FEATURE: Saluting the Queens: Little Simz

FEATURE:

 

 

Saluting the Queens

Little Simz

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IN the next part of this feature run…

 PHOTO CREDIT: Jackie Nickerson for Document Journal

I am going to focusing on someone behind the scenes in music. This feature salutes powerful and important women in music. For this edition, I am focusing on someone very much at the forefront and in the spotlight. Today, it is all about the mighty Little Simz. I wanted to look back at her album from last year, NO THANK YOU, which turns one very soon. As she (Islington-born Simbiatu Abisola Abiola Ajikawo) has just done a run of live dates, it is worth bringing in a couple of reviews for a particularly special homecoming. To demonstrate what an immense live performer she is, in addition to showcasing her incredible potential as a headliner next year. Released on 12th December, 2022, NO THANK YOU was an unexpected follow-up to the previous year’s Sometimes I Might Be Introvert. That (Sometimes I Might Be Introvert) became Little Simz’s first album to place in the top-ten of the U.K. album chart. It won the Mercury Prize that year. It also won the BRIT Award for British Album of the Year. It was named Best Album at the MOBO Awards. Despite the fact that Little Simz released this stunning and heralded album, there were setbacks through 2022 in terms of her touring capabilities. As an independent artist, she was unable to tour as widely as she’d hoped. Such an important and respected artist having to lessen her scope and reduce her shows! I want to come to reviews for one of last year’s very best albums.

Quite a lot of the interviews that came about from 2022 were in reaction to Sometimes I Might Be Introvert. Others focused on her work acting in the series, Top Boy. Harper’s Bazaar spoke with Little Simz in November 2022 (a month before NO THANK YOU came into the world). They named her their Women of the Year 2022 Musician:

“Being an individual can be scary," Little Simz says, her brow furrowed. "But I always want to say to people, if you believe something is cool, it’s cool. And if you want to do something, do it." The independent-label musician, rapper, writer, actress and photographer is well-qualified to reflect on the joys and perils of doing your own thing. As deft and multidisciplinary as she is driven, Simz has, for the last decade, been forging a career path that is entirely her own. In the past couple of years, this one-woman cultural phenomenon has released a five-star-reviewed album, art-directed short films, joined forces with Gucci, photographed a beautiful portrait series featuring her long-time friend, the Black Panther star Letitia Wright, and taken pride of place on Barack Obama’s ‘Favourite music of 2021’ playlist.

But she has been at her most prolific in 2022. In the spring, she won a Brit for Best New Artist (and brought the house down performing two tracks on the night, the interlude delivered by her collaborator, the actor Emma Corrin), then the NME Best UK Solo Act gong. Shortly afterwards, Netflix released the latest series of Top Boy, its cult drama about London drug gangs, in which Simz plays a central role; and in June, she headlined Glastonbury’s West Holts stage. September saw her step out in Stormzy’s groundbreaking music video for ‘Mel Made Me Do It’ alongside Usain Bolt, Dina Asher-Smith, Malorie Blackman and Louis Theroux, and a month later she was named the worthy winner of this year’s particularly competitive Mercury Prize. All the while, Simz has been writing a non-fiction book that will be published in 2023 – a collection of photographs and handwritten personal essays alongside interviews with fellow members of the creative industries, as well as people from other professions, such as a doctor and a chef.

"I’ve had a wicked year – prosperous –though a bit mad at times," the artist says modestly. "I’m quite relaxed about the success. I’m just proud of myself, because I’ve done something I set out to achieve, and it’s nice seeing dreams come into fruition. I am not anywhere near peaking, though. In a way, it sets off a new fire in my belly."

In person, Simz – casually dressed in black with her hair tied back – is calm and self-effacing; a contrast to the commanding presence I saw on stage at a festival in the summer, performing from her album Sometimes I Might Be Introvert. In its 19 tracks, Simz moves through the musical spectrum via rap (containing her signature superlative wordplay, often delivered at jaw-dropping speed), orchestral strings, soul, Afrobeat, grime, hip-hop and gospel, and her lyrics feature cultural references ranging from Judith Kerr to Kendrick Lamar. These touchstones are woven into wider topics, both political and deeply personal, including womanhood, race, love, and her professional troubles and triumphs. On one track, she cheerleads herself gloriously – "I think I need a standin’ ovation/Over 10 years in the game, I’ve been patient". She half-jokes that she was "too brave" on the album, in sharing so much. "But I think that’s why people relate to it," she says. "I’ve always found comfort in putting things down on paper – I communicate at my best when expressing myself through writing."

PHOTO CREDIT: Camilla Åkrans

Simz is clearly motivated by a desire for human connection. She lights up when discussing how her sound and sentiments resonate with people from all backgrounds, however different they are from her own. "Purpose is so important to me. I want to always act with it," she says. "With music or words, people think they’re hearing sound, but they aren’t – they’re hearing intention. If it’s there in the writing and production, that is the reason why, when someone plays a specific chord on the piano, it can move you to tears."

As such, she sets a high bar for her own live gigs. "I hope it makes the audience feel they’re experiencing something big and engaging together, that they’ll tell their kids about in 20 years. Not comparing myself to her, but you know that thing when someone tells you they got to see Beyoncé? I would love people to feel that about my shows, and get to say: 'I was there.'" She is smiling. "That makes me want to give everything to them”.

I will get to some promotion from this year. I’ll also come to some reviews for NO THANK YOU; finishing with a couple of live reviews from very recently. Even though we know Little Simz as an artist, Simbiatu Ajikawo is a very talented actor who I can see taking on film roles and rising to new heights here. Rolling Stone UK spoke with Little Simz last November about her music. They also were curious about her role in Top Boy (she plays Shelley):

“It’s like flexing a different muscle. As Little Simz, she’s in charge. It’s her vision, accelerated by her ideas. She is, after all, a solo artist. She built a career from freestyling as a teen and self-releasing mixtapes to winning awards — she also won a Brit in February — with that singular drive. Being part of a franchise took some getting used to. “It’s like a football team: everyone’s coming together to make this thing work. You’ve got to have trust in your teammates,” she says. Sometimes, when they’re doing press as a cast and she can’t quite come up with the right line, she’ll turn to Walters or Jasmine Jobson (Jaq), as if to say: “Help me out.” She and Walters have clicked since her audition. The prompt? For him to make her laugh. “And he did — that was it. It was super quick and simple,” she says. She remembers them laughing, shooting and re-shooting a sad scene from season two with Marsha Millar (who plays Pat, Dushane’s mum). When she describes the story, it’s so clearly loaded with in-jokes that I barely understand why it was hilarious. But she’s beaming. You had to be there.

Shooting season three has been bittersweet, she says. Ajikawo wrapped her scenes a couple of weeks ago: “There’s an element of letting go of that part of you.” But it’s also taught her about her limits, and about what feels good on set. “We worked with two incredible actor-directors this time around as well” — she won’t share their names because she’s “not sure” she’s allowed to yet. “And they really cared about performance as opposed to… aesthetic, and how it looks.”

PHOTO CREDIT: Kosmas Pavlos

She chooses these words carefully, slowly. Rather, this duo understood how to concentrate on how a scene felt. They knew how to see things from both sides of the lens. “Sometimes, if I’m doing a scene that requires me to go somewhere emotional, I ain’t got 30 takes in me to do that. Working with people who understand your capacity and what you can handle on any given day, is a blessing, for sure,” she explains.

Earlier in the day, I watch her navigate the photographer’s vision in a similar way. She’s wearing an electric-blue Gucci boilersuit and Adidas accessories. Quiet, determined, focused on every shot. The photographer yells encouragement at her, as she contorts her body: crouching, kneeling, then standing. At one point she roars, staring down the lens. Later, we’ll joke that Tyra Banks was right on America’s Next Top Model, about poses feeling weird but translating beautifully on camera. Even so, as the photographer clicks away, a member of Ajikawo’s team passes her message onto her publicist: this will be the last look. The information is relayed to Rolling Stone UK’s fashion director. Ajikawo is firm. Later, she’ll say she’s become “very protective of myself. I’m big on boundaries right now.” Maybe she hadn’t been before.

Does that mean she was pushed too far on other sets? “Not so much with acting,” she begins, but it can be tricky when having her picture taken. “You want me to shoot 20 looks today? I… I can’t,” even though she’d love to in principle. She’s learning to set limits. “When it comes to working with people on set, especially women, I feel like there’s a duty of care,” she says. “Everyone who gets photographed should be asked: ‘What makes you feel comfortable? What makes you feel safe?’ We’re using our bodies; that’s a vulnerable space to be in.”

I can see how Ajikawo has changed over the years. When she was younger, she was quicker to smile to put others at ease in interviews. Then, she had more to prove in a male-dominated industry where her world-building on EPs and mixtapes bucked chart trends. She seems to know herself better now. Her voice is direct, almost biting at times. She knows people on set are “checking for their jobs and whatnot, but I’m also trying to get in the zone. I’d rather not have 10 people look at me while I’m doing it”.

Earlier this year, DAZED chatted with Little Simz. Someone who followed the epic Sometimes I Might Be Introvert with the more stripped-back NO THANK YOU, this was an artist always moving and evolving. In spite of the success and brilliance of the albums, there were a lot still not aware of Little Simz. I think this is starting to change - though 2024 is a year where I hope more people turn on to her music and full range of talents:

“Sometimes, greatness needn’t be defined by metrics you have no control over. It’s also about succumbing to the belief that who you are today is as permanent as a handprint on a cold window. The life of an artist can be like this – a cycle of rebirth, a snake eating itself. Little Simz has no idea who she’ll be tomorrow, next month or ten years from now. What’s assured is her exploration of self through art, and this, probably the most beautiful element of being an artist, is emblematic of the ouroboros.

“I guess more people know who I am now,” says Simz with a wry laugh, commenting on life since the release of Grey Area in 2019. “Not much has changed really; I’m still doing what I’ve always done. Making my art and putting it out into the world and hoping it resonates with people.”

The first time we spoke, just before the release of that record, Simz described being content with where she was in her career. The frustration that came with not being where she felt she should have been was a feeling she was no longer concerned with. Back then, she’d yet to win a Brit award and the Mercury prize, publish a book or advance her acting career with a role in the third series of Netflix gangland drama Top Boy. Four years on, you can hear the resolve and quiet confidence in her voice; a flame has been rekindled in recent years.

PHOTO CREDIT: Jamie Morgan

“Grey Area was my breakthrough, but Sometimes I Might Be Introvert was a real turning point,” says Simz of her Mercury-winning fourth album, a Top 5 hit in the UK that cracked Rolling Stones’ greatest hip-hop albums list last year. “The concept, visual wise, subject matter, and just where I was at in life. I think I came into myself more but it’s also consistency.” She has just arrived back from her tour in Australia, her first visit in a few years, and there is some lag still in the air. “Sometimes I Might Be Introvert was definitely more expansive and conceptual. [I was] making music that I felt was need- ed and music I enjoyed; I wanted to make bops and I’m in my bag right now.”

For its follow-up, last year’s No Thank You, “I wanted it to be super-conversational,” says Simz, “and to give people an insight as to where I am and what I’m experiencing.” That insight into where she is creatively (“Charged up, fully barred up, I’m unleashing”) can be felt viscerally in the music video for “Gorilla”, directed by Dave Meyers and taken from the album. The bag she’s in is gargantuan; Simz is talking her shit on the track; it’s just straight raps. Sometimes, that is a concept that’s enough in itself, especially for someone who has moved beyond artistic frustration.

If there’s anything to take away from Simz’ work in recent years, it’s that finding comfort in success can just be about finding fellowship with other artists and recognising your own power. The fear that anyone would have to overcome to decide, ‘You know what? Today, I feel like showing people something different.’ Now, Simz gets to decide which version of herself she wants to be today. The musician. The rapper. Actor. Writer. Producer. “You’re free to be experimental and take risks,” she says of her approach to her work, which will next see her reprising her role in a new season of Top Boy. “Sometimes it’s scary but it’s so rewarding.”

“Music is energy,” she explains. “You want it to bounce off the walls, you want it to bounce between people, you want it to fill a room. It’s just fun to make music with people.” By her own admission, previous projects before Grey Area often had multiple producers sending beats over email with Simz recording whenever and wherever she was able. Working solely with one producer across various projects required a willingness to embrace the possibilities that opened up, a letting-go of what she thought she knew. The musical telepathy evident in No Thank You could not have been achieved on Simz and Inflo’s first project, as it required a deeper level of understanding of one another which may not have possible in 2019.

PHOTO CREDIT: Jamie Morgan

The publication of her first book this year proved one thing, at least: concern with being the best is child’s play. Simply titled the *book, the project features words and original photography from Simz and is described by the rapper as “a representation of my journey throughout life, the places I have visited, as well as people I have encountered. My moments, my thoughts, my accolades, my world... transcribed into pages, pictures, textures and colours”.

Simz has forged her own lane but to walk it, she’s had to overcome obstacles along the way. “I’ve found ways to deal with the frustration but I also think that my focus and attention is on other things,” she says. “I was probably worrying a lot about things I didn’t have but now my focus is more about what I do have and getting better.” It’s a feeling artists experience all too often, because there’s an underlying understanding that where you are currently is very rarely where you want to be. On the other hand, sometimes it’s just about getting on with it and controlling what can be controlled, leaving the rest up to chance. “Being frustrated doesn’t really do anything; it just leads to more frustration. I’ve found a way to use that energy in a different way and be productive.”

More people certainly know who Little Simz is now, but she’s more than just the sum of her work to date: there’s a fire in her belly to see how far this can go. “As long as I continue to be playful and have fun with what I’m doing, the evolution’s naturally going to go to a place that I can’t predict,” she says. “I just have to remember who I am and who I was before all of this”.

I am going to come to a couple of the many massively positive reviews for NO THANK YOU. I think that it was worthy of a Mercury Prize nod this year. This is what NME said about one of 2022’s very best albums. One might think that Little Simz would struggle to match Sometimes I Might Be Introvert. NO THANK YOU showed that there was no nerves or any sort of drop. She was very much at her peak:

“Little Simz is sick of hearing that she’s “underrated”. In September 2021, she bluntly addressed the tag by asking her Twitter followers: “Why don’t you stop being sheep and change the narrative?” It was a curious yet revealing moment: seldom do our current crop of musicians take stock, or at least speak publicly, about their place in the scene. That’s without even mentioning how Simz is currently enjoying widespread praise and bagging numerous accolades along the way, most recently nabbing the Mercury Prize back in October for her fourth album ‘Sometimes I Might Be Introvert’.

‘NO THANK YOU’ arrives as a pleasing coda to this particular purple patch. Announced just a week before its release with minimal fanfare, the stories she details over its 10 tracks seek to demonstrate that, amid the critical acclaim, there have been moments of anguish, frustration and betrayal, too. Some of these have already been made public: due to the spiralling cost of touring, Simz was forced to cancel a run of US dates earlier this year (a common story for independent acts like herself), while there were reports in October of a split with her longtime manager, a situation both parties are yet to comment on.

Regardless, Simz has a bone to pick: with the discourse, the industry hangers-on and those trying to exploit her name for their own gain. On ‘Angel’, she’s candid about the issues at hand: “Why did I give you the keys to authorise shit on my behalf? / Now I’m scarred and mortified,” she calmly reveals. Later on in the track, she speaks about how her success is benefitting everyone around her except herself: “I refuse to be on a slave ship / Give me all my masters and lower your wages.” ‘No Merci’ is equally blunt: “Everybody here getting money off my name / Irony is, I’m the only one not getting paid.”

In lesser hands, this subject could stray into self-pity. But Simz’s storytelling is deft and full of range, gliding between generational trauma (‘Broken’) and faith and the grind (‘Who Even Cares’) with ease. The album’s sonic palette, meanwhile, takes on a mellower and less grandiose tone, with Inflo – the producer behind her last two records and the mysterious musical project Sault – and collaborator Cleo Sol bringing a warm, homely base for Simz to nestle in. There’s still ostentatious string sections to be found on ‘Heart On Fire’ and ‘Broken’, but ‘Gorilla’s twanging bassline brings a playful pace, as does the warped pop of ‘Who Even Cares’.

‘NO THANK YOU’s quiet, understated release provides parallels to Kendrick Lamar’s ‘Untitled Unmastered’ release from 2016, a series of leftovers from his ‘To Pimp A Butterfly’ sessions. That too had a certain looseness and freedom to the tracks, and, much like Lamar, a clear-headed Simz has something to say urgently. The case for Simz to be recognised as a true modern great has only been strengthened with this release”.

The second review is from Rolling Stone. Getting some love and attention from a U.S. publication, let’s hope that Little Simz gets opportunity to perform through the country more next year. I know she has a growing American audience. Things are going from strength to strength for our Little Simz:

“Little Simz is like a hood BBC anchor. Her songs come off like quiet but spicy broadcasts, as if she checked in for a soothing afternoon chat if that somehow involves a soul-scorching read. Pleasant but snarky, Simz combines Queens Gambit cordiality with Top Boy aggression to marry well-bred flows to blistering bars. Appropriately, the London-born MC (and skilled actress) flaunts a thespian’s remarkable range: she gives us humor, charisma, and a lot of feels.

Emotion is Simz’s secret weapon. She has a knack for sharing heartfelt tales with marked conviction that settles deep in your sternum. She’s a bona fide technician, no doubt. But the sheer technicality of her rhymes is not at odds with her natural ability to craft poignant songs that make you laugh, cry, and silently rage. On No Thank You, the follow-up to her excellent 2021 breakthrough Sometimes I Might Be Introvert, Simz gives us 10 choice cuts (showcasing her brilliance and breadth) that convey the whole emoji board of riveting emotions.

IN THIS PHOTO: Little Simz at Fabrique Club on 5th December, 2022 in Milan/PHOTO CREDIT: Francesco Prandoni/Getty Images

Those battle-ready bars distinguish “Gorilla,” where Simz, over loping bass and crisp percussion, spits, “I’m cut with a different scissor/From the same cloth as my dear ancestors.” And it’s captivating to hear her effortlessly unpack a couplet that floors you as she skillfully pivots to the next bruising punchline.

But “Broken” is a boon of self-reflection, and it’s arguably Simz’s most powerful song to date. Buoyed by the strains of a choir, Simz describes how racism afflicts her, wasting her time, energy, and agency. “It shouldn’t be a norm to live your life as a tragedy/To live your life in a state of confusion and agony,” she sighs. And you’re reminded that being Black means being in a constant state of rage.

On “No Merci,” Simz kicks caustic bars (“I’m a human landmine/I am not a human being you can gaslight”), indicting lames that want her “stuck up in the matrix.” Meanwhile, “Heart on Fire,” with its blithe hook asserting that “my life is a blessing,” is her stirring manifesto. But the soulful “Sideways” is the obvious standout. Here, Simz embodies snappish warrior energy, confirming her calm sovereignty: “Walkin’ in my light, my shadow is protectin’ me/Never movin’ sideways, I done this shit my way.” We’re forever thankful for Simz’s bold originality”.

When Little Simz played a homecoming gig at Alexander Palace, North London earlier in the month, it was met with huge applause and love! A triumphant and five-star performance from one of our greatest artists. A singular talent and someone who is primed for headline slots next year – I shall talk about this to end -, there are few live performers as captivating as Little Simz! GRM Daily had their say about a truly memorable night:

“Alexandra Palace has always played host to homecomings of its local stars since the turn of the century. Seven years ago, veteran Skepta shelled down the halls of Alexandra and paid homage to his London roots. It was now the turn for one of Islington’s shining stars in Little Simz. A North London native who shared two hours of joy, celebration, honesty, and open arms.

Fans had been eagerly anticipating this moment. Having already achieved superstar status from her NO THANK YOU tour across the pond in North America and Australia, it wasn’t just the celebration of fireworks that intensified a smokey atmosphere ahead of the final lap. Osiris The God and Hak Baker kept the masses entertained. The opening acts ensured an enjoyable patience and allowed many to grab timely refreshments and a bite before the main event kicked off.

20:45 crawled closer and closer. Alexandra Palace was sent into darkness as they awaited their homecoming star who would send the 10,000 capacity into the raptures. Simz had stated she’d be going to work for the two-hour offering, supporters adhered to the message, sporting their icons now customary look of a drapey, oversized white shirt and black-tie attire. The assignment was understood on a memorable night in N22.

PHOTO CREDIT: Karolina Wielocha

The prestigious hall’s blanket of pitch black took a turn to the heavens as the wordsmith entered her stage. The visuals were aesthetically pleasing and absorbing on the eye. Was this a concert or a movie? It was undeniably both. We were invited into the mind and genius of Little Simz. Backdrops of silhouette figures merged as a choir, complimenting the opening song of the night and a standout on the recent album, “Silhouette”. “That’s when you find the strength and pick yourself up”. Sometimes, she may have her introverted moments, but for two hours the elegant lyricist had a magnetic aura which turned the venue into a frenzy.

The demographic of the night was a mixture of both new and already-accustomed listeners of the artist. Aligning both was a task Simz enjoyed, taking turns between her two most recent bodies of work which would be met with unmeasurable applause with every track ending. Her presence was something to behold. We were looking at a performance befitting of being likened to André 3000 and Kendrick Lamar. Early birds who managed to navigate themselves into the front rows of the audience were treated to intimate moments. An honourable mention to the fan whose memorabilia was signed by the superstar, and which is guaranteed to be a bucket list moment for any concertgoer.

With the world enduring a tough 2023 and more so the recent months, the headlining act asked Alexandra Palace for a moment of silence which was embraced with open arms. This would be a snippet into a more vulnerable side of Little Simz who held every fan in close proximity, sharing unfortunate news of coming into the last show with a bout of illness. Nevertheless, this would not put an end to the celebrations.

Obongjayar, a fellow Nigerian native who has stamped his authority all over 2023 would grace the stage for the energetic anthem “Point And Kill”. There was a carnival feel inside the hallowed halls and it continued with “Gorilla”, a track which embodies the artistry, confidence and perseverance of a woman who has manoeuvred to the top of an elite musical industry. That is where she sits now. Hindsight is a beautiful thing and something Simz recognised and shared towards the end of the glittering evening.

On show was unity. More than ever throughout the fledging, acoustic performance of the emotional “Broken”. Little Simz recognises she was once in a position of having to battle to be someone alike us all. Paying attention to the love she was shown also came as a full-circle moment.

As 22:15 approached, euphoria was still in motion and befitting of what she has achieved throughout her illustrious career. The outro was appreciative, and flowers were given to every female in the room with a powerful rendition of her soothing single “Woman”. Whilst the night had sadly came to an end, this had been a show for the ages. A perfect homecoming performance from Islington’s Little Simz”.

The Standard caught an artist at the top of her game. A confident and spellbinding performer, she delivered one of her finest performances. I did mention how I hope she gets U.S. dates next year. Simz has performed in the U.S. this year. I hope that there is more scope for bigger and wider touring in 2024:

“London, I need you to understand that you’re witnessing greatness, and I don’t say that with arrogance, I say that with confidence,” declared Little Simz midway through her second sold out night at Alexandra Palace, the final date of her tour in support of last year’s fifth LP No Thank You.

It’s a confidence that’s been hard-won; having flown criminally under the radar for the first part of her career, since 2019’s Grey Area, Simz’ currency has steadily risen, culminating in a Mercury Prize win and a BRIT Award for 2021’s Sometimes I Might Be Introvert.

Now, dressed in a slick, special agent-style uniform of white shirt, black tie, shades and leather gloves - with fans dotted throughout the venue in matching, tribute attire - she’s an indisputable star, in command of an unforgettable show that could be transposed onto any major festival headline slot and soar.

In truth, it’s a particular mix of supreme confidence and endearing honesty that encapsulated Simz’ - real name Simbiatu Abisola Abiola Ajikawo - presence. Entering to Silhouette, backed by a towering wrap-around screen showing a group of appropriately silhouetted gospel performers in the throes of song, for a large portion of the night Simz was the only physical body on stage: a bold move that only the most commanding of performers could pull off in such a cavernous space.

But for every moment that she cemented her place at rap’s top table from the playful verses of "might bang, might not", to the majestic, laser-focused Introvert - there was another that cut through the spectacle to pull back to the person who’d grown up a mere stone’s throw away.

The biggest spontaneous cheer of the night came during an early Two Worlds Apart, in which Simz rapped “London-born estate girl to international sensation”, while, later in the night, she gave an inspirational speech about following your dreams: “If there’s anything that anyone is truly passionate about then go for it. My house is 20 minutes away, and now I’m selling this place out”.

Interspersed with admissions that she’d woken up feeling ill and “didn’t know how [she] was going to find the strength”, and a poignant request for a minute’s silence for those lost in the ongoing Israel-Hamas war, Simz’ show was as much about community and humanity as it was an underlining of one of the most talented lyricists and performers of her generation. A stunning and heartfelt display from an artist at the absolute top of her game”.

I think that Little Simz should be headlining Glastonbury next year. Two female headliners have been promised, though we do not know which artists are booked. Maybe boygenius or Dua Lipa will be one of them. I hope that Little Simz is booked, as she has proven herself to be headline-worthy. One of music’s most important artists, I wanted to salute a music queen! Capping off a majestic and sensational 2023, all eyes are on the amazing artist for next year. I think that she will keep building and release another amazing album. There will be big tour dates and, let’s hope, she is booked to headline several festivals. In Little Simz, we have an artist who is…

BOUND for glory and immortality.

FEATURE: Precious Stones and a Merseyside Final Chapter… 2023 and the ‘Return’ and New Success of Legends Like The Beatles and The Rolling Stones

FEATURE:

 

 

Precious Stones and a Merseyside Final Chapter…

IN THIS PHOTO: Mick Jagger of The Rolling Stones/Thea Traff for The New York Times

2023 and the ‘Return’ and New Success of Legends Like The Beatles and The Rolling Stones

_________

THIS article…

 IN THIS PHOTO: The Beatles/PHOTO CREDIT: © Apple Corps Ltd

I am about to source was published a little while ago, though I have been compelled to react to it. It makes an interesting point. In terms of this year, we have seen some exceptional new music from artists coming through. It is quite rare that two bands who entered the music scene over sixty years ago would make the news. The Beatles’ final single, Now and Then, hit number one on the charts. The Rolling Stones’ latest (and perhaps final) album, Hackney Diamonds, went to number one in the U.K. Who would have thought that two legends of the past are still making headlines?! Some have said it is almost like a return to 1967. That was a big moment for both bands. I am going to expand on that thought. I am sure there is this fortunate moment when two iconic British bands are releasing hugely impressive and important work at the same time. There is also a slightly yearning to the past. Also proof that music is not dominated by the young and contemporary. I wonder whether we will see more legacy artists reign and be back in the headlines. There is a possibility that contemporaries of both The Rolling Stones and The Beatles, The Kinks, will reform in some form. I know artists decades-running such as Kylie Minogue have released career-best work this year too (with Tension); Madonna is on a worldwide tour, though there is something even more unexpected and special about one-time ‘rivals’ The Beatles and The Rolling Stones putting out music. Rolling Stone reacted to the release and success of Now and Then and Hackney Diamonds:

“IN THE PETER Jackson-directed video for the just-released “Now and Then” — touted as the “final Beatles song” — present-day Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr are pleasantly haunted by the ghosts of John Lennon and George Harrison, and even their own younger selves. It’s hard not to think that life inside McCartney and Starr’s heads is a little bit like that on a daily basis, burdened as they are by the weight of history. And they may not be alone: “I walk the city at midnight/With the past strapped to my back,” Mick Jagger sings on “Get Close,” from Hackney Diamonds, the Rolling Stones‘ first new album of original songs in 18 years.

In their own ways, both acts transcended death itself to deliver new music within a few weeks of each other in 2023 — though only the Stones actually still exist as a working band. The new episode of Rolling Stone Music Now digs into the controversies and triumphs of both “Now and Then” (which used an AI tool to extract John Lennon’s vocals from a messy demo) and Hackney Diamonds. Angie Martoccio and Andy Greene join host Brian Hiatt for the discussion, which also includes a debate on that new Beatles video — is it moving or creepy? For the full episode, go here for the podcast provider of your choice, listen on Apple Podcasts or Spotify, or just press play above.

Download and subscribe to Rolling Stone‘s weekly podcast, Rolling Stone Music Now, hosted by Brian Hiatt, on Apple Podcasts or Spotify (or wherever you get your podcasts). Check out six years’ worth of episodes in the archive, including in-depth, career-spanning interviews with Bruce Springsteen, Mariah Carey, Halsey, Neil Young, Snoop Dogg, Brandi Carlile, Phoebe Bridgers, Rick Ross, Alicia Keys, the National, Ice Cube, Taylor Hawkins, Willow, Keith Richards, Robert Plant, Dua Lipa, Questlove, Killer Mike, Julian Casablancas, Sheryl Crow, Johnny Marr, Scott Weiland, Liam Gallagher, Alice Cooper, Fleetwood Mac, Elvis Costello, John Legend, Donald Fagen, Charlie Puth, Phil Collins, Justin Townes Earle, Stephen Malkmus, Sebastian Bach, Tom Petty, Eddie Van Halen, Kelly Clarkson, Pete Townshend, Bob Seger, the Zombies, and Gary Clark Jr. And look for dozens of episodes featuring genre-spanning discussions, debates, and explainers with Rolling Stone’s critics and reporters”.

I will come to these two almost historic releases that have stirred up this fascination. Two of the greatest bands ever still very much relevant – in very different ways – in 2023. The rawness and quality of Hackney Diamonds shows the stamina of The Rolling Stones. The fact that Now and Then sounds so glorious was a huge relief for fans of The Beatles. There really was this love for two bands who put out stunning music. Louder Sound had this to say about Hackney Diamonds:

“According to Mick Jagger, Hackney Diamonds producer/bassist Andrew Watt “kicked us up the arse”. Watt’s USP is his ability to put artists back in touch with who they actually are. He recently coaxed the remarkable Every Loser out of Iggy Pop by asking him: “Are you ready to be yourself?” And it seems he’s done it again, because the Rolling Stones haven’t delivered an album this quintessentially Stonesy in 40 years. That said, Hackney Diamonds is no museum piece. It’s a 21st-century record for a 21st-century audience that, with an old-school 48-minute duration, only ever leaves the listener hungry for more.

Opener and lead single Angry benefits from a contemporary production that doesn’t go too far. Watt plays it just right across the entire album, as he modernises the Stones without once dressing them in a sound that doesn’t suit them.

Following the muscular, riff-driven Get Close, Depending On You is a classic Stones ballad: pedal steel, subtle strings, cascading keyboards, and Jagger, ‘I’m too young to die, but too old to lose’ (with the merest suggestion of contemporising auto-tune) on heartbreakingly fine form.

The stroppy Bite My Head Off finds Paul McCartney pumping out a slack-jawed, punked-up bass solo and Keith being so unapologetically Keith that it’s all you can do not to punch the air. Whole Wide World boasts a chorus to die for (and Jagger never more deliciously ‘Lahndan’ in his over-sold vernacular), Dreamy Skies a reflective country blues with a melody line reminiscent of Short And Curlies, before two back-to-back Charlie Watts-featuring tracks (elsewhere Steve Jordan shines reliably), Chic-y floor-filler Mess It Up and Bill Wyman-benefitting textbook Stones rocker Live By The Sword, with loose-ass handclaps and miles of Keith and Ronnie’s intricately woven ancient art to unravel.

Driving Me Too Hard finds Jagger on the unfortunate end of a cruel, mistreating woman, and Tell Me Straight a mournful Keith musing: ‘Is my future all in the past?’ Gospel epic Sweet Sound Of Heaven is a Jagger master class, Lady GaGa in fine voice, with Stevie Wonder also in evidence, but as with all the album’s guest slots (Elton John also serves) no one outshines the Stones. Performances serve songs rather than egos.

And finally, Rolling Stone Blues (the Muddy Waters tune that gave the band their name) closes the circle. Raw, stripped, flawless, it’s an unspoken message for all who choose to receive it. Brilliant”.

There were some not completely sold on Now and Then. Many others were full of love and emotion when they heard Now and Then. It did get a lot of very positive reviews from the music press. This is what The Guardian said when they spent time with the most important song of this year:

“Last night, BBC One shifted its schedules to broadcast a film about the making of the “final” Beatles single, Now and Then. It was brief and rather moving, but it offered a tactfully bowdlerised version of events, understandably stepping around the parts of the story that might cause anyone to regard Now and Then with a wary eye. It talked about the surviving Beatles’ initial attempts to work up John Lennon’s late 70s demos in the mid-90s, but didn’t mention the slightly muted response the completed versions of Free as a Bird and Real Love received. It was the height of Britpop, the Beatles’ stock higher – and their influence on current music more obvious – than at any point since their split. And yet Free as a Bird – clearly released with the intention of bagging the Christmas No 1 spot, as the Beatles regularly did in the 60s – couldn’t dislodge Michael Jackson’s Earth Song from the top: by its second week in the charts, it was being outsold not just by Jackson, but Boyzone’s cover of Cat Stevens’ Father and Son.

Real Love, meanwhile, managed a couple of weeks in the Top 10 before disappearing (by week two, Boyzone were outselling that as well). Perhaps it was stymied by Radio 1’s disinclination to play it, which led Paul McCartney to pen an angry article in the Daily Mirror, decrying the station’s “kindergarten kings”: whatever your take on the issue, there was something a bit unedifying about the Beatles’ return ending with Macca fulminating about Radio 1’s ageism à la Status Quo. Moreover, the overdubbed recordings had an eerie, uncanny valley quality. Everyone involved had clearly done their best with the technology available but there was no getting around the fact that Lennon’s voice sounded ghostly.

The new film discussed technical issues hampering the surviving Beatles’ intention to rework Now and Then in the mid-90s as well: there were meant to be three “new” Beatles songs, one for each volume of the Anthology compilations, but the sessions for this song were abandoned as Lennon’s vocals and piano couldn’t be separated for the new mix. This was a slightly different version of events to the one given by McCartney a decade ago. Then, he claimed the late George Harrison – always the most unbiddable ex-Beatle – had singlehandedly drawn the sessions to a close by describing Now and Then as “fucking rubbish”. (“But it’s John!” McCartney had apparently protested, to no avail: “This is fucking rubbish,” Harrison countered.) Indeed, Harrison seemed unsure about the whole idea of reworking Lennon’s material. “I hope someone does this to all my crap demos after I’m dead – turn them into hit songs,” he subsequently remarked, which perhaps wasn’t the promotional boost for the new songs Apple was after.

Listening to Now and Then, it’s hard to see what Harrison’s objection was in purely musical terms. A moody, reflective piano ballad, it’s clearly never going to supplant Strawberry Fields Forever or A Day in the Life in the affections of Beatles fans, but it’s a better song than Free as a Bird or Real Love. And posthumously reworked as a Beatles track, it definitely packs a greater emotional punch. If you want to be moved, the lyrics provide ample space in which do so. It’s doubtful whether Lennon had his fellow Beatles in mind when he wrote the song – although who knows? – but with a new middle eight sung in tandem by Lennon and McCartney, it very much becomes a song about the Beatles, expressing a yearning for their bond: “Now and then I miss you / Now and then I want you to be there for me.” There’s something similarly moving about the sound of a very Harrison-esque slide guitar solo being played by McCartney, who apparently balked at Harrison’s slide guitar additions to the mid-90s sessions as too reminiscent of his 1971 solo hit My Sweet Lord. That was precisely the kind of older brother-ish judgement that always rankled with Harrison: there’s something rather touching about McCartney paying tribute as if in shrugging concession that he might have been wrong, although Harrison’s actual presence seems to be restricted to acoustic rhythm guitar.

Advances in technology have solved the problems with Lennon’s vocals, which are nothing like the spectral presence that floated through Free As a Bird. The other potential vocal problem – at 80, McCartney’s voice has aged considerably since the remaining Beatles last reconvened – is solved by keeping him low in the mix: you feel his presence rather than notice it directly. The additions to a song that was obviously incomplete are seamless – again, unlike Free as a Bird, where McCartney’s new middle eight jarred slightly against Lennon’s original song – the arrangement is sumptuously tricked out with orchestration, but never stoops to deploying obviously Beatles-y signifiers. If you squint, you could just about imagine that it’s the Beatles playing together, which definitely wasn’t true of the mid-90s songs.

So Now and Then is a qualified success, although the question remains: what’s it for? It clearly doesn’t exist to make money, which none of the Beatles or their estates need – although the 7in single version retails for an eye-watering £18 – nor to burnish the Beatles’ existing catalogue, which hardly needs burnishing. Perhaps the real reason for its existence lies with McCartney. No Beatle tried harder to keep the band together or seemed more shattered by their split. And no Beatle has worked more tirelessly to affix a happy ending to their story, never failing to remind interviewers that the band were a tight studio unit to the end, regardless of what was happening outside of it, and that he and Lennon were friends again at the time of his death; re-releasing the Let It Be album without Phil Spector’s orchestrations (an addition that McCartney called the “breaking point” in the Beatles’ demise in the 1997 book Many Years from Now); green-lighting the Get Back documentary series, which showed their 1969 recording sessions in a happier light than the baleful Let It Be documentary; using the same technology behind Now and Then to duet with Lennon onstage at Glastonbury. The premature conclusion of the mid-90s sessions clearly niggled him: he has repeatedly mentioned finishing Now and Then in the intervening years. Now he has, an act of closure underlined by one of the lyrics he appended to Lennon’s: after the lines about missing you and wanting you to be there for me, he adds “always to return to me”.

There has this blend of embracing new music and some form of ‘nostalgia’ this year. In the sense we have seen older and legacy artists heralded. In some cases it has been because they have produced some of their best work. It is encouraging that there is room for legendary artists who have been around for decades and those who are fresh. Joni Mitchell recently celebrated her eightieth birthday. There has been a lot of new interest in her music. It is inspiring that some of the cornerstones of musical history are still relevant and out there. Paul Simon released Seven Psalms earlier this year (it is meant to be heard as a single piece; the songs are entirely acoustic). There is something historic regarding The Beatles and The Rolling Stones being talked about in the same breath in 2023. Think back sixty years. The Rolling Stones were still to release their debut single, yet they were a band coming through. The Beatles were already on the scene. It was a young and exciting moment for two groups who would change the world! In spite of The Beatles losing two members (John Lennon and George Harrison) and The Rolling Stones losing members (including, quite recently, Charlie Watts), they are very much still generating huge interesting and magnificent music. In such a hard and devastating year, it is no surprise that people were always going to be especially interested in anything new from The Beatles and The Rolling Stones. Even if it does seem like a resurgence or new wave for both bands, it is more likely full stops. Now and Then is the final Beatles single. I am not sure The Rolling Stones have any plans to release another album (though they will continue to tour until they drop one feels!). I do like that people have compared 2023 The Beatles and The Rolling Stones to 1967 or the 1960s in general. Even if this is a one-off moment/occasion, the fact that these legends have put out new (amazing) music is a magical…

IF brief moment of history.

FEATURE: Sublime! My Favourite Film of 2023: Barbie

FEATURE:

 

 

Sublime!

IN THIS PHOTO: Barbie’s director and co-writer (with her partner Noah Baumbach) Greta Gerwig/PHOTO CREDIT: Leeor Wild/The Observer

My Favourite Film of 2023: Barbie

_________

THIS may seem unrelated to music…

but there is a musical connection when it comes to Barbie. Released on 21st July, it was a huge box office success that saw it take over $1bn. Its director Greta Gerwig was named the first female director to achieve that feat. Its soundtrack is also pretty awesome! In fact, a couple of songs from the film, Billie Eilish’s What Was I Made For?, and Dua Lipa’s Dance the Night, are both nominated at next year’s GRAMMY Awards for Song of the Year. I think Taylor Swift will win that category for Anti-Hero, though Ryan Gosling (who played Ken in the film) is nominated for I’m Just Ken – which is in the Best Song Written For Visual Media (that also sits alongside three other songs from Barbie, so it seems a shoo-in the film will win at least one GRAMMY!). What Was I Made For? is also nominated for Best Music Video (directed by Billie Eilish), whilst the soundtrack is nominated in the Best Compilation Soundtrack For Visual Media category. Dominating the GRAMMYs, there is that strong musical connection. I think one reason why it is so well-represented at the GRAMMY Awards is the beauty of the film. The direction and placement of the songs is perfect. The script, written by Greta Gerwig and Noah Baumbach, captivated audiences. Starring Margot Robbie as the titular character (Stereotypical Barbie, to be precise!), Barbie was a phenomenal success. It gives me a chance to explore it one final time for this year. As the strikes are over in Hollywood, there is going to be campaign ahead of award season next year. Further promotion that was not permitted months ago. I want to get to some interviews and reviews, just to give you a feeling of why Barbie was so celebrated and has been this once-in-a-lifetime experience. I will drop the soundtrack in, plus some clips and various bits and pieces.

Before coming to any of that, I want to give general impressions. I also love Celine Song’s Past Lives. In terms of filmmaking this year, female directors and writers have produced some of the most startling and memorable films. I know we shouldn’t be dividing by gender and talking in those terms though, at a time when there is not full recognition of women in Hollywood, the fact is that Greta Gerwig, Celine Song and so many other amazing women have created masterpieces needs to be recognised and resonate – and I hope that is reflected at award ceremonies. I do think that Barbie is going to get nominated for at least four Oscars. For set design and costumes. Greta Gerwig seems certain to be nominated for Best Director. One hopes that Margot Robbie is nominated as Best Actress. Maybe Ryan Gosling will get nominated as Best Actor? I think the screenplay for Barbie is phenomenal, though that is a tough category so it may not get nominated. We know that, prior to the 21st July release, Barbie was pitted against Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer. They came out on the same day. Even though they are very different films, there was this ‘Barbenheimer’ phenomenon that nobody thought we’d see in modern cinema! Almost this cultural moment where people were celebrating cinema and there was this deep fascination with two sensational filmmakers. Oppenheimer will also get a lot of Oscar recognition – including Best Director for sure -, yet Barbie has been the big cinema winner this year. My favourite film by far, it is one that I have discussed and dissected so many times. I do feel that a documentary or book about Barbie is warranted. Charting its inception, promotion and impact. It genuinely is one foy those generational highpoints that needs to be celebrated and discussed as much as possible.

I will come to a review of Barbie in a minute. I will end by a recent feature/piece about the film and its success. It is worth focusing on interviews with Greta Gerwig (Noah Baumbach was not really involved with any promotion) and Margot Robbie. I am going to source from an interview they each did separately. Gerwig, as the director coming from Indie cinema who wrote/directed her first ‘major’ motion picture, was very much in the spotlight. This wonderfully colourful and imaginative transition. Margot Robbie, who bought the rights to Barbie and brought the idea to Gerwig, taking on her most high-profile and biggest role to date. In July, The Guardian published an interview with Greta Gerwig. This was a film, as she said, that had to be “totally bananas”:

“One night in April, a stranger I met in a pub pulled out his phone and showed me pictures of something he was working on. We were in a town near to the Leavesden film studios, where the stranger had been constructing sets for Barbie, a film co-written and directed by the American filmmaker Greta Gerwig. “You have to see this,” the man said, before presenting images of a hot-pink, human-sized Barbieland, a place he described as an antidote to our hideously cold winter. Rain was forecast the following day, and even colder cold, but the stranger couldn’t care less. He would be a world away.

When I tell Gerwig this story, over Zoom, one day in June, her large eyes brighten. “That makes me feel like a proud mama!” she says, and, “Gosh, that makes me tear up.” Over the hour we spend together, while she sits in Manhattan, in a room she describes as “half office, half baby nursery,” this is the kind of pronounced buoyancy I come to expect from her. Even when I suggest the stranger perhaps shouldn’t have shown me the pictures – the set being locked down, me being a journalist – Gerwig says, in a wink-wink tone, “But I love that he felt he wanted to.”

Gerwig was invited to write Barbie by the actor Margot Robbie who, with Warner Bros, had bought the rights to the film. (Robbie stars in Barbie as Barbie.) Gerwig has said she was terrified to accept the job. “It’s not like a superhero, who already has a story. It felt very much like it was going to be an adaptation. Except what we were adapting is a doll – an icon of the 20th century.” Before writing the script, Gerwig thought: “It felt complicated enough, sticky enough, strange enough, that maybe there could be something interesting there to be discovered.” She didn’t know she was going to direct the film until after the script was written. “I kind of had two thoughts: I love this and I can’t bear it if anyone else makes it. And: they’ll never let us make this movie.”

PHOTO CREDIT: Leeor Wild/The Observer

To pitch Barbie to executives, Gerwig wrote a poem so strange and “surreal” that she will not read it to me now. When I ask what it concerned, she says, “Oh, you know, the lament of Job?” before adding, “Shockingly, it does actually communicate some vibe of the movie.” Gerwig wrote Barbie with her partner, the filmmaker Noah Baumbach, though for a while she didn’t tell him she’d enlisted his help. (“He was like, ‘Did you sign us up to write a Barbie movie?’ And I was like, ‘Yes, Noah, get excited!’”) They worked on the script during the pandemic, when doubt plagued the future of the communal cinema experience. “There was this sense of wanting to make something anarchic and wild and completely bananas,” Gerwig says, “because it felt, like, ‘Well, if we ever do get to go back to cinemas again, let’s do something totally unhinged.’” The anarchy of Gerwig’s Barbie comes from “the deep isolation of the pandemic,” she says – “that feeling of being in our own little boxes, alone.”

I like people. It’s one of the reasons I like living in New York City. I wouldn’t do well alone in the woods

Such are the levels of secrecy around Barbie that I was only allowed to watch the first 20 minutes of the film, which I did in a large screening room, alone but for a projectionist, a Warner Bros employee, and a man who sealed my phone in an opaque bag. Watching 20 minutes of a film is not enough to say if it is good or not, but it is enough to confirm an early vibe, which is anarchic. There is colour and artificiality, fun and chaos. There are many Barbies and many Kens. It has the atmosphere of an over-the-top gender-reveal party during which various things go wrong. Barbie’s feet become flat, not stiletto-arched. Her shower runs cold. Her breakfast burns. She develops neuroses. A once perfect-seeming life becomes not perfect.

Partway through an elaborate, multi-cast dance number, Robbie asks, suddenly: “Do you guys ever think about dying?” Gerwig thinks of this line as being demonstrative of the film’s anarchic energy. When I ask in what other ways the film is anarchic, she replies, not quite answering the question, “Oh. This movie is crazy.”

I ask her to describe it. “There were so many ways to go into it,” she says, before listing some. “The idea of Barbieland. The idea of Barbie herself being constrained in multitudes. The idea that self is dispersed among many people, that all of these women are Barbie and Barbie is all of these women. That’s pretty trippy to begin with. And the sense that she is continuous with her environment. That there really is no internal life, at all. Because there is just no need to have an internal life.”

Barbie was conceived in 1959, by Ruth Handler, who co-founded the doll’s manufacturer Mattel. Barbie has since occupied a complicated position in the lives of her owners. On one hand, she has been terrible for girls’ body image, a fact Gerwig acknowledges playfully in the film’s opening 20 minutes. (On discovering Barbie’s flat feet, several other Barbies, and at least one Ken, heave mawkishly and knowingly in disgust.) But according to fans she has empowered, too. In more recent times, Mattel has produced dolls with different skin colours and in different shapes. While researching Barbie, Gerwig toured the company’s headquarters. “The kind of amazing thing is that Barbie went to the moon before women had the ability to get credit cards,” she says. “That’s crazy. She was always a kind of step ahead.”

At Mattel, Gerwig saw an image of an all-female Barbie presidential ticket. “I was like, ‘Huh, so Barbie’s done it, but we haven’t?” (The first presidential Barbie appeared in 1992; in the film, president Barbie is played by Issa Rae.) Gerwig was fascinated. “As an icon, she’s always been complicated,” she says. “She has always had these two sides to her.”

Growing up, Gerwig had a tangled relationship with the doll. “I was always intrigued,” she says, because, “Barbie was, if not exactly forbidden in our house, well, it was not encouraged.” Why not? “Oh, the usual criticisms. ‘If she was a real woman, she wouldn’t even be able to stand up; she wouldn’t be able to support her head.’ My mum was a child of the 60s. She was like, ‘We got this far, for this?’” Eventually, Gerwig’s mother relented. “She got me my own,” Gerwig recalls. “Fresh out the box.” It replaced the neighbourhood hand-me-downs she had been playing with.

But Gerwig already had a strong connection to other dolls, the kind you mother, and she had a vivid imagination. “I played with dolls until… I don’t want to say too late, but I played with them long enough that I didn’t want kids at school to know I still played with them. I was a teenager. I was about 13 and still playing with dolls. And I knew that kids at that point were already kissing.” She smiles. “I was a late bloomer.”

Gerwig has said that Barbie’s story mimics that of a girl’s journey from childhood to adolescence. “I always think that 8, 9, 10 years old is peak kid. I was brash and unafraid and loud and big. And then, you know…” Puberty. “It’s a shrinking. Wanting to make yourself smaller, less noticeable, take in all that spikiness and bury it. And you’re profoundly uncomfortable, because you’re going through metamorphosis, literally.” You begin to introspect. “But also, you’re getting tall. You’re getting your period. You get spots.” Gerwig describes childhood as being at peace with the world and adolescence as being suddenly not. “My experience of it was wanting to hide.”

I ask, “Is the film about growing up?”

“It’s not about growing up, exactly,” she says. “But in a way… This is about Barbie, an inanimate doll made out of plastic. But the movie ends up, really, about being human.”

I had two thoughts: I love this and I can’t bear it if anyone else makes it. Barbie went to the moon before women had the ability to get credit cards

In many ways, the themes in Barbie chime with those Gerwig has tackled previously, not least in Lady Bird, her loosely autobiographical directorial debut, and a 2019 adaptation of the Louisa May Alcott novel, Little Women, which the critic Anthony Lane said, “may just be the best film yet made by an American woman”. Both films star Saoirse Ronan and feature adolescent women becoming new, more complicated versions of themselves. Gerwig was nominated for best director at the Oscars for Lady Bird – she became only the fifth female director to be nominated for the award. If Lady Bird announced Gerwig as a top-tier filmmaker, Little Women confirmed it. Plaudits followed. Hollywood invited her in. But Barbie is different altogether: bigger budget, bigger anticipation – what might be the first true summer blockbuster, post-pandemic. When I ask Gerwig how she feels about the film’s release, she says, “I’m just so nervous. I’m so nervous. I’m excited! But I’m so nervous.” And then: “I just can’t believe, like, here it is… Let’s go!”

PHOTO CREDIT: Leeor Wild/The Observer

Before filming, Gerwig organised a Barbie sleepover at Claridges, the London hotel, and invited a number of the film’s female cast: Robbie, Rae, America Fererra. The Kens were invited, but asked not to spend the night; the Barbies wore pyjamas and played games. “Honestly, it just felt like it would be the most fun way to kick everything off,” Gerwig says. “And it’s something you don’t get to do that much as an adult. Like, ‘I’m just going to go have a sleepover with my friends…’”

Gerwig is known for creating open, democratic sets. And she describes part of her job as “creating an atmosphere of acceptance, no wrong answers, no judgment. It allows people to feel safe, to bring wonderfully wild things to the table, which they otherwise might not want to.” (“She’s into things arising,” the actor Jamie Demetriou, who appears in Barbie, told me.) That everyone on set bonds is important to Gerwig – hence the sleepover. Before Little Women, she asked the film’s primary cast – Ronan, Florence Pugh, Emma Watson and Eliza Scanlen – to memorise a poem, and to later recite it to each other. “These were professional actors,” Gerwig recalls, “but there was something about the fact they had to select a poem and then recite it… It was very intimate and amazing, and they were very vulnerable. It instantly felt helpful in creating that connection.” She later adds: “As a director, you have the job of dreaming up the movie, and then you have to get everyone else in the movie – hundreds of people – to have that same dream, too.”

Demetriou recalls the Barbie set being full of positivity. “A lot of the film I spent with Will Ferrell and Connor Swindells talking about how there was this magical drip-down effect from her,” he told me, “this positive vibe that everyone wanted to keep going”.

There is no doubt that Margot Robbie’s turn as Barbie/Stereotypical Barbie is the standout turn. Full of nuance, emotion, comedy, vulnerability and passion, it is a breathtaking performance! The fact is that she recognised there was potential to turn Barbie into a film and make it impactful and important. She identified Greta Gerwig – who she had worked alongside before – as someone who could make it a reality. Lesser filmmakers might have turned thew film into pure fantasy or something misjudged. Greta Gerwig’s handling means that you get the superficial and plastic alongside the real world. That hit of realisation when Barbie steps from Barbie Land to the real world and realises that things are not perfect; that men hold all of the power instead. Many thought the film had a bad feminist message and was attacking men. Neither is true. So many wrong-headed features were written about the film – many by The Guardian; the same publication that did such a wonderful interview with Gerwig -, whilst so many others did not get the point or see the full potential of the film. Objectively, Barbie definitely warranted four and five-star reviews right across the board. There were many who were much less favourable. I know film is subjective, yet there was a lot of undue criticism and misinterpretation. Most agreed on one thing, however: Margot Robbie’s performance was sensational (or, to quote Ken, “Sublime!”). In May, Margot Robbie spoke with Vogue about Barbie. I want to quote where she discusses bringing the idea to Greta Gerwig. What Gerwig’s set was like:

“LuckyChap wanted Gerwig and Baumbach to have full creative freedom. “At the same time,” Robbie says, “we’ve got two very nervous ginormous companies, Warner Bros. and Mattel, being like: What’s their plan? What are they going to do? What’s it gonna be about? What’s she going to say? They have a bazillion questions.” In the end LuckyChap found a way to structure a deal so that Gerwig and Baumbach would be left alone to write what they wanted, “which was really fucking hard to do.”

Gerwig and Baumbach did share a treatment, Robbie adds: “Greta wrote an abstract poem about Barbie. And when I say ‘abstract,’ I mean it was super abstract.” (Gerwig declines to read me the poem but offers that it “shares some similarities with the Apostles’ Creed.”) No one at Lucky­Chap, Mattel, or Warner Bros. saw any pages of the script until it was finished.

PHOTO CREDIT: Ethan James Green for Vogue

When I ask Gerwig and Baumbach to describe their Barbie writing process, the words “open” and “free” get used a lot. The project seemed “wide open,” Gerwig tells me. “There really was this kind of open, free road that we could keep building,” Baumbach says. Part of it had to do with the fact that their characters were dolls. “It’s like you’re playing with dolls when you’re writing something, and in this case, of course, there was this extra layer in that they were dolls,” Baumbach says. “It was literally imaginative play,” Gerwig says. That they were writing the script during lockdown also mattered, Baumbach says. “We were in the pandemic, and everybody had the feeling of, Who knows what the world is going to look like. That fueled it as well. That feeling of: Well, here goes nothing.”

Robbie and Ackerley read the Barbie script at the same time. A certain joke on page one sent their jaws to the floor. “We just looked at each other, pure panic on our faces,” Robbie recalls. “We were like, Holy fucking shit.” When Robbie finished reading: “I think the first thing I said to Tom was, This is so genius. It is such a shame that we’re never going to be able to make this movie.”

LuckyChap did make the movie, of course, and it’s very much the one Gerwig and Baumbach wrote. (Alas, that joke on page one is gone.) If you saw the trailer released in December, you’ve seen the opening of the film. It’s a parody of the Dawn of Man sequence from 2001: A Space Odyssey. But instead of apes discovering tools in the presence of a monolith, little girls smash their baby dolls in the presence of a gigantic Barbie. Robbie-​as-​Barbie appears in a retro black-and-white bathing suit and towering heels. She slowly lowers a pair of white cat-eye sunglasses and winks.

PHOTO CREDIT: Ethan James Green for Vogue

I saw more of the movie one morning at the Warner Bros. lot. After the Kubrick spoof we go on a romp through Barbieland, “a mad fantasy of gorgeousness,” as Sarah Greenwood, the film’s set designer, puts it later. Barbie wakes up in her Dreamhouse and embarks on the Perfect Day, accompanied by an original song that serves as soundtrack. (I am not allowed to say who sings it.) Everything everywhere is infused with pink. “I’ve never done such a deep dive into pink in all my days,” Greenwood says. Barbie’s perfectly fake, color-​saturated world retains many of the quirks and physical limitations of the toy version. Her environment isn’t always three-dimensional, and the scale of everything is a bit off. Barbie is a little too big for her house and her car. When she takes a shower, there is no water. Her bare feet remain arched.

The swimsuit Robbie wears in the Dawn of Woman sequence is a replica of the one worn by the first Barbie doll in 1959. Over the course of the Perfect Day, Barbie changes clothes constantly. The progression—poodle skirt, disco look—amounts to a survey of Barbie fashion over time, says Jacqueline Durran, the film’s costume designer. (Wisely, the survey does not include the more retrograde outfits in Barbie’s past, such as the Slumber Party ensemble of 1965, which came with a little bathroom scale set at 110 pounds and a book titled How to Lose Weight that advised: “Don’t eat.”)

“The key thing about Barbie is that she dresses with intention,” Durran tells me. “Barbie doesn’t dress for the day. She dresses for the task.” The task might involve a leisure activity, or a form of employment. One scene pokes fun at the way the Barbie universe seems to blur such distinctions. “My job is just beach,” Ken explains.

Ken is played with daft aplomb by Ryan Gosling. “The greatest version of Ryan Gosling ever put on screen,” in Robbie’s estimation. (Gosling: “Ken wasn’t really on my bucket list. But in fairness, I don’t have a bucket list. So I thought I’d give it a shot.”) In Barbieland, Ken is basically another fashion accessory. “Barbie has a great day every day,” we are told in voiceover delivered by Helen Mirren. “Ken only has a great day if Barbie looks at him.” Mattel introduced the first Ken doll in 1961, in response to letters demanding Barbie get a boyfriend. “Barbie was invented first,” Gerwig points out. “Ken was invented after Barbie, to burnish Barbie’s position in our eyes and in the world. That kind of creation myth is the opposite of the creation myth in Genesis.”

Just as Barbie was given big boobs but no nipples, Ken was given a smooth “bulge,” as Mattel referred to it at the time. Together, their peculiar partial anatomy hints at a world of grown-up things hidden from view. Gerwig: “You feel that there’s something there, which is part of the allure. It’s unclear how this all kinda works. But it’s not without intrigue.” This vague sense of mystery is captured in a comical exchange Ken and Barbie have in front of her Dreamhouse. “I thought I might stay over tonight,” Ken says. “Why?” Barbie asks. “Because we’re girlfriend-​boyfriend,” Ken says. “To do what?” Barbie asks. “I’m actually not sure,” Ken says.

“The key thing about Barbie is that she dresses with intention,” says Jacqueline Durran, the film’s costume designer. Jacket, top, skirt, belt, shoes, and tights, all Saint Laurent by Anthony Vaccarello.

Barbie acquired friends over the years. First came Midge, her longtime best friend, and later Christie, one of her first Black friends. (Mattel didn’t introduce a Black Barbie until 1980, and a forthcoming documentary, Black Barbie, explores this legacy.) When Gerwig took a tour of Mattel, she learned that the vast majority of dolls in its Barbie line are named Barbie. “Now all of the dolls are Barbie. All of them are Barbie, and Barbie is everyone. Philosophically, I was like, Well, now that’s interesting.” The more she thought about it, the more the multiplicity of Barbies suggested “an expansive idea of self that we could all learn from.”

PHOTO CREDIT: Ethan James Green for Vogue

During the casting process, Gerwig and Robbie looked for “Barbie energy,” a certain ineffable combination of beauty and exuberance they concluded is embodied in Gal Gadot. Robbie: “Gal Gadot is Barbie energy. Because Gal Gadot is so impossibly beautiful, but you don’t hate her for being that beautiful, because she’s so genuinely sincere, and she’s so enthusiastically kind, that it’s almost dorky. It’s like right before being a dork.” (Gadot wasn’t available.) They found their Barbies in Issa Rae, Hari Nef, Emma Mackey, Dua Lipa, Sharon Rooney, Ana Cruz Kayne, Alexandra Shipp, Kate McKinnon, and others. (There are multiple Kens too.) In this menagerie, Rae is President Barbie. Robbie is Stereotypical Barbie.

Before shooting began in London, Gerwig threw a slumber party for the Barbies at Claridge’s Hotel. The Kens were invited to stop by, but not to sleep over. (Gosling couldn’t make it, so he sent a singing telegram in the form of an older Scottish man in a kilt who played bagpipes and delivered the speech from Braveheart.) Once production was underway, LuckyChap hosted weekly movie screenings at the Electric Cinema in Notting Hill. Every Sunday morning, cast and crew were invited to watch a movie that served as a reference for Barbie. They called this “movie church.”

Gerwig had a sense that Barbie was being guided by old soundstage Technicolor musicals, so they watched a bunch of those, most helpfully The Red Shoes and The Umbrellas of Cherbourg. “They have such a high level of what we came to call authentic artificiality,” Gerwig says. “You have a painted sky in a soundstage. Which is an illusion, but it’s also really there. The painted backdrop is really there. The tangibility of the artifice is something that we kept going back to.” Her director of photography, Rodrigo Prieto, who shot The Wolf of Wall Street and Babel and Argo and Brokeback Mountain, created a special color template for Barbie with this in mind. Gerwig named it Techni-Barbie”.

Before coming to a final feature, I want to come to one of the most positive reviews for Barbie. The Independent (quite rightly) awarded it five stars. I feel like they got to the heart of the film like few others. Not over-analysing or giving bad takes. Not focusing on commercialism, ‘bad feminism’ or anything that takes away from the remarkable achievements of Greta Gerwig et al. Barbie is one for the cinematic history books:

“Barbie is one of the most inventive, immaculately crafted and surprising mainstream films in recent memory – a testament to what can be achieved within even the deepest bowels of capitalism. It’s timely, too, arriving a week after the creative forces behind these stories began striking for their right to a living wage and the ability to work without the threat of being replaced by an AI. It’s a pink-splattered manifesto to the power of irreplaceable creative labour and imagination.

While it’s impossible for any studio film to be truly subversive, especially when consumer culture has caught on to the idea that self-awareness is good for business (there’s nothing that companies love more these days than to feel like they’re in on the joke), Barbie gets away with far more than you’d think was possible. It’s a project that writer-director Greta Gerwig, co-writer (plus real-life partner and frequent collaborator) Noah Baumbach, and producer-star Margot Robbie were free to work on in relative privacy, holed up during the pandemic away from the meddlesome impulses of Warner Bros and Mattel executives.

The results are appropriately free-wheeling: There are nods to Jacques Demy’s The Umbrellas of Cherbourg and Jacques Tati’s Playtime, deployment of soundstage sets and dance choreography à la Hollywood’s musical Golden Age, and a mischievous streak of corporate satire that calls to mind 2001’s cult classic Josie and the Pussycats. But while the absurdity of its humour sits somewhere between It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World and Pee-wee’s Big Adventure, its earnest and vulnerable take on womanhood is pure Gerwig, serving as a direct continuation of her Lady Bird and Little Women.

The fact that all of this is tied to one of the most recognisable products in existence – and that any success it enjoys will undoubtedly boost Mattel’s stock prices – underlines the fact that it’s largely impossible to embrace art without embracing hypocrisy. Capitalism doesn’t always swallow art whole; occasionally it thrives in spite of it. And that’s a complexity that feels particularly on brand for a director who had her Jo March, in Little Women, declare: “I am so sick of people saying that love is just all a woman is fit for. I’m so sick of it! But – I am so lonely.”

Barbie contains another Gerwig-ian speech, delivered beautifully by an ordinary (human) mum played by America Ferrera, about the hellish trap women have been forced into. Caught between girl-boss feminism and outright misogyny, women now have to be rich, thin, liberated, and eternally grateful without ever breaking a sweat – because when Barbie promised little girls that “women can be anything”, those words got twisted to mean “women should be everything”. Gerwig’s movie begins by playing a brilliant trick on its audience: Helen Mirren’s opening narration is self-congratulatory, a bit of canned PR about Barbie’s “girl power” legacy that grows increasingly tongue-in-cheek. “Thanks to Barbie,” she concludes, “all problems of feminism and equal rights have been solved”.

We’re then introduced to our Barbie – ie “the Stereotypical Barbie” – who is chipper, confident, blonde, and, most importantly, looks like Margot Robbie. She is eternally adored by Ken (Ryan Gosling), whose job is “beach”. Not “lifeguard”, but “beach”. Barbie’s friends all have high-powered jobs: president (Issa Rae), author (Alexandra Shipp), physicist (Emma Mackey), doctor (Hari Nef), and lawyer (Sharon Rooney). Every morning, she steps into her shower (there’s no water), sets out her breakfast of a heart-shaped waffle with a dollop of whipped cream (she doesn’t eat), and then sets off in her pink convertible (she doesn’t walk downstairs, but merely floats). All is perfect. Then Barbie starts having irrepressible thoughts of death.

Barbie’s bid to fix that sudden, scary attack of humanity sees her visit “the Real World”, where she meets the all-male executive board of Mattel (among them Will Ferrell and a wonderfully dorky Jamie Demetriou), who think themselves qualified to determine what little girls like and need because they once had a woman CEO (or two, maybe). Meanwhile, Gerwig uses, through a hysterical farce centred around Gosling and his fellow Kens, the implicit matriarchy of Barbieland to explore how power and visibility shape a person’s self-perception. Gosling gives an all-timer of a comedic performance, one that’s part-baby, part-Zoolander, part-maniac, and 100 per cent a validation for anyone who ever liked him in 2016’s noir comedy The Nice Guys. There are (naturally) some exquisite outfits designed by Jacqueline Durran, some very funny references to discontinued Barbies (have fun reading up on the backstory behind Earring Magic Ken), and a few unexpected pops at fans of Duolingo, Top Gun, and Zack Snyder’s Justice League.

Barbie is joyous from minute to minute to minute. But it’s where the film ends up that really cements the near-miraculousness of Gerwig’s achievement. Very late in the movie, a conversation is had that neatly sums up one of the great illusions of capitalism – that creations exist independently from those that created them. It’s why films and television shows get turned into “content”, and why writers and actors end up exploited and demeaned. Barbie, in its own sly, silly way, gets to the very heart of why these current strikes are so necessary”.

It must have been a shock for Greta Gerwig. We have not even got to award season yet. In terms of the box office and the worldwide reaction to Barbie, it has been a dream! A successful and acclaimed actor and director, Gerwig triumphantly transitioned from smaller Indie films – though Oscar-nominated Lady Bird (2017) and Little Women (2019) were huge successes – to this massive and all-conquering multi-million-dollar film of a very recognisable figure. It could have gone wrong or a massive failure. As it was, Barbie exceeded all expectation! I will end with a BBC article that reacted to Greta Gerwig speaking at the London Film Festival in October. She weas blown away and moved hugely by the reaction to Barbie:

“Greta Gerwig, the director of smash hit movie Barbie, has described the film's success as "so moving".

The blockbuster follows the famous doll and her companion Ken travelling from Barbieland into the real world.

Gerwig, speaking at the London Film Festival, added that seeing the movie being enjoyed by so many had been "the most thrilling thing".

The film has taken $1.44bn (£1.2bn) at the box office, making her the most successful solo female director ever.

The director was in conversation at the festival with Peep Show co-creator and Succession writer Jesse Armstrong.

Such joy

Speaking about the months she spent working on Barbie, she told him: "The process of making it was such joy. It was the most joyful set I've ever been on.

"I thought, if I can make a movie that's half, or [a] quarter as fun to watch as it was to make, I think maybe we've got a shot."

It was released in July, and Gerwig went into cinemas to see the reaction and ensure audiences had the best viewing - and listening - experience, she revealed.

"On the opening weekend I was in New York City. And I went around some different theatres and sort of stood in the back. And then also turned up the volume if I felt it was playing at maybe not the perfect level," she said. "It was the most thrilling thing."

IN THIS PHOTO: Greta Gerwig on stage at the London Film Festival/PHOTO CREDIT: Getty Images

She told film fans at the London festival that she'd grown up loving watching films in movie theatres.

"And I think that part of me always wanted to recreate that feeling from childhood of meeting in a dark room with a bunch of people. So it was so moving to me that that was the thing that people experienced."

She also thanked the BBC for allowing her to use a short extract from its 1995 TV adaptation of Pride & Prejudice in her film.

"I was very honoured they said yes to that," she said. "That was a big deal. They don't always say yes. Thank you to Jennifer Ehle and Colin Firth, that was very lovely."

And although she was careful not to name it, Gerwig also spoke briefly about her next, eagerly awaited project, and the challenges it's presenting.

"I'm working on something right now, I'm in the writing process," she told the audience. "And it's hard. And I'm having nightmares. I'm having recurring nightmares”.

My favourite film of the year – and one of my favourites of all time -, there are going to be new eyes on Barbie next year. It will be nominated for scores of awards without question. I hope Greta Gerwig, Margot Robbie and everyone involved gets to speak about the film (and what would have been a wonderful experience for all). The GRAMMY Awards on 6th February will be interesting. With so many of the songs nominated (Lizzo’s Pink was omitted, one suspects, due to allegations made against her earlier this year), Barbie will cross from film into music. In any case, the musical recognition of Barbie shows that it is a film that has conquered and seduced everyone! Such a remarkable film from an iconic and hugely important filmmaker who has broken records and helped to bring to life this astonishing film, everyone who has not seen Barbie needs to check it out (it is available through Prime Video). I am not quite sure what Greta Gerwig and Margot Robbie are releasing next and whether they will come together again. I hope that there is another collaboration, as they are so close and have this immense respect for one another! That shows when you watch Barbie. It is a film that created a phenomenon and explosion of cheer and pink at cinemas and theatres across the world. It is an explosion and cultural moment that we will never…

SEE the like of again.

FEATURE: Great Danes of Love: Kate Bush’s Huge Contemporary and Continuing Influence

FEATURE:

 

 

Great Danes of Love

ILLUSTRATION CREDIT: Robin Goodwin 

Kate Bush’s Huge Contemporary and Continuing Influence

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I don’t think that enough features…

 IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush in 1985/PHOTO CREDIT: Guido Harari

have been written about Kate Bush’s influences. You get a few now and then, though most are framed around Stranger Things using Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God) last year. I think we have heard enough about that! I will bring in mention of that soon, yet I think that show gets too much credit for popularising Bush’s music to a new generation. I think that it definitely helped reignite some love and awareness of her music, though this appreciation and new attention spreads wider than that one show/song. Even though a lot of artists have since covered Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God) – which has not resulted in too much revelation or surprise -, the fact that Bush has been induced into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and her studio albums are being reissued means that this knowledge will expand. Hopefully fans will spread their wings and not stick solely with Hounds of Love (1985). Many young artists are finding Kate Bush’s music and covering her songs. Other are clearly inspired by her. You can hear some of Bush’s sounds and dynamics in their music. Beyond that iconic song and the ‘Kate Bush Effect’, the full breadth and wonder of her music is going to shape a whole new generation of artists coming through. I will nod more to that soon.

First, I want to bring together a couple of fairly recent features where the influence and impact of Kate Bush has been discussed. Last year, this article recognised how Kate Bush has become an idol for Gen Z. Someone having a clear effect on a whole new audience:

“When Kate Bush released Running Up That Hill (A Deal With God) in 1985, it became one of her biggest hits. But against all expectations, 37 years on, it is back at the top of the charts, outperforming the latest releases by global stars such as Harry Styles and Bad Bunny. The song owes its surprise success to its appearance on Stranger Things, a 1980s-based sci-fi show on Netflix.

The series has introduced a new generation of young fans to Kate Bush, a British singer who was often criticized by those who misunderstood her work or disliked the fact that it was by a female artist.

“It was kind of sexist. People thought that Kate Bush was insane. People were embarrassed about admitting that they actually liked her and I think that is something, actually, one good thing about feminism nowadays is that she is not a threat at all,” said Icelandic singer Björk in an interview with Far Out.

Indeed, many global stars, including Rosalía, Adele and Lady Gaga, have spoken openly about the important influence Bush has had on their music. The English singer broke all the molds, she smashed expectations and paved the way for a new generation of pioneering female singers. She elevated her music videos into a kind of performance art, reinvented the concert experience and became a cult figure who endured despite her long absences from public life”.

I am glad that there is a lot of talk around Stranger Things. Even if it is given a lot of credit for putting Kate Bush back in the spotlight, it definitely did help get her name to new fans. There was a recent time when many saw Kate Bush as obsolete or a thing of the past. If an artist has not released music for years, they are often dismissed or forgotten about. The Conversation reacted to the success of Kate Bush and Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God) after its Stranger Things appearance. It was a moment when her music crossed generations. An enduring artist who enjoyed a new resurgence from a song almost forty years old:

“Keen observers of popular culture will have become aware of the recent inclusion of Kate Bush’s 1985 song Running Up That Hill into the storyline of the widely-watched Netflix show Stranger Things. As a result of this inclusion, Kate Bush’s classic song was catapulted (again) into the mainstream musical scene, experiencing a true resurgence in popularity and ranking highly in download charts around the world.

Kate Bush herself provided a response by issuing a rare message on social media about the whole affair, not only declaring her enthusiasm over Stranger Things, but also her gratitude for its ability to bestow “a new lease of life” upon her now famous song.

As a result of the boost in popularity of Running Up That Hill, there has been great talk of a whole new group of music listeners from the Gen Z demographic “discovering” Kate Bush’s work, and becoming instantly enamoured with it.

An anecdotal look would seem to suggest that, somehow, Kate Bush is reaching greater fame in 2022 than she did during the 1980s, a prolific creative period that many would rank (unkindly) as the peak of her musical journey. And yet, while there is no denying the instant hold that Kate Bush’s music seems to be having on current listeners, there is definitely something strange in suggesting that her fame was only moderate in previous decades. 

IN THIS PHOTO: Florence Welch (Florence + The Machine)

A contemporary icon

There is no doubting the fact that Kate Bush’s lyrics speak to a variety of identities and desires. She has been credited as an extremely influential figure by contemporary artists such as Lady Gaga, Tori Amos, and Florence + The Machine.

Unavoidably, there is a lot of nostalgia involved in the constant re-discovery of Kate Bush’s music as well, especially for those fans whose memories are attached to her songs from different moments in time. And yet, there also seems to be something more peculiar at play. Kate Bush’s music has a certain nostalgic feel to it, even if new fans and listeners do not have any actual memories of the past associated with her songs.

There is an intimate sense of longing that is interlaced within the fabric her work: a desire to feel, to experience, and to find oneself, which makes her performances so captivating. It is perhaps this definitive characteristic that maintains Kate Bush’s multi-generational appeal, as her music continues to speak to a multitude of fans across the years”.

 IN THIS PHOTO: Caroline Polachek/PHOTO CREDIT: Ian Kenneth Bird

There is no doubt that she is an idol for Gen Z. She has inspired so many artists through the years. St. Vincent covered Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God) at the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame induction. Other, including Björk, have often name-checked Kate Bush. You can see all the other artists through the years who cite Bush an influence or have been affected by her work. I think one of the most interesting developments and aspects is how Kate Bush is going to inspire artists coming through at the moment. Few would have thought that her music would still be influencing artists this many years later! Without releasing new music, she has managed to resonate with a young demographic. I think the appeal extends beyond one song. I am not sure what next year will bring. There is no doubt we will see activity in some form. Whether there is more retrospective or reissues, Kate Bush is going to be talked about and very much present. Artists like Caroline Polachek have been called the Kate Bush for Gen Z. Whilst the media is keen to compare modern artists to Kate Bush, it is clear ‘the original’ is very much relevant and irreplaceable! Even if she hit her peak in the 1980s, her music and lyrics are by no means dated. The fact is that Bush’s music speaks to the L.G.B.T.Q.I.A.+ community. She speaks about understanding and love. Empathetic, deep, hugely original and inspired by film and T.V., these subjects and positives resonate and translate today. So many people gain strength, clarity and understanding from Kate Bush’s music. The music queen engages with fans but is not on social media. That is unlike so many other major artists, which is refreshing and inspiring.

There is a power and constant relevance to Kate Bush’s music that has attracted a young audience. The same is true now as it was in the 1970s and 1990s. This cross-generational appeal remains strong and hugely impressive. Even if it is common for each generation to herald a legacy Rock artist and strong female voice, I think there is something about Kate Bush that will survive and outlive what is expected. Rather than this being a fad or a brief idol who speaks to a young demographic, Bush’s music and influence is impacting in countries that did not pick her up the first time around. There were a lot of articles written about Kate Bush last year following the success of Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God). Even if this article does mention that Hounds of Love track, the fact is that Kate Bush self-produced her work – and had this independence -, a sense of strength and defiance against her label at times, songs that discussed human understanding and compromise, the style and wisdom together with the beauty of her words and outlook means she has instantly connected with Gen Z:

“Following the premiere of the fourth season, “Running Up That Hill” became the top-selling and most streamed title in the U.S. according to Variety. This earned Bush her first No.1 single in the U.K. since 1978 and her first top 10 in the U.S. The song has been topping Billboard charts and remains in the top 10 on both iTunes and Spotify. CBS reports that the song has earned Bush over $2.3 million in streaming royalties since Stranger Things premiered.

Bush released a statement on her website expressing her love and amazement for the show that’s set in the 80s, which was when Bush released her fifth studio album Hounds of Love (1985). “The response to ‘Running Up That Hill’ is something that has had its own energy and volition. A direct relationship between the shows and their audience and one that has stood completely outside of the music business. We’ve all been astounded to watch the track explode! Thanks so much to everyone who has supported the song and a really special thank you to the Duffer Brothers for creating something with such heart,” Bush writes.

The independently-produced song heightens nostalgia as synth-driven ballads, big hair and whimesigoth fashion are making a bigger comeback than ever – and it just goes to show that Bush’s music transcends time and microtrends. Bush said that listeners can interpret the song in whatever way they please, but originally it was written as the idea of a man and a woman swapping places with each other to feel things from each other’s perspectives. Listeners can hear this in the lyrics, “And if I could, I’d make a deal with God / And I’d get him to swap our places.” The song’s original title “A Deal With God” was worrisome as it referred to religion, so her label changed it to “Running Up That Hill.” In Bush’s mind, the song will forever be called “A Deal With God.”

Hounds of Love is Bush’s self-produced fifth album that embraced beauty, radical synth exploration and themes of religion, murder and queer subjects. Proven to be a timeless masterpiece, Bush’s vocals manage to range from utterly beautiful to beautifully raw. Her myriad use of folk influences and theatrics create a unique sound as she expertly captures concepts of romance and the duality of life through a darker lens. Hounds of Love evokes a sense of mystery between the balance of light and dark, as well as the balance of beauty and eccentricity. The entire discography is beautifully dramatic and a testament to her deliriously weird aesthetics. Multiple charting musicians such as Björk, St. Vincent and countless others have credited Bush as a major influence in their sounds”.

After a very busy and important years for Kate Bush, her music and legacy, 2024 is going to be a year when there is transition and new evaluation. We will see rising artists cite Kate Bush as an influence. An idea of how her music has impacted young songwriters. The hope is, as it always is, that these new young fans and artists look beyond Hounds of Love. With a more expansive and explorative embrace of her music, that means even more artists will latch onto her brilliance! I feel Kate Bush is one of the most influential artists ever. Something that is not going to change. It is wonderful that we still hear of Kate Bush making an impression on so many people. Further proof that she is…

A queen and icon.

FEATURE: The ‘Red and Green’ Album: 1963–1969: Inside The Beatles’ Christmas Records

FEATURE:

 

The ‘Red and Green’ Album: 1963–1969

Inside The Beatles’ Christmas Records

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YOU can find some information…

 PHOTO CREDIT: Michael Ochs Archive/Getty Images

here about the Christmas records that The Beatles put out between 1963 and 1969. An end-of-year treat for the fan club, they started quite modest and a little ramshackle. They became much more production pieces and impressive by the end. The first record was issued on 6th December, 1963. I wanted to mark sixty years of that debut Christmas record from the band – though I also wanted to look closely at all the albums with the assistance of some great and detailed features. We do not really have it so much now but, in the 1960s, there would have been artists who sent fans Christmas messages and recorded special songs. Few were as converted and interesting as The Beatles’ annual messages. At the end of 1963, there was this enormous interest in this fresh band who had already conquered the world. I would say that, given the fact that the final Beatles single, Now and Then, was released recently, there would be appetite for their Christmas records. They can be found if you want to own the records. I am not sure how easy it is to get good quality new versions of the various records. They do need to be reissued. In 2017, a special release was announced:

“Each Christmas, from 1963 to 1969, The Beatles sent out musical and spoken messages to members of their official fan club, pressed on flexi discs. Those had never been released beyond the fan club until the release of this new Christmas Records boxset.

Press release:

WE ARE RINGING IN THE HOLIDAYS WITH NEW GLOBAL BEATLES RELEASES

London – November 2, 2017 – Apple Corps Ltd./Capitol/UMe are wrapping up new, global Beatles releases for the holiday season, and a splendid time is guaranteed for all.

The Beatles’ annual holiday tradition of recording jolly Christmas messages for fan club members was an important part of the band’s relationship with their most ardent supporters, affectionately referred to by them as “Beatle People.”

Spanning 1963 to 1969, The Beatles’ holiday recordings were originally pressed on flexi discs and mailed to fan club members each December. Never released beyond the fan club until now, The Beatles’ seven holiday messages have been newly pressed on a rainbow of seven-inch colored vinyl singles for The Christmas Records box set, to be released worldwide on December 15.

The limited edition collection presents each vinyl single with its original flexi disc sleeve artwork, accompanied by a 16-page booklet with recording notes and reproductions of the fan club’s National Newsletters, which were mailed to members with the holiday flexi discs”.

It is a shame that they are sold out! I for one would love to own them. When people are asking what the next reissue is going to be, perhaps another studio album would be a better start. Even so, there is so much charm to be found in those Christmas albums. They are a rare and distinct snapshot of The Beatles in that particular year. Maybe, towards the end of the run, they found it a bit of a slog. From 1963’s debut, The Beatles Christmas Record, through to 1969: The Beatles Seventh Christmas Record, the fans got this early present from their favourite band! An L.P. compilation of all seven Christmas records, From Then to You, came out in the U.K. - and The Beatles Christmas Album in the U.S. – came out in 1970. I want to liberally source a feature from Rolling Stone. They wrote how these brief holiday messages and collections really did “offer a glimpse into their stunning evolution”. They covered all seven albums in their feature. I am going to select four of them to focus on:

“Between 1963 and 1969, the Beatles sent limited-edition Christmas singles to paid-up members of their fan club. Consisting of wordplay-laden spoken messages, surreal skits and snatches of original songs, these ultra-rare plastic “flexidisc” records existed in a hazy area between bootlegs and legitimate, if tough to find, releases. In 2017, they were reissued on vinyl as part of a limited-edition box set, The Christmas Records, making them available for general purchase for the first time.

The goofy tracks capture the band at their most playful, showcasing their warm camaraderie and wit punctuated by cheery cries of their invented Yuletide greeting: “Happy Crimble!” As their fame grew and the pressure became more immense, the Beatles welcomed the chance to blow off steam and follow their creativity into areas beyond their usual pop fare. These low-stakes sessions emboldened them to experiment, sometimes inspiring ideas that would later appear on their better-known work. Even when they’re not pushing the artistic envelope, their eccentric humor, heavily influenced by British radio comedy collective the Goons, remains as funny now as it was half a century earlier.

PHOTO CREDIT: Everett Collection/Mirrorpix

“The Beatles Christmas Record” (1963)

The tale of the first Crimble begins on October 17th, 1963, inside Abbey Road’s Studio Two. Before beginning work on what would become their next single, “I Want to Hold Your Hand,” the Beatles had some Yuletide housekeeping to attend to at the behest of their press officer, Tony Barrow, who suggested that they record a Christmas greeting as a special treat to their rapidly swelling fan club. The band liked the idea enough to acquiesce, but were still content to leave the specifics to a seasoned professional like Barrow, who prepared a script filled with standard expressions of gratitude and seasonal platitudes.

Of course, there was a lot to be thankful for. It had been an extraordinarily year of firsts for the Beatles, during which they released their debut LP, embarked on their first headlining tour and began their unparalleled string of Number One hits. Five days earlier they had sent the United Kingdom into its first throes of advanced Beatlemania with a televised performance on Val Parnell’s Sunday night institution, Sunday Night at the London Palladium, inspiring thousands of fans to swarm the stately West End venue. The hysterics would soon become tiresome, but for now it was fresh, and a genuine tone of naïve bewilderment pervades what would be known as “The Beatles Christmas Record.”

 PHOTO CREDIT: Daily Mirror/Mirrorpix/Getty Images

Celestial chimes, the only musical instrument to appear on otherwise a cappella track, herald the band’s arrival as they gather around the microphone to sing a version of “Good King Wenceslas” that’s both hilariously off-key and also hilariously wrong (the snow is not “deep and crisp and crispy” nor is Betty Grable’s name checked). The earnestness and showbiz sincerity of Barrow’s script is immediately undercut as Lennon introduces himself with a cheery, “Hello, this is John speaking with his voice!” Thanking fans for a “really gear year,” he notes the deluge of cards he’d received for his 23rd birthday the week before: “I’d love to reply to everyone personally, but I haven’t enough pens.”

After some irreverent dog barking, he hands it over to McCartney, who echoes the gratitude – save for one thing. Ever since the Beatles expressed their fondness for Jelly Babies (an English cousin of jelly beans) in a recent interview, fans had been shipping them by the crate-load. No longer wishing to be pelted by the confection during live appearances, McCartney takes the opportunity to tell the world, “We’ve gone right off Jelly Babies!” Striking up a faux-German reprise of “Good King Wenceslas” with Lennon, he passes off to Starr, who responds with his own in the style of a hep-cat nightclub crooner. “Thank you, Ringo,” Harrison deadpans as their mock applause dies down. “We’ll phone you!”

The band left it to Barrow to cobble together a workable recording from their banter. “I actually cut the tape recording with scissors, patched the pieces together, and let the discarded bits drop to the floor,” he wrote in his memoir, John, Paul, George, Ringo and Me. “In doing this we destroyed a master tape that at some future date might have raised many thousands of pounds at auction as a unique piece of memorabilia – particularly with all the unused bad language left in!”

Thirty thousand copies of the one-track single were pressed on Lyntone “flexi-vinyl” and sent to fan-club members in the first week of December. In among the jokes and half-songs (like “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Ringo”) heard by anointed “Beatle People,” McCartney delivered a surprisingly prescient mission statement. “Lots of people ask us what we enjoy best – concerts and television or recording. We like doing stage shows, ’cause it’s great to hear an audience enjoying themselves. But the thing we like best – I think so anyway – is going into the recording studio to make new records,” he says. “What we like to hear most is one of our songs taking shape in a recording studio, one of the ones that John and I have written, and then listening to the tapes afterwards to see how it all worked out.” Hours after committing these words to tape, the band would have their first transatlantic hit in the can, elevating the Beatles to a level they could scarcely imagine, and insuring that “The Beatles Christmas Record” would have a sequel”.

“Another Beatles Christmas Record” (1964)

Far from viewing it as a chore, the Beatles had thoroughly enjoyed the experience of recording their first Christmas message and looked forward to a second round. “It was the boys themselves who promoted me into continuing the tradition,” Barrow wrote in his memoir. “‘When are we doing this year’s Crimble record?’ They asked me. They also wanted another script. I knew they needed my words simply as a security measure in case they dried up. In the event they made everything I wrote much funnier by their distinctively zany, Goons-style presentation.”

On October 26th, the band huddled in Studio Two to record five passes through Barrow’s latest message, each one veering off into its own realm of randomness. (Outtakes include a Jimmy Stewart impression, a version of “The 12 Days of Christmas” that consists solely of the item “One plastic bag,” and a hummed rendition of Louis Armstrong’s “Hello Dolly,” the song that had knocked the Beatles off the top spot of the America charts for the first time in 14 weeks that spring.) It was the end of a long day that had begun at 10 o’clock that morning, as the band held the final session for their next LP, Beatles for Sale. Taping nearly 12 hours later, they could be excused for sounding slightly less energetic than they had on their prior Christmas greeting.

PHOTO CREDIT: Daily Mirror/Mirrorpix/Getty Images

The production quality has greatly improved from the previous year, with the sound of marching feet giving way to the opening bars of “Jingle Bells,” backed with piano, harmonica and what sounds like a piece of paper on a comb (a trick recycled during sessions for “Lovely Rita” years later). The band members make no effort to disguise the fact that they’re reading a script, and the supposedly illegible handwriting becomes a running gag. “We hope you have enjoyed listening to the records as much as we have enjoyed melting them,” says McCartney before they all break into peals of laughter. “No, no that’s wrong. Making them!”

Lennon adopts his traditional role as the witty slinger of withering one-liners. “Don’t know where we’d be without you, really,” McCartney graciously tells fans. “The Army, perhaps,” Lennon lobs back. After thanking fans for seeing A Hard Day’s Night, Harrison reveals that their next film will be in color. “Green,” Lennon helpfully adds. In addition to plugging his upcoming book, A Spaniard in the Works – “It’s the usual rubbish, but it won’t cost much” – he manages to sneak in a sly naughty word with “Beatle peedles,” German slang for male genitalia. Its close proximity to the band’s name was the source of great amusement during their club days in Hamburg.

For the fadeout, they sing a loose version of the Irish standard “Can You Wash Your Father’s Shirt.” This soon devolves into demented shouts of “Christmas,” predating Monty Python’s brainless “Gumby” character by half a decade”.

“Christmas Time Is Here Again!” (1967)

The Beatles hold up sandwich boards in different languages (English, French, German, Spanish and Russian) during the Our World satellite broadcast of the song 'All You Need is Love' from Abbey Road Studios in London, UK, 24th June 1967. From left to right, Ringo Starr, Paul McCartney, John Lennon and George Harrison. (Photo by Evening Standard/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

Now that the band had mastered their studio domain, the Beatles’ 1967 seasonal message – wrapped in a Sgt. Pepper–like collage of vintage photos created by Lennon and Starr – would be the apex of their Christmas recordings. Recorded back at Abbey Road’s Studio Two on November 28th during a nine-hour marathon session, “Christmas Time Is Here Again!” expands on the sketches of the previous year by adding the only performance among the Beatles’ holiday recordings that could safely be categorized as a proper “Christmas song.” The tune is little more than a holiday mantra, but the Beatles sell it through their full-throated commitment and a clever arrangement reminiscent of their new single, “Hello, Goodbye.” Lennon, ever fond of unusual count-ins (he can be heard intoning “Sugar plum fairy, sugar plum fairy” on early takes of “A Day in the Life”), introduces the song with a hastily exhaled “Interplanetary remix, take 444!” before a lushly multi-tracked chorus of Beatle voices remind listeners that Christmas time is indeed here again.

 The plot, scripted by the band the day before, makes about as much sense as “Everywhere It’s Christmas.” The story begins with the Beatles portraying a fictitious group called the Ravellers, on a quest to audition for the BBC. Once they’ve made it past the gatekeeper (played by their friend Victor Spinetti, who had appeared in A Hard Day’s Night, Help! and the yet-to-be-released Magical Mystery Tour) they perform a tap-dance in the “fluffy rehearsal room.” From there it all becomes a bit difficult to follow as the record fades into a fever dream of fractured broadcast clichés including jingles (“Wonderlust for your trousers!”), a noir radio drama called Theater Hour and a game show where the grand prize is a trip to Denver and automatic appointment to “independent candidate for Paddington.” The Ravellers, having apparently passed the audition, return to croon a tune about jam jars across the airwaves for the benefit of injured woman in Blackpool.

A haze of maniacal echo-drenched laughter gives way to the regal voice of George Martin, addressing fans for the first time on the disc. “They’d like to thank you for a wonderful year,” he says with the tone of a kindly but exasperated schoolteacher, before the students repeat his words with mock reverence. Lennon signs off with a Goonish original poem, a sort of lonely Christmas “Jabberwocky” delivered in a thick Scottish brogue over the sound of a wintery gale. “When the beasty brangom button to the heather and little inn,” he says while “Auld Lang Syne” plays softly. “And be strattened oot in ma-tether to yer arms once back again. Och away, ye bonnie.” So ends the Beatles’ last documented recording of their extraordinary year. It would also be the final Christmas disc recorded together by the group as a unit”.

“The Beatles’ Seventh Christmas Record: Happy Christmas 1969”

The Beatles existed in name only by the Christmas of 1969, after Lennon famously told his compatriots in September that he wanted “a divorce.” But for fear of disrupting upcoming business deals, as well as a genuine sense of confusion, the band decide to keep any talk of a breakup strictly among themselves. To maintain a sense of normalcy, they dutifully set about recording pieces for yet another Christmas record, once more to be assembled by Everett.

Most of the Beatles opted to tape their pieces in the comfort of their own homes. Ono, who had just contributed anonymous backing piano the previous year, introduces her now-husband as they stroll through the grounds of Tittenhurst Park, their Ascot estate where the final Beatles’ photo session had taken place on August 22nd. Together they stage a jokey interview, ranging from their favorite foods to their place in the decade to come. “I think it’ll be a quite a peaceful Seventies … [peace] and freedom,” Ono opines. As the autumn leaves crunch underfoot, Lennon can’t help but belt “deep and crisp and even” – the line from “Good King Wenceslas” he gleefully butchered on the band’s first Christmas record. Once a fresh 23-year-old having a laugh with his mates, he’s now an adult superstar, roaming his palatial estate with his wife, preaching peace to the globe. Even now, the monumental six-year leap remains difficult to comprehend.

McCartney performs another inviting acoustic original, this one titled “This Is to Wish You.” Music will remain his preferred method for bringing peace to those who endured the tumultuous decade he had helped to shape – as well soothe his own soul during the uncertain time. Starr sings a song of his own, a goofy ad-libbed tune, and manages to work in a plug for his new film, The Magic Christian with Peter Sellers, whose radio work with The Goon Show can be felt in each of the Beatles’ Christmas discs. Harrison, however, remains unwilling to submit to this last vestige of mop-toppery. His contribution, a single line uttered at the London offices of Apple Records, runs six seconds long.

Among recordings of Christmas choirs and pipe organs pulled from the tape vault, Everett utilized another preexisting piece of music: “The End” from the Beatles’ swan song, Abbey Road. Perhaps even he had an inkling that this would be the last offering of its kind from the group. He ensures that the concluding sound heard on what would prove to be the final Beatles Christmas record is that of laughter, a fitting reminder of the inherent good humor that runs throughout the band’s works. Even to the bitter end, the Beatles could be counted on to raise a smile”.

Even if these Christmas records were a way to appease fans who would send thousands of letters, I think they grew into something more. It was a personal touch from a band who were often in the middle of recording an albums – and would do these Christmas skits and messages in the middle. The cognitive dissonance of going from a conventional studio album song to being in the festive setting must have been strange! The first one or two Christmas records sounded a little forced and too scripted. You can hear more of the band’s personalities in the subsequent ones. John Lennon, George Harrison, Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr added something magical and distinct to these annual stocking fillers. I am keen to see them reissued and made available on a vinyl set or C.D.s. It is a fascinating chapter in the career of the greatest and most important band ever. As we are heading towards December, I was thinking about Christmas and the fact that many Beatles fans might not know about the Beatles records. As the first one was issued on 6th December, 1963, I wanted to mark its sixtieth anniversary. I wonder how Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr feel about them now (and whether they have any clear memories and recollections). They are quite random and scattershot at times, yet they are all very worthy and interesting. A holiday gift for the fans who gave the band so much love and support, I still get charmed and won over when listening to them now! They are irresistible and, at times, wonderfully engrossing. These short and characterful records from The Beatles were…

WONDERFUL Christmas baubles!

FEATURE: Rags to Riches in the East Village: Celebrating and Remembering Fifty Years of CBGB

FEATURE:

 

 

Rags to Riches in the East Village

ILLUSTRATION CREDIT: Michael Borthwick

Celebrating and Remembering Fifty Years of CBGB

_________

I am going to…

start out with some Wikipedia background and summary about the iconic CBGB club. Previously based in East Village, Manhattan, it closed its doors in 2006. The reason I am marking the venue is because it opened its doors on 10th December, 1973. It is coming up to its fiftieth anniversary. It may seem quite minor in terms of music history and the impact CBGB had, though consider the artists who passed through there and how crucial it was for given underground artists (at the time) a platform, and that should tell you how cherished and important it was. Perhaps getting a reputation for one of the edgier and more controversial venues around the East Village – which was part of its charm! -, it was also one of the most characterful and loved. I will come to some deeper articles in a second. For now, an overview of this incredible and legendary spot:

“CBGB was a New York City music club opened in 1973 by Hilly Kristal in Manhattan's East Village. The club was previously a biker bar and before that was a dive bar. The letters CBGB were for Country, Bluegrass, and Blues, Kristal's original vision, yet CBGB soon became a famed venue of punk rock and new wave bands like the Ramones, Television, Patti Smith Group, Blondie, and Talking Heads. From the early 1980s onward, CBGB was known for hardcore punk.

One storefront beside CBGB became the "CBGB Record Canteen", a record shop and café. In the late 1980s, "CBGB Record Canteen" was converted into an art gallery and second performance space, "CB's 313 Gallery". CB's Gallery was played by music artists of milder sounds, such as acoustic rock, folk, jazz, or experimental music, such as Dadadah, Kristeen Young and Toshi Reagon, while CBGB continued to showcase mainly hardcore punk, post punk, metal, and alternative rock. 313 Gallery was also the host location for Alchemy, a weekly Goth night showcasing goth, industrial, dark rock, and darkwave bands.[4][5] On the other side, CBGB was operating a small cafe and bar in the mid-1990s, which served classic New York pizza, among other items.

Around 2000, CBGB entered a protracted dispute over allegedly unpaid rent amounts until the landlord, Bowery Residents' Committee, sued in 2005 and lost the case, but a deal to renew CBGB's lease, expiring in 2006, failed. The club closed upon its final concert, played by Patti Smith, on October 15, 2006.[8] CBGB Radio launched on the iHeartRadio platform in 2010, and CBGB music festivals began in 2012.[9] In 2013, CBGB's onetime building, 315 Bowery, was added to the National Register of Historic Places as part of The Bowery Historic District (not a New York City Historic District)”.

It is a shame that the closure of CBGB in 2006 dwindled the Punk scene in New York. Almost the last sign of the past glory and energy that ran through that club. Not that the music scene in Manhattan lacks today. It is just that there was this whole culture and scene that was blazing in the 1970s. In October 2006, as The New York Times reported, some important faces attended the closing of the fabulous CBGB:

“She had played there many times over the last three decade, but last night, before making her last appearance there, Patti Smith made sure to snap a picture of CBGB.

“I’m sentimental,” she said as she stood on the Bowery and pointed an antique Polaroid toward the club’s ragged, soiled awning, and a mob of photographers and reporters gathered around her.

Last night was the last concert at CBGB, the famously crumbling rock club that has been in continuous, loud operation since December 1973, serving as the casual headquarters and dank incubator for some of New York’s most revered groups — Ms. Smith’s, the Ramones, Blondie, Talking Heads, Television, Sonic Youth — as well as thousands more whose blares left less of a mark on history but whose graffiti and concert fliers might still remain on its walls.

After a protracted real estate battle with its landlord, a nonprofit organization that aids the homeless, CBGB agreed late last year to leave its home at 313 and 315 Bowery at the end of this month. And Ms. Smith’s words outside the club, where her group was playing, encapsulated the feelings shared by fans around the city and around the world: CBGB is both the scrappy symbol of rock’s promise and a temple that no one wanted to see go.

“CBGB is a state of mind,” she said from the stage in a short preshow set for the news media whose highlight was a medley of Ramones songs.

“There’s new kids with new ideas all over the world,” she added. “They’ll make their own places — it doesn’t matter whether it’s here or wherever it is.”

Crowds had been lined up outside since early yesterday morning for a chance to see Ms. Smith and bid farewell to the club, in an event that was carefully orchestrated to maximize media coverage. Television news vans were parked on the Bowery as fans with pink hair, leather jackets and — the most popular fashion statement of the night — multicolored CBGB T-shirts (but not necessarily tickets) waited to be let in and Ms. Smith’s band played a short set for the assembled press.

Curiosity about the club’s last night was mingled with harsh feelings about its fate.

“It’s the cultural rape of New York City that this place is being pushed out,” said John Nikolai, a black-clad 36-year-old photographer from Staten Island whose tie read “I quit.”

Added Ms. Smith outside the club, “It’s a symptom of the empty new prosperity of our city.”

The end of a long and painful denouement for a punk-rock institution.

Ms. Smith was CBGB’s last booking as well as one of its first. In the 1970’s, she was the oracular poet laureate of the punk scene, and her seven-week residency in 1975 is still regarded by connoisseurs as the club’s finest moment. With an open booking policy, its founder, Hilly Kristal, nurtured New York rock’s greatest generation, and in turn those groups made CBGB one of the few rock clubs known by name around the world.

“When we first started there was no place we could play, so we ended up on the Bowery,” said Tom Erdelyi, better known as Tommy Ramone, the group’s first drummer and only surviving original member. “It ended up a perfect match”.

Let’s go back a bit further. It is important to understand why CBGB was so important to so many people – and why its closure was a sad and unfortunate occasion. It must have been heady and wonderful being there. In 2012, Helen Todner wrote a feature for With Guitars concerning the legendary and legacy that comes with CBGB. I wanted to sources some parts of the deep and wonderful feature:

“So let’s start with the facts. There was a bar on 315 Bowery and Becker Street long before CBGB’s came into being but in 1973 Hilly Kristal revamped what had been and opened County, Blue Grass and Blues (CBGB’s or CB’s as it was often known as). This was what the bar had intended to play from the start and it did at first, playing host to the likes of Magic Tramps, The Fast, and Suicide all of which laid the foundations and built the clubs reputation for live music. It was a strange layout for a venue being long and narrow; with the stage at one end and the bar stretching along one side with just enough room to squeeze between the tables but the sound was second to none and was definitely a key factor when bands began coming to play on a regular basis. Even the legendary New York Dolls played there and were hailed as Royalty by the burgeoning scene there. In 1974 things were beginning to change rapidly and bands such as The Ramones, Talking Heads, The Heartbreakers, Blondie, and The Shirts started making appearances there. As the clubs reputation grew new bands from outside of the New York area took to the stage.

During the 80’s it became one of the must go to venues for touring bands and the now infamous matinee Sundays were introduced. These low priced gigs helped to launch many a band including Murphy’s Law, Beastie Boys, The Misfits, Leeway, and Sick Of It All. They also became known for some of the most raucous and violent events going and in 1990 Kristal put a stop to the Sunday events in order to curb the bloodshed but he didn’t abandon the hard-core music and instead of scrapping it altogether changed the times of his bookings. This strategy worked and though still boisterous there was no longer the level of aggression that had plagued the venue during the 80’s matinee years. During the 90’s big name bands such as Guns ‘N’ Roses and Korn began to play the club.

Things went smoothly for over a decade until in 2005, a dispute with Bowery Residents ‘Committee over rent, pushed CBGB’s out of the black and deep into the red. Krystal fought this for over a year but, tragically, the club could not be saved and on October 15th 2006 CBGB’s closed its doors for the final time. During the last week of live music CBGB’s featured live performances from Blondie, The Dictators, Bad Brains, Avail, and The Bouncing Souls. The final gig, performed by Pattie Smith, was broadcast on Sirius Satellite Radio and included guest appearances from Red Hot Chili Peppers Flea and TV’s Richard Lloyd. After the live performance Pattie Smith performed ‘Elegie’ listing all the artist who had performed at CBGB’s and who are no longer with us.

Alas it is no more a mecca for music but now hosts a huge range of designer clothes with the scariest price tags you can imagine, far too many numbers before the decimal point! It has been gentrified like so much of New York s that unless you are on a silly amount of money you simple can’t afford to live there anymore. A far cry from Hilly’s ethos that money was secondary to life as he never set up CBGB’s to make money from it; he did it because he loved music. “I realise one thing I haven’t done through the years is put the emphasis on making money.”

So there you have the bare bones facts of CBGB’s but I’m still no closer to really understanding just what it was like to be there. So in an attempt to find out more our lovely editor here at With Guitars, Steve got busy doing his whole social network guru thing and what do you know he even got a few responses! The first to get back in touch with us was Donna Destri (sister to Blondie keyboardist Jimmy Destri) who performed as a backing singer for the band in the studio. She was kind enough to take time out from her own busy life to tell us a little about the club and the music scene in New York.

How did you first hear about CBGB’s?

“Paul Zone, who was not yet the singer of the fast in the early seventies, functioned as a social director for the lot of us kids from Brooklyn who didn’t have a clue as to where to go or what to do. We started out going to places like the 82 Club, Lady Astors and the Mercer Arts centre (where I saw the NY Dolls for the first time). Mickey Ruskin still owned Max’s Kansas City which was the watering hole for the Warhol people, so Paul kind of discovered CBGB’s for us. He was very friendly with Debby Harry and Stiletto (an early incarnation of Blondie) played there frequently. Soon Mickey Ruskin sold Max’s to Tommy Dean and that is when the downtown scene had bands vie to play Max’s and CB’s.”

What were your first impressions of CBGB’s and what was it actually like the first time you walked in to it?

“Honestly, compared to Max’s I thought it was a shithole. It was dirty and dark and you had the feeling that rats were going to scurry across your feet. I’ll tell you this though, the sound was excellent there.”

How did you feel the first time you took to the stage at CBGB’s?

“Well, it was packed, I remember, so it was quite exhilarating! CBGB’s had a certain vibe though… On stage there you could feel you were like the Beatles playing at the Cavern Club. The audience could come right up to the stage and people were packed in. In other clubs, not so much Max’s but the bigger clubs that came along later ,like Hurrah’s, Danceteria, and the Ritz, people could mill around more so you sort of lost the intimacy of people coming right up to the stage. Nothing provides a performer more energy than an audience that is right there and totally into the performance.”

What is your most enduring memory from your time at CBGB’s?

“My most enduring memory of CBGB’s has to be the bathroom. It was the most disgusting bathroom I’ve ever been in in my life! At any given time the floor was covered in dog and/or human faeces…Absolutely gross. And to think people (who shall remain nameless) had sex down there!!”

Did you ever go to see others perform at CBGB’s and if so who?

“Yes definitely. We went to see whoever was performing.(Television, Talking Heads, Blondie, The Ramones, The Mumps, The Fast, Milk and Cookies, The Heartbreakers…oh so many—too many to name! In those days we went out every single night! I always say it and I’ll say it again. There has never been a music scene in this city like there was back then and I don’t think there ever again will be! I remember some nights walking back and forth between Max’s and CBGB’s because we wanted to catch bands that were playing at both clubs on the same night. It was an awesome time for music, truly!”

It wasn’t just Blondie who played there in the 70’s though and the club”.

It is no exaggeration in saying that CBGC is one of the most important music venues ever. At a time when we have so many spaces closing down, it made me think about the iconic club in Manhattan. How it was reduced to almost nothing. That is one of the most galling things! How, once proud and very much vibrant, where it stands now there is very little of its existence. I have another feature to drop in after this one from Guitar Guitar. They wrote in 2020 about the club that changed the world:

“Within that year, The Ramones had made their debut along with Angel and the Snake, (later renamed Blondie) and CBGB started to develop a reputation. There was a seemingly unstoppable stream of explosive and forward-thinking music being created within its walls and bands all over America were taking notice. The club had two rules - 1. Bands must provide and move their own equipment. 2. No cover bands - aside from this, you were essentially free to take your set and the audience for that matter, wherever you wanted.

With the club's rep and the music scene it was known for quickly gathering momentum, documentary filmmakers began to film live shows and it's amazing to get a real look inside the venue with such high-quality footage for when it was filmed. The years following saw a roster of acts play that's pretty staggering to look back on. Elvis Costello supported the Vodoids, The Damned became the first UK Punk band to playa gig in America, The Cramps, the Talking Heads, The Police, Joan Jett and Blondie all made it their New York haunt. CBGB even became one of the first homes of Hardcore Punk in the city with its own Thrash Night which ran right through to the 90's when crowds became too much for the venue to handle.

Unfortunately, nothing this important can last forever and CBGB ran into problems in the early 2000s after a disagreement with their landlord. Although Kristal was keen to keep it open as long as possible and even won a court battle regarding overdue rent, their landlord refused to lease the club again and essentially put a ticking clock over the venue. They had to be out by October 15th, 2006.

In a last-ditch effort to save the club, an unbelievable lineup of artists played in its final months, culminating in a huge last week which featured many of the band's who'd started out at CBGB's, or been a part of its early scene. Alongside that were a whole host of bands who'd been influenced by the early new wave and punk movement that it housed got on board but sadly, it was in vain. On October 15, 2006, Patti Smith played her final show on the club's stage and it closed its doors forever.

Now a clothing store, the only part of the CBGB legacy that remains is a small etching into the concrete out front which says "CBGB '73". It's funny how something so culturally significant can largely disappear but make no mistake, the music world will never forget the 30 odd years of chaos, carnage and brilliance that came from these humble beginnings. Credited as the birthplace of American punk, Kristal may not have known what he was starting but by providing a venue where young, raw and passionate bands could express themselves and develop their sound, a whole genre flourished and his club left a mark on the world that couldn't be erased, even if it was just scratched into the concrete. It goes to show you how important it is to have these spaces - you never know what might come next. Gabba Gabba Hey!”.

Earlier this year, American Songwriter wrote about the legacy of CBGB. Naming five acts that helped define Punk Rock, they all have to give thanks to this incredible club. One that opened its doors fifty years ago on 10th December. I am not sure that we will see in our lifetimes anywhere like it again. It is one of these one-off venues that was perfect for the time and location. Maybe similar to Studio 51 in a way, these brilliant spaces burned bright in their regency:

“CBGB is more than just a logo on a shirt. Before it concluded its last show in 2006, it was a punk rock dungeon. The stage was angled off to the side with ceiling monitors. The monitors hung so low that if you weren’t careful you’d knock your head against them. And the bathrooms were a special kind of filth only humans are capable of producing.

But would you want a punk rock club any other way? CBGB is responsible for some of the most important bands and one of the most important musical movements of the 20th century.

1. Television

Television might be the true godfathers of punk rock. A mixture of Velvet Underground art-rock and garage rock, the band was led by Tom Verlaine. His Fender Jazzmaster guitar sounded tense and angular. Verlaine sang in a pinched manner with poetic lyrics that didn’t fit neatly into “punk rock” (which is in itself punk). His guitar playing was exploratory and beautiful, like a jazz musician. “Marquee Moon” in all its Mixolydian, nearly 11-minute glory, is peak Verlaine. Richard Hell, the band’s bassist and co-singer, looked like what we now recognize as punk rock. Television are arguably the most influential band to come out of the New York punk scene.

2. Patti Smith Group

Patti Smith and Lenny Kaye attended one of Television’s first gigs at CBGB. Soon they’d be playing their own gigs at the bar. Smith, being both a woman and a poet, contrasted the machismo associated with punk rock. She was a part of two New York worlds: those of both music and literature. Smith is a romantic rebel, a National Book Award winner, and a New York punk rock legend. She appeared at CBGB’s final show in 2006.

3. Blondie

Debbie Harry and Chris Stein formed Blondie in New York City in 1974. They’d already played CBGB in other bands, but Blondie would bridge the gap between punk and New Wave. The band also bridged the gap from the New York underground to mainstream success as Harry became nothing less than a pop culture icon.

4. Talking Heads

The first Talking Heads gig saw them opening for the Ramones. The early minimalism of David Byrne’s group would grow to include more instruments and more sounds from around the world.

Stabbing guitars and Afrobeat defined a band born on the art side of punk. And not for nothing: a Talking Heads song is the reason a British band originally called On a Friday now calls themselves Radiohead.

5. Ramones

The Ramones are considered the first punk rock group. Legend says the Ramones’ first gig at CBGB lasted only 12 minutes. The band is analogous with both the punk rock genre and CBGB. The punk family tree simply doesn’t exist without one or the other. These four guys in leather jackets, led by Joey Ramone (all band members took on the “Ramone” surname), played two-minute songs to limited commercial success. But history is a long game, and the Ramones are now cultural icons who are in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame”.

I was keen to explore CBGB. It opened on 10th December, 1973. Few people knew how it would grow and the way it would be written into music history. Sure, it was quite grimy and raw, though it was a Punk Rock club. It was always going to be like that. It was a personality and atmosphere that enticed in some future legends. From Television and Blondie through to Ramones, CBGB hosted some of the greatest and most influential artists ever. For that reason, it is only right to salute…

THE historic and iconic CBGB.

FEATURE: Still Streets Ahead: The Glorious Mike Skinner at Forty-Five: An Essential Playlist

FEATURE:

 

 

Still Streets Ahead

PHOTO CREDIT: Vicky Grout for GQ

The Glorious Mike Skinner at Forty-Five: An Essential Playlist

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ON 27th November…

PHOTO CREDIT: Ben Cannon

it will be the forty-fifth birthday of Mike Skinner. With his alias The Streets, the Birmingham-born genius has released some of the most inventive and inspirational music of this century. The Streets’ debut album, Original Pirate Material, was released in 2002. The follow-up, A Grand Don’t Come for Free, turns twenty next year. I am going to get too an essential playlist feature The Streets’ hits and those deep cuts worth hearing. Their (The Street is sort of a collective, though Skinner is the voice and songwriter) sixth studio album, The Darker the Shadow the Brighter the Light, was released in October. I want to drop in some section from a GQ interview from last month. Mike Skinner was looking back at his career – though it is something so many people seem compelled to make him do. As GQ say, Skinner was marking the first Streets album in twelve years, a sold-out tour, and a long-held film debut that has the same name as the new album. Mike Skinner is very much back. As GQ said in their sub-header, Skinner is grappling “with the usual things: fatherhood, mental health and how to define his legacy without ‘doing a Beckham’”:

“There are plenty of acts from the 2000s still touring and releasing music, but few defined an era in Britain like The Streets. It’s easy to forget how revolutionary Original Pirate Radio, an album Skinner made in his childhood bedroom in a ‘studio’ made out of bed sheets in 2002, was. At the time, rap music in the UK was still mostly imported or mimicked from America. Then suddenly there was a kid from Birmingham spitting with a straight face about the minutiae of nightlife in Britain, of chips thrown in kebab shops and dragging your broken heart home from a nightclub with ecstasy still tingling in your toes. The first time my friends and I heard “Turn The Page” – the stirring, swaggering string-led call-to-arms that might still be the best opening track on a debut album ever – we were speechless. How did a 22-year-old member of ‘the Barratt class’ (as he described himself at the time), with no success behind him yet, write a song that sounded so confident? Skinner squirms a little.

“I went to my sister's house. And we watched Gladiator. And erm, I just started imagining what that would be like... I mean, it's just that simple, really. It's a bit Hans Zimmer, and the beat is a bit like a garage beat, and then, [the lyrics are] you know, ‘we're sort of fighting the good fight’ or something… We can't not open our gigs with that song. I've tried moving it, but you can't. It has to come first.”

PHOTO CREDIT: Vicky Grout for GQ

Boy In Da Corner, the starting pistol for mainstream grime, was still 12 months away; after that, British rap music exploded in the charts. Pioneers like Dizzee Rascal, Wiley and Kano were joined by more radio-friendly acts like Tinie Tempah and Lethal Bizzle in painting a largely London-centric picture of British life. And there alongside them, still doing his garage thing, was Skinner. In 2004 his second album, A Grand Don’t Come For Free, produced his first megahit. “Dry Your Eyes Mate”, a song about a breakup that doesn’t mention the word ‘love’ once, went straight to number one. It was the start of Skinner’s jaded-with-fame era.

“We were in France in the countryside, I think it was a day off on tour,” he remembers. “And a big group of us walked into this village to buy an ice cream. And I just remember thinking: I'm number one in the charts. And it was amazing, because it's what all musicians want, really - well, musicians of my generation anyway. Being on Top of the Pops and having a number one. But then in the same thought, it was, Fuck, I've still got all these demons inside me telling me that I'm useless. And you suddenly realise: this isn't gonna save me.”

The Streets’ third album, The Hardest Way to Make an Easy Living, was a wry, scatty reflection on precisely this dilemma that he still regards with pride as his most honest. Listeners didn’t quite agree – it was a commercial flop compared to Grand… – but still produced arguably the second most cherished song in Skinner’s catalogue, “Never Went to Church”, which brought the same moving clarity as “Dry Your Eyes” to the experience of losing a parent.

He doesn’t consider himself famous anymore – at least not compared to when he was on the side of every bus in London advertising Reebok – but people who do know who he is tend to be devoted fans.

“It’s incredibly moving,” he says of those conversations. “But at the same time, when it happens over and over again, you can't maintain seriousness. There becomes a lightness to it. Because I think if you were moved as much as you should be moved, you would go a bit mad.”

“[But] I'm used to it. And I think it's much better it be like that. There are a lot of famous people that, deep down, don't feel like they deserve it. You know, there's a lot of impostor syndrome. I get impostor syndrome, too. But it's a good problem to have.”

Now 44, Skinner is settled with a wife and two children. As is perhaps fitting for a 14 and a 12-year-old, they aren’t particularly impressed by their father’s career.

“Thankfully, they couldn't give a shit,” he says. “My daughter was very excited when we went to see Fred Again recently. We ended up on the stage with Fred Again [with whom Skinner has collaborated], and she and her friend absolutely loved that. But it was difficult to explain to Fred Again that they didn't want me in the photo.”

Other than that, he’s grappling with the same things as any other parent in 2023.

“I worry about my son, I don't worry about my daughter. That's one thing,” he says when I ask him about how he thinks masculinity has changed since he was releasing songs with titles like “Fit But You Know It”.

“I think ultimately, sadly, when you're a guy, you have to find something that gives you respect in society. You can’t look at something like #MeToo and think that's not positive. It's just made being a man a tiny bit more complicated. But I think that's okay. We just have to teach our sons that.”

Mental health is another topic he’s touched on many times in his lyrics that is the subject of a very different conversation now.

“I think when you become chronically depressed, it's a bit of a surprise to discover that you can't get yourself out of this. And that's really the conversation we're having - that sometimes, you can't get yourself out of these cycles. Sometimes you need to go to a psychiatrist and have therapy, or go on to drugs that enable you to distance yourself from the cycle.

“But when I'm talking to my children, I want to build resilience, as well. And it be really complicated to separate [those things]. What is a chronic mental health illness, and what is the avoidance of resilience? I don't think we're ever gonna really get to the bottom of that. But it's definitely good that we're not just saying you have to be resilient.”

As we wrap up, talk turns to the David Beckham documentary that topped the Netflix charts recently. He finds it fascinating, this reappraisal that is underway of celebrity culture in the ‘90s and ‘00s when he, briefly, had to flee to New York to escape the tabloid press. But this thing of looking back, particularly on his own career, doesn’t interest him.

“I've been signing loads of albums lately. I did about 700 the other day, and they all came with these messages that I had to write. It was quite interesting to see what people want you to put next to your autograph. Probably half of them were stuff from Original Pirate Material or A Grand Don’t Come For Free. And then the other half was quite weird and interesting, and sort of a little bit dark.

“It's great to know that you mean something. But in a similar way to when I got a number one record, it's also a bit heavy. It’s like Beckham… I don't want to be cleaning my oven at home, thinking about the goals I was scoring when I was 25. That's not a place I want to end up. I think when you're older, you start to really look back, don't you? But I'm still looking forward. I'm so grateful that I still get to do my job. But whatever that job means to anyone else, I don't really care”.

As the incomparable and down to earth innovator Mike Skinner is forty-five on 27th November, I have assembled some prime Streets cuts and mixed them together with some of their songs that you may not be that familiar with. Twenty-one years after the debut, The Streets are still an indispensable and crucial part of the music landscape. And for that reason, we have to offer our sincere thanks and appreciation to…

THE one Mike Skinner.

FEATURE: Charming Man: The Brilliant Alex James at Fifty-Five: The Ultimate Blur Playlist

FEATURE:

 

 

Charming Man

The Brilliant Alex James at Fifty-Five: The Ultimate Blur Playlist

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THERE are a few big…

 IN THIS PHOTO: Alex James (right) alongside Damon Albarn

birthdays in the music world occurring between now and the end of the year. I wanted to mark them off and recognise those artists who deserve a salute. As the bassist for Blur, Alex James has been responsible for some of the most memorable basslines of the past few decades. Part of one of the world’s best and most iconic bands, I am going to end this feature with a playlist featuring some terrific Blur deep cuts, together with their popular hits. Blur released one of the best albums of the year with The Ballad of Darren. I know I have compiled a Blur playlist previously though, with a new album out there, it gives me even more scope now! I will come to that soon. I forgot to mention that Alex James turns fifty-five on 21st November. Many happy returns to him! Before coming to that Blur playlist, I want to source an NME article where they spotlight an interview where James talked about his return to performance, and the string of gig dates Blur had ahead:

“Bassist Alex James has claimed that he found returning to Blur a lot more “relaxing” than parenting.

In recent weeks, the 54-year-old musician has played countless shows across the UK and Europe – including two mammoth dates at Wembley Stadium – and released his ninth studio album with Blur, ‘The Ballad Of Darren’.

However, according to a recent interview, the process of being back in the band is more manageable and laid-back than that of being a full-time parent.

Appearing on the Parenting Hell podcast, he reflected on one of his previous quotes, where he claimed to have once spent “a million pounds on drugs and booze” while in the band, before going on to become a cheesemaker on his Cotswolds farm.

“I kind of made it up and everyone believed it. But that is coming back to haunt me now,” he began.

“Playing the bass in a rock band is the easiest thing, compared to parenting,” he added. “It actually is relaxing going back into that Blur bubble.”

He also explained how his five children now have a more “rock ‘n’ roll” lifestyle than he does, and sometimes finds it “terrifying” how immense some of their parties can be: “I think 16th birthdays are the worst of them all, all the years of rock ‘n’ roll, nothing can hold a candle to those parties when you’re like 16… rock ‘n’ roll had nothing on that actually.”

“​​At 16, you’re in the speedboat and you want to know how fast it goes, and by the time you’re 18 you’ve kind of worked out where your limits are a little bit,” he added. “I always try and get them to have their 16th birthdays at [his farm’s annual event] Feastival so that the liabilities are not mine! It’s terrifying, it is really terrifying.”

The Britpop bassist also spoke about the difference between his life on the road with Blur and his home life during an interview with Red Magazine (via Virgin Radio). “The last time I went away, I dropped the kids at school and flew to Mexico City, where there were thousands of people waiting for us at the airport and hotel… When we got to the venue –a stadium – it was huge,” he explained.

“But afterwards, you get home and you have to wash up and the kids are like, ‘Dad, stop being a wanker.’”

The band’s latest LP, ‘The Ballad Of Darren’ arrived on Friday (July 21) and received a four-star review from NME. “There’s always a sense of unfinished business with Blur; they’ve never officially split, but each time they re-emerge it’s as if we’re rekindling a long-estranged affair. Two albums in 20 years since 2003’s ‘Think Tank’ – ‘The Ballad of Darren’ and 2015’s ‘The Magic Whip’ – would suggest they feel the same,” it read.

“On ‘The Ballad…’ the band are muted and contemplative; there are moments of sheer heartbreak in these songs,” it adds. “Beyond the doom, there’s something resolute and life-affirming in the way this record plays out; you sense the whole momentum of the band moving as a unit, not just pieced together in separate takes like in ‘The Magic Whip’”.

To mark the approaching fifty-fifth birthday of one of the most underrated and best bass players of his time, I wanted to celebrate by putting together a nice selection of Blur songs. Showcasing the obvious gifts of the wonderful Alex James. From Charmless Man to The Narcissist, James has been responsible for some…

TRULY extraordinary music.

FEATURE: Destroy the Silence: Ensuring That the Music Industry Protects the Safety of Women

FEATURE:

 

 

Destroy the Silence

PHOTO CREDIT: Alycia Fung/Pexels

Ensuring That the Music Industry Protects the Safety of Women

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DESPITE the fact…

 PHOTO CREDIT: Mikael Blomkvist/Pexels

the news story was reported a little while ago, I have still been thinking about it. It concerns arrests and prison spaces dedicated to those accused of sexual harassment and stalking. Even if jails are overcrowded, it is rather troubling that some very dangerous people (mostly men) are going to be back on the streets. The Independent reported the news:

“Thousands of abusive men could walk free from court under the government’s plans to scrap some shorter sentences as it scrambles to tackle the overcrowding crisis gripping prisons – putting women’s safety at risk.

Some 11,040 men were jailed for around 12 months or less for harassment, stalking and revenge porn last year – all sentences that could now be served in the community to free up space in jails.

Justice secretary Alex Chalk’s proposals, announced earlier this month, would see prison terms of under 12 months axed for most offenders. Critics say the move will affect criminals who target women and girls who typically get low sentences – despite Rishi Sunak repeatedly pledging to do more to protect these victims.

Politicians, campaigners and the government’s own domestic violence watchdog have raised concerns over the measures amid fears domestic abusers and stalkers could “slip through the net”, with Labour saying the plans had been “rushed out with no consideration for victims”.

IN THIS PHOTO: Georgia Harrison/PHOTO CREDIT: Dave Benett via Glamour 

TV star Georgia Harrison, who was a victim of revenge porn at the hands of her former partner, fellow reality TV star Stephen Bear, told The Independent she had concerns over what impact scrapping short sentences could have on victims of crime. Bear was jailed for 21 months in March after he posted a video of the pair having sex in his garden in Loughton, Essex, in August 2020, to his OnlyFans account.

Ms Harrison, who has appeared on The Only Way Is Essex and Love Island, said: “For a lot of these men, especially in a misogynist culture, they feel like they are untouchable and they feel like they can get away with anything.

“And if Bear had walked away from my court case without prison time, I really don’t think he would have learned a single thing from the entire experience. If anything, I think he would have come back worse.”

The latest available figures from the Ministry of Justice for 2022 show:

• 8,996 men were sentenced on average to less than five months for harassment

• 1,809 men were sentenced on average to around 12 months behind bars for stalking offences

• 235 men were sentenced for an average of just over seven months in prison for revenge porn offences”.

Maybe it is not as prevalent as it was in Hollywood regarding high-profile figures, though we are reading about many male figures in the music industry being accused of sexual assault and abuse. It is almost impossible to calculate how many are stalking, abusing and offending women online through social media. Ever since a 2019 report highlighted the epidemic of sexual assault and harassment through the industry, there has been vocalisation for change. Current figures are still quite stark. With L.A. Reid recently accused of sexual assault, we are seeing some pretty big names blackened and disgraced. Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs has also been accused of rape by a former partner of his. How much say and agency to women have when it comes to calling out abusers and those who harass them?! This recent article from The Telegraph reported how Zelda Perkins was speaking at a Parliamentary inquiry into sexual abuse and harassment set to look into use of the secretive deals. She called for the music industry to stop silencing victims of sexual predators. I started by quoting news of certain offender being released early from prison because it will also impact the industry. At a moment when women (and non-binary people) are either fearful or coming forward or are being silence/intimidated, one only can guess how many cases of sexual harassment and assault have taken place and not reported. It is important to note that, as part of its inquiry into misogyny in the music industry, the Women and Equalities Committee is seeking to understand the extent to which non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) are used specifically to silence victims. 

I did wrote about this recently following the Dispatches investigation into Russell Brand. He has been accused of multiple counts of rape and assault. There are many men through the music industry who are culpable and should be brought to light. I think that one major goal in 2024 is ensuring the safety of women. It is not only sexual assault and harassment that needs to be tackled in music. Mistreatment, misrepresentation and coercion. Coming to that article from The Telegraph, it is clear that more needs to be done to protect women in music. Ensure that they are also free to speak out and are not being gagged:

“Pop stars, their agents and music industry executives will face close scrutiny by a powerful committee of MPs, amid growing unease about the use of NDAs.

An inquiry by the Women and Equalities Select Committee into misogyny in the music business is now looking specifically into how and why NDAs are used, as those who have signed are urged to come forward and give evidence, without fear of legal reprisal.

The call for evidence was hailed a “watershed moment” to expose abuse by powerful people whose wealth and influence invariably outstrip those who sign NDAs with them.

Zelda Perkins, who heads the UK’s Can’t Buy My Silence campaign to ban the misuse of NDAs said: “This is long overdue and a watershed moment for an industry which we know has an extraordinary prevalence of NDAs.”

Miss Perkins, who broke her NDA with the disgraced movie mogul Harvey Weinstein, to reveal his sexual and financial abuse of numerous women, added: “The issue of NDAs being abused is endemic throughout all sectors of industry.

“Legal agreements designed to protect intellectual copyright have been weaponised. We need the Government to act to change that.”

The committee is expected to hear evidence from musicians who have been abused by record label managers, and also allegations of exploitation by pop stars and their agents, all of which has been hushed up by NDAs for commercial gain.

Many famous faces in the music industry now trade on their celebrity to cross over into other media, including publishing, radio, television and streaming services, to further their earning potential.

IN THIS PHOTO: Rebecca Ferguson/PHOTO CREDIT: Getty Images

Women who have experienced gender-brd discrimination, harassment or abuse related to the music industry and have signed NDAs are being invited to give written evidence before Nov 20, under Parliamentary privilege. Any attempt to silence them could be treated as contempt of Parliament.

The actress Rose McGowan said that Weinstein offered her $1 million to sign a non-disclosure agreement on the eve of an expose of his activities by The New York Times in 2017.

In one case which is already in the public domain, singer and former TV reality show contestant Rebecca Ferguson, who appeared on ITV’s X Factor in 2010, broke her NDA to make allegations of mistreatment, coercion and financial abuse being swept under the carpet when she was just starting out in the industry.

The X Factor, produced by ITV and music mogul Simon Cowell’s Syco company, ran for 17 years before it was cancelled in 2021.

ITV has apologised to Miss Ferguson but insisted it followed a “Duty of Care” charter to protect contestants.

Syco has previously said that Mr Cowell was not personally involved in any incidents or behaviour alleged.

One woman who has signed an NDA in the music industry told The Sunday Telegraph: “NDAs are the tool of choice for pop stars and their management, for making all the things they’d rather the adoring public did not know about just disappear”.

Organisations like We Are Music are working hard to prevent bullying and harassment in the music industry. Cactus City also do important and remarkable work. With every report, statistics and testimony that highlights harassment, abuse or mistreatment of a woman in music, it seems we are getting further away from ensuring that they feel safe and heard. I also recently mentioned how Annie Macmanus spoke to a House of Commons committee talking about this tidal wave of abuse through music. How there are going to be so many new cases coming to light. Quite a few figures have been accused this year. We will see this happen in 2024. I know there are people trying to change things. Raising funds to get organisations expanded and activated. Ensuring that campaigns can be run and resources are available that are both education and protective. More than anything, there needs to be more involvement from men in the industry. Conversations need to happen and we must ensure many are brought into the conversation and pledge to do more.

IN THIS PHOTO: Annie Macmanus

The Government should pledge more money to making sure women are protected and safe. That they are taken seriously and given the freedom and support to speak out. With it likely there will be more lenient sentences for those accused of assault, harassment and abuse, it is an even more scary and frustrating time for women in the music industry. Next year should be one where we are united in that common cause! With women leaving music because they feel unsafe and cannot carry on, it has got to a critical and distressing point. A news report about a TikTok artist Anthony Q Lion asking fans for money and not mentioning that he is a rapist means that more needs to be done so that this does not become a more regular thing. So many cases coming to light shows that this cannot go on. It is a so so essential that one of the main agenda for 2024 is ensuring that women in music (or those who are assaulted and abused by men in the music industry) are not threatened and abused. Even if it has not fully materialised like it did in Hollywood, there were signs of a #MeToo movement years ago. It is something that needs to be reactivated and…

SPREAD worldwide.

FEATURE: Strange Days: The Doors of Perception: Jim Morrison at Eighty: A ‘Complicated’ Legacy

FEATURE:

 

 

Strange Days: The Doors of Perception

Jim Morrison at Eighty: A ‘Complicated’ Legacy

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EVEN if I cannot count myself…

IN THIS PHOTO: Jim Morrison in the late-1960s/PHOTO CREDIT: © Estate of Edmund Teske/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images

as a huge fan of The Doors, I recognise their importance and what they gave to music. Their debut album, The Doors, arrived in 1967. Released in a classic year for music, we got this sensational and historic album from the U.S. band. Containing the tracks Break On Through (To the Other Side), Alabama Song (Whisky Bar), Light My Fire and The End, many argue that The Doors did not reach these heights again. Their sixth studio album, 1971’s L.A. Woman, is quite close in terms of quality - as it has Love Her Madly, L.A. Woman and Rider on the Storm on it. That was the band’s final album before their lead Jim Morrison died at the age of twenty-seven. 8th December would have been his eightieth birthday. I am going to, rather than discuss the band’s music and legacy, talk about their frontperson. I know others will write features about Morrison closer to his eightieth, as he is often considered one of the best Rock singers and most iconic leads ever. Charismatic, controversial and primal, he was part-poet, part-artist. An almost mythical figure whose distinct voice and music has endured generations and sounds like nothing else, there is still no clear reason as to how he died in Paris in 1971. Even if some celebrate Jim Morrison’s sexuality and music, there is a more ‘complicated’ side. I had putting that word in inverted commas or quotation marks. This is the word most people use, although it does sounds quite vague and unserious. When it comes to Jim Morrison, there is a lot to celebrate – yet he definitely had a darker side and controversial nature that makes him a hard figure to completely embrace or excuse.

 PHOTO CREDIT: Michael Montfort

It is clear that he had a trouble past. In terms of his later years, there was definitely some questionable and controversial moments. During a gig on 1st March, 1969 in Miami, Morrison attempted to spark a riot in the audience by screaming, "You wanna see my cock?!". On 20th September, 1970, Morrison was convicted of indecent exposure and profanity. He remained free on a $50,000 bond. The band’s drummer John Densmore (whose book, The Doors Unhinged: Jim Morrison's Legacy Goes on Trial, is a must-own) spoke with The Guardian. Fuelled maybe by ego, drink, drugs and this perception of what a poet and Rock god should be, Densmoire spoke about the late Jim Morrison and the destructive, abusive side of The Doors’ lead:

“It took the Doors’ drummer, John Densmore, three years to visit the grave of his bandmate Jim Morrison after he was found dead in a Paris bathtub in 1971. He didn’t even go to the funeral. “Did I hate Jim?” Densmore pauses, although he is not obviously alarmed by the question. “No. I hated his self-destruction … He was a kamikaze who went out at 27 – what can I say?”

Quite a lot, it transpires. Morrison was a man who was spectacularly good at being a rock star – a lithe figure in leather trousers, prophesying about death, sex and magic on some of the biggest hits of the 1960s – Light My Fire, Break on Through and Hello, I Love You. But he was catastrophically bad at the rest of life. Like many alcoholics, he could be reckless, selfish and mercurial. “The Dionysian madman,” Densmore has called him – a “psychopath”, a “lunatic” and “the voice that struck terror in me”. He had lobbied to get Morrison off the road before his death, and even quit the band at one point. “Some people wanted to keep shovelling coal in the engine and I was like: ‘Wait a minute. So what if we have one less album? Maybe he’ll live?’” Why did he carry on? “Because I wasn’t mature enough to say that at the time. I wasn’t trying to enable him. It was another era. I used to answer the question: ‘If Jim was around today, would he be clean and sober?’ with a ‘no’. Kamikaze drunk. Now I’ve changed my mind. Of course he would be sober. Why wouldn’t he be? He was smart.”

Densmore, 75, is a defiant survivor of the music scene he helped build. This, perhaps, is why, in the decades since Morrison’s death, he has become not only one of the great chroniclers of the Doors, but the fiercest protector of Morrison’s legacy. To anyone who has read Densmore’s 1990 memoir – a book he says was “written in blood” – this may come as a surprise; later the book would form the basis for Oliver Stone’s (dreadful) Doors biopic. “It took me years to forgive Jim,” Densmore says. “And now I miss him so much for his artistry.”

Next month, a documentary about another of his bandmates, the keyboardist Ray Manzarek, who died in 2013, will be released. Manzarek’s relationship with Densmore was not smooth either. From the early 2000s, they were embroiled in a vicious six-year legal battle in which Densmore tried to stop Manzarek and the band’s guitarist, Robby Krieger, from touring under the Doors name as well as selling the band’s music for use on a Cadillac commercial. “I know. I sued my bandmates – am I CRAZY?!” he yells. People certainly thought he was. It is not usual to spend years in court trying to stop yourself from earning millions of dollars to prove a point about the value of artistic integrity over the pursuit of money. “What can I say? Jim’s ghost is behind me all the time,” Densmore says. “My knees were shaking pretty strong when they upped the offer of $5m (£3.8m) to $15m. But my head was saying: Break on Through for a gas-guzzling SUV? No!”.

Densmore’s writing about Morrison often reads as if it were done by someone who has survived an abusive relationship, such was the terror he felt around Morrison towards the end. “On the outside, Jim seemed normal,” he wrote. “But he had an aggressiveness toward life and women.” One such incident was early in their friendship when he went to pick Morrison up from a woman’s house and found him brandishing a knife at her while holding her hand behind her back. At the time, Densmore did nothing because he was worried that if anyone found out about Morrison, the band – and his own career – would be over. What does he make of this now? “I was really young,” he says. “I couldn’t figure out whether they were lovers, friends or enemies. I just felt like I needed to get out of there.” Would he have acted differently if it happened today? “Yeah, I would say: ‘What the fuck are you guys doing? Please take it down a few notches here”.

There are definitely multiple sides to Jim Morrison. There was this wild and rebellious nature that meant he was heralded and highlighted by the media. That romantic notion of someone who was a free spirit and poet. Maybe fitting into the idea of what  Rock artist should be in the 1960s and 1970s, there was a toxicity that could not be tolerated today. One of the good things about modern Rock is that we have largely got rid of the darker and seedier side of that culture. Even if Jim Morrison is considered by many as a genius and one of the most important artists of his generation, how is he seen now? CLASH wrote a feature in 2021 that assessed his legacy and complicated image:

“Morrison is talked about as a Jekyll and Hyde figure, with drugs and alcohol blamed for turning him into a monster. Yet time has morphed this description into something cool, using mythologised tales of his dual-souls and bad trips to blur over the stories of the underage relationships, violence towards girlfriends and fans, and even attempted murders.

If Jim Morrison was alive today, modern cancel culture would have a field day. The Blinders’ bassist Charlie articulated this perfectly, talking of his own difficulty confronting the realities of his idols; “if we knew of the abusive behaviour first then we wouldn’t perhaps give them the time that we do. We have a duty to therefore tackle our perceptions of somebody when we acquire knowledge of their behaviour but this can be very difficult to do.” This especially seems to be the case when it comes to looking back; we’re reluctant to get into a conversation about what the realities of our favourite 60s icons’ dark sides really looks like, because it simply looks a lot like abuse.

It’s such a slippery slope. When we start talking about Morrison, we have to start talking about other rock icons and their haram of baby groupies, some allegedly as young as 13. We have to start talking about Lennon’s domestic violence, Elvis Presley and Priscilla’s age gap, and the long list of other problematic details in the lives of our heroes. It’s hard to talk about one without feeling as though we’re risking an entire era of artists as the voice of cancel culture demands we wipe our Spotify library and burn our vinyl.

But we know we could never cancel the classics. Being the figureheads of an era full of events and stories that have been passed down like folklore, icons like Morrison, Bowie, and Lennon are far too engrained into culture to ever be untangled. Yet, although the argument that we should separate the art from the artist might be problematic when we talk about living performers, allowing people to escape accountability and repercussions for their actions, it may be a necessary thing for historic figures.

While their art remains relevant, the separation is necessary if only to remind us that these people existed in a very different time. It’s a fact, not an excuse, to say that the free love era of the 60s didn’t consider these things in the way we do now; assault – very sadly – was barely a word to be recognised in the lexicon. While it’s important to recognise abuse both historical and modern, resisting the insistence to judge the actions of 50 years ago by today’s standards may be the only way we can hold onto our favourite albums.

The argument of blissful ignorance feels like a necessary evil for Bowie and The Beatles. But when it comes to Jim Morrison, it feels like a different story. While other icons have become villains through a modern lens, Morrison was always an abusive figure constantly being let off because of his bad boy act.

The Doors’ drummer John Densmore has spoken a lot about Morrison’s aggression towards women, famously not visiting Morrison’s grave for three years after his death and calling him a “psychopath” who Densmore was terrified of after he walked in on Morrison holding a knife to a groupie. Even at the time, Jim Morrison was known as violent, abusive towards women, and generally destructive, but we erase these stories, along with all others against our favourite 60s icons, to keep our romanticised image of what a rock star should be in-tact.

So what do they need to be to qualify? How quickly does our image of the perfect star as wild and exciting slip into a green card for drug-fuelled chaos and violence? In an industry that’s still so male-dominated, and when men like Morrison are still largely idolised, discussing their abuses and removing the veneer of romance that surrounds them is essential for preventing their toxic behaviours creeping into 2021 under the façade of rock ‘n’ roll.

When we hold up the romanticised image of people like Morrison as perfect icons that represent what music should be, we run the risk of leaving abuse and violence as part of the parcel of stardom, like an accepted symptom of being ground-breaking.

It almost feels like we’re seeing the dangers of this play out in real time currently as more allegations come out against Marilyn Manson. In light of this, Manson’s love for The Doors and obsession with Jim Morrison (and even more violent 60s figures like Charles Manson) starts to raise an eyebrow or two. Similar to Morrison, tales of Marilyn Manson’s dark antics have always been brushed off as wild, allowed to become part of his appeal of fans – except now seeing the violent realities of this, and how the public ego-boost may have enabled his abuse, means that a lot of his behaviours start to look like red flags that were consistently ignored and shrugged off as some form of expected rock ‘n’ roll chaos”.

I am going to end with positives and ‘the other side’ of Jim Morrison. In 2020, Grace Marie Burton wrote for The Burr Magazine. She dissected the conflicted legacy of Jim Morrison. In 2023, he still remains someone who is mythologised and romanticised. Not that his dark and abusive side should be ignored, though it is clear that there Morrison was troubled throughout his short life:

“In the rock canon, there aren’t many bands like The Doors. Simultaneously underground and mainstream at the same time, they’ve certainly left their mark in the rock genre and numerous sub-genres, like punk and gothic rock for example. However, I’m still conflicted about my opinions on them as I love parts of them yet l0athe other aspects surrounding the legacy of The Doors.

The Doors started in 1965 after singer Jim Morrison ran into his former college buddy, Ray Manzarek on the beach in Venice, CA. Even before they ever released any singles or albums, they were pegged as the rebellious poets of the L.A. scene. They were fascinating yet magical and oh so mysterious. Most of this was tied to Morrison, as he was seen as prettier, sexier, dangerous and more clever than any other rockstar before and during his time. The band was also extremely eclectic with their influences and references. The whole of the band was obsessed with poetry and philosophy, particularly Aldous Huxley, William Blake, Arthur Rimbaud and many others. Morrison would also pick up performance elements from the experimental Living Theater novel by Julian Beck.

Their musical influences were also diverse and all over the place. Drummer John Densmore had a flair for Bossa Nova, which influenced songs like “Break on through (to the other side).” Guitarist Robby Krieger has classical guitar training, which can be found in the flamenco solo and backing on “Spanish Caravan.” Manzarek, whose organ made up for the band’s lack of a bass player, is probably the signature of The Doors sound. At times darkly hypnotic, like a midnight carnival ride and at other times funky yet warm, like something from a Ray Charles b-side or soft and brooding, like a Motown torch single.

Critics at the time lauded this experimentation and darkly brooding subject matter Morrison surrounded himself in. They also often wrote about Doors albums like they were collections of poetry. Take this review of the first doors album from Crawdaddy! in 1967 by Paul Williams:

The Doors’ legacy is where the divisions, including my own, bubble to the surface. The true span of the legacy of The Doors doesn’t truly show up until the ‘80s and ‘90s when teenagers brought back both the ‘50s and ‘60s and made them cool and interesting again. Writer and boozehound Lester Bangs reflected on the legacy of both the group and Morrison in 1980, a decade after he torched their album “Morrison Hotel” for Rolling Stone.

PHOTO CREDIT: Joel Brodsky

This isn’t exclusive to The Doors and the youth of the ‘80s and ‘90s either; we can see this occurring today with our modern youth and their obsession with the culture of the ‘90s. However, The Doors and Morrison, mostly due to his death obsession and early demise, had been launched into this idea of what the movements of the ‘60s and ’70s were supposed to mean. The ‘60s were supposed to be this giant decade where everything changed and the youth revolted, questioned authority and revolutionized the American idea of just about everything. However, what got lost in the shuffle when the youth of the ‘80s and ‘90s rediscovered the ‘60s was that most of those revolutionary figures either died due to their own excess, assassination, or had become cogs in the money-making machine once the counterculture had been adopted as a way to make money.

Morrison was an example of that, however, due to his rebellious actions and mystic aura and tendencies, he’s become a symbol rather than a person. The myth of Morrison is summed up with the title of the Rolling Stone article from 1981, following the release of a popular Morrison biography “No One Here Gets out Alive”: “He’s Hot, He’s Sexy and He’s Dead.” Even alive, those were the appeals of Morrison’s persona, the classic gothic mixture of attraction, sexual rawness and how that allures to death.

The issue that I see is while that is true of Jim Morrison, that was mostly his press or performing image; behind the scenes, he was a drunk bad poet who was a serial cheater and drug addict. He’s not the only one who’s like this, even from the ‘60s, but he’s been deified and for that I point the blame to director Oliver Stone and his 1991 film about the band, “The Doors”.

There is no doubt that Jim Morrison was a distinct and incredible writer. A poet and songwriter whose work was explored in this feature, he has also inspired so many artists who followed. Everyone from Iggy Pop, Patti Smith and Ian McCullough of Echo and The Bunnymen are inspired by Jim Morrison. Whether it is his spirit and recklessness, the poetry and words or his particular vocal delivery and style, it is important to recognise the positives and impactful nature of Morrison. He turns eighty on 8th December. There will be new perspectives and interpretations about his work and legacy. I want to bring in some of Richard Jonathan’s words about Jim Morrison as a poet. It is a fascinating take and spotlight of a fascinating-if-controversial figure:

“Jim’s poetry has a strong cinematic dimension. Andrzej Zulawski (a Polish filmmaker whose first film, The Third Part of the Night, was released in the year of Jim’s death), was a filmmaker whose films, especially Chamanka (She-Shaman) and Possession, are perfect expressions of Jim’s ethics and aesthetics (for the true artist, the two are always intimately entwined). Zulawski’s films enact the trance Jim sought as a means to transcendence, they embody Jim’s conception of cinema: ‘Film is the closest approximation in art that we have to the actual flow of consciousness, in both dream life and the actual perception of the world’ (interview). The most consistent cinematic equivalents of Jim’s poetry, then, are the films of Zulawski. Indeed, ‘The End’ and ‘When the Music’s Over’ can be seen as aesthetic precursors of Chamanka and Possession.

In Jim’s poetry a mythical dimension often attaches to words, giving them—like phosphorus exposed to oxygen—a particular glow. The butterfly in ‘the scream of the butterfly’ suffices unto itself, but attached to the insect—for listeners with attuned antennae—is its mythical dimension as ‘the soul freed from its covering of flesh’. In ‘The End’ the snake is clearly mythical: great god of darkness; symbol of both soul and libido; storehouse of potential underlying the palpable world. Night, as we have already seen, is an emblem of ‘the other side’; the word recurs in many songs. In ‘Moonlight Drive’, the moon is awash in mythical associations, giving access to the ‘strait gate’ which opens upon release and light, a short cut to the luminous centre of being and oneness. And what about in ‘Wild Child’? Who is that ‘ancient lunatic [who] reigns in the trees of the night’? A witch, a black moon, a decrepit madman?

IN THIS PHOTO: Jim Morrison between Whisky and the Word in the NYC Subway/PHOTO CREDIT: Paul Ferrara

What gives ‘The End’ its ‘haunting authority’? What—besides the brilliance of the music—makes it so powerful? It is, I would argue, the fact that it reaches deep down into a mythical, primitive psychology and then evokes cinematically what the poet found there. In a 1968 interview with the Los Angeles Free Press, Jim said: ‘I used to have this magic formula to break into the subconscious. I would lay there and say over and over “Fuck the mother, kill the father. Fuck the mother, kill the father”. You can really get into your head just repeating that slogan over and over. Just saying it can be the thing’. Now, ‘the connection with the psychologically primitive characterizes the prophetic writer’, says Frye (p. 54). Jim would agree, and would be quick to make it clear that, to the extent that he is working in a mythological dimension, the ‘prophetic’ is not about foretelling the future, but rather about highlighting the fact that history is a series of repetitions. Thus, just as in film where every image on the screen is in the present tense, not matter where it is situated in the narrative sequence, so in ‘The End’ the ‘stranger’s hand in a desperate land’, the ‘Roman wilderness of pain’, the ‘snake’ and the ‘blue bus’, the killer who ‘walked on down the hall’, are all immediately present to us, even as they resonate through past and future centuries. This is a particular quality of Jim’s poetic genius, and this is what I characterize as the prophetic dimension in his poetry”.

In 2021, The Collected Works of Jim Morrison: Poetry, Journals, Transcripts, and Lyrics, was published. The varied and prophetic writings of The Doors’ lead  was celebrated in the new anthology. The Financial Times ran a feature in anticipation of the release. Whereas some saw Morrison as this drugged, drunk and hellraising idol, others celebrated his poetic and sensitive side. A reason I wanted to write this feature is to get inside a Rock figure we do not really see today. Almost a classic poet in terms of their personality, work and legacy. How do we view Jim Morrison today in terms of his importance and music? It is a question that many have been asking for years now:

Jim Morrison’s reputation as a hell-raising, leather-clad Lizard King means he is primarily celebrated in pop folklore as a beer-swilling frontman, an “erotic politician” who filled rock stadiums with indecent howls and dark wit. Yet the late Doors singer, who was found dead at 27 in a Paris bathtub nearly 50 years ago, was first and foremost a poet, according to Robby Krieger, the band’s jazz-channelling guitarist.

The still-awestruck 75-year-old describes Morrison as “a genius. He was the only guy I met at that age who was so preoccupied with death and philosophy. No one else was even close to thinking like he was thinking.

“Jim was always a poet. When I wrote ‘Light My Fire’, Jim added the line ‘try to set the night on fire’. We found out recently he had actually written that line in a poetry notebook from way back, when he was just a child.”

Created in collaboration with Morrison’s estate, a new, nearly 600-page anthology, The Collected Works of Jim Morrison, honours Morrison’s own plans to publish a book containing all his writings, including poems, screenplays and lyrics — from “The Pony Express”, a poem Morrison wrote when he was in the fifth grade, to sombre reflections from his final days in Paris. There he seems to have made peace with the concept of mortality, prophetically writing: “Naked we come and bruised we go / nude pastry for the slow soft worms below.”

The singer’s sister, Anne Morrison Chewning, says it was quickly apparent that her brother was different from other kids while they were growing up in a military family that moved house almost every six months. “While his friends were playing with toys, Jim was reading Rimbaud, Camus and Genet,” she recalls. “When he graduated, he asked my parents for the complete works of Nietzsche as his gift. He liked to go into Washington DC and wander the streets alone, purely so he could observe people.”

Anne was living in London in 1966 when their mother, Clara, sent over a copy of The Doors’ debut album. Anne was pleasantly surprised to find out about the new career of her older brother, who by that point had disconnected himself from his family. “I always thought Jim would end up as a penniless beatnik poet,” she says. “It felt like the music really was an accidental thing. He wasn’t reaching out to be a musician or singer. It just sort of happened by serendipity.”

This is echoed by his close friend Frank Lisciandro, a fellow film student at UCLA and an editor of the new anthology. He sorted through dozens of notepads and scraps of poetry that Morrison left behind. On December 8 1970, Lisciandro was invited by a heavily bearded Morrison to a studio on his final birthday to watch him record some of his favourite poems (the audiobook of the anthology features these recordings). “Jim was friends with [the Beat generation poet] Michael McClure and loved the way the Beat poets approached language. He wanted to publicise his poetry through the rock stage and turn it into theatre,” Lisciandro says. “It was important we printed his song lyrics alongside his poetry as Jim didn’t really see a distinction.

“He was a very discreet and quiet person. Not at all a braggart. I remember one day he came into The Doors’ office and quietly handed me a book of poems he had just self-published. I thought I was a smart person, but after I read those poems I realised I didn’t know anything about the world.”

“The idea of the world becoming more computerised definitely troubled Jim because he was such a free spirit. He just went wherever the energy pushed him. He would leave a Doors session, walk up to the highway, stick his finger out and hitch a ride. Jim was a hitchhiker in his mind, too, catching rides to the next thought or experience.”

Whatever the future holds in Morrison’s afterlife, Lisciandro is convinced Morrison the poet will keep growing in stature. “I just want people to study his writing, because it has a lot to say about our world. Jim the poet will live on, that is my only hope”.

On 8th December, the world marks Jim Morrison’s eightieth birthday. Undoubtably a hugely important figure in Rock history, there is this constant and ongoing exploration of his legacy and image. A terrific writer and performer, there is also the abusive, dangerous and darker side of The Doors’ leader. With books, volumes and documentaries out there that concern Jim Morrison, one can come to their own conclusions regarding his legacy and truth. It is clear there are different and dark sides to one of the most compelling figures…

IN music history.

FEATURE: Saluting the Queens: Carla Marie Williams

FEATURE:

 

 

Saluting the Queens

Carla Marie Williams

_________

A definite queen and leader…

 IN THIS PHOTO: Carla Marie Williams alongside some unsung music industry professionals at the #girlsirate #mentorme dinner at #londonkindred last month/PHOTO CREDIT: Carla Marie Williams

of the music scene, I wanted to spotlight the remarkable and super talented Carla Marie Williams. She is someone everyone should follow.  A hugely beloved and influential songwriter and champion of women’s voices, she founded the essential Girls I Rate. You can see what they are about here. As it says on the website: “Experiencing first hand the imbalance and inequality within a very male dominated music industry, Carla was compelled to create a movement that provides females with a voice and platform. Her mission is to unite females though GIR and create opportunities for females within the music & creative industries”. This Harrow-born queen is someone who is representing women (and highlighting phenomenal women of colour too) and trying to strike against the imbalance and ingrained sexism that afflicts the music industry – at a time when women are ruling and creating the best and most compelling music around (and there are some wonderful female producers not being nodded to).

I am going to come to some interviews and features Carla Marie Williams was involved with a few years or so back. As a songwriter, she has written or co-written include Beyoncé's Freedom, and Britney Spears's Private Show. In 2016, Williams was nominated for two Grammy Awards for her work on Beyoncé's Lemonade album. She is the vital and hugely adored founder of Girls I Rate. As I am thinking about the recent Women in Music Awards 2023, I was also thinking of Williams. Someone who garners an enormous amount of respect right throughout the industry, the Future Hitmakers Masterclass that took place at London’s Southbank Centre earlier this month joined together Carla Marie Williams with sisters and influential/multitalented contemporaries Jin Jin and Kamille. Her curated Created by Women playlist (see below) shows that she champions and salutes vital and extraordinary women through music!

Before moving onto a couple of points and observations., I want to properly ‘introduce’ the hugely inspiring Carla Marie Williams. Her journey and path to here and now is extraordinary. Here is someone, as Founder of Girls I Rate, who is affecting change through the music industry – in addition to holding conversations with important women and also asking for recognition and more progress. We are still a long way from there being equality and parity in music though, with people like Williams getting their voices heard, that will come soon enough:

“It was incredible. One minute I was doing talent shows in Harlesden, the next I was taking boat trips on the Hudson River, visiting Madison Square Gardens and performing at the Apollo. It ignited a fierce desire to make music my life.”

Carla Marie Williams is an inspiring figure of achievement: Starting her music career at the age of 14 years old where she sang in local talent shows in North West London, whilst writing poetry well beyond her years she strived and fine-tuned her talents, becoming a songwriter to a roll-call of stars including Beyoncé, Britney Spears, Craig David, Girls Aloud and Kylie Minougue.

Why we are @GirlsIRate feel it’s important to invest and educate #FutureHitmakers ESPECIALLY WOMEN! @PPLUK @PRSforMusic @PPLUK @PRSFoundation @WeAreTheMU BIG UP @ZezeMillz @AmazonMusicUK @dellessa for giving @raye a platform to talk our truths! #paysongwriters pic.twitter.com/gj5ktG7MXR

— Carla Marie Williams (@CarlaMarieUK) March 21, 2023

Her career began in girl band Schino managed by Elliot Davis (Ex-Manager of Wet, Wet, Wet) and co writing edgy rock soul songs alongside a guitar at the age of 17.

In Carla’s early career she worked as a youth worker for the Peabody Trust and was later singing backing vocals for artists including Ms Dynamite, Estelle, Corrine Baily Rae, Westlife, Bryan Ferry and Spiritualised.

Carla later went on to join the UK hit factory Xenomania where she worked as an integral part of the team co writing a plethora of top ten hits for artists such as Girls Aloud, The Saturday’s, Alesha Dixon and many more. In less than 2 years Carla had achieved 6 UK tops 10’s an Ivor Novello nomination and BRIT Award for her contribution to the single ‘The Promise’.

In more recent times Carla is best known for writing Naughty Boy featuring Beyoncé’s BRIT smash hit “Runnin”, “Freedom” featuring Kendrick Lemar on Beyoncé’s critically acclaimed billboard album ‘Lemonade’ and Private Show & What You Need on Britney Spears album Glory.

In 2014 Carla was inspired to form own entertainment company NewCrowd where she now houses and develops raw talent.

Carla and NewCrowd have collaborated with a host of artists and producers including Rudimental, MNEK, Beyoncé, DJ Mustard, Pia Mia, Wilkinson, Naughty Boy and Paloma Faith. Becky G, Shae Taylor, Warryn Campbell, Artful Dodger, Reggie & Bollie, Kyla, Rodney Jerkins, DR Luke & Circuit, Preditah, ill Blu, Sticky, DJ Q, Donaeo and many more.

“First and foremost my passion is music and writing great songs that resonate with the masses. But I also want to make a difference for women in the creative industries and help create new platforms for creatives and the future generation of women”.

As I am a (proud) member of The Trouble Club, it seems like Carla Marie Williams is a future speaker. Someone who would be a perfect role model and source of inspiration for those who go to hear her speak. Maybe once better (or exclusively) known as a songwriter to the stars, Williams is now using her experience and platform to look at the wider industry and talk about things that need to change. Also saluting queens like herself who are doing wonderful and important things in music. I cannot see any recent interviews with her – though I am keen to interview her myself! -, so I will include a few from a few years ago. In 2021, Carla Marie Williams was interviewed by Music Week. This was the year Williams was named as Campaigner award recipient at the Music Week Awards:

“The Music Week Women In Music Awards returned for the first in-person event in two years to honour 12 incredible executives and artists, alongside the Roll Of Honour inductees.

Staged in partnership with AIM and UK Music, with YouTube Music as headline sponsor, the ceremony took place at the London Hilton, Park Lane on Friday, October 22.

One of the standout moments of the ceremony came from the recipient of this year's Campaigner honour, the award-winning songwriter and Girls I Rate founder Carla Marie Williams.

"The people at the top of organisations don't look like me," she said onstage. "You need to support organisations that look like me. We're the real girls who represent real people."

Williams has told Music Week about the inspiration behind the speech.

"Since Blackout Tuesday so many corporate organisations have set up subsidiary companies and charities aimed at supporting women and black people which means it has become increasingly harder for black owned independent organisation like GIR to gain funding & support," Williams said. "We're often told, we are already doing something similar', or 'no budget left', or, 'We can’t facilitate those types of activities'. So again, this further pushes the systemic issues as the money and power stays within the system, decreasing the level of support that can be given to small black owned companies and organisations. Being of Jamaican heritage and with Jamaica and the UK historically having strong ties in music, food, sports, and culture, not to mention the Windrush contributions, I’ve been keen to branch out to Jamaica and the Carribean to push for cultural exchanges. However, since doing so I’m realising how increasingly difficult it is as the Carribean is somehow being overlooked."

 Williams went on to details her experiences of trying to get funding.

"I landed an email a few weeks ago about an organisation announcing £3.5 [million in funds] for international projects, and I was so excited," Williams continued. "However, when I looked deeper I found there was nothing in Jamaica – despite being the most long-standing influential island in music, food and sports in the world – or the entire Carribean at all. I pushed for a reason and again was told, 'We do not have the capacity to facilitate projects in this territory'. I could do what’s easy, but I want to do what’s real to me and women like me, so I'm hoping soon they will recognise this and open up these opportunities. We have the young people but we simply don’t have the resources or funds. So we decided to launch #GIRACADEMYFUND GoFundMe in hope of raising some money to support and sustain our projects. Donations will go towards the first safe space studio for women in Jamaica, Mentor Me online Masterclasses, GIR Radio [a platform dedicated to promoting women's music] and core running costs. Please support the #GIRACADEMYFUND."

Here, Music Week Women In Music Awards 2021 Campaigner Carla Marie Williams, founder of Girls I Rate, reflects on her win, her career so far and her hopes for the future...

You’ve just been named Music Week’s Women in Music Award’s Campaigner for 2021, how did you feel when you heard the news?

“I was so ecstatic. I was in Jamaica the week before I heard and I just didn't feel like I had been recognised, especially by some of the establishment involved in the award. I felt like, you know, there would have been other women in particular, white women, that would have got the award. So, I was ecstatic that the work that myself and the girls at Girls I Rate had been doing has been recognised in this way.”

What was the motivation behind Girls I Rate (GIR)?

“Girls I Rate started in 2016, the year before my mum passed away and it came about when I started going to America and being in different rooms. I had already experienced certain challenges in the music industry in the UK, and I quickly realised America was even a bigger place of a lot of red tape and compromise. So basically, I was working with some managers from the States, and I found myself always at loggerheads with them over the things that I wanted to do. I think the last thing that really resonated with me was when one said: ‘Why don't you just shut up and write songs?’ And that's what motivated me to start Girls I Rate and do it with purpose and do it relentlessly.”

What are some of your big wins in terms of GIR so far?

“Our songwriting weekenders were amazing. The first one was at Metropolis, and it was sponsored by MOBOs. And I then ended up doing a UK tour a couple of years later. We went to Liverpool, Dublin, Manchester and Birmingham, where hundreds of girls came out just to hear me talk and work with me.”

Who are some of the organisations you have partnered with?

“A partnership I've had since 2017 includes working with PRS for Music on an initiative called #GetHeard. This is basically where we get A&Rs to come and listen to the girl’s music and give feedback. We also launched the Future Hitmaker competition with the PRS Foundation where we offer our girls bursaries to enter the competition. In addition, we’ve just been awarded financial support from the Spotify Equal Board. And, I also love the partnership we have with Music Week where we highlight amazing women in the industry, black women in particular.”

What is the biggest concern you hear from women when it comes to the music industry?

“A lot of women don't feel like they're taken seriously, that they are undermined, and sometimes it's not just men who are guilty of that - women are also guilty of that in different environments, because we have defence mechanisms to get to the top. I feel like a lot of things we learn as people we need to get rid of, such as the crabs in the barrel mentality. I also know that the Me Too movement is starting to dissect the music industry and we too are getting involved by trying to ensure women feel safe in studios. We are partnering with organisations such as The Cube and Pirate Studios to provide these safe spaces for women”.

 PHOTO CREDIT: via The Arts Desk

I am going to go back even further. I am interested in this Stylist interview from six years ago. Intrigued and excited by the fact that Carla Marie Williams was trying to get more women into the music industry, it is clear we have seen progress since then. It is because of women like her that we have seen these conversations open up:

“Woman of the Week is Stylist’s weekly celebration of women making a difference to society. Grammy-nominated songwriter Carla Marie Williams has written for everyone from Girls Aloud to Beyoncé. Now, she wants to get more women into songwriting.

Adele. Beyoncé. Rihanna. Taylor Swift. Nicki Minaj. Some of the world’s biggest pop stars are women, but don’t be fooled into thinking that the music industry isn’t dominated by men. In the US, less than a quarter of the 600 most popular songs of the last five years were performed by women, according to recent research by the University of Southern California, and just 12% were penned by female songwriters. The same study found that men make up more than 90% – 90%! – of all Grammy nominees since 2012.

Things aren’t much better in the UK, where more than three-quarters of mainstream music festivals taking place in 2018 don’t have a single female-fronted act on their line-up. The average gender pay gap at the country’s major labels is over 30%, while women make up just 6% of members of the Music Producers Guild (MPG). And according to PRS for Music – the UK body that looks after copyright for songwriters, composers and music publishers – just 17% of professional songwriters are women.

It’s against this rather disheartening backdrop that Carla Marie Williams is striving to get more women into the music industry – specifically, to nurture the talents and boost the profiles of female songwriters. The London-born, Grammy-nominated lyricist and composer recently helped launch the #GetHeard campaign, an initiative with PRS for Music to address the gender gap in songwriting. In late June, over 200 aspiring women songwriters gathered at a #GetHeard event in London to share their music with some of the music industry’s most influential figures, and to hear Williams and other prominent women share their insights into the business.

Williams describes #GetHeard as “a way to bring the industry to the girls and to the movement” – the movement, of course, being the rising sense that gender inequality in the music industry needs to be addressed. It’s important to Williams that the campaign doesn’t just pay lip service to the idea of female empowerment, but actually serves a practical purpose, connecting songwriters with people they need to know.

“We want to create producers or writers or artists,” she says. Now the campaign has been launched, she hopes to “gain more support from industry people and sponsors; people that actually believe this can be done and who want to support women. And I mean genuinely support women – not just do ad campaigns that look great.”

When it comes to the music industry, Williams knows what she’s talking about. She spent the first chapter of her career at Xenomania, the music production and songwriting team once described by the BBC as “Britain’s top hit factory”. Partly as a result of her time there, her catalogue of songwriting credits reads like the track list for a 21st century pop compilation album: she’s written for everyone from Britney Spears and Kylie Minogue to The Saturdays and Craig David, and is responsible for some of Girls Aloud’s biggest bangers. (If you ever got drunk and sang Can’t Speak French at a karaoke bar in the late Noughties, you’ve got Williams to thank.)

Although she’d been writing poetry since she was at school, and spent some time in a short-lived girl band in her teens, it was getting her foot in the door at Xenomania that Williams classes as her big break. During her time there, she achieved 6 UK top 10s, an Ivor Novello nomination, and a Brit Award nod for her contribution to the Girls Aloud track The Promise. But in 2014, she decided to strike out on her own.

“I didn’t know what I was going to do,” she admits. “I didn’t have a team, I didn’t have management; I was just by myself. I had to sit down and really think about what I was going to do next”.

Apologies for screwing with the chronology! After Girls I Rate was launched in 2016, Carla Marie Williams has worked tirelessly affecting change and creating dialogues. As someone who has experienced racism, misogyny and sexism throughout her career, Williams knows all too well the challenges and discrimination that so many women face. In 2021, PRS for Music spoke with the iconic Williams. She talked about the Girls I Rate platform. She was also spotlighting the Girls I Rate team hunting for talented songwriters and producers as part of their 2021 #GETHEARD Future Hitmaker competition. That was launched in partnership with PRS for Music and PRS Foundation:

“Grammy-award-winning songwriter Carla Marie Williams is accustomed to shaking up the music industry.

Williams has collaborated with some of the world's biggest artists, including Britney Spears, Sean Paul and Beyoncé, and is one of a handful of Black British female writers to reach superstar status.

But the road to the top was far from smooth. Carla Marie has spoken openly about the racism and sexism she has endured throughout her 20-year music career.

When a certain management company warned her that it was a man’s world, and would always be so, Carla Marie decided to take matters into her own hands.

In 2016, she launched Girls I Rate, a movement designed to help nurture, inspire and champion young women creatives. GIR today provides educational, mentoring and networking opportunities to over 5,000 members looking to build their dream careers in the creative sector.

IN THIS PHOTO: Carla Marie Williams on stage in 2023 with Manny Norté, Kamille and Jin Jin

 The GIR team are currently on the hunt for talented songwriters and producers as part of their 2021 #GETHEARD Future Hitmaker competition.

Launched in partnership with PRS for Music and PRS Foundation, the competition gives young women creatives the chance to have their songs played on the radio and in front of industry experts. Three winners will also receive funding for upcoming music projects alongside other prizes.

We had a chat with Carla Marie via Zoom to find out why she launched the competition, what she looks for in a Future Hitmaker and her 2021 plans for Girls I Rate.

The competition sounds exciting, Carla Marie – what made you launch it?

GIR members have always benefited from getting their music heard by A&R through our #GETHEARD A&R Weekender – but nothing really came out of it. All they got was feedback, which was great because we get some amazing people for our panels, but I knew we could do more.

The competition gives them tangible stuff including a cash bursary of up to £3,000, high-spec equipment, a spot on a six-week production course. This package is based on what our girls told us they needed, so it’s more beneficial for them.

We know gender diversity is a major challenge for UK music – women make up only 18 percent of PRS for Music’s membership. Why do you think the industry still struggles to attract and retain talent women?

I think it’s down to misconceptions about where women fit in the studio. We all need to change our mindsets – that includes me. There’s also a lack of safe spaces for women to learn production and songwriting so they don’t feel self-conscious or give up. These learning experiences sometimes don’t lead to proper employment opportunities – this needs to change too.

What has the industry response been like?

It’s been really good. What I love is there are a lot of men who want to participate and get involved. That to me, in 2021, is one of the most exciting things. I’m all about uplifting and recognising women in the industry but I’ve learnt that it’s also vital that men understand and support what we’re doing. Over the years I’ve tried to involve men where I can and educate them on the importance of supporting women.

We’ve also got some great people and companies like Spotify and Mixcloud on board to support us. A big music artist has offered to co-host the judging panel event with me. I can’t name them now but I’m very excited”.

Someone who is influential to me. Someone I respect gigantically; I hope I have done Carla Marie Williams justice in this feature! With her incredible and passionate work affecting so many women in music and spreading far and wide, I am so fascinated how her career started and how it has changed. Alongside peers such as Kamille, this is a phenomenal queen who I always keep an eye and ear out for. If you have the resources and time, contribute to the GIR Academy Fund, as they are a non-profit organisation who has this #GIRArmy: a strong community of over five-thousand wonderful female creatives. I wanted to properly salute and show my huge affection and admiration for someone who will continue to make change and support women in music through 2024. A queen, leader, campaigner and pioneer, the brilliant and sublime Carla Marie Williams is someone that I wanted to highlight. If you are not familiar with her work and illustrious songwriting background, then check out this…

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SENSATIONAL human being.

FEATURE: Groovelines: Mariah Carey – All I Want for Christmas Is You

FEATURE:

 

 

Groovelines

Mariah Carey – All I Want for Christmas Is You

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PERHAPS the best and most celebrated…

 PHOTO CREDIT: Dennis Leupold via USA Today

Christmas song ever, Mariah Carey’s All I Want for Christmas Is You often tops lists of the all-time classic festive gems. TimeOut deemed the song the very best last year; Good Housekeeping concurred this year; Cosmopolitan ranked it top this year too. A song that was released on 29th October, 1994, All I Want for Christmas Is You was selected by the Library of Congress for inclusion in the National Recording Registry this year. I am going to come to its legacy and the reaction to it. For Groovelines, it is a chance to go deep with a song. I am going to get into a new lawsuit that has come about. A Christmas classic called into question regarding its originality. Before that, The Guardian discussed how Mariah Carey’s All I Want for Christmas Is You is being played extra-early this year. People finding comfort in a classic that provides joy and warmth:

“People who argue that Christmas seems to come earlier every year now have an important piece of evidence: the earliest ever appearance of Christmas songs in the UK Top 40.

We’re not halfway through November, but already the widely agreed-upon pair of greatest modern Christmas classics – Wham!’s Last Christmas and Mariah Carey’s All I Want for Christmas Is You – have entered the chart at No 37 and No 40 respectively. Last year, it took until the third week of November for a Christmas song to appear, namely All I Want for Christmas Is You. Each song will now almost certainly remain in the chart for the rest of the year, and possibly early 2024.

The songs’ popularity has grown all the more via the network effect of the download and then streaming eras, with Last Christmas – originally a No 2 hit in 1984 – reappearing in the chart every year since 2008, eventually earning its first No 1 position in January 2021.

Released in 1994, All I Want for Christmas Is You also returned in 2008, and earned its first No 1 spot slightly before Wham!, in December 2020.

Further demonstrating the songs’ classic status is the fact there are no other Christmas hits even in the Top 100 this week, though by Christmas itself the charts will be dominated by them.

Twenty-nine entries in the UK Top 40 over Christmas 2022 were festive, with longstanding favourites such as Brenda Lee’s Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree and the Pogues’ Fairytale of New York joined by a more recent established canon of favourites by Michael Bublé, Ariana Grande, Kelly Clarkson and Justin Bieber.

Neither Last Christmas nor All I Want for Christmas Is You has held the actual Christmas No 1 spot, which in recent years has been dominated by YouTube star LadBaby and his series of singles to benefit food bank charity the Trussell Trust. His fifth chart-topper, 2022’s Food Aid, broke the Beatles’ record for the most Christmas No 1s. He has not announced whether he’ll attempt a sixth No 1 in a row this year.

The festive glow of All I Want for Christmas Is You has been slightly dulled this year as Mariah Carey has been served with a lawsuit alleging copyright infringement over the song”.

There is some controversy that has blighted the magnificent and all-conquering classic. Again, going to The Guardian, we learn that this legendary song has been challenged. A lot of big artists find themselves on the end of lawsuits. Cynically, you tend to find them occurring when a song becomes massive and makes a lot of money. I am not sure what the result will be of All I Want for Christmas Is You’s challenge:

“Mariah Carey has been sued over alleged copyright infringement with her perennial festive hit All I Want For Christmas Is You.

As reported in Billboard, it is the second lawsuit she has faced from songwriter Andy Stone – who performed under the name Vince Vance – who filed then withdrew a similar claim in 2022.

Stone released a similarly lovelorn song of the same name in 1989 with his group Vince Vance & the Valiants, reaching No 52 in the US country singles chart in 1994 after receiving extensive radio play during Christmas 1993. Carey’s song was recorded and released in 1994.

Stone’s lawsuit claims: “The phrase ‘all I want for Christmas is you’ may seem like a common parlance today, in 1988 it was, in context, distinctive […] Moreover, the combination of the specific chord progression in the melody paired with the verbatim hook was a greater than 50% clone of [Stone’s] original work, in both lyric choice and chord expressions.”

Stone is being represented by Gerard P Fox, a lawyer who represented two songwriters in a similar copyright infringement case against Taylor Swift and her song Shake It Off, which resulted in an undisclosed settlement in 2022.

Carey has not responded to the lawsuit. The Guardian has contacted her management company for comment.

Carey co-wrote the song with Walter Afanasieff, though each of them has described the circumstances differently.

In 2021, Carey said: “When I first wrote that song I was very, very early on in my career and I was still thinking about childhood stuff when I did wish for snow every year … I started writing that on a little DX7 or Casio keyboard that was in this little room in the house that I lived in at the time in upstate New York lifetimes ago. Just writing down everything that I thought about. All the things that reminded me of Christmas that made me feel festive that I wanted other people to feel”.

I am going to come to some articles about, arguably, the queen of Christmas songs. I am going to drop in some reception for All I Want for Christmas Is You. Even though I tend to go for Slade’s Merry Xmas Everybody as the champion Christmas  classic, Mariah Carey’s 1994 wonder is in the top three for sure! It has been embraced and celebrated through the years:

"All I Want for Christmas Is You" received universal acclaim. Roch Parisien from AllMusic called the song "a year-long banger", complimenting its instrumentation and melody. Steve Morse, editor of The Boston Globe, wrote that Carey sang with a lot of soul. In his review for Carey's Merry Christmas II You, Thomas Connor from the Chicago Sun-Times called the song "a simple, well-crafted chestnut and one of the last great additions to the Christmas pop canon". Shona Craven of Scotland's The Herald, said, "[it's] a song of optimism and joy that maybe, just maybe, hints at the real meaning of Christmas." Additionally, she felt the main reason it was so successful is the subject "you" in the lyrics, explaining, "Perhaps what makes the song such a huge hit is the fact that it's for absolutely everyone." Craven opened her review with a bold statement: "Bing Crosby may well be turning in his grave, but no child of the 1980s will be surprised to see Mariah Carey's sublime All I Want For Christmas Is You bounding up the charts after being named the nation's top festive song." While reviewing the 2009 remix version, Becky Bain from Idolator called the song a "timeless classic" and wrote, "We love the original song to pieces—we blast it while decorating our Christmas tree and lighting our Menorah."

Kyle Anderson from MTV labeled the track "a majestic anthem full of chimes, sleigh bells, doo-wop flourishes, sweeping strings and one of the most dynamic and clean vocal performances of Carey's career". Music & Media commented, "Phil Spector's Christmas album has been the main inspiration for this carol in a "Darlene Love against the wall of sound" tradition." Music Week wrote, "Mariah meets Phil Spector, some chimes and the inevitable sleigh-bells; this is everything you would expect from a Mariah Carey record." In a 2006 retrospective look at Carey's career, Sasha Frere-Jones of The New Yorker said, the "charming" song was one of Carey's biggest accomplishments, calling it "one of the few worthy modern additions to the holiday canon". Dan Hancox, editor of The National, quoted and agreed with Jones's statement, calling the song "perfection". According to Barry Schwartz from Stylus Magazine, "to say this song is an instant classic somehow doesn't capture its amazingicity; it's a modern standard: joyous, exhilarating, loud, with even a hint of longing." Schwartz praised the song's lyrics as well, describing them as "beautifully phrased," and calling Carey's voice "gorgeous" and "sincere”.

I will delve into the history of All I Want for Christmas Is You prior to coming to its legacy and importance. The song is credited to Walter Afanasieff and Mariah Carey (songwriting and production). A song with an interesting chart ride and release history, there is this fascinating background and history of All I Want for Christmas Is You. One of the biggest questions is to the song’s origin and creation. Who the song belongs to and how it came about:

“Mariah Carey’s “All I Want for Christmas Is You” has been one of music’s most recognizable singles—holiday or otherwise—going on three decades now.

Carey’s 1994 hit is considered the defining modern Christmas classic, with Billboard ranking it No. 1 on its list of the Greatest of All Time Holiday 100 Songs—ahead of legendary vocalists like Bing Crosby, Brenda Lee, and Nat King Cole. Thanks to streaming services and the song’s ubiquitous presence in pop culture, it has received billions of plays in its lifetime.

But while “All I Want for Christmas Is You” has become an essential part of the winter season—and earned the 53-year-old Carey the unofficial title of “Queen of Christmas”—its history is more complicated than you might think.

Carey loved Christmas, but her family would “ruin it”

“All I Want for Christmas Is You” is a cheery and boisterous ode to Christmas, not to mention a yuletide crush. It’s also a sharp contrast to Carey’s melancholic experiences around the holidays while growing up.

Mariah was raised on New York’s Long Island and was part of a complicated family dynamic. Her parents—Alfred Roy Carey, a Venezuelan aeronautical engineer, and Patricia Carey, a voice coach and opera singer—divorced when young Mariah was 3 years old. She grew up primarily with her mother. Mariah has detailed their complicated relationship, suggesting in her 2020 memoir that Patricia resented her because of her musical ability. The singer also no longer speaks to her brother, Morgan, nor her sister, Alison.

Although Carey looked forward to Christmas every year, she said in 2019 that her “dysfunctional family” and financial struggles in childhood often overshadowed her excitement. “I always wanted to have a really good time at Christmas, and they would ruin it, so I vowed in my own life I would make sure every Christmas was great,” she told Cosmopolitan UK.

One silver lining was that Carey began writing poems and songs to process her feelings—a practice that helped her quickly become a music megastar.

The singer didn’t want to do a Christmas album

By 1994, Carey was a bona fide hitmaker with eight No. 1 singles to her credit. That included the songs “Vision of Love,” “Emotions,” and “Dreamlover.” So when her record label suggested she compose a holiday album, 24-year-old Carey was hesitant because she felt Christmas music was reserved for artists later in their careers—after their relevance had tailed off.

“I was like, ‘Hmm, I don’t know.’ It seemed a little premature, like I was jumping the gun,” she told the Los Angeles Times in 2020. “The success of [the Merry Christmas album] was definitely a surprise. I mean, ‘All I Want for Christmas Is You’ was the first Christmas song I ever wrote.”

The pop star first told Billboard in 2017 that she wrote the song “basically as a kid on my little Casio keyboard.” In the 2019 Amazon documentary Mariah Carey Is Christmas: The Story of “All I Want for Christmas Is You,” the singer gave a similar account. “Actually, I put on It’s a Wonderful Life downstairs, you could hear it throughout the house, and I went into this small room, and there was a little keyboard in there, and I started playing,” she explained.

The song quickly became popular but not an immediate chart-topper when it was released as a single in October 1994. In fact, Merry Christmas was the second-best-selling new holiday album of 1994. The top was Miracles—The Holiday Album by famed saxophonist Kenny G. But Carey’s multiplatinum album more than made up for it over time, selling the equivalent of 8 million copies by December 2020. “All I Want For Christmas Is You” is now a diamond-certified single, reaching 12 million downloads and streaming equivalents in December 2022.

The song’s origin is disputed

Walter Afanasieff is credited as a co-writer of “All I Want for Christmas Is You” and has rebuffed Mariah Carey’s story of the song’s origin.

Carey is credited as a co-writer and co-producer of “All I Want for Christmas Is You” with Walter Afanasieff. However, their explanations behind the song’s creation are wildly different.

Afanasieff calls Carey’s story “kind of a tall tale.” According to the longtime songwriter, he and Carey—who had previously collaborated for her albums Emotions (1991) and Music Box (1993)—constructed the song together in the summer of 1994 at a home she was renting with then-husband Tommy Mottola. “I started playing a boogie-woogie, kind of a rock. Mariah chimed in and started singing ‘I don’t want a lot for Christmas,’” he said. “So on and on, and it was like a game of ping-pong. I’d hit the ball for her, she hits it back to me.” Ultimately, Afanasieff credits Carey with the lyrics and melodies and says he managed “all of the music and the chords.”

Afanasieff’s insistence has drawn the ire of some of Carey’s most devoted fans. The composer told Variety in 2019 he and his wife, comedian Katie Cazorla, have even received death threats for speaking out about his perceived snub from the singer. Although Afanasieff says he would work with Carey again in a heartbeat, he maintains that her comments have damaged his reputation. “Mariah has been very wonderful, positive, and a force of nature. She’s the one that made the song a hit, and she’s awesome,” he said. “But she definitely does not share credit where credit is due”.

On 28th October, 1994, Mariah Carey released her first holiday album, Merry Christmas. It features mainly standards that she interprets. They sit alongside original material. Like most Christmas albums, it got mixed reception. It was released between 1993’s Music Box and 1995’s Daydream. This was an imperial and purple patch for Carey. Although Music Box did not get great reception when it was released, it has since been reassessed and seen as very important. Daydream is one of her most acclaimed albums. What might have otherwise been a stopgap and change of pace between conventional albums was given a distinct lease of life by All I Want for Christmas Is You. In 2020, Ringer explored Mariah Carey’s classic. A song a lot sadder than you think, it came at a time when the U.S. legend was facing difficulty and problems of her own:

“It’s time. It’s time meaning it’s December. December belongs to Mariah Carey. What are the essential new Christmas songs released in Mariah Carey’s lifetime? “Last Christmas” by Wham. “Wonderful Christmastime” by Paul McCartney. (It’s a great song. I’m not arguing with you about this.) “Christmas in Hollis” by Run-DMC. “Christmas Wrapping” by the Waitresses. (You know it.) And “All I Want for Christmas Is You” by Mariah Carey. That’s the list. “All I Want for Christmas Is You” came out in 1994 and sounds several eons older than that, in the best way. On impact—the very first time you heard Mariah belt out that very first chorus—it sounded classic, it sounded timeless, it sounded like it was playing in the manger when Jesus Christ was born.

And it’s an incredibly sad song. I’m not trying to ruin “All I Want for Christmas Is You” for you. Quite the contrary. I’m trying to heighten it. I’m trying to deepen it. The question before us today is who was the you in “All I Want for Christmas Is You.” I fear that the answer, as Mariah Carey tells her story now, is that there was no you. There was nobody. She had nobody, really. This song is a fantasy. This song is aspirational. This song is a reminder that pop music—and maybe especially Christmas-themed pop music—can be as transportive for the singer (and the songwriter) as it is for the listener. I’m trying to give you a sense, for mid-’90s Mariah Carey anyway, of what the fates allowed, and what they did not allow”.

I am going to end with a TIME feature about the song from 2019. Celebrating twenty-five years of this genius and unstoppable work of brilliance, they talked about All I Want for Christmas Is You as the holiday gift that keeps on giving:

“The melody of ‘All I Want For Christmas’ is astoundingly complicated considering how simple it seems,” songwriter and And the Writer Is… podcast host Ross Golan tells TIME. “The brain latches on songs after the listener invests significant time to learn them. That song in particular is now neurologically built into the zeitgeist.”

This, of course, attests to Carey’s skills as a songwriter, a factor that’s often overshadowed by her outstanding talent and larger-than-life persona. Lest listeners forget while listening to her hit the whistle register, Carey wrote 17 of her 18 #1 hits, a feat that astounds on multiple levels.

“This song is a testament to something that Mariah Carey is still undervalued for: Her songwriting,” beauty writer and self-professed lifelong Lamb (for the uninitiated, Lambs or the “Lambily” are the devoted fans of Carey) Tynan Sinks tells TIME. “Mariah Carey wrote this song, dude. Isn’t that crazy? It’s such a classic that people think it’s a cover of something else, but it’s a Mariah Carey original, baby. She just sat down one day and literally invented Christmas.”

In 2015, Slate reported that the song’s seemingly magic ability to put you in a festive holiday mood is actually because of its dulcet harmony, which contains at least 13 distinct chords, including a specific minor subdominant chord, which they dub “the most Christmassy chord of all” and is found in songs like Irving Berlin’s classic “White Christmas.”

In a deep dive into the song’s structure at Quartz, musicologist and Switched on Pop podcast host Nate Sloan also revealed that since Carey was inspired by old school holiday music, she used an AABA song structure that was popular in the 1940s and 1950s and that was used for songs like “Frosty the Snowman” and “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer,” which can do plenty for holiday nostalgia for the good ‘ol days.

Unlike “Rudolph” and “Frosty,” however, Carey’s track provides a more adult take on a Christmas song, which also proved to be a boon. By eschewing children-centric holiday iconography like Santa and Rudolph for Carey’s trademark musical subject, love and romance, she reached a whole new — and very large — demographic with a theme that everyone could identify with.

“It’s not a religious song,” Andrew Mall, assistant professor of music at Northeastern Univeristy tells TIME. “She talks about Christmas, but no religious beliefs. It’s actually a love song. Anyone can inhabit those lyrics; the lover is not named, the lover is not gendered, so anyone can put themselves in that position as needing someone to love at the holidays. It’s a secular love song and not a religious Christmas carol.” Mall also attributes the song’s popularity to nostalgia of another kind: for the ’90s as a whole, especially the music of the time.

“The song came out in 1994, her first Christmas album; I think when people talk about nostalgia for this album, they talk about nostalgia for the holidays. I think that’s part of that, but I also think it’s part of a larger nostalgia for music from the ‘90s,” he said, noting that ’90s music, stuff he had been listening to in high school, has been showing up of late in his Spotify playlists and are part of a larger trend of things like ’90s dance parties and DJ sets. “This is an ongoing thing not only for people at the end of Gen X, but for millennials too. It’s not only nostalgia for the holidays, which can be fraught for a lot of people, but for the ‘90s, which you can wipe clean and put whatever kind of identity on that.”

The ‘Love, Actually’ Fact

“All I Want for Christmas” can also attribute some of its dominance during the holiday season to its inclusion in the film, Love, Actually. In the film, Sam, a young boy who plays the drums for a school performance of the song harbors a crush on his classmate, Joanna, who is singing lead; the song plays a significant role to this plotline, which helps open and close the film. Jocelyn Neal, a professor of music at UNC Chapel Hill, points to how both the song and movie have solidified their places in the holiday canon.

“It’s important to consider the use of it in the Christmas movie Love, Actually, which came out less than 10 years after the song was released,” Neal tells TIME. “Love, Actually has become for many middle-class Americans, a sort of holiday ritual to watch that movie, it’s in continuous holiday replay and so you have this song that was by this enormously successful pop star in the ‘90s, it has enough rhythm and blues in it to have that edgy sound for a 1990s to mid-’90s hit, and then a little less than a decade later, it’s going to get this boost by being in this now-classic Christmas movie as a key plot point, so it gets new life through that. There also just aren’t other recordings [is “of” accurate here?] original Christmas songs that sound modern but trigger that nostalgic elements. There aren’t a lot of other competitors when you line up those factors.”

PHOTO CREDIT: Getty Images

Part of the legacy of “All I Want for Christmas Is You” also lies within how it’s also posited Carey as the undisputed Queen of Christmas, something she has unabashedly and wholly embraced — although that wasn’t the case when the album was being made. In an interview with Billboard, Afanasieff said that making a Christmas album was hardly a boon to a contemporary artist like Carey at the time.

“20 years ago, Christmas music and Christmas albums by artists weren’t the big deal that they are today,” he said. “Back then, you didn’t have a lot of artists with Christmas albums; It wasn’t a known science at all back then, and there was nobody who did new, big Christmas songs.

And if there’s any doubt that Carey and “All I Want for Christmas Is You” are losing clout this holiday season, consider this: Spotify streams of the song have already seen a 99% increase since October 1st of this year, with the company projecting that the streams will “ramp up substantially” in November (last year, Spotify saw an increase in streams of “All I Want for Christmas Is You” of 2,077% between October and December). It seems that the holiday season — and Mariah season — has arrived”.

Even if the song is facing legal issues now – maybe someone being opportunistic or genuine -, there is no doubt that All I Want for Christmas Is You is Mariah Carey’s. Not only is it one of the best Christmas songs ever. It is one of the finest tracks of her career. We are starting to hear it at the moment in shops. It is going to be a chart success this year; reaching new people and setting records. Despite a slight black cloud hanging over it at the moment, All I Want for Christmas Is You is abound with light and joy – in spite of the fact it has quite a sad message. Both simple and complex at the same time, there is no doubt it is a classic for a reason! I doubt any new Christmas song can ever match Mariah Carey’s classic – one that turns thirty next year. I think we will be enjoying and talk about this track…

FOR decades more.

FEATURE: Christmas Present: The Best Seasonal Songs from the 2020s

FEATURE:

 

 

Christmas Present

IN THIS PHOTO: Samara Joy 

The Best Seasonal Songs from the 2020s

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WE are the time of year…

 PHOTO CREDIT: George Dolgikh/Pexels

when we are hearing Christmas songs played on the radio and in stores. Whilst we hear the classics and those timeless ones we all know and love (or not), there are also new Christmas songs coming out. It is hard to challenge the established Christmas songs that have been played for years. Whilst most modern Christmas songs released now cannot rival the very best, there are some pretty good ones that are worth mixing into your Christmas playlist. I am writing this in the middle of November - so there will be quite a few new ones released between now and the middle of December. Already, Christmas classics have entered the charts. People are more in the mood for the festive and escapist this year compared to previous ones. Looking at the news and one can hardly blame them! I will do a playlist or feature about the Christmas standards. For this one, I am going to end with a playlist with modern seasonal cuts. Some of the very best Christmas songs from the 2020s. There is a blend of covers and originals in the playlist With artists still keen to add their stamps and have their say regarding a vision of Christmas/the holidays, below are some crackers from the past few years that should…

BE on all of your mixes.

FEATURE: The Digital Mixtape: Songs from the Best K-Pop Albums and E.P.s of 2023

FEATURE:

 

 

The Digital Mixtape

Songs from the Best K-Pop Albums and E.P.s of 2023

_________

A genre of music…

that is producing some of the most exciting, colourful and interesting music, K-Pop is a genre that is a phenomenon that generates so much money and attention for South Korea’s music industry. There is also a similar phenomenon coming from J-Pop (Japan). Years ago, not many people would have looked towards Asia when it came to Pop music. At a time when mainstream Pop in the U.S. and U.K. is perhaps not as dynamic and joyful as it could be – or there is some homogenisation -, K-Pop is definitely filling a void. I am going to end this feature with a playlist of songs from the best K-Pop albums and E.P.s of this year so far. Before getting there, this article from, last year explored and explained the legacy and importance of K-Pop:

“The impact of South Korean popular music, also known as K-pop, has risen in popularity across the globe. From young teens to older adults, concert venues are packed with fans lining up to see famous K-pop groups such as BTS and Blackpink.

The recent popularity of K-pop shows evidence that our world is evolving to a more inclusive space for different cultures, which is something seen here on the University of Arizona campus as well.

UnderSkore UA, the University of Arizona’s K-pop dance team, saw first-hand that the rise of K-pop was a gateway to their success. The group has been posting K-pop dance videos online since 2017 and has amassed over 2.1 million views on their YouTube channel.

Kobe Saldana is a recent UA physiology graduate and a dancer on UnderSkore UA.

“K-pop brings not only the Asian community but the K-pop community together. That’s what makes our team so special, through our diversity and being able to come together and share our passion for dancing,” Saldana said.

According to a Vox article, K-pop has been around since the mid-1990s and the genre was created with influence from American pop music at the time. This helped spawn a new genre and musical style for South Korean artists to express their own creativity.

This rise of South Korean music studios popping up in the late 1990s began a new era for South Korean entertainment. Over time the term “K-pop idol” began to circulate online when studios such as SM Entertainment, YG Entertainment and JYP Entertainment began training young teenagers to become the next K-pop stars, according to Vox.

In the U.S., K-pop got its initial claim to fame with the hit song “Gangnam Style” by PSY. It was, for many Americans, the first introduction to K-pop and a new music genre and language.

Rosamia Fonseca, a UA biology major, is the executive director of UnderSkore UA and noted the comradery that the dance team and K-pop as a whole brings about.

“It’s a community that I am safe in; people respect me and I respect others. It feels like home when it’s so hard living far away from your family. So, this is a great opportunity to meet people, grow close with them, form lifelong friendships and is really fun,” Fonseca said.

Through social media, K-pop fans often promote their favorite groups and help organize local meetups, creating social media pages dedicated to helping bring groups to U.S. cities. BTS x Arizona is one of those social media pages, whose mission is to get BTS, a popular K-pop group, to perform in Arizona.

BTS often refers to their fan group as “Army.” This relates to the term Hallyu, the Korean culture wave, something BTS x Arizona has adopted as well.

Selma Hernandez is the co-host of BTS x Arizona and shared the page’s current aspirations.

“Our goal is to ultimately campaign for BTS to come to Arizona. A lot of the Arizona Army have to travel out of state to see BTS and we just want to be able to host BTS in our state. Now our goal has become to bring Arizona Army together so when the day comes that BTS visits, we are able to celebrate together,” Hernandez said via email.

Now more people than ever know about K-pop, with digital exposure to South Korean media like music and Korean dramas shows. The Olympics being hosted in South Korea four years ago also helped elevate South Korean entertainment’s popularity to a new level, according to a CNN article.

“I think K-pop had a pretty big impact on the western world. It’s becoming more established in the American music awards, like the Grammy’s, AMA and Billboard. They’ve opened up the awards specifically for Korean music. I feel like everyone’s becoming more open about international music in general,” Fonseca said.

Sarah Weaver, co-host of the BTS x Arizona page, noted the positive impact BTS has had on her life. For the supporters of K-pop bands, the music is more than a fandom, it is a community, according to Weaver.

“I got into K-pop during a time of my life where I really needed some joy and positivity. I’m so thankful that I was able to discover BTS at the time that I did. I love the positivity and self-love that they promote. After becoming a fan of BTS, I, and the people around me, definitely notice a positive change of attitude in me. I’m so happy and thankful for BTS, I don’t know how I could live without them in my life now,” Weaver said via email”.

With so many incredible groups coming from the K-Pop scene, I think we will see the genre expand and take over the world. There is still a division between Pop of the West and K and J-Pop. Not too much crossover at the moment. I hope that there is more cross-pollination, as quite a few TikTok/rising Pop artists in the U.S. and U.K. are influenced by that sound. There is also a narrowing of the gender gap too. A culture and scene where female groups are growing in popularity and commercial success. To show the sort of K-Pop albums and E.P.s that have been gaining positive reviews this year, below is a selection from each. It goes to show that, when you want music that has that colour, energy, originality and punch, then you turn…

TO K-Pop.

FEATURE: Queens on Top: Following the GRAMMY Awards Nominations, It Is Clear Women in Music Are Ruling

FEATURE:

 

 

Queens on Top

IN THIS PHOTO: SZA was nominated for nine GRAMMY Awards on 9th November/PHOTO CREDIT: Gianni Gallant for Rolling Stone 

Following the GRAMMY Awards Nominations, It Is Clear Women in Music Are Ruling

_________

I will end with a playlist…

 IN THIS PHOTO: Phoebe Bridgers received seven GRAMMY nominations/PHOTO CREDIT: JJ Geiger for TIME

of songs from artists who have been nominated for next year’s GRAMMY Awards. The ceremony takes place on 4th February. It is the most prestigious ceremony in the music calendar. When the category nominees were announced yesterday (10th November), there was a lot of reaction to the names included. With nearly all the major and most-nominated names being women, it is encouraging that their talent and value is properly being acknowledged. In past years, the GRAMMY voting committee have been accused or including fewer women and artists of colour than they should be. Things have changed quite dramatically in recent years. 2024 is a fully stocked celebration of music queens! I shall continue more on this thought. Even if the most nominated women are mainstream and larger artists, there is still some more upcoming talent who have been given a nod. The Guardian  reported the fact the categories are dominated by women:

“Female artists are set to dominate next year’s Grammy awards with SZA, Phoebe Bridgers, Victoria Monét and Taylor Swift leading the way.

SZA has scored the most nominations with nine overall for her album SOS and the songs from it, covering pop, rap and R&B fields. The singer has so far won one Grammy from her 14 previous nominations. She competes in the record of the year category with Billie Eilish, boygenius, Jon Batiste, Miley Cyrus, Olivia Rodrigo, Taylor Swift and Victoria Monét.

Victoria Monét, Phoebe Bridgers and the mixing engineer Serban Ghenea all follow with seven nominations apiece. Monét is also nominated in the category of best new artist alongside others including Ice Spice and Jelly Roll.

Both song and record of the year categories are almost entirely female with just Batiste as the male nominee in both. Batiste won five key Grammy awards in 2022.

Swift, with six nominations, could potentially make Grammys history if she wins album of the year, which would make her the first artist ever to win in that category four times. Rodrigo, who has previously won three Grammy awards, has scored six nominations for her album GUTS and the song Vampire.

The Barbie album has also made a strong showing with 12 nominations and songs from Eilish, Nicki Minaj and Dua Lipa featuring prominently. Songs from the soundtrack make up four out of the five nominees for best song from visual media.

Nominees beyond the world of music include Meryl Streep, Michelle Obama, Bernie Sanders and Dave Chappelle, for audiobook, storytelling or comedy awards.

This year sees three new categories: best African music performance, best alternative jazz album and best pop dance recording. Kylie Minogue and Troye Sivan are among the nominees for the latter category.

Notable snubs include country singer Morgan Wallen, who scored just one nomination for Last Night for best country song. The song has spent 16 weeks at No 1 in the US this year”.

I am going to include a playlist with the main categories represented. I am thrilled that incredible artists like SZA and Dua Lipa have nominations. It is no surprise to see Taylor Swift got nominations. Lana Del Rey is long overdue GRAMMY recognition. There are also quite a few nominations for songs/artists featured on the Barbie soundtrack. Dua Lipa and Billie Eilish are among those represented there. It is sign that, even if festivals are not fast to balance their line-ups, women are producing the most captivating and impressive music. The recognition from award ceremonies like the GRAMMYs does show that the talent is very much out there! From modern legends to some incredible rising acts, few festivals have any excuse to ignore what is right in front of them! I am putting together a few playlists at the moment, as award ceremonies and festivals are announcing their shortlists/acts. It is a nice way to end the year. Getting some tantalising details and teasers before next year’s award shows and festivals! There has been a lot of reaction around the GRAMMY Awards and those who have been included – and some pointing out there are notable omissions (many ask why PinkPantheress was not nominated, in spite of the fact she is a terrific breakthrough artist). From Victoria Monét to Coco Jones, there is a bounty of queens rubbing shoulders with one another. Not to take away from other genders. It is especially great to see so many great women getting included and highlighted! Come February when 2024’s GRAMMY Awards takes place, we hope that as many queens as possible…

WALK away with prizes.

FEATURE: Flat Pop: Is the Incredible Genre Dominated By Big Names and Lacking Fizz?

FEATURE:

 

 

Flat Pop

PHOTO CREDIT: olia danilevich/Pexels

Is the Incredible Genre Dominated By Big Names and Lacking Fizz?

_________

ONE of the dangers of having…

 IN THIS PHOTO: Taylor Swift

nostalgia shows and themed radio shows/playlists that celebrate the best Pop of the 1990s and 1980s is realising that the landscape has changed. I don’t think that is a bad thing. It is much broader than it has been in years past. K-Pop, Pop sounds from Latin America and nations away from the U.K. and U.S. are fusing together with a bulk of different and diverse artists from major territories. It is not only uplifting or chorus-heavy songs. The nature of Pop music has changed in terms of its lyrics and sonics. Whilst there may be fewer artists producing the same sort of instantly memorable, hook-y songs that lodged in our head back then now, there is more depth and the personal coming to the fore. I mention this, as there is a recent article that argues Pop is in a bad state and has lost its fizz. That a few mainstream artists dominate. Apart from that, there is a lack of future legends coming through. Maybe a lack of current legends making music right now (there are some anticipated albums and possibilities, though nothing solid as yet). I shall come to that. From The Rolling Stones’ Keith Richards saying Pop has always been awful to this 2023 feature showing how tastes in Pop have changed with the culture, it is a tough debate. I prefer the Pop music of the 1990s and early-2000s, though I think there are so many strong artists around today. Maybe there is some homogenisation and a wave of artists who are roughly on the same wavelength.

Stereogum are sure to present their thoughts regarding the state of Pop in 2023 very soon. They made some interesting observations last year when looking at 2022’s Pop. If some say that Pop has evolved and diversified in very good ways, others might say it is stuck in a rut and reliant on nostalgia and massive artists:

“Just as 2021 cemented a new nostalgia cycle for millennial and Gen Z pop artists, the proliferation of streaming and global access has also unleashed the crossover success of Afrobeats. About five years ago, Nigerian artists like Wizkid, Burna Boy, and Davido were household names in their home country, with US and Canadian performers like Drake and Chris Brown mining their influence to write their own tropical pop anthems like “One Dance.” Today, however, Burna Boy has won a Grammy for his 2020 album Twice As Tall (in the Global Music category, alas), and WizKid and Tems’ “Essence” is the first Nigerian song in history to crack the top 10 of the Billboard Hot 100. Again, Nigerian pop is nothing new, but as far as crossover recognition goes, it’ll be fascinating to see if those artists can replicate that level of success as 2022 plays out.

Indeed, the continued mainstream success of Latin pop and K-pop could serve as a prime example of how global music trends are not so much industry flings as they are long-term relationships. In 2021, though Latin pop appeared less prevalent on the Hot 100, save for the ever-present Bad Bunny, this past year demonstrated a major wave in rising Colombian and Colombian-American pop stars, like Camilo, Morat, Manuel Medrano, Las Villa, Henao, and Morelli. Meanwhile, pairing American- or Canadian-born pop stars with Spanish-language singers used to be more of a novelty (say, *NSYNC singing “Music Of My Heart” with Gloria Estefan); now it’s standard practice, as English-speaking pop stars regularly collaborate with Spanish-speaking singers from a vast array of backgrounds. As CNN has noted, we are (still) living in the reverse-crossover era. Latin pop in general may not have had as big of a boom year as it did across the last five years, but you won’t find anyone accusing it of irrelevance as they were so quick to do after the ’00s Latin pop explosion.

Then there’s the enormity of K-pop kings turned chart powerhouse BTS. Just a few years ago, the seven-piece might have looked like a gimmick to historically xenophobic US majors, but BTS have had the last laugh many, MANY times over. Today, songs like “Dynamite” soundtrack car commercials and get covered on Emily In Paris. Their stans have the ability to send a song to #1 at will. Artists like Coldplay barnacle themselves to BTS for cheap chart wins (“My Universe”) — a clear reach for relevancy, not terribly unlike Paul McCartney teaming with Kanye and Rihanna seven years back.

Speaking of collabs, the ubiquitous Abel Tesfaye ended 2021 with a bumper crop of those, with everyone from Swedish House Mafia to Rosalía to FKA Twigs joining forces with the “Blinding Lights” singer. Even Grimes has teased a collaboration with the Weeknd, who didn’t even release an album in 2021 but dominated the conversation nonetheless: calling out the Recording Academy for corruption when his chart-conquering 2020 album After Hours got snubbed at the Grammys; pulling off an elaborate, pop-noir Super Bowl halftime show, pandemic be damned; and watching “Blinding Lights” become the biggest Hot 100 hit of all time. With his currently-in-production HBO drama The Idol set to debut in the coming year and new album Dawn FM dropping this week, the Weeknd’s pop hegemony is surely not going anywhere.

The only pop star who arguably had a bigger year than the Weeknd was Adele, with her utterly absorbing fourth album 30. In a sense that I can only describe as Dolly Parton-esque, Adele has a way of unifying generations; older fans snatch up physical records and send album sales soaring while enjoying Adele’s lived-in take on midcentury jazz and soul, and younger fans no doubt connect to her blood-and-guts confessional lyrics. As a figure in the pop music industry, Adele stands alone, unbound by genre trends and equally welcome on CBS as she would be on, oh, I don’t know, Twitch.

Comparatively gargantuan is Taylor Swift: In re-recording her older albums, Swift took an (mostly) unprecedented career gamble. Re-recording older work is not new, exactly — the Everly Brothers, Frank Sinatra, Def Leppard, King Crimson, and Kraftwerk have all done it for various reasons. But Swift opted to re-record multiple eras of her career, each of which have their own look, feel, and coming-of-age story. Swift — in a wildly meta fashion — actually tapped into her own nostalgia cycle in asking fans to relive her Fearless and Red eras this past year. In addition to making their own TikTok memes around Swift and Phoebe Bridgers’ “Nothing New,” fans got busy retelling decade-old Swiftian stories from the year Red came first out (2012), even at one point causing “Jake Gyllenhaal” to trend. If that’s not owning the narrative, I have no idea what is.

And now we come to my favorite part of the pop music discussion: discovery. This shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone, but TikTok remains a towering influence on the industry at large, to the extent that older artists have slowly but surely made their way onto the platform for a chance at having one of their hits be rediscovered, or, better yet, go viral.

There’s no question that the platform’s stronghold on pop music has only tightened: As TikTok itself has pointed out, “Over 175 songs that trended on TikTok in 2021 charted on the Billboard Hot 100, twice as many as last year.” The (new) songs that saw viral success on TikTok do eventually trickle down to Spotify and radio, so much so that this past summer, SiriusXM launched TikTok Radio.

This past year should also prove that a TikTok hit can launch a performer to bona fide pop star status (PinkPantheress, Doja Cat, Loren Grey), but I would argue that it’s up to the star themselves to keep the interest alive. Nowhere is this clearer than in the case of Lil Nas X, one of the earliest examples of TikTok virality translating to chart success with 2019’s “Old Town Road.” You’d be forgiven for assuming “Old Town Road” would mark the beginning and the end of Lil Nas X’s journey, but instead the rapper has enjoyed one of the most successful and groundbreaking careers in pop. The openly gay rapper makes every song, video, and performance a celebration of Black, gay love and, in his extremely online way, trolls the trolls by pretending to “give birth” to his debut album, Montero. He does not do this to be a martyr or a progressive symbol; he is only living his truth”.

I think that 2023 has been a year dominated by artists like Taylor Swift. I shall not talk about her too much in this feature, though her Eras Tour and record-breaking success has taken headlines. I guess we have to decide what we define as ‘Pop’. Is it simply a style of music and particular sound or is it what we define as anything that is ‘popular music’?! Some may say Taylor Swift straddles multiple genres. However, when it comes to 2023’s Pop, her name is very much at the top. She has dominated. Other artists like Billie Eilish have had a big say and share. DAZED shared a feature recently that looked at a monopoly from artists like Billie Eilish, Taylor Swift and Dua Lipa. Things have changed again since 2022, leading me to believe that any flatness will go and we will see Pop change once more in 2024 – and it may be more balanced in terms of mainstream artists and newcomers on an equal level. It does seem that 2023’s Pop is imbalanced and owned by the very biggest artists:

“Swift’s dominance is unparalleled. She is currently the most listened-to artist on the planet, breaking not only box office records following the release of her concert film, Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour, but chart records, too. Following the release of her latest album, 1989 (Taylor’s Version), Swift became the first artist in history to secure six number one albums that have sold over one million copies in their first week. At the time of writing, she holds eight of the 10 spots on the Billboard Hot 100 (she actually replaced herself at number one after her song “Cruel Summer”, originally released in 2019, topped the charts), marking only the second time that no male artist has appeared in the top 10 (the only prior time it happened was following the release of Swift’s album Midnights in 2022). As Bloomberg Businessweek prophesied all the way back in 2014: “Taylor Swift is the music industry.”

Undoubtedly, much of her current ubiquity stems from her re-recording project. After Swift was allegedly denied the chance to buy the masters for her first six albums (they were sold by her former label, Big Machine Records, to Scooter Braun for $330 Million; Braun later sold them to investment firm Shamrock Holdings for $405 million), Swift announced her intention to re-record her old albums in order to create new masters that she owns fully (she already held the publishing rights). So began a long (and lucrative) endeavour. Each new iteration of Swift’s past recordings would be tagged “(Taylor’s Version)”. Not only that, they would include songs “from the vault”: unreleased tracks that were discarded during the original recording process. They would be released with fanfare, multiple vinyl variants, and merch. There would be ‘The Eras Tour’, a three-hour spectacle that would celebrate Swift’s catalogue. As it stands, only 2017’s Reputation and Swift’s 2006 self-titled debut are left to receive the “Taylor’s Version” treatment.

Throughout all this, Swift has continued to share new music, too. In 2020, just before the first re-recording was released, she dropped two albums, the Grammy-winning Folklore and its sister album Evermore. In 2022, she released Midnights; it sold 1.05 million copies in the US in its first week. We might all have the same 24 hours in the day as Beyoncé, but Taylor Swift must have the ability to bend time as she sees fit.

As a Swift fan myself, I admit I have welcomed the success of one of my faves and luxuriated in the deluge of new material; as Swift herself would say, “I’m the problem; it’s me.” Still, before I am a Swiftie, I am a pop music devotee. As such, it’s difficult not to see Swift’s omnipresence, at least in part, as a symptom of a stagnating pop music ecosystem.

It was not so long ago when pop was filled with healthy competition. A decade ago, Katy Perry, Lady Gaga, Rihanna, Miley Cyrus, Lorde, Britney Spears, Beyoncé and Taylor Swift were all operating concurrently. It was an era of titans, many of whom were willing to take bold creative swings in order to secure their space in the pantheon of pop: Gaga threw everything at the wall with Artpop, vomiting paint during promotional performances, while Beyoncé changed the game with that digital drop, reinventing visual storytelling in music and ripping up the rule book of release schedules.

It's not outlandish to suggest that such innovation (and absurdity) flourished because pop was healthy with competition. Not every aspect landed (see: the short-lived ARTPOP app and Miley Cyrus twerking with Robin Thicke), but there was an element of risk-taking that felt genuinely thrilling. It was a great time to be a pop fan.

But it can feel, at times, that these artists are waiting on the bleachers. However, the major players aren’t on the pitch, either. Rihanna remains MIA. Lady Gaga prevented the pandemic from becoming a total borefest with Chromatica, but returning to pop appeared to be more of a chore compared to selling cosmetics and starring in the sequel to Joker. Ariana Grande is busy filming Wicked. Nicki Minaj has a cousin in Trinidad whose friend’s testicles allegedly became swollen after having the COVID-19 vaccine. And Miley Cyrus gave us “Flowers” but failed to truly follow through. Only Beyoncé has shown up for us (albeit with no visuals).

Instead, only a select few tread pop’s playing field, which has become overgrown with weeds. And as they continue to dominate, the ground becomes littered with the detritus of viral TikTok sounds, tired collaborations reliant on interpolations of hooks from better songs, and Ed Sheeran. Every so often artists like SZA, Olivia Rodrigo or Lil Nas X might bulldoze through, sowing disruption in their wake, but they are the outliers now, their ascension to pop’s Mt. Olympus a rarity”.

If you look at some of the best Pop albums of this year, there is a mixture of major artists and smaller ones creating wonderful music. I do agree with some of what DAZED say. There is a bit of a transition where we have a lot of same-sounding artists together with dominance from mainstream greats. A lot of the major artists can tour far and wide, whereas many Pop artists cannot have that same exposure and opportunity. There was the pandemic and the aftermath of that. I feel we are catching up in a lot of ways. Artists who were recording during that time unable to strike and release the kind of music that offers realistic and authentic excitement and colour. Now we are starting to come out of this and move on, I do wonder whether that will lead to a wave of new artists adding new dynamics and brightness to the landscape. More and more newer artists are being personal and open. More and more try to connect with their listeners by being vulnerable and deep. Also, consider the news and state of the world. It is a grim place indeed. It is getting harder and harder for artists to find optimism. Even if most aren’t addressing the state of the world and being as proactive in that sense, there is also a natural stagnation of the biggest and boldest Pop anthems from new artists. The likes of Dua Lipa and Olivia Rodrigo are exceptions - yet I also think the Pop landscape is so vast that it is impossible to define a particular trend or sound.

Things will change and move as Pop always does. This is a time of flux against massive international conflict and darkness. I think other genres are favoured this year. Tastes are slightly changing. I do feel there are a lot of TikTok artists who actually are injecting a lot of life into Pop. The issue is streaming sites are still putting chart acts and popular Pop artists in playlists and not including enough newer acts. The charts are defined and guided by streaming figures, so we get this one-dimensional view. I don’t think that enough oxygen is given to the full spectrum of the genre. It is a slightly odd moment where we have seen such hegemony from a few names. Let’s hope that next year – when huge tours from Taylor Swift and the like end – opens up a more equal and balanced field. I have not given up on Pop at all. More playlists and articles need to be dedicated to newer acts that are coming through and making truly terrific music. I do agree that we are lacking a degree of bangers and classic choruses. Maybe Pop has become a little more downbeat or homogenised. Against the blackness around us, Pop artists might be finding it hard to come up with the goods – or they may find it hard or inappropriate to produce escapism. There is still a lot of nostalgia in modern Pop. Artists nodding to the 1990s and 1980s for inspiration. In spite of this, sites like DAZED are discussing a crisis, however temporary, throughout Pop music. I feel things will improve in 2024. There are undoubtably scores of amazing artists – many of whom I have spotlighted this year – that are coming through, building on early promise and, like all artists, adapting after lockdown and pandemic years. I am confident that 2024’s Pop will arrive…

WITH more fizz and flavour.

FEATURE: The Digital Mixtape: TGE 2024’s FIRST FIFTY Live Launch Playlist

FEATURE:

 

 

The Digital Mixtape

TGE 2024’s FIRST FIFTY Live Launch Playlist

_________

BETWEEN 15th and 18th May…

IN THIS PHOTO: Eaves Wilder

The Great Escape takes place in Brighton. The full line-up will be announced soon enough. Happily, the first fifty acts will be announced next week (on Wednesday 15th). It is a chance to follow some of the brilliant rising acts who will play a hugely important festival next year:

“The 2024 festival season starts here!! The Great Escape’s FIRST FIFTY live launch is back to showcase some of the most exciting new artists around. The acts announced will give a first glimpse of the ground breaking talent lined up to play TGE 2024 next May.

This year’s First Fifty live launch will consist of an evening of live showcases in and around East London on Wednesday November 15th, celebrating the announcement of the first acts playing at next year’s festival”.

One of the great things – among many others – about playing at The Great Escape (or TGE) is that these are artists predominantly who are coming through and will be playing big stages very soon. You get to see an array of hugely promising musicians on the cusp of breaking to the next level. A rich and varied bill means that you have this balance and diversity – which many other festivals lack. To celebrate the forthcoming announcement of their First Fifty and the upcoming showcase, where tickets are still available, I am finishing with a playlist featuring the acts who are performing live on Wednesday. I will do another TGE feature when the full line-up has been announced. I just wanted to direct people’s attention to the upcoming first taste of the fifty who will be announced – and I may well do a playlist of those fifty too. These are the artists who are playing in and around East London on Wednesday in anticipation of those who will rock The Great Escape…

IN May.

FEATURE: Spotlight: ratbag

FEATURE:

 

 

Spotlight

PHOTO CREDIT: Frances Carter

ratbag

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I tend not to feature artists…

 PHOTO CREDIT: Frances Carter

who are not available on Twitter/X but, in the case of ratbag, I am going to make another exception! Even if that moniker is shared by other artists – making it even more confusing and hard to navigate when it comes to finding them! -, luckily the music makes up for that. Even if I am not a fan of the name, I do really love and appreciate the music. Definitely an artist who is going to go far. To be fair, that artist name does have significance for Aucklander Sophie Brown. The New Zealand artist can identify with that term, as it is given to someone who is a bit of a troublemaker. Whether spelled with a capital R or not – I have seen it both ways which, again, adds a bit to the frustration -, you are won over and compelled by he aesthetic, music and ambitions. I am going to work my way up to a new NME interview – ratbag’s most immersive and detailed interview so far. I will also drop in music videos where we get to see and hear the amazing artist in her element. First, earlier this year, DIY introduced us to an incredible talent:

“Hello and welcome to DIY’s introducing feature, Get To Know… which aims to get you a little bit closer to the buzziest acts that have been catching our eye as of late, and working out what makes them tick.

Today, we’re delving into the immersive world of ratbag, whose first two singles ‘rats in my walls’ and ‘exit girl’ have established her as a singular artist that merges shoegaze and art-pop-influenced sonics with Gorilllaz-esque, grotesque cartoon visuals. We caught up with ratbag to discover more about her music and monstrous bandmates….

Describe your music to us in the form of a Tinder bio.

What is tinder?

What's the story behind your first instrument?

I got my first guitar for Christmas when I was 7 years old, called it ‘thorn’ and felt super badass. I also put a mushroom sticker on one of the tuning pegs and named it - I can’t remember the name, but it was probably super badass too.

Your work encompasses much more than music, spanning sculpture, videography, claymation and drawings too. How do different mediums help construct the visual world you're creating?

My world has always been lingering around, sitting on a couch at the back of my head. I want you to join me in my world, to be able to see it, feel it, hear it, and that requires me to be unfettered by mediums. Using a mixture of mediums allows me to express the chaotic nature as accurately as possible.

Your debut single 'rats in my walls' was accompanied by a Where The Wild Things Are-esque visualiser. Where else do you draw inspiration from?

I tend to find comfort in horror. Jack Stauber, Don’t Hug Me I’m Scared, Adventure Time, and any A24 horror film always give me a dose of inspiration and I re-watch them often. I also have a dream journal that I use to keep track of my nightmares, which I often revisit.

The video for your latest track 'exit girl' features your bandmates. Can you introduce us, and talk us through the concept behind them?

There are 4 band members, deemo (bassist), fritz (keyboardist), slug (guitarist) and eugene (drummer). I pulled them out of my world and brought them here, because I needed a band.

deemo is reserved and enjoys his alone time. fritz is frantic, he’s always trying to get somewhere. slug is just disgusting. and eugene seems scary and is scary. They’re all scary actually, and hungry all the time. I’m trying my best to wean them off human meat but it’s proving to be a very difficult situation, so i’m keeping them locked inside my house in the meantime. I would rather not be responsible for any murders at this point in my life.

Tell us the best advice you've ever been given as a musician...

To listen”.

There are not many recent interviews online with ratbag. That is going to change as her music gets shared and known more widely. I think that she is someone who is going to be in huge demand next year. The Line of Best Fit spent some time in September focusing on her amazing song, exit girl:

“Surrealism bleeds out of otherworldly places, and it is one of the most compelling concepts for fans of mind-boggling stories of fiction to seek out and admire. Whether it be something of music, sculpture, animation, or story, it’s rare for an artist to fully immerse themselves in each of these encompassing realms at once, but then again, ratbag is not one for the ordinary. Following the release of her latest single and music video for "exit girl", that idea is especially apparent.

Simmering in the worlds of punk and shoegaze, ratbag’s latest release comes only recently after her introduction as a musician. Her debut single "rats in my walls" came out in July, and already the artist is displaying a confidence that is especially apparent through the world of horror shown in the music video that accompanies her new release.

The music video for "exit girl" is the world’s first taste of ratbag’s unique visual style and is also the first look into the lore behind the artist. For starters, the music video introduces ratbag’s team of fictional bandmates, each representing a different aspect of her personality. The band are made up of animated monsters going by the names Deemo, Eugene, Slug and Fritz, reminiscent of other ambitious groups like Gorillaz or even Dethklok.

Matching the horror-inspired elements of this music video is, of course, the song. Carefully calculated in its many independent rhythms, beats pulse in time throughout "exit girl". The song is something of a scrappy little robot that blisters with life as it thrashes between the verses and choruses. Buzzing with personality and a lively fortitude, the track will lure in lovers of alternative and punk sounds especially. Beyond sound, it’s an addictive narrative, too. ratbag explains, “This claustrophobic circus of clowns is getting old. Sometimes, we just want out.” Featuring scratchy electric guitar and catchy piano chords, it’s a song that’s easy to love in its complexity.

Taking inspiration from bands like Pixies to Broken Social Scene, to other modern acts like Billie Eilish, ratbag’s identity as an artist is very much in flux. Looking beyond her latest two releases, ratbag promises there’s much more to come from here. The lore of ratbag will slowly be unravelled with each new release, but for now, the only other thing we really know about her is that she isn’t from here, but she thinks you might like her chaos.

Outside of music, ratbag boasts a large following on TikTok where she shares her voracious love of all things of the creative world: sculptures, photography, and fashion abound. Now, she’s slowly introducing the world to her music as well. With over six million likes on the platform for her previous single, the shift is clearly already paying off for the visionary”.

@worldofratbag Replying to @☆ ratbag ☆ ♬ Elevator Music - Lesfm

I am going to finish with NME’s interview. The most in-depth and visually arresting one of ratbag’s career to date, we get to learn more about an artist who is becoming well known beyond her native New Zealand. This is someone who is going to grow from strength to strength next year:

“If you’re a troublemaker and you live in the Southern Hemisphere, you may have been called a “ratbag”. Aucklander Sophie Brown, who now releases music as ‘Ratbag’, certainly had no shortage of the endearing insult. “In New Zealand, it’s a mischievous kid who doesn’t follow the rules, who doesn’t behave,” she explains. “I used to draw on walls, I was that kid unfortunately. I know how to get on people’s nerves.”

Brown has graduated from drawing on walls to drawing on paper, where she’s spent the last two years creating a multimedia fictional band that’s like Gorillaz-meets-Neil Gaiman. There’s Deemo, the towering, lanky red devil who sports a bucket hat, Fritz, a puke-green crocodile-clown hybrid, Slug, who wears a bird mask with a spiky mohawk, and Eugene, a portly beast with a purple octopus for a head. As Ratbag, Brown acts as the frontwoman, singing songs about her everyday life and feelings with the help (and occasional hindrance) of her band.

How did you come up with the idea for the world of Ratbag?

“Two years ago, I would live in bed at night and get bored thinking about my own life when I fell asleep. So I decided to create a world, and I’ve been adding to it almost every night. I’d lie there thinking about new characters, places. I’m writing in my journal or my phone and then going to sleep. The visual side has always been there. All my artwork as a kid was character designs and world building. Everything fell into place when I started making music and it became one world. ”

@worldofratbag

cooper said u should stream my song.

♬ dead end kids - ratbag

How does the band fit into your life beyond music?

“If I were to take myself and split myself into a pie graph, each slice would be one band member. If you gave me an emotion, I’d be able to go – that’s that band member. When I’m feeling overwhelmed, I’ll ask myself, ‘Who’s present now?’

“If I’m tired, Deemo’s gonna be there. If I’m feeling on edge, it’s Fritz. Sometimes they’re all there, sometimes one or two. If I wanna distract myself from something going on around me, I’ll ask myself, ‘What are they doing? Is Deemo lying down, playing bass?’ It’s helpful because it’s recognising how I’m feeling and letting my imagination have a moment. That’s what I love to do.”

So what does each band member represent?

“Deemo [the bassist] represents the wanting-to-be-alone, sad part of me. Fritz is the keyboardist, he represents when I’m feeling frantic. He also represents happiness – he’s present when I’m not sober, let’s just say that. Eugene is the drummer. He represents my anger and frustration, with myself or what’s going on around me. And Slug [the guitarist] represents disgust. When I feel gross, like I haven’t showered, or mental disgust, he’ll be there.”

What’s your ultimate dream with Ratbag in the future?

“My dream is to have a real life Ratbag village that you can walk through. The food is from the world of Ratbag, all the people like behind stalls are in full monster costumes. You can meet the band, you can meet the you can meet me, there’s like a big concert at the end of the day where I play all the songs. Everything is just Ratbag, you’re essentially stepping into my world – you’re not on planet Earth anymore. That would be insane to me”.

If you have not followed ratbag and you are new to her music, then do make sure that you get involved and rectify that. There will be a lot more releases from this sensational artist next year. If her ratbag moniker suggests an insult or something belittling, the music showcases this very strong, original and confident artist who is primed…

FOR big things.

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Follow ratbag

 PHOTO CREDIT: Frances Carter

Instagram:

https://www.instagram.com/worldofratbag/

TikTok:

https://www.tiktok.com/@worldofratbag

YouTube:

https://www.youtube.com/@worldofratbag

Spotify:

https://open.spotify.com/artist/6v6OE9MQreCmwuAqF0NfzQ?si=buHIKnmwSO-1BBzT0D5VAA

FEATURE: The Digital Mixtape: The 2023 Rolling Stone UK Awards: The Playlist

FEATURE:

 

 

The Digital Mixtape

IMAGE CREDITS: Rolling Stone UK

The 2023 Rolling Stone UK Awards: The Playlist

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EVEN though we are…

 PHOTO CREDIT: Vlada Karpovich/Pexels

almost at the end of this year, there is plenty going on when it comes to festivals and award ceremonies. As I am writing this (10th November), the GRAMMY nominees have not yet been announced. That is about to happen. I will do a playlist featuring many of the artists nominated. Some festivals are announcing their line-ups for 2024. I am interested in a new award ceremony that caught my eye. Rolling Stone UK are hosting their first-ever award ceremony this year. It is happening on 23rd November. Ahead of it, I wanted to compile a playlist featuring many of the artists already announced as award-nominated. Here are more details about an exciting event.

“Two years after the launch of the UK edition of Rolling Stone, we’re delighted to announce the first ever Rolling Stone UK Awards, in collaboration with Rémy Martin, live at London’s Camden Roundhouse on Thursday 23rd November 2023.

The night will include live music performances (including a headliner) and the induction of 13 very special award winners into the Rolling Stone UK Hall of Fame, all overseen by a host befitting of the occasion.

Several hundred guests will see music’s top talent pick up their awards, but rest assured that Rolling Stone UK’s presence in print and digital forms and across social will mean that those not in the room aren’t at risk of missing out either.

Darren Styles OBE, publisher of Rolling Stone UK, said: “It’s time. In fact, it’s well past time. The UK waited more than 50 years to become part of the Rolling Stone global family, to be one of 18 countries around the world to have a dedicated edition promoting the output of one of the world’s greatest creative hubs. UK music, film and television is world class and indeed world- leading and – now – has a platform from which to celebrate the artists and the art we make here and share with the world.”

 He added: “I’m delighted, too, in launching the Rolling Stone UK Awards, to be able to team up with Rémy Martin, part of the Rémy Cointreau house of brands. We have so many shared values – a commitment to authenticity, heritage and quality among them – that it’s hard to imagine a better way to toast our award winners than with the world’s finest cognac.”

Rémy Cointreau UK Managing Director Augustin Depardon said: “Teaming up for excellence is part of our DNA, so it’s incredibly exciting for Rémy Martin to be partnering with Rolling Stone magazine’s inaugural awards in the UK this year. The two iconic brands will unite in their shared passion for music at the centre of celebrations, to honour their heritage, pass on savoir-faire and bring people together to create a night like no other.”

Nominations for the awards will begin to emerge the week commencing 25th September, with the winners unveiled on the evening of 23rd November, celebrated in a special Awards edition of Rolling Stone UK magazine published the following morning”.

To celebrate the 2023 Rolling Stone UK Awards, below is a playlist featuring many of the magnificent artists who have been listed and named. It is a welcomed name on the award circuit. It will be exciting to see who walks away with the prizes! If you need a guide to the who’s who nominees, then the playlist below combines…

THEIR magnificent work.

FEATURE: Ceasefire: The Difficult Situation of Artists Taking a Stance Against the Genocide in Palestine

FEATURE:

 

 

Ceasefire

IN THIS PHOTO: Sleater-Kinney/PHOTO CREDIT: Chris Hornbecker

The Difficult Situation of Artists Taking a Stance Against the Genocide in Palestine

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IT is easy…

 PHOTO CREDIT: Muaaz/Pexels

for most of to take a stance on social media when it comes to the atrocities happening in Gaza. The Palestinian people being displaced and erased. Even though Israel has pledged a daily four-hour pause in the fighting, it is not enough. The casualties and scale of the destruction is catastrophic! We can all have our say. Even though some say that Israel is protecting itself and is in the right, most (reasonable) people defend Palestine and their hearts are with the people there - and the innocent Israeli civilians who are also affected. It is good that we can mobilise our voices and call for ceasefire. Weather that happens soon, I am not sure. I do think that there needs to be more commitment from our Government when it comes to calling for that. At the moment, there is nothing coming from them. Not wanting to take a political stance or risk offending Israel, it is a cowardly and cruel position to take. Whilst there is this decimation and genocide happening, we are seen to be passive and uncaring! The same cannot be said for those online. Many celebrities and high-profile people have spoken out. Supporting Palestine and highlighted the evil that is being perpetrated. For artists, it is not quite as easy as speaking out and having a say. I think that most artists are with Palestine and want a ceasefire – though there are going to be those who are on the wrong side and will stir controversy. I recently saw a post by The Anchoress about what is unfolding.

 PHOTO CREDIT: Andrea Piacquadio/Pexels

Feeling sick to her stomach, she wondered what to do. That fear and disgust. It is difficult if you have a following online and make comments. I think there is a lot to lose for artists. I guess, when you are passionate, you weigh up what you can afford to lose. In terms of the music community, there are those who are speaking up. An open letter has just been signed by artists who are calling for a ceasefire. That is inspiring! I can understand, for many, it is hard to articulate what they feel and what needs to be done. Feeling powerless and bereft, it is a hard situation where they are appalled by what is happening and yet there is that fear that they may divide people or be attacked. It takes me to Sleater-Kinney. When they recently played in London, as NME reported, they called out what is happening. Took a position and got angry:

“Sleater-Kinney’s Carrie Brownstein has called for “Palestinian liberation” during a live show in London.

The moment came as the American rock band performed during a live show at The Dome in London last night (November 8) – in what was their smallest UK show in over two decades.

As well as bringing out renditions of fan favourites such as ‘Modern Girl’ and ‘Dig Me Out’, the band also used the show in the capital to share their desire for a ceasefire in the Israel/Gaza conflict.

Speaking directly to the audience mid-way through the show, Carrie Brownstein highlighted the ongoing developments across the Middle East, stating (via Clash): “We want a ceasefire and we want Palestinian liberation and we want peace.”

She continued, urging those in the room to make an active push for “what is right”, stating: “There’s not much we can say right now except that there’s a lot going on, and this is the only chance we have… we’re so fucking lucky to be here, to be alive, so please fight with all your heart for what is right”.

IN THIS PHOTO: Madonna on stage during her current Celebration Tour

If there is this daily pause in the violence, that does not mean things are heading towards a ceasefire. There is still a monumental amount of destruction being wrought on a daily basis! I have seen a load of artists attack Israel and call for peace. It is a difficult situation when it comes to larger artists. The very biggest who have that commercial success and a lot to lose. Some have criticised artists like Taylor Swift for not speaking up. She is not a political artist though, with such a following, is she going to split people and face a backlash. She will support the Palestinian people and decry what is happening…though she has millions of fans and might feel she cannot take a stance. Madonna voiced her opinions about the Israel-Palestine conflict when she played in London recently. Using her voice and platform to send a clear message out, there are many who are speaking up and out. Dua Lipa also recently had made a statement:

“English-Albanian popstar of Muslim descent, Dua Lipa turned to her Instagram handle, to express solidarity with the people of Gaza amid the ongoing war and extend her condolences towards the affectees, calling for a ceasefire in the region.

Sharing a PCRF (Palestine Children’s Relief Fund) fundraiser for the ‘Urgent relief for Gaza’s children’, the ‘Levitating’ singer wrote, “With each passing day, my heart aches for the people of Israel and Palestine. Grief for the lives lost in the horrifying attacks in Israel. Grief as I witness the unprecedented suffering in Gaza, where 2.2 million souls, half of them children, endure unimaginable hardships.”

She continued, “For now, I desperately hope for a ceasefire in Gaza and urge governments to halt the unfolding crisis. Our hope lies in finding the empathy to recognize this dire humanitarian situation.”

Lipa concluded the message with, “Sending love to Palestinian and Jewish communities worldwide, who bear this burden more heavily than most”.

 IN THIS PHOTO: Dua Lipa

There does seem to be a split between artists who have addressed what is happening to Palestinians, and those who feel they have to be neutral or not make a stand. That does not suggest a lack of empathy. Many cannot put into words how they feel. Others wonder what the repercussions are of saying anything about a situation that divides people. We want a ceasefire, yet there are people out there who support Israel and feel that they are in the right. I do wonder, going forward, how artists en masse will react. Maybe a charity movement or something where they combine and send this powerful message. I am not suggesting something like Live Aid - though there is enough passion and anger out there so that artists can come together and do something. There are those who have remained quiet or do not want to voice their opinions. I don’t think it is on the shoulders of them to do something. They are entitled to handle and process events as they see fit. As I say, whereas many have said something and attacked what is happening to both Palestinian and Israeli civilians, I do think that there are some major artists who have not voiced their concerns. We will see the conflict coming into music more. I have written about whether artists are activated enough when it comes to addressing war, climate change and other big themes in music. There definitely needs to be music made where ceasefire is called for. Where those in the wrong are highlighted and condemned. It is hard for the biggest artist to potentially risk quite a lot speaking. Even so, given we are talking about humanity and destruction of innocent people, this less political. It is about discussing the genocide that is claiming thousands. If an artist has a stance and opinion, it is important that they voice that – even if it means losing some fans or the label penalising them or trying to ‘defend’ their position. At such a scary and harrowing time, music can change things and heal. At the moment, as many artists as possible need to get involved and stand with Palestine. Let’s hope that this happens more and more…

 PHOTO CREDIT: Getty Images

AS the atrocities continue.