1960s
Blu-ray: 8 ½Tuesday, 18 February 2020
8 ½ is one of the classic films about the art of cinema. There is something about the make-believe of movies, and our buying into the dreams they foster, which suggests reflection and self-referencing, as if films offered a mirror to our inner lives... Read more... |
Reissue CDs Weekly: The Honeycombs - Have I The Right? The Complete 60s Albums & SinglesSunday, 16 February 2020
August and September 1964 were golden months for Pye Records. The Kinks hit number one on the British charts in September with “You Really Got Me”, their third single for the label and the group’s first success following two flop 45s.Before The... Read more... |
Reissue CDs Weekly: Tea & Symphony - The English Baroque Sound 1968-1974Sunday, 02 February 2020
When it was issued in May 1968, “Fading Yellow” attracted no attention. It couldn’t have as it was the B-side of “Mr. Poem”, Mike Batt’s poor-selling debut single. The top side was good, very 1968 and along the lines of whimsical 45s like Donovan’s... Read more... |
Persona, Riverside Studios review - Bergman masterpiece transformed into 'The Mumbling'Friday, 31 January 2020
A work of genius isn't sacred, copyrighted territory. A great film may become a play, a novel a film; the adaptation shouldn't be about fidelity, as Elena Ferrante has written about the latter case, but down to to the director "to find...the... Read more... |
Blu-ray: Night TideTuesday, 21 January 2020
Dennis Hopper’s first starring role, in Night Tide from 1961, as a naïve but curious young sailor bewitched by a siren, offers a strange mirror to his role as the evil Frank Booth in David Lynch’s Blue Velvet (1986). If anything, he offers a preview... Read more... |
Reissue CDs Weekly: She Came From Liverpool! - Merseyside Girl-Pop 1962-1968Sunday, 12 January 2020
In July 1961, the first issue of the Liverpool music paper Mersey Beat put three items on its front page. One was a surreal article by John Lennon titled Being a Short Diversion on the Dubious Origins of The Beatles. Another was a photo of Gene... Read more... |
Reissue CDs Weekly: Jon Savage's 1969-1971 - Rock Dreams on 45Sunday, 05 January 2020
As one decade gives way to the next, the beginning or end of the ten-year cycle rarely yields anything cut and dried. With pop music, a host of decade-related platitudes have no respect for the decade-to-decade switch. Depending on points of view,... Read more... |
Reissue CDs Weekly: The Best of 2019Sunday, 29 December 2019
Earlier this year, the Peter Laughner box set was more than an archive release. Its diligence and scale forced a wholesale reinterpretation of the evolution of America’s punk-era underground scene. What it collected – aurally and in its book –... Read more... |
Reissue CDs Weekly: Jim SullivanSunday, 15 December 2019
Hugh Hefner established Playboy Records in 1972 as an arm of his male-targeted business empire. Amongst the singles issued in its first year were seven-inchers by jazzer Bobby Scott, proto-yacht rockers The Hudson Brothers, singer-songwriter Tim... Read more... |
Three Sisters, National Theatre review - Chekhov in time of warWednesday, 11 December 2019
Inua Ellams’ Three Sisters plays Chekhov in the shadow of war, specifically the Nigerian-Biafran secessionist conflict of the late 1960s which so bitterly divided that newly independent nation. It’s a bold move that adds decided new relevance... Read more... |
Reissue CDs Weekly: Dave Godin's Deep Soul Treasures Volume 5Sunday, 08 December 2019
“I was just released from the hospital…the doctor told me that the medicine can’t do me no good. They told me what I have is beyond medical science…he told me that what I have is more serious than cancer. He told me what I have is a very, very bad... Read more... |
Reissue CDs Weekly: Mighty Baby - At a Point Between Fate and DestinySunday, 24 November 2019
If the prices fetched by original pressings are a guide, Mighty Baby are notable. Their eponymous first album, issued by the fittingly named Head label in November 1969, sells for at least £150 and has changed hands for over £500. A Blue Horizon... Read more... |
