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He’s traveling through the north country today. Eighty miles from Canada, where the winds, it’s been said, hit heavy on the borderline. As his rented Toyota pickup truck reaches a tree-shaded suburban intersection, he kills the engine and bounds out into late-January air. He’s layered a down jacket over a gray sweatshirt, the hood yanked over his mussed brown hair. His destination is a boxy, cream-colored little house on the corner, down a walkway framed by twin shrubs. To its left is a newish street sign: Bob Dylan Drive.

It’s been 12 years since Nick Lowe released a new album, but the venerated 75-year-old rock & roll sophisticate is back on his game with Indoor Safari. It’s an album of clever, lovingly crafted tunes steeped in Fifties rockabilly and the early-Sixties British Invasion greats, sounds he’s been channeling and reinventing since he was a leader of the U.K. pub-rock and punk scene in the mid-1970s. He sets the tone with “Went to a Party,” an image of an older gentleman throwing on his suit and boldly...

Jerry Fuller, the songwriter and producer whose stellar career included such hits as “Travelin’ Man” for Ricky Nelson, “Young Girl” for Gary Puckett and the Union Gap, “Show and Tell” for Al Wilson and “Little Green Apples” for O.C. Smith, has died. He was 85.

Fuller died Thursday at his home in Sherman Oaks of complications from lung cancer, publicist Bobbi Marcus told The Hollywood Reporter.

Fuller’s first production for Puckett was the million-selling “Woman, Woman,” which was released in 1967 and peaked at No. 3 on the Billboard Hot 100. He then wrote and produced the band’s next three multimillion sellers, “Young Girl,” “Lady Willpower” and “Over You” — all top 10 songs, too — as the band outsold The Beatles in 1968.

“What can I say about a guy whose vision defined my musical identity and destiny,” Puckett wrote in a statement. “What can Anyone say about a man who gave So much to...

Buzz Cason, the Nashville singer, songwriter and producer best known for “Everlasting Love,” the buoyant Motown-style pop song covered numerous times and appearing in many films since Robert Knight recorded the original in 1967, died June 16 at his home in Franklin, Tennessee. He was 84.

His death was announced by the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum. A cause of death was not specified.

“Everlasting Love,” with its impossibly catchy and immediately recognizable chorus that begins “Open up your eyes/Then you’ll realize/Here I stand with my everlasting love,” has made the charts in various versions, most notably Carl Carlton’s 1974 cover that hinted at the imminent arrival of disco. In the U.K., the song was a #1 hit in 1968 by London-based pop band Love Affair.

Other artists who have covered the song, written by Cason with writing partner Mac Gayden, include Gloria Estefan, Rex Smith and Rachel Sweet , U2,...

In the age of concert videos so high-definition you can see individual beads of sweat, nothing seems especially unique about The Girl Can't Help It. Billed as "blonde bombshell" Jayne Mansfield's first starring role, the 1956 musical-comedy features a string of rock and roll icons performing their hearts out in vivid, widescreen technicolor. It's a delight for modern audiences to see Little Richard, Fats Domino, Eddie Cochran, Gene Vincent, The Platters, and Abbey Lincoln in one place, but nothing revolutionary when we have YouTube at our fingertips.

Exclusive: Shout! Studios has acquired North American rights to the music documentary Revival69: The Concert That Rocked the World, about a historic happening that’s been called “the second most important event in rock & roll history.”

Ron Chapman directed the film, which held its U.S. premiere this week at SXSW in Austin, Texas, playing in the festival’s 24 Beats Per Second section. The documentary tells “the remarkable, behind-the-scenes story of how a little known, but life-altering music festival came together — against all odds,” according to a description of the film. “Young, scrappy concert promoter John Brower puts his life on the line (literally) to turn his failing Toronto Rock n Roll Revival into a one-day event… The festival united rock legends like Chuck Berry, Little Richard, Jerry Lee Lewis, Bo Diddley, and Gene Vincent, with The Doors, who were the biggest band in the world. But it was the...

Jeff Beck played his first gigs on a guitar he built himself, plugging in with local bands in the London suburbs from age 13, before honing his craft at Wimbledon School of Art, studying the artistry of rock and roll and rhythm and blues. Beck mixed the virtuosity and speed Les Paul displayed on radio broadcasts, and the heaviness of even the most melodic Gene Vincent records into his own sound. Beck transformed The Yardbirds from blues purists to proto psychedelia pioneers before inventing hard rock on The Jeff Beck Group’s 1968 Truth album. A new Jeff Beck Group came out with Rough and Ready, infusing fluid jazz phrasings onto R&b ensemble rhythms.

It’s been said Pink Floyd considered asking Beck to join after Syd Barrett left. Beck turned down an invitation to replace Brian Jones in the Rolling Stones for a project with Vanilla Fudge bassist and vocalist Tim Bogert,...

An upcoming never-before documented story will recount “the second most important event in rock & roll history.”

“Revival69: The Concert That Rocked the World” will tell the “remarkable, behind-the-scenes story of how a little known, but life-altering music festival came together — against all odds.”

Check out our exclusive first look at the trailer above.

In 1969, a “young, scrappy concert promoter,” John Brower, put his life on the line “to turn his failing Toronto Rock n Roll Revival into a one-day event,” reads a description of the doc. With dismal ticket sales, the concert was nearly cancelled but Brower “took a one-in-a-million chance and invited John Lennon, who said yes, propelling the concert into a massively successful event” — one of three music festivals that changed the world that year.

Read More: John Lennon’s Scathing Letter To Paul McCartney After Beatles Split Expected To Sell For 30K At Auction

“REVIVAL69:...

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Since their debut as a men’s fashion piece more than 70 years ago, leather jackets have remained a staple in every guy’s wardrobe. And it’s easy to understand why: the best leather jackets make everyone feel f–king cool.

As with many pieces of clothing, the genesis of leather jackets is in military gear. Ffirst engineered for aviators in the first and second world wars, leather...

Robert Gordon, a rockabilly devotee and singer whose band the Tuff Darts was a staple of New York City’s Cbgb and Max’s Kansas City punk scene of the 1970s, died today. He was 75.

His death was announced by his record label Cleopatra Records on Facebook. “Cleopatra Records would like to offer our deepest condolences to his family and friends,” the statement reads. “We liked working with Robert and will miss his powerful baritone vocal as well as his focused dedication to his music.”

Related Story Hollywood & Media Deaths In 2022: Photo Gallery Related Story Noel Duggan Dies: Founding Member of Irish Folk Group Clannad Was 73 Related Story Nolan Neal Dies: 'America's Got Talent' & 'The Voice' Singer Was 41 – Update

A cause of death was not disclosed, but a GoFundMe page set up by his family says Gordon had been battling an aggressive form of acute myeloid leukemia.

During the time she was married to Joe Strummer starting in 1995, Lucinda Tait would often hear her late husband at work in the kitchen of their house in Broomfield, in southwest England. “He had a typewriter, an old-fashioned one that would go ‘clack clack,'” Tait recalls. “When I went to sleep at night, I’d be upstairs and hear him tapping away at the kitchen table.”

Strummer’s wildly influential former band, the Clash, were long in the rear-view mirror by then, and Strummer had recently formed his latest combo,...

Jim Seals, half of the soft-rock troubadours Seals and Crofts, died Monday at the age of 80. No cause of death was announced, but Seals’ cousin Brady Seals, a country singer, confirmed the singer’s death on Facebook.

“I just learned that James ‘Jimmy’ Seals has passed,” Brady Seals wrote. “My heart just breaks for his wife Ruby and their children. Please keep them in your prayers. What an incredible legacy he leaves behind.”

When the soft-rock boom hit pop music in the early Seventies, Seals and Crofts, which also included...

Exclusive: Eddie Cochran, the American rock n roll star behind songs such as “Twenty Flight Rock” and “Summertime Blues,” is getting the feature documentary treatment.

The musician, who influenced the likes of The Beatles and The Rolling Stones, is to be the subject of Don’t Forget Me from director Kirsty Bell, who recently directed A Bird Flew In.

Goldfinch Entertainment, which is behind docs such as Quant and Ronnie’s, is producing and launching sales at the Cannes Film Festival.

Cochran, who appeared in the the 1959 musical Go, Johnny, Go!, died in a car crash in 1960 at the age of 21 while his fiancé Sharon Sheeley, a chart-topping American songwriter who penned hits for Glenn Campbell and Ricky Nelson, and Gene Vincent and survived the crash.

Production begins next month and the producers are working closely with Cochran’s nephew Bobby Cochran, who has provided access to Cochran’s unheard masters,...

Exclusive: Summer of Soul isn’t the only documentary about a lesser-known music festival that has historical significance.

Deadline understands that a film is in the works about the Toronto Rock & Roll Revival, which is best known for a rare solo performance by John Lennon, the first for the Plastic Ono Band, during his final days as a Beatle.

Rock & Roll Revival (w/t) is directed by Ron Chapman (The Poet of Havana) and will tell the story of the Toronto event in September 1969, held the same year as Woodstock and Harlem Cultural Festival.

The one-day music festival at the University of Toronto’s 20,000-seat Varsity Stadium was put together by young renegade promoter John Brower with artists including Chuck Berry, Little Richard, Jerry Lee Lewis, Bo Diddley, Gene Vincent, The Doors and Alice Cooper.

However, with dismal ticket sales, the concert almost was canceled before Brower invited Lennon and he said yes.

Rolling Stone interview series Unknown Legends features long-form conversations between senior writer Andy Greene and veteran musicians who have toured and recorded alongside icons for years, if not decades. All are renowned in the business, but some are less well known to the general public. Here, these artists tell their complete stories, giving an up-close look at life on music’s A list. This edition features bassist Bob Daisley.

Ozzy Osbourne has worked with many bass players throughout the course of his long solo career, but he undeniably did his best work with Bob Daisley.

After a nearly 30-year gap between records, Los Angeles’ punk laureates X have dared to make a new album. As recently as three years ago, they said they would never even try to record something new. Even though the four musicians that recorded their landmark Los Angeles album had been playing together again for two decades at that point, they swore up and down that the chemistry wouldn’t be there. Luckily for them, they were wrong.

Alphabetland, the band’s eighth album overall and first with virtuoso rockabilly guitarist...

Exclusive: Nowhere Boy, the 2009 John Lennon biopic about the teenage years of the future Beatle, is being developed as a stage musical, Deadline has learned. Producers Brian and Dayna Lee of Af Creative Media, and Robyn Goodman and Josh Fiedler of Aged in Wood, have acquired stage rights to the Ecosse Films biopic that starred Aaron Taylor-Johnson as Lennon, Kristen Scott Thomas as Lennon’s aunt Mimi Smith and Anne-Marie Duff as Lennon’s mother Julia.

As with the film, the musical – currently in the very early development stage – will focus on the Quarrymen-era Lennon and the two women who played pivotal roles in his life: Julia Lennon, who abandoned her son but had re-entered his life shortly before she was struck and killed by a car, and Julia’s older sister Mimi Smith, who raised Lennon and remained close to him until the icon’s assassination in 1980.

The Lees...

She’s been dubbed “the sweet lady with the nasty voice,” and anyone who has met her and had seen her perform live can appreciate the dichotomy of that statement. Wanda Jackson, the undisputed Queen of Rockabilly Music, bridged nascent rock & roll with traditional country in the Fifties, then proceeded to blow up that bridge with a one-of-a-kind voice like spring-loaded dynamite wrapped in sandpaper.

The 81-year-old Jackson, who recently announced her retirement from performing after more than 60 years, has had an ardent following not only in the U.S.

If Alan White’s résumé was limited to playing drums on John Lennon’s Imagine and George Harrison’s All Things Must Pass, it would be pretty impressive. But about two years after appearing on those pivotal Beatles solo records, he was recruited by Yes — then at the peak of their creative powers — to replace the outgoing Bill Bruford. The band has seen a ludicrous amount of lineup changes since that time, but the one constant has been White’s presence behind the drum kit. These days, back issues limit...

Graham Nash’s new career-spanning compilation album Over the Years … traces his long career as a songwriter, stretching all the way back to his days in the Hollies when he sketching out tunes like “Marrakesh Express” and “Teach Your Children” that would later be recorded by Csn and Csny. Earlier this year, he sat down with Rolling Stone to discuss five key songs that inspired him as a young songwriter.

Gene Vincent, “Be-Bop-a-Lula”

This is the first record I ever owned. I got it by trading two pieces of toast to my friend,...

Garage Rock! Garage Punk! Rock’N’Roll!

“Garage Rockin’ Craze” is a music documentary based around Tour-de-France cycling fanatic Daddy-o-Nov and his other enthusiasm, rock and roll. Through many trials and tribulations, he’s gathered together a family of bands around his events, nights and enthusiasm. He’s helped evolve a Tokyo garage punk explosion, where age, polite speech or respect for elders, in the Japanese context, is irrelevant. Insane good time vibes, with the whiff of the dangerous has brought these beautiful people together in an atmosphere of camaraderie and occasionally fisticuffs, which is all part of the licensed misrule vibe. Freedom loving rock and roll can dangerous, with all the high energy adrenalized sensations, but it also gathers up the big hearts of the bands and the fans! The maestro, Daddy-o-Nov, had gone through the whole gamut of musical genres, as he has been an avid music collector since childhood.

What’s the sign of a good horror sequel? Is it adherence to the things that made the original work? Is it branching off in a new direction while still paying respect? Or is it having a rockabilly-quoting Greaser (big G) with a drill attached to the end of his guitar killing every pastel wearing teen in his wake? The answer is possibly all three, but today we’ll focus on the last one with Slumber Party Massacre II (1987), Deborah Brock’s ridiculously fun (and delightfully odd) follow up to Amy Holden Jones’ cult classic.

Released by Roger Corman’s then imprint Concorde Pictures in March followed by a video release in September, Spm II is essentially an updated Beach Blanket Bingo movie dipped in A Nightmare on Elm Street and rolled around in sprinkles of Saved by the Bell. You know same old, same old.

Remember little Courtney from the original film?...

French rock idol Johnny Hallyday, remembered as the nation’s answer to Elvis Presley in the 1960s, has died at age 74.

The legendary singer died from lung cancer, his family confirmed.

“Johnny Hallyday has left us,” Hallyday’s wife, Laeticia, said in a statement to The Guardian. “I write these words without believing them. But yet, it’s true. My man is no longer with us. He left us tonight as he lived his whole life, with courage and dignity.”

Beginning in 1960, Hallyday was the heartbeat of Gallic rock n’ roll, becoming its best known and best-selling artist for nearly six decades.

By 1985 Hollywood had still only dabbled in movies about the ‘shame that cannot speak its name,’ and in every case the verdict for the transgressors was regret and misery, if not death. Donna Deitch’s brilliant drama achieves exactly what she wanted, to do make a movie about a lesbian relationship that doesn’t end in a tragedy.

Desert Hearts

Blu-ray

The Criterion Collection 902

1985 / Color / 1:85 widescreen / 96 min. / available through The Criterion Collection / Street Date November 14, 2017 / 39.95

Starring: Helen Shaver, Patricia Charbonneau, Audra Lindley, Andra Akers, Gwen Welles, Dean Butler, James Staley, Katie La Bourdette, Alex McArthur, Tyler Tyhurst, Denise Crosby, Antony Ponzini, Brenda Beck, Jeffrey Tambor.

Cinematography: Robert Elswit

Film Editor: Robert Estrin

Production Design: Jeannine Oppewall

Written by Natalie Cooper from the novel by Jane Rule

Produced and Directed by Donna Deitch

Desert Hearts is a fine movie that’s also one of the first features ever about a lesbian romance,...

Review by Sam Moffitt

I love finding new things.

Writers I never heard of, music I’m not familiar with, a movie recommended by a friend I trust. Even better than finding something new is discovering that the material in question is a lot better than expected. I like to be surprised, I enjoy the professional output of talented people, writers, film makers, musicians, artists in general.

But nothing, and I mean nothing, could have prepared me for the atom bomb blast the Collins Kids have put on me.

A little back ground first. I recently went on vacation and drove to Missouri from my home in St. Petersburg, Florida to visit my family at our reunion over Labor Day weekend. I drove there through Mississippi and took my time, visited places that interested me. Stopped in Indianola, Ms and visited the B.B. King Museum (I highly recommend it by...

It’s an exciting time for Bryan Adams and his girlfriend Alicia Grimaldi, as they just said hello to their second daughter earlier this week.

The “Summer of 69” rocker and his lovely lady are thrilled about welcoming their little bundle of joy, who joins 22-month-old big sister Bunny.

Of the newborn’s moniker Lula Rosylea, Bryan explained, "Lula Rosylea decided to arrive at tea time. Rosylea is cockney-rhyming-slang in London for 'a cup of tea' and the name Lula comes from Gene Vincent's song 'Be-Bop-a-Lula.'"

Adams also took to his Twitter page to reply to his fans’ messages. He tweeted, "Thanks to everyone for the kind wishes. Baby and mama are doing well."...

Valentines week is even more special for Bryan and girlfriend Alicia because they welcomed their second daughter! Congrats to the happy couple!

What a sweet Valentine surprise for Bryan Adams, 53, and his longtime girlfriend Alicia Grimaldi, 32 — they are parents to another baby girl! Earlier in the week of Valentine’s Day, the couple welcomed another little girl to their family.

“My second daughter Lula Rosylea arrived at tea time this week,” the rocker posted on his Facebook page. ”The name Lula comes from Gene Vincent‘s 1958 song ‘Be-Bop-a-Lula,’ and Rosylea is a play on the expression ‘a rosie lee’ which is cockney rhyming slang in London for ‘a cup of tea’ and pronounced the same,” he revealed about her unique name.

“She was born in London and…she’s my cup of tea,” he gushed. Bryan and Alicia also have a 22-month-old daughter named Mirabelle Bunny.

Bryan Adams & Alicia Grimaldi...

Rocker Bryan Adams welcomed his second child into the world earlier this week: a daughter named Lula Rosylea. Rosylea is apparently Cockney rhyming slang for a cup of tea.

According to the Daily Mail, the girl was born in London earlier this week with both the daughter and mother Alicia Grimaldi doing well.

"My second daughter Lula Rosylea arrived at tea time this week," Adams wrote on his Facebook page. "The name Lula comes from Gene Vincent's 1958 song 'Be-Bop-a-Lula' and Rosylea is a play on the expression 'a rosie lee' which is cockney rhyming slang in London for 'a cup of tea' and pronounced the same. She was born in London and... she's my cup of tea."

Earlier today, Adams took to Twitter to thank fans for their kind words for the supportive messages he'd received. "Thanks to everyone for the kind wishes," he tweeted. "Baby and mama are...

Bryan Adams is a dad again!

The rocker and his girlfriend, Alicia Grimaldi, welcomed their second daughter earlier this week in London, the singer's rep told People.

The 53-year-old proud dad explained the time of day when their daughter was born helped them decide on her name.

"Lula Rosylea decided to arrive at tea time," he told the mag. "Rosylea is cockney rhyming slang in London for 'cup of tea' and the name Lula comes from Gene Vincent's song 'Be-Bop-a-Lula.'"

Lula will join big sister, Bunny, who is 22 months.

-- Jesse Spero

Copyright 2013 by NBC Universal, Inc. All rights reserved.

This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

London, Feb 15: Canadian rocker Bryan Adams is a father again. His partner Alicia Grimaldi has given birth to a girl, and the couple has named her Lula Rosylea.

"My second daughter arrived at tea time this week," Adams wrote on his Facebook page Thursday, reports aceshowbiz.com.

Explaining the unusual name for the baby, he wrote: "The name Lula comes from Gene Vincent's 1958 song 'Be-Bop-a-Lula' and Rosylea is a play on the expression 'a rosie lee', a cockney rhyming slang in London for 'a cup of tea'. She was born in London and... she's my cup of tea."

Rosylea joins big sister Mirabella Bunny, born April 22, 2011.

Adams.

This is the winter of nursery time for Bryan Adams. The 53-year-old rocker and Alicia Grimaldi welcomed a baby girl this week, their second daughter together, Adams confirmed on his Facebook page today. Lula Rosylea was born in London and joins 22-month-old sister Mirabella Bunny in the family fold. "My second daughter Lula Rosylea arrived at tea time this week," Adams wrote. "The name Lula comes from Gene Vincent's 1958 song 'Be-Bop-a-Lula' and Rosylea is a play on the expression 'a rosie lee' which is cockney rhyming slang in London for 'a cup of tea' and pronounced the same. "She was born in London and...she's my cup of...

I'm kind of obsessed with Richard Lester's films, which may be all I have in common with Steven Soderbergh, but at least it's something.

Having achieved an Oscar nomination for the short The Running Jumping & Standing Still Film (1960), shot in a field over a couple of weekends with a cast of friends including comic geniuses Spike Milligan and Peter Sellers, Lester shopped his can of film around and was told, basically, "Very nice: when we want a feature length version of that we'll let you know." Since the film was a plotless, abstract series of surreal jokes, Lester quickly surmised that the phone might not ring anytime soon.

But a fellow American in London, Milton Subotsky, offered Lester the job of making a low-budget pop musical, and the rest would have been history if this had been A Hard Day's Night. But that was two years away: Lester's first...

David Letterman will have you know that Led Zeppelin is his favorite band named after a kind of dirigible.

The three surviving members of the legendary rock group — Robert Plant, Jimmy Page, and John Paul Jones – granted a rare interview on The Late Show with David Letterman last night. Dressed modestly in tones of navy, black, and brown, the media-shy trio came across as genial if somewhat diffident.

Letterman tactfully kept the conversation to familiar territory, namely, music. Page lit up when he recalled listening to Buddy Guy’s Folk Festival of the Blues with his friend and fellow Yardbird Jeff Beck.

From from the British Pathé newsreel archive, Jon Savage unearths footage of the hip young band who rode the trad jazz wave in 1962, inspired by the Original Dixieland Jazz Band

Reading this on mobile? Watch clip here

This is a charming period piece, from March 1962. The colour makes it seem at once vivid and time-locked. It shows the travelling arrangements and a performance of a young, Dixieland jazz group called the Original Downtown Syncopators – who featured as pianist the future polymath Ron Geesin, best known for his collaboration with Roger Waters on The Body film soundtrack and with Pink Floyd on the Atom Heart Mother suite.

That would occur nearly a decade later. In early 1962, the Original Downtown Syncopators were a young and enthusiastic outfit riding the trad wave with a little more authenticity than some of their peers. As the clip shows, they took their cues from the source,...

By Allen Gardner

Quadrophenia (Criterion) Franc Roddam’s 1979 film based on The Who’s classic rock opera tells the story of working class lad Jimmy (Phil Daniels) struggling to find his identity in a rapidly changing Britain, circa 1965. Jimmy is a “mod,” a youth movement dedicated to wearing snappy suits, driving Vespa motor scooters bedecked with side mirrors, popping amphetamines and obsessed with the new sound of bands like The Who and The Kinks. Their other pastime is engaging in bloody brawls with “rockers,” throwbacks to the 1950s, who listen to Elvis and Gene Vincent, wear leather biker gear, grease in their hair and drive massive motorcycles a la Marlon Brando in “The Wild One.” Often cited as a worthy successor to “Rebel Without a Cause” as the greatest angry youth picture ever made, it is that and more, including a first cousin to the “kitchen sink” dramas of scribes John Osborne,...

Hordes of Halbstarken – the German equivalent of teddy boys – come alive in this hidden rock'n'roll gem unearthed by Jon Savage from the archive of British Pathé newsreels

What's interesting in looking through newsreel archives is how the editorial policy of the day differs from what is now received history. So, although rock'n'roll arrived in Britain in the winter of 1955-6 with the success of Bill Haley and the Comets' Rock Around the Clock (No 1 in early January), there is comparatively little material relating to rock'n'roll in Pathé's archive from 1956.

Nowhere is there anything about Elvis Presley, who had four major hits that year, nor anything about the late-summer furore that accompanied the release of the film Rock Around the Clock – a heady brew of excited newspaper reports and censorious local councils reacting to a bit of gang warfare and youthful high spirits.

Rock'n'roll's impact went way beyond the music,...

Our detailed look back over the non-Bond scores of John Barry continues with a look at his work between the years 1968 to 1979…

In the third part of our John Barry retrospective, we enter the late 60s and a surge of activity that would typify the composer’s output for nearly two decades. Despite the exacting nature of his commissions, he continued to build on his reputation with a succession of quality scores that stockpiled brilliant and unexpected surprises on top of unprecedented new ground. But all the while, he continued to strive for authenticity of arrangement and sincerity of expression. This phase demonstrates his broadening outlook but also reflects, in a profound way, the diversity of his musical influences.

His early output took inspiration from both the rhythm and blues of The Barry Seven and the popular rhythms of the time, such as Gene Vincent and American guitarist Duane Eddy,...

Our detailed look back over the non-Bond scores of John Barry continues with a look at his work between the years 1968 to 1979…

In the third part of our John Barry retrospective, we enter the late 60s and a surge of activity that would typify the composer’s output for nearly two decades. Despite the exacting nature of his commissions, he continued to build on his reputation with a succession of quality scores that stockpiled brilliant and unexpected surprises on top of unprecedented new ground. But all the while, he continued to strive for authenticity of arrangement and sincerity of expression. This phase demonstrates his broadening outlook but also reflects, in a profound way, the diversity of his musical influences.

His early output took inspiration from both the rhythm and blues of The Barry Seven and the popular rhythms of the time, such as Gene Vincent and American guitarist Duane Eddy,...

Chris Clor Imelda May

To mark the honor of sharing a bill with rockabilly pioneer Wanda Jackson, Irish singer Imelda May asked a friend to make her a white, fringed dress identical to the kind that the 73-year-old icon shimmies inside on stage. The younger singer says, “I asked Wanda if I could be her mini me for a day.”

Ms. May is carving out her own identity in a genre whose history is studded with charismatic men–Elvis Presley,...

This is a topic that is very close to my heart and one that is so very important to the community of Walthamstow in East London and to many film and heritage lovers beyond its borders.

The wonderful site savewalthamstowcinema.org has been helping fight a battle, along with many others including the McGuffin Film and Television Society, which has been raging on for over 7 years to save our stunning and historically rich Emd Granda Cinema. The building has been in the middle of a bitter fight to save its existence after being bought by the Universal Church of The Kingdom of God (Uckg) way back in 2003. Check out their site for excellent coverage of all the ups and downs of the long battle to get the listed cinema back to showing films again.

There are other wonderful articles on their site about the past and fabulous history of the venue,...

This week's news in the arts

Private detectives may usually work in, well, private – but their shady shenanigans have this week been thrust into the limelight. On Tuesday, the News of the World apologised to actor Sienna Miller for having paid detective Glenn Mulcaire to intercept her phone calls. Yesterday, it was alleged that detective Jonathan Rees had targeted Tony Blair and Kate Middleton on behalf of News International.

Entirely coincidentally, a private investigator has loomed large on the small screen this week: Case Histories, the BBC six-parter drawn from Kate Atkinson's bestselling thriller, stars Jason Isaacs as Jackson Brodie, police officer turned Pi and classic tough-nut-with-a-heart. Brodie doesn't tap phones, but he does spend a lot of time running around with his top off. It's the sort of detective work pioneered by Tom Selleck in the 1980s: his Magnum, Pi sported a series of daringly navel-grazing Hawaiian print shirts.

So much has been written and recorded about the mythology of the Beatles that it almost seems like they're not quite a band anymore — as though they have transcended the physical world of albums and tours and singles and morphed into some sort of benevolent cosmic presence. And maybe they have (and they probably deserve it, even if you only consider side three of The White Album). But even legends started somewhere, and the Beatles first began their journey to greatness on this day in 1957 when Paul McCartney met John Lennon for the first time.

As the story goes, McCartney had become a fan of Lennon's first band the Quarrymen, a skiffle group he formed while he was still at school with four other friends. On July 6, 1957, the group had a gig at a festival hosted by St. Peter's Church in Woolton, a suburb of Liverpool. McCartney was introduced to Lennon by a mutual friend.

As a passionate lover of films and a life long resident of Walthamstow in East London, I wanted to bring to your attention and gather some more support to an incredible battle that has gone on for around seven years to save our local cinema that was sold to the controversial Universal Church of The Kingdom of God (Uckg), an international religious organisation, which plans to convert the venue into a place of worship. The battle has been led by the McGuffin Film and Television Society that have battled so long and so hard for years to save the wonderful cinema.

Walthamstow Emd Cinema isn’t your regular cinema. It is so full of amazing history, It was Walthamstow’s first dedicated full time cinema in 1907 and was a haunt for a young Alfred Hitchcock who lived nearby. The Beatles, Jerry Lee Lewis, The Rolling Stones, The Kinks, Little Richard,...

If I were a cynic (and sometimes I am), I'd say that the surest thing you could say these days about the word rebel is that anyone who uses it to describe themselves definitely isn't one. But Sundance this year has cast itself as a celebration of rebels. Before each movie, the screen blinks and glows with a screen saver-style light show of tiny electric dots on which the following slogans appear: "This is cinematic rebellion," "This is the renewed rebellion," and (my favorite) "This is the recharged fight against the establishment of the expected." (They should try using that one for Toyota.

He could be warm and witty... or cruel and obnoxious. But there was never any doubt he was a true artist. We recall the life and times of Ian Dury, now the subject of both a new film and biography

In Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll, the new Ian Dury biopic, there is a scene that faithfully records the first time Dury met his songwriting partner, Chaz Jankel. It is May 1976 and the singer has just hobbled off stage after a particularly ramshackle London pub gig with his band of bedraggled misfits, Kilburn & the High Roads. The young, clean-cut Jankel strolls into the dressing room, grinning widely, and introduces himself. "Do I know you?" asks Dury, fixing him with a malevolent stare. "No," replies Jankel, still grinning. "Well do us a favour then," barks Dury, "and fuck off!"

Kilburn's guitarist Ed Speight convinced Jankel to return to the dressing room. In doing so,...

Carl Barat has revealed that he has landed a second movie role. The Dirty Pretty Things musician, who stars as Gene Vincent in upcoming Joe Meek biopic Telstar, told the Sunday Mail that he will also play a scientist in a new British film. He said: "I have something coming up. It's a very different direction (to Telstar) - a part you really would (more)...

VENICE, Italy -- The Judy Garland and Mickey Rooney spirit is alive and well in John Turturro's "Romance & Cigarettes," with some top stars -- including James Gandolfini, Susan Sarandon and Kate Winslet -- gamely putting on a show, but the sad result is a karaoke nightmare.

Loud and pointlessly crude, the film takes the disintegration of a dysfunctional working-class family and gives it the song-and-dance treatment. It's not pleasant to contemplate the kind of audience that would respond to this, but it's likely to be small and made up of people who fantasize about seeing Tony Soprano belt out "A Man Without Love" along with Engelbert Humperdinck.

Over the top from the start, the film follows Nick Murder (Gandolfini), a builder with no evident mob associations, as he grapples with his noisy wife, Kitty (Sarandon), and dabbles with his redheaded mistress named Tula (Winslet).

Garbagemen, telephone workers and firefighters burst into song at a moment's notice, dancing in the streets, usually to something by Tom Jones or James Brown, as Kitty finds out about Tula and ropes in weird Cousin Bo (Christopher Walken) to hunt her down.

There's a second generation of Murders -- Mary-Louise Parker, Aida Turturro and Mandy Moore -- who torment their father and play in a raucous rock band in the back yard. Moore also has a syncopated passion for a flamboyant neighborhood boy who calls himself Fryburg (Bobby Cannavale).

While Kitty finds solace screaming out "Piece of My Heart" with Janis Joplin and a church choir led by an organist named Gene Vincent (Eddie Izzard, who is wasted), Nick decides to get a circumcision, the better, he believes, to delight women.

The performers all appear to be very pleased with themselves for letting their knickers down, kicking up their heels and being such good sports. Gandolfini acts like Tony Soprano, Sarandon is in full "men are swine" mode and Winslet talks dirty and inexplicably with an accent from England's far north. Ricky Gervais talked Winslet into using gutter language amusingly for his new BBC/HBO television series "Extras", but it appears she's gotten into the habit.

Walken makes an amusing entrance to Elvis Presley's "Trouble" but has little to do after that. Steve Buscemi, as always, fills whatever screen space he occupies with his unique and flawless technique, and Elaine Stritch expertly delivers a bitter but amusing reflection on the men in her life.

They are the only redeeming elements of a picture that strains too hard and bursts of its own self-regard. Turturro, a fine actor, says he dreamed up "Romance & Cigarettes" while making "Barton Fink". It looks more like something that might have been made by Jesus Quintana, the wild man of the bowling alley he played in "The Big Lebowski".

ROMANCE & CIGARETTES

United Artists and Joel & Ethan Coen present in association with Icon Entertainment International a Greenestreet Films production

Credits:

Director-screenwriter: John Turturro

Producers: John Penotti, John Turturro

Executive producers: Jana Edelbaum, Matthew Rowland, Nick Hill, Joel Coen, Ethan Coen

Director of photography: Tom Stern

Production designer: Donna Zakowska

Editor: Ray Hubley

Cast:

Nick Murder: James Gandolfini

Kitty: Susan Sarandon

Tula: Kate Winslet

Angelo: Steve Buscemi

Fryburg: Bobby Cannavale

Baby: Mandy Moore

Constance: Mary-Louise Parker

Rosebud: Aida Turturro

Cousin Bo: Christopher Walken

Gracie: Barbara Sukowa

Nick's mother: Elaine Stritch

Gene Vincent: Eddie Izzard

MPAA rating R

Running time -- 105 minutes...

VENICE -- The Judy Garland and Mickey Rooney spirit is alive and well in John Turturro's Romance & Cigarettes with some top stars including James Gandolfini, Susan Sarandon, and Kate Winslet gamely putting on a show, but the sad result is a karaoke nightmare.

Loud and pointlessly crude, the film takes the disintegration of a dysfunctional working class family and gives it the song-and-dance treatment. It's not pleasant to contemplate the kind of audience that would respond to this, but it's likely to be small and made up of people who fantasize about seeing Tony Soprano belt out A Man Without Love along with Engelbert Humperdinck.

Over the top from the start, the film follows Nick Murder (Gandolfini), a builder although with no evident mob associations, as he grapples with his noisy wife Kitty (Sarandon) and dabbles with his redheaded mistress named Tula (Winslet).

Garbage men, telephone workers and firefighters burst into song at a moment's notice, dancing in the streets, usually to something by Tom Jones or James Brown, as Kitty finds out about Tula and ropes in weird Cousin Bo (Christopher Walken) to hunt her down.

There's a second generation of Murders, Mary-Louise Parker, Aida Turturro and Mandy Moore, who torment their father and play in a raucous rock band in the back yard. Moore also has a syncopated passion for a flamboyant neighborhood boy who calls himself Fryburg (Bobby Cannavale).

While Kitty finds solace screaming out Piece of My Heart with Janis Joplin and a church choir led by an organist named Gene Vincent (Eddie Izzard, who is wasted), Nick decides to get a circumcision, the better, he believes, to delight women.

The performers all appear to be very pleased with themselves for letting their knickers down, kicking up their heels and being such good sports. Gandolfini acts like Tony Soprano; Sarandon is in full "men are swine" mode; and Winslet talks dirty and inexplicably with an accent from England's far north. Ricky Gervais talked Winslet into using gutter language amusingly for his new BBC/HBO television series Extras, but it appears she's gotten into the habit.

Walken makes an amusing entrance to Elvis Presley's Trouble but has little to do after that. Buscemi, as always, fills whatever screen space he occupies with his unique and flawless technique, and Elaine Stritch expertly delivers a bitter but amusing reflection on the men in her life.

They are the only redeeming elements of a picture that strains too hard and bursts of its own self-regard. Turturro, a fine actor, says he dreamed up "Romance & Cigarettes" while making Barton Fink. It looks more like something that might have been made by Jesus Quintana, the wild man of the bowling alley he played in The Big Lubowski.

ROMANCE & CIGARETTES

United Artists and Joel & Ethan Cohen present, in association with Icon Entertainment International, a Greenestreet Films production.

Credits: Director and screenwriter: John Turturro

Producers: John Penotti, John Turturro

Executive producers: Jana Edelbaum, Matthew Rowland, Nick Hill, Joel Cohen, Ethan Cohen

Director of photography: Tom Stern

Production designer: Donna Zakowska

Editor: Ray Hubley

Cast:

Nick Murder: James Gandolfini

Kitty: Susan Sarandon

Tula: Kate Winslet

Angelo: Steve Buscemi

Fryburg: Bobby Cannavale

Baby: Mandy Moore

Constance: Mary-Louise Parker

Rosebud: Aida Turturro

Cousin Bo: Christopher Walken

Gracie: Barbara Sukowa

Nick's mother: Elaine Stritch

Gene Vincent: Eddie Izzard

No MPAA rating

Running time -- 105 mins...