A Christmas Carol, Sherman Cymru Theatre

(Morning Star, 28 December 2009)

With the sonorous chimes of Big Ben, director Amy Hodge's A Christmas Carol slinks on to the stage of Sherman Cymru.

Looking the part with a set of frankly oversized machinery, the extraordinarily well-known tale enjoys a low-key introduction with ghostly Jacob Marley - in chains of course - expounding nicely.

More unexpected is Mark Frost's boyish Ebenezer Scrooge, but shaving off a few years from the old chap just adds extra vim to the show.

The Ghost of Christmas Past paints Scrooge's life to date perfectly with highlight song The System Works - "the system that made me," as Scrooge has it.

The arrival of a camp, gaudy and rather bawdy Ghost of Christmas Present is a shock to the senses, but clearly makes the event more pantomime, to the delight of the children in attendance.

Regardless, the quiet epiphany of Scrooge and the requisite festive ending brings it all reassuringly home.

Runs until January 9. Box office: (029) 2064-6900.

Pic: Farrows Creative

Plum (And Me, Will!), Sherman Cymru Theatre

(Morning Star, 19 December 2009)

A musical quartet bedecked in stripes and every colour of the rainbow greets the audience of Plum (And me, Will!) - the perfect first step in a show which both enchants and entertains. Louise Osborn, responsible for last year's successful Cinders, has once again created a magical world for young imaginations. The protagonist, Katy Owen's Will, is a boy with a 'tiger temper' - causing him to break his mother Hannah McPake's prized traditional Christmas decorations. With only a night to get the elf, soldier and fairy Plum mended before his father gets back from 'across the sea', Will goes on the adventure of a lifetime, battling pirates and tigers to right his wrongs.

Delightful and exuberant, the children watching were spellbound by the original story and audience interaction, and the themes of family and responsibility for one's actions are well integrated into the tale. A touch of modernity does cloud the timeless production, however, when the reason for Will's father's absence becomes clear.

Plum (And Me, Will!) runs until 2 January 2010. Visit www.shermancymru.co.uk for more information.

Emmy The Great - First Love

(Morning Star, Albums of 2009 round up)

Rammed with the sort of DIY production that makes indie fans swoon; Emma Lee Moss’ debut longform record is one of 2009's classics. Pop culture offers many lyrical touchstones, but there's a timelessness to Emmy's greatness, from namechecking Leonard Cohen to 'aah aah aahs' aping 60s girl groups, all shot through with delicious melancholy. The lovely 'MIA' is the high point of both heartfelt wonder and quirk overload, but really, all of Emmy The Great's songs are bewitching stories - we are merely blessed with the ability to listen to her in wonder.

Allo, Darlin’ - The Polaroid Song

(Muso's Guide, December 3, 2009)

Single review

There’s a special place in every girl’s heart for twee pop. The Cardigans doing ‘Carnival’, Belle and Sebastian doing, well, any of their songs - it’s enough to make any red-blooded chick wear Hello Kitty slides in their fringe, get a uke and wear their boyfriend’s ratty brown cardigan.

Incidentally, making this sort of music have ‘Allo Darlin’ veer the same way - kooky, uke-y, and, on ‘The Polaroid Song’, very Lenka.

Elizabeth and Bill are from Australia, Mike and Paul are from Kent, but they’ve come together here in the UK to make the sort of fey indie pop that we should all demand more of. ‘The Polaroid Song’ is an upbeat, uptempo pop classic with its feet firmly in the past, telling tales of camera film of old.

The backing vocals add a richness to Elizabeth’s sweet vocal, and the whole thing is the aural equivalent of a hot chocolate packed with marshmallows - sweet, comforting and repeated consumption is never enough.

What would have been, in days of yore, the ‘B-side’ is the seasonally appropriate ‘Would You Please Spend New Year’s Eve With Me?’.

Steeped in some of that lovely ukelele tunefulness, Elizabeth’s breathy voice is both sweet and sultry, as she suggests we “hide in my bedroom and watch cartoons all night”. There’s a special place in every girl’s heart for that, too.

Jesca Hoop - Hunting My Dress

(AU magazine, December 2009)
Album review

It would take a brave man to suggest that Californian kook Jesca Hoop is anything other than the next big thing. Having received notable endorsements from Tom Waits - who she used to nanny for - and Guy Garvey, she is on her way to success, whether you like it or not. And you might like it - gentle and feminine, she hits the high notes with aplomb and regularity, before plunging to the long, low ones with surprising skill. So, vocal range, interesting celebrity friends and a lot of moxie - a pretty good package if you throw in insistent radio-friendly hits like 'Whispering Light' and soulful reveries like 'Murder of Birds'. Off the wall and on her way.

Warpaint - Exquisite Corpse

(AU, December 2009)
Album review

Despite inexplicably naming their debut - and themselves - for some sort of death metal alter egos, LA female trio Warpaint have started on an excellent footing - an album mixed by RHCP guru John Frusciante and opening for The Slits. This dreamy, hazy excursion smells like teen spirit with My Bloody Valentine's album tucked under its arm. The driving drumbeats push the songs on relentlessly, but instead of sounding harsh and rocky, there's a hypnotic beauty to the music here, a real creation of soundscapes. With song lengths ranging between four and seven minutes, it's clear these chicks love to play, but it's haunting ephemera at its very best. Opener 'Stars' kicks into something rather special, while mournful 'Billie Holiday' (sic) is an acoustic meander through an elusive wonderland of pain and pulchritude. If you met Exquisite Corpse at a party, it would smell of dead roses and chain smoke, and you would be mesmerised.

Mr Hudson- Straight No Chaser

(AU magazine, November 2009)

One of the great pop humourists, Mr Ben Hudson is back - sans Library - to offer more amusing takes on musical styles. He has enlisted label boss Kanye West to perfect his satirical swipe on humourless hiphop and makes sport of the tired old clichés that blight the charts. From the Hoff-style Europop of 'White Lies' to the 80s synth pap of 'Knew We Were Trouble' to the vocoder-drenched title track, Mr H is an accomplished mimic - even doing an uncanny monotone Akon on 'There Will Be Tears'. It's an hilarious excursion, and one for which he should be lauded. Unless it's not actually a joke...?

Steven Wilson - Nsrgnts Rmxs

(AU magazine, November 2009)

From the frontman of Porcupine Tree comes an album which bears the hallmarks of a vanity release. The mini-album is made up of six songs which are remixes of tracks released earlier this year on the album Insurgentes. Equal parts Massive Attack and Thom Yorke (solo), there is a haunting darkness that slices through the Wilson remixes which makes it worth at least a listen, but it's not one to get under the skin of the casual observer. One of the remixes, 'Abandoner (Danse Macabre mix)' was selected through a competition on Wilson's website. So at least that guy will be buying this record.

Sunny Day Real Estate - Diary

(AU magazine, November 2009)

If you have a wonky fringe and tell everyone black is your favourite colour, Sunny Day Real Estate are your patron saints. 'Emo' before everyone knew that's what it's called, this reissue of their critically-acclaimed debut coincides with yet another rematch in their 'will they/won't they' recording history. It's easy to hear Diary and see how various members fitted in so well with the likes of the Foo Fighters. It's American college rock as was, all 'quiet bit/loud bit' and some really rather touching harmonies, especially on 'In Circles' and the mellower 'Shadows'. From the Slint school of 'way back cool', buy it and use the tracks on mix tapes to woo similarly emo members of your preferred gender.

Sunny Day Real Estate - LP2

(AU magazine, November 2009)

The Seattle sound of yoof is given a slight maturity check on this, Sunny Day Real Estate's second record. Originally released in 1995, at the time two of the band's members were already playing with the Foo Fighters, and the collaborative efforts show in the tunefulness on unavoidably rocky tracks like 'Theo B'. The tune seems straight outta the Grohl stable, as well as being drenched with the tried - tired? - and tested volume changes favoured by the Pixies. The album was originally given to Sub Pop without a title or artwork, which gives something to its mythology, and the band's impending break-up seems impressed in every note, from the plaintive '5/4' to the inspiring 'Waffle'. Not as complete as debut Diary, it nonetheless boasts a fragility which is even more alluring.

Robbie Williams - Reality Killed The Video Star

(Muso's Guide, 22 November 2009)

Album review

Post-Take That, Robbie Williams was a renaissance in motion. Drinking, smoking and actually living after so many years in boyband servitude, his spirit was released and his nascent music career sputtered to life.

Sputtered initally, until the might of ‘Angels’ swept through karaoke bars from Fochabers to Fowey and back.

With the guiding hand of Guy Chambers on the tiller, the good ship RW made a beeline for legendary status, and he got halfway there. But time - and ego, having landed - lay heavy on the writing partnership.

After a few years in the wilderness of LA, Rob is back from following Martians, rehabbing, balancing his chi, or whatever else the gossip rags are saying. He wasn’t putting any thought or effort into the big ‘comeback’, if a listen to Video Killed The Reality Star is anything to go by.

The album kicks off with ‘Morning Sun’, which is itself preceded by the mouth organ part from ‘Thunder Road’. That human touch is forgotten as the track swells into an adenoidal torch song with Elton John at its core, all bombast and insincerity. The incongruity of an ‘I Am The Walrus’- style chant amongst the cloying strings only serves to underline RW’s egomania - there ain’t nothing that he can’t carry off, this legend in his own mind.

Single ‘Bodies’ doesn’t get better with repeated listens, coming from ‘Wild Wild West’ and merging into a Backstreet Boys B-side. The issue of Williams’ lyricism comes to light starkly here. He seems to be bent on making clever-clever puns and pop cultural references, but it is at the cost of any comprehensible meaning- “God gave me the sunshine/Then showed me my lifeline/I was told it was all mine/Then I got laid on a ley line/What a day, what a day”. For a lead single, it’s not much of a leader, but it’s sort of the best we got.

From there it’s onto the Showaddywaddy swagger of ‘You Know Me’ - sappy as Sarah Brown and twice as outdated, ‘Do You Mind’ - like the J. Geils Band without a sense of humour complete with the exhaustively self-aware line “This is a song full of metaphors” and so on.

The low point would have to be ‘Blasphemy’, a track that insists on giving RW a low piano/rich voice singing part that he simply doesn’t have the range or resonance in his voice to carry.

The title of the record was hailed by tabloids et al for its chutzpah, but really it means nothing - just another lame attempt by this pop music has-been to regain some of that old renaissance magic.

Lou Barlow - Goodnight Unknown

(Muso's Guide October 20, 2009)

Album Review

Lou Barlow may sound like he’s giving lo-fi a crack at a mid-Western open mic night, but make no mistake, friend - he is the granddaddy of them all.

As the brains and heart of behind Dinosaur Jr, Sebadoh and Folk Implosion, Ohio native Barlow was Gen X before Gen Why-O-Y came on the scene, all too cool for school and heavy on the effects pedals. He’s had more collaborative recordings that you’ve had hot dinners, and yet carries the same detached, world-weary WTF air that he sported all the way back when he played bass on Dinosaur in 1985.

Through his work - songwriting and multi-instrumentalism - Barlow has influenced every lo-fi band since the dawn of time, buddying up with members of the unfeasibly legendary Slint and generally being there when ‘there’ was the place to be.

His mucky sonic fingerprints are all over Ben Kweller, Moldy Peaches and so much more modern anti-folk, and the fact that he can make this, his second solo record, so listenable and notable is frankly a testament to the great man’s skill and nonchalant cool.

This is important to know - not because his classic tunes and maturity make him any more pertinent in the musical realm than whichever rowdy teeny teens Zane Lowe is currently crushing, but because it’s a measure of how far we’ve come - like listening to The Beatles’ Tomorrow Never Knows and wondering how 33 years later we’re still having to put up with The Kooks.

So what’s so good? On the opening ‘Sharing’ there’s a great Phantom Planet drum thrust underpinned by Barlow’s resonant melodic baritone. The song has ‘pogo-a-go-go’ all over it, with a catchy refrain and characteristically fuzzy production.

Title track ‘Goodnight Unknown’ is a less strident beast, with the thumping drum keeping a slow pace. The music is shot through with Folk Implosion-style guitar flourishes, and it leads nicely into the ‘Cannonball’-style (Damien Rice, not The Breeders) ‘Too Much Freedom’, a lo-fi lullaby.

Barlow’s archetypal neo-folk may not seem cutting edge now, but he did help spearhead the whole thing back in the day. The moving thing about this album is 14 songs with a spellbinding quality - the slow, soft hymnal of ‘Faith In Your Heartbeat’, the dropbeat slacker cool of ‘Gravitate’ - at 43, Barlow is still rocking them out. And with 75% of these tracks coming in at under three minutes, he’s every MTV-er’s ADHD dream.

With the weight of history behind it, and the gift of incredible talent chiming through every note, Goodnight Unknown is well on its way to classic status - and deservedly so.

Johnny Foreigner - Criminals

(Muso's Guide, October 8, 2009)

Single review

Where do musical greats come from? The Smiths were straight outta Salford, all working-class woes and Manc miserabilism. Radiohead made the trek into rock’s back pages from Oxford, with the attendant intellect that that entails. But what of Johnny Foreigner?

On paper, the raucous trio are from Birmingham, but to chain them to any earthbound landscape, in the Midlands or otherwise, seems to be missing the point. Johnny Foreigner buck the trend, and everyone’s preconceptions, by sounding just out of this world.

Since the band’s formation from the ashes of several indie also-rans, singer Alexei Berrow has ploughed himself an astonishingly convincing frontman furrow, complete with handsome swagger and devil-may-care attitude.

On ‘Criminals’, they channel Chemikal Underground’s awesome Bis and Fight Like Apes - chaotic guitars over tight, rumbling drums and boy-girl vocals. ‘Your town’s run by criminals’ goes the chorus line, and it’s all you can do not to pogo without remorse.

‘Camp Kelly Calm’ starts off as a tuneful, endearing pop tune, but quickly morphs into the sort of enthusiastic punk pop that JF are renowned for. ‘Wow. Just Wow.’ owes more to Pixie-like thrash and madness than melodious influences, but really Johnny Foreigner’s exuberant pop thrives on joy. The songs here are the sound of yoof and the future of everything, if we’re lucky.

Johnny Foreigner are special and intelligent. Listeners are challenged to remain stationary during one of their top tunes.

Dawn breaks on Twilight: Twilight Sad interview

(AU magazine, November 2009)

Pic by Nic Shonfeld

The Twlight Sad release second 'more intense' album

"Our brake lights on our trailer aren't working. We've had trouble since we got here with our equipment, bass amps and... nothing seems to be working for us at the moment," a strong Scottish accent heavily sighs. "We're all pretty jet-lagged as well, which isn't helping."
The Twilight Sad are in conquering form a few days into their sixth visit to America. No, really. It's just the logistics of life on the road that seem to be a problem.
AU catch up with James from the band 100 miles from Boise, Idaho.
"We're at a truck stop with a lot of big scary looking guys. I'm hiding at the back." After triumphantly conquering Salt Lake City the night before, James is in buoyant mood, despite technical difficulties which are hampering even their viewing pleasures: "I just bought a Denzel Washington double feature to keep me busy for the van because the TV's not working so we're just going to have to watch DVDs from now on. That was the best selection in the truck stop."
Stuck on a bus in the middle of nowhere then - it's a clumsy metaphor for any band, and an entirely erroneous one for the four piece from Kilsyth, Lanarkshire. On the eve of the release of their second album, Forget The Night Ahead, the music and attitude on display has taken a leap forward from 2007's debut, Fourteen Autumns & Fifteen Winters. "I think that main thing that we didn't want to do was that we didn't want to clean anything up and polish it up and make a nice-sounding album - we wanted to make it that bit more intense and to challenge ourselves and challenge the person that was listening to us. Maybe that will put some people off that were into the nice warm sounds that were on the first record, but that's just not who we were. We wanted to write a sort of dark, noisy, different record to the first one. It's a lot rougher round the edges, but it's maybe even more melodic than the first one, it's just we've all moved on and written better songs." A huge achievement considering they've barely been off the road in those two years, between SXSW appearances, their own tour and supporting Mogwai in America. This time round they've hit the road with labelmates and old friends Frightened Rabbit as well as Brakes. James admits that The Twilight Sad do bear comparisons with the other Scottish band; "The similarities are that we both sing in a Scottish accent, and that the music's pretty honest as well, but there are some big differences in the band as well."
If you haven't heard the album yet, James says it's best summed up "by striking that balance, getting the power of the noise but trying to let the songs break through too." The Twilight Sad aren't resting on their laurels, mind. "We've already started working on our new new record - I think we're going to try some new things and maybe surprise a few people."
James says that they also plan to release a 12" single of "a song that wasn't on the record. It was a song that was strong enough to be on the record but it just didn't fit. We just want to get it out there and it's too good for a B-side, so we think we're going get some other friends to remix the song as well for us."
Staring down the barrel of two more years of life on the road and its attendant mechanical failings, James is pretty upbeat.
"We're just going to play as much as we can, in front of as many people as we can - doing the best that we can in this mad music business that we've got ourselves involved in." There you have it. The Twilight Mad.
FORGET THE NIGHT AHEAD IS OUT ON ON FAT CAT RECORDS.
WWW.THETWILIGHTSAD.CO.UK

Cate Le Bon - Me Oh My

(AU magazine, November 2009)

Album review

Me Oh My. If this were The Wicker Man's Summerisle, Cardiff's Cate Le Bon would be a flaxen-haired harbinger of doom, weaving mystical confusion and murmuring darkly in forests about dire circumstances. She does almost exactly that on the thoroughly unnerving 'Burn Until The End' and you are Edward Woodward, all bewitched and enthralled. But it's not Summerisle, and Le Bon is better than Britt Ekland at singing (and dancing, one hopes). There's so much great musicianship here, and such great dark lyrics, that picking it all apart is a sin. Just immerse and enjoy this weird Welsh witchery.

8/10

DOWNLOAD: 'HOLLOW TREES HOUSE HOUNDS', 'TERROR OF THE MAN', 'BURN UNTIL THE END'.
FOR FANS OF: GORKY'S ZYGOTIC MYNCI, SUPER FURRY ANIMALS.

Efterklang and the Danish National Chamber Orchestra - Performing Parades

(AU magazine, November 2009)

Album review

With all the swooning wonder of Sigur Rós and the harmonious vocal attributes of Fleet Foxes, this is the Danish collective's well-received 2007 album Parades performed in full, capably aided by the Danish National Chamber Orchestra. Now hear this - it's unusual, and you might be scared, but the classic musicianship snugly envelopes the ethereal soul of Efterklang like a great blanket of soot. There is bleakness and darkness, as on 'Frida Found A Friend', but also lightness and youth exposed, particularly on 'Mirador'. If the comparisions to the afore-mentioned Icelandic post-rockers bring forth yawns, then how about this - the tragic depths of Arcade Fire with an unwieldy orchestral heft. Every one of the 11 tracks on show here is a rousing epic, spaces filled with ecclesiastical chants and slathered with a Nordic sensibility. The DVD is a nice window into the Efterklang mind, but seeing them in cone-shaped gnome hats with painted cheeks does slightly taint the musical magic. Kirstie McCrum

7/10

DOWNLOAD: 'MIRADOR', 'MIMEO', 'MAISON DE REFLEXION'.
FOR FANS OF: SIGUR RÓS & ARCADE FIRE.

Band of Skulls - Baby Darling Dollface Honey

(AU magazine, November 2009)

Album review

Southampton trio Band Of Skulls are not without their fame - iTunes and Zane Lowe have hollered their praises far and wide. But don't let that put you off - they're a wee gem for the disenchanted indie rock fan. Flitting from 'Cry Myself Blind'-era Primal Scream on 'Cold Fame' to Kills-style scuzz rock (complete with male/female vocal) on 'Blood' to the almost Turin Brakes 'Honest', they are chameleon and delicious. Schizophrenic and uncompromising, singer Russell Marsden boasts a chart-friendly Radio 2 vocal on some tracks - as on the anthemic 'Fires' - but the addition of some dirty guitars and the suggestive vocal of bassist Emma Richardson as on 'I Know What I Am' swathes their sound in staccato axe cool, modern with a nod to the classic. With all the confidence and swagger of a collection of hoary old American rockers on show, they're never the same band twice. Bliss.

8/10

DOWNLOAD: 'BLOOD', 'FIRES', 'LIGHT OF THE MORNING'.
FOR FANS OF: THE KILLS, THE WHITE STRIPES.

Great Britain: Beautiful Bath

(Somerfield magazine, October 2009)

"Macmillan is about supporting patients who live with cancer"

(Somerfield magazine, October 2009)

Nick Cave and Warren Ellis - White Lunar

Album review

(Morning Star, September 20, 2009)

These former Bad Seeds have come a long way from their gothic roots. It is more a case of mellowing and maturing than selling out which has made them acceptable in the mainstream.

White Lunar includes soundtrack material from the 2005 Cave-penned The Proposition and The Assassination Of Jesse James By The Coward Robert Ford. The skill is in the evocation of the cinematic moment, and the duo have captured the emotion of their subjects in spades.

The songs from forthcoming literary adaptation The Road are chilling, but the best work seems to come from The Girls Of Phnom Penh.

Subtle and feminine, the electrifying soundscapes of quiet desperation go towards making this whole record a real credit to these former enfants terribles.

Euros Childs - Son Of Euro Child

(Muso's Guide, September 18, 2009)

Album review

The new solo album from warbling Welsh oddball Euros Childs is probably already in your record collection - it’s been on sale at recent E.C. gigs for a measly £10 and it’s even available free of charge from the official Euros website.

For the unencumbered and, well, the uninitiated, a small digest of its contents may help.

Best known as the voice - and, let’s face it, heart - of 1990s indie wunderkinds Gorky’s Zygotic Mynci, Euros is a multi-instru-mentalist with a nice line in Welsh language tunage.

Son Of Euro Child makes this young chap’s fifth solo record, and is easily the most accessible to date. It’s easy when you hit your 30-something stride, it seems. But for all his newfound maturity, from the opening jolly ‘Shithausen’, it’s clear that E.C. is in his best childlike form, all giddy rhythms and entrancing organ wrapped around deliciously sweet vocals.

There are moments of darkness, such as ‘The Dog’ - all reverberating organ and wistful words - but the mood is predominantly one of musical lightness, through the wonky piano parade of ‘The Fairy Feller’s Masterstroke’ to the blistering pop insta-classic of ‘1000 Pictures Of You’ and beyond.

‘Mother Kitchen’ is none more Gorky’s, with its staccato melody and quirky lyrics: “So buy yourself some dinner/Have a chicken soup/Stick it in the oven/See what it will do/Your mother’s in the kitchen…” It’s like it’s 1996 all over again - and it tastes good.

There is a very real sense of the magical about Euros - he takes the meandering musical mystery tour and places it at the heart of all of his work, revelling in tangential sounds and intangible feelings and making everything seem terribly abstract and free.

But this is a trained musician with a lot of experience making music that people love to listen to, so to dismiss him as a nonsensical Celtic pixie is to do him a tremendous disservice.

The second best thing about Son Of Euro Child is that it’s free to download right now. The first best thing is listening to it.

Great Britain: Wonderful Wales

(Somerfield magazine, September 2009)

"My son's illness baffled doctors"

(Somerfield magazine, September 2009)

Dieter Moebius - Kram

(AU magazine, October 2009)

Thanks to international notoriety with Cluster, Kluster and Harmonia,
Dieter Moebius has contributed to the pervasive view of German music
across the globe with his hand in 'Krautrock'. Got that? Good. Because
there's nothing more 'germanic' than the plinky plonky utterings of a
crazed keyboard maniac, filtered through the pounding red rage of someone
who has devoted precious life minutes to a run-through of this record.
With a 'beep' sound for every occasion, it's clear that Dieter is a madman
or a genius. But truly just a madman. Pass.

INME - Herald Moth

(AU magazine, October 2009)

As a band whose own press release for this, their fourth album, carefully
states that they have "always divided opinion", it seems safe to surmise
that Brentwood's own INME have a face that barely their record company
could love. Like Simple Minds fronted by P@TD's Brendon Urie, the frequent
frenetic guitar breaks of near-Yngwie Malmsteen proportions make them A
Guitarist's Band. As a general rule, when the music is more fun for the
band playing than the people listening, it's time to bail, but only after
you've heard the hilariously pompous Nova Armada.

Killa Kela - Amplified!

(AU magazine, October 2009)

Like a male La Roux, Killa Kela at first listen seems to have finally
found the cultural zeitgeist on this, his third studio record. A beatbox
hero with fans in Pharrell Williams and Prince, there's less of his
special skill on show here and more of the sort of sleazy electronic pop
that the youngsters are loving these days. On Amplified! his star ascends
with single Everyday, but the exuberence is short-lived, as the appearance
of Hadouken! on Get A Rise brings to mind Linkin Park in a food processor
with Fischerspooner. Not pretty.

La Coka Nostra - A Brand You Can Trust

(AU magazine, October 2009)

An American hip hop supergroup may have some listeners foaming at the
mouth, but despite the impressive roll call of La Coka Nostra - including
Everlast and Ill Bill - A Brand You Can Trust is more prosaic than punchy.
With a myriad of cultural - although not always entirely contemporary -
references, there are plenty who might be offended by the lyrical content,
including women, Americans, Saddam Hussein, David Koresh and Phil Spector.
Worth it for Snoop's turn on Bang Bang, but not much else.

"My dad changed before my eyes"

(Somerfield magazine, August 2009)

Modern Skirts - All Of Us In Our Night

(Muso's Guide, July 3, 2009)

Album review

Launching a new business is the dream of hundreds of thousands across the globe.

As any fule kno, and as Sirallun would attest, the most important measure of any new business is to isolate a gap in the market and squeeze yourself into that niche. That way, you become that “thing” that so many people thought they couldn’t live without but couldn’t quite verbalise.

Sadly, there is no such stringency around the forming of a band. You can pretty much make any old noise and there’s airplay offered, because that’s what individual “taste” is about. Good news for Modern Skirts.

All Of Us In Our Night is their second studio album and the Athens, Georgia four-piece are awash with confidence and swagger throughout. Opener ‘Chanel’, starts up like Lee Marvin before kicking into a strummy American college rock paean to heroin “chic” featuring the line: “Cover up your tracks with a cardigan”.

The driving drums here hold the whole thing together, but the vocals fall on the wimpy side of rock. ‘Soft Pedals’ is tuneful and inoffensive, but the wistfulness of the meandering vocal starts to grate, all outsider posturing and musical wallpaper.

The high point musically is ‘Astronauts’, a melodic ‘I’m Only Sleeping’-style chugger, all stripped back guitars and vocal, before easing its way into a dainty-played pop suite of choral singing and listless wonderings: “I miss you, hope you stay”, the refrain goes, before the drums pick up a mere 2 minutes 9 seconds in, and a spin around a Beatles-esque musical world is the reward for the faithful.

Throughout All Of Us In Our Night, Modern Skirts are trying their hardest to woo. From the radio-friendly pop of ‘Eveready’ to the veritable lyrical nonsense of ‘Conversational’, this is best face forward, all “this is what you want” temptation.

But, even with the involvement of R.E.M.’s Mike Mills, there is something missing - some soul or heart, something real that Modern Skirts are offering above and beyond the usual. The best you can say about All Of Us In Our Night is the poppiness of tracks like ‘Motorcade’ - style over substance, but singalong enough for commercial FM.

Good news for Modern Skirts. Bad news for fans of good music.

Marc Carroll - Dust Of Rumour

(AU magazine, August 2009)

With all the swagger of a mid-Nineties Britpop beat combo, Irish singer-songwriter Marc Carroll’s third record is as timely as that intro implies. A gentle jaunt through songs of love, loss, and ‘auld Ireland’, Carroll’s view of life from his current digs in Los Angeles reflect his virtual obscurity here and his apparent acceptance over there, with Messrs B. Dylan and B. Wilson lining up to shake his hand. They know what they like – Dust Of Rumour does a really nice line in inoffensive, tuneful pop, but it’s not reinventing the wheel. Strictly for existing fans.

Nneka - No Longer At Ease

(AU magazine, August 2009)

Nneka's second record kicks off with the spirit that her 2006 debut promised. Making the most of her African roots, Nneka shows a terrific knack for marrying that with her European experiences, making sure to comments on social issues and pressures facing her native Nigeria. From tracks like 'From Africa 4 U' there is a definite maturity on show, while the chilled-out vibe of 'Streets Lack Love' is tailor-made for summer. Nneka is not alone in the recording of quality African female soulful hiphop, but hearing a work of such intensity in English can't fail to make an impression here.

Real life: "I must treat diabetes with respect"

(Somerfield magazine, July 2009)

Interview: Jo Pratt

(Somerfield magazine, July 2009)

Withered Hand - You're Not Alone

(Morning Star, June 28, 2009)

EP review

In a prime taster of the forthcoming full-length album, Edinburgh troubadour Dan Willson makes a gentle pitch for Scottish artist of 2009.

The CD was recorded with two of Scotland's best-regarded indie labels, with Willson also making the genius decision of involving Kenny Anderson - bard of Fife's East Neuk and one of Fence Record's brightest lights, as King Creosote and producer extraordinaire.

The high point here is Big Ten Four (Paul's Song), but all four tracks have a folky insouciance which the Fence guys and their collaborators seem to do so well.

Mundy - Strawberry Blood

(Morning Star, June 21, 2009)

Album review

"Big in his native Ireland" is not the most heartening way to describe an artist, but singer-songwriter Mundy seems to have made a splash in his home country and not so much as a ripple in Britain.
His fourth record Strawberry Blood follows up 2004 release Raining Down Arrows, a record which has proven platinum at home, so it's understandable that Strawberry Blood sees Mundy pursuing the same old line of gentle radio-friendly pop falling somewhere between The Thrills and Ronan Keating.
Nice if you like that sort of thing, which Britain apparently doesn't.

Eugene McGuinness - Wendy Wonders

(Muso's Guide, June 18, 2009)

Single review

Leytonstone’s chief troubadour is back with more wryly observed pith and middle England melancholia than you can shake a stick at.

‘Wendy Wonders’ is the epitome of Eugene McGuinness‘ split musical personality - one the one hand, an injection of punk with a side of snarling teen attitood, but on the other, a class which evades musical stars operating outwith the 1950s.

Vocally, Eugene’s echo-laden thrum owes more than a little to the mellow style of Matt Munro, the laconic beat drifting through like an early evening cabaret.

Opening on a spinning disco ball, the dreary club playing host to Eugene McGuinness and the Lizards in the ‘Wendy Wonders’ video really gives the Phoenix Club a run for its tired, tacky money.

Against a backing of tinsel and disco lights, a grey-t-shirted McGuinness mugs and giggles, all the while singing a maudlin ode to suburban sadness. Parading in the skinniest of jeans, there seems to be a definite risk of permanent physical damage among the onstage players.

Perfectly pitched to soundtrack a Smiths reunion night, there’s plenty of character in McGuinness’ never disappointing voice, and a myriad of funny lyrics make it clear that the apparent simplicity of ‘Wendy Wonders’ is a myth, and that there’s actually plenty going on here.

The lustful heartache of the lyric is a testament to young McGuinness’ sorcery, with lines like, “I’m a hollow man with twelve tin cans of woe” and “Wendy wonders why I’m still so cold/Proceeds to throw my stuff out the window”.

Emotional and intelligent, McGuinness has once again emitted a release which makes nothing of his tender years. Exquisite.

Sister Fa - Sarabah - Tales From The Flipside Of Paradise

(For The Record, June 9, 2009)

Album review

A truly committed campaigner, Sister Fa aka Fatou Mandiang Diatta has something of an axe to grind.

As Senegal's lauded 'Queen of Hip Hop', she is at the forefront of a serious campaign against FGM, or female genetic mutilation. Her interest in social themes and issues doesn't stop there - Sister Fa has something to say too on arranged marriage, AIDS, the plight of Senegalese soldiers... the list goes on.

But while this may sound a little worthy, please try and put it out of your head and just listen to this, her second solo record.

Opener 'Sister Fa La' is just the sort of cool self-referential record that kills on the rap and hip hop scene, underpinned by a crisp beat which smacks of modernity and the global influence of black music.

Throughout 'Sarabah – Tales From The Flipside Of Paradise', from the multilingual vocals - in Wolof, Manding, Jola and French - to the unique rhythmic make-up of the songs - mixing tribal beats with modern hip hop sounds - Sister Fa truly sounds like nothing else.

The record's high point, title track 'Sarabah' makes a virtue of the multi-lingual vocal and yet manages for all the world to groove like english language hip hop.

From the standpoint of social awareness, Sister Fa easily surpasses many posturing stars, but more than that - her incredible talent shines unwaveringly through her cool music and personal lyrics.

For hailing from the flipside of paradise, Sister Fa never fails to make a virtue of all of her gifts - making for one hell of an affecting record.

Crosby, Stills and Nash - Demos

(Muso's Guide, June 5, 2009)

Reviews album

“Influential”, “legendary”, “era-defining” - music journalists are all too eager to bandy about phrases of ageless, timeless wonder in reviews without having any actual certainty of how many have been influenced by the act under scrutiny.

So, accept with a pinch of salt but a sizeable degree of certainty that Crosby, Stills and Nash are the real deal.

Those of you who know them (and their sometime band colleague who features here, Neil Young) will be exploding with indignation (”Of course they’re legendary!”) but if you haven’t a baldy who they are, here’re some Cliff’s Notes.

California native David Crosby came from The Byrds, Brit Graham Nash from The Hollies and Stephen Stills from Buffalo Springfield, along with Neil Young a little later.

All accomplished musicians with a nice line in folky, soulful, melodic pop, and all came together at one magical time when the stars aligned and everything seemed right. Otherwise known as 1968. The members were all equally committed to political rabble rousing, and their central conceit is “love thy neighbour”, which might be a bit hippy-dippy Woodstock for some, but which resonates for others even now.

Demos kicks off handsomely, opening with the Nash-composed ‘Marrakesh Express’. Crosby, Stills and Nash are at home in the rich harmonies of this track. The acoustic guitar-led demo is less psychedelic than the eventual single, but this version takes the tuneful essence of the simple song and makes it rich with sweetness and swagger in equal measure.

Because of the individual successes of the band members before the foundation of Crosby, Stills & Nash, many of the demos on display here are solo works which would go on to become solo hits after the release of a couple of CSN records.

Highlight of the record is definitely David Crosby’s anthemic anti-war ‘Almost Cut My Hair’ - more than five minutes of the most soulful, husky-voiced folk that anyone could imagine. The resonance of Crosby’s voice, and the depth of feeling in the counter-culture lyrics like, “I feel like letting my freak flag fly”.

Also worth noting is the Real Radio favourite, 1970’s ‘Love The One You’re With’. Stephen Stills’ complex guitar arrangements shine in this demo version more than the more-recognised studio recording, and its straightforward soulfulness mocks the myriad inferior cover versions which have surfaced since. The song ended up on Stills’ solo debut album and remains his biggest hit.

Neil Young’s trademark falsetto tenor is apparent on ‘Music Is Love’, a three-way collaboration between himself, Crosby and Nash which packs more of a soulful punch than the studio version on Crosby’s 1971 debut solo record.

Collections of demos, rarities and B-sides are usually only for the fans. After all, who but the die-hards can tell the difference in the chord progression of a 1969 hit, or pick out the harmonies which didn’t make the cut.

Crosby, Stills and Nash’s Demos, is, if anything, an introduction to songs written by musical masters. In their purest form, the songs on show here are imaginative, breathtaking and splendid. They speak of a different time, but their ethos was the same then as now, and the whole record ends up leaving just a hint of sadness for this lost time and these lost talents.

Real life: "Our hearing dog works so hard for us"

(Somerfield magazine, June 2009)

Frightened Rabbit: “I don’t want to sound indulgent”

(Muso's Guide, May 17, 2009)

Interview

If you’ve swooned at the feet of heartwarming, romantic Caledonian folk over the last year or so, chances are it’s down to honey-tongued Scott Hutchison.

As singer and creative doyen of Frightened Rabbit, the Selkirk native’s broad Scottish burr makes sport of the heartache of youth; from broken hearts to lost loves and all of Cupid’s treachery in between, this young Rabbit’s got a grasp of the emotional and no mistake.

After a year living with the runaway success of 2008’s The Midnight Organ Fight, Scott has been holed up in Fife demoing tracks for the band’s as-yet-untitled follow-up record, which promises to be every bit as magical as fans would expect - but there are hints that the lyrical emphasis may be in for a shift.

It’s no secret that Scott has harvested his own experiences for his astonishingly personal lyrics - but he is the first to admit that he didn’t forsee the sheer audience for his angst.

He explains: “I did expose myself. When I wrote those songs, we didn’t really have much of a fanbase at all, and then all of a sudden your album’s released and all these thoughts that were put down in your bedroom onto a cassette tape are now completely public.”

From the adolescent ankle-sock drama of a bedsit balladeer to featuring on youth-orientated Channel 4 shows - that was some transition.

“Yeah, I don’t think it would have been possible to make it that personal if we had known that it would end up on the soundtrack to Hollyoaks.” He laughs.

But the move to the X-rated Grange Hill signified a sea change indeed for the Scottish quartet, and success is now something of a close personal friend. In fact, after a successful SXSW in 2008, Frightened Rabbit are even making it big stateside. Scott says it’s no surprise that they hit the right note in the U.S.

“They’re quite fond of Scottish things, so we fit into that bracket. It’s also not inaccurate to say that I take a fair amount of influence from Americana - bands like Wilco and people like Ryan Adams have certainly seeped into stuff that I do. There’s a folkiness there that they definitely are in tune with.”

In talking to Scott, it’s important to note that there is very little in the way of hubris. So much so that, in saying “Americans just like us” matter-of-factly, he quickly follows it up with: “I think it has to do with timing and luck and one or two of the right people getting into your music.”

Anyone who has found themselves spellbound by any of FR’s two studio albums will note that this success owes nothing to luck, and everything to the skill of good songwriting.

But Scott is the first to admit that he finds musical inspiration in the strangest of places - for example, when the band covered N-Trance’s 1995 breakbeat hardcore classic ‘Set You Free’.

Scott laughs at the memory: “There’s something stirring inside you - the chords or something really connected with me. I didn’t really mind and I still don’t that it was in this kind of cheesy garish 90s package with all the production values. There’s something about it melodically that sticks with me. I love it, and as long as I covered it from that point of you. I hope people recognise that I was being earnest. We all have a memory of N-Trance and someone else… you know… touching and all that.”

Blimey! To spare Muso’s blushes, we divert onto other, more current, musical influences.

“I’ve been saying my favourite band in the world just now is The Hold Steady. I remember seeing them first at a festival, and it was the natural way it all just came out - they had no pretences, they weren’t styled, they were just playing the music that kind of that was honest to them.”

Up in Fife writing Frightened Rabbit’s new record will owe something to that honesty, Scott reveals - but he’s keen to point out that there will be less heartache in the new material - less of himself laid bare.

“I don’t think it’s a bad thing necessarily, but that album is a kind of one-off for me as far as letting that much of myself into it. I don’t really want to do that again, it’s just going to start sounding indulgent as well!

“This time around it’s less specific, less definitely about one person or even me. I suppose I’m trying to write about notions rather than actual events. I still think a record should tie together under one banner as an album under which all the songs fall. I’d like to make it a bit more outrospective and allow people a bit more freedom with what I’m talking about and allow them to come up with their own perspective on what it is rather than me dictating to them. I think I covered that aspect of life quite comprehensively on the last record. It was nice to get it all out, but this is a much more positive album.”

For those champing at the bit to get their ears round the new material, there’s some great news - Scott isn’t wasting any time!

“I want to get the record done - we’re looking at going to record around the beginning of June. So for like a month or two in the studio and then after that it’s up to the label. I’d love it to come out this year because, like, talking about the Hold Steady, they seem to keep producing material and I like that work ethic and I think, rather than it being, “Oh, there’s another Frightened Rabbit album coming out!”, just put one out there when people are least expecting it.”

And of the new material - are the fans to expect some real balls-out rock numbers - just to ring the changes?

“I can’t do that, I don’t know why. I always feel like it sounds a little bit cheesy! I love that kind of music, at the same time, but I just think I’m kind of frustrated that I’m incapable of doing it and it always does end up leaning towards the darker side of things. Whether I’m feeling sad or not, I find more interest in the shadowy bits of life - I can’t help it.”

In the name of uniquely sweet and wonderful music, here’s hoping that Scott keeps a watch on those shadows for a while longer.

Duke Special - I Never Thought This Day Would Come

(Muso's Guide, May 9, 2009)

Album review

Despite plugging away at music industry success for the more than a decade, Duke Special brings his own peculiarly gentle pop ever-closer to mainstream success with I Never Thought This Day Would Come, his third long-form studio album.

So it’s an ‘A’ for effort and a ‘C’ for success… Until now.

Hailing from Northern Ireland, the Duke, also known as Peter Wilson, cuts a bizarre figure, with dreadlocks to his shoulders and thick black eyeliner. Certainly not the usual on the streets of his homeland.

I Never Thought This Day Would Come does plough a similar furrow to its predecessor, 2007’s Songs From The Deep Forest - tuneful and soulful, it boasts emotive language of romance and heartbreak, swathed in piano and imbued with a maturity beyond Wilson’s 29 years.

Opener ‘Mocking Bird Wish Me Luck’ is a delightfully smooth ballad on piano, saturated with the loss of a young love. “Right at the start of me/You stole a part of me”, the lyric goes, pleading for luck for the future, drenched with uncertainty and insecurity. As with all of his recorded output, Wilson’s gentle Co. Antrim vowels come over clearly in what amounts to heavily-accented singing, but far from irritating Snow Patrol-style, the result is a gentle lullaby of a vocal.

Single ‘Sweet Kisses’ is an early contender for single of the year, all bombastic rhythms and singalong chorus. The 1970s-style pomp is a radio-friendly touch, but the lyrics don’t waver from that ‘lost love’ angle Wilson does so well: “It was boom boom back when we were friends/Now the boo hoos tell me it’s the end” Wilson cites, in near-nonsense, but it’s pop, and it works. One of the happiest ever songs about heartbreak - behind, perhaps, The Avalanches’ ‘Since I Left You’.

The title track is another balladic number, coming off like a modern-day ‘Que Sera Sera’. “Stuck on a note/An old song I wrote/On a tape I cannot rewind”, goes Wilson’s simple poetry. Some of the tracks here miss the target slightly - ‘Flesh And Blood Dance’ is a music hall-swagger too far - but the lasting memory of singalongability and the very artistry of the words and music on show here reveal Wilson’s true talent for pop.

Success suddenly seems guaranteed.

Booker T. Jones - Potato Hole

(Muso's Guide, May 7, 2009)

Album review

Legendary musicians are ten a penny these days. Haven’t you heard it’s an ageing population?

Take Booker T. Jones. Best known for fronting instrumental Booker T. and the MGs, they set dance floors alight in 1962 with the Hammond organ-drenched, bass-driven ‘Green Onions’. Almost 50 years later and ‘Green Onions’ is still the essence of cool, all the cooler when you find out that Booker T. Jones penned the hit while he was still in high school.

So a new record from this gent is really something to write home about.

Kicking off with the organ-led ‘Pound It Out’, Potato Hole embraces the modern era in a way which is quite staggering, the song roughly hewn from rock guitar and sweltering hot. Throughout the ten tracks, Jones’ prodigious talent for the keys is instrumentally augmented by Drive By Truckers, an Athens, Georgia band with roots in country and alternative rock.

The influence of the Truckers’ sound shows throughout, with a heaviness to the guitar sound which sits surprisingly well with Jones’ Hammond B3 noodlings. What’s amazing is the new life that someone like Booker T. Jones can breathe into the music he touches. At the ripe old age of 64, he is taking on tracks like ‘Hey Ya’ by Outkast and making them zing afresh, with the Truckers’ help.

There is a certain person who will purchase Potato Hole - probably a die-hard fan, certainly an experimental listener. Sometimes it does have the impact of a pan pipes moods CD, where the melody is pounded out on an organ instead of in vocals, but it’s still a very interesting musical construction, and one which should be supported.

The album highlight has to be ‘Native New Yorker’, exhibiting grouchy guitars plundering through the intro, before a truly meaty rock track strikes up, underpinned all the while by Jones’ skillful keys.

Legends are everywhere - appreciate them while they’re still around.

The Horrors - Primary Colours

(Muso's Guide, May 6, 2009)

Album review

If The Horrors are to be taken seriously, there must be a new world order.

A hair band of skinny goths, they were drowning in eyeliner and hair dye when they showed up on the doorstep in 2007, but like stray kittens, they played upon the affections of the music world and they were allowed in.

Our reward? Strange House, a record which stretched wall-to-wall with bizarre characters, like Morgan who wanted to kill his family, or the glove festishist who made sport out of fondling handware. And don’t even mention Sheena, a grotesque slut of the imagination.

Suffice it to say, these artschool haircuts were a surprise hit, but had one-hit wonder scrawled all over them - in someone else’s blood, naturally. With all this in mind, it’s best to imagine the Primary Colours is a musical emission of a different band.

Oh, it still has The Horrors’ hallmarks - Faris Badwan’s ghoulish vocal backed with Spider Webb’s relentless keyboards. But somewhere in the Strange House these lipstick Lovecraftians lost their way - and found an altogether new path.

The clue to a new direction came early on, with scout single ‘Sea Within A Sea’. A delicious rumble of gratuitous weirdness, it nonetheless grabbed the synapses by their very roots. With album opener ‘Mirror’s Image’, the five-piece have revisited the great echo sound of the single, making a dancier effort and striking out in the direction of many 1980s bands of repute, in particular Echo and The Bunnymen and Simple Minds.

Without being glib, those references are far from insulting. More inferring that Badwan has mastered a malevolent growl the like of the masterful Ian McCulloch all the while backed with the stadium-friendly instrumentalism of a band far beyond their years. The howl Badwan lets out is underpinned by accomplished keys, and the rhythm gives it all a smooth, slightly unnerving base.

‘Three Decades’ starts out with the darker climes of an instrumental piece, with Webb’s organ sweeping through the landscape like an inclement breeze. Badwan again exhibits a much less stylised vocal than on their first record, and the result of everything is a mammoth musical soundscape peppered with oddity and intrigue.

As on their first recordings, Primary Colours sees The Horrors take the best parts of goth and marry them with a punk rock sensibility. But instead of giving birth to a most uneasy alliance as on Strange House, the delight here is the The Horrors have stretched further and gotten something greater out of themselves.

There’s a talent on show on Primary Colours which needs to be taken very seriously indeed.

The Mission District - Heartbreaker

(Musos's Guide, May 4, 2009)

Single review

If image is nine tenths of a band, then The Mission District are truly a gift for record executives looking for the freshest faces around.

Five pretty boys with cheekbones that could slice and dice Zac Efron, these Montreal natives put the “eh” into “wahey!”. But enough about them being cute Canadians. To the music - it’s not all style over substance.

This terrific slice of radio-friendly 80s pop exhibits skills as razor-sharp as those cheekbones. Imagine a guitar pop sound which marries the tunefulness of Stephen “Tin Tin” Duffy with the smarts of Nick Lowe, and you’re en route to ‘Heartbreaker’.

Like A-Ha meeting The Killers in an all-ages indie disco, the vocal smacks of teenage repression, all angsty teen concerns and adolescent dramas: “I will break your heart tonight/Cos this is what we do” goes the chorus line, simply perfect for the Gossip Girl soundtrack.

Currently gearing up for a tour with Elliot Minor after a support sting with McFly, it’s pretty clear that The Mission District’s trajectory is straight down Main Street, Tweensville, but it’d be a shame to write them off as a teen dream.

Although tunefully bizarrely reminiscent of Fergie’s ‘Big Girls Don’t Cry’, throughout the singalong pop hit romps like a son of Busted, slick and over-produced, sure, but sweet, summery and insanely catchy.

Blackbud - Blackbud

(AU magazine, May 2009)
Hailing from the dark centre of rawk - Wiltshire - Blackbud's sophomore release is proof positive that there are bright young things out there, hard at work in the name of good music. Deliciously melodic 'Left Your Arms Empty' opens with a striking male vocal, building to a sweeping finish which speaks of a more mature band. Through rockier 'Love Comes So Easy' to nigh-on prog 'Outside Looking In', Blackbud routinely claim their musical stripes. The record is rife with influence - Led Zeppelin and the Stones on the guitar, Ryan Adams and Jeff Buckley on the vocals - but they do not sacrifice their fresh, youthful exuberance in paying their respects. On the strength of this release, Blackbud are definitely in bloom.

Fishbone - Fishbone Live In Bordeaux

(AU magazine, May 2009)
Live records are always for the fans, and it would be churlish to suggest that Fishbone Live In Bordeaux is anything other than a reaffirmation of that rule. An LA band with an astonishing history - 30 years, ten albums - Fishbone have a fanbase to make greener musicians salivate, which means this sells itself. Buy it if you like ska, rock, funk, reggae or jazz. Better yet, buy it if you like Fishbone. The DVD is more of the same in visual form.

Prefuse 73- Everything She Touched Turned Ampexian

(AU magazine, May 2009)

If you know hip-hip and avante-rock, you'll know Guillermo Scott Herren, aka Prefuse 73. A producer and artist, here he has gifted his fifth studio album under that moniker, a 29-track sonic behemoth with nothing like a defining characteristic. There's a lot of info about the recording techniques Herren has utilised here, but beyond the yawnsome tech speak, it's all sounding really interesting. 'Parachute Parador' boasts a delicious drum machine pound, while 'Simple Loop Choir' is awash with vocoder magic, all sweeping sonic mass and confusion. It's true, Prefuse 73 is from a weird world, but it's truly fascinating too.

Real life: "I refuse to let MS rule my life"

(Somerfield magazine, May 2009)

Billy Boy On Poison - Standing Still

(Muso's Guide, Apr 20th, 2009)

Single review

The ballad of Billy Boy On Poison is a familiar one.

Some might call it the alternative rock’n'roll dream - five teens got the calling from the God of Rawk and decided that they were one day going to own the stage like Van Halen.

Oh, that’s a tad unfair, actually.

BBOP’s singer and architect Los Angelean Davis cites David Bowie and Robert Plant as chief influences, and the band themselves take their name from Anthony Burgess’ revered literary hoopla A Clockwork Orange, so their credentials are actually not in question. It’s just the execution that is a little less Thin White Duke and a little more, well, David Lee Roth.

A thrusting rock riff draws blood before melting into a meat-and-potatoes rock verse with vocals that sound like they’ve been filtered through a loud hailer. There are various points of musical concern - incongruous guitar breaks and out-of-kilter middle eights - but generally it’s all just a bit try-hard.

It’s not that you can’t rock out young, but these guys - four guys and a girl, to be exact - are referencing too much music from the days before they were born and showing precious little understanding of why those legends became so, well, legendary.

The spectre of rock liggers like Little Barry hovers over Billy Boy On Poison like a decidedly pongy reminder of style-over-substance bands, and the aping of American rock vocalists is quite shameless. Even clocking in at just three minutes, ‘Standing Still’ honestly struggles to hold the attention for that long.

Sarah Whatmore: “I wasn’t allowed to move my eyebrows”

(Muso's Guide, April 15, 2009)

Interview

Who knows what will happen next in the music business?

It doesn’t look good, with the reality show format that plagues our television schedules with its Cowells and Coles sitting in judgement on musical hopefuls.

For one thing, watching it is pretty soul destroying. There are people who have dreamed of winning, of getting their mythical 15 minutes and making it work for them - and then suffering the ignominy of spilling their disappointed guts to Kate Thornton or Zoe Salmon after their first encounter with “the panel”.

And then there’s the vast amounts of musical bile spilt by these programmes - past participants include, but are not limited to The Cheeky Girls, Hear’Say, Michelle McManus and Steve Brookstein.

So not exactly a breeding ground for musical brilliance.

Except… every so often someone walks in and sings and just… has it. It might be a look, or something in their quavering voice, but even when they’re voted off, you can smell the talent.

Enter Sarah Whatmore.

In many ways, it seems a shame that someone as talented and beautiful as Sarah should have been forced to go begging to Cowell et al for a record deal and a chance at stardom.

A common sense Mancunian, Sarah has grown up knowing that she wanted to make it in showbiz somehow.

“I didn’t start singing until I was about 12. I always wanted to be an actress, and then my mum and dad got me a karaoke machine and I was singing, “It must have been love, but it’s all over now…” every night!”

When her mum packed her off for lessons was when Sarah really got to understand the power of her voice - but she never felt able to use it even then.

“I was classically trained for three years, but I was never allowed to move my shoulders or my eyebrows or be expressive. It was very sort of staged, and I was a little bit like the rebellious child who didn’t want to be taught anything, I went the opposite way because I wanted to be more creative.”

After time spent writing and learning about music in a specialist school in Manchester, Sarah really got into creating her own sound.

“I was about 15 when I started writing music and lyrics - then I went to a performing arts college, the Ben Kingsley Theatre.”

For two years, Sarah honed her skills as a writer and performer and then… She went running for Cowell’s schill? Not yet, darling - not even close.

“I just gigged loads! I had a little Honda Civic, got my PA system in the back, and went to loads of different pubs to play, just to build up my confidence.”

That’s right - she worked her backside off, just like indie bands we know and love.

Sarah was determined to make it, because she believed she was truly great.

And great she was, but she just couldn’t get a witness. When Pop Idol came along, Sarah went because it was “just another audition” - a way to get her music made and heard. And after she appeared on TV rejecting Simon Cowell’s marriage proposal? How did she feel about what came next?

“I don’t mind it, it’s part of my history. While it was nice to be recognised, I didn’t expect anything huge. Then it turned into this franchise like McDonald’s where they bang out a different artist, or a bunch of different artists every year, and it kind of swamps the market. It takes away something special about people, but I think that’s the way the culture is - taking away the magic and seeing what goes on, seeing people that haven’t done so well and have done so well.”

Sarah released two singles off the back of her appearance on the show, even though she wasn’t sure of the direction she was going.

“It’s really hard to get out there, and Pop Idol is a way to get out there, and if you’re talented, you’ll do anything to get out there. The thing that I couldn’t get my head around was the fame - I could have gone down the road of doing all the magazines and being a celebrity, and I’m not saying that there’s anything wrong with that, but I just couldn’t connect with it. There was a dissatisfaction within my heart and if I was going to be honest, I wasn’t really being true to myself.”

Sarah freely admits that saying no to the trappings and success was tough - and she knows that people might find it hard to come back to her this time around.

“Some people probably listen to the first singles and expect me to come up with something that is like that. I can do that, that’s not a problem as a writer, but as an artist it’s completely different.”

Sarah’s the first to admit that her new sound is different - but she feels it’s much more “her” - and it shows in the pride she has when she talks about the album Time To Think.

“It’s not a happy album - it’s very optimistic, but lyrically and melodically and musically it’s quite… I love those melancholy songs that make you feel optimistic - like The Carpenters. There are warm vocals - I always thought that less is more in music, and that’s basically how I got to this point. Once people have heard it, I think they’ll understand why I went away and came back.”

To make her mark afresh is Sarah’s goal now, and with a record this open, it’s hard to see how she’ll fail. But she has her own measure of success - and it might surprise doubters to learn that it’s not the Kylie route Sarah wants to follow.

“I was being pushed as a sexy, Kylie-esque artist, which is in some ways great, but it wasn’t really who I was. I felt like I had more to offer as a musician and a singer. People are going to have their own opinion, but there are so many brilliant female vocalists. I love Joan As Police Woman. I am just obsessed with her. I listen to her every day. I absolutely love her - her music - I love ‘Start Of My Heart’. I love people who get up and don’t care about trying to impress, they just do what they do, go into their own little world, shut their eyes and just lose themselves. It’s so passionate.”

And passion is something that Sarah Whatmore has in spades. She is passionate about her music and her future in the business, and is brimming over with excitement about what might happen next.