Show Posts
This section allows you to view all posts made by this member. Note that you can only see posts made in areas you currently have access to.
Syl even made the BBC news headlines
FX has ordered Pistolc a six-episode limited series about the legendary Sex Pistols guitarist Steve Jones, it was announced today by Nick Grad, President, Original Programming, FX Entertainment.https://louderthanwar.com/danny-boyle-to-direct-new-6-part-sex-pistols-tv-biopic/
Based on Jones’ 2018 memoir Lonely Boy: Tales from a Sex Pistol, the series from Academy Award®-winner Danny Boyle, who will also serve as Executive Producer and director, was created by Craig Pearce and written by Pearce and Frank Cottrell Boyce.
‘Star Birth’ is international maverick and music icon Hugo Race’s 15th album with his band of True Spirits. It’s a double album and the twin album’s name is ‘Star Death’.http://www.hugoracemusic.com/
Star Birth was recorded during Australia’s black bushfire summer then mixed as the pandemic hit. When the stars align it all makes sense, Hugo explains, adding that one oceanic evening while writing the album a bright star exploded right before his eyes, the sign of a sudden end and a new beginning...
“'Star Birth' is a flung fisherman's net, mighty in scope, irrevocable as looking up from the stone floor of a cathedral – there is space, yet there is profound intimacy from the immediacy of the lyrics, our thoughts rattling around like panicky goldfish. Race has taken aspects of areas previously explored, and made a quantum leap into the unknowable. With opening track Can't Make This Up, the gauntlet is flung down – ‘what is need, what is greed / it’s a new crush, the brain trust/ hive mind rewrite rewind/ falsehood streaming’” – Robert Brokenmouth
Hugo writes about the times in which we live – political disasters, our planet, the absence and the presence of spiritual values, broken promises, cracked hearts and if any of it really matters anyway. With hell raising lyrics like, Expendable, you’d have to wonder if anyone of us will make it through alive – ‘hey sister, are we all expendable? nobody wins, but so many of you think they do / don’t try to fool yourself people, deep down you know the truth - everybody gets their one hot shot but no one’s bullet proof’. But then The Rapture reminds us that there will always be stars dying in the glory of new life – ‘empower us with divine love and deliver us from evil / for you are the one true light / the power and the glory / forever /amen’
Hugo’s True Spirit deliver a lush, sonic love letter of rock, electronica and dramatic orchestration, based in blues, hypnotic repetition and sonic exhilaration. Multi-instrumentalists Michelangelo Russo and Nico Mansy are a huge part of this atmosphere; the entire band and production is incredible from start to finish. Star Birth is 48 minutes of mind expanding, mind blowing, heel tapping tunes, with its sister album Star Death's deep-psyche remixes that will send you searching for your own exploding star somewhere in the sky…
LTW: In a year that has seen many unexpected developments, one of the more surprising has been the announcement of the original Damned line-up re-uniting?
Brian: No one was more surprised than me, amazed in fact. We had talked about the idea around fifteen years ago but it came to nothing. I think the problem then was that Dave and Captain didn’t want to put their current line-up on hold for a year or however long it would be. I think they were scared that people would leave or whatever so they decided not to do it.
Also. There’s always been a weirdness between the Captain and Rat so I just thought “Oh well, there you go, some things are meant to happen and some things aren’t.” It seemed like a shame and then, lo and behold, this year, about a month before the Lockdown started I get a phone call from their manager asking if I’d be up for doing it. Of course, my first question was “How does Captain feel about it?”, because he had a bone of contention with Rat; I don’t know what it’s about and I don’t care really. But he said that it wasn’t a problem and that everyone was up for it and if I fancied it he’d give me the details. I listened politely and thought “Yeah, why not?” It’s now or never really as you never know, everyone’s getting older and all these bleedin’ disease are flying round. Rat actually said not long ago that it’s a shame we aren’t doing any reunion as one day three of us would be stood round the other’s grave saying “we should have done it you know!”.
It comes as a relief really to be honest. Also, with Lockdown being on, I’m waiting to get back in the studio and finish my album, this is a kind of a special thing and I think we need to do it. It’s not good to dwell on negatives and if everyone is up for it, we should do it. I think I will only really believe it when all four of us are standing up there making some noise, but it’s got the potential to be a lot of fun. There’s a lot of fans out there who have never seen the original line-up so hopefully they will love it
LTW: It’s a typical Damned twist that virtually the same day as the announcement of the original line up reunion is made, the band are at Number One in the vinyl singles chart with a different line up.
Ha, ha yes. As you say there is never anything straightforward with The Damned. There always has to be a quirky twist but they all kind of make sense in a funny kind of way. There’s quite a history of The Damned with lots of different periods and styles and this will probably come as a shock to some of the fans who come and see us play. There are a lot of people who may come along because they like Eloise and that style, thinking that’s what The Damned do and boy are they in for a shock!
Have you heard David Hasselhoff’s version of “Open Your Eyes” with James Williamson from The Stooges on guitar?https://www.metalexpressradio.com/2020/12/14/brian-james-the-damned-lords-of-the-new-church-royalties-from-the-guns-n-roses-cover-of-new-rose-bought-me-a-house-in-france/
Yes, I have. That’s the guy from that surfing programme or something like that. I don’t really like it. I was a bit disappointed as I thought James Williamson sounded a bit pedestrian on it and held himself back but it’s great that he’s played a song that I wrote. Who’d have thought that would happen back in 1975?
Hosted by Robin Ince, the Nine Lessons And Carols For Curious People 24-hour charity livestream event saw Smith perform the songs ‘In Your House’, ‘M’ and ‘Play For Today’, taken from the band’s second album, 1980’s ‘Seventeen Seconds’.
The event was broadcast by the Cosmic Shambles Network and all proceeds will be donated to the charities Turn2Us, Doctors Without Borders, Mind and the Kings Place Music Foundation.
Smith’s set – which was prerecorded at an earlier time – saw the frontman perform barefoot, accompanied by a drum machine, from what looks to be his home studio. Watch the session below.
The old Bowery music venue CBGBs has long passed into music folklore as the place that called the likes of Television, Patti Smith, and the Ramones their house bands. It was also where punk and new wave progenitors Blondie cut their teeth before they sashayed into the wider world with the protean panache that would make them a household name. Classic singles such as “Heart of Glass”, “Call Me”, “Atomic”, and “Rapture” have been responsible for more worldwide rug-cutting than an industrial carpet tool. To imply that they were merely a solid singles band is to do them a cardinal disservice, however.
And although they’ve always cocked their attention to the things ahead of them, Harry and her Blondie cohorts have spent a lot of time looking back just lately. Harry’s long-awaited autobiography, Face It, hit the shelves last year, and Blondie co-founder and one-time partner Chris Stein published Point of View: Me, New York City, and the Punk Scene, a photography book featuring personal snaps taken during the band’s pomp in the 70s and early 80s. “We can’t keep on touring and doing club dates the way that we used to. It would be physically impossible,” Harry concedes. “Living through this pandemic has certainly made us take a long look at the value of what we’ve got with our body of work.” Asked if it is a process of attempting to frame their legacy, she admits it’s something that they “have to do”.
This deep-dive into their canon has culminated in a mouth-watering archive set, Blondie: Against the Odds 1974-1982, slated for release next year. Coming in four formats, it promises to include extensive liner notes, “track by track” commentary by the entire band, a photographic history plus rare and unreleased bonus material. The group will also go out on the road – coronavirus permitting – for an autumn Against the Odds UK tour with Garbage.
More than thirty years since the band played their last reunion shows, I asked Brian how the 2021 reformation of the original Damned lineup came about.
Brian James: The current Damned manager phoned me and asked if I would be up for doing it. It looked like Captain was up for doing it, previously he’d never wanted to do it because of some ongoing feud between him and Rat, which I don’t know anything about and really don’t want to know anything about. So, he said, “Captain’s up for it, Dave’s up for it, Rat’s up for it, are you up for it?” I said, “Yeah, though it never rains but it pours because I’ve just been invited to reform the Lords of the New Church to go in conjunction with this Vive Le Rock award I’m meant to be getting. Stiv obviously can’t do it because he’s not here anymore, sadly, so we’re looking to get Mike Monroe in as he was a friend of Stiv’s and the Lords back from his time in Hanoi Rocks.” The call about reforming the Damned came just three or four weeks after plans were being made for the Lords, this was just before the Covid-19 pandemic kicked in and everything got placed on hold.
We’ve done the press launch and photos now, everyone seems really upbeat about things, it’s great. I think Dave had been rooting for it for the last few years but Captain had been pretty adamant that it wouldn’t happen. But, he’s had a complete change of heart. Next, we’ll get to do some rehearsals and have some fun doing gigs.
What? No "Xmas Bloody Xmas"?
... I think "Better Call Saul" is FAR superior to it's parent show.
