From Bad To Verse

July 31, 2013

When Mick Jones was evicted from The Clash, he didn’t get bitter. His response was a quality band, Big Audio Dynamite and a tune called ‘The Bottom Line’. The lyric declared that “the only thing to do is climb”. And thus he was refortified, ready to rock again.

asiwyfa_2_400I guess Tony Wright can relate. He played guitar with And So I Watch You From Afar until November 2011. His final gig was at the Ulster Hall, when he was literally carried away by the audience. Apparently the split was not so gracious, but neither party has revealed much in public. Tony has since returned as VerseChorusVerse, releasing a collection of punk covers last year and now there’s a self-titled album. The tone is mostly affirmative, the regime is bristling folkabilly and the conclusion is that Tony is largely over it.

Continue Reading…

In the early hours of May 7, 1992, Richey Edwards slipped a postcard under the door of my hotel room at the Sofitel, Beverly Hills. I looked at it and smiled. We had been shopping together on Melrose two days before when he had bought the Barbie card. It pictured the famous doll in her boudoir, with a speech bubble that read, “Every morning I wake up and thank God for my unique ability to accessorize.”

On the other side, he had written a message in his singular, scattershot style. “Hollywood and Disneyland are the legacy of Europe’s cultural imperialism. We gave them nursery rhymes and they gave us back film. Televised riots are as American as Barbie / Big Macs. Tomorrow the riots will be forgot but Mickey Mouse will still be there. Welcome to Disneyland. Love Manic Street Preachers.”

maincscard1

Continue Reading…

Bear//Face Necessities

July 17, 2013

bearfaceBear//Face is Ciaran McDonald from Belfast. He’s been active in Leeds and New York, he remixes James Blake and Justin Timberlake and tours with The 1975. He gets played in Diplo sets and cops over a million listens on SoundCloud. His remix of Timberlake’s ‘My Love’ has hauled in over 800,000 alone and the Bear//Face presence is spattered over social media like a Jackson Pollock action painting.

You may be familiar with his own work. ‘Taste My Sad’ is a junior classic – falsetto soul, warped, filtered and plasticised. It’s that 3am moment when the senses start to smear and the rapture shines in. The Orb went this way with ‘A Huge Ever Growing Pulsating Brain…’ in 1989, slicing up Minnie Riperton, taking her soul to another sphere. Bear//Face furthers the tradition when he refits A$AP Rocky, Ginuine, Atu and other esoteric acts.

The workload is prodigious but he doesn’t sound rushed or slight. Rather his sound, his method and his collaborations are headed towards something immense. I’m reminded of the famous Louis McNeice poem when the writer is peeling a tangerine, watching the snow outside the window and mentally raving by the fireside. However you find it, the buzz is about discovering how things are supremely various.

Dr. Simone, I Presume

July 16, 2013

nina

I’m at the door of Nina Simone’s dressing room and feeling apprehensive. We’re backstage at the HQ on Dublin’s Middle Abbey Street. It’s 7 October 1999 and the Hot Press Awards are just over. Sinéad O’Connor is around, wearing her priest outfit, nervy and talking plenty.  Yet she is utterly quelled when Nina kisses her on the cheek. Many of the other Irish notables are nearby, including U2, The Corrs, Shane MacGowan, Westlife, and the emergent Snow Patrol. I’ve been interviewing them all for a BBC TV production and everything has gone well. Then it is suggested that we also speak to Nina.

Continue Reading…