Sparks are a phenomenon. One of a kind. Or, to be precise, two of a kind. Russell and Ron, the Mael brothers, are still going strong with a combined age of 151.
On a sunny day in 1976 I joined 150,000 other people in Knebworth Park to see The Rolling Stones. The line-up that day included Todd Rundgren’s Utopia, 10CC, Hot Tuna and, immediately before the headliners, Lynyrd Skynyrd.
There are some guitarists, only a handful, whose playing – whose tone – appeals so much that I can listen to almost anything by them, just to hear them play. Thurston Moore is one of those.
I first came across Heather Woods Broderick when she was playing keyboards for Sharon Van Etten at Cargo in Shoreditch, back in 2012. It was the first time I had seen Shaz, who was promoting her third album Tramp and would go on to become my favourite singer.
Is there a Glam revival? If there is – and this would seem to suggest as much – then it’s crept up on me unawares. Rather like that cat Mud sang about. Apparently this video has gone viral, and I can see why: it’s like a pastiche of something from an early 70s Top of the Pops.
As a longtime fan of The Dears, I’ve always enjoyed the melancholy music and Bowiesque / Morriseyesque / Albarnesque croon of frontman Murray Lightburn. Even so, this is something I never expected from the creator of apocalyptic albums like Degeneration Street and No Cities Left.
Tom Verlaine of Television has died, aged 73.
Sometimes a song comes out of nowhere and grabs your ear. That happened to me when Guy Garvey played this on the radio just before Christmas.