Sonic boom: Kefaya’s Radio International
Neil Rogall finds Kefaya’s debut album ‘Radio International a fantastic listen When fusion albums work they can be astonishing. The intersections, the borderlands, the clashes, the moments of meeting between cultures, genres, city and country can produce the most sublime music. But so often they fail. When the artists are just tinkering with other sounds, […]
Opening up a debate on black America – Beyoncé’s Lemonade
Monique Alicia Bell considers her favourite album of 2016 – Lemonade from Beyoncé I have been a Beyoncé fan since the days of Destiny’s Child, expressing my teenage moods by blasting ‘Emotions’ on repeat. As I watched women freaking out in excitement over this year’s visual album Lemonade, I decided I had to dedicate one full […]
Anarchy in the UK? The politics and people that produced punk rock
For the 40th anniversary of the birth of punk, Colin Revolting considers its origins and influences. The student butterfly that flapped its wings in Paris, May 1968 lead to an earthquake which shook factory walls across western Europe in the 1970’s. Out of the dust emerged an ugly snarling rodent called punk rock. The 1970s […]
Long Live Satie!
Alexander Billet assesses the life and impact of composer Erik Satie, 150 years after his birth. There are a great many fun and entertaining ways one could celebrate the 150th birthday of Erik Satie. The Velvet Gentleman seems to cast such an omniscient shadow over modern music that he is almost invisible. This of course […]
‘Your lunacy fits in nicely with my own’ (from ‘Sea Song’)
Starting out as drummer and singer for Soft Machine, Robert Wyatt has been making music for over 5 decades. Neil Rogall reviews ‘Different Every Time’, a new biography of him by Marcus O’Dair Robert Wyatt, now in his 70s is surely one of the most intriguing, distinctive and sometimes infuriating musicians born out of 1960s Britain. His […]
“You can’t organise a riot”: racism, riots and arrests in 1981
In memory of John “Brad” Bradbury of the Specials who topped the charts with Ghost Town whilst Britain burst into flames of riots and racism in 1981 – Colin Revolting remembers how anti – racists danced to the Specials and fought against racism and unemployment. January A fire at a house party in New […]
Bringing down the government, one song at a time…
Colin Revolting reviews a rally and fundraiser for Jeremy Corbyn at Union Chapel, Islington. Featuring Thee Faction, Owen Jones, Robb Johnson and the Socialist Magician. Credit for all photographs to Theo Michael. Queues and crowds have followed only one of the candidates competing for Labour leader. And despite tickets costing £15 for this fundraiser, the […]
“You can’t organise a riot”: racism, riots and arrests in 1981
In memory of John “Brad” Bradbury of the Specials who topped the charts with Ghost Town whilst Britain burst into flames of riots and racism in 1981 – Colin Revolting remembers how anti – racists danced to the Specials and fought against racism and unemployment. January A fire at a house party in New Cross […]
Nein, Nyet, No: a brief history of jazz, rock & roll, race and repression
Mitch Mitchell takes a look at the music that made racists and rulers come out in hives.
Event: Thanet Freedom Festival, 19 July
A multi-cultural anti-racist community event in the spirit of Love Music Hate Racism. Freedom Festival Lineup Spookasonic Sam Bumble Spyplane Nicola Booth Milky Negro OHHMS Avenge Thee + Naime Snowden Colliery Brass Band Roma Choir (plus 2 more Roma acts) Milos and Niklolas Lucia Xavier Dimitris Michailidis All My Ghosts Darren Barnes GriffAmy Libbi Jaeggi […]