Davey Dreamnation

Here’s an interesting post by Laurie Duggan on the wall of sound, where he makes the point that the vocal track on My Bloody Valentine’s song ‘Come In Alone’ works because of the wall of sound surrounding it. While I think this is true, a closer inspection of the lyrics to these kinds of songs [...]

I picked up this chapbook last February in Sydney for AU$15 after seeing Lee Ranaldo’s band Sonic Youth perform its 1988 album, Daydream Nation, in its entirety at the Enmore Theatre. While that concert was the most electrifying experience of my gig-going career (thanks again Joey!), it makes me sad to say that this little [...]

The summer of 1981 comes like a scene change and I’m lying on my back in the middle of a montage, flat out on the concrete listening to that tape. The hot wind coming off the river is laden with moisture that beads on my upper lip, and crawls from my armpits all the way [...]

I’ve been flat out digging through the online archives of the Chris de Burgh website, in particular the vast wealth of information contained within the Man On the Line (MOtL) section, wherein Chris personally responds to questions and queries from ‘fans’. One such fan asked:
“… any chance you’d release some of those haunting lyrics as [...]

DNRC086 | LP | 2017 | DELETED
In a world filled with tribute acts, cover bands, barely-disguised parodies, comedy comebacks and on and on, it’s refreshing to know that we are just ten years away from the release of this remarkable album by Scotland’s Christy Burr, whose name, when spoken aloud, sounds exactly the same as [...]

How many times can the name Chris de Burgh be mentioned on a poster before it starts to look, I don’t know, creepy? I really like the attention to detail in this shot, right down to the watch and wedding ring. The fringe could do with a bit of work, though.

Well it seems that the first part of my analysis of Chris de Burgh’s poetic ouevre has hit a few nerves, or at least pushed the pause button on at least two portable CD players, with JDG and Tom weighing into the debate by dropping some pertinent comments about CDB’s career stages and the true gravity [...]

Let’s just for a moment pretend that Chris de Burgh never wrote “The Lady In Red”; that “Don’t Pay the Ferryman” was never recorded, let alone “a minor hit in the states [sic]” as alleged on his (still appallingly designed) official website. Indeed, let’s go so far as to say that Chris de Burgh never [...]

One cloudy day last August, at the Rock En Seine music festival in Paris, me and Kat were lucky enough to see one of my favourite bands, Broken Social Scene, perform to a rapturous crowd in the rain (see the pics here). While we missed the band’s opening numbers, a surge of excitement pulsed through [...]

Chris de Burgh has wasted no time on spurious infotainment or celebrity TV circuits following his purchase of the alien from Alien, and is now back in the studio recording new tracks, one of them rumoured to be a duet with Wimbeldon champion and allround bore, Roger “Rogi” Federer. The track, a remake of de [...]

In a sad attempt to outdo his fellow has-been rivals, Chris de Burgh has bought the alien that burst out of John Hurt’s chest in the 1979 terror-thriller, erm, Alien, according to the Belfast Telegraph and about 30,000 other news agencies. Fellow crooner and sad-case HoJo is said to be quietly considering his career options [...]

At last we come to a band who could be considered serious contenders for EP of the 20th century. I’m talking Pavement, I’m talking Watery, Domestic all over town. With a title that’s almost as cool as my brother’s “spartan, militaristic” tag, this EP is a ripper, clocking in at around ten minutes but boy [...]

Now here’s a blast from the past: the Undertones, “Derry’s finest” etc kicked some major label teenage butt in the late 70s, while Wire did the art rock collapse. 1978 saw the Undertones’ first EP, containing the just-not-so-subtly-alluded-to track, “Teenage Kicks”, a track that would see John Peel become their finest spokesperson. Fronted by the [...]

It’s no secret that I’m a huge fan of The Fauves - just take a look at my interview with lead singer Andrew Cox, featured in the current issue of Cordite. I first got into The Fauves as an undergraduate. My friend Dom had bought their first EP, a woeful effort called This Mood Has [...]