A short ambivalent history of the non event
i own a little green second-hand book, dated 1982, called “the politics of the pop festival” (michael clarke, junction books), which opens with the newport jazz festival of 1954, and passes, via[…]

lord blob’s mission accomplished, says ilm[…]

Here is how you become a pop star.
1. Go to record company.
2. Say “I am a celebrity can I put a single out?”
3. Repeat 1 and 2 until someone says “Yes”
4. Release record.
5. If the record is good enough* you will now be a pop[…]

Shock! Horror! Dylan sells rights to music to be played in EVIL StarbuXor. As the cossetted article points out, Dylan has been doing this for forty years. And anyone can play any record in a shop they like if its had a commercial release (its covered[…]

YOU DECIDE can ads PWN good art? is the art PWNd by ads good?
when ILM is funny it is very very funny[…]

For those of us not down at Worthy Farm this weekend who sort of wish we were, 30 seconds out of every minute.
Alvin Lucier ‘I Am Sitting In A Room’
Dru Hill ‘In MY Bed’
Samantha Fox ‘Love House’
Basement Jaxx &#82[…]

If this is true, and BB has had Maxwell “shelling prawns to the sounds of Aqua, Chesney Hawkes and Mr Blobby” then can we assume that a) BB is trying to ease the strains of the task by playing dickboy great pop tunes; or b) BB hates fun?[…]

Whilst away I had the privilege, nay pleasure, of watching some Fox News. Its output was probably at about two in the morning, however what was interesting was a five minute package of Palestinian Rap. There was much pooh-poohing that this “uni[…]

How is the Martian battle cry in Jeff Wayne’s War Of The Worlds spelt? It is one of the most recognisable sounds in pop but Wayne himself never has to verbalise (unless earlier editions than mine come with a libretto!). Orbital sampled the pier[…]

and thus, inevitably, a column in which mark steel gamely ploughs his way through a crit of THIS KIND OF THING (viz: Live8 in particular, charity protest in general). Fraid you have to subscribe for the complete “764 words approx” but her[…]