rock
Interview: Diane Birch Rises UpThursday, 06 May 2010
It's probably a bit early to start picking the best albums of 2010, but I would seriously consider a legal challenge if Diane Birch's Bible Belt isn't there or thereabouts when the votes are counted. Like a long-lost singer-songwriter classic, it... Read more... |
Iggy Pop and Suicide, Hammersmith ApolloMonday, 03 May 2010
Sir Mick Jagger was not, by any means, a street fightin’ man, but his charisma and the conviction with which he sang the line, allowed us to suspend our disbelief. The song would have seemed ludicrous, pathetic even, if it had not. Iggy Pop is not,... Read more... |
New Music CDs Round-Up 8Sunday, 02 May 2010
This month's most intriguing and fabulous CDs are headed up by the strange and beautiful electronica of Scuba and a magnum opus from Natalie Merchant. Highlights include music from the offspring of the famous from Jakob Dylan and Harper Simon,... Read more... |
I'm in a Rock'n'Roll Band, BBC TwoSaturday, 01 May 2010
This new series proposes to examine the individual roles played by the members of successful rock groups, but you could tell there was trouble in store from the narrator's opening question: "What is the DNA of a great rock'n'roll band?" Like the... Read more... |
Bombay Bicycle Club, The Forum, LondonSunday, 25 April 2010
It's not the bobbies on the beat that are getting younger, it's the bands. Bombay Bicycle Club formed while at school in north London's Crouch End and were already making a name for themselves when they left full-time education in 2008. Rock and... Read more... |
The Metal Machine Trio, Royal Festival HallWednesday, 21 April 2010
A great wall of noise greets the audience as it settles in to the Royal Festival Hall - the sound of some heavy outer planet’s radio frequency, a subtly oscillating drone that recalls NASA’s recordings of radio emissions from Saturn made by the... Read more... |
Laura Marling, Corn Exchange, CambridgeSaturday, 17 April 2010
To call Laura Marling folk rock’s Sylvia Plath for the Pete Doherty generation probably sounds like faint praise. But ever since I heard her described thus I haven’t been able to lose the Plath comparison. Fragile, sensitive, effortlessly... Read more... |
Later... with Jools Holland: in the studioWednesday, 14 April 2010
Welcome to the grown-up rock mothership. I've seen bands play in TV studios plenty of times over the years, but walking into the Later... With Jools Holland recording at BBC Television Centre for the first time, as I did last night, is something... Read more... |
No One Knows About Persian CatsFriday, 19 March 2010
The protests around the Iranian presidential elections of 2009 brought home to many in the West not only how dominated by youth the pro-democracy movement in Iran is, but also how westernised the youth of that country are. Symbolised by Neda Agha... Read more... |
Tom McRae, ScalaWednesday, 17 March 2010
In life Tom McRae is a cockeyed optimist. When his label, V2, dumped him, his response was to start up his own recording studio and to enthusiastically play every honky-tonk between LA and New York. It was the fans that kept McRae positive. An... Read more... |
Mama Rosin, St Moritz ClubFriday, 12 March 2010
What do you imagine a Swiss Cajun/Zydeco trio would sound like? It’s not a question that’s easy to navigate without slipping into the politically incorrect quicksand of racial or cultural stereotyping. So it gives me great pleasure to report that... Read more... |
Jeff Beck and Eric Clapton, O2 ArenaSunday, 14 February 2010
Along with the compact disc and record company profits, the Guitar Hero has become virtually extinct in the modern era. Thus, finding two gilt-edged specimens of this increasingly scarce breed sharing a stage is gold dust indeed. Both of them have... Read more... |
