News

Homophobia and the Mobo awards

ONE ISSUE has dominated the build-up to the Music of Black Origin (MOBO) awards at the end of this month—the viciously anti-gay lyrics of two of the original nominees.

Striking a chord with classic film

When did all this begin?

Country’s bitter portraits of a sick America

Steve Earle’s new album is called The Revolution Starts Now. It’s country music, recorded in Nashville.

Interview with Alistair Hulett: folk heroes for a new generation

How are folk musicians responding to political events?

The Libertines: what will happen to these likely lads?

The Libertines

The Motorcycle Diaries: How Ernesto turned into Che Guevara

We set out on a wondrous journey in The Motorcycle Diaries.

Artists come together to rage against Bush

Rock Against Bush Volume 2 Various artists, £8

Edinburgh Festival: theatre that can move the spirit

CONSIDERING THAT it is only a few years since some right wing critics were proclaiming the death of political theatre, there is a surprising amount of it at this year’s Edinburgh Fringe.

The Leopard: a truly great movie

Ask any Marxist film fan (say, me) to name their top ten movies and I’d guarantee that Luchino Visconti’s The Leopard would be on it.

SkinnyMan: a voice for tower block dreamers

SkinnyMan has been a stalwart of the underground British hip-hop scene for years, working with his crew Mud Family.

Rock Against Racism: a new fanzine for a new movement

In March Love Music Hate Racism organised a tremendously successful gig at London’s Astoria.

See the world in new, exciting ways

THE EDINBURGH Festival is the biggest arts event in the world.

Taking arts to parts others can’t reach

THE EDINBURGH People’s Festival was set up two years ago by a diverse group of artists and political activists.

Mercury has nasty side-effects

IT’S MERCURY Music Prize nominations time again. So the papers have been gushing about how music in Britain is incredibly rich and varied.

Spider-Man 2 | Status Symbols: Identity and Belief on Modern Badges

Spider-Man 2Directed by Sam Raimi Spider-Man is a superhero we can all identify with. Peter Parker, the teenager who becomes the superhero, is an impoverished student. He lives in a squalid flat and struggles to keep up with his rent payments.

It’s going to be hot inside the covers

The Mermaid and the Drunks Ben Richards, £6.99

The bad news that just isn’t reported

ANYONE WHO has campaigned for the Palestinian people will have come across some bizarre arguments explaining why the Israeli government should pursue its policies of repression against the Palestinians.

Bringing us all together

One Plus One Is One Badly Drawn Boy

Photo exhibition

A PHOTO exhibition opened last week in Hackney, east London, remembering the campaign for justice which followed the death of Colin Roach in January 1983.

Michael Moore’s Fahrenheit 9/11

MICHAEL MOORE’S new film Fahrenheit 9/11, released in Britain on Friday of this week, has got right up the nose of the establishment. First they tried to stop us seeing this anti-Bush documentary and when that failed they attacked it by saying its facts were questionable.