music
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This Machine Kills Wasps
In just under a month’s time, on 2nd February, This Machine Kills Wasps, a new, alternative music, comedy, and musical comedy night, will take place in Brighton, at the lovely Folklore Rooms. It‘s me. It’s my night. My first one in Brighton, a city where I own a bed, a bicycle, and between two and… Read more
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Miss Modular
It’s so strange to me how close music is to time travel. When I started to fall out of love with new music ten years ago, I worried how I would even form new memories. Life is the bone, songs are the marrow. While I write these words I’m listening to the claustrophobic French lounge… Read more
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MJ Hibbett; James Walsh; Annabel Edmonds; Simon Topping: live at The Pipeline, Brighton, Wednesday 19th October 2022
It was my first gig, and MJ Hibbett’s 873rd*. I’ve been on stage plenty of times for comedy, but this was the first time I’d stood up to sing my songs at strangers. On a night where much of England was glued to its smartphones, trying to ascertain the latest in the Liz Truss melodrama,… Read more
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Monkey Swallows The Universe
A slightly lost week this week, being ill, waiting to see if I have Covid. I suspect I just have a (“the?”) flu, but one might as well be sure and there’s a walk in centre just down the road. Once I was able to get out of bed, I went and stuck the stick… Read more
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New York I Love You
It’s been a while since I did a cover. Apologies for the slightly ropey singing and playing. But the emotion is there. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1XF2Uq-56lvzpVXhQzxZZOwVFQzW6mua-/view?usp=drivesdk Read more
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REVIEW: Janette Mason featuring David McAlmont – Pizza Express High Holborn, 25th June 2021
David McAlmont is a star regardless of whether he’s walking down Streatham Hill, or dropping off a mattress at the local tip, or on stage in front of thousands of adoring fans. And he’s also a star in front of a socially distanced audience in the basement of a Pizza Express in central London, muching… Read more
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Gonna be a painter all my life
There’s an old Hefner song called Alan Bean, named after the fourth man on the moon. It always got to me, because Alan Bean went to space, saw the earth spinning away beneath him, and knew what he wanted to be. “Gonna be a painter all my life,” sings Hayman, as Bean. It almost feels… Read more
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Ruthless Window by James Walsh: the story of a debut album
The problem with life, like history, is that it’s just one thing after another. I’ve always struggled to process things while they’re happening, both in terms of what I’ve done (good and bad) and what has been done to me (ditto). Time whooshes by like one of Douglas Adams’ deadlines, and so it’s taken me… Read more
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Paul Draper at Electric Brixton, performs Attack of the Grey Lantern, looks like Luke Skywalker
I tried to get out of the habit of going to nostalgia shows, as there’s something strange about wallpapering over memories of seeing bands at their peak with memories of exactly the same people singing exactly the same songs twenty years later. This is particularly so for the reverent album playback show. Remember how annoyed… Read more
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