THE MAGAZINE FOR CURIOUS PEOPLE
Elsewhere is a concept and a place, and for many years Graham Reid has been going there for his wide angle travels, writing, music review columns and interviews with writers, musicians and artists.
Elsewhere is an ever-expanding on-line magazine for people curious about new music, different travel, interesting arts and much more. This site is dedicated to the diversity and possibilities of Elsewhere. It is an equal opportunity enjoyer. Subscribe here (it's free) for a weekly newsletter and be in to win CDs, DVDs, books and more. Welcome . . .
Latest posts
TEENAGERS; THE RISE OF YOUTH CULTURE IN NEW ZEALAND by CHRIS BRICKELL
21 Jul 2017 | 5 min read
Sometimes when I am talking to my university students about the rise of rock'n'roll in the Fifties – the first genre to specifically target teens – I tell them, just to get their attention again, that my parents were never teenagers. They look bewildered and so I explain: my mother in Scotland left school at 14 and my father in this country at 15, and... > Read more
Irma Thomas, The Irma Thomas Collection (1996)
19 Jul 2017 | 3 min read
In music, titles are bestowed by The People rather than being handed down from above -- and they are so singular and specific that there can only be pretenders but no replacement figures. So there is only one King of Rock'n'Roll and that's Elvis, only one Queen of Soul and that will always be Aretha, and only James Brown will ever be considered The Godfather. And Irma... > Read more
STEVE HACKETT INTERVIEWED (2017): From Genesis to self-revelation
17 Jul 2017 | 9 min read | 2
When rock encyclopedias describe Steve Hackett along the lines of “former guitarist with the British progressive rock band Genesis” they do him a disservice. Yes, Hackett was an integral member of the band between the Nursery Cryme album in '71 and Seconds Out ('77), the Peter Gabriel-into-Phil Collins years which most consider the band's finest period.... > Read more
WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT . . . RAY CATHODE: Electronic pioneer or just another knob twiddler?
17 Jul 2017 | 1 min read
In the encyclopedias of electronic music one name stands out for its absence, that of the British experimenter, producer and musician Ray Cathode who, in the very early Sixties, made two revolutionary pieces of music. Regrettably they were the only two he made, but they were with the innovative and acclaimed BBC Radiophonic Orchestra which created the extraordinary... > Read more
The Mamas and the Papas: Free Advice (1967)
15 Jul 2017 | <1 min read
Although they looked kind of clean-cut by the hairy standards of the day and sang such pretty songs, what we would learn later was how fraught and seedy some of the internal workings of The Mamas and the Papas were. The song Go Where You You Wanna Go for example was less about living your life in the hippie spirit than John Phillips' address to his wife Michelle's... > Read more
WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT . . . JEANNE DECKERS: From heaven to oblivion on the wings of a song
14 Jul 2017 | 6 min read
When the virginal singer Jeanne Deckers – sometimes Jeannine -- enjoyed a sudden hit in the early Sixties it was clear to anyone outside her circle that her career could only go one of two ways. The first was that she would struggle to follow it up, her life would become a series of disappointments and she would be only remembered as a one-hit wonder. The... > Read more
Dr John: Gris Gris (1968)
12 Jul 2017 | 3 min read
Long careers generally mean the raw and rough edges of the early days are smoothed out, and that audiences forget just how edgy and unusual the artist’s music actually was. So it is with Dr John whose career reaches way back to playing piano in bars as teenager in New Orleans during the 50s alongside legendary figures such as Professor Longhair and Huey Smith.... > Read more
EPs by Yasmin Brown
10 Jul 2017 | 4 min read
With so many CDs commanding and demanding attention Elsewhere will run this occasional column by the informed and opinionated Yasmin Brown. She will scoop up some of those many EP releases, in much the same way as our SHORT CUTS column picks up albums by New Zealand artists, and IN BRIEFdoes for international artists. You can read her previous... > Read more
Twinkle: Terry (1964)
8 Jul 2017 | 1 min read | 1
There's quite a tradition of death ballads in rock -- Pearl Jam tapped into it when they covered Last Kiss which had been recorded to no great public interest by Wayne Cochran in '61. Perhaps the greatest of them all was Leader of the Pack ("look out look out look out!") by the Shangri-Las in '64. Coincidentally at exactly the same time as the Shangri-Las were... > Read more
THE PRE-HISTORY OF SKIFFLE (2017): On the origin of a short-lived species
6 Jul 2017 | 10 min read
As with so many historic moments, at the time it was mundane . . . but became culture changing. This one was something as ordinary as this . . . By all accounts July 6, 1957 was an unseasonably warm day in Liverpool, even for summer. It was the time of galas, garden parties and fetes. In the middle-class suburb of Woolton, St Peter's church was... > Read more
Souad Massi: Honeysuckle/Mesk Elil (2007)
5 Jul 2017 | <1 min read
On her two previous albums it was evident that Algerian-born Massi was never going to conform to the prevailing sounds of rai and pop of her homeland. And on this instantly engaging album she takes a step even further away and pulls in Latin sounds alongside her already established, if slightly unusual, blend of Algerian pop-folk with hints of Spanish flamenco music.... > Read more
Young Marble Giants: Colossal Youth (1980)
5 Jul 2017 | 2 min read
Just as Dylan emerged in the middle of the day-glo psychedelic era on a quieter rural route with John Wesley Harding, and the Cowboy Junkies whispered their way to the foreground amidst the bellicose noise of grunge, so Young Marble Giants emerged in the post-punk era with something quieter and more considered than the jerky anger of bands like Public Image, Gang of Four and... > Read more
10 SOMEWHAT RARE REGGAE ALBUMS I'M PROUD TO OWN (2107): Some ire feelings from iStory
3 Jul 2017 | 11 min read
Strange as it may seem, reggae albums – and some pretty rare ones – were not that difficult to find in New Zealand from the late Seventies and throughout the Eighties. British labels were picking up Black British reggae bands like Steel Pulse, Matumbi, Aswad and others; the likes of Linton Kwesi Johnson, Black Uhuru and Culture were on Island Records... > Read more
Valedictions: Pieces (valedictions.co.nz)
3 Jul 2017 | <1 min read
While we might bemoan the balkanisation of radio into tightly proscribed formats, at least from an artist's point of view they at least know where to pitch their music. No surprise then that this three-piece Auckland band got an early single Hey Lady on The Rock FM. (The title alone kinda recommends it, right?) They played a Big Day Out years ago, did some... > Read more
WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT . . . TOMMY QUICKLY: The career that couldn't be created
2 Jul 2017 | 1 min read
At the end of '63 the fresh and freckle-faced 18-year old Tommy Quickly was standing at the door of his dreams: he'd been signed by Beatles manager Brian Epstein (who had changed his name from Quigley in the manner of manager Larry Parnes' school of stage names like Vince Eager, Marty Wilde and Billy Fury) and was tipped for massive success. His first single Tip of My... > Read more
Lou Reed: Families (1979)
1 Jul 2017 | 1 min read | 1
Lou Reed probably never struck you as having a sentimental streak, but this song (from his album The Bells) is as nakedly autobiographical and pained as John Lennon's Mother. It is the sound of a son who knows he has disappointed the family but equally realises there is no way back. Interesting too is the tone of regret and sadness at what has been lost, and the... > Read more
10 RARE FREE JAZZ ALBUMS I'M PROUD TO OWN (2017): Abstract arts from the past
30 Jun 2017 | 12 min read
Every month dozens of reissues across many genres – sometimes well annotated compilations, often reissued albums in replicas of the original artwork – appear. These days you can find obscure rural blues and Sixties psychedelic albums, the complete works of some folk singer who is barely a footnote in a reference book and much more without too much... > Read more
Various Artists: Musical Explorers; Deben Bhattacharya, Colours of Raga (ARC Music)
30 Jun 2017 | 1 min read
Elsewhere has previously introduced the excellent double CD set The Rough Guide to Indian Music which, on release in 2014, immediately went into our Essential Elsewhere albums list. For those more familiar with Indian classical and folk traditions, or now ready to take the next step after that Rough Guide, this CD/DVD curated by the founder of Songlines world music... > Read more
SGT PEPPER'S MUSICAL REVOLUTION, a film presented by HOWARD GOODALL
30 Jun 2017 | 1 min read | 1
Like millions of others, says classical musician Howard Goodall at the start of this hour-long doco, he was spellbound when hearing the Beatles' Sgt Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band in June 1967. Goodall has become the go-to guy for benign Beatle comment these days (he popped up in Ron Howard's Eight Days a Week also) and here he appears again as the smart,... > Read more
The Tokey Tones: Butterfly, Caterpillar (2007)
28 Jun 2017 | 5 min read | 2
It’s a common occurrence: just when popular music has got up a head of steam, some supportive critical consensus, and is charging off in a particular direction along comes something which, by going the opposite way, captures the imagination. At the height of Day-Glo acid-dropping hippiedom along came the Velvet Underground in all their monochrome gloominess singing... > Read more