Chris Haddon - August 2008

  by Admin

published: 31 / 7 / 2008

intro

Hello and welcome to the August edition of the Pennyblackmusic magazine. We don't do set out to themes at Pennyblackmusic, but, having said that, sometimes themes emerge. This month in our interviews section

Hello and welcome to the August edition of the Pennyblackmusic magazine. We don't do set out to themes at Pennyblackmusic, but, having said that, sometimes themes emerge. This month in our interviews section we have found ourselves, without really meaning to, on a nostalgia trip back to the early 80's, and are running interviews with three of the big names of the era. Anthony Strutt speaks to Lol Tolhurst, the now Los Angeles-based co-founder of the Cure and other than Robert Smith its longest-serving continuous member about his time in the group between 1973 and 1989 and his current group Levinhurst. Tommy Gunnarsson meanwhile speaks to Nik Kershaw, one of the stars of Live Aid, and the writer of such hits as 'I Won't Let the Sun Go Down on Me' and 'Wouldn't It Be Good', about his past, present and future, and latest album, 'You've Got to Laugh'. There is also an interview with Dave Ball, the keyboardist, with the ever controversial electronic duo Soft Cell, which has a remixes double CD, 'Heat', out in early September, and who talks about the band's history and his long musical relationship with Marc Almond. With our lead interview this month, things are, however, kept much more current as Dominic Simpson talks to Ethan Miller from much acclaimed psychedelic garage rockers Comets on Fire about his group, and its various offshoots acts such as Howlin' Rain and Six Organs of Admittance. There are also interviews with former drug addict, self-made millionaire and now poet and social agitator Ian Wills about his well-received electro band the Willing's forthcoming second album, 'Heroes and Villains', and also Terry Edwards from Gallon Drunk about his musical interpretation of Derek Raymond's brutal crime novel, 'I Was Dora Suarez', which reecorded with Raymond and his bandmate James Johnston in 1993, has just been reissued on CD. In our profiles section, there is an article on BBC Radiophonic Workshop and sound engineer John Baker,who has just been the subject of two consecutively-released retrospective compilations. There are also film reviews of Shane Meadows' latest film, 'Somers Town' and Belgian director Nic Balthazer's directorial debut, 'Ben X', and a review as well of Italian post rock act La Nuit Americaine's new DVD, 'Dream Vs Dream'. In our live section, there are overviews of the recent Indietracks, Ottawa Cisco System Bluesfest and Lovebox Weekender festivals, and also of recent gigs from Neil Young,Death Cab for Cutie, Leonard Cohen, Radiohead, Morrissey, Mudhoney, MJ Hibbett, the Wedding Present, the Blakes, Boris and the Wave Pictures. In our features section, Ben Howarth provides the 'Soundtrack of Our Lives' column, 'in which our writers write about the personal impact of music on their lives, and tells how the Beatles have provided a constant backdrop to his life. Ben is also back with his regular 'Condemned to Rock 'n' Roll' column and looks at some of the sacred cows of rock, including the Rolling Stones, Pink Floyd, Alanis Morisette, Sonic Youth and Fleetwood Mac. Russell Ferguson provides the remaining three parts of his six part photographic montage and history which chronicles New Model Army's hardcore fanbase as they followed the band as it toured across Britain and Europe in the 90's. There are also Photoscapes from Katie Anderson of Hadouken and Subways shows at the Wedgewood Rooms in Portsmouth. Our Re : view section, in which we look back at albums from the past, examines Pulp's 1998 album, 'This is Hardcore', while Our Website of the Month is Virtual Festivals, a website dedicated exclusively to UK festivals. There are also 32 album and single reviews. In our previous mid-month reviews up-date we ran a further 20 reviews. We have two new writers this month. Anthony Middleton is a London-based former journalist and contributed the live Leonard Cohen and Wave Pictures reviews. Sophie Hall, who contributed the Re : View on Pulp, is a music fan from Bolton. Thank you to Anthony and Sophie. This has been a difficult magazine to get on-line in many ways, and thanks are also due to Peter Allison, Malcolm Carter, Andrew Carver, Dan Cressey, Anthony Dhanendran, Russell Ferguson, Tommy Gunnarsson, Ben Howarth, Adrian Huggins, Sarah Johnson, Sarah Maybank, Sarah Mwangi, Chris O’ Toole, Jamie Rowland, Mark Rowland, Maarten Schiethart, Dominic Simpson, Olga Sladeckova, Anthony Strutt , and Helen Tipping for their usual good humour and patience and all of whom contributed articles to either this edition or the mid-month up-date. Special thanks to our webmaster Richard Banks at Pennyblackmusic HQ for all his work behind gthe scenes. We will be back in mid August with another mid-month reviews up-date and then in September with another full edition. We hope then to be running interviews then with the Love Affair's Steve Ellis, Hey Negrita, the XX Teens, ballboy, No Age, Viarosa, Kelman, Alexander Tucker, the Hermit Crabs and the Retro Spankees. There will be more 'Profiles'. We will also have another 'Re : View', another 'Website of the Month' and more features, live reviews and album and single reviews. Thank you as always for reading. John Clarkson Magazine Editor www.pennyblackmusic.co.uk

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