Miscellaneous - March 2014

  by Admin

published: 7 / 3 / 2014

Article

Hello and welcome to the March edition of the Pennyblackmusic Magazine. Our lead interview this month is with the seminal shoegazing/dream pop band Slowdive. Much maligned in their original lifetime, they are, with My Bloody Valentine, now seen to be the most important band of the shoegazing genre. They have recently reformed after a twenty year absence for some shows. Three of its members - vocalist and guitarist Rachel Goswell, guitarist Christian Savill and bassist Nick Chaplin - speak to Anthony Strutt about their comeback. Our other main interviews for this month are with Hazel O’ Connor who chats about her role in groundbreaking 80’s rock film ‘Breaking Glass’ and her new autobiography; producer Gary Langan from synthpop pioneers the Art of Noise about his influential band’s career, and Ian Anderson, the front man with Jethro Tull, about his new solo album ‘Homo Erraticus’. In a two-part interview, both parts of which we are running consecutively, bestselling singer-songwriter Sam Brown meanwhile talks to Nick Dent-Robinson about her lengthy career. There are interviews too with London-based alternative rock band the Band of Holy Joy about their new album ‘Easy Listening’; 90’s Britpop act Gene, who have just had all five of their albums remastered and reissued, and Badfinger guitarist Joey Molland about the bestselling 70’s group and his recent fourth solo album ‘Return to Memphis’. We also have interviews with American singer-songwriter Graham Colton whose latest album ‘Lonely Ones’ was co-produced by Flaming Lips front man Wayne Coyne; musical theatre actress Ruthie Henshall about her forthcoming one-woman show; Oxfordshire-based husband-and-wife Americana duo the August List about their second EP ‘Handsome Skin’, and Katie Ware, the front woman with Manchester-based folk act Little Sparrow, about her band’s forthcoming debut album. In our Profiles section Richard Lewis looks at rock biographies and reflects on his favourite music books; Paul Waller examines the latest ZTT reissues: Dave Goodwin writes about attending a new exhibition of Who photographs, and Malcolm Carter examines the career of British prog rock band Manning. There is also a review of a new book on underrated British rock legends UFO. We have sixteen new live reviews and ‘Photoscapes’ this month. In our Regular Features section Jeff Thiessen in ‘This Metal Sky’ writes of rediscovered bands; Ben Howarth in ‘Condemned to Rock ‘n’ Roll’ reflects upon why so few bands have become involved in the debate on Scottish independence, and Adrian Huggins in ‘Gig of a Lifetime’ tells of attending a gig by Sheffield post-rockers 65 Days of Static earlier this year. Carl Bookstein looks at the Grateful Dead in ‘Ten Songs That Made Me Love...’, while Dave Goodwin in ‘Vinyl Stories’ chats to international DJ Adam Jay about his favourite records. In our Re: View section, in which our writers look back at albums from the past, Tommy Gunnarsson reflects on Francoise Hardy’s 1974 ‘Message Personnel’, which has just been released in a fortieth anniversary edition. Our Website of the Month is ‘Soundcollabs’, a website which helps musicians find other musicians and producers to work with. We are also running thirty-two reviews. In our previous update in mid February we ran another nine reviews. We have two new writers this month, Mary O’Meara and Nicky Crewe, both of whom are based in Manchester. Mary contributed live reviews on Anna Calvi and Toy, and Nicky another live review on the Kaiser Chiefs. Thank you to both of them. Thank you also to Carl Bookstein, Malcolm Carter, Dan Cressey, Nick Dent-Robinson, Anthony Dhanendran, Dixie Ernill, Gillian Fish, Tony Gaughan, Dave Goodwin, Bill Gray, Tommy Gunnarsson, Marie Hazelwood, Ben Howarth, Adrian Huggins, Fiona Hutchings, Adrian Janes, Richard Lewis, Maarten Schiethart, Harry Sheriff, Melanie Smith, Anthony Strutt, Jeff Thiessen, Lisa Torem and Paul Waller, all of whom have contributed to this edition. Very special thanks to our webmaster Richard Banks for all his hard work behind the scenes. We will back with an album and singles reviews in mid-March, and then will return with a full edition in early April. We plan to run interviews then with Henry Priestman, Jack Bruce, ex-Jethro Tull drummer Barrie Barlow, Robert Cray, Morgan Delt, Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats, the Woodentops and a second Art of Noise interview, this time with programmer J.J. Jeczalik. We also hope to feature then interviews with original Sound keyboardist Bi Marsh and ex-MC5 manager John Sinclair. We will also be running more Profiles, live reviews and Regular Features. 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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