In November 1986, I went to see New Order at the Congress Centre in Ottawa. Peter Gabriel was playing that same night in an arena across town; instead of a nosebleed seat there, I went… Read More
You’re not supposed to have a special auntie, but we all do, I think. I was fortunate to grow up with plenty of aunts and uncles, and wonderful family connections, but Trish Cogswell was the… Read More
On Wednesday, Martha and I stopped for a pint and caught the final stretch of the England-Congo match at the World Cup. Congo was leading 1-0, and then — boom. Harry Kane scored not one… Read More
Last Saturday, I went to see Mumford and Sons in Toronto. It was a great show (some notes follow below), and I also learned that there is a big difference between Rogers Centre and Rogers… Read More
Wendi Smallwood died earlier this week after a long and (let’s be frank) brutal battle with cancer. She fought it with vigour, stamping on it, and often with humour. Her Facebook posts found the joy… Read More
What kind of person was David Feder? I learned a story this morning, when I was watching the recording of his funeral, which was held Tuesday in St. John’s. When he was recovering from one… Read More
“Never apologize, never explain — didn’t we always say that? Well, I haven’t and I don’t.”— Marianne Faithfull Those words appear in the first of Marianne Faithfull’s memoirs, Faithfull: An Autobiography, which was published in… Read More
“Fear is the main source of superstition, and one of the main sources of cruelty. To conquer fear is the beginning of wisdom, in the pursuit of truth as in the endeavor after a worthy… Read More
“I think I learned years ago that you don’t get songs that have that long stride and that pivot-hinge ability if it’s too much diary entry.”— Leslie Feist Feist made this observation about her songwriting… Read More
“I don’t think people listen with their ears. I think they listen with their soul.”— Herb Alpert I heard Herb Alpert — the legendary trumpet player, producer and career-maker — say these words in the… Read More
Jools Holland is probably best known as the host of the long-running BBC music series Later …, which has been showcasing live performances since 1991. He’s also a bandleader and pianist, and was a founding… Read More
“It was a pudding, you know? It really was a pudding. It was a pudding of new ideas, and we were terribly excited, and I think we took it on our shoulders that we were… Read More
“Imagination is the highest kite that can fly.” — Lauren Bacall Lauren Bacall wrote these words for her memoir, which was published first as By Myself in 1978, and then revised and published in 2005… Read More
Goodness, did the boys in Keane actually look like boys when we glance back more than two decades to their breakthrough hit, Somewhere Only We Know. It seemed to be everywhere in 2004. The trio… Read More
“One of the surest of tests is the way in which a poet borrows. Immature poets imitate; mature poets steal; bad poets deface what they take, and good poets make it into something better, or… Read More