Bournemouth’s Bowl of music magic

Unlike many a fondly remembered music venue – tiny, tight and wont to overheating – Bournemouth’s Chelsea Village was the bee’s knees, the height of sophistication. When it opened in 1970 it was like nothing the town had seen before and within weeks it became a magnet for revellers from miles around. ‘We thought we Read More…

Julien’s temple of doom

I had the rare privilege of spending some time last week with film director Julien Temple before, during and just after hosting a Q&A with him for Purbeck Film Festival at the atmospheric Rex cinema in Wareham. He was amiably polite chatting in the bar before, animated and engaging in conversation on stage and just Read More…

Public Image Ltd 31:07:2012

O2 Academy, Bournemouth It gladdened the heart to look around the audience for PiL’s Bournemouth debut and see so many survivors – the sum total of human experience gathered together in the resurrected Victorian splendour of Boscombe’s old Grand Theatre would make quite a story. Here were the very people confounded by the burghers of Read More…

John Lydon – Public Image conscious

It spring 2012 and with the first new music from Public Image Ltd in 20 years about to be released, John Lydon dons his showman’s hat and talks it up – a one-man army of startling soundbites. The album, This Is PiL, is Lydon’s attempt to assimilate all that’s happened to him in his 56-year journey from Read More…

Remembering Malcolm McLaren

Best known as the punk svengali who masterminded the Sex Pistols’ infamous career in the mid-1970s, Malcolm McLaren lost his long battle with mesothelioma, an aggressive form of cancer, on Thursday aged 64. As his family, friends and former colleagues – including Dame Vivienne Westwood, John Lydon and respected author Jon Savage – pay tribute to Read More…