books, magazines, reading
I first heard the Go-Betweens when a live version of their stand alone single Hammer the Hammer was included on the first JJJ Live at the Wireless album in 1983, which still ranks among my favourites, with outstanding performances by Private Lives, Hoodoo Gurus, Do-Re-Mi, The Triffids and The Particles, among others. The Go-Betweens track …
Reviewing creative works by friends can often be tricky. You don’t want to be overly gushing, even when the work is obviously great, because people will think you’re just being nice to a friend. And then it’s also easy to slip into being unreasonably critical, which may well endanger your friendship, especially if you make …
The Last of the Apple Blossom, by Mary-Lou Stephens Read More »
I really enjoyed reading Rickie Lee Jones‘ autobiography, Last Chance Texaco: Chronicles of a Troubadour. It’s as idiosyncratic, off-centre, expressive and polished as her best musical work. It swings wildly in style from ancedotal – almost casual – reporting of some pretty terrible events for a young teenager to verbatim conversations at some of her …
Time for another book report, this time on Loud, by Tana Douglas. Acknowledged as the world’s first female roadie, Douglas scored a chapter to herself in Stuart Coupe’s excellent 2018 book Roadies, which told just enough of her story to leave me and I’m sure a lot of others wanting to know more. And here …
Finished Behind Dark Eyes by Jeff Apter last night – LATE last night coz I couldn’t stop reading. This is a cracking good read for a number of reasons. Jon English was a fascinating bloke. A Sydney westie who carved a career in rock & pop, theatre and TV out of a powerful voice and …
It was a good reading year for me (meaning I found time to read). Here’s the 36 books I did read (in the order I read them) and the reason I didn’t finish the 37th. Me: Elton John The Song Remains the Same: Andrew Ford & Anni Heino The Wichita Lineman: Dylan Jones The David …
Current reading: Tune In by Mark Lewisohn, which is the first volume of his trilogy The Beatles: All These Years. Clocking in at a lazy 946 pages (to be fair, that includes 102 pages of notes, credits and index), this covers The Beatles from birth (actually quite a lot of family history) to December 1962. …
From the birthday haul: Nick of Time is a memoir by Nick Hampton about his time at recording houses EMI and CBS, in Australia and overseas. I thought it might be a bit dry, but it really rocks along. Like Jeff Apter’s recent George Young bio Friday on My Mind and Stuart Coupe’s Paul Kelly …
From the time I started messing about on the web, books have formed a core part of my ongoing professional development in web technology. True, I am a book fanatic anyway (my total home library exceeds 4,000 physical volumes) but web design and development seemed particularly suited to propping open a book next to the …
Appropriately enough, I finished this book, subtitled How Australian Music Changed the World, on Australia Day. That’s appropriate on two fronts. First, the focus of Up from Down Under is the success of Australian bands in the US and other overseas markets, specifically Peter Allen, Helen Reddy, Olivia Newton John, the Little River Band, the …