Miscellaneous - April 2012

  by Admin

published: 13 / 3 / 2012

intro

Hello, and welcome to the April edition of the Pennyblackmusic Magazine. On 24th March Pennyblackmusic returned to the Half Moon in Herne Hill to put on the latest of our London band nights. Our headliners

Hello, and welcome to the April edition of the Pennyblackmusic Magazine. On 24th March Pennyblackmusic returned to the Half Moon in Herne Hill to put on the latest of our London band nights. Our headliners this time around were Creation Records’ Pete Fij (ex-Adorable/Polak) and Terry Bickers (ex-House of Love/Levitation). Support came from Manchester rockers Last Harbour; folk act the Owl Service who were playing their last ever gig; and Roshi ft. Pars Radio, the project of Welsh-born singer-songwriter Roshi Nasehi who is of Iranian origins, and electronic musician and percussionist Gagarin. It was for many of those who attend our gigs regularly one of our best ever nights (and certainly one of the easiest to organise) with four very different, but great bands and an enthusiastic, but appreciative crowd. It will be the first of three and possibly four gigs that we will be putting on this year. Our next one will be our first ever gig in Scotland and will take place in June in Glasgow. We will have more details about that online and also on Facebook and Twitter soon. In the meantime, Jamie Rowland in the ‘Profiles’ section, with his usual slightly irreverent style, looks back on what was a fantastic evening. Elsewhere in the ‘Profiles’ section, Cila Warncke reflects on the career of Jerry Lee Lewis, who has a new four CD retrospective, ‘A Whole Lotta Jerry Lee’, out. Lisa Torem meanwhile pays personal tribute to the Montrose and Gamma guitarist, Ronnie Montrose, who died in March. This is a very busy edition in which pretty much every article on the front page (all except for four items) are new items. Our lead interview this month is with the acclaimed singer-songwriter Suzanne Vega, who talks to Lisa Torem about her back catalogue, love of her native New York and support of human rights causes. Our other main interviews this month are with former Dr Feelgood guitarist Wilko Johnson about his forthcoming autobiography, ‘Looking Back At Me’; David Gedge from the Wedding Present about his new Wedding Present comic and the band’s just released latest album ‘Valentina’; seminal early 1980’s post punks the Fire Engines, and glam rock star Suzi Quatro. Other highlights amongst the fourteen interviews that we are running this month include former Wings guitarist Laurence Juber; Canadian singer-songwriter and roots rocker David Celia; new Korg Delta-led group TOY; Cuban pianist and jazz composer Alfredo Rodriguez, and film director Jim Burns who talks about ‘Serious Drugs’, his new documentary about influential Glaswegian indie pop outfit, BMX Bandits. In our ‘Live’ section there are fourteen new gig reviews and ‘Photoscapes’. Our regular columnists have been out in force this month in the ‘Features’ section. Jon Rogers in ‘Hitting the Right Note’ reflects on why fans continue to forgive their musical and other heroes, however deplorable their behaviour. Ben Howarth in ‘Condemned to Rock ‘n’ Roll’ examines the eighty year of Abbey Road Studios after going on a guided tour there, while Paul Waller in ‘Gig of a Lifetime’ looks back on seeing Nirvana at their legendary headlining gig and final British appearance at the Reading Festival in 1992. Jeff Thiessen reflects in ‘This Metal Sky’ on Marilyn Manson and the lack of current danger in rock music. There is another poem from Spencer Robertshaw, this time about consumerism. Andy Cassidy has got to the letter ‘F’ in his ‘AC’s A-Z Of Music’ and reflects upon the sometimes sentimental , but often equally turbulent relationship between fathers and sons in music, while Mark Rowland looks at media stereotyping in ‘Rock 101’. In our ‘Re: View’ section, in which our writers look back on albums from the past, there are articles on the Doors’ 1971 album, ‘L.A. Woman’ and T. Rex’s 1972 album, ‘Electric Warrior’. Our Website of the Month is 'She Blogs About Music', the blog of music professional and fan Alethia Austin. We are also running 29 album and singles reviews. We ran a further 29 album and single reviews in March mid-month update. Thank you to Carl Bookstein, Malcolm Carter, Andrew Carver, Andy Cassidy, Dan Cressey, Anthony Dhanendran, Dixie Ernill, Tommy Gunnarsson, Marie Hazelwood, Ben Howarth, Fiona Hutchings, Richard Lewis, Sarah Maybank, Spencer Robertshaw, Jamie Rowland, Mark Rowland, Maarten Schiethart, Dominic Simpson, Anthony Strutt, Lisa Torem, Paul Waller and Cila Warncke, all of whom contributed articles to this edition or the February update. Special thanks to our webmaster Richard Banks. We will be doing an album and singles reviews only update in mid April and then will be doing our next big monthly up-date with interviews, features, live reviews and more album and single reviews at the beginning of May. We hope then to run interviews with Chuck Prophet, Duncan Maitland, BMX Bandits, Bad Weather California, Eugene McGuinness, Tender Trap, Kay Russell, Roy Moller, Lizzie Vickery, Nicola Black, Hymnn, the White Space and Arto Vaun. Thank you as always for reading Pennyblackmusic, John Clarkson, Magazine Editor www.pennyblackmusic.co.uk