David Robilliard was a poet and painter who lived from 1952 to 1988.
Eating Out You're like a potato. You'd go with anything.
"David Robilliard was the sweetest, kindest, most infuriating, artistic foul-mouthed, witty, charming, handsome, thoughtful, unhappy, loving and friendly person we ever met.
Over the nine years of our friendship David came closer to us than any other person. He will live forever in our hearts and minds." Gilbert and George wrote the above on July 7, 1990. "Starting with pockets filled with disorganised writings and sketches, he went on to produce highly original poetry, drawings and paintings. His truthfulness, sadness desperation and love of people gave his work a brilliance and beauty that stands out a mile."
Waiting For Nothing We're all waiting for Someone who never arrives to brighten up our lives.
As poets come and go, David Robilliard arrived all too quickly, and went all too soon. He was discovered,...
Eating Out You're like a potato. You'd go with anything.
"David Robilliard was the sweetest, kindest, most infuriating, artistic foul-mouthed, witty, charming, handsome, thoughtful, unhappy, loving and friendly person we ever met.
Over the nine years of our friendship David came closer to us than any other person. He will live forever in our hearts and minds." Gilbert and George wrote the above on July 7, 1990. "Starting with pockets filled with disorganised writings and sketches, he went on to produce highly original poetry, drawings and paintings. His truthfulness, sadness desperation and love of people gave his work a brilliance and beauty that stands out a mile."
Waiting For Nothing We're all waiting for Someone who never arrives to brighten up our lives.
As poets come and go, David Robilliard arrived all too quickly, and went all too soon. He was discovered,...
- 10/28/2017
- by robert cochrane
- www.culturecatch.com
The Fall - New Facts Emerge (Cherry Red)
For a band that has existed around the spiteful and brooding presence of Mark E. Smith for over thirty albums and forty years another release shouldn't pack many surprises but it does. Many have served under his difficult demands, being in The Fall almost a rite of passage, an induction by fire for many a Mancunian musician. Some never fully recuperate from the experience.
At his sneering malevolent best, Smith revolts into style with sublime swagger. The opening "Segue" is a drunken spoons hammering against beer glasses outburst that effortlessly slides into '"Fol De Rol" a guitar driven epic resembling Magazine at their most monochromatic and industrial. European in feel. It could easily pass as John Foxx period Ultravox at their most chillingly Germanic. A searing slab of Metal meets Art Rock. A public image uninhibited. "Brillo De Facto" is more conventional Fall-fare,...
For a band that has existed around the spiteful and brooding presence of Mark E. Smith for over thirty albums and forty years another release shouldn't pack many surprises but it does. Many have served under his difficult demands, being in The Fall almost a rite of passage, an induction by fire for many a Mancunian musician. Some never fully recuperate from the experience.
At his sneering malevolent best, Smith revolts into style with sublime swagger. The opening "Segue" is a drunken spoons hammering against beer glasses outburst that effortlessly slides into '"Fol De Rol" a guitar driven epic resembling Magazine at their most monochromatic and industrial. European in feel. It could easily pass as John Foxx period Ultravox at their most chillingly Germanic. A searing slab of Metal meets Art Rock. A public image uninhibited. "Brillo De Facto" is more conventional Fall-fare,...
- 9/24/2017
- by robert cochrane
- www.culturecatch.com
The Children of Rain - Red Corduroy (Bad Pressings)
This is a tale with two beginnings that merge revealingly. One is more than half a century old, the other only began at the start of the year. They meld on the account of a single name, or rather the mis-accounting of it, and the fact that it seemed beguiling to this writer on a late at night, nothing better to do trawl for "quality obscure" on auction sites. You are unlikely to have heard of The Children Of Rain. They released one single on Dot Records in 1966, but someone at the label sent the wrong credits to the pressing plant. Although they were the first to get their hands on "Get Together," their rendition tanked, not because it was in any way inferior to the later version by The Youngbloods which became a counter-culture anthem for that turbulent decade of hope and change,...
This is a tale with two beginnings that merge revealingly. One is more than half a century old, the other only began at the start of the year. They meld on the account of a single name, or rather the mis-accounting of it, and the fact that it seemed beguiling to this writer on a late at night, nothing better to do trawl for "quality obscure" on auction sites. You are unlikely to have heard of The Children Of Rain. They released one single on Dot Records in 1966, but someone at the label sent the wrong credits to the pressing plant. Although they were the first to get their hands on "Get Together," their rendition tanked, not because it was in any way inferior to the later version by The Youngbloods which became a counter-culture anthem for that turbulent decade of hope and change,...
- 9/12/2017
- by robert cochrane
- www.culturecatch.com
Lynn Castle Rose Colored Corner Light (Light In The Attic)
Coming across visually as a prototype Nancy Sinatra about to enter The Valley Of The Dolls, Lynn Castle in the 1960s was an entrancing and beguiling entity. Her debut album finally appears a few years shy of her turning eighty, and it is a tremendous affair, an index of splendid and unrealized possibilities, as stark as it is haunting.
Vocally she sounds like a female Leonard Cohen who's been listening to too much Nina Simone, whose smoke-laced croak she frequently echoes. Her look though uber-girlie doesn't match her sound, and simply serves to enhance the appeal of her beauty and big, big hair. Think Warhol's Candy Darling doing an arch Barbie doll look and you are nearly there. Add Jackie O shades and you have quite simply arrived. Her sole single 'The Lady Barber' is a wonderful piece of...
Coming across visually as a prototype Nancy Sinatra about to enter The Valley Of The Dolls, Lynn Castle in the 1960s was an entrancing and beguiling entity. Her debut album finally appears a few years shy of her turning eighty, and it is a tremendous affair, an index of splendid and unrealized possibilities, as stark as it is haunting.
Vocally she sounds like a female Leonard Cohen who's been listening to too much Nina Simone, whose smoke-laced croak she frequently echoes. Her look though uber-girlie doesn't match her sound, and simply serves to enhance the appeal of her beauty and big, big hair. Think Warhol's Candy Darling doing an arch Barbie doll look and you are nearly there. Add Jackie O shades and you have quite simply arrived. Her sole single 'The Lady Barber' is a wonderful piece of...
- 6/20/2017
- by robert cochrane
- www.culturecatch.com
John Cale Liverpool Sound City, UK Friday 26th May 2017
Fifty years on and it is time to remember one of the most innovative albums ever impressed onto wax. A delicious dark and jagged confection of nihilism and sulky sophistication unlike it's Liverpudlian counterpart Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, also now fifty, but which was sunny, funny and a bit vaudeville. Both represent a pair of wildly different bookends. The Velvet Underground and Nico was then a monumental, commercial flop, whilst the Beatles album sold in the millions. With half a century under its belt of shiny studded leather, the Velvets album now has an arc of influence that continues to reach into the hearts of those who wish to create a positive noise.
There is something incongruous about the weather, it is clammy and warm, and the sun is blinding, and yet the music we await really should be...
Fifty years on and it is time to remember one of the most innovative albums ever impressed onto wax. A delicious dark and jagged confection of nihilism and sulky sophistication unlike it's Liverpudlian counterpart Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, also now fifty, but which was sunny, funny and a bit vaudeville. Both represent a pair of wildly different bookends. The Velvet Underground and Nico was then a monumental, commercial flop, whilst the Beatles album sold in the millions. With half a century under its belt of shiny studded leather, the Velvets album now has an arc of influence that continues to reach into the hearts of those who wish to create a positive noise.
There is something incongruous about the weather, it is clammy and warm, and the sun is blinding, and yet the music we await really should be...
- 5/30/2017
- by robert cochrane
- www.culturecatch.com
England is viewed by the wider world as a nation of eccentrics. This is considered a genetic characteristic, and something to be celebrated. Like most assumptions, the truth lies somewhat wide of the remark. Quentin Crisp, one such "National Treasure," is now rightly revered as one, but his journey from pariah nuisance to that of sage-like venerability was a long and winding affair. He migrated to New York, remaining vital till the end, an amalgam of defiance and disappointment worn as wit.
Some considered him a latter-day Oscar Wilde, a comparison he didn't much value, remarking that he'd known many who'd been sent to prison for crimes of the flesh like Wilde's, without being broken or penning such bad verse.
Unkind maybe, but Wilde had it all and lost it largely because of his own arrogance. He could have fled to Paris, had the chance to but didn't take it.
Some considered him a latter-day Oscar Wilde, a comparison he didn't much value, remarking that he'd known many who'd been sent to prison for crimes of the flesh like Wilde's, without being broken or penning such bad verse.
Unkind maybe, but Wilde had it all and lost it largely because of his own arrogance. He could have fled to Paris, had the chance to but didn't take it.
- 12/25/2016
- by robert cochrane
- www.culturecatch.com
Adam Miller Who Would Give His Only Song Away (Chelsea Records)
When Wes Farrell, the man who penned the perennial evergreen "Hang On Sloopy," and was overseer to the phenomenal chart successes of the Partridge Family and David Cassidy, set up his own record label in 1972, his maiden release wasn't a sure fire pop confection. He began proceedings with an exquisitely crafted collection of psych outsider introspection. Adam Miller, his new discovery and recipient of this gracious act of faith didn't set the world aflame, he didn't even darken it's edge, and today remains unknown, his album the victim of at best a misreading of the small print one is required to field when stumbling across an artist with no fame attached to the name above the title, more than four decades after the event. Chelsea Records became an outlet for pop and disco, especially the wonderfully camp and catchy Disco Tex and his Sexolettes,...
When Wes Farrell, the man who penned the perennial evergreen "Hang On Sloopy," and was overseer to the phenomenal chart successes of the Partridge Family and David Cassidy, set up his own record label in 1972, his maiden release wasn't a sure fire pop confection. He began proceedings with an exquisitely crafted collection of psych outsider introspection. Adam Miller, his new discovery and recipient of this gracious act of faith didn't set the world aflame, he didn't even darken it's edge, and today remains unknown, his album the victim of at best a misreading of the small print one is required to field when stumbling across an artist with no fame attached to the name above the title, more than four decades after the event. Chelsea Records became an outlet for pop and disco, especially the wonderfully camp and catchy Disco Tex and his Sexolettes,...
- 3/19/2016
- by robert cochrane
- www.culturecatch.com
An Evening With Arthur Brown 11th March 2016 The Ruby Lounge, Manchester, UK To the uninitiated, the title on the flyer suggests an event of essential Britishness, a talk about allotments, a discourse on gardening, or maybe the latest findings of the local historical society. Such is the distinctive ordinariness of the name Arthur Brown, as English as roast beef, and harking back to a time of tweed, flat caps and whippets. This is indeed an aspect of the truth, for the Mr Brown in question has elements of all of the above, but he is much more besides, and is quite simply one of the unsung national treasures, a living legend, the godfather of heavy metal and shock rock, and influence on acts with distances in longevity as Alice Cooper, Marilyn Manson, and the Prodigy. With a four octave range that even now, at the tender age of seventy three...
- 3/12/2016
- by robert cochrane
- www.culturecatch.com
Brett Smiley 25th September 1955 - 8th January 2016.
The death of Brett Smiley has removed one of the most obscure, but fascinating facets from the chipped, black nail varnished footnotes of rock. Until the turn of the new century his most slender of reputations rested only in the minds of those fortunate enough to possess his lone single "Va Va Va Voom," a wonderfully effete confection which surfaced in Britain in the fading months of 1974. Over-hyped and over the top, this California pretty boy import pouted and pranced like a stick thin bleached and back combed Goldie Hawn in platform boots. He emoted huskily: "I've gone so crazy I'm a certified nervous wreck. A little bit eccentric Ha! Screaming like a discotheque," made the cover of Disc magazine as the prettiest boy in the world and managed to briefly render Marc Bolan butch and reveal Sweet as the dockers in drag that they truly were.
The death of Brett Smiley has removed one of the most obscure, but fascinating facets from the chipped, black nail varnished footnotes of rock. Until the turn of the new century his most slender of reputations rested only in the minds of those fortunate enough to possess his lone single "Va Va Va Voom," a wonderfully effete confection which surfaced in Britain in the fading months of 1974. Over-hyped and over the top, this California pretty boy import pouted and pranced like a stick thin bleached and back combed Goldie Hawn in platform boots. He emoted huskily: "I've gone so crazy I'm a certified nervous wreck. A little bit eccentric Ha! Screaming like a discotheque," made the cover of Disc magazine as the prettiest boy in the world and managed to briefly render Marc Bolan butch and reveal Sweet as the dockers in drag that they truly were.
- 3/7/2016
- by robert cochrane
- www.culturecatch.com
Tony Warren 8th July 1936-1st March 2016
'The first Coronation Street writing team contained some of the biggest homophobes I've ever met. I remember getting on my feet in a story conference and saying "Gentlemen, I have sat here for two-and-a-half hours and listened to three poof jokes, a storyline dismissed as poofy, and an actor described as 'useless as he's a poof'. As a matter of fact he isn't! but I would like to point out that I am, and without a poof none of you would be in work today." So reflected the writer & television dramatist Tony Warren on his early uphill, but routine struggle with homophobia of late 1950s Britain. It was a brave and brazen stance given that homosexuality was still illegal. He also stated later that "the outsider sees more, hears more, and has to remember more to survive" and that in those days if...
'The first Coronation Street writing team contained some of the biggest homophobes I've ever met. I remember getting on my feet in a story conference and saying "Gentlemen, I have sat here for two-and-a-half hours and listened to three poof jokes, a storyline dismissed as poofy, and an actor described as 'useless as he's a poof'. As a matter of fact he isn't! but I would like to point out that I am, and without a poof none of you would be in work today." So reflected the writer & television dramatist Tony Warren on his early uphill, but routine struggle with homophobia of late 1950s Britain. It was a brave and brazen stance given that homosexuality was still illegal. He also stated later that "the outsider sees more, hears more, and has to remember more to survive" and that in those days if...
- 3/5/2016
- by robert cochrane
- www.culturecatch.com
Very few of Andy Warhol's anointed "superstars" managed a long shelf-life. They simply were too wild, too beautiful, and too damned. There were the poor little rich girl Edie Sedgwick, the transgender icon Candy Darling, and the husky, glacial, heroin-swamped charm of Nico. All gone, along with a cavalcade of others; too soon and in the 20th century. Ultra Violet survived into this one, and originally arrived as a somebody already in the anybody everybody world of The Factory.
Often compared to Vivien Leigh, she was a striking beauty, a privileged French girl from a chateau via a host of reform schools. A muse to the surrealist eccentric Salvador Dali, she was also his muse, assistant, and confidante, although theirs was a decidedly platonic affair begun after she'd entranced him after delivering him a present in New York from a mutual friend. By the time she encountered Warhol, she...
Often compared to Vivien Leigh, she was a striking beauty, a privileged French girl from a chateau via a host of reform schools. A muse to the surrealist eccentric Salvador Dali, she was also his muse, assistant, and confidante, although theirs was a decidedly platonic affair begun after she'd entranced him after delivering him a present in New York from a mutual friend. By the time she encountered Warhol, she...
- 6/26/2014
- by robert cochrane
- www.culturecatch.com
Although David Robilliard is now viewed with the gift of hindsight as being essentially a London artist, a closer examination of his life betrays that he stemmed from a more parochial soil, that of the Channel Islands. He no more represents '80's London by birth, than Andy Warhol embodies '60's Manhattan. It's their work and it's ethos that bequeaths them this status and blends them both so firmly into the fabric of their adoptive cities. Circumstance and happenstance gilded their evolution as gay men. Warhol escaped the confines of Pittsburgh for the heady promises of the Big Apple. Robilliard fled the stifling nature of island life, arriving in London in the early '70s become an artist and poet.
Warhol was a pioneer of the cult of celebrity to such a degree that what he was obsessed with, he became. If Andy was the iconic priest of superstardom.
Warhol was a pioneer of the cult of celebrity to such a degree that what he was obsessed with, he became. If Andy was the iconic priest of superstardom.
- 5/1/2014
- by robert cochrane
- www.culturecatch.com
Visit SydneysBuzz Reports for the complete Fall 2013 Rights Roundup Report.
Stealth Media has changed since Cannes. Sean O'Kelly has moved on, leaving Michael Cowan as CEO based in the UK and Jason Piette director of L.A. operations, based in L.A. They have also brought in Glenn Kendrick Ackermann (formerly from Capitol Films) as President of world sales.
Stealth Media Group was founded by film entrepreneurs Michael L Cowan and Jason Piette to do international sales, finance and executive production. Their sales company encompasses theatrical, television and home video/dvd.
Michael L Cowan and Jason Piette founded Spice Factory in 1998, one of Europe’s most dynamic independent production companies, which has produced over 55 films from Us$1M to Us$55M. They are involved in structured financing of films, and have raised over £100M for film production in the last 10 years. Recently they have moved into television event mini-series.
Michael L Cowan and Jason Piette were founding partners in Arclight Films with Gary Hamilton and Victor Syrmis, which put together and sold such films as the 2004 Oscar winner Crash; 2007 Golden Globe nominated film Bobby, written and directed by Emilio Estevez; The Merchant of Venice starring Academy Award winners Al Pacino and Jeremy Irons; the action drama Lord of War, a film based on the true-life story of one of America's most notorious arms dealers, starring Nicolas Cage and Ethan Hawke; Head in the Clouds starring Charlize Theron, Penelope Cruz, Stuart Townsend, Thomas Kretschmann and Wolf Creek which went on to gross over $100M worldwide.
Stealth Media Group has built up a fast growing and recognizable brand at all major motion picture and television festivals and markets worldwide, including Cannes, Afm, Efm, Berlinale, The Sundance Film Festival, Toronto International Film Festival, Pusan International Film Festival, Mipcom and Miptv.
Stealth Media Group focuses on international sales of film, television and film libraries. The company has offices in Los Angeles and U.K.. Michael Cowan is based in the U.K. focusing on sales and structured financing, Jason Piette is based in L.A .running Stealth's Us acquisition and production.
Stealth Media Group is able to provide:
- Minimum Guarantees against worldwide sales rights
- Access to equity and structured funds globally where we also act as co-producers or executive producers
- Cash flow tax credit rebates, distribution agreements and any other forms of collateral
- Source content from leading producers and agents worldwide with offices in La and partners in Europe and Asia
- Help package projects as executive producers both creatively and financially
- Film and television sales and licensing worldwide to independent distributors and major studios
- Creation of international and domestic marketing campaigns
- Royalty reports and overages collection by territory to maximize revenues
- P&A control by territory
- Access to film festivals e.g. Cannes, Toronto and Berlin
- Access to IMAX and digital distribution worldwide
New Film releases include: Latino Prize Winner Palm Springs Film Festival 2013: Sadourni's Butterflies, The Paddy Lincoln Gang, Outpost 11, The Knife that Killed Me, The Child, Crave, Dead Sand, The City that Rocked the World, Bliss!, Epic, Fangs of War, Wild Oats and The Coven.
Four indies from the U.S. Have expressed interest in the film after seeing the trailer.
See the trailer Here
The Coven
According to the production info below the paranormal events are 100% true, the notes also mentioned three sudden deaths of family members of the crew. See below:
Beneath the beautiful wild Woodland and Nature Reserve that is Queen’s Wood, Highgate hides the dark secret of lime filled plague pits. Thousands of victims from London’s Black Death were buried there in the sixteen hundreds. One is now concealed by an innocent Children’s Play Area. There is no signage to inform the unsuspecting parent of the horror that lies beneath.
The Coven in the middle of the woods, really exists. A strange clearing surrounded by ancient Oak trees. Robert Cochrane was a known Witch who committed suicide by ingesting Belladonna on the summer solstice in 1966. His Coven of Witches renamed themselves as ‘The Regency’ after his death, in his honour. The Regency would regularly meet in The Coven at Queen’s Wood.
There are some Wiccan Figurines placed high in the Oak trees as if they protect this foreboding space, almost hidden from view unless you purposefully look for them.
And it is said that despite the very many species of bird life that Queen’s Wood is home to, not one has been seen to fly across The Coven.
Today there are several Pagan groups who convene in The Coven.
During filming, our schedule unfortunately fell on Halloween and we were warned off by a group of Witches who didn’t want us to witness their ritual.
Arguments ensued but despite our permission to film, we eventually we gave in and wrapped for the day, concerned that they may curse our project.
Since that date we have sadly experienced three very sudden deaths relating to our crew.
Our first Editor lost her Mother.
The Director lost his brother.
Our Sound Designer lost his brother.
All three deaths were completely unexpected and out of the blue!
Stealth Media has changed since Cannes. Sean O'Kelly has moved on, leaving Michael Cowan as CEO based in the UK and Jason Piette director of L.A. operations, based in L.A. They have also brought in Glenn Kendrick Ackermann (formerly from Capitol Films) as President of world sales.
Stealth Media Group was founded by film entrepreneurs Michael L Cowan and Jason Piette to do international sales, finance and executive production. Their sales company encompasses theatrical, television and home video/dvd.
Michael L Cowan and Jason Piette founded Spice Factory in 1998, one of Europe’s most dynamic independent production companies, which has produced over 55 films from Us$1M to Us$55M. They are involved in structured financing of films, and have raised over £100M for film production in the last 10 years. Recently they have moved into television event mini-series.
Michael L Cowan and Jason Piette were founding partners in Arclight Films with Gary Hamilton and Victor Syrmis, which put together and sold such films as the 2004 Oscar winner Crash; 2007 Golden Globe nominated film Bobby, written and directed by Emilio Estevez; The Merchant of Venice starring Academy Award winners Al Pacino and Jeremy Irons; the action drama Lord of War, a film based on the true-life story of one of America's most notorious arms dealers, starring Nicolas Cage and Ethan Hawke; Head in the Clouds starring Charlize Theron, Penelope Cruz, Stuart Townsend, Thomas Kretschmann and Wolf Creek which went on to gross over $100M worldwide.
Stealth Media Group has built up a fast growing and recognizable brand at all major motion picture and television festivals and markets worldwide, including Cannes, Afm, Efm, Berlinale, The Sundance Film Festival, Toronto International Film Festival, Pusan International Film Festival, Mipcom and Miptv.
Stealth Media Group focuses on international sales of film, television and film libraries. The company has offices in Los Angeles and U.K.. Michael Cowan is based in the U.K. focusing on sales and structured financing, Jason Piette is based in L.A .running Stealth's Us acquisition and production.
Stealth Media Group is able to provide:
- Minimum Guarantees against worldwide sales rights
- Access to equity and structured funds globally where we also act as co-producers or executive producers
- Cash flow tax credit rebates, distribution agreements and any other forms of collateral
- Source content from leading producers and agents worldwide with offices in La and partners in Europe and Asia
- Help package projects as executive producers both creatively and financially
- Film and television sales and licensing worldwide to independent distributors and major studios
- Creation of international and domestic marketing campaigns
- Royalty reports and overages collection by territory to maximize revenues
- P&A control by territory
- Access to film festivals e.g. Cannes, Toronto and Berlin
- Access to IMAX and digital distribution worldwide
New Film releases include: Latino Prize Winner Palm Springs Film Festival 2013: Sadourni's Butterflies, The Paddy Lincoln Gang, Outpost 11, The Knife that Killed Me, The Child, Crave, Dead Sand, The City that Rocked the World, Bliss!, Epic, Fangs of War, Wild Oats and The Coven.
Four indies from the U.S. Have expressed interest in the film after seeing the trailer.
See the trailer Here
The Coven
According to the production info below the paranormal events are 100% true, the notes also mentioned three sudden deaths of family members of the crew. See below:
Beneath the beautiful wild Woodland and Nature Reserve that is Queen’s Wood, Highgate hides the dark secret of lime filled plague pits. Thousands of victims from London’s Black Death were buried there in the sixteen hundreds. One is now concealed by an innocent Children’s Play Area. There is no signage to inform the unsuspecting parent of the horror that lies beneath.
The Coven in the middle of the woods, really exists. A strange clearing surrounded by ancient Oak trees. Robert Cochrane was a known Witch who committed suicide by ingesting Belladonna on the summer solstice in 1966. His Coven of Witches renamed themselves as ‘The Regency’ after his death, in his honour. The Regency would regularly meet in The Coven at Queen’s Wood.
There are some Wiccan Figurines placed high in the Oak trees as if they protect this foreboding space, almost hidden from view unless you purposefully look for them.
And it is said that despite the very many species of bird life that Queen’s Wood is home to, not one has been seen to fly across The Coven.
Today there are several Pagan groups who convene in The Coven.
During filming, our schedule unfortunately fell on Halloween and we were warned off by a group of Witches who didn’t want us to witness their ritual.
Arguments ensued but despite our permission to film, we eventually we gave in and wrapped for the day, concerned that they may curse our project.
Since that date we have sadly experienced three very sudden deaths relating to our crew.
Our first Editor lost her Mother.
The Director lost his brother.
Our Sound Designer lost his brother.
All three deaths were completely unexpected and out of the blue!
- 11/11/2013
- by Peter Belsito
- Sydney's Buzz
The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas by John Boyne. David Fickling Books.
Some small books cleverly conceal the magnitude of their contents, especially one that must be elusive in order to preserve the intricacies of the story. There is little about the blurb to suggest the scope concealed within these pages. Boyne is a young Irish writer, based in Dublin, who has chosen a setting distant in time but universal in impact, and the reader is simply informed that the novel is about a boy, Bruno, and a friendship, and it merits your attention. It is a brave attempt to undersell, because the very essence of the tale rests within a knowledge the child cannot own. It also betrays the publisher's justified assurance of the book's potency.
This could be viewed as a child's novel for adults, but it hits wide of that remit. The older the reader, the greater...
Some small books cleverly conceal the magnitude of their contents, especially one that must be elusive in order to preserve the intricacies of the story. There is little about the blurb to suggest the scope concealed within these pages. Boyne is a young Irish writer, based in Dublin, who has chosen a setting distant in time but universal in impact, and the reader is simply informed that the novel is about a boy, Bruno, and a friendship, and it merits your attention. It is a brave attempt to undersell, because the very essence of the tale rests within a knowledge the child cannot own. It also betrays the publisher's justified assurance of the book's potency.
This could be viewed as a child's novel for adults, but it hits wide of that remit. The older the reader, the greater...
- 8/25/2013
- by robert cochrane
- www.culturecatch.com
Dreamers, like the worlds they inhabit, come and go, leaving a profoundly vague impression in their wake. Kevin Ayers was never a major star. His songs were simply too idiosyncratic to garner mass appeal, but like many for whom fame was largely an irritant of the creative process, he exerted a greater influence than he imagined or really cared for.
Morrissey is now viewed as the quintessential English pop icon, but the soil he sprang from was gritty, working class, and Northern. The product of an inner city education system, his brand of Britishness is not as universal as it might appear to outsiders. There are many variations of the national characteristic, and Ayers had a colonial, distractedly comfortable middle-class one. sullied by his public school incarceration, and the memory of distant sunshine from a childhood spent abroad. A slightly surreal confection of Nick Drake, Noel Coward, and country house fop,...
Morrissey is now viewed as the quintessential English pop icon, but the soil he sprang from was gritty, working class, and Northern. The product of an inner city education system, his brand of Britishness is not as universal as it might appear to outsiders. There are many variations of the national characteristic, and Ayers had a colonial, distractedly comfortable middle-class one. sullied by his public school incarceration, and the memory of distant sunshine from a childhood spent abroad. A slightly surreal confection of Nick Drake, Noel Coward, and country house fop,...
- 2/21/2013
- by robert cochrane
- www.culturecatch.com
Sixto Rodriguez Academy 1, Manchester UK December 2, 2012
Cool, like water, is difficult to grasp, and like truth, is even more awkward to explain. If an example of this conundrum were needed, then it could be located in the guise of Sixto Rodriguez, who by virtue of existing exemplifies the quality in question. At the age of three score and ten, he has become an unusual media darling. with appearances on the Letterman Show in the U.S. and Later with Jools Holland in the U.K., and is selling out venues (three nights in London, to mention but a few) and has gone from being a re-issue oddity to a current artist, -- without, it has to be said, much calculation on his own behalf. He is also the subject of a major documentary, Looking for Sugar Man, which embroiders his delicious myth into a rock 'n' roll fable. He remained steadfast,...
Cool, like water, is difficult to grasp, and like truth, is even more awkward to explain. If an example of this conundrum were needed, then it could be located in the guise of Sixto Rodriguez, who by virtue of existing exemplifies the quality in question. At the age of three score and ten, he has become an unusual media darling. with appearances on the Letterman Show in the U.S. and Later with Jools Holland in the U.K., and is selling out venues (three nights in London, to mention but a few) and has gone from being a re-issue oddity to a current artist, -- without, it has to be said, much calculation on his own behalf. He is also the subject of a major documentary, Looking for Sugar Man, which embroiders his delicious myth into a rock 'n' roll fable. He remained steadfast,...
- 12/3/2012
- by robert cochrane
- www.culturecatch.com
Tony Fletcher/Tom Hingley 26 November 2012 Waterstones Deansgate, Manchester
Just around the corner from this evening's Manchester proceedings, I once saw an elderly British actor make an early afternoon appearance in the hallowed arena known as the Royal Exchange Theatre. The thespian in question was Dirk Bogarde, who was promoting one of his self-seeking, closeted novels, with which he interspersed his equally closeted and self seeking volumes of autobiography. Bogarde wasn't averse to selling himself, although he was very particular about the parts he chose to throw into the marketplace.
Bogarde admitted that in his days as a matinee idol in the 1950s he had to resort to sewing up the button flies of his sharp suits with dark cotton. In the ensuing scrum of over-heated ladies, whose varnished fingernails immediately went for the area they weren't supposed to access, this was his only means of preventing over-exposure, although it didn't...
Just around the corner from this evening's Manchester proceedings, I once saw an elderly British actor make an early afternoon appearance in the hallowed arena known as the Royal Exchange Theatre. The thespian in question was Dirk Bogarde, who was promoting one of his self-seeking, closeted novels, with which he interspersed his equally closeted and self seeking volumes of autobiography. Bogarde wasn't averse to selling himself, although he was very particular about the parts he chose to throw into the marketplace.
Bogarde admitted that in his days as a matinee idol in the 1950s he had to resort to sewing up the button flies of his sharp suits with dark cotton. In the ensuing scrum of over-heated ladies, whose varnished fingernails immediately went for the area they weren't supposed to access, this was his only means of preventing over-exposure, although it didn't...
- 11/29/2012
- by robert cochrane
- www.culturecatch.com
Tony Fletcher A Light That Never Goes Out: The Enduring Saga of the Smiths (Crown Archetype)
For a band whose dying gasp came over two decades ago, the Smiths' brief, entire career has been barely scrutinized. Initially there was the stodgy Severed Alliance by Johnny Rogan, which has long just about sufficed in the absence of anything more, and there has been a ceaseless, incoming tide of books about the songs, and the aura which surrounds their apostle-like leader, Morrissey, when all that was really required was a clear-headed history, a factual consideration, as to why they sprang into life. Tony Fletcher has finally created that with A Light That Never Goes Out, a reasoned, logical, and unhurried recreation of their initially unlikely route to fame.
Johnny Marr wasn't the only kid on the block who wanted to be a guitar hero, but he had immense talent on his side,...
For a band whose dying gasp came over two decades ago, the Smiths' brief, entire career has been barely scrutinized. Initially there was the stodgy Severed Alliance by Johnny Rogan, which has long just about sufficed in the absence of anything more, and there has been a ceaseless, incoming tide of books about the songs, and the aura which surrounds their apostle-like leader, Morrissey, when all that was really required was a clear-headed history, a factual consideration, as to why they sprang into life. Tony Fletcher has finally created that with A Light That Never Goes Out, a reasoned, logical, and unhurried recreation of their initially unlikely route to fame.
Johnny Marr wasn't the only kid on the block who wanted to be a guitar hero, but he had immense talent on his side,...
- 11/22/2012
- by robert cochrane
- www.culturecatch.com
How to Change the World Brian Eno & James Thorton chaired by Anne McElvoy The Globe Hall, Hay on Wye, United Kingdom Saturday, 9 June 2012 How the Light Gets In is a wonderfully eclectic confection of philosophy, art, film, and music. An annual event spread over eleven days in the small market town of Hay on Wye, it is stimulating. diverse, and largely at the mercy of the elements. A strangely appealing mixture of tents and marquees spread, in a seemingly random fashion, over a site that has a myriad of pathways and stairs. You get the feeling of being transported back centuries to a rustic fair. Today the sun is shining, a direct flip of the downpour of yesterday, and there's an air of celebration added by the bars, and the constant variety of singers and entertainers who are happy to perform to the few or many who decide to stop and listen.
- 6/13/2012
- by robert cochrane
- www.culturecatch.com
David J. Roch: Skin & Bones (Dram)
The punk aspiration that "everyone can" has been rendered by the digital age a democratic reality, and a jaundiced reward. A tsunami of silver discs panhandle the ears of listeners, and as a result an air of capable mediocrity holds sway, an invisible ether of downloads gas expectations with their average worth instant availability, and then, but only occasionally, something creeps out of the speakers that startles and stuns, demands proper attention, and soars above the parliament of ordinary birds and their common-place warblings.
Though this is a debut album, Sheffield's David J. Roch sounds like a seasoned hand. He also betrays a sense of pain and sorrow at odds with his tender years, but the first cut, even if more brutal ones follow, feels like the deepest, the most wounding. His songs are proof and testament to this, have a power, maturity, and...
The punk aspiration that "everyone can" has been rendered by the digital age a democratic reality, and a jaundiced reward. A tsunami of silver discs panhandle the ears of listeners, and as a result an air of capable mediocrity holds sway, an invisible ether of downloads gas expectations with their average worth instant availability, and then, but only occasionally, something creeps out of the speakers that startles and stuns, demands proper attention, and soars above the parliament of ordinary birds and their common-place warblings.
Though this is a debut album, Sheffield's David J. Roch sounds like a seasoned hand. He also betrays a sense of pain and sorrow at odds with his tender years, but the first cut, even if more brutal ones follow, feels like the deepest, the most wounding. His songs are proof and testament to this, have a power, maturity, and...
- 4/3/2012
- by robert cochrane
- www.culturecatch.com
In a life that could have stepped straight from the pages of his beloved Dickens, albeit a 20th century and queer version, Peter William Burton was a boy of humble Hackney origins, born as the Second World War staggered to a close, who by dint of an extraordinary passion for books blazed a fascinating trail. His father was homosexual. Common of many of his kind, then persecuted, he married as a means of disguise. Like father like son, but their shared sexuality gave them nothing in common. What it created was an unhappy backdrop for growing up, and a desire to leave home and school as soon as possible. When he read the eulogy at his father's funeral, he stated, "George Burton was an old bugger!" Most of those gathered assumed he was being affectionately ribald. He was in fact being bluntly truthful. It is a great shame that he...
- 1/22/2012
- by robert cochrane
- www.culturecatch.com
UK-based singer/songwriter Sharon Lewis was brought to my attention by our Manchester-based scribe Rob Cochrane. She's just collaborated on a new track with The Climbers who have just signed to Willkommen Records for the release of their debut in March entitled The Good Ship.
To celebrate, the band are giving away this fab track, "Uncommom", from the record which features Dan Michaelson of Absentee and The Coastguards.
A single will also be released this winter; details announced shortly.
read more...
To celebrate, the band are giving away this fab track, "Uncommom", from the record which features Dan Michaelson of Absentee and The Coastguards.
A single will also be released this winter; details announced shortly.
read more...
- 10/15/2009
- by Dusty Wright
- www.culturecatch.com
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