Miscellaneous - December 2015

  by Admin

published: 24 / 12 / 2015

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

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 members of our team have provided a list of up of ten of their favourite albums in 2015 and in some cases their favourite gig during the last year. With the release of a compilation of 1960s Canterbury Scene band the Wilde Flowers, the critically-acclaimed singer-songwriter Robert Wyatt, who was one of its founders, for our lead interview speaks to Adrian Janes about those early years, his subsequent musical career with the Soft Machine and as a solo artist and his recent decision to retire from making music. Amongst our other headline interviews this month we also talk with two other influential 60’s figures. Eric Burdon from the Animals chats to Lisa Torem about the influence of his Newcastle upbringing on his music and his continued love in his mid-70s of touring, while Nick Dent-Robinson speaks to guitarist Mike Hurst about his role in the Springfields, Dusty Springfield’s early band, and his subsequent career as a music producer which saw him work with Cat Stevens and Marc Bolan. There are also interviews with Stephen Fellows from seminal post-punks the Comsat Angels about the double CD reissue of much their early catalogue, and Joe Cassidy from dream pop ensemble Butterfly Child about ‘Futures’, his band’s first album in seventeen years. We have interviews as well with acclaimed Virginia-based singer-songwriter Lauren Hoffman about her new band, the Secret Storm, with which she has returned after being in self-imposed exile for six years; Simon Rivers, the frontman with London-based cult group the Bitter Springs, about his group's new record, 'Cuttlefish and Love's Remains'; and Justin Lumsden, the vocalist and guitarist with brass-infused psychedelic sextet Big Hogg, who played our two Pennyblackmusic Bands’ Nights in Edinburgh and Glasgow this year with the Willard Grant Conspiracy, about their self-titled debut album. We also have profiles of our next two London Bands Nights, which will both take place at the Sebright Arms in Bethnal Green. The first of these will be on Saturday March 12th and, a reconvened show from last year, will feature 60’s cult star Nick Garrie; experimental duo Raf &O and up-and-coming indie guitar trio Partisan Waves. We have been writing a lot during the last couple of years about the Edinburgh-based label Stereogram Recordings, and the second show, which will take place on Friday 15th April, will be a Stereogram Night. The durable London-based group the Band of Holy Joy, who have played our Bands’ Nights twice before and who signed to Stereogram last year, will be co-headlining with Edinburgh alternative rock outfit the Cathode Ray, while the support act will be singer-songwriter Roy Moller who has been described by 6 Music’s Marc Riley as “Scotland’s best kept secret”. It will be both the Cathode Ray and Roy Moller’s first London show, and tickets for both this gig and the one on March 12th are available from We Got Tickets. We also have a full range of other features, live reviews and album and single reviews in this month’s edition. Thank you to Darren Aston, Carl Bookstein, Malcolm Carter, Nicky Crewe, Daniel Cressey, Dastardly, Nick Dent-Robinson, Anthony Dhanendran, Dixie Ernill, Gillian Fish, Tom Fogarty, Tony Gaughan, Cat Goodwin, Dave Goodwin, Tommy Gunnarsson, Marie Hazelwood, Keith How, Ben Howarth, Adrian Huggins, Fiona Hutchings, Adrian Janes, Richard Lewis, James Lowther, Erick Mertz, Mary O’ Meara, Chris O’ Toole, Owen Peters, Jon Rogers, Jamie Rowland, Mark Rowland, Maarten Schiethart, Billy Seagrave, Harry Sherriff, Dominic Simpson, Melanie Smith, Anthony Strutt, Lisa Torem, Paul Waller and Denzil Watson, all of whom have contributed to Pennyblackmusic this year. Special thanks to our webmaster Richard Banks. We will be back in early January with an album and singles reviews only update, and then at the end of the month with a full update with interviews, features, live reviews and more album and single reviews. We hope to feature interviews in it with the Long Ryders, Slowdive, Madam, Kelly Oliver, Chorusgirl, the Telescopes, Joe Gideon, Raf & O and Partisan Waves. Please don’t forget to check out our regular Facebook and Twitter updates. Thank you as always for reading Pennyblackmusic. Merry Christmas and Best Wishes for the New Year, John Clarkson Magazine Editor www.pennyblackmusic.co.uk