Nineteen Hundred and Sixty Four was the year that the mania truly began in earnest. The sheer adulation that greeted John, Paul, George and Ringo as their Pan Am flight touched down at JFK International Airport in February that year… Continue Reading
“It’s very hard to conceal the truth forever.” Just three hours after the bathetic formality of his Oprah Winfrey interview, these matter-of-fact words are spoken by disgraced seven time Tour De France winner Lance Armstrong to filmmaker Alex Gibney at… Continue Reading
The premise for ‘Slap Talk’ is certainly a novel one: Standing under spotlights at either end of a darkened stage and each speaking directly into a camera, a man and a woman rant, threaten and insult each other while their… Continue Reading
Mayfest, Bristol’s unique annual festival of theatre and the performing arts, kicked off in typically idiosyncratic style with the variety showcase of ‘Scottee’s Camp.’ The clue, of course, was in the title but the pre-show soundtrack of Village People’s ‘In… Continue Reading
Originally part of the American lo-fi guitar ‘scene’ along with bands such as Blank Dogs, Woods and Crystal Stilts, Dum Dum Girls have now been around for so long that their inception occurred when Dee Dee Penny (real name Kristin Welchez)… Continue Reading
The spectacle of a filmmaker being violently ambushed by his subject is a compelling way for any documentary to begin; this is exactly what happens in the first minutes of ‘Beware of Mr Baker’ as legendary rock drummer Ginger Baker… Continue Reading
It’s not often that a gig for such a gifted performer is so intimate that one receives a light ridiculing from said performer before the show has even begun. Alas, this was my experience of Manchester-based Liz Green’s appearance at… Continue Reading
With his stating of Leonard Cohen as an influence along with comparisons to the folky sounds of such acts as Bon Iver, one can be forgiven for expecting a rather more conventional singer/songwriter experience upon attending a show by 24… Continue Reading