New music
Van Dyke Parks, Britten Sinfonia, BarbicanSunday, 24 June 2012
“America treats its musical titans as disposable, and I’m not disposable.” Coming from anyone else, Van Dykes Parks’ declaration last night might have been self-aggrandising. Parks is 69, but he could have said this during any of the last four... Read more... |
London 2012: Peace One Day, Derry-LondonderrySunday, 24 June 2012
The minister for culture Ed Vaizey has said that London 2012 isn't just about London, but showcasing Britain to the world. This may be true in the simple geographical spread of events leading up to the Olympic Games, but in Derry-Londonderry's case... Read more... |
MBC Korean Culture Festival, Indigo2Sunday, 24 June 2012
The rise of Korean pop (or K-pop, for short) in Europe has been steady; conceivably, all that’s needed for the common or garden music fan to become enraptured is one crossover artist. Countless new acts sprung up following the first wave of K-idols... Read more... |
CD: Metric - SyntheticaSunday, 24 June 2012
"Synthetica is about forcing yourself to confront what you see in the mirror when you finally stand still long enough to catch a reflection. Synthetica is about being able to identify the original in a long line of reproductions. It's about what is... Read more... |
Reissue CDs Weekly: Vanguard Records, Tony Blackburn, Lon & Derrek Van EatonSunday, 24 June 2012
Various Artists: Make it Your Sound, Make it Your Scene – Vanguard Records & the 1960s Musical RevolutionKieron TylerSeymour and Maynard Solomon’s Vanguard Records hasn’t been given the same amount of recognition as Jac Holzman’s Elektra,... Read more... |
CD: Macy Gray – CoveredSaturday, 23 June 2012
On his last UK tour comedian Frank Skinner sang a song about Osama Bin Laden in the style of George Formby that contained the following couplet: "He had one hit then he went away, like a terrorism Macy Gray". Very witty, but rather harsh on the... Read more... |
Jack White, O2 Academy BrixtonFriday, 22 June 2012
The suspicion that Jack White is a humourless plank-spanker, harboured by certain members of the media at least, has been thrown into deeper conjecture this past month, with the news that he’s entered into a war of words with the compilers of The... Read more... |
ClocloFriday, 22 June 2012
Claude François doesn’t have the hipster cachet of Serge Gainsbourg, but he did lead an extraordinary life and died young. He also wrote “Comme d’habitude” which was Anglicised to become “My Way”. His live shows were spectacular, the women he... Read more... |
CD: Gaggle - From the Mouth of the CaveThursday, 21 June 2012
GAGGLE (n.): According to the Oxford Dictionary the collective noun for a flock of geese - or, less formally, a disorderly group of people - actually finds its root in the noise that a goose makes. It’s a fact that raises a smile as one attempts to... Read more... |
CD: BOY - Mutual FriendsWednesday, 20 June 2012
There seems to be a perverse trend among bands these days to give themselves names that render them near-invisible to the modern search engine. Hot on the heels of US boy duo Girls comes BOY, a pair of Hamburg-based female voices whose infectious... Read more... |
People's Tenor to star in White House celebrationsWednesday, 20 June 2012Popular tenor Russell Watson has been invited to sing at the White House for the Independence Day celebrations on 4 July, which will also serve as a send-off by President Obama to the US Olympic squad. This makes an excellent consolation prize for... Read more... |
Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers, Royal Albert HallTuesday, 19 June 2012
Back in Britain for the first time in 13 years, Tom Petty and his indestructible crew seemed delighted to be playing at the Albert Hall, and taken aback by the frenzied reception from the audience. They have a soft spot for Blighty, since this was... Read more... |
