Fresh Juice 25th August 2025

Eve Adams – Get Your Hopes Up

Growing up alternating between the rural farm idyll of Oklahoma and more urban surroundings in Los Angeles, Eve began writing music at a very young age and was already showing considerable emotional depth in her songs by the age of twelve. Her latest release is called ‘American Dust’ and arrives on the Topic label continuing her narrative fuelled folk-noir style with a maturity that seems to be really hitting the heights now. In a recent interview with Uncut Magazine she described her music, which pulls in strong visual art elements too, as “a nice little ouroborus”.

Curtis Harding – There She Goes

This is psychedelic soul par excellence, featuring a deep production resplendent with strings, funky rhythm chops and a far-out fuzz guitar solo, it is clear Curtis’s music is going places other soul stirrers cannot reach. This is a recently released stand alone single marking the mans first new music since the acclaimed 2021 album ‘If Words Were Flowers’. In terms of theme Harding has described the song as a tribute to “the beauty and duality of the ideal woman” but I say it skates pretty damn close to the beauty and duality of the ideal soul track. There is much to love here, including the Twilight Zone essence of this accompanying music video.

The Black Keys – Man On A Mission

While I am thinking about psychedelic soul it is fair to say there is a huge element of that very thing in this new music from the Black Keys, that and their ever present raw blues cut and thrust. This one is from the bands brand new album ‘No Rain No Flowers’ released this month on Easy Eye Sound/Parlophone Records. They remain dependably brilliant on this LP which sees them at times return to the blues-rock sound of their roots and elsewhere turn to other modes such as post-punk, retro soul and then, pushing even farther out from those roots, a touch of eighties style synth action. Always worth checking out.

Laura-Mary Carter – June Gloom

This is one part a forlorn country-style ballad and another part a Lana Del Rey style haunting melodrama. Laura-Mary is previously known as one half of Brighton alt-rockers Blood Red Shoes but after two decades pounding down those souls she is now stepping out solo with a striking shift in tone. Hers is now an Americana adjacent motion with a vivid echo in the production that calls to mind a Spector wall of sound and a Velvet Underground-like ghostly shimmer. If that sounds like an appealing cocktail, which it certainly does for me, then be sure to dig out the solo debut album ‘Bye Bye Jackie’ when it arrives later on in September.

The Onlies – Going Across The Sea

Pronounced the own’-leez, these young yet old-timey folk and bluegrass whizz kids are about to release a brand new album called ‘You Climb The Mountain’. This lively number from a recent live performance may not feature in the tracklist but the live footage offered up does give you an idea of the fire and energy this combo possess in spades. It therefore ensures, despite its old fashioned reference points, this has a vitality definitively proving they belong in the here and now of modern times. The album features a wide panoramic view of the emotive range in the sound, from the slow swinging reflection heard in ‘Roll On Buddy’, a railroad song learned from Aunt Molly Jackson, to the punchy picking on show in a vibrant interpretation of the English song ‘Matty Groves’, it is clear The Onlies are explosive talents rightfully demanding our attention.

Studio Electrophonique – How Can I Love Anyone Else?

I am closing this edition with some dreamy electronica, a song that sounds simultaneously retro and modern, both primitive and grandiose in its lush production. It is a rather forlorn piece but there is a warmth in there too, this piece has a piercing autumnal feel ready made for the next season that is already starting to show its colours. This is the solo project of singer-songwriter James Leesley, one of the most interesting and original musical outfits to emerge from Sheffield’s current independent scene. He says this song “existed for a while as just this little arpeggiated interlude I’d play in between writing other songs, kind of like a thinking tune, but then one night it just turned into this swirling fairground ride of a sequence. The full thing came all at once, as if it was already there — like I’d found some secret waltzer and had a pocket full of tokens. I just kept going round and round until I’d finished the words”. He will release his eponymous debut album on Paris-based label Valley of Eyes Records on September 26th.

Old Fruit

Old Fruit 22nd August 2025

Ottilie Patterson & Chris Barber Band – Mama He Treats Your Daughter Mean

For this edition of Old Fruit I am looking back at half a dozen vintage jazz selections all of which are cooking, boiling, frothing, fizzing and fantastic. The late fifties and early sixties were overflowing with undeniable jazz music, it is probably fair to assess that this was the last era when jazz sailed close to the mainstream. Not only was it a period of great leaps forward in melodic and structural evolution but it was delivered with such ice-cool style and image. No wonder it all just looks so classic now. So, set alongside some of this bebop, bohemian cutting edge elegance, some of the British trad jazz contingent may have started to look very old fashioned seemingly overnight. But while there may be some truth to that with a combo like the Chris Barber Band, as this clip clearly proves they could still tear it up with the best of them. Mind you, they were instantly pushed into a different league altogether any time the deceptively domestic looking Ottilie Patterson stepped up to the microphone, a singer of such pure vocal power and honesty that she even managed to out-soul Ruth Brown when covering her 1953 R&B classic as the band do here. One look at Ottilie and you know this is the real thing!

Jimmy Giuffre Trio – The Train And The River

As mentioned in the text accompanying the first song, the style and visual presentation of jazz during this period was potentially as crucial to its long term status as the music itself. Nowhere was the indelible late fifties jazz look captured on film better than the 1958 picture ‘Jazz On A Summers Day’, the opening sequence of which are the images that appear with this performance. The Jimmy Giuffre Trio had released this piece the previous year and it won many plaudits for its realisation of Giuffre’s “blues based folk jazz” which merged understated swing with the sensibilities of a chamber referencing musicianship. That this rendition at the 1958 Newport Jazz Festival should open the film depicting events and performances at that years festival only serves to cement this hypnotic piece into the fabric of the eras jazz lineage. And just look at the names in those opening credits, if you have not seen this movie get on whatever streaming platform you need to find it and put that right immediately.

Art Blakey & Lee Morgan – I Remember Clifford

Whilst not quite as celebrated as Miles Davis, Lee Morgan has stood the test of time and to this day remains one of the essential players to listen to from this period of jazz history. He had a beautiful tone to his playing, an awareness of melodic motion and an appreciation of the simple truth that sometimes less is more. His music remains a real pleasure to experience and his untimely death in 1972 is still one of the greatest losses to the music world imaginable. Lee had recorded this tune, a 1956 Benny Golson composition written in tribute to trumpeter Clifford Brown who had died in a car crash, on his 1957 Blue Note Records album ‘Lee Morgan Volume 3’. On both the recording and this live footage the composer Golson is present on saxophone and it is said that he regarded it as a symbolic passing of the torch from Brown to Morgan, at the time still very much a young trumpet prodigy from Philadelphia.

Charles Mingus – Better Git It In Your Soul

This was the opening track from Mingus’s legendary 1959 album ‘Mingus Ah Um’. It suits the mans personality, it is a mammoth tune that unfolds with might and momentum and packs a punch with undeniable force. You see it in these images (when they begin, the first three minutes of this one is audio only), even when the brass soloists step forward it is still Charles you cannot take your eyes off, a powerhouse propelling everything forward. The tune was inspired by the gospel singing and preaching heard where Mingus grew up, the shouts, handclaps and sense of anything goes improvisation reaching for, and finding, the spirit of a Southern Black church service. This tune is considered one of the best examples of Mingus’s faculty for bringing complex themes and structures into a soulful and rousing melange of sound.

Bill Evans – Waltz For Debby

This tune first appeared on Bill Evans 1957 debut album ‘New Jazz Conceptions’ on Riverside Records. It was written for his niece, Debby Evans, and is a beautifully lyrical waltz that blends Evans classical sensibilities with jazz harmonies. This was to become Evans most iconic original composition that would also go on to be the title track for a live album recorded at the Village Vanguard in June 1961, this proved to be the final recording for Evans legendary first trio, often hailed as the pinnacle of piano trio interplay. This particular piece of film is from 19th March, 1965 recorded for the London BBC TV series Jazz 625.

Miles Davis – So What

And I simply cannot resist the urge to finish this jazz half dozen with arguably the most iconic piece of film footage from the genre available on YouTube. ‘So What’, with the previous songs leader Bill Evans on piano not to mention John Coltrane and Cannonball Adderley on saxes, was recorded and released in 1959 on the landmark Miles Davis album ‘Kind Of Blue’. To this day it remains an all time jazz classic, so wonderful in its simplicity on the one hand and yet a foundation block for all the freedoms and melodic space that would define modal jazz in years to come and prove to be a guiding influence for many a legendary artist, including Coltrane himself as well as people like Herbie Hancock and so much of what was to evolve on the Blue Note label in the sixties, seventies and beyond. On top of that, it just all looks so fantastically cool.

Fresh Juice

Fresh Juice 18th August 2025

HONK – Vine-Glo

Well, this weeks first offering takes about three handbrake turns in the first sixty seconds leaving you wondering what the hell is going on here? But in the best possible way. It starts off like a hillbilly cousin of Telstar by the Tornados before launching into space with a disturbed yeouch of a lead vocal only to surf rock over the waves of a chorus that hits all the right targets. They call this unique grain “trashcan country” which does kind of tell you what you need to know about the scuzzy, rootsy and energetic sound HONK purvey. The new ‘Closing Down Sale’ EP is the follow up EP to their debut ‘Grand Opening’ EP and drops this week, released digitally and on cassette via Leeds label Shooting Tzars, HONK also have a run of gigs across the UK this summer

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Annick Michel – Between

Sometimes brilliant new music can be discovered online clouded in mystery and this is one such example, I came across this incredibly soulful, impassioned, intense acoustic song earlier purely by chance, simply by being on the right page at the right time and served suggested content by an impressively on-the-money computer algorithm. My digging has deduced that the artist has released a little music under the name Annick Michel, she is possibly a Montreal based singer-songwriter and this track may have been around on the internet from as far back as 2022. But the mystery is around the identity and back story, for I have found the song presented under the artist name Ama & Jaguar Dream although it is definitely the same person. Whatever, this is an great new song sung and played with a conviction that demands proper attention and incites use of the old cliché, one to watch.

Paul Kelly – Rita Wrote A Letter

If you are inclined towards a knee-jerk resistance or cautious suspicion when an artist is heavily touted as a ‘great songwriter’ then I fully understand, I am of a similar disposition myself. After all, there are people who pile those kind of accolades towards Ed Sheeran or Chris Martin and it rather lowers the bar in terms of being credible, worthy praise. However, if you are of the opinion that a great songwriter will have a flare for chord progression and melody, an acute facility for observing the minutiae of human life and interaction, strong story telling instincts, a sense of the absurd and a self-effacing tendency to recognise the fallibility in themselves, then wrap it all up in a song shaped bundle that will keep you listening and coming back for more, then Paul Kelly is a great songwriter. Furthermore, this Australian tunesmith has got 45 years of experience behind him and the advance single presented here, from November’s forthcoming new album ‘Seventy’, shows there are no signs of his craftsman like quality diminishing any time soon.

Peter Holsapple – Larger Than Life

Releasing his first new solo music in seven years with the album ‘The Face Of 68’, this is a recent live clip of Peter performing ‘Larger Than Life’ from that record. The song itself is a tribute to Carlo Nuccio of the Continental Drifters and features, as does the rest of the LP, Robert Sledge from Ben Folds Five on bass and Rob Ladd of The Connells on drums. As this tune definitively makes plain, the Holsapple of 2025 is firmly in touch with his jangle and power pop roots for there is a more than passing echo of this former dB’s co-founders musical heritage. And that is great news indeed, as this is the sound of a man in touch and plugged in to the pretty damn wonderful music he is making.

Luke Haines & Peter Buck – The Pink Floyd Research Group

Moving on from a former R.E.M. sideman to a former R.E.M. man in acting side man guise, it is always so great to hear Peter Buck bring that trademark jingle-jangle style of his to the table in the name of niche, outsider, eccentric British songwriting. The song itself is a whimsical slice of Summer-of-67 flowery spacedust which, if the Pink Floyd Research Group of the title are to be believed, was written by some kind of artificial AI assisted song bot. At least that is what someone claiming to be the PFRG in the YouTube comments are claiming and if it is really them, what a brilliantly offhand way to have a gentle retaliatory slap back to a song that is not as convincing in its sincerity as it is in its freak flag flying quirkiness.

Richard Thompson – Siggy’s Song

For the recent Radio Two hosted project called ’21st Century Folk’, five current folk artists were introduced each to five people in order to learn their back story and write a new folk song about their lives. In this edition arguably our greatest living folk composer Richard Thompson meets Siggy, who came to London from Barbados in 1962. He began working on the railways and playing cricket as soon as he arrived. At the age of 85, he still works at a train station, and he still plays cricket! Tapping into the folk tradition of participation, Richard’s new song pulls in Siggy’s teammates at the Holtwhites-Trinibis Cricket Club in Enfield for some rousing backing vocals.

Old Fruit

Old Fruit 15th August 2025

Donovan – Hey Gyp (Dig The Slowness)

This edition of Old Fruit is jumping back sixty years for half a dozen nuggets with maximum nineteen sixty five-ity! First up is Donovan, playing a song that sixty years later is also the opening track on the new Robert Plant and Saving Grace album. Plant has acknowledged in an interview with Mojo Magazine that it was Donovan’s version that drew him into the song and, whilst being aware that it was previously recorded in 1960 as ‘Chevrolet’ by Lonnie Young and Ed Young, he was unaware of an earlier 1930 version called ‘Can I Do It For You’ by Memphis Minnie and Kansas Joe McCoy. This film clip, like one or two others in this weeks feature, is actually from 1966 but all the original records were released in 1965, dig?

Bob Dylan – Positively 4th Street

So captured here in his prime wild mercury, newly electrified phase is the man Donovan was, quite reasonably, accused of emulating in the early months of 1965. Of course, it was only a short matter of time before the Don’s power-flower dreaminess appeared worlds away from Bob Dylan’s plugged-in magnificent kaleidoscope of possessed poetic wonderment, which is where we find him here. Stirring up his US audience, including a quick Roger McGuinn fly past if I am not mistaken, who are shaken into feverish debate about the merits of their mans change of direction. Although not prominently featured, the snippets of a live ‘Positively 4th Street’ heard here are a real archival treasure. One of Bob’s most famous attack songs, he can be seen playing, what was then, a recent composition in a form very close to its recorded version, something of a Dylan rarity in itself.

Buddy Guy – Outta Sight

If the 1965 folk audience were getting themselves into a state of extreme agitation as their purely acoustic music was pushed headlong into electricity, it is maybe surprising that there are not similar reports from the blues fraternity, after all up to then and ever since the genre was invented it was mainly all about acoustic troubadours singing of their troubles. But this incredible colourised film of Buddy Guy, backed by Lonesome Jimmy Lee (Robinson) on bass and Fred Below on drums, not only proves what a thrilling journey the blues was on at this time, but also how naturally it was cross pollinating with other musical forms. This is no mere bluesy interpretation of a James Brown tune, it goes for full-on soul power and the funk in the groove is impossible to resist.

The Sorrows – Take A Heart

1965 was a peak period for the classic English Freakbeat retrospectively labelled sub-genre and here is one of the prime slices of that fevered, impassioned Mod sound. ‘Take A Heart’ would turn out to be The Sorrows biggest success when the 45, released sixty years ago this month on the Piccadilly label, peaked at number 21 in the UK singles chart. It was also the title of their debut album released on the same label that year, of which original stereo pressings are fetching around £200 on Discogs today. This is an essential live performance clip from the kind of mid-sixties band for whom TV appearances would have been rare.

The Pretty Things – Midnight To Six

Another one with raw garage rock texture that actually crosses over well to a live TV recording is seen here with the Pretty Things classic ode to swinging London night life. Like so many great tracks of this style from the era, this was not a big hit, only peaking for one week in the UK charts at number 46. Seeing them in their early days like this, it is hard to fathom how they did not tear it up commercially in the same way that the Rolling Stones did, a band with close ties to the Pretty Things. In fact their guitarist Dick Taylor played bass in a very early line up of the Rolling Stones but would leave in late 1962; nevertheless, the raw R&B influence and rough energy of both bands remained a tangible touching point .

The Byrds – Turn Turn Turn

I finish this edition with a bumper extended piece of TV footage and once again, a rare chance to see a classic sixties group in their definitive five piece line-up playing live in early years, beat-boom finery. This is arguably the definitive folk-rock sound, what with the vocal harmonies and twelve strings of McGuinn’s electric Rickenbacker jingle-jangling as the cloudburst of pop colour rained down on the wonderful folk material contemporary acts (as well as The Byrds) revitalised. Of course, they would also record many an essential tune written by their own hand but here we are treated to ‘Turn Turn Turn’ followed by a further brace of amped up revisions, ‘The Bells Of Rhymney’ and Dylan’s ‘Mr. Tambourine Man’.

Fresh Juice

Fresh Juice 11th August 2025

Dodie – Old Devil Moon

This weeks Fresh Juice is like a visit to the Jazz Club with half a dozen new offerings from the cool world of vibes, improvisation and musical excellence. First up is a cover version by Dodie who might just feel like two worlds colliding with her current career trajectory. She gained attention, and continues to, via a prolific release schedule of original songs and interpretations on YouTube but here she is brilliantly contributing to an album available in the traditional vinyl format through the jazz classic Blue Note label (in the US, it is on Decca in the UK). The record in question is ‘Chet Baker Re:imagined’, released to mark the 70th anniversary of ‘Chet Baker Sings’, it features fifteen re-workings by various newer artists in a modern context of Baker classics.

Manon Mullener – Nostalgia

Heard here playing a piece from her new album ‘Stories’, Mullener seems to work the piano with a rare ability to both lead and explore her instrument simultaneously. Her style is melodic and easy to appreciate but it can bare multiple repeated listens and highlight many a nuance in her flourishes with each revisit. Manon is a Swiss player and composer who, with this new album, has released her most cohesively concept driven work to date and it impresses as a record that frequently imagines real life scenarios as breath taking musical presentations.

Brad Mehldau – Better Be Quiet Now

Jazz pianist supreme Brad Mehldau’s appreciation of the late Elliott Smith’s music is nothing new, there is film footage available of him playing with Smith on TV some twenty five years ago. Even then they seemed a good match, Mehldau coming across as an understanding foil for Elliott’s introspective singer-songwriting and his mastery of what Brad describes as the “dark/light admix”. Neither is this new work the first time the piano man has honoured Smith on record but his latest release does represent a proper step towards paying a full, album length, affectionate tribute to the man and his music. And, as you would expect if his previous recordings have ever moved you, Mehldau does a fantastic job on new release ‘Ride Into The Sun’, capturing Elliott’s wondrously potent blend of major / minor ornate compositional elegance. An essential, piano led orchestral jazz work awaits.

Amina Claudine Myers – Solace Of The Mind

The latest album by pianist Amina features this emotional centrepiece song as its title track, it is a record that she describes as a “balm, a mirror, a space to sit with your thoughts”. Released this year on Red Hook Records, it finds the now 83 year old trailblazer exploring music that touches base with jazz, blues and spirituals. Although she did not start recording music until the late 1970’s, Myers is widely recognized and appreciated in jazz circles as one of the masters of improvisation and is highly regarded for her musicianship on Hammand B3 organ and piano, not to mention that resonant, expressive voice. Long may she run.

David White Trio – Close The Door

Playing a simmering electric guitar led tune from their latest album ‘While You Were Sleeping’, this is a sublime live studio rendition from the guitarists combo who have been favourably compared to top jazz guitar names like John Scofield and Pat Metheny. Still, as you can witness here, they are not a group inclined to sit still on structure, showing a perpetual inclination to explore and innovate whilst holding firmly onto the listeners ears. There is much to enjoy on this new record, especially in the groove driven backbone that locks in some of the tunes, add to that the top drawer playing and this is a new jazz album that rewards taking a deep dive towards.

Joshua Redman – A Message To Unsend

This soothing yet seductively mournful piece is taken from Joshua’s latest album ‘Words Fall Short’ released on Blue Note Records and it proves that the label, this far into its history, remains a hallmark of jazz quality. Now in his mid-fifties, Redman has a hard won reputation as one of the finest saxophonists of his time thanks to an intangible mix of intuition and fervor in his playing. This is a record that Joshua reports was largely composed during the pandemic and the reflective mood that permeates certainly enhances that impression. However, the real magic is in the way the recordings come alive with organic warmth, displaying the kind of stunning results that can only come out of a group naturally feeding off each other to bring their music alive in the studio and then, fantastically, on record.

Monthly Playlists

August 2025 Playlist

Following Friday’s Old Fruit feature that used the TV re-broadcast of 1985’s Live Aid concert from England and the USA as a launchpad for those retro film clips, I have additional reflections on that famous day’s concert. As highlighted with my comments on Dire Straits, there was some inevitable wiser head re-evaluating of other big name sets that I may have previously been lukewarm about. Top of that list is Queen who, I have to confess, have always been a musical blind spot for me but, as much as I am aware that praising Queen’s Live Aid set goes way beyond stating the bleeding obvious, I cannot find fault with it or them as a band. I thought The Who also were far more punchier and energetic than I previously recalled (was their set really interrupted by an outage prompting the broadcaster to show David Bowie & Mick Jagger’s ‘Dancing In The Street’ video? I do not remember that). Little wonder it is written that the old timers won the day over the eighties pop acts appearing earlier. The likes of Spandau Ballet and Ultravox sounded so thin in that arena, not to mention ridiculous looking in mid-summer heat with their ankle length trench coats and gallons of mullet holding hairspray. And what was Paul Young thinking playing ‘Do They Know It’s Christmas?’ in July sun when he surely knew the whole ensemble were closing the concert with it? For me, the two mid-eighties pop stars coming out with most credit on the day were Howard Jones and George Michael; the former for being head and shoulders the best grand piano player on stage and the latter, joining Elton John for a version of ‘Don’t Let The Sun Go Down On Me’, simply down to his showcasing that strong and pure singing voice he possessed.

Dig back in time to the July 1985 music press and it appears that Live Aid was not given unconditional support despite the undoubted good intentions of Bob Geldof. The NME claimed that the concerts were “unwilling to address the furious conflicts of ideologies that allowed the African disaster to happen” whilst the writer Don Watson also dismissed the shows as “corporate pop turned corporative charity.” Amidst the criticisms of the occasions inability to address underlying political and social issues contributing to the famine there were equally loud voices pointing out certain non-participants and the lack of prominent black artists. From a personal point of view there were a number of bands and artists making a noise in 1985 who arguably deserved a slot; of those Billy Bragg, The Smiths, R.E.M., The Waterboys, The Fall, Talking Heads, Fine Young Cannibals and The Pogues are all good shouts (certainly stronger than Adam Ant that year). However, Bob Geldof did acknowledge the issue about black artists and was undoubtedly sincere in his frustration that scheduling and performance condition preferences prevented booking big names like Michael Jackson and Prince. As for the other nuanced critiques, Geldof had an endearing way of cutting through that objectional noise to focus people’s attentions on the far more basic and urgent prerogative of raising money to supply food for starving people and you cannot knock him for that.

On the BBC repeat broadcast there were a few of the American sets that did not get a re-run. I touched upon the Led Zeppelin absence in the Old Fruit feature last week, but the penultimate appearance on the night by Bob Dylan, backed by Ronnie Wood and Keith Richards, was also surprisingly cut. I went online and found most of his set and it turned my thoughts to earlier this year and the ‘A Complete Unknown’ film which recalled the mid-sixties outburst of hysteria from the folk scene after Dylan went electric. I spotted members of that folk community in the Live Aid footage; Peter, Paul & Mary were definitely on the stage during the ‘We Are The World’ finale whilst earlier in the day Joan Baez had sung ‘Amazing Grace’, utilizing that rather irritating folk trope of speaking every line to the crowd before singing it. The idea is to encourage audience participation but it has the unfortunate opposite effect of making Joan appear like a vibe-sapping try-hard head mistress. Still, I could not ignore that, twenty years since he was booed for abandoning topical folk material to play electric music of a more personal, surrealistically poetic nature, here was Dylan heading up a mainstream public event with a topical undercurrent playing the same acoustic folk music he had been accused of dropping two decades earlier and getting panned for it. Bob’s setlist at Live Aid was ‘Blowin’ In The Wind,’ The Ballad Of Hollis Brown’ and ‘When The Ship Comes In’ and upon revisiting it I felt strongly that the fundamental issues were out of his control. Behind that thin curtain backdrop was an impossible to ignore turbulence of set-building activity for the closing number alongside a gathering throng of unconstrained performers preparing a land grab for a prime onstage position during the rousing show closing chorus. Still Bob being Bob, he had to throw his own spanner into what could have been a mainstream career resurrecting moment by expressing a desire for some of the money to go towards American farmers struggling to pay their mortgages. Ultimately, that did inspire Willie Nelson, Neil Young and John Mellencamp to launch Farm Aid but on the day, it is fair to say the sentiments felt off colour to many who were solely, and rightly, focused on the famine crisis at hand.

Anyway, enjoy this month’s playlist which does not feature many artists who appeared at Live Aid although Neil Young and the Beach Boys do get a look in…

Old Fruit

Old Fruit 1st August 2025

Dire Straits & Sting – Money For Nothing

This weeks retro half dozen is inspired by my recent re-watching of the July 1985 Live Aid concert on the BBC, who re-broadcast over eight hours of a highlights package. It reminded me of how, after that show, for the following seven years or so the British TV would repeatedly return to the day/night long live broadcast of a multi-artist concert from Wembley Stadium format. The notable ones I am revisiting with my selections today are the Nelson Mandela concerts from both 1988 and 1990 then finishing with a stand out performance from the 1992 Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert. First up though is one of the songs from that original Live Aid event that has actually aged rather well. Dire Straits ground a lot of music fans down in the late eighties simply because, like Phil Collins, you could not get away from them. It was after Live Aid actually that they truly became massive with their ‘Brothers In Arms’ album ushering in the age of the CD. But over exposure is no longer an issue forty years later and I was rather impressed with the energy (especially that of rhythm guitarist Jack Sonni), drama and tension on show here, you have to admit all that success was actually well deserved.

Tracy Chapman – Fast Car

Performing in front of a full Wembley Stadium and an incalculably large TV audience, this was the appearance that gave Tracy Chapman a career in music. To this day it stands as one of the all time remarkable, against the odds, dramatic moments in music history. She was on the bill as an unknown, filling in for a couple of songs while the larger stage to her left prepared for Stevie Wonder. On top of her very clear nerves was the intimidation of a crowd entertaining themselves with what sound like football chants, even as she started playing. Unbelievably due to the situation, that she was just backing herself with an acoustic guitar and the fact those present probably did not know the songs, Tracy almost instantly had them silenced and hanging on her every word. The fact that this is a superb song cannot have gone against her either but does this not prove that, sometimes, a great song is all you need?

The Bee Gees – You Win Again

At the time of Live Aid in 1985 the Bee Gees were keeping a much lower profile and so did not appear. Five years earlier, following their imperious disco years, it would have been unthinkable for them not to feature on the bill but by the mid-eighties they had enough self awareness to not risk over exposing themselves. However, by 1988 they had spent the previous winter firmly re-establishing their credentials as one of the all time great British bands following the chart topping success of ‘You Win Again’. They opened with that one at Wembley and re-watching this clip I was surprised / not surprised to notice they had Phil Collins on drums.

Little Steven Van Zandt & Simple Minds – Sun City

If I had to pick one band who could be accused of triggering the general reaction against this kind of star-studded, earnest, fund and awareness raising stadium shindig it could be Simple Minds. They certainly felt the rough end of the music press around this time, charged with evolving from a previously cutting edge band into a unit whose music was deliberately tailored towards a stadium sound, with air-filled wide reaching brush strokes and easily digestible ‘big’ production singularly failing to disguise a lack of subtlety or nuance. All a little harsh it has to be said although, the idea that they were intentionally reaching for a large outdoor arena size crowd was fair. Despite this, their appearances at the Mandela shows were triumphs as this clip shows, where they stepped back and gave front stage to Steven Van Zandt (who also brought Peter Gabriel, Jackson Browne, Darryl Hannah, Youssou n’Dour and Meat Loaf on as backing singers). His song was a direct political assault and a crowd pleaser all rolled into one audience pleasing, streetwise rock ‘n’ roll bundle.

Lou Reed – Last Great American Whale / Dirty Blvd

Talking of rock ‘n’ roll streetwise cool, two years later Lou Reed appeared hot on the back of his 1989 career masterpiece ‘New York’ album. Here he played solo electric versions of two tracks from that record, both very lyrical and heard minus the rhythm section familiar from their album versions, two facts that might have prevented them translating too well to a stadium sized audience ready to punch the air. But there is precious little evidence on the TV footage viewed here of any audience restlessness and Lou himself is the epitome of composure, wrapping himself around the songs and even changing the odd lyric here and there for the benefit of a UK audience who might not have known the NRA was a “gun club”.

Robert Plant & Queen – Crazy Little Thing Called Love

Queen might well have been the group who benefited most from Live Aid while Plant’s former band Led Zeppelin were decidedly lacking in positives. Queen’s 1985 set has gone on to be historically regarded as a showbusiness lesson in how a band should approach these sets. They rehearsed for starters, then engaged the audience with singalong, clap-along interaction in a twenty minute slot that abbreviated certain tunes in order to leave the stage with maximum hit packing punch. Led Zeppelin on the other hand, reforming for the first time since the 1980 death of drummer John Bonham, were under-rehearsed and retrospectively so disappointed with their Phil Collins on drums assisted showing that they did not allow footage to be included on DVD re-issues and, presumably, did not give the BBC clearance to re-broadcast as it was not in their highlights package. This 1992 version of a Queen rock ‘n’ roller finds both factions on superb form and Zeppelin even get a look in, as the rendition begins with the opening section of their ‘Led Zeppelin II’ track ‘Thank You’ before springing into the Queen zinger, Plant doing a stupendous job on a tough occasion for all involved.

Fresh Juice

Fresh Juice 28th July 2025

Anoushka Shankar – New Dawn

The music of this sitar master has evolved into a thing of vibrant grace, she can simultaneously evoke Indian tradition with a looping hypnotism that references electronica and flashes of western melodics. This is a performance of the closing track on the second in a trilogy of mini-albums Anoushka has released since 2023; the first was serene and introspective, the second a Grammy nominated piece with ambient sonics touching on vulnerability and transformation while this years concluding ‘We Return To Light’ leant towards her Indian classical roots alongside trance passages. Her upcoming performance at the BBC Proms will see Shankar present a world-premiere of music from all three editions of the trio in an orchestral setting, fresh with new arrangements in a single uninterrupted Albert Hall session. It promises the be a career defining moment for one of the richest talents in the music scene today.

Annie & The Caldwells – Wrong

This gospel/soul stomper is the lead track from Annie & The Caldwells 2025 album ‘Can’t Lose My (Soul)’ released on Luaka Bop Records. This may be the first trace I can find of them on vinyl but they are a multi-generational family band from West Point, Mississippi whose powerful lead vocalist Annie Brown Caldwell first sang with the Staples Jr. Singers in the 1970s. Along with her husband Willie she formed this band in the early 2000’s, partly to enable their children to sing in a spiritually grounded setting. It is one of those children, Deborah, who takes the attention grabbing lead vocal on ‘Wrong’ and it heads up an album, recorded in a local church, of instantly likeable songs focusing in on family, faith and resilience.

Mairi Morrison & Alasdair Roberts – Màiri nighean Dòmhnaill

This is a live performance of a track from Mairi and Alasdair’s album ‘Remembered in Exile: Songs and Ballads from Nova Scotia’ available from Drag City Records. The broad mission of the pairs collaboration is stated in the album title, an idea that came about after a trip to Canada in 2023 when the Nova Scotian bassist and arranger Pete Johnston invited them to explore traditional songs with Scottish roots. With many of the songs first collected in the 1940s, the Gaelic speaking Morrison and prolific folk collaborator Roberts were drawn to the themes of exile and migration and set about shining some fresh light on this material in a 21st century setting.

Throwing Muses – Summer Of Love

Without losing an ounce of their piercing intensity, 2025 has seen the welcome return of Throwing Muses who released their new album, ‘Moonlight Concessions’ earlier this year on Fire Records. Still fronted by singer and songwriter Kristin Hersh, she recalls that this song began life as a bet with a guy for a dollar that revolved around the idea that the seasons don’t change us. I like the way she resolves each chorus with a concession that she lost the bet, later explaining “he said we aren’t just planted here, stagnant, we’re in flux, responding to love like octopuses moving across the ocean floor. Turns out he was right, and I still owe him a buck.”

Niamh Bury – Geordie

The brilliant GemsOnVHS continue to build a treasure trove online archive of filmed performances with this latest edition, shot in the Dublin home of singer Niamh Bury, as she gave them another essential nugget for their inventory performing this traditional folk tune. In the lyric a lover pleads for the life of the songs main character and Niamh injects raw emotion and feeling into her rendition. She has recently caught the attention of these pages with her 2024 debut album, ‘Yellow Roses’, which was one of the best albums of the year in our opinion, not just for its folk bedrock but also the way it pulled in suggestions of wider, disparate musical influences such as alt-rock and classical. This is a timely check-in for a brief snapshot of her ongoing journey as we wait for future releases.

Paul Weller – Pinball

Paul Weller’s new album ‘Find El Dorado’ is a typically eclectic and revelatory cover versions set well worth digging into. The relatable thing about Weller is he never loses that crate digging, new discovery thrill that all us record collector types permanently live with. And the other thing I can say about him is he generally has impeccable taste. This is a song originally written and recorded by Brian Protheroe in 1974 and it certainly proves what a fertile period that late sixties, early seventies era remains for music hounds. This one was apparently only a recent discovery for a lifelong hunter like Weller and it reminds us that those rare and wonderful finds do not always have to be the high value pieces, the original Chrysalis 45 of this song can be easily picked up on Discogs for the £1/£2 mark, so never give up the search.

Old Fruit

Old Fruit 25th July 2025

Jo Rose – I’m Yr Kamera

For this weeks dive into some selections and recommendations from the past I thought I would go back and see what Fruit Tree Records were causing a stir exactly ten years ago this month. Jo Rose had come to my attention at the time, a crazily gifted singer-songwriter from the Manchester area, with this song which instantly proves ten years later that quality is timeless. I do not know what brought him under my radar, maybe it was his association with First Aid Kit who he was not only supporting in concert but was also in a relationship with the duo’s Klara Söderberg. Whatever, his work had a musical finesse that is hard to find but as is so often the story with artists at this pubs and clubs level, they can disappear from view or just quietly drop out of music altogether. And so it is with great sadness that I have just found, after searching the internet for news on his current whereabouts, that he tragically died last year at the age of 36 following a head injury connected to an epileptic seizure. I had not intended for this post to be a tribute to someone special who has gone too soon, I was merely hoping to throw some appreciative retro light on wonderful music, but now I am doing both. Please listen to Jo Rose.

Wolf Alice – Turn To Dust

The good thing about having this sites monthly playlists stretching back a lot of years (roughly fourteen) is that I can occasionally find that I was actually slightly ahead of the curve on a band or singer. This tune from Wolf Alice’s newly released debut album ‘My Love Is Cool’ featured in the July 2015 monthly playlist and I do recall going on to feel they were a thoroughly deserving recipient of the Mercury Music Prize in 2018 following the release of their second album ‘Visions Of A Life’. This was a record that took the bare bones of the ghostly sound they are perfecting here, in a quality audience live clip from the following year, into new fields of celestial majesty with a sprinkling of indie-pop hooks for good measure. They have a fourth studio album called ‘The Clearing’ set to be released next month.

Flo Morrissey – Show Me

Here we revisit a singer with an eerily spiritual and acid-folk laced voice. Flo Morrissey, a former pupil at the Brit School who expressed regret that she did not meet as many like minded people there as she would if she had attended a normal university, had at the time just released her debut album on Glassnote Records. In 2017 her record of covers with Matthew E. White was equally loved in these parts thanks to its focus on eclectic late sixties, early seventies pop, baroque pop, folk and psych material but the Flo detail I have only just caught up on is that she is married to the equally eccentrically gifted Benjamin Clementine and that they have released music together as The Clementines. She can now be found performing as Florence Clementine and remains a creative artist ripe for discovery.

Bop English – Struck Matches

By 2015 the band White Denim were a long term favourite psych rock band from Austin, Texas who had built a deserved reputation as practitioners of wild, free, looping, jamming and essentially wonderous boundary defying rock. Many a time I had heard them playing radio sessions that would end in what the DJs could only advertise as a live wig-out. So I believe it could only be the White Denim connection that led me to front man James Petralli’s other musical outlet, Bop English, essentially a solo project. They were an altogether more structured, song based concern although that wild energy is still there for all to hear on their album ‘Constant Bop’, from which this track is taken.

Richard Thompson – Beatnik Walking

Returning to old playlists blows the dust off numerous acts and songs that did not stay in the forefront of my musical mind but nevertheless are a delight to revive and re-experience. That is not the case with Richard Thompson, much like a Bob Dylan, Neil Young, Joni Mitchell or Tom Waits he is an ever present whose song compositional work and masterful guitar playing ensure he is always very close to the surface. This was a tune from his ‘Still’ album released early in 2015, a record which gained slightly more attention than some of his releases thanks to it’s being produced by Wilco’s Jeff Tweedy.

Max Jury – Home

Re-listening to this tune ten years later it surprises me to read that it was Max’s debut single. This sounds like the work of an artist whose work has matured over many years but here he was, ten years ago aged only 23, sounding for all the world like the next Rufus Wainwright. That may not have quite come to pass yet but in 2025 he is three albums in, growing as a musician and still very much producing recordings with tasteful echoes of the seventies, now with a clear move towards disco and pop production flourishes. The pop world needs natural creativity from single minded musicians with a vision and voice, Max could still be moving into that space. That said, even if he does not take that path, it does nothing to detract from the beauty of a song like this.

Fresh Juice

Fresh Juice 21st July 2025

Kathryn Williams – Personal Paradise

This remarkable new work from a songwriter who potentially has yet to reach her peak, such is the ongoing maturity and evolution of her music, is taken from forthcoming album ‘Mystery Park’. This is a song arriving as if, like the title suggests, it is going to be a soothing wave of serenity but it takes us somewhere far more unsettling and darker. The accompanying video enhances this considerably, Kathryn looking for all the world like someone dazed having just escaped a traumatic situation as the lyrics begin to imply. Whether she has left a damaging place of anguish to build a safe haven for recovery or she finds herself cut loose from domestic comfort trying to find a way back in remains unclear. The way the music erupts with real abrasiveness in the sonics does indicate that this is not a picture of tranquillity at all. As always with Kathryn, there are many layers of intrigue inviting proper engagement with this brilliant music.

Joe Armon-Jones feat. Yazmin Lacey – One Way Traffic

Seen only last month at Glastonbury in one of his many alternative guises as the keyboard wonderkid in London Jazz heroes Ezra Collective, this undeniable gear change towards the soulful and chilled is taken from Joe’s new double LP ‘All The Quiet (Parts I & II)’. This one features the vocal talents of Nottingham based soul singer Yazmin Lacey who is beginning to prove her credentials, building on the promise those who encountered her early have known about for years; something which really demanded our attention after 2023’s ‘Voice Notes’ album. Here she takes the dubby, mellow bedrock of Joe’s playing and pulls us down a one way street of sunny sonic bliss.

Lola Kirke – Hungover Thinkin’

This is a gorgeous live solo acoustic version of a track that is a centrepiece of Lola Kirke’s latest album ‘Trailblazer’. It is a modern country album that successfully fuses the introspective singer-songwriter leanings of Lola’s music career thus far alongside the eighties pop style that she ushered in on 2022’s ‘Lady For Sale’. Maybe best known to some for her previous acting work in things like ‘Mozart In The Jungle’ and ‘Gone Girl’, Lola has nevertheless, for nearly ten years now, been focusing primarily on music with authentic story songs such as this fully justifying that shift in emphasis.

Kashus Culpepper – After Me?

While I am out breathing the country music air I will briefly play catch up with a tune that is new to me but was actually released in 2024. Kashus, from Alabama, is justifiably touted as one of the truly credible and gifted rising talents in country music and this song in particular has won him notable praise and attention, including from Samuel L. Jackson, resulting in his signing a recording deal with Big Loud Records. As with Lola on the previous track, he is tapping into the genres rich tradition of story telling in song although it may prove to be the rough edged, real-deal grit in Culpepper’s voice that sees him embraced by a much wider musical community as one of the well-founded recipients of ‘next big thing’ type praise and predictions.

Nels Cline – The 23

Probably best known to rock fans as the technically adept guitarist in the band Wilco, Nels Cline has built himself a platform to really stretch out his exploratory playing and experience that weightlessness he admits to seeking in live performance. His jazz quartet have released the album ‘Consentrik Quartet’ on the famous Blue Note Records label and the finished work shows Cline enjoying a free range of a canvas to pursue his love of free and avant-garde jazz. The way this live session clip opens says it all; they enter with a massive crescendo of collapsing noise, as if in order to begin they first must to destroy all that was built in the space previously and reduce it to rubble, before finding a groove on which they can build a red hot new found land.

Anna Lapwood – Interstellar

The Proms Season has opened at the Royal Albert Hall this week and for the final clip we have one of the solo instrumental performers set to appear later in the series of concerts. Anna is an esteemed organist and conductor who will be curating and performing one of the more unique and unusual concerts the Proms has ever produced. ‘From Dark Till Dawn’ will be an all-nighter fuelled by plenty of coffee in which Lapwood will play organ works on the famous Albert Hall instrument as part of an immersive, intimate experience that will also feature classical, choral and folk traditions in a nocturnal setting. Here she is performing a suite from Hans Zimmer’s score for ‘Interstellar’ alongside the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Anthony Gabriele, on the very instrument she has such a personal connection to having previously shared social media videos, viewed by millions, of her practising on the organ late at night.