Classic Stereo recordings by the great British conductor Sir Adrian Boult are released in a wonderful new 79CD edition by Warner Classics this month, assembling in fine style his Columbia, EMI/HMV, Pye…
Category: MUSIC
Five Leaves Left: Robert Kenchington
“One day he’ll be a famous conductor!” said Molly Drake as her five year old son, Nick, waved in time with the music on his nursery wind-up gramophone. If only. As history…
CHRISTOPH VON DOHNÁNYI (1929 – 2025): Obituary by Neil Fulwood
Christoph von Dohnányi died on 6 September 2025, two days shy of his 96th birthday. To say he’d led a full life would be an understatement. It’d be no exaggeration, in fact,…
CARRY ON SARGENT
Edwardian Dandy, savvy Savoyard and Imperial Father of the Proms, Sir Malcolm Sargent (1895 -1967) has, like many great musicians of the past, been all too easily typecast. Even before his death,…
KLAUS MÄKELÄ: A massive hope for the future – Robert Kenchington
Emerging from the ruins of a Classical music industry broken by recession, COVID and post millennial gimmickry, is a phenomenal new artist who within the space of only five years has become…
The Timbre of Tucson: An Abundance of Music from the Old Pueblo- Mike Grover
Mike Grover on the Tucson Music Scene an in depth look.
Carlos Kleiber: The idol with feet of clay – Robert Kenchington
The slow death of Carlos Kleiber
ALFRED BRENDEL (1931-2025) – Neil Fulwood
An Appreciation by Neil Fulwood How to describe Alfred Brendel? As a pianist, obviously – one of the greatest concert pianists who ever lived. A musician of immense talent and versatility.But also:…
The Symphonies of Hans Werner Henze – Jonathan Taylor
Gesamtkunstwerk in the Head: The Symphonies of Hans Werner Henze For all its claims to absolute music, the symphony has always been a hybrid – maybe even omnivorous – musical genre, constantly renewing…
Canadee-I-O in Nottingham: Del Barber and Sarah Jane Scouten
My last post was a tad downbeat about music futures in Nottingham and indeed in general as the outlook for touring acts looked grim and the fundamentals still pretty much the same….
Dirty Realists – Touring a fixed bout?
Last night I attended the Rod Picott gig at The Running Horse Nottingham which was enjoyable but also raised more questions than it answered. Rod Picott has been plying his wares around…
The Lost American Songwriter – Tom Pacheco
Back in the olden days before Camden Town turned into a cheap seaside and etsy version of itself..before coffee shops and beardy tattoo parlours there was an excellent record shop at 281…
Rare Car Boot Violinists – Kogan and Oistrakh
One of the joys of car-booting is you never know what you might turn up. The charity shops have long since armed themselves with discogs and ebay, so much so that some…
The Go-Betweens – a life-time commitment
I recently met a neighbour who unbeknown to me shared a life-long passion for the Australian group The Go-Betweens. He introduced me to a facebook group called Right Here: The Go-Betweens Appreciation…
Sinatra Capitol LPs – the Grey Label search
The Sinatra Obsession The Fascination become an obsession. Through reading avidly on the Steve Hoffman forums ( he remasters for Capitol) where such matters are discussed in immense detail I have come…
Open Country – The crazy CBS/Sunday Times triple LP sampler 1972
I picked up this insane triple album in Nottingham for a pound…i.e. 33 1/3p per disc 🙂 The image is a woman with plastic animals all over…mad but reminds me of…
Joe South – Midnight Rainbows
Bargain of the year! This almost mint copy of Joe South’s second to last album from 1975 cost me 50p. I have seen cover many times over the years but never investigated…
White Music – January 1978 – XTC in the shires..
White or Red Stripes? The out-takes from cover photo session for Virgin first album. You can see the cans of lager in these other photos. The record company airbrushed out on the…
Chuck Berry re-takes on Mercury 1966
If you see this mid-price compilation from Spain from 1967 grab it as it is a re-badging of the Mercury Studios 1966 re-takes session Berry did when he swapped labels moving…
Ramblin Jack Elliott and Trailer Star
I always had a soft spot for Ramblin Jack Elliott (born Elliot Adnopoz in Brooklyn yes the original Jewish Beat Cowboy before Zimmerman 🙂 ) not only because of the obvious Dylan…