Human beings themselves are at risk – not just on some survival-of-civilization level, but more basically on the level of heart and soul. We are ignorant of our own nature and confused about what it is to be a human being. Gary Snyder I live on the edge of a magic perimeter. The Lake District … Continued
We clapped for carers every week like our lives depended on it. Because they did. That weekly trip to the front doorstep was both a genuine display of appreciation and the mobilisation of a nation of individuals, all selfishly pleading for those frontline workers – the people facing down Covid day after day after day … Continued
God, I miss the pub. With two harsh lockdowns, a fleeting partial respite and one period of baffling regulation apparently drawn up by a mandarin left over from when the temperance movement was still gaining traction, this year has presented something of a challenge to those of us whose social life revolves almost entirely around … Continued
“A clock spends its life marking time, but does it understand mortality?” goes the Chain and The Gang lyric, “Music’s not for everyone, keep it away from them”. It’s the first track Andrew Weatherall played on his eponymous Music’s Not for Everyone NTS shows that ran monthly for nearly six years, and the last on … Continued
As the weeks drag on and everything apart from the things I care about seems to open – no gigs, no theatres, cinemas replaying stuff I’ve seen a million times – I find myself getting pulled back to earlier times and, indeed, imagined times. There has always been something irresistible to me about the late … Continued
There were thousands of them. Millions maybe. All across the sky, billowing around like some dusty gold and yellow snowstorm. They filled the air, running the line of the highway for miles. Ten miles. Twenty miles. Lou couldn’t tell anymore. The desert passed by the window, a blur of sand and rock and scrub. If … Continued
X Inn-dependence Day. Super Saturday. The end of the lockdown brought to you by the marketing department of England. A week or so ago, the government announced they were to re-open the pubs and to market the fact like a televised sporting event—the ultimate cultural-capitalistic signifier of the age. Viewed critically they could be said … Continued
On a classic midwinter deep-freeze evening on the 21st January 2015, I first saw Savages perform at Bowery Ballroom in New York. I knew the music. I had read about them. But I didn’t feel the real energy and attitude of Jehnny Beth until that night. Skip forward four years and I am introduced to Jehnny … Continued
In my first piece for this esteemed publication, I ended by posing a question: can the Netherlands really survive and prosper with closed borders and a relatively inactive Schiphol? This question is of direct relevance to the European and trans-continental music industry as it was pre COVID. Things don’t look that rosy for the established … Continued
(artwork by Caio Wheelhouse) I shouldn’t have been surprised that as the world altered entirely, I’d be watching from the vantage point of the kitchen. ‘Second-Hand Time’ by the Belarusian author Svetlana Alexievich collects oral testimonies from ordinary Russian citizens on the fall of the Soviet Union, during Perestroika and Glasnost. A lingering image from … Continued