It doesn’t happen often, but the current issue of all three London poprock monthly mags has an Anglo musician on the cover: Keith Richards on the front of MOJO, Paul Weller on UNCUT and Johnny Marr fronting the new issue of The Word.
The only other Anglo clean sweep in the last 20 months consisted of The Beatles, The Smiths and Amy Winehouse, in February this year.
The three mags regularly cover home-grown talent alongside N American peers, but it’s rare for English musos to dominate the newsstands in this fashion.
The best-loved popular music of the last century was predominantly American, and US musicians have dominated rock ever since Bill Haley signaled the end of the road for the post-WW2 crooner generation. Since The Beatles, however, English musicians have punched above their weight in most world markets – if you doubt it, visit any record shop anywhere in Europe and count the Anglos.
Gerry Smith
Wednesday 15 August 2007
Friday 10 August 2007
The Biggest Bang – new Stones 4DVD box
It’s a well-kept secret, but The Biggest Bang, a new Stones 4DVD box set, featuring footage from the current world tour, has just been released. Best price I’ve seen is £30 at Asda, the UK Wal-Mart subsidiary. My local HMV hadn’t heard of it, and suggested In The Park as the “new Stones DVD”.
Far more tempting than Forty Flicks, the massively overpriced last Stones DVD box (£40-£50 – at that sort of price, they’d have to throw in a week at Sir Michael’s Loire Valley chateau to interest me.)
Along with the Martin Scorsese-directed Stones concert film, set for release (US) on 21 September, these are exciting times for Glimmer film collectors.
Gerry Smith
Far more tempting than Forty Flicks, the massively overpriced last Stones DVD box (£40-£50 – at that sort of price, they’d have to throw in a week at Sir Michael’s Loire Valley chateau to interest me.)
Along with the Martin Scorsese-directed Stones concert film, set for release (US) on 21 September, these are exciting times for Glimmer film collectors.
Gerry Smith
Monday 6 August 2007
Paul Weller for beginners
As main man in The Jam and Style Council and as a solo artist, Paul Weller has been a prolific songwriter, with over 300 songs already to his credit - and the flow shows little sign of abating.
Like many creatives, Weller’s early stuff is the most highly regarded. In a lengthy feature in the new (Sept) issue of UNCUT, the music and movies monthly, celeb muso votes for his best songs produce a top 30 which is two thirds Jam songs. And a top ten with 9 Jam songs.
The top three, fairly predictably, are:
1. Going Underground
2. Town Called Malice
3. That's Entertainment
If you need to catch up on Paul Weller (as I did), the new issue of UNCUT offers you an expert dissection of his work.
www.uncut.co.uk
Gerry Smith
Like many creatives, Weller’s early stuff is the most highly regarded. In a lengthy feature in the new (Sept) issue of UNCUT, the music and movies monthly, celeb muso votes for his best songs produce a top 30 which is two thirds Jam songs. And a top ten with 9 Jam songs.
The top three, fairly predictably, are:
1. Going Underground
2. Town Called Malice
3. That's Entertainment
If you need to catch up on Paul Weller (as I did), the new issue of UNCUT offers you an expert dissection of his work.
www.uncut.co.uk
Gerry Smith
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