VIP Music Fair, Kelvin Hall, Glasgow

Just a quickie to remind / inform any readers who are around this area that the thrice yearly VIP Music Fair takes place at the Kelvin Hall this weekend (June 2nd and 3rd) - details are here: http://www.vip-24.com/glasgowkelvinhall.htm although they haven’t updated the date from the previous event on that page - it is mentioned elsewhere [...]

Gig: Mark Olson - Bar Brel, Glasgow 28/5/2007

I never was much of a Jayhawks fan. What I heard tended to go in one ear and out the other and make little impression. I was nuts about Uncle Tupelo, but the Jayhawks left me cold. It’s been more than a decade since Mark Olson left the band, and my knowledge of his work [...]

Song of the day: RICHARD & LINDA THOMPSON - The End Of The Rainbow (1974)

When you see Richard Thompson live you know you’re guaranteed a good time. There is audience banter, knockabout tunes and a genuinely warm and celebratory feeling for the whole evening. He has a talent for following harrowing songs like “Shoot Out The Lights” with something light like “Don’t Sit On My Jimmy Shands”, and ensuring [...]

Song of the day: LA DÜSSELDORF - Rheinita (1978)

This tune takes me back to my childhood days of listening to DJ Nicky Horne’s show on London’s Capital Radio. The show was called Your Mother Wouldn’t Like It and was probably the only place at that time where a ten minute Pink Floyd tune would be played back to back with the Clash. There was [...]

The Seven Ages Of Rock: Episode 2

The first episode of this new BBC series was, as I previously noted, a combination of brilliant archive footage, so-so research and muddled theorising. This second installment hung together much better, though. There was a clear narrative arc as it explored the evolution of theatrical or art rock from the light shows of the Velvets [...]

Song of the day: MATT ELLIOTT - The Kursk (2005)

In August 2000, the Russian submarine Kursk sank after an on-board explosion. The world watched while rescue attempts were made but these were to no avail. It was subsequently discovered that 23 of the 118 submariners on board survived the initial explosion but perished when their oxygen supplies ran out. The tragedy inspired this track [...]

Album: THE NATIONAL - Boxer (Beggars Banquet 2007)

After the demise of American Music Club in the mid nineties, there was a flurry of bands who threatened to fill their niche. The Willard Grant Conspiracy and Richmond Fontaine being just two. None have really succeeded, and I count the reformed AMC in that. The National have come closest, though. It’s a comparison that’s [...]

The Seven Ages Of Rock

The first episode of the heavily trailed seven part television series The Seven Ages Of Rock aired tonight on the BBC. The programmes were made by the people behind the previous series Dancing In The Street and Soul Deep. Like the latter, Seven Ages weaves each episode around a central figure which helps with the [...]