I can remember reading once that Barry Gibb reportedly earned more money for writing the song Grease than any one person has ever earned for a solitary song in music history. Something both highly contestable and near-on impossible to quantify, but who cares, it’s a great fun fact. Even if the “fact” aspect is mightily…
Tag: Music
Martin Luther King 50 Years On: Commodores Bassist Ronald LaPread Recalls The Day He Met Him – My NZ Herald Article
Last week the New Zealand Herald published my article about the 50th anniversary of the death of Martin Luther King Junior. Click here to link to the piece that details my 2016 visit to the site of King’s assassination, the Lorraine Motel in Memphis. If you’re planning a trip to the States and Memphis is somehow missing…
30 Years Since Andy Gibb Died, Why It’s Time To Re-Examine His Career
It’s 30 years since one of the biggest teen idols of them all, Andy Gibb, passed away. Given that this month also marks what would’ve been Andy’s 60th birthday, I wanted to post an updated version of an article I wrote in 2013 that I hoped would encourage people to re-examine his life and career. Five years on…
Cat Stevens Live: My NZ Herald Review Of His ‘Intimate And Grand’ Auckland Concert
It’s not everyday you get a retweet from Cat Stevens. Indeed it would be slightly odd if Cat Stevens/Yusuf Islam loved your Twitter feed to such an extent. But a one off? I’ll take it. Apparently the man himself liked my review of his Auckland concert late last year and humbly said, that’s a massive…
Why It’s Wrong To Call Maurice Gibb “The Quiet Bee Gee” – 15 Years Since His Death
He was the glue, the joker, the multi-instrumentalist and the rock ‘n’ roll of the Bee Gees and this month, it’s 15 years since Maurice Gibb’s sudden death. Thinking back to the news headlines after Maurice died (due to complications from a twisted intestine), so many stories referred to him as “the quiet Bee Gee”…
Saturday Night Fever Turns 40, Barry Gibb Gets A Knighthood & This Music Geek Discovers Something Unusual About The Fever Songs
Barry Gibb has a knighthood and I’m a happy man. I’m not much into numerology, but there is something about the Gibb family and the number 7. The Bee Gees had their first international hits in 1967, they released what became the biggest selling album of all time in 1977, they stormed back to the top of…
Paul McCartney Live: My NZ Herald Review Of His ‘Profound’ Auckland Concert
On Saturday I had the honour of being asked to review the Paul McCartney concert in Auckland for the New Zealand Herald. The pressure! With an understandably tight deadline, I was up until 3am trying to capture what made this three-hour event so remarkable. Here is the link: Review: Paul McCartney’s ‘profound’ Auckland concert Thanks…
Happy 65th To The Coolest Man In Music – A Coast Soul Special For Nile Rodgers
In a post-David Bowie world, is there a cooler musician alive than Nile Rodgers? I’m not certain there is. Aside from what he can do rhythmically with an electric guitar, there are the dreads, the sunnies, the beret, the suits and most crucially, the sense of being entirely comfortable in his own skin. Turning 65…
Barry Gibb: ‘You’re living in the now and you don’t know what’s going to happen tomorrow’ – Our Extended 2009 Interview
Bee Gees with their Saturday Night Fever Album Of The Year Grammy, 1979. Barry Gibb once told me this was up there with the favourite interviews he’s ever done. Well Barry, it’s fair to say the feeling is mutual, though more to the point, the gratitude and the pleasure is mine. To mark the…
40 Years Since Elvis Died, The Night That Saved His Career & Sealed His Legacy – My NZ Herald Tribute
Today the New Zealand Herald published my tribute to Elvis on the 40th anniversary of his death. How do you sum up the career of arguably the most important figure in the history of popular music in 800 words? Well, I gave it my best shot. And the angle for me was that the famous 68…
Goodbye To Joy Ramirez – The Stunning Stevie Wonder Song She Had At Her Wedding
Just over 24 hours ago I heard that one of my oldest and most remarkable friends had died in a tragic accident on her honeymoon in Vanuatu. I will never, ever forget Joy Ramirez and right now I feel very much in denial. Because Joy was always there for me. Though as I’m increasingly discovering, she…
Glen Campbell Dies – Watch Him Sing & Play The Bagpipes On Amazing Grace
It’s really sad to hear that Glen Campbell has died at the age of 81, his final years ever increasingly affected by Alzheimer’s. As soon as I heard the news I remembered this clip below and the blog post I wrote back in 2011. I was hosting a late night talk radio show and I’d…