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
CONOR McPHERSON INTERVIEWED (2022): Taking Bob Dylan to Broadway doubters
26 Jun 2022 | 5 min read
Even Conor McPherson, writer and director of the award-winning musical Girl From The North Country, acknowledges it's a hard one for people to get their heads around. “I can truthfully say,” he says from his home in Dublin, “if someone had said, 'Hey, you want to see a Bob Dylan musical?' my response would've been 'No'. “So I recognise... > Read more
WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT . . . VOICE OF BACEPROT: Heavy from the hijab
25 Jun 2022 | 3 min read
Over a long lunch recently – where the best conversations happen – a friend and I were talking about how music informs our very being. In her case it was obvious: she's a musician a long time in the game and someone others look up to as a contemporary. For me it's been the odd bit of tinkling and strum'n' . . . damn! Got that chord wrong. Again! So... > Read more
School Revolution
FINALISTS, PACIFIC MUSIC AWARDS (2022): And the winner is . . .
25 Jun 2022 | 3 min read
It's that time again when the Pacific artists are honoured and here follows the list of nominees. The awards -- having had to be online the past two years -- are scheduled now for August 4. More details will follow. Across 13 awards categories, this year’s 26 finalists are a mix of new musicians debuting music, established Pacific music icons and everything... > Read more
Gunter Herbig: Flower of the Sea (Rattle/bandcamp)
24 Jun 2022 | 1 min read
While it doubtless expanded understanding, it wasn't necessary have any prior knowledge of the music of the philosopher Gurdjieff to enjoy the interpretations of his songs by electric guitarist Gunter Herbig on his previous album Ex Oriente. Similarly this new programme of pieces by John Cage, Isaac Albeniz, Carlo Domeniconi, Peter Sculthorpe and Douglas Lilburn. The... > Read more
Dream (by John Cage)
Shearwater: The Great Awakening (Polyborus/bandcamp)
22 Jun 2022 | 1 min read
For more than a decade we have dipped into the beguiling and extraordinary – if sometimes bewildering and even infuriating – catalogue of Shearwater, the Austin band lead by Jonathan Meiburg (also of Okkervil River). Although one we missed a few years ago – which is a pointer to their Anglo-framed drama – was their cover of Bowie's Lodger album.... > Read more
THE RETURN OF THE ROCK'N'ROLL STAR (2022): The unbearable triteness of Liam
20 Jun 2022 | 2 min read
In his candid and funny Rod, The Autobiography published a decade ago, Rod Stewart reflected on his wayward 1980s. “I never thought in this period that the 'being a rock star' aspect of being a rock star was beside the point, or even something I needed to apologise for. “If I hadn't considered the... > Read more
LENNON, THE MOBSTER AND THE LAWYER: THE UNTOLD STORY by JAY BERGEN
20 Jun 2022 | 2 min read
Although the author seems to possess that uncanny and unlikely ability to recall and quote lengthy conversations many decades after the events, this is still a fascinating account of the courtroom showdown between John Lennon and the old-school, Mob-connected record company grifter Morris Levy who ripped off artists, put his name on songs to get publishing credit and used... > Read more
Paul Weller: Wild Wood (1994)
20 Jun 2022 | 4 min read | 1
By the time he came to releasing albums under his own name in the early 90s, Paul Weller had already had two separate careers: first in the Jam and then the Style Council. If the Jam had been quintessentially English and took its references from the Who, the Small Faces and Ray Davies as much as Mod culture and the rage of the punk years, the highly-political Style... > Read more
Paul Weller: Can You Heal Us (Holy Man)
Elmer Fudd: The Fool on the Hill (1995)
19 Jun 2022 | <1 min read
There have been thousands of covers and interpretations of Beatles' songs -- from the refined (orchestral and chamber groups) to the ridiculous (dogs barking out She Loves You), from jazz and Hawaiian (by way of Belgium), from reggae to trip-hop and . . . well, then there were the Rutles (whose parodies were also covered). There are also these exception and bizarre... > Read more
CAPITAL THEATRE, INTRODUCED (2022): From ancient to the present, a rock epic
19 Jun 2022 | 7 min read
In early 2021 I was approached by the manager of an Auckland band I had never heard of. Not surprising, they hadn't played anywhere and at that point had released nothing. But they were an intriguing prospect because their debut album – which they had funded themselves – was a concept album and had been produced by the top LA producer Mike Clink, best known for... > Read more
GUEST MUSICIAN STEVE WELLS talks us through his new album Songs For Summer Rain
19 Jun 2022 | 2 min read
Ed note: As we said when we reviewed the album Songs for Summer Rain by Steve Wells, his name might be most familiar as being the guitarist in Fur Patrol in the Nineties, but he left the band to pursue a career as a photographer in Paris. He continues that career but has also returned to making music, but it is very different from Fur Patrol's guitar-orientated rock.... > Read more
Steve Wells: Songs for Summer Rain (digital outlets)
17 Jun 2022 | <1 min read
This artist's name will be familiar if you remember the hugely popular rock band Fur Patrol who had a number one single with Lydia in 2001 and relocated to Melbourne. They started at the bottom over there, but still toured and recorded. Guitarist Wells quit the band in 2004 and went to Paris with his family where he started a successful career as a fashion photographer.... > Read more
MID-YEAR REPORT, THE TOP 20 OF (2022): The taste of Elsewhere
17 Jun 2022 | 7 min read
It's the middle of the year and report cards are being sent out. As many of you know, in the first half of this year we were Elsewhere for three months (Sweden, England, Scotland and Singapore) and filed a weekly column for the Listener, which appeared the following week as Travels in the Time of Covid (and also travels in the time of Ukraine, rising prices and more!)... > Read more
Black Seeds: Love & Fire (blackseeds/bandcamp)
17 Jun 2022 | 1 min read
If Barnaby Weir didn't exist it might be very difficult to create him. The Wellingtonian is a musician, producer, songwriter and guitarist. Okay, that might describe quite a few people. However he has also been a DJ and presented radio programmes, is the mainman behind the long-running Black Seeds (coming close to its 25thanniversary) and has his hand on the tiller... > Read more
LIVERPOOL, A PHOTO ESSAY (2009 and 2022): And these memories lose their meaning?
13 Jun 2022 | 3 min read | 1
In 2008, Liverpool was designated the European Capital of Culture, an honor acknowledging the heritage status of its buildings and the city's contribution of British, and indeed, global culture. It wasn't all about the Beatles and Merseybeat, either. Although those images and presence are everywhere from the excellent Beatle Story Museum to Magical Mystery bus tours... > Read more
WILCO, THEN AND NOW (2022): What goes around comes around . . . to country
13 Jun 2022 | 2 min read | 1
The idea that genres in popular music are immutable has long been eroded. Even by the mid-Nineties No Depression magazine – which took its name from an 1990 album by the band Uncle Tupelo – had as its remit to cover “alternative country, whatever that is”. No Depression would occasionally consider mainstream country artists but more often... > Read more
The Tickle: Subway (1967)
13 Jun 2022 | <1 min read
These none-hit wonders have quite a remarkable claim to fame, if fame can be reduced to a footnote in rock history. The Tickle from Hull were the backing band on the debut album of a guy called David Bowie. Doubtless they got the gig playing with an unknown singer through producer Tony Visconti who twiddled the studio knobs on this song. They were certainly up to the... > Read more
Scotch Eggs
13 Jun 2022 | 1 min read
Billy Connolly once said, “Scottish food isn't a cuisine, it's a dare”. Funny, but also kind of true if you are averse to black pudding (blood sausage) and the traditional presentation of a haggis in a sheep's stomach. But unless you are vegan or vegetarian a Scotch egg is . . . well, it can actually be a meal you hold in your hand. Let us keep this... > Read more
Stockholm, Sweden: The silence the goddess craved
12 Jun 2022 | 3 min read
The famously reclusive goddess of the silver screen Greta Garbo finally got what she wanted. She is, as she wished, alone. But the melancholic Swedish solitary is surrounded by more than 100,000 others in eternal death at the vast, exceptionally beautiful and restful Skogskyrkogården (Woodland Cemetery) in suburban Stockholm. The cemetery – where Garbo's... > Read more
Memory Foam: Steel Magnolias (bandcamp)
12 Jun 2022 | <1 min read
Coming out of the gate like a dragster in flames intent on setting a land-speed record, this album by an Auckland five-piece is a collision of flat-tack and driving drumming, metal-edge guitar and Yuko Miyoshi's declamatory, yelping post-punk vocals It will certainly not be to most people's taste. But their confrontation is admirably energised (if somewhat incoherent)... > Read more