wed 30/07/2025

New Music Reviews

Reissue CDs Weekly: America

Kieron Tyler

 

AMERICA THE WARNER BROS YEARSAmerica: The Warner Bros. Years 1971–1977

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theartsdesk at Camp Bestival 2015

Thomas H Green

Camp Bestival 2015 was bathed in four days of glorious sun, a rare window of idyllic weather in this most cantankerous of summers. It took place, as it has since it began in 2008, amid the hilly, verdant and well-kept grounds of Lulworth Castle in Dorset. Run by DJ Rob da Bank, his wife Josie and their team, it remains the country’s premier family festival, attended by some 30,000. Those are the facts, yet Camp Bestival is a curious creature, tricky to encapsulate.

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Reissue CDs Weekly: Cocteau Twins

Kieron Tyler

 

Cocteau Twins The Pink OpaqueCocteau Twins: The Pink Opaque, Tiny Dynamine/Echoes in a Shallow Bay

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Prom 16: Late Night with Radio 1, Pete Tong

Matthew Wright

After years of pussyfooting around pop, hoping the Pet Shop Boys will write something in a passable classical idiom, the Proms has embraced the most euphoric popular genre of all - dance - to its bosom.

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WOMAD 2015, Charlton Park

Peter Culshaw

Now was the summer of our disco tent. The disco tent in question backstage was not jumping as much as in previous years – somehow strutting your Travolta moves in wellies doesn’t quite cut it. A glam tribute band at Molly’s Bar on Thursday night, knocking out Bolan and Bowie numbers dressed in cheap sci-fi tat were hugely entertaining though.

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WOMAD 2, Charlton Park

mark Kidel

Trudging through the mud at last weekend’s WOMAD provided fleeting moments of random entertainment, as if surfing old-style across the bandwidths of a short-wave radio, you’d stumble unexpectedly on snatches of exotic sounds from around the globe: an eerie double-bass Mongolian throat-song one minute, and a horror-dark wisp of electronically enhanced tango the next. The food was taste-bogglingly varied too, from Algerian-flavoured steak wraps to a mysterious array of Tibetan treats. 

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Tom Jones / The Shires, Greenwich Music Time Festival

Matthew Wright

With its time and observatory, Greenwich is a fitting venue for record-breakers, and Sir Tom Jones, who sang at the Greenwich Music Time Festival last night, has some impressive vital statistics. The still-slim, still-dynamic figure in a black suit has sold 100 million records in a career of over 50 years, and on a good day, he can be Elvis Presley with a touch of Bryn Terfel.

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Peter Perrett, The Garage

Thomas H Green

Peter Perrett reappears for his third encore. This time his band doesn’t play with him. He attacks the guitar alone, “No Peace for the Wicked” and “It’s the Truth”, both songs from his days in The Only Ones, 35 years ago. His distinctive cracked voice is strong. In any case, the crowd assist him, even though these are not sing-along songs so much as perfectly constructed mini-melodramas of the heart.

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Reissue CDs Weekly: Tennessee Ernie Ford

Kieron Tyler

 

Tennessee Ernie Ford Portrait of an American SingerTennessee Ernie Ford: Portrait of an American Singer

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Irakere, Ronnie Scott's

Thomas Rees

When Afro-Cuban jazz pioneers Irakere first played Ronnie Scott’s, back in 1985, they sold out the venue for five weeks on the trot. Thirty years later, and 40 years since the pioneering Latin jazz outfit began, they’re back to celebrate the anniversary, playing two shows a night across six nights, with pianist and founder Chucho Valdes at the helm.  

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