1970s
Glastonbury Festival 2022: an unexpurgated odyssey around the best party on the planetThursday, 30 June 2022
Last days of June 2022, I sit in my writing hut. My liver is radioactive jelly, my nose reinforced concrete, my leg muscles marathon-cramped, and poisoned perspiration rolls down my forehead, stinging my eyeballs.You’ll already have seen a trillion... Read more... |
The Rolling Stones, BST Hyde Park review - let it rock!Monday, 27 June 2022
A few spots of rain greeted the arrival of the Rolling Stones on BST Hyde Park’s stage on Saturday night, and after “Street Fighting Man”, as Mick Jagger dedicated the show to the much-loved and lamented drummer Charlie Watts, a rainbow appeared... Read more... |
Elvis review - Austin Butler shines in patchy biopicFriday, 24 June 2022
Strictly Ballroom aside, I’ve never been entirely persuaded by Baz Luhrmann. Once you rip open the plush packaging of his films, you often just find satin and tissue paper inside. Elvis isn’t his worst movie (they can’t take that accolade away from... Read more... |
Jitney, Old Vic review - a directorial delightSaturday, 18 June 2022
It’s great to see August Wilson’s early play – the first of his “Century Cycle”, that remarkable decalogy that explored a century of Black American experience through the prism of the playwright’s native Pittsburgh – back on the London stage. It’s... Read more... |
Album: Golden Feelings - Golden FeelingsFriday, 03 June 2022
It’s hard to know exactly when new age music passed from being a retro curio to being part of the language of alternative music. Certainly it can be traced back to the early-mid Noughties, with acts like Emeralds, Oneohtrix Point Never and James... Read more... |
Pistol, Disney+ review - Punk history repeats itself as farceTuesday, 31 May 2022
The fact that John Lydon has complained so long and so loudly about director Danny Boyle’s TV drama about the Sex Pistols has only served to pump up interest in the project.“I'm the one that wrote those songs, right. I gave them their image. I gave... Read more... |
Music Reissues Weekly: John Barry - The More Things ChangeSunday, 29 May 2022
By 1970, John Barry had composed music for Born Free, The Lion in Winter, Midnight Cowboy, You Only Live Twice and about 38 other films. His work with cinema began in 1960 and averaged around five films a year. In 1965, eight films were released... Read more... |
Music Reissues Weekly: Patty Waters - You Loved MeSunday, 22 May 2022
“Touched by Rodin in a Paris Museum” is a 14-minute consideration of exactly what its title says: the impact of encountering Auguste Rodin’s work in person. The composition features piano only. There are nods to Debussy and Ravel. The playing is... Read more... |
Grease, Dominion Theatre review - a super night out, great songs well sung and spectacular dancingWednesday, 18 May 2022
Barry Gibb was at the considerable peak of his era-defining songwriting powers when he provided the song that played over the opening titles of the iconic 1978 film, so it's a wise decision by director, Nikolai Foster, to go straight into "Grease is... Read more... |
Music Reissues Weekly: 999 - A Punk Rock AnthologySunday, 15 May 2022
“Ramonic buzzsaw impressionism guitars lovingly poured like a truckload of Quaker Oats over the indecipherable lyrical content that sounds like a rancid moggie that has snorted too much Pro-Plus.”So that was a possible thumbs-up from NME’s Tony... Read more... |
Music Reissues Weekly: Kokomo - To Be CoolSunday, 08 May 2022
Over January, February and early March 1975, British music fans could buy tickets for what was titled The Naughty Rhythms Tour. Three bands were billed, with the running order changing each evening. The tour was the idea of Andrew Jakeman, who... Read more... |
Music Reissues Weekly: Fame - Jon Savage’s Secret History Of Post-Punk (1978-81)Sunday, 24 April 2022
“The Method” by The Method Actors was issued as the top side of a single in July 1981. Although recorded in London during September 1980 and only released by a British label, the band – a duo of guitar/vocals and drums/vocals – were from Athens,... Read more... |
