Who sings your favourite male/female duet? Sonny and Cher? Shane MacGowan and Kirsty MacColl? Renee and Renato? It’s a special sub-genre where a song becomes a conversation, where the right two voices can unite to create something greater than the sum of its parts. London-based singer-songwriter Tom Odell and German-born newcomer Alice Merton are the latest pair to share… Read more →
Tag: 2018
KASABIAN, Brixton Academy – Evening Standard, 24 Aug 2018
In the middle of another summer of moving the masses at gigantic festival appearances, Leicester’s Kasabian dropped in on Brixton Academy for a little taste of the old days. Guitarist and songwriter Serge Pizzorno spoke of watching DJ Shadow here as a young man and dreaming of standing on the famed stage. Of the many times he has stood on… Read more →
BRUCE TULLOH profile – Runner’s World, Sept 2018 issue
“Our main hope here, the barefooted lightweight wonder, Bruce Tulloh,” the Pathé news reporter says in delightfully plummy tones, over black-and-white shots of the British athlete’s victory in the 1962 European Championship 5,000 metres in Belgrade. “That frail form conceals a lot of strength.” Tulloh, at under 5’8, close to 8 stone and gently spoken, could have been a… Read more →
SAWEETIE interview – Evening Standard, 17 Aug 2018
High Maintenance is the title of California rapper Saweetie’s first EP. She looks it, with her floor-length pink leather coat, Louis Vuitton boots, green bejewelled fingernails and eyelashes that could be put to good use as helicopter landing pads. The 25-year-old is on a flying visit to the UK to perform two songs at Mayfair nightclub Tape London, record… Read more →
JAKE SHEARS, Scala – Evening Standard, 16 Aug 2018
One of the best songs on Jake Shears’ debut solo album is Sad Song Backwards, on which the singer imagines that all the losses of your typical country ballad happen in reverse and you get everything back. The 39-year-old seemed to be living his career in reverse, too, returning to the unpleasantly packed club venue where his band Scissor Sisters… Read more →
THE REGRETTES interview – Evening Standard, 10 Aug 2018
Lydia Night of The Regrettes disagrees with my theory that growing up in LA makes being a performer seem like a more realistic, graspable possibility than growing up somewhere less glamorous. “I was in Santa Monica, which is like its own small town within the bigger city. I was taking art classes and my art teacher turned out also to… Read more →
STEEL BANGLEZ interview – Evening Standard, 3 Aug 2018
“It started in the corners of London, in pirate radio stations and record shops, and look where we are now,” says Steel Banglez, lounging on a sofa in the Kensington offices of one of the big three record labels, Warner Music. The 31-year-old from Forest Gate was born Pahuldip Singh Sandhu, but everyone calls him Banglez after the bracelets… Read more →
ZEDD interview – Evening Standard, 27 July 2018
“I haven’t worn headphones in five years,” says Zedd. “Let’s be real here. It’s 2018. You don’t need them. I used to be the drummer in a metal band. Do people think I can’t hit ‘play’ at the right time?” Born Anton Zaslavski 28 years ago in Russia, and raised in south west Germany from the age of four,… Read more →
KALEIDOSCOPE FESTIVAL/FLAMING LIPS, Alexandra Park – Evening Standard, 23 July 2018
The best thing about going to gigs at Alexandra Palace has always been leaving: stepping out onto a broad dark promenade where the whole of London is laid out beneath you like a glittering circuit board. So how about a festival where the great hall is used as overelablorate toilet facilities and the real action takes place on an outdoor… Read more →
PORTUGAL. THE MAN interview – Evening Standard, 20 July 2018
Where better to meet Portugal. The Man than in Portugal. The Country? The American band, whose core members are from Alaska but are based in Portland, Oregon, named themselves after the home of Ronaldo and custard tarts back in 2004, just because it was the first nation that came to mind. Then they added that awkward. Full stop in the… Read more →