Jimmy Cauty Interview about the Aftermath Dislocation Principle

A scene from Jimmy Cauty's Aftermath Dislocation Principle

One of earliest musical memories is seeing The Timelords performing Doctorin' the Tardis on an episode of Top of the Pops in 1988. I would have been five years old. Me and my friends would sing that song in the playground. It introduced Gary Glitter to a group of young kids from Nottingham, which I'm sure he would be delighted about. I had no idea of the people behind it, the former manager of Echo and the Bunnymen and an ex member of The Orb, but as a kid it was a catchy and fun song to sing.

As the 80s gave way to the 1990s, the band behind that song would go on to release more and more great songs that I would either hear on the radio or see on Top of the Pops. First and foremost they were entertaining and enjoyable to listen to. As I got older I started to understand what made them so unique; not only what it their knack of being able to write a damn fine song with a memorable hook, it was their sense of anarchy, their subversive attitude, the strange and intriguing culture and mythology that they built around themselves. Their career ending performance at the 1992 Brit Awards is one of the best live performances by any band ever. 

The ADP Riot tour visiting the New Art Exchange in Nottingham

Fast forward a few years and imagine my delight when it is announced that Jimmy Cauty will be exhibiting a few minutes walk from my house. "I wonder if he'll be up for an interview?" It turns out he is.

I'm always a bit worried ahead of an interview, anxious that the conversation won't flow or that my questions will fall flat, and hoping that whoever I'm talking to isn't a complete dick. Fortunately it goes great and Cauty is easy to talk to. Thinking that this is the only time that I am ever going to talk to a member of the KLF, I've got to make the most of the opportunity and ask him just a few questions about his old band, surely he won't mind me slipping a couple in.

"There is a self-imposed 23 year embargo on Bill and myself talking about anything that starts with the letter K. That 23 years is coming to an end next year." 

And with that I have to cross out half of my questions. 

Read my interview with Jimmy Cauty on the LeftLion website

Kyary Pamyu Pamyu - Koko, London (8 July 2016)

I have been a fan of Japan's J-Pop megastar Kyary Pamyu Pamyu since early 2014 when I visited Japan on a work trip and asked an associate to recommend me some Japanese pop music. 

Since that fateful day I have been an avid listener, buying her music and enjoying her always weird and wonderful music videos. As soon as she announced her '5ive Years A Monster' tour in support of the just released KPP Best best-of and saw that a date in the UK had been scheduled at Koko in London, I had to buy a ticket. Especially as I dithered over her last appearance in the UK, at the Roundhouse last October, and decided not to go. 

This was the first time I had see Kyary Pamyu Pamyu live and she didn't disappoint. It was a joy from beginning to end; a hyper explosion of music and colour. I wrote about what I thought of her show in what is a part gig review and part appreciation of Kyary Pamyu Pamyu for LeftLion. 

Below (and above) are a few photos in grainy iPhone quality and a short clip that I took...

Setlist
Cosmetic Coaster
5iVE YEARS MONSTER
Kyary An-An
Cherry BONBON
Furisodeshon
Candy Candy
Pon Pon Pon
Ninja Re Bang Bang
do do pi do
Interlude
Fashion Monster
Mottai Night Land
Crazy Party Night
Mondai Girl
Invader Invader
Saigo no Ice Cream
Kira Kira Killer
Sai & Kou

Encore:
Kimi ni 100 PERCENT
Tsukematsukeru 

#kirakirakiller #kyarypamyupamyu #5iveyearsmonster #kpp #kokolondon #livemusic #jpop @kyary_pp

A video posted by Pawl (@heypawl) on Jul 9, 2016 at 12:46am PDT

Goodbye To The Music Exchange

Snapshot of the article I wrote for LeftLion on the closing of The Music Exchange

It was with a heavy heart that we had to say goodbye to the Nottingham record store The Music Exchange earlier this month. 

Opening in 2009 just as Selectadisc had closed its doors and coinciding with the recent resurgence in vinyl sales, the Music Exchange quickly became a hub for the Nottingham music community. Set up as a social enterprise by the charity Framework to raise additional money, not only was it a record store, it was also a place where adults could gain valuable work experience to enable them to gain employment. 

All the staff and volunteers at The Music Exchange did a wonderful job making truly great place to buy records. 

It was always a pleasure to be asked to help them out, whether that was DJing at various events, writing about the store in LeftLion, assisting with events, or helping to plug their various events and causes. 

They had a farewell party on the last day on the shop on Saturday 19 March at The Bodega featuring live performances from Deadbeat At Dawn, Rattle and Crosa Rosa. With an afterparty featuring lots of drunk dancing later on in the night at The Broadway. It was a bittersweet way to say goodbye to the shop. 

More on my thoughts about the closing of The Music Exchange can be found in this article that I wrote for the LeftLion website.

The Music Exchange on Facebook 

Be: One - The Soundtrack Written For Wolfgang Buttress' Beehive Installation

Be: One article for LeftLion magazine

At the start of January I was lucky enough to interview the main creative minds behind Be: One, the soundtrack that was written specifically for Wolfgang Buttress' beehive installation that he designed for the UK Pavilion at last year's World Expo in Milan. 

The email came in at the last minute and following a couple of days of hasty organising,  the following weekend on a crisp and bright Sunday morning I found myself on the outskirts of Nottingham city centre getting ready to interview the artist Wolfgang Buttress, his daughter and vocalist Camille Buttress, and the musicians and Spiritualized members Tony Foster (aka Doggen) and Kev Bales. Wolfgang had known Tony and Kev for a few years as he used to have a studio close to where Tony's is. It is at Tony's studio where they have all agreed to speak to me. 

Speaking to all of them together was far-and-away one of the most enjoyable experiences I have had during my time writing for LeftLion. They couldn't have been any more welcoming and talkative. And it was really interesting being sat in a room with them hearing them discuss the creative process about how they created the soundtrack. I could have happily chatted to them for the rest of the day. It was really obvious that they were all pleased with how the soundtrack came out. 

Weirdly, after years of trying to interview Tony Foster / Doggen and never getting anywhere, I have now interviewed him twice in less than 12 months. It's funny how things somtimes work out.

As I was overseas with work a couple of days immediately after doing the interview, I found myself typing up my copy in various Starbucks around Seoul. It's not often that I can say this, but I am quite pleased with how the finished article came out. The article, as it appears in the above photograph, was published in LeftLion Magazine #75. 

The online version of my Be: One article can be read here. 

The collective premiered their soundtrack over two sold-out nights at Nottingham Arts Theatre on 18 and 19 February. I was fortunate enough to go the first night and you can read what I thought about it here. 

Wolfgang's hive installation has been shipped back to the UK from Italy and will be at Kew Gardens from June with the collective planning on performing their soundtrack live when it opens.

More about Be: One on Wolfgang Buttress' website 

Paper Lace: The Musical Is A Rip-Roaring Success

Paper Lace: The Musical?

Some nonsense that I wrote for possible inclusion in an article we ran in the December / January 2016 issue of LeftLion. It didn't get used.

The musical based on the hits of 1970s rockers Paper Lace has been a re-sounding success with a run of sold-out performances at Nottingham’s Theatre Royal.

Titled Billy Don’t Be A Hero after the band’s 1974 smash-hit and penned by Notts-scribe Billy Ivory (Made in Dagenham),  it sees the former Opportunity Knocks stars back catalogue re-worked in to a story about a young boy who attempts to ride every ride at the 1977 Goose Fair with a belly full of mushy peas and cocks on a stick.

This late-flush of success for the band is owed to recent Nottingham-breakthrough acts including Indiana, Sleaford Mods, and Jake Bugg all name-checking Paper Lace as massive inspirations and thanking the band in paving the way and laying the foundations for future generations of musicians to make it big outside of the city.

Jason Willamson from Sleaford Mods who teamed up with Paper Lace to write a brand new song for the musical titled #SillyBilly said, “Paper Lace are real icons in my eyes, up there with Badfinger and Mungo Jerry for me. The real deal.”

Philip Wright from the band, “I never really thought I would see the day when our music would come back like this. I had Cliff Richard on the blower asking if we could collaborate as he’s looking to kick-start his career. I had to let him down gently. You’ve got to be careful haven’t you? All those allegations. We don’t want to be tarred with the same brush. Not when it’s going so well for us again”.

While Jake Bugg says of the effect Paper Lace’s music had on his formative years,” I first heard We've Got The Whole World In Our Hands by accident. It was so irritating I couldn’t get it out of my head for days.”

The Quietus Review of Urth By Kagoule

Following on from my review of Colossal Downer by Grey Hairs, the kind people at The Quietus were nice enough to let me have another opportunity to write for them. Again, I got to review a debut album by one of my favourite bands to come out of Nottingham (or anywhere to be honest), Kagoule. Urth is out now via the legendary Earache Records and my review can be read at the following link: http://thequietus.com/articles/18670-kagoule-urth-review

I also got to sit down with Cai from the band and interview him for a double-page spread in LeftLion. The above image is a photo of the page as it looked in the August issue of the magazine. I think this was the third time that I have interviewed the band. The first was when they played a gig for LeftLion that I put on at Nottingham Contemporary for Record Store Day in 2012. Then later in the same year, I spoke to Cai and Lucy for the band's first feature in the magazine. The online version of my most recent Kagoule interview can be read here: http://www.leftlion.co.uk/articles.cfm/title/kagoule/id/7623

 Urth by Kagoule can be bought direct from the band's webstore

Doggen Interview

This man makes a mean #LemonAndGingerTea. Gassing with ex #GirlsAloud and #GunsNRoses and current #Spiritualized guitarist #Doggen for @leftlionmagazine

A photo posted by Pawl (@heypawl) on Jun 16, 2015 at 1:59pm PDT

This was one of those rare things, an interview that was actually enjoyable and fun to do. Totally worth the five years it took to sort out.

I think due to his long association with Julian Cope I was expecting some kind of acid-fried, speed freak, militant anarchist pagan with hippy tendencies. Instead he was nothing but charming, friendly, and accommodating. At one point he even asked the band he was recording at the time to stay out of the studio for a while longer so he could carry on talking to me.

This is a much longer version of the interview that's in LeftLion Magazine #69.

Doggen is the guitarist in Spirtualized, played with Julian Cope for a long time, (maybe, if Axl is reading) helped to write a few of the songs on Use Your Illusion 1 & 2 with members of Guns N' Roses, and has played on more Top 10 hits than he even cares to remember.

He has so many stories I could have listened to him talk for much longer than the hour and a half I sat down with him for. This was honestly one of my favourite, if not the favourite, thing that I’ve done for the magazine. Definitely worth the wait. 

He's proper Notts too.

Click here to read my extended interview with Doggen for LeftLion 

BBC Radio Nottingham Breakfast Show (8 June 2015)

I was invited on to the breakfast show on BBC Radio Nottingham last Monday morning in my guise as LeftLion Music Editor to discuss whether popular musical acts should always play their most famous songs live. I was on at around 7.15am and was still wiping the sleet from my eyes. 

Anyway, it's always nice to be asked to do these things and it was a fun, albeit short, discussion. The show can be heard at the following link. I'm on at roughly 1 hour and 15 minutes in: http://bbc.in/1dXsmqn

LeftLion Update

It's been a couple of months since my last update concerning LeftLion, so I thought that it was about time for another. I also want to keep this blog semi-regularly updated, even if it's with small updates like this while I think of something more interesting and worthwhile to post about. 

The biggest news concerning LeftLion since my previous post is that following a successful Kickstarter campaign the magazine has now gone monthly. 

The first of the monthly magazines was issue #61. One of the best things about working on LeftLion is the opportunity to work with people I really admire and respect and this was the case when I asked Kagoule to take part in our 'photo interview' feature In Focus. This issue also included one of my favourite interviews that I've done for a long time. I often find interviews to be a frustrating experience, because if I haven't met the subject before it can take a while to warm-up and get a rapport going, which is when both parties relax and the conversation really starts flowing. Although in the limited time you often have to sit down and chat this doesn't always happen, meaning answers can be stunted and the person doesn't necessarily give you as good a response as you hoped or know you can get from them. This definitely wasn't the case when I met up with Nightbreed's Trevor Bamford in a pub on Mansfied Road. He spoke with the clarity and intelligence of someone who is passionate about the goth scene. I'm pleased with how my feature with him came out. We changed-up the music reviews section by trimming down the number of reviews to 8 from the previous number of 12 and introducing a longer 'featured' review, which in this issue was No Romeo by Indiana. I reviewed The Boot EP by Cappo, one of the best Notts hip hop releases for a long time. 

Issue #62 was the first monthly monthly magazine and for personal reasons - moving house and being overseas with work - I didn't do much writing for this issue although I was still involved with the usual admin and sorting things, but definitely not as active as I usually would be. Despite that I still had time to pitch in with the music reviews and gave my thoughts on the recent release by Trekkah. 

Away from the magazine, on the website I reviewed the first of two nights Sleaford Mods did at Spanky Van Dykes. I hadn't written many gig reviews recently before doing this one because I was getting tired of doing them and felt that I was repeating myself. I think the break did me some good as I approached this one with a clean slate and felt like I captured the spirit of the night and the band well, and it helped me re-think how to approach covering live shows. It's not often I can say this, but I feel pretty pleased with how it came out. I saw Owls and Fists at The Maze. Did a Q&A with the Berlin-based band Camera to help promote a show of theirs I was putting on at The Chameleon. The Sound of the Lion #30 podcast features tracks from the music reviewed in issue #61. Website Q&As are a good opportunity to cover an artist who may not seem 'typical' LeftLion material or isn't quite suitable for the magazine, which is why I enjoyed putting some questions to pop starlet Bianca and Seckou Keita. After a four year break the multi-venue charity music festival Hockley Hustle returned at the end of October and I was on hand to cover it. To accompany my Nightbreed article I collaborated with them to put together a Sound of the Lion: Goth Special that features songs from the Nottingham goth scene past and present. Natalie Duncan is an exceptional talent so it was a pleasure to ask her some questions and then go to Nottingham Contemporary to cover her epic night of collaboration with various Nottingham artists. One of my favourite new-ish acts in the city is Keto who, even though she has been performing around the city for a couple of years now, I have only shamefully been aware of, but I started to make amends by featuring her on the website. Finally, Sound of the Lion #31 has a song from each of the releases reviewed in issue #62. 

LeftLion Update

LeftLion Magazine #60 was getting itself about on the streets of Nottingham at the start of August. One article that I did for it was with Rob from Spaceships Are Cool and Yunioshi about the Accessibility of Music Venues in Nottingham. This has been an article that I had wanted to do for a while, and it was occasionally discussed at editorial meeting but nothing was ever really done perhaps for fear of upsetting a few advertisers. But after seeing The Fish Police and working on an article with the organisation that they work with Constant Flux it was something that I wanted to do. I'm pretty pleased with the way it came out, which isn't always something that I can say about something that I have written. 

Also in the magazine are the usual array of Nottingham-related music reviews. In this issue I reviewed releases by Frazer Lowrie and The Most Ugly Child. I went overseas on a work-related trip during the making of this issue so found myself writing and editing the music reviews page in the departure lounges of Heathrow and Hong Kong International Airport. As always, I have put together a Sound of the Lion podcast to accompany the reviews page. 

A few things that I have done for the LeftLion website include a Q&A with hardcore punk band Bad Breeding who recently played at The Chameleon with Kagoule. I reviewed Gallery 47's album launch for his second LP at Nottingham Contemporary.  There is also this fun little Q&A with Gringo Records' latest band The Wharves who played here recently and whose second album is a superb mixture of Sleater Kinney alternative rock and haunting West Coast influenced harmonies. Make sure you pick it up when it's released in November. 

Finally, I am pleased to say that the LeftLion Kickstarter has met it's target of £10,000 meaning the magazine will be going monthly.

LeftLion Kickstarter Campaign

I have been involved with LeftLion since 2005 when I started penning gig reviews and interviews as something to do when I returned back to Nottingham after university. It was a great way off re-introducing myself to what the city has to offer, as well a good way to continue writing since I had been involved in my uni magazine and wanted to continue to do something similar. LeftLion gave me that opportunity. I eventually got more involved and ended up as Music Editor, a role that I have held with the magazine since roughly October 2008 (I think) - dates are a little bit blurry and I think there was a gradual 'easing in' process. 

LeftLion does a remarkable job of promoting Nottingham culture to a wider audience, and myself, along with loads of other much more talented contributors, have worked our balls-off for nothing and often working around full-time jobs to put it together.

The magazine is distributed for free around the city and up until this point has been published every two months. But from the next issue (which will be issue #61) onwards we plan to take it monthly. To go monthly LeftLion needs a helping hand. 

To mark 10 years as a magazine (LeftLion was founded in 2003 and the website has been going since then, with the magazine coming a year later) we have launched a Kickstarter campaign to give us a helping hand in going monthly. 

We are looking to raise £10,000 to help with the costs of producing an extra five magazines over the next year. Not a penny will be going to anyone involved in the mag, it'll all be going towards the printing and distribution. 

You don't need to give loads of money. If everyone who read the magazine simply gave a quid to the campaign it would easily make its target. 

There are loads of rewards available, from a simple mention on LeftLion's social networks through to loads of signed goods, a band playing in your living room, being on the cover and even becoming honourary 'LeftLion President' if you stump up the big figures. 

As I type this, there has been 135 backers and £4,629 raised with 29 days to go. 

Please take a look at the LeftLion Kickstarter page.

#KickLeftLion

Quoted By The Fish Police

This is exciting and very rarely happens. One of my gig reviews have been used as a quote by the band I was writing about. Currently, The Fish Police are using a banner on their website that uses a quote pulled from my review of their show at Nottingham Contemporary on 4 April this year. 

The Fish Police are a hugely entertaining band and were touring thanks to an organisation called Constant Flux who work with and create opportunities for learning disabled musicians on the UK's DIY music scene. 

Live Review of Remember Remember and Kogumaza / Recent Album Reviews For LeftLion

Remember Remember are signed to Mogwai's Rock Action record label and have just released their wonderful third album titled Forgetting The Present. Graeme, who the band revolves around, has recently moved to Nottingham and they played a gig in the city at The Chameleon with Kogumaza. You can read my review of the show on the LeftLion website. 

Also up on the LeftLion website are the Nottingham Music Reviews from issue #59 of the magazine. I reviewed recent releases from Grey Hairs, Sleaford Mods, Kundalini, and Timothy J Simpson.

Kogumaza Interview for LeftLion

Click the above image to read the online version of my recent interview with Kogumaza that originally featured in LeftLion Magazine #59.

Sludgy, heavy, spacey; whatever you want to call them, Kogumaza are one of those bands where no amount of attempting to describe their sound or pigeonholing will do them justice. The only way to get what they are about is to listen to their records, or even better, experience their sonic onslaught live and feel the full-force of their sound. 

A truly remarkable band, and it was a pleasure to not only do this piece, but to finally feature them in the magazine. For a band who are so hard to nail-down in terms of sound, I think this interview gives a good idea of what they are trying to achieve. It's also rare to speak to a band (in Nottingham anyhow) who are clued-up on what they are trying to do, the way they want to sound, and how they want to put that across to the audience.  

Give them a listen on the Kogumaza Bandcamp.

Live Review of Supersonic Festival 2014 for LeftLion

Click on the image of Sleaford Mods to read my review for LeftLion of Supersonic Festival 2014. 

Two weeks ago today I was in Birmingham for the weekend attending the Supersonic Festival, which is held at the Custard Factory in the Digbeth area of the city. 

The festival is now in its 11th year and prides itself on having an eccentric and eclectic line-up. It was my first time attending and It certainly didn't disappoint, it was the most fun I've had at a festival for a long time and I will definitely be trying to attend future events.

Live Review of Flaming Lips and Young Knives for LeftLion

Click the image of Wayne Coyne to go to my recent review for LeftLion of Flaming Lips and Young Knives at Rock City in Nottingham. 

The recent Flaming Lips show in Nottingham was downsized from the Arena to Rock City, which still holds 2000 people so it is not exactly tiny. I did think it was a little optimistic to be booking Nottingham Arena for a band who are little more than a very big cult band. 

As with a lot of these things, I managed to wrangle tickets via the support act, Young Knives, in exchange for agreeing to review their set. I wasn't too enamored with Young Knives, I couldn't get on with their attitude and 'kookiness'. Flaming Lips on the other hand were an enormous amount of fun.

Jake Bugg The Biography

Click the image to read my review for LeftLion of the Jake Bugg Biography.

The biography charts Jake's rise to fame by talking to friends and family as well as people who have written about it from his early days. It even uses a few LeftLion reviews and articles as sources of information. It was a bit strange reading a book where not only do you find yourself quoted, but people I know and have worked with in some capacity are quoted too. 

I thought it was a pretty fair write-up of the book, but I'm not sure the author thought so judging by this tweet.  

As I said in my review, it's telling of the growing stature of Nottingham's music scene that people from outside of the city are now taking an active interest in it, making the effort to visit the city to find out for themselves what is going on, and writing about it too.