AYOUSH LAZIKANI introduces her guide to the many ways in which the Moon was interpreted in medieval times
‘His music has been the true soundbeat of his political heart’
CHRIS SEARLE speaks to guitarist Gary Boyle
Gary Boyle (centre) with the Mike Westbrook Band, 1972
[Courtesy of Cadillac Records] 
An analysis of the choices facing the US left has to reach beyond the confines of the Democrat party, suggests RON JACOBS
FRANCIS BECKETT introduces his new play that aims to give its audience a taste of what a far-right triumph would be
KENNY MACASKILL welcomes an outstanding biography that gives full context to the life of Scotland’s greatest early 20th century novelist
ANDY HEDGECOCK, MARIA DUARTE and ANGUS REID review Ackroyd & Harvey: The Art of Activism, The Lost Bus, A Big Bold Beautiful Journey, and Happyend
MARY CONWAY relishes the spectacle of a domestic implosion in a setting strangely divorced from any social, political or cultural context
OF all the albums that the multiple formations of the Mike Westbrook bands have made from duos, trios, to full orchestras and his present “Band of Bands,” the Live, 1972 album, now reissued, gives us the freest expression of Westbrook’s music.
Over half a century on, its power and liberated sounds create an uncanny unity with the free improvisation much more common in now-times.
The guitarist on the 1972 album was the outstanding Gary Boyle, whose soloing throughout the album’s seven long tracks radiates the influences of Ornette Coleman, a strong dose of the blues, and if you listen closely on such tracks as Spaces, you can hear the far echoes of the sitar and his Indian birthplace.
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