How many albums have Oasis released since What’s the Story Morning Glory? The correct answer here is ‘ who cares? they’ve all been shit’. Alan McGee, founder of creation records and the man who pushed Oasis into the spotlight in the first place is convinced that their latest album is (finally) worth listening to – […]
In the same year that Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel topped the album charts with Bridge over troubled waters, Gil Scott Heron recorded his debut album A New Black Poet – Small Talk at 125th and Lenox. The difference couldn’t be more stark, both in terms of outlook and reception. Simon and Garfunkel were at the […]
The plot thickens. Weeks ago the popular torrent site The Pirate Bay was pre-emptively blocked by the police division in charge of post and communications here in Italy. With a flick of the switch the site became inaccessible (despite the fact, as journalist Alessandro Longo points out that the Pirate Bay has yet to be […]
Newsweek, last week, carried a quite astonishing piece on Silvio Berlusconi’s first 100 days in office. The glowing tribute stopped short of suggesting that Trenitalia now runs on time, but only just (coincidentally, despite the fact that it was a major election issue, Alitalia crops up nowhere in the piece). Astonishing because it may well […]
The Rolling Stones have, with a few honourable exceptions (sympathy for the devil, and perhaps Street Fighting Man), had very little of consequence to say over their lengthy career. It’s the skill and swing with which they’ve presented their unbearably light offerings that has made them one of the greatest rock n’roll bands of all […]
It’s hard to choose just one song from Loudon Wainwright’s skeletal, bruised, shocking – and yes, at times extremely funny – 1979 live album a live one. Wainwright is a far more versaitile songwriter than he’s often given credit for, and this collection, perhaps more than any other, shows off his talent in a raw […]
Berlusconi has repeatedly stated his aim to ‘modernise’ Italian democracy, bringing it closer to the American presidential system. In the best tradition of recent American politics then, it was almost inevitable that oral sex would make an appearance. While Clinton’s presidency was hampered by his non-sex sex with Lewinsky, allegations surfacing regarding a similar oral […]
An unusual choice, perhaps, given that it’s probably not the strongest song on an album – from the choirgirl hotel – which is arguably not Tori Amos’s strongest, even though it boasts Playboy Mommy and Jackie’s strength. And yet there’s something very special, and at the same time characteristic about this gentle love song. What’s great about […]
By chance this week, this monkeys saw an episode of the truly terrible Francesco’s Italy (worth watching, if you turn the sound down), where host Count Francesco Da Mosta pulled his alfa-romeo spider into Verona. In keeping with the rest of the series, Da Mosta gave us a keen insight into the city’s history and […]
On Friday, the 25th of April (liberation day), an estimated two million people gathered in over 40 cities in Italy to protest about the state of journalism (print and television) in Italy. Over 500,000 people in one day queued up to sign a petition calling for three specific referenda to change the way information is […]
