There are of course all kinds of differences between live albums and studio ones. Within rock and some other genres, notions of a primacy attached to the live experience exist, ideas of greater authenticity, that it’s where a band really show t[…]

It’s not too often that the most intelligent albums are also the most full of feeling, but I think Lyfe Jennings’ The Phoenix is right up there in both qualities. It strikes me as one of the most interesting albums of the year, and I have[…]

I used to be a comic book editor, years ago. Telling artists where they are going wrong and why is a very hard thing to do. I also edited a critical magazine about comics, and my greatest regret about having to hand it on, when the comics themselves […]

One of the funniest moments I ever heard on the radio was on 606 after Scotland’s 1-1 draw against the tiny Faroe Islands several years back. There had been lots of disgust and anger, and one caller continued the tone, ranting about how the man[…]

I think this song, by Carole King and Gerry Goffin, might be the best song ever written. It’s a beautiful melody, given superb life by producer Luther Dixon’s luscious string arrangement (over a cod-Latin beat which I like less, but Leibe[…]

There are certainly some hopeless villains in some of the issues of Steve Ditko’s spell on Spider-Man, but the importance of a creative force credited only with the art really shows when John Romita joins writer Stan Lee on the title. The first[…]

It’s been an unusual few months for me in music listening terms. I’m normally big on variety, skipping from soul to hip hop to pop to punk to reggae from one moment to the next. However, a kind friend gave me over 500 albums early in the […]

Long ago I edited a comics fanzine called FA. In 1988 a few of us got round a table with Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons for a long discussion about Watchmen. Last month someone put it on the web, and it still looks a pretty good piece to me. Don’t[…]

I wrote a recommendation of the ten best of Marvel’s Essential volumes a long time ago. Finally DC picked up the baton and are putting out similar volumes – over 500 B&W pages of vintage comic reprints on cheap paper for around £11 […]

We’ve had a big food science day here at Freaky Trigger, but there’s food art too, you know. The Starchy Gallery specialises in potato art. Worth seeing the last contest winners, at the very least. As the site explains, there is a window […]