Kite. We can talk about anything but the Bolshoi

After The Bolshoi imploded in the late eighties I was more than a little disappointed. Each album was getting better, they were attracting more and more fans, and were playing large venues, particularly in South America, where they were actually becoming pop stars. Their potential was massive, and then, nothing. It was all over.

Pete Shelley. A Pop Terrorist hiding in plain sight

It was a shock to wake up on December 7th to read that Pete Shelley had died. As a songwriter, he was one of the best that emerged from the Punk explosion.  After breaking up the Buzzcocks he enjoyed success with his solo efforts, working with Martin Rushent who produced the hit single Homosapien (which reached #4 in the Australian charts) before he had decided to move back to a full band format for the 'Heaven and the Sea' album. I caught up with him in London on the 14th May 1986 in this previously unpublished interview.

The Room in the Wood. Taking aim with a can of Red Stripe

It must be something to do with the water, or maybe the economic malaise that has plagued the city since its boom times last century, but Liverpool seems to have always been a hotbed of great musical talent. The Room in the Wood are no exception.

Even As We Speak. We Feel More Like An English Band from Australia

Even As We Speak were a mainstay of the UK Indie scene in the early nineties. Originally from Sydney they based themselves in Hove and spent their time zooming up and down the motorways to gigs and releasing what are now highly sought after records on the iconic Sarah Records label.

The Bolshoi. The debt we owe to Beggars Banquet is more money than you could ever think about

I posted my first interview with The Bolshoi, from back in 1985 when the band had just started. As promised here is the follow up from two years later, with the added bonus of an unreleased cracking demo of one my favourite tracks of the time, TV Man. As you will see, quite a few things had changed and the pressure from their record label was beginning to tell.

Daisy Hill Puppy Farm. Vale Jóhann Jóhannsson

Iceland was a hotbed of both geological disturbance and alternative music in the 1980's. Seeing as I loved both I would pop over to see a bit of volcanic action, get hold of all the latest local releases at the Gramm record shop, and catch a gig at the Hotel Borg in Reykjavik.

My Baby's Arm: A Spitfire Quartet (or never do an interview in the back of a London Cab while consuming a bands rider)

I had been in London trying to catch up with three bands that I had planned interviews with. Unbelievably all fell through.