Tag Archives: gothic

2023 in Darren’s music blog – the ten most popular posts of the year

Folk music, Interviews, Live reviews, Music culture & history, Rock music, , , , , , , , , , , ,

A Happy New Year to one and all. My thanks to everyone who has visited Darren’s music blog during 2023. As usual an eclectic mix of musical genres feature in this year’s top ten most viewed posts of the year – from blues to classic rock, to prog, to goth, to punk, to new wave, to folk – and much more in between! Here’s to 2024 which will mark ten years since I first started this blog back in March 2014.

1. So farewell to Butlin’s Rock & Blues weekends, Skegness 13-15 January 2023

For more than a decade an out-of-season trip to Butlins has been a fixture in my diary at least once each year: numerous trips to Minehead for the Giants Of Rock weekends, several trips to Skegness for the Great British Folk Festival and a handful of additional trips to the same resort for the Rock & Blues weekends. But now it was finally all coming to an end. My review of the final ever Rock & Blues weekend.

Read full review here

2. Live review: Francis Rossi – ‘Tunes & Chat’ at White Rock Theatre, Hastings 3/6/23

Always quite a Quo fan since being a young teenager, I’d originally booked to see Francis Rossi on his ‘I Talk Too Much Tour’ back in 2020. Covid came along and that got rescheduled and then cancelled altogether but Rossi finally made it to Hastings’ White Rock Theatre on his follow-up tour, ‘Tunes and Chat’.

Read full review here

3. Goth without the gloomy bits: five cheerful, upbeat and joy-inducing songs by goth bands

My affectionate but somewhat tongue-in-cheek look at some of my favourite tunes from goth bands. Features Bauhaus, Siouxsie and the Banshees, The Cult, Sisters of Mercy and The Cure.

Read full post here

4. Live review: Steeleye Span at the Old Market, Brighton & Hove 23/11/23

This tour saw Steeleye Span promoting a new album The Green Man Collection. The band revisit some of their past material with a mixture of songs written by members of the band at the time and some traditional numbers. The new album also includes a newly-composed song from Maddy Prior, a couple of well-chosen covers and something that was written for the band by (the sadly now recently deceased) Bob Johnson back in the ‘80s, committed to tape and then completely forgotten about for the next four decades.

Read full post here

5. Notes from the Lust For Life Tour – Feb/Mar 2023

The Lust For Life tour brought together Glen Matlock (Sex Pistols, Iggy Pop), Clem Burke (Blondie, Iggy Pop), Katie Puckrik (Pet Shop Boys, Sparks), Kevin Armstrong (Iggy Pop, David Bowie), Luis Correia (Earl Slick) and Florence Sabeva (Heaven 17). Having had the immense privilege of spending the past few months working on the PR campaign for the tour it was a joy to finally witness the band live, not just in a professional capacity but most importantly as a fan, of both that glorious Iggy Pop album and of the individual players in the band, too. The band are back for a new tour in Feb/March 2024.

Read full post here

6. Live review: Graham Nash at De La Warr Pavilion, Bexhill 30/8/23

Billed as ‘Sixty Years of Songs & Stories’ the ten-date UK tour celebrated Graham Nash’s six decades of writing, recording and performing. I’m aware of his hits with The Hollies in the early days, of course, and (courtesy of a couple of compilations) I’m also pretty familiar with some of the best-known songs by both Crosby, Still & Nash and Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young. I can’t claim to have followed his solo career in any great depth but, nevertheless, I felt confident that this tour was going to be something rather special and something I didn’t want to miss.

Read full review here

7. Live review: Fairport’s Cropredy Convention August 2023

Following an enforced two-year break due to Covid, going to last year’s Cropredy festival almost felt like a novelty. This year, though, it very much felt like being part of an annual fixture once more, the two-year gap now but a distant memory. With various combinations of friends and family over the years, I’ve been going to Fairport Convention’s annual bash in rural Oxfordshire since 2010 so it’s been part of my summer for a good chunk of my life now.

Read full review here

8. Live review: Iggy Pop, Blondie, Generation Sex, Stiff Little Fingers & Buzzcocks at Crystal Palace Park 1/7/23

One thing I like about the music scene these days is how much less tribal it all is compared to when I was a teenager. The intense rivalry between punks and metalheads has certainly dissipated since I was at school in the late 70s and early 80s. The passage of time, for many of us, has led to a much broader appreciation of rock and roll in all its many guises. As a teen, I was firmly in the hard rock/metal camp rather than the punk/new wave camp but looking around at those attending what has been billed Dog Day Afternoon today, there doesn’t look to be much difference in appearance between all the crop-haired, ageing punk fans clad in regulation khaki shorts and black T-shirts and all the crop-haired, ageing metal fans clad in regulation khaki shorts and black T-shirts.

Read full review here

9. Absolute Beginner: Interview with Bowie/Iggy guitarist Kevin Armstrong

Kevin Armstrong has played alongside icons like David Bowie, Iggy Pop, Thomas Dolby, Sinéad O’Connor and many others. We catch up to talk about his forthcoming autobiography Absolute Beginner which came out in October; as well as the Lust For Life project which has brought together the likes of Clem Burke, Glen Matlock and Katie Puckrik to celebrate the classic Iggy album; plus our mutual love of the live music scene down here in Hastings.

Read full interview here

10. Live review: John Lees’ Barclay James Harvest at Salle Pleyel, Paris 19/11/23

I was fairly late coming to Barclay James Harvest. I was aware of the likes of ‘Mocking Bird’, of course, but picked up a second-hand compilation from a charity shop in about 2019 and my fasciation grew from there. By the time lockdown came, I found myself tracking down the band’s entire back catalogue on ebay. When I saw that John Lees’ Barclay James Harvest were doing their final tour I decided I just had to be there. With only one remaining UK date I wasn’t particularly keen on a trek all the way up to Huddersfield from my home in Hastings and so I hit on the idea of a trip to Paris. I could meet up with friends and make a long weekend of it.

Read full review here

2022 in Darren’s music blog

2021 in Darren’s music blog

2020 in Darren’s music blog

2019 in Darren’s music blog

This week’s featured artist: Tizane – new album out ‘Forever is Nothing’

Album reviews, Rock music, , , , , ,

Hailing from Dartford in Kent, Tizane began writing songs as a young teenager when chronic anxiety issues forced her to miss much of her schooling and spend many hours in her bedroom. By 2019 she began venturing out on to the open mic scene around the west Kent/south-east London borders where her talents as both a writer and performer were spotted by independent label, Burning Girl, who released her well-received debut album Cherry back in 2021.

The 22-year old singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist has now followed that up with a second album, released on the same label earlier this Summer. Coming out towards the end of June Forever Is Nothing has picked up a slew of positive reviews.

The album is engineered by Pat Collier, a founder member of London punk band, The Vibrators, who has gone on to produce for artists like The Jesus and Mary Chain, Primal Scream and X-Ray Spex.

Collier says of Tizane: “I think she’s (Tizane) one of the most talented and gifted artists I’ve ever had the pleasure to work with.”

Tizane shares writing credits on the album with fellow band members: guitarist, Charlie Harris; bass player, Nathan Gordon; and drummer, Greg Titmarsh.

Of particular interest to those who come to Darren’s music blog mainly for the glam content, however, is the track ‘Every Minute’ which is co-written with former Mud guitarist, Rob Davis. As well as writing songs like ‘L-Lucy’ for Mud, he went on to have an illustrious career as an in-demand songwriter long after the Mud hits dried up, most notably co-writing the Kylie Minogue smash-hit ‘Can’t Get You Out Of My Head’.

Deliberately taking a slightly more muscular approach than its predecessor but still providing plenty of light and shade, Forever is Nothing is a pleasing blend of riff-driven alt-rock and jangly, brooding gothic pop. This, her second album, is an impressive showcase for Tizane’s haunting, ethereal vocals and intelligent, thought-provoking songwriting.

If this type of music is your bag and if you aren’t familiar with her work already, Tizane should certainly be right up there on your ‘one-to-watch’ list.

Forever is Nothing released 23rd June 2023

https://tizane.net/

Goth without the gloomy bits: five cheerful, upbeat and joy-inducing songs by goth bands

Music culture & history, Rock music, , , , , ,

1. ‘Ziggy Stardust’ Bauhaus (1982)

Bauhaus released the eerily dark ‘Bela Lugosi’s Dead’ as their first single back in 1979, and it’s often said to be the first ever goth record. However, they were not just about gloom and doom and long-deceased vintage horror film actors. Lead vocalist, Pete Murphy, was always clear that the band looked to  early 70s glam as much as the late 70s punk scene and late 1960s garage bands: “I always thought of Bauhaus as the Velvets gone holy, or the Sweet with better haircuts.”

Nowhere is this more evident than on their glorious 1982 cover of David Bowie’s ‘Ziggy Stardust’. As a sixth-former it was constantly on the juke box in our college refectory, so much so that as a teenager I was far more familiar with this raw, thrilling and feedback-laden parcel of joy than Bowie’s original. Just perfection.

2. ‘Dear Prudence’ – Siouxsie and the Banshees (1983)

Formed in London in 1976, Siouxsie and the Banshees were a key part of the emerging punk scene but as punk evolved into post-punk they transformed into something darker, moodier and altogether more interesting. As goth, itself, emerged as a distinct subculture later on in the 1980s, Siouxie and the Banshees were often hailed as key pioneers. They always knew how to turn out a good catchy tune though and were regular fixtures in the Top Forty and frequent visitors to the Top Of The Pops studio. None more so when they decided to cover ‘Dear Prudence’ from the Beatles’ White Album in 1983, taking the wistful, mystical Lennon ballad and reimaging it as a shiny pop classic.

Many times better than the original, the Banshees’ version, in all its jangly gorgeousness went all the way to number 3 in the UK charts in 1983 yet retained enough class and mystique for it never to be regarded as a sell-out. Utterly joyous.

3. ‘Spiritwalker’ – The Cult (1984)

Formed in Bradford in the early 1980s The Cult were previously known as Death Cult, who in turn  emerged out of a band called Southern Death Cult. In terms of impeccable doomy, post-punk, dark gothic credentials, so far, so good. Over time, however, particularly when the prospect of success on the other side of the Atlantic beckoned, The Cult reinvented themselves from being cult indie scenesters in the UK to all-out stadium rockers in the US, where the band have been based ever since.

Even in their early days, however, there was always a glimmer of a rock god persona to their music, which belied their indie club roots. Long before producer, Rick Rubin, came in to help reshape the band’s sound for mainstream success, The Cult’s second single, ‘Spiritwalker’, taken from their 1984 debut album demonstrates a clear ability to turn out a great fist-pumping anthem.

4. ‘This Corrosion’ – Sisters of Mercy (1987)

Formed in Leeds in 1980, apart from a couple of year’s hiatus in the mid-80s, the Sisters of Mercy have been a consistent presence on the UK’s goth scene, albeit that in recent decades they’ve concentrated on live performances rather than new releases. The distinctive deep baritone vocal of frontman and only constant member, Andrew Eldritch makes them the ultimate goth band in many ways. But they, too, have released songs that can inspire untrammelled joy.

‘This Corrosion’ is the lead single from the band’s 1987 album, Floodland. The lyrics are a snark at former members, following a split in the band’s ranks. So far, so doom-laden, but we know from when Steve Harley released ‘(Make Me Smile) Come Up And See Me’ on an almost identical premise that songs snarking at former band members can still sound infectiously joyous. With it’s catchy, sing-along chorus and more ‘heys’ in it than the average Glitter Band single, ‘This Corrosion’ is another song to put a smile on your face and reached a well-deserved number 7 in 1987.

5. ‘Friday I’m In Love’ – The Cure (1992)

The Cure were formed in Crawley in 1978, fronted by the irrepressible Robert Smith who has remained their only constant member over the past 45 years. Certainly, both the band’s look and sound was a hit with the uber-cool alternative crowd when I was at sixth form. Smith’s instantly-recognisable look made him the ultimate goth godfather. Over time, however, he began bringing more mainstream pop sensibilities into the band’s music. This reached a pinnacle with ‘Friday I’m In Love’. When it came out in 1992 Smith described it as both a “throw your hands in the air, ‘let’s get happy’-kind of record” and “a very naïve, happy type of pop song.”

Indeed, attending Glastonbury in 2019, when The Cure were headlining, so moved was I by the happy, life-affirming, upbeat nature of this song that I ended up leading off a impromptu mass conga as ‘Friday I’m In Love’ was blasted out from the Pyramid Stage.

Gothic rock – album review – The Birthday Massacre ‘Diamonds’

Album reviews, Rock music, , , , , ,

This review was originally published by Get Ready To Rock here

Diamonds is the eighth studio album from Canadian gothic rock outfit The Birthday Massacre. That genre embraces a whole range of musical styles, of course, and the influences here lean heavily towards the electro-pop end of the goth spectrum. Indeed, listening to the album immediately transported me back to some of the alternative club nights I went to as a sixth former in the 80s when I was occasionally allowed to hang out with the much cooler kids.

Their first since 2017′s Under Your Spell, Diamonds offers up nine brand new songs from the Toronto-based six-piece. Personally, I’d have preferred them to have upped the rock quotient with a bit more guitar and a bit less synth.

The former is not entirely absent though and there’s some nice moodily atmospheric riffs from guitarist Rainbow and some appealing solos from lead guitarist Falcore but they do tend to get drowned out in the mix somewhat.

Of what there can be no complaints about at all, however, is lead singer Chibi’s vocals as she delivers that trademark sweetness with a slightly dark undercurrent that works so perfectly for this genre.

Engaging vocals, catchy melodies, evocative atmospherics and enigmatic lyrics Diamonds is a strong product from The Birthday Massacre. Whether you completely fall in love with it or merely appreciate the depths of creativity and emotion that have gone into producing it will really depend, as a rock fan, on just how much you love electro-pop.

Released by Metropolis Records 27th March 2020

birthday cover

http://www.thebirthdaymassacre.com/home.html