Miscellaneous - October 2014

  by Admin

published: 14 / 11 / 2014

intro

Hello and welcome to the October edition of the Pennyblackmusic Magazine. For over a decade now we have been putting on regular Bands’ Nights usually twice a year in London

Hello and welcome to the October edition of the Pennyblackmusic Magazine. For over a decade now we have been putting on regular Bands’ Nights usually twice a year in London, and this year we have put on shows in Manchester and Glasgow as well. We are delighted to announce that our next night and first Bands’ Night of 2015 will take place at The Macbeth in East London on January 9th. The evening, which will feature three acts, will be headlined by the Band of Holy Joy. Formed in South London in 1984, the Band of Holy Joy have seen some thirty band members pass through its doors in the subsequent thirty years, the one constant being Newcastle-born frontman Johny Brown. The group, whose latest album ‘Easy Listening’ came out later this year, incorporate elements of folk rock, punk, European cabaret, electronics, epic pop, and other genres, and combine this with Brown’s poetic and literary lyrics. Their performance will be multimedia-based, featuring band member Inga Tillere’s always haunting images. The first of the support acts is the Teddington-based Bitter Springs, who, fronted by Simon Rivers, have released six studio albums of witty English lyricism and heartbreak, the last of which, double CD 'Everyone's Cup of Tea', came out last year on their own Harvey label. Also on the bill is the equally lyrical Idiot Son, who combine front man Andy Thompson’s wry observations of London life with a sharp sense of melody and who, after a recording absence of ten years, will be launching at the gig their second album, the provisionally-titled ‘And None the Wiser Nonetheless’. Doors will open at 7.30 p.m. with the first band on at 8 p.m. Tickets can be bought in advance at https://www.wegottickets.com/event/291987 for £6 and on the door for £7. Our lead interview for this month is with ex-Frankie Goes To Hollywood front man Holly Johnson, who talks about his first album in fifteen years, ‘Europa’. Our other main interviews for this edition are with 60’s cult legend Vashti Bunyan about her fourth album, ‘Heartleap’; 1950’s and 1960’s soul legend Little Anthony about his new autobiography; Death in Vegas and Rotifer member Ian Button about his band Papernut Cambridge’s second solo album ‘There’s No Underground’, and ex Dum Dum Girls member Frankie Rose about her two solo albums, ‘Interstellar’ and ‘Herein Wild’. Amongst our other interviews for this month, we talk to former This Mortal Coil singer Louise Rutkowski about her debut solo album, ‘Diary of a Lost Girl’; 60’s influenced folk/prog/rock act Dodson and Fogg whose main man Chris Wade speaks in a remarkable fourth interview with us about their sixth album, ‘In a Strange Slumber’, and Canadian singer-songwriter Lynne Hanson who at the end of a difficult UK tour talks about her recent solo album, ‘River of Sand’. Nick Dent-Robinson meanwhile chats to rock photographer Scarlet Page about her current exhibition ‘Resonators’ which features photographs of around forty rock guitarists including her father, Led Zeppelin legend Jimmy Page. Others highlights month include in our Regular Features section a full profile of the Pennyblackmusic Bands’ Night. Nicky Crewe meanwhile reflects in ‘Ten Songs That Made Me Love…’ on Captain Beefheart; Ben Howarth in ‘Condemned to Rock ‘n’ Roll’ looks at the UK charts, while Lisa Torem in a double edition of her book reviews column ‘Raging Pages’ examines a new book on the Who and also former Wings’ guitarist Laurence Juber’s autobiography. There are also thirteen new live reviews and ‘Photoscapes’. In our ‘Re:View’ section, in which we look back at albums from the past, Fiona Hutchings examines Madness’s 1979 first album ‘One Step Beyond’ which has been recently re-released in an expanded edition, while Anthony Strutt looks at experimental London-based trio ROC’s 1995 eponymous first album which has also just been reissued. We also have twenty five new album and single reviews. In our previous reviews only update in October we ran a further seventeen reviews. We have two new writers this month. Billy Seagrave, who will also be taking photographs for us and contributed a live review on the Band of Holy Joy, is based in Manchester, while Owen Peters, who did the Lynne Hanson interview, comes from High Wycombe. Thank you to both Billy and Owen. Thank you also to Carl Bookstein, Malcolm Carter, Nicky Crewe, Nick Dent-Robinson, Dixie Ernill, Tony Gaughan, Dave Goodwin, Marie Hazelwood, Ben Howarth, Adrian Huggins, Adrian Janes, Mary O' Meara, , Maarten Schiethart, Dominic B. Simpson, Melanie Smith, Anthony Strutt, Jeff Thiessen, Lisa Torem, Paul Waller and Denzil Watson, all of whom who have contributed either to this edition or our reviews only update in September. Thank you as well to Ben Howarth and Anthony Dhanendran who manage our Facebook and Twitter pages. Special thanks to our webmaster Richard Banks for all his work behind the scenes and without whom none of this would be possible. We will be back in early November with a reviews update, and then towards the middle of the month with another full edition. We hope to run then interviews with Gogol Bordello, Aerosmith guitarist Joe Perry, Nils Lofgren, Mickey Gallagher from Ian Dury and the Blockheads, Stewart Copeland, Claudia Brucken, Juliet Lawson, the Twilight Sad, ex-Sweet guitarist Paul Clerehugh, the August List and author and Pennyblackmusic writer Mary O’Meara about her book on indie rock band Haven Please check out our regular Facebook and Twitter updates. Thank you as always for reading Pennyblackmusic, John Clarkson Magazine Editor www.pennyblackmusic.co.uk

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