Nostalgia ain’t what it used to be
A comment left against this Guardian review suggested that late 1960s was an unrepeatable golden age of music. Some conversations I’ve had with people a few years older or younger than me in the bar...
View ArticleRitchie Blackmore – 10 of the best
The Guardian have just published my piece on Ritchie Blackmore for their “10 of the best” series. Like some of my previous entries in this series, reducing the essence of a major artist’s career down...
View ArticleEverything I know about the world of work, I owe it to Iron Maiden
So says Mat Davies on Medium More than just having very loud songs that you could play very loudly, Iron Maiden opened doors to literature, art, greek mythology, nineteenth century poetry, science...
View ArticleCambridge Rock Festival open thread
Now CRF 2016 is confirmed, what bands would we like to see? I think we can all take it that Mostly Autumn are a given, but what other bands would make a good bill? To set the ball rolling, a few names...
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Reading Festival Nostalgia
It’s Reafing Festival weekend. The streets of the town are full of people in wellies and the supermarkets contain stacks of cheap lager the size of Canary Wharf. It all reminds me of the last Reading...
View ArticleVideo Killed The Radio Star
Reading yet another thinkpiece about a music video, I think I now understand exactly why the years 1955-1985 were a golden age of popular music. 1955, of course, was the birth of rock’n'roll. But what...
View ArticleWhere are they now?
Got to love this accidentally-hiliarious “Where are they now” feature on the NME’s indie darlings from ten years ago. As for the first one, if being a software developer is really more creative and...
View ArticleProg, Still Misunderstood?
There’s a well-meaning but flawed piece in the Telegraph about Prog, probably inspired by The Chart Company’s launch of a new progressive music chart. It does namecheck a lot of the new generation of...
View ArticleRadio Men and Motors
XFM, which always was Radio NME, has decided to dumb itself down, rebranding itself as “Radio X” recruiting former Radio One DJ Chris Moyles to become a “male-focussed entertainment brand“. Alexis...
View ArticleWhy I Became a Prog Fan, Part N
I was probably only about nine or ten when ITV’s investigative journalism flagship “World in Action” did a program about trains. The particular issue concerned a spate of derailments involving short...
View ArticleWho Won The Punk Wars?
In a week’s time I’m seeing Johnny Rotten in a small club in Reading, then two days later I’m seeing Steven Wilson at the Albert Hall. Who won the punk wars again?
View ArticleJust One Song
This one came up on Twitter a few days ago: Which song do you love by an artist you otherwise can’t stand? If you stop and think about it, it’s easier said than done. I’ll bet that for most bands where...
View ArticleMorrissey’s List of the Lost
After reading Michael Hann’s wnderfuly snarky review of Morrissey’s List of the Lost, I’m now wondering if the world of books needs its revenge. What bitter misanthropic has-been author with an...
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In The Court of the Crimson King
Today is the 46th anniversary of the release of King Crimson’s first album, “In The Court of the Crimson King”. This is an album that’s been a cornerstone of the progressive rock canon ever since its...
View ArticleMainstream vs Popular?
Over on Twitter, Serdar Yegulalp made the observation that “Mainstream” and “Popular” art, while they often overlap, are not the same thing. The former is that which gets widespread attention in the...
View ArticleI Marked Your Essay on Prog and Give it an E-Minus
Sometimes you read something that makes you nostalgic for the really bad writing from student newspapers. The arch, bombastic style that can only come from a writer too young to have developed any...
View ArticleThe Mercury nominatios vs. the Test Match
Yesterday I compared the announcement of the nominations for the Mercury Music Award with the England vs Pakistan Test Match. It may have been a day premature; had the Mercury nominations turned out...
View ArticleSupport Live Music
This is a bit of a rant. I’m not going to name the band because it won’t do them any favours having this come up in Google searches for their name. You can probably work out who they were if you really...
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Support Bands: What exactly are they for?
Fahran, suppotying Morpheus Rising at Bilston Robin 2 This is another of those blog posts inspired by some discussion on Twitter, in this case about support bands. We’ve all been to gigs where the...
View ArticleNeo-Prog Three Decades On
Joe Banks writing in The Quietus has a grear piece in Neo-Prog Three Decades On, covering the likes of IQ, Pendragon and Pallas. He’s spot on when it comes to Twelfth Night. His description of “Fact...
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