George Fenton / Simon Chamberlain The Piano Framed Shogun Music Ltd British composer George Fenton has worked across all mediums – radio dramas and TV, documentary and feature narrative film, theatre, absolutely the works. And within that there are some longstanding collaborations and connections, with the BBC, for the films of Ken Loach and then […]
he stands in his suit. the scarf around his neck lets you know he really means it. his words are strong and you could never sing along. he says “you like that?” at the end of each poem. and i did. i’m sure we all did. his words are hard fought, he sells them easily.
Yo La Tengo Sleepless Night [EP] Matador This new EP by Yo La Tengo features covers that stretch back over the last decade or so. As always with this band there’s equal awe for the versions they offer and the mere song-selection. It’s cool, or reassuring, or reassuringly cool to know that that band you’ve […]
Like most of the things I do – from providing commentary on radio, to my own Vinyl Countdown posts here, indeed to any of my blogging, it happened by accident. It started randomly and has continued in much the same fashion. But I now have a YouTube channel where I share my poems. Someone sent me some footage of […]
Billie Holiday: The Last Interview and Other Conversations Billie Holiday (w/ introduction by Khanya Mtshali) Melville House I’m a big fan of The Last Interview series (there’s more being added every time I check in – including, I see, a Ruth Bader Ginsburg one is being readied).
you never know your luck, he said. next day, he was dead.
The Bobby Lees Skin Suit Alive Records I love a bit of dirty garage rock. But there’s a fine line between garage and garbage. A lot of pretenders. A lot of noble failures too, granted. It can be tough trying to steer straight, even when you aren’t trying to reinvent the wheel as you drive.
Bob Dylan, Tight Connection To My Heart (Has Anybody Seen My Love) [Single] (1985) A lot of people reckon Empire Burlesque is rubbish – but I don’t. I quite like it. And I don’t think that’s just because I’m a bit of a Bob Dylan Tragic. Though, granted. It’s by no means a lost classic, […]
Some 20 years ago, I took a call to interview an Ethiopian poet in Wellington. His was a refugee story. He had a book out – and I jumped in my car, met him at his job and asked him a few questions. Home straight after, I typed it up, drove back into town to […]
Kurt Vile Speed, Sound, Lonely KV [EP] Matador I guess it’s a wee stopgap – though this EP is something Vile was chipping away at, recorded in bits and pieces across several years during visits to Nashville.
It’s been a tough year for Poetry at The Fringe, as it’s been a tough year for everyone and everything. Events. Tough to sort and plan and adapt – and just as you’re going again you’re not. Poetry at The Fringe started. Then stopped. Then started again. And then stopped. The Fringe Bar was cautious […]
ABBA, Dancing Queen [Single] (1976) I can’t lie – I really started to appreciate ABBA after I heard Elvis Costello’s little nod to them in his Oliver’s Army tune. If he liked them they must be good. Prior to that it was just radio music from when I was a young kid and everyone seemed […]