Miscellaneous - April 2013

  by Admin

published: 15 / 4 / 2013

intro

Hello and welcome to the April edition of the Pennyblackmusic magazine. Becoming the new frontman in a long-established band is never

Hello and welcome to the April edition of the Pennyblackmusic magazine. Becoming the new frontman in a long-established band is never an easy task. Henry Rollins became Black Flag's fourth and what many see to be their best singer in 1981, five years after they first formed. Brian Johnson had the thankless task of taking over from Bon Scott in AC/DC a month after the latter's premature death in 1980, and thirty-three years later is still there. But for every new vocalist who has won the approval of fans and critics alike, there have been others who have been less successful. St. Vitus Dance frontman Noel Burke was a good singer in his own right. He, however, made little impact when he took over from Ian McCulloch in Echo & The Bunnymen and eventually went back to his former band. Ray Wilson's previous group Stiltskin had already had a number one hit with 'Inside Out', but when he replaced Phil Collins in Genesis (who, of course, in turn had replaced Peter Gabriel) his tenure lasted barely a year, before, after the commercial failure of what turned out to be their final studio album, 'Calling All Stations', he found himself dismissed. Possibly because he started out as their guitarist and already was a principal part of the band, Baz Warne, who took over the role from their second singer Paul Roberts in 2006. has proved popular as co-frontman with the Stranglers, In our lead interview for this month, he chats with Denzil Watson about his thirteen years in the band, their recent album 'Giants' and 'Feel It Live' tour (both of which many fans see as their best in years), and how he still deals with people asking if their original front man Hugh Cornwell twenty-three years after his departure will ever return. Our other main interviews this month are with Fun Lovin' Criminals frontman Huey Morgan who talks about his new band Huey and the New Yorkers, and Frankie Goes To Hollywood dancer and singer Paul Rutherford who talks nearly thirty years on since their heyday about his ever controversial group. There are other headline interviews with cult artist Lisa Germano, who speaks about her new solo album,'No Elephants', and working with Calexico, Johnny Marr, Michael Gira and the Smashing Pumpkins; and also former Marillion frontman Fish who chats about his former group, forthcoming new album 'Feast of Consequences' and touring again after a long absence. We have got two author interviews this month. In the first we speak to former Flamingoes co-frontman Jude Cook about his debut novel ‘Byron Easy’, while in the second we talk to banjo player and musician Stephen Wade about his book 'The Beautiful Music All Around Us: Field Recordings and the American Experience', which is about folk music of the 1930s and 1940s. There is also an interview with influential DJ and broadcaster Janice Long about her new TV series, ‘The Janice Long Review Show’. Our other new interviews include folk rock band Rose's Pawn Shop who have recently completed their first British tour; Americana group Frontier Ruckus, who have just released their third double CD album, ‘Eternity of Dimming’, and Futur Primitif, the new band of former Low Anthem guitarist Daniel Lefkowitz. There are also interviews with atmospheric Canadian lo-fi post-rock collective Evening Hymns, whose second album ‘Spectral Dusk’ reflects on the death of their frontman Jonas Bonnetta's father, and Newcastle-based dance rock group Deltasound whose pay-as-you-want debut album ‘When the Attack Warnings Sound’, is about nuclear disaster. There is also the second and final part of our interview with reformed 80’s Leicester-based experimental indie rock outfit, Yeah Yeah Noh. In our 'Profiles' section there are articles on former Abba frontwoman Agnetha Falkstog, who after a decades-long absence has a new solo album 'A' out in May, and also classic 50's/50's soul group the Coasters. We have sixteen new live reviews and 'Photoscapes'. In our 'Features'section Adrian Janes in 'Gig of a Lifetime' writes about attending an early Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds gig in the unlikely setting of Surbiton. Ben Howarth in 'Condemned to Rock 'n' Roll' asks if David Bowie's first album-in-a-decade 'The Next Day', is against-the-odds a classic, while Spencer Robertshaw in his 'Evidently Spencertown' column examines credit loan companies. We also have a competition in which we have two tickets to give away to this year's 'Deerstock' Festival. In our 'Re: View' section, in which we look back at albums from the past, there are pieces on under-rated American soul artist Shuggie Otis' 1974 album 'Inspiration Information' which has been reissued with a new album ‘Wings of Love'; Sinead O' Connor's 2002 traditional Irish album, 'Sean Nos-Nua', and New Zealand punks Garbage and the Flowers' 1997 debut record, 'Eyes Rind as If Beggars'. Our Website of the Month is 'Dangerous Minds', an American popular culture website, and thee are also 32 album and single reviews. We ran another 19 reviews in our album and singles only update in late March Thank you to Carl Bookstein, Malcolm Carter, Andrew Carver, Andy Cassidy, Nick Dent-Robinson, Dixie Ernill, Gillian Fish, Dave Goodwin, Tommy Gunnarsson, Ben Howarth, Adrian Huggins, Fiona Hutchings, Adrian Janes, Richard Lewis, Chris O' Toole, Spencer Robertshaw, Mark Rowland, Maarten Schiethart, Harry Sherriff, Anthony Strutt, Lisa Torem, Paul Waller and Denzil Watson, all of whom contributed articles to this edition or the reviews only update. Thank you also to Darren Aston, Marie Hazelwood and Matt Williams for their photographic work. We will be doing an album and singles reviews only update in late April, and then will be doing our next big monthly up-date with interviews, features, live reviews and more album and single reviews in early May. We hope to run interviews then with Bob Mould, the Kinks' Dave Davies, Alison Moyet, Ian Anderson from Jethro Tull, British Electric Foundation, the Meat Puppets, Black, the Ruts, I am Giant, Louise Aubrie, the Fossil Collective, Stiv Cantarelli and the Silent Strangers, and songwriter Nick Fletcher. Thank you as always for reading Pennyblackmusic, John Clarkson, Magazine Editor www.pennyblackmusic.co.uk