Coldplay let late movie icon Charlie Chaplin speak for them at the beginning of their Glastonbury festival set on Sunday night (26Jun16). As fans awaited the band’s headlining set to close what festival boss Michael Eavis has called the muddiest Glastonbury ever, Chaplin’s speech from his 1940 satire The Great Dictator was played. The movie moment was clearly carefully chosen as a reaction to Thursday’s (23Jun16) ‘Brexit’ vote, when millions of Brits voted to leave the European Union for the first time since the 1940s. In the film, which denounces Adolf Hitler, fascism and anti-Semitism, Chaplin played both a Jewish barber and a fascist dictator. Fans listened as the speech began: “The Kingdom of God is within man – not one man nor a group of men, but in all men! In you! You, the people have the power – the power to create machines. The power to create happiness! You, the people, have the power to make this life free and beautiful, to make this life a wonderful adventure. “We want to live by each other’s happiness, not by each other’s misery. We don’t want to hate and despise one another. In this world there is room for everyone, […]
Brian Wilson takes a walk away from drugs
Brian Wilson wishes he had never experimented with drugs. The 73-year-old musician, most famous for his pioneering work with the Beach Boys, spent much of his younger life as a recluse after developing schizophrenia in the 1960s. The condition means he hears voices, but it only began after he started taking LSD, also known as acid. “LSD made me more creative,” he admitted to Esquire magazine. “It helped me write (Beach Boys’ iconic 1966 album) Pet Sounds. But the voices started after LSD, too.” These voices still haunt Brian, but not all the time. However he admits he often struggles with the things they say to him. “They say different things,” he added. “Like ‘we’re going to hurt you’. It’s crazy! But not all the time, yeah. Like every other day.” Brian was treated for drug addiction and mental health issues by Dr Eugene Landy in the 1970s and ’80s in a desperate bid to put a stop to his reclusive existence. Dr Landy eventually helped Brian to start functioning again, but he later lost his professional licence and was banned from treating the musician following accusations he had brainwashed the star with his extreme method of therapy which […]
Undiscovered Television launch a Jazzy masterpiece
Undiscovered Television, or UTV, is a 4 piece band based in London, who formed in 2015 and now release their debut album Gypsy In A High Rise and their single Smedley Butler’s War . Andy says: “I wrote these 8 pieces to be part of a whole. Yes it’s a post jazz concept album. Rhythmically they span time signatures from 1 through to 11 and deliberately play with angular harmonic ideas to paint a picture of ethnic dislocation and regrouping, of the call of the big city and of dreams stolen in motorway service stations, overwhelmed by new forms and unfamiliar life patterns, and of having to find joy and humour in that”. UTV, consists of James Arben on soprano sax, Andy Lale on 8 string guitar, Martin Teshome playing cello and drums and percussion from Phil Clarke. These instruments have been chosen consciously and compositionally to compliment the full range of the cello and 8 string guitar, which has two bass notes pitched below the usual 6 string guitar. The overall effect is created to evoke unexpected voices through the triggering of samples and pads. Andy is attempting to recreate and build on the soundscape of a jazz quartet. […]
Music Mirror reflects on My Place in the Sun by Reevox
Reevox is a multifaceted band lead by composer Umberto de Martino accompanied by a team of friends including musicians, singers, graphic designers and producers known as Purple Age. Mainly influenced by 70’s rock, America’s West Coast radio sound and the 80 ‘s new wave sound from the UK, Reevox music combines a retro feel with contemporary electro pop. Reevox’s multi-faceted sound inherits a soulful and elegant pop inspired by greats such as Bowie, Pink Floyd, Prefab Sprout, Beck, ELO and Roxy Music, Neil Young, Steely Dan and Depeche Mode, which they infuse with a modern vision, inspired by MGMT, Phoenix, Boz Scaggs, Air, Archive, Radiohead, Fink and Air. Umberto was born in Belgium to a Russian mother and an Italian father. He grew up in Paris and as a teenager, he starts moving between NY and L.A, where he has lived for the last two years. The vast musical culture of the United States of America has led to Umberto to becoming a cosmopolitan musician and composer who adds his own brand of multi-cultural soul to his love of Anglo-Saxon pop. My Place In The Sun is out now in the U.K with distribution from Universal Music Operations. See the […]