The history of popular music is littered with performers who quit, or more often, were ousted, from bands just as they were on the cusp of fame. Pete Best is the classic industry archetype having been usurped from a certain Liverpool band’s drum stool by Ringo Starr, just a year before the outbreak of Beatlemania. Best’s grunge counterpart Jason Everman had the misfortune to […]
Interviews
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When An Ideal For Living last spoke to Colin Blunstone he was preparing to head out with The Zombies on a world tour marking the 50th anniversary of their classic album Odessey And Oracle. Barely had he returned those dates, when he was out on the road again with his solo band, the UK leg of which kicks off on April 20. Oh, […]
Bauhaus drummer Kevin Haskins was behind the kit for one of the most iconic groups of the late ’70s and early ’80s. Now he’s got together with Cleopatra Records to document his life and times with the band in a glossy, coffee table art book. Featuring largely unseen memorabilia, Bauhaus Undead is Haskins personal account of the goth rockers turbulent history, from their inception […]
XTC fans have been rather spoiled with new product of late, after years of relative inactivity since the band ground to a halt in 2006, there have been a wave of re-issues, a feature-length documentary and, at the end of last year, the first EP from TC&I. For the benefit of anyone not living in the XTC universe, TC&I […]
Emerging from the Bristol Party scene of the late 1980s, Massive Attack have been hailed as one of the most original and influential groups the UK has produced. Now a new book seeks to lift the lid on the band, their home city and the network of artists and collaborators that broke through alongside them. Massive Attack Out of the […]
Father-daughter combos are as rare as hen’s teeth in the music industry, but for London-based duo SPC ECO, it’s clearly a formula that works. The pair recently celebrated their 10th anniversary as a band with the release of Calm – their 9th full studio album. Dad Dean Garcia is a seasoned veteran having formed one half of indie band Curve in the 1990s, before […]
Frontman Neil Arthur is disarmingly modest about their achievements, but Blancmange were one of the most successful bands to emerge from the experimental electronic music scene of the early ’80s. Blending pop melodies with dark lyrics and avant-garde programming and recording techniques, they went on to rack up seven Top 40 hits. Don’t Tell Me and Living On The Ceiling both reached the […]
Judge Roughneck is back and about to lay down the law at a venue near you. Ska great Neville Staple revived the character, first heard on The Specials‘ Stupid Marriage, for his latest double album The Return of Judge Roughneck. Now the Jamaican-born vocalist is heading out on the road to promote the record with a backing band featuring his wife Christine ‘Sugary’ Staple. Arriving in […]
By rights The House of Love should have been as much of a household name as U2 or fellow Creation alumni Oasis. Riding high on the back of a string of sparkling indie singles and rapid sales of their self-titled debut album, they were officially the late ‘80s next big thing.
Named after the iconic French deep sea diver, CousteauX are back from the depths with their first new album in more than a decade. Slimmed down from the original five-piece, frontman Liam McKahey and principal songwriter Davey Ray Moor have reunited as a duo, with an X added to their name to mark their return.