Pennyblackmusic: August 2025
Interviews
Robert Forster
Co-leader of cult Aussie indie rockers The Go-Betweens, Robert Forster chats to Denzil Watson about new solo LP ‘Strawberries’ and his upcoming October UK tour.
John McKay
Spear Of Destiny
Claudia Brucken
Resurfacing with his debut solo album ‘Sixes And Sevens’, legendary former Siouxsie and the Banshees guitarist John McKay chats about his time with the post-punk outfit and his current projects
Denzil Watson speaks to Spear of Destiny’s Kirk Brandon about their heavy-touring schedule and 'Janus', their new double album.
Former Propaganda vocalist Claudia Brucken speaks to Eoghan Lyng about her new solo album 'Night Mirror'.
Cathode Ray
the black watch
Simian Life
Sir Tim Rice
Jeremy Thoms. the frontman in Edinburgh experimental outfit The Cathode Ray, speaks to John Clarkson about its fifth album, 'Advance Retreat'.
John Andrew Fredrick, the frontman with Los Angeles indie band the black watch, speaks to John Clarkson about his group’s 25th and new double album, ‘For All the World'
Los Angeles-based brothers and muiti-instrumenralists, Andy and Rob Campanella, about their project Simian Life and its psychedelia, folk and pop-influenced debut album, ‘Hermetic Tonal Briefing’.
Award-winning lyricist Sir Tim Rice talks to Nick Dent-Robinson about his new stage show, 'My :Life in Musicals - I Know Him So Well', in which he presents performed extracts from his own songs and talks about them.
Chris Wade
Fiona Hutchings
Armory Show
Loft
Dodson and Fogg frontman Chris Wade has just released a memoir,, ]Adventures in Music Books and Film'. He talks to Malcolm Carter about it and his many projects, including, as well as recording albums, making films and writing books about film legends.
Fiona Hutchings, who has written for Pennyblack for over fifteen years, talks to John Clarkson about her second book of poetry ‘Uncommon Labels’, which has poems about her survival of a brain haemorrhage, music and what it means to be working class.
Skids' frontman Richard Jobson talks to John Clarkson about resurrecting his 80's project The Armory Show and its dark and nihilstic new album, 'Dead Souls'.
Denzil Watson speaks to Pete Astor and Andy Stricklanf from reformed indie band and Creation Records act The Loft about their debut album, ‘Everything Changes Everything Stays the Same’, which has come thirty-nine years after they acrimoniously split up.
Yardbirds
Deb Googe and Cara Tivey
Liz Mitchell
John Philip Shenale
Lisa Torem catches up with The Yardbirds co-founding member, Jim McCarty, on the band’s early history, current tour and his role as drummer.
My Bloody Valentine bassist Deb Googe and classically-trained pianist Cara Tivey talk about their unusual friendship and joint album, ‘The Golden Thread’.
Liz Mitchell talks to Adam Coxon about her time as a vocalist in Boney M. being in the first Western band to perform in Russia and the down side of fame,
Lisa Torem talks to John Philip Shenale about extending the sound palette of acoustic instruments and what’s beyond the cacophony of Cage?
Visitor Comments
Editorial
Vinny Peculiar - Things Too Long Left Unsaid
Bram Tchaikovsky - Profile
Zombies - Breathe Out Breathe In
Comsat Angels - Interview with Stephen Fellows
The Church - Interview with Steve Kilbey
Adrian Gurvitz - Interview
Gay - You Know The Rules
Man From Delmonte - Interview
TJ Lind - Interview
Marianne Faithfull - Interview
Eric Bell - Interview
Bram Tchaikovsky - Profile
Zombies - Breathe Out Breathe In
Comsat Angels - Interview with Stephen Fellows
The Church - Interview with Steve Kilbey
Adrian Gurvitz - Interview
Gay - You Know The Rules
Man From Delmonte - Interview
TJ Lind - Interview
Marianne Faithfull - Interview
Eric Bell - Interview
Hello and welcome to the July edition of the Pennyblackmusic Magazine. 2025 has already become a horrible year for rock deaths. At the end of January we lost Marianne Faithfull, and since then David Johansen from The New York Dolls, Brian James from The Damned, Clem Burke from Blondie and Mike Peters from The Alarm have passed away. Now David Thomas of Pere Ubu and Rocket From The Tombs and Brian Wilson are also gone. In this edition we pay tribute to them both. We interviewed the notoriously prickly David Thomas six times over the years, and our long-term writer Mark Rowland cond ....more
Profiles
Philomonjaro previews this year's Visor Fest in Valencia in Spain which will include sets from Peter Hook,, Happy Mondays and The Lemonheads.
Cleo Laine
Brian Wilson
Brian Wilson
Pere Ubu
Nick Dent-Robinson pays tribute to 'First Lady of Jazz' Cleo Laine, who died in July,
Malcolm Carter reflects on the impact of him of Brian Wilson’s music and sixty years as a fan,
Nick Dent-Robinson pays tribute to Brian Wilson of The Beach Boys who died in June.
Mark Rowland reflects on four interviews with Pere Ubu’s notoriously cranky frontman David Thomas, who died in April.
Live Reviews
Colin Blunstone
Lisa Torem chronicles an exciting night in which Zombies’ vocalist Colin Blunstone sings the band hits accompanied by Rooney, and their new documentary is screened.
Colin Blunstone
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Thalia Hall, Chicago, 16/7/2025
Billie Eilish - O2 Arena, London, 10/7/2025
Crystal Teardrop - Night Owl, Birmingham, 10/3/2025
Waterboys - Roundhouse, London, 1/6/2025
Yardbirds - Des Plaines Theater, Des Plaines, 18/4/2025
Skunk Anansie - Old Market, Brighton, 16/5/2025
Kruder and Dofmeister - Paral-lel 62, Barcelona, 27/4/2025
When Rivers Meet - Waterfront, Norwich, 29/5/2025
Nils Petter Molvaer - El Molino, Barcelona, 24/4/2025
Badly Drawn Boy - Aviva Studios, Manchester, 18/4/2025
Pistol Daisys - Waterfront, Norwich, 29/5/2025
Credits - ARC, Liverpool, 17/5.2025
Billie Eilish - O2 Arena, London, 10/7/2025
Crystal Teardrop - Night Owl, Birmingham, 10/3/2025
Waterboys - Roundhouse, London, 1/6/2025
Yardbirds - Des Plaines Theater, Des Plaines, 18/4/2025
Skunk Anansie - Old Market, Brighton, 16/5/2025
Kruder and Dofmeister - Paral-lel 62, Barcelona, 27/4/2025
When Rivers Meet - Waterfront, Norwich, 29/5/2025
Nils Petter Molvaer - El Molino, Barcelona, 24/4/2025
Badly Drawn Boy - Aviva Studios, Manchester, 18/4/2025
Pistol Daisys - Waterfront, Norwich, 29/5/2025
Credits - ARC, Liverpool, 17/5.2025
Billie Eilish
Crystal Teardrop
Waterboys
Nick Dent-Robinson watches Billie Eilish skilfully combine spectacle with intimacy on the first of six nights at the O2 Arena in London.
With Rob Hadley on photos, Cherry Holiday watches 60’s-influenced band The Crystal Teardrop play the launch gig for their outstanding debut album, ‘The Teardrop Is Forming’.
Steev Burgess enjoys an euphoric set from The Waterboys at The Roundhouse in London.
Most Viewed (articles)
Current Edition
Carl Ewens - David Bowie 1964 to 1982 On Track: Every Album, Every SongArmory Show - Interview with Richard Jobson
Colin Blunstone - Thalia Hall, Chicago, 16/7/2025
Bathers - Photoscapes 1
Visor Fest - Valencia, Spain, 26/9/2025...27/9/2025
John McKay - Interview
Billie Eilish - O2 Arena, London, 10/7/2025
Robert Forster - Interview
Sir Tim Rice - Interview
Loft - Interview
Previous Editions
Heavenly - P.U.N.K. Girl EPManic Street Preachers - (Gig of a Lifetime) Millennium Stadium, Cardiff, December 1999
Beautiful South - Ten Songs That Made Me Love...
Pixies - Ten Songs That Made Me Love...
Oasis - Oasis, Earl's Court, London, 1995
Prolapse - Interview
Trudie Myerscough-Harris - Interview
Paul Clerehugh - Interview
Doris Brendel - Interview
Simon Heavisides - Destiny Stopped Screaming: The Life and Times of Adrian Borland
Favourite Albums
Remnant Three
Jack Frost
Robin Trower
Steve Kinrade asks if Remnant Three's 'A Gentle Collapsing', which was recorded in the mid-Eighties but finally released last year, is a reimagining or a reflection of the Manchester blueprint.
In our Re: View section, in which we look back at albumsfrom the past, Dixie Ernill examines a new box set from Jack Frost, the 1990’s side project of Grant McLennan of The Go-Betweens and Steve Kilbey from The Church, which collects together their two albums plus extra material.
Lisa Torem reflects on former Procol Harum guitarist Robin Trower's 1975 album 'For Earth Below' which has just been released in a 50th Anniversary edition.
Features
In commemoration of Brian Wilson who died in June, Lisa Torem draws from the former Beach Boys’ co-founder and solo artist’s vast songwriting collection to choose her ten favourite songs from him.
In Video Vault Tommy Gunnarsson reflects on the video for Chicago’s ‘Stay the Night’ which he describes as “a classic.”
Carl Ewens
Belouis Some
Johnny Cash
Maarten Schiethart
Lisa Torem finds Carl Ewens’ book about David Bowie for the On Track series to be a well-detailed and illuminating read.
In the inaugural 'Video Vault' column Fiona Hutchings chooses Belouis Some’s 'Imagination' as a music video that had a real impact on her.
In our new 'Video Vault' series, Adrian Janes admires the openness and vulnerability for the 2003 video of 'Hurt', the final single which Johnny Cash released in his lifetime.
In Vinyl Stories Dave Goodwin Talks to our Dutch writer Maarten Sciethart about buying vinyl online and in his native Nijmegen,
Photography
In the first of two galleries, Philip Wark takes photos of The Bathers with a strings section and trumpet player Colin Steele,.
Philip Wark in the second of two galleries takes photos of The Bathers with a strings secrton and trumpet player Colin Steele,.
Ian Dunn takes photos of Hothouse Flowers' frontman and keyboard player Liam Ó Maonlaat the 02 Institute in Birmingham.
Morrissey
Pogues
Lathums
Andrew Twambley takes photos of Morrissey at the Viictoria Warehouse in Mancehester.
Andrew Twambley takes photos of the reformed Pogues at the Apollo in Manchester.
Amanda J Window takes photos of bestselling indie rock band The Lathums At The Apollo in Manchester.
Most Viewed (reviews)
Current Edition
Sick Man of Europe - The Sick Man of EuropeLucy Spraggan - Other Sides of the Moon
Amy Macdonald - Is This What You've Been Waiting For?
Phew, Erika Kobayashi,, Dieter Moebius - Radium Girls
Davey Woodward - Mumbo in the Jumbo
Bush - I Beat Loneliness
Alice Cooper - The Revenge of Alice Cooper
Blueboy - 2
Cynthia Erivo - I Forgive You
Suzanne Vega - Flying With Angels
Previous Editions
Marika Hackman - Big SighLightning Seeds - See You in the Stars
Feedback File - Summerland
Songs Ohia - The Lioness
Holy - Mono Freedom
Mary Fahl - Can't Get It Out Of My Head
Peasant - Bound for Glory
My Vitriol - Finelines
Richard Hawley - Lowedges
Steve Cradock - Peace City West
Reviews
Alice Cooper
Phew, Erika Kobayashi,, Dieter Moebius
Lucy Spraggan
Sick Man of Europe
Energetic but often poignant and thought-demanding latest album from godfather of shock rock Alice Cooper
Echoes of exposure: on this extraordinary collaborative album from 2012 between Japanese experimentalist Phew, artist and writer Erika Kobayashi and German electronic pioneer Dieter Moebius and which re-released on vinyl soundtracks the unseen scars of history
Authentic and resonating reimagining of her back catalogue on eighth album from Lucy Spraggan
Monochrome masterpiece for a fractured feature on debut album from the enigmatic The Sick Man of Europe
Cynthia Erivo
Bush
Amy Macdonald
Blueboy
Second album from British award-winning singer and actor Cynthia Erivo which finds her on a powerful musical odyssey
Emotive and powerful tenth album from rock outfit Bush
Rousing ode to resilience and indestructible hope on sixth album from Glaswegian singer-songwriter Amy Macdonald
Second comeback single from former Sarah Records act Blueboy which with new singer Gemma Townley which still finds them worthy of investigation
Garbage
Pulp
Peter Doolan
Vinny Peculiar
Uncompromising journey through darkness and light on sixth album from post-punk act Garbage
Remarkable comeback album of quirky genius, their first in 24 years, from Pulp
Well-crafted but perhaps one-sided tales of heartbreak from gifted London-based Irish singer-songwriter Peter Doolan
Poignant but funny sixteenth album from Worcester-based cult musician Vinny Peculiar
Morcheeba
Eddie Chacon
HAIM
Little Simz
Eleventh album from much acclaimed British trip-hop pioneers Morcheeba upon which they make a successful return to familiar territory
Cathartic, soulful journey on third solo album from Eddie Chacon, who was previously one-half of chart-topping R and B duo Charles and Eddie
Strong harmonic pop on fourth album from HAIM, who are a Californian trio of sisters
Lyrical, innovative ode to survival on sixth album from London rapper Little Simz
Lapsley
Billy Nomates
Taylor Austin Dye
Philip Jeays
Intimate and honest third album from Lapsley, who has an unconventional take on love
Impressive concept album from Bily Nomates, the nom de plume for Bristol-based post-punk singer-songwriter Victoria Ann Tor Maries, which makes an expressive journey towards catharsis
Appealing combination of spirited country tunes and reflective lyrics on second album from Ketucky-born singer-songwriter Taylor Austin Dye
Romantic and reflective latest album from Jacques Brel-influenced singer-songwriter Philip Jeays
Only Child
Davey Woodward
Nigel Stonier
Suzanne Vega
Deep dive into loss, memory and enduring hope on fifth album from Only Child, the project of Liverpool-based musician Alan O'Hare
Eclectic eighteenth album from Bristol-based singer-songwriter and former Brilliant Corners' frontman Davey Woodward
Eighth ‘solo’ album from Nigel Stonier, who is still best known for his role as producer for other artists, but there a feeling that’s about to change with ‘Wolf Notes’
Outstanding first album in nine years from Suzanne Vega which breaks new ground
Pennyblackmusic Regular Contributors
Adam Coxon
Adrian Janes
Amanda J. Window
Andrew Twambley
Anthony Dhanendran
Benjamin Howarth
Cila Warncke
Daniel Cressey
Darren Aston
Dastardly
Dave Goodwin
Denzil Watson
Adrian Janes
Amanda J. Window
Andrew Twambley
Anthony Dhanendran
Benjamin Howarth
Cila Warncke
Daniel Cressey
Darren Aston
Dastardly
Dave Goodwin
Denzil Watson
Dixie Ernill
Dominic B. Simpson
Eoghan Lyng
Fiona Hutchings
Harry Sherriff
Helen Tipping
Jamie Rowland
John Clarkson
Julie Cruickshank
Kimberly Bright
Lisa Torem
Maarten Schiethart
Dominic B. Simpson
Eoghan Lyng
Fiona Hutchings
Harry Sherriff
Helen Tipping
Jamie Rowland
John Clarkson
Julie Cruickshank
Kimberly Bright
Lisa Torem
Maarten Schiethart