This is a new song I found in my sleep. I had been trying to understand the approach of less melodic artists like Nick Cave, with their dark and moody intensity, not a vibe that I normally create. One day I heard the chorus of this song, with lyrics, as I was waking up. ItContinue reading “It’s ok to be moody…”
Under the Skin: The Lure of Leather
I have fond memories of certain headshop in Sheffield that helped me through my adolescence. I often used to go in there, and after browsing the vinyl LPs and sniffing the packets of incence I would look through the second-hand leather jackets, trying one on occasionally as a kind of rebel fantasy. But one dayContinue reading “Under the Skin: The Lure of Leather”
Hipsters: The Phantom Menace
To many, they are the scapegoats of the age, the visible minority it’s ok to hate. Not gypsies, junkies or chavs but HIPSTERS. Here they come with their beards and bobble hats, on rusty racers and skateboards, to take over derelict buildings, open coffee shops and artists’ studios. Uniformly non-conformist, they are the 21st centuryContinue reading “Hipsters: The Phantom Menace”
Sharks by Tom George
This is a song that I wrote when a friend asked me to appear at his ‘dream-pop’ themed event. I hadn’t heard of the genre before, but started strumming at my guitar, and this is what came out – kind of dreamy, kind of melancholic. “The sharks are in the park, your heart is onContinue reading “Sharks by Tom George”
What makes a classic?
Me and Herman Melville are so over. After 298 pages of Moby Dick – that’s halfway through – I’ve finally called off the hunt for enjoyment. If I’d made it to page 300 that would have at least been some kind of landmark, a respectable point at which to give up. I didn’t want itContinue reading “What makes a classic?”
Beat This! My Ten Favourite Drummers…
As a kid, I had so much rhythm bursting out of my soul that I would play on anything, with anything. I would tap on school desks with pens, then click my teeth together as I walked home. In the lounge, I would line up cushions on the sofa and hit them with wooden spoonsContinue reading “Beat This! My Ten Favourite Drummers…”
Paint, Protest and Putin: Liverpool’s New Radical Art
With revolution erupting in Ukraine, and Putin’s thugs whipping members of Pussy Riot at the Sochi games, an art show themed on protest could not have had a more fitting backdrop. Seventy people squeezed into Arena Gallery’s bijou central Liverpool space for the private view of “Objections”, the latest show by Not Just Collective, an artContinue reading “Paint, Protest and Putin: Liverpool’s New Radical Art”
Is ALL television really shit (and evil) ?
I have seen so much television in my life that my cultural identity would have been completely different without it. From a childhood nourished by magical BBC programmes through years of outstanding telly I am steeped in influences from the medium…and yet I increasingly come into contact with people for whom TV is irrelevant, orContinue reading “Is ALL television really shit (and evil) ?”
England, 1967 – Jimi Hendrix had good reasons to smile…
The American guitarist had made it big in the UK and was already causing psychedelic earthquakes back home; it must have seemed like all his dreams were coming true. I was so glad to find this footage on youtube recently which captures him in the first flush of fame at his irrepressible best. The mostContinue reading “England, 1967 – Jimi Hendrix had good reasons to smile…”
Ten Great Protest Songs (for Pete Seeger)
The music community recently mourned the great Pete Seeger, who finally left the stage at the grand old age of 94. Seeger was a key figure in the protest song tradition, nurturing and inspiring a generation of left-leaning folkies including Bob Dylan. It occurred to me that when Seeger started performing in the 1940’s, heContinue reading “Ten Great Protest Songs (for Pete Seeger)”
Tom George 