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December 3, 2019 by Simon Sweetman
Back To The Excellent: Wings’ Much Maligned But Brilliant Back To The Egg Album at 40
At some stage in the coming weeks or months or next year there will be a new reissue by Sir Paul of Macca – his often shat-on final Wings album, Back To The Egg is rumoured to be part of the next round in the ongoing reissue/reappraisal reviewing of the McCartney/Wings canon. It’s possibly my […]Archive
November 13, 2019 by Simon Sweetman
Re-Righting The White Album: Choose Your Own Tracklisting
When Steve Gunn was in town last week I recorded a conversation with him for a future episode of Sweetman Podcast. You’ll get to hear that soon and it was a lovely chat. By the end of it we were geeking out over The Beatles and many other things to do with music. And then […]Archive
September 1, 2019 by Simon Sweetman
Don’t Fight It – It’s Bigger Than The ID
We don’t know how lucky we are. The music that means the most to me from New Zealand artists is barely ever the product of a funding body, doesn’t have corporate sponsors, isn’t major label-endorsed. It’s the battlers. It’s about brave hearts and (sometimes) troubled souls. It’s about an energy. An anger. A feeling. It’s […]Archive
April 11, 2019 by Simon Sweetman
The Hardest I’ve Ever Not Worked
People tell you not to read the comments – but you can really learn a lot about yourself. For example: Did you know that I used to earn enough to pay my mortgage by trolling music fans on Stuff? Neither did I. That was definitely news to me. I must have been stuck in that dreary day-job […]Archive
April 1, 2019 by Simon Sweetman
That Time Robbie Williams Shared A Lovely Picture to Only Summon Hate
I attended a Robbie Williams concert. That alone should have just been the bizarre thing – as a music fan with a hunger to write I’ve stooped fairly low previously. I once interviewed Shaznay of The All Saints. I attended a Wing “concert” in a tiny function room in a budget hotel. They served tea and coffee […]Archive
March 26, 2019 by Simon Sweetman
Give My Regards To St. Mary Street
We lived in Thorndon – St Mary Street – for just over six years. It was the first house we owned. A wee cottage. We loved it so much. There were great kitchen parties and music was always a feature. We moved in the day Ray Charles died. I know this because when I was collecting boxes […]Archive
February 1, 2019 by Simon Sweetman
Air NZ Cancelled Its Safety Vid – But Not Before I Got To See Just How Gloriously Pointless It Really Was
A couple of months ago there was all sorts of outcry over the latest Air NZ safety video. Like many people that aren’t super-frequent flyer I rushed to YouTube to check out the vid. It was wonderful. A candy-coloured walk of shame through our very best cultural cringe. Here was the try-hard New Zealand attempting to be quirky and show off […]Archive
January 4, 2019 by Simon Sweetman
Sweetman Podcast # 149: Simon and Nick at the Hawke’s Bay Arts Festival
Welcome to episode 149 of Sweetman Podcast with support from our sponsors – T Leaf T, Yeastie Boys and La Petite Chocolat. Here’s something different. Last year I was invited along to speak with Nick Bollinger at the Hawke’s Bay Arts Festival. It was a lot of fun. Part of a magic weekend in fact. And with the permission of Nick […]Archive
December 31, 2018 by Simon Sweetman
2018: My Year in Review
Adapting. That’s the goal of the music and arts journo now. Has been the case for a few years. But never more so than right now. I started 2018 wondering if there was much point in writing or if there were any readers left for me at all even. I then decided it was about […]Archive
September 9, 2018 by Simon Sweetman
No Holiday: On The Decision Around Having “Another”
This piece first appeared on The Spinoff and is also included as one of the pieces in the book “Is It Bedtime Yet?” by Emily Writes & Friends I always wanted a daughter named Billie. Simple really. As soon as I heard Billie Holiday’s voice I was sold. Her voice, that sound, and the idea of her […]Archive
August 29, 2018 by Simon Sweetman