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ORNETTE COLEMAN: Notes for the programme, International Festival of the Arts, Wellington NZ 2008
Few musicians remain creative their whole life. Most fall back on familiar styles or even phrases, others peak early and their career becomes a long and slightly embarrassing re-run of former glories. Yet Ornette Coleman (born in Fort Worth, Texas, 1930) has not only been restlessly inventive but is widely considered one of the great innovators of the 20th century. Even in the new... more >>
Added: 24 Feb 08
THE BEATLES' LET IT BE NAKED REVIEWED (2003): Get back . . . at Phil
The story behind the making of the Beatles' 1970 album Let It Be is well known, but to recap: The "White Album" of 68 was aural proof each was going his own way; however, late in the year, McCartney suggested they do a back-to-basics recording, ostensibly for an album to be called Get Back -- and get a film crew to make a doco to go with it. When they reconvened in January '69... more >>
Added: 21 Feb 08
THE BEATLES' LOVE ALBUM REVIEWED (2007): Remake and remodel
The Beatles are back, and in this collage of classic sounds sounding more trippy than even during the Summer of Love. Beatles’ music has always been reinterpreted. Even in the mid 60s when Lennon/McCartney were churning out chirpy chart-toppers their songs were being performed by Arthur Fielder and his Boston Pops orchestra, middle-of-the-road acts like the Brothers Four, earnest... more >>
Added: 21 Feb 08
BEATLES FOR SALE, AGAIN: The release of Anthology 1 (London, 1995)
The release of any Beatles album was always an occasion, so 25 years after the band broke up, the plush ambience of the Lancaster Room in the Savoy Hotel doesn’t seem inappropriate for the launch of The Beatles' Anthology 1, a collection of out-takes and unreleased material, the first of a series of three double CDs that effectively mops up the Mop Tops. But with 200 invited... more >>
Added: 20 Feb 08
LENNON PHOTOGRAPHER BOB GRUEN INTERVIEW (1998): The man who shot John Lennon, many times.
Photographer Bob Gruen is affable and chatty but clearly on autopilot. His stories, good though they are, are worn smooth by repetition. But to his credit he repeats them with enthusiasm and they are received by the various media representatives with equal pleasure. And despite this having the feel of the “I danced with a man who danced with a woman who danced with the Prince of... more >>
Added: 19 Feb 08
THE BEATLES AND APPLE RECORDS: Western communism and rotten at the core
The Beatles faced a screaming audience for the last time at San Francisco's Candlestick Park in August 1966. After that they retired as a live band. It was inevitable. As Ringo Starr said of their touring years: "It was the worst time and the best time of my life. The best time because we played a lot of good music. The worst time ... it was like 24 hours a day without a break: press,... more >>
Added: 15 Feb 08
THE BEATLES' YELLOW SUBMARINE FILM/ALBUM RECONSIDERED (1999): Fantasia for the pot generation
Movie producer Al Brodax said it began with a 3am phone call from John Lennon. "Wouldn't it be great if Ringo was followed down the street by a yellow submarine?"That -- allegedly/mythically -- was the start and (aside from them knocking off a few songs for the soundtrack and a short appearance before the credits) the end of the Beatles' involvement with the animated movie Yellow... more >>
Added: 15 Feb 08
A HARD DAYS NIGHT AND QUADROPHENIA: The Beatles and the Who on DVD (2001)
There's a brief scene in A Hard Day's Night that went right past most people at the time. Watch carefully in the first few minutes and you'll catch it.John Lennon is sitting in a railway carriage and holding a bottle of Coke. With a knowing look he sniffs, or more correctly, snorts it. It's the little things in life really, isn't it? Viewed from this distance, that Beatles film of 1964 is a... more >>
Added: 15 Feb 08
THE BEATLES IN AMERICA 1964: Songs of innocence -- and experience (DVD reviewed, 2004)
In the beginning there were just the four of them. Then we learned of the fifth Beatle. Depending on who you talked to it was producer George Martin, New York DJ Murray the K, or the dumped drummer Pete Best. Then we heard about their Hamburg days and the dead Beatle Stu Sutcliffe, their manager Brian Epstein (below) and the rest of the supporting cast. As their legend grew the... more >>
Added: 14 Feb 08 
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THE LENNON LEGEND BOOK, REVIEWED (2003): More or less Lennon
Had John Lennon lived, he would have turned 63 last month. It's interesting to speculate what kind of music he might be making today. Interesting, but pointless: Lennon never saw the trickle-down of punk and new wave; the big-hair 80s; the rise of rap, Madonna and Springsteen; Guns N' Roses, Nirvana and grunge; trends like nu-metal, nu-jazz and boy bands ... Lennon saw none of this. Not... more >>
Added: 14 Feb 08
YOKO ONO: Back with the blueprint (2001) and re-disc-covered (2007)
Some years ago at another posthumous John Lennon album launch, a journalist asked Yoko Ono why she hadn't released an album of her own in quite some while. "There seemed no great call for it," she laughed. True enough. Whether it be her extraordinary primal screaming and emotional venting, her un-nuanced feminist polemics or naive childlike songs, there was never a groundswell of... more >>
Added: 14 Feb 08
THE BEATLES ANTHOLOGY IN PRINT (2000): Hardback Writers?
The Beatles' story has been recounted by those who knew them intimately and those who not only never met them but would seem, after enduring a few pages of their authors recycling press clippings, to have had little real interest in them. But it has rarely been told by the only ones who know the true story -- the Beatles themselves. Until now.After the outsiders have had their say --... more >>
Added: 14 Feb 08
JOHN LENNON, IMAGINE RECONSIDERED (2000): Peace in our time?
Some people just don't get it, do they? Wouldn't you love to meet those gearing up to pay an expected $4.5 million at on-line auction for the piano on which John Lennon wrote Imagine?Imagine no possessions, huh?Of course, the Famous White Piano will command top dollar because Imagine was recently voted the best song ever written or something, and in Britain was used to welcome the new... more >>
Added: 14 Feb 08
OASIS: DEFINITELY MAYBE DVD REVIEWED (2004)
When Oasis, out of Manchester, started to gain real momentum a decade ago one wag wrote to a Britrock magazine and said this was all very well, but they were dull to watch live: just hold a postcard of them at arm's length and move it about a bit, he said, and that's about it.That was true but he forgot to factor in one thing, that they could also be thrilling.We didn't see them at their best... more >>
Added: 8 Feb 08
THE WHO, THE KIDS ARE ALRIGHT DVD REVIEWED (2004)
The first clip on the exceptional Who bio-doco The Kids Are Alright captures the band at their unpredictable best. It is late '67 and they are being interviewed on the US television show The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour by the very straight Tommy Smothers. They are witty and slightly heretical and - we now know - prankster drummer Keith Moon was drunk. So drunk, he and the stagehands packed... more >>
Added: 8 Feb 08
THE RAMONES END OF THE CENTURY. METALLICA SOME KIND OF MONSTER DVDS REVIEWED (2007)
The best thing about being in a band? You get to stay up late and make a lot of noise, maybe make some money and become famous. If you want people to notice your group it's a good tip to all dress alike so when you walk in a room you come off like a gang. Black is good.Worst part about being in a band? Well, these two docos about noisy gang members who favoured black, the Ramones and... more >>
Added: 8 Feb 08
ERIC BURDON INTERVIEWED 2001: The songs of a survivor
Eric Burdon is alive and ... well, the fact that this founder member of Britain's legendary 60s r'n'b garage band The Animals is alive is enough to be happy with, let alone that he sounds well. Speaking from his California home in Joshua Tree, Burdon -- croaky of voice and lucid, if tangential, in conversation -- sounds extremely well for a man aged 60 who has been singing throat-abusing blues... more >>
Added: 6 Feb 08
ROBERT SMITH OF THE CURE INTERVIEWED (2001): Hits and the one that missed out
He's had a day of interviews yet few people have asked Robert Smith of the Cure the obvious. Something to do with the age of those asking the questions, he laughs. The question is simple: The Cure have a Greatest Hits album out - not their first such collection - but there's a notable omission.So Robert, was it the political climate, pressure from the record company, or are you just so sick of... more >>
Added: 6 Feb 08
JOHN PAUL JONES OF LED ZEPPELIN INTERVIEWED (2003): The songs remain reissued
They might have been the biggest band in the world at the time, but they were openly despised, ignored or condemned by critics. Even later, after the shouting had died and a clearer perspective was possible, Dave Marsh, one of America's most venerated rock writers, couldn't resist another attack.He damned one of their classic songs as "the most vulgar record in [rock history]" and... more >>
Added: 6 Feb 08
BUDDY GUY INTERVIEWED (2001): One of the last men standing
Oddly enough, this is not the best time to talk to 64-year-old bluesman Buddy Guy - despite him having released Sweet Tea, one of the finest albums in his long career.It is days after the death of his contemporary John Lee Hooker and Guy is understandably philosophical rather than keen to talk up his new album which was, uncharacteristically for this seminal figure in Chicago blues, recorded... more >>
Added: 6 Feb 08
