Moving The River
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Matt Phillips' website about '80s music, movies, and more. Matt is a writer, musician, and record executive. He's the author of 'Level 42: Every Album, Every Song', the first in-depth study of the jazz/funk/pop supergroup's prestigious catalogue.
Moving The River
2w ago
In this day and age, it’s weirdly reassuring to recommend an album which resolutely refuses to appear on streaming platforms or even CD. So, at the time of writing, it has always ever been just a 1982 vinyl release for Rockin’ Jimmy & The Brothers Of The Night (widely available on Discogs). Fronted by bespectacled ..read more
Moving The River
3w ago
Val Wilmer has arguably been Britain’s leading jazz photographer (and writer of classic jazz book ‘As Serious As Your Life’) since she started taking pictures of musicians over 60 years ago. And now Café Royal Books have issued a lovely budget paperback of Wilmer’s photos entitled ‘American Drummers 1959-1988’, which does exactly what it says ..read more
Moving The River
1M ago
It was fascinating watching the long American cut of ‘The Shining’ recently with a packed, young crowd at the BFI Southbank. They clapped and cheered at the end, and many flinched and jumped out of their seats during Jack’s manic outbursts. It was also fascinating to re-evaluate Shelley Duvall’s performance after her sad recent death ..read more
Moving The River
1M ago
40 years ago this month, Van Halen were the penultimate act at Monsters Of Rock, Castle Donington, part of what is generally considered the greatest ever bill at the illustrious rock festival. And now some sizzling side-of-stage footage from Saturday 18 August 1984 has emerged, shot by Ross Halfin, showing the first iteration of the ..read more
Moving The River
2M ago
Bowie’s Tonight, the speedy followup to Let’s Dance released 40 years ago, was one of the most divisive albums of his career. For some, it was over-produced pap. For others, it was a great little pop/rock album. In the September issue of Record Collector magazine, I reassess it, rounding up some of the usual and ..read more
Moving The River
2M ago
The Steely Dan bibliography is relatively small – ‘Quantum Criminals’, Donald Fagen’s fine ‘Eminent Hipsters’ memoir, Don Breithaupt’s excellent study of Aja and ‘Steely Dan FAQ’ loom large, plus of course the rather good Expanding Dan site on Substack. But Jez Rowden’s ‘Steely Dan: Every Album, Every Song’ is a worthy addition, and completely different ..read more
Moving The River
2M ago
Joe Meek isn’t often compared to Stock, Aitken and Waterman but here’s an associate of the former speaking after his untimely death: ‘He was being ganged up on by the establishment. Nobody with any power in the business liked him because he was independent and successful.’ The same could be said for Mike Stock, Matt ..read more
Moving The River
3M ago
Brit writer/director/auteur Mike Leigh is partly famous for his method of creating shooting scripts: he works with each actor in turn to develop a character, then formulates a story based on improvisations between the various characters. But he wasn’t the only notable figure to work in that way. Les Blair, a Manchester college friend of ..read more
Moving The River
3M ago
Despite his reputation as a sonic groundbreaker and technological wiz, Peter Gabriel arguably hasn’t done anything much good on record since 1992, even as his live shows gain popularity. 1986’s So was of course the huge pop breakthrough, and that album has been the template for his subsequent, rather predictable solo career – he generally ..read more
Moving The River
4M ago
‘No crap beats’ – if that wasn’t on Keith Leblanc’s business card, it should have been. The man could just sit down at any kit – or program any drum machine – and make it sound rich and swinging, whether he was playing with Tackhead, Seal, Tina Turner, Nine Inch Nails, Depeche Mode, Bomb The ..read more