Clik here to view.
Baseball Diamond
There are three notes guaranteed to shake you out of any gloom: B, C#, D. He plays them with a gentle skipping rhythm, twice up, twice down. Then the same pattern starting on D. By now smiles are...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Your American Dream
‘Breaking America.’ You hear that phrase a lot in the entertainment world of the UK and Europe. It’s something that’s coveted, often attempted, but rarely achieved. Sure, Kate Winslet’s done it. So...
View ArticleClik here to view.
In it for the Bahs
‘Bah’. If I had to condense the many varied and conflicting sentiments that appear alongside the #bbcqt hashtag into a single word, that would be it – ‘Bah’. In fact, looking at the feed at this...
View ArticleClik here to view.
A crash course in brain surgery
‘You don’t have to be a Slayer! Go and buy yourself another shirt.’ That’s what I was ordered to do by a middle-aged hippie at the gates of the End of the Road festival in Dorset a couple of years...
View ArticleClik here to view.
A classical girl at The Knife
What is a classical music critic doing at The Knife? We’re not supposed to frequent the coolest gigs in town. We’re supposed to sit in the capital’s concert halls, tut-tutting if a pianist is too...
View ArticleClik here to view.
What I’ve been listening to…
This is the first is a new series of ‘What I’ve been listening to…’ columns. CultureKicks also has a ‘What I’ve been reading…’ column by Emily Rhodes, a ‘What I’ve been watching…’ column by Peter...
View ArticleClik here to view.
In praise of the adrenaline rush
When I stopped playing the piano, the first thing I noticed was that the world was flat. I was 22 and had to decide whether to try to make a career of my piano playing, or be sensible and look for a...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Great Albums: Dare
In the early years of the 1980s stretch jeans were all the rage. Stretch jeans and The Human League’s Dare. Both were revolutionary but practical and, when wrapped around youth, snugly-smugly...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Siouxsie Sioux got there first
Siouxsie Sioux, Royal Festival Hall, 16th June 2013 Whatever Siouxsie Sioux has been doing in the five years since her last UK gig and in the 30-ish years since I last saw her, it clearly didn’t...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Careless tweets cost raves
Allow me to time travel to a field in Bedfordshire, around a decade ago. It is busy with arrivals. Like everyone I have come to this strangely pastoral yet ear-numbingly urban event via a text message,...
View Article
