FEATURE: The Lockdown Playlist: Valentine’s Day: The Best Love Songs of 2021

FEATURE:

 

 

The Lockdown Playlist

PHOTO CREDIT: Jonathan Borba/Unsplash

Valentine’s Day: The Best Love Songs of 2021

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THIS Lockdown Playlist…

 PHOTO CREDIT: @jay_singh_4/Unsplash

is primed for Valentine’s Day on 14th February. Rather than compile a selection of the all-time great love songs, I thought that I would bring it up to date. There was a tonne of love songs released last year. I have assembled some of the very best. Although some prefer the vintage classics, there are a lot of current and varied love songs that should be heard. Whether they are slightly more downbeat and heartbroken or joyous ands positive, there is more than enough to choose from! Ahead of Valentine’s Day, here are a great collection of love songs from some terrific artists. If you need a reminder of some of the best love songs from 2021, then I have some…

 PHOTO CREDIT: @arunanoop/Unsplash

THAT will jog the memory.

FEATURE: Spotlight: English Teacher

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Spotlight

PHOTO CREDIT: Sara Carpentieri 

English Teacher

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A great and promising band out of Leeds…

I wanted to spend a little time with English Teacher. Whilst a lot of the hotly-tipped acts of this year are solo artists, there are some terrific bands who have the potential to be long-lasting and festival mainstays of the future. English Teacher have already been endorsed by none other than The Charlatans’ Tim Burgess. If he gives them his thumbs up, then that is a good indicator that you are in the right path! Whilst there is probably not as especially arresting or original story about how they came up with their name, the music itself is very compelling and different. I am going to scatter in a few interviews where we get to know better a fantastic northern band who are making big strides. I am going to jump back and forth a little in terms of the date of the interviews. I want to start with NME’s interview from November of last year. They were keen to boost and boast about a tremendous young band:

“Made up of Lily Fontaine (vocals, rhythm guitar, synth), Douglas Frost (drums), Nicholas Eden (bass) and Lewis Whiting (lead guitar, synth), English Teacher are no strangers to self-deprecation. Formed in 2020 after meeting at Leeds Conservatoire, their brand of indie is more kitchen sink drama than straight-to-the-chorus smash.

Having wasted no time post-lockdown, they’ve already racked up over 20 gigs supporting the likes of Do Nothing and TV Priest, conquered their first Reading & Leeds and created enough buzz around double-A-side ‘R&B’/‘Wallace’ to sign to Nice Swan, home of Sports Team, Courting and The Rills. It’s enough to swell any young band’s ego, but if you ask them why they think their music is resonating, Fontaine will give you an effacing answer.

“Honestly, I feel like a lot of places have been looking to spotlight bands that have got women in them, and women of colour in indie just isn’t really a thing,” she says. “I don’t want to put ourselves down, but I do think it’s helped, being visually different. Obviously I hope it’s something to do with our music too…”

English Teacher are not necessarily a band who would boast about themselves, so it’s a good job that NME are willing to do it for them. As exemplified on ‘R&B’, a brooding narrative that ricochets between sweetly-satirical compliance and open confrontation of the racialised expectations of a frontwoman of colour (“Despite appearances, I haven’t got the voice for R&B / Even though I’ve seen more Colors Shows than KEXPs”), this is a group that are willing to enter potentially awkward conversations while moving with a melodic speed that defies direct comparison. “Last night at a gig, this guy said we sounded like Pixies without sounding anything like Pixies,” says Douglas. “I don’t know what that means, but I’ll take it!”

There’s also their tireless work ethic. Deeply involved in the north Leeds scene, English Teacher exist within the same hotbed of creativity that has incubated smart-rock breakout bands such as Yard Act, Alt-J and Wild Beasts, feeding off a spirit of collaborative ideals. For Fontaine especially, keeping her diary straight is quite the task: English Teacher and her other band, Eades (in which she contributes keys and vocals), were both signed to labels in swift succession, creating a deluge of commitments. “As an incredibly disorganised human being, I’m not the best at it,’ she says, laughing. “But it’s nice to be doing what you’re passionate about so much of the time. It’s a good kind of stress!”

And what exactly is that band? Let’s throw modesty to the wall: what would Grade-A success look like to English Teacher?

“I think when [music] becomes something we can do all the time,” says Whiting. “The idea that you could possibly be lucky enough to have your whole job be music, that would be the dream.”

“That’s it,” chips in bassist Eden, quiet until this exact moment in our chat. “We want to sound lucrative!” It’s a pragmatic answer, but it’s one that perfectly suits their style: level-headed, cautiously confident and letting their music do the talking. You know how the old saying goes: it’s often the quiet ones you’ve got to watch out for…”.

In terms of the band’s best tracks, R&B definitely ranks up there with them. DORK chatted with Lily from the band early last year. Already gaining headway and steam, they recognised a group that were certainly worth keeping an eye out for:

“Leeds bunch English Teacher excel in the on-point sort-of-post-punk-but-not-really-and-definitely-more-enthusiastic controlled racket that has found their latest drop ‘R&B’ a place in Nice Swan Records’ singles club. Just one weapon in their vast musical armoury, it’s a fantastic start for the foursome – made up of Lily Fontaine (vocals, rhythm guitar, synth), Douglas Frost (drums, synth), Nicholas Eden (bass, synth), and Lewis Whiting (lead guitar, synth) – who can also be found at The Great Escape’s virtual bash next month. Lily introduces her band.

Hello Lily! How’s it going? What are you up to today?

Hi! It’s going unnaturally well – I am currently listening to my 2021 playlist and doing some writing in the sun with a coffee. If I squint my eyes and move my head real fast I can almost pretend I am sat on a continental balcony and not in our backyard in Headingley surrounded by broken glass and that drain smell.

How did you lot meet and decide to form the band, then? You were studying in Leeds, right?

I met our ex-guitarist in 2018 on a uni trip to Valencia (he’s currently on a grad-scheme training in property development because he likes buildings, but we’re working on his return). I put out a demo on Soundcloud, and then a local promoter asked if I wanted to play a gig, so I said yes and asked him if his band would help out. We haven’t given up since, for some reason.

You’ve not long dropped your single ‘R&B’, how did that go? Was it one you were sat on for a while?

R&B came together weirdly quickly for us; I’m pretty sure the whole thing was written, demoed and recorded with Theo in the same month. That was January, and it’s been a bit of an agonising wait for the release because it’s quite different from the singles we’ve already released; we weren’t sure how it would be received. But, some people have said some really nice things, so we’re all currently in a state of relief, with a hint of pride.

Where did that single come from? Do tracks find you, or do you have to find them?

Lyrics and themes usually find me, and then I have to go searching for the music. It’s simultaneously an ode to the worst writer’s block of my life so far, and what cured it. I wrote the bass riff on Logic’s piano scroll, and then Nick knocked it out of the park with his chorus melody. Doug had already decided on the bridge section’s drum part, and when Lewis and Nick started jamming their polyrhythms over it, it really started sounding like us”.

I shall include one more interview. There are other interviews and bits of information online that are well worth reading. Far Out Magazine spotlighted English Teacher back in December. It was another dose of praise and attention pointed at the excellent Leeds band:

“What’s the state of the current scene in Leeds and what other bands from the area should people listen to?

“With the Brudenell Social Club at its centre, the Leeds music scene is this crazy little petri dish of literally everything great. Small, semi-incestuous and forever multiplying. Some of the artists we’d recommend: Treeboy and Arc, Big Softy, Thank, Rodeo, Honey Guide, Fuzz Lightyear, Pop Vulture

Since forming in 2018, how much has the identity of English Teacher fluctuated?

“We were originally a dream-pop band so yeah, a fair bit of honing has happened. There have been a few lineup changes over the years so I guess with that, we have naturally progressed into what we are today.

Returning to playing live this summer must have been an even sweeter experience after the prolonged absence coupled with all the new songs you released during that period?

“It’s been intense but very fun. As a band, we’ve now shared many beds, megabuses and deodorants so it’s been an excellent bonding experience too. Will never get over seeing people sing our music back to us either, tempted to tell them to learn the words to better songs, to be honest”.

If you have not acquainted yourself with English Teacher, then go and check them out now and see what all the fuss is about. Although they have not yet confirmed if a debut album arrives this year, we definitely will hear more of them in terms of live gigs and singles. Revealing something new about themselves with each song, it is exciting to see them blossom and develop! The wonderful English Teacher are…

IN a class of their own.

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Follow English Teacher

FEATURE: Revisiting... Kate Nash - Yesterday Was Forever

FEATURE:

 

Revisiting...

Kate Nash - Yesterday Was Forever

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FOLLOWING the more Rock-orientated sound…

 PHOTO CREDIT: Jenn Five for DIY

of 2013’s Girl Talk, Kate Nash’s fourth studio album, Yesterday Was Forever, returned more to her Indie roots. That said, I feel the album is not easy to define in terms of a single sound. Also, it was very underrated when it came out. Some felt that there were not many standout songs, whilst others were quicker to praise a great album from Nash. Released on 30th March, 2018, I wanted to revisit an album that one does not hear played too much now. It is well worth digging out and listening to! I am going to get to a couple of the more positive reviews that, in my view, showcase some of Nash’s best work. She has talked about new music and, after a couple of singles last year, we may see a fifth studio album quite soon. DIY spoke with Nash in March 2018 ahead of the release of Yesterday Was Forever:

“It’s this simultaneous sense of emotional vulnerability and righteous empowerment that runs through both Kate’s general speech and the high-octane technicolour gut-punch of her new album. An infectious burst of everything at once, you sense that if the singing and the acting all somehow went to pot, she could carve out a pretty good line in motivational speaking. “I think I’m strong and stubborn and I’m really silly and I like to laugh a lot and I like to dance and I’m very emotional and very melancholy and I can take things way too seriously, but then I can also just laugh through everything anyway,” she muses, trying to dissect her own particular personal blend. “It’s like I’m an old woman who’s looking back on her life out of a window and it’s raining outside, but I’m also a child all dressed up in mismatched colours who’s cut her own fringe and eaten loads of sweets,” she decides. “Those are my two personalities I think.”

 PHOTO CREDIT: Jenn Five for DIY

All these myriad elements seep their way into ‘Yesterday Was Forever’ – from the formative questioning of opener ‘Life In Pink’ (“Am I a person yet?”) to the heart-flip passion of ‘Body Heat’, ‘Hate You’’s middle finger up or the blissed-out sweetness of ‘My Little Alien’. Musically, it encompasses everything from the poppier storytelling of old to the riot grrl vocals of 2013’s ‘Girl Talk’. “It feels like all of my sounds together; it seems to have slotted into one shape somehow. It’s like the Megatron or something,” she laughs. And with a vague emotional narrative (flushed romantic beginnings lead to shitty heartache and then redemptive reclamation), it’s an album that encourages the same self-belief as its author. “There’s been a storyline in my life that’s been going on for the past few years and I feel like it came to a head last summer. I think letting go is really important because I’m a fucking crab, a Cancer baby, moon child and I was just like, ‘No! Don’t leave!’ But you’ve got to let go,” she nods. “It’s putting yourself first and understanding that if you see a vision of your future that’s positive and something that you want, then you actually have to make that happen.”

Undeniably, Kate is someone who practices what she preaches. When it came to recording ‘Yesterday Was Forever’, the singer put herself on the line and raised the money via Kickstarter – an industry-swerving tactic placing her back in the hands of the fans, like her early days. Now, she’s also carving out a second string to her bow as Rhonda Richardson in GLOW: a liberating new career path that’s giving her life in all sorts of ways. “As a girl you’re always being told to take up a small amount of space and cross your legs and not touch your vagina and be quiet. But in wrestling it’s like, everything you’ve been told that you’re not supposed to do your whole life, this is the opposite of that,” she says. “Now is the time to be big, take up space, use your strength, use your power. It’s amazing what you can do with your human self and that’s what everybody needs to be taught: that just being yourself is fucking great and you can do so much with that”.

At fourteen tracks, maybe Yesterday Was Forever is a smidge too long. That is the only criticism I can levy at the album. Beginning with the tremendous Life in Pink, there is a lot to love through the album. The Line of Best Fit notes how Nash’s sound has changed through the years:

“On her debut, Made of Bricks, she delivered an album of clever, wordy indie pop; on her second, My Best Friend is You, the tunes were slicker but the lyrics seemed to lack the cerebral tone of the first record, and on her most recent, Girl Talk, she abandoned any notions of finesse or polish and went straight for the jugular with anxious, ra,w garage-y Rawk.

However, last year Nash emerged from the cocoon with the EP Agenda, which seemed to be the culmination of all of her personae. It was rough-edged, sharp pop, with a saccharine sweetness, all delivered with a knowing wink. It sounded like she’d made a breakthrough – as though this was, finally, truly, her.

For this record, Nash draws on a mixture of 90s alt. riffs, fuck-you attitude and brash, surprisingly poetic lyrics. It’s closer to Alanis Morisette than Adele; and there are hints of PJ Harvey’s ragged confessionals and Liz Phair’s playful ditties.

Album standout “Call Me” cleverly segues from a rubbery reggae beat into a glorious chorus. “Take Away” features a sharp, angular New Wave guitar line that hints at The Cars’ driving melodicism and The Strokes’ chiming indie rock.

“Drink About You” has some hard-hitting self-analysis – the exact kind you’re faced with after a night of drunken reminiscing. It has a rapid, clench-jaw punk tempo that Nash tempers with sweet, syrupy vocals. The riff hits hard, but she makes her voice the ointment for the bruise.

“Karaoke Kiss” veers uncomfortably close to Taylor Swift’s “Style” but manages to just pull it off, while the roaring guitar of “Twisted Up” evokes the Pixies in their mid-era prime (or Wolf Alice, if you’re after modern reference points)”.

Before signing off, there is another review that I want to highlight. DIY noted how it was a little tragic that Nash had to crowdfund Yesterday Was Forever. One would think that an artist of such calibre would have labels bidding for her music! In any case, what we get on her fourth album is brilliant. DIY noted how Nash’s lyrics especially stood out:

“It’s a sad fact of the music industry that Kate Nash – all-round bright spark, actor, and the genius behind the undisputed greatest pop song of 2007, ‘Foundations’ – needed a Kickstarter campaign to fund her fourth album. But it’s also a sign of the unrelenting hard work and ‘go get ‘em’ attitude that she holds. ‘Yesterday Was Forever’ comes eleven years in for Kate, but it’s an album as courageous and fun as any debut.

The fourteen tracks here are pleasingly pop-led, but that doesn’t make them samey. Guitar-driven ‘Life in Pink’ is brazen, ‘Call Me’ holds a catchy backbeat which burgeons into a full-on singalong chorus, and ‘My Little Alien’ is a smooth ditty which looks far beyond planet Earth.

There’s something in Kate’s rhyming couplets – the ingenuity of which is comparable only to King of Sombre Couplets, Sufjan Stevens – that sets off her lyrics. Her rhymes feel so easy, but their meanings remain stark and honest. “Well I wish that I could take you to another time, where everything was cool and my mental health was fine,” she sings on ‘Life in Pink,’ managing whimsy and punch-in-the-face frankness all at once. Standout ‘Body Heat’ is a straight-faced love song about someone who makes “my dopamine levels go crazy.” “Baby you can steal my sheets / I can live off your body heat,” she sings, a sugary-sweet romance sung with sincerity.

For all the trials and tribulations of relationships, its Kate’s insistence on making it as a musician that has stuck around. “Music is the only one / Music is by my side / Music will never leave / To the music I’ll die,” she sings on piano-led ballad ‘To the Music I Belong.’ Songs about how much a singer loves singing can be, well, trite at the very least. But the startling openness with which Kate writes is nothing but warming”.

I would recommend people listen to Kate Nash’s Yesterday Was Forever. Stronger than many reviewers gave it credit for, it is an album that should be played and explored more now. It has some great cuts that people definitely need to hear. I am sure we will hear more from Nash very soon. The London-born artist always delivers something interesting through her music. Yesterday Was Forever is an album that I was eager…

TO revisit.

FEATURE: Emotional Thing: Shakespears Sister’s Hormonally Yours at Thirty

FEATURE:

 

 

Emotional Thing

Shakespears Sister’s Hormonally Yours at Thirty

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THERE is something bittersweet…

celebrating thirty years of Shakespears Sister’s Hormonally Yours thirty years on. On 17th February, it marks a big anniversary (I would recommend you pre-order the great reissues coming out on 17th February). This was the second and final album from the group to present them as a duo of Siobhan Fahey and Marcella Detroit. The title of Hormonally Yours derived from both members being pregnant while making the album. It is one of the best albums from the 1990s in my view. Hormonally Yours spawned five singles. Among them is the huge chart-topper, Stay. I have written about the album before and how it is underrated. I think a lot of fans will mark thirty years of a terrific album. I am going to source a couple of positive reviews for an album that boasts some superb deep cuts. I love the vocal blend of Fahey and Detroit. With a deeper husk from Fahey and a more operatic tone from Detroit, they weave so beautifully together. I cannot think of another duo like them in terms of the dynamic. What I remember most about the album and the videos is the gothic look. Dramatic and almost ghostly at times, there was something special about their look. Whilst a lot of the biggest songs are in the top half of Hormonally Yours, they do end with the single, Hello (Turn Your Radio On). Produced by Shakespears Sister, Alan Moulder and Chris Thomas, Hormonally Yours reached number three in the U.K.

I was seven when the album came out. I can recall the video for Stay being played a lot. My favourite song off the album, I Don’t Care. I shall concentrate on Stay in a bit, as the single turned thirty back on 13th January. This Wikipedia page looks at the reception to I Don’t Care:

“Tom Demalon from AllMusic described the song as "bouncy and resilient". Larry Flick from Billboard wrote that a "lively, guitar-anchored ditty is fueled by finger-poppin' rhythms and shaking tambourines." He added further that the duo's "unconventional vocal style charms, as do light, retro horn fills at the close. An adventurous pop delight with strong multiformat appeal.". Randy Clark from Cashbox called it an "upbeat, slightly quirky pop cut, with an almost '60s-ish jangle to it, featuring the dual vocals of the performance artists". The Daily Vault's Michael R. Smith noted Detroit's "ear-piercing wail" at the beginning of "I Don't Care”.

The video, ironically, sort of shows some of the tension that would have been present between Fahey and Detroit at the time. Whilst it is heightened, I wonder whether director Sophie Muller was alluding to that at all. It is a superb video and song. Now that the duo is back together and reconciled, I feel more comfortable discussing a time that was quite tense and fragmented. Not to go into the split, but it was rather unceremonious the way Detroit was informed she was not going to be part of the duo anymore (Fahey continued as a solo artist under the Shakespears Sister moniker).

Before getting to some reviews, it is worth spending time with the song most people associate with the album and the duo. Stay is a mega-hit that is dramatic, beautiful and unforgettable. In most songs, Fahey would take the lead and Detroit would do more of the backing. In this track, Detroit takes the lead; Fahey comes in at a point to provide a stirring drama and darkness in the song. On its twenty-ninth anniversary last year (13th January), Siobhan Fahey and Marcella Detroit spoke about the inspiration behind the song:

“There was a time in the early 1990s when Shakespears Sister truly enjoyed a moment in the sun (or perhaps moon). The duo of Siobhan Fahey and Marcella Detroit brought together influences as divergent as reggae, pop, punk and soul to create their own unique sound. That musical alchemy clearly worked and their second album, 1992’s Hormonally Yours went on to spend 55 weeks on the charts, gaining Double Platinum status along the way.

Much of that success was down to the single Stay, a gothic pop masterpiece which haunted the music world for many months. Helped in no small part by an appropriately eerie video, directed by Sophie Muller, the song perfectly showcased the contrast between Fahey and Detroit, as well as highlighting the latter’s distinctive vocals.

So it’s over to the reformed bandmates to reveal all…

“Siobhan Fahey: “We’d written about half a dozen songs for the album which went on to become Hormonally Yours. I would go over every morning to Marcy’s and work in her demo studio.

“Dave [Stewart] had this idea that we needed to write a song that highlighted Marcy’s great voice and said he had an idea. I hadn’t heard his idea until he sat down…”

Marcella Detroit: “…Right, he came over at 09:30 in the morning one day and my husband came to wake me up, I’m a late riser. ‘Hey, Siobhan and Dave are here, get up, Dave’s got an idea for a song.’ I got the coffee and we all went to my little studio and he started to play this idea… a really beautiful idea.

“When we started the album it was a concept album. We were going to try and write about this film that we wanted to purchase the rights to called Cat-Women Of The Moon.”

SF: “It was a 3D B-movie from the 50s that was going cheap. We thought if we buy it we can write some new scenes and shoot them and put ourselves in and it would be a video album but it was a bridge too far for London Records. So the film idea didn’t come to pass but it did inspire many of the songs. The moon imagery and that extraterrestrial vibe.”

MD: “Stay… each of us had different characters that we identified with in the movie and then in this one scene my character was falling in love with an earthling and he was telling her that he had to leave and go back to earth, so that’s what that song was inspired by.”

SF: “Dave had the chords and the melody…”

MD: “…He had the first verse, he started playing it and singing and we got to the chorus where he had these chords and I just started singing, ‘Stay with me.’ It just happened, a little moment of magic.”

SF: “And then I started scribbling some lyrics and it was pretty quick.”

MD: “Yeah, then you came up with the rest of the lyrics and that was it. We then demoed it at my little home studio.”

SF: “Yeah the final recording is pretty faithful to the original demo, even the funny keyboard sound is on the demo.”

MD: “That was all on the demo, our background vocals and also my lead vocal. I did that at my home studio. That is the difference between technology now and then. Back then, I would send the tape reel over and they couldn’t quite get it to sync up. There was a problem with syncing it up, near the end it just started to go off. So Chris Thomas who was producing it had a little bit of a hard time but they finally got it to work properly. Then everything else was recorded properly, Siobhan’s vocal and any other things that needed to be added. We did the recording in a few different places.

“We did some stuff with Steve Ferrera and this bass player Ian [Maidman] who was so good. We actually put that down at George Harrison’s studio in Friar Park where we initially started the recording.”

SF: “In fact, we recorded most of the album at Friar Park, which was very auspicious. So so generous of George and his wife and son to have us there for a month and lend us his studio.

“I seem to recall that, at the time that we demoed it, Dave was making an album with Chris Thomas. Chris Thomas was producing his album so he was round the house when we brought the cassette home and freaked out and went, ‘That’s a No 1 record, I’ll produce it if you want.’

“It has got a classic melody. For us though it was just another song for the album that we were writing.”

MD: “And then very unusual, conflicting lyrics. It starts out all sweet, the subject is about this unrequited love and then it gets a little bit nasty. There was a great dichotomy between Siobhan and my characters”.

In fact, timed nicely to this piece that went live today (6th February) saw a feature in The Guardian where Marcella Detroit and Siobhan Fahey discussed making Stay:

“Marcella Detroit, singer/songwriter

Stay came to life one morning in my converted garage in the back of my house in LA: a very unassuming studio, all knotty pine and carpet, my recording equipment in a cupboard. Siobhan Fahey lived down the road and her then-husband Dave Stewart [ex-Eurythmics] had given her a lift over, then he came in, because he had an idea.

The idea came from these amazing parties Dave and Siobhan used to have. You would not believe the crew that would show up – Tom Petty, George Harrison, Jeff Lynne from ELO, Timothy Leary. Eventually, we would all start singing and jamming, and I would always end up doing ballads. Dave said: “You know how you always sing those ballads at our parties? Wouldn’t it be great to style a song like that to feature you?” And he had an idea for chords and a melody.

Stay was rewritten maybe four times – it sounded like a Prince song at one point – before Siobhan and I went back to the original, developed it, and made a cassette of it. We played it to Chris Thomas, the producer of Roxy Music and the Sex Pistols, who was staying at Dave and Siobhan’s. We weren’t expecting anything, but I remember the room was completely silent: everyone was listening really intently. After it stopped, Chris stood up, and he went: “No 1 smash!” And we were like: “Yeah? Really?”

Later, when the final mix wasn’t working, we asked Chris to help. He rescued that song and made it sound incredible. Jennifer Maidman, from Penguin Cafe Orchestra, came up with the great synthesiser parts for the chorus, and Steve Ferrera, the drummer, also did great things.

It entered the charts at No 27. Then we played Top of the Pops and it kept steadily going up. When it got to No 1 and stayed there for eight weeks, it was really unexpected. But it was incredible that that could happen. I think it’s still one of the longest-running No 1s by a female band.

PHOTO CREDIT: Gie Knaeps/Getty

Siobhan Fahey

For our second album, Hormonally Yours, we’d had this lofty idea to acquire the rights to Cat-Women of the Moon, a fabulously kitsch 3D B-movie from 1953, and build songs around its narrative. The record company said no – they’re not known for their creative thinking are record companies – but we’d written half a dozen songs already, so carried on.

If I remember rightly – 30 years is a long time – the idea for Stay’s lyric came from a woman in the film who had to go back to her planet and leave her human love behind. I was worried about it being too saccharine, but alongside Chris Thomas we had Alan Moulder. He’d recently worked with My Bloody Valentine and the Jesus and Mary Chain, who I loved. At that point, we were the only “pop” band Alan had ever worked with – and he went on to work with Marilyn Manson and Nine Inch Nails. It meant there was nothing sugary about the production.

Sophie Muller , who was my best friend at the time, made the video. We were muses to each other. I’d been getting into gothic ringlets and sparkly glam-rock catsuits, enjoying becoming an unhinged Victorian heroine meets Suzi Quatro meets Labelle! Now that look was combined with me becoming the angel of death in the video, in dark makeup coming down the stairs from another dimension, trying to steal Marcella’s human love away from her – the video had a slightly different concept to the song.

We only had a day for the shoot. Most of it involved recording Marcy singing, so by the evening I was getting bored – but also the clock was ticking. At 8pm, I hit the vodka and by the time we filmed, I was, shall we say, in high spirits, in full deranged splendour. Performing as a darker character is always more fun than being peaches and cream.

I loved coming down the staircase, which was inspired by one of my favourite films, Powell and Pressburger’s A Matter of Life and Death. That character seemed to register with lots of people, which was amazing – there were lots of ludicrous takes on it [by French and Saunders as well as David Baddiel and Rob Newman]. I found that funny and the greatest compliment. Funnier still is how people expect me to be just like the angel of death in real life, 30 years on. They’re bitterly disappointed when I’m not”.

I hope that a lot of love is aimed the way of Hormonally Yours on its thirtieth anniversary on 17th February. Their debut, 1989’s Sacred Heart, is well worth hearing, but I think that Hormonally Yours is the best album from Shakespears Sister. Before wrapping up, I want to bring in one review. Entertainment Weekly gave Hormonally Yours a positive review. Even though they note a few songs are over-long, they have highlight the way their voices are different, yet they blend well:

“Most women really hate being accused of hormonally induced moodiness whenever they feel a little crabby, but the two women who make up Shakespear’s Sister clearly have no such qualms. In fact, their second album, Hormonally Yours, plays on the idea of female biological madness, and to its credit, it does so without sounding bitchy or melodramatic. Unlike band member Siobhan Fahey’s former group, Bananarama, Shakespear’s Sis isn’t afraid to emote: The cool detachment of yesteryear has been replaced by a warmer and more emotionally complicated sound. Fahey’s deep, uncannily male-sounding voice is perfectly complemented by her American-born partner, Marcella Detroit, who adds more soulful and feminine R&B-influenced backup vocals. Mostly, the combine sounds great-but several songs (notably ”Emotional Thing” and ”Let Me Entertain You”) go on way too long. Shakespear’s Sister isn’t going to start a turf war with Natalie Cole or Anita Baker, but taken on its own terms — as an original purveyor of lightweight, white-girl blues — this pair is excellent. B+”.

An incredible album that turns thirty on 17th February, I hope Marcella Detroit and Siobhan Fahey recall good memories of that time – even though there were tensions and Detroit departed the duo in 1993. The duo released a 2019 E.P., Ride Again, so we may get another album from them soon enough. Crammed with so many terrific songs from an incredible duo, Hormonally Yours is a…

SENSATIONAL and hugely listenable album.

FEATURE: Spotlight: Anz

FEATURE:

 

 

Spotlight

Anz

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A wonderful D.J., artist and producer…

 PHOTO CREDIT: Terna Jogo

I wanted to include the wonderful Anz in this Spotlight feature. An epic talent that NME have tipped for greatness this year, I will end with a  review of her magnificent recent E.P., All Hours. It is a sensational release that everyone should play! I am going to quote some interviews, so that we can discover more about an amazing human. I will start with some biography from Ninja Tune:

“Anz is a DJ and Producer based in Manchester, renowned for her genre-spanning productions and mixes. Across her work, she unearths the links between Electro, UK Garage, Jungle and more, underpinning a versatile take on contemporary UK club music as bright as it is unpredictable.

In the summer of 2017, Anz’ self-titled debut EP was championed by fellow UK club figures for its playful high energy sound. Distinguished by her unique style and an unparalleled danceability, she refined the formula for her second EP ‘Invitation 2 Dance’ (2019).

Alongside compilation contributions for Discwoman and remixes for Houndstooth and XL Recordings, in 2020 Anz joined UK club stalwarts Hessle Audio for her third full EP. Three tracks of dark hoovers, wiggling basslines and sharp vocal cuts, ‘Loos In Twos (NRG)’ was a ruffneck ode to the club, working its way into countless DJ sets and end of year lists.

Since then, Anz has been busier than ever. A salvo of standout mixes and her acclaimed NTS Radio residency saw Anz scoop DJ Mag's 2020 ‘Breakthrough DJ’ award, and an invitation to join BBC Radio 1’s Dance Residency line-up in March 2021 soon followed. Taking on monthly shows with two of the UK’s most respected broadcasters, Anz has cemented her position as one of the UK’s most exciting young selectors.

But, as a producer, nowhere is Anz’ prolific workrate better demonstrated than her annual ‘dubs’ mixes. Now in its 6th year, each edition is comprised entirely of original productions running the gamut of UK and international styles - always mixed with her trademark laser-focus and tempo-warping trickery.

After self-releasing the fifth edition of S/S Dubs in a deluxe cassette bundle in December 2020, Anz unveiled her label OTMI in early 2021; a home for her as-yet-unreleased tracks and stylistic counterparts from friends and family across the electronic music spectrum. With the physical release selling out in a day, and lead single ‘Unravel in the Designated Zone’ championed by Danny Howard and Resident Advisor alike, Anz spoke to Crack Magazine about the nascent label and her masterplan in her June 2021 cover feature debut.

Showing no signs of slowing down, Anz joins the Ninja Tune family with the announce of her 4th EP ‘All Hours’. Due for release this Autumn, the record is a full-throttle trip through the history of dance music and underground culture – tracing lines through sun drenched electro into club-focused breakbeat, classic UK garage and jungle - all seamlessly pieced together in Anz’ infectiously joyous style.

From her dubs mixes to her award winning NTS show, guestmixes for Mary-Anne Hobbs to her recent Radio 1 Dance residency, her OTMI imprint to the forthcoming ‘All Hours’ EP, Anz mashes down disparate styles with mystifying ease. Expect nods to seminal scenes and plenty of vibes”.

Heading back to 2019, and THE FACE profiled a rising talent who was already a club legend. Anz’s story and progress is fascinating and interesting. It seems like, even by 2019, she had found her place and groove:

“Anyone who’s crossed paths with Anz knows all about her passion for the club. The London-born, Manchester-based artist spends her weekends shelling in venues across the UK, and you can hear her blend bass, UK funky, breakbeats, ghetto tech and electro selections once a month on her NTS Manchester show. Anz recently dropped the playful, high-octane EP Invitation 2 Dance – dedicated to ​“the boys who used to muscle me off the decks at house parties” alongside a long list of friends, family and fellow northern nightlife legends.

How did you first develop a passion for raving?

I first went clubbing around 16, sneaking into clubs in East London with my doctored 16 – 25 railcard as ID – I switched the numbers on Microsoft paint, ​‘laminated’ it with clear tape and hoped for the best. But I think university is where I really honed in on the craft of raving. In and around Liverpool, I vividly remember clattering downstairs into the unknown with my partner-in-crime Jess (while I’m here, hold tight Jess). We mainly cut our teeth in warehouses around Liverpool’s Baltic Triangle, before they had been done up all nice with gin menus or whatever.

What’s special about Manchester’s club scene?

Entirely different scenes converge to support each other’s hustle. You get hip-hop and soul heads posting about the latest jungle releases from the city or people from ambient labels front and centre at a hard techno night. There isn’t that tangible sense of competition – I guess everyone is just working to make this thing happen. I think the geography of the city also helps; people might be less inclined to roll to each other’s nights or radio shows if it was a 3.5 hour night-tube round trip.

Other than London and Manchester, where’s your favourite place to go out in the UK and why?

I think Leeds and Sheffield are the ones at the moment. Leeds feels so exciting, the city has a wealth of small DIY spots and people who are passionate about building sound systems, pushing music forward and having a wicked time. Sheffield is similar, but with more hills and greenery. Lovely”.

PHOTO CREDIT: Paula Abu 

I have loved learning about Anz and reading about her sheer passion and drive. Mix Mag interviewed her in 2020. This was near the start of the pandemic. For someone who is use to playing at clubs and around people, it must have been heartaching and stressful for Anz to have her plans and normal routine disrupted a lot:

“What would your dream scenario for the first proper party post-COVID be?

First and foremost, there’s a COVID vaccine in place. Then, I think probably just somewhere familiar like The White Hotel or Soup Kitchen in Manchester with loads of familiar faces. No particular line-up or specific genre or anything, just friends and family back together again.

You shared a helpful Twitter thread of tips about your production process. What do you think is the most valuable recommendation you have to help producers facing writer's block?

I'd say there's two. The most important one is that there's no sense in forcing it, and understanding that resting and taking the time away is ok. I've been in situations where I've really tried to push through a block to the point where I'm getting more and more frustrated and then that makes me even more blocked. Especially now that there's reduced pressure with no clubs and no feeling that you need to have the hottest banger to play at X night or Y event, you can try and use that reduced pressure to take time, do nothing, absorb life. Because I feel like once you've absorbed all your surroundings and taken time to just be, it makes it a lot easier coming back to music.

 The second one is trying to make something bad, which I mentioned in the thread. It's probably the most surprising experiment that I've ever tried. I don't know what happens but something kicks in in your brain when you're trying to make something bad that starts injecting it with bits of you and your style or personality. It's weird, but it seems to work.

A lot of the tracks were used in your fifth annual production mix which came out recently and absolutely bangs. Can you share any further plans you’ve got coming up for them - are there releases on the way?

I've got a really big, exciting release later in the year at some point. The masters just came back last week. I probably can't say what it is yet because I don't want to jinx it even though I know it's happening. But it's absolutely mad to me.

How’s lockdown in Manchester been?

It's been interesting. I live in the city centre and for the beginning it was sort of a ghost town, it was really strange to see all these hubs of activity completely dead, which I'm sure everyone has been noticing when going for their sanctioned exercise. I get the sense that I'll maybe never see the city like it again in my lifetime which is quite a heavy feeling.

With making the 74 odd tunes, I haven't really spent that much time outside anyway so I probably couldn't tell you much more. The inside of my flat has been cool”.

Last year, Resident Advisor were excited to speak with an artist who was breaking through. I love D.J.s and producers who are more used to having their music played and heard in clubs rather than the radio. That said, Anz’s music is perfectly fit and ripe for international airplay, as it is so energised and inspiring:

“In her family home, where boogie and funk chimed effortlessly with Afrobeat and Ghanian highlife, Anz was drawn to four-part harmony bands and lush basslines—think Dynasty and Earth, Wind & Fire. Her parents carried the familiar sounds of their Nigerian youth over to the UK, bringing a sense of home to their new surroundings. After a series of moves, the family settled outside of London, where things felt a little less like home.

"I didn't really clock on to exactly why I felt uncomfortable and why my parents really encouraged us to make friends with other black kids in the school," she said. "At the time it felt kind of corny, but I don't think I really got the weight of it and why they really encouraged it so much." It was in the quiet moments on the house computer, watching performances by the likes of The Prodigy, that Anz began imagining a new world of sound. By 2015 she was ready to share.

"I didn't really see production mixes all that often from my peers," she said, "and there were moments where I thought 'is this weird? Am I being extra?' But I just felt so compelled to document it all, including the wonky mixdowns and patchy blending. I just needed to try, and to document it, and it's ended up being a really affirming part of my process, for lots of different reasons."

PHOTO CREDIT: Jungle Joe 

Although Anz has always been prolific, the first UK lockdown precipitated an especially intense period. It's clear from our conversation that music has a certain grounding quality. "Whenever I'm feeling sad or upset, there's two ways it will go," she said. "I either completely disconnect, do something that brings me comfort without any kind of expectation, or I start a project. There's no real in-between. It's overdrive or absolutely nothing."

She takes a similar approach to DJing, bringing a few tracks to frame the evening and leaving the rest up to the crowd. "I try to put myself in their shoes, because I've been in their shoes so often," she said. "If I've just had a super-melodic, airy fairy tune, I'd probably want a little bit of pressure, something a little bit tougher. It's a conversation—people tell you if they don't like something, especially if they're moving to the smoking area."

There have been a number of international or high-profile gigs—Lady Gaga booked her for a Marsha P. Johnson Institute online fundraiser in June—but for Anz there's nothing like playing to a home crowd. She likens away-sets to delicate trust-building exercises, whereas in Manchester she's free to roam and hone in on sounds. "At home they understand the broader me, have heard me play in the same basement however many times," she said.

"I don't feel I need to be like, 'Oh, and by the way this and this and this is how we get to here.' They already know that, so I can go as mad, moody, dark or as ecstatic as I want to. They trust me with it." And what about her parents? What do they make of her musical evolution, and the decision to stay up north? "I played a gig for Gal-Dem at the Tate once and they came for that. I think it all kind of made sense—it wasn't a sweaty rave." She leaned into the camera and looked away, pensive. "Maybe I'm trying to do what they were doing at the time, find that comfort in home”.

Prior to the wrap-up and getting to a great review of All Hours, there is a more recent interview that I want to include. The Guardian featured Anz in October last year. As the pandemic is dying down a bit, I know that Anz will have a busy 2022 planned:

“This narrative arc is the inspiration for her new EP All Hours. Bookended by a bright piano intro signifying the waking morning, and a dreamlike synth outro designed to sooth you into sleep as the sun comes up and strangers have passed out on your sofa, each track corresponds to a time of day so listeners can “choose their own adventure” through 24 hours.

Lead single You Could Be is a bubbly, sunburst number with vocals from London singer George Riley, meant to reflect an optimistic afternoon feeling. Anz’s music often features vocal snips and samples, she considers them instruments that make the track feel human, but she wanted to find a proper singer for You Could Be, which meant a five-year search before she connected with Riley over Instagram.

Other tracks include a swinging garage cut meant for the evening, an electro/drum track for the dancefloor and a heady, proto-breakbeat and jungle tune for those early hours, lights-on moments. Each track contains a little sonic element of the track before it as well as the one after it; Anz not only connects parts of the day, but shows how dance music history is sewn together too. It’s masterly stuff, demonstrating the 29-year-old’s far-reaching knowledge.

 “As I was building the record, I realised it could be about who I am as a producer, what’s gone into me to create the output,” she says. The record channels various UK electronic styles – rave, breaks, garage – and black music more generally, influenced by the vitality of The New Dance Show, a Soul Train-style dance music TV show that aired in Detroit in the late 80s and early 90s. Today’s dance scenes are rooted in black creativity – a fact often underplayed, now being reclaimed. “It’s music for all hours, and music that’s all ours too – all ravers, but also, for black people. I don’t just mean one set of people, I mean all of us.”

Before this release, Anz’s discography consisted of a few club-ready 12” singles, colourful and propulsive, unconstrained by genre: “I maintain this stuff should be fun. I think discourse merchants get caught up in being purist about genre. Is that fun? No!” The same vision is present in her DJing. “There’s a specific kind of fun that comes with mixing up genres,” she continues. “Music deserves respect, but it doesn’t mean that it needs to be this chore, this fight where we’re warring over the semantics of it rather than appreciating it. This is black electronic music and it doesn’t have to be serious, it can be joyous.”

Residencies for BBC Radio 1 and NTS and her own recently started label OTMI aside, she’s renowned for her annual mixes of her own productions: forthcoming singles, sketches and exclusive tracks blended together into the most potent potion of tomorrow’s new sounds. “I hadn’t really seen other people doing it, and I thought: ‘Am I being extra?’ But this feels like a special thing that I can do … It reminds me of the excitement and wonder I felt when first trying to make music.”

All these efforts have built up into a sudden surge in profile. “The strangest thing was coming back after the pandemic and stepping out in front of a crowd – suddenly it’s not a 200-capacity basement any more, it’s thousands of people staring at you.” Now planning or performing several sets over a weekend while trying to keep her material constantly fresh, she’s busy adjusting to the new balance.

Taking inspiration from the EP concept, Anz considers her dream day: “Every perfect day starts with a lie-in, no alarms, just sunlight. No one texting, calling or emailing me. Garage in the evening. A party with me and my friends playing, no pressure on anyone. A good afters, and the next day in the park. It’s like when I went to uni and first realised I wouldn’t get in trouble if I didn’t go in, and literally watched Ferris Bueller’s Day Off instead.” Ferris would be proud, but with the packed new schedule, her perfect day might prove elusive”.

All Hours is an E.P. that should be played loud. It is so colourful and full of memorable and interesting textures. There have been some very positive reviews for one of last year’s best releases. Pitchfork noted the following when they sat down to experience All Hours:

“The nightlife concept behind All Hours is explicit but not overbearing. Anz calls the EP “dance music for people who are up all hours,” and the record’s opening and closing tracks—“Decisions (AM Intro)” and “Quest Select (AM Outro)”—reflect their positioning in the theoretical small hours. The EP’s six songs surge and relax as the record traces the course of 24 hours in clubland, building from the contemplative welcome of “Decisions (AM Intro)” to the brutalist rave frenzy of “Last Before Lights,” and finally mellowing off into the nervous energy of “Quest Select,” a song that suggests tired, twitching feet and brain waves hovering between retreat and attack.

Within this loose framework Anz offers a freewheeling—and very entertaining—callback to the club styles of the last four decades. The giddy “You Could Be,” featuring George Riley, takes the listener back to the early days of Madonna’s career, when she was riding high on the New York electro-funk style of Jellybean Benitez; “Real Enough to Feel Good” nods to G-funk, UK garage, and Baltimore club, while “Inna Circle'' splits the difference by introducing Mantronix-style electro to Baltimore breakbeats. “Last Before Lights,” meanwhile, is a tribute to pretty much everything, throwing Beltram hoover sounds, staccato trance riffs, a chest-bursting bassline, and rousing Italo pianos at a track intended to capture that last, glorious surge of energy before the club lights come on.

While this genre pick ’n’ mix is not exactly standard practice for electronic producers, All Hours is notably less experimental than Anz’ 2020 EP for Hessle Audio, Loos In Twos (NRG). With the possible exception of “Real Enough to Feel Good,” the music on All Hours walks with a straight back and winning smile quite different from that EP’s wobbly strut. The production is bright and welcoming, like an unexpectedly friendly pat-down from security.

More importantly, All Hours brings to the forefront a melodic tendency that Anz has only hinted at in her previous work. The piano intro to “Decisions (AM Intro)” teases the kind of ambiguous emotional journey you might expect of a particularly winsome movie soundtrack, while “You Could Be” is simply a wonderful pop song, shining with romantic sass. The way that the EP’s six songs flow into each other, with sonic elements artfully bridging the divide between tracks, evokes a well-crafted DJ set. The twisting synth riff that connects “Decisions (AM Intro)” and “You Could Be” brings a smile to my face every time, a perfect sleight of hand that never seems to tire.

Like the very best nights out, this EP is simultaneously fleeting and impactful, a brief moment of joy that promises to resonate for years. All Hours feels like an effortless step up to the major leagues for a producer who can find magic in the murkiest nightclub corner”.

A simply remarkable D.J., artist and all-round wonder-talent, go and check out Anz’s socials, and check out her incredible music. She is someone who, one hopes, will be at many festivals through the summer. I love what she is doing – as do so many other people. She has a very long career ahead. Go and throw your support towards…

THE tremendous Anz.

_____________

Follow Anz

FEATURE: Paul McCartney at Eighty: Six: 6th July, 1957: When Paul Met John

FEATURE:

 

 

Paul McCartney at Eighty

IN THIS PHOTO: John Lennon as part of The Quarrymen at a garden fete at St Peter’s Church, Woolton, Liverpool  on 6th July, 1957

Six: 6th July, 1957: When Paul Met John

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THERE are two big anniversaries/birthdays…

 IN THIS PHOTO: Paul McCartney in November 2021

this year relating to Paul McCartney. For one, he turns eighty on 18th June. As I have said, I am doing a series of features ahead of his birthday to celebrate his music and overall genius. There will be a fair few concerning with The Beatles. I thought, as it is sort of the start of the story, I would write about the time Paul McCartney met John Lennon. That discovery occurred in 1957 – this year, we mark sixty-five years of that historic event! It is hard to understate the significance of the meeting between McCartney and Lennon. Maybe they would have come across one another eventually, though there seems something romantic and fated about 6th July, 1957. Whilst there is a little debate whether the first conversation and meeting occurred at a fete or a local chip shop, we do know it was that warm July day in 1957. As McCartney was only fifteen, he was a blossoming musician - but it would be a few years before he started to write more prolifically (certainly songs that showed what he would be capable of with The Beatles). I often wonder what would have been had McCartney and Lennon not got on or connected. Would they each be in different bands or written completely different songs? It is a good thing that these geniuses did find one another! I find it staggering that two musicians with such incredible talents occupied the same space as teenagers in ’57! Those who were around McCartney and Lennon would not have known what would become and how these two would change the course of musical history.

So. How and where did Paul McCartney and John Lennon meet one another? It is quite quaint and modest how these two future world-class songwriters came to know one another. The Beatles Bible set the scene and reveal the course of events that magical day:

“6 July 1957 was a pivotal day for the history of modern music: it was the day that John Lennon met Paul McCartney for the first time.

In the afternoon the Quarrymen skiffle group played at the garden fete of St Peter’s Church, Woolton, Liverpool. The performance took place on a stage in a field behind the church. In the band were Lennon (vocals, guitar), Eric Griffiths (guitar), Colin Hanton (drums), Rod Davies (banjo), Pete Shotton (washboard) and Len Garry (tea chest bass).

The group arrived on the back of a lorry. As well as music, there were craft and cake stalls, games of hoop-la, police dog demonstrations and the traditional crowning of the Rose Queen. The fete was a highlight of the year for the residents of the sleepy Liverpool district.

The entertainment began at two p.m. with the opening procession, which entailed one or two wonderfully festooned lorries crawling at a snail’s pace through the village on their ceremonious way to the Church field. The first lorry carried the Rose Queen, seated on her throne, surrounded by her retinue, all dressed in pink and white satin, sporting long ribbons and hand-made roses in their hair. These girls had been chosen from the Sunday school groups, on the basis of age and good behaviour. 

The following lorry carried various entertainers, including the Quarry Men. The boys were up there on the back of the moving lorry trying to stay upright and play their instruments at the same time. John gave up battling with balance and sat with his legs hanging over the edge, playing his guitar and singing. He continued all through the slow, slow journey as the lorry puttered its way along. Jackie and I leaped alongside the lorry, with our mother laughing and waving at John, making him laugh. He seemed to be the only one who was really trying to play and we were really trying to put him off!

That evening the group were due to play again, minus Colin Hanton, this time at the Grand Dance in the church hall on the other side of the road. They were due on stage at 8pm, and admission to the show, in which the Quarrymen alternated on stage with the George Edwards Band, was two shillings.

While setting up their equipment to play, the Quarrymen’s sometime tea-chest bass player, Ivan Vaughan, introduced the band to one of his classmates from Liverpool Institute, the 15-year-old Paul McCartney.

This historic occasion was the first time McCartney met John Lennon, one year his senior. McCartney wore a white jacket with silver flecks, and a pair of black drainpipe trousers.

The pair chatted for a few minutes, and McCartney showed Lennon how to tune a guitar – the instruments owned by Lennon and Griffiths were in G banjo tuning. McCartney then sang Eddie Cochran’s ‘Twenty Flight Rock’ and Gene Vincent’s ‘Be-Bop-A-Lula’, along with a medley of songs by Little Richard.

I remember coming into the fete and seeing all the sideshows. And also hearing all this great music wafting in from this little Tannoy system. It was John and the band.

I remember I was amazed and thought, ‘Oh great’, because I was obviously into the music. I remember John singing a song called ‘Come Go With Me’. He’d heard it on the radio. He didn’t really know the verses, but he knew the chorus. The rest he just made up himself.

I just thought, ‘Well, he looks good, he’s singing well and he seems like a great lead singer to me.’ Of course, he had his glasses off, so he really looked suave. I remember John was good. He was really the only outstanding member, all the rest kind of slipped away.

Paul McCartney, 1995

Record Collector”.

The two knew one another for just over twenty-four years. Although the relationship would go through some turbulence at the end of The Beatles’ career until shortly before Lennon’s death in 1980, they did reconcile and become friends. There was something brotherly about their bond. Being in the band forged this kinship. Whilst it faced challenges, it also led to some of the greatest music the world has ever heard! Less than a month after Paul McCartney’s birthday in June, he will get to think back sixty-five years and this day when he met someone who would become a great friend and writing partner. In the John Lennon at 80 celebrations from 2020, McCartney spoke with Lennon’s son, Sean, about the time the two met. NME quoted Paul’s recollections:

“In McCartney’s segment, he recalled when he first realised Lennon was special. He said he had first noticed him on the bus and thought he was “an interesting looking guy”, but had no idea he played music until their friend Ivan introduced them at the village fete where The Quarrymen were playing.

“I knew nothing about him except that he looked pretty cool,” he explained. “He had long sideboards and greased back hair and everything.”

McCartney continued to talk about the band’s musicianship, saying that their attitude was more important than sophistication. “My attitude would be, ‘This is what I want to do’ and then John would bring another edge to it,” he said. “What was the great thing was the combination of those two attitudes and I look back on it now like a fan.

“I think, ‘Wow, how lucky was I to meet this strange Teddy Boy off the bus who turned out to play music like I did, and we get together and, boy, we complemented each other’. They say with marriages opposites attract and we weren’t madly opposites, but I had some stuff that he didn’t have and he had some stuff I didn’t have so when you put them together it made something extra”.

As Paul of my Paul McCartney at Eighty series, I will explore more to do with him and The Beatles. From the debut album through to the final embers of Abbey Road, I am excited to discuss the cultural significance of Paul McCartney as part of the group. On his birthday on 18th June, the world will come together and celebrate a wonderful human. In this series, I simply had to discuss the time McCartney and Lennon met. It is such a monumental and important event; one that would go on to alter the course of music as we know it. Just think back to July 1957 when these two talented teens…

FIRST said ‘hi’.

FEATURE: Groovelines: Dexys Midnight Runners and the Emerald Express – Come on Eileen

FEATURE:

 

 

Groovelines

Dexys Midnight Runners and the Emerald Express – Come on Eileen

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THIS is a bit of a classic…

that I have not featured before. Released in June 1982, Dexys Midnight Runners’ (credited to Dexys Midnight Runners and the Emerald Express) Come on Eileen was taken from their album, Too-Rye-Ay. That album itself is a bit of a classic in its own right. That said, there is no doubting the biggest song on it is Come on Eileen! The song reached number one in the United States. It was the British band’s second number one hit in the U.K. following 1980's Geno. Not only was it a chart success. Come on Eileen  won Best British Single at the 1983 BRIT Awards. It was named as Britain's best-selling single of 1982. Not only is the song one of the defining hits of the 1980s. It is a track that translates to this day and still sound amazing. Some say that the group are a one-hit wonder. I disagree. Although Come on Eileen is their biggest moment, Kevin Rowland and co. have had more than their share of hits! There are a couple of interesting articles that take a closer look at a massive Dexys hit. American Songwriter wrote a feature on Come on Eileen a couple of years back:

“The greatest one-hit wonder of the 80’s? Maybe the greatest one-hit wonder of all time? You can certainly make that case about Dexys Midnight Runners and “Come On Eileen,” the band’s 1982 lightning bolt of a single that they never could quite repeat. Not that they should be ashamed about that, because this was a song that brimmed with so much spirit and passion that anyone would be hard-pressed to replicate it.

IN THIS PHOTO: Dexys Midnight Runners in 1982 

It should be noted that “Come On Eileen” was not the only hit that the group had in their native Great Britain; they had actually scored a previous #1 smash with “Geno.” In America, the song seemed to drop out of the clouds in the midst of a wave of British invaders at the peak of the MTV era. Yet unlike the electronic, automaton chilliness of the Human League or Soft Cell, “Come On Eileen” was brimming with palpable heart and soul.

The song was written by Dexys’ frontman Kevin Rowland along with band members “Big” Jim Paterson and Billy Adams. Rowland told authors Jonathan Bernstein and Lori Majewski in the new book Mad World: An Oral History of New Wave Artists and Songs That Defined The 80s that a big hit was something he was actively trying to achieve. “I always want what I haven’t got – or I used to,” he said. “I was hankering after pop success at that point. I’m not saying we wrote it with that in mind. Oh, that I would be that clever. But we did write it, like everything we did, the best we possibly could. We worked our arses off. Every detail counted.”

Rowland and his collaborators bucked the prevailing trend at the time by spurning synthesizers in favor of a slew of back-porch instruments like fiddles, banjo and accordion. With sure-handed 80’s hitmakers Clive Langer and Alan Winstanley at the producing helm, the end result was a song with more hooks per capita than anything short of “Billie Jean,” even as Rowland’s heartsick vocal added a touch of melancholy to the uplift of the instruments.

The song’s lyrics, at surface level, may seem to be nothing more than the narrator’s amorous plea to Eileen, one that gets downright spicy at times: “You in that dress/My thoughts I confess/Verge on dirty.” Yet “Come On Eileen” spins off from that basic concept to articulate the youthful urge for separation from an older generation hoping to indoctrinate these youngsters into their tired society.

Rowland name-checks weepy 50’s crooner Johnnie Ray at the beginning of the song to symbolize the kind of sorrow that hangs over the entire scene he wishes to escape. “These people ‘round here,” he sings, “Wear beaten-down eyes sunk in smoke-dried faces/So resigned to what their fate is.” He promises Eileen that their fate will be different: “No not us/We are far too young and clever.”

By the time the bridge rolls around, with what seems like a whole gang of Runners imploring Eileen from all angles in swooning countermelodies, you are completely caught up in the song’s energy. In the end, nothing sums up Rowland’s argument as well as his wordless cry of independence: “Too-ra-loo-ra, Too-ra-loo-ra, aye.”

Even though Dexys Midnight Runners imploded not long after this colossal #1 hit, the song itself still looms large. There’s nothing wrong with having just one hit when it’s a hit as memorable as “Come On Eileen.” “And you’ll hum this tune forever,” Kevin Rowland promised. You can call that line foresight or just plain youthful arrogance, but you can’t deny its accuracy”.

Come on Eileen is one of those songs that has been shared through the generations. You can play it and, by the time the chorus hits, everyone is singing along! It is an undeniable classic. Stereogum wrote about how Kevin Rowland’s band were not hugely successful to start out with:

“The first few records from the new Dexys lineup weren’t terribly successful, but then Rowland heard demos of some Blue Ox Babes songs. Rowland loved the way Blue Ox Babes combined Celtic strings with uptempo soul beats, and he basically decided to steal this style for Dexys. Rowland tried to get all the horn players to learn to play strings. When that didn’t work out, Rowland recruited violinist Helen Bevington, a music school student, from the Blue Ox Babes. Rowland got Bevington to change her name to Helen O’Hara, since it sounded more Irish, and he convinced her to bring in a few more string players from her music school.

This lineup of Dexys Midnight Runners didn’t last long, either, but Rowland kept it together long enough for Dexys to record Too-Rye-Ay, their second album. While working on the new album, he assigned the band a whole new look: Those grimy and patched-together overalls from the “Come On Eileen” video. Rowland co-wrote “Come On Eileen” with band members Jim Patterson and Kevin Adams, though he later admitted that he’d stolen the basic sound from his ex-bandmate Kevin Archer. Rowland was very much trying to make a hit when he came up with “Come On Eileen”; Dexys needed one badly. They got it.

I don’t think I’d ever really given the “Come On Eileen” lyrics much thought before sitting down to write this piece, but there’s a lot going on in the song. Rowland wrote those lyrics about getting into a sexual relationship with a friend when he was in his teens. Catholic guilt hangs over the song; Rowland tells the girl that his thoughts “verge on dirty” when he looks at her. He gets majestically sentimental about his parents and their music. He thinks of their mothers listening to “poor old Johnny Ray,” the dependably bummed-out pre-rock American pop idol, and he thinks that they could sing Irish lullabies just like their fathers. But he doesn’t want to end up like his father

Rowland sings about Birmingham’s miners and factory workers with a sort of terror. To him, they’re “beaten down” and “so resigned to what their fate is.” But Rowland dares to imagine something better for himself and Eileen: “We’re far too young and clever.” That’s when “Come On Eileen” becomes a song about sex, one of our most dependable, if short-lived, means of escape. Rowland wants Eileen to “take off everything,” and suddenly the song turns into a giddy chant, speeding up and slowing down tempos recklessly.

“Come On Eileen” takes its intro from “Believe Me, If All Those Endearing Young Charms,” an Irish folk song that Thomas Moore (not the saint) wrote in 1808, and its big hook is suspiciously close to the one on “A Man Like Me,” the 1972 single from Jimmy James, a Jamaican singer beloved on the Northern soul scene. (This is another one of those cases where someone probably would’ve been sued if it happened today.) “Believe Me, If All Those Endearing Young Charms” and “A Man Like Me” don’t necessarily have much in common with one another, but Rowland draws them together through horny desperation and fired-up intensity and a big clompy-clomp rhythm, and he makes them work.

A big part of the charm of “Come On Eileen” is Rowland’s voice. He’s clearly not the soul singer that he wants to be, but he doesn’t let that stop him. He yelps and wails as hard as he can, and his Northern English honk bulldozes through all the strings and horns around him. When “Come On Eileen” turns into a big mass singalong, it finds a certain drinking-song grandeur. Producers Clive Langer and Alan Winstanley had already done a lot of work with London ska goons Madness, and both the clean clumsiness of the “Come On Eileen” beat and the gang-shout chorus could’ve come straight from that band. (In the US, Madness’ highest-charting single, 1982’s “Our House,” peaked at #7. It’s a 9.)”.

A song that I really love and have so much time for, it is a chart-topper that has lifted people for almost four decades. I wanted to know a little more about the track. The band, now trading as Dexys, released Let the Record Show: Dexys Do Irish and Country Soul in 2016 (an album of interpretations of Irish songs and other select compositions). Both their 1980 debut, Searching for the Young Soul Rebels, and 1982’s Too-Rye-Ay are stunning albums. The latter’s Come on Eileen is a stone-cold classic that is...

IMPOSSIBLE to dislike.

FEATURE: Kate Bush: The Iconic Shots: A Stunning Artist Takes to Abbey Road Studio 2 During the Recording of Never for Ever

FEATURE:

 

 

Kate Bush: The Iconic Shots

A Stunning Artist Takes to Abbey Road Studio 2 During the Recording of Never for Ever

___________

THIS is the absolute final…

part of a run of features where I look at iconic shots involving Kate Bush. Although I do not have an exact date and photographer for the shot (it is between 1979 and 1980), I couldn’t pass by such a classic! I think that many picture Bush as this artist who is known for her voice. They do not often associate her with production and tackling the studio. She was just as hungry a producer and sonic innovator as she was an accomplished vocalist. The shot I am featuring shows Bush focused and in her element! This is her at Abbey Road Studios. I am guessing the photo is around 1980. In the featured image, she is sat at the Mark IV desk in the control room. Whereas her brother, John Carder Bush, took photos of her smiling at a studio control room when she was making Hounds of Love (1985), I am not sure about this photo. Although I can only be a bit vague with this final inclusion, it is an image that I think about a lot! The Kate Bush Encyclopaedia explains when Bush recorded at Abbey Road Studios:

“Kate worked at Abbey Road Studios on the albums Never For Ever, The Dreaming, and Hounds Of Love in Studio 2, and the orchestral parts for the albums The Sensual World and The Red Shoes. On 17 June 1981, the music video for the song Sat In Your Lap was recorded in the cavernous Studio 1, a huge space about half an acre in size. On 12 November 1981, Kate attended a 50th anniversary party for the studio, and cut the birthday cake alongside singer Helen Shapiro. In March 1986, she recorded a performance of the song Under The Ivy for the 100th broadcast of The Tube”.

Whilst I cannot really pinpoint the month the shot was taken – as there is scares information online about this image -, I do think that it ranks alongside the best. I am pretty sure it is in 1980, but I do not have a photographer credit. During the recording of Never for Ever, she worked alongside Jon Kelly as producer. These two young people were given the keys to Abbey Road! It was the first time Bush co-produced. It would have been such an exciting time. Both revealing and scary, this was a big leap for her. As it turns out, the sound and production work on Never for Ever is incredible. The tone and sound would radically shift for 1982’s The Dreaming – Bush produced solo and worked out of Abbey Road for parts of it. There are several reasons why I love the shot of her looking intent at Abbey Road. The fact it is a black and white shot makes it more memorable and beautiful I think. Also, her expression is wonderful. Bush always gave great looks when it came to her photos! Here, there is a mixture of seriousness and curiosity. If the Hounds of Love studio shots were more fun, this is a more determined and focused look. Bush was following on from 1979’s The Tour of Life and a very busy first couple of years of her career. Although 1980 was a busy year for her, the period where she recorded Never for Ever seems less intense than in 1978. She had more control of the music, and her next album would not be for another two years.

I think that Never for Ever is an underrated album. One that is not often talked about, one has to marvel at Bush’s songwriting and the different moods expressed throughout. Songs like Babooshka and Army Dreamers are very different. Lesser-heard tracks like The Wedding List and The Infant Kiss are magnificent. So assured and accomplished, there was no doubt that this was a songwriter and talent at the top of her game! Wanting to exert more control of her material and create an album that was truer to her, she worked very well alongside Jon Kelly. Even though he did not produce with her again, the two had a good working relationship. It was just that, having had a taste, Bush knew that she had to produce alone and take full the reins on her own. Only twenty-one when she started recording Never for Ever, it is amazing to hear the complexity on display. Peter Gabriel introduced Bush to the Fairlight CMI. We hear it a bit of Never for Ever, though this exciting new technology would play a bigger role on The Dreaming and Hounds of Love. Able to simulate all sort of sounds, it was a real breakthrough. It was a really exciting time for Kate Bush. One can see that in the expression she gives in the photo from Abbey Road Studio 2. A remarkable young artist who always produced such phenomenal music, it would have been fascinating sitting in the studio and hearing these songs come together. In terms of the conversations and memories that are held in that studio from that time, it is something that…

WE can only imagine!

FEATURE: Paul McCartney at Eighty: Five: Post-McCartney III and 2022

FEATURE:

 

Paul McCartney at Eighty

Five: Post-McCartney III and 2022

___________

IN this part of my run of features…

 PHOTO CREDIT: Mary McCartney

that looks ahead to Paul McCartney’s eightieth birthday in June, I wanted to look at this year. As of the time of writing (20th January), there has been no announcement regarding festivals or any big bookings. Aside from his bestselling and award-winning lyrics book, there was also the documentary, The Beatles: Get Back. It was a hectic and fun year for McCartney in terms of promotion and activity! With gigs few and far between, I think he is looking ahead to what 2022 has in store. In terms of albums, I suspect that McCartney has had some material stored up. His latest album, McCartney III, topped the charts and won him some of the best reviews of his solo career. It is a tremendous album that was made during lockdown (or ‘rockdown’ as he called it!). I have an inkling and feeling that we may get an album from Macca later this year. In any case, I wanted to speculate what more could come from him this year. Topping the charts and winning plaudits all over the shop, McCartney III showed that a legend in his late-seventies had lost none of his songwriting genius! This is what AllMusic observed in their review:

“Paul McCartney faced the COVID-19 lockdown of 2020 like he faced so many other unexpected challenges in his life: he set out to make music on his own. The title of McCartney III positions it as a direct sequel to 1970's McCartney and 1980's McCartney II, albums he made in the wake of the respective dissolutions of the Beatles and Wings, a sentiment that rings true in some ways but not in others. Certainly, the one-man-band approach unites all three albums, as does their arrival at the dawn of a new decade, yet McCartney III doesn't contain a clear undercurrent of Paul processing change in the wake of loss.

He doesn't spend the record trying to "Find My Way," as he puts it on the album's second song, but rather simply existing, drawing evident pleasure from the process of writing and recording new music. This also means McCartney III doesn't quite have the shock of the new the way that the homespun McCartney and synth-laden McCartney II do; he's not attempting new forms or ideas, instead returning to themes that have served him well over the years, whether they're plucked acoustic ditties, plaintive piano ballads, or stomping rockers. Execution makes a big difference, though. Where 2018's Egypt Station was designed with the charts specifically in mind -- Paul went so far as to hire producers Greg Kurstin and Ryan Tedder for the record, hoping they'd give him a modern sheen -- McCartney III is constructed at a modest scale, the arrangements so uncluttered that it's easy to hear the years on McCartney's voice. Maybe he can't hit the high notes he way he used to, maybe he sounds a bit weathered, but the change in his singing has a profoundly humanizing effect, especially when heard in conjunction with his distinctive drumming and fuzzed-out guitars. Within these contours, it's possible to trace the distance between the three McCartney albums. Despite these signs of age, McCartney III isn't an album about mortality, it's about finding sustenance in rough times. McCartney nods to sadness and loneliness on "Deep Deep Feeling" and conjures a fleeting sense of wistfulness on "Pretty Boys," then balances these moments of sadness with the sweet "The Kiss of Venus," the sugar-coated rallying call "Seize the Day," and the vulgar jabs of "Lavatory Lil." Individually, these moments may not seem particularly eccentric, yet when they're collected as an album, they add up to a charmingly off-kilter record, an album that benefits from its modest origins and McCartney's willingness to not polish too many of his rough edges”.

McCartney also did a series with Rick Rubin where he explored and dissected his songwriting. 2021 was a year where he looked back quite a bit. After a fresh album at  the end of 2020, the last year was McCartney largely revisiting his past work. With a lot of focus being on The Beatles and how Peter Jackson’s documentary changed the narrative and decades-held beliefs as to why the band broke up (namely that Yoko Ono was somehow responsible), it must have been quite emotional for him. With Ringo Starr, McCartney got to see his sadly-departed bandmates (John Lennon and George Harrison) working at a time that many have assumed was quite tense. I wonder whether this has given him drive to compose new material. In terms of Beatles-related bits, there have been no announcements regarding books or remastered albums. Of course, we got a range of packages for Let It Be. Complete with extras and a treasure trove for fans, I am not sure whether Giles Martin is going to go back to 1963 and Please Please Me. Many fans wonder if Rubber Soul and Revolver will be the next for the remaster treatment, as Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band was the first in 2017 – fifty years after the album was released. I don’t think there are any plans in 2022 from Martin. That could change, but it seems unlikely. What is more likely from a Beatles viewpoint is more books. Naturally, The Beatles: Get Back would have inspired new perspective on the band. I feel we will get some books about the group from 1969/1970.

In terms of McCartney himself. There has been no word as to whether he will play Glastonbury this year. He was due to headline in 2020 but, with the pandemic halting things, there has been no news. I suspect that McCartney will play plenty of gigs. As he approaches eighty, it is amazing he still has the energy to play such demanding sets! I do feel that there will be an album. McCartney has always worked and, with time to compose and record at his home studio, I reckon we might get an album similar in tone to McCartney III. Maybe he will play with other musicians but, as Macca did everything himself, maybe he will go down that route again. Things are still a bit restricted, so maybe he will not feel comfortable inviting musicians into the studio with him. Given the fact that McCartney III was released with a starting or artists re-versioning and remixing songs from the original, perhaps McCartney is in a more collaborative mood. Whatever comes, I get the sense McCartney will reflect on the pandemic and strange time, but he will look to move forward. Maybe watching The Beatles documentary has given him some fresh direction and sense of reflection. There will be a lot of demand for new McCartney material for sure. I am excited to see what comes next. One might predict a quieter year for McCartney but, as he approaches eighty, I do not think…

HE will slow down.

FEATURE: U.N.I.T.Y.: The Women Who Helped Shape and Transform Hip-Hop

FEATURE:

 

 

U.N.I.T.Y.

IN THIS PHOTO: Lauryn Hill won five GRAMMYs - a new record for a female singer in a single award ceremony - on 24th February, 1999/PHOTO CREDIT: Frank Trapper/Corbis via Getty Images

The Women Who Helped Shape and Transform Hip-Hop

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IN today’s music…

 IN THIS PHOTO: Bree Runway

we have artists like Little Simz and Bree Runway, who are helping to shape and elevate Hip-Hop. I have always felt that the women of Hip-Hop have both been under-explored and overlooked. Stunningly innovative and important regarding the history of the genre, I am reading a book called Flip the Script: How Women Came to Rule Hip Hop. Written by Arusa Qureshi, it is revealing and illuminating. In the book, she discusses the women who helped shape Hip-Hop. From success stories like Cookie Crew in the U.K. to the sexism that surrounded Roxanne Shante’s rise and success in the U.S., it has made me respect more the women who have paved the way for the new wave. There is still sexism and prejudice in Hip-Hop, though I think there have been doors open and steps made since the 1980s and 1990s. I am going to end with a playlist of songs from women who, from decades back to today, have been hugely influential – including quite a few modern-day queens and pioneers. Before that, I want to reference some articles that explore and spotlight the women whose voices are essential and inspiring. Before rounding off, I am going to source the liberally from some features which not only chart the history of women in Hip-Hop and their impact. There is a great feature that highlights the most important women of the genre.

Before coming to that - and as I mentioned her book -, Arusa Qureshi spoke with Cookie Crew in an article for The Guardian in November last year. It is very clear that they made an enormous impact on the scene:

“When considering the history of women in hip-hop, some pioneering names will always stand out. There’s Debbie D, a member of DJ Marley Marl’s Juice Crew; Pebblee Poo, who joined DJ Kool Herc’s Herculoids; and Lisa Lee, who was in Afrika Bambaataa’s Universal Zulu Nation. Then there’s Sha-Rock, considered the first prominent female MC; Mercedes Ladies, the first all-female group in hip-hop; Roxanne Shanté, the formidable battle rapper. But as in many parts of the music industry, these women were told they’re good for a girl: a patronising framework that is one of the core reasons women are left out of the history of the genres they helped revolutionise.

In the UK in 1983, two more young women were also about to be underestimated. MC Remedee (Debbie Pryce) and Susie Q (Susan Banfield) were just getting started as Cookie Crew, inspired by what was happening in the New York music scene. Cookie Crew pre-dated other prominent women in UK hip-hop such as She Rockers and Wee Papa Girl Rappers, not to mention Monie Love, who would go on to settle in New York in 1988 to massive success. As one of the first female hip-hop groups in the UK, they were also among the first to battle the hurdles women faced in the genre; constantly compared to adjacent male rappers, forced to prove themselves despite their evident success, and constantly pushed in different, and often contradictory, directions.

IN THIS PHOTO: Debbie Pryce and Susan Banfield, a.k.a. Cookie Crew/PHOTO CREDIT: David O’Neil/ANL/Shutterstock 

“We started listening to hip-hop because Debbie would go to New York with her family in the early 80s, record the radio on a cassette tape and bring it back for us to listen to,” Banfield explains. “We would listen to it at home, and it was amazing to us.”

The pair would spend time in the park near where they grew up with their crew of friends, roller skating and playing double Dutch – once they started writing, this was the ideal place to test the waters with their rhymes. “Malcolm McLaren did this documentary in a place in Covent Garden where breakers [breakdancers] used to hang out,” she recalls. “We started to connect the dots with everything that was happening in the hip-hop scene. There were graffiti artists down there, there were breakers, and there were rappers – everyone started to try a little something.”

This included Banfield and Pryce, who were writing raps, not realising that there weren’t really other girls doing the same thing locally. “We had no clue because we saw American girls doing it. We were listening to female rappers like Sha-Rock, Lisa Lee and Debbie D and we were influenced by them. There were a lot of rappers out there [in the UK] at the time, all male, but we did see Michelle Devitt also known as Mystery MC of Family Quest. We saw her rapping on stage; she was freestyling and she blew us away – the first female rapper that we had seen from England.

It was at this point in 1985 that they heard about a rap competition being run by a young Tim Westwood, with prize money and a recording contract up for grabs. “The boys that we used to hang with were saying, ‘You could win this!’ And so our friends forced us to go down there, and we put our name down for the first week. We saw all the rappers that were taking part and then thought, OK, we’ll go back next weekend and take our name off the list, because this is looking really hard and we’re not sure. But the night came and we thought: We’re just gonna go out there and do it because it doesn’t matter. I remember the stage being so big that they had to lift Debbie up on to it! We rapped over Afrika Bambaataa and the Soul Sonic Force’s Planet Rock, and it was fast. It was so fast!”

“Basically, we killed it,” Pryce adds with a grin. “We could see all the guys from Battersea who came with us, who were our support network. The crowd was just going crazy. When they made the announcement on the night that we won, it was like our feet didn’t touch the ground. It was a complete blur, but it was sheer excitement. We went away feeling like champions and after that, the world was our lobster.”

They took the prize money but not the contract. “It’s a good job we didn’t take it, because it probably would have been a mess,” Pryce notes. “We went for a meeting and I just remember coming out unsure. We knew nothing about the business. We just wanted to hang out and build our reputation on the scene. Thank God we didn’t sign – but we did get a trophy!”

After signing with London Records, Cookie Crew took on the US, and soon they were working with the likes of Stetsasonic and Gang Starr. But through all of this, they stuck to their truth, and to their British identity, and did all they could to represent the burgeoning scene at home. Songs from their debut album Born This Way make direct reference to their home town and to their journey (“We’ve got a message to all who said we couldn’t do it / take a look at us now, take your words and chew it”); Black is the Word captures their pride in their Black British identity and From the South is a homage to their home.

“We’ve always stayed true to our roots because we were very patriotic about London, and about south London particularly,” Pryce says. “All the narratives on the tracks are based around our experiences, even though the delivery might have had that American tone, because that was our reference point. Our subject matters were very, very British. When we were in New York, we were very proud of being British. We also felt that we were educating them about what was going on outside the US. A lot of the people we met didn’t realise that there were actually Black people in England because not many people had passports back then and they weren’t travelling. We were educating them on who we were, being British, but British Caribbean too.”

“Our references came from our parents, and our parents were the Windrush era,” Banfield explains. “Hip-hop in a way introduced us to what was happening in America but it didn’t introduce us to wider issues we faced as Black people. For example, we spent a lot of our time doing anti-apartheid gigs. We spent a lot of time making sure that we were involved with any gig to do with freeing Nelson Mandela as much as we could. We boycotted certain things, we were involved in everything possible that could be against Margaret Thatcher. We’ve always had that side of us”.

Tied into the new T.V. show, The Real Queens of Hip-Hop (on Hulu), Deena Zaru wrote an article that began by stating how women were right at the core of Hip-Hop from its inception and roots:

“Even before hip-hop was called “hip-hop,” women were on the frontlines of the culture as emcees, rappers and producers.

From the earliest icons of the 1970s and 1980s, to the trailblazing stars of the 1990s and the chart-toppers of today, women have empowered each other and broken down barriers for generations to come.

“The Real Queens of Hip-Hop,” an ABC News special that is set to air on Monday, explores the inspiring rise and powerful force of women in hip-hop, in their own words. It is narrated by Salt of the iconic group Salt-N-Pepa; it includes original spoken word performances by the legendary MC Lyte and interviews with iconic artists like Eve, Da Brat, Trina, Monie Love, Yo-Yo and more.

Here’s a look back at the legacy of women in hip-hop and some of the artists who changed the game:

Early pioneers

MC Sha-Rock, known as the “Mother of the Mic,” got her start as the first female emcee of hip-hop in the 1970s when her rhymes earned her a spot as a member of The Funky 4+1.

But during its earliest days hip-hop was not taken seriously by older generations and record companies, she said, so artists had to fight for recognition.

“They felt as though this was something that just was never going to go any place,” MC Sha-Rock said. “I can tell you how we were told as young teenagers that this was just a fad. It wasn't until corporate America radio stations saw that these young kids with little or no resources created something out of nothing.”

The Funky 4+1, with Sha-Rock at the center, became the first hip-hop group to get a record deal and the first to perform on mainstream television when they were invited to appear on “Saturday Night Live.”

This was the beginning of hip-hop’s foray into the mainstream.

IN THIS PHOTO: Roxanne Shante poses for a portrait session in 1988 in New York City/PHOTO CREDIT: Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images

Another important moment took place in 1980 when Sylvia Robinson, the founder and CEO of Sugarhill Records, released “Rapper’s Delight,” -- the first hip-hop song to achieve commercial success and the first to chart on the Billboard Top 40.

“Rapper's Delight was a huge deal. And then they started playing it on the radio. So that was even grander,” MC Lyte, the first female hip-hop emcee to release a solo album, said. “But then later to find out that it was a woman, Ms. Robinson, behind it all … it was wonderful.”

But at the time, rappers did not wait for record companies to release their music; they released their own cassette tapes, which were a form of communication at the time.

“I didn't come through no great studio. My record was made on a cassette tape … and what it did was it opened up the floodgates,” said Roxanne Shante, who was known in Queens in the 1980s as one of the fiercest MCs.

“I think I was able to open up those doors as a woman ... to allow a lot of these other rappers to come in and say … you know what? I can do this,” she added.

A message of empowerment

As hip-hop made its mark in mainstream culture in the 1980s, women had to battle for recognition in a male-dominated industry.

“Today you need to have thick skin, but back in the 80s, you needed to be a rhino, honey, because for one, you could be as good as any man and you still wasn't getting the level of respect that you deserved as a woman on the mic,” said Grammy-nominated rapper Monie Love.

Monie Love and Queen Latifah perform "Ladies First" at Newark Symphony Hall in Newar...Read More

In 1989 Queen Latifah called on Love to join her in writing an anthem to empower female MCs, which led to the all-time classic single “Ladies First,” which celebrates the lyrical prowess and talent of women in the industry.

IN THIS PHOTO: Monie Love/PHOTO CREDIT: Asanteworks PR 

“I love the unity that the women came together because that's what I've always been about,” said MC Lyte. “... that was historical, because I think [it’s] the first time that I'd seen women come together on a rap song, and they brought it.”

At the time, in some hip-hop lyrics women were given derogatory terms but “Ladies First,” which was featured on Queen Latfiah’s 1989 album, “All Hail the Queen,” honored women as “queens.”

Love said that as a female emcee in the 1990s she was constantly asked about misogyny in hip-hop, but she would say, “‘I don't own it’ ... me and Latifah are over here calling sisters queens. That's what we doing.”

Hip-hop has been standing up for Black lives for decades: 15 songs and why they matter

Compton rapper Yo-Yo was outspoken against misogyny in hip-hop at the time and advocated for women’s empowerment in her music in songs like the 1991 classic, “You Can't Play With My Yo-Yo,” featuring her fellow West Coast rapper Ice Cube.

“[The song] has a lot of femininity, adult femininity in it, and it's powerful to me because it's everything that I am. My name is Yo-Yo, I'm not a h--, no,” she said.

“It was really a chance to stand up and be bold and be fearless and to represent women in a different kind of way.”

Yo-Yo, MC Lyte and Queen Latifah perform onstage during Queen Latifah's "Ladies First"...Read More

Embracing sex appeal

A new generation of female hip-hop stars in the 1980s and 1990s sent another message of empowerment to women by boldly embracing their sexuality.

And it all started with Salt-N-Pepa.

The group released their first studio album in 1986, becoming the first female rap group to sell more than a million records and their style distinguished them from other artists on the scene as they brought sex appeal into the game.

“Everybody today took a page out of Salt-N-Pepa's book. Everyone,” Love said.

In the 1990s, artists like Lil Kim would take this image to a whole new level.

Lil Kim’s debut album “Hard Core,” which was released in 1996 was certified double platinum, and the rapper became known for her raunchy lyrics and unapologetic sex appeal.

IN THIS PHOTO: Salt-N-Pepa/PHOTO CREDIT: Michael Putland 

“That was the first time for me that I saw that much sexiness in female hip-hop -- she created and started that,” said rapper Trina, who rose to prominence in the late 1990s.

Da Brat, who released her debut album “Funkdafied” in 1994, becoming the first solo female rapper to sell a million records, said that it’s important for women to have the freedom to express themselves however they choose.

“I love the fact that Lil Kim was comfortable in her own skin, which apparently she was because she did the damn thing, and I was comfortable in my skin, and nobody tried to change me, and if nobody tried to change her, then more power to her,” she said.

According to MC Sha-Rock, in the early days of hip-hop there was less of a focus on a woman’s looks and more a focus on her skills as an emcee.

But as hip-hop got more corporate, things began to change and women faced more pressure to fit into a certain image.

“I say that that shift started in the 90s when they took the female rapper and didn't make her the more prominent female figure in hip hop,” Shante said. “Instead, they took the video vixen and made her the more prominent female in hip-hop, so people were looking for her rather than looking for a lyricist.”

IN THIS PHOTO: Da Brat 

Changing the game

Despite the pressures of the industry, trailblazing female artists stayed true to themselves and produced legendary work that continues to influence and define hip-hop today.

When Missy Elliot released her debut album “Supa Dupa Fly” in 1997, not only did the rapper stand out for her unique style, but also for her artistry, which was reflected in her iconic, larger than life performances and music videos -- the first of which was her debut single, “The Rain.”

Da Brat was one of the many artists who made memorable cameos in the video.“Missy has always been way ahead of her time with her thought process,” Da Brat said.

“I love he still to this day for that and what she's done for the culture. She changed the game for women completely.”

Another artist who embraced her individuality in the late 1990s was Lauryn Hill.

Lauryn Hill won five Grammys, a new record for a female singer in a single award ceremo...Read More

Hill, who was a member of The Fugees, took the entire music industry by storm when she launched her solo career with the release of “The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill” in 1998.

The album debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 chart, was nominated for 10 Grammy Awards and won five, including Album of the Year.

“Lauryn Hill introduced the aspect of the multi-functioning female artist within hip-hop. I mean, write, produce, rhyme, sing and deliver the artistic vision of it all, too,” Love said.

According to Da Brat, Hill’s “sound shifted the whole game.”

Breaking down barriers

Rap music became more mainstream in the 2000s but female artists struggled to get recognition as record executives signed less women.

“In 2005, I think at some point I did realize or look around and say, where are the women? Because even when I came out, there were a few of us,” Grammy-winning rapper Eve said.

Eve released her debut album, “Let There Be Eve...Ruff Ryders' First Lady," in 1999, making history as the third female hip-hop artist to top the Billboard Hot 200 chart.

And although she considers herself “completely lucky” to have the support of Ruff Ryders where she was able to be herself, she struggled to navigate a male-dominated industry.

"When I say male-dominated, I don't mean in front of the cam, those people on stage. I mean the people that you have to sign contracts with, the people that you have to negotiate with," she said.

Nicki Minaj burst onto the scene in 2010 with her debut album “Pink Friday” and her hit single “Super Bass” at a time when mainstream hip-hop was missing female voices.

Over the past decade, she has become one of the top selling female artists of all time, with more than 100 million records sold.

But it wasn’t until the rise of social media that big barriers would break.

A notable example is the rise of Cardi B, who became the only female solo artist to win a Grammy for Best Rap Album.

She was initially known to America as an up-and-coming artist on the reality TV show “Love and Hip-Hop.” But through social media, Cardi B was able to promote her mixtapes, grow her own platform and develop a fan base -- all before scoring a big record deal with Atlantic Records in 2017.

“There are things that artists do now that are fascinating and the way they use social media and the way they can launch their careers by themselves and the way they don't have to wait for a label to sign them,” said radio personality and rapper Angie Martinez. “There is a lot of independence and a lot of amazing things happening in hip-hop now.”

Yung Miami of the hip-hop duo City Girls said that social media is a “big part” of music and platforms like TikTok and Instagram have helped them promote their music.

“I feel like we bring fun music, turn up music, girl power. I feel like we just like empowering women to be the best they can be,” she said.

The group is known for viral singles like “Act Up” and "Twerk,” featuring Cardi B -- both of which are certified platinum.

“When I see all of the women on the top of the charts, it reminds me of back in the day ... back in the nineties when every record label had representation of a female MC,” MC Lyte said.

“I love all those ladies. I love Meg, Nicki, Cardi. I love them all. I love everything that they stand for,” Eve said. “... I don't think you'll see another period like the 2000s where [women] are just gone. That's not going to happen”.

I have not gone as deep as I could have but, to give a sense of how many great women through the years have changed Hip-Hop for the better, I hoper the playlist at the bottom is good and respectful representation. In terms of the pioneers and players, this article is fascinating. It is another great read from last year. Another terrific book about the women of Hip-Hop that was released last year was The Motherlode: 100+ Women Who Made Hip-Hop. It is wonderful reading about the iconic women of Hip-Hop from the early days to now:

“From the start, hip-hop was about storytelling. Just as the sound of the movement was created by the creative repurposing of music that already existed, the success of the genre’s MCs was based on their willingness to shatter old forms and wield the shards to create a new style of self-expression. Male and female rappers alike used wordplay, repetition, and extended metaphor to relate experiences that were dark, violent, romantic, or hopeful, casting themselves as hero, witness, or seer.

But given the music industry’s history of marginalizing the contributions of women, it’s easy to see hip-hop as a boys’ club. Braggadocious lyrics about violence, sex, swagger, and masculinity reign in a space where women, in most cases, are cast as either conquests or a faceless Greek chorus, their own stories largely ignored. But in the early days of the genre, while critics were still deriding hip-hop as a passing fad, female rappers were beginning to make up a formidable piece of the genre’s biology, unapologetically detailing their interpretations and experiences of the world they lived in. They all had distinct variations in style, flow, and lyrical content, but what each woman had in common was a fiercely independent voice and the power to remain consistently and resoundingly herself.

MC Lyte

The first solo rapper to release her own, full-length album, MC Lyte’s Lyte As A Rock dropped in 1988. Lyte’s flow, lyrical precision, and refusal to self-censor gained her industry attention quickly. She has described the scene in its early days as competitive and skill-based, but not without a gender bias. “There may have been times when promoters didn’t want to pay me what I deserved. In a line-up, they didn’t want to put me where my songs warranted me going. But none of it affected me to a degree to where it mattered. There may have been setbacks but I never let them get to me.”

In 1993, “Ruffneck” was nominated for a Grammy for Best Rap Single, making MC Lyte the first female rapper nominated for a Grammy. In recent years, Lyte herself has called for the Female Rap Solo category to be reinstated, saying “it destroys [hip-hop] culture to not have the perspective of a woman.”

Queen Latifah

Part of the New York area’s storied Native Tongues crew, along with the likes of Jungle Brothers, De La Soul, and A Tribe Called Quest, Queen Latifah was one of the earliest female rappers in hip-hop. The Native Tongues collective were known for their socially conscious, largely positive lyrical content, but Latifah made a name for herself talking about issues in the lives of black women. Songs like “Ladies First” and “UNITY,” which discussed domestic violence, street harassment, and the need for coalition-building between females, made the New Jersey native a powerful voice for change.

Monie Love

One of the only other female rappers in Native Tongues, Monie Love and Queen Latifah struck up a fast friendship after Latifah and Native Tongues traveled to the UK, where, at a show, they met the British rapper, who had been making noise in the underground scene there for years. Love eventually joined Native Tongues in New York, where she collaborated with Latifah on “Ladies First,” and released her own album, produced by Afrika Baby Bam. Songs such as “Monie In The Middle” and “RU Single” both slyly and cleverly struck back at expectations and assumptions about black women in relationships without sacrificing the flow.

Salt-N-Pepa

When Cheryl James and Sandra Denton joined forces in 1985, much of the record industry still believed hip-hop was a fad. Calling themselves Salt-N-Pepa, the two put out “The Showstopper,” a response to Doug E Fresh’s hit “The Show.” Clad in short shorts and tight midriff-baring shirts, this duo ruled the sex-positive revolution of the 90s. With songs such as “Push It,” “Do You Really Want Me,” “Let’s Talk About Sex,” and “Shoop,” Salt-N-Pepa were frank and outspoken about their desires and their sexuality, while simultaneously demanding respect, preaching feminist values and speaking out against assault and discrimination.

Bahamadia

One of Philadelphia’s first prominent MCs, Bahamadia, a former producer, was moved to join the rap game after being inspired by the likes of female rappers Salt-N-Pepa and Lady B. Lyrically dexterous with a smooth, unflappable flow, Bahamadia’s verses serve less bombast than her contemporaries, but are no less verbally crafty. Her debut album, 1996’s Kollage was an instant classic, and the very first LP to be co-produced and entirely written by a female rapper. Loaded with deceptively simple beats that reveal their complexity as they weave over, under, around, and through textured melodies, the album is both warm and fresh, full of the jazz and soul influences that have become synonymous with the Philadelphia sound.

Foxy Brown

One of the most distinctive voices in rap, Foxy Brown entered the scene at a mere 15 years old, and first appeared on LL Cool J’s album Mr. Smith , rapping over the remix for “I Shot Ya.” She was signed to Def Jam in ’96, the same year she appeared with Lil’ Kim, Total, and Da Brat on the Bad Boy Remix of “No One Else.” It was also the year her debut album, Ill Na Na, dropped. Critical reviews were mixed but Foxy’s sales were strong, and “Get Me Home” was that rare radio banger with decades of staying power. Like Lil’ Kim, Foxy was frank and outspoken about her sexuality and her desire while still commanding – and demanding – respect.

Lauryn Hill

From the moment critics got their first taste of Lauryn Hill on the 1994 Fugees album, Blunted On Reality, she was hailed as a star. Fellow Fugee Wyclef Jean acknowledged it himself in a verse on 1996’s The Score: “The magazine said the girl shoulda went solo/The guys should stop rapping/Vanish like Menudo.” Hill did go solo, releasing The Miseducation Of Lauryn Hill in 1998 to public and critical acclaim. Mixing neo-soul sounds with powerful feminist lyrics, Hill delved deep into the complications inherent in womanhood, motherhood, black femininity, and the music business. Hits like “Doo Wop (That Thing),” “Everything Is Everything,” “Lost Ones” and “Ex-Factor” still sound as fresh and compelling today as they did at the time of their release. Hill hasn’t released an album since a compilation in 2007, but remains an irreplaceable voice in the canon of female rappers.

Lil’ Kim

The woman who rapped “got buffoons eatin’ my pu__y while I watch cartoons” needs no introduction. She hasn’t released a major studio album since 2005, but Kim remains in the canon as one of the most gifted MCs of either gender. Flipping sexual mores on their head, Lil’ Kim twisted the paradigm that said a female rapper had to come with a masculine swagger. Draped in mink and diamonds, lace, and lingerie, Kim embraced the feminine sexual aesthetic that kept many women in the genre locked in the role of “video vixen.” “I’ve always been super sexy and feminine,” Kim told Billboard in 2014. “My record company didn’t understand a female rapper being sexy. They thought I needed to look like MC Lyte, wear sweatsuits and all that.” Instead of changing to fit the mold of female rappers, Lil’ Kim doubled down on her sexuality and used it to unapologetically empower herself in a world of men, whom, in many ways, she still needed in order to access power.

Missy Elliott

With a visual and sonic vocabulary that’s one of a kind, it’s not an exaggeration to say that the southern-born Missy Elliott changed the game. After years of collaboration with the likes of Jodeci, Ginuwine, and Aaliyah, Elliott headed into the studio with childhood friend and longtime collaborator Timbaland to work on her debut album. The result, which took only two weeks, was Supa Dupa Fly, which yielded the radio hit “The Rain.” Laced with inventive wordplay (“I sit on hills like Lauryn”) that sampled Ann Peebles’ 1973 single and with one of the most inventive videos in the history of the medium, “The Rain” was a surprise and a smash.

Elliott’s next album, Da Real World, was equally successful, and her third album, Miss E… So Addictive, gave the world “Get Ur Freak On,” one of the most enduring hits of the decade. Missy’s look – baggy pants, cartoonish silhouettes, and bright colors – added comedy to an often hyper-serious musical genre. She was in stark contrast to many of the newer commercial female rappers who were scantily dressed and hypersexualized, working hard to appeal to a fanbase of young men. Through her unique vision, Missy created a body of work that has cemented her position as one of the legends of modern music.

Roxanne Shante

Roxanne Shanté began rapping at the age of 9, displaying an almost inherent knack for rhyme schemes and flow patterns. This talent earned her acceptance into the widely popular Juice Crew, which included Big Daddy Kane, Biz Markie, and Kool G Rap. The crew was tough-talking and wouldn’t take slander from anyone, and over the course of the group’s existence, the crew produced many answer records in response to disses and engaged in numerous beefs. They were also a major player in the rise of the posse cut, when each member would handle a verse on an extended song. Shanté was also a frequent collaborator of Marley Marl. Though she practically retired at the age of 25, her monumental impact on the rap game is still felt to this day.

Sha-Rock

Every artist on this list has a rightful claim as a pioneer, but no one had the impact Sha-Rock had. She was quite literally the first female rapper recorded on vinyl, and she was rapping during a time when female MCs just weren’t accepted in any meaningful way. Within the hip-hop community, she has rightfully come to be celebrated as the “Mother of the Mic.” As a member of the first hip-hop crew to appear on television, known as the Funky 4 + 1, her style of delivering raps on early mixtapes influenced notable superstars like MC Lyte and DMC (born Darryl McDaniels) of Run-DMC. McDaniels cited Green as a significant influence on the style of rapping associated with the pioneering group.

Trina

Way back in 1998, Trina was studying to get her real estate license, when she caught the attention of Miami rapper Trick Daddy, who serendipitously recruited her to appear on his track “Nann Ni__a.” The song was released as the lead single from Trick’s second studio album, www.thug.com in 1998, reaching No.3 on the Rap Songs chart. The feature essentially kickstarted Trina’s rap career, leading to a record deal with Slip-n-Slide Records with distribution from Atlantic Records. She released her debut LP, Da Baddest Bitch, two years later, and would forge a career celebrated for its consistency and longevity.

Da Brat

Da Brat’s first major breakthrough occurred when she won the top prize in a local contest in her hometown of Chicago, Illinois, sponsored by Yo! MTV Raps. Her reward? Meeting the wildly popular rap duo Kris Kross. They introduced her to their producer, Jermaine Dupri, who signed Da Brat to his So So Def label. Dupri initially intended to position Da Brat’s image as a “female Snoop Doggy Dogg,” and she became one of the first female rappers to spit openly about her life. Da Brat’s debut album Funkdafied was released in 1994 and entered the Rap Albums chart at No.11. The album went platinum, making her the first female solo rapper to sell one million copies.

Ladybug Mecca

Ladybug Mecca introduced the world to her slick, impossibly cool rhymes as a member of the seminal jazz-rap group Digable Planets. The group signed to Pendulum Records in 1992, and Ladybug, born and raised in Maryland, relocated to Brooklyn to record their debut. That album, Reachin’ (A New Refutation of Time and Space) was released in 1993 and certified gold soon after, thanks to the unimpeachable interplay of the members. Ladybug went on to pursue a solo career after the group disintegrated, releasing the brilliant Trip The Light Fantastic in 2005. She continued to collaborate regularly with other musicians, notably on Legacy/Sony’s Billie Holiday Remixed and Reimagined album, Del tha Funkee Homosapien’s Eleventh Hour, and with rap supergroup eMC.

Lady of Rage

The entire rap world could be connected in two steps if every segment traced back to Lady of Rage. The Virginia-born and LA-based MC was pivotal to a number of essential rap movements. She was an integral part of albums from several Death Row Records artists, including Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg on their seminal albums, The Chronic and Doggystyle. Before she departed the rap world to take up acting, Lady of Rage also appeared on a project with Gang Starr, and had a production deal with L.A. Posse, who produced several hits for LL Cool J.

Eve

It can be argued that DMX was the most popular rapper alive in the late 90s. Right by his side was Eve, who in 1999 released her debut album, Let There Be Eve…Ruff Ryders’ First Lady. The project reached No.1 on the Billboard 200, making her (at the time) the third female rapper to accomplish this feat. She continued to be a magnetic force in the Ruff Ryders universe, though she began her career on Dr. Dre’s Aftermath Records. But it wasn’t until the release of her 2000 breakthrough album Scorpion, that she would become a household name.

MC Trouble

LaTasha Sheron Rogers, better known as MC Trouble, left a large legacy during her short life. She became the first female rapper signed to Motown and was an early pioneer for blending hip-hop and R&B styles. Her biggest hit, “(I Wanna) Make You Mine,” featuring the Good Girls, charted at No.15 on the Billboard Rap Charts, but it was her influence on MCs like Q-Tip and Phife Dawg from A Tribe Called Quest, Boys II Men, and more, that resonated so deeply with the rap community. Though she only released one EP and album during her career, she quickly became your favorite rapper’s favorite rapper, a legacy that will live on forever.

Lisa ‘Left Eye’ Lopes

In 1990, after hearing word of an open casting call for a new girl group through her then-boyfriend, Lisa Lopes moved to Atlanta to audition. Originally starting as a female trio called 2nd Nature, the group was renamed TLC. The members didn’t stick, but Lopes did, recruiting new members and re-branding herself as Left Eye. TLC, obviously, went on to enormous fame, one of the biggest hip-hop and R&B groups on Earth, but Lopes’ deft lyricism as an MC is celebrated by rap aficionados everywhere. Left Eye was planning to work with Death Row Records after TLC split up, even boasting a song with Tupac they recorded before he died. But Lopes died tragically in 1992, leaving behind one of the most successful legacies in rap history – male or female.

Jean Grae

Jean Grae was a massive part of the New York underground in the 90s, and effortlessly began to become an integral member in the 2010s indie scene in part due to her thrilling collaborations with partner Quelle Chris. Back in her early days, Grae built a large, worldwide fanbase thanks to her clever bars and unique delivery. Her unimpeachable lyrical prowess has earned her recognition as a favorite emcee by many stars in the game like Talib Kweli, Jay-Z, and Black Thought of the Roots. Grae was also an influential figure in the movement of artists going independent, first offering all of her guest verses for a fixed fee via Craiglist, and later becoming an early adopter of the artist-friendly platform Bandcamp.

Remy Ma

A Big Pun endorsement goes a long way in rap circles. Remy Ma was one of Pun’s favorite MCs, and after he discovered her talent, she came to prominence for her work as a member of Fat Joe’s group, Terror Squad. She appeared on their second and final album, True Story, released in 2004. Their single “Lean Back” topped the Billboard Hot 100 for three weeks and garnered Ma her first Grammy nomination. Her work as a solo artist was equally impactful. There’s Something About Remy: Based on a True Story remains a classic in rap circles.

Gangsta Boo

All hail the queen of Memphis! Long before artists like NLE Choppa and Moneybagg Yo were dominating the scene, Three 6 Mafia were the pioneers of horrorcore in town, and Gangsta Boo was the lone lady stealing the show alongside Project Pat and Juicy J. Outside of her work as a member of Three 6 – which is as impactful as any rap group from the 90s – Boo’s first solo album, Enquiring Minds, was released in 1998 and reached No.15 on the Billboard Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart and No.46 on the Billboard 200. The album featured the surprise massive hit “Where Dem Dollas At!?”

Amil

Amil came to prominence in the late 1990s as a Jay-Z protege and recorded the single “Can I Get A…” with him from the Rush Hour soundtrack. She got her start after Hova was looking for female vocalists on his album Vol. 2… Hard Knock Life, but when Jay heard Amil freestyle, he decided he didn’t need to look elsewhere for vocalists. It fast-tracked her career, and her solo debut album, A.M.I.L – All Money Is Legal, was released in 2000. The album featured the single “I Got That”, a duet with Beyoncé, and All-Star Roc-A-Fella single “4 Da Fam.”

Rah Digga

Rah Digga came up as a longtime member of the Flipmode Squad, a hip-hop group led by Busta Rhymes. Her debut solo album, Dirty Harriet, was released in 2000 and featured Busta Rhymes and Eve. She also worked with Bahamadia on the track “Be Ok” from Lyricist Lounge, Vol. 1. At that time they were the two leading women of the Lyricist Lounge movement, which also served as the home base for artists such as Mos Def, Talib Kweli, Pharaohe Monch, Common, Lord Have Mercy, Foxy Brown, and Shabaam Sahdeeq.

Mia X

If you like Southern rap, you better know about Mia X. She was the first female emcee to get a contract with Master P’s No Limit Records, and subsequently, started being called the Mother of Southern Gangsta Rap. Aside from her solo output, she has a number of collaborations with several No Limit Records artists under her belt, including Master P and Silkk the Shocker on the seminal Louisiana albums, Ice Cream Man, Ghetto D, and Charge It 2 Da Game.

 Diamond And Princess

Diamond and Princess were members of the Atlanta-based crew Crime Mob. Casual rap fans will likely recognize their groundbreaking hit, “Knuck If You Buck,” though the group’s impact on Atlanta’s sound goes much deeper than just one hit. Rumors have since grown quiet, but the duo was reportedly making music together as recently as 2019.

Yo-Yo

Yo-Yo is one of the first female rappers to openly advocate and be a staunch advocate for the feminism movement in the industry. Much of her music touches on a need for female empowerment and denouncing the frequent sexism and misogyny in rap. Yo-Yo is the protégé of Ice Cube, who helped inspire her political bent. True to form, she dubbed her crew the IBWC, for the Intelligent Black Woman’s Coalition.

Charli Baltimore

Anyone that names themselves after Geena Davis is good in our book. Luckily, Charli Baltimore raps her ass off, too. Her stage name is taken from Geena Davis’s character in the film The Long Kiss Goodnight, which by our estimation, is a total power move. Baltimore began her musical career when she met The Notorious B.I.G. and they became involved in a romantic relationship. Rumor has it that several months into their relationship, she left him a voicemail of a rap verse that she had written and he immediately recognized her natural lyrical abilities. From there, Baltimore became a fixture in the rap scene, releasing her stellar lone studio album, Cold As Ice, in 1999.

Erykah Badu

Erykah Badu glided so smoothly onto the scene with 1997’s Baduizm that you could be forgiven for failing to realize she was about to change the game. Cleverly barbed and artfully built lyrical structures and a jazzy funk-tinged bluesy sound got her branded as the first lady of “neo soul,” a label that makes feeble attempts to describe her sound. It’s exceptionally difficult to describe Badu’s music without resorting to 70s-sounding expressions like “tapestry” or “potpourri,” but it’s even tougher to recall another artist from any era who infused a distinct, modern sensibility with the level of historical richness and references that Badu brings to every project.

Elements of soul, funk, and R&B are brilliantly deployed through rap rhymes and references to hip-hop culture. There’s rarely a genre that can’t find a home on one of her tracks. The music is as layered and polychromatic as the woman herself. If she’s sly and knowing (“You Loving Me”), she’s also vulnerable and seeking (“Out My Mind,” “Just in Time”). She’s the lady who wrote “Tyrone,” perhaps the most poignant song about being done with a dude’s bulls__t ever sung, while “Green Eyes” remains a timorous ballad about the danger of an open heart.

Nicki Minaj

If you want to know what the soil’s like, look at what’s grown on it: Nicki Minaj, Queens native. She’s what happens when 90s predecessors feed your already-sharp tongue, drawling delivery, and the kind of syllable-stacking honed-blade verbal dexterity that forces Kanye to let you show him up on his own track. Her domination of the verse is absolute, and her aesthetic sensibilities are one of a kind. If her talent weren’t enough, her insight makes her additionally formidable. Her off-the-cuff remarks on the now-viral video known as “the pickle juice clip” were an astute and poignant distillation of the absurdity of double standards in the music industry – but really in any workplace – and her comments about a culture that chastised women for the same behavior it encourages in men feels eerily prescient. Her early works have been a proving ground and, with a new batch of singles under her belt (“Changed It,” “No Frauds,” “Regret In Your Tears”), Minaj seems in every way to be poised for long-term success.

New school artists: Azelia Banks, Megan Thee Stallion, Cardi B, Doja Cat, and more

As the hip-hop scene continues to star more female rappers, we thought it would only be right to list a few of our favorites, like the groundbreaking Azelia Banks, whose anthem “212” became the official song of New York shortly after it was released. Then there’s Megan Thee Stallion, who has not only become the most exciting female rapper out of Houston, but arguably the best rapper in the city, period. Her “WAP” collab with Cardi B became an instant classic upon its release in 2020. Doja Cat has topped the Billboard chart and racked up Grammy Award nominations. We’re also partial to Miami’s City Girls (Yung Miami and JT), who create dancefloor anthems at every opportunity, and Tierra Whack who has melded the avant-garde and mainstream in a thrilling and fascinating way. Some of our other favorites include Rico Nasty, Latto (FKA Mulatto), Lakeyah, Buffalo rapper Armani Caesar, Flo Milli, and more”.

Maybe it seems like a bit of a cheat when I take an entire article! I could not short-change the remarkable words and work that illustrate and emphasise the importance of women in Hip-Hop. To this day, I feel women are at the vanguard. They are the most creative and compelling. Many think that it is the men and male groups who have defined Hip-Hop. From researching and reading, I would say it is the stunning and innovative women who have made the biggest mark! I feel that the Hip-Hop community…

OWE them such a debt.

FEATURE: What I Can Do for You: Sheryl Crow at Sixty: Her Ultimate Collection

FEATURE:

 

 

What I Can Do for You

PHOTO CREDIT: Ryan Pfluger/The New York Times/Redux

Sheryl Crow at Sixty: Her Ultimate Collection

___________

ONE of my favourite artists ever…

celebrates her sixtieth birthday on 11th February. Not to bring too much emphasis on age but, as Sheryl Crow is marking a big birthday, it gives me a chance to mark her enormous impact and share some of her music. I love everything Crow has produced through the years, but one of the first albums I really fell for was 1998’s The Globe Sessions. Previously, Crow worked as a backing singer on the Michael Jackson Bad tour. She went on to sell more than fifty million albums worldwide and garnered nine Grammy Awards from the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences. I want to showcase her magnificent work through the years with a playlist at the end. Prior to that, and as I am prone to do, AllMusic’s biography provides huge detail about the Missouri-born songwriter:

“Sheryl Crow's fresh, updated spin on classic roots rock made her one of the most popular mainstream rockers of the '90s. Her albums were loose and eclectic on the surface, yet generally tied together with polished, professional songcraft. Crow's sunny, good-time rockers and world-weary ballads were radio staples for much of the '90s, and she was a perennial favorite at Grammy time. Although her songwriting style was firmly anchored to the rock tradition, she wasn't a slave to it -- her free-associative, reference-laden poetry could hardly have been the product of any other era but the '90s. Her production not only kept pace with contemporary trends, but sometimes even pushed the envelope of what sounds could be heard on a classicist rock album, especially her self-titled sophomore effort. All of this made Crow one of the most dependable stars of the decade, and she showed no signs of relinquishing her hard-won success in the new millennium.

Sheryl Suzanne Crow was born February 11, 1962, in Kennett, Missouri. Her parents had both performed in swing orchestras, her father on trumpet and her mother as a singer; her mother was also a piano teacher, and ensured that all her daughters learned the instrument starting in grade school. Crow wrote her first song at age 13, and majored in music at the University of Missouri, where she also played keyboards in a cover band called Cashmere. After graduating, she spent a couple of years in St. Louis working as a music teacher for autistic children. She sang with another cover band, P.M., by night, and also recorded local advertising jingles on the side. In 1986, Crow packed up and moved to Los Angeles to try her luck in the music business. She was able to land some more jingle-singing assignments, and got her first big break when she successfully auditioned to be a backup singer on Michael Jackson's international Bad tour. In concert, she often sang the female duet part on "I Just Can't Stop Loving You," and was inaccurately rumored by the tabloids to have been Jackson's lover. After spending two years on the road with Jackson, Crow resumed her search for a record deal, but found that record companies were only interested in making her a dance-pop singer, which was not at all to her taste.

Frustrated, Crow suffered a bout of severe depression that lasted about six months. She revived her career as a session vocalist, however, and performed with the likes of Sting, Rod Stewart, Stevie Wonder, Foreigner, Joe Cocker, Sinéad O'Connor, and Don Henley, the latter of whom she toured with behind The End of the Innocence. She also developed her songwriting skills enough to have her compositions recorded by the likes of Wynonna Judd, Céline Dion, and Eric Clapton. Thanks to her session work, she made a connection with producer Hugh Padgham, who got her signed to A&M. Padgham and Crow went into the studio in 1991 to record her debut album, but Padgham's pop leanings resulted in a slick, ballad-laden record that didn't reflect the sound Crow wanted. The album was shelved, and fearing that she'd let her best opportunity slip through her fingers, Crow sank into another near-crippling depression that lingered for nearly a year and a half. However, thanks to boyfriend Kevin Gilbert, an engineer who'd attempted to remix her ill-fated album, Crow fell in with a loose group of industry pros that included Gilbert, Bill Bottrell, David Baerwald, David Ricketts, Brian MacLeod, and Dan Schwartz. Dubbed the Tuesday Night Music Club, this collective met once a week at Bottrell's Pasadena recording studio to drink, jam, and work out material. In this informal, collaborative setting, Crow was able to get her creative juices flowing again, and the group agreed to make its newest member -- the only one with a recording contract -- the focal point.

Crow and the collective worked out enough material for an album, and with Bottrell serving as producer, she recorded her new official debut, titled Tuesday Night Music Club in tribute. The record was released in August 1993 and proved slow to take off. Lead single "Run Baby Run" made little impact, and while "Leaving Las Vegas" attracted some attention, it reached only the lower half of the charts. A&M took one last shot by releasing "All I Wanna Do," a song partly written by poet Wyn Cooper, as a single. With its breezy, carefree outlook, "All I Wanna Do" became one of the biggest summer singles of 1994, falling just one position short of number one. Suddenly, Tuesday Night Music Club started flying out of stores, and spawned a Top Five follow-up hit in "Strong Enough" (plus another minor single in "Can't Cry Anymore"). Crow was a big winner at the Grammys in early 1995, taking home honors for Best New Artist, Best Female Rock Vocal, and Record of the Year (the latter two for "All I Wanna Do"). Her surprising sweep pushed Tuesday Night Music Club into the realm of genuine blockbuster, as its sales swept past the seven million mark. After close to a decade of dues-paying, Crow was a star.

Unfortunately, success came at a price. In 1994, Crow had been invited to perform "Leaving Las Vegas" on Late Night with David Letterman. In a brief interview segment, Letterman asked if the song was autobiographical, and Crow offhandedly agreed that it was. In actuality, the song was mostly written by David Baerwald, based on the book by his good friend John O'Brien (which had also inspired the film). Having been burned by the industry already, some of the Tuesday Night Music Club took Crow's comment as a refusal to give proper credit for their contributions. Baerwald in particular felt betrayed, and things only got worse when O'Brien committed suicide not long after Crow's Letterman appearance. Although O'Brien's family stepped forward to affirm that Crow had nothing to do with the tragedy, the rift with Baerwald was already irreparable. Some Club members bitterly charged that Crow's role in the collaborative process was rather small, and that the talent on display actually had little to do with her. Tragedy struck again in 1996 when Crow's ex-boyfriend, Kevin Gilbert, was found dead of autoerotic asphyxiation.

Stung by the accusations, Crow set out to prove her legitimacy with her second album when the heavy touring for Tuesday Night Music Club finally ended. Bill Bottrell was originally slated to produce the record, but fell out with Crow very early on, and the singer ended up taking over production duties herself. However, she did bring in the noted team of Mitchell Froom and Tchad Blake as assistant producer and engineer, respectively. Froom and Blake were known for the strange sonic experimentation they brought to projects by roots rockers (the Latin Playboys) and singer/songwriters (Richard Thompson, Suzanne Vega), and they helped Crow craft a similarly non-traditional record. Released in the fall of 1996, Sheryl Crow definitely bore the stamp of the singer's personality and songwriting voice, especially in the idiosyncratic lyrics; plus, she was now doing most of the writing, usually with her guitarist, Jeff Trott, proving that she could cut it without her estranged collaborators. The singles "If It Makes You Happy," "Everyday Is a Winding Road," and "A Change Would Do You Good" were all radio smashes, and "Home" also became a minor hit. Sheryl Crow went triple platinum, and Crow brought home Grammys for Best Rock Album and another Best Female Rock Vocal (for "If It Makes You Happy").

Crow toured with the Lilith Fair package during the summer of 1997 (the first of several tours), and subsequently wrote and performed the title theme to the James Bond film Tomorrow Never Dies. In the fall of 1998, she returned with her third album, The Globe Sessions. A more straightforward, traditionalist rock record than Sheryl Crow, The Globe Sessions didn't dominate the airwaves in quite the same fashion, but it did become her third straight platinum-selling, Top Ten LP, and it won her another Grammy for Best Rock Album. It also spawned two mid-sized hits in the Top 20: "My Favorite Mistake" and "Anything But Down." In 1999, she contributed a Grammy-winning cover of Guns N' Roses' "Sweet Child o' Mine" to the soundtrack of the Adam Sandler comedy Big Daddy. She also performed a special free concert in New York's Central Park, with an array of guest stars including Keith Richards, Eric Clapton, Chrissie Hynde, the Dixie Chicks, Stevie Nicks, and Sarah McLachlan. The show was broadcast on Fox and later released as the album Live in Central Park, just in time for the holidays. "There Goes the Neighborhood" won her another Grammy for Best Female Rock Vocal; however, partly because of some shaky performances, the album flopped badly, not even going gold.

 Hit with a case of writer's block, Crow took some time to deliver her fourth studio LP. In the meantime, she produced several tracks on Stevie Nicks' 2001 album, Trouble in Shangri-La, and also recorded a duet with Kid Rock, "Picture," for his album Cocky. Finally, in the spring of 2002, Crow released C'mon C'mon, which entered the LP charts at number two for her highest positioning yet. It quickly went platinum, and the lead single, "Soak Up the Sun," was a Top 20 hit and another ubiquitous radio smash. The follow-up, "Steve McQueen," was also a lesser hit. At the beginning of 2005 it was announced that there would be two simultaneously released new albums available by the end of the year. The project was then scaled back to the single-disc Wildflower, which saw release at the end of September. Crow was forced to take time off from her musical career in 2006 after being diagnosed with stage 1 breast cancer. After successful treatment, she returned in 2008 with her sixth studio album, Detours. The soul-inspired 100 Miles from Memphis followed in 2010 and featured guest spots from Keith Richards, Justin Timberlake, and Citizen Cope. By the end of that year she had performed with Loretta Lynn and Miranda Lambert on the title track of a Lynn tribute album, Coal Miner's Daughter. This country-focused collaboration was an early indicator of the direction that Crow's work would eventually take in the years that followed.

A creatively quiet 2011 ended with her appearance on William Shatner's space-themed third studio album, Seeking Major Tom. Crow's delicate, piano-fueled cover of K.I.A.'s "Mrs. Major Tom" was generally received by critics as one of the highlights of the disc. Then, in summer 2012, she revealed details of another health scare. Although Crow had been diagnosed with a brain tumor at the end of 2011, it was found to be benign, and six months on she was quoted in many news reports as feeling healthy and happy. That November she issued the download-only, politically charged "Woman in the White House." It was her first self-penned material to appear in a couple of years and was her most out-and-out mainstream country track to date. March 2013 saw the release of "Easy," the first single to appear ahead of Feels Like Home, a country-steeped full-length that appeared in September of 2013. Feels Like Home debuted at seven on the Billboard Top 200 -- and number three on the country chart -- but generated no country hits, so Crow changed direction for 2017's Be Myself by reuniting with her '90s collaborators Tchad Blake and Jeff Trott. The politically charged 2018 single "Wouldn't Want to Be Like You" saw Crow pairing up with St. Vincent's Annie Clark. That track later landed on her star-studded duets album, Threads, which recruited a wide array of guest artists including Stevie Nicks, Bonnie Raitt, Mavis Staples, Chuck D, Eric Clapton, Keith Richards, and Willie Nelson. Upon its September 2019 release, Threads debuted at number 30 on the Billboard Top 200”.

Many happy returns to Sherly Crow for 11th Feature. Although Crow intended for 2019’s Threads to be her finback studio album, one can never rule out more music. It would be a shame if we heard the last of this amazing musician! Even though she has not released an album since then, she has released singles, collaborated and appeared on other tracks. I am a huge fan of hers, so it is good to be able to compile a playlist of her excellent music. Here is a selection of Crow cuts that proves what a…

UNIQUE artist she is.

FEATURE: Kate Bush: The Iconic Shots: Before the Dawn, 2014 (Ken McKay)

FEATURE:

 

 

Kate Bush: The Iconic Shots

PHOTO CREDIT: Ken McKay 

Before the Dawn, 2014 (Ken McKay)

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I wanted to return to this feature…

 PHOTO CREDIT: Ken McKay 

for one more outing. I have been looking at photographs that, I feel, capture Bush in extraordinary situations. Iconic because of the composition or setting, this part takes me back to 2014. Her Before the Dawn residency in Hammersmith was the last real time anyone heard anything live from Bush. In fact, it is the most recent time we heard music from her at all. 2011’s 50 Words for Snow is her latest album, and she followed it with an incredible and unexpected return to the stage in 2014. I have already included a very nice shot from her first huge live outing, 1979’s The Tour of Life. In 1979, Bush was very much a musical pioneer. I don’t think the world had really seen a Pop concert like this. Madonna is often credited with reinventing what a Pop gig could be with her 1990 Blond Ambition World Tour. In fact, a lot of factors that people pick up can be traced to The Tour of Life! The wireless headset/mic was something Bush and her team pioneered. The thing about changing outfits and sets for each songs was also something Bush did. She also, before Madonna in 1990, mixed magic, mime, theatre, cabaret and dance. We do not credit Bush and her crew with what other artists are being credited for! Because of that, I think the photos from The Tour of Life are really important. Also, as that same innovator was still blowing people away and raising the bat thirty-five years after she first did, the shots captured during those twenty-two Hammersmith dates are vital.

The one I have chosen is from Ken McKay. I am going to come to a review for Before the Dawn, as it helps frame and contextualise the image. There were some great shots taken at Hammersmith (Bush returning to the same venue she was at in 1979, despite the fact it is the Eventim Apollo). I really like McKay shot, as the set and colours behind Bush are like the sun rising. She is almost welcoming in the day, at the same time as commanding the stage. I know she said how nervous she was when she was performing each night. The lift and warmth from the audience touched her. I am not sure which number Bush is performing in the photo, though you can tell that she is in her stride and drinking it in. Capturing her in an arena at a very special time for a live event that we will never see her repeat, it is one for the memory chest for sure! I was not quick or lucky enough to get a ticket…but, as Alexis Petridis notes when writing for The Guardian, Kate Bush and her musicians/cast pulled off something remarkable:

“Backed by a band of musicians capable of navigating the endless twists and turns of her songwriting – from funk to folk to pastoral prog rock - the performances of Running Up That Hill and King of the Mountain sound almost identical to their recorded versions - but letting rip during a version of Top of the City, she sounds flatly incredible.

You suspect that even if she hadn't, the audience would have lapped it up. Audibly delighted to be in the same room as her, they spend the first part of the show clapping everything she does: no gesture is too insignificant to warrant a round of applause. It would be cloying, but for the fact that Bush genuinely gives them something to cheer about.

For someone who's spent the vast majority of her career shunning the stage, she's a hugely engaging live performer, confident enough to shun the hits that made her famous in the first place: she plays nothing from her first four albums.

The staging might look excessive on paper, but onstage it works to astonishing effect, bolstering rather than overwhelming the emotional impact of the songs. The Ninth Wave is disturbing, funny and so immersive that the crowd temporarily forget to applaud everything Bush does. As each scene bleeds into another, they seem genuinely rapt: at the show's interval, people look a little stunned. A Sky of Honey is less obviously dramatic – nothing much happens over the course of its nine tracks – but the live performance underlines how beautiful the actual music is.

Already widely acclaimed as the most influential and respected British female artist of the past 40 years, shrouded in the kind of endlessly intriguing mystique that is almost impossible to conjure in an internet age, Bush theoretically had a lot to lose by returning to the stage. Clearly, given how tightly she has controlled her own career since the early 80s, she would only have bothered because she felt she had something spectacular to offer. She was right: Before The Dawn is another remarkable achievement”.

In a career spanning nearly five decades, there have been so many iconic and unforgettable images of Kate Bush. I want to finally end this feature with a shot from the last time Bush performed in public. It is one of the more recent photos of her. After 2014, there is the odd shot, though none of her performing. It is almost a time capsule and end of a chapter looking at the snaps from the 2014 residency. Ken McKay helped immortalise a national treasure delivering music that, to many, was akin to a sermon or prayer! One can almost feel the electricity, atmosphere and sheer passion that would have been in the London night back in 2014. Like she was in 1979 (paving the way for the likes of Madonna in terms of spectacle and busting the boundaries of the live experience), Kate Bush’s Before the Dawn in 2014 proved that she was…

SUCH an innovator and ground-breaker.

FEATURE: Spotlight: Tora-i

FEATURE:

 

 

Spotlight

PHOTO CREDIT: Alfie White & Rashidi Noah 

Tora-i

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I will bring in some bands soon…

but, when thinking about the artists who are going to be big this year, my mind goes to solo artists. Today, I wanted to highlight the word of the amazing Tora-i. I have a few interviews and features that I want to drop in. The London-based R&B artist is someone who definitely lit a fuse last year. She has been courting a lot of attention with tracks like Serial and PBFF. I am new to her work, though I already recognise her as one of the most promising young artists in the country. It is no wonder that, last year, AWAL were keen to sign a deal with Tora-i. This Music Week article explains more:

“AWAL has signed a new worldwide deal with Tora-i, offering the emerging R&B artist its full range of services.

Real name Tora Lambie, Tora-i, is a 21-year old East Londoner influenced by Mariah Carey, Outkast and more. She released debut EP Cavalierlast yearand has enjoyed support from a range of platforms including No Signal, Complex and more.

Tora-i has a new single, Serial, out now and will play All Points East Festival in August 2021.

AWAL president Paul Hitchman said: "AWAL is increasingly the partner of choice for breakthrough artists with important things to say. Tora-i is a supremely talented and inspirational artist who has huge potential and a unique creative vision. We believe there is no limit to what she can achieve in partnership with AWAL."

We believe there is no limit to what she can achieve

Paul Hitchman, AWAL

Eve Fairley-Chickwe, AWAL senior A&R manager, added: “Tora-i is an incredible artist, and a true creative across every aspect of her music and visuals. It's been amazing to see Tora-i steadily gain traction as an independent artist and start to build an audience here in the UK as well as in the United States. With her new music we are set to see her further evolve in her sound and style."

Pierre Bost, owner of Out Deh Management, commented: "From the release of her debut project Cavalier to now, Tora-i has built an impressive audience and AWAL is the perfect home for her to be empowered as a creative independent artist as well as continue to build globally”.

There might be those of you who are new to Tora-i and want to know more about her sound and background. She is an artist with her own vibe. One that, once heard, gets into the head! Although there is not a tonne of interviews available from Tora-i, the ones that there are reveal quite a bit. CHECK-OUT spoke with the London-based wonder around the release of her single, Serial:

“Jeffrey Thomson: How would you describe your sound?

Tora-i: An experimental soulful experience.

JT: What’s your first memory of music?

Ti: Listening to the radio with my parents.

JT: Just over a year has passed since you dropped your debut single, Vein. How has your life changed since then?

Ti: Crazy to think it’s been a year, in pandemic time that’s like six weeks so technically it wasn’t really thaaat long ago. I don’t feel any major changes though, people know that my music exists, that's about it.

JT: What do you hope people will take away from your songs?

Ti: I want them to feel understood.

JT: What advice would you give to other young female artists trying to make it in music?

Ti: Don’t mek anyone tek yu fi eediat! Bring family or someone you trust along to help and also so you don’t give the impression of being alone, that way people can’t try and take advantage of you. It’s hard not to live on defence but you have to ensure you’re protected. Learn an instrument and/or produce. And don’t worry about proving yourself to anyone, if your intention is pure it’ll happen naturally”.

Before I close things off, there is another interview that I want to bring in. TEETH spoke with Tora-i back in November. It is the deepest and most extensive interview with her so far. Among other things, Tora-i spoke about the new track, PBFF:

“Tora-i exudes authenticity and procures a confident development in her sound. With jazz and funk elements echoing through her R&B and pop melodies, this artist has continuously developed her sound in a progressive and alternative fashion. With talent and a love for corresponding visual art in the form of music videos, Tora-i brings sultry, smooth production to her effortless vocals that provide easy and intriguing listening to her audience.

The intimate creativity of Tora-i’s intentional art has captivated audiences and produced impressive streaming numbers, including over 5 million streams on Spotify alone for her debut EP, Cavalier. The celebration of beauty and womanhood can be visually and audibly endured in her music, within her straightforward songwriting. She embodies the phrase, “empathy with a sharp tongue,” in her honesty. The magnetic power of Tora-i’s music is impeccably represented by her endearing and personable disposition.

Tell me about your creative influences, both inside the walls of music but also outside in general art and creativity.

I would say they range… I think when I was younger I used to be like, ‘Oh, this is my one-person [or] this is my one-person.’ But I think as I’ve gotten older, you just take things from different people or just by life, you’re just inspired by different things. I think the artists that influenced me are usually people that are not just specific in music, they are more well-rounded and have dabbled in other things. So I would say like Prince or Frank Ocean or Andre 3000… that’s a lot of men… Solange. Yeah, those are the ones that come to my head.

PHOTO CREDIT: Alfie White & Rashidi Noah 

Your stage name is ‘Tora-i,’ could you tell me a little bit about the origin of that name?

My parents picked the name ‘Tora’ because it means ‘strong’ and ‘tiger’ in Japanese. So that’s where they found that name. As I’ve gotten older I’ve realized there are lots of different meanings but that’s why they picked it.

Who is your dream collaboration? You can give a top three.

This is a hard one, you know. Okay… I think some part of me is like, ‘What if I meet them and start fangirling and that’s annoying.’ Top collaboration, I would say James Fon*, for helping me write a song, he would be one of the top ones. Andre 3000, yeah, a verse from him would be, like, it. And then… I’m just going to say those two.

In regards to your upcoming music, what can you tell me about your creative process, what is the messaging behind it? In collaboration with that, will there be a music video associated with this song?

So, “PBFF” is about the marks that we leave on each other that you don’t really heed of until the other person’s gone. It was written in a relationship sense but I think, and I wrote it a while ago, but now that I’m out of that space and I’ve heard it a lot of times now, it can relate to a lot of different things. Just general life, like we all have an effect on each other. That’s more significant than I think we pay attention to. I guess now we feel like, in the last couple of years, we are very singular and isolated, we are living our own life. Everything’s about being self… I guess as people, as humans, I think we’re meant to be community-led and yeah, it is just about that.

There will be a video, I don’t think I’m going to do a video every single time, but there is a video for this one”.

I think that, perhaps, PBFF is the finest song from Tora-i. It is a song that I have been listening to a lot since it came out late last year. I am not publishing this feature until late in January (I am writing this on 11th January), so there may be announcements regarding new work between now and then. As this article rightly states, PBFF is a captivating listen:

“London’s rising songstress Tora-i, formally known as Tora, has recently graced supporters with the release of her brand new captivating single named, “PBFF”.

Exploring a difficult relationship with someone, Tora-i dives into the decisions you have to make amidst the aftermath of it all and what lessons you can takeaway from doing so. Housing an ethereal and laid-back production courtesy of LA beat-smith Josh Grant, Tora-i’s raspy yet rich vocal tone takes centre stage in this captivating listen.

Speaking on the release, Tora-i commented, “PBFF is about acknowledging the lasting effect that people can have on you & rather than it being a permanent stamp it’s about choosing what to take from them as you move forward”.

A sensational talent who is among the absolute pride of London, make sure that you get involved with Tora-i’s work. She is an incredible and tantalising proposition that is going to keep making strides through 2022. I cannot wait to see where she heads! Although most of Tori-i’s fanbase are U.K.-based right now, her stunning music is gripping people…

ALL around the world.

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Follow Tora-i

FEATURE: Paul McCartney at Eighty: Paul McCartney and Me: The Interviews: Roy Kerr

FEATURE:

 

 

Paul McCartney at Eighty

IN THIS PHOTO: Paul McCartney in 1964/PHOTO CREDIT: RA/Lebrecht Music & Arts 

Paul McCartney and Me: The Interviews: Roy Kerr

___________

I have already begun…

a forty-feature run that leads to Paul McCartney’s eightieth birthday on 18th June. In addition to features about The Beatles, Wings, his solo material, in addition to why he is such a legend, inspirational human and genius, I am interviewing various amazing people. I ask what Paul McCartney means to them, and when they first experienced his music. In this interview, Roy Kerr discusses working with McCartney, touring with him as a support act, in addition to working on the Twin Freaks album. In a deep and illuminating interview, Roy speaks passionately and fondly about…

THE magnificent Paul McCartney.

____________

Hi Roy. In the lead-up to Paul McCartney’s eightieth birthday on 18th June, I am interviewing different people about their love of his music and when they first discovered the work of a genius. When did you first discover Paul McCartney’s music? Was it a Beatles, Wings or solo album that lit that fuse?

I was first aware of The Beatles through my dad. He was a huge fan, especially of the early stuff. At university, I fell in love with their later more experimental/anthemic music.

I honestly didn’t know much about Wings or his solo work until I started DJing in the early-2000s (other than the huge chart hits). That was when I started to truly appreciate his individual talent and thirst for experimentation.

Like me, you must have been engrossed by The Beatles: Get Back on Disney+. How did it change your impression of The Beatles at that time, and specifically Paul McCartney’s role and influence on the rest of the band?

Mainly how much love they clearly still had for each other. That and the humour…

All I’d ever known was stories of them fighting and sniping, and it was so lovely to see them joking in spite of the clear differences. Having got to know Paul a little bit, his managerial behaviour didn’t surprise me all that much. I was impressed by his grace under pressure, though. It can’t have been easy being so young - and yet he clearly had the oldest head in comparison to the others.

On tour, he always spoke lovingly of John and Yoko (which surprised me, having only read gossipy anecdotes), so I was a little prepared. I’m still gobsmacked at him coming up with Get Back out of thin air though!

That film should be a permanent exhibit in The British Museum imho…

I know that you worked with McCartney between 2004 and 2007. How did that come about? Did you two know about one another prior to 2004?

It was a complete bolt from the blue!

My manager said he was looking for a tour DJ for an upcoming European tour and a bunch of us submitted mixtapes. I did a 5-minute megamix (cut-n-paste job), which I think worked in my favour.

The others did longer 40-60 minute mixes I believe, and I don’t think he would have sat through all of them. Plus, I was having a bit of a moment as mashup artist/DJ, so was being featured in magazines and on radio.

I got a call at home one night from one of his people and they said “Paul will call you in about half an hour”. And he did. We had a quick chat. He was lovely. He invited me to MPL (his offices in Soho) and we hit it straight off!

As a D.J./support act during the 2004 Summer European tour (including Glastonbury) and the Back to the U.S. arena tour in America in 2005, what was life like on the road with McCartney? Do you have any favourite memories of that time?

It was the most incredible experience.

My first rehearsal was at The Millennium Dome (now the O2) in London. They had a full (stadium-sized) stage set up inside an otherwise completely empty void. We were using bikes and scooters to get around, it was so vast. From then on I was treated like one of the band. It was all private jets and police escorts and Four Seasons hotels. I still pinch myself all these years later. He was so lovely and welcoming. Everyone was. He’s very disarming and gentle, but you know there’s a steely centre and you have to be at the top of your game. Everyone there was at the top of their game.

My favourite memory was when my parents joined me in New York. We did several nights at Madison Square Garden. I had my own dressing room. My mum and dad came to soundcheck and started dancing to some of the old rock ‘n roll warm-up songs Paul and the band would play.

Paul called out to them from the stage “Is that Mr & Mrs Hellraiser?!” After the show that night he met them, and he told my dad that I was a genius! My dad never really understood what I was up to with my DJing and remixes etc…but that trip changed everything.

 You made the Twin Freaks album with him where there are great remixes of some of his tracks. What was the criteria when it came to selecting the songs to remix? How much input did McCartney have when it came to the overall sound/track sequencing?

He gave me absolute free reign to do whatever I wanted.

The only stipulations were no Beatles stuff and I wasn’t to play any original music over any of it. But I got full access (including any multitracks I wanted) to all the Wings and solo catalogue (including later experimental projects such as The Fireman with the producer Youth). I was a bit cheeky by including Live and Let Die, because he didn’t own the multis to that (the Broccoli family do), but I just snipped the intro and looped it like an old Beatles loop and he loved it.

He even cheekily played it live once at soundcheck and I nearly fainted.

What was it like working with his team when putting the album together? Did you learn anything new about Paul McCartney’s music and importance during the making of Twin Freaks?

His team were wonderful.

I had my own tech on tour, Jamie, who had worked for Paul for some years, and anything I needed I got. I offered some fairly creative suggestions (I thought of having masks based on his Twin Freaks painting), and they all helped me every step of the way. I never felt like the new boy or a pain in the arse. I was surprised at how much electronica there was in his sound. Loads of amazing synths and textures. Plus all the collaborations; Stevie Wonder and Jimmy Page and others.

If you had to select your favourite Beatles, Wings and McCartney albums (one each), which would they be and why?

So tough…

Having just finished the doc., I bought the remastered/mixed albums again on vinyl and fell in love with The White Album again but, for all times, probably Revolver.

For Wings it would be Band on the Run. Mainly for the American tour, because I’d heard those songs growing up but never understood the impact they’d had until I saw them played to an American audience. He’d open with Jet right after I finished my set.

As for his solo stuff, it was McCartney II that I’d discovered through DJing electroclash parties in the early-2000s, and it properly blew me away. Still does.

Maybe an impossible question, but what does Paul McCartney, as a human and songwriting icon, personally mean to you?

As a human, he was so welcoming and open to me. He got to know my wife and young daughter (similar age to his youngest), and after all the touring he would invite me out for his boys nights out in London and Sussex. I bumped into him in St. Johns Wood a couple of years ago and he was still so warm and friendly. We had a lovely catch up walking to Pret together!

As an artist, I really think he’ll go down as our greatest ever songwriter and be thought of like one of the great classical composers for decades to come. Clearly, there are all the hits but also his endless thirst for experimentation and new frontiers too, which I think has become more understood and appreciated over time. His latest work is a reflection of that.

“He’s never happy to just simply do what others have done”.

It is difficult to say just how far and wide McCartney’s influence spans across music, culture and the world at large. If you were trying to explain to a child (or someone who had never heard of Paul McCartney) who was unaware of Paul McCartney why they should listen to his music, what would you say?

Funnily enough, my wife is a child-minder, and she loves to play her kids music. I wondered why she’d never made a Beatles kids playlist. I made her one including The Frog Chorus and a load of Beatles, and the kids love it. So, you can go from pre-schoolers to songs that make 80-year-olds cry and become 18 again, and Avant Garde songs that make young experimenters’ minds boggle. I’m not sure there’s ever been any (non-classical) composer like that. Ever.

He’s never happy to just simply do what others have done.

If you had the chance to interview Paul McCartney now and ask him any one question, what would that be?

I would want to know if he’d ever wanted to swap it all for anonymity.

He’s been famous around the world since he was a teenager and, for all the wealth and accolades, I can’t imagine the stress and strain that it has put on his personal relationships and privacy.

If you could get a single gift for McCartney for his eightieth birthday, what would you get him?

Probably a nice tasty Margarita.

To end, I will round off the interview with a Macca song. It can be anything he has written or contributed to. Which song should I end with?

Selfishly, I’ll go with Oh Woman Oh Why from Twin Freaks. This was always my opener, and it takes me back to a dark, packed, expectant stadium. It’s a full-body sensation I’ll never forget, and this one instantly takes me there.

FEATURE: Second Spin: Charli XCX - Sucker

FEATURE:

 

 

Second Spin

Charli XCX - Sucker

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THIS is an album…

 PHOTO CREDIT: Emma Swann

that was positively reviewed when it came out in 2014, though the songs from it are not played as much as they should be now. In fact, when people talk about the very best albums of the 2010s, how many mention Charli XCX’s Sucker? Her second studio album, it was an incredibly accomplished, confident and exceptional release from the twenty-two-year-old Cambridge-born artist (real name Charlotte Emma Aitchison). Even though, years after the album came out, that she felt some of it felt fake now (2018), I feel it is a great album that solidified the status of one of the world’s best young Pop artists. Although subsequent albums have been truer to Charli XCX’s true talents and potential, Sucker is a brilliant album that should be hyped! I want to get to a couple of contrasting reviews for the 2014 album soon. Most of the reviews were very positive, though a few were a bit more mixed. Prior to that, there are a couple of interviews from around the release of Sucker that I want to bring in. COMPLEX covered an artist who was definitely ion the rise:

“Charli’s songwriting process is astoundingly spontaneous and reactive: Listening to a beat for the first time, she sings and records whatever comes out. Sometimes there are additional takes, but not always.

There’s a distinctly electric, kinetic quality to “I Love It,” the hook to “Fancy,” and “Boom Clap”—they’re built for parties and mixtapes, totally singable anthems. Incredibly, when lacking anything remotely resembling self-consciousness, Charli XCX produces hits that resonate around the world. But what about her more deliberate, self-conscious efforts?

True Romance, released in April 2013, didn’t have any hits, per se. The album had catchy songs about relationships destroyed and young, dumb love—common pop wheelhouse stuff. It was the packaging that set her album apart to its vocal admirers, many of whom were music critics. Lush, dreamy soundscapes and bedroom-ceiling musings with the coolest girl in school, finely produced to a tee, with each note exuding Charli’s naturally charismatic, smart edges. Maybe too smart. The album was a critical success, but despite building Charli’s devoted following, it struggled commercially, never cracking the Billboard 200. She loves True Romance but admits to making music in a way she’s not entirely proud of: “I just wanted to make sure people thought I was cool,” she says. “That’s what I was worried about.”

Charli went to Sweden. She recorded those punk songs. She stopped caring about pleasing critics or becoming famous. After turning down so many people in the industry for writing work, she decided to work with whomever she felt like, appearances notwithstanding. She wrote for Britney Spears and with Dr. Luke. Iggy Azalea’s people sent her a beat. Charli was a fan of Iggy’s song “Work.” She wrote several hooks to the beat. “I had that rap in my head, the ‘Who dat, who dat? I-G-G-Y,’” she says. “I was like, that’s fucking cool. Then I just did my thing.”

Her “thing” resulted in yet another No. 1 single. And her not giving a fuck resulted in new sessions, with Batmanglij, Cuomo, and über-producer Stargate, that birthed material for a new album, Sucker, to be released this fall. She acknowledges that some people—maybe even some of her core fans, Charli’s Angels, as they call themselves—might not like it, that it might be too pop for them. “Some people will look at that like, ‘She’s working with Stargate, she’s sold out.’ That’s the kind of person I used to be—and now I think that kind of person is fucking retarded.”

Of course, mixed in with all of the work, there’s semblance of a life. She still has a handful of close friends who “literally do not give a fuck about Charli XCX” and a few real friends she’s made in the music industry. It’s a close circle. Charli considers herself an awkward person, or at least has felt like one lately. She’s had panic attacks in the studio, during which she’ll start to crawl on or under the equipment. She’s shut down before, emotionally. She’ll quickly cop to feeling self-conscious at existential moments of recognizing her weird, sometimes isolating existence.

When I ask her to elaborate on all of this, she’s already ahead of me. It all just spills out:

“There are days where I can go into a room full of people, talk to every single person, and feel completely at ease, and feel like making every single person laugh, and feel like everyone’s having a great time. There are other times where I go into a room of people and I literally want to run and hide. I want to lock myself in the bathroom and cry, which I’ve done. It’s not because anyone’s saying anything horrible to me. It’s just...people are asking me questions—not even asking me questions about Charli XCX.”

Before I can ask her whom these people are asking her about: “I’ve felt like a schizophrenic person since the beginning of 2014. Sometimes I just shut down and want to stay in bed and cry. Other times I want to get fucked up in the most fun way possible.”

It doesn’t seem to be my place to tell her that this is a surefire indicator of a human being in her 20s. But there are also hints of something a little more existential. And then:

“I haven’t figured out what triggers the sudden thing. I’m exhausted today. So tired. I woke up at 4 a.m. yesterday and stayed awake until 6 a.m. because I was having loads of sex”—here, she laughs to herself—“and then I woke up at 9 a.m. this morning because I had to go, so I’ve had three hours of sleep in the last two days. But I’m not moody. So, it’s not because I’m tired, because otherwise I would’ve shut down now”.

In another interview, Pitchfork asked whether it was more difficult for Charli XCX to stay private and have some space now that she is a bigger artist and is getting attention from various quarters:

“Pitchfork: It’s funny to hear you say that because one thing you really excel at on Sucker is bridging the gap between the mainstream pop world and the “cool” pop world—you’re mixing big Top 40 producers and songwriters, like Stargate and Benny Blanco, with critical darlings like Robyn producer Patrik Berger, Cashmere Cat, Ariel Rechtshaid, and Vampire Weekend’s Rostam Batmanglij.

XCX: That’s what I aim to do as an artist. I hate the idea of people thinking that I’m just a little girl who goes into studios with pop producers, and they work their magic. I executive-produced this record myself and I put those people in a room together because I thought it would be right. A lot of artists in my position, particularly before “Fancy”, would be very afraid to work with Stargate for fear of what people would say about them. But I don’t give a fuck because I think Stargate are tight and I work really well with them—they can sit in a studio and write seven songs in a day. And Cashmere and Benny have worked together forever, they live in the same house. I want to bring those people together because I think I can make it work. I’ve always been good at never being the same thing twice, and it’s partially because I like collaboration.

Pitchfork: There was almost lore around Sucker before it was even announced: how you went to Sweden to make a punk record to get out your anger and then abandoned that album in favor of a more traditional pop record. But I still hear the punk bits in some of these songs.

XCX: Some of the poppier songs on the punk record are now the most punk songs on the pop record. There were some full-on, two-minute-long, me-screaming songs. There was one called “Mow That Lawn”, which is so sick. It goes, “Oooh! Baby mow that lawn/ Oooh! Really turns me on/ Oooh! Got no mobile phone/ Oooh! ‘Cause the signal’s gone.” It’s about me moving to the countryside and being bored of taking too many drugs and drinking too much, and just wanting to have a cat and mow the lawn.

That experience was therapeutic for me, because I was bored of being the girl who didn’t sing “I Love It”, even though I do fucking sing all through that song—I’m pretty audible on it. I was bored of getting requests to rewrite that song for other people. I had lost myself in the music industry and in the idea of being “the best” songwriter; I was going down a Dr. Luke road with my competitive mentality. I didn’t like it. That’s not who I am. So I went to Sweden and spoke with Patrik [Berger] and Pontus [Winnberg, aka Avant of production duo Bloodshy & Avant] about it. Pontus worked on a lot of the Britney [Spears] stuff back in the day, and I asked him, “What do you think about how I’m feeling?” He said he felt like that, like the pop world is this weird competitive environment that he wanted to get out of. Everyone in Sweden is cool, it’s not like L.A.; I got all my shit out and felt better about myself belonging in the music world.

PHOTO CREDIT: Terry Richardson 

Pitchfork: Do you find that it’s gotten harder to stay private as you’ve gotten more popular? It seems like there’s this expectation among pop stars who write their own lyrics to reflect their personal lives in a way that can be voyeuristic, and ultimately feed into the cult-of-personality cycle of fame.

XCX: The thing that differentiates me from someone like Taylor Swift is that I don’t live in gossip magazines. I don’t want that. It’s not a slight on Taylor—she’s a genius—but I’m not about to date a boy-band member. I don’t have interest in fame, at all. I have an interest in people listening to my music. That’s it. I don’t want to go to a fucking fashion party. It’s hard for people to be truly voyeuristic about me because they don’t know that much about me. I’m not getting chased while buying eggs, like Iggy was the other week. I don’t even buy eggs, I can’t fucking cook! Maybe I’m being naïve, expecting that I’m going to be able to stay like that if I continue to do what I’m doing. But I’m very conscious to keep it like that.

Also, I’m very selfish when I write songs and I don’t really think about my audience. My subject matters are broad, and I’m very much a blunt songwriter. So it’s quite easy for people to apply my shit to their life. That takes the pressure off me a little bit”.

To round off, I want to source two interviews. I will end with a mor positive one. The Guardian had some slightly mixed opinions when they sat down with Sucker:

“Indeed, you get the sense that Sucker has been attended by perhaps a little too much excitement for its own good. In the US, where the album was released in December (it appeared at No 6 in Rolling Stone’s best albums of 2014 list), reviews went big on its radical and uncompromising nature: it was frequently referred to as punk. That is obviously talk to get the blood up. Punk is a catch-all term, encompassing everything from the shouty vegan anarcho-syndicalism of Crass to the intricate concept albums of Fucked Up to the late GG Allin throwing his own excrement around on stage while singing Eat My Diarrhea. Adopting any of these as an influence would clearly represent a radical gesture on the part of a mainstream pop star.

In the case of Sucker, however, punk means the occasional presence of some distorted guitars and some swearing. Nothing wrong with that, of course, but the listener should perhaps adjust their expectations of uncompromising radicalism accordingly. With its synthesisers topped with chugging riffs and powerchords, what Sucker usually resembles is a more unbridled, less obviously micro-managed version of the Strokes-inspired new wave pop style unveiled on Kelly Clarkson’s 2004 hit Since U Been Gone and later adopted, to staggering commercial effect, by One Direction. At its best, as on the withering string of put-downs that comprises Breaking Up or Hanging Around’s homage to I Love Rock’n’Roll, it’s great, fizzy, trashy fun. At its worst, as on London Queen, it gets a bit tinny and irritating: a criticism that’s been levelled at virtually every attempt to graft a new-wave/pop hybrid over the last 40 years, from Back of My Hand by the Jags to Busted.

The one thing it never is, though, is particularly radical. It’s tempting to say that it doesn’t really need to be. If her songwriting occasionally misfires, churning out stuff that’s indistinguishable from every other indistinguishable song on the Radio 1 playlist – the Rita Ora feature Doing It is a case in point - it’s frequently dead on target, as evidenced by the closing So Over You, which distinguishes itself from dozens of other big, synthy mid-tempo pop tracks out there simply by being a slightly better song.

That said, there’s certainly a hint of screw-you subversion about the lyrics, at least in the context of recent pop music. The usual you-are-beautiful, believe-in-yourself platitudes are dispensed with in favour of paeans to hedonism, or “getting high and getting wrecked” as Break the Rules puts it. Famous features what appears to be a reference to taking LSD, of all things; the closest it comes to the arena of self-help is a song about having a wank. In marked contrast to the X Factor-peddled notion that celebrity is within everyone’s reach, Aitchison’s songs present her fame and success as something fantastic, unattainable by mere mortals. It would sound a bit snotty if she wasn’t so funny: Gold Coins depicts her literally building a castle out of money, pulling up the drawbridge, then sitting inside it, smoking a fag.

One of the reasons that image is funny is that it wildly overstates the level of success Charli XCX has achieved thus far: as it turned out, Sucker was a modest US success rather than a chartbuster. But for all its failings, and for all that it falls short of the more hysterical hype, it does enough to convince you that her long-delayed moment in the sun won’t be fleeting: perhaps she’ll get there yet”.

To end, I want to include AllMusic’s take on Sucker, it is far kinder. It is more accurate. I think that Charli XCX’s second album is one that everyone should hear and spend some time with:

“For a while, Charli XCX seemed to be tiptoeing into the spotlight. After co-writing and singing on Icona Pop's smash hit "I Love It," her album True Romance -- which had a darker, indie-friendly sound -- earned more acclaim than sales. Her next big break came with another collaboration, 2014's inescapable "Fancy," where she provided the sing-songy chorus to Iggy Azalea's brash verses. On Sucker, she keeps more of that hit-making swagger for herself, delivering attention-getting pop that's bold enough to ensure she isn't overshadowed by anybody. She makes her purpose clear with the album's title track, a musical middle finger to the clueless set to revved-up synths and stabbing guitars. It's a big change from the gothy pop of True Romance, though even on that album, XCX's hooks were undeniable. Sucker is also full of should-be hits, but these songs also show how creatively she fashions the shiniest parts of the '80s, '90s, 2000s, and 2010s into her own highly stylized sound. "Famous" bops along on a riff that nods to Cyndi Lauper's "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun"; there's a bit of Elastica in "Breaking Up"'s buzzsaw guitars and flirty put-downs; "Caught in the Middle" could be vintage Gwen Stefani; and "Doing It"'s retro dance-pop feels equally informed by XCX's own fascination with the '90s and HAIM's update on that decade.

Similarly, Charli still exudes plenty of sass on Sucker, but the exact kind of attitude has changed. She retrofits some of True Romance's atmosphere on "Boom Clap," turning it into a sparkly anthem to young love that seems more innocent than it actually is. If she was trying to keep up with the hip kids before, now she sounds like an older sister sharing her tricks on "Break the Rules," where she's literally too cool for school. Anytime it feels like XCX may have oversimplified her sound -- like the notable absence of one of her finest singles, "Superlove" -- she proves otherwise. There's a realness to her writing no matter how shiny the album's surfaces are, and while these songs are influenced by the success she's had with others, she's saved her most personal songs for herself. It's hard to imagine any of her collaborators or contemporaries belting out a lyric like "When I'm driving down the wrong side of the road, I feel like JFK you know" with as much mischievous glee as Charli does on the standout "London Queen"; later, she states her independence, sexual and otherwise, on "Body of My Own." From song to song, she bounces from hanging out in her friends' bedroom to flying on private jets, making both sound like the coolest possible thing to do. Sucker's mix of youth and sophistication is more than a little volatile, and sometimes it feels like XCX is still figuring out what really works for her music. Nevertheless, it succeeds as an introduction to Charli XCX the Pop Star while retaining her whip-smart songwriting and attitude”.

With her hotly-anticipated fifth album, Crash, due in March, it is a good opportunity to look back at an earlier album. One that deserves more spins and credit. An artist who grows stronger with every release (she turns thirty in August), Charli XCX is one of our best artists. A remarkable songwriter and modern-day star, it will be interesting to see how her career progresses. Sucker is an album full of brilliant material. If you do not believe me, then go and…

LISTEN for yourself.

FEATURE: Vinyl Corner: Silverchair – Freak Show

FEATURE:

 

 

Vinyl Corner

Silverchair – Freak Show

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THIS is a Vinyl Corner…

where I am featuring a band I have not included before. Silverchair were an Australian Alternative Rock group. They left us with some sensational albums. I think that their second album, Freak Show, is their best known. It is an album that I would encourage people to seek out on vinyl. It is an amazing album from a band that are not really played an awful lot now. They were very popular in the mid to late-1990s, though I wonder how many people are discovering Silverchair today. If you have not heard of the band before, then I would suggest Freak Show as a starting point. Released in February 1997, the album celebrates its twenty-fifth anniverssary soon. Five years ago, Cryptic Rock spotlighted and explored Silverchair’s second studio album twenty years down the line:

“Back in the ’90s, when Alternative Rock was king, Aussie band Silverchair were etching their  name in history. Only 13 years of age when beginning their band back in 1992, their 1995 debut album, Frogstomp, was recorded in just nine days, going on to become one of the hottest releases on the charts.

As Frogstomp and “Tomorrow” continued to gain in popularity, the group toured the US with the Red Hot Chili Peppers in June, The Ramones in September, and also played on the roof of Radio City Music Hall at the MTV Music Awards. Going on to become a #1 album in Australia and New Zealand, it was certified as a US double-platinum album by the RIAA, triple-platinum in Canada by the CRIA, and multi-platinum in Australia. Not bad for 15 years old still attending high school, right?

Looking to keep the momentum of their success going, in May of 1996, the Hard Rock trio composed of Vocalist/Guitarist Daniel Johns, Drummer Ben Gillies, and Bassist Chris Joannou re-entered the studio to work on their sophomore album. Often the most challenging record for a band, of course with success and record sales always comes a certain degree of criticism as well as backlash.

For Silverchair, many felt that the band’s debut album relied too heavily on their Seattle Grunge influences. Songs like the singles “Pure Massacre” and “Israel’s Son” seemed derivative of the teens’ influences ranging from Nirvana, to Pearl Jam, to Soundgarden, to Alice In Chains, as well as Black Sabbath. For this, critics gave the group serious flack for wearing their influences on their sleeves, instead of melding their own, original sound.

So it was their second album, Freak Show, that the trio from Down Under had much to prove. Concluding the recording process in November of 1996, the album hit record stores across the U.S. on January 31, 1997. Now, twenty years later, the album remains a pivotal point in the story of Silverchair.

Lyrically, many of the songs on Freak Show focused on the backlash and anger of the expectations put on the band during their Frogstomp period. The group’s lyricist, Johns, focused his young mind, determined to prove the naysayers wrong. For his efforts, the album reached #1 and two-times platinum in Australia; was #12 on Billboard and certified gold in the United States; hit #2 in Canada; was in the Top Ten in New Zealand; and its global sales eventually exceeded 1.5 million copies. Say what they might, how many critics had released two #1 discs before graduating high school?

For the album, Johns wrote all of the lyrics with Gillies collaborating on the music. The young duo were no strangers to radio gold, and Freak Show‘s singles – “Freak” and “Abuse Me” – would help propel it to the top. (A third single/video was released in Australia and Europe for “Cemetery” but never made it to the U.S. An additional fourth single, “The Door,” received an Australia-only release.)

“Freak,” the first single and video, reached #1 on the Australian charts; it was the second single by Silverchair to do so after “Tomorrow” in 1994. (The band would not have another #1 hit until “Straight Lines” in 2007.) The music video for this song was directed by Gerald Casale, a member of Devo, who also directed the majority of their other videos. It raises the pertinent question, “What is a freak?” Are the black-clad teenagers with eyebrow piercings freaks, or is it the women that seek plastic surgery to look younger? Although, with their bass-heavy, grungy sound, none of this really mattered: they were the perfect sign of the times, musically speaking. The video for “Freak” won the International Viewer’s Choice Award for MTV Australia at the 1997 MTV Video Music Awards.

Second single/video “Abuse Me” reached #4 on Billboard‘s Hot Modern Rock Tracks and Hot Mainstream Rock Tracks charts in the U.S. The video depicted the trio performing on a silver stage, amidst freak show performers and paraphernalia, and a Rock-n-Roll astronaut inside a human gyroscope. As far as videos go, it was not-monumental, but it continued the push for the album and the band. The song, however, was a clear jab at critics who had lauded the band for copying their influences. “Come on, abuse me more, I like it,” Johns taunts in the now-classic chorus. It was a mirror of Nirvana’s “Rape Me,” but that did not stop fans from loving the track and the album.

Third single, “Cemetery,” received an overseas release but was never available here in the U.S. Die-hard fans did not much care and still managed to get their hands on the video. Reportedly, Johns had never actually intended to release the song, as he was apprehensive about being ridiculed for having written a ballad. Of course, Johns need not have worried: both his bandmates and fans loved the song. In fact, to date, it has been covered by a plethora of artists, most notably Good Charlotte.

By late 1997, the trio had completed their secondary education and were free from school books and exams. After Freak Show, the band would go on to release three more albums, 1999’s Neon Ballroom, 2002’s Diorama, and 2007’s Young Modern over the next ten years before announcing an indefinite hiatus in May 2011. The music has not seized for the members of Silverchair though as they continue to write and record in other projects since, notably Johns’ released an impressive debut solo album in 2015, entitled Talk.

Nonetheless, the importance of Freak Show in the Silverchair oeuvre is as the catalyst for the band’s third, arguably most beloved album, Neon Ballroom. It was with this disc that their sound would truly begin to take on its own voice, moving away from Hard Rock and toward something much more Pop-friendly”.

Some would say that Silverchair’s third album, Neon Ballroom (1999), is their finest moment. I would plump for Freak Show. It is an album that got a lot of love back in 1997. It was a great year for Rock and Alternative music. I want to end with a review for Freak Show. Rolling Stone had their say in 1997:

“Bonding with Silverchair’s ’95 debut, Frogstomp, was like finding cool clothes at your local mall: No matter how much you wanted to dismiss it as a fluke, one that somehow stumped your hip radar, it ultimately fulfilled some deep, aesthetic need. So Freak Show should be the teenage trio’s embarrassing second album, one that proves that this Australian outfit is truly the Menudo of grunge. But as Freak Show demonstrates, you weren’t duped the first time around — Silverchair own the attitude, passion and songwriting skills that most Nirvana Juniors can only feebly approximate.

“If only I could be as cool as you,” sings Daniel Johns on “Freak,” addressing the you-only-think-you’re-from-Seattle issue with a sarcastic one-liner. The band then moves on to pillage other sources, namely the hardcore guitar assault of Helmet and the heavy-duty groove of its parents’ Black Sabbath albums.

Johns’ bittersweet, crackly voice tops the ample power chordage, sounding eerily close to Kurt Cobain as Johns hits shivery, emotional notes that convey both sweet idealism and disappointment. The 17-year-old singer’s lyrics aren’t quite as deep as the Nirvana frontman’s; instead, Johns is a fount of the kind of poetry etched on the walls in fifth-period English class (“No more maybes/Babies got rabies”). And that’s enough — for now, it’s Johns’ voice that’s doing all the communicating.

Throughout, Silverchair spin out songs strong enough to crack the charts, yet the band plays them with the spontaneity of an after-school jam. A number like “The Door” is as catchy as a Monkees tune, but Silverchair actually wrote it themselves. The only problems with Freak Show are that a few tracks sound too much alike and the proggy ballad “Cemetery” is as overblown as the hairstyles in any high school annual (you watch, it’ll be their biggest hit).

Silverchair have loads of potential. The band may still be using other peoples’ riffs to guide its post-pubescent fury, but it’s the enthusiasm that makes this Freak Show more than a novelty”.

An album that is well worth getting on vinyl, make sure that you add Silverchair’s Freak Show to your collection. I encountered it first time around in 1997, though it is an album that I have come back to. Freak, to me, is one of the defining songs of the 1990s. I have been dipping back into it the past few days. A terrific album from the much-missed Silverchair, Freak Show is an album that sounds pretty raw and epic…

ON vinyl.

FEATURE: Paul McCartney at Eighty: Paul McCartney and Me: The Interviews: David Quantick

FEATURE:

 

 

Paul McCartney at Eighty

IN THIS PHOTO: Paul McCartney in 1964/PHOTO CREDIT: RA/Lebrecht Music & Arts  

Paul McCartney and Me: The Interviews: David Quantick

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I have already begun…

a forty-feature run that leads to Paul McCartney’s eightieth birthday on 18th June. Alongside features about The Beatles, Wings, his solo material, in addition to why he is such a legend, inspirational human and genius, I am interviewing various amazing people. I ask what Paul McCartney means to them and when they first experienced his music. In this first interview is the terrific novelist, author, music journalist and comedy writer, David Quantick. Having appeared numerous times on Chris Shaw’s phenomenal Beatles podcast, IAmtheEggPod, I can confirm that David knows his stuff when it comes to Paul McCartney! David also made a programme about what if John Lennon had left The Beatles in 1962/lived (the Beatles icon was killed in 1980) for Playhouse Presents. To start this interview series ahead of Paul McCartney’s eightieth birthday in June, David Quantick explains what the music icon…

MEANS to him.

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Hi David. In the lead-up to Paul McCartney’s eightieth birthday on 18th June, I am interviewing different people about their love of his music and when they first discovered the work of a genius. When did you first discover Paul McCartney’s music? Was it a Beatles, Wings or solo album that lit that fuse? What was your reaction when you first heard the band?

I first heard Help! on the radio as a small boy. I think I liked it. Then I had tapes of the Red and Blue compilations (released in 1973, the Red Album covered their hits songs between 1962–1966; the Blue Album between 1967–1970) and became obsessed.

Like me, you must have been engrossed by The Beatles: Get Back on Disney+. How did it change your impression of The Beatles at that time, and specifically Paul McCartney’s role and influence on the rest of the band?

It didn’t really…

I enjoyed it and was pleased that The Beatles continued to be creative and so on. But to be honest, Let It Be is a bad album and The Beatles were right to jack it in.

Your excellent 2002 book, Revolution: The Making of The Beatles' White Album, looked at the classic 1968 eponymous double album from The Beatles. What did you learn about Paul McCartney as a songwriter whilst researching and writing that book?

Only that he is a unique and fantastic talent, which I knew already. The White Album is a pretty democratic Beatles L.P., and Paul’s contributions - from Back in the U.S.S.R. and Mother Nature’s Son to I Will and Honey Pie - show enormous range.

McCartney’s latest studio album, McCartney III, was released at the end of 2020. What do you think the future holds in terms of McCartney’s music? How do you think his sound/lyrics will change or evolve, if at all?

He is nearly 80, but shows no signs of retiring. He loves to work, and he loves new ideas.

So, I will continue to look forward to his next record.

If you had to select your favourite Beatles, Wings and McCartney albums (one each), which would they be and why?

The White Album (The Beatles) for the variety and the ambition; Wings Over America for the variety and the ambition, and McCartney I because it is lovely.

Maybe an impossible question, but what does Paul McCartney, as a human and songwriting icon, personally mean to you?

Talent, luck, ambition and genius sometimes attach themselves to really good people. Like his fellow Beatles, Paul has always tried to be a force for good.

I love him.

“ He is nearly 80, but shows no signs of retiring. He loves to work, and he loves new ideas”.

It is difficult to say just how far and wide McCartney’s influence spans across music, culture and the world at large. If you were trying to explain to a child (or someone who had never heard of Paul McCartney) who was unaware of Paul McCartney why they should listen to his music, what would you say?

Just buy the Red Album.

Reading The Lyrics: 1956 to the Present makes me realise that Paul McCartney might be underrated as a lyricist. He is lauded because of his musical innovation, but sometimes his lyrics get short shrift. Do you think he is undervalued as a lyricist, and do you have any personal favourite lines of his?

He is a great writer.

Often complex, mostly simple. I’d show someone The End of the End from Memory Almost Full for the complex, and Silly Love Songs for the simple.

If you had the chance to interview Paul McCartney now and ask him any one question, what would that be?

Could you sing I Don’t Know from Egypt Station for me?

If you could get a single gift for McCartney for his eightieth birthday, what would you get him?

A day off being asked about The Beatles.

To end, I will round off the interview with a Macca song. It can be anything he has written or contributed to. Which song should I end with?

I Want to Hold Your Hand.

Nothing has ever sounded like this before or since. My favourite single of all time. Or Mull of Kintyre, the first single I ever bought. I still love it.

FEATURE: Vinyl Corner: Meat Loaf – Bat Out of Hell

FEATURE:

 

 

Vinyl Corner

Meat Loaf – Bat Out of Hell

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FOLLOWING the sad…

death of Meat Loaf on 20th January, there were a lot of tributes about his success and legacy as an artist. Whilst he recorded so many great albums through his career, 1977’s Bat Out of Hell will always be seen as his peak. Produced by Todd Rundgren, the album spawned huge hits like You Took the Words Right Out of My Mouth (Hot Summer Night), Paradise by the Dashboard Light and Bat Out of Hell. One of the best-selling albums ever in the U.S., this is an album that everyone needs in their vinyl collection. No matter what your age, everyone can remember and sing along to the biggest songs on the album. It is operatic and huge, yet there is so much variety in terms of the songwriting and sound. I am going to end with a review of Bat Out of Hell. Prior to that, there are a couple of articles that give background to the blockbuster album. Classic Rock Review note how the album was a collaboration between Meat Loaf, Jim Steinman (who wrote the tracks) and producer Todd Rundgren:

“Although credited as a solo album by Meat Loaf, the blockbuster album Bat Out of Hell was actually forged through a collaboration of three people – Meat Loaf (born Marvin Lee Aday), songwriter Jim Steinman and producer/guitarist Todd Rundgren. This album would go into the stratosphere sales-wise, certified platinum fourteen times over and currently ranked ninth all-time in worldwide sales. However, these gentlemen may have been the only three to believe in this project during its early years. By the time of its release in late 1977, the album had been worked on for over five years but it had been rejected by every major Label (and quite a few minor labels as well). The project was finally picked up by tiny Cleveland International Records, not so much by musical merit but more so when owner Steve Popovich heard the witty dialogue which precedes the song “You Took the Words Right Out of My Mouth (Hot Summer Night)”.

Meat Loaf met Steinman shortly after releasing his soul-influenced debut album Stoney & Meatloaf in 1971. Both were deeply interested theatrical music as Meat Loaf had starred in several Broadway plays and the film, Rocky Horror Picture Show, and Steinmen had composed for several productions including a sci-fi update of Peter Pan called Neverland, which was a pre-cursor to Bat Out of Hell. Writing for the album started as early as 1972, with the songs fully developed by the end of 1974, when Meat Loaf decided to leave the theatre to concentrate on this project. In 1975, the dual performed a live audition for Todd Rundgren, an avant garde performer and producer, who was impressed that the music did not fit any rock conventions or sub-genres to date. However, this was a double-edged sword as they had immense difficulty finding a record company willing to sign them. According to Meat Loaf’s autobiography, the band spent two and a half years auditioning the record and being rejected. One of the most brutal rejections came from CBS head Clive Davis, who first dismissed Meat Loaf by saying “actors don’t make records” before turning his ire towards Steinman’s songwriting.

The group had reached a verbal deal with RCA Records and started recording the album in late 1975 at Bearsville Studios in Woodstock, NY. However, the RCA deal fell through during production and Rundgren essentially footed the bill for recording himself. And this was no small bill as the album includes contributions by sixteen rock musicians and singers as well as the New York Philharmonic Orchestra. Some of these backing musicians include members of Bruce Springsteen’s E Street Band as well as Rundgren’s backing band, Utopia.

Steinman, who wrote every song and gave the album its title and artwork, had wanted equal billing with Meat Loaf on the album’s title, but was out-voted by record execs who felt that Meat Loaf alone was a more marketable, with the unorthadox, “Songs by Jim Steinmen” sub-heading appearing on the album’s cover. Even after the album was finally released in October 1977, it took awhile to catch on In the U.S. Ironically, it was after a CBS Records convention where Meat Loaf performed a song for that label’s top artist Billy Joel, that the album finally got some mainstream momentum”.

The phenomenal songwriting of Jim Steinman (who sadly died last year), the huge personality and titanic voice of Meat Loaf and the epic production from Todd Rundgren is a brilliant combination! Bat Out of Hell is one of the defining album from the late-1970s. Albumism celebrated forty years of a classic in 2017:

“Meat Loaf’s Bat Out of Hell is outstanding in every sense of the word. Produced in 1975, released in 1977, it went on to become one of the best-selling albums of all time. It sits neatly in the cross-hairs of all major rock music trends of the 1970s: teen angst storytelling, reverberating guitar shreds, and smooth soft-rock vocals. And yet, Bat Out of Hell is a complete oddball. It is an epic unto itself: a seven-track album averaging six minutes per song. The lyrics are kitschy and the song structure is intentionally inconsistent. It was a rock opera parody often taken a little too seriously. It was misunderstood, underestimated, and almost never released.

Bat Out of Hell plays like the soundtrack to a musical that would be cost-prohibitive and very dangerous to make: a tale of brash and intense young love, with motorcycles and fire strewn about. It’s intentionally over-the-top. The title track opener is an eight minute, 784-word opus that tests the limits of endurance from both a performer and listener’s perspective. It tells the story of a man who has crashed, is hurt and presumably dying (“Oh, like a bat out of hell / I'll be gone when the morning comes”). What ensues in the album is the flood of memories of his life with love: “If I gotta be damned, you know I want to be damned / Dancing through the night with you.” The subject is recklessness and the lyrics are carefree. As a whole, the album opener is turbo-charged and makes you want to move your feet at 158 bpm. The beginning of this album sounds like any other musician’s closer.

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Though it was Meat Loaf’s second album, it was his first collaboration with writer/composer Jim Steinman. Meat Loaf has a reputation for incredible vocals and passionate delivery, but Steinman represents the “signature sound”—a fact not lost on either party since the album’s release four decades ago.

Steinman shows strength in creating legendary singalongs without subscribing to pop music norms. One of his influences was 19th century opera composer Richard Wagner; Steinman described Bat Out of Hell thematically as Wagnerian Rock. One notable aspect of Wagner’s was his “through-composition”—that is, he set lyrical stanzas to different music for each verse, rather than relying on a more traditional “strophic” form which repeats the same music for different stanzas. Most songs on this album subscribe to this through-composed structure. “Paradise by the Dashboard Light” covers the whole arc of a teenage relationship in iconic micromovements, re-lived clumsily on most wedding dancefloors in the ‘80s and ‘90s.

According to Meat Loaf’s autobiography, producer and lead guitarist Todd Rundgren joined the project because he thought the concept was “just so out there.” It’s the exact reason label executives rejected the album left and right. Clive Davis of CBS famously lambasted Steinman on his inability to write music that fits into the pop music formula.

After at least two years of shopping it, Bat Out of Hell was ultimately picked up by Cleveland International Records, a subsidiary of Epic Records. According to Frederic Dannen’s book Hit Men, Cleveland International President Steve Popovich “did not care much for it” upon first listening but solicited feedback from two women whom he trusted: his ex-wife and sister-in-law. They both loved it. Ultimately the album grew on him and he thought the uniqueness of the sound could work to its advantage. After Cleveland/Epic picked it up, it took a few years of local radio play and a live performance or two before the album finally took off to the success we associate with it today. It has now sold over 43 million copies worldwide.

Unfortunately, the success of Bat Out of Hell is one that very few people shared in. According to a 1993 article by John Aizlewood in Q Magazine, after its release “Steinman hadn't been paid for Bat Out Of Hell. He sued Meat Loaf's publishing company, who hadn't been paid either. Everyone seemed to sue Meat Loaf, who filed for bankruptcy.” Steinman and Meat Loaf collaborated on follow-up projects but continued to wage subsequent legal battles (most recently over the use of the “Bat Out of Hell” name). Popovich sued Epic (now Sony) Records for lost royalties as record sales continued to soar and Sony hid behind a cross-collateralization clause, claiming that the costs of the album’s production were still not covered. Popovich passed away in 2011 in the midst of legal battles. Seemingly most important was his desire to restore the original “Cleveland International” logo to the album cover as his legacy”.

I am going to end with a review. AllMusic showed a lot of love and respect for an album that, whilst not ranked alongside the very best albums of the ‘70s in some people’s views, it definitely should be there:

“There is no other album like Bat Out of Hell, unless you want to count the sequel. This is Grand Guignol pop -- epic, gothic, operatic, and silly, and it's appealing because of all of this. Jim Steinman was a composer without peer, simply because nobody else wanted to make mini-epics like this. And there never could have been a singer more suited for his compositions than Meat Loaf, a singer partial to bombast, albeit shaded bombast. The compositions are staggeringly ridiculous, yet Meat Loaf finds the emotional core in each song, bringing true heartbreak to "Two out of Three Ain't Bad" and sly humor to "Paradise by the Dashboard Light." There's no discounting the production of Todd Rundgren, either, who gives Steinman's self-styled grandiosity a production that's staggeringly big but never overwhelming and always alluring. While the sentiments are deliberately adolescent and filled with jokes and exaggerated clichés, there's real (albeit silly) wit behind these compositions, not just in the lyrics but in the music, which is a savvy blend of oldies pastiche, show tunes, prog rock, Springsteen-esque narratives, and blistering hard rock (thereby sounding a bit like an extension of Rocky Horror Picture Show, which brought Meat Loaf to the national stage). It may be easy to dismiss this as ridiculous, but there's real style and craft here and its kitsch is intentional. It may elevate adolescent passion to operatic dimensions, and that's certainly silly, but it's hard not to marvel at the skill behind this grandly silly, irresistible album”.

We sadly said goodbye to Meat Loaf earlier this month. The outpouring of love on social media proves how adored he is. His music will stand the test of time and be revered decades from now. It has been an hour including Bat Out of Hell…

IN this Vinyl Corner.

FEATURE: A Radio Revolution: Celebrating BBC Radio 6 Music at Twenty

FEATURE:

 

 

A Radio Revolution

IN THIS PHOTO: Lauren Laverne and Mary Anne Hobbs/PHOTO CREDITS: BBC

Celebrating BBC Radio 6 Music at Twenty

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ON 11th March, 2002…

 IN THIS PHOTO: Gilles Peterson

BBC Radio 6 Music arrived in the world. In 2002, I don’t think many of us were too aware of digital radio and what it could achieve. My experience with radio to that point was with FM stations. I was conscious of the Internet and its powers, though digital radio was a new thing. It must have been nervous and exciting for listeners tuning in on 11th March, 2002. Phill Jupitus was responsible for welcoming in this new and brave dawn. I did not turn into that first show, though it was a thrilling and brilliant new era. Although the station was threatened with closure, it was saved from an ill-judged end. And, in spite of the fact BBC Radio 6 Music has received criticism, I think that BBC Radio 6 Music – who you can follow on Twitter – has broadened through the years. As an alternative station, its mandate was to be different to the mainstream and more popular BBC stations. At  the time of this feature going live, I am not sure whether there are any plans for the big anniversary. I am sure that there will be a dedicated day or events that herald an important occasion. Few who started at the station in 2002 (including early-morning host Chris Hawkins) could have envisaged that it would still be here twenty years later! It is a combination of great broadcasters, a broad aesthetic and loyal listenership that has ensured BBC Radio 6 Music has not only survived, but it has grown and continues to become more of a force.

Many of the broadcasters who joined the station in the first few years are still there today. The likes of Lauren Laverne, Chris Hawkins and Marc Riley are cornerstones! One of the criticisms levied at BBC Radio 6 Music in previous years was the sound and target audience. Maybe they were quite guitar-based in terms of music in the earliest days. Perhaps trying to present an edgier and hipper brand of radio, a certain all-inclusiveness was omitted. Listen to the station now, and they take from all corners of the music spectrum. The broadcasters are diverse too. From established names like Chris Hawkins to relative newcomers like Deb Grant and AFRODEUTSCHE, we have voices, tastes and faces from a wide spectrum. BBC Radio 6 Music, to me, is the most diverse and all-encompassing station we have.  The new head of the station, Samantha Moy, has brought in changes in terms of the presenters and timeslots. There have not been too many radical changes to the way BBC Radio 6 Music operates and what it says. Remaining fresh and must-listen, each broadcaster has their own style and appeal. From fascinating features to the most eclectic music, BBC Radio 6 Music has defied criticism and predicted shelf life. As the BBC celebrates its centenary later this year, it should be proud of a station that offers comfort and inspiration to so many. During the pandemic, it has not only been the blend of hot new music and wide-ranging older tracks that have kept people coming back. Each broadcaster, in their own way and from their individual studios, have offered guidance and warmth to the listeners.

 IN THIS PHOTO: IDLES in session for BBC Radio 6 Music in 2020

I think one of the most important moments in their twenty-year history is the way BBC Radio 6 Music has helped and embraced its listeners. When so many people were unbale to see others and live life in a normal way, BBC Radio 6 Music were there and offering strength, reassurance and strength. The station is often called, by its presenters, a family. It seems that way. A community of listeners that can find common ground and connection, this familial blanket is another major reason why listener figures continue to increase. I look forward to learning what BBC Radio 6 Music plans for its twentieth anniversary. Going forward, I expect that the station will increase its listenership and bring in some new names. The broadcasters there are dedicated and passionate about what they do – so one might not see too many of them depart anytime soon. I think there will be new shows and presenters coming to the station. Always remaining relevant and open to change, 2022 offers a chance for real impact. The station holds a festival each year but, due to the pandemic, it has not been in its normal format. That will, surely, return to its usual state this year. The station is likely to broadcast from Glastonbury in June, and there is likely to be positive news regarding increased listeners and new records. All of this is exciting for a digital station that launched humbly (yet optimistically) on 11th March, 2002. BBC Radio 6 Music has survived potential closure to find itself beloved and heard by millions each day. It is clear that this vital part of the radio landscape is…

 IN THIS PHOTO: Matt Everitt with Elton John

NOT going anywhere.

FEATURE: Inspired By… Part Forty-Eight: Carole King

FEATURE:

 

 

Inspired By…

IN THIS PHOTO: Carole King in an outtake from Tapestry album cover session/PHOTO CREDIT: Jim McCrary/Redferns

Part Forty-Eight: Carole King

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ON 9th February…

 PHOTO CREDIT: Kirsten Shultz

the legendary Carole King turns eighty. I have also marked that occasion with a playlist of her best work. When thinking about her, I realised how influential she is. So many other artists can be traced back to her. In this second feature celebrating Carole King at eighty, this Inspired By… is a selection of songs from artists who are similar to King. Before getting to the playlist, here is some biography from AllMusic  concerning the brilliant Carole King:

“Even before stepping out of the shadows into one of the brightest solo careers of all time, singer/songwriter Carole King had already firmly established herself as one of pop music's greatest composers, with work recorded by everyone from the Beatles to Aretha Franklin. Active as a songwriter in the legendary Brill Building since the late '50s, King penned hits like Little Eva's "The Loco-Motion," the Drifters' "Up On the Roof," "Will You Love Me Tomorrow," which the Shirelles scored a number one hit with, and countless other songs that would help define pop music throughout the '60s. King eventually applied her gift for songcraft to her own albums, reaching new levels of artistry and commercial success with 1971's landmark Tapestry. The album's flawless confluence of melodic hooks and soft rock textures would help define the entire era it soundtracked, going on to sell over 25 million units and consistently stay in the charts for over five years. She would have a vibrant solo career that produced multiple gold and platinum albums like 1971's Music and 1973's Fantasy, and she remained active as a songwriter and solo performer into the '80s, '90s, and beyond. King's work has won her multiple Grammys, an Emmy, and two separate inductions into the

Born Carole Klein on February 9, 1942 in Manhattan and raised in Brooklyn, she began playing piano at the age of four, and formed her first band, the vocal quartet the Co-Sines, while in high school. A devotee of the composing team of Jerry Lieber and Mike Stoller (the duo behind numerous hits for Elvis Presley, the Coasters, and Ben E. King), she became a fixture at influential DJ Alan Freed's local rock & roll shows; while attending Queens College, she fell in with budding songwriters Paul Simon and Neil Sedaka as well as Gerry Goffin, with whom she forged a writing partnership.

In 1959, Sedaka scored a hit with "Oh! Carol," written in her honor; King cut an answer record, "Oh! Neil," but it stiffed. She and Goffin, who eventually married, began writing under publishers Don Kirshner and Al Nevins in the famed pop songwriting house the Brill Building, where they worked alongside the likes of Doc Pomus, Mort Shuman, Jeff Barry, Ellie Greenwich, and countless others. In 1961, Goffin and King scored their first hit with the Shirelles' chart-topping "Will You Love Me Tomorrow"; their next effort, Bobby Vee's "Take Good Care of My Baby," also hit number one, as did "The Loco-Motion," recorded by their babysitter, Little Eva. Together, the couple wrote over 100 chart hits in a vast range of styles, including the Chiffons' "One Fine Day," the Monkees' "Pleasant Valley Sunday," the Drifters' "Up on the Roof," the Cookies' "Chains" (later covered by the Beatles), Aretha Franklin's "(You Make Me Feel) Like a Natural Woman," and the Crystals' controversial "He Hit Me (And It Felt Like a Kiss)."

King also continued her attempts to mount a solo career, but scored only one hit, 1962's "It Might as Well Rain Until September." In the mid-'60s she, Goffin, and columnist Al Aronowitz founded their own short-lived label, Tomorrow Records; Charles Larkey, the bassist for the Tomorrow group the Myddle Class, eventually became King's second husband after her marriage to Goffin dissolved. She and Larkey later moved to the West Coast, where in 1968 they founded the City, a trio rounded out by New York musician Danny Kortchmar. The City recorded one LP, Now That Everything's Been Said, but did not tour due to King's stage fright; as a result, the album was a commercial failure, although it did feature songs later popularized by the Byrds ("Wasn't Born to Follow"), Blood, Sweat & Tears ("Hi-De-Ho"), and James Taylor ("You've Got a Friend").

Taylor and King ultimately became close friends, and he encouraged her to pursue a solo career. Released in 1970, Writer proved a false start, but in 1971 she released Tapestry, which stayed on the charts for nearly six years and was the best-selling album of the era. A quiet, reflective work that proved seminal in the development of the singer/songwriter genre, Tapestry also scored a pair of hit singles, "So Far Away" and the chart-topping "It's Too Late," whose flipside, "I Feel the Earth Move," garnered major airplay as well. Issued in 1971, Music also hit number one, and generated the hit "Sweet Seasons"; 1972's Rhymes & Reasons reached number two on the charts, and 1974's Wrap Around Joy, which featured the hit "Jazzman," hit the number one spot.

In 1975, King and Goffin reunited to write Thoroughbred, which also featured contributions from James Taylor, David Crosby, and Graham Nash. After 1977's Simple Things, she mounted a tour with the backing group Navarro and married her frequent songwriting partner Rick Evers, who died a year later of a heroin overdose. Pearls, a collection of performances of songs written during her partnership with Goffin, was released in 1980 and was her last significant hit, and King soon moved to a tiny mountain village in Idaho, where she became active in the environmental movement. After 1983's Speeding Time, she took a six-year hiatus from recording before releasing City Streets, which featured guest Eric Clapton. In 2001, she returned with Love Makes the World, a self-released disc on her own Rockingale label. Four years passed before her next record, The Living Room Tour, a double-disc set documenting her intimate 2004-2005 tour that found her revisiting songs from throughout her career with only her piano and acoustic guitars as accompaniment.

King joined longtime friend James Taylor for a co-starring show at L.A.'s famed Troubadour venue in 2007, and the pair followed it with several more shows, resulting in the Live at the Troubadour release in 2010. King released her first-ever Christmas album, A Holiday Carole, through the Hear Music/Concord Music Group on November 1, 2011. In 2013, King received a remarkable show business accolade -- her life became the basis for a Broadway musical, Beautiful: The Carole King Musical, which followed her professional and personal life in the '60s and '70s. The show opened on Broadway in January 2014, with a score dominated by King's hit songs, and an original cast album appeared the following May. The next year, King was a Kennedy Center Honoree, and in 2016 she played the entirety of Tapestry at the British Summer Time Festival in Hyde Park. The concert was documented on the 2017 album/DVD set Tapestry: Live in Hyde Park. King's discography was largely absent of archival material for a star of her magnitude. With the exception of the odd live document, not much was released from the vaults until 2012's aptly titled collection The Legendary Demos. In 2019, another rare document of King's legacy was unearthed in the form of the DVD/audio combo footage Live at Montreux 1973. The material was captured at the Montreux Jazz Festival in Switzerland just weeks after the release of fifth album Fantasy, marking her first performance outside of the states. In 2021, King was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame as a solo artist. This was her second recognition from the Hall of Fame, following a joint induction with Goffin in 1990 as a songwriting team”.

To celebrate the magnificent Carole King turning eighty, here is a playlist of songs from artists who have an element of King about them. Whether it is the delivery or the sound, it is amazing (though not surprising) to see how far her reach has spread! One of the all-time great songwriters, many happy returns to…

A mesmeric artist.