Joan Osborne Songs of Bob Dylan WOMANLY HIP RECORDS People have often voiced an opinion around the likes of Dylan and Leonard Cohen – Lou Reed and Neil Young too, perhaps – that they like the songs, just not when the writer in question is singing them. But that would surely miss the point. Yes, […]
The Wellington Film Society’s program will soon take a break for a couple of weeks to welcome The International Film Festival but there’s still a couple of weeks of films and then the program returns in mid-August for another few months. Following on from last week’s showing of Young Torless we are back in contemporary […]
Doug Clifford Doug “Cosmo” Clifford [Reissue] Craft Recordings Doug “Cosmo” Clifford was the drummer in CCR – and still is. Except now it’s Creedence Clearwater Revisited where once it was Revival in name only… I always thought he was a crucial component of the band – his presence, his feel. No frills, and those big, […]
Welcome to episode 124 of Sweetman Podcast with support from our sponsors – T Leaf T, Yeastie Boys and Le Petite Chocolat. I was chuffed to finally get to have a good long yarn with Bill Direen; to meet him even. We’d never met though we had corresponded. I had reached out to him a while back to podcast – and […]
Neneh Cherry, Inna City Mama [12” Single] (1989) Yes, yes I’ve gone about this enough I know – but when my son Oscar met Neneh Cherry it was a big deal for me, as was interviewing her and seeing the gig. She was one of those ones, one of the musical acts I felt like […]
Songs For Nobodies Direction: Ross Gumbley (written by Joanna Murray-Smith) Circa Theatre; Circa One (July 7 – August 4) [Ali-Cat Productions Ltd] Ali Harper here performs ten roles, a dozen voices, as – variously – the famous singers Judy Garland, Patsy Cline, Edith Piaf, Billie Holiday and Maria Callas. But she is also the “nobodies”, […]
The man down the road stops me to talk of his cancer – sore throat, blocked ears; three separate trips to the doctor. You’re fine. You’re not fine. Strep-throat. Take a sick day. A few months on – it’s throat cancer; sorry. But he’s on the mend and he’s – massively – on the meds. […]
I love Chic. I love Nile Rodgers. And yet I had never heard C’est Chic until just recently. I have listened to live albums and watched the recent DVDs and then way ahead of that I’ve had compilations and I regularly jam the key tracks, the big singles, the obvious stuff…but it’s weird that I’ve […]
I never knew if my mum ever read my poems. last weekend we caught up briefly. she couldn’t remember the name of the book she’d been reading, nor the author – but she definitely had it – somewhere – on her kindle. “you’d like her”, she said. “she writes all her stories a bit like […]
Rockmelons, Tales of the City (1988) Rockmelons – or “The Rockies” in that Australian parlance of the day (and now). Fairly ordinary band, possibly dreadful. Listening to it now – well it only seems absurd. Why did I want this? I have no fuckin idea. Rockpile… Now there’s a fucking band!
The Wellington Film Society’s program will soon take a break for a couple of weeks to welcome The International Film Festival but there’s still a couple of weeks of films and then the program returns in mid-August for another few months. Following on from last week’s showing of Les Cowboys we travel back in time […]
my dad and my brother have this story… they were driving in my car. they were listening to a tape I had left in there. it was agreeable to them, for them; some Talking Heads greatest hits-type thing. and just then, they drove past the cemetery and my dad pointed and nodded referencing his […]
