We don’t like to say we told you so, but, well – we told you so… As far back as 2007, when 13-year-old Saoirse Ronan was nominated for an Academy Award for her role in Atonement (the film adaptation by director Joe Wright of Ian McEwan’s 2001 shortlisted Booker Prize novel), the writing wasn’t so much on the wall as
What do you do when the nickname that has stuck is The Modfather? What happens next when you’re viewed as an Elder Statesman of Contemporary Cultural Affairs? Or when, as a musician and songwriter in your mid-50s, you are plugging your latest solo album in just under 25 years? If you’re Paul Weller, you take it all in your
Brighton? Isn’t it full of spivs with ‘Kiss Me Quick’ hats tipped at a jaunty angle? Old habits die hard, as do old impressions handed down through a legacy of grainy, clichéd black’n’white movies and postcards, a world of working class civilians taking in the bracing sea air for a saucy weekend of single malts and double entendres. Forget
The nomad comes full circle? The prodigal daughter returns home? The last time Laura Marling and the Irish Times had a chat was less than two years ago, outside an East London pub, which was no more than a few minutes walk from her house. She hadn’t lived in the house for a few weeks, as she had relocated
Personality crisis, left-wing radical politics, drug abuse, drug addiction, drug dealing, jailbird, rehabilitation, recovery, redemption – these are the ingredients of a life less ordinary but no less complicated, and if there’s one person still around to tell the tale then it’s Wayne Kramer. Approaching his 67th year, Kramer is chatting from his Los Angeles office, preparing his work
That’s twigs with a lower case ‘t’, to you, mate. Yes, people, we’re in the potential danger zone of being as pretentious as the next arty Big Thing, but when you have a chat with fka twigs (the woman formerly known as Tahliah Barnett) you come to the conclusion fairly quickly that she’s as normal as the rest of us.
So which Julian Cope do you remember? The pop star Cope of Teardrop Explodes, the Liverpool post-punk band that enlivened Top of the Pops with reassuringly left-of-centre gems such as Treason and Reward? The solo Cope wrapped around a gravity-defying mic stand-cum-lectern as he crooned his solo hits, World Shut your Mouth and Trampolene? Or, most latterly, the
Even when he’s sitting on a comfy sofa, with a glass of iced water resting on a nearby table, David Gray’s overall demeanour seems taut, tense and not a little bit constricted. It was exactly the same over 20 years ago, when the UK singer-songwriter released his first pair of albums, A Century Ends (1993) and Flesh (1994), two
Tony Clayton-Lea is an Irish-based freelance journalist/writer/editor who writes on music, arts, and pop culture (and travel/hospitality) for a variety of print and online outlets.
Email: tclaytonlea@gmail.com
This is the personal website for Tony Clayton-Lea.