rock
CD: Wendy James - The Price of the TicketMonday, 08 February 2016
In the latter half of the 1980s, Wendy James’s band Transvision Vamp created quite a stir. Their music, including a chart-topping second album, was fizzing, bright-coloured, punky power pop and James was a pouting, hissy-fit of a frontwoman,... Read more... |
CD: The Cult - Hidden CitySaturday, 30 January 2016
The Cult, functionally Ian Astbury, Billy Duffy and whoever else is joining them at any given time, have, like a peculiarly showy chameleon, constantly changed their colours without ever blending in. From goth pirates banging out breakthrough,... Read more... |
DVD: Lambert and StampSaturday, 02 January 2016
Few rock managers deserve a full-length documentary as much as Kit Lambert and Chris Stamp, who breathed life and inspiration into a lively young Mod group the High Numbers, and transformed them into The Who.They were an unlikely duo – a partnership... Read more... |
Albums of 2015: Keith Richards - Crosseyed HeartWednesday, 23 December 2015
The year has seen great albums from the fringes – in English folk, Leveret’s beautiful instrumental debut New Anything, or Stick in the Wheel’s visceral, political, London stew of an album, From Here, and Sam Lee’s assured, exploratory second album... Read more... |
Albums of 2015: Sleater-Kinney - No Cities To LoveSunday, 20 December 2015
There's a line of argument – and a fairly convincing one – that this is the decade that pop culture lost its imagination. Right now the cinemas are booked out with the latest sequel to a 38-year-old movie franchise, my Twitter feed is... Read more... |
Queen: From Rags to Rhapsody, BBC FourSaturday, 19 December 2015
“Bohemian Rhapsody” is, depending on who you listen to, either a work of unparalleled theatrical daring and creative genius or an unlistenable descent into ludicrously self-indulgent toss. Of course, these are not necessarily contradictory positions... Read more... |
Disappears perform David Bowie's Low, 100 Club, LondonTuesday, 24 November 2015
The 100 Club is dark. Really dark. People are shrouded in the ink-light. I think it’s to save their embarrassment as they order a drink and realise they’ll have to either apply for a loan or sell a child in order to get drunk. In any case, the... Read more... |
Imagine Dragons, SSE Hydro, GlasgowTuesday, 17 November 2015
Exactly three years ago, Imagine Dragons played to 150 people in Glasgow. This time, there were 12,000 people in attendance. The ascent of the Las Vegas quartet (swelled to a five-piece for this tour) brings to mind Peter Cook’s withering assessment... Read more... |
Storyville: Orion - The Man Who Would Be King, BBC FourTuesday, 17 November 2015
The story of Orion, aka Jimmy Ellis, really was a case of truth being weirder than fiction. “He couldn’t have failed, if Elvis had never lived,” we heard from Shelby Singleton, boss of Nashville’s Sun Records, which launched his career – meaning... Read more... |
David Gilmour: Wider Horizons, BBC TwoSunday, 15 November 2015
Had he not become one of the pivotal members of Pink Floyd, it's not difficult to imagine that David Gilmour might have become an academic like his father Douglas (who was a lecturer in zoology and genetics at Cambridge), or maybe a high-flying... Read more... |
The 11 Best Gigs on Film (after Stop Making Sense)Saturday, 07 November 2015
In the arts there is never a best of anything. There is good, great and glorious. But best? There is, however, Stop Making Sense. Talking Heads invited the director Jonathan Demme to film them in performance over three nights in December 1983 at... Read more... |
Love, Art and Rock 'n' Roll, Rambert, Sadler's WellsWednesday, 04 November 2015
A good triple bill should have something for everyone, so Rambert have all bases covered with their latest: rare must be the person who likes neither love, nor art, nor rock 'n' roll. In fact, it's a safe bet that most people like all of them, and... Read more... |
