Tumblrgem: Depeche Mode

http://planetdm.tumblr.com/post/116096948495/29-years-ago-depeche-mode-at-the-hmv-nottigham

Not pictured: Gennaro Castaldo.

The Telegraph is terrible

David Hepworth has written a lovely clatter through Barry Manilow's career for the Telegraph, which is well worth a read.

The only problem is the headline the paper has stuck on the story:

Marrying a man isn't the most curious thing Barry Manilow has ever done

You're spot on, Daily Telegraph. Marrying the person he loves isn't the most curious thing a person has done. There's nothing curious or unusual about people of the same genders getting married.

Sandi Thom takes a while to settle a bill

Back in April 2014, Sandi Thom played Egremont Market Hall in Cumbria.

It's taken a while for the council to get the money for the hire of the venue:

Egremont councillor, Elaine Woodburn, said they tried to contact the singer but had no luck in getting a response about the money owed.

“We e-mailed her agent and messaged her on Facebook and Twitter but we never got anything back,” said Coun Woodburn.

It's all a terrible mistake, apparently.

hen The Whitehaven News contacted Sandi Thom about the unpaid bill she replied in an e-mail saying: “My colleague had posted the cheque to the council months ago and if the council has not received it, then it was simply a mistake and perhaps got lost in the post. I’d be more than happy to pay them if they haven’t received the cheque and I look forward to playing the Maryport festival in July when I return to that neck of the woods.”

The cheque got lost in the post - presumably sometime around 1973 when people used to pay bills by sending cheques through the post. And presumably the emails also got lost in the post. And then the Facebook and Twitter messages - why, you know what the Royal Mail's like for not getting those to the places on the envelopes.

Still, nice work for Sandi on turning a consumer journalism story into a chance to plug a forthcoming gig.

And has the bill been paid yet?

Geraldine Pritchard, Egremont Town Council’s financial officer, said: “Since being contacted by The Whitehaven News, Sandi Thom has contacted us asking for our bank details to pay the money. No cheque had been sent to us otherwise it would have been cashed but hopefully we will get the money soon.”

Not quite.

Listen with No Rock: Sharon Van Etten

That's the lead track from Sharon Van Etten's I Don't Want To Let You Down ep. You can buy it in *rubs eyes* June, apparently. June!

Happy Riot Grrl Day, everybody

The mayor of Boston has declared April 9th Riot Grrl Day:

Joyce Linehan, the mayor’s Chief of Policy and Hanna’s longtime friend, will present Hanna with the proclamation at the event. According to Linehan,“[Kathleen’s agent] called me to see if I would introduce Kathleen, probably based on the fact that Kathleen, back in the day, used to stay at my house when bands came through town…We knew each other from the indie rock world.”

The proclamation, signed by Walsh himself, says that it is in part a reference to Hanna’s “Riot Grrrl Manifesto.” A portion of the document also details why the 20 year old manifesto continues to be pertinent today, stating, “The riot grrrl philosophy has never felt more relevant, with misogyny still rampant in many cultural spaces…”

It's not just Boston that needs this. With the lead letter in this week's NME asking why women are being groped at gigs in 2015, we need a worldwide - or at least a musicworldwide - Riot Grrl Day. We need every day to be a Riot Grrl Day.

Black Sabbath say goodbye to farewell gig

Black Sabbath's supposed farewell gig at Ozzfest in Japan has been dropped amidst confusion about whether they were going to play their last gig there at all.

Instead of Sabbath, fans will now see Ozzy Osbourne and some different blokes. Which is pretty much the same thing.

Presumably there will be another farewell in a different place and time, but... nobody really seems to know what's going on. Probably as a tribute to Ozzy.

Artobit: Josie Jones

Josie Jones, Liverpool legend and erstwhile Big Hard Excellent Fish and Wah! has died.



Viewers of Snub TV will remember The Imperfect List - but might be unaware that there was a 2011 update, And The Question Remains:



[UPDATE: Read the 1990 BHEF NME interview]

John and Stipe come together for Ashley Diamond

Elton John and Michael Stipe have something important to say:

We applaud the US Department of Justice for supporting Ashley Diamond and the trans community in arguing that Georgia’s policy of denying transgender inmates their medically necessary hormone treatment is unconstitutional,' it read.

'But we must do more to end the culture of violence and discrimination surrounding gender identity and expression.

'We urge the state of Georgia to embrace desperately needed changes to their correctional system.'

The forced dehumanizing of Ashley Diamond was called "cruel and unusual punishment" by the DOJ last week; The New York Times wrote about her brutal treatment:

“During intake, I kept saying: ‘Hello? I’m trans? I’m a woman?’ ” Ms. Diamond recounted in a phone conversation from prison a few weeks ago. “But to them I was gay. I was what they called a ‘sissy.’ So finally I was like: ‘O.K., I’m a sissy. Do you have a place where sissies can go and be O.K.?’ ”

They did not provide one, she said. A first-time inmate at 33 whose major offense was burglary, Ms. Diamond was sent to a series of high-security lockups for violent male prisoners. She has been raped at least seven times by inmates, her lawsuit asserts, with a detailed accounting of each. She has been mocked by prison officials as a “he-she thing” and thrown into solitary confinement for “pretending to be a woman.” She has undergone drastic physical changes without hormones. And, in desperation, she has tried to castrate and to kill herself several times.

It's good that Stipe and John are working together for something more important than who controls the cents coming from music streaming; it's unconscionable that it should take pop stars to teach the state of Georgia how you treat people.

Soulobit: Billy Butler

Billy Butler - the Chicago soul singer rather than the Liverpudlian DJ - has died.

Inspired, and mentored by, Curtis Mayfield, Cabrini Green born Butler first hit with the Chanters; a solo hit, The Right Track, gave him an international breakthrough:

As the hits started to slow up, Butler turned his attention to gospel, songwriting, and playing in his brother's band.

Billy Butler died of cancer in Chicago on March 31st. He was 69.

Family at GWAR

Some unpleasant business over at GWAR, where the surviving band members are being sued by Dave Brockie's family:

"Immediately after Dave Brockie's death, the remaining active members of GWAR, led by [drummer] Brad Roberts [a.k.a. Jizmak Da Gusha], set out on a course of action to capitalize on the death of Dave Brockie.

"Mr. Roberts and-his cohorts took certain steps to attempt to wrongfully secure Dave Brockie's property and legacy — items that rightfully belonged to his Estate."

The family claim that Brad Roberts tried to seize control of the estate; they suggest that much of Brockie's art and property has been kept by the band. Oh, and Brockie's ashes:

"To date, Mr. Roberts and Slave Pit, Inc. have retained the vast majority of Dave Brockie's remains and failed to return the ashes of Dave Brockie to his grieving father.

There's a further claim of an unauthorised memorial fund.

No official response yet, apparently.

What does American Pie mean?

With Don Mclean auctioning off the meaning of American Pie, you just hope it's going to turn out to be a massive disappointment:

"Yeah, so this bit about the King and the Jester? Well, "the King" refers to an unelected male ruler of a State - kind of like the Queen, yeah, but a bloke? And a jester was a guy who'd dress up in a pointy hat and tell jokes and so on. Look, I was drunk and rushing to hit a deadline."

Those who also entertain: Paloma Faith's snake

Apparently, appearing on a Paloma Faith CD sleeve makes you something of a big deal in the snake world:

Milk snake, Stripey Won, moved into his new home at the farm last month and is a part of the reptile enclosure, which opened to the public on Monday.

But in a past life, Stripey Won was the cover star for pop singer Paloma Faith, featuring on the CD and inside booklet of double platinum selling album A Perfect Contradiction.

She also featured on the single cover for the singer's single, Ready For The Good Life.

There are many more snakes in the music industry; most of those, however, also have legs.

Keyboardobit: Ralph Sharon

Ralph Sharon, pianist, has died.

Born in Britain, Sharon spent time working with British band leaders including the legendary Ted Heath. He told the US National Jazz Archive:

My first professional job was with the Ted Heath orchestra and I always say: I worked my way down from there!

It would be America, though, which made his name. Sharon's mother was a US citizen; he travelled in the opposite direction because, of course, music:

My main thing in going to the States was a musical reason; I was so wrapped up in it that I just wanted to be at the source of it all. [...]

I went out there on spec, as you might say; I just took off, and landed there with a bag. And luckily Tony Scott, a very great clarinet player, who also played alto with Duke Ellington for a while, took me in. I just moved in with him until I managed to get a union card, so that I could start working. I’d had a couple of albums out over here, and I had those with me; so I was able to go to an agency.

A call from Tony Bennett led to a four decade partnership between the two:

“When I look back and review my recordings,” Bennett told the Hartford Courant in 2005, “I see that the best singing I do is when there’s a great jazz artist around, like Stan Getz or Bill Evans, or when Ralph Sharon was playing piano for me.”

It would be a successful partnership - everything from Grammys to an MTV Unplugged album. Which also won a Grammy.

And there was this:


After retiring as Bennett's musical director in 2002, Sharon settled in Colorado. He continued to gig up until the turn of the year.

Ralph Sharon was 91; he died March 31st in Boulder.

Tidal already trying to shore itself up as the, erm, tide goes out

I suppose Tidal's USP is that its incredibly wealthy owners make music, so it's probably no surprise that Beyonce has chosen Tidal to "surprise release" a new song.

(Are we still surprised at people releasing music without three months of run-up and hoopla before? Isn't that just how things are done nowadays?)

Rumours that the song goes "if you like it then you shoulda built a paywall round it" could not be confirmed at time of publication.

TV times: All Shook Up

I don't know why the BBC aren't trumpeting about this from the top of their highest trumpeting towers: All Shook Up, a new (pilot) music series that's iPlayer only.

It's presented by Marc Riley (is this his first TV work since UK Play closed?) and episode one features Slug, Lonelady and The Wave Pictures. It suggests Nightingale-era Whistle Test styling that Later With Jools went for before the put out tables and invited James Nesbitt and Tomas Shafernaker in to watch.

Hugely recommended. And there's some extra offcuts on YouTube, too:

Apology and correction

On August 4th, 2004, I made a post to No Rock And Roll Fun in which I made reference to a McCains Oven Chips advert:

What's most ridiculous about this, of course, is the band don't even sing in the bloody advert - at least if it had been, say, the "alien invasion/ what on earth are we going to do" band from the KitKat ad, or the woman who used to trill that "I'm a McCains Oven Chips fan/better for the kids and the old man/better than chips from a chip pan/twenty per cent less fat", they had some sort of musical bit in their commercial.

It has recently been pointed out to me by Cumbrian Spaceman that McCains Oven Chips actually pledged forty per cent less fat.

Video confirmation of my error:

This was a regrettable mistake, and clearly the original post fell short of the high standards we hope to achieve. I apologise to the readers, and to McCains.

Huck off, then: Mick Hucknall is a rich person

I'm not sure there's anyone alive for whom 'Katie Hopkins doesn't support Labour' isn't enough to shift their votes, but just in case:

Mick Hucknall has disendorsed Labour.

Mick's superb grasp and understanding of the 2015 political scene is demonstrated by his belief that you can somehow vote "for the coalition".

This week just gone

The ten most-read things this week:

1. Depression in the music industry
2. KT Tunstall: it's my braces which make people think I'm gay
3. Tony Hadley's 2006 health scare
4. Coachella are banning everything
5. That last Mark and Lard in full
6. Daphne and Celeste: They're back…
7. Tidal: Wave of mutilation
8. Video: Cats And Cats And Cats
9. Having sex with Leapy Lee
10. R Kelly's brother has some things to say

This week's interesting things:


Houndstooth - No News From Home

Download No News From Home



Chastity Belt - Time To Go Home

Download Time To Go Home



GYBE! - Asunder, Sweet And Other Distress

Download Asunder...



Death Cab For Cutie - Kintsugi

Download Asunder...



Ron Sexsmith - Carousel One

Download Carousel One



Death Grips - The Powers That B

Download The Powers That B

Kate Jackson's named, if not ready to release, her album

From the Bury Free Press:

Kate Jackson, former lead singer of The Long Blondes, has revealed the title of her long-awaited solo album – British Road Movies.

Kate, from Bury St Edmunds, began working on the project with Suede’s main songwriter Bernard Butler back in 2009.

The album was completed in December and Kate is hoping to release it at the end of the summer.

On Saturday, Kate is performing a hometown gig at the Hunter Club in Bury St Edmunds.

Coachella ban almost everything

This, from Dazed And Confused, is the list of things banned at Coachella.

D&C have fun with idea of banning selfie sticks and, more specifically, narcissists - after all, coachella without narcissists would be like premiership football without nasty replica shirts; most of the audience would be excluded.

But some of the other bans are equally ridiculous - no marker pens? A ban on "outside food" for a festival where you camp?

There's also a list of approved items, which is probably even more infuriating:

It's not entirely clear how Coachella square banning video cameras while letting in digital cameras and cellphones. And no laser pointers, but feel free to bring in lighters because fire never hurt anyone, right?

I'm hoping that there's going to be some sort of expert on hand to be able to judge whether a collapsable item is an umbrella (and thus, forbidden) or a parasol.

The presence of "dancing shoes" and "smiles" there is probably the worst bit of it all - "hey, guys, we're being a bit heavy here but, yeah, we can still have fun if you bring your dancing shoes and big smiles. Not too big, though. If you're grinning in a freaky way, we'll have to search you for drugs and/or drug paraphanalia."

Woman changes hairstyle; MTV confused

What's that, MTV? You need some help with an identification problem?

You... you need us to tell you who the pop star in that photo of Rita Ora is? It's, erm, Rita Ora, isn't it?

after getting a 1970s-style makeover with bleached eyebrows and long, straight hair for the Mark Kean photoshoot - The Voice coach Rita was left looking like a completely different person!

MTV, then: still very much convinced that their father did really disappear when he put his hands in front of his face.

Morrisons overhaul their playlist

Failing supermarket chain Morrisons has come up with a plan to refresh its offering. Not dumping the acres and acres of brawn and haslet that are on every shelf you come across; nor stopping spraying cooling water on lettuce tightly wrapped in plastic.

But it has updated its tannoy tuneset:

Morrisons' new boss David Potts has responded to a 'special request' from staff to introduce an updated in-store playlist featuring 9,000 songs from today (Good Friday).

The new compilation, which is expected to include hits by Jack Johnson, John Legend, Beyoncé, The Cure, Morcheeba, U2 and Texas, will be live in all 505 UK supermarkets, including those at the Leisure Plaza and in Westcroft in Milton Keynes.

The inclusion of Jack Johnson and John Legend suggests that Potts might just have been being vindictive - "complain about the tannoy, eh? I'll show you" - but he seems to have been genuine.

Mind you, "updating" a playlist with The Cure (last album 2008; last top ten hit 1992) and Texas (last top ten hit 2006) makes you wonder what the hell they were playing before. Big band sounds?

No year's time

Noah And The Whale have split.

The Guardian effectively sums up their career as having started on the edges, they drove into the middle of the road and disappeared.

Heads united

Sex with Leapy Lee. Mormonism. And now, football. It's an eclectic morning of things people do that I don't really want to watch. Geoff Barrow and Phil Selway are trying to raise charity money through the medium of soccer:

Portishead's Geoff Barrow and Radiohead drummer Philip Selway have teamed up to form a charity soccer team named Heads United. A play on Manchester United and the "–head" attached to both artists' band names, Heads United will hit the pitch April 25th in Newberry, England (via Pitchfork). Barrow is hoping to raise £1,500 for the Football & Food Festival, which will donate all proceeds to the Mary Hare Foundation, a national charity that supports deaf children.

It's a good cause; they're a bit shy of their target. Go on, just one less chocolate egg and you can help out.

Brandon Flowers calls Mitt Romney a bad Mormon

The return of Brandon Flowers brings back to attention the second highest profile Mormon. And he's been having a pop at the highest profile Mormon:

"I think Romney would even admit that he wasn't a great ambassador for [the Mormon Church]," Flowers said in an interview with the Daily Beast. "His answers weren't great, and it made it even worse; it seemed like he was hiding something. But there's really nothing to hide. You can find out what you need to find out! It's all there."

It's true that there's a lot of information that you can find out about Mormonism, because even the anti-Mormon MM Outreach site lists "facts the Mormons won't tell you" while admitting that, erm, it sourced most of these facts that the Mormons won't tell you came from the Mormon Church website.

The Washington Post has some sympathy for Romney:

But in Romney's defense, from 2008 to 2012, the percentage of Americans who said they would not vote for a generally well-qualified candidate their party nominated who happened to be Mormon was between 17 percent and 24 percent, according to Gallup polling. Only gays or lesbians, Muslims, and atheists had a higher percentage on that question.

Actually, if you're less hobbled by your religion than by a rejection of religion, or your sexuality, you might think that you're not that hard done by, but let's just sit that to one side.

Let's just focus on something else, though. Brandon Flowers is proud to be a spokesperson for Mormonism.

If he wants to take that role on, let's ask him about how the time the Mormons of Utah tried to ban same gender marriage in California. Let's ask him about why the church then tried to cover up what it was doing. Let's ask him about the church's support for "religious freedom" laws that are basically legalising discrimination.

If we wants to be the poster boy for Mormonism, let's ask him the difficult questions.

Things you probably don't want to know about

The idea of older people having sex isn't a bad thing. We're all going to be older people some day, with luck, and having an active sex life as you get older is a good and healthy thing. There's nothing icky about older people having sex.

Although there is a line that probably should be drawn when the sex is this:

This time [Margaret Holyland] and her husband Rob were invited to take part in tantric sex lessons with aging pop star Leapy Lea and his pneumatic Danish girlfriend Bettina, self-styled psychic healer Raimondo and geriatric swinging professor Colin.

You might be struggling to place Leapy Lee. This is Leapy Lee:

Older people having sex is an excellent thing. When that sex starts to involve Leapy Lee, though, please make sure your curtains are drawn.

When bodyguards are collateral damage

You know who's really lost out with Zayn leaving One Direction?

Okay, yes, apart from retailers who now have piles of Zayn dolls they're going to have to mark down.

It's his former bodyguard:

Guys , just so you know , I'm just as sad about Zayn leaving the band , I've been with them 5 years , but I respect his choice :-/

— Preston Mahon (@prestonmahon) March 30, 2015

I have to respect it , even tho it's put me out of work now :-( but I'll bounce back , I hope x

— Preston Mahon (@prestonmahon) March 30, 2015

It's interesting that Malik's management appear to have concluded that once he's no longer in the band, the risks that used to haunt his every step evaporate. There's a duty of care question hidden behind those two tweets.

Joni Mitchell is in hospital

There's some grim news this morning from Joni Mitchell's official website:

Joni was found unconscious in her home this afternoon. She regained consciousness on the ambulance ride to an L.A. area hospital. She is currently in intensive care undergoing tests and is awake and in good spirits. More updates to come as we hear them. Light a candle and sing a song, let's all send good wishes her way.

There was a brief update later on:

Joni has been hospitalized. We are awaiting official word on her condition and will post it here as soon as we know.

Tidal: Artists unite to launch doomed streaming service

A bunch of rich people have come together to launch a video music streaming service:

Alicia Keys, Arcade Fire's Win Butler and Régine Chassagne, Beyoncé, Daft Punk, Jack White, Jason Aldean, J. Cole, Jay Z, Kanye West, Deadmau5, Madonna, Nicki Minaj, Rihanna and Usher – rubbed elbows onstage at the swanky launch event while two others beamed in digitally (Calvin Harris and Coldplay's Chris Martin). Aside from making a spectacle, the musicians made the case for an artist-owned streaming service.

Fun fact: besides being millionaires, most of those people also used to make records at some point.

An artist-owned streaming service isn't a bad idea, it's just that one which is owned by rich, dominant artists isn't really going to do much for the 99% of musicians who don't have to worry about which house they left their other wallet in.

Naturally, the whole thing is being ridiculously oversold:

"We come together before you on this day...with one voice in unity in the hopes that today will be a moment that will forever change the course of music history," said Keys, the only artist to address the audience, in an exuberant speech. "Our goal is simple: We want to create a better service and a better experience for both fans and artists, and that is our promise to the world."

No, you just want to keep a bigger share of the royalties. The world doesn't need you to promise about this sort of thing.

Keys, of course, has been involved in a big tech launch before, having signed on to be the face of Blackberry shortly before that company introduced its 'rotting turd' range of phones.

I know what you're thinking. Is there a risk this event couldn't be self-agrandising enough?

No, they stepped up on that one:

[Keys] explained that the mission statement of the musicians, who stood patiently listening to the speech, was "to preserve music's importance in our lives." She spoke of artists delivering "exclusive experiences" via the service and ultimately finding a way to "preserve" the industry and the value of music. She also quoted Friedrich Nietzsche: "Without music, life would be a mistake."

Although since the point of Tidal is about restricting the flow of music, and when they speak about 'music's importance' what they really mean is 'the price of music to the listener', arguably they're making Nietzsche's mistake more, not less, likely.

But quoting a philosopher beloved of the Nazis might not have ratcheted up the pomposity to the sort of level we'd expect with Madonna and Jack White involved. Could you push it a little further, guys?

"Today is the day," she repeated before inviting her co-owners to sign what she called a "declaration," though she did not expound on what it said. "This is the beginning of a whole new era," she said before each present musician made his or her way over to a podium to sign a document.

Oh, yes. Signing a declaration. Because it's historical, right? That'd do it.

Unfortunately, video of the event wasn't put on YouTube so nobody really noticed this happening.

Labelobit: Miriam Bienstock

Miriam Bienstock, one of the co-founders of Atlantic Records, has died.

In the early days of the label, Ahmet Ertegun scouted talent; Bienstock's then-husband Herb Abramson looked after the recording. Miriam did everything else, as the New York Times explains:

“I must tell you, Miriam was an important person in keeping discipline at Atlantic Records, and keeping everything on the up-and-up,” Mr. Ertegun, who died in 2006, said in an interview with Billboard magazine in 1997. “She ran the office, and none of us was inclined to run the office. She is unheralded, unrecognized, but if we hadn’t had her in those developing years, the company would have folded. She also had very good taste in music.”

Bienstock sold out of Atlantic in 1964; before the label was absorbed by Warners. Before this, she'd divorced Herb and remarried Freddy Bienstock. Post-Atlantic, she turned her attention to theatre and investing.

Miriam Bienstock was 92; she died March 21st in Manhattan.