Recent Posts Tagged With 'music'

• Feature: Overpaid, oversexed and over here

  Posted on Thursday November 5th, 2009 at 12:40 in music, chicago, interview, detroit, features, house music, 1998, marshall jefferson, expletive undeleted, big issue in the north, claude young jr, deejay punk-roc

  THE first time Charles Gettis came to the UK was as a private in the 91st Airborne Division of the US Army. His first sight of the country came through the early morning November mists covering the vast open spaces of the Greenham Common airbase near...

• Interview: Amp Fiddler

  Posted on Monday October 26th, 2009 at 08:27 in music, interview, detroit, interviews, 2004, george clinton, nu-soul, amp fiddler, expletive undeleted, the big issue in the north, waltz of a ghetto fly

  JOSEPH ‘Amp’ Fiddler has a theory that conversations are the dynamic for change in our lives and I’m with him all the way. How true this is when you’re speaking over the phone, I’m not so sure. Surely you need to be clos...

• Feature: The Band on the Wall, reborn

  Posted on Wednesday September 23rd, 2009 at 02:20 in music, features, manchester, jah wobble, a certain ratio, expletive undeleted, the big issue in the north, graham massey, martin moscrop, the band on the wall

  THERE are plenty of venues in Manchester that are bigger than the Band on the Wall, and there may even be a few with a higher profile – but none of them can boast the same kind of musical pedigree. A tavern, pub and venue which, in one form or ...

• Interview: Steve Albini

  Posted on Sunday August 23rd, 2009 at 13:33 in music, interview, interviews, leeds, 1988, steve albini, big black, rapeman, david sims, scratch acid, expletive undeleted, rey washam

  ANOTHER reprint from the annals of GRUNT magazine, this time an interview with legendary guitar-botherer, microphone enthusiast and In Utero, Surfer Rosa and Pod engineer Steve Albini. After Big Black imploded at the height of their dark, angry powe...

• Hip Replacement: Magic Reggae by Various Artists (K-Tel International)

  Posted on Thursday July 30th, 2009 at 16:16 in music, reggae, 1980, desmond dekker, hip replacement, old records, owen gray, althea & donna, bill lovelady, k-tel international, magic reggae, the pioneers

  THIS is where it starts getting tricky. It’s getting on for three decades ago since I first heard this album, so you’re just going to have to bear with me if it all gets a bit sketchy. Magic Reggae, a collection of music by Island, Creole, Trojan...

• Hip Replacement: Temptation by Heaven 17 (BEF/Virgin)

  Posted on Friday June 5th, 2009 at 07:42 in music, temptation, 1983, hip replacement, heaven 17, synth-pop, old records

  BREAKFAST television was a new and exciting concept. New kid on the telly block Channel 4 was showing the very creepy and disturbing Minipops. Everyone thought it was simply hilarious when some student asked if he could have a P please Bob on Blockbu...

• Interview: Shaun Ryder*1

  Posted on Tuesday May 12th, 2009 at 14:59 in music, interview, manchester, interviews, 2003, shaun ryder, expletive undeleted, the big issue in the north, the happy mondays, amateur night in the big top

  WHEN Shaun Ryder – erstwhile actor, author, newspaper columnist, Salfordian crooner, lyrical genius and a man who was banned from Channel Four for saying the fuck-word at tea time – sits you down in his living room and says that he wants to t...

• Hip Replacement: Charly by the Prodigy (XL Recordings)

  Posted on Sunday April 26th, 2009 at 10:57 in music, rave, leeds, audacity, 1991, raving, charly, the prodigy, hip replacement, old records, the phoenix, hardcore rave

  E-COMMERCE meant something very different to what it means today. It’s not like we didn’t have good reason. It seemed like Thatcher had been around forever and she didn’t appear to be in a hurry to relinquish her icy, vice-like grip on the thro...

• Interview: Bebel Gilberto

  Posted on Tuesday March 3rd, 2009 at 08:53 in music, Brazil, interview, interviews, 2004, 2003, bossa nova, city life, bebel gilberto, suba, joao gilberto, expletive undeleted

  I’D LOVE to be able to pretend that bossa nova has been a big part of my life for years and years, but the fact is I didn’t really get it - or any of that easy, lounge stuff - until I heard Bebel Gilberto’s major label debut, Tanto Tempo, in 20...

• Hip Replacement: LKJ In Dub by Linton Kwesi Johnson (Island Records)

  Posted on Wednesday February 25th, 2009 at 14:56 in music, reggae, 1980, hip replacement, linton kwesi johnson, old records, dennis bovell, lkj in dub

  I HAVE a vague recollection of buying LKJ In Dub with Christmas gift vouchers from the exotic and exciting Record Village in town. I think it had been out for a while, but it was probably one of the first dub albums I ever owned - as opposed to havin...

• Interview: Bogshed

  Posted on Tuesday February 10th, 2009 at 06:21 in indie, music, interview, interviews, 1986, c86, expletive undeleted, airstrip fanzine, bogshed, the hangar

  THOUGH it’s now routinely derided by the latest crop of fat, bitter and aged pop historians – that’s my gig, thank you very much – the NME’s C86 cassette was an essential purchase for those of us not in thrall to the emerging sound of h...

• Interview: Andrew Weatherall

  Posted on Tuesday February 3rd, 2009 at 06:54 in music, Dub, interview, techno, electronica, interviews, leeds, 1993, andrew weatherall, expletive undeleted, soundclash, the northern star

  HE MIGHT describe himself as the “classic underachiever”, but Andrew Weatherall doesn’t seem to have done so badly. A music and fashion nut from Windsor with an unhealthy obsession for the minutiae of the rituals and mores of a string of differ...

• Hip Replacement: The Curse Of Zounds by Zounds (Rough Trade)

  Posted on Tuesday January 27th, 2009 at 13:59 in music, 1981, punk rock, lush, hip replacement, anarcho-punk, rough trade, old records, demystification, dirty squatters, the curse of zounds, zounds

  AS MUCH as I loved fast and furious bands like Antisect, Amebix and Discharge, who operated at the heavier, more raucous end of anarcho punk, there was also a place within my heart for the bands who took a stealthier approach, who sang rather than sh...

• Feature: Gothic and proud

  Posted on Tuesday January 13th, 2009 at 06:18 in music, features, goth, leeds, 1988, the sisters of mercy, andrew eldritch, expletive undeleted, grunt magazine

  IT’S easy to take the piss out of Goths - well, it was until the fashionistas went all Gothic-luxe on us. I’m sure it must have absolutely horrified original Goths, bless ‘em. They must be an awful lot happier (it’s all relative) ...

• Interview: Chuck D

  Posted on Wednesday January 7th, 2009 at 07:16 in music, interview, hip hop, interviews, 1999, public enemy, chuck d, expletive undeleted, the big issue in the north, there's a poison goin' on

  I DID this interview with Chuck D in August 1999, ahead of the release of Public Enemy’s seventh album, There’s A Poison Goin’ On. Can you tell that I didn’t really know what I was talking about when it came to all the downloa...

• Hip Replacement: Grotesque: After The Gramme by The Fall (Rough Trade)

  Posted on Tuesday December 30th, 2008 at 10:06 in music, manchester, 1980, the fall, hip replacement, rough trade, old records, grotesque: after the gramme

  “‘GROTESQUE’ is the new LP by The Fall .. The Fall are the group who keep being brought up and slagged by other insecure bands – this automatically invokes a curse on them which usually takes its toll. This is true. Most people who like The F...

• Interview: Sonic Youth

  Posted on Sunday October 26th, 2008 at 12:16 in music, interview, interviews, sonic youth, 1987, expletive undeleted, airstrip fanzine

  THIS is a reprint of an interview with Sonic Youth I did for Airstrip*6 fanzine in mid 1987. Note fake Americanisms and early cut-and-paste plagiarism. * * * “BOLLOCKS!” Thurston Moore, one quarter of  this week’s ‘Best Band in the World Eve...