Song of the day: BOB DYLAN / UNCLE TUPELO / CAT POWER – Moonshiner (1962/1992/1998)

“Moonshiner” is a song whose origins are clouded in mystery and a certain amount of controversy. Although it’s agreed that the song is Irish, some maintain that it was first sung in Ireland whilst others insist that it was a product of migrants to the US. Whatever the truth is, there are at least two [...]

Richard Cook 1957-2007

Jazz writer Richard Cook died on Saturday August 25th after being diagnosed with cancer earlier this year. The London-born journalist began his career as a contributor to NME during the paper’s early eighties period when it openly embraced music coming from outside of its normal sphere such as Afrobeat, funk, hip-hop and jazz. He later [...]

Edinburgh Festivals Review – Part 2

This is the concluding part of my overview of the last week of the Edinburgh festivals.
Comedy
Stand-up dominates the fringe, and it’s easy to get stuck in the rut of going to endless comedy shows rather than to something a little more cerebral. Not that there was a lack of cerebral comedy at Edinburgh this year. [...]

Edinburgh Festivals Review – Part 1

I had intended to keep a regular diary during my week in Edinburgh, but that didn’t happen. I also intended to scale Arthur’s Seat and maybe visit Portobello, but that didn’t happen either. I did see a few things, though. Here are a few impressions of the film and drama that I saw.
Film
As well as [...]

Edinburgh Diary / Control (Anton Corbijn)

I’m in Edinburgh for a week for a festival. I’ll try and mention one or two things that I’ve seen over the next few days.
First up yesterday (Sunday) was Free and Easy at the Stand, free improv comedy with long time regulars Stewart Murphy and Gary Dobson. I enjoy the inane silliness of it all [...]

Song of the day: SCANNER – Passage de Recherche (1999)

Robin Rimbaud aka Scanner is one of those artists who has a confusing discography with a whole host of full length albums, mini albums, eps, CDRs, live recordings etc etc appearing on a bewildering number of labels, sometimes in very limited editions. The Lauwarm Instrumentals was the second release on the short-lived Beggars Banquet experimental offshoot [...]

Max Roach 1924-2007

Max Roach, along with Art Blakey one of the foremost drummers in modern jazz, died early today after a long illness, aged 83. There is a full obituary here. He was one of the pioneers of bop in the forties, and in a long career embraced everything from free jazz to hip hop. His finest [...]

Song of the day: IAIN MacDONALD – The Iolaire (1986)

In the late eighties, not long after I’d moved to Manchester, I was a semi-regular at the Tuesday night folk club at the Malt Shovels pub in Altrincham, which just happened to be around the corner from where I worked. A guy I knew, who used to play there occasionally, called me up one day [...]