Absolute Elsewhere
Subscribe to my newsletter for weekly updates.
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
PAUL McCARTNEY AND WINGS: The solo career that faltered, flew then faltered
30 Jun 2008 | 6 min read
"Wings, only the band the Beatles could have been," said Alan Partridge -- who, we should quickly add, is an alter ego of British comedian Steve Coogan.Rock writers were understandably unforgiving toward McCartney's post-Beatle band but the public just wouldn't listen to those damn critics. People liked Wings. They, or more correctly McCartney, made the cover of Time in May... > Read more
THE BAND; ACROSS THE GREAT DIVIDE BOX SET (1994): Genius all boxed up . . . or maybe not all.
28 Jun 2008 | 4 min read
For the record, I turned off the Band around the period they hit the cover of Time magazine in January 1970 - which is to say I never really got into them. This is no brag that when they went commercial I bailed out, more like that guy who yelled “Judas” at Bob Dylan when he plugged in. Just a case of woeful stupidity. That the Band are central to any understanding of... > Read more
Ronnie Hawkins and the Hawks: Who Do You Love (1963)
DEAD MOON AND PIERCED ARROWS (2008): Retirement is not an option
25 Jun 2008 | 3 min read
When the Oregon-based garage-rock outfit Dead Moon called it quits 14 months ago after almost 20 years of raw recordings and impassioned live shows, you couldn't say the world stopped to mourn. Exceptional though they were, Dead Moon -- fronted by Fred Cole with his wife Toody (bass) and drummer Andrew Loomis - had neatly sidestepped fame, even in the grunge years when record... > Read more
It's Okay
BONNIE RAITT INTERVIEWED 1992: Born to make things better
24 Jun 2008 | 7 min read | 1
At one of those flashbulb and tape-recorder after-match functions following this year’s Grammy awards, three-time recipient Bonnie Raitt was the centre of attention. In a year which gave awards to Natalie Cole and her dead dad singing something written 30 years ago, Bonnie Raitt – just as she was two years back when she picked up four awards - looked like one of the few worthy... > Read more
EDDIE VEDDER OF PEARL JAM INTERVIEWED IN SEATTLE (2002): Reading their Riot Act
20 Jun 2008 | 14 min read
For a Kiwi transplanted to Pearl Jam's rehearsal room in Seattle's warehouse district, it's easy to feel at home on this warm morning. The toilet designated for women has a handmade sign which reads, "Wahine". In the rehearsal room a dozen international journalists have been assembled and the mood is one of nervousness, in part because Pearl Jam frontman Eddie Vedder has a... > Read more
PETER HAEDER PROFILED: Portrait of the artist as musical itinerant
18 Jun 2008 | 1 min read
In a recent conversation this German-born Auckland-based guitarist mentioned an album of his I had forgotten about: it was Kling-Klang (on Ode) and at a guess came from some time in the early-to-mid 90s. His mention of it prompted me to get it out again because I had been very taken with it at the time. It was Haeder in a variety of settings from solo, to duets with Steve Garden on... > Read more
Peter Haeder: Lotus beat (from the album Lotus Beat, 2002)
BOB DYLAN: CONCERT REVIEWS 2003, 2007: The wayward prince
14 Jun 2008 | 4 min read
Bob Dylan, North Shore Events Centre, Auckland, New Zealand. February 2003 It's hard to know what to expect of Bob Dylan concerts these days: 40-something albums which range from the indispensable to the indifferent, wildly erratic shows which can include ancient folk-blues or covers of contemporary artists (he has recently included Warren Zevon songs), and that mighty catalogue of original... > Read more
ROGER WATERS INTERVIEWED: The trip back to the dark side (Jan 2007)
26 May 2008 | 3 min read
The death last year of 60-year old Syd Barrett—founder member of Pink Floyd and the world’s most famous acid casualty—saw a great outpouring of essays and obituaries, all hailing his genius. Yet Barrett—who had lived in his mother’s house for almost 40 years as a bald, overweight recluse—had little to do with the Pink Floyd most people know; the band... > Read more
ROCK'N'ROLL NEVER FORGETS: A journey back through time
29 Apr 2008 | 6 min read
As an example of cosmic symmetry it could hardly be improved on: my 13th birthday, the Beatles playing in Auckland, and my Dad offered two free tickets. It was only many years later my older sister told me about the free tickets – and that Dad had declined them. I guess that was why, long after the Beatlemania screaming had faded, he bought me a ticket to my first ever pop... > Read more
The Rolling Stones: The Last Time (1965)
RAY DAVIES INTERVIEWED: Still a well respected man (2008)
25 Apr 2008 | 15 min read
Ray Davies, the former Kink and for the past decade a solo artist, say that these days he “stays -- notice I don’t use the word ‘live’ -- at Highgate Hill which is literally half a mile from where I grew up in Muswell Hill. It’s the highest spot in London and you can look over the city, one of the more romantic places in London.” This seems entirely... > Read more
BOB DYLAN: THE BOOTLEG SERIES VOLUME 1-3 (1991): A man out of time?
25 Mar 2008 | 4 min read
Public figures in a nation at war can scarcely be expected to behave rationally, but the sight of star after megastar pumped up on religion and patriotism at this year’s Grammys made you wonder if rock and the entertainment industry harboured any notion of dissent, heresy or rebelliousness any more. Oddly enough the sole dissenting voice -- and best live performance -- came from an... > Read more
BACKBEAT, ASTRID KIRCHHERR AND THE YOUNG BEATLES ON FILM (1994): The Birth of the Beat
19 Mar 2008 | 9 min read
His letters back home don’t tell the whole story. But such letters seldom do. He says there are plenty of girls “but none of us can be bothered” and that he is “not the happiest man alive. It’s now my seventh week here. I came here for a reason I do not know. I have no money, no resources, no hope . . .” The reality was, of course, something quite... > Read more
PAUL McCARTNEY LIVE IN SYDNEY (1993): Younger Than Yesterday
8 Mar 2008 | 8 min read
Among the tickets touts barking at the crowd outside the Sydney Entertainment Centre before the Paul McCartney concert, the scalper with the XXOS beer gut wrapped in a small-men’s T-shirt stood out. While others on this raw edge of the market economy were offering $130-a-ticket, the swollen T-shirt was nasally hawking “tickets in the front row”. No one believed... > Read more
YOKO ONO INTERVIEWED (1992): The yin and yang of Yoko
7 Mar 2008 | 10 min read
Few people could claim to have been as publicly reviled, ridiculed, misunderstood and misrepresented as Yoko Ono. As her husband of 12 years John Lennon once remarked, she was “the most famous unknown artist in the world. Everyone knows who she is, but nobody knows what she does.“ And the little that people did know during her heyday in the Sixties they didn’t much care... > Read more
YOKO ONO INTERVIEWED, THE LENNON ANTHOLOGY BOX SET (2003): And Lennon's on sale again. . .
4 Mar 2008 | 4 min read
For reasons which withstand no scrutiny at all, there’s an expectation Yoko Ono will be miserable in interviews. After all, here is the Famous Rock Widow whose husband was gunned down before her eyes leaving her with a much beloved five-year old son, the legacy of the Lennon name and fortune, and the still prevalent perception of her as The Dragon Lady. But the child Sean is now 23 and... > Read more
CALEXICO INTERVIEWED (2003): Beneath the high wide sky
3 Mar 2008 | 4 min read
Beyond the city limits of Tucson in Arizona, hot winds blow across the endless Sonoran Desert. Mexico is just 100km south. This is a mysterious and unforgiving place where the arid land shimmers in the heat. The sun plays tricks on the eye and the landscape looks the same everywhere. Yet there is beauty in the details, and in this land of marginalised characters and shifting sands there is a... > Read more