Orange Juice – “Rip It Up”
Edwyn Collins and company fake the funk. What’s so appealing about Orange Juice (and Dexy’s, and ABC) is the “let’s pretend” element – they know they’re not a &#82[…]

“The difference between Schoenberg and traditional music might be demonstrated with the help of a bon mot of Schumann’s that one can tell whether a person is musical by his ability to continue performing a piece more or less correctly whe[…]

Still apparently walking away from Ladbroke Grove, we were urged to swing around The Prince Of Wales. And that was much more like it. Oh the pub itself still had delusions, but made up for it by actually having some grandeur as well. Very friendly ba[…]

If you recall, Pub 8 initially started as a Ladbroke Grove pub crawl. The Castle, just by Holland Park tube, is not on Ladbroke Grove. Well rules are meant to be broken. And break our other (not yet formulated at this point) rule The Castle did. It w[…]

So Jackanory is to return. Excellent commissioning work from Alison Sharman, new Children’s BBC controller, ignoring advice and putting something on BECAUSE SHE LIKED IT WHEN SHE WAS A CHILD. We should hope for revivals of Andy Pandy and the Wo[…]

As I was trying to explain to my mother-in-law: “If you saw Airplane, and you had never seen a disaster movie, and in fact you had no idea that there was such a thing as a disaster movie, it would seem a very strange film.” And so Kung Fu[…]

Feelings were mixed in this camp about Live 8. Cynicism rules, and irritation with Bob Geldof was running high. On the other hand it was a big cultural event and we should watch it, even if it was sniping from afar. And luckily, Alan came to the resc[…]

hmph my final para is very nearly as tricksily coded as the code it aims to decode, so to further murkify i shall just add this… A. cf marcello’s post abt Pink Floyd below; and B. where i think Dissensian Disdain for the Pro-Pop Massive ([…]

Here you can download a Tuvan throat singing duo covering Love Can Tear Us Apart, and its amazing, hard, low, moaning–and as sad as anything, at first its a novelty, but throat singing always seems to be better at tragic then comic, and the bar[…]