1980s
Reissue CDs Weekly: Simple Minds, Klaus Dinger, The Primitives, Transvision VampSunday, 31 March 2013
Simple Minds: Celebrate – The Greatest Hits +Of all the bands which surfaced in 1977 in response to punk, Simple Minds occupy a singular status. Despite line-up changes, they have never split up. After their 1982 success with “Promised You a Miracle... Read more... |
Nile Rodgers: The Hitmaker, BBC FourSaturday, 30 March 2013
It was one of those entirely unverifiable "facts" that music documentaries increasingly prefer over genuine insight: early on in this serviceable but routine overview of a truly stellar talent, we were told that Nile Rodgers’s guitar has “played on... Read more... |
Mari Wilson, The Komedia, BrightonMonday, 25 March 2013
Long before Amy Winehouse, there was a north London retro soul'n'jazz girl with a beehive hairdo making inroads into the Top 40. However, after a short run of hits in the early Eighties Mari Wilson never achieved the epic popularity of her dark-... Read more... |
theartsdesk Q&A: Musician Nick RhodesSaturday, 23 March 2013
Nick Rhodes (b 1962) is a founding member of the group Duran Duran. Their synthesizer player and driving force, he is the sole member to have been in every incarnation of the band. Duran Duran started in Birmingham in 1978 when Rhodes was only 16, a... Read more... |
The Challenger, BBC TwoTuesday, 19 March 2013
When the NASA space shuttle Challenger fell out of the Florida sky on the morning of 28 January 1986 after 73 seconds, killing all seven astronauts, the Nobel-winning theoretical physicist Richard Feynman was the only independent scientist appointed... Read more... |
CD: Billy Bragg – Tooth & NailMonday, 11 March 2013
If you want a jolting snapshot of how British pop culture has changed in the last three decades, take a look at the clip below of Billy Bragg singing "Between The Wars" on Top of the Pops in 1985. Even if the old Savile-anchored singles showcase was... Read more... |
Extract: Heads and StraightsSunday, 10 March 2013
The first time I admitted publicly to having been brought up in Chelsea I was 35 and at the launch party for my first novel, which was being held in a Tapas bar in Clapham. At that stage in my writing career I wasn’t aware that I was allowed guests... Read more... |
Reissue CDs Weekly: Del Shannon, The Stark Reality, The Deviants, Mighty MightySunday, 10 March 2013
Del Shannon: The Complete UK Singles and More (1961-1966)The plaintive, urgent drama of Del Shannon’s debut single, 1961’s “Runaway”, will always identify him. But amazing 45s like 1965’s crunching “Break up” and the ferocious garage-punk of “Move... Read more... |
Reissue CDs Weekly: Blue Öyster Cult, Celluloid Records, Jimi Hendrix, Fela KutiSunday, 03 March 2013
Blue Öyster Cult: The Columbia Albums CollectionBlue Öyster Cult were about more than the music. They seemingly arrived fully formed with a ready-made mythos and mystery. Their first two albums had no pictures of the band and weird, Escher-esque art... Read more... |
Reissue CDs Weekly: Factory Records, Dave Edmunds, Keith WhitleySunday, 24 February 2013
Crispy Ambulance: The Plateau Phase/The Durutti Column: LC/The Names: Swimming/The Wake: HarmonyPre-Madchester and before New Order’s breakout single “Blue Monday”, Manchester’s Factory Records was hard to penetrate. This quartet of reissues does a... Read more... |
NoTuesday, 05 February 2013
There’s an episode in the first season of Mad Men in which the ad execs of Sterling Cooper brainstorm a campaign for Richard Nixon, just prior to the 1960 presidential election. Dramatic irony being what it is, it’s a rare opportunity to watch our... Read more... |
CD: Eels – Wonderful, GloriousSunday, 03 February 2013
"Gonna shake the house," rasps Mark 'E' Everett on "Bombs Away". It is the first track of his tenth album and it certainly sounds like a statement of intent. Everett has often come across as something of a gloomy rock and roll runt in recent years,... Read more... |
