Not Forgotten: Warren Zevon

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Not Forgotten: Teenage Fanclub – Grand Prix

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Album Review: Mark Lanegan – Straight Songs of Sorrow.

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Alan Hull is one of those frequently forgotten names in British rock music. Probably best known as one of the creative forces behind Newcastle folk-rockers Lindisfarne, who were themselves best known for a string of hit singles in the early 70s (including the rightly celebrated “Lady Eleanor” and “Meet Me on the Corner”) and a …

“Thee Mad Dogs, thee Engleeshmen and Joe Cockair….” Crookes lad Joe Cocker was always more comfortable interpreting others songs rather than composing his own originals. None of his hits have been self penned and most casual fans would struggle to name one song that Cocker has written (I know I do). That said Cocker has …

How to Make Friends and Influence People had shown brief glimpses of what Terrorvision were capable of, but on the whole it was relatively scrappy. It appeared that the four lads from Bradford had shot their bolt and that they were never going to amount to anything particularly special. Then came Regular Urban Survivors. Opening …

By this point in their career Pink Floyd were only a band in name. While building his wall, Roger Waters ego had crushed all before him. Richard Wright had been usurped, David Gilmour was losing interest in Water’s material and Nick Mason’s position in the band was looking increasingly fragile. The Wall had been an …

For a band with such a reputation for shelving whole albums there’s a good argument for By Your Side being the forgotten Black Crowes album. Easily better than anything since The Southern Harmony and Musical Companion and more economical than their most celebrated release, it was also tighter than the band’s debut. In many ways …

The career resuscitation of Wilco following the release of the rightly hailed Yankee Hotel Foxtrot was a joy to behold. From being dropped by a short sighted record label to the redemption they found proving the doubters wrong, via losing key band members and being celebrated by the notoriously fickle music press, it must have …

Fizzy, fun and yet still possessing surprisingly more depth than their singles would suggest, Supergrass was that rare thing in Britpop, a band that was worth the hype at the time, whose material still stands up to scrutiny today. I Should CoCo finds the band as callow youths, still juggling style and substance and yet …

One quick glance at my album collection will confirm that I am pretty ignorant when it comes to rap or hip-hop. I’m afraid that it just doesn’t push my buttons and I find it has very little in the way of cultural relevance to me. It’s odd then that Chupacabra has found its way into …

Released just over twelve months after the well-received Wonderful, Glorious, Eels’ latest offering has one of those album titles that gives fair-warning about what exactly to expect from its content. E has straight out said that The Cautionary Tales of Mark Oliver Everett is an album about his own failures in relationships, so anyone expecting …

Neil Hannon (the man who effectively is The Divine Comedy), cut a unique dash through the British music in the mid 90s, as his almost imperceptible rise to near-fame ran parallel to the Brit-pop movement, meant that he sometimes got lumped in with the unwashed masses. Foppish, louche and possessing a more sophisticated musical mind …