thefreethinkingmovementI can’t believe that I’m sitting here, writing a post about the passing of Prince. That’s like losing a limb. A really funky limb. Let me try to tackle this by taking a major detour to earlier in the week. To a time when Planet Earth was still graced by His Royal Purpleness. I shared […]
Sir Terry Wogan may not be the immediate jumping-off point for a post on this site. But, on the day where the news of his passing is shared, I’ll be honest – there was a pang of real sadness for me. Sir Terry was my breakfast radio DJ as a kid. I remember sitting at […]
It’s all been said. He was a genius. A real genius. He didn’t just break the rules, he ignored them. He refused to stand still. He stayed relevant. He turned death into performance art. There will never be another David Bowie. Yesterday was hard. It felt like an entire day spent in an out-of-body haze. […]
As LCD Soundsystem downed tools in early 2011, I shared some thoughts on how, as a band, they captured New York City. To me, they were as much New York as were Blondie, the Beastie Boys or The Strokes. I shared my thoughts on how they “left us an almost perfect body of work”. I […]
In these days of global warming, political and economic turmoil, Orwellian government surveillance and the very real threat of a new Coldplay album, there’s one issue that has crept onto my radar today, and which stands head and shoulders above all else in terms of importance. Let me explain… The World Cup is drawing closer. […]
It was 50 years ago today. The world changed. Just as Kubrick represented the evolution of man in 2001: A Space Odyssey, I can only assume that a black monolith was present in Liverpool at the dawn of our new musical age, with four lads caressing its veneer; four lads who would change simply everything. […]
I can’t bear arrogance on stage. It puts me right off even the most over-achieving band. Clearly, there are some exceptions, where the arrogance is so utterly deserved that you’d happily sit through an hour of self-indulgent introspection because the artist is so bloody good. Step forward, Prince. But, at the other end of the […]
Walk down any street in Williamsburg, and your odds of passing somebody wearing a Joy Division T-shirt are pretty high. Admittedly, I’ve done my time in helping this cause – but it does sometimes feel that Joy Division are the unofficial mascots for Williamsburg. I frequently make the point that New York and Manchester have […]
I worry about the youth of today. Gig etiquette is simply not something that they understand. A case in point: as James Blake took to the stage for his Sunday afternoon slot at Latitude, it was almost as though anyone under the age of 20 had been ‘activated’, and their gormless trudge to the stage […]
Every word was savoured. I started the book, read the first hundred pages, and had to start again – just so that I could drink in the words again. In my mind, The Narrator’s distinctive growl enunciated each word with absolute clarity and authority. I’ve taken months to complete the book, despite it being barely […]
When Paul Weller rolls into town, I take notice. He’s probably the person I’ve seen perform live more than any other artist – I can honestly say that I’ve lost count. So, while I never had the pleasure of seeing either The Jam (in fairness, I was seven years-old when they split – so I […]
Held in central Barcelona every June and officially referred to as the ‘International Festival of Advanced Music and New Media Art’, Sónar is no ordinary music festival. Featuring some of the best established and up & coming electronic music artists in the world you can’t fail to be impressed by what you see and hear. […]