EWAN CAMERON picks out two fascinating music shows, fusing the Korean, and the Celtic, with the modern
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Round-up 2018: Tim Wells
TIM WELLS looks back on a stimulating year of poetry, music and publishing
Whippersnappin' punk: Big Joanie
BENJAMIN POTHIER suggests that Palaeolithic cave paintings in Spain point to the ceremonial use of hallucinogenic flora
The bard confirms that the right has a humour bypass, and replays the English Revolution on period instruments
MARIA DUARTE and ANDY HEDGECOCK review Sunny Dancer, Tony, Songs of Forgotten Trees, and The End of Oak Street
JOHN GREEN relishes a powerful and moving drama that explores the lived realities of west London’s Punjabi community
MARTIN HALL welcomes a plea for greater compassion between believer and non-believer via the framework of philosophical enquiry
MY CHRISTMAS doesn’t start until I’ve randomly heard the seasonal Slade smash. As of yet, I’ve still not, but this week I did read what may well be my favourite poem of the year.
I’m Shocked by Iris Colomb from Bad Betty Press is a one-poem chapbook, which may well be my favourite of the year. The poem’s a cracker. It starts: “I was drunk but not paralytic ...” and that refrain weaves through it just as I’ve done down Stamford Hill more times than I care to remember. This is small-press poetry kicking it — intelligent, witty and crafted and it felt like more than sex.
Going back to my yoof with 'zines, one of the book launches I best enjoyed in 2018 was Tony D’s collected issues of Ripped & Torn, a punk original dating back to 1976. Herein you’ll find angst and anger but sadly more Adam and the Ants than I care for.
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