Chris Haddon - February 2007

  by Admin

published: 28 / 1 / 2007

intro

Hello and welcome to the February edition of the Pennyblackmusic magazine, our first after the Christmas break and of the New Year.In what is a very full edition, our lead interview this month is with Tim Burgess of the Charlatans. One of the great English rock bands, the Charlatans have endured va

Hello and welcome to the February edition of the Pennyblackmusic magazine, our first after the Christmas break and of the New Year. In what is a very full edition, our lead interview this month is with Tim Burgess of the Charlatans. One of the great English rock bands, the Charlatans have endured various tragedies over the last two decades including the death of their keyboardist and founder member Ron Collins in a car crash in 1996, but have throughout their career, even despite Burgess moving to LA a few years ago, maintained an intensive work schedule, recording since first forming in 1990 nine studio albums. A bestselling singles collection, ‘Forever’, was released at the end of last year. At a gig in Newcastle to promote it, Jonjo McNeill met with Tim Burgess and spoke to him about the past sixteen years, living in LA, going on the wagon and (in a failed attempt to cultivate a growing trend amongst Pennyblackmusic writers perhaps ?)… beards. We are also running an interview with Keris Howard, the former frontman with indiepop groups Brighter and Harper Lee., who speaks to Chris Jones about the one time Sarah Records' signing Brighter's second compilation, 'Out to Sea', which has just been released on Matinee Records, and also the recent break-up of Harper Lee. Our other main interviews this month are with the Aggrolites, one of the few American reggae groups, who have recently toured with Madness, and Scottish singer-songwriter Malcolm Middleton who talks about his forthcoming third solo album ‘A Brighter Beat’ ,and the farewell tour and split of his band, the much acclaimed Arab Strap. And that is not all… We have the final parts of Anthony Strutt’s interviews, carried on from last year, with the long lasting indiepop group Trembling Blue Stars, and Palace Fires, the new band of Gene stars Matt James and Steve Mason. There are interviews as well with the Bitter Springs and Joe Gideon and the Shark, who will be playing the ninth Pennyblackmusic Bands Night , along with Viarosa, at the Spitz in London. We have conversations too with Steve Walsh from lost 70’s post punk band Manicured Noise, who have just had a retrospective CD. ‘Northern Stories’, released to much acclaim on Caroline True Records ; Antony Harding whose ambient act July Skies who will soon release a fourth album ‘The Weather Clock’ in the spring, and singer-songwriter Tim Pare who has just released his six song debut ‘Trans Siberian Express’. We have two label interview as well this month (told you that things were full). The first is with Markus Wilhelms of the Hamburg-based label Aufgeladen und Bereit, who speaks to Jamie Rowland about his label’s first compilation ‘Get While the Getting’s Good’ and why he has to date released records exclusively by Scottish acts. The second is with Pennyblackmusic writer Tommy Gunnarsson and his girlfriend Sandra Neergaard-Petersen about their new very limited edition indiepop label Snowday Records We are running both those interviews in our Profiles section alongside articles on Tom Waits sprawling new box set ‘Orphans’, minimalist and film music composer Marvin Ayres and Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds' new ‘Abattoir Blues’ double DVD. We have live reviews of the 0 Degrees of Seperation folk tour which featured Vashti Bunyan, Juana Molina, Adem and Vetiver, and gigs by Kristin Hersh, Viarosa, Mathew Sawyer, Tiny Dancers, Wolf Eyes, Hundred Reasons, Stuffy/The Fuses, Faust and New Rhodes. In our features section there are details of the Pennyblackmusic Bands Night, and also our regular Ghost in the Machine and Condemned to Rock ‘n’ Roll columns. In the former, in which Adam Wood looks at and exposes internet only bands he profiles electronic act Skypilot, while in the latter Ben Howarth looks with scepticism at the new British singles chart, which now takes account of downloads. There is also a new photo shoot in our Photoscapes series in which Anna Gudaniec has taken photos of American hardcore acy Nightmare of You at a recent London gig In our Re : View section, in which our writers look back at albums from the past which they feel deserve further evaluation, there are articles on the Fall’s ‘Hex Enducation Hour’ and Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds’ ‘Murder Ballads’. Our Website of the Month is the personal website of Pennyblackmusic photographer Anna Gudaniec. We are also running 32 album and single reviews. In our mid-month reviews up-date we ran a further 14 reviews. We have two new writers this month. Neil Palmer is London-based and is the former drummer with both Last Party and the Bitter Springs and has also drummed for the Subway Sect. He is also currently working on a biography of the Bitter Springs. Neil has contributed both the features on Nick Cave, the Mathew Sawyer live review, and also the review on Mathew Sawyer’s band the Ghosts’ debut album ‘Blue Bird s Blood’. Russell Ferguson comes from Leeds, and is a music fan with 25 years experience of going to gigs. He has contributed the Hundred Reasons review. Russell is also a keen photographer and will be taking photos to accompany many of the gigs that he goes too on our behalf. The photos that accompany his Hundred Reasons article are all from him. Thank you to both Neil and Russell. Thank you as well to Malcolm Carter, Andrew Carver, Daniel Cressey, Anthony Dhanendran, Dixie Ernill, Tommy Gunnarsson, Alex Halls, Ben Howarth, Adrian Huggins, Sarah Johnson, Chris Jones, Geraint Jones, Jonjo McNeill, Sarah Maybank, Chris O’ Toole, Jon Rogers, Jamie Rowland, Mark Rowland, Maarten Schiethart, Dominic Simpson, Olga Sladeckova, Anthony Strutt, Helen Tipping and Adam Wood, all of whome have contributed articles and reviews to either this edition or the mid-month up-date. Special thanks to Richard Banks at Pennyblackmusic HQ and Jamie Rowland and Maarten Schiethart, our in-house DJs, who will be putting new editions of their radio shows on-line to coincide with this magazine in early February. It just remains for me to invite all readers based in London to our Bands Night on the 3rd March. It will take place at the Spitz at 109 Commercial Street in Spitalfields in East London. Tickets are 6 pounds and, with sets from Viarosa, the Bitter Springs, Joe Gideon and the Shark, all bands who we have promoted in one form or another on the site over the years, already confirmed and one more act still to be announced, plus dancing afterwards until 1, we promise you a great night. Doors will open at 7.30 p.m. We will be running two reviews up-dates in February so that we can catch up on the Christmas/New Year backlog, and then will be back with another full edition in early March. After that we will go back as is usual to doing full up-dates at the beginning of the month and an up-date for reviews of albums and singles in the middle of the month. We hope then to be running interviews with Wire, Pam Berry, the Hold Steady, the Butterflies of Love, Bardo Pond, Kelley Stoltz, the Hedrons, A Wilhelm Scream, Maths and Physics Club, Pete Weiss, Model Morning and Savannah Knight. There will be more from the Profile slot. We will also have another Re : View and Website of the Month and more features, live reviews and album and single reviews. Thank you as always for reading. John Clarkson Magazine Editor www.pennyblackmusic.co.uk www.pennyblackmusic.com

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