BOOK REVIEW: My My! ABBA Through the Ages by Giles Smith

This article was originally published in The Big Issue in June 2024. 

My My! ABBA Through the Ages, Giles Smith, out now, Gallery UK, £18.40

It’s perhaps easy to forget that ABBA’s now immovable status as one of the greatest acts in pop history wasn’t always a matter of consensus.

Prior to the critical rehabilitation that began – gradually, cautiously - in the early ‘90s, ABBA were generally discarded as a lazy punchline for every sniggering joke about ‘70s kitsch. Terminally naff, hopelessly uncool, they were considered at best a ‘guilty pleasure’ couched in face-saving irony.

These days, anyone who still subscribes to that objectively wrong opinion is regarded with pity and suspicion, but how did we get here? How did ABBA defy the naysayers and emerge triumphant as a universally beloved treasure?

As the witty and perceptive music critic Giles Smith points out in this enjoyable semi-autobiographical meditation on what it means to be an ABBA fan, ABBA themselves did nothing to encourage their revival. They split without fanfare in 1982, quietly got on with their lives, and just watched from the sidelines as everyone eventually realised that they deserve our utmost respect.

Smith was twelve and immediately smitten when he watched ABBA win Eurovision in 1974, but over the next few years he gradually became aware that here was a love that dare not speak its name within earshot of ‘credible’ music fans. 

He understood why hipsters felt that way – the outfits, the grinning, the occasional lapses into outright shlock - but he still couldn’t quite work out why ABBA were always written off as mechanical purveyors of commercial pop.

No one ever criticised the Beatles, the Beach Boys and Phil Spector – three of ABBA’s main influences – for being commercial, so why weren’t these self-evident pop geniuses afforded any respect during their chart-topping imperial phase?

Short answer: rock critic snobbery, sexism and casual xenophobia. ABBA didn’t fit into the ‘authentic’ Anglo-American narrative.

That said, Smith’s penetrating odyssey isn’t defensive in the slightest. It’s written with love and wry self-awareness, it analyses some of ABBA’s signature songs in commanding, rapturous detail while affectionately needling some of their more questionable decisions. 

This is a book written by an ABBA fan, a pop fan, someone who understands what it means to be in thrall to this music and the absolutely vital minutiae surrounding it.

It’s ABBA gold.

BOOK REVIEW: Postcards from Scotland: Scottish Independent Music 1983 - 1995 by Grant McPhee

This article was originally published in The Big Issue in July 2024.

Postcards from Scotland: Scottish Independent Music 1983 - 1995, Grant McPhee, out now, Omnibus Press, £18.39

1984: The Year Pop Went Queer, Ian Wade, out now, Nine Eight Books, £16.49

The esteemed music journalist Simon Reynolds once said, “Indie music as we know it was invented in Scotland.”

He wasn’t wrong, and here’s the hefty oral history to prove it. Curated by filmmaker Grant McPhee, director of the essential Scottish music documentaries Big Gold Dream and Teenage Superstars, it’s the definitive account of a seminal period in pop history.

This is the story of a hugely creative and incestuous scene nominally led by the likes of the Jesus and Mary Chain, Teenage Fanclub, BMX Bandits, the Pastels, Primal Scream, and the Shop Assistants.

But to McPhee’s eternal credit, there are no footnotes or also-rans here – practically every Scottish indie act who released a record during this fertile epoch receives their due. The circle wouldn’t be complete without contributions from the Jasmine Minks or Meat Whiplash, or even Nocturnal Vermin and their bizarrely prescient ‘tribute’ to budding MSP classmate John Swinney.

It’s a Byzantine saga involving hundreds of musicians and ever-changing line-ups, so much so it sometimes resembles Monty Python’s Rock Notes sketch. McPhee – who provides context via clear-eyed chapter intros and outros - is aware of this, drily noting at one point that the sprawling rock family tree he’s dealing with “would send shivers down Pete Frame’s spine.”

Nevertheless, he makes compelling sense of it all. A labour of love, it’s a sometimes funny, sometimes bittersweet tribute to a gawky generation of like-minded dreamers who fully embraced the post-punk DIY ethos. They all left something indelible behind.

BOOK REVIEW: 1984: The Year Pop Went Queer by Ian Wade

This article was originally published in The Big Issue in August 2024.

1984: The Year Pop Went Queer, Ian Wade, out now, Nine Eight Books, £16.49

A resonant ode to the gay pop revolutionaries who ruled the UK charts during a particularly bleak era for marginalised sectors of society, 1984: The Year Pop Went Queer by music journalist Ian Wade does what all the best pop books do – it celebrates the music and the artists who made it while doubling up as an acute piece of social history.

Wade argues that 1984 was a pivotal year in terms of gay visibility within the mainstream. This, of course, was the year of Frankie Goes to Hollywood, co-architects with producer Trevor Horn of the literally orgasmic punk-disco behemoth Relax – in Wade’s words, “possibly the most homosexual record ever made.”

Frankie revelled in uncompromising provocation via their tough underground gay club scene aesthetic. The Village People’s leatherman looked positively quaint by comparison.

It’s a recurring theme throughout the book – in 1984, many queer artists finally felt able to express themselves openly while selling loads of amazing, accessible pop records to gay and straight audiences alike.

Lest we forget, this remarkable feat, this bold, subversive political statement, took place against a hostile backdrop of virulent homophobia drummed up by Thatcher’s government and its right-wing tabloid media lackeys. The tragedy and injustice of the AIDS epidemic informs every single page of this saga.

It also explicitly foreshadows the bigotry directed towards the trans community in this supposedly enlightened day and age,

Frankie aside, Wade devotes comprehensive chapters to key zeitgeist-defining heroes such as Wham!, Pet Shop Boys and Bronski Beat, as well as LGBTQ+ allies Cyndi Lauper and Madonna. He also writes sensitively about the gay pop stars who worried – for various entirely understandable reasons – about the repercussions of coming out publically.

A warm, perceptive, frank and funny writer, Wade states his case persuasively in this rather marvellous book. Pop, as he so rightly declares, is important.

BOOK REVIEW: Under a Rock: A Memoir by Chris Stein

This article was originally published in The Big Issue in June 2024.

Under A Rock: A Memoir, Chris Stein, out now, Little, Brown, £18.89

Chris Stein is a rock ‘n’ roll Zelig. In his likeable memoir, the Blondie co-founder displays an uncanny knack for turning up at pivotal moments in pop culture history.

Even before he formed a romantic/creative relationship with Debbie Harry, he’d attended a Central Park Be-In during the Summer of Love, hung out at Haight-Ashbury, been knocked sideways by the Velvet Underground live, and witnessed Hendrix et al at Woodstock. 

Later on, we’re treated to memorable cameos from the likes of David Bowie, William Burroughs, Jean-Michel Basquiat and a predictably gun-toting Phil Spector.

Blessed with a seemingly photographic memory, Stein recounts these extraordinary incidents in an endearingly dry-witted style. His prose is crisp and conversational, his stories rich in evocative detail. You can practically taste New York’s bohemian/Taxi Driver-esque Lower East Side during those particular chapters.

Stein also shares admirably candid accounts of the years he lost to heroin addiction, and the tensions within Blondie during their imperial phase.

Still, he never comes across as someone with an axe to grind. He’s philosophical, generous, self-aware, a decent human being.

BOOK REVIEW: Entrances and Exits by Michael Richards

This article was originally published in The Big Issue in June 2024.

Entrances and Exits, Michael Richards, out now, Permuted Press, £22

Michael Richards will forever be associated with Kramer, the wildly eccentric ‘hipster doofus’ character he inhabited so exquisitely for nine years on Seinfeld, one of the greatest and most successful TV sitcoms of all time.

On a far less stellar note, he’ll also be remembered for a notorious incident at an L.A. comedy club in 2006, when he lost his temper and hurled racist abuse at some hecklers.

In his often fascinating, often frustrating memoir, Richards attempts to present an honest account of himself. To a certain extent he succeeds.

At best, he comes across as a sensitive, cultured, offbeat soul with an acute understanding of the cosmic art of comedy. Enter: Kramer. Working on Seinfeld was clearly one of the happiest times of his life, a time when he could give full vent to his prodigious comic genius. 

Like all great clowns, Richards takes his work seriously, and the chapters devoted to his meticulous Method-influenced approach to playing Kramer leap off the page with a kind of joyous intensity worthy of the K-Man himself.

Unfortunately, the good stuff – basically everything pertaining to his comedy career - is surrounded by page after page of Richards’ long-winded spiritual/philosophical musings, an interminable section on his army service (where he goes out of his way to prove his non-racist credentials), and various other inessential diversions.

The book also flounders when he addresses his public meltdown. It’s awkwardly foreshadowed throughout, with Richards repeatedly describing himself as an improvisational performer driven by irrational impulses, a “Dionysian” clown. He also admits to a lifelong struggle with anger management.

One sympathises with his difficult family background, a complex subject he writes about movingly. It helps to explain his insecurity and anxiety. However, while he’s genuinely appalled by what he said that night, he never addresses why he went there. Why did he resort to racist abuse? That’s not just an irrational impulse, it came from somewhere.

The hecklers told Richards he wasn’t funny, which is probably the worst thing you can say to someone who’s based most of their self-worth on making people laugh. So he lashed out with the worst things he could say to a person of colour. He knows that was wrong, but that’s all he’s really prepared to say. Maybe it’s all he can say.

Richards, to his credit, doesn’t ask for forgiveness and never wallows in self-pity. I hope he finds peace within himself one day. This uneven book suggests he’s still got some way to go.

ROSIE JONES: AM I A R*TARD? | EXTRAORDINARY PORTRAITS | EARTH

This article was originally published in The Courier on 15th July 2023.

NEXT WEEK’S TV

Rosie Jones: Am I a R*tard? – Thursday, Channel 4, 10pm

This vital documentary has attracted some controversy due to its blunt title, but as comedian Rosie Jones articulates at the start, “I understand that it will be upsetting to many, but I believe that we need to confront this word and other ableist terms head-on for people to realise how damaging it is.” 

Jones, who has cerebral palsy, hopes that her commendably frank and angry essay will make utter scumbags think twice about ever using ableist language again. 

Like so many people with disabilities, she’s targeted with horrific online abuse on a daily basis. Human beings can be so unfathomably cruel.

Jones exposes how useless Twitter is when it comes to dealing with violations of their supposed rules of conduct, while attempting to understand the damaged psychology of internet trolls.

Extraordinary Portraits – Monday, BBC One, 8:30pm

To mark the 75^th anniversary of our beloved NHS, art-lover Bill Bailey hosts this series in which NHS workers are paired with some of the UK’s most celebrated portrait artists. 

As Bailey explains in his introduction, it’s a project designed to “represent the best of modern Britain.” And God only knows, we could do with a good faith depiction of that right now. It encourages creativity and decency, the absolute antithesis of the dismal daily reports we receive about the worst of humanity. 

Anyway. In episode one, sculptor Nick Elphick meets trauma surgeon Martin. An inspirational person, Martin’s many selfless achievements can’t easily be encapsulated in a single work of art. Elphick, however, possesses the talent to do just that.

Earth – Monday, BBC Two, 9pm

Behold the unassuming might of Chris Packham, who orchestrates this ambitious new series about the four and half billion year story of Earth. You will be awed. 

It begins with Packham exploring the evolutionary rise of the dinosaurs, which gradually occurred in the wake of one of our planet’s most utterly devastating mass extinctions. 

Life finds a way? Well yes, broadly speaking it does, but Packham’s essay is a cautionary tale about how rapid climate change can cause entire ecosystems to collapse. Nothing lasts forever. 

It’s an absolutely fascinating series, a hugely impressive achievement. I find it difficult to defend the BBC at times, a maddening corporation that’s its own worst enemy, but you really will miss it when it’s gone.

Is Cricket Racist? – Tuesday, Channel 4, 11:05pm

Three years ago, the Asian-British cricketer Azeem Rafiq went public about the racism he was subjected to while playing for Yorkshire County Cricket Club. Broadcaster Adil Ray has been following the scandal since it broke. 

In this programme, he meets with players such as former Pakistan cricket captain Imran Khan, who expounds upon the racism he experienced while playing in England. 

Ray also interviews current England player Moeen Ali, who received a tweet from Ashes-winning captain Michael Vaughan suggesting that Ali should hunt down terrorists. Yes, really. Ali has a message for Vaughan. 

Preview copies weren’t available, but this sounds like an utterly damning report about elitism, bullying and flat-out racist abuse.

Who Do You Think You Are? – Thursday, BBC One, 9pm

Our latest gene hunter is the comedian Chris Ramsey, who begins the episode by digging into the history of his great grandfather. 

Dryden Gordon Young fought in WWI. He served on the frontline at Gallipoli, and was later captured as a prisoner of war. Despite these harrowing travails, Dryden survived and continued the family line. 

Ramsey goes on to discover that his family tree is full of brave and determined people who struggled with adversity. 

I will never not be staggered by the hitherto incurious nature of celebs who sign up for this show. You haven’t asked mum what grandad was like? His experiences during the war? People are strange, the only sensible thing Jim Morrison ever said.

The Supervet – Thursday, Channel 4, 9pm

The latest series of Professor Noel Fitzpatrick’s uplifting pet-fest opens with a Very Special Episode devoted to puppies. 

As you’re presumably aware, Fitzpatrick runs a veterinary surgery in rural Surrey. He has the reassuring bedside manner of James Herriot and Hawkeye from M*A*S*H. Their paws are safe in the expert hands of pioneering Professor F. 

Yes, fans of the show will be familiar with some of the cases revisited here, as it’s basically a compilation of highlights from previous episodes, but resistance is futile. 

Our adorable patients include a Collie with complex genetic bone issues, and a Weimaraner who’s been hit by a van. Don’t worry, the Supervet ensures that everything turns out happily in the end. 

Our Lives – Friday, BBC One, 7:30pm

Mei’s life hasn’t been easy. She’s 20. Most of her teenage years were spent in care. She’s struggled with anxiety, an eating disorder and self-harm. 

In this typically sensitive and uplifting Our Lives documentary, we follow Mei as she befriends an assistance dog in training by the name of Koda. Before meeting this gorgeous golden retriever, Mei was too scared to leave her home. Now they’re venturing outside. A mutually supportive life together. 

Mei is a lovely person. Dog pal Koda is a splendid girl. You will, I’m sure, be just as moved as I was by this touching meditation on the incalculably therapeutic value of spending time with a pet you love, and who loves you in return.

LAST WEEK’S TV

Sitting on a Fortune – Sunday 9th July, STV

All people of sound mind have a soft spot for Gary Lineker. A great footballer, an affable safe-pair-of-hands broadcaster, and a thoroughly decent person. But even saints have feet of clay. 

Lineker hosts this quiz show with his usual professional ease, but it’s just a generic shiny-floored general knowledge quiz which – like most modern TV quizzes – is padded out to fill a 60-minute timeslot. 

The honourable exception of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? aside, no quiz can sustain tension and entertainment value over the space of an hour. 

Brucie knew the score: quick bit of banter with the contestants then get on with the game – all in the space of a tight half hour.

A Year on Planet Earth – Sunday 9th July, STV

National Treasure ™ Stephen Fry hosts this panoramic exploration of how seasonal change impacts all life on Earth. Naturally it began in winter. 

Fry travelled to the Arctic Circle to observe, from a very safe distance, a polar bear and her cub dealing with incredibly harsh conditions. Meanwhile, in the southern hemisphere, a vast raft of King Penguins basked in the sun. 

It was, as you’d expect, beautifully shot and occasionally quite arresting: a benignly ersatz version of Attenborough and his natural successor, the aforementioned Chris Packham. 

And that, folks, after ten years in the saddle, is my final word on TV for this particular publication. I hope you enjoyed the show, and remember - please don’t have nightmares.

LITVINENKO | THERE SHE GOES | THE CHANGE

This article was originally published in The Courier on 17th June 2023.

NEXT WEEK’S TV

Litvinenko – Monday, STV, 9pm

In 2006, former KGB spy Alexander Litvinenko was fatally poisoned while living in British exile. He’d spent the last few years of his life trying to expose links between Putin’s government and the Russian mafia. 

This four-part drama starring David Tennant is a riveting evocation of the whole murky, tragic affair. 

We follow two British police officers as they spend time with Litvinenko during his final days in hospital. His truth is revealed. 

Tennant is such a great actor, he never draws attention to himself with tics or affectations. You always believe fully in whatever role he’s playing. 

A follow-up ITVX documentary, Litvinenko: The Mayfair Poisonings ‘drops’ on Thursday. 

The Wonders of the World I Can’t See – Monday, Channel 4, 10pm

The comedian Chris McCausland is blind. In this novel new travelogue, he visits some of the world’s most notable historic landmarks. 

An affable dry-witted gent, he’s joined each week by a celebrity travelling companion. They’re tasked with bringing these various places to life descriptively, while doing what they can to convince McCausland that it was worth him bothering to go there in the first place. 

The series begins with a trip to Athens in the company of Harry Hill. Our guides enjoy some sea fishing, pottery making, olive oil tasting, Greek drama lessons and even a few Olympic sports, before arriving at their ultimate destination: the Acropolis. 

Will McCausland enjoy the experience as much as Hill hopes? 

Dr Death – Tuesday, Channel 4, 10pm

Christopher Duntsch is a former American neurosurgeon who killed two of his patients and maimed over 30 others. In 2017 he was sentenced to life imprisonment. 

This solemn eight-part drama boasts a suitably unsettling performance from Joshua Jackson as Duntsch. 

In the opening episode, two concerned doctors (Alec Baldwin and Christian Slater, no less) start to investigate a series of severely botched operations carried out by Duntsch. 

Make no mistake, this case is utterly horrific, but Dr Death dramatizes it with due respect for Duntsch’s many victims. It’s the story of how a deeply disturbed narcissist wilfully destroyed lives, and how he was eventually brought to justice.

There She Goes – Wednesday, BBC Two, 9pm

Jessica Hynes and the hardest working man in show business David Tennant star in this standalone addendum to a poignant series based on the personal experiences of writers Shaun Pyle and Sarah Crawford. 

Their daughter was born with an extremely rare chromosomal disorder. Rosie is now 13. Her already difficult and challenging mood swings are becoming more acute.

As you would expect, There She Goes is an authentic day-to-day depiction of living with a beloved family member who has a severe learning disability. It’s touching, but never sentimental. 

It’s sometimes quite funny too. Humour can arise from unlikely situations, that’s one of the ways we all muddle through life. You carry on.

The Change – Wednesday, Channel 4, 10pm

Comedian Bridget Christie writes and stars in this striking new comedy-drama about Linda, a 50-year-old woman who is going through the menopause. 

As she explains to her GP, she’s worried about having “early onset dementia, osteoporosis, ringing in my ears when I’m stressed, anxiety, depression, cardiovascular disease and a strange mental disorder involving loss of nouns.” 

Hoping to rediscover the person she used to be, Linda leaves her utterly foolish husband (Omid Djalili) behind and embarks upon a soul-searching motorcycle odyssey. 

The Change is funny, frank and distinctive, it lingers. Christie and Djalili, both great, are supported by an exceptional cast including Monica Dolan, Susan Lynch, Liza Tarbuck and Paul Whitehouse.

Ruby Speaking – Thursday, ITVX

Set in a busy Bristol call centre, this fairly amusing sitcom stars co-creator Jayde Adams as a jaded factotum. 

Ruby is teetering on the brink of being sacked, she’s not bringing in the numbers. Anyone who’s ever worked in a call centre (I have) will empathise with her plight. 

Ruby quite likes some of her colleagues, but she’s just so bored with her strictly prepared workaday script. What’s the point? A metaphor for life, if you will. 

Former Coronation Street star Katherine Kelly steals the show as a thoroughly awful ‘inspirational’ boss who clearly couldn’t care less about her staff. Ruby Speaking is quite a sharp little character study. Hilarious? No. But its heart is in the right place. 

Icons of Football – Friday, BBC Scotland, 10:30pm

Former Dundee United striker and football manager Paul ‘Luggy’ Sturrock relates his estimable story in the latest episode of this series about Scottish football legends.

Sturrock, who has Parkinson’s disease, spent his entire career at Dundee United under the tutelage of his much-loved mentor Jim McLean. In the words of sports reporter Hazel Irvine, who contributes to the programme alongside fellow famous fans such as Lorraine Kelly, Sturrock was: “In my memory, one of the most joyous footballers I’ve ever watched.” 

I know nothing about football, it’s just not on my radar, but this KT Tunstall-narrated profile lifted my spirits. Sturrock is quite clearly an exceptional athlete and a thoroughly decent man.