FEATURE: Now He’s Sitting in His Hole: Kate Bush’s Army Dreamers at Forty-Five

FEATURE:

 

 

Now He’s Sitting in His Hole

IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush on the set of the Army Dreamers music video in 1980

Kate Bush’s Army Dreamers at Forty-Five

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AHEAD of the…

forty-fifth anniversary of Never for Ever on 8th September, there are a few features I want to put out. Kate Bush’s third studio album is among her best yet remains underrated. On 22nd September, the album’s third and final single turns forty-five. Army Dreamers reached sixteen in the U.K. In 2024, Army Dreamers gained new attention through TikTok increasing its popularity among younger generations. The surge in interest saw a 1,300% increase in streams. That song being used to score so many short videos. I have written about Army Dreamers a lot, so I will try not to repeat too much of what has come before. However, as the song is almost forty-five, I do want to start off with some valuable interview archive. Kate Bush talking about this song. At this point in her career, many were associating her with a particular imagine and sound. Nothing seen as political or serious. Breathing, the first single from Never for Ever, was a definite reaction to her. Now in her early-twenties, being influenced more by subjects around warfare and the nuclear threat. Army Dreamers is Bush talking about the insanity and futility of war. Where it takes young lives for no reason:

“It’s the first song I’ve ever written in the studio. It’s not specifically about Ireland, it’s just putting the case of a mother in these circumstances, how incredibly sad it is for her. How she feels she should have been able to prevent it. If she’d bought him a guitar when he asked for one.

Colin Irwin, ‘Paranoia And Passion Of The Kate Inside’. Melody Maker (UK), 10 October 1980

The song is about a mother who lost her son overseas. It doesn’t matter how he died, but he didn’t die in action – it was an accident. I wanted the mother to be a very simple woman who’s obviously got a lot of work to do. She’s full of remorse, but he has to carry on, living in a dream. Most of us live in a dream.

Week-long diary, Flexipop, 1980

No, it’s not personal. It’s just a mother grieving and observing the waste. A boy with no O-levels, say, who might have [??? Line missing!] whatever. But he’s nothing to do, no way to express himself. So he joins the army. He’s trapped. So many die, often in accidents. I’m not slagging off the army, because it’s good for certain people. But there are a lot of people in it who shouldn’t be.

Derek Jewell, ‘How To Write Songs And Influence People’. Sunday Times (UK), 5 October 1980”.

PHOTO CREDIT: John Carder Bush

There are a couple of features that I want to get to that provide more insight and depth. I am moving to Kris Needs's first ZigZag interview from 1980. I am not sure of the exact date, but it must have been after Never for Ever went to number one in the U.K. Right near the end of 1980. It is a good interview and has some useful observations and information. There is a part about Army Dreamers in it. Kate Bush did a lot of promotion in 1980, and each interview provides something different:

“It'd be good if people could see that you're doing stuff that's pretty new, too. You could never mistake Kate Bush for anyone else.

"Oh, great. I'd like to think that, but it's not for me to say. When you first come out, people say you're the new thing. then when you've been around for two or three years you become old hat, and they want to sweep you under the carpet as being MOR, which I don't feel I am from the artistic point of view. It doesn't feel like MOR to me at all, although I wouldn't call it Punk! Sometimes it's not even rock...I don't know, I think it's wrong to put labels on music. Even Punk, that's really just a label for convenience--it covers so many areas. I think sometimes it can actually kill people, being put under labels. I think it's something that shouldn't be encouraged. If people could just accept music as music and people as people, without having to compare them to other things...which is something we instinctively try to do."

The way you're presented in the press could alienate some people, I s'pose.

"Don't you think any form of publicity alienates the person who is not involved in it? I think that's part of the whole process. That's why I feel that the good thing about albums and gigs and even radio is that you are directly communicating with your audience, but with papers and appearances on TV you're not really relating directly."

Does the bad criticism hurt you?

"No, I don't get hurt. I've read a few reviews of the album, an some of them really couldn't stand me, probably much more than the album. In fact, one guy didn't like me so much, he had to write four columns of 'I can't stand Bush!' That's cool. Sometimes I find it funny. I think a bad review is a good omen in some papers."

At least that's a positive reaction.

"Yeah, if they really hate you, it's just as good as really liking you. You're really getting under their skin so much that they've got to speak about it. That's great!"

And the album still came in at number one.

"I can't believe it, still. Every time I tell someone I feel like I'm lying. I couldn't have asked more for such an important step in what I'm doing, because I feel that this album is a new step for me. The other two albums are so far away that they're not true. They really aren't me anymore. I think this is something the public could try and open up about. When you stereotype artists you always expect a certain kind of sound.

"I'd really like to be able to leave myself open to any form of music, so if I wanted to, I could do funk tracks on the next album, I could do classical, I could do bossa novas. I think it's best to stay as open as you can. As a person I'm changing all the time, and the first album is very much like a diary of me at that time--I was into a very high range. The same with the second album, and I feel this is perhaps why this one is like starting again. It's like the first album on a new level. It's much more under control."

You took a long time doing it. [You think that one took a long time!]

"Yeah, it did. It took a lot of work, but it was very beautiful work because it's so involving and it's so like emotions. It's totally unpredictable and you can fall in love with it or you can hate it or if you want to you can ignore it: you know, all the things that you can do with people."

That's one of the main things I like about the music--the emotions running around.

"I think everyone is emotional, and I think a lot of people are afraid of being so. They feel that it's vulnerable. Myself, I feel that it's the key to everything, and that the more you can find out about your emotions the better. Some of the things that come into your head can be a surprise when you're thinking."

The next single is Army Dreamers, which sounds like a wistful little waltz-time ditty on first hearing, though a bit sombre. Kate adopts a lilting Irish accent--all very nice. But listen to the words and she's mourning her dead son, killed in the army. I thought Kate was singing about Northern Ireland, but not necessarily...

"It's not actually directed at Ireland. It's included, but it's much more embracing the whole European thing. That's why it says BFPO in the first chorus, to try and broaden it away from Ireland."

What about the Irish accent?

"The Irish accent was important because the treatment of the song is very traditional, and the Irish would always use their songs to tell stories, it's the traditional way. There's something about an Irish accent that's very vulnerable, very poetic, and so by singing it in an Irish accent it comes across in a different way. But the song was meant to cover areas like Germany, especially with the kids that get killed in manoeuvres, not even in action. It doesn't get brought out much, but it happens a lot. I'm not slagging off the Army, it's just so sad that there are kids who have no O-levels and nothing to do but become soldiers, and it's not really what they want. That's what frightens me”.

I will finish off with my personal thoughts about the song. Why it is so important. First, Dreams of Orgonon published a deep and detailed feature about Army Dreamers. Some interesting analysis and fascinating thoughts. I have selected a few sections. Hopefully providing additional texture. Army Dreamers is one of Kate Bush’s finest songs. One that is so relevant to this day:

“Since we’re used to Bush being asleep to political infrastructure and class, we can at least turn to her complex politics of domesticity. While she doesn’t interrogate the structural causes of political violence, she’s still centering a song around the vulnerable people whose lives are destroyed by it. Never for Ever is populated by mothers and wives. Five of its eleven songs explicitly focus on maternal and uxorial figures, and that’s if we don’t count the broadly familial “All We Ever Look For.” Bush’s wives and mothers tend towards fatigue over their familial roles, experiencing emotions that contradict their outward actions or social operations. Bush’s mothers are an intrinsic good whose absence or loss is a tragedy, and whose losses are a social catastrophe. Key to the mother’s characterization in “Army Dreamers” is absence. She bemoans not merely her lost son, but his lost opportunities and the things she couldn’t provide for him. “What a waste of army dreamers,” muses Bush, in a ritual mourning of military casualties, which treats them as a cessation of dreams.

Most impressive is the way “Army Dreamers” treats the mother as an individual while also stressing her importance to her family. Stripped of her duties to her son, she is left with no more motherhood to perform. This suggests that while war is horrible, the people who are left behind have their own experiences of it. Men get sent off to die, and the women they leave behind are expected to grieve dutifully. Yet they’re prescribed a performative kind of grief — the actual effects of trauma are widely besmirched and ignored by the jingoistic reactionaries who send civilians off to die. Women are usually seen as broken when their soldiers fail to come home — this isn’t quite what Bush does. Is the mother broken? No, of course not. Has she had a vital part of her life snatched from her? Utterly.

There’s a touch of sentimentalism to this, if at least a grounded and humanitarian one. Violent deaths are often devastating because they cut short the lives of unsuspecting civilians who’ve been planning to go live their lives as usual the next day. Bush’s anti-militarism is hardly strident, but “Army Dreamers” has an edge to it even in its understatedness, blaming the services of “B.F.P.O” for overseas tragedies (although interestingly, her son’s death appears to be an accident — there’s little fanfare of death, no suggestion of the glory of battle). The horror of the death is largely its silence — all the things that couldn’t happen, no matter how much saying them would make them so.

The politics of the situation are left understated, as is typical for Bush, and yet with a light inimical rage, as if Bush is finally turning to the British establishment and shouting “look at what you’ve done!” While “Army Dreamers” is far from an indictment of the military-industrial complex (indeed, it has more to do with the British Army’s consumption of Irish civilians than anything else), its highlighting of war as futile is striking. “Give the kid the pick of pips/and give him all your stripes and ribbons/now he’s sitting in his hole/he might as well have buttons and bows” is a line of understated condemnation that spits on military emblems (pips are a British Army insignia) and consolidates trenches and graves. “B. F. P. O.,,” intone Bush’s backing vocalists again and again. In interviews, Bush backpedals from any perceived anti-militarist sentiments in her work (“I’m not slagging off the army…”), but her song tells a different story: nothing comes with B. F. P. O. except carnage.

In the song’s music video, Bush’s final collaboration with director Keef MacMillan (the two strong-willed auteurs could only collaborate together for so long), the visceral glimpses of departed loved ones that plague mourners gets captured in one devastatingly simple moment. Bush, a soldier stationed in a forest and surrounded by men in camo, turns to a tree to see her lost son. She runs to embrace him, and he’s gone before she reaches the tree. There’s a hard cut to Bush’s eyes flashing wide open. There it is: trauma and grief in a glance. Waking up, but still living the same dream.

Recorded in spring of 1980 at Abbey Road. Released with Never for Ever on 7 September 1980; issued as a single on 22 September 1980. Performed for television numerous times, including on programs in Germany and the Netherlands. Personnel: Kate Bush — vocals, production. Stuart Elliott — bodhrán. Brian Bath — acoustic guitar, backing vocals. Paddy Bush — mandolin, backing vocals. Alan Murphy — electric guitar, acoustic bass guitar, backing vocals. Duncan Mackay — Fairlight CMI. Jon Kelly — production, engineering. Photo: BTS picture from music video (cred. John Carder Bush)”.

I have brought in some information and resources that I featured in previous features. One as recently as last year. However, back in June, Kate Bush News reported how Army Dreamers was in with a shot at overtaking Wuthering Heights (from 1978’s The Kick Inside, this was her debut single) on Spotify. As I type this (11th August), Army Dreamers is less than a million streams shy of overtaking Wuthering Heights (update, 16th August: Army Dreamers has now overtaken Wuthering Heights). Its video has thirty millions views on YouTube:

“We’ve certainly been keeping an eye on streaming and digital services since Kate’s global smash hit with Running Up that Hill in 2022. And later this Summer something quite unexpected is likely to take place on the world’s biggest music streaming platform, Spotify. While none of Kate’s songs are now ever likely to overtake Running Up That Hill as her most streamed track, if daily streams continue as they currently are, Army Dreamers will supplant Kate’s signature hit single, Wuthering Heights, on the 15th August as her second most-streamed song on Spotify. We project it to reach in excess of 230 million streams in or around that date.

This milestone is significant for a couple of reasons. Firstly, of all of Kate’s well-known hits, even just a few years ago it would have been expected that only Cloudbusting, This Woman’s Work, Babooshka, The Man With The Child In His Eyes or Hounds of Love would be among the songs that could possibly challenge Wuthering Heights in global popularity, even on streaming services which traditionally skew to a younger demographic. Army Dreamers, while well-loved, never seemed to have the same traction as those huge hit songs.

Secondly, as we reported last year, Army Dreamers has captured the imagination of young people the world over and has become a viral sensation on TikTok and Instagram, with that demographic latching on to the beautiful sentiments in the song as they grapple with at least two dreadful major world conflicts happening on the news in Ukraine and Gaza. Kate is not unknown in the wider world anymore (thank you, Stranger Things) and here she is spelling out the futility of war in perhaps the most effecting way possible, through this achingly timeless song.

The Army Dreamers phenomenon has not, we imagine, been lost on Kate herself. We have reported in March that Kate has helped raise over £500,000 for the charity War Child in just the last year alone, with the release of her animated film Little Shrew, and the money raised from her signed Soundwaves art prints and Boxes of Lost at Sea vinyl presentations. And, if you visit Kate’s official Fish People website landing page today, you will notice that the Army Dreamers music video is presented in all its glory (in a good quality Vimeo stream) for fans old and new to enjoy. We’re also very fond of the “Mrs Mop” performance above that Kate did on Rock Pop in Germany in 1980, along with Paddy Bush, Del Palmer and Andy Bryant as her performing soldier pals”.

There is new and continued relevance when we think of Army Dreamers. Apart from the war that is happening in Ukraine and the destruction and violence from Russia, there is also genocide in Palestine. The young soldiers that are being killed in the Ukraine-Russia conflict means Army Dreamers’ lyrics are as powerful and important now as they were in 1980. It is the murder of children in Palestine that I feel also gives Army Dreamers gravitas. Not young soldiers being killed and their lives being cut short. We can see the victims of genocide. Those being wiped out. By the time this feature is shared – in less than a month -, Army Dreamers would have comfortably overtaken Wuthering Heights on Spotify as Kate Bush’s second-most-popular song. Maybe it is the timeliness of it. How it is relevant to what is happening in the world now. It is a magnificent song that I also hope shines a light on Army Dreamers. The album turns forty-five on 8th September, so I hope that there is a lot more written about it. Still under-discussed and not seen as one of Bush’s best albums. MOJO ranked Kate Bush’s fifty best songs last July. They placed Army Dreamers eleventh (“The third and final single to be lifted from Never For Ever delivered a sucker-punch in a gossamer glove. A haunting waltz, built around double bass, gentle stabs of cello, sampled pistol-cocks and a spectral mandolin figure, its message was an unsettling mix of the motherly and political: that working-class boy soldiers join up, and die, because other more glamorous occupations aren’t open to them. Delivered in Bush’s best wide-eyed whisper, it matches Elvis Costello’s Shipbuilding for its profoundly humanist reading of the everyman’s tug of war and pride”).

When ranking her twenty-nine singles in 2018, The Guardian placed Army Dreamers sixth (“Subtly affecting, promoted with a supremely bizarre performance on German TV – involving a rubber-glove-sporting Bush sweeping the stage while dressed as a cleaner – Army Dreamers demonstrates the influence of folk music on her work. Its anti-war message is straightforward, but its eerie mood gets under your skin and into your bones like cold weather”). I will leave things there. The third single from Never for Ever, Army Dreamers turns forty-five on 22nd September. One of her most important, affecting songs to that point, its lyrics might seem only relevant to 1980 and the violence then. The Iran-Iraq War started in September 1980. In 1979, there was the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan and the ongoing Troubles in Northern Ireland. Kate Bush undoubtably affected by images of young soldiers losing their lives. Some of Army Dreamers’ lyrics strike hard: “But he didn't have the money for a guitar/(What could he do?)/(Should have been a politician)/But he never had a proper education/(What could he do?)/(Should have been a father)/But he never/even made it to his twenties/What a waste/Army dreamers/Oh, what a waste of/Army (army) dreamers (dreamers)”. Forty-five years after it was released, this incredibly potent and moving song has connected with a new generation of artists and fans alike. It has found life on TikTok and it is understandable why many can relate to the song in 2025. Someone who wrote a masterpiece that moved people in 1980 and continues to forty-five years later, it is just shows what a…

REMARKABLE artist Kate Bush is.

FEATURE: The Great American Songbook: Tori Amos

FEATURE:

 

 

The Great American Songbook

PHOTO CREDIT: Chris Carroll/Corbis

Tori Amos

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IN the next part…

of The Great American Songbook, I am keen to share a twenty-song mixtape from Tori Amos. The North Carolina-born artist recently turned sixty-two. She is one of the most singular and distinct artists. An incredible songwriter and voice, Amos has influenced generations of songwriters. Her debut album, Little Earthquakes, was released in 1992. Her seventeenth album, The Music of Tori and the Muses, was released earlier this year. It is the soundtrack to the children's book, Tori and the Muses. Before I get to the mixtape that salutes a tremendous artist whose catalogue is one of the most impressive in all of music, I am getting to some biography that charts the life and career of Tori Amos:

“American singer/songwriter Tori Amos is one of several artists to have a breakthrough in the '90s by combining the stark, lyrical attack of alternative rock with a distinctly '70s musical approach, creating music that fell between the orchestrated meditations of Kate Bush and the stripped-down poetics of Joni Mitchell. In addition to reviving those singer/songwriter traditions of the '70s, she has also reestablished the piano as a rock & roll instrument, commanding the keys with both intimacy and aggression. After a late-'80s critical stumble with her glam rock-inspired project Y Kant Tori Read, she paused to realign, following her instincts as she returned her focus to piano-based compositions. The resulting album -- 1992's landmark classic Little Earthquakes -- set her on a path to a decades-spanning legacy that also established one of the most dedicated fan bases in popular music. Expanding on her debut's deep confessionals and unflinching, provocative perspective, she soon achieved platinum success with chart hits with the seminal Under the Pink (1994) and experimental Boys for Pele (1996). With each successive album, Amos and her piano remained at the core, even as she expanded her scope with forays into electronica on 1998's From the Choirgirl Hotel and 1999's To Venus and Back. Hopping from Atlantic to Epic, her albums began to swell in both length and storytelling, delving into concepts like American identity (2002's Scarlet's Walk and 2007's American Doll Posse) and life and death (2005's The Beekeeper). At the turn of the 2010s, she took a detour from pop with a holiday album (Midwinter Graces) and classical crossovers with Deutsche Grammophon (Night of Hunters and Gold Dust) before returning to her trademark style on 2014's Unrepentant Geraldines and 2017's Native Invader. In 2021, she continued a late-era streak with her 16th album Ocean to Ocean.

he daughter of a Methodist preacher, Myra Ellen Amos was born in North Carolina but raised in Maryland. She began singing and playing piano in the church choir at the age of four, and songwriting followed shortly afterward. Amos proved to be a quick learner, and her instrumental prowess earned her a scholarship to the preparatory school at Baltimore's Peabody Conservatory. While studying at Peabody, she became infatuated with rock & roll, particularly the music of Led Zeppelin. She lost her scholarship at the age of 11 -- quite possibly due to her interest in popular music -- but continued writing songs nevertheless, eventually moving to Los Angeles in her late teens to become a pop singer. Atlantic Records signed her in 1987, and Amos recorded a pop-metal album called Y Kant Tori Read the following year. The record was a failure, attracting no attention from radio or press and selling very few copies; nevertheless, she didn't lose her record contract. By 1990, Amos had adopted a new approach, singing spare, haunting, confessional piano ballads that were arranged like Kate Bush but had the melodies and lyrical approach of Joni Mitchell. Atlantic sponsored a trip to England in 1991, where she played a series of concerts in support of an EP, Me and a Gun. The harrowing "Me and a Gun" was an autobiographical song, telling the tale of Amos' own experience with rape. It gained positive reviews throughout the media, and both the EP and the supporting concerts sold well. Little Earthquakes, Amos' first album as a singer/songwriter, was released in 1992 and fared well in both the U.S. and the U.K. Earthquakes featured some of the most enduring songs in her catalog, including "Silent All These Years," "Precious Things," "Winter," and "Crucify." The same year, she released the Crucify EP, which featured cover songs like Nirvana's "Smells Like Teen Spirit" and Led Zeppelin's "Thank You." 

Delivered in early 1994, Under the Pink -- the proper follow-up to Little Earthquakes -- was an even bigger hit, selling over a million copies and launching the iconic singles "God" and "Cornflake Girl." Pink also included a duet with Nine Inch Nails' Trent Reznor on "Past the Mission."

Two years later, Amos delivered her third album, Boys for Pele. The LP was her most ambitious and difficult record to date, adding harpsichord, gospel touches, and jazzy overtones to her piano-driven style. Pele debuted at number two and quickly went platinum. The Hey Jupiter EP arrived later that summer and featured live versions of B-sides "Honey" and "Sugar."

Amos spent much of 1997 dealing with personal matters, including a devastating miscarriage and a new marriage. These events would shape the entire tone of her fourth album, From the Choirgirl Hotel. Released in the spring of 1998, Choirgirl debuted in the Top Five and was certified platinum. After years of Amos flirting with the dance world -- she sang on BT's "Blue Skies" and hit number one on the dance chart with Armand van Helden's remix of "Professional Widow" -- Choirgirl was notable for the inclusion of dark electronic textures and synth programming. The album also provided the backdrop for her first tour backed by supporting musicians. The Plugged '98 trek featured Steve Caton on guitar, Jon Evans on bass, and Matt Chamberlain on drums. Selections from the journey were preserved on the two-disc To Venus and Back, which was released in September 1999. In addition to the transformed live versions of songs from her early era, Venus included a disc of new material like the Grammy-nominated single "Bliss." In 2001, Amos returned with the covers album Strange Little Girls, which featured her takes on songs by acts like Depeche Mode, Lou Reed, Slayer, Neil Young, the Beatles, and Eminem. The collection also marked her last release of new material for Atlantic.

The next year, she found a new label home with Epic and unveiled her sprawling conceptual post-9/11 epic, Scarlet's Walk. Home to hit single "A Sorta Fairytale," it was eventually certified gold i the U.S. A retrospective best-of collection, Tales of a Librarian, was issued on Atlantic in 2003. Librarian compiled notable hits and deep cuts from the first five albums of her solo career, as well as two new tracks and re-recorded B-sides.

Her eighth studio album, The Beekeeper, was released in 2005. Her fifth Top Ten debut, it was later certified gold. In conjunction with the LP release, Amos also published her first book, the New York Times best-selling autobiography Piece by Piece, written with Ann Powers. The massive five-disc Piano collection arrived in 2006, boasting a cornucopia of album cuts, B-sides, unedited and alternate versions, demos, and seven previously unissued tracks.

Amos issued the eclectic and hard-rocking American Doll Posse in 2007, a sprawling group of songs that found the artist assuming five archetypal personalities, all of whom were based on feminine gods in Greek and Roman mythology. As she toured in support of the album, Amos released live digital recordings of each concert as part of the Legs and Boots concert series, which grew to encompass 27 albums. Although each release was made available to fans, Amos also released a "best-of" Legs and Boots compilation in March 2009, creating its track list from various recordings during the tour.

Meanwhile, she also focused on writing new material during the tour. Those songs would find their way onto her tenth studio album, Abnormally Attracted to Sin. Released in May 2009, it was the first with Amos' new label, Universal Republic. It marked her seventh Top Ten debut on the charts. A holiday album, Midwinter Graces, followed closely behind, appearing before the end of 2009 and garnering warm reviews.

Afterward, Amos began a period in her career where she delved headlong into the world of classical music. In September 2011, she unveiled her 12th album, the classically based song cycle Night of Hunters, on Deutsche Grammophon. A conceptual work based on familiar motifs by composers like Satie, Chopin, Schubert, and Bach, Amos' recording centered on a couple torn apart by life's difficulties and monotonies, and the female protagonist's journey to find wholeness within herself. In addition to featuring her daughter Natashya Hawley and niece Kelsey Dobyns on vocals, Amos also collaborated with the string quartet Apollon Musagete, arranger John Philip Shenale, and clarinetist Ernst Ottensamer. While Night of Hunters only peaked at 24 on the Billboard 200, it helped Amos become the first female artist to simultaneously chart in the Top Ten on the rock, alternative, and classical charts. An instrumental version of the album -- Sin Palabras -- was also released that year.

Inspired by her classical foray, Amos' next move was to re-record some of her older songs, newly arranged by John Philip Shenale with the Metropole Orchestra. The resulting set, 2012's Gold Dust, appeared almost exactly a year after Night of Hunters; it debuted at 63 on the Billboard 200. Amos continued her creative exploration in 2013. After several years in gestation, the musical The Light Princess -- based on the fairy tale by Scottish fantasy writer George MacDonald and with music and lyrics by Amos -- premiered at the National Theatre in London to wild critical acclaim and was nominated for best musical in the prestigious Evening Standard Theatre Awards. The original cast recording would be released in 2015.

In May 2014, Amos announced her return to pop with her 14th studio album, Unrepentant Geraldines (Mercury Classics). Heavily inspired by her marriage and love of fine art, the album returned Amos to the Top Ten for the first time in five years. A world tour in support of Geraldines saw Amos return to performing solo on her piano without accompanying musicians. Deluxe reissues of the seminal Little Earthquakes and Under the Pink arrived in 2015, including a disc of the remastered album and a second that featured B-sides and other rarities. Boys for Pele received the same treatment for its 20th anniversary in 2016. The following year, Amos returned in September with the self-produced Native Invader. Her 15th full-length, Native Invader was heavily influenced by nature, the sociopolitical turmoil following the 2016 U.S. election, and her mother's failing health. The album included the singles "Reindeer King" and "Up the Creek," which once again featured her daughter on vocals.

Closing out the decade, Amos penned another memoir that was released in 2020. Resistance: A Songwriter's Story of Hope, Change, and Courage chronicled her own personal history through specific songs and their placement in American history. At the end of the year, she returned to holiday music with the seasonal EP Christmastide, which reunited her with her 2000s bandmates, drummer Matt Chamberlain and bassist Jon Evans. The rhythmic pair later joined Amos for her 16th set, Ocean to Ocean, which arrived in October 2021. Recordings from her extensive 2022-2023 tour that followed -- where she was accompanied by bassist Jon Evans and drummer Ash Soan -- were released in 2024 in the form of Diving Deep: Live. Her next project came in the form of a New York Times bestselling children's book titled Tori and the Muses, which was accompanied by a companion album, The Music of Tori and the Muses. Released in February 2025, the whimsical nine-song set featured contributions from Jon Evans, Matt Chamberlain, Ash Soan, and John Philip Shenale”.

In terms of the greats of music, Tori Amos is up there with the best of them. I do hope that she has many more albums in her, as each one is extraordinary. It has been impossible distilling her career into twenty songs, but the mixtape to end this feature is, in my view, the best of her best. This extraordinary artist produced music that could…

ONLY come from her!

FEATURE: Iceblink Link: Cocteau Twins' Heaven or Las Vegas at Thirty-Five

FEATURE:

 

 

Iceblink Link

Cocteau Twins' Heaven or Las Vegas at Thirty-Five

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THE sixth studio album…

IN THIS PHOTO: Cocteau Twins, left to right: Robin Guthrie, Elizabeth Fraser and Simon Raymonde/PHOTO CREDIT: Dave Tonge/Getty Images

from the Scottish band, Cocteau Twins, Heaven or Las Vegas turns thirty-five on 17th September. Released two years after Blue Bell Knoll and three years before Four-Calendar Café, this was a golden run from the band. However, Heaven or Las Vegas might be the best and most influential album they released. Reaching number seven in the U.K., this was one of the first classic albums of the 1990s. Led by Elizabeth Fraser, who has one of the most distinct and unique voices in music history, there is something intoxicating and unforgettable about Heaven or Las Vegas. Fraser creates her own worlds when she sings! Her own language. Ranked alongside the best albums of the 1990s – and of all-time -, I know there will be fresh retrospection closer to its anniversary. On 17th September, 1990, this amazingly beautiful and strange album was released. I have found some features and reviews for Heaven or Las Vegas. Even if they may repeat some background and facts, they are all well worth reading. I want to start with Guitar and their 2020 salute. They write how Heaven or Las Vegas is defined by the band’s influential guitarist and producer, Robin Guthrie:

“The ethereal splendour of Heaven Or Las Vegas disguises the dark cloud under which it was crafted, the sessions at the band’s September Sound studio, once owned by Pete Townshend, overshadowed by the transience of death, birth and heartbreak. “It was trying to mask all the other shit that was going on that we didn’t want to stop and think about for too long,” says Raymonde, whose father the composer and arranger Ivor Raymonde died while they were making the record. Furthermore, Fraser and guitarist/producer Robin Guthrie welcomed their first child, Lucy Belle, into the world just as their relationship began to falter under the weight of Guthrie’s struggles with addiction. It’s all chronicled on an album of transcendent beauty, with a guitarist at the peak of his powers its central figure.

A gentle sort of player

While many Cocteaus fans were swept away by Fraser’s hypnotic vocal layering, Guthrie was an equally essential force, and Heaven Or Las Vegas was a personal crusade to get the intricate symphonies that occupied his brain onto tape. Initially a punk fan and under-confident player, the self-confessed gearhead from Grangemouth, Scotland, developed his own singular style, eschewing solos and instead constructing composite parts out of stacked chords and icy arpeggios lavished with effects. Alongside Kevin Shields, he became the source from which a crop of ‘textural’ guitar players drew inspiration. “I’m a very gentle sort of player, and I let the electronics do the work,” Guthrie told xlr8r.com “It’s quite an opposite approach from the vast majority of electric guitar players who bash the hell out of their instrument.”

On Heaven Or Las Vegas, Guthrie played four electrics – a 1959 Jazzmaster, 1959 Stratocaster, a PRS and on the title track’s divine slide solo a modified Levinson Blade JM, running into the desk through Marshall 9000 Series and Gallien-Krueger preamps. Alongside an array of rack effects, he used BOSS chorus, phaser, flanger and vibrato pedals, a Cry Baby wah, a Yamaha D1500 delay and an Electro-Harmonix Clone Theory chorus/vibrato. The result was, to borrow The Verve’s debut album title, a storm in heaven, and it often sounded uncannily like a synthesiser. “The aim was to make music with punk’s energy but more finesse and beauty, and that shiny, dense Phil Spector sound,” said Guthrie.

Their finest hour

“We like it better than all our last records,” said Guthrie on Heaven Or Las Vegas’ release on 17 September 1990. “That’s why we continue to make more – because if we made the perfect record we’d sit back and say, ‘We can’t do any better than that’. We think all our other ones are fucking crap.”

Q’s Martin Aston concurred, calling the record “their finest hour”. Colin Larkin ranked Heaven Or Las Vegas at 218 in his All-Time 1000 Albums book, noting “their music has a sustainable beauty free of regard for contemporaries or peers”. The album was the band’s most successful, landing at No.7 in the UK chart, but it was to be their last for 4AD. While they released two more LPs on Fontana, Cocteau Twins finally split in 1997, later calling off a reunion because Fraser couldn’t stand the idea of being on stage with Guthrie.

If it was a final flutter before everything began to fall apart, Heaven Or Las Vegas was an astonishing success, and Robin Guthrie’s playing left behind a smouldering torch that the coming wave of stompbox-hungry sonic sorcerers would pick up and carry forth – many of them on 4AD and Raymonde’s Bella Union label. Heaven Or Las Vegas? The Cocteaus’ sixth album is emphatically the sound of the former”.

Robin Guthrie, Elizabeth Fraser and Simon Raymonde released one of the best albums of the 1990s only nine months into the decade! Even now, you cannot compare anything to Cocteau Twins’ Heaven or Las Vegas. Such a beguiling and bewitching album. Transformative and transfixing music, Pitchfork reviewed the 2014 reissues of Blue Bell Knoll and Heaven or Las Vegas. They say how the 4AD-reissued albums spotlight Cocteau Twins as “boundary-pushing innovators as first and foremost a pop band”:

“Even as the band soared commercially and creatively, personally they suffered. Between the release of Blue Bell Knoll and the recording of Heaven or Las Vegas, Fraser gave birth to the couple’s first child, a daughter, yet Guthrie remained deep in the throes of drug addiction, which made him paranoid and angry. Raymonde mourned the death of his father. Suddenly the stakes for the Cocteau Twins seemed impossibly high. “Fraser named the album Heaven or Las Vegas [as] a suggestion of music versus commerce, or perhaps a gamble, one last throw of the dice,” Martin Aston writes in Facing the Other Way: The Story of 4AD, implying that the band was close to imploding.

Instead, they turned all that turmoil and uncertainty into the best album of their career. Heaven or Las Vegas explodes in Technicolor from the first melty guitar chords on “Cherry-Coloured Funk”. Every note sounds like a new and richer shade of indigo and scarlet and violet than the previous one, and it doesn’t fade until closer “Frou-Frou Foxes in Midsummer Fires” descends into silence. If Blue Bell Knoll is spare and ambient, Heaven is supersaturated: lush without being vulgar, luxuriant without being indulgent. Tellingly, some lyrics bubble up to the surface, often loaded with personal meaning: “cherry,” “perfection,” “burn this madhouse down.” On a song called “Pitch the Baby”, ostensibly written for—or at least sung to—the couple’s infant daughter, Fraser repeats, “I’m so happy to care for you, I only want to love you,” as a sweet lullaby. We may not always be able to understand her lyrics, but that doesn’t mean they’re not important. In fact, her lyrics would never be more vital or confessional than they are on Heaven or Las Vegas, which lends the music added emotional and conceptual heft.

What’s particularly remarkable about the album is how compact it is: All but two of these 10 tracks clock in around three-and-a-half minutes, and the whole thing is over and done with in a mere 38 minutes. That succinctness may have something to do with Raymonde’s increasing role in the group. His bass playing, especially on “Pitch the Baby” and “Fotzepolitic”, not only adds to the texture and, yes, the groove of the music, but also gingerly anchors these songs: He prevents them from flying off into the ether, but never lets them grow rigid or staid. The result is an album that perfectly balances ambition with accessibility. Together, these two releases—which were their last for 4AD—present the Cocteau Twins as first and foremost a pop band, and pop rarely sounds as transformative and as transfixing as it does here”.

I don’t know if I heard Cocteau Twins or knew much about their music in 1990. I would have been seven. I think it was years later when I discovered them. However, I do listen to tracks from Heaven or Las Vegas every so often. I can appreciate how special the album is. When I do listen to the entire album, it is this phenomenal and engrossing listening experience. I wonder if there are any plans for the thirty-fifth anniversary on 17th September. Albumism wrote about the band’s fifth studio album in 2020:

“Pitch” picks up where “For Phoebe Still a Baby” on Blue Bell Knoll (1988) left off; she has now given birth to Lucy Belle. Where “Phoebe” drifts and wavers, “Pitch” is rooted and grounded in the act of giving birth and mothering, rather than the abstract. “I only want to love you,” she coos in her lullaby. Fraser’s lyrics are still the ethereal spellcasting of previous albums, but her pronunciation is clearer and, as such, more accessible to the wider audience the band was given after signing with Capitol Records in 1988.

Though hardly a concept album, the twin themes of birth and death echo across the landscape. Raymonde’s father Ivor, a renowned composer for acts including Dusty Springfield, died during production, and “Frou-Frou Foxes In Midsummer Fires,” the album’s final track, wrestles with “a war we all lose.” Fraser whispers and the boys play sparsely until the chorus, not a dirge, but a reflection on the passage of life and time.

Appearing as the second track on the album, “Iceblink Luck” ties both themes together, Guthrie and Raymonde’s wall of sound turned glass and lit from the dance floor like New Year’s Eve. It’s a tender song, a last-ditch dream as Fraser tries to honor the elder Raymonde’s past and resolve her soon-to-dissolve future with Guthrie. “You’re really both bone-setters / thank you for mending me babies,” she sings to the man and the ghost and the babe in her arms, a mending that, like the plaster of a cast, is only temporary. Three years later, while recording Four Calendar Café (1993), she would suffer a nervous breakdown and Guthrie’s drug problems would worsen, the relationship soured and never recovered. But for the moment, there is love between the three Twins, there is hope.

The hope doesn’t last, alas, crumpling on “I Wear Your Ring” and “Fotzepolitic.” They held it together for two more albums before their contract ran out and they disbanded. All three have gone on to produce and record a lifetime’s worth of music since, though a reunion in 2005 was scrapped when Fraser admitted she couldn’t endure being on stage with Guthrie”.

There is one more feature I want to include here. It is from CRACK. Published in 2021, the feature coincided with Miley Cyrus covering Heaven or Las Vegas’s title track. Singing the song when opening the Resorts World Casino in Las Vegas, it was a nervous moment for fans of Cocteau Twins. A band and discography that is hard to cover and make different, how many can tackle the Scottish band’s incredible music and make it sound original or even competent?! Though Miley Cyrus did a good job, one of the incredible things about an album like Heaven or Las Vegas is that is so distinct and untouchable:

“Heaven or Las Vegas, the album, was the moment Cocteau Twins became the band they had always threatened to be. It’s the record with the strongest pop songs and the most sparkling instrumentation. Both the happiest and the saddest work in their canon, Heaven or Las Vegas was when it all seemed to work for them, not so much a step-up from the preceding Blue Bell Knoll as a vast leap into the ether. The artistic success of Heaven or Las Vegas is often linked to Elizabeth Fraser and Robin Guthrie – lead guitarist and Fraser’s then-romantic partner – becoming parents during the recording of the album. Fraser once said that being pregnant had given her clarity and confidence, which was lost when the baby was born and the couple were plunged into parenthood. A number of songs on Heaven or Las Vegas directly address Fraser’s experience of motherhood, in particular Pitch the Baby, a moment of ecstatic optimism.

But mixed with this hope is the creeping influence of the darker side of life, as Guthrie’s cocaine use became increasingly problematic. This gave Heaven or Las Vegas an intriguing – and perhaps unique – push and pull in the band’s catalogue, as anxiety stalked contentment and joy looked nervously down on depression. Bassist Simon Raymonde wrote brooding album closer Frou-Frou Foxes in Midsummer Fires the day after his father died, while opener Cherry-Coloured Funk feels like a blues song on a gloomy day in heaven, the mournful melody and moody chords of the verses bursting into a chorus of glorious joy, like a plane breaking through storm clouds to reveal blue skies.

This may sound like over-exuberant nonsense. But it’s hard not to get hyperbolic when faced with a work as perfectly different as Heaven or Las Vegas, a record that takes the base elements of rock music – guitar, drums, bass and voice – and alchemises them into something entirely foreign. You can trace the influences of Siouxsie and the Banshees and Kate Bush on the Cocteau Twins, particularly in their early years. But by 1990 nobody really sounded like them, their music instantly recognisable in its immaculate shimmer, as if washed clean of dirt to take on more emotion.

Cocteau Twins eventually split in 1997, with personal animosity so far preventing a reunion. But the band’s reputation has only grown since, becoming a touchstone for a kind of rapturous mysticism, to the point that The Weeknd sampled Cherry-Coloured Funk on his 2011 mixtape House of Balloons and no one batted an eyelid. Even Prince tried to emulate the Cocteau Twins, recording Tictactoe for his 2014 album Plectrumelectrum after a night partying to the band’s music”.

An album like no other, I am curious to see what is written about Cocteau Twins’ Heaven or Las Vegas on 17th September. Even if I am slightly late to the band and this masterpiece, I can now appreciate why it is so admired and has this incredible reputation. Even if Heaven or Las Vegas had a trouble past and gestation, in its finished form, it sounds more extraordinary and resounds harder than any other album by the Cocteau Twins. Did fans of the band know what would come with Heaven or Las Vegas…

BACK in 1990?

FEATURE: The Digital Mixtape: Dame Julie Andrews at Ninety

FEATURE:

 

 

The Digital Mixtape

IN THIS PHOTO: Dame Julie Andrews in 2019

Dame Julie Andrews at Ninety

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THIS is perhaps a bit…

IN THIS PHOTO: Dame Julie Andrews in 2013/PHOTO CREDIT: Eva Rinaldi

of a detour for me. I would not normally discuss someone like Dame Julie Andrews on my blog. Nothing against her but, as she is not releasing music, it would be unusual for me to otherwise write about her. However, on 1st October, Dame Julie Andrews turns ninety. The British-born actor, singer and author possess one of the greatest voices ever. I am going to end this feature by assembling some songs from films that starred Andrews. Some of her best performances. Not all the soundtracks were available on Spotify, so I have accessed and included as many as I could find. Cast recordings and film soundtracks. Andrews achieved significant chart success, particularly with soundtracks for Mary Poppins (1964) and The Sound of Music (1965), both of which topped the U.S. and U.K. charts and earned multi-platinum certifications from the RIAA. Before getting to a playlist, I want to source this extensive and comprehensive biography of the magnificent Dame Julie Andrews;

“The star we know today as Julie Andrews was born Julia Elizabeth Wells in Walton-on-Thames, Surrey, then a small village, roughly 18 miles south of London, England. Her father, Ted Wells, was a schoolteacher and enjoyed the simple life of the countryside. Her mother, Barbara, a talented pianist, taught piano but longed for a career on the stage. Ted and Barbara Wells divorced on the eve of World War II, and Barbara married Ted Andrews, a professional singer. Ted and Barbara Andrews formed a musical act and toured England entertaining the troops. Ted Andrews gave the little girl her first singing lessons, and was immediately impressed with the child’s strong voice, large vocal range, perfect pitch and precocious musical ability. At age eight, she was taken to study with Lilian Styles-Allen, a noted concert singer. Styles-Allen trained her pupil in operatic repertoire and taught her the perfect diction for which she would become famous. Although Julia remained close to her father, she lived with her mother and took her stepfather’s surname when she joined the family act at age ten.

Julie Andrews, as she was now known, made her radio debut in 1946, singing a duet with Ted Andrews on a BBC variety show. She gave her first performance as a solo artist at London’s Stage Door Canteen, where she was seen by two members of the Royal Family, the mother and sister of the present Queen. The exquisitely self-possessed little girl with the crystal-clear voice was attracting the attention of serious theatrical management and was soon ready to make the move from provincial music halls to the theaters of London’s West End. At age 12, Julie Andrews was cast in a musical revue, Starlight Roof, at the London Hippodrome. Her first appearance stopped the show, and the revue ran for over a year. Julie Andrews became the youngest performer ever to appear at a Royal Command performance, singing an aria from Mignon for King George VI at the London Palladium.

IN THIS PHOTO: Twelve-year-old Julie Andrews at play in the family music room in this 1947 publicity photo/PHOTO CREDIT: Bettmann/CORBIS

The American film studio, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, which had recently opened a London branch, made a screen test of the young singer, perhaps seeing her as a successor to the child singing stars of the pre-war era. The studio failed to offer her a contract, dismissing her as “unphotographable.” Nevertheless, she soon appeared on one of Britain’s first television variety programs.

The teenage Julie Andrews was a regular presence on popular British radio shows in the 1950s, and as she grew into young womanhood, she played leading roles in a series of Christmas pantomimes. The “pantos,” a holiday tradition in Britain, are popular family entertainments, usually based on a familiar fairy tale. Far from being silent, as the name might suggest, they typically include lots of singing, dancing and male comedians in drag. Each holiday season of her teens found Julie Andrews playing another fairy tale heroine, from Little Red Riding Hood to princesses in Aladdin and Jack and the Beanstalk. She was appearing in one of these when she met an aspiring artist named Tony Walton, who would play a large role in her later life. During the regular season, she continued to perform as a solo artist and with Ted and Barbara Andrews.

Julie Andrews was playing the title role in the pantomime Cinderella when she was first seen by the songwriter Sandy Wilson and the American producer Cy Feuer. Wilson was the creator of a popular West End musical, The Boy Friend, a pastiche of the musical comedies of the 1920s. Cy Feuer planned to bring the show to Broadway and wanted to recruit a British cast to preserve the flavor of the London production. When Feuer and his partner, Ernest Martin, offered Julie Andrews the lead in the Broadway production of The Boy Friend, she was reluctant to travel to America. She was only 18 and had never traveled so far from her family. She finally agreed to a one-year contract, and boarded the plane for the country where she would spend most of her life.

IN THIS PHOTO: Julie Andrews in High Tor, filmed in 1955 by Desilu Productions and broadcast 10th March, 1956, on the television series, Ford Star Jubilee. The film starred Bing Crosby, Nancy Olson, Hans Conreid, and Keenan Wynn/PHOTO CREDIT: CBS

The Boy Friend was an immediate success on Broadway, and the teenage Julie Andrews was a sensation, delighting critics and audiences with her fresh good looks, grace, sparkling singing voice and gem-like diction. She was asked to audition for the words and music team of Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe, who were preparing the original production of My Fair Lady, their musical version of the play Pygmalion by George Bernard Shaw. Lerner and Loewe had not enjoyed a success on Broadway since Brigadoon, almost a decade earlier, and many Broadway hands doubted that the two could make a

The role of Eliza Doolittle in Pygmalion — a bedraggled street urchin in the first act, transformed into a regal society beauty in the second — had already been played by many distinguished actresses on stage and screen. The musical adaptation called for a versatile young actress who was also an accomplished singer. Although a number of established stars coveted the part, Lerner, Loewe and director Moss Hart decided to take a chance on the 20-year-old Julie Andrews, who had never before acted in such a demanding role. Her costar, Rex Harrison, an experienced stage and film star, had never sung on stage before. The rehearsals were difficult. Although Andrews was more than capable of carrying off the demanding songs, her relative lack of acting experience caused unease in the company. Director Hart worked with her tirelessly, a process she recounts in her interview with the Academy of Achievement.

When My Fair Lady opened in 1956, it was an unprecedented success. Critics acclaimed it as the greatest musical ever staged and it sold out months in advance. Julie Andrews won universal praise for her incandescent performance. The original cast recording became a best-seller, one of the most successful releases in the history of Columbia Records. It remained a mainstay of the label’s catalogue for many years.

Days before the show opened, Andrews also made her American television debut in a musical version of the Maxwell Anderson play High Tor, appearing opposite Bing Crosby. After playing Cinderella in pantomime and starring in the most successful of modern Cinderella stories, Julie Andrews was asked to play the role yet again when America’s premier theatrical songwriters, Rodgers and Hammerstein, wrote an original musical for television with the new star in mind. Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Cinderella aired live on CBS, with Andrews taking a night off from her eight-performance-a-week schedule in My Fair Lady.

After two years of playing Eliza on Broadway, Julie Andrews returned at last to England to star in My Fair Lady in London’s West End. The show was just as successful in London as it had been in New York, and she settled in for a second long run in the show. While in London, she renewed her acquaintance with her childhood friend Tony Walton, who was now embarking on his own theatrical career as a designer of sets and costumes. Andrews and Walton were married in 1959.

Back in New York, Lerner, Loewe and director Moss Hart were eager for Julie Andrews to star as Queen Guinevere in their new musical, Camelot, with Richard Burton as King Arthur and Broadway newcomer Robert Goulet as Lancelot. Despite the acclaimed performances of a prodigiously talented cast, the show’s Broadway run got off to a rocky start. Initial ticket sales were slow, but when Andrews and Burton performed scenes from the show on the popular Ed Sullivan television program, box office demand skyrocketed. The original cast recording sold well and was a particular favorite of President John F. Kennedy and Mrs. Kennedy in the White House.

During her two-year run in Camelot, Andrews was approached by Walt Disney to star in a film musical of the children’s book Mary Poppins. At the time, she was expecting her first child, but Disney was willing to wait until after her child was born to begin production. Andrews and Walton had a daughter, Emma, in 1962. Andrews had hoped to be cast in the film version of My Fair Lady; she and her many admirers were disappointed when Warner Brothers chose to cast an established film star, Audrey Hepburn, in the role. Publicity surrounding the choice was intense; Hepburn was not a trained singer, and her vocals were dubbed by singer Marni Nixon.

Meanwhile, Julie Andrews set to work on her film for Walt Disney. Mary Poppins was a huge success and immediately established Julie Andrews as an international film star. Her triumph was confirmed when she won the 1964 Best Actress Oscar for her very first film appearance. She followed up this success with her dramatic film debut in the World War II satire The Americanization of Emily with James Garner, who would become a frequent co-star and lifelong friend.

IN THIS PHOTO: 1965: Julie Andrews as Maria von Trapp in the motion picture classic The Sound of Music. A heartwarming story, it is based on the real-life adventures of the Von Trapp Family singers, one of the world’s best-known concert groups in the era immediately preceding World War II. Andrews plays the role of Maria, the tomboyish postulant at an Austrian abbey, who becomes a governess in the home of a widowed naval captain with seven children, and brings a new love of life and music into the home. The Sound of Music is the third-highest-grossing U.S. movie of all time

Andrews scored the most spectacular success of her career with the starring role in The Sound of Music, another Broadway musical adaptation and the most successful motion picture made up until that time. Andrews was nominated for an Oscar again, and the film was honored as Best Picture of the Year. It remains a beloved classic. Forty years after its original release, it draws huge crowds to massive outdoor sing-along screenings such as those held in the 25,000-seat Hollywood Bowl. The reigning international film star of the mid-1960s, Andrews starred in the most successful film of 1966, Hawaii, and in the Alfred Hitchcock thriller Torn Curtain with Paul Newman. In 1967, she shone in yet another successful musical, Thoroughly Modern Millie. That same year, her marriage to Tony Walton ended, although the pair remained close friends and have often collaborated in the years since.

A film biography of the British singer and actress Gertrude Lawrence — Star! — was a box office disappointment. Audiences were turning away from musical films. Her next starring vehicle, a musical spy story of the First World War, Darling Lili, was also a commercial failure, but proved to be a personal success for Andrews on another level. Her first collaboration with director Blake Edwards, it marked the beginning of a 41-year partnership in art and life. Andrews and Edwards were married in 1969. The couple raised his two children from a previous marriage and adopted two more of their own.

 After a number of successful television specials with her friend Carol Burnett, Julie Andrews hosted her own weekly variety show on CBS television in the 1972-73 season. She also enjoyed great success as a concert artist, with appearances at the Royal Albert Hall and the London Palladium. In these years, she also began writing children’s books under her married name, Julie Andrews Edwards. After the success of Mandy (1971) and The Last of the Really Great Whangdoodles (1974), she collaborated with her daughter, educator Emma Walton Hamilton, on Dumpy the Dump Truck and its many sequels, a popular series of books for very small children. Her novels Dragon and Simeon’s Gift introduce young readers to the lore of the Middle Ages. Several of her books have been illustrated by her ex-husband, Tony Walton.

Although Hollywood was no longer producing the kind of musical films that had made her famous, Julie Andrews continued to develop her dramatic talents in a wider variety of roles in the 1970s and ’80s, appearing in a number of films directed by her husband, Blake Edwards, including The Tamarind Seed, 10, S.O.B. and That’s Life. Andrews and Edwards enjoyed a notable success with the 1982 film Victor/Victoria, in which Andrews played a woman who disguises herself as a young man and achieves success on stage as a female impersonator. This comedy of gender confusion struck a chord with international audiences in the 1980s and reunited her with co-star James Garner.

In the 1990s, Andrews became increasingly involved in international charities. Since 1992, she has served as Goodwill Ambassador for the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM), which assists women and their communities in impoverished countries. Another favorite charity is Operation USA, a California-based international relief agency.

Andrews returned to the New York theater in 1993 with an appearance in the small ensemble cast of the Stephen Sondheim revue Putting It Together. It was clear that theater audiences wanted more of Julie Andrews, and she brought a stage version of Victor/Victoria to Broadway in 1995. An enormous success with critics and the public, Andrews appeared in the show for two years. After developing vocal problems, due to the growth of ovules on her vocal cords, she sought treatment through surgery, but the operation damaged her larynx irreparably, effectively ending her singing career. Expert opinion concluded that the surgery had been improperly performed and Andrews received a settlement, reported to be as high as $30 million.

Her speaking voice remained unimpaired, and Andrews has continued her acting career. A new audience discovered Julie Andrews through her role as the Queen in the film The Princess Diaries and its sequel. Her speaking voice has also been heard in the animated Shrek films and in 2010’s Despicable Me. In the sixth decade of her career, Julie Andrews explored still more avenues of the performing arts, directing a successful revival of The Boy Friend, the show that first brought her to America as a teenager. She has continued to act, direct, write and contribute her boundless energy to favorite causes, including Operation USA and Haitian earthquake relief.

In 2008, Andrews published the first volume of her autobiography: Home: A Memoir of My Early Years, recounting her life up until her departure for Hollywood to star in Mary Poppins. The book received excellent reviews and immediately went to the top of The New York Times bestseller list. The same year, she toured the United States  in a concert performance with orchestra and backup singers, Julie Andrews: The Gift of Music.

IN THIS PHOTO: During the Academy’s 2006 International Achievement Summit in Los Angeles, Dame Julie Andrews shared her vivid memories of shooting the timeless classic The Sound of Music right there at the 20th Century Fox studio

She topped the bestseller lists again in 2010 with her 23rd book, A Very Fairy Princess. The same year saw Julie Andrews back on the big screen in The Tooth Fairy, and marked her return to the London stage for the first time in 21 years, in a performance of Julie Andrews: The Gift of Music at the O2 Arena before 20,000 adoring fans. This triumphant year came to a sad end with the loss of her husband of 41 years, Blake Edwards, shortly before Christmas. Julie Andrews and her children were with Edwards at the time of his death in a Santa Monica hospital. The couple had long maintained homes in Los Angeles and in Gstaad, Switzerland.

Julie Andrews published a second volume of autobiography, Home Work: A Memoir of My Hollywood Years, in 2019. She continues her alternate career as children’s book author and advocate for literacy and the arts.  To date, Andrews and her daughter, Emma Walton Hamilton, have written more than 30 books for children and young adults. In April 2020, as families all over the world sheltered at home to arrest the spread of the COVID-19 virus, American Public Media announced a new weekly podcast series, Julie’s Library, in which Andrews and her daughter read their favorite children’s books aloud, with music, sound effects and special guests.  Andrews hopes these podcasts will “bring the comfort of storytelling to families during these unprecedented times.”

I have not really been able to do her justice her. In terms of her interviews and screen appearances. The body of music she has recorded. Amazing to think that Andrews’s first film credit was for 1952’s La Rosa di Bagdad. Her most recent was in 2022, where she provided a voice for Minions: The Rise of Gru. I wanted to provide this small salute and love letter to one of the greatest actors and singers…

WHO has ever lived.

FEATURE: John Lennon at Eighty-Five: His Best Beatles and Solo Songs

FEATURE:

 

 

John Lennon at Eighty-Five

PHOTO CREDIT: Linda McCartney

His Best Beatles and Solo Songs

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I am going to write…

a few features before 9th October. That is when we mark what would have been John Lennon’s eighty-fifth birthday. Lennon was killed in 1980. One of the greatest songwriters ever, as founder of The Beatles, his place in cultural history is clear. Such an important songwriter, he has been responsible for some of the greatest and most influential music ever. So many artists cite John Lennon as an influence. For this first feature, I have compiled a playlist of the best Beatles songs he wrote. I also have included some incredible solo songs. Ones he recorded as part of John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band. Before I get there, I want to bring in some biography about a musical genius:

“Out of all the Beatles, John Lennon had the most interesting -- and frustrating -- solo career. Lennon was capable of inspired, brutally honest confessional songwriting and melodic songcraft; he also had an undying love of straight-ahead rock & roll. But the extremes, both in his music and his life, were what made him fascinating. Where Paul McCartney was content to be a rock star, Lennon dabbled in everything from revolutionary politics to the television talk show circuit during the early '70s. After releasing a pair of acclaimed albums, John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band and Imagine, in the early '70s, Lennon sunk into an infamous "lost weekend" where his musical output was decidedly uneven and his public behavior was often embarrassing. Halfway through the decade, he sobered up and retired from performing to become a house-husband and father. In 1980, he launched a comeback with his wife Yoko Ono, releasing the duet album Double Fantasy that fall. Just as his career was on an upswing, Lennon was tragically assassinated outside his New York apartment building in December of 1980. He left behind an enormous legacy, not only as a musician, but as a writer, actor, and activist.

Considering the magnitude of his achievements with the Beatles, Lennon's solo career is almost overlooked. Even during the height of Beatlemania, Lennon began exploring outside of the group. In 1964, he published a collection of his writings called In His Own Write, which was followed in 1965 by A Spaniard in the Works, and in 1966, he appeared in Dick Lester's comedy How I Won the War. He didn't pursue a musical career outside of the group until 1968, when he recorded the experimental noise collage Unfinished Music, No. 1: Two Virgins with his new lover, avant-garde artist Yoko Ono. Two Virgins caused considerable controversy, both because of its content and its cover art, which featured a nude photograph of Lennon and Ono. The couple married in Gibraltar in March 20, 1969. For their honeymoon, the pair staged the first of many political demonstrations with their "Bed-In for Peace" at the Amsterdam Hilton. Several months later, the avant-garde records Unfinished Music, No. 2: Life with the Lions and The Wedding Album were released, as was the single "Give Peace a Chance," which was recorded during the Bed-In. During September of 1969, Lennon returned to live performances with a concert at a Toronto rock & roll festival. He was supported by the Plastic Ono Band, which featured Ono, guitarist Eric Clapton, bassist Klaus Voormann, and drummer Alan White. The following month, Lennon and the Plastic Ono Band released "Cold Turkey," which was about his battle with heroin addiction. When the single failed to make the Top Ten in Britain and America, Lennon sent his MBE back to the Queen, protesting Britain's involvement in Biafra, America's involvement in Vietnam and the poor chart performance of "Cold Turkey."

Before the release of "Cold Turkey," Lennon had told the Beatles that he planned to leave the group, but he agreed not to publicly announce his intentions until after Allen Klein's negotiations with EMI on behalf of the Beatles were resolved. Lennon and Ono continued with their campaign for peace, spreading billboards with the slogan "War Is Over! (If You Want It)" in 12 separate cities. In February of 1970, he wrote, recorded and released the single "Instant Karma" within the span of the week. The single became a major hit, reaching the Top Ten in both the U.K. and the U.S. Two months after "Instant Karma," Paul McCartney announced that the Beatles were splitting up, provoking the anger of Lennon. Much of this anger was vented on Lennon's first full-fledged solo album, John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band, a scathingly honest confessional work inspired by his and Ono's primal scream therapy. Lennon supported the album with an extensive interview with Rolling Stone, where he debunked many of the myths surrounding the Beatles. Early in 1971, he released another protest single, "Power to the People," before moving to New York. That fall, he released Imagine, which featured the Top Ten title track. By the time Imagine became a hit album, Lennon and Ono had returned to political activism, publicly supporting American radicals like Abbie Hoffman, Jerry Rubin, and John Sinclair. Their increased political involvement resulted in the double-album Sometime in New York City, which was released in the summer of 1972. Recorded with the New York hippie band Elephant's Memory, Sometime in New York City consisted entirely of political songs, many of which were criticized for their simplicity. Consequently, the album sold poorly and tarnished Lennon's reputation.Sometime in New York City was the beginning of a three-year downward spiral for Lennon. Shortly before the album's release, he began his long, involved battle with U.S. Immigration, which refused to give him a green card due to a conviction for marijuana possession in 1968. In 1973, he was ordered to leave America by Immigration, and he launched a full-scale battle against the department, frequently attacking them in public. Mind Games was released in late 1973 to mixed reviews; its title track became a moderate hit. The following year, he and Ono separated, and he moved out to Los Angeles, beginning his year-and-a-half long "lost weekend." During 1974 and 1975, Lennon lived a life of debauchery in Los Angeles, partying hard with such celebrities as Elton John, Harry Nilsson, Keith Moon, David Bowie, and Ringo Starr. Walls and Bridges appeared in November of 1974, and it became a hit due to the inclusion of "Whatever Gets You Thru the Night," a song he performed with Elton John.

At the end of the year, John helped reunite Lennon and Ono, convincing the ex-Beatle to appear during one of his concerts; it would be Lennon's last performance.

Rock 'n' Roll, a collection of rock oldies recorded during the lost weekend, was released in the spring of 1975. A few months before its official release, a bootleg of the album called Roots was released by Morris Levy, who Lennon later sued successfully. Lennon's immigration battle neared its completion on October 7, 1975, when the U.S. court of appeals overturned his deportation order; in the summer of 1976, he was finally granted his green card. After he appeared on David Bowie's Young Americans, co-writing the hit song "Fame," Lennon quietly retired from music, choosing to become a house-husband following the October birth of his son, Sean (he had an elder son, Julian, by his ex-wife Cynthia).

During the summer of 1980, Lennon returned to recording, signing a new contract with Geffen Records. Comprised equally of material by Lennon and Ono, Double Fantasy was released in November to positive reviews. As the album and its accompanying single, "(Just Like) Starting Over," were climbing the charts, Lennon was assassinated on December 8 by Mark David Chapman. Lennon's death inspired deep grief throughout the entire world; on December 14, millions of fans around the world participated in a ten-minute silent vigil for Lennon at 2 p.m. EST. Double Fantasy and "(Just Like) Starting Over" both became number one hits in the wake of his death. In the years after his death, several albums of unreleased recordings appeared, the first of which was 1984's Milk and Honey; perhaps the most substantial was the 1998 four-disc box set Anthology, issued in conjunction with a single-disc sampler titled Wonsaponatime. Further archival projects arrived throughout the 21st century, including the 2006 documentary The U.S. vs. John Lennon, and a reissue series in 2010 that restored the original mixes of his catalog, while debuting a "Stripped Down" remix of Double Fantasy. Imagine received a lavish box set edition in 2018”.

On 9th October, we will remember John Lennon. It will be a sad day in many ways, as we imagine what Lennon could have achieved had he lived. However, we can also celebrate his legacy and work. Borrowed Time: Lennon’s Last Decade is a new documentary and features contributions from people who knew John Lennon. We get an insight into his final years. What he was planning in 1980 and what he was working on that year. It was a time when Lennon was going to return to England (from New York) and visit. Heartbreaking that he never did make it back. However, we need to remember him as a pioneering and iconic songwriter who helped changed popular culture. Someone still unmatched as we head towards…

HIS eighty-fifth birthday.

FEATURE: Feminist Icons: Jess Davies

FEATURE:

 

 

Feminist Icons

PHOTO CREDIT: Mefus Photography/Rhiannon Holland

Jess Davies

__________

THIS is a feature that…

never really got off the ground. The idea being to celebrate amazing women who I consider to be feminist icons. A chance to step away from music and focus on essential feminist voices who I admire and who are doing vital work. Maybe the women I selected do not think of themselves as feminist icons or would not agree with my words. However, when it comes to the women I have featured – including Michelle Obama and Caitlin Moran –, I think I am justified in elevating them to this level. The final edition of this feature focuses on someone I spotlighted earlier in the year. Jess Davies’s book, No One Wants to See Your D*ck: A Handbook for Survival in the Digital World is my book of the year. I also saw Davies speak for The Trouble Club earlier this year, and it was one of the best events they have put on this year. She is someone I follow on Instagram and Twitter and am always in awe of. I shall leave her be for the rest of the year, though I urge people to buy her book and follow her. Such an important voice, she is not only inspiring and empowering many young women. I was very affected by No One Wants to See Your D*ck: A Handbook for Survival in the Digital World, and I was shocked by the end. The extent to which many women are subjected to unwanted sexual imagers and abuse online. It is strangely relevant now. Alongside Laura Bates’s latest book – who covered some similar themes for The New Age of Sexism: How the AI Revolution is Reinventing Misogyny -, Jess Davies’s book is essential reading. I saw the news that Elon Musk’s A.I. has been accused of making explicit Taylor Swift videos. Jess Davies talks about deepfakes and image-based sexual abuse in No One Wants to See Your D*ck: A Handbook for Survival in the Digital World. It is horrifying to think how prevalent it is. Women’s photos and images used and placed on other women’s bodies. Simulating pornography. The number of men who access these videos and share them. An epidemic that is becoming more common because of A.I. and the fact social media sites do not do enough to protect women, it always makes me so angry!

Maybe Jess Davies would resent being labelled as a feminist icon. Perhaps too lofty a declaration. However, an icon is someone who is a representative symbol or someone worthy of veneration. She works tirelessly to raise awareness of the situation online. How there is this rise in image-based sexual abuse against women and girls. How technology and A.I. is helping create this horrifying state of affairs where personal photos are used to catfish people and appear in sexually explicit videos. Or men pay money to access the photos and share them with other men who, without spelling it out, gratify themselves. Also, consider the rise in sexual assault cases and the high-profile men this year alone who have been accused of rape, sexual assault and violence against women. Diddy among them. Jess Davies reacts to these stories, and she is someone who campaigns for women. I am not going to repeat too much of what I wrote recently, as I want to keep things fairly brief and new. However, in April, Davies spoke with The Guardian about No One Wants to See Your D*ck: A Handbook for Survival in the Digital World:

“Her book, No One Wants to See Your D*ck, takes a deep dive into the negatives. It covers Davies’s experiences in the digital world – that includes cyberflashing such as all those unsolicited dick pics – as well as the widespread use of her images on pornography sites, escort services, dating apps, sex chats (“Ready for Rape? Role play now!” with her picture alongside it). However, the book also shines a light on the dark online men’s spaces, what they’re saying, the “games” they’re playing. “I wanted to show the reality of what men are doing,” says Davies. “People will say: ‘It’s not all men’ and no, it isn’t, but it also isn’t a small number of weirdos on the dark web in their mum’s basements. These are forums with millions of members on mainstream sites such as Reddit, Discord and 4chan. These are men writing about their wives, their mums, their mate’s daughter, exchanging images, sharing women’s names, socials and contact details, and no one – not one man – is calling them out. They’re patting each other on the back.”

PHOTO CREDIT: Francesca Jones/The Guardian

It has taken years for Davies to shift the blame away from herself and on to them. For most of her adult life, she says, she carried shame and stigma around like a “weighted cross” on her back. “Every time I was taken advantage of, I kind of accepted it,” she says. “I thought: ‘Oh well, you’ve opened yourself up to this. What did you expect?’ Part of me believed that this is just how the world is, and this was all I was worth.” That message was delivered in so many ways. As a model, she tried setting boundaries, never shooting topless content. When she was once asked to pose in a mesh bodysuit, she agreed on the understanding that her nipples would be edited out. She was assured they would be. A month later, the pictures appeared in a Nuts magazine summer special, nipples very clearly on display, an image that was quickly scanned and shared on the internet. (Davies remembers crying in her mum’s arms as her standards collapsed in a “pathetic heap of lost hopes”.)

Her book sets the spotlight firmly back on the perpetrators to ask how their online behaviour could ever be accepted as “normal”, or “just what happens”. Davies doesn’t have to look very hard to find activity that should disturb anyone: nudify requests where AI apps are used to create fake nude images (“nudify my sister/cousin/mum/dead wife”); the collector culture – “One thread, for example, where someone requests images of girls from Birmingham or my home town Aberystwyth, gets hundreds of thousands of views because men from those places click on them,” she says. “Someone would say: ‘Has anyone got X from Plymouth?’ And men would reply: ‘Yes, I’ve got her, have you got Y?’ For me, that really hit home. These are men in our daily lives who we see every single day, whether it’s in the shops or at the school gate, or in our homes”.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Jess Davies- Presenter, Author & Campaigner (@_jessdavies)

Before moving on, I was affected by a piece Jess Davies wrote for GLAMOUR back in May. She noted how, for so long, she felt shame for daring to take an image of her own body. Now, she is taking back control and realising that this was not her shame to carry:

“Diving deep into the manosphere forums where their depravities were laid bare, I skimmed through threads that housed millions of non-consensual intimate images of women that were being traded and shared without their consent and clicked through the rotating pages of deepfake ‘porn’ requests that featured women that the men knew personally, including their family members. With a lump in my throat, I read through the sick rape fantasies they would each take turns to write and observed their online ‘games’ which saw them ‘risk’ women’s intimate images and personal details as currency.

Then when I’d finally seen enough I played the UNO reverse on them; learning about their twisted part-time activities, their sleuthing tactics and secret websites I pulled all this information together in a book that acts as a handy toolkit to arm women with the knowledge of what is unfolding in these online spaces in the hope of galvanising them to demand better from the tech platforms, the government and the men in their lives.

Each chapter concludes with accessible tips to help women don their own sleuthing hats and better protect themselves from the harms of online misogyny, while we wait for legislation and societal attitudes to catch up.

He believes there is a conspiracy against men, that our societies are not patriarchal and never were (because the very concept of patriarchy is a fabrication), and that women should not be allowed to have an abortion without a man's consent.

As Gisele Pelicot defiantly said, shame must change sides – and that goes for all victims of image-based abuse. While I almost lost myself in the darkness, not one of the multiple men who have removed my consent digitally and physically over the years has ever apologised. Society has failed to make them feel it’s needed; tech platforms have failed to hold them accountable.

I was done carrying the shame that was dumped on my back, and I wanted other survivors to feel that sense of relief too, which is why I wrote my book. No One Wants To See Your D*ck is an investigation into online misogyny and includes my own deeply personal experiences, along with interviews with incredible survivors, campaigners and experts of image-based abuse, including Glamour's Lucy Morgan, Professor Clare McGlynn and Elena Michaels from Not Your Porn.

It’s time we call out the deep-rooted misogyny that thrives online, that threatens to radicalise an entire generation of men through ‘masculinity’ grifters with podcast microphones, and call in parents, platforms and politicians to take a stand against the epidemic of violence against women and girls that is rampant in the digital world.

With Amnesty International UK’s recent polling finding 73% of Gen Z social media users have witnessed misogynistic content online and a fifth of female users having avoided or left social media platforms altogether due to the impact of online misogyny, it is vital that the UK government introduces Glamour’s comprehensive Image-Based Abuse law to better protect women and girls online and hold perpetrators to account.

Women should not have to accept or expect online misogyny in exchange for their digital citizenship”.

PHOTO CREDIT: Jess Davies

Think of the great feminists of our age. How they have lived through various decades of shift. Various waves of feminism and crisis that women face. The rise in sexism and misogyny. At all times, campaigning for equality and awareness. Highlighting the way women’s safety and dignity is almost an afterthought. Now, with the Internet and A.I., there are new issues and ways in which women are abused and exploited. There are so many amazing women who are writing books, publishing articles and posting on social media. Ensuring that they highlight the facts and make their voices heard. In the case of Jess Davies, her early life as a glamour model was at a time when lads’ magazines were rife. Where there was this lurid tabloid press and ickiness that ran through society – to be fair, it is still here, but it was especially rife in the '00s and before that in the '90s -, and she experienced such abuse and shame. Not that she should have felt shame but, as she explained to The Guardian, it took her years to shift that feeling of stigma and blame. Someone who is incredibly strong and inspiring in the face of what I would imagine to be daily abuse – she was sent unsolicited dic*k pics and sexually violent messages – and harassment. I want to source from this site, where Jess Davies shared evidence of the mass scale of abuse online. How there are various forums where deprived sexual fantasies are shared. Where women are degraded and threatened. She shared her own experiences:

“Misogyny has been normalised online and validated by influential figures who post harmful attitudes towards women. These creators have millions of views and while their posts are allowed to go viral on social media platforms, young men and boys will be led to believe these behaviours are okay and acceptable. Or worse, glorified and glamourised. Often we talk of content on mainstream social media platforms such as Meta, Tiktok and X but I would like to draw attention to the fringe forums. The sites such as 4Chan and forums including Nudostar and The Fappening are seen as more difficult or even impossible to regulate, so the millions of members on these sites are allowed to carry out their harmful abuse without any attempt to stop them.

On 4chan.com, a popular messaging board forum there is a thread titled ‘Adult requests’. In here, users post anonymously their explicit requests to other users which often include requests to create explicit deepfake images, ‘nudify’ pictures and ‘AI cum tributes’ of women. These women are often women that the men know personally, I have seen men requesting explicit deepfake’s of their mothers, sisters, ex-girlfriends and their teachers. Other users will fulfil their request, removing the clothes from the women in the image using AI technology and replacing them with computer generated naked bodies or porn scenes. These are often graphic and objectify women, consent is not required which I believe motivates these men. Recently, I have noticed an uptick in the requests for AI ‘face fucks’ of the women, which use AI technology to create a graphic and extreme oral sex scene.

Also prominent on manospehre forums are the mass trading and sharing of women’s intimate images without their consent. This is referred to by campaigners as ‘collectors culture’, where men are sorting women (often women they know) into folders under their home towns, relationship towards the men or their universities. Then, they all trade the women’s images without their consent as if they are baseball cards. One thread alone titled ‘Glasgow’ of Scottish women had over one million views, highlighting the popularity of this content. I have seen my own images traded in these forums under a request for women from my hometown, Aberystwyth. A small, coastal town in Wales. If this town is not safe from the depravities of collectors culture online, no town is.

We cannot continue to ignore the mass scale of absue that is happening in these forums, often forums that have millions of followers. This is not happening on the dark web, it is happening on fringe mainstream social media sites. While non-consensual intimate images of adults are still classified as ‘legal’ content, these forums will continue to thrive. There are millions of British men perpetrating this abuse because they can. They can get away with it, there is never any consequences for them while the women live with all the trauma inflicted on them for daring to exist in a woman’s body or engage in digital communications”.

A campaigner who I feel will write other books and make huge changes, I also think that she is a modern feminist icon. After a busy 2025, where she has been promoting her book and sharing her personal experiences, there must have been this mix of excitement and vulnerability. Revisiting times that were hugely upsetting and challenging. However, her social media posts are so informative and personal. Recently, she has discussed the misogyny the Lionesses have faced, and how women in football are still underheard and subjected to abuse and discrimination. This is someone I can see either running a charity or creating more documentaries. At a time when there is so much sexual violence and women’s privacy and body autonomy are being threatened, her voice is so important! Someone who, as I can attest, is compelling to listen to, Davies also has potential to be enter politics. However, after releasing No One Wants to See Your D*ck: A Handbook for Survival in the Digital World, I can see envisage Davies writing another book and continuing to campaign. The exceptional Jess Davies is…

AN amazing person and role model.

FEATURE: Kate Bush’s Hounds of Love at Forty: Thirteen: Jig of Life

FEATURE:

Kate Bush’s Hounds of Love at Forty

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

Thirteen: Jig of Life

__________

ONE of the most exciting…

and joyful tracks on Hounds of Love, I often think of this as the sister song to The Big Sky. If you want to pair songs from the first side and The Ninth Wave, I would say that Jig of Life does connect with The Big Sky. In the sense that there is a childlike wonder and link. The Big Sky sees Bush giddily excited looking at the clouds and imagining what could be. One that is shaped like Ireland. Jig of Life, to me, is the woman/Bush stranded at sea and her family and friends speaking to her. Urging her to wake up. I am going to come to Leah Kardos and her book, Hounds of Love. She shares some interesting analysis about the song’s themes and the composition. Before I get there, this article from the Kate Bush Encyclopedia shares an interview from 1992 where Bush spoke about Jig of Life:

“At this point in the story, it’s the future self of this person coming to visit them to give them a bit of help here. I mean, it’s about time they have a bit of help. So it’s their future self saying, “look, don’t give up, you’ve got to stay alive, ’cause if you don’t stay alive, that means I don’t.” You know, “and I’m alive, I’ve had kids [laughs]. I’ve been through years and years of life, so you have to survive, you mustn’t give up.”
This was written in Ireland. At one point I did quite a lot of writing, you know, I mean lyrically, particularly. And again it was a tremendous sort of elemental dose I was getting, you know, all this beautiful countryside. Spending a lot of time outside and walking, so it had this tremendous sort of stimulus from the outside. And this was one of the tracks that the Irish musicians that we worked with was featured on.
There was a tune that my brother Paddy found which… he said “you’ve got to hear this, you’ll love it.” And he was right [laughs], he played it to me and I just thought, you know, “this would be fantastic somehow to incorporate here.”
Was just sort of, pull this person up out of despair.

Richard Skinner, ‘Classic Albums interview: Hounds Of Love. Radio 1 (UK), aired 26 January 1992”.

There is a lot to explore regarding Jig of Life. It is a song that Bush recorded in Ireland, at Windmill Lane Studios in Dublin. There is a lot to love about the track. Bush’s brother John reciting a poem. Doing the narration and affecting an Irish accent. The rush you get from the composition. Uillean pipes, fiddles and bouzouki among the instruments that creates this frenzy. In terms of the narrative of The Ninth Wave, we are now past the point where there is much sign of hope. The heroine has expended so much energy and had to face such an ordeal. Struggling to stay awake and afloat, this is the moment when these voices come to her. Hallucinations and delirious auditory flashes. The connection to Ireland is important. Bush’s mother was Irish and there is that ancestry and connection. The antepenultimate song on the album, we then lead to Hello Earth and the finale, The Morning Fog. There is a lot I did not know about the song. As Leah Kardos begins: “The starting point for ‘Jig of Life’ took inspiration from the ceremonial music of Anastenaria, a centuries-old ecstatic dance and fire-walking ritual performed during religious feasts in Greece and Bulgaria. The music, inspired by a rare recording that Paddy Bush had found and shared with his sister, is characterized by repetitious, deep rolling rhythms and whirling figures performed on violin and tsabouna (Greek bagpipes)”. That is the origin and inspiration that only Kate Bush could be associated with! I do love to explore the origins for the songs on Hounds of Love. How The Ninth Wave’s title relates to the name of a poem from Alfred Lord Tennyson’s The Idylls of the King: the ninth wave. There is also a tie to The Coming of Arthur:

“Wave after wave, each mightier than the last,
Till last, a ninth one, gathering half the deep
And full of voices, slowly rose and plunged
Roaring, and all the wave was in a flame’

Kate Bush uses ‘the ninth wave’, inspired by ‘The Coming of Arthur’, as well Aivazovsky's iconic 1850 painting ‘The ninth wave’ which shows a group of people shipwrecked at sea, as a metaphor for the final wave before drowning, a moment which becomes the anchor of the album and provides its framing narrative”.

Bush was inspired by the music of Anastenaria, as “people worked themselves into a trance state through the hypnotic quality of the music”. Lifting those rhythmic musical qualities of the style, we notice that in the first section of Jig of Life. “Based on the Greek dhrómi mode (on a root of A), the tonality is mostly minor but with idiosyncratic instability on the second degree (B)”. I have quoted some of this text when I explored The Ninth Wave earlier this year, though I am returning now as Hounds of Love turns forty next month. Focusing on this extraordinary song, Bush is visited by a vision of her future self. One that urges her to stay awake and to live. It is this sort of vision that one might experience if they were dying or lost at sea There is so much poetry and folklore in the song. Leah Kardos observers how “the mention of ‘the place where the crossroads meet’ evokes once again the image of Hecate, the goddess in Greek mythology who is often depicted flanked by two dogs and sometimes shown with a triple-formed face that sees the past, present and future simultaneously”. I wonder if Hecate inspired the cover of Hounds of Love, where Bush is photographed with her two dogs, Bonnie and Clyde. There is a mix of Greek mythology and Ireland in Jig of Life. Taking from her mother’s homeland, John Shehan’s fiddle has this “deft melodic turn” that helps intensify the music “to a boisterous jig that’s thrillingly physical and full of blood”. Bush travelled to Dublin to work with these musicians who were arranged by Bill Whelan.

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

As involved and captured by the jig as we are, it suddenly stops. Bush repeats the words “’I put this moment… here’”. Her brother John’s voice cuts in with “’Over here”’ and the opening ceremonial theme strikes up once again”. There was an idea to pitch John Carder Bush’s voice higher to make it sound like a woman. That would have given his poem different meaning and impact. Maybe good that this never happened! Kardos ends her section on Jig of Life by writing how it is “A magical and affirming moment of temporal self-care; the powers of mothers from the past and future rallying at the crisis point to help Bush choose to live”. One of the deepest and most intriguing lyrics from Hounds of Love comes during Jig of Life: “And to your little boy and to your little girl/And the one hand clapping/Where on your palm is my little line/When you’re written in mine/As an old memory?”. Jig of Life seems like the final part of the middle. Two tracks in the first act, three in the second, and then two to end. From here, we move to the epic and stirring Hello Earth before a brief burst of sunshine and redemption from The Morning Fog. Jig of Life could be the dying voices our heroine cannot react to as she has fought too long. It could be – and I like to think so – the spirit and kick that she needs to stay alive and not give up hope. A transformative and pivotal moment from The Ninth Wave,  it causes my pulse to race and heart skip in time…

EVERY time I hear it.

FEATURE: Kate Bush’s Hounds of Love at Forty: Twelve: The Influence of Ireland and East Wickham Farm

FEATURE:

 

 

Kate Bush’s Hounds of Love at Forty

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

Twelve: The Influence of Ireland and East Wickham Farm

__________

I am continuing…

my twenty-feature run celebrating the fortieth anniversary of Hounds of Love. Kate Bush’s fifth studio album is forty on 16th September. I am making my way through the song on the album’s second side, The Ninth Wave. I am going to move to Jig of Life. That has Irish instrumentation and spirit. It features John Sheahan, Dónal Lunny and Liam O’Flynn. Bush recording at Windmill Lane Studios in Dublin for the Irish Sessions. It is clear that both Ireland and East Wickham Farm were instrumental when it came to influence for Hounds of Love. Her family home was a real draw. I wrote in a previous feature how 1983 was the year when she recharged and rebuilt. A bespoke home studio was built at East Wickham Farm and there was this new connection to her family. The space where she spent her childhood and wrote her earliest songs, it obviously had this personal and spiritual pull. I am going to start out by dropping in this article about the making of Hounds of Love. A passage that discusses Watching You Without Me and Jig of Life caught my eye:

“Double bass accompaniment by the legendary Danny Thompson. The gifted musician has nothing but compliments when talking about Kate Bush as a person and a musician: “She is a dream person to work with. People assume that these iconic people are beyond touch. You pull out to her house and she says ‘Hello Danny, want a cup of tea?’ Then you go in the studio and it is the other person that is serious about the music. It is a great profession to be in when you work with great artists who are also really fine people.”

The grim story takes a slight positive turn by offering hope in the form of the floater’s future self, asking them not to give up. After all, to paraphrase what Dizzie Gillespie said about Louis Armstrong: no you, no me. But it goes farther to explain that the future holds a family, kids, something to live for.

The song was written in Ireland, the clear influence of the country manifested in the arrangement: “It was a tremendous sort of elemental dose I was getting, you know, all this beautiful countryside. Spending a lot of time outside and walking, so it had this tremendous sort of stimulus from the outside.” A multitude of Irish folk instruments are played by John Sheahan (Fiddles, whistles), Donal Lunny (Bouzouki, Bodhran) and Liam O’Flynn (Uillean pipes). As in another Irish-influenced tune, Night of the Swallow from The Dreaming, Bill Whelan is responsible for the arrangement”.

We can see there what it was like for artists who recorded at East Wickham Farm. It is no surprise that Kate Bush wanted to return to East Wickham Farm. Not only is there the stability of home and family. There is that comfort of having that support at her feet. Whereas The Dreaming (1982) saw her work at various studios and it was intense and unhealthy, at home, she could spend time in her own studio and not worry about costs. Hounds of Love is an album defined by nature and the natural world. Water especially prevalent. East Wickham Farm offered this calm and bucolic beauty. There were the gorgeous flowers and the landscape. However, I think it was the working routine and the hospitality of East Wickham Farm that was most important. Paul Hardiman and Kate Bush continued sessions from April 1984 after she had spent a month in Ireland. The sessions, which were about six months, were idyllic. Hardiman remembers walking into the kitchen at East Wickham Farm and there being conversation flowing. Paddy Bush (Kate Bush’s brother) was always there. The dogs, Bonnie and Clyde – who appear on the album cover –, were there. Copious tea and food being prepared. Pigeons and doves were all over the place. Although it was very relaxing and happy, it was also hard work. Bush was producing on her own and wanted to prove to EMI that she was right to produce. They had doubts after The Dreaming was released. She would throw musicians curve balls or ask for something a little unorthodox. She wanted to add another percussive layer to Jig of Life, so she handed Charlie Morgan various Irish percussive instruments (including the lambeg) and asked him to fill twenty-four tracks with “clacking, beating and booming”, as Graeme Thomson writes in Under the Ivy: The Life and Music of Kate Bush. Bush did not have a glass wall between the live room and control room. It meant she relied on microphones and this two-way communication. It made her less self-conscious but also saved time.

It was family and that familiarity that helped infuse Hounds of Love with this sense of wonder and confidence. Sounding far more relaxed as a producer than previously, East Wickham Farm enforced the songwriting but it also allowed Bush to produce an album to her own specifications and to her own timeframe. Not being surrounded by smog and loads of people in a city allowed her the flexibility and quiet to concentrate. Even if the album was tough to record and there were some stressful times, she still recounted how it was the happiest time of her recording career. Connecting to childhood memories and times at the farm. Thinking back to her childhood years. Also, as I explained in my 1983 feature, Bush built her own dance studio and committed to a healthier diet. It was a magnificent time. Also influential was Ireland. Not only in terms of songs like Jig of Life. Quite a bit of Hounds of Love was written there. If the inspiration of Ireland can be heard in Jig of Life, the country and its people runs right through Hounds of Love. The landscape and its views. Bush very much moved by the sea and the land. Valleys and hills. The beautiful expanses that no doubt enforced the narrative of many of the songs. The Ninth Wave especially. Also, The Big Sky nicely references Ireland (“This cloud, looks like Ireland!”). I will talk about Ireland more when I discuss Jig of Life next. Bush’s mother Hannah was born in Ireland. She had family there. Having not spent a lot of time there since childhood, it was an overdue return. She would go back to record again for 1989’s The Sensual World. Nature, warmth, family and the views from both East Wickham Farm and Ireland were a big factor in terms of Hounds of Love’s writing and genius. These essential elements and lifeforces emboldening and defining…

HER greatest work.

FEATURE: Together for Palestine: Why a Benefit Concert for a Besieged People Needs to Motivate Prolonged Commitment from the Music Community

FEATURE:

 

 

Together for Palestine

Why a Benefit Concert for a Besieged People Needs to Motivate Prolonged Commitment from the Music Community

__________

LIKE it or not…

PHOTO CREDIT: TIMO/Pexels

but we live in a fascist country. The U.K. has become almost a dictatorship where free speech is banned. If you protest against a genocidal nation (Israel) then you are see as inciting violence and hatred. Anyone who shows support towards Palestine Action – essentially people against genocide and showing their disgust through peaceful measures – and being arrested and can spend time in prison. In fact, the maximum sentence you could face is fourteen year. Support for that group is seen as an act of terrorism. Think about all the actual crimes where you could get a more lenient sentence. We have come to a point where our own government is not only ignoring genocide but funding it! They have a political agenda that is to squash and imprison anyone who speaks out against a heinous and barbaric action. Yesterday (9th August) saw hundreds arrested in London after showing support for Palestine Action:

“Police have arrested 474 people at a demonstration in London in support of banned group Palestine Action.

The Metropolitan Police said 466 protesters were arrested for supporting the group, five for assaults on police officers, two for public order offences, and one for a racially aggravated offence.

Scores of people simultaneously unveiled handwritten signs with the message "I oppose genocide. I support Palestine Action" at the protest, organised by Defend Our Juries at Westminster's Parliament Square.

The government proscribed the group in July under the Terrorism Act of 2000, making membership of or support for it a criminal offence, punishable by up to 14 years in prison.

No officers were seriously injured, and the Met Police said the number of arrests was the largest made by the force on a single day in the last 10 years.

Home Secretary Yvette Cooper thanked police for their response, while charity Amnesty International described the mass arrests as "deeply concerning".

Footage from the square showed officers moving among the protesters, who were mainly seated on the ground, and speaking to them before leading them away.

Protesters whose details could be confirmed during processing were bailed with conditions not to attend any further protest in support of Palestine Action.

People who refused to give their details or whose identities could not be verified were taken into custody.

Many of the protesters didn't want to speak to media who came to cover the protest, but one - who didn't give her name - told the BBC: "If they ban Palestine Action, what other group is next? Until we're just no longer allowed to protest anything. That's the opposite of democracy."

Another, Claudia Penna-Rojas, 27, said: "I don't think anyone wants to get arrested, but I'm more concerned with what is happening to people in Palestine right now, and I refuse to be a bystander”.

I do think that it is appalling that we have a Prime Minister (Keir Starmer) who wants to remain silent and do nothing. Someone who is very much supporting Israel and does not care about those in Palestine who are being slaughtered. As our government does not care, who else in this country is going to show anger at what is happening?! Recently, Bob Vylan took to the Glastonbury stage to call out  the IDF (Israel Defence Forces). Glastonbury could have pulled power to the set, but they did not. The BBC condemned them. In fact, Glastonbury’s organisers, who you would think would support free speech - and said that this is something they do back – rowed back and said that they condemned Bob Vylan. It was a cowardly and pathetic show from an organiser and festival who want to supress free speech and anyone who stands against evil. Some artists have spoken our against Israel and there have been other acts who have taken to the stage to call out their genocide. Showing humanity for Palestine. That is what it is about. It is not about anyone inciting murder or calling for insurrection. Instead, it is rightly anger and disgust at what is happening. A genocide that is being shown on the news but governments are doing nothing. You get the feeling artists would like to put this into their music. To call out this barbarism. However, as people can spend years in prison for showing any form of support for Palestine Action – which, again, they are doing peacefully! -, then they have more than their careers on the line. It is a horrible time when the U.K. is being run as a fascist state. Perhaps nothing new, the evil of our current government is glaring!

It is not the case that the music industry is also doing nothing. In fact, a benefit concert is being organised and overseen by Brian Eno. The wonderful and much needed Together for Palestine. No doubt it will not be televised and there will be this media silence. Also, I guess artists are being warned not to follow Bob Dylan and Kneecap in voicing their anger at the IDF and outrage at what is happening. One feels it might be a slightly muted affair in that regard. However, it is a necessary show of solidarity from the music industry:

“The lineup has been announced for one of the largest-scale benefit concerts for Palestine since the intensification of conflict after 7 October 2023. It takes place at Wembley Arena in London on 17 September.

Brian Eno is overseeing Together for Palestine, which brings together British and Palestinian artists at the 12,500-capacity venue to raise funds for Choose Love, a British charity working with 23 partner organisations in Gaza to deliver food, medical supplies and other support.

The Palestinian musicians Adnan Joubran, Faraj Suleiman and Nai Barghouti are scheduled to perform alongside Eno and a host of top UK artists: Bastille, Cat Burns, Damon Albarn, Greentea Peng, Hot Chip, James Blake, Jamie xx, King Krule, Mabel, Obongjayar, Paloma Faith, Rachel Chinouriri and Sampha, with “one-off contributions” from Rina Sawayama, PinkPantheress and Riz Ahmed.

Eno said: “In the face of the horrors of Gaza, silence becomes complicity. Artists have always helped societies to point out injustice and imagine better futures. That’s why this concert matters. It’s time for us to come together – not just to raise our voices, but to reaffirm our shared humanity.”

Khaled Ziada, founder and director of the London Palestine film festival, is producing the event alongside Eno and Tracey Seaward, the film producer who also produced the 2012 London Olympic opening ceremony.

Ziada said: “In a world where governments and mainstream media have fallen silent in the face of genocide, this gathering becomes a chorus of resistance – where artists and communities come together to grieve, to rage and to stand shoulder to shoulder with the Palestinian people.”

Singer-songwriter Chinouriri, who supported Sabrina Carpenter on a recent tour, called on other musicians to “join me in building a bridge to victims in Gaza and beyond, we must break through the privilege of our bubble and speak with truth and justice”. Albarn said: “Pacifism is an action. Peace is an action. To live peacefully requires vision and commitment … I am grateful for this opportunity to act in solidarity with the Palestinian people.”

The production design of the event is being handled by Es Devlin, the Olivier and Tony award-winning stage designer who, as well as working in theatre, has designed huge pop shows for the likes of Beyoncé, the Weeknd, U2 and Lady Gaga.

Devlin is collaborating with Palestinian artist Malak Mattar on Together for Palestine, and said the Wembley Arena stage “will express the rich beauty of Palestinian culture”.

Eno has been a longstanding supporter of Palestine and the cultural boycott of Israel.

In 2017 he had a dispute with Nick Cave over the cultural boycott, with Cave characterising the boycott movement as “people that are trying to shut down musicians, to bully musicians, to censor musicians, and to silence musicians”. Eno replied: “This has nothing to do with ‘silencing’ artists – a charge I find rather grating when used in a context where a few million people are permanently and grotesquely silenced”.

IN THIS PHOTO: Nadine Shah played the Other Stage at Glastonbury 2025/PHOTO CREDIT: Getty Images

I do hope that this concert makes a difference and it raises a lot of money! That aid can be flown to Gaza and it means that starved and afflicted Palestinians can get the support they need. As our government seems hell bent on letting it happen and do not have any humanity, it is good that the music industry is doing something. Even Hollywood has been pretty inactive when it comes to any sort of similar fundraiser. After the dust has settled on the concert, what comes next? Obviously, the genocide will continue and there will be this pacifism from governments the world over. Although music alone cannot change the situation, it is incumbent on artists and those in the industry to keep speaking out. Obviously, there is that risk of censorship. Venues refusing to book artists and radio stations not playing their music. Even the possibility of artists facing criminal action. However, as we are in a fascist state and any form of protest against genocide is seen as criminal, then we need to do something. The question is, what? Songs do need to address Israeli genocide. I have not heard many examples of artists using their platform to speak out against it. Artists need to be more vocal in the media. Nadine Shah played Glastonbury in June, and she used her set as an opportunity show support for Palestine:

“The singer has been a vocal supporter of Kneecap throughout the recent Terrorism charges brought against their singer Mo Chara for allegedly voicing support for Hamas and Hezbollah during a gig last year. She also recently posted ‘Fuck the BBC’ on her Instagram page, and explaining it was because they had pulled the broadcast of a documentary called Gaza: Medics Under Fire.

While for the most part during her set of intense pop, she let the moving backdrop behind her do the talking for her - it was designed by digital artist Cold War Steve and ended on an image of Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu sat on sunchairs in a bombed-out Gaza, with Keir Starmer serving them cocktails - at the end of the show she read out an open letter by Artists for Palestine UK in support of Palestine Action, the direct action organisation who the government are proposing to ban under anti-terrorism laws.

She read that Palestine Action was intervening in a genocide and that, “We deplore the government's decision to proscribe it. Labeling nonviolent direct action as terrorism is an abuse of language and an attack on democracy”.

In terms of massive artists in the mainstream speaking out, there has been this silence. What about the biggest Pop artists of today? Where are they in this?! It does seem like they are either fearful of huge career repercussions or they do not feel it is appropriate to use their voice to speak out against genocide. Music has always been about protest. Even before Bob Dylan was writing protest songs in the early-1960s, there has been this platform where artists could speak out. Even during the time of Civil Rights clashes, the repercussions for protesting were not as severe as they are today. It is very positive that Together for Palestine is happening and thousands will turn out. I hope that it raises millions. Also, as much as anything, I hope that is spurs more artists into action. That it also shames our government and shows that the music industry has more comparison and humanity than they do! That they also seemingly reflect a growing anger and disgust in this country. People risking jail to call out genocide. It is an appalling world we live in. It is hard to tell how long this will go on. Will it be the case that Gaza is completely wiped out and every single citizen is killed or left to starve?! After that, do we just stand still and remain silent?! Israel is committing war crimes and they are being funded by governments around the world. It is horrifying that we are in a situation where it is down to the music industry and other sectors away from government to do the right thing. To take some form of action. From Bob Vylan to Kneecap to Nadine Shah to CMAT, there are those that want to speak out and see Palestine free. However, governments are prepared to arrest and imprison people. Censor anyone who speaks up. What an appalling situation to see this happen…

IN the modern age.

FEATURE: End It On This: No Doubt’s Tragic Kingdom at Thirty

FEATURE:

 

End It On This

No Doubt’s Tragic Kingdom at Thirty

__________

I know that some fans and reviewers…

IN THIS PHOTO: No Doubt (from left: Adrian Young, Tom Dumont, Gwen Stefani and Tony Kanal)/PHOTO CREDIT: Joseph Cultice

were not fans of No Doubt’s Tragic Kingdom, as they felt it was too ‘poppy’ and maybe a departure from their Ska roots. Calling the album too commercial or Pop-leaning seems insane! It is not at all. In any case, No Doubt, like any band, are allowed to evolve and change. In terms of the songs on their album, there are more than a few classics. Just a Girl, Spiderwebs and Don’t Speak are all huge songs. Led by the super-cool and legendary Gwen Stefani, I think you can hear D.N.A. from Tragic Kingdom in work by modern groups. Those that definitely are compelled by No Doubt’s underrated third studio album. It would be another five years until they followed this album with 2000’s Return of Saturn. On 10th October, 1995, Tragic Kingdom came into the world. Just a Girl was released on 21st September, 1995, so fans had an inkling into what the new album would sound like. A number one album in the band’s native U.S. and a huge success around the world, there were a lot of positive reviews for Tragic Kingdom upon its release. At the 1997 Grammy Awards, No Doubt was nominated for Best New Artist and Best Rock Album. In 2003, Tragic Kingdom was ranked number 441 on Rolling Stone's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time. NME included Tragic Kingdom on its 2020 list of "The best new wave albums ever". Because this immense album is coming up for its thirtieth anniversary, I want to spend some time with some features that take us inside its recording, the amazing songs and also the aftermath and legacy. I remember when Tragic Kingdom came out. I was twelve and I had heard a few No Doubt songs. I think the release of Don’t Speak in 1996 was a huge moment. One of the defining songs from my high school years.

Let’s start off with this article from last year. They provide a thorough and forensic breakdown. Providing insight and technical details. A lot of great information about the recording of Tragic Kingdom. Produced by Matthew Wilder, this was a moment when No Doubt ascended to new heights. Iconic songs like Just a Girl regularly played on music T.V. and widely shared on the radio. Songs from the album still popular and heard to this day. Maybe the best album No Doubt released:

“The creation of Tragic Kingdom was set against a backdrop of musical experimentation and personal upheaval. By the early 1990s, No Doubt had already established themselves as a band with a distinctive sound, blending ska, punk, and pop influences. However, their self-titled debut album, released in 1992, failed to make a significant impact commercially, largely overshadowed by the grunge movement that dominated the airwaves.

Despite these challenges, the band persisted, releasing The Beacon Street Collection in 1995, a self-produced album that demonstrated their growing confidence and musical maturity. This period of creativity and experimentation laid the groundwork for Tragic Kingdom. With the departure of Eric Stefani, who left to pursue a career in animation, the band was forced to reconfigure their songwriting process, with Gwen Stefani and Tony Kanal stepping into more prominent creative roles.

The album’s main contributors included Gwen Stefani on vocals, Tony Kanal on bass, Tom Dumont on guitar, and Adrian Young on drums. Additional musicians and collaborators enriched the album’s sound, bringing a vibrant mix of influences to the fore. The album’s title, a playful twist on Disneyland’s “Magic Kingdom,” reflects the band’s Southern California roots and the bittersweet themes explored throughout the record. The album artwork, created by photographer Daniel Arsenault, captures this duality, featuring Gwen Stefani in a striking red dress amidst an orange grove, symbolizing both the beauty and decay inherent in the “Tragic Kingdom.”

Recording Process

The recording of Tragic Kingdom was a meticulous process, spanning over two years from March 1993 to October 1995. The sessions took place across 11 studios in the Greater Los Angeles area, each contributing to the album’s rich and diverse sound. Studios like Total Access and The Record Plant provided the band with state-of-the-art facilities and a blend of vintage and modern equipment, essential for capturing the album’s eclectic style.

Matthew Wilder, the album’s producer, played a crucial role in shaping the sound of Tragic Kingdom. Known for his work with artists like Christina Aguilera, Wilder brought a polished yet dynamic approach to the recording sessions. His collaboration with engineer Paul Palmer ensured that each track was meticulously crafted, balancing the band’s ska-punk roots with broader pop sensibilities.

One notable challenge during the recording was the tension arising from the band’s personal dynamics, particularly the breakup between Gwen Stefani and Tony Kanal. This emotional backdrop added a layer of intensity to the sessions, with tracks like “Don’t Speak” capturing the raw vulnerability of their relationship. Despite these hurdles, the band managed to channel their personal experiences into the music, creating an album that resonated deeply with listeners”.

I am going to jump to a review from Pitchfork. They provided some interesting and excellent backstory and history. The lead-up to the recording of Tragic Kingdom. I think one of the most notable and important aspects was the lyrics by Gwen Stefani. A feminist whose lyrics on songs like Just a Girl very much fitted with a scene of incredible women who were using their music to hit out against sexism and the patriarchy, this anger and defiance mixes with the more colourful and heartbroken:

“Following the surge of third-wave feminism in the early ’90s, the mid-’90s became the peak of the “angry white female” era in rock and pop. It was a time when feminized aggression—from Hole and riot grrrl to Liz Phair and Alanis Morissette—was suddenly perceived as being on-trend, as if women haven’t been furious forever. Stefani, girly tomboy ultra, arguably benefited from this kind of branding, even while she maintained the fun, energetic personality that led Courtney Love to dub her a “cheerleader” and others to call her the “anti-Courtney Love.”

Lead single “Just a Girl” was Gwen’s bridge to planet angry. Upon its release in September 1995, it became a theme song for any girl fed up with living in a boy’s world—with the emphasis once again being on girl. Spice Girls would soon turn “girl power” into a full-on marketing technique, but “Just a Girl” was some kind of magic middle-ground in the context of ’90s pop-feminism: sassy, addictively sweet and sour, yet still accessible. Dumont’s indelible looping riff adds a taunting feeling, while the lyrics leave interpretation conveniently ajar with lines like “I’m just a girl/So don’t let me have any rights.” Never has Stefani’s vocal style—with its forays into babydoll voice and its breathless, swooping belts—felt more intentional as a performance technique meant to amplify her message. “Just a Girl” is not a subtle song, but what it’s doing is quietly masterful: The sarcasm subverts the underlying victimhood in a sneering way, but victimhood is also something girls (particularly white or privileged girls) quickly understand as a tool for getting what they want.

Gwen’s Tragic Kingdom-era pain was incandescent because it felt off the cuff, uninhibited, and barely removed from its cause. You saw that up close in “Don’t Speak,” the breakup ballad that pushed No Doubt’s success over the edge, topping the Billboard airplay chart for 16 weeks. Starting in late 1996 and continuing for much of 1997, flutters of Spanish guitar and angelic whispers of “hush hush, darling” were inescapable; for those listening across radio formats or watching MTV at the time, the song’s ubiquity reached “if I hear this one more time…” levels. But people also could not look away from the saga of Gwen and Tony, SoCal ska’s Stevie and Lindsey. Every night they’d hit the stage and seemingly be forced to relive their split through “Don’t Speak,” a song musically at odds with nearly everything in their upbeat catalog.

Not every song on Tragic Kingdom is overtly about the breakup or the frustrations of girlhood—this is ’90s California ska, after all, a few mostly positive chillers are required. But the album tracks skew cheesy, especially now. Ska bands of the era would sometimes show off their funk chops with a disco cut on their LPs, but No Doubt’s take, “You Can Do It,” is plagued by fake disco strings and a guitar jangle that borders on musical clip art. “Different People,” a brass-and-keyboard-led ska track about how the world is big and diverse, has the tension of a child’s picture book, and the depth of one too. Eric’s musical-theater-strikes-back closer “Tragic Kingdom” is cringeworthy in highly specific ways: the sampling of theme-park announcements, the egregiously drawn-out tempo changes, the fact that it seems to be about how evil Walt Disney is. (Besides, on an album like this, the most tragic of kingdoms is actually Gwen and Tony’s love story, not the suburbia surrounding Mickey’s castle.)

The rush of energy you get from Tragic Kingdom’s opening run is enough to keep the album within spitting distance of the ’90s canon, emblematic of a specific time and place. Other highs include sixth single “Sunday Morning,” where the seasoned band easily finds the pocket with nimble, driving percussion, reggae rhythms, and overdubbed harmonies. “End It On This,” one of the only songs credited to Dumont, Kanal, and both Stefanis, is low-key pummeling: Gwen, in all her high-low vocal glory, recalls the last kiss with Tony while the band fires on all cylinders. Every player gets to show off a little with their “thing,” but Dumont is the secret all-star: His tough opening riff sets the song into intricate lockstep. Dumont, much like fellow unlikely-’90s-rock-star Rivers Cuomo, was a Kiss fan and longtime metalhead; you can hear that in his guitar hooks, which lent Tragic Kingdom a fizzy edge”.

It is another review that I want to get to now. Billboard write how No Doubt sort of pogoed into people’s lives in 1995. The Orange County band had endured enough tragedy and dislocation for a few albums. However, Tragic Kingdom does not get bogged down with too much baggage. It is a spectacular album that does show its tears and scars, and yet there is a lot of pleasure, joy and a range in terms of emotions and themes:

“It was the outcome of three years of struggle,” said bassist Tony in a 1997 interview with Rolling Stone. “And there were casualties.”

There sure were. During the making of Tragic Kingdom, Eric quit to become an animator on The Simpsons, and Kanal ended his eight-year romantic relationship with Gwen. These things transpired as the group — rounded out by guitarist Tom Dumont and drummer Adrian Young — tried to reverse their commercial fortunes while maintaining their artistic integrity. Fate was trying to break their stride and slow them down, but luckily, they had producer Matthew Wilder — he of “ain’t nothing gonna break my stride” fame — at the controls. While not exactly the hippest guy in the world, Wilder helped Gwen and the boys strike the right balance between the bouncy ska of their early years and the other sounds they were already drifting toward.

That last point is crucial. While some ska fans blasted the band for abandoning its roots, this was no overnight ka-ching thing. No Doubt’s sophomore effort, 1995’s self-released Beacon Street Collection, is all over the map, and even the group’s 1992 self-titled debut isn’t a front-to-back genre record.

And besides, by blowing out ska’s borders, No Doubt was following in the proud footsteps of fellow California acts like Fishbone and Oingo Boingo — not to mention all those 2 Tone groups from England that Gwen and Eric grew up worshipping. After nearly a decade in action, No Doubt circa ’95 was an ambitious foursome with a metal guitarist, a Prince-loving funk bassist, and a drummer comfortable in various styles. They’d have done themselves a disservice by sticking strictly with ska, and they’d have never made it out of Anaheim.

Of course, they did make it out. Tragic Kingdom sold 16 million copies and reached No. 1 on the Billboard 200. Only one of the singles, “Just a Girl,” cracked the Hot 100, but that’s because the rest weren’t released as proper singles. That technicality meant that tunes like “Spiderwebs” and the mega-smash “Don’t Speak” could only climb the Billboard Hot Airplay chart, and climb they did, reaching No. 23 and No. 1, respectively.

As dramatized in the “Don’t Speak” video, Gwen’s emergence as a superstar was a huge part of the group’s success. For teen girls in the late ‘90s, she was a different sort of idol, a glamorpuss in track pants who’d play girly-girl one minute and raging punk chick the next. In a pop landscape filled with power female figures, (Alanis Morissette, Shirley Manson, Courtney Love, etc.), Gwen’s bindi-dotted, bare-abbed, Barbie-warrior-princess aesthetic made her an alternative to all the alternatives.

Eric’s departure left her to handle the bulk of the lyrics, and the Tony situation left her with lots to write about. It was serendipitous, suddenly having this forum to express the greatest heartbreak she’d ever experienced, though it couldn’t have seemed like it at the time.

Thanks to Tragic Kingdom, No Doubt became one of the era’s biggest bands, and two decades later, it still tours and records when the mood strikes. Gwen, meanwhile, is a bona fide solo star and beloved TV figure, thanks to The Voice”.

I am rounding off with two retrospective features. The first is from VICE. Writing back in 2015 for Tragic Kingdom’s twentieth anniversary, we get to discover why the band and the album proved so popular. I think it is their relatability and accessibility. Especially Gwen Stefani. Not ego-charged or concerned with fame, this was (and still is) an artist who could connect with her fanbase and was writing songs that they could identify with:

“What Gwen wanted to sing about was, and still is, incredibly relatable to anyone still figuring their shit out. On “Different People” she grapples with her place in a world full of “different people and all their different minds” as impending pop stardom beckons. “You don’t have to be a famous person just to make your mark,” she sings on the first verse, sounding as though she’s trying to convince herself as much as anyone. She continues: “A mother can be an inspiration to her little son / Change his thoughts, his mind, his life, just with her gentle hum.” Twenty years on, this couplet feels like the motherhood versus career conundrum neatly summed up for the TMZ generation.

“Different People” is one of several Tragic Kingdom highlights that could only have been written by a smart, ambitious, somewhat conflicted woman. “Hey You!” has Gwen suspiciously eyeing up a newlywed couple who are “Just like my Ken and Barbie Doll,” while “Just a Girl” is a wickedly sarcastic feminist anthem inspired by a scolding she received from her father after she stayed out too late with Kanal and drove home alone. “Oh I’m just a girl / All pretty and petite / So don’t let me have any rights,” she sneers at the top before sighing, “Oh, I’ve had it up to here!” over the outro.

Elsewhere, “Spiderwebs” is essentially Destiny’s Child’s “Bug a Boo” for the pre-cellphone era, while on “Excuse Me Mr.” Gwen casts herself in the role of a girl simply desperate to catch a guy’s attention, complete with a sonically slapstick middle eight. Funnily enough, the summer before Tragic Kingdom dropped, Gwen caught the attention of a man who would at least in part inspire her art for the next two decades: Bush’s Gavin Rossdale. Their fateful meeting and instant attraction occurred when both bands toured with the Goo Goo Dolls. They began dating soon after and married seven years later, with Rossdale inspiring numerous future No Doubt and solo songs including “Don’t Let Me Down” and “U Started It”—can you guess what those two are about?—before Gwen filed for divorce this past August citing “irreconcilable differences.” Both personally and professionally, 1995 was a massive year for La Stefani.

But nevermind Rossdale, a selection of Tragic Kingdom’s best songs hinged around another key relationship for Gwen: her long-term boyfriend and No Doubt bassist Tony Kanal, and aching power ballad “Don’t Speak” became the summation of her heartbreak in the wake of their split. At the time it was utterly inescapable, but perhaps because it’s been dimmed by over-familiarity, the album’s lesser-known breakup songs hit harder today. “Happy Now?” is filled with bitterness and defiance, “Sunday Morning” documents an unexpected role reversal—suddenly he wants her back—and “End it on This” sees Gwen finally throw in the towel. But far from becoming subsumed by, “You Can Do It,” is Gwen’s stop-wallowing-and-get-yourself-together song.

No Doubt would go on to make a more sophisticated album with 2000’s Return of Saturn (the lion’s share of the lyrics for which are dominated by the rollercoaster early days of her relationship with Rossdale), followed by 2001’s Rock Steady, which was precision-tooled by The Neptunes and William Orbit for chart success, before Gwen made her inevitable solo move in the mid-aughts. But Tragic Kingdom remains the band’s defining moment, a career-altering record that’s earnest, passionate, and reassuringly flawed. An album about breaking up, growing up, and thinking about shit; about not always knowing the answer and getting on with it anyway. Dumont summarized its personal impact on his Tumblr recently: “The whirlwind of world-touring and extensive promoting of Tragic Kingdom went on for two and a half years, and at the end of it we emerged, not only rock stars, but as men and women.” It shouldn’t take an act of God for you to give it another listen, but the passage of 20 years seems a perfect excuse to dive back in”.

I am going to finish off with a feature from 2020. GRAMMY revisited Tragic Kingdom on its twenty-fifth anniversary. Even though they say Tragic Kingdom was No Doubt’s sophomore album – it was their third, but 1995’s The Beacon Street Collection was an independent release, though it is technically their second album -, they wrote how it is a masterpiece. An album that had an impact on the Rock and Pop world at large. It still resounds to this day. It has translated and endured through the decades well. It has lost little of its magic:

“Tragic Kingdom is widely considered a breakup album, and it is, but the heartbreak also extends to more than just Stefani and Kanal. The band faced so much tragedy in their formative years, starting with suicide of co-founder John Spence in 1987 when they were only a year old. Spence shared vocal duties with a then-bashful Stefani and was a charismatic frontman who did backflips on stage. Days before No Doubt were to perform at the Roxy Theatre, a gig they hoped would be their big break, he shot himself. The Roxy was announced as the devastated band’s final show. They reunited a month later because, Stefani told Interview, it’s what Spence would have wanted. The unreleased song, "Dear John," pays tribute to their friend.

And then there was Eric’s exit. While it set No Doubt on their course, it rattled their confidence emphatically. It was traumatic, Dumont said. "We were just a group of friends who were really tight, and we had our band for years. Our band just got rocked with this intense, personal stuff." And, Stefani admitted, it almost made them give up. "We were sitting there saying to ourselves, ‘O.K., we are 26. We’ve been doing this for eight years. Maybe we should finish up and get adult lives now.’ Then the record came out and people thought it was good, which was really weird, because we were always the dork band from Anaheim." "The Climb," a psychedelic slow burner that alludes to overcoming obstacles, is one of Eric’s two solo offerings to Tragic Kingdom—the other being the freaky title-track, which describes a dystopian Disneyland and Walt’s cryogenically frozen tears as dripping icicles—and has emerged as a fan-favorite over the years.

But while No Doubt’s early years may have been flooded with drama, plumbing the depths of it helped them find their voice. Collective agony cultivated the strength of their bond and dug into an honest narrative about navigating loss that is not only powerful, but universally relatable. We all experience pain. It’s an intrinsic part of the human experience. And we tend to relate to art that, even if ever so slightly, taps into our grief because it expresses it in a way that we perhaps exactly can’t. It hits a nerve. And that’s deeply comforting—which is arguably why Tragic Kingdom continues to endure in the powerful way that it does: yes, it’s poetic, gorgeously dynamic, and sounded fizzy and fresh against the band’s radio contemporaries. But it’s also a symbol of hope in the wake of tragedy”.

I think I will leave it there. On 10th October, we will listen to Tragic Kingdom thirty years after its release. It seems hard to think it is that old! I remember the album fondly, and it was an important part of a special time in life. Even though most people know Tragic Kingdom for the singles, there are deeper cuts like End It on This and Tragic Kingdom which deserve more discussion and exposure! Go and listen to this truly great album. You only need to listen to it the once before you are…

TOTALLY smitten.

FEATURE: Champagne Supernova: Oasis’ (What’s the Story) Morning Glory? at Thirty

FEATURE:

 

 

Champagne Supernova

Oasis’ (What’s the Story) Morning Glory? at Thirty

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THIS is a moment…

IN THIS PHOTO: Oasis photographed at Glastonbury 1995/PHOTO CREDIT: Jill Furmanovsky

when one of the biggest bands of the 1990s are touring and bringing their classic music to new and existing fans alike. Oasis are thrilling audiences around the world. About to head to Mexico, and then on to Australia, the band would never have imagined, even a couple of years ago, that they would be bringing their music to people far and wide. However, as they are reunited and this is an important year, there is speculation that there could be a new album or more tour dates. It is significant that Oasis are touring in 2025, as it is thirty years after they released their second studio album, (What’s the Story) Morning Glory? Released on 2nd October, 1995, it followed a year after their hugely successful and acclaimed debut album, Definitely Maybe. I am going to write another feature about the album closer to its anniversary. However, now, I want to spend some time with one of the most important albums of the 1990s. One that included Oasis greats like Champagne Supernova and Wonderwall. If some feel (What’s the Story) Morning Glory? is not as strong as Definitely Maybe, there is denying its popularity. It sold a record-breaking 345,000 copies in its first week in the U.K. Going on to spend ten weeks at number one on the UK Albums Chart. (What’s the Story) Morning Glory?  was Oasis’ breakthrough in the United States, reaching number four on the US Billboard 200, where it went on to be certified 4× platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). Two of its singles, Some Might Say and Don’t Look Back in Anger, reached number one in the U.K. Wonderwall and Roll with It reached number two. Champagne Supernova was never a U.K. single, though you feel it should have been!

I am going to come to some features and reviews for (What’s the Story) Morning Glory? It is an album that Noel Gallagher says he has trying to live up to. Such was the success and quality. I don’t think there are many weak moments on it. However, the singles really do stand out. Wonderwall is especially strong, and it remains Oasis’ most-streamed song. The two reviews I am going to end with are both for the twentieth anniversary reissue that came out in 2014. It contained bonus tracks and was this expanded release. Hard, as critics noted, to improve on perfection! However, before getting there, there are a few things to include. I have included the video above. This is where Noel Gallagher provided this detailed interview in 2020. He headed back to Rockfield Studios in Wales (this is where the band recorded the album. It was produced by Owen Morris and Noel Gallagher). NME highlight some key takeaways from the interviews. I have included my favourites:

“Noel just listened to ‘(What’s the Story) Morning Glory?’ for the first time in 25 years…

The writer of ‘Wonderwall’ probably doesn’t need to give himself a refresher on what he’s created too often, but the interview kicks off with Noel revealing that he listened to ‘What’s The Story…’ in full for the first time since its release ahead of its anniversary.

“Often I’ve wondered,” he said, “what’s a fucking 14-year-old getting out of this after all these years, you know when I’d see them at the gigs? What are they fucking hearing? I fucking I understood it today. You know, the words, the melodies. Liam’s voice is fucking on another level on that record. Because there’s nothing, there’s nothing around today that even remotely comes near to it.”

He recorded ‘Wonderwall’ sitting on an actual wall, watched by “a lot of sheep”

Noel was joined by [man from Rockfield Studios] for the new interview, and took a tour around the studios and its grounds. Passing a wall on the outside of the studio, Noel revealed that the recording of ‘Wonderwall’ took on a rather more literal meaning when he put one of the most iconic songs of all time to tape.

“That’s the wall that I sat on that day,” he remembered. “Fucking idiot, playing ‘Wonderwall’.” Gallagher went on to recall that “a lot of sheep were watching me do ‘Wonderwall’. I don’t know who was more freaked out, me or them.

“I remember saying to Owen [Morris, co-producer], I’ve got this song called ‘Wonderwall’, I want to record it on a… wall.” Didn’t turn out bad in the end, we suppose.

Only the songs written pre-Rockfield on the album have a second verse…

It’s well known that ‘(What’s The Story) Morning Glory?’ was written in a lightning fast 12 days. Booking Rockfield for six weeks, the band only used three of them, one of which saw them scatter across the country after a fight put a stop to proceedings. “I remember it just being really really fucking fast,” Noel remembers, “and half the songs hadn’t even been written when I got here.” He explained: “If you listen to the record, it’s split into two halves. Half of the songs have got a second verse, they were all written before I got here, and the rest of the songs are just the first verse twice, and then maybe a third time. That was me getting in here and going, ‘You know what? Fuck it.’”

The band were expecting the album to be hated upon its release

“It didn’t get one good review, I don’t think,” Noel remembered of the critical response from journalists upon the release of the album. “I think we were waiting for that,” he added, saying that journalists at the time, as well as the band’s record label, were “expecting ‘Definitely Maybe’ part two”. “I was expecting it to be not well-received.”

“[Journalists] had to second-guess everything after ‘Morning Glory’, because they’d got it so wrong,” Noel said. “That’s why when ‘Be Here Now’ came out, which isn’t a great album, it got 10/10 everywhere. It didn’t get one bad review, because they didn’t want to be made to look like dicks again”.

I want to come to an interesting interview from 1995, where Noel Gallagher was interviewed ahead of Oasis’ Croke Park shows. It was from the Hot Press archive. However, before that, I wanted to get some information about the making of (What’s the Story) Morning Glory? This article from July provides a deep dive into Oasis’ second studio album. One that will get a lot of new inspection ahead of its thirtieth anniversary on 2nd October:

“Financing came from Creation Records, led by Alan McGee, who believed in Oasis’s vision. The recording budget was estimated at £60,000—a substantial sum, but modest compared to the album’s eventual impact. Financially, the band faced the usual pressures of second-album expectations, but McGee’s support and the band’s drive saw them through.

The album’s title, “(What’s The Story) Morning Glory?”, came from a phrase used by Noel’s friend Melissa Lim, which itself originated in the film Bye Bye Birdie. The cover, designed by Brian Cannon, features two men passing on Berwick Street, London—a nod to the area’s record shops. The sleeve cost £25,000 to produce, with Cannon and DJ Sean Rowley as the men on the cover. Producer Owen Morris can be spotted in the background holding the master tape. Noel later admitted he wasn’t entirely happy with the cover, but its image has become iconic.

Recording Process

The story of the recording sessions is as compelling as the music itself. The main sessions took place at Rockfield Studios in Wales during May and June 1995. This studio, founded in 1961, is renowned for its rural setting and classic equipment. Previous clients included Queen, Rush, and Coldplay, making it a legendary place for bands seeking inspiration and technical excellence (Sound On Sound).

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Producer Owen Morris, working alongside Noel Gallagher, drove the sessions with a fast-paced, no-nonsense approach. The band recorded the album in just 15 days—often finishing a song each day. The focus was on capturing energy and immediacy, not endless perfection. Engineer Nick Brine handled the technical side at Rockfield, while mixing was completed at Orinoco Studios in London. Owen Morris had previously worked with bands like The Verve and The Rolling Stones, bringing valuable experience to the table.

Recording was not without its challenges. The band’s hard-living reputation followed them into the studio, but producer Owen Morris kept them focused. Paul Weller’s contributions—especially on “Champagne Supernova”—brought a new dimension to the sound. The sessions were intense but creative, with the group feeding off each other’s energy. Noel Gallagher later described the sessions as “a mad blur,” but the results speak for themselves.

Touring and Promotion of (What’s The Story) Morning Glory?

The promotional campaign for (What’s The Story) Morning Glory? was bold and relentless. Singles were released ahead of the album, with “Some Might Say” coming out in April 1995, followed by “Roll With It” in August, which led to the much-publicised “Battle of Britpop” with Blur. The rivalry between the bands became a media sensation, drawing huge attention to both groups. Not only that, but Oasis made frequent television appearances, radio interviews, and magazine covers to keep the spotlight shining.

The album’s tour ran from 22 June 1995 to 4 December 1996, starting with a warm-up gig at Bath Pavilion. The tour featured major UK outdoor concerts, including two nights at Maine Road, two at Loch Lomond, and two at Knebworth House—each attended by 125,000 fans. The Knebworth shows were the largest ever held by a single band in the UK, with 2.5 million ticket applications. The tour visited Europe, North America, Australia, and Asia, with more than 100 shows in total”.

I will focus more on particular songs in the second feature. Maybe spotlight the singles or go inside the legacy of the album. There is not as much written about (What’s the Story) Morning Glory? as there is Definitely Maybe. Perhaps the latter is more impactful, as it was Oasis’ debut. However, in terms of hype, excitement and expectation, few albums of the 1990s were bigger than Oasis’ (What’s the Story) Morning Glory? I am going to move to that Hot Press interview from 1995. There are some interesting interviews with the band that year. However, this one caught my eye. Noel Gallagher, as you’d expect, unfiltered and candid! It does provide some useful context and helps give us an understanding of the album and what Oasis were feeling ahead of the release of (What’s the Story) Morning Glory? A seismic album:

While it took Manc neighbours the Stone Roses a Fleetwood Mac-esque five years to record theirs, Oasis’ second album was cranked out in a fortnight with a good few of the guitar and vocal tracks laid down in one take. Ranging from the nihilistic guitar thrash of ‘Hello’ to the psychedelic bubblegum of ‘She’s Electric’, Morning Glory ram-raids its way through 30 years of Britpop finery with nobody, not even Blur, standing an earthly of pulling them over.

“I look at the Roses and thing, ‘fuck me, how did a top band like that manage to disappear up their own arses?’ Second Coming would’ve been an alright album if it'd come out a year after the first one but the build-up from the press and sense of expectation from the fans was so over the top that it was automatically going to be a disappointment.

“Maybe it does exist,” Noel proffers, “but I’ve certainly never experienced ‘difficult second album syndrome’. I’m happy that Morning Glory’s the best record we could possibly have made and if people disagree with that, fair enough, they’re entitled to their opinion. Even if it’s wrong. The only time I feel pressured is when someone comes up, recites the lyrics from ‘Live Forever’ and says, ‘that song prevented me from committing suicide’. I mean, I’m delighted it gave you the strength to carry on but it’s a heavy responsibility, particularly when they’re total strangers.”

Hot Press can also exclusively reveal – unless he’s blurted it out since to someone else – that Noel's done a Bruce ‘n’ Tarby and brought in Paul Weller to supply a few extra riffs.

“Yeah, we were strolling along the 17th fair­way when I stopped, gave him a big hug and asked whether he’d be a luvvie and come in and play on our album. Nah, what happened is that me and Paul have become really good mates, he heard some of the rough mixes and went, ‘I wouldn’t mind a bit of that’. Naturally, I was happy to oblige.

“It was another case of meeting someone who I idolised and realising that he’s just a bloke from Woking who likes his beer and writes damn fine tunes. I’ll sit in the room and say, ‘why are you such a miserable cunt all the time?’, which I know he prefers to endless questions about The Jam and the fucking Style Council. Actually, I did have a word with him about all that crap instrumental stuff he did during his Cappuccino Kid-phase, but when you consider he’s been going 20 years and Stanley Road’s the best album he’s done yet, I think you can forgive him for the occasional dip”.

Actually, I am only going to feature one review for the 2014 anniversary reissue of (What’s the Story) Morning Glory? I am being Oasis-like ramshackle when it comes to order and cohesiveness! Instead, I want to finish with a bit about its legacy Earlier this year, xs noize said about its legacy:

“(What’s the Story) Morning Glory?” is widely regarded as one of the defining albums of the Britpop era and among the greatest records of the 1990s. It frequently appears on lists ranking the best albums of all time, reflecting its lasting impact on music history. Beyond its commercial success, “Morning Glory” became a cultural landmark, capturing the spirit of mid-’90s optimism and excess. Its tracks were everywhere—blaring from pubs, filling stadiums, and resonating with a broad audience, from dedicated rock fans to casual listeners. Songs like “Wonderwall” and “Don’t Look Back in Anger” transformed into anthems of unity and resilience, often sung by crowds at public events and gatherings. The album also cemented Oasis’ legacy in rock history, earning them numerous accolades, including the 1996 BRIT Award for Best British Album. Its influence can be traced through countless bands that followed, while its tracks remain staples on radio playlists and in live performances. Propelled by the success of “Definitely Maybe”, “Morning Glory” catapulted Oasis from indie crossover success to global rock superstardom. It is often highlighted by critics as a pivotal moment in British indie music, illustrating just how deeply independent music had penetrated the mainstream”.

I’ll get to Pitchfork and their take on the reissue of (What’s the Story) Morning Glory? Even though the original is pretty great and know, the expansion and three-disc reissue gave listeners access to unheard tracks and provided this wider and deeper story of a massive album that turned Oasis into truly global superstars. It definitely did not hurt their egos when the album sold by the bucketload! Regardless, you can feel the effects and influence of (What’s the Story) Morning Glory? thirty years later. As we speak (pretty much), the band are playing songs from the album on the stage:

“It’s hard to remember now, but when (What’s the Story) Morning Glory? was released in the fall of 1995, Oasis were losers. Sure, their 1994 debut album Definitely Maybe had gone straight to No. 1 on the UK albums chart, and sold several million copies worldwide. But in their first true test of post-success fortitude, Oasis could no longer claim the title of biggest rock band in the land. “Roll With It,” the teaser from Morning Glory, was released August 14, 1995—not coincidentally, the very same day as “Country House”, the jaunty new single from their bitter rivals in Blur (aka the London art-school yin to Oasis’ Mancunian street-tough yang). A year’s worth of tabloid sniping between the two groups—which hit its peak/nadir when Oasis architect Noel Gallagher declared that Blur’s Damon Albarn and Alex James should “catch AIDS and die” —had effectively come down to the UK chart equivalent of an after-school fistfight. And in this case, it was Oasis who walked away licking their wounds—that week, “Country House” outsold “Roll With It” by more than 50,000 copies to take the No. 1 spot.

As it should’ve: “Roll With It” is nobody’s favorite Oasis song and would be hard-pressed to crack a Top 20 list of the band’s all-time best. It's a catchy enough tune, sure, but its shoulder-shrugged message of “you gotta roll with it” felt atypically blasé coming from a band that had previously endorsed self-deification, immortality, and shagging well-heeled medical professionals in helicopters. However, for a band never encumbered by humility, the decision to go with Morning Glory’s weakest song was, in retrospect, Oasis’ cockiest gesture yet: They were willing to take the first strike in the so-called Battle of Britpop because they knew it was only a matter time before they’d be delivering the knockout blow.

(What’s the Story) Morning Glory? would go on to sell more than twice as many copies in the UK as Blur’s contemporaneous The Great Escape, and, over the following two years, it served as the unofficial soundtrack to England's imminent changing of the guard. But, just as significantly, it achieved a metric of popularity that had proven so elusive to Oasis' Britpop peers: bonafide American success, with the album reaching number 4 on the Billboard charts and selling 3.5 million copies Stateside. (The Great Escape, meanwhile, languished in the lower reaches of the Top 200.) For all their unibrowed laddism and two-fingered paparazzi salutes, Oasis projected a glamorous image of Englishness that was potent enough to stoke the Cool Britannia fancies of those North American Anglophiles who make trips to specialty shoppes to load up on Dairy Milk bars, but (unlike Blur) not so colloquial as to alienate the heartland. It’s the stuff upon which Austin Powers franchises and Brit-themed pub-chains would later be built.

Fortuitously arriving at the mid-point of the '90s—and representing the peak of a Britpop narrative that took root with the retro-rock renaissance of the Stone Roses and the La’s five years previous—(What’s the Story) Morning Glory? is Oasis' absolute pinnacle. If Definitely Maybe presented Oasis' raw materials—’60s psychedelia, ’70s glam and punk, Madchester groove—Morning Glory melted down and remoulded them into a towering sound that was unmistakably their own, with those omnipresent (but never ostentatious) string-section sweeps classily dressing up the songs like ribbons on a trophy. And yet the real triumph of Morning Glory is measured not by the tracks that have since become karaoke classics, first-dance wedding standards, and go-to bathtub sing-alongs, but the exceptional album tracks that never got a shot at certain chart supremacy—like the jet-roar jangle of “Hey Now” (for my money, the best Oasis song never to be issued as a single) and the crestfallen “Cast No Shadow”, dedicated to a then-mostly-unknown Richard Ashcroft of the Verve, a band that would soon reap the benefits of Oasis’ American incursion.

Ironically, the Oasis-whetted appetite for all things English was arguably also crucial to the impending Stateside success of the Spice Girls, who would usher in a wave of preteen-targeted pop that would eventually push guitar-oriented rock acts down the charts by decade's end. And what’s most striking about listening to (What’s the Story) Morning Glory? today is how, at the height of their powers, Oasis seemed to be bracing for their own eventual downfall. The tone of the album is decidedly darker and more reflective than the working-class escapism of Definitely Maybe, be it the foreboding “it’s never gonna be the same” prophecy of opening salvo “Hello”, the title track’s white-lined dispatches from the after-party circuit, or the cigarette-lighter-illuminated comedown of “Champagne Supernova”, wherein Oasis already sound nostalgic for the idealism of their debut album. And while Noel still deals in absurdist metaphor here (how exactly does one slowly walk down the hall faster than a cannonball?), he also emerges as a more personable, sobering foil to brother Liam’s bratty swagger—not just on his showstopping star turn on “Don’t Look Back in Anger”, but also in the way his backing vocals imbue “Cast No Shadow” with a deeper sense of despair”.

There are a couple of different takes regarding the legacy of Oasis’ (What’s the Story) Morning Glory? One of the black marks is that the vile and convicted sex offender Gary Glitter has a co-writing credit on the opener, Hello. It is this stain and I hope that Oasis never play this song, lest they be earning money for a repulsive human being! In any case, one cannot argue with the quality of the music and how the album slotted into British music in 1995. In 2015, The Observer wrote about the complex legacy of Oasis’ second studio album:

“Like many of its contemporaries, the 11-track Glory, which has sold more than 20 million copies worldwide, has aged spectacularly well, especially in light of bands formed in its wake—the Killers, Coldplay, Arctic Monkeys and so on—trying (and often failing) to recreate the record’s specific blend of ego, vanity, skill and attitude. That the album was also the band’s sophomore effort, following the 1994 breakthrough Definitely Maybe, only enhances Oasis’ already formidable reputation.

Granted, at the time of its release, critics almost uniformly dismissed Glory, writing it off as nothing more than a rehash of other, better British rock bands: “Throughout, it’s Gallagher’s way with a tune, any tune, that remains their trump card, as in the way ‘Some Might Say’ piles hook upon hook, shamelessly buttressing its assault on the memory: well, if that bit doesn’t get you humming, it suggests, how about this bit? Or this?” wrote the Independent’s Andy Gill upon Glory’s initial release.

Derivative, sure—glam pioneer Gary Glitter earned a co-writing credit on “Hello”, owing to the striking similarities between the Oasis song and his own 1974 tune “Hello, Hello, I’m Back Again“—but in that sense, Oasis prefigured pop music’s eventual infatuation with hip-hop, sampling and mash-ups. What was sacrilegious in the mid-1990s is now utterly commonplace among the 21st century’s reigning pop stars—just consider Sam Smith’s brief kerfuffle over just how much Tom Petty influenced the sound of his smash hit “Stay With Me”.

But strip-mining your record collection for inspiration doesn’t mean much if you don’t have the chops to back it up. And in that sense, Oasis stands alone.

Much like the albums crafted by the Gallagher brothers’ beloved Beatles, there’s a casual brilliance to so much of Glory that its stature as one of the landmark albums of the 1990s, despite the critical establishment’s initial revulsion and dismissal of Oasis, seems a given. The album spawned six hit singles, including “Wonderwall”, “Some Might Say”, “Champagne Supernova”, “Roll With It” and “Don’t Look Back in Anger”, yet Glory is remarkably cohesive. The record, produced by Noel Gallagher with Owen Morris, unfolds with unhurried ease, fading in with the youthful bravado of “Hello” and slipping away with the languorous, liquid fade-out of “Supernova”.

Strip-mining your record collection for inspiration doesn’t mean much if you don’t have the chops to back it up. In that sense, Oasis stands alone.

It’s easy to get lost in the almost taffy-like give and take of lengthier tracks like “Some Might Say” or “Champagne Supernova”—listening to these songs 20 years later is to be reminded that British rock bands still stand alone when it comes to cultivating an almost tangible atmosphere on their albums. Delving into the second and third discs of (What’s the Story) Morning Glory?’s special edition puts the accomplishment in greater context.

The second disc, full of period B-sides taken from the UK singles, finds Oasis toggling between acoustic sensitivity (“Talk Tonight”; “Rockin’ Chair”) and snarling bombast (“Acquiesce” and “The Masterplan”), but with less finesse than is found on Glory proper. (Still, “Round Are Way”, a B-side from the Wonderwall single, might be the greatest Oasis track to ever miss out landing on a record.)

That Oasis, at that moment in its career, was able to demonstrate restraint and ruthlessly cull its absolute best speaks to the savvy of the Gallagher brothers and their band mates. The axiom about having your whole life to make your first record, but hardly any time to make your second certainly applies: 14 months elapsed between Oasis’ first and second LPs. Perhaps it was the Beatles influence again—just dive in and do your best, and let the work dictate the direction of things”.

I am going to end with GRAMMY and their feature from 2020. Many note that, in spite of the odd less-than-epic song here and there, (What’s the Story) Morning Glory? has aged really well. Songs like Champagne Supernova and Don’t Look Back in Anger still stir emotions and, for me at least, ensure memories flood back! Me as a child hearing this music for the first time:

“Rightly considered one of the eminent forces of 1990s Britpop, Manchester troupe Oasis found sizable acclaim and attention with 1994's Definitely Maybe. Like Radiohead’s Pablo Honey the year before, though, it was a strong but noticeably raucous and rudimentary debut. That said, there was enough potential to assume that its follow-up would feature more refined arrangements, production and songwriting. Fortunately, 1995's (What’s the Story) Morning Glory? offered precisely that.
True, a few songs became too big for their own good (you know the ones); plus, it was a more traditionally retro second effort than, say, Radiohead's innovative and diverse The Bends or the characteristically strange first releases from Oasis’ ostensibly direct rivals, Blur; yet, (What’s the Story) Morning Glory? was a major step forward for the famously combative Gallagher brothers and crew. Twenty-five years on, it remains a top-notch slice of Britpop wistfulness.

Following the success of Definitely Maybe, Oasis were already showing signs of external triumph and internal turmoil. They’d spent much of 1994 touring and living the typical rock star lifestyle; as a result, the now-legendary tensions between Noel and Liam Gallagher truly began, with a September 1994 show in Los Angeles resulting in Liam throwing a tambourine at his brother, leading to Noel momentarily quitting the band. Thankfully, they reconciled, continued playing gigs, and focused on writing what would become (What’s the Story) Morning Glory?

Predictably, they stayed with Creation Records, and the main quintet from Definitely Maybe carried over here; however, the sequence served as a transitional work in terms of drummers, with founder Tony McCarroll only playing on one track—"Some Might Say"—while his replacement, Alan White, played on everything else. Rather than create in several locations, they stuck to just one place—Rockfield Studios in Wales—and simplified further by using just two returning producers: Noel Gallagher and Owen Morris. By most accounts, the recording sessions were smooth, swift, and fruitful.

In the run-up to release, the press helped Oasis stir up more controversy with Blur. Specifically, both bands issued singles on August 14, 1995, with Blur’s "Country House" quickly outselling Oasis’ "Roll With It" by about 50,000 copies. In response, Noel told The Observer the following month that he wished members of Blur would "catch AIDS and die." He issued an apology shortly thereafter, but the remark continued to serve as a chief example of Oasis’ well-known bitterness.

Despite all of that disorder, (What’s the Story) Morning Glory? outdid its predecessor commercially. In fact, it sold nearly 350,000 copies in its first week alone and entered the U.K. charts at No. 1. (It remained at the top of the charts for the rest of the year and eventually became one of the best-selling U.K. albums of ever.) Comparably, it reached #4 on the Billboard 200, with six singles being out out between April 1995 and May 1996. It also fared quite well in Canada, Sweden, New Zealand and elsewhere, so it’s fair to say that the LP was a global hit.

It’s a bit ironic, then, that initial critical reviewers weren’t entirely enthusiastic, with publications like Q, the Chicago Tribune, Melody Maker and The Independent voicing significant gripes. In contrast, Entertainment Weekly, the Los Angeles Times, NME, and Rolling Stone were more positive. Of course, the record is now considered a classic, with a high ranking in several articles and books about the greatest albums of all time. It even won "British Album of 30 Years" at the 2010 Brit Awards.

Although other releases from back then may have pushed more boundaries, (What’s the Story) Morning Glory? still shines in terms of recalling the splendor of the 1960s British Invasion within a modern edge. For instance, "Roll with It"—with its poppy melodies, backing chants and twangy guitar strums—sounds like a lost Lennon tune from Help! or Rubber Soul. The same can be said for the brighter and more playful "She’s Electric"; the dreamily epic "Cast No Shadows"; and the decidedly biting and symphonic "Hey Now!" That’s not to say that Oasis were being too derivative—rather, they incorporated such homages into an irresistibly invigorating and poignant new stew.

Similarly, the immensely popular "Wonderwall," "Don’t Look Back in Anger" and "Champagne Supernova" are still among the best tunes from the Britpop era. In particular, "Wonderwall" is a quintessential example of a 1990s acoustic rock ode complemented by strings, with a lovely juxtaposition of hip verses and compelling choruses. The piano-led "Don’t Look Back in Anger"—their first single with Noel on lead vocals—is just as gripping yet even more nuanced, touching and charming. As for "Champagne Supernova," its cryptically poet lyricism and fiery guitarwork (courtesy of Paul Weller) taps into 1970s classic rock while also harnessing the optimism and softness of the previous decade’s folky warmth.  

Even the unruliest tunes—"Hello," "Some Might Say" and “Morning Glory”—manage to conjure Definitely Maybe whilst showcasing advanced techniques. The hooks are bigger, the layers are denser and the scopes are larger. There are also the two "Untitled" entries (a.k.a "The Swamp Song—Excerpt 1" and "Excerpt 2"): the first is a quick and relatively abstract interlude full of vibrant post-punk carnage, while the second cleverly reprises its forebearer beneath the soothing sounds of water. Sure, they may not be significant when heard in isolation, but the ways in which they tie together—as well as how they segue in and out of the tracks around them—give the LP a stronger sense of continuity and ambition.

Two-and-a-half decades later, (What’s the Story) Morning Glory? is still a great record. At the time, it propelled Oasis further creatively, commercially, and—at least to an extent—critically, all the while dominating the high school hangouts and dorm room memories of countless Gen Y fans. Thus, it’s a significant time capsule as much as it is a superb piece of entertainment, and while real-life incidents may have marginally marred our nostalgia for it, when considered outside of that drama, it’s well worth looking back in appreciation”.

On 2nd October, we will celebrate thirty years of Oasis’ (What’s the Story) Morning Glory? The pressure to follow such a distinct and popular debut album could have ruined other bands. To be fair, it almost did that to Oasis, though Liam and Noel Gallagher constantly fought anyway - so it is a minor miracle they are on stage together now and seemingly, for now, reunited! It gives the album new weight and significance that Oasis are (briefly) reformed. They get to play these songs with fresh eyes. To fans who were there in 1995 or the children of the parents who were! Each person has their own perspectives and memories of the album. If you were around in 1995, you would have known how significant a release it was. Thirty years later and (What’s the Story) Morning Glory? has…

NOT lost its swagger and brilliance.

FEATURE: Kate Bush’s Hounds of Love at Forty: Eleven: Watching You Without Me

FEATURE:

Kate Bush’s Hounds of Love at Forty

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

Eleven: Watching You Without Me

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THE final five features…

I will run as part of this twenty-feature series marking the fortieth anniversary of Kate Bush’s Hounds of Love on 16th September are about the aftermath. The legacy of the album, its promotion and some discussion also around photography of Bush shot in 1985. After this feature, I only have three more songs to cover from the album. Those are Jig of Life, Hello Earth and The Morning Fog. However, the fourth track on Hounds of Love’s second side, The Ninth Wave, is on my mind today. I want to go deeper with Watching You Without Me. Following the intense Waking the Witch and its terror, this is a shift of pace and sound. That track features voices coming to Kate Bush’s heroine. Imploring her to stat awake. Others that seemed like hallucinations. Her being judged as a witch and put on trial on the water. It is a frantic and busy song that has a similar energy to Jig of Life, though the moods and lyrics are very different! Coming in the middle is this more serene and meditative song. One that is also haunting and upsetting. Family of the woman adrift at sea looking at the clock and wondering where she is. Not one of the most popular or talked-about songs on Hounds of Love, I do think that Watching You Without Me is a pearl. Beautifully composed and with typically remarkable production, I will once more come to Leah Kardos’s 33 1/3 Hounds of Love book, that goes into detail when it comes to this song. Go and buy the book, as it gives us context and background to Hounds of Love and talks about its legacy. Watching You Without Me was among the ten songs from Hounds of Love (Mother Stands for Comfort and The Big Sky were omitted) that were performed during Kate Bush’s twenty-two Before the Dawn dates in 2014. I am going to come to Leah Kardos’s words soon. Before that, here is some interview archive, where Bush discusses the beautiful and desperately sad Watching You Without Me:

“Now, this poor sod [laughs], has been in the water for hours and been witch-hunted and everything. Suddenly, they’re kind of at home, in spirit, seeing their loved one sitting there waiting for them to come home. And, you know, watching the clock, and obviously very worried about where they are, maybe making phone calls and things. But there’s no way that you can actually communicate, because they can’t see you, they can’t you. And I find this really horrific, [laughs] these are all like my own personal worst nightmares, I guess, put into song. And when we started putting the track together, I had the idea for these backing vocals, you know, [sings] “you can’t hear me”. And I thought that maybe to disguise them so that, you know, you couldn’t actually hear what the backing vocals were saying.

Richard Skinner, ‘Classic Albums interview: Hounds Of Love. Radio 1 (UK), aired 26 January 1992”.

Waking the Witch ends with a rescue helicopter overhead that implores the woman to get out of the water. Though, and I never understand why, they do not rescue her. Perhaps it is a hallucination again. Or they could not pick her up. It is one of those clichés when it comes to films and shows that involve someone at sea or an island. The helicopter overhead and them waving frantically and it flying past. After the exhilaration and energy of Waking the Witch, Watching You Without Me “blinks awake in a different realm”. This is one of the calmest tracks on Hounds of Love. Right up there with And Dream of Sheep. I love the musical dissection from Leah Kardos. She notes how there is “a minimal LinnDrum rhythm, augmented with side-stick backbeat and a syncopated floor tom by Stuart Elliott, Bush’s voice mumbles a quick oscillation across a 5th, sounding like a car engine that won’t start – a trapped utterance glitching between repelling magnetic fields”. I will talk more about the lyrics to end. However, the composition is fascinating. So different to anything else on Hounds of Love, it is an album so varied, yet it all hangs together! “The music rocks back and forth between B♭ and C (the same chord relationship, ♭VII to I, of ‘The Big Sky’) like a hypnotist’s swinging watch”.  Leah Kardos writes how Stuart Elliott’s percussion has this ticking motion. Simulating a watch. A family waiting for their daughter to return maybe. The percussive pulse is just slightly below sixty beats per minute. A wonderful consideration that adds this sense of urgency and anxiety. Of time ticking and there being this infinite wait and sense of the unknown. Seconds seem like hours to the family! For the woman on the water, she is longing to be safe and rescued. She would love the boredom or familiarity of being in that house – where people wait not knowing the fate of their loved one. Leah Kardos notes, before the main vocal starts, that we are “in a liminal space between life and death, wakefulness and sleep; Bush is trapped in limbo”.

The lyrics are heart-aching and painful. That sense of stress and uncertainty. Not knowing where this woman is. Little do they know the extent of the drama she has already faced! Bush does not deliver the lyrics in this strained and hyperactive way. The fact that she sings in this almost resigned or wistful way adds extra punch and gravity to Watching You Without Me. Consider these lines: “You watch the clock/Move the slow hand/I should have been home/Hours ago/But I’m not here/But I’m not here/You can’t hear me/You can’t hear me/You can’t feel me/Here in the room with you now/You can’t hear what I’m saying/You don’t hear what I’m saying, do you?”. Words that might seem personal to this situation, but I think we can all relate to in some form or the other. That sense of loss. When someone dies and you notice the space left vacant. Bush sings “There’s a ghost in our home/Just watching you without me/I’m not here”. This is the point when some theorise the heroine died at sea and that mention of a ghost relating to death rather than an absence. That Jig of Life is either dying thoughts or happened after she had passed. And it is a futile rally cry for strength and survival. One of the most mysterious, intriguing and compelling songs Kate Bush ever wrote, Leah Kardos explains how “With the soft whine of radio static and morse code ‘SOS’ message, the song bursts out of its trance at 2’19” to a bright Hindustani teental rhythm, complete with hand cymbals  (a rare exception to Hounds Of Love’s no-cymbals rule)”. The lead vocal where Kate Bush sings “Don’t leave me/Don’t Leave Me” is sung backwards and double-tracked at the octave. The tutti strings by Michael Karmen are especially striking and stirring. Kardos says how the backwards singing recalls The Dreaming’s backwards vocals on Leave It Open. “and the spoken South Indian taal rhythm (konnakol) across the coda of ‘Get Out of My House’ (performed by Esmail Sheikh)”. I think some of the backwards vocals was inspired by The Beatles and how they would often put in backwards vocals with messages in them that, when played forward, would provide this treat for listeners (or a shock in some cases!).

Around about the 2’48” mark, there is this backwards vocal that is hard to discern. Bush might be singing “We really see” or “releasing”. Leah Kardos has played it forward and opinions that it could be Bush singing over and over “be silly”. A lovely detail and a mysterious element so the song. Also, that backwards vocal seemingly from a ghost. A spirit from another world. An auditory hallucination and sign of a mind lost at sea that is exhausted and fevered. Maybe losing hope of salvation and life. Just as we feel the action will quiet even more to a close, there is that return to the chopped vocals of Waking the Witch. There is this harrowing plea for help: “Listen to me/Help me baby/Talk to me”. It is not the first time that Bush had explored communication between the spiritual realm and reality. However, unlike Wuthering Heights (from 1978’s The Kick Inside) and Houdini (from 1982’s The Dreaming), Kardos rightly points out how, on Watching You Without Me, Bush lets you feel “the frustration and loneliness of insurmountable distance”. Things would change after this song. We then get the boost of energy and hope on Jig of Life before the contrasting Hello Earth and The Morning Fog. The former is a longer and more operatic and grand song where we think the heroine is watching above the earth, down at this spec in the ocean. The finale is this shorter and jumpier song that seems cheerier. The heroine saved (or was she?) and thankful. The chance to kiss the ground and let her family know how much she loved them. The same family who might have lost hope during Watching You Without Me. Did that ever happen and were they truly reunited?! Those who saw Bush in 2014 for Before the Dawn would have sensed that mix of emotions. Seen the action unfold. I was not here. They were watching her without me! It makes me so sorry I did not witness Watching You Without Me performed live…

IN London in 2014.

FEATURE: I Got Everything I Need: Kate Bush: A Perfect Conversation Starter

FEATURE:

 

 

I Got Everything I Need

Kate Bush: A Perfect Conversation Starter

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FOR some people…

IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush signing copies of Never for Ever in 1980/PHOTO CREDIT: Chas Sime/Getty Images

it might be difficult to spark up a conversation when it comes to Kate Bush. It is always one of the greatest things! I have more than one Kate Bush tattoo, and I am reading a book about Hounds of Love at the moment - so there are those opportunities. However, people often ask what music I like or who some of my favourite artists are. I mention Kate Bush, and that is a good way in. As I have said before, people often associate her with one or two songs. Maybe that is one of the flaws of talking about Kate Bush. However, it is still nice when people talk about her. If they are sharing their thoughts on Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God) or Wuthering Heights, I enjoy sharing my memories and impressions. And getting to talk about Kate Bush more widely. I do think that you get certain people who only talk about new music and do not really chat about older artists. Those of a certain generation perhaps did not grow up around music from that far back. Or they are not really that keen on that type of music. Of that age. That is fair enough. However, I do love to discuss new and older artists. Kate Bush is my favourite subject. She is a great conversation starter. Not only because there has been recent attention around Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God) and Stranger Things (her song appeared in the series in 2022). She is influencing artists today. So many in the mainstream you can link to Kate Bush. Halsey, Chappell Roan and even Charli xcx. If someone does not know who Kate Bush is even, I often find they are open to knowing about her. They might often go away and check out her music. For me, Kate Bush has affected so many areas of my life. In terms of journalism and writing, her music and amazing career has compelled me so much. Not only regarding features about her. How hard she has worked and how passionate she is about music has driven me.

Kate Bush is also someone who gives a lot to charity and is a source of strength and inspiration to so many groups of people. Someone who resonates with millions around the world. That is something I sometimes speak to people about. How she goes beyond the music. People ask where best to start with Kate Bush. It can be daunting. As she has not released new music in nearly fourteen years and many might associate her with her albums in the 1980s, it can be difficult suggesting her more (exceptional) recent albums. I always say go back to the start and 1978’s The Kick Inside. It is my favourite album of hers and one of her most accessible. In terms of the compositions, they are not as layered or rich as later albums, through I think the lyrics and what Bush tackles on that album – as a teenager, remember! – is remarkable! Listen to a lot of young women in Pop now and few are as bold and open as Kate Bush. She was tackling subjects that few of her peers were. Especially when it came to love and sex. There is so much to discuss when we think of Kate Bush. However, at a time when we all need some joy and escape, her music and career very much provides that! You start to talk about Kate Bush and everyone has their own facts or favourite things. The Most Wuthering Heights Day takes place each year. In fact, more than one day. An event where people gather in red dresses and dance en masse when recreating the video for her 1978 debut single, Wuthering Heights. Others recalls when comics Steve Coogan and Noel Fielding both paid tribute to Kate Bush for T.V. charity events. Other people hear new films and shows where Kate Bush music has been used.

Other conversations about Kate Bush often begin when people talk about Pop music of today. Whether they appreciate it or not, they highlight artists they like or bemoan the fact it is not like it used to be. I think Kate Bush is someone who has both influenced the sound of modern Pop music but has also avoided being associated with that label and genre. An artist who has very much steered her own course and would not see herself as a traditional Pop artist. However, when anyone chats about mainstream music today, it is another chance to mention Kate Bush. Either to demonstrates how extraordinary her music is and how she shook things up. If they are bored or feel today’s Pop lacks a certain warmth, riskiness or sense of depth, then Kate Bush is a perfect artist to recommend. Also, if you love modern Pop and think of these incredible women as original in many ways, I think a lot owe a debt to Kate Bush. Or they share similarities with her. Not to discredit these artists, though it is important to bring Kate Bush’s name into the conversation. I don’t think she gets talked about enough. In terms of how her music is influential today and how she broke down barriers for so many women who have followed. I often bring Kate Bush up when people are looking for music recommendations. It is important to support new music though, as many of Kate Bush’s tracks are not played on the radio and they might not be discovered otherwise, it feels great to be able to recommend a deep cut or an album many might not seek out otherwise (Never for Ever and Aerial come to mind in that respect). So many different possibilities and avenues to explore whenever there is a chance to speak about Kate Bush. She is a perfect conversation starter, as you can make so many connections with other artists and areas. Charity or production. How Bush was so young when she started. How she has fought hard through her career and guided her own path. Why she is so important today. One of the greatest joys is talking to someone new or you know…

ABOUT Kate Bush.

FEATURE: Spotlight: Turnstile

FEATURE:

 

 

Spotlight

PHOTO CREDIT: Quinn Batley

Turnstile

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THIS is a busy time…

PHOTO CREDIT: Gold Theory Artists

for the mighty Turnstile. The band released their fourth studio album, NEVER ENOUGH, in June. Even though the band formed in 2010, I think they are releasing their best music now. This series is not only about new or rising artists. I also like to shine a light on acts that might not be known to everyone. This new album is a bit of a change of direction for the U.S. Hardcore band. Not softer necessarily, though NEVER ENOUGH does bring in other genres and sounds. I would advise people to get the album. The band have a string of dates ahead, and they will be coming to the U.K. in November. I am going to end with a review for the superb NEVER ENOUGH. Before then, I want to include a few interviews with the Baltimore band. With the district and powerful lead vocals of Brendan Yates, this is a band that everybody needs to listen to. Four years on from the acclaimed GLOW ON, NEVER ENOUGH is not a radical departure in terms of its sound, though the album does have a different meaning. Turnstile approached it differently. I want to illustrate that by sourcing some interviews from this year. I will start with Pitchfork and their cover story. Brendan Yates picks up most of the promotional interviews. The band’s lead letting us in to the world of Turnstile and their awesome new album:

“Baltimore, and the band’s decision to remain there, adds to the Turnstile allure. But as much as Turnstile love to remain rooted in Charm City, it would be disingenuous to say they’re unchanged by Glow On’s success. The difficulties of making an album with limited studio time are no longer an obstacle that needs to be cleared, and, obviously, there’s an ease that comes with not having to worry about your collective survival outside of music. “I think it definitely changed all of our lives, but, simultaneously, it didn’t,” Yates says. “We’ve been touring in bands for so long and this band has existed for so long, we’ve just been doing the same thing, and constantly growing, and growing [in the] understanding of what we wanna do. But what did change are just the opportunities and visibility and the ability to play the main stage. Like, we played a festival before on the tent stage in the back parking lot, but now we’re actually playing to thousands of people.”

Never Enough is Turnstile’s first album without founding member and guitarist Brady Ebert. In an Instagram story from the Turnstile page in 2022, the band announced Ebert’s departure and wished him well. Yates declined to comment further, but instead sang Mills’s praises. “Building chemistry in a band, you need to prioritize communication and friendship over everything. I think the rest works itself out,” he says. “It’s a full-time job in itself. It’s infinitely imperfect, like any relationship. So you can either choose to ignore that or choose to always be watering it and accept that. Meg coming in has been such a great addition.”

The new album isn’t the kind of sonic leap that Glow On was following Time & Space. But there’s more space on every song, fuller orchestrations and lusher arrangements, synth leads, horn lines. Members of BadBadNotGood, the electronic-jazz band with whom Turnstile collaborated on an EP in 2023, contribute horn parts. There are a few digital filigrees and subtones added by the experimental pop wizard A. G. Cook. A whole posse of guests expands the sonic world of the band. “I Care” feels like an anthem for sunny days in California; “Seein’ Stars” sounds uncannily like a Police song. Yates’s delivery is even more melodic this time around, reverb and backing vocals allowing him to ping around your headphones. “Birds” is an energetic onslaught; Fang’s drums send you into shock while Yates, as he tends to do at least a few times every album, leans into his Zack de la Rocha bag, half rapping.

But, for me, the most rewarding stretch of the album is squarely in the middle. “Sunshower” starts off with maniacal guitar riffs, and Yates’s energy matches perfectly as he shares, “Just when I thought that I could never get it right / Now I’m taking flight / And my head is overjoyed / And this is where I wanna be.” The first half beats you over the head, but the second half washes over you with a serene flute riff played by the former Sons of Kemet and the Comet Is Coming bandleader Shabaka. That dissolves into the pounding “Look Out for Me,” which hits even harder after you’ve been mellowed out. On the hook, Yates yelps, “Now my heart is hanging by a thread!” Then, the outro of the song removes all percussion and cues heart-monitor-sounding synths that build up to a dreamy, Baltimore club–inspired drum pattern. Like the go-go nod that closed “Blackout” on Glow On, this pays respects to Turnstile’s home turf. It’s also the band’s longest song ever, nearing seven minutes.

It all comes back to extending moments to their absolute zenith, so that some sort of clarity is at the end of the tunnel. In reality, Never Enough doesn’t depart very far from where Glow On left off—at least in its general sound palette. But you do get the sense that they, at some point, in the process of becoming the biggest thing in hardcore over the past four years, had gotten to a place where shit was becoming too loud, too demanding, too routine, and a feasible way to disrupt that energy was to begin manipulating time.

“Maybe there’s a psychological reason why there might be some of this kind of desire for certain stillness around these chaotic bits,” Yates ponders. “Something about it feels important to breathe for a second amongst that.” It’s not that the chaotic moments are absent in Never Enough, but there’s a sense that they’re all collectively learning that one must also revel in those moments of calm to keep a sound mind”.

There are two more interviews I will highlight before getting to a review for NEVER ENOUGH. In June, The Independent spoke with Brendan Yates about Turnstile redefining Hardcore. GLOW UP made Turnstile a more visible band. Taking them from the underground. On NEVER ENOUGH, there is this new wave of praise and affection. One that will continue as they look ahead. A band that you need to follow:

“Their imminent fourth album, Never Enough, is one of the year’s most anticipated releases – but Yates remains immersed in the creative process, largely able to ignore the surrounding buzz. On our video call, he smiles in a blue sweatshirt and wire-rimmed glasses, en route to the edit suite where he’s working on the album’s accompanying film, Turnstile: Never Enough, co-directed with the band’s guitarist Pat McCrory. They’re cutting it fine, the deadline only a few days away.

Yates is serious and considered with everything he says, letting responses meander and peter out if he doesn’t have a good enough answer. Nothing, apparently, is released if it’s not well-conceived, including his own thoughts. “The film is very intentional and abstract in a sense. It’s not a narrative with dialogue; the music is the main character and the visuals are the result of that.” He trails off. “When the album comes out there’s the context. If anyone has the patience or desire to see it in context…”

Making a visual album, he explains, is something he’s always wanted to do, since making music is a visual experience for him. It made sense that this would be the album to attempt it with: though it has 14 songs, it’s made to listen to as one continuous song. Excitingly for Yates, the film is premiering at Tribeca Festival the day before album release, having been accepted off the back of a few clips, rather than the completed film.

Yates has no training in film, but then he’s not a trained singer either – he started out as a drummer. That’s reflective of the DIY spirit in which Turnstile was formed and still operates: passion and instinct first, experimentation later. Turnstile – whose members now include founding members drummer Daniel Fang and bass and percussionist Franz Lyons, guitarist McCrory and a new addition to the ranks, Meg Mills (Chubby and the Gang, Big Cheese) – began as a conversation within a friend group of: “Alright, let’s do a band where Brendan’s singing”. Lyons, Yates’s best friend, figured out how to play bass from scratch to join them. Yates even taught himself guitar wrong, which means he has to take creative mistakes or measures when writing and playing music. All of them came from a hardcore punk background but that’s an asset rather than a limitation: “With this band, you just learn what you like and what you’re drawn to, and you follow that, and always change.”

To record NEVER ENOUGH, the band decamped to The Mansion in Los Angeles, a Laurel Canyon studio compound that birthed some of rock’s biggest hitters, including Red Hot Chili Peppers’ Blood Sugar Sex Magic and Slipknot’s Vol. 3: (The Subliminal Verses) as well as Jay-Z’s hip-hop hit “99 Problems”. When asked what they did in the city around working, Yates almost laughs. “No, we wouldn’t leave the property. We would just stay in the house,” he says, kindly, explaining they had free time in the morning to journal or work out and then they’d record all day until bedtime. Two friends who did break through the band’s seclusive forcefield casually ended up on sparkly mid-tempo single “Seein’ Stars”: Blood Orange musician Dev Hynes, who Turnstile has worked with before, and Paramore’s Hayley Williams. Of Williams, Yates says, “We were just throwing paint at the wall with her decorating our song with her angelic voice; it was really special.”

He prefers not to go into detail on the themes of Never Enough but says lyrics are, as ever, highly specific to him personally. “Vastness and this idea of being a small piece in a larger universe and the fear or peace that can come from that is a theme that makes its way around the album a bit,” he says, as well as learning how to accept love. There’s a third overarching idea: “How maybe intuition is always there, but there are these constant efforts to just fight against your own intuition. I’m trying to bring attention to that.”

No intuitive nudge goes ignored across the 14 tracks of Never Enough, an irrepressible album that picks up exactly where they left off four years ago – only now, they’re pushing further in every direction. It’s heavier, more melodic, more solid yet fluid, and even more carefree in its experimentation. On the frenetic, itchy track “Dull” – built for night-time drives under the influence of revenge or lust – Yates sings, “Deep in the night / I’m waiting for the call.”

It slides seamlessly into the aggressive, power-metal-meets-thrashing-punk of “Sunshower”, which halfway through melts into Eastern flutes and blissful synths for reasons that don’t matter, because it totally works. Then, a drum roll and acidic noise coyly summon the burst of aggression that is “Look Out for Me,” all breakdown riffs and Yates screaming, “Now my heart is hanging by a thread”.

Yates admits that it’s not easy to build such a solid collaborative base from which to freewheel for 15 years. “A dynamic within a band is much different than anything else I’ve experienced in life, in a way that’s just very intense and the most beautiful and complicated and in every way,” he says thoughtfully before signing off at the studio, minutes ticking down toward his deadline. “The fact that the band can exist for this long and everyone still deeply loves each other – it feels like a miracle sometimes”.

Prior to rounding off with an NME review of NEVER ENOUGH, they spoke with Turnstile about their new album. If GLOW ON took them stratospheric, for this album, the band shut all the noise off. Not that there was pressure to top that they did in 2021. However, it is clear there was a lot of expectation around Turnstile prior to releasing their fourth studio album:

“The big-tent adventurousness of Turnstile’s music – their willingness to say, finish a furious hardcore track with a minute-long synth sequence – comes naturally to the band, McCrory says. “Elements like that come from a place that is familiar to everybody and are part of what we love about making music. We don’t just love simply writing really heavy guitar riffs.” He reveals his and Fang’s shared enthusiasm for Eurobeat from the ’90s and 2000s, recalling a time when, cooped up in a hotel room, they spent six hours making a beat (and dancing on the beds). “Being able to infuse [into the music] things like super long synths and dreamy parts… that’s very natural.”

At the same time, going through the “adaptive” “give and take” of the recording process with no external producer by their side meant Turnstile were fully responsible for all their creative decisions on ‘Never Enough’. “This whole album is definitely the most of an odyssey that we’ve ever had,” proclaims Fang, “in terms of us finding our own self-confidence in what things should feel like – and adjusting, doubting ourselves… We had to make all those decisions at the end of the day.”

“That’s the most fun part, when you have to dig [for a song] – that’s when everyone’s strength comes to the surface”

Not that Turnstile would have been in need of much outside input when they had three whirlwind years to reflect on and process. “The process of secluding ourselves in a studio and creating something is 100 per cent just diving within ourselves and unpacking thoughts and feelings that are pretty infinite in there, especially when we’re on the road,” Fang says. It’s a cycle that will probably restart again now, he points out: it’ll probably be months down the road that they process the release of ‘Never Enough’ and the premiere of its accompanying visual album, co-directed by Yates and McCrory, at Tribeca Film Festival this week. “That’s the life of touring and doing creative things non-stop, and then publishing them months after their creation. It’s just this weird timeline and weird way to interact with the world and go through life.”

There’ll be more to process yet as Turnstile hit the road this year, playing hardcore and underground festivals – they closed out Tied Down Detroit on Sunday and will headline Outbreak Festival in London next week – but also igniting the mosh at bigger multi-genre fests like Primavera Sound and Glastonbury, and striking out even farther afield. “It’s great to get presented with opportunities to play all types of different shows,” Fang says. “It’s really nice to play a festival in say, Trondheim, Norway, to a bunch of people that have never heard us before, and be able to use the band to have brand-new experiences for all of us.”

As their star continues to rise, Turnstile continue to be fuelled by their hunger for something different. What they’ve done before will never be enough. “Ideally, we never play the same venue twice,” Fang says. “The priority is to keep exploring and having an adventure”.

The final thing I want to source is a review of NEVER ENOUGH from NME. A group championed here by stations such as BBC Radio 6 Music, I am slightly new to them. However, I think their latest album is their best. It seems like they have this solid and dedicated fanbase. You can why people love them so much. That is why I wanted to include them in this Spotlight feature:

“Formed in Baltimore’s hardcore scene in 2010, Turnstile’s interest in colouring outside the genre’s lines paid off when 2021’s ‘Glow On’ – featuring a go-go breakdown and a R&B track with Blood Orange – made them Grammy-nominated international rock stars. Their bright, eccentric new album ‘Never Enough’ doubles down on those experiments while furthering their unique, pop-facing take on hardcore.

Hardcore remains its lynchpin: the album rarely strays too far from a chunky, overdriven guitar, or one of vocalist Brendan Yates’ throat-splitting yells. Some moments are faithful nods back to their early work, like ‘Sole’ and ‘Birds’, conjuring images of a sweaty small-venue show like the one pictured on the cover of 2011’s ‘Pressure To Succeed’.

For the most part, though, ‘Never Enough’ is distinguished by aesthetic left-turns and genre-hopping. ‘I Care’ is a kitschy dream-pop song, featuring hand-claps and flanged guitars, while ‘Seein’ Stars’ is a funk-rock track in the vein of The Police. There are some innovative structural shifts, as in the nearly-7-minute-long ‘Look Out For Me’: progressing through punchy hardcore, a woozy ambient section sampling TV drama The Wire, then an electronic outro nodding to Baltimore club, each section presents a tribute to their city.

This spirit of experimentation is aided by a varied cast of collaborators: the horn flourishes on ‘Dreaming’ are performed by members of BADBADNOTGOOD, while the backing vocals on ‘Seein’ Stars’ are contributed by Blood Orange’s Dev Hynes and Paramore’s Hayley Williams. Elsewhere, these guests help songs shape-shift completely. Shabaka Hutchings’ flute solo in ‘Sunshower’ turns this hardcore track into something resembling Andre 3000’s ‘New Blue Sun’. A.G. Cook warps alt-rock song ‘Dull’ into a morass of glitching vocals and squirrelly electronics.

Despite this, ‘Never Enough’ is remarkably coherent. That’s helped by the bridging power of Yates’ vocal, gritty enough to fit the hardcore end but tonally appealing enough to sell the poppier moments. While the lyrics suggest complex feelings amid Turnstile’s post-‘Glow On’ success – “this is where I wanna be, but I can’t feel a fucking thing,” he howls on ‘Sunshower’ – the constant assuredness of Yates’ delivery helps anchor everything else.

But what really glues ‘Never Enough’ together is its poptimist mindset. Combining a sentimental regard for various shades of rock with a focus on big, bright melodies (think of those sparkly synths backing the second pre-chorus vocal in the title track), and a free-wheeling approach to musical referents, the album constantly reaches out to the pop world: exploring how hardcore might form the basis for something technicolour, playful and accessible. That attitude towards the genre, as capable of mass appeal and ripe for experimentation, is what powers this excellent album”.

Go and follow the epic Turnstile. A Baltimore band who I hope do spend more time in the U.K. – aside from the dates they have later in the year -, I would love to catch them one day. NEVER ENOUGH is one of the best albums of the year. You feel they will grow even better and better. For that reason alone, you do not want to miss out…

ON the extraordinary Turnstile.

___________

Follow Turnstille

PHOTO CREDIT: Kyle Myles for The New York Times

Official:

https://www.turnstilehardcore.uk/

Instagram:

https://www.instagram.com/turnstileluvconnection/

Twitter:

https://x.com/TURNSTILEHC

TikTok:

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

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https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCP5O_Y-RbtVJUEv4uLP-O8A

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https://open.spotify.com/artist/2qnpHrOzdmOo1S4ox3j17x?si=rXKQ_GyKTXao--W9rhCVDQ

Facebook:

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FEATURE: Spotlight: Ninajirachi

FEATURE:

Spotlight

Ninajirachi

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I will end with…

a review of I Love My Computer. It is the remarkable debut album from Ninajirachi. The Australian producer has released an album that instantly sits alongside the best of this year. It is a loving and authentic tribute to EDM of the 2010s. I want to start out with this biography and background of Ninajirachi. An artist that you really need to follow:

“Contained in Ninajirachi’s music is all the beauty, mystery, and danger of the natural world. The 22-year-old Australian producer, songwriter and DJ makes bristling electronic club and pop music that’s glassy, uncanny, and totally enthralling; like stalactites or spiderwebs, each of her songs is spectacular to behold. A restless innovator, she’s spent her teenage summers making adored, festival-ready pop from the avant-garde fringes, becoming an in-demand producer and a trailblazer within Australian electronic music. With each release, including 2021’s project with Kota Banks, True North (The Atlantic’s 8th best album of 2021), Ninajirachi’s vision stays true, with each release a new microcosm of organic fantasy to step into. Between remixing Princess Nokia, Deadmau5 & The Neptunes, releasing on Nina Las Vegas’ NLV Records and RL Grime’s Sable Valley, Ninajirachi has performed at VIVID, Dark Mofo, Listen Out, Splendour, Groovin’ The Moo and Falls Festival, and toured with Mallrat, Charli XCX, What So Not and Cashmere Cat. Throughout the pandemic, Ninajirachi streamed with Club Quarantine, Nocturne, Insomniac, Brownies & Lemonade and Sable Valley. Known for her work on electronic music’s cutting edge, Ninajirachi works with iconic brands like Ableton and the Sydney Opera House, the former of whom commissioned her to create the official demo project for Ableton Live 11 and the latter of whom had her perform at the Joan Sutherland Theatre as part of their Liminal series”.

I will come to some more recent features. However, before I move forward, I actually want to go back to 2023 an interview with METAL. That is when Ninajirachi released the 4x4 E.P. It is a remarkable work. Even if she has been releasing music for a while now, 2025 is really the breakthrough year for Ninajirachi:

“Comparing your 2022 mixtape, Second Nature, to your upcoming EP 4x4, there is a definitive shift from a deconstructed and breathier sound to something a lot punchier. Though both speak to me as club music, would you listen to them in different contexts?

For sure. Club music totally constitutes both releases, but most of the Second Nature songs are not very functional for DJing. I think this is because Australia was in lockdown for a lot longer than other places on Earth and when I wasn't touring, making functional dance music wasn't a priority. But, dance floor functionality aside, I don't think they sound crazy different. For example when I made Undo U (before I had made the rest of the EP), my first thought was omg this would have been an amazing Second Nature song, because it's a little more syncopated than the rest of 4x4 (which is also why I made the 4x4 version of it (laughs)).

In this new EP, 4x4, I felt the beats to be very much that – 4 by 4. Does the name have anything to do with this thumpier time signature?

I am so glad you asked this because it was very intentional! Second Nature is 100% an electronic dance release, but there are literally no four to the floor songs on it. This wasn't a conscious decision and I didn't realise it until months after it came out. Most of my bigger releases have been four to the floor, like Blumiere EP, Water Gun / Stingray, Secretive! with Kota Banks, even Dracodraco kind of. So it's weird that I unconsciously moved away from it completely. After I had that realisation and made 1x1 with Ravenna, I thought it would be funny if 1x1 was track 1 on an EP called 4x4, made up of 4x 4x4 songs.

There’s a sound reminiscent of early 2010s, glitchy, online-era of music to this EP that really strikes a nostalgic chord with me. How did the concept for 4x4 emerge and what kind of sound were you trying to emulate with it?

Omg it's so cool that you think that because that's totally where my head has been. Some of my favourite albums as a child were Born This Way by Gaga and Animal by Kesha, I also loved Black Eyed Peas, and the pipeline from there was discovering EDM as a 12 year old. So I've been pulling more and more inspiration from that era of music because I'm much closer to becoming the producer I wanted to be when I first heard it. Even though my taste changed throughout high school and I grew more into left-field electronic music, I was an EDM kid in those formative years and that will never change I fear. Like nothing else makes me feel like a supersaw from 2012.

Tell me a little bit about the electronic music scene in Australia, and where you see yourself in it?

Australia has an amazing and diverse local underground scene but the mainstream is always a bit behind in my opinion. To be fair, there aren't that many people in Australia, so there's not much room for huge niche scenes like I've seen in the US and EU. I think I'm pretty lucky to make relatively left-field music and still pretty consistently be played on triple j and get mainstream festival bookings and stuff like that, I am really grateful for it”.

Let’s move to an interview from Rolling Stone Australia from earlier this year. This year has been a very busy one for Ninajirachi. Her music has reached new people and is getting more exposure. Although there are no upcoming U.K. shows, there are some Australian and American dates coming up for Ninajirachi. If you do get the chance to see her perform then you really need to:

“25-year-old Nina Wilson, aka DJ and producer Ninajirachi, creates the kind of epic, intricate, and universal EDM that takes you from creating music in your bedroom on the Central Coast of NSW to playing festivals the world over, including Lollapalooza, EDC Las Vegas and Laneway, where she was the 2025 interstitial DJ.

A triple j Unearthed High finalist in 2016 and 2017, she’s been releasing music officially since the age of 18, leading to her being signed to Nina Las Vegas’s label, NLV records.

Ninajirachi cites her primary influences as “nature, fantasy, science fiction, ideas of occult and magic,” which makes a whole lot of sense when you hear her music: each song is a fantastical world unto itself, like a hyperpop soundtrack to the world’s most deranged video game.

New single “All I Am” keeps the producer’s winning streak unbroken, a banger sure to keep crowds jumping in 2025 and beyond. —James Jennings

Read an exclusive interview with Ninajirachi below. Check out the full Future of Music 2025 list here.

Rolling Stone AU/NZ: How was 2024 for you? What were your biggest achievements and favourite moments?

Ninajirachi: Selling out my first show in America, touring there with MGNA Crrrta, having “Wayside” in Fortnite, supporting ISOxo on tour, playing on the main stage at EDC and spending the weekend with my friends in Vegas, releasing girl EDM, Caroline Polachek liking “Ninacamina”, playing in China and Japan for the first time, meeting wonderful people who listen to my music in so many cities, being with friends and family in every other moment… I am so grateful.

What’s coming up for you in 2025 and beyond? Any big shows, notable releases?

In February I opened for Porter Robinson on his tour and then did the Laneway Festival tour, now I’m in America touring with umru. I look up to these people so much and it’s a trip to be around them. My new song is out and I’m so happy. I’m going to release a lot this year – some of my best music ever methinks”.

Before getting to a review for I Love My Computer, this recent interview from NME shone a light on Ninajirachi. An artist I am new to but am really drawn to. Her music does remind me of the past, though it also very personal and future-looking. A remarkable record from one of the most talented young artists around. If you have not heard her music then do make sure that you go and follow her:

“It’s funny – our relationship with technology has changed so much that I don’t know if “I love my computer” is a statement that you’d find many people making now. When I first saw the title, I felt like there was a purity to that declaration that I don’t know is super common nowadays in 2025.

“Definitely. And it’s not all good – the song ‘Infohazard’ is about being scarred for life after seeing yucky stuff on social media out of nowhere. Sometimes you’re just scrolling and you’re like, ‘Oh god, I didn’t ask to see that, and now I can’t forget about it.’ But yeah, I was just thinking: what is my music about? Well, it’s all computer music. In every interview people ask ‘what gear do you use?’ And I’m like, nothing. I just use my laptop.

“I was like, wow, I really rely on it so much. I spend more time looking at it than I spend looking at any other person in my life. I wouldn’t have this career if it wasn’t for computer music, and no one taught me how to do it. I used my computer to learn how to use my computer. I realised I really love it and I’m so grateful to be alive in 2025 when that can be my life.”

“I’m really happy where I am now, so it’s not so much nostalgia in the sense of ‘I want to go back to that time when that was so much better’”

You mentioned ‘All I Am’, the first single. It felt to me like a throwback to this particular era of 2010s ‘throw your hands in the air’ kind of EDM. Were there any specific references or energy that you were trying to capture with that song?

“I didn’t go into that session thinking ‘I’m going to make the first single for my album’. It was just a jam at Ben Lee’s house in LA. I had just started touring America, and he was generously welcoming me into his circle and introducing me to other musicians. So he’d invited a bunch of his friends to his house, and we all had a jam. I was recording everything and producing it.

“I had been diving back into a lot of old Australian dance music, like Miami Horror, Pnau and Empire of the Sun, and other dance music from that time like Adrian Lux and Ladyhawke. That was just before I was a teenager, still in primary school and didn’t have access to blogs and stuff to learn about it at the time. I was getting really into that. In the session with Ben, maybe we had a break and a little microdose, and everyone was relaxed. I started looping and adding synths, and maybe subconsciously the Pnau influence from the weeks leading up leaked through.”

The sense I got from the record was there’s a fair bit of nostalgia on it. There’s a lot of reminiscing on ‘iPod Touch’ and ‘Sing Good’. You’re telling your life story and looking back. Does this feel like a nostalgic record to you?

“I feel like it’s more about looking back at what has led me to where I am now. I’m really happy where I am now, so it’s not so much nostalgia in the sense of ‘I want to go back to that time when that was so much better.’ It’s more a look at my life and my circumstances. I’m not from a white collar family or a family that has any artists or musicians in it. I’m from a small town and I’m a girl producer – there were just all of these little things that I was like, ‘This maybe shouldn’t have worked, but I’m really happy to be here and have people care about what I do’.”

Do you worry about ‘girl EDM’ being misread in a similar way? [‘girl EDM’ is the title of a 2024 Ninajirachi EP, and the URL of her website.]

“Yes, actually, I have worried about that. Some people have thrown that in, because it was all around the same time as that cultural movement or whatever you’d call it, but it’s so not that to me. It did start as a joke, but the joke was that me and four other girls were all playing an EDM show together, and there was one male in the green room, and that was my manager. We were like, ‘this is so funny and silly. We’re at the girl EDM show. Why aren’t there any boys here?’ We weren’t trying to make ourselves sound or look dumb. We were celebrating it. So yeah, I’m not trying to lump it with that kind of humour, but to anyone who’s interpreted it that way, no shade. That’s so fine. I’m not pressed. But yeah, different origins”.

I am going to end with a review of I Love My Computer from The Guardian. They laud this surprisingly moving album. One that is a salute to EDM music of the 2010s. As I said before, there is that air of nostalgia though this is very much the sound and work of Ninajirachi. Someone who we are going to hear a lot more from. A truly remarkable artist. Her latest album is tremendous and should be heard by everyone:

“In case the title of Ninajirachi’s debut album didn’t make it clear, the Australian producer spells out her love for all things electronica on its turbo third track: “I wanna fuck my computer / Cuz no one in the world knows me better.”

A glitched-out cacophony of bleeps, mechanical spirals and sirens, the track – titled, descriptively, Fuck My Computer – is a firework display of raw energy and excitement. That freneticism rarely lets up across I Love My Computer, an immensely fun and inventive dance album that doubles as a surprisingly touching coming-of-age story from one of Australia’s minted electronic exports.

After first gaining prominence as a Triple J Unearthed High finalist in 2016 and 2017, Ninajirachi – real name Nina Wilson – established herself at the forefront of Australia’s then burgeoning hyperpop community. But as the genre’s saccharine synths, irreverent samples and pitched-up vocals went increasingly mainstream post-2020, Wilson expanded her sound further. She released a cerebral 2022 mixtape, Second Nature, and played a series of slots at major US festivals including Lollapalooza and Las Vegas’s Electric Daisy Carnival.

The now 25-year-old producer has started identifying her genre as “girl EDM” – a tongue-in-cheek nod to the 2010s electronica she first fell in love with as a teenager online.

Across the album’s dozen tracks, Ninajirachi pays tribute to that nascent period. Repeatedly, music reaches out in a language only she can hear: on Fuck My Computer, “it says my name”. And CSIRAC, a throbbing track named after the first computer to play music (an Australian invention, incidentally), feels like a deranged, borderline inscrutable trip into Wilson’s laptop.

Across three minutes, the track jumps from chipmunk vocals to squelching acid-house breaks, metallic drones and pixelated breakbeats, as well as an eerie spoken-word bridge about following a sound. Which is exactly what the track is doing, racing through Wilson’s computer at breakneck speed and transcribing its bleeps and bloops.

But you don’t need to overthink I Love My Computer to grasp the sincere depth of feeling Wilson has for her tech. In iPod Touch, another album highlight, Wilson links her music player to a flood of teenage memories. “It sounds like high school, front gate, smoke in my face / It sounds like iPod Touch / yellow Pikachu case,” she sings, her sugar-rush delivery thrashed against a frantic beat.

Not to will another reboot into existence, but it’d make a great theme for a gen Z take on Puberty Blues. Here, images of archetypal Australian teenage rebellion (including wearing tiny Supré shorts) are just as nostalgic as memories of “me and my computer hanging out till late”, blasting a bass-boosted Porter Robinson song and trying out free music production software.

Even with its 2015-specific imagery, iPod Touch encapsulates something universal. It sounds like the giddiness of adolescent discovery, where a song or artwork can cut through the confusion and awaken something so personal that you have no choice but to make it your entire personality.

You might scoff at Wilson’s awakening through EDM – arguably the defining sound of the previous decade thanks to the likes of Calvin Harris, David Guetta and Diplo. But I Love My Computer proves how much juice the genre has, especially stripped of its noxious frat bro connotations. Wilson readily embraces steady builds, squelchy drops and a relentless BPM rarely below 120.

I Love My Computer isn’t all euphoria, either. Delete is a twinkling ode to embarrassing Instagram stories, while Battery Death is a burnout lament built over dystopic error-synths. And on eurotrance track Infohazard, Wilson recalls stumbling upon a photo of a decapitated man on her computer as a teen. Led by a piano, it’s one of the few times a non-digital instrument is easily identifiable on the album – offering a strange sense of warmth to the confused, confronting memory.

Indebted to electronic pioneer Sophie, Wilson has never been focused on real-life restrictions, more interested in what she can create than replicate. With her debut album, Ninajirachi charts a long-term (and fruitful) relationship with her computer. It’s very fun and surprisingly moving”.

I will finish there. There is a lot of excited talk around Ninajirachi. Even if I Love My Computer is seen as her debut album, Ninajirachi has released other projects and been involved in other albums (maybe we class previous work as ‘mixtapes’). If we class I Love My Computer as a debut, it is definitely one of the best of this year. So important and confident, we are going to see Ninajirachi enjoy this long career. It is going to be really interesting to see where Ninajirachi…

GOES next.

___________

Follow Ninajirachi

Official:

https://www.ninajirachi.com/

Instagram:

https://www.instagram.com/ninajirachi/

Twitter:

https://x.com/ninajirachi

TikTok:

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

YouTube:

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

Spotify:

https://open.spotify.com/artist/3MekbRujJg5VZThubOlrkR?si=9_c4nOu_SWyu3XVcPAgmgA

Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/ninajirachi/

FEATURE: Timeless Melody: The La’s' The La’s at Thirty-Five

FEATURE:

 

Timeless Melody

 The La’s’ The La’s at Thirty-Five

__________

AN album that helped…

shape British guitar music in the 1990s and had a big influence on the likes of Noel Gallagher of Oasis, The La’s’ debut album, The La’s, turns thirty-five on 1stt October. The Liverpool band were fronted by Lee Mavers. He wrote the songs on The La’s. It is the only album from the band too. One of those rare occasions where an artist release only one album. And it turns out to be a classic. One of music’s big what-ifs. If The La’s had recorded a second studio album, what would that have sounded like? The album’s singles included Way Out and Timeless Melody. The biggest track from The La’s is There She Goes. That was released in 1988. Because  to its 1960s-influenced sound, which nodded of the British Invasion era (whereas so many acts of that time favoured a more alternative sound), The La’s gained huge critical attention. The La's is widely considered to be a precursor to the Britpop phenomenon of the mid-1990s. I want to get to a few features about one of the most defining albums of the 1990s. I am starting out with Classic Pop feature of 2021. I am not including the entire thing:

“It’s a wonder the album came out at all. It was re-recorded at Mavers’ perfectionist behest numerous times, with successive producers trying and failing to realise his vision over three torturous years. By the end, the project had cost a reported £1 million and still wasn’t finished. It never could be. It was no trifling figure for independent label Go! Discs. Mavers said he hated what he heard, but the label had run out of patience and released it anyway. In turn, the band used the album’s promo interviews to tell fans not to buy it.

The La’s at least kept it together long enough to tour their tarnished magnum opus in 1991, but since then Mavers has been a largely reclusive figure, rumours of drug addiction persisting as he’s privately slaved over plans to re-record his precious album.

Sporadic reappearances with varying lineups have coincided with whispers of a vast cache of unreleased songs and breathless talk among fans of a second album. Mavers, though, remains transfixed with the notion of bringing this 1990 debut up to the standards that exist in his head.

Who could he be referring to when he sings on the album’s opening track Son Of A Gun of “a man who’s at loggerheads with his past all the time/ He’s alive and living in purgatory”?

In many ways, The La’s were an anomaly. To paraphrase another flawed genius, Brian Wilson, they just weren’t made for the times they existed in. Aloof from the bug-eyed baggy indie-dance of Happy Mondays, The Stone Roses, Primal Scream et al, and predicting the Merseybeat-pilfering Britpop wave that followed, they were also at odds with the hi-fi production style that characterised many 80s recordings.

Mavers and John Power preferred the naked honesty of largely acoustic guitars, drums and bass; simple pop classicism with its influences clear – the transportive West Coast jangle of The Byrds, hints of the lysergic mysticism of Arthur Lee’s Love, Pink Floyd and The Doors, and an overt appreciation of British Invasion heavyweights The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, The Kinks and The Who.

The band were formed in 1983 by Liverpool songwriter Mike Badger, with Mavers joining a year later, the pair uniting over a love of Captain Beefheart. A full family tree would take up the remainder of this article, but the highlights are as follows: Bassist John Power and drummer John Timson arrived in 1986, the latter soon replaced by future Oasis member Chris Sharrock.

The band signed to Go! Discs in 1987, by which time Badger, too, had departed, leaving Mavers in charge.

Badger was replaced by guitarist Paul Hemmings, with Mavers’ brother Neil taking over from Sharrock on drums. Keeping up? With the core lineup settled, the band continued writing their debut album in a stable owned by the new guitarist’s mother.

“It was a wonderful time to be in the band,” remembers Hemmings, who went on to join The Lightning Seeds after lasting less than a year on the good ship Mavers, “because Lee had to write material and we had to finish it. There was no deliberating. Every single day there was me, John and Lee in the stables, working.”

Two singles on Go! Discs followed – the Stonesy waltz-time Way Out, produced by Gavin MacKillop, in November 1987, and the initial version of There She Goes, produced by Bob Andrews in October 1988, the latter reaching No.59 on the UK singles chart.

The La’s was an album that almost didn’t get made. Lee Mavers especially precise when it came to its sound. You can probably see why the band did not release a second album. There was debate and argument over the production. Steve Lilywhite’s production was used. If it were down to Lee Mavers, the recording would have taken longer and things might have been very different:

Go! Discs had had enough and weren’t going to pay for any further sessions. They released Lillywhite’s version of The La’s in October 1990, leaving Mavers disgusted with what he felt was a set of unfinished recordings, using his guide vocals. He told Q: “We walked out on it while we were doing it. We hated it because we weren’t getting our sound across, so we turned our back on it. [Go! Discs] got it together from a load of backing tapes and mixed it up themselves and put it out.”

Mavers immediately distanced himself from the release, describing the album in NME as “like a snake with a broken back” and “the worst, a pile of shit”. The La’s may not be the faultless masterwork Mavers had envisaged and it didn’t trouble the charts, peaking at No.30 in the UK and No.196 in the US, but it was a gross overreaction from its creator.

In The Rough Guide To Rock, Chris Tighe summed up the public mood: “If this was the quality of the demos, the intended final tracks would have been wonderful.”

The La’s is an astonishing album, classic songcraft from arguably the fourth greatest Liverpudlian writer ever to pick up a guitar. In Colin Larkin’s All-Time Top 1000 Albums, he writes,

“It is hard to see why they were dissatisfied. The La’s is a graceful, sweeping and rather grand pop record, utterly charming and filled with a meek beauty.”

The album’s greatest legacy may prove to be the timeless love song it provided in the shape of There She Goes, re-released three weeks after the LP. This time, it reached No.13 in the UK, and remains one of the most evocative, universal guitar-pop songs ever crafted.

Rolling Stone dubbed it the “founding piece of Britpop” and NME placed it 45th in a rundown of the 50 greatest indie anthems of all time. On Spotify, it’s closing in fast on 100 million listens. Robbie Williams and Sixpence None The Richer are among the countless musicians to have a fruitless stab at improving on Mavers’ two versions”.

More modern bands like Arctic Monkeys and Fontaines D.C. have cited The La’s as an influence. On 1st October, 2020, Stereogum published a thirtieth anniversary feature for The La’s. They argue that, despite Lee Mavers’s insistence that the band’s sole album is flawed, this 1990 masterpiece is flawless. An album that will continue to inspire artists throughout the music world:

“To say that the band failed to capitalize on the adoration that followed the release of The La’s is an understatement, but it ignores the specialness of a great one-and-done career and the weird circumstances that fueled it. How could a follow-up live up to the high expectations of fans or low expectations of its creator? Mavers obsessed for years afterward, supposedly threatening — and trying — to re-record this same batch of songs until they met his mystical aspirations. He wrote more songs, too, but finished versions never saw the light of day. Rather than deal with the record company that he felt had abused his trust, Mavers ran out the clock on his deal, releasing nothing and only occasionally peeking his head out over the past three decades to play a show or two.

Noel Gallagher, in an interview about his favorite albums of all time with The Quietus, said, “When I see him I say, ‘Hey Lee, when are you going to release your second album?’ And he goes, ‘Yeah, yeah, yeah. I’ll do it when I’ve finished the first one …’ He’s still trying to nail his first set of songs right after 27 years. So I’ve come to the conclusion he’s either shit-scared of ruining his legacy or he’s just a lazy cunt.”

It leaves only The La’s to be picked over, and fans have examined it with a Beatles-like microscope, though obviously on a much smaller scale. Various multi-disc collections have appeared over the years that include takes from the aborted album sessions and a few non-album tracks that are as essential as those that made the cut. Mavers himself supposedly favors the version of the album produced by Mike Hedges, which is widely available but was supposedly scrapped — and this may be apocryphal — because Mavers was mad that his bandmates went on vacation without him shortly after the recording. It’s worth a listen, but time has rendered it a curiosity more than anything. The La’s, as released in October of 1990, has earned its place in the canon; everything else feels like bonus material, out of context and less important”.

I am ending with a feature from last year from Udiscovermusic.com. The La’s is an album that mixes the jangle of The Byrds, Punk attitude and gritty Merseyside. It is an intoxicating and skilful blend that set The La’s apart from other albums released in 1990. Small wonder that is resonated with artists coming through at the time. I think that we are discovering new layers and gems when listening to The La’s’ only album:

“The songs were absolute diamonds”

This ongoing uncertainty also affected the band’s personnel, with a string of lead guitarists and drummers (the latter including future Oasis sticksman Chris Sharrock) joining and then departing. The La’s’ line-up finally steadied in 1989, with Mavers and Power joined by guitarist Peter “Cammy” Camell and Mavers’ brother Neil on drums when they convened with Steve Lillywhite for the final attempt to record their album.

Lillywhite – whose production credits also include U2, The Pogues, and Siouxsie And The Banshees – teamed up with The La’s at London’s Eden Studios in late 1989. Looking back at these lengthy sessions which finally resulted in The La’s’ album, he now has mixed feelings.

“I knew the songs were absolute diamonds, but getting them on tape wasn’t so easy,” he told MusicRadar in 2011. “We’d record six songs that were fantastic, but if there was one thing wrong on the seventh song, [Lee] would be convinced that everything else was terrible and we’d have to start everything all over again.

“But that said,” he continued, “I would put Lee right up there with any of the singer-songwriters I’ve ever worked with. He’s an amazing talent, and the album we made is sort of timeless.”

Totally unique

Listening to The La’s now, one can only agree. Finally cracking the UK Top 20 on reissue, the band’s shimmering signature hit, “There She Goes,” is largely singled out as the album’s high point, but really it’s just one of the record’s many glistening pop gems. The La’s kicks off with an almighty hat trick courtesy of the wistful “Son Of A Gun,” the pile-driving rocker “I Can’t Sleep” and the aptly-titled “Timeless Melody,” and simply never looks back. Indeed, those with any lingering doubts in relation to Lee Mavers’ talent need just one listen to the audacious, Bertolt Brecht-esque “Freedom Song” or the record’s epic, psychedelic torch song, “Looking Glass,” to hear what really might have been.

Perplexingly, though, The La’s’ frontman was his own most hostile critic when the album was finally released, even famously describing it as “like a snake with a broken back” in a 1990 NME interview. Mavers’ negative reaction seems all the more mystifying as most critics heard nothing but genius when weighing up the album’s contents.

In a contemporary review, The Village Voice’s Robert Christgau wrote, “Once in a blue moon, somebody with the gift comes along, and [La’s] frontman Lee Mavers is that somebody,” while confirmed fan Noel Gallagher told The Quietus in 2011, “Even though [The La’s] is a standard form of guitar rhythm’n’blues, it’s totally unique – nobody has done it as good as him since.”

How do you measure perfection?

Yet, while the critics raved and the band embarked on an extensive tour that took The La’s into the UK Top 30, the group’s time in the spotlight was tragically brief. Seemingly obsessed with re-recording the album rather than prepare a follow-up, Mavers split the band in 1992. While there have since been sporadic reunion gigs, and Mavers’ notoriously loyal fans still live in hope, the chances of The La’s’ reclusive frontman ever returning from his self-imposed exile now seem slim.

“His standards were so high that you’re never going to reach them,” producer Mike Hedges said when The La’s received its deluxe CD reissue in 2008. “At some point you have to say, ‘That’s it, I’m finished!’ and move on to something else. I’ve never been 100 percent on anything I’ve ever done. I don’t think you ever can be, because how do you measure perfection?”.

On 1st October, it will be thirty-five years since the release of The La’s. A seismic album that changed the face of British music in the 1990s, it is also the start and end of this very brief story. A group who put everything into this one album, they burned too bright to go any further. However, the legacy of their sole album is clear. Lee Mavers’s incredible songwriting will live forever. The La’s, thirty-five years later, remains…

ABSOLUTELY perfect.

FEATURE: Spotlight: Revisited: Coach Party

FEATURE:

 

 

Spotlight: Revisited

Coach Party

__________

THERE will be more…

interviews with the brilliant Isle of Wight band ahead of the release of their new album, Caramel, on 26th September. I last featured them in 2020. Five years later, Coach Party achieved so much! Their debut album, KILLJOY, arrived in 2023. I knew in 2020 that they would be a big deal! Having played some huge venues and with massive success ahead, it is a good time to revisit the band. I want to head back to 2023 and a DORK interview with a band looking forward to their debut album coming out following years of graft and hard work:

“Since 2019, Isle of Wight four-piece Coach Party have been knuckling down. Across three EPs in three years – starting with 2020’s ‘Party Food’ – they’ve been establishing their raucous reality ruckus, and 2023 is finally the year of their hotly anticipated debut album. It’s a moment the band have been building up in their heads since day one. “The allure of putting a debut album out – we’ve spoken about that so much, but not wanting to rush it, not wanting to do it for the sake of it,” explains guitarist Joe Perry.

‘Killjoy’ is a project that either marks the end or the beginning of chapter one – they haven’t decided yet. Either way, it’s a big bloody deal. “I feel like it holds more of an era of us,” vocalist and bassist Jess Eastwood adds. “That part of us from the start of the journey to now feels like, even though we had done EPs, I feel like it’s all of us up until now, and I feel that it’s more sacred than anything to me.”

The toil and trouble they’ve been mastering over the last four years is compounded into its runtime. It has their trademark snark – courtesy of Jess – ripping riffs, singalong choruses, and most of all, it’s got the future in its sights. Something they’re now realising has crept up on them.

“Recently, I’m realising how much has changed,” Jess says. “And that goes from how quickly you want to make it your life to do this, and then how quickly it is your life; and like, actually, this is not your full-time job. This is a lifestyle.”

This idea is a world away from when the four of them – completed by guitarist Steph Norris and drummer Guy Page – first banded together in 2016. The Chess Club signees barely had a handful of gigs under their belt when the tastemaker label came calling in 2019.

Between the cycle of touring and recording, Coach Party have been earning their stripes. Their most recent expeditions have given them the scope of what band life can bring you, and all of these experiences play into ‘Killjoy’. Explaining that before it was christened, “We were looking at calling it ‘Interactions With People’,” says Jess. “Because that is the concept of the album.”

Coach Party have certainly grown into their newfound lifestyle. They’re a bonafide rock band ready to pay service to those listening and to firmly establish their place. Their 2021 single ‘FLAG (Feel Like A Girl)’ is one monument to this. It’s Jess’s moment of demonstrating her vocal distaste for a certain type of person. “If you’ve got young girls or guys that have heard ‘FLAG’ and [say] it’s completely changed their life or helped [them] through something, I want to make sure that they know that that is the meaning, and I don’t want to let them down by being this person that’s not true to who they were when they wrote that track or whatever,” she says. A similar sentiment drives recent single ‘Micro Aggression’; it’s not always easy going.

A connection is where Coach Party’s lofty ambitions come to a head. They’ve seen first-hand what longevity and a studious fanbase can offer on their support runs, and for a solid group of mates from the Isle of Wight, they’ve not done half bad – and the rest is most certainly yet to come. Jess enthuses she is, “Hoping there’s some sort of tangible connection that people get through it.” They’ve not had the chance to give ‘Killjoy’ a proper airing yet. Their autumn headline tour is where it can all come to fruition, particularly Jess’ hungrily envisioned “chaos” for ‘All I Wanna Do Is Hate’. But for now, it’s time to bask in the glow of ‘Killjoy’.

“If we had the opportunity to tell ourselves what we’ve done year on year a year ago, how crazy we’d find it but also just so unexpected,” Joe marvels. “We didn’t ever expect these sorts of things to happen. That’s just the mindset we have. There’s obviously ambition, but maybe it’s pessimism of ‘that’d be nice, but who knows?’”

But with all this soaring success – what with the stadium shows and the like – what’s next? “Maybe we’ll be accused of being an industry plant!” The pair burst out laughing”.

I will end with some details about the forthcoming Caramel. New singles Girls! and Do Yourself a Favour are an exciting glimpse into the new album. I am very excited to hear what arrives from a band I have been a dedicated fan of for half a decade! They are going to go from strength so strength. Jess Eastwood, Joe Perry, Steph Norris, and Guy Page have this amazing chemistry. This really comes to the fore during their live sets. They have a string of dates coming that sees them starting out in the U.K. before heading off across Europe. I will bring things more up to date in terms of interviews. Buzz caught Coach Party live last year in a typically memorable and intense show:

“After supporting Queens Of The Stone Age in Cardiff Castle last summer, returning to nearby Clwb Ifor Bach for their final UK tour date may not feel like the progress indie-grunge band Coach Party had hoped for – as acknowledged by drummer Guy Page. Conversely, he emphasises that this, their headline tour, is special, and that he appreciates the fans being there solely for them.

Known for their raw energy and distinctive sound, the Isle Of Wight’s finest don’t disappoint, with a performance as electrifying as it’s intimate. Wholesome moments and witty comments (mainly about how many stairs the venue had) are weaved seamlessly through a well-curated setlist that mixes Coach Party’s most beloved tracks and newer material. Songs like Be That Girl and FLAG (Feel Like A Girl) are met with enthusiastic cheers and heartfelt singalongs, highlighting the honest connection this band has with their audience.

Of Coach Party’s two guitarists, Joe Perry’s gritty riffs lend stylish, moody cool whilst Steph Norris’ solid skills and immense energy brings the hype and excitement. Norris is working on getting the immensely talented vocalist Jess Eastwood to dance with the band onstage – and it’s working! Any doubt that the vocalist can’t dance is quashed by Norris’ claim, “I’ve seen you twerk in the dressing room, so don’t give me that!” Page’s tight drumming completes the quartet beautifully, and the band’s talent for songwriting and performance comes together to give space for moments of catharsis that only live music can provide.

A special mention for last-minute support, Merthyr Tydfil’s very own Brass Bambees – they bring everything to the stage and despite the heat, give flat-out energy. Without a doubt, audiences should be keen to see more of this incredible force of a band. As for Coach Party, they’ve already posted on socials how much they enjoyed their UK tour, signing off with “brb, writing an album”… so watch this space”.

A brief look at this article from last year when Coach Party appeared at SXSW. I think that all of this praise and background is really important. We get this larger impression of the band and how they have grown and progressed since KILLJOY and a very busy past couple of years. I think their careers will get even busier as we look to next year and beyond:

“The Live Experience: Authenticity and Connection

Coach Party’s live performances are a visceral reminder of the power of live music; its universal ability to convene, to communicate, and to celebrate the collective experience across all ages. The band’s ethos, grounded in authenticity and connection, was palpable in their interactions onstage and their “telling it as it is” recap of their Austin experience.

“Being the furthest from home we’ve ever been, yet meeting people who are familiar, or even LIKE us has been a hell of a concept to process, and we’ve been so humbled by that social side of the festival. We played a total of nine times in Austin, but every gig felt like a totally new experience. It was really exciting,” reflected Page, on their week in Austin.

Influences and Evolution

Coach Party’s sound, a melange of indie rock, brit-pop, stoner-rock and grunge, reflects their eclectic musical tastes. The new album underscores their ability to navigate these genres with ease, creating a sound that is distinctively their own. The band credits their unique sound to a collaborative process that allows individual influences to filter through their collective vision, resulting in music that is rich, layered, and wholly Coach Party.

Beyond SXSW: Looking Ahead

With SXSW behind them, Coach Party sets their sights on a European tour, including stops in Germany, Czech Republic, Austria, Switzerland, Italy, Belgium, the Netherlands and Ireland before hitting the UK in June and July. Their summer itinerary is packed with festival dates, cities they have yet to play, and as Page lamented, “getting our coffee orders completely wrong in every new town; the variation in coffee lingo from place to place never ceases to completely destabilize our mornings”.

Before moving to where the band are now and how far they come, I want to briefly go back to 2023. It is amazing to read this Headliner interview. Many labelling the band as this upcoming or promising name. Coach Party still seen as coming through. They have come a long way in such a short time. Amazing progress from a quartet whose natural sound has connected with so many people around the world. A band that definitely need to be on your radar:

“While Coach Party have sarcastically labelled themselves the ‘Other Isle of Wight band’ following the breathtaking Grammy-winning success of Wet Leg, the band are steadily building a solid claim to also putting music from the south coast island on the map. Having formed in 2016, they were signed within three years to label Chess Club, and they’ve followed the well-trodden path of relentlessly touring and performing to get their music out there. Their three EPs also had them noticed by the likes of NME and The Guardian, so the stage is set very nicely for their just-released debut album Killjoy.

Eastwood and Page form one half of Coach Party, joined by guitarists Steph Norris and Joe Perry. On growing up on the island, Eastwood says, “It was really nice, it’s very chilled and it’s known for being really safe. There’s not a lot to do here beyond going to the park or the beach. But when I was growing up, there wasn’t much of a music scene or any music venues, so I’d go over to The Joiners in Southampton a lot and watch bands there.”

“It’s a great place to start a band or a business,” Page adds. “Because there’s less pressure and expectations here. And also, once we’d played the handful of bars and venues here, it then had us questioning why not just do a full tour? Because once we’d paid the money to go over to Portsmouth, we may as well also go to London, Brighton etc.”

“It’s so important to the four of us that our music is something you can connect to, believe in and sympathise with,” Page says. “We don’t want to insult our listeners by saying ‘it’s all fine really, you’ll get through it!’ Because we don’t know what they’re going through. They might be going through an even worse time than what we’re singing about. We’re basically saying to people who are having a shit time, ‘We love you!’”

It’s a safe bet that Killjoy will shake off the shackles of the ‘up and coming’ label that has been plastered onto Coach Party, and see them deservedly being regarded as one of the UK’s best and most established acts in the indie-rock genre and beyond. Make sure to go to one of their 2023 tour dates, as the Coach Party live experience is scintillating. Meanwhile, Killjoy is out now and conversely could give you a much-needed shot of joy”.

Let’s finish off by moving things to the present. On 26th September, via Chess Records, Caramel will come into the world. The second album from Coach Party, this is one of the most anticipated albums of the year in my view. I cannot wait to see what the band serve up. Make sure that you are following them. The Line of Best Fit were among those who reported the news of Coach Party’s new album:

“We wrote a song to try and encapsulate the escapism and togetherness you'd feel at your favourite band's show, and then we were taken on a visual masterclass as our friends Dan Broadley & Josh Halling fleshed out their interpretation of that song in film," the band explains.

"The concept of swapping out a Coach Party show for a (Club Caramel) retreat, where people can go to discover the parts of their personality they didn't even realise existed and coax them to flourish, is an interesting and beautiful way to interpret the song which we never would have thought of. But, at the same time, it totally aligns with our original meaning and intention for 'Girls!'; we've learnt a lot about ourselves at gigs over the years, and we're sure the same is true for anyone who's been to see their favourite band live."

“No matter who you are, no matter who you think you are, you’re our girls,” smiles Guy. “When you walk out the door you can go back to whatever you want, but being at a gig is an escape for every one of us, we’re all doing this thing because we love to be here. You’re at this gig so you’re one of us. Our girls are everyone in this room,” they add.

Tracklist:

1. Do It For Love

2. Girls!

3. Georgina

4. Control

5. I Really Like You

6. Disco Dream

7. Fake It

8. Medicate Yourself

9. Do Yourself A Favour

10. Still Hurts”.

It is going to be wonderful seeing Coach Party going forward. A band who are stunning live and are brilliantly engaging, dynamic, memorable and exceptional in the studio, go and follow them on social media and get Caramel when it comes out. One of the best albums of 2025. I predict that. I wanted to return to a phenomenal group that I have been a fan of…

FOR over five years.

____________

Follow Coach Party

PHOTO CREDIT: Patrick Gunning

Official:

https://coach-party.com/

Instagram:

https://www.instagram.com/wearecoachparty

TikTok:

https://www.tiktok.com/discover/coach-party

Twitter:

https://x.com/wearecoachparty

Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/wearecoachparty/

Spotify:

https://open.spotify.com/artist/4trP4C2bZ0TqMUxw0tLRAZ?si=U3q_Pf-cQEWTUXi7I-sjjA

YouTube:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJYfxrhjIfITBZouYO65RMg

FEATURE: Groovelines: Imogen Heap – Hide and Seek

FEATURE:

 

 

Groovelines

Imogen Heap – Hide and Seek

__________

AS the magnificent…

IN THIS PHOTO: Imogen Heap photographed in 2019/PHOTO CREDIT: Alexandra Arnold

Imogen Heap has been back in the music limelight because her phenomenal album, Speak for Yourself, has been reissued twenty years after release, I wanted to focus on its standout track. On the album, there is a remastered version of Hide and Seek. It is Imogen Heap’s best-known song. One that has taken on a life of its own. Because of that, this Groovelines explores a true great. Even so, there may be people who have not heard the track of Heap. Released on 19th May, 2005, Hide and Seek was not a commercial hit in the U.K. Not a big success for the London-born Imogen Heap, this is a song that might have been a bit too unusual for the charts. However, the fact that Hide and Seek has appeared in multiple T.V. shows and is being talked about twenty years later proves how enduring and original it is. Hide and Seek was the first single from Heap’s second album, Speak for Yourself. Written and produced by Heap, the song is an acapella ballad that heavily uses the harmonizer. A track that describes painfully losing someone due to a breakup. Before coming to some reviews and features, I want to bring in some Wikipedia information. The collected some critical reaction for the incredible Hide and Seek. It still sounds like nothing else:

“Hide and Seek" received critical acclaim upon its release. Writing for The New York Times, Laura Sinagra wrote that "Hide and Seek" was "the ghostly pièce de résistance" of Speak for Yourself, adding that the song "suggest[s] a kind of lovesick cyborg alienation, an almost disembodied, distinctly modern malaise". Sophie Heawood of The Guardian referred to the song as "extraordinary", describing its use of vocal layering as "startling" albeit with a "Marmite-style love-or-hate effect on listeners". For Pitchfork, David Raposa identified "Hide and Seek" as the "black sheep" of Speak for Yourself, writing, "It's gorgeous, it's impressive, it's grandiose, and it's barely there at all — just Heap's voice darting and divebombing, making itself scarce, disappearing into itself." The Skinny's Dave Reid suggested that "Hide and Seek" "threatens to put the rest of the album in the shade". Jeff Vrabel of PopMatters wrote that the song was "uniformly gorgeous" with "no beat required", adding, "Its sonic trickery makes the song lap itself; there's so much synthetic beauty in there that it comes off sounding organic anyway”.

In 2020, fifteen years after Hide and Seek was released, Inside Hook explored its enduring popularity. A song that has been used in The O.C. and Normal People, it has translated through the years. Something about it that has affected audiences of different generations. One that appeals to an American and British audience. And it has gone beyond that! More than twenty years after its came out, Imogen Heap’s Hide and Seek remains beautifully unsettling. Maybe not the right words. However, there is something both beautiful and unusual about the song:

“The first was the beginning of the Revolutionary War, the second was the one that felled the Archduke Franz Ferdinand in the preface to WWI, and the third arrived in the Season Two finale of The O.C., when Marissa shot Ryan’s brother Trey to the tune of Imogen Heap’s “Hide and Seek.” 

Since that night 15 years ago — the episode premiered on May 19, 2005 — Heap’s self-harmonized, vocoder-infused masterwork has been given the meme treatment by Saturday Night Live, the Billboard Hot 100 treatment by Jason Derulo and even the Broadway treatment in Harry Potter and the Cursed Child. But it’s the song’s placement in Normal People, a new 12-part TV adaptation of the Sally Rooney novel, that has ripped open old wounds, sparked debates about musical baggage and posed the question: Can “Hide and Seek” escape its iconic origins to become something more? 

To connect the dots across time, we got in touch with Maggie Phillips, music supervisor on Normal People, as well as Norman Buckley, who worked as a director and editor on The O.C., a job that included editing the Season Two finale, “The Dearly Beloved.”

“When I was editing The O.C., I was given Imogen Heap’s album Speak for Yourself by music supervisor Alex Patsavas at the beginning of Season Two — it may have even been before the album’s release,” Buckley told InsideHook via email. “I loved the entire album and thought her voice was unique. I suggested to The O.C. creator Josh Schwartz that he listen to the album, as I wanted to use a song called ‘Goodnight and Go’ in Episode Five of the second season (which we did). ‘Hide and Seek’ was on the same album.” 

It’s the song’s association with the beloved teen soap that has ostensibly irked both fans of The O.C. and of Normal People’s source material. Less than a week after the latter show premiered, The Cut did what The Cut does, asking, “What Is *That* Song Doing in Normal People?” Another blog said “Hide and Seek” “belongs” to The O.C. As for Maggie Phillips, when asked if there were factions on the creative team fighting for or against the song’s use in the new Hulu and BBC series, she skips the pretense.

Of course, “Hide and Seek” does seem to have more than a bit of magic itself, which goes all the way back to the song’s composition, a musical origin story to rival other timeless classics like “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction,” but one that seems to have gotten lost amid the memes.

“It was about three in the morning … I had an idea of this hide-and-seek thing, I liked the childhood reference and I wanted to write a song about that. So when I was kind of stream-of-consciousness singing along to myself playing the piano-keyboard-thing, this whole song, all four and a half minutes of it, just arrived from start to finish in that four and a half minutes. All the lyrics weren’t there because lyrics are like pulling teeth with me. And right at the end you can actually hear the local train going by the window, because my studio’s right next to a busy train line,” she told WXPN in 2006. 

“I went home and I played it to my boyfriend — he’s kind of tattoos and bleach blond hair and six-foot-four — and he started crying when he heard it. So I was like, hm, there may be something in this song.” 

It wouldn’t be surprising to learn that Schwartz, Derulo, Hoggett or Abrahamson also shed tears when they first heard the song. But as Heap notes, the memorable lyrics —  from the opening “Where are we?” to “crop circles in the carpet” to the gunshot-triggering chorus — weren’t all there when she made her boyfriend weep. So the power, the timelessness of the song, then, lies beyond the “mmm whatcha say.” It lies in the music.

When asked how the process of choosing songs for Normal People differed from other projects, Phillips said, “In this instance, I spent most of my time trying to remember what my first love and first heartbreak felt like. The feelings are so strong, nothing is diluted from experience or time. I didn’t want the music to feel detached. I wanted the songs to feel imitate and sincere … as real and as intense as the emotions they were experiencing”.

I am going to wrap up in a second. Before that, this feature from earlier in the year marked twenty years of Hide and Seek. I am surprised that more has not been written about it. However, this is a song that will continue to be talked about for many years. If it perhaps no longer resonates with the same demographic it did ten or fifteen years ago, there is no denying how influential and important Hide and Seek is. Beyond the media and its screen appearances:

“It’s been two decades since Imogen Heap gifted the world “Hide and Seek,” a song that beautifully defied musical norms and etched itself permanently into pop culture. Released in 2005, this unique acapella track broke barriers, selling over half a million copies, and resonating deeply within mainstream media, from topping charts to becoming a memorable soundtrack moment on the beloved TV show, The OC. Our lecturer, Alex Wood, breaks down her vocal production, noting how Heap’s voice serves as both melody and instrumentation, with layered harmonies creating the song’s entire sonic landscape.

The creation story behind “Hide and Seek” is as intriguing as the song itself. When Heap’s studio computer unexpectedly “blew up,” she didn’t despair. Instead, she turned to a Digitech Vocalist Workstation EX, hardware typically used for pitch correction and real-time harmonisation, and began experimenting. Using this technology alongside a MIDI keyboard and recording onto a Minidisk 4-track recorder, Heap crafted her groundbreaking masterpiece. What made “Hide and Seek” stand apart was Heap’s innovative use of the device’s vocoder setting. Unlike traditional vocoders that blend vocals with synth signals, the Digitech altered Heap’s harmonics in real-time, creating an ethereal and synthesised vocal quality. With the device limited to four-part harmonies, Heap creatively played additional notes, allowing the harmoniser to randomly select pitches. This resulted in beautifully unpredictable harmonies, surprising inversions, and the hauntingly high notes of the second chorus.

Though Laurie Anderson’s “O Superman” pioneered acapella synth-vocals back in 1982, “Hide and Seek” uniquely captured the internet generation’s imagination. It has notably lived on through countless “hmmm, whatcha say?” memes, demonstrating the song’s persistent influence and its remarkable ability to transcend generations.

In 2018, Heap further highlighted the song’s incredible journey with her Mycelia project, “Life of a Song,” visually tracing the $1 million in royalties “Hide and Seek” has generated. This innovative transparency illuminated the complex financial dynamics of the music industry, underscoring Heap’s ongoing commitment to artist empowerment”.

Beyond its appearances in the media, there have been covers, remixes and samples of Hide and Seek. I want to return briefly to Wikipedia, as this information about those who have tackled Hide and Seek and used the track is really interesting. I hope that this the features and words I have collated goes deeper into Hide and Seek. Gives you more of an impression about why it is so special:

“On the fifth season of Australian reality competition series Australian Idol, finalist Ben McKenzie performed the song on the season's fourth episode. British alternative rock band Fightstar covered the song as a B-side to their single, "The English Way", in 2008. American metal band And Then There Were None covered the song in 2009. In 2010, Canadian guitarist Antoine Dufour recorded a solo guitar version of the song. British a cappella ensemble The King's Singers included a cover of the song on their 2010 album Swimming Over London. In 2010 and 2011, respectively, Dutch DJ Afrojack and Swedish DJ Otto Knows released remixes of the song. In 2012, British pop rock band The Dunwells released a cover of the song on their EP Leaving the Rose. In 2017, English musician Jacob Collier recorded his solo harmonizer rendition of the song. A trance remix of the song by Dutch DJ Ferry Corsten was released in 2013. American DJ Slushii released a future bass remix of the song in 2018”.

As Speak for Yourself recently turned twenty and there has been a reissue, a lot of people have been talking about Hide and Seek. It was ubiquitous at a certain point and received a lot of attention. Whether it was T.V. or film exposure or cover versions, maybe the focus has died a little. However, there has been new spotlight on this classic recently. This is a fantastic and hugely impactful track that we are going to be dissecting and discussing…

TWO decades from now.

FEATURE: Kate Bush’s Hounds of Love at Forty: Ten: Waking the Witch

FEATURE:

 

 

Kate Bush’s Hounds of Love at Forty

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

Ten: Waking the Witch

__________

THIS song is a bit…

of a turning point in The Ninth Wave. Kate Bush’s Hounds of Love turns forty on 16th September. I am running a series of features that looks inside all of the songs and aspects around the album. The third song on The Ninth Wave, the conceptual second side of the album, is perhaps the scariest and most urgent. It is Walking the Witch. Following Under Ice, we sense the heroine trapped under ice and beneath the water. Waking the Witch is the song where voices urge her to wake up and keep going. The next song, Watching You Without Me, is more haunted. Family and friends waiting for the arrival of the heroine/Bush but she is not there. I am going to explore Waking the Witch in more detail. For that, I will bring in Leah Kardos’s 33 1/3 book, Hounds of Love. Kardos unpicks the song and goes inside the composition. Before I get there, this article from the Kate Bush Encyclopedia is interview archive where Bush discussed one of the most thrilling and memorable songs on Hounds of Love:

“These sort of visitors come to wake them up, to bring them out of this dream so that they don’t drown. My mother’s in there, my father, my brothers Paddy and John, Brian Tench – the guy that mixed the album with us – is in there, Del is in there, Robbie Coltrane does one of the voices. It was just trying to get lots of different characters and all the ways that people wake you up, like you know, you sorta fall asleep at your desk at school and the teacher says “Wake up child, pay attention!”. (…) I couldn’t get a helicopter anywhere and in the end I asked permission to use the helicopter from The Wall from The Floyd, it was the best helicopter I’d heard for years for years [laughs].
I think it’s very interesting the whole concept of witch-hunting and the fear of women’s power. In a way it’s very sexist behavior, and I feel that female intuition and instincts are very strong, and are still put down, really. And in this song, this women is being persecuted by the witch-hunter and the whole jury, although she’s committed no crime, and they’re trying to push her under the water to see if she’ll sink or float.

Richard Skinner, ‘Classic Albums interview: Hounds Of Love. Radio 1 (UK), aired 26 January 1992”.

PHOTO CREDIT: John Carder Bush

Kate Bush performed this track, and the entirety of The Ninth Wave, during the 2014 residency in Hammersmith. As part of the majestic Before the Dawn, I can imagine Waking the Witch was one of the standout moments. I would love to have been at one of the twenty-two dates! There is a lot of detail from Leah Kardos about Waking the Witch. I can’t include all of it. However, I want to select some highlights. Voices urging the heroine to wake up: “Voices speak from various locations in the stereo space, urging the woman to wake up, some of them sound like family (‘Wake up, sleepy head!”), another like a scolding schoolmistress (‘Wake up, child – pay attention!’)”. Bush is masterful when it comes to layering vocals perfectly. The answer machine messages that play during The Dreaming’s All the Love. She can weave these different accents and people together to create something head-spinning. Waking the Witch is such a busy track. Leah Kardos writes how we hear various voices – including Robbie Coltrane, whale song, and John Carder Bush’s voice, “from the back of the right speaker peeks out to stage-whisper ‘Over here!’”. The explosion happens after some brief build-up. “Most shocking is Bush’s frantic voice, cutting in and out as she pleads , ‘Listen to me, help me, help me baby’”. It is, as Kardos suggests, the panic-stricken sounds of someone drowning. I often wonder whether Bush/the heroine made it out of the song. Whether this is the moment she succumbs. That garbled cry was achieved by “quickly moving the record switch on the tape machine”. That was the source of a heated argument between Kate Bush and her engineer and then-boyfriend, Del Palmer. In a later interview, Palmer admitted he had to eat humble pie and was wrong!

The heroine goes from this drowning and scared person to someone accused of witchcraft She is put on trial and condemned. “Witch ‘swimming’ or ‘ducking’ was the practice of tying up and dunking an accused woman into the body of water to see if they sank or floated”. It is a terrifying and tense moment that brings so much story and twist to the song. “With its monstrous voice effect (Eventime Harmonizer set to minus-two octaves), Bush’s Witchfinder subjects the accused to such tests (‘You won’t burn, you won’t bleed, confess to me girl’)”. These tests including subjecting the accused to burning and pricking. The feeling that witches were impervious to pain and would have a bloodless mark. It was based around belief, though it was sexism and misogyny. A fascinating thing to bring into the middle of a 1985 album! Bush herself must have felt like a witch being judged and on trial. Subject to so much blatant misogyny through her career! I do not know that background voices “sing lines adapted from the halyard sea shanty Blood Red Shoes. The tune was popularized by folk revivalist A.L. (Bert) Lloyd”. Bush does some riffing on Lloyd’s lines. “Pinks and posies, red, red roses go down”. Bush was no stranger to a sea shanty. Leah Kardos remarks how the B-side of Hounds of Love’s title single was a cover of The Handsome Cabin Boy.  It was originally by Lloyd and Ewan MacColl. “The music breaks away from the C# minor for a counter phrase that swirls with the sound of church bells and woozy spiralling guitar figures around E minor. Bush murmurs snatches of Catholic Vulgate scripture that she may be forgetting or getting wrong: ‘Spiritus sanctus in nomine no-no-no-no’ (the name of the Holy Spirit, no) and later ‘Deus et dei domino no-no-no-no’ (God and God’s lord, no)”. The Witchfinder questions the innocence of the woman and delivers the verdict. Kardos writes about the line, “Help this blackbird, there’s a stone around my leg”. With the sound of a helicopter coming in and yelling at the woman to get out of the water – the same helicopter sample used on Pink Floyd’s The Wall -, there is mystery around the blackbird and what that references.

Leah Kardos theorises it could be a reference to Elizabeth George Speare’s 1958 novel, The Witch of Blackbird Pond. The lead is seen as a witch and viewed with suspicion after diving into the water to retrieve a child’s toy and she has this ability to swim. That was seen as unusual. Bush remarked how female instinct and intuition was put down and people fear a woman’s power. She channelled all of this in Waking the Witch. I know I have published a lot of this information before. Quoted from Leah Kardos. However, as not much is written about the track and it is almost forty years since Hounds of Love was released, it warrants another inclusion. I want to include some information from this feature from earlier in the year that provides some fascinating perspectives and insight into Waking the Witch:

“The accuser is distorting her words and ignoring her cries so she imagines herself turning into a blackbird (the blackbird being Bush’s favourite singer, as she once told a bemused interviewer):

I question your innocence
She's a witch (help this blackbird, there's a stone around my leg)
Ha, damn you, woman
(Help this blackbird, there's a stone around my leg)
What say you, good people (guilty, guilty, guilty)
Well, are you responsible for your actions? (This blackbird)
Not guilty (help this blackbird)
Wake up the witch

The song ends with the sound of a rescue helicopter and a cry to ‘get out of the water.’ A witch trial is not an obvious place for the drowning protagonist’s thoughts to have taken them, perhaps the woman half-remembers a story of witch ducking and has imagined herself in the victim’s place as the water seems to bear down on her with the fury of persecution. Identifying with an accused witch also brings a particularly female sensibility to this musical story.

I think of the women of Afghanistan singing in defiance of the Taliban’s femicidal death cult, punished for doing what blackbirds can do freely. This feels like a song for anyone who is drowning, but I also think it’s worth noting that the violent imagery here brings with it the will to stay awake. Unlike the gentle suicide suggested by ‘And Dream of Sheep,’ a sinister song masquerading as a lullaby, this song pricks our drowning woman awake and lights a fire of determination underneath her. It’s at the climax of her persecution that rescue suddenly arrives. This also subverts the title of the song: ‘Waking the Witch’ was the name for the practice of sleep deprivation used as torture for securing a confession. Here, staying awake will save the woman’s life.

If you’re interested in the real history of witch trials and stories of defiance, make sure to read Marion Gibson’s Witchcraft, A History in 13 trials which I reviewed here. I wrote about whether or not we still find witches scary back in my Macbeth entry in ‘Horror Moments: Shakespeare Edition’ which you can read here”.

A very important song on The Ninth Wave, Waking the Witch is a moment of history, sexism, struggle, defiance and terror. Did the heroine survive and respond to the voices? Are these dying words she hears? In terms of the production and the vocal layers, this is Kate Bush at her very best as producer! Busy and dripping in darkness and violence, there is also sweetness and this chance of hope. Watching You Without Me is a much calmer affair. Where we maybe sense the heroine is a ghost. Or that is how she appears to her family. A remarkable switch in terms of mood and the story. That is a song I will investigate next time. Now, for this feature, I was keen to dive inside the terrifying Waking the Witch. It is the eighth track from Kate Bush’s landmark…

FIFTH studio album.

FEATURE: Respect: Otis Blue/Otis Redding Sings Soul at Sixty

FEATURE:

 

 

Respect

Otis Blue/Otis Redding Sings Soul at Sixty

__________

AN album that I hope…

IN THIS PHOTO: Otis Redding in 1966/PHOTO CREDIT: Cyrus Andrews/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images

gets some new interest and discussion around its anniversary. On 15th September, 1965, Otis Blue/Otis Redding Sings Soul was released. It was the third studio album from the legend. Perhaps Otis Redding’s finest album. Even though the album is mainly cover versions, Redding puts his own stamp on the songs. Infusing them with such power, soulfulness and nuance. You come back to these tracks time and time again and get new things. New emotions and feelings. Such a stunning collection of performances from someone that we lost far too soon. Otis Redding did write three of the album’s tracks – including Ole Man Trouble and Respect. Though many feel the latter was claimed by Aretha Franklin, in terms of the definitive version, it was Otis Redding who wrote it. A main reason why Otis Blue/Otis Redding Sings Soul is so immediate is the fact most of the songs were recorded so quickly. It is staggering to think that the album was recorded in the space of twenty-four hours. Between 9th and 10th July, 1965, this timeless and perfect album was laid down. Like capturing a concert. If it was overthought or there was this long recording process, then I don’t feel the songs would affect and resonate. Capturing the purity and rawness of the songs, Redding was backed by the Stax house band, Booker T. & the M.G.'s A huge  crossover success, Otis Blue/Otis Redding Sings Soul sold more than 250,000 copies. I am going to feature some articles about this masterpiece. One that, sixty years later, has lost none of its impact. I have been listening to many of these songs since I was a child and I cannot fathom where that voice came from! There are other brilliant and mind-blowing singers – Aretha Franklin and Sam Cooke (who wrote three of the songs that appear on Otis Blue/Otis Redding Sings Soul) – who elicit emotions. However, there are none that leave the impression that Otis Redding does!

I want to start things off with Pitchfork’s review of 2008. It provides some context in terms of how Otis Redding was not this especially well-known artist before he recorded Otis Blue/Otis Redding Sings Soul. It is also unfortunate how the album cover features the face of a white woman and not Redding. There are these undertones that are unsettling and angering. As much as anything, this masterpiece album did not feature the face of its creator on the cover. Making him anonymous or reducing him to his voice:

“On July 8, 1965, Otis Redding was a young soul singer of modest renown, less than three months removed from releasing his first Top 10 r&b hit single. By July 10, he had become something else entirely: It took only 24 hours to lay down 10 of the 11 songs that would make up Otis Blue: Otis Redding Sings Soul, arguably the 1960s' greatest studio-recorded soul LP. (The only track not recorded at that time was the #2 hit, "I've Been Loving You Too Long".) Friends and associates had noticed Redding's growing confidence as a singer, and once Otis Blue hit shelves it was clear he was poised enough to pick up the mantle of the recently slain legend Sam Cooke, up to that point the greatest soul singer in America. He was also prepared to take on the Temptations and the Rolling Stones and B.B.King on their own turf; the only way to top him would be to give one of his original compositions to Aretha Franklin ("Respect"). In the simplest terms: It's a hell of a record, the crowning achievement of a man who could sound pained and celebratory and tender and gritty and proud all at once, with a voice that everyone from John Fogerty to Swamp Dogg to Cee-lo owes a debt to.

Rhino's 2xCD Collector's Edition of Otis Blue makes a good case for this 24-hour labor of love as a wide-reaching document that just gets better with context. A set this packed-- including rarities, alternate mixes, live versions of the album tracks, and the original LP in both mono and stereo-- could easily feel sprawling and overstuffed, but it does a great job illuminating every tweaked nuance and permutation that Redding and his top-notch band could come up with during the course of a song's lifetime. Considering the personnel involved in the original LP-- Booker T. & the M.G.'s guitarist Steve Cropper, bassist Donald "Duck" Dunn, and drummer Al Jackson Jr.; keyboardist Isaac Hayes; a horn section (saxophonists Floyd Newman and Andrew Love, trumpet players Wayne Jackson and Gene Miller) filled with members of the Mar-Keys and the Memphis Horns-- it's a blessing to hear them both unified in mono and isolated in stereo. (Any concerns of redundancy can be allayed thusly: the mono version's for your speakers; stereo's for your headphones.

You need them both.) And the singer holding it together is at the top of his game. There's the possibility that the death of Cooke not only inspired Redding to record three of his idol's most well-known songs, but spurred him to step up and fill an aching void in popular music, and it's not blasphemous to suggest that Otis measures up. His version of "Wonderful World" matches the original's tone of winsome modesty and gives it a rougher edge, and his juke-joint version of "Shake" is a hard-swinging, full-throated 2:40 of precision ferocity with a force that would flat-out explode during his live sets. But "Change Gonna Come", his take on Cooke's civil rights anthem "A Change Is Gonna Come", is the real gem of the three: the moment he sings "I was born by the river," you can tell he knows what he's been entrusted with, and he handles it superbly with a mix of raspy frustration and wounded gentleness that's part trained virtuosity and part raw emotion.

Like most other albums of the time, there's no shortage of covers, most of which fall under the milieu of Southern rhythm & blues: a sweltering take on B.B. King's "Rock Me Baby", with some of the best-timed "heh" asides this side of James Brown; a stomping version of Solomon Burke's "Down in the Valley" that ratchets up both the gospel beatitude and the secular lust; the staggering reworking of William Bell's "You Don't Miss Your Water" that has one of the most devastating pleading-man lead vocals in the entire Stax catalog. But there's also two other covers that really show what Redding could do in a different sort of pop context. Of all the versions of "My Girl" that sprang up in the wake of the Tempations' career-making December 1964 release, Otis' is especially inspired, twisting its familiar melodies against it and interjecting a few unexpected pauses and shifted inflections; the way he delivers its once-familiar chorus just a little off-balance can deke you right out of your socks. (Much of Redding's popularity in the UK hinged on this track, which was released in England by Atlantic to capitalize on the fact that it was one of the few places the Temptations' version hadn't caught on.)

 And his transformative take on "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction", growling and sneering and wailing against a 90-mph backbeat sounds like even more of an impressive accomplishment whenyou take into account the fact that he hadn't even heard the Rolling Stones' original version at the time he recorded the song. He simply went off the lyrics and embellished them where he saw fit-- underscoring the "fashion" in "satisfaction" or throwing in new verses that turned Mick and Keith's restlessness into sheer uncontrollability ("I keep on runnin' round in my sleep/ I keep on messin' up any beat").

The covers are supplemented on this collection by four originals, two of which-- the mournfully harried "Ole Man Trouble" and the Jerry Butler-co-written "I've Been Loving You Too Long" with its priceless ending crescendo of desperation-- are evidence enough that he wasn't just a flashy interpreter. Another is "I'm Depending on You", the B-side to "I've Been Loving You Too Long", and it's a simple, perfectly fine vehicle for him to turn unremarkable lyrics into remarkable vocalizations. The other one, of course, is "Respect"-- the song that Redding liked to joke was "stolen" from him by Aretha Franklin. It's true, in a sense-- Franklin claimed ownership of the song the moment she recorded it-- but it would be doing Redding a great disservice to consider his original an afterthought. Even without the brassy attitude and feminist overtones in Franklin's iconic rendition, Redding's performance is singular enough to avoid being canceled out. His band's performance isn't as much of a first-round-knockout as the one by the team Jerry Wexler and Arif Mardin assembled for the Queen of Soul (no slight-- what performance is?), but had it never been covered, Redding's version would be more vividly remembered as one of his greatest moments as a singer and a songwriter: it's no small feat to take the situation of a man asking for respect from a woman and deliver it while sounding more like a romantic diplomat than a chauvinist asshole!”.

Otis Redding’s greatest gift as a singer is how he could convey gritty, romantic, tender and pained. Such expressive wonder! Anyone who has not heard of Otis Redding, I would suggest listening to this album. They look at the complexities of the album. In terms of how some songs seem stuck in time. Some do not fit and others do. Other transcend their time. Dig! make that argument in their retrospective of 2023. A closer look at Otis Blue/Otis Redding Sings Soul:

“Choosing to open his new album with this slow wail, rather than the hit singles Respect or My Girl, was an audacious move. Indisputably one of the best soul singers of all time, Redding sometimes referred to himself as a blues singer, which explains the album’s two-part title: Otis Blue, because he felt bluesy; Otis Redding Sings Soul, so fans knew what they were getting.

The mournful I’ve Been Loving You Too Long, co-written in a hotel room in Buffalo, New York, with the mighty Chicago soul man Jerry Butler when they crossed paths on the road, was one of Redding’s greatest performances: listen to those amazing bent notes. Butler made his own version in 1968; The Rolling Stones played it live; Chris Farlowe, Sandy Posey and Dionne Warwick were among those who recorded it. But Redding posted the definitive cut on Otis Blue, and it still stands as one of the best Otis Redding songs of all time.

Speaking of the Stones… It wasn’t unusual for soul stars to adapt current hits, but to cover a song so strongly associated with one contemporary act was a little unlikely. Perhaps cutting (I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction was payback for the number of songs the Britrock legends had copped from Redding and his labelmates. It had been Steve Cropper’s idea, and the backing track was ready when Redding came in to voice it. Unusually for a guitar player, Cropper had suggested shifting the tune’s fuzzbox riff to horns. Curiously, Keith Richards had initially envisaged that riff for horns. Even more curiously, Redding played Satisfaction at a show with the Stones in the wings. Offstage, Richards commented on the performance, and Redding told him it was a tune he’d just written. Perhaps he was winding the guitarist up. In a further connection, Otis Blue also featured a blues tune the Stones played live, BB King’s Rock Me Baby, which Redding emotes with lustful urgency.

My Girl, the delicate if passionate reworking of Smokey Robinson and Ronald White’s hit for The Temptations, formed part of Stax’s ongoing battle with its rivals up north in Detroit: Motown. So you think you’re soulful up there, huh? Well, out-soul this. Redding also tackles Down In The Valley, an ersatz, almost cheesy folk tune in Solomon Burke’s version, but played straight by Redding, like he really was marching down that valley: he was a country boy while Burke was a Philly city slicker.

The heart of Otis Blue/Otis Redding Sings Soul is three Sam Cooke songs. This soul pioneer had been shot dead in December 1964, and Redding considered cutting a tribute album to him. Here he serves up the dance tune Shake, the slightest track on the record, but still full of Memphis goodness. Perhaps Redding’s experience as someone who left school at 15 to help feed his family by grafting as a fuel-pump attendant and well-digger made his version of Wonderful World convincing. And Cooke’s conscious anthem A Change Is Gonna Come, astonishingly poignant coming from a Georgia singer, brings Redding’s acute awareness of Black America’s situation into sharp focus. You can feel the struggle.

Otis Blue closes with a touching cut of Stax labelmate William Bell’s You Don’t Miss Your Water, a learned-the-hard-way ballad that finishes with the singer’s dilemma unresolved, leaving listeners thirsty for more. Redding was at a peak, but we will never know just how much higher he could have climbed; he never lived to see one of his records at No.1, though the posthumous (Sittin’ On) The Dock Of The Bay, did make it. Losing someone you love is an appalling loss, but at least Redding left behind the best of him in Otis Blue. For all time”.

I am going to end with Albumism. Writing in 2020 around the fifty-fifth anniversary of Otis Blue/Otis Redding Sings Soul, there are going to be sections that are repeated from earlier. However, it is important to see these features and learn this information. It adds layers and clarity to this remarkable album. One that I think grows in stature each year. I do not think the songs are of their time or cannot connect today. Even if we do not have singers like Otis Redding today, you can hear and feel the influence on the artists who were moved by albums like Otis Blue/Otis Redding Sings Soul:

“Isaac Hayes (who would eventually take Redding’s place as the tent-pole artist for the label) said (again, in Gordon’s excellent book) that Stax was “raw, very honest music that represented the common man—the common black man.” It was the countrified, down-home cousin to Motown’s slick, urbane, more pop-oriented machine, and Redding’s voice, along with the house bands, helped forge this identity as a funkier, down-to-earth entity. Both Redding’s and Stax’s identities and fortunes became intertwined—they were symbiotically linked.

The album’s timing was everything too. Just six months previously, Sam Cooke had been killed in Los Angeles, leaving a gap in the hearts and minds of soul music fans. Otis was wise enough to record three Cooke songs for Otis Blue in his own inimitable (and vastly different) style. By doing so he presented himself both as an acolyte of the late, great singer but also as the torchbearer who could carry soul music forward.

As well as the covers of songs by other artists, the album also contains original material penned by him—including the most famous song penned by him, one of the most recognized and loved songs of the 20th Century. His original version of “Respect” moves at a much brisker pace courtesy of Al Jackson’s surging, G-Force drums—it would be somewhat ridiculous to suggest that Redding’s version is better than Aretha Franklin’s epoch-defining version, but it stands as testament to Redding’s increasingly brilliant pen.

The choice of songs and artists to cover is a very interesting point—he manages to tip his hat to both the architects of soul music but also to those other strands of Black music that contributed to its development. It is almost as if he is providing a summation of the ingredients of soul music. By taking these ingredients and adding his own unique voice to them he further melds them together and reinforces what constitutes soul music.

Solomon Burke’s “Down In The Valley” is a case in point. By choosing another of those rock & roll originators, Redding places himself firmly in the tradition of black music. But whereas it takes Burke a minute or two to showcase the more soulful, gritty edge to his voice, Redding lets it go from note one. His voice is already at the point of emotional breakdown and it doesn’t let up. It is, as Booker T Jones said, as if he wrings emotion from every single syllable. He treats each of them as precious and none are wasted on anything less than his best.

Anyone who can take a B.B. King song and make it their own has to be special and nowhere is it truer than with Redding’s cover of “Rock Me Baby.” The combination of Cropper’s sharp yet restrained guitar and Redding’s scandalously indecent sexual roar is perfection—Redding is both the voice of dominant masculinity and a soulful plea to a partner. Once again, by choosing a blues man’s tune, he casts himself as the past, present and future all in one moment.

Of the Sam Cooke covers, one in particular stands out as one of my favorite covers of all time. “A Change Is Gonna Come” is an awe-inspiring song at the best of times, capable of sending shivers down the spine, but here Redding ekes every single shred of pain, joy and hope from the lyric. When he sings the opening lines (having been ushered in majestically by the horns) “I was born by the river / In this little old tent / Oh and just like the river, I’ve been running ever since,” it is almost too much to bear. The ripped emotion in his voice makes it both utterly believable and soul crushingly sad—it is one of my favorite moments in recorded music and guarantees that the hairs on the back of my neck stand to attention”.

On 15th September, it will be sixty years since Otis Blue/Otis Redding Sings Soul was released. I wanted to spend some time with the album, as it is one that I really love! However, it is more important than that. This is what BBC said in 2007 in their review: “It's tempting to look for some faults here just for the sake of balance. But try as one might, they fail to present themselves, as the rawness of the playing, the sprightly rhythms of the upbeat tracks, and the grainy grief of Redding's voice reach in to your very core. A gutsy, visceral affair that leaves you thinking that, with the power of music, anything is possible; Otis Blue was, and remains, his definitive statement”. It is hard to argue with that. Since his sad passing in 1967, the music world has witnessed…

NOBODY like him.