Book reviews, author interviews, spoken word and poetry

BOOKSHOP PRAYERS by PAUL McLANEY

9 Sep 2024 | 2 min read

Although better known as a musician – an impressive number of albums under various guises – Auckland's Paul McLaney surprised recently with the beautifully presented little book The Deep Dark Hole/The Faint Glimmer of Hope which was designed like a physical metaphor of a journey into depression and, when flipped over, the pathway out. It was a lovely, thoughtful and useful book.... > Read more

The Tide

EARTH TO MOON by MOON UNIT ZAPPA

9 Sep 2024 | 3 min read

When Moon Unit Zappa went to college she felt sorry for the kids because they had to share their name with other people, and she couldn't believe that some of the kids' parents had divorced because of infidelity. Her dad Frank had serial relationships with women other than his wife Gail, sometimes these women staying in the family home. “It's just fucking,” he says. But... > Read more

CHASING ME TO MY GRAVE by WINFRED REMBERT

2 Sep 2024 | 3 min read

It is said that history is written by the winners, and that is largely true. But it is also written by academics with access to files. Notes, documents and the work of other academics. Many of these researchers are dedicated and intent of getting to the multi-dimension truths of events. A writer/researcher like Antony Beaver is someone whose view from the battlefield to the cabinet... > Read more

UNCOMPROMISING EXPRESSION; BLUE NOTE by RICHARD HAVERS

13 Aug 2024 | 3 min read

Although there have been a number of books dedicated to the history of the influential American jazz label Blue Note -- and a few just dealing with the innovative, singular cover designs -- there's still a place for this contentious, large-format 400-page paperback which comes with more than 600 illustrations of album covers, studio shots and reproductions from contact sheets. In a clear... > Read more

Queen of the Sea, by Norah Jones

3 SHADES OF BLUE by JAMES KAPLAN

9 Aug 2024 | 2 min read

The opening sentence here is the kind of summation which would normally appear at the end of a review, but let's get it out of the way quickly. If you only buy one book on jazz this year, make it this one. Subtitled “Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Bill Evans and the Lost Empire of Cool” it is by James Kaplan who delivered the magisterial two volumes on Frank Sinatra's life,... > Read more

NUCLEAR WAR: A SCENARIO by ANNIE JACOBSEN

22 Jul 2024 | 3 min read

Good evening and welcome to the world's most terrifying pub quiz. Strap yourself in because this is going to be a white-knuckle ride. Your starter for 10 . . . In 1946 a year after the bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki the USA had nine atomic bombs. How many did it have six years later in 1952? a] 19 b] 89. c] 501 d] 841 Good guess, the answer is a... > Read more

Infinite Mind, by Justin DeHart

ME AND MR JONES by SUZI RONSON

12 Jul 2024 | 3 min read

In the early Seventies, Suzi Fussey was living a conventional life at 96 Cumberland Road in suburban London with her mum, dad and brother. She'd quit school at 15, took a course at Evelyn Paget College of Hair and Beauty in Bromley, got a job in Beckenham, sees bands like the young Pink Floyd and Georgie Fame and the Blue Flames, likes to get a bit creative with hairstyles because that was... > Read more

Slaughter on Tenth Avenue, by Mick Ronson

UNDER A ROCK; A MEMOIR by CHRIS STEIN

3 Jul 2024 | 3 min read

There's a widespread and understandable belief that the chasm between San Francisco's hippies in the late Sixties and the New Wave kids hanging out at New York's CBGB's in the late Seventies was so wide as to be unbridgeable. Two culture separated by a decade and very different ideas. Yet Chris Stein of Blondie – one of the most successful of the skinny tie, dark suit and classy... > Read more

HELLFIRE: EVELYN WAUGH AND THE HYPOCRITES CLUB by DAVID FLEMING

17 Jun 2024 | 3 min read

Those lucky enough to go to university in the Sixties or Seventies can reflect on halcyon days when a bursary or scholarship made life easier, there were plenty of casual jobs available in holidays and you could have a relaxed attitude all year until a few weeks out from the final exams. The economic slide, changes in the education system in schools and on-going internal assessment at uni... > Read more

DOWN WITH THE SYSTEM by SERJ TANKAIN

14 Jun 2024 | 2 min read

Those who only recognise the name Serj Tankian as a singer in the explosive, socio-political heavy rock band System of a Down may gravitate to this “memoir (of sorts)” because they want to hear tales of touring, decadence and the rock'n'roll life style. Others might avoid it for the same reason. Both parties will be surprised by this fascinating book because it largely... > Read more

Chop Suey!, by System of a Down

WHEN WE WAS FAB: INSIDE THE BEATLES AUSTRALASIAN TOUR 1964 by ANDY NEILL and GREG ARMSTRONG

3 Jun 2024 | 4 min read

The Beatles' story never seems to tire in the telling and retelling. Even small events can be illuminated by new information or previously unheard recordings, once marginal characters can suddenly appear in the spotlight. The debate to name The Fifth Beatle will probably carry on long after we're all gone. The events of the Beatles' 1964 tour in New Zealand – 60 years ago this... > Read more

Yeah Yeah We Love Them All, by Dinah Lee (1964)

JAMES by PERCIVAL EVERETT

29 May 2024 | 2 min read

If this provocative, award-winning novel were ever adapted for film the temptation for the soundtrack composer would be, when we reach the final significant words, to deliver a swell of emotional, uplifting orchestration as if redemption had been delivered. That would be wrong. This version of aspects of Mark Twain's novel The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn are seen through the eyes of... > Read more

THE DICTIONARY PEOPLE by SARAH OGILVIE

13 May 2024 | 3 min read

One of the most popular books of the early 2000s – the readers' enthusiasm spread by word-of-mouth – was The Surgeon of Crowthorne by the well-known journalist and travel writer Simon Winchester. Subtitled “A Tale of Murder, Madness and the Love of Words”, it was a non-fiction account of the American Dr William Chester Minor who had moved to London in 1871 and, in a... > Read more

THE ACHILLES TRAP by STEVE COLL

27 Apr 2024 | 3 min read

We might as well admit it. No one, not anyone at all, knows what's going on in that sand-trap of chaos we loosely call The Middle East. Not the finest minds in political studies departments or the seasoned diplomats who shuffle between capitals, and certainly not former president Trump's expert Jared Kushner who recently said that “Gaza's waterfront property could be very... > Read more

ALL YOU NEED IS LOVE; THE END OF THE BEATLES by PETER BROWN AND STEVEN GAINES

19 Apr 2024 | 2 min read

When Albert Goldman published his scurrilous, scum-sifting biography The Lives of John Lennon in 1988, the late Beatle's friends and acquaintances circled the wagons and vehemently denounced the book which, among other things, described Yoko Ono as a controlling junkie witch and suggested Lennon might have had a hand in what killed his friend Stuart Sutcliffe who died in Hamburg. Goldman in... > Read more

DEAR COLIN, DEAR RON edited by PETER SIMPSON

15 Apr 2024 | 1 min read

Peter Simpson's meticulous research into the life and work of Colin McCahon has already given us the highly readable and insightful surveys There is Only One Direction and Is This The Promised Land? That there's more to be said is no surprise because frequently Simpson – recipient of the Prime Minister's Award for Literary Achievement in 2017, even before those magisterial books... > Read more

JOHNNY ROTTEN, WRITING (1994): Punk picks up phlegm and pen

14 Apr 2024 | 1 min read | 1

When there is time, Elsewhere will be sourcing a rich vein of its archival material which was published in various places during the Eighties and Nineties which are not available on-line. These will most often be reproduced as they appeared in print. Some may be a little fuzzy in the reproduction but we think the story or interview are worth it for researchers or fans. Best read on a... > Read more

TIGERS OF THE MIND by MICHAEL MORRISSEY

6 Mar 2024 | 1 min read

Some writers pace themselves for the sprints or middle-distance in short story collections or maybe a novel or two. Others, like Michael Morrissey, are long-distance runners. Morrissey's new collection of poems Tigers of the Mind is his 14th and stands alongside a novel, two novellas and a couple of shorter fictions, scripts for two stage plays, a work of non-fiction and his memoir... > Read more

THE DEEP DARK HOLE/THE FAINT GLIMMER OF HOPE by PAUL McLANEY

4 Mar 2024 | 2 min read

The essence of most practical philosophies is simplicity, be it Zen, “love they neighbour” or “be kind”. Reducing complex ideas and emotions down to manageable levels can often be difficult, but the truth in simplicity is most often useful and memorable. This small book by the prolific musician Paul McLaney is a beautifully presented example of big things... > Read more

Go Well, by Paul McLaney

POLITICS ON THE EDGE by RORY STEWART

29 Feb 2024 | 3 min read

You don't need to be remotely interested in, or knowledgeable about, the inner workings of Britain's Conservative Party to be gripped by this “memoir from within” during the last decade or so and that revolving door of prime ministers. But this story is so compelling in its detail, humour and observation that you will be struck very quickly by how dysfunctional, venal,... > Read more

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on music, travel and the arts by writer Graham Reid

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