Big band with a little name make a little record with a big sound

It seems impossible for anyone to address the new REM album, 'Accelerate', without looking back with much derision on the bands post-Bill Berry output. It would be naive to believe that REM found working as a trio easy after drummer Berry quit in 1997. For many, the band has never been the same - the studio dynamic had floundered and communication, if we are to believe what we read, grew colder by the record between Mills, Buck and Stipe. Whatever went on in the studio, live on stage is where REM has prospered since Berry's departure. Tours in '99, '03 and '05 cemented them as one of the best live acts in the planet. Despite this, they were selling less and less each record they released. The days of the ten million shifting 'Out of Time' and 'Automatic For The People' albums were long gone. This culminated in 2004's pre-dominantly flat 'Around The Sun' selling two million records worldwide.

Personally I quite liked many of REM's forays into electronica that spring up on the post-Berry albums. We should not forget gems like 'I've Been High', 'Falls To Climb', 'Walk Unafraid', 'The Lifting', 'Saturn Return', 'Electron Blue' and quality REM standard fare such as 'At My Most Beautiful', 'All The Way To Reno', 'Leaving New York', 'Imitation of Life' and 'The Great Beyond' - all classics from a so-called 'difficult' period. It's too easy to dismiss REM's last decade. Yes, those albums have their weak points - they were too fecking long for one - but they all have their moments of greatness, even 'Around The Sun', possibly REM's weakest album so far.


The duration aspect is something that 'Accelerate' deals with in dramatic fashion, running at just 35 minutes it's REM's shortest album in 24 years - 1984's 'Reckoning' in fact.

Is 'Accelerate' is the sound of REM retreating back to the tried and tested? Opening tracks 'Living Well is the Best Revenge', 'Man-Sized Wreath' and single 'Supernatural Superserious' charge with a momentum not realised since the opening to the 1986 album 'Life's Rich Pageant'. But with producer Jacknife Lee at the helm replacing Pat McCarthy, who the band has worked with since 1998, the songs sound dry and live, with little of the lushness that sprayed their most recent albums evident at all. 'Hollow Man' appropriately see's Stipe deliver an untouched hoarse vocal inbetween a chorus so infectuous it's destined for constant airplay if the track gains the 'single' status it obviously deserves.


'Accelerate' hits it's high points in the uptempo moments like those adressed above. Where it falters oddly is where REM prospered so beautifully at one point in their career - the acoustic moments. 'Houston' is a nothing track that offers little apart from perhaps an interesting organ. 'Until The Day is Done' is the kind of acoustic ballad that sounded so rich in the hands of REM in the early 90s, but just sounds tired and formulaic at this stage in their career. These are not the moments to get excited about on 'Accelerate'. 'Horse To Water' brings back the momentum the acoustic moments lost. With the celebratory tempo of early classic 'Just a Touch' 'Horse To Water' is a stand-out track destined to be a live highlight. It sounds like the REM of the past and the present - rocking hard, a great chorus and the unmistakable Mike Mills backing vocal. The tempo thankfully is maintained right up until the end, such is the 'hit and run' nature of the album. 'I'm Gonna DJ' closes the short but effective album. A regular live track on the band's 2005 tour, it's jaunty, juvenile and chaotic but very much in keeping with the rest of the album, making it the perfect closer for what REM have set out to achieve with 'Accelerate'.


Have they achieved their goal? Well yes, but not without some filler with the acoustic tracks. It's a fine album but not as good as some are making out, just as 'Up' and 'Reveal' are not as bad as those same people probably make out. As a life-long REM fan I'm just glad to hear them making great music still and if the critics think it's now ok again to like REM then whatever, welcome back guys!

Bin Bin Duffy

I've been cheated. I've been conned. They reeled me in with some sweet cinematic soulful defiance and when they had me in their clutches they smothered me with formula and heartlessness; music plundered from a special place and time but which itself comes from no particular place, has no home and is born out of nothing but a desire to keep the Jones's happy that the background cd is adaquately drowned in enough syrup for them to lightly shimmy to, but never evocative enough to invest even a solitary drop of personal emotion into - you see, they're busy discussing mortage prices with Susan and Geoff, who they have over for dinner. How did I get here? What have I ever done to Bernard Butler to deserve such disrespect? I adored Suede. I was behind him when he left the band. I lost all interest in them after that. I embraced his work with Dave McAlmont in the 90s and early 2000s. I wished him the best as a solo artist. I've been nothing but a friend to Bernard Butler. How could he do this to me? How could he do it to himself? I tell you why - whatever some ranting blogger like myself thinks, 'Rockferry' by Duffy will be one of the biggest albums of 2008, that's why!

It all starts so full of promise. The debut single 'Rockferry' swoons, floats, sprouts wings and, regardless of what follows, is one of the best singles of recent times. With her Dusty Springfield in her prime vocals Duffy compliments Butler's special take on Phil Spector's 'Wall of Sound' and what results is a song that would fit so well in a Tarrantino scene with an appropriately cast femme fatale. Such glorious heights are sadly not realised again on the album until it's closing track 'Distant Dreamer', where we get reminded once again of what made Bernard Butler great as a guitarist and producer. It has a sound straight out of his period with McAlmont and you can easily imagine Dave the Diva putting his vocals on top of it. Duffy's delivery is by no means inferior. On the contrary, she takes herself into the realm of Nancy Sinatra, rising to the top, backed by an angelic choir of herself, beautful strings and sax.

'Rockferry' would've been a masterpiece had the momentum of the opening and closing tracks been maintained throughout. Sadly, it wasn't. What we have inbetween is a collection of weak, bland soul-by-numbers ditties. Duffy can sing, no doubt about it, but her voice is wasted on these tracks. 'Mercy' is upbeat, confident and quite a sexy floorfiller. Perhaps an extension of it's spirit may have improved the album also. Sadly, the albums falters because of bland fare such as 'Serious', 'Sleeping Stone' and 'Delayed Devotion' - all designed to convey an emotion non-extistant at any point of their conception, recording or clean-ass production. These are songs that no-doubt will be used to death by ITV when advertising the latest drama series starring the likes of Hermione Norris and her frozen face. These are soul songs without soul. They leave no mark in the sand and no desire to be played again. They may as well have been given to Gabrielle! I've news for you all too - we are set to be bombarded with this kind of 'Soul Diva' fare from all directions this year - you have been warned. Yet, for the merits of tracks like 'Rockferry' and 'Distant Dreamer' I do hope there is a future for Duffy. I'm sure there will be, but will I be listening? That really depends.

All-time Top 40 Irish Albums?

The Irish Times has just published a critics' All-Time Top 40 Irish Albums list. Everyone has their own list and each list is always open to scrutiny. This list is no different. Such lists are quite pointless in the long scheme of things. But they do make for great internet/pub conversations/debates/arguments/bloodbaths. As for this one, well the absence of Horslips is quite unforgivable, the presence of other albums equally so.

My Bloody Valentine at No.1? Well, it is a great record. Why does Van's 'Astral Weeks' always gain higher acclaim than his 'Moondance' album? 'Moondance' is better and at least the bass is in tune! 'Achtung Baby' is U2's best album. A House's 'I am The Greatest' is an amazing album well deserving a re-issue. Rollerskate Skinny..Yay! Ash? Boooo!!! Snow Patrol? Oh just fuck off!! BellXZZZzzzzzzzz!! Something Happens' 'God's Glue' Yay! Great album although I still hate that fecking 'Parachute' song!

What should've been there? Let the drunken weekend debates begin....LOL!!! Here's the list:

1 MY BLOODY VALENTINE: LOVELESS
2 U2: ACHTUNG BABY (1991)
3a A HOUSE: I AM THE GREATEST (1991)
3b THE RADIATORS: GHOSTOWN (1979)
5 VAN MORRISON: ASTRAL WEEKS (1968)
6 MICRODISNEY: THE CLOCK COMES DOWN THE STAIRS (1985)
7 ROLLERSKATE SKINNY: HORSEDRAWN WISHES (1996)
8 THE POGUES: RUM, SODOMY & THE LASH (1986)
9 THE UNDERTONES: THE UNDERTONES (1979)
10 WHIPPING BOY: HEARTWORM (1995)
11 ASH: 1977 (1996)
12 THE BLADES: RAYTOWN REVISITED (1985)
13 THIN LIZZY: LIVE AND DANGEROUS (1978)
14 U2: THE JOSHUA TREE (1987)
15 THERAPY? TROUBLEGUM (1994)
16 PLANXTY: PLANXTY (1973)
17 DAVID HOLMES: LETS GET KILLED (1997)
18 THE STARS OF HEAVEN: SPEAK SLOWLY (1988)
19 STIFF LITTLE FINGERS: INFLAMMABLE MATERIAL (1979)
20a THE REVENANTS: HORSE OF A DIFFERENT COLOUR
20b THE STARS OF HEAVEN: SACRED HEART HOTEL
22 U2: BOY (1980)
23 THE BLADES: LAST MAN IN EUROPE (1984)
24 MY BLOODY VALENTINE: ISN'T ANYTHING (1988)
25 SINÉAD O'CONNOR: I DO NOT WANT WHAT I HAVEN'T GOT (1990)
26 VAN MORRISON: MOONDANCE
27 SNOW PATROL: EYES OPEN (2006)
28a THE DIVINE COMEDY: PROMENADE (1994)
28b RORY GALLAGHER: LIVE IN EUROPE (1972)
30 VAN MORRISON: IT'S TOO LATE TO STOP NOW (1974) Recorded at 1973
31a BELL X1: MUSIC IN MOUTH (2003)
31b THE CRANBERRIES: EVERYBODY ELSE IS DOING IT, SO WHY CAN'T WE (1993)
33a THE FRAMES: FOR THE BIRDS (2001)
33b SOMETHING HAPPENS: STUCK TOGETHER WITH GOD'S GLUE (1990)
35a MARTIN HAYES & DENIS CAHILL: LIVE IN SEATTLE (1999)
35b THE HIGH LLAMAS: HAWAII (1996) Long before The Thrills were doing their
35c THE UNDERTONES: HYPNOTISED (1980)
38 DAMIEN RICE: O (2002)
39 THE POGUES: IF I SHOULD FALL FROM GRACE WITH GOD (1988)
40 MICRODISNEY: CROOKED MILE (1987)

American Music Club: Love songs for cynics

If you're in and around Dublin City on Saturday night then you may want to take yourself to Whelans, which will be playing host to American Music Club. The San Francisco based outfit, fronted by the influencial singer-songwriter Mark Eitzel, have just released a new album called 'The Golden Age', which is the follow-up to their stunning comeback album in 2004, 'Love Songs For Patriots'.

Prior to 'Love Songs...' the band had not recorded together for almost ten years. Within this period Eitzel went on to have an acclaimed, if occasionally uneven, solo career. Known for a more hard-edged approach to folk and Americana, American Music Club took us on an alternative road-trip through some not always pleasant sub-cultures and characters.

When making plans to go to this show, a friend of mine persuaded a mutual friend of ours to go. Our mutual friend said, "aye, be a bit of craic", to which my friend replied, "it won't be a bit of craic! It'll be two hours in the dark and you'll love it!" Indeed, with American Music Club it may not be dark yet, but it's getting there. Amid the melancholy though, lies a sharp wit and some finely crafted songwriting. Also, Mark Eitzel is one of the most distinctive voices of the last 20 years.

Rumours prior to the release of 'The Golden Age' were that it was a lot more 'up' than previous American Music Club records. The dark sense of humour still prevails on the album, that's for sure, and it is a fine record. I still prefer 'Love Songs' and 'Everclear', but with all American Music Club records it takes a long time to absorb them fully, which is part of the fun. Yes, I said fun! I'm really looking forward to Saturday - it WILL be good craic!

American Music Club - Whelans, Dublin, Feb 2.

REM get ready for Reconstruction

REM are due to return on March 31 with their 14th studio album, 'Accelerate'. The album was recorded partly in Vancouver, partly Dublin, where the Athens trio held a residency at the Olympia in May last year for a series of live rehearsals. Much of the material that was road-tested in Dublin has made it on to the album. A new producer was also brought on board for the sessions, Jacknife Lee.

At an apparent duration of just 36 minutes, 'Accelerate' looks like being a return to the pre-'Automatic For The People' REM, where their albums had this wonderful habit of breezing along swiftly. 2004's 'Around The Sun' seemed to limp to a conclusion. It looks like REM are ready to make a bit of noise again. I look forward to their return and their live shows later this year - they remain one of the finest live rock bands on the planet!

Here is a taster of what to possibly expect on 'Accelerate'. Recorded during their rehearsals in Dublin in May 2007, this is 'Horse To Water'. Sounds very 'Life's Rich Pageant' era REM to me. No bad thing!!

MGMT - a name for 2008

One of most exciting new sounds of 2008 (yes, I know we're only a month in) has been electro duo MGMT (pronounced The Management). The duo's eccentricity on record is echoed on their website biog, which informs us:

"MGMT is: Andrew Vanwyngarden and Ben Goldwasser, two psychic pilgrims whose paths first intersected in the green pastures of Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut, circa 2002." Andrew and Ben realized that -- despite their opposing views on methodology (one is spontaneously practical, the other is practically spontaneous) -- they shared a common love of mystic paganism (ironic indeed on a campus named for the founder of Methodism), psychotropic sounds, and the belief that a joke (or a joke song) could be sad, profound, and funny at the same time." Interesting guys!

With influences from the mainstream pop world, the underground hallucinogenic electronica of Suicide and the sonic soundscapes of The Flaming Lips, MGMT have created a debut album, 'Oracular Spectacular', that is a headphones experience, a dancefloor experience and a live experience all rolled into one. With Flaming Lips producer Dave Fridmann at the helm, it is a perfect union.

For some absurd reason, 'Oracular Spectacular' will not be released in Ireland until the summer. But it really is worth getting your hands on before that, if you can. Here is a taster from the album to persuade you....opening track 'Time To Pretend'.

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=1G43OGNO

The Enemy of the NME is my Friend

The nominations for the NME awards have just been announced and, as with every other year, I am totally indifferent. The once glorious publication, formerly the home of writers with the calibre, wit and wisdom of Nick Kent, Julie Burchill and Stuart Maconie, now gives refuge to thin-tied white boys so far out of their element they struggle to even have a vague knowledge of David Bowie.

The sins of the modern day NME and it's writers are many but I'm sticking with one just now that has really rattled my pissy bone. In the catagory of Villain of the Year they have nominated Amy Winehouse. I know in the wide scheme of things that this is quite a trivial category that is not to be taken seriously, although it could be tough to take being listed with Tony Blair and George W. Bush on the chin! It would certainly kill the fizz out of being nominated for Best Solo Artist, which Winehouse quite rightly was, following a year that saw her 'Back to Black' album barely leave the top ten. Regardless of how seriously we are to take the Villain of the Year category, it does speak volumes, whether the powers that be at the NME like it or not, of the contrast in how a troubled female artist is perceived in comparison to a troubled male.

Here we have a lady whose personal problems with drugs and her posh double-barrelled jailbird husband, whose name has never been with me to escape from me, have kept her in the media glare daily for over a year now. Like many, I'm fed up reading about the lady and her problems. I adore her 'Back to Black' album, but it seems to be of little interest to the snakes of the press who, bereft of a soul to enjoy such musical stylings, focus on the murkier side of Winehouse's life. Her problems are continually being used as a stick to beat her with and the NME are now part of the Winehouse lynch-mob with this Villain of the Year nod.

I do not know Winehouse personally. She may well be an individual deserving of such an award but her reasons for being nominated are the very reasons that see her male counterparts lauded and mythologised. Winehouse gets caught smoking crack and she's a villian. Pete Doherty gets caught shooting up and he's a troubled genius and a poet. Keith Richards tells us for the 234th million time that he should be dead and we call him a legend. Gil Scott Heron gets caught with heroin and they throw his ass in jail and deny him his HIV medication - but that's another story about how selective both the system and the music press are in relation to gender, race, sympathy, mythology and condemnation.

Keith Richards has been living well off his drug excess truths, myths and legends for well over thirty years now. What is so acceptable about t-shirts of a 'wasted' Keith Richards or Sid Vicious that is so unacceptable about images of Amy Winehouse with needle marks on her feet? There are no differences between any of these images, yet we seem to not only accept it in males (if they're white) but celebrate it, and that's wrong. So perhaps the NME should be praised for taking Winehouse to task like this. It may get a message to the lady that she needs help. But did the NME, even in its pomp, ever offer the same message to Keith Richards, Sid Vicious or Kurt Cobain? No they didn't. They don't see the need to villainise white male addicts because it's 'rock n' roll, man' and 'it's better to burn out than to fade away'. Yet, like stuffy old male Cricket Club House members, they wag their self-righteous fingers at any woman who dares to step into the boys club of 'sex, drugs and rock n' roll'.

So I now feel the need to reassure all the female artists and music lovers out there. I come from a club that welcomes women. If a walk on the wild side floats your boat you're more than welcome to jump on with us. We believe you have every equal right to indulge in excess if you so please. We'll make sweet rock n' roll with you. We may even take some (non hard) drugs with you, and yes - we'll even have sex with you........if you'll have us of course!

Chuck Berry, Letterkenny, March 24

Imagine my shock when surfing the web yesterday and having a nosey at Chuck Berry's official website. After a number of text messages, I had to see it for myself. There it was - in the middle of his 2008 tour dates, March 24, Grill Venue, Letterkenny! His only Irish date on the list.

Berry is without doubt one of the original pioneers of Rock n' Roll. John Lennon once said that if you had to give Rock n' Roll another term, that term would be Chuck Berry. With his seminal self-penned classics like 'Maybellene', 'Sweet Little Sixteen', 'Johnny B. Goode' and, of course, 'Roll Over Beethoven' Berry laid down a template for Rock n' Roll that is still, to varying degrees of success, celebrated today - teenage promiscuity, a love for the road, escape, fast cars, partying and rebellion. Now in his 82nd year, mere words cannot do justice to his (and his peers') influence on the grand scheme of things.

Tickets are sure to be hot property as soon as they become available. It will be Rock n' Roll history literally before your eyes, and at a venue where many moons ago the showbands of the country would've knocked out more than a few of Berry's classics.

Here's Berry live in London in 1972 with 'Promised Land'.

'Small Hours' at any Hour!

Donal Dineen's late show on Today FM has consistantly been one the best things on the airwaves for the past ten years. Now under the name 'Small Hours', his shows continually introduce a whole new sphere of alternative music, especially in the electronica genre.

For the first time since his broadcasts began in 1997, they are now being archived on the Today FM website for your listening pleasure at any time of the day, not just after midnight in bed with the earphones on.

First check the link here:

http://www.todayfm.com/Article.asp?id=448129

then, turn on, tune in and cop out.

'I'm Not There' - a Todd Haynes film on Bob Dylan

This is a movie with six different characters, none of whom go under the name Bob Dylan, who each represent a different aspect of the man, his many myths and his work. I thought this was a pretty brave step for director Todd Haynes. How do you make a conventional biopic about one of the most unconventional figures in popular culture? The answer is simple - you can't. 'I'm Not There' had to be off-beat right from the start.

This movie stands up where Haynes's glam-rock opus from 1997, 'Velvet Goldmine', collapsed. This is mainly due to the fact that he was able to use Dylan's music, something denied to him by Bowie for 'Goldmine', and the film suffered because of it. Ewan McGregor's awful American accent and sub-Iggy Pop parody Kurt Wild didn't help either. There's none of that here. The performances are solid, especially Cate Blanchett as the 'Blonde on Blonde' period Dylan - a definite Oscar nod for sure.


Blanchett's casting in not as pretentious as it sounds. Having a woman play Dylan is perhaps an attempted parallel of the shock Dylan caused by his transformation in 1965 from folk to 'that mercury sound' of an electric guitar. The songs are used at the right moments to signify a certain mood or situation. It would be interesting to hear what Dylan made of all of this. He would probably dismiss it as inaccurate. His myth is still intact. We know no more, and I don't think Haynes actually believed it was going to be any other way.


Would I recommend this film? If your interest in Dylan is quite minimal, probably not. You will hate it. If you're a little bit more of a Dylan anorak, then yeah, go for it! The title doesn't lie - Dylan is not there. Or is he? We'll never really know. Have we ever really known? He's a clever one, that Zimmerman.

Cat Power - Jukebox

An album of covers should make any listener fear the worst. Most covers are pointless exercises in rehashing someone else's music almost identically, yet without any of the original intent, sentiment and personal investment. One thinks of Jacques Brel's 'Dying Man' and how its various bastardisations down through the years as 'Seasons in the Sun' have all failed to do justice to the Belgian's sombre lament. Even the sight of a some kid barely able to shave thinking he has enough in the bank to take on 'My Way' is very hard to stomach. There are certain songs that you have to earn the right to sing - 'Hurt' by Nine Inch Nails, which, it would be fair to say, Johnny Cash earned well, although it's one of the few songs he didn't murder in his American Recordings series.

There are certain people who get the point of a cover and the need to bring something else to it. Hendrix's reinvention of Dylan's 'All Along The Watchtower' and Jeff Buckley's reading of Leonard Cohen's 'Hallelujah' are perhaps two of the most famous cases of a cover breathing new life into a song.

Cat Power, aka Chan Marshall, has been down the road of a covers album before. Her 1999 'Covers Record' saw her deconstruct standards by The Rolling Stones, Velvet Underground and Nina Simone. It was a beautifully haunting and tasteful collection of reinterpretations. Marshall has always striven to find something new, not only in cover material but her own. Her recent live shows have seen her step into that sphere of re-make, re-model, which has been a key factor of playing live for people like Dylan and Lou Reed for over 30 years now.

Given Marshall's approach to covers, the arrival of 'Jukebox' should not be met with cynicism, but intrigue. 'New York' is no karaoke trip down the Sinatra wannabe path but practically related to the original in lyric and lyric alone. Unlike the 'Covers Record', Marshall has recruited backing band the Dirty Delta Blues for this collection and in turn it sounds just as the band did on tour throughout most of 2007.

2006's 'The Greatest' album saw Cat Power step closer to the mainstream than ever before. Some feared that this would be at the expense of her earlier material, written at a different time emotionally for Marshall, so much so that she may not have wanted to step back into that skin. On 'Jukebox' it's pleasing to see that she is not blanking her past, but giving it the same reinvention that she does with Hank Williams' 'Ramblin' (Wo)man', James Brown's 'Lost Someone' and Joni Mitchell's 'Blue'. Her new rendition of 'Metal Heart', which first featured on her 1998 record 'Moon Pix', is at first more piano-led and merges into a chaotic climax, losing none of the drama of the original recording.

Having seen Cat Power live last summer and hearing some of the material that would end up on 'Jukebox', I recall being very excited by the live version of The Highwaymen's 'Silver Stallion'. The full band arangement is replaced with a more subtle acoustic reading on the album. As good as it is, it fails to live up to how it worked with the band live. The same cannot be said for 'Aretha, Sing One For Me'. With it's southern soul swagger, it's a definite highlight of the record.

Chan Marshall's voice is one of the most distinctive sounds of the last ten years or so. It is the perfect late night companion on 'Lord, Help The Poor and Needy' and 'Don't Explain'. What the hell - It laces with gold anything it sits on top of - just ask Faithless or Handsome Boy Modelling School. But it's difficult to gauge just how essential a covers album should be. Original new song 'Song To Bobby' is a welcome addition and sits well on the collection. It would've perhaps sat even better on 'The Greatest'. A lazy, sun-drenched auto-biographical narrative of a run-in with Bob Dylan, it's a fine hint that Chan Marshall has a lot more to offer. I look forward to the journey.

Tracklist: 1. New York (Frank Sinatra)2. Ramblin’ (Wo)man (Hank Williams)3. Metal Heart (Cat Power *)4. Silver Stallion (The Highwaymen)5. Aretha, Sing One For Me (George Jackson)6. Lost Someone (James Brown)7. Lord, Help The Poor And Needy (Jessie Mae Hemphill)8. I Believe In You (Bob Dylan)9. Song To Bobby (Cat Power **)10. Don’t Explain (Billie Holiday)11. Woman Left Lonely (Janis Joplin)12. Blue (Joni Mitchell)

* Original can be found on Cat Power's 'Moon Pix' record. A recommended album!

** A brand new Cat Power song never released before.

Control - a film about Ian Curtis

I love Joy Division and like Ian Curtis. I thought he was a great presence and an original figure. He may have set a template for a style of 6th form poetry that is a less than endearing legacy, but we can't really blame him for that; he was simply being himself, in all his harsh glory. I do find the legend that has grown around the guy since he took his own life in 1980 a little hard to take. He wasn't that great. He wasn't a poet. He wasn't a spokesperson for a generation. He was one part of four, or five if you include the innovative production skills of Martin Hannett, that created a dark and sometimes beautiful soundscape that reflected the grim northern environment that they sprung from. Joy Divsion's legacy belongs as much to Hannett, Hook, Morris and Sumner as it does Curtis. Without them, it would never have happened.

So when I heard that there was to be a biopic about Ian Curtis called Control, I did fear the worst - a hagiography, a re-writing of history, a romanticised depiction of the facts. Luckily Control is none of the above.

Directed by Anton Corbijn, whose first job when he moved to England in 1979 was to photograph Joy Division, the film doesn't mess around with the facts, helped immensely by it's main source, the Joy Divsion biography Touching From A Distance, written by Curtis's widow Debbie.

The Ian Curtis we see here is not an icon, but a troubled intelligent soul who was far from perfect, particularly in the manner in which he treated his wife. His affair with Belgian Annik Honore is well documented thoughout. His fixation with epilepsy is touched on also, as we see the inspiration behind 'She's Lost Control' and how the condition begins to eventually take it's toll on Curtis himself.


The film is shot in black and white, in keeping with the general presentation of Curtis and Joy Division on camera throughout the years. It also serves to capture the urban coldness of late seventies Manchester to great effect. Sam Riley is excellent as Curtis, bearing both a physical and vocal similarity. Samantha Morton is as solid as ever as his wife Debbie.


The Manchester music scene of Control is a lot harsher and more realistic than the comedic caricature presented in Michael Winterbottom's 2001 film 24 Hour Party People. The soundtrack, naturally, is top quality, taking in Joy Division's classics mixed with Bowie and Kraftwerk. 'Love Will Tear Us Apart', 'Isolation' and 'Atmosphere' are used at exactly the right time, offering weighty parallels between the lyrics and the scenes. The climax is fitting, appropriate and done with a sensitivity and realism that refuses to lend itself to any kind of elevation of Curtis. This is about Ian Curtis the person, not the legend, and is why the film works as well as it does.

Shimmering neon lights...

A couple of brand new tracks that have really got me marching around with a spring in my step on these cold December nights are Neon Neon's 'Raquel' and Duffy's 'Rockferry'.

A dance side-project from Boom-Bip and Super Furry Animal Gruff Rhys, Neon Neon have come up with a retro disco classic in 'Raquel', with it's 80s synths very much inkeeping with it's subject matter - actress Raquel Welch and her one-time lover John DeLorean. Can it get anymore 80s than that? Check it out here, or upstairs at the Farmers Home, Strabane on a Friday night, as I intend to play it to death..lol!

http://rapidshare.com/files/77922039/neon_neon-raquel__extended_edit_-1real.mp3.html

http://www.myspace.com/neonx2

Neon Neon release debut album 'Lex' early in 2008. Sounds very tastey, as does this lady:

Duffy is a new name that has been lazily thrown into the same basket as Amy Winehouse - a soulful female who tips her hat to a retro pop sound. With personal problems and tabloid headlines now clouding Winehouse's undoubted talent, the manner inwhich Duffy's debut single has been promoted has been very patronising. It's been a case of 'well, Amy's away with the fairies, lets make do with Duffy who has none of that baggage.' Well no thank you! Duffy doesn't need it.

The initial signs are good for Duffy. The debut single 'Rockferry' echoes the ghost of Dusty Springfield, and former Suede guitarist Bernard Butler's production is quite Spector-esque. With someone as accomplished as Butler on her side, it's looking quite possible that Duffy will be much more than just a flash in the pan, and will need to be taken a lot more seriously in her own right than certain quarters are doing at present.

Bruce Springsteen - Live in Belfast, Dec 15, 2007

After many years of waiting, I finally got to see Bruce Springsteen and the E-Street Band live in concert on Saturday night. The venue was Belfast's Odyssey Arena. The two and a half hours the band performed onstage were everything I imagined they would be. But like Marty DiBergi with the mighty Spinal Tap before me, I got more, a lot more.

It's been a few decades since Springsteen had to worry about where his next penny was coming from, but the songs he has crafted will always resonate and attach themselves to a working-class spirit that translates the world over. The sharp cold and hussle and bussle of Belfast City on Saturday night could easily have been a scene from one of Springsteen's classic narrative tales with a New Jersey in the winter setting. The backstreets, the urban darkness and the Wildean gutter star-gazers who colour his work lend themselves well to the towns and cities of Ireland. This has been Springsteen's biggest success as a writer. As a performer, he's simply in a class of his own. The songs may be ours but the stage belongs to him.

This was clear as soon as he casually marched on and twice asked, nay growled, "is there anybody alive out there?" 'Radio Nowhere' instantly kicked in and the quest for soul, so vivid in the song, took flight around the arena and was met with thousands of kindred spirits - this was going to be a night to remember!

The band were without regular E-Streeters Danny Federici, who is undergoing surgery, and Patti Scialfa, who is back at the New Jersey homestead "making sure the house doesn't burn down," as Bruce informed us. But with Roy Bitton, Gary Tallent, Steve Van Zandt, Max Weinberg, Nils Lofgren and 'Big Man' Clarence Clemons all on board, the trip through the Springsteen catalogue was always going to be a bump-free ride.


All but two tracks from Springsteen's current 'Magic' record were performed tonight. The man himself wasn't shy on highlighting the themes running through the songs, many of which address the distrust in the powers-the-be that is now so prevelant in the United States. The audience was here to party yes, but were also willing to listen when needed - title-track 'Magic' was met with an intuitive silence around the Odyssey, as Springsteen sang of a land of tricks and deception. As the tempo went up, a happy couple just wed on the day of the show got 'I'll Work For Your Love' played in their honour. 'Gypsy Biker', 'Devils Arcade' and 'Last To Die' were the stand-outs of the new material performed.


But it's the classics that got the place really bouncing, particularly 'Badlands', where, as usual, the audience became part of the E-Street vocal choir. Modern classics like 'Waiting on a Sunny Day', 'The Rising' and 'Lonesome Day' sat perfectly at home beside oldies like 'She's The One' and 'Born To Run'.


The latter is a natural show-stopper, and a sea of over ten thousand fists punched the air and dreamed that youthful dream of escape all over again. This was followed instantly by 'Dancing In The Dark', which was much rockier than it's 'Born In The USA' incarnation and had the whole place bouncing the roof off. Even older golden nuggets like 'Kitty's Back', 'Because The Night' and 'The River' (whose subject matter was in the crowd tonight - Springsteen's brother-in-law, Mickey) ensured that every period of the Springsteen's catalogue was represented.


When all that was done and dusted, it was time for Santa Claus, as Clarence and Bruce had a bit of festive fun with 'Santa Claus is Coming To Town'. 'Do you believe in Santa Claus?' shouted Springsteen. At an E-Street Band show it's easy to believe in anything. A glorious night and May can't come quick enough.

Kirsty MacColl - 1959 - 2000

I'm remembering Kirsty MacColl today. This day seven years ago she was sadly taken from us after a tragedy in Mexico. It has never been, or ever will be, a problem thinking of Kirsty this time of year, given her part in The Pogues' classic 'Fairytale of New York'. But Kirsty was an established solo artist in her own right also, taking in the Spector-flavoured pop sound in early classics like 'Terry' and 'They Don't Know'. She experimented with dance, folk and just at the end of her life released the South American flavoured and critically well-received 'Tropical Brainstorm', which saw her embrace an entirely new direction. She left a great body of work that will ensure she will never be forgotten.

Billy Bragg wrote this gem, but even Billy would concede that Kirsty made this song her own - as she did with everything she put her voice to.

Sisters Are Doing It For Themselves

The inaccurate one time depiction of Cerys Matthews as some kind of fiesty iconic female figure both amused and puzzled me. As much as I've never found Matthews to be worthy of such standing, I am curious as to why this seems to be the only way women are taken seriously in music.

Women in music have every right be as confrontational as their male counterparts, and in many cases they can be quite superior. But I think it is patronising to assume that woman have to be aggressive in order to have relevance. I love the energy, passion and venom of people like Patti Smith, Janis Joplin, Chrissie Hynde and Sinead O'Connor - all standing in positive contrast to the clothes horses of WAG and weekend trashy nightclub culture. Yet I would equally place people like Joni Mitchell, Natalie Merchant and Sandy Denny on that same pedastal. Their music may not be as immediately subversive at the surface, but if we're not going to crack the surface of anything then it's probably better if we pissed off and watched X Factor.

Remember the Riot Grrrl movement of the early 90s? Bands like L7, Bikini Kill and Bratmobile were 'in yer face' and 'making a stand' and doing generally everything to get overly verbose journalists and writers into a frenzy. Riot Grrrl produced some great music but was never the be all and end all - nothing ever is. The Breeders, Luscious Jackson, Kristin Hersh and countless others made some fantastic records in this period also, and not under the banner of being Women in Rock but simply artists. The female identity is imperative, but does it always have to be against the grain of male dominance? It can be whatever it wishes to be, but always keep both eyes open.

She's All Over The Front Page

So Cerys Matthews has fallen from grace, has she? Well that's what we've been informed after her fawning over some already attached former soap-actor in this year's 'I'm a Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here'. Critics and pop-pundits believe that this once fiesty independently thinking former front-woman of Welsh group Catatonia would never have behaved in such a way ten years ago. Back then she fronted one of the biggest bands of the country and shunned such shallow notions of celebrity, or so they say? This couldn't be the same Cerys that I recall.

The reality is that Cerys Matthews was always part of the shallow set she, for some absurd reason, is often depicted as being credibly removed from. Catatonia jumped on the back of the British fascination for Welsh bands like the Manic Street Preachers, Stereophonics and Super Furry Animals ten years ago. Cerys broadened her accent when singing. She praised the Lord that she was Welsh. She got drunk. Fell out of the Met Bar. Dueted with Tom Jones. Got drunk. Fell out of the Met. She did nothing but create a brand that kept her in the papers for 12 months (are you listening Beth?) and was every bit the media whore back then too, so lets cut the crap!

Catatonia were an average band; one of the many we've had to put with for the past ten years, who run out of steam after a year in the spotlight. I've never been interested in Cerys, especially after she murdered The Handsome Family's 'Weightless Again', and I'm even less interested now.

9am online Freeze-Out?

Quick reminder: if you're still drying your eyes after failing to get hold of a ticket for Bruce Springsteen and the E-Street Band's Belfast show in December, fear not! Tickets for a May 22 2008 outdoor show at Dublin's RDS go on sale tomorrow morning at 9am (Wednesday November 28). If past experiences are anything to go by, tickets will last barely a minute. So, let the dirty dog fight begin. Good luck. We'll all need it!

Camille O'Sullivan - a Devil in Disguise

I'm a huge fan a Camille O'Sullivan. Sadly, for some reason, she always seems to be performing near me when I'm DJing somewhere. This Friday night she will be at the Island Arts Centre in Lisburn.

The Scotsman called her 'a cross between Sally Bowles, Patti Smith and PJ Harvey'. I'd go along with that! The Irish/French vocalist specialises in unique readings of the music of such iconic figures as Nina Simone, Tom Waits, David Bowie, Jacques Brel and Nick Cave. Her stage presence is cinematic and vampish, like a classic femme fatale from the silver screen mixed with the physical drama of the characters in each song. She becomes every song, every character, every line. If you're anywhere near Lisburn on Friday, do not miss her!

Here's something to expect - Camille's take on Nina Simone's 'Devil's Workshop'.

Frances Black for Strabane. November 30.

Irish singer Frances Black makes her first visit to the Alley Theatre in Strabane this Friday night. The show is part of the celebration of ten years since the set-up of the Gaelscoil Ui Dhocartaigh, an Irish-speaking school in the Ballycolman area of Strabane.

Frances hails from a family steeped in music. Her parents, brothers and, of course, older sister Mary have all treaded the concert halls of the country. Her seven solo albums have all been big sellers in Ireland. She possesses one of the most distinctive voices in Irish folk, never faltering from authenticity and passion. It has been a great coup for the local Gaelscoil and the people of Strabane as a whole. I can't wait!

Here is some rare footage of Irish traditional supergroup Arcady featuring Frances performing Down By The Glenside (The Bold Fenian Men)at Scraggs Alley in Carlow, Ireland in 1991.