Category Archives: music

The Dame Edna Experience Goes West

The intoxicatingly talented DEE, alias Jonathan Paul Hellyer, is performing his last ever Sunday show at London’s Royal Vauxhall Tavern this Easter weekend. Fame has finally found him, possums, and he’s moving to America. To salute him, his new life and the end of an era for London’s gay scene, I thought I’d post this …

March 27, 2013 – 12:45 am | By Mark Simpson | Posted in music | Tagged , , , , | Comments (2)

The Anti-Christ Has All The Best Tunes

The P2P revolution is like Gutenberg plus Protestantism plus Punk all rolled into one highly compressed file, by Mark Simpson  (Independent on Sunday, August 2001) Perhaps the best thing about digital music is that it doesn’t only make listening to music more convenient and less irksome: it actually does part of the tiresome job of …

February 24, 2013 – 1:20 pm | By Mark Simpson | Posted in journalism, music, review | Tagged , , , , , , | Comments (2)

Little Richard’s Big, Glam Legacy

Next month, on December 5th, Richard Wayne Penniman, better known as Little Richard, The King of Rockin’ ‘n’ Rollin’ Rhythm & Blues Soulin’, turns 80. Whether or not Mr Penniman invented rock ‘n’ roll as he has often loudly and boldly claimed – and, to be sure, he’s got a better, prettier claim than most – …

November 30, 2012 – 2:56 pm | By Mark Simpson | Posted in bisexuality, music | Tagged , , , | Comments (3)

Sporno Pop Promo — ‘Don’t Deny Your Heart’

“We’ve waited years for this!” A kind of soccer version of this famously spornographic ad campaign for rugger buggery from a few years back: Tip: Tim  

November 29, 2012 – 2:44 pm | By Mark Simpson | Posted in music, sporno | Tagged , , | Comments (2)

The Prettiest Punk

Definition of PUNK (Mirriam Webster Online) 1 archaic : prostitute 2 [probably partly from 3punk] : nonsense, foolishness 3 a : a young inexperienced person : beginner, novice; especially : a young man b : a usually petty gangster, hoodlum, or ruffian c : slang : a young man used as a homosexual partner especially in a prison   ‘Pretty Vacant’ (or ‘Vay-CUNT!’ as Mr Lydon sang it in his best Richard III) is my …

June 13, 2012 – 4:58 pm | By Mark Simpson | Posted in commentary, music | Tagged , , , , | Comments (7)

Long Hot Punter: Paul Weller’s Topless Video Revisited

Scourge of The Eton Rifles Paul Weller was sending out quite a statement to his die hard Jam fans in this video for his 1983 Style Council single ‘Long Hot Summer’, shot on the River Cam in Cambridge. Acting the big posh pooftah in a punt. Like almost everyone in the UK in the early 80s …

May 14, 2012 – 12:39 pm | By Mark Simpson | Posted in commentary, music | Tagged , , , , , , | Comments (8)

What Happens When a Giant Brain Meets Kylie?

Genius, pop Svengali, theoretician of cool: Mark Simpson gets to grips with the man who really listens to ‘La la la, la la la-la la…’ (Originally appeared in Independent on Sunday 03/08/2003) What do you hear when you listen to ‘Can’t get you out of my head’? This is a bit of a trick question as you …

April 1, 2012 – 9:28 pm | By Mark Simpson | Posted in journalism, music, review | Tagged , , , | Comments (2)

Oblivion

(I also quite like the song) Tip: Natty

March 8, 2012 – 10:18 pm | By Mark Simpson | Posted in metrosexy, music | Tagged , | Comments Off

Sexy and I Show It: Parading Cadets (& Olympic Divers)

Last year metrodaddy declared the LMFAO dance hit ‘Sexy and I Know It’ an anthem  for the Jersey Shore/Geordie Shore/The Only Way is Essex/The Hunks/Men’s Health Magazine generation of metrosexy young men and the metaphorical (and not so metaphorical) spangly Speedos they’re flaunting themselves in. But I have to say I was a tad ambivalent about the heavily ironic …

January 25, 2012 – 2:27 am | By Mark Simpson | Posted in commentary, metrosexy, music | Tagged , , , , , , | Comments (4)

The Breathtaking Beauty of Rod Stewart’s ‘The Killing of Georgie Parts I & II’

I recently chanced upon this clip of Rod Stewart singing (or lip-synching) ‘The Killing of Georgie Parts I & II’ on a late-night BBC4 re-run of a Top of the Pops from 1976. I was completely transfixed. Not by nostalgia though, for a change. Bizarrely, scandalously I don’t recall seeing or even hearing this well-known classic before. …

January 15, 2012 – 4:32 pm | By Mark Simpson | Posted in music | Tagged , , , , , | Comments (13)