Every Record Tells A Story
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How Elton John Can Help You Save For The Deposit On Your Flat
The Vinyl Revival (TM) continues apace, sucking up the cash of Millennials faster than a pop up craft-beer-and-smashed-avocado stall at a box park. With new LPs often costing £20 or more, vinyl-loving Millennials are reportedly struggling to save for a deposit on a flat. Some find it tricky enough to save for a deposit on…
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Pink Floyd’s Pulse Reissued: How Not To Break The Bank
You have to feel a little sorry for Pink Floyd fans. Not too much, obviously. They are more likely than you are to have a final salary pension, a second home, a car that starts on a cold day, a membership to a gym they never visit and all the other trappings of the baby…
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Why We Still Need Record Store Day
Record Store Day seems to be a day of doing things you wouldn’t normally do. You rise earlier than you would for work. (Motivation may have something to do with this…) You happily stand in a queue outside a record shop although you get apoplectic with rage waiting for more than thirty seconds at the…
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Arcade Fire: So Good, They Can Make Even Wembley Arena Shake
Arcade Fire have overcome many obstacles in their path over the years. Grabbing the attention of the world through their indie-released debut LP Funeral; delivering credible follow ups to one of the decade’s most critically acclaimed albums, and then dealing with inevitable backlashes. “Are Arcade Fire their own worst enemy?” asked the New York Times…
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David Bowie Photography Exhibition Hits Essex
Geoff MacCormack was just seven years old and was wearing the brown uniform of Burnt Ash Primary school when he first met David Jones. They went to cub scouts together and were in the choir together. It transpired neither the cubs, choir nor school would end up providing the boys with the strangest outfits they…
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Belle and Sebastian in Health and Safety Regulation Flaunting Shock: Live at the Troxy
Stuart Murdoch walked out intrepidly into the crowd last night during “Dear Catastrophe Waitress”. It’s a Belle and Sebastian crowd, so it’s a friendly, unthreatening and relaxed crowd, more likely to offer him a Tunnock’s Wafer than trouble. But then Murdoch ascended the Art Deco stair case and climbed over the safety railing right at…
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So. Much. Joy. The Hold Steady Live In London
In a week that saw the demise of the NME’s print edition after sixty-odd years, it is reassuring that some traditions remain. The country is still run by incompetents, it’s impossible to find a telecoms provider whose call centre isn’t indescribably awful, and The Hold Steady are still introducing (so much) joy to the world…
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Sliding Doors: The Origin of Roxy Music
Brian Eno was waiting for the tube at Maida Vale. A train stopped, leaving Brian equidistant between two carriages. He didn’t know it, but his destiny awaited. Enter one carriage, and he would become a pop star, an innovator of ambient recording, and eventually collaborate on some of David Bowie’s most remarkable albums, using a…
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Gaz Coombs Unveils Songs From New Album At ULU
It has been quite a journey since Gaz Coombs began his rock career as the teenage lead singer of…. The Jennifers. Signed to Nude Records in 1991 – the contract signed by his mum as he was too young – The Jennifers tilted a vain lance towards stardom, but their songs, with titles such as…
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The Brits 2018: Stormzy’s Boots, Dua Lipa’s Swimming Cozzie and Liam Gallagher’s Coat
It’s genuinely a highlight of the musical year, if only for the thrill of the unexpected, but if we learn nothing else at The Brits each time, it’s just how difficult being a TV presenter is. At least, the three plucky presenters inevitably made it appear so on ITV’s “Red Carpet” Show. It can’t be…
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Book What The Cat Dragged In: A New Look At Glam Metal
Glam metal. Perhaps one of the most thoroughly ignored genres of music of the last forty years. The trouble is, when your music is a silo of strange, make-up-infested faux-cowboys with ludicrous hair, flaming codpieces and guitars featuring primary colours that even The Wiggles would find garish, it’s very difficult to get anyone to take…
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Jen Cloher: An Album Of The Year…
Album of the year lists are both a blessing and curse. As a way to demonstrate your discerning taste there are few better ways to impress your friends. On the other hand, there are fewer more effective ways for your friends to demonstrate how much greater their taste is than yours, and how mundane and…
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Can Dream Wife Hit The Top 40 UK Album Charts?
There are many plagues of the modern world. Internet passwords. Staying over at a friend’s house and waking up first. The shrinking of the Toblerone bar. But most of all, Dry January. If ever there was a miserable, overly-long, grim, sleet-and-rain-ridden month of the year to drink your way through and forget, it was January.…
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Can You Really Improve Your Hotel’s TripAdvisor Rating By Having The Libertines Run It?
The first big name casualty of the Music Industry’s collapse in revenues has been revealed. Instead of retiring into a life of tripping over supermodels on Caribbean beaches, The Libertines are having to make ends meet by moving into the hospitality industry. Peter, Carl, John and Gary have announced they will be opening a hotel…
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Belle & Sebastian And The Horror Of Spotify Playlists.
In a world where people consume music through pre-determined streaming service playlists with grim titles such as “Cinematic Chillout”, “Music for Concentration” and “Songs for Sleeping”, how does a band that is already nine albums into a career spanning over twenty years grab the attention of the zombified masses? Masses moreover, who willingly listen to…
Every record tells a story 