secret Rivals and Alphabet Backwards.

Secret Rivals have a double A-side single, ‘Once More With Heart’ / ‘I Know Something’, due out on 16 January through It’s All Happening, as the first record from the Leeds/London-based fanzine publishers and promoters. Alphabet Backwards get in there sooner with their new ‘British Explorer EP’, which they’re releasing themselves as a 7″, CD and download on 28 November.

Most fortuitously, the two bands are playing a string of dates together in the coming weeks – taking in Reading, Staines and London as well as appearing at The Cellar in Oxford on 26 November.