1970s
Rooster/Four Elements/Sounddance, Rambert, Sadler's WellsWednesday, 21 May 2014
Sure as carbon dioxide and the greenhouse effect, the 2010s are following a standard 20-year nostalgia cycle by embracing the 1990s as their "retro twin" decade. The quiet rumblings of the last few years – student Nineties parties and the... Read more... |
Reissue CDs Weekly: Philadelphia International RecordsSunday, 18 May 2014
Various Artists: Philadelphia International Records – The CollectionThe O’Jays’ “Love Train”, The Jacksons’ “Show You the Way to Go” and McFadden & Whitehead’s “Ain’t No Stoppin’ Us Now” share an undeniable power. All make the body move... Read more... |
DVD: Theatre of BloodTuesday, 13 May 2014
Many films fuse humour with horror and many of those fail to be accomplished in either genre. Bringing fun to the scary often results in a clunkiness which neither raises laughs or goosebumps. The worst example might be the utterly awful Bloodbath... Read more... |
DVD: American HustleFriday, 02 May 2014
It's surely among the most grotesque factoids in the history of Hollywood that despite being nominated for 10 Oscars, American Hustle won a grand total of none. Its big mistakes were presumably being too entertaining and failing to concern itself... Read more... |
Frankie Knuckles, 1955-2014Tuesday, 01 April 2014
It's rare that you can trace a genre to one man. But house music is well documented: “house” originally simply meant the music played at the Warehouse club, by one Frankie Knuckles, who died yesterday in Chicago from diabetes-related complications.... Read more... |
Miles Davis: Live at Fillmore EastMonday, 31 March 2014It’s strange to think that music recorded 45 years ago in what was once an old Yiddish theatre turned rock 'n' roll palace on the Lower East Side in the summer of 1970 – a few months before Jimi Hendrix’s death, as war raged in Vietnam and riots in... Read more... |
Reissue CDs Weekly: Elton JohnSunday, 30 March 2014
Elton John: Goodbye Yellow Brick Road box set“Elton John plays cricket as he plays piano; dressed to kill and as if his life depends on it.” The commentary on the film included in the box-set version of this reissue of 1973’s Goodbye Yellow... Read more... |
CD: Band of Skulls - HimalayanFriday, 28 March 2014
Anyone who came across Band of Skulls' sophomore album, Sweet Sour, in 2012 would have heard the sound of a band that was more than conversant with the Led Zeppelin songbook but who had no intention of staying put in the early Seventies. The... Read more... |
Reissue CDs Weekly: Lou AdlerSunday, 23 March 2014
Various Artists: Lou Adler – A Musical HistoryLou Adler is more than a stitch in rock’s rich tapestry. Akin to a whole spool of yarn, he helped Carole King realise the monumental Tapestry, was integral to making 1967’s epochal Monterey... Read more... |
Reissue CDs Weekly: Jane Birkin, Françoise HardySunday, 16 March 2014
Jane Birkin: Mes Images Privées de Serge / Françoise Hardy: Message PersonnelThe bond between Serge Gainsbourg and Jane Birkin still resonates. They met while on the set of the film Slogan in 1969 and were soon a headline-grabbing couple. Although... Read more... |
Reissue CDs Weekly: Tyrannosaurus Rex, T. RexSunday, 09 March 2014
Tyrannosaurus Rex: A Beard of Stars/T.Rex: T.Rex, Tanx/Marc Bolan & T. Rex: Zinc Alloy and the Hidden Riders of TomorrowReactions to these reissues are going be determined by what level of fandom the band's acolytes subscribe to. These are not... Read more... |
The Life of Rock with Brian Pern, BBC FourTuesday, 11 February 2014
It’s a brave comic who steps into the spandex zucchini-stuffed loon pants of Spinal Tap. The – if you will – rockumentary will never be done better. But it is 30 years since Marty DiBergi went in search of the sights, the sounds, the smells of a... Read more... |
