Often there’s no rhyme nor reason as to why some songs become hits and others not. Take the band Fun, best known for the fairly poppy We Are Young (a massive US #1 hit) as well as the far more interesting Some Nights (US #3), complete with its schizophrenic Simon & Garfunkel meets the Eagles meets a…
The Barry Gibb Interview 2012 – The Full Transcript Plus Another Forgotten Bee Gees Classic
A few weeks ago I interviewed (alongside my co-host on Newstalk ZB’s The Two, Pam Corkery) the last remaining Gibb brother, Bee Gee Barry Gibb. A feature article based on this interview will be appearing in New Zealand’s number one current affairs magazine The Listener in January ahead of Barry’s concert at the Mission in…
Pink’s Domestic Violence Ballet ‘Try’ – Her Greatest Song Yet
A still from the video for Try. Just a short post to follow-up on a discussion Pam Corkery and I had on last night’s episode of The Two (Newstalk ZB, Sunday evenings, 9pm-midnight) about Pink’s latest song, Try. I don’t know a great deal about what constitutes pioneering dance choreography, but as far as I can…
When A Great Band Gets A Good Album’s First Single Wrong #U2 #TheKillers
Apologies for the hashtags in the headline, but two of my favourite bands have erred in recent times with their new album’s first single and somebody needs to come forward and tell them. Pick me! Today I was at JB HiFi and was reminded of just how brilliant and inspirational U2 can be. Lots of…
4 More Years For Obama – The Irony Of Springsteen’s Campaign Theme Song
It’s almost a week since President Obama won a second term so it’s about time I loaded up a relevant song to The Roxborogh Report to mark the occasion. I’ve gone with what became the campaign theme song, Bruce Springsteen’s We Take Care Of Our Own from his most recent album Wrecking Ball. The song…
Why Rod Stewart’s Shag-tastic Autobiography Is Genuinely Inspiring, Plus A Forgotten Early Fave
I’ve just got home from four nights in Melbourne and in between a reunion with a dozen of the best Aussies I’ve ever met, taking in Derby Day at Flemington, playing (and losing) tennis with a long-time rival and catching up with my sister and brother-in-law, I found time to read Rod Stewart’s brand new…
Barry Gibb & Spirituality: One Of His Most Emotional, Revealing Interviews
One of the most beautiful albums in the Gibb cannon, 1981’s Living Eyes. Two days on and the feedback from Barry Gibb’s interview on Sunday evening’s episode of The Two has been overwhelming. That said, it’s fair to say that after all previous interviews I’ve done with Barry stretching back to 2005 (this is interview #5), the response…
The Greatest Album The Band Never Recorded – Bee Gee Barry Gibb Joins ‘The Two’.
This Sunday evening’s episode of The Two (Newstalk ZB, 9pm-midnight) features my biggest hero as our special guest. Barry Gibb is the last man standing; the only surviving Gibb brother; a man who has experienced success so astonishing as to make him the second most successful pop songwriter in history after Paul McCartney (according to…
Martin Crowe Diagnosed With Cancer – His Finest ODI Innings
A couple of weeks ago I wrote about one of my closest friends who was celebrating his 50th birthday, Martin Crowe. Today I am writing to offer him, his wife Lorraine and the rest of their family my love as they face first the shock, and then the challenge of cancer, in this case lymphoma. The…
How To Win Over People Ignorant About The Bee Gees
The good news: Barry Gibb has included a concert in Napier, New Zealand on February 23rd as part of his Mythology world tour. The bad news: Idiots still have access to the internet. I know I shouldn’t get defensive about online nonsense written about the Gibbs, but every now and then it’s fun to engage…
Ratings For Newstalk ZB’s ‘The Two’ Go Through The Roof
Pam Corkery Just a quick entry to say a heartfelt thanks to two colleagues and friends. One year ago, the Sunday evening 9pm-midnight show on Newstalk ZB was the number one rated show for its timeslot in New Zealand with a percentage of the Auckland listening audience at 13%. Six months later the show had morphed into…
New Zealand’s Kauri Coast – Luxury Amidst Some Of The World’s Largest & Oldest Trees
Kauri from Trounson Forest, near Waipoua Forest. With seven years as a kid in Malaysia, the slightly odd pairing of a simultaneous love of jungle and skyscrapers almost seems in my DNA. Normally people love one and hate the other – I love both. That doesn’t mean I like stubby dumps like the 12-17 storey…
