Miscellaneous - December 2014

  by Admin

published: 8 / 12 / 2014

Article

Hello and welcome to the December edition of the Pennyblackmusic Magazine. For over ten years 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 starting 2015 with our first Bands’ Night of the year, which 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 earlier 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 urban and rural 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, ‘Stibbington'. Doors will open at 8.00 p.m. with the first band on at 8.15 p.m. Tickets can be bought in advance at https://www.wegottickets.com/event/291987 for £6 and on the door for £7. In the meantime, our lead interview for this month is with Nils Lofgren, the guitarist with Bruce Springsteen and the E-Street Band, who talks to Ben Howarth about his forty year solo career, forthcoming tour of the UK in January and 'Face the Music', his new ten CD box set. Our other main interviews for this month are with Glaswegian alternative rockers the Vaselines, whose Frances McKee talks about their reformation and just released third album, 'V for Vaselines'; ex-Walkmen frontman Hamilton Leithauser who chats about that band's break-up and his debut solo album, 'Black Hours'; 80's new wave act The Distractions on 'Parabolically Yours', their new PledgeMusic-funded box set; and Andy Thompson from Idiot Son about ' Stibbington' and their forthcoming Bands' Night appearance. Other interviews for this month include bestselling 80's artist Sam Brown on her new career as a vocal coach; acclaimed Reading-based singer-songwriter Jo Bartlett on '9 by 7', her first album in four years which she has self-financed, and ghost writer and music biographer David Ritz on collaborating with Aerosmith's Joe Perry, Aretha Franklin and Ray Charles. There are also interviews with former Propaganda front woman and electro icon Claudia Brucken on 'Where Else...', her new solo album and the first that she has written on the guitar, and with Dave Wyndorf, the front man with New Jersey rockers, about their new album 'Milking the Stars: A Reimagining of Last Patrol', which features alternative versions of songs from their previous album. Our final three interviews for this month are with harmonic pop duo Slow Club about their much acclaimed third album, 'Complete Surrender'; Richard Knox, the owner of Gizeh Records, about Shield Patterns, the electronic duo that he has formed with Manchester-based singer-songwriter Claire Brentnal and his growing label, and rising Sheffield-based band Laurel Canyons about their versatile new EP, 'Now We're Re-Building’. Elsewhere our writers and photographers reflect upon their favourite albums of 2014 in our annual Albums of the Year poll. There is a feature on the latter years of Siouxsie and the Banshees, who have just had reissued just reissued their final four albums, 'Through the Looking Glass', 'Peek-A-Boo', 'Superstition' and 'The Rapture'. Amongst our regular columns Malcolm Carter in 'Ten Songs That Made Me Love...', in which our writers write about ten songs that made them love a particular band or artist, argues the case for the often critically-derided Miley Cyrus, Ben Howarth in 'Condemned to Rock 'n' Roll' looks at the recent rise in vinyl sales and asks how this will affect the CD market. In 'Gig of a Lifetime' Mary O'Meara reflects on the Manic Street Preachers' infamous New Year's Eve gig in 1999 at the then just opened Millennium Stadium in Cardiff. Dave Goodwin in 'Vinyl Stories' talks to Northern Soul record collector and DJ Neil Self about three classic double A-sides in his collection, and in 'TV Music Memories', Owen Peters watches a Killers concert film and interview which was first shown in 2013. Lisa Torem in 'Raging Pages' meanwhile reviews new books on Ozzy Osbourne and by 70's star Gary Wright on his friendship with George Harrison. In our 'Re:View' section, in which we look back on albums from the past, we examine Texan-based singer-songwriter Micah P. Hinson's 2004 debut album, which has recently been reissued, while our Website of the Month is 'Well-Lighted Etcetera', the website of Portland, Oregon-based author, poetry and music writer Erick Mertz, who will be writing for Pennyblackmusic from the New Year. We also have nineteen new album and single reviews. In our previous reviews only update in mid-December we ran another twelve reviews. Thank you to Alexia Arrizabalaga, Carl Bookstein, Malcolm Carter, Andy Cassidy, Daniel Cressey, Nicky Crewe, Dastardly, Nick Dent-Robinson, Anthony Dhanendran, Dixie Ernill, Gillian Fish, Tom Fogarty, Tony Gaughan, Dave Goodwin, Bill Gray, Tommy Gunnarsson, Marie Hazelwood, Ben Howarth, Adrian Huggins, Adrian Janes, Richard Lewis, Mary O' Meara, Chris O'Toole, Owen Peters, Jon Rogers, Jamie Rowland, Mark Rowland, Maarten Schiethart, Billy Seagrave, Harry Sherriff, Dominic B. Simpson, Melanie Smith, Anthony Strutt, Jeff Thiessen, Helen Tipping, Lisa Torem, Paul Waller, Cila Warncke and Denzil Watson, all of whom have contributed to Pennyblackmusic during 2014. Speical thanks as well to Ben Howarth and Anthony Dhanendran who manage our Facebook and Twitter pages, and 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 January with a reviews update, and then towards the end of the month with another full edition. Please check out our regular Facebook and Twitter updates. Thank you as always for reading Pennyblackmusic. Best Wishes for Christmas and the New Year, John Clarkson Magazine Editor www.pennyblackmusic.co.uk

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