“We want to play for you now a gospel song, a gospel song with a restless spirit”. What a beautiful and succinct way to describe one of the most meaningful hits of the 80s and from an album that’s just as powerful 30 years on as it was in 1987. U2 would’ve performed I Still…
Category: Music
Music With A Message – Why Pop Matters
A few weeks back I was interviewed on another Newstalk ZB show, Total Recall, about pop songs that have a message and a conscience. As someone who loves popular music and the possibilities of the format (including when it’s being highly socially charged) this is one of my favourite topics. In the clip below (approximately…
5 Years On From The Deaths Of Donna Summer & Robin Gibb – Why They Were So Much More Than The 70s
It’s five years ago this week since two icons of the 70s disco era, Donna Summer and Robin Gibb, both passed away. It was May 17, 2012 that a 63-year old Summer died of lung cancer. Just three days later the headlines shifted to Gibb’s death from colorectal cancer aged 62. People talk about 2016…
Coast Soul Turns 1! Celebrating 50 Years Of The Greatest Soul & R&B
My soul and R&B iHeartRadio station and Coast FM radio show, Coast Soul, turned one last week. To celebrate, all the featured artists were the greatest of the great – think Stevie Wonder, Marvin Gaye, Michael Jackson, the Temptations, Diana Ross, the Commodores, Aretha Franklin etc. One of the joys of creating this station is the balance between…
Samantha Gibb: ‘The man knew how to rock a fedora’ – An Extended Interview Ahead Of The New Bee Gees Tribute Album
The Gibb Collective is a Bee Gees and Andy Gibb tribute album with a twist: all the performers are related to Barry, Robin, Maurice and Andy. What began as just Samantha Gibb (daughter of Maurice) recording a cover of New York Mining Disaster 1941 evolved into a 10-track album including her brother Adam as well…
Watch Keith Urban Nail His Tribute To The Bee Gees
2017 marks 40 years since the release of a soundtrack of such cultural and commercial impact that not only did it become for a time the biggest selling album ever, but people as varied as Dave Grohl, Burt Bacharach and George Benson still hail it as being about as good as pop music gets. Saturday…
How The Bee Gees Always Had The Best Opening Lines – 50yrs Since New York Mining Disaster 1941 Launched Them To Fame
It was 50 years ago yesterday that the Bee Gees first official international single, New York Mining Disaster 1941, was released. Spicks & Specks before it had been a hit in New Zealand, Australia and in the Netherlands too, but it was New York Mining Disaster 1941 in April 1967 that launched the brothers Gibb to instant…
When Aretha Franklin Covered A Song By An Unknown Singer/Songwriter Named Elton John
With Aretha Franklin turning 75 on Saturday and Elton John 70, it makes sense to honour them with the song that has unified these two giants of popular music for almost 50 years. The year was 1970 and a little known 23-year old English lad – real name Reginald Kenneth Dwight – had just had…
How A Bored-Looking Simon & Garfunkel Smashed Their Chuck Berry Cover Out Of Central Park
It was in the early 80s when I was about 3 or 4 years old that I was first introduced to the music of Chuck Berry. Dad brought home the cassette tape of Simon & Garfunkel’s The Concert In Central Park and amidst all the P. Simon writers credits was one for a certain C. Berry. This…
LA’s Greatest Rock & Roll Hotels – My Let’s Travel Mag Article On The Sunset Marquis & The Redbury
The latest issue of New Zealand’s number one travel magazine, Let’s Travel, is out and it features my article about two of the coolest hotels I’ve ever stayed at. The theme of the piece is about the “greatest rock & roll hotels”, focusing on two in LA that sit at the top of the heap….
Top 20 Photos From Bruce Springsteen’s Auckland Concert, Feb 25 2017
I’m not going to lie, these images are unlikely to win any awards in the field of concert photography, not least because even with a 30x zoom and a reasonably flash Lumix camera, I was still much further from The Boss than was ideal this past Saturday night in Auckland, New Zealand. That said, they hopefully can give…
Barry Gibb On Piers Morgan’s Life Stories
I’ve just finished watching the 46-minutes of Bee Gee Barry Gibb on Piers Morgan’s Life Stories and as is sometimes the compulsion from late night Gibb activity, I wanted to post a link to it before going to bed. This was a This Is Your Life style production that featured Piers one-on-one with Barry as well…