Steve Rudd page 8.

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.

Album Reviews - Bruise - B (Pop La Disque) By Steve Rudd
	When pure pop meets anthemic rock, I can't help but smile. Bruise are a delectable duo that produces such a form of music with graceful panache, sounding somewhat like a more sublime Roxette. Both the vocal performances and the music are to die for, with the beautiful Isobel Morris writing all the song lyrics and singing them in style. She really does Read more...

Reviews, Books - Less Than Zero by Bret Easton Ellis Reviewed By Steve Rudd
	Bret's work, it seems, is either loved or truly loathed. Almost all of his past novels have been as controversial and as feared by some people as hell itself, especially as Bret focuses on taboo subjects with intense abandon. His best known book is the huge-selling American Psycho masterpiece, yet his other work is most definitely worth reading too - if you like that kind of thing. Alright, Less Than Zero isn't half Read more...

People - An Interview With Edwina Hayes By Steve Rudd
	Edwina Hayes is an acoustic singer-songwriter currently enjoying success opening Jools Holland's Rhythm and Blues band tour. Dublin born and raised in Lancashire, Edwina now resides in Yorkshire. Here she talks to Steve Rudd about her music. Hi Edwina, how are things? Hi Steve, really well thank you! What have you been up to lately, and how has 2005 been in general? Read more...

Reviews, Books - The Hunting Wind by Steve Hamilton Reviewed By Steve Rudd
	This is the fourth thriller of Steve's that I've devoured with a heady, stance-steady vengeance. He really does reside in the top drawer of American-based thriller writers, living in New York but writing about the state in which he was raised… the often cold and bleak Northern state of Michigan, near to the border with Canada. The previous three novels that I've read of his Read more...

Album Reviews - Morning Runner - Drawing Shapes (Parlophone) By Steve Rudd
	Brace yourselves, one and all, for this band is set to become very, very, very well known indeed as they head out on the road in support of Coldplay. This fantastically exciting release is the band's debut EP and it is to be savoured, kicking off with Work, a song with a dark edge that develops into something of an epic that's propelled by well-structured means. The guitar and Read more...

Reviews, Books - Fury by Salman Rushdie Reviewed By Steve Rudd
	I must live until I die. Perhaps best known for his hugely controversial book The Satanic Verses, Indian writer Salman Rushdie is one of the most famous writers in the world, which is understandable when his writing is so utterly extraordinary in timbre. Mysteries drive us all. We only glimpse their veiled faces, but their power pushes us onward, Read more...

Reviews, Books - The Nineties by John Robb Reviewed By Steve Rudd
	If you remember the Nineties... you were there! This incredible book, written by the singer for punk rock 'n' roll band Goldblade in John Robb, truly is a breathtaking overview of an exhilarating decade. And it isn't just music that is covered, as the always-opinionated Robb proffers his honest opinions about anything and everything that had a Read more...

Album Reviews - The Departure - Dirty Words (Parlophone) By Steve Rudd
	Fit to bursting with a few of the coolest tunes of recent years, there are three past single releases from this Northampton-nurtured band gracing this eleven-track album in the form of the uber-catchy All Mapped Out, Be My Enemy and Lump In My Throat. This album has been far too long in coming, but the wait has been more than worth it, as The Departure continue to set the Read more...

Reviews, Books - Lost Souls by Michael Collins Reviewed By Steve Rudd
	We only live once. I don't think we ever really confront that until it's too late. Understandably shortlisted for the Booker Prize, Lost Souls is not your average mystery-thriller novel, with this engrossing 'whodunnit' focusing on a small-town cop trying to get to the bottom of the mysterious death of a three-year-old girl. The prime suspect is the local football star, Read more...

Album Reviews - Ryan Adams and The Cardinals - Cold Roses (Lost Highway) By Steve Rudd
	By God, this guy never ever seems to stop working. Despite a rather recent injury to one of his arms after an accident he had while playing a gig, this Country-Rocker is most definitely back on the scene - and not with just a few songs, but with a double-album that heralds a whole 19 brand new tracks. Granted, the total running time of both CDs combined comes to less than eighty minutes Read more...

Album Reviews - The Automatic - Recover (B-Unique) By Steve Rudd Release Date: October 24th 2005
	Viciously vibrant, dynamically deadly and extraordinarily exciting are just a few ways of describing this thoroughly refreshing blast of music from the amazingly young band in The Automatic... a quartet of guys who are clearly plussed-up on the type of music that makes the masses tick. Busting out of a small Welsh town, they sound destined to take the world by storm Read more...

Single Reviews - Clor -Good Stuff (Regal) by Steve Rudd
	Fans who have been following this hugely exciting and innovative band right from the start might be glad to know that the original release of Good Stuff (when it featured on the band's limited edition Welcome Music Lovers EP) is now something of a much sought-after collector's item, with such a release Read more...

Single Reviews - Morning Runner - Be All You Want Me To Be (Parlophone) by Steve Rudd
	It's so far been a long and hard wait for Morning Runner's debut album, and still there is no sign. That's due in the new year, but in the meantime - and to follow up the success of the band's amazing Gone Up In Flames single - Be All You Want Me To Be demands attention like an angel of mercy stalking the underworld. Quite simply, this is yet another beautiful Read more...

Album Reviews - Stoner - Life And Times (EP/Rhythmbank) By Steve Rudd
	Superficially judging by the cover photo of this stunning three-track EP release, one might blindly assume because this trio is comprised of three stylish young lads that the music will be of the all-out rock variety. They sure look ready to rock, and in spurts they do rock, but for the most part the music of Stoner is a refreshing diversion for rock fans in that there are strong elements of Soul Read more...

Single Reviews - Hey Negrita - Old Britannia by Steve Rudd
	Following-up their marvellous Devil In My Shoes single in captivating style, this is the second single from Hey Negrita, a London quartet that deserves to be huge. Pushing an intriguing style of music, elements of new-wave 'Country' and 'Pop' music dominate the lush and simply lovely sound. Old Britannia Read more...

Places to Visit - Eight Feet and Two Weeks On Crete Part 2 by Steve Rudd
	One of the best ways of exploring the huge island of Crete is by car: in your own time, at your own speed and in your own style. Without the stress and cost of embarking on guided tours. Head into any of Crete's major cities such as Hania, Rethymno or Iraklion and you'll be bombarded by rent-a-vehicle establishments, all of which are fiercely trying to Read more...

Places to Visit - Eight Feet and Two Weeks On Crete Part One by Steve Rudd
	While I might be a massive fan of Michael Palin's epic travels, and while I do aspire to follow him in many of his footsteps, up until now I've only ever been abroad three times. The first time was in 2000, when I was lucky enough to accompany a work colleague for a month in Nepal. The second time was for a holiday with some friends, last year, to the gorgeous Read more...

Album Reviews - The Answer - Keep Believin' (EP Release/ALBERT) Reviewed By Steve Rudd
	When a band like The Darkness requests that your band open for them at the Brixton Academy, then you surely know that you are onto a very good thing indeed. This is what happened to this truly awesome band in The Answer, who are busting out of Downpatrick in Ireland with a metaphorical fistful of dynamite and an aching ambition Read more...

Album Reviews - Fuji Heavy - Demo By Steve Rudd
	One of the most magnificently original and shamelessly eccentric demos that I've heard in absolutely ages, these three tracks from this refreshing Brighton band might just blow you away for good. The type of music herein is almost impossible to categorise, as the delightfully contemporary Prog-Rock Sunburn hurls itself at you in a most explosively Read more...

Album Reviews - The Apostacy - Demo By Steve Rudd
	What to expect from a band that opens up a demo with a song entitled Asparagus? Well, this slick rock-loving trio are no way as boring as asparagus, with such a tune in fact having roots in blazing Funk-Metal folds, as front man Shaun Garner sings and plays guitar as though System Of A Down are his favourite God-damned rock band since time began. Read more...

Places to Visit - Greetings From Amsterdam Part One By Steve Rudd
	As the blazing red sunset slowly but surely cast Hull into shadow, the P&O ferry was ready, and so were the passengers. I'd never travelled by ferry across to the Netherlands, and thus was naturally overwhelmed by the sheer scale of the ferry and the wealth of entertainment on board, what with two cinemas, a kids play area, a restaurant and casino Read more...

Album Reviews - Edwina Hayes - Out On My Own (Radar) By Steve Rudd
	I came to know and love the music of Edwina Hayes, who was born in Dublin, via something of a simple twist of fate. I was reading my local paper - The Driffield Times - and there was an article in there mentioning Edwina's music. Strange, I thought - I've heard of Edwina and have previously read good things about her and her music, but why Read more...

Album Reviews - Marissa Nadler - The Saga Of Mayflower May (Beautiful Happiness) By Steve Rudd
	This album certainly won't be to all tastes, and it's very unlikely that we'll hear any of Marissa's music in the charts anytime soon. Still, that is no reflection whatsoever on the quality or the originality of the music. It's simply that Marissa's music unfortunately isn't the type to really permeate into the mainstream, with one of the primary reasons being Read more...

Album Reviews - Foreign Sun Demo By Steve Rudd
	I first came to know of this Hull-based band back in 2000 when I was lucky enough to catch one of their gigs at the Hull Adelphi venue. Back then, I was stunned. Here and now, I'm gob smacked. Pretty soon after I saw the band, Foreign Sun seemed to disappear, but between then and now the band front man Rich Goldspink has been knuckling Read more...

Album Reviews - Love As Laughter - Laughter's Fifth (Sub-Pop) By Steve Rudd
	This Alternative American rock band is the brainchild of Sam Jayne, who has been releasing LAL-affiliated work since 1996, with this astonishingly brilliant 11-track LP being the band's fifth album. Laughter's Fifth was recorded in Sam's friend's basement over the course of five months in Delaware (that area in the USA that Wayne and Garth blatantly Read more...

Album Reviews - David Wrench - The Atomic World of Tomorrow By Steve Rudd
	This ten-song-strong masterpiece of an LP is in a league of its own, as this David Wrench character proves to be something of an Alt-Pop-loving genius in his own right. Boldly opening with World War 4, this upbeat tune is literally out of this world and heaving with the chorus-based pop elements of Erasure and Duran Duran in their musical prime. Read more...

Album Reviews - Emma Rugg - Oceans / Depart EP By Steve Rudd
	Since Hull singer-songwriter Emma released her fabulous debut album Isolated Impression, her song writing style has changed somewhat, with this five-track EP being the perfect showcase for two brand new songs (in Oceans and Depart), along with appearances from her older tunes When I Looked At You and Prelude To The End Read more...

Single Reviews - Morning Runner - Gone Up In Flames (Parlophone) By Steve Rudd
	Morning Runner are fast-becoming one of the nation's most exciting rock bands, and here they follow-up their fabulous Drawing Shapes EP with yet another masterpiece of a tune that is in truth an epic anthem. Their second single Gone Up In Flames is an upbeat and fast-paced pop-rock cut of staggering and mesmerising proportions, and their sublime and emotion-toiling sound might remind some folk of Terris. Read more...

Single Reviews - The Blue Van - Revelation of Love (TVT) By Steve Rudd
	It isn't every day that a quality rock band sails across the North Sea with such bold and ambitious intentions as Denmark outfit The Blue Van. This is their debut single which is taken from their Art Of Rolling album, with this tune being unflinchingly propelled by a rock hard angular guitar riff that attacks the senses like a sledgehammer to the groin. Read more...

Single Reviews - Idlewild - El Capitan (EMI) By Steve Rudd
	Idlewild have been strutting their rock wares now for the best part of ten years, and yet their music is still constantly surprising and genuinely thrilling. This single release comes from the quintet's latest, and arguably greatest, album in Warnings/ Promises, and is even more of a sad, sad song than their Love Steals us From Loneliness anthem that has Read more...

Album Reviews - Screaming Tarts Compilation Album By Steve Rudd
	A genuinely thrilling compilation album can often be impossible to find, so this refreshing blast of largely Glam-garnished rock 'n' roll action is welcome relief indeed. Especially in this day and age when so many people still think that the pop-pouting Now releases are the ultimate be-all and end-all of compilation albums. This 17-track wonder, Read more...

Reviews, Books - Travels With Charley by John Steinbeck Reviewed By Steve Rudd
	People don't take trips - trips take people. It's almost impossible, in this day and age, to not have heard of John Steinbeck. First and foremost, his Of Mice And Men short story is the staple part of almost every school curriculum, while his Grapes of Wrath novel is equally as well-known. Steinbeck was born and raised in the Salinas area of California, Read more...

Music Reviews - Tuesday 5th July 05 - REM at Hull KC Stadium By Steve Rudd photos by Matt Rudd & SMC
	The quality of weather couldn't really have been any worse for what is essentially deemed as being the height of summer, but the relentless rain failed to dumb down most people's spirits. Unfortunately, myself and (some of) my family arrived late at the venue. One of my brothers, Martyn (who has long been the biggest REM fan in the family, and who is almost Read more...

Single Reviews - Be There (Freezer Recordings) By Steve Rudd
	This single is heart-warming indie-pop music of the highest order, from a fresh quartet that is fronted by the naturally talented singer and guitarist Leon Black. The band's chirpy Be There anthem is a perfect summer-suited tune for the masses to smile along to, being an electro-edged gem - and hugely commercial to boot. B-side Prozac Generation is just as poppy, while the Dirty Blue Gene Read more...

Single Reviews - Tsar - Band-Girls-Money (TVT) By Steve Rudd
	This cracking single is taken from the band's latest album, the follow-up to their debut LP that came out some five years ago, back in the year 2000. Tsar hail from LA where they have a strong following, but more and more people over here in the UK are fast -tracking their passions in favour of Tsar and their quest for worldwide domination. Read more...

Reviews, Books - Fiesta by Ernest Hemingway Reviewed by Steve Rudd
	No, I wasn't naïve enough to be fooled into thinking that this exquisite novel from the legendary Hemingway was an in-depth car manual designed to accompany the latest Ford creation. Far from it, in fact, for this story follows a bunch of friends who travel from Paris to Spain, and to the town of Pamplona in particular to witness the bull-running and -fighting events of the infamous Read more...

Places to Visit - On The Pennine Way Part Two By Steve Rudd
	After surviving the nightmare of Kinder Scout's mountainous bulk and getting back on track, the next 'hill' of worth en-route along the Pennine Way is called Bleaklow. Just like its predecessor, it could quite potentially be the death of you if you're not careful in negotiating the peaty wastes as you go up and over and onwards towards the tiny hamlet of Read more...

Reviews, Books - The Phantom of Manhattan by Frederick Forsyth Reviewed by Steve Rudd
	So, The Phantom of The Opera is perhaps one of the best-known stories in the world, but how many of you good people realised that a sequel to the story has actually been written - and has been kicking around for some years now - by the one and only Frederick Forsyth? The original, horrifying Phantom of The Opera story was penned by Frenchman Gaston Leroux, but the world at large Read more...

Single Reviews - Hey Negrita - Devil In My Shoes (Fat Fox) By Steve Rudd
	Truly a mighty tune to help you breathe more easily, the anthemic vibes therein are born out of a monstrously angular guitar riff being creatively pinned up against a wicked dance beat. The resulting high octane energy levels more than mean business, and there isn't one dull second of Read more...

Single Reviews - Beach - Burning Up (Sliding Vinyl) By Steve Rudd
	Truly a mighty tune to help you breathe more easily, the anthemic vibes therein are born out of a monstrously angular guitar riff being creatively pinned up against a wicked dance beat. The resulting high octane energy levels more than mean business, and there isn't one dull second of Read more...

Reviews, Books - The Dharma Bums by Jack Kerouac Reviewed by Steve Rudd
	He doesn't need any money... all he needs is his rucksack. There really was no end to Jack's writing talents after all! This is the fifth book of his that I've had the pleasure of reading, and it is by far and away my favourite. When you get to the top of a mountain, keep climbing. Packed with all the excitement of his classic masterpiece On The Road Read more...

Places to Visit - On The Pennine Way Part One By Steve Rudd
	Why on earth would anyone want to go walking on their week off work? That's the question that most people would routinely ask anybody who would do exactly that, as though walking - and long distance walking in particular - is something simply not to be indulged in. I always argue that there is very little more Read more...

Reviews, Books - In The Winter Dark by Tim Winton Reviewed by Steve Rudd
	A menacing short story from the ever-interesting Australian writer Tim Winton, this is a thrilling venture into dark and macabre territory that focuses on a few people who live in a secluded valley that seems to also be inhabited by a mysterious creature that preys both on their animals and their worst fears. Read more...

Reviews, Books - The Thirty-Nine Steps by John Buchan Reviewed by Steve Rudd
	First published way, way back in 1915, this is the story that inspired the infamous movie of the same name that was directed by the king of noir, old Alfred Hitchcock. I have it on good authority that the film version does in fact differ to quite a large extent to this novel, but what the hell. I can't imagine the book being any less suspenseful or tense Read more...

Reviews, Books - Junky by William S. Burroughs Reviewed by Steve Rudd
	Where to start with a man of William's legendary literary standing? Born in 1914, in his own time he came to be regarded as one of the most important American writers of the Sixties Beat generation - during which time his writing was revered in the same way that the work of Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg was. Read more...

Reviews, Books - The Long Rain by Peter Gadol Reviewed By Steve Rudd
	After I had walked around the winery, I climbed back in my truck and continued driving farther up into the foothills, and some nights I did make it as far as the mountain road. I wanted to cross the Diablo range. I wanted to keep driving clear across the state and into the desert, deep into the American vastness, where I knew no one and no one knew me. Read more...

Fiction - Kat Out of the Bag Chapter Ten By Steve Rudd
	As the sun rose, so did my spirits. The men before me were all aged and seemingly wise. You could just tell that all three of them had been born in this valley, and had all lived and worked there ever since. If any, or all, of them genuinely believed in a heaven, then it wouldn't be an, other-worldly place delighted by harp-twanging angels. Read more...