Every Record Tells A Story
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Rik Mayall
I am so very sad at the passing of Rik Mayall earlier today, aged just 56. Rik was perhaps the greatest comedian of his generation, from a rich vintage that included Rowan Atkinson, Ade Edmonson and Ben Elton. There aren’t many people who have ever stolen the show when appearing on screen with Rowan Atkinson,…
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The Black Crowes’ First London Show: The Marquee, 1990
The Marquee Club, London. June 1990. I was there to see a band I had only ever read about, who were on the tiny stage just three feet in front of me, lean as rakes, hungrily playing up a storm on their debut UK show. The band was The Black Crowes and they had released…
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First Prince, Now Dan Reed Network: The Return of Funk Rock
What with Prince mid-way through a hit and run tour in the UK playing small venues like a one man musical Bonnie and Clyde (he played the Roundhouse this week), it appears that funk – and its offshoot genre funk rock has not yet gasped its final breath. There are some musical genre-mash-ups that simply…
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Why Listening To Music In 1984 Was Worse Than 2014 (One Direction Notwithstanding…)
Even in 2014 life has its minor irritations: “Unexpected item in the bagging area”. “Incorrect username or password”. “Nick Grimshaw”. But it isn’t all bad news. A few days ago I wrote down a few examples of how our lives have been made easier through the years, in particular relating to finding and listening to…
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What Is The Greatest “Not Officially Released” Album?
There’s something about unreleased songs and albums which is wholly intriguing. An unreleased record taunts us whilst unheard, causing divine despair for the days that are no more, or whatever the poet said. Never mind the fact that the artist or record company thought the release of such excrescence might cause irreparable harm to the…
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Check out: The Hosts
They say if you remember the sixties, you weren’t really there. Well now there’s a new band who definitely weren’t there, but have solved that problem by recording a modern album that brings the sixties sound into the 21st century. A couple of months ago I heard a song on the radio that sounded like…
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Jesus And Mary Chain: We Weren’t Goths: We Just Wanted To Be On Top of the Pops!
A couple of weeks ago I talked to author Zoe Howe about her new Jesus and Mary Chain Official Biography “Barbed Wire Kisses” which is being released this month, and is the first ever account of the band, some thirty years after their 1984 debut single “Upside Down”. Rock’s annals have a long history of…
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The Real Highlight of the Oasis Definitely Maybe Re-Releases: The Demo Cassette
Anyone living in the UK over the past few weeks and not trapped under something heavy cannot fail to have noticed it is the twentieth anniversary of Brit Pop this year. Polls, documentaries, radio shows and news articles have all been reflecting / wringing hands / celebrating What It All Means, What Brit Pop’s Lasting…
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Ten Other Things Gary Barlow Has Avoided
Gary Barlow’s tax avoidance strategies have hit the headlines in the UK recently, with MPs calling for the return of Barlow’s OBE*** which was awarded for his charity work. The baying for Barlow’s blood from MPs follow revelations that the singer invested in tax avoidance schemes now declared invalid, reportedly leaving Barlow owing HMRC tens…
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How To Mend A Record That Skips And Jumps…With A Toothpick
It is possible to mend a scratched record – and I’ve done it! Mending a broken record is the holy grail for many record collectors. It also gives you a tremendous feeling of satisfaction when you succeed. When I say “broken” I mean an old record in one piece that nevertheless skips or jumps, presumably…
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See Beth Orton, The Hosts and Scroobius Pip for £10 At Essex Festival The Village Green
As summer approaches, thoughts turn to the summer season. Whilst for the landed gentry this means the quiet civility of Ascot, Henley and The Hurlingham Club, for the rest of us it can only mean the sheer joy of mud, rain, noise, plastic cups filled with various unidentified warm bodily fluids, chemical toilets and the…
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Yeah Yeah Yeah by Bob Stanley: The Chapter-by-Chapter Spotify Playlists Page
I had a terrific reaction from Twitter to my article about Bob Stanley’s history of popular music, “Yeah Yeah Yeah” back in May 2014… Like a nervous boy asking out the prettiest girl in school to the disco, I enquired as to whether anyone would like to help set up a page of playlists to accompany each…
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A New Way To Read The Best Music Book of 2013: “Yeah Yeah Yeah” by Bob Stanley
It is a truth universally acknowledged that the best music book of 2013 was Bob Stanley’s “Yeah Yeah Yeah” – A History of Modern Pop Music. (I haven’t yet read the main contender to that title, Mark Lewisohn’s Beatles epic, but then part two isn’t due for another six years, so there’s plenty of time). Bob Stanley knows a thing or…
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McAlmont and Butler: Live at The Union Chapel – Review
McAlmont and Butler Reunite For One-off Shows Never mind those Oasis Glastonbury rumours, another Britpop era reunion happened last night, and it was far better than any Gallagher family get-together is likely to be. Whilst twenty years on from the rise of Britpop it has rightly been recognised that it all began with Brett Anderson’s…
Every record tells a story 