THE MAGAZINE FOR CURIOUS PEOPLE
Elsewhere is a concept and a place, and Graham Reid goes there for his wide angle travels, writing, music review and interviews with writers, musicians and artists.
Elsewhere is an on-line magazine for new music (we filter out the mundane and spotlight the more interesting albums), different travel, arts and more. It is dedicated to the diversity and possibilities of Elsewhere. It's an equal opportunity enjoyer. Subscribe here (it's free) for a weekly newsletter. Welcome . . .
Latest posts
Callander, Scotland: The empty hotel
28 May 2022 | 4 min read
The Dreadnought Hotel in the town of Callander, halfway between Loch Lomond and Edinburgh, is very hard to miss. As you come in from the west it announces itself on the left as a massive baronial block, like some moored battleship dominating the street and the town beyond. As with most travellers who use Callander as little more than a start and end point for hikes in... > Read more
THE RETURN OF THE WORLD OF WEARABLEART (2022): Handbags and glam rags
25 May 2022 | 2 min read
If you haven't seen one, it can't easily be explained to you. But here goes: the World of WearableArt (WOW) has the wow-factor as designers from here and overseas compete to deliver fashion and art to be worn which can be avant-garde, made from recycled material, outlandish or funny. It is an event which has captivated people for whom fashion and... > Read more
MIKE McCARTNEY, PHOTOGRAPHER (2022): Pop history in the lens
24 May 2022 | 2 min read
Before he was Mike McCartney he was Mike McGear. But before that he was Mike McCartney. That brief interval when he went by the name McGear was when the band his older brother Paul was in started to get big. Very big. Wanting to separate himself from the light cast by Paul and the Beatles, and to stake his own claim, he was Mike McGear in the Liverpool group the... > Read more
The Rolling Stones: Live at the El Mocambo 1977 (Polydor/digital outlets)
23 May 2022 | 2 min read
If the current reissue of the Clash's Combat Rock shows how damaging internal tension can be to a band's creativity – it's an indifferent and aimless album by a band pulling itself apart – the Rolling Stones, who'd had punks snapping at their heel and barking in their faces in 1977 ("No Elvis, Beatles, or The Rolling Stones in 1977" shouted the Clash's... > Read more
Willie Nelson: A Beautiful Time (Columbia/digital outlets)
23 May 2022 | 1 min read
While surprised that Paul McCartney – 80 next month – and septuagenarians Jagger'n'Richards are still touring, it's worth remembering Willie Nelson was writing hits when the Beatles were a bar band in Hamburg and the Stones hadn't formed. Nelson – now 89 – is still on the road despite being unwell and has recorded 14 studio albums in the past... > Read more
Bonnie Raitt: Just Like That . . . (Redwing/digital outlets)
23 May 2022 | <1 min read
Artists like 72-year old Bonnie Raitt – here on her 18th studio album – set themselves a high threshold. We come to their albums confidently. Raitt's new album opens with Made Up Mind where she extends herself into yearning soul, later we encounter edgy Stones-like riffing on Livin' for the Ones “that didn't make it” prompted by the... > Read more
Harry Styles: Harry's House (Sony/digital outlets)
23 May 2022 | 1 min read
When the former One Direction singer Harry Styles embarked on his solo career the odds – given the lack of success of so man boy band singers – were stacked largely against hi. Most such soloists from girl groups and boy bands get away a hit single and maybe an album before retiring to the wings or watch the diminishing sales returns for a while before giving up.... > Read more
10 SOLO ALBUMS BY GROUP MEMBERS (2019): Lemme back in, I was in that band!
23 May 2022 | 9 min read | 3
They are often as unexpected as they are uncalled for, as diverting as they are dire. They are the statement that people make when they step out of the band and try their hand at a solo album. Some should do more others should never even start. So here are 10 solo albums by people who put the security of their band aside and released an album under their own... > Read more
David's Spanish lamb and red pepper stew
23 May 2022 | 1 min read
David says this is a deliciously simple recipe that can withstand a few variances in the amount of ingredients used, the only caution being that you use very good quality paprika. The Spanish brand La Chinata seems to be readily available in New Zealand, and the bittersweet smoked version suits the dish best. This will serve four. INGREDIENTS I kg, or a... > Read more
Colonia, Uruguay: So pretty, so mundane
23 May 2022 | 3 min read | 1
Excluding the journey by boat from Buenos Aires (an hour each way), the time difference with Argentina (another hour) and queuing for tickets then Custom’s clearance (yet another hour), our “day” in Uruguay came down to little more than six hours, some of which involved embarking and disembarking at both ends. However, I feel confident enough to... > Read more
John Lennon: Cold Turkey demo (1969)
22 May 2022 | 1 min read
These days it's not uncommon for artists to air their drug problems in music, interviews and – as Johnny Depp has shown us -- in open court. But when John Lennon's Cold Turkey – about heroin withdrawal – was released it was something honest and rare. Here was one of the most famous musicians on the planet acknowledging his dependency (he sniffed... > Read more
THE 2022 MUSIC PHOTOGRAPHY AWARD (2022): Fee Fi Foo won
16 May 2022 | 2 min read
The second annual Music Photography Awards - Whakaahua Puoro Toa was run by the Auckland Festival of Photography, and was one of several events in the lead up to 2022's Auckland Festival of Photography (June 2-12). Winners were announced on Saturday 14 May as part of celebrating New Zealand Music Month at Auckland's Silo Park, including outdoor exhibitions of... > Read more
GUEST MUSICIAN DEAN HAPETA (AKA D-WORD, TE KUPU) walks us through the new album by UHP (Upper Hutt Posse)
16 May 2022 | 2 min read
Hau is the eighth studio album by UHP (Upper Hutt Posse) who are now utilising the three-letter initialism as their official name. Hau, which translates as breath/air/vital essence, is a double album incorporating seven dub versions and six instrumentals of the thirteen songs. The album was recorded and mixed at Matakahi Studios by me, the group's long-time... > Read more
Hau
TRAVELS IN THE TIME OF COVID #13 (2022): Home here and there
16 May 2022 | 2 min read | 4
A peculiar thing happened a few weeks ago, the day before we left Edinburgh. When we stopped at a service station to fill up the rental I glanced across the road and on the other side was the Maybury Casino. I knew behind it was West Craig Crescent and the house I grew up in. I’d come halfway around the world and, after more than 60 years, arrived back... > Read more
The Rolling Stones: Exile on Main St (1972, reissued 2010)
16 May 2022 | 4 min read | 1
Few albums in rock have been so surrounded in dark mythology as this sprawling double album which was the last great gasp of the Rolling Stones. Certainly subsequent albums -- Goats Head Soup, It's Only Rock'n'Roll and Black and Blue particularly -- had their great moments but (aside from Jagger's embrace of New York dance and Richards' forays into reggae) they were... > Read more
Plundered My Soul (1971/2010)
Chelsea Jade: Soft Spot (digital outlets)
16 May 2022 | 2 min read
The hand of fame is fickle: it rests on some artists' heads and they become household names, others it gives a firm shove toward our attention, some get a mere shoulder tap. But most – some as talented as the chosen ones – are passed over, forever working away beyond the spotlight. Lorde was among the elect but so far her friend Chelsea Jade has... > Read more
Big Spill
Marc Chesterman and Various Artists: Florian Habicht's Woodenhead/Woodenhead Reimagined (bandcamp)
16 May 2022 | 1 min read
And in keeping with Elsewhere's policy of bringing you elsewhere music, we present this soundtrack to filmmaker Habicht's 20-year old, rather bent fairytale with spoken word narrative, Chesterman's music, Habich's lyrics and guest players including the late Killer Ray, Steve Abel, Warwick Broadhead and Margo Potter. Let it be said that this of course works better if you... > Read more
Hospice for Destitute Lovers, from Woodenhead Reimagined, by Mimi Gilbert
MILES DAVIS. ON THE CORNER, REVISITED (2022): Jazz-funk at 50
16 May 2022 | 3 min read
The cliche has become so embedded that hardly anyone questions it: “indie label good, major label bad”. As with most generalisations it doesn’t stand much scrutiny: small indie labels may be more comfortable for musicians because they know the boss, but they can also be woefully amateurish, financially incompetent and unable to get the music to the... > Read more
One And One
Elsewhere Art . . . The Beatles' Whiter Album
15 May 2022 | <1 min read
As regular followers of Elsewhere's shamlessly stupid Absurd Elsewhere pages will know, sometimes for my own amusement I just make stuff up, like newly discovered albums, lost Beatle releases, academic articles full of pompus nonsense and so on. This image was one I prepared to accompany an article about an anniversary reissue of the Beatles' White Album but as a remix... > Read more
10 SHAMEFUL RECORDS I'M EMBARRASSED TO OWN: A trip from the tip
15 May 2022 | 8 min read
Elsewhere has been down a similar path with a series of 10 Shameful Record Covers I'm Proud to Own (see here, here, here and here). And there was also 10 Good Albums in Bad Covers . . . and two columns on 10 Odd Unplayed Albums in the Collection (here and here). But here are 10 albums which it just seems embarrassing to have in the same house as those Essential... > Read more