Absolute Elsewhere
Keep up to date with new articles on Elsewhere as they're added 
with Rss or subscribe to receive a weekly e-newsletter with updates, giveaways
ROB ST JOHN PROFILED (2012): A voice from the North
Variously described as "new folk", "alt.folk, "a troubadour" and likened to both Nick Cave and Nick Drake, Rob St John -- born in Lancashire, longtime musician in Edinburgh and latterly of Oxford -- is also a noted writer on ecological and environmental matters. But it is his dark folk, especially that on his debut album Weald released a year ago -- which evokes... more >>
Added: 21 Nov 2012
LED ZEPPELIN, CELEBRATION DAY (2012): Bring the noise
When the surviving members of Led Zeppelin – singer Robert Plant, guitarist Jimmy Page and bassist/keyboard player John Paul Jones – gathered in London recently there were two items on the agenda. The first was the launch of Celebration Day -- the DVD/Blu-ray/double CD of their December 2007 reunion concert -- but the second was that question which dogged the solo Beatles... more >>
Added: 20 Nov 2012
LED ZEPPELIN REVISITED (2012): A celebration of excess
Recently I played Led Zeppelin's Whole Lotta Love at high volume through very large speakers. Nothing unusual I suppose, except it was to university students, none of them pursuing a music degree, Maybe only a dozen out of the 150 had heard it before. Fair enough, it came out over 40 years ago – about two decades before most were born – and it doesn't get airplay beyond... more >>
Added: 16 Nov 2012 
1 Comment
NUGGETS AT 40 (2012): We are the young Americans . . .
In a year which tripped over itself with anniversaries (the Stones' half century, 45 years since the Velvets' debut and 35 for the Sex Pistols' Bollocks), most of the inevitable reissues played the nostalgia card. But one stands out as different. Forty years ago Lenny Kaye -- later guitarist in Patti Smith's band – compiled the double-vinyl album Nuggets; Original Artyfacts... more >>
Added: 15 Nov 2012
JOHN MARTYN'S 1980 ALBUM GRACE AND DANGER: How can you mend a broken heart?
Like his peer Richard Thompson, with whom he sometimes recorded, Scottish singer-songwriter and guitarist Martyn came from a folk background in the mid 60s then incorporate rock gestures into his playing. Unlike Thompson however he also explored jazz deeply and so his guitar playing has a kind of free-ranging, adventurous sound that is rare. Again like Thompson though he worked with... more >>
Added: 14 Nov 2012
JOHN CALE ON GETTING NOOKIE (2012): Music for another new society
In the current issue of Britain's Mojo magazine there is an interview with John Cale, artist-without-portfolio and one of the most interesting musicians of the past half century, and more. In his capacity for reinvention and shapeshifting, Cale is on an equal footing with Bowie and Madonna . . . so it was understandable the Mojo interviewer might sidestep the customary career... more >>
Added: 12 Nov 2012
VELVET UNDERGROUND REPACKAGED (2012): Some velvet morning when I'm rich
So how long was that debut album by Velvet Underground, the one with Nico and in Andy Warhol's banana cover? Two sides of vinyl so about, what, 35 minutes? Sounds right. Well it has just been reissued in a collector's edition 45th anniversary box set and it is six – yep, count 'em -- six CDs. Okay they've cheated by adding in Nico's first solo album Chelsea Girls (good... more >>
Added: 10 Nov 2012 2 Comments
JEFF LYNNE AND ELO (2012): The re-electrification programme
When identifying a cheap Suzanne Vega double disc as a Bargain Buy recently, it was noted what she has been up to in recent years since her profile dropped below the low water mark. In effect she has been re-recording her fairly extensive catalogue and presented themed albums. Interesting. And the recent double CD of material by Roy Wood -- once of the Move, Electric Light Orchestra... more >>
Added: 6 Nov 2012 1 Comment
JACQUES BREL PROFILED: Seasons in, and out of, the sun
Jacques Brel is alive and well and living in ... Well, back in his hometown of Brussels, funnily enough. This is odd because Brel (1929-78) was ambivalent about Brussels. "Everyone has to come from somewhere," he would sardonically remark. And Brussels has often seemed a bit iffy about him. The great singer-songwriter, who made his home in Paris, called one of his daughters... more >>
Added: 2 Nov 2012
OTIS BLACKWELL REMEMBERED (2012): Mr Otis, no regrets
When Otis Blackwell died in May 2002 in his adopted hometown of Nashville -- the songwriter's city -- the tributes followed, and rightly so. He might not have been inducted into the Rock'n'Roll Hall of Fame until 2010, but Blackwell's songs have been part of the DNA of rock music since the mid Fifties when he -- a black kid from New York who loved cowboy songs and was encouraged to write by... more >>
Added: 28 Oct 2012
THE BEE GEE STILL STANDING (2012): Hits and Mythology
Few people who know anything about the Bee Gees can't help be struck by the sad irony that Barry Gibb -- now 66 -- is the last man standing. He's suffered crippling and painful arthritis for many years -- he was visibly stiff at a Western Springs concert in 2000, over a decade ago -- but most recently he has buried his younger twin brothers Maurice and Robin, and back in '88 his youngest... more >>
Added: 26 Oct 2012 2 Comments
MATTHEW SWEET RECALLED (2012): The power and sour of Sweet
In the past few years when the American singer, songwriter and stunning guitarist Matthew Sweet received a bit of publicity, his longtime fans -- oddly enough -- were disappointed. Not that Sweet's fans – unlike indie.cult people and DJs with rare grooves – want to keep the good news to ourselves. But Sweet was getting attention for albums with former Bangle Susannah... more >>
Added: 22 Oct 2012 1 Comment
BOOTLEG BEATLE INTERVIEWED (2012): By Andre, it's George!
It must have been unnerving for Andre Barreau when, at a party in 1996, he came face-to-face with the man he had been impersonating for a decade and half. He'd earned money off the man's music and image . . . and he is still doing it today. For the past 32 years Andre Barreau -- now 52 -- has traveled the world playing the part of another man, and for more than 11 years that man has been... more >>
Added: 18 Oct 2012 1 Comment
R.E.M. DOCUMENT REISSUED (2012): The times they were a-changin'
On paper, Scott Litt seemed an unlikely choice as co-producer of REM's 1987 album Document. The band were poised to make the great leap forward after the success of Lifes Rich Pageant of the previous year and Litt's credentials, while more than decent, weren't massively impressive. He had produced the dB's Repercussion (which hardly anyone heard) and worked with Sylvain... more >>
Added: 17 Oct 2012
THE FACES ANTHOLOGY (2012): A Rod's as Good as a Drink
Making records wasn't the point of the Faces – aka just “Faces” – although they delivered four albums in the five years to 1975. Certainly Rolling Stone critic Jon Landau thought so when, in '72, he dismissed their A Nod is As Good As A Wink saying that on his parallel solo albums singer Rod Stewart pulled everyone up to his level, but with the Faces he brought... more >>
Added: 12 Oct 2012
VANGUARD RECORDS IN THE SIXTIES (2012): The label out in front
In the mid Sixties and beyond, the World Record Club in New Zealand -- which distributed albums for major labels and posted them to you -- had a smart sales technique which hooked in many, myself included. Without going into exact details it went something like this. For a nominal fee (about the equivalent of $5 today) you joined the club and got three albums of your choice from their... more >>
Added: 10 Oct 2012
THE SEX PISTOLS, AND BEYOND (2012): No future but plenty of past
Given the Sex Pistol's flashpoint album Never Mind the Bollocks came to define punk for many, it's interesting it actually came late in the day. By the time of its release in October 77, the Ramones – an inspiration for various young Pistols, Clash, Damned, Chrissie Hynde and others when they played in London in July 76 -- had already released two albums and even the Damned, Jam... more >>
Added: 8 Oct 2012 1 Comment
TOY LOVE REVISITED, AGAIN (2012): World famous in New Zealand
Few short-lived bands in New Zealand, indeed anywhere, have inspired such fierce loyalty and undiminished devotion as Toy Love. Their career lasted little more than 18 months from the close of the Seventies – and a large measure of that was worked out in Australia – but in that brief, incendiary time they seared themselves into the consciousness of anyone who saw them.... more >>
Added: 4 Oct 2012
THE BEAT, REISSUED (2012): Essential albums to Beat yourself up with
Recently a friend showed me the tracklisting for an album with a title something like The Defintive Sound of UK Ska or The Essential UK Ska Collection. Something like that anyway. A bold claim, whatever it was. "So, who's missing?" he said. It took about two seconds and we started laughing. How could you have British ska collection without the Beat? They were one of the... more >>
Added: 29 Sep 2012 1 Comment
LORETTA LYNN PROFILED: Of queen and country
The ugliest baby I ever saw -- a pug-faced killer-midget with malevolent eyes -- was at Loretta Lynn’s place. Then again, there was plenty of ugly, kitschy, evil and just plain tacky stuff at the home of this country music legend. But I’ll be forgiving, and say that maybe the baby just looked bad in comparison with the delightful setting of Hurricane Mills, the... more >>
Added: 26 Sep 2012
