There Ain’t No Show Like A Joe No-Show

Stand by your wallets, fools – you and your money are soon to be parted. Although it sounds like one of those more-money-than-sense events they used to throw on in the old days of the economic boom (if that ever really happened), some promotional genius really believes this is a winner. Joe Dolan – The Reunion Show runs for […]

I’m Throwing My Arms Around Morrissey’s New 7″…

“There’s a naked man standing laughing in your dreams / You know who it is / but you don’t like what it means” Well, Meat is still too much like Murder, clearly, and what better to protect your modesty than a nice 7″. In 1984, when Morrissey was in The Smiths, he told Smash Hits: […]

Lux Interior 1946-2009

The wider world may not be recording February 4th 2009 as ‘the other day the music died’, but it lost a true original with the sad death of Lux Interior. As a performer, innovator, macabre showman and fetishist extraordinaire, the man who was born Erick Lee Purkhiser taught us that ridicule really is nothing to […]

Miley’s Not A Racist Either

No, apparently she’s just gurning, like she always does. It may look like a scene from Mind Your Language but Miley Cyrus says of her beautiful party photo: “I was simply making a goofy face. When did that become newsworthy?” Maybe she thinks we’re all 12. And I suppose now her achy, breaky dad’s going to claim […]

Conspicuous Consumers: Chris Rea

The Road To Hell is paved with mistaken identities, unseen stars and close brushes with celebrity you’d never know you’d had. And to think I almost missed the man who did his best to put the “miserable” in Middlesborough. One late, thoroughly horrid, Thursday night at the old Our Price store in Neal Street, Covent Garden in […]

Super Trouper, Pooper-Scooper

Ah, Hogmanay. ‘Tis the season for anyone with a dodgy beard and/or a crappy ’70s hairstyle to pretend they’re in Abba. And that, as they say, is just the girls. Yes, it’s the time of year when hundreds of clearly inebriated people pay good (a.k.a. scarce) money to sit in the function room of a soulless country […]

Craig’s Lists 2008 – Albums of the Year

From The Sunday Business Post, 21st December It may be the age of instant, one-song downloads, but 2008 was chock-full of truly excellent and artfully-crafted long-players. Glasgow’s Sons & Daughters got the year off to a fine start with the glossy, girl-group pop of This Gift, while soulful compatriots Glasvegas rose above the hype with […]

Craig’s Lists 2008 – The Worst Albums I Reviewed This Year

All reviews from The Sunday Business Post Jason Donovan: Let It Be Me Poor Scott from Neighbours; after Charlene (Kylie) went off to be a mega-selling pop princess and Mike (Guy Pearce) found Hollywood stardom, he did his best with the slim pop-pickings and Technicolor dreams, stuff that suited his limited voice. Now back on TV, […]

Oh, for crying out LOUD, Rick!

How utterly, fist-down-the-throat mortifying. Now we know why the RDS wasn’t good enough for him. We’ve been stood up, messed around, taken for fools. Well, next time, Rick, we’re gonna change the rules. A big raspberry to you, Astley. And anyway – I preferred Jason Donovan and The Reynolds Girls to you. Back to hairdressing […]

Something Wicked This Way Comes…

Duke Special haunts Dublin’s Olympia theatre tonight… so, apologies to all his fans (and I know they are legion), but I’ve got to say, the guy terrifies me rigid. I know it’s terribly unfair to seem judgmental about someone’s looks but, seriously, the man wants to be scary to those who have the power to resist. […]