Reissue CDs Weekly: Pink Fairies

‘The Polydor Years’ offers an unexpectedly low freak factor

Like Lemmy, the bassist with their fellow London-based freaks Hawkwind, Pink Fairies crossed the bridge between the late-Sixties underground and the great British punk rock boom of 1977. After being sacked from Hawkwind Lemmy formed the punk-friendly Motörhead, whose debut album was issued in ’77. Their short-stay first guitarist was the Fairies’ Larry Wallis. After he exited Motörhead a fleetingly reformed Fairies issued a single on Stiff in 1976, the label’s second release.

Blu-ray: Dazed and Confused

Richard Linklater's loose-limbed portrait of American teenagers in 1976 gets a deserved re-release

I’m sure there’s an anthropologist out there writing a thesis on American teenagers’ coming-of-age rituals as performed in movies, from American Graffiti to this year’s Booksmart.

Rocketman review - fabulous musically but a tad miserable too

GOLDEN GLOBES 2020 Taron Egerton wins Best Actor in a Musical or Comedy for 'Rocketman'

Elton John settles old scores and pulls out all the stops

Rocketman opens with its hero in flamboyant stage costume stomping into a drab group therapy session. Pulling the sparkling horns off his magnificent head-dress and shuffling his feathered wings into a seat, Elton John demands of his fellow addicts, ‘How long is this going to take?’ The intimidated counsellor replies, ‘That’s really up to you’.

Reissue CDs Weekly: Ronnie Lane

REISSUE CDS WEEKLY: RONNIE LANE 'Just for a Moment' box set follows his post-Faces progress

The ‘Just For a Moment’ box set tracks what happened after Faces

It was inevitable that Rod Stewart’s distracting solo adventures would eventually kill off Faces, the band he fronted. Less predictable was the departure during their lifetime of another founder member, their bassist and key songwriter Ronnie Lane.

Birds of Passage review - mesmerising Colombian family saga

★★★★ BIRDS OF PASSAGE The marijuana boom of the Seventies from the standpoint of the Wayuu

The marijuana boom of the Seventies from the standpoint of the Wayuu

“Do you know why I’m respected?” demands Ursula (Carmiña Martinez), a Wayuu matriarch in La Guajira in northern Colombia, of Rapayet (José Acosta), who wants to marry her daughter Zaida (Natalia Reyes, soon to star in James Cameron’s Terminator reboot). “Because I’m capable of anything for my family and my clan.”

The Specials, Margate Winter Gardens review - ska legends passionate and on-point

★★★★★ THE SPECIALS, MARGATE WINTER GARDENS Ska legends passionate and on-point

Two Tone stars relevant and fired up as they tour their new album

Here they come again – the band most adept at capturing the mood of an era in catchy, critical three-minute songs. Just at the very point we need them most, the original ska-punk popsters surface and their message is as deeply relevant as it was four decades ago. But is this a 40th anniversary or a number one album tour? Or both?

theartsdesk on Vinyl 49 - Part 1: Keith Richards, Asian Dub Foundation, Popul Vuh, Nirvana, Cage the Elephant and more

THE ARTS DESK ON VINYL 49 Keith Richards, Asian Dub Foundation, Popul Vuh, Nirvana & more

The largest, most wide-ranging monthly record reviews on the planet

Due to exciting matters beyond theartsdesk on Vinyl’s control there’s been a slight delay to this month’s edition but, never fear, to ensure we cover all that’s juicy, we’re doing a special two-volume version, with Part 2 coming next week. Watch this space.