The governments of all the major countries have stepped in to solve the worst financial crisis experienced since 1929. The capital markets at the very heart of the financial system have failed, exposing all the limits and contradictions of the present system in which the terms freedom, greed and abuse are too often mixed up. […]
In 2001, Chris Carlsson writing in Processed World (the magazine that he helped found), outlined the challenge facing community activists after the Seattle protests:”It is common for radicals in our era to describe easily what they are against, but when it comes to what we are for, a painful silence descends. (A couple of notable […]
Many English-speaking readers will know that Carlos Ruiz Zafón burst onto the international literary scene with The Shadow of the Wind. The English translation first appeared in 2004 and soon hit the best-seller lists. But the Sombra del viento phenomenon had already been gathering momentum for two or three years in Spain. In fact, Zafón […]
Allen Lane, the founder of Penguin books, was in many ways a crucial though unlikely figure in the counter-culture of the sixties, defending D.H. Lawrence’s ‘Lady Chatterley’s Lover’ from obscenity charges. In this article Horatio Morpurgo, Lane’s grandson, writes a compelling and personal history of Lady Chatterley’s Defendant.
There’s nothing I like more than getting hooked on a melody, then stepping back an instant and realising that there’s an intelligent lyric shouldering the song up. Sure, there are plenty of good songwriters where the poetry is the element first and foremost that you notice – an arresting line, an alliterative glance that catches […]
Luka Bloom is Irish and while his name looks Irish it always feels like it couldn’t belong to an Irish man, it sounds too cool almost. Maybe that’s why Barry Moore chose it? He is of course a brother of Christy Moore, perhaps the definitive Irish artist of the last 20 years in the sense […]
The questioning of the role of the public gallery is not a new phenomenon. It is something that has been argued over since its very conception, and the debate is ongoing.
Where the name comes from is something they’re going to keep to themselves. Just to retain a little mystique, just to keep something exclusively for themselves, it ain’t the greatest secret in the world but in a world full of people who know everything about everything, it’s hard to keep anything in the dark. […]
Like a spy on the wall I take notes in the corner while a tired-looking Futureheads run through their soundcheck. It’s the first night of their short Italian tour, and things are not sonically as they should be. The band haven’t toured much this year, after their acrimonious split with their label, Warners. They’re taking […]
