Jackson’s Way - August 2004 The Sunday Times - August 1st, 2004

The American motivational speaker has rapidly become a staple of character comedy, which returns to the fringe in cycles of approximately three years. On paper then, Will Adamsdale’s Chris John Jackson, author of Maximum Jackson and inventor of the philosophy of Jackson’s Way, is not an appetising proposition. But Adamsdale merely uses this familiar trope…

An Arthur Shaped Hole - July 2004 The Sunday Times - July 11th, 2004

Like all good mythical heroes, King Arthur is all things to all men. For the poets of the middle ages, his legend provided the perfect empty vessel into which to pour the ideals of Courtly Love. For Henry II, who attempted to legitimise his own rule via Arthurian precedents established in Geoffrey Of Monmouth’s semi-spurious…

The Long Ryders - June 2004 The Sunday Times - June 13th, 2004

The rock band reunion is no longer an inherently embarrassing concept. This Summer, their reputation having swollen considerably in their absence, and their influence evident from Nirvana’s Nevermind onwards, the 80’s American alternative band The Pixies are playing to packed stadiums of former fans, more used to seeing them in tiny clubs, and curious latter…

The Smiths – The Smiths - June 2004 Q Magazine - June 1st, 2004

The Smiths – The Smiths – Rough Trade – Rough 61 Vocals – Morrissey, Guitars, Harmonica – Johnny Marr, Bass – Andy Rourke, Drums – Mike Joyce. Reel Around The Fountain; You’ve Got Everything Now; Miserable Lie; Pretty Girls Make Graves; The Hand That Rocks The Cradle; Still Ill; Hand In Glove; What Difference Does…

Mark E Smith, Man At His Best - April 2004 Esquire Magazine - April 1st, 2004

After over twenty five years in the British Entertainment Industry, Popular Music Division, Manchester’s punk scene survivors The Fall still haven’t developed what record company fat cats might call a Signature Sound. Sometimes they could be a 60’s garage punk relic, at others an over-amplified, over-amphetamined 50’s rockabilly group. Some songs suggest 70’s German experimental…

Fountains Of Wayne - February 2004 The Sunday Times - February 8th, 2004

The name Fountains of Wayne might sound familiar for two reasons. Perhaps you remember them from the two critically acclaimed but commercially unsuccessful late 90’s albums, where they mixed irresistible guitar pop hooks with uncommonly witty and surprisingly sympathetic descriptions of the quietly desperate lives of various suburbanites. Or maybe you’ve seen a garden furniture…