Graeme Thomson
graeme.thomson
- Bio
- Graeme Thomson has written extensively on music and popular culture for, among others, the Guardian, the Observer, the Telegraph, New Statesman, The Word, Uncut, Time Out, MOJO, Oxford American, Rolling Stone and the Herald. His books include Complicated Shadows, a biography of Elvis Costello, and I Shot a Man in Reno, a widely acclaimed history of death music. His definitive biography of Kate Bush, Under The Ivy, was published in 2010 and described by the Irish Times as "the best music biography in perhaps the past decade".
Articles by Graeme Thomson
Jimeoin, Queen's Hall, Edinburgh
Monday, 22 April 2013
No theme, no message, no set, no title. Northern Irish comedian Jimeoin is a beguilingly old-fashioned kind of standup. “Just jokes,” he told us at the beginning of his new show, and he was true to... Read more... |
Nile Rodgers: The Hitmaker, BBC Four
Saturday, 30 March 2013
It was one of those entirely unverifiable "facts" that music documentaries increasingly prefer over genuine insight: early on in this serviceable but routine overview of a truly stellar talent, we... Read more... |
Rick Redbeard, Electric Circus, Edinburgh
Wednesday, 13 March 2013
Rick Redbeard has a pirate’s name and a voice like deep, dark water. Behind the colourful alter ego stands (or, as was the case last night, sits) Rick Anthony, singer of The Phantom Band, the... Read more... |
Richard Thompson, Usher Hall, Edinburgh
Friday, 01 March 2013
There is a problem with every single Richard Thompson concert and it is one of omission. With a songbook to rival the best in the business, every triumphant rendition of one song comes tinged with... Read more... |
10 Questions for Musician Richard Thompson
Saturday, 09 February 2013
Richard Thompson has been stretching boundaries and defying expectations for almost half a century. An unassuming 63-year-old with a neat beard whose sole concession to showbiz is his jaunty black... Read more... |
CD of the Year: Sam Lee - Ground of Its Own
Saturday, 22 December 2012
One would hope that a man whose CV includes “teacher of wilderness survival” and burlesque dancer might be well equipped to bring a better than average sense of depth and drama to a set of folk songs... Read more... |
Thank You for the Days: Remembering Kirsty MacColl
Tuesday, 18 December 2012
On December 18, 2000, Kirsty MacColl was killed after being struck by a motorboat while scuba diving with her two sons in Cozumel, Mexico. The tragic, criminal circumstances of her death – the boat... Read more... |
12 Films of Christmas: Merry Christmas, Mr Lawrence
Tuesday, 18 December 2012
David Bowie already had a bit of previous with Christmas, of course, after pa-rum-pa-pumpum-ing through the tinsel with Bing back in 1977. He plays a very different kind of drummer boy in Nagisa... Read more... |
The Arthur Conan Doyle Appreciation Society, Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh
Saturday, 08 December 2012
What is truth? Is it fixed or fluid, personal or universal? Does it require hard evidence or merely faith? These are the areas of interest poked and prodded in this co-production between the Traverse... Read more... |
Dave Brubeck, 1920-2012
Wednesday, 05 December 2012
In 2009 I interviewed Jamie Cullum about Dave Brubeck, who has died today just a day before his 92nd birthday. What follows are Cullum's recollections of falling in love with Brubeck's music, and... Read more... |
Cinderella, Royal Lyceum, Edinburgh
Monday, 03 December 2012
The idea of making the princely hero of Cinderella a preening, vacuous lead character from some BBC Three-style reality show is a good one. These days the notion of a smart, self-respecting young... Read more... |
Imagine: How Music Makes Us Feel, BBC One
Wednesday, 28 November 2012
During a previous Imagine about neurologist Oliver Sacks, Alan Yentob listened to Jessye Norman singing Strauss while scanning equipment showed his brain “bathed in blood”. It provided powerful... Read more... |
Rodriguez, Usher Hall, Edinburgh
Monday, 26 November 2012
We surely all know the story of Sixto Rodriguez by now. The Detroit-born singer-songwriter made two fine albums in the early 1970s, Cold Fact and Coming from Reality, before swiftly vanishing. As he... Read more... |
CD: Steve Adey - The Tower of Silence
Thursday, 22 November 2012
English singer-songwriter Steve Adey has taken six years to follow up his excellent debut album, All Things Real, and at first it’s hard to tell why. These 10 songs, simply constructed, are executed... Read more... |
CD: Christina Aguilera - Lotus
Saturday, 17 November 2012
Entirely in keeping with the heightened narrative surrounding pop stars and their perpetual crises, Christina Aguilera’s recent history has been spun into the kind of tragedy worthy of Piaf or Callas... Read more... |
Lau, Queen's Hall, Edinburgh
Wednesday, 07 November 2012
It’s all becoming a bit “water is wet“, isn’t it, saying how brilliant Lau are. But what else to do? Their name means “natural light” in Orcadian, which seems about right, except their vaulting,... Read more... |
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How to contact Graeme Thomson
- personal website
- http://undertheivybook.blogspot.com/
