Journalist/Broadcaster/Author
Intro: In memory of Adam Schlesinger, who passed away early April, 2020. You’ve seen it on MTV – the way Rachel Hunter might look at you in the video for Fountains of Wayne’s new single, Stacey’s Mom. If there’s any justice, the song will make the New Jersey band very famous and lots of … Read more Interview: Adam Schlesinger/Fountains of Wayne
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 … Read more Interview: Trent Reznor
As career changes go, transferring from pharmacy to songwriting makes sense – both professions need chemistry and a willingness to help people feel better to make them work successfully. Just ask Sallay Garnett, the Irish-Sierra Leone singer and actor who discarded one for the other and survived to tell the tale. Graduating … Read more Interview: Loah
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 … Read more Interview: Robert Smith
Outside the office windows, Dublin hums along. Strains of a busker singing his heart out filter into the room; the stops and starts of city centre traffic underscore the calm conversation with one of Ireland’s most recent creative success stories. You know the face, you know the name, you know the frame, but there was … Read more Interview: Hozier
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 … Read more Interview: Paul Simon
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 … Read more Interview: Pennie Smith
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, Nick Kelly, HamsandwicH, Jack O’Rourke, The Riptide … Read more Culture Vultures – What Exactly Is It?