FEATURE: Second Spin: Phil Collins - ...But Seriously

FEATURE:

 

 

Second Spin

Phil Collins - ...But Seriously

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THERE are those who dislike…

 PHOTO CREDIT: Bill Marino/Sygma/Getty Images

the material of Phil Collins. He is one of those artists that divide people. One album that I remember from my childhood is ...But Seriously. Released in 1989, it contains a raft of singles. The one that I like the most is Another Day in Paradise. This is a song that critics leapt on, as Collins discusses homelessness and making us all think twice – even though he was very rich and didn’t have experience on the subject. I really like ...But Seriously and think it is an album that warrants new acclaim. One of the issues is that ...But Seriously followed a very successful and big-selling album. This Wikipedia article explains more:

“...But Seriously is the fourth solo studio album by English drummer and singer-songwriter Phil Collins. It was released on 7 November 1989 in the United States by Atlantic Records and on 24 November 1989 in the United Kingdom by Virgin Records. After Collins finished touring commitments with the rock band Genesis in 1987 the group entered a four-year hiatus, during which Collins starred in the feature film Buster (1988). By the spring of 1989 Collins had written material for a new solo album which addressed more serious lyrical themes like socio-economic and political issues as opposed to his previous dance-oriented album, No Jacket Required (1985).

...But Seriously was a huge commercial success worldwide, reaching No. 1 in the UK and the US for 15 and 4 non-consecutive weeks, respectively. It was the best selling album of 1990 in the UK, eventually selling 2.75 million copies there and 4 million in the US. The lead single "Another Day in Paradise" won a Grammy Award for Record of the Year. Collins supported the album with the Seriously, Live! World Tour in 1990. In 2016, the album was remastered with additional studio, live, and demo tracks, and updated artwork”.

Something Happened on the Way to Heaven and I Wish It Would Rain Down are two of Collins’ best tracks. Although there are a few weaker tracks on ...But Seriously, the album as a whole is very solid and memorable. Collins’ vocals are impressive right the way through the record. I am going to bring in a couple of reviews for ...But Seriously. In a slightly negative review, this is what Rolling Stone wrote in their 1990 review:

“Phil Collins is a perfect example of the contemporary English megastar. He’s personable, photogenic, witty, quotable and damn near ubiquitous, thanks to concurrent careers as Genesis frontman, solo singer-songwriter and sometime actor. Better still, he backs up that public image with precisely the sort of light, expressive voice and catchy, upbeat melodies tailor-made for American radio. As a result, Collins would seem to have everything a pop star would want, with one exception: respect. As far as the pop establishment is concerned, Collins is a lightweight, a fluff merchant, a man whose music rarely strays beyond such tried-and-true topics as love, longing and broken hearts.

That’s an image he tries to put behind him with … But Seriously, an album that avoids frivolity at all costs. Sure, there are romantic numbers, the usual tales of love gone wrong, but from “Colours,” an earnest objection to apartheid, to “Heat on the Street,” a muddled warning against political hypocrisy and urban unrest, the album’s greatest energies are focused on social, not personal, problems. Instead of turning each tune into a short sermon, however, Collins puts his pop smarts to work and tries to make his point the same way he’d sell any other song idea — first by folding it into an easily rhymed lyric, then by wrapping it in a catchy but understated melody.

When it works, as it does in the homelessness tune “Another Day in Paradise,” the album can be wonderfully involving. Trouble is, … But Seriously just doesn’t work often enough. What helps “Paradise” make its point is the way Collins personalizes the issue, homing in on that twinge of guilt most of us feel while trying to ignore street people, then grounding it with a naggingly effective hook. But none of the other songs manageès that immediacy. Whether in the “apartheid is bad” message of “Colours” or the “gosh, I still love you” sentiments of “Something Happened on the Way to Heaven,” Collins seems mired in generalities and abstractions; there’s nothing particularly personal about these songs, and that leaves the album annoyingly vague on the issues it raises, as if being concerned were somehow enough.

Worst of all, there’s none of the simple, uncomplicated joy that has marked Collins’s previous efforts. “Hang in Long Enough” may open the album with Collins’s signature swirl of brass and percussion, but apart from the jazzy “Saturday Night and Sunday Morning,” Collins seems to prefer the more somber colors provided by his synths. Maybe that’s a part of the new, socially aware image … But Seriously is meant to introduce. But frankly, Collins was a lot more fun — and effective — when he was frivolous”.

If you are one of those people who turns their nose up at Phil Collins and thinks that he is middle of the road, I would suggest giving some time to ...But Seriously. Even if No Jacket Required is considered his strongest solo work, I don’t think that ...But Seriously is a poorer version or disappointing follow-up. I have a lot of time for Phil Collins’ ...But Seriously. Maybe some of the production sounds dated now, though there are a lot of wonderful songs that make it a very engaging and important listen. I will end with a review from AllMusic that is a little fairer – though it can still be considered mixed:

“Spawning four hit singles, But Seriously topped the charts on both sides of the Atlantic. While pursuing much of the same formula as on No Jacket Required, there was also a move toward more organic production as Collins abandoned some of the drum machines and prominent keyboards in the up-tempo numbers in favor of live instrumentation. The decision was a good one as there's no doubt that tracks such as "Find a Way to My Heart" and "Hang in Long Enough" have enough bite to outlast his more dated sounding mid-80s material. As usual, there are a bit too many generic ballads here, but when Collins moves out of his formula as on the dramatic gospel-influenced "I Wish it Would Rain Down," featuring Eric Clapton, the results are staggering”.

A hugely successful album in its own right, it is a shame critical impressions were not overly-positive. Maybe it is this thing that, as it is a Phil Collins album, it is not that great. People should give it a listen and spend some time with it. Even if you are not a massive Collins fan, there are songs on ...But Seriously that…

WILL stick in your mind.  

FEATURE: Inspired By... Part Thirty-Two: Nina Simone

FEATURE:

 

 

Inspired By...

PHOTO CREDIT: Hulton Archive/Getty Images

Part Thirty-Two: Nina Simone

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WHEN considering the next artist…

 PHOTO CREDIT: David Redfern

to feature in this series, I had highlight the legendary Nina Simone. She is someone who has inspired so many other artists. A truly distinct and timeless performer, she had a voice like nobody else! It is no surprise that a lot of other people have been struck and inspired by her. Before coming to a playlist from artists influenced by her, here is some biography:

“Nina Simone was one of the most gifted vocalists of her generation, and also one of the most eclectic. Simone was a singer, pianist, and songwriter who bent genres to her will rather than allowing herself to be confined by their boundaries; her work swung back and forth between jazz, blues, soul, classical, R&B, pop, gospel, and world music, with passion, emotional honesty, and a strong grasp of technique as the constants of her musical career.

Nina Simone was born Eunice Kathleen Waymon in Tryon, North Carolina on February 21, 1933. Her mother, Mary Kate Waymon, was a Methodist minister, and her father, John Divine Waymon, was a handyman who moonlighted as a preacher. Eunice displayed a precocious musical talent at the age of three when she started picking out tunes on the family's piano, and a few years later she was playing piano at her mother's Sunday church services. Mary Kate worked part time as a housemaid, and when her employers heard Eunice play, they arranged for her to study with pianist Muriel Mazzanovich, who tutored Eunice in the classics, focusing on Bach, Beethoven, Brahms, Chopin, and Schubert. After graduating at the top of her high school class, Eunice received a grant to study at the Juilliard School of Music in New York City, and applied for enrollment at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia. However, Eunice was denied admission at the Curtis Institute under mysterious circumstances, despite what was said to be a stellar audition performance; she would insist that her race was the key reason she was rejected.

Determined to support herself as a musician, Eunice applied for a job playing piano at the Midtown Bar & Grill in Atlantic City, New Jersey in 1954. Eunice was told she would have to sing as well as play jazz standards and hits of the day. While she had no experience as a vocalist, Eunice faked it well enough to get the job, and she adopted the stage name Nina Simone -- Nina from a pet name her boyfriend used, and Simone from the French film star Simone Signoret. The newly christened Nina Simone was a quick study as a singer, and her unique mixture of jazz, blues, and the classics soon earned her a loyal audience. Within a few years, Simone was a headliner at nightclubs all along the East Coast, and in 1957 she came to the attention of Syd Nathan, the mercurial owner of the influential blues and country label King Records. Nathan offered Simone a contract with his jazz subsidiary, Bethlehem Records, and the two were soon butting heads as the strong-willed Simone insisted on choosing her own material. Simone won out, and in 1958, she enjoyed a major hit with her interpretation of "I Loves You Porgy" from Porgy and Bess. The single rose to the Top 20 of the pop charts, but like many of Nathan's signings, Simone did not see eye to eye with him about business details (particularly after she discovered she'd signed away her right to royalties upon receiving her advance), and by 1959 she had signed a new deal with Colpix Records.

Simone's reputation as a powerful live performer had only grown by this time, and her second album for Colpix was the first of many live recordings she would release, Nina Simone at Town Hall. Simone's live performances gave her more room to show off her classical piano influences, and her albums for Colpix reflected an intelligent taste in standards, pop songs, and supper club blues, and while she didn't enjoy another American hit on the level of "I Loves You Porgy," her recordings of "Trouble in Mind" and "Nobody Knows You When You're Down and Out" both entered the pop charts as singles. (Simone's 7" releases for Colpix were later compiled into a collection from Rhino Records, 2018's The Colpix Singles.)

In 1964, Simone left Colpix to sign a new deal with Philips, and the move coincided with a shift in the themes of her music. While always conscious of the ongoing struggle for civil rights, Simone often avoided explicit political messages in her material; as she later wrote, "How can you take the memory of a man like Medgar Evers and reduce all that he was to three-and-a-half minutes and a simple tune?" But as the fight for racial equality became a more pressing issue in America, Simone began addressing issues of social justice in her music, penning songs such as "Mississippi Goddam," "Four Women," and "Young, Gifted and Black," the latter inspired by the work of her friend and mentor Lorraine Hansberry. Simone also enjoyed a British hit single in 1964 with "Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood," and while the record didn't fare as well in the United States, a year later the Animals would take the song to the pop charts on both sides of the Atlantic. Simone would next hit the British charts with her cover of Screamin' Jay Hawkins' "I Put a Spell on You," which also rose to the Top 30 in the States.

In 1967, after recording seven albums for Philips, Simone struck a new deal with RCA Records, and while her first album for her new label, Nina Simone Sings the Blues, was a straightforward collection of blues standards, her subsequent work for RCA found Simone focusing on contemporary pop, rock, and soul material, much of which dealt with topical themes and progressive philosophies (1969's To Love Somebody featured no fewer than three Bob Dylan tunes). Simone's 1968 cover of "Ain't Got No/I Got Life" (from the musical Hair) was a major chart hit in the U.K., and Simone would focus her energies on her European career when she left the United States in 1970, initially settling in Barbados and divorcing her husband and manager. Simone's exile was prompted by her increasing disillusionment with American politics, as well as her refusal to pay income taxes as a protest against U.S. involvement in Vietnam, though recording sessions and concert dates would occasionally bring her back to the United States. In 1974, Simone released her last album for RCA, It Is Finished, and spent the next several years traveling the world and playing occasional concerts; she would not return to the recording studio until 1978, when she recorded the album Baltimore at a studio in Belgium for Creed Taylor's CTI label. (That same year, Simone was arrested and charged for her non-payment of taxes from 1971 to 1973.) It would be another four years until Simone would record again, cutting Fodder on My Wings for a Swiss label in 1982.

After several more years of travel, Simone released a live album through the American VPI label, 1985's Live & Kickin, and another concert set, Let It Be Me, was issued by Verve in 1987, a year that saw Simone enjoying a major career resurgence in Europe; her 1959 recording of "My Baby Just Cares for Me" was used in a British television commercial for Chanel No. 5 perfume, and the song subsequently became a hit, rising to the Top Ten of the U.K. pop charts. In 1989, Simone was invited by Pete Townshend to sing the song "Fast Food" on his concept album The Iron Man, which also featured John Lee Hooker. Simone's autobiography I Put a Spell on You was published in 1990, and after a well-received United States concert tour, she was signed by Elektra Records, which released the album A Single Woman in 1993.

In 1995, Simone found herself in the news after she fired a gun at one of her neighbors during an argument; she was diagnosed with bipolar disorder, which was said to be the cause of several episodes of erratic behavior in her later years. Simone continued to perform live in Europe and the United States up until the summer of 2002, when it was discovered she had breast cancer. Simone's battle with the disease came to an end on April 21, 2003 in Carry-le-Rouet, France. Only a few days earlier, Simone had received an honorary degree from the Curtis Institute in Philadelphia, the same school that had rejected her in 1953”.

To show the influence of the great Nina Simone, below is a playlist of tracks from an assortment of artists who either have an element of them in their own work, or else they have named her as important in terms of what do. It is clear that we will never quite see anyone like…

NINA Simone again.

FEATURE: The Kate Bush Interview Archive: 1994: Tom Moon (Philadelphia Inquirer)

FEATURE:

 

The Kate Bush Interview Archive 

IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush in 1993/PHOTO CREDIT: Guido Harari

1994: Tom Moon (Philadelphia Inquirer)

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BECAUSE I have spent…

a lot of time around Kate Bush’s The Red Shoes and 1993, I am keeping things fairly consistent with this interview. In 1994, She spoke with Tom Moon of the Philadelphia Inquirer. I am really interested in the interviews from 1993 and 1994. Although I have covered a couple of interviews from this time. Bush was definitely getting more attention from the U.S. in general. It is no wonder that she courted fascination with albums like Hounds of Love (1985) and The Sensual World (1989). 1993’s The Red Shoes is an album that reached number two here and twenty-eight in the U.S. Those are good chart positions! In some ways, by 1994, Bush was starting to retreat and would record and perform far less regularly – it was not until 2005 when Aerial arrived. I am going to get to some sections of Tom Moon’s interview that interested me:

“The notoriously shy composer, vocalist and cult heroine works in a studio she built in her house outside London. Bush finds the house, filled with floppy old couches and homey furniture, a "far more relaxing" place than most recording studios, where the air is often thick with stress.

But even the comforts of home weren't enough when it came time for Bush to lay down her tracks. She sent away her musicians and her engineer-producer (who is also her boyfriend), and rigged up a remote that allowed her to operate the tape machine and mixing console from the isolation booth where vocals are recorded.

She was alone. No distractions. And the result, Bush recalls, was "a major unblocking." At various times on 'The Red Shoes,' the usually reserved vocalist can be heard scat singing, babbling nonsense syllables and screaming with abandon, reacting to the moment rather than to a plan.

"You have to have a real lack of inhibition to make records," Bush said last month, on a rare trip to the United States to promote 'The Red Shoes' and it accompanying film, 'The Line, The Cross, The Curve,' which she directed.

"If I feel I'm being observed, I get very nervous. I'm more likely to play with ideas if there's no one around. And it's boring for someone to have to sit and operate the tape machines. [With the remote] I could do it myself.

"That made a huge difference," said the 35-year-old singer, sitting in an Upper East Side hotel lounge. "I didn't have to do the quick thing that would work. I could try 10 things, I could do things without worrying what anybody would think.

"It made me realize we get to a certain age, and then the rest of our lives we do everything we can to get back to the way we were when we were little ... using wisdom to come back to innocence."

That maxim neatly sums up Kate Bush. Since her 1978 debut 'The Kick Inside,' she's used all of the wisdom at her disposal -- high-tech sequencers, a full orchestra, lyrics filled with literary allusions and nursery-rhyme mantras -- to achieve an innocence absent from most pop. Whether singing about the aftermath of nuclear holocaust or guru-philosopher G.I. Gurdieff, Bush is unburdened by the clutter of adult reality. Some reviews of 'The Kick Inside' insisted that it was the work of a preteen prodigy. Music this fragile could not have come from an adult.

Bush's distinctive Victorian soprano reinforces the impression. Her haunting, mewling vocals have helped her carve her own subgenre, somewhere between too-sweet pop ballads and ostentatious art-rock, between no-bull and florid love poetry, between the tactile and the abstract.

Whether they focus on grand themes or tiny frailties, her songs are wracked with a hovering doubt, wary that fate might rearrange things at any moment.

Bush maintains that she lost her innocence before she knew how valuable it was. And now, she said, she's immersed in the job of getting it back. She's investigating past-lives therapy and communicating with her angels.

She's even doing a few of the mundane music-business things she tried for so many years to avoid: like sitting for two hours at Tower records in Lower Manhattan where 2,000 pilgrims journeyed to see their idol on her first promotional trip in nearly a decade.

Respectfully, they shuffled by in an orderly line. Couples with tears in their eyes who gave Bush credit for bringing them together. A woman who begged for Bush to sign her arm, so she could go directly to the tattoo parlor. Legions of fans who waited in freezing weather for nothing more than an autograph.

For personal reasons as well as commercial ones, Bush is relieved that response to 'The Red Shoes' has been so positive. The album, three years in the making, represents an attempt by Bush to lighten up. On her debut, she cribbed from literature and quoted Scripture, setting straightforward notions of love in grandiose, and occasionally pretentious, language. Now, she's comfortable with the simple statement, the reduction of complex concepts into childlike observation.

On 'The Red Shoes' "Moments of Pleasure," she sings, "Just being alive, it can really hurt," and infuses the line with a suffering she might once have probed in painstaking detail.

She made sure that her somber ballads alternated with buoyant celebrations. And she opened her studio to a parade of guests -- Jeff Beck, Eric Clapton, the Trio Bulgarka.

If Bush's lyrics are more direct this time, their settings, and the way each guest's contribution is utilized, show that her musical gift has also matured. The best material on 'The Red Shoes' plays to the strengths of her collaborators: "And So Is Love," for example, features Clapton's guitar in a tense duet with Bush's voice.

With that tune, "I really wanted to get at the rawness of relationships, the way things just burn at people but never quite erupt," Bush explained. "And Eric just sensed that. The track couldn't say it, it just had to unfold, holding the tensions until the voice goes up into the higher octave. He followed brilliantly, like it was a conversation. It feels like the guitar is answering the voice. I was so moved by what Eric played."

When she began work on 'The Red Shoes,' Bush said, one objective was simply to overcome the internal doubts that plague her at the start of every project. But the larger objective was to link her music with a story -- in this case, Hans Christian Andersen's tale of the magical ballet shoes that force whoever wears them to dance, nonstop.

Bush's loose interpretation of the fairy tale -- an hour-long film she calls 'The Line, The Cross, The Curve' -- gives a nod to Michael Powell's 1948 film 'The Red Shoes' and links six of her thematically divergent compositions into a narrative. Slated for limited art-house release in the spring, it stars Miranda Richardson ('The Crying Game') and finds Bush dancing for the first time since her highly theatrical concerts in the late '70s.

"Getting up and dancing again was another thing to overcome," Bush said. "I'd not done anything that physical in years, and it brought back all the self-consciousness and the fear.

"But then I discovered that I did have this ability I hadn't been using. I started listening to the little voice rather than what people were telling me, which is the same thing that happens every time I record.

"Through the process, I slowly get the sense of having some ability again. I start to regain the confidence I lost in those in-between years. And I lost a lot”.

It is good to go back and look at the interviews Kate Bush has been involved with. She is always, as I say, a fascinating interviewee. Many interviews are quite memorable, and I think the one above from Tom Moon asks some good questions. It would have been quite new for Bush to get a lot of American press. I guess she was on the radar more by Hounds of Love - though the fact there were not many singles released in the U.S. and it could have been pushed more limited how much focus she got. With every interview from Kate Bush, there are revelations and new information imparted (how she talks about dancing again and was slowly getting back into the swing of things; one assumes she maintained a love of dance and did it regularly). I will do another pat of this series but, for today, it was a pleasure to…

GO back to 1994.

FEATURE: Childhood Treasures: Albums That Impacted Me: Led Zeppelin – Led Zeppelin II

FEATURE:

 

 

Childhood Treasures: Albums That Impacted Me

 Led Zeppelin – Led Zeppelin II

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THERE are not many parts left…

PHOTO CREDIT: Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images

of this feature but, before wrapping up, I want to highlight a few more important albums I heard as a child. There was quite a bit of Led Zeppelin in the family vinyl drawer when I was young. I remember Physical Graffiti was in there (and still is!). One album that I gravitated towards was Led Zeppelin II. Released in October 1969, I might have first heard it at the end of the 1980s – when I was five or six. I bonded more with it in the years after. Although songs like Whole Lotta Love are synonymous, I think it was actually Living Loving Maid (She's Just a Woman) that I loved the most. It may still be my favourite song from the album. A tremendous album with so many highlights – including What Is and What Should Never Be and Ramble On -, it still sounds so raw and terrific today! Led Zeppelin II introduced me to the iconic band. I had heard a bit of Hard Rock to that point (when I was very young), but it was mostly Pop that was part of my regular rotation. Accessible yet hard-driving, Led Zeppelin II definitely opened my eyes to new sounds. Before finishing up, there are a couple of reviews that I want to mention. Quite a few of Led Zeppelin’s albums have received huge acclaim and are regarded as classics. That is certainly true of their second studio album.

This is what AllMusic observed in their positive review of Led Zeppelin II:

“Recorded quickly during Led Zeppelin's first American tours, Led Zeppelin II provided the blueprint for all the heavy metal bands that followed it. Since the group could only enter the studio for brief amounts of time, most of the songs that compose II are reworked blues and rock & roll standards that the band was performing on-stage at the time. Not only did the short amount of time result in a lack of original material, it made the sound more direct. Jimmy Page still provided layers of guitar overdubs, but the overall sound of the album is heavy and hard, brutal and direct. "Whole Lotta Love," "The Lemon Song," and "Bring It on Home" are all based on classic blues songs -- only, the riffs are simpler and louder and each song has an extended section for instrumental solos. Of the remaining six songs, two sport light acoustic touches ("Thank You," "Ramble On"), but the other four are straight-ahead heavy rock that follows the formula of the revamped blues songs. While Led Zeppelin II doesn't have the eclecticism of the group's debut, it's arguably more influential. After all, nearly every one of the hundreds of Zeppelin imitators used this record, with its lack of dynamics and its pummeling riffs, as a blueprint”.

Definitely one of the most popular and incredible Hard Rock albums of the 1960s, it is difficult to define and limit Led Zeppelin II. Blue-Rock and Heavy Metal, the second album arrived in the same year as their debut. Led Zeppelin II cemented their sound and took the band to new heights. It was a big step forward in a small amount of time! If you have a band with John Bonham, Robert Plant, Jimmy Page and John Paul Jones in it, you can be guaranteed of musical brilliance! Each band member delivers genius on every song. Although I love Plant’s vocals, Page’s guitar wonder and Jones’ bass command, it is the percussion of John Bonham that hooked me as a child. Hearing his solo and tireless pounding on Moby Dick was a revelatory moment! Prior to wrapping up, I want to source this review from Rolling Stone. Published in December 1969, it is obvious the effect Led Zeppelin II has on some people:

“Hey, man, I take it all back! This is one fucking heavyweight of the album! OK — I’ll concede that until you’ve listened to the album eight hundred times, as I have, it seems as if it’s just one especially heavy song extended over the space of two whole sides. But, hey! you’ve got to admit that the Zeppelin has their distinctive and enchanting formula down stone-cold, man. Like you get the impression they could do it in their sleep.

 And who can deny that Jimmy Page is the absolute number-one heaviest white blues guitarist between 5’4″ and 5’8″ in the world?? Shit, man, on this album he further demonstrates that he could absolutely fucking shut down any whitebluesman alive, and with one fucking hand tied behind his back too.

“Whole Lotta Love,” which opens the album, has to be the heaviest thing I’ve run across (or, more accurately, that’s run across me) since “Parchmant Farm” on Vincebus Eruptum. Like I listened to the break (Jimmy wrenching some simply indescribable sounds out of his axe while your stereo goes ape-shit) on some heavy Vietnamese weed and very nearly had my mind blown.

Hey, I know what you’re thinking. “That’s not very objective.” But dig: I also listened to it on mescaline, some old Romilar, novocain, and ground up Fusion, and it was just as mind-boggling as before. I must admit I haven’t listened to it straight yet — I don’t think a group this heavy is best enjoyed that way.

Anyhow . . . Robert Plant, who is rumored to sing some notes on this record that only dogs can hear, demonstrates his heaviness on “The Lemon Song.” When he yells “Shake me ’til the juice runs down my leg,” you can’t help but flash on the fact that the lemon is a cleverly-disguised phallic metaphor. Cunning Rob, sticking all this eroticism in between the lines just like his blues-beltin’ ancestors! And then (then) there’s “Moby Dick,” which will be for John Bonham what “Toad” has been for Baker. John demonstrates on this track that had he half a mind he could shut down Baker even without sticks, as most of his intriguing solo is done with bare hands.

The album ends with a far-out blues number called “Bring It On Home,” during which Rob contributes some very convincing moaning and harp-playing, and sings “Wadge da train roll down da track.” Who said that white men couldn’t sing blues? I mean, like, who?”.

A hugely important album from my childhood, Led Zeppelin II remains very dear and influential. I can put on the album and hear new things in songs I have heard countless times. That is the power and genius of Led Zeppelin. I would urge anyone who has not listened to the album in a while to spin it now. Although I discovered a lot of great albums in the family home when I was a child, Led Zeppelin II is a very special one…

FROM the vinyl cupboard.

FEATURE: Spotlight: Willow Kayne

FEATURE:

 

Spotlight

Willow Kayne

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THIS Spotlight feature and the last…

PHOTO CREDIT: Columbia Records

have centred around young Pop artists combining something mainstream with some edge, colour and unique personality. Rather than follow the crowd or release music that is very much for streaming, there is depth and something original regarding Willow Kaye. One reason to follow Kayne is that she won the Rising Star gong at the Ivor Novello Awards just over a week ago. Like I do with artists in my Spotlight feature, there are a few interviews that I want to bring in. At the moment, she has released a couple of singles. One feels it will not be long until she delivers an album. Before carrying on, here is an overview of Willow Kayne:

“Willow Kayne has thrown her hat in the ring as one of the UK’s most vivid, genre-blurring pop provocateurs. A keen visual artist with influences as far-reaching as fashion design giant Nigo and production mastermind Pharrell, Willow pools together the most lucid touchpoints of all her inspirations to build a sound as diverse as her creative palette.

Willow can trace this eclecticism directly back to her childhood, being raised by a hip-hop and house-obsessed father and a mother who produced videos for the likes of Erasure and the Prodigy. James Brown, Nas and MF DOOM were all significant early influences, and soon she was making her own musical discoveries, falling hard for artists as diverse as Tyler, The Creator, the Sex Pistols, Gorillaz and Portishead.

With no real indication of where she’ll go next, one thing is for sure; in Willow’s hands, the future of pop will be anything but boring”.

WILLOW KAYNE · GIBBERISH

One can detect the fun, colour and energy of the 1990s in her music. It is strange that, as she was born in the early-‘00s, she wouldn’t have experienced the 1990s first-hand. There are artists liker her and beabadoobee (born in 2000) that channel ‘90s influences but, when you think of how old they are, they didn’t witness what went down! There is this wave of very young artists bonding with a classic decade. Of course, there is a lot more to her music than the 1990s. It is such a fantastic and varied sound that will keep even a casual listener coming back for more. The first of several interviews that I am eager to mention comes from i-D. It seems like Kayne’s love of music – and music of the 1990s – started at a young age:  

“At the age of 10, Bristol-born Willow Kayne bonded with her primary school teacher over a shared love of The Prodigy. Around the same time, she fell in love with Toploader’s “Dancing In The Moonlight” after discovering that the song was playing while she came into this world. This affinity for conflicting genres would continue to define not just her young listening habits, but ultimately, her career. Now 19, having been snapped up by the team that manage Dua Lipa and with a major label record deal in the bag, Willow has crafted a brilliantly chaotic sound from influences spanning pop, hip-hop and punk. “I’m definitely very ballsy in my songs,” she tells us. “At first, I didn’t quite clock that you don’t have to follow the classic song structure or concepts. As I became more experimental, I fell into this confident, brutally honest version of myself.” 

PHOTO CREDIT: Bedroom

In fact, Willow’s whole life has transformed over the past year. After signing her record deal, a whirlwind ensued: she moved to London and recorded for months on end as she watched her sound evolve in front of her. “Everything has changed — my confidence, my goals, my social circles,” she says. Just last week, the young artist released her hooky debut single “Two Seater” which jumps between attitude-drenched bars and warm pop vocals with impressive ease. Over an old school hip-hop beat, the opening line, “I don’t fuck with many”, gets straight to the point. “It’s basically about various situations which all lead me to believe that I’m only going to need a two seater car at this rate!” she says. “I wrote it at a time where I was realising that if I wanted to change, I had to change who I was hanging around with.” Something worth making a note of, we reckon.

Willow’s three major influences are…

“Pharrell Williams: THE MAN EVEN HAS A HOTEL NOW?? He was one of the pioneers in hip-hop fashion back in the early 00s, with his brands BBC/Ice Cream, all while being an artist. He created his own style to match his music, something which I aspire to do myself! 

British rave culture: I used to be completely obsessed with old rave flyers and retro futurism… I still am if I’m honest. The whole futurism style started because that’s how the music sounded at the time, like it wasn’t even from this planet — you can see this in so much of the OG artwork. Even the names like Fantazia, Dreamscape, etc. The whole concept and style is a huge influence of mine. 

Bristol: There wasn’t a lot to do other than find trouble or create things, but there’s such a creative vibe. With legacies such as Massive Attack, Portishead and the rave/dub scene in general, it all inspired me to be creative while giving me hope that I can do that too if I really want to.” 

PHOTO CREDIT: Parri Thomas for The Line of Best Fit

You’ll be pleased to hear that there’s an EP on the horizon

“This first EP revolves around the idea of relationships changing — pretty much me saying ‘fuck you’ to people of my past who doubted my ability! Packed with bad bitch songs for everyone to relate to. I want to make songs that make other people feel confident, and this project does exactly that!”

If she woke up tomorrow to find herself in the mid-90s, Willow would spend the whole day creeping

“DAMN! I would end up people watching for most of the day. I feel like the world has changed a ridiculous amount since back then. I’d definitely have to have a peek at my parents to see if they were as cool as they say. Oh! And magazines, I’d be trying to find as many as I could as the style back then was immaculate.”

You can catch her performing live at ALT LDN in August

“Excited is a complete understatement! I’ve been in hiding for almost a year working on new stuff, it feels pretty surreal to have even put the first track out.”

Next stop: LA!

“It’s crazy to me that I’m putting out an EP because I was so unorganised with my releases back in the soundcloud days — I would just post as soon as I’d finished the songs out of pure excitement. The build up is good though, and I know my listeners will love what’s to come! I’ll be going to LA as soon as things cool down to work over there and branch out! There’s a lot to come!”

WILLOW KAYNE · CTRL ALT DLT

I know that we are about to get a lot more music from Willow Kayne. It is a great period where she is putting out her first tracks and showing the world what she can do. The fact that she has an Ivor at this early stage proves she is an exceptional producer and writer! There is something refreshing and very honest about Kayne. She is down to earth and accessible. However, she does inhabit this special world and creates music that few others are. The Line of Best Fit spotlighted her recently and, among other things, highlighted her relationship with social media:

“It really is Willow Kayne’s world, and we’re simply here for the ride - and the music, of course. We meet in the way Gen Z always meet, these days: over roughly 1080 pixels, full HD, high-resolution. As with everything over the past year, our conversation exists in an almost-reality that is alarmingly comfortable. Yet even with the Internet’s worth of distance between us, Kayne is bright, loud and brilliant without video lag: she laughs generously, and her whip-smart sense of humour is the kind that fits perfectly into 180 characters. Looming behind her is a stuffed, entirely limbless flamingo stuck to her bedroom wall. “It’s kid-friendly taxidermy,” she shrugs.

The Bristol-born artist – though she doesn’t carry the West Country twang you’d envision (“Oh my god, why does everyone think that I’d be like, ‘Alreyt my darlen?’” Kayne despairs) – is cutting her teeth as an artist, with a capital A, through the release of two singles under Columbia, which already capture the polarity of her sound which so easily eludes definition. “Two Seater” is a two-and-a-half minute flex that proves Kayne is a law unto herself: not only does she make the rules – she created the game. She wields self-confidence with the same instinct with which she brings her talents as a lyricist, singer and producer to the table.

PHOTO CREDIT: Parri Thomas for The Line of Best Fit

Her relationship with social media is surprisingly not as tortured as a typical 19-year-old, who, through choice or design, has to broadcast their personalities on TikTok to stand a chance of success as a creative. “It’s pretty gut-wrenching when you think about it,” she shrugs. “You’ve got to sell your image. I’m pretty shit at it, myself, but in some ways, I like the fact that people can connect with my personality online. I’m alright with it, actually.” Being deeply online has offered Kayne a time machine into the “OG subcultures, like rave culture, punks, teddy boys…” that have influenced her sound and artistic approach. She favours them over the recent Gen Z concoctions such as ‘Cottagecore’ and ‘Goblincore’, which are symptomatic of a fickle, disposable approach to trends which never truly cement themselves as ‘scenes’.

“We consume so much and trends change so quickly. It’s so bad, it’s actually so bad! It’s a bit scary, actually. We’re a very greedy generation,” Kayne says. “That’s what I’d say about Gen Z: we’re very greedy. Even now, with the whole ‘y2k’ thing, it’s just a more peng version of what they were actually doing before. Like I can’t see myself wearing leggings under a skirt anytime soon… what a look.”

Music, for Willow Kayne, was born from a place of boredom. While her parents had lived in the likes of Hong Kong and Brazil, she’d been brought up, instead, in the quaint, largely uninspiring town of Melksham. “This was the kind of place where, if you walked into a pub, people would rinse you for looking even a little bit different,” explains Kayne. “It was character-building”, she grins sarcastically. When I ask if this was the kind of place those wearing beige chinos, boat shoes, Ralph Lauren polos and Jack Wills hoodies would frequent, Kayne shrieks with laughter. “No, no, no! It wasn’t that kind of countryside. It was scatty, if you will. Scatty.”

Having since been signed to Columbia, where she’s now side-by-side with the likes of Tyler The Creator, The Internet and Dominic Fike, her slow peel away from the underground music scene wasn’t met with congratulations. “I mean, I have my people, for sure, but something I found interesting when I signed was there was quite a few sour grapes, which I never even thought about or considered would be a thing. It was interesting to see who was pushing for the downfall,” Kayne says, “but here we are. I’m just really thankful, to be honest, because I was just a little kid in my bedroom in the countryside, so to be welcomed into something like that changed a lot of things for me.”

But really, Willow Kayne’s success was pretty much inevitable. “Everyone loves this in interviews,” she laughs. “Oh my god, my mum used to produce music videos. She worked with The Prodigy, Nick Cave, she was in that whole '90s world. She’s cool.” (Her dad, however, doesn’t get quite the same praise: “My dad has literally the worst music taste, ever. It’s so bad. He sends me just dead TikTok tunes.”) She says, “It’s weird, now, that I’m in that same world. Someone came up to me in the studio the other day and said, ‘I know your mum!’” Weird little connections.”

When I ask her about her hopes for future side hustles, Kayne trips over her words as her mind rushes a million miles an hour. “I’m getting excited. Oh my gosh, so I’ve got to do clothes, got to do clothes… I’d be a mug if I didn’t… like, I don’t know, I care about graphics… the thing is, oh my god, I’m such a copycat of my mum, but I’d love to direct music videos. I know I’d thrive in it just as much as music, even more. I don’t intend to stick to one thing whatsoever.” She had a book since she was 16, where she’d jot down her creative vision for artists, drawing out detailed plans for their merch designs or inventive vinyl aesthetics. “I literally get to do it for myself now!”, she grins. Make no mistake: Willow Kayne is a name you’re not about to forget. “I’m ready,” she promises. “I’m here”.

PHOTO CREDIT: Lily Craigen for NOTION

I am going to round up in a minute. Keep your ears and eyes open for her upcoming E.P. Follow her on social media and experience what Willow Kayne is all about. NOTION interviewed Kayne earlier this year. They asked about her incredible single, Two Seater, in addition to a terrible accident that left her blind in one eye:

She may only be 19 years old, but as her two genre-traversing singles show so far, Willow is unafraid to delve beyond the realms of conventionality. Her debut “Two Seater” carried a cool, Q-Tip-esque swagger with its “Bonita Applebum” references and smooth lyrical flow. Its follow up, “I Don’t Wanna Know”, upped the tempo with jungle infused beats and wildly creative visuals of teleporting through computer screens to kill off internet trolls.

Calling carpe diem on behalf of Gen Z, Willow’s upcoming EP is set to offer a “taster package” of Willow Kayne as an artist. She’s only been making music for less than half a decade. But who needs time when you have talent, potential and a provocateur-like spirit to showcase to the rest of the world?

Can you tell us about the accident you had that left you partially blinded in one eye and your journey to recovering from that? Has it changed your perspective on your career in any way?

I was 15 at the time, so I’d just started year 11. I didn’t make music or anything at this time. I was well into doing graphics and wanted to do it for the rest of my life. Then a week into starting, my eye was really red. It turned out that I had a cyst on my eye, like an ulcer on my cornea, which happened to be very rare. Your cornea has four layers, and three out of four of them were just disgraceful. So, I was in darkness for a couple of months and it enhanced a lot of other senses, you know? I would listen to my favourite songs and notice things I’d never heard before. Things would smell and taste different. It was really weird. I’d say the whole experience has definitely influenced my ideas now. It’s not just about the music; I want my project to involve multisensory things. I think if I can portray that to other people at shows then that’ll be nice.

‘Two Seater’ was a confident debut single. What messages and attitudes does your upcoming EP channel? Anything unexpected?

I’ve really enjoyed making different styles of music. I don’t really feel like I’m in a specific genre. My main goal for this first project is for it to be a taster. It’s obviously all still very Willow, but it’s like a taster pack of what I can do. Without me even realising it, the project has all ended up revolving around similar things. There’s been so many social changes – even in the last year with Covid, I’ve signed a record deal, I’ve moved away, lots of things have happened. And I just noticed that socially, there’s been a lot of differences like people treating you differently or switching up on you. I talk about that a lot in this project.

I heard your latest track ‘I Don’t Wanna Know’ was inspired by internet trolls too?

Basically, ‘Two Seater’ had come out and it was my first song. I wasn’t 100% on it because I’d written it a year before it came out. But I think because of that, I wasn’t actually upset about the comments. But there was this advert running with Two Seater in it, which I didn’t know about. They’d just taken one of my random TikToks and it ended up reaching a fair amount of people. I was getting messages every day from strangers being like, ‘I can’t believe someone’s commented saying you’re ugly and talentless’, and I was like what? So then, I was in a studio session and got on the phone to my friend Herbie and asked if they knew what all these messages were about. He sent me the link to this advert that had like over 1,000 comments just slamming me. I didn’t really know what to do. But the more I read them, I thought about how I could get this emotion out. So, I wrote ‘IDWK’ and it’s literally about the hate comments on ‘Two Seater’. I’m pretty lucky with that to be honest, because I feel like that could have gone in a completely different direction. It was motivating for me, because I know I’m not shit. 

PHOTO CREDIT: Lily Craigen for NOTION

How important an asset is it for you as an artist – especially a female artist – to be able to produce your own music?

I saw a thing the other day about producers being only 2% female which is mad. You’ve just got to work with you’ve got to be honest. I’ve been really lucky with people listening to me and my ideas. But I’ve also worked with others who have been like, ‘I know the best way, I’m not going to listen to you’ and I’m like, ‘okay well, fair enough, not gonna work with you again’ you know? I’ve had it pretty easy so far but I think it just depends on the person.

What does the future hold for Willow Kayne? I’ve heard LA is on the cards?

I have no idea but I’m just gonna keep doing me. If it works out and people like it, that’s brilliant. I don’t really wanna sugar coat it to be honest. I’m just having fun. But yeah, I’m going to LA in the next couple months and I’ll see what happens. There’s a lot over there for me, I feel. If I can, I would move over there for a bit, for sure”.

I know that Willow Kayne will go a long way! She is a superb rising talent who is going to produce and release music for years to come. Even now, one can tell she is a cut above the rest. After a huge nod from the Ivors and an E.P. on the way, it is a perfect time to connect with Willow Kayne. If you have missed out on her music to this point, go and make sure that you…

WILLOW KAYNE · FUNKDAFIED FLIP

RECTIFY that now.  

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Follow Willow Kayne 

PHOTO CREDIT: Columbia Records

Instagram:

https://www.instagram.com/willowkayne/

Twitter:

https://twitter.com/willowkayne

Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/Willow-Kayne-100683132170662

Spotify:

https://open.spotify.com/artist/7b6l5JehVDc5Wb7L8iPvJN

YouTube:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCMz_5UfNyS5hp9y3lueHNRQ

FEATURE: Groovelines: Glen Campbell – Wichita Lineman

FEATURE:

 

 

Groovelines

 Glen Campbell – Wichita Lineman

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I have neglected an all-time classic…

when it comes to Groovelines. Glen Campbell’s Wichita Lineman is seen as one of the greatest songs ever written. It was not Campbell who wrote the song. Written by the American songwriter Jimmy Webb in 1968, it was first recorded by Campbell with backing from members of the Wrecking Crew. The legendary version by Campbell (which appeared on the 1968 album, Wichita Lineman) got to number three on the U.S. Pop chart. The song topped the American Country music chart for two weeks. It is no surprise, when you listen to the lyrics and hear Campbell’s emotive performance, that Wichita Lineman has been so regarded. Magazines and polls have placed the song high. I think that is because one cannot compare Wichita Lineman to anything else. It is this song that exists in its own world! I want to bring in a couple of articles about a classic song. I am interested about the story of Wichita Lineman. This is a track that, by all accounts, was a very unlikely hit. American Songwriter took a look inside the track last year:

“Imagine pitching this song idea in 1968: There’s this guy who works on telephone poles in the middle of Kansas. He’s really devoted to his job. Rain or shine, he’s committed to preventing system overloads. It’s really lonely work, and he misses his girlfriend. Does this sound like a hit to you?

When Jimmy Webb wrote the first lines of “Wichita Lineman”…

I am a lineman for the county and I drive the main road

Searchin’ in the sun for another overload

I hear you singin’ in the wire, I can hear you through the whine

And the Wichita Lineman is still on the line

… not only did he not think he had a surefire hit, he didn’t even think the song was finished. An inauspicious beginning for a song that sold millions of records for Glen Campbell, has been recorded by everyone from Johnny Cash to James Taylor to R.E.M., and appears on several lists of the greatest songs of all time.

In late 1967 Jimmy was just about the hottest songwriter in L.A., based on two consecutive monster hits: The Fifth Dimension’s “Up, Up And Away,” and Glen Campbell’s “By The Time I Get To Phoenix.” “Phoenix” had been on the charts for six months, although Jimmy and Glen still hadn’t met.

“For all we know, ‘Phoenix’ could have been a one-off thing,” Jimmy told me recently. “Glen might never have recorded another song of mine.” They finally met at a jingle session. Soon after that date, the phone rang. It was Glen, calling from the studio. “He said, ‘Can you write me a song about a town?’” Jimmy recalls. “And I said, ‘Well, I don’t know … let me work on it.’ And he said, ‘Well, just something geographical.’

“He and (producer) Al DeLory were obviously looking for a follow-up to ‘Phoenix.’ And I remember writing ‘Wichita Lineman’ that afternoon. That was a song I absolutely wrote for Glen.”

It was the first time he had written a song expressly for another artist. But had he conceived any part of “Wichita” before that call?

“Not really,” Jimmy says. “I mean I had a lot of ‘prairie gothic’ images in my head. And I was writing about the common man, the blue-collar hero who gets caught up in the tides of war, as in ‘Galveston,’ or the guy who’s driving back to Oklahoma because he can’t afford a plane ticket (‘Phoenix’). So it was a character that I worked with in my head. And I had seen a lot of panoramas of highways and guys up on telephone wires … I didn’t want to write another song about a town, but something that would be in the ballpark for him.”

So even though it was written specifically for Glen, he still wanted it to be a ‘character’ song?

“Well, I didn’t want it to be about a rich guy!” he laughs. “I wanted it to be about an ordinary fellow. Billy Joel came pretty close one time when he said ‘Wichita Lineman’ is ‘a simple song about an ordinary man thinking extraordinary thoughts.’ That got to me; it actually brought tears to my eyes. I had never really told anybody how close to the truth that was.

“What I was really trying to say was, you can see someone working in construction or working in a field, a migrant worker or a truck driver, and you may think you know what’s going on inside him, but you don’t. You can’t assume that just because someone’s in a menial job that they don’t have dreams … or extraordinary concepts going around in their head, like ‘I need you more than want you; and I want you for all time.’ You can’t assume that a man isn’t a poet. And that’s really what the song is about.”

He wasn’t certain they would go for it. “In fact, I thought they hadn’t gone for it,” he says. “They kept calling me back every couple of hours and asking if it was finished. I really didn’t have the last verse written. And finally I said, ‘Well, I’m gonna send it over, and if you want me to finish it, I’ll finish it.’

“A few weeks later I was talking to Glen, and I said, ‘Well I guess Wichita Lineman didn’t make the cut.’ And Glen said, ‘Oh yeah! We recorded that!’ And I said, ‘Listen, I didn’t really think that song was finished …’ And he said, ‘Well it is now!’”

In a recent interview, Glen said that he and DeLory filled in what might have been a third verse with a guitar solo, one now considered iconic. He still can recall playing it on a DanElectro six-string bass guitar belonging to legendary L.A. bass player and Wrecking Crew member Carol Kaye. It remains Glen’s favorite of all his songs.

“Wichita Lineman” can serve as ‘Exhibit A’ in any demonstration for songwriters of the principle of ‘less is more.’ On paper, it’s just two verses, each one composed of two rhymed couplets. The record is a three-minute wonder: Intro. First Verse. Staccato telegraph-like musical device. Second verse. No chorus. Guitar solo. Repeat last two lines of second verse (“and I need you more than want you …”). Fade. There is no B section, much less a C section”.

 PHOTO CREDIT: Silver Screen Collection/Getty Images

There are few tracks as powerful and heartstopping as the Glen Campbell release of 1968. Campbell died in 2017 at the age of eighty-one. Even though he has gone, his most-famous song will live forever. Many people credit Glen Campbell on his performance (rightly), though some overlook the importance of writer Jimmy Webb. It is his words and imagery that makes Wichita Lineman so evocative and timeless. In this BBC article from 2017, we discover more about the creation and simple brilliance of the song:

“Wichita Lineman jump-started Campbell's career, helping the album of the same name go double platinum in the US, and giving the star his first chart hit in the UK.

But over the years, Campbell was always careful to highlight Webb's role.

"He's just an exceptional writer. He pours his heart out," he said. "And I think that's where the music comes from: the heart."

Webb returned the compliment, telling BBC Four: "He made me sound good. He made me sound like a genius. But really, I just did what I did and he had the wherewithal to follow through - and hit some notes that really, honestly, he shouldn't have been able to hit.

"A lot of other singers would have said, 'Hey, listen - take this home and work on this, son. Because I can't sing on that.'"

And what about that "dumb" lyric? Over the years, Webb made his peace with the line - realising his discomfort over the rhyme had blinded him to the words' raw power.

"Had I known what I was doing, I wouldn't have written that line. I would have found a way to make it rhyme," he told NPR in 2010. "It was only years later that I became aware of what a songwriter was even supposed to do. I was really just a kid who was kind of writing from the hip and the heart."

Glen Campbell's bandmate Carol Kaye says he couldn't read music, which he tried to hide

David Crary, a real-life lineman who repairs high voltage power lines across America, says he wouldn't change the words for the world.

"I think Jimmy Webb hit the nail on the head," he told Radio 4. "It describes a lot of linemen, what they go through on the road, away from their family.

"When I hear that song, or when I'm singing it, it brings lots of memories back of storms that I've been on, whether they're ice storms, hurricanes [or] tornadoes.

"The most important part is getting back to your family in one piece."

Campbell - who spent the majority of his life on the road - had an equally personal connection to the lyric.

"'I want you for all time,' I always say that to my wife, because it cheers her up," he said.

"We got some grown kids and they say, 'Oh, you guys. You guys are like lovebirds”.

Over fifty years since it was recorded, radio stations around the world play Wichita Lineman. It is one of the very best songs ever recorded. Although its subject matter might tip to an old tradition and way of life that does not exist – or is very rare at least -, the sense of loneliness, beauty and emotion at the song’s core resonates and connects with people through the generations. If you have not heard Wichita Lineman for a while, go and seek it out today and…

PLAY it loud.

FEATURE: A Debt of Gratitude: Ensuring Our Music Venues Survive and Flourish

FEATURE:

 

 

A Debt of Gratitude

PHOTO CREDIT: Sam Moqadam/Unsplash 

Ensuring Our Music Venues Survive and Flourish

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I am reacting to…

 PHOTO CREDIT: Louis Comar/Unsplash

a bit of an old news story. Well, it was published a couple of weeks back. It seems that, during a very tough pandemic, many venues are struggling, and a huge debt is about to face them. This NME article provides more details:

“It has been a tumultuous 18 months for grassroots music venues across the UK. At the start of the pandemic last March, there was the very real threat of over 500 venues facing closure. However, the vast majority have been saved thanks to public support and donations to the Music Venue Trust’s #SaveOurVenues campaign, along with pressure being put on the government and a number being saved by the Cultural Recovery Fund.

Despite the MVT’s largely successful efforts to “reopen every venue safely” with the hard work of people on the ground, it now seems that many venues remain in a difficult financial situation.

“The grassroots music venue sector is more than £90million in debt,” MVT CEO Mark Davyd told NME. “Getting that paid off isn’t going to be done this year, it likely won’t be done next year and might not be until 2024 or 2025 if things keep going as they are.

“The average debt they’re emerging with is around £80,000-£120,000 per venue – some are in much more significant debt than that.”

Davyd said that these debts were down to “landlords, suppliers, services and money that’s owed within their supply chain,” and that the best response would be for music fans to return to venues when they feel ready. He went on to praise venues’ efforts for making their spaces more COVID-safe, and for fans for taking precautionary measures – with around 95 per cent of gig-goers surveyed either being double vaccinated, having taken a COVID test before a show or having proof of immunity.

PHOTO CREDIT: Nicholas Green/Unsplash 

“Venues took on a lot of work and effort to try and understand what they should do to make their spaces safe, and then they went out and did it,” Davyd told NME. “The facts are that case numbers were rising significantly and very, very high – right up until the ‘freedom day’ of July 19. Venues then opened on July 19 and, in the following six weeks, case rates went down week on week.

“The most surprising statistic of all is that they went down by 29 per cent across the country, but of the 100 grassroots music venues that we tracked in different locations it went down by 38 per cent in the locality of those venues.”

He continued: “If you like science and believe in correlation rather than causality, you could argue that if you want to reduce transmission rates then you should open more grassroots music venues. The proof is in the evidence and the fact that grassroots music venues have contributed very little to the rise in transmissions. They’ve really managed this very well with air filtration, air quality, risk management and by working incredibly hard.”

Davyd said that the best way to help venues through this period was to get back to shows, and to take a test and stay safe before doing do.

“One of the key messages of our #TakeATest campaign is that the artists, the crew, the bar and venue staff are all taking a test to make sure these shows can go ahead,” he said. “It’s only reasonable for them to expect the audience to do the same thing. Tests are free, you can get them easily from an NHS website, it takes minutes of your time and I can’t think of any reason why anyone wouldn’t do that if they want to go and see a band that they love.”

He went on: “The number one thing that people can do is go out there, go and see a show, put your money in a venue, because they know how to use it best to recover from this. If everyone who cares about live music went to one extra grassroots show a month it would completely revolutionise the economics of this sector. Just go and take a chance on something you haven’t seen before, fill up those gigs that are currently half full”.

 PHOTO CREDIT: Billetto Editorial/Unsplash

It is a shame that, after such a rotten time and strain for the music industry, there is this threat to venues. Let us hope that there is resolve and some form of solution very soon. I am hearing about many more gigs being put on and artists making plans. I feel like the period to the end of this year will be one for recovery and balance. Many venues are going to be in a bad place come the end of the year. With great organisations like the Music Venue Trust offering support, let’s hope that we do not see too many invaluable venues close. I feel the Government should do more in the way regarding a financial package for live venues. I know that music fans are coming out to support venues. With rent prices remaining high and this being an uncertain time, it will be a very rocky next couple of years. As the pandemic starts to calm and there are signs (for now) of stability, maybe there is some good news. As the article says, the best way for venues to recover and remain open is for people to get out there and see gigs. I am keeping an eye on this story to see how things develop, as there has been a lot of turbulence and strife for venues since the pandemic kicked off. I know that next year will be much more prosperous and positive, though we are not out of the woods yet. If you have not been to a gig in a while or are looking for ways to support your local venue, then go and see as much live music as you can. That is the way we can see rehabilitation and security for many. As we look into autumn and ahead to the year’s end, everyone hopes that the live music industry enjoys a…

 PHOTO CREDIT: The Nigmatic/Unsplash

MUCH brighter time in 2022.

FEATURE: Sweet Child of Mine: Kate Bush’s Bertie from Aerial

FEATURE:

 

Sweet Child of Mine 

PHOTO CREDIT: Trevor Leighton

Kate Bush’s Bertie from Aerial

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BECAUSE a few Kate Bush albums…

have anniversaries in November, I am exploring each of them from different angles. Aerial turns sixteen on 7th November. The first album since 1993’s The Red Shoes, there was a mix of interest, excitement and curiosity when the album was announced. Why now for an album? Where had Bush been all of this time? It was a massive relief that she was back with a terrific album – a very good double album at that! One of the reasons as to why there was a big gap between albums is her son, Bertie. Born in 1998, he was a very young child when she was recording the album. Understandably, one can feel his presence and influence on many of the songs through Aerial. That is most explicit on a song especially for him. Bertie is a paen to her new son. More than a child, it is almost a new lease on life. I think about Bush in 1993 and what was going on with her. The Red Shoes did not get that much positive press. Her short film, The Line, the Cross and the Curve, was also the recipient of some backlash. For the first time in her career, Bush was getting a fair bit of negativity. Throw in the break-up of a long-lasting relationship and the fairly recent death of her mother, one can understand why she would have wanted to retreat and spend some time not making music.

If one were to rank the tracks on Aerial, maybe Bertie would come quite low. In fact, I ranked it number six in a recent feature. I was ranking the seven songs that make up the brilliant first side of Aerial, A Sea of Honey. I ranked Pi last - though I have also done a feature about that. The only reason for ranking Pi so low was because, at its heart, it is Bush reciting numbers. There are other songs on that half/album that are fuller and more interesting. I have sort of changed my views about Bertie. It is undeniably sweet and loving. Many might see that as a reason to avoid. In fact, it is very tender and joyful. I am going to give further impressions. First, and thanks to the Kate Bush Encyclopaedia is Bush discussing the inspiration behind the song:

“He's such a big part of my life so, you know, he's a very big part of my work. It's such a great thing, being able to spend as much time with him as I can. And, you know, he won't be young for very long. And already he's starting to grow up and I wanted to make sure I didn't miss out on that, that I spent as much time with his as I could.

So, the idea was that he would come first, and then the record would come next, which is also one reasons why it's taken a long time (laughs). It always takes me a long time anyway, but trying to fit that in around the edges that were left over from the time that I wanted to spend with him.

It's a wonderful thing, having such a lovely son. Really, you know with a song like that, you could never be special enough from my point of view, and I wanted to try and give it an arrangement that wasn't terribly obvious, so I went for the sort of early music... (Ken Bruce show, BBC Radio 2, 3 November 2005)”.

The lyrics are simple and heartfelt: “Here comes the sunshine/Here comes that son of mine/Here comes the everything/Here's a song and a song for him/Sweet kisses/Three wishes/Lovely Bertie/The most wilful/The most beautiful/The most truly fantastic smile/I've ever seen/Sweet kisses/Three wishes/Lovely Bertie/You bring me so much joy/And then you bring me/More joy”. I feel that, if Bush were to discuss the track today, she would feel the same. It is clear that her son was a massive ray of sunshine and remains so. It is strange to think, as we look ahead to Aerial turning sixteen, Bertie is twenty-three. It almost seems impossible! I wonder whether, in 1993, Kate Bush could have ever predicted where her life would head! Because of this new-found peace and purpose, we get a phenomenal album in Aerial. She has named it as her favourite. Many would agree with her. It is a beautiful album with some of her finest lyrics, compositions and vocal performances. For all its simplicity, Bertie is a very affecting song where one can feel the warmth and pride flow from Bush. In the years since, Bertie (Albert) has appeared on Director’s Cut and 50 Words for Snow (both 2011). He was instrumental in her stage return in 2014. Before the Dawn also features him as an actor. If there is more music from Kate Bush, maybe we will hear an adult Bertie in some form. I do love Aerial and its context. Bush as this relatively new mother who, for the first time in many years, seemed settled, calmer and less pulled and pushed by demand and the industry. Even though it is not as musically rich or as lyrically deep as some songs on Aerial, Bertie is a beautiful song to…

HER much-loved son.

FEATURE: Spotlight: Tirzah

FEATURE:

 

 

Spotlight

PHOTO CREDIT: Lillie Eiger 

Tirzah

___________

AS there are so many…

interesting and different artists around, it gives me opportunity to feature them in my Spotlight feature. One artist I have been following for a little while is Tirzah. Based in Greater London, she is releasing her new album, Colourgrade, on 1st October. It is a release that I would encourage people to pre-order:

“Colourgrade follows on from 2018’s immediate cult classic LP, Devotion. It forms a subconscious snapshot from across a year when Tirzah was playing live regularly for the first time, in the depths of promoting Devotion and recorded soon after the birth of her first child and shortly before her second child was born. The album explores recovery, gratitude and new beginnings, presenting a singer having discovered the type of love that is shared between a mother and a child for the first time, whilst simultaneously working as an artist”.

I am keen to explore and uncover a few interviews from this year. We get a better impression of who Tirzah is and what we can expect from Colourgrade. There have been quite a few interviews this year with Tirzah. She is turning heads and capturing a lot of attention ahead of the release of Colourgrade. It is about time that I get to some interviews, as Tirzah is someone that you will want to know more about.

Earlier in the year, Loud and Quiet spent time with Tirzah. We get to learn more about her personality, in addition to her long-time collaboration with producer Micachu:

“The first line of the bio sent over by her record label reads, ‘Tirzah the artist is an idea that’s hard to hold on to.’ It’s a sentence that comes back to me as I listen to her debut album, ‘Devotion’ – a moody, melancholy collection of love songs with a distinctly British RnB flavour. There’s an ethereal, other-worldly energy to it; the musical equivalent of smoke. Thick and dreamy, a beautiful texture that’s not quite solid, drifting into nothing once it’s done. ‘I’ll be thinking of you when you’re gone,’ she sings over a soft electronic instrumental. ‘But what’s keeping me from holding on…’

Tirzah the human is hard to hold on to too. She speaks quietly, in drifting, smoky sentences. It’s difficult to tell whether she’s unassuming or distracted, or maybe just tired. Her daughter was born in November (“I’m knee deep in nappies!”) and Tirzah’s juggling the first months of motherhood with the release of this record, which follows in the wake of gradual recognition due to the success of 2013’s ‘No Dancing’, her 2014 EP ‘No Romance’, and sporadic Internet releases over the past few years. She hasn’t made any music since the baby was born, and she’s not quite sure how she’s going to adjust her working pattern to this seismic life change. “It’s going to challenge me to be more organised,” she laughs, “which is not something I’m really good at.”

Tirzah doesn’t laugh that often over the course of our conversation, which isn’t to say she’s rude. But there’s a hesitancy there. “I’m not the most social person,” she tells me. She’s speaking about her song writing process, really, which mostly takes place over regular catch-ups with her collaborator and childhood friend, the producer Micachu. They meet at one another’s houses and communicate mostly through music. It’s with Mica, Tirzah says, where she feels most able to express herself.

“I sort of feel like it’s more of a band or duo than a collaboration in a way. As in we hang out together as friends, and make music together – it was all one thing. So that became our relationship. So it’s kind of… It feels like a dual project in that sense as well. I’ve done the odd collaboration with other people but hardly any, and it’s a nice thing to do, but I feel most comfortable when I’m working with Mica. And I think that’s what I’m in it for – that’s what I find most enjoyable about it.”

The pair met at The Purcell, a school for young musicians near Watford on the outskirts of London, at the start of the Millennium. It was an environment seeped in music. “Everyone was playing music all around you,” remembers Tirzah. “Very much, that’s what’s going on. It was a very small school. Like, you’re in a class with, probably, 12 kids. And obviously everyone’s got that interest.”

PHOTO CREDIT: Charlotte Patmore for Loud and Quiet

Tirzah joined Purcell at thirteen, after a music teacher suggested to her mother that it might be a good idea. Although she originally began her musical career as a harpist, the friendship with Mica, which started as “messing about on guitar” in class, writing “goofy songs”, developed when the school built a music tech room. “So she started working in there and we did songs over the music we’d made.

And now, sixteen years later, they’re releasing an album.

It’s almost a retro-move, to go from dropping experimental pop and stripped-back music videos online to creating an old-fashioned romance record. Eleven love songs. “I think it was just, we toyed with the idea of doing EPs, and it felt like something more creatively challenging to do an album and exciting therefore,” she shrugs. “And I always listen to music in albums. I don’t really flick through singles, so it didn’t feel like… it felt natural. Like I would want to do that, I would want to sit and be in someone else’s head for a while. So the process then was not really too dissimilar from the EPs but way harder to pick tracks, because we had so many singles over the years”.

I did not know that motherhood and family was a big influence on the album. As we find out in an interview with FADER, she started recording Colourgrade in 2019, shortly after the birth of her first child. That said, Tirzah does not consider the record to be overly-personal:

“In filmmaking, color grading is the process of adding extra body, depth, and emotion to visuals. A camera can’t always capture the true colors the photographer saw; color grading is about adjusting the tones and shifting exposures to get back to the colors that were really seen. For Tirzah, naming the new record Colourgrade was about seeing the work through the framework of color.

“I suppose the way I like to link the songs together is textures and colors,” Tirzah says. “I know in the previous record, we had the sounds Meeks had done labelled as colors — green, purple — and I really loved that. It made sense to me, maybe because everyone learns things in different ways but I really respond to color and pattern and texture. And you can apply colour to loads of things. It doesn’t have to be literally color, you know, it can be moods and emotions. I really like how that could all tie together.”

Devotion comprised songs from a ten-year period of writing with Mica, who is perhaps now best known for their Oscar-nominated work scoring films like Pablo Larraín’s Jackie. Tirzah describes that album as “a collage” of love songs from the era — about her own relationships past and present, but also relationships she had observed around her. There was a striking rawness to the record, lines like “I need all your attention, sometimes I think that’s all I need / But most of all I want your comfort for me” and “I come to you with an open heart, ’cause the last thing I want to do is be apart from you” as clear and fragile as cellophane. But Tirzah balks at the suggestion that her debut was especially personal, laughing and covering her face with her hands when I mention a Guardian review that called the record “frighteningly intimate, lived-in as an unmade bed”.

“To me it doesn’t seem that personal, which I suppose is quite weird,” she says, laughing. “I suppose everyone has that whole palette of feelings and emotions. Sometimes I think we are all the same, with all the same emotions — which, now that I’ve said it, makes me think of that Sesame Street book I read to the bubbas: We’re Different, We’re The Same. I feel like I’ve been listening to love songs for time, really, and it’s all kind of the same to me. And also because it’s me putting myself in other people’s shoes, thinking about other people’s relationships, [Devotion was] not an unnervingly personal thing to me”.

Colourgrade was recorded in 2019, after the birth of Tirzah’s firstborn, with the “human deadline,” as Tirzah calls it, of knowing another baby was on the way. It’s an altogether more visceral record than Devotion, with a scuzzy, caustic dissonance occasionally cutting through. (Incidentally, Tirzah mentions that Kwake and Dean were recording in the studio around the same time, and says they unintentionally started “sharing” ideas and sounds.)

Unlike Devotion, these are all new songs, and Tirzah revels at the freshness of it. “Devotion was pulling together ten years of work, whereas Colourgrade was kind of more actively written,” she says. “In some senses making Devotion was more a process of editing and curating, and we had so much material we drew a line under. So coming into this we were writing completely new stuff, and there was no pressure of matching anything because this is completely new. There was that excitement in starting again. And we’re different people from ten years ago, so it’s gonna be different.”

PHOTO CREDIT: Udoma Janssen for FADER

There are songs here about figuring out your role as a parent, about labor, even a soothing post-lullaby, where Tirzah mumbles: “My baby, ooh she’s sleeping tonight.” The track was recorded at night, Tirzah explains, back when she lived across the road from the studio, and could slip there to meet Mica after J had finally fallen asleep. In general, the album was created around the busy schedules of the trio — not least with Tirzah having a newborn child. “All of these things come into it,” says Mica, “The moods, the environment, the weather, all of that stuff has an impact [on how it sounds], especially when you’re leaving all that sort of thing in.”

Despite being initially cagey when I ask if Colourgrade speaks directly to her experiences of motherhood, Tirzah eventually concedes that, in some ways, it does. The artwork is a close-up of her torso, hands poring through what appears to be a colourful picture book. “One of the things I wanted to get across was the comedic value of new motherhood,” she says. “That whole spiritual side to becoming a parent is so huge, but there’s also such comedy and mundanity in what your life becomes — it’s literally just laundry and bums. And that all comes with the joy of it, because it’s so funny and nuts, but you know you’ll look back and think of those endless days of washing clothes and bottles.”

Family is threaded into Colourgrade in the way that romantic love was on Devotion. “I’ve got these new loves in my life that are in my thoughts all the time,” she says. Still, she’s resolute about not wanting to go too deep on the intimacies and intricacies of love for a child vs love for a partner. “I feel like I would have to write a book about that,” she eventually deflects with a laugh, replying via voice note after thinking about it for the day. “I think my answer is constantly evolving. And it’s almost too personal to answer I think. I feel like I’ve put it in the words, in the music, so I don’t want to talk about it”.

I am going to wrap up in a minute. There is another interview that I want to quote a short snippet from. Contrary to Tirzah’s feeling her music is not necessarily personal, this Stereogum interview highlights an intimacy and warmth in her music and speaking voice:

“In a Guardian piece around the release of Devotion, Damien Morris called Tirzah’s work “frighteningly intimate, lived-in as an unmade bed.” She contested that notion in a recent Fader feature, arguing, “It doesn’t feel more personal than anything else.” But I continue to argue for Morris’ description of her music. It has always felt strikingly intimate, especially compared to the usual contextual anonymity of electronic music and techno. The discrepancy, I think, is that it feels intimate but not necessarily personal. She whispers, her voice trails off, she clears her throat, she hums, she murmurs off-mic. Her lyrics capture the diaristic poems she’s transposed into melodies, things she’s too shy to share even with Levi, her best friend and close collaborator. Even when her lyrics aren’t revealing, her voice feels like a cry of relief, always on the verge of cracking.

In the extended music video for “Hive Mind,” out today, this tendency expands beyond Tirzah herself. As the 10-minute film opens, Tirzah enters the room with a bouquet for a celebration; it looks like it’s someone’s birthday, and they are partying after-hours at a gallery. Tirzah hands the viewer a flower, moving slowly but not quite deliberately, taking her time, fumbling with the bouquet, and always laughing. Scenes of a house party are juxtaposed with a butterfly terrarium, with long walks through a park, swings on a playground, running around a studio, driving electric scooters through quiet London streets, images of young children; everyone is trying to make the baby laugh. It’s a loose juxtaposition between humans and insects, the animal world and her own, scurrying around and bumping into one another. Colourgrade is a meditation on where you end and someone else begins, on friendship, on love, and the profound experience of motherhood, bringing a baby into the world and watching them grow. How do you make a representation closer to life?”.

If you have not heard of Tirzah and her music, go and listen to what is online. Colourgrade is going to be a fantastic album that you will want to listen to. I think that she is going to go quite far. Her work gets stronger by the year, and what she is producing now is her very best. Colourgrade will be…

PROOF of that.

____________

Follow Tirzah

PHOTO CREDIT: Udoma Janssen for FADER 

Official:

https://www.tirzah.uk/

Instagram:

https://www.instagram.com/tirzahmusic/

Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/TirzahMusic

YouTube:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCmdGD9IQDbUITBswY28uw_g

Spotify:

https://open.spotify.com/artist/6f5lOlSFJw9K79gaNnmWAd

FEATURE: The October Playlist: Vol. 1: Take Me Back to the Beachland Ballroom

FEATURE:

 

 

The October Playlist

IN THIS PHOTO: IDLES/PHOTO CREDIT: Tom Ham

Vol. 1: Take Me Back to the Beachland Ballroom

__________

THIS is a busy week…

 IN THIS PHOTO: Tori Amos

for new music. It is a big and eclectic week for tunes. Not only is there music from IDLES, there are fresh cuts from Wet Leg, Coach Party, Courtney Barnett, Tori Amos, Brandi Carlile, Elton John/Stevie Wonder, Remi Wolf, Tony Bennett & Lady Gaga, Sam Fender, and Years & Years. If you need a kick to get you into the weekend, then this Playlist should do the job! It is a fantastic selection of new songs that are kicking off October with plenty of quality. As the weather is a bit greyer, I reckon that these songs have what it takes to…

 IN THIS PHOTO: Coach Party

BRING the sunshine.   

ALL PHOTOS/IMAGES (unless credited otherwise): Artists

__________

PHOTO CREDIT: Tom Ham 

IDLES – The Beachland Ballroom

Wet Leg – Wet Dream

PHOTO CREDIT: Martyna Wisniewska

Coach Party - FLAG (Feel Like a Girl)

PHOTO CREDIT: Mia Mala McDonald

Courtney Barnett - Write a List of Things to Look Forward To

PHOTO CREDIT: Desmond Murray

Tori Amos - Speaking with Trees

Chelsea Cutler – Devil on My Shoulder

Brandi Carlile – Broken Horses

Elton John, Stevie Wonder – Finish Line

Tony Bennett & Lady Gaga – I’ve Got You Under My Skin

Remi Wolf - Anthony Kiedis

Sam Fender – Spit on You

Mahalia (ft. AJ Tracey) - Roadside

Years & Years – Crave

PHOTO CREDIT: Fabrice Bourgelle

Ross from Friends – Love Divide

Headie One – Cry

La Luz – Oh, Blue

Beth Keeping – i thought this would be a love song

Jayli Wolf – Lead Me

Rudie Edwards – All or Nothing

PHOTO CREDIT: Flore Diamant

Tusks – Fall in to You

Leslie Grace – Bachatica

Blithe – Becoming You

Maya Jane Coles (ft. Claudia Kane) - True Love to the Grave

Skip Marley (ft. Popcaan) - Vibe  

Greta Isaac - 5’1

PHOTO CREDIT: Daniel Harris

Palace – Lover (Don’t Let Me Down)

Molly Payton – January Summers

Gracie Abrams - Feels Like

PHOTO CREDIT: Nick Porter

PEAKES - Day & Age

Samm Henshaw – Chicken Wings

PHOTO CREDIT: Jess Gleeson

GRAACE – Sentimental

Oh Wonder – Don’t Let the Neighbour Hear

Sody – Bitch (I Said It)

Raheaven – TALK BACK

Jessie Murph – Sobriety

FEATURE: A Buyer’s Guide: Part Seventy-Four: Simple Minds

FEATURE:

 

A Buyer’s Guide

Part Seventy-Four: Simple Minds

___________

ON this occasion…

for A Buyer’s Guide, I am recommending the best albums from Simple Minds. The Scottish legends have released some wonderful albums. Their eighteenth, 2018’s Walk Between Worlds, was very well-received. It is hard to narrow down to the very best – though that is what I am going to do. Before that, here is some biography about Simple Minds:

“Best known in the U.S. for their 1985 number one hit "Don't You (Forget About Me)" from the film The Breakfast Club, Scotland's Simple Minds evolved from a post-punk art rock band influenced by Roxy Music into a grand, epic-sounding pop band along the lines of U2. The band grew out of a Glasgow punk group called Johnny and the Self-Abusers, which featured guitarist Charlie Burchill and lead singer Jim Kerr. The inaugural 1978 lineup of Simple Minds featured a rhythm section of Tony Donald on bass and Brian McGee on drums, plus keyboardist Mick McNeil; Donald was soon replaced by Derek Forbes.

Their early albums leaped from one style to another, with Life in a Day consisting mostly of dense, arty pop songs; critical acclaim followed the darker, more experimental art rock of Reel to Real Cacophony and the Euro-disco of Empires and Dance. The group began a transition to a more accessible pop style with the albums Sons and Fascination and Sister Feelings Call, originally issued together and subsequently split up. New Gold Dream (81-82-83-84) became their first chart album in the U.S., and the tour-shy McGee quit (owing to the group's burgeoning popularity), eventually being replaced by Mel Gaynor. Following the Steve Lillywhite-produced Sparkle in the Rain, Jim Kerr married Pretenders lead singer Chrissie Hynde (the two groups had toured together).

After Bryan Ferry rejected the opportunity to sing "Don't You (Forget About Me)," Simple Minds almost did so as well; Kerr was dissatisfied with the song's lyrics, which he regarded as formulaic. His change of heart gave Simple Minds their only American chart-topper, and the song later became an international hit as well; however, Kerr's feelings about the song remained ambivalent, and it did not appear on the follow-up album, Once Upon a Time. The album went gold and reached the U.S. Top Ten in spite of criticism for its bombastic, over the top approach. A live album and the uncompromisingly political Street Fighting Years squandered Simple Minds' commercial momentum, however. By the time the group returned to more personal themes and its straightforward, anthemic rock on 1991's Real Life, personnel changes and audience loss left the group's future viability in doubt.

They weren't totally deterred, however. Kerr and Burchill trudged on, releasing Good News from the Next World in 1995, while the single "She's a River" received moderate airplay. A short tour of North America soon followed, but Simple Minds' direction also quickly faded. They needed a break to clarify their own personal stance in music. Derek Forbes returned for 1998's Néapolis, but that, too, wasn't strong enough to sustain Simple Minds' newfound creativity. Their famed pop songs had been diluted a bit; however, the new millennium proved poignant. Jim Kerr and Charlie Burchill signed to Eagle Records in early 2001 and constructed their first covers album, Neon Lights, later that fall, paying tribute to Patti Smith, Neil Young, David Bowie, and others. In summer 2002, Kerr and Burchill issued Cry, Simple Minds' first batch of new material since 1995's Good News from the Next World. Our Secrets Are the Same, an album that was intended for release in 2000, saw official release in 2003.

An extensive reissue program and live recordings followed. Black & White, a new studio album, appeared in 2005, and the charting Graffiti Soul (which saw the return of original drummer Mel Gaynor to the fold) arrived in 2009. Simple Minds accepted a spot at London's iTunes Festival that year and issued a digital EP of their performance. After a global tour, Simple Minds returned with Big Music in 2014, an album that included two songs co-written with Chvrches' Iain Cook. A stripped-down set called Acoustic arrived in late 2016, featuring acoustic reworkings of many of the band's hits. In 2018, the band released its 18th studio long-player, Walk Between Worlds. Co-produced by the band with Andy Wright and Gavin Goldberg (both of whom had worked on Big Music), the album contained two distinct "sides": The first half revisited the glassy guitars and new wave dance grooves of the post-punk era that signified the band's earliest records, while the second explored more cinematic sounds reflected best in the title track and "Barrowland Star," which were both completely orchestrated at Abbey Road. Concert album Live in the City of Angels landed the following year alongside a comprehensive compilation of hits, The Best of 1979-2019, which included a cover of King Creosote's "For One Night Only”.

If you need guidance as to which Simple Minds albums are worth getting, I have highlighted the best four, one that is underrated, in addition to their latest studio album. I have also recommended a book about them that people should check out. Go and take a look below at my recommendations regarding…

THE mighty Simple Minds.

____________

The Four Essential Albums

 

Reel to Real Cacophony

Release Date: 11th November, 1979

Labels: Zoom/Arista

Producer: John Leckie

Standout Tracks: Reel to Real/Cacophony/Premonition

Buy: https://www.discogs.com/sell/list?master_id=58898&ev=mb

Stream: https://open.spotify.com/album/0NZjDWHRqlvelT1qcLnFEQ?si=pIagubMIRAWDS5aBDRT1hw&dl_branch=1

Review:

“To the delight of some open-minded post-punk fans -- fans who also had space for the relatively new, untraditional likes of Devo, Kraftwerk, and Eno in their record collections -- the relative simple-mindedness of Life in a Day was blown to bits and left for dead on the pub floor by Real to Real Cacophony, the wide-eyed carnival-like follow-up released only seven months after its predecessor. The artistic leap from Life in a Day to Real to Real has to be one of the most mesmerizing ones imaginable, an improvement that is even more impressive when the short time between release dates is considered. It's where Simple Minds ventured beyond the ability to mimic their influences and began to manipulate them, mercilessly pushing them around and shaping them into funny objects the way a child transforms a chunk of Play-Doh from an indefinable chunk of nothing into a definable chunk of something. Aside from a mercifully brief lapse into aimless murmuring and doodling that occurs during the middle of the record, Real to Real Cacophony is rife with countless bizarre joys. It knocks you on your back with pretentious artsy-fartsiness as instantly as New Gold Dream dazzles with its art pop pleasures, but its challenging melodicism through jerky time signatures and an endless supply of varied sounds and textures keeps you coming back for more. "Real to Real," a sinister rewrite of Kraftwerk's "Radio-Activity," is a good, quick point of reference. Guitars are employed less frequently and are replaced by burbling electronics and further use of keyboard shadings, though the absolute high point of the band's early years, "Changeling," benefits from plangent, angular jabs. The record is certainly as much of an achievement as New Gold Dream -- an achievement that's on a plane with other 1979 post-punk landmarks like Metal Box, 154, Entertainment, and Unknown Pleasures. No kidding” – AllMusic

Choice Cut: Changeling

New Gold Dream (81–82–83–84)

Release Date: 13th September, 1982

Label: Virgin

Producers: Peter Walsh

Standout Tracks: Someone Somewhere (In Summertime/Somebody Up There Likes You/Glittering Prize

Buy: https://www.discogs.com/sell/list?master_id=58825&ev=mb

Stream: https://open.spotify.com/album/6dn2O3un8SV0QZ421jDdEj?si=Eb5Xi1CTT_-Se1aQ29QlCA&dl_branch=1

Review:

“Originally released in September 1982, New Gold Dream (81-82-83-84) was the album that saw Simple Minds move from being a well-respected cult to one of the biggest bands of the 80s and – remarkably for the time – doing so without once resorting to cliché. As Paul Morley said in NME on its release, “I am jarred by the constant beauty of this music.” Now with this five CD and DVD reappraisal, the beauty is extrapolated: the lightness of its touch, the weirdness of the lyrics and its otherworldly feel makes it adorable still.

Though appearing less than a year after their Virgin debut – Sons And Fascination/ Sister Feelings Call – New Gold Dream (81- 82-83-84) seemed to take forever to arrive. Promised You A Miracle, recorded ahead of the album in early 1982, stood alone, released in the March of that year. It sounded unlike anything the group had released before; commercial, airy and strange, it gave them their first UK Top 20 hit.

Emboldened by this, the group built their forthcoming album around their hit, and what an LP it was to be. Snatches were heard via BBC Radio 1 sessions for John Peel and ‘Kid’ Jensen; proof that they could still straddle the pop kids and the cognoscenti.

There is a key paragraph in Billy Sloan’s extensive liner notes, which explains it all. It regards the choice of producer Pete Walsh, who was only 20 at the time: “After working with Walsh on the remix of Sweat In Bullet, [guitarist Charlie] Burchill had enthused that the producer’s strength was not what he had put into their song – but what he had left out.” Jim Kerr said, “Charlie told me: ‘Pete’s taken a ton of stuff out… But don’t worry. It sounds amazing. You’ll love it.’” The album became a triumph of what was left out.

Like all the best albums, New Gold Dream (81-82-83-84) retains that indefinable “thing”; the whole band were playing at their peak; Mick McNeill’s shimmering keyboards and Derek Forbes’ beautiful bass provided a subtlety to the groove; allowing Burchill and Kerr’s musical ideas to flow. You’d never guess there are three different drummers on the album” – Record Collector

Choice Cut: Promised You a Miracle

Sparkle in the Rain 

Release Date: 6th February, 1984

Labels: Virgin (U.K.)/A&M (U/S.)

Producer: Steve Lillywhite

Standout Tracks: Up on the Catwalk/Waterfront/Street Hassle

Buy: https://www.discogs.com/sell/list?master_id=58922&ev=mb

Stream: https://open.spotify.com/album/2fuGLrZ4Ju22UpWqGg5cDW?si=oArD15mCQ5e_1FxdEwTC6Q&dl_branch=1

Review:

“Their 1982 album New Gold Dream (81-82-83-84) was the album that put Simple Minds on a commercial par with the post-punk new pop vanguard (ABC, Human League, Associates et al).

But two years later it was their sixth album that launched them into the alt-rock superleague, putting them virtually on a par with U2, and with only Echo & The Bunnymen snapping at their heels. Sparkle In The Rain reached No.1 in February 1984 and went Top 20 around the world. Suddenly, there were not just coteries of hipsters but 50,000-strong crowds waiting in arenas to be entertained. Even Jim Kerr made the unashamed admission that “there’s just no room for subtlety”. In the wake of New Gold Dream’s lushness, Sparkle In The Rain came as something of a brash, rude awakening. Produced by Steve Lillywhite, it eschewed ornate grandeur for a simpler propulsion that could easily be mistaken for lumpen populism. Then again, the music had a new, muscular excitement, with less studio polish but more stadium punch. Waterfront, The Kick Inside Of Me and White Hot Day plodded somewhat, but Up On The Catwalk, ‘C’ Moon Cry Like A Baby and Speed Your Love To Me had a thrilling, throbbing momentum, while East At Easter proved that they could still do magisterial grace. Now Sparkle comes as a five-disc box set, in a full, unexpurgated version that well serves its clattering majesty. The original album has been newly remastered, and it comes packaged with a plethora of extras: a disc of single edits, B-sides and extended mixes, as well as two further CDs that include 13 tracks performed live at Glasgow’s Barrowlands in 1984 and a trio of BBC Radio 1 sessions from 1983. You also get a DVD featuring a brand new Steven Wilson 5.1 surround sound remix of the album, a new stereo mix and all three promo videos (for Waterfront, Speed Your Love To Me and Up On The Catwalk), as well as several TV appearances. Altogether now: ‘You will be there, you will be there…’” – Louder Sound

Choice Cut: Speed Your Love to Me

Once Upon a Time 

Release Date: 21st October, 1985

Labels: Virgin/A&M (U.S.)

Producers: Jimmy Iovine/Bob Clearmountain

Standout Tracks: All the Things She Said/Ghostdancing/Sanctify Yourself

Buy: https://www.discogs.com/sell/list?master_id=58861&ev=mb

Stream: https://open.spotify.com/album/5Q74XTJr0l3sVQXprBeoT1?si=foC_dfCCSS-ArV7ZgRi12w&dl_branch=1

Review:

“Riding the coattails of the John Hughes flick The Breakfast Club, Simple Minds finally broke into America with their theme song "Don't You Forget About Me," and their 1985 release Once Upon a Time captured the heart-wrenching excitement found in bands such as U2. They were now one of the biggest names in music, and Jim Kerr's thirsting vocals became the band's signature. Once Upon a Time, featuring producer Jimmy Iovine (U2, Stevie Nicks, Bruce Springsteen), showcased more of a guitar-driven sound. The band's heavy synth pop beats had relaxed a bit and Charlie Burchill's charming playing style was most noticeable. Also enlisting the choir-like beauty of Robin Clark, Simple Minds' popularity was expounded on songs such as "Alive & Kicking" and "Sanctify Yourself." This album was one of their best, most likely leading the pack in the band's album roster, because it exuded raw energy and solid composition not entirely captured on previous albums” – AllMusic

Choice Cut: Alive and Kicking

The Underrated Gem

 

Big Music

Release Date: 31st October, 2014

Labels: Caroline International/Universal, Sony Music

Producers: Gavin Goldberg/Steve Osborne/Owen Parker/Simple Minds/Andy Wright

Standout Tracks: Midnight Walking/Honest Town/Big Music

Buy: https://www.discogs.com/sell/release/6274675

Stream: https://open.spotify.com/album/4s9M8e27eqKwsNt1rrk2ON?si=IVAfngjCRViTZMEz1OoltQ&dl_branch=1

Review:

“Despite being 16 albums in, Simple Minds are surprisingly current in many ways. They’ve installed Chvrches man Iain Cook as a co-writer, while their overwrought production and heart-on-sleeve openness has been aped by the likes of recent indie stand-out Strand of Oaks and even Belle and Sebastian. On Big Music, their own sound has had a makeover, too, combining huge synth lines with similarly gargantuan drums. Opener Blindfolded sums up what they seem to be aiming for on Big Music: epic songwriting. Everything is over the top, from the name of the album and Kerr’s lyrics to a sonic palate that screams arena tour. The OTT approach works, as well, with the first three songs (Blindfolded, Midnight Walking, Honest Town) sounding like great pop. There are moments when the approach starts to wane – Kill or Cure sounds like it’s come straight from the 80s rather than 2014 – but by the time closer Spirited Away kicks in, the band have managed to craft an album of pop that’s both true to their sound and interesting enough to give it a contemporary edge” – The Guardian

Choice Cut: Let the Day Begin

The Latest Album

 

Walk Between Worlds

Release Date: 2nd February, 2018

Label: BMG Rights Management

Producers: Simple Minds/Andy Wright/Gavin Goldberg

Standout Tracks: Summer/The Signal and the Noise/Sense of Discovery

Buy: https://www.discogs.com/sell/list?master_id=1306425&ev=mb

Stream: https://open.spotify.com/album/53wMq7klbk3UY7SOkrrmb6?si=bymYGIPeTFegGgYwoh2UZQ&dl_branch=1

Review:

“That Simple Minds trade in instantly familiar methodology has, at times, left them sounding predictable.

Though 2014’s Big Music – with its great, big, you-can’t- miss-it signpost of a title – was welcomed in some quarters as a return to form, it still felt stiff and flabby, like a once svelte, now out-of-shape athlete recovering from their first long run after a holiday.

They’ve kept busy, however, with 2016 devoted to an acoustic album and related tours, and it appears they’re now approaching full fitness.

Guitars chime hypnotically and Jim Kerr still sings like a grown man seeing snow for the first time, letting rip uncontainable disbelief. On the U2-like Summer this excitement is almost poignant, the song’s forecast bellowed like news of his first-born son – “Here comes summer!/ Here comes rain!” – before Kerr ends up charmingly, naively tongue-tied: “Here comes lightning! I like the way it shoots!”

If his grammatically challenged over-stretching for rhymes might seem gauche – “Here comes all those fantasies/ Taking me to my roots” – it’s overshadowed by the song’s strapping melody and the revelation that finally someone might challenge fellow Scots Travis for pop’s meteorological crown.

Indeed, there’s climate talk all over the album, from the pumping opener Magic (“It breaks like a storm/ This is our kind of weather”) to Kerr’s insistence – on Sense Of Discovery, a solemn slowburner which borrows knowingly from Alive And Kicking, and one of the album’s two longest tracks – that: “The rage will dissolve like the wind”.

The calmly iridescent Utopia also points at “solar storms” and “falling snow”, while a heavy “freeze” bites on In Dreams, the full-bodied positivity of its choruses capitalising on Kerr’s glowering delivery elsewhere. Fortunately, Simple Minds don’t take the weather with them everywhere they go.

On Barrowland Star, the album’s swaggering highlight, they instead celebrate their career, allowing strings and Charlie Burchill’s extended – and we mean Andrex-long – guitar solo to provide the elemental sturm und drang.

Like everything on the otherwise trim, 42-minute Walk Between Worlds, it’s as familiar as April showers, but currently it’s the band’s glittering early-80s catalogue being mined for inspiration. The outlook remains bright, therefore, albeit with occasionally drab spells” –  Classic Pop

Choice Cut: Magic

The Simple Minds Book

 

The Simple Minds - Heart of the Crowd 

Author: Richard Houghton

Publication Date: 3rd December, 2020

Publisher: This Day in Music Books

Synopsis:

“This official book is an oral history of Simple Minds, mixing over 350 fan anecdotes with a narrative written by founding members Jim Kerr and Charlie Burchill, The book also features never before seen photographs, collectable memorabilia and fans pictures capturing their live performances” – Waterstones.co.uk

Buy: https://www.waterstones.com/book/the-simple-minds-heart-of-the-crowd/richard-houghton/9781838078300  

FEATURE: End of a Century: High School Graduation: The 1999 Mixtape

FEATURE:

 

End of a Century

High School Graduation: The 1999 Mixtape

___________

THINKING back to September 1999…

IN THIS IMAGE: The album cover for Blur’s 13

and that was when I graduated from high school. It was a transformative moment where I was saying goodbye to friends and leaving a school that I had been at for five years. Not only was it emotional on a personal level, it was saying farewell to a routine and way of life that I had got used to. Music was very important in 1999. From songs that scored the opening of my G.C.S.E. results to the tracks that were played during the leavers’ ball, I am being a bit self-indulgent and nostalgic. It does go to show, subjectiveness aside, how many great tracks came out in 1999. School days are very precious when it comes to music and the role in plays in your growth and development. That is especially true of 1999 and my final year at high school. Rather than limiting the track number to what would fit on an actual tape (about ten songs or so, I suppose), I have compiled a longer digital mixtape. This is the very best of 1999: a year that, for me, was a combination of…

EXCITMENT and sadness

FEATURE: Spotlight: Mimi Webb

FEATURE:

 

Spotlight

PHOTO CREDIT: Frank Fieber

Mimi Webb

___________

I am taking a slightly different direction…

PHOTO CREDIT: Parri Thomas for The Line of Best Fit

when it comes to this Spotlight. Mimi Webb is a rising Pop artist who is among the most distinct and hard-working around. There are some very different and interesting young Pop artists coming through. Next time, I am spotlighting another: Willow Kayne. Today, I am going to give as much information as I can regarding Mimi Webb. Apologies if they are not in chronological order. I have grabbed a few that caught my eye. Before that. Here is some biography regarding a bright young talent:

“Originally hailing from Canterbury, pop singer and songwriter Mimi Webb turns up the volume on every emotion – with skyscraping runs and open-heart honesty.

Inspired by the likes of Amy Winehouse, Emelie Sandé and Sam Smith, she started writing songs of her own at 13 years old before eventually learning guitar. Around the same time, she enrolled in The BRIT School — known for alumni such as Adele, Amy Winehouse, Jessie J and more. Three years later, she left home, moved in with a host family and attended the prestigious BIMM [British Institute of Modern Music].

In 2019, she uploaded a handful of early compositions and collaborations online, landed management, and inked a deal with Epic Records in the US and RCA in the UK.

An impromptu a cappella performance from Mimi later that year exploded with over 20 million views on TikTok, paving the way for a string of original fan favourites such as ‘Before I Go’, ‘I’ll Break My Heart Again’, ‘Reasons’ and ‘Good Without’.

On 22nd October, Webb releases her E.P., Seven Shades of Heartbreak. It will definitely bring Webb’s music to a new audience. The first interview that I want to source is from The Line of Best Fit. They featured her back in June:

“At sixteen she had a choice between going full-time at BRIT or moving to Brighton to attend BIMM. She chose the seaside music college, as it offered songwriting courses, as well as performance-based modules. Webb left home and moved in with a host family. “For those two years I really evolved and grew off of my own back,” she explains. “You’re out there in the world on your own. You're living and breathing the kind of atmosphere of music and the environment, so you’re really driven.”

Through BIMM and the opportunities her attendance created she met management company Best Friends - the same people behind Billie Eilish, Finneas and Ashe - and signed with Epic Records at eighteen. As they were readying her first single, she took a trip to New York for meetings where she was introduced to Charli D’Amelio. The two went for dinner and showed TikTok to Webb: “I was like, I don't know what I could do on it!” she laughs. “So we did a video together and I just sang one of my songs that I'd written a few months before. It kind of just went crazy from there, like the reaction it had. And I just thought, this is crazy that this app does that. Can actually connect to that many people.”

What Webb fails to mention is that in the clips (she also covered Adele) she’s singing acapella and acoustic in a busy restaurant, perfectly in key and with a tone that’s velvety and sonorous. It’s a striking performance and one that puts pay to her years of tuition and hard work.

Last spring, Webb was gearing up for a writing trip to LA and the release of her debut single “Before I Go” when the pandemic struck. As reality began to set in, she wasted no time. “I remember three days before they put the national lockdown in, I quickly went and bought myself a new laptop because I knew I needed storage for Logic, a new MIDI, a new mic. I was just preparing for the worst,” she explains. “I said to my team, right guys, I'm not having this. I've waited two years to release music. I've been in and out of the studio. Let's just go and do it. Drop these songs, video or no video, artwork or no artwork. I was like, we've got to go, it’s go time.”

Webb resolutely released “Before I Go” in April of that year. An expansive piano ballad with a strident vocal delivery, it left no doubt to her natural talent. A run of singles followed, each more confident and striking than the last. Recent release “Good Without You” went silver after spending ten weeks in the UK Top Twenty. An honest and impactful piece of pop storytelling, it’s instant and relatable in the same breath, its chorus a euphoric lift of self-affirmation. While on new single “Dumb Love”, Webb weaves a familar story with a fresh dynamism, her impressive range close to take off.

But Webb’s success isn’t simply down to the music, it’s also the intelligence, creativity and sheer drive that she brings to the project. Only twenty-one, in conversation she’s articulate and engaged, with a developed understanding of the industry she’s entered. “Every single week, every single day, I was in my little studio. I was in there every day recording, doing Zoom sessions, TikToks, covers, anything just to feel like I'm actually doing something, like moving it along,” she says of the past fifteen months. “My introduction to the industry was just full on Zoom in your room.”

Webb did have some trepidation about investing too much in TikTok, but with care and thought she successfully navigated the app. “There's so many different slots that you can be put into when it comes to using TikTok for your music,” she explains. “For me, it was very much like, right, let's do these videos, make it really organic with my family, be ourselves just to tease the songs. It’s so nice to see it work the way I really wanted it to, and be able to resonate through the app, but also off the app. I think that was something I was nervous about, just in case it didn't go like that. But I was really happy with the way that it’s translated. I think it depends on the content and making sure you're really sticking to your brand and the way you want to be viewed.”

And now as the world begins to slowly open again and we look up from our screens, Webb’s looking forward to experiencing her success in real life. “I'm excited just to actually, like, do more shows and meet more people and see the outcome of everything, compared to watching it all on my phone,” she smiles”.

There are a few other interviews that are worth exploring. One interesting one is from MTV. They were eager to spotlight an artist who, despite coming to prominence through TikTok, is one of the most talented and tireless artists around:

“20-year-old singer songwriter Mimi Webb has her school piano teacher to thank for pushing her into a music career. Influenced by Adele and Amy Winehouse, Mimi says she was inspired by their originality and ability to stay true to themselves with their music.

You may recognize Mimi’s voice from her viral track ‘Before I Go’ on TikTok. Speaking about this she says it’s definitely been one of her career highlights, and seeing "Charli D’Amelio doing her thing to it and seeing people react the way they did" was amazing. To date, the song has been streamed over 5.6 million times on Spotify and Charli’s video has been viewed over 40.8 million times on TikTok!

Mimi’s vocals are beautiful and distinct, complimenting her euphoric ballads perfectly. On her live shows she says "I want it be an intimate atmosphere! I want to keep it slightly stripped back so I can get a really build a strong connection with the audience.  or certain songs there will be lots of lights and visuals but I want to make sure I can connect with the crowd and people can really get to know me through the performance."  It sounds like a perfect way to experience her songs live, and we can’t until we’re able to!

1) for those who don’t know about you and your music, tell us a little bit about who you are and where you’re from…

My name’s Mimi Webb and I am a singer and songwriter from Canterbury, Kent in the UK. I’m 20 years old and have been writing music for five years now. I’m super family orientated and love my friends, and I am constantly cracking jokes!

2) describe your sound in three words…

Moody, emotional, and fun.

3) who inspired you to start a career in music?

Definitely my piano teacher at school when I was 15. I already knew how to play ‘Someone Like You’ by Adele on the piano, so at my first ever lesson, I played it for him and he immediately told me that I needed to pursue music as a career and fight for it.

4) who are your biggest musical influences?

Definitely Adele and Amy Winehouse. I’ve always felt really inspired by them both, and the fact they never ‘followed the crowd’ and always created what they believed in”.

PHOTO CREDIT: Yoshitaka Kono for EUPHORIA.

One of Mimi Webb’s biggest and most-popular songs to date is Good Without. Released back in April, it is a memorable track with a terrific video! There is the mixture of emotional and raw with something long-lasting and catchy. It is a skill not all artists can master. EUPHORIA. spoke with Webb about the song’s success and her musical influences:

“Following in the footsteps of Webb’s influences — Amy Winehouse, Adele, and Sam Smith — she knows how to write a heartfelt song that will contain a chorus that will be ingrained in your head. So far, her material has consisted of ballads about love and breakups. However, Webb informs us that fans can definitely expect more sounds and sides to her personality in the near future.

With another hit song under her belt and a completely sold-out tour across the UK and Ireland, it’s safe to say that Webb is living the dream and on her way to superstardom. EUPHORIA. got the chance to talk to Webb on Zoom to discuss the incredible year she’s been having while she was on her way to London. The talented songstress opened up about the overnight success of “Good Without,” her new single, “Dumb Love,” what listeners can expect next, and what she has planned for her upcoming live concerts.

Congratulations on “Good Without”! The song took off pretty instantly. Is the success it’s having taken you by surprise?

Oh my god, 100 percent! It was so crazy, especially being my fourth ever release. Seeing the reaction that it had, especially through TikTok and of the social media platforms I’ve used, it’s really taken me by surprise. I think as well the fact that we’ve been in a pandemic, you really don’t expect anything like that to happen.

What motivated you to write the song and how long had you been waiting to release it?

I wrote this song right at the start of the year, so it was the first song I wrote in 2021. I wrote it on Zoom with two of my friends and as soon as we wrote it, we knew it was definitely going to be a single. I hadn’t been able to write for such a long time; it was kind of that moment where everything came at once. It was inspired by a past situation I had been through and I felt like I hadn’t said all that I had wanted to say, so it was kind of like a chapter closure for me.

Where was the music video shot and how was that experience?

We rented out a building in London, there were so many dream rooms in there, very girly. I just loved it! I wanted to bring the whole girl power to it and the support system from your friends and the family that you have. The song is an emotional breakup song, but there is also that empowerment in the chorus of “I’m so good without” so I really wanted to capture that in the video.

Has there been any added pressure releasing a new single after “Good Without”? Or was the plan to always follow up the song with “Dumb Love”?

Yeah, there was definitely a worry of wanting to make sure it does super well, especially following up from “Good Without,” but we always knew it would be “Dumb Love” next. I’m SO happy with the reaction it’s had on its first week. I’ve always made sure to stay as chill and humble for each single to bring the positivity into each one. 

PHOTO CREDIT: Yoshitaka Kono for EUPHORIA.

There seems to be a Sam Smith influence on this one — would you agree?

Yes definitely, I’m so inspired by Sam Smith’s music and just love the goosebumps feeling I’ve always got from their music so I’ve definitely brought in my own twist on it”.

So far, your songs have been very cohesive. Is the EP going to be a continuation of that sound or can your fans expect you experimenting with more sounds?

Yeah, there are a few darker pop sounds. It will cover the different chapters of the heartbreak. It’s all very emotional and big and powerful but there will definitely be more elements of pop where it’s a little bit more fun or dark, depending on where I’m at in life.

Are there any collaborations in the works or are you happy just releasing on your own for now?

I’m just releasing songs by me at the moment. I’m loving just being able to have that time. I would love to do some collaborations, that would be amazing. It’s just making sure I do at the right time and right place.

Has there been anyone’s music that has helped you get through the pandemic? Who have you been listening to this past year?

Lots of Olivia Rodrigo, love her! Tate McRae, she’s completely smashed it in lockdown. She was definitely a massive inspiration, especially with TikTok, she’s absolutely smashed it on there”.

PHOTO CREDIT: Talie Eigeland for NOTION

There are so many great songs from Webb. I will try and put in as many of them as I can. The interviews are really interesting. NOTION spoke with Webb back in May. They were keen to look back at her start and see how far she has come. The pandemic would have been a huge obstacle for someone who was building momentum early last year:

“On the other hand, you only started releasing music last year (which I do not believe), but especially in a time of such chaos, did you ever think I might have to put music on pause or was it just full steam ahead?

I was not putting anything on pause. I remember at the start of the pandemic, I was like, right guys, I’m getting my setup, I’m learning how to do my vocals and how to record it all. We’re just not stopping like this because last year as well, 2020 was very much a year of right here we go. Let’s kick it all off. When we all went into the pandemic, I just thought to myself, no, not having it, I’m still going to do what I can do at home. It’s a very, full gun ahead, whatever the saying is full speed ahead – just very passionate about getting everything going. Every day I was up straight into work, I’ve got my little studio set up at home, and then it’s just back and forth.

At the time, still being new to the music scene and just finished Brighton Music College – was there any time you thought this could not go right, and as a rising artist within such a demanding music industry, how do you overcome those challenges?

There are those times where you end up getting a bit worried, releasing, the time span of how you’re going to do things and, there are so many amazing artists but, I think to believe in yourself and surround the whole thing with love and support for your peers and be happy and great – allowing the love of the industry in. I think that is where I learned, wow this is how it works. But there are definitely loads of times where you sit there and think, oh, and I think that happens with everyone, doesn’t it with anything you do. You’ve just got to be able to filter it all through and go with the things that make you feel good and happy.

As we speak about pursuing music, your first release was “Before I Go” – which caught the attention of millions. Did you ever see it going that far at, and what were those feelings running through your mind?

It’s so crazy to think back then, first of all, because it’s just nuts. I mean, I released that last year, April time and I remember that was my first music video. And I watched it yesterday because I’ve been quite unwell the last few days on my bed, looking through YouTube. It’s just crazy to think back to that. But “Before I Go” started kicking off on TikTok, and it was these influences and amazing people that were very into it. They were all wanting to do these videos and to see everyone’s reaction was insane. I couldn’t have wished for a better start for my first song. Then obviously, we went through to the next song, and every time I got better at knowing how to do it and what to do, and how to prepare for the release date – all that kind of stuff. “Before I Go” was the first lesson, and I’m grateful for the way that went. Because, like I said, being at the start of the pandemic, it was intense. At that point, I was thinking, Oh, God, what’s going to happen?

Following your debut, you also released “Reasons” and “I’ll Break My Heart Again” – both of which gained recognition from 4Music and Radio 1. What is it like to be recognised at such a big level nationally, and what is the next step you want to reach?

It’s crazy. I mean, I’ve been played on the radio, I’ve been getting DMS from people like you’re being played in Belgium right now, or you’re in Switzerland. It’s crazy because I’m like, wow, the fact I’m reaching all these different places is incredible for me. But I think the next chapter is very much releasing as much music as I can, people getting to know me, as much content I can do, and shows. Hopefully, a tour at some point, be able to get across to everyone and get everyone to see me in person. I think it’s going to be such an exciting time for that. And seeing that recognition, the way people react to that across the world is just incredible.

As an emerging artist who is continuously growing and exceeding expectations – do you believe there is pressure looming over you for this first project, and what advice would you give to someone who’s just starting music?

My advice would be organisation. I remember when I started, it’s quite a funny bit of advice. But when I was 16, I was at my music school. And that’s when I was like, I want to be an artist – this is where it starts for me. And every day, I write everything down – it might be the silliest little things, but I believe that if you feel on top of it, and you’re doing everything you can, that’s when you really can believe in yourself, and there’s hope there and, you feel like you’re moving towards something. I think if your brain feels you’re moving towards something, then that’s when it will happen. I’m such a believer in whatever you put in the universe; you’ll get back. Thinking about what you want to say, as an artist, what’s your message? What do you want to do for music? For me, I’ve always wanted to give people that goosebump feeling and connect with them and bring back that emotional music that sometimes can get hidden now and then, especially in the charts. Overall, I think it’s about what you want to say and fit in all the organisation as much as you can”.

PHOTO CREDIT: Talie Eigeland for NOTION

I am going to finish off in a second. The final interview is from Women in Pop. They highlight how Webb is among a series of musicians who are making music in their bedroom and are not synonymous with big studios. In the interview from August, Webb looked ahead to her tour in October:

“Your voice is just incredible. You're also a songwriter, and quite often songwriters go, 'oh, no, I just I write or I just play music' and but were you always aware that you had this magical bird living inside your body that needed to come out and sing to the world?

I've always had a really husky voice. My mum always knew that my voice was very husky. But I realised the last year or two that I like to go quite high [as well]. It was something new that I learned with my vocal coach and trying to get that in control was really fun.

What was it that made you want to learn the guitar, learn to sing, get onstage? Who were those artists that you pretended to be?

I loved Adele, I always got such goosebumps from her music. That was the reason I just always wanted to do music was having that goosebumps feeling - I wanted people to feel that from my music.

When you're writing, where do your inspirations come from?

It's definitely my stories. Something will happen and I'll create this big drama around it, and I'll just get in the studio and start jotting it down. It's all very much my personal experiences and what I go through. 

You are part of a new generation of musicians like Tate McRae and Griff that started creating music in their bedrooms and they're now being heard. What is the best advice that you've been given, that you would then give to aspiring artists such as yourself?

Take everything in, let it soak in, be very organised, and do your best. Don't let anything get to you, try and just be really focused. And be around your family and friends, all those important things that matter in your life. You've got to make sure you keep those close to you, because that's how you can be happy.

And on your journey, who are the amazing mentors that have helped you on your journey?

My creative director, Cassandra Gracey, is incredible. She's an amazing creative queen and she's been in the industry for so long. She's been with Ellie Goulding, Rita Ora and just really helped the image and artistry come through within their project. It's just amazing having incredible people on your team who are such great guides in the industry to help you really understand how it works,

Beautiful. And lastly, what is on the horizon for you?

I've got my tour in October, I'm so so excited. It's going to be my first tour, and it's going to be around the UK. And then next year, lots of exciting stuff. I've got really exciting new music coming by the end of the year, something very big coming. I'm very excited to just get it all going”.

There is no doubt that Mimi Webb has the quality and determination to go far! Follow her if you are not yet familiar with her music. Although it is still pretty early in her career and there are years ahead, she is showing every sign of being…

A big name.

_______________

Follow Mimi Webb 

PHOTO CREDIT: Talie Eigeland for NOTION

Instagram:

https://www.instagram.com/mimiiiwebb/

Twitter:

https://twitter.com/mimiwebb

Spotify:

https://open.spotify.com/artist/3GxKJzJK4LpsYGXQrw77wz

YouTube:

https://www.youtube.com/c/mimiwebb

Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/mimiiiwebb/

FEATURE: A Polish and Shine and All Will Be Fine: Revisiting Kate Bush’s The Red Shoes

FEATURE:

 

 

A Polish and Shine and All Will Be Fine

Revisiting Kate Bush’s The Red Shoes

___________

I have been wondering…

IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush in 1993/PHOTO CREDIT: Guido Harari

about Kate Bush’s albums and wonder there will be reissues at all. Of course, the original albums can be purchased, though there are some that would benefit from extras, demos and a wider examination. That is especially true of albums like Lionheart and The Red Shoes: albums that are underrated and have been side-lined a bit. I have said how The Red Shoes is my least-favourite Kate Bush album. That is because of a few tracks that are not that strong. More than anything, it is the production sound that affects the music. Perhaps a little over-produced and lacking too much warmth, I would be fascinated to hear it a little stripped. Bush did re-explore songs from the album for 2011’s Director’s Cut, though it would be a case of de-mixing and remastering the original album. A lot of the tracks on The Red Shoes are great. Maybe it is the sound or production that takes something away. Apart from a few tracks at the end of the album, The Red Shoes is a lot more solid than people give it credit for. I am going to explore that notion more in a bit. First, this article from the Kate Bush Encyclopaedia gives us some background:

“Seventh album by Kate Bush, released by EMI Records on 2 November 1993. The album was written, composed and produced by Kate.

The album was inspired by the 1948 film of the same name by Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger. The film in turn was inspired by the fairy tale of the same name by Hans Christian Andersen. It concerns a dancer, possessed by her art, who cannot take off the eponymous shoes and find peace. Bush had suggested she would tour for the album and deliberately aimed for a "live band" feel, with less of the studio trickery that had typified her last three albums (which would be difficult to recreate on stage). However, the tour never happened in the end. A few months after the release of the album, Bush did release The Line, The Cross and the Curve, a movie incorporating six tracks from the album.

Most notably, The Red Shoes featured many more high-profile cameo appearances than her previous efforts. Comedian Lenny Henry provided guest vocals on Why Should I Love You, a track that also featured significant contributions from Prince. And So Is Love features guitar work by Eric Clapton and Jeff Beck. Gary Brooker (from the band Procol Harum) appears on two tracks as well.

Kate about 'The Red Shoes’

I've been very affected by these last two years. They've been incredibly intense years for me. Maybe not on a work level, but a lot has happened to me. I feel I've learnt a lot – and, yes, I think [my next album] is going to be quite different… I hope the people that are waiting for it feel it's worth the wait. (BBC Radio 1 interview, 14 December 1991)”.

In her personal life, Bush split from Del Palmer (a musician/engineer who has been in her life since the mid-1970s; she started dating Dan McIntosh, who plays on The Red Shoes), and she lost her mother in 1992. Although a lot of the songs were written before these events, maybe a certain mood infused the recordings. I never have considered The Red Shoes to be an unhappy album. Maybe it is quite edgy and lacks the sort of depth and warmth of The Sensual World (1989) or Hounds of Love (1985). Bush did not record another album in the 1990s. Perhaps it was a decade where she felt the need to embrace new technology - and, in an age where C.D.s were dominating, fill every nook and cranny with music. As a result, some of the songs are a little too long.

I am surprised there were so many mixed reviews for The Red Shoes. Maybe people were comparing it with her past and expecting an album in the same mould as Hounds of Love. Always moving forward and creating something new, there is plenty to enjoy on her 1993 album. The sheer range of moods through The Red Shoes is incredible! From the propulsion of Rubberbajnd Girl (my favourite track) to the excellent single, Moments of Pleasure,  The Red Shoes has so many layers and interesting cuts. Not all reviews were heavy in disappointment. Rolling Stone had their opinion on The Red Shoes in 1993:

“On her first album since The Sensual World, in 1989, Kate Bush continues in the manner of that album's verbal directness while displaying a melodic sense that's in peak form – there are more hooks on The Red Shoes, both subtle and obvious, than on any of her releases since The Dreaming, in 1982. Bush seems content now to dress her songs in simpler – though still occasionally antic – colors. The result is offbeat pop that refines but doesn't sacrifice her signal eccentricity.

While the music has settled down somewhat, Bush herself remains rambunctious, and it's a saving grace. A sighing remembrance like "Moments of Pleasure" or the purple pleas of "Big Stripey Lie" could have the cloying aura of pressed flowers if they weren't put across with conviction and a tendency to really belt. "And So Is Love" is typical of Bush's aggressively sad torch songs, built of simple phrases theatrically enunciated and enhanced by dramatic support from guest Eric Clapton.

It's not all fainting hearts on Shoes, though. The mood ranges from the pure pop of "Rubberband Girl" to the exuberant reel of the title cut (an homage to the classic film), from the wistful verse and funky chorus of the Prince collaboration "Why Should I Love You?" to the West Indies-flavored "Eat the Music." The Red Shoes is a solid collection of well-crafted and seductively melodic showcases for Bush's hypercabaret style.

Canadian Jane Siberry has often been compared to Bush, partly due to the convenience of lumping together quirky female singer/songwriters but also as an acknowledgment that both are working in a personal subgenre of art rock. And there are similarities between Siberry's When I Was a Boy and Shoes – both display a preoccupation with the difficulty of separating pain and love; both evoke a questioning spirituality and a distinctly feminine earthiness.

But Siberry's album is as funereal and expansive as Bush's is tight and energized. Nothing Siberry has done in the past quite prepares the listener for this album's prevalent mood of spooky obsession, bewilderment and resignation, and deathbed reflections. Though there's occasionally a rumble in the reverie ("All the Candles in the World," for instance, is positively funky), the overall ambience is prayerful, abetted by a production that often creates a cathedral of silence between the low tones (husky viola or cello filigrees) and the spare front line (an acoustic piano or guitar). Though songs like "Temple" (co-produced by Siberry and Brian Eno) and "Candles" are immediately likable, long free-floating meditations like "Sweet Incarnadine" and "The Vigil (The Sea)" are the album's centerpieces, gradually unfolding songs about love and dying.

It would all be horribly pretentious – if not maudlin – in the hands of a lesser talent, but Siberry approaches her task with a fearless simplicity, resisting easy irony or cleverness. Like Bush she creates dramatic structure by using a variety of voices, from brimming-heart full tones to deadpan whispers. When I Was a Boy is a difficult disc to get into – the languidness at its center can be off-putting – but a little patience rewards you with a gem. (RS 670)”.

In November, The Red Shoes turns twenty-eight. I feel that, if a new poll were taken regarding the best Kate Bush albums, The Red Shoes would likely be bottom – maybe Lionheart or Director’s Cut would be close. Whilst it is not her absolute best, it is far stronger than many reviews would suggest. I think the tracklisting could do with sorting out. Below is my view of what the running order should be  - as the original order (at the very bottom) makes things too top-heavy. By doing that and stripping the production a bit or making it sound less cluttered would breathe life into the songs and give the album a more accessible and digestible sound. When an album has tracks like Lily, Moments of Pleasure, And So Is Love and Song of Solomon in its cast, one cannot call it a failure! There are a few weaker tracks; some of Bush’s lyrics lack the inspiration and strength of her earlier work. All that aside, The Red Shoes deserves fresh examination ahead of its anniversary in November. A fascinating glimpse into Kate Bush as a recording artist in the 1990s, The Red Shoes – as you’d come to expect – sounded like nothing around it at the time. 1993 was a year when bands like The Breeders, Nirvana and The Smashing Pumpkins were ruling. Take it out of that context and hear the album today and it definitely has sparks, promise and plenty to love. All the critical meh-ing and sense of disinterest paints The Red Shoes as a flop. To me and so many others, it is so…

MUCH finer than that.

FEATURE: Nobody Does It Better: My Five Favourite James Bond Themes

FEATURE:

 

 

Nobody Does It Better 

IN THIS PHOTO: Billie Eilish recorded the theme for the new James Bond film, No Time to Die/PHOTO CREDIT: ICON

My Five Favourite James Bond Themes

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ON 30th September…

IN THIS PHOTO: Carly Simon recorded the classic Bond theme, Nobody Does It Better (from 1977’s The Spy Who Loved Me)

the twenty-fifth James Bond film, No Time to Die, will be released in cinemas. It has been delayed so much due to the pandemic. It is the last film of the franchise to feature Daniel Craig in the lead role. It will be a huge box office success. One of the defining aspects of any Bond film in the opening theme. Billie Eilish recorded the eponymous track for No Time to Die. It is a slower and more haunting take. Through the years, we have heard so many explosive and sultry songs. Eilish has added her own stamp. Many critics have listed No Time to Die among the best Bond themes ever. I have been thinking about the Bond themes that I like the most. Everyone has had their say regarding the classic themes and those that missed the mark. To honour the long-awaited final Bond outing for Daniel Craig, here are my five favourite themes. There might be one of two that people disagree with (various polls - including Curzon’s - and lists have placed some of my choices quite low), but that is the beauty of Bond: there are so many different sounds and angles regarding the themes. I think the below are…

IN THIS PHOTO: Daniel Craig in No Time to Die/PHOTO CREDIT: Nicola Dove/MGM

THE absolute best.

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1. Paul McCartney & Wings – Live and Let Die

From the Film: Live and Let Die

Year of Release: 1973

Songwriters: Paul McCartney/Linda McCartney

Producer: George Martin

What the Critics Say:

“I read it and thought it was pretty good. That afternoon I wrote the song and went in the next week and did it… It was a job of work for me in a way because writing a song around a title like that’s not the easiest thing going” said Paul McCartney after reading Ian Flemming’s novel.

Never one to shy away from putting in the work, McCartney picked up the book when the production team pursued him to work on the theme song. Never afraid of a challenge, even one as possibly treacherous as writing for Bond.

Co-written by his wife Linda, the British-American rock band Wings performed the song with McCartney on the lead vocals. The song bursts into a power-packed chorus after a slow start. Using a bit of reggae successfully creates a certain thrill that plays out perfectly in the film. Naturally, it’s expertly delivered by the former Beatle” – Far Out Magazine

2. Carly Simon – Nobody Does It Better 

From the Film: The Spy Who Loved Me

Year of Release: 1977

Songwriters: Marvin Hamlisch/Carole Bayer Sager

Producer: Richard Perry

What the Critics Say:

“Carly Simon's lust-drunk anthem to a mythic lover — which has since appeared in everything from Lost in Translation and Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason to bridal showers across the world — might be a hotel lobby staple if not for the smuttiness of its lyrics. "There's some kind of magic inside you/That keeps me from runnin'/But just keep it comin.'" Hair metal bands who could learn a few things from this. Of all the odes to Bond's sexual prowess (and there were a lot of them), Simon's is the most satisfying” – Rolling Stone

3. Sheryl Crow – Tomorrow Never Dies 

From the Film: Tomorrow Never Dies

Year of Release: 1997

Songwriters: Sheryl Crow/Mitchell Froom

Producer: Mitchell Froom

What the Critics Say:

“Sheryl Crow is certainly an odd choice for a Bond song, especially since it doesn't really capture her general vibe as a solo artist (the dripping strings do, however, bring to mind Bobbie Genty's "Ode to Billie Joe," a song Crow later covered). But she nails the sultry vocals with a particularly '90s ennui. You get the sense that Crow doesn't really care either way what happens tomorrow” – Esquire

4. Billie Eilish — No Time to Die 

From the Film: No Time to Die

Year of Release: 2021

Songwriters: Billie Eilish/Finneas O'Connell

Producers: Finneas O'Connell/Stephen Lipson

What the Critics Say:

“Billie Eilish recorded the theme for the 25th Bond film, No Time to Die, at just 18 years old, making her the youngest artist ever to perform an original 007 theme tune. But while Eilish may still be a kid, she’s no amateur—as her 2020 Grammys sweep well proved. “No Time to Die” caps the Daniel Craig Bond era with a haunting slow burn of a ballad that melds Eilish’s signature vocals with classic Bond orchestration” – Esquire

5. Duran Duran – A View to a Kill 

From the Film: A View to a Kill

Year of Release: 1985

Songwriters: Duran Duran/John Barry

Producers: Bernard Edwards/Jason Corsaro/Duran Duran

What the Critics Say:

“‘A View To A Kill’ marks a change not only in the fortunes of Bond theme songs but also the manner in which they were executed. Although John Barry remained deeply involved in the song, it is very much a Duran Duran composition through and through: Barry’s contributions, the signature stabs of brass, are used like ornaments rather than essential functions of the song (the band were in charge of the major songwriting elements, chord progressions etc), which is brazenly effective.

The result redefined what it meant to record a Bond theme: pop artists would now flock to the franchise, seeking to leave their own distinctive mark, rather than the franchise drafting yet another vocalist to interpret the material” – Classic FM

FEATURE: Spotlight: Hamish Hawk

FEATURE:

 

 

Spotlight

Hamish Hawk

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FOR this Spotlight…

I am focusing on a solo artist who has released one of the most accomplished albums of the year. Heavy Elevator is the new one from Hamish Hawk. The Edinburgh-based songwriter is an artist that you need to know about. With a lyrical style that is very much his own, Hawk has attracted the attention of radio stations like BBC Radio 6 Music. I am going to bring in a review for Heavy Elevator in a minute. Before that, there are a couple of interviews that are worth exploring. The Skinny spoke with Hawk about the abstract imagery that runs through Heavy Elevator:

“A storyteller, subverting common misconceptions of pop; an architect, constantly polishing and redeveloping; music as an act of creation that can have no end. Hamish Hawk’s Heavy Elevator is comprised of a series of wittily dark character portraits that find themselves fleshed out in dramatic chamber pop fashion, elucidated by seemingly incoherent imagery and lyrical phrasing. Accompanying them, so far, are three equally dark and wittily performed videos, existing, if anything, to amplify this universe that is Hawk’s Heavy Elevator. In one, Hawk appears as a jester, channelling the fool from King Lear, in another he's playing badminton in Leith Theatre. What both set up, though, is that with this record, things are getting serious. 

For Hawk, though, this outward performativity lends itself to a better sense of authenticity when it comes to translating this record, which stands as something much darker, more mature, than any previous projects. “It feels more real to me,” he says. “But in order to communicate that, you need to push yourself away a bit, and almost say to an audience ‘I’m not going to do much talking to you, and it might look like I’m in my own world, but it’s because I’m concentrating on communicating it to you in the appropriate way.’ So out of a desire to be authentic, it almost looks like more of a performance, where what I was doing before, to me, was way more of a performance.” Retaining this authenticity to his music, and by virtue of that, himself, Hawk’s communication and performance of Heavy Elevator stands to depart from anything he has done before.

This sense of change seeps further through the record, using pop music as a skeleton from which to structure a body of work that is darker and more aggressive, yet more fully-formed, and ultimately, enjoyable to hear. Take Caterpillar and its new-wave danceability, and consider the troubled voice that runs through it: ‘Kill me, kill me, kill me / Killer offer me relief’. “Caterpillar was the kind of song that I thought: my mum isn’t going to like this,” he says. Which does present a struggle, or conflict with this way of performing. If pop structures act as a vehicle through which you can bear yourself, you can emit darkness and dance away with it, how do you avoid taking things too far?

The answer would be Hawk’s esoteric lyrical vignettes. “I think really, if people are anything like me, they’re crying out for stuff that is something they don’t quite get. Something you don’t understand can be really exciting; it's the way to move forward,” he explains. “I love the idea of lyrics that are original thoughts. And what I’m trying to do with my music is have as many of those original thoughts as possible.” The result of this is a record with a plenitude to unpack. An example being The Mauritian Badminton Doubles Champion, 1973, which opens with lines that are easy to find yourself hung-up on, in their simultaneous complex simplicity: ‘To write a cathedral, I’ll need a ball-point pen / It’ll sound like Common People sung by Christopher Wren”.

His 2019 E.P., Laziest River, is a rewarding and rich listen. I think there is something even more astonishing and compelling in Heavy Elevator. It is clear how much time Hamish Hawk has spent on the record. It must have been tough putting it together through lockdown. The Strange Brew interviewed Hawk and asked that very question:

“How did you record Heavy Elevator? Was it a quick process?

The band and I set up camp in Post Electric Studio, Edinburgh, for two weeks, which is by no means an exhaustive length of time in which to record an album, but it was the longest we had ever spent recording so it felt like a definite step-up. We were all so fiercely committed to the project; the recording time went by in a flash.

What led you to meeting and collaborating with Rod Jones of Idlewild?

Rod introduced himself when the band and I performed at the Iona Village Hall Music Festival on the Isle of Iona back in 2016. He said he was interested in recording some sessions with us, and we were all really keen. The rest is history really; chats about ‘the music’ became more and more in-depth, a few meetings were held, a few support slots with Idlewild were promptly snapped up, and here we are. His guidance and experience has been a huge benefit to us; I’m looking forward to continuing to collaborate in the future.

Your music videos are very distinctive, typified by ‘Calls to Tiree’. Who have you worked with on your latest videos?

The video for Calls to Tiree, in which a jester prances around on a desolate beach, was dreamed up by my friend and bandmate Andrew Pearson, and I owe him a real debt of gratitude for it. I couldn’t have imagined a more fitting visual accompaniment to the song. Quite often I struggle to achieve a certain distance from my songs, and from what I see as their defining features. Incorporating Andy’s take on the songs allows for an entirely new, and often leftfield visual language to establish itself, and it makes it really exciting for me. Ellen De Faux, who directed the Caterpillar video, achieved precisely the same thing. Both Andy and Ellen had an innate sense for would work; I was more than happy to sit back and watch it unfold.

How does Heavy Elevator compare with your previous material?

Heavy Elevator is the most fully formed album I’ve ever recorded. I think the songs are bigger, more daring, and probably more vulnerable too. There’s a maturity and a confidence in there that simply comes with the passage of time. But I think it’s clear we took the time to consider and reconsider what we were doing more so than we did on previous records. We worked really hard on it, and I think it shows.

Where are you from and where are you based now? What is the music scene like?

I’m from Edinburgh and have lived here most of my life. Writing and performing here for as long as I have, I’ve found I often have to offer some justification for why I haven’t relocated to Glasgow, or London, or any other city popularly considered to be more ‘hospitable’ to local music. Honestly I’ve found Edinburgh’s music scene suits me to a tee. There is no shortage of hugely dedicated musicians and venue owners here, and personally I’ve found the scene really nurturing. I think it’s only improving with time as well.

You play a brilliant version of Suzanne .What artists, including Leonard Cohen, have influenced you and why?

It goes without saying that Leonard Cohen has influenced my songwriting hugely; I think you’d struggle to find a lyricist who says otherwise. He’s one amongst many lyrical heroes of mine, though. Others include Stephin Merritt (of The Magnetic Fields), Randy Newman, Joni Mitchell, Bob Dylan, Nick Cave, Dory Previn, Vic Chesnutt. They tell their own stories their own way and spare little thought for how anyone might feel about that. I admire them all tremendously”.

There is one more interview I want to spotlight before getting to a review. You Wanted a List quizzed Hawk about  (among other things) the artists that he admires and respects the most:

“What albums would you recommend others listen to?

I have countless favourites, but there are definitely a handful of records that I think don’t get talked about enough. Mythical Kings & Iguanas by Dory Previn is one of them. Dory Previn is such a singular voice, and more often than not you end up discussing her and her work at length with whoever is there when you put on her records. She seemed to move very much in her own direction, which is no small feat considering the album was released in 1971. I’ll admit, there are moments in her canon where the music veers a little too far towards the soft and loungey for my tastes, but her lyrics are always superb. She is so honest, and there’s a wry humour in her work that inspires me a great deal.

The other side of the coin would be The White Stripes by The White Stripes. Their third, fourth and sixth albums tend to come up in conversation more often than their debut, but for me The White Stripes has always been the one. I could wax lyrical about it till the cows come home, and often do, but suffice to say you’d be hard pressed to find a band with a better sense of who they are, what they’re doing and where they’re hoping to go than The White Stripes on their debut. It is the most undeniable statement of intent from an impossibly influential band. When music critics use the word ‘raw’ in reviews, I often ask myself whether or not they’ve heard this record. Is it my favourite debut album ever? Absolutely. Is it my favourite album ever? Yeah, probably.

Which artists working today do you admire most?

The artists I admire the most tend to display qualities I doubt in myself. As far as songwriters go, I’m hugely inspired by Jack White, Nick Cave and Stephin Merritt, not only thanks to their songwriting talent, but because of their seemingly unshakeable work ethic. Each is very disciplined and dutiful when it comes to setting aside time to write. It doesn’t so much fly in the face of the ‘don’t force it’ attitude towards the artistic process as it does cast doubt on the ‘it’ll come eventually’ attitude.

I’m guilty of having treated songwriting like a magical process in the past, and as much as it can often feel like that, particularly when a complete song seems to spring out of nothing, it’s more often than not a matter of taking the time out to write, of getting into position to tease out new ideas. I’m a perfectionist to a fault, so I always try to remind myself of those who recognise failure as a crucial part of the process.

Outside of the world of music, I’m certainly inspired by David Hockney; he has a wonderful, almost child-like approach to his art, inasmuch as he sees himself as a perennial student. Now in his eighties, I’m inspired by how much his work continues to exhibit a sense of fun, and a willingness to experiment and be curious”.

There have been a lot of positive reviews for Heavy Elevator. The album marks Hawk as an artist with a bright and interesting future ahead. Secret Meeting were keen to have their say about an album that they were blown away by:

“On an immaculate collection of songs that tether themselves to your memory, Hamish Hawk establishes himself as a songwriting heavyweight

Ah sweet romance. The crimsons and reds of racing blood, the salty lick of tears at the corner of lips, and the dazzling lights and siren of alarms. Heavy Elevator, the latest album from Edinburgh based, Hamish Hawk, is abound with it. It is there from the throbbing pulse of synth that traces through opener, Vivan Comma, and it is still present in the fading twinkle of optimistic notes that round out New Rhododendrons. But, residing a world away from the typical fare of romantic love, the romance found here is in the trembling lows and giddy elevations of a life thoroughly lived.

Continuing a long held relationship with Rod Jones of Idlewild and The Birthday Suit, who acts as Hawk’s manager and now producer, Heavy Elevator is a richly textured enclave of senses and sounds ranging from baroque pop to strutting pomp rock to grieving balladry. An erudite and highly literate individual, Hawk wields his words with an intriguing mix of heartfelt confession and scathingl sarcastic wit.

Flowing from the mundane to the absurd, his own memories are peppered throughout, and while the rose tinted glasses are occasionally crushed under the foot of heavy experience, there is a palatable ache of gratitude to his stories. His are words that ring out from the rafters – from the mouth of a songwriter happy to have these tales to share.

It is no stretch to say there is a bardic quality to his writing. Utilising a skilful matrimony of prose and lyricism, his lyrics hint at a bookshelf creaking with Gordon Mackay Brown and Norman MacCaig, and leads to enviable verses – (‘Time lifts an eyelid / Lilac kisses an iris / and I rise blinded / You take no notice’ – Your Ceremony).

There are no rough edges on Heavy Elevator. Hawk’s compositions and Jones’ production are immaculate. This does not, however, rob the record of a human connection. The care and attention to detail in its creation are what tether it to your memory. And the romance in which he wraps his own past is a lesson to all of us: to embrace life and love hard, regardless of the outcome, for it will all be over far too soon – ‘If you lose track of what you’ve loved in the past / There’s no going back’ – New Rhododendrons)”.

If you have not yet followed Hamish Hawk, go and do so. I have only recently found his work, but it is clear that there is plenty more music to come from the Scottish songwriter. Heavy Elevator is a fantastic album that everyone should seek out. Hamish Hawk is most certainly…

A terrific talent.

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Follow Hamish Hawk 

Official:

https://hamishhawk.com/

Instagram:

https://www.instagram.com/hamishhawk/

Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/hamishhawk/

Twitter:

https://twitter.com/HHawkOfficial

YouTube:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCTLsfMqRUiAwhfw5aqj6wsQ

Spotify:

https://open.spotify.com/artist/3t3q007skKvwNaodwZx8W8

FEATURE: Vinyl Corner: Michael Jackson - Off the Wall

FEATURE:

 

Vinyl Corner 

Michael Jackson - Off the Wall

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ONE can argue…

IN THIS PHOTO: Michael Jackson in 1979/PHOTO CREDIT: Barry Schultz

which Michael Jackson is the best. Some would say it is 1982’s Thriller. I am a big fan of 1987’s Bad and 1991’s Dangerous. It is impossible to ignore the importance of 1979’s Off the Wall. One of the best-selling albums ever, it is also considered among the best albums ever. Not as commercially successful as Thriller, many critics have named Off the Wall as Michael Jackson’s defining album. It was Jackson's first album released through Epic Records, the label he recorded under until his death in 2009, and the first produced by Quincy Jones, whom he met while working on the 1978 film, The Wiz. The mix of sounds - Disco, Pop, Funk, R&B, Soft Rock and ballads – fuses with Its lyrical themes include escapism, liberation, loneliness, hedonism and romance. Off the Wall is the sound of Jackson breaking away from The Jackson 5. This is an artist liberated and striding out alone. With song contributions from the likes of Rod Temperton and Paul McCartney, there is not a weak or wasted moment on Off the Wall. Jackson wrote two of the album’s best tracks: Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough and Workin’ Day and Night. If you do not own the album on vinyl, it is one that you should definitely buy. Off the Wall possesses so many terrific songs. Jackson is so committed and astonishing throughout. In 1979, there was praise for a breakthrough album by Jackson. I feel there were some who were not sold or did not give Off the Wall the huge acclaim it deserved. Retrospective reviews have boasted the album’s profile and recognised its freshness - and how it was this major Disco record that would go on to influence legions of other artists.

There are a couple of glowing reviews that I want to source. It shows how critics have reacted to the Michael Jackson masterpiece in the years after its release. This is AllMusic’s take on one of the finest albums of the 1970s:

“Michael Jackson had recorded solo prior to the release of Off the Wall in 1979, but this was his breakthrough, the album that established him as an artist of astonishing talent and a bright star in his own right. This was a visionary album, a record that found a way to break disco wide open into a new world where the beat was undeniable, but not the primary focus -- it was part of a colorful tapestry of lush ballads and strings, smooth soul and pop, soft rock, and alluring funk. Its roots hearken back to the Jacksons' huge mid-'70s hit "Dancing Machine," but this is an enormously fresh record, one that remains vibrant and giddily exciting years after its release. This is certainly due to Jackson's emergence as a blindingly gifted vocalist, equally skilled with overwrought ballads as "She's Out of My Life" as driving dancefloor shakers as "Working Day and Night" and "Get on the Floor," where his asides are as gripping as his delivery on the verses. It's also due to the brilliant songwriting, an intoxicating blend of strong melodies, rhythmic hooks, and indelible construction. Most of all, its success is due to the sound constructed by Jackson and producer Quincy Jones, a dazzling array of disco beats, funk guitars, clean mainstream pop, and unashamed (and therefore affecting) schmaltz that is utterly thrilling in its utter joy. This is highly professional, highly crafted music, and its details are evident, but the overall effect is nothing but pure pleasure. Jackson and Jones expanded this approach on the blockbuster Thriller, often with equally stunning results, but they never bettered it”.

I am going to wrap up in a bit. Pitchfork examined Off the Wall in 2016. It is amazing to think of the Michael Jackson who created that album in the 1970s. Compare that to how his career would explode and how his life (tragically) would end:

“Off the Wall is the sound of that liberation. And he knew exactly what he was doing. On November 6, 1979, just as the album was starting to take off, Michael wrote a note to himself on the back of a tour itinerary, a proclamation of self so ambitious it could make Kanye blush. "MJ will be my new name, no more Michael Jackson. I want a whole new character, a whole new look, I should be a totally different person. People should never think of me as the kid who sang ‘ABC’ [and] ‘I Want You Back,’" he jotted down. "I should be a new incredible actor singer dancer that will shock the world. I will do no interviews. I will be magic. I will be a perfectionist, a researcher, a trainer, a masterer… I will study and look back on the whole world of entertainment and perfect it. Take it steps further from where the greats left off."

Those words were eerily prescient in many ways, of course, but they also highlight one of Michael’s most important dualities: He wanted to be magical—to defy expectation and reality—but he knew that such skills could not materialize from thin air. He understood that exceptionalism took hard work. Growing up in the Motown system, he would often sit in on sessions, soaking up lessons from the greats: Diana Ross, Marvin Gaye, the Temptations. He studied the way James Brown, Sammy Davis Jr., and Fred Astaire moved their feet onstage, in movies, and on TV. At 17, he counted hallowed masters like Irving Berlin, George Gershwin, and Duke Ellington among his favorite songwriters. He had released four solo albums in the early ’70s, but Off the Wall, which came out when he was 21, finally allowed him to flex all those hours of research into something that was his.

It also marked a moment of idealism. Around the time of Off the Wall, Michael’s musical and physical changes felt natural—joyous extensions of the black American experience. Disco was overwhelmingly popular, breaking down color lines and radio formats while offering utopia on the dancefloor. Coming from the segregated, working-class city of Gary, Ind., Jackson's achievements and acceptance represented a rosy view of the country’s future. But 1979 was scarred by the beginning of the quasi-racist "disco sucks" backlash; Michael also got his first nose job that year, narrowing his nostrils. And though he would become even more successful in the '80s, those astronomical heights sometimes catered to white tastes—in both appearance and sound—in a way that could seem effortful, cynical, and sad.

So part of the reason why Off the Wall remains so unabashedly fun to return to involves that lack of baggage. For 41 minutes, we can live in the eternally young Neverland Michael longed for, a universe largely without consequence or death. This lasting affection is reiterated by a new Spike Lee documentary, Michael Jackson's Journey from Motown to Off the Wall, which is included in this CD/DVD reissue and finds Jackson family members and associates, along with more modern stars like the Weeknd’s Abel Tesfaye, ?uestlove, and Pharrell, paying tribute to Michael’s earliest incarnations. "Off the Wall was definitely the one that made me feel like I could sing," says Tesfaye in the doc, which was in part produced by executors of Michael’s estate and barely mentions anything about the artist’s life after Off the Wall.

The album was released toward the tail end of the disco era and it managed to encompass much of what made that style so infectious while also pushing out its edges. "Our underlying plan was to take disco out. That was the bottom line," the record’s producer, Quincy Jones, once said. "I admired disco, don’t get me wrong. I just thought it had gone far enough." Jones, a calm, jazzy Zen master who had worked with Dizzy Gillespie, Frank Sinatra, and Count Basie, helped Michael flesh out his own songs as well as tracks written by others, putting forth a record that is at once beautifully simple and sneakily complex”.

An enormously important album, there is no doubt that Off the Wall is one of the best ever. So many classic tracks and amazing production from Quincy Jones. Over forty years after its release, I don’t think there has been another album quite like it. From Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough to Burn the Disco Down, Off the Wall is ten tracks of…

PURE perfection.

FEATURE: The Kate Bush Interview Archive: John Shearlaw (1979)

FEATURE:

 

 

The Kate Bush Interview Archive

IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush performing Kite during The Tour of Life/PHOTO CREDIT: Peter Still Photography

John Shearlaw (1979)

___________

WHEN thinking of which year to focus on…

IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush during The Tour of Life/PHOTO CREDIT: Max Browne

for this part of the Kate Bush Interview Archive, I wanted to go back to 1979. This interview was conducted by John Shearlaw. It was ahead of Bush heading out to do her first (and only) tour. The Tour of Life was Bush hitting the road following two great albums: 1978’s The Kick Inside and Lionheart. A preview feature ahead of the tour, 1978 and 1979 are my favourite years of Bush’s career. It was when so much was happening. A lot of the media did not know what to make of her. Trying to grasp this unique music and a very special artist, the interviews from that time are very interesting! I am not going to source all of the interview conducted by Shearlaw. There are some segments that are particularly noteworthy:

“For Kate, still only twenty years old, has found that what was at first a tentative (and very well planned) debut outing has swollen into a full-scale tour--now including five nights at the London Palladium, with Europe to follow.

While I've found (let's say a birdie told me!) that this spectacular initiation is likely to offer such treats as:

Two supporting dancers appearing with Kate (herself an accomplished dancer and mime artist);

What has loosely described as a "magician" (although, typically, the nature of the act is being kept a secret!).

A specially designed stage with opening mirrored ramps for Kate and the seven-piece band to disappear in and out of.

A variety of equipment--including a black carpet that will cover the entire stage area.

Mind-boggling set-pieces--one of which seems likely to be Kate suspended inside a giant, transparent egg (with only two handholds and two footholds) which will rotate as she sings.

As well as a completely new approach to the singer as the center of attention--perhaps one of the most interesting innovations! As well as using radio microphones (without leads), she'll also be wearing a wire head-piece (with a mike) for certain songs--thus making it easier to move, dance and sing...with no limitations.

Nor is all this dedication to presentation a mere attempt at technoflash. In fact, the whole production (which will travel with the tour and be adapted for each venue--with the full works being reserved for the largest stage: the London Palladium) isn't reckoned to be that expensive. (A figure of around 150,000 Pounds has been mentioned--almost peanuts in relation to full-scale ELO-like production packages).

Rather, if it works--and with all the effort that's gone into it, it looks like it will--it will be some way towards Kate's original stated ambition of "combining songs and dance in a slightly different way--a way that suits me."

Now you know, although you shouldn't! Prepare for something a little bit special--that's if Wuthering Heights didn't, or the incredible BBC TV video she recorded in Switzerland last month for Wow doesn't either. 

IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush during a performance of Room for the Life for The Tour of Life

Ms. Bush, whichever way you look at it, is about to break out in a big way. And not just out of an egg!

Yes, she has played live before--"in pubs and clubs, from when I was about fourteen," she remembers. "I was always happy to perform." And who can forget that it was Kate, as a squeaky and precocious sixteen-year-old, who first gained record company interest (and to certain people, also from record companies, who must now be kicking themselves with some force, abject scorn) by accompanying herself on piano at her doctor-father's house?

But, since the success of Wuthering Heights and her subsequent breakthrough as one of the most truly original voices of the decade (perfectly executed and illustrated on two albums) last year, there hasn't been what product-managers would call back-up. No live appearances; just videos in Japan and playbacks for Top of the Pops.

The reason being, yes..."a genuine lack of time."

"I think I survived all the digs I had last year," she says now. "I really wasn't deliberately keeping myself away from an audience to build up a reputation. It has simply taken all this time to stage things the way I want to. And to match up to the standard I've set myself.

"Which I haven't reached, and probably won't reach!" she laughs.

"But however it turns out, it's my concept--my concept, as much as the time, the budget and the presentation will allow.

"And it's for all the Lionhearts first!"

"It's also a concept, says Kate, that is the culmination of two years' planning, and--more realistically--six solid months of rehearsal, which began with the band long before Christmas, extended into lighting and effects work at a Home Counties film studio, and will culminate, for the rest of this month, with full run-throughs at a major London theatre.

"It does, however, make it somewhat understandable that the lady herself is reluctant to disclose any details of the surprises in store. Since Christmas she's lived with the hard-core reality of putting the show on--a development that has attracted so much rumour and speculation that someone less determined (and less in total control of her own projectction) might be tempted to begin her own publicity before the event. Not so.

Great, fantastic and incredible. How else would she put it?

"I'm really looking forward to it so much," she says. "I look at myself, and I'm not a public person. At least I don't see myself as a public person; I don't go out and go to parties. My friends" --her boyfriends "are "just good friends", she points out--"don't make front-page news! All that amazing show-business thing, you know.

"But," she continues, "you do have different faces. My different face is when I perform--it will be when I perform, I mean!

"When I'm on stage, I get possessed, really." Her eyes--still bigger-than-believable, away from the flash-guns--sparkle. "Away from it, I'm just normal and small...then, suddenly, I've got this really special thing. I'm really letting go.

IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush performing Hammer Horror during The Tour of Life

"It's an amazing feeling, a great big rush."

She pauses and delivers a sentence that could have a malicious tease about it. Equally, it could be genuine. "It's almost like seeing God, man! Though it's not quite as simple as that...

"You're communicating, without talking, something that's inside you--your creation--and it's going out to people. It's fantastic when you see them accepting it."

And does she feel they do, or sorry, that they will? Or does she worry about projecting a conscious image to gain that acceptance?

In a word, no. "It's not a question of being sexy or anything. It's much more to do with the interpretation of each song. Each one you see differently and present differently," she says. "I've been very open to lots of influences up until now, or I wouldn't even be doing the things I am doing. Like if I hadn't worked with Lindsay Kemp, I wouldn't be moving around at all while I was singing! Can you imagine that?”.

We all know that The Tour of Life was a success. Bush was hailed by many critics. It was an exceptional set of shows that broke new ground and marked her as one of the most spectacular live performers in the world. I can imagine there was this mixture of excitement and nerves discussing The Tour of Life. It makes me wonder whether, ever, there will be a book of interviews Bush was involved with through the years. They are always so different and fascinating. The one above…

IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush performs Moving during The Tour of Life in 1979

IS simple proof of that.

FEATURE: Second Spin: Spandau Ballet - True

FEATURE:

 

 

Second Spin 

Spandau Ballet - True

___________

I have been thinking about…

albums released in the year I was born. That would be 1983. There were some classics released that year – including Madonna’s eponymous debut. I think that there were some albums released that year that are underrated. In 1983, we still had the New Romantic movement. Bands like Duran Duran and Spandau Ballet were ruling the charts. I have always had a soft spot for Spandau Ballet. I think True was the number-one single when I was born on 9th May, 1983. The True album is one that is far stronger than many have given it credit for. Aside from the iconic, chart-topping title track, it also has the unstoppable Gold. Some have dismissed the rest of the album as being weak in comparison to those two tracks. I feel True is well worth investigation. Maybe it seems dated in 2021 (it was released in March 1983) as we do not have any sounds like this today. Defining it as purely New Romantic is taking something away from an album that is incredible. With all eight tracks written by the band’s guitarist, Gary Kemp, there is much to enjoy through True. I particularly like Communication and Heaven Is a Secret. If their first couple of albums made them big names in the U.K. and Europe, the success of their third studio album elevated them to worldwide stars. I want to bring in a couple of reviews for True – to show what some critics have said about the album.

Before coming to them, I want to zero in on the album’s title cut. In 2012, Gary Kemp discussed the story behind the classic track:

“On the most romantic day of the year, read the inside story on the classic eighties song True by its writer Gary Kemp.

True was one of the songs on our third album.  Spandau Ballet were quite established in Europe by this time but not at all in the US. We were kind of a cult band.

Our first two albums were electronic dance records, very much influenced by the New Romantic scene. The second was also in the club vein and we'd had about six hit singles but we were never going to remain a culty London band forever - we'd done Top of the Pops half a dozen times and for me there was a sense of 'do we just want to keep up with the dance scene or do we really want to sell records around the world', which is what I always wanted to do. I'd grown up on pop and it seemed to me that with True it was time to go back to what I'd been doing since I was 11; writing a song, as opposed to finding what the groove is and writing a song on top of that, which is what we'd been doing.

My three biggest influences were David Bowie, punk and soul music. I could play records by Chic and the Sex Pistols at the same sitting. True was trying to make an amalgam of all those influences.

At 22 I'd had two hit albums but I'm a working-class boy. Working class kids don't move out until they get married. The song was written at my parent's house off the Essex Road, sitting on my bed.

I had a passionate unrequited love for someone who will remain nameless... I was partly writing a song about her too.

I had a passionate unrequited love for someone who will remain nameless. I was a bit obsessed with her, and she with me, but nothing was ever going to happen. She also listened to a lot of Al Green and Marvin Gaye. I was partly writing a song about her too. The tune came from trying to write a song a bit like I'm Still In Love with You by Al Green. I loved the way he looped the 'I' around. There was another song by John Lennon - I was watching Let It Be and he sang ‘I'm so tired and I-I-I-I....’ I really wanted to do that. I ended up with ‘I know this much is true’, about how hard it is to be honest in a love song.  So the line came into my head ‘Why do I find it hard to write the next line, I want the truth to be said’.

The girl I was obsessed with had given me a copy of Lolita by Nabokov and I adapted two lines for the song, one was 'seaside arms', the other 'with a thrill in my head and a pill on my tongue' which I loved as soon as I read it; it was the story of our lives at the time. I wanted to mention Marvin Gaye, I kind of liked that because the song was a homage to different soul singers.

My first choice of producer was Trevor Horn, but I'm glad we ended up with Simon Jolley and Tony Swain, two white guys who did the Imagination records, understood the 12” record, understood the remix, but the song was there.

We said ‘we’re not making an English record, it’s an international record, we can’t make it in London’. The album was recorded at Compass Point in Nassau. I loved that whole Island Records, Chris Blackwell vibe. We hoped it would rub off on the record, and it did. We had a great new keyboard that gave us that chord sound on True, but the big thing was the backing vocal. We decided that the ‘I-I-I-I’ bit wasn’t something that Tony did. I recorded it and Tony put an effect on it.

I’ve got the video from Compass Point, and everyone is singing along in the mixing room and at that moment we knew this was the biggest record we’d ever made.

When the album was released, True started getting crazy radio plays and took on a life all of its own. In those days it wasn’t easy to get to Number one. It was there for four weeks. It got to number four in the US but its legacy is that it’s a black radio favourite, we’re up to four million airplays on the record”.

Although True has not received many all-out positive reviews, there are some who have pointed at highs and reasons to listen. Sputnikmusic reflected on True back in 2007:

“Spandau Ballet is sort of a weird band in terms of popularity. At the forefront of the 80’s New Romantic movement, Spandau Ballet's success was a mixed bag. They entered the British charts in 1980 with the song ‘To Cut A Long Story Short’,(which was the only good song on their debut album, Journeys To Glory) only to have mixed results with their follow up Diamond which was a lot stronger as a whole, but didn’t deliver much success on the charts. Hence we come to True, which showed a stylistic change in the band’s sound and image, going for a sleek adult contemporary feel along the lines of Make it Big era Wham!. The album’s singles garnered international success, and was the last (and perhaps, only) album to get critical acclaim.

Like so many other 80’s pop albums, True was written with a specific goal in mind, to get singles on the charts. As an album as a whole, this makes for an unvaried batch of songs in terms of sound and composition, while not necessarily bad tracks on their own. All of these songs are essentially driven by synth sounds and bouncy basslines, which allows vocalist Tony Hadley to be put at the forefront of the mix. There is unfortunately so little variation amongst this sound combined with a strong dogma to follow traditional pop song structure that this album only works in doses.

That said, the band did manage to spew out two fantastic songs. ‘Gold’ more or less makes up for the repetitive songwriting, and showcases the best vocal performance on the album(although also some of the cheesiest back-up vocals you will ever hear). The band’s biggest hit, ‘True’ is essentially a tribute to the Marvin Gaye sound, and is a nice break as it has a somewhat different sound from the rest of the album as it’s very laid back.

The weaker songs like ‘Lifeline’ and ‘Foundation’ don’t work because of the faster, upbeat tempo the band wanted to give these songs and the annoying layered and/or backing vocals don’t help either. Though the band gets points for effort, they are simply much more effective when Hadly can sing his lungs out and sustain to his heart’s content. Though this is Spandau Ballet’s best studio album, casual fans of the band are better off buying Gold: The Best of Spandau Ballet, a greatest”.

Perhaps 1983 was a year of transition and change. One where Spandau Ballet were out of fashion or had to change their sound. With some incredible Pop emerging that year, the New Romantic scene was dying down. I think, it we take True out of 1983 and listen to it with fresh ears now, there are songs on the album that resonate. I think it is a very solid album. Critics have been a bit mixed in their views. This is AllMusic’s take:

“By 1983, with the new romantic movement they'd sprung from a rapidly fading memory, the members of Spandau Ballet showed they had no intention of traveling the same path. Always ambitious, the British quintet really got down to business: Gone were the kilts, frilly shirts, and makeup -- as well as the sometimes chilly electronics of their first two albums. Instead, after recording at Compass Point Studios in the sun-soaked Bahamas, the group turned up in smartly tailored suits, with a sleek and mainstream sound to match. That came courtesy of producers Steve Jolley and Tony Swain, who gave Spandau the sort of pop-R&B sheen that had produced hits for clients like Imagination. And it also reflected the growing skill of guitarist Gary Kemp, the band's primary songwriter, who crafted a set of tunes aimed squarely at the charts.

The one that succeeded most spectacularly, of course, was the title cut, a glossily-updated Motown-style ballad that became one of the decade's biggest hits -- aided by a video that cast singer Tony Hadley as a young Frank Sinatra, crooning about the sound of his soul. But Kemp had more arrows in his quiver, as well; the catchy soft disco of "Communication" and "Lifeline" coyly suggests, rather than demands, listeners' presence on the dancefloor, while the suave, spy flick-inspired "Gold" finally gives Hadley an appropriately rich setting for his dramatic warble. Some listeners at the time called the album an MOR sellout, but its slick surfaces remain tough to resist, and while none of the cuts generate the excitement of past singles like "To Cut a Long Story Short" or "Chant No. 1," True remains Spandau Ballet's most consistent and best all-around album”.

With the band in great form and Tony Hadley delivering some of his finest vocals, True is an album that will definitely win you over. Whilst not every track is gold, there are plenty of fine cuts to keep people more than invested. I don’t think you need to have been around in the 1980s and loved Spandau Ballet to appreciate Gold. Many albums from the 1980s have dated and faded in the years since. I think that Gold is an album that…

HAS lost none of its currency.

FEATURE: Childhood Treasures: Albums That Impacted Me: Oasis – Be Here Now

FEATURE:

 

 

Childhood Treasures: Albums That Impacted Me 

Oasis – Be Here Now

___________

THERE are a couple of albums from 1997…

IN THIS PHOTO: Oasis in 1997/PHOTO CREDIT: Jill Furmanovsky

that I am going to feature in the coming weeks. The first is Oasis’ third studio album, Be Here Now. Whilst I was a big fan of their first two albums, by the time their third album arrived I was fourteen. I think that I was more aware of the wider music world and I was definitely buying more music. Be Here Now is one of the most fascinating albums ever. For me, it was a case of exploring an album from a band who were on top of the world. They were the biggest in the world and, as there was talk around school about Be Here Now, many of my friends got it. I can remember how people were queuing outside record shops to get the album when it came out on 21st August, 1997. The initial critical reaction was hugely positive. A lot of hyperbole was thrown around. People were reviewing Be Here Now based on Oasis’ reputation and expectation rather than how good the album actually was. I know that it is flawed, so it is not surprising that retrospective reviews have been more balanced. Many observe how it is quite bloated, overlong and in need of an edit. Some called it a ‘cocaine album’, in the sense there is braggadocio, bravado and this bold energy that runs wild. Perhaps lacking the depth, concision and anthems of 1994’s Definitely Maybe and 1995’s (What’s the Story) Morning Glory?, Be Here Now is still an album that has some gems.

I am going to bring in a couple of reviews for Be Here Now soon. One is from 1997, whilst the other is a more recent inspection. Maybe it was the hype and the sheer sense of anticipation around Be Here Now that means it is an album that is dear to me and encoded into my bloodstream. I recall getting the album and playing it over and over. My favourite track, Stand By Me, has a kick-ass chorus and is catchy. I like the swagger of the opener, D'You Know What I Mean?, and the brilliance of All Around the World. Listening to the album now, it is amazing how long the songs are! Maybe it was Noel Gallagher (the band’s songwriter) wanting to fill a C.D. or feeling that, because Oasis were so popular, he could get away with such lengthy songs. Maybe more suited for festival crowds, Be Here Now can be a little tiring as a listening experience. By the time you get to the closer, All Around the World (Reprise), one has listened to nearly an hour and ten minutes of music! That is double album length. If Oasis were to do the album again, I think they would shorten things and take away two or three tracks. The strengths of the album are the reliably hypnotic vocals of Liam Gallagher and the way Noel Gallagher can pen these huge tunes that get you singing along.

The band are committed and brilliant throughout. I have gone back and forth with Be Here Now in terms of opinion. I realise how vital it was in my childhood and 1997 – a year when I was struck by so many brilliant albums that have stood the test of time. By 1997, Britpop was over. Bands such as Blur were embracing new directions (their 1997 eponymous album is more indebted to bands like Pavement and U.S. guitar music than 1960s British Pop acts like The Beatles). I do like a Rock album that has plenty of confidence, though Be Here Now lacks a certain sense of focus and quality control. I knew this back in 1997. I was swept up by this album that was talked about almost like this awakening and world event. It was very exciting! I think Be Here Now stands up well enough and is a great album that should be heard. Soundtracking some of my best moments in 1997, it is a special album. This is what Rolling Stone said about Be Here Now in 1997:

“Oasis are not, and have never been, a complex listening experience; in fact, they’ve basically made the same album thrice. Like 1994’s Definitely Maybe and 1995’s (What’s the Story) Morning Glory?, Be Here Now is ’60s and ’70s rock classcism writ large and loud, all broad strokes and bullish enthusiasm. As the band’s songwriter, co-producer and (for all intents and purposes) iron ruler, guitarist Noel Gallagher doesn’t spend any sweat on highbrow drama or intellectual pretense. He fires up sing-along hooks with industrial-strength glam-rock licks; he drapes his words and music in the reflected splendor of the Beatles at every available turn, mostly through song — and album-title references, and spit-shines the results with a kind of roughneck sentimentality, heard to most obvious effect in the Sunday-night-pub-chorale endings of “Magic Pie” and “All Around the World.”

It’s a formula that can go either way: brilliant, steel-plated consistency or vacuous, shopworn predictability. Gallagher and Oasis pull it off, in great part, because they do not concede any possibility of fucking up. A lot of Gallagher’s lyrics are catch-phrase cocktails of youthful optimism and hard-boy temperament: “Comin’ in out of nowhere/Singing rhapsody” (“Fade In-Out”); “Into my big mouth/You could fly a plane” (“My Big Mouth”). But the most contagious thing about buzz bombs like “My Big Mouth,” “I Hope, I Think, I Know” and “It’s Gettin’ Better (Man!!)” is the sheer physical confidence of the music, particularly in the tandem rock ribbed guitars of Gallagher and Bone-head (a k a Paul Arthurs), and the way singer Liam Gallagher literally assaults the songs written for him by his older brother.

Much has been made of the John Lennon factor in Liam’s nasally, brattish intonation. In fact, his voice is a flat, thin thing. What’s remarkable about it is its emphatic, almost fighting quality; Liam enunciates Noel’s lyrics with snappish irritation and grinds the vowels in words like fade and away into high-tension whines. By the time Liam gets done with the chorus in Noel’s Big Melodrama ballad, “Stand by Me” — “Stand by me-e-e/Nobody kno-woa-ahs/The way it’s gon-nah-h be-e-e” — it sounds full of portent, if not bona fide linear meaning.

The payoff in Noel’s writing is always in the choruses; all riffs, hooks and bridges lead there. So Noel feeds Liam words and phrases that, above all, sound good. While it’s hard to excuse jury-rigged verse like “A cold and frosty morning/There’s not a lot to say/About the things caught in my mind” (“Don’t Go Away”), sometimes in pop music, melody, muscle and mouthing off can be their own substantial reward.

But only for so long. Oasis can’t rely on this Abbey Road-meets-Never Mind the Bollocks routine forever. There are already signs of strain on Be Here Now. “Stand by Me” is a little too close to Morning Glory‘s “Don’t Look Back in Anger” for coincidence, and there is an overreliance on swollen “Hey Jude”-style finales in the ballads.

Which brings up the Beatles issue. Noel Gallagher’s love of the group is genuine. “Sing a song for me/One from Let It Be,” he writes in “Be Here Now” — a title cribbed from Lennon’s infamous quip to an interviewer who asked him about the deep, underlying philosophy of rock & roll. But Noel is starting to overplay his hand; dropping a line like “The fool on the hill and I feel fine” in the middle of “D’You Know What I Mean?” smacks of laziness more than fannish ardor.

Maybe if Oasis weren’t so ultra-mega-huge in England and smiled more onstage when they came here, it would be easier to accept them for what they are: a great pop band with a long memory. What will they, or their records, mean in 20 years’ time? Who cares? Be here now. History will take care of itself”.

I can understand why so many reviewers were glowing when Be Here Now came out. The year before, Oasis played two nights at Knebworth and were kings of the scene! It took a little for views to shift and people to reassess the value and reality of Be Here Now. When it was reissued in 2016, Drowned in Sound provided a more mixed reaction:

“It is, for sure, a less good album than Definitely Maybe and (What's the Story) Morning Glory, being in large part the sound of a band who'd made their name writing three-to-four-minute-long indie rock songs now trying to write seven-to-nine-minute-long indie rock songs, with indie-rock not being a genre especially supportive of that sort of length, especially from a group that were hardly virtuoso musicians. It also mostly lacks the aspirational rock'n'roll swagger that had defined their early work.

The obvious exception to both these rules was the awesome lead single 'D'You Know What I Mean?', on which the gargantuan running time was justified by the fantastically bombastic deployment of FX - morse code! Backwards vocals! - and lyrics that (insofar as they meant anything) seemed to exist as monument to the scale of the band's success ("all my people right here right now, d'you know what I mean?" - millions of people did). But it's the peak of the album by a long shot, and the generally accepted wisdom is that fame and its attendant drugs had buggered up songwriter Noel Gallagher’s muse.

Though they would continue for another 12 years, Be Here Now essentially broke Oasis. While Pulp and Blur ran away from their Britpop-era success, Oasis never stopped trying to appease the multitudes that had bought their first two records. Though they would continue to be a big band, they would effectively become a nostalgia act from this point on - at their last ever gig, 12 of the 19 songs played were from the first two records and accompanying b-sides.

Nowadays this all feels like a distant tale from another age, and it should be easier to listen to the record with something like objectivity. But the truth is that it's hard to imagine it being made by a band not in their weird, impossible position. 'D'You Know What I Mean?' opens it in bombastically brilliant fashion. 'All Around the World' closes it interminably, a Beatles-y plodder far far far too enamoured of its expensive, cokey orchestra. In between there are definite moments, but the preponderance of very long songs makes it a slog to this day. That all accepted, it’s not like Noel had totally lost it: if you liked the early stuff, there’s no real reason why you’d have a problem with ‘Stand By Me’, ‘Don’t Go Away’, ‘The Girl in the Dirty Shirt’ et al, they just lack the romance of the early stuff”.

I don’t mind about the retrospection and how Be Here Now might be a case of hype over quality. To me, it is an album that provided so much joy and strength when I was in high school. It was an album that bonded me to people. I was swept away in the rush of songs like Stand By Me. With no shortage of confidence Oasis were definitely making songs to be played on big stages that got crowds united and singing along. If Be Here Now is lacking substance and the brilliance of their first two albums, it is definitely not a disaster. It received plenty of love in 1997. Many people I know who bought the album back then still listen to it now. When I was fourteen, I certainly played it an awful lot. For that reason, I will always have respect…

FOR Be Here Now.