Didcot Green Team (Free subscription) | yesterday
I spent yesterday in company with hundreds of local environmental activists from across Oxfordshire at The Big Climate Event , a conference organised by ClimateXchange and the Oxfordshire Community Action Group project. It was a day of hopes, fears, facts and ideas. Ultimately it was about communities coming together for change. Ian Curtis from Oxford’s Environmental Change Institute opened the...
THE VINYL VILLAIN (Free subscription) | yesterday
There are some things which really dont seem as if they were released 30 years ago. The 7" single given the catalogue number FAC 13 first hit the shops in October 1979. I'm guessing that more people heard the song for the first time over the past 5 years than did over the previous 25 years such has been the resurgent interest in Joy Division and in particular the life and death of Ian Curtis ....
An Idiot's Guide to Dreaming (Free subscription) | 07/11/2009
...is (deep breath) still my favourite version of the song. Not only do I have the same confession as Liz (though why we feel the need to confess, I'm still working on); that Paul Young's version was the first I heard but also that when I heard the Joy Division version a few years later I thought it was a ropey Paul Young cover - and in fact, that's how I still see things now. When No Parlez came out...
Londonist (Free subscription) | 06/11/2009
Last night saw Oregon based mistress of drone folk Liz Harris aka Grouper hush a teeming Luminaire crowd in Kilburn. Presented by the London based music promoter Upset The Rhythm , Grouper was accompanied by Silk Flowers; an otherworldly darkwave synth-pop Brooklyn trio and self billed athletic rhythm / action unit Thank You hailing from Baltimore. Silk Flowers kicked things off with a few from their...
Chris n that (Free subscription) | 05/11/2009
Last night Owen accompanied me to Heaven (first time I have been there since the '90s!) to make sure I didn't self-combust... 'cos I was going to be seeing my Pop heroes Alphabeat for the 2nd time live! Anders SG, Stine, Anders B, Rasmus, Anders R and Troels saved my sanity while I was working in Borehamwood so many times - their debut album THIS IS ALPHABEAT could shake me from the deepest depression...
Boomkat: Just arrived (Free subscription) | 05/11/2009
COLD CAVE Love Comes Close (Matador Edition) Matador ELECTRO / SYNTHPOP LP We're still buzzed-up on Cold Cave's utterly f*cked-up and insanely brilliant compilation of early material 'Cremations' that came out a few weeks back, so you can only imagine how hyped we are over their debut LP proper, 'Love Comes Close'. While that first comp was engrossing from start to finish, we much preferred those tracks...
BabygirlBoutique.Com (Free subscription) | 02/11/2009
From the poverty and angst of late-seventies Manchester, England came Joy Division, new wave pioneers who hit the scene and, in just a few years, changed the history of British music forever. Front man Ian Curtis, known for his sad monotone, strange dancing, and anti-stage presence, suffered from epileptic seizures that interfered with his life and eventually his live performances. He grew ill and...
The Observer (Free subscription) | 01/11/2009
How to tell the story of the young Lennon? First-time director Sam Taylor-Wood, rising star Aaron Johnson and Yoko Ono talk exclusively about new film Nowhere Boy Here in the New Clubmoor Hall in Norris Green, Liverpool, they're selling Bateman's Light Dinner Ale at 6d a bottle. The reek of Nelson's Tipped and Senior Service cigarettes fills the air. Moody boys in slim suits and slick DAs mooch about...
Book Soup Blog (Free subscription) | 31/10/2009
The Hacienda: How Not to Run a Club by Peter Hook My rating: 3 of 5 stars I am going through a British pop star memoir thing at the moment, and I couldn't resist Joy Division/New Order's bass player Peter Hook's book on his (well co-owned by all of New Order) The Hacienda. It's interesting that he didn't write a proper memoir of life with Ian Curtis, etc. But perhaps he feels that there is already...
Londonist (Free subscription) | 30/10/2009
Wednesday night saw Cardiff’s seven headed ambassadors of twee, Los Campesinos! come bouncing back to London to headline a good old indie-pop love-in the Garage in Highbury, with all three bands on the bill helping out in each other’s sets. First up was lo-fi folk with a hint of They Might Be Giants from the multi-talented Sparky Deathcap , who will inevitably draw comparisons with Jeffrey...
freemovietag - free online movies (Free subscription) | 30/10/2009
Plot: A profile of Ian Curtis, the enigmatic singer of Joy Division whose personal, professional, and romantic troubles led him to commit suicide at the age of 23. Rapidshare:Part- 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 , 6 , 7
The Guardian (Free subscription) | 29/10/2009
This tale of a young John Lennon, torn between his legendary mother and equally formidable aunt, is an accomplished feature debut from Sam Taylor-Wood "A man who has been the indisputable favourite of his mother keeps for life the feeling of a conqueror," wrote Sigmund Freud – and Sigmund Freud was never twirled by his mum lasciviously around in a coffee bar to the novel sounds of...
prefixmag (Free subscription) | 29/10/2009
Cold Cave's solid post-punk lo-fi epic, Love Comes Close , is now streaming at Matador , the label that is reissuing the album on Nov. 3. Peep the title track especially; Ian Curtis would probably recognize some stuff.
Pedestrian.tv (Free subscription) | 29/10/2009
I don't know what's weirder. That the kid from Love Actually plays a young Paul McCartney or that I recognized him so quickly. I guess they're both weird in a way, but only one scenario makes me look creepy so I'll concentrate on the former - the casting. The main problem with films about modern icons is that disparity between the face we have tattooed into our brains and the one presented on screen....
Erik's Choice (Free subscription) | 27/10/2009
End of the 70, early 80s, this sampling is all male performers but gives a passing glimpse at the 70s music scene. You've got your reggae, your guitar heroes Southern rock style, your punk, your Manchester post-punk, your Old School heavy metal and your storyteller. And the beat goes on. The thing about being a kid and teenager in the Research Triangle, North Carolina, in the 70s, was this: you heard...
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