The Crescent was a concrete fortress of foxhole-like flats, a bleak place where even in summertime the chill winds rattled the rusty letterboxes that had been nailed shut to stop summonses being served, and to prevent irate unpaid dealers from pouring petrol onto threadbare carpets & naked concrete floors. The Crescent was located in…

Mods in the Metropolis  “All the others are third class tickets, is that clear?”   If you are unfamiliar with the 1965 minor hit from whence the lyric above is taken, the High Numbers’: ‘I’m the Face’, then shorn of its cultural context you will probably draw a blank as to the exact meaning of the…

It was whilst trying to pass a seemingly endless autumnal evening that I began to absent-mindedly browse through a series of sepia and black and white pictures on a website. Suddenly I came across an image that immediately piqued my interest: it was both enigmatic, poetic and unutterably sad. After taking in its stark beauty…

◊ When the Lions of Ladbroke Grove Came to Town ◊ Photo by US Photographer Bob Gruen This remarkable shot is of the ‘lions of Ladbroke Grove’, aka the Clash, by the US photographer and friend of the band, Bob Gruen, taken circa 1978/79. The Clash were almost unique in that one can predict with a high…

Darkness Then Salvation? A Reassessment of ‘the Death and Resurrection Show’ With Director: Shaun Pettigrew If like me you are keenly attuned to the gloriously gnarly sturm und drang of the mighty Killing Joke, and the plethora of interesting non-band projects that trail in their white-hot wake, then the last 18 months or so have…

If you are possessed of a strong stomach and an iron constitution, then try to watch terrestrial TV on a Saturday evening and struggle with the seemingly endless parade of vapid ‘variety’ acts peddling their tawdry and talentless miniscule talent, seemingly happy to risk the audiences rabid opprobrium for their 15 milliseconds of fame. Sorry…

Far too many albums over the last four decades and change have been granted the status, and by extension the artistic gravitas, of being a: ‘classic album’. One album however, released in dim & distant 1978, bangs that particular gong loud and clear. The album in question is Public Image Limited’s peerless, avowedly fabulous First…

I first set my jaded eyes & allegedly discerning ears upon the triumvirate that trade under the nomme de gare of: ’the Subterranean Gentleman’ (shortened to a curt but cute ‘Sub Gents’) about a year ago at Manchester’s ‘Rebellion’ venue,  and I opined then that their robust & rattling set had left the venue’s skeletal…

As we await with tremulous hearts for ‘Twilight of the Mortals’ to thump thunderously onto our doormats, or elbow its way into some people’s expectant (real life) mail boxes, it now transpires that one of Mont’s powerful shots of Killing Joke’s mercurial and enigmatic leader Jaz Coleman, can now be seen gracing the cover of…

Mont Sherar is a multi-platform artist who’s extraordinary timeline, through either planetary alignment or fated happenstance, has at crucial times overlapped with that of the mighty musical force of nature called Killing Joke. Like a trusted and embedded war photographer/ filmmaker, Mont has captured many hitherto unseen sides and perspectives of this unique band. Perhaps…

The Subterranean Gentlemen: Blood In The Tracks ‘Searchlight Eyes’ b/w ‘Those Creeps’ I came to the seemingly inescapable conclusion some time ago that minus a few no(ta)ble exceptions, what had come to be regarded as the ‘classic’ configuration of a band (bass, guitar, drums and vocals) and the music it produces thereof, was clearly suffering…

As austerity bites, so too do Kill The Colossi! Very few bands get it right first time of asking. Even those acknowledged masters of the pop idiom, the Stones & the Beatles, stumbled a little at the off, with both issuing pretty insipid and uninspired lead-off singles; that’s if we’re being completely honest. Bournemouth’s (the…