Every Record Tells A Story
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Who is the Funniest Rock Star? Top Five Rock n Roll Comedy Sketches
So many people are frightened by clowns that there is a name for the phobia. What with their scary white make up, over-size shoes and comedy songs, there should also be a word for a fear of the band Kiss. Rock n roll and comedy has an uneasy relationship, especially by those musicians who want…
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Tim Burgess’ Great Vinyl Adventure
Tim Burgess. You may know him as the lead singer of The Charlatans, readily recognisable from his shock of blond pudding-bowl-shaped hair and singer of some of the best songs of the last twenty-odd years. You may also know Burgess as a prominent contributor to Twitter, or from his own brand of fairtrade coffee (Tim…
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Why Neil Young Once Tried to Drive To Belgium, and How He Nearly Killed Dylan…
The final article (of three) on Neil Young’s Ditch Trilogy… Tonight’s The Night was due to be released in January 1974, but Neil Young continued to work on mixing the rough recordings, and by May 1974 he was playing a solo show at The Bottom Line in New York with a set of new songs,…
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Neil Young and The Ditch Trilogy: Time Fades Away and Tonight’s the Night
This is the Second of three parts of a trilogy of articles about the Ditch Trilogy that I originally wrote for the liner notes to my Neil Young DIY Box Set… Worst follow up albums? There are quite a few acts that have followed up a huge, successful, life changing hit album with an an…
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A Glastonbury Top Five: Sunday
The final day of Glastonbury brings a unique feeling of excitement, sadness, relief and exhaustion. Excitement at the prospect of new bands to discover and see. Sadness that it will soon all be over. Relief that soon you won’t have to tread through four inches of mud to head in any direction and that one…
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A Glastonbury Saturday
By the time Saturday comes at Glastonbury, most festival goers are pretty battle-hardened. Amidst the festivities, the fancy dress and general bonhomie, you begin to notice people who either resemble Vietnam veterans or simply look as though they went for a swim in the mud. But off the beaten track remain lovely areas of calm…
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Glastonbury News: Day One
It was a strange mood that pervaded across Glastonbury yesterday as the overnight referendum news sank in like a heavy boot into the mud. Even rumours of a secret Radiohead performance (still only rumours) weren’t enough to lift spirits. Sir Michael Eavis popped over to cut a ribbon on the Other Stage to open the…
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GlastonBowie – Glastonbury honours David Bowie with mass singalong
It’s the festival of festivals. Nauseatingly omnipresent for some, frustratingly always out of reach for others (usually those with slow broadband speeds trying to get tickets). A couple of years ago, I went along and reported on a plethora of great bands and acts including early looks at the likes of Courtney Barnett, Parquet Courts…
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What’s Your Favourite Father’s Day Song?
Here’s one for the dads out there… It’s Father’s Day today, unless you are from somewhere apart from the UK, when Father’s Day is probably in March or something. Sorry if I got your hopes up… It’s a day when a Dad can actually shuffle about the house playing records without feeling vaguely guilty that…
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High Street Vinyl Wars! HMV Launches Its Own Record Store Day
You may not have noticed, but as Father’s Day 2016 approaches, we may be reaching peak vinyl. A supermarket war has broken out over vinyl sales in the UK, something unimaginable a few years ago unless the fight was this: Tesco: “You should sell them” J Sainsbury: “No, You should sell them”… Aldi: “What’s a…
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Parquet Courts – Human Performance at Rough Trade East
It was in the sedate-sounding surroundings of The University of North Texas at a record listening club that one of New York’s noisiest exports was first spawned. Andrew Savage was the host at the grandly titled “Knights of the Round Table” Record Club and there he met Austin Brown, an unassuming fellow music fan, and…
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Neil Young Live at The O2 Arena: A Journey Through The Past
There are two kinds of live artists: those who play the hits, and those who don’t. One of my favourite Neil Young stories is about the time Young played a set of completely new, unheard songs to an audience, then told them “here’s one you’ve heard before” only to then dash their hopes of…
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Neil Young and his Original Special One: Danny Whitten
(In anticipation of Neil Young’s show at The O2 Arena on Saturday, I thought I would share a slightly altered version of the liner notes I wrote for the Neil Young DIY Box Set earlier in the year, which has previously only been read by the buyer of that box set. Here’s the first of…
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AC/DC Live at The Olympic Stadium, London: Axl/DC On Song
It was rather an unpopular choice of replacement, and there was much muttering about how things wouldn’t be the same. The longer you do a job, the harder you are to replace. But that’s enough about Top Gear. For a lead singer to be able to replace Brian Johnson, they had to be their own…
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Wilko Johnson Cheerfully Discusses Death, Depression, Cancer….and Canvey Island
Wilko Johnson was at Rough Trade East last night in conversation with author Zoë Howe to discuss his new book “Don’t You Leave Me Here”. The former Dr Feelgood guitarist has written about his extraordinary life: chart topping success, the argument that led to the break up of the band, his time with Ian Dury…
Every record tells a story 