FEATURE: One for the Record Collection! Essential June Releases

FEATURE:

 

 

One for the Record Collection!

IN THIS PHOTO: Regina Spektor 

Essential June Releases

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IT is that time of the month…

 IN THIS PHOTO: Violet Skies/PHOTO CREDIT: Red Light Management

where I look ahead and select the albums that you need to pre-order. There are some great albums out next month. Starting with 3rd June, and there is one album that you need to check out. Angel Olsen’s Big Time is going to be terrific. Go and pre-order this album from one of the most extraordinary artists in the world:

“Fresh grief, like fresh love, has a way of sharpening our vision and bringing on painful clarifications. No matter how temporary we know these states to be, the vulnerability and transformation they demand can overpower the strongest among us. Then there are the rare, fertile moments when both occur, when mourning and limerence heighten, complicate and explain each other; the songs that comprise Angel Olsen’s Big Time were forged in such a whiplash.

Big Time is an album about the expansive power of new love, but this brightness and optimism is tempered by a profound and layered sense of loss. During Olsen’s process of coming to terms with her queerness and confronting the traumas that had been keeping her from fully accepting herself, she felt it was time to come out to her parents, a hurdle she’d been avoiding for some time. “Finally, at the ripe age of 34, I was free to be me,” she said. Three days later, her father died and shortly after her mother passed away. The shards of this grief—the shortening of her chance to finally be seen more fully by her parents— are scattered throughout the album.

Three weeks after her mother’s funeral she was in the studio, recording this incredibly wise and tender new album. Loss has long been a subject of Olsen’s elegiac songs, but few can write elegies with quite the reckless energy as she. If that bursting-at-the-seams, running downhill energy has come to seem intractable to her work, this album proves Olsen is now writing from a more rooted place of clarity. She’s working with an elastic, expansive mastery of her voice—both sonically and artistically. These are songs not just about transformational mourning, but of finding freedom and joy in the privations as they come”.

Skipping to 10th June, and there is a great album that I would point you in the direction of. The first is Kelly Lee Owens’ LP.8. It has already been released digitally, but the physical version is the one I want people to pre-order, as the vinyl is going to be terrific:

“After releasing her sophomore album Inner Song in the midst of the pandemic, Kelly Lee Owens was faced with the sudden realisation that her world tour could no longer go ahead. Keen to make use of this untapped creative energy, she made the spontaneous decision to go to Oslo instead. There was no overarching plan, it was simply a change of scenery and a chance for some undisturbed studio time. It just so happened that her flight from London was the last before borders were closed once again. The blank page project was underway.

Arriving to snowglobe conditions and sub-zero temperatures, she began spending time in the studio with Lasse Marhaug. An esteemed avant-noise artist, Marhaug envisioned making music that would fall loosely in line with Throbbing Gristle. Kelly, on the other hand, had planned to create something inspired by Enya, an artist who has had an enduring impact on her creative being. They met each other halfway, pairing tough, industrial sounds with ethereal celtic mysticism, and creating music that ebbs and flows between tension and release.

One month later, Kelly called her label to tell them she had created something of an outlier, her ‘eighth album’”.

June is pretty quiet in terms of big new releases. If course, things could change between here and the next few weeks. On 17th June, Foals’ Life Is Yours is released. A change of direction for the band, this is an album that you need to add to your shopping list:

“Foals take a fresh, thrilling new direction on with their latest album Life Is Yours. Life Is Yours is the follow-up to the triumphant, two-part Everything Not Saved Will Be Lost, which proved to be a pivotal pinnacle in the band’s story. Not only did it result in the band’s first ever UK #1 album, but the ambitious scale of the Mercury-nominated album saw Foals win their first BRIT Award for Best Group.

Life Is Yours feels like a natural evolution for Foals, its disco-tinged guitars, tight syncopated rhythms and punchy, insistent hooks echoing their roots as purveyors of rambunctious house party chaos. Thematically, it’s escapist, transportive and in rapture at life’s endless possibilities. It’s a record that’s perfectly in tune with the prevailing atmosphere of this moment in time – a life-affirming celebration as the world is reunited

‘Life Is Yours’ immediately establishes its tone with the bright beam of optimism provided by its title track, its ambience and exuberance showing no sign of slowing down as it is followed by the two recent singles. There’s a unity to the sound, whether Foals are bouncing into the Balearic beats of ‘Looking High’, experimenting with West African guitar grooves on ‘Flutter’, or simply savouring the prospect of playing live together again within the dance dynamics of ‘The Sound’.

It’s also a consistently transportive experience, at times conjuring images of the Pacific Northwest or St. Lucia, at others directly set in the peppy nostalgia of the recent past. It all comes full circle with ‘Wild Green’, which simultaneously celebrates the rebirth of summer with an existential tinge that all beautiful moments are inevitably fleeting”.

Perfume Genius’ new project, Ugly Season, is a fascinating one. Go and pre-order the album. It may not be for everyone, but I think that people need to hear this. I am definitely going to keep an ear open on 17th June:

“Perfume Genius (Mike Hadreas) with his new album, Ugly Season, and announced via a clip by artist and director Jacolby Satterwhite. The clip is taken from a short film featuring Hadreas and music from Ugly Season that is a visual companion to the project. Satterwhite is known for his immersive multidisciplinary technique that fuses live video, 3-D animation, drawing and print-making. His work has appeared at MoMa, The Smithsonian, The Whitney and the Studio Museum of Harlem.

The music of Ugly Season was written for Perfume Genius and choreographer Kate Wallich’s immersive dance piece, The Sun Still Burns Here. The work was commissioned by the Seattle Theatre Group and Mass MoCA and was performed via residencies in Seattle, Minneapolis, New York City and Boston throughout 2019. During this time, Perfume Genius shared two of the dance project’s compositions – ‘Pop Song’ and ‘Eye in the Wall’. “It’s the sound of dancefloor euphoria,” said Pitchfork. “The colour of lights flashing as you move through a crowd, the touch of skin damp and warm against everyone else’s.” Now the entirety of the project’s original music can be heard in Ugly Season. The album was produced by Perfume Genius and producer, and long-time collaborator Blake Mills, and was created in collaboration with Hadreas’ long-time partner Alan Wyffels”.

IN THIS PHOTO: Perfume Genius/PHOTO CREDIT: Camille Vivier 

Prior to moving to a few albums from 24th June that are worth some pennies, there is one more from 17th. TV Priest’s My Other People is shaping up to be an album that everyone needs to hear. Go and pre-order this gem from a band that have put so much into this album:

“Without a brutal evaluation of their own becoming, TV Priest might have never made their second album. Heralded as the next big thing in post-punk, they were established as a bolshy, sharp-witted outfit, the kind that starts movements with their political ire. There was of course truth in that, but it was a suit that quickly felt heavy on its wearer’s shoulders, leaving little room for true vulnerability. “A lot of it did feel like I was being really careful and a bit at arm's length,” says vocalist Charlie Drinkwater. “I think maybe I was not fully aware of the role I was taking. I had to take a step back and realize that what we were presenting was quite far away from the opinion of myself that I had. Now, I just want to be honest.”

My Other People maintains a strong sense of earth-rooted emotion, taking advantage of the opportunity to physically connect. Using “Saintless” (the closing song from Uppers) as something of a starting point, Drinkwater set about crafting lyrics that allowed him to articulate a deeper sense of personal truth, using music as a vessel to communicate with his bandmates about his depleting mental health. “Speaking very candidly, it was written at a time and a place where I was not, I would say, particularly well,” he says. “There was a lot of things that had happened to myself and my family that were quite troubling moments.Despite that I do think the record has our most hopeful moments too; a lot of me trying to set myself reminders for living, just everyday sentiments to try and get myself out of the space I was in.”

“It was a bit of a moment for all of us where we realised that we can make something that, to us at least, feels truly beautiful,” agrees Bueth. “Brutality and frustration are only a part of that puzzle, and despite a lot of us feeling quite disconnected at the time, overwhelmingly beautiful things were also still happening.”

This tension between existential fear born from the constant uncertainties of life, and an affirmative, cathartic urge to seize the moment, is central to My Other People, a record that heals by providing space for recognition, a ground zero in which you’re welcome to stay awhile but which ultimately only leads up and out. For TV Priest, it is a follow-up that feels truly, properly them; free of bravado, unnecessary bluster or any audience pressure to commit solely to their original sound”.

There is actually one more album from 17th June; among the most anticipated releases of 2022. Nova Twins’ second album, Supernova, is one that people definitely need to pre-order. There is some great information and insight about Supernova and Nova Twins in this Kerrang! interview from February:

“It’s also their turn, they realise, to carry the baton for those who’ve come before and dedicated their lives to enacting real change – for women, for people of colour, for women of colour. Because while the duo undoubtedly march to the beat of their own drum, they do so accompanied by ‘the sound of the dead choir’s roar’, as Antagonist puts it. “In my head, I was seeing the people who have been and have passed on,” says Amy. “But they’re still chanting, our ancestors, the people who have fought for civil rights and fought for women’s rights, which has passed on to us, so we keep fighting for what we think is right.”

Real change is, thankfully, taking place when it comes to representation in rock. The day before this interview, Ho99o9, a POC duo taking their art in less accessible, more incendiary directions, are revealed as the stars of K!’s Cover Story. Meet Me @ The Altar, who graced the cover last summer, are changing the traditionally white, male face of pop-punk. Meanwhile, on this side of the Atlantic the likes of Big Joanie, The Tuts, SPEW, Handle and Best Praxis provide us with not just reassurance of a more diverse and inclusive scene, but viable role models for a new generation of aspiring stars.

“When we see kids like that, we literally look at each other and say, ‘We need to go mental today,’” grins Georgia of the prospect of playing in front of young individuals of colour, who may be seeing people who look like them performing in a rock context for the first time. “It might be the one chance they get to see themselves in a punky setting.”

PHOTO CREDIT: Esmé Surfleet 

Nova Twins have led by example on this front too, having curated a bill for their UK and Ireland headline tour (starting this week) featuring DJ/On Wednesdays We Wear Black podcast co-host Alyx Holcombe, Irish/Ivorian rapper Celavied Mai, singer-songwriter Connie Constance, and rapper Kid Bookie. Many of these artists featured on Nova Twins’ Voices Of The Unheard, a project started as a platform for underrepresented artists, initially as a vinyl release, and later as a continually updated Spotify playlist.

Ask the headliners what they think of representation in 2022, however, and they cast their minds back to standing backstage at rock festivals pre-pandemic, while suggesting the need for change to be reflected in all areas of the site. After all, people of colour don’t just want to be in bands; they want to manage them, broadcast about them, book them, write about them, take their photos – the list goes on. “It’s about seeing a real mixed bag of people,” suggests Georgia. “So many times we’d literally be the only people of colour [at a festival], unless there was a security guard too. You want to be able to see yourself everywhere, including in the audience.

“We’ve been doing the rap rock-infused melting pot for a while,” says Amy of the real way to tell if the dial is moving in the right direction. “And now we can see it’s become ‘trendy’. So when that trend starts to move away, I want to see what’s left. Can these artists still exist in this space? Can they still have a career? Can they still move forward? Arctic Monkeys can be on the indie scene and carry on being Arctic Monkeys and it’s fine, but with all these amazing [POC] artists coming through, I want it to be more than just a trend. I think there’s enough of us now to make it happen, but that’s the real test.”

And the real test for Supernova? “I hope it gets into the right hands,” suggests Amy. “The album will only go so far, we’re not the biggest band in the world, but I hope it reaches the young alt. kids who don’t fit in, just like us. Even if they don’t like it, I just hope they get to hear it”.

Before moving to a new week, there is another album. Violet Skies’ debut album, If I Saw You Again, is out on 17th June. The vinyl is not available until later in the year – because of high demand and some shipping issues -, but the C.D. is available to pre-order with some nice bundles. A fascinating Welsh artist who I interviewed five years ago, I have been following her progress ever since. I cannot find any pretty recent interviews, but The Taragraph spoke with her in 2020:

“Firstly, for those who are new to you, how would you describe the music you typically create?

Honest — always — perhaps a little too honest. I’m drawn to ballads and story telling, and often my songs are sad. But no apologies there, I like sad songs.

This is probably something that you’re very frequently asked, but how did you come to choose the stage name Violet Skies?

Haha always. Violet is my great grandmother’s name. And Skies was my Mam’s idea, I think? It just felt like me.

You’ve written a lot of music for other artists like Mabel and have co-written with big singer-songwriters like Finneas, but when did you first start writing music?

When I was 13 or so, and then really understood songs and finished them when I was about 16/17.

Where do you get your inspiration from when writing new music? Do you have a process or is it just a sort of natural flow of things?

My process is always different (always!!) but I will more often than not, start with chords and melodies often follow. I tend to have an idea or concept in mind when I start singing and that guides the mood. When I write for artists though, I let them lead or prompt them, it’s their vision and I’m there to facilitate that”.

Onto 24th June, POLIÇA’s Madness is available on vinyl. One that you definitely need to get, this album arrives ten years after their debut. It sounds like Madness is going to be among 2022’s very best and most impactful releases – that nobody should be without:

“Madness is Polica's 7th release since 2012’s ground breaking debut LP Give You The Ghost. It's an album that's dark, emotionally raw with floating yet intense songs. It's absolutely wonderful and demands repeat listens. Recorded mostly from 2020 - 2021 in Ryan Olson’s Minneapolis studio with lyrics written and recorded by Channy Leaneagh in her room, Madness is an experimental expansion of the 4 piece family band of Chris Bierden (bass), Drew Christopherson and Ben Ivascu ( drums) to include the anthropomorphic production tool “ AllOvers(c) ”, designed by Olson and fellow producer and sound - artist Seth Rosetter. This latest release continues within the collaborative enclave in which Polica resides and includes co - production by Dustin Zahn (“Alive” and “Away”), Alex Ridha and Alex Nutter (“Violence” )”.

Before coming to the final three albums due on 24th June that you need to pre-order, I would point people in the direction of Hollie Cook’s Happy Hour. With her own style and an incredible talent, there is no doubt that Happy Hour is an album that you need to pre-order. Cook is an incredible artist who is creating a sound that is impossible to ignore or dislike. She is a phenomenal talent for sure:

“With Happy Hour, her ravishing new LP, Hollie Cook matures into the queen of modern-day “lovers rock”—the lush girly harmony reggae style beloved in Britain since the 1970s. Evolution rings from the bittersweet opening title track; tender yet assertive, Hollie’s voice caresses evocative lyrics through the arrangement’s tumbling changes. Hollie dares to invite listeners into her true personality through these alluring songs, which she co-produced with her General Roots band members Ben Mckone and Luke Allwood, and executive producer Youth”.

MUNA’s MUNA is an album that I am excited about. An incredible group whose debut needs to be pre-ordered, if you do not know about them, then make sure you rectify that now and seek out their stunning forthcoming album:

“Muna is magic. What other band could have stamped the forsaken year of 2021 with spangles and pom-poms, could have made you sing (and maybe even believe) that “Life’s so fun, life’s so fun,” during what may well have been the most uneasy stretch of your life? “Silk Chiffon,” Muna’s instant-classic cult smash, featuring the band’s new label head Phoebe Bridgers, hit the gray skies of the pandemic’s year-and-a-half mark like a double rainbow. Since Muna — lead singer/songwriter Katie Gavin, guitarist/producer Naomi McPherson, guitarist Josette Maskin — began making music together in college, at USC, they’d always embraced pain as a bedrock of longing, a part of growing up, and an inherent factor of marginalized experience: the band’s members belong to queer and minority communities, and play for these fellow-travelers above all. But sometimes, for Muna, after nearly a decade of friendship and a long stretch of pandemic-induced self-reckoning, the most radical note possible is that of bliss.

Muna, the band’s self-titled third album, is a landmark — the forceful, deliberate, dimensional output of a band who has nothing to prove to anyone except themselves. The synth on “What I Want” scintillates like a Robyn dance-floor anthem; “Anything But Me,” galloping in 12/8, gives off Shania Twain in eighties neon; “Kind of Girl,” with its soaring, plaintive The Chicks chorus, begs to be sung at max volume with your best friends. It’s marked by a newfound creative assurance and technical ability, both in terms of McPherson and Maskin’s arrangements and production as well as Gavin’s songwriting, which is as propulsive as ever, but here opens up into new moments of perspective and grace. Here, more than ever, Muna musters their unique powers to break through the existential muck and transport you, suddenly, into a room where everything is possible — a place where the disco ball’s never stopped throwing sparkles on the walls, where you can sweat and cry and lie down on the floor and make out with whoever, where vulnerability in the presence of those who love you can make you feel momentarily bulletproof, and self- consciousness only sharpens the swell of joy”.

The penultimate album that I want to highlight is Regina Spektor’s Home, Before and After. I cannot find a link for a vinyl edition of the album, but you can get it on C.D. One of the most remarkable voices in all of music, this new album is an essential one that you need to order and enjoy when it arrives:

“Regina Spektor releases her highly anticipated eight studio album Home, Before and After on Warner Records. Home, Before and After is Spektor at her most inspired and opens with the recently released ‘Becoming All Alone’, a surrealist ballad with a majestically swelling arrangement that comes alive. The album possesses her most palpable New York atmosphere in years, which is fitting as it was recorded in upstate New York, where it was produced by John Congleton and co-produced by Spektor”.

The final June-due album that people need to pre-order is Soccer Mommy’s Sometimes, Forever. American songwriter Sophie Allison is gifting us a gem in the form of her third studio album. It follows the celebrated and acclaimed color theory of 2020. Make sure you pre-order your copy of Sometimes, Forever:

“Sometimes, Forever refers to the idea that the good and bad are both temporary and always returning. Feelings of sorrow and emptiness will pass but they will always come back around, as will feelings of joy. This album explores many ups and downs. It moves from the high of love to hopelessness and disconnect. A frustrated loss of control over life and a disconnect from the self reoccur throughout the record, only to circle back to a willingness to let go and be free, whether through love (shotgun, with u) or blissful ignorance (don’t ask me). It’s a coexistence of light and dark, not only lyrically but tonally. Dan once called it the angels and demons record lol”.

Those are the albums out next month that are well worth pre-ordering. There are other albums that you might be interested in and will want to order - but I feel the ones above are the essential releases. If you need some guidance as to which albums you should seek out next month, the above recommendations mean you have…

PLENTY to get your teeth into.

FEATURE: Don't Be Told About What You Want: Sex Pistols’ God Save the Queen at Forty-Five

FEATURE:

 

 

Don't Be Told About What You Want

Sex Pistols’ God Save the Queen at Forty-Five

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THERE is a sense of symmetry and history…

 PHOTO CREDIT: London Features

with the Sex Pistols’ anthem, God Save the Queen. One of the most iconic and important Punk songs ever written, it was the second single from the band’s only studio album, Never Mind the Bollocks, Here's the Sex Pistols. The song was released during Queen Elizabeth II's Silver Jubilee in 1977. On 27th May, it will be forty-five years since this incredible track was released. I am not anti-royalist, so I cannot abide by all of the sentiment and intention behind the song. Reaching number 1 in the NME chart here; it reached two on the official chart. There was debate as to whether the BBC – who felt God Save the Queen was too controversial – fixed things so that the song could not get to the top of the charts. Before getting to an article exploring why God Save the Queen was so provocative, the band’s official website discusses a song that challenged the idea of place of royalty in the United Kingdom:

"John Rotten’s alternative National Anthem. The Sex Pistols second 7″ single, and their first for Virgin Records, released on May 27th 1977. Sid Vicious had replaced Glen Matlock on bass prior to recording but does not play on the final track.

Despite popular belief, release of ‘GSTQ’ was not pre-planned to coincide with the Queen’s Silver Jubilee celebrations in June. Originally titled ‘No Future’ the track was written in 1976 and would actually have been released in March 1977 had A&M Records not sacked the Pistols after only 10 days. Some advance copies of the A&M single were pressed and are now worth a small fortune.

There are not many songs – written over baked beans at the breakfast table – that went onto divide a nation and force a change in popular culture. No one had ever dared question the Monarchy so publicly; and it wasn’t without its repercussions. Members of the band were attacked in the streets; and Government Members of Parliament even called for the Pistols to be hung at London’s Traitors’ Gate!

Even though it was banned from radio and TV – and the Pistols were branded public enemy #1 – ‘GSTQ’ stormed to the top of the charts. It technically out-sold the Number 1 record of the week (The First Cut is the Deepest by Rod Stewart) but peaked at Number 2. The powers-that-be refused to acknowledge it but the Sex Pistols were Number 1. This wasn’t a conspiracy theory, this was for real”.

On 31st May, 1977, the BBC banned God Save the Queen. As this article explores, the backlash and negative press the Sex Pistols’ single garnered was just what helped them to become so popular. It is a song that still resonates and sounds groundbreaking to this day:

“Thirty years after its release, John Lydon—better known as Johnny Rotten—offered this assessment of the song that made the Sex Pistols the most reviled and revered figures in England in the spring of 1977: “There are not many songs written over baked beans at the breakfast table that went on to divide a nation and force a change in popular culture.” Timed with typical Sex Pistols flair to coincide with Queen Elizabeth II’s Silver Jubilee, the release of “God Save The Queen” was greeted by precisely the torrent of negative press that Sex Pistols manager Malcolm McLaren had hoped. On May 31, 1977, the song earned a total ban on radio airplay from the BBC—a kiss of death for a normal pop single, but a powerful endorsement for an anti-establishment rant like “God Save The Queen.”

While some in the tabloid press accused the Sex Pistols of treason and called for their public hanging, the BBC was more moderate in its condemnation. In response to lyrics like “God Save The Queen/She ain’t no human being,” the BBC labeled the record an example of “gross bad taste”—a difficult charge to argue, and one the Sex Pistols wouldn’t have wanted to dispute. Even with the radio ban in place, however, and with major retailers like Woolworth refusing to sell the controversial single, “God Save The Queen” flew off the shelves of the stores that did carry it, selling up to 150,000 copies a day in late May and early June. With sales figures like that, it seems implausible that “God Save The Queen” really stalled at #2 on the official UK pop charts, yet that is where it appeared, as a blank entry below “I Don’t Want to Talk About It” by Rod Stewart, the ultimate anti-punk. Like every other effort to suppress the song, refusing even to print its name in the official pop charts played right into the Sex Pistols’ hands”.

Before closing up a feature marking forty-five years of God Save the Queen kicking down doors and changing culture, The Guardian explain how the song is, appropriately, being reissued to coincide with the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee:

“Sex Pistols’ God Save the Queen, arguably the most iconic single in punk rock history, is to be reissued to mark Elizabeth II’s upcoming platinum jubilee.

The band’s second single after Anarchy in the UK, it was released in 1977 alongside the Queen’s silver jubilee with a decidedly anti-royalist bent, comparing the monarchy to a “fascist regime … She ain’t no human being / and there’s no future / and England’s dreaming”.

Despite being banned from BBC radio and television, the song reached No 2 – held off the top by Rod Stewart – though rumours have persisted ever since that the charts were manipulated to keep the song away from the No 1 spot. In its listing on the charts, it was blanked out so as not to offend the Queen.

Now, the song has another chance to reach the top, as thousands of physical copies are repressed for release on 27 May. Four thousand copies of the version released on Virgin Records will be released, with Did You No Wrong on the B-side. Another 1,977 copies of the single’s original version on A&M Records will also be released, with its own original B-side, No Feeling.

The original A&M version is one of the most sought-after releases in rock history. The band had signed to the label in a ceremony outside Buckingham Palace in March 1977, but after a couple of incidents – including a friend of A&M’s director being threatened by a hanger-on of the band – they were dropped six days later, and nearly all of the 25,000 pressed copies of God Save the Queen were destroyed. Copies of the A&M version have since been sold for up to $22,155 (£17,700).

Pistols drummer Paul Cook later said that God Save the Queen wasn’t written to mark the silver jubilee: “We weren’t aware of it at the time. It wasn’t a contrived effort to go out and shock everyone.” Originally titled No Future, it had been performed on tour in 1976.

Nevertheless, under the aegis of manager Malcolm McLaren, the band renamed it God Save the Queen, and embraced the potential for provocation. They performed a concert on the jubilee itself on a boat called the Queen Elizabeth, sailing on the Thames – various members of the boat party were swiftly arrested when they docked.

Lyricist John Lydon, AKA Johnny Rotten, later brushed off the idea that it was a sustained, angry attack on the monarchy. “God Save the Queen – it’s kinda camp in a way. You certainly don’t think it’s gonna be taken as a declaration of civil war,” he said. But the band members were subjected to physical attacks by offended listeners in the wake of the song’s release, including with razor blades and iron bars”.

A song that shook the establishment and gained so much press when it was released in May 1977, the forty-fifth anniversary of God Save the Queen on 27th May will see new angles and thoughts written. Maybe John Lydon has mellowed regarding his position on the Queen and royalty…but it will be great to hear what he has to say when God Save the Queen turns forty-five. A terrific and hugely important song and a adored monarch…

LONG may they both reign!

FEATURE: Stage Fright: Why Isn’t Kate Bush’s The Tour of Life Given More Affection and Credit?

FEATURE:

 

 

Stage Fright

IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush during The Tour of Life in 1979/PHOTO CREDIT: Getty Images/EMI

Why Isn’t Kate Bush’s The Tour of Life Given More Affection and Credit?

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PERHAPS people think that…

Kate Bush’s The Tour of Life (originally known as the Lionheart Tour, and also officially referred to as the Kate Bush Tour, and by outside sources as the Kate Bush Show, and Kate Bush: On Tour) is regarded highly enough and has a great reputation. Undeniably, it gained a lot of positivity when she embarked upon it in 1979. I am thinking about it, as the last date – at the Hammersmith Odeon – occurred on 14th May. After touring the U.K. and Europe, Bush and her band delivered a triumphant final show. Critics raved and there was so much love from the adoring crowds! Whereas it was definitely groundbreaking at the time, I do feel that The Tour of Life is not as discussed now as it should be. In terms of its influence, it broke ground and changed what a Pop concert could be. From the use of mime, theatre, dance and theatre to the invention and use of the hands-free head mic, The Tour of Life should go down as one of the greatest and most important tours ever. Before carrying with my line of thought, the Kate Bush Encyclopaedia gives some details about The Tour of Life and the musicians involved:

“The Tour of Life, also known as the Lionheart Tour or even the Kate Bush Tour, was Kate Bush's first, and until recently only, series of live concerts. The name, 'Tour of Life', was not coined until after its completion, with all promotional material referring to it simply as the Kate Bush Tour.

Consisting of 24 performances from Bush's first two studio albums The Kick Inside and Lionheart, it was acclaimed for its incorporation of mime, magic, and readings during costume changes. The simple staging also involved rear-screen projection and the accompaniment of two male dancers. The tour was a critical and commercial success, with most dates selling out and additional shows being added due to high demand. Members of the Kate Bush Club were provided with a guaranteed ticket.

Rehearsals

The tour was to become not only a concert, but also incorporating dance, poetry, mime, burlesque, magic and theatre. The dance element was co-ordinated by Bush in conjunction with Anthony Van Laast – who later choreographed the Mamma Mia! movie and several West End smashes – and two young dancers, Stewart Avon Arnold and Gary Hurst. They held morning rehearsals for the tour at The Place in Euston, after which Bush spent afternoons in Greenwich drilling her band. Off stage, she was calling the shots on everything from the set design to the programme art.

Band

The band playing with Kate Bush on stage consisted of Preston Heyman (drums), Paddy Bush (mandolin. various strange instruments and vocal harmonies), Del Palmer (bass), Brian Bath (electric guitar, acoustic mandolin and vocal harmonies), Kevin McAlea (piano, keyboards, saxophone, 12 string guitar), Ben Barson (synthesizer and acoustic guitar), Al Murphy (electric guitar and whistles) and backing vocalists Liz Pearson and Glenys Groves”.

Over the course of six weeks, Bush and her touring band and crew produced this wonderful spectacle. Today, huge artists have taken the live experience to new heights. From Madonna through to Dua Lipa through to Muse, the use of video screens, props, lighting and set design has helped create these vivid, unique and awe-inspiring worlds. In 1979, there was not really anyone like Kate Bush doing what she was doing. Even a pioneer like David Bowie was still not quite as ambitious as Bush. It was not only Kate Bush that made everything come together, but she did have a vested interest in every aspect. Determined to create a live show that was very much true to her vision and free from interference and record label hands, what was presented to the world resonates today. When The Tour of Life is mentioned, it usually comes with a sense of disappointment. By that, it is Bush’s only tour; one that people feel she should have followed up on. Rather than celebrate The Tour of Life and examine its influence and individual aspects, it is almost a footnote. The lack of retrospection and releases shows that there is not enough affection and realisation about the weight and relevance of The Tour of Life. In a previous feature, I argued how there should be a Blu-Ray of one of the concerts, in addition to a vinyl edition of a set.

That would be fitting respect for a tour that was a revelation and revolution at the time. Although Kate Bush was well-known and was getting acclaim from some corners of the press, it was not the case that she was universally acclaimed and had the same reputation as she does not. There were plenty who found her too shrill or a novelty artist. Someone who was too weird and was short-lived. The Tour of Life showed that Bush was a remarkable live presence (something that was not hugely evident in the limitations of T.V. appearances). As a dancer, physical performer and a majestic singer, Bush was captivating every night. The success of The Tour of Life – in terms of reviews and audience figures – gave Bush the impetus and drive to release Never for Ever in 1980. Growing in scope and confidence, The Tour of Life was more than a transition and stepping stone. It is a magical live experience that a lot of people do not know about – but they really should do! Many speak of the classic Kate Bush albums like Hounds of Love, but I feel more people should immerse themselves in the extraordinary 1979 tour. Her sole tour, it was a rare chance for people in Europe to see Kate Bush perform live on such a large scale. One where she was creating different characters and scenes over the course of a stunning evening. I am jealous of those who were in one of the audiences and were witness to a moment of history. They will carry these precious memories…

FOR the rest of their lives.

FEATURE: After the Ellipses… Looking Ahead to the Tenth Anniversary of Fiona Apple’s The Idler Wheel…

FEATURE:

 

 

After the Ellipses…

Looking Ahead to the Tenth Anniversary of Fiona Apple’s The Idler Wheel…

 __________

ALTHOUGH its full title is…

 PHOTO CREDIT: Marilyn Minter for Vulture

The Idler Wheel Is Wiser Than the Driver of the Screw and Whipping Cords Will Serve You More Than Ropes Will Ever Do, I abridged it for the sake of the title! You can get the album on vinyl, though it is pricey. I hope that it is reissued and more affordable ahead of its tenth anniversary on 18th June. It would be eight years since she followed this album with the extraordinary Fetch the Bolt Cutters. I think that her fourth studio album is among her best. An artist who has not dropped a step or released any albums anything less than spectacular, The Idler Wheel… is one that everyone needs to hear. I will come to a couple of reviews later on. Produced with Charley Drayton, it is a magnificent album! I want to bring in some interviews from 2012. Apple was asked about her much-anticipated new album. Following from 2005’s Extraordinary Machine, there was a lot of interest around The Idler Wheel… The New York Times spoke with Fiona Apple in June 2012:

 “The Idler Wheel” is counting on the devotion of Ms. Apple’s fans. Before she appeared at South by Southwest her manager, Andy Slater, said he told Epic Records: “ ‘I want you to do nothing.’ I said: ‘Don’t make any posters. Don’t make any cards. Don’t put out a single. Just don’t say anything. Let her play the show. It’s been a few years. Let kids go to the show, film the thing, put it on their blogs, and you don’t need to do anything.’ ” Almost immediately after her set amateur video clips were on YouTube.

Ms. Apple’s new songs are proudly skeletal. “I wanted to make everything as stark as possible, so you could hear everything,” she said. While her previous albums have relied on studio bands and orchestral arrangements, “The Idler Wheel” is almost entirely a collaboration between Ms. Apple and the percussionist Charley Drayton. “I felt we could take the same risk with sound as the songs were taking,” Mr. Drayton said by e-mail.

PHOTO CREDIT: Béatrice de Géa for The New York Times 

The album’s minimal personnel reflects Ms. Apple’s isolation. By her account, she spends nearly all of her time alone. Her occasional hangout has been the Los Angeles club Largo, where many collaborators — including her past producer Jon Brion and members of Nickel Creek — perform regularly, and she has sometimes been coaxed to sit in. “The only place I go is Largo, and I’m not exaggerating,” she said. “I walk my dog at dawn because I don’t like people to be around.”

Ms. Apple and Mr. Drayton produced the new album together, making music largely from her piano and other keyboards, his drums and sounds they collected. At the apartment of one of Ms. Apple’s ex-boyfriends, the magician David Blaine, “we threw pebbles down his garbage chute,” she said. “We threw a big huge water bottle down the spiral staircase. We hit the big water tank he uses to drown in.” Elsewhere Ms. Apple recorded the machinery at a plastic bottle factory and the screams of children playing.

Yet the whimsicality of the recording belies songs in which Ms. Apple wars with her lovers and, often, herself. “Every Single Night” starts the album with the plink of a celeste and a lilting vocal, but Ms. Apple soon declares, “Every single night’s a fight with my brain” and makes a proclamation: “I just want to feel everything.” In “Daredevil,” after percussive thigh slapping introduces a track full of brisk cross-rhythms, she sings, “I don’t feel anything until I smash it up,” adding, “Don’t let me ruin me.” She wrote that song, she said, when “I was crying out to somebody who didn’t quite get the message.”

On these songs, she said: “I really let everything just get spit out. I would not second guess anything.” At times her lyrics anticipated her life. “There were songs I would write about breaking up with somebody before I broke up with them, months and months before I broke up with them,” she said. “And I’d go back to that song, and now it makes sense why I wrote that.” A restlessly dissonant new song, “Jonathan,” was named for the author Jonathan Ames, from whom she only recently parted ways; she calls him “a great, great guy.” When she wrote the piano part, she said, she told him the music — switching between “doomy” and “happy” — was like his personality, and he immediately asked, “Is my name in it?”

In Ms. Apple’s new songs she is no longer a self-righteous victim. “A lot of my earlier songs are blaming other people and never thinking that I ever did anything wrong, because I was always trying to be completely loyal and honest and pure,” she said. “It’s so nice to come to a place where you can see how you absolutely enabled all these things to happen. It makes you stop being angry at people. It makes you start being more empathetic”.

There is another great interview that is worth bringing in. Vulture featured the remarkable and genius Fiona Apple in promotion of The Idler Wheel… She is one of the most compelling and interesting artists we will ever see:

“There is a very strong argument to be made that Fiona Apple, 34, is the greatest popular musician of her generation. This, on its face, might seem like something of a misnomer, since Apple moves paltry numbers of “units” and is the antithesis of prolific. She also happens to be a longtime critic of the record industry, specifically her employer, Sony Records. (Strictly for comparison purposes, in the six-year span between Apple’s second and third albums, Britney Spears released five CDs, including both her debut and “greatest hits.”) Apple wrote the majority of her first album, Tidal, during adolescence; released in 1996, when she was 18, it was nominated for three Grammys. Her next two — When the Pawn … and Extraordinary Machine, released in 1999 and 2005, respectively—were similarly nominated and appeared atop virtually every top critic’s list of the best albums of the year (Kanye West has said Extraordinary Machine made him want to be the “hip-hop Fiona Apple”). But it is her latest—a stripped-down rhythmical and confessional tour de force—which, in its restraint alone, stands as her strongest work yet.

Her unique musical DNA—fusing jazz and the old standards with a dose of post-sixties singer-songwriter — seems inextricable from her biological one, a line of workman American performers steeped in vaudeville, big band, theater, and cable television. So that, in “Every Single Night,” the lines “Little wings of white-flamed / Butterflies in my brain” come with a slight fluttering; there is a quickening, a crescendo through “Swarm the belly, swelling to a blaze”; until, by the time “That’s when the pain comes in,” her contralto rings, erupting to accent when in an E-flat that, taken out of context, could be Callas’s, not to mention the almost diabolical use of robato to construct a chorus out of “brain,” stretched into ten notes, ten slurring syllables, in what it occurs to me very early one morning later in her living room in California, the two of us altered to the precipice of poisoning, green stars orbiting above us, her extraordinary voice ricocheting across space: musical onomatopoeia.

First, though, she had to come downstairs and meet me.

“How are you?”

We were at the hotel bar, and Apple said she’d been anticipating that question, simple as it was. It had played some part in precipitating her mood. She told me about her morning so far. She’d chosen the table in the farthest corner of the room, beside a window overlooking Grand Street. For a long time, following her lead, we made almost no eye contact. She was simultaneously shy and outgoing. “I really didn’t know how I am,” she explained. “I couldn’t figure out what the fuck was going on with my brain.”

Ten minutes ago, though, “in the nick of time, upstairs, I found the answer. All of a sudden, I thought, Mirror neurons! And I was like—”

Here she gasped. She said she’d felt like “Sherlock Holmes, finding the clue.”

She pulled out the piece of hotel stationery “that’s gonna make me look crazy.” She hesitated and said she couldn’t understand why she was so nervous. I interrupted to say I was nervous too. For the first time, she looked at me. Her eyes were huge and green, like mint chocolate chip when it melts. “That’s very” — she laughed — “mirror neuronal of you.” I asked what mirror neurons were. She said they’re what “make you feel empathy.” Here, she began reading rapidly, furiously, from the small piece of paper:

Mirror neurons Audrey Hepburn eyes drawing Funny Face empathy blind for a day Andrei’s mom yesterday quote friend naturally then again bad therapy rehash rehash retell details no! distract with laughter —

She explained: She does not typically watch TV at home. As soon as she gets to a hotel, though, she puts it on, usually TCM, with the sound off. This morning, when she woke up, the movie A Nun’s Story was on, which was funny, because yesterday, at the photo shoot for this story, she’d been thinking about Audrey Hepburn, because the photographer kept saying something to her like Big eyes! Big eyes! Huge eyes! and that made her remember that when she was a kid, she’d had this fear that she had unusually tiny eyes, and one day when she was home from school (she’d always pretend she was sick), she’d seen the movie Funny Face with Audrey Hepburn — she was afraid it was beginning to seem like she was obsessed with Audrey Hepburn, which she’s not — and she started drawing Audrey Hepburn’s portrait, over and over again, with insanely, distortedly huge eyes. Anyway, Funny Face was this silly romantic comedy, but she’d remembered this moment in it, she was like 10 years old, and Audrey Hepburn’s character starts talking about empathicism, or something”.

I am going to conclude with some reviews. Entertainment Weekly had their say about one of the best albums of 2012. The Idler Wheel… still sounds completely Fiona Apple and unlike anything else around:

“You can’t half-listen to a Fiona Apple album. You really have to work at it, analyzing the elliptical lyrics, carefully following piano runs that zig when you think they’ll zag. Her fourth full-length, which is called (deep breath!) The Idler Wheel Is Wiser Than the Driver of the Screw and Whipping Cords Will Serve You More Than Ropes Will Ever Do, is no exception. It took Apple seven years to make, and even understanding the title requires you to spend some time with Wikipedia. (An idler wheel is the part of an engine that’s connected to all the other parts but doesn’t propel anything — a metaphor, Apple has said, for people like her, who look as if they’re doing nothing when they’re actually feeling everything at once.) Delving into classical music, jazz, art-rock, and show tunes, this is an album that will make you stay up late, playing each song over and over, trying to answer the questions it stirs up. Like, what does Apple mean when she sings that? she’s ”a neon zebra, shaking rain off her stripes”? What’s making that strange crunching noise at the end of ”Periphery”? What is a ”truck stomper,” and why is it listed as an instrument in the credits?

All of this might make The Idler Wheel sound like more trouble than it’s worth. That’s definitely not the case. Like Apple herself, it’s highly confessional and creative and temperamental, and will probably make you fall crazy in love. She and her co-producer Charley Drayton have mostly stripped down the arrangements to piano and percussion — the clever ”beats” include field recordings of machines at a plastic-bottle factory and pebbles thrown down a garbage chute — so there’s room to hear her parakeet heart beating wildly, feeling every emotion. Swinging between minor-key gloom and Broadway bombast, she hollers over children’s giddy screams on ”Werewolf,” threatens her ex on the menacing ”Valentine,” and delivers a furious Native American warrior cry on ”Every Single Night,” which finds her admitting, ”Every single night’s/A fight with my brain.”

There’s so much struggle here that when the one happy song arrives, near the end, she’s earned it. From the moment the pots-and-pans intro begins on ”Anything We Want,” Apple manages to re-create the rush of a first crush, singing about loving something the way she did when she was 8. Listening to her, you’ll know exactly what she means. You have to give yourself over to The Idler Wheel in a way you probably haven’t done since you were a kid, before jobs and other adult responsibilities claimed the long hours you spent curled up by your stereo speakers. It isn’t easy listening. But it’s worth it. A”.

Let’s round off with one more review. There was nothing less than elation and support for Fiona Apple’s The Idler Wheel… Pitchfork scored the album highly when they sat down to listen to it. After ten years, I am still discovering new layers to the brilliant The Idler Wheel… Everyone needs to check it out:

 “This is the most distilled Fiona Apple album yet. While her celebrated previous work was marked by eclectic musical flourishes courtesy of producers including Jon Brion and Mike Elizondo, The Idler Wheel is fearlessly austere in comparison. She worked with touring drummer Charley Drayton on the album, and his touches are light and incisive. Speaking of the record's signature clattering percussion-- including thigh slaps, truck stomps, and "pillow," according to the credits-- Apple associated the homemade sounds with an increased freedom: "I just like that feeling of: 'I'm in charge, I can do whatever I want.'" And this musique concrète approach is not random. Every single waveform is pierced with purpose, from the muted heartbeat thumping through "Valentine" to the childlike plinks popping around the uncharacteristically optimistic "Anything We Want" to the chugging factory sounds that give "Jonathan" its uneasy rhythm. On the oddly life-affirming "Werewolf", a banjo shows up, plucks exactly four notes, and then dips out, never to return. "You made an island of me," she belts on that song, and The Idler Wheel's spareness does lend it an insular loneliness, one that's divorced from the outside world while also being intimately in-tune with its basic realities. As Fiona's self-drawn album cover suggests, the inner workings of her mind can be scary, ugly, and head-splinteringly vivid.

"Werewolf" also features the album's most jarring and powerful found-sound moment: just as the self-conscious ballad climaxes, the roar of children screaming on a playground enters, adding an uncanny mix of dread and wistfulness. The fact that Apple was inspired to insert the yells by a classic-movie battle scene that was running when she first played the song only adds to the sample's ambiguity as well as its spontaneity. Much of the album involves Apple's constant struggle between naivety and cynicism; on opener "Every Single Night", she sings, "I just wanna feel everything" and "every single night's a fight with my brain." The saga can turn into lacerating theater, as on "Regret", which, with its mechanical beat and ominous, monk-like ambience, could nearly pass for a track on Nine Inch Nails' The Downward Spiral. The song also features the most brutal hook of Apple's career: "I ran out of white doves' feathers to soak up the hot piss that comes from your mouth every time you address me," she bellows, tearing her throat apart in the name of pure vengeance. And while she's undoubtedly one of our foremost talents at the art of the kiss-off, the blame for Apple's woes is a bit more spread out now. "How can I ask anyone to love me," she offers, "when all I do is beg to be left alone."

"Left Alone" is nothing short of a vocal masterclass. It has the singer going from the verses' rap-like cadence to the hook's curlicue jazz stylings to the operatic long notes of the bridge-- notes that slowly curdle underneath their own exasperated weariness. This makes sense considering Apple is a child of Billie Holiday, Ella Fitzgerald, and hip-hop, a songwriter who's spiking the Great American Songbook with today's mirror-upon-mirror confessionalism. She's able to convey more with a quick, original turn of phrase-- "my woes are granular," for one-- or an in-the-moment scrunch of the face than many pop stars are able to muster with 100-foot screens and volcano pyrotechnics.

It's an old-school approach, though it rises well above mere sepia Instagrams. Instead of being far-off and dreamy, her throwback moves are the opposite-- intrusive, corporeal. This is not background music. It demands attention. "Look at! Look at! Look at! Look at me!" she pleads on "Daredevil", a knowing admission of her self-destructive tendencies. But even after being thrown into the media spotlight at a young age, and having to deal with crippling doubt, Fiona Apple didn't go boom. She's still here, brave enough to indulge in raw emotion and smart enough to make those feelings carry”.

A staggering album from the always-amazing Fiona Apple, The Idler Wheel Is Wiser Than the Driver of the Screw and Whipping Cords Will Serve You More Than Ropes Will Ever Do is a masterpiece. It turns ten on 18th June. I wanted to spotlight and highlight it ahead of time. Go and check out an album that should get a lot of new love…

AHEAD of its tenth anniversary next month.

FEATURE: Paul McCartney at Eighty: Thirty-Eight: How Should the World Celebrate His Milestone Birthday?

FEATURE:

 

Paul McCartney at Eighty

PHOTO CREDIT: Jon Kopaloff/FilmMagic

Thirty-Eight: How Should the World Celebrate His Milestone Birthday?

__________

THIS is more of a general feature…

 IN THIS PHOTO: Paul McCartney in 1965/PHOTO CREDIT: Harry Goodwin

asking how, on 18th June, the world will mark the eightieth birthday of Paul McCartney. On the day itself, there will be articles and a lot of social media love. I have not heard about any documentaries planned. And that is really what is on my mind. There have been interviews and bits with Macca over the past few years. The Beatles: Get Back was a chance to see Paul McCartney’s role in the band’s later days in a new light. It would be fascinating, as the iconic and unsurpassed artist is approaching his ninth decade of life, to see something that is a combination of archive footage/interviews/performances with some newly-recorded interviews. Of course, there will be a mass of affection for McCartney next month! I don’t think there has been anything really deep about McCartney in years. A multi-part documentary where Macca discusses his work and experiences would be fascinating. From his time in The Beatles, though to his Wings days and solo material, his music alone has helped revolutionise modern culture. He is so much more than a songwriter. As a musician, innovator and pioneer, he has influenced millions. Paul McCartney is also an activist, author and human that has no equals! Macca plays his headline Glastonbury set a few days after his eightieth, so there will be a lot of people there who will show their affection for a legend. I feel it may be a year or two before a new album - but there will be a young generation discovering Paul McCartney now. As he heads towards his eightieth birthday, maybe many will not have access to the physical albums of The Beatles, Wings, and Paul McCartney. It is quite a chore sifting through the videos and songs online to really get a sense of who McCartney is.

I think the BBC might repeat their tribute to him that was shown last year. I have not seen too many announcements regarding celebrations, but it would be touching if, on 18th June, BBC radio stations spent a day marking McCartney. Clearing their schedules for his music alone, maybe they could blend that with songs from artists influenced by him. I have sort of covered this before, but Paul McCartney’s eightieth is monumental. I wanted to build on a previous feature speculating what the world will do when McCartney turns eighty. No doubt there will be books about him. I feel the most powerful projects are going to be more audible. Radio stations could dedicate a day to him, and it will be humbling seeing the outpouring of love for the man on 18th June. I also feel artists will put Macca covers online. I have been thinking about a covers or tribute album to him. This has sort of been done before, but a new and expansive album where artists tackle a McCartney song – whether one he wrote in Wings and The Beatles or a solo effort -, would be amazing. Also, although many of his albums are available on vinyl, maybe box-sets of his solo studio albums would prove popular. I have heard nothing about any Beatles albums being remastered and reissued this year. Let It Be has already been remastered, so Giles Martin (son of Beatles producer George Martin) might have to go back to the start with 1963’s Please Please Me – not that much spare material is available! -, or come to an album like Rubber Soul (1965).

Many might say that it is overkill to do so much for a musician turning eighty. There was a lot of focus on Dylan when he turned eighty last year. Books were written, and there was a tonne of new words written about him. I did feel something was lacking in terms of anything televisual or any new podcasts etc. For me, McCartney is even more important and influential than Bob Dylan. Will there be podcasts about Paul McCartney? A biopic that concentrates on his time with The Beatles or his life with Linda McCartney would be intriguing. There are so many possibilities and avenues that could be explored. It is the least the world can do for a man who has helped transform the lives of millions through the past sixty years or so. He will, let’s hope, continue to record brilliant music and leave his legacy. 18th June will be a historic day. I am not sure just how wide and impassioned the dedications, tributes and features will be, but we are about to celebrate the eightieth birthdays of the most musical person who has ever lived. There is doubtless going to be a tsunami of new creativity from artists; a wave of projects planned to properly celebrate Paul McCartney and what he means to me and so many people. There are no finer and more important artists in the world…

THAN the incredible Macca.

FEATURE: Heads We’re Singing: Kate Bush and the Modern Artists Who Could Contribute to a New Album or Remixes, Reworkings and Covers

FEATURE:

 

 

Heads We’re Singing

IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush in a Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God) single outtake in 1985/PHOTO CREDIT: John Carder Bush

Kate Bush and the Modern Artists Who Could Contribute to a New Album or Remixes, Reworkings and Covers

__________

WHILST it is great to see…

 IN THIS PHOTO: Artist and producer The Anchoress (Catherine Anne Davies)

so many young Pop artists come through that are innovative and have huge potential, I kind of think about the established artists and legends that are, in part, responsible for their sound and success. Bigger artists today like Phoebe Bridgers and St. Vincent, whilst not new, definitely have an element of Kate Bush. I kind of think, in a way, Pop acts like Dua Lipa and Rina Sawayama have elements of Kate Bush. The Anchoress (Catherine Anne Davies) would be another artist who could collaborate with Bush – and she is a big fan of the icon’s work. I have said before how a cover’s album would be long-overdue. We have not really had a covers or tribute album with huge artists and newcomers alongside one another, marking the work of Kate Bush and giving it plenty of love. In terms of duets and collaborations, Bush has been particular in the past. She has worked with Peter Gabriel, Elton John, Mica Paris, The Trio Bulgarka and others, but most are older artists and ones that have been going for a while. I do not think that she has too much of an ear on her successors and those young and popular artists who have been compared to her. I still think it would be wonderful to hear the voices of tremendous artists such as Rufus Wainright, Guy Garvey, Neil Hannon, Anna Calvi, The Anchoress, Solange and many others blended with Kate Bush.

 IN THIS PHOTO: Guy Garvey (of Elbow)/PHOTO CREDIT: Paul Husband Photography

Maybe the best compromise and solution would be to have a remix album. Maybe Kate Bush would refuse permission but, maybe as I have said before, adding a new touch to her songs would be great! Maybe artists need not sing on the tracks. They could remix a song and give it their own angle. Others could sing on the track alongside the original vocals from Bush. This would be amazing. It would shine new light on her classic tracks, though it would also give attention and weight to songs that many have not heard and those that are not really played and widely considered. You do get Kate Bush remixes here and there, but I have not really heard any recently. Not from bigger artists. There are so many artists around today that are indebted to Kate Bush. From Georgia to Florence Welch all the way to Big Boi, Fiona Apple and Little Boots, it would be a really interesting project. I am seeing new acts like Fable moved by Kate Bush and her music. Whilst any artist can cover her songs, many fans would be intrigued hearing their voices blended with Bush’s. Maybe an artist would deconstruct a track and re-record it. They could all be approached and then decide what they want to do with each song. It would be their choice but, naturally, Kate Bush would have to give her blessing. There has been so much talk about Kate Bush appearing on a Big Boi track…and I am not if that will happen and if it will be released.

 IN THIS PHOTO: Florence Welch (Florence + The Machine)/PHOTO CREDIT: Autumn de Wilde for Vogue

The more I look out to music now and see artists who have Kate Bush D.N.A. within them, the more I wonder whether a project can come about. Maybe a covers album could occur, though I feel like giving artists free reign regarding what they do with a song would be a lot easier and more varied. I do not know what the album would be called. It could be tied to an anniversary. Next year, Bush turns sixty-five. It would only be fitting for a range of projects to come about that marks this important birthday. There will be articles and books out I am sure, but you could have albums and podcasts to go alongside them. I cannot see any more ambitious album where there are loads of artists new and older that take a song each and add their stamp to it. Covering her catalogue, B-sides and rarer cuts, I do not know where you’d have to draw the line in terms of tracklisting. Maybe up to twenty-five tracks? Perhaps some fresh activity and love towards Kate Bush would show her how popular and influential she is. Not that it would tip her to record an eleventh studio album, but I see no reason why she would object to an album or refuse permission. With such an amazing catalogue and legacy, it would be fascinating hearing these interpretations of Kate Bush songs. Many would want to hear this in 2022, though 2023 is when Kate Bush turns sixty-five. It would help cement Bush’s reputation as a genius and pioneer; it would also bring her fantastic music…

TO a whole new audience.

FEATURE: Revisiting… St. Vincent – Daddy’s Home

FEATURE:

 

 

Revisiting…

St. Vincent – Daddy’s Home

__________

AN album that turned one…

quite recently, I wanted to include St. Vincent’s (Annie Clark) Daddy’s Home in this Revisiting… Her incredible sixth studio album was co-produced with Jack Antonoff. Although it got some positive reviews, some did not give it as positive a take as they should. There was love around for St. Vincent’s amazing album, although it is not as shared and discussed now as it should be. I am going to come to a couple of reviews for Daddy’s Home soon. There are also a couple of good interviews with St. Vincent – one from this month; the other from 2021. I am going to start with The Forty-Five’s chat with her (they refer to her by her real name). I have selected a few passages that caught my eye:

“On ‘Daddy’s Home’, Clark writes about a past derelict New York; a place Los Angeles would suffocate in. “The idea of New York, the art that came out of it, and my living there,” she says. “I’ve not given up my card. I don’t feel in any way ready to renounce my New York citizenship. I bought an apartment so I didn’t have to.” Her down-and-out New York is one a true masochist would love, and it’s sleazy in excess. Sleaze is usually the thing men flaunt at a woman’s expense. In 2021, the proverbial Daddy in the title is Clark. But there’s also a literal Daddy. He came home in the winter of 2019. 

On the title track, Clark sings about “inmate 502”: her father. He was sentenced to 12 years in prison for his involvement in a $43m stock fraud scheme. He went away in May 2010. Clark reacted by writing her third breakthrough album ‘Strange Mercy’ in 2011; inspired not just by her father’s imprisonment but the effects it had on her life.“I mean it was rough stuff,” she says. “It was a fuck show. Absolutely terrible. Gut-wrenching. Like so many times in life, music saved me from all kinds of personal peril. I was angry. I was devastated. There’s a sort of dullness to incarceration where you don’t have any control. It’s like a thud at the basement of your being. So I wrote all about it,” she says.

Back then, she was aloof about meaning. In an interview we did that year, she called from a hotel rooftop in Phoenix and was fried from analytical questions. She excused her lack of desire to talk about ‘Strange Mercy’ as a means of protecting fans who could interpret it at will. Really she was protecting an audience closer to home. It’s clear now that the title track is about her father’s imprisonment (“Our father in exile/ For God only knows how many years”). Clark’s parents divorced when she was a child, and they have eight children in their mixed family, some of whom were very young when ‘Strange Mercy’ came out. She explains this discretion now as her method of sheltering them.

“I am protective of my family,” she says. “It didn’t feel safe to me. I disliked the fact that it was taken as malicious obfuscations. No.” Clark wanted to deal with the family drama in art but not in press. She managed to remain tight-lipped until she became the subject of a different intrusion. As St. Vincent’s star continued to rocket, Clark found herself in a relationship with British model Cara Delevingne from 2014 to 2016, and attracted celebrity tabloid attention. Details of her family’s past were exposed. The Daily Mail came knocking on her sister’s door in Texas, where Clark is from.

“Luckily I’m super tight with my family and the Daily Mail didn’t find anybody who was gonna sell me out,” she says. “They were looking for it. Clark girls are a fucking impenetrable force. We will cut a bitch.”

Luckily I’m super tight with my family and the Daily Mail didn’t find anybody who was gonna sell me out. Clark girls are a fucking impenetrable force. We will cut a bitch.

Four years later, Clark gets to own the narrative herself in the medium that’s most apt: music. “The story has evolved. I’ve evolved. People have grown up. I would rather be the one to tell my story,” she says, ruminating on the misfortune that this was robbed from her: a story that writes itself. “My father’s release from prison is a great starting point, right?” Between tours and whenever she could manage, Clark would go and visit him in prison and would be signing autographs in the visitation room for the inmates, who all followed her success with every album release, press clipping and late night TV spot. She joked to her sisters that she’d become the belle of the ball there. “I don’t have to make that up,” she says.

There’s an ease to Clark’s interview manner that hasn’t existed before. She seems ready not just to discuss her father’s story, but to own certain elements of herself. “Hell where can you run when the outlaw’s inside you,” she sings on the title track, alluding to her common traits with her father. “I’ve always had a relationship with my dad and a good one. We’re very similar,” she says. “The movies we like, the books, he liked fashion. He’s really funny, he’s a good time.” Her father’s release gave Clark and her brothers and sisters permission to joke. “The title, ‘Daddy’s Home’ makes me laugh. It sounds fucking pervy as hell. But it’s about a real father ten years later. I’m Daddy now!”

The question of who’s fathering who is a serious one, but it’s also not serious. Clark wears the idea of Daddy as a costume. She likes to play. She joins today’s Zoom in a pair of sunglasses wider than her face and a silk scarf framing her head. The sunglasses come off, and the scarf is a tool for distraction. She ties it above her forehead, attempts a neckerchief, eventually tosses it aside. Clark can only be earnest for so long before she seeks some mischief. She doesn’t like to stay in reality for extensive periods. “I like to create a world and then I get to live in it and be somebody new every two or three years,” she says. “Who wants to be themselves all the time?”

‘Daddy’s Home‘ began in New York at Electric Lady studios before COVID hit and was finished in her studio in LA. She worked on it with “my friend Jack” [Jack Antonoff, producer for Lana Del Rey, Lorde, Taylor Swift]. Antonoff and Clark worked on ‘Masseduction’ and found a winning formula, pushing Clark’s guitar-orientated electronic universe to its poppiest maximum, without compromising her idiosyncrasies. “We’re simpatico. He’s a dream,” she says. “He played the hell outta instruments on this record. He’s crushing it on drums, crushing it on Wurlitzer.” The pair let loose. They began with ‘The Holiday Party’, one of the warmest tracks Clark’s ever written. It’s as inviting as a winter fireplace, stoked by soulful horns, acoustic guitar and backing singers. “Every time they sang something I’d say, ‘Yeah but can you do it sleazier? Make your voice sound like you’ve been up for three days.” Clark speaks of an unspoken understanding with Antonoff as regards the vibe: “Familiar sounds. The opposite of my hands coming out of the speaker to choke you till you like it. This is not submission. Just inviting. I can tell a story in a different way”.

One of the very best albums of 2021, Daddy’s Home sounds even stronger and richer than it did last year! People need to revisit it and give it another spin. Featuring some of the best songwriting from St. Vincent, it is awash with incredible compositions. One immerses themselves in the album! This is what The Guardian wrote in their review:

“Only the title track concerns her father’s imprisonment and release, although his presence lurks over the album in more subtle ways. Its sound was apparently inspired by his record collection, which evidently majored in the early 70s. The whole album is liberally dressed with a synthesised sitar sound that cropped up on dozens of the era’s soul singles, from Freda Payne’s Band of Gold to the Stylistics’ You Are Everything. There are dabblings in the fingerpicked acoustic style of the era’s confessional singer-songwriters, the mock-showtune stylings of Harry Nilsson and Randy Newman and the electric piano-driven funk of Donny Hathaway or Stevie Wonder. Anyone with a passing acquaintance with Pink Floyd’s most successful album can’t fail to notice the influence of its more languid moments on Live in the Dream, which comes complete with the none-more-Floydian lyric, “Welcome child, you’re free of the cage / Trying to seem sane makes you seem so strange”.

But these don’t sound like lovingly crafted homages to the past. They seem more like parodies, of varying degrees of knowing grotesqueness. So Live in the Dream starts off not unlike Pink Floyd’s Us and Them, but gradually becomes more discordant and ramshackle: the squeak of fingers on guitar strings is louder than the actual guitar, the massed backing vocals clash with Clark’s voice and the sound of the track surges in a way that doesn’t sound stirring so much as sickly. The acoustic guitar figure of Somebody Like Me is pushed along a little too urgently by the tempo of the drums – it feels discomfiting, rather than warm and earthy – synthesiser tones wail, strings weave in and out of the mix. And, on the title track, the electric piano and syncopated drums sound gloopy and disconnected – funk you couldn’t possibly dance to – while the song’s theatrical affectations feel wilfully overblown and cartoonish: cooing the track’s title, the backing vocals have an eerie, mocking tone to them.

 It’s all hugely impressive and striking, the familiar made subtly unfamiliar, Clark’s famously incendiary guitar playing spinning off at unexpected and occasionally atonal tangents, its effect simultaneously heady and disturbing. The implication seems to be that if Clark has been rifling through her father’s albums, they don’t sound the same to her as they once did: for whatever reason, the contents of his collection have taken on a warped, twisted quality.

The lyrics sound similarly unsettled, about everything from the prospect of parenthood – My Baby Wants a Baby wittily reworks the chorus of 9 to 5, Sheena Easton’s unironic 1980 paean to the pleasures of housewifery, slowing it to an agonised crawl in order to wrestle with the proverbial pram in the hall – to the very business of being St Vincent. For a decade now, Clark has invented a persona to inhabit on each new album: the “near-future cult leader” seated on a throne on the cover of 2014’s St Vincent, a latex-clad “dominatrix at a mental institution” for 2017’s Masseduction. There’s another on the cover of Daddy’s Home, in a blonde wig and stockings, the “benzo beauty queen” mentioned in the lyrics, who exudes such sleazy energy that, on opener Pay Your Way in Pain, parents feel impelled to shield their children from her (“the mothers saw my heels and they said I wasn’t welcome”).

But elsewhere, Clark seems conflicted about the whole business of playing with identity, flipping between songs projecting a character and songs that are clearly personal: not just the title track, but The Laughing Man’s eulogy for a late friend. On The Melting of the Sun, she lists a succession of soul-baring singer-songwriters and some of their most personal work – Tori Amos’s harrowing depiction of her rape, Me and a Gun; Nina Simone’s livid Mississippi Goddam; Joni Mitchell’s self-baiting exploration of musical “authenticity” Furry Sings the Blues – and finds herself wanting in their company: “Who am I trying to be? … I never cried / To tell the truth, I lied”.

It makes me wonder where St. Vincent will go next with her seventh studio album. Having mined a particular sound and sonic palette on Daddy’s Home, it will be fascinating hearing what she comes up with next. Daddy’s Home ranks alongside St. Vincent’s greatest albums. This is AllMusic’s take on as masterful work:

“Starting with St. Vincent's self-titled 2014 album, Annie Clark's artistic progression could be best described as a sharpening: Her sounds grew crisper and more angular, her lyrics ever more pointed. This approach peaked on MASSEDUCTION, which reflected a white-knuckle grip on image and identity in its high-definition pop. Control, or lack of it, is also a vital element on Daddy's Home. Using her father's return from jail for white-collar crime as a jumping-off point, Clark explores moral grey areas on songs that are as diffuse as her past few albums were taut. Her musical world-building remains as impressive as ever: Drawing on early-'70s sounds introduced to her by her father, she pays homage to a more permissive time as she traces the best and worst things carried through the generations. Clark's version of the '70s is filled with so many allusions it should have footnotes; alongside the bubbling Wurlitzers and Mellotrons, she name-drops John Cassavetes and Candy Darling. While the swaggering single "Pay Your Way in Pain" pays homage to David Bowie's "Fame" and "Live in the Dream" is a swirling tribute to Pink Floyd, not all the references are cooler than cool. On "My Baby Wants a Baby," which finds the song's protagonist admitting they want creative accomplishment more than a child, Clark borrows the melody from Sheena Easton's "9 to 5 (Morning Train)" (another song about the obligations of relationships) and a spangly sitar-mimicking guitar last heard on a B.J. Thomas single.

Hearing Clark try on the album's bell bottoms and leather vest vibe is entertaining, but though the musical lineage of Daddy's Home may be clearer than on any of her previous work, the same can't be said of its lyrics. With the notable exception of "Somebody Like Me"'s vulnerability, Clark's songwriting remains emotion-adjacent instead of directly confessional. She delivers the album's tenderest songs in the second person ("...At the Holiday Party'') or to long-gone icons ("Candy Darling"). On the wry title track, she brings a little levity to the situation while pondering its deeper ramifications ("Where can you run when the outlaw's inside you?"), continuing the concealing and revealing at which she's always excelled. Clark also revisits her own artistic past as well as her musical and familial influences. She's not mellowing with age -- "Down"'s brittle revenge-funk proves otherwise -- but the album is defined by its introspective tracks like "The Melting of the Sun"'s slow-motion tribute to female truth-tellers like Joan Didion, Marilyn Monroe, Nina Simone, and Tori Amos that also features some of Clark's most inspired guitar playing, and "The Laughing Man," a sardonic ballad that recalls Actor's Disneyfied dystopian reveries. Like the albums of the era it was inspired by, Daddy's Home takes time to unfold in listeners' imaginations. It's much more of a mood than anything else in her body of work, but its hazy reconciliation of the good and bad of the past makes it as an uncompromising statement from her as ever”.

I am going to finish with a recent interview between St. Vincent and CLASH . In addition to talking about politics and dealing with criticism, she nodded back to her sensational 2021 album:

“That journey has led her up to 2021’s ‘Daddy’s Home’, an album that once again found the artist embracing serious subject matter – namely, the release from prison of her father the previous year, following a nine-year stretch as part of a stock manipulation scheme – alongside “black humour,” apparently without fear of contradiction. Alongside all that, there was a shiny new St. Vincent persona inspired by Candy Darling, Cassavetes heroines, and a general love of early ’70s New York chic. But that wasn’t necessarily what drew critics’ fascination.

When I speak to Clark, it’s the day before the album’s first birthday. I wonder if she’s still bothered by how the world – and particularly the music press – received it. “The only thing in the reaction to it that I found quizzical, shall we say, was this idea that all art needs to be educational, and appropriate, and non-fiction,” she says. “Like, it either needs to be a blood-letting, or you need to be solving the prison industrial complex. It’s just some music!”

It's another issue that Clark sees as a representative of a more general malaise in society, a perceived ideology that refuses to allow art to exist in shades of grey. “Everything in the world is being viewed through that prism right now. But you know, that’ll pass. I think if there was anything in the criticism of it that had me scratching my head, it was just this idea that it needed to solve something.”

A slight pause. “It’s a record, my love.”

As an artist, she’s made mistakes, apologised to journalists for being a “royal dick”, grappled with the best use of her platform to leave the world a little better than she found it. But she’s not necessarily looking for validation from any of it. To paraphrase the narcotic lyricism of one of the more grandiose tracks on ‘Daddy’s Home’, Clark doesn’t live in the dream the world has painted around her; the dream lives in her.

“I guess what matters to me more is actually still mystery: going through the entire process of deconstructing everything, and still not having the answer. And I think it’s fine to not have the answer. Some days I think I have the answer, and other days I’m completely in the wilderness. And that’s okay. That’s okay with me, it really is,” she insists. “One thing that makes me feel good about what I do is that, at the end of the day, it’s music. It’s not exploitative. My highest aspiration is that it’s Beautiful with a capital B. But the rest is, like, shoulder shrug.

“And at the end of the day, it maybe makes some people’s lives better. So that’s great,” she says softly, almost to herself. “That’s great”.

If you have not heard St. Vincent’s Daddy’s Home, then I would advise you to do so. It is such a stunning album from an artist who keeps evolving and changing. A supreme producer, songwriter and musician, we are going to hear even more amazing albums from the incomparable St. Vincent. There is so much to enjoy through Daddy’s Home! If you are not aware of the album or have not heard it for a while, I would say that it worth…

SPENDING some time with.  

FEATURE: Now That the iPod Is Gone… Is This the End of Physical Music-Playing Devices?

FEATURE:

 

 

Now That the iPod Is Gone…

 Is This the End of Physical Music-Playing Devices?

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A subject I have written about before…

 ILLUSTRATION CREDIT: Jack Royle

I have been provoked to look again at physical devices because the iPod is coming to an end. Launched in 2001, it was revolutionary at the time! Able to store so many tracks without the need to carry around CDs and cassettes, it grew through the years and, in a way, was the precursor to streaming. Even if the medium it helped spawned has led to its death, it is a very sad time! It seems that, despite physical music having a place and purpose, devices are dying out. Everything seems to be listened to on a laptop or phone – unless it is vinyl or CD, then people can play on record players and in cars. The days of listening to music on the move and having actual albums you can carry with you are bygone. The Guardian reacted to the end of the iPod in a feature from last week. I have selected a couple of segments:

“Yet the iPod still has advantages over streaming, and not just the fact that it won’t pay a podcaster millions of dollars to talk nonsense about vaccines. Everybody has their own Spotify experience but we’re all drawing from the same pool of music, which is vast but limited. My iPod contains many songs that streaming does not acknowledge: forgotten B-sides culled from old CD singles, bootleg remixes plucked from filesharing platforms, sundry rarities downloaded from now defunct websites, albums snarled up in copyright issues, the catalogues of Spotify exiles Neil Young and Joni Mitchell. It is a unique collection of music, curated over many years, in which each song represents an active choice. It’s mine alone.

Still, I’m well aware that I’m not the typical music consumer, and it would be hard to argue that the world’s most valuable company should continue to cater for collectors who simply must own the Chemical Brothers remix of Spiritualized or MIA’s debut mixtape. Like the turntable decades earlier, the iPod has gone from being a mass-market device for anyone who loves music to a niche product for the hardcore. Apple is not in the niche business.

Now that the agile upstart has become a knackered warhorse, laden with nostalgia, it’s worth remembering that the iPod was contentious when it was launched back in October 2001, holding a then-remarkable 1,000 songs. What the author Stephen Witt calls “the most ubiquitous gadget in the history of stuff” did more for Apple – paving the way for the iPhone and iPad – than it did for the music industry. While the arrival of the iTunes store 18 months later helped to stem illegal filesharing, the iPod still allowed users to unbundle individual tracks from albums; download sales never came close to making up for collapsing CD revenue during the music business’s lost decade. I was initially grumpy about the iPod, complaining that it devalued music and drove a bulldozer through the concept of the album. A shuffle function? Barbarians! Eventually, of course, I bought one and loved it.

As we now know, the album survived as an artistic entity. Whenever I read an article declaring the death of something, I’m pretty sure that it’s not really dead: vinyl made a comeback, and even clunky, fallible cassettes are enjoying a modest revival for reasons that I don’t entirely understand. Yet the iPod, as opposed to the broader concept of the digital music player, relies on one company, so it is as dead as something can be, devoured by the very revolution it launched”.

 IN THIS PHOTO: A vintage Sony Walkman, FM-AM stereo cassette player, model WM-F77, made In Japan, circa 1986

I can understand the appeal of streamlining things so you can listen to music digitally. Also, even though CDs and cassettes are still a thing and being bought, maybe the production of new devices would rely on a bigger boom in terms of numbers. The iPod was a way for people to listen to music without physical accessory or inconvenience, so we do have phones that do the same job. I like the fact that the iPod was a device separate from anything just for your music. Look at the market now and what is there dedicated to music playing? It is a disappearing field, and one that marks an end of as glorious period. Not all devices were great, but they allowed for accessibility and ease. In an ultra-convenient age, maybe a Walkman, Discman or iPod seems cumbersome or an annoyance. For me and millions, they were our way into music. There will be a day when music – apart from vinyl – is played on phones or laptops. That idea of taking out an iPod as you walk so you can listen to music might seem a relic, but it means you are not distracted by your phone and get to have a library of music with you! A Walkman or Discman was a social tool, where you could share music and swap CDs and cassettes. It seems sad that there is not really a market for devices only for music. I guess, if one were to include video so that you could watch YouTube, Disney + and Netflix etc., then that would have greater utility and purpose. Even then, people will argue that we have that option already. I will miss the iPod, as it is the end of an era! An end to music devices designed to allow us to listen on the go. I do not like the idea that everything now will be funnelled and channelled into digital avenues and phones. Maybe that is why the vinyl revival remains strong: people rebelling against digitisation and the lack of warmth and physicality from digital music. Even if some are pleased to see the back of music-playing devices, I and many other people around the world will…

LOOK back fondly.

FEATURE: Spotlight: FLO

FEATURE:

 

 

Spotlight

FLO

 __________

IN August…

Sugarbabes’ brilliant second studio album, Angels with Dirty Faces, turns twenty. Their finest album I feel, it contains hits like Freak Like Me and Round Round. A new group that reminds me of them, FLO are primed for bigger things. We are in a period where there are not many established and long-lasting girl groups. Though the terms has fallen out of favour and seems to be a little archaic and old-fashioned, it does represent a style of music and identity that we can link with legends like Spice Girls, TLC, Destiny’s Child and All Saints. Reminding me of a blend of the classic British girl groups and some of the U.S. best, it will be interesting to see how FLO move. Their debut single, Cardboard Box, is one of intent and huge memorability. I wonder whether we will ever recapture the glory days of girl groups in the 1990s and early-’00s. I want to bring in a couple of pieces about FLO, that should give you a better guide and bigger picture of a very promising young group. The Line of Best Fit introduced us to them through their incredible debut single:

“Made up of 19-and-20-year-olds Renée, Stella, and Jorja, FLO’s story began when Stella and Renée met in school and bonded over their shared love of music and singing. Renée and Stella, the latter who spent her early years in Mozambique before moving to the UK aged five, first recognised Jorja from social media, but it wasn’t until the three met by chance at an audition that they realised they were onto something special. “I saw the girls and we screamed across the room,” Jorja recalls of the time. “I knew from that moment we were about to start something big.”

For the past two years, the trio has been hard at work perfecting their sound with the likes of producers such as LOXE (NAO), KABBA, Aston Rudi (Mahalia), newcomer Jamal Woon, Hannah Yadi, and female producer Lauren Faith. “Cardboard Box” was one of the first tracks the band ever worked on and was produced by one of their production heroes MNEK (Little Mix, Dua Lipa, Mabel). Blending luscious R&B vocals with dazzling pop melodies and chorus, it’s a demonstration in creating punchy pop perfection and a reminder of the legacy of girl bands that came before.

With lyrics inspired by cheating partners, FLO comments, “Cardboard Box is one of the first songs we wrote as a group and during the process we opened up about relationship struggles and experiences of moving on from an ex,” the band explained of the track. “It was a special bonding moment and feels fitting that it’s our debut single! We are over the moon about our first child entering the world and we want people to feel refreshed and empowered - like it’s okay to close a bad chapter of your life!”

The buzz for FLO is growing daily via a growing community of fans on TikTok and more music on the way. Determined to tell the story of life as 21st-century women - the ups and the downs and the hardships along the way - FLO are ready to make you cry on the dancefloor. Stella, Renée and Jorja are building something beautiful with FLO and “Cardboard Box”, released on Island Records (fittingly the home of the Sugababes), is the perfect evolution of the modern girl band”.

I want to also bring in NME’s interview with the amazing FLO. They asked about the real lack of strong girl groups in the current scene. Maybe a nervous time for FLO to start put and gain traction. They talked about their upcoming E.P. too:

“NME: There’s a lack of major girl groups at the moment, particularly as Little Mix are currently on their farewell tour. How does it feel to be starting out without many peers?

Renée: “We kind of stay in our lane, we wouldn’t say there’s competition because that’s not for us to look at. We want to focus on bettering ourselves and being the best we can be.”

Stella: “I’m glad we’ve had each other and not been on our own. It’s a relief to see the single doing so well, especially since it’s our breakout song. We’re so happy with the reception it’s had.”

Jorja: “There’s a lack of girl groups I guess because it’s hard putting girls together as the chemistry is not easy to find. We haven’t had to sell our friendship or force it to come across authentically, as for us it comes so naturally.”

You worked with MNEK on ‘Cardboard Box’, who has previously teamed up with huge pop stars such as Dua Lipa. What was that experience like?

Stella: “It was more about watching him do his craft and taking it in. He wanted us to be our best, melody and writing wise. He’s Jorja’s biggest inspiration as well!”

Jorja: “I look up to him as he’s so talented and humble. Some writers have taken control of sessions and taken things in their direction, but he doesn’t. He gives us creative reign over the music. He’ll ask us what we think of something and we’re like, ‘Duh! It’s great’”.

The EP notably pulls inspiration from the sounds of ‘90s and early 2000s R&B. What connects you to that era?

Renée: “My mum would play really good music in the car or when cleaning on Sundays, you know, the sounds of that era were all around us when we were young. I’ve grown up around [that music], it was one of my first loves. My uncle is also a producer and rapper, and he motivates me as someone who’s been in this industry for the long run.”

What was the writing process for your forthcoming EP like?

Renée: “This was our first time away, writing and working with people we love on a whole catalogue of songs and just making really good music. We loved it – we want to do a writing camp at least twice a year.”

Jorja: “It’s nice to be away from everyday life and be in the zone of making feel good music. You get into the rhythm of it, it’s amazing.”

Stella: “Each song is like a moment in our lives, each song represents something different. Some are on par with each other but none are the same.”

Navigating the music industry both as newcomers and an all-Black girl group must be daunting. How have you developed the confidence to stick to your vision?

Renée: “As three young Black women, one thing that’s important when you get signed to a label and have to do what people say, is to remember to be strong. We’re not going to be pushed over or go with someone else’s decision without believing in it ourselves. Know that you can say no and do what you genuinely believe in – and it will be successful. That’s something I really believe in with my whole heart.”

Stella: “There were some decisions that we really had to push for with the EP and it paid off – the reception so far has been great. It’s all about trusting your instinct, and [making music] is an experience, and we’re learning a lot.”

@flolikethis

Who wants new music?😁

♬ Adjust (Tic Tok) - Marzville

 How important is it for you to promote female empowerment through your music?

Stella: “We all grew up with strong women in our lives, and were surrounded by music with that sense of female empowerment, so we want to bring that to a new generation of young women. It’s important to bring it back.”

Jorja: “We also pull inspiration from each other. Since working with each other more, I think, ‘What would Renée do? What would Stella do?’ We’re always writing songs for ourselves, so it’s important for it to come from each of our experiences.”

How do you deal with rising tensions in the group? What keeps you all grounded?

Jorja: “We’ve had no big arguments; we’re mature, and we understand people’s emotions and how to communicate even when our views are different. We talk about it if something comes up but if it does, it’s normally a creative difference. We are gentle with each other since most issues can be out of our hands. We might have discrepancies but it’s never towards each other.”

What can we expect from FLO in the future?

Renée: “Since girl groups are basically non-existent right now, we have a chance to really make music that people can feel and relate to and bring back that sound. We want to sell out arenas and just completely take over!”.

Go and follow FLO on social media. They are going to establish themselves as one of the premier girl groups in the U.K. As Little Mix have sort of stepped back and we are not sure whether they will continue, there is an absence and gulf right now! Even though they are taking their first steps at the moment, they will be a big name…

IN a year or two.

____________

Follow FLO

Twitter:

https://twitter.com/flolikethis

Instagram:

https://www.instagram.com/flolikethis/

TikTok:

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

Spotify:

https://open.spotify.com/artist/0s4kXsjYeH0S1xRyVGN4NO?si=FqcCqqsNQoqd96WEqXXdBQ

YouTube:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCncZTnZmk67PuIZowdGe5zw

FEATURE: Celebrating One of the Ultimate Songwriters: Kate Bush and the Ivor Novello Awards

FEATURE:

 

 

Celebrating One of the Ultimate Songwriters

IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush with her Ivor Novello award in 2002 

Kate Bush and the Ivor Novello Awards

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SHE has been honoured twice…

 IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush with broadcaster Paul Gambicini at the 2002 Ivors

by the Ivor Novello Awards/Ivors Academy. This year’s ceremony took place on Thursday (19th May). Winners on then night included Laura Mvula and Shakira. The awards are among the most prestigious and important when it comes to recognising great songwriting:

“For 66 years The Ivors Academy has celebrated excellence in songwriting and composing. Our awards shine a light on the creative talent of music creators, raising their profile and celebrating their craft.

Recognised as a pinnacle of achievement since they were first presented in 1956, The Ivors Academy presents Ivor Novello Awards for exceptional songwriting and composing. Each Ivor is unique as it represents peer recognition with categories judged by award-winning songwriters and composers from across the Academy’s membership. Ivor Novello Awards are presented twice a year to honour and celebrate exceptional songwriting and composing.

The Ivors with Apple Music is when Ivor Novello Awards are presented to celebrate creative excellence in British and Irish songwriting and screen composition.

The Ivors Composer Awards is when Ivor Novello Awards are presented to celebrate creative excellence in UK classical, jazz and sound arts”.

Kate Bush has been honoured twice, as I started by saying. With a double nod of glory and salute from the Ivors Academy, there are few that deserve it more. I will come to her 2020 honour very soon. Not only is it the righty time to talk about the Ivor Novello Awards and what they mean; it is almost twenty years to the day since Kate Bush won. On 23rd May, 2002, as Kate Bush News wrote, she was recognised as being such an important and inspirational songwriter - winning an Ivor for her Outstanding Contribution to British Music:

“The BBC have just reported that Kate is among the musicians honoured at today’s prestigious Ivor Novello Awards ceremony in London. The awards, now in its 47th year,  honour the contribution of songwriters, composers and music publishers to the industry in 2001, selected by the British Academy of Composers and Songwriters.

On receiving her award Kate said: “It’s so special to be thought of as a songwriter. This means so much to me, I’ll really treasure this.”

From the BBC News report: “Dido, Kate Bush and the team behind Kylie Minogue’s recent smash hit (incl Cathy Dennis) have won Ivor Novello songwriting awards, marking a success for women songwriters….veteran singer-songwriter Kate Bush completed the successes for women with her award for heroutstanding contribution to British music.” The ceremony this afternoon was at the Grosvenor House hotel in London’s Park Lane.

Update 24th May 2002: Ben on the guestbook writes: ”BBC Radio 2 gave excellent coverage to Kate last night. They played Kate’s very emotional acceptance speech. Stated that she is probably the most respected British female of the last 3 decades and for many her appearance was the highlight of the awards. They then played pieces of SIX of Kate’s songs including Moments and The Dreaming. She sounded amazingly touched by the accolade and it was a real delight to hear her..” (thanks Ben). The man pictured here who presented Kate with her award is broadcaster Paul Gambicini”.

Kate Bush’s award in 2002 came almost twenty-five years after her debut album, The Kick Inside (1978). Someone who was in a league of her own then, and has gone on to compel and influence countless overs in the twenty years since, it is a shame there is not another huge honour from the Ivors Academy that she can have bestowed upon her. It was a long-overdue recognition, as it was not the first time she was in contention for an Ivor. She had won one prior to 2002. Bush won the Ivor Novello award for Outstanding British Lyric for The Man With the Child In His Eyes in 1979. She was also nominated for Best Pop Song and Best Song Musically and Lyrically for Wuthering Heights, but lost out to Gerry Rafferty's 'Baker Street' in both categories. In 1981, her song Babooshka was nominated for Best Song Musically and Lyrically, but lost out to Woman in Love, written by Barry and Robin Gibb for Barbra Streisand. In 1983, The Dreaming was nominated for Outstanding British Lyric, but lost to the Dire Straits' Private Investigations. In 1986, Running Up That Hill was nominated for Best Contemporary Song, but lost to Tina Turner's We Don't Need Another Hero. In 2020 she was made a Fellow. This is an unbelievably high honour for someone who, without any doubt, is among the greatest and most original songwriters the music world will ever see:

“British songwriter Kate Bush has been made a Fellow of The Ivors Academy, in recognition of her peerless and enduring achievements in music. The announcement was made today, 23 September, and is the highest honour that The Ivors Academy bestows. The Academy exists to represent and champion music creators in the UK and Ireland.

Fellowship of the Academy recognises excellence and impact in the art and craft of music creation. This is only the twentieth Fellowship that the Academy has awarded in its 76-year history. Kate Bush joins a roster of songwriter greats including Annie Lennox OBE, Sir Paul McCartney and Sir Elton John. The most recent music creator to receive Fellowship before Kate Bush was Joan Armatrading MBE.

As well as life-time membership of the Academy, Kate Bush receives a dedicated Ivor Novello Award, depicting Euterpe, the ancient Greek Muse of lyric poetry.

Kate Bush said, “I feel really honoured to be given this fellowship by The Ivors Academy. It means so very much to me. Thank you to all my family and friends and to everyone who has been there for me over the years. I’ll treasure this statue of Euterpe always and ask her to sit on my shoulder while I work.”

Commenting on Kate’s honour, Annie Lennox, who was made a Fellow of the Academy in 2015, said, “I’m delighted beyond words that Kate Bush is being recognised and honoured with an Ivors Academy Fellowship. I cannot think of anyone more deserving than the uniquely innovative singer songwriter, performer, producer and remarkable artist that she is. She is visionary and iconic and has made her own magical stamp upon the zeitgeist of the British cultural landscape.”

Long-term Kate Bush fan Big Boi said, “Creative wise, she has been an influence on my life and my music. The depths of the production and lyricism of her music are unmatched, and I am very proud to be able to consider her to be my buddy. Love her!”

Joan Armatrading said, “Kate Bush is undoubtedly one of Britain’s best loved legendary singer/songwriters, an inspiration to many and deserving of the Fellowship. This is the highest award The Ivors Academy can bestow on any artist. I’m delighted that she takes her place of recognition and I send my hearty congratulations.”

Elton John, who became a Fellow of The Ivors Academy in 2004, described Kate Bush as “A truly inspirational, innovative British songwriter and artist. A legacy full of classic works.”

Fellow of the Academy David Arnold said, “I’ve not met an artist in the 30 years of working in music who doesn’t love Kate Bush. Since she emerged, seemingly fully formed as an artist in the 1970s, she immediately claimed a place in the arts as a true original with a raw, pure, visionary talent.

“A writer who pushed the boundaries of what songwriting could be, a producer showing us how exciting and challenging the sound of a record could be and a performer who mesmerised, enchanted and drew her audience in to the worlds she had so beautifully and fully created.

“The fact she is still such an influence on so many established and emerging artists tells you all you need to know about how very precious and appreciated she is.

“I am thankful for her work and her kindness and it’s very right and proper that she has been named as a Fellow of our Academy, we are lucky to have her.”

Crispin Hunt, Chair of The Ivors Academy, said, “As a music creator it is unnerving when you know that your words will fall short, but this is one of those times. Kate’s talent is incalculable, her achievements are peerless and artistry leaves you breathless. Countless songwriters and composers have referenced how Kate has informed their musical development. On behalf of all songwriters and composers, The Ivors Academy is giving Kate the highest honour we can bestow as a heartfelt expression of our love and admiration.”

Kate Bush’s extraordinary contribution to music is both impossible to pigeonhole and capture. Kate has created a truly unique career based around retaining creative autonomy and demonstrating mastery of the music production process, powerful vocals and captivating performances. She has forged her own path ever since her debut single Wuthering Heights was the first time a woman achieved a number one with a self-written song.

Kate Bush has influenced generations of music creators and has been nominated six times for an Ivor Novello Award. She won her first Ivor in 1979 for Outstanding British Lyric of The Man With The Child In His Eyes and she was awarded her second Ivor Novello in 2002 becoming the recipient of the Outstanding Contribution to British Music award”.

It was great seeing the winners of this year’s Ivor Novello Awards. Paul Heaton was honoured for his songwriting body. Having just turned sixty, he is a songwriter who has amassed so many classics and important tracks through his varied career. Even though there has not been original material from Kate Bush for over a decade, her incredible lyrics and compositions have stood the test of time, inspired generations and made a huge difference to so many people. Since the 1970s, she has been this phenomenal songwriting force that has no equals. The lyrics can be personal and cut deep, or they can be quite fantastical or impersonal. With every song, you get this impact and resonance that is so magical and moving! Her composing and production is staggering. Combine all of this with her remarkable voice, and there aren’t any songwriters who can really compete! Twenty years ago, Bush was honoured (quite rightly) for her contributions to music. The fact that she was so touched proved how much it meant and how much she valued songwriting. Reading about the Ivors this week and the great songwriters who won, it got me looking back at the two times Kate Bush has been recognised. To be made a Fellow in 2020 was almost like a musical damehood! Bush remains one the finest songwriters because of how successful and extraordinary her career has been, in addition to the way it has influenced so many songwriters. She can tap into emotions, open minds and move the soul…

LIKE no other human being.

FEATURE: Heaven Is Here: The Best of Florence + The Machine

FEATURE:

 

 

Heaven Is Here

PHOTO CREDIT: Autumn de Wilde for Vogue 

The Best of Florence + The Machine

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BECAUSE they have a new album out…

 ARTWORK CREDIT: Autumn de Wilde

which has scored some huge reviews and gone to number one, I wanted to collect together the best tracks from Florence + The Machine. Dance Fever, their fifth studio album, is one that you need to buy. Formed in London in 2007, Florence + The Machine consists  Florence Welch, keyboardist Isabella Summers, guitarist Rob Ackroyd, harpist Tom Monger, and a collaboration of other musicians. Before coming to a playlist, AllMusic provide biography about a group who are fifteen – and among the best in the world:

“South London's Florence + the Machine blend Baroque pop, pastoral folk, and artful alternative rock to create a rousing sound which they debuted on 2009's Lungs. Led by namesakes Florence Welch and Isabella "Machine" Summers, the group broke into the mainstream on the strength of their platinum singles "Dog Days Are Over," "You've Got the Love," and "Shake It Out," which were elevated by Welch's powerhouse vocals. As their first three releases topped U.K. charts, they made a steady climb in the U.S., hitting number six on the Billboard 200 with 2011's Ceremonials. In 2015, they secured their first Billboard number one with How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful, which became a worldwide smash. That same year they headlined the Glastonbury Festival and returned to the top five of the global album charts with 2018's High as Hope. Following non-album singles like 2019's "Jenny of Oldstones" and 2020's "Light of Love," Welch heralded the band's fifth album with 2022's "King."

Formed in 2007 by vocalist Welch and keyboardist Summers, Florence + the Machine released their debut single, "Kiss with a Fist," on the Moshi Moshi label in June 2008. Once a full band was recruited, they signed with Island Records in November. Their critically acclaimed debut album, Lungs, followed in July 2009 and quickly became one of the year's most popular releases in the U.K., where Florence charted four Top 40 singles in less than 12 months. The songs gathered steam in other parts of the world, too, particularly in America, where the anthemic "Dog Days Are Over" peaked at number 21 and went platinum. Lungs was reissued the following year in a two-disc package entitled Between Two Lungs, adding a bonus 12-track disc that featured live versions, remixes by the Horrors and Yeasayer, and Twilight soundtrack inclusion "Heavy in Your Arms."

In 2010, Florence + the Machine returned to the studio with producer Paul Epworth (Bloc Party, Adele) to begin work on their second full-length outing. The resulting Ceremonials, which successfully expanded on the group's already huge sound, arrived on Halloween in 2011. In addition to the lead single "Shake It Out," the chart-topping set also included "No Light, No Light" and the Australian multi-platinum Top Three hit "Never Let Me Go."

The following year saw the release of CD and DVD versions of MTV Unplugged, an 11-track set filmed before a small studio audience that featured fan favorites along with a pair of covers, including "Try a Little Tenderness" and the Johnny Cash/June Carter classic "Jackson," the latter of which featured guest vocals by Queens of the Stone Age frontman Josh Homme. That same year, Welch announced an upcoming period of inactivity, during which time the band crafted its next record and Welch scored a chart-topping dance hit, "Sweet Nothing," with Scottish producer Calvin Harris.

Her third studio long-player, the Markus Dravs-produced How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful, arrived in May 2015. Nominated for five Grammy Awards, it was the band's third consecutive number one U.K. album, topping charts in Australia, the U.S., and across Europe. A yearlong international tour and short film The Odyssey extended How Big's promotional cycle into 2016.

Their fourth effort, High as Hope, followed in 2018. Featuring production by Welch and Emile Haynie, the album included the singles "Sky Full of Song," "Big God," and "Hunger." Upon release, it entered the Top Three across the globe. While on the road promoting the effort, Welch issued the singles "Moderation" and "Jenny of Oldstones." The latter track appeared on the final season of television series Game of Thrones and became a modest chart hit.

Another single, "Light of Love," arrived in April 2020 as charity song released in response to the COVID-19 pandemic with proceeds going to Britain's Intensive Care Society. Welch also contributed the song "Call Me Cruella" to the soundtrack to Disney's live-action 2021 film Cruella. The Jack Antonoff co-produced "King" appeared in February 2022 as the first single released off the band's fifth studio album”.

Starting in September, the Dance Fever Tour will support the album and bring it around the world. One of the best albums from Florence + The Machine, it was a good time to unite some of their very best tracks. Led by the extraordinary Florence Welch, I would urge people to check out interviews with her in promotion of the album. The songs below prove that Florence + The Machine are…

A captivating force.

FEATURE: No Exit? What Is the Future of the Iconic Blondie?

FEATURE:

 

 

No Exit?

What Is the Future of the Iconic Blondie?

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IT is always sad…

 IN THIS PHOTO: Debbie Harry of Blondie in concert at the OVO Hydro, Glasgow/PHOTO CREDIT: Stuart Westwood/Shutterstock

when a legendary band calls time! A lot of them do so because they have been together for a while and have reached the end of the road. Blondie have been together for over forty-five years. Their most-recent album, Pollinator, was released in 2017. The band have been touring recently and proving just what a formidable force they are. Led by the sensational Debbie Harry, it has been a treat seeing the New York band reign and thrill the crowds. Before coming to my thoughts about their future, NME reviewed them earlier this month:  

“Before singing Blondie’s imperious 2010 single ‘Mother’, frontwoman Debbie Harry – whose band took home the NME Godlike Genius gong in 2014 – surveys the baying Manchester AO Arena crowd. “Well, it’s a holiday weekend – you can really destroy yourself tonight if you like!,” she jokes, before wistfully adding: “We were just saying, ‘Wow… it’s really been two years since I’ve done any singing.’ That’s really weird.’”

The deity’s latest tour is, with characteristic wry humour, called Against The Odds – and it’s increasingly lived up to its name. Announced during COVID, dates were rescheduled due to pandemic restrictions, with original support act Garbage replaced by hometown hero Johnny Marr. Then co-founder and guitarist Chris Stein announced he couldn’t tour because of health reasons, with Andee Blacksugar filling in for him. With the pleasing addition of former Sex Pistol Glen Matlock on bass, the group more than make up for lost time.

 Given that they share their name with a comic book character and are fronted by someone Iggy Pop once described as “Barbarella on speed”, it’s perhaps fitting the night begins with arresting graphic novel visuals of the band, as Harry delivers the impassive spoken-word opening of their 1976 bubblegum-punk debut single ‘X Offender’. At 76, she still looks (and sounds) every inch the exemplar of New York cool, like a living cartoon in a green leather outfit, shades and a halo of peroxide.

Marr expertly warms up the crowd with slam-dunk Smiths classics ‘Panic’, ‘This Charming Man’ and ‘There Is A Light That Never Goes Out’. And then Blondie arrive to pack in the future-nostalgic hits tighter than carbon molecules in a diamond: a hyper-aggressive ‘Hanging on the Telephone’, the irresistibly sweet ‘Sunday Girl’, the yearning ‘Picture This’ and a transcendent ‘Heart of Glass’ (the latter mixed in with a coda of Donna Summer’s disco touchstone ‘I Feel Love’). Having reformed in 1997, Blondie 2.0 have lasted longer than they did the first time around. Their more recent material duly shines: take 2017’s evocative ‘Long Time’ and the muscular ‘My Monster’, which featured on their last album ‘Pollinator’ and – fittingly – was written by Marr.

Clem Burke’s powerhouse drumming is always a thing of wonder, while guitarist Tommy Kessler is brought to the fore for showboating solos during ‘Atomic’. If the songs haven’t dated, neither has the band’s forward-thinking attitude. Introducing their 1999 comeback chart-topper ‘Maria’, Harry gives a subtle shout-out to trans rights: “I usually say that this is for the girls, but we’re living in a different world now, so anybody who feels like they want to be a girl – go right ahead.”

As the ominous organ music of Bach’s Toccata in D Minor kicks in, Blondie start the encore with the fan service curio ‘No Exit’, a one-woman version of their 1999 gangster-rap team-up with Coolio, Mobb Deep and Wu-Tang Clan. Then comes sprawling ‘Pollinator’ cut ‘Fragments’, before the classics ‘Call Me’ and ‘One Way Or Another’ elicit a predictably rowdy reaction. In 1979, Blondie’s first ever NME cover proclaimed “The revolution will be peroxide” – and tonight’s stellar performance showed a storied band unwilling to rest on their victory”.

I don’t think there has been any decision regarding Blondie’s future. I have been a fan since childhood, but I remember when they came back with 1999’s No Exit. Few would have expected the band to continue after 1982’s The Hunter (which is forty very soon). I have asked before whether we would get as Blondie biopic or one focused on Debbie Harry. Certainly, there is demand and a gap to fill. I realise there have been releases recently. A Sunday Girl E.P. came out, and I hear there are plans for a box-set soon enough. There are a lot of Blondie projects that could come about. In terms of books and documentaries, I think it is time to bring things up to date. I hope that there is another album. Maybe the band are thinking more in terms of gigs as opposed recording. Pollinator showed there is more than enough life left in the band. One of their very best, there is something evergreen and impressive about Blondie, as they surprise you. A big reason why I hope Blondie continue to make music is Debbie Harry. Although she is seventy-six, recent live performances show that she has this magnetism and vitality that has been there since the start! I am not sure whether Blondie have plans to slow down gigs, because the demand is there, and they have this amazing catalogue to get out there. Over forty-five years since they came onto the scene, the band are inspiring younger artists.

Their music remains hugely popular, and I know that we will be talking about the band for decades more. Not that it needs to be tied to an anniversary, but there is case for new Blondie love, in the form of books and documentaries. That biopic definitely needs to happen – if it is not already in the works -, and everyone hopes that we do get music in the future. Although Jimmy Destri is no longer in the fold, Harry, Clem Burke and Chris Stein remain from that classic line-up. Still holding a lot of love for each other, maybe only time itself will determine when Blondie stop. With a span of generations in their fanbase, it will be a sad day for so many people when Blondie stop! This year and next, it will be interesting to see what happens with them and where they go. I can imagine some songs have been bubbling, and Debbie Harry herself has said in the past how she would be open to a biopic – whether that is about her or Blondie. So inspiring to see a band like Blondie, who have been around for decades, still play big gigs and have that connection with the fans! There could also be a collection of Blondie deeper cut, as most of the collections concern the hits. Whatever is planned, nobody wants the phenomenal Blondie to call it quits. It seems evident that the band have…

SO much more to say.

FEATURE: The Haçienda at Forty: The Days and Decline of the Legendary Club

FEATURE:

 

 

The Haçienda at Forty

IN THIS PHOTO: The Haçienda in 1988 (Happy Mondays’ Bez can be seen second from the left)/PHOTO CREDIT: Getty Images

The Days and Decline of the Legendary Club

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I guess one of the reasons…

 IN THIS PHOTO: The Haçienda in 1988/PHOTO CREDIT: Peter J Walsh/PYMCA/Avalon/Univeral Images Group via Getty

why legendary clubs eventually have to end is a combination of changing musical scenes, controversy and bad publicity, and a lack of financial viability. We have not long marked Studio 54’s forty-fifth anniversary. The legendary New York Disco club was a non-judgemental and all-inclusive club where people could be together. The glamour, excess, excitement and energy of the place must have been intoxicating. We do not really have clubs as iconic and steeped in history now. A club that is, in ways similar just poles away from Studio 54 is The Haçienda. On Saturday (21st), an iconic and much-missed music venue in Manchester turns forty. In fact, next month is twenty-five years since it lost its license. Fifteen years is not too bad a run for a club. One cannot say that The Haçienda was all for good. When it opened in 1982, it unleashed the Manchester House and Rave scene. Originally conceived by Rob Gretton, it was largely financed by the record label Factory Records and the band New Order along with label boss Tony Wilson. I am going to come to an article from 2020 that looked at the history and legacy of the club. One cannot say it was either a massive success or failure. The controversy, bad press and troubles that occurred creates a black mark…and yet The Haçienda was a haven and space for so many people to express themselves. VICE spoke with a few key players and people in 2020 about their experiences, recollections and memories of The Haçienda. It is interesting reading about its start:

“THE FOUNDATIONS

Peter Saville (Factory Records partner/graphic designer): In 1978, all the venues for the punk groups had systematically been closed by the authorities. On behalf of the youth culture of the city and, to some extent, as an ambassador of punk and new wave, Tony Wilson [Factory records partner/TV presenter] took it upon himself to find a venue, which he did, at the Russell Club, to start the Factory nights, which then turned into the label. When [Joy Division singer] Ian Curtis died, there was this unprecedented and unexpectedly enormous influx of money. Tony thought it would be a good idea to give the money back to Manchester.

Martin Moscrop (trumpeter, guitarist, A Certain Ratio): ACR went to New York with Tony to record our album. We spent a lot of time going out to these amazing clubs, like The Ritz, Tier 3 and the Danceteria. New Order did the same when they were out there. We used to talk about the clubs all the time. The more we spoke about it, the more the idea became reality.

Peter Saville: I was invited to look at this former boat showroom. It was a phenomenal but daunting space. It’s important to know, in whatever occupation you have, when something is beyond you. I knew it was not something I was able to do. But I knew a man that could: Ben Kelly.

Ben Kelly (architect/designer of the Haçienda): We did a big tour of this huge, cavernous, empty, dirty, scruffy building, which was amazing. Tony looked at me and said, “Well, do you want the job?” I said, “Of course I want the fucking job.”

Peter Hook (bassist, New Order): Tony and Rob Gretton [New Order manager/Factory partner] started the Haçienda for people like us - punks who had nowhere to go. It wasn't about making money, it was about housing oddballs.

Ben Kelly: They had never commissioned a nightclub, and I'd never designed one before. There was an awful lot of naivety, but I see that as a very positive strength, as there were no strings attached and no preconceptions. I went about the design as a journey. You arrive at the building to a very minimal sign, then, in the entrance, you pass through doors that had 5 and 1 cut out of them [FAC51 was the catalogue number given to the club by the label], with glass set into those two numbers, then to the bar around the dance floor.

IN THIS PHOTO: Clubbers in 1989/PHOTO CREDIT: Peter J Walsh/PYMCA/Avalon/Univeral Images Group via Getty 

The dance floor was one step raised off the floor, which was possibly a trip hazard, so I came up with the idea of roadside bollards. I set cat’s eyes in the floor in line with the bollards, thinking the light would shine on them and it was like a road – a journey. There was a narrative integrated into my design.

Peter Saville: It’s probably his opus work. It’s the only nightclub space that I've ever been in that looked better in daylight. It was spectacularly beautiful in the daylight.

Jon DaSilva (resident DJ): It wasn't your greasy, beer-stained 1970s club, it was a slice of New York in Manchester.

Peter Hook: The initial budget was around £70,000, but it cost £344,000 to build in 1981. That's equivalent to about £3 million now. Joy Division/New Order put in £100,000. Somebody once asked me who I thought was responsible for the ultimate demise of the Haçienda. The answer at the time was Ben Kelly. These days, of course, I realise that none of us were blameless.

Ben Kelly: It caused all sorts of frictions with New Order, with them being like, “Fucking Ben Kelly, he spent all the fucking money.” I think it went up their noses, mostly”.

I suppose that drugs, for better or worse, seemed to define The Haçienda at a certain point. Although the club had a sad and, to be fair, inevitable end by 1997, its peak and explosion will go down in history. There is no doubting the fact The Haçienda was a Mecca for the masses. To think of a club like that existing today is both exciting and also far-fetched. VICE also looked at an era and period when the sound and vibe of The Haçienda turned:

“ACID HOUSE, ECSTASY AND THE SUMMER OF LOVE

Aniff Akinola: Acid house was being played as early as 1984, but just not all the time. The earliest footage of acid house in the UK is from the 8411 Centre, Moss Side Precinct [Manchester] in 1986. It’s a 40-minute acid house set, and those kids are having it large. This was a staple for Black kids before it took off.

Hewan Clarke: They borrowed my records for that set.

Dave Haslam: I saw a gradual shift. The music was an evolution, not a revolution. The revolution was when ecstasy arrived. The dance floor dynamics really changed with that. On New Year's Eve, 1987, I played “Disco Inferno” and it sounded fantastic. Within probably three months the music policies of most nights all shifted to Detroit and Chicago house, because the drug use had changed.

Martin Moscrop: I remember being offered my first E by Bez in there. There were about 20 of us on it. The next week, 40 of us, the following week, 80, and then within a few months the whole club was on it. The music was already happening before the drugs, but E just made it explode.

Graeme Park: Mike Pickering asked me to cover for him when he was on holiday, but said, “You have to come up and check out Friday night first – things have changed, they are completely different.” And oh my god, he was right. Everyone had this mad look in their eyes and they dressed differently. My crowd in Nottingham looked like they’d stepped out of the pages of i-D or The Face, very designer and cool. At the Haçienda, it was dungarees, baggy shirts, the smiley face everywhere, bandanas. Everyone was wild. Mike opened up the DJ box to let me in, and he had that wild look in his eyes too. I was like, ‘What the hell?’ Then about 30 minutes later I got it.

Peter Hook: As Tony Wilson once said, ecstasy made white men dance. It also stopped everybody drinking alcohol, so club owners were profiting from overpriced bottles of water. Rob thought bottled water was the work of the devil, he wouldn’t stock it, insisting we give everybody free water if they ask for it. It was Suzanne in the kitchen that cottoned on and started selling the bottles in direct competition with the bar. Rob knew but didn’t care.

Anton Razak: In 1988, I went away for six weeks and I came back and everything had changed. Everyone is going “aciiid”, there’s yellow smiley faces everywhere. It was really weird. I didn't have a clue how somewhere could transform so much in such a short period of time.

Martin Moscrop: It was like punk all over again. It was a whole new movement, which was a godsend. It was a massive period for me.

Graeme Park: The combination of acid house, ecstasy and the fact that Haçienda was owned by Factory and New Order. All these things aligned and it just went mental.

Jon DaSilva: I left the DJ box one night and I was literally terrified because it was so exhilarating. The change of atmosphere and the way people were just losing it. This was at like 10PM.

Rowetta (singer, Happy Mondays): It did feel like a really hippy, happy time. Walking in to tunes I was singing on was really special. I didn’t realise my voice had been sampled on other tracks, I used to think I was hallucinating.

Fiona Allen: It was a vibrant creative period of time that I’d never seen in that city before. It was the most exciting club in the country”.

On Saturday, when The Haçienda turns forty, there will be memories and mixed reactions. I am going to wrap up soon but, as such a detailed and informative article about The Haçienda is out there, I wanted to source one more section from it. We know about the history of the club, in addition to the way it developed. Inevitable that there would be drug and violence issues with such a club, I don’t think that should define The Haçienda. In fact, the music, magic and togetherness that was felt in that space for fifteen years cannot be discounted! I think the closure of The Haçienda in 1997 almost marked the end of iconic clubs and that scene. We have music venues and nightclubs now and, whilst some have the giddiness and atmosphere of The Haçienda, I don’t think any could truly exist in the same way today – which is good in some ways. The VICE article talked about the club’s legacy:

“THE CLUB’S LEGACY

Dave Haslam: I remember Tony saying that he was OK with it closing. I think he understood that it achieved what it needed to achieve, in the same way as Jimi Hendrix or James Dean dying. Sometimes the legend lives on.

Bez: The best thing that ever happened to the Haçienda was it closing down. Had it carried on to the death, it wouldn’t have the legendary status.

DJ Paulette: I think it's good that it went when it did, because it managed to retain this special atmosphere – that's a very rare thing. Plus, the myth persists because there’s hardly any films or clips on YouTube. You have all these great memories but no footage.

Graeme Park: It bugs me that people talk about Haçienda as if, when it closed in ‘97, that was it. We've done loads of club nights, along with the Haçienda Classical. It’s still a club, it just doesn’t have a building.

Peter Hook: The wonderful thing about the Haçienda Classical is that you're promoting what the Haçienda achieved, instead of its mistakes.

Martin Moscrop: Mancunians are the worst offenders for holding onto things and always talking about the Haçienda. The nostalgia goes a bit far at times. We'll be having the “Haçienda On Ice” next. It was great times, but some people need to move on, really. It's not only the Haçienda, it's all the fucking idiots who like Oasis, or The Smiths fans who defend Morrissey's racism.

Peter Saville: Unquestionably, Ben's work with the Haçienda is the foundation stone of the idea of the regeneration of the city – it is the first project. It’s a rather unfortunate and ironic oversight of the public sector that the Haçienda was allowed to go. Sadly, the city council didn't get it at the beginning, and they didn't get it at the end.

Ben Kelly: There isn't a bloody day that goes by where I don't get somebody bothering me about it. For years, it pissed me off. It was the monkey on my back, because it just wouldn't go away, and people thought that's all I ever did. But I don’t complain anymore. It's amazing. It goes on and on, and it's incredible. The Haçienda never dies – it's embedded into our cultural history.

Ang Matthews: I'm stunned that people are still interested in it. I’m so proud of that time.

Whether you were there are not, so many people can relate to The Haçienda and what it represented. Its history, legacy and reputation is clear. On Saturday, it will be forty years since the club opened. Even if it was blighted by problems for some of its life, it gave so much to so many people. People are still talking about the club. I think that will continue for decades more! Definitely a unique moment in history, when it comes to The Haçienda, I don’t think that we will…

EVER see its like again.

FEATURE: Expanding the Work of a Genius: Kate Bush and the Cassette Market

FEATURE:

 

 

Expanding the Work of a Genius:

Kate Bush and the Cassette Market

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MAYBE this is a little tenuous…

but I have been thinking about Kate Bush’s work and how it is great her albums are on vinyl. There was a time when one could not get everything from her on vinyl. Maybe because of lower demand or production, that was remedied in 2018. On her Fish People label, fans could enjoy the studio albums on their true form. I am not against digital at all, but the sound quality is definitely not as good on this form. Some may debate that claim, though there is a sensational and tangible excitement you get when listening to vinyl. Bush’s albums are on CD - but I think fewer people are buying them compared to vinyl. One of the great things about Bush’s music is how it can go wherever you do. There is this aspect and quality that gets her music into the blood. I think portability of music is an important thing, and Kate Bush’s music definitely takes on new relevance and resonance when you listen on the go. Again, streaming and the digital allows this, but I think that people tend to skip through tracks or do not investigate entire albums. Over the years, devices like the Sony Discman and Walkman have fallen out of favour somewhat. That said, the cassette is making a real comeback. So many new artists put out their albums on tape. Rathe than it being a nostalgic thing, this is the artist using the relevance of physical music to connect with fans. I keep saying how there needs to be a new Walkman to accommodate the rise of cassette sales and the fact so many artists are releasing them.

Maybe, if an artist like Bush released her catalogue on cassette, it might promote the invention of a portable device for cassettes. There is definitely a market for Bush’s albums on cassette. I have her albums on CD and vinyl. But CDs are for the car, and vinyl is for the home. I yearn to hear Bush’s music on the move and in a variety of locations, without having to stream her music. A slightly warmer sound comes from the physical. The fact, too, that you cannot skip tracks and have to listen to albums through means that there is something special about cassettes. One can buy some of her albums on cassette, yet they are not widely available. It makes me think about record shops in general. Whilst CDs and vinyl sit alongside one another, cassettes are not stocked at all. Maybe second-hand record shops have them in, although it is rare. Whereas artists now are selling cassettes mainly online, there should be a move to bring them to shops. Coming back to Kate Bush, and I would love to see her albums put onto cassette. Whereas she remastered and re-released her studio albums on vinyl in 2018, 2022 or next year would be a perfect time to consider it. Some may argue that, in general, the demand for cassette is much lower than vinyl, so that it would be a gamble to put albums out on cassette. I would disagree. It would not only be Kate Bush fans that would buy the cassettes.

Having all ten studios on cassette would be a treasure for fans, but it would also bring new ears in. I would especially love The Kick Inside on cassette; Hounds of Love would be awesome too! In fact, each album would. The compact nature of a cassette means that it is very handy and portable. There is something about them that makes the artwork shine. It is hard to explain, but it would complete the physical set. Aside from the ones you can get on sites like Discogs, having a range available on other websites and in chains like HMV would be great. In terms of retail price, they can be stocked for under £10 each - making them more affordable than CDs and vinyl. A couple drawbacks with cassettes relate to their fragility. They can become unspooled and they are a bit more delicate than vinyl. If they are treated well, they can be listened to and enjoyed decades from now! Kate Bush is one of the most treasured artists ever…and having each of her studio albums on cassette in a new series would seem like completion. It would, let’s hope, encourage the manufacturing on a modern-day Sony Walkman. Kate Bush still records to tape (in addition to digital), so it is only fitting that a music queen gets acknowledged this way! The new releases would definitely get her…

SEAL of approval.

FEATURE: So Much Things to Say: Bob Marley & The Wailers’ Exodus at Forty-Five

FEATURE:

 

 

So Much Things to Say

Bob Marley & The Wailers’ Exodus at Forty-Five

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NOT only one of the most influential…

 IN THIS PHOTO: Bob Marley and the Wailers at the Rainbow Rehearsals, Basing Street Studios, London in 1977

Reggae albums of all time, Bob Marley & The Wailers’ Exodus is considered to be one of the greatest albums ever. Released on 3rd June, 1977, I wanted to mark the forty-fifth anniversary of a classic. As it turns forty-five next month, I would encourage people to buy the album. On 3rd December, 1976, Bob Marley survived an assassination attempt in which his chest was grazed, and his arm was struck with a bullet, but he survived. After this harrowing incident, Marley left Jamaica and was exiled to London, where Exodus was recorded. Containing some of the group’s best work – including Waiting in Vain, Jamming, Exodus, and Three Little Birds – Exodus is an immaculate collection! Perhaps not as urgent and political as some of Bob Marley & The Wailers’ other work, Exodus is more accessible…though it is full of important songs and phenomenal performances. Before coming to a couple of glowing reviews for Exodus, there are articles that explain the story behind the album. The first feature, from udiscovermusic.com, looks back at Bob Marley’s role as a political and spiritual figure:

“A key figure of power and political influence”

Even before Exodus, Marley had become one of the best-known figures in the Third World. As Timothy White noted in Catch A Fire: The Life Of Bob Marley, the reggae star was “quoted as a poet, heralded as the West Indian Bob Dylan, even the Jamaican Jomo Kenyatta [Prime Minister and founding father of post-colonial Kenya].” This made Marley a key figure of power and political influence, whether he liked it or not. On returning to Jamaica after the Rastaman Vibration tour in 1976, he soon found himself caught up in events leading up to the general election of December 15.

The standing Prime Minister Michael Manley cajoled Marley into agreeing to perform at a free concert called Smile Jamaica, sponsored by the Ministry of Culture, to be staged ten days before the election. Manley reasoned that this “Jamaican Woodstock” would help to defuse tensions on the street before the election, while no doubt hoping it would deliver him a significant propaganda coup into the bargain. Tensions, however, remained anything but defused when, just after sunset on December 3, two cars drove through the front gate of Marley’s home at 56 Hope Road and unloaded several armed men who attacked the house where the Wailers were rehearsing.

Marley was hit by a bullet that creased his breast below his heart and lodged in his left arm. His wife Rita’s skull was grazed by a bullet that left her miraculously unharmed, while Marley’s manager, Don Taylor, was hit by five bullets in his lower body, which also somehow failed to kill him. The Smile Jamaica Concert went ahead at the National Heroes Park, Kingston two days later on 5 December. With the bullet still lodged in his arm, Marley demonstrated exactly why his street name was Tuff Gong, as he and the Wailers courageously put on a 90-minute performance in front of an audience of 80,000 fans, which mercifully passed off without incident. The next morning, Marley flew out of Jamaica and would not return for more than a year.

Shared punk’s outsider perspective of society

While his music had little in common with the abrasive, adrenaline-rush sound of punk rock, Marley shared punk’s outsider perspective of society as part of an established order that needed to change. After the Clash included Junior Murvin’s “Police And Thieves” on their first album, Marley wrote “Punky Reggae Party,” a song with a guest list that made his own allegiances abundantly clear. “New wave, new craze/The Jam, the Damned, the Clash/Wailers still be there/Dr Feelgood too,” he sang. The number was released as the B-side to “Jamming,” which reached No.9 in the UK singles chart, confirming Marley as a key figure in forging the unlikely but enduring alliance between UK punk and reggae.

The brush with death in Jamaica and the ensuing change of scene seemed to galvanize Marley creatively. “After the shooting, me never want to just think about shooting,” Marley told Vivien Goldman of Sounds. “So me just ease up me mind and go in a different bag. What me stand for me always stand for. Jah [God] is my strength.” The “different bag” was, in truth, not so different from previous albums, but Marley was now tapping into the motherlode with new confidence and urgency. There were two distinct sides to Exodus – literally so in its original vinyl format.

On Side One, the fire and brimstone was brought from simmering to boiling point as Marley offered a fiercely religious and politicized prescription for solving the ills of the world in a series of songs – “Natural Mystic,” “So Much Things To Say,” “Guiltiness,” “The Heathen” – each more messianic than the last. The side closed with the title track, a rippling, surging, seven-minute call to arms for a nation of displaced souls on the march to a new spiritual homeland. “We know where we’re going/We know where we’re from/We’re leaving Babylon,” Marley sang against a cyclical riff that was turned, like clay on a potter’s wheel, to perfection.

Sermon over, the party kicked off on Side Two with “Jamming,” the song which would later inspire Stevie Wonder’s ode to Marley “Masterblaster.” “Waiting In Vain” was a yearning expression of unrequited love that emphasized Marley’s often-overlooked skill and sense of humor as a lyric writer: “It’s been three years since I’m knocking on your door/And I still can knock some more/Ooh girl, is it feasible?” he pleaded. After the simple expression of optimism encapsulated in “Three Little Birds” (“Every little thing gonna be all right”), the album ended with a reprise of the Wailers 1965 single “One Love” an inspirational message of faith, harmony, and solidarity now spliced to the Curtis Mayfield tune of “People Get Ready”.

Classic Album Sundays is a magnificent album that has influenced and inspired so many people since 1977. It is a record that will go down as one of the all-time greats. The mixture of beauty and power makes it such a broad and appealing album that appeals to Reggae diehards and those who are not huge fans of the genre:

“Released in the summer of 1977, Bob Marley and The Wailers’ ‘Exodus’ is considered one of the most important reggae albums of all time. It spawned five hit singles: ‘Exodus’, ‘Waiting In Vain’, ‘Jamming’, ‘Three Little Birds’ and ‘One Love / People Get Ready’, peaked at Number 20 on the Billboard Pop Chart and was coined ‘the best album of the 20th century’ by Time magazine in 1999. It propelled Bob Marley into international stardom and set the stage for his most memorable performance at the One Love Peace Concert where he joined the hands of opposing party members Michael Manley of the People’s National Party and Edward Seaga of the Jamaican Labor Party.

The album is Marley’s most political and religious work but it also features beautiful, vivacious and downright funky and sexy jams. As a committed Rastafarian, Marley would often quote from The Bible, so it was no surprise that he chose to name his album after The Old Testament’s second book which portrays the exodus of the Israelites. However, there is another reason for the title choice as ‘Exodus’ also portrays a man experiencing his own personal exodus.

Marley and his wife Rita were shot in 1976 during an invasion into their own home two days before they were to play at the Smile Jamaica concert which was primarily an election rally for Michael Manley who was Jamaican Prime Minister at the time. They were both seriously wounded but despite the assassination attempt, Marley played the show and afterward he and his crew promptly left for London.

London was not only the other home of Island boss Chris Blackwell, but also the home of thousands of Jamaicans who had their own distinct community within the city. ‘Exodus’ was recorded at Blackwell’s Basing Street Studios in London in West London which was one heart of the Jamaican community. There in the Ladbroke Grove area is where Notting Hill Carnival started and clubs like the Metro Youth Club featured sounds like Dennis Bovell’s Sufferer Hi-Fi who played dub plates from Marley’s work in progress”.

To properly mark the approaching forty-fifth anniversary of Exodus, it is worth uniting a couple of reviews. AllMusic gave their thoughts on a mighty and enormously important album;

“After the success of 1974's Natty Dread and 1976's Rastaman Vibration, Bob Marley was not only the most successful reggae musician in the world, he was one of the most powerful men in Jamaica. Powerful enough, in fact, that he was shot by gunmen who broke into his home in December 1976, days before he was to play a massive free concert intended to ease tensions days before a contentious election for Jamaican Prime Minister. In the wake of the assassination attempt, Marley and his band left Jamaica and settled in London for two years, where he recorded 1977's Exodus. Thematically, Exodus represented a subtle but significant shift for Marley; while he continued to speak out against political corruption and for freedom and equality for Third World people, his lyrics dealt less with specifics and more with generalities and the need for peace and love (though "So Much Things to Say," "Guiltiness," and "The Heathen" demonstrate the bullets had taken only so much sting out of Marley's lyrics).

And while songs like "Exodus" and "One Love/People Get Ready" were anthemic, they also had less to say than the more pointed material from Marley's earlier albums. However, if Marley had become more wary in his point of view (and not without good cause), his skill as a songwriter was as strong as ever, and Exodus boasted more than a few classics, including the title song, "Three Little Birds," "Waiting in Vain," and "Turn Your Lights Down Low," tunes that defined Marley's gift for sounding laid-back and incisive at once. His gifts as a vocalist were near their peak on these sessions, bringing a broad range of emotional color to his performances, and this lineup of the Wailers -- anchored by bassist Aston "Family Man" Barrett, drummer Carlton Barrett, and guitarist Julian "Junior" Murvin -- is superb, effortlessly in the pocket throughout. Exodus was recorded at a time when Bob Marley was learning about the unexpected costs of international stardom, but it hadn't yet sapped his creative strengths, and this is one of the finest albums in his stellar catalog”.

I am going to wrap things up with another review. This one comes from the BBC. They argued how Exodus should be ranked alongside the very best work from Bob Marley & The Wailers – maybe sitting at the top spot:  

“Widely considered to be his best work, no other album has as many tracks featured on Legend; the biggest selling reggae record of all time. Exodus was also recorded between two key events in the Marley story; the assassination attempt and the One Love Peace Concert, marking his transformation from rebel to superstar in the eyes of the world.

Fittingly, it’s an album of two halves; opening with the slow fade-up of ''Natural Mystic'', followed by the exuberant ''So Much Things To Say''; with Bob’s reggae-scat on the final verse mimicking the ‘nonsense talk’ all around him. ''Guiltiness'' and ''The Heathen'' explore darker territory, before the glorious primordial shuffle of the title track.

''Jamming'' signals the change in tone, followed by ''Waiting In Vain'' (how to write the perfect love song using a few deft strokes) and the Clapton-esque ''Turn Your Lights Down Low'' (how not to). The album closes with the uplifting ''Three Little Birds'', and Curtis Mayfield adaptation ''One Love''.

Exodus was book-ended by the less well-received Rastaman Vibration and Kaya, which, oddly, both possess the one thing Exodus doesn’t; a sense of unity across the tracks. While the earlier songs could easily have ended up on Kaya (the sessions overlapped) the later ones sound like they came from a different session altogether”.

I know people will talk about Exodus on the forty-fifth anniversary on 3rd June. During a glorious run of albums from Bob Marley & The Wailers, Exodus arrived in the world. It must have been amazing hearing it for the first time! Forty-five years later, the album still sounds glorious and really like nothing else that has been recorded! Split over two halves – the more political compared with songs that are slower in tempo -, the amazing Exodus is…

A world-class album.

FEATURE: Paul McCartney at Eighty Paul McCartney and Me: The Interviews: Robert Lane

FEATURE:

 

 

Paul McCartney at Eighty

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

Paul McCartney and Me: The Interviews: Robert Lane

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I am almost at the end...

 PHOTO CREDIT: Richard Shakespeare

of my forty-feature run ahead of Paul McCartney’s eightieth birthday next month. In fact, this is the thirty-seventh piece. I have a final one planned for the week before his birthday, so there might be a bit of a gap after the next feature before the final two! This is an interview with musician and Macca fan Robert Lane. An incredible musician that I have following for years, he has provided his experiences and words about what Paul McCartney’s music means to him. It has been fascinating discovery the impact McCartney’s music has made on Robert. It is clear that the icon is...

 PHOTO CREDIT: Alamy

A musician that the world adores. 

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

When I was very small, I was cast as Sgt Pepper in the school Christmas show, The Christmas Postman. So my first exposure to McCartney was singing and marching along to the title track, with a moustache painted on my face, and some other less enthusiastic children behind me as ‘my band’.

In order to practice for the play, Mum bought the album on cassette, and I remember the first sound that came out of the tape deck was the weird backwards-party noise at the end of the album.

We also had some Beatles ‘learn keyboard’ books in the house, and I can remember looking at the titles and wondering what the songs like You Won’t See Me might be about…

“It confirmed my suspicions about Paul: amazing musician, songs pouring out of him, but also micromanaging to the extreme”.

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

I absorbed it like it was air!

It was fascinating (and sort of reassuring) to see that, like most people trying to make creative things happen, they often just bashed away at a fragment until it went somewhere. It’s easy to imagine their songs just fell out fully-formed and everyone knew what they were going to do next; as if they were as familiar with the songs then as we are now.

It confirmed my suspicions about Paul: amazing musician, songs pouring out of him, but also micromanaging to the extreme. My biggest takeaway was why didn’t they just have some time off after The White Album (The Beatles, 1968) and hang out together for a bit, rather than decide to do a T.V. show featuring all new songs!

That’s the beauty of The Beatles of course - always pushing on to the next thing.

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

Revolver

Wonderful experimentation, great mix of styles. Most importantly, fantastic songs.

McCartney

A couple of the best solo Macca tunes. Love the homemade vibe.

Wings Over America

Mainly for the vocal on Call Me Back Again.

“What must that have felt like to an artist who, up until then, had been met with complete success in his recording career? His response: keep making music. Keep writing songs. Very inspiring”.

As a songwriter yourself, how important has Paul McCartney been? What is it about his talent and innovation that resonates with you?

This is a hard question to answer, because it would be like trying to explain how important cellular respiration has been in my life. I’ll try and give a less obvious example I was thinking about recently. After The Beatles split, the first several albums Paul put out were not massively successful, with one even being restructured after rejection by the record label. What must that have felt like to an artist who, up until then, had been met with complete success in his recording career? His response: keep making music. Keep writing songs. Very inspiring.

Have you covered one of McCartney’s songs before? Is there one from him, Wings or his Beatles cannon that you are keen to interpret?

I’ve played loads of Paul songs. Almost all of them have something about that them that makes them challenging to play or sing…but it’s always rewarding getting into the nitty-gritty of how they work. During lockdown, I was asked to cover a Beatles song for a project and I chose Things We Said Today. It was a lot of fun getting very obsessed about things, like when the vocal was a double-tracked melody or doing a harmony etc.

 I feel that McCartney is a celebrated songwriter, but he remains undervalued in ways. A few of his albums do not get proper acclaim. What do you feel about this?

With such a large and groundbreaking back catalogue, it would be impossible for everything to get equal attention. Take the song For No One on Revolver. If that was by anybody else it would be a their most famous song, but as a Beatles tune it’s ‘just’ an album track. Then there’s albums like Ram, which I understand was met with a bit of a whimper when it was released, but it has gone on to become a very influential record. 

Do you have a lyric or line of his that means more than the rest or is particularly personal?

Hundreds! Possibly She’s Leaving Home is the best.

There will be a lot of eyes on him when he headlines Saturday night at Glastonbury on 25th June. What do you think we might get from that set in terms of the energy and songs choices?

It’s not always easy being a McCartney fan, and familiarity breeds contempt. So I guess he’ll do Hey Jude and split the audience into boys and girls to sing “Na na na nananana”.

I’m sure there will be a lot of love flowing from the crowd to Paul and back again. And, whatever he plays, it’s a privilege to exist at the same time as him.

”... there’s a small group that go beyond music into something approaching a way of life…”

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

I like…no, love, a lot of music and musicians. Amongst that, there’s a small group that go beyond music into something approaching a way of life. And at the top of the pile is McCartney and his friends from Liverpool.

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

I’d give him the original Beatles bass: the Hofner that was stolen at some point in 1969. The one he still owns and plays on stage today is a Beatles bass: a ’63 model he ordered as a replacement for the original ’61 he bought in Hamburg. Both can be seen in the Get Back doc, but the older one went missing just after that.

The man can buy himself almost anything. But not that, because no-one knows where it is!

Were you to have the chance to interview Paul McCartney, what is the one question you would ask him?

I genuinely think I would be unable to speak. Trying to think of something interesting that he hasn’t heard a million times before would probably make me very stressed…

Should I try and tell you that I would ask something worthy and deep about the creative process, or be a fanboy and ask something silly about The Beatles?

“Paul, where can I get a woolly jumper like the ones you wear in the Magical Mystery Tour film and the video for Waterfalls?”

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

Every Night.

FEATURE: The Lockdown Playlist: The Incredible Women of the 1990s

FEATURE:

 

 

The Lockdown Playlist

IN THIS PHOTO: Tori Amos 

The Incredible Women of the 1990s

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I have been watching Top of the Pops…

 IN THIS PHOTO: Björk

on Saturday evenings, where they provide a rundown of a particular year and the biggest songs. At the moment, they are covering the 1990s. 1998 has just been covered and, thinking back, one of the things that defines the decade is the incredible women. Whether it is the bands led by amazing women or solo artists/duos that captivated us, one of the reasons music of the ‘90s struck me and has stayed with me is because of female artists (whether they started their careers in the ‘90s or helped make the decade stronger). Trailblazers and hugely influential artists defined a glorious decade that influences so many artists today. I could not include all the phenomenal women of the decade but, for this playlist, I have assembled a selection of tracks from some of the strongest and most important. This is a ‘90s playlist of sensational songs…

 IN THIS PHOTO: En Vogue

FROM powerful and brilliant women.

FEATURE: Revisiting… Dua Lipa – Dua Lipa

FEATURE:

 

 

Revisiting…

Dua Lipa – Dua Lipa

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BECAUSE it turns five on 2nd June…

I thought I would feature Dua Lipa’s eponymous in this Revisiting… An album that introduced us to one of the world’s greatest and most accomplished Pop artists, the past few years have seen her grow from a promising and hugely exciting artist to someone who is commanding respect like few of her peers! With recent gigs cementing her as a modern Pop artist who can rival the all-time great idols, it will be exciting watching Lipa thrill on her third album. 2020’s Future Nostalgia is one of the great Pop albums of the past decade. I will come to a couple of reviews for Dua Lipa. I think that Lipa’s debut album is underrated. It received a lot of positive reviews, but there were others more cautious and reserved. Maybe there will be reappraisal ahead of the fifth anniversary of Dua Lipa next month. Before coming to a couple of positive reviews, I will source an interview with Lipa from 2017. Born in London, Dua Lipa is the eldest child of Kosovo-Albanian parents Anesa and Dukagjin Lipa from Pristina, FR Yugoslavia (present-day Kosovo). The rising Pop artist spoke with NME shortly before the release of her debut album:

“When people used to ask what I wanted to be I’d always say a singer, but I never thought it was a real job. I thought it was as far-fetched as cartoon characters on TV,” she says. Born in London to Albanian parents who left Kosovo in the ’90s, Lipa can remember making up dance routines in the playground to Jamelia’s ‘Superstar’ and Ciara’s ‘1, 2 Step’. Her dream seemed even more unlikely after her family returned to Kosovo when she was 11, calling time on Saturday classes at Sylvia Young Theatre School, where Amy Winehouse and Rita Ora – herself an immigrant from Kosovo – also started out. “Music there was so different,” Lipa says. “It just didn’t compare to the pop stars I’d see on TV, like Britney Spears and Destiny’s Child.”

Because Kosovo felt so constraining, a 15-year-old Lipa persuaded her parents she should return to London alone, so she could study full-time at Sylvia Young. “There was an older girl from Kosovo moving to London at the same time and my parents knew her parents, so they said I could live with her. Like a kind of guardian.” The two girls ended up sharing a flat in Kilburn, but the guardian thing never happened – Lipa had to go at it alone. “She was super-busy with her boyfriend and stressed with her studies. So I’d have lots of friends over all the time and I’d always be on FaceTime with my parents.”

At 15, music was Lipa’s biggest focus, and she was already learning life skills most of us don’t think about until university. “The cooking and the cleaning… that was tough,” she says with a self-deprecating laugh. “I mean, the realisation that no one was going to clean up after me was tough! But stuff like that really made me grow up before my time. It helped me mature, I guess, and made me who I am today. I’m really grateful for it, but I do remember it being a struggle. My mum came to visit once, opened my wardrobe and said, ‘What are all these clothes?’ I was like, ‘Those are all the dirty clothes that I’ve never washed!’”

The hustle paid off and at 18 she signed a record deal. But that wasn’t the end goal. Since then, she’s stayed in firm control of how she’s portrayed, who she works with and how she manages her ascent to stardom. She’s scored big hits with Sean Paul (‘No Lie’) and EDM star Martin Garrix (‘Scared To Be Lonely’), but she’s rejected other features because they didn’t feel right. “I knew there was a possibility they could push me to a larger audience, but I think when features aren’t done correctly they don’t represent who you are as an artist and you get a bit lost.”

Lipa co-wrote most of her album, but breakthrough banger ‘Be The One’ was given to her by songwriters Lucy Taylor and Nicholas James Gale. “As much as I loved the song, at first I wasn’t sure I wanted to record it because I hadn’t written it,” she recalls. “It was a pride thing, but it was also like, ‘I can’t take a song I haven’t written because then no one will believe I write any of my own stuff.’ But I just had to get over it. And now that song has helped me to get the stuff that I did write out there.”

The hard work doesn’t stop with a hit-packed, chart-ready debut album. She’s now preparing for a massive Glastonbury performance of her own and a whole summer of festivals. Everything revolves around building brand Lipa. “It’s like when you hear a voice on the radio and think, ‘Well, that’s Ed Sheeran.’ I want people to hear my voice, or my name, and think, ‘That’s the girl who sings ‘Hotter Than Hell’. That’s the girl who sings ‘Be The One’”.

I will come to some positive feedback for an album that, looking back, is an outstanding debut. Even though Dua Lipa would reach wider and higher for 2020’s Future Nostalgia, she was twenty-one when her debut arrived. CLASH had their say when they sat down with her album:

“Dua Lipa — who doesn’t require a stage name because her birth one is so striking — has made it very clear in press releases and interviews that this album is, well, her. It’s not a performance but a set of songs that reflect her life and the fact we all “go through the same fucking shit”. The question is: do we believe her?

When artists write about themselves, they’re expected to really bare their souls. It’s probably time this idea was disregarded, thrown to the wayside. Good music doesn’t have to have the tortured soul of an artist lurking beneath it. On Dua Lipa’s self-titled debut the London-born, Kosovo-raised artist gets personal. But she does so without resorting to bombast — at least for the most part. Dua Lipa isn’t baring her tortured innermost self, she’s singing songs about her life, her ups and her downs. This balance is undoubtedly refreshing.

Lipa, who made her name via Youtube at the age of 16, is only 21 but her music belies the confidence of someone older. She mentions J. Cole, Nelly Furtado and Christina Aguilera as influences, no surprise there given her sound. More surprising, however, are her references to the Stereophonics and Robbie Williams.

On first listen, what’s most striking about the twelve-song album is how Lipa manages to keep things texturally interesting. Of course, throughout the album there are increases and decreases in intensity. But Dua Lipa never relies on these to keep the listener hooked — that’s where the detailed percussion and satisfyingly complex melodies come in.

Slowburner ‘Genesis’ kicks off the album but ‘Hotter Than Hell’ is the first track to up the ante. Although it’s well produced, ‘Hotter Than Hell’ lacks a little of the genuine energy of Lipa’s other singles. ‘Be The One’, which follows, sparkles with that missing zeal. It’s a track to rival the best efforts of Lipa’s big-name pop contemporaries: a slinking baseline and vibrant, layered melodies.

The amusingly named ‘IDGAF’ takes crisp, almost militaristic drums and combines them with some of Lipa’s most cutting lyrics. When she sings: “You say you're sorry / But it's too late now / So save it, get gone, shut up / 'Cause if you think I care about you now / Well, boy, I don't give a fuck”, it’s easy to believe she means it. The touch of MNEK on production is notable — ‘IDGAF’ is likely the best track off the album.

Dua Lipa does encounter some minor pitfalls. On ‘Garden’, she succumbs to overproduced drums and lacklustre lyrics. When she sings: “Are we leaving this garden of Eden? / Now I know what I know / But it’s hard to find the meaning,” the dramatism falls somewhat flat. ‘New Rules’ brings things back on track, with pattering drums leading into a scorching chorus as elements of bashment, tropical house and glitchy horn-laced pop vie for attention. Tracks like ‘New Rules’ demonstrate exactly why critics picked Lipa out as one to watch last year.

The final result is a debut album brimming with confidence, confidence not only in Lipa’s own voice and her eye for a chorus, but in the emotive quality of her lyrics. When Dua Lipa reaches for the personal, she sounds like she's doing so because that’s where her best music emerges from, not because she think that’s what authentic artists do”.

If you not heard Dua Lipa in a while or want to go back ahead of its fifth anniversary, now would be a good time. It still sounds pretty fresh. Not losing any of its momentum and personality, it bears repeated plays after five years. AllMusic had their say about the incredible Dua Lipa:

“With the confidence and determination of a seasoned vet, English-Albanian singer/songwriter Dua Lipa crafted a delightful collection of catchy pop gems where the songs only serve to highlight her vocal prowess. Lithe enough to avoid production overkill and containing just enough substance to nourish, Dua Lipa arrived after years of studio time and six big singles (three of which became U.K. Top 40 hits). The album is front-loaded with those highlights, creating a rush of dancefloor intensity with "Hotter Than Hell," "Be the One," "Blow Your Mind (Mwah)," and the duet with Miguel, "Lost in Your Light." The second half of the LP shines an extra spotlight on Lipa's voice, which, to some extent, can echo the control and power of Adele and Sia. "Garden" is a sweeping, soulful number that does just that, combining the dramatics of a slow-burning Sia ballad with Adele's delivery. "No Goodbyes" is another emotional journey, one of the handful of absolutely yearning and pained confessions from Lipa's broken heart. The acoustic R&B "Thinking 'Bout You" smolders, a lovelorn lament that finds Lipa exhausting her chemical outlets in an attempt to forget a past romance.

In a similar vein, "New Rules" is all house-inflected shine, a cautionary list that cleverly warns "if you're under him, you're not over him." In addition to Miguel, a pair of other guests contribute additional highlights. The MNEK-produced kiss-off "IDGAF" is a cheeky, Ed Sheeran-esque singalong that provides a perfect anthem for anyone who has ever been burned by love. "Homesick" -- written by Chris Martin -- could be a direct sequel to Coldplay's 2016 single "Everglow." The delicate ballad reveals Lipa's vulnerability and softness, the defenses of studio production stripped away, leaving only Lipa, Martin, and a twinkling piano. Such exposure isn't found elsewhere on the rest of the album, which is mostly concerned with self-empowerment and Lipa's refreshingly defiant attitude. It's moments like this one that strike such a satisfying balance on Dua Lipa, an excellent first effort from a budding pop star”.

This series is about looking back at albums from the past five years that are worth another spin. I have extended the parameter by a few weeks, as Dua Lipa is coming up for its fifth anniversary. Few, despite their faith, would have guest how she would have progressed and grown as an artist from 2017 to now! Still in her twenties, she will continue to evolve as an artist. With Pop pearls like New Rules, IDGAF and Hotter Than Hell, Dua Lipa is…

A mighty debut album.  

FEATURE: Paul McCartney at Eighty: Thirty-Six: His Best Basslines

FEATURE:

 

 

Paul McCartney at Eighty

PHOTO CREDIT: Express/Getty Images 

Thirty-Six: His Best Basslines

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THERE are so many different…

facets and sides to Paul McCartney. From his incredible and timeless songwriting gift to his amazing consistency and endurance, there is so much to admire about the former Beatle. Today, I am going to put out a playlist containing some of McCartney’s best basslines. We all associate McCartney with his musicianship and versatility. Even though he is a master of so many instruments, I feel bass is his true love and what people associate him with. Many might debate the playlist but, below, we have the finest bass work from the incredible Paul McCartney. Ahead of his eightieth birthday in June, I am putting out forty features to celebrate the milestone. I don’t think there are any bass players quite like Macca. He has a talented and range that is staggering! Here are great basslines from…

 PHOTO CREDIT: Ullstein Bild/Getty Images

THE virtuosic Paul McCartney.  

FEATURE: Hello Earth! When Will We Properly Celebrate Kate Bush’s Legacy and Importance?

FEATURE:

 

 

Hello Earth!

When Will We Properly Celebrate Kate Bush’s Legacy and Importance?

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THERE will always be…

articles written about Kate Bush. She is always relevant, so there is something to write about all of the time. That is great. I have mentioned it before, but there is far less out there when it comes to documentaries and podcasts. In terms of the podcast markets, aside from fan-led ones that are broadcast every few months or so, there is nothing bigger in terms of guest calibre and scope. I have been meaning to launch a podcast myself but, due to a lack of recording space, it is harder to get off of he ground. The documentary side of things is far quieter. There has been some discussion, as a new documentary on YouTube, Running Up That Hill: How Kate Bush Became Queen of Alt-Pop | New British Canon, explores the icon. You can watch it here, and it is described thus:

“The mid-80s was make-or-break time for Kate Bush. Since her breakthrough in 1978, she’d been gradually alienating her fans with successive ambitious but non-commercial left turns. As such, her label EMI was seriously concerned for her future as a pop artist.

However, that all changed in 1985. She returned after 18 months at her farmhouse recording studio with her weirdness intact and a song about Faustian-deals, body swapping and the power of love. And it saved her career. This is New British Canon and this is the story of “Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God)”.

Although the documentary is quite short, it does cover quite a lot and is definitely made with passion. It is made with plenty of affection, but at about half an hour, it is not going to go into too much depth. I think that it is the issue when it comes to documentaries and podcasts about Kate Bush. They come about so rarely, and when they are do, they are brief. Questions are always asked about these podcasts/documentaries, as to whether they do Bush full justice. The answer is almost always ‘no’. For forty-five years, Kate Bush has wowed the world and stood out as one of the most astonishing and individual artists ever. Maybe there will be more coverage and exploration as we get to the fortieth anniversary of The Dreaming in September. Perhaps there is not going to be anything as expensive as a multi-part documentary, but there might be a podcast or two and some articles. Recently, several artists were inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, including Duran Duran. Kate Bush, nominated for a third time, was denied entry! I feel it is the American audience and market that is less familiar and adoring of her that means, even though she is worthy of being in such esteemed company, will never get there.

An alien in outer space looking down on Earth can see how important Kate Bush is and why she is so special. Every day, as I have explained, there are tweets and endless thoughts about her music and brilliance. More than almost every other artist, there is this passion and dedication that has remained and seems to increase. Looking back through the archives, there is not anything that has adequately and properly dug to the core of Kate Bush. Something that goes from childhood and the earliest days through to now, sure, would take a long time to cover, but it would be proper tribute to an iconic artist. Kate Bush turns sixty-five next year, so maybe that is the time to launch something like that. Not that we can complain too much. If there are documentaries, videos and podcasts, then that is a good thing. They add to the conversation about Kate Bush, and they provide opportunity for people to discover her music fresh, or think about it in a different way. There does need to be something that is more than a question answered or an album explored. Such a long and important career deserves sufficient length and coverage! There was a lot of negative reaction around the fact Bush was excluded from the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. It shows there is this justification that she is incredibly influential and worthy of the highest honours.

What is the solution going forward? I do think that there could be a website that collates all the documentaries and podcasts made about Kate Bush. Though there have been a few through the decades, it shows there is a gap for an all-conquering and definitive study of an artist who cannot be labelled or limited. From her influence on various communities to her production work, through to her varied catalogue and the way she has changed the face of music, so many people would like to have their say about Kate Bush. This is something that I keep bringing up but, more and more, there is this desire for something proper and lengthy! This is not to take away anything from people who have put out podcasts and documentaries. They are all great and need to be out there. I just feel these things skim the surface and do not go deep enough. Maybe there will be a solution and answer to that problem soon. It has been a fairly quiet last few years from Kate Bush in terms of news and releases. That has not dented the sense of excitement and buzz about her work. If anything, she has only grown in stature and importance! Recognising this impact and legacy is something that needs to happen sooner rather than later. A series of podcasts or an immersive and three/four-part documentary about the peerless Kate Bush would be more than earned. There is no doubt that she has changed the lives of…

MILLIONS of people.