A shop called Pretty Green - The Jam, mods, geddit? – has an exhibition devoted to The Who’s Quadrophenia, which I visited today as it is a favourite album of mine. The exhibition is in the basement and darkly lit; the backdrop picture builds anticipation as you descend the stairs. Unfortunately the exhibition did not [...]
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Review: Quadrophenia director’s cut
This might be my favourite album ever. It connects somehow, the frustration of My g-g-g-generation extended to an entire double album, played with the frenetic energy and genius of The Who, and intermingled with a dash of Pete Townshend’s mystical leanings. I am the sea. It is not only the music, the whole package was [...]
Review: The Bowie Variations by Mike Garson
I am a big David Bowie fan (as I guess will be most purchasers of this CD) and first noticed Garson’s work in the magnificent, edgy accompaniment to Aladdin Sane – specifically, that track, though he makes a great contribution to the entire album. Garson played on many of Bowie’s albums, from Ziggy Stardust through [...]
A classic album you may have missed
Soul is not really my kind of music. Maybe it should be. I discovered this album back in the Eighties when I heard it playing in a shop. The title track, a cover of Sam Cooke’s song, is astonishing. The pace is slower than the original. The song builds from a quiet, haunting opening into [...]
Just when you’ve finished paying for Live at Leeds, here comes the Quadrophenia super deluxe box
Details are scant, but Amazon is now listing a new edition of The Who’s Quadrophenia, complete with book and (from the picture) five discs of some description. Quadrophenia is one album I still play regularly. I am not sure why, but it has some kind of hold on me. I guess it is an anthem [...]
Brian Eno and Rick Holland: Drums between the bells
Brian Eno and Rick Holland are releasing Drums between the Bells on 4th July 2011. Here’s a sample song, called Glitch: Brian Eno – glitch (taken from Drums Between The Bells) by Warp Records “There is a glitch in the system outside the brain flow,” it begins; and while I would not like to be [...]
Richard Thompson Nottingham 27 January 2011
I heard Richard Thompson and his band last night at the Royal Concert Hall in Nottingham. A pleasant venue, not too large, good acoustics, but lacking in atmosphere. The concert was pretty much sold out and there was no doubting the warm regard of the audience towards the performers, but it was not a lively [...]
The Beatles come to Apple iTunes
Apple made an extraordinary fuss about the arrival of Beatles music on its iTunes download store – even allowing the news to take over its home page for a day or two. Why? I can think of a few reasons. Because Steve Jobs was born in 1955 and this is the music of his teen [...]
SHM-SACD – super-expensive, but how super is the sound?
The problems facing the music industry are well-known: the CD market is fast disappearing thanks to digital downloads, both legal and illegal, and income gained from downloads does not look likely to match that lost from CD. But what about the niche market for recordings of superior quality? Universal Music Japan has come up with [...]
The who’s music brilliantly discussed
Ever wondered what Tommy is really about? Curious about those odd Who tracks like Dogs and Circles? Interested in what reviewers at the time thought about the Who’s classic tracks? Or where to get the best-sounding versions? I highly recommend this discussion on Steve Hoffman’s forum, and especially the contributions by a Norwegian called Chris [...]