wed 21/05/2025

music industry

Herb Alpert, Tijuana Brass and Other Delights, BBC Four

Trumpeter, businessman and artist Herb Alpert in his easy-listening heyday

I used to have a childhood fascination with the music of Herb Alpert, because I liked the tunes and always felt there was a hint of melancholy behind Herb’s breezy, nonchalant exterior. Everybody else found Alpert laughably cheesy, but happily,...

Read more...

Ken Livingstone pitches for London SXSW

Former and, he hopes, future London Mayor Ken Livingstone (looking groovy in a fashion shoot, left) has announced if elected he hopes to create a similar Festival to South By South West, the successful music Expo in Austin, Texas that has launched...

Read more...

New Music CDs Round-Up 10

The-Dream: dark excess

This month's most interesting new music CDs according to theartsdesk music team includes a dark take on sex and consumerism by The-Dream, which is CD of the Month, "morally ambiguous" South London gangsta rap from Giggs, disco pop from Sia, Scissor...

Read more...

Forever Young, BBC Four

Insurance salesman James Osterberg likes to let his hair down in the evening

Appropriately enough, Forever Young began with the primal beat of Iggy Pop’s “Lust for Life". What I consider to be Mr Pop’s “My Way” seems to perfectly sum up the pumped-up and apparently unstoppable forward momentum of the man himself and his...

Read more...

Diary of a Strumpette, Part Four: The show must go on!

Still waiting for the free gin: Miss Kitty Kowalski, Miss Velma Valentine and Miss Bettina Winters

Well folks, it wasn’t glamorous, it wasn’t showbiz, it wasn’t all fun ‘n’ games. It was Glastonbury, in all its dirty, pungent and chaotic glory. But, despite all the pitfalls, The Strumpettes did it, and, somehow, did it in style. First off, let...

Read more...

Glastonbury at 40, BBC Four

You could tell Glastonbury at 40 was in trouble as early as the opening three minutes, when it cut from a well-heeled, ageing hippie survivor mumbling about “earth magic” to footage of Robbie Williams in 1998 bashing his way through the entirety of...

Read more...

Art Gallery: Ray Lowry - London Calling

It’s hard to believe that it’s 30 years since the release of The Clash's London Calling, an album that sounds as vital, immediate and relevant today as it did then. Yet there are probably people who remain more familiar with London Calling’s iconic...

Read more...

Diary of a Strumpette, Part Two: How the call came to Glasto

Well, folks, only 10 days to go til The Strumpettes hit Glastonbury and let me tell ya, we’re gettin’ a little hot under the collar. It turns out this ain’t some big practical joke that Velma cooked up to give us all a fit o' the vapours. We’re goin...

Read more...

Greenberg

Anyone who saw Ben Stiller in Zoolander will know that he is a very fine actor. He made his over-the-top character both believable and lovable (well, up to a point on the latter, but you know what I mean) while playing the fashion model’s...

Read more...

Tom Waits to edit Mojo?

Tom Waits: a new career as a hack beckons

In what sounds like a hoax, but sources claim is really true, it seems that Tom Waits will be editing the 200th edition of that magazine for old rockers Mojo.  While we don't usually publish Press Releases, we will make an exception. You can judge...

Read more...

Malcolm McLaren: Artful Dodger, BBC Two

Several contributors alluded to this quality – he loved stories, was caught up in the drama of pirates and swashbuckling heroes (as Adam Ant used to his advantage when he hired Malcolm “for a thousand guineas” as an advisor. Malcolm then went off...

Read more...

Malcolm McLaren: 1946-2010

We have lost one of the great cultural catalysts of our time, a brilliant provocateur, a different kind of artist. Malcolm McLaren was a dear friend, who will be painfully missed – we spent, for example, Millennium Eve together with a few friends in...

Read more...
Subscribe to music industry