Buzz
A Choral Christmas on Radio 3Tuesday, 30 November 2010
Christmas is coming, and prepare ye the way for a sledge-load of new music. It’s probably not just Stephen Cleobury’s annual commissioning of new carols for the King’s College Service of Nine Lessons and Carols that does it (though he must be partly... Read more... |
Huxley or Orwell - who got it right?Saturday, 27 November 2010One question posed by Neil Postman in his Amusing Ourselves To Death is who got it right - Orwell or Huxley? Basically, will we be more damaged by what we love or what we hate? With X Factor and the Royal Wedding the modern Bread and Circuses, it's... Read more... |
At home with Jean SibeliusThursday, 25 November 2010
It will remain one of the most unforgettable times of my life - the privilege of spending four hours alone with the curator in the house of Jean Sibelius outside Helsinki, deep in a snowbound March scene.In fact, I just couldn't stop writing about... Read more... |
Peter 'Sleazy' Christopherson 1955-2010Thursday, 25 November 2010
I once passed up the chance of meeting Peter "Sleazy" Christopherson, who - it was announced by his Throbbing Gristle bandmates on Twitter - died in his sleep last night aged 55. In the late 1990s I was invited to interview him and his long-term... Read more... |
Casto Divo: Rufus Wainwright takes up at Covent GardenTuesday, 23 November 2010
From Rufus Wainwright's first album, which featured the dirgey "Damned Ladies" wherein he sings to Desdemona and "brown-eyed Tosca", his operatic musical tendencies - indeed, his whole operatic self-conception - have never been latent. He has... Read more... |
Save The 100 Club!Friday, 19 November 2010
Musical luminaries including Mick Jagger, Paul Weller, Ray Davies and Liam Gallagher are lending their support to a campaign to save The 100 Club, the historic music venue in London’s Oxford Street. Soaring business rates of £4000 a month and an... Read more... |
The Chaser Years, Maverik Gallery, LondonThursday, 18 November 2010
“Hot sweaty tight jammed in can’t breathe heart pumping centre of the universe Monday night action in town. Racing down to Bar Rumba at midnight through the blaring siren wailing darkness of south London to the tinsel town wet streeted fakeness of... Read more... |
Relics of Richard II, National Portrait GalleryThursday, 18 November 2010
The National Portrait Gallery is a national treasure. Not because it has nice pictures (although it does have that too), but because it has the most amazing archive. An archive that is, almost literally, a treasure trove. It is, of course, out of... Read more... |
Remembering a great ProkofievianWednesday, 17 November 2010
She did more to make Prokofiev remembered and reassessed than most of the great performers. Noëlle Mann, who died earlier this year from cancer at the age of 63, was the doyenne of Prokofiev studies: vivacious guardian of the Prokofiev Archive at... Read more... |
Bush Theatre to move from pub to libraryFriday, 12 November 2010
London’s world-famous experimental pub-theatre has secured its future with a move into Shepherd’s Bush old library. Church and council permission were given yesterday for conversion of the library (owned by the Church of England) to be ready for... Read more... |
Violent grime on the increaseThursday, 11 November 2010
Grime music, following its emergence from (mostly) East London clubs and pirate radio stations in the very early 2000s, was archetypical music of urban disaffection. Although it produced characters like the rambunctious Jammer and the oddly... Read more... |
Hereford Photography FestivalWednesday, 10 November 2010
Cider, bulls and a beautifully restored cathedral which hosts the annual Three Choirs Festival are probably the key elements used to brand Hereford. But for 20 years, the city has also been home to the UK’s first photography festival. This month,... Read more... |
