Freelance Writer: comedy and pop culture2024-09-21T23:35:52+01:00

Freelance writer specializing in comedy and the geekier end of the pop culture spectrum.

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Nyman

While we're on the subject of the Latitude Festival (and, let's face it, I have been banging on a bit about it as of late), I was pleased to see that the minimalist composer Michael Nyman (he of The Piano soundtrack fame) will be "curating a programme specifically for the intimate environment of the Music and Film Arena." That sounds like my kind of shit, that does.I do like Michael Nyman. It's not so much because of his score for The Piano, which I didn't care too much for as a film, to be honest. (For one thing, the protagonist [...]

More Julian Cope…

Quite looking forward to seeing St Julian at Latitude in July. I like him loads, have never seen him live and over the years have heard great things about his gigs. In the meantime, I've got this to look forward to:The Birmingham Town Hall website says this about it:Cope will present one of his infamous lectures, based on his years of study of the occult, mythology and Britain’s pre-history. Followed by a screening of cult film Haxan (1922 dir: Benjamin Christensen)-an other worldly vision of grave robbing, torture, possessed nuns, baby sacrifices and satanic Sabbath, with a live soundtrack by [...]

Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, Birmingham Carling Academy, 5th May 2008

There's cool, there's uber-cool and then there's Nick Cave. Australia's finest export - the Black Crow King himself - was on particularly fine form as he performed in front of a sell-out crowd at the apparently soon-to-be demolished Academy on Monday night.He certainly looked the part. Dressed in a black, open-top silk shirt and sporting a horseshoe moustache, he put one in mind of a Latin American Revolutionary Hero with Goth-inclinations. For over two hours' he had the audience eating out of his hand. Granted, this may have something to do with the fact that few rock stars have fans [...]

O Brother, Why Art Thou?

The following is a transcript of a text message exchange that took place yesterday between me and my younger brother, Rob (AKA Brother Younger):ME: Julian Cope is playing at Latitude... :)ROB: Great! Who's Julian Cope?ME: Philistine!ROB: I'm not sure who they are, eitherME: You're saying you haven't heard of Phil S. Stein?ROB: Any relation to Phyllis Stein?That's how things are between Rob and me.

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