Music Reissues Weekly: New York Dolls - Showdown At The Mercer

MUSIC REISSUES WEEKLY: NEW YORK DOLLS - SHOWDOWN AT THE MERCER Historically important earliest-known live recording of the punk precursors

Historically important earliest-known live recording of the punk precursors

“A band you’re gonna like, whether you like it or not.” The proclamation in the press ads for the New York Dolls’ debut album acknowledged they were a hard sell.

Music Reissues Weekly: American Baroque - Chamber Pop and Beyond 1967-1971

AMERICAN BAROQUE - CHAMBER POP AND BEYOND 1967-1971 Harpsichords, string quartets, woodwind and a summer-into-autumn melancholy

Harpsichords, string quartets, woodwind and a summer-into-autumn melancholy

The descending refrain opening the song isn’t unusual but attention is instantly attracted as it’s played on a harpsichord. Equally instantly, an elegiac atmosphere is set. The voice, coming in just-short of the 10-second mark, is similarly yearning in tone. The song’s opening lyrics convey dislocation: “You and I travel to the beat of a different drum.”

Best of 2024: Music Reissues Weekly

BEST OF 2024: MUSIC REISSUES WEEKLY Expanding present-day horizons

Expanding present-day horizons with The Beatles, Lou Christie, Lou Reed and more

A reissue can be an aide-mémoire, a reminder that a record which has been off the radar for a while needs revisiting, that it deserves fresh attention.

Music Reissues Weekly: Hawkwind - X In Search Of Space, Doremi Fasol Latido

Must-have box-set editions of two of British rock’s most important albums

One of last year’s major joys was the box set version of Hawkwind's Space Ritual, an 11-disc extravaganza which made the great live album, originally issued in May 1973, even more great. Now the two studio albums which preceded it – X In Search Of Space and Doremi Fasol Latido – have become similarly packaged, though less colossal, box sets.

Music Reissues Weekly: John Cale - The Academy in Peril, Paris 1919, Fear, Slow Dazzle, Helen of Troy

A bumper bundle of the man dubbed a ‘master of many styles’

The return to shops of a consecutive sequence of five of John Cale's Seventies albums through different labels is undoubtedly coincidental. All have been previously reissued multiple times and none are scarce in any form. Anyone wanting any of these albums presumably already has a copy. Nonetheless, it’s good that these makeovers sustain the profile of Cale’s idiosyncratic take on art-rock.

Music Reissues Weekly: Magazine - Real Life, Secondhand Daylight, The Correct Use of Soap

MAGAZINE The first three albums from Howard Devoto’s post-punk marvels hit the shops again

The first three albums from Howard Devoto’s post-punk marvels hit the shops again

“Let's walk down memory lane the Magazine way. Let's regurgitate fifth-rate Low [the David Bowie album] period pieces. Let's plonk plonk plonk with ponderous sub-Pink Floydery. Let's do the wallpaper waltz. This is not pushing back the barriers. It's frighteningly bland conservatism.”

Tucker Zimmerman, The Lexington, London review - undersung old-timer airs songwriting excellence

Rare and welcome appearance from superb octagenarian American singer-songwriter

Tucker Zimmerman is singing a number called “Don’t Go Crazy (Go in Peace)”. At 83, he performs sitting down. Surrounded by support band Iji, who act as his pick-up, he approaches the song in a whispery, affable voice. At the start of his set he was assisted to his seat but, knees aside, he’s not frail. He’s just laid back, a Sixties original, strumming gently. “Don’t go crazy,” he sings, “Go with the flow, go in peace.” Although he’s advised us to not think about politics, it’s hard not to.

Music Reissues Weekly: Isaac Hayes - Hot Buttered Singles

ISAAC HAYES - HOT BUTTERED SINGLES Plugging a gap in the story of the soul giant

Plugging a gap in the story of the soul giant

After the chart success of his second album, June 1969’s Hot Buttered Soul, it was inevitable that any single had to represent Isaac Hayes in a different way to the LP. The album’s 12-minute version of “Walk on by” would not work as a seven-incher. There was also “By the Time I Get to Phoenix,” which clocked in at over 18 minutes. They did, though, become the A- and B-sides of a tie-in single. But only after significant editing.

How To Survive Your Mother, King's Head Theatre review - mummy issues drive autobiographical dramedy

★★★ HOW TO SURVIVE YOUR MOTHER, KING'S HEAD THEATRE Jonathan Maitland writes of his mother, but should we laugh or cry?

Lots of heartache, but a strange void where the heart of the play should be

It is unsurprising to learn in the post-show Q&A that each audience receives Jonathan Maitland’s new play based on his 2006 memoir differently. My house laughed a lot (me especially) but some see the tragic overwhelming the comic, and the laughs dry up. When it comes to humour, as is the case with mothers, it’s each to their own.

Reykjavik, Hampstead Theatre review - drama frozen by waves of detail

★★★ REYKJAVIK, HAMPSTEAD THEATRE Drama frozen by waves of detail

Richard Bean’s new play revisits the Hull fishing industry of the 1970s

“Don’t take a piss in the house of a woman you have made a widow.” The mixture of earthy comedy and tragic pain in this piece of parental advice is typical of the tone of Richard Bean’s Reykjavik, his new work play which explores the lives of the Hull trawlermen of the mid-1970s.