Media

“Ash welcome here” is not a sign that’s been seen a lot around Europe recently, especially in the vicinity of travel agents and airports. While the volcanic output has frustrated business and holidays alike, there is a form of Ash that is very welcome round our way. On 5 May, a day when the nasty ash hit the front pages again, good Ash - the band - played the Roadmender in Northampton. I took one of my sons to enjoy a band that has lasted almost two decades, which is probably what most local candidates did to chill out the night before the General Election.

In his debut novel, The Silver Linings Play Book, Matthew Quick shows courage in taking on the issue of mental health. The story is told in the first person by Pat, a twenty-something man who has spent some time in a mental institution for a reason we don’t discover until near the end of the book. One reviewer describes the novel as ‘a captivating, life-affirming read, guaranteed to be the feel good book of the year’. Considering the subject matter this seemed a bit unlikely but I was willing to be proved wrong so I decided to give it a try…..

Some books about the environment can be the modern day equivalent of the Pharisees. They tell you everything that you’re doing wrong and make you feel really guilty about it while not offering any help in solving the problem. When I come across books with words like eco in the title, I tend to get a little bit cynical and suspicious. Even the informative ones can be really dull. So it was a real pleasure to find one was that wasn’t preachy but left me feeling both educated and entertained.

What do most people think about when someone says East London? Pearly Kings and Queens? Jellied eels? Bobby Moore? Brick Lane curries? The Krays? The Blitz? Petticoat Lane? Maybe even Barbara Windsor in that crap TV soap? Thankfully, beyond the stereotyping and, despite cynical attempts by corrupt councils to gentrify parts of the East End, there is still a multicultural community fighting to thrive. Ok, so East London might still be more famous for Reggie than reggae but things are changing for the better, thanks to people like the Skints.

Someone had been hard at work in the lead up to Halloween. We left a dull Kettering street and entered through black bin liner curtains, past a toilet pan with decorative pine cone and onto a thick carpet of dry leaves. Through the wardrobe into Narnia or what? Well, what actually. Amputated hands poked through crates on the walls, foliage abounded, fake blood was smeared on the toilet walls, and bloody footprints led away from the toilets. Some creative fancy dress and the obligatory hammer horror films completed another normal night at Sawyer’s.......

There are so many quality bands out on the ska punk circuit that you can now get some serious money’s worth from loads of great gigs happening all over the country. About a week ago Gill and I were fortunate enough to get tickets to see Sonic Boom Six, the Skints and Resolution 242 on the same bill in Birmingham. Things got better when we timed our journey perfectly to arrive just as the doors were due to open. The only slight downer was that we turned up at the wrong venue...

Hey ho, I’m dipping into a new musical genre so go easy on me. Redpillboy straying into the world of hip hop is a bit like Jeremy Clarkson stumbling onto public transport or Boris Johnson turning up in a working men’s club for a pint of bitter and a game of darts. If you thought I’d rambled when writing about indie music, you ain’t read nothin’ yet! Take my hand (for both our sakes) and walk with me through the rather strange world of dan le sac Vs Scroobius Pip.........

Hailing from the Bard’s town of Stratford Upon Avon, Resolution 242 are the latest of our discoveries from an emerging and very rich seam of British musical talent. While bland R&B artists try to bore the nation to death – or at least divert us from more important issues than someone’s fat booty – and Cowell & Co try to fabricate the next big thing (tailor made to wrap tomorrow’s fish and chips), bands like Resolution 242 are serving up very palatable tunes and plenty of food for thought. Listen carefully, red pill people, we can hear the sound of change – and it sounds good...

If I told you that I was surrounded by a whole bunch of blokes who were pushing me around, pulling ugly faces and throwing beer glasses, you might easily guess that I was in Kettering on a Friday night. You’d be wrong, however, if you thought I was outside some soulless Wetherspoon’s pub being threatened by a bunch of twenty-somethings high on Stella fumes. Over thirty years after the original shock waves struck this green and unpleasantly conservative land, was punk visiting Northamptonshire again in the shape of the UK Subs?

They were described to us as one of the most energetic bands on the live circuit and they didn’t disappoint. Beyond boundless energy and a powerful live performance, these five young men, hailing from Kentucky in the US, actually have something to say.  We were lucky enough to catch Cage the Elephant as they passed through Northampton UK and then we got our hands on a copy of their eponymous debut CD. While millions gawp at Britain’s Got Couch Potatoes, people are still producing fine music. There is still hope.....

Long ago, John the Baptist stood up to King Herod. More recently, The Clash, The Levellers and Billy Bragg spoke out during M*ggie’s reign of terror. So surely we need some “voices in the wilderness” as unrestrained capitalism enriches the few, impoverishes the many and threatens to destroy our planet? Having so often bemoaned the lack of bands with something useful to say, we are now coming across more and more which are bringing a bit of colour to a bleak musical and political landscape. The King Blues, Sonic Boom Six and now, Dirty Revolution.......

Always on the lookout for good new music, we’d been keeping track of Twisted Wheel, three boys from Oldham who had been getting some rave reviews from the usual suspects (NME, Xfm). It’s been easy for people to pick up on the band’s swagger and to lump them in with the Manchester scene (“gobby frontmen might be a Manc cliché, but then so are ace bands” – NME) but we wanted to know if Twisted Wheel were the genuine article or just the next big hype. Now we’ve got our grubby paws on the eponymous debut album and can make up our own minds.

I used to know a lot of England’s towns and cities solely from travelling to away football matches but these days it’s more the draw of great live music that gets us out and about. On Thursday, Gill, Billy and I visited the delightful city of Peterborough and discovered some fine culture down one of its lamplit back streets (we did park near the cathedral). The venue was called the Park and mercifully was not sponsored by that cheap brand of sappy lager that seems to be taking over most UK music venues. On the bill tonight, the wonderful Skints from London........

In early 2006 the Rifles were supporting the Subways at the Roadmender in Northampton and when Joel Stoker swaggered onstage, all Fred Perry and Paul Weller, I knew that I was going to love them before they’d even played a note. They looked sharp and meant business. Three years later and I still love the Rifles and now the modern boys from Chingford have finally released their second album The Great Escape. But could they make the big step up from their first album No Love Lost?

For those of you who enjoyed the Perks of Being a Wallflower*, we’ve managed to track down a couple more excellent books about the joys and pains of the teenage years. We’re not sure if they’ve caused quite so much controversy as Perks but, despite appearing to be aimed at the younger end of the market, one of them comes with a sticker declaring “not suitable for younger readers”. Both of them come recommended by Take the Red Pill.

For someone who lives live music and enjoys a wide variety of musical genres, it takes something very bad to make me want to leave a gig just a few minutes after the main band has come on stage. That’s what happened last Friday when I took my son to see Simple Plan play at the Academy in Birmingham. I’m going to try really hard to find some positives in the story – see if you can spot them......

We’re a bit old-fashioned when it comes to journalism. You know - a reporter gets a lead on a story, goes and investigates, checks out reliable sources to verify the facts and then publishes something which hasn’t been published by every other newspaper, TV station and website. We intend to take a more in-depth look at the death of journalism in due course, but here’s a very simple example to give you a taster. Trivia makes news and PR is the new journalism.......

The small but happy crowd surges then slows, surges then slows, switching almost effortlessly between moshing and skanking. Josh takes off his guitar, leans it against the drums, grins like a maniac and launches himself into the crowd. It’s all gone a bit NHS dental and this is still the support band the Skints. Welcome to a bit of thrash ska on a Monday night at the Barfly in Birmingham. Ladies and gentlemen, let’s hear it for two of London’s finest bands, the Skints and the King Blues......

For five years we’ve spent a week each summer in a gentle Devon seaside town, often leaving just as the Sidmouth Folk Festival kicked off. Two years ago we were viciously entertained by a gang of morris dancers in an unprovoked routine. One minute enjoying the sea breeze, the next assaulted by hankies, bells, sticks and three day old sweat. This year we caught the start of the festival again but a bit of detective work allowed us to enjoy good local ale, great British music, a night swim, a meeting with a wizard and an unfeasibly large pickled onion...

Having started with the excellent - but not particularly funny US history book - 20th Century by Howard Zinn*, our series continues with a British history book featuring more than just a dash of humour. An Utterly Impartial History of Britain (or 2,000 Years of Upper Class Idiots in Charge) by John O’Farrell was my trusty companion over the last Christmas break. O’Farrell has had several books published, been a columnist for the Guardian, a scriptwriter and an occasional guest on TV shows. So I’m not jealous at all. Ok, here’s that review I promised you...

OI! YOU! Yes you, the one sitting there nodding to something on your MP3 player, thinking that’s as good as music gets. Fine, it may be a great track but it’s still recorded. With due respect, could we suggest that you take the headphones out, get your shoes on and head out to hear a bit of live music*. Yes, even if it means not reading the rest of this article. But if you do have a moment to read on, we have a new band to recommend that you try to catch live. Oh, and you can always put your headphones in again when you get back. Best of both worlds, eh?

Late last year we reviewed a single by Glasgow band Parka. We were suitably impressed by Disco Dancer and suggested that you watch this space. Now a nice man called Daniel has sent us a copy of Attack of the Hundred Yard Hard Man, the band’s debut album, and we want to see if the wait and watch was worthwhile. After a couple of listens, we can confirm that it may not be to everyone’s taste but it does confirm that Britain continues to produce music to cheer us up on another Great British tradition - dreary Sunday afternoons....

I love reading books which educate me or challenge me to get off my bum and actually do something, but occasionally I enjoy a break from a diet of serious non-fiction. Recently I read a string of novels which were all highly entertaining and, as a little bonus, still made me think about some important issues like the plight of illegal immigrants, the irrational fear of bearded Muslims and just how hard it is to be a teenager. So here are the TTRP reviews of three of those novels but first, a brief plug for independent bookstores.......

Maybe I got lucky with having a couple of decent teachers, but I've always enjoyed history. Always from a distance, mind you, as I’ve never had the urge to travel back in time. I imagined I’d arrive at precisely the wrong moment and my time travel would be cut short by a sword while trying to explain my mobile to an aggressive man in a suit of armour. No, I’m happy to let writers educate me. Unfortunately many of them tell only one side of the story and, even worse, fail to hold my attention while doing so. In this series, we’d like to highlight one or two honourable exceptions.......

It’s been a couple of months since we caught Cheeky Cheeky and the Nosebleeds supporting Joe Lean and the Jing Jang Jong at the Soundhaus. They’d been second support that night and we’d been pretty impressed on first hearing. You can read that gig review in Great Bands – Shame about the Names? but two months can be a long time in the music business and a week ago the boys were back in Northampton, headlining their own show, supported by a local band called the Vistas.

One of the remaining perks of using MySpace* is that I occasionally stumble across a recommendation for a really good band, film or book. A sort of reward for sifting through all the friend requests from women with other photos just a click away, blokes who have ‘a great marketing idea’ or R'n'B artists who make the first two categories look relatively attractive. I started noticing a lot of people recommending The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky. People who liked the sort of books I liked. So I investigated and was well rewarded. Here’s the story.....

Although we love discovering new bands, occasionally we like to indulge in a bit of nostalgia, especially with bands that have something to say as well as a few decent tunes.  In the last week or so, we’ve been to see the Levellers in Wolverhampton and then the Beat in Northampton, supported by Neville Staples from the Specials. It’s not often that we can write things like, “we were particularly impressed with the didgeridoo solo” or “we kept getting bashed in the leg by the guy in the wheelchair moshing next to us”. One of those special weeks for live music......

Being a sucker for live music, I found it hard to resist the offer of five bands for a fiver.  So it was that redpillbill and I ended up at the Racehorse in Northampton on a miserably cold Friday night in January for something billed as Stalkers Night.  The scene of one of our early gig reviews – Real Beer, Live Bands and a Load of Old Cobblers – it seems like there’s never a dull moment in this particular establishment.  A skanking pensioner, unreliable bar stools, a good dj, a selection of strange ales and some great live music added up to a top value for money night......

Like many boys of my generation, I had a Father who enjoyed watching cowboy films and there was little I enjoyed more than snuggling up with my Dad to watch TV.  Thus it was that I whiled away many of my childhood hours cheering Hollywood-sanitised stories depicting the ethnic cleansing of native American Indians.  At about the same time, Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee was published, written by Dee Brown, a man haunted by the American Indian tragedy since his own boyhood.

It’s official – there’s now a worldwide shortage of half decent band names.  New bands have put every word in the English language into every conceivable combination and have concluded that the good band name well has run well and truly dry.  So it’s little surprise that I found myself at the Soundhaus in Northampton with Gary the Music Man again, watching three up and coming bands with faintly ridiculous names.  Still, can’t judge a book by its cover* and all that, so we listened, learned and started to love a little.......

Here are a few singles which have been released – or are scheduled for imminent release – since we posted Very Early Stocking Fillers and New Singles Out of the Blocks.  Before you get too depressed by the shed load of sad Christmas re-releases and even sadder efforts by fabricated boy bands, check out these five tracks and don’t give up on the British music scene.

We often bemoan the lack of talented musical artists who have something to say which is worth hearing.  There are plenty of bands and solo artists we love to go and watch but usually the buzz is 99% music and 1% watered-down beer.  Manu Chao is one of the very welcome exceptions, an artist unafraid to comment on social justice, and the redpillcrew were fortunate enough to catch him at Rock City in Nottingham a couple of weeks ago.

I have just read a work of fiction which I couldn’t put down and which shook me to the core.  I read a lot of books and think that I choose my reading material quite carefully.  I have read plenty of non-fiction which has shaken me and challenged my worldview.  I have read plenty of novels – holiday reading if you like - which have kept me turning the pages into the early hours because I wanted to know the outcome (the Firm and the Da Vinci Code to name just two).  Literary closure, I suppose.   When I finished this particular book, however, I was an emotional wreck.

Kate Nash wouldn’t appear naturally at the top of a Take the Red Pill playlist.  We bought the tickets for her sell out gig at the New Roadmender in Northampton more out of curiosity than anything else.  So it is with great pleasure (and some begrudging humility) that we can today announce our conversion.  Kate Nash live was hugely entertaining.....

Occasionally the words sung by a band on stage take on more meaning because of something happening in the venue.  That was very much the case when the Rifles played at the Soundhaus in Northampton a couple of weeks ago.  Everything should have made for a totally enjoyable evening but the presence of a few idiots in the crowd took the shine off a great night.

Take the Red Pill has the pleasure of reviewing two upcoming singles which may prove that there’s yet more life in the British music scene.  Folk from Fife and raw power from Manchester.  Check out King Creosote and the Courteeners, two bands making waves with very different sounds.

The name of the tour is emblazoned on the plastic pint glasses - O2 presents the NME Rock’n’Roll Riot Tour 2007 in association with Samsung.  So many questions spring to mind!  Like whatever happened to the anti-establishment rock bands who trashed hotel rooms and lobbed the TVs out the fifth floor window?  And whose really bright idea was it to sandwich Lethal Bizzle between the Wombats and the Enemy??  Just your average Thursday night in Oxford......

Only joking.  Shops stocking Christmas stuff in September should be prosecuted under one of ex-President Blair’s many anti-terrorism laws.  You know, shelf stacking with an intent to cause offence to those who are still enjoying the summer.  Or something like that.  Anyway, what’s more important is that there are some singles (remember them?) out there that deserve a bit of serious attention.  Andy Lewis & Paul Weller, the Enemy, the Rumble Strips, Reverend and the Makers, the Alones and Milburn.  Ice cream for the ears.  A veritable aural feast.  Enjoy!

It’s official – the Subways are back.  And the world seems a better place.  Apologies to our religious and political friends who might not see the connection but it’s quite simple.  Seeing the Subways live makes us feel good.  Just seven months after lead singer Billy had his vocal nodes removed (that’s unpleasant with a capital U), they played the Soundhaus in Northampton and reminded us why they’ve been so sorely missed.  It’s amazing how much fun and mayhem three people can cause in a small sweaty venue in the East Midlands. 

We can’t remember the last time that we went out and bought a CD on its release day but last Monday we made sure that we got a copy of We’ll Live and Die In These Towns, the debut album from the Enemy.  If you visit TTRP regularly, you’ll know that we love live music and love discovering new bands, but the Enemy are the first band for a long while which has caused us genuine excitement.  We’ve seen them three times already* and are off to see them again in September.  We’ve worn out the singles and were awaiting the album with huge anticipation.  Were we disappointed?

Almost thirty years on from my first Jam gig and I haven’t lost any of my enthusiasm for seeing Paul Weller play live.  Last night loads of things conspired to make it a disappointing gig but I still loved it.  Weller is almost 50 but plays with the energy of a man half his age.  Having recently seen Messrs Foxton and Buckler in From the Jam  (Found Myself in a Strange Town) and tribute band the Jamm (Something New Something Old), it was time to see the Modfather himself.  Why else would anybody spend a Thursday night at the International Centre in Telford??

I once drove past the Venue in New Cross – which had started to specialise in tribute bands – and saw something that beggared belief.  It was a poster advertising a gig by a Steps tribute band (surely something has to have value in the first place if you’re going to pay tribute to it!?).  Narrowly managing to avoid crashing my car, I drove on shakily, vowing that I'd never ever go to see a tribute band.  So I’m going to have to explain how I came to be at the New Roadmender in Northampton last night for a gig by the Jamm who are, er, a Jam tribute band…..

The New Roadmender in Northampton is packed out and, for once, I’m not feeling that old.  The Happy Mondays’ gig has been sold out for weeks and now the venue is heaving with mostly thirty-somethings, hoping to relive a bit if that old Madchester magic.  Plenty of hooded jackets, plenty of loose fit and plenty of excitement.  Upon closer inspection, it’s clear that nature, rather than a barber, has shaved many of the male heads.  But would the band have matured or withered since the heady days of the late eighties?

Thursday 3 May 2007.  We were up the Junction in Cambridge to see From the Jam featuring Bruce Foxton and Rick Buckler, two thirds of the original Jam line-up.  I’d bought the tickets on instinct and had been thinking of selling them ever since.  I was desperate to hear some of those classic songs again, but worried that my cherished memories could be spoiled by a band featuring two old blokes AND excluding the Modfather.

We’re finally getting to the end of the gig frenzy caused by three months in the Andes without an electric guitar in sight or sound.  This month we catch the Arctic Monkeys, the View, Little Man Tate, the Enemy, the Alones, Milburn and One Night Only.  As you’d expect, nothing’s simple when TTRP hits the road.  Ticket trouble in London, sound problems in Birmingham and crowd ‘trouble’ in Northampton.  Still love live music though…….

You can often find me in a corner at weddings, clutching a pint and moaning about the music.  The Macarena is followed by YMCA and the lower the quality of the music – in my not even faintly humble opinion – the more people occupy the dance floor.  Put on a half decent track and everyone’s off to the buffet for some soggy quiche.  It breaks my heart when they play “Come On Eileen” and people think this is the sum total of Dexy’s Midnight Runners, one of my favourite bands in years gone by….

On 7 October 2006, Anna Politkovskaya, a Russian journalist and 48-year-old mother of two, was gunned down in her Moscow apartment block.  She became journalist number 261 to have died in Russia since the fall of the Soviet Union.  Like many other brave journalists around the world, she chose to uncover truth which some were afraid to tell and others preferred to keep hidden.  She made powerful enemies and ultimately paid the price for daring to speak out.  This article is dedicated to her memory and to the hope that violence will not triumph over courage and truth.

The further adventures of two elderly gentlemen on the trail of some of Britain’s finest new musical talent.  Running cross-legged through the tourist sites of London. A classy venue, more overpriced drinks, two fine support bands and one about to break into the big time.  A late night visit to HMV followed by the great North London kebab hunt and a short kip in the middle lane of the M1.  Yes, life’s never dull on the road with TTRP……..

So many new bands, so little time!  The redpillcrew are out and about again on the hunt for live music entertainment.  In the process they: come across some strange marsupials; meet a large contingent from Planet Tall; come face to face with the Enemy; are invited to wear cardboard tiger masks; and are encouraged to throw their knickers and bras at a boy who hasn’t grown up yet.  You want variety?  You’ve got it all here……

It’s a freezing cold night in this grey and pleasant land, temperature touching zero and snow on its way.  Surely one of the best excuses ever to go straight home from work and treat yourself to a hot drink, a good book and a bit of much-deserved duvet time.  So what do you do?  It’s obvious.  You drive to Birmingham, park on the top floor of a seedy multi-storey car park and go to a cold bar selling overpriced watered-down lager.  Oh yes, and you catch three fine British bands for under a tenner…..

Ok, ok, I lied.  What do you want to do?  Make me Prime Minister?  Having been away from the country for three months, I’d said that the only things we came back for were friends and family.  Last night I remembered another reason.  Live music.  Salsa’s fine and Venezuelans might dance better than us, but give me a couple of young British bands for six quid and I’m a happy man.  So last night I headed off to the Soundhaus in Northampton with Gary the Music Man, Mercedes Graham, Billy Redpill and Scottish John to check out the Draytones and Mutabilis.

A survey last autumn showed that 63% of us believe our newspapers to be accurate as trustworthy sources of current affairs.  No better time then to look at the last two daily newspapers in the TTRP series of media studies on the British press.  Here it’s the turn of the so-called liberal papers, the Guardian and the Independent, to be scrutinised.  Just to see if they’re any better than the rest of the fairly sorry bunch.  Will anyone give ordinary people courageous investigative journalism and the plain truth?

The first in a series in which we review a few of the albums released in the UK while we were in Venezuela.  First on this musical menu is So This Is Great Britain?, the debut album from North London boys the Holloways, released at the end of October 2006.

Starting to get withdrawal symptoms from a lack of live music, I saw the Subways (supported by Larrikin Love and the Dodgems) at the Empire in Shepherds Bush with Rick the Kip and then I ventured down to London with Gary the Musicman who had two tickets for the Holloways at the Scala in Kings Cross.  I’d only heard a couple of the band’s singles so I wasn’t sure quite what to expect.  Mind you, it’s always nice to visit the Smoke…..

..which would have been a good title if the Times hadn’t gone “compact” in 2004.  Following articles on the tabloids (Read All About It!) and the middle market newspapers (The Daily Extremists), here’s TTRP’s take on The Times and The Daily Telegraph, two newspapers in what’s called “the quality market” (and, in pre-shrinkage days, “the broadsheets”).  So are posh papers any guarantee of quality journalism?

Having looked at the tabloids in Read All About It!, now I'm looking at what ABC calls the middle market of UK papers – the Daily Express and Daily Mail.  I admit that when I bought these papers, I wrapped them in a copy of the Guardian - I didn’t want word getting out that I was a closet Mail reader!  My honest aim is to review these papers objectively but I must declare a historical hatred of both.  In the middle class conservative area where I grew up, they were the newspapers of choice as people moaned about unions, communists, feminists & foreigners.  Have they changed?

How often do you hear someone say, “I read it in the paper”, as evidence that something is true?  Whether we admit or not, TV news and the printed media provide the database for many of our opinions.  In the light of such power, I thought it would be worth checking out the state of the UK media, starting with the tabloids.  Also known as the redtops or the comics, these titles sell on average over 6 million copies* each day.  What are they like?

I have lived in Northamptonshire for over two years and, for a South Londoner, it has been a bit of a culture shock.  On the positive side, people are a lot friendlier and the pace of life is bit more relaxed.  Apart from the occasional away trip in the Midlands, I do miss my beloved Palace, but last week my adopted second team, Northampton Town,  gained automatic promotion to League One, so things are looking up (though I still feel uncomfortable singing, “we love you cobblers, we do” – must get a better nickname!).

To be frank, something’s got to be good to liven up a wet Sunday night in Oxford.  When lazysundayitis creeps up on you, it’s hard to resist.  Warm dry room or a 50 mile trek in the rain?  Good book and a glass of red or two emerging bands and lager in a plastic beaker?  Well, you’ve got to practice what you preach!

The venue was a long hall with corridors either side, separated by swing doors.  I decided to stay just inside the doors to finish my pint during the first few numbers.  Comfortable?  Yes.  Naïve?  Most definitely.  As the first track kicked in, I found myself out in the corridor, nursing a much smaller drink.  So energetic was the crowd’s response that several of us had been ejected by its momentum.  I gave up on the watery beer and joined the heaving throng inside.