Category: Music
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Early Candidate For Music Book of the Year: “Beatles With An A” by Mauri Kunnas
In the year after the release of Mark Lewisohn’s 1,800 page Proustian Beatles biography “All These Years”, (merely part-one-of-a-trilogy) most Beatles writers have, quite justifiably one suspects, thrown down their pens in despair, turned to drink, or begun to dust off their Rolling Stones records and collect stories on The Beatles’ main rivals. However, this…
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Remember Smash Hits Magazine…?
Let’s compare Smash Hits to its modern day equivalent…… It’s very tempting to look at how things were with either misty-eyed nostalgia, or like one of the Four Yorkshiremen in that Monty Python sketch (“Luxury! Kids today don’t know they’re born!”) One thing that appears to have been much better in the eighties is the…
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Pop Music: A Bluffer’s Update on the VMAs, X-Factor and the Grande v Royal Blood Chart Battle
It has been a busy week in the world of pop. At the weekend (and on TV on Monday) was the MTV VMAs – Video Music Awards – traditionally the scene of all manner of unpleasantness generally involving pop stars cavorting with snakes. In previous years viewers have witnessed the unedifying spectacle of Britney Spears and…
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Up Your Game With Personalised Rock T-Shirts
With Prince gently encouraging fans to wear purple at recent shows and Arcade Fire requesting fancy dress be worn by the audience for their latest tour, it appears that even rock stars are wearying of the traditional audience attire / uniform of jeans and black t-shirt. Although perhaps not as tricky as that impossible fashion…
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Rock and EDM: ZZ Top and David Guetta Collaborate On New Tracks
The news this week that ZZ Top’s Billy Gibbons teamed up with David Guetta in Ibiza to record an album is surprising to many. At first sight, it looks like there’s a too-strong batch of Ecstacy going around the island. After all, why would an ageing 70’s throwback with a silly beard be allowed to…
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How To Buy A Set of David Bowie’s Classic Albums on Vinyl For Less Than £100
The story so far: I have made a bet that I can buy a full set of Bowie‘s albums (in their original vinyl versions – and in excellent condition with all the inserts) from The Man Who Sold The World to Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps). That’s fourteen albums in fourteen days. Total budget: £100.…
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The David Bowie Bet: Pin Ups, Low and…The Fonz?
The story so far: I have made a bet that I can buy a full set of Bowie‘s albums (in their original vinyl versions – and in excellent condition with all the inserts) from The Man Who Sold The World to Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps). That’s fourteen albums in fourteen days. Total budget £100.…
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David Bowie’s Live Albums – on Vinyl
The story so far: I have made a bet that I can buy a full set of Bowie‘s albums (in their original vinyl versions – and in excellent condition with all the inserts) from The Man Who Sold The World to Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps). That’s fourteen albums in fourteen days. Total budget: £100.…
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How To Buy David Bowie’s Aladdin Sane on Vinyl
The Challenge: Buy a full set of Bowie‘s vinyl albums (in excellent condition with all the inserts) from “The Man Who Sold The World“ to “Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps)“. That’s fourteen albums in fourteen days. Total budget: £100. The loser has a heavy penalty: to buy drinks – and wear a Westlife T-shirt. I…
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David Bowie’s Vinyl Albums: The Man Who Sold The World, Scary Monsters and Lodger
part 4… The Challenge: I have bet that I can buy a full set of David Bowie‘s albums (in their original vinyl and in excellent condition with all the inserts) from The Man Who Sold The World to Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps). That’s fourteen albums in fourteen days. Total budget: £100. The loser has a…
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David Bowie and The Man Who Sold The World
The story so far: I have bet my friend Chris that I can buy a full set of Bowie‘s albums (in their original vinyl and in excellent condition with all the inserts) from The Man Who Sold The World to Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps). That’s fourteen albums in fourteen days. Total budget: £100. The…
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How To Buy David Bowie’s Ziggy Stardust on Vinyl
How To Buy Ziggy Stardust The story so far: I have made a bet that I can buy a full set of Bowie’s albums (in their original vinyl versions – and in excellent condition with all the inserts) from The Man Who Sold The World to Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps). That’s fourteen albums in…
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How I Tried To Buy David Bowie’s Classic Albums on Vinyl For Less Than £100
Just how cheaply can you buy a full set of Bowie‘s ’70’s vinyl records? “The trouble with buying old records” said my friend Chris after several pints of Adnams, (if I can paint you a brief picture) “is that everyone suspects they’re worth something, so it is difficult to get a real collector’s item unless…
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Arcade Fire Are Kung Fu Fighting in New Mash Up from Go Home Productions
It only takes a few seconds of “Kung-Fu Reflektor” to demonstrate just how much fun Mash ups can be, when they are done well. Arcade Fire and Carl Douglas might not be the most obvious bedfellows, but this is as much fun in three minutes as you will ever find on YouTube, with the possible…
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Think It’s Easy Running Brixton Academy? Think Again…
Simon Parkes’ hilarious and revealing story of The Brixton Academy tells you all you need to know about why running a music venue is not for the faint-hearted. From an opening story involving booking a band to play the Academy using a coke dealer as a secret weapon, to being the subject of tear gas…
Every record tells a story 