I Wanna Jump Like Dee Dee Giles Sibbald

Naël is an artist who has made me realise that I need to up my game as far as awareness of new music is concerned. He has the most incredible voice that brings in influences from soul, gospel, RnB, hip hop, jazz. He has been on tour with the amazing Jeanne Added. A couple of weeks ago, he released a really beautiful track called Roses and is going to release his debut solo EP called Last Words on the 7th June. He has also lived with a loss of hearing. Total silence in one ear and noise i...

I’m gonna start with a quote that I remember coming across about 7 years ago now when I started thinking about what we needed as human beings to navigate through what is best described as a 100 year life – and credit to Dr Lynda Gratton for that term – or multi stage life - which is one that breaks away from that model of my parents generation – education-work-retirement - to something much more multi-hyphenate and less linear and one where longevity and technology play a much more prevalent ...

You know when you’re listening to a song and, y’know, there’s an unexpected chord or tempo change, or something that throws you a bit off kilter. And then there are LP’s that throw up another, perhaps unexpected, direction for the artist – even for an artist known for their eclectism - maybe some influences that you hadn’t heard before. Then there are LP’s where the LP as a whole is whacko eclectic. And then…. there’s Psymon Spine, the band of my guest Brother Michael…....who ...

DRAGG has been releasing music for around 12/13 years now; a brand of sparse, West Coast-y hip hop, tinged with RnB and soul, all the time showing a progressive approach and high degree of emotional intelligence in the subject matter and how to connect with his audience. His story is remarkable, not least because he lost his sight early in his life…but he has navigated the many obstacles he has faced with persistence and resilience, wearing his heart on his sleeve as the saying goes. He’...

I met up with my old friend John Robb over the UK May bank holiday weekend. He was in London talking about his birthday, sorry life and career (!).For those who don’t know John, he formed The Membranes in the early 80’s and he’s an author whose writing about music and the future I admire hugely – and his talk was called “Do You Believe In The Power of Rock N Roll?”.So, do I? Well, in a lot of ways, yes. Music, art, poetry and dance remain the number one threats to the establishment ...

My first experience of censorship in music came with the battle between the Dead Kennedys and Tipper Gore’s PMRC (remember the “Parental Advisory Explicit Content” stickers?) which culminated in the obscenity trial in 1985/6 over the artwork for DK’s record Frankenchrist. I don’t know if anyone remembers but the board members of the PMRC were a bunch of white power brokers funded by Coors Beer, who also just happened to be big supporters of….. Ronald Reagan. The elite keeping the lid on ...