History is made at night

It happened like this – on Valentine’s Day this year my gf gave me a ukulele for a present. I took it to work that day and in a few idle mo...

There are songs that stay with you, that come back to you time after time, long after you've developed a sophisticated critique of the ...

Bob from Brockley has alerted to me Primal Scream's cover version of Hawkwind's Urban Guerrilla, to which they have added the lyric...

At Tate Modern today I watched Meshes of the Afternoon, a 1943 film by Maya Deren and Alexander Hamid. Deren (1971-1961) was to say the le...

"there is much to support the view that it is clothes that wear us and not we them; we may make them take the mould of arm or breast, ...

This track by Welsh band Los Campesinos came out last year. There's an indie pop element to their songs, but also something harder - th...

I enjoyed reading Gig - the Life and Times of a Rock-star Fantasist by the poet Simon Armitage . A man whose 'definition of a good gig...

The credit crunch clearly hasn't hit the world of super-rich art collecting - last week Danseuse (above), a 1915 painting by the Futuri...

The Way We Wore by Robert Elms recalls the soul/funk sessions at Crackers in London in the mid 70s. This was by all accounts a very influen...

I have posted here before on the French writer Colette (1873-1954). Her novel The Vagabond, first published in 1911, is a fictionalised acc...

Another summer solstice passes with me in London thinking I must try and get down to Stonehenge next year. At least 30,000 people made it t...

The Joseph Rous Paget - Fredericks Dance Collection at the University of California consists of 'approximately 2,000 original drawing...

Tracy K recalls nights out dancing from Tamworth to Tokyo, via London and Aberystwyth . The tale of dancing in Tokyo with Belle and Sebasti...

Riot Grrrl was probably the ultimate zine-driven scene. While punk, for instance, threw up fanzines written by people who wanted to documen...

Dance there upon the shore; What need have you to care For wind or water’s roar? And tumble out your hair That the salt drops have wet; Bein...

England: "Illegal ravers stayed behind to tidy up!" ( Northampton Chronicle , 11 June 2008) 'The 500 ravers who broke into a ...

The seven songs meme is still doing the rounds - it goes like this: 'List seven songs you are into right now. No matter what the genre, ...

Songs about rape is an excellent post at Uncarved, taking to task people who play around with rape in music and contrasting it with a coupl...

At Tate Modern last month, the Long Weekend (24 th to 26 th May) included a series of free concerts featuring musical scores and events ...

This week's protest at the Daily Mail put me in mind of another series of music -related demonstrations against a right wing British ta...

On Saturday at least 200 people demonstrated outside the offices of the Daily Mai l in London against its coverage of ' emo ' - afte...

The dust is still settling after last Saturday night's party on the London underground. For people outside of London, the basic story is...

I am fascinated by old dancing manuals - this example is 'Ballroom Dancing Made Easy' by Robert Brandon, first published by C.Arthur...