I was clearing out some old files and found a few photos of me I hadn’t seen in a very long time. I don’t know who took them but I worked out they were taken in 1965 or 1966 when I was at Manchester university and living in Cornbrook St, Brook’s Bar. It was a […]
I was born and spent my first seventeen years in Hull. I was back there briefly in when my son was filming in a local Police Station and staying on Newland Avenue where I was brought up. Newland Avenue was where my father took me to the bike shop to buy a Dansette multi-change record […]
photo by Caroline Coon I met her mum Nora when she came into the Chrysalis office in 1970. It wasn’t many years later I was watching The Slits on a double bill with Siouxie and the Banshees in Croydon.Sadly its now an obituary. Simon F has written something on his blog http://yammer.blog.co.uk/ that I thought […]
In the last 3 or 4 summers I’ve seen a few great shows in the south of France. Bob Dylan played at Le Cannet an unprepossing suburb of Cannes in a municipal hall called La Palestra that seems to have been mainly used for boxing tournaments. He was amazing in the way only he can […]
It rolls out every year with an announcement in the ‘off season’ which guarantees it lots of attention, followed by an award show quickly enough to hold that attention. Or does it? I wondered. I called Simon F an ex-music journalist, ex-muscian, ex-video director and writer for an opinion. His first reaction was abusive, however […]
I don’t know what the rules are regarding posting other people’s blogs but I’m hoping Bob won’t object to my posting part of his blog today. If you’re tempted to subscribe after reading this post let me warn you…he is relentless. I don’t mind myself, I often find myself learning something, and the delete button […]
My first festival was the Cleethorpes Jazz Festival in 1963. I’d read ‘On the Road’ by Jack Kerouac and decided that’s the life I wanted. Going to Cleethorpes seemed a step in the right direction,on the beatnik trail. I don’t remember how I got there,whether I had a ticket or just gatecrashed, but I do […]
It was a much smaller MIDEM than its been in the past.It’s still the largest and most focussed opportunity the music biz crowd has to trade and make new contacts around the world, its just that at this precise moment there are fewer of them.The Croisette at Cannes and its Palais du Festival was noticeably […]