Two decades before Meg and Jack, there was only one white stripe that mattered: the warpaint over the nose of Britain’s biggest pop star: Adam Ant. His look was so iconic that kids copied him everywhere: indeed, me and my cousin Audrey, inspired by his style, attempted to emulate said stripe one summer, using tennisContinue reading “Lost In Music: Adam and the Ants- Kings Of the Wild Frontier”
Category Archives: Music
Overlooked Classics: The Devil and Daniel Johnston
This beautiful documentary by Jeff Feuerzeig focuses on the much missed cult singer songwriter and artist Daniel Johnston, a sensitive and thoughtful portrait of a troubled, gifted soul. Although the director takes a linear, somewhat conventional approach to Johnston’s life, he was absolutely unique, whether drawing comics and painting, or creating his beautiful, brittle music.Continue reading “Overlooked Classics: The Devil and Daniel Johnston”
Kate Bush Is Our Goth Big Sister
Photo: Ian Harrison I can still remember the first time I saw the divine Kate Bush,after all this time. I was only little, she was performing on Top Of the Pops, and she both fascinated and terrified me, singing Wuthering Heights. I thought she was possibly a witch. Now I know she is. Her wideContinue reading “Kate Bush Is Our Goth Big Sister”
Film Review: England Is Mine (2017)
Jack Lowden as Morrissey. Most music biopics rise and fall on the strength of their leads capturing the essence of a performer, not a simple impersonation or caricature, which would be so easy to fall into. But then, this film’s focus is on the early days of a man who eschewed empty cliches, forever breakingContinue reading “Film Review: England Is Mine (2017)”
Album Review: Model/Actriz- Pirouette
This simply has to be one of the best albums of the year. A mash up of so many exciting elements: the dancefloor burn of mid-noughties American artists like LCD Soundsystem; wild experimentation of no wave and sheer filth of glam at its sleaziest. It’s night time music for seduction or moving under neon lights.Continue reading “Album Review: Model/Actriz- Pirouette”
Album Review: Mamalarkey- Hex Key
It seems that wonky pop, which emerged in the mid-noughties, is alive and thriving after all. Atlanta band Mamalarkey deal in this often underrated genre. It’s all of the unexpected sonic U -turns that make this new album such a delight. From the euphoric folk bounce of ‘#1 Best Of All Time’ to the sunny,Continue reading “Album Review: Mamalarkey- Hex Key”
Film Review: Pauline Black: A Two Tone Story
What a brilliant, beautiful and triumphant documentary on The Selecter frontwoman Pauline Black. Directed by Jane Mingay, it’s as unflinching, witty and eloquent as Black herself. It’s not simply a music documentary, it’s also a time capsule of the divided late seventies in Britain, a fascinating insight into the formation of the Thatcher-baiting Black/white movementContinue reading “Film Review: Pauline Black: A Two Tone Story”
Album Review: MIEN- MIIEN
Austin band MIEN invoke the psychedelic sixties with this new album, which feels more like a homage than pushing the genre forward. It’s not clear why it exists really, but what it does, it does well. There’s a slice of Silver Apples in opener ‘Evil People’ and ‘Mirror’, but it’s more interesting when it goesContinue reading “Album Review: MIEN- MIIEN”
Album Review: Bowie Vienna ’78
Oh, dear. This live album from David Bowie’s Isolar tour from 1978 suffers from all the problems bootlegs- official or not- often have, namely, dodgy sound, audience chatter and a general sense of immense disappointment at the quality. There’s even a sense of Bowie and the band going through the motions- witness a knackered soundingContinue reading “Album Review: Bowie Vienna ’78”
Music As Vitamin D
When the morning sun hurts too much after bouts of menopausal insomnia, and it’s hard to crawl out of bed, there’s one tune that will give me that much-needed shot of vitamin D. It’s got a bounce like Tigger, but scratches with its sharp talons. It’s from the era of Britpop but was deemed “shoegazing”.Continue reading “Music As Vitamin D”
Hit The North 