FEATURE: In My Life: Debate Around the Casting of The Beatles Biopics and Walking a Fine Line

FEATURE:

 

 

In My Life

IN THIS PHOTO:  (Left to Right): Harris Dickinson, Paul Mescal, Barry Keoghan and Joseph Quinn have been cast respectively as John Lennon, Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr and George Harrison in four upcoming biopics about The Beatles, set for release in 2028/PHOTO CREDIT: Sony Pictures Publicity UK

Debate Around the Casting of The Beatles Biopics and Walking a Fine Line

_________

YOU just knew that there…

IN THIS PHOTO: Ringo Starr, Paul McCartney, John Lennon and George Harrison in 1966/PHOTO CREDIT: Don Paulsen/Getty Images

would be division and debate when the cast was announced for Sam Mendes’ biopics about The Beatles. Each member – John Lennon, Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr and George Harrison – has been cast. I guess supporting cast will be announced soon. At the moment, the Fab Four have been cast. The biopics are set for release in 2028. Pitchfork were among those who reporting news of casting that have split people on social media:

“Sam Mendes has officially confirmed the main cast and release date for his Beatles biopics at Sony’s CinemaCon in Las Vegas on March 31, as BBC News reports. All four films—each centering on a different member of the fab four—are set to come out in April 2028, and will star Harris Dickinson as John Lennon, Paul Mescal as Paul McCartney, Joseph Quinn as George Harrison, and Barry Keoghan as Ringo Starr.

While Peter Jackson recently directed the 2021 documentary The Beatles: Get Back, Mendes’ tetralogy will mark the first scripted films to be granted the band’s music and life rights. Last year, Keoghan appeared in the music video for Fontaines D.C.’s “Bug,” and Mescal in a video for his now-ex Phoebe Bridgers. Quinn plays the metalhead Eddie Munson on Stranger Things, which landed him a chance to jam with Metallica in 2022.

It’s uncertain if Mescal will meet with McCartney ahead of shooting, but he’s already got prominent lead acting roles under his belt with Gladiator II, Aftersun, All of Us Strangers, and The Lost Daughter. The same goes for Keoghan, who could reach out to Starr for suggestions on how to capture the drummer, though he’s already portrayed complex characters in Saltburn, The Batman, The Killing of a Sacred Deer, and Banshees of Inisherin. As for Dickinson, his starring roles in Babygirl, The Iron Claw, and Triangle of Sadness preface his take on John Lennon.

The Beatles themselves helmed a handful of theatrical films during their run: A Hard Day’s Night, Help!, Magical Mystery Tour, Yellow Submarine, and Let It Be. They recently won Best Rock Performance at the 2025 Grammy Awards for “Now and Then,” a salvaged and digitally restored Lennon demo dating back to the 1970s”.

Some of the biggest arguments have revolved around the cast and whether they look like the band. I must admit that Barry Keoghan does have the look of Ringo Starr and could adopt his voice easily enough. Paul Mescal has a element of Paul McCartney. The casting of Harris Dickinson and Joseph Quinn makes less sense. People were also saying how these are quite big names and it would have been good to have some unknown or rising actors take the parts. I also assume that the cast will have to learn to sing like The Beatles. I am not sure whether Sam Mendes will go down that route or there will be miming. In any case, the casting is not perfect. Think about recent biopics like 2024’s Back to Black (Marisa Abela as Amy Winehouse), 2022’s Elvis (Austin Butler as Elvis Presley), Whitney Houston: I Wanna Dance with Somebody (with Naomi Ackie as Whitney Houston) A Complete Unknown (Timothée Chalamet as Bob Dylan) and the upcoming Deliver Me From Nowhere (Jeremy Allen White will play Bruce Springsteen). I think there has been chat for a long time about Kelly Rowland playing Donna Summer. Most of these actors are established and there are not many that feature unknown actors. Also, many do not see the actor singing the songs. It is about them portraying the artist and embodying them rather than it being about the singing. Also, there is always talk about resemblance. Most of those films I mentioned have actors who look very similar to the subjects. These Beatles biopics seem to have created more conversation than other biopics. Perhaps because of the legacy and stature of The Beatles. I am on the side of those who say that the actors as a whole are not spits of the band. Also, when it comes to casting people like Yoko Ono, Linda Eastman (McCartney) and George Martin, who will they choose? I think the choice of actors for the 2028 biopics are more about the pulling power of the actors. As I say, two of the four look like the Beatles they are playing. Is it the most important thing?

Some of the queries around the Beatles casting was the resemblance. Also, the age of the actors. How they are perhaps a little too old to be playing the band. Also, they are big names, so has that compromised hiring actors who would be more authentic and look like the band? Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr no doubt are thrilled they are being brought to the big screen. They will be around for the premiers in 2028. It would be interesting to hear what they reckon. There have been a few biopics featuring The Beatles. However, this is going to be the most ambitious and high-budget undertaking. It is a fine line between getting the actors right and the script being honest and balanced. So many times the actors look the part and do great but the story is whitewashed, redacted or does not go deep enough. I think that the script for these Sam Mendes films will be great. The music will be sensational. With all that considered, how vital is it that the four members who get their own film look precisely like the original members?! The quality of the actors will show. In terms of the dialogue and movement. They will do a brilliant job inhabiting the role. In music biopics from recent years, the lead actors have been wonderful. The main concern is going to be whether the script stands up and does not disappoint. How the music is going to be handled. What songs will be included and whether the actors learn to play or mime. If the script glosses over certain things and what angle it takes. I am sure the films will be great. Recent music biopics have had mixed reviews. Most of it has revolved around the script and story. However, I do think that a lot of focus is on the actors and whether they look enough like the artists. That might be the biggest issue with the biopics around The Beatles. We shall see how audiences take to the films…

WHEN they arrive in 2028.

FEATURE: Snapshots: Focusing on the Wide Range of Photographers Who Captured Kate Bush

FEATURE:

 

 

Snapshots

IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush in 1979 wearing Chinese-Dutch fashion designer Fong Leng/PHOTO CREDIT: Claude Vanheye

Focusing on the Wide Range of Photographers Who Captured Kate Bush

_________

IN previous features…

IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush during the filming of 1993’s The Line, the Cross and the Curve/PHOTO CREDIT: Gudio Harari

I have talked about photographers who have shot Kate Bush. For the most part, I have focused on a select few. Her brother John Carder Bush has photographed her since she was a child. He took photos for most of her albums. The covers including The Dreaming (1982), Hounds of Love (1985) and The Sensual World (1989). Some terrific shots. Guido Harari responsible for some of her best photos of the 1980s and 1990s. My personal favourites are the ones he took on the set of The Line, the Cross and the Curve in 1993. I also love Gered Mankowitz and the photos he took in 1978 and 1979. Capturing Kate Bush at the start of her career. These three are perhaps the best-known photographers. However, there are so many that deserves to be celebrated and discussed. I am compelled to think about this as a recent Kate Bush Fan Podcast episode was an interview with Govert de Roos. We look at photos of Kate Bush and take them for granted. Maybe not discussing the photographers. However, this new podcast episode allows us to hear reflections from a wonderful Dutch photographer who shot Kate Bush early in her career:

“For this new episode of The Kate Bush Fan Podcast, Seán introduces an exclusive interview between our own Darrell Babidge and the Dutch photographer, Govert de Roos. Govert was Kate’s European photographer. Many of the photos that were taken of Kate in 1978 and were posted on many a bedroom wall were taken by Govert. In this interview we get a glimpse into his work with Kate Bush, as well as the rock and pop stars of the 70’s and 80’s. We also find out more about his work during the Efteling Special in Amsterdam and taking photos of Kate’s Tour of Life concert there. Other artists he worked with include Grace Jones, Queen, ABBA, Debbie Harry, Tina Turner, Prince and many more”.

 IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush in 1982/PHOTO CREDIT: Anton Corbijn

A lot of these photographers did not have as long and wide a collaboration with Kate Bush as the likes of Guido Harari. I like the fact that Anton Corbijn photographed Kate Bush. Another Dutch master. He shot her in 1982. There are the iconic shots from 1981 by Clive Arrowsmith. He took two shots. One of her decked in Ivy and another with this dark blue background. They are terrific shots. I also have a lot of respect for Claude Vanheye (“Vanheye was famous for the open, informal atmosphere in his studios. There was great music and lots of food. His 1979 photo session with Kate Bush was scheduled for 30 minutes, but she sent away her entourage and stayed for six hours, with props like a fake dolphin and dresses by Fong Leng. His photographs of Kate Bush were used on the Japanese 7″ single for Symphony In Blue and in the unofficial box set Never Forever”). There are websites that document the great and rare photos of Kate Bush. A lot fo the ones highlighted in various features are press photos. You never really know about the person who took them. Each has their own experiences of the fleeting moment with Kate Bush. I have said it many times before. How it would be great to have some greater discussion around the photographers associated with Kate Bush. Memories of this amazing artist and what it was like shooting Bush. We do need to speak more about all the great photographers and their own style. In most cases, Kate Bush being this very willing subject who would give her all. Among my favourite shots are the ones the late Brian Griffin took in 1983. In another feature, I mooted the idea of a Kate Bush exhibition. One where we get a range of photographs from throughout the year. One of the main reasons is to give a name to some of the photographers who took these iconic shots. I wonder whether people reading this will have their own favourite photographers. Not the major ones like Gered Mankowitz. Those who shots are not as used and discussed. The media often select a narrow few when publishing stuff about Kate Bush. There is this archive that is relatively untapped.

IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush in 1978/PHOTO CREDIT: Govert de Roos

That Kate Bush Fan Podcast episode with Govert de Roos opened my mind. I had forgotten about his shots of Kate Bush. One where she performed during The Tour of Life in 1979. It made me think about wider about the wider discussion. This chronology that has many colours and shades. A lot of these lesser-discussed photographers worked with Kate Bush in the 1980s and '90s. Not that many with bush in the twenty-first century. However, Trevor Leighton’s work with Kate Bush around the release in Aerial (2005) catch my eye. I have used his photos quite a lot. I am not sure whether it would be practical to have all of these less-heralded photographers get together. Or a book with their work. I would be fascinated in a chronological book that charts her different looks and the people who took those shots. I think all of the photographers were male. I am not sure whether Kate Bush ever worked with any female photographers. Hearing the likes of Guido Harari discussing his working relationship with Kate Bush is wonderful. In fact, nearly every photographer who has worked with her has fond recollections. Even though I have talked multiple times about Kate Bush photography and the people she worked with, I have never really thought about how many photos of her were taken through the years. So many press shots. Loads of collaboration. Whether snapshots of a wider photo album, these photographers deserve credit where it is due. They each brought something different from Kate Bush. We are not done talking about that side of things. With new music coming in the future, will it be a case of a few promotional shots and nothing more? Hearing what Govert de Roos had to say about Kate Bush. Brian Griffin besotted with her it seems. Anton Corbijn wowed by her. Claude Vanheye talking some of the standout shots. All vastly interesting and vivid. Photographing Kate Bush must have been…

A life-changing experience.

FEATURE: Supergrass’ I Should Coco at Thirty: Inside the Anthemic Alright

FEATURE:

 

 

Supergrass’ I Should Coco at Thirty

Inside the Anthemic Alright

_________

IN this second…

anniversary for Supergrass’ I Should Coco, I wanted to look at is best-known song. Alright was released as the fifth and final single on 3rd July, 1995. The album it is from turns thirty on 15th May. I did not want to wait a few months to mark the brilliance of Alright! As a lot of attention will be on I Should Coco soon, I feel obligated to write something. I was twelve when the album came out and it was such an exciting time for music. Alright not the only gem on Supergrass’ debut studio album – not by a long way! Lenny, Mansize Rooster, Caught By the Fuzz and Lose It among the many great songs on the album. Gaz Coombes, Danny Goffey and Mick Quinn created a wonderful album. As I have said before, it was s bit of a risky releasing a song as epic and iconic as Alright being the final single. Even though it was released less than two months after I Should Coco, there had already been four singles. Plenty of momentum before 15th May. A lot of people might not have heard Alright until the album came out. Such a brilliant surprise for those listening. The fourth song on the album, its placing was also quite bold. Maybe the opening track or second. Maybe track four is the best position in terms of the dynamics and impact it has. Following Mansize Rooster and coming before Lose It. Alright was released with Time as a double A-side. The final push of this album, I Should Coco’s popularity grew after the release of Alright. The single got to number two in the U.K. However, it made the band instant successes. Seen as this incredible youth anthem that was a rebellion or festival smash, Supergrass didn’t set out to do that. Gaz Coombes was only nineteen when Alright was released. Not this big rallying call, it is about discovering girls and having fun. Just a lark really! However, many people have taken it to heart and adopted it as this thing that means so much. That has given them so much strength and optimism!

I want to bring in a couple of features about Alright before wrapping things up. I am excited about the approaching thirtieth anniversary if I Should Coco. People discovering the genius Alright on the album and making a smash before it came out as single on 3rd July, 1995. I want to introduce a couple of features that talk about the making of the song. The background to Alright. A bit about its success and how it had a life beyond I Should Coco and the radio – and the U.K. for that matter. Last year, American Songwriter wrote about a summer anthem that has very little to do with summer:

“It Started on a “Knackered” Piano

“It started at Danny’s house, where his parents had this knackered piano,” Gaz Coombes told Q magazine in 2011. “One of us started bashing out those chords. We went to the pub and knocked out the lyrics in 10 minutes. The song became our calling card, but I don’t think it was calculated. We were a gang of teenagers, and this was us remembering the innocence of being 13 before we’d delved into the rock ‘n’ roll world. We didn’t know it would be a hit, but we got back from our first tour of the States, and suddenly, old ladies were recognizing us on the street.”

Are we like you?
I can’t be sure
Of the scene, as she turns
We are strange in our worlds

A Bulletproof Backing Track

“I knew the backing track for ‘Alright’ was bulletproof,” bassist Quinn told Q. “I’ve got a distinct memory of staring at the two-inch turning around while that backing track was playing and thinking, ‘that’s a bulletproof backing track. That’s gonna be enormous. That’s gonna light people up.’ Even when we had it as a demo, there was something about it. It was so simplistic and stuck in your head.”

But we are young. We get by
Can’t go mad, ain’t got time
Sleep around if we like
But we’re alright

The Guitar Solo

“I think Danny and Gaz cooked up the verse and the chorus. They’ll always argue about who came up with that piano,” Quinn told Uncut magazine. “Then, I came along and said, ‘Well, you need a middle eight.’ And I took it to G, and Gaz did that very rock and roll solo over the top, and then I came up with the idea of doing that Peter Green bending solo and Gaz came up with a harmony for that. We always wrote a lot of lyrics in the pub as we were recording.”

Got some cash
Bought some wheels
Took it out
‘Cross the fields
Lost control, hit a wall
But we’re alright

“It wasn’t written as an anthem. It isn’t supposed to be a rally cry for our generation,” Gaz Coombes said. “The stuff about We are young / We run green …’ isn’t about being 19, but really 13 or 14, and just discovering girls and drinking. It’s meant to be lighthearted and a bit of a laugh, not at all a rebellious call to arms.” And as Goffey remembers, “It certainly wasn’t written in a very summery vibe. It was written in a cottage where the heating had packed up, and we were trying to build fires to keep warm.”

Are we like you?
I can’t be sure
Of the scene, as she turns
We are strange in our worlds

A Featured Song

The song has been featured in movies, television shows, and countless commercials. In 2010, rapper Travie McCoy updated the song with the help of Bruno Mars, Jonathan Yip, Jeremy Reeves, Philip Lawrence, and Ray Romulus as “We’ll Be Alright.” In 2023, Rakuten used the song in a Super Bowl spot featuring Alicia Silverstone, reprising her role as Cher from the movie Clueless.

But we are young
We run green
Keep our teeth nice and clean
See our friends, see the sights
Feel alright

Hey, Hey, We’re Supergrass

The music video for “Alright” caught the eye of producer/director Steven Spielberg. Rumors began sprouting up that a Monkees-styled project was in the works for the band. Supergrass later denied it. However, they did confirm that there was a meeting with Spielberg. The band was focused on making their next album and couldn’t commit to the time required to do such a project.

Are we like you?
I can’t be sure.
Of the scene, as she turns
We are strange in our world
But we are young
We run green
Keep our teeth nice and clean
See our friends, see the sights
Feel alright”.

I am going to finish off soon. However, I want to source from a brilliant and detailed feature from Sound on Sound that was published in 2020. They spoke with producer Sam Williams about working with Supergrass, memories of I Should Coco and what it was like putting together Alright. I would advise people to read the whole feature. I have selected particular parts of the feature and did not want to dump everything in. However, go and read the brilliant 2020 article:

“But it's for their UK number two single of 1995, the irrepressibly bouncy 'Alright', that Supergrass are best remembered. In the song's video, their image was frozen forever as a Monkees-styled trio capering around on bikes and in a bed on wheels rolling along a beach, as Coombes sang a cheeky lyric about peak teenage delinquency: smoking fags, sleeping around, crashing a car in a field.

However, at the time, the success of 'Alright' was both a blessing and a curse for the band — Gaz Coombes (vocals/guitar), Mick Quinn (bass/vocals) and Danny Goffey (drums). It made their singer in particular a reluctant household face in that summer of 1995. "When 'Alright' went mental, we were in America," Coombes remembered in an interview with this writer four years later. "We got back and suddenly every fucker was recognising you. I never wanted to be a rock star. I just wanted to be in a band."

Almost 10 years after they split — and in the wake of Gaz Coombes enjoying a successful and critically-acclaimed solo career — Supergrass have re–formed. 2020 will see them back on tour, in support of a new career retrospective box set, The Strange Ones. Producer Sam Williams, who discovered the band and oversaw the making of their debut album I Should Coco, clearly remembers the day that he first encountered the trio in the street in Oxford in 1993.

"I was in a music shop and I came out and saw the boys standing on the pavement," he says. "It was one of those classic, surreal moments. I'd grown up with strong references to early Beatles and the Monkees and the cartoon kind of culture of larger-than-life '60s-looking bands. They didn't look like anything that you'd seen in real life for a long, long time. Danny was wearing a blue velvet suit with red Bowie hair and Gaz had the kind of Neil Young sideburns.

"The feeling was that it was just an immediate, magnetic attraction. Something in me just went, 'I don't know who that is. But I know that's a band and I know I'm going to produce them.'"

In this second half of the album's sessions, Williams and the band stretched out more in terms of playing and production. "I'd be starting to sit in on keyboards," says Williams. "On the second sessions we had a Vox Continental, so I would be in the room playing on 'I'd Like To Know'. We started using Wulitzer [electric piano] or other keyboards."

Another key track, the mid-paced, early Pink Floyd-y 'Sofa (Of My Lethargy)', featured much instrument-swapping between Williams and the group, the producer moving onto bass to connect with Goffey as a rhythm section, as Quinn changed over to guitar and Coombes to piano. "I was a kind of floating auxiliary player," says Williams. "So, it was a flexible musical thing that could move around very easily like that."

Gaz Coombes and Sam Williams, mid-'90s.Varispeeding tape was a trick that Williams and the band began to use more during the second set of sessions. The two–inch master of propulsive rocker 'Lenny', for instance, was sped up to achieve the right feel for the track. "That track was 6 to 10 bpm slower," says Williams, "We'd got an accurate cut of 'Lenny' that was too slow, too rock, and we sped it up considerably. We erased the bass and the guitar, and Gaz and Mickey re-recorded them over a sped-up drum track which then had the exact tempo. Whatever it took, we would do it. There wasn't any kind of purist idea of how you do it."

On 'We're Not Supposed To', meanwhile, Williams took a four-track home demo the band had made, experimenting with tape-speed chipmunk-y voices, and embellished it at Sawmills. "That is so Danny and his sense of humour," he laughs. "I took all the crazy things that he'd done from the four-track cassette, spun it onto two-inch and then rebuilt the guitar, the bass, everything around it.

"Congas were overdubbed with that kind of early T Rex/Bolan thing as an influence. Two acoustic guitars, the left/right [panned] stereo thing, and an elastic band kind of bass sound. So, it's actually quite a polished production around a complete bit of lo-fi. It was all very arranged chaos and probably one of the most complex productions, actually, although some people would mistake it for a comedy track."

Elsewhere, two tracks from the original sessions, 'Mansize Rooster' and 'Sitting Up Straight', were re-recorded during this final stretch of making the album. "Because the songs were requesting an alternative approach to the production that wasn't benefitted by speed," says Williams. "You can hear that we've spent more than an hour [laughs] getting a drum sound. Not that it was bad in the first place, 'cause it suited it perfectly

"So, in other words, if you had the options open, cut everything at no-brainer speed to start with. Anything that doesn't make it with that methodology, then apply the remit of more expansive, more detailed production to it. But not the other way around. And that way you're never gonna miss energy, you're never gonna miss capture. You're only gonna expand naturally into things that require it."

Williams thinks that overall the rooms at Sawmills contributed hugely to the tight, fuzzy and energetic sound of I Should Coco: not just the live room playing space, but also the control room during the mixing. "I later noticed that people like Flood would mix in rooms that often didn't have a huge space," he says, "that were very flat and contained and based on that principle. I think, considering its limitations, it was one of the best-sounding, punchy, tight, controlled rooms to mix in."

Postscript

For Sam Williams, his main memories of working with Supergrass on their landmark debut album are of himself and the band laughing. "I've never laughed so much making a record," he says. "To the point where you actually had to stop recording. I'm very grateful and honoured that I've been lucky enough to connect with them."

The subsequent chart success of 'Alright', however, he only remembers as a blur. "It rushed by us like a high-speed train," he says. The producer however is in no doubt as to why the song was set to become regarded as a classic track. "It's incredibly positive," he reasons, "and, actually, it's got two sides to its coin. It's got a very British pub knees-up kind of energy. It's everything that teenage life is about — sex, drugs, rock & roll. It's saying something that you can only really know in that window of time when you're kind of leaving school and before the engagement of other issues becomes unavoidable as an adult.

"But, also, it's looking at identity. It's got a duality which is beautiful: 'Are we like you?/I can't be sure.' Because they were at that age, it was authentic. It was the real thing."

Ultimately, Williams is as thrilled as Supergrass' legions of fans are that the band have decided to reunite. "Yeah, I'm delighted," he states, "because they're a great live band. When I speak to people about Supergrass, I often get the same thing: 'God, weren't they great?'”.

The final feature I want to source from came from Radio X last September. Supergrass were promoting the thirtieth anniversary tour of I Should Coco. They are embarking on that very soon. The first date is on 8th May at Glasgow’s Barrowland Ballroom. They revealed that they were surprised by the success of Alright:

“Supergrass were shocked by the success of their single Alright.

The Oxford rockers have recently shared their plans to celebrate the 30th anniversary of their debut album I Should Coco with a tour next year and Gaz Coombes has talked about the impact of its biggest track, which peaked at number two on the UK Singles Chart - giving the band their biggest single to-date.

"It's a single that hit so hard in the summer of '95, the 48-year-old rocker recalled to NME. "We had no idea that was going to happen. We'd made a punk album, we were 19, and then we had a massive hit. We couldn't complain."

He went on: "We loved Alright and thought it was quite a kooky and weird little track, so we were quite taken aback by how massive it became."

The 2025 tour, which was first announced by the band on The Chris Moyles Show, will kick off at Glasgow's Barrowlands on Thursday 8th May and will also include shows in Cardiff, Manchester, Nottingham and Leeds as well as two dates London's Roundhouse.

Supergrass will play the classic album in full for the first time live as well as a selection of greatest hits for the dates, which they've promised will be "wild".

On 15th May, it will be thirty years since I Should Coco was released. It is hard to believe! I am glad the band are still together and they get the chance to take the album on the road. Playing the iconic Alright thirty years after its release. Well, 3rd July technically. Their first date after that anniversary is 10th July at Bedford Park. This amazing band have been with me since childhood, so I wanted to  spend some time recognising that and highlighting the brilliance of Alright. Three decades after it release and there is nothing that holds…

QUITE the same magic.

FEATURE: Spotlight: Lexa Gates

FEATURE:

 

 

Spotlight

Lexa Gates

_________

THE incredible Lexa Gates…

is about to start a tour of the U.S. The Queens-born artist is one who is getting a lot of hype in her native U.S. but might not be known to people to some people in the U.K. and other countries. I am going to come to some interviews with an artist that I hope is on your radar. Before that, here is some biography about an incredible talent:

“Born and raised in Queens, New York, Lexa Gates is a singer/songwriter, rapper, and producer. The multifaceted artist has been composing melodies and singing songs since the ripe age of 9. Lexa first took her talents to SoundCloud, dropping her debut tracks in 2019 which were followed by full bodies of work, her latest titled, ‘Universe Wrapped In Flesh’. The most recent song to date, ‘Angel’, began to pick up the most traction for the New York native - garnering a larger following and fan base. Lexa’s bold and ambitious style of expression keeps listeners constantly on their toes and excited for her bright future ahead!”.

I am going to start out with an interview from last year from Rolling Stone. They highlight a New Yorker whose L.P., Elite Vessel caught the energy and attention of the Internet (and SZA). Interviewed back in November, the New Yorker artist was excited and pumped for what was coming next. I think she has gained some new traction in 2025. Someone who is primed for a long career in the industry. Make sure you do not miss out on her music:

“Many 20-year-olds count down until they can flash an ID in exchange for a drink on their 21st birthday. For the artist Lexa Gates, turning 21 marked the first day of her sobriety. 

“I just started feeling like, ‘That’s actually lame as fuck now that it’s legal,’” the cat-eyed rapper-singer-producer, now 23, tells Rolling Stone. 

Growing up in Queens, she spent a lot of her early adolescence as a high-school dropout, smoking, drinking, and “fucking a bunch of people.” But on a 21st-birthday trip to Puerto Rico, a place she lived for a little bit of her childhood, she had an epiphany that brought her substance use to a halt: “I just realized that wasn’t doing anything for me — and all my music was like that, too,” she says. Her last hurrah? A stealthy swipe of a “big ass bottle of Henny” from the airport. 

Gates started making music in her teens, putting her first releases all over SoundCloud. Her aesthetic matched her lifestyle back then: perfectly pearled joints held by manicured nails, abstract Tumblr art and memes, and creatively angled selfies edited with photo filters reminiscent of the late 2010s. On a playlist created six years ago called “og lexagates,” there are songs about toxic lovers, “D3VILDICK,” and soft reflections that feature Gates’ singing against simple piano melodies. She started venturing into music after she dropped out of high school at 15, due to feeling “very unimportant” in the NYC public school system. 

While her peers were in class, she began recording at home — a place always filled with music because her mom wrote songs and spent time singing in cafes. Gates and her sister briefly lived with their father in Puerto Rico; Gates recalls an early childhood memory of her mom saving up money earned from packing cigarettes in the U.S. territory to move the family back to New York. “My mom kind of gaslit me into thinking like we were well off or something,” she remembers. She returned to the city and grew up in Queens, where she watched her mom’s explorations with music before beginning a journey of her own. “I started playing piano because [my mom] got a piano for singing classes for herself. But I was just drawn to it.” 

Gates released her debut album, Order of Events, in 2020, followed by more EPs. In 2022, she dropped Universe Wrapped In Flesh, a project she describes as “the dead skin of everything from before.” Universe Wrapped In Flesh featured the songs “If I Die, I Die,” “The Person That I Was Before,” and the standout “Rotten to the Core,” where she bounces between promiscuity and “standing out the way” to achieve success. The album got pickup from small music publications as well as digital platforms like On the Radar Radio.

In 2023, with a growing internet presence, Gates posted her music to TikTok and shared several music videos on YouTube, world-building a vintage style to match the nostalgic and somber essence of her laidback music, often described as being reminiscent of artists she considers her influences: Mac Miller, Amy Winehouse, and Tyler, the Creator. Now she’s sailing off the success of her major label debut, Elite Vessel, which came out in October. On the album, she stays true to her mellow sound but with new confidence. (SZA recently noticed and shouted her out in an Instagram story this summer.)

“[The album] is just me conforming to the industry and being this character of value in my field,” she says, sneaking glances at her publicist and manager. “Because I am that girl who’s down and dirty from the fucking basement that didn’t go to school … But this is like, I don’t know, I’m just a baby. Like, I’m just squeaky clean and elite.” 

Part of Gates’ newfound “squeaky clean” vibe comes with solitude, a theme she sings about on the 12-track album. Not only has she been unable to see her mom and sister much with the demands of her budding career, but a lot of the album holds the weight of a past relationship. “I’m ready to throw it out into the world so that I can focus on who I am now,” Gates says. 

Before Elite Vessel came out, Gates promoted the album with some performance art. She sat in a glass box in Union Square for 10 hours ahead of the release, only listening to the album and gaining eyeballs from curious New Yorkers and social media purveyors on one of the city’s first jacket-weather days. The gesture was praised online and picked up by several blogs and TikTok fan pages, with people calling the fish-bowl isolation as a “genius” way to market an album that revolves around loneliness and solitude. 

With more support and promotion around her music, Gates says she’s still learning and adjusting to the change in pace from being an independent artist. (She’s now signed with Capitol and GoodTalk.) “It’s crazy because with the label now it takes so long — I didn’t know,” she says. “But now I kind of feel like I have to make the music more timeless,” she says. When asked about the music she’s working on now that Elite Vessel is finished, she gets excited. “That’s the stuff that’s really gonna be life-changing for me on a huge scale”.

I am moving on to an interview from F Word Magazine. Conducted last year, they spoke with an artist who was blending Rap, Alt-R&B and Hip-Hop. Someone whose New York shows were getting so much acclaim and love. Someone who has some American dates coming. I know that Lexa Gates will be over in the U.K. in August and is playing at Burgess Park for the Jazz Café Festival. This is someone who is getting started but is already proving she can go a very long way:

“Rachel Edwards: Hey Lexa! Let’s talk about your new single ‘Stacy’s Chips’! The lyrics ‘there’s never any time to cook, I’m eating Stacy’s chips’ are very relatable for someone like me who lives off crisps and hummus. What was the story behind it?

L.G: Well I don’t know if you know but Stacy’s Chips is not a person, it’s a brand of pitta chips in America!

R.E: No way!

L.G: Yeah! Someone else thought it was my friend Stacy but it’s some half decent chips that you find everywhere. At the time I was just going to the studio every day and by the time I got out all of the restaurants were closed so I just had what was on set which was always Stacy’s chips.

R.E: [Laughs] Wow, I wonder how many people in the UK also think it’s a person! Do you find it difficult to juggle working with other parts of your life, like seeing friends?

L.G: Yeah it’s all to the wayside cos’ I don’t have friends. 

R.E: So Stacy’s 100% not a friend then!

L.G: Yeah, she doesn’t exist!

R.E: There’s a real realness to your lyrics. I feel like you’re singing candidly about experiences that others might cover up. How honest would you say you are outside of your music?

L.G: A hundred percent honest all the time, I don’t believe in lying or anything like that. Being authentic is very important. 

R.E: I don’t think a lot of people live by that! I think a lot of people are sugar coating things! You grew up with some strong feminine energy with your mum and sister. What was young Lexa like?

L.G: She was wild! She was being bad and doing things she shouldn’t do. But it all worked out!

R.E: What were you like at school?

L.G: I didn’t go to school! I would just be stealing, smoking weed, drinking Henny, having sex with strangers… But I’m totally reformed and proper.

R.E: Wow okay tell me what the turning point was?

L.G: On my 21st birthday I went completely sober, broke up with the person I was with and started taking everything very seriously, made Universe Wrapped in Flesh and it actually ended up being very fruitful for me”.

I am going to end with a recent interview from Billboard. The twenty-three-year-old is only getting started. Someone who has some serious ambitions. I am quite new to her music but I am going to follow her career. If you have not heard Lexa Gates then make sure you follow her on social media:

“Billboard: When you look back at your musical upbringing, what are some moments that stand out in changing your life?

Lexa Gates: I was dating a white rapper from Harlem who was enrolled in SUNY Purchase. He taught me that you can record yourself at home and put it on SoundCloud. Something could happen with that. [This was] when I was like 17.

Is that when you started to take music seriously?

Yeah, that’s when I started learning how to engineer myself and create a product.

How long did it take to reach the level where you felt, “I can kinda do this?”

Well, not that long. Nowadays, you can download Garageband on your phone and just make a song with a pair of headphones.

Is “I Can Fly” from around that time?

Yes, exactly — and everyone really loved that song. That boyfriend ended up being a hater about it. It happens.

Would you say that was a breakthrough moment for you?

Yeah, it really was. It would’ve had like 10,000 plays on SoundCloud, and I was like, “Whoa, who would’ve thought that people would actually like it?” It was fully organic. That’s how it was back then with SoundCloud. It wasn’t about any marketing or any schemes. No TikTok; Instagram was just your friends on there.

How would you summarize this last year for yourself? It’s been quite the elevation.

It’s been a lot, but I still feel like it’s nothing yet. I’m just getting started.

How has been dealing with fame for you?

Some girl just recognized me outside. No makeup, on my way to get my eyebrows done. She like, “Are you Lexi?” I’m outside my house, so that’s a little scary.

So you’re starting to get recognized outside a bit? At least in New York.

Yeah, that’s a good thing, and it’s what I want. Eventually, I just want to be constrained to the back of a car or a private jet and never get to live a normal life again.

How’s performing been? I went to your show in Brooklyn last June.

Oh, the Elsewhere show? That one was pretty a–. The shows are great. I’m a lot more comfortable now. I remember in that concert, I was super nervous, and my mom was there and I barely moved on stage. I was just standing there with my arms crossed.

It was cool to see your fans bringing your flowers. Where did that relationship start to become a thing?

That’s just from begging a bum-a– dude to buy me flowers, to just having so much fruition in my career. People bringing me flowers that I don’t even know — but they love me. And I don’t have to be like, “Why didn’t you get me this?” Also, I heard that flowers raise a woman’s vibration. It’s like a natural thing. You can smell ’em.

How did your signature winged eyeliner come to be?

It was just like, me not going to school. I’m doing my makeup and trying to make the liner even on one side and the other side until it just became a giant Black block on my eyes. It gets to the point where you just get tired of washing it off and trying again, so you kinda just work with what you got. Now it’s more intentional. I get it perfect almost every single time.

What’s next on the music front? What are our plans this year?

I have a whole album done that we are in the process of clearing. I have like 20 songs done. I want to drop another album.

Did you do any work with Conductor Williams?

No, I didn’t, but I’m in conversation with him. We just haven’t gotten together. It’s crazy because I want to make pop music.

Is this something that feels natural to you, or you wanted to change it up and keep it fresh?

It was still natural for me. I had to be in L.A., of course. It’s still true to me, it’s just what I like now.

Yeah, you gotta pull up [to the office] and play that… You got some fans over here.

I’m really happy to hear that. I never even knew about all this ranking and status within the artist community until I got signed and spoke to [a media trainer], and she pulled up the Billboard [Hot] 100 and I realized, “This is like a sport.” [It’s a] pro athlete vibe. That’s also something I took with me into my new work. That’s why it has to be more structured and intentional.

How has being signed to a label influenced your creativity? Is it different being at a studio than at home?

They put a positive pressure on me. It’s still very personal. I work usually work one-on-one, just me and the producer so it’s not a whole organization in the studio yet, but I’m not closed out to the idea if I find the right people.

How was linking up with Jadakiss and Fabolous for “New York to the World”?

Brought me back to my roots. Just like the energy they bring — intimidating, smoking, but still down to earth and true to themselves. I had to be the girl with the hair did and my legs crossed, and just spit some s–t. They’re mad cool and super loving. Especially the producer, Scott Storch. Yeah, he’s a legend, so inspirational. He seems a little bit like an insane guy.

When did you start doing your dances across the city?

It was just an accident. I had to make content, so I was like, “Record me.” Then I just dance. It was never like supposed to be what it is. People just made it a thing. They love anything. They f–king told me. I was spinning around in circles and trying different things, but the dance is what stuck with me. They be calling it the Lexa jig. It’s actually kind of embarrassing now because that’s just how I dance in general so when I do it, it’s not the same anymore. I hear some music and I start dancing and I gotta stop myself.

I feel like on records you touch on romance, relationships and love. What do you think makes a perfect record for that kind of song?

I guess just capturing the moment of time that you’re in. Whatever is going on you just gotta get the last drop from it.

Do you hold certain things back on it or let it rip?

I don’t hold back, I let it rip. Sometimes it be just about even anybody in the room. I don’t really care. If I have to say it, I have to.

How was the experience of staying in the box for 10 hours? I feel like that broke through and saw it everywhere. It was kind of refreshing. For lack of a better term, I feel like we see a lot of bulls–t promo tactics that artists go through.

It was never supposed to be like a promotional thing. I think the label showed me that was the case when they were telling me, “Oh, we should do a halal truck outside and sell food to them.” I’m like, “What? No, it’s supposed to be art.”

How was it getting the SZA co-sign?

That was really surreal. All these things you feel like you want, then you get it — and then you’re still a human being in a body that’s rotting and digesting food and bleeding and breathing. You never float through the air and explode into sparkles. It’s all the same. She’s the GOAT. Very talented and beautiful woman.

How do you look at this next generation of New York City? We had Laila! up here and she showed you love.

I don’t know a lot of [artists]. I know a lot of people coming up, like Sailorrr. I know she got this [Rookie of the Month] spot last month. There’s so many people. Every day, something’s breaking. I like Molly [Santana] too.

Do you have any brand partnerships or business endeavors outside of music that you think would be dope for you?

Yeah, I want an Erewhon smoothie. I want to work with Puma. I love Margiela and Acne. Something fire. I really love coffee, too. It would be cool to a coffee-related thing. I like Blue Bottle Coffee.

Where’s Lexa Gates in 10 years?

Hopefully, in the best shape of my life. Financially free. I want a house and I want to own a bunch of houses. Is that a good answer? Where should I be? I want to be on Billboard. No. 1, I don’t see why not”.

I am very keen to see where Lexa Gates head next. After a remarkable album, Elite Vessel, there is this new momentum and backing. With her live shows celebrated and a lot of eyes trained her way, the future looks very bright. Even though I am a fairly new convert, it only takes a minute before you are…

TRULY invested.

______________

Follow Lexa Gates

Official:

https://lexagates.com/

Instagram:

https://www.instagram.com/lexagates

TikTok:

https://www.tiktok.com/@lexagates

Spotify:

https://open.spotify.com/artist/5D70nuec9omH4CXmCGXGTu?si=qmHnESdHRYG3ZtJY2dKckQ

YouTube:

https://www.youtube.com/@lexagates/videos

FEATURE: She Said: Why Feminist and Gender Studies Books Should Be Discussed More

FEATURE:

 

 

She Said

IN THIS PHOTO: Emily Ratajkowski (whose 2021 book, My Body, I have recently purchased and am engrossed in)/PHOTO CREDIT: Superga 

Why Feminist and Gender Studies Books Should Be Discussed More

_________

I will put out…

PHOTO CREDIT: Monstera Production/Pexels

another Feminist Icons feature soon. For this feature, I wanted to talk about a bit of a personal quest. Or an objective at least. I have said in other features how I have recently been purchasing feminist books. Whether you label it as such or ‘gender studies’, it tends to be among the most far-off points at a bookshop. Not as prominent as it should be. At a time when women’s safety, equality and voices should be discussed, heard and supported, I always find it a little strange that books from incredible women on subjects around feminism and women’s rights are slightly buried. Over the past month or so, I have been reading some incredible books. Caitlin Moran and Laura Bates authors I have known about for a whole but am starting to look back and read their essential work. I will come to this a bit more soon. There are websites and pages that recommend great feminist literature. I do think that there should be more awareness and vociferousness when it comes to the importance of these books. I know people can seek them out if they want to read on these particular subjects, though, for me, reading incredible books around a range of subjects relating to feminism and women’s rights have been really inspiring. Rather than indiscriminately picking any book and building a collection, I have been tactical about it. I consider myself to be a feminist but, until now, I have been applying this to be music journalism and not really doing a lot of reading and research. How these few books I have already purchased have been so eye-opening and impactful. Whether it is anger and outrage reading about sexual assault and misogyny and the struggles women face or books around different waves of feminism, I think it is making me a more informed and better feminist. That might sound strange or self-aggrandising. What I mean is the huge value and power these books have. At a time when women’s rights and safety are threatened and seen as unimportant by some governments, these books are so key. I do hope that these works become standard in schools and places of higher education.

PHOTO CREDIT: Monstera Production/Pexels

One book I am reading that has particularly struck a chord is Emily Ratajkowski’s 2021 book, My Body. Her only book to date, I do wonder if she will write another. Whereas most of the books I have been reading have related to women more widely – with personal input and experiences from the authors -, this is from the perspective of Ratajkowski. Though, of course, many women will be able to relate to My Body. You can buy the book here:

“A deeply honest investigation of what it means to be a woman and a commodity from Emily Ratajkowski, the archetypal, multi-hyphenate celebrity of our time.

Emily Ratajkowski is an acclaimed model and actress, an engaged political progressive, a formidable entrepreneur, a global social media phenomenon, and now, a writer. Rocketing to world fame at age twenty-one, Ratajkowski sparked both praise and furor with the provocative display of her body as an unapologetic statement of feminist empowerment. The subsequent evolution in her thinking about our culture's commodification of women is the subject of this book.

My Body is a profoundly personal exploration of feminism, sexuality, and power, of men's treatment of women and women's rationalizations for accepting that treatment. These essays chronicle moments from Ratajkowski's life while investigating the culture's fetishization of girls and female beauty, its obsession with and contempt for women's sexuality, the perverse dynamics of the fashion and film industries, and the grey area between consent and abuse.

Nuanced, unflinching, and incisive, My Body marks the debut of a fierce writer brimming with courage and intelligence”.

 I am going to move on in a minute. Though I cannot personally relate to Ratajkowski's experiences and what her and many women face on a daily basis, it has affected me. Made me think about men’s treatment of women and how they (women) are seen as commodities still. At a time when influential misogynists are brainwashing many men, it is such an important book. Something that needs to be revisited and spotlighted once more. Before pressing on, here is part of a review of My Body by The Guardian:

“A couple of times I was reading her book in public, and acquaintances made variations on a snort at the idea of a collection of feminist essays by a person such as Ratajkowski, a model and actor who became famous dancing in a thong in Robin Thicke’s Blurred Lines video, whose Instagram glitters with nudes and shots advertising her bikini collection. There was a similar noise internationally in 2020 when New York Magazine published one of these essays, Buying Myself Back, about the many ways in which she does not own her image, from attempting to buy a piece of art that is a screenshot of her face to the sexual assault by a photographer who later sold three separate books of Polaroids he’d taken of her that night. After people read it, the noise quieted. Rather than simply a story written from a place of great power and privilege, it was a story about that power and about that privilege. About the boundaries of a power that lies solely in beauty. Hers, readers found, was an extreme version of a reality familiar to many women who had also been forced to consider where their image ended and their self began.

The tone is that of a thriller – the sense something terrible is looming, perhaps in the waves, perhaps in her phone

The book continues in the same vein; essays that shock and illuminate as they walk around the central themes of what it means to be a woman and a commodity, poking at them with a variety of sharpened tools. One essay sees Ratajkowski waking in a $400m Maldivian resort with her husband, where she has been paid “a shit ton” to post pictures of their sponsored holiday. A headache blooms over the course of a restless day spent on the beach, checking Instagram as a picture of her ass collects a million likes and thinking darkly about money.

The tone is that of a thriller or horror film – the sense something terrible is looming, perhaps in the waves, perhaps in her phone, perhaps in her body. Contemplating the “glistening skin” of her hips in a bikini from her swimwear line, “the whole of the ocean stretched out before me and yet I felt trapped”. In another she accepts $25,000 from a billionaire to join him at the Super Bowl. Watching a model grind purposefully against him, Ratajkowski contemplates the transactional nature of her industry, both contracted and unspoken. “I liked to think I was different from women like her. But over time it became harder to hold on to that distinction or even believe in its virtue.” The model went on to marry a tech mogul, and peers who married pop stars suddenly got Vogue covers. “The world celebrates and rewards women who are chosen by powerful men,” she notes. “Wasn’t I on the same spectrum of compromise?” At times the reader is a popcorn-eating audience; at other times her therapist, offering balloons.

Throughout, glamour is tempered with boredom and, sometimes, pain. Early in her life Ratajkowski learned that beauty gave her power, but also that it was complicated. “It wasn’t just the way I looked that made the boys notice me, it was also my perceived status in the outside world as an attractive girl,” she writes, one eye then on Britney Spears, “a warning”. She learned to be wary of people who responded to her beauty; there’s a hidden violence present as she walks through parties. While filming the video that made her not just famous, but “famously sexy”, pop star Robin Thicke grabbed her breasts. It only occurred to her recently that “the women who gained their power from beauty were indebted to the men whose desire granted them that power in the first place”

There is another strand to this. The books I have been buying are largely factual and non-fiction. It is also important to highlight and promote non-fiction feminist literature. The importance, value and brilliance of women’s voice. There is no understating the importance of feminist literature. Works that call for equality and greater rights for women. Also designed to make the world a better place. Apologies if my thoughts are a bit scattershot. I have been so engrossed in the books I have purchased and feel, with each page, there is this feeling of anger and horror. The need to do more and ensure more and more people – especially men – read these works. There is no denying the essentialness of feminist literature, as this feature highlights:

“Despite progress, feminist literature remains relevant in addressing ongoing challenges and emerging issues. Modern feminist authors continue to explore evolving concepts of gender, sexuality, and identity, ensuring that the movement remains dynamic and responsive to societal changes. "We Should All Be Feminists," an essay adapted by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie from her TEDx talk, has become a widely referenced contemporary work because of its compelling, yet accessible, exploration of contemporary feminism. Drawing from her own experiences as a Nigerian woman and weaving in anecdotes that resonate universally, Adichie makes a compelling case for the necessity of feminism in the 21st century. In this concise yet impactful essay, she examines the pervasive nature of gender inequality and dismantles common misconceptions associated with the term 'feminism.' Adichie argues that feminism is not an exclusionary ideology but a movement that benefits everyone, challenging ingrained stereotypes and urging for a world where individuals are not confined or limited by gender roles. Her engaging prose and persuasive arguments make this work a rallying cry for equality, appealing to readers from all walks of life to embrace feminism as a shared cause that enriches societies by fostering fairness, justice, and dignity for all. Adichie's "We Should All Be Feminists" serves as a powerful introduction to feminist principles, inviting readers to reflect on their own beliefs and actively participate in the ongoing pursuit of gender equality.

As feminist literature continues to evolve and respond to emerging challenges, its impact persists, fostering a sense of identity, belonging, and empowerment for individuals across diverse backgrounds. It is crucial to recognize the enduring impact of feminist literature and support the writers who continue to use their words to shape our world for the better. Through literature, the call for equality resonates, inviting readers to reflect, engage, and contribute to the ongoing dialogue on gender justice in the pursuit of a more equitable future”.

A lot of my male peers and colleagues do not really know much about feminist literature. They might be familiar with a couple of the authors but, by and large, they do not read the books. Working in music, most of the articles written around women’s rights, bodies, safety and equality are written by women. Rather than me saying male music journalists are not feminists – many of them are -, I do think that there does need to be more emphasis on feminist literature (or gender studies books). A lot of what is written about impacts and relates to modern music. It seems more important now than ever. Whether reading a Laura Bates book or Emily Ratajkowski’s My Body, I have come away engrossed and deeply moved. Shocked by what I have read. Rather than these amazing and powerful books being resigned to a few shelf inches or less accessible in bookshops than works of fiction and other genres, these incredible works should be…

PHOTO CREDIT: RDNE Stock project/Pexels

TALKED about constantly.

FEATURE: On the Crest of a Wave: Exploring Pivotal Moments During the Second Side of Kate Bush’s Hounds of Love

FEATURE:

 

 

On the Crest of a Wave

IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush during the shoot for The Ninth Wave/PHOTO CREDIT: John Carder Bush

Exploring Pivotal Moments During the Second Side of Kate Bush’s Hounds of Love

_________

ONCE again…

I am turning to Leah Kardos’s recent 33 1/3 book on Hounds of Love. You can buy it here. I am occasionally posting features about the album leading up to its fortieth anniversary on 16th September. I will explore The Ninth Wave in more detail as I head towards that date. That is the second side of Kate Bush’s most acclaimed album. Some say the absolute peak of her talents as a producer and artist. I want to focus on two songs from that suite that are really among the best things Bush has ever recorded. Leah Kardos goes into real detail when it comes to the songs on Hounds of Love. The technology used, various time signatures and notes. A real forensic dive into the tracks. Waking the Witch and Jig of Life occur. The third and fifth songs respectively of the suite – which has seven tracks -, the middle of that sandwich comes in the form of Watching You Without Me. It is the heart of the suite. Because Waking the Witch is about the heroine being roused awake and asked to survive by voices she hears (in her head or her dying thoughts). Jig of Life is this spirit of survival and strength. Did she survive or is Watching You Without Me and its spectral and haunted tone an omnibus sign? Waking the Witch and Jig of Life have this incredible energy and style. The former scarier and darker, whereas Jig of Life whips up these Irish sounds into a fevered frenzy. Both songs crucial in terms of the narrative of The Ninth Wave. Leah Kardos brilliantly writes about both of these tracks and what instruments and sounds go into them. Underlining Kate Bush’s brilliance as a producer.

Let’s start out with Waking the Witch. And Dream of Sheep seems to be the heroine wanting to go to sleep and be at home but having to stay awake. Under Ice her under the ice and struggling to get to the surface. One could say she was trapped under ice and everything after did not happen. Or, as I like to think, she got to the surface but faded. Hallucinations and voices trying to wake her up. It is a dramatic and tense song. A surging backward piano chord (C#(sus2) drags us, as Leah Kardos writes, into a piano-led sonic territory. “Suspended piano chords are refracted through a rhythmic delay”. One of the most interesting aspects are the voices and how they appear in the mix. There are a mixture of voices of authority and family. Love and discipline. Many of Bush’s friends and family can be heard. This bank of voices recalling the answerphone messages on The Dreaming’s All the Love. Robbie Coltrane one of the voices on Waking the Witch. John Carder Bush (her brother) comes from the back of the right speaker – “Over here!”. There is this gentleness and calm before things burst into life. A LinnDrum sequence us doubled. A high piano tremolo. Bush’s voice cut up to give the impression someone being dragged down and struggling to stay afloat. This affect achieved by quickly moving the record switch on the tape machine. This caused a big argument between Kate Bush and Del Palmer – her engineer and boyfriend at the time. Palmer later admitted he had to eat humble pie!  This struggle for survival turns into a witch trial. Bush multiplying her voice to play the accused and the jury commending her. “Bush’s Witchfinder subjects the accused to such tests (“You won’t burn, you won’t bleed, confess to me girl”)”. These ‘tests’ go back to when women were accused of being witches. If they sank and drowned they were innocent; if they floated and survived they were witches and executed. I did not know that background voices  sing lines adapted from the se shanty, Blood Red Roses. The chorus, “Oh, you pinks and posies, go down you blood red roses,  go down!”, is believed to be about the gore of harpooning a whale.

We take a break from the C#  minor “for a counter phrase that swirls with the sound of church bells and woozy spiralling guitar figures around E minor”. Bush recites some  Catholic Vulgate scripture (including “Deus et dei domino no-no-no-no”). When coming back to the C# minor riff, we get this wonderful and “prickly” synth sequence by Kevin McAlea and Fairlight CMI bass by Del Palmer. The Witchfinder doubts her innocence and the jury deliver their verdict. Found guilty, there is this desperation and plea – “Help this blackbird, there’s a stone around my leg”. When you think all is doomed, a rescue helicopter can be heard ahead. A cry telling her to get out of the water. The helicopter effect the same one used on Pink Floyd’s The Wall. Unfortunately, the helicopter was not one that rescued the heroine or was her safety. More a sound that broke her from his nightmare. Bush used Waking the Witch as a springboard to discuss wider issues around women’s instincts and intuition and how they are put down. Sexism based around the thought that women must be witches or people to be forced down. Leah Kardos notes how Waking the Witch is harrowing. Referencing Moby-Dick, The Wall and The Witch of Blackbird Pond (among others), it is s staggering feat of writing and production. Bush said years later how she weas disappointed with her Eventide Harmonizer-enhanced performance of the Witchfinder. She stated how, is she had more energy, she would have hired an actor. Leah Kardos loves Bush’s performance and, like the closing moments of Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God), there is created a “connective tissue between these songs that explores the dis/empowering aspects of gender”.

If Waking the Witch is the heroine brought from the brink and at her most scared and perilous, Jig of Life is this will to live. This second wind. After Watching You Without Me and this sense of the protagonist’s family waiting for her and her being there only in spirit, there is this reason to survive and find hope. Bush’s foundations for Jig of Life was the “ceremonial music of the Anastenaria, a centuries-old ecstatic dance and fire-walking ritual performed during religious feasts in Greece and Bulgaria” This rare piece of music that Paddy Bush shared with his sister inspired one of Hounds of Love’s greatest moments. Notable, among other things, because of the “whirling figures” played on a tsabouna (Greek bagpipes). Bush was fascinated by the wat whipped themselves into a trance because of the hypnotic quality of the music. The musical and rhythmic qualities lifted and used for the first part of Jig of Life. “Based on the Greek dhromi mode (on the root of A), the tonality is mostly minor but with idiomatic instabilit6y on the second degree (B), throwing up an occasional B♭ in the swirling flow of melody and hitting wonderfully dissonant pinch points at 0’44” and 1’33”. In a suite full of characters and voices – imagined and dreamt -, Bush comes back as an old lady to urge her younger self to keep going (“let me live, girl”). The old woman solemnly explains it is not just her own survival that is at stake but that of her unborn children. The line, “the place where the crossroads meet” is, as Leah Kardos theorises, “the image of Hecate, the goddess in Greek mythology who is often depicted flanked by two dogs and sometimes shown with a triple-formed face that sees the past, present and future simultaneously”. That B section at 1’40” leads to an instrumental break that based around Celtic folk melody. Starting out with John Sheahan’s fiddle, it then transforms into this emphatic and hot-blooded jig. One arranged by Bill Whelan.

IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush during the shoot for The Ninth Wave/PHOTO CREDIT: John Carder Bush

The jig stops dead where Bush repeats “I put this moment… here”. I love the technical detail Leah Kardos notes: “Her words are separated across the extreme width of the stereo field at first, moving closer towards a possible connection when John Carder Bush’s voice interrupts with ‘Over here’”. He performs a rousing performance of his own poetic verse. A fan that spoke with John Carder Bush revealed that the poem was going to be read by an Irish performer but it was decided John Carder Bush would tackle it, with the idea to pitch his voice up to that of a female register. That was fortunately abandoned. John Carder Bush adopted an Irish accent. Jig of Life would have had a different meaning and life if the idea to have this female voice read the poem stuck. A wonderfully affirmative, positive and loving section on The Ninth Wave. Among the chaos, fear and darkness, Jig of Life is this mini masterpiece. As Leah Kardos notes: “the powers of mothers from the past and future rallying at the crisis point to help Bush choose to live”. I love Jig of Life and Waking the Witch. Crucial tracks in the story. Hello Earth and The Morning Fog follow Jig of Life and end the album. Whether you feel the protagonist survived and Jig of Life was this turning point or she sadly succumbed to the ocean around Under Ice, there is no denying the brilliance of the songs. Reading Leah Kardos’s book and her musicologist approach. The notes, time signature and players. Getting this new appreciation for two wonderful songs. On 16th September, we mark forty years of Hounds of Love. I, among millions of others, will be excited to mark the anniversary of…

A masterpiece.

FEATURE: The Digital Mixtape: Björn Ulvaeus at Eighty

FEATURE:

 

 

The Digital Mixtape

Björn Ulvaeus at Eighty

_________

LOOKING ahead…

IN THIS PHOTO: ABBA/PHOTO CREDIT: Siegfried Pilz/United Archives, via Getty Images

to 25th April, that is when Björn Ulvaeus turns eighty. A quarter of ABBA – and half of its songwriting duo with Benny Andersson (many of the songs were also written with Stig Anderson) -, he also co-composed the musicals Chess, Kristina från Duvemåla and Mamma Mia! To mark the approaching eightieth birthday of one of the greatest songwriters ever, I am ending with an ABBA mixtape. Even if Björn Ulvaeus has written away from ABBA, most people know him for this. Before getting to that mixtape, here is some biography of a songwriter who has been responsible for some of the most timeless and memorable songs:

“In the mid-Fifties Björn fell in love with rock’n’roll and skiffle. By the early Sixties he was a member of a folk group called the West Bay Singers. In 1963 they entered a talent contest arranged by Swedish radio. This led to discovery by songwriter and publisher Stig Anderson and his partner, Bengt Bernhag. Stig and Bengt had recently started a record company called Polar Music. The band acquired a new name, the Hootenanny Singers, and quickly became one of Sweden’s most popular groups of the Sixties.

In 1966, Björn had a chance meeting with Benny Andersson, himself a member of Sweden’s number one pop group, The Hep Stars. They hit it off and wrote their first song together, ’Isn’t It Easy To Say’.

Björn recorded a couple of solo singles in the late Sixties, at which point he also started concentrating more on his collaboration with Benny Andersson. In 1970 the pair started releasing records as a duo and also staged a cabaret show together with their fiancées, Agnetha Fältskog and Anni-Frid Lyngstad. On July 6, 1971, Björn and Agnetha got married.

From 1972 and a decade onwards Björn was occupied by his work with ABBA. In 1983 Björn and Benny started writing the musical Chess with lyricist Tim Rice. A concept album was released in the autumn of 1984, and in May 1986 the musical opened in London’s West End. In 1988 Chess received its Broadway première. A reworked version of the musical opened in Stockholm, Sweden in 2002.

Towards the end of the last century, Björn and Benny worked on a couple of pop albums together with Gemini and Josefin Nilsson.

By 1990, Björn and Benny had decided to write a new musical. This time they wanted to write exclusively in Swedish, and they chose the Emigrants novel series by author Vilhelm Moberg as basis for their work. The musical Kristina från Duvemåla (Kristina From Duvemåla) opened in October 1995. The show ran for three and a half years at various theatres in the Swedish cities of Malmö, Gothenburg and Stockholm.

Björn has involved himself heavily in the staging of ‘Mamma Mia!’, a musical based on ABBA songs. The show opened in London, England, in April 1999 and has since been staged virtually everywhere. It even lead to the release of two films, ‘Mamma Mia! The Movie’ in 2008 and, ten years later, ‘Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again’. For the sequel, Björn rewrote the lyrics to two lesser-known ABBA songs.

In 2016, another project by Björn started to conquer the world. ‘Mamma Mia! The Party’ is a dinner show with ABBA songs, also set in Greece but with a different story. All four ABBA members appeared on stage at the opening night in Stockholm.

Over the years, Björn has contributed lyrics to Benny compositions, for example for Sweden’s Crown Princess Victoria’s wedding (‘Vilar Glad. I Din Famn’) and for the ‘Eurovision Song Contest’ in 2013, when they worked together with Avicii (‘We Write The Story’). Björn has also written many lyrics for Benny Anderssons Orkester that has been immensely successful in Sweden with five #1 hit singles.

In 2013, Björn worked together with Benny, Kristina Lugn and Lars Rudolfsson on the musical play ‘Hjälp Sökes’. His current project is the musical ‘Pippi På Cirkus’ that premieres in Stockholm in 2021.

In 2010, Björn wrote the children’s book ‘The Little White Piano’ and, in 2018, he wrote another book, ‘You Are Who You Meet’, which is available exclusively at his recently built hotel Slottsholmen in Västervik.

Björn is involved in a number of business projects. He also became president of the International Confederation of Societies of Authors and Composers, CISAC. Since 2016, he has been involved in developing a software and system that ensures songwriters and musicians receive the royalty payments they are due.

Björn is the co-owner of Pop House which includes the Cirkus Theater, Hasselbacken hotel, Pop House hotel and ABBA The Museum. The award winning museum opened in 2013 and is home to a permanent ABBA exhibition that tells the story of the group and its members from the pre-ABBA days to the present day. The museum also displays memorabilia such as stage outfits, instruments, gold records and awards as well as many interactive features”.

On 25th April, we celebrate the eightieth birthday of a true great. I wanted to put together a selection of wonderful ABBA songs. Where the D.N.A. and fingerprints of Björn Ulvaeus are very much in the mix. I do wonder whether we will ever get another ABBA album or singles. Their nith studio album, Voyage, was released in 2021. Here is my salute to…

A songwriting legend.

FEATURE: You Learn? Why Do Major U.K. Festivals Still Overlook Women for Their Biggest Stages?

FEATURE:

 

 

You Learn?

IN THIS PHOTO: Olivia Rodrigo/PHOTO CREDIT: Lancôme

Why Do Major U.K. Festivals Still Overlook Women for Their Biggest Stages?

_________

I am still angry…

hat we have another Glastonbury Festival, where there are more male headliners than women. One can say that the fact stages away from the Pyramid Stage have female headliners makes up for it. I get tired of the argument when people say festivals are ‘more than their headliners’. That you have to look at the whole bill. That is a load of crap! Many people book festival tickets for the headliners alone. Also, if you say it is about the whole bill, then logically it should mean women are included as headliners as they are elsewhere. Anyone who says any different clearly is not interested in gender equality at festivals. It is not a new issue. This feature from 2023 looks at festivals not booking female headliners. The result of an industry deprioritising women. After Glastonbury booked two female headliners last year – SZA and Dua Lipa -, one hoped it would be a turning point. Consider the fact that, before that, Glastonbury had never booked more than one female headliner in its history. The vast majority of years has seen all-male headliners. Since 2000, with this year included, there have only been eight female headliners. That is out of a possible sixty names. I have not included cancelled festivals (during the pandemic). Again, I am aware that there are women headlining away from the Pyramid Stage. Charli xcx for one (she headlines the Other Stage). Also, the fact that half of the female headliners from this and last year’s Glastonbury have been women is a massive step forward. It is appalling last year was notable because it was the first time in over fifty years since Glastonbury booked more than one female headliner. Will they ever have three female headline acts? It seems very unlikely! I will move on to other festivals, as it is not only an issue with Glastonbury. However, look at smaller festivals around the U.K. and they do not have quite the same issue and regressive attitudes.

A couple of years ago or so, the organisers of Glastonbury said there was a ‘pipeline issue’ regarding a lack of female headliners. That would only make sense if you were booking rising artists as headliners. Something Glastonbury should do. It did not apply to artists already established. In 2023, Lana Del Rey could have been booked as a headliner and was not. She played on the Other Stage. I don’t think it is the case that there is a pipeline issue or a lack of female headliners. It is another excuse! This year’s excuse will be that the bill will be gender-equal and women are headlining away from the Pyramid Stage. Still, after all of these years, the most prestigious stage at Glastonbury is prioritising men. Women coming through will look at Glastonbury’s history and see that it is very hard to ever get to the Pyramid Stage. Whilst they might make the Other Stage, why are women being let down when it comes to the Pyramid Stage? People might argue that there are fewer women who could command that stage and produce a memorable set. No female bands that could rise to the occasion. I would argue bands like HAIM, Girls Aloud or, if they reformed, Spice Girls could. Bands coming through like The Last Dinner Party and Wet Leg (more a duo) are almost there in terms of being headline acts. Will they be considered next year? It seems unlikely. I don’t also think it is the case they have too little material to fit a set. Think about this year too. There are artists on the bill already who could have headlined the Pyramid Stage.

RAYE, Alanis Morissette and even Self Esteem could have been great headliners. I said it when the Glastonbury bill was announced it was scandalous Charli xcx did not get the call for the Pyramid Stage! Someone at her peak who released the best album of last year, BRAT, and has delivered five-star sets for ages now, why is she only on the Other Stage? A natural headliner, it is insane that she was not booked. I seriously doubt that, a) she was offered it but turned it down and, b) her budget was too high or there were other reasons she was not suitable. If she was offered a Pyramid Stage headline slot she would have taken it! What about an artist like Kylie Minogue? She was meant to headline in 2005 but pulled out as she was diagnosed with cancer. Twenty years later and, as she released the hugely acclaimed TENSION in 2023 and is arguably at her most popular, was she ever called?! I am sure Minogue would have loved to have been back at Glastonbury and headlining. Imagine two female headliners again. Whether Olivia Rodrigo (who is headlining this year) and Charli xcx or even Kylie Minogue and Olivia Rodrigo. With plenty of options, Glastonbury have taken step back when it comes to their Pyramid Stage headliners. As I said when the bill was announced, who was clambering for The 1975 to headline?! With no new music out and them very much being out of the spotlight for years, they easily could have been put on the Other Stage. Like Guns N’ Roses in 2023, it is a year when a band are lazily dropped in to a slot that could have been given to a female artist. Glastonbury is wonderful when it comes to gender equality through the bill and the diversity and range of acts booked. However, it needs to do better when it comes to headliners and not making excuses or ignoring the issue – which they have done this year.

Even though Reading & Leeds have made steps regarding addressing their notorious male-heavy line-ups, the biggest slots are largely taken by men. Chappell Roan is going to be a great headliner. However, she is the only one! The biggest slots on the bill are dominated by men. It is no longer a festival that relies on Rock and heavier sound. It has diversified and included many genres. It means there is no real excuse. If the remainder of the bill includes some women, then you need to look at the headline slots and ask why women are not more included. I know that the Isle of Wight Festival 2025 has twenty big names and seven/eight are female-led/female. However, the three headliners are all men. Their Big Top headliners are all men. Download Festival is largely male-driven with a real lack of female headliners. The biggest music festivals in the U.K. are still booking many more male headliners than women. Festivals around the world do not have the same issue. Coachella has a lot of wonderful women on the bill. In spite of the fact last year’s festival saw three of the four headliners women/female-led bands, this year’s headliners includes only one woman (Lady Gaga). Some might say that slow ticket sales last year might account for this reversal and major step back. I don’t think female headliners accounted for that - and it is a shame that a huge U.S. festival is male-dominated when it comes to headliners. The only major international festival that is really leading the way is Primavera Sound. Sabrina Carpenter. Charli xcx and Chappell Roan are headlining. This is the festival that the likes of Glastonbury, Isle of Wight, Reading & Leeds and Coachella should be looking up to. If they can book female headliners then what excuse do others have?! They do not have much more money and it is not a case of the dates being more suitable for female artists – who might be busy during the other festivals’ dates. In 2025, it is shocking that we should still see such imbalance! Ignorance when it comes to women headlining. To those who keep saying it is not all about headliners and you have to look at the whole bill. The headline slots are as/more important and they are letting women down. At a time when they are dominating, why do female artists not get the opportunity to headline the biggest festivals? There is plenty of choice for organisers. Excuses made or the issue ignored. It is sad and infuriating that the coming years will show no improvement. I do wonder, when it comes to our major music festivals, will we see all-female headliners…

IN our lifetime?

FEATURE: An Expanding and Loving Community: Why The Trouble Club Is More Important to Me Than Ever

FEATURE:

 

 

An Expanding and Loving Community

IN THIS PHOTO: Award-winning barrister Charlotte Proudman will be hosted by The Trouble Club on 30th April/PHOTO CREDIT: Jooney Woodward

Why The Trouble Club Is More Important to Me Than Ever

_________

I am going to come to…

IN THIS PHOTO: Emily Austen

the main feature in a minute. Before I get there, I want to do some administrative housekeeping. I have been a member of The Trouble Club for almost two years ago. It (membership) has been one of the most rewarding experience of my life. You need to follow them on Twitter, Instagram and TikTok. I am going to recommend anyone not a member already to check out what The Trouble Club is and apply for membership. As I have said in previous features, there is so much to enjoy and appreciate when it comes to The Trouble Club. There are book clubs, social events, news roundups, member dinners, access to film screenings, in addition to a range of incredible discussions with women across politics, literature, entertainment, business and beyond. Regular events held at a range of incredible venues across London. There is also a relatively new branch in Manchester. Highlights there include a recent discussion with Caitlin Moran. I wonder whether The Trouble Club will expand even further to other territories. I know it is evolving and changing. Since I joined in 2023, some people have gone and others have come on board. One of the permanent fixtures and most important aspects of The Trouble Club is Ellie Newton. She is the CEO and Owner.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by The Trouble Club (@thetroubleclub)

Someone who conducts most of the interviews for The Trouble Club, I know her role and involvement might slightly changing. Still heavily involved, there are going to be developments. All exciting. With a growing membership and huge interest in The Trouble Club, this is an empire of loving and welcoming members that has the potential to keep growing for years and years more. I am going to start this feature by looking back at standout events since the last time I published a Trouble Club feature. I am also looking ahead to upcoming events I am excited about and urge people to go to – whether you are a member of The Trouble Club or not. I am going to end with some dreams guests I would love to see talk for The Trouble Club, in addition to offering thanks. Rounding off with why The Trouble Club is inspiring me now more than ever – as I approach two years with the club. However, and a real privilege, I have an interview with Ellie Newton later in the feature. Some insight and reflections from The Trouble Club’s incredible CEO. The calendar is looking really interesting. Each time a new event is added, it offers something new and really intriguing. I hope that what I am about to share converts people who are not members now but might be tempted. The energy and warmth you get in the room when these events and social gatherings take place is reason enough. Membership is great value and you will come away from each event enriched, informed, moved and richer for it.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by The Trouble Club (@thetroubleclub)

There have been some wonderful events from the past couple of months. I will look back at those before moving to a few upcoming that I am really interested in and looking forward to attending. On 19th February, it was a real pleasure attending Work Smarter with Emily Austen. One of the many great events on The Trouble Club’s schedule, it was advertised like this: “This is not for the bare minimum Mondays or the take it easy Tuesdays. It's an evening for those who strive for success; for ambitious women wanting to do it all, those who understand that you have to make a deposit to be able to make a withdrawal”. Taking place at The Marylebone Theatre, I was instantly struck by Austen. Such a compelling speaker, I would advise people to check out The Smarter Podcast with Emily Austen. Austen was talking about her life and book, Smarter: 10 lessons for a more productive and less-stressed life, for The Trouble Club. She is so inspiring and incredible. What she has achieved and how much more she will. I am going to move on but, before then, this interview from Alhaus is well worth reading in full:

“Emily M Austen is on a mission to help people live and work smarter. “I do not want my legacy to be that of ‘the tired woman.’ I do not want to be remembered for always being late, stressed, busy and exhausted. I want to be someone who lives abundantly. A woman with a connection to my values, an ability to set and maintain healthy boundaries. A life in which success is not defined by how late I stay in the office, whether I performatively rise before 5am, whether I choose to miss important days or how often I post about my job online.”

Emily's journey in PR started way back in 2012 when she boldly decided to start her own agency. As a female professional in a predominantly male-dominated domain, the challenges she encountered included having her authority and capabilities questioned solely based on her gender; and was even told on occasion that if she were a man, she'd be taken more seriously.

“I have spent the best part of two decades with the attitude that visible stress, hardship, personal sacrifice, damaging my mental and physical health and reaching burnout are essential parts of the reality of trying to achieve success. I overlooked the wins, dwelled on the losses, and lived under a veil of shame, guilt and low self esteem. My approach when it was difficult was to turn the screw even harder.”

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by The Trouble Club (@thetroubleclub)

On top of that, women have to deal with a system that glorifies burnout and makes women think they couldn't have a successful career and a personal life at the same time. But Emily believes this mindset needs to change, and she's passionate about empowering women to work smarter and live healthier. She believes in taking care of ourselves, setting boundaries, and creating work environments that foster creativity and teamwork.

“A truly smarter life is one in which putting myself first is not selfish. One where I don’t have to be 100% sure all the time. One where I can be determined, ambitious and successful, most of the time. One where softness is not weakness, and one where I create my own definitions, with the courage to change things if they no longer serve me. I don’t believe it to be easy, but I do believe there is evidence all around us that it is possible. I’d like my legacy to be that I was part of that evidence.”

The SMARTER method aims to redefine success, shifting the focus from over-productivity to long-term achievement. It challenges the notion that stress, burnout, and personal sacrifice are necessary for success. The author, drawing from personal experience and insights from successful individuals, offers a practical guide to achieving a fulfilling life and career.

“For the last 12 years, running my own agency and working with the most successful people on the planet, I began to consider that there might be a different way. Not to replace the graft, the determination or the commitment, but to consider that success at all costs is not conducive to a happy life, and to challenge societal frameworks of success. I have written this book in the hope that you are able to embrace your life abundantly, achieve all that you wish to, and maintain balance, in whatever definition you have.”

The book includes ten achievable steps, such as reframing thought patterns, cultivating an abundant mindset, setting healthy boundaries, and prioritising energy management over time tracking. The SMARTER method emphasises self-compassion, aligning with personal values, and creating sustainable systems for lasting success. It ultimately aims to empower individuals to achieve their goals while maintaining a healthy work-life balance”.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by The Trouble Club (@thetroubleclub)

On 27th February, at Conduit in Covent Garden, Trouble Club members were treated to an emotive, powerful and, at times, eye-opening event: Three Years of War, with Olesya Khromeychuk. I would urge everyone to own her book, The Death of a Soldier Told by His Sister. Her brother was killed serving on the frontline in Ukraine. For Trouble, she talked about dealing with that fact and her views on the invasion of Ukraine and whether there will be peace or ceasefire anytime soon. I think it is important to quote from this article and some wise and potent words from Khromeychuk:

“How has the war in Ukraine changed your life? Changed you personally?

It's no exaggeration to say that Russia's war in Ukraine has changed the world. Naturally, it has completely transformed my own life, too. The world I knew before the war no longer exists in many ways.

Russia took my brother’s life; he was killed in action in 2017 at a time when the world still treated Vladimir Putin as a peace broker. Because Russia enjoyed impunity for causing destruction and deaths like my brother’s, it felt emboldened to launch an even more devastating invasion in 2022.

On a personal level, the full-scale war has given me a different kind of voice. I no longer feel like Cassandra, endlessly trying to speak the truth and only being ignored. I felt this way while writing The Death of a Soldier Told by His Sister. Now, I focus on sharing the knowledge and lessons from Ukraine that can help us confront global challenges, such as the rise of anti-democratic movements and the tendency to disguise cowardice and self-interest as pacifism. I know those genuinely searching for solutions will listen, and I no longer expend energy on those who stubbornly refuse to engage with reality.

PHOTO CREDIT: Natalie Godec

Since 2022, I've traveled extensively—from the west coast of North America to Australia, Japan, India, and across Europe—to speak about Ukraine. At long last, there is a widespread desire to hear from Ukrainians, and I've had the privilege of being one of those voices, amplifying the experiences of my fellow Ukrainians. While it’s true that the world is finally eager to discover Ukraine, some invitations have felt tokenistic: the once common practice of discussing Ukraine without Ukrainians is now considered poor taste, and I frequently get a last-minute invitation from organizers who remember that they need a “Ukrainian voice.” Yet regardless of the reasons behind these invitations, I approach each platform I’m given with responsibility. I know that there will always be people listening with open minds and generous hearts among the audience, and that is a true gift.

What has surprised you most about Ukrainians these past couple of years? Good or bad?

I can’t say I was surprised because I know Ukrainians and expected them to be united, firm, and to stand their ground. What always re-energizes me whenever I go back to Ukraine is witnessing how my fellow countrywomen and men carry on with life no matter what. They create theatre and art amidst war, they throw themselves into supporting the army in countless ways, and use their sharp sense of humor even at the bleakest of times.

There’s a fair amount of bickering, too, especially online. We have a brilliant Ukrainian word for it: srach, which could be roughly translated as “shit storm.” Yet I don’t necessarily see this venting as harmful. It can be a bit juvenile and sometimes hurtful, but it also reflects a society that values expressing differences and having disagreements. I’d be much more alarmed if a nation of 40 million people agreed on everything.

What are your plans?

My main goal at the moment is quite simple: to survive. I’m currently undergoing breast cancer treatment, having received the diagnosis during the third year of the full-scale war, just when I thought things couldn’t get much worse. Despite everything, I am incredibly fortunate to be surrounded by much support and solidarity. I’ve also found a way to process this new form of trauma through writing. I started a Substack account, Wounds and Words, where I share reflections prompted by my illness and treatment.

As with my book, it means a great deal when readers tell me my writing has helped them normalize their experiences. It’s a reminder that when life hands you lemons, you might as well turn them into material for your writing—because you never know whom it might benefit.

The plan beyond recovery is to continue writing. I already have an idea for my next book and am eager to carve out the time and headspace to put those ideas down on paper, which are gradually taking shape in my mind. We also continue a fantastic program of events and projects at the UIL, so there’s never a quiet moment, and I like it that way”.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by The Trouble Club (@thetroubleclub)

An event I saw online was Caroline Lucas: Another England. That took place on 5th March at Century Club. One of the most requests guests for The Trouble Club, she was discussing her essential book. One that has received positive reviews. It is another book that I would strong advise people to buy:

“THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER
'A visionary book' Philip Pullman
'Essential and magnificent' George Monbiot
'Deft and wonderfully poetic' Grace Blakeley
The Right have hijacked Englishness. Can it be reclaimed?
Today, the only people who dare speak of Englishness are cheerleaders for Brexit, exceptionalism and imperial nostalgia. But there is another England, hiding in plain sight, which is dramatically more inclusive and forward looking. Here, Caroline Lucas delves deep into England's literary history to sketch out alternative stories of who we are - ones that we can all embrace to build a greener, fairer future.
'Not just an inspiring, nuanced and deeply literate book, but that rarest of things – a necessary one.' Jonathan Coe, author of Bourneville”.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by The Trouble Club (@thetroubleclub)

At the brilliant The Ministry in Borough, I saw Main Character Energy with Fats Timbo on 20th March. An activist and comedian, Timbo discussed her life as a little person. Her experiences. Someone who brilliantly and humorously talked about her life and career, it was one of the most memorable events I have been to. Before talking about the latest event I have attended, I want to source from this recent Big Issue interview with Fats Timbo:

“Both her parents had come to Britain in the 90s after fleeing war in Sierra Leone. They met as cleaners in a hotel here, working hard for little pay. Timbo’s mum offered to cook for her dad because he was homesick for food from Sierra Leone and, the story goes, she never left after that.

“Sierra Leone is such a poor country. You have to work so hard to get to this country, and then you come here and have to work even harder. They have resilience and instilled that in their children. They kept striving for more,” Timbo says.

Timbo’s parents both went to university despite having five children. Her father had wanted to go to medical school but could not afford to study for so long, so he became a mental health nurse and ward manager. Her mother was a general health nurse.

“They’ve worked in the NHS for so many years and saved lives,” Timbo says. “Seeing that helps me be empathetic to others, not to judge people and accept them as they are.”

Her parents had wanted her to choose a sensible, stable career. She has dyslexia but was skilled at maths, so she worked hard and got a good job in accounting.

“I absolutely hated it,” she laughs. “Fortunately, the pandemic happened, and they let me go. I was upset, but at the same time, I thought: ‘This is my opportunity.'”

Timbo has always loved to perform, dance and act – it was her dream to work in the creative industries. And she is funny. She enjoys making light of being small.

So with the outside world shut during lockdown, she turned to content creation, making witty videos to entertain and educate. She had a following already, having appeared on reality TV show The Undateables, but TikTok launched her career.

“I was doing it for fun and seeing where it goes,” she says, “but I thought if I could build a fanbase, I might be able to monetise it in the future.”

Some of her videos went viral and, a year after she left accounting, she got her first four-figure deal with a brand, and she realised she could make TikTok a career. Her parents got on board too.

“After that, it kind of skyrocketed,” Timbo says. She has taken on presenting roles with Channel 4 for the Paralympics, and appeared in shows including Celebrity Gogglebox, Celebrity Mastermind and Stand up to Cancer. She was recognised at the GLAMOUR Women of the Year Awards, and she wrote a book Main Character Energy.

“My confidence has grown from strength to strength, and now I feel like I could do anything,” Timbo says.

There are still challenges. She faces online trolling because of her appearance, and has had to learn to numb herself to hate. She uses the block button liberally and while remarks can be hurtful, she says she feels more sorry for the trolls who are going out of their way to be unkind than for herself.

In the outside world, people stare as she walks down the street – and that happened long before she appeared on TV.

“When I was younger, having eyes on me was a lot,” Fats Timbo recalls. “You want to blend in. How can you blend in when you feel like you are wearing a funny costume all the time? I just try my best not to look into people’s faces and focus on where I’m going. That helped me. It reminded me I don’t need to be self conscious”.

I will look ahead in just a minute. First, last Monday (24th March), I was at The Hearth for The Persians with Sanam Mahloudji. Longlisted for the Women’s Prize for Fiction 2025, her debut novel follows five women from three generations of a once illustrious Iranian family as their lives are turned upside down. Another book that you should check out:

“LONGLISTED FOR THE WOMEN'S PRIZE FOR FICTION 2025

'The word-of-mouth breakout'STYLIST

'As funny as it is moving'GUARDIAN

'A joy of a debut' DAVID MITCHELL

'Mesmerising' MONICA ALI

'Glorious' SARAH WINMAN

A stunning debut novel following five women from three generations of a once illustrious Iranian family as their lives are turned upside down

Meet the women of the Valiat family. In Iran, they were somebodies. In America, they're nobodies.

First there is Elizabeth, the regal matriarch with the famously large nose, who remained in Tehran despite the revolution. She is kept company by Niaz, her young, Islamic-law-breaking granddaughter. In America, Elizabeth’s two daughters have built new lives for themselves. There’s Shirin, a flamboyantly high-flying event planner in Houston, who considers herself the family's future; and Seema, a dreamy idealist turned bored housewife languishing in Los Angeles. And then there's the other granddaughter, Bita, a disillusioned law student in New York trying to find deeper meaning by giving away her worldly belongings.

When an annual vacation in Aspen goes wildly awry and Shirin ends up being bailed out of jail by Bita, the family's brittle upper class veneer is cracked wide open and gossip about them spreads like wildfire. Soon, Shirin must embark upon a grand quest to restore the family name to its former glory. But what does that mean in a country where the Valiats never mattered to anyone? And, will reputation be enough to make them a family again?

Spanning from 1940s Iran into a splintered 2000s The Persians is an irresistible portrait of a unique family in crisis that explores timeless questions of love, money, art and fulfilment. Here is their past, their present and a possible new future for them all.

A most anticipated novel of 2025 in Stylist, BBC, iNews and Publishers Weekly.

'As exuberant as it is sharp’ iNEWS

'A sweeping and irreverent tale' BBC

‘Exuberant, comic, perceptive’ AMINA CAIN

'Funny, unexpected and riotous … will have you hooked' STYLIST

Gloriously engrossing’ TASH AW

‘Filled with heartbreak, humour, and so much love’ VANESSA CHAN

'A very brilliant, very special book' JESSICA STANLEY”.

There are some upcoming events I am going to be at that I would recommend others book. If you are a member yet or not, these are well worth checking out. One Ukrainian Summer with Viv Groskop takes place on Thursday (3rd April) at The Hearth. It is going to be timely and incredible:

“Autumn 1993. The former USSR. Viv is about to turn 21 and is on a study year abroad, supposedly immersed in the language, history and politics of a world that has just ceased to exist: the Soviet Union.

Instead, she finds herself immersed in Bogdan Bogdanovich - the lead guitarist of a Ukrainian punk rock band. As the temperature drops, he promises that if she can get through the freezing Russian winter, he will give her "one Ukrainian summer." But is he serious about her? Or is she just another groupie?

At parties, gigs and dive bars, Viv and her new friends argue over whose turn it is to buy cigarettes, the best places to find Levi's jeans and whether beer counts as a soft drink. No-one debates the merits of speaking Ukrainian over Russian, the precise location of the border or the undeniable brightness of the future. Of course good times are here to stay. Because the Soviet Union is finished. Isn't it?

Join us as Viv Groskop returns to Trouble to tell us about her Ukrainian summer”.

The Life of a Black Woman DJ with DJ Paulette on 15th April at The Ministry Southwark is going to be awesome and compelling (a word I do not use lightly). I am a really big and long-time fan of DJ Paulette and would urge people to get her book, Welcome to the club: The life and lessons of a Black woman DJ:

“Join us for a powerful and inspiring event celebrating the life, career, and unstoppable spirit of DJ Paulette — a true icon of UK club culture. From her early days spinning vinyl in Manchester’s most legendary venues to commanding dancefloors across the globe, Paulette’s journey is one of resilience, reinvention, and resistance.

With honesty, humour, and razor-sharp insight, she’ll take us behind the scenes of her extraordinary career — sharing what it means to break barriers as a Black woman in a music industry that’s often anything but inclusive. Expect personal stories, industry truths, and a celebration of the women and communities who have kept the music alive, even when the odds were stacked against them.

This is more than a conversation — it’s a tribute to a pioneer, a call for change, and a love letter to the power of music to bring us together.

Don’t miss this chance to hear directly from one of dance music’s most fearless voices”.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by The Trouble Club (@thetroubleclub)

One of the most popular and biggest events will take place on 30th April at Union Chapel. If you go to He Said, She Said with Award-Winning Barrister Charlotte Proudman, then this is going to be a event to remember. Her must-own book, He Said, She Said: Truth, Trauma and the Struggle for Justice in Family Court, is released on 1st April. I follow Charlotte Proudman on social media. She is the founder of Right to Equality. She is doing amazing work:

“The family courts are failing the very people they’re meant to protect. Women seeking safety from abuse are instead met with disbelief, hostility, and a system that too often sides with their abusers. Award-winning barrister Charlotte Proudman will expose these injustices - both in the courtroom and beyond.

In this powerful and urgent discussion, Charlotte will reveal the harrowing real-life cases she has encountered, the misogyny embedded in the legal profession, and the systemic failures that continue to harm women. She will share the voices of those silenced for too long and offer a compelling vision for reform.

This won’t just be a conversation - it will be a call to action. Don’t miss it.

“Dr Charlotte Proudman is an award-winning barrister, academic, and campaigner Charlotte represents survivors of rape, domestic abuse and controlling behaviour in the family courts whilst also challenging misconceptions across the sector. She uses her knowledge and experience of the justice system to advocate for legal change and protect victims.” Legal 500”.

In a rare case of two events taking place at the same day at the same venue (which happens again on 7th May), SLAGS! An Evening with Emma Jane Unsworth & Dolly Alderton follows Charlotte Proudman. Their compulsive and hilarious book comes out on 8th May. It will be incredible hearing them in conversation. Quite an evening afoot at Union Chapel. It is going to be among the year’s best events. I know there will be a very receptive and eager audience in attendance. I am really looking forward to 30th April:

“Emma Jane Unsworth and Dolly Alderton talking about Slags? What’s not to love!?! Bestselling author Emma Jane Unsworth is back with a nostalgic, hilarious and occasionally heartbreaking novel that explores female messiness in all its glory and she’ll be sitting down with fellow bestselling author (and Trouble alumni) Dolly Alderton to discuss.

Slag. Noun. A promiscuous woman, of cheap or questionable character. Mostly derogatory. Sometimes affectionate. Takes one to know one…

Sisters Sarah and Juliette are going on a whisky-fuelled campervan road-trip across Scotland to celebrate Juliette’s birthday – and they’re going to dig up some demons from the past.

Emma Jane Unsworth is an award-winning novelist and screenwriter. Her first novel, Animals, was adapted into a film, for which Unsworth wrote the screenplay. Her second, Adults, was a Sunday Times bestseller. She also writes for television and various magazines. Slags is her third novel.

Dolly Alderton is an award-winning author and screenwriter. She has written four Sunday Times best-selling books, her memoir Everything I Know About Love became a top five Sunday Times bestseller in its first week of publication, won a National Book Award for Autobiography of the Year and spent 65 weeks on the New York Times bestseller list. Dolly’s latest novel, Good Material has recently been published in North America and instantly became a New York Times Bestseller as well as being named as one of their ten best books of 2024”.

On 7th May – two days before my birthday - Trouble Meets Ferne McCann. It will take place at The Magic Circle Theatre, Centre for the Magic Arts. This is a venue I have not been to. Many people will know Fearne McCann from The Only Way is Essex. However, beyond her T.V. fame and acclaim, she is someone passionate about mental health. The brilliant Ferne McCann founded this phenomenal tech start up:

“From The Only Way is Essex to founding the UK’s No.1 Digital Mental Health App and joining the lineup of Dancing on Ice 2025, Trouble is sitting down with Ferne McCann! (Assuming no serious injuries occur while Ferne glides and shimmies across the ice, are we the only ones who are terrified of having a finger sliced off by a skate?)

After leaving The Only Way is Essex, Ferne has found herself in the jungle on I’m a Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here! and scaling sand dunes in SAS: Who Dares Wins.

But beyond reality TV, Ferne is passionate about mental health and founded Shoorah, a well-being & mental health tech start up along side global renowned experts.

Join us as we meet Ferne to learn about her life on TV and how Shoorah’s ground-breaking technology is changing the way humans manage their mental health and their lives”.

Casting forward to 28th June, I am going to be in attendance for Trouble Meets Entrepreneur Grace Beverley. That is being held at the beautiful Conway Hall. Trouble Club brilliant when it comes to discovering these eclectic and awesome venues. You can order her book,  Working Hard, Hardly Working. This is going to be an unmissable event that I cannot wait for:

“A serial entrepreneur, changemaker and one of our most requested speakers at Trouble, Grace Beverley is an innovator by nature. Founder of activewear brand TALA, fitness tech brand Shreddy, and personal organisation brand The Productivity Method, and Co-Founder of AI company Retrograde, Beverley has a global following of over 3 million people.

Join us as we meet this incredible force in the world of business. We’ll discuss building outstanding organisations, finding purpose and beating procrastination. Known for confronting big topics in an informal & accessible way, Grace is a leading voice on female funding, the representation of women in media, sustainable fashion and entry into entrepreneurship, which she has spoken about on BBC Radio 4’s Woman's Hour, Bloomberg News and Vogue Business.

Despite tackling mammoth topics, Grace will prove that you don't need to take yourself too seriously to be a revered businesswoman”.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by The Trouble Club (@thetroubleclub)

I am going to wrap up soon. Before I do, I was fortunate enough to interview The Trouble Club’s CEO and Owner (and queen), Ellie Newton. Someone who asks the questions but rarely gets to answer them, it is great putting her in the spotlight – and much deserved! It is because of her that we have this incredible (and growing) community. A platform that hosts awe-inspiring women who, in turn, inspire and move Trouble Club members:

“Hi Ellie. As CEO and owner of The Trouble Club, how does it feel seeing it go from strength to strength and grow? The fact that the work you have done has made such a difference to so many people must mean a lot…

It is incredibly exciting and I sometimes can’t believe how many people are in the Trouble community. Growing the club has been something I’ve worked on for many years so to see it come true feels amazing. There is always a bit of added pressure. I want every event to go well and I want the schedule to be full of brilliant talks and events so that members always feel like they get really good value for money. We are still a small team who make mistakes but our members are wonderful people who support us and for me, that’s the biggest win!

How did you come to work for The Trouble Club?

Quite a funny story! Trouble existed before me, it was very small and hosted a few events per year. I joined essentially just out of university as a part-time intern just to help with some of the events. When the pandemic happened the events were just going to end, but I thought there was huge potential for a club based around brilliant female speakers, rather than a private space. I therefore decided to take on the club myself and have made it my life ever since.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by The Trouble Club (@thetroubleclub)

I know you have shared this on social media before…but what does a typical day look like for you?

Great question, probably a lot more emails and spreadsheets than people think. I host most of the events at Trouble, but most of the prep for those happens in the evenings and early mornings. The first thing I do each day is make sure everyone in the team knows what tasks need to be done. I check through each event and make sure everything is on track and then spend a lot of the day planning the upcoming schedule, fleshing out new ideas, interacting with members and keeping an eye on our social media channels, editing videos from past events and interacting with comments. The big fist pumps come when a big speaker says yes, or when we get really lovely messages from members. The events are my favourite part of the job though. Interviewing these incredible women in a dream, but meeting members and hearing their thoughts in person is just fab.

When it comes to the guests booked, how do you go about deciding who to approach?

A combination of ways. Firstly we have our membership application form. This form helps us vet new members. We are very inclusive so most people get in, but it serves as a great indicator of which speakers and causes people are interested in as those are the first few questions. I have formulas set up so that when a speaker is mentioned more than x amount of times, I get a little notification. I also try to keep aware of what’s going on in the media and women who are doing incredible things. Adriana Brownlee for example was on the front page of most newspapers when she became the youngest woman to climb all 14 of the eight-thousanders. That’s when I reached out and she was amazing! We also have a great relationship with the publishing world and they’ll often send speakers our way when big books are set for release which is really helpful.

“Hopefully this is the wakeup call that brings more people into the movement”

With Donald Trump President of the U.S. and misogynists like Andrew Tate holding a lot of power and using it for evil, women’s rights and safety is being taken away and threatened. It is a terrifying time. Do you think things can change for the better soon or do you feel it is going to take years to reverse and improve? How does it feel, as a woman, seeing the damage these men are doing?

It is such a worrying time and it’s hard not to think about the damage that will have been done for many years into the future. Personally I try to focus on news about women fighting back and in many ways it proves much of what feminists have been saying for years. Equality and progress is so fragile and can be reversed so quickly by a couple of power hungry misogynists. Hopefully this is the wakeup call that brings more people into the movement.

The Trouble Club has hosted so many incredible women through the years. Which guests or moments stand out as the most memorable to you?

Mmmm always a tricky one, because I leave every event thinking, “wow that might have been the best one yet.” Margaret Atwood stands out of course for being the brilliant author she is and for being wonderfully no-nonsense. I’ve had the pleasure of interviewing Elif Shafak twice and I don’t think a kinder, more talented person exists. Recently though, I loved interviewing Caitlin Moran in front of 500 people in Manchester. She was totally amazing and captivated the audience and me. Honestly though, I could go on for hours. Every woman who comes to Trouble is brilliant and it’s such an honour to interview them.

IN THIS PHOTO: Michelle Obama/PHOTO CREDIT: Meredith Koop for Vogue

You must have a wish list of women who have yet to appear that you would love to book for The Trouble Club. Which names spring to mind?

The big one is Michelle Obama! Every fourth membership application mentions her as an ideal speaker and when (yes when) we finally host her at Trouble, my soul might just ascend into heaven then and there. Other people would be great actresses like Judi Dench and incredible authors like Zadie Smith. The actual list is about 400 women at this point and it gets a bit longer every day.

How do you see The Trouble Club changing and evolving in the coming months? What plans are in store?

We are changing a lot at the moment. The team itself is expanding which is exciting and our events will get bigger and bigger over the coming months. We have nearly two thousand members now and we want to make sure everyone can get to as many events as possible. This means I have to put my CEO hat on a lot more, but I enjoy the challenge and I’m really excited about the women we have coming up. I’m also really excited by our small gatherings which we receive great feedback about. I think people often come to Trouble for the big speakers but stay for the news roundups and book clubs where they can really get to know other members.

As Caitlin Moran said when she appeared for The Trouble Club, you have created this safe space and kind, loving and important platform. What is the most rewarding part of your job would you say?

That was amazing when she said that! My favourite part is often the moment an event ends and the last person has left. Usually I’m the only one around at the end and I take off my heels and feel so blissfully happy. Events have stressful moments because everything has to run on time, but in that moment, when I know everything went well and members left smiling and the speaker said incredible things, I feel so satisfied.

“…it’s so rare to be able to sit down with complete strangers and talk about a shared passion, usually making new friends in the process”

In the same way you ask your guests who their favourite troublesome woman is, who would you say is your favourite troublesome woman/women?

I’ll say someone who is no longer with us, as there is no hope of having her at Trouble (at least until we master the séance) but I wish people knew more about Virginia Hall. She was a spy in WWII and created the most incredible resistance network in France. She also had a wooden leg which was supposed to exclude her from working as a spy but she managed to use it to her advantage. She could play hobbling old ladies who were often overlooked and underestimated. The Germans gave her the nickname Artemis, and the Gestapo reportedly considered her "the most dangerous of all Allied spies."

For anyone who is not already a Trouble Club member at the moment, what would you say are the biggest reasons why they should reconsider?

We have so many exciting speakers coming up and I wouldn’t want anyone to miss out. But actually I would encourage you to join because of our smaller events. We have many more in the works and I think it’s so rare to be able to sit down with complete strangers and talk about a shared passion, usually making new friends in the process. From news roundups to book clubs and trips to the theatre, we have so much going on and the company is second to none!”.

IN THIS PHOTO: Gillian Anderson/PHOTO CREDIT: Simon Emmett/The Observer

Thank you if you have read this far! I know it is quite a long feature! However, it is a paen and love letter to The Trouble Club. I think, at a time when there is increased misogyny, hatred towards women and we are almost moving backwards, there is something significant and comforting being a member of The Trouble Club. Hearing so many brilliant women speak about their lives and experiences. I am more inspired now than ever because of the recent events I have attended. Whereas previous I read mostly music-related literature, I am investing heavily in feminist/gender studies books. Checking out authors like Caitlin Moran, Mikki Kendall and Emily Ratajkowski. I am going to end up by thinking about a few guests I would love to see at The Trouble Club. They have already hosted Laura Bates. However, with a new book, The New Age of Sexism: How the AI Revolution is Reinventing Misogyny, out in May, it would be wonderful to see her – as I did not catch her first time around. I would also love to see the award-winning gender equality campaigner, Patsy Stevenson.

IN THIS PHOTO: Billie Piper/PHOTO CREDIT: Jason Lloyd Evans

One name that has been suggested and is probably on their wish list is Gillian Anderson. A brilliant actor and author, her book, Want: Sexual Fantasies by Anonymous, is incredible. She would be hilarious if she was ever booked for a Trouble Club event! Maybe she will be added to the schedule. It would be a massive coup, though I feel she would be very much at home. I think she would love to be a part of The Trouble Club for an evening! The final name I would suggest – and someone else that has been suggested – is Michaela Coel. A peerless writer and actor, she is going to be appearing in new T.V. shows and films. Many might know her from shows such as Chewing Gum and I May Destroy You. The latter, released in 2020, is one of the most important and astonishing pieces of television of the past decade. She would be one of the very best guests ever. I wonder whether she is another name that could appear. Hearing Ellie Newton speak with Michaela Coel is tantalising! In terms of big-budget and fantasy guests, I would love if it Greta Gerwig came to Trouble. I am a huge fan and one her films, Frances Ha, is my favourite ever. I would also love to see Billie Piper and Bridget Christie among future names. Laurene Laverne is someone I look up to, so having the BBC Radio 4 and BBC Radio 6 Music broadcaster at Trouble would be a dream. Naomi Campbell would be a perfect Trouble Club guest. Someone I hugely admire. That is it. Thanks so much to Ellie Newton for her time and brilliant interview answers. For those who are not members of The Trouble Club just yet, I hope that my (extensive) words will…

IN THIS PHOTO: Michaela Coel/PHOTO CREDIT: Christina Ebenezer for GQ

CHANGE your minds.

FEATURE: A New Focus: Those Paying Tribute to Kate Bush in Photo Form

FEATURE:

 

 

A New Focus

IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush on 21st March, 1978/PHOTO CREDIT: Gered Mankowitz 

Those Paying Tribute to Kate Bush in Photo Form

_________

I wasn’t planning…

IN THIS PHOTO: Bridget Christie/PHOTO CREDIT: Simon Webb/The Guardian

on writing about this but, because Kate Bush News made us aware of a new interview where Bridget Christie pays tribute to Kate Bush during the photoshoot, it did get me thinking. It is a brilliant photoshoot and the photos look amazing. You can read the interview here. Bridget Christie is a really wonderful comedian, actor and writer. I have talked before about the influence Kate Bush has and how this extends to artists. However, it is clear that Bush is important to those beyond music. I was not aware that Bridget Christie was a fan of Kate Bush. However, as she was recreating 1978 photos shot by Gered Mankowitz - including tributes to ones where she was photographed in this wooden box; a shot from that session was used as the U.S. cover for her debut album, The Kick Inside -, it made me think about this subject. People nodding to Kate Bush and her photographic allure. Before expanding, here is the opening of The Guardian’s interview with Bridget Christie:

“Is it a pigeon-hole, Bridget Christie asked to be photographed in, or is it a box? Either way, it’s some pretty trenchant visual messaging: whatever society wants to do with middle-aged women, Christie is done with it.

It was also a chance for the 53-year-old to dress up as Kate Bush, recreating her 1978 shoot by Gered Mankowitz. And Christie loves dressing up. She did a whole show dressed as Charles II. The actor, writer and comedian is playful: she has way more than the usual number of funny facial expressions; her chat is peppered with silly, surreal ­diversions. Making people laugh is her thing, she says. “It motivates me, it helps me navigate the world, it’s like a drug.”

PHOTO CREDIT: Simon Webb/The Guardian

Also her thing? Shaking injustice like a snow globe, and saying, “Guys, guys – there’s a better way to do this.” There was her 2013 Edinburgh comedy award-winning show A Bic for Her, in which she skewered everything from the marketing of a pastel-coloured Biro to the geopolitical significance of violence against women. Her first Radio 4 series, Bridget Christie Minds the Gap, was silly but very much about feminism. Her ­second, Utopia, in 2018, took on all the crushing events of the world, from Brexit to Kim Jong-un to the climate crisis.

Now, she has found a home on Channel 4 with The Change, her Bafta-nominated comedy drama. It’s about menopause – women in midlife, raging against the machine, sloughing off their domestic servitude – and centred on long-married Linda, played by Christie, clawing back the millions of minutes she has spent doing drudge work for others. The scenarios are within the envelope of regular sitcom, but the execution has an almost fairytale surrealism – as Christie describes, “it’s like science fiction, magic realism, a western, a comedy, a tragedy”. The second season opens on a menopause joke: Linda, in the middle of a rousing speech on self-empowerment, forgets a word. It’s a simple one, but important; nothing else will do. The word is “log”.

“There are so many words, aren’t there?” Christie says, having forgotten a word today. “Too many. It’s the nouns!”.

IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush in 1981/PHOTO CREDIT: Clive Arrowsmith

Bridget Christie’s nod to Kate Bush is not a solitary example. Last year, American artist Halsey paid tribute to Kate Bush. I like the fact hers and Bridget Christie’s tributes are not obvious photos. Those 1978 Gered Mankowitz photos are not known to all. I think Tori Amos was consciously replicating the same photoshoot for the cover of her 1992 debut album, Little Earthquakes. The similarities between that photo and those taken by Gered Mankowitz in 1978 are too similar to be a coincidence. Halsey recreated a shot of Kate Bush from 1981. She also recorded a song for her album, The Great Impersonator, that was influenced by Kate Bush. Kate Bush News picked up the story:

“Already known for covering Running Up that Hill live back in June 2022, US singer Halsey has announced that the song “I Never Loved You” is inspired by Kate Bush. The singer also pays visual homage to Kate on social media with a photo shoot recreating the Clive Arrowsmith “blue gauze” photograph of Kate used for the cover of the January 1982 issue of Company Magazine.

The track is featured on Halsey’s upcoming new concept album, The Great Impersonator, which takes influence from many different artists and eras, thematically tied to artists who’ve influenced her. Halsey also sent a message to her subscribers upon the song’s release to detail the dark story behind it: “This song cuts deep….a woman lies ill-fated in an Emergency Room. She’s holding on with all her might, in hopes her lover will show to say goodbye. He arrives, too late and defensive. Who was driving the car that hit her?”.

IN THIS PHOTO: Halsey

In a future feature, I am going to discuss some of the photographer who took amazing shots of Kate Bush but do not get the same credit as better known photographers like Guido Harari and Gered Mankowitz. It is great when you get these unexpected salutes to Kate Bush. It means people who might not know about Kate Bush discover he music and dig deeper. I know there are some great Kate Bush tribute acts. I have discussed that recently and mentioned terrific acts like Baby Bushka. However, there is this whole new thing about people – mainly women – recreating Kate Bush photos. It would be nice if some men did too. As I said, Halsey and Bridget Christie chose rarer photos that many do not know exist. Christie looks a lot like Kate Bush in the new photos. She looks wonderful. Halsey too looks a lot like Kate Bush when she provided her take on one of the best photos of Kate Bush ever taken. I would love to see more of these photos come to light. I have argued before how we need a Kate Bush exhibition featuring a range of her photos. I would love to see a range of people choose a Kate Bush photo and provide their take. A new focus. Not just women. There are a range of great Kate Bush photos I could see people doing their own version of. It is wonderful when people like Bridget Christie unexpectedly are ‘cast’ as Kate Bush. Let’s hope that there is more of this to come. It goes to show that there is this ongoing and wide fandom. How she continues to inspire so many people throughout the arts and regular life. So many possibilities in the future when it comes to musicians, actors, writers and inspiring people replicating a Kate Bush photo. Taking these older shots and…

GIVING them a modern twist.

FEATURE: Sat in Our Laps: Thinking About a New Kate Bush Reference Book and Highlighting the Great Literature Already Out There

FEATURE:

 

 

Sat in Our Laps

IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush in 1981 in a promotional photo for her single, Sat in Your Lap

Thinking About a New Kate Bush Reference Book and Highlighting the Great Literature Already Out There

_________

SOMETHING I wanted to…

IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush in 1993

explore and expand on, I have been recently talking about more Kate Bush albums being brought to life through books. I do think that there should be more done when it comes to her albums and discussing them. With very little written in the way of articles, there is this real gap that could be filled. I have said the same about photobooks. It has been a while since there has been a new volume. I can only imagine how many rare, unseen as great photos there are of Kate Bush waiting to be explored and spotlighted. What would be great is a more general reference book. A Kate Bush encyclopaedia that charts her album, the chart positions of her sings, gives interview snippets, timelines and quotes. A real coffee table book that takes us back to her life before The Kick Inside in 1978 and bring it up to date. There have been Kate Bush biographies but, to this point, nothing comprehensive in the way of a compendium. A great starting point for new fans. One reason why I wanted to circle back to this point is because there has been a lot of new activity. When it comes to the success she has garnered since 2022 and the Stranger Things/Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God) and explosion. Bush ahs indicated that she wants to work on new music. As someone who researches Kate Bush and has to go to a lot of different websites and reference several books, it would be handy to have something to hand that would bring it all together. I know it might not be practical to have a book that covers every aspect of her career. There would need to be a cut-off point.

I am not the one who could put this book together. I am good at researching and planning what would be inside. However, when it comes to the facts, figures, dates, photos and every other quote and bit of information, it would take people more informed and smarter to make sure everything was correct and included. There is this generation of new fans that perhaps do not read up about Kate Bush. Articles about her appearing infrequently. There is the odd bit of news about her. Like when she recently contributed to a ‘silent’ album in protest at the role of A.I. and the potential damage it could do to artists’ rights. Apart from that, there is the odd flicker of news. I guess every year or two sees a new Kate Bush book. Every biography we will see has been published. A larger and new book would not need to rehash too much of what has already come out. However, a new angle or approach could be taken. Known and seen photos alongside some new ones. A pictorial or graphic breakdown of Kate Bush’s albums, chart success and highlights. Some useful interview extracts. Maybe a new spin. Some fan letters. There is definitely possibility and I am sure quite a big demand as well. Rather than repeat what I have written before, I wanted to ask why more is not written about Kate Bush. It is clear that she has an enormous fanbase that spans through generations and across the world. One of the most influential and important artists of her generation, aside from some magazine articles, there is not that much out there. Articles not really an ongoing thing. I don’t know how much is going to be published going forward. For someone so incredible and loved, there does need to be more.

A wider questions remains around the absence of literature around Kate Bush. Sure, there has been a few biographies, a new Hounds of Love book and some focus on other albums. In terms of a reference book or something that draws together all the information and facts you would need about this artist, there has not been an attempt. I don’t think you can say that there is a saturation or too much. Kate Bush herself would not really object to books about her. Bringing her music and career to life in an interesting and engaging way. A lot of great interviews from the archives. One also has to think how best to get people as yet uninitiated or overly-familiar with Kate Bush to engage with the great books already out there. We can share posts and write about them. However, like her albums, it is quite hard to get as many people to check them out as you’d like. So much treasure that has not been discovered. Even if people are listening to her music, I do feel there is more to be done. New books and work can help things. Making sure we discuss and share the brilliant Kate Bush books out there. In terms of her music, there is a lot of online conversation. It is great when her music appears in film and T.V. shows, though there is quite a narrow focus in terms of the albums featured. There are definite opportunities to write about Kate Bush. Whilst I still feel a new photobook would be great, perhaps something more general and expansive. We definitely need to discuss the literature already out there. An encyclopaedia, reference book or volume that brings everything Kate Bush-related together would be…

A great thing to own.

FEATURE: The Digital Mixtape: Prince’s Album Openers and Closers

FEATURE:

 

The Digital Mixtape

Prince’s Album Openers and Closers

_________

BECAUSE we lost…

PHOTO CREDIT: Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images

Prince on 21st April, 2016, I wanted to look at the ninth anniversary of his death. It was a huge shock to learn of his death. Taken away from us too soon, the music world lost one of its greats. I have covered Prince a lot through the years. Rather than repeat what came before, for this feature, I have compiled a playlist of his album openers and closers. Those important songs that open and close his tremendous albums. I know there will be a lot written about him ahead of 21st April. Remembering a music genius whose influence lives on. We have got posthumous releases from Prince. His Vault continues to produce gold. It will do for years to come. Although it will be sad marking nine years since Prince died, we can also celebrate his life and legacy. Below are all of his album opening and closing tracks. These amazing tracks are just a fraction of the brilliance that…

HE left us with.

FEATURE: Two of Us: The Beatles’ Let It Be at Fifty-Five

FEATURE:

 

 

Two of Us

The Beatles’ Let It Be at Fifty-Five

_________

ON 8th May, 1970…

it will be fifty-five years since The Beatles released their final album, Let It Be. As we know, it was not the final album they recorded. Abbey Road was the last time they were in the studio together. It is a shame that this album was not their final-released. However, I think Let It Be is a lot stronger than people give it credit for. It turns fifty-five soon, so I wanted to celebrate that fact. Although there are not as many classic songs on this album as, say, Revolver (1966) or Abbey Road, there are some prime Beatles cuts. Two of Us, The Long and Winding Road, Let It Be and Get Back. I’ve Got a Feeling too. Unlike other Beatles album, which were produced by George Martin, Let It Be was produced by Phil Spector (with some production by George Martin). Maybe Spctor’’s involvement gives it a black mark. Some songs ruined by awful strings and syrupy arrangements. However, there is a lot to love about Let It Be. I will end with some reviews for the 1970 album. We have had a couple of documentaries that take us inside the recording of Let It Be and the period around that. There was The Beatles: Get Back of 2021, and last year’s Let It Be.  Paul McCartney was keen to have a documentary/film to reinspire the band. Although the documentaries show happiness and togetherness, there were periods of friction and fallout. George Harrison walking out. On 30 January, 1969, The Beatles played their famous rooftop gig at Apple Corps headquarters at 3 Savile Row, London. In April 1969, the lead single from Let It Be, Get Back, was released. I want to start off with some detail and information about Let It Be:

“Recorded: 4, 8 February 1968
2, 3, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31 January 1969
30 April 1969
3, 4, 8 January 1970
1 April 1970
Producers: George Martin, Phil Spector
Engineers: Glyn Johns, Martin Benge, Ken Scott, Peter Bown, Phil McDonald, Jeff Jarratt

Released: 8 May 1970 (UK), 18 May 1970 (US)

Personnel

John Lennon: vocals, acoustic guitar, electric guitar, lap steel guitar, bass guitar, organ, whistling
Paul McCartney: vocals, acoustic guitar, bass guitar, piano, electric piano, Hammond organ, maracas, whistling
George Harrison: vocals, acoustic guitar, electric guitar, tambura, maracas
Ringo Starr: drums, percussion, svaramandal
George Martin: Hammond organ, shaker
Billy Preston: Hammond organ, electric piano
Linda McCartney: backing vocals
Uncredited: 18 violins, four violas, four cellos, harp, three trumpets, three trombones, two guitarists, tenor saxophone, 14 choristers

Tracklisting

‘Two Of Us’
‘Dig A Pony’
‘Across The Universe’
‘I Me Mine’
‘Dig It’
‘Let It Be’
‘Maggie Mae’
‘I’ve Got A Feeling’
‘One After 909’
‘The Long And Winding Road’
‘For You Blue’
‘Get Back’

The Beatles’ last album to be released, Let It Be was mostly recorded in early 1969, prior to Abbey Road. The music was produced by George Martin, and was then prepared for release in 1970 by Phil Spector.

Following the often fractious sessions for the White Album in the summer of 1968, Paul McCartney realised The Beatles were in danger of fragmenting further if they continued to work independently of each other. Since the death of Brian Epstein on 27 August 1967 he had worked hard to keep the group motivated, and towards the end of 1968 he hit upon the idea of filming a television special in front of an audience.

We started Let It Be in January 1969 at Twickenham Studios, under the working title Get Back. Michael Lindsay-Hogg was the director. The idea was that you’d see The Beatles rehearsing, jamming, getting their act together and then finally performing somewhere in a big end-of-show concert. We would show how the whole process worked. I remember I had an idea for the final scene which would be a massive tracking shot, forever and ever, and then we’d be in the concert.

The original idea was to go on an ocean liner and get away from the world; you would see us rehearsing and then you’d finally see the pay-off. But we ended up in Twickenham. I think it was a safer situation for the director and everybody. Nobody was that keen on going on an ocean liner anyway. It was getting a bit fraught between us at that point, because we’d been together a long time and cracks were beginning to appear.

Paul McCartney
Anthology

The effort was to be a continuation of the back-to-basics ethos the group had adopted since ‘Lady Madonna’ in February 1968. That single had marked a move away from The Beatles’ elaborate studio experimentation of 1966 and 1967, with a return to more straightforward rock and roll, and much of the White Album and the Yellow Submarine soundtrack had followed in a similar vein.

Reconvening in January 1969 at Twickenham Film Studios, The Beatles began work on what was initially known as the Get Back project: the concept was a chance for the group to get back to their roots, with perhaps a return to live performance for the first time since 29 August 1966.

In a nutshell, Paul wanted to make – it was time for another Beatle movie or something, and Paul wanted us to go on the road or do something. As usual, George and I were going, ‘Oh, we don’t want to do it, f**k,’ and all that. He set it up and there was all discussions about where to go and all that. I would just tag along and I had Yoko by then, I didn’t even give a s**t about anything. I was stoned all the time, too, on H etc. And I just didn’t give a s**t. And nobody did, you know. Anyway, it’s like in the movie where I go to do ‘Across The Universe’, Paul yawns and plays boogie, and I merely say, ‘Oh, anybody want to do a fast one?’

John Lennon, 1970
Lennon Remembers, Jann S Wenner”.

Once the recording and filming was complete, The Beatles realised they had little aptitude to sift through the hours of recordings for suitable songs.

That task was given to Glyn Johns, who prepared four different versions of an album, both titled Get Back, each of which were rejected by The Beatles.

We let Glyn John remix it and we didn’t want to know, we just left it to him and said, ‘Here, do it.’ It’s the first time since the first album we didn’t have anything to… we just said, ‘Do it.’ Glyn Johns did it, none of us could be bothered going in and Paul… nobody called each other about it. The tapes were left there, and we got an acetate each, and we’d call each other and say, ‘Well, what do you think? Oh, let it out.’ We were going to let it out with a really shitty condition, disgusted. And I wanted… I didn’t care, I thought it was good to go out to show people what had happened to us. Like this is where we’re at now, we couldn’t get – we can’t get it together and don’t play together anymore. Leave us alone. Glyn Johns did a terrible job on it, ’cause he’s got no idea, etc. Never mind. But he hasn’t, really. And so the bootleg version is what it was like. Paul was probably thinking, ‘Well, I’m not going to f*****g work on it.’ It was twenty-nine hours of tape, it was like a movie. I mean just so much tape. Ten, twenty takes of everything, because we’re rehearsing and taking everything. Nobody could face looking at it.

John Lennon, 1970
Lennon Remembers, Jann S Wenner

Johns had been approached by Paul McCartney in December 1968 to work on the Get Back recordings. He was present throughout the sessions, and afterwards began the mammoth task of compiling an album from the tapes.

I originally put together an album of rehearsals, with chat and jokes and bits of general conversation in between the tracks, which was the way I wanted Let It Be to be – breakdowns, false starts. Really the idea was that at the time, they were viewed as being the be-all-and-end-all, sort of up on a pedestal, beyond touch, just Gods, completely Gods, and what I witnessed going on at these rehearsals was that, in fact, they were hysterically funny, but very ordinary people in many ways, and they were capable of playing as a band, which everybody was beginning to wonder about at that point, because they hadn’t done so for some time – everything had been prepared in advance, everything had been overdubbed and everything, and they proved in that rehearsal that they could still sing and play at the same time, and they could make records without all those weird and wonderful sounds on them.

That became an obsession with me, and I got the bit between my teeth about it, and one night, I mixed a bunch of stuff that they didn’t even know I’d recorded half the time – I just whacked the recorder on for a lot of stuff that they did, and gave them an acetate the following morning of what I’d done, as a rough idea of what an album could be like, released as it was…

They came back and said they didn’t like it, or each individual bloke came in and said he didn’t like it, and that was the end of that.

Glyn Johns
The Record Producers

Johns’ first Get Back LP, intended more of a proof-of-concept than a release-ready album, was compiled in early 1969. Side one had ‘Get Back’, ‘Teddy Boy’, ‘Two Of Us’, ‘Dig A Pony’, and ‘I’ve Got A Feeling’, while side two featured ‘The Long And Winding Road’, ‘Let It Be’, ‘Don’t Let Me Down’, ‘For You Blue’, ‘Get Back’, and ‘The Walk’.

A period of time went by and I went to America to work with Steve Miller, and when I came back, I got a call from John and Paul asking me to meet them at EMI, which I duly did. They pointed to a big pile of tapes in the corner, and said, ‘Remember that idea you had about putting together an album?’ and I said, ‘Yes’. They said, ‘Well, there are the tapes – go and do it’. So I was absolutely petrified – you can imagine. I was actually being asked to put together a Beatle album on my own. So I did – I went off and locked myself away for a week or so and pieced an album together out of these rehearsed tapes, which they then all liked, really liked. This was some months after the thing had actually been recorded, and we’d actually started work on Abbey Road about the same time.

Glyn Johns
The Record Producers

Johns returned to the session tapes on 10 March 1969 at Olympic Sound Studios in London. The Beatles themselves had little involvement, having begun work on Abbey Road. Johns mixed the session tapes at Olympic from 10-13 March 1969.

At that stage, side one of the Get Back album was to have contained ‘One After 909’, ‘Rocker’, ‘Save The Last Dance For Me’, ‘Don’t Let Me Down’, ‘Dig A Pony’, ‘I’ve Got A Feeling’, and ‘Get Back’. Side two featured ‘For You Blue’, ‘Teddy Boy’, ‘Two Of Us’, ‘Maggie Mae’, ‘Dig It’, ‘Let It Be’, ‘The Long And Winding Road’, and ‘Get Back’ (Reprise).

The Beatles were unhappy with Johns’ second Get Back album, so he created a third iteration with the same running order as before. Several of the songs were remixed, and Johns’ earlier version of ‘Get Back’ was replaced with the single mix, accompanied by introductory studio dialogue. Other studio chatter was changed, and more than a minute of ‘Dig It’ was excised.

Mixing and mastering sessions took place on 7, 9, and 28 May 1969.

For the Get Back project, it was The Beatles’ intention to recreate the cover of Please Please Me, showing how they had changed visually since 1963. On 13 May 1969 the group returned to EMI House in London’s Manchester Square, and at 6pm the same photographer, Angus McBean, photographed them as they resumed their poses.

The artwork was prepared for Glyn Johns’ Get Back album, which was to bear the strapline “with Don’t Let Me Down and 12 other songs”. However, the session photographs remained unused until the 1962-1966 and 1967-1970 (the so-called Red and Blue albums) were released in 1973.

The Beatles rejected Johns’ first Get Back album, and new recording sessions for two Let It Be songs took place on 3 and 4 January 1970 – a year after the initial recordings were made”.

I am going to finish off with a couple of reviews about The Beatles’ Let It Be. I am starting out with a Pitchfork review of 2009. Even if some dismiss Let It Be as The Beatles’ worst album, it is an incredible piece of work. A lot of people focus on conflict or the breakdown of the band. Instead, there is a lot of great music on the album that you should concentrate on:

“As the 1960s wound down, so did the Beatles. The symmetry was perfect: youthful energy, optimism, and camaraderie had given over to cynicism, discord, and looking out for number one. As the decade's final year began, the White Album was still riding high on the charts and the Yellow Submarine soundtrack was days away from release. But the Beatles were in serious trouble. Nothing about being in the band was enjoyable or easy. The power vacuum left by the death of manager Brian Epstein a year and a half earlier had never been satisfactorily filled; Apple Corps, the multi-media company started by the band a year earlier, was bleeding money; and toughest of all, the once-Fab Four didn't generally enjoy being in the same room together. All were either married or close to it, closing in on 30, and tremendously weary of all they'd been through.

Paul McCartney, the most devoted of the gang to the notion of the Beatles (Ringo Starr called him the "Beatleaholic"), thought that the group needed a special project to bring it together. Another White Album-style scenario, with the songwriters in the band working alone in separate studios, enlisting each other to serve as a de facto backup band, was bound to fail. Too much good will and trust had been lost. They needed something big they could all submit to. Several ideas were proposed, most involving a return of some kind to live performance: perhaps a live album of new songs or a huge show in a remote place; maybe the band would charter an ocean liner and make an album on it. Ultimately, it was decided that the band would be filmed on a soundstage rehearsing for a show and developing material for a new album-- a document of the Beatles at work. The theme for the project would be back-to-basics, a return of the group as a performing unit, sans overdubs, emphasizing their inherent musicality. Working title: Get Back.

It was an awful idea. First, no one was sure exactly what he was supposed to be doing. Glyn Johns was there, a new presence behind the boards, but he never quite figured out if he was producing or just engineering. Regular producer George Martin was technically on board, but his participation was minimal. While Let It Be was initially meant to be a return to simplicity, Phil Spector's later involvement (he was brought in to "reproduce" the tracks, adding extra voices and instruments to thicken arrangements and remix the record, a decision made without McCartney's input) killed that angle.

Organizational chaos aside, the sessions were painful. We all know what it feels like to be around people we don't like for days on end; if reality television has taught us anything, it's that a camera crew in a room full of such people does nothing to ease tension. The time the Beatles spent recording and filming was described by all as supremely unpleasant, despite a later uptick when they'd returned to finish up at Abbey Road. And when they finished, no one really liked what they'd laid down on tape. So not surprisingly, the essential nature of Let It Be is that it feels incomplete and fragmented; it's a difficult album to peg because the Beatles were never sure themselves what they wanted it to be. So the best way to approach it is as a collection of songs by guys who still were churning out classics with some regularity. It may not succeed on the level of the Beatles' previous albums, but there's enough good material to make it a worthy entry in their canon.

Outside of the title track, there's little here that feels consequential to the Beatles' legacy. The easy acoustic shuffle of the John Lennon and Paul McCartney duet "Two of Us" has appeal, though, as do the prickly rhythmic drive of George Harrison's "For You Blue" and the bubbling Booker T-isms of McCartney's "Get Back". The swampy "I've Got a Feeling", possibly reflecting McCartney's recent interest in Canned Heat, is intriguing because it sounds so classic rock 70s. And Lennon's "Across the Universe", recorded during the White Album sessions and sounding like it was beamed in from somewhere else, has a certain ringing brilliance. For balance, there's "Dig a Pony" and the boogieing "One After 909", the latter actually written by Lennon and McCartney as kids in the fifties. Still, for plenty of good bands, the best of these would be career highlights.

Recorded without joy, set aside for months while a better album was assembled, and finally remixed in a way that enraged one of the band's principals, Let It Be finally saw release in May 1970. But by that point, the Beatles break-up had been official for several weeks. There's since been a live album, compilations, digitization, trolls through the archives, and an ocean of ink spilled about this little band that made it very big. And now there are these CD issues, done beautifully. But there never was a proper reunion, and we can assume that there will never be another Beatles”.

I am finishing off with a review from AllMusic. It must have been a strange time. Breaking up in 1970, there was this negativity from the press. Critics taking aim at the band. Many blaming Paul McCartney for the break-up of The Beatles. In years since, there has been reassessment and reframing of Let It Be. Films like The Beatles: Get Back helping to rewrite the narrative. If you have not heard the album in a while then do so now:

“The only Beatles album to occasion negative, even hostile reviews, there are few other rock records as controversial as Let It Be. First off, several facts need to be explained: although released in May 1970, this was not their final album, but largely recorded in early 1969, way before Abbey Road. Phil Spector was enlisted in early 1970 to do some post-production work, but did not work with the band as a unit, as George Martin and Glyn Johns had on the sessions themselves; Spector's work was limited to mixing and some overdubs. And, although his use of strings has generated much criticism, by and large he left the original performances to stand as is: only "The Long and Winding Road" and (to a lesser degree) "Across the Universe" and "I Me Mine" get the wall-of-sound layers of strings and female choruses. Although most of the album, then, has a live-in-the-studio feel, the main problem was that the material wasn't uniformly strong, and that the Beatles themselves were in fairly lousy moods due to inter-group tension. All that said, the album is on the whole underrated, even discounting the fact that a sub-standard Beatles record is better than almost any other group's best work. McCartney in particular offers several gems: the gospelish "Let It Be," which has some of his best lyrics; "Get Back," one of his hardest rockers; and the melodic "The Long and Winding Road," ruined by Spector's heavy-handed overdubs (the superior string-less, choir-less version was finally released on Anthology Vol. 3). The folky "Two of Us," with John and Paul harmonizing together, was also a highlight. Most of the rest of the material, by contrast, was going through the motions to some degree, although there are some good moments of straight hard rock in "I've Got a Feeling" and "Dig a Pony." As flawed and bumpy as it is, it's an album well worth having, as when the Beatles were in top form here, they were as good as ever”.

I am going to finish there. If some see Let It Be as the album that should have been released before Abbey Road and do not rate it highly or if you have more affection for it, there is no denying its historical importance. I really like the album, in spite of the production of Phil Spector. Two of Us among my favourite Beatles songs. On 8th May, it will be fifty-five year since it was released. An opportunity to spotlight the final-released album…

FROM the legendary band.

FEATURE: Signed from the Heart: Kate Bush and Her Ongoing Charity Work

FEATURE:

 

Signed from the Heart

IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush received the Editors Award at the Evening Standard Theatre Awards at the Palladium, London on 30th November, 2014/PHOTO CREDIT: Alan Davidson/Rex/Shutterstock

Kate Bush and Her Ongoing Charity Work

_________

I am going to mention this again…

PHOTO CREDIT: Kate Bush News

in other features. Where Kate Bush raised money for charity or has been involved in fundraisers. I am approaching an occasion in 1986 where she performed for Comic Relief. She has always engaged in charitable endeavours. Right from early in her career, Kate Bush has done as much as she could to raise awareness and money for charities! From Comic Relief in 1986 to last year when her Little Shrew (Snowflake) video raised funds for War Child, Bush is always giving and thinking of others. It brings me to a new occasion. Where Kate Bush is donating signed items for charity. It is amazing to think how much money she has raised for charity through the years! It would be good for someone to total all of that up. I can imagine Bush being involved in a lot more charitable causes in years to come. It is not about raising her profile or jumping on bandwagons. Whenever Kate Bush spends time and effort raising funds for charity, she does so because it means a lot to her. I am going to start off by sourcing a couple of new articles from Kate Bush News:

“Some heartwarming news about how Kate, with the generous support of her fans, has been helping to make a difference to the lives of vulnerable children around the world. US music magazine, Under The Radar, has spoken to Jim Benner, Global Music Lead of the War Child charity in their latest issue #74, The Protest Issue.

“We’ve done a Protest Issue every four or five years since 2004. As we’ve done in the past, the issue examines the intersection of music and politics and features photo shoots with musicians holding protest signs of their own making. Later this year we will auction off all the autographed signs, with all profits going to War Child UK and their U.S. fundraising arm, Children in Conflict.” The issue can be purchased here.

IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush signed Soundwaves art print – Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God)/PHOTO CREDIT: Kate Bush News

Kate has consistently supported the War Child charity for over 30 years. The magazine article notes that Kate “…continues to go above and beyond for the charity”. War Child provides psychosocial support for children caught up in war zones, whether it’s ensuring Iraqi children get an education, providing psychological support to children who have been traumatised by conflict in Yemen, finding lost vulnerable children in Afghanistan or providing life-saving emergency aid to the children of Gaza and their families.

“In the past 12 months alone, she’s raised over £500,000 for us.” Benner beams. “She just released a short animated film, ‘Little Shrew (Snowflake),’ which conveys the vulnerability of children in war in support of War Child. It’s beautiful and timeless. I urge everyone to go to Kate’s website to watch it. We had over £100,000 in donations and dozens of news stories in one day. “Kate also recently repackaged and reissued her back catalog, including a box set entitled Lost At Sea where she repurposed artwork she did for a War Child exhibition/fundraiser in 1994, Kate has donated proceeds and has made generous personal donations.

Another successful project Kate did for us was signing Soundwaves Art prints created by digital artist Tim Wakefield. Tim creates stunning artwork from a particular song. We then get the musical artist to sign. In this instance, Kate signed prints based on ‘Running Up That Hill’ which of course has had a great resurgence, thanks to Stranger Things. We usually ask the artist to sign 100 [copies], and Kate kindly did. The demand was so great that we then asked her to sign 150 more which she did, and 100% of the profits were donated to War Child.”

You can donate directly to help War Child here. Read more about Kate’s Little Shrew animation here or watch it in the player below. Read more about her signed Soundwaves Art prints here. Read more about The Boxes of Lost at Sea, “…a hybrid of an album and a piece of artwork you could hang on the wall” here or watch the special short promo film Kate directed to introduce these special presentations, narrated by Sir Ian McKellen, in the player below”.

PHOTO CREDIT: Kate Bush News

The second article from Kate Bush News was shared yesterday. It relates to four special items that Kate Bush has signed. It will help raise a lot of money for a wonderful auction. That money raised at the auction will go to support so many people. It does warm the heart that Bush continues to do so much for charities:

“From our very own Dave Cross (HomeGround): “I am very happy to announce that once again Kate Bush has donated signed items to the Cabaret vs Cancer music auction…and this year, she’s donated four, YES, FOUR items, all signed exclusively for CvC! We have got the 50 Words for Snow special vinyl Polar Edition, Before the Dawn four disc vinyl box set AND Boxes one and two of the Hounds of Love special ‘Lost at Sea’ boxes.

All items were signed by Kate this week specially for us. Having Kate’s support for CvC means the world to me, Rose Thorne and the rest of our volunteers and we will hopefully raise a lot of money to help people dealing with the effects of cancer. Please see the auction link HERE to start bidding… there’s lots of other cool things too!” Thanks for letting us know Dave – amazing work from you and the team at CvC as always! Best of luck – Seán”.

It will be no surprise to Kate Bush fans that this extraordinary artist does so much for charities. From raising so much for War Child to signed items for Cabaret vs Cancer, Bush has helped raise millions through the years. Whilst she does not do it for credit, you do feel like there should be some greater reward. In a recent feature, I suggested that a music award show should honour her. Though her being made a Dame might be out of the question (sadly), some sort of honour should come her way. However, one feels like she might reject it or feel that it puts the spotlight on her and not where it should be – and that is on charities she supports.

I look back and all of the occasions where Kate Bush has given her time and/or music to raise money for charities. Including her thirtieth birthday on 30th July, 1988, when Bush was working with other celebrities as shop assistances in Covent Garden to  raise funds for the Terrence Higgins Trust. I wonder what Kate Bush will go in years to come. Her fans want a new album. That will come in the next couple of years I am sure. However, I get the feeling that Bush will donate signed items again. I am not sure she will do an big fundraiser or be involved with anything public. However, this being Kate Bush, she is going to do a lot more for a whole host of charities! I am inspired by this side of her. As I will explain in an upcoming feature, I am doing a charity walk in June to mark fifty years since Kate Bush recorded her first professional recordings at AIR Studios, London. It is brilliant that Bush helped raise so much money for War Child. At a time when it is desperately needed. How she is donating items for Cabaret vs Cancer. Each of those albums will go for possibly thousands of pounds. I do wonder what else she will be involved with this year. If no new music quite yet, then there will be updates from Bush. Maybe some more charity contributions. A hearty salute to Kate Bush! This latest round of incredible generosity is not yet the tip of the iceberg. I know that we will see Bush doing so much more for charities…

FOR many more years.

FEATURE: Strange Phenomenon: Is Kate Bush One of the Most Original Artists Ever?

FEATURE:

 

 

Strange Phenomenon

IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush in 1980

Is Kate Bush One of the Most Original Artists Ever?

_________

I am going back…

IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush in 1978

to The Kick Inside briefly. Kate Bush’s 1978 debut album, I still marvel at how different it was to anything that came before. When you think about the female artists who proceeded her, were any talking about their body, sexuality and desires like Kate Bush? The lyrical content on that album stretching well beyond the commercial and ordinary. For a teenager, it was remarkably mature and extraordinary! No sense of timidity or staying close to what was out there. An individual artist who was astonishing from the very start. I posed the question as to whether Kate Bush is among the most original artists ever. Look around music now and there are few who can match her brilliance. In terms of how they change and evolve between albums. I have talked about The Kick Inside before and its lyrics. Not informed by anything in the charts or what was popular, there are few more original and distinct debut singles as Wuthering Heights. Not many artists taking from literature – or a T.V. adaptation of a novel – for their debut single. The whole album is fascinating. One of the most female albums ever released, the rest of Kate Bush’s career has been marked by these albums filled with characters, scenes and emotions that no other artist could write about or convey. I don’t think she gets talked about in terms of an influence on modern artists. We all know some of the big names who cite her as an influence but, for the most part, these artists did so a while ago. Look at many of the artists – especially women – coming through and at the forefront now. Whether consciously or not, you know that they owe something to Kate Bush. Whether that is the way they have this independence and take control of their career or something about their songwriting which has elements of Kate Bush. Whether that is talking about desire and passion similar to her or taking from literature and film. Building a cast of characters into their work. You look around the modern scene and you can tell of those artists who are similar to Kate Bush though they have not explicitly discussed her influence on them – but you feel like they should!

Just the way Kate Bush conducted her career. In addition to being an original. Bush was also very determined to produce her own music and do so at her own pace. That was almost unheard of for artists in the 1970s and 1980s. Especially women. Many signed to labels were either guided pretty heavily and did have not have much independence or those who were happy being a commercial artist and kept producing the same sort of music. Like The Kick Inside and Lionheart, Bush could have made the remainder of her album piano-based and similar. Never for Ever (1980) introduced the Fairlight CMI. The Dreaming (1982) found her songs at their most dense and dark. Plenty of beauty and character. Bush producing and throwing herself into every moment. The Ninth Wave, the conceptual suite on the second side of Hounds of Love, being about a woman at sea hoping to be rescued. How many other artists would dedicated half of their album to a concept as opposed to the entire album – or just not bother at all? Kate Bush going in a different direction after that. The cultures and sounds she mixed. Instruments and sounds from around the world. Bulgarian voices on The Sensual World. Baila touches on The Red Shoes. Bush never wanting to repeat herself. The breadth and scope of her music is extraordinary. This original brilliance also extends to her aesthetic and fashion. An under-discussed fashion icon, she was mixing casual and girl-next-door fashions with extraordinary and extravagant attire. All very distinctly her. Again, look at the women in music who have followed and you know they look up to Kate Bush. This was not forced either. Bush not trying to be attention-grabbing or do anything she was not comfortable with.

Some might say Bush became more conventional or lost some of her spark through The Sensual World and The Red Shoes. That late-1980s and 1990s output not as original or unconventional (in a good way). Aerial, though, was this return to the sounds that only our Kate Bush could produce. I think about the artists compared to Kate Bush. Despite the fact there are some similarities, I don’t think one could easily compare an artist with her. There are a lot of brilliant and innovative artists around today. However, when I compare their albums and see how their careers have shifted, nothing quite impresses me as much when compared to Kate Bush. Not to suggest Bush wildly swings for the hell of it just to be different or unpredictable. Every album she has produced has been a natural evolution. That combination of her remarkable vocal range, lyrics that are unlikely anyone else’s and this incredible personality. I wanted to write about this but cannot see many other articles that argue this. It is subjective saying that an artist is the most original ever. There are a number of different factors to consider. One could argue that The Beatles or Taylor Swift are the most original. For me, there are aspects of Kate Bush that, when blended together, create this artist that has not been matched. The way Bush cannot be defined or categorised. Music videos almost like short films.

Theatrical and visually arresting, Bush’s music videos have definitely inspired generations of artists. Kate Bush has set records and broken barriers. She has maintained control of her music and has had this new resurgence. At the age of sixty-six, Bush is standing out from those around her. Someone who has raided funds for charity for decades and is this incredible thoughtful and generous person, she is also down to Earth and relatable. Despite this phenomenal talent, Kate Bush has never had an ego or fallen into the traps many other huge artists have. Blending mythology, fantasy, the gothic and passions of the heart, Bush’s music has taken influence from Africa, Ireland, Bulgaria, Australia and far beyond. Writing her own material and producing most of her albums, Kate Bush has kept relevant and distinct without having to duplicate or do what went before. There is more to be said on the subject but, as few have written about it, I wanted to raise it. Again, ‘original’ is hard to precisely define when it comes to music. One cannot deny Kate Bush is distinct and like nobody else. An artist who stands on her own. However, one who has inspired so many different artists through the years. I would love to hear other people’s thoughts on this. From the incredibly unconventional and original debut album in 1978 to 2011’s 50 Words for Snow – her most recent album -, the innovator and genius keeps doing something new and fascinating that is both incomparable to other albums yet accessible and endlessly listenable. It is clear that, when it comes to Kate Bush, there isn’t…

ANYONE like her.

FEATURE: Taste: Sabrina Carpenter and Female Empowerment

FEATURE:

 

 

Taste

 IN THIS PHOTO: Sabrina Carpenter at the 2024 Vanity Fair Oscar Party in Beverly Hills, California, March 10, 2024

Sabrina Carpenter and Female Empowerment

_________

NOT related to…

anything specific, I did want to take a moment to spotlight Sabrina Carpenter. An award-winning and amazing artist, it will not be long until she is headlining festivals like Glastonbury. A hugely empowering artist and someone who is a modern-day feminist iconic, this is an artist who advocates self-love and writes these incredibly powerful lyrics. Uncomfortable earlier in her career with what she was told to wear and how she was presented, now, she uses her music and voice to portray her sexuality in a way true to her. Empowering, confident and unshackled, she is an artist tackling prejudices and those who criticise her. Whether it is a slightly provocative performance or something that is seen as risqué, Carpenter is giving strength to so many other people. Being who she wants to be without being constrained. She is also something who collaborates with other female creatives and advocates for women constantly. A definite role model, I did want to source from a few articles that look at Sabrina Carpenter as this incredible feminist. Maybe an unexpected one in some cases, her most recent album, Short n’ Sweet, was released in 2024. A Deluxe edition of the album came out this year. I will end with a recent feature that explores how Sabrina Carpenter is redefining and recontextualising female empowerment. I am going to start off with a feature from Stellar:

“She’s also unashamedly sexual, in a way that women can relate to and even more importantly, enjoy. Let me explain.

The male gaze is a concept coined by film theorist Laura Mulvey in the ’70s. She proposed that media tends to present women through a lens most attractive to heterosexual men, stripping them of any agency and reducing them to mere sexual objects.

The female gaze, on the other hand, implies empowerment. It’s the lens in which women characters, directors, or writers view the world and the women in it; as people… who can be sexy, of course, but also have other attributes too.

In the past, many pop girlies were created for men. They dressed and acted certain ways, whether they wanted to or not. There may have been largely female crowds at their shows, but it was the male gaze they attracted.

Think Britney Spears in the early 2000s. The star has spoken out consistently about the discomfort she felt in her early career, the way she was styled, the shoots she took part in.

Remember the Rolling Stone cover where she was lying on her bed in her underwear holding a Teletubbie? Yeah, that.

The female gaze doesn’t mean that women can’t be sexual. In fact, it’s quite the opposite. A lot of the time, female gaze media involves a lot more than the subject, but the entire creative process.

Female crew, female writers, stylists, and photographers – a whole group of people hired to represent a female experience that isn’t just focused on the body, but much more.

Sabrina is hyper-sexual, but not in a way that pop culture is used to. She’s sexy but she’s funny. She’s dressed in lingerie but she styled herself. She’s not saying ‘I want to have sex with you.’ She’s saying ‘I want to have sex… and you’ll be there too.’

Her sexuality is loud, but there’s also a subtly to it – a cleverness. She has fun with her risque ‘nonsense’ outros, her lyrics are dominated by innuendo she wrote herself, she’s speaking to women as much as she is to men. It’s that me espresso, not that his espresso.

Her most recent album, Short n’ Sweet includes tracks like ‘Bed Chem’ and ‘Juno’, songs about having sex, thinking about having sex, and getting pregnant as a result of having some really good sex in various positions.

She’s also hyper-feminine. Her makeup is soft and pink, she wears glittery platforms, she pokes fun at herself being short without ever stumbling into ‘pick me’ territory.

She’s got her brand down, but it’s still a work in progress. Recently, she had to respond to criticism surrounding her attitude towards sex, both on and off the stage.

“My fans online are like, I can’t believe she’s bending over in front of her grandparents!” she said. “I’m like, girl, they are not paying attention to that. They’re just like, I can’t believe all these people are here”.

There are women at the forefront of Pop that are empowering and inspiring so many fans around the world. Artists such as Beyoncé, Charli xcx and Taylor Swift very much at the forefront when it comes to the most influential feminists and role models in music. However, as this feature from last year suggests, Sabrina Carpenter is the feminist we didn’t know we needed. There is no doubt that she is at the forefront of a new wave of a feminism. One about expression, positivity and self-love, whether it is the official start of the fifth wave of feminism or one happening in music (but not in wider culture), there is no denying how important she is:

“Carpenter has effectively altered her image while also recreating an entirely new wave of feminism. She does this through her lyrics, costumes, performances, ad campaigns and dance moves. The once “Girl Meets World” star has broken the Disney curse and become the most famous pop star of the moment.

Her lyrics acted as the catalyst for this newfound image. In “Espresso,” she describes how she essentially hypnotized this boy into loving her because it’s “that sweet.” The utterly hypnotic song also made us listeners fall in love with her. And then, when her sixth studio album, “Short n’ Sweet,” was released in Aug. 2024, we saw a whole new side to her.

The songs “Juno,” “Bed Chem” and “Taste” ooze with female sexuality. Fans saw this on display during the “Short n’ Sweet” Tour, where Carpenter switches between different variations of lingerie and displays a new “position” in each performance of her song “Juno.”

She’s received criticism for the hypersexual lyrics, but I’d say she is just finally coming into her female agency. And she is a great role model for young women.

Society has always tried to force women to be humble and poised. Carpenter confidently rebels against these expectations, all while reminding you just how beautiful she is.

Let’s get one thing sorted out: women can be just as sexual as men. If men are allowed to make “locker room talk” and write songs about sex and hot girls, then women have the same exact rights.

If The Weeknd and Playboi Carti in the hit song “Timeless” can say, “Ever since I was a jit, knew I was the shit / Shorty keep wanna come ‘round she wanna get hit / She think she the main because I keep her by my side,” then I think Carpenter should be able to sing, “And I bet we’d both arrive at the same time / And I bet the thermostat’s set at six nine / And I bet it’s even better than in my head.”

Carpenter is embracing sexuality and flipping the script. If men can be openly sexual and objectify women in their lyrics, then why can’t she?

Her most pack-a-punch lyric is in the song “Juno,” where she sings “Sorry if you feel objectified.” It’s a little wink to the type of music that men have been creating ever since Elvis could pop his hips. While her brand has transformed into a hypersexual pop princess, she’s really just showing the world and all of her young fans that women can also think like men. Cry me a river!

The only reason that Carpenter is getting any flack for her blatant sexuality is because a lot of people aren’t used to it coming from a woman. Female musicians, especially pop musicians, are typically expected to maintain a clean image for young fans.

In a recent interview with Time Magazine, Carpenter is upfront about the criticism she’s faced. “You’ll still get the occasional mother that has a strong opinion on how you should be dressing,” Carpenter said. “And to that, I just say, don’t come to the show, and that’s OK. It’s unfortunate that it’s ever been something to criticize.”

Other pop musicians, like Britney Spears, suffered backlash for showing even a morsel of sexuality, and it took a serious toll on her mental health. Carpenter’s sheer confidence and self-assuredness is what makes her actions so admirable.

With so many young and impressionable fans coming to her shows and indulging in her music, it’s easy for people to say she’s setting a bad example considering society’s attitude towards female sexuality. Yet the lady of the moment’s positive attitude and self-love is what young girls need to see. In a sense, Carpenter is finishing what pop princesses of the past started”.

I am going to finish with a recent article from Clique. Redefining female empowerment, it is interesting what they say about her live shows. Go to her gigs now and it is this explosion of self-expression, confidence and togetherness. Sexually open and powerful women always tore down and seen as bad role models. Sabrina Carpenter is a good feminist. “She is doing it for the girls”:

“Sabrina started out as a young teenage actor on the Disney Channel show “Girl Meets World." The show was having disappointing ratings and got canceled after a few seasons. The brightest star to come out of that show was Sabrina. She signed a record deal for five albums with Hollywood Records and recorded them in the image of a modest child pop star.

As Zoe mentions in her video series, Carpenter’s career was doomed by the “Disney curse” at the time, as her music and image were targeting a young audience, hence the age-appropriate, well, everything. However, if we know something about teenagers, they want nothing to do with age-appropriate. Her target audience was listening to Ariana Grande, Selena Gomez, and Miley Cyrus, who at this point in their careers were already fully shedded from the Disney curse and were making art that made sense for a grown woman. Something all teenage girls wanted to be.

Sabrina signed a record deal with Island Records in 2019, and in 2022 the world was blessed with a new era of her music and image. She stepped into her rebranding.

From the very first steps in her new image, she provoked the public. The album featured a song “Because I Liked a Boy,” where she refers to the media calling her a whore for dating an ex of Olivia Rodrigo, which was one of the biggest scandals in her career. Olivia Rodrigo wrote her hit song “Drivers Licence,” mentioning “a blonde girl” who was hanging out with her ex-boyfriend Joshua Bassett. It was a nod to Carpenter. The first wave of hate hit Sabrina when that song came out, and the public was calling her a “homewrecker” and a “slut” for taking another girl’s man. Which was not true, but even if it was, the public’s response was so strong, so hateful, and so quick to judge, leaving no space for another narrative, just another story of slut-shaming.

“Because I Liked a Boy," a song where Sabrina mentions all the hate that she got and how misogynistic the public’s responses were, was the song that led to Sabrina developing her 50s-inspired wardrobe. Ironically, the emergence of this new style was one of the sparks that ignited the recent hateful commentary on her overly sexualized costumes.

Other songs from that album also played a part in Sabrina’s more mature image. “Skinny Dipping” was a song where she shared raw and personal details of her past relationship, delving deeper into her personal life, distancing herself from the cookie-cutter lyrics of her past. However, the song that kicked off her flirty image and determined the direction of her branding was "Nonsense,” which featured a number of spicy lyrics provoking the listener, especially if they compared it to the previous version of Sabrina.

The success of her second album with Island Records, Short and Sweet, was vast. The album debuted at number one on the US Billboard 200 chart, marking Carpenter's first number one and top-10 album and best opening week to date. Her listening audience grew immensely; the songs were playing on the radio the whole summer, and her tour gave her even more publicity.

With the new album, the singer very obviously knew exactly what her brand was. At this point she was already working with Jared Ellner as her stylist, feeling very confident in her

established 50s pin-up aesthetic, singing about her sexuality, and knowing that people loved it. And that’s when the clash happened.

The growing audience, the Disney past, the revealing outfits, and provocative lyrics all came together to produce the narrative of Sabrina Carpenter “oversexualizing herself." A narrative that unfortunately was expected but is definitely not based on anything substantial.

Sabrina’s recent video for Vogue with her stylist explains the structure, meaning, and inspiration behind everything that happens during her show. The performance is supposed to feel like a night out with the girls.

It starts in Sabrina’s room, in her robe or towel, as she is getting ready. In this part, she sings slower songs of hers, starting the night. The singer drew inspiration from movies like “Bye Bye Birdie” and “Grease” for her outfits and stage design to capture the feel of “the girlies getting ready." She then changes into her Swarovski corset and pairs it with a sparkly garter and platform shoes. Then she puts on a lace bodysuit inspired by Marylin Monroe in “There is No Business Like Show-Business” and Audrey Hepburn in “Funny Face." She ends the night with her most fun and spicy songs in her bejeweled two-piece look inspired by the Abba Voyage Show. This is the part where she continues the tradition of sexy improv with her new song "Juno," where she mimics a new sexual position every night.

As Sabrina and her stylist Jared get excited to tell the audience of the video about the ideas and work behind her tour image, I get excited with them. I get excited about the lace and the sparkles and the garters, like I was excited about my pink ruffles and pearls on Halloween. Sabrina and her team made the show into a girly heaven with flowy bathrobes, Abba, platform shoes, Audrey Hepburn, and the unparalleled joy that girls feel getting ready together.

At the end of the video, she looks at her stylist and says, "The girls are going to love it.”.

I smile.

When you look at it from the inside, at least for me, the Short and Sweet show and Sabrina's branding in general seem like a lot of hard work, talent, great creative vision, and immense confidence and will to have fun. Despite the hateful comments she receives about her appearance and songs,.

In the endless fight against the patriarchy and battling on many sides of the argument, there has to come a point where you look in the mirror, standing in your kitten heels and lace corset as Marie Antoinette, thinking, "Which narrative should I choose?”. Do I look like the most attractive and confident version of myself, or am I objectifying myself and degrading women?

Well, I think only I can say which one it is.

Sexually open women are always going to be threatening, always an easy target to choose, always something easy to hate and attack before you analyze the work, talent, and imagination that goes into anything that woman does. Sabrina Carpenter is doing so much for the female community by allowing us to feel sexy when we want to, have fun when we want to, and continue doing it despite the backlash. Sabrina Carpenter is a good feminist. She is doing it for the girls”.

I wanted to write this feature in order to bring other people’s words together. Celebrating and recognising Sabrina Carpenter as this incredible feminist who is inspiring girls and women. Carpenter received backlash for simulating an ‘Eifel Tower’ (sex) position on stage. She also was criticise for what was deemed a risqué performance at the BRITs. This ridiculous outrage aimed at an artist who is not corrupting minds but is instead providing these incredible celebrated performances that are filled with fun, kookiness, camp, celebration, humour, sexual self-expression and infectiousness, this empowering, inspiring and amazing feminist should be heralded and not judged. That should be…

THE real conversation.

FEATURE: Groovelines: Pulp – Common People

FEATURE:

 

 

Groovelines

Pulp – Common People

_________

A classic song…

that reached number two in the U.K., I am looking ahead to the thirtieth anniversary of Pulp’s Common People. Released on 22nd May, 1995, I am looking to the thirtieth anniversary of a song often cited as the finest Britpop track ever. One of the defining tracks of that movement. It is one of the greatest songs ever in my view. In a Rolling Stone readers' poll in 2015, Common People was voted the greatest Britpop song. I am keen to get to features about the song. I am starting out with this feature from American Songwriter:

“Class consciousness was the beating heart of Britpop. Oasis were beloved—apart from the albums full of bangers—because they sang about the working class and they were working class. Blur, on the other hand, were thought to be suspiciously inauthentic.

“Common People” was the first single from Pulp’s 1995 album Different Class. The song is infectiously catchy. It’s here, where group founder and frontman Jarvis Cocker becomes an icon. But “Common People” is a class anthem. It is the soul of Britpop.

Sheffield’s Pulp formed in 1978. They struggled for many years to find success. At one point, Cocker folded the band and left to study film at St. Martin’s College.

Cocker—influenced by vocalists Serge Gainsbourg and Scott Walker— returned to the band. By the late ’80s, they were inspired by house music and rave culture. In 1991, “My Legendary Girlfriend” was NME’s single of the week—a pivotal moment in Pulp’s career.

What is Cocker talking about?

Jarvis Cocker, while studying at St. Martin’s College, met a wealthy girl who said she “wanted to move to Hackney and live like the common people.” Class tourism, or slumming, was popular at the time. People in upper classes found something noble in the lower classes, yet they had the privilege of leaving when they wanted.

She came from Greece she had a thirst for knowledge
She studied sculpture at Saint Martin’s College
That’s where I caught her eye
She told me that her dad was loaded
I said, in that case I’ll have rum and Coca-Cola
She said fine

Blur, at the time, were taking heat from critics for being a middle-class band writing songs about the working class. Their Parklife was a No. 1 album and was, according to a Q interview with Cocker, a “kind of patronizing social voyeurism.”

You’ll never live like common people
You’ll never do whatever common people do
You’ll never fail like common people
You’ll never watch your life slide out of view
And you dance and drink and screw
Because there’s nothing else to do

Britpop made a lot of money glamourizing the working class. Finally, Cocker has had enough. He exposes the tourist:

But still you’ll never get it right
Cause when you’re laid in bed at night
Watching roaches climb the wall
If you called your dad he could stop it all, yeah

Cocker wrote the song on a Casio keyboard. When he brought it to the band, they were not impressed. But keyboardist Candida Doyle thought it was great. Pulp booked a session at The Town House in London and recorded the single in two weeks.

It was produced by Chris Thomas, whose credits include The Sex Pistols, Pretenders, and INXS. “Common People” sounds very similar to “Los Amantes” by ’80s Spanish pop band Mecano.

The best Britpop song, ever

Pulp was coming off their breakthrough album His ’n’ Hers in 1994. The Mercury Prize-nominated album reached No. 9 on the UK Albums chart.

Different Class, the band’s fifth album, was released at the height of Britpop in 1995. It was Pulp’s first No. 1 album and won the Mercury Prize. Pulp headlined the Glastonbury Festival in 1995.

“Common People” was an anthem. It sounded like a synthesized version of The Sex Pistols’ Chris Thomas-produced “Anarchy in the UK.” It’s Pulp’s signature song and, at the time, topped many year-end lists. Pitchfork placed “Common People” at No. 2 on their Top 200 Tracks of the 1990s.

The song endures like the stubborn reality of class struggle. It speaks to any generation. Many art forms, including film and music, have a fascination with struggle. In some instances, the work is well-intentioned. In other cases, it exploits the powerless.

With “Common People,” Cocker exposed the façade of Britpop’s working-class chic. He wrote an anthem about the condescending way the privileged go sightseeing in the slums”.

It is worth reading the Wikipedia page about Common People. Information about its legacy and importance. Details about the music video and inspiration behind the song. I want to spotlight a 2015 feature from The Guardian. The feature was published to coincide with the twentieth anniversary of a Britpop anthem. A masterpiece from one of the best bands of their generation:

“However, there is a wider issue here of – if you’ll forgive me – cultural focus. Common People is not a song about a spoiled condescending female, however vivid the character. The song – part poem, part manifesto – is about Cocker (back then) and people like Cocker (as he had been): the long-term disfranchised and perma-skint, who spend their lives feeling broke, scared and hopeless, without a safety net.

It’s about the scathing wit that gives them voice, and the wild anger that drives them. Crucially, it’s a story about a penniless working-class student rather than a rich slumming one, and in an increasingly polarised one-note cultural landscape, this sort of distinction seems ever more important.

It’s now widely accepted that, not just music but all branches of the arts are steadily becoming middle-class enclaves – affordable only to the privileged few. Which just never used to be the case. Some out there might not like the idea of the musicians of the past honing their craft on the dole and making scant effort to find a “real job”, the fact remains that that’s where a lot of great music came from.

Now these same creative types are doubtless being burned out on zero-hours’ contracts. And this is just one way that musicians, like actors, dancers, artists, writers and any other creative person, are being priced out – and subsequently hounded out – of the arts.

This is a disaster for everybody, including, paradoxically, the privileged few, who lose out on the kind of potent vibrant culture that’s only possible when everybody gets a fair crack at joining in. Instead it becomes the norm that cultural focus goes automatically to a certain brand of middle-class moneyed sensibility, as if this were the only type that matters or, worse still, exists.

The problem is that this can’t help but become one-dimensional and stifling. How could it not, when all art has to be viewed through one incredibly narrow filter before it’s deemed worthy of attention, never mind celebration?

Moreover, with this kind of constriction, it’s not just talent that’s lost, a tragedy in itself; it’s also different kinds of people, backgrounds, textures, viewpoints and stories.

Which is where Common People comes in. This is a song that belongs without question to the disempowered classes. It’s the narrator (Cocker) who counts, and how he wants to tell his story. It barely matters who the student is – she’s a mere cipher, and that’s how “she” should remain, now more than ever. That’s why I don’t care if the student was Stratou or some other. Increasingly, all we hear about (and from) are people like that, usually strumming on a guitar wailing about “finding themselves” on a beach in Goa. Common People is about hearing from someone like the young Jarvis Cocker, the sort now seldom heard – someone sardonic, angry and – above all – totally skint”.

I am going to finish off with a feature from 2023. Uncut spoke with Jarvis Cocker, Pulp bassist Steve Mackey and keyboardist Candida Doyle. It is a really fascinating piece that I would encourage people to read. I have selected a few segments. Interesting reading what the band say a song that has endured all of these years. A song regularly played on the radio. One that has reached new generations of listeners:

“I realised that we had written something that had pretensions to being anthemic,” says Jarvis Cocker. “It was an anthem. A class anthem.”

At the start of the 1990s, Pulp – the band Cocker had formed as a 15-year-old schoolboy in Sheffield in 1979 – were still languishing in relative obscurity. “One more year on the dole, then that would be that,” remembers keyboardist Candida Doyle. But their fortunes began to take a more positive turn when the band’s 1994 album, His ‘n’ Hers, received a Mercury Music Prize nomination and reached No 9 in the charts. The record that finally made them stars, though, was Cocker’s memoir about a fellow art student from his time at Central St Martins College of Art and Design: a rich girl who wanted to slum it with the “common people”.

“Around London, you met these southern toffs,” drummer Nick Banks explains. “You got that idea they were different. That they could muck around and do what they wanted for a few years, then call in the trust fund and bugger off to the south of France. For most people, that ain’t the case. You’re stuck with what you’ve got.”
“I don’t think he [Jarvis] liked southerners much,” believes producer Chris Thomas. “He was suspicious of me. I think he was uptight at not having ever made it.”

But then “Common People” hit No 2 in June, 1995.

“That song released him. Suddenly, while ‘Common People’ was in the charts, Jarvis blitzed eight songs in 48 hours for Different Class. Every one was a winner.”

Later that same month, Glastonbury headliners The Stone Roses were forced to pull out, with Pulp invited to take their place. “If you really want something to happen enough then it will,” Cocker told the crowd at the end of the band’s set, culminating with “Common People”.

“It seemed the perfect thing to say,” says Banks. “And from that moment, the audience always sang along with ‘Common People’; you could feel this tangible response, that they knew what the song was about, and agreed with it. The crescendo of ‘Common People’ at Glastonbury 1995 was the high-water mark of the band.”

JARVIS COCKER: It all started with me getting rid of a lot of albums at the Record And Tape Exchange in Notting Hill. With the store credit I went into the second-hand instrument bit and bought this Casio keyboard. When you buy an instrument, you run home and want to write a song straight away. So I went back to my flat and wrote the chord sequence for “Common People”, which isn’t such a great achievement because it’s only got three chords. I thought it might come in handy for our next rehearsal.

Advertisement

STEVE MACKEY: We were just chuckling about how simple it sounded.

COCKER: Steve started laughing and said, “It sounds like [Emerson, Lake and Palmer’s version of] ‘Fanfare For The Common Man’.” I always thought the word “common” was an interesting thing. It would be used in “Fanfare For The Common Man” as this idea of the noble savage, whereas it was a real insult in Sheffield to call someone “common”. That set off memories of this girl that I met at college. She wanted to go and live in Hackney and be with the common people. She was from a well-to-do background, and there was me explaining that that would never work. I hated all that cobblers you got in films and magazines in which posh people would “slum it” for a while. Once I got that narrative in my head it was very easy to write, lyrically.

CANDIDA DOYLE: Jarvis’ neck would have to be on the line before he would write the words. And singing them would be a drunken affair, hiding behind a door. That went right up to our last LP. Scott Walker tried to talk him out of it. He just found it very personal.

COCKER: Part of the tension in that song is that I might have been repelled by what she was saying, but I was sexually attracted to her and wanted to cop off with her. I never did make a move. But I changed the song so she was attracted to me and wanted to sleep with me. Which was, you know, a lie. It was an anthem. We wanted to find someone to produce it who would give us a big sound but not make us sound like twats. Which is what brought us to Chris Thomas. He produced the Sex Pistols.

COCKER: I’m not ashamed of that song at all. I’m quite proud of it. I hear it on the radio and it still sounds all right!

DOYLE: Later in Pulp’s career I was thinking of groups that had written hit songs that never got forgotten, and I thought, ‘Oh, I wish we’d written one of those.’ Then I thought, ‘Oh, we have.’

COCKER: Was that girl real? Yes. On that BBC Three documentary [2006’s The Story Of… Pulp’s Common People], the researchers went through all the people who were contemporaries of mine at St Martins and they tried to track her down. They showed me a picture and it definitely wasn’t her. I dunno. Maybe she wasn’t Greek. Maybe I misheard her”.

I am going to end there. I am sure there are going to be anniversary features and interviews ahead of 22nd May. The album Common People is from, Different Class, turns thirty on 30th October. I wanted to spend time with its first single. One of the most acclaimed songs of the 1990s, this phenomenal anthem sounds essential and powerful…

IN 2025.

FEATURE: The Digital Mixtape: The Best Female Empowerment Anthems

FEATURE:

The Digital Mixtape

 PHOTO CREDIT: Godisable Jacob/Pexels

The Best Female Empowerment Anthems

_________

WHEN thinking about…

PHOTO CREDIT: Sydney Sang/Pexels

a theme for this Digital Mixtape, I wanted to focus on female empowerment anthems. There is no particular reason for it. Just to show how they have changed through the years. I am thinking of examples that have been released in the last couple of years. Perhaps not as common as they once were, perhaps they are quite common but empowerment and independence are woven into the fabric. Not as overt but more widespread in terms of the lyrical subjects and topics. In any case, I wanted to compile a mixtape of some incredible female empowerment anthems. In a future Digital Mixtape, I might move to investigate sex-positive anthems, as that is something that also interests me. A different type of empowerment. Some of these songs you will know; though there are others you might not. Have a dive into a Digital Mixtape that salutes women who…

PHOTO CREDIT: Polina/Pexels

HAVE created hugely empowering songs.

FEATURE: Groovelines: Madonna – Human Nature

FEATURE:

 

 

Groovelines

Madonna – Human Nature

_________

A single that should…

have been a much bigger hit than it was, I wanted to focus on Madonna’s Human Nature for this Groovelines. Its thirtieth anniversary is in June. The final single from her sixth studio album, Bedtime Stories (1994), maybe there was a feeling that the album had been out a long time and people had already heard the song. The track was a response to the backlash and criticism Madonna received after releasing Erotica and the book, Sex, in 1992. Written by Madonna, Dave Hall, Shawn McKenzie, Kevin McKenzie and Michael Deering, I think it is one of her most important songs. I am surprised it was not the first single released from Bedtime Stories. I guess, as the album was a sort of change and reflection following the reception Erotica got, it might have been a mistake or too bold going in with a lead single that took aim at critics. Those who criticised Madonna for talking about sex. Tongue in cheek and with plenty of humour, the song samples Main Source’s 1994 tracks, What You Need (Shaun McKenzie, Kevin McKenzie and Michael Deering were members of Main Source). Ahead of its thirtieth anniversary on 6th June, I wanted to bring in some features around Human Nature. I am going to start by sourcing from Dig! and their feature of last year. A song that urged fans to express themselves (Express Yourself turns forty soon), I think that some critic were unsure what to make of Human Nature:

“Madonna would have the final say

Madonna spent much of her Erotica promotional duties defending her sexually charged artistic choices in a series of confrontational TV appearances and magazine articles, but Human Nature would be the first time on song that she would comment on the furore caused by her work.

From “Express yourself, don’t repress yourself”, the song’s opening line (consider the contrast to Express Yourself’s “C’mon, girls, do you believe in love?” from just five years earlier) to “Oops, I didn’t know I couldn’t talk about sex; I must’ve been crazy”, the message couldn’t be clearer. And for anyone who might have missed the point, there was the closing kiss-off: “I’m not your bitch, don’t hang your shit on me.”

Human Nature maintained her presence on the dance charts

Coming off the back of her biggest-ever US hit, Take A Bow, the experimental Bedtime Story single (co-written by Björk) had proved too out-there for mainstream North America, but Madonna’s loyal UK market took it into the Top 10.

The next track lifted from the album, Human Nature, was a more radio-friendly option. Released on 6 June 1995, it peaked at No.2 on the US dance charts, narrowly missing out on qualifying for inclusion on Finally Enough Love: 50 Number Ones, the 2022 collection that would chronicle Madonna’s record-breaking run of US No.1 singles.

Human Nature’s promo video is one of Madonna’s most memorable clips

Arguably now more famous than the song that inspired it, the video for Human Nature is one of the best Madonna promo clips. Partnering for a third time with Jean-Baptiste Mondino, after Open Your Heart and Justify My Love, it features terrific choreography by long-term dance collaborator Jamie King.

Taking a visual brief from erotic artist Eric Stanton, this video is a sharp send-up of the Sex book and the public’s misunderstanding of the project (Madonna’s then pet dog, Chiquita, even makes a hilarious appearance). But there’s a message behind the parody: “Absolutely no regrets” is Madonna’s definitive statement to camera at the video’s end”.

There are a couple of features I want to end on. The first is from Billboard. Published in 2016, they looked at Madonna in 1995. Maybe large sections of the public exhausted by her sexualised lyrics. In fact, she was being herself and there was nothing controversial at all. Just this perception that Madonna was sex-obsessed or too provactive. Human Nature was released at a time when many were looking for something different from Madonna. Perhaps a reason it was not a major hit. A song that deserved a lot better:

“One of the few hip-hop-inflected singles in her discography (it samples a song from Main Source, the same rap group that gave Nas his first on-wax appearance), “Human Nature” has a deeply funk foundation while maintaining the spacious, thin production common to many ’90s R&B hits.

While “Take a Bow” — released just a year earlier from the same album, Bedtime Stories — was a smash No. 1 for Madge, “Human Nature” stalled at No. 46 despite a killer video and a defiant, empowering message. Lyrically, Madonna brushes off the prudes who faulted her for fixating on sex, pointing out that the “taboo” subject is simply human nature — the most basic element of human nature at that. She also correctly points out that she’d have gotten less flak for exploring sexuality so bluntly if she were a man (“Would it sound better if I were a man?” is one of her whispered rhetorical questions throughout). And it’s hard to argue with that — have any of the male directors behind sexually explicit hit movies been put through the wringer like she has?

Furthermore, the “Express yourself, don’t repress yourself” refrain is classic — the kind of line built to be repeated decades later. So why didn’t “Human Nature” at least knick the top 10?

Part of the reason may have been the fact that previous single “Bedtime Story” isolated too many radio programmers and casual fans. The Bjork co-write, while adventurous and exhilarating, didn’t make sense on radio in the mid-’90s, and it was just too weird for most of her younger fans (and in 1995, she still had plenty of those).

Ultimately, though, it’s the content of the song itself that prevented it from penetrating mass culture like previous dancefloor-ready singles. “Human Nature” is crafted as a challenge to those who thought she went too far by releasing an entire book devoted to erotic photos, and those are the people who don’t want to discuss sexuality — they just want to chastise you for talking about it. Even though the “I’m not your bitch/ Don’t hang your shit on me” line was excised for radio, the message of “Human Nature” was still too much for those who hated her Dita Parlo persona.

“Human Nature” is the original “Unapologetic Bitch,” but it came at a time when the idea of an unapologetic woman was far too threatening for most — not just radio programmers and parents, but even many of her fans. To a Puritan, the only thing worse than a woman wearing a scarlet A is a woman proudly wearing a scarlet A.

Regardless, “Human Nature” holds up as one of her finest ’90s singles, and today we’re saluting this anthem to not apologizing when you know you were right in the first place”.

I am going to end with a feature from Vice. Published in 2014, they talked about the importance of the unapologetic Bedtime Stories. From the emotional and sweeping Take a Bow to the beautiful Secret, this is an album that remains underrated. I think that Human Nature is one of Madonna’s best songs:

“When you’re a celebrity, you’re allowed to have one personality trait. Which is ridiculous,” Madonna told the Detroit News in 1993. When Bedtime Stories was finally released on October 25, she addressed both aspects of the shaming process. Despite the promises in her promo, she continued to acknowledge her sexual desires, although she also experimented with the sound and subject matter. Beginning with “Survival,” a song she co-wrote with Dallas Austin, Madonna doesn’t hesitate to address the backlash and sings “I’ll never be an angel / I’ll never be a saint it’s true / I’m too busy surviving.” The lyrics continue to convey a loosely drawn narrative of the punishment she endured from the media and her feelings leading up to the release, and the songs are carried mostly by R&B melodies produced by Austin, Nellee Hooper, and Babyface.

The definitive single on the album is an explicit rebuke of the backlash. In “Human Nature,” she confirms that wasn’t sorry and that she’s not anyone’s bitch, and she paired the song perfectly with a video that toys with bondage like an Erotica throwback. Right when she is about to drop the mic she whispers, “would it sound better if I were a man?”

Madonna asserted her lack of apology on the grounds that she had not said or did anything unusual; it was simply unusual for a woman to say it. In an interview with the LA Times, she defended Bedtime Stories by saying “I’m being punished for being a single female, for having power and being rich and saying the things I say, being a sexual creature—actually, not being any different from anyone else, but just talking about it. If I were a man, I wouldn’t have had any of these problems. Nobody talks about Prince’s sex life.”

Beyond offering Madonna’s final word on the scandal of her sexuality, the album pivots to address the misconception that her sexual persona limited her versatility as an artist. The narrative in Bedtime Stories immediately turns introspective, relating “I know how to laugh / but I don’t know happiness.” While the album borrows mostly from R&B and new jack swing, it becomes more experimental with the Bjork-penned title track, accompanied with a video that could not have explored the collective unconscious better if Carl Jung directed it. The video for “Bedtime Story” is the first instance of what would become Madonna’s long history of culture-plucking spiritual inquiry, and to this day is stored in a collection at the Museum of Modern Art. As a pair, “Human Nature” and “Bedtime Story” prove that Madonna owned her sexuality and would not be eclipsed by it. While the former fully embraces the decisions she made with previous albums, the latter dismantles the “slut” narrative that her overt sexuality discredits her depth as a performer. Surely people would see this as a feminist masterpiece, no?

Still, critics didn’t get it. The New York Times’ Jon Pareles waxed nostalgic for when “Madonna thrived in the 1980s on being sensational and suggestive against a tame mainstream backdrop,” calling her more recent work “vulgar instead of shocking.” Critical reception continued to focus on the scandal of her attitude rather than the actual record. “Madonna’s career has never really been about music; it’s been about titillation, about image, about publicity,” began one TIME review, which wasn’t unique in its premise. Any mention of the album’s experimental sound or numerous collaborations were overshadowed by her promiscuous image and once again left cheapened. Bedtime Stories as an album was not the clear apology the public demanded, and its emotional depth was largely ignored. At best, it was thought of as Madonna’s return to a safer expression of sexuality”.

In 2018, when ranking Madonna’s seventy-eight singles, The Guardian ranked Human Nature in fifteenth. Rolling Stone placed Human Nature twenty-first in 2016 (“The song is basically saying, 'Don't put me in a box, don't pin me down, don't tell me what I can and can't say,'" Madonna said of this pointed response to conservative scolds. "It's about breaking out of restraints." The lyrics directly take on the media firestorm Madonna started with her Erotica album and tour and her 1992 photo book, Sex. "Did I say something wrong?/Oops, I didn't know I couldn't talk about sex," she sings matter-of-factly. Musically, the song is a foray into hip-hop and R&B, sampling a jazzy beat from Main Source and biting some vocal phrasing from A Tribe Called Quest's "Electric Relaxation."). A track that has won more favour with critics of today than it might have done in 1995, it is a shame there was this sense of apathy or annoyance from some. That Madonna was pushing things too far. Human Nature has inspired songs by artists like Britney Spears, Demi Lovato, Christina Aguilera and Billie Eilish. Its standout video, directed by Jean-Baptiste Mondino, is another reason to love the song. As Human Nature turns thirty on 6th June, I wanted to give some overdue love to…

THIS Madonna classic.

FEATURE: In Salute of Post’s Lead Single: Björk’s Army of Me at Thirty

FEATURE:

 

 

In Salute of Post’s Lead Single

IN THIS PHOTO: Björk in 1993/PHOTO CREDIT: Jane Brown

Björk’s Army of Me at Thirty

_________

FOLLOWING Björk’s…

remarkable 1993 debut album, Debut, there was a lot of interest in her. Many knew her from The Sugarcubes. However, I think Björk is at her best when solo. Her second studio album arrived in June 1995. Many argue Post is her finest album. It definitely included many of her best songs. I think Army of Me is one of them. The lead single from the album was released on 24th April, 1995. The opening track from Post, it was written by Björk and Graham Massey. Lyrically, Army of Me is about the damaging behaviour of Björk's brother. She tells him to stand up to regain control of his life. It is quite a brave and original lyrical angle. A song that is dark and intense. The perfect way to open up her brilliant second album. I think it is inspired heavily by Trip-Hop artists like Tricky and especially Massive Attack. Björk wrote most of the album in London. Post is her impressions of life in the city. Or at least London inspired a lot of the sounds and sights. Army of Me’s lyrics are definitely personal. However, the composition seems to be very much influenced by British artists. Tricky (who was previously in Massive Attack) one of the producers on Post. I want to come to an interview from 1995 where Björk was asked about Army of Me. However, I want to first bring in some positive reviews for one of her most and most enduring singles:

In a positive review, Heather Phares of AllMusic stated that "'Army of Me' casts Björk against type as a warrior goddess fed up with whining, instead of her usual cyber-pixie persona...the song's pounding industrial beat, menacing synth bass, and unusually aggressive lyrics ('And if you complain once more / You'll meet an army of me') stand in sharp contrast to the rest of the album and to most of her previous work." Eric Handerson of Slant Magazine found that the song "provocatively merges a Weather Report-esque jazz-fusion bass riff with a heavy-timbered rock drumbeat to match her contemptuous vocal delivery ('Self-sufficience, please!')" Natalie Curtis described the song as "inelegant"; Mim Udovitch of Rolling Stone dubbed it "ominous, anthemic", with Lou Stathis of MTV calling it "booming, martial-march techno". According to Brantley Bardin of Details, 'Army of Me' is "the album’s straightest song, a manifesto about self-sufficiency",[20] while for Liz Hoggard of The Observer, the track is "brutal yet tender". Stuart Maconie of Q magazine praised the song by stating that its lyrics carries "bold and refreshing sentiments for a rock song. Refreshingly Icelandic sentiments", and further stating that "'Army Of Me' not only sounds fabulous—Led Zeppelin and techno welded together into a surging, operatic whole—but possesses a briskly pull-yourself-together tone. 'Stand up, you’ve got to manage ... /You're all right, there's nothing wrong / ... get to work / and if you complain once more, you'll meet an army of me”.

I will move on to a chat from Interview Magazine that was published in June 1995. It is interesting what Björk said about Army of Me. I don’t think enough has been written about the song. It is a classic. A brilliant video directed by Michel Gondry (who directed several of her videos). I will do an anniversary feature about Post closer to June:

“Do you have visual ideas in your mind when you’re writing your songs ?

Definitely. It’s natural for me to express things first musically, then visually, and third, with words. So the words are like a translation of noises and pictures.

“Army of Me” Is a heavy song. Did you have a picture in your mind when you wrote it ?

I’m a polar bear and I’m with five hundred polar bears, just tramping over a city. The lyric is about people who feel sorry for themselves all the time and don’t get their shit together. You come to a point with people like that where you’ve done everything you can do for them, and the only thing that’s going to sort them out is themselves. It’s time to get things done. I identify with polar bears. They’re very cuddly and cute and quite calm, but if they meet you they can be very strong. They come to Iceland very rarely, once every ten years, floating on icebergs.

Are you in character in a lot of your songs ?

Most of my songs are written in the first person, from the point of view of my best friends. I find it ten times easier to express my friends’ feelings than my own. If I write about myself, I usually write in the third person. It just feels natural.

Do you sing from your stomach or your chest ?

My stomach. Most engineers find it quite difficult to deal with me, because most of the singing I did as a kid was when I was walking outside, completely on my own. This is absolutely impossible in London. There is no privacy here. I started singing with the whole of my body, which is both good and bad. The engineers usually end up using the same kind of microphones as they put on a stand-up bass, because it’s got a big body”.

I am going to end up with a feature that investigates the video for Army of Me. I do hope that the song is played on radio on 24th April. Thirty years since the release of the first single from Björk’s second studio album. It is a stunning song that I never tire of hearing. One that has so much gravity and atmosphere:

“Bjork’s music video for her single Army of Me is strange and fantastical, and to me seemed very reminiscent of much of Tim Burton’s earlier works we saw at the Museum of Modern Art. The video starts with a slow pan in on Bjork lying in a glass tube, through the back of which we can see unidentifiable lights and shapes. This shot, along with the music behind it, sets the scene for the video as dark, out-of-this-world, and slightly confusing. The shot that starts at 13 seconds in is arguably my favorite in the video, and I see it as an exemplar showing of how framing, zooming out and an upward pan can be used in combination to quickly give the viewers a certain idea of what is happening, only to show them how misled they really were. At first it is just a faceless person in a plain car. Quickly, however, we see that we are actually in a scene involving a monstrous, unrealistic car and odd flying bugs the size of arms. The view of Bjork’s truck is our first real intuition on the costume and setting aspects of the mise-en-scene in the video. The car quite obviously looks fake: not just in its shape and bearing, but in that it seems to be made of Styrofoam. This follows for the rest of the video, emphasizing the idea that this is not supposed to be something we have seen before. Those familiar with Bjork’s music will understand how this idea is pertinent to her whole philosophy. She has done her best throughout her music career to never replicate anyone else, and beyond that to always do things no one else has even thought of. Again, I see a parallel to Tim Burton. As a director and film maker he is constantly changing things and doing things in ways no one else would have thought of, including writing a story about the king of Halloween town who wants to be Santa of all people, and changing the loving childrens movie Willy Wonka into a darker, creepier film”.

One of Björk’s greatest songs, the supreme Army of Me turns thirty on 24th April. Even if you have not heard the song for a while, it is a perfect chance to connect with it now. Noticing the musical shift from the singles released off of Debut. Björk embracing new genres and directions. One listen of Army of Me and you are…

DRAWN into its world.