Captain & Tennille. I’m mildly gutted to hear Captain & Tennille are divorcing. After 39 years of marriage! I only found this out when I saw that this Valentine’s Day was 40 years since they married. Unsure whether they were still a couple, a quick Google search revealed they’d gotten a divorce just last month….
Category: Artists: A-C
‘Valentine’s Day’ By Bruce Springsteen – One Of His Most Underrated Ballads
Happy Valentine’s Day everyone. Here’s one of the great underrated Bruce Springsteen ballads, Valentine’s Day, from 1987’s Tunnel Of Love. It’s a reflective, melancholy piece with some spiritual themes too. This has always been my favourite verse: They say if you die in your dreams you really die in your bed But honey last night I dreamed…
RIP Philip Seymour Hoffman – A Sad, Stunning Burt Bacharach Instrumental In Tribute
Philip Seymour Hoffman. Some people mock the tributes and grief seen on social media when celebrities die, as if we kid ourselves into thinking we’ll miss people we never knew in the first place. Maybe sometimes there’s a slither of truth in that, but it overlooks our ability to be profoundly inspired by figures we…
Sophie Madeleine Covers The Bee Gees ‘You Win Again’ – Why This Is Complex, Unusual Pop Music
Sophie Madeleine. To celebrate Barry Gibb’s announcement of his first solo American concert dates, here’s a charming little cover of the Bee Gees 1987 UK #1 hit You Win Again. Performed by British singer Sophie Madeleine in 2011, it was part of her 30 Covers 30 Days project. On her YouTube site she explains: “Being…
RIP Phil Everly – A Forgotten 80s Top 10 Hit With Cliff Richard
Single sleeve, 1983. Phil Everly – one half of pioneering rock ‘n’ roll duo The Everly Brothers – has died aged 74. My appreciation of The Everly Brothers initially came through the incredible artists they directly influenced – everyone from the Beatles to the Beach Boys to Simon and Garfunkel to Bob Dylan to the…
The Real Barry Gibb Appears On The Barry Gibb Talk Show: The Symbolism Of It All + What He Was Wearing Around His Neck
Justin Timberlake (Robin Gibb), Barry Gibb & Jimmy Fallon (Barry Gibb). *SEE JANUARY 6TH UPDATE BELOW. Christmas has come early, the real Barry Gibb has just performed on the beloved Saturday Night Live skit The Barry Gibb Talk Show. And what was he wearing around his neck? The pounamu (greenstone) he was given in New…
Alicia Keys Concert Review Vector Arena, Auckland – Plus 2 Of Her Songs Bacharach Would Be Proud Of
Alicia Keys. I tweeted last night that five years ago Alicia Keys at Vector Arena rocketed into my all-time top 10 concerts and that there was no pressure on Alicia as a result. When she was nearly 30 minutes late taking the stage, rumours* started circulating that due to my tweet she was feeling overwhelmed…
Bee Gees Cracking Jokes & Singing Silent Night On Cilla Black’s 1983 Christmas Special
From a nonexistent Bee Gees LP, photo circa 1973. Less than two weeks out from Christmas, it’s time for a good Christmas-y post, so here are two clips, one from the Bee Gees and the other from Sheryl Crow. The Bee Gees clip is both charming and unique. Appearing on Cilla Black’s TV show in…
30 Years Since Beach Boy Dennis Wilson’s Death – The Stunning Surf Gospel Of ‘River Song’
Dennis Wilson. Yesterday would’ve been the 69th birthday of Beach Boy Dennis Wilson so I played a bit of his spectacular solo work River Song on the radio in his honour. After playing the clip it occurred to me it must be close to 30 years since his death (through drowning) and a quick Google…
20 Years Since The Bee Gees ‘For Whom The Bell Tolls’ – Their Finest Post-Fever Song?
Maurice, Barry and Robin Gibb – 1993. This November marked 20 years since the Bee Gees released one of the strongest ballads of their career with a song that – had it not been for the likes of Mr Blobby – may’ve even been a UK Christmas #1. As it turned out, the brothers had…
Lulu Turns 65 – A Motown-Sounding Bee Gees Song From 1993
Lulu with then husband Maurice Gibb circa 1970. Lulu turned 65 this week so here’s a song of hers’ which should’ve been a smash hit during her early 90s comeback, but somehow missed. Written by the Bee Gees (including ex-husband Maurice Gibb), Let Me Wake Up In Your Arms was one of several Motown-styled songs…
When Alicia Keys Turned Vector Arena Into The Apollo Theatre
Alicia Keys. Alicia Keys is returning to New Zealand for the first time in five years and I would still rate that December 2008 concert as one of the top 10 I’ve been to. Auckland’s Vector Arena felt like the Apollo Theatre that night as Keys delivered a show looser, rowdier and more gospel sounding…
