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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.
Sad news this week with the death of actor Lee Whitlock, whose finest moment in a successful career came in the starring role of the music video for Weekender by Flowered Up.
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.
Long-forgotten by all but hardcore punks, Belfast band Victim were the second group to put out a single on the city’s Bad Vibrations label. This is it.
So here is, to mark the 65th birthday this week of Jake Burns – the very first punk single to come out of Northern Ireland exactly 45 years ago.
Here’s another slice of Ulster punk from Protex. With their primal power pop sound they were Belfast’s answer to Buzzcocks.
Here’s a little bit of music history – the first punk single from Northern Ireland… the first official one, anyway. Big Time by Rudi was the first release on Belfast’s homegrown Good Vibrations label in April 1978.
Randy Crawford joined The Crusaders to sing what became their biggest hit, Street Life in 1979. Or, as my old colleague used to call it, Street Light.
The Undertones released one of the greatest debut singles of all time in Teenage Kicks – in fact one of the best ever singles, full stop.