Brooklyn, June 29: David Byrne is on precious downtime, but he’s still eager to talk in his um-er-oh-maybe-I guess manner; it’s the verbal shorthand for what makes his nervous tics tick, but it’s so ineffably David Byrne it’s almost endearing (except when they go on to deliberate amongst themselves, that is; then it becomes finger-tapping tedious). His time
Slow, deliberate and with meticulous attention to detail, Trent Reznor isn’t the kind of musician to deliver glib answers. Put this down to the Nine Inch Nails frontman (and film soundtrack composer) having the kind of self-discipline that comes with not only maturity but also having lived a life fully charged. In other words,
Dark, demented, tormented, torrid and tetchy? Oh, I don’t think so. The Cure’s Robert Smith might have gained something of a reputation in his 40-year-plus tenure as the leader of one of the most enduring of alternative post-punk bands, but these days you will find him basking in the glow of sun shining throughout The
The voice is slight yet unmistakable, but the mindset remains as firm, if not steely, as it has always been. Paul Simon may be closer to 80 than 70, but the songwriter – who in 2007 was the first recipient of the Library of Congress’s Gershwin Prize for Popular Song – is having none of the ‘elder statesman’ discourse.
Pennie Smith on her photo of The Clash, which has been voted the Best Rock’n’Roll Photograph Of All Time: “I’m so familiar with it that I can’t assess it. I’m astonished that it’s taken off so well. For me, taking it, it was feeling that something was about to happen. I saw Paul Simonon lift his guitar from his
Ruth Negga looks so compact and anchored sitting in a large sofa chair, covered from neck to toe in very stylish, dark clothes, that she seems like a small statue in need of sightseers or admirers. Certainly, the Irish-Ethiopian actor has no shortage of the latter, as her profile has risen so much in the past few months that
Rebecca Miller knows that people will want to ask her questions about her father (the Pulitzer Prize-winning American playwright Arthur Miller) and her husband (triple Oscar-winning, British-Irish citizen, Daniel Day-Lewis), but that doesn’t mean to say she’s going to listen to, let alone answer, them. We met several months ago in Dublin, when she was attending the Audi Dublin
Culture Vultures? It’s an as-and-when-required ‘salon’-themed pop culture event, curated/hosted/presented by me. It consists, essentially, of words and music. The ‘words’ part features a public interview, and there is also some form of spoken word/comedy and music in the blend. Past events have featured music from Lisa O’Neill, HamsandwicH, Jack O’Rourke, Cathy Davey, David Keenan, and Divine Comedy; spoken word/comedy
Tony Clayton-Lea is an Irish-based freelance journalist/writer/editor who writes on music, arts, and pop culture (and travel/hospitality) for a variety of print and online outlets.
Email: tclaytonlea@gmail.com
This is the personal website for Tony Clayton-Lea.