Three days of mixed magic and Madness in leafy Surrey, from Thea Gilmore, Love, Cosmic Rough Riders, Alice Cooper, Jesse Malin, a befezzed marching band and more...
On the intro tape, Johnny Cash's austerely remorseless "The Man Comes Around" sets the mood, then Colin MacIntyre's men come pounding out of the traps. For this mini tour, the school choir, feather boa and inflatable sheep of previous expeditions have been packed away, in favour of frill-free punk aggression.
More than three decades on and the Isle Of Wight enjoys a few fleeting flashbacks of brilliance from The Thrills, The Cooper Temple Clause, Iggy Pop and Hell Is For Heroes
Kathleen Edwards was one of the highlights of this year's South By Southwest Festival in Austin. Surely, I thought, she couldn't sound as good on a dull Wednesday night in a dingy London basement. But she could and she did.
The buzz created by her debut, Failer, attracted some top London record company bosses to her first ever UK date. Among those were alt. country specialists Loose—although if they have designs on her, they must have been dismayed by the competition, which included Warner's chief, John Reed.
And he surely could not have failed to be impressed.
