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Single Reviews - Sam Roberts Band - Brother Down By Steve Rudd
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Release Date: August 30th 2004.
This guy - and his band - has long been big business in Canada from where they hail, going so far as
to be awarded with Best Artist and Best Album awards at this year's Juno Awards.
Now it's time for the UK to see and hear what all the amassed fuss
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Single Reviews - The Hot Puppies - Green Eyeliner (single/ PURR) By Steve Rudd
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Release Date: September 27th 2004.
I've got a funny feeling that this Aberystwyth quintet is about to become very well known indeed
over here in England, following a prolonged spell of relative fame in Wales, courtesy of their
last Dawn Of Man release
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Reviews, Books - Hemingway's Chair by Michael Palin By Steve Rudd
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Bearing in mind that Michael Palin has literally travelled around the world and back (and them some),
you'd think that his debut novel might be, well, a little more exciting!
But far from setting it in hot-&-bothered LA or in and amongst the manic metropolis of Tokyo,
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Single Reviews -
The Beastie Boys, Death Cab For Cutie and The Departure By Steve Rudd
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After all these years, The Beastie Boys are still making amazing music, here
presenting the second single of 2004 from their To The 5 Boroughs album.
These Manhattan-obsessed guys have long been respected for their refreshing fusion of
rap, hip-hop and dance elements, and if
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Reviews, Films - Catwoman UK Movie Premiere at Leicester Square, London Tuesday 3rd August By Steve Rudd
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Ok, close your eyes, listen carefully and think hard. Where on earth can you see - and potentially -
meet the likes of Halle Berry, Sharon Stone, Benjamin Bratt, Will Smith and David Hasselhoff
(no, seriously!) in the space of just two days?
I'll give you a clue if you haven't sussed it out already and
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Reviews, Books - Roads by Larry McMurtry By Steve Rudd
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Better known for his novel writing than his travel writing, Texan man McMurtry's
most famous works include the epic Western story of Lonesome Dove,
and the tear-jerking Terms Of Endearment and The Evening Star.
For much of his life he's been a keen collector of books
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Reviews, Books - Silk Dreams, Troubled Road by Jonny Bealby, By Steve Rudd
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The third and final travel book in a fascinating and most exhilarating trilogy, this
epic account follows Jonny across the mountains of heaven on the Old Silk Road, from
Kashgar to the Caspian Sea. Or thereabouts, given that the horses on which Jonny and
'friend' travel are often beset
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Reviews, Books - The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time By Mark Haddon Reviewed by Steve Rudd
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I think people believe in heaven because they don't like the idea of dying, because they want to
carry on living and they don't like the idea that other people will move into their house and put
their things into the rubbish.
This strangely endearing novel is one of the most originally-styled that
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Album Reviews -
Marlowe - Popularity Gel (single/ Probe Plus) By Steve Rudd
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With no fewer than eight band members involved, Marlowe songwriter and assumed ringleader
is a brave man by the name of Simon Bradshaw, who shares the vocal duties with
Chloe Mullett's sensual voice.
John Peel is alleged to be a big fan of the band, and their third album is already
on the way, so why
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Album Reviews -
Lowfive - Emergency Disaster Kit (album/ Music For Nations) By Steve Rudd
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Right from the opening tune Black Noise, the majority of this 12-track album can
best be described as radio-friendly rock 'n' roll for the masses.
Too Much Of Nothing is another bright and breezy slab of monumentally anthemic pop-rock,
while You Want It,
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Album Reviews - Razorlight - Up All Night (album/ Vertigo) By Steve Rudd
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The rise and rise and rise and rise in popularity of Razorlight, frankly, has been utterly extraordinary.
It seems, in just a few precious weeks, that they have been elevated way above their hard-working class
roots into relative superstars, given the huge
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Reviews, Books - The Hard Shoulder by Chris Petit By Steve Rudd
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Focusing on how a fresh-out-of-prison man copes and slowly re-adjusts to life on the outside,
The Hard Shoulder is an exceptional novel - and primarily enthralling for being both a
thriller and poignant drama.
O'Grady is the man who has been released from prison
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Music Reviews - Biffy Clyro and This Girl at Asylum 24th September 2004 By Steve Rudd, Photos by Darren Rogers
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If only I knew that the gigs at Asylum start earlier than most gigs.
The Asylum, for those that don't know, is all swanky part and glorious parcel of
the Hull University Campus (off Cottingham Road) - and, of-late, the venue has been
welcoming a whole host of incredible talent.
The gigs there tend to start just
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Reviews, Books - Running With The Moon by Jonny Bealby By Steve Rudd
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I was the pebble in the catapult, pulled back to breaking point, about to be sent hurtling
towards whatever destiny had in store. Total freedom. At that moment I wouldn't have
changed places with anyone. That's how Jonny Bealby felt upon arriving in
Africa with his friend
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Single Reviews - Daniel Rachel - Dear Friend (Dust Records) By Steve Rudd
Release Date: September 27th 2004.
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Daniel Rachel, as a style-conscious solo singer-songwriter, is
truly to be treasured. I couldn't recommend his work more, so seek it here, seek it there.
Then slip it on, stand back.. and listen. No, I mean really listen.
Dear Friend is an astonishing song, crisp with twin acoustic guitar-based purity that
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Poetry - From Kathman to San Fran By Steve Rudd
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From Kathman to San Fran
Round the canyon and then some
Routine cheques withheld ransom
I'm gonna go get 'em..
From the same toilet seat, contracting curry house blues
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Music Reviews - Yo-Yo presents Pete Docherty and The Paddingtons At The Welly - Sat 14th Aug By Steve Rudd
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The Welly Club (about a mile away from the train station and down Beverley Road,
for those who might not know) is fast becoming the hottest venue in the city
in which to check out quality bands, both old and new.
Tonight's almost instantaneously SOLD-OUT gig was
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Reviews, Books - David Bowie: Theatre of Music by Robert Matthew-Walker By Steve Rudd
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Although this book was published way back in 1985, it still provides a fascinating insight
into David's personal life and his music up to such a point in time, giving a summary of
the circumstances around his birth and childhood before naturally progressing onto how
he first became interested
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Album Reviews -
Hayley Hutchinson - Independently Blue (album/ R N R Music) By Steve Rudd
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This 12-track, 43-minute album is packed with some of the most beautiful and heart-breaking
songs that I've heard in years, and singer-songwriter Hayley - now living and working
from her base in York after a childhood brought up in Scotland - is only in her early twenties.
Listening to these astonishing tunes, all of which
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Fiction - Kat Out of the Bag Chapter Two By Steve Rudd
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What's a man to do in Kathmandu? Pretty much anything he wants is the steadfast answer.
Sick of dull caravan-anchored holidays in Britain that plagued my ill-charmed childhood, adventure called and I responded.
Still, I would be
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Album Reviews -
The Boxer Rebellion - Code Red (single/ Mercury) By Steve Rudd
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These guys have led a lucky couple of years since Alan McGee spotted them playing their hearts out
in the New Bands tent at Glastonbury.
So impressed was he that he signed them up to his Poptones label, through which two severely
limited edition/ scandalously sought after
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Album Reviews -
We Start Fires - Caught Red Handed (11 tracks/Head Girl) By Steve Rudd
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Proudly keeping the DIY punk spirit alive, Darlington quartet We Start Fires
(in which female members outnumber the male contingency three to one) aren't ones
to wait around for a record company exec to get out his chequebook.
They believe in their music to such an extent (which they
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Reviews, Books - A Cold Day In Paradise by Steve Hamilton, By Steve Rudd
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Steve Hamilton's incredibly exciting writing vibrantly blasts out of much
the same gun-toting gauntlet as Joe R Lansdale's writing, despite the fact
that both these American action-thriller novelists couldn't really live
farther apart from the other.
Lansdale lives and sets
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Music Reviews -
Morrissey and The Dead 60's on Monday 6th September at Bridlington Spa By Steve Rudd. Photos By Darren Rogers
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What can I say, other than what an amazing night!
Support band The Dead 60's, who took on the mighty stage at
8pm sharp for their half-hour set, were so brilliant that I'd almost forgotten
that Morrissey was still to come after them. The Dead 60's
are a young quintet impeccably
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Going Down -
The Leeds Festival, Bramham Park August Bank Holiday Weekend 2004 By Steve Rudd
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One of the finest rock-orientated festivals of any given summer season, this was the second time that
the massive 3-day event was held at Bramham Park, which is a beautiful site on the eastern fringes of
Leeds - and that has previously been used for horse trials.
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Reviews, Books - The Goodbye People by Gavin Lambert, By Steve Rudd
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Loneliness doesn't consist of not having friends. Loneliness has nothing to do with that! It's being unable to express your deepest feelings and most private thoughts.
This novel is one of my favourite pieces of fiction, with the author Lambert's fresh writing style zestfully
spurting in
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Album Reviews -
Cathy Davey - Something Ilk (album/ Regal) By Steve Rudd
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This 14-track release is an infinitely interesting and beautifully conceived album, opened with Come Over,
which is reminiscent of the sultry sounds that Italian-born singer-songwriter Elena is making.
Complete with a cool riff and sexed-up PJ Harvey-esque swagger, this is
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Reviews, Books - Cold In July by Joe R. Lansdale, By Steve Rudd
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This Texan author is surely one of the hottest 'action-thriller' writers of his generation.
An expert in martial arts himself, his stories are always graced with superb plots and graphically
violent action set-pieces that he describes so well I would have thought movie producers in Hollywood
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Fiction - Kat Out of the Bag Chapter One By Steve Rudd
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Above all else it was ignorance and arrogance that helped me pack my bags.
The ignorance and arrogance of myself, that was, and everyone else.
I was only interested in people and past-times that furthered humanity. And what was wrong with that?
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Single Reviews -
Agent Blue, Cherry Falls and Elena By Steve Rudd
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Brazenly busting out of Stoke-on-Trent, this punk-spirited rock 'n' roll bunch of boys
means business.
This is their second single, and although it is only 2 minutes 20 seconds in length,
the quality of the music more than outweighs the accompanying quantity.
Armed with
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Single Reviews -
Ryan Adams, The Divine Comedy and The Beta Band By Steve Rudd
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Something of a bizarre choice of song for this North Carolina-hailing genius to cover,
but Ryan sings and plays this Oasis classic anthem wonderfully.. and, in doing so,
stamps an astonishingly original seal of style on the tune.
This cover version also actually features on his heart-attackingly
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Reviews, Books - Ash Wednesday by Ethan Hawke By Steve Rudd
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The definition of grace is the ability to accept change.
I needed to start calculating my masculinity not by the amount of pussy I could grab,
or how many girls I could bang, but by how true I could be with one girl.
How infrequently I could lie. How often I could show up when I was needed.
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Reviews, Books - Lovely Green Eyes By Arnost Lustig By Steve Rudd
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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.
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