The Jam. The Clash. The Sex Pistols.
These are the names that spring to mind when someone mentions late 70s music. It’s surprising then, that the latest musician to get the rock biopic treatment is Ian Dury.
Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll paints a picture of a man full of contradictions. At times solipsistic, deeply self involved and destructive, it nonetheless shows someone who is just as capable of love and compassion than he is aggression. The film charts Dury’s journey from fronting the High Roads, to subsequent underground and later mainstream sensation with The Blockheads.
A brilliant British cast falls in behind Andy Serkis’s Dury, including Naomie Harris as his lover and Ray Winstone as the father. Well executed bit parts from Mackenzie Crook and Noel Clarke are also included.
Under Mat Whitecross’s direction, (previous distinguished credits include The Road To Guantanamo) Dury’s life is told in a colourful, humorous and occasionally harrowing work. His past and relationship with his disability is explored in depth, particularly the psychological effects which seem to dog him daily.
While Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll is full of enthusiasm to promote it’s central character’s rollicking, give ‘em hell attitude to life, it avoids any of the cherry-picking and sweetening of other biopics. Finally, a warts and all tale to show that Dury was flawed, occasionally brilliant, but definitely not a nice man.
More British films need to be made in this vein. Compared to the conventional Nowhere Boy, Serkis shows that there is still room for a powerhouse performance in a low budget indie film. Serkis doesn’t play Dury, he is Dury, and when Polaroids of the man himself are flashed onscreen, you occasionally forget that you’re watching a film, not a documentary.
Thoroughly outstanding, and while it doesn’t really innovate or metamorphasise the biopic genre, it’s a solid film with strong performances and appropriately, a raucous soundtrack.
Joseph Stashko-Adamaszek
Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll is on general release from January 8
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The Horrors have had a pretty good year. Following the release of critically-acclaimed ‘Primary Colours’, they’ve played headline shows worldwide and been asked to tour Europe and America with the likes of Placebo and The Kills.
When Lung Rotter and Seven set up their Nintendo DS’ and started to play, most of the half empty Forum were pretty confused. The trio are essentially three middle aged men with very little stage presence playing a DS, but a few songs in it’s completely absorbing. Their Ulterior-esque EBM style sound carried through the venue well, each song deserving more applause than the last.
Main support HTRK should be more popular than they are with sets like this. Singer Jonnine ain’t no Florence Welch. She delivers each line in a monotone drawl, standing perfectly still, glaring over the crowd. Her only movement is to pound the drum in front of her rhythmically. The drum machine cuts through the distorted bass, the soft, quiet vocals and the waves of guitar noise.The crowd hardly moved- everyone just stopped to hear their MBV-sexy,JAMC-sharp sound, mesmerised.
Luckily, there was time to recover before The Horrors came onstage. After about five minutes of intro, the band finally strolled onstage, just about acknowledging the crowd around them. Drummer Joe’s bass drum start to ‘Mirror’s Image’ was followed by handclaps from a crowd that were already pushing closer forward, until Faris wandered to the mic, spitting the lyrics in his deep drawl. Guitarist Josh didn’t stop moving throughout the entire gig, constantly moving to his own guitar swirls, while bassist Rhys danced around half the stage throughout most of the gig. New single ‘Whole New Way’ sounded as fresh and positive as it does on record, working the crowd up to a frenzy, while previous single ‘Who Can Say’ caused many a bruised rib in the front row. The band ended with Sea Within A Sea, a song that sounds triumphant and shows just how far they’ve come.
Arriving onstage for the encore, Rhys joins Tom on synths for a cover of Suicide’s ‘Ghost Rider’, as song that perfectly suits Faris’ singing style and works perfectly for the band to follow on into crowd-pleaser ‘Count In Fives’, with every person in the Forum screaming back the ‘Hey!’ while Faris stared moodily into the crowd. The crush doesn’t end as the frantic, fuzzy bassline of ‘Sheena Is A Parasite’ starts a small riot before the song has even got to the chorus. Ending with ‘Gloves’, the entire crowd goes mad as the band tear it up on stage, clearly enjoying themselves.
The Horrors delivered one of their best shows to date, ending the year on a high. This could be their last UK gig for a while, as the band will start working on new material next year, but they have definitely left fans wanting more.
Words by Chloe Gynne
Photos by Becky Warren
]]>You wouldn’t think that a soundtrack for a series primarily enjoyed by teenage girls could be so powerfully emotional to people over the age of 14, but New Moon manages to confound expectations.
For a little context, the foundations of the plot are that the sparkly vampire Edward breaks up with Bella, who then has a breakdown over it and Jacob, who rarely wears a shirt, helps her through it. It took a particularly convincing friend to get me to see past the sparkling vampires and a warped idea of a relationship, but once I did, I was more than impressed.
The first song brought to my attention was Thom Yorke with Hearing Damage. Few words can describe how brilliant this song is, despite FiX’s editor denouncing Radiohead and all related projects as “crap”. It starts out fuzzy then gradually becomes so entrancing that on first listen, I forgot I was in a shoddy halls of residence for a few moments. Thom Yorke’s voice is like velvet in this song combined with a hypnotic melody, what’s not to love?
Lykke Li’s Possibility is the next song I found to be wholly impressive after a few listens. Initially I thought it was lacking in substance but it’s so stark and almost uncomfortably frank, you can hear the heartbreak in her voice and believe in it.
But one of the strongest songs on the soundtrack has to be Grizzly Bear feat. Victoria Legrand with Slow Life. I’d say it’s fairly standard Grizzly Bear with sweeping melodies as well as otherworldly vocals and, like Possibility, it’s very honest with its emotions. I find the chorus to be particularly heart-wrenching with lyrics like ‘even though you’re the only one I see, if you ask I’ll cut you free’.
Other special songs on the soundtrack include the Editors’ No Sound But The Wind a simultaneously heart warming and breaking song (listen to it, you’ll understand) as well as Bon Iver and St. Vincent’s beautiful collaboration in Roslyn – that is if you can handle near-constant squawks of ‘dooooooooooooooooooooooooown’.
Granted, not all of the songs are particularly spectacular as the previously discussed songs and these happen to be the ones which are more suitable for the film’s target audience ie. Meet Me On The Equinox by Death Cab For Cutie – I’ll say no more. I think one song that could be considered weak shouldn’t be entirely disregarded, Band of Skulls’ Friends is light-hearted and fun if you can’t possibly handle the downer that is all the decent songs listed above. Same can be said with Muse’s I Belong To You which I think is almost playfully dramatic.
I think I’ve learnt from this soundtrack to not instantly disregard music simply because of what it’s tied to, and while the film may be a bag of crap (I’ve seen it twice so I’m well informed), the music certainly isn’t. This doesn’t mean I’m going to run out and buy the High School Musical soundtracks though, I’m still allowed some prejudice.
Kate Preston
You can read our review of New Moon here
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‘Friday night, fuck it, let’s have it!’ proclaims lead singer Jimi Goodwin
as he takes a sip of lager from a plastic cup. It’s in this moment that Doves kick off their first tour in four years at the new music venue in the University of Hertfordshire. The sticky floors were the setting for tonight, as the Auditorium was filling up with middle agers who have been with Doves since the beginning and students seeing what the new Forum was about.
Doves are not the most charismatic band, but Jimi did have a Beyonce moment when he shouted that he wanted orange towels, not the pink ones that he was given. The smoke lined set began with haunted performances of ‘Winter Hill’ and ‘Words’ with the crowd nodding with agreement. They look very happy to be here, chugging through their Kingdom of Rust album with care and attention. A third of the way through the hour and half set, the expensive larger starts to kick in and the crowd goes crazy for ‘Jetstream’ and erupts to a full sing a long in the title track ‘Kingdom of Rust’ singing it from their hearts. The long time fans have not been left out, as they perform their classic hits such as ‘Ambition’ and ‘Black and White’ which gains a standing ovation from students and hardcore Doves fans alike.
What Jimi and co seem to love the most is guitar solos with Jimi teaming up with his bandmate Jez for 40 manic seconds (yes, I counted) on ‘Cedar Room’. The band went off-stage for two minutes and the crowd chanted ‘DOVES DOVES’ until Andy Williams came on stage and sang for the encore which included a twin cowbell and drum solo in their final song of the evening, ‘The Fear’ with the crowd singing along. It may have turned a few drunk students into Doves fans, but their act is more suited to big stadium venues such as Wembley than small student ones, such as the venue they played here. But the crowd aren’t complaining, they are well and truly ‘having it’.
Solmaz Farad
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Nick Cave once said, “Bukowski is a jerk.” However, with Nick Cave’s new book, “The Death Of Bunny Munro” Cave has found an affinity with said writer’s “Pulp”. As with Bukowski’s swan song, Cave – although without the brilliance of Bukowski’s writing – has gained a sense of profound wisdom to add to his still electrifying energy and urgency. Cave tells the reader that the murderer’s horns are real. The madman is heading towards every one of us, waiting to pounce. It is this atmosphere that prevails throughout the book. A dark, sinister world full of “pensioner killing seagulls” and nose breaking women with black belts.
The fire and brimstone of Cave’s first book, “And The Ass Saw The Angel” is still evident, though slightly less overt and, as a result, more haunting than overpowering. Whilst Brighton Pier burns at the beginning of the book the starlings start to go crazy. The starlings seem to sense the devil on his rampage heading for Bunny himself. Bunny is shown more prophetic glimpses of his future with the recurring image of DUDMAN lorries, of which, “the windscreen wipers are moving at a tremendous rate. But it isn’t even raining.”
However, Bunny cannot become caught in his own mortality. First, he has to look after his son, Bunny Junior, alone after his wife’s suicide. Bunny Junior is the shining glimpse of hope tucked away deep within the cacophony of depravity, death and destruction of Cave’s world. He sees his father as inimitable, constantly in awe and wonder at every movement and word of Bunny’s. Nothing will make Bunny Junior think any different. Not the attempts to seduce teenage girls in McDonald’s, not the dilapidating state of Bunny’s mind and body and not even the inattention shown to Bunny Junior’s eye problem. Junior is Cave’s manifestation of the good in humanity that many are blind to see and unable to appreciate. His own grandmother is unwilling to take him in. Heartbreakingly, Cave laments for a world in which the innocent are punished for the acts of the guilty.
However, the novel isn’t mired inside its own misery. Cave’s unique black humour provides the reader with times to laugh after the tear jerking scenes. Cave’s preoccupation with picturing vaginas, especially Kylie’s or Avril Lavigne’s. His pastiche of product placement, where McDonald’s and Butlins – usually synonymous with cheery family fun – are reduced to scummy, sordid areas where men like Bunny and his father seek women for their fancy. The sharp and tight wordplay of Cave’s lyrics also come to the fore with lines such as, “Labia from Arabia” and “Bunny has a defibrillated hard-on.”
Overall, these ideas seem to have been fermenting in Cave’s mind for the twenty years since his first novel. Instead of rushing, Cave appears to have taken a leaf out of Bukowski’s maxim of “Don’t Try.” Whilst Cave’s writing occasionally drags through inexperience there is no doubting Cave’s incisive portrait on life in the twenty-first century.
James Innis
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