Steve Rudd page 5.

Steve Rudd has been writing for thisisUll.com for some time and has proved himself to be one of our most talented writers. Steve's contributions are listed below.. Page 1, Page 2, Page 3, Page 4, Page 5, Page 6, Page 7, Page 8, Page 9, Page 10, Page 11.

Single Reviews - Sunday International - So Calm (Future Butterfly) Reviewed By Steve Rudd
	Should you be bored with the latest wave of rock 'n' roll bands that are currently dominating the airwaves, make a beeline for this hugely exciting band before the masses catch wind of them - for Sunday International sure can write some storming tunes. Their So Calm rock anthem, for starters, is a gloriously energetic tune that is fearlessly fuzzy, explosive and Read more...

Album Reviews - Waiting For Tomorrow by Soular Reviewed By Steve Rudd
	Hailing from New Mexico, this top US band has been strutting its highly original stealth since 2002, with this release building on the reputation that their 2004 Time And Space record nurtured. Having opened gigs for the likes of Liz Phair and Longwave, they are already a pretty well known and hugely respected outfit, and now it's time for the good people of the UK to Read more...

Album Reviews - Under Attack by The Alarm (EMI) Reviewed By Steve Rudd
	As with every song on every past Alarm album, every single one is a trail-blazing anthem. Welshman Mike Peters is, always has been, and always will be the voice of The Alarm. And what a soul-powered voice he has got, as opening tune Superchannel takes up where the previous Alarm long-player - In The Poppyfields - left off. Here we Read more...

Album Reviews - CD Reviews - Lorca (10-track demo) Reviewed By Steve Rudd
	Every last one of these ten tracks is special in its own right, with opening tune Nothing Stays The Same paving the way for some grand emotions delivered courtesy of some beautiful music and extraordinarily touching vocals. Indeed, the opening track progresses from its lush acoustic guitar-based foundations into a majestic rock masterpiece, Read more...

Album Reviews - Dirty Days by Jaed on Instant Karma Records Reviewed By Steve Rudd
	The Jaed entity is basically Vanessa Eve on vocals and guitar, backed by a bassist and drummer. It's primarily Vanessa's 'gig' as such, and she's clearly the driving force behind all of these eleven songs. Vanessa grew up in Melbourne, but her childhood wasn't a particularly rosy experience for her, especially when she found herself living Read more...

Single Reviews - Gregory Darling - That'll Be The Day (F.O.D) Reviewed By Steve Rudd
	This exceptionally talented singer-songwriter has certainly had an extraordinary career in the music business to date, having worked with the infamous likes of Julian Lennon and ace producer Tony Visconti, and having recorded with the likes of Faster Pussycat in the past. Now, he's showing off his songwriting talents on his own terms, and in doing so now delivers his Read more...

Single Reviews - Mogwai - Friend Of The Night (PIAS Recordings) Reviewed By Steve Rudd
	Mogwai have undoubtedly been one of the most exciting art-rock bands of the past decade, and so it's with open arms that we welcome these five lads back with this new single that's taken from their new album, Mr Beast. Their tear-jerking and spine-chilling Friend Of The Night single is melodramatically enchanting, as a subtly rousing patchwork of sublime Read more...

Poetry - Earth, As It Is In Iraq By Steve Rudd
	What on earth is going on in Iraq? It isn't even on earth, now The violence is underground... as a bomb a day surveys an old scene from a play, that dropped out of school. The Bard's lost for words. Read more...

Album Reviews - Revolution EP (4-track demo) by Little Fish Reviewed By Steve Rudd
	Julia Sophie might regard herself as being something of a Little Fish, but she's certainly got a grand talent and huge potential as she swims into the big, bad world of the music industry. Julia is a self-taught British singer-songwriter who has had a hard time of it in her personal life, having had to endure the torment of drug addiction, depression and a debilitating throat Read more...

Reviews, Books - Bowie : Loving The Alien By Christopher Sandford Reviewed by Steve Rudd
	Rock writer Christopher Sandford sure doesn't beat around the bush when it comes to writing highly detailed and thoroughly engrossing biographies of some of the biggest names in rock music. As well as having written this mini-masterpiece about Bowie, he's also dedicated huge swathes of time and energy to documenting the fascinating lives and times of other rock Read more...

Reviews, Books - Lunar Park By Bret Easton Ellis Reviewed by Steve Rudd
	This has to have been one of the most extraordinary and surprising books published in 2005, simply because it has been written by the hugely controversial author of American Psycho - and because the form that Lunar Park takes is so jaw-droppingly unexpected. Bret Easton Ellis is one clever man, as revealed by the way in which this novel unfolds, Read more...

Album Reviews - Graham Coxon - Love Travels At Illegal Speeds (EMI) Reviewed By Steve Rudd
	Since leaving Blur, Graham has proved himself to be one hell of a rock god, and right from the off with this mesmerising thirteen track album, the focus is on loud guitars and swaggering rock 'n' roll trials and tribulations. Fittingly, the album-opening tune is the hugely popular single release Standing On My Own Again - a bona-fide anthem in every respect. Read more...

Reviews, Books - Surfacing By Margaret Atwood Reviewed by Steve Rudd
	Poetry and prose. Two separate entities, right? Wrong! Surfacing bears full-frontal, gob-gawping witness to that as one of the most important novels of the 20th century (according to the New York Times anyroad) in this bizarre beauty naturally glides with sheer poetry within rasping prose. Set in remote Quebec, this super slow-burning drama shadows a young Read more...

Album Reviews - The Landaus - 5 Track Demo Reviewed By Steve Rudd
	If the likes of Razorlight can take the nation by storm as they have, then so can these young upstarts from Hull. Each of these five tracks is a chart-hungry monster, packed to the hernia-inducing hilt with jaw-dropping melodies and soul-filled vocal performances that have the power not only to break one's fickle heart, but to effectively smash to smithereens. Read more...

People - An Interview With Tajinere By Steve Rudd
	Tajinere is an extraordinary Hip-Hop artist who is based in Hull. He's been writing songs from a young age and has recently set up his own record label in order to better promote his music, including his recent single release Ours Tonight. He not only dabbles in Hip-Hop, as there are plenty of other musical influences thrown into the artful mix from Soul, Pop Read more...

Music Reviews - 21st April 06 - Chaser at The Bluebell Riverside Restaurant, Driffield By Steve Rudd
	Chaser are a well-known band in Driffield, largely due to having been around for a few years now, and because they are mean purveyors of some truly awesome cover songs. Driffield, unfortunately, is pretty thin on the ground when it comes to great bands worth shouting about. Since the main venue in town, Mavericks nightclub, didn't renew its entertainments license, Read more...

Poetry - Liquid Reflection By Steve Rudd
	From the bottom of the Dead Sea, to the top of Mount Everest We go to extremes, only in our best interests... From A, to B - to be a better person Night falls too soon, and we're lost out of season In a region that few tourists Read more...

Single Reviews - Morning Runner - Burning Benches (Parlophone) Reviewed By Steve Rudd
	Slowly but surely these four lads are breaking into the big time with their anthemic Emo-edged Indie-Rock music. Their sets in support of Coldplay's last tour naturally thrust them into the limelight, and now that their stunning debut album - Wilderness Is Paradise Now - has stormed the charts, this band is fast becoming one of the most famous and respected groups in the country. Read more...

People - An Interview With James Lovegrove By Steve Rudd
	James Lovegrove is an extraordinary writer of novels in every respect imaginable. His novels are in turns surreal, life-affirming and bizarre. He has written a number of acclaimed novels such as The Hope and The Foreigners, and his latest masterpiece in Provender Greed has recently been published to rave reviews. He is also the author of Wings, a bewitching Read more...

Reviews, Books - Magic Hoffman by Jakob Arjouni Reviewed by Steve Rudd
	'We were young then, as if getting older were some kind of illness for which there was no cure.' Magic Hoffman, the novel, is translated from the German original and follows the captivating story of Fred and his best friends Nickel and Annette. Following a botched bank heist, Fred serves 4 years' porridge and - as any friend would do - refrains from dobbing his mates in. Anyway, Read more...

Album Reviews - Meg Williams Band - Fragments Of Love (3 Track Demo) Reviewed By Steve Rudd
	Meg and her band here present three rousing rock numbers that have been recorded at Hull's legendary Fairview Studios. Singer and lyricist Meg and her musician friends have fashioned some truly entrancing numbers, with Stole A Kiss being the first song on the CD, which oozes moody atmospherics in a Mostly Autumn kind of way, Read more...

Album Reviews - Breaks Co-op - The Sound Inside (Parlophone) Reviewed By Steve Rudd
	This trio of musicians is a thoroughly exciting Anglo-New Zealand collective, and comprises one very famous DJ indeed - Mr. Zane Lowe. Back in 1997, Zane and pal Hamish Clark released Roofers, which showcased their sample-aided approach to making music. Now they are working with the vocalist from The Away Team, Andy Lovegrove and The Sound Read more...

People - An Interview With Hey Negrita By Steve Rudd
	Hey Negrita are an awesome Americana-laced indie-rock outfit based in London. Fronted by singer and guitarist Felix, the band has recently released a new single, Can't Walk Away, which is a sublimely catchy song that precedes their forthcoming album, The Buzz Above. Here Felix chats to Steve Rudd about their new material, touring and some of Read more...

People - An Interview With Nick Quantrill By Steve Rudd
	Regular visitors to thisisUll.com should be familiar with the writing talents of Nick Quantrill, as he often contributes short stories to the site. His Complicity novella recently featured on the site, an exciting Crime Short that was unmistakably set in Hull and that featured a number of decidedly shady characters getting up to no good in and around various well-known Read more...

Reviews, Books - Lovely Green Eyes By Arnost Lustig By Steve Rudd
	This is truly an extraordinary novel, written by a man who survived the horrors of Auschwitz, and who lived in fact to tell his tale. Bizarrely though, this isn't so much his tale as a girl's story.. a 15-year-old girl called Hanka who lies about being a Jew to survive, and who becomes a prostitute in due course. Read more...

Album Reviews - Evon Brennan - Small Mercies (Red Cliff) Release Date : June 2006 Reviewed By Steve Rudd
	Evon is surely destined to become a huge star in her own right when her Small Mercies album is released in June 2006. Born to an Irish mother and African father, Evon spent some of her childhood in a children's home where she learned to play the piano. Brought up in Ireland, once she moved to Dublin she realised that a career in music was the only thing for her Read more...

Single Reviews - Dirty Pretty Things - Bang Bang You're Dead (Vertigo) Release date : April 24th 2006 Reviewed By Steve Rudd
	Whenever 'legendary' bands split, fans of such bands tend to fear the worst, and that life will never the same again. When Pete stumbled out of The Libertines fray for good, a great many people mourned such a fact - yet it wasn't long before he returned with his Babyshambles project of greatness that has in due course made Pete something of a household name... although Read more...

Community News - Karl Bushby's Giant Steps By Steve Rudd
	A modern-day hero in his own time, Hull man Karl Bushby is attempting to walk into the record books by being the first man to leave an unbroken trail of footprints from the tip of South America all the way back home to Hull. 36,000 miles - give or take a few. I'm sure many people have been following his progress over recent weeks, as his exploits Read more...

People - An Interview With Peter Moore By Steve Rudd
	Peter Moore has been described as the Jim Carrey of travel-writing, and whoever boldly coined such a cunning comment actually isn't half wrong. Anybody who has read any of Peter's genuinely madcap travel books, such as The Wrong Way Home or The Full Montezuma, will surely agree, as he manages to negotiate all manner of Read more...

Reviews, Books - The Brooklyn Follies by Paul Auster Reviewed by Steve Rudd
	One should never underestimate the power of books. New York-obsessed Paul Auster is back, and he's clearly writing better than ever in light of this astounding novel of epic and forever-surprising proportions. Paul was born back in 1947, and since 1974 he's rightfully become a widely acclaimed writer of novels, screenplays and poetry ... amongst other things. Read more...

Album/EP Reviews - Hey Negrita - The Buzz Above (Fat Fox) Reviewed By Steve Rudd
	Blessed with stunning single release Can't Walk Away, that opens this twelve-track album, Hey Negrita return with their eagerly-awaited second album. And, thankfully, the London quintet is sounding better than ever. Fronted by Felix Bachtolsheimer, the band fuses an emotionally mature brand of Americana with rousing Indie-Rock influences. There aren't Read more...

Music, Album Reviews - The Brooklyn Follies by Paul Auster Reviewed by Steve Rudd
	One should never underestimate the power of books. New York-obsessed Paul Auster is back, and he's clearly writing better than ever in light of this astounding novel of epic and forever-surprising proportions. Paul was born back in 1947, and since 1974 he's rightfully become a widely acclaimed writer of novels, screenplays and poetry ... amongst other things. Read more...

Album/EP Reviews - Sandi Thom - Smile ... It Confuses People (Viking Legacy) Release Date: June 5th 2006 Reviewed By Steve Rudd
	If you think that KT Tunstall is an outstanding talent, it's high-time you became better acquainted with Sandi Thom. Whilst KT is a truly incredible singer-songwriter, the Tooting-based Sandi somehow seems to be an even more extraordinary songwriter in a league of her own, armed with a cauldron of top melodies and a voice literally to die for. This debut Read more...

Reviews, Books - Mission Flats by William Landay Reviewed by Steve Rudd
	Crime-thrillers come no better than this edge-of-the-seat masterwork from American writer William Landay, who here delivers a truly superb debut novel that attacks the senses and ultimately leaves you reeling from the brilliantly-staged shock ending. It's amazing how some Crime writers make their stories sound so authentic courtesy of the detailed lengths that they go to in order Read more...

Album/EP Reviews - The Fondas - Dirty Kicks (Level Sound) Release Date: April 8th 2006 Reviewed By Steve Rudd
	Fans of vibrantly anthemic rock 'n' roll music could do worse than seek out this 12-track album from this quartet, a four-piece that hails from the South Wales/ Bristol area where they're a well-known outfit on the back of having played plenty of gigs in the region. Fronted by Andy Ward, D'ya Feel Lucky? hears the band hit their stride right from the opening Read more...

Single Reviews - The Human Value - Give Me (Big Deal) Reviewed By Steve Rudd
	Armed with band members from as far-flung places as Cuba, Greece, Spain and North America, this fresh quartet is making some exceptionally exciting sounds courtesy of this debut single. Here is an Alt.-rock band with commanding attitude, fronted as it is by the feisty Turu - who used to be in the band The Send Effect. Turu, in The Human Value's initial Read more...

Fiction - Red Carpet Blues By Steve Rudd
	'One more word out of you, and it'll be your last - I promise.' The ice-cold gun nudging Ellie's temple was motivation enough for her to keep her mouth shut, as she trembled with fear. She daren't even sob in case her captor construed that any form of noise was reason enough to blow her brains out without further ado. So much for being a superstar in her own right, Read more...

Single Reviews - Hey Negrita - Can't Walk Away (Fat Fox) Release Date : 24th April 2006 Reviewed By Steve Rudd
	Hey guys! Hey gals! Guess who it is? It's Hey Negrita!!! This band might be based in London, but their sweeping Country-cradled rock sound has come via Nashville, Tennessee to a large degree. Indeed, Hey Negrita's brand of Americana revolves around some beautiful melodies and soulfully melancholic vocals from frontman Felix. Can't Walk Away is a chilled-out Read more...