History is made at night

Ko-uta is a genre of Japanese music which developed from the 19th century. It literally means 'little song' and indeed the songs te...

Rob Young’s Electric Eden: Unearthing Britain’s Visionary Music is an ambitious, accomplished and entertaining survey of 100 years of music-...

Stefan Szczelkun asked me to put together a selection for his Agit Disco series of mixes of political music. You can read my effort at his...

Sad to hear that Kate McGarrigle has died, here's some nice footage from way back in 1977 of Kate & Anna singing 'Foolish You...

A Greek singer is in hospital after being attacked by members of the Golden Dawn neo-nazi party in Athens last week. Sofia Papazoglou (pict...

Must admit I'd never heard of the 1949 Peekskill Riots in New York State. Now thanks to a tip from Bob from Brockley I am much wiser. T...

The majority of folk musicians I have met have tended to be some kind of lefty/liberal/anarcho/counter-cultural type, and indeed the same go...

Students and supporters at the School of Oriental & African Studies (SOAS) in London are occupying management offices there in protest a...

War in Gaza, and (less publicised) war in Sri Lanka , war in the Democratic Republic of Congo , not to mention Afghanistan and Iraq. It'...

The death this week of children’s programme maker Oliver Postgate (1925-2008) has prompted an outpouring of nostalgia from everybody raised...

Away this week from my usual London habitat, I have instead been (re)visiting the ‘ancestral homeland’ of the Isle of Islay in the Hebrides....

Ronnie Drew, founder of The Dubliners , died yesterday at the age of 74. When I was growing up my parents only had a handful of records,...

'There's something in this valley... it's owls and flowers, and it's dangerous' (Alan Garner, The Owl Service) 'ther...

One of the best things about being in London in the summer is taking in the free music events, official and unofficial, along the South Bank...

The Montague Arms in New Cross on a Friday, a night jointly presented by White Noise (linked to Battered Ornaments records) and Spinning Je...