- Steve Lamacq
- 5 Jan 09, 02:30 PM
I've been at the old records again. Like your Grandad at Christmas who's been "at the whiskey" he has stashed in his shed, I crept into the loft to admire the new speakers I got for Christmas and stayed there until the only thing I had left to listen to was an old Kasabian 12 inch I'd never got round to throwing out - and all because I've been hiding from writing the Tips For 2009 piece.
I get very grumpy about these things now (even, I hate to admit it, the BBC Sound Of poll makes me want to stuff cotton wool in my ears and sleep for a fortnight). But this year it's particularly irksome because, actually, no-one really has a clue what's going to happen in music in 2009.
Continue reading "FLAMING TIPS"
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- Steve Lamacq
- 28 Nov 08, 02:30 PM
Usually the only dust-up you'd find in the music industry in the run-up to Christmas is a small bout of marketing-led fisticuffs over whose Greatest Hits albums have got the best shelf space in Asda - or the Gumball Rally style race for the Christmas Number One.
That's just the record industry dueling with a couple of wet fish.
But not this year. This year it is all out war. Not only are the major corporations haunted by another 12 months of falling sales, but there is a new battleground they're desperate for success on: market share.
Continue reading "IT'LL ALL BE OVER BY CHRISTMAS"
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- Steve Lamacq
- 20 Nov 08, 02:39 PM
Frank Turner looks nine feet tall, with a grin that must measure a foot wide. Looking out from a cramped stage, the former punk rock drummer turned Bragg-style troubadour beams a 200 Watt smile as the assembled rowdy audience underpin a rousing chorus of his song Reasons Not To Be An Idiot.
This is one of my favourite memories of this year's Reading Festival - watching Turner in the Radio 1 Punk Tent. But what a year he's had. Looking at his live itinerary you start to suspect his agent has been playing some sort of join the dots type game with him and his touring schedule. He's been all over Europe, through America - and even made his debut at the Cambridge Folk Festival.
Continue reading "THE TURNER PRIZE"
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- Steve Lamacq
- 10 Nov 08, 11:36 AM
I went to see Slummin' Angels last week, who aren't Slummin' Angels anymore. They're now called Bleech, which is a surprisingly good new moniker for the east London trio who make a brooding sort of confrontational grunge pop. They could equally be Babes In Toyland's lost support group or a band who wouldn't be out of place sharing a bill with The Subways.
But the name change is interesting - suggested to them by Andy Ross, their new manager and one time kingpin of Food Records. Ross, I like to think of as an old-school A&R man who, rather than worrying about the numbers of hits the group are receiving on MySpace, worries about things like songs and perception. The nitty-gritty.
Continue reading "PRINGLE: ONCE YOU POP YOU CAN'T STOP"
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- Steve Lamacq
- 3 Nov 08, 01:40 PM
Apologies for the lack of posts over the past month but I've been all over the place recently - not least a week off in Marrakech sampling the delights of Moroccan ambient pool music (a good way of cleaning the old ears out).
But I've also been involved in the judging for this year's Student Radio Awards which take place on Thursday night; been out on the road doing some DJing; and promoted a BBC Introducing gig as part of the Electric Proms (of which more later).
Continue reading "SQUEEZED IN"
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- Steve Lamacq
- 22 Sep 08, 04:51 PM
There is something amusingly cocksure and faintly daft about bands who wear shades indoors during daylight hours. It must be like driving round all day with your own personal blacked-out windows.
They can see us, but we can't see them. Is it supposed to make us mere mortals more inquisitive? Are we supposed to ask who's really inside?
And is 24-hour shade-wearing, anyway, just one of rock and roll's last great affectations? Like wearing leather trousers in the desert? Or sulking in your dressing room if you get the wrong colour towel?
Continue reading "A PAIR OF KINGS"
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- Steve Lamacq
- 15 Sep 08, 03:22 PM
About the same time that the Mercury Music Prize was being awarded across town in Mayfair, I was slouched outside the Dublin Castle - waiting to see Strokes-like New Yorkers The Virgins - when it suddenly occurred to me that it's true what they say: some people in the music biz really will go to the opening of an envelope.
And yes you're right. Your humble DJ didn't get an invite (can't think why?).
Continue reading "MY COO CA CHEW"
