Miscellaneous - December 2013

  by Admin

published: 22 / 12 / 2013

intro

Hello and welcome to the December edition of the Pennyblackmusic Magazine. The end of the year is always a time for reflection, and in this edition we are running our annual Pennyblackmusic Writers and Photographers Albums of the Year poll

Hello and welcome to the December edition of the Pennyblackmusic Magazine. The end of the year is always a time for reflection, and in this edition we are running our annual Pennyblackmusic Writers and Photographers Albums of the Year poll. Twenty-one of our writers and photographers have provided their thoughts on their favourite albums of 2013 and in some cases their favourite gig during the last year. Our lead interview for this month is with Glenn Tilbrook, the co-front man with the legendary Squeeze. In conversation with Paul Waller, he talks about his band’s nearly forty year musical history, his relationship with Squeeze’s co-founder and his songwriting partner Chris Difford and his forthcoming solo album, ‘Happy Endings’. Mike Finney and Steve Perrin from 80’s new wave band The Distractions, alongside Neil Storey, the owner of the record label HiddenMasters, speak to long-term fan Malcolm Carter about their forthcoming PledgeMusic-funded retrospective, ‘Parabolically Yours’. Amongst our other lead interviews this month we speak to former Goodbye Mr Mackenzie front man and current Isa and the Filthy Tongues member Martin Metcalfe about his new vocation as a painter and artist and his musical plans for the future; Nottingham-based producer and engineer and Spiritualized and Julian Cope guitarist Tony ‘Doggen’ Foster about his musical career and working with Jake Bugg on his debut album, and in a two-part interview rediscovered 70’s singer-songwriter John Howard about his new solo album, ‘Storeys’. There are also interviews with ‘V’ and ‘Mission Impossible’ star Jane Badler about her new career as a singer, haunting new single ‘Nursery Rhyme’ and forthcoming third album; Sheffield-based singer-songwriter Mike Hughes about supporting Miles Kane and his soon-to-be released second single, and Abe Davies, the front man with Oxfordshire-based folk pop collective Reichenbach Falls about their stunning debut album, ‘Reports of Snow’. Our other interviews for this month are with Simon York from Nottingham-based post-punk band Luxury Stranger about his group’s forthcoming third album; Piano Magic member and French-born composer and pianist Angele David-Guillou about ‘Kourouma’, her debut album under her own name; Manchester band the Creature Comfort about their decision to reform after an absence of twenty years and long-delayed eponymous debut CD, and also continent-spanning folk super group, Jammin’ Divas. There is also an interview with film director Kevin Fitzgerald about his hip-hop documentary, ‘Freestyle: The Art of Rhyming’. Other highlights include profiles of the BBC’s remarkable Radiophonic Workshop, which is having two albums of its work ‘BBC Radiophonic Music’ and ‘The Radiophonic Workshop’ reissued, and Scottish pop/rock act Del Amitri who, to coincide with their first tour in ten years, are having three of their albums, 1989’s ‘Waking Hours’, 1992’s ‘Change Everything’ and 1995’s ‘Twisted’, re-released in double CD editions. In our Live section we have sixteen live reviews, and in our Regular Features section Cila Warncke in ‘Ten Songs That Made Love...’ writes of her favourite songs by Patti Smith while Dave Goodwin in ‘Vinyl Stories’ chats to Doggen about some of the vinyl albums in his collection. In our Re:View section, in which we look back at albums from the past, there are articles on Bill Nelson’s 1986 album ‘Getting the Holy Ghost Across’ and Gothic super group Ghost Dance’s 1989 only studio album ‘Stop the World’. Our Website of the Month is the website of the Nottinghamshire-based Deerstock Festival. We are also running thirty new album and single reviews, and in our previous update in early December ran a further eighteen reviews. As always, this magazine is brought together by the hard work of many people. Thank you to Peter Allison, Neil Bailey, Carl Bookstein, Malcolm Carter, Andrew Carver, Andy Cassidy, Dan Cressey, Nick Dent-Robinson, Anthony Dhanendran, Dixie Ernill, Gillian Fish, Tom Fogarty, Tony Gaughan, Dave Goodwin, Tommy Gunnarsson, Marie Hazelwood, Ben Howarth, Adrian Huggins, Fiona Hutchings, Chris Jones, Adrian Janes, Richard Lewis, Sarah Mwangi, Chris O’ Toole, Jon Rogers, Jamie Rowland, Mark Rowland, Harry Sherriff, Anthony Strutt, Jeff Thiessen, Helen Tipping, Lisa Torem, Paul Waller, Cila Warncke and Denzil Watson, all of whom have contributed to Pennyblackmusic during the last year. Very special thanks to our webmaster Richard Banks, whose work behind the scenes makes this all possible. We will be taking a break over the holidays, and then will return in early January with a reviews only update and then a full update - interviews, features, live reviews, album and singles reviews –towards the end of the month. Merry Christmas and Best Wishes for the New Year! John Clarkson Magazine Editor www.pennyblackmusic.co.uk