OCTOBER 2014 ISSUE
A sneaky peek of just some of what is in the October 2014 issue – OUT NOW!
Click to buy this issue and read more…
Jamie Cullum
As cuts to BBC jazz programming loom ominously on the horizon, Radio 2’s listeners can probably rest easily in their beds. Over the past four years, Jamie Cullum’s show has seen its audience steadily increase to the extent that some may have forgotten that the singer-pianist is first and foremost in the business of making music for people to put on their playlists rather than deciding who gets any precious airtime.
The string of albums he recorded between 2001 and 2005, Pointless Nostalgic, Twenty Something and Catching Tales, along with a grueling touring schedule and a ringing endorsement by the likes of prime-time TV personalities such as Michael Parkinson, catapulted Cullum to the kind of mainstream success that is rare for an artist who straddles pop and jazz. The little man from Rochford, Essex became a big name…
Click here to buy and read more…
Afrikan Boy
It was 2006 when Afrikan Boy posted his ode to shoplifting at German discount supermarket chains on youtube. Eight years is a long time in rap, but One Day I Went to Lidl’s appeal hasn’t faded. It’s become the south London rapper’s signature song.
“The generation below me who are 13-14, they know Lidl,” he says, speaking on Skype from his home, as his son is playing in the background. “They were four when I made that track. That’s a song I’ll do as long as I’m alive.”
Fast forward to 2014, and though he’s grateful for Lidl, without which he would never have been called on by MIA to appear on her Kala album, the South Londoner doesn’t want to be seen as a one-youtube-hit wonder. Most of all, he doesn’t want to be seen as a comedian, which many who saw Lidl, assumed he was…
Click here to buy and read more…
Ali Campbell
In years gone by, there was never any need to second-guess the line-up of veteran reggae act UB40. The eight band members had been friends since they were teenagers and split everything equally. They were a model democracy.
Then lead singer Ali Campbell and keyboard player Mickey Virtue quit the band in 2008, claiming financial improprieties. Ali’s older brother Duncan was drafted in as his replacement and UB40 trundled on regardless, with another Campbell brother – rhythm guitarist Robin – assuming leadership duties.
That was the position until earlier this year, when deejay Astro joined the rival camp. That switch of allegiance changed everything. The renegades now had UB40’s two most recognisable front men in their ranks and Ali, who’d been touring under his own name until then, promptly made a grab for the band name…
Click here to buy and read more…
Gedeon Luke
As you might expect from someone whose music has always teetered on the edge of anxiety, Sage Francis isn’t one to do things nice and easy. Preferring to keep several balls in the air, he doesn’t seem to mind overdoing it. But a few weeks before new album Copper Gone is released, he’s wondering how he’s going to keep on top of it all.
Spin back to 2006. A then 17-year-old Gedeon Luke McKinney is performing on season five of American Idol. He’s up there on stage in a shiny, turquoise satin shirt, burning a path, rather impressively, through a cover of The Isley Brothers’ Shout and moving with confidence beyond his tender years. When he finishes, judges Randy Jackson are complimentary. They can both see the obvious potential. [They are music professionals, after all.] Simon Cowell, on the other hand, comments:
“I thought I was watching a warm-up act for The Chippendales.”
I know: what a wanker.
OK, well, Mr Shorty High Heels, best you take a look at Gedeon Luke nowadays and see who he’s warming up for. It should be pretty easy, since you’ll find him on your TV later this month, when he makes his British screen debut on Later With Jools Holland…
Click here to buy and read more…
