Singer-songwriter Paul Kelly is barely known outside of Australia, but he’s one of his country’s most beloved musicians. His literate songs are plain and unadorned, often with a rock band or with touches of country and folk. Kelly has disowned…
Welcome back. If you’re in America or the UK, it’s still probably “Pash Wednesday”. This has happened twice since World War 2, when Valentine’s Day and Ash Wednesday fall on the same day. To honour this, we have a love-titled…
The past is a foreign country. ‘Tie A Yellow Ribbon Round the Ole Oak Tree’ sounds irredeemably corny now, but it was huge in 1973. Tony Orlando and Dawn Tony Orlando recorded throughout the 1960s. He enjoyed a handful of…
‘I’m Your Man’ was Wham’s only number one hit in New Zealand during the 1980s. ‘Last Christmas’, ‘Careless Whisper’, ‘Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go’, and ‘The Edge of Heaven’ all peaked at #2 or #3. Wham! Andrew Ridgeley and…
Welcome back to another round of quizzing. Last week, a late-ish entry from Tony, replete with coffee, blitzed the field. This week, you challenge is to fill in the blank of a song title with the photo of a place.…
It’s February 2024, and we’re still chewing through 2023 records. Two very different American acts this week. The country and power-pop-infused indie rock of Chicago’s Ratboys, and the latest record from rapper Danny Brown. Enjoy! Ratboys The Window 2023, 8/10There…
Before he became Patti Smith’s lead guitarist, Lenny Kaye compiled Nuggets: Original Artyfacts from the First Psychedelic Era. Released in 1972, the two-LP set covered American garage rock and psychedelia from the years 1965 to 1968 and was a major…
Welcome back for another week of quizzing. Congratulations to EclecticMusicLover, who won easily with 29 This week’s challenge is relatively straightforward – it will probably end up as a speed test. You need to name music stars by their real…
Before some personal issues emerged, Chris Brown was a promising and charming young R&B star. Chris Brown Chris Brown was one of the most successful singles artists on the New Zealand chart during the first decade of the 2000s. He…
Vanessa Carlton is largely known as a one-hit wonder. The Pennsylvania-born pianist and singer hit the big time with her debut single ‘A Thousand Miles’. Technically Carlton had a couple more hits. She was featured on Counting Crows’ cover of…
