Latest Features

Death of the civil service tie. * The Suicide Girls‘ DVD trailer. * Les George Leningrad in Camden. * Dogmatika on gonzo beer. * Steven Wells on race and class in American soccer (link via Steven Rogers). * Lots of demos from the Arctic Monkeys. * Lawrence Rainey of York University claims to have solved the riddle of the composition of The Waste Land with a little help from the FBI. * Dave Eggers responds to Neal Pollack‘s Times Book Review article (his site is here). * I haven’t heard from Jim Ruland for yonks, but he’s in the June

By Andrew Stevens. Returning to the cavernous chamber that is the setting for Patti Smith’s Meltdown for perhaps one last time, I achieve some personal unity with the sight two rows in front of me of Sonic Boom, the erstwhile and substantially estranged songwriting partner of Jason Pierce who played the event only last week. Both forming two halves of the legendary Spacemen 3. On this occasion, we are preparing to be mesmerised by the shimmering guitar of Kevin Shields, latterly of My Bloody Valentine and now something of a hired gun, who plays over Patti Smith’s reading of her

Paul Ewen was born in New Zealand in 1972. In 1995, he moved to Asia where he worked for 6 years. He now resides in Camberwell where he is completing his first book, a handy guide to London pubs. Paul’s work has appeared in 3:AM as well as in this year’s New Writing anthology. He was a reader at our 5th birthday gig in London. Paul is currently listening to: 1. “Tokyo Glitterati”, Vector Lovers — Vector Lovers 2. “Jim Dodge Dines at the Penguin Cafe”, Touchpool — Lucky Pierre 3. “Fear and Resilience Prefuse 73 Remix”, Fear and Resilience

By Andrew Stevens. Organised as part of Patti Smith’s stint curating Meltdown on behalf of the South Bank Centre this year, Pages from Chaos lived entirely up to its billing. On entering the vast edificial tribute to post-war planning and concrete, I am wont to swoon as I witness a latter-day Joyce-Proust moment actualised before me as Kevin Shields and Jason Pierce chat amiably at the bar. This only serves to heighten my anticipation for my next scheduled dose of Meltdown, which will feature Shields underscore Smith’s own tribute to Robert Mapplethorpe. But tonight belongs to Pierce. And the other

Following my previous post, here’s a link to a fairly recent article on The Smiths’ literary legacy. Matt Thorne: “Everybody listens to Morrissey and The Smiths because they want to be a teenager again. When Morrissey came back last year, people wanted him to make them feel young again, but he had become a middle-aged man and so we all were forced to realise that we had grown up as well. . . . But for me, the person most worthy of academic study would be Mark E Smith from The Fall.” * Mark Simpson: “To me, The Smiths mean

Miranda Sawyer in the Observer on Some Girls Are Bigger Than Others (Lyric Hammersmith, London, 30 June-23 July), a musical based on The Smiths: “. . . Actually, it’s hard to imagine any Smiths tune morphed into a theatre piece. Not because the songs aren’t dramatic — they are — but because they’re so loved, so ingrained in fans’ hearts and souls that any other interpretation seems presumptuous, not to say risky. Those Smiths enthusiasts can be a rabid lot. . . . Wale is the director, and Allen the musical director, of Some Girls are Bigger than Others. .

Jonathan Safran Foer interviewed in The Independent on Sunday. On his “main cultural passion” at 14: “Looking at naked pictures of women. That was the only thing I thought about. Trying to buy them in drugstores or look at them in the aisles where no one could see what you were looking at.” On his blank paper collection: “I have Haruki Murakami in a matt silver frame with grey matting behind it. John Updike is in wooden frame, kind of knotted. Susan Sontag’s is old world and a little bit kitsch. I like them because blank pape ris like the

Martin Ouvry was born in west London, where he currently resides. After working as a musician in Europe and the US, he studied creative writing at the University of East Anglia and was awarded the UEA Alumni Association Prize for Fiction. He now teaches at UEA and is working on a novel with the help of an Arts Council grant. He was included in this year’s New Writing anthology and read at 3:AM’s 5th birthday bash. Martin is currently listening to: 1. “Party Drive” — East River Pipe 2. “Rockaway Beach” — The Ramones 3. “Waiting for the Sun” —

An interview with Ex-Pistol Paul Cook. * Iain Sinclair talks to Londonist about publishing (among many other interesting things): “That’s essentially what they want: a photogenic 18 to 25 year old with possibly an interesting story in their past. Just a one book pitch that you can go right out on big time. And then they’re not really that interested in their second or third book. To some extent they’ve created a brand or a franchise, but it’s first book syndrome. It’s quite depressing for the kind of writers who grind away at it for years sort of honing their

This year’s Meltdown Festival (11-26 June) in London is curated by Patti Smith (pictured). Apart from all the great music, there’ll also be lots of literary events: Peaceable Kingdom: War and the Innocent (Wednesday 15 June at 7.45pm, Queen Elizabeth Hall). This evening will be “dedicated to the misunderstood and feared populations of ‘foreign’ wars. With Tilda Swinton, Jon Lee Anderson, Joseph Strick (film) and Patti Smith. * Pages From Chaos (Thursday 16 June at 7.45pm, Queen Elizabeth Hall). This event will be dedicated to William S. Burroughs. Readings by Alan Moore and Iain Sinclair (pictured), performances by Marc Ribot