This from the early fanzines . . . . trust Andy P to be a curmudgeon! Hah!
Wednesday, December 16, 2020
The Big O Newsletter highlights today included the following and include the wonderful set from Laura Marling from the BBC Proms concert that I for one missed this time around . . . . . . so this is most welcome
MICHAEL JACKSON ESTATE WINS LAWSUIT APPEAL
Michael Jackson's estate has won an appeal that allows it to pursue arbitration after claiming the creators of 'Leaving Neverland' violated a non-disparagement clause. The estate had sued HBO for US$100 million, arguing that its 2019 documentary, which details accounts by Jackson's alleged victims of child sex abuse, breaks a 27-year-old confidentiality clause. By contrast, HBO accuses the Jackson estate of seeking to silence victims of sexual abuse. The media giant argues that the non-disparagement clause from a 1992 concert film from Jackson's 'Dangerous' tour is irrelevant to the present dispute, Variety reports.
HBO appealed, however, on December 14 a three-judge panel of the 9th Circuit Court of Appeal upheld the lower court ruling. The judges said the suit may be "frivolous," as HBO has claimed, but concluded that it would be for an arbitrator to decide.
The truth hurts but what a jackpot.
LAURA MARLING - LONDON 2020
"Like being dosed with a vitamin I had been leaving out of my diet."
LAURA MARLING
London 2002
BBC Proms. Live at the Royal Albert Hall, London, UK. September 6, 2020. Very good digital broadcast.
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ANYWAY, ANYHOW, ANYWHERE (All the news this week)
BBC ON 'BOWIE FIVE YEARS ON'
BBC Radio will celebrate the life and work of David Bowie next month with a series of programmes titled 'Bowie Five Years On'. The special series will mark the five-year anniversary of Bowie's death. He died at the age of 69 on January 10, 2016 following a battle with cancer. Two special Bowie programmes - Soul Music - Life on Mars and Archive on 4: Bowie Verbatim (a repeat) - will be broadcast on Radio 4 on January 9, 2021. The following day will see 6 Music dedicate its entire schedule to celebrating Bowie, with shows hosted by the likes of Radcliffe and Maconie, Elbow's Guy Garvey and Cerys Matthews all set to focus on the late star. BBC Four will also screen an evening of Bowie programmes on January 8, 2021, while BBC Radio 2 will air a Bowie-centric edition of Sounds of the '70s at 3 pm on January 10.
The two-hour 'Bowie: Dancing Out In Space' show, which will be broadcast on both BBC Radio 6 Music and BBC Radio 4 simultaneously at 8 pm on January 10, 2021 will explore "the impact of David Bowie on their lives and how he always managed to be ahead of the curve".
WESTWARD HO
Kanye West is facing two class-action lawsuits from workers at his live Christian opera 'Nebuchadnezzar', detailing various grievances surrounding their treatment and pay on the show. The rapper is accused of owing "unpaid wages", failing to pay minimum wage and overtime, and refusing to provide appropriate meal and rest breaks when he hosted a series of shows at The Hollywood Bowl last year. According to new details obtained by Vice, the first lawsuit stems from crew members hired for 'Nebuchadnezzar', while the second arrives from the performers themselves. The legal action could reportedly amount to US$1 million in damages against the rapper.
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READING ROOM
THE COMING PORN MASSACRE
Visa and Mastercard have cut ties with Pornhub
Rolling Stone reported that "(a)t the start of the pandemic, Alex and Cassie, a same-sex, nonbinary, multiracial couple based in Canada, were laid off from their full-time jobs. Scrambling for income, and unable to leave the house because of Alex's preexisting conditions, Alex and Cassie, who asked to be identified only by their first names to protect their privacy, decided to start selling pornographic content through Pornhub.
On December 10, credit card processors Visa and Mastercard made a shocking announcement: they would be terminating their relationships with Pornhub. It was part of a series of reforms surrounding the porn behemoth, following an exposé in the New York Times by journalist Nicholas Kristof regarding the presence of videos depicting rape and child sexual abuse on the website.
Alex and Cassie reacted to the news with "complete horror and fear". "There's absolutely no work in our area and without paid content on these sites, we'll lose more than 50 per cent of our income," they tell Rolling Stone. For the first time since the pandemic started, they wondered if they might become homeless. "No other industry cuts someone's salary in half overnight," they say. "And it feels terrible, because we have done nothing wrong."
...Although it is largely known as a free porn website, many sex workers use Pornhub to sell their content and depend on it for their income, and they were outraged and terrified by the news. "It's a huge blow to us as sex workers and models. It will not hurt Pornhub as they have always made money off of stolen content," says Dee Siren, a content creator and director. "This will only hurt models."
...Alana Evans, president of the adult performer union APAG, sees it as "the tip of the iceberg in the war on porn," in the same vein as anti-trafficking legislation like FOSTA/SESTA. The legislation was intended to curb trafficking on the internet but had the end result of endangering sex workers by shuttering networks like Backpage, which sex workers relied on for both income and as a vetting resource.
Credit card processors severing their relationship with a giant tube site like Pornhub is "not keeping kids safe. This doesn't stop kids from being molested, or stop people from shooting the content of people being raped and abused," she says. "This is no different from shutting down Backpage." She suggests that as a result of Visa and Mastercard cutting ties with Pornhub, many content creators will see their income dwindle. Some even may turn to street-based sex work during the pandemic.
...As an additional blow, Sen. Josh Hawley proposed a bipartisan bill on December 9 in response to the Kristof piece that would enable victims of sex trafficking or sexual assault to sue Pornhub if their videos show up on the platform. While such a bill is clearly well-intentioned, and "providing economic incentives and relief for victims is always smart. I just worry about SESTA/FOSTA-like implications," says Kaytlin Bailey, a sex worker rights activist and host of the Oldest Profession Podcast. "I would hate to see a reaction to this as just a blanket erasure or overreaction that makes it harder for sex workers to survive and protect themselves on the internet."
Ultimately, sex workers believe that Visa and Mastercard severing ties with Pornhub may potentially signal just that. "The question a lot of us have is, what is the threshold here? What level of illegal content needs to be sold on a platform before the payment processors leave?," says Siri. "How many people are we helping versus how many people's livelihoods are we completely destroying?"
Read in full at Rolling Stone (click here).
Read Nicholas Kristof's The Children of Pornhub (click here).
Monday, December 14, 2020
Sunday, December 13, 2020
David Bowie REALITY 2003 - VOODOO WAGON
B ★ O ★ W ★ I ★ E
From the old queen to the new queen . . . . . . . Uncle Lou to sister Bowie! This from Voodoo Wagon this morning from our dear friend Jobe and what a treat this is . . . . . .the Bowie lately posted here and at sister site Floppy Boot Stomp have uniformly been exceptional in quality and this is a prime example! From the Reality Tour with lots of lovely chat between songs and David sounding happy and truly appreciative of the audience . . . the quality here is extraordinary!
Band Line up:
David Bowie – lead vocals, guitar, stylophone
Earl Slick – guitar
Gail Ann Dorsey – bass, vocals
Gerry "Spookyghost" Leonard – guitar, backing vocals
Sterling Campbell – drums
Mike Garson – keyboards
Catherine Russell – keyboards, backing vocals, guitar, percussion
David Bowie - Live in Dublin Nov 2003 - Voodoo Wagon
Superb stuff, if you download one thing today make it this . . . . . . .
UNCLE LOU
'PHANTOM ANIMAL'
Well obviously every Sunday should start with some Lou Reed!
Lou Reed - Phantom Animal - Live in Copenhagen 1973
over at Hear Rock City . . . . . . .you know it makes sense . . . . . . a loud and 'noisy' set but the 1973 line-up here still including Steve Hunter and Dick Wagner but it is running a bit 'hot' for me or is an audience recording as while HRC says Lou is disengaged (what CAN he mean!?) he also sounds distanced in front of the band and it could do with a remix and remaster to be honest and while it may not be as good as the previous sets from Hear Rock it is well worth a listen and a download . . . . . .
Hear Rock City says:
Yeah, more from the Lou Reed early 70's.
And a well known bootleg Phantom Animal.
This show finds our disengaged frontman
in Copenhagen, Denmark.
Standard setlist for the time it seems.
This one also features Hunter/Wagner ripping it up.
alternative back cover
Friday, December 11, 2020
Jessie Buckley
JESSIE BUCKLEY
I adore Jessie Buckley the wonderful Irish actor and don't believe I have seen her in anything that she didn't shine in . . . . . her films roles have been stellar for me from 'Beast' playing opposite Johnny Flynn (another great and upcoming star and no mistake, love his acting as well as his wonderful singing and guitar playing) and her television roles; playing in War & Peace as Marya Bolkonskaya, with Jessica Raine in The Last Post, opposite Tom Hardy in the intensely dark and gothic 'Taboo' which I loved and a strange,, almost bit part, in the extraordinary 'Chernobyl' as Lyudmilla Ignatenko, Jessie continues to excel at everything she does. I look forward to seeing her in 'I'm Thinking of Ending Things' but am pretty much looking forward to anything she chooses to set her mind to!
To find out she could also sing like this is also an astonishing moment. I knew she had appeared on the Andrew Lloyd Weber project, coming second in the BBC talent show 'I'd Do Anything' but she has soared overhead ever since then and her acting exceeds all expectations and she is starward bound
Anyone forget (or miss!?) the radiant Jessie at the BAFTAS this year . . . . . . . .
Glasgow - Jessie Buckley
Just a one off you thought? . . . . . . .nope, here she covers the legendary Emmylou Harris' 'Boulder To Birmingham' . . . . . (allegedly written by Harris on hearing of the death of Gram Parsons). As if you needed any more reasons to love this fine, fine actor
Boulder To Birmingham - Jessie Buckley (The Late Late Show)
Thursday, December 10, 2020
UNCLE LOU PLAYS GLASGOW! 1973
Another beauty from Hear Rock City of Seventies Lou Reed and this one with the interstellar stars of Rock N Roll Animal, Steve Hunter, Dick Wagner and the stalwarts Ray Colcord on keyboards, Peter Walsh on bass and Pentti Glan on drums. Curiously for me this isn't quite as good as the post from Smoker at Hear Rock City the other day . . . . . . but it is still really worth downloading and is a stormer of a set from Lou at his peak. Allegedly recorded off two cassettes this is staggering quality . . . . . . Do what Sister Ray says . . . . . . . .
1973.09.24
At the Apollo in Glasgow, all the elements of Lou Reed's show came together perfectly. Convinced to wait till the encore to slip into his punk guise, Lou took the already intense energy from the show to a reckless, extreme level.
Running back and forth on stage, while the band members surged forward, the singer fell to his knees and pounded the mic stand onto the stage. The sold-out Scottish crowd danced wildly, jumping up and down, so much that the balcony began heaving alarmingly. I figured the structure might be designed to do that, but the lighting director and I moved out from under the second floor anyway, just to be safe.
After two full encores, the place was filled with people chanting for more. When the house lights came up, all I could think was that it was unfortunate this show hadn't been taped for the planned live record. Well, I did record it on a two track cassette, and now you can hear this high powered rock 'n' roll animal for yourself.
Dinky Dawson
RICHARD THOMPSONWHAT WE DID ON OUR HOLIDAYS - LIVE!
Richard announces its just one week to go! Then the last of his live stream events
(see link for tickets)
ONE WEEK OUT from the Richard Thompson ‘What We Did On Our Holidays’ livestream event!!Join RT on Wednesday, December 16 at 8pm ET for an evening of songs, stories, and holiday cheer.
Get your tickets here: smarturl.it/RTholidaylive
Wednesday, December 09, 2020
HAROLD BUDD
Dies at 84
Coronavirus claims another musician
Harold Budd, the acclaimed composer known for his so called minimalist works and collaborations with Brian Eno, died Tuesday. He was 84. Steve Takaki, Budd’s manager, confirmed his death, adding that the cause of death was complications due to the coronavirus.
Budd a contemporary of John Cage, Morton Feldman and Terry Riley was brought to a wider audience by early works recording with Brian Eno on his Ambient label and later his wonderful album 'The Plateaux of Mirror'.
He then went on later to work with Cocteau Twins' Robin Guthrie
Harold Budd - Dead at 84 from Coronavirus - Rolling Stone magazine
Harold Budd and Brian Eno in the studio working on Plateaux of Mirror
First Light from Plateaux of Mirror
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