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Jazz Cigarettes 15 Jun 2013 | 06:27 am
1. Burnt out It was a rock & roll moment in a country & western temple. At the country music awards in 1975, what possessed Charlie Rich to burn the envelope after announcing the winner of the big aw...
Jazz Cigarettes 15 Jun 2013 | 06:27 am
1. Burnt out It was a rock & roll moment in a country & western temple. At the country music awards in 1975, what possessed Charlie Rich to burn the envelope after announcing the winner of the big aw...
Never Be Blue 10 May 2013 | 03:12 am
In January 1986 in Sydney I interviewed Dinah Lee, the singer of one of the first three songs I can remember hearing (besides ‘Do the Blue Beat’, the other two are the Beatles’ ‘All My Loving’ and Nat...
My Back Pages - 1 7 May 2013 | 10:24 am
“Mike Flaws, guitarist with BLERTA, at Ngaruawahia” – from Affairs, February 1973. 1. The private collector Hoarding describes someone else, someone who collects Weetbix boxes and Dominion newspaper...
Hanging Out with Hank 7 Mar 2013 | 04:33 am
In 1988 in New Orleans I met a group of men who had backed Hank Willliams (the first one). The Hackberry Ramblers were all in their late 60s, and dressed like they were going to church on a hot day: w...
Victors and history 5 Feb 2013 | 07:12 am
1. You make my heart sing Farewell, then, Reg Presley, lead singer of the Troggs, a group memorable for ‘Wild Thing’ one of the great dumb songs in rock’n’roll history – a well-stocked subset – and a...
Olympian 31 Dec 2012 | 12:02 am
James Brown at the Olympia, Paris, 1971 - the complete show, with Bootsy Collins on bass. Aretha Franklin live in Amsterdam, 1968. Monitor: Open Culture
From St Kilda to King’s Cross 6 Dec 2012 | 07:31 am
Paul Kelly’s “song memoir” How to Make Gravy (Penguin, 2010) is as expansive and rich in gems as Australia itself. This is no conventional autobiography, and all the better for it. Written using an A-...
Take it to la bridge 20 Nov 2012 | 07:51 am
Reading the London Independent’s fascinating obituary of French pretty-boy singer Frank Alamo – the leading exponent of the 1960s yéyé genre – I came across a sentence about his rivals Johnny Hallyday...
When the day is dawning 6 Nov 2012 | 06:53 am
‘Just a Little Lovin’ is the perfect opening track to the perfect album, Dusty in Memphis. Written by Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil, it works like an overture to the 40-minute emotional opera that is Du...
