pop
Chas & Dave: Last Orders, BBC FourSaturday, 27 October 2012
Chas & Dave’s run of hits up the mid Eighties made them an alternative to the gloss of Wham!, Duran Duran and Culture Club. They had three chart albums in 1983. But was there more to their “rockney” music than a first take suggests? Were they... Read more... |
Tampere Nights: Lost in Music Festival 2012Friday, 26 October 2012
Nightclub Tähti is on the seventh floor of an anonymous-looking building along Tampere’s main shopping street, Hämeenkatu. Black-suited security wave you into a lift which zips straight up there. After surrendering your coat at the cloakroom –... Read more... |
Reissue CDs Weekly: Peter Gabriel, Stackridge, Ray Charles, Caro EmeraldSunday, 21 October 2012
Peter Gabriel: So Russ Coffey In early 1986 Peter Gabriel was still the guy who used to be in Genesis. He may have released four solo albums, but had also done his best to keep them in the “cult” section of local stores. With So, however, his... Read more... |
CD: Dionne Warwick – NowWednesday, 17 October 2012
The songs are instantly recognisable. Bacharach & David’s “Don’t Make Me Over” “There's Always Something There to Remind me”, “I Say a Little Prayer” and “Make it Easy on Yourself” will always be evocative. So will Dionne Warwick’s voice, though... Read more... |
Johnny Hallyday, Royal Albert HallTuesday, 16 October 2012
The Royal Albert Hall is pretty big. It's a prestige venue, but everything is relative. For the overwhelmingly French audience, the first British headlining show by Johnny Hallyday was the equivalent of seeing Paul McCartney, Tom Jones and Cliff... Read more... |
CD: Leona Lewis - GlassheartSaturday, 13 October 2012
Leona Lewis has a whole new look: all mouse-brown hair, sullen expression and the oddest-looking facial jewellery since Kate Nash misappropriated the bindi in the video she made to accompany “Underestimate The Girl”. It really doesn’t suit her.... Read more... |
Just in From Scandinavia: Nordic Music Round-Up 5Monday, 08 October 2012
A lot has blown in since the last Scandinavian round-up. The most recent releases sifted here include singer-songwriter intimacy, various forms of electropop, several shades of jazz experimenta, joyous dance-pop and some distinctly non-Scandinavian... Read more... |
Arena: The Beatles’ Magical Mystery Tour Revisited, BBC TwoSunday, 07 October 2012
Being told that Magical Mystery Tour was a home movie is bit tiring. Self-evidently, The Beatles’ filmic response to the psychedelic experience was not that. They tried, and failed, to hire Shepperton Studios. Known artists like Ivor Cutler and The... Read more... |
Reissue CDs Weekly: B B King, Steve Winwood, The Doors, Loving on the FlipsideSunday, 07 October 2012
B B King: Ladies & Gentlemen…Mr B.B. KingKieron TylerOne of the stranger manifestations of U2’s Eighties fascination with the iconography of American music was “When Love Comes to Town", their collaboration with B B King. As a single, it... Read more... |
CD: Neil Sedaka – The Real NeilMonday, 01 October 2012
After 65 years in music, over 55 of them as a solo artist and songwriter, it’s a tad surprising that Neil Sedaka has taken until now to declare he’s revealing the real Neil. Even when his former girlfriend and Brill Building colleague Carole King... Read more... |
Reissue CDs Weekly: A.R. Kane, Crime and the City Solution, ABBA, Demis RoussosSunday, 30 September 2012
A.R. Kane: Complete Singles CollectionJoe MuggsIn my early teens, circa 1988, certain records would appear on The Chart Show indie chart countdown on a Saturday morning, records that hinted disquietingly at something far beyond the standard... Read more... |
Reissue CDs Weekly: R.E.M., Alice Cooper, The Durutti Column, Aztec CameraSunday, 23 September 2012
R.E.M.: Document 25th Anniversary EditionKieron TylerAlthough the band themselves have not lasted out the 25 years since the release of their fifth album Document, R.E.M. haven’t dropped off the face of the earth. The memory will live, fed by... Read more... |
