Miscellaneous - April 2011

  by Admin

published: 20 / 3 / 2011

intro

Hello and welcome to the April edition of the Pennyblackmusic Magazine.The era in which people would stand all night outside record shops and theatres for concert tickets has over the last few years gone. Instead in this age

Hello and welcome to the April edition of the Pennyblackmusic Magazine. The era in which people would stand all night outside record shops and theatres for concert tickets has over the last few years gone. Instead in this age of technology, it can all be done, usually at 9 a.m. on a Friday morning, by the internet from the luxury of home or at work when hopefully the boss isn’t looking. While there is an undeniable element of romanticism in waiting around with other fans for tickets to see your heroes, the reality is that it wasn’t much fun. It was invariably boring, could be cold and wet, and was enough to test the reserves and tolerance of often the most fanatical and die-hard of fans. The sad truth though is that the alternatives haven’t proved better. First of all, with ticket agencies’ websites and phone lines often flooded in the scrum after tickets having gone sale, it can be difficult to get through. And even, when you do, probably after several repeated attempts (and perhaps a lot longer than that if you are a Take That fan), although tickets already cost approximately twice more than they did a decade ago, as a result of the downslide in CD sales, you are then liable to be hit with a heavy booking fee from the ticket agency. It is an issue that Jeff Thiessen addresses in ‘This Metal Sky’ in which he describes Pearl Jam’s valiant, but single-handed battle with ticket agency giant Ticketmaster in the 1990s, and as, he points out in his thoughtful, but angry piece, one, in which if they had received more support for at the time, might have had a very different impact on the way the rock industry works today. In our other Regular Features this month, Jamie Rowland provides a humorous account of our Bands’ Night with Anthony Reynolds, Nick Garrie, the Hall of Mirrors and Alex Monk at the Half Moon in Herne Hill, South London last month and what was for both musicians and audience alike a successful evening of music. There is also a Photoscapes from photographer Matt Williams of our last Bands’ Night with photos of the Willard Grant Conspiracy, the Monroe Transfer and Adam Donen. In his 'Gimme Indie Rock' column Jamie Rowland provides a personal list and YouTube links to his Top 5 Distinctive Musical Voices, while in our ‘Soundtrack of Our Lives’ Ben Howarth writes of ten years of writing for Pennyblackmusic and an early interview with forgotten emo group, Rydell. Spencer Robertshaw in the latest in his 'Evidently Spencertown' poetry column writes of drugs and the media lifestyle in 'The Fall', while Ben in ‘Condemned to Rock ‘n’ Roll’ pays tribute to underrated band, Ezio. Our lead interview this month is with Mick Avory, the drummer with the Kinks, whose first three albums. ‘The Kinks’, ‘Kinda Kinks’ and ‘The Kinks Kontroversy’, have just been released in double CD editions. Our other headline interviews are with 70’s punk pioneers and Peel favourites, the Undertones, who have a new compilation CD, ‘True Confessions’, out; former Thin Lizzy and Motorhead guitarist Brian Robertson; Stephanie Finch, who is both a solo artist and also plays keyboards in her husband and former Green On Red guitarist Chuck Prophet’s backing band the Mission Express, and acclaimed Glasgow-based acoustic folk duo, the Doghouse Roses. There are also interviews with Factory Star, the new band of the Fall and the Blue Orchids’ Martin Bramah; German sound designer Alva Noto, who is about to premiere his latest work with regular collaborator Ryuichi Sakamoto in London, and revolving electro folk project, the Memory Band. We have interviews too with South Carolina rock band Quarterfly; exuberant Rhode Island quartet Zox and eighteen year old jazz saxophonist, Grace Kelly. In our Profiles section, there is an interview with film director Joel Gilbert about his third Bob Dylan documentary, ‘Dylan Revealed’, and profiles on alternative rock duo Royal Trux, whose first four albums have just been reissued, and the Kinks and their first three albums. There are new live reviews of shows by Tender Trap, Iron and Wine, Blancmange, the Chapman Family, Mazes, JT and the Clouds, I Like Trains and Glasvegas. In our Re: View section, in which we look back at albums from the past, there are articles on goth/heavy metal rockers Paradise Lost’s seminal 1995 fifth album, ‘Draconian Times’; Nick Lowe’s classic 1979 second solo album, ‘Labour of Lust’, and Scottish duo the River Detectives’ 2005 third and final album, ‘King of the Ghost Train Ride’. Our first ever non-musical Website of the Month is dedicated, in regular WOTM columnist Fiona Hutchings’ absence as she recuperates from a brain haemorrhage, to Headway, the website for Britain’s major brain injuries charity. There are also 32 album and single reviews. This magazine is put together through the hard work enthusiasm of many people. Thank you to Carl Bookstein, Malcolm Carter, Andrew Carver, Dan Cressey, Dixie Ernill, Ben Howarth, Adrian Huggins, Richard Lewis, Tara McEvoy, Neil Palmer, Spencer Robertshaw, Jamie Rowland, Maarten Schiethart, Kelly Smith, Anthony Strutt, Jeff Thiessen, Lisa Torem and Denzil Watson, all of whom also contributed articles to this edition or the March reviews up-date. Thank you also to Matt Williams. Special thanks to our webmaster Richard Banks and Dominic Simpson, our London-based Bands’ Night promoter. We will back in late April with an album and singles reviews up-date and then in early May with another new edition. We hope to be running interviews with the Meat Puppets, the Blue Aeroplanes, the Zombies, James Grant/Love and Money, Cloud Control, UFO, H Bird, Jack Cheshire, Duncan Maitland, Katy Carr and also Indietracks’ Festival organiser Stuart Mackay. Thank you as always for reading, John Clarkson Magazine Editor www.pennyblackmusic.co.uk