Hack at work.
Killing Bono
"The best book I have ever read about trying to make it in the music business" - Elton John
"A fantastic book, which manages the difficult trick of being simultaneously very funny and very sad." - Bob Geldof
"I was Neil McCormick's fan in school. He was much cooler than me, a much better writer and I thought he'd make a much better rock star. I was wrong on one count. He's written a great book" - Bono
Nas and Damian Marley: two tribes don’t go to war
Nas and Damian Marley, Hammersmith Apollo live review * * * * *
Published: 21 Jul 2010
the dude with the hair is the reggae superstar
The police were out in force for this concert bringing together superstars of two musical genres not particularly celebrated for advocating compliance with the letter of the law: hip hop and reggae. Perhaps it was the explicit declaration of opening number ’As We Enter’ that had Her Majesty’s constabulary concerned, when rapper Nasir Jones declares “I got the guns” and Damian Marley gleefully responds “And I got the ganja.”
Any apprehension that this might prove anything other than a celebratory union of exceptional talents was misplaced. Hammersmith Apollo was packed with the loudest, happiest, most upbeat audience I have witnessed in a while, and it wasn’t all down to secondary inhalation.
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A health clause would be bad for music
October 23rd, 2009
HMV inspirations: some of these people may be on drugs, you know.
This week, the former boss of Island Records, Marc Marot, gained headlines when he floated the ludicrous and entirely unworkable notion that record companies should be able to suspend artists who are “self-harming” with drugs, or displaying other personal health problems such as anorexia and depression. This was presented as a “health clause”, something that would benefit troubled artists, although given the record industries own long and not very respectable history of narcotic consumption, I can’t imagine many artists taking health advice from a record executive.
By coincidence, this week I received, from HMV, a very nice calendar featuring handsome black and white pictures of a selection of music business icons. It includes Amy Winehouse, Keith Richards, Bobby Gillespie of Primal Scream, Bob Dylan, Elvis Presley, Noel Gallagher, Paul McCartney, Bob Marley, Tom Waits and David Bowie. Now, believe it or not, some of these people actually used drugs. Indeed, from a purely artistic point of view, you’d have to say that some of them did their best work under the influence of drugs and alcohol.
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