FEATURE: Venthouse Suite: Deyah’s Care City and the Welsh Music Prize

FEATURE:

 

 

Venthouse Suite

Deyah’s Care City and the Welsh Music Prize

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I think there is a bit of…

 IMAGE CREDIT: Welsh Music Prize

bias when it comes to covering music prizes. The Mercury Prize gets a lot of attention, but I think that the Welsh Music Prize is as interesting and incredible. The field for this year’s shortlisted works was incredibly strong, and I know about/have covered a few of the acts. This article from Stereoboard gives some details about the shortlisted and introduces us to the winner of this year’s Welsh Music Prize, Deyah:

“Deyah has won the Welsh Music Prize for 'Care City', a record she released through her own label High Mileage, Low Life that mixes spoken word, rap and soul.

The rapper and singer — who previously operated under the NoNameDisciple moniker — saw off competition from Ani Glass, Colorama, Cotton Wolf, Don Leisure, Georgia Ruth, Gruff Rhys, Islet, Keys, Kidsmoke, Los Blancos, Luke RV, Right Hand Left Hand, Silent Forum, and Yr Ods to succeed last year’s winners, Adwaith, who took home the gong for 'Melyn'.

Returning for its 10th year with an increased shortlist of 15 albums, the award recognises the best in creativity from the growing Welsh music scene. In place of its usual Cardiff-based celebrations, the winner was announced via a livestream ceremony due to COVID-19 restrictions.

The 2020 judging panel featured Polly James (Radio X), Gemma Cairney (BBC Radio/author), Mark Sutherland (Music Week), Daniel Minty (Minty’s Gig Guide), Ffion Wyn (Ladies of Rage), Angharad Jenkins (musician/composer), Emma Zilmann (Bluedot/Kendal Calling), and Sian Eleri Evans (BBC Radio Cymru/Folded Wing)

The Triskel Award, which was introduced last year and is presented to acts that have "a bright future for music in Wales", was given to Eädyth, Mace The Great, and Malan”.

I hope there Deyah will get a lot of attention because her E.P., Care City, is fantastic. It is one of the best releases of this year! I adore her voice, and one can easily get lost in the songs - they have a combination of beauty and potency that draws you in. I really like the percussion through the E.P./mini-album, which has a sort of Trip-Hop vibe and it beautifully blends with the vocals. The lyrics are personal and hugely thought-provoking, and the combination of sparser – yet very evocative – compositions and a powerful lead makes it an E.P. that everyone will want to get a hold of! Make sure you follow Deyah on Twitter. At eight tracks, I guess Care City is a long E.P. or short album, but I think that sort of focus and relative brevity makes it an incredibly powerful and memorable listen. I want to bring in an interview from Deyah and a review of Care City but I hope, after winning the Welsh Music Prize, there is a vinyl run of Care City and that it gets played a lot more across a range of music stations! If you need a little bit of background regarding this unique and hugely promising artist, this article from the PRS Foundation is useful:

“Deyah is a gifted MC, who’s music combines Lo-fi Hip Hop with a hint of old school and new school vibes, neo-soul, and R&B.

Her influences include Lauryn Hill, Queen Latifah and Fela Kuti to name a few. Still in her early 20’s , Deyah has gained the attention of Lily Allen, who has publicly stated that she is going to be the next big artist in 2019 as well as Wiley, Kojey Radical, Little Simz, JME, Shakka, Jessie J and Bugzy Malone who have all shown their appreciation.

 Her first EP project “Therapy Sessions 77” back in 2017, gained attention and support from Linda Serck @ BBC Introducing Berkshire , DJ Semtex (Capital Xtra) and DJ Target (BBC 1Xtra). Her performances include Reading + Leeds Festival in 2018. She’s featured on Etta Bond’s “Surface” remix with proceeds going to Nordoff Robbins charity. Manga Saint Hilare featured her on his “Outsiders Live Forever” project. In 2019, Deyah was added to BBC Introducing’s Hot List for International Women’s Day.

Deyah remains humble as she focuses on her calling, the task at hand, being a messenger, a storyteller, shelling bars to make her audience think, and feel empowered, uplifted and entertained, all at the same time”.

The Care City E.P./mini-album has received a lot of praise; people noting this phenomenal talent whose music, once heard, does not shake from the mind! One of the most interesting and impassioned reviews came from The Line of Best Fit back in April:

“Realising she can’t depend on others, she finds some kind of comfort in solitude. Sleepy synth pads score declaration of independence "Planet X", where she sing-raps about inner- peace and taking time for herself, and laughs off an ex who wants to reconnect. On "SYS", she swears off the Tinder generation altogether. Bookended by dialogue with an older woman who doesn’t see the appeal of online dating, the song is a scathing repudiation of men who can’t commit to a relationship.

 In the past, religion was her port in this storm. Her Lover Loner EP was flush with paeans to faith in the face of habitual heartache. Promoting that project, Deyah told I Am Hip-Hop magazine last year: “My underlying message is about seeking a relationship with God”. Now, her conviction is shaken. Closing track "Liquor Lament" is a scream into the void wherein she proclaims she’s “never felt so far from the God” she used to know, while ‘Mars’ is a sobering look back to the moment she lost her faith. The only track on the EP without a drumbeat, Deyah’s words echo around a bare arrangement of piano chords and guitar tones.

“Rehab got me on my way to a long road/I need to be clean if I’m gonna chase the dream,” she resolves. Deyah has been to hell and back, but still she looks ahead to better days. “After dark, light does prevail,” she stresses on "Terminal 7". Her voice quivers with a touch of uncertainty”.

I am going to finish up in a minute but, just before wrapping up, I want to bring in a really good interview from I Am Hip Hop Magazine - who spoke with Deyah about the release of Care City and its influence; they asked where she was going to head after this:

“Care City is an incredibly raw album that tackles really personal struggles like substance abuse, heartbreak, rehab and depression. During the creative process was there ever a fear of being too personal or too open with your art? For instance, was there ever a moment where you thought, ‘I don’t want to put that in there, it’s too sensitive,’ or did you find it cathartic?

I never for a second had any fear of being too personal. I wanted to be as authentic and as transparent as possible. I feel like when you go through certain experiences, the fear of mankind no longer exists within you. This is why creating Care City was so different compared to my other projects, I never thought once to rephrase a sentence or to try dumb it down a little. I went with my soul on this one. The only thing of course I didn’t mention, is the names of people, I would never do that, I’m not that type of person.

What is/were the healing process like when dealing with those issues? Did focusing on writing music help you heal during this time?

I didn’t initially give time to the healing process, so it was a slow starter for me but once I allowed it, it was the most challenging but rewarding process I’ve ever gone through. I wouldn’t say focusing on music helped me heal but it did allow me to creatively deal with my issues at the time. Funnily enough, I’m finding the healing more so now… when I find myself at a low point, I listen to Care City and helps me a great deal to reflect but also to feel.

Was there any particular sounds or musical influences that influenced you during the making of this EP?

Not particularly but maybe subconsciously. At the time, I was only listening to garage and house music and there’s definitely no influence of that in the project. I will say though, Jaden Smith and Diggy Simmons creative versatility has always inspired me regarding sound. In general though, the openness of J Cole, Wretch 32 and Saba’s music has for sure pushed me more so to be even more transparent than before and Little Simz lack of fear in production and delivery also encouraged me to be more versatile and go with the soul.

Now that you’ve released three projects, what vision do you have for your music in the future?

I just intend on continuing to create material that i like. I don’t really think much of those other two projects, as I feel they were trial and error/experiments. Care City is the first project i’d actually call an adequate body of work. I’m currently working on my next project which is unlike anything I’ve ever created before. I want to continue moving in this fearless space that I’m in and create whatever it is on the inside that I feel I need to”.

Go and check out Care City - and you can follow Deyah on Instagram and Spotify. I know she will be a big name of the future and, when venues open up next year, she will be keen to capitalise on the Welsh Music Prize win and the plaudits Care City has received. Go show some love for Deyah because, in Care City, here is one of 2020’s…

MOST extraordinary works!

FEATURE: The November Playlist: Vol. 3: Does It Feel Right Being a Prisoner?

FEATURE:

 

 

The November Playlist

IN THIS PHOTO: Biig Piig 

Vol. 3: Does It Feel Right Being a Prisoner?

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THIS is a packed edition…

 IN THIS PHOTO: Dua Lipa

of the weekly Playlist, as there are new cuts from Biig Piig, Shameika (ft. Fiona Apple), Miley Cyrus (ft. Dua Lipa), MARINA, slowthai, Lana Del Rey, girl in red, King Gizzard & The Wizard Lizard, Phoebe Bridgers, Megan Thee Stallion, and great Christmas tracks from Poppy, Twinnie, and Paul Heaton and Jacqui Abbott - and a video from Paul McCartney. In addition, there is some awesome music from The Cribs, Lou Hayter, Ariana Grande, shame, Tierra Whack, Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds, Sia, and Kara Marni! It is a busy week with a great array of music from some sensational artists. If you need some energy and quality tunes to get you into the weekend, then have a listen to the artists below and they will give you…

THE kick you need!

ALL PHOTOS/IMAGES (unless credited otherwise): Artists

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IN THIS PHOTO: Shameika Stepney/PHOTO CREDIT: Ray Perks

Shameika (ft. Fiona Apple) - Shameika Said

Paul McCartney - Coming Up

PHOTO CREDIT: Mat Hayward/Getty Images

Lana Del Rey - Summertime The Gershwin Version

slowthai - nhs

Biig Piig – Feels Right

Miley Cyrus (ft. Dua Lipa) - Prisoner

MARINA – Man’s World

PHOTO CREDIT: Sarah Louise Bennett for DORK

girl in red – two queens in a king sized bed

Poppy - I Won’t Be Home for Christmas

Megan Thee Stallion – Body

Phoebe Bridgers – Kyoto (Copycat Killer Version)

Ariana Grande - 34+35

King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard – Intrasport

The Cribs – Deep Infatuation

GIRLI – Letter to My Ex

Bleachers (ft. Bruce Springsteen) - chinatown

Lou Hayter – Private Sunshine

PHOTO CREDIT: Flo Ngala/WWD

Tierra Whack – Peppers and Onions

Kara Marni – Close

PHOTO CREDIT: Sam Alexander-Gregg

shame – Water in the Well

IN THIS PHOTO: Bill Callahan

Bill Callahan & Bonnie Prince Billy (feat. Bill MacKay) - Deacon Blues

FLOHIO - Sweet Flaws

PHOTO CREDIT: David Barajas

Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds – Sad Waters (Live at Alexandra Palace, 2020)

Matilda Mann – Paper Mache World

Hannah Georgas, Matt Berninger – Pray It Away

Sia - Hey Boy

Ava Max – My Head & My Heart

Mysie – Patterns

Alex Jayne – Pictures

Twinnie – Driving Home for Christmas

Paul Heaton, Jacqui Abbott – Christmas (And  Dad Wants Her Back)

PHOTO CREDIT: Daniel Alexander Harris

MarthaGunn – Nowhere to Run

Lucy Spraggan – Roots

Kelly Rowland, NFL - Hitman

PHOTO CREDIT: Madison Phipps Photography

Sam Smith – The Lighthouse Keeper

Blithe – Beast

Lauren Faith – Feels

Cloud Nothings - The Spirit Of

Kings Elliot - I'm Getting Tired of Me

Mealtime – Moneybag

RAYE - Natalie Don’t

FEATURE: Blackbird Braille, Deamondi-Pavlova, Shovelcrusted and Vanishing World… Dispelling a Myth: Kate Bush’s 50 Words for Snow

FEATURE:

 

 

Blackbird Braille, Deamondi-Pavlova, Shovelcrusted and Vanishing World…

IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush in 2011

Dispelling a Myth: Kate Bush’s 50 Words for Snow

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TODAY (21st November)…

Kate Bush’s 50 Words for Snow turns nine. It is her latest studio album and, so long after its release, it keeps on revealing new things to me. I may put out one more feature before its anniversary later, as it is an album that boasts some phenomenal songs with great stories. One such diamond is its amazing title track. The album’s title/song refers to the myth that Eskimos have fifty words for snow – I am not sure why they ever would or why people ever believed that! This is an album where Bush explores snow in a very romantic way, but she throws in some gothic and ghostly touches on Lake Tahoe; some yeti-spotting on Wild Man and, on the title track, a nod to the Eskimos and that list myth. I always love Bush’s title tracks as I think, like other artists, the title track sort of defines an album and will get extra focus. On 50 Words for Snow, she had the unenviable task of coming up with fifty different words for snow! This article from the Kate Bush Encyclopaedia gives some background regarding the track:

“Years ago I think I must have heard this idea that there were 50 words for snow in this, ah, Eskimo Land! And I just thought it was such a great idea to have so many words about one thing. It is a myth - although, as you say it may hold true in a different language - but it was just a play on the idea, that if they had that many words for snow, did we? If you start actually thinking about snow in all of its forms you can imagine that there are an awful lot of words about it.

Just in our immediate language we have words like hail, slush, sleet, settling… So this was a way to try and take it into a more imaginative world. And I really wanted Stephen to read this because I wanted to have someone who had an incredibly beautiful voice but also someone with a real sense of authority when he said things. So the idea was that the words would get progressively more silly really but even when they were silly there was this idea that they would have been important, to still carry weight. And I really, really wanted him to do it and it was fantastic that he could do it. (...) I just briefly explained to him the idea of the song, more or less what I said to you really. I just said it’s our idea of 50 Words For Snow. Stephen is a lovely man but he is also an extraordinary person and an incredible actor amongst his many other talents. So really it was just trying to get the right tone which was the only thing we had to work on. He just came into the studio and we just worked through the words. And he works very quickly because he’s such an able performer. (...) I think faloop'njoompoola is one of my favourites. [laughs] (John Doran, 'A Demon In The Drift: Kate Bush Interviewed'. The Quietus, 2011)”.

 IN THIS PHOTO: Stephen Fry

I have already written a feature about another guest star who appears on the album, Sir Elton John, on Snowed in at Wheeler Street, and it was rare to that point for Bush to bring in such big names on her music – she had worked with Peter Gabriel on a couple of his albums and Prince was in the mix on The Red Shoes, but nobody had true equal billing with Bush on vocals to that point. I love the fact that Bush could just call up Elton John and invite him over for tea and a recording session and, similarly, give Stephen Fry a buzz and wonder whether he would read these words! Whereas Elton John’s contribution is more traditional and sung, Fry’s is narrated and spoken word. He is, literally, doing what Paul Simon didn’t do on 50 Ways to Leave Your Lover and actually committing to the task – Fry gives us ever-increasing weirdness and inventiveness regarding snow-related words. I can imagine Bush coming at that side of the song day after day: chipping away and removing some words; she’d then add new ones like a Christmas shopping list that keeps changing through the weeks. I would struggle to name ten words for snow, so I can believe her when she said she had some crap attempts and was still writing when Fry was on his way to record! At 8:31, perhaps releasing 50 Words for Snow as a single would have been futile, but I think it is one of the best tracks on the album - and it is a pity that, like Snowed in at Wheeler Street, Bush did not release a video of her and Fry doing this song. I can imagine a great concept that would have got a lot of love!

I will end soon enough, but I want to bring in an interview where Bush discussed working on the song. It is a shame that this track and Snowed in at Wheeler Street did not get more attention and praise from critics. Many felt Snowed in at Wheeler Street features a few clumsy lyrics and Elton John’s vocal was not as stirring as it could have been – a good track but not one of the best. Some saw 50 Words for Snow as an interesting concept for a song but, as it is a long track, perhaps it lost momentum and it was a weaker effort. I love the title track, as it is a change of direction from beautiful songs like Wild Man, Among Angels, Misty, and Lake Tahoe and, whereas those tracks allow Bush more focus, it is nice that we hear a different voice and shift on the album. I love the drumming by Steve Gadd and the fact the song has a tribal touch with some wild swagger and groove; the guitar from Danny McIntosh is excellent, and the bass from John Giblin is liquid but has a rawness and fervency. When promoting the album, Bush was asked by the HUFFPOST about coming up with the core of 50 Words for Snow’s title track:

“MR: How much fun was putting that list together?

KB: Well, it wasn’t as much fun as getting Stephen Fry to say them. We had such a load of fun doing that — he’s a lovely man. It was really fun working with him. I have to say that the whole album was a lot of fun to make. It came together really quickly, it had a flow to it. It was like there was a kind of simplicity that ran through this album, although there was some complex structures and ideas going on.

IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush in a promotional image for 50 Words for Snow/PHOTO CREDIT: John Carder Bush (from his book, KATE: Inside the Rainbow) 

What I hoped that song allowed to happen was to have a bit of fun, you know? It’s not meant to be taken seriously at all — it’s meant to have a bit of a sense of humor. Stephen Fry is very popular here; he’s a lovely man and very talented actor, and very intelligent. He’s the kind of person that whenever he says something, it’s with such a sensible authority that people automatically assume that it’s important. So, I thought that it would be great to get him to read the words because he still maintained that sense of authority. He also just has an extremely beautiful voice”.

I really love the amazing title track, and the combination of Fry’s serious and dedicated listing of these absurd words and Bush’s raw interjection to (Fry’s character) Prof. Joseph Yupik (“Come on Joe, you've got 32 to go/come on Joe, you've got 32 to go/Come on now, you've got 32 to go/come on now, you've got 32 to go/Don't you know it's not just the Eskimo/Let me hear your 50 words for snow”), is fantastic! 50 Words for Snow’s long songs mean that we do not hear them on radio, so I think the best thing to do is grab a copy of the album and enjoy. It is a wonderfully absorbing and fascinating album where we are guided by Bush through these snow-covered scenes and are presented with these incredible characters! Even if many choose songs like Wild Man, and Among Angels as highlights from Kate Bush’s tenth studio album, I think 50 Words for Snow is among…

THE finest tracks on the album.

FEATURE: The Lockdown Playlist: Björk at Fifty-Five: Her Essential Tracks

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The Lockdown Playlist

PHOTO CREDIT: Björk

Björk at Fifty-Five: Her Essential Tracks

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AS the legendary Björk…

 PHOTO CREDIT: Ryan Pfluger for The New York Times

is fifty-five today (21st November), I wanted to mark her birthday by putting together a list of her great tracks. This will be more expansive than other Björk playlists I have compiled, and I have wanted to give people the scope of her talents - and, thereby, show what a consistent and innovative songwriter she has been through her career. Her most recent studio album, Utopia, was released in 2017, and I hope that she does put out more albums, as she is one of the most amazing artists the world has seen. Maybe I have missed a couple of obvious songs but, through this Lockdown Playlist, I have tried to include the very best cuts from the amazing Björk. If you are new to her stunning and hugely original work, then the playlist below will..

 PHOTO CREDIT: Inez Van Lamsweerde for INTERVIEW Magazine

PROVIDE you with some revelation.

FEATURE: Bands on the Run: BBC Radio 6 Music’s #TShirtDay: A Family United

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Bands on the Run

IN THIS PHOTO: Róisín Murphy  getting properly stuck into BBC Radio 6 Music’s T-Shirt Day/PHOTO CREDIT: @roisinmurphy

BBC Radio 6 Music’s #TShirtDay: A Family United

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IT is simple in concept…

 IN THIS PHOTO: BBC Radio 6 Music’s Georgie Rogers sporting her T-shirt choice/PHOTO CREDIT: @GeorgieRogers

but, every year, BBC Radio 6 Music has their T-Shirt Day. It has a very simple business model: people wear T-shirts with bands and artists on them and, using the hashtag #TShirtDay, they post a snap online for a chance to get that artist’s music played. Today has been a frantic day on my social media, as the day was trending on Twitter for hours and hours! Check back on the station’s schedules from today (20th November) at 7 a.m., and you can relive all the magic. It does sound like a simple concept but, what we heard as the day unfolded, was the sheer scope of the community and family! From BBC Radio 2 to venues and organisations around the world, people were sharing their photos of T-shirts! Everyone was banded together in a day of some sensational music! As important as the playlists are on BBC Radio 6 Music, it was great having that set aside for a day as we got this varied and fascinating new playlist. There are several reasons as to why BBC Radio 6 Music’s T-Shirt Day is a success. The music played is so varied because, essentially, anyone can request anything. Most stations have limits to the type of music they play, and it was nice to have the broad and endlessly-curious BBC Radio 6 Music expand their playlist ever further and include artists that do not get played much on the station – including Taylor Swift, Bon Jovi, and PJ & Duncan. From ABBA and Pink Floyd through to Moloko and Car Seat Headrest, there was such an assortment of sounds!

Representing this @bbc6music #tshirtday here at the shop: Emily in her @TheOrielles tee, and Javi in his @DeerhunterMusic shirt.https://t.co/KL1FeNcZ4F pic.twitter.com/azJscTJO40

— Piccadilly Records (@PiccadillyRecs) November 20, 2020

I think a lot of people would have discovered so many new artists through the day’s celebrations. Launched by Steve Lamacq and colleagues (Lamacq took the helm at the station from 4 p.m. today and will see things through until 7) years ago, T-Shirt Day has taken off and has become almost like Christmas to music lovers of BBC Radio 6 Music (and wider afield)! I think that is another reason why the day is so special. We have all been so divided and isolated and, let’s be fair, most of what we see on social media has some negative aspect or it can be quite downbeat! Seeing so many smiling people proudly sport their various musical T-shirts was a rainbow and explosion of togetherness in a dark year. We know that the BBC Radio 6 Music family is wide-ranging and committed, but we got a real sense of just how many people listened to the station today and wanted to participate. I feel sorry for the social media team who have been tasked with sharing so many photos and organising the influx of messages and tweets that came through (and continue to do so) – and what has been happening on Facebook! I think the station would have accrued a lot of new listeners who, tempted by the news and hashtag of #TShirtDay, decided to tune in and bask in all the great music and messages! The final reason why the day is so special is because it is amazing how something as simple as a T-shirt can mean so much to so many people. I have a few music T-shirts myself – including ones for Steely Dan, Madonna, and IDLES -, and they mean so much more than them being clothing.

#TShirtDay 2020 has been trending all morning... here are just a few of our favourite tweets from the 1000s of requests from your chests so far.

Keep them coming using the hashtag... https://t.co/uU83A1w9Gv

— BBC Radio 6 Music (@BBC6Music) November 20, 2020

So many people who sent photos to BBC Radio 6 Music today have fond memories of getting the T-shirts. Whether it was at a merchandise stall at a gig or they bought it somewhere else, the fabric that they wear carries so much weight. This year, we have not been able to get to gigs much…so there is something bittersweet regarding gig T-shirts. We all yearn to be at gigs and, by digging out our special and loved T-shirts, we reconnect with past gigs but, also, there is a sadness that we could not acquire new band T-shirts in 2020 at these gigs. I guess there is online merchandise, and, after BBC Radio 6 Music’s day of community and love, I would urge people to support musicians by buying merchandise like T-shirts. I think we will see an influx anyway but, after such a day where so many people have been bonding over their T-shirts this will translate, I think, into people snapping up T-shirts from new artists and classic acts. I lost track of everything that was going on online up to a point – with the sheer number of posts! – but, as T-Shirt Day clocks off at 7 p.m., I just wanted to reflect on the positivity it gave to so many people. It is a shame the day cannot be more regular than once a year but, in a year with so little live music, people responded more passionately than ever! I think next year when gigs will start coming back and, if anything, we might see even more people sharing shots of themselves in various T-shirts. It has been a truly exciting and familial day at the station where music of all varieties and shapes was spun. From the threads of Steve Lamacq and company’s brilliant idea to a bumper 2020, the listeners of BBC Radio 6 Music proved that they are one of the radio world’s…

✌🏻✌🏻✌🏻Happy #TShirtDay @BBC6Music !!! This year Faith is representing @kinggizzard ✌🏻✌🏻✌🏻 pic.twitter.com/VPo7MyQzLo

— P I N S (@WeArePins) November 20, 2020

MOST dedicated and passionate families!

FEATURE: Virtual Vitality: From the Stage/Home to the Screen: Live-Streamed and Virtual Gigs in 2020

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Virtual Vitality

From the Stage/Home to the Screen: Live-Streamed and Virtual Gigs in 2020

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THIS year has almost come to an end…

 IN THIS PHOTO: Laura Marling performing live at the Union Chapel Union Chapel, London in June of this year/PHOTO CREDIT: Lorne Thomson/Redferns

and we are looking ahead to 2021 and hoping that, at some point soon, there will be gigs happening. It may not be until the summer but things look like they will improve and start to reopen. For music fans, the live experience has been very different this year. There have been a few socially-distanced gigs, and many have got to experience a semblance of the old way through this method. Mostly, though, we have seen artists perform through virtual gigs. They have altered in terms of scale and scope but, whether it is from a near-empty venue or from their own home, there have been some great gigs from a range of artists! I do wonder whether, as I have said before, there will be a replacement of the traditional tour calendar next year so that artists can combine normal gigs with virtual ones. It will be interesting to see. Whilst there have been many virtual and live-streamed gigs this year, I just wanted to mention a few and cover the subject generally. Artists and fans have adapted superbly to the changing world, and in a year when we did not think that live music would be possible, technology has allowed us to at least feel a small rush – it is hard to replicate the roar and atmosphere that one gets from going to a busy venue! There have been a few fundraisers this year and events where many artists are joined up for a gig.

As NME reported back in October, a gig for Planned Parenthood pulled in some big names:

“Also playing the event were Margo Price, Devendra Banhart, Brittany Howard, Ezra Furman, Perfume Genius, Weyes Blood, Tenacious D and lots more, who gave performances of their own songs as well as a number of covers.

During Angel Olsen’s set, she covered George Harrison‘s ‘Beware Of Darkness’ and Blondie‘s ‘Heart Of Glass’.

Phoebe Bridgers, meanwhile, shared a tribute to the late John Prine, who died back in April from coronavirus complications”.

Róisín Murphy has been busy and, looking online, she has delivered these videos of her performing and entertaining her fans. Recently, she performed a live-streamed event to celebrate the launch of her new album, Róisín Machine, and she managed to replicate a lot of the drama, colourfulness and spectacle of her live shows. It must be hard for artists who have put out albums this year and were looking to tour them. Murphy is one artist who has been taking advantage of technology and has found a way of connecting with people. If you want to see which live-streamed gigs are coming up, then Billboard has it covered. I guess one of the strangest things with virtual gigs is the lack of audience interaction. That said, many artists have found ways of making the virtual experience beneficial and unique. As the Seattle Spectator wrote when they reviewed a recent Glass Animals virtual gig, there were some positives:

“Playing a diverse set of songs during their online show, Glass Animals “Live In The Internet” concert featured songs from their newest album, along with hits from their previous two, “Zaba” and “How To Be A Human Being.”  Old fans and new fans alike were able to enjoy the show thanks to a proper blend of timeless hits such as “Gooey,” “Youth,” “The Other Side Of Paradise,” and new pop favorites “Tokyo Drifting” and “Tangerine.”

During the show, Glass Animals also hosted multiple special guests. Arlo Parks was able to share the stage, offering a verse on “Tangerine.” Denzel Curry also live streamed his rap verse on the song “Tokyo Drifting.” Without sharing any vocals, Kanah Flex instead offered a visual of live contortionism, which added to the mystique of “Hazey.”

Without the sensation of a sweaty room full of clamoring concert-goers, it was difficult to become fully immersed in the performance at times. Despite this, viewers received a few personal boons. Viewers were able to pause the stream and rewatch it anytime within the first three days after the show aired, enjoy the concert without having beers spilled on them and remain within the comfort of their own homes.

The show was best likened to a multi-set music video. Dancing around on a traditional stage, frontman Dave Bayley also explored an extended area to the left and right decorated with jungle undergrowth.

Glass Animals worked to create a concert atmosphere and provide entertainment, and lots of preparation went into the show. With mesmerizing visual effects and guest performances during the show, each song provided its own magical experience. Massive screens displaying moving backgrounds also accompanied each song”.

I like the fact that artists can perform these streamed gigs and bring a host of other artists onto the ‘stage’ – something that you do not really see during normal gigs. Other benefits of virtual gigs has been the variation and affordability. I think many people are seeing some artists play live that they might not have normally bothered with and, as seeing live-streamed gigs is free or costs very little, many people have seen more live performances this year than ever. There has been a range in terms of intimacy and scale. I will mention a couple of big stars who have provided different virtual gigs but for two huge bands, Foo Fighters and Metallica, having no crowd and putting out a gig on the Internet must be very strange in terms of how they perform. As Forbes wrote in their review, both offered fans something new during their recent gigs:

“Eight months later, with cases surging and no clue when live concerts will return in full, artists and the industry have definitely evolved the live stream exponentially since this began in March. Yesterday we got to see how much when two of the biggest rock bands in the world, Metallica and Foo Fighters (who share a publicist, Nasty Little Man, who cleverly called the day "Nasty Little Saturday" to media), did very different, but effective live streams.

The Foos stream was more of a traditional rock concert with the band taking the Roxy stage a little after 5 PM PST and delivering an hour of hits, from "Everlong" and "Best Of You" to the new "Shame Shame" and "Times Like These."

Besides the fact the band sounded in vintage form, even though Grohl commented at one point they didn't see each other for six months, what made the show so effective was Grohl not trying to pretend it was a normal gig. He had a lot of fun with the format, imploring fans at one point to sing along with their iPad to piss off neighbors or roommates they hate, and shared the crew singing along during "Best Of You."

Sure, getting to watch Metallica cover Deep Purple's "When A Blind Man Cries" and Bob Seger's "Turn The Page,' and bring some of their offspring out to play on "All Within My Hands" was a blast. But getting this level of intimacy with stadium headliners was way more special and unique than any song. And it showed why the live streams can work going forward, by bringing artists and fans together in new ways”.

Dua Lipa is an artist who put out an album this year. Future Nostalgia was released earlier in the year and is one of the best from 2020! Lipa is also putting together a great event later this month you can buy tickets for. Her Studio 2054 is, as NME explain, going to offer treats aplenty!

“Featuring tracks from her recent album ‘Future Nostalgia’, remix album ‘Club Future Nostalgia’ and her self-titled debut album, the event will see the singer “move through custom-built sets, surreal tv shows, roller discos, ecstatic raves, trashy rocker hangouts, voguing ballrooms and diva style dressing rooms” according to a press release.

Dubbed ‘Studio 2054’, the show will see the singer perform “a brand new multi-dimensional live experience” in a warehouse on November 27.

Accompanied by a cast of musicians, dancers, skaters, aerialists and acrobats, Dua will also be joined by a host of surprise superstar guests for the show”.

It has been interesting to see how artists have adapted since March in terms of using technology to connect with their fans. Many have had to wrestle with technical glitches and almost mind-boggling task of connecting themselves to thousands of fans! I would not attempt it myself but, from the somewhat modest Kitchen Discos that Sophie Ellis-Bextor started in March, to those where artists have been at venues, it has been a year of adaption and learning! Charli XCX is another artist who has been busy and performed at a recent virtual concert, and she has an album out to promote in the form of How I’m Feeling Now. She performed a recent gig from her house in the U.S. This review highlights the energy that artists like Charli XCX have brought during virtual gigs – and how technical glitches can get in the way at times:

“Charli’s energy is clearly high as she drops to the floor for the bright, bubbling ‘Detonate’ or hops from foot to foot as she segues seamlessly between the juddering ‘Anthems’ and the slow-building tenderness of ‘Visions’. But these moments make the constant lagging, freezing or skipping all the more frustrating, offering glimpses of the euphoria that could have been. It couldn’t be more fitting for 2020 if it tried.

After the sweet and gleaming ‘Forever’, she grabs her laptop and a seat, intending to answer some questions from fans in the chatroom. “I don’t see any questions so I don’t know what to do,” she says to someone off-screen. After filling for a minute, she instead jumps on Zoom to chat with some special guests – drag queens Miss Toto, The Juicy Love and the brilliantly named FKA Twink – before heading to her garden to DJ.

The final part of her Boiler Room appearance is still hit by tech gremlins, but is the kind of silly fun we’ve come to expect from Charli. Her “totally live” set sees her press play on her laptop and then flail around to her own songs and dance bangers like T2’s ‘Heartbroken’ and Darude’s ‘Sandstorm’. Her guests, still on Zoom, dance along in the bottom of the screen while Charli throws out a range of bizarre shout-outs, from “Jennifer Lopez’s pink diamond from Ben Affleck” to her quiet Hertfordshire hometown of Bishop’s Stortford”.

Laura Marling is one artist who has delivered a professional and high-quality gig from an empty venue. She performed at Union Chapel in June and, whilst it was clearer (in terms of the visuals) and had a different feel to many of the gigs we are seeing – where artists stream from their homes -, maybe that creates an odd sort of atmosphere? By all accounts, as The Guardian reported, there were definite advantages to Marling’s set – and it offers hope to struggling artists in the form of paid gigs:

“This gig’s hyper-focused stage management might not work for a different kind of artist – there’s little room for wild catharsis here – but it does, in spades, for Marling. There has long been something of a stiff upper lip to her – a very English reserve with which she has conveyed tales of passion from a kind of deep freeze.

This setting allows her to perform her songs with perfect control, creating an atmosphere broken only for a moment when a roadie hands Marling a guitar for What He Wrote. She only makes eye contact with the camera briefly, a few songs from the end, on Goodbye England; later, there is a brief half-smile.

I am going to end by bringing in an article that explores the financial implications of live-streamed gigs and how newcomers cannot offer the same sort of live experience and spectacle as bigger acts. That is something that has become apparent since the pandemic struck. It has been wonderful seeing these ambitious live shows but, for upcoming acts, their budget is less and they have had to provide a more stripped-back and homely show. It must be a bit of a nightmare trying to keep fans satisfied and earning what little money smaller acts can when they need to promote their music. Let’s hope that venues are give a substantial boost and financing next year as, for many, live-streamed gigs will not be viable in terms of earning a crust. That said, it has been fascinating watching all the different virtual performances and seeing how people have responded to them. I think there has been an amazing array and, whilst many yearn for venues to reopen, I would hate to see live-streamed and virtual gigs end.

One major artist who delivered a stunning gig recently is Billie Eilish. Her Hallowe’en virtual gig was seen by The Guardian:  

“You suspect, though, that this mischievous, boundary-pushing artist would really love to provoke a neurological as well as an emotional reaction in her fans. The hairy nightmare vision stalks the 18-year-old singer as she moves around the stage – constructed as a hi-tech 3D green screen – singing You Should See Me in a Crown. A many-jointed leg just misses impaling Eilish by a hair’s breadth every time. The massive spider – one of a number of VR-like scenarios created for this streamed performance – recalls its smaller brethren from the track’s 2019 video. Tonight, its shape also visually echoes the two sharp-angled silhouetted rigs that bookend the singer: Eilish’s brother and writing partner Finneas on keyboards to the left and the duo’s drummer, Andrew Marshall, to the right. The track comprehensively nails Eilish’s best creepy trap-pop, her commitment to fear – either subjectively felt or objectively provoked – and her love of insider references.

There are, perhaps, a couple too many intimate songs in the tracklist. Of these, When the Party’s Over remains one of Eilish’s finest. A technically audacious composition, its nearest neighbour is the Bon Iver of 22, a Million; it’s no accident James Blake covered it seamlessly. Both are forerunners of what Eilish has brought to a younger, poppier audience. The combination of baggy clothes, big trainers, goth nightmares, spider fixations and pop tunes also brings to mind the aesthetic choices of the Cure.

Of the livelier, skin-prickling bangers – of which there are not enough – the finale, Bad Guy, is still the Billie Eilish anthem to beat. An earworm theme strapped to bags of attitude, it stands out even more tonight surrounded by all the lower-key atmospherics. But the song’s masterful surliness – “duh!” sneers Eilish – jars with the presence of a virtual luxury car driving around her at speed. It narrowly misses Eilish in a bling version of the spider’s earlier threat”.

I have only just skimmed the surface regarding the variety of live-streamed and virtual gigs that have gone down since March. There are more to come and, as there is no set date for venues returning, this new lifestyle is something that most artists will need to live with. In an interesting article, the Financial Times explained how this might be a new way of providing live sets for a long time and how, inevitably, the budget gap between large and smaller artists with dictate what sort of experience they can deliver:

“While questions will linger over whether the concept will have legs post-pandemic, it’s not hard to build a case that streamed gigs are here to stay. Over the past two decades concerts have got outrageously expensive and are generally only held in a few select cities bar the odd festival. In short — like the practice of being an artist — they’ve become a locus for time-rich affluent urbanites. Ticketed streamed shows, therefore, can be a great leveller for those unable, for whatever reason, to take a five-hour round trip to the nearest arena -- that’s if your favourite artist is even playing in your country. It may seem like a moot point but, for many, a live concert is a rare experience. Driift’s concerts has pulled viewers from 151 countries including Kiribati, Cape Verde and the Faroe Islands. Not exactly the sort of names you associate with your typical headline world tour. Even when touring resumes, it’s fair to speculate that one-off streamed concerts will remain enticing to artists, both as a way to access hard-to-reach fans and as a promotional tool.

So what of the economics? Driift have focused so far on putting on high-production-value shows, so that paying audiences get an experience that is not just your standard filmed concert experience. That, of course, carries a serious cost. We talked to Ric Salmon and Brian Message on Monday, who revealed that the typical all-in cost for a show so far has been in the £40k to £50k range. For a concert like former One Direction member Niall Horan’s at the weekend, which sold over 100,000 tickets, that’s not a problem.

For emerging artists at the bottom of the food chain, however, that cost could be prohibitive, potentially exasperating the already-widening income gap between the megastars and everyone else. The team at Driift, it must be said, are aware of this issue, and as well as trying to bring the costs down, hinted in the future they are planning to spread one concert’s costs over multiple artists — perhaps in the form of a showcase or “festival”

I think there are many positives regarding live-streamed gigs. As I said, many more people have been seeing live music and they have been able to see a host of different artists from the comfort of their own homes. Many gigs have been free but, even when you need to buy a ticket, I think the price is worth it as you are getting this unique experience and it is heartening to know that artists can make money at a hard time.

Of course, one loses the thrill of the crowds and the sort of buzz you get when in venues but, as a bridge between last year’s highs and the promise of next year, virtual and streamed gigs are allowing artists all around the world not only the chance to connect with their fans when they need it most, but to use technology to craft these very special and new types of sets. In terms of accessibility, people who could not normally go to a gig – those suffering certain disabilities for example – get to see live music. From Disco queens providing these awesome sets to the Foo Fighters providing something special, artists have adapted well! Not to end on a bummer note but, whilst live-streamed gigs have been awesome, there remains that problem with income. Not only have venues been hit by the lack of money and people coming in, but so many artists have lost the main source of income. A BBC article explains problems that have beset artists this year:

“Music creators will lose two-thirds of their income as a result of Covid-19, according to a new report by UK Music.

The effective shutdown of concerts and festivals will also cause live music revenues to fall by 85% in 2020.

The pandemic has dealt a "catastrophic blow" to the music industry, said UK Music's Jamie Njoku-Goodwin, with tens of thousands of jobs at risk.

However, he said that music was "an international success story in normal times" and can boom again.

The report predicted that musicians and songwriters would lose 65% of their income this year, rising to 80% for those most dependent on live performance and studio work.

Before the pandemic, a typical musician earned £23,059, well below the national average of £29,832, according to the Office of National Statistics. A 65% pay cut would mean an income of just £8,070.

The report predicted that musicians and songwriters would lose 65% of their income this year, rising to 80% for those most dependent on live performance and studio work.

Before the pandemic, a typical musician earned £23,059, well below the national average of £29,832, according to the Office of National Statistics. A 65% pay cut would mean an income of just £8,070”.

Despite some hardships and drawbacks, I think there have been some positives in a very difficult year. So many interesting and memorable live-streamed gigs have been produced - and it will be interesting to see how this evolves as we go into 2021. I also wonder whether there will be Christmas gigs and if we get some specials then. From big sets from major stars to those where artists let us into their homes, I think the live-streamed and virtual gigs have given fans something to smile about at…

A very dark time.

FEATURE: The Lockdown Playlist: The Beatles’ Anthology 1 at Twenty-Five: Album Rarities, Lesser-Heard Tracks, B-Sides and Outtakes

FEATURE:

 

 

The Lockdown Playlist

The Beatles’ Anthology 1 at Twenty-Five: Album Rarities, Lesser-Heard Tracks, B-Sides and Outtakes

___________

THERE are a few anniversary…

 PHOTO CREDIT: @blocks/Unsplash

Lockdown Playlists coming over the next couple of weeks as special albums and people come into focus. As The Beatles’ Anthology 1 was released on 21st November, 1995, I am putting together a playlist with some rarer album tracks, outtakes and those lesser-known tracks. Anthology 1 was released as part of The Beatles Anthology series. It features rarities, outtakes, and live performances from the period 1958–1964, including songs with original bass player Stuart Sutcliffe and drummer Pete Best. It is the first in a trilogy of albums with Anthology 2 and Anthology 3, all of which tie in with the televised special, The Beatles Anthology. I think the first Anthology was a lot of people’s inroad to The Beatles as a band, so the release and its anniversary is pretty important. To honour that, this playlist includes some great tracks that do not get played much, are not overly-known and, for the most part, people would not necessarily seek out - but they are intriguing and worthy. I hope that this Anthology 1-inspiored playlist…

 PHOTO CREDIT: @annietheby/Unsplash

TICKLES your fancy.

FEATURE: The Lockdown Playlist: The Great Escape 2021: The First Fifty Names

FEATURE:

 

 

The Lockdown Playlist

IN THIS PHOTO: Denise Chaila/PHOTO CREDIT: Tara Thomas Photography 

The Great Escape 2021: The First Fifty Names

___________

I can see that there are festival announcements…

IN THIS PHOTO: Holly Humberstone 

coming along. I think people are responding to the possibility that a COVID-19 vaccine might mean that the cases of those infected is low enough by the summer so that festivals can go ahead. One of the best festivals and events that showcases new and rising artists is The Great Escape. As this article from CLASH explains, there are some great names already on the bill:

“The Great Escape have announced the First Fifty names for next year's event.

The colossal south coast new music event was paused in 2020, as the pandemic shuttered the live music industry.

Looking to return in 2021, The Great Escape have outlined the first fifty names for their new edition.

Arlo Parks will perform, alongside pop rsier Holly Humberstone, and the colossal East London force Bree Runway.

Pa Salieu will appear at The Great Escape, BERWYN, 220 Kid, Mae Muller, and more.

The press note from The Great Escape cites the new vaccine developments, while also referencing encouraging news surrounding mass test and trace systems.

Hoping for a "full capacity" event, tickets can be found HERE.

Alongside this, The Road To The Great Escape will seemingly be stopping off in Glasgow (May 8th - 9th) and Dublin (May 10th - 11th).

Line up for those events includes BERWYN, Baby Queen, Oscar Lang, Remi Wolf, Chubby And The Gang, and more.

The Great Escape runs between May 12th - 15th”.

In honour of The Great Escape naming the First Fifty artists who will play next year, this Lockdown Playlist features songs from most of the artists announced. If you need some guidance regarding some exciting artists worth keeping an ear out for then dig into…

 IN THIS PHOTO: Che Lingo

THE names included below.

FEATURE: Box Clever: Could There Be a Music T.V. Revival in 2021?

FEATURE:

 

 

Box Clever

PHOTO CREDIT: @scheier/Unsplash 

Could There Be a Music T.V. Revival in 2021?

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ON this site…

 IMAGE CREDIT: MTV

I have written about music T.V. quite a bit through the years. I grew up watching MTV, VH1, and any other form of music T.V. there was available at the time in the 1980s and 1990s. To me, it was the most instant way of bonding with what was happening in music and, when it came to discovery, every week brought new bounty! It could be said that the Internet has replaced the usefulness of music T.V. and, in fact, with Spotify playlists and radio in general, do we actually need anything on T.V. at all!? I would argue that there is an appetite and definite need for music television. Just to side-step a bit, and I also like the idea of a T.V. series that features music of a particular period. There is a Netflix show coming, Everything Sucks!, that is set in 1996 and, no doubt, will explore the soundtrack of the time. In another upcoming T.V. series where the ‘80s Two Tone scene is to be explored, it shows that creators and stations are at least eager to commission shows that feature music at their heart. I have always felt that a 1990s-set T.V. series would not only provide a perfect opportunity to deliver a mixtape of all the varied sounds of the decade, but it would also feed in the culture and political events of the time. Sort of like High Fidelity, the show could feature a record shop or be set in the music industry – like the U.S. series, Vinyl -, and there would be definite value in having a series that has a great central plot and characters; one that grips you and mixes humour and seriousness, combined with a terrific soundtrack.

That is just me imagining but, looking around, and I can’t really see anything like that about at the moment – and I am not quite sure why. Returning to the subject of music T.V. and, perhaps alongside an original series, there does need to be a platform that allows artists to perform and, to some extent, return to the sort of shows we had decades ago. I guess something like Top of the Pops might be out of the question as, not only was it cancelled in 2006, but I think it would just seem odd and forced – and could you really summon up the magic and unashamed cheesiness of that show in the modern age?! It would be more like what we have now with Jools Holland’s Later… show. This is really the only U.K. music T.V. show, and it has been on the BBC since 1992. I do really love the show as the premise is simple: each week/edition, a selection of eclectic artists perform in the studio and there are interviews too. Some have criticised the show for not moving on and for seeming a bit outdated. I feel that the situation we have now is really strange. Jools Holland’s show is not on every week and, for regular T.V. music content, one has to watch cooking or politics shows! I have raised this before, but it seems insane that the only live music one sees on T.V. is on shows that have nothing to do with music.

I know there have been ill-fated attempts at music shows in the recent past – such as the BBC’s Sounds like Friday Night ,- but I think the format was wrong on that show and it was targeted at quite a narrow demographic – very much the BBC Radio 1 crowd. It was good that this show existed but, as it only ran briefly between 2017-2018, I do think there is an opportunity to kickstart something in 2021. I think it has been great that artists have streamed gigs and connected with fans during the pandemic, and there has been more of that visual interaction than we have seen in years. I do feel like a weekly T.V. show would be popular if the concept was right. There are so many rising artists and great musicians who want that platform; there is such a variation of great music in the underground and mainstream artists who could combine on a show. It would be similar to Holland’s show, but there is that opportunity to stretch the concept to include more features. I think Sounds Like Friday Night failed is because it was throwing in comedy sketches and the artists featured were very much narrowed to a young audience. A new show could include more in the way of range, and there are features that could appear. Not to tread on what I have said in the past, but there could be music news, a classic album feature; maybe clips from the music archives (and bits of older T.V. shows), spotlighting of a particular venue each week and so many other things.

It could be quite a packed show that has a good amount of live performances, but there is also these breaks with interesting and promising features/segments. Getting the hosts right would be a challenge, but there are plenty of worthy candidates out there who could more than handle the show and make it a big success. I wrote about music T.V. a while back and got a response that suggested so many artists out there would be open to the show and it would be long-overdue that they had this opportunity to perform on a bigger stage/format. As much as anything, I do not feel that the Internet can replace music T.V. or provide the same sort of benefit. Especially with live gigs being delayed until next year, it is clear that the appetite and demand for live music intense, and next year will see an explosion of popularity and new gigs. With many venues under threat, I do think having a ‘T.V. venue’, as it were, would be useful. I don’t know what other people reckon, but I refuse to believe that music T.V. is a thing of the past and the modern age has rendered it worthless. The fact there are live performances (as such) on T.V. proves that artists need that sort of promotion and there is a chance to create a new long-running format in 2021 that could elicit some of the thrill and memories of the classic music T.V. shows - and have something modern that would reach a lot of people and succeed in its own right. If a balance can be struck and the format is just so, then I think a great new music T.V. show could…

 PHOTO CREDIT: @anniespratt/Unsplash

GET people hooked.

FEATURE: Why Should We Love You? Bringing a Career-Spanning Kate Bush Documentary to T.V.

FEATURE:

 

 

Why Should We Love You?

IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush circa The Line, the Cross and the Curve, 1993/PHOTO CREDIT: Guido Harari

Bringing a Career-Spanning Kate Bush Documentary to T.V.

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RATHER than repeat…  

 PHOTO CREDIT: John Carder Bush

what I wrote last year regarding Kate Bush and a documentary, I wanted to put out something constructive and evidence-based that shows, in 2020, how her stock is higher and more valuable than ever. Her last studio album of 2011, 50 Words for Snow, was hugely praised and it is an album that sounds incredible to this very day. Since 2011, Bush has not exactly been idle and leaving people dry of music and substance. In 2014, as we know, she returned to the stage for Before the Dawn, and then we got her studio albums remastered and released in boxsets in 2018 – I have written about them and would suggest people seek them out as great Christmas presents. Even though there has been no new music for nearly nine years, Bush’s appeal has slightly risen I would say! This year alone has seen some cover versions, three magazines dedicated to her music/featuring it as a large part (including a forthcoming release from Record Collector), a documentary about Hounds of Love on BBC Radio 6 Music to mark its thirty-fifth anniversary - in addition to thousands of mentions of Bush on social media. I think we all sort of tend to celebrate musicians more when albums have anniversaries but, if you think about her music and the artists around today, Kate Bush’s influence is everywhere. This year has seen some of her big albums celebrate anniversaries, but I have heard so many new artists who have elements of Bush in their sound; many established artists who splice in bits of Bush’s variegated talent and sound into their own mix.

At sixty-two, there is more love and affection for Kate Bush than there has ever been, debatably. I want to introduce a great feature from COMPLEX written earlier in the year that explains her popularity and influence:

“If you haven’t been as lucky to come across Kate Bush’s music in a film or through the recommendation of a friend, there's a chance you’ve unknowingly grown accustomed to the sounds she pioneered. From FKA Twigs’ Magdalene to Billie Eilish’s When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go?, Bush’s influence—whether direct or not—exists in so many modern pop projects today. Hints of her dramatic vocals carry on through Florence Welch’s delivery and her experimental, futuristic production provided a blueprint for artists like Charli XCX to push pop forward. Her mime-like dance moves coupled with intimate orchestration is echoed in Lorde’s performances. Sinead O’ Connor’s penetrating lyrics in “Troy” and Sia’s roaring vocals in “Chandelier” both conjure the spirit of Kate Bush. Her heirs include other greats like Tori Amos, Björk and Enya. Even electronic artists like Grimes and rock artists like Stevie Nicks have been compared to the UK artist.

Through storytelling and literary themes, Bush created engaging, thought-provoking material that transports listeners to different eras and places. With her music, Bush spawned a melodic synopsis for Emily Brontë’s best-selling novel (Wuthering Heights), a detailed perspective of the death of a magician ("Houdini") and entertained the idea of switching genders for deeper understanding ("Running Up That Hill"). As a result, Bush’s diverse and boundless collection of songs has led to an international, devoted fan base. From a worldwide holiday dedicated to re-enactments of “Wuthering Heights,” hosted by fans, to a 53-minute documentary showcasing different people's moving stories about how Bush's work has affected their lives, the musical phenomenon Bush has given rise to is abiding.

 She is highly praised by her peers, too. Big-time artists like St. Vincent and Adele have publicly expressed how Bush’s music influenced their own work. Prince noted her as his favorite lady. Even Tupac was a Kate Bush fan. Big Boi, a longtime stan of “Running up That Hill,” shared that he would listen to the song everyday on his bike ride to and from school. During a phone call earlier this month he told us, “I fell in love with her songwriting and how her songs would tell stories. It was deep. From there she became one of my two favorite artists." The connection he formed to Bush's music grew so deep that he spent a week in England trying to pin her down while he was in town for press meetings”.

This all brings me back to the subject of a documentary and how, in 2020, there has not really been an authoritative and career-spanning documentary dedicated to her work! I guess the last Kate Bush documentary was in 2014 with the BBC’s The Kate Bush Story: Running Up That Hill. It is an hour-long documentary that has a lot going for it. It features a lot of important people involved in Bush’s career (including David Gilmour and Del Palmer), in addition to artists and famous figures that were keen to explain what she means to them. I think 2021 is going to be a year where there is a lot more activity regarding Kate Bush.

I know there is at least one book coming out that looks at her albums and songs in depth, and I think we may hear something in the way of new music – although this is just me guessing at this point! I know there is a Mark Radcliffe documentary coming out around Christmas that examines Wuthering Heights and its impact, so there is a definite appetite around. Given that there is so much attention her way and different people want to express what Bush means to them, I do think that there is a definite opportunity and demand for a larger documentary. Back in 1979, there was a Nationwide documentary that followed Bush as she prepared for The Tour of Life. Since then, there have been a few other documentaries but there has really not been anything in the past decade or so that digs deep into her career. I have been wondering whether the BBC would commission another documentary about her just over six years since theirs, but it seems unlikely that they will commit to that – from my experiences of pitching an idea, I think they do not want to repeat themselves. I think a Netflix-fronted and backed documentary might afford a larger budget and space. There have been some great music documentaries and shows on the station through the years and, with Bush having a worldwide fanbase, a documentary there would allow for wider distribution and attention.

To me, it could be a three or four-part documentary that, like the BBC’s broadcast, would bring in a range of people who explain Bush’s relevance in their life. It would be awesome to have back Del Palmer, David Gilmour and several others from the BBC documentary, but there are so many other artists that did not feature in that documentary – including Anna Calvi, Rufus Wainwright and Charli XCX – who could appear. Also, there are so many musicians and engineers who have worked with Bush, in addition to photographers like Gered Mankowitz and Guido Harari who could share their memories – not to mention writers and other fans that could give some insight (many of whom would have seen Bush play in Hammersmith during her Before the Dawn residency in 2014). To me, a documentary series would not only need to explore all of her studio albums and live appearances, but there are so many aspects and angles that need to be expanded and illuminated. Just thinking about the sheer number of people who count Kate Bush as an idol/influential figure – from directors and actors through to authors – is immense! It is encouraging that there have been these one-off radio shows and a lot of column inches have been shored up to focus on Kate Bush but, in terms of modern televisual representation, there has not been a lot over the past couple of decades. I think a three or four-part documentary would introduce Bush’s work to new audiences - and it would also provide existing fans with new insight and information.

In terms of narration and chronology, the documentary need not be linear and start out pre-Wuthering Heights (her debut single) and run up to the current day. From figures like Caitlin Moran and The Anchoress (Catherine Anne Davies) to Andy Samberg and author David Mitchell, there are so many figures that would help bring a documentary to life. I like the idea of focusing on various time periods for each part of the documentary but, within each episode, there does not have to be this rigid adherence to timeline – we could jump back and forth and investigate various albums from different perspectives. There is so much footage already out there that is important to include in a documentary. I do feel that previous documentaries have not adequately exploited what is already out there in terms of interviews with Kate Bush. Rather than have a narrator guiding the flow, there are interviews with Bush through each stage of her career that would provide that sense of explanation and revelation. Also, whilst many production companies would want Bush involved in the documentary, I think that is highly unlikely.

She would give her blessing, of course, but I don’t think she needs to be part of the documentary to make it authoritative and a success – there is going to be more than enough demand to make it a viewing success! At the end of a busy year for Kate Bush in terms of media representation, I think it is only a matter of time before new music is released – which would mean that a documentary could bring us right up to date in that sense. It will be interesting to see what comes from the Mark Radcliffe documentary and how it applies to Wuthering Heights, as that song along could command its own huge documentary. I think her albums require proper investigation and love, so that is why I am keen for a documentary to come about! I feel Netflix would be the best home in terms of the way the documentary could be shot and budget, and for all I know one could already be in the works regarding Kate Bush – though, for my sake, I hope not! I think, if done right and proper attention and backing is given to an idea, then an authoritative, fully-fledged and deep documentary about one of the music world’s true treasure and most influential people would lead to…

 ENORMOUS demand.

FEATURE: The Mighty Power of The KT Fellowship: A Return to Kate Bush’s Before the Dawn Live Album at Four

FEATURE:

 

The Mighty Power of The KT Fellowship

A Return to Kate Bush’s Before the Dawn Live Album at Four

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MAYBE it is good that Kate Bush’s…

IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush’s on stage during Before the Dawn at the Hammersmith Apollo in 2014 PHOTO CREDIT: Ken McKay/Rex

2016 album, Before the Dawn, is not available on Spotify. I guess Bush wants people to hear it on physical formats as that provides people a more immediate and immersive experience. I have the concert on vinyl and, released on 25th November, 2016, it must have been quite a task for Bush and her engineers to mix and organise the release of the album! It came two years after Bush completed her Before the Dawn residency in Hammersmith and, as many of us could not make it or get tickets, the live album provides something close to a front row seat. I love the sound of the album and the fact that there is an extra track, Never Be Mine (which was not actually performed during the twenty-two-date residency), is a bonus. The track Prologue (Live) was made available for streaming on 28th September, before King of the Mountain (Live) was released as a promotional single on 21st October, and And Dream of Sheep (Live), along with an accompanying piece of film used during the concerts, was made available as the album's official single on 18th November 2016. I think one of the great things about the live album is the personnel involved and what an incredible cast Bush had supporting her! From her musicians Kevin McAlea (keyboards, Uilleann pipes, accordion), Jon Carin (keyboards, guitars, programming, vocals), David Rhodes (guitars), Friðrik Karlsson (guitars, bouzouki, charango), John Giblin (bass), Mino Cinelu (percussion), and Omar Hakim (drums), through to those who provided speaking parts (including her son, Bertie, and her brother, Paddy), to the technical crew who provided sound, lightning and design, it is a huge production that received dazzling reviews!

  PHOTO CREDIT: Ken McKay/Rex

I think the last interviews that Kate Bush provided were for the Before the Dawn album in 2016. Whilst she did not promote the residency itself particularly, the live album afforded her the chance to look back on the show and discuss what went into the mixing and production - maybe she was too nervous and focused for interviews in 2014. Five years after she was promoting 50 Words for Snow, it was nice to see Bush back in the media and talking! It has been four years since her last interviews, so one hopes we do not have to wait too long before she returns. I think the fact that we do get to hear such a wide-ranging and dramatic listening experience perfectly produced and mixed means that, even though missing the gig was painful for me and many, one gets so much from the album. I will move on and include some promotional words regarding the album but, in terms of reviews, many sources were really moved and impressed! This is what Pitchfork wrote in their review:

“Live albums are meant to capture performers at their rawest and least inhibited, which doesn’t really apply to Before the Dawn. Bush is a noted perfectionist best known for her synthesizer experiments and love of obscure Bulgarian choirs, but her recent work has skewed towards traditional setups that reunite her with the prog community that fostered her early career. With marks to hit and tableaux to paint, the 2014 shows were more War of the Worlds (or an extension of 2011’s Director’s Cut) than Live at Leeds.

 But never mind balls-out revamps of Bush’s best known songs; with the exception of tracks from Hounds of Love, none of the rest of the setlist had ever been done live—not even on TV, which became Bush’s primary stage after she initially retired from touring. These songs weren’t written to be performed, but internalized. Occupying Bush’s imagination for an hour, and letting it fuse with your own, formed the entirety of the experience. Hearing this aspic-preserved material come to life feels like going to sleep and waking up decades later to see how the world has changed.

Rather than deliver a copper-bottomed greatest hits set, Bush reckons with her legacy through what might initially seem like an obscure choice of material. Both Acts Two and Three take place in transcendent thresholds: “The Ninth Wave”’s drowning woman is beset by anxiety and untold pressures, with no idea of where to turn, mirroring the limbo that Bush experienced after 1982’s The Dreaming. That suite’s last song, the cheery “The Morning Fog,” transitions into Aerial’s “Prelude,” all beatific bird call and dawn-light piano. The euphoric, tender “A Sky of Honey” is meant to represent a perfect day from start to finish, filled with family and beautiful imperfections. “Somewhere in Between” finds them atop “the highest hill,” looking out onto a stilling view, and Bush’s eerie jazz ensemble anticipates the liminal peace of Bowie’s Blackstar. “Not one of us would dare to break the silence,” she sings. “Oh how we have longed for something that would make us feel so… somewhere in between”.

   PHOTO CREDIT: Ken McKay/Rex

I guess one loses the visual sense with a live album and, despite there being some sounds of the crowd, so much of Before the Dawn relied on its staging and incredible sets. I think the live album, instead, offers listeners a chance to visualise the show themselves and, rather than glaring at a screen if the show was on DVD, they can listen through vinyl, close their eyes and experience the show in a very real way! I really love the album and do not think that I missed out a huge amount by not having a DVD or attending it on one of the night – though it would have been awesome to have been there! In their review, The Guardian offered up the following:

“That answers the question about what the point of Before the Dawn is: like 2011’s Director’s Cut, it’s an album that shows Bush’s back catalogue off in a different light. And perhaps it’s better, or at least more fitting, that her 2014 shows are commemorated with an album rather than a film or a Blu-ray or whatever it is that you play inside those virtual reality headsets people are getting so excited about. They were a huge pop cultural event, as the first gigs in four decades by one of rock’s tiny handful of real elusive geniuses were always bound to be, but they were shrouded in a sense of enigma: almost uniquely, hardly anyone who attended the first night had any real idea what was going to happen.

PHOTO CREDIT: Ken McKay/Rex 

Even more unusually, that air of mystery clung to the shows after the 22-date run ended: virtually everyone present complied with Bush’s request not to film anything on their phones, and the handful that didn’t saw their footage quickly removed from YouTube. Before the Dawn provides a memento for those who were there and a vague indication of what went on for those who weren’t, without compromising the shows’ appealingly mysterious air: a quality you suspect the woman behind it realises is in very short supply in rock music these days”.

When Bush was interviewed by MOJO in 2016, she explained how, when she wrote the Before the Dawn programme in March 2013, she had her son very much in mind; he was instrumental in getting the show together. Bush revealed how she really wanted a piece of theatre rather than a series of gigs – travelling to different locations was definitely out of the question! With drummer Omar Hakim among the first to be recruited (as Bush feels the drummer is the beating heart of the band/show), it was interesting learning (from the interview) how Bush did not have time to have further vocal and dance instruction as preparations were so intense! With books of ideas and sketches, she would attend these long meetings as the show concept and feel was dissected and discussed – how far away it must have seemed that these notes and images would materialise in something so realised and wonderful! Bush explained how the love and energy she got from the audience was amazing.

Every night was different but, in each show, the audiences receptive and full of cheer. It must have been quite strange bringing Hounds of Love’s The Ninth Wave to the stage some twenty-nine years after it was first heard. Many listeners would have heard that suite years ago and formed their own images so, when it was brought to the stage, maybe there was a certain pressure to succeed. Bush didn’t feel any pressure in that sense and, from what the reviews say, the conceptualisation and realisation is immense and utterly memorable! Bush didn’t reveal too much to MOJO regarding compiling the material for the live album and the process but, when she spoke to BBC Radio 6 Music’s Matt Everitt, she did say how much work it was and she didn’t have time to write new material. The question cane up regarding future albums and, though she did not dismiss that notion, it seemed like Bush was keen to do something different. Two years after she released the Before the Dawn album, she remastered her catalogue and put out these boxsets – like Before the Dawn, a lot of planning and hard work must have gone into making them sound like they do. As she has been working on pre-recorded and older material for her past releases, maybe there is the temptation to clear the decks and get back to writing new material – who can say when? I do love the Before the Dawn live album, as it is so interesting to listen to. Maybe it doesn’t replace the thrill of being with Bush on the night(s), but one witnesses this glorious return to the stage after so long that meant so much to her and thousands of fans. If you have not experienced the album and added it to your collection, then I would encourage everyone to…

 PHOTO CREDIT: Ken McKay/Rex 

DO that right away!

FEATURE: Spotlight: BENEE

FEATURE:

 

 

Spotlight

BENEE

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WHEN choosing a subject for Spotlight this week…

PHOTO CREDIT: Imogen Wilson

I just had to include Stella Rose Bennett, a.k.a. BENEE. She is not really underground or rising now, as her music has been shared around the world and her social media figures tell you that she is a hugely popular and loved artist! That said, there are many who will not be aware of her so, for that reason, I want to expose her music and drop in some interview quotes where one really gets a sense of who she is and what her music is about. Her anticipated debut album, Hey u x, was released on Friday (13th), and it an album you need to order and play - it has received huge applause already. The New Zealand-based artist has a bittersweet life at the moment. On the one hand, the country is allowing live music again, so there is a rare freedom that the vast majority of musicians do not have right now. On the other hand, she is cut off from the rest of the world and, just as her career is taking off, she has had to reschedule some big dates! Before going on, I want to borrow from a COMPLEX interview where they introduce BENEE:

“New Zealand’s Stella Bennett, better known to the world as BENEE, has had a crazy year. After taking a leap to pursue music full-time in 2017—the Auckland native left after two weeks in a communications program at Auckland University of Technology—her career has grown at breakneck speed. Shortly after taking the leap, BENEE earned the attention of fellow Kiwi Josh Fountain, a producer and founding member of the band LEISURE, and the two started working together. 

Their collaboration spawned “Soaked,” BENEE’s second single with Fountain and the 19-year-old’s first breakout hit in 2018. This year, BENEE built on that foundation with the release of her debut EP FIRE ON MARZZ earlier this June and the follow-up STELLA & STEVE in November. All that, along with her energetic live performances, laid the groundwork for BENEE’s sweeping four awards at the 2019 New Zealand Music Awards.

How did you get started making music?

I started posting a few covers on SoundCloud in 2017, and that got me into contact with my producer who I still work with, Josh Fountain. That was when I properly got started. I had a Gnarls Barkley cover—they were stripped back, acoustic versions. I played the guitar in one of them, weirdly.

What’s your process for making a new song?

I always take notes on my phone of lyric ideas. Like with the dream thing—I’ll wake up and remember everything about the dream and I’ll write it down or record it on my phone. I do it on the Voice Memos app with melody ideas. And I’ll bring those ideas into the studio, have a conversation with the producer and play Josh a bunch of music I’ve been listening to. He’ll whizz away on the production side, and we’ll bounce ideas off each other while I’ll be writing lyrics.

What was it like to be an artist in New Zealand? How did you break out of the local music scene?

New Zealand’s quite small. We’re quite isolated and it’s this nice, quiet place, and that inspires and drives a lot of us to be creative. And because it’s small, the music industry is pretty small here. Everyone kind of knows everyone in the industry. It’s not as hard as, say, America to release a song and be like, "Hey I’m a musician." People are constantly looking for new music—it wasn’t so hard to say, "Hi, I’m BENEE".

I guess social media provides artists from smaller nations like New Zealand promotion and opportunity that wouldn’t have been available decades ago. There is no fluke when it comes to BENEE. She is an exciting young artist who defies comparisons; someone who is resonating with so many people and creating music that is instantly wonderful and easy to appreciate! It must be tricky having all of this great music that you cannot bring to the world but, like so many artists, technology has allowed her to deliver in a new way. Even though it is not ideal, this year has been quite a busy and eventful one BENEE. As this feature from The Guardian highlights, the songwriter has enjoyed some highs among the lows – and they go on to comment on BENEE’s accessible and endearing mannerisms and personality:

“But by forcing almost all performance and press opportunities online, the pandemic brought the world to Benee. She made her US television debut from Auckland, performing for Ellen DeGeneres and Jimmy Fallon, and collaborated remotely with Grimes, Lily Allen and the rapper Flo Milli. “Sometimes I feel a little bit guilty,” she says. “This year has been so hectic, and so horrible for so many people; it feels weird for me because it’s been the biggest year so far of my career. It feels very weird to celebrate anything when the world is literally falling apart.”

There is an endearing goofiness and intimacy to Benee that feels like a tonic in this doomed year (and which distinguishes her from the major-label pop stars desperately trying to go viral on TikTok). Advised to follow up Supalonely’s smash with a “relatable” song, she instead wrote one called Snail, sung from the perspective of her favourite animal. She is entertaining company, even at a remove of 12,000 miles and 13 hours’ time difference, speaking in slang (“next-level shooketh” – meaning shocked) and revealing her self-doubt in a way that feels true of a new twentysomething. On World Mental Health Day, Benee shared seven photos of herself crying to show her 560,000 Instagram followers that “most people feel shit sometimes”.

In New Zealand, there is less pressure for pop stars to fit a “certain mould”, Benee says. Naturally, some have made cheap comparisons between Benee and other young, female pop stars. But if she is anything like Billie Eilish, as some headlines have suggested, it’s that she shares that musician’s irreverent approach to presentation: Benee often performs in cat ears, cargo pants and a spacesuit, and was disgusted by the recent social media body-shaming of Eilish. “I’ve never been someone who likes to put her body out there anyways,” she says. And while she was frustrated to be dismissed early on as a “knock-off Lorde”, she envies how her countrywoman has balanced celebrity and anonymity. “She hasn’t been active on her Instagram for, like, a year, but she’s still relevant”.

Before he debut album came out, BENEE already put out a couple of E.P.s already. Last year’s Stella & Steve is a fantastic effort, and one that really announced her as a seriously strong and promising talent. If you have not heard the E.P., then have a listen, as it is a really great listen! I am slightly new to that E.P., so I wanted to find out a bit more and what it was all about. BENEE spoke with Billboard last year - and  the subject of the E.P. was at the fore:

“We're meeting a few weeks before the due date of BENEE's Stella & Steve EP, a tight handful of R&B and electronic-tinged pop tracks that showcase where she is here and now. There's the buoyant "Find an Island," which is about wanting to get far, far away from someone ("Find an island far away from me/ A shipwreck lost at sea"), and “Monster,” a silky, spooky ballad with a twist: “But then instead of eatin' me/ He offers me a blueberry.”

Quirky lyrical twists like these -- coupled with rich vocals and smooth production -- are a trademark of BENEE's style (which has quickly earned her chart success in New Zealand and Australia, and tens of millions of Spotify streams). That style then translates to her songs, artwork, and even the clothing she wears. All of this is what the singer-songwriter calls “BENEE vision.”

“I'm still experimenting, still molding BENEE,” she explains. “It’s like, I have this blank canvas and I'm just starting to add some paint and stuff, but it's going to kind of create a big thing.”

As for the title, BENEE's obviously the “Stella,” but who’s Steve?

“I call everything Steve. Since I was little, I'd go on, like, holiday and call hermit crabs Steve.” She chuckles. “And I still do. I'll name a snail Steve. Everything is called Steve in my world. My car is also called Steve.” (Steve the Car also features in the EP artwork, with BENEE standing on top of him.)”.

I am going to finish off in a minute, but there are a couple of other interviews and bits that I want to get together and put out there. I think the R&B and Pop sounds BENEE is putting out are among the most arresting and memorable out there! She is an artist who will continue to build and produce ever-brilliant work. The frustration of having all this energy and brilliant material when the world is restricted and closed off is a clear frustration. So many artists will be unleashed next year, and we will see more live music than ever before! Many might know BENEE from the aforementioned hit, Supalonely - and it is a good starting point if you are yet to discover her music.

In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, BENEE talked about the song and what it is like rising in popularity during this current time:

“What is it like having your breakthrough moment during a global pandemic?

It's pretty strange. I mean, it's the first time it's ever happened to me, so I'm not used to it or anything. It's crazy, but I feel like it's kind of nice, because I don't have to move anywhere. I don't really have to do all the stuff that you would usually have to do if you had a song that was doing something. I've just been literally in the same spot doing Zoom calls.

On "Supalonely," you're sort of wallowing in your own sadness, but it is an extraordinarily buoyant and effervescent little pop song. So it does have that down in the trough and up on the rooftop [feeling] at the same time.

It does, yeah. I think writing it, I was trying to be super self-deprecating, because it was a breakup song and I was poking fun at myself for being sad. I don't know, with most of my music, I think, the themes are quite sad but I'll want to keep it kind of upbeat and happy to contrast”.

It seems like the future is very promising for the twenty-year-old New Zealander. Here is an artist who has the talent and ammunition to go as far as she likes in music.

Her sound is fresh and unique, but she has always been surrounded by music. I was keen to explore what her influences are, and what comes next for her. 2021 is going to be a pivotal year and, when she spoke with DORK recently, my questions were answered:

“What kind of artists have inspired you over time?

Ohh my there are so many! I have been obsessed with Radiohead, Bjork and James Blake forever. I grew up with my parents playing me a bunch of Grace Jones and Groove Armada, but I'm constantly finding new artists to listen to and all of them inspire me in some kind of way.

You've got two EPs under your belt now, is there an album in the works?

There is! My first evaaaa one, I'm so excited. I plan on releasing one before the end of the year.

If so, who are you working with on it?

Mainly with my producer Josh Fountain! I'm also working with a pal of mine Djeisan Suskov who's worked on a bunch of ma other stuff with me. But also worked with Kenny on a beat and a couple of other people!

Obviously, times are tough at the minute, but are you planning to get on the road when 'all of this' is over?

Faw shawww! I can't wait till it's safe for me to start touring again. I didn't realise how much I'd miss it”.

Make sure you follow the incredible BENEE and follow what she does next - and go and get her new album. She is a fantastic artist, and I hope that she does get to travel the world and gig as much as possible very soon. I guess she is lucky living in New Zealand, but it won’t be too long before other countries open up for business. This year has been a rough one but, with artists like BENEE out there, there are these real…

GLIMMERS of gold!

___________

Follow BENEE

PHOTO CREDIT: Undine Markus

Official:

https://beneemusic.com/

Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/BENEE/

Twitter:

https://twitter.com/BENEEMUSIC

Instagram:

https://www.instagram.com/beneemusic/

YouTube:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCqkzefLq9-QoYwFwolcImQw

Spotify:

https://open.spotify.com/artist/0Cp8WN4V8Tu4QJQwCN5Md4

FEATURE: Vinyl Corner: Jay-Z - Reasonable Doubt

FEATURE:

 

 

Vinyl Corner

JAY-Z - Reasonable Doubt

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THIS is one of these album recommendations…

where the vinyl copies sell for quite a bit! That said, I think that JAY-Z’s Reasonable Doubt is definitely worth grabbing on vinyl, as it is a fantastic album that everyone should investigate. Released on 25th June, 1996, it is the debut studio album of JAY-Z. The album features production by DJ Premier, Ski, Knobody, and Clark Kent, and it also includes guest appearances from Memphis Bleek, Mary J. Blige, Jaz-O, and The Notorious B.I.G. Some might overlook the album because of its intense and gritty themes; songs about material wealth and hustling. Reasonable Doubt is a very honest and open album and, whilst some might feel JAY-Z is boasting and being cocky, there is plenty of wit and humour to be found. He is a rapper who has gone on to record some of the most influential Hip-Hop/Rap albums ever, and I think his debut is really promising. I have always been a big fan of JAY-Z’s delivery – so different to his peers at the time. In terms of transformation Hip-Hop, Reasonable Doubt is a major player. In 2016, Billboard wrote a track-by-track guide - and they highlighted the contrast between JAY-Z’s delivery and the potency and the importance of his lyrics:

“Jay was able to do so largely because of his delivery. On Reasonable Doubt, he slings denser, wordier rhymes than he would on subsequent albums, and yet his flow is remarkably casual -- confident with the faintest hints of sadness and stress. Even when he's rapping about moving product and really playing up the mafioso character he portrays on the LP's cover, Jay sounds like the world's most approachable godfather.

Which isn't to say he wasn't cutthroat about certain things. Jay was originally signed to Payday Records, but when the label didn't support him like he wanted, he teamed with friends Dame Dash and Kareem "Biggs" Burke to form his own company, Roc-a-Fella Records. This wasn’t your typical music-biz operation -- Mary J. Blige and other contributors were reportedly paid with bags full of cash -- but it suited Jay’s purposes. As he told Yahoo! Music in 1999, Payday "didn’t know how to work a record." He added: “The things that they were setting up for me I could have done myself. They had me traveling places to do in-stores, and my product wasn’t even available in the store."

If there's one thing Jay knew about, it was supplying product. In hustling, he’d found a way out of poverty, but throughout Reasonable Doubt, he hints at the remorse he feels flooding his community with crack. He also catalogs the spoils and thrills like someone who’s maybe not ready to give it up, though by his own admission, he was.

"I didn't want to sell drugs," he told Yahoo! “I wanted a better life. I wanted to perform and I didn't know where performing would take me exactly, but I knew it would take me far away from where I'd come from”.

If you want a taste of Reasonable Doubt, sample it on streaming platforms, but I think it is one of those albums even those who are not overly-keen on Hip-Hop will be able to appreciate. A lot of its themes and subjects will be relevant today, and whilst some have argued that Reasonable Doubt is more a success because of its army of producers than JAY-Z himself, it is evident that the album is hugely influential. I disagree that the production outstrips the weight and quality of JAY-Z’s music. JAY-Z would go on to make more radio-accessible albums in later years, but his debut remains this incredible direct and honest album that one cannot ignore. In their review of Reasonable Doubt, this is what AllMusic had to say:

 “Before Jay-Z fashioned himself into hip-hop's most notorious capitalist, he was a street hustler from the projects who rapped about what he knew -- and was very, very good at it. Skeptics who've never cared for Jigga's crossover efforts should turn to his debut, Reasonable Doubt, as the deserving source of his legend. Reasonable Doubt is often compared to another New York landmark, Nas' Illmatic: A hungry young MC with a substantial underground buzz drops an instant classic of a debut, detailing his experiences on the streets with disarming honesty, and writing some of the most acrobatic rhymes heard in quite some time.

(Plus, neither artist has since approached the street cred of his debut, The Blueprint notwithstanding.) Parts of the persona that Jay-Z would ride to superstardom are already in place: He's cocky bordering on arrogant, but playful and witty, and exudes an effortless, unaffected cool throughout. And even if he's rapping about rising to the top instead of being there, his material obsessions are already apparent. Jay-Z the hustler isn't too different from Jay-Z the rapper: Hustling is about living the high life and getting everything you can, not violence or tortured glamour or cheap thrills. In that sense, the album's defining cut might not be one of the better-known singles -- "Can't Knock the Hustle," "Dead Presidents II," "Feelin' It," or the Foxy Brown duet, "Ain't No Nigga." It just might be the brief "22 Two's," which not only demonstrates Jay-Z's extraordinary talent as a pure freestyle rapper, but also preaches a subtle message through its club hostess: Bad behavior gets in the way of making money. Perhaps that's why Jay-Z waxes reflective, not enthusiastic, about the darker side of the streets; songs like "D'Evils" and "Regrets" are some of the most personal and philosophical he's ever recorded. It's that depth that helps Reasonable Doubt rank as one of the finest albums of New York's hip-hop renaissance of the '90s”.

Twenty-four years after its release, and Reasonable Doubt remains this immensely striking and accomplished debut – surely one of the best debuts of that decade. I think it will get a lot of love and new exposure on its twenty-fifth anniversary next year.

I am going to wrap up in a second, but I wanted to bring in a review from Pitchfork, who go into serious detail regarding the album – highlighting its many pluses and how impactful it is:

 “In Jay’s mind at least, the album certainly marked the end of an era. At this point, by his own cold-eyed accounting on the song “Politics As Usual,” he had been selling drugs for “10 years.” Along a parallel track, he had been flirting furtively with being a rapper. He linked up with Big Jaz (later Jaz-O), doing a stint as the older man's baby-faced sidekick and kicking the triplet-time “figgity-figgity”-style flows that were sweeping New York at the time. He toured, briefly, with Big Daddy Kane, and spit some freestyles for New York hip-hop radio. He was an impressive local kid, but no one’s idea of a worldwide star.

In that murky time between his puppyish Jaz-O beginnings and his sober and assured reappearance on Reasonable Doubt, he figured some things out. First, nobody wanted to hear Jay Z excited. Composed, assured, jaded, deeply unimpressed—these were emotions he could radiate without even trying, and they were truer to his nature. Gone were the endearing attempts at dancing alongside Jaz, looking like a kid at his own bar mitzvah being coaxed onto the floor. His years selling drugs had presumably hardened him, and by the time he opened his mouth on Reasonable Doubt’s opening track, “Can’t Knock the Hustle,” he had mastered an unshakable godfather pose. It is hard to convincingly telegraph “above it all” from the bottom of the food chain, but Shawn Carter had a natural haughtiness that couldn’t be faked. “You ain’t havin’ it? Good, me either/Let’s get together and make this whole world believe us,” he barked”.

Go and grab a copy of a Hip-Hop classic, as it was the start of the career of one of the music world’s biggest artists. Reasonable Doubt is a masterful album, and one that I have been going back to time and time again over the past few weeks. Although it made a big impact back in 1996, I still think JAY-Z’s debut album sounds and feels relevant…

TO his very day.

FEATURE: The Lockdown Playlist: Great Synth Tracks

FEATURE:

 

The Lockdown Playlist

IN THIS PHOTO: Wendy Carlos in her New York recording studio in 1979/PHOTO CREDIT:  Len DeLessio/Corbis/Getty Images

Great Synth Tracks

___________

I want to grab from…

 PHOTO CREDIT: @a8ka/Unsplash

a terrific article in The Guardian regarding the synth genius, Wendy Carlos, and how she helped transform music. This Lockdown Playlist is dedicated to songs that feature synthesisers or some form of the technology – although there is a wide array of music, I shall try and narrow it to an extent. as The Guardian explain in their feature, “She (Carlos) went platinum by plugging Bach into 20th-century machines, and was soon working with Stanley Kubrick. But prejudice around her gender transition pushed Wendy Carlos out of sight”. She is a hugely important figure that, perhaps, does not get the credit she deserves:

“This summer, an 80-year-old synthesiser pioneer suddenly appeared online. She had been silent for 11 years, but now something had appeared that she just wouldn’t tolerate. “Please be aware there’s a purported ‘biography’ on me just released,” wrote Wendy Carlos on the homepage of her 16-bit-friendly website, a Siamese cat and a synthesiser behind her portrait. “No one ever interviewed me [for it], nor anyone I know,” she went on. “Aren’t there new, more interesting targets?”

Given that Carlos is arguably the most important living figure in the history of electronic music, it’s remarkable that Amanda Sewell’s Wendy Carlos: A Biography is the first book about her. This is the musician who pushed Robert Moog to perfect his first analogue synthesiser, from which pop, prog, electronica and film music flourished. Her smash-hit 1968 album Switched-On Bach made the Moog internationally famous and became the second classical album ever to go platinum in the US. Then came her extraordinary soundtracks for A Clockwork Orange, The Shining and Tron. She made an ambient album five years before Brian Eno did, and jumped from analogue machines to do leading work in digital synthesis, but worried that her status as one of the first visible transgender artists in the US would overshadow it.

Carlos’s high standards and industrious work ethic began in her childhood. Born in 1939 into a working-class Rhode Island family, her music-loving parents couldn’t afford a piano: her father drew a keyboard on paper so she could practise between lessons. She built a hi-fi system for her parents by cutting wood and soldering wire and won a science contest at 14 by inventing a computer. She then made her first tape machine for music-making, after falling in love with the early electronic music of Pierre Henry and Bebe Barron.

By the time she found Robert Moog napping on a banquette at a New York audio conference in 1964, she was a music and physics graduate of Brown and Columbia. Moog soaked up her suggestions for sound filter banks and pitch-sliding controls, which became original features of his synthesiser; Carlos also wanted a touch-sensitive keyboard, not standard on the instrument until the late 1970s.

By 1981, Carlos was known everywhere as Wendy: she had completed her gender confirmation surgery in 1972, and talked about it for the first time in a 1979 Playboy interview. Only two columns were devoted to her music in the piece, which she saw as a betrayal. Nevertheless, she revealed just how much “forced secrecy” had affected her career. Switched-On Bach’s popularity had made things hard for her, she said. She had “lost an entire decade” avoiding live performances and connections with other artists because she didn’t yet feel ready to disclose her gender transition publicly. Once, Stevie Wonder came to check out her synthesiser set-up, and Carlos hid as he knocked. Sewell writes in her book how Carlos still faces prejudice from record companies today: Warner Music has not still corrected her name on the soundtrack to A Clockwork Orange”.

In honour of a great figure who revolutionised music, I want to dedicate a Lockdown Playlist to her and wonderful music that features the synthesiser. Through the years, it has been deployed in so many classic tracks and, as you will hear, it can elevate a great piece of music…

 PHOTO CREDIT: @didierjoomun/Unsplash

TO the next level.

FEATURE: Collector's Cut: Show a Little Devotion: Kate Bush: Collectables, Single and Album Covers, Signed Goods, Memorabilia Etc.

FEATURE:

 

 

Collector's Cut: Show a Little Devotion

IMAGE COMPOSITE: Kate Bush News 

Kate Bush: Collectables, Single and Album Covers, Signed Goods, Memorabilia Etc.

___________

I am going to go into a lot of detail…

about Kate Bush and the collectability and fascination of her work because, on 3rd December, Record Collector is putting out a magazine dedicated to her. A lot will be covered, including a re-examination of her albums - and a lot more besides. It promises to be a bonanza for fans!

“This latest RC special gives fans the definitive guide to collecting one of the most extraordinary musicians of our times with a comprehensive UK discography, in-depth guides to collectables and memorabilia, all of her studio albums revisited by some of RC’s finest writers, fans and musicians on what Kate means to them, unpublished photographs, an evocative piece on her remarkable live comeback, and so much more”.

I am going to tie together a couple of themes and features that I have worked on recently. November is a packed month when it comes to Kate Bush albums and their anniversaries. Not only are the studio albums The Red Shoes, Aerial, Lionheart, and 50 Words for Snow all a year older this month – the latter is nine in a matter of days -, but her series of remastered albums (when Bush re-released her albums remastered and included a set of lesser-heard tracks) is two; the live album of her 2014 residency, Before the Dawn, is also about to turn four – I have written about that album and will publish the feature on Wednesday.

 IMAGE CREDIT: Kate Bush

In addition to great albums celebrating anniversaries, there have been (including the upcoming Record Collector edition) three magazines published where Kate Bush is a huge part – MOJO dedicated one of their Collectors’ Series to her; PROG marked forty years of her third album, Never for Ever, and featured stories behind the album and spotlighted Bush in a big way. I love all the attention her music has been getting recently, and there have been excited whispers from the community and fans that this intense burst of activity and celebration is prefacing an imminent album release. Of course, it is incredibly unlikely that the writers and editors of these magazines have some inside knowledge or, like animals that can predict when it is about to rain, they are sending this early warning! I think it is more likely that this year has been tough and this is a good uplift; Bush is more popular now than ever (I feel), so it is just a great year for magazines and column inches dedicated to her! Most of Bush’s studio albums have been released between August and November (inclusive), so it is unlikely she will put out an eleventh studio album this year or early next but, Bush being Bush, one can never tell when an album will arrive and what it will sound like! I am deviating, but I am looking forward to the upcoming Record Collector edition, as it will look at her 2014 residency, Before the Dawn, in addition to her collectable nature.

 IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush during her Before the Dawn residency in 2014/PHOTO CREDIT: Noble and Bright/Rex Features

I am familiar with her albums and a lot of what will be in the magazine, but it is great that Before the Dawn will get some focus! If anyone was fortunate enough to catch one of her twenty-two dates from 26th August to 1st October, 2014 at the Eventim Apollo Hammersmith, they would have witnessed a once-in-a-generation event that very few would have anticipated! Having released a studio album, 50 Words for Snow, three years previous, a return to a big live commitment after thirty-five years (following 1979’s The Tour of Life) was unexpected. It was Bush embarking on a fresh and different challenge – after releasing two albums, including Director’s Cut, in 2011 – and giving flight to songs that have never been mounted for the stage – including the suite from Hounds of Love, The Ninth Wave, and Aerial’s second side/disc, A Sky of Honey, in all their glory and imaginative best! For those who were not fortunate enough to see Bush back in Hammersmith, the live album of Before the Dawn is available and, having listened to it several times, it is spine-tingling! Bush has her own shop for merchandise where you can buy some good stuff…but there is a link for merchandise from that Before the Dawn residency that is not working. As you can see from this page from Kate Bush News, there is some great and collectable merchandise that people would have been able to buy when attending the shows – including a ‘rescue tin’ (tied to The Ninth Wave and the story of a protagonist being lost at sea and rescued at the very end), and a badge set. Many of these items that people do own are being sold on eBay and other auction sites and the prices are quite high. Even though these items are small and easily produced, they mean so much to people who saw her live - and there are many fans of Bush who would snap these up!

 IN THIS IMAGE: On The Stage Tonight... is an unofficial album release featuring the content of the original (official) Live at Hammersmith Odeon release. It was released in 2014

I wonder whether Record Collector will explore her live performances and what is available on vinyl because, to me, that is one of the most under-represented areas on the marketplace. Bush’s 1979 E.P., On Stage – containing four tracks recorded during The Tour of Life at the Hammersmith Odeon on 13th May, 1979 – is something everyone should own on vinyl. I know there are bootlegs and demo recordings on various sites, and even though they are not official releases, hearing Bush at a very early stage – many are recordings from as early as 1973 and before -, is fascinating! I can understand why people want to own any live or rare recordings, as Bush herself has not released too much officially. Many would like her T.V. performances on DVD or an album with a full set from The Tour of Life, or her Christmas special from 1979 on its own album. I want to mention various single and album covers but, in my view, I think a lot of contributors to the forthcoming Record Collector magazine will talk about those golden collectables. A quick search of eBay makes for alluring and exciting viewing! From a 1984 signed letter, to one from 1980, there is great value in simply having Bush’s handwriting! I know the lyrics to her single, The Man with the Child in His Eyes (The Kick Inside, 1978), were in the possession of her former boyfriend, Steve Blacknell (who it is said the song is about), and that song was written in felt tip pen - and, to every Bush fan, that would be one of the most-prized and demanded items! He auctioned them off in 2010, and it is a shame that he did not keep hold of them!

IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush with Steve Blacknell/IMAGE CREDIT: Eli

Even a Taiwanese cassette version of my favourite album, The Kick Inside, makes for essential purchasing; a rare release and item that is really cool and will be worth quite a bit in years to come! Look at a site like this, and there are some great collectables that I was not aware of (a programme of a show that Bush dedicated to Bill Duffield (a lighting technician on The Tour of Life who died after the warm-up show in Poole in 1979) is something precious; a test pressing of Experiment IV (included on her 1986 greatest hits album, The Whole Story) is another great collectable! Of course, there will be items that various people have – from attending her gigs or following her music for years – that they do not want to auction off or get rid of. I think we get a very limited view of Bush’s music and career through the media and radio. Many of her songs are never played, and there aren’t too many features written about her not tied to an anniversary or special event. These collectables and rare items provide new details and pieces to the puzzle of her career! I think the main source of collectables and memorabilia comes in the form of the albums and various pressings. I came across an interesting article from Kate Bush News, where some great sites are mentioned that give fans access to collectables:

“I have to admit I’ve never been a must-have-everything collector of Kate’s stuff but recently I have been filling out some of the gaps in my Kate Bush vinyl collection. There’s something about owning those original artefacts from a particular time in Kate’s career that can be very satisfying. I had decided to limit my current renewed passion for collectible records to UK releases, but when you inevitably start to dig further…there’s a LOT of interesting stuff out there and it can get overwhelming. Luckily we have some great Kate Bush collector sites to help us out, even if we know that realistically we’ll never get our mitts on many of these treasures. Here are three sites, all from genuine fans, that come recommended… 

IN THIS IMAGE: The cover of the Dutch C.D. single release of Rubberband Girl (The Red Shoes, 1993)/IMAGE CREDIT: Eli

Firstly, for years I’ve relied on an excellent site called “The Single File” by John Heislman which he has maintained since the 1990s. It focuses on Kate’s career as a singles artist and is bang up-to-date with the re-recorded Running Up That Hill from 2012. With neat navigation, effective use of national flag symbols and pictorial chronologies for all formats he takes the guess work out of what was released when and where. A brilliant site.

Next up, if you’re looking for a site that also takes in albums, books and all manner of memorabilia you simply have to take a look at the “World of Kate Bush” blog site. The site owner has been tireless in photographing and describing their impressive collection. This is collecting at its most serious, and a revealing pleasure to browse through for even a casual fan.

Since 1978, thanks to robust work by EMI Japan, Kate has been a noticeable presence in that territory. Some of the most expensive collectible Kate Bush items on the market today emanate from Japan and there is a LOT to discover. Luckily longtime fan Bart Lienard has put together “All We Ever Look For“, an exhaustive labour of love which lists just about every Japanese Kate Bush album, single, box set, video and book as well as a large array of magazine articles. Fascinating”.

Discogs is probably the best resource when it comes to Kate Bush and her discography, but there are great collectors sites like this where one is in danger of maxing their credit card because of all the goodies – I especially fancy the copy of Never for Ever signed by Bush with a ballpoint pen!

 IMAGE CREDIT: Discogs

Given the number of singles and albums Kate Bush has released through her career, I think there is great interest and value when it comes to the different versions of covers and, if you want to be extra-exclusive, then early pressings are worth investment! There are two-hundred-and-thirty-eight versions of The Kick Inside through various formats and countries and, whilst my favourite is the Japanese cover with pink lettering and Bush in a pink leotard, there is a great Brazilian E.P. from that time, 4 Sucessos, that has a great photo and an interesting assortment of four much-loved songs from that album. Skipping a few years ahead, and the 1983 eponymous E.P. from Kate Bush released for North America is fascinating when you see all the different-coloured vinyl out there! I like all the different version of Lionheart and the 1980 Christmas single, December Will Be Magic Again, is not often seen or played; a great release to own! One top release I would recommend is the U.S. Aspects of the Sensual World from 1990, as you get Ken (from The Comic Strip Film G.L.C.) and a rare track, I’m Still Waiting. One can find some rare releases here; many of these have been released but are not available to buy – making them all the more valuable for those who own them and coveted for those who do not (myself included!). There are a lot of in official releases that are blocked from sale, but it is best to visit a site like Eli for those items that you can purchase – among all the items, I especially love the Polish release of The Man with the Child in His Eyes.

 IMAGE CREDIT: Discogs

There are many more items and avenues I have not explored but, as you can see, there are some great collectables and rarities from one of the music world’s most influential figures! I recently mused how there should be a Kate Bush pop-up shop where, alongside her albums and merchandise, one can get some rarer stuff. Maybe a cassette vending machine with her albums there; some T-shirts available from various websites (that are then stocked in the shop) and, in one section, all these great collectables and memorabilia – including various album and single versions, signed goods, must-have items and all manner of Kate Bush gold! I look forward to seeing the Record Collector edition next month, as they will go into a lot more detail than me - and there will be listings of so many more collectable items and rarer editions that every Kate Bush fan should snap up! I do tend to think that people forget that there is a world of Kate Bush items that one would not see in record shops or even larger sites like Amazon. One of the guiltiest pleasures (and most expensive!) is looking at signed goods and rare pressings that go for hundreds and wondering whether we should just go a bit crazy and spend the money. Fortunately, I have not done that yet but, when the forthcoming Record Collector comes along, I can see myself being a few hundred quid lighter! Among my wish-list is some programmes or merchandise from The Tour of Life, a few editions of The Kick Inside and, if it exists, a signed copy of that album (non-personalised). There is so much more I want to buy, but I shall end things there. From U.S.-only releases, rare vinyl and manner of wonderful merchandise and collectables, dig deep enough and one will discover…

 IMAGE CREDIT: Whyte’s

A beautiful world of delights!

FEATURE: The Very Thought of You: Billie: Shining a Spotlight on the Remarkable Billie Holiday

FEATURE:

 

 

The Very Thought of You

PHOTO CREDIT: Rex 

Billie: Shining a Spotlight on the Remarkable Billie Holiday

___________

WHEN we think of musicians…

IN THIS PHOTO: Billie Holiday with Louis Armstrong 

who have lived a life worthy of a big screen portrayal, one cannot avoid Billie Holiday. There is a biopic in the works for next year but, on Friday (13th), a new documentary, Billie, was released. I shall come to that soon but, for many, Holiday is notable for a couple of tracks and that is about it. I don’t think many people realise just how complex her life was and what she had to endure – in terms of the abuse and racism she faced and, sadly, the addiction problems and controversy that would have been a natural reaction to such suffering and hardship. The fact her music is so transcendent and powerful, maybe, comes from a soul who had witnessed such horror and darkness, but I think Holiday was one of those naturally gifted singers who was able to access something no other artists could. I am looking forward to seeing what comes of a planned Billie Holiday biopic and whether it succeeds like the best biopics have – in terms of balancing reality and the true artist and also being accessible to everyone -, or if it will shy away from the harsher and more disturbing aspects of Holiday’s life. I will end with a playlist of her finest recordings, just to show what an extraordinary artist she was and, since her death in 1959, it is clear she changed the face of Jazz and left an enormous legacy.

I want to bring in an illuminating article from The Independent from last year, where Martin Chilton discussed Holiday’s unique spirit - in addition to the battles and bleak days she faced through her life:

“Holiday was a true one-off: a wild, outspoken and forceful woman, who also happened to be one of the greatest singers that ever lived. It makes it all the sadder that her final days were so painful and that she died such in such degrading circumstances in the early hours of 17 July 1959, at Harlem’s Metropolitan Hospital. She had been under arrest in her hospital bed for the previous five weeks. She was weak, underweight, bed-ridden and trying to fight off heart and liver failure problems at a time when police found a small tinfoil envelope containing heroin in a different part of the room. It was widely suspected that the drugs had been planted. She was interrogated by narcotics detectives. Her books, flowers, radio and record player were confiscated. She was finger-printed without her consent.

Her childhood was often brutal. She was sexually abused by a neighbour and had a tough time at the Catholic reformatory in Baltimore (she was forced to spend a night in a locked room with a child’s corpse in a coffin as a penalty for misbehaving) and went on to earn a living in a series of menial jobs. She also claimed to have worked as a prostitute in a brothel in Baltimore. “I was turning tricks as a call girl, but I decided I wasn’t going to be anybody’s maid,” she said in her own – often unreliable – memoir Lady Sings the Blues.

Holiday said she had always wanted her voice to sound like a musical instrument and was pleased when trumpeter Miles Davis praised her style by saying, “Billie Holiday doesn’t need any real horns, she sounds like one anyway”. Some of her recordings with Teddy Wilson in the 1930s – including “What a Little Moonlight Can Do” and “Miss Brown to You” – remain joyful masterpieces. “Billie Holiday is very rare,” said the late club owner and saxophonist Ronnie Scott, “she means every word she sings”.

She is responsible for some of the best jazz song recordings ever made. It says something about the brilliance she brought to so many songs that even experts are divided about her best work. Motown legend Berry Gordy believes it is “God Bless the Child”, a recording he said “spoke to me and in some ways changed my thought about life”. For poet Philip Larkin, it was her version of “These Foolish Things”.

She was often the victim of appalling violence. During their stormy affair, saxophone player Ben Webster assaulted her, leaving Holiday bruised and with a black eye – prompting Sadie to get “real mad”, in his words, and attack him with an umbrella. In 1949, her manager John Levy gave her a black eye and stole her $18,000 silver-blue mink coat. Her second husband Louis McKay, whom she wed in 1951, also gave her a shocking black eye”.

One feels immensely sorry for Holiday and what she endured through her short life but I think, strangely, she channelled a lot of that torment into her music; maybe the reason her songs are so resonant and real is because, unlike a lot of artists, that pain and struggle was real. Holiday isn’t an artist one should associate with melancholy and tragedy. Some of her most beautiful songs are those where she sings of love and affection; a woman who wanted stability and happiness in her life, you listen to songs like The Very Thought of You (written by Ray Noble in 1934), and that is as true to who Holiday was as a song like Strange Fruit. There were multiple sides to her and, if you can, try and catch the Billie documentary. It has already gained some really positive reviews. Here is what NME had to say:

“Cadillac riddled with bullet holes; an ounce of heroin stuffed into a dog collar. Billie, a new documentary about the late jazz great Billie Holiday, is filled with arresting details about one of the most original musicians of all time. And yet, as is the case with so many previous attempts to capture this mercurial talent, her inner-workings remain just out of reach, dancing in the shadows of a Harlem nightclub.

Holiday’s ascent – to the infamous Café Society nightclub in Greenwich Village; recording the astonishing ‘Strange Fruit’; huge chart success in the 1940s – and heartbreaking decline, heroin addiction and tragic death at the age of 44 in 1959, is here told through the prism of Kuehl’s unpublished biography. The journalist, who died in 1979, spent eight years compiling hours of interviews with Holiday’s associates, from Basie and Hammond to her family and childhood friends. The latter remember a sweary kid who, says one, “lived fast”.

What drove Billie Holiday? She was raped as a child, says one friend, who suggests that this unspeakable trauma caused her self-destructiveness. It’s not a new revelation, but is freshly devastating in the context of a documentary that touches on what could have been – in later life, Holiday longed for domesticity and to provide a home for disadvantaged children. Instead, still in the grip of addiction, she died from heart failure with $750 to her name. Beyond the aforementioned theory, expressed only briefly, Billie never truly gets under its subject’s skin, leaving her motivation largely unexplored”.

Although it might sound like the documentary is hard-going and a tough watch, there is that positivity and the extraordinary music that she gave to the world. When they reviewed Billie, The Independent noted there is a brighter side:

 “Amid it all though, Holiday’s perseverance and musical greatness shines through in the film. The final scene is footage from Holiday’s last ever TV appearance in March 1959, just four months before she died. Her physical frame is rather more diminished than before, but her vocal dexterity is typically brilliant.

“As well as the darkness of the story, I wanted people to have the pleasure of, effectively, an evening in the company of one of the greatest singers of all time,” says Erskine. “Which, to me, is a rare treat".

I shall leave things there because, whilst I have only scratched the surface of who Billie Holiday was, I would urge people to watch the documentary, listen to her music, and get a better impression of one of the most iconic artists who has ever lived. The legendary Billie Holiday left behind so much great music and was…

A truly staggering talent.

TRACK REVIEW: Foo Fighters - Shame Shame

TRACK REVIEW:

 

 

Foo Fighters

PHOTO CREDIT: Andreas Neumann 

Shame Shame

9.3/10

The track, Shame Shame, is available from:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R1G6-RUz3OA

 The album, Medicine at Midnight, is available to pre-order via:

https://www.roughtrade.com/gb/foo-fighters/medicine-at-night

RELEASE DATE:

5th February, 2021

GENRE:

Alternative Rock

ORIGIN:

Seattle, U.S.A.

LABELS:

Roswell Records/RCA

TRACKLISTING:

Making a Fire

Shame Shame

Cloudspotter

Waiting on a War

Medicine at Midnight

No Son of Mine

Holding Poison

Chasing Birds

Love Dies Young

__________

THIS time out…

PHOTO CREDIT: Brantley Gutierrez 

I am investigating one of the most iconic bands on the modern scene: Foo Fighters. Led by Dave Grohl, the former Nirvana man is, quite rightly, seen as one of the nicest men in Rock. 2020 was going to be a big and important year for the band as the eponymous debut was released in 1995 - and this would have been a chance to tour on its important anniversary. It has been a busy and packed past few years for Foo Fighters but, a while ago, they went on hiatus and it did seem like they might go their separate ways. 2017’s Concrete and Gold was a surprise return for the band. In an interview with Kerrang!, we hear some background behind chaos that almost brought Foo Fighters to a halt:

“In fact, the only time he switches from being the effervescent figure we all know and love is when chatter turns to what sparked his hasty return to Foo Fighters. Though he’s still light-hearted, the 48-year-old swiftly becomes more thoughtful, considered, and even quiet, reflecting on the band’s 2015 ‘indefinite hiatus’, which was consequently ended after just six months.

Foo Fighters’ ‘break’ was brought about after a whirlwind few years for the band – completed by drummer Taylor Hawkins, guitarists Pat Smear and Chris Shiflett, bassist Nate Mendel and keyboardist Rami Jaffee.

There was that leg break, when Dave tumbled off of a 12-foot-high stage during a show in Sweden in the summer of 2015. There was the heartwarming viral Learn To Fly video that brought the Foos to perform in front of thousands of super-loyal fans in Cesena, Italy. There was the free release of the band’s Saint Cecilia EP, dedicated to the victims of the Paris attacks in November of that year and described by the frontman as a reminder that “music is life”. Hell, Dave even squeezed in an appearance on The Muppet Show, partaking in a drum-off with Animal. And then, of course, there was Foo Fighters’ extensive, worldwide ‘Broken Leg Tour’. After all of that, you can’t blame a man for calling a time-out”.

I want to go on a bit of a tangent before homing in on Foo Fighters today because, when I talk about Dave Grohl, I cannot avoid thinking of Nirvana and his time with the band. Many musicians might feel uncomfortable or bored talking about their former band especially if, like Grohl, the cessation of Nirvana was prefaced by the suicide of their lead, Kurt Cobain. It is clear that Nirvana still influence bands today and, though they were only together less than a decade, they managed to leave a huge footprint on the music scene. I think a lot of people associate the Grunge band with a sense of gloominess and anger. When Dave Grohl spoke with GQ back in 2018, he addressed that misconception:

“Something that Grohl and I do talk about is the misinterpretation that his time in Nirvana was all just sorrow and wretchedness. “We weren’t miserable all the time,” he says, laughing. “I mean, Kurt never once came off stage and said, ‘Nice show,’ which was a little weird. Everyone needs a pep talk every once in a while, right?” Love echoes the sentiment that Nirvana did want to make it, including Kurt. “There’s this myth,” she explains candidly, “that Kurt didn’t want success. That is such bullshit. He worked his ass off to form the right band. Kurt loved that they had made it and moved [Michael] Jackson off the charts, but he never really got to enjoy it because the circus came to town to take our kid.

“I don’t think the band had a discord about success,” she continues. “Dave was welcoming of it, as was Kurt. Success is a nice warm bath of love from the outside world, but also one hell of a harsh teacher.”

“No one thought Nirvana would be a big deal,” Grohl continues. “No one. And anyone who says they did are full of shit. No one had a clue. So when everything went crazy, when the world started coming to us, when that whole wild ride started happening, it gave me a licence to never have to listen to anyone ever again. From that moment on, no one has ever told me what to do. No one. In 25 years, I have never had anyone ever say to me, ‘Oh, Dave you have to do this.’ Fuck you, motherfucker. I’m the president of my record company [Roswell Records]. I own my entire back catalogue. I get to say when we do this, when we do that. So if something needs doing, I’ll just do it myself. If I want to write a 25-minute instrumental, write all the music, play all the instruments, film it and then, guess what, maybe never even release it? I’ll do it. Just because I can. That’s why”.

Let’s think about Foo Fighters’ debut album because, as I said, it turned twenty-five this year and it was going to be a busy time for the band in terms of touring and getting these hugely important songs to the people. It is clear that the Seattle-formed band have changed a lot since 1995 because, in actuality, the first incarnation of Foo Fighters was Dave Grohl himself! I guess, after Nirvana a split, it would have been hard finding another group or even considering playing. Grohl had these songs and was keen to do something but, with no other musicians for a band and Grohl a reluctant frontman, it was an odd transition. Foo Fighters is a stunning debut album, and it revealed a songwriting talent many were not aware Grohl possessed – as Kurt Cobain was the songwriting force behind Nirvana. Even though Foo Fighters are a strong unit today, as this article outlines (they took excerpts from former NME New Music editor Matt Wilkinson's interview with Grohl from his Apple Music show), it was a strange change of role:

“Dave discussed changing his role from Nirvana drummer to becoming a frontman. He said, "Coming out and standing, I mean, f***, I'd been sitting on a drum stool for so long that, 'Oh my God. Now I have to stand in front of people.' And, 'How does my body move? What do I say in between songs?' These are the things that go through your head, and if you're not feeling it or you don't have that connection or confidence, it can be f***ing terrifying.

"And, I mean, it was for eight years or 10 years or so. It took a long time for me. I mean, now when I walk out on stage, it's just, like, 'Hey. Okay, let's go.' But a long time ago, even doing interviews, I was shy. I was just insecure, self-aware. I just felt like I wasn't used to being put in the forefront like that and I can not even watch interviews from those days back then."

 Dave also touched on some of the pushback that he faced by launching the post-Nirvana project. He said, "There's some journalists that are just like, 'How dare you play music after Nirvana.' I'm, like, 'What am I supposed to do?'

"We tried really hard to do it right. Instead of jumping on a tour opening up for some massive arena band at the time, we thought, 'Okay, well let's get in the van and let's do it like we've always done it. Let's start the way we always started,' and that felt comfortable to us.

"And in doing any promotion or press, we didn't make a video right out of the gate, we tried to temper all of that stuff because it was scary in a way. I knew that I was walking the plank on this. I knew that I was going to be scrutinized and I knew that there was going to be comparisons and things like that”.

Looking at this year, and it has not gone as planned as Foo Fighters hoped – or anyone for that matter! Instead of celebrating a popular debut album at twenty-five, there has been this halt to live performance. With a new single, Shame Shame, out in the world, many have welcomed the incredible song; we are looking forward to the release of Foo Fighters’ forthcoming album, Medicine at Midnight. In the interview with Kerrang!, Grohl talked about the new album:

“How has 2020 been for you, Dave? Is there a sense of normalcy now returning with the release of Shame Shame, and the announcement of Medicine At Midnight?

“Well, I mean, we finished this album in February of this year. We were ready to hit the road, the artwork was done, the vinyl was being pressed… we were really looking forward to this year, and then we had hit pause and everybody went their separate ways. This is really the first break the band has taken in at least a decade; we’re always on the road, and we’re always making records, and always doing something. So, for it to grind to a halt was really strange. It proved to be really challenging, but also positive in a lot of ways. I think everybody finally found the time to do the things that we always wanted to do but were always too busy, and then as time went by we just decided, ‘Well, more than anything we want people to hear the new record. We can’t go out and play shows right now, but the music is worth hearing.’ So we regrouped and came up with a new plan – we had to rethink everything and adapt to what’s going on now”.

One thing that many have asked is what tone Medicine at Midnight is going to take. Shame Shame is not the definition of what the album will be but, it appears, we are going to get some party vibes and a different flavour to Concrete and Gold. Grohl spoke with NME, and he was asked about the tone and feel of the approaching record:

“What can you tell us about your mission statement for ‘Medicine At Midnight’?

“Since it’s our tenth record and 25th anniversary, we decided years ago that we wanted to do something that sounded fresh. We’ve made some many different types of album, we’ve done acoustic things, we’ve done punk-rock things, mid-tempo Americana type of things. We have a lot of albums to fall back on, so you just have to go with our gut feeling and I thought instead of making some mellow adult album, I thought ‘Fuck that, let’s make a party album’.”

What kind of party?

“A lot of our favourite records have these big grooves and riffs. I hate to call it a funk or dance record, but it’s more energetic in a lot of ways than anything we’ve ever done and it was really designed to be that Saturday night party album. It was written and sequenced in a way that you put on, and nine songs later you’ll just put it on again. Y’know, songs like ‘Making A Fire’. To me that’s rooted in Sly & The Family Stone grooves, but amplified in the way that the Foo Fighters do it”.

I guess the band had a different agenda and time plan regarding the album and getting it out there. They would have had this pre-pandemic period of planning and recording and then some time when it (the pandemic) hit that would have allowed them to focus on the recording more than they normally might have – as they didn’t have touring commitments and were restricted in that sense.

I want to go back to the interview from Kerrang!, as Grohl shed some light on the creation of the upcoming tenth studio album:

“What was the process of making Medicine At Midnight like?

“We recorded it in this fucked-up old house in my neighbourhood instead of using a studio, and every day we’d come in with a basic idea, like, ‘Okay, here’s the rhythm of the song,’ or, ‘Here’s the basic riff,’ and we would build on that. We didn’t necessarily all sit in a room, work out the song and then hit ‘record’; it was more like we were building it from the bottom up. And, seven months later, to then finally get into a room and finally play these songs as a band felt so fucking good – and really easy, to be honest. It’s one of the easiest albums for us to perform. There have been other records where we’ve recorded things that have been a bit more technically involved, and this one was just big guitars, big fuckin’ grooves and big fuckin’ choruses. As we were writing the songs I was really imagining, ‘Oh god, this is gonna be so good at the festival,’ or, ‘This is gonna be so good at the stadium.’ I really took the live show into consideration, and made these anthemic choruses that I imagined 100,000 people singing along to. Unfortunately that’s not gonna happen right now (laughs)”.

 Given that you had all this extra time after finishing the LP in February, was there a temptation to go back and change anything – big or small?

“You know, there was absolutely no desire to change anything. When we finished the album, it was exactly what we wanted it to be. We started thinking about this album and writing it almost two years ago, and we recorded it in a way that we’d never done before; we didn’t sit in a room and rehearse and write these songs. They were all born from these demos that I had been doing where I had decided, ‘Okay, it’s our 10th record, we’ve been a band for 25 years, what do we do? Do we make some sleepy acoustic album as we ride off into the sunset of our career, or do we make a fucking party record?’ And our love of rock bands that make these upbeat, up-tempo, almost danceable records inspired us to make the album that we did. To me, there’s songs on the record that are rooted in Sly & The Family Stone, or David Bowie, or The Power Station, and things like that. We sort of relied on a lot of these really energetic references and influences to put this one together”.

Shame Shame is a tantalising cut from Medicine at Midnight, and I think it is a song that many of us need right now! I am going to move to reviewing soon enough, but I want to stay on the topic of the new album and its general tone, as lead singles don’t always represent what an album will sound like. Indeed, as this article highlights, the band have ventured into new territory and have taken influence from (perhaps) unlikely sources:

“Grohl and drummer Taylor Hawkins recently joined Spotify's Global Head of Rock, Allison Hagendorf, on the "Rock This" podcast to chat about the song. According to Grohl, the band started recording the new album around this time last year, and that's when they decided to switch things up a bit.

PHOTO CREDIT: Scarlet Bucket 

"We wrote a lot of these songs to be played in stadiums — these big grooves, big choruses, big guitars. It was really sort of designed to be this big party album," the frontman described. "We had looked back on all the stuff we'd done over the last 25 years like, 'We've done this noisy, punk rock stuff. We've done gentle, acoustic stuff. We've done three-and-a-half, four-minute long radio-rock, singalong singles."

"But we've never done like that groove-oriented, sort of — Let's Dance [by] David Bowie, Power Station, the Cars, [Rolling Stones'] Tattoo You — those rock albums that would make you get up and move and dance," Grohl continued. "We haven't done that yet, so we went into the studio with that in mind... I don't even wanna say it's like our 'dance record,' but it's got grooves that we've never had before, so they kind of make you bounce around."

That isn't to say the entire album will sound like "Shame Shame," though.

"But because it's unlike anything we've ever done, I thought, 'Okay well this is a good place to start.' This should be the first thing people hear because it's indicative of this, sort of left turn that we've taken a little bit," Grohl explained of the decision to make the song their first single from this album”.

There are two more subjects I want to address before I get to talk about the new single and go deep with that. Foo Fighters have been going for over twenty-five years and, whilst they have inspired so many other bands, perhaps they are not quite as cutting and hip as other Rock bands out there. One cannot deny that Dave Grohl is a cool man, and many of their songs are anthems and classics. I think they have this perception of not being that cool and contemporary. In fact, as this SPIN interview from last year shows, previous Foo Fighters albums have ventured into older, less raucous areas of music:

“Grohl goes on to describe the recording of the band’s 1999 album There Is Nothing Left to Lose, claiming that while other bands were combining rap and metal in novel ways, he was trying to make an A.M. Gold record. “We’ve just never been hip or cool,” he said. “And I think that the reason why we’re still here is because we do kind of disconnect ourselves from the popular stuff that’s going on, but also because what the f*ck do we care. Like honestly, I just wanna play music. Having watched a lot of my friends not survive, I just want to be alive and play music and I really don’t give a f*ck if we’re cool or not.”

 But are Foo Fighters really quote-unquote “dad rock”? Does being a dad and playing in a successful band necessarily put you in the same category as, say, Steely Dan, the Grateful Dead, or Fleetwood Mac? Or is there more there another layer of complexity to the genre that others are getting at with the term? Whatever you associate with your parents’ dusty record shelves, Grohl is definitely exemplar of a certain trajectory for growing old and going grey in the music industry, even as he continues to sell more vinyl records than ever before. Such is the mystery of “dad rock” and of Dave Grohl’s continued inescapability in the music press, where he’s continued to show his face alongside Ringo Starr and Weezer frontman Rivers Cuomo”.

I normally put information regarding gigs near the end of a review but, as there is something particular I want to cover there, I will include it here. Many artists have adapted to the situation this year and played distanced gigs and virtual performances. It has not been ideal, but it has provided them with a chance of getting their music out there and connecting with fans – albeit it in a very different and new manner! Dave Grohl was asked by NME about that side of things:

“With the state of touring at the moment, would Foo Fighters ever play socially-distanced gigs?

“First and foremost, our main concern is that everyone is safe. Our band wouldn’t just jump out on the road for the sake of having an audience. Listen, we really do care for the people that come to see the band, so until we get to a place where everyone’s safe and sound, we’ll just have to adapt and figure out new ways to connect with the audience. Our band is rooted in live performance, more than anything. I love making records and everything that goes along with being in this band. But being on stage is really where we shine. Until that can happen safely, we’re just gonna have to fucking knock it out in the rehearsal room.”

That must be frustrating?

“To be honest, being away from it for six or seven months, not seeing the guys and having instruments in our laps, getting back to the rehearsal place and playing together to no one was just the best feeling in the world. When we get back and once it happens that we walk on stage to an audience, I have a feeling it’ll be the best show and the best feeling the band’s ever had”.

The video for Shame Shame is in black-and-white and quite atmospheric! It sees Grohl dragging his guitar up a hill as the wind whips his hair. If the video depicts Grohl looking quite defeated and bedraggled, the opening notes of Shame Shame are pretty tight and funky. The percussion rattles and rolls, whilst there is this raw groove from the guitar. That drum clatter and roll from Taylor Hawkins is looped, so you get this constant motion and sound that mixes with jabbing and punctuated guitar. In terms of sound, it is less direct and enflamed as some of Foo Fighters’ biggest anthems; instead, Shame Shame has this sense of creep and plod that is a great change of pace. It is funky and fun, but there is a slight darkness and weight that is reflected in the video – Grohl is seen with a woman as she runs her fingers through his hair and over his face as he then lies on the grass and then is seen running through some woodland. The lyrics are direct and to the core; impassioned and meaningful: “If you want to/I'll make you feel something real just to bother you/Now I got you/Under my thumb, like a drug, I will smother you/I'll be the one/Be the moon, be the sun/Be the rain in your song/Go and put that record on/If you want to/I'll be the one/Be the tongue that will swallow you”. Foo Fighters have dealt with passion and love before but, on many occasions, there is this huge energy and physicality coming from the band. Here, there is more tenderness and a more subtle sound. I actually like Foo Fighters in this mould, as we hear more funkiness and groove. That said, Grohl’s voice has a definite ache and sense of longing to it that combines powerfully against the composition. There is a range of emotions being put out there, and I have gone back to the song a few times to try and decide whether there is passion at the core or something more disturbed.

It does appear that, whilst there has been despair and a sense of loss from our hero, something (or someone) has come along and made that better: “Another splinter under the skin/Another season of loneliness/I found a reason and buried it/Beneath a mountain of emptiness”. The video is one of the most striking and cinematic Foo Fighters have created. Featuring just Grohl and Algerian-French actress, Sofia Boutella, the two tussle and are wrapped in one another. Grohl carries her on his back with his guitar dragging along, and there is a real sense of tussle and passion alongside storminess and something quite gothic and haunted. It is a beautiful video that perfectly accompanies the song. I do think there is a sense of passion and desire that runs through the song, but there is also some anger and uncertainty lingering. Maybe some will take some time to adjust to Foo Fighters’ shift in sound, as it is more subtle than a lot of their previous work. I like the band in a slinkier mode. Rather than there being this hectic and pummelling percussion, it rolls and loops to create this sort of mantra. Grohl and the rest of the band are less gnarly and frenetic than before, but this relative subtlety and evolution suits them well. As they have said in interviews, Shame Shame is not necessarily definitive of what Medicine at Midnight will sound like, but Foo Fighters will step into a different mantle for their new album – more party and kick than anger and anguish sounds good to me! Less of a grower, Shame Shame is a song that hits you straight away and grows stronger and more intriguing the more you play it. It is a great cut from a band who keep throwing up surprises after all these years! Next year, when they get on the road, it will be interesting to hear this song stack up against numbers from that eponymous 1995 debut.

There are a couple of lighter topics I want to end with. Go and pre-order Foo Fighters’ Medicine at Midnight (link at the top of this review) as it will be an early Christmas treat (even though the album is out next year). I came across an interesting Condé Nast Traveller article where Grohl talked about some of his favourite destinations. Many musicians play all around the world and, whilst it can seem like a tiring rigmarole, Grohl seems to love travel and seeing different places! Rather than Foo Fighters touring putting him off seeing more of the world, he does get a genuine thrill from it:

“What made you want to travel?

“‘Opening up the sleeve of an album and seeing pictures of musicians on the road, sitting out the back of their van with their equipment. Nobody was reaching for stardom, it was just a beautiful act of making music, and starving and bleeding and laying your fucking soul down every night. I think I was 13 or 14 when I realised that I don’t need much, but I need to get in the van and go and play. The fact that music has given me this ticket to the world blows my mind. It’s such a simple transaction. All I have to do is get up on stage and in return I get to see another beautiful city I’ve never been to.’

Your favourite music venue to perform at?

'The Metro in Chicago, the 9:30 Club and The Anthem in Washington, DC, the Hollywood Palladium in Los Angeles. Oh shit – god, there’s so many of them. There was also The Astoria in London, which was one of my favourite places on earth to play’”.

 PHOTO CREDIT: Scarlet Bucket

I will wrap up very soon but, over the past few months, one could not have missed the friendly drumming ‘battle’ that has ensued and escalated between Dave Grohl and the ten-year-old Nandi Bushell. She is based in the U.K. and, through a series of videos, the two have swapped drumming chops and faced up in these epic battles – Bushell, it seems, has triumphed in all of their encounters! It seems that, soon enough, the two might actually get to jam together. An article in the Los Angeles Times explains more:

“We’re not crying. You’re crying.

Three Everlong months after 10-year-old music prodigy Nandi Bushell challenged Dave Grohl to an epic drum battle, the Foo Fighters frontman has finally met his rock hero. On Monday afternoon, the little drummer girl from Ipswich, England, shared a sweet video of the two musicians chatting face-to-face for the first time.

“I get to meet a rock star! Oh, my God!” Grohl exclaimed to a speechless, beaming Bushell. “Oh, my gosh, it’s you! It’s so nice to meet you. ... I can’t believe I’m talking to you. I feel like I’m meeting a Beatle.”

During their 10-minute virtual conversation, Bushell offered Grohl some sage advice, such as “practice, practice, practice,” after the latter admitted he considered quitting the drums because he’ll “never be as good” as his young opponent. She also taught him how to let out one of her signature screams while performing.

“You just use all your energy and have lots of fun screaming,” Bushell said, shredding the air drums.

The instrumentalists’ friendship and social media showdown began in August when Bushell presented Grohl with a flawless cover of the Foo Fighters’ 1997 track “Everlong.” Bushell has since triumphed in every round so far of their drum-off, including their last exchange, which saw them write and perform original tribute songs for each other.

Now, it’s Grohl’s move, and the former Nirvana drummer hinted he still has a few more tricks up his sleeve.

“I had an idea for how to respond to your last song, but I haven’t done it yet,” he told Bushell during their video call. “It’s a really good idea. ... I don’t want to give it away.”

Toward the end of their highly anticipated meeting, Bushell enthusiastically accepted Grohl’s invitation to play the drums alongside him and the Foo Fighters once the COVID-19 pandemic is under control and global touring can safely resume.

“When the Foo Fighters finally come back to the U.K., do you think that you would get up onstage and jam with us?” Grohl asked. “But it has to be at the end of the set, because you’re gonna steal the show. It can’t be at the beginning of the set, because if you come out first, it’s just all downhill from there”.

Go and pre-order the Medicine at Midnight album and keep your eyes peeled regarding rescheduled gig dates. In fact, check out their official website if you want to go and see them play next year. It will be a rare chance for them to look back on their debut album in addition to showcasing material from their latest album. I am sure they will be playing quite a few festivals and, with some great new material under their belt, it (2021) will be a year where Foo Fighters can…

 SERIOUSLY make up for lost time!

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Follow Foo Fighters

PHOTO CREDIT: Danny Clinch 

Official:

https://www.foofighters.com/

Twitter:

https://twitter.com/foofighters

Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/foofighters/

Instagram:

https://www.instagram.com/foofighters/

Spotify:

https://open.spotify.com/artist/7jy3rLJdDQY21OgRLCZ9sD

YouTube:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCi2KNss4Yx73NG0JARSFe0A

ALL UNCREDITED PHOTOS:

Foo Fighters

FEATURE: “While Bing Crosby Sings White Christmas” Kate Bush’s December Will Be Magic Again at Forty

FEATURE:

 

 

“While Bing Crosby Sings White Christmas”

Kate Bush’s December Will Be Magic Again at Forty

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WHEN one considers the cannon…

 IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush at Abbey Road Studios

of Kate Bush, they often look at the more popular tracks and songs included on albums. Many forget that she has released and recorded some terrific tracks that either flew under the critical radar or were never included on studio albums. One song that I especially love that doesn’t get a lot of love from the media is December Will Be Magic Again. Released on 17th November, 1980, its fortieth anniversary is upcoming, and it is a song that, despite only reaching number-twenty-nine in the U.K., is actually one of Bush’s most underrated songs! I guess a lot of artists put out Christmas singles but, in 1979, I wonder whether there would have been any demand from EMI for Bush to do that. I think it is more likely that she had this image of a wintery scene and it tied into Christmas. Bush always had that sense of wonder and, on her first commercial Christmas outing, she managed to record something appropriately magical. I have mused whether it should have been included on her 1980 album, Never for Ever, but I guess it is very specific so would have not really sat alongside the rest of the songs. It is interesting to think that, thirty-one years after December Will Be Magic Again was released, Bush put out 50 Words for Snow – extending the themes and dynamic of December Will Be Magic Again but making it more expansive, immersive and rich.

I really love December Will Be Magic Again, as it is a great single that beautifully conjures the romance of snow and the Christmas period. There are few who would rank it alongside the classic Christmas numbers but, as Bush premiered another song, Home for Christmas, on The Comic Strip in 1992, the initial single must have inspired her in some ways all those years later. Despite there being no official video for December Will Be Magic Again, Bush did perform the song on T.V. twice. Once was on the Christmas Snowtime Special on the BBC on 22nd December, 1979; she then performed it for a Christmas special called Kate on 28th December, 1979. The original track was written and originally recorded in at Abbey Road Studio 2 London with Preston Heyman on drums, sleigh bells and maracas; Alan Murphy on guitar; Kuma Harada on bass, with Bush on piano. There is that mix of the traditional Christmas imagery (“December will be magic again/Take a husky to the ice/While Bing Crosby sings White Christmas/He makes you feel nice/December will be magic again/Old Saint Nicholas up the chimney/Just a-popping up in my memory”) mixed with lines that could only come from Bush’s imagination (“Light the candle-lights/To conjure Mr. Wilde/Into the Silent Night/Ooh, it's quiet inside/Here in Oscar's mind”). She definitely ticks off the Christmas song wish-list of common images: snow, Father Christmas, Silent Night and mistletoe are all lovingly mentioned.

Bush’s voice is soothing, beautiful and child-like; she is never wild and acrobatic, yet she manages to summon up this postcard scene of houses topped with snow and there being this stillness. I really love some of the more descriptive passages (“Ooh, dropping down in my parachute/The white city, she is so beautiful/Upon the black-soot icicled roofs/Ooh, and see how I fall/See how I fall/("Fall!") [backwards]/Like the snow/Come to cover the lovers/(Cover the lovers/But don't you wake them up)/Come to sparkle the dark up/(Sparkle the dark up/With just a touch of make-up)/Come to cover the muck up/(Cover the muck up/Ooh, with a little luck”). In their list ranking all (twenty-nine) of Bush’s singles, December Will Be Magic Again came in twenty-fifth according to The Guardian:

“Kate Bush had a whole album’s worth of flatly brilliant, at least vaguely festive-themed music in her – 2011’s 50 Words for Snow – but her first attempt at a Christmas single 31 years earlier fell oddly flat, never quite sounding as magical as its title suggests”.

December Will Be Magic Again’s B-side is Warm and Soothing - it finds Bush singing with just her piano accompaniment. This was the first song she recorded at Abbey Road Studios. Maybe some felt that songs like Warm and Soothing, and December Will Be Magic Again sound too similar to Bush’s first two albums; maybe they were looking for progression or a deeper vocal, perhaps.

There is a definite shift in terms of sound regarding the songs Bush recorded at AIR Studios and those at Abbey Road Studios. In January 1980, Bush moved to Abbey Road Studios when recording for Never for Ever, and one can hear a definite flourishing and change from that point on. I like the image of Bush sitting in Studio 2 and writing this beautiful song, perhaps with no specific plan for it right away – just capturing something that was in her mind that struck her. It is a shame that people do not really write classic Christmas songs anymore, and I listen back to songs like December Will Be Magic Again and cherish them. If the song was released in 1979 as initially hoped, it would have been slayed by Paul McCartney’s Wonderful Christmastime - which got to number-six and was a big success ((would the public have been as kind to Bush’s single if they had McCartney’s one out there?!). The fact December Will Be Magic Again got to number-sixteen is not so much seasonable largess and kindness, and more the fact the track is very beautiful and absorbing – many of her other singles did not reach as high yet are celebrated more! Forty years after it came out, I think people should add Kate Bush’s December Will Be Magic Again to their Christmas rotation. I would put the song in my top-twenty favourite songs of hers, and it deserves keener ears and more love! Maybe we will not get a white or ideal Christmas this year but, one listen to December Will Be Magic Again, and one is…

 PHOTO CREDIT: @ellladee/Unsplash

TRANSPORTED to an idyllic Christmas snow globe.

FEATURE: A Buyer’s Guide: Part Twenty-Nine: George Harrison

FEATURE:

 

 

A Buyer’s Guide

Part Twenty-Nine: George Harrison

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THIS is quite timely…  

 IN THIS PHOTO: George Harrison in 1970/PHOTO CREDIT: Wolfgang Heilemann

as George Harrison’s masterpiece, All Things Must Pass, turns fifty on 27th November. I am looking ahead to that important anniversary and, whilst considering that album, I was interested to look in the back catalogue and investigate the work of a terrific songwriter. It must have been hard for the former Beatle to stand out on his own and make a name but, through the years, Harrison produced some marvellous albums! I have recommended the best four, the underrated one worth a look, in addition to his final album – and the book that you need to own. Since his passing in 2001, I think a lot of new ears have discovered his albums away from The Beatles and found a new side to the legend. If you need a guide as to which George Harrison albums to buy then…

 PHOTO CREDIT: Ed Caraeff/Getty Images

KEEP reading on…

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The Four Essential Albums

 

All Things Must Pass

Release Date: 27th November, 1970

Label: Apple

Producers: George Harrison/Phil Spector

Standout Tracks: Wah-Wah/What Is Life/All Things Must Pass

Buy: https://www.discogs.com/George-Harrison-All-Things-Must-Pass/master/56036

Stream: https://open.spotify.com/album/4I4xtHaIFOzhZfp1NIHkY6

Review:

“Without a doubt, George Harrison's first solo recording, originally issued as a triple album, is his best. Drawing on his backlog of unused compositions from the late Beatles era, Harrison crafted material that managed the rare feat of conveying spiritual mysticism without sacrificing his gifts for melody and grand, sweeping arrangements. Enhanced by Phil Spector's lush orchestral production and Harrison's own superb slide guitar, nearly every song is excellent: "Awaiting on You All," "Beware of Darkness," the Dylan collaboration "I'd Have You Anytime," "Isn't It a Pity," and the hit singles "My Sweet Lord" and "What Is Life" are just a few of the highlights. A very moving work, with a slight flaw: the jams that comprise the final third of the album are somewhat dispensable, and have probably only been played once or twice by most of the listeners who own this record. Those same jams, however, played by Eric Clapton, Carl Radle, Bobby Whitlock, and Jim Gordon (all of whom had just come off of touring as part of Delaney & Bonnie's band), proved to be of immense musical importance, precipitating the formation of Derek & the Dominos. Thus, they weren't a total dead end, and may actually be much more to the liking of the latter band's fans” – AllMusic

Choice Cut: My Sweet Lord

Thirty Three & 1/3

Release Date: 19th November, 1976

Label: Dark Horse

Producer: George Harrison (assisted by Tom Scott)

Standout Tracks: Dear One/This Song/Crackerbox Palace

Buy: https://www.discogs.com/George-Harrison-Thirty-Three-13/master/74914

Stream: https://open.spotify.com/album/7y9Fefugnr5b8fHHt9eE7X

Review:

“Among the new compositions is, ‘This Song’ which was George’s musical comment on his trials and tribulations over the plagiarism accusations of ‘My Sweet Lord’ and its similarities to The Chiffons’ ‘He’s So Fine’.

‘Crackerbox Palace’ is George’s account of his meeting with the manager of the comedian, Lord Buckley, earlier in 1976. For many, the standout track on what some have called, ‘George’s soul album’ is the exquisite, ‘Pure Smokey’ a tribute to Smokey Robinson. This delicate and beautiful ballad in recognition of the Motown legend features two of George’s most lovely guitar solos.

The lead single from Thirty Three & 1/3 was ‘This Song’ and another track off the album, the gorgeous, ‘Learning How To Love You’, was chosen as the B-side. George’s UK single, ‘It’s What You Value’ features the opening track ‘Woman Don’t You Cry For Me’ as its B-side. ‘It’s What You Value’ was written after drummer Jim Keltner asked for a new Mercedes sports car, rather than a cash payment for touring with George in 1974.

The record features one cover, ‘True Love’ a version of Cole Porter’s song, made famous by Bing Crosby in the film, High Society.

Thirty Three & 1/3 outsold both, Dark Horse and Extra Texture in America, peaking at No.11 on the charts. Inexplicably, given the quality of the songs, it only made No.35 in the UK, entering the chart on 8 January 1977; but then again, two days after George finished recording his album, the Festival Of Punk took place in London’s 100 Club… the musical times were a-changin’.

‘This Song’ and ‘Crackerbox Palace’ peaked at No.26 and No.19, respectively, on the Hot 100; none of the three singles released in the UK charted” – Udiscovermusic

Choice Cut: True Love

George Harrison

Release Date: 20th February, 1979

Label: Dark Horse

Producers: George Harrison/Russ Titelman

Standout Tracks: Not Guilty/Here Comes the Moon/Faster

Buy: https://www.discogs.com/George-Harrison-George-Harrison/master/74951

Stream: https://open.spotify.com/album/5LEZHIvSR7NRc9J4ojDUwU?si=2lHYyCvES7moD-FoBHG83g

Review:

“Another nod back to his Beatles’ years, “Here Comes the Moon” acts as a natural sequel to “Here Comes the Sun” from the Abbey Road album. This subtle, acoustic track features fine methodical accompaniment including vocal effects and a vocal chorus. Inspired by the hallucinatory effects of some Hawaiian “magic mushrooms”, the good-timey ragtime tune “Hard Hearted Hannah” features a fine acoustic lead and some call and response vocals. Perhaps the finest overall track, “Blow Away” features an exquisite combo of electric piano and slide electric guitar in the lead in along with a very catchy chorus hook and great guitar link back from chorus to verse. The song was the lead single from the album and became a hit in the United States and Canada.

The album’s second side starts with “Faster” an upbeat, celebratory tribute to Formula 1 racing which also served as the early title for this record. Next comes two subtle love songs, “Dark Sweet Lady” with a beautiful Caribbean style and the methodically strummed acoustic of “Your Love Is Forever”. A leftover from Thirty Three & 1/3, “Soft Touch” was re-written in Hawaii with a tropical theme and musical arrangement, while the closing track “If You Believe” wraps things up with an upbeat and positive message” – Classic Rock Review

Choice Cut: Blow Away

Cloud Nine

Release Date: 2nd November, 1987

Label: Dark Horse

Producers: Jeff Lynne/George Harrison

Standout Tracks: Cloud Nine/This Is Love/When We Was Fab

Buy: https://www.discogs.com/George-Harrison-Cloud-Nine/master/74960

Stream: https://open.spotify.com/album/1nbq8GgaVdINI3PulXvPUq

Review:

“Throughout Cloud Nine, Harrison and Lynne add layers of inspired production touches that make undeniable aural confections even out of some of the album’s lovely but slight songs (“Fish on the Sand,” “This Is Love,” “Just for Today,” “Got My Mind Set on You,” “Someplace Else”). When the team brings its sonic smarts to bear on more substantial numbers (“Cloud Nine,” “When We Was Fab,” “That’s What It Takes,” “Wreck of the Hesperus”), the results make for sublime pop.

Cloud Nine is an especially heartwarming return to form because it suggests Harrison has come to terms with his own Beatledom. “When We Was Fab,” the eerie Sgt. Pepper-sound-alike track that ends the first side of the album, is Harrison’s droll sendup of and tribute to his days as a Beatle. And on the album sleeve, George saves the last of his special thanks for John, Paul and Ringo. And that’s only appropriate, because Cloud Nine is a totally fab record that lives up to the legacy of all those years ago” – Rolling Stone

Choice Cut: Got My Mind Set on You

The Underrated Gem

 

Living in the Material World

Release Date: 30th May, 1973

Label: Apple

Producer: George Harrison  

Standout Tracks: The Light That Has Lighted the World/Living in the Material World/The Lord Loves the One (That Loves the Lord)

Buy: https://www.discogs.com/George-Harrison-Living-In-The-Material-World/master/56051

Stream: https://open.spotify.com/album/1UdvnEcaxCI30ywmt7fgGP

Review:

“The second side opens with the excellent composition, “The Lord Loves the One (That Loves the Lord)” with melodic vocals and musical flourishes, leading to climatic slide lead to end the track. Lyrically, Harrison sought feedback about Krishna philosophy, which encouraged him to develop such themes that are unorthodox in popular music. “Be Here Now” is a quiet and surreal acoustic ballad with some earthy and ethereal sounds, as “Try Some, Buy Some” (a leftover from 1970 co-produced by Spector) is a musical waltz built on a descending riff and it reaches for grandiose heights with horns and other “wall of sound” production techniques. Next comes the Beatlesque acoustic ballad “The Day the World Gets ‘Round”, short and sweet but with rich production. The album concludes with the aptly titled “That Is All”, a forgotten classic filled with melancholy emotion and musical aptitude, where Harrison really stretches his vocal range with high-pitched sustained notes” – Classic Rock Review

Choice Cut: Give Me Love (Give Me Peace on Earth)

The Final Album

 

Brainwashed

Release Date: 18th November, 2002

Labels: Dark House/EMI/Parlophone

Producers: George Harrison/Jeff Lynne/Dhani Harrison

Standout Tracks: Marwa Blues/Stuck Inside a Cloud/Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea

Buy: https://www.discogs.com/George-Harrison-Brainwashed/master/124223

Stream: https://open.spotify.com/album/2VFLjY1S0D8nKml6nlU2MD

Review:

“George Harrison went quiet not long after the second Traveling Wilburys album, surfacing only for the Beatles' Anthology in the mid-'90s. He was recording all the while, yet he died before completing the album that would have been the follow-up to 1987's Cloud Nine. His son, Dhani, and his longtime friend/collaborator Jeff Lynne completed the recordings, released late in 2002, nearly a year after George's death, as Brainwashed. Given its baggage it's easy to be suspicious about the merits of Brainwashed prior to hearing it. Posthumous efforts often feel incomplete, Harrison's albums were frequently inconsistent, and Lynne favors ornate, cinematic productions that run contrary to George's desire for this project to be simple and low key -- nothing that would suggest that Brainwashed would be a success. Defying all odds, Brainwashed isn't just a success, it's one of the finest records Harrison ever made. No, it doesn't achieve the splendor of All Things Must Pass, nor is it quite of its time like both Living in the Material World and Cloud Nine were, but it's a quiet, subtle gem, one that strikes close to the heart of Harrison's music. It's intimate, alternately insightful and cheerfully lightweight, balancing his trademark black humor with silliness and good humor. Anyone searching the album for his views on mortality -- as he faced not only cancer, but an attacker that nearly took his life -- will surely find it, but this is not a somber album, it is a warm album, the sound of someone enjoying life without losing his wry sense of humor. This same spirit carries over to the music, with Harrison abandoning the idea of getting a hit and simply relaxing, primarily by playing a lot of ukulele and guitar. There aren't any major songs here and perhaps a tune or two could be pegged as throwaways by the cynical, but there are no down moments and it all holds together well -- better than most Harrison albums -- and it's a fitting way to say goodbye, every bit as good as Double Fantasy and, in some respects, even sweeter” – AllMusic

Choice Cut: Any Road

The George Harrison Book

 

George Harrison: Be Here Now

Authors: Barry Feinstein/Chris Murray/Donovan

Publication Date: 29th September, 2020

Publisher: Rizzoli International Publications

Synopsis:

“On hand from 1970 to 1972 for Harrison's blockbuster Triple Crown--the release of All Things Must Pass; The Concert for Bangladesh; and Living in the Material World, which helped make Harrison the best-selling post-breakup Beatle, Barry became good friends with George during the three-plus years they worked together. Feinstein captured George Harrison at home, in his garden, onstage, and in the studio. Nearly all the images are previously unpublished. The book contains never-before-seen ephemera related to these seminal releases during George's most richly creative time post-Beatles, including handwritten letters talking about album ideas, album-cover thoughts, and putting together the Concert for Bangladesh. This collection also features beloved performers that George convened for that Concert for Bangladesh--where Barry was the only sanctioned photographer onstage--including George's friends Bob Dylan, Ravi Shankar, Eric Clapton, Ringo Starr, Leon Russell, and Billy Preston. The book coincides with the fiftieth anniversary of All Things Must Pass. George Harrison: Be Here Now is a deeper visual dive that the significantly large and passionate Beatles/George Harrison fandom will want to add to their collection” – Waterstones

Order: https://www.waterstones.com/book/george-harrison/barry-feinstein/chris-murray-donovan/9780847867752

FEATURE: The Lockdown Playlist: Sweet Soul Music

FEATURE:

 

 

The Lockdown Playlist

PHOTO CREDIT: @julianxmyles/Unsplash

Sweet Soul Music

___________

WHEN tackling genres…

 PHOTO CREDIT: @jadoca/Unsplash

for these playlists, I have covered off quite a few, but I have not given Soul a proper spin. In this Lockdown Playlist, I am diving into some wonderful Soul music that is arresting, beautiful and truly captivating. It is a genre that is around today, but not in the same from as from the 1950s through the 1980s. It was a wonderful time for music, and legends like Aretha Franklin and Otis Redding delivered these iconic songs defined by their amazing voices and the energy and passion that is put into every note! To celebrate such a bountiful and inspiration genre of music, have a listen to the cuts below; guaranteed to get you into…

 PHOTO CREDIT: @sharonmccutcheon/Unsplash

A better and finer state of mind.