FEATURE: Kate Bush: The Whole Story: Kate's KBC Article, Issue 19 (Spring 1987)

FEATURE:

 

 

Kate Bush: The Whole Story

IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush in 1985/PHOTO CREDIT: John Carder Bush

 

Kate's KBC Article, Issue 19 (Spring 1987)

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THERE are a few more…

visits to this resource when it comes to Kate Bush: The Whole Story. I wanted to source Issue 19 of the Kate Bush Club article that Bush wrote late in 1986. It appeared in the spring 1987 edition. This was a time when Hounds of Love was released and she was promoting it. The Whole Story came out in 1986 and that greatest hits album was a big commercial success. It is a wonderful article from Bush, and we get an insight into her year and what she was doing in 1986. I do want to source an article that was titled Even More Hounds of Love. This amazing album still very much in the public consciousness:

“Since the end of the album so much has been happening. The way the music has been received is so rewarding. It has been very busy: promoting the album is important, and has eaten up a lot of time.

The visits to America and Canada were lots of fun. Everyone seemed so positive about this album. It is nice to think people in different parts of the world are listening to ideas you might have had in the bath!

The difference in the attitudes of the journalists was very apparent: a lot of the interviews were conversational, and their enthusiasm endless. We did one in-store appearance in New York [Tower Records, 4th and Broadway, November 1985] and it was a very moving experience. There were so many people there that they went around the corner of the street. Everyone was so considerate and well behaved that even the New York Police commented on how unusual this was. It was wonderful to meet you all, and we were very taken by your warmth and all the presents you gave--thank you.

Kate Bush was being very generous about the U.S. press. Some of the interviews we can see form that visit are quite tense and awkward. The enthusiasm is there but, when it comes to knowledge and professionalism, there are some car-crash moments and really tense encounters. Bush always professional and patient! It is great that the public appearance for Tower Records was busy. Fans queuing around the block. This was a time when the U.S. was connecting with Bush’s music. Even if there were still some reviews that were mixed or negative, Hounds of Love did sell well in America. A top thirty in the U.S., 1986 was a busy year for Kate Bush. Promoting Hounds of Love and not allowing herself time to rest.

The trip to the U.S.A. and Canada was very busy, and coming back to the Convention [November 30] was one of the nicest ways to be welcomed home. It was lovely to see you. I recognised so many smiling faces--I just wish we'd had the time to talk as well as smile at each other. Next time, huh? [Kate actually tried to make the next "convention"-- a "video-party" held in London in October 1986--a more intimate occasion, but so many people showed up that casual conversation became quite impossible.]

It looks like this album is intending to have maximum mileage in terms of four single releases. It is interesting how "singles" now involve much more time and effort--not the a-sides themselves, but the "accessories" that now accompany them. A single is not even released now until the video and the twelve-inch are ready; and with the twelve-inch is needed at least a second b-side. Also, if time and ideas allow, all these things should be presentable. I feel a particular obligation, with the artwork of the seven-inch and twelve-inch, that it should at least be interesting; and the same with the video: visuals are important, and with so many images being thrown at people from every side, it can be difficult to come up with ideas.

John's photographs are so creative that he always seems to add a sparkle to even the dullest moments. Videos, I feel, have moved into a different area--like the recording process gradually pulled me in, so does the visual world. It's impossible not to be, as soon as you become involved.

This is interesting what Kate Bush says about videos and the visual side. The Hounds of Love single, released on 17th February, 1986 was the first video Bush directed solo. She directed the fourth and final single, The Big Sky. It came out on 21st April, 1986. Singles released close to one another. They were successful singles, though The Big Sky got to thirty-seven. You can feel Bush pushing herself as a director in terms of the scale of videos. The huge cast for The Big Sky. How busy and packed the video is! Her brother John photographing her and behind the scenes on videos.

I still think some of the best videos are where the band/artist perform the song as a singer--just that simple. I share the feelings of many people who dislike a lot of pop videos: they're so...unstructured! But I think I've discovered that while videos are needed to go with a single, I can explore the medium of film-making, of what works and what doesn't. Much of what happens in a video is dictated by the song: the mood, the subject matter; but it's a fascinating area, and from what I can see so far, it's very similar to the recording process. It's working with pictures instead of sound--it's a very different beast, but still the same "piecing together" of a story, images. And I'm so lucky to be in a situation where I can play with sounds and pictures and see if there's anything in there I'm good at.

Cloudbusting was really exciting to make. I really wanted it to be like a short film. The song was inspired by the book A Book of Dreams by Peter Reich, which was such a strong, magical story that the plot was there and the most difficult areas were trying to do the story and the characters justice, and deciding how to "distill" all the information.

Bush not liking the standard Pop video. In the 1980s, there were massive Pop artists like Madonna making great videos that were more cinematic. Though most of the videos around were quite basic. Bush approaching directing like making a short film. Telling a story and really making it interesting. The Cloudbusting videos is where she worked with the late Donald Sutherland. A transformative moment in terms of a major actor appearing in a video. It was a great experience for Bush working alongside such a legendary actor. Sutherland stepping into a new area and something different to film. I am not sure who came up with the concept of the video. Bush did not direct the video – Julian Doyle did – but she would have had a lot of input in terms of the storyline and set. It is one of her most enduring and powerful videos. The emotion and the natural bond between Bush and Sutherland.

I worked with Julian Doyle as director. He was suggested to me by Terry Gilliam. Terry is one of my favourite film-makers, and I was so honoured that he got involved; and we worked very hard for about five-six weeks. It seemed to make sense to treat it like a film and cast actors, and I had this initial crazy idea of using a very tall actor who would play the father, and myself to appear as the small boy. It continually astounds me that I have the nerve to publicly announce these crazes, and I'm even more surprised when they work. It seems to be connected to a kind of faith?

The first move was to check that I'd be able to look boy-like or tom-boyish, so we pulled "The Team" together. This consists of Tina Earnshaw on make-up--she set about with foundation and stick-on freckles; Anthony Yacomine, who designed and cut a short wig which my hair was bundled up inside of; and Pamela Keats, who had brought a variety of dungarees, cardigans and wellies [rubber rainboots] that completed the character; and Del gave options. I looked a bit like Coco the clown, and someone mentioned Harpo, but we all felt with fine adjustments we could get away with it, especially when we took a polaroid with Anthony standing on the chair to look tall next to me.

We were all trying to think of a tall actor who would be perfect for the part, and who else, really? We thought Donald Sutherland would be superb, and it's still hard to believe that he actually said "Yes."

Cloudbusting is one of the few videos we've made that has the right visual content within the subject matter. It is a story, and could easily be treated as such.

One of the things that needed a lot of work was the Cloudbuster machine. It came out of our heads, based on vague information from the book. It had to look larger than life--elegant, strange, aimed at the sky. And when I went to see it in its early stages I really wondered: four cardboard tubes on wheels--eek!! But by the last stages it looked great, and on screen it looked superb.

This is a very cinematic video. Where we get to see this story play out. It is great an epic video. In terms of where it was shot, it took place Dragon Hill near the Uffington White Horse in the Vale of White Horse, Oxfordshire, England. Such beautiful scenery, I can imagine that there was a lot of quick shooting. Sutherland did not have too much time on set, so there was a bit of pressure to get the best shots and nail everything quick. Though Sutherland came to love the experience. Maybe asking what he had let himself in for, it was not something that he was used to!

Another thing that needed a lot of work was the weather. We needed so much luck to complete the shoot. We had only three days, and we demanded the weather to change for different scenes; and somehow--we still don't know how--it did; even to the moment when it began to rain just as the light and the film in the camera was running out.

Hounds of Love is the third single, and trying to follow the Cloudbusting video was extremely difficult. I still wanted to follow the approach of making "a short film", and this time we wanted to suggest a piece of "Hitchcock": a short thriller.

Paddy inspired me into a 39 Steps theme, and for the two-three weeks over Christmas my life became this third video. It was particularly hard organising meetings over Christmas; everyone was busy partying. At one meeting someone turned up in fancy dress. The advantage was that I got a brilliant crew who were free to do the shoot because it was Christmas-time, generally a very quiet period. If you get to see the video, let us know if you spot Hitchcock's appearance?

Even with the work over Christmas we were still in a situation where the twelve-inch and the b-side had to be rushed. Sometimes things benefit from the pressure, but with only a few hours to do the b-side before the cut (which had been arranged weeks before), we plumped for a totally unaccompanied traditional song.

I do love that battle with the weather. Hoping that it would rain so it could be used in a video. Now, they would use a rain machine to get that affect, but in 1986, perhaps that was not in the budget. The film in the camera running out. It was quite tense for Bush and the crew. Trying to get the video together for Hounds of Love. Seen as one of Bush’s best songs, the video is hugely impressive. Her first directorial outing, she is joined in the video by the late Gow Hunter. Bush recalling how she enjoyed working with him. Trying to get everything sorted over Christmas. It must have been a hard task trying to get it all sorted

The twelve-inch of Hounds of Love has been the most demanding so far. It's a short song, with very little tuned instrumentation, so we decided to go for an alternative lead vocal over the existing track, with a few changes here and there--it seemed an interesting solution. Del and I re-did the vocal, the b-side and the mixes in two days (that's some kind of record for me!)

So now, with a remixed seven-inch and twelve-inch of Big Sky, we are armed with time, hopefully, to not rush the video; but somehow other things always come up, and it seems no matter how long you have to get something done, time always speeds up at the end of the process, and there you are rushing again!

Hope you're having a happy '86.

Lots of love,

Kate x

P.S.: Thank you for the great Christmas presents you sent me. I wish I had time to reply to everyone individually, but things have been so hectic over the last few months that it has been impossible--so I'll do it now, thank you”.

If 1985 was busy with Hounds of Love being recorded and released and the promotion, 1986 was one where videos were being made and the last of the promotional duties. By the time Christmas came around in 1986, it was a chance to look back on everything. A promotional trip to the U.S. and that weird experience. As we moved into 1987, Bush was working on The Sensual World. Also in 1986, Bush duetted with Peter Gabriel on his single, Don’t Give Up. That was an incredible song and we got to see a side to Bush’s voice that has not been explored to this point. Lovely that she acknowledges the fans and thanks them for their gifts. In the days when she was able to responds to fans personally. The blessed Kate Bush proving that she is…

A national treasure.

FEATURE: The Empire City: How Will New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani Mark Twenty-Five Years of 9/11?

FEATURE:

 

 

The Empire City

PHOTO CREDIT: Vladimir Gladkov/Pexels

 

How Will New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani Mark Twenty-Five Years of 9/11?

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NOT that it something to celebrate…

IN THIS PHOTO: New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani/PHOTO CREDIT: Pari Dukovic for The New York Times

but one cannot help but realise that it will be 11th September very soon. It is twenty-five years since the terrorist attacks in the U.S. New York particularly hit as the Twin Towers were felled. Thousands died. It was one of the worst days in modern history. In terms of the destruction and how terrifying it was. I remember watching images on the screen and finding it hard to believe what was unfolding. It will be twenty-five years since New York was hit and torn apart. It took a long time to rebuild and the Twin Towers (though One World Trade Center (or the Freedom Tower) was built) have not been rebuilt. I have not been to New York myself, but I feel a lot of fondness for their Mayor, Zohran Mamdani. Here is someone who would make a wonderful President. He will soon be eligible, and I think that he would be one of the most popular and best Presidents. As Mayor of New York City, he has made a lot of change and someone who won a lot of hearts and minds. From a musical perspective, I feel like a lot of artists based in New York have seen their city rebuild and reconnect following the atrocities in 2001. It is going to be a sombre and sobering affair reflecting on the lives lost during 9/11 and how it affects people still. I feel that New York is still recovery from that day. Under their new Mayor, there is a lot of hope for the future. Someone who is the polar opposite of President Trump, I do wonder if anything will be done to mark twenty-five years of 9/11. New York is reborn and resilient following devastation. It has taken a long time but, under Mayor Mamdani, this is a city that is in safe hands and is growing.

It is going to be a day of mixed emotions. It has been a long road to recovery and rebuild. New York has this resilience atter 9/11. This article looks at the way in which New York rebuilt after a terrorist attack that claimed thousands of lives and instilled fear of its citizens.

“It’s been over two decades since that fateful day, and the impact of 9⁄11 continues to resonate deeply within New York City after 9⁄11. The city has, in many ways, been transformed. The skyline is different, security measures are omnipresent, and the collective memory of that tragedy is woven into the fabric of daily life. But this transformation hasn’t diminished the city’s spirit; in many aspects, it has forged it into something even stronger. The legacy of 9⁄11 is complex. It’s a legacy of loss, of heroes, and of an unwavering commitment to rebuilding. The National September 11 Memorial & Museum stands as a powerful and poignant reminder, a place where we can learn, remember, and reflect on the events of that day and the lives that were tragically cut short. It ensures that the sacrifices made by victims and first responders are honored for generations to come. Furthermore, the events of 9⁄11 profoundly impacted global security and politics, leading to significant changes in how cities worldwide approach counter-terrorism and public safety. For New Yorkers, the experience fostered a unique bond, a shared understanding of vulnerability and resilience. There’s a heightened appreciation for life, for community, and for the simple act of being together. You can see it in the way people interact, in the renewed sense of civic pride, and in the continued outpouring of support for those affected by the tragedy. The economic recovery has been remarkable, with new developments transforming Lower Manhattan into a vibrant hub once again. However, the long-term health consequences for many, particularly first responders and those who lived and worked near Ground Zero, remain a significant part of the legacy. The fight for healthcare and compensation for these individuals is an ongoing testament to the lasting impact of the disaster. Ultimately, the enduring legacy of 9⁄11 in New York City is one of profound change, immense courage, and an unbreakable spirit. It’s a story that reminds us that even in our darkest hours, humanity’s capacity for love, compassion, and resilience can shine through, allowing us to rebuild, heal, and emerge stronger than before. The city stands tall, a living monument to the enduring strength of the human spirit”.

I do wonder how the people of New York City and the five boroughs will mark a tragic day. A lot of music venues and bars will host artists playing on that day. After what is likely to be a scorching summer, there will be an autumn cool in the air on 11th September. I think that there should be some togetherness and celebration. Not for what happened. Instead, the way the city has rebuilt and how it changed. I do feel that there is this optimism for change in the U.S. Trump’s second terms as President will mean, unless the Constitution is changed, that he will not be President for a third time. It is a city that I would love to go to but, as Trump is President, I feel it is best to wait until he is out of the White House. I hope that one day Zohran Mamdani is President. Someone who can radically change the country and roll back years of hatred and suppression under Trump. Better rights for immigrations. Abortion legalised. Recognition of the L.G.B.T.Q.I.A.+ community. Getting tough on gun control. That could happen, though for now, New York is feeling the benefits of someone who very much puts the people first and has this decency and humanity. I remember that bleak day in 2001 and seeing news unfold. Following the events and being stunned by what was on the screen. It took a long time for the people and city to recover and it is still ongoing. Though the people have a terrific Mayor and there is a reliance and strength that defines them. Twenty-five years after the city was attacked, The Empire City…

CONTINUES to grow.

FEATURE: Spotlight: Laurel Halo

FEATURE:

 

 

Spotlight

PHOTO CREDIT: Calla Henkel & Max Pitegoff

 

Laurel Halo

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THOUGH this is a musician…

that has been recording for years now, I have not yet spotlighted the great Laurel Halo. She is “an American composer, producer and musician, born in Detroit and based in Los Angeles. Her music is renowned for its nuance, character and focused vision, where ambient, musique concrète, low-end rhythms and improvisatory piano come together in a cohesive tapestry. She’s released a number of albums and collaborated across the realms of club music, concert music, film and fashion”. On 18th July, Laurel Halo is playing in London as part of a run of gigs. I wanted to explore her music, as the album, Midnight Zone, came out earlier in the year. A great soundtrack that followed her previous album, 2023’s Atlas. I am going to get to a few interviews and features with Halo. Treble Zine spoke with Laurel Halo about the Midnight Zone soundtrack and her work on it:

“Midnight Zone is the name not only of Laurel Halo‘s new record but also of the film it scores, an experimental dialogue-free journey following a beam of light cast by a lighthouse as it strikes the water and penetrates deeper and deeper into the ocean until it reaches the titular midnight zone, where surface light ceases to shine. It’s unclear whether the album and the film are separate objects; does the record score the film or is the film the imagistic completion of the record? Perhaps they are identical. Regardless, they are inseparable in a conceptual sense, capturing the same riven emotional state that journey from the knowable to the unknowable the light provides regardless of its chosen medium.

That Halo would produce a work so imagistically rich is not new for her. Her work has always tended toward the image-driven, with its rich use of textures mapping well to the harshness of digital decay, the robust organicism of wood and insects and the breathiness of wind. What I had not noticed was her slow accretion of the benthic in her work. Here, it is undeniable, reinforced by the film, the title, the cover, the track titles themselves, everything, let alone the sonic choices, which are so cold and vast and percolating with haze-like mystery. But on reviewing her work backward from this moment, the development toward this sonic space has been ongoing roughly since Possessed, another score of hers from 2020.

That record at the time struck me as extrapolating on that sense of wind and breath, using piano and strings to chart the tracelike lines of the air. But in retrospect, especially seeing as how those slower and more ambiently rich approaches to her sound developed over the record Dissent which she contributed to and her previous record Atlas with its who’s-who cast of experimental musicians, it was also the first trace of not just watery soundscaping but cold and dark water especially. To say Midnight Zone captures its subject matter well would be a steep understatement; its imagistic capture is brilliant, moving over the span of the material from the top layer sunlight zone, rich with additional instrumentation and brimming with life, into the progressively colder, bleaker and more abstract depths of the ocean.

This kind of conceptual ambient work is not for everyone, but our readers thankfully are the brave and adventurous sort. It follows a similar sonic arc to John Luther Adams’ Pulitzer-winning orchestral work Become Ocean. Like that esteemed work, it is not event-driven as much as mood-driven, privileging density of the sonic air over density of arrangement. It’s fascinating hearing an ambient work’s approach to density; it achieves a literal figure, feeing like your brain is being pressurized by the music and the intensity of its sub-bass frequencies rather than it referring to note density. That the record ends with the orchestral elements of “Sunlight Zone,” its opening piece, doesn’t feel like a bonus track as much as an intake of breath after hours in the dark. Halo is perpetually patient and gentle, in a manner at least; the violence of that bleak cold doesn’t really become apparent until that release at the end. She’s mastered this form of slow-accreting tension, paired against a film that is the perfect syncretic completion, or vice versa. It’s hard to imagine her remaining in this space after this. The sense of completion is abiding”.

 

There are a couple of other interview to come to. Let’s go to Flow State and their interesting interview. I hope anyone who does not know Laurel Halo will follow her and listen to her music. A tremendous composer and producer, I am keen to see what comes next for her. Her music is so atmospheric and beautiful. I do want as many people as possible to go and seek her out and listen to her music:

“What’s your earliest memory of music?

Oh, good question, hard to say. According to my mom it was the community festival Dally in the Alley in Detroit’s Cass Corridor when I was three and I called it “nice mucus.” But I don’t remember who was playing. I do remember seeing Phantom of the Opera when I was five.

What were your first recordings like and how did you make them?

My first recordings were… humble. I took a couple composition courses in college, and processed the MIDI instrument rendering of whatever minimal-adjacent piano/violin pieces I had written through pedals.

What were the albums / artists that early on influenced your sound?

In the early days I was listening to a lot of classic electronica and dream pop from Warp and 4AD (Aphex Twin, Autechre, Broadcast, Cocteau Twins), but also Burial, plus a lot of local Michigan music like Detroit techno, electro, minimal, music on Ghostly. Tadd Mullinix was a hero at the time. I lived in a show house in Ann Arbor called Arborvitae for a time and was exposed to a lot of folk, noise, klezmer, Detroit techno… plus just a lot of weird or unclassifiable music, for lack of a better description.

I had a couple close music friends and we would try to out-weird each other with our selections at the freeform station WCBN we all had shows on. It was a strange mix, especially considering I also had a lot of classical music in my bones from the prior 15 years of classical music education. I was like many piano kids obsessed with playing the more romantic/post-Romantic/impressionist composers like Debussy, Ravel, Satie, Rachmaninoff, and Shostakovich.

How do you discover music these days? Any notable recent finds?

I guess it’s a mix of personal recommendations, YouTube, NTS, and online retailers like Boomkat or Bandcamp. I like texting friends I haven’t heard from in a while and just asking them what they’re listening to. More often than not you get some cool recommendations that way. On YouTube I have specific channels I’m subscribed to, and it’s often easier to find very niche music there that wouldn’t be uploaded to DSPs, or live performances. I love how with NTS it’s easy to find and save the tracks you like – it’s a great discovery tool. Boomkat have their signature Manchester-dapped reviews that are often so spot on. Bandcamp is great as it’s easy to browse label catalogs – labels that I often discover through all of the above, and so on… Right now I’m obsessed with this acoustic guitar Autechre covers album by this artist called Autechre Guitar by Shane Parish, I found that through Boomkat… [Ed: Featured in Flow State a couple weeks ago.]

Name an underrated artist from the past 50 years.

My dad! He’s an amazing painter. He does amazing landscapes of industrial sites in Detroit as well as nature settings. When he was younger, he made quite psychedelic work. The cover of Chance of Rain was a drawing of his from his youth.

What are you working on next?

I have an acoustic upright waiting for me to come home from tour to write the next record with”.

 

I am going to end with Metal Magazine and their recent interview with Laurel Halo. She is someone I am quite new to but have instantly  been captivated by her brilliance. I have explored her previous albums and she is such a talent. Everything she touches seemingly turns to gold:

“Inspired by this static-like sound and free-flowing drift, musician Laurel Halo builds a soundtrack for the film Midnight Zone by artist Julian Charrière. Released on March 13th, the tracks are grounding, uncanny, and transcendent”:

“What similarities do you see between the ocean and music?

Interesting question! Not sure if I possess the philosophical depth to answer it well. I guess both the ocean and music can seem quite immortal but are actually dependent on air. The history of music and the vastness of the ocean are both humbling.

When developing the soundtrack, did you already have the visuals or did they come after, or was it a back-and-forth kind of process?

The film was in a near-final edit, so I was working to that cut after a spotting session with Julian to map out the sections.

What was the collaborative process like for a film that has no words and whose main characters are sea-life creatures? How did you build and interpret the story?

During the spotting session, Julian had specific beats that he wanted to hit in terms of rises or falls in energy, moments of silence, moments of density versus moments of emptiness in the music. He was encouraging me to not anthropomorphise the visual material.

 

While the ocean and non-human actors are the stars, I would say the human is still perceptible, wouldn’t you? It reminds me of the composition, straddling between electronic, constructed sounds, and more ambient, nature-inspired sounds. How did you balance them?

It’s interesting because our ears aren’t really designed to listen underwater. Our directional hearing is limited, and most hearing takes place through conduction of sound waves through skull bones. So the human isn’t necessarily allowed to listen that deep, at least not unaided. I think a soundtrack like this necessitated the use of both acoustic and electronic sounds, for this reason to start.
And then, at 600-1200 metres deep (about where the film was shot), there’s a mix of marine vocalisations, human sounds in the form of ships’ mechanical drones and synthetic sonar, booms and other noises from tectonic activity, and then also amazingly the sound of the sheer biomass of fish and plankton creating this widespread, high-frequency popping or fizzing sound. So I guess I needed to incorporate both electronic and acoustic texture in order to emulate a bit of all of these sounds.

You once spoke about the difference between mood and emotion, can you tell me how each of those show up in the soundtrack?

Emotions are more short-lived and causal, moods are more diffuse and less clear in their origin. Probably this soundtrack is more mood-orientated as there aren’t a lot of overt emotions present, which may be more readily picked up on in the form of for example clear melodies, or varying smoothness versus agitation in the arrangement or rhythm of a piece of music. This soundtrack is more slowly shifting and evolving, which would point more towards the presence of a mood or a sustained, indirect feeling.

You spoke about meditating and the concept of “where the room isn’t” and that it was something you brought into your music. Being that this soundtrack is for a film about the ocean, expansiveness, and humanity, where do you see this meditative concept in your composition?

There was a specific section of the film that felt like the apex, for which Julian had requested the music carry some kind of ‘om’ energy, or an energy of transcendence. I also feel like I was bringing some breathing aspect to the composition, following the descent of the lens and the movement of the water and sea life in the film. Writing slow-changing music necessitates breathing as a form of pacesetting, at least for me. I would say the music is pointing towards a meditative feeling, but wouldn’t go so far to say as it actually achieves or embodies that”.

Let’s end it there. Go and follow the magnificent Laurel Halo. Someone who definitely needs to be in your sights, I am curious what comes after the soundtrack for Midnight Zone. Her recent single with John Tejada, Shade, is exceptional. This is someone who I would dearly love to see bring her creations and incredible compositions to life…

ON the stage.

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Follow Laurel Halo

FEATURE: Spotlight: Reigns

FEATURE:

 

 

Spotlight

 

Reigns

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THE terrific Reigns…

is in this Spotlight feature. I am going to come to some intervbiew with this Essex-born artist. Her latest single, Everybody Falls Part Sometimes, is phenomenal. The first of a couple of interviews I want to drop in is from Absolutely Magazine. I am relatively new to Reigns, but I really do love everything about her music. I am excited about her debut album coming. What that might be like. Such a phenomenal artist who I would also love to see live one day:

“You’ve spoken proudly about being from Essex – how did growing up in the county shape your confidence, identity, or attitude as an artist?

Growing up in Essex gave me a real sense of confidence and self-belief. Being nearly 6ft and singing soul definitely made me stand out, but my roots taught me not to care about being a bit different from my mates. Essex has a natural confidence and drive to it – a lot of that East End spirit runs through the place and that’s something I’ve always carried with me. It pushed me to trust my instincts, stay in my own lane, and keep backing my passion, even when it wasn’t the obvious path!

What were your earliest musical memories growing up – was there a moment where you first thought, “music could be my thing”?

Some of my earliest musical memories are wrapped up in my dad’s vinyl collection. I was basically spoon-fed soul classics from a really young age – the kind of records you grow up feeling before you understand them. I was singing along to voices like Aretha Franklin and Janis Joplin before I could barely walk, and it just felt instinctive. Looking back, that was probably the first moment music stopped feeling like background noise and started feeling like something that belonged to me.

Those classic soul voices taught me that singing isn’t about sounding perfect – it’s about telling the truth. When I listened to Janis Joplin or Aretha Franklin, it felt like they weren’t just singing songs, they were singing feelings – every word meant something, and you could hear it in their voice. That level of emotion, where a song can take you somewhere or hit you in the chest, is something I’ve carried with me. When I sing now, I always want it to feel real – like I’m giving a piece of myself, not just performing a lyric.

Tracks like Collateral Damage and Closer Than Your Shadow feel very emotionally open – where does that honesty come from, and was it always easy to write that way?

It’s generally a collaboration with my producer, a small seed that takes a life of its own. Collateral Damage was very much about a toxic situationship that needed to get in the bin, we started with that idea and then the rest just flowed, pulling in my story and my producer/ co-writer helping me carve it into shape. It’s always honest and authentic in the source.

Closer Than Your Shadow was a song I’d heard via my producer that I wanted to get involved with. We tried a few versions over the years, I just automatically felt attached to it and wanted to bring it to life. It was actually a ballad, but we crafted it into a cinematic drum and bass vibe- firstly as an experiment, then we couldn’t hear it any other way, even though it has a drum and bass groove it seems to sit well amongst my other tunes, like it was always meant to be. 

You built a huge connection with fans through daily TikTok performances. At what point did you realise people weren’t just watching – they were really listening?

Ah man, where do I begin? TikTok has been THE most incredible platform for me over the last year. It started off with me doing a couple of live streams, singing a few originals and some of my favourite covers, and then suddenly all these incredible viewers started turning up and getting involved! What really got me was when people began requesting my original songs more than the covers – that was the moment I realised they were actually listening and vibing. This whole little community just built naturally, and it’s been the best thing ever as an independent artist. Seeing those same people then come to my headline shows and sing lyrics at the top of their lungs to songs that aren’t even released yet, just from hearing them on TikTok Lives? Mad! I’ll genuinely never get over that feeling. It still surprises me every single time.

With your debut album Love Languages on the horizon, what do you hope listeners understand about you that they maybe don’t yet?

That music is therapy and my album is authentically me. If it troubles me, excites me and makes me feel something, I write about it – and my album is the highlight.

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I will end with this interview. Earlier this month, Original Rock.net spent some time in the company of the terrific Reigns. Do make sure that you go and follow her. I wonder whether there are live dates coming in the summer. I would love to see her perform:

“Soul powerhouse Reigns isn’t standing still. Fresh from touring with Rebecca Ferguson, racking up viral moments, and launching her own record label, the singer-songwriter is stepping into a bold new era with her latest single, Heels Running, releasing July 24th.

Equal parts sass, soul and self-belief, the track is an anthem for walking away with your head held high – and maybe in a fabulous pair of heels.

With a drag-filled music video promising maximum drama and a fanbase that’s backing her every step of the way, Reigns talks about finding freedom as an independent artist, why live performance is where the magic happens, and why her music will always wear its heart on its sleeve.

You’re in a pretty unstoppable run right now, with viral hits and a string of tours under your belt. What’s actually changed for you over the last year?
So much! I think setting up my own label has put me in a different headspace, I can actually make things happen and that is a game changer.

You’ve just been on the road with jazz-soul star Rebecca Ferguson. What did that tour teach you that the studio never could?

It’s a different pace, a different world, I love them both but singing live to a captive audience is what it’s all about for me, the connection between the song and the audience is incredible to witness and feel

What’s your standout song to perform right now – and why does it hit differently live?

Everybody falls apart sometimes and my next single ‘Heels Running’, they are opposite ends of the spectrum but they both hit hard for very different reasons

Your upcoming video features drag performers from across the UK. What does that bring to the story of the track?

THE DRAMA- they were here for it and I loved every minute. SASSY personified

What energy were you chasing with the video – and why did drag culture feel like the right world for it?

You’re building serious momentum right now. How would you define this current Reigns era in your own words – and why is this next release a key moment?

I feel things have shifted and we’re moving in all the right directions, it’s taken a minute but something definitely  feels different, the fans have made this happen (Reigns Rebels) they are the best form of PR an artist could ask for, sharing videos, songs, posts etc and showing up, come rain or shine they’re with me all the way

Your music is raw, soulful, and very open. Is it fair to say it’s as much emotional release as it is ambition for you?

In one! Absolutely, music is my therapy, me and the songs always lay our cards on the table

What’s something people constantly get wrong or don’t realise about you as an artist?

My artist project is not a dance project, it’s blues- infused soulful pop. People often expect me just to sing dance tracks.  I’ve featured on a few, and I’m very grateful for what those features have brought me – but my artist project is where my truth live”.

I am going to finish off here I think. Go and follow Reigns and keep a track of her. I think she will have dates later in the year, so do go and see her if you can. If you have not heard of this tremendous artist then go and check her out, as she is very special. A terrific voice in British music, there is nobody quite like her. You just know that the wonderful Reigns is going to have a very long career and some golden moments. She is an artist with…

A major talent.

___________

Follow Reigns

FEATURE: One for the Record Collection! Essential August Reviews

FEATURE:

 

 

One for the Record Collection!

IN THIS PHOTO: Jorja Smith

 

Essential August Reviews

__________

AUGUST is a month…

IN THIS PHOTO: Phoebe Bridgers

that is always good when it comes to new albums. You can see what is out here. I am going to highlight the best of the moth I feel you should own. Let’s start with 7th August. The is a wonderful album due this week you will want to pre-order. It is The Anchoress’s As We Once Were. I have always been a fan of her music, so I am looking forward to hearing what is coming. If you need some information about this phenomenal album, then Rough Trade provide some background:

“As We Once Were is the third studio album from twice Welsh Music Prize nominated artist and producer The Anchoress aka Catherine Anne Davies.

This new record is the long-awaited follow-up to the UK Top 40 album The Art Of Losing, which received wall-to-wall critical plaudits upon its release in 2021 and scooped up a raft of Album of The Year nods from The Sunday Times, to Prog, to the Mail on Sunday. With Sir Elton John naming it "one of my favourite records of the year" and Caitlin Moran calling it "the inadvertent, beautiful and truthful soundtrack to this moment", it went on to sell over 10,000 physical copies via word of mouth.

Three-times Music Producers Guild nominated Davies created the new album at Black Lodge Studios while being given access to Pete Townshend's collection of vintage analogue synthesisers to produce an epic 14-track widescreen exploration of the nature of time and transformation.

Against the backdrop of the birth of her first child, after multiple losses and the discovery of her grandmother's voice on a long lost cassette tape in her mother's attic, Davies found herself asking the question: "What can we build out of the past? Are we destined to be held down by it? Can we ever return to these past versions of ourselves?”


Four great albums from 14th August that I want to recommend to people. I am starting out with Grace Cummings’s Blood Horse! The legendary artist releases a new album that I am really interested to hear. If you need to know about Grace Cummings and her upcoming album, this article from The Line of Best Fit detail news about the exceptional Bloodhorse!

“Bloodhorse! follows Cummings' third album, Ramona, released in 2024. "My God" arrives today as the first taster of the upcoming work, alongside a video directed by Ben Portnoy.

Speaking about the new song, Cummings says: “Lyrically, this song is about hatred, jealousy, rage. The God here is the dark forces that are wrapping around us, that we scroll through, the toxic energy that binds us together in this modern world, and the fear we feed it every day."

Bloodhorse! saw Cummings reunite with producer Jonathan Wilson (Father John Misty, Angel Olsen, Margo Price) in Topanga Canyon, California, to bring themes of life, death, agency, abuse and self-examination through synth and string-based rhythms. “In the past few years I’ve gone through one of the biggest personal changes of my life,” Cummings says. “Bloodhorse! is an attempt to express the things I can't say. A confession, an act of courage. For no one else but me. And it’s me deciding to represent, not necessarily the way life is, but the way it feels.”

Discussing the meaning behind the title, she adds: “A bloodhorse is a horse expected to be a winner. But they can often also be temperamental, fearful, fragile and easily broken. Sometimes I feel like I’m a trapped animal. And…when I go to sleep, sometimes it's like I'm in the gate, twitching. And as soon as I open my eyes, I'm fucking running”.

I do love the vinyl option for L'Rain’s fata morgana. A Rose of Jericho Glow looks absolutely amazing. You can pre-order it here. I have been following her music for a while now and it is great that she has an album coming out. It is one that you will want to get a hold of. I do want to Pitchfork and their article about fata morgana:

“L’Rain is back with a new album. Fata Morgana arrives August 14, via Mexican Summer, preceded by the salvo of “Soulless Cycle,” which you can hear below. The hell-raising track comes with an elliptical video directed by Mackai Sharp.

L’Rain’s Taja Cheek bills Fata Morgana as the culmination of a quadrilogy that began with her 2017 self-titled debut, followed by Fatigue and I Killed Your Dog. She made the new LP with longtime collaborators Ben Chapoteau-Katz and Andrew Lappin, reflecting, in part, on her role as a citizen of the present-day United States. “I’m thinking about the ways in which this societal malaise manifests within myself,” she says in a press release. “As we’ve slipped further into fascism and trad culture, I’m thinking about all the beliefs society has manufactured about itself and about me”.

The penultimate album from this week I am spotlighting is Laura Veirs’ Temple Songs. You can pre-order the album here announced the release of an incredible album that you will need to pre-order. This is an artist who has had a very long career and is one of the greatest living songwriters:

“Temple Songs is the first record Veirs has written, recorded, arranged, produced and performed entirely on her own. She plays guitars, bass, drums, tambourine, percussion and sings all vocals; the only outside contribution is saxophone from an uncredited guest. The LP was tracked over three months in the autumn of 2025 in her backyard ‘Temple of Bloom’ studio, using just two microphones and a laptop. Veirs chose not to pitch-correct vocals or edit out ambient intrusions such as rain on the skylight or passing crows, embracing the Japanese concept of wabi-sabi.

The lead single, "Flying into Darkness", deals with feelings of restlessness and uncertainty. “This song comes from a feeling of being existentially unmoored in a dark, uncertain moment,” Veirs explains. “I kept circling the same questions: how do I stay grounded? How do I feel like I’m doing some real good, nudging things – even slightly – in a better direction?”

“I wanted to make something that sounds as organic and human as possible,” she says. The record was mixed by Philip Weinrobe (Adrienne Lenker).

Veirs has also announced an extensive international tour beginning in the UK in September, including a headline show at Earth in London on 16 September. Support comes from Karl Blau. Other UK dates include Cambridge, Sheffield, Newcastle, Glasgow, Manchester, Southampton, Bristol, Birmingham and Nottingham, plus shows in Ireland and Belfast.

Speaking about the making of the record, Veirs said: “I didn’t know if I would write songs again. Turns out that period was a gathering phase. When I made the commitment to recording the LP myself, the muse caught me again and it came together very quickly”.

Prior to moving to 21st August, there is one more from 14h that I need to mention. Phoebe Bridgers’ Lost Weekend is one of the most anticipated of this year. You can pre-order this remarkable album here. I am a big fan of Bridgers, so I am really excited by this album. The first single from it, Lost Boys, is amazing. NME shared a feature announcing a new album from a terrific artist who has had this busy and varied career:

“The follow-up to 2020’s ‘Punisher’, is set to be released on August 14 on Dead Oceans and comes after the singer-songwriter played her first live solo live show in three years last month in Roswell, New Mexico, where she debuted three new songs. You can pre-order it here.

At the time, she also strongly suggested that a new album may be on its way, and fans in attendance each received an exclusive card, which at the time appeared to combine to make up what many people thought was the artwork for Bridgers’ next release.

But the record, which according to a press release finds Bridgers at the “height of her powers, a master, taking nothing more seriously than this craft, refining here many of the motifs that distinguished her work previously on this new album that’s otherwise, everywhere, full of surprises,” actually has a different piece of artwork, which you can view below.

She also announced on Instagram, that a new song from the record will drop tomorrow (Thursday June 25), but at this stage it is unclear what it is.

After the singer-songwriter’s previous record, she performed with Boygenius – the trio of Bridgers, Lucy Dacus and Julien Baker, though they announced they were going on hiatus after the completion of their critically acclaimed album ‘The Record’ in 2023, which at the time was named our album of the year.

During her recent shows, Bridgers played several songs from her two solo albums, ‘Stranger In The Alps’ and ‘Punisher’, while the new songs were described by those in attendance as “very sad folk” with harmonica arrangements.

Bridgers also reportedly said that she saw the show as a “test” for whatever is set to come next.

At a more recent show at Madison Square Garden which NME witnessed, she debuted seven new tracks many of which continued the singular sound Bridgers built on ‘Punisher’ – melancholy lyrics made up of astute observations of the state of the world and relationships, backed by slow strumming guitars and orchestration that oscillates from Americana to indie folk.

Some of the songwriting also harkened back to the unabashed candidness of her debut album, 2017’s ‘Stranger in the Alps’. A new number she announced with “this song is about the past, though I’m told all of my songs are,” came with a crushing, crescendoing chorus that saw her and Christian Lee Hutson strumming emphatically as she alluded to an ill-fated engagement.

Bridgers also used the gig to call out ICE and raise funding for immigrants. All proceeds from ticket sales went to Community Justice Exchange’s Immigration Bond Freedom Fund, which provides aid and bail to those in ICE detention centres.

Elsewhere, she recently announced plans to hit the road in support of her new album in the UK, Ireland and North America and added further dates”.

There are some great albums due on 21st August. The first I am dismissing is Antony Szmierek’s Decoding Birdsong. The Manchester-born songwriter follows up Service Station at the End of the Universe. This is the standout album from August. I think that everyone should pre-order it. In terms od what we can expect from this amazing artist:

“Manchester-born poet, writer, and producer Antony Szmierek releases his second album, Decoding Birdsong. Just eighteen months after his critically acclaimed debut, Szmierek returns with a new body of work that signals a clear evolution in both sound and scope. Rooted in his personal touchstones within electronic music, the album pairs expansive, immersive production with his trademark razor-sharp lyricism.

Where his debut had been a solo endeavour, Decoding Birdsong brims with collaboration, including Australia’s Pretty Girl, London band Los Bitchos, and Bristol producer 1-800 GIRLS, as well as Imogen and the Knife and indie pop star Ellur.

Speaking about the new record, Antony explains “Decoding Birdsong is about choosing to believe in something. Coincidence as a religion. Making your own luck in the face of loneliness and doubt. The smallest things can feel seminal, seismic and life affirming if you just choose to lean in, but it also asks if this is a dangerous way to live. What happens when your numbers come in? What are the consequences of luck? Should you listen to the birds, or are you only ever going to hear what you want to hear? To help us explore this: a heron, dice, a plummeting airplane, the late-night TV show Aussie Gold Hunters and a fibreglass replica of Godzilla.”

Decoding Birdsong follows the wild success of his debut album, 2025’s Service Station at the End of the Universe, which launched Antony into a whirlwind of Glastonbury, Jools Holland, and repeat BBC airplay. He’s sold out venues across the UK and Europe, and in February 2026 performed to 20,000 while closing Solomun’s Alexandra Palace shows. The former English teacher had been working at a college for special needs students when his blend of spoken word and dance music started taking off, earning him accolades such as 6Music’s Artist of the Year in 2023 following his Poems To Dance To EP, and frequent comparisons to Mike Skinner, Jarvis Cocker and John Cooper Clarke”.

Grace Potter’s Trespasser is released on 21st August. This is an artist that you may not have heard of, but she is a tremendous songwriter who I really love. Her album is one you will want to pre-order, as it is going to be among the best of this year. It is worth bringing in some information about Trespasser and what we can expect:

“With her new album Trespasser, Grace Potter introduces a beautifully unruly cast of characters who step into forbidden spaces with absolute abandon. As the spiritual sequel to 2023’s Mother Road, the four-time Grammy nominee’s seventh studio LP continues the kaleidoscopic storyline shaped by her many road trips from her Topanga Canyon home to her part-time residence in her native Vermont (a journey she’s made eight times in the last five years, usually on her own). But while Mother Road was born from a desperate need for solace in the midst of emotional freefall, Trespasser reveals an artist firmly anchored in her singular vision. The latest chapter in a career marked by endless transformation and elite recognition—including sharing stages with rock & roll icons like the Rolling Stones and Robert Plant and earning praise from legends like Bob Dylan and Bonnie Raitt—Trespasser ultimately lights the way toward a more unbound and expansive means of moving through the world.

Produced by her husband and frequent collaborator Eric Valentine (Queens of the Stone Age, Weezer, Slash) and recorded in a cross-country journey beginning at her home in Topanga with Benmont Tench, continuing in Nashville with Mother Road session players (members of Cage the Elephant, Kings of Leon, and Train), and completed in Vermont with members of her longtime live band, the album echoes its origins with a wayward sound that spans from stripped-bare soul to cosmic country to hellraising rock and roll—all while orbiting Potter’s force-of-nature voice and lavishly imagined storytelling.

“We’ve always been taught that the trespassers are the bad guys, but to me it’s not about reckless rebellion,” says Potter. “It’s about exploring, physically and mentally and emotionally, and being willing to step outside the narratives we’ve accepted. Because in my experience, the places we’re told not to go are exactly the ones that show us who we really are”.

A couple more albums from 21st August that you will want to own. Jorja Smith’s What are the Odds is the latest release from one of our best artists. Someone too I have been following for a very long time. She has such a mesmeric voice. If you pre-order, you can get vinyl, C.D. or tape options, as you can see here:

“Multi-award-winning singer and songwriter Jorja Smith releases her new album, What Are The Odds featuring sole production from P2J and collaborations with Afrobeat star Wizkid and Grime icon Devlin.

With her third album What Are The Odds, Jorja continues to build on her legacy with a euphoric offering rooted firmly in dance music. Confidently channelling UKG, Grime, 2Step, Funky House, Soulful House and Afro House, this thrilling, pulsating record rarely dips below 140 BPM.

“This is music to make you move” says Jorja. “I want people to hear it on the dancefloor, where the sun is shining, in the car and in their headphones on the night bus home. This is a record for driving and vibing.”

“Multi-award-winning singer and songwriter Jorja Smith releases her new album, What Are The Odds featuring sole production from P2J and collaborations with Afrobeat star Wizkid and Grime icon Devlin.

With her third album What Are The Odds, Jorja continues to build on her legacy with a euphoric offering rooted firmly in dance music. Confidently channelling UKG, Grime, 2Step, Funky House, Soulful House and Afro House, this thrilling, pulsating record rarely dips below 140 BPM.

“This is music to make you move” says Jorja. “I want people to hear it on the dancefloor, where the sun is shining, in the car and in their headphones on the night bus home. This is a record for driving and vibing”.

Before finishing with a couple of albums from 28th August, there is one more from 21st I want to feature. Julia Holter’s Materia is going to be a fantastic release that will win a lot of positive reviews. You can pre-order it here. I would urge everyone to grab their copy:

“Julia Holter always knew that there was more to the song “Materia” than what she included on her wondrous 2024 album, Something in the Room She Moves. She had written the tune not long after the tours for 2018’s Aviary concluded, and it worked well for solo shows—her voice and piano, lyrics still morphing as she played with the meaning.

But on the new Materia, a kind of companion LP to Something, Holter has realized not one but two distinct versions of the song. “Materia 2” is a hallucinatory dream of drum machines, fretless bass, and clarinet, Holter’s voice spiralling through ether alongside that of Jessika Kenney. And on “Materia 3,” intended as a hidden bonus track in an homage to the CD era of her youth, Holter literally slows down the take from Something. The change not only emphasizes the unpredictable glory of the harmonies within but also reiterates the song’s emotional sophistication, the sense that it’s about learning how to live.
Materia is only seven tracks long, but Holter works in nearly that many modes here. There are two astounding improvisations, one where she builds a one-person ensemble of drum machines and synth lines and another where she manipulates her voice until each word seems to contain another symphony. And yet another is built from a riff that came from a demo for Something, a demo that itself is one of Materia’s most spellbinding and emotional pieces, “My Twin.” These seven songs show that Holter is among her generation’s most fluid writers of art-pop, moving among ideas and idioms with true exploratory aplomb. Materia is a kind of playground for Holter, where each distinct scene steadily coheres into a moving whole”.

There are a couple of albums from 28th August that are worth pre-ordering. Interpol’s This Mirror Weighs a Ton is the first one. There is not a lot of information about the album. This NME article gives us some details about the album. There is also an interview with the band’s lead, Paul Banks:

“Interpol have announced their new album ‘This Mirror Weighs A Ton’ by releasing the Massive Attack-inspired title track and punchy single ‘See Out Loud’. Check them both out below as frontman Paul Banks tells NME about how they put together one of the most “important” records of their career.

After announcing their signing to Partisan records (home to IDLES, Geese and PJ Harvey), the NYC indie icons have now shared that their ninth album and the follow-up to 2022’s acclaimed ‘The Other Side Of Make-Believe‘ will arrive on Friday August 28.

Produced by Andrew Wyatt [ROSALÍA, Charli XCX] and mixed by Dave Fridmann [Sleater-Kinney, MGMT], ‘This Mirror Weighs A Ton’ could be the band’s most full-bodied work to date, utilising “strings, woodwinds, layered vocal harmonies, acoustic guitar and experimental sound design” to their signature sense of atmosphere and inescapable rhythms.

“This is really a no-skip record for me,” Banks told NME when we met in a London hotel in Soho. “I think we did some great work.”

“I was in a headspace either about how we felt about the rest of the record of post-parenthood, but I took it really seriously and wanted to make sure I came away really proud of the work,” Banks told NME. “Every song is different, but I guess there’s a spirit of striving for elation and a striving for enlightenment and clarity. There’s a lot of taking stock and honest assessments, hence the title. It’s about striving and reflection.”

Speaking about the more experimental sonic palette of the song, he shared: “It’s a different type of bass sound and I don’t think anyone would argue the Massive Attack comparison. You can thank Brad [Truax, bassist] for that. It just felt good. 

“There’s a really precious simplicity to it. It became the titular track not because we felt that song was so important, but just that lyric. We have a bit of a history with turning a lyric into the title like with [2002 debut album] ‘Turn On The Bright Lights’, and it just needs to suit it. We really love the vibe and it introduces some new sounds and feelings. It paves the way for this record not being what you expect. That lyric does speak to what the themes are on the record.”

The album also comes previewed by the anthemic ‘See Out Loud’, one of two new songs the band have been playing at recent shows. The song leans into the more pulsing and rhythmic vibe of their albums ‘Antics’ and ‘El Pintor’. While Banks takes the lead, guitarist Daniel Kessler lends a rare vocal over a synthy interlude – only the third time he’s done so after the classic ‘PDA’ on the band’s 2002 ‘PDA’ and the fan favourite early version of B-side ‘Song Seven’.

“It feels quite ‘classic Interpol’, right?” said Banks. “That was one we were working on for a really long time. It has a classic Interpol bassline. The lyric [‘Say something magical, save something for me‘] is about striving for elation and the revelation that can come from the abandon that nightlife can sometimes bring. There are often parallel themes for me, so it’s ostensibly a party song but there are layers to what the lyrics are interpreted to be. On the surface it’s just ‘at the clerb’ or some place at 5am with neon clouds.

“I tried to get Dan to sing on the last record too, but we couldn’t get it together to make it feel necessary. I felt like this song is a lot of fun. Dan sings really well and has a really interesting character to his voice and a posture as a singer. He has his own lineage that informs that and it’s a nice counterbalance to me, we just don’t do it much. Any time we’ve done, it’s been really cool and fun.”

He added: “A lot of songs on this album have killer outros, and that’s one of them. We had some enjoyment not limiting ourselves to what we think a song structure should be and just let the songs be what they wanted to be”.

I will end with Sara Bareilles’ Good Grief. This is an album at you will want to pre-order. You might be unfamiliar with her work, though she has been recording for many years now and is a hugely respected songwriter. I think that Good Grief is going to make a big impression when it is released on 28th August:

“Sara Bareilles returns with Good Grief,  her seventh studio album and her first since 2019’s Amidst the Chaos. As the title implies, the 14-track collection is deeply informed by loss. It comes in different varieties, some belonging to Bareilles, some borrowed in service of beautiful storytelling. Sometimes the loss is more one of equilibrium or the inability to search for silver linings in storm clouds. But as the title also implies Good Grief has, even at its darkest depth, a glimmering golden lifeline that runs through the album pointing toward hope on the surface. “My deepest hope,” Sara says, “is that Good Grief just provides some kind of comfort or catharsis for somebody. It feels like it's really close to me and my hope is that people feel closer to themselves listening to this record”.

I feel there are a lot of amazing albums due next month. Something in there for everyone. I hope that my feature has provided some guidance and albums you will want to buy. I am looking forward to August and the great music coming out. So many brilliant albums…

TO add to your collection.

FEATURE: Spotlight: Starling

FEATURE:

 

 

Spotlight

  

Starling

__________

I did want to spotlight…

a very special artist who is making music that feels like therapy. Rather than doing what most artists do and release music that feels personal to them and then tour larger venues, Starling is creating this Pop therapy movement and plating at smaller and more intimate spaces for people. I do want to come to some interviews with her. The single, Cupcake, came out in May, and there was a lot of interest around the song and what she is doing. Naluda Magazine chatted with Starling about “her “pop therapy” movement; viral house concert tour; and transforming criticism into self-worth through music”:

“Following the momentum of her BBC-supported single “Gymnast,” UK pop artist Starling is entering a powerful new chapter with the release of “Cupcake,” an emotionally raw anthem centered on healing, resilience, and radical self-compassion. Written on her birthday, a day once tied to self-doubt and inner criticism, “Cupcake” captures a pivotal shift in perspective, turning painful reflection into personal empowerment. Known for blending deeply honest storytelling with bold pop production, Starling has built a growing movement around what fans call “pop therapy,” music that not only entertains but also helps listeners reconnect with their sense of worth.

From being told she could not sing to becoming a BBC Radio 1 “New Noise” artist with millions of streams and more than 18 Spotify New Music Friday placements, Starling’s journey has been anything but conventional. Her music, often compared to the emotional honesty of Lorde, the edge of Billie Eilish, and the introspection of Joni Mitchell, continues to resonate deeply with audiences seeking authenticity and healing. Beyond music, her viral house concert tour and global conversations around self-worth have expanded her mission into something far greater than pop stardom. In this interview, Starling shares more about the inspiration behind “Cupcake,” the philosophy behind her music, and the deeper purpose driving her upcoming debut album.

“Cupcake” turns a really vulnerable birthday experience into something empowering. Was there a specific moment where you realized you wanted to stop being so hard on yourself?

Definitely. I realised every birthday had quietly become this audit of my worth. Instead of celebrating being alive, I was analysing whether I’d achieved enough for my age. One birthday I caught myself spiralling into shame instead of gratitude and thought, “This is absolute madness.” That was the moment I knew I had to rewrite the narrative.

The title “Cupcake” feels playful, but the message cuts deep. Why did that word feel like the perfect fit for the song?

Because the song is essentially saying: lighten up a bit. We can be so brutal with ourselves internally, and I loved the contrast of taking something cute, playful and almost childish like “Cupcake” and pairing it with these really deep themes around self-worth and insecurity. It felt like handing my inner critic a glitter bomb.

Your music has been described as “pop therapy.” When did you realize your songs were helping people on a deeper emotional level?

When people started writing to me sharing what the music had helped them do. I’ve had women tell me they left abusive relationships, asked for pay rises, created boundaries, or finally believed in themselves after hearing certain songs. One person even told me they were struggling with suicidal thoughts and hearing “Every Single Time” (released in 2022) reminded them of their strength. That changed everything for me. I realised music can genuinely alter someone’s future.

You traveled 4,000 miles performing in kitchens and gardens. Did that experience change the way you see the connection between artist and audience?

Completely. It removed the invisible wall between performer and audience. We’re living in such an online world that people are starving for real intimacy and connection. Singing two feet away from someone in their kitchen reminds you music was always meant to bring humans together, not just rack up streams.

Your story about singing in a Soho basement after a bartending shift honestly sounds cinematic. Did you feel something changing in your life that night?

Yes. I remember feeling exhausted from work but also weirdly alive. That night I was discovered by Massive Attack and Zero 7, and something in me quietly thought, “Maybe my life is about to change.” It felt like the first domino falling.

You’ve worked with Grammy-winning writers and Massive Attack collaborators, but your music still feels incredibly personal. How do you protect that authenticity in bigger rooms?

I try to remember that honesty is the whole point. I don’t walk into sessions trying to sound cool or mysterious. I walk in talking about the thing I’m actually ashamed, confused or heartbroken about. Weirdly, that’s usually where the best songs live.

Is there a place you have visited that changed you in a meaningful way, either creatively or personally?

Soho in London genuinely changed my life creatively. There’s something about the chaos, ambition and artistry there that woke something up in me. Also, travelling through people’s homes on tour reminded me how universal human emotions really are”.

I feel that this is an artist that we all need to throw a weight of support behind. Metal Magazine published a feature about the extraordinary Cupcake. Following close behind the release of Gymnast, a song that introduced people to Starling’s “emotionally direct songwriting and sharp pop production”, Cupcake does feel even more personal, they say. “Less like a performance, more like a decision happening in real time”:

“Written on her birthday, Cupcake grew out of a familiar spiral. For years, Starling associated the day with pressure, self-comparison, and the feeling of somehow falling behind in her own life. Instead of leaning further into that cycle, she chose to interrupt it. The song became a way of documenting that shift while it was still unfolding, replacing criticism with something softer and more honest.

That tension gives the track its shape. The production moves with confidence, balancing playful textures with a slightly uneasy pulse underneath, while her vocals stay close to the listener throughout. Nothing feels overworked. The emotional core remains intact, which is exactly what makes the song land so naturally.

Starling has spent the last few years building what her audience often calls “pop therapy,” music rooted in self-worth, reflection, and emotional recovery without slipping into clichés. It is an approach that has steadily expanded beyond streaming platforms through talks, live experiences, and even her now viral house concert tour, where she travelled thousands of miles performing intimate shows in people’s homes after posting that she was “tired of being online.”

A few days before Cupcake landed, Starling welcomed followers into what she called “a summer of liberation,” teasing a private London gathering for fans complete with actual cupcakes. The release arrives amid growing momentum around her debut album, but what makes the single resonate is not the scale surrounding it. It is the honesty running through it”.

I will finish off with a live review from Loud Women, who were at the Groucho Club in May for the launch party of Starling’s Cupcake. They chatted with her too and got some insight into the song and how her music is helping people. There is another interview I am keen to cover off, but this review gives you a sense of how powerful Starling is in the flesh:

“LOUD WOMEN were invited to attend a private launch of Starling‘s birthday song ‘Cupcake‘ at London’s The Groucho Club. With Starling’s energy making the small room feel like a stadium this intimate show became a concert level performance that everyone played a part in and enjoyed.

This little show for fans who have subscribed to Starlings mailing list had everything from custom cupcakes, dance moves that she got everyone involved with, singing and eye contact that made you feel like you were the only person in the room. She really has a way of captivating people! And with songs that already scream about self reflection and empowerment, this little special touch leaves you feeling all warm and fuzzy when it’s time to leave.

Just like a lot of her songs, ‘Cupcake’ is an anthem that turns a degrading view of yourself upside down. Written on her birthday the song is a reflection on how much hate we may give ourselves on such a pivotal day like your birthday, and how important it is to turn that around and not let self-doubt take over but instead celebrate yourself. But even with music that is all about improving self worth, Starling reveals that she still needs to remind herself to believe in what she sings. Having played this before releasing it to the world at her home shows, Starling knew that this was going to be a song that people will fall in love with. Its meaningful, its relatable, and it feels like the next radio hit”.

I do hope there are some more interviews with Starling this year, as she is such a fascinating artist. I did want to highlight her, as this idea of using music as a therapeutic tool. Music that is personal to her is also connecting with other people. The messages in Cupcake are creating an impact with those who listen. An extraordinary artist and someone who I hope continues to release music – there is that talk of a debut album -, we all need to follow the exceptional Starling. This is such a wonderful artist…

LIKE nobody else.

___________

Follow Starling

FEATURE: Kate Bush: Them Heavy People: The Extraordinary Characters in Her Songs: This Girl (Scares Me Silly (Really Gets Me Going)/The Fools (Breathing)

FEATURE:

 

 

Kate Bush: Them Heavy People: The Extraordinary Characters in Her Songs

IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush in 1978/PHOTO CREDIT: Jill Furmanovsky

 

This Girl (Scares Me Silly (Really Gets Me Going)/The Fools (Breathing)

__________

I have three more…

instalments of this series before wrapping up. This is the final time I am looking at a very early pre-The Kick Inside song. It is one that could have made it onto that 1978 debut album, from Kate Bush. For someone reason, it was omitted. However, it is one of the most revealing and personal songs, as it is Kate Bush singing about herself recording in the studio. I want to start out with This Girl, from the incredibly Scares Me Silly (Really Gets Me Going). I am going to end with Breathing from 1980’s Never for Ever. There is a lot to discuss when it comes to this song. I have a couple of other songs from The Kick Inside to cover off. I am ending with Them Heavy People. I do wonder how far along Scares Me Silly (Really Gets Me Going) got before it was left where it was. Maybe a little too meta or weird to put on the album, I don’t think many artists have written about the experience of being in the studio real-time and singing about fear and anxiety. Most sort of weave that anxiety through their lyrics. In this gem, Kate Bush was very much on this tightrope throughout. You can see the song very much as a performance. This teenage artist, who would have been scared at AIR Studios recording The Kick Inside, putting all her fears throughout this song. It is an experience that gives her energy and excitement. Though there is this feeling of dread coming to the microphone. I have never read an intervbiew where Bush talks about this song. It is a gem that a lot of fans might not know about. The only song in this run where Kate Bush is the character, it is fitting that we turn the lens onto her.

There s actually a character, Romeo, who may or may not be based on someone real or historic. I think that Kate Bush discussing herself is rare. On The Kick Inside, you feel she was disguising her desires and emotions through other characters and fantasy. Here, we seem to get an early insight into her feelings of being in the studio. The lyrics are fascinating: “Here in the studio/As they’re turning down the lights/I lick my lips to start the first line/How can this girl be me?/“Oh, little thing, are you looking lost?”/The vertigo, the need to lose”. There must have been a feeling in 1977 that this whole experience of being an artist was brief. That she would record an album and that would be it. Bush wanted more than this. But going into a studio and recording songs was expensive and intense. How long could she keep doing this? Scares Me Silly (Really Gets Me Going) is a window into her. Whilst it does seem to be a first-person examination of the dread of putting your voice onto tape, there is an intriguing line that got me wondering: “Don’t even know you but I need you to love me, too”. Who is Kate Bush referring to? Is it producer Andrew Powell or someone in the studio? That feeling of being alone and isolated in the booth. The chorus bringing in this Romeo: “Scares me silly, but it gets me going/Like a Romeo/Scares me silly, but it gets me going/Like a Romeo/Scares me silly, but it gets me going”. I am not sure whether it is referring to a male lover and that sexual energy. It is an interest in selection on her part. These are some of Bush’s most fascinating early lyrics. That she sings “I wonder can I goad myself into another take/And keep the mood?”. The feeling of doing multiple takes and having to make each brilliant and the same. Bush sings about music being like a film and doing these takes to get the performance right. How “The music will never let me blow away”. It is a song of intensity and fear, though one where she is very much doing what she loves. Clever wordplay and imagery – “You know the feeling when you’re on the right track/You fall in love and you’re never gonna turn it back/It’s recording you, they’re so sensitive/Oozing without me, spilling over with secrets” -, it is like a diary entry.

This songs is one that might have seemed to be as bit like self-sabotage on a debut album. An artist writing about the studio experience and all the emotions that go through your mind. Perhaps a little advanced or clever at the time, I do think of Scares Me Silly (Really Gets Me Going). That subject of anxiety. Something that Kate Bush faced right through her career. I know that 1979’s The Tour of Life was pretty daunting. Her only tour, she was performing around the U.K. and Europe. Going on stage in front of thousands and it all being on her. If the experience of being in the studio recording was scary and caused worry, that was magnified so many times over on the stage. She would not get multiple takes and a chance to redo a routine. There are no other outtakes from The Kick Inside. Scares Me Silly (Really Gets Me Going) seemingly was intended to be on the album, though it seems like something that would have fitted on Never for Ever. By that time, Bush was writing new songs. I do wonder why it was not considered for Lionheart. It could easily have ended the album and made for this incredible finale. As it is, Scares Me Silly (Really Gets Me Going). The fact is that not many people have written about the song. I think it is stronger than an outtake. It could have found its place on The Kick Inside, as it is very much is Kate Bush talking about herself. Dreams of Orgonon covered the tracks and felt that Kate Bush was singing about a character. She was very much singing about herself. This is a teenage artist embarking on this huge debut album and feeling a sense of pressure and vertigo:

“The Kick Inside sessions seem to only have one outtake: “Scares Me Silly,” a bootleg rather than a bonus track from some official release. Listening to it in 2019, it’s not hard to understand why it was never released. “Scares Me Silly” is loopy, particularly in its calypso-esque It’s a ridiculous track, something Elton John might have cut on a drunk night at the Château d’Hérouville. “Scares Me Silly” is loopy, beginning with frantic up-tempo glam rock, moving into a wordy calypso of a pre-chorus (“they try to put me on the tapes begin to spin/I feel a little sick and hope my notes are in”), and slowing down for a poppy chorus, repeatedly declaring “it scares me silly, but it gets me gooooiiiiin’!” There’s no sense Bush is disciplining herself, and the result is firmly outtakes material.

Curiously, the lyrics of “Scares Me Silly” are a pretty straightforward reflection of what kind of song it is. Bush describes a character working in a recording studio for the first time, feeling the anxiety that comes with pop music and how it separates the artist from themselves (“I lick my lips to start the first line/how can this girl be me?”). The prevailing mood is one of giddiness and dizzy nausea, with Bush singing energetically of “vertigo, the need to lose.” Music is a force which carries her away — “I feel a little sick and I hope my notes are in” — to some other place. In “Scares Me Silly” the journey is the focus, and it’s more of a speed trip than an odyssey. Terror and exhilaration often go hand-in-hand for Kate Bush — go back and read my favorite post “Hammer Horror” to see more of that on display. Bush’s melodic experiments, off-beat songwriting, and idiosyncratic vocals all unite to create one major statement: that pushing your limits is fun and worthwhile”.

It got me thinking about Kate Bush and outtakes. Obviously, there are demos that will not be remastered and endorsed. There are a few tracks that were recorded but never made it onto albums. Never for Ever’s title track actually recorded during the Lionheart sessions in late-1978. Producer Andrew Powell recalled how gorgeous it is and what a vocal Bush delivered. She did not like her voice or the song I think, so it never materialised beyond the studio. It did lend its name to her third studio album. Scares Me Silly (Really Gets Me Going) could have been a B-side. I do think that this is a song that is unique in her cannon. Referencing herself and This Girl. Looking into the studio and seeing everything unfold. Before moving to the second song for this feature, I did want to end with some interview exert from 1978. This was a young artist who released her debut album and was instantly thrust into the world. When she was recording Scares Me Silly (Really Gets Me Going), she would not know how intense things would get so quickly. In early-1978, Record Mirror spoke with Kate Bush. This nervous artist recording her first album was now on the press circuit:

“Kate Bush is, as she never tires of emphasising, a member of the human race, not a musical hybrid of the girlie mag fantasy woman. She's clinging onto that humanity with obsessional determination despite her circumstances sliding further and further away from that "normality" she holds desperately and dearly.

Her abnormality has never been more apparent than in this setting; a £100 a night, two floor leather-and-flowers suite at the Montcalm Hotel, Marble Arch.

She has just been interviewed by Ritz and Vogue. Attended by two press officers, she is, despite her protestations, a star, a true star, by virtue of her immense success, her pink skin and her Page 3 curves.

A number one single (an international hit) a number one album and immense publicity; Kate Bush is a phenomenon. The fate that befalls such animals — arrogance, self-indulgence, mania — has yet to manifest its symptoms, partially because this particular phenomenon is dedicated to the preservation of her personal reality.

Nervous

"I'm not really aware of being subjected to any starmaking machine."

She taps her fingers on the chrome and glass table in the only nervous gesture she possesses.

"I know that might sound odd, but I've really no idea about it. The record company thought this hotel would be practical, I thought it would be nice. It's quite a trip for me to be here.

"I didn't walk in here and say 'where are the flowers? Where is my champagne?'

"I hope I haven't become a prima donna yet. I really mean that. I really, really resent that a lot.

"It's nice if you're on the road that you should have somewhere nice to sleep. But I'm not into the 'Oh Dahling!' bit, and everybody having a Rolls Royce".

IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush in 1977/PHOTO CREDIT: John Carder Bush

It sounds almost defensive, but one subject that Bush is totally convincing about is how critical she considers her grasp on her own situation.

She has reached a point already of being such a valuable property to EMI Records that she is at the point of being able to control her immediate destiny.

The interviews she does are her own choice — "I want to get into as many areas as I can. So I did the fashion magazines and Vegetarian, and The Sun. I'm testing the water."

She says that she is, quote, into people. People, of course, reciprocate, and therein lies the danger. A surfeit of attention killed Janis Joplin and, more lately, put Poly Styrene into a mental home.

"I have some personal principles I stick by, though they are pretty free. They don't just apply to the press. They are my way of living.

"I have tried to avoid an 'image'. If you have an image you intend to maintain, it's going to be very difficult, because you're going to get holes in your image. I may be that animal 'Kate Bush' a bit when I'm offstage, but mostly, I am me."

Kate spends most of her time with a smile on her face and eyes that look straight at you. but she looks away and almost shudders for a moment.

"The things I don't like doing is... is... going to these sort of parties that you hear about. I don't go to parties. I find that sort of thing very unhealthy. In fact I find them disgusting."

She pronounces the word 'parties' like you or I might pronounce some vile disease or weird sin.

"It's not me. I'm basically a quiet person. When I get the time, I like to go home. I clean up the flat — which is a mess, because I'm never there. And I get some friends around that maybe I haven't seen for a long time”.

IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush in 1977/PHOTO CREDIT: John Carder Bush

From Kate Bush putting herself in an outtake from The Kick Inside, we move to 1980 and the first single from Never for Ever. Breathing was perhaps an unexpected lead single. Babooshka was the second single, though it seemed like Bush was making a point. I could talk about the mother and foetus in Breathing. They are both causalities of nuclear war and destruction happening. The foetus protected by the womb but still breathing in plutonium and smoke. It is a scary image. You do not see the horror of what is outside of the womb. You get the feeling that it is a holocaust and nuclear wasteland where everyone is doomed. This was Bush writing politically. Accused by many of being apolitical and lacking bite and relevance, there was a stagey here. In terms of the most striking characters from the song, The Fools seem to refer to governments. This was the biggest and most epic song Bush had written to this point. It was very much a song of fear of what was happening in the world. Let’s start with some interview archive, where Bush discussed Breathing and why she wrote it:

“From my own viewpoint that’s the best thing I’ve ever written. It’s the best thing I’ve ever produced. I call that my little symphony, because I think every writer, whether they admit it or not, loves the idea of writing their own symphony. The song says something real for me, whereas many of the others haven’t quite got to the level that I would like them to reach, though they’re trying to. Often it’s because the song won’t allow it, and that song allowed everything that I wanted to be done to it. That track was easy to build up. Although it had to be huge, it was just speaking – saying what had to be put on it. In many ways, I think the most exciting thing was making the backing track. The session men had their lines, they understood what the song was about, but at first there was no emotion, and that track was demanding so much emotion. It wasn’t until they actually played with feeling that the whole thing took off. When we went and listened, I wanted to cry, because of what they had put into it. It was so tender. It meant a lot to me that they had put in as much as they could, because it must get hard for session guys. They get paid by the hour, and so many people don’t want to hear the emotion. They want clear, perfect tuning, a ‘good sound’; but often the out-of-tuneness, the uncleanliness, doesn’t matter as much as the emotional content that’s in there. I think that’s much more important than the technicalities.

Kris Needs, ‘Fire In The Bush’. Zigzag (UK), 1980

It got to the point when I heard [Pink floyd’s The Wall] I thought there’s no point in writing songs any more because they’d said it all. You know, when something really gets you, it hits your creative centre and stops you creating… and after a couple of weeks I realized that he hadn’t done everything, there was lots he hadn’t done. And after that it became an inspiration. ‘Breathing’ was definitely inspired by the whole vibe I got from hearing that whole album, especially the third side. There’s something about Floyd that’s pretty atomic anyway.

Colin Irwin, ‘Paranoia And Passion Of The Kate Inside’. Melody Maker (UK), 4 October 1980”.

There was a point in people’s lives when the imminent prospect of war was scaring the shit out of them, and that resulted in a lot of anti-war songs. At that time it was worthwhile. When I wrote ‘Breathing’ it seemed like people were sitting waiting for a nuclear bomb to go off. Nuclear power seemed like… Someone was getting set to blow us up without our consent. I felt I wanted to write a song about it. If it was something that was bothering so many people then yes, I think it was worthwhile. Songs or films or little individuals don’t do anything on a big level. Big things need bigger things to change them.

Richard Cook, ‘My Music Sophisticated? I’d Rather You Said That Than Turdlike!’. NME (UK), October 1982”.

I do think that Kate Bush is taking aim at world leaders. The lines when we get a sense of the incompetence and inhumanity of those who make decisions: “I love my/Beloved, ooh/All and everywhere/Only the fools blew it/You and me”. What is striking about this is how progressive it is. For a female artist in 1980, there were few who were writing songs like this.  It does very much lean on Pink Floyd in terms of its sound. She nodded to them on The Saxophone Song on The Kick Inside. That is one of two songs from the album – the other is The Man with the Child in His Eyes – which were recorded at AIR Studios in June 1975. David Gilmour of Pink Floyd mentor and Executive Producer. Bush was a fan of Pink Floyd and I feel The Wall was one that she gravitated towards. That was released in 1979. It would have timed nicely with the recording of Breathing.  Hitting out against those who felt that she was vacuous, empty or this silly Pop artist. Battling misogyny and sexism is something women face to this day. In 1979, she was being interviewed and pretty much dismissed as a hippy or someone who could not write anything serious. Not only did Bush release Breathing at a time when there was nuclear fear and this worldwide anxiety. I think she created something more urgent, sophisticated and accomplished than artists that were being heralded as heroes. Those that teenagers idolised. Breathing was released in April 1980 and reached the top twenty. In June 1980,  there was the start of this anti-nuclear movement. It is interesting reading this article and seeing what the mood was in the U.K. in 1980. Songs like Breathing very much reflecting a wider fear and anger:

“In June 1980, during the Cold War, it was announced that 160 American nuclear cruise missiles (guided nuclear missiles), would be stationed in Britain. They would be based at RAF/USAF Greenham Common and RAF/USAF Molesworth, Cambridgeshire.

Public opposition to this move led to an increase in support for the British anti-nuclear movement, which began a sustained protest campaign lasting many years.

British documentary and portrait photographer Edward Barber captured aspects of this campaign while working as a freelancer 1980-1984. Peace Signs, his collected body of work, was originally created to publicise the anti-nuclear movement. It has now been re-interpreted in a new exhibition at IWM London.

CND Demonstration

Anti-nuclear protesters staged mass demonstrations around the country.

Die-In.

'Die-ins' were a popular form of performance protest in the 1980s. Protesters pretended to be dead in order to obstruct and attract attention.

Picket

Picketing enabled protesters to apply non-violent pressure on individuals associated with key organisations”.

I do think that The Fools in Breathing were those ensuring things escalated or were too busy trying to destroy one another and not realising what they were doing. There is an argument that Breathing arrived at the start of a new Cold War in the early-1980s. Even if Kate Bush was safe and unlikely to be caught in any blast, nobody knew what would happen. This article talks of a terrifying time. I think that is why Breathing came first. Babooshka was released in June 1980 and proved a more popular single. Though I feel Breathing was the most important song Bush recorded to that point. The video her best and most cinematic:

“The 1970s were marked by a period of détente, or an easing of tensions, between the West and the Soviet bloc. By the late 1970s, however, détente was increasingly strained. The Soviets embarked on a number of foreign interventions, most notoriously by invading Afghanistan in December 1979, which were condemned by the West. From the American perspective in particular, détente had also allowed the Soviets to increase their relative military strength vis-à-vis the United States, thereby weakening American power. Particularly destabilising was the Soviet decision to deploy new intermediate-range nuclear forces, missiles known as SS-20s, in Eastern Europe. For NATO, this gave the Soviets a worrying advantage and upset the strategic balance of nuclear weapons across Europe. In December 1979, NATO aimed to restore this balance by adopting its ‘Dual-Track Decision’: one the one hand, arms control negotiations would be pursued to try to secure the removal of the SS-20s; on the other hand, unless the SS-20s were removed, NATO would prepare to deploy its own, modernised nuclear weapons in Western Europe beginning in the autumn of 1983. Specifically, Cruise and Pershing II missiles would be stationed in the UK, West Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, and Belgium. These developments led to heightened tensions between East and West and rhetoric on both sides became more aggressive, particularly following the election of American President Ronald Reagan in November 1980. This return to East-West tensions and the renewed prospect of nuclear war led this period to be referred to as a ‘Second Cold War’, comparable to the era that witnessed the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis.

These growing tensions and the looming deployment of new nuclear weapons in Western Europe was met with alarm by millions of citizens. In the UK, the government’s decision to station Cruise missiles at two military bases – Greenham Common and Molesworth – was accompanied by the separate decision to modernise the British nuclear deterrent by replacing the ageing Polaris with the new Trident system. These decisions, against the backdrop of what British Foreign Secretary Lord Carrington called the ‘megaphone diplomacy’ between the superpowers, raised fears that an unimaginably destructive nuclear war was increasingly possible.

It was in this context that unprecedented numbers of citizens from countries across Western Europe, and indeed around the world, engaged in different forms of activism to express their anxieties and demand a change of course from their governments”.

Bush claimed not to be a political writer. Perhaps not wanting to be called out or questioned, there is no denying a track like Breathing is political. It instead was her emotions and feelings coming out in song. As Dreams of Orgonon note, Bush political. Emotions and politics are interlinked:

“Breathing” contains the body horror of crass jingoism’s mutation of human life. “Breathing my mother in” summates what fetuses do normally while warping it into a desperate gasp for breath. A fetus contains nascent vestiges of human form — we all have to start somewhere. But we have to end somewhere too. “Breathing” offers no hope for survival. Its coda is a macabre apocalypse — Middleton’s dolefully frightened keyboard and Bath’s grimacing, sustained guitar licks underscore predator Roy Harper’s calls of “what are we going to do without?” as Bush’s gasps of “LEAVE ME SOMETHING TO BREATHE!” tear the world asunder. Earlier, the second verse is similarly pessimistic about the possibility that “we’ve lost our chance/we’re the first and last.” This is where it starts and where it ends — the bomb destroys bodies and ends the possibility of life.

Bush claimed that the political content of “Army Dreamers” and “Breathing” only served to “move [her] emotionally.” Characteristically, Bush is both wrong and insightful here. The idea that songs are less political because you’re emotionally invested in the political issues they discuss is utter nonsense. But… of course political issues are emotional. Bush even acknowledges this in the next part of the quote, saying “it went through the emotional center… when I thought ‘ah, ow!’ And that made me write.”

Perhaps nothing is more political than personal emotions. Emotions are always present in a person’s values, decisions, choices, and aesthetics. Human beings are ventilation devices for emotions. Perhaps without realizing it, the entity that moved Bush is the radical politics of emotion in the service of bodily liberation. Emotions are political. Everything is political, as no man is an island. And crucially, breathing, and who gets to do it, is political”.

I will leave it there. From Kate Bush casting herself in a song on an outtake from The Kick Inside to The Fools in Breathing, we do get two very different situations. I do love this run of features and it will be sad to see it end. I only have…

FEW more to go.

FEATURE: Spotlight: Alycia Bezgo

FEATURE:

 

 

Spotlight

 

Alycia Bezgo

__________

IT is not only…

artists who I include in Spotlight. I also like to throw a light on D.J. queens. I am new to the sheer brilliance of Alycia Bezgo. I love her energy, aesthetic, ethos, mix of sounds and her phenomenal sets. I have watched videos of her deejaying and performing to crowds. Such a passionate and exhilarating performer, I did want to acknowledge her here. I will bring in a few recent interviews with one of the best D.J.s in the world. Still gender inequality when it comes to headline sets, festivals and pay, women like Alycia Bezgo show that things need to change. With few who are as captivating as her, do go and follow her if you are not already. I am going to throw in some mixes and videos through this feature. I am starting out with EDM Tune and their chat from earlier in the year. Among other things, Alycia Bezgo discusses how to craft a perfect set and going viral:

“Belgian hard dance artist Alycia Bezgo has fast made a global name for herself with her high-energy sets, crammed with hard groove, techno, 90’s nostalgia-tinged trance. Years of competitive hip hop dancing pre-DJ-career breakthrough distilled into her vibrancy and energy behind the decks; add to that, her forward-thinking track selection, clean mixing, visual performance style, and startling knowledge of music, it’s no wonder she’s getting international attention. We caught her in a brief down moment ahead of a summer jam packed with massive festivals and intimate club gigs.

Hey Alycia, thanks for speaking with us! You’re from Belgium, a country with some of the biggest techno/electronic artists to its name. How did you first get into electronic music as a raver, and was there a pivotal moment that made you realise you wanted to do this for a career?

I am lucky enough to live in the same country as many inspirations in the electronic music scene, and as a teenager that really shaped my view on music! I first got into music through my father; he was a DJ in his younger years, so music has always been important in our household. When I was about 16 years old, I went out for the first time to ‘Decadance’ a legendary club in Ghent. There, I discovered all kinds of techno music, and it opened up a completely new world for me. At that time, Charlotte de Witte (then known as Raving George) was one of the first women in Belgium to become big in the techno scene. From that moment on, I realised that I also wanted to pursue a career as an artist in electronic music.

You’ve been working hard at your craft for a while and building gradually, but it was your HÖR set last year going viral that really put you on the map. It’s up to 400K + views! How did/does that sudden level of recognition feel?

It still honestly feels unreal that this set became so viral. I never thought it would be such a big turning point in my career. It’s funny, because this set actually happened by accident as someone else’s slot opened up, and so they asked me to fill in without realising how big of a deal it would be. I’m incredibly grateful to have had the chance to showcase my sound, and that so many people believed I deserved that spot. Before HÖR I only played in Belgium and the day after this set I was asked to play all around the world!

Music has always been a part of your story, you used to be a competitive hip hop dancer right?

When I was 5 years old, I started dancing, and that remained my passion for about 14 years. After that, my interest naturally shifted towards mixing and exploring music in different ways. Every time I’m about to start a gig, I switch into “performance mode.” That level of focus and dedication I feel is something I really developed through dancing.

You’re now touring globally, playing your techno, trance and hard groove to crowds all over the world at festivals, clubs… What are the best things about playing at a festival, and about playing at a more intimate club space?

For me, the difference between a festival gig and an intimate club gig is all about connection and energy.

At a festival, you’re playing for a much bigger crowd, so your set tends to be more direct and impactful. You have to grab people’s attention quickly and keep the energy high, because not everyone is there specifically for you. It’s more about big moments, strong transitions, and creating a powerful overall vibe. In an intimate club setting, it’s a completely different experience. The connection with the crowd is much closer and more personal. You can take more time to build your set, experiment, and really read the room. I feel like I can go deeper musically and create a journey, rather than just focusing on high-impact moments”.

I discovered Alycia Bezgo through a Metal Magazine interview. I am going to finish off with that. The penultimate interview I am sourcing is from Numéro Netherlands. They spent some time with someone who is an “emerging talent in the electronic  music scene, known for her passion and innovative approach. Based in Brussels, she skillfully blends the driving rhythms of hard groove, techno, and trance to create engaging performances that resonate with audiences”:

“Your sets blend groove, techno, and trance with a nostalgic ’90s touch. What track always gets the crowd moving no matter where you play?

I would say Brazilian Pulse by Cara Elizabeth. It's a mix of tropical sounds with heavy kicks and always gets the people dancing!

Dance& Electronic Music

How would you describe your fashion style behind the decks? Do you have a go-to rave accessory?

I love wearing statement pieces—bold, sexy, and mostly dark. You’ll always see me with lots of rings and necklaces. My style behind the decks is all about confidence and attitude. I like to shine while I play!

If your WECANDANCE outfit had a soundtrack, what three songs would be on it?

  • The Pussycat Dolls – When I Grow Up

  • Justin Jay, XKYLAR – Do You Like to Party?

  • Spicy Mentality – Not a Shy Girl

You’ve mentioned your dad’s DJ background as an early influence; what do you think he’d say about the artist you are today?
He’s definitely very proud of the artist I’ve become. He’s been closely following this crazy journey with me, so in a way, it also feels like he’s watching his own dreams come true. I’m really grateful for his support—and for the musical genes he passed on.

What's something you've recently learned as a performer that changed the way you approach a set?

I’ve learned that the vibe really starts with me. If I’m having fun, the crowd usually follows. It’s less about playing the “perfect” set and more about letting loose, feeling it, and not being afraid to take a few risks. The more I enjoy myself, the better the energy gets!

When you’re not behind the decks, what inspires you creatively?

Fashion and makeup inspire me a lot—they’re part of how I express myself. I’m also really inspired by other creators and artists and their unique stories. Seeing how they bring their ideas to life always sparks something in me”.

Let’s end with Metal Magazine and their interview from May. They caught Alycia Bezgo at a very busy time. When she was hectic with gigs and this packed diary. It was a very packed time, “from Extrema Outdoor in Belgium to 44 Festival in Germany, before closing with a Face2Face set alongside DJ Guestlist at Pollerwiesen in Dortmund. She is also due back behind the decks at Paradise City, ahead of another run of dates across Europe including Blackworks Budapest, Terminal V Croatia, Tomorrowland and Aquasella Festival in Spain”:

“You also mentioned online that it felt like a turning point for you personally after a mentally tougher period. Did this weekend reconnect you with something you felt you had maybe lost for a moment?

After a period of heavy touring, you go through a lot emotionally. There’s the adrenaline of performing, the comedown after a set, the stress of travel not always going to plan, sleepless nights, and at the same time, all these incredible moments with fellow artists and people you meet along the way. It puts a lot of pressure on both your body and mind. I think I simply had a moment when I forgot to slow down and fully appreciate everything happening around me, which is only human. This weekend reminded me why I fell in love with this life in the first place.

Your sets feel incredibly physical and energetic, almost like movement is part of the music itself. How much of that intensity comes from your background as a competitive hip hop dancer?

Dance was my first love, and naturally, that came hand in hand with a passion for music. When I’m DJing, I love to physically feel the music and let my body move however it wants to. I genuinely can’t stand still behind the decks. Music can be experienced in so many different ways, and I think my dance background has shaped how I connect with it.

You’ve said before that discovering clubs and DJs in Berlin changed the way you experienced music. What stayed with you from that time?

Berlin was where I discovered underground music for the first time, and I completely fell in love with it. I was fascinated by the way people expressed themselves and by how DJs could tell a story through music. That experience shaped the way I approach my own sets today. It showed me that DJing is about so much more than just playing tracks. It’s about creating a journey.

One thing that feels refreshing about your story is that you’re still taking your time with production instead of rushing releases just because the industry expects it. Was it important for you to protect that process and do things your own way?

Absolutely. Production is a completely different craft, and I have a lot of respect for the learning process. I’m enjoying discovering my own way of doing things and developing those skills properly. Naturally, that takes time, and I don’t want to rush something just because there’s pressure to release music. I want to share something with the world when it genuinely feels ready.

Have you ever felt that some people in the industry didn’t fully take you seriously because of that? As if there is now an expectation that DJs constantly need to release music to prove themselves?

I’ve always focused on becoming the strongest DJ I could be first. In the beginning, I said yes to every opportunity I could, even when the travel was difficult. That experience helped me grow technically and showed people how committed I was to the craft. Of course, at some point, you want to take things further and create your own music, but for me, that comes from a genuine love for creating. Creativity isn’t something you can force, and I don’t think great music comes from pressure.

Belgium has such a strong electronic music identity, and you grew up surrounded by that culture from a very young age. Do you think being from Belgium shaped your ambition differently compared with growing up somewhere with less musical infrastructure?

Absolutely. Belgium has such a rich electronic music culture, and we’ve produced so many inspiring artists, especially women. Growing up, I was constantly surrounded by electronic music, incredible artists, and some of the country’s iconic clubs and festivals. Being exposed to that world from such a young age definitely inspired me and made my goals feel tangible.

How would you describe the Belgian electronic scene to somebody who has never experienced it?

It’s iconic, passionate, and deeply rooted in electronic music culture. Belgium has its own identity; there’s a strong appreciation for both the history of dance music and the constant evolution of the scene.

A truly phenomenal D.J. and producer who I am new to but absolutely am in admiration of, go and follow Alycia Bezgo. One of the best D.J.s in the world, the more and more festival experience and exposure she gets, the better her sets get. She is this powerhouse who I feel is going to keep touring the world for decades more. This is a big reason why you need to follow…

A staggering human being.

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Follow Alycia Bezgo

FEATURE: Spotlight: Florrie

FEATURE:

 

 

Spotlight

PHOTO CREDIT: Florrie

 

Florrie

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MOST of my Spotlight features…

are with artists rising and coming through. I do occasionally spotlight those who have been in the industry for longer but deserve wider recognition. That is the case with Florrie. She has been putting out music since 2010. Her album, Magic for a While, is out in October. This incredible artist, drummer and songwriter is someone who I absolutely love. There are a couple of interviews that I want to bring in. I am going back to 2024 first of all. Her third album comes out in the autumn. There is a great interview with Revamp around the release of her previous album, The Lost Ones. Incredible, synthesiser and percussion-driven Electro-Pop. Songs like Kissing in the Cold and Looking for Love get right into the head:

“For an artist who’s been releasing music since 2010, it might surprise those unfamiliar with Florrie that she’s about to release her debut album, The Lost Ones. For longtime fans, this has been a long, long time coming, feeling like a slightly surreal victory lap for an artist who has been on quite the journey for over a decade.

Florrie began her career as a drummer and songwriter for Xenomania, the British pop-music smash hit factory who are best known for Girls Aloud’s hits. Her own discography, a hidden treasure trove of should-have-been mega hits includes the electronic, synth dream that is Begging Me, to the glittery, anthemic I Took a Little Something (and more on that later…). Florrie’s music demands to be heard live and loud, showcasing her talents not only as a singer-songwriter but also as a dynamic drumming powerhouse.

The early to mid-2010s seemed poised to be Florrie’s breakout period. Starting as an independent artist and then signing with a label, her career unfortunately hit the breaks, unexpectedly.

Despite these challenges, she has steadily rebuilt her musical path with a series of singles since 2019, culminating in the 2022 compilation, Personal. Fans were thrilled to discover that Florrie had secretly been back in the studio with longtime collaborator Brian Higgins, finally bringing us her long-awaited debut album, The Lost Ones.

She’s just wrapped her (first-ever) US tour, supporting G Flip, serving as quite the warm-up for her upcoming series of performances at The O2, where she’ll open for Girls Aloud. It’s set to be a full-circle moment, as she drummed on their 2008 hit The Promise and co-wrote their anthem Something New.

You're about to perform a couple of shows, opening for Girls Aloud at the O2 in just over a week, which is pretty major! It's also a full circle moment for you as you drummed on their hit The Promise and even co-wrote the epic Something New. How are you feeling about it all?

First of all, I’m very excited to play the O2! It feels crazy on the one hand where I haven’t done a show in a few years, and now I’m playing at the O2!

[After] doing the tour with G, I feel very confident getting out there and playing, it all came back very quickly which was nice. It is a great, full circle moment. I didn’t really expect it…

We reached out to Girls Aloud’s manager, and he was like “I’m up for this, but the girls need to say yes”, and then I waited about 4-5 weeks, and I started thinking they might have a DJ and not want someone else playing… Then I got this really lovely email from them saying “We would love for you to do this, it’ll be a really lovely full circle moment”.

I still work with Brian Higgins who wrote all of Girls Aloud’s songs, and we produced my album together, so I think to have that connection, and obviously drumming on The Promise in those early days… I’m excited for that team of people. They’re coming on the first night, which is stressing me slightly… I’m sure it’ll be fine…!

You've done your very best to keep your fans fed over the last decade and more (and thank you!), despite how challenging it must have felt at times. When did you come to the realisation and decision that you were ready to go for it and put out your debut album?

Someone else asked me this… I can’t remember and I’m sure there was a day where I sat down with Brian and said “We’re gonna do this, let’s do this”.

But I think it was quite a natural process, because I’d been writing a lot anyway from when I was in this pretty low place, to well… a year ago really. I’d been putting songs to one side and releasing singles, and I knew I wanted to tell my story and create a body of work. And when I say putting songs to one side, it wasn’t finished songs, it might have just been a verse idea or some chords I liked.

When I decided to make the album, that’s what we got really stuck into. And I’ve had the luxury of time, I’ve worked with Brian for such a long time. It’s not like when you’ve got 25 days in the studio, with this producer, and you’ve got to make a record. It was a very gradual process of working on some songs here and there, and I took songs on and off, however many times until I was really happy with the record and what it was saying.

I had an idea in the back of my mind that one day… I will release an album!

And here it is, it’s happening! Us longtime fans have noticed there are a handful of your older songs that you've re-recorded for the album, including one of your best, I Took a Little Something. What can we expect from this new version and how did you come to the decision to re-record it?

I think I always knew that I wanted to put one or two of my favourite older songs on the album, sort of as a nod to the older listeners and fans who’ve literally stuck by me for so long! I get a lot of messages about older songs as well. Part of it was choosing my favourite and then I’d try to choose a song that people message me a lot about, which was I Took a Little Something.

Get You Back was one of my favourites, from the EPs which was why I wanted to put it on.

And then, Looking For Love’s a weird one because I played it a few times live, and it was the last song I added to the album. My manager, Charlie, he has been a fan since day one. When I met him a year and a half ago, I’d finished the album, he’d heard it and everything, and then one day he was just like “Do you know what will live in my head forever is Looking For Love” and I was like “...that is such a great song!”.
It got me thinking about it, we talked about it back and forth, and I was like… “I should re-look at that”. I don’t really go back and listen, I have been recently because I’ve been putting together setlists. There’s so many songs to choose from! But Looking For Love is a banger…”.

I did want to bring in this new interview from The Female Lead. This remarkable drummer and singer-songwriter discusses “people-pleasing, the women who championed her and trusting her gut”. I have been a fan of Florrie for a while now. This is a year when a lot of new people are discovering her music. If you have not heard much of what she has put out, I would suggest you go back and listen. A remarkable talent:

“Do you think you may be at a point in your life where you're much more comfortable doing that?

“I don’t know what happened to me last year,” she laughs. “But I turned 36 and something literally switched in my head.”

For someone who describes herself as a “lifelong people pleaser”, the shift has been significant.

“I do think it’s an age thing. It’s a great feeling. The older I get, the less I care - in a good way - about what other people think of me. Because I am someone that throughout my life has really cared.”

Florrie wrote the album during a period of uncertainty while living in Los Angeles.

“I was in this transition period of not knowing whether to stay or whether to come back,” she says. “It got me thinking about all these other times in my life where you’ve chosen to go down one path and it’s led you somewhere. But what if you had taken another one?”

This, she explains, is the “overarching theme of the record”.

So where are you finding magic in her own life right now?

“First of all, I love nature,” she says. “The older I get, the more I appreciate being quiet.”

“Seeing my best friend become a mum. That’s really magical. And she’s nailing it. I mean, she doesn’t feel like she is, but she is nailing it. I think I see a lot of magical things around me in a really nice way.”

It’s an answer that says a lot about where Florrie is right now. Less concerned with chasing validation and more interested in appreciating the people and moments around her.

Throughout her life and career, Florrie has been inspired by different women.

“I started this job at Xenomania as the drummer. It was this big house in the countryside, there were like 30 people there, musicians, writers, all different ages. But the lady who ran it was called Miranda Cooper.”

“Before then [the people working around me] were all guys and bands really… I guess there wasn’t anyone in my sort of everyday life who I looked up to.”

“But Miranda was one of the most prolific female songwriters in the UK. She was lovely and she really empowered everyone else around her,” Florrie says. “Miranda was a real leader.”

“I was actually quite nervous of her,” Florrie admits of first meeting Miranda. Looking back now, she sees it differently, remembering Miranda as a “really big” role model in her early years of being a musician.

Closer to home, however, her biggest inspiration has always been her mum, a single parent who ran her own business. “I’m so close to my mum. I speak to her once, if not twice a day, every single day,” Florrie says. “In my head she just balanced everything. She just made it all work. I don’t think she really feels like that, but she was a big inspiration growing up. She’s just my absolute champion.”

Another woman who changed the course of her life was Cassandra Gracey, who spotted something special in a young drummer she’d met briefly in a lawyer’s waiting room.

Months later, Cassandra called with an opportunity.

“She called me maybe six months later and said, ‘This is going to be really random, but I got your number because I remember you from this lawyer’s office. I thought you had a really sort of special energy. And I’ve got a friend who’s looking for a drummer to be part of this team.’ She was amazing. She really championed me as well.”

That connection became Florrie’s introduction to Xenomania.

Although music remains heavily male-dominated behind the scenes, Florrie considers herself fortunate that her earliest experiences in the industry were unusually inclusive.

“Being part of Xenomania, I was very protected from the wider sexism in the music industry,” she says. “It was an incredible environment to have the first ten years of my musical life in.”

In fact, Florrie says she didn’t encounter much sexism at all during the first decade of her career. “It’s only the last six or seven years where I’ve seen it.”

When it did happen, it came as a surprise.

“I was actually shocked when I first experienced very blatant sexism, where someone refused to talk to me and directed everything at a male colleague, even though it was something that I dealt with.”

The confidence she’s developed in recent years has also changed the way she sees herself.

“When I first started out, I definitely felt like I had to look and be a certain way,” Florrie says. “I felt like I had to be thin and pretty and make sure I was always wearing makeup every day.”

Now?

“I literally couldn’t care less.”

So what has changed?

“I trust myself more. I’ve got more confidence in my own decisions. When I make a decision now, I don’t need external validation. I was a real worrier back in my twenties. Whereas now I’m just feeling a lot more sure of myself and just a lot calmer in everyday life.”

I ask her if “stop worrying” would be the advice she’d give to her younger self?

“The thing is, you just can’t say ‘stop worrying’. Does it ever work? Does it? No.”

“I’d probably just say: trust your gut a bit more.”

“There were a lot of times where I had quite a definite feeling about something, and some label exec would be like, ‘No, that’s a stupid idea’. And I would think he must know better.”

Now, Florrie knows that’s not the case.

“Creatively, you know yourself better than anyone else ultimately”.

This is someone who I would love to see live. I can imagine that her live shows are wonderous. I really love her music, and I am excited to see what Magic for a While offers. The Line of Best Fit announced great news of a new album from an artist that is beyond talented. In a league of her own:

“Magic For a While started to take shape in early 2025 while Florrie - a drummer, singer-songwriter, and model from Bristol - was living alone in Los Angeles. Recording live drum loops, she brought the raw sketches into rehearsal rooms to build tracks through instinctive jam sessions.

“I wanted the record to feel live,” she explains. “I wanted energy in it. I wanted things to feel human.” Higgins, a co-writer and producer on much of the LP, helped shape those live impulses into sleek, expansive pop productions.

Florrie first built a cult reputation in the early 2010s through a string of self-released singles and EPs with Xenomania, while her drumming anchored hits like Girls Aloud’s “The Promise” and her songwriting credits extended to artists including Kylie, MNEK, and Tove Lo. More recently, she has played London’s O2 Arena supporting Girls Aloud and toured the US with G Flip, moving her beyond an internet-pop underground to a new audience.

Magic For a While is the follow-up to Florrie's debut solo album, The Lost Ones, which was released in 2024”.

I am going to finish here. The simply awe-inspiring Florrie is an artist I have not featured before but wanted to now. She is truly remarkable. I think that we will see her release many more albums, each different and equally stunning. Florrie is an artist that you need to…

ADD her to your playlist.

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Follow Florrie

FEATURE: Spotlight: Maya Blandy

FEATURE:

 

 

Spotlight

 

Maya Blandy

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IT is not always possible…

to find recent interviews with artists that I spotlight. As is the case with Maya Blandy. Though I really want to include her, so I am going back a couple of years to some interviews there. It would be nice if there were publications chatting with Blandy. This Madeira-born artist resides in Manchester. She has this voice and style that I think is so different to anything else. And yet you can identify with the music and get a lot from it. Her new single, I Don’t Need, highlights just what a talent she is. It is vital that everyone go and listen to the amazing Maya Blandy. Someone we will hear a lot more from. I am actually not sure whether she is still in Manchester or has relocated to London. I am going by 2024 interviews, so circumstances may have changed since then. Let’s get to a couple of 2024 chats with this Portuguese queen. An artist I think is going to headlines major festivals in years to come, such is her stage presence and brilliance. I Love Manchester spoke with Maya Blandy in 2024. Her then-new single B.I.B. was accusing a lot of love and discussion:

“Could you tell us about your journey and what led you to living in Manchester today?

My family is a mix from all over the place but primarily English and Australian- however I was bought up on the small Portuguese island of Madeira.

I’ve always loved music and had a very musical family- my dads a DJ and my mum dances so I was always surrounded by music.

Portuguese culture is very festive, they love their parties, their music, they love going out and enjoying everything and I think all of those elements fed into me growing a love for music over the years.

I then studied piano and when I eventually turned eighteen decided I want to do this for life.

My parents were like “You need to get out of Portugal- it’s not the place where things are happening!”

So I applied and got into University of Manchester.

I’d never even thought about leaving home because I loved it and it scared me to leave but eventually everyone agreed Manchester was such a vibrant city and a melting pot of different cultures that it will feed my experience.

At first it was definitely hard, I had no element from home so I had to really get integrated or I’d end up sitting at home alone making myself depressed.

I think it worked out the way it had to, day by day and I got to go to all these jams and concerts and see just how talented people are.

All these people that I meet can have so many different opinions on things but when it comes to music- everyone can get along and everyone can find their comfort zone and peace of mind.

My dad used to be in the music scene and he had a friend called Jake Wherry who was producing.

Went down to London to work on some tracks that sounded really cool- experimenting with different sounds like disco.

We started to build on that and have created track after track that we’re starting to release.

Who are some of your biggest inspirations?

It’s so all over the place. It ranges from Brazilian singers and guitarists- recognising the samba and feeling.

Lady Gaga is another one- twelve year old me would carry around cans in my hair!

Donna Summer, Nile Rodgers and The Jackson Five. Even David Bowie, Beyoncé- there’s a bit of everything really!

How do you want listeners to respond to your music?

I feel like people find artists that have a consistent sound and that’s the sound they expect all the time from them.

I don’t that’s very fair- I’m not going to be the same person always- it’s going to change and shift so I hope when people listen they full embrace the experience in terms of the lyrics, instruments, flow- and I hope they can relate to it.

It can remind them they’re human.

What are some of your favourite things about Manchester after living here for the last three years?

At first it was very cold, but that’s almost the beauty of it. Once you get to know it well there’s just so much happening. At first it seemed scary just from coming from a small island- but there’s so much culture, the music scene is amazing every weekend.

A classical concert, a jazz superstar, a string quartet all the at the same time. It’s a big city- but small enough to grasp.

And the food is amazing- I can always get good food!

I love Fletcher Moss Park- I used to work near there I’d sit and lie down in the sun every morning.

I love how many second hand shops there are too”.

I do feel that there should be more column inches about the remarkable Maya Blandy. Too good to be under the radar and reserved to a few interviews, I would love to see many of the biggest music publications here in the U.K. spend some time with an artist born in Australia, raised in Portugal, and now based in the U.K. Her music infuses different genres and colours to create this incredible and heady cocktail. I will leave with a feature from 2024, this one from Nordic Music Central, who also published around the release of B.I.B. Now, as she has new music out and is pushing ahead, time to connect with this distinct and truly original artist who is a major force:

“I have to hand it to Maya Blandy; she’s got the gift of the gab that I thought belonged in Blarney Castle. When she wrote to me asking for an interview and I wrote back that we are mainly a Nordic music site so she came straight back at me with “I am based in the north tho! I’m in Manchester – studied and am living in Manchester city so I am a Nordic artist ahah.”

Precious. And she won the argument.

She is a Portuguese/British singer-songwriter (Portugal being an honorary Nordic country for tonight at least) currently working on her first album, ‘Stardust’ with Jake Wherry, the founding member of the hip hop pioneer band the Herbaliser. She says the album is a fusion of jazz and 70s disco and soul and her influences run to The Emotions, Dusty Springfield and Donny Hathaway, as well more modern RnB such as Erykah Badhu and Cleo Sol.

She adds that “being a beginning independent artist is never easy ahah.” So many Nordics will know that too. Even A-ha had to start right at the bottom, Maya. Ahah.

‘B.I.B.’ is her third single and the most recent. It came out in November last year and as I’ve pointed out before we usually don’t go that far back but as there is a forthcoming album in the offing I’ll make an exception.

‘B.I.B.’ (‘Bitch In Black’) started life with the beat written for a rapper and inspired by early 90’s ‘Golden Era’ Hip-Hop and with that beat underpinning 1930s style jazz music, to which Maya added her own melodies and lyrics.

It represents “the dysfunctional dynamics of a woman madly in love, willing to do anything to have that love reciprocated.” I say, old girl, steady on. A sort of reverse Madeira Jane Eyre and Mr Rochester.

Another reason for making an exception for Maya is that this is a bloody good song. Dark, moody, sexy, a bit dirty. And that’s just the opening bars. Not to mention lines like “I shall hunt you down/Beware my baby/The bitch is back in town.”

We don’t really get that sort of thing from our play-it-carefully, don’t upset anyone, home-grown songwriters these days and we haven’t done, in this style at least, since the days of Shirley Bassey and latterly Amy Winehouse. Indeed Maya does have a flavour of Camden’s finest in that vocal, one that is augmented by the same horn flourishes that Winehouse employed, and courtesy here of Trevor Mires (trombone) and Ryan Quigley (trumpet).

It’s that Latin temperament what does it. It just oozes out of her.

I can’t help thinking this could be a Bond song. For a reprise of Casino Royale perhaps.

And I thought the Portuguese only did Fado.

It occurred to me that Maya is a little fair skinned for a Portuguese lady but it turns out that she was born in Australia and then raised in Madeira which she seems to share as a home with Manchester. Chalk and cheese or what?

And she’s part German, to boot”.

This is someone who I wanted to include on my site. Despite the fact there are very few interviews with her and nothing in 2026, that hopefully will change as her music reaches more and more people. Whatever the rest of this year holds for her, I would urge people to go and check out her music and see her live if she is ever playing near you. The captivating Maya Blandy is…

A name we should all cherish.

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Follow Maya Blandy

FEATURE: Spotlight: Ruby Roberts

FEATURE:

 

 

Spotlight

 

 Ruby Roberts

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ONE of the most exciting…

artists coming through right now is Ruby Roberts. Bad Girl July is her latest single. This year has seen incredible singles like I’d Do Anything get a lot of love. Her 2025 E.P., Somersault Queen, is such a brilliant work. I wanted to spotlight her here so that we get to know more about a truly great songwriter whose music is so distinct. Yet so many people can relate and take it to heart. I want to bring a few interviews in. COLD spent time with a British artist who has this dreamlike spontaneity. Originally from Somerset, I believe she is based down in Brighton:

“For Roberts, change is a constant; music is about those moments of fluctuation. “I love freestyling… I’ll just sing whatever comes out.” That fluidity is reflected in the dynamics between her songs. When asked if the alt-pop genre was her genre, she glanced around the room searching for an answer: “When I write songs, I don’t have a specific genre in mind… all of my songs kind of reflect different genres.” Whilst her tracks can be labelled alt-pop, that ambiguity gives her room to move. “Sometimes I come in with something I’ve written on guitar… sometimes it’s a concept.” From there, the track forms, what fits is what stays.

Music starts as a moment according to Roberts – a vibe – but choosing what stays is instinctive. “I listen back to my demos to see what each one makes me feel.” Sometimes it’s a quiet moment by the beach where she can understand why a track works; other times, it’s as simple as “you just get goosebumps in the room.”

Artists like Prince, Queen, Wham! and David Bowie have long created those kinds of moments, and while their influence is present, Roberts is clear she isn’t chasing them. “Music is kind of like an accumulation of everything you’ve ever listened to… subconsciously merging it all together.”

Alongside shaping her own sound, Roberts has found as much of her personality in her artwork. Her earlier tracks’ cover art is filled with drawings that resemble something pulled from a teenager’s diary; they feel intimate and personal. Each carries a bold colour with a sharpie-style feel. The rawness comes from Roberts herself; she originally sent a drawing to her team as a reference for cover art, but they decided the original fit perfectly. Ever since, she has been making her own visuals. Blushing with a sense of pride, she describes how “Some of it looked like it was drawn by a 10-year-old… but that’s the magic of it.” She has taken it to the next step on her latest covers, moving into collage art. The covers are filled with deep reds and gold, images of her as the artwork feels more cohesive with her development as an artist. “I just wanted to still do my own artwork, but elevated.”

As she settles into life as an artist, so too come the pressures of social media. But for her it’s a blessing. “It’s such a good tool for small artists… we’re lucky to be in this era.” She spent years posting guitar covers online before releasing her own music, with TikTok becoming an early space to share her creative vision. She was heavily involved with it from the beginning: “I was posting every day… I just really enjoyed it.” It’s a refreshing take in a landscape where many artists shy away from socials, and a clear window into Ruby’s passion.

Ruby has come a long way from singing covers in her bedroom in Somerset and uploading them to TikTok. Now she is performing at Reading and Leeds Festival later this year; the stage is her new platform. “The first shows I was shaking,” she says plainly. “I was terrified of performing.” But after wrapping up her sold-out UK tour, that fear has shifted: “Now it’s one of my favourite parts.” It’s become about the fun of it, starting with small shows where only a handful of people came. “You can see everyone,” she laughs, before adding: “It’s so fun… connecting with people.”

As Ruby has found her footing on stage, she hopes her music leaves her listeners feeling “comforted”, “hopeful” and most importantly “connected to themselves.” It’s what got her to make music. “I always kind of wrote music as something I enjoyed doing for myself… almost as kind of therapy.” In her latest tracks she has moved herself forward, bringing parts of her old self with her, while stepping into something new and letting it unfold”.

I would love to see Ruby Roberts perform live if she is ever in London. I do think that she is someone that is going to have a very long and successful career. Such a wonderful, kind-hearted and fascinating human, it is no wonder Ruby Roberts has this adoring fanbase. Like so many artists, her music deserves broader attention and approval. I wonder whether Roberts is a Kate Bush fan. Bush sees her songs like short films. Or people have noted that and she is touched, as I think that is how she approaches them. Ruby Roberts also feels her songs are short films. A cinematic thinker, Epigram spoke with her about “touring, internet virality, and the relationship between music and art”:

“When asked about her relationship to making content for social media, she says that ‘I actually really enjoy taking on the challenge of marketing on social media, of figuring out what works and what doesn’t. I did music business at uni actually – I’m super interested in music marketing and music business.’ Clearly, her internet presence is working – her song ‘Trampoline’ went semi-viral seemingly overnight, with Ruby describing the experience of gaining so much rapid online attention as ‘bizarre’.

‘The songs I wrote for my first EP were more for my younger self, which I think is reflected in the music as well as the artwork.’ The coloured pencil illustrations used for the covert art, mystical imagery, and fantastical lyrics of Somersault Queen definitely reflect the sense of a home-grown and creative adolescence.

Her new music, however, is moving into a more mature landscape, both visually and sonically. ‘I think now that I’ve got [my first EP] out, I’ve felt more evolved to move on to a slightly older and more mature style.’

Another thing that’s changed lately for Ruby is the sudden and huge presence of touring. The singer talks about how her relationship to live performance has changed, explaining that ‘I did my first ever live performance a year ago to an empty room in Norwich, and I was so unbelievably nervous – I was dreading it for weeks, I had such bad stage fright. When I supported Nieve Ella in Nottingham, it was such a big step-up: again, I was really nervous for it. Now, I feel like I don’t get nervous, at least to the same physical extent – I feel like I actually really look forward to performing, and that it’s probably one of my favourite parts.’

The thing that has made live performing enjoyable for her is the sense of support and community from the crowd: ‘I feel like when you’re watching an artist perform on stage you don’t feel like they see or notice you, but at least in my experience I really do look at everyone’s faces, everyone singing along to the words, and I really lean on the support from the crowd.’

‘I was super nervous for the first show supporting Erin LeCount, but as it went on I became much more comfortable with the crowd. I also found watching Erin perform really inspiring: I love the way she moves around the stage and interacts with the crowd, and explains the meaning behind her songs. It made me genuinely excited for my headline tour.’

What can we expect from Ruby next? ‘I would love to incorporate some dance and movement into the shows. Also set design! I want to make the shows a little universe of themselves, an experience.’

With her headline tour recently finished, she is approaching playing at Reading & Leeds this summer, another significant step-up for crowd size. ‘It hasn’t hit me yet,’ she says, ‘I can’t wait to decide what I’m gonna wear, decide the choreography. I think I’m just quite used to the chaos of it – when you’re a support act, you don't have a tour bus or anything; supporting Erin [LeCount], it was just me, my day-to-day manager and my guitarist, trekking around the country via train with all of our bags.’

When asked what success at this point would mean to her, she references physical media: ‘Holding tangible forms of my music like vinyls and CDs is an amazing feeling. When I take a step back and look at all of it, it’s amazing to see how I’ve come so far in the past year. For the past few years I’ve been studying at Uni, working a hospitality job, and also balancing a music career on top of it: now I’ve been able to start solely focusing on my music, and that's a really good feeling. So I guess having music as the main thing in my life definitely feels like success to me right now.’

Ruby Roberts is someone to watch and likely won’t be hard to find this year. She has been running around the country with a guitar for the past few weeks, but during one of her precious few days off between back-to-back tours, she sat on a video call to me from her childhood bedroom, making the cover art for her upcoming single and chatting about her thoughts on making music”.

I am ending with an interview where Ruby Roberts is asked about her upcoming E.P., and a coveted spot at Reading & Leeds soon. Revamp interviewed Roberts about what comes next. Ad they write, “her music blends nostalgia with youthful chaos and self-discovery. Following the release of her latest single Crush and ahead of a packed summer that includes festival appearances, touring, and the release of her upcoming EP, Ruby Roberts is entering an exciting new chapter - one defined by vulnerability, ambition, and a refusal to be boxed into one genre”:

“What kind of music did you grow up listening to, and do those influences shape the sound you’re making today?

Growing up, I didn't have a particularly musical family or background. My mum would play CDs sometimes, but my dad used to sing Frank Sinatra and Michael Bublé with me in the car and also take me down to karaoke at the pub, and I’d get up and sing Amy Winehouse and Miley Cyrus songs. I kind of figured it out for myself because I was fascinated by music. When I got my first iPod, I’d listen to everything and anything I could, and I loved making playlists on Spotify.

I was an old soul and obsessed with harmonies and musical groups like the Bee Gees, Beach Boys, Frankie Valli, The Four Seasons, musicals, The Beatles, The Dirty Dancing soundtrack, jazz music and basically stuff that wasn't considered ‘cool’ at the time but scratched my itch for learning about music.

As I got older, I went through many teen phases. One where I was obsessed with rock and grunge music, then hip hop, UK rap, pop, 60s music, then even garage and drum and bass.

Now, my musical taste is a combination of all the different phases I’ve been through, and I think having such a wide love for all kinds of music inspires me to create a variety of sounds and characters in the music I make. I don't want to put my sound in a box because the variety of musical styles is limitless, and I love them all!

You’ve got a huge run of exciting projects coming up, a tour next month, appearances at Reading & Leeds, and supporting Erin LeCount. When opportunities like these come in, how do you process them all and prepare?

I think because these things happen gradually, I process them as they come. I am so incredibly excited about all the opportunities and projects heading my way! It is definitely a lot to process and prepare for, but I love working hard and staying busy, and I have an amazing team behind me to support me.

Your EP is just around the corner, and fans will soon hear these songs live. How are you preparing for the Make It Out of Here tour, especially after your sold-out run earlier this year?

Yes! I’m so excited for the Make It Out Of Here tour and have been rehearsing with my band and practising my guitar parts at home. Also, there will be a new range of merch available, which is something else I’ve been working on, including new T-Shirts and CDs! Also preparing my outfits, hair, and makeup looks, and going to fittings to find the right dresses…

With over 15 million streams to date, how do you stay grounded while keeping up with such a fast-paced and evolving set of projects?

I think by taking each project step by step and looking after myself. I love going on super long walks with my dog, cooking, and going out with friends and family in the midst of it all”.

Everyone needs to follow the wonderful Ruby Roberts. I have so much respect for her and she is going to go very far. I think that she is among the most promising artists around. I will definitely  catch her live if she is in London later in the year. A chance to see this amazing queen…

IN the flesh.

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Follow Ruby Roberts

FEATURE: Modern-Day Queens: Grace Carter

FEATURE:

 

 

Modern-Day Queens

 

Grace Carter

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I have written about…

Grace Carter before. She is a brilliant London artist I have been following for years now. Someone who warrants so much more exposure and attention. I am featuring her now as her recent single. White, is extraordinary and must-hear. I think it is appropriates to include Grace Carter in this Modern-Day Queens. I will come to an article about Carter’s new single, White. I do want to come back to 2023. Three have not been too manty recent interviews. However, I do feel it is important to look back and get some insight on Grace Carter. Euphoria Magazine spent time with Carter and asked her about her career and new music:

“Your career has been gaining steam with every music you put out, and you’ve even gone on tours with some big names – Dua Lipa for example – how does it feel to have these things working for you?

I love making music and I’m so grateful I get to do this every single day. The opportunities I have been blessed with have been so incredible and I’m just super excited for what’s to come. It’s been a rollercoaster ride for me in a lot of ways but I wouldn’t change it for the world as everything I have experienced has made me the artist I am now.

Your music is inspired by your lived experience and from the happenings around you. Do you have to feel a certain way about something in order to write about it?

For sure, my music is completely dictated by what’s happening in my life. The reason I started writing songs wasn’t to be an artist but it was a tool for me to be able to process the things I was going through, especially as a child. People always make jokes about my music being super deep but me being a really happy person and I genuinely think that is because I am able to put my emotions into something which allows me to move forward.

I think anyone who has ever experienced racism will feel some kind of healing from your song “Riot.” You wrote the song years ago, what made you release it now?

This song was started by a collaborator of mine called Fabienne Holloway in 2014 when Eric Garner was murdered. I was sent the song in 2020 and it proved that in all of that time, nothing had changed. I’ve always started and finished every song I have released but this one was different. The fact that every single lyric still rang true 6 years later made me feel as though this record really needed to be heard. This song isn’t about me, it’s about standing up for what I believe in. As an artist, I want to be able to use my voice to talk about things that are important to me and as a woman of colour this song and the meaning behind it is very important to me.

You fought for the sound that you have now rather than let others shape your music. That’s not something most newcomers would have done, what motivated you to stand your ground?

I was raised by an incredibly strong woman who taught me to always go with my gut and not be swayed and she’s always given me the confidence to sit comfortably in myself. This industry can be crazy, we’re all so young when we come into it and have people telling us how to be. It’s very easy to lose yourself which I have definitely experienced at times but I’ve learned to always remember why I do this. It’s because I love making music and that always had to be my main focus.

Some of your songs were inspired by your childhood experiences, most notably moving from a mixed neighborhood to a mostly white one. What was adjusting to your new environment like at the time?

It was very complicated. There’s a song on the project called “Mother” that talks about this very experience. I went from living in North West London to Brighton which at the time was a very big culture shock. I am a mixed-race girl who grew up in a white family and then went from the diverse city of London to Brighton where I was one of the only non-white people in my year. Navigating that was really hard but I also really appreciate that whole chapter of my life as feeling different is what drew me to start making music.

You don’t only tell stories through your lyrics, you also complement them with the visuals. How involved are you in the making of your music videos?

I love it!! I try to be involved in everything I do, I’m not proud to say that there have been a couple of things I’ve done where I couldn’t be massively involved and you can tell! I’m a visual person so reinforcing the message behind the songs through a music video is super exciting and important for me.

You said that the video for “Pick Your Tears Up” represents being able to tackle certain challenges when you have other people that understand your pain by your side. And it’s something you say you personally connect with. How important was it for you to pass this message on?

Growing up is tough for anyone, you’re going through so many changes and it can feel very lonely. When I was in secondary school I really struggled with my identity but then I found my circle who made everything feel easier, they were like me and we all understood each other. I wanted to capture that in the video and I think Iggy who directed it did an amazing job of conveying that feeling of sisterhood.

Which artists did you love listening to as a kid?

Nina Simone, Alicia Keys, Adele, Angie Stone… Strong women!”.

I think I first wrote about Grace Carter in 2017 or 2018. I have been following her for a while now. I do hope that we get some new interviews with her. As there has been a lot happening in the past few years, Carter’s words and story should be told. CLASH talked with an artist who was realising the power of her voice:

“Would you say that your relationship and approach to music has shifted across the years?

I think so, for sure. I went through a period of time in 2019, 2020 where I didn’t write any music at all and that was a very weird time for me, because music has been something that I’ve done consistently from the age of 13. I used to write songs because I needed to write about my feelings, and then it became my job. There’s a lot of pressure, alot of things that you have to do, a lot of opinions – I think I listened to that a lot. That scared me into a silent phase, where I couldn’t even be creative, and then coming out the other end of that, and having those conversations too, it was really shit and really hard. I felt really lost. But I’m now in a place where I go to the studio and I’m just existing, being there and talking about the things that I’m feeling at that moment. I’m not overthinking it and that’s a really exciting place to be in.

What was it like entering the music industry at such a young age? How would you describe that experience?

I think it’s so interesting, I speak to a lot of my friends about this. We’re all so young when people find us and we think we know everything but we truly don’t, we don’t know who we are. It was exciting when I was 17, but I think through that excitement there was a level of naivety from me. I’d written songs about my absent father and that became a really attractive story for people, they loved it. I think a lot of my life is in my music and it hasn’t always been put in the right hands. Being on stage, singing songs about trauma, coming off stage, being asked questions about trauma, being in meetings, people encouraging me to write more about my trauma, it was a lot. But I think through that I’ve definitely processed a lot of things, I’ve been forced to, but I now know what my boundaries are.

As someone who writes from a very vulnerable and personal standpoint, is there a level of uncertainty in what you share with the world?

I think after my first project, there definitely was a time where I felt like I needed to protect myself because my life didn’t feel like my life anymore. Now, I’ve realised the power of my voice. There’s so many people that don’t have that voice, they don’t have that outlet and that place to write how they feel. It’s artists like myself, and so many artists who write these things down, who give a voice to people who can’t explain how they feel. So I don’t think so, I think it’s just about understanding who I need to surround myself with.

How does the project mark a new chapter for Grace Carter? What themes are you trying to unpack on the record?

There’s lots of different themes. There’s a song on the project called ‘Mother’ which is about mine and my mum’s relationship, it’s very much focused on identity. I basically grew up in a white family, in a white town and it’s about how I navigated that. It’s about how much I love my mom, but sometimes I just don’t feel like her. There’s a song called ‘Hope’, which is about pushing myself forward and finding hope.

I think that there’s lots of different sounds happening on the project too, it feels a bit more like I’ve been experimenting and finding what sort of artist I want to be again.  I really missed putting out a body of work, I think I’m just trying not to overthink. I’ve made some songs I really love and I think for me now it’s just about doing more of the same and being on a path of putting music out. That’s what I love to do. ‘A Little Lost, A Little Found’ is the first step of that. I’m just having fun.

If you could hand one piece of advice to a young, emerging artist making their first steps in the industry for the first time, what would it be?

Be patient, trust your gut. I think for a long time, I would never trust my gut. Surround yourself with good people and just have fun. The main thing is just make music that you love because no one knows more than you. Listen sometimes, take advice, take tips, but don’t let that be your whole thing. Just try and listen to yourself and hold on to the reasons why you are where you are. It’s hard work, but it’s really rewarding.

Lastly, which three artists are currently taking over Grace Carter’s playlist?

One of my really good friends just released an album, his name is Q, he’s amazing. My friend Rachel Chinouriri – also love her, she’s the funniest person I know. And then there’s an artist from France, she’s called Yseult, she is incredible. She has a song called ‘Corps’ and I’ve been raving about the song for like three years. I don’t understand a word of it but it’s the most beautiful piece of music ever and she’s incredible”.

Let’s finish off with The Line of Best Fit and this wonderful new single. There is a lot of desire and demand for what comes next from Grace Carter. Such a wonderful and stunning artist, I hope that this incredible talent keeps on releasing music:

"White" comes with a candid open letter to fans in which she describes feeling “defined by” childhood trauma during her initial rise to prominence.

In the letter, the 26-year-old reflects on entering the music industry at 17 and beginning to release music two years later. She worked independently before signing to a major label, but now says she had little sense of self outside the big emotions she was carrying. Her debut project, Why Her, Not Me, directly addressed growing up with an absent parent.

“Writing it was one of the most healing experiences of my life, but I wasn't prepared for what came afterwards,” Carter writes. “Every day, I was revisiting the hardest parts of my childhood, reliving them on stage, in interviews and in the studio. Without the emotional support I needed around me, I eventually stopped processing that sadness and instead felt like I was defined by it.”

The letter details a subsequent creative and emotional stall. Carter says she became scared to open up again, feeling that her early work had boxed her into a narrative of pain. Seeking a reset, she booked an impromptu flight to Stockholm last year. Away from label expectations and live commitments, she says she wrote freely for the first time in years: “Nobody was expecting anything from me. Nobody was putting pressure on me,” she explains. The resulting material, she adds, sounds different from her earlier output – less dark, more reflective, hopeful and optimistic.

“For years, I felt like my actual taste in music was never fully represented in what I was making,” Carter continues. “Because so much of my writing came from such emotional places, the sonics often felt secondary. With this new music, it was important that it felt like the records my girls and I genuinely love, whether that's SZA, Frank Ocean or Solange.”

"White" is the first chapter of this new phase. Written after the end of a seven-year relationship, the song addresses the pressure many young women feel to settle down before “time runs out”. Carter recorded parts of the vocal both sped up and slowed down “to mirror that feeling of being rushed through life”.

The letter frames the Stockholm sessions as an exploration of what she calls her “adult adolescence” – the messy, confusing and beautiful period in your twenties and thirties when the world no longer sees you as a child, even if part of you still feels like one”.

If you have not heard Grace Carter then do go and seek out this amazing artist. I have been a fan for years, and I do hope that she continues to release brilliant music for many years more. She is most definitely…

ONE of our best artists.

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Follow Grace Carter

FEATURE: The Modern Age: The Strokes’ Is This It at Twenty-Five

FEATURE:

 

 

The Modern Age

 

The Strokes’ Is This It at Twenty-Five

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THIS might be…

PHOTO CREDIT: Colin Lane

one of the most significant and impactful debut albums of this century. It arrived on 30th July, 2001. The Strokes are still recording to this day. However, the New York band released Is This It at a time when nothing like it was around. Seen as a musical watershed moment, and crucial in the reinvention of post-millennium guitar music, Is This It reached number two in the U.K. and thirty-three in their native U.S. Is This It – a statement more than a question – won absolutely immense reviews. One of the best-reviewed albums of its time. Is This It is seen to be to be one of the most influential albums of all time, and has appeared in many publications' lists of the best albums of the 2000s and of all time. I do want to go inside Is This It ahead of its twenty-fifth anniversary. I want to start off with an interview that appeared in NME in May 2001. The excitement and buzz already building around the quintet:

“The first punch is throw 30 seconds into The Strokes’ first NME photo session. Their five skinny, leather-clad frames are milling about on a street corner in the heart of Manhattan’s Lower East Side, when someone yells out: “Hey motherfuckers, you’re blocking the whole sidewalk.”
Everyone turns around. There are three kids in hoods, obviously wired up on something, facing the band. A few seconds earlier, they randomly tried to attack a school bus driving down the street. Now they’re staring at us, so guitarist Nick Valensi opts for a spot of diplomacy. He flicks them his middle finger and mutters, “Fuck you, man”.

Everything happens at once. A fist swings through the air and catches him in the chest. Drummer Fabrizio Moretti and singer Julian Casablancas enter the fray immediately, quickly joined by bassist Nikolai Fraiture and guitarist Albert Hammond. There’s shoving and stray punches fly all over the place. Fabrizio catches one square between his shoulders. People strolling down the sidewalk grind to a halt and form a ring around the scuffle. Before anyone’s had time to work out what’s happening, police sirens blare out, and the NYPD hits the scene.

Then the pandemonium really breaks out. Everyone starts shouting and swearing and jabbing their fingers into each other. The police pull the two groups apart and, after quizzing a handful of passers-by, decide that The Strokes are the injured party. Do they want to press charges? Nick, rubbing his jaw, sighs, “Forget it. I just want to get some ice.” The melee breaks up, and the band head off down the street. Julian turns to NME and smiles, “Welcome to New York…”

It’s been said before, and we’re guessing it’s going to be said again: The Strokes are so New York, it hurts. They look New York (skinny ties, black leather, subway tans, that classic late-’70s punk look in full), they sound New York (The Velvet Underground, Talking Heads, Television) and they sure as hell act New York (when we ask Nick whether they get into many fights, he turns and grins: “Oh no, that was the first one… for about a week”. A few days after we leave, they start another one in Philadelphia.)

In the five months since their first EP, The Modern Age’, arrived at NME, they’ve become the most talked-about rock band since Oasis. That’s partly because the clipped, pulsating swagger of that first single marked it out as the best debut for about a million years, and partly because the last time they were in England, their gigs were a revelation. Here was a band that had everything – the look, the sound, the attitude, the whole thing. Since then, of course, everything’s gone crazy. They’ve been besieged by major record companies (eventually signing to Rough Trade in Britain and RCA in the rest of the world), they’ve recorded a magnificent debut album (“Is This It”) and it’s rumoured that Oasis want them as a support band. Now they’re on the verge of returning to the scene of their triumph.

This month sees them undertaking an already sold out 16-date tour, climaxing at London’s 1200 capacity Heaven nightclub.

“New York riqht now reminds me of how it was about eight years ago, in the early-’90s. There was that same kind of tension in the streets then as well. New York is meant to be cleaned up, but it’s getting tenser again. Lately, when I’m walking around the street, I really feel it.”.

He might be right. Eight years of strict ‘zero tolerance’ under Mayor Rudolph Giuliani might have temporarily altered the complexion of the city, but right now you can feel it swinging back to the brash and sleazy place it always was under the surface. It’s surely no coincidence that the most popular T-shirt design of the moment reads, “Fuck you, you fucking fuck”, while outrageously sick magazines like Vice (Julian: “I love that magazine. They did a feature on what people look like on drugs. My friend was in it on hash and his wife on heroin. That was pretty cool. People we know in Vice, all fucked-up and strung out.”) are becoming ever more popular. New York’s reverting to type, and The Strokes are just the most obvious outward sign of it..

Right now, though, the band are checking their watches. Tomorrow, they’re playing a gig in Boston – a five-hour drive up the East Coast. It’s 3am, so we bid them goodnight and promise to be waiting for them outside our hotel the next morning. Julian yawns, and turns back to the mixing desk..

It’s hardly surprising that The Strokes have got the New York thing so well covered when three of them were born and bred there, and a fourth, Fabrizio, moved here from Rio De Janeiro soon after his birth. Only Albert hasn’t got the city in his blood. He’s from LA and relocated here in September 1998.

At their heart of their New York state of mind, though, is frontman Julian Casablancas. He writes the songs and supplies the attitude – something he may well have inherited from his father. That’s John Casablancas, the man who founded the pre-eminent Elite Modeling Agency back in 1971 and who quit in February last year, spewing vitriol about models in general and Naomi Campbell and Heidi Klum in particular (memorably describing the latter as “talentless German sausage”). Julian doesn’t talk about him much, and you get the impression that they aren’t particularly close. When asked whether his father was responsible for getting The Strokes played on the catwalks of Europe, Julian just shrugs and says, “I doubt it.”.

Whatever their relationship, there’s no doubt that Julian enjoyed a nomadic adolescence. At the age of 13, he was packed off to L’lnstitut Le Rosey in Switzerland, a private international school whose website warns of its “clear code of discipline”. As 11 of us squeeze into The Strokes’ tiny van and prepare to crawl our way out of Manhattan, Julian recalls his time there with disgust. “It was just this snobby school. My dad had gone there and I was fucking up in school and for some reason they thought going to Switzerland would help me. It was a bad experience – even if I did meet Albert there.” What was so bad about it? “It was just terrible,” he reiterates. “I was punished all the time. I had to wake up at six in the morning to jog around the school. I’d get caught for smoking or whatever. It sucked. There were a lot of Turkish people there. They were nice, but you know… they all wore Versace jeans. It was the biggest culture shock of my life.”.

Albert was there for six months, Julian for two years. It wasn’t until he got back and started attending the Dwight School on Manhattan’s Upper West Side that his musical interests started to take shape. There, he met Nick and his friend Fabrizio, and later, Nikolai. Gradually, The Strokes drifted into existence..

They played their first gig in front of 15 girls at a party thrown by Nick’s older sister in 1996, but it wasn’t until Albert’s arrival in autumn ’98 that things started to get serious. They spent six months locked away in a rehearsal studio in the Hell’s Kitchen district of Manhattan, until September 14 1999, when they were ready to play their first public gig, at a club called Spiral. There were only six people there, but Julian, stricken with nerves, still puked just before he went onstage..

From there, their progress was steady, but not spectacular – only gaining real momentum when they started playing a downtown club called the Mercury Lounge (New York’s equivalent of London’s Camden Monarch) in the autumn of 2000. There they acquired a new manager (Ryan Gentles) who also happened to be the club’s booking agent. He began sending out their demo to record companies. That’s how Geoff Travis at Rough Trade got to hear it. He agreed to put it out. The Strokes came over to England and things just went off the scale. When they got back to America, the music industry was ready to pounce. A year ago they’d been playing to 50 people, now A&R execs were rumoured to be offering seven-figure cheques.

When we get to Boston, eight grueling hours after we left New York City, everyone piles into a bar around the corner from tonight’s venue (the evocatively named TT: The Bear’s Place), and NME asks what the reaction to their success has been like in New York.

“Our friends have all been pretty cool,” nods Julian, nursing a neat (medicinal) whisky. “And people who don’t know us? Well, it’s amazing how jealous they are. We walk into places and people say, ‘Yeah, we’ve heard of The Strokes, they’re a bunch of fucking assholes.’ They’ll say it to your face and then they’ll want to hang out with you. Two days later, they’ll be round asking to hear the album. Fucking dipshits.”

“I was sitting in a bar the other day,” adds Nick, “and some girl said to me, ‘Do people actually come to your shows or is it just people from magazines?’ That was pretty funny.”

It’s certainly true that magazines have lost their minds for The Strokes. Not just NME, but style mags, fashion mags, guitar mags, everyone.

Julian: “It’s just the way we fucking dress, man. I remember having a conversation with Nick one day soon after we started playing shows. I used to get dressed up for shows, but it didn’t feel right. So Nick said, ‘What’s your problem? Just dress every day like you’re going to play a show.’ That became my motto. I get funny looks if I’m in a weird neighbourhood, but so what?”

You’re sex symbols in Britain now, too. “Yeah,” smiles Nick, a man fully aware of his own good looks. “Well, what people don’t realise is that we’re all homosexuals.” “That’s a joke, man,” laughs Julian. “It’s funny, though, because although we really like girls, it’s almost as if we like each other better. We’ll definitely go get laid, but we won’t hang out with the qirl and be like, ‘Oh I love you’, we’ll go straight back to the band.” He pauses.

“That’s fucking ridiculous,” snaps Julian later on when we’re back at the hotel. “I’ll tell you straight up, there are a lot of much better bands than us. New bands? I’m not talking about that shit, but there’s a lot of good music out there. A lot of this hype is bullshit. I think we’re pretty good and I want us to be successful. That’s about it, though.” It’s been said that you’re the new Oasis. Julian: “That’s great, but we have to keep moving up. We have to get better songs. Just get better full stop. If we believe too much of this shit, we’re going to crash and burn so fucking fast. We need new songs. It’s a short life, man, you’ve got to pack it in.”
“As soon as you start believing what people are writing about you,” agrees Nick, “that’s when you start to suck.”

“I’m not full of shit,” rasps Julian, stabbing his finger in NMFs general direction. “If we don’t get better, I don’t want to do this any more. I don’t want to just hit some kind of fame. I just want to do something good. That’s the only way I’m going to be satisfied.”

Are you satisfied with what you’re doing at the moment? “No way,” he concludes. “Hell, no, baby. People might think it’s perfect right now, but next week, they’re going to want to hear something else. I want to provide that something else.”

He lights another cigarette and stares off into the distance. He needn’t worry. At this exact moment. The Strokes really are perfect. Without doubt the greatest band to emerge from New York for two decades. That they’re intent on getting better is a frightening prospect. By the time you read this, they’ll be back in Britain for one of the most fantastic tours you’ve seen in your life.

A band like The Strokes only comes along once in a lifetime. You should be grateful that they’ve come along in yours”.

It is no understatement to say that Is This It changed music instantly. It was released at a turbulent time in U.S. politics. I always define 2001 by the terrorist attacks of 11th September. A couple of months after Is This It was released (less in fact), The Strokes’ city was hit. It was a moment when they a city they wrote about was changed instantly. I do wonder how we will mark twenty-five years of 9/11. How it changed the world. Anyway, I want to focus on positives. In 2021, marking twenty years of Is This It, GRAMMY had an album roundtable. Impressions about one of the most significant albums of this century:

“It was the beginning of a new millennium and people were ready for something new and The Strokes fit the bill. They were cool, from New York which is attractive, especially if you are stuck in suburbia, and they were different from everything else going on at the time. To top it off, they wrote great songs which, while buzzing with energy, were accessible. It was time for a reboot and The Strokes provided it and broke the door open for all the bands that followed.

Jim Merlis (former publicist for The Strokes): The band had a huge impact on New York’s culture, and it wasn’t just their music. The band really gave back to the scene by taking New York bands/artists like The Moldy Peaches, Regina Spektor, Longwave, and The Realistics on the road with them. No two of these bands sound alike, yet they all made sense opening for The Strokes.

Robert Schwartzman (film director and bandleader of Rooney): When I moved to New York and went to college there, for that first semester, The Strokes were playing shows in New York, and they were the "it" band, I guess you could say. But it wasn't all over pop radio, they were the "cool" guys showing up at parties in New York, and I started to become close with those guys because my cousin Roman [Coppola] directed their music videos early on. By proximity to knowing people in their circle, I just got to hang out and spend time with them. They were almost like big brothers, where I really looked up to them musically,

Gordon Raphael (producer of Is This It): As soon as the first songs from The Strokes were released there was a visceral and palpable change in youth culture and music culture, pretty much worldwide. An entire generation that grew up hating their older brothers’ rock and roll, suddenly went out to purchase their first leather jackets and guitars, then formed their own bands.

Marc: There was already a burgeoning scene in NYC before The Strokes came along but with their emergence, they became the focal point of something that had been bubbling under the surface for a while. It’s not like there wasn’t already an alternative/garage rock scene before The Strokes came along but they were the ones who brought it to the masses. They brought a sense of excitement, energy and danger that was missing in music at the time. Most of the alternative music pushed by the labels at the time was fairly dreary to be honest, "dad rock" as it was called at the time, and The Strokes were definitely an antidote to that.

Ian Devaney (lead vocalist of Nation of Language and member of machinegum): My parents spent their young adult years going to see bands like Talking Heads, The Clash and Blondie. For my friends and me, [with The Strokes,] it felt like this was a chance to have our own version of that. There was a sense that, whatever magic those older bands had that could still capture young imaginations decades later, The Strokes were carrying a bit of that magic with them as well. Being a teenager in suburbia, pop-punk and emo really felt ascendant around that time, but none of that ever resonated with me. The Strokes allowed me to see something else happening in music that felt like it was worth aspiring to.

Merlis: Not only was their music great, it sounded cosmopolitan and very New York City. There hadn’t been much of a music scene in New York over the twenty years prior to them with a handful of good bands here and there. The city was desperate for something cool, especially as [Mayor] Giuliani was turning the City into a safe, Disney-themed town. The band sounded cool and looked it. It also certainly helped that most of the national media is based here.

PHOTO CREDIT: Colin Lane

Jake Faber (drummer for Sunflower Bean): The Strokes came into my life right as the band was starting. I was at a crazy point in my life where I was trying to do a semester of college at SUNY Purchase, while rehearsing almost every day of the week in Long Island with Sunflower Bean, on top of the beginning of new romance and friendship in my life in Brooklyn. As you can imagine there was a lot of driving around the New York metro area, [and] Is This It soundtracked almost every minute of it. [It] sonically brought it back home for me as it was kind of like The Velvet Underground, but rockier and so poppy. It totally filled the void that one can feel when driving around New York every day for months on end, tending to the most exciting things that have ever happened in my life (at that point) all while wondering "is this it?"

The Strokes Were Polarizing: You Either Loved Or Despised Them

Eric Ducker (writer and editor; wrote the band’s first-ever cover story in 2001): When it comes to the New York rock revival, The Strokes weren’t the best band (that would be TV on the Radio), or the best live band (that would be Yeah Yeah Yeahs), or even the first band (that would arguably be Jonathan Fire*Eater or The Mooney Suzuki), but at least initially they were the best at making it seem like being in a band with your friends was the most fun thing in the entire world. In the years that immediately preceded them, a ton of people in rock bands — from nu-metal mooks to post-Fugazi indie rockers and British gloomsters — seemed totally miserable.

Devaney: Their music just makes it so much easier to put up with everything about living in New York that is irritating and tedious. It's like a kind of urban mindfulness — reminding you that you chose to live here for a reason, and the filth and the difficulty are actually character-building and romantic.

People still move to New York from very pleasant places that are very far away specifically to place themselves inside the world that exists in these songs. Play a song from Is This It in a crowded dive bar late at night and people lose their minds — it's the apex of their notion of what New York life would be.

Ducker: Part of the reason The Strokes became a great New York band was because you either loved them or despised them. Or, you pretended to despise them but secretly loved them. For such an argumentative city where everyone thinks they know best and are always happy to tell you why you’re wrong, a band you can be super passionate about holds a lot of appeal.

The Strokes Created A Template For Bands In The Early Aughts

Schwartzman: They were a part of this new world of this cool, edgy slice of music that they had injected into the young music scene like on the alternative rock side of things that was a breath of fresh air, in a way, for that genre of music. At that time, alternative music didn't have a real identity. The whole world they built just had this great consistency: They knew what they were and they stuck with it, and people, I think, really appreciated that.

[The Strokes] were this British sensation. It was amazing. They conquered the music scene overseas, so they brought with them this amazing kind of cred from having won over that side of music fans and magazines. All those bands out of England that followed, you could hear direct influences: the vocal style and the same kind of sound and sonic approach to how they produce those records.

On the radio at that time, it was like P.O.D., Linkin Park, Puddle of Mudd—that stuff all over the radio—and then you had the strokes, paving this new road, amongst all these bands that were very, very different musically. I thought that was just so cool, to be young and aspiring in that whole alt-rock world, and see how they were kind of shaking up that whole scene. They really turned alt-radio on its head because they were this odd-band out. But they really brought in a whole new wave of influencing a lot of bands. I remember when we were out touring, you would hear all these bands, and you would be like, "This feels like a Strokes-clone band." There are indie bands that followed that were straight-up cut from the same, old cloth. They sang like Julian, all low and droney [with] those prickly guitar parts that were kind of bouncy.

Marc: It would be safe to say The Strokes broke down the doors for not just fellow NYC artists such as the Yeah, Yeah, Yeahs, LCD Soundsystem, Interpol, The Rapture and the whole "garage" revival. That fact alone helps cement The Strokes’ legacy.

Ducker: In the years after Is This It, some of the acts that would become the biggest rock bands in the world were able to replicate what The Strokes did, but with their own specific twist. To reduce it to the most basic level, Kings of Leon were the Southern Strokes, The Killers were the Las Vegas Strokes, Vampire Weekend were the "Ivy League Strokes," Phoenix became the "sophisticated French Strokes," and so on. The Strokes reformatted a template that other acts built off of, even as The Strokes themselves seemed to pretty quickly lose interest in it.

Is This It Left Lasting Impressions On Artists And Music Industry Professionals

Ducker: When the promo for Is This It came in (original artwork, leather glove on naked butt), I think I had heard The Modern Age EP already, but I hadn’t gone to any of their Mercury Lounge residency shows. At that time there wasn’t social media or blogs to drive buzz for artists. For The Fader’s staff, much of that buzz came from what London-based culture publications like The Face were into, and they were already fully on-board for The Strokes. I was vaguely anticipating Is This It, but it wasn’t until I heard the advance that I quickly realized that this was a group and an album that I could, and would, love intensely. That CD didn’t get pulled from the office stereo for a long time”

The ascent of The Strokes was wild. On 30th July, Vice published an oral history of Is This It. I was eighteen when the album came out. I was instantly blown away by The Strokes and Is This It. Anyone who might not have heard this album needs to right away. It is transformative:

“Whether it was bloated nu metal or tuneless indie strumming, 2001’s alternative music scene felt stagnant and colourless. Enter: The Strokes. Five guys from New York with immaculately dishevelled haircuts and names like Fabrizio Moretti and Nikolai Fraiture who, in 2001, released their seminal debut album Is This It and blew everything out of the water. Its impact was cataclysmic. As Geoff Travis, the head of Rough Trade Records, put it in Lizzy Goodman’s Meet Me in the Bathroom: “The Strokes’ arrival was a bomb in the middle of a plastic pool.”

But this was not an overnight success. The band struggled to get anyone to take notice for the better part of two years. Famously, the tide changed when Travis agreed to release their scuzzy debut EP The Modern Age, after listening to it for just 15 seconds down a transatlantic telephone line.

From then on, the brakes were off – the hype breathless and frantic. This was a band who were here to save rock’n’roll, dressed in ripped jeans and Converse. They appeared on the cover of NME twice in the three months leading up to the release of Is This It, with the frenzy growing every day.

After a series of exhilaratingly wild live shows and six weeks in producer Gordon Raphael’s Transporterraum studio (which Casablancas said “sucked out my soul…”), Is This It appeared in Australia on the 30th of July, before dropping in the UK on the 27th of August.

Immediately, it was greeted as the perfect record. In fact, it was so good it had two different covers – the iconic UK version of a leather gloved hand; and the US version, depicting subatomic particles. Despite all the hype, the album only entered the UK charts at number two – but it’s no exaggeration to say it left an indelible mark on the music scene and culture in general.

Two decades later, Is This It’s 36 minutes still sound thrillingly flawless – ragged yet taut, the swagger of its question mark-less title mirrored by the cocksure 11 songs. In Meet Me In The Bathroom, which tells the story of the New York scene from 2001 to 2011, LCD Soundsystem’s James Murphy says “Is This It was my record of the decade. Whenever people pooh-pooh it, I’m like, ‘You’re saying that now, but I guarantee you, you’re going to have a barbecue in ten years, play that shit, and say, ‘I love this record.’”

20 years on from its release, I spoke to the people around the album: the producer, the record label, their UK press, journalists and the man who took that cover shot, to reflect on the hysteria around the release, how the album came together and its longstanding indie rock legacy.

HOW MUSIC SOUNDED AND LOOKED BEFORE THE STROKES

Tim Jonze (NME journalist between 2003 and 2008): The indie scene seemed quite dead. It was the turn of the millennium and there were all these acoustic bands like Turin Brakes and Starsailor making incredibly whiny, tuneless records.

Jakub Blackman (UK PR for Is This It): Let’s face it, that time was pretty lame. The bands that were big looked like they worked for IT companies, or were coming over to do some plumbing round your house.

Kim Taylor Bennett (first journalist to interview the band face-to-face in the UK): As much as I think Turin Brakes or Coldplay had some hummable songs, they weren’t sexy and exciting. They were a little grey, damp UK. Indie rock fans were bored.

Blackman: It was a pretty desperate time in British music.

Jonze: There was a band called Arnold, which tells you a lot about the lack of effort involved. A lot of these bands wore ill-fitting jeans and baggy t-shirts and generally looked like some random table from the student union bar.

Taylor Bennett: Nu-Metal was happening back then, and pop was huge. But if you weren’t super into JLo, or Britney, or Limp Bizkit, there wasn’t a lot for you.

Jonze: It’s not like there weren’t any good bands around. And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead were incredible live and Godspeed! You Black Emperor felt monumental. But 13 minute instrumentals about the apocalypse aren’t the sound of frenetic youth culture. It didn’t feel like there was any unifying scene for young indie fans to call their own.

Gordon Raphael (producer for Is This It): In New York, it seemed like guitar music was on the way out. It was mostly house, jungle, drum n bass, hip hop. I remember an article in the New York Times celebrating the death of rock and roll – “the old man”. That was the feeling in town.

Blackman: When The Strokes came along, they captured everyone’s imagination; this band that were the whole package.

Taylor Bennett: They were the total opposite of safe, which was how guitar music felt at the time.

THE STROKES: THE EXTREMELY EARLY YEARS

Raphael: I went to a show at Luna Lounge in New York and there were two new bands playing. The second band that played was The Strokes. Because I had my own studio, and I was a relatively fresh producer, I had a business card and I approached them after the show. The first band, which I actually liked a little better, didn’t call me. But [Strokes guitarist] Albert [Hammond Jnr] came to look at my studio.

As they’re playing their music in the studio, I’m going, “Wait a minute, this is really good”. I didn’t get that feeling when I saw them live. But in the studio it came together. “Whoa, how does that drummer keep such a steady beat? Aren’t those chord changes interesting?” Then when Julian started singing: what a voice.

James Endeacott (A&R at Rough Trade): It ticked every single box for me about great rock’n’roll. It sounded like The Stooges, the Velvet Underground, Television, Blondie. All the great music out of New York. [Their debut EP was] called The Modern Age, yet it was somehow retro, but also sounded like the future. And they had this weird production…

Jonze: If you knew your rock history then it was familiar – Velvet Underground, Television – but it was also completely alien to what was around at the time. Bands hadn’t sounded so effortlessly cool and full of attitude since Oasis.

Raphael: They told me in very cryptic form what sound they wanted – like: “Imagine taking a trip into the future and finding a band from the past that you’ve never heard before. What would that sound like?” I drew a bit of a blank on that.

Taylor Bennett: It felt very stripped back and raw and weird. The vocals were like Julian was singing through a transistor radio.

Raphael: [When we were recording The Modern Age EP,] one of the band said: “You know what’s happening in every studio in New York right now?” “Yeah.” “Well, that’s what we don’t want to do”. That gave me a clue, because we were just in the age of Pro Tools. So instead I put a mic in front of the guitar, a couple of mics in front of the drums, and they played. When they heard that sound, they said, “That’s what we’re talking about. That sounds cool.”

Blackman: They were this New York City band that harked back to the Golden Age in the 70s, but they were largely completely blissfully unaware of most of those bands. I know they’d never heard Marquee Moon. They liked Guided By Voices and Pearl Jam. They had this thing thrust on them by the way they looked – and, I suppose, by the way they sounded, as well.

Raphael: When they left my studio with the EP done, I thought, “You know, nothing I’ve ever done has really made a mark and this is very unlikely to as well.” So I didn’t think about it. I thought – I love it, but, “Oh, man, how sad that these young people are doing this already unpopular form of music”. Just 20 years too late, you know?

INTRODUCING: ‘THE COOLEST MOTHERFUCKERS YOU’VE SEEN IN YOUR LIFE’

Endeacott: There was a guy called Matt Hickey who worked at the Mercury Lounge and who Geoff Travis was really good friends with. He said, if you come across anything to send it over. I walked into the Rough Trade offices one day, Geoff was always in early and he said, “James, listen to this.” Geoff gets very excited about music anyway, but he seemed even more effervescent than normal. He put on The Modern Age and I was literally speechless.

Raphael: When Albert told me Rough Trade were going to release these demos as an EP, my first impression was “Do you want to come back and fix them up? Shall we mix it properly?” “Oh, no, they like it this way.” Once I understood a label was going to put out the music, I realised, “Wow, something’s happening here”.

I am going to end with a feature from NME. A decade after Is This It was released, they argued how the New York City five-piece changed music for the better. Even if they may seem a little overrated – this is a guitar band still at the end of the day -, the seismic impact of their 2001 debut resonates to this day:

“It’s easy to forget, ten years on, quite what an impact The Strokes had when they strutted into our collective consciousness in mid-2001. The band, now a by-word for style-over-substance generic retro-rock on the constant point of collapse, branded rock’s bare behind with an indelible mark that year and would prove to be the catalyst for a seismic shift in popular music.

Whenever we deal with The Strokes, and their debut in particular, we have to peel back the baggage they come with nowadays, hose them clean of the backlash, put ‘Juicebox’ to the back of our minds, and focus on the summer of 2001. To return to that year and reappraise ‘Is This It’, you need to close your eyes and ears to the hubbub and really relive those dark days.

Any way you slice it, music was in the doldrums after the turn of the millenium. Of course the charts were full of pop shit (Shaggy and Hear’Say had the biggest selling tracks of the year) but guitar music was at a low point too. It was the year of Alien Ant Farm, Amen and Alfie, Staind, Stereophonics and Starsailor, (three of which formed that year’s NME tour with JJ72). Music was going through its ‘Teenage Dirtbag’ phase.

We put Travis on the cover in June 2001. It wasn’t much of an accolade; Badly Drawn Boy, Limp Bizkit, Kelly Jones, Ali G, Ken Livingstone and Terris (Terris!) were all gurning out from the front page in the year leading up to that point. There was literally fuck all to get excited about. Britpop had died its last gasps, Mogwai had lost their bite, Ultrasound had broken up, no-one was emerging, and we were left with Gay Dad. Nu metal and Gay Dad.

Enter The Strokes – five impeccably dressed shaggy-haired guys who looked like they’d rolled out of bed with some model, oozing cool, doing the whole talk the talk, walk the walk thing with panache but importantly bowling in with the tunes to back it up. ‘The Modern Age EP’ started popping up in record shops round the country like manna from heaven. Ears pricked. DJs, who’d been on their knees, gasping for something decent to play for months on end, were no longer an endangered species. They lapped it up like dogs in the desert and before long a wave of likeminded bands followed while gig nights and indie clubs started popping up everywhere.

And then there was the proactively-wrapped (and banned in the US) album itself. NME’s John Robinson gave ‘Is This It’ a perfect 10/10, calling it “a truly great statement of intent, one of the all-too-infrequent calls to arms that guitar music can provide, one of the best and most characterful debut albums of the last 20 years” and likening it to ‘Definitely Maybe’. He went on to declare it “a document of a group seizing a moment and making it entirely their own. Like any indispensable invention, you’re forced to wonder how you got by without it”, essentially calling it the best thing since sliced bread.

Was it new? Not really. Their love of – and repackaging of – their NYC forefathers (Television, Ramones, New York Dolls), as well as everyone from Tom Petty to Iggy Pop, is well-documented and a reliable weapon for the anti-Strokes brigade. Sure, they took bits and pieces of other bands and musicians they liked – as all groups do – but the end result was something that sounded resolutely Strokes-esque. They made it their own.

The list of bands influenced by The Strokes is as long as it is obvious, but their legacy extends beyond copycats. By blazing a fresh (at the time) garage rock trail – and succeeding – they gave record companies, magazines, and radio playlist people confidence to seek out, invest in, and back a new wave of artists.

Are they overrated? Probably. They’re just five dudes with guitars doing their thing in a post-millenial, post-innovative decade. They’re not exactly The Beatles. While the noughties gave us innumerable bands to love, the decade has nothing on the previous five in terms of innovation. Nevertheless, it had its moments. The garage rock revival of The Strokes, the grot-punk scene that came with The Libertines, and Klaxons’ neon “new rave”. They weren’t exactly three year zeroes, but they were the closest the 00s had to any kind of musical revolutions. Love, hate, lust after or loathe The Strokes, we’re still talking about them. You don’t hear anyone eulogizing Crazy Town ten years on”.

I can imagine The Strokes will post something to Instagram to mark twenty-five years of Is This It. Did anyone in 2001 think that this band would still be going twenty-five years later?! So many of the bands from that time have split. Reality Awaits is out on 24th July. A double celebration. The band’s first album in six years comes five days before the twenty-fifth anniverssary of their debut. We think about The Strokes now and the fact that they are playing at a time when other, younger bands have bigger pull and punch. Is This It cannot be forgotten. We need to remember its impact and…

HOW important it was.

FEATURE: After the Glitter Fades: Stevie Nicks’s Bella Donna at Forty-Five

FEATURE:

 

 

After the Glitter Fades

 

Stevie Nicks’s Bella Donna at Forty-Five

__________

THE debut…

PHOTO CREDIT: Neal Preston

album from Stevie Nicks turns forty-five on 27th July. Bella Donna was released whilst she was still part of Fleetwood Mac. Technically, she still is part of the band, though I am not sure they will ever record any material and they have ruled out touring. It was a big deal recording a debut album. By 1981, Fleetwood Mac had arguably gone past their peak. Rumours  came out in 1977. Tusk in 1979. Two huge albums. Mirage would arrive in 1982. It is a great album, though Stevie Nicks contributes only a couple of songs. I think that she was perhaps feeling that there was competitiveness between Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham. Certainly when it came to the trajectory of Rumours and Tusk. Bella Donna was a massive success, so life in Fleetwood Mac must have felt different at this point. Nicks enjoying solo work more. There were strains within the band. Bella Donna was a huge commercial and critical success. Reaching number one in the U.S., Bella Donna spent nearly three years on the Billboard 200, from July 1981 to June 1984. Last year, Classic Rock looked inside Bella Donna. At a moment when Nicks was not feeling stabled, valued or great about being in Fleetwood Mac, Bella Donna was her chance to work on her own terms:

“It’s September 1980. From the deck of the Pacific Palisades home that Stevie Nicks was sharing with her new boyfriend, producer Jimmy Iovine, you could hear the hypnotic push and pull of the ocean.

Inside, among the tropical plants, Persian rugs and paintings of dragons and gypsies, there was the even more alluring sound of three siren voices dovetailing in perfect harmony. Stevie and Lori Perry and Sharon Celani, her two closest friends, would spend hours around the upright piano, singing everything from old country and western covers to Stevie’s new songs.

It was here that the seeds took root for Bella Donna, the breakout solo record that forever changed both the dynamic in Fleetwood Mac and Nicks’s life as an artist. Exhausted from the previous two years of high-stakes drama around the recording and touring of Fleetwood Mac’s epic double album Tusk, the 32-year-old singer welcomed the laid-back setting and easy camaraderie with her girlfriends.

“In Fleetwood Mac there’s always a chaos,” Nicks told me in 2003. “It’s not easy for us. It never will be. It hasn’t ever been. Whenever we get back into a room together and start working, we don’t agree on a lot of stuff. And we’ve fought through every single record we have ever made.”

Part of that fight was getting songs on a record. Having three songwriters in Mac meant that after six years in the band Nicks had built up a backlog of unused top-drawer material.

“When we’d do an album, they’d hear fifteen of my songs and invariably pick the two that were my least favourite,” she complained. “Some of my favourite songs wouldn’t get used.”

Iovine agreed to work with her on a solo project with an approach that would replace the Mac’s careful deliberations with a more live sound. His previous credits included John Lennon, Meat Loaf and Bruce Springsteen. But it was Iovine’s records with Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers that really grabbed Nicks. She told him she wanted a “girl version” of Petty’s sound.

Outside of Fleetwood Mac, Nicks had been flirting with a few projects. She wrote a song cycle around the Welsh mythological goddess Rhiannon for a film (despite having the screenwriter for The Man Who Fell To Earth attached, it never got made). She also sang on Kenny Loggins’s Whenever I Call You Friend and Walter Egan’s Magnet And Steel, both hits. But the idea of releasing an album under her name was still somewhat scary.

“It’s a big deal the first time you do a solo record,” Benmont Tench tells Classic Rock. The Heartbreakers’ keyboard player was tapped by Iovine to act as “musical director” for Bella Donna. “And remember, back then, if somebody in a huge band made a solo record, your first thought was: ‘Wow, is the band breaking up?’ It was really unusual and risky to step away.

"But Stevie may have just gone: ‘Look, I’ve got these songs, let’s do a record without the family baggage there was around Fleetwood Mac.’ Stevie, Christine [McVie] and Lindsey [Buckingham] only got three songs per record. That’s why Silver Springs didn’t make it on to Rumours. Give the woman a fourth song, for God’s sake! [laughs]”

Tench had met Nicks briefly when the Heartbreakers backed her on a recording of Outside The Rain the year before (the track ended up on Bella Donna). But he admits he revised his first impression of her.

“I had seen Fleetwood Mac play, and with Stevie I just didn’t get it,” he says. “She could sing, oh hell yes. But I didn’t know what was going on with the top hat and the twirling and the witchy stuff. But then I bought the single to Go Your Own Way and flipped it over, and there’s Silver Springs. Good Lord, what a song. The second I heard that, I went: ‘Now I get it. That’s Stevie. She’s not faking. She’s for real. She’s not a poser in the least. She’s a creative perpetual-motion machine. This is somebody I’d really love to play music with.’”

For two months, Tench, Nicks and her girlfriends rehearsed five days a week. “We were like Joni Mitchell and Crosby, Stills And Nash, living in this great house and making music,” Nicks remembers. “It was one of those real rock’n’roll experiences that you can never forget.”

“It was song after song after great song,” Tench recalls. “I think she had enough for her first three solo albums and beyond. Lori and Sharon were so instinctive and so intuitive. They were all so tuned in to each other. At the drop of a hat they’d break into a cappella versions of old songs like Chapel Of Love. They loved each other and loved to harmonise. They stood behind me at the piano, and when I heard their three voices together it was just: ‘Wow’, goosebumps.”

With most of the songs chosen, recording sessions started in November at Studio 55 in Los Angeles. Built in the 1940s by Decca Records, it was the studio where Bing Crosby recorded White Christmas. Working from late afternoons into the small hours, Tench settled in with the all-star team that Iovine had assembled, full of what Iovine called “band guys” rather than session players: E Street Band pianist Roy Bittan, Elton John’s guitarist Davey Johnstone, and Linda Ronstadt’s drummer Russ Kunkel, bassist Lee Sklar and guitarist Waddy Wachtel.

“Jimmy pulled members from all these iconic bands to come and make music for Stevie,” Russ Kunkel tells Classic Rock. “What a genius idea. He was the first producer I ever worked with who came out on the floor with the musicians during the rehearsals, sat there with headphones, dialling in a great mix for us. That inspired us and brought us to the take quicker.

"Even during the take he stayed in the room with us, dancing around. He was part of the vibe. So there was never that pregnant pause after a take, where you wait for the producer’s voice from the other side of the glass, saying: ‘Let’s do another one,’ and you’re immediately rejected [laughs]. Jimmy was out there with us. That’s a huge thing.”

“Jimmy knew how to run sessions, and make things happen quickly,” Waddy Wachtel adds. “The luxuriant approach of taking a year to make a record like Tusk is kind of an aberration. And I think Stevie was glad to be working in a more spontaneous way. Jimmy was great at getting performances out of the band and out of Stevie. He had a really intuitive sense about songs, lots of enthusiasm and energy.”

“We recorded all the songs essentially live,” Tench says, “with the whole band cutting at the same time, and Stevie, Lori and Sharon singing with us on the floor. We captured a beautiful feel. The ambience of the studio was gorgeous, aesthetically pleasing. Stevie brought the ambience, not necessarily in items from her house, but just the spirit. The same mood that was in her house made it to the vocal booth.”

At the heart of the sessions was the flowering personal relationship between artist and producer. “Jimmy and I were totally in love,” Nicks wrote in the sleeve-notes for the Bella Donna reissue. “The record was our love story unfolding.”

The feeling and camaraderie came through on the title track’s moody, ribbon-like reverie, the top-down West Coast pop of Think About It, the Nashville twang of After The Glitter Fades, and Leather And Lace, a chart-topping tender-but-tough romantic duet with the Eagles’ Don Henley (Nicks originally wrote it for Waylon Jennings and Jessi Colter).

The two monster hits that made Bella Donna a juggernaut arrived late in the sessions. And one almost didn’t make the album. It was no secret that Nicks was a Heartbreakers fan. She’d even fantasised in the press about quitting Fleetwood Mac and joining them. Short of being in the band, Nicks convinced Petty to write her a song. He came up with Insider. But after they recorded it together, Petty liked it so much he decided he didn’t want to give it away. Nicks understood. Out of what Petty called “terrible guilt”, he played her a few cast-offs from the album he was making, Hard Promises, and she jumped at Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around.

Of the shaded meanings of the album title, Nicks wrote: “It meant beautiful woman, but also poisonous root. People use it [the belladonna plant, aka deadly nightshade] for healing, but if you take too much you can die. I thought: ‘This is the perfect double-edged sword title for the record.’ And there was another double-edged sword: would I have a successful solo career and would that make Fleetwood Mac look good, or would I have an unsuccessful solo career and would that make them look bad? Or would they be petty enough to want it to not go well so they’d know they’d always have me?”

Bella Donna was released in July 1981 on Nicks’s own imprint Modern Records, via Atlantic (set up by her manager Irving Azoff, it was a forward-thinking move), to mostly positive reviews and tons of airplay. Within three months it was a platinum-selling No.1 album. With Tench and Wachtel in her band, Nicks did a 14-date tour full of what she called “spectacular moments”, but then was yanked back into Fleetwood Mac world when they started recording Mirage in France.

“I woke up three days later, in France, with no ice, no air-conditioning, in this stupid castle, and I’m thinking: ‘What just happened? Did I dream the entirety of that record?’” Nicks wrote. “And Lindsey was not in a very good humour because I’d just made this solo record and I’ve brought my new producer boyfriend with me. They almost got in a fight. Jimmy was meant to be there for ten days but he left the next morning, he was so pissed off.”

The first of Nicks’s seven solo albums, Bella Donna remains the most influential and resonant. Its ripples can be felt in records by Lana Del Rey, Florence And The Machine and Belle Brigade. And whenever female musicians fight for creative independence – think Kelly Clarkson overruling Clive Davis to make My December, or Taylor Swift breaking out of her country box with 1989 – Nicks is there as a guiding light”.

I do want to bring in a sizeable chunk of The New Yorker and their 2016 piece around Stevie Nicks and Bella Donna. Even though the album has inspired many modern Pop artists, they argue how (Bella Donna’s ) “generous songs provide an antidote to today’s often embattled pop music”:

“The cover of “Bella Donna,” Stevie Nicks’s first solo album, shows the artist looking slender and wide-eyed, wearing a white gown, a gold bracelet, and a pair of ruched, knee-high platform boots. One arm is bent at an improbable angle; a sizable cockatoo sits on her hand. Behind her, next to a small crystal ball, is a tambourine threaded with three long-stemmed white roses. Nicks did not invent this storefront-psychic aesthetic—it is indebted, in varying degrees, to Hans Christian Andersen’s Thumbelina, de Troyes’s Guinevere, and Cher—but, beginning in the mid-nineteen-seventies, she came to embody it. The image was girlish and delicate, yet inscrutable, as if Nicks were suggesting that the world might not know everything she’s capable of.

This intimation is newly germane: a vague but feminine mysticism is in. Lorde, Azealia Banks, FKA Twigs, CHVRCHES, Grimes, and Beyoncé have all incorporated bits of pagan-influenced iconography into their music videos and performances. Young women are now embracing benign occult representations, reclaiming the rites and ceremonies that women were once chastised (or worse) for performing. On runways, on the streets, and in thriving Etsy shops, you can find an assortment of cloaks, crescent-moon pendants, flared chiffon skirts, and the occasional jewelled headdress.

While Nicks’s sartorial choices have been widely mimicked, it’s rare to hear echoes of her magnanimity in modern pop songs, which are frequently defensive and embattled, preaching self-sufficiency at any cost. It’s difficult to imagine Nicks singing a lyric like “Middle fingers up, put them hands high / Wave it in his face, tell him, boy, bye,” as Beyoncé does in “Sorry,” a song from her newest album, “Lemonade.” Nicks’s default response to betrayal is more introspective than aggressive. Her music has long been considered a balm for certain stubborn strains of heartache; her songs are unsparing regarding the brutality of loss, yet they are buoyed by a kind of subtle optimism. It’s as if, by the time Nicks got around to singing about something, she already knew that she would survive it.

This month, “Bella Donna,” from 1981, and Nicks’s second solo album, “The Wild Heart,” from 1983, are being reissued. Nicks was thirty-three when “Bella Donna” was released. Though its cover might not suggest an excess of reason, in its songs she is a sagacious and measured presence. Her acknowledgment of the heart’s capriciousness is gentle, if not grandmotherly. There’s surely no kinder summation of love’s petulance than the chorus of “Think About It,” a jangling folk song about taking a breath before hurling yourself off a metaphorical cliff. “And the heart says, ‘Danger!’ ” Nicks sings. She pauses briefly. “And the heart says, ‘Whatever.’ ” For anyone busy self-flagellating over an error in judgment, this can feel like a rope ladder thrown from above—an invitation to scramble up and out of despair. It is generous and knowing, and offers a clear-eyed conclusion: some things can’t be helped.

In 2012, Tavi Gevinson, the young founder of Rookie, an online magazine concerned chiefly with the complexities of teen-age girlhood, ended a TEDX talk with some blunt advice: “Just be Stevie Nicks. That’s all you have to do.” What does it mean to be Stevie Nicks? To understand loss and longing as being merely the cost of doing business? To acknowledge the bottomless nature of certain aches, yet to know, in some instinctive way, that you’ll keep going? Nicks evokes Byron, in spirit and in certitude: “The heart will break, but broken live on.”

Nicks was born in 1948, in Phoenix. Her paternal grandfather, A. J. Nicks, Sr., was a struggling country musician, and he taught Nicks how to sing when she was four years old. She was given an acoustic guitar for her sixteenth birthday, and immediately wrote a song called “I’ve Loved and I’ve Lost and I’m Sad but Not Blue.” The title is a surprisingly succinct encapsulation of Nicks’s lyrical alchemy: a combination of acceptance (I am hurting) and perspective (I will not hurt forever).

In 1966, when Nicks was in her senior year of high school and living in Atherton, California—her father, an executive at a meatpacking company, had been relocated there—she met the guitarist Lindsey Buckingham at a party. He was sitting cross-legged on the floor—bearded, curly-haired, and strumming the Mamas and the Papas’ “California Dreamin’.” Uninvited, she joined him in harmony. (“How brazen!” she later said.) Buckingham asked Nicks to join his band, Fritz. By 1971, the two were romantically involved. They eventually took off for Los Angeles, where they tried to make it as a duo, called Buckingham Nicks, releasing one album, in 1973, to very little acclaim. Not long afterward, Buckingham was asked to join Fleetwood Mac, a British blues band featuring the singer and keyboard player Christine McVie, the bassist John McVie, and the drummer Mick Fleetwood; the group was being rebooted as an American soft-rock act. Buckingham insisted that Nicks be invited, too. She ended up writing two of the band’s biggest early hits, “Landslide” and “Rhiannon.”

Extraordinary success often leads to spiritual dissolution, and Fleetwood Mac had its share of psychic turmoil. In 1975, Fleetwood divorced his wife, the model Jenny Boyd, after she had an affair with one of his former bandmates. Nicks and Buckingham broke up the following year. Around the same time, John and Christine McVie’s marriage collapsed. There was an ungodly amount of brandy and cocaine on hand to help nullify the despair. Still, in 1977, Fleetwood Mac—now five wild-eyed, newly single people—released “Rumours,” a collection of yearning songs about love and devotion. The record spent thirty-one weeks at the top of the charts, and is one of the best-selling albums in American history.

“Tusk,” which the group released two years later, was a bombastic double LP that cost a million dollars to produce. The critic Stephen Holden, in his review of the album for Rolling Stone, suggested that Nicks sounded “more than ever like a West Coast Patti Smith.” Superficially, at least, Nicks and Smith aren’t obvious analogues. Nicks is hyperfeminine, intuitive, and bohemian; Smith is androgynous, cerebral, and gritty. But both are unusually perceptive chroniclers of their time and place.

If Smith is obliged to the Lower East Side of Manhattan—and the punk scene that included the Ramones, Television, and Suicide—Nicks’s debt is to Laurel Canyon, and to the sentimental, silky-voiced artists who emerged from L.A. in the late sixties and early seventies. Some of those acts—James Taylor, the Eagles—are now considered, fairly or not, irrelevant to the Zeitgeist: too mellow, too affluent, too sexless, too white. Candles and incense and macramé plant hangers; wistful thoughts about weather. Nicks’s lyrics often worry over domestic or earthly concerns—gardens, mountains, flowers, the seasons—and how they might affect the whims of her heart. “It makes no difference at all / ’Cause I wear boots all summer long,” she sings in “Nightbird.” When compared with the dissonant and provocative music coming out of downtown New York, the California sound could seem limp. But the scene in Laurel Canyon was tumultuous. Many of its artists—including, at various times, Nicks—were wrecked by drug addiction. Nicks’s voice, a strange, quivering contralto, gives her songs unexpected weight. Its tone reminds me of the gloaming—that lambent, transitional moment between night and day.

“Bella Donna” was produced by Jimmy Iovine, a Brooklyn-born audio engineer who worked on Bruce Springsteen’s “Born to Run” and produced the Patti Smith Group’s “Easter” and Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers’ “Damn the Torpedoes.” Iovine spent time in California, but his sensibility was tougher and more plainly that of the East Coast. He later became a co-founder of Interscope Records, where he helped to establish the career of the rapper Tupac Shakur, and, for a period, he oversaw the hip-hop label Death Row Records. Iovine was aware of concerns that Nicks was too coddled and immature to make a solo record as good as the records she’d made with Fleetwood Mac. Regardless, there was romantic chemistry. “This record was our love story unfolding,” she has said.

“Bella Donna” reached No. 1 on the Billboard chart, and produced four hit singles: “Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around,” a duet with Petty; “Leather and Lace,” with Don Henley; “Edge of Seventeen”; and “After the Glitter Fades.” The last, a country song about the travails of stardom—Nicks wrote it just after she and Buckingham moved to Los Angeles, long before she had a record deal, showing either hubris or prescience—contains organ, pedal steel, and reassurances. “The dream keeps coming even when you forget to feel,” she sings.

Nicks, like most artists, culls inspiration from disparate sources. She is prone to saying things like “ ‘Edge of Seventeen’ was about Tom Petty and his wife, Jane, my uncle dying, and the assassination of John Lennon.” But her personal life—a tangle of love affairs, often with her collaborators—informs her work in explicit ways. “Heartbreak of the moment isn’t endless,” she sings, in “Think About It.” This might seem like a billowy platitude, but if you are someone who does not think that every flubbed decision is fodder for personal growth, it is comforting to hear someone assert that nearly all mistakes can be neutralized, if not conquered. If “Bella Donna” contains a single directive, it’s to love freely, love fully, and hang on”.

I do wonder whether Stevie Nicks will mark forty-five years of Bella Donna. In 2021, on its fortieth anniversary, Nicks wrote about Bella Donna and how proud she is of the songs. Uncut shared the post that she made. You can sense that Bella Donna was Nicks at her most uninhibited at that point. Even though she loved Fleetwood Mac, Nicks did need to have her own voice and album. One that was very much her own work and her voice:

“Posting an excerpt of her journal on Instagram, the singer-songwriter said she teamed up with backing vocalists Lori Perry-Nicks and Sharon Celani to create the record, aspiring to be the “girl version” of Crosby, Stills and Nash and to sound nothing like Fleetwood Mac.

According to Nicks, the title track was written “about my boyfriend’s mother who was involved with a man in Chile during the coup that happened there in 1973.”

“The man she loved was banished to France,” Nicks wrote.

“Banished or imprisoned, that was the choice. The love story never really ended – but she never saw him again.

“I was so touched by this story of lost love that I wrote Bella Donna – the moment the poem and then the song was finished, I knew I had the basis for my first solo record.”

Nicks said she “never doubted for a moment” this track would be the album’s title. Bella Donna went on to top the US charts and, in Nicks’ words, “open the doors of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame”.

“It was ours – it defined how I would feel about love forever,” she continued.

“It broke my heart and gave me the strength to fight for it. It was a fine line to walk between love and hate and passion and the girls and I loved it. We never looked back.

“I could not have been more proud of those songs or the three months it took me, the girls and [producer] Jimmy Iovine to craft it. It did not break up Fleetwood Mac. If anything, it kept us together”.

Let’s end there. On 27th July, Bella Donna turns forty-five. One of the greatest albums ever, you can still feel its beauty and brilliance. It has not aged at all. I do wonder whether Stevie Nicks will release another solo album. There are so many artists who would love to collaborate with her. Someone whose voice, especially in modern America under Donald Trump, is powerful and inspiring. In any case, We need to mark forty-five years of Bella Donna. A wonderful album that…

EVERYBODY should hear.

FEATURE: If I Ruled the World: Nas’s It Was Written at Thirty

FEATURE:

 

 

If I Ruled the World

 

Nas’s It Was Written at Thirty

__________

MOST artists…

are fortunate if they can release one classic or masterpiece in their career. Nas is among a select group of artists who has released several. His first was 1994’s Illmatic. That was his debut album. Many would feel pressure and expectation to make a second album as strong or better. Nas released It Was Written and blew away any doubters that he was a one-album artist or was a flash in the pan. Even though he has been involved with feuds and controversies – which might be part of Hip-Hop culture but leaves black marks on any artists who participate -, the albums he has released are phenomenal. On 2nd July, 1996, It Was Written received some mixed reviews. In years since, It Was Written has grown in reputation and seen as a hugely influential Hip-Hop album. Nas is one of very few Hip-Hop artists from the 1990s still recording and putting out great albums. His latest, 2023’s Magic, is a brilliant album. He has had dips in terms of quality and form. As It Was Written turned thirty yesterday, I want to spend some time with it now. Illmatic was defined by its rawness and underground edge. It Was Written has a more polished sound. Not that this sacrifices his bite and genius. Instead, it is a more commercial album that retains a lot of the roots and core of Illmatic and opened his music up to a wider audience. Nas embraced mafioso and gangsta themes. Mafioso Rap is a hardcore Hip-Hop subgenre founded by Kool G Rap in the late 1980s. Nas helped popularise it and make it more visible in 1996. Reaching number one on the US Billboard 200 chart, It Was Written was a massive instant success.

I am going to get to some features around Nas’s It Was Written. In 2021, Mic Cheque reflected on Nas’s second studio album. One that very much established him as a Rap great. To this day, he remains so influential. Someone that many new Hip-Hop artists look up to and idolise. It Was Written is not only one of the great Hip-Hop albums of the 1990s. It is one of the best albums ever:

“On July 2, 1996, Nas released his sophomore album, It Was Written, under Columbia Records. Coming off his lauded debut, it was vital that the Queensbridge emcee got his second album right. The hip hop community wouldn’t shut up about Illmatic – still to this day. The task was to match it up and have lightning strike twice. Easier said than done, of course.

To understand It Was Written, we must first set the scene. Gangsta rap was on the decline, Death Row and Bad Boy were dominating forces, and on the periphery was the assertion of alternative pioneers (OutKast, De La Soul). It was a transitional period when it came to creativity; anyone could push the margins to new widths if they were brave enough.

Enter Nas, now a New York superstar ready to take the next leap. Illmatic was critically-acclaimed, though it only peaked at number 12 on the charts and took two years to be certified Gold. Now managed by Steve Stoute, the ultimate mission became turning Nas into a commercial force. Also managed by Stoute were production duo Trackmasters (Poke & Tone), whom Stoute convinced Nas to grant dibs to produce a bulk of the album. Known for their knack with crossover records, there was belief that this team could bring Nas the sort of success that Large Professor, Pete Rock and DJ Premier couldn’t.

It was for these very tactics that the public were not receptive at first. Though most critics favoured the record, fans noticed a departure from the predecessor’s dusty, jazz production – enough to call Nas a sellout, going pop, or whatever equivalent phrase of the nature.

But commercially, the album prevailed. It Was Written debuted at number one, selling 268,000 copies first-week and remains Nas’ best-selling record to date. The first two singles not only charted fairly in the States, but made their marks worldwide, particularly across Europe.

In retrospect, the notion that It Was Written was a ‘sellout’ record was beyond a stretch. Only three of its fourteen tracks carry a crossover appeal, which all still maintain the lyrical dexterity and flair Nas became known for.

Twenty-five years later, it is common knowledge that Nas dropped back-to-back classics, and just like his debut impacted and influenced hip hop massively. From Nasty Nas to Nas Escobar, It Was Written took the Queensbridge block tales and expanded the landscape to represent a matured pro on top of the game; both the rap game and the crack game.

It Was Written was instrumental in pioneering mafioso rap, the tougher cousin of gangsta rap where the artist narrates the life of a head honcho. Organised crime and cartel fantasies were the soundtrack for this suave, polished branch that came across more articulate and sophisticated. Nas set this benchmark with It Was Written, a rapper only with a pen like his could unlock. The songs are trapped in the purgatory of Nas’ dynamics; the sound feels Hollywood, but the realities around him are still entrenched in street life. That is what It Was Written does so well, managing to find a faultless balance in the new and old, which is ultimately what brought Nas new fans while keeping the existing.

If Illmatic was like a film, It Was Written is more like a play, acting out scenes of gang violence, betrayal and retaliation, kingpin moves and environmental observations. Just like how Illmatic paints pictures of local Queensbridge life, It Was Written maps out the mobster mentalities in high definition. Which is why it can be said that Nas’ lyricism is on par or even better than on Illmatic.

Over the years, the hip hop community’s staunch stance towards It Was Written has gradually dwindled. Long misunderstood, it is now rightly recognised as Nas’ second back-to-back classic where he elevated his career while maintaining his penmanship. It Was Written now comfortably sits high up as runner-up in Nas’ album rankings, becoming far from a one-album wonder that many claim he is when reflecting on his discography. Though if you ask Lupe Fiasco, Royce da 5’9″ or Schoolboy Q, It Was Written is a better album than Illmatic.

Its role in pioneering mafioso rap can only be challenged by Raekwon’s Only Built 4 Cuban Linx or Jay-Z’s Reasonable Doubt. Rarely will you find an album from this era that did not so effortlessly merge the commercial with the ground roots and maintain artistic authenticity.

If Trackmasters were to produce the entire album, history could have etched a different legacy. What It Was Written ensures it must do is balance the spaghetti-western sounds of “Affirmative Action” and “Nas Is Coming” with your traditional boom-bap flavours. Havoc, DJ Premier, Live Squad and L.E.S. have vital contributions that bring the ‘authentic’ Nas back to our ears.

To this day, the influence of It Was Written rings in hip hop. Would Pooh Shiesty and Lil Durk’s 2020-21 hit “Back in Blood” exist without “Take It in Blood”? Or the countless personification of a gun that have been laid since “I Gave You Power”? How ahead of the curve were Nas and Dr. Dre when it came to ensuring both coasts could co-exist and thrive simultaneously?

It broke the lingering sophomore curse that was weighing on Nas’ shoulders. No longer was he the shy Queensbridge kid on the block. His confident across the album was fully warranted, and listening back only solidifies just how exceptionally gifted Nasir Jones is”.

When it comes to Hip-Hop and Rap, if an artist comes in with this raw sound or a distinct vibe and then they become more polished or commercial, they are seen as selling out. Even if It Was Written was a commercial hit, it was widely panned by critics. Many thought Nas had betrayed his roots or was going for fame rather than being authentic. Luckily, the discourse has changed through the years. It is rightly seen as a seismic album and one that took Nas to new heights. A restless young master who was not going to repeat himself.  In another twenty-fifth anniversary feature, this one from The Ringer, they looked at the critics backlash. A panned album now a classic. “But what did the discourse at the time get right—and what did it miss?”:

“Rolling Stone gave the album two stars, criticizing Nas for trafficking in rap that prizes “authenticity, not articulation” and calling the lead single a “crossover con job.” However cynically you choose to read the rollout, it worked. While Illmatic hit no. 12 on the Billboard 200 and took nearly two years to be certified gold, It Was Written spent four weeks at no. 1 and was double platinum just a couple of months after its release.

Since that release 25 years ago this month, It Was Written’s reputation has been rehabilitated, though these original complaints frame the discussion, even in its most impassioned defenses. This is unavoidable: Its poppiest songs are without exception its worst, and—especially on the A side, when they appear as tracks 3, 5, and 7—they creep in like intrusive thoughts, refusing the record any of the rhythm that its better moments deserve. What scans differently today is that pulp-crime undercurrent. It can be overused (such as in the first two-thirds of “Street Dreams”), but with some remove, whatever credibility-straining maneuvers Nas pulls just make It Was Written’s songs more desperate, more claustrophobic, more immediate. It brings to mind a question Nas asks on one of the album’s best—and most undeniably menacing—songs: “Why shoot the breeze about it / When you could be about it?”

There are points on It Was Written that are as dazzlingly written and delivered as anything in Nas’s catalog. The shootout skit that ends “Street Dreams” gives way to “I Gave You Power,” the Premier-helmed track on which Nas personifies a gun. It is a serviceable concept that could easily become overwrought, but by the beginning of its madcap third verse, the song has earned a wrenching pathos: You hold your breath when Nas raps about the gun owner’s hand reaching into the hiding place where it lives; you feel that owner’s palm trembling as he grips it. On the opening song, “The Message,” Nas is as dense and virtuosic as ever: see the way Nas sets up, from the first line of the second verse, the rhyme scheme that he’ll eventually drill down on, briefly abandon, and eventually pay off with the word “Datsun,” all while telling a breathless story about brief hospital stays and unsolvable shootings.

And not all of the album’s polish is bad. It is notable that, on virtually all of the solo songs (and on its superb posse cut), the best verse comes last—evidence of a careful approach to the songwriting, and a reliable way to maintain some forward motion even when the dregs fuck up the flow. The exception is “Take It in Blood,” but this does not mean that song loses steam toward its end. Instead, like “The Message,” it’s a maze of staggering detail and pinpoint rhymes, impossible to find your way into or out of. It invites the kind of rewinds that wear grooves into your brain. Combine this subtle elegance with the album’s B-side that, one song aside, is hollowed-out and venomous—Mobb Deep’s Havoc helms “The Set Up” and “Live Nigga Rap”; “Suspect” is a dead-eyed threat—and It Was Written seems like a monster, a deeper dive into the horrors of Nas’s youth formatted for the big screen.

But you cannot simply write off that one song on the B-side: “Black Girl Lost,” which features Jodeci’s JoJo, is adult-contemporary radio’s version of ’90s R&B-rap hybrids, silky smooth but mawkish in the worst way. The track nearly derails the album just as it seems to be recovering from that stop-start sputter of an opening (and some would later openly mock Nas for having made it at all).

Those earlier pop forays are not as disastrous as “Black Girl Lost,” but they come close. Writing for the short-lived but massively influential magazine Ego Trip, Elliott Wilson described the Trackmasters’ beat for “Watch Dem Niggas” as having an “N.O. Joe–like synthesized laziness.” At first read, this scans as a mid-’90s New Yorker’s flat rejection of what was happening in the South, but to listen to “Watch Dem” is to hear, unmistakably, a photocopy of a photocopy of the style Joe turned out so reliably. And then there’s the almost comically cheesy, Dr. Dre–produced “Nas Is Coming,” a heralded union of the West and East Coasts that evokes the very worst music made on each.

What tantalizes on It Was Written are the moments of near-perfect coalescence that hint at what a consistently focused Nas over the Trackmasters’ best sheen might have unlocked in each other. All that labyrinthine writing on “The Message,” for example, is laid over that Sting sample; “If I Ruled the World (Imagine That)” marries Whodini to The Score in a crystal-clear mix for radio. The most curious example of this, though, comes in the second verse of “Watch Dem,” when Nas’s animated delivery embodies the merger while his lyrics literalize it. The song is otherwise pedestrian, but here he raps about doing 90 on the freeway, drunk, with 10 grand in cash and a gun beside him. A “death wish,” he says. But when he checks his watch—a Movado, he notes—he sees that it’s 7 o’clock, “the God hour,” the Five Percenter ideology bleeding through the way it would for a native New Yorker in this era. The implicit argument is that “Street Dreams” and “Suspect” do not come from different neighborhoods, but the same one—one that Nas had been documenting from his teenage years on. End of article”.

There have not been that many thirtieth anniversary features around It Was Written. Albumism looked back at a classic. Some people who grew up with the album maybe had a negative reaction or felt like Nas had slumped on his second albums. It has taken years to see that they were hasty, and It Was Written is a brilliant album. It deserves more love and respect than perhaps it gets:

“For his sophomore effort, Nas reunited with producer Samuel Barnes who had previously gone by the name Red Hot Lover Tone and accompanied Nas and Chubb Rock as a rapper on MC Serch’s 1992 single “Back To The Grill.” Now partnered with Jean-Claude Olivier (Poke) to collectively form the production duo the Trackmasters, Poke & Tone orchestrated the majority of It Was Written’s production.

Starting with the opening song, “The Message,” Nas puts all of his contemporaries on notice by proving to have the most lethal pen in the industry, rhyming, “They let me let y'all ni**as know one thing / there's one life, one love, so there can only be one king / the highlights of living, Vegas style roll dice in linen / Antera spinning on millenniums / twenty G bets I'm winning them / threats I'm sending them, Lex with TV sets the minimum, ill sex adrenaline / party with villains, a case of Demi-Sec to chase the Henny / wet any clique, with the semi TEC who want it.”

The album’s lead single “If I Ruled The World (Imagine That)” is an example of the album’s ambition. Nas taps his Columbia Records labelmate Lauryn Hill to sing one of the most memorable choruses of the era. Still enjoying the success of the Fugees’ The Score, which was released a few months earlier in February 1996, Hill helped the song chart on Billboard’s Hot 100, Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Singles & Tracks, and Hot Rap Tracks. “If I Ruled The World” also secured Nas his very first GRAMMY nomination, in the category of Best Rap Solo Performance.

It Was Written’s second single, “Street Dreams,” followed the success of “If I Ruled The World” soaring higher on Billboard’s Hot 100 (#22) and earning its own Gold certification. A great example of Nas’ lyrical depth, he expands upon the dark but lucid narratives of eyewitness accounts inside the Queensbridge Housing Projects to script his novella of a hustler’s ambition. With the lines, “With the glaze in my eye, that we find when we crave / dollars and cents, a fugitive with two attempts / Jakes had no trace of the face, now they drew a print / though I'm innocent, ‘til proven guilty / I'ma try to get filthy, purchase a club and start up realty / for real G, I'ma fulfill my dream / if I conceal my scheme, then precisely I'll build my cream,” Nas paints a picture as vivid as any chapter from a Donald Goins novel”.

I am a day late celebrating thirty years of It Was Written. It is a phenomenal Hip-Hop album and one that is always compared unfavourably to Illmatic. The same with his subsequent work. We should see It Was Written as a separate album. One that should not be compared to his debut. In its own right, It Was Written is phenomenal. Thirty years later and the album is still inspiring people. For that reason alone, we have to say that it is…

WORTHY of a thirtieth anniversary salute.

FEATURE: Spotlight: Revisited: Nia Smith

FEATURE:

 

 

Spotlight: Revisited

PHOTO CREDIUT: Hannah Cosgrove for NOTION

 

Nia Smith

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THIS feature…

finds me revisiting the absolutely wonderful and unique Nia Smith. I spotlighted her in 2024, but she has released a brilliant sophomore E.P., Payback Is a Dog. Prior to getting to some interviews, last month, news of her incredible E.P. was shared. This uDiscover Music article provides more details:

“High” centers on leaving behind people, relationships, jobs, and interests that once felt defining. Smith said the song is “about outgrowing things that once made you feel on top of the world,” adding that it is “emotional and soft while also being dreamy and reflective.” The track includes the lyric “like jeans that are fading, lost and frayed, it’s nothing worth saving.”

Payback Is A Dog follows Smith’s debut EP, Give Up The Fear, which arrived last year. The new project is described as a narrative time capsule, with each song marking a make-or-break point in a relationship, whether romantic, familial, or rooted in friendship. Smith also said she recently took time away in Jamaica after releasing her first collection. “I’ve just been living life,” she said. “I think the whole break was just me living life and just gaining life experience to talk about.”

The announcement follows a run of live dates and media attention for the Brixton artist, who signed to Polydor in 2023 and later to Def Jam 0207. Smith attended the Brit School and ELAM, wrote songs as a teenager, and found an early audience on TikTok with cover songs. Smith has performed on Later… With Jools Holland and appeared at All Points East, City Splash, and Glastonbury through BBC Introducing. She was nominated for Rising Star at the Ivor Novello Awards this year and previously received coverage from Billboard, NME, and more. Smith has also performed at Mahalia Presents at the Jazz Cafe, supported Pip Millett at Somerset House, and joined Jordan Rakei and Elmiene on US, UK, and EU tour dates”.

I want to bring in some fairly recent chats with this London-based artist. Before getting to some 2026 interviews, I want to head back to last year. NOTION spent some time with Nia Smith. This “Popcaan cosign and a brief hiatus in the Caribbean, Nia Smith is back and wants to be at the front of everybody's mind. Here, she talks with effortless cool about 'Personal', being a proud Londoner, and most importantly, what's next”:

“Her musical journey began, slightly unexpectantly, with a stint playing the trombone, “I learnt it in primary school. It was definitely bigger than me when I was playing it!” From there, she began to explore piano and guitar, both of which she taught herself and still occasionally “dabbles with” to aid her songwriting. Nia, like many other notable figures in London’s music scene, such as Little Simz and Raye, attended the eponymous BRIT school. She studied on their musical theatre pathway, “it isn’t something I want to pursue now,” Nia says, but it remains a formative experience for the young star. “It was amazing to be around like-minded people from such an early age. It really built that hunger within me.”

What is distinct about Nia’s music is its pronounced London-ness. “Born and bred” in Brixton, she’s a proud resident of the capital. “The area has changed over the years, but I’ve still got my hair shop and my Caribbean food. When we get a Gail’s, it’s over.”  Both her style and lyricism ooze the complex nature of the metropolis and reflect a fine mix between coldness and vibrance

Nia’s rise to stardom originated from the TikTok videos she posted during the pandemic, singing covers of ‘Ex-Factor’ by Lauryn Hill, ‘Supermodel’ by SZA and ‘Wait a Minute!’ by Willow Smith. Like others who built and then grew beyond the realms of social media (PinkPantheress being a prime example), Nia has handled her newfound popularity with grace and ease. For the previous pop generation, who were notably non-technological habituals, the backlash of heightened exposure was something many grappled with and consequently found various vices to handle. But for Gen Z, fame does not seem to be such an alien or scary concept. They seem to handle it responsibly and with intention, most likely due to growing up experiencing a degree of exposure to the wider world through social media.

Though Nia feels unburdened by celebrity, she says it can be difficult to find time for herself, “I find it hard to take breaks. You can burn out really quickly in London and in this industry. You do a show, you do a shoot, then you go to your friends, then you do the same thing, and you are just never inside. You are always giving up part of yourself.”

So, as the British summer cooled and festival season concluded, the chaos of the past year caught up with Nia. She finally found a moment to take some rest from her busy schedule and, sometimes draining, London lifestyle. “I took some time to centre myself. I flew solo to Jamaica and went to Antigua with some family.” And if Nia was only able to listen to one album whilst on the island, she’s picking CHRONIXX’s 2017 reggae album, Chronology.

During her month-long break in Jamaica, Nia withdrew from work completely. “I told people not to shout me. I went totally MIA. It was honestly so nice to just hold a bit of me, for me.”

This period away, reconnecting with her family and exploring Jamaica, clarified her vision for the next steps of her music career, “To begin with, I was just making music that sounded good and felt like a vibe at the time.” Thinking about her next project, Nia wants to portray more of the person she is in real life. “Before, I wasn’t intentional about what I wanted.”

Now, with two feet grounded back in London, Nia is determined: “I know what I want to say and how I want to say it,” and she’s realised who she wants to collaborate with to take her sound to the next level, “I’m really big on having women around. I feel my most authentic self when I am working with women.”

“I am really interested in creativity outside of music,” reveals Nia. In her spare time, the singer-songwriter has been playing with other mediums. “I started painting for a time, but I found it to be too much like music in the fact that a painting, like a song, is never finished. You can just keep adding and adding.” Her search for an outlet that is separate from her musical artistry has landed on pottery in recent times, where she regularly attends a studio in south London.

So, after a stellar debut EP and great acclaim from the music industry, what is next for Nia Smith? “I haven’t dropped any music in a year. It’s boring, boring, boring.”  And although her lips are pursed on any of the major details of a new body of work, she hints that listeners can expect a “lyrically stronger” and more vulnerable portfolio that travels through genres she has not previously incorporated in her music to such a degree, “They are genres in this body that I haven’t properly explored in my work before, not to say I have shied away from them per se. This next release has still got that reggae bassline and drums, but there’s more R&B, soul, and all that good stuff meshed together”.

In March, DIY chatted with one of south London’s most essential and notable voices. This incredible talent who deserves to be wider known, you really do need to go and follow Nia Smith. Someone who is guaranteed to be making music for many years to come. A debut album surely on her mind:

“What was the first gig you ever went to? 
Dave at Brixton Academy with my friend - but also I bumped into my brother there! It was in 2019 - ‘Psychodrama’ era - and it was one of J Hus’ first gigs back, not gonna lie it was a legendary gig. ‘No Words’ and ‘Samantha’ were heaters, god, what a time!

What’s the story behind your first instrument? 
My first instrument was a trombone - I wanted to play the violin but everyone else did too, so I got the trombone. This was in primary school; I was a tiny tiny girl and it was bigger than me, I played it for about a year and I wasn’t bad to be honest.

The title of your new EP, ‘Payback is a dog’, is hugely evocative - not to mention a bit of a mantra! Do you believe in karma? Going into 2026, do you have any resolutions or boundaries you’re hoping to uphold? 
I don’t believe in karma… am I a walking contradiction? I don’t know. I believe God will do what he will do and that’s none of my business.

And that’s a good question… my 2026 mantra is ‘put yourself first and keep your nervous system calm and in check’.

What’s your ultimate road trip soundtrack? 
‘adore you’ by Fred Again.. and Obongjayar - it’s a song that means a lot to me, it’s good vibrations.

Finally, DIY is coming round for dinner - what are you making? 
Ooooh, I’ll make rasta pasta – yummmmy”.

I do want to move to DORK and their interview with Nia Smith from last month. There was a lot of interest around Payback Is a Dog. One of the finest E.P.s of this year, I do wonder where Smith goes next. There will be some live dates soon, but I am curious what her next musical step will be. If you have not listened to Payback Is a Dog, then go and listen to it now, as it will make a big impression. I guarantee:

“'Payback Is A Dog' is the sound of an artist blossoming into exactly who they want to be. The songs here are confident and emotionally direct, the product of Nia becoming more perceptive as a writer and capable of harnessing her words to capture emotions from both her own experiences and those she observes in others. "I had a lot of friends around me who were going through situations, whether it was relationship issues or just life. People who were changing cities and outgrowing things," she says of some of the stories that are told on the EP. "I wanted a project that could speak to people in that way. All of those feelings are very universal and real. I wanted a project where people could hear themselves and relate."

That relatability comes from Nia's beautifully realised observations on love, relationships and the turmoil that we can go through. "Vibey songs are always fun to make, but I think it's so much nicer with emotional songs to really dig in deep and think about how you want to paint the picture," she says. 'High' is a song where the little details and clever observations in Nia's lyricism elevate it to a new level. Her voice is immaculate and strong as it soars and swoops, but the real heart-stopping power lies in the words as she delivers a hugely evocative metaphor: a stormy relationship compared to frayed jeans that are only just hanging on. "For me, as a short person, my jeans always scrape along the floor and get frayed quite quickly," she laughs. "Sometimes it's taste, though, and you want those frayed jeans. It's evoking a picture that can be taken many ways. You can work on it and stay with the frayed jeans, or you can leave and get a new pair of jeans. Both are fine and totally OK. I wanted to give both sides of the coin with that song."

There's an emotional distinctness and depth of feeling to this EP that highlights the freedom and room to grow and develop that Nia has enjoyed as the music industry has begun to move beyond looking for instant wins and to recognise the benefits of letting immensely talented artists develop their voices and how to express their art. "I feel like I've been waiting for this time," says Nia excitedly. "It's a great time for British voices. When I first started, there was a lot of teen success like Billie Eilish, and I thought oh if I don't get that, it's not working but now I see people like Raye and Olivia Dean, and that gives me so much comfort that it's OK if it doesn't happen straight away, as your time will always come."

With over a year between her previous EP and this release, Nia has taken her time to make 'Payback Is A Dog' her most fully realised and impressive work, but is already moving on to what's next. "I'm definitely not in the same place I was when I made this project," she says intriguingly. "I'm in a totally different headspace. I'm even working on my next era now."

"I'm not afraid of using my voice," says Nia as she hints towards what comes next. "Sometimes I've shied away from using that big vocal moment. I didn't use it that much on 'Payback Is A Dog', but I am definitely doing it on the next." The belting and the vocal dynamics might be coming next, but for now, 'Payback Is A Dog' has all the emotional power and resonance needed to make it a striking step forward for one of the UK's supreme new talents”.

On an E.P. that “alchemises life’s lessons with confidence and poise”, this is a big moment for Nia Smith. NME interviewed one of our greatest young artists. I have not seen Nia Smith live, though this is something that I need to do. I have been a fan of her music for a while, so I would love to see her on the stage:

“Authenticity – in relationships, songwriting, life – is a priority for Smith. However, as a highly private person, the intimacy of the songwriting process can sometimes feel a bit uncomfortable. “I don’t really like to air my life, [or] everyone’s business,” she shares. “It’s why I pivoted with ‘Tough’. I wanted to write about men opening up [because] I’m not going to write about me, I’m not going to write about my friend – I’m going to write about a more universal situation that I can also relate to and that I visually see in my life.”

“I don’t really like to air my life, [or] everyone’s business […] I’m going to write about a more universal situation that I can also relate to”

Even though Smith tries her best to err towards a somewhat mysterious ambiguity with her lyrics, as a collection, ‘Payback Is A Dog’ feels far more reflective than ‘Give Up The Fear’, and marks a new era where cycles close, and new possibilities unfurl in the space left in their wake. In the EP, she recounts impactful changes in her life, but emphasises that while the songs do speak of a friendship break-up, a relationship breakdown, and changing cities, they call more to “tying up the knots of the seven stages of grief” and “all the feelings” that come “before, after, [and] in-between”.

A sample of the Stylistics’ ‘Payback Is A Dog’ introduces the EP with rage, but, by the project’s end, Smith wants listeners to be “feeling a little bit more hopeful”. ‘Limit’, incorporating a sample of James Blake’s cover of Feist’s ‘Limit To Your Love’, captures the arc of rediscovering your individual power with a pep in your step after a time of second-guessing your emotions.

Smith is also stretching herself sonically while trying to put positive twists to challenging times. ‘Stuntin’ and ‘Hope In Us’ are bouncy and carefree, despite the palpable irritation (“Lately I’ve been feeling every kind of way since you’ve been moving mad”, she quips in the latter); meanwhile, ‘Get My Get Back’ switches the code to slow jam R&B packed with ’90s tropes and accusations of cheating.

Despite the tone, resentment is absent. “I don’t want to be in a place where I’m making really angry, negative music,” Smith says, and she’s taking measures to make sure she’s processing her emotions through other means to avoid reimmersing herself in bad feelings every time she performs. “I want to make sure that I’m pouring it out in many ways, whether it’s through therapy or through friends, so as not to make that song like ‘I hate this person’.”

Does Smith believe in what goes around comes around? She ponders the question: “I don’t know if I believe in karma. I don’t necessarily believe in, no pun intended, get my get back. I believe God will reveal all, so I don’t really need to fight the battle when he’ll do it for me.”

In the past year, among the whirlwind of activity around her, she’s grown both as an artist and as a person, and now finds herself “not in the same place I was when I made this music”.  Now, more than ever, she is finding security and a sense of home inside herself first and foremost, before the wheel starts turning again. And turn it will: “I’m going to LA after [the release of the EP] for three weeks,” she shares. “No rest for the wicked!”.

I am going to wrap things up. Make sure you follow Nia Smith and check out Payback Is a Dog. This is a truly phenomenal artist who so many more people should hear. Smith has a large fanbase, though her music is worthy or universal acclaim. She is getting there at the moment and there is this growing fanbase in the U.S. I hope that world domination is very close for Nia Smith. She well and truly is…

A music sensation.

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Follow Nia Smith

FEATURE: New Dawn Fades: Remembering Ian Curtis at Seventy

FEATURE:

 

 

New Dawn Fades

IN THIS PHOTO: Ian Curtis at the Moonlight Club, London in 1980/PHOTO CREDIT: Peter Anderson

 

Remembering Ian Curtis at Seventy

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ONE of the most heartbreaking…

IN THIS PHOTO: Joy Division in 1980

losses in music history was when Ian Curtis died in 1980. He was only twenty-three. The incredible lead of Joy Division, he was one of the most distinctive voices and mesmeric leads ever. An accomplished songwriter and someone who seemed to inhabit the songs and felt every word, he was this rare talent that faced so many struggles and barriers. He died by suicide after struggling with severe epilepsy and depression. It must have been such a curse and burden for someone so blessed. Wanting to perform and write music but having to live with these debilitating illnesses, I did want to remember him as his seventieth birthday is on 15th July. He should be remembered as someone who led a group who have influenced artists like U2, Bloc Party and The Cure. This year, Ian Curtis was posthumously inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of Joy Division after two previous nominations. It is a fitting acknowledgment of his legacy and importance. I want to explore that more. However, this interesting blog piece about this great has a lot of personal meaning and depth. Those who were fans of Joy Division loved Ian Curtis. He had such a devoted following. Left shattered when he died in 1980:

“I did not discover the music of Joy Division until a few years after the death of their lead singer, Ian Curtis, but it was love at first sight.  Songs of doomed romance like ‘Love will tear us apart’ expressed what most troubled teenagers were feeling.  Never was the gloom and despair and solipsism of youth better conveyed.  The poster for the album Unknown Pleasures decorated the door into the bedroom of my first girlfriend, and when we split up after a year and a day, I turned to Joy Division for consolation.

Ian Curtis grew up in Macclesfield, Cheshire, where he distinguished himself at school by his poems, if not by his hard work.  He won a scholarship to secondary school but left at age of 16 and did a series of administrative jobs.  These included working as an Assistance Disablement Resettlement Officer, where he was responsible for trying to help disabled people find work, in an era which was even less open to disability employment than today.

Ian Curtis married at age 19 and became a father at age 22.  By then, he had already met Bernard Sumner and Peter Hook at a Sex Pistols gig.  The resulting band was first known as Warsaw, then as Joy Division (after a novel which described the women whom Nazis forced to prostitute themselves at the concentration camps).  The band played their first gig as Joy Division in January 1978, and were soon signed to Tony Wilson’s Factory Records.  With their spare, brooding sound, their black clothes, and Curtis’ frenzied dancing, they became a post-punk sensation, and were to inspire most of the alternative pop music which came after them.  Curtis was both singer and lyricist, his dark songs drawing on his love of writers and musicians including William Burroughs, JG Ballard and David Bowie.

The manic dancing owed something to Curtis’ experience of epilepsy.  He was diagnosed in January 1979, and his symptoms were never successfully controlled by medication.  As his disease worsened, he would sometimes have siezures on stage, possibly triggered by the strobe lighting.  In his recent memoir, Joy Division bass player Peter Hook remembers “looking at Ian wondering if, or when, it was going to happen”.  He records that Curtis’ onstage siezures left “some of the audience laughing, some scared, some cheering”.

Curtis’ song, “She’s lost control”, describes the experience of a seizure:

Confusion in her eyes that says it all
She’s lost control
And she’s clinging to the nearest passer by
She’s lost control
And she gave away the secrets of her past
And said I’ve lost control again
And of a voice that told her when and where to act
She said I’ve lost control again
And she turned around and took me by the hand and said
I’ve lost control again
And how I’ll never know just why or understand
She said I’ve lost control again
And she screamed out kicking on her side and said
I’ve lost control again
And seized up on the floor, I thought she’d died
She said I’ve lost control again, she’s lost control
Well I had to ‘phone her friend to state my case
And say she’s lost control again
And she showed up all the errors and mistakes
And said I’ve lost control again
And she expressed herself in many different ways
Until she lost control again
And walked upon the edge of no escape
And laughed I’ve lost control again
She’s lost control again, she’s lost control

Ian Curtis’ home life was increasingly difficult, particularly after he began an affair with a Belgian journalist, Annik Honoré, and left his wife and child.  His siezures were getting worse.  The band were under great pressure after the success of their first album, Unknown Pleasures.  Joy Division were due to tour America later in the year.  All of them still had “day jobs”, but were writing, recording and performing on evenings and weekends.    During an intense period of work, they recorded their second album, Closer, in April 1980.

The following month, Curtis tried to kill himself with a kitchen knife.  Neither his fellow bandmates nor his record label were seemingly able to give him the support or understanding he needed, even after a second suicide attempt by overdose.  But equally, Curtis was an introspective and secretive person who did not share his feelings easily or ask for help.  Tony Wilson said later “I think all of us made the mistake of not thinking his suicide was going to happen… We all completely underestimated the danger.  We didn’t take it seriously.  That’s how stupid we were.”   Another band member said “this sounds awful but it was only after Ian died that we sat down and listened to the lyrics.”

In the end, depressed, exhausted and under great personal strain because of the break-up of his marriage, Ian Curtis hung himself using a washing line in the kitchen of the house he had shared with his wife, on May 18, 1980.  His death helped propel him into legendary status, just as with the suicide of Kurt Cobain, or the  tragedies of Jim Morrison, Marc Bolan or Jimi Hendrix.  Perhaps the Romantic poets Keats and Shelley would be other apt comparisons for this tormented, disabled poet whose lyrics captured the ennui and angst not just of his generation, but of many since”.

In 2014, to mark Ian Curtis’s fifty-eighth birthday, Post-Punk.com transcribed a “BBC Blackburn interview, which is one of the few recordings of Ian being interviewed.  To the surprise of many, when Ian discusses shopping for records, one band that comes to mind for him happens to be Bauhaus, which he seemingly thought were from London”:

“WHAT SORT OF RELATIONSHIP DO YOU HAVE WITH OTHER MANCHESTER BANDS?

We tend to be pretty isolated now really…apart from the Factory groups. We have a lot to do with the other groups on Factory. We tend to play a lot of gigs with them and … there’s other things like erm the Durutti Column LP – the sandpaper sleeve –  we stuck that on. So everyone there, with each other, and groups they got booked with, groups like the Buzzcocks, that we knew when we started really. You know when we sort of see them, we talk to them, but it’s not very often. We’d like to, you know, see a lot more of other Manchester groups. Any other groups in general.

WHAT DO YOU THINK OF THE STATE OF NEW WAVE?

Don’t know. I think it’s, a lot of it tends to have lost its edge really. There’s quite a few new groups that I’ve heard.. odd records. Record or have seen maybe such as, eh, I like, I think it’s mostly old Factory groups really, I like the groups on Factory; A Certain Ratio and Section 25. I tend not to listen, when I’m listening to records, I don’t listen to much new wave stuff, i tend to listen to the stuff I used to listen to a few years back but sort of odd singles. I know someobody who works in a record shop where I live and I’ll go in there and he’ll play me “have you heard this single?” singles by er the group called The Tights,  so an obscure thing … and a group called, I think, er Bauhaus, a london group, that’s one single. There’s no one I completely like that I can say “well I’ve got all this person’s records. i think he’s great” or “this group’s records” it’s just, again, odd things

WHAT IS YOUR SORT OF RELATIONSHIP WITH FACTORY RECORDS

It’s very good sort of friends everyone knows each other it’s all 50:50. Everything’s split.

DOESN’T IT IT SEEM A BIT INSULAR SORT OF BEING IN THE FACTORY SORT OF SET UP?

Don’t know.  I suppose to somebody looking at it from the outside i suppose it is really
I mean you’re not pressurised into having to sign … like you know get a normal record company – they’re always looking for the next group for the next big thing … you know … to bring the record sales in and for them to promote and everything…but Factory just sign who they want to, put records by who they want to out, package it how they want to, you know, how they like doing it. It’s just run like that. You might get sort of a spurt of 3 singles out – you might not see anything for the next 6 months. You know. I like the relationship.

YOU HAVE A COUPLE OF TRACKS ON THE THIRD FAST EARCOM, WAS IT? OR IS IT THE SECOND FAST EARCOM?

Yeah. It’s the second one, yeah.

HOW DID YOU GET INVOLVED WITH FAST? AN EDINBURGH COMPANY?

Yeah, it was when we started playing; we played a few dates with The Rezillos. Bob Last was their manager at the time and he talked then about setting up a record label. And he wanted us to do a single for them. But due to Factory coming along and other things – he did things with Gang of 4 and The Human League first and got tied in in a sort of management way with The Human League – I think he manages another one – it never came about. When we were doing the album we had quite a few tracks left over; we recorded 16 in all and just cut 10 and our manager, Rob Gretton, had talked to him about certain things and we’d always sort of kept in touch. He mentioned his idea for Earcom and we just offered him the 2 tracks to put out on that. Cos we like to get everything we record out one way or another, like we’ve done the Earcom, we’re doing the Sordide Sentimental thing, which are a French limited edition magazine-cum-record thing. There are two tracks on that that will be coming out that won’t be on an album or a single. It’s just that we like getting, you know, as much stuff out as we can, really. In some form or another. You know, it’s often hard with Factory because obviously they’re limited financially. I mean you can’t just put out a record, you know, when you’ve got other things planned. So with no room on the LP, we tend to look for other outlets for them, really. See what we can do.

WHERE DO YOU SEE OR WHERE DO YOU FEEL YOU WANT JOY DIVISION TO END OR GO TO?

I just want to carry on the way we are, I think. Basically we want to play and enjoy what we like playing.­ I think when we stop doing that I think, well, that will be the time to pack it in. That’ll be the end”.

What is the legacy of Ian Curtis? In May, MOJO ran a feature on the anniversary of Ian Curtis’s death. Although his final months were tragic and marred by increased illness and torment, we cannot associate this incredible artist with darkness and tragedy. MOJO spoke with “bandmates, friends and family help to unravel the story of an artist torn apart by love, epilepsy and duty”:

“Ian just seemed like one of us,” recalls Hook. “He had an Army & Navy flak jacket with ‘Hate’ written on the back. That was quite good. He was quiet and polite. Dead nice, really. He had a mate at college who painted doors on the floorboards. That’s Macclesfield for you! Then Steve joined. Did coming from Macclesfield make them outsiders? In a way. It was green hills and open spaces. They were both fuckin’ mad.”

Joy Division’s unusual sound developed during 1977 and 1978 at T.J. Davidson’s, a drab, ugly textile warehouse converted to a rehearsal space. Now demolished, it was situated on Little Peter Street, behind Deansgate Station on the fringes of Manchester city centre. In winter, it was so cold the group used to start fires with scavenged wood to keep themselves warm. The group – initially called Warsaw – practised for three hours every Saturday afternoon. All of them had day jobs.

Their originality stemmed from a punk naïveté. “None of us could play a note,” explains Bernard Sumner. “So instead we decided to use our brains and intelligence to do something original. We learned to play within our limits. What we did was simple and powerful.”

“There was none of this ‘four bars of that’ malarkey,” grins Morris. “It was like, ‘Play that riff twice and then do another riff.’ We had no musical language at all. None of us knew what a bar was. We used to argue about it, ‘Hang on, that’s your idea of a bar, not mine.’”

Tony Wilson describes Warsaw, who regularly played Manchester’s punk venues – Electric Circus, Rafters – as a “fucking cacophony with a great singer”. Famously, Hook played melodic riffs high up on the neck of his bass because his equipment was so poor it was the only way he could hear himself. Their music was edgy and intense. In From Joy Division To New Order, Mick Middles posits the theory that the group may have unwittingly been funnelling the vibrations of T.J. Davidson’s grim, industrial past.

Sumner and Hook take the psycho-architectural link even further.

“My background was working class,” says Bernard. “I lived in Alfred Road with my mother and my grandparents. It was a Coronation Street-style house. My niece and aunties lived in the same road. There was a chemical factory at the end of the street, which backed onto the River Irwell. It stank. When I was 11 we were moved into a tower block. We thought it was great. It had a bathroom and an airing cupboard. But it was also the breaking up of that community. I thought everyone in the street would move into the same tower block, but they didn’t.”

Hook: “Where Bernard and I lived it was dark, it was the ’50s and ’60s, there was still smog, rows and rows of terraced houses. It was black and claustrophobic.”

“There was something subconscious in my mind,” adds Bernard. “The displacement and sense of loss I had… Then my stepfather died. I was quite angry. Up until I was moved to a tower block, everything was really good. Afterwards it wasn’t. I think that may have affected the music in some way.”

“Joy Division were from the north side of Manchester,” the group’s producer, Martin Hannett, explained to Martin Aston in an unpublished interview from 1989. “It’s a science fiction city. Not like the south side at all. It’s all industrial archaeology, chemical plants, warehouses, canals, railways, roads that don’t take any notice of the areas they traverse. The incidence of serious diseases in north Manchester is 50 per cent higher than anywhere else in the country. Grim, eh?”

Ian was a working class bloke who had to go out and make a living. He had responsibilities and struggled hard to feed his family. I think that makes him more rock’n’roll.

Peter Hook

In April 1978, Ian Curtis handed Tony Wilson a note at a local battle-of-the-bands contest, the itinerant Stiff/Chiswick Challenge, informing him he was a “fucking cunt” for not booking the band on his Granada TV show, So It Goes. Within a year the group had recorded an album, Unknown Pleasures, for Wilson’s new independent label, Factory Records (no advances, no contracts). It was only when Martin Hannett – who based its sound on The Doors’ Strange Days – played them a test pressing that they properly heard what Curtis was singing about.

The lyrical content was blacker even than their music: death, religion, love, war. There were references to “the blood of Christ”, a girl’s uncontrollable seizures, childhood rooms filled with “bloodsport and pain”. His poetry was chilling, polished and original. Just as the group never analysed their music, no one ever asked Curtis to explain the words he sang in his rich, powerful tenor. It wasn’t as if Joy Division were consciously trying to preserve their own mystery. “Ian’s words sounded great,” says Hook. “That’s all that was important at the time.”

It’s a wet, drizzly night in December and Macclesfield isn’t in the mood to give up its secrets. MOJO is trying to find the “monstrous” grey council block behind the town station where Ian Curtis lived as a teenager. After 40 minutes trudging around the perimeter of Victoria Park, I give up. It later transpires that Park View flats were demolished 18 months ago.

Deborah, Ian’s widow – who now uses her maiden name Woodruff – has fond memories of them. “I remember Ian standing on the balcony, wearing his sister’s pink fluffy jacket and eyeliner,” she smiles. “He was tall and imposing, over six foot, a little bit frightening. This was 1973. Did he ever attract trouble? No. He could give people the stare.”

We are sitting in a pub, the Station Hotel, opposite the railway station, looking out on Macclesfield’s old industrial centre, warehouses and textile factories now converted to posh flats and heritage museums. When it was first published 10 years ago, Deborah’s memoir, Touching From A Distance, gave the first intimate and detailed picture of the singer’s life. It was an intensely moving book (and soon to be turned into the film Control).

Ian Curtis was 16 when Deborah first met him. A bright grammar school boy who’d passed seven O-Levels, he was also a pharmaceutical adventurer (solvents, Valium, barbiturates) and music nut (Lou Reed, Bowie, MC5, Iggy). His interest in drugs got him expelled from school – where Steve Morris was in the year below. Ian’s father worked as a detective in the Transport Police: it’s from him that Ian apparently inherited his love for literature and “silent moods”. Though living at 11 Park View when they began courting, Curtis had spent his early life in Hurdsfield, on the outskirts of Macclesfield.

“From what I can tell it was a fairly idyllic childhood,” says Deborah. “Wandering around fields, building dams in brooks, chasing pigs. It always puzzled me why he was so obsessed with writing about cityscapes. Maybe he felt guilty that he wasn’t trapped in one. Ian was angry,” adds Deborah. “But I was never sure why.”

Deborah found Ian charismatic and attractive. He was highly creative and original, and kept box files full of poems, lyrics and stories. He often stayed up late writing. He was desperate to make it as a rock star. Deborah recalls that he was smitten with tragic figures like James Dean and Jim Morrison; he also, she says, entertained romantic fantasies of his own early death.

He read Hesse, Sartre, Ballard, Dostoevsky, sought out cult films by Herzog and Fassbinder and, like most youths of his generation, was fascinated with Nazi Germany and military history. (Hence ‘Joy Division’, the corps of Jewish women forced to pleasure SS officers in the concentration camps.) Later, when Joy Division was taking off, Ian privately corresponded with Genesis P Orridge from Throbbing Gristle, punk’s foremost avant-garde thinker and outré performer.

“He was really clever,” she explains. “He could have done something very cerebral. He was a fantastic writer and had plans for various works. It’s a loss in that way. His lyrics are fantastic – imagine if he wrote a novel…”

Intelligent though he undoubtedly was, the man Deborah describes in her book isn’t always likeable; nor is he standard-issue rock’n’roll material. His politics were to the right. In 1975, he voted Conservative and insisted Deborah did the same. Though caring and tender, he could also be insecure, possessive and controlling. According to Deborah, she agreed to their marriage in 1975 under duress: Curtis made vague threats that he might do something to himself if she turned him down.

At their engagement party Ian violently threw his Bloody Mary over his fiancée, believing she was flirting with an uncle. Later that evening, she saw Curtis dance for the first time – the awkward, weaving shimmy the world now knows so well. She didn’t think it unusual at the time.

Once married, Deborah often found it hard to talk to her husband about his poetry and deeper thoughts. “He didn’t communicate very well,” she sighs. “You never knew what his agenda was.”

He got a job in a Manchester record store and was an early convert to punk. When he met Sumner and Hook he had the means to channel his literary ambitions and rock star dreams into something real.

Throughout 1978 and ’79, when the group was taking off, he worked hard to keep his domestic and band life together. He took his new job, at the Manpower Services Commission, seriously. He and Deborah were so strapped for cash he even cleaned the group’s rehearsal room for a few extra quid. When Tony Wilson co-opted Joy Division to glue together the sandpaper sleeves for Durutti Column’s Return Of The… LP, the rest of the group paid Ian to do theirs for them. Meanwhile, they sat and watched a porn film.

In social situations Ian was witty and good company. He was also capable of being provocative, especially after a few drinks. In her book, Deborah mentions being upset when she heard that Ian had entertained the band with an offensive story about a Pakistani family defecating into sheets of newspaper and hurling the parcels into a neighbour’s garden.

There was, it seemed, a disturbing and unfathomable side to Curtis. It was only seen occasionally, but it was, says Morris, like “someone had flicked a switch”. His first encounter with “alter-Ian” came not long after he joined the group, and they all went to see The Stranglers at the Electric Circus. “We couldn’t get in, so we went to the pub,” Morris explains. “The Stranglers’ drummer, Jet Black, was in there smoking a pipe. So Ian said, ‘Look, I’ll go over and sort us out.’ He was drunk [and] the next thing was like, Where’s Ian gone? Then I saw him necking with some bird I’d never seen before in me life! It was like, What?! I said, Do you know her? He said, ‘No.’ So Ian is wearing a black star on his lapel and goes up to [journalist] Paul Morley, who says, ‘That’s a fascist symbol’, and Ian says, ‘No, it’s not, Paul, it’s anarchy, FUCKING ANARCHY!’ Then Ian said, ‘Shall we go into the ladies bogs?’ And I was like, Ladies’ bogs? Erm, why would we want to? It was frightening. He did like to carry on with the ladies.”

“Ian did have a bit of Jekyll and Hyde thing,” agrees Sumner. “I remember he tried kicking in the door of the dressing room at [the Stiff/Chiswick Challenge] gig, when Paul Morley and Kevin Cummins were taking ages to come on-stage. He [once] got so wound up arguing with Rob Gretton he ran around shouting with a bucket on his head. I thought it funny more than anything else.”

Outside the group, Ian and Deborah enjoyed a fairly ordinary domestic life. At weekends, they would take country walks with their dog. In April 1979, the Curtises became a trio when a daughter, Natalie, was born. His existence was, in many respects, the paradigm of normality. I put it to Hooky that Curtis – and Joy Division – weren’t very rock’n’roll in comparison with The Clash and Sex Pistols, who lived in squats, stole their food from street markets, and led a bohemian, art school life. He bristles. “Ian was a working-class bloke who had to go out and earn a living,” he says. “We all were. All those other bands you mention were middle-class and had money. We had nothing, it was totally derelict where we came from in Manchester. Ian had responsibilities, he struggled hard to feed his family, even though he’d rather have played music all day.

“I think that makes him more rock’n’roll. Don’t you?”

In October 1979, with a new single, Transmission, out, the group set out on tour with the Buzzcocks. By now, Unknown Pleasures, was a permanent fixture on the indie album chart. In Sounds, Jon Savage proclaimed it to be “one of the best, white, English debut LPs of the year”.

The Buzzcocks’ Steve Diggle remembers the group as “very reserved. I don’t know if we frightened them off because we were pissed-up and full of drugs. We had a different verve and spark. It was rock’n’roll. They seemed reticent and timid.” Many claim that Joy Division’s deeply emotional, sheet-metal roar blew the ’Cocks off the stage. (Diggle, not surprisingly, dismisses such talk: “Another Factory myth. Most of the audience were still in the bar when they played. We were louder, heavier… No, quite impossible.”)

On October 16 the group journeyed on their own to Brussels Raffinerie du Plan K, an old sugar refinery converted into an arts centre. The evening culminated in a reading by beat legends Williams Burroughs and Brion Gysin from their collaboration The Third Mind. “To be honest, we all liked that kind of stuff, but we didn’t go on about it,” says Morris. “We didn’t go around in black or wearing sunglasses inside. But occasionally Ian would reveal that part of himself. I remember he went smooching over to Burroughs. We were like, ‘Great, we’ve got a crate of double-dead-strong beer, can we get another?’ He was off getting his book signed.”

Later, a drunken Ian reverted to type and pissed into the aforementioned metal ashtray. When a member of staff remonstrated with him, he sarcastically addressed her in slow, loud English, casting her in the role of stu-pid for-eign-er.

The constant touring and exhilaration of being the music press’s bright new promise was beginning to adversely affect Ian’s health. At the end of the previous year, in December 1978, he had suffered his first epileptic seizure, following Joy Division’s first ever London gig, at the Hope & Anchor in Islington. He had been prescribed medication, but the attacks were becoming ever more frequent, more violent. On a couple of occasions, Diggle recalls that the Buzzcocks were asked to extend their set, so fans wouldn’t interfere with ambulance crews trying to reach Ian backstage. The seizures usually occurred either on-stage or directly after performances.

Soon, however, there would be another stress that would send Ian’s epilepsy spiralling out of control. The last night of the tour, at the Rainbow Theatre in Finsbury Park, Steve Diggle was chatting at the bar when Ian approached him. “We were talking generally about it being a good tour, how everything had gone really well, etc,” he recalls. “Then Curtis said, ‘I’ve got this problem. I met this girl in Europe and I’m married with a kid.’ He said it in a very sensitive and troubled way. That sort of thing was happening to a lot of people around us at that time. The temptations of the road. I just said, Don’t worry, mate. You’ll get over it! Other blokes would have laughed about it, but Curtis didn’t. It seemed to be a real problem. I didn’t realise how much of a problem.”

When Joy Division sped off down Ian’s street to start their European tour on January 10, 1980, Curtis looked directly ahead and didn’t wave goodbye to Deborah. Annik Honoré, the girl he’d met at Plan K in Brussels, would be secretly accompanying him throughout the tour. None of the other band members had a wife or girlfriend in tow. Annik worked at the Belgian Embassy in London. She was, by all accounts, “glamorous and exotic”.

On the road, the usual pranks and japes prevailed. “In Cologne, I did the stupidest thing that I’ve ever done,” says Morris. “We quite liked speed at the time. We sent someone to get some, and he came back and said, ‘I’ve got you this.’ It was like this red star.”

“It was called a Belgrade Star,” clarifies Peter Hook. “Steve swallowed it. This guy was like, ‘On no! Dat is five hits of acid!’ He took the lot in one go. Steve was out of his mind for two days. We were staying in a loft space, 12 feet up. Twinny, our roadie, thought it would be amusing to take the ladder away for the night.”

Morris: “I spent the rest of the tour tripping. I kept shouting, I’m going to chop off your head with an axe!”

Having Ian’s mistress travelling with them inevitably caused tensions. “I liked her,” says Hook. “But she was very bossy and domineering. The funny one was staying in a brothel. I can’t remember where. Speakers under the bed. You hired it by the half hour. After the gig we were in the van outside, waiting to go in. Annik said, ‘Hang on, ziz is a knock-ink shop!’ Yeah, so what? She said, ‘I am not staying in an ’ouse of ill-repute.’ So we said, Look, you’re shagging a married bloke, so what the fuck are you talking about, you silly cow!”

Outwardly, Curtis didn’t seem fazed by what was clearly an awkward situation. However, once the tour had finished and he was back home with a suspicious Deborah in Macclesfield, there was a sign that he was deeply troubled. One night, he drunkenly sought out a Bible. Having studied religion at school, he knew just where to look. He gouged out chapter two of The Revelation Of St John The Divine. It concerned the wanton Jezebel: “Behold, I will cast… them that commit adultery with her into great tribulation.”

Later, it transpired that same night he’d cut himself up, too. Unbeknown to anyone, Ian’s life was entering its final phase”.

On 15th July, it will be Ian Curtis’s seventieth birthday. Rather than it being about his short life and how turbulent his life got towards the end, I wanted to use the opportunity to put in music and interviews. So many artists who have followed looked up to Ian Curtis. One of the all-tiume great songwriters. Even though Joy Dicivison released two studio albums – 1979’s Unknown Pleasures and 1980’s Closer -, they are perfect and incredible influential. Ian Curtis’s voice and songwriting talent front and centre. I do wonder whether Joy Division would still be playing if Curtis had lived. You do wonder just what he could have achieved in life. It is sad he was only twenty-three when he died, but he achieved so much and left his permanent mark on music history. We should remember fondly…

THIS much-missed great.

FEATURE: Kate Bush: The Tour of Life: The Regret of Missing the Life-Affirming Before the Dawn

FEATURE:

 

 

Kate Bush: The Tour of Life

IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush in a publicity shot for 2014’s Before the Dawn/PHOTO CREDIT: Trevor Leighton

 

The Regret of Missing the Life-Affirming Before the Dawn

__________

THERE is no telling…

IN THIS PHOTO: Florian Hynam from Bristol with her Kate Bush ticket/PHOTO CREDIT: David Levene

what the atmosphere was like on 26th August, 2014 around Hammersmith. I have written an anniversary feature about Before the Dawn. I wanted to publish a second, as it was a major event that took a lot of people by surprise. This was Kate Bush’s first extensive and big live event since 1979’s The Tour of Life. I do think that Before the Dawn is among the greatest live events in the past couple of decades. A residency that saw Bush perform twenty-two dates in the Eventim Apollo, one of my greatest regrets is not being there. I would not make that mistake again. If there was an announcement of any live outing – most probably a one-off -, I would make sure that I got a ticket. I often have these dreams that I made it to Hammersmith on that opening night in 2014. Being the first one there – as I would turn after just after lunch -, I am at the start of the queue and hanging around. Eventually, people would trickle in. Other hardcore fans who are keen to soak in as much of the day as possible. Then, just before doors open in the evening, there would be this jostling and exciting energy. A lot of fans from around the world flocked to Hammersmith. In terms of those who attended Before the Dawn, major artists like Lily Allen and Paul McCartney alongside broadcaster Lauren Laverne. Bjork and Peter Gabriel were there. Fans of her work and artists who have influenced her. I can imagine there was this sense of expectation on her shoulders. However, Bush delivered this incredible performance across the twenty-two dates. Whilst some reviewers pointed to the odd flaw here and there, the abiding takeaway was Before the Dawn as this incredibly powerful and memorable gig. As we mark twelve years since the start of the residency, I did want to write about it once more.

For this feature, I am going to look at the opening night. As I have referenced this feature from The Guardian before, I do think that it warrants repetition. We get excites about sports events and the build up to them. The action as it happens. On 26th August, 2014, there was this sort of anticipation and fever around Before thew Dawn. People did not know what to expect. Bush insisted that people did not take photos and record during the show. One of the first artists to insist on doing this. More and more artists adopting this approach. This was to be a shared experience for the ages. One where There was this incredible reaction from people inside the venue. Rather than just include reviews and repeat what I have done a lot, there are some takeaways and sections from The Guardian’s live-blog report of the opening night. Rumoured celebrities like David Bowie and Madonna (who were not there). Others in tears and completely overwhelmed by the performance.

“Yes, you read the headline correctly: This here is the Guardian music Kate Bush Before The Dawn live blog. Tonight is the artist’s first show in 35 years. Her last tour took place back in 1979 and featured 17 costume changes, 6 dancers dressed as violins, 1 large egg, loads of fake blood and 24 songs packed with pure, celestial majesty. Hopefully her opening night at London’s Eventim Apollo will follow an even more elaborate set up, but unfortunately I won’t be there to witness it. Instead, will be sat in the Guardian building trying to piece together as much information as possible in order to bring this very special show straight to you at home.

As the show begins, here’s Hannah Ellis-Petersen’s report from the venue so far:

They lined up quietly and obediently in the rain, a mood of hushed anticipation hanging in the air. No-one jostled, no-one pushed in, no-one even really spoke. After all, for the hundreds of Kate Bush fans gathered outside Hammersmith Apollo for her opening show, this was simply the final moments of what has been a 35-year wait.

Returning to the same venue where she played her first and last shows in 1979, aged just 20, Bush, now 56, will perform 22 dates over the next month. Yet what the thousands of fans, many of whom have travelled from as far as the USA and Australia, can expect from the enigmatic performer remained a mystery, even as the ticket-holders began filing into the venue.

For Chad Siwek, 30, who flew over from Los Angeles, California, for the concerts and has ticket for all three of Bush’s opening nights, described standing at the venue on Tuesday night as “like a dream.”

“Kate Bush just means everything to me, she cares more about her work and pleasing her fans than the commercial value or just making money off it” he says, stopping as his voice breaks with emotion. “I’m sorry, i’m getting choked up but it’s just my whole life I’ve been a huge Kate Bush fan. I’ll cry when she comes out and I think i’ll just be in awe that it’s really her as I’ve never seen her in person. It’s going to be really special and to be here means more than any other moment of my life.”

Siwek was not the only member of the patiently-waiting crowd who had flown from Los Angeles, with Daren Taylor, drummer for band The Airborne Toxic Event, among those right at the front of the queue.

He said: “I’ve flown in from Los Angeles, California today just to see Kate Bush. It’s not easy to express what Kate Bush means to me. Her music touches me, and I’m sure everybody here, in very unique ways. I don’t think any two people will tell you the same thing that her music means to them.”

The setlist for the show has been kept completely under wraps, though the performance itself is expected by many to include similar theatrics to her 1979 show, which included 17 costume changes as well as combination of mime, flamboyant dancing and poetry. For this series of shows, the influential singer is reported to have spent three days in a flotation tank at Pinewood Studios to create the special effects.

While some many fans have speculated the show will include include The Ninth Wave, a seven-track concept piece from her bestselling 1985 album Hounds of Love about a woman drifting alone in the sea, others said they would be content even with something low key.

PHOTO CREDIT: Noble & Bright/REX Photograph

“It’s not going to be a straight up gig is it?” said Susie Martin, 28, a teacher from Barnsley and lifelong Bush fan who said she had cried when she heard that the singer was ending her 35-year moratorium on touring. “But equally I’d like to just see her up on stage, one piano, one spotlight, Moments of Please and Under the Ivy, This Woman’s work. Because I think she’s at her absolute best, she’s peerless, when it’s just her and a piano and that voice. Today is quite overwhelming.”

Asked what Bush meant to her, Martin added: “Her music is so original, so stunning, so beautiful but it’s not just the music it’s the visual aspect of it, it’s the lyrics, she puts everything into it and never compromises. Every emotion in your life, whatever you are feeling there’s a Kate Bush song for it to help you get through things or dance wildly round your bedroom.”

Tim Jonze has just fed back some information, possibly from the toilet, but I didn’t want to ask.

So far there’s been a standing ovation after every song. They are patrolling for phones in a very intense way. Some guy stood up and did wavy Kate Bush dancing and got told off.

Kate is bare foot and keeps doing a slow spinny dance. The crowd are going completely mad. She’s already played Hounds of Love and Running Up That Hill.

She thanked her lighting guys and son Bertie who is singing in the choir.

It sounds like quite a strict and yet magical affair”.

You do get a sense of all of the emotions and commotions. Fans who were taking pictures and defying that request not too. Most were completely immersed in what was happening on the stage. I cannot think of many opening nights quite like this one since. Maybe tours from Taylor Swift or Charli xcx. Nothing that brings so many high-profile names and such a wide range of fans to the same place. There was something historic about Before the Dawn’s opening date of 26th August, 2014. Rumours that David Bowie was going to join Kate Bush on stage for a number. That obviously never happened, but it was a night when nobody could be sure. All this excitement and wondering.

PHOTO CREDIT: Ken McKay/REX Photograph

“Breaking Bush update: One man claims that Kate stopped the set to eject someone using a camera. Grace Jones and Bjork are also apparently in attendance. There is a very strong rumour going around my desk mainly that Harriet Gibsone has cracked open her second can of sparkling apple and blueberry juice. She is feeling optimistic and nauseous.

So far the costumes look pretty sombre. Here’s an extract from Graeme Thomson’s account of her previous tour attire:

For Them Heavy People she was a trench-coated, trilby-hatted gangster. On the heartbreaking Oh England, My Lionheart, she became a dying second world war fighter pilot, a flying jacket for a shroud and a Biggles helmet for a burial crown. Every song offered something new: she moved from Lolita, winking outrageously from behind the piano, to atop-hatted magician’s apprentice ; from a soul siren singing of her “pussy queen” to a leather-clad refugee from West Side Story. The erotically charged denouement of James and the Cold Gun depicted her as a murderous gunslinger, spraying gunfire – actually ribbons of red satin – over the stage. There was no room for improvisation. The band was drilled to within an inch of its life and Bush never spoke to the audience, refusing to come out of character. “She was faultless,” says set designer David Jackson. “I don’t remember her ever fluffing a line or hitting a bum note on the piano.”

After we last spoke to Tim Jonze, the show went from stripped back and simple to a full onslaught of theatrics. As previously speculated, Bush has performed The Ninth Wave, the conceptual suite from her 1985 classic album Hounds of Love. Here’s Tim’s account...

She created sea scenes through using bits of cloth, she was on video in a life jacket, there was one bit where a lounge was wheeled on stage, and you got to watch a conversation between her husband [Danny McIntosh] and son [Bertie] who are watching Liverpool v Chelsea on the TV. She disappears behind them as if she is haunting them. There’s a sea horse skeleton walking around the stage.

...And that’s it so far. It makes about as much sense as the half-awake ramblings of Noel Fielding.

As we slowly glide into the last part of Kate Bush’s first show, here’s a quick update of some of the well known names in attendance. Three of which are made up. If you can guess which ones are false, you can win an egg (This is a reference from earlier on in the live blog, but I wouldn’t bother scrolling down to find it, just play along in order to win an exclusive egg!).

  • Frankie Goes To Hollywood’s Holly Johnson

  • Pink Floyd’s Dave Gilmour

  • Marc Almond

  • Axl Rose

  • Frank Lampard

  • Frank Skinner

  • Michael Ball

  • Terry Christian

Everyone’s favourite Before the Dawn roving reporter Hannah Ellis-Petersen been speaking to some fans during the interval:

Ben McMullen:

“It’s been fantastic. I was quite nervous. I’ve never come to a gig feeling nervous before but I was just thinking, ‘Oh no, this is going to be a letdown because the hype was so huge.’ But actually, it really was fabulous. What was really interesting I thought was the tribute she paid to her son. In the programme there’s a passage where she talks about how he’s really pushed her to do this and how without his support she couldn’t have done it. He’s been on stage with her the whole time as a backing singer and has been involved in some of the acting as well. There’s been a helicopter flying overhead and there’s been a huge sea-buoy on stage which she climbed onto to be rescued. They’ve not held back in terms of staging. But it’s completely worth it. You kind of think, ‘I should have booked a second night’.”

Mikey Walsh:

“It’s been wonderful, theatrical. It was everything I wanted it to be. The theatrically of it has been incredible - lots of surprises but she also included the hit songs you hope she would do. Just hearing those classic songs live from her and seeing the way the audience have gone mad for her, it’s mental. What’s absolutely crazy is how respectful they are - everyone has respected that message she sent out about no camera phones, I haven’t seen one. Just seeing Kate walk out in her bare feet and say hello was the most surreal moment and her voice is fantastic, she sounds excellent, so confident and so beautiful. Water has really been a motif of the show, there are lots of sea effects and helicopters. It’s nothing like I’ve any concert ever been to, it’ more like watching a West End show. It’s phenomenal.”

As Alexis hurtles back to write his review for the Guardian, here’s a quick look at what some of the other papers are saying, starting off with The Mirror:

Bush’s long time away from the stage has evidently left her determined to add something more than song performance to the live experience. A lighting rig amplified with the sounds of helicopter rotor blades soars over the audience belching more smoke, Bush’s drowned character appears in a drawing room theatrical scene as she and actors play out mimed exchanges harking back to her earliest dramatic roots. But at the heart of the artful contrivance and outlandish effects the assertion of the simple verities of love longing, domesticity and family life were given full reign. There was undoubtedly only one artist who would have had the bloody mindedness, nerve and beautifully skewed imagination to pull it off.

And Jan Moir for the Daily Mail:

Some over-enthusiastic dancers were also told to sit down – middle class ‘rawk and roll’ at its best. After all this time, Kate Bush remains that rare thing, a performer who is truly original and fully realised. Her panoply of crazy women, all those wild-eyed kooks she used to haunt the Top Of The Pops studio with, have gone, along with her mini-kimonos or thigh-high sheepskin boots. Her music is still audacious and weird, but sometimes spellbindingly beautiful, too. Hers is a large-scale spectacle, vividly realised and unlike anything else in town”.

I don’t think we can ever recreate that sense of build and excitement that happened at the Eventim Apollo, London on 26th August, 2014. If Bush was to ever perform again and there was either a residency or a one-off gig, you can imagine that there would be similar ecstasy. Perhaps not quite on the same level, I am not sure whether Kate Bush will perform live. It makes it all the more upsetting that I was not there. I would love to have been there during that opening night. As part of this adoring crowd that were witnessing something truly special. I do want to end with a review that I don’t think I have used too often. Drowned In Sound were in attendance on the opening night and shared their thoughts:

“It’s tempting to speculate on how Kate chose the six songs that make up this first act, drawn as they are from just three album eras: ‘Hounds Of Love’ and ‘Running Up That Hill (A Deal With God)’ from 1985, ‘Lily’ and ‘Top Of The City’ from 1993, ‘Joanni’ and ‘King Of The Mountain’ from 2005. ‘Lily’, a song based on an occultist protection spell, opens the show with references to the Golden Dawn and a circle of fire, providing a thematic link for what is to come in act three. Lights flash red and orange as the song passes by in a blur of mental processing… Kate freaking Bush! In real, actual life! Then, almost without pause for breath, everything is jolted into focus – “It’s in the trees, it’s coming!” – and we’re racing through one of the greatest pop songs ever written. Kate slightly over-sings it, caught up in the glorious moment, but it still feels like a fresh and staggering milestone in passion. All this on only the second song of the night. Before The Dawn is not for the fainthearted.

From there, Kate’s vocals never stray far from perfection. ‘Joanni’ and ‘Top Of The City’ confirm that the brittle purr and fierce-fragile sensuality of her youth are still very much within her reach, making the most of the bespoke surround sound system newly installed at Kate’s behest, while ‘Running Up That Hill’ loses not a fragment of its power. But perhaps the biggest highlight is ‘King Of The Mountain’, her mid-tempo comeback single from 2005, transformed brilliantly into something altogether more urgent and vital than the studio version. Wide-eyed and energised, we arrived abruptly at what could be described as the staging’s clickbait moment: “This woman sang in public for the first time in 35 years, and you’ll never guess what happened next…” To be honest, it was at this point that I stopped taking notes. I could labour over the details of how The Ninth Wave is staged, but to do so from my crow’s nest view at the back of the Apollo would be a terrible disservice to the incredible amount of work that has gone into this production. Readers, I was rapt.

What I can say for certain is that I have never seen anything like it before. Kate’s commitment to the project extended to floating in a tank at Pinewood Studios for several hours to create the astonishingly effective video backdrops that underpin the twisted tale of a woman lost at sea. The agitation in her face may have been aided by the cold that, according to her own essay in the programme, left her effing and blinding by the end of the shoot, but the acting was as note-perfect as the voice. For some of these segments, the vocals had been recorded in the tank itself – a logistical nightmare that ended the life of more than one mike – and it’s to Kate’s immense credit that she took this extra step to ensure we really believed in the story. ‘And Dream Of Sheep’ brings a lump to the throat, as Kate’s character comes to terms with her predicament and hopes for an early demise. The deliberate tremble in her voice cuts like an axe, both pathos and payoff, and resurfaces again in the chilling ‘Hello Earth’ – the story of a rescue… or is it?

Between those two songs comes a melee of action, where dark, twisted drama is leavened with a few endearing nods to Kate’s enduring love of British comedy. ‘Under Ice’ and ‘Waking The Witch’ are fearless evocations of Kate’s visual imagination, loaded with creative innovations that bring the storytelling into vivid, 21st century realness. Lasers and projections are used to extreme effect, creating all manner of light trails across the stage. Images flood into the brain; in one gorgeous moment, wild white horses can be seen running through sheets of rippling fabric, returning into waves as dramatically as they had changed. As ‘Jig Of Life’ plays out beneath her, the stranded woman on the screen starts to draw strength from her surroundings, wiggling her fingers in time to the music. She wants to live, to be saved. She has to, doesn’t she? With her little light still shining.

Act three is all about light, a chronicle of day as it turns into night. This act belongs to A Sky Of Honey, the nine-song suite that fills the entire second disc of Aerial with chirrups of birdsong and abstractions of domestic bliss that give way to some of Kate’s more out-there leanings. It’s true that nothing much happens in these songs, with a couple of notable exceptions (the flamenco breakdown in ‘Sunset’, the crescendo of ‘Nocturn’ that leads into the wheeling, madcap finale of ‘Aerial’), but, as with everything we’ve seen so far, it’s marvellously and inventively staged. As the light transforms, so does Kate herself as a wicked spell abounds. Perhaps the most moving element of A Sky Of Honey lies in the skilful puppetry that brings to life what may or may not represent Kate Bush’s son at the age he was when Aerial was born. It would certainly explain why Kate hugs his short wooden frame several times throughout the set, and why Bertie himself, while playing the character of The Painter, gets to tell him(self) to “Piss off!”. Keep an eye on that puppet, if you go. He’s not as hapless as he seems.

[Notes: Uproarious applause. Standing ovation after standing ovation. Oh God, it’s almost over.]

The first song of the encore visits Kate’s most recent body of work, 50 Words For Snow, in the shimmering form of ‘Among Angels’. For this, Kate sits alone at her piano, exposed and, I suspect, feeling rather triumphant. “There's someone who's loved you forever but you don't know it, you might feel it and just not show it…” – a perfect summation of what has been exchanged between this most singular of artists and her singularly patient admirers. Both sides are showing it now, as the full band returns for the thundering consummation of ‘Cloudbusting’. “On top of the world, looking over the edge…” Kate Bush has finally seen her people looking right back up at her. With 21 more shows to go, will she then retreat once more? Her face as she leaves is framed by an expression of deep gratitude, suggesting perhaps she will not”.

I did want to mark that opening night. 26th August, 2014 is a date that has gone down in music history. The unveiling of the life-changing Before the Dawn. And it did seem to be an experience that changed lives. People I knew who were there saying what an impact it made on them. I do think back and regret not being there. That said, there is the live album  - which turns ten in November -, and there are the shared memories from those who were there. What were people thinking traveling to Hammersmith to see Kate Bush? The conversations and that balance of nerves and excitement. That stunning Before the Dawn opening night is…

HARD to replicate.

FEATURE: Kate Bush: The Whole Story: Never for Ever at Forty-Six

FEATURE:

 

 

Kate Bush: The Whole Story

IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush at Abbey Road Studios, in Studio Two’s control room in 1980

 

Never for Ever at Forty-Six

__________

I am going to be combining…

a few things together in this anniversary feature. Kate Bush’s third studio album, Never for Ever, turns forty-six on 8th September. I do want to come to an article from the Kate Bush Club where Bush discussed Never for Ever. Rather than this being the entirety of the feature, I want to also bring in reviews of the album and some words around it. It went to number one in the U.K. It was the first album by a British female solo artist to top the U.K. album chart, and the first album by any female solo artist to debut straight at number one. I think what makes the album stand out is the production. Kate Bush co-producing with Jon Kelly. Melody Maker commended the production: “Any doubts that this is the best Bush album yet are finally obliterated by the inspired unorthodoxy of the production. I had to look to see if Steve Lillywhite wasn’t at the controls – it’s that clean and fresh”. I shall come to words from Kate Bush when she wrote for the Kate Bush Club. First, below is some interview archive with her. After releasing two albums in 1978 – her debut, The Kick Inside, and Lionheart – and the second album being rushed and pressured, she did not release an album in 1979. She went on tour and started work on Never for Ever. This album was one where she was able to gain more control and have the songs sound more like what was in her head:

“It’s difficult to talk about the album without you actually hearing it, I suppose it’s more like the first album, The Kick Inside, though, than the second, Lionheart, in that the songs are telling stories. I like to see things with a positive direction, because it makes it so much easier to communicate with the audience of listener. When you see people actually listening to the songs and getting into them, it makes you realise how important it is that they should actually be saying something. (…)
There are a lot of different songs. There’s no specific theme, but they’re saying a lot about freedom, which is very important to me.

Deanne Pearson, The Me Inside. Smash Hits (UK), May 1980”.

In terms of progress from Lionheart, Never for Ever was a broader album. The themes addressed was more varied. There were a couple of songs that could be considered political. Bolder and bigger than anything she had released to this point, you can tell that technology such as the Fairlight CMI were starting to influence her and add something special to the music. PROG wrote a feature about Never for Ever in 2022. They discussed the themes addressed through the albums. I want to highlight the three singles that were released:

“BABOOSHKA

A more bitter than sweet love story, coming from somewhere between Edmond Rostand’s Cyrano de Bergerac and Rupert Holmes’ Escape (The Pina Colada Song). Bush told Australian TV that the wife of the tale tests her husband’s loyalty by sending him “scented letters” from a young temptress, but he becomes so besotted with the fictitious creature she’s dreamed up that their relationship is ruined. (Nowadays they’d just Snapchat each other.)

The traditional English folk song Sovay, involving a woman in disguise, was another inspiration, having fascinated Kate since childhood. In the video, she played the wife, while the double bass symbolised the man (John Giblin’s fretless bass was a key element of the track). The sound of glass breaking at the end (she smashed up crockery at Abbey Road, later apologising with chocolates to the studio’s kitchen staff) was an early use of a sample made on the spanking new Fairlight CMI synth to which Peter Gabriel had introduced her. (There were only three in the UK at the time.)

The song became a UK Top Five hit, and thus her biggest since Wuthering Heights. Kate’s admitted that she didn’t realise that ‘babushka’ is the Russian word for grandmother, and many shared her misapprehension that the word signified a series of dolls of decreasing size placed one inside another. ‘Matryoshka’, the technically correct phrase for that, wouldn’t have scanned or been half as catchy.

ARMY DREAMERS

This insistent waltz decries the effects of war, centring on a mother, rattled
by guilt as she grieves for the loss of her son who was killed on military duty. She wonders if he could’ve been a rock star or a politician, if she’d been able to afford him a guitar or ‘a proper education’. Weirdly, the single was longer than the album track (which fades). Insanely, it was banned by the BBC during the 1991 Gulf War. Bush rocked camouflage gear in the video. The song’s been covered in numerous languages, from Hebrew to Finnish.

“I wanted the mother to be a very simple woman who’s obviously got a lot of work to do,” she told Flexipop! at the time. “She’s full of remorse but has to carry on, living in a dream. Most of us live in a dream.” She also told interviewers that it wasn’t “specifically” about Ireland. “I’m not slagging off the Army,” she said to ZigZag’s Kris Needs. “It’s just so sad that there are kids who have no O-levels and nothing to do but become soldiers, and it’s not really what they want. That’s what frightens me.” 

BREATHING

An eerie, thoroughly prog trip back to the womb was a curious choice as the first single and teaser for a new project (it stalled at No.16), but uncompromisingly confirmed that Bush was now taking a firmer hand in decision making. Again her telly watching played a part as she cited a documentary she’d seen on the perils of nuclear fallout (fragments of spoken word describing the flash from a nuclear bomb can be heard). It’s interwoven with fears that the mother’s smoking may also damage the foetus (as if the kid didn’t have enough to worry about, with the apocalypse and all). No wonder Kate, in the video, wants to get out of that rather low-budget plastic bubble. ‘We’re all going to die!’ cries a background voice.

Upon release, in the fan club letter, she called it “a warning and plea from a future spirit to try and save mankind and his planet from irretrievable destruction”. She told ZigZag it was “the best thing I’ve ever written, the best thing I’ve ever produced – my little symphony”, while Smash Hits elicited the quote, “We’re all innocent. None of us deserve to be blown up.”

Roy Harper had a backing vocals credit. Talking to Melody Maker’s Colin Irwin, Bush said, “When I heard Pink Floyd’s The Wall I thought there’s no point in writing songs any more because they had said it all. When something really gets you, hits your creative centre, it stops you creating… After a couple of weeks I realised that [they] hadn’t done everything […] Breathing was definitely inspired by the whole vibe I got from hearing that album, especially the third side. There’s something about Floyd that’s pretty atomic anyway”.

Prior to getting to Kate Bush and her writing for the Kate Bush Club, I want to source an article from The Quietus that I have featured before. The write how Never for Ever, whilst not Kate Bush’s most celebrated, might be her most pivotal. It was a turning point and important step for her:

“Never For Ever is a starting point, not a zenith, and those miraculous opening six minutes aren’t as groundbreaking as her later innovations. But it is, I’d argue, the first of her LPs that’s genuinely experimental. Paddy’s greater involvement brought weird new instruments – zithers, kotos, musical saws – although Peter Gabriel introduced Bush to the Fairlight, the sonic equivalent of a Jedi being handed their first lightsaber; there were only three in the UK, and while she wouldn’t master it until later, her instant obsession speaks to how determined she was to bend her ornate style into bizarre new shapes. ‘All We Ever Look For’, her happy-go-lucky reflection on knotty parent-child relationships, mutates into several different forms by itself: it jumps between lurching, whistling synths, the koto’s fluttering strings, and a mishmash of Foley-style noises including chirping birds and hurried footsteps. “The whims that we’re weeping for/ Our parents would be beaten for,” sings Bush over its jaunty, oddball din, like the ringmaster at a baroque big top.

Although Never For Ever was largely well-received, a few reviews were grossly sexist, and less egregious offenders nonetheless harped on tired, gendered criticisms. Speaking to ZigZag, Bush blamed the reservations of NME’s reviewer on old hangups regarding her supposed naivety. “He saw me as this chocolate-box-sweetie little thing who had no reality in there, no meaning of life,” she said. It was a common misconception. Naysayers called her twee, but she boldly centred female desire; they dismissed her as cloying, yet The Kick Inside’s title cut wrestled with incest and suicide; they insisted she was whimsical, as if her biggest hit wasn’t about horny teenagers as much as gothic ghosts. Yes, Bush was imaginative, inventive, fantastical. But she didn’t lack substance.

That messy, human drama provides the heart and guts of Never For Ever’s stories, too, however fanciful they get. Often they’re about women deciding their own destinies in fraught, far-fetched situations, old-fashioned expectations of meekness be damned. Some are schlocky: Bush has a murderous ball on ‘The Wedding List’, inspired by 1968 French film The Bride Wore Black, as a gun-toting bride hellbent on avenging the husband killed on their wedding day. “I’ll fill your head with lead!” she crows, vamping and winking with as much gusto as a gangster’s moll. Every so often, however, the slick, romping keys and tough-talking threats die away and are replaced by wheezing, mournful harmonica, and the rampage ends with the broken, pregnant widow turning the gun on herself. Some are shocking: ‘The Infant Kiss’, based on 1961’s Henry James-indebted horror flick The Innocents, finds a governess convinced a child is possessed by her dead lover’s spirit. Bush brings out its lush creepiness with ghostly, trembling strings, more frightened of her own desires than any spectre: “I must stay and find a way/ To stop before it gets too much.”

In that sense, the LP’s final two tracks, despite being the most explicitly political Bush had ever written, aren’t quite the radical outliers they seemed back in 1980. For all their polemical grist, she saw them as personal, poignant stories just like all her others, and although most critics lauded them for reckoning with ‘real life’ in a way her older efforts didn’t, their power transcends such bogus rules of authenticity. They’re spectacular not because their subject matter is inherently weightier than yarns about paranoid Russian wives or grumpy syphilitic composers, but because Bush brings it to life with exactly the same kind of exquisite, singular imagination; they’re political songs that have been twisted and transmogrified so they can exist in her strange universe, not the other way round. If Never For Ever made her a bolder, sharper songwriter, it was still absolutely on her own terms.

And so on ‘Army Dreamers’, a misty waltz about a mother racked with grief and guilt when her son is killed on military manoeuvres, Bush resembles an otherworldly prophet rather than a common-or-garden tub-thumper. “Wave a bunch of purple flowers/ To decorate a mammy’s hero,” she sings softly, sadly, bitterly, her gentle Irish lilt mingling with its sweet, woozy mandolin and the Fairlight’s unnerving samples of cocking rifles (Bush thought the accent, combined with the thwack of bodhrán, had a poetic vulnerability her regular voice lacked – not the last time she’d invoke her Celtic roots for emotional heft). Its gauzy prettiness gives it the air of a nightmare taking place inside a snow globe, twice as crushing for her delicate touch.

Nothing, though, is as devastating as the closing ‘Breathing’, a vision of nuclear doomsday with a horrifying wrinkle, like Threads turned into a poisonous lullaby (Bush, ever prescient, actually beat the film by three years). She sings as a terrified foetus breathing in toxic fumes inside the womb, slowly being killed by the blast’s fallout because mother doesn’t stand for comfort at all in this grim new world. Every element is beautifully brutal: the brooding electronics that fill the air like dangerous smog; the chilling, fairytale-gone-wrong image of plutonium chips “twinkling in every lung”, made extra-disturbing by gorgeous, glimmering chimes; the ominous scientific lecture that builds to a billowing, mushroom-cloud explosion of ungodly noise, followed by the background singers’ dread chant of “We are all going to die!” Most harrowing of all is the strangled, throat-tearing terror in Bush’s voice. In the past she’d shrieked, yelled, whooped and wailed, but she’d never all-out screamed like she screams here, a guttural cry for help that freezes the blood: “Leave me something to breathe!” Bush was as proud of its apocalyptic nightmare as she’d been unmoved by Lionheart. “It’s my little symphony,” she boasted to ZigZag.

Whenever people told Bush they didn’t understand Never For Ever’s title, she patiently explained it encapsulated her belief that all things, good and bad, eventually passed. “We are all transient,” she declared in her fan newsletter, and it’s hard to think of a finer choice for an album that, even now, exists in a glorious state of flux. Never For Ever proved how great Bush could be when given the control and freedom she craved. More tantalisingly still, it promised the best was yet to come”.

Prior to getting to the article from Kate Bush, it is worth discussing the photo at the top of this feature. Rather than out Never for Ever’s cover there, I wanted to include one of Bush at Abbey Road Studios. The studio became very important to her. A big moment for her. A space that definitely meant a great deal to her. In terms of some story behind the photo: “Kate Bush at Abbey Road Studios, in Studio Two’s control room at the famous EMI TG12345 Mark IV recording console. Kate worked at Abbey Road Studios on the albums Never For Ever, The Dreaming, and Hounds Of Love in Studio Two, and recorded the orchestral parts for the albums The Sensual World and The Red Shoes. The console seen in the photo is legendary and is often referred to as the greatest console ever constructed. A collaboration between Abbey Road and EMI engineers, the production of every component was built to military precision. In addition to being used by Kate Bush, it was used to record several influential albums including The Beatles' Abbey Road and Pink Floyd's The Dark Side of the Moon. Kate on her experience at Abbey Road: [“Being on your own in Studio Two is a fascinating experience. I felt like there were at least ten other people there with me... I think it's a combination of all the people who have performed there over the years and their combined creativity.”]. Issue 7 of the Kate Bush Club was published in September 1980.

I do want to end with Kate Bush’s writing for Issue 8 of the Kate Bush Club. Published ion December 1980, she reflects on the release of Never for Ever and promotion. It is quite a long piece, but I think it is important to pop in. We get a real insight into how busy she was after the release of the album. The fact that she was looking forward to Christmas and getting to have a break:

“For the album to have been so warmly embraced has made me very happy. It's hard for me to explain how easy it is to get anxious with your own songs once they're on disc. They can easily be up to a year old already, and so the unveiling of the album felt very like the prodigal son coming home to me. I was willing to leap into anything that would help move it along. As you all know, most artists will do promotional work--which we will call "the rounds"--to accompany their product. It was my turn for "the rounds". What makes that fun are the people that you meet and you are with--the travelling, the talking are tiring and monotous. Among the major promotional events was a radio p.a. [personal appearance] tour, which you'll hear more of in A. B.'s [Andrew Bryant?] article. This means travelling from city to city, visiting radio stations and record shops to meet people and give autographs, and to do the odd press interview. The tour was to start in Edinburgh. Hil [Hilary Walker, Kate's manager] had booked a motorail ticket for us to travel by train to Carlisle, taking the car to drive us from there onwards. The train left at five minutes to midnight, and things were packed: a flask of tea, a couple of sandwiches, some books, etc. And as the car had been put on the train an hour or so before our departure, I decided I'd visit a friend in between that time and get a taxi to the station. I was having a great chat in a nice, warm, cause environment with homemade fruit buns and a steaming cup of tea, when I realised the taxi that I had ordered had not arrived yet and it was getting late. I rang again--they said it was on its way, but we know they always say that, don't they?

Eventually, with an excited driver speeding to the station at the thought of the mentioned "big tip" if he got me there on time, I arrived at midnight: no train and lots of weridos. Another train was quickly sorted out which left an hour later, and so I bedded up in a little cabin set for Scotland. The first thing that really hit me when I got in the cabin was it was so quiet. I couldn't remember the last time I'd been anywhere so silent, and it scared me. Its silence made me feel uneasy because of me being so unused to it.

The scenery was beautiful, waking up as the sun peeped over the transient countryside and factory chimneys. We arrived in Edinburgh and the first radio station. The schedule had begun. Meeting the people in the shops is a very strange experience--whilst I sit at the back of the shop and watch them all come in, as anxious as me, some of them. All these faces feeding me, one by one; they think I'm feeding them, but they're giving me so much it's like they've all come to my party and the more the merrier. That's something that struck me, how most of the people are remarkably warm and kind and unbothered, and they're not trying to prove anything. I get a certain kind of "pride", if that's not too arrogant, thinking how lucky I am to have these people receptive to my music. It means a lot in terms of artistic reward.

A TV show in Germany meant a dance routine, choice of dancers and a trip to Munich. Babooshka and Army Dreamers had been asked to be performed. The Babooshka video, if you remember, had double bass sections, and this is what I "bassed" my routine on, using the instrument all the way through the song. The evening I was working on the choreography, Paddy, Andrew [Bryant] and Del [Palmer] were in the room. We decided to try it, as I had some ideas, and we worked the night through very enthusiastically, eventually coming up with a very dramatic and very pleasing routine. "Army Dreamers" is one of those songs that could take many different concepts as a visual choreographic piece. For Germany we decided a cleaning-woman of abstract barracks would be fine, joined by three army dreamers, one of whom is a mad sergeant-major who shouts commands at invisible troops, one who carries a gun and mandolin, and one who blinks blankly and carries a small brown teddy bear. The routine was rehearsed, army uniforms bought, Mrs. Mopp's costume improvised with an old jumble-sale dress, a pair of pink rubber gloves, a head scarf, Ma's kitchen apron, her wooden broom and a small brown teddy-bear for one of our "dreamers".

Arriving in Germany, we were met and taken straight to the TV centre, where we were to spend the day. The rehearsal went well--borrowing some toy guns from the TV people, and a broom which I'd forgotten to bring as hadn't looked like a prop standing in my hall as I left for the airport. It was time for the performance. I was Mrs. Mopp, and the three army dreamers were somewhere in the building, waiting, too, for the call. As I came down the stairs, receiving many funny looks at my dress, I saw three men in uniform standing in the doorway with black, made-up faces looking very heavy and official, and it was not until I got very close and noticed the grinning, familiar faces that I realised who they were. Everything went very well; and, joined by two MM [Melody Maker] scouts, we had a great time. The show was done, and out to dinner, incorporating an MM interview. The Germans looked after us very well, and at one point in rehearsals we had been hesitant that people around us were offended or worried by three Englishmen dressed in Army uniforms strolling around the studio with little guns, but no problem--it shows how little these people hold grudges that we were still suspicious of.

"Babooshka", again, was to be performed abroad, this time in Venice. Venice is an extremely beautiful place, and if you ever get the chance to see it, please do, it really is magical. Water is the way of everything there--even lampposts are on water. I took lots of photos, and we've included one of a canal. The hotel that we were staying at was beautiful, with an incredible view of the ocean out of my window. For this TV show Gary [Hurst] and I had rehearsed a duet which we had made up the night before. Often this has strangely good results; maybe it is due to adrenalin. Gary had hired a suit from Moss Bros. the day before, and I'd pulled out an old dress which I used to wear when I was in the KT Bush Band and we performed in pubs. This TV show was live, and as the studio was only across the road (the other side of the hotel backed onto one of the few pieces of dry land in Venice), every performer dressed and made up at the hotel and walked to the TV studio fully equipped .

Our turn came, and as we hit the street we saw silver-suited spacemen; red-, blue-, green-haired people; electric guitars; pantomime horses; one yellow submarine and two dancing bears spilling in and out of the TV centre. We squeezed past the various brightly coloured suits and smiles, did our bit and squeezed past them again on the way back to the hotel. In many ways it reminded me of Noah's Ark: two of every kind in a place on the water.

Just as we entered the hotel we met Peter Gabriel, plus band, who were also on the same show and were on their way out. We exchanged very English greetings on foreign land: "Break a leg, old chap!"; and Peter headed on his way to the bizarre circus. Meanwhile, we had heard that there was a TV room upstairs, so we rushed up to a mini-circus where all the artists that had already performed were sprayed around the floor, glued to the television, expressing kind words of comradeship in the relevant language to whomever was on the screen at that point in time; an unusual live, friendly feeling. Peter's performance was powerful and stood out amongst all the others, and the viewing-room certainly seemed to agree.

The next version of "Army Dreamers" was to be the promotional video. For a long time my vision of "Army Dreamers" on screen had been in green woods, heavy and sad, and the extent of the visual production I wanted on this occasion would only be possible where we had the time, opportunities and budget: not unlike an unknown TV studio, where you have no control over the set or lighting--you go for the simplest, easiest concept possible without spoiling the image. I drew a storyboard from which we worked. I have never had a talent for drawing [I don't agree at all. A very clever and sensitive landscape drawing by Kate, dated 5th November 1978, appeared in issue number 14 of the Newsletter. It shows great style and natural ability which Kate, unfortunately, has never developed.] and so I got a lot of laughs, as well as being able to communicate the ideas in a more concrete way. The cast had to be big--we were to represent an army unit, therefore needing a Sergeant-Major. I gathered all the people that I knew would not only look good but act the part; the choice was obvious--the band, Andrew [again last name not given] as our Sergeant-Major. Phone calls were made, and I couldn't have asked for a more positive reaction from everyone concerned, to the point of someone putting off a [recording] session. A second phone call was made immediately afterwards to find the size boot required for the uniforms. This became very Pythonesque, especially when people replied "Size 9." Everyone involved was a natural actor and performer, and a rehearsal was called. The cast were to turn up at 4 o'clock in the afternoon, Keef at 2 and Rocket and Barry (who were the two cameramen) at 3. From 2 until 3 Keef and I excitedly worked out the details, using my storyboard (which certainly got a giggle out of him) and bouncing ideas that we would get in turn. Most of my inspiration came from every war movie I have ever seen, from the original All Quiet on the Western Front to Apocalypse Now, and this was then applied to the subject matter and concept of the song. When Barry and Rocket turned up, Keef and I were bursting with anticipation of letting them in on the epic. They'd hardly got in the door before I thrust my storyboard under their noses and Keef was talking special lenses. Rocket and Barry are the two best cameramen I have worked with on a frequent basis. They soon joined in the "Ooh!"s and "Hey, what if we...?"s and "Well, we could try..."s, and we were away on a very challenging prospect, having to wait just for the confirmation of safety before we could definitely write the jerk-jacket into the script (we will talk more about this fabulous device later). 4 o'clock arrived, the band arrived, and the good weather had arrived; so we were set for an outdoors rehearsal. It went so smoothly, and all the cast were so professional, that Barry and Rocket could not hide their respect, and neither did we for them (you can see Barry being charged and Rocket being jumped over in the photos). The rehearsal broke, we sabotaged the crew as they left, and we all went our ways to prepare for the big day tomorrow.

It was a very early start, having to reach Pinewood by 8 a.m., and everyone's prayer for mild weather had been answered uncannily. The sun lit up the fern-swamped woods in a way I could never have hoped for; it was a good omen for a good day. Philip and Graham are two child actors; they both have pure white hair that, in that day's sunshine, shone and glittered, and they behaved very professionally and looked stunning on the screen. The day was long and full, and so much was achieved that apparently in film terms the amount we covered would have taken a week, which was encouraging to hear. Everything had gone as planned, all the action shots covered, and everyone looked superb. There were some magical moments created both on and off screen by the talent and humour of those people who I'd be lost without. Jay took some incredible shots during the day, which perfectly catch the moods and the lighting of those people and woods. Lisa [Bradley] took some fabulous movie-film which expressed not only the effort that was taken, but also, again, the comedy of the personalities involved. Al was blown up as beautifully as could be [this is a repetition of an aesthetic attitude which Kate expressed in an NME interview by Danny Baker in the fall of 1979: "Well, whenever I see the news, it's always the same depressing things. Wars' hostages, and people's arms hanging off with all the tendons hanging out, you know. So I tend not to watch it much. I prefer to go and see a movie or something, where it's all put much more poetically: people getting their heads blown off in slow motion, very beautifully."] of course only in terms of video fantasy land; Paddy somersaulted and fired, Stewart tripped and danced, Andrew roared and soared, Brian was flying, Preston kept his vest on, Kevin was in heaven, we all tumbled and ached and played soldiers until all was finished, bar the jerk-jacket.

We had lost our daylight by now, and as the trees echoed the screams and yells of musicians and dancers in soldier's clothing, I turned to see them leaping over the camera in the most dramatic light I have witnessed outside a studio. Two huge spotlights leaking smoky light across the clearing in the wood. It's these little moments I lock away as thrills of the theatre manmade. It was time to get into the jerk-jacket. The idea was to finish the video with myself symbolically representing my son, as well as being his mother. We wanted a very violent movement of my body, ideally being thrown off the ground. The effect we used was the jerk-jacket, which we would film and then put into slow motion at the editing stage. The jacket consists of a harness and a wire, with a man manually pulling the wire via a pulley system. The wire is connected to the back of the harness, with a hole through various layers of clothing to allow the wire to be straight when taut. As the man pulls the wire, the person wearing the harness is pulled off their feet backwards, landing on an appropriately camouflaged, padded area to soften the landing.

I was very excited at the prospect of experiencing the feeling, and with the professional help of stunt-men it was an unforgettable event--very exciting--and we got the footage we'd hoped for.

Everything over, wires being wrapped up, vans driving off, cameras tucked in for the night and us off to do the edit of that day's filming. The edit was in my opinion the most complete so far: it was like a well-made wooden jigsaw, with all the edges smoothly planed, and by two in the morning, with the excellent help of our visual engineer, Brian, we had made and edited the movie, and it was now complete and very satisfying.

It was a busy week. The next day, an Austrian interview and mixing Warm and Soothing were on the schedule, and off to Holland the next day to do Babooshka and yet another slightly different version of Army Dreamers in Holland. [See Paddy's description of the Holland performances in his Newsletter article, Memoirs of an Army Dreamer, in the same issue.] I was feeling tired when we started rehearsing the routines that evening for the next day, and by the time I had packed and finished rehearsing, it was about five in the morning; and so, as I was being picked up for the airport at 6:15, I ended up without that night's sleep.

At one point I looked at Pyewacket, my cat, and said, "Help me, Pye, I'm so tired." And she looked at me and said, "Me'ow?" It became one very long day, and my energies were going, but they survived with much help from those around me.

The show went very well, including the floor-manager being searched as part of our routine. It went out very late at night and, as it was the first one in the series and was live, everyone was very relieved when it was over. At last, a few hours' sleep before leaving early next morning for Munich and then Hamburg on a two-day radio/press tour; which was fun, meeting up with Werner from EMI-Munich. He was very good to me: earlier, he had given me the copy of Bowie's album before it was released here, and on this trip he did exactly the same with Stevie Wonder's new record. It is an incredible album [The Secret Life of Plants], and I was lucky enough to see him tour when he was here. The whole of the arena was dancing and laughing--I've never seen anything like it. And by coincidence Paddy bumped into none other than Werner while leaving. It certainly was a happy concert, and was marked with many ticks by me, alongside The Wall [Pink Floyd's concert] and others. [Kate says nothing here about the direct result of her excitement over the energy of the Stevie Wonder concert: that very night she went home and wrote/demoed the first version of Sat In Your Lap, which is arguably the most important recording she has made to date, in terms of stylistic development.]

Since my promotion has eased off, the nights are drawing in. It is colder, and I must soon draw to a close. I have spent as much time as possible on writing--and I think that shows by the length of this introduction! I'm more than happy to be concentrating on my songs at the moment.

I hope all of you are feeling happy and looking forward to Christmas as much as I am.

It's wonderful to know that December will be let out of the chimney this year--I was worried that it might get sooty. Have a very happy Christmas, and as children have the best time, why don't we be children at Christmas, too?

Love,

Kate”.

I will leave things here. Turning forty-six on 8th September, Never for Ever made history. It was the first where Kate Bush had a significant production role and could influence her music more directly. I feel that it is pretty underrated. Based largely on the success of Never for Ever, Bush was voted as the best female artist of 1980 in polls taken in Melody Maker, Sounds, The Sunday Telegraph, and Capital Radio. Her next album was 1982’s The Dreaming. Producing solo, the Fairlight CMI features more prominently. It was another big leap for her. If you have not heard Never for Ever, then you really need to check out…

THIS brilliant album.

FEATURE: Kate Bush: Them Heavy People: The Extraordinary Characters in Her Songs: The Painter (An Architect’s Dream)/George the Wipe/Douglas Fairbanks… (Moments of Pleasure)

FEATURE:

 

 

Kate Bush: Them Heavy People: The Extraordinary Characters in Her Songs

IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush in 2005/PHOTO CREDIT: Trevor Leighton

 

The Painter (An Architect’s Dream)/George the Wipe/Douglas Fairbanks… (Moments of Pleasure)

__________

I only have four more…

IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush in 1993/PHOTO CREDIT: John Stoddart

outings of this run of features to go. Where I pair characters in Kate Bush songs. Today, like the final edition, features a song with a lot of characters. In fact, it might rival Blow Away (For Bill) in terms of the most characters in one song. Both that song and the one I will finish with share Bill Duffield. Moments of Pleasure was included on The Red Shoes in 1993. Bill Duffield was part of Kate Bush’s crew for The Tour of Life in 1979. He died after the warm-up gig in a tragic accident. He is immortalised in two album tracks. Bush also held a benefit concert in his memory at the end of her The Tour of Life run and incredible musicians like Steve Harley and Peter Gabriel. That is when she and Gabriel started their professional association. Moments of Pleasure has so many characters in, I have had to shorten it and include two and an ellipsis! The first half is simpler, as there is only the one character on this Aerial track. I am leading into this rich stock of characters in a song that is tinged with sadness. People mentioned who are sadly no longer with us. Who passed before Bush recorded the track. Let’s start with The Artist from An Architect’s Dream. The Painter also features in The Painter’s Link. These songs featured on the second disc of Aerial, A Sky of Honey. It is set over the course of a summer’s day. I want to start out by looking at the filmic scope for this suite. I have written about it before. Bush did take A Sky of Honey to the stage for 2014’s Before the Dawn. It was realised. There was a tarnish when it comes to the original release of Aerial, as Rolf Harris featured on two tracks. He was The Painter in An Architect’s Dream and The Painter’s Link. We do not realise have that many other characters on that suite. Bush mimics birdsong and takes us to the ocean and beach. There are mentions of people, but they are not really given a name.

We sort of have this idea of Kate Bush travelling through the day in different locations. In Somewhere in Between, she is singing with Gary Brooker (Procol Harum). For the live version, Bush’s son Bertie provided the backing vocals. It was a shame that Rolf Harris appeared in the first place. I want to mention The Artist, not to spotlight Rolf Harris, but to give the song a new light and narrative. If it has troublesome and controversial connections on the oriignal issue, the reissued Aerial removes Harris and replaces him with Albert McIntosh. Her son appearing on his mother’s album. Not the first time. He featured on 2011’s Director Cut and 50 Words for Snow. He was younger when he appeared in 2011 than he was on the Aerial 2018 re-issue. That was four years after he performed as The Artist on Before the Dawn. That live album came out in 2016. A tangled timeline and history, let’s not mention Rolf Harris again. Instead, I do think that The Painter is Albert McIntoish. I discussed McIntosh when I covered Aerial’s Bertie. That paen to her then-new son. What is notable about An Architect’s Dream, is that it adds this human element. In the sense we get vague or unnamed characters in other songs. Birdsong appears. Though there is a bit of story follow Prelude and Prologue. Those two songs open the album and take us into the morning. An Architect’s Dream comes next. I do wish I was at Before the Dawn to see this song played out. You imagine an English garden and this painter setting up. The title, An Architect’s Dream, makes me think that there is a painting style that is more akin to Line Art. It focuses on clean, unbroken strokes to define shapes, contours, and intricate details without relying on heavy shading or colour gradients. This is someone focused and immersed in that they are doing: “Watching the painter painting/And all the time, the light is changing/And he keeps painting/That bit there, it was an accident/But he's so pleased/It's the best mistake, he could make/And it's my favourite piece/It's just great”. I am trying to put a genre to this style of art. Maybe Dynamic Minimalist Art. That frequently uses needle-thin lines alongside bold, calligraphic strokes to create tension and movement. That idea of mistakes being a happy accident. Kate Bush recorded a song called Be Kind to My Mistakes. That came out in 1987 and featured in the film, Castaway. It does bring to mind a multi-dimensional debate. Whether mistakes in art are beneficial or exist. Some purists (or wrong-headed commentators) say mistakes cannot exist in art. We think about fine art especially as being perfect. Everything is intentional. The same with music. Do we listen to albums and assume everything recorded was what the artist originally came up with and intended?

In music, as in art, mistakes can lead to new discoveries and possibilities. An Architect’s Dream is about this artwork having incredible lines. Something you might find in an architect’s sketch of a new building. These lyrics give us “Curving and sweeping/Rising and reaching/I could feel what he was feeling/Lines like these have got to be/An architect's dream”. I keep imagining someone is painting in a garden. Or be a stream somewhere. Later in the song, we get the suggestion that this is street art. Someone battling changing light and weather conditions. Whilst this is painting and not chalk drawings on a pavement, I do instantly think of Mary Poppins. Bert (Dick Van Dyke) drawing these scenes on the pavement and the characters jumping into them. The Artist is working on the pavement but it starts to rain. I wonder where this track was set. You could place it anywhere. Maybe somewhere in Paris. An Architect’s Dream is the first of a two-part story of The Painter. The Painter’s Link is the shorter conclusion. Lyrics quite brief. How the painting runs because of the rain. All the colours drip and form this perfect sunset. Quite psychedelic and romantic in a way. An Architect’s Dream runs at nearly five minutes. The Painter’s Link just over minute and a half. I wonder why Bush decided to set up this artist and someone who painted brilliant and precise lines, only for them to be ruined by the rain. The opening of A Sky of Honey suggests warm sunshine and calm. There is this change of light and weather for our spotlight on The Artist. The next song in the suite is Sunset. In terms of the timeline, Prologue is set in the afternoon. The lyrics mention that it is afternoon. Meaning Prelude might either be later in the morning or early in the afternoon. The Painter is mentioned during the evening before the sun sets. Perhaps taking us to 9/9:30 p.m. Aerial Tal is where Bush duets with a bird. That takes us to the next morning at the break of dawn. What I do love is how we get an idea of the places and conditions. In terms of geography, I feel we start with an English garden. It then moves somewhere else. Nocturn and Aerial seem to suggest this golden and crystal water on a beach in Spain or the Balearics. Just judging by the music and its tone. Or maybe it is an English beach. In any case, I feel that An Architect’s Dream is this curious and brilliant song where we do spotlight this artist. Though I said we would not mention Rolf Harris, Kate Bush gave us some insight into The Painter and songs like An Architect’s Dream. What she was trying to achieve. Mark Radcliffe chatted with her in 2005 for BBC Radio 2. The below exchange takes us back to that idea of mistakes in art and how as a recording artist, she had made mistakes and songs have ended differently to how she intended them. Almost casting herself as The Artist. I do now like to think more that An Architect’s Dream is about Kate Bush then Rolf Harris. That it is a reference to her process as an artist and producer:

“Kate: Well, absolutely, and I suppose really that's what he sprung to mind because I needed a singing painter.

Mark: And there aren't many in the Yellow Pages

Kate: There aren't many.

Mark:  There's a track on their called "An Architect's Dream", and in that there's a line where you say, "it was the best mistake he could make". Is that a kind of key phrase that like even though you get this precise way of making the sounds in your head that sometimes it's what you might call the mistakes or the accidents that are kind of a really special moments?

Kate: Yeah, well, I think in a lot of creative processes, that's the best thing can happen to you... is to make a mistake, and it's something you would never have consciously thought of, and it just happens. And it gives you somewhere to go off to that is far more interesting than something you would've thought of”.

Let’s move to the second song, as there are a lot of characters to include. I shall mention all that feature in Moments of Pleasure. One of the standout songs from 1993’s The Red Shoes, it was a time in Kate Bush’s career where she had personal loss and heartache. She had lost friends after The Sensual World’s release in 1989. In fact, guitarist Alan Murphy died a few days after the release of The Sensual World. He died on 19th October, 1989. He is mentioned on Moments of Pleasure. I am not mentioning Bush’s mother Hannah, as she had featured before. Her mother died on 14th February, 1992. It was a very tough few years. I want to start with some interview archive. The song was released as a single in November 1993, where it reached twenty-six in the U.K. On an album with too many layers and this rather compressed sound, Moments of Pleasure stands out. Bush at the piano. More revealing and barer than other tracks on The Red Shoes. The lines, “to those we love, to those who will survive” appear in the chorus and were written for her mother, who was ill with cancer at the time of recording. She died shortly afterwards. Kate Bush Encyclopedia provide us some useful archive:

“I think the problem is that during [the recording of] that album there were a lot of unhappy things going on in my life, but when the songs were written none of that had really happened yet. I think a lot of people presume that particularly that song was written after my mother had died for instance, which wasn’t so at all. There’s a line in there that mentions a phrase that she used to say, ‘every old sock meets an old shoe’, and when I recorded it and played it to her she just thought it was hilarious! She couldn’t stop laughing, she just thought it was so funny that I’d put it into this song. So I don’t see it as a sad song. I think there’s a sort of reflective quality, but I guess I think of it more as a celebration of life.

Interview with Ken Bruce, BBC Radio 2, 9 May 2011

I wasn’t really quite sure how “Moments of Pleasure” was going to come together, so I just sat down and tried to play it again– I hadn’t played it for about 20 years. I immediately wanted to get a sense of the fact that it was more of a narrative now than the original version; getting rid of the chorus sections somehow made it more of a narrative than a straightforward song.

Ryan Dombai, ‘Kate Bush: The elusive art-rock originator on her time-travelling new LP, Director’s Cut’. Pitchfork, May 16, 2011”.

I wonder why Bush reapproached Moments of Pleasure for Director’s Cut. The 1993 version seems of its time and reflected loss that was quite new. Maybe dated in 2011, I wonder whether she considered updating the lyrics to include other people. The song features in the 1993 short film, The Line, the Cross and the Curve. It was also performed for Aspel & Co on BBC on 20th June, 1993. The song has been covered a few times. I always think it is one of Kate Bush’s most personal songs, so it seems strange other singing it. Nerina Pallot among those who have covered it. I guess no song can truly belong to an artist and not be covered. You get something different when other artists tackle a track. Though Bush’s 1993 original remains the definitive version, I feel. I will mention one curious character soon. There is humour, loss and remembering friends passed. If Blow Away (For Bill) is Bush paying tribute to Bill Duffield and imagining him in Heaven with departed musicians like Billie Holiday and Minnie Riperton, Moments of Pleasure is this fantasy or dream where we see lost friends and those still alive together in this scene. “Some moments that I’ve had/Some moments of pleasure/I think about us lying/Lying on a beach somewhere/I think about us diving/Diving off a rock, into another moment”. These words open Moments of Pleasure. Giving us this romantic vibe. Many associate Moments of Pleasure as being this painful and morbid song. Bush almost shouting out the lines “Just being alive/It can really hurt”. It is definitely enforced by loss and her mother’s illness. Though there is this sense of fondly remembering people. “And I can hear my mother saying/“Every old sock meets an old shoe”/Isn’t that a great saying?”. Bush almost smiling and giving this chuckle. Humour and pathos alongside each other. George the Wipe is the first character mentioned. The moniker refers to a recording studio tape op (intern/assistant) who was working at Townhouse Studios around 1981. According to lore, he accidentally wiped a master tape recording for a track on her album, The Dreaming. It must have been stressful at the time, but I wonder what song was wiped and whether his is lore or how much truth there is.

The lines where he is mentioned suggests that it was funny or maybe this practical joke played on someone. Some say Bush and Del Palmer (her boyfriend at the time of The Dreaming being recorded) played a joke on someone to make them think that they had wiped a song. In reality nothing had been wiped: “Oh God I can’t stop laughing/This sense of humour of mine/It isn’t funny at all/Oh but we sit up all night/Talking about it”. Douglas Fairbanks is next in the roll call. Kate Bush and Del Palmer went to meet Michael Powell in New York in 1989. There was discussion or plans that she would compose music for a film of his. That the two would work together. Powell died in 1990, so there was not the opportunity for that dream to be realised. The Red Shoes is named after the 1948 film written and directed by Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger. That film is based on an 1845 fairytale by Hans Christian Andersen. In a 1993 interview, Kate Bush was asked about Douglas Fairbanks and his inclusion on Moments of Pleasure:

“Who is the Douglas Fairbanks character in 'Moments Of Pleasure '?

'Ah... In a lot of ways that song, er.. well it's going back to that thing of paying homage to people who aren't with us anymore. I was very lucky to get to meet Michael (Powell, the film-maker who directed the original The Red Shoes) in New York before he died, and he and his wife were extremely kind. I'd had few conversations with him and I'd been dying to meet him. As we came out of the lift, he was standing outside with his walking stick and he was pretending to be someone like Douglas Fairbanks. He was completely adorable and just the most beautiful spirit, and it was a very profound experience for me. It had quite an inspirational effect on a couple of the songs.

"There's a song called 'The Red Shoes'. It's not really to do with his film but rather the story from which he took his film. You have these red shoes that just want to dance and don't want to stop, and the story that I'm aware of is that there's this girl who goes to sleep in the fairy story and they can't work out why she's so tired. Every morning, she's more pale and tired, so they follow her one night and what's happening is these shoes... she's putting these shoes on at night before she goes to bed and they whisk her off to dance with the fairies”.

Douglas Fairbanks (or Douglas Fairbanks Jr. specifically) died in 2000. was a leading man during the Golden Age of Hollywood. He appeared in adventure and swashbuckling roles like in The Prisoner of Zenda (1937), Gunga Din (1939), and The Corsican Brothers (1941). He was the son of Douglas Fairbanks. What makes Moments of Pleasure such a wonderful song is Bush remembering these great people. Just near the end of the song, Bush sings “Hey there Michael/Do you really love me?”. Such sweet words, but what did she mean by it?! Some mystery as to what she was asking there and whether it relates to this brief friendship. The final lines are for Bill Duffield: “Hey there Bill/Could you turn the lights up?”. This lighting director who only was in Kate Bush’s life for a matter of days remembered in a song fifteen years after his death. It is the final verse of Moments of Pleasure where we get Bush saying ‘hi’ and interacting with these beloved people: “Hey there Maureen/Hey there Bubba/Dancing down the aisle of a plane/‘S Murph, playing his guitar refrain/Hey there Teddy/Spinning in the chair at Abbey Road”. Maureen was Kate Bush’s aunt. This deeply personal requiem is so beautiful and stirring. Her aunt died before Bush’s career took off. Bubba is Gary Hurst, one of her dancers. A dear friend who was such an important part of her career and live work, he sadly died in 1990 of complications related to AIDS in Westminster, London. You read more about here. Alan Murphy is ‘S Murph. He died in 1989, as previously mentioned. John Barrett, a sound engineer at Abbey Road Studios, is Bubba. In terms of his role in Kate Bush’s music, we get more information here: “Engineer at Abbey Road Studios. He worked on Kate’s albums Never For Ever and The Dreaming, as well as the single December Will Be Magic Again. In 1981, he found he had cancer, and while receiving treatment he occupied himself with the task of going through the vaults of the studio and seeing exactly was and was not there with regards to the Beatles’ many recording sessions. He created a ‘catalogue’ of sorts, and while finding out exact dates for recording sessions also dubbed rare takes and demos. John Barrett passed away in February 1984”.

Kate Bush combining this brilliant engineer at Abbey Road Studios together with those who worked with her earlier. Family and friends mixed together. Rather than it being down and depressing, I thin Moments of Pleasure remembers these great people and says how difficult life is. But we need to grab these moments of pleasure. The good. Although Moments of Pleasure is this wonderful song, it didn’t chart well in 1993. This was a time when bands like Suede and Blur were coming through. Grunge still a big thing in the U.S., perhaps less toom in public consciousness and the upper reaches of the charts for a piano ballad. No matter if it is by Kate Bush or not. I will finish with perception and analysis of Moments of Pleasure. How it is viewed. Herald Scotland provides some thoughts on this stirring song that was included on two studio albums, a short film and was performed on T.V. It has also been covered by other artists. Those who obviously has no relationships with the people mentioned in the song:

“From the minor key melancholy of those opening piano chords and the accompanying shiver of strings to the breathy shimmer of that familiar voice, it catches me every time I hear it (and not just because I get to hear Kate Bush say my first name near the end). I loved it at the time and as the years pass it has grown to be my favourite song from her catalogue.

It's a mournful thing, a catalogue of loss replete, as her biographer Graeme Thomson says of its parent album The Red Shoes, with "all the ache of letting go". A song full of ghosts. Her Auntie Maureen, guitarist Alan Murphy, lighting engineer Bill Duffield. It was only years later that I learnt that the man in the lift in the second verse was in fact an account of her meeting with the film director Michael Powell in a snowy New York not long before he died, a tribute to a peculiarly English artist by another.

The music is lovely, a beautiful swell of sound on which her voice - which travels back and forth between breathy intimacy and high drama - settles into. But it's the words that get me every time.

I would like a place I could call my own ...

By contrast, on Regret it's the music I respond to. From the bright ringing of that first note to the way Hooky's bass appears and sits underneath the guitar line (quick question: does anyone else think this is the most melancholic bassline in pop?), the sound of Regret seems to me now - and possibly then - some kind of culmination.

Throughout the eighties NME bands, for want of a better description, had been moving towards a notion of the mainstream and subtly pulling the mainstream towards them at the same time. The Cure, Depeche Mode, Pet Shop Boys and New Order all helped rewrite what the sound of pop was in the UK. And for me this is where it peaks. I'm sure there are many who would argue that New Order's adventures on the dance floor is where you'll hear the best of them, or at least the band at their most innovative and adventurous.

But Regret for me is something better. It's the closest they ever got to that sonic chimera, the perfect pop song. Something that's both happy and sad at the same time. Something that hits you immediately every time you hear it. That doesn't need a particular mood to be listened to. Instead, it's a song that imposes itself on the listener. You have to respond to it”.

In 2018, The Guardian ranked Kate Bush’s singles. Moments of Pleasure came twelfth (out of twenty-nine). When MOJO decided on Kate Bush’s best fifty songs in 2024, they placed Moments of Pleasure eighth: “Moments… echoes life-and-death opus This Woman’s Work, down to the line “give these moments back”, but adds deluxe orchestral icing that Bush replaced on the Director’s Cut take with a hushed choir: a longer (by one minute), more solemn and shivery pleasure”. From The Painter that plays this important role in the unfolding summer’s day on Aerial’s A Sky of Honey to a song from The Red Shoes that name-checks people who were important to Kate Bush but sadly died. All really fascinating. In the next edition of this feature, I think I will narrow things so that I mention fewer characters. It was nice digging into Moments of Pleasure. You feel sad and uplifted by Moments of Pleasure – well, I did at least – and there are other emotions and reactions evoked from An Architect’s Dream. Though the songs share little ground, the characters in them are as powerful and meaningful. It highlights and spotlights…

THE brilliance of her songwriting.