tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-51915816027590984692024-03-13T09:34:32.685+00:00Going Deaf For A LivingMusic interviews, live reviews and record overviewsJames McGalliardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08642240549966678581noreply@blogger.comBlogger30125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5191581602759098469.post-36273817569131287012011-05-28T12:00:00.006+01:002011-12-18T11:17:33.803+00:00Live: Pulp - Primavera Sound, Barcelona<span style="font-family: arial; font-weight: bold;font-family:arial;font-size:130%;" ><span>Pulp</span></span><span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic; font-family: arial;font-family:arial;" ><br /></span><span style="font-weight: bold; font-family: arial;font-family:arial;" >Primavera Sound, Barcelona, Spain<br /></span><span style="font-style: italic; font-family: arial;font-family:arial;" >Saturday 28 May 2011<br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:100%;">Is this the way the future’s meant to feel?</span></span><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:100%;"><i style="font-family:arial;"><span style="font-style: italic;"> </span><br />Or just 30-odd thousand people standing in a concrete playground by the sea in </i><i>Barcelona</i></span><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:100%;"><span style="font-style: italic;"><br /><br /></span>There was only one place to be at 1.45am last Saturday morning. And that was at the main stage of the eleventh annual <b>Primavera Sound </b>festival, by the sea in Barcelona, to witness the first official show by <b>Pulp</b> in nearly a decade.</span><span style="font-size:100%;"><br /><br /><span style="font-family: arial;">They had played a secret club show in France as a warm-up, but this was the big one. Would they be able to meet the almost unreasonable expectations placed upon them? The build-up was enormous. On the same stage a few hours earlier, Belle & Sebastian had playfully sung the chorus of </span><i style="font-family: arial;">Common People </i><span style="font-family: arial;">while Stuart Murdoch worked the pit. But now, with only minutes to go, around 30,00 people are trying to secure the best spot to witness the return of the premier league champions of BritPop.</span></span><span style="font-family: arial;font-size:100%;" > </span><span style="font-family: arial;">Messages are projected onto the gauze screen in various languages - </span><i style="font-family: arial;">Are you ready? Shall we begin?</i><span style="font-family: arial;"> Then the screen drops away, the name </span><b style="font-family: arial;">PULP</b><span style="font-family: arial;"> appears above the stage in four huge neon letters and the band launch into </span><i style="font-family: arial;">Do You Remember The First Time</i><span style="font-family: arial;">? The place erupts but the most stunning thing is how sharp and contemporary their sound is. Jarvis himself is a bundle of energy, making shapes while spread-eagled between two foldback speakers. Pulp and Barcelona have a long history Jarvis tells us. 2002 saw them last play this festival, and how it had been many years earlier since they’d last played here with Russell Senior. “Tonight is not about ancient history. It's about making history”.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: arial;">In the manner of a true gentleman, Jarvis asks permission before removing his jacket, and again for the tie. Freed of these restrictions he is really able to dance and it seems he must have been practicing for this as well as the music as his moves are sharper than ever. Although virtually all the set comes from songs off </span><i style="font-family: arial;">His‘n’Hers</i><span style="font-family: arial;"> and </span><i style="font-family: arial;">Different Class</i><span style="font-family: arial;">, </span><i style="font-family: arial;">This Is Hardcore</i><span style="font-family: arial;"> makes an appearance and in a nice surprise </span><i style="font-family: arial;">Sunrise</i><span style="font-family: arial;"> from swansong album </span><i style="font-family: arial;">We Love Life</i><span style="font-family: arial;"> comes later in the set, which hadn‘t been played at the warm-up show. “So what have you been up to for the last fifteen years” asks Jarvis drolly as he straps on a guitar for </span><i style="font-family: arial;">Something Changed</i><span style="font-family: arial;">. Perhaps strongest of all is </span><i style="font-family: arial;">Babies</i><span style="font-family: arial;">, the bass bouncing along as the song gets more frenetic as it races towards a climax. The album tracks sit as well as the singles and there’s not a flat moment at any point. You might have expected some flab after the years of absence, but its unbelievably tight. Jarvis is such an eye magnet that its easy to forget the rest of the band but Russell’s violin in particular gives them an edge, and they work together seamlessly.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: arial;">At the end of </span><i style="font-family: arial;">I Spy</i><span style="font-family: arial;"> Jarvis takes a microphone with a camera attached down into the pit and asks for silence - something important is about to be said. Audience member Shane makes a live marriage proposal to his girlfriend Michelle. We never hear if she accepted. Perhaps not the most auspicious place to make such a tryst - to a band whose songs look at the darker side of sexuality.. Even Jarvis notes that this coming directly after </span><i style="font-family: arial;">I Spy </i><span style="font-family: arial;">was “a most inappropriate song!”</span><span style="font-family: arial;font-size:100%;" ><br /><br />Introducing the last song of the main set, Jarvis says he’s not one for political statements but has to speak out about the police action at the protest in Placa de Catalunya, the square in the centre of Barcelona, at the top of Las Ramblas, which left nearly 100 people requiring medical attention. Jarvis aligns himself with them as <i>indignado</i> (outraged) and dedicates <i>Common People</i> to them.</span><span style="font-family: arial;font-size:100%;" > </span><span style="font-family: arial;font-size:100%;" >They manage to squeeze in a single song for the encore - <i>Razzmatazz</i>, a Barcelona nightclub institution that once more cements the links between the band and this city, and makes it clear why they chose Primavera Sound as the launch pad for their summer of festivals.</span><span style="font-family: arial;font-size:100%;" > </span><span style="font-family: arial;">“We were very nervous before this gig“, confesses Jarvis as a closing statement. “Thanks for being gentle with us”.</span><span style="font-family: arial;font-size:100%;" ><br /><br />The truth was Pulp shone.</span><span style="font-family: arial;font-size:100%;" > </span><span style="font-family: arial;font-size:100%;" >They are back and possibly better than they were before. Make sure you see them.</span><p style="font-family: arial;font-family:arial;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:100%;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-family: arial;font-family:arial;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:85%;"><b><i><span style="mso-char-type:symbol;mso-symbol- mso-no-proof:yes"><span style="mso-char-type:symbol;mso-symbol-">©</span></span> James McGalliard 2011</i></b></span> </p><p style="font-family: arial;font-family:arial;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:100%;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-family: arial;font-family:arial;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:85%;">Pulp played:<br />Do You Remember The First Time<br />Pink Glove<br />Pencil Skirt<br />Something Changed<br />Disco 2000<br />Babies<br />Sorted For Es And Wizz<br />F.E.E.L.I.N.G.C.A.L.L.E.D.L.O.V.E.<br />I Spy<br />Underwear<br />This Is Hardcore<br />Sunrise<br />Bar Italia<br />Common People<br />Razzmatazz</span><br /></p>James McGalliardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08642240549966678581noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5191581602759098469.post-68371751135433798942011-04-08T12:00:00.006+01:002011-12-18T10:53:47.475+00:00Live: Kylie Minogue - London<span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Kylie</span></span><span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic; font-family: arial;font-family:arial;" ><br /></span><b style="font-style: italic; font-family: arial;">Aphrodite - Les Folies Tour<br /></b><span style="font-weight: bold; font-family: arial;font-family:arial;" >The O2 Arena, London UK</span><span style="font-style: italic; font-family: arial;font-family:arial;" ><br />Friday 8 April 2011</span><span style="font-family: arial;font-family:Arial;" ><br /><br />There</span><span style="font-family: arial;font-family:Arial;" lang="EN-GB" >’</span><span style="font-family: arial;font-family:Arial;" >s no doubt Kylie cares about her audience, her music and her craft but when playing enormodomes facing a daunting 20000:1 ratio, you have to make large sweeping statements, or be lost to the space. From the audacious opening reveal of Kylie rising up through the stage as Sandro Botticelli</span><span style="font-family: arial;font-family:Arial;" lang="EN-GB" >’</span><span style="font-family: arial;font-family:Arial;" >s <i>The Birth Of Venus</i>, it</span><span style="font-family: arial;font-family:Arial;" lang="EN-GB" >’</span><span style="font-family: arial;font-family:Arial;" >s clear this is going to be big on spectacle. And spectacular is the word that rightly sums up <i>Aphrodite - Les Folies</i>, a show which jumbles Roman and Greek elements but not the classicism of history, but that of Hollywood or Vegas, never taking itself too seriously.</span><span style="font-family: arial;font-family:Arial;" ><br /><br />Each time I think </span><span style="font-family: arial;font-family:Arial;" lang="EN-GB" >“</span><span style="font-family: arial;font-family:Arial;" >this is the campest thing I</span><span style="font-family: arial;font-family:Arial;" lang="EN-GB" >’</span><span style="font-family: arial;font-family:Arial;" >ve ever seen</span><span style="font-family: arial;font-family:Arial;" lang="EN-GB" >“</span><span style="font-family: arial;font-family:Arial;" > some even more outrageous tops it. <i>I Believe In You</i> sees Kylie led around in a chariot, her steeds a quartet of half naked male slaves. Later we see Kylie mounted on a giant golden Pegasus, and further along she flies on the back of an angel (although this probably owes more to <i>Barbarella</i> than classicism). There are large projections of male figures cupping themselves, while the revolving motif patterns of animated soldiers during <i>Wow</i> resemble some giant potential daisy chain. Perhaps it</span><span style="font-family: arial;font-family:Arial;" lang="EN-GB" >’</span><span style="font-family: arial;font-family:Arial;" >s an acknowledgment and a thank you from Kylie (and William Baker) to a core section of her adult fan base?</span><span style="font-family: arial;font-family:Arial;" ><br /><br />But a live music performance needs to be about more than the visuals; sadly the live sound and some of the arrangements aren</span><span style="font-family: arial;font-family:Arial;" lang="EN-GB" >’</span><span style="font-family: arial;font-family:Arial;" >t on a par with the brilliant staging. As the setlist is heavily reliant on new, perhaps not so familiar material, it</span><span style="font-family: arial;font-family:Arial;" lang="EN-GB" >’</span><span style="font-family: arial;font-family:Arial;" >s key that some crowd pleasers are thrown in, yet it felt as if some of these songs were just thrown away. <i>Spinning Around </i>sees the house lights up, but the arrangement is stripped it of its disco sheen and the illumination merely showed thousands standing still, seemingly unmoved. Worse still was <i>Can</i></span><i style="font-family:arial;"><span style="mso-ansi-language:EN-GB" lang="EN-GB">’</span></i><i style="font-family: arial;">t Get You Out Of My Head</i><span style="font-family: arial;font-family:Arial;" > which had an added rock riff that just killed its momentum leaving it stilted and flat. The live sound itself was not great and its low volume allowed the murmur of distracting chitchat to be clearly audible for much of the evening. If there are problems with the live sound, there are none with Kylie’s vocals. Her voice is the clearest part of the sound, and thankfully free of the effects which dragged it down on <i>Showgirl Homecoming.</i></span><span style="font-family: arial;font-family:Arial;" ><span style="font-style: italic;"><br /><br /></span>Kylie</span><span style="font-family: arial;font-family:Arial;" lang="EN-GB" >’</span><span style="font-family: arial;font-family:Arial;" >s never been afraid of her past, or trying new things. A high point is a radically reworked <i>Slow</i>, now a sultry jazz number, which sees her stood on a rising disc surrounded by fan dancers. <i>Aphrodite - Les Folies</i> is more like a piece of theatre than a traditional concert, but that means a delicate balancing act between the intimate and the spectacular. There was a full hour before the audience seemed to get involved with the show, unsure of their role as voyeur or participant, whether to passively watch or actively engage. There is no doubt that this is a stunning show visually but sometimes it seems that the artist is lost to the spectacle. Yet Kylie can hold this crowd alone as she showed in the impromptu section. I was marvelling at the small figure stood in the centre of the large arena, engaging with the audience and taking requests. This is the naked Kylie, performing an <i>a capella</i> rendition of <i>Hand On Your Heart</i>, and here sheer simplicity was its strength.</span><span style="font-family: arial;font-family:Arial;" ><br /><br />But the ending is truly spectacular as <i>On a Night Like This</i> features ejaculating fountains, while a final coup de théâtre is delivered with the climatic <i>All The Lovers</i>. which sees the stage rise up in tiers like a wedding cake, leaving a living fountain as dancers above on wires and below in the water all look towards the golden goddess. Overall <i>Les Folies</i> is like a bright glittering object - one that might catch the eyes of a toddler but is lacking an emotional heart to allow it to truly take root as a treasured memory in the adult years to come.<br /><br /><br /></span> <p face="arial" class="MsoNormal"> </p> <p style="font-family: arial;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">© James McGalliard 2011</span></span></p><p style="font-family: arial;" face="arial" class="MsoNormal"><br /></p><p style="font-family: courier new;" class="MsoNormal"> </p><p style="font-family: arial;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:85%;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal">Setlist<br /></i>Aphrodite<br />The One<br />Wow<br />Illusion<br />I Believe in You<br />Cupid Boy<br />Spinning Around<br />Get Outta My Way<br />What Do I Have to Do?<br />Everything Is Beautiful<br />Slow<br />Confide in Me<br />Can't Get You Out of My Head<br />In My Arms<br />Looking for an Angel<br />Closer<br />There Must Be an Angel (Playing with My Heart)<br />Love at First Sight<br />If You Don't Love Me<br />Better the Devil You Know<br />Hand on Your Heart<br />Better Than Today<br />Put Your Hands Up (If You Feel Love)<br /><br />On a Night Like This<br />All the Lovers </span></p><span style="font-family:courier new;"> </span> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Arial;"> </span></p>James McGalliardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08642240549966678581noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5191581602759098469.post-66472926470498655952010-10-01T12:00:00.000+01:002011-03-10T22:46:33.193+00:00Live: Grinderman - London<span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;font-family:arial;" >Grinderman</span></span><span style="font-weight: bold;font-family:arial;" ><br />Hammersmith Apollo, London UK</span><span style="font-style: italic;font-family:arial;" ><br />Friday 1 October 2010</span><span style="font-family:arial;"><br /><br />The longer an artistic career progresses, the more involved and convoluted any discussion of their art becomes. There’s a need to put the latest work into the context of what has preceded it, and to opine whether it is a progression or a retrograde step. With this worrying burden, you can understand why artists sometimes wish to take a tabula rasa and begin again; sometimes this succeeds brilliantly, at others you get Tin Machine. When Grinderman’s first album arrived in 2007, it was clearly intended as Year Zero, and for all the dark humour it contained, there was no doubt that it was a deadly serious endeavour. Their live shows that year lived up to the promise - it was a completely independent and legitimate statement. Yet when The Bad Seeds reconvened, it seemed as if Grinderman had crossed back to the main project. While <span style="font-style: italic;">Today’s Lesson</span> could have been a GM song, live it was even more striking. It was effectively Grinderman who played the first performance of the <span style="font-style: italic;">Lazarus</span> material at a London record store, except they had an extra member - Mick Harvey playing a very quiet acoustic guitar off to the side.<br /><br />Now Grinderman are back with the second album and have sold out the 5000 capacity former Hammersmith Odeon. It’s certainly theatrical the way that the band takes the stage and Nick Cave follows; but it risks looking like Nick Cave & The Grindermen. Certainly Cave is the visual centrepiece, prowling the apron of the stage, and casting long shadows on the walls, his guitar a seeming substitute for his beloved ciggies of old. There is no doubt that their’s is a reactionary rather than revolutionary approach. Opener <span style="font-style: italic;">Mickey Mouse And The Goodbye Man</span> recalls the Cavemen period as he howls “Big Bad Wooooooolf”. Recent single <span style="font-style: italic;">Heathen Child</span> still sounds like the stylings of Archie Bronson Outfit to me, but here it gains intensity, the rhythm section building a platform for Nick to be the madman preacher. Like all the songs from the second album, it works much better live than in the studio. They play the entire new album in the main hour long set without it overpowering proceedings; it’s the older songs that seem a bit loose tonight.<br /><br />It is strange though how Cave refers to the band in the third person. “This was Grinderman’s first single” is how a covers act would introduce a song. His introduction to <span style="font-style: italic;">Palaces Of Montezuma </span>mentions the current alleged plagiarism of the song - for which he apologises to his wife. There is a broader canvas now too; <span style="font-style: italic;">What I Know</span> is skeletal and features an acoustic guitar, while the keyboards of <span style="font-style: italic;">Man In The Moon</span> recall the organ sound of ‘60s psychedelica. For <span style="font-style: italic;">No Pussy Blues</span> the audience provides an accomplished and complicated clap along which follows the bassline. And Martin Casey’s bass is the rock on which this church is built, holding it all together. There is a hugely sensual element to all this; nearby two strangers start to dance together, which rapidly escalates to bump and grind. For me, the whole night comes together when they play <span style="font-style: italic;">Grinderman</span>; Jim is standing and his hanging drumbeats sound as if he’s summoning <span style="font-style: italic;">King Kong</span>, Warren goes maraca mad and Cave tortures his guitar as the song continues to build in intensity. It has real menace, power and sensuality, the four seamlessly working together to create that unique buzz which has kept coming back for over 20 years. Sadly, it is the final song.<br /><br />So why can’t a new approach be seen as such; if painters are allowed to make wild stylistic turns, why not musicians? Perhaps because in art it would be unusual to have someone jumping between impressionism and cubism, as one style tends to be abandoned as another takes control. A friend thought that Grinderman was a toy they’d weary of, and eventually put it away to concentrate on the main act. Yet now it seems that Grinderman is no longer the hobby; it’s become the horse. This places Cave at a crossroads. Although tonight’s performance had a lot more vim than when The Bad Seeds played this same venue on the <span style="font-style: italic;">Lazarus</span> tour, it’s a simpler template that appeals more to the genitals than the heart or mind. To go in this direction, Cave has put his muse away; if she’s ignored for too long, she may not choose to speak to him again.<br /><br /><br /><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">© James McGalliard 2010</span><br /></span></span><span style="font-family:arial;"><span style="font-style: italic;"><br /><br /><br />Setlist</span><br /></span><span style="font-family:arial;">Mickey Mouse And The Goodbye Man<br />Worm Tamer<br />Get It On<br />Heathen Child<br />Palaces Of Montezuma<br />Evil<br />When My Baby Comes<br />What I Know<br />Honey Bee (Let’s Fly To Mars)<br />Kitchenette<br />No Pussy Blues<br />Bellringer Blues<br /><br />Man In The Moon<br />Go Tell The Women<br />Love Bomb<br />Grinderman<br /><span style="font-style: italic;"></span></span>James McGalliardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08642240549966678581noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5191581602759098469.post-75680025672679623632009-12-30T12:00:00.000+00:002010-06-19T16:23:38.614+01:00End Of Year Polls: 2009 Inpress Writers' Poll<span style=";font-family:arial;font-size:100%;" ><span style="font-weight: bold;">INPRESS WRITERS POLL 2009 - James McGalliard</span></span><span style="font-weight: bold;font-family:arial;" ><br /><br />TOP TEN ALBUMS</span><span style="font-family:arial;"><br />1. Deaths And Entrances MY LATEST NOVEL</span><span style="font-family:arial;"><br />2. Harem Scarem JOE GIDEON & THE SHARK</span><span style="font-family:arial;"><br />3. Two Dancers WILD BEASTS</span><span style="font-family:arial;"><br />4. Tarot Sport FUCK BUTTONS</span><span style="font-family:arial;"><br />5. Union THE BOXER REBELLION</span><span style="font-family:arial;"><br />6. Sun Gangs THE VEILS</span><span style="font-family:arial;"><br />7. Other Arms REDJETSON</span><span style="font-family:arial;"><br />8. The Bachelor PATRICK WOLF</span><span style="font-family:arial;"><br />9. Primary Colours THE HORRORS</span><span style="font-family:arial;"><br />10. Origin:Orphan THE HIDDEN CAMERAS</span><span style="font-style: italic;font-family:arial;" ><br />Just outside:</span><span style="font-family:arial;"><br />Love Songs For The Chemical Generation DANIEL LAND AND THE MODERN PAINTERS; 3-D SPC-ECO; Songs SONGS</span><span style="font-weight: bold;font-family:arial;" ><br /><br />TOP FIVE SONGS</span><span style="font-family:arial;"><br />1. Sea Of Regrets I LIKE TRAINS</span><span style="font-family:arial;"><br />2. Sun Gangs THE VEILS</span><span style="font-family:arial;"><br />3. I Declare A Ceasefire MY LATEST NOVEL</span><span style="font-family:arial;"><br />4. Sea Within A Sea THE HORRORS</span><span style="font-family:arial;"><br />5. Papillion EDITORS</span><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-family:arial;" ><br />TOP FIVE ARTISTS OF THE YEAR</span><span style="font-family:arial;"><br />1. Joe Gideon & The Shark</span><span style="font-family:arial;"><br />2. I Like Trains</span><span style="font-family:arial;"><br />3. My Latest Novel</span><span style="font-family:arial;"><br />4. The Boxer Rebellion</span><span style="font-family:arial;"><br />5. The Horrors</span><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-family:arial;" ><br />TOP FIVE INTERNATIONAL ARTIST GIGS</span><span style="font-family:arial;"><br />1. My Latest Novel @ The Deaf Institute, Manchester, UK</span><span style="font-family:arial;"><br />2. Joe Gideon & The Shark @ The Lexington, London, UK</span><span style="font-family:arial;"><br />3. I Like Trains @ Concorde 2, Brighton, UK</span><span style="font-family:arial;"><br />4. Edwyn Collins @ Assembly Hall, Edinburgh, UK</span><span style="font-family:arial;"><br />5. The Lotus Eaters @ Royal Philharmonic Hall, Liverpool, UK</span><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-family:arial;" ><br />TOP FIVE AUSTRALIAN ARTIST GIGS</span><span style="font-family:arial;"><br />The Shiny Brights at The Great Escape in Brighton played the only gig in the UK by an Australian artist this year that I’d even mention in an end of year poll</span><span style="font-weight: bold;font-family:arial;" ><br /><br />TOP FIVE RADIO SHOWS/PODCASTS</span><span style="font-family:arial;"><br />1. Adam & Joe (BBC 6Music)</span><span style="font-family:arial;"><br />2. Marc Riley (BBC 6Music)</span><span style="font-family:arial;"><br />3. John Kennedy (XFM)</span><span style="font-family:arial;"><br />4. Steve Lamacq (BBC 6Music)</span><span style="font-family:arial;"><br />5. Gideon Coe (BBC 6Music)</span><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-family:arial;" ><br />TOP FIVE TV SHOWS</span><span style="font-family:arial;"><br />1. Stewart Lee’s Comedy Vehicle (BBC Two)</span><span style="font-family:arial;"><br />2. In Treatment (HBO)</span><span style="font-family:arial;"><br />3. Misfits (E4)</span><span style="font-family:arial;"><br />4. Harry Hill’s TV Burp (ITV1)</span><span style="font-family:arial;"><br />=5. Battlestar Galactica (Sky 1)</span><span style="font-family:arial;"><br />=5. Generation Kill (HBO)</span><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-family:arial;" ><br />TOP FIVE ONLINE DESTINATIONS</span><span style="font-family:arial;"><br />1. Guardian Unlimited – guardian.co.uk - for Charlie Brooker if nothing else</span><span style="font-family:arial;"><br />2. BBC News – news.bbc.co.uk</span><span style="font-family:arial;"><br />3. Wikipedia - en.wikipedia.org</span><span style="font-family:arial;"><br />4. Digital Spy – digitalspy.co.uk</span><span style="font-family:arial;"><br />5. Dan’s Media Digest – danowen.blogspot.com</span><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-family:arial;" ><br />THE EMPEROR'S NEW CLOTHES AWARD (MOST OVER-HYPED)</span><span style="font-family:arial;"><br />Lazy Galah (Lady Gaga)</span><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-family:arial;" ><br />THE HINDSIGHT AWARD (ALBUM THAT SHOULD HAVE BEEN IN YOUR POLL LAST YEAR BUT WASN’T)</span><span style="font-family:arial;"><br />The Guilty Office – THE BATS; The Unruly Imagination – JULIAN COPE</span><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-family:arial;" ><br />HIGHLIGHT(S) OF THE YEAR</span><span style="font-family:arial;"><br />Edinburgh Fringe Festival, Charlie Brooker, reunions</span><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-family:arial;" ><br />QUOTE OF THE YEAR (DON’T FORGET THE SOURCE)</span><span style="font-family:arial;"><br />'I will call on my fully sick boys, eh'. And then they pulled out a gun and just went chk-chk-boom!" - Clare Werbeloff – Nine News May 17 2009</span><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-family:arial;" ><br />BEST MEDIA MOMENT</span><span style="font-family:arial;"><br />Kings Cross shooting video – as above. That and the whole HHIS blackface incident meant a lot of clarifications on the differences between British and Australian cultures were needed from me.</span><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-family:arial;" ><br />PREDICTIONS FOR 2010</span><span style="font-family:arial;"><br />Ride reformation leads to shoegaze going mainstream; debate over whether to call new decade ‘The Teens’; regime change; comedy goes viral.</span><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-family:arial;" ><br />TOP FIVE ALBUMS OF THE LAST DECADE</span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">The trouble with the noughties was that we seemed to spend the whole decade looking backward, not forward. Pop was literally eating itself. So no! Can I give you five albums to look forward to in 2010 instead? No? Ah well then – Funeral by THE ARCADE FIRE then</span><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-family:arial;" ><br />TOP FIVE SONGS OF THE LAST DECADE</span><span style="font-family:arial;"><br />As above</span><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-family:arial;" ><br />MOST EMBARRASSING MARK LEFT BY HUMANITY ON THE LAST DECADE</span><span style="font-family:arial;"><br />Wars, greed and reality TV</span><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-family:arial;" ><br />IF THE NOUGHTIES WERE THE DECADE OF WASTING TIME SOCIAL NETWORKING, THE NEXT DECADE WILL BE KNOWN AS…</span><span style="font-family:arial;"><br />The decade of multiplatform slacktivivism AKA fiddling while Rome burns</span><br /><br /><br /><span style=";font-family:arial;font-size:85%;" ><span style="font-weight: bold;">© James McGalliard 2009</span></span><span style=";font-family:arial;font-size:100%;" ><br /></span>James McGalliardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08642240549966678581noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5191581602759098469.post-44972397051279171272009-11-15T12:00:00.002+00:002010-06-19T15:59:37.738+01:00Live: Patrick Wolf - London<span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-weight: bold;">Patrick Wolf</span></span><span style="font-family: arial; font-weight: bold;"><br />London Palladium, London UK</span><span style="font-family: arial; font-style: italic;"><br />Sunday 15 November 2009</span><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /><br />Playing big, one-off event shows can be a bit of a gamble. The successful ones become significant occasions, talked about in revered tones for years to come, but ignominious ones may become just as famous. In the years since I saw that Patrick Wolf supporting Arcade Fire, he’s matured immensely, both as an artist and a performer. Tonight there’s a feeling that this gig is drawing a line in the sand as a summary of all that he has achieved over these past few years.</span><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-style: italic;"><br /><br />Battle</span> was the working title for his last album, and it feels as if there’s an internal conflict between the serious artist and a spoilt prodigy who is want to throw his toys out of the pram. As he stands heroically astride a slowly revolving mirrorball atop a podium, stripped to waist and covered in glitter, a pair of wings attached to his back, it’s hard to avoid using the adjective ‘flamboyant’ which he hates so much. He’s supported by a tight band, and the added strings and voices compliment the usual arrangements and allow songs such as <span style="font-style: italic;">Damaris</span> to acquire a majesty rarely found in pub gigs. Marc Almond may have cancelled his guest appearance due to illness, but his influence and theatricality can be felt strongly throughout. In his place Florence (& The Machine) Welch appears to perform <span style="font-style: italic;">The Bachelor</span> as a duet, while the statuesque figure of Gwendoline Christie provides ‘The Voice Of Reason’. Most impressive is Alec Empire, whose contributions raise the energy, particularly his freewheeling solo improvisation which provides one of the highlights of the evening.</span><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-style: italic;"><br /><br />The Bachelor</span> is the centrepiece, as virtually the entire album is played, but the expanded line-up allows songs which are rarely performed to get an airing, as well as highlights and obscurities from his career to date. But a sit down concert such as this exposes any flaws in execution, and restricts the audience from really taking part in the more uptempo numbers. The venue presents other problems. In the cramped confines of the upper circle the sound is disappointing, vocals being lost in the mix for the first section. Such a long show would have benefited from an interval, and removed some of the pauses needed for costume changes. And while there’s no denying that he did put on a spectacle, sometimes this came at the cost of the music (such as when he was so determined to change his jacket before a song ended, he fluffed its ending). </span><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /><br />Throughout the evening, there are many moments here to admire. Wolf demonstrates his skills on a variety of instruments, and his talent shines through, taking advantage of a unique opportunity to do things that wouldn’t be possible in a normal gig. And while tonight included an apology for past bad behaviour, it also had a somewhat self-congratulatory edge which left a little bit of a sour taste. But there was also a sense that this was a victory in the battle for the more mature Patrick Wolf to step forward. I’ll be watching.</span><br /><span style="" lang="EN-GB"></span><p style="font-family: arial;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: 85%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;"><br /></span></span></span></p><p style="font-family: arial;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: 85%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">© James McGalliard 2009</span></span></span><br /><span style="" lang="EN-GB"></span></p><p style="font-family: arial;" class="MsoNormal"><br /><span style="" lang="EN-GB"></span></p><p style="font-family: arial;" class="MsoNormal"><strong style="font-style: italic; font-weight: normal;"><span style="">Setlist</span></strong><br />Divine Intervention<br /> Overture<br />Wolf Song<br />Wind In The Wires<br />Oblivion (with Gwendoline Christie)<br />Paris<br />Theseus (with Gwendoline Christie)<br /> Who Will?<br />The Shadowsea<br />Bluebells<br />Pigeon Song<br />Thickets<br /> The Bachelor (featuring Florence Welch)<br />Epilogue<br />Noise<br /> Count Of Casualty (featuring Alec Empire)<br />Battle (featuring Alec Empire)<br />Hard Times (featuring Alec Empire)<br />Damaris<br /> The Libertine<br />Tristan<br /><span style=""> Eulogy</span><br />Magic Position<br /><em></em><br />The Sun Is Often Out<br />Vulture</p>James McGalliardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08642240549966678581noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5191581602759098469.post-84320243603513412962009-05-13T12:00:00.001+01:002009-07-04T16:36:11.889+01:00Interview: The Veils<span style="font-family: arial;font-family:arial;font-size:180%;" ><span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-weight: bold;">MAN OF TWO WORLDS</span></span></span><span style=";font-family:arial;font-size:100%;" ><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="" lang="EN-GB"><br /></span></span></span><span style=";font-family:arial;font-size:100%;" ><span lang="EN-GB"><br /></span></span><span style=";font-family:arial;font-size:130%;" lang="EN-GB">“We might be dead or dropped in a year; then these songs will make sense.” <b style="">Finn Andrews</b> reflects upon <b style="">The Veils</b> new album <i style="">Sun Gangs</i> with </span><span style="font-size:130%;"><b style="font-family:arial;"><span lang="EN-GB">James McGalliard</span></b></span><span style=";font-family:arial;font-size:14;" lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-size:130%;"> in Reading</span><br /></span><span style="font-size:100%;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family:arial;"><br />“When [debut album] <i style="">The Runaway Found</i> came out, I felt like the success we had that early on, I really didn’t deserve. And I think that was part of the reason for dissolving that line-up. I didn’t feel ready to be playing to that many people, and in some parts of the world out of nowhere it was a thousand people showing up. And I didn’t feel up to it at all. I was just scared by the whole thing”<br /><br />Finn Andrews, singer, songwriter and founder of The Veils is someone who lives by his feelings in the present moment, and knows that these diverse impulses will make some sense in the future. In his work and in his writing he trusts his inner voice; the world will catch up in time. So to talk about their third album, <i style="">Sun Gangs</i>, we end up talking about its predecessor. “It seemed odd with this album [<i style="">Sun Gangs</i>] coming out and people were talking about <i style="">Nux</i>, and ‘oooh <i style="">Nux</i> <i style="">Vomica </i>- a hard act to follow’. It just seems so bizarre because when it came out no one seemed to give a shit... I was so excited about that record and it came out and waiting for what’s everyone’s reaction gonna be. There was a kind of shrug until about a year later…”<br /><br />“With this one I feel so proud of it, and when we finished it I was so overawed with just everything that had gone in to it. It just reminded me of this whole time - it’s just so personal. I don’t really care anymore or keep track of it anymore what people are making of it. It is really complimentary and humbling if people compliment you on it.”<br /><br />There is a world of contrasts in both Andrews, and the music he and the band creates. Born in London, raised in New Zealand, his speaking voice is deep, and somehow both authoritative and uncertain at the same time. There’s ferocity in his onstage delivery, yet here in the real world there’s an indefinable vulnerability to him. But although seemingly conflicted, he’s honest and genuine throughout.<br /><br />“It’s a huge gift to be able to do this, and a huge responsibility as well”. He continues, “It’s been the source of all the greatest joys of my life so far; you also have the burdens with that. I love writing and I will do anything to be able to carry that on. It’s an unsure time for everybody. Not just musicians. No one is quite sure what is around the corner. The last few years the whole time I have been writing I felt like there was kind of strange impending something…”<br /><br />“There is just something about this [The Veils] that has never wanted to stay in one place. Whenever we’ve tried to tie anything to the ground, it just rips away the cord, and floats off. It’s a constant balancing act this band. I think that’s maybe a lot of the great things come out of. I think we are gonna be constantly pissing people off and making new fans and losing old ones.”<br /><br />Both the weakness and the strength of <i style="">Sun Gangs</i> is its eclecticism. From its jauntier aspects to the vitriolic tirades, it’s a difficult album to categorise. Andrews explains, “I really enjoy albums where you feel you are just being led like a hound by a scent and you don’t really know where you’re gonna end up, but you’re just being carried through weird corridors and it’s a real little unexpected journey and I think that’s what I wanted to make and I don’t know if I completely succeeded in that, but that what I always want to make the experience.”<br /><br />There are themes that unite these songs, but exactly how this works is elusive; it’s more like a feeling than an intellectual conceit. The album ends, ironically with <i style="">Begin Again</i>. “I like that song because it begins at the end and ends at the beginning. I love songs with incredibly pessimistic words sang in quite a merry way,” he tells me.<br /><br />But centrepiece of Sun Gangs is the epic <i style="">Larkspur</i>. “It’s a song I enjoy playing more than any other song. Ever! I just get such a kick out of it. For me, it’s a song about everything I love about making music… It’s just about that urge to write things down, and to perform, pick up the guitar, bash the shit out of the piano; just all about that love and that need. It seemed right to describe it in few words as possible.” <i style="">And how did you record such a beast?</i> “We treated that like it was a real living entity that we had to really respect and not tie down when it wasn’t looking. We didn’t rehearse it... I knew the day we recorded it, it would just be me waiting for the right space… It was like being in a movie about The Veils… We just went in and played it in one take and there it was. That was my favourite part of recording the whole thing – it was so organic and so unforced.”<br /><br />As Finn sings <i style="">Larkspur</i> later that night before a Reading scene there for the chat rather than the bands, his earlier words make sudden sense. His disdain, his anger, his aggression, his frustration, all expressed through the repeated three lines of the song. For live it becomes a living creature; the universe encapsulated. From the cheesy pick-up lines, to the background hubbub of the chattering classes, to the worries on the horizon, to the turning of the earth, it consumes it all.<br /><br />There is change in the wind. For these recent shows, The Veils have added a new member – Louisa on backing vocals. And one day someone else will leave, and there’ll be another room to fill. So what does the future hold? “It’s all just about the songs for me. I don’t care about any other aspects of this; whatever allows me to keep writing. That still feels worthwhile to me because it personally helps me. If I couldn’t do that I don’t know what I’d do with myself…”<br /><br />“Songwriting is so great like that – all of these things all at once. It’s such an unspecific part of your mind that you’re casting in stone. It’s not a journal and it’s not some dream description. It’s all these things, all at once, and none of them at all. So I don’t really know what this album means. We might be dead or dropped in a year; and suddenly these songs will make sense. Maybe I will be in the band of my dreams and everything will be fine.”<br /><br /><br /><b style=""><i style="">Sun Gangs is out now on Rough Trade through Remote Control<br /></i></b> </span> <span style=";font-family:arial;font-size:85%;" ><strong></strong></span><span style="font-weight: bold;font-family:arial;" ><br /><br /><span style="font-size:85%;">© James McGalliard 2009</span></span><span style="font-size:85%;"><br /></span><span style="font-style: italic;font-family:arial;font-size:85%;" >This interview was published in Inpress # 1070 in Melbourne on 13 May 2009</span><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-style: italic;"><br /></span></span><span style="font-style: italic;font-family:arial;" ><span style="font-size:85%;">I interviewed Finn pre-show in Reading on Saturday 18 April 2009<br /></span><br /></span><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlGwhrzzlgwQNLbocFs3wQhus-Rgp42eGUVRlmpHq3d6u5Jd3T1Gp7pJoXBYsYcfYurLmB79QZihmusz5t6PVSzKmwQ6rY48Ym4lfboONi2EJcTT3PEWj-VjKgHC7mJCAFA-_MFY-yHKE/s1600-h/The+Veils+by+James+McGalliard+-+Inpress+%231070+-+published+13-MAY-2009+-+Part+1.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 274px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlGwhrzzlgwQNLbocFs3wQhus-Rgp42eGUVRlmpHq3d6u5Jd3T1Gp7pJoXBYsYcfYurLmB79QZihmusz5t6PVSzKmwQ6rY48Ym4lfboONi2EJcTT3PEWj-VjKgHC7mJCAFA-_MFY-yHKE/s400/The+Veils+by+James+McGalliard+-+Inpress+%231070+-+published+13-MAY-2009+-+Part+1.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5354626325385268962" border="0" /></a><br /></span>James McGalliardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08642240549966678581noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5191581602759098469.post-17175619191969555102009-02-09T12:00:00.005+00:002009-07-15T19:43:16.317+01:00Live: Howling Bells, Asobi Seksu and Red Light Company - London<span style="font-weight: bold;font-family:arial;font-size:130%;" >Howling Bells</span><span style="font-weight: bold;font-family:arial;font-size:130%;" > / </span><span style="font-weight: bold;font-family:arial;font-size:130%;" >Asobi Seksu</span><span style="font-weight: bold;font-family:arial;font-size:130%;" > / </span><span style="font-weight: bold;font-family:arial;font-size:130%;" >Red Light Company</span><span style="font-size:100%;"><br /></span><span style=";font-family:arial;font-size:100%;" ><span style="font-size:100%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Islington Academy, London, UK</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Monday 9 February 2009</span></span><br /><br />There’s nowt wrong with <span style="font-weight: bold;">Red Light Company</span>, but they don’t give you many reasons for undying love either. They sound like the sort of band that A&R scouts sign up hoping to be the next big thing, who go on to release some moderately inoffensive radio fodder, and then disappear without trace at or before the second album. One song name checks Broken Social Scene, so in return I’ll namecheck them as a less imaginative Secret Machines, the prog replaced by Guillemot-isms with a pinch of Brian Molko. Expect them to be huge – briefly.<br /><br /></span><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkGFyQNsarEhJ94pRpoYi7-Gj76ZPN3Sb_4ZiDQm8z199tHD0CtNytrB3KgF0lKxZD0-_9jfZFuoISdS_xmDUqdVm3tR6OVoP6d7pbY-iwPquThIXVTxGJhIXd5V28osLV9rYN1JPmoY4/s1600-h/Asobi+Seksu+by+James+McGalliard.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 357px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkGFyQNsarEhJ94pRpoYi7-Gj76ZPN3Sb_4ZiDQm8z199tHD0CtNytrB3KgF0lKxZD0-_9jfZFuoISdS_xmDUqdVm3tR6OVoP6d7pbY-iwPquThIXVTxGJhIXd5V28osLV9rYN1JPmoY4/s400/Asobi+Seksu+by+James+McGalliard.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5354616569159729090" border="0" /></a><br /><span style=";font-family:arial;font-size:100%;" >I don’t know what happened to <span style="font-weight: bold;">Asobi Seksu</span> tonight, but it’s hard to find positive things to say about their performance. From the flat vocals, to the keyboards that drowned out the guitars, to the lack of songs – it’s really just a tuneless mess. Then it gets worse, the sound is turned up to distortion levels, which fails to cover what just isn’t happening on stage. Near the end they begin to pull it together; their last track is C86 in feel, and has the merit of seeming to be going somewhere. Then they run out of time. If only more time had been spent on getting their live sound right and less on festooning the stage in fairy lights then everyone may have enjoyed themselves more.<br /><br /></span><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicY1_M7tZ7pQXDrAttOzVgaHXRscXd8Hc-0XJT-hTzWDTLvyYOtULPnIj-rytF-dp-4OSAVApKcuTU_n1R1LpWaOT3StN8x93eNZBS3_FtOmpsQyVuqHiLBF2UKhy7Smybrtn0uviXd9k/s1600-h/Juanita+II+of+Howling+Bells+by+James+McGalliard.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 377px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicY1_M7tZ7pQXDrAttOzVgaHXRscXd8Hc-0XJT-hTzWDTLvyYOtULPnIj-rytF-dp-4OSAVApKcuTU_n1R1LpWaOT3StN8x93eNZBS3_FtOmpsQyVuqHiLBF2UKhy7Smybrtn0uviXd9k/s400/Juanita+II+of+Howling+Bells+by+James+McGalliard.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5354616828265020162" border="0" /></a><span style=";font-family:arial;font-size:100%;" >When <span style="font-weight: bold;">Howling Bells</span> open with </span><span style="font-style: italic;font-family:arial;font-size:100%;" >Blessed Night</span><span style=";font-family:arial;font-size:100%;" > I think <span style="font-style: italic;">at last – a band!</span> This is part of the NME Awards series of shows, and also the first gig for the new album <span style="font-style: italic;">Radio Wars</span>. They use this to play all but one song off the new album, and it becomes a night full of surprises for band and audience. Juanita asks the audience to tell her something new, something she hasn’t heard before; “You look like a bloke” is yelled back. The highlights are from the new album; <span style="font-style: italic;">Golden Web</span> is a genuine departure and all the better for it; the quiet allows the harmonies to shine through. <span style="font-style: italic;">Miss Bell’s Song </span>is the sound of a band working together, and <span style="font-style: italic;">Digital Hearts</span> is quietly subversive – the song builds, but doesn’t break.<br /></span><span style=";font-family:arial;font-size:100%;" ><br />Howling Bells have always been a competent enough live act, yet their shows have seemed to lack some intensity. Tonight is undoubtedly the best I’ve seen them, and for the first time I’m seeing them take some risks, but there are problems as well. Tying the song title <span style="font-style: italic;">Cities Burning Down</span> to the Victorian bushfires was possibly misguided, and while <span style="font-style: italic;">Let’s Be Kids Again</span> is better than the album version, it’s still childishly awkward. By placing so much focus on Juanita, there’s the risk of the rest of the band being seen as Sleeperblokes –anonymous and interchangeable male personnel behind the star. <span style="font-style: italic;">Setting Sun</span> is a real mess, even after stopping it to try and get it right. I’m not sure they know how to read an audience either– the long instrumental lead in to <span style="font-style: italic;">Nightingale</span> is really great; trying unsuccessfully to get the audience to clap along to the song proper isn’t.<br /><br />They end with <span style="font-style: italic;">Into The Chaos</span>, and I’m impressed, but their encore is so audacious I’m won over. They electro shimmer their way through Britney Spears' <span style="font-style: italic;">Toxic</span>, and get away with it. Tonight shows a band in flux, when they take risks and break rules they’re genuinely challenging, at other times they feel as if they’re operating within fairly closely defined parameters. The question is, which path will they take?<br /></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;font-family:arial;" >© James McGalliard 2009<br /></span><span style="font-style: italic;font-family:arial;" >A version of this review appeared in Inpress, Melbourne, on 25 February 2009</span><span style="font-style: italic;font-size:85%;" ><em></em></span></span>James McGalliardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08642240549966678581noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5191581602759098469.post-23546160082205707082009-02-05T12:00:00.004+00:002009-02-18T22:49:01.707+00:00Live: The Veils - London<meta equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"><meta name="ProgId" content="Word.Document"><meta name="Generator" content="Microsoft Word 10"><meta name="Originator" content="Microsoft Word 10"><link style="font-family: arial;" rel="File-List" href="file:///C:%5CDOCUME%7E1%5CJMCGAL%7E1%5CLOCALS%7E1%5CTemp%5Cmsohtml1%5C01%5Cclip_filelist.xml"><o:smarttagtype style="font-family: arial;" namespaceuri="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" name="City"></o:smarttagtype><o:smarttagtype style="font-family: arial;" namespaceuri="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" name="place"></o:smarttagtype><o:smarttagtype style="font-family: arial;" namespaceuri="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" name="PersonName"></o:smarttagtype><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:worddocument> <w:view>Normal</w:View> <w:zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:compatibility> <w:breakwrappedtables/> <w:snaptogridincell/> <w:wraptextwithpunct/> <w:useasianbreakrules/> </w:Compatibility> <w:browserlevel>MicrosoftInternetExplorer4</w:BrowserLevel> </w:WordDocument> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if !mso]><object classid="clsid:38481807-CA0E-42D2-BF39-B33AF135CC4D" id="ieooui"></object> <style> st1\:*{behavior:url(#ieooui) } </style> <![endif]--><style> <!-- /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-parent:""; margin:0cm; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:Arial; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";} @page Section1 {size:21.0cm 842.0pt; margin:48.2pt 48.2pt 48.2pt 48.2pt; mso-header-margin:35.45pt; mso-footer-margin:35.45pt; mso-paper-source:0;} div.Section1 {page:Section1;} --> </style><!--[if gte mso 10]> <style> /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0cm; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman";} </style> <![endif]--> <p style="font-weight: bold;font-family:arial;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="" lang="EN-GB">The Veils</span></span></p><p style="font-weight: bold;font-family:arial;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:100%;"><span style="" lang="EN-GB">The Macbeth, Hoxton, </span><st1:city><st1:place><span style="" lang="EN-GB">London</span></st1:place></st1:city><span style="" lang="EN-GB">, UK</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><span style="" lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-style: italic;">Thursday 5 February 2009</span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:arial;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjollQXrdN_YyRXX0HxzbYU95sHLUP7YNwxZgKAAamrHe52BXhzn4tKx8ppmV0q90TvWbxCppvZG3ck4qSIBUBDI8Hd80vE7UaHOIpGyjJyHY4x6HhcqrezOJtVp4fckjpg2WFzeZupBYI/s1600-h/Finn+Andrews+and+Sophia+Burn+of+The+Veils+by+James+McGalliard.jpg">
<br /></a></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:arial;"><span style="" lang="EN-GB"> Sometimes I’ll be asked why I’m going to see a band play <i style="">again</i>. Yet one of the joys of seeing a band many times over a period of time is to see how they alter and change. While sometimes they may evolve away from your tastes, other times you get to see them become something on a higher plane than when you first saw them.</span></p><p face="arial" class="MsoNormal"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3O2-6pnHCSQMQUMYFRpRnjPrLznnEI8vbHABAp5C-2PqpvR09nGPb57TWQtvSsw5dx4ePpwVqBzysfg1g8LGJteg7AQX4CemePLnIY5dsUb_8tqmaOhFqAjFnFJYji7P335pFy-9zDbo/s1600-h/Finn+Andrews+II+of+The+Veils+by+James+McGalliard.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 356px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3O2-6pnHCSQMQUMYFRpRnjPrLznnEI8vbHABAp5C-2PqpvR09nGPb57TWQtvSsw5dx4ePpwVqBzysfg1g8LGJteg7AQX4CemePLnIY5dsUb_8tqmaOhFqAjFnFJYji7P335pFy-9zDbo/s400/Finn+Andrews+II+of+The+Veils+by+James+McGalliard.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5304266498985579746" border="0" /></a></p> <p face="arial" class="MsoNormal"><span style="" lang="EN-GB">Five years ago I saw the first line-up of <b style="">The Veils</b> launch their debut album; and eight months ago I last saw them, playing the fourth and final week of their </span><st1:city><st1:place><span style="" lang="EN-GB">Camden</span></st1:place></st1:city><span style="" lang="EN-GB"> residency, road testing possible songs for their next album. Tonight they tell us that the finishing touches were put on <i style="">Sun Gangs</i> at the start of this week. They marked their return to the live scene by playing small venues over four nights at the four points of the compass around central </span><st1:city><st1:place><span style="" lang="EN-GB">London</span></st1:place></st1:city><span style="" lang="EN-GB">. Tonight was east, and found the four-piece in the </span>cramped space<span style="" lang="EN-GB"> of the Macbeth in Hoxton. </span>The bar takes up about a third of the width of the room, and the band has to fight their way through the crowd to get onstage.<span style="" lang="EN-GB">
<br /></span></p><p style="font-family: arial;" class="MsoNormal"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3O2-6pnHCSQMQUMYFRpRnjPrLznnEI8vbHABAp5C-2PqpvR09nGPb57TWQtvSsw5dx4ePpwVqBzysfg1g8LGJteg7AQX4CemePLnIY5dsUb_8tqmaOhFqAjFnFJYji7P335pFy-9zDbo/s1600-h/Finn+Andrews+II+of+The+Veils+by+James+McGalliard.jpg">
<br /></a></p><p style="font-family: arial;" class="MsoNormal"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjollQXrdN_YyRXX0HxzbYU95sHLUP7YNwxZgKAAamrHe52BXhzn4tKx8ppmV0q90TvWbxCppvZG3ck4qSIBUBDI8Hd80vE7UaHOIpGyjJyHY4x6HhcqrezOJtVp4fckjpg2WFzeZupBYI/s1600-h/Finn+Andrews+and+Sophia+Burn+of+The+Veils+by+James+McGalliard.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 365px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjollQXrdN_YyRXX0HxzbYU95sHLUP7YNwxZgKAAamrHe52BXhzn4tKx8ppmV0q90TvWbxCppvZG3ck4qSIBUBDI8Hd80vE7UaHOIpGyjJyHY4x6HhcqrezOJtVp4fckjpg2WFzeZupBYI/s400/Finn+Andrews+and+Sophia+Burn+of+The+Veils+by+James+McGalliard.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5304265934183365826" border="0" /></a></p><p style="font-family: arial;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="" lang="EN-GB">But what a difference the intervening months have made. From the opening notes of <i style="">Three Sisters</i>, it’s clear that they are more focussed and driven than ever. It has a searing urgency, and Finn Andrews’ ever-more insistent refrains of <i style="">Oh My God</i> build powerfully, with an underlying sense of menace. Whereas before the band were still compensating for the loss of the keyboards, now there’s a sense that a balance has been achieved without them. The sound is bigger, but also breathes - like a Henry Moore sculpture, the gaps are part of the whole, and not a loss. </span>More than once I’m reminded of The Bad Seeds under Mick Harvey. Not so much for their actual sound , but the feeling of determination and single purpose, where the gestalt is much more than the sum of its parts.<span style=""> </span>Henning Dietz’s restraint on the drums makes his flurries all the more powerful, while Sophia Burn is totally transported as she plays. Daniel Raishbrook’s guitar line on <i style="">The Letter</i> is wonderfully catchy, acting almost as a vocal response to Finn’s words. <span style="" lang="EN-GB">
<br /></span></p><p style="font-family: arial;" class="MsoNormal"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9sjTPu2Lv9zl5rH9Wf_rXoSwcDJeQYDhVNazmJddDoK1jwvJwsKkCk6xMwqqOuoZ_M7sbhwgVwvCcKsJt-IXXpVGRF6ekIKvmGZ5wD4qwPLvlRZY7MxGWR_1unK7BEbCd-8WjsI3iRxk/s1600-h/Finn+Andrews+of+The+Veils+by+James+McGalliard.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 324px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9sjTPu2Lv9zl5rH9Wf_rXoSwcDJeQYDhVNazmJddDoK1jwvJwsKkCk6xMwqqOuoZ_M7sbhwgVwvCcKsJt-IXXpVGRF6ekIKvmGZ5wD4qwPLvlRZY7MxGWR_1unK7BEbCd-8WjsI3iRxk/s400/Finn+Andrews+of+The+Veils+by+James+McGalliard.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5304266117591637586" border="0" /></a></p><p style="font-family: arial;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="" lang="EN-GB">And it’s not just the new songs that have been reinvigorated. <i style="">Advice For Young Mothers To Be</i> no longer canters along merrily – its steel spine is now felt. <i style="">Jesus For The Jugular</i> sees Finn mangling sounds out of his guitar; this is for real. Yet it’s not without tenderness. <i style="">Sit Down By The Fire</i> reflects a gentler side, and when broken strings bring things to a stop, Finn fills the time with a solo rendition of <i style="">The Wild Son</i>. The band rightly ignores the calls for <i style="">Lavinia</i>, which come like alarm clock on snooze mode, and they’re right to. For they’re not that band anymore, and the newer songs are far superior; I’d have loved to have heard more of them. They finish with a fiery <i style="">Nux Vomica</i>, and Finn comes back alone for the encore, and plays what he tells us was the first song he wrote upon arriving in </span><st1:city><st1:place><span style="" lang="EN-GB">London</span></st1:place></st1:city><span style="" lang="EN-GB"> all those years ago. On record <i style="">The Tide That Left And Never Came Back</i> is a rollicking anthem; here it’s stripped back to its elegiac soul and becomes a beautiful and heartfelt requiem full of loss and regret. The Veils have always been good; they’re becoming magnificent.
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<br /></p><p style="font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><strong>© James McGalliard 2009</strong></span><span style="font-size:85%;"><em>
<br /></em></span></p> <span style="font-size:100%;"><em style="font-family: arial;">Setlist
<br /></em><em style="font-family: arial;"></em><span style="font-family:arial;">Three Sisters
<br /></span><span style="font-family:arial;">Calliope
<br /></span><span style="font-family:arial;">The Letter
<br /></span><span style="font-family:arial;">Advice for Young Mothers to Be
<br /></span><span style="font-family:arial;">Jesus for the Jugular
<br /></span><span style="font-family:arial;">Not Yet
<br /></span><span style="font-family:arial;">Sit Down By The Fire
<br /></span><span style="font-family:arial;">The Wild Son
<br /></span><span style="font-family:arial;">Killed By The Boom
<br /></span><span style="font-family:arial;">Nux Vomica
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<br /></span><span style="font-family:arial;">The Tide That Left and Never Came Back</span></span><p style="font-family:arial;">
<br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><em>A version of this review appeared in Inpress # 1058; published in Melbourne, Australia, on 18 February 2009</em></span><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPo3OHsgDBD2gnAufCRC4Z5zharaxpx4ycrt5hKdb-mTZIQo3S2x9RwcGVLRvpKWciBgB-q6WAxY5j4U_M0jEgkI_MCUhx6DTkXowUqcPIu7XEfqhaW4pieWfVYuh-pxSv6SeKNmKSiNQ/s1600-h/Inpress+1058+18-FEB-2009+-+The+Veils+by+James+McGalliard+-+Cropped.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 395px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPo3OHsgDBD2gnAufCRC4Z5zharaxpx4ycrt5hKdb-mTZIQo3S2x9RwcGVLRvpKWciBgB-q6WAxY5j4U_M0jEgkI_MCUhx6DTkXowUqcPIu7XEfqhaW4pieWfVYuh-pxSv6SeKNmKSiNQ/s400/Inpress+1058+18-FEB-2009+-+The+Veils+by+James+McGalliard+-+Cropped.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5304266694932790322" border="0" /></a>
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<br />James McGalliardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08642240549966678581noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5191581602759098469.post-87819733294133449412008-12-29T12:00:00.003+00:002009-07-04T19:02:33.141+01:00End Of Year Polls: 2008 Inpress Writers' Poll<span style="font-size:100%;"><span style="font-family:arial;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">INPRESS WRITERS POLL 2008 - James McGalliard</span><span style="font-weight: bold;"><br /><br />TOP 10 ALBUMS</span><br />1. Schoolyard Ghosts - NO-MAN<br />2. Rest Now Weary Head You Will Get Well Soon - GET WELL SOON<br />3. Street Horrrsing - FUCK BUTTONS<br />4. The Midnight Organ Fight - FRIGHTENED RABBIT<br />5. Love, Ire & Song - FRANK TURNER<br />6. Neptune - THE DUKE SPIRIT<br />7. Simple - ANDY YORKE<br />8. Third - PORTISHEAD<br /><span style="font-style: italic;">I’m deliberately leaving the last two empty for the great albums from 2008 I won’t hear until sometime in 2009, so sorry to Elbow, Goldfrapp, Secret Shine and others who may otherwise have got a(nother) vote</span><br /><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">TOP 5 SINGLES</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Umm, it’s me isn’t it? Has downloading killed the single? Or does iTunes make any album track a potential for the combined singles charts? OK, let’s stick to physical releases…</span><br />1. Like A Suicide / The Computer Voice – THE EARLY YEARS<br />2. Grounds For Divorce – ELBOW<br />3. Century – THE LONG BLONDES<br />4. Sweet Love For Planet Earth – FUCK BUTTONS<br />5. Fear Of Opening My Mouth - COLLAPSING CITIES<br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Just outside</span>: Songs, Nick Cave, Mogwai<br /><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">TOP 5 ARTISTS OF THE YEAR</span><br />1. Frank Turner<br />2. Fuck Buttons<br />3. Get Well Soon<br />4. Frightened Rabbit<br />5. My Bloody Valentine<br /><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">TOP 5 INTERNATIONAL ARTIST GIGS</span><br />1. Frank Turner + Andy Yorke + Chris TT @ The 100 Club, London<br />2. Get Well Soon @ Bush Hall, London<br />3. Fuck Buttons @ The ICA, London<br />4. Kid Harpoon @ Dingwalls, London<br />5. Frightened Rabbit @ Hoxton Bar & Kitchen, London<br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Just outside</span>: My Bloody Valentine, Working For A Nuclear Free City + Epic45<br /><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">TOP 5 AUSTRALIAN ARTIST GIGS</span><br />1. The Wreckery @ Northcote Social Club<br /><span style="font-style: italic;">All I saw of note from Oz artists this tear. Sorry</span><br /><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">TOP 5 RADIO SHOWS</span><br />1. Steve Lamacq (BBC 6Music)<br />2. Adam & Joe (BBC 6Music)<br />3. Marc Riley (BBC 6Music)<br />4. John Kennedy (XFM)<br />5. The Shipping Forecast (BBC Radio 4)<br /><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">TOP 5 TELEVISION SHOWS</span><br />1. Battlestar Galactica<br />2. Charlie Brooker’s Screenwipe<br />3. Underbelly<br />4. Sense & Sensibility<br />5. Doctor Who<br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Just outside</span>: No Heroics, Peep Show, Top Gear, Have I Got News For You, South Park<br /><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">TOP 5 ONLINE DESTINATIONS</span><br />1. Wikipedia<br />2. BBC (esp. News)<br />3. Guardian Unlimited<br />4. Digital Spy<br />5. Blogspot<br /><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">THE EMPEROR'S NEW CLOTHES AWARD (MOST OVER-HYPED)</span><br />Kings Of Leon<br />Surely Elbow performing On A Day Like This was the television highlight of Glastonbury, yet it was the headline Pyramid Stage slot of these generic US rockers that made them a #1 artist<br /><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">HIGHLIGHT(S) OF THE YEAR</span><br />Edwyn Collins’s live performance - a difficult yet triumphant return after his strokes; live reunions of My Bloody Valentine and The Wreckery for not being pale imitations of the past; dad’s gong; friends.<br /><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">QUOTE OF THE YEAR (DON'T FORGET THE SOURCE)</span><br />“He fucked your granddaughter” – Jonathon Ross on The Russell Brand Show on BBC Radio 2.<br />Not the quote itself, but for illustrating that multiplatformed broadcasting allows you to be offended time after time at your own convenience (thanks HIGNFY), and for showing exactly how far the media will go in a witch-hunt.<br /><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">BEST MEDIA MOMENT</span><br />Elbow winning the Mercury Music Prize (I was supposed to say Obama’s victory, wasn’t I?)<br /><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">WHAT’S THE MOST RIDICULOUS THING SOMEONE WILL BLAME ON THE ECONOMIC DOWNTURN DURING 2009?</span><br />Exorbitant booking fees for concert tickets / Morrissey failing to get a # 1 album<br /><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">PREDICTION FOR 2009</span><br />C86 slight return, unemployment, celebrity overkill, rise of the right<br /><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">2008 IN REVIEW (in exactly 150 words)</span><br />It was the best of times, it was the worst of times; except it wasn’t really. It was just a little, er, mediocre. 2008 felt a little like a second series, where assurance had replaced the doubt, but some of the freshness and originality had been lost. There were no truly great albums, few television shows that stopped the heart, little new music likely to cause spontaneous joyous ejaculation. Instead it was all a little downbeat - we talked ourselves into a recession, and looked back at the nostalgic pillar of salt, rather than towards everything before us. Maybe the past just felt more comfortable somehow? Overall things felt less secure, the streets a little less safe, the unknown more of a threat. While the US writers’ strike affected many TV shows, Battlestar Galactica still managed to deliver one of the most stunning endings in the history of the medium.<br /><br /><span style="font-size:100%;"><br /></span></span></span><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">© James McGalliard 2009</span></span><span style="font-size:100%;"><br /></span>James McGalliardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08642240549966678581noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5191581602759098469.post-20666444003810940722008-06-13T12:00:00.004+01:002008-06-18T23:21:21.031+01:00Live: My Bloody Valentine - London<span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;font-family:arial;" >My Bloody Valentine</span></span><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-family:arial;" >The ICA, London, UK</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;font-family:arial;" >Friday 13 June 2008<br /><br /></span><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkghbQEsA_08Mc55_NOhuh6vd-q76aDGn_vrJJmFToxNRi6w9SDHH8Pab_vYCgx1DLewv-1IXy-Q_ooJmvpgNqYeOWqrkrJr-YMSvqyjH921XgYGlqGSTsRx2OLhmgfsW956B7uZnGue8/s1600-h/My+Bloody+Valentine+13-JUN-2008.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkghbQEsA_08Mc55_NOhuh6vd-q76aDGn_vrJJmFToxNRi6w9SDHH8Pab_vYCgx1DLewv-1IXy-Q_ooJmvpgNqYeOWqrkrJr-YMSvqyjH921XgYGlqGSTsRx2OLhmgfsW956B7uZnGue8/s400/My+Bloody+Valentine+13-JUN-2008.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5213349089068756466" border="0" /></a> <span style="font-family:arial;">“Thanks for coming to our rehearsal. Our first gig is at the Roundhouse”. Thus from the outset, Kevin Shields is clear that this isn’t the finished artefact. But then they launch straight into <span style="font-style: italic;">Only Shallow</span> and it feels nothing like 16 years since they last did this.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">With time passing, there are things you forget. Like how tuneful many of their songs are. The boxes of earplugs by the entrance were a little worrying, but the mix is very dense and full rather than particularly loud. But it’s not all power; there’s fragility, particularly in the vocals of Bilinda Butcher, which make it vulnerable and human. All the vocals are mixed a fair way back, and Bilinda has a sweet innocence as she sings, seeming somewhat divorced from the proceedings. To her left Kevin Shields is head down in concentration, but allows himself a smile when things go just right.<br /><br /></span><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAItc5lmasHaIvom64rFz25w0lj_c2NrkmeTlGj8HLsOpU1bmYHyy2wVvFo-nP9XgUYiOrLegifBpKHn2Qh7eXMM1c2uLR2iv5aGdJHur7GkZDwxIw9YO-nAtZ26_vYRk3jAggUv38LMQ/s1600-h/Bilinda+Butcher+of+My+Bloody+Valentine+13-JUN-2008.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAItc5lmasHaIvom64rFz25w0lj_c2NrkmeTlGj8HLsOpU1bmYHyy2wVvFo-nP9XgUYiOrLegifBpKHn2Qh7eXMM1c2uLR2iv5aGdJHur7GkZDwxIw9YO-nAtZ26_vYRk3jAggUv38LMQ/s400/Bilinda+Butcher+of+My+Bloody+Valentine+13-JUN-2008.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5213349221418284930" border="0" /></a><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">The rhythm section is set far to the back of the stage. Debbie Googe dances around in her circle of foldback, while Colm O'Ciosoig is a solid and almost machine-like presence on the drums. They cover material from the Creation Records period, and of this it’s the <span style="font-style: italic;">Loveless</span> material that works best. With sound sometimes being a maelstrom, it’s amazing how in control of it they all are. That’s not to say that their aren’t flat points, but for me the experience grew in the memory more than it gripped me at the time. But it was also a beast that gathered strength as it progressed, as both they and we came to grips with the expectations after so long a hiatus.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">They still end their set as they did back then with the behemoth of <span style="font-style: italic;">You Made Me Realise</span>. The central section of this became known as the Holocaust, but it’s not that at all. It’s more like a journey; the trip through the stargate at the end of <span style="font-style: italic;">2001: A Space Odyssey</span>. But standing there in awe, I realise what I’m hearing is an audio depiction of the <span style="font-style: italic;">Valley Forge</span> ripping through the rings of Saturn in <span style="font-style: italic;">Silent Running</span>. Communications arrays are destroyed as the ship enters radio silence for the white noise journey; then the ship emerges safely on the other side, but all are changed by the experience, and then reality intervenes as the almost psychedelic jangle of the song returns at the end.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">This was as good as you could hope and better than you had any right to expect. So why the reticence? While people around me were melting in ecstasy, I found it a little hard to get involved. And then it hit me. I wasn’t hearing anything new. This was not even an official gig, so I don’t have much of an issue with that, but MBV were always trailblazers. Tonight they cemented their reputation as a live act, and allowed a new generation of fans to see what we had been going on about for so long. The time they’ve lost may be their greatest enemy; what will be most interesting will be if they’re able to go beyond <span style="font-style: italic;">Loveless</span> into something entirely new. I’ll be hoping</span><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3UYOD0M9hMOD-wJnRYtndL9p5kwBY6OjRyGglLxNK7tFddh7TZ_WuAKU8WlpB4Cf1FqLhOq07KA1iHPm3O74Zbs2WpA_kCGdmUpeb8Tqx32lkOHZYc1-OybPigjpFN5Cgf3GlH069CN0/s1600-h/My+Bloody+Valentine+setlist+13-JUN-2008.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3UYOD0M9hMOD-wJnRYtndL9p5kwBY6OjRyGglLxNK7tFddh7TZ_WuAKU8WlpB4Cf1FqLhOq07KA1iHPm3O74Zbs2WpA_kCGdmUpeb8Tqx32lkOHZYc1-OybPigjpFN5Cgf3GlH069CN0/s400/My+Bloody+Valentine+setlist+13-JUN-2008.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5213347040562713442" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><strong><span style="font-size:85%;">© James McGalliard 2008</span></strong>James McGalliardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08642240549966678581noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5191581602759098469.post-14930476220384242142008-05-07T12:00:00.004+01:002008-05-08T01:31:36.565+01:00Interview: John Foxx<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg96Lsa8L0PMOznd7DufVqkeHNKe1Jjdg82XZlt4Xr2vNwo9A1TEPKctQsaetQhiKcEys5AoDBxTJo828LujZIRsPIyjeqr-JPuP3w10ZK2luFl6a-_YMh_1upgLIK0ANZh5HKGoFsyum0/s1600-h/John+Foxx+colour.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg96Lsa8L0PMOznd7DufVqkeHNKe1Jjdg82XZlt4Xr2vNwo9A1TEPKctQsaetQhiKcEys5AoDBxTJo828LujZIRsPIyjeqr-JPuP3w10ZK2luFl6a-_YMh_1upgLIK0ANZh5HKGoFsyum0/s400/John+Foxx+colour.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5197528269228945106" border="0" /></a><br /><span style=";font-family:arial;font-size:180%;" ><span style="font-weight: bold;">THE HIDDEN MAN<br /><br /></span></span><span style=";font-family:arial;font-size:130%;" >“<span style="font-style: italic;">I don’t want to be my own tribute band</span>”. Electro pioneer <span style="font-weight: bold;">John Foxx</span> tells our UK correspondent <span style="font-weight: bold;">James McGalliard</span> how he’s looking forward, not back<br /><br /></span><span style="font-family:arial;">“I see the tours going off in England, sort of Eighties things and I’ve been asked to join in with those and I won’t do it because I just think what we are doing is still alive and is going somewhere definite and we’re enjoying the journey and I don’t want to interrupt that”. John Foxx is in the high-rise bar of a posh hotel at the top of Regent Street in London, and is responding to me saying that his live shows (which he’s bringing to Australia for the first time this week) are far from retro.<br /><br /></span><span style="font-family:arial;">“We are there to do music from some of the eras that we still feel are relevant. Some things from </span><span style="font-style: italic;font-family:arial;" >Metamatic</span><span style="font-family:arial;"> and some things from even earlier - some stuff from the Ultravox! days and some from all the stages in between, things like Endlessly. Things that work with the way we play now, and also some of the very new things.”<br /><br /></span><span style="font-family:arial;">But even the songs from thirty years ago seem to tie in thematically with the present work. “I don’t think there is anything that is inconsistent with the way we are working now, because when we look back on things I have written in the past there are themes that are present all the way through. And I like that, because there’s a thirty odd year body of work that is consistent.”<br /><br /></span><span style="font-family:arial;">By all rights, John Foxx should be a household name. As punk grew into post-punk, he was the frontman and songwriter of Ultravox for their first three albums. After he left, they came up with </span><span style="font-style: italic;font-family:arial;" >Vienna</span><span style="font-family:arial;">, and Gary Numan found commercial success pursuing the path he’d laid down. When he wrote an album of ambient music in 1983, he couldn’t find anyone interested in releasing this new style of music. It seems that followers and imitators were achieving the recognition and the success that the pioneer didn’t. “It sounds vain when you say things like that, but a lot of that is true. A lot of things I did ten years before anybody else and then other people do it and it is like a new thing I just think, ‘Well, how interesting’. There is a price to pay for doing things too early…people ignore it until the time is right.”<br /><br /></span><span style="font-family:arial;">But he hasn’t always been one with the times. He says his 1985 album, </span><span style="font-style: italic;font-family:arial;" >In Mysterious Ways</span><span style="font-family:arial;">, "was me driving on the pavement”. Shortly afterwards, Foxx disappeared from public view for ten years. “About 84 or 85 onwards I started losing interest in it – everything just got very boring to me. I wasn’t hearing anything I liked. I found myself doing those kind of things and I just thought ‘What’s the point? I don’t like any of this. So I should just stop for a bit’. So I walked away from all that…”<br /><br /></span><span style="font-family:arial;">Time passed and around eight years later he found himself back in Manchester around the last days of the Hacienda and saw Louis Gordon playing at a commune party, and thought “I’ve got to work with this guy – he’s great. He just had a drum machine and a guitar he had borrowed from someone.” It’s this partnership with Louis Gordon that's been at the centre of his second coming and invigorating live shows. “A lot of that’s down to Louis because he was a fan of (my music)… He knew exactly how we wanted to hear it and it just turns out that’s the way I wanted to hear it as well. When we worked on that track together I thought this guy knows what he is doing.”<br /><br /></span><span style="font-family:arial;">While live Foxx remains reasonably static, he rightly describes Gordon as “the human blur”. He continues in his soft Lancastrian lilt “I have never been that interested in being a performer as such. I think what I really like is recording best, but I also like getting on stage if it’s with someone like Louis because Louis is good fun to play music with and he knows my music probably better than I do myself he knows himself. It’s a good working relationship. It’s quite a hard thing to find that because a lot of people are competent but don’t have an intuitive understanding of that stuff. Whereas Louis does – it’s in his background, he grew up in Manchester and he has been right through that rave scene and he started off in the electronic scene. He’s been through all of it, and played all of it, so he knows all of it."<br /><br /></span><span style="font-family:arial;">Melbourne’s second show will see only the fourth separate performance of </span><span style="font-style: italic;font-family:arial;" >Tiny Colour Movies</span><span style="font-family:arial;">, Foxx’s soundtrack to digitalised Super 8 movies. So what’s the story behind it? “I used to buy reels of film (from Brick Lane and Portobello Road markets) and didn’t know what they were and view them to see if there was anything interesting on them. Eventually I amassed all this stuff and didn’t quite know what to do with it. Then I saw this collector’s reel of films one night and thought ‘Yeah - that’s exactly right! It is finite. It does have a place in history’. And some of it is unique and some of the stories behind the pieces are very interesting too. It’s like reading an obituary; which is something I like - it’s not morbid at all. It’s very interesting because you get a summation of someone’s life and their achievements…”<br /><br /></span><span style="font-family:arial;">“It’s about how ordinary things become extraordinary all the time, and it’s that kind of understanding. It’s also about the sheer beauty of it. I just like the look of that kind of quite crude film. Because you can now project it in a way that it was never intended to be projected, and the people who shot it would never have think it could be projected twenty feet high for instance, because it wouldn’t have been possible. But now you can digitalize it and do that, so you suddenly begin to look at things in a new way…”<br /><br /></span><span style="font-family:arial;">And the music? “It’s simpler in some ways and more direct (than my collaborations with Louis Gordon)…It’s partly ambient but it’s also more electronic than that with analogue synths. Because I think there is a good parallel between these films being digitized and it being possible to see them in a new way where you appreciate all the faults as qualities; the scratches and bleached out bits are actually quite beautiful and the film wouldn’t be the same without them. And it’s the same with analogue synths. They were rediscovered because they were digitized and copied digitally and so people could hear how powerful and organic and strange sounding they actually were…”</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">John Foxx is busier now than ever. When he leaves me he’s off to meet with Leftfield about a future collaboration. He’s also currently working with Harold Budd, Robin Guthrie and Steve Jansen on a new project. Then there’s visual piece, </span><span style="font-style: italic;font-family:arial;" >The Quiet Man</span><span style="font-family:arial;">, an ongoing project he’s been working on since 1973. Not to mention his guerrilla plans for the ‘greening’ of public spaces of London. These shows are rare chance to see a true pioneer present his unique vision.<br /><br /></span><span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;font-family:arial;" >John Foxx and Louis Gordon play the Corner Hotel, this Thursday, 8 May 2008. “Tiny Colour Movies” will take place at ACMI, this Friday, 9 May 2008<br /><br /><br /></span><span style=";font-family:arial;font-size:85%;" ><span style="font-weight: bold;">© James McGalliard 2008</span></span><br /><br /><a style="font-family: arial;" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwoBkV-nGhpBDu4_ckX3F2qrmscK8gl6N8hhP4nItxUbQM4iDFBvcBotgLoVTF_t4nhp8fQpnTMGz7Z4Vgh5geSMyCwDtwCAnyYUaCguD6KBvHb3dtkB31-YGhbbzczqgu6DwIgyNK_Iw/s1600-h/JohnFoxxLouisGordon.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwoBkV-nGhpBDu4_ckX3F2qrmscK8gl6N8hhP4nItxUbQM4iDFBvcBotgLoVTF_t4nhp8fQpnTMGz7Z4Vgh5geSMyCwDtwCAnyYUaCguD6KBvHb3dtkB31-YGhbbzczqgu6DwIgyNK_Iw/s400/JohnFoxxLouisGordon.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5197520869000294082" border="0" /></a>James McGalliardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08642240549966678581noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5191581602759098469.post-56088130853629358182008-01-30T12:00:00.003+00:002008-04-27T20:39:11.241+01:00Interview: Devastations<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZfSnJ22sqxcFyMe2a5JP6zyg1WezrYJZLXR07ifIdpiL4EHDZR7OHFVsBPuNYPdIxuJhk0fjZBOkGo6NDraznIHKebfg3VUxXNivE8TnvHP7mQ__48Iy6LJcv7SQ3_n78KwV3dqrWkxo/s1600-h/Devastations+Cover.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZfSnJ22sqxcFyMe2a5JP6zyg1WezrYJZLXR07ifIdpiL4EHDZR7OHFVsBPuNYPdIxuJhk0fjZBOkGo6NDraznIHKebfg3VUxXNivE8TnvHP7mQ__48Iy6LJcv7SQ3_n78KwV3dqrWkxo/s400/Devastations+Cover.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5194011519942209170" border="0" /></a><br /><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-style: italic;font-family:arial;" >“I haven’t lived in a place for longer than four or five months in five or six years…” Conrad Standish of <span style="font-weight: bold;">Devastations</span> shares the overseas experience with <span style="font-weight: bold;">James McGalliard<br /><br /></span></span></span><span style="font-family:arial;">There are many universes, and parallel existences. In one, Devastations frontman Conrad Standish is half of a rock glamour couple, being followed by paparazzi and besieged by supermarket checkout magazines that want a feature on the celebrity lifestyle of him and his wife. In this one we’re sitting in a real ale pub in Hackney in London’s East End, a few days before Conrad flies out to Melbourne to begin rehearsals for their February shows, and I’m trying to understand how you can afford to live in London as a musician.<br /><br /></span><span style="font-family:arial;">The truth is, you can’t. “At the moment I am going for a lot of job interviews… I’ve kinda managed until now, but this can’t continue like this; it’s dawning on me that I can’t be a gentleman of leisure for too much longer. It’s fucken tough here, it’s really expensive…” Conrad has recently moved here after he and the band spent the last few years based in Berlin. “Before we were living in (our current home), we were living in a place in Camden with seven or eight other people.”<br /><br /></span><span style="font-family:arial;">Along with drummer Hugo Cran, and guitarist and vocalist Tom Carlyon, Conrad makes up Devastations, a band formed in Melbourne, and now living in three separate countries. But with Hugo still in Berlin, and Tom having recently moved back to Australia, isn’t this going to make things a little tough? “I guess we will just have to put aside a certain amount of time each year to get together somewhere. It could be Europe at the end of a tour, or Australia back on holidays, or we could meet halfway or something. Meet in Iraq for a rehearsal spell? We will just have to be more selective about the way that we tour and more respectful of our own lifespan as a band. We gotta be clever about it.”<br /><br /></span><span style="font-family:arial;">This lack of money has had its beneficial side though. The long, languorous soundscapes of <span style="font-style: italic;">Yes, U</span> may never have been achieved, except for the way the record was created. “We’ve always felt in the past, because of the way that we wrote songs, that when we would record albums, we will just layer and layer and layer stuff. Also we had a lot of time in which to record those albums, because we had no money, so we would only go into the studio when we had money. And like all the off-time, we had like a rough mix of the song and we would be thinking ‘maybe it needs an organ bit here, or maybe it needs a violin or extra whatever…’, which would invariably happen. We all would have ideas for the songs over the course of a year. I mean each of those albums took a year to make. Which was good in one sense, because it gave us a lot of time to live with the songs, and see how they could be improved but at the same time, when it came to playing live as a three-piece, there were obvious limitations…”<br /><br /></span><span style="font-family:arial;">That’s the other big change recently in the band. Conrad tells me that there have probably been eight keyboard players during their history, but now it’s back to the core trio for the foreseeable future. “This is kind of tough on everyone who’s ever been in the band… But really the band is just the three of us; no matter who joins, that’s always how it is. It’s a funny dynamic. Even if we were craving a fourth member, still at the same time always the three of us.”<br /><br /></span><span style="font-family:arial;">The other dynamic of the band is between the two singers. “I think that is a good thing for an album (and) for a pair of songwriters. I think we’re both fortunate to have each other in a lot of ways. We have quite a complex relationship, me and Tom, but I think we tend to compliment each other well. I think we’ve arrived at a point where we know what to do with one another, if you know what I mean.” Although Tom has always sung, recent shows seem to feature him more as a singer, as does <span style="font-style: italic;">Yes, U</span>. “Tom’s a great songwriter and his contributions to the band have always been huge and his work probably overshadows all of us. But I don’t think he is actually singing more on like <span style="font-style: italic;">Yes, U</span>…I guess on this album there are a couple of instrumentals so it probably seems more.”<br /><br /></span><span style="font-family:arial;">Conrad has strong thoughts on live performance. “We don’t like to play for a long time. I myself get really bored watching anyone for more than half an hour. It could be The Stooges, after half an hour, I’ve had enough! So I keep that in mind when we are playing. It can be nice to have a show where you have your peaks and your troughs. You can do that in a dynamic sense, without having to get people to stay two hours to watch you play.”<br /><br /></span><span style="font-family:arial;">“It’s a weird thing to perform in front of people. Sometimes you wonder why you do it at all, what’s like the point? …We’ve done shows where we’ve walked off stage and it’s like high-fiving in the sun in the Caribbean, and someone’s walked in, like our manager or whatever, with a very worried look on their face. And we’ve done shows like that, which we thought were a total piece of shit and we’ve had people walk up to us in tears - tears of joy. So we really aren’t the best judges.”<br /><br /></span><span style="font-family:arial;">Conrad cuts a weird onstage figure. He’s tall, he struts, jerks his hips and arches his back, while his head comes forward, almost like a cobra. “It’s just how it feels natural to play for me. I have to move. It seems to be what the music dictates. It’s a physical thing, but I don’t have any idea of what I appear like on the stage… I don’t think I look that weird, but I really enjoy playing bass. Maybe I enjoy it 10% more than other bass players?”<br /><br /></span><span style="font-family:arial;">Following the Australian shows is the possibility of an American tour, as <span style="font-style: italic;">Yes, U</span> is only now being released there. And after that? “I think it would be boring if we made another record that sounded the same as <span style="font-style: italic;">Yes, U</span>. All of us have ideas that we want to pursue, but it’s realistically like another year before we would step foot in a studio again. It gives us all a fair amount of time to get it how we want it.”<br /><br /></span><span style="font-family:arial;">If you ask what he’d like most from the forthcoming dates, the answers simple – sold out shows. Although they’ve lived and played overseas for a long time, Australia is still loved, faults and all. What might people expect to hear on these dates? “Some songs you can leave out of the set for like a year or two. Then you’ll revisit them and suddenly they’re fresh all over again. Certain songs have to be put into gaol for a bit, if they are not kinda working for you… We’ve our whole lives to play these songs, I don’t see what the rush is - we will be around for a while yet.”<br /><br /></span><br /><span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;font-family:arial;" >Devastations play East Brunswick Club on 2 February, and St Jerome’s Laneway Festival on 24 February. Yes, U is out now on Remote Control<br /><br /><br /></span><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjiFvmWRGuaRaZ72p51qt8SqAQ3q5LEhIvGpoSNv78vcsEcoGQj4ZmMUGszsMNHAI-0slezwgyfze9C4moyvisEvx26nxZjBEW-Ra0FYkvrBQA9kd8Y0lNv_31C8zbEUYdSkRFlO5PRQZ0/s1600-h/Devastations+Inpress.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjiFvmWRGuaRaZ72p51qt8SqAQ3q5LEhIvGpoSNv78vcsEcoGQj4ZmMUGszsMNHAI-0slezwgyfze9C4moyvisEvx26nxZjBEW-Ra0FYkvrBQA9kd8Y0lNv_31C8zbEUYdSkRFlO5PRQZ0/s400/Devastations+Inpress.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5194011665971097250" border="0" /></a><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;font-family:arial;" >© James McGalliard 2008<br /><br /><br /></span></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;font-family:arial;" ><br /></span></span>James McGalliardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08642240549966678581noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5191581602759098469.post-87083878610402616752008-01-09T12:00:00.003+00:002008-04-27T19:45:40.346+01:00Looking For The New Sound<span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">2008 Preview (rework for Inpress)<br /><br /></span><span style="font-style: italic;">There’s only so much you can pick up from MySpace or foreign rock press. So our man in the UK </span><span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;">James McGalliard</span><span style="font-style: italic;"> has suggested some acts to watch out for in 2008</span><br /><br /></span></span><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:180%;" ><span style="font-family: arial;"></span></span><span style="font-family: arial;">Foals, Laura Marling, The Pigeon Detectives, The Wombats, Palladium… It’d be fairly easy to list bands who will make an impact this year. But this is more about acts I’ve seen and been impressed by over the past 12 months, acts I’ll be spending my time and money keeping an eye on. Hopefully some of them will find success as well…<br /><br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">The Twilight Sad</span> was the band of 2007 for me. Yet somehow their brilliant debut album missed many end of year lists. Live the act is powerful and unforgettable. And bloody LOUD! There’s a special something about them; even though their music is entirely different, I keep thinking <span style="font-style: italic;">Here Are The Young Men</span>. . <span style="font-weight: bold;">Andy Yorke</span> is that Radiohead guy’s brother, and at Truck he had me totally entranced; the understanding between the people onstage translated to a magic and beautiful hour. I’ve told <span style="font-weight: bold;">Evi Vine</span> that she’s a future Mercury Music Prize candidate; she thinks I’m joking, but her unique music is worthy of such accolades. She is transported when she plays and takes the audience with her; the journey may be sometimes unnerving though, as she is a singularly spectacular talent touching some dark places. And while <span style="font-weight: bold;">Model Morning</span> may never find huge success, they still make my jaw drop, and my soul sing, each time I see them.<br /><br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">The Early Years</span> were another live highlight of 2007. They’ve officially expanded to a four-piece and are currently recording a second album – it should be blinding. When <span style="font-weight: bold;">Fuck Buttons</span> played Truck festival, such was the interest I couldn’t even get into the tent they were playing. But what I heard though the tent walls definitely made me want to find out more. <span style="font-weight: bold;">SPC ECO</span> is Dean Garcia of Curve coming back with something reminiscent of his previous act, but also entirely new. But <span style="font-weight: bold;">Exit Calm</span> are the where the smart money is; their music is tight and large, even if the vocals are yet to catch up. Think U2, but in a good way. They will playing big venues by the year’s end…<br /><br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">But it’s not all about big music; sometimes it’s one man and his guitar. Or in the case of <span style="font-weight: bold;">Simple Kid</span>, a guitar and a laptop - which allows him to duet with Kermit the frog on <span style="font-style: italic;">It’s Not Easy Being Green</span>, and spew out the lyrics of set highlight <span style="font-style: italic;">Serotonin</span>. <span style="font-weight: bold;">Josh T Pearson</span> has been stunning UK audiences with his openhearted, scary, long, involved, honest one-man songs. He’s due to release his first real material since Lift To Experience soon – it will have been worth the wait. <span style="font-weight: bold;">Kid Harpoon</span> first hooked me with his brilliant live cover of Leonard Cohen’s <span style="font-style: italic;">First We Take Manhattan</span>. Now he has a full band (<span style="font-weight: bold;">The Powers That Be</span>) and together they play some of the best folk-influenced rock since The Pogues.<br /><br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">Blues is making big inroads into the indie scene, and leading the vanguard is <span style="font-weight: bold;">Seasick Steve</span>. He’s the real deal and is playing to bigger and bigger audiences every tour. It’s a little like <span style="font-style: italic;">Top Gear</span> - folks who usually have no interest in this sort of thing are flocking to see him. With a renewed interest in “punk rock blues”, maybe <span style="font-weight: bold;">Archie Bronson Outfit</span> will progress from being one of the best live acts in the country, to being a big one too? Also not to be missed are <span style="font-weight: bold;">Joe Gideon & The Shark</span> – a brother and sister – him on guitar, her on drums - but nothing like that that red & white duo!<br /><br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">Reunions are generally a disappointment, but in 2005, the <span style="font-weight: bold;">Gang Of Four</span>’s live shows wiped the floor with newer pretenders. Sadly drummer Hugh is not currently in the band, but they’re recording new material and its release is sure to be eagerly awaited. Similarly <span style="font-weight: bold;">James</span> played the arenas this year, but it was more than a nostalgia trip - they have written and recorded a new album. The live shows were great and if radio gets behind them, they may have a second coming.<br /><br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">My Latest Novel</span> produced a great debut album, and are a fabulously adventurous live act, but never really found a big following. But their new songs are particularly strong, so hopefully this will change. <span style="font-weight: bold;">Fields</span> progressed enormously over 2007 and the touring helped then to keep the intensity levels sustained throughout their shows. Maybe their hybrid shoegaze folk-rock will makes its mark this year? On the other hand <span style="font-weight: bold;">The Duke Spirit</span> were always great live, but sadly their debut album failed to capture this. However this seems to have been rectified with their new recordings, and their forthcoming album <span style="font-style: italic;">Neptune</span> may yet make them a household name.<br /><br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">Other trends to look out for in the coming months are classical strings in postrock (see <span style="font-weight: bold;">Spiritualized Acoustic Mainline</span>, <span style="font-weight: bold;">Yndi Halda</span> and <span style="font-weight: bold;">The Monroe Transfer</span>) and also expect an indie pop revival in 2008 (<span style="font-weight: bold;">Tim Ten Yen, Poppy & The Jezebels, Strange Idols, 586, The Chaira L’s</span>, and others). But now that the ukulele has overtaken the recorder as the most played instrument in UK schools, who knows what the future will bring?<br /><br /><br /><br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;font-size:85%;" ><span style="font-weight: bold;">© James McGalliard 2008</span><br /></span>James McGalliardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08642240549966678581noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5191581602759098469.post-8226131022115327062007-12-26T12:00:00.001+00:002008-04-27T19:18:11.503+01:00End Of Year Polls: 2007 Inpress Writers' Poll<span style="font-weight: bold; font-family: arial;">INPRESS 2007 WRITERS POLL – James McGalliard<br /><br /></span><br /><span style="font-weight: bold; font-family: arial;">TOP 10 ALBUMS<br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">1. Fourteen Autumns And Fifteen Winters THE TWILIGHT SAD<br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">2. Yes, U DEVASTATIONS<br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">3. A Weekend In The City BLOC PARTY<br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">4. Boxer THE NATIONAL<br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">5. Grinderman GRINDERMAN<br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">6. The Dreamer Evasive APARTMENT<br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">7. Everything Last Winter FIELDS<br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">8. A Brighter Beat MALCOLM MIDDLETON<br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">9. About What You Know LITTLE MAN TATE<br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">10. Home Improvements MY FRIEND THE CHOCOLATE CAKE<br /><br /><br /></span><span style="font-family: arial; font-weight: bold;">TOP 3 ARTISTS OF THE YEAR<br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">1. The Twilight Sad<br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">2. Devastations<br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">3. Spiritualized Acoustic Mainline<br /><br /><br /></span><span style="font-family: arial; font-weight: bold;">TOP 3 INTERNATIONAL ARTIST GIGS<br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">1. The Early Years @ The Luminaire, London<br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">2. Spiritualized Acoustic Mainline @ Primavera Sound, Barcelona<br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">3. Gallon Drunk @ The Borderline, London<br /><br /><br /></span><span style="font-family: arial; font-weight: bold;">TOP 3 LOCAL ARTIST GIGS (Australian acts in Europe)<br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">1. Grinderman @ The Forum, London<br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">2. The Scientists @ Dirty Three ATP, Minehead<br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">3. Ed Kuepper @ Dirty Three ATP, Minehead<br /><br /><br /></span><span style="font-family: arial; font-weight: bold;">TOP 3 RADIO SHOWS<br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">Phill Jupitus – BBC 6Music weekday breakfast<br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">Andrew Collins – BBC 6Music Sunday Afternoon<br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">Gideon Coe – BBC 6Music weekday mornings<br /></span><span style="font-family: arial; font-style: italic;">- ALL GONE NOW</span><br /><br /><br /><span style="font-family: arial; font-weight: bold;">TOP 3 TV SHOWS<br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">1. Skins<br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">2. Charlie Brooker’s Screenwipe<br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">3. Battlestar Galactica<br /><br /><br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">TOP FILM<br /></span></span><span style="font-family: arial;">1. Control<br /><br /><br /></span><span style="font-family: arial; font-weight: bold;">TOP 3 ONLINE DESTINATIONS<br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">1. Wikipedia<br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">2. Guardian Unlimited<br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">3. BBC (esp. News)<br /><br /><br /></span><span style="font-family: arial; font-weight: bold;">THE EMPEROR'S NEW CLOTHES AWARD (MOST OVER-HYPED)<br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">Radiohead – if only the product was as good as the marketing<br /><br /><br /></span><span style="font-family: arial; font-weight: bold;">IF THE CRAPTASTIC SLOGAN OF THIS YEAR WAS KEVIN07, WHAT WILL 2008'S BE?<br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">Barrack for Barack?<br /><br /><br /></span><span style="font-family: arial; font-weight: bold;">HIGHLIGHT(S) OF THE YEAR<br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">UK live scene; friends<br /><br /></span><br /><span style="font-family: arial; font-weight: bold;">PREDICTIONS FOR 2008<br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">More use of classical instrumentation in rock, especially string sections. More acts reforming who should have stayed split. Blues crossing into the indie fanbase. More talk about green politics. Recession.<br /><br /><br /></span><span style="font-family: arial; font-weight: bold;">QUOTE OF THE YEAR<br /></span><span style="font-family: arial; font-style: italic;">James Press Release for April Tour 2007<br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">To any of you cunts at the NME who thought we're past our sell by date;<br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">To any of you cunts at the NME who thought we were over;<br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">To any of you cunts at the NME who thought we couldn't cut it no more;<br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">Think again!<br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">In less time than it takes for most people to go to the toilet and have a shit we sold out Brixton Academy not once but twice.<br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">Forget the Clash because we fucking own Brixton you cunts!<br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">In less time than it takes most people to count from 1 to 20,000 we sold out out Manchester Arena and we could have sold it out twice but we couldn't be arsed to.<br />I</span><span style="font-family: arial;">n less than it takes to catch a plane from Birmingham to Newcastle we sold out out both towns easy.<br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">Stick that up your stelios and smoke it.<br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">We are JAMES.<br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">We're back.<br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">We're fresh as a daisy.<br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">You don't own us.<br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">You don't control us.<br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">If you step in our way you're fucked because the music is back.<br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">Simply put:<br /></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-weight: bold;">We are JAMES.<br /><br /><br /></span></span><span style="font-family: arial; font-weight: bold;">BEST MEDIA MOMENT<br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">Nick Cave and Grinderman on <span style="font-style: italic;">The Culture Show</span> with Zane Lowe well out of his depth<br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">“<span style="font-style: italic;">No. You're wrong. Really, you haven't understood it at all…</span>”<br /><br /><br /></span><span style="font-family: arial; font-weight: bold;">2007 IN REVIEW<br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">Consistency was the key word - there were no great high or low points. Although there were many wonderful tracks, few great albums were released, making it harder than usual find ten albums to nominate for this poll. In the UK, a Prime Minister, marred by actions in foreign wars, chose the time of his departure after more than ten years in the job and successfully abdicated. As an Australian living in London, 2007 was a particularly tough year, as summer decided to bypass the UK, even though mainland Europe suffered a lethal heatwave. Festivals were washed away, and the country never experienced the extended period of goodwill the warm season traditionally brings. There was little to challenge on TV – too much reality and lowbrow entertainment; too little original drama. Radio suffered similarly, with BBC 6Music in particular parting ways with many of their stalwarts, replacing them with ex-XFM staff.<br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><br /><br /><br /></span></span><span style="font-size:85%;"><strong><span style="font-size: 85%;">© <span style="font-family: arial;">James McGalliard 2008</span></span></strong></span>James McGalliardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08642240549966678581noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5191581602759098469.post-52753553150524500282007-12-12T12:00:00.003+00:002008-04-27T19:36:00.611+01:00Acts To Watch In 2008 - for Drum Media (Sydney)<span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family: arial;">There’s only so much you can pick up from MySpace or foreign rock press. So our man in the UK <span style="font-weight: bold;">James McGalliard</span> has suggested some acts to watch out for in 2008<br /><br /></span></span><span style="font-family: arial;">I’ve got a fair idea of some of the bands that will become hard to avoid in 2008. But you can read about Foals, The Pigeon Detectives, The Cribs, The Wombats, Palladium, The Enemy and their like elsewhere. What follows is not necessarily bands who will break big in 2008, but acts I’ve seen and been impressed by over the past 12 months. Acts I’ll be spending my time and money keeping an eye on; hopefully some of them will find success as well. But rather than just list a few in detail, here are more than 20 over a broad spectrum in rough categories for you to pursue if you so wish<br /><br /></span><span style="font-family: arial; font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;">Not The Same Old Blues Crap<br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">Is the name of a set of promoters who have already presented gigs by The Scientists and the wonderful Gallon Drunk this year. They’re also bringing blues to a wider audience - and blues is making big inroads into the indie scene. <span style="font-weight: bold;">Seasick Steve</span> is the genuine article – of the old school. But he’s playing bigger and bigger audiences for every tour, and is like the <span style="font-style: italic;">Top Gear</span> - folks who usually have no interest in this sort of thing are flocking to see him. One can only hope that John Peel favourite <span style="font-weight: bold;">Jawbone</span> will find success in his wake? With a renewed interest in “punk rock blues”, maybe <span style="font-weight: bold;">Archie Bronson Outfit</span> will progress from being one of the best live acts in the country, to being a big one too?<br /><br /></span><span style="font-family: arial; font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;">One man and his guitar<br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">Or in the case of <span style="font-weight: bold;">Simple Kid</span>, a guitar and a laptop. Which allows him to duet with Kermit the frog on <span style="font-style: italic;">It’s Not Easy Being Green</span>, have a karaoke-style singalong to <span style="font-style: italic;">The Ballad Of Elton John</span>, and spew out the lyrics of set highlight <span style="font-style: italic;">Serotonin</span>. <span style="font-weight: bold;">Josh T Pearson</span> (the T is for Texas) has been stunning UK audiences with his open-hearted, scary, long, involved honest one-man songs. He’s due to release his first real material since Lift To Experience soon – it will have been worth the wait. <span style="font-weight: bold;">Kid Harpoon</span> first hooked me with his brilliant live cover of Leonard Cohen’s <span style="font-style: italic;">First We Take Manhattan</span>. Now he has a full band (<span style="font-weight: bold;">The Powers That Be</span>) and together they play some of the best folk-influenced rock since The Pogues<br /><br /></span><span style="font-family: arial; font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;">The shock of the old<br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">Reunions are generally a disappointment, but there have been some exceptions. The best of all was <span style="font-weight: bold;">Gang Of Four</span>, whose 2005 live shows wiped the floor with newer pretenders. Sadly drummer Hugh is not currently in the band, but they’re recording new material and its release is sure to make a major impact. Similarly <span style="font-weight: bold;">James</span> played the arenas this year, but it was more than a nostalgia trip; they have written and recorded a new album. The live shows were great – if radio gets behind them, they may have a second coming.<br /><br /></span><span style="font-family: arial; font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;">Second chances to make a first impression<br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">My Latest Novel</span> produced a great debut album, but it never really translated into a big following. But they’re a fabulously adventurous live act, and the new songs are particularly strong. <span style="font-weight: bold;">Fields</span> progressed enormously over 2007; after much touring were able to keep the intensity levels sustained throughout their shows. I hope 2008 is the year their hybrid shoegaze folk-rock makes a mark. On the other hand <span style="font-weight: bold;">The Duke Spirit</span> were always great live, but sadly their debut album failed to capture this. However this seems to have been rectified with their new recordings, and their forthcoming album may yet make them a household name.<br /><br /></span><span style="font-family: arial; font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;">Pick And Mix<br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">The Early Years</span> were easily a live highlight of 2007. They’ve officially expanded to a four piece and are currently recording a second album – it should be blinding. When <span style="font-weight: bold;">Fuck Buttons</span> played Truck festival, such was the interest I couldn’t even get into the tent they were playing. But what I heard though the tent walls definitely made me want to find out more. <span style="font-weight: bold;">SPC ECO</span> is Dean Garcia of Curve coming back with something reminiscent of his previous act, but also entirely new. Curve should have been huge – Garbage owed their sound to them! Maybe this time the originators will grab the spoils? But <span style="font-weight: bold;">Exit Calm</span> are the where the smart money is. The music is tight and large, even if the vocals are yet to catch up. They will be in big venues by the year’s end. Think U2, but in a good way…<br /><br /></span><span style="font-family: arial; font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;">From Over There<br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">The National</span> may have released four albums and have toured a few times, but they’re yet to break big here. All the right ingredients are there – it’s just something not quite clicking. 2008 may well see them do an R.E.M. and jump from devoted fanbase to widespread acclaim.<br /><br /></span><span style="font-family: arial; font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;">Personal Bias<br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">The Twilight Sad</span> was the band of 2007 for me. Yet somehow, in a foolish oversight, their brilliant debut album has missed many end of year lists. Live the act is powerful and unforgettable. And bloody LOUD! There’s a special something about them; even though their music is entirely different, I keep thinking <span style="font-style: italic;">Here Are The Young Men</span>. <span style="font-weight: bold;">Andy Yorke</span> is that Radiohead guy’s brother, and some years ago had his own band The Unbelievable Truth. At Truck he had be totally entranced – an understanding between the people onstage translated to a magic and beautiful hour. I’ve told <span style="font-weight: bold;">Evi Vine</span> that she’s a future Mercury Music Prize candidate; she thinks I’m joking, but her unique music is worthy of such accolades. She is transported when she plays and takes the audience with her; the journey may be sometimes unnerving though, as she is a singularly spectacular talent. A brother and sister – the guy on guitar, a gal on drums - but nothing like that that red & white duo? That’s <span style="font-weight: bold;">Joe Gideon & The Shark</span> – a real find for me, and a band I’ll definitely write about in more detail during 2008. And finally there’s <span style="font-weight: bold;">Model Morning</span> who may never find huge success, but still make my jaw drop, and my soul sing, each time I see them.<br /><br /></span><span style="font-family: arial; font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;">Sadly, there’s no time for<br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">The return of <span style="font-weight: bold;">doves</span>. Or <span style="font-weight: bold;">Spiritualized Acoustic Mainline</span>. Or other acts with string sections. Or the whole world of new pop! So especially sorry to <span style="font-weight: bold;">Tim Ten Yen, Strange Idols, 586, The Chaira L’s</span>… But now that the ukulele has overtaken the recorder as the most played instrument in UK schools, who knows what the future will bring?</span><br /><br /><br /><br /><span style="font-family: arial;"></span><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-weight: bold;">© James McGalliard 2008</span><br /></span>James McGalliardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08642240549966678581noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5191581602759098469.post-4077489850208429952007-09-27T12:00:00.000+01:002007-10-28T13:43:27.922+00:00Live: Model Morning - London<strong><span style="font-size:130%;">Model Morning</span></strong><br /><strong>The Luminaire, Kilburn, London, UK</strong><br /><em>Thursday 27 September 2007</em><br /><br />In the early ‘90’s, a certain weekly UK music magazine controversially put then unsigned Suede on the cover with the caption "<em>the best new band in Britain</em>". Nowadays there is only one music paper, so there’s no competition, and no reason to look beyond the latest instalment of the Doherty saga. Then why should an Australian paper publish a review of an unknown British band when there are so many local acts that it could be covering instead? Well simply because Model Morning are creating something truly special, and the tired UK rock press hasn't even noticed them, as they don't fit into the current flavour of the day.<br /><br />The set they play tonight is nearly identical to the one that first floored me around 18 months ago. Although many of the songs are now familiar, there have been significant changes in the interim. Most markedly, there’s been a near <em>Spinal Tap</em> procession of drummers, but with Ed Keenan they’ve found a driven player who pushes them further than before. This change has had reverberations throughout the band. The most noticeable hardening of their sound comes with Richard Davidson’s bass on <em>We Are Gone</em>, which now whacks you around the head and demands you pay due attention. There’s barely a pause between songs - they power along as though the world will end if they stop long enough for applause. While the songs have toughened up, some of the rock theatrics have calmed down, and the band is more powerful and impressive as a result.<br /><br />Peter Morley has also developed as a frontman, and his voice is stronger than ever. When he sings his own backing vocals on <em>Everybody's Drunken Friend</em>, it seems so natural, and appropriate in the context of the inner voices of the song. He only really speaks to introduce <em>This Town</em>, which is a depiction of fear on the darker streets of their native Nottingham. Model Morning demonstrate that anthemic rock need not be embarrassing. Their music is clever, but not too showy; the atmospherics of Chris Moore’s guitars nicely complementing the more traditional attack of Rob McCleary’s playing. Their debut mini-album <em>Your Worst Enemy</em> only hinted at what they could do; their live performance is genuinely exciting and tonight they seem to have a new-found purpose and determination. <em>The best new band in Britain?</em> Perhaps…<br /><br /><strong><span style="font-size:85%;">© James McGalliard 2007</span></strong><br /><span style="font-size: 85%;"><em>A version of this review appeared in Inpress, Melbourne, on 24 October 2007<br /></em></span><br /><br /><br /><em><span style="font-size:85%;"></span></em><em><span style="font-size:85%;">Setlist</span></em><br /><span style="font-size:85%;">Everybody's Drunken Friend</span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;">We Are Gone</span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;">Harry Haller Suicide</span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;">Whenever I Can</span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;">This Town</span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;">Without You I'm Lost</span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;">As Guilty As<br /><br /><em></em><br /></span>James McGalliardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08642240549966678581noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5191581602759098469.post-72437461227751185672007-09-18T12:00:00.000+01:002007-09-25T19:05:46.036+01:00Live: Devastations and Josh T Pearson - London<strong><span style="font-size:130%;">Monto at The Water Rats, London</span></strong><br /><strong><em><span style="font-size:130%;">Tuesday 18 September 2007</span></em></strong><br /><br /><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5114202173683354914" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRIC3pfy3_2JT-FalUrlxc2_Jhv242tZFQhXbj4eHahZsmGMT_RdPKlqLNlVYXQvEcdqfK_SIZ20Z7t3rc37TQ2UiUeSfrrivottkzNyWSYh-bntRNhOB-Qh19bSPk0h4lC4qQORmZhPo/s400/Josh+T+Pearson+18-SEP-2007.jpg" border="0" /><br /><strong>Josh T Pearson</strong> may be just one man, but live he sounds like a band. The ex-Lift To Experience frontman cuts a startling figure - an enormous beard appearing below the brim of his hat. His footstomp is a match for any kick drum and somehow that single acoustic guitar sounds like a three-man assault. His voice can jump from a barely audible whisper to a deafening howl, in a mesmerising performance where he fights genuine battles between angels and demons. The world he creates is as beautiful as it is horrifying. Love has torn him apart, but something special is rising from the ruins. He sends messages out from his own private hell; his songs are long, and moving. <em>That’s Just The Way That Life Goes</em> is a clear highlight. He asks if he has time for another song – everyone cheers in agreement. He responds “This ain’t a democracy”, but finds time to close his set with <em>The Devil’s On The Run</em>, which sees even the most cynical lose their cool and sing along.<br /><br /><strong>Devastations</strong> are now back to the core three members; “three is the magic number – for us” drummer Hugo tells me before the show. With many songs having a strong keyboard basis, it’s going to be interesting to see how they achieve their sound with guitar, bass and drums. As with their shows earlier this year, Conrad no longer takes centre stage, but his mane tossing and depreciating humour still make him a magnetic figure on stage. As a three piece, the individual personalities shine more, and somehow they feel more like a band.<br /><br />They open with early favourite <em>We Will Never Drink Again</em> but the vocals don’t mesh as they should. In fact, it’s their sound mix that lets them down tonight. Tom’s songs probably suffer the most – both <em>The Pest</em> and <em>Black Ice</em> rely on their sequencers, but they’re loud and distorted, taking the subtle nuances of the songs with them. In fact it’s not until <em>Mistakes</em> that things really bed down. Then Conrad’s vocals excel on <em>The Saddest Sound</em> and they end they set with an apocalyptic <em>Rosa</em>.<br /><br />It’s by no means a bad show, but perhaps lacking something of the magic that makes <em>Yes, U</em> such a special record. Last October, at the Camden Barfly, Conrad was literally dripping blood onto his fretboard. While tonight’s show was lacking that intensity it did show a band prepared to take risks and try new things. They may fall flat on their collective face, but you can’t help but admire their faith. There were moments of brilliance tonight. Once they iron these bugs out, they’ll be truly dangerous. I can’t wait to see them again in November<br /><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><strong></strong></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><strong>© James McGalliard 2007</strong></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><em>A version of this review appeared in Inpress, Melbourne, on 26 September 2007<br /></em></span><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqXZss1a5myqJK6p9dMpq7B-p7yHp7Z7haI3f7fyanx5lAfQuL7g2FwLVE6_ejwRDB515f6ya3Qy1LsvZasoxMvxGxgUmc7Qh7kM2LptKFJGLf-Fen_WI0JarLO7IHB7XUgOOKRvAFPJg/s1600-h/Conrad+of+Devastations+18-SEP-2007.jpg"></a><br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAOoGg3i7Gzer3eqq2sOa8N7_AFJTeZlPhCwLvXTJ1F7ojkCjb4Up3BnzMAuayvJvzBxtyrkTVPtK3rqw6CIHhUUfPIBk8tROAqAA3N4xrOIVxmAjzM1hqcpGS97geqm4pY8lLaEbexts/s1600-h/Tom+&+Hugo+of+Devastations+18-SEP-2007.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5114202895237860690" style="FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAOoGg3i7Gzer3eqq2sOa8N7_AFJTeZlPhCwLvXTJ1F7ojkCjb4Up3BnzMAuayvJvzBxtyrkTVPtK3rqw6CIHhUUfPIBk8tROAqAA3N4xrOIVxmAjzM1hqcpGS97geqm4pY8lLaEbexts/s400/Tom+%26+Hugo+of+Devastations+18-SEP-2007.jpg" border="0" /></a><br /><div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmwcmhM4IKsratoAsyZzu24OB2B8N1X9TnegHEydHEp4_9XF4K6PQb6znSgjsqslakyLqYg27GJKoMQc-1vV_Pv1J9DgY8uQT-BtUh7L_b0l3JmMvmP4QpZTu-WFQjhim0ZQdcX0nuUIA/s1600-h/Conrad+of+Devastations+18-SEP-2007.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5114202779273743682" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmwcmhM4IKsratoAsyZzu24OB2B8N1X9TnegHEydHEp4_9XF4K6PQb6znSgjsqslakyLqYg27GJKoMQc-1vV_Pv1J9DgY8uQT-BtUh7L_b0l3JmMvmP4QpZTu-WFQjhim0ZQdcX0nuUIA/s400/Conrad+of+Devastations+18-SEP-2007.jpg" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqXZss1a5myqJK6p9dMpq7B-p7yHp7Z7haI3f7fyanx5lAfQuL7g2FwLVE6_ejwRDB515f6ya3Qy1LsvZasoxMvxGxgUmc7Qh7kM2LptKFJGLf-Fen_WI0JarLO7IHB7XUgOOKRvAFPJg/s1600-h/Conrad+of+Devastations+18-SEP-2007.jpg"></a><br /><br /><br /><div><br /><br /><br /><div></div><br /><br /><br /><br /><div><br /></div><br /><br /><br /></div></div></div>James McGalliardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08642240549966678581noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5191581602759098469.post-54837364706244438652007-09-17T12:00:00.000+01:002007-09-18T17:23:47.527+01:00Album: Devastations - Yes, U<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbNAt1TCHwkdGUCdgFddPr1AI6b2otkcxcnGwZ_eR8izvvxrMCZEfAw4YR0T8PYTb_iIomVGTIeitz6poOKFyVy62m74Yj8t4UUS5BvGUkzC7Kf3aEjhgVYDAfJAoLbw-quoEusQEYOEc/s1600-h/Devastations+-+Yes,+U+cover+-+large.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5111187004214402290" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbNAt1TCHwkdGUCdgFddPr1AI6b2otkcxcnGwZ_eR8izvvxrMCZEfAw4YR0T8PYTb_iIomVGTIeitz6poOKFyVy62m74Yj8t4UUS5BvGUkzC7Kf3aEjhgVYDAfJAoLbw-quoEusQEYOEc/s400/Devastations+-+Yes,+U+cover+-+large.jpg" border="0" /></a><br /><span style="font-size:130%;"><strong>DEVASTATIONS</strong> </span><strong><em><span style="font-size:130%;">Yes, U</span> </em></strong><br /><br />Until this year I really admired Devastations. Their first two albums were solid, and live Conrad Standish was an enigmatic and sensual frontman. Inexplicably, their performance at <em>All Tomorrows Parties</em> festival in April saw him leaving many of the vocal duties to guitarist Tom Carlyon. Additionally their sound had changed drastically, leaving even favourites like <em>Previous Crimes</em> behind.<br /><br />Even on my first listen to <em>Yes, U</em>, I was convinced the band had shot itself in the foot. But then I was enraptured by <em>The Pest</em>, and slowly their new world opened to me as I realised my mistake - the band had progressed and moved on, while I had not. They’ve moved away from the sound that led to comparisons to Nick Cave or Tindersticks to a sound more akin to Shriekback, or The Cure circa <em>Seventeen Seconds</em>. They‘ve dumped their original template to create a wholly original work - instead of <em>Coal II</em> they’ve opted for something braver and far more adventurous.<br /><br />The album is hypnotic and powerful, considered and intelligent and improves with every listen. It’s made up of long tracks, which fall and lock into a relentless groove. While it could meander and lose its way, drummer Hugo Cran keeps a tight rein on proceedings with his considered and timely work. Carlyon’s guitar spirals over lyrics that at first feel improvised, but then reveal their purpose. It’s immediately dreamlike and beautiful, a glimpse into a dark, sexual world. The album tells tales of love and acceptance, desire, marriage proposals, and the death of a parent.<br /><br />Their stay in Berlin has influenced them, for <em>Yes, U</em> is the sound of a twenty-four hour city whose virtual heartbeat underlies the whole work. It may not grab on first listen, but it’s such a mature, considered and intelligent work that it warrants, nay demands, that you spend time with it, taking the time to learn its curves and intimate places, much like a new lover.<br /><br />Both engineering and production are superb. The sound is at once both sparse and densely packed. The bottom end is weighty but never ponderous; the electronica meshing seamlessly with the organic, possibly partially due to the contributions of HTRK’s Nigel Yang and new(ish) member Andrea Lee.<br /><br />This album is a brave and humanly-flawed statement from a band taking risks and exploring new avenues. At its best, it’s nigh on brilliant. With <em>Yes, U</em>, Devastations have risen above mere casual admiration; they’ve shown themselves to be worthy of our love and respect. I hope they find it.<br /><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><strong>© James McGalliard 2007</strong></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><em>A version of this review was published in Inpress, Melbourne on 19 September 2007 </em></span>James McGalliardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08642240549966678581noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5191581602759098469.post-11691564973622790222007-09-14T12:00:00.000+01:002007-10-28T13:42:00.575+00:00Live: David Sylvian - Manchester<span style="font-size:130%;"><strong>David Sylvian – <em>The World Is Everything</em> Tour</strong></span><br /><strong>Bridgewater Hall, Manchester, UK</strong><br /><em>Friday 14 September 2007</em><br /><br />David Sylvian is an enigma. Since Japan split at the height of their popularity nearly 25 years ago, his career has been a continuing search for self, crossing many musical genres in the process. Tours from him are comparatively rare, and reports say this is the last time he will perform his older material, so it’s an expectant audience waiting to greet him.<br /><br />As always there’s an initial shock - <em>that</em> voice shouldn’t be coming from <em>that</em> man. There’s a stillness to him on stage - there is no sudden movement or motion; the whole performance resembles some deep meditation. He remains seated on a high stool throughout, his guitar resting across his lap. For songs without guitar, he carefully and slowly uncoils the microphone from its stand, and holds it close and still to his lips.<br /><br />Sylvian’s singing has possibly never been finer and his voice is an instrument of singular beauty, its timbre having the resonance that can rend the very fabric of the universe. When it dips and soars, it’s magnificent. <em>Playground Martyrs</em> sees that voice weaving round a simple piano accompaniment, and ends with the kilt-wearing Keith Lowe bowing his electric double bass so high up the neck that it sounds like a deeper, mournful cello. It’s for these moments of pure transcendence alone that he’s always worth seeing, no matter what he’s doing.<br /><br />But sometimes that is not enough. The PA is ridiculously small, meaning you’re aware that the vocals are coming from small speakers a good twenty-five feet away from the singer. While Steve Jansen is a truly wonderful drummer, he’s given little chance to be the powerhouse that gave a backbone to the <em>Rain Tree Crow</em> project. Keith Lowe shows his skill on a variety of basses and styles while Takuma Watanabe provides solid support on piano and keyboards.<br /><br />But the biggest problem with this tour is Sylvian himself. Reinvention and reinterpretation are sometimes vital, but here at times he seemed to have lost the essence of what made the songs so special in the first place. <em>Brilliant Trees</em> opens wonderfully, with Theo Travis’ flute superbly recreating Jon Hassell’s eerie horn sounds. But when it segues into <em>Before The Bullfight</em> and <em>Nostalgia</em>, the tempo doesn’t change, and Sylvian’s guitar work seems unnecessary and cloying. At its worse it’s noodling, and it’s an effort to appreciate the beauty over the fill. Sylvian’s often dipped into jazz, but this for me was a step too far.<br /><br />When he next tours, I’ll be there. But I’ll be hoping his muse has taken him on a somewhat different direction.<br /><br /><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><strong>© James McGalliard 2007</strong></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><em>A version of this review appeared in Inpress, Melbourne, on 17 October 2007</em></span><br /><br /><em><span style="font-size:85%;"></span></em><br /><br /><em>Setlist</em><br /><span style="font-size:85%;">Wonderful World</span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;">It’ll Never Happen Again</span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;">World Citizen / I Won't Be Disappointed</span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;">The Day the Earth Stole Heaven</span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;">Ride</span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;">Playground Martyrs / Transit</span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;">Fire in the Forest / Ghosts</span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;">Snow Borne Sorrow</span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;">Mother & Child</span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;">Waterfront</span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;">Atom & Cell</span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;">Sugar Fuel</span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;">Brilliant Trees / Before the Bullfight / Nostalgia / Before the Bullfight</span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;">The Librarian<br /></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;">Every Colour You Are / Riverman / Every Colour You Are</span><br /><br /><span style="font-size:85%;">Wanderlust </span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"></span>James McGalliardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08642240549966678581noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5191581602759098469.post-11151679939213332562007-08-01T12:00:00.000+01:002007-08-08T23:45:45.799+01:00Interview: Marc Almond<strong><span style="font-size:180%;">Say Hello, Wave Goodbye</span></strong><br /><br /><em><span style="font-size:130%;">“My life’s been a continual swan song”. Marc Almond looks back on 27 years between the gutter and the stars with James McGalliard in London.<br /></span></em><br />“I don’t want to be the party person anymore, I don’t want to be in the night club unless I am working there”. I’ve met Marc in the basement of a swish hotel only a stone’s throw from his beloved Soho, to talk about his new album <em>Stardom Road</em>. But a week after celebrating his 50th birthday with a career spanning live show covering his twenty-seven years in the spotlight, Marc’s worldview has altered.<br /><br />“I wrote the song <em>Redeem Me (Beauty Will Redeem The World)</em> about… growing up and moving on, and wanting different things out your life…I wanted some light in my life, after a period of an accident. I just felt I had been surrounded by this ugly period of my life, a very dark period of my life. So I wanted to open the windows and let the light in. If that means looking on things in a more spiritual way, I didn’t look at it that way I am not a religious person at all. I think it does inevitably gives you a different view of life, a more spiritual appreciation of life - if anything it’s just wanting a calmer life.”<br /><br />So what’s bought about this change for Marc Almond? On 17 October 2004, while riding pillion on a motorbike near St Paul’s Cathedral, he was involved in an accident and suffered terrible injuries to his head and upper body. He was in a coma for two weeks, and it was during his long recovery that he found he had forgotten how to sing, and had to go back and have lessons. “I went back to get the confidence back in my singing, to learn how to get my strength back and everything. It made me realise how lazy I was getting in singing and it made me… much more conscious, thinking of the notes I am singing, so it has been a good thing for me in that way.”<br /><br />“I found that going back to singing lessons now, my hearing I went deaf in one ear after the accident because it was punctured, and my lungs were punctured and I couldn’t breathe properly and I couldn’t hear for like six months. That’s healed now but I have a slight imbalance in my ear which means I sometimes fall over on stage.” He continues, laughing “I have to hang onto the piano because I felt myself going over. I get vertigo, and everything goes round -I have fallen over on the tube before.”<br /><br />The only clearly visible sign of his accident is a visible dent above his right ear, as though a thumb had been pressed too hard into soft clay. Yet Marc’s looking a remarkably sprightly 50, especially considering what he’s been through. “It used to be 50 was the end of your life, now it’s like a new beginning. Like 50 is the new 30 I like to think… I’m 30 in my mind; I don’t feel 50”.<br /><br /><em>Stardom Road</em> is Marc’s first solo album since the accident, and while it only contains one new composition, it’s more than a mere album of covers. Taking songs from Charles Aznavour, Al Stewart and David Bowie, Almond has given them his unique touch, and the tracks are ordered like an autobiographical musical. But how would he fare on the mainstay of covers today? “I think that I would fail miserably on <em>X Factor</em>; I wouldn’t get past the auditions. I’m so glad, so lucky that I’m not an up-and-coming young artist trying to make it in the music business these days, having to go through that sort of trial by TV, or that kind of ordeal. ‘You’re not singing in tune; you’re not looking right’…”<br /><br />“To me singing is about making people believe what you are singing and bringing your distinctive quality to the song that makes it instantly recognisable as you. You’re delivering the song and making people believe it, that’s what Frank Sinatra said”<br /><br />As half of Soft Cell, Marc was a pop star in what was probably the last true age of pure pop, and a beacon for those who were a little bit different. I felt privileged to hear him describe how the sound of that era came about. “They had grown up though in an age of the ‘70’s where you went through four different musical genres - it started the decade with progressive rock coming out of the 60’s, it went to glam rock, you went through punk, and you went through disco. And when you took a mixture of glam rock, punk and disco, and put it all together… with a verse, a bridge, a hook and a chorus, you got what an ‘80’s pop song was… You took these influences - this colour and this fashion and this glitz and this glamour from the glam rock of Bowie and Bolan, from the punk of the Sex Pistols, and the disco of the Donna Summer and Sylvester, you put them all together and that’s what you got - this incredible melting pot of music which was 80’s pop!”<br /><br />There’s sheer joy in his voice as he continues breathlessly, “<em>And</em> you sold millions of records because everyone watched one TV show (<em>Top Of The Pops</em>) and you brought your records from a record shop and everyone bought the same records. <em>Plus</em> it was the first beginning of pop celebrity culture as well…I remember doing an interview for German magazine <em>Bravo</em> around that time… They would turn up while you were on holiday and knock on your hotel bedroom door and walk in and go ‘All the fans from <em>Bravo Magazine</em> want to see what you are wearing and what do you have in your suitcase?’ ”<br /><br />His next album may be his final one of original songs, which will “reflect this period of my life that I am going through, this reflective period is reaching 50. This coming out of an accident where I go to counselling to reconnect to my teenage years quite a lot, trying to remember who I am. I try and remember where I have come from, so I find I am retracing my steps, so I am listening to music from the ‘70’s… The world that inspired me to write songs initially that I did my growing up with that made me initially the person I am is now moving away and you have to accept that is going that is sliding away.”<br /><br />But he’s not giving up recording, and his deal with Sanctuary will give him the security of a further two releases. Or hope: “I like the beauty of cities and places now. I want the more overground things as opposed to the underground; the light things as opposed to the dark things, that I really searched out before for experience. Not that I lost myself on that, but I wanted to find out how much of me was still a part of that. Parts of me I have found still are parts of that, but I feel I have grown and moved on. I can’t always be grovelling around in the gutter I have to be up in the stars there somewhere, sometimes”<br /><br /><strong><span style="font-size:85%;">© James McGalliard 2007</span></strong><br /><strong><span style="font-size:85%;"></span></strong><br /><em><span style="font-size:85%;">I interviewed Marc on Monday 16 July 2007. </span></em><br /><em><span style="font-size:85%;">A version of this interview appeared in Inpress, Melbourne, on 1 August 2007</span><br /></em>James McGalliardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08642240549966678581noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5191581602759098469.post-40057243382757471182007-03-07T12:00:00.000+00:002007-08-09T00:31:10.664+01:00Interview: Nick Cave talks Grinderman<strong><span style="font-size:180%;">WILD COLONIAL BOY</span></strong><br /><br /><em><span style="font-size:130%;">"I just fucken want to shove their records down their throats!" Nick Cave talks straight to James McGalliard about home, loss, and Grinderman<br /></span></em><br />"There was a time, fifteen or ten years ago, it took a year to make a record. Not a year to record it, but a year to get everyone together, and sort everyone out, and get the right drugs in. The whole kind of massive event to make a record and it’s not like that anymore, and consequently output is much more rapid, and I’ve got the whole writing thing organised, and that makes it much more rapid"<br /><br />It’s a blazing hot December afternoon, and Nick Cave is back in Melbourne for a family Christmas. "I love Melbourne. I having an absolute fucking ball here actually…I think that in England, even though I live in Brighton and it’s beautiful and all that sort of stuff, you kind of carry a weight with you that you are aware of and I find that that kind of dissipates while I am in Melbourne. I just sort of feel a lot more optimistic in general. (But) Brighton’s the first place that I’ve lived where I feel I could stick it out for the duration."<br /><br />Despite the heat, Nick is wearing one of his trademark suits, as we meet to discuss his new project Grinderman. "There was a general feeling about the whole of the Grinderman thing is it’s anything goes…And I think what Grinderman is about is going to places you wouldn’t normally go or you can’t normally go, or you don’t have the confidence to go or whatever, and it’s just with a group of people where you are allowed to do whatever you like."<br /><br />The group of people Cave is referring to are three of the Bad Seeds - Warren Ellis (electric bouzouki, Fendocaster, violin, viola, acoustic guitar, backing vocals), Martyn Casey (bass, acoustic guitar, backing vocals) and Jim Sclavunos (drums, percussion, backing vocals). But this band features Cave playing electric guitar, and has a different purpose in mind.<br /><br />"The thing is I don’t really look at it in relation to the last Bad Seeds record, it seems to me a very different project…We wanted to make a kind of music that was made by four people and that’s to me is the fundamental difference…Say something like <em>No Pussy Blues</em> for example – it’s an idea - that title which I had - it’s difficult for me to sit down in my office and write that song! It’s just difficult to sit and go – you know like…But it’s not hard if you’ve got someone fucking banging this bass line and you just start riffing on that idea. And people are laughing and you can see the other band members smiling as they’re playing and whatever."<br /><br />It’s obvious that interviews aren’t one of Nick Cave’s favourite things, but he takes time to give considered answers. His eyes are clear and piercing, and there is little room for flippancy. He listens intently to what you say, and will pull you up instantly if he thinks you’ve missed the point, or are misinterpreting him. When I ask whether Grinderman may alienate fans of his last release, he dismisses it with "I can’t really keep up with all that". But it’s also clear the new album is very important to him. "Grinderman wasn’t something we did just to have a bit of fun though. It’s a serious record. I mean it’s a serious record for us. It’s a serious musical statement. But there are elements of humour in it. The point I am trying to make is it wasn’t just let’s go into the studio and fuck around for a while and put out a record. The intent was quite serious behind Grinderman."<br /><br />But if you wanted a distance from the Bad Seeds, why did you use Nick Launay, the same producer as on the last two Bad Seeds albums? "We used Nick because we don’t have to re-educate a producer. I say that in the most humble way. A producer comes in with all of his stuff and we have to get rid of that stuff and find someone who will just record us as we actually sound, and not fuck around with where we are trying to get. And Nick actually has it in him to say ‘why don’t you go and do that again - I reckon you can do it better’, and sometimes a band can’t see that." {<em>And you trust him to do that as well?</em>} "More or less. A lot of the time we tell him to get fucked; other times we listen"<br /><br />Cave is genuinely funny, and sadly some people miss the dry humour in his work. "I don’t see how you can be serious about something and get your point across without it being humorous at the same time. For something to be successful you’ve got to be funny first, or else you end up like, I don’t know, The Mission, or something…I don’t know why I said that band; I don’t even know what that band are like. But you know what I mean…The Australian sense of humour to me is extremely complex. It doesn’t fully translate anywhere…If you say ‘G’day cuntface’ to someone up North {in the UK}, they’d probably (trails off). But you can say that to someone in Australia and they see that it’s actually a term of endearment."<br /><br />He wasn’t aware that Kylie had been performing a section of <em>Where The Wild Roses Grow</em> in her Showgirl tour, and said he would have liked to have taken part, despite a previous bad experience. "I actually did sing that with her at one of her concerts at some festival in Scotland, and there’s all these guys up the front, right fucking hardcore guys, and when I sorta put my arm around Kylie, they were all going, ‘Fucking grrrrr. If you touch her…’ It was really kinda terrifying actually. Her audience are a much worse audience than I’ve ever had."<br /><br />He doesn’t dismiss working with other former collaborators either. "I would like to do something with Rowland (S. Howard). He’s fantastic. Blixa I saw, it’s a little early for Blixa, I think. But I saw him not that long ago - he was fantastic, he’s fucking fantastic. Even though we kind of barrelled on regardless when Blixa left, there is a, perhaps not musically, because we adapted, but he’s greatly missed in the Bad Seeds, just his presence, there is no one really like him. I was doing the movie <em>The Proposition</em> in Berlin and he came along, and we went out and he’s fantastic. Probably he’s warmer now because we don’t have to worry about the band any more."<br /><br />There’s an extremely busy few months ahead for Cave. He’s currently back home in Brighton / Hove, on the south coast of England writing the next Bad Seeds LP, which is due to be recorded in June or July. The end of April will see the live debut of Grinderman at ATP at Minehead. Asides from that, John Hillcoat wants him to write another screenplay after <em>Death Of A Ladies’ Man</em>, so when I ask if he’d like to write another novel, he responds "I would like to…but I just don’t have the fucking time…"<br /><br />But the primal mood of Grinderman is more than a rage against the dying of the light. <em>Man In The Moon</em> is a tender elegy to his late father, and strikes a hauntingly different note. In some ways Grinderman is a more personal record – it speaks of themes in the real world, rather than the timelessness of some of the Bad Seeds material. Cave gives the sense of wanting to really get on with things now. "I think the days of gnashing our teeth in the studio are hopefully behind us…I don’t bring that shit in with other band members and I don’t expect them to bring that shit in either…So that we go in, we are a group of men, we go in there and we work, and finish that and get on to the next thing. That seems to work really well."<br /><br />"I read interviews with some of these bands who talk about you know, some bands who should know better, who are talking this sorta stuff about ‘the agony’ it took to make this kind of record. And then the next record ‘the agony’ and you know, ‘I lost my marriage, and I lost…’ – you know all this kind of stuff to make this record. And these are not young bands. These are bands who have been around, and they should know fucking better. I just fucken want to shove their records down their throats. Or up their arse more like - where it probably came from."<br /><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><strong>© James McGalliard 2007</strong></span><br /><em><span style="font-size:85%;">This interview was published in Inpress, Melbourne 7 March 2007 </span></em><br /><em><span style="font-size:85%;">I interviewed Nick In Melbourne in December 2006</span></em>James McGalliardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08642240549966678581noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5191581602759098469.post-28331172314814815812007-02-19T12:00:00.002+00:002012-01-12T22:47:01.123+00:00Live: The Early Years and Wolf & Cub - London<span style="font-family: arial;font-family:lucida grande;font-size:130%;" >The Luminaire, London</span><br style="font-family: arial;font-family:arial;" ><span style="font-family: arial;font-size:100%;" ><em face="arial">Monday 19 February 2007 </em></span><br style="font-family: arial;font-family:arial;" ><span style="font-family: arial;font-family:lucida grande;" ></span><br style="font-family: arial;font-family:arial;" ><span style="font-family: arial;font-family:lucida grande;" >It can be tough going from being an established act in your homeland to having to play as an unknown act down the bill on a foreign shore. This wasn’t <strong>Wolf & Cub</strong>’s first visit to the UK, or even their first gig in the country on this tour, having played the support slot to Wolfmother at larger venues around the UK. Yet trying to get your message across at 8.30pm on a Monday night in London is still a tough ask.</span><br style="font-family: arial;font-family:arial;" ><span style="font-family: arial;font-family:lucida grande;" ></span><br style="font-family:arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;font-family:lucida grande;" >London audiences have the reputation of being hard to please, cynically standing with their arms folded, waiting to be impressed. While this wasn’t the case tonight, there was the bafflement of an audience not knowing quite how to react. The period of Oz music from which W&C draw their antecedents didn’t have an equivalent here so there are no points of reference for an UK audience to draw on. So <em>This Mess</em> ends up sounding reminiscent of ZZ Top, and when they do a Glitter-band style glam-stomp, it recalls Kasabian’s <em>Shoot The Runner</em>.</span><br style="font-family: arial;font-family:arial;" ><span style="font-family: arial;font-family:lucida grande;" ></span><br style="font-family:arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;font-family:lucida grande;" >The two drummers make an instant visual statement, and all is well for their epic opening instrumental. But when Joel Byrne starts singing, there are problems. It’s a small venue, and the drums are virtually unmiked, and it’s hard to work out if the vocals are meant to be audible, or another instrument. It improves as they progress, and a friend who saw them the week before felt that tonight’s gig was a vast improvement. There’s no denying the intent of Tom Mayhew’s iron bass lines, but overall they just seemed to be lacking a certain drive and passion tonight. Or maybe they just seem underpowered, as the band that follows is such as removes the memory of anything that preceded them?</span><br style="font-family: arial;font-family:arial;" ><span style="font-family: arial;font-family:lucida grande;" ></span><br style="font-family:arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;font-family:lucida grande;" >For tonight <strong>The Early Years</strong> are a revelation; I can barely believe that this is the same band I saw support iLiKETRAiNS last October. For now they are a band of power and intent and innate craftsmanship, and have expanded to a four-piece from the trio that recorded their debut album. There are a few minutes of gentle bleeps, feedback and fiddlings before they launch into <em>All Ones And Zeros</em>, but these have been building up an atmosphere so shivers run down my spine when the bass kicks in. The sound is crystal and sharp, the lighting thoughtful and evocative.</span><br style="font-family: arial;font-family:arial;" ><span style="font-family: arial;font-family:lucida grande;" ></span><br style="font-family: arial;font-family:arial;" ><span style="font-family: arial;font-family:lucida grande;" >In some ways it’s pure shoegaze - exciting, uplifting and brilliant. The one downside of that style was a tendency for somewhat atonal vocals, yet <em>Brown Hearts</em> shows Dave Malkinson can really sing. There are elements of some early new wave as well; the way the bass lines break out is reminiscent of Echo and the Bunnymen; while the driving guitar riff of <em>So Far Gone</em> reminded me of the <em>Talk Talk Talk</em> era of The Psychedelic Furs. But theirs is a new spin on this, and they’re very much their own band.</span><br style="font-family:arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;font-family:lucida grande;" ></span><br style="font-family:arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;font-family:lucida grande;" >One of the best things that can happen at gigs is when you find yourself grinning inanely at the sheer pleasure of the experience. Even better is when you turn around to see your mate wearing the same dumb expression - it’s joyous and wonderful. Sometimes you’re torn whether to watch the band play, or just close your eyes and loose yourself in the music. The room went whisper-quiet later during <em>Things</em>, and a prolonged applause and cheering provoked a rare genuine and heartfelt encore.</span><br style="font-family:arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;font-family:lucida grande;" ></span><br style="font-family:arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;font-family:lucida grande;" >The Early Years is the band that the Secret Machines promised to be but never delivered. And for them this was just one of those special nights where it all came together.</span><br style="font-family:arial;"><span style="font-family: arial;font-family:lucida grande;" ></span><br style="font-family:arial;"><strong style="font-family: arial;font-family:arial;" ><span style="font-size:85%;">© James McGalliard 2007</span></strong><br style="font-family: arial;font-family:arial;" ><em style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-family: arial;">A version of this review appeared in Inpress, Melbourne, on 28 February 2007</span><br /></span></em>James McGalliardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08642240549966678581noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5191581602759098469.post-60534112117130758732006-12-31T12:00:00.000+00:002007-08-10T00:11:14.855+01:00End Of Year Polls: 2006 Inpress Writers' Poll<strong><span style="font-size:130%;">2006 INPRESS MAGAZINE WRITERS’ POLL<br /></span><em></em></strong><br /><strong><em></em></strong><br /><strong>TOP 10 ALBUMS (format: Artist TITLE)<br /></strong>1. Mogwai MR BEAST<br />2. My Latest Novel WOLVES<br />3. Model Morning YOUR WORST ENEMY [Mini LP]<br />4. Archie Bronson Outfit DERDANG DERDANG<br />5. The Veils NUX VOMICA<br />6. Lily Allen ALRIGHT STILL<br />7. The Long Blondes SOMEONE TO DRIVE YOU HOME<br />8. I'm From Barcelona LET ME INTRODUCE MY FRIENDS<br />9. The Black Angels PASSOVER<br />10. Spotlight Kid DEPARTURE<br /><br /><strong>ARTIST OF THE YEAR<br /></strong>1. iLiKETRAiNS<br />2. Model Morning<br />3. Evi Vine<br /><br /><strong>BEST INTERNATIONAL ARTIST GIG<br /></strong>1. I'm From Barcelona @ Hoxton Bar & Grill<br />2. Mogwai @ Manchester Academy<br />3. Echo & The Bunnymen @ Clapham Common<br /><br /><strong>BEST LOCAL ARTIST GIG<br /></strong>1. The Church @ The Borderline<br />2. Devastations @ The Luminaire<br /><br /><strong>BEST RADIO SHOW<br /></strong>1. Gideon Coe @ BBC 6Music<br />2. Andrew Collins @ BBC 6Music<br />3. Steve Lamacq @ BBC 6Music<br /><br /><strong>BEST TV SHOW<br /></strong>1. Life On Mars<br />2. Love My Way<br />3. Battlestar Galactica {Season 3}<br /><br /><strong>BEST WEBSITE<br /></strong>1. Wikipedia<br />2. BBC News<br />3. Mess+Noise<br /><br /><strong>BEST MEDIA MOMENT<br /></strong>Watching hasbeens try to resurrect their careers by appearing as talking heads every time there's a celebrity death or envelope opening<br /><br /><strong>HIGHLIGHT OF THE YEAR<br /></strong>Vibrant wave of exciting new UK acts<br /><br /><strong>PREDICTION FOR 2007<br /></strong>C86 Mk II; famous people will screw around, take drugs or die. Acts to watch: Evi Vine, Model Morning, The Boxer Rebellion. Debut albums from Apartment, iLiKETRAiNS, Fields; second LPs from Bloc Party and The Duke Spirit<br /><br /><strong>WHERE WERE YOU LAST NEW YEAR’S EVE?<br /></strong>At home<br /><br /><strong>WHERE WILL YOU BE THIS NYE?<br /></strong>In an airport<br /><br /><strong>IF ‘06 WAS THE YEAR OF MYSPACE, WHAT WILL ‘07 BE?<br /></strong>Shambling<br /><br /><strong>2006 IN REVIEW<br /></strong>If 2005 was musically Canada‘s year, then 2006 firmly belonged to Sweden. It wasn’t a good year for albums; The Long Blondes were failed by their production, while Archie Bronson Outfit’s second effort was a far better representation of them as one of the UK’s finest live acts. It was a better year for upcoming bands than those more established. Oz acts (except for Jet and Wolfmother) failed to make major impact, but special mention must be made of Morning After Girls - they were all but unavoidable for months and should buy their UK rep a big Chrissy present! The second season of Doctor Who fell short of the first, probably by being closer to the original series, whilst spin-off Torchwood was no more than mildly diverting. Life On Mars showed how to successfully blend sci-fi and drama. Little Miss Jocelyn was probably the best new original comedy.<br /><br /><strong><span style="font-size:85%;">© James McGalliard 2007</span></strong>James McGalliardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08642240549966678581noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5191581602759098469.post-89915886221472772072006-10-11T12:00:00.000+01:002007-08-08T23:46:41.737+01:00Live: The Hidden Cameras and My Latest Novel - Manchester<strong>The Hidden Cameras / My Latest Novel</strong><br /><em>Night and Day Cafe, Manchester, UK</em><br /><em><br /></em>One of the biggest bugbears of playing quieter music is the risk that the chattering masses in the venue will be louder than you. I was excited when I found that <strong>My Latest Novel</strong> were the support tonight, as they’d been on my ‘to see’ list for ages. Yet at first it’s hard to make out what they're doing over the hubbub. But as they proceed, something extraordinary happen – people shut up and listen.<br /><br />Theirs is a mad blend – some tracks are like an indie guitar band, some sound like a modern day act for legendary Scottish label Postcard Records, whilst others are more like an off-beat folk act. One song features exquisite four-part harmonies over a bass drum. Others, like <em>When We Were Wolves</em> are deceptively simple, the three or four repeated lyrics locking in the back of your brain. With their use of melodica and violin, at times I’m reminded of The Associates, at others Arcade Fire, but it’s all intensely original. Even if no-one can quite decipher the between song banter due to their thick Glaswegian accents, all would agree that this brilliant band were worth the price of admission alone.<br /><br />Which was just as well, as the current incarnation of <strong>The Hidden Cameras</strong> proves to be a major disappointment. One of my live highlights of 2004 was the <em>Union Of Wine</em> show they put on at London’s Bush Hall, featuring dancing satyrs, and nymphs running through the crowd squirting wine into revellers’ mouths. So why the fall from one of the most lively and exciting gigs I’ve witnessed to this?<br /><br />Well, firstly all the theatrics are gone. Secondly there’s a heavy reliance of the new album <em>Awoo</em>, which isn’t as instantly memorable as its predecessors. But mainly it’s the sound of the band itself, and the way they’re playing. The amazing builds that marked them last time are missing, and the tempo is quite leaden throughout. No, for the first half the songs never got the chance to soar; even long-time favourite <em>Day Is Dawning</em> fell flat. Almost unthinkably, it was just dull.<br /><br />And then there’s Joel himself, who’s also undergone a bit of a metamorphosis. With his muscled arms emerging from his blue vest, with his very short hair and a three day growth – bloody hell, he’s evolved into Mark Seymour!<br /><br />Near the end they finally pull it all together, but it’s a little too late. And it all falls apart again as we’re asked to sing <em>Happy Birthday</em> for band member Maggie, who then spends five odd minutes talking crap about Manchester vs. Liverpool rivalries. For ages I’d wanted a copy of their rare debut <em>Ecce Homo</em>, but as I’ll have to talk to the band who are now signing all merchandise sales to get one, I slip out empty-handed and sad-hearted.<br /><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><strong>© James McGalliard 2007</strong></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><em>A version of this review first appeared in Inpress, Melbourne in October 2006 </em>(see below)</span><br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsXELcvWHTtXDBsyOHS9fDF8QHOzKnz8pvWvfPFY2se1ptLPYKh-5NeuxAZS9jYt8U7wKRRnQROnpNkLcA1iNZI1Mwh1Roa3YAcpeOv_aZbltbrlUEcg2x9dm_ApU5zcSjxGCiU2sa7SY/s1600-h/The+Hidden+Cameras+-+Inpress+11-OCT-2006.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5096381769255065106" style="CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsXELcvWHTtXDBsyOHS9fDF8QHOzKnz8pvWvfPFY2se1ptLPYKh-5NeuxAZS9jYt8U7wKRRnQROnpNkLcA1iNZI1Mwh1Roa3YAcpeOv_aZbltbrlUEcg2x9dm_ApU5zcSjxGCiU2sa7SY/s400/The+Hidden+Cameras+-+Inpress+11-OCT-2006.jpg" border="0" /></a>James McGalliardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08642240549966678581noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5191581602759098469.post-65654723864578959592005-12-31T12:00:00.000+00:002007-08-21T18:10:06.912+01:00End Of Year Polls: 2005 Inpress Writers' Poll<strong>2005 INPRESS MAGAZINE WRITERS’ POLL<br /></strong><br /><strong></strong><br /><strong>TOP 10 ALBUMS (format: Artist TITLE)<br /></strong>1. Editors THE BACK ROOM<br />2. The Arcade Fire FUNERAL<br />3. The National ALLIGATOR<br />4. Kate Bush AERIAL<br />5. Black Rebel Motorcycle Club HOWL<br />6. Art Brut BANG BANG ROCK & ROLL<br />7. The Magic Numbers THE MAGIC NUMBERS<br />8. The Chalets CHECK IN<br />9. Maximo Park A CERTAIN TRIGGER<br />10.Emiliana Torrini FISHERMAN'S WOMAN<br /><br /><strong>ARTIST OF THE YEAR<br /></strong>1. The Arcade Fire<br />2. Gang of Four<br />3. The Fall<br /><br /><strong>BEST INTERNATIONAL ARTIST GIG<br /></strong>1. Hope Of The States – Astoria, London<br />2. The Psychedelic Furs – Shepherds Bush Empire, London<br />3. The Arcade Fire – The Leadmill, Sheffield<br /><br /><strong>BEST LOCAL ARTIST GIG</strong><br />Enough of The Birthday Party / Scientists stuff already! None of the Oz acts I saw in the UK this year rose much above mediocre.<br /><br /><strong>BEST RADIO SHOW<br /></strong>1. Gideon Coe – BBC 6Music<br />2. Ricky Gervais, Stephen Merchant and Karl Pilkington on XFM<br />3. Steve Lamacq – BBC 6Music / BBC Radio 1<br /><br /><strong>BEST TV SHOW</strong><br />1. Doctor Who<br />2. The Monastery<br />3. Peep Show<br /><br /><strong>BEST FILM<br /></strong>Didn’t see enough to say<br /><br /><strong>BEST BOOK</strong><br />1. Rip It Up and Start Again: Post Punk 1978-1984 by Simon Reynolds<br /><br /><strong>BEST WEBSITE<br /></strong>1. Tachyon TV Hub<br />2. BBC Cult<br />3. eBay<br /><br /><strong>BEST MEDIA MOMENT<br /></strong>Return of <em>Doctor Who</em> – they got so much right, how can you quibble?<br /><br /><strong>HIGHLIGHT OF THE YEAR<br /></strong>Moshpit at the Furs - years fell away…<br /><br /><strong>LOWLIGHT OF THE YEAR</strong><br />London bombings and reactions, tsunami, Iraq, Cronulla, etc. Crappy behaviour at gigs<br /><br /><strong>PREDICTION FOR 2006<br /></strong>Is disco coming back now? We’ve had everything else…<br />Looking forward to albums from Apartment, The Long Blondes, The Blue Aeroplanes, The Duke Spirit<br /><br /><strong>QUOTE OF THE YEAR</strong><br />“Political correctness gone mad” - almost a catchphrase<br /><br /><strong>WHERE WERE YOU LAST NEW YEAR’S EVE?<br /></strong>The Bell, E17<br /><br /><strong>WHERE WILL YOU BE THIS NYE?</strong><br />No idea<br /><br /><strong>IF ’04 WAS THE YEAR OF ‘THE’ AND ’05 WAS THE YEAR OF ‘WOLF’, WHAT WILL ’06 BE?<br /></strong>The year of Pop. Independent artists are creating great pop music – let’s hope it breaks into the mainstream<br /><br /><strong>2005 IN REVIEW (150 WORDS OR WE CUT IT OFF AT WORD #150)<br /></strong>2005 was the year of the oldie. With some new acts proving poor live performers, it was up to the old guard [Gang Of Four, The Fall, etc] to show the way. Even Simple Minds and New Order produced their first decent LPs since the 1980’s. Art Brut and The Chalets reminded us that pop could be fun, and The Arcade Fire’s controlled onstage anarchy was a hard act for anyone to follow. Arctic Monkey’s # 1 proved that downloading wasn’t killing music.<br /><br />Amidst a pile of reality shite, BBC’s <em>The Monastery</em> showed how it could be. Old sci-fi franchises were revived successfully, with <em>Battlestar Galactica</em> and <em>Doctor Who</em>. In comedy, <em>Peep Show</em> continued to impress, and <em>The Thick Of It</em> was almost too accurate to be funny.<br /><br />The continuing rise of intolerant attitudes made 2005 an uncomfortable political year. Will longer pub hours make us forget nuclear power stations?<br /><br /><strong><span style="font-size:85%;">© James McGalliard 2007</span></strong>James McGalliardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08642240549966678581noreply@blogger.com