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Last Updated: 20/08/2008 15:37:16
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..
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Reviews, Books - The Shark Net by Robert Drewe Reviewed By Steve Rudd
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Ok. So most movies, books or long-running TV-orientated soaps tend to
dwell on the sunnier side of living in Austrailia. Am I right?
Sure, there are instances of scandal now and again amidst the emotionally
challenged sprawl of Ramsey Street, but nothing too shocking or
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Album Reviews -
Rob McCulloch - Thoughts Alone (Clockhouse) By Steve Rudd
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Rob hails from Bolton and sings and plays very much in the style of ex-Verve mainman - and
solo singer-songwriter in his own right - Richard Ashcroft.
Wistful tunes such as Taking Off With You, Take Me Whole and Doing You Wrong are beautifully
conceived
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CD Reviews -
Halflight - Subside (EP/My First Records) By Steve Rudd
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Packed with the endearing purity of The Corrs' music, Half-Light's musings are poetic,
mature and utterly captivating throughout these four tracks.
Front woman Sarah Howells has long been renowned for her quality, truthfully extraordinary
singing voice (having been the
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Reviews, Books - Lost Horizon by James Hilton Reviewed by Steve Rudd
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This awesome tale of adventure and intrigue was first published in 1933 and still makes for a
remarkable read, as four people are kidnapped in the Far-East and then somewhat inexplicably
left stranded in a secluded Tibetan valley, an area that they soon come to know as
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Single Reviews The Next Nine Years - You Live, I Learn (single/ Probation) By Steve Rudd
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Debut singles don't get much better than this double-A side belter from this kick-ass quartet.
Lead track You Live, I Learn is ball-busting melodic rock, that sets a breakneck pace.
Thankfully, all the guitars and lung-busting vocals are perfectly
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Single Reviews The Concretes - Seems Fine (single/ EMI) By Steve Rudd
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If you want to feel refreshed and plain good about life, then it's imperative that
Stockholm outfit The Concretes are checked out ASAP.
Laying claim to almost as many band members as The Polyphonic Spree, there are eight of them,
coolly fronted by sultry vocalist Victoria Bergsman.
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Poetry - A Case of Silly String and Whatever Next By Steve Rudd
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Money is the root of all evil,
A positive thought that's not shared is a waste.
So what if I've got an inferiority complex?
Insecurity is so simple to evade.
If you give me a dollar I'll trade it for a book,
Second hand glances deflect scathing good looks.
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Reviews, Books - To the Poles Without a Beard by Catherine Hartley Reviewed by Steve Rudd
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This extraordinary woman was the first British woman to reach first the South Pole and then the
North Pole (along with another lady called Fiona), and this is her story...
Essentially an exquisite autobiography, this book starts out by chronicling Catherine's life -
in brief -
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Music Reviews - The Coal Porters at Pocklington Arts Centre - 15th November 04 By Steve Rudd
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Brandishing brilliant brushstrokes of Alison Krauss-creased Bluegrass music as it is
meant to sound, this quintet in the Mojo-magazine-championed Coal Porters played to
an almost sold-out venue in the small town of Pocklington on that one night of the
week when most people prefer
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Music Reviews - Ian McNabb at Fibbers, York - 4th November 04 By Steve Rudd
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Former Icicle Works frontman, Liverpudlian genius Ian McNabb has long been setting
mid-sized venues
alight with his talents since such band glory days.
Ian is one of the hardest working and genuinely enthralling singer-songwriters in the UK
and has released plenty of truly incredible
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Reviews, Books - Touching the Void by Joe Simpson Reviewed By Steve Rudd
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Autobiographical tales don't come much more nail-biting than this living nightmare, recalled
by mountaineer Joe who was left for dead on a snow-riddled peak in Peru back in 1985.
After getting into trouble on the 21,000 ft Siula Grande with friend Simon Yates
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Single Reviews - Gomez - Sweet Virginia (single/ Virgin) By Steve Rudd
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The Gomez guys have long impressed the nation with their inspired ability to
effectively fuse all manners of different musical genres together to form one
thoroughly satisfying whole.
Whether they're incorporating elements of heart-breaking blues, crafty jazz
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Album Reviews -
The Supatones - Unity Ave (Do The Dog) By Steve Rudd
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Living up to their name in the most impeccable manner imaginable, this Hull-based
band releases its astonishing debut album with an accompanying, nationwide tour to
promote the beauty.
For the best part of November and the first half of December these
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Single Reviews Camera - Hurt (single/ My Kung Fu) By Steve Rudd Release Date: 22nd November 2004.
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Think of all the anthemic rock bands that Wales has loudly and proudly produced over the years
such as The Manics, The Stereophonics and The Alarm (to name just a few),
and then think again, for here is a new quartet in the form of Camera that
are hacking out a truly
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Album Reviews -
Tapewyrm Records Compilation - Segments Volume 1 (12-track album) By Steve Rudd
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Far from being just another compilation album of half-rate tracks by bands most people have never
heard of, this Tapewyrm release provides the best opportunity imaginable for the listener to get
to know the label's six acts a whole lot better.
OK, so the bands aren't that well
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Articles - Post-Organic Thrill: Cotton On, and Preserve the World By Steve Rudd
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A great many people profess to preferring the idea of buying organic, but - I wonder - how many of those people actually do go out of their way to ensure that they do buy organic in order to make that difference to both the physical world's wealth and the people who live in the world's health.
The main organic
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Reviews, Films - Collateral By Steve Rudd
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Starring Tom Cruise and Jamie Foxx, this rollercoasting thrill-ride is
one of the coolest of action movies to have hit the screen in 2004, as Summer goes out to the
dogs and the first pangs of Autumn strike the air.
Tom, like his ex-wife Nicole Kidman, never seems to stop working
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Reviews, Books - Sitting Up with the Dead by Pamela Petro Reviewed By Steve Rudd
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In the manic style of Bill Bryson, Pamela Petro gets in her car and heads out
around America in search of exciting new people, places and - above else -
fantastic stories.
Confining her extensive travels to the Eastern side of North America and,
in particular, the South-East states of Alabama, Georgia
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Reviews, Books - Mick Ronson: The Spider with the Platinum Hair by Weird and Gilly Reviewed By Steve Rudd
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Born and bred in Hull, Mick Ronson indeed did come from extremely humble beginnings to
become one of Britain's most respected musicians and producers.
Born in 1946, it was in the early seventies that Mick first became well known
through his work with David Bowie, with ace guitarist Mick
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Reviews, Films - Alien VS Predator By Steve Rudd
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Whoever came up with the bright idea of violently pitting Alien against Predator
sure deserves a pat on the back and a raucous round of applause, for this big-budget
movie scores on many levels.
Whereas the bulk of the Alien franchise has long relied on
atmospheric tension rather than all-out action
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Album Reviews -
- The Alarm Live in the Poppyfields (DVD/CD Dual Release/Snapper Music)
By Steve Rudd
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In all honesty, I am totally addicted to - and utterly enthralled by - the music of Mike Peters.
Mike, for those who might not know, is now - and has always been - the frontman and
singing-songwriting genius for Welsh band The Alarm... a band set-up
that Mike recently re-formed, with a
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Reviews, Books - The Promise of Bruce Springsteen by Eric Alterman. Reviewed By Steve Rudd
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Brucie, we need you - and more than ever!
A true rock 'n' roll star in every sense and then some, Bruce has had a truly staggering career in the music business, and even as we maniacally rush headlong into the 21st Century he is more popular than ever.
This biography of
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Reviews, Films - Open Water By Steve Rudd
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I really don't understand why this movie was ever made.
Based on true events, this follows a couple of young lovers (Daniel Travis and blonde bombshell Blanchard Ryan)
on a diving day-out as part of a vacation they're taking together.
Before we know it, they've been stranded in the middle
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Album Reviews -
The Clauberg Opera - The Death of This City By Steve Rudd
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Yet another fantastically original Hull-based band to get hugely excited about, this young and thoroughly
refreshing trio is not to be ignored... especially not with the type of manifesto
that they are proudly presenting.
In this invigorating instance they come armed
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Reviews, Books - The Beach by Alex Garland Reviewed By Steve Rudd
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Escape through travel works. Almost from the moment I boarded my flight, life in England became meaningless.
Seat-belt signs lit up, problems switched off. Broken armrests took precedence over broken hearts.
Before the hit movie there was the cult novel written by an unknown
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Reviews, Books - The Body by Hanif Kureishi Reviewed By Steve Rudd
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I imagine that to participate in the world with curiosity and pleasure, to see the point of what is going on, you have to be young and uninformed. Do I want to participate?
This is an incredibly compelling novel from Kent-born Hanif (who proves himself to be ever-the-philosopher)
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Album Reviews -
The 59 Violets - Prime Numbers By Steve Rudd
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First things first, a bit of vital number crunching: the debut album from North Lincolnshire's
va-va-vooming 59 Violets four-piece is 40 minutes long and spread over 11 fantastic songs.
Each and every track is moulded around some superb melodies, as these boys wield both the
pop
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Opinions - When Technology Takes Over By Steve Rudd
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Am I the only person left in Britain not to own a DVD player? For sure, I must be one of only a select number of people to be currently flogging the life out of their vintage VHS video recorders.. but I'm not all that bothered.
At the end of the day, a movie is no different whether it is played in
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Single Reviews Torso Horse - The Invisible Event
(eight-track album/ Native) By Steve Rudd Release Date: Nov 1st 2004
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Over the past four years, Bridlington band Torso Horse has truly - and deservedly -
dominated the Goth-Metal scene in East Yorkshire in style.
This uncompromising eight-track release is their second album, and the eagerly anticipated
follow-up to their rapturously
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Single Reviews - Ox - Blood (mini-album/ Co-Pop) By Steve Rudd
Release Date: November 1st 2004.
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Oh I do like to be beside the seaside when super-talented acoustic-based duos in the
shape of Ox materialise from towns such as Brighton, as Ox band
members in multi-instrumentalists Jim Oxborrow and John Etkin-Bell have.
Jim sings, with his sensitive voice being
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Single Reviews - Hoobastank - The Reason (Mercury) By Steve Rudd
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It's been almost impossible to avoid this radio-friendly tune over the past few weeks, as it
has literally taken the world by storm. Over in the US it was the Number One airplay
record for five weeks, before basking in the glory of being the Number Three most
played track in
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Poetry - Exhilaration Denied and Bulling Bone China By Steve Rudd
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Long division carries over the little things that add up
On late railways across the USA
Glue sniffers'll get stuck
For words when they're sick
Lumps in the throat tend to stick, to fit
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Reviews, Books - Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer Reviewed By Steve Rudd
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Reaching the top of Everest is supposed to trigger a surge of intense elation; against
long odds, afterall, I had just attained a goal I'd coveted since childhood.
But the summit was really only the halfway point. Any impulse I might have felt toward
self-congratulation
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Reviews, Books - Down Under by Bill Bryson Reviewed By Steve Rudd
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As I write this review it is the height of British summertime, and as I'm staring
outside the window at 8:30 PM it's almost black dark out there and pouring it down with rain.
Which is - to extents - to be expected, given the UK's terminally unpredictable climate.
No wonder
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Reviews, Films - Saw By Steve Rudd
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As if there isn't enough sick and twisted violence out there in the real world as it is,
there are hordes of film-makers that feel that violence is the essential ingredient to
make a winning movie. To make their movie as violent as possible often seems
their aim,
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Single Reviews -
Mansun - Slipping Away (EMI) By Steve Rudd
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Brace yourselves, for this is the last-ever single release from those
loveable Chester-based boys. Sadly, they decided to call it a day whilst
recording their fourth, as-yet-unreleased album.
On the upside though, and to help die-hard fans get over the initial
loss, Mansun are
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CD Reviews -
Khi (6-track Demo) By Steve Rudd
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This quartet's high-octane How Would I Know anthem might thematically speak of all the time that
people tend to waste in life, during non-productive days that serve nobody and nothing.
To the contrary, this hugely exciting Hull band (that has been on the go for some years
now) most
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Reviews, Books - Travels in a Strange State by Josie Dew Reviewed By Steve Rudd
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A man called Jonathan Raban once said, The only way to travel is to travel alone.
It opens you up to the world. It puts you in the way of luck and chance.
With such a sentiment Josie Dew whole-heartedly agrees, as do I.
This fantastically written book
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Reviews, Books - Santaland Diaries by David Sedaris Reviewed By Steve Rudd
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All of us take pride and pleasure in the fact that we are unique, but I'm afraid that
when all is said and done the police are right: it all comes down to fingerprints.
Which, I presume, means that Sedaris (who is both a highly respected playwright and
author) really
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Album Reviews -
The Composers - Evacuate London (8-track demo) By Steve Rudd
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Compose yourself, for the music on offer here from this East London-rooted band is most excellent.
Opening track Evacuate London is a jingle-jangling shot of down-to-earth,
lovelorn pop music of the highest caliber, with Dan Edelstyn leading the quintet
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