Absolute Elsewhere

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TOM RUSSELL INTERVIEWED: The stories he could tell

25 Sep 2008  |  4 min read

Julio Gonzalez was pumped up and crazy when he was tossed out of the Happy Land Social Club in the Bronx in mid-March 1990. He was 36, unemployed and had been in the States for only 10 years after arriving with thousands of other Cubans in the Mariel boatlift. An argument with his former girlfriend who worked in the cloakroom, a couple of bouncers heavying him into the streets, a short walk... > Read more

A Dollar's Worth of Gasoline

WIRE INTERVIEWED (2004): From garages to galleries, the rise and re-rise of art-rock

19 Sep 2008  |  5 min read

You need a little patience when trying to get a handle on the career of the four-piece British art-punk band Wire, who emerged in the late 70s at the start of punk. But first let's establish that Wire were Colin Newman, Bruce Gilbert, Graham Lewis and Robert Gotobed. The early-90s line-up, wittily named Wir, was the same guys, but without drummer Gotobed. That’s reasonably simple... > Read more

HARRY NILSSON, PROFILED (2008). The fire this time

18 Sep 2008  |  4 min read

The too-short life of the greatly under-appreciated singer/songwriter Harry Nilsson (1941-94) was full of bitter ironies: not the least was that this gifted songwriter's biggest hits were written by others. His memorable Without You was penned by Pete Ham and Tom Evans from the Beatles-blessed power poppers, Badfinger; and although Nilsson's  beautiful original song I Guess the Lord... > Read more

SCOTT WALKER INTERVIEWED (2006). Loneliness is a cloak you wear

16 Sep 2008  |  15 min read  |  3

No one could accuse reclusive songwriter and singer Scott Walker of haste. In the time between Walker's last album Tilt and his latest The Drift in May 2006, film director Peter Jackson delivered The Frighteners, his Lord of the Rings trilogy and King Kong. Van Morrison coughed up 11 albums, and Oasis -- despite fraternal bickering, divorces and finding a new line-up -- managed to record four.... > Read more

MIRACLE MILE PROFILED: Beauty in search of an audience

16 Sep 2008  |  2 min read

Some years ago when I was at the Herald yet another CD for review arrived in the post and took its place on the huge pile of "discs to be listened to". I have no idea why out of the stack of worthies I picked up the album by Miracle Mile laterand played it one night at home when no one was around: but I am glad I did because I was smitten immediately. The cover had on it... > Read more

Miracle Mile: Seven Bells (from Alaska, 2003)

JEFFERSON AIRPLANE'S 1993 BOX SET: Fasten your seat belts

14 Sep 2008  |  2 min read

History’s such fun. Here are some lyrics from the past to think on: “We are all outlaws in the eyes of America/in order to survive we steal, cheat, lie and [inaudible]/ we are obscene, lawless, hideous, dangerous, dirty, violent and young . . . we are forces of chaos and anarchy.” The singers then toss in the Price noun, and it isn’t calling someone a “sexy... > Read more

BETH ROWLEY INTERVIEWED (2008): From Bristol to the Big Time

9 Sep 2008  |  9 min read

UK singer-songwriter Beth Rowley is one of those 10-year in the making overnight sensations. Her debut album Little Dreamer has won her wide acclaim -- “the next big thing", said the Independent, “destined for number one” weighed in the Sunday Times -- but because she has worked her way up from small pubs she seems very grounded, smart and focused. This phone interview... > Read more

JAMES BROWN: THE ONE AND ONLY GODFATHER OF SOUL (1992): Star time . . . all the time

8 Sep 2008  |  6 min read

“The artistry of James Brown is epitomised by the guttural grunt (uh,uh) or the equally familiar cry of ‘oo-wee’ that punctuates practically ever young he has recorded. In those simple primal utterances Brown comes nearer his poetic goal than in any of his more elaborate lyrics. For there, he is not singing about black life – he is black life.” - Mel Watkins,... > Read more

The Payback

THE BEATLES IN PRINT, HAMBURG DAYS (2002): Before the whirlwind

8 Sep 2008  |  4 min read

The oldest wasn't yet 20, but they were drunk, pilled to the eyeballs and doing what they loved best: playing rock'n'roll. In black leather, hair greased back Elvis-style, they pumped out primal versions of Little Richard hits to the drunken sailors, pimps and prostitutes who jostled in the beer-stale club, the sweat dripping down on them as it accumulated on the low ceiling. The air was... > Read more

ARETHA FRANKLIN, THE QUEEN OF SOUL: Oh, how the mighty have risen

2 Sep 2008  |  4 min read

When American critic Dave Marsh complied his The Heart of Rock and Soul in the early 90s -- a free-swinging personal recount of the “1001 greatest singles ever made” from doo-wop Moondogs (1955) to dance floor Madonna (1985) -- one name turned up repeatedly. For those who nostalgically put Abba up the charts again (and again) that name may seem surprising -- but here was someone... > Read more

Aretha Franklin: When the Battle is Over

KRIS KRISTOFFERSON INTERVIEWED (2005): Rebel with a scholarship

2 Sep 2008  |  7 min read

Before he was 40 Kris Kristofferson -- now in his 70s -- had lived enough to fill the pages of at least a couple of wild novels. And the real craziness was still to come. In the 80s Kristofferson greeted a journalist with, “Let’s have some dope”. The interviewer reported she remained high just by breathing his exhaust. Born in Texas, he was a smart kid and won a Rhodes... > Read more

WARREN ZEVON INTERVIEWED (1992): Tales from the dark side

1 Sep 2008  |  9 min read

The various encyclopaedias of rock don’t do justice to Warren Zevon. He got a snippy microscopic reference in the 91 New Illustrated Rock Handbook (“well-established but usually hitless”) and a massive tome from the same period by Phil Hardy and Stephen Barnard didn’t mention him at all.  A few others get to the usual stuff. That he played piano for the Everly... > Read more

ELVIS COSTELLO INTERVIEWED (1993): Elvis - with strings attached

30 Aug 2008  |  4 min read

When Mick Jagger started doing interviews this year for his return-to-form Wandering Spirit, he let it be known he’d prefer to speak with younger writers, not those carrying a whole heap of Stones baggage. Elvis Costello – now 16 years in the trade and whose latest album The Juliet Letters finds him with a string quartet – makes the same point. Ironically Melody Maker... > Read more

ELVIS COSTELLO INTERVIEWED (1991): Every thorn has a rose

29 Aug 2008  |  5 min read

Elvis Costello has lurked about under any number of names in the past decade or so. He’s been Howard Coward of the Coward Brother (when he sang with T-Bone Burnett), Napoleon Dynamite (for his ’86 Blood and Chocolate album), cynically called himself “The Beloved Entertainer” and for a while even worked under his birth name, the flamboyantly Irish Declan Patrick Aloysius... > Read more

LOU REED'S MAGIC AND LOSS ALBUM OF 1992: Heart and soul

23 Aug 2008  |  2 min read

Some great rock albums have been inspired by death. Deaths of friends were at the heart of Neil Young’s bleak Tonight’s the Night, death of belief and the spirit fuelled John Lennon’s abrasive Plastic Ono Band album. In 1990 Lou Reed – with John Cale – took the death of friend Andy Warhol (1928-87) to craft the poetic, affecting and quasi-biographical Songs for... > Read more

PAUL WELLER'S PHASE TWO: THE STYLE COUNCIL. There are second acts in English life

4 Aug 2008  |  2 min read

After six exhausting years in the Jam, singer-songwriter Paul Weller pulled the plug in October '82 and within months re-appeared with his keyboard-playing friend Mick Talbot as The Style Council, a group with a soulful, European attitude and some hard things to say about the political state of Britain under the Torys. Their debut album Cafe Bleu of early '84 exuded cool -- but bewildered... > Read more

The Style Council: The Boy Who Cried Wolf

LOUDON WAINWRIGHT III INTERVIEWED (2008): The family that sings together . . .

30 Jul 2008  |  5 min read

These days American singer-songwriter Loudon Wainwright III -- touted as a “new Dylan” at the dawn of the 70s and whose critically acclaimed 20 or so albums since have skirted the edges of public acceptance -- is pretty well known, but perhaps not for his own sake: he is father to famous Rufus and fairly-famous Martha. But Loudon -- who has always written about his life and... > Read more

CARLOS SANTANA INTERVIEWED (2003). The Shaman of Optimism

16 Jul 2008  |  8 min read

Carlos Santana is either a philosopher or a flake. His conversation is littered with high-minded thinking, but also slews into new age psychobabble which can be cringe-inducing and sounds charmingly naive. This is a man whose favourite colour is a rainbow and thinks MTV should play Stravinsky, but that's another story. This is 55-year-old Grammy-magnet Carlos on current affairs: "See,... > Read more

RODRIGO Y GABRIELA: Acoustic guitars turned up to 11

10 Jul 2008  |  3 min read

For a man who makes an astonishingly big noise on stage Rodrigo -- the male half of the Mexican guitar duo Rodrigo y Gabriela -- speaks very quietly. Unlike Gabriela who manages a profanity rate on the DVD that accompanies their new album that would impress Ozzy. Rodrigo is also scrupulously well spoken. He also apologises for having been so hard to locate. And he has been: the woman... > Read more

DAVID BOWIE; THE EARLY YEARS: He was an interesting bunch of people

1 Jul 2008  |  5 min read

For a while, quite a while in fact, David Bowie could do no wrong – and when something seemed like a career move (“I never did anything out of the blue”) it worked to his advantage. Even when he was The Man Who Fell To Earth after Lou Reed decked him in a London restaurant, it was the day before his new single was released – Boys Keep Swinging. You just can’t... > Read more