Every Record Tells A Story
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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…
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More Crowd Chaos As “Tray of Pimms Upset” at Costello Kew Gardens Gig
Just a week after 38 people were left injured with eight needing hospital treatment at The Libertines’ Hyde Park concert, crowd control has once again hit the news, this time at Elvis Costello’s Kew Gardens concert as part of the “Kew The Music” series of concerts. After just one song the show was stopped by…
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The Am-Azing (Moltmaker’s) Beatles Museum, Alkmaar
Alkmaar in Holland is perhaps best known for its traditional cheese market. Burly men have paraded the streets of Alkmaar for hundreds of years, all dressed in costumes whilst selling their wares. And there’s also a cheese market. Perhaps less well known, however, is Alkmaar’s Beatles Museum. The obvious question is “Why Alkmaar?” Although the…
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A User Guide To Napster (Before It Became Legal)
Napster. An invidious presence which contributed to the decline of the music industry and facilitated mass piracy and the collapse of album sales, not to mention being responsible for our having to see Justin Timberlake onscreen in the film “Social Network”. All guilty as charged. But this enabler of free file-sharing also allowed great numbers…
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Classic Lost Tracks: The Black Crowes: Feathers
You know when you hear a song that stops you in your tracks? Let me tell you about The Black Crowes’ track “Feathers”….. This was a song I had only ever read about. It was referred to in hushed tones amongst the Crowes cognoscenti, with the sort of reverence you only otherwise witness when people…
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Faith No More: Live at BST Hyde Park
It is 25 years almost to the day that one of the best rock albums of the eighties was released. Faith No More’s “The Real Thing” sprang from nowhere and won huge critical praise at the time, finishing in Kerrang!’s Top Five Albums of the Year, with the likes of Def Leppard’s Joe Elliott, riding…
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Soundgarden Play Superunknown In Entirety “For Last Time”: Joined by Pearl Jam’s Mike McCready
Returning – this time second on the bill – to a stage they headlined two years ago when they first reformed, Soundgarden unveiled something a little different at Hyde Park yesterday. Having supported Black Sabbath throughout the latest stretch of their world tour, Soundgarden’s lead vocalist Chris Cornell addressed the crowd basking in the sun…
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Black Sabbath at Hyde Park: Review
London may have its faults: There are too many people, too many drugs, loud parties, late night revellers… It also has its faults. It’s expensive: The Connaught bar sells beer at £65. Per glass. Yes, that isn’t a typo. It is busy, the average life expectancy of a cyclist is roughly equivalent to that of…
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A Recovering Lemmy Braves It Out As Motörhead Play Hyde Park
Let’s face it, even if he had lived fast and died young, he’d never have had a good looking corpse, so it’s just as well Lemmy has been as good at Grim Reaper-dodging as anyone. Having left Hawkwind ostensibly not because of musical differences but because of drug differences (they took weed, Lemmy took speed),…
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Glastonbury 2014: In Pictures
From the opening chords of “I Predict A Riot” by The Kaiser Chiefs on the Other Stage to kick things off, to Kasabian’s triumphant closing show, the performers at Glastonbury played their part in a truly memorable festival. Of course what those reviews of shows don’t tell you is what life was like when we…
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Kasabian Set Glastonbury On Fire With Barnstorming Set To Close The Festival: Review
There’s something rather loveable about Kasabian. Perhaps not the most hotly anticipated headliner of the weekend thanks to all the fuss about Metallica, they nevertheless conjured the most electric of atmospheres to round off a memorable weekend. Unashamedly appealing to those who enjoy dancing whilst holding pints of beer on top of their heads, Kasabian…
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The Black Keys – Live at Glastonbury: Sunday – Pyramid Stage
It has been a long and winding road for Akron, Ohio’s finest band to reach the heady heights of the Pyramid stage, Glastonbury. On the way, they have paid their dues through long years of touring (I first saw the Black Keys play at the now defunct London Astoria in front of a few hundred…
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The Horrors Provide A Darker Alternative To Dolly’s Ray of Sunshine – Live at Glastonbury
Despite the odd torrential downpour, Glastonbury 2014 has revealed many pleasures: More stages than Berlusconi has mistresses. Cases of trench foot down 38% on last year. You could have a great time here without seeing a single band. No sign of an under-performing, yet overpaid England football team. The circus acts are brightly coloured and…
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Royal Blood – John Peel Stage Live at Glastonbury
There was devastation of biblical proportions at the Glastonbury Festival yesterday. It was carnage. No, not the walkways and campsites of the festival goers, or even the revolting shirt worn by one of my friends all day yesterday. No, I refer to the memorable finale to Royal Blood’s set, a band who raised the roof…
Every record tells a story 