NOT Music for Grown-Ups

* Classical Brit Awards on TV last Sunday: a celebration of dumbing down of a great musical tradition. Anna Netrebko… Katherine Jenkins… Awful. I lasted a whole five minutes.

* Van Morrison at London’s Roundhouse, according to Pete Paphides in The Times – “parodically grumpy old man… uninterested and uncommunicative… gang of middle-aged session musicians… hotel-lobby R & B arrangements… listless professionalism…” I know what he means: a former serial Vangig attender (c65 shows), I quit for those kind of reasons about five years ago.

* Rolling Stone 40th Anniversary issue: great design and illuminating Dylan interview apart, a mish-mash of superannuated celebs bullsh*tting for America, the politics of the liberal playground, and the silly underlying philosophy that music changes the world. Kiss mine.



Gerry Smith