Mark & Kate introduce the new issue of The Word
Posted by The Word on 7 October 2008 - 6:08pm.
A gleaming new addition of The Word hits the shelves this week, so Mark Ellen and Kate Mossman have prised themselves away from the publishing coalface to introduce the issue and read some of their favourite passages.
Also in this month's issue: Andrew Collins catches up with the post-Mercury Elbow and Rob Fitzpatrick meets Bruce Parry, plus James Bond, the art of Barney Bubbles, Neil Halstead, the Best and Worst micro-celebrities, David Sedaris, the imposters of rock, Little Jackie, musical memoirs, Tony Christie, Flight Of The Conchords' Rhys Darby, Magazine, Kiefer Surtherland, Loudon Wainwright, Denis Norden, Jean-Jacques Burnel, Edwyn Collins, Kelly Deal and 23 heaving pages of reviews. It's literally full of very good things.
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Stop... carry on.
Very fine Andrew Collins cover piece on Elbow, as you'd expect. But Guy Garvey was clearly tempting fate with his claim "I sometimes get the feeling, especially when we're playing live, that if we all stopped, it would somehow carry on" - because the first night of their tour ground to a halt in under a minute in Cambridge last night. They eventually got themselves together, of course, and the evening was as sublime as you'd expect. (Review at http://www.cambridge-news.co.uk/cn_lifestyle_music/ if you're interested.)
Found myself
reading an item on the letters page and slowly realising it was my own post to this site. Thats dangerous in the hands of a drunken poster! Sadly mine was done in the cold light of soberdom.
Nice issue, particularly for the pic of Edwyn Collins in birdwatching hat
Barney Bubbles!
Did the idea for the article come from the brief discussion of his work on this site?
This is the first issue in a while that I'm really looking forward to.
My Life In The Bush Of Ghosts.
I loved the Eno/Byrne piece. Their debut was an amazing album and still sounds fresh as it did all those years ago.
And another unshaven bloke on the cover
I have been waiting or a cover story on a female artist for 11 months now.
If none has materialised until my subscription is over I won't renew it.
Rant over.
My review of page 76
While I am not a fan of Edwyn Collin’s music, it would take a very hard heart not to be moved by the story of his recovery following an appalling run of poor health. I loved his account of how a boyhood interest in birds was, many decades later, instrumental in helping him to regain some of his motor skills and improve the quality of his life. Musical legacy aside, he stands as living breathing proof that the things you are passionate about are what will save you in the end.
It also bears mentioning that serial knitter, Kelley Deal, was responsible for Go to the Sugar Altar which is, in my opinion, the definitive Generation X album – Its apathetic sentiments best summed-up by the chorus of lead song Canyon:
”All we had to do
Was catch bus number two
Now we sleep on the couch
Cats eat out of our mouths”
Another high point on the album is a track called Sugar; reminiscent of a half-arsed TLC demo, and what contemporary RnB would sound like, sheared of its impetus and production.
Is Kate wearing...
... a satin black tour jacket with detachable sleeves? Excellent if she is!