2021

When I first saw and heard Fontaines D.C. they were the most exciting new guitar band I’d seen in decades. I wasn’t the biggest fan of their second album but Dave Clarke’s remix transforms the song into a dancefloor banger.

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Fightmilk – Overbite

19th November 2023 · 2020s, 2021, Music

I was hoping to see Fightmilk on Friday night at a night of LGBTQ+ music at the Sebright Arms, headlined by Belfast’s energetic feminist punks Problem Patterns. But because my friend Alex was late after missing his bus, and his train, I only caught their last number as they were the support act.

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Dead Writers – Among Spirits

16th September 2023 · 2020s, 2021, Glam, Music

Last night I went to see these guys, Dead Writers, at a goth-filled Camden pub with the apt name The Black Heart, on my way back from cricket at Lord’s. And I had a very good time.

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Hannah Hu and The Specials perform their spellbinding reggae-fied version of the Talking Heads song Listening Wind from their classic album Remain In Light.

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I I know there are those who find roots reggae a little tiresome, seeing it largely as a vehicle for rambling about Rastafarianism while smoking humungous quantities of marijuana. To be fair, there’s a lot of that. And I love it.

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As Russia invades Ukraine, here’s a message for all the world, conveyed in the lockdown video shot at home by Sharon Van Etten and Josh Homme. (more…)

RIP Mike Nesmith (1942-2021)

11th December 2021 · 2021, Music
Mike Nesmith

Mike Nesmith was the tall one with the long sideburns, the green bobble hat and the languid Texan drawl. And The Monkees were one of the first pop groups I loved. (more…)

RIP Robbie Shakespeare, king of the bass guitar and one half of the peerless reggae rhythm section Sly & Robbie. (more…)

The French Dispatch - film review

Wes Anderson’s tenth feature film is “a love letter to journalism” told in a typically whimsical anthology of stories for the titular magazine. The director and his all-star cast of regulars and newcomers are on top form in this tour-de-force. (more…)

RIP Paddy Moloney (1938-2021)

14th October 2021 · 2021, Music

I only had the one encounter with Paddy Moloney, the late leader of The Chieftains. It was in Japan. (more…)