Decades of unauthorized creative activity alongside London’s waterways have created an ever-changing, al fresco ‘art gallery’ which is now as ineluctable a part of the city’s canals as the narrowboats which putter along them. This summer, The Canals Project, curated by Cedar Lewisohn, aims to shine a spotlight on this area with a series of new works…
A&M’s resident film critic, Peter Wix, abandons his usual review selection to ruminate on the most potent of female screen icons. She may be a friendship driven over a cliff , or Anita Ekberg parting the waters of the Fontana di Trevi, a wiggle, a smile, or a vengeful bandit queen. Just where is that…
Riot grrrl began as an early ’90s, third-wave feminist/punk-rock movement in the USA’s Pacific Northwest, ostensibly styled after mixed-gender Olympia, Washington quartet Bikini Kill. Its British incarnation arrived soon after, most notably in the shape of ‘boy-girl revolutionary’ group, Huggy Bear. Here, Jamie Holman recalls the impact of riot grrrl’s British outriders on a scene…
(Adam Leon) “Do what you gotta do to make that s**t happen”, says Sofia (Tashiana Washington) to her friend and graffiti partner, Malcolm (Ty Hickson). Once again, they’ve just had their latest work ruined by their rivals – the Woodside King Crew, from Queens – and decide that they need to come up with a…
Barbican Concert Hall 20 March My first thoughts on hearing ‘Ohm’, the opening track of this year’s Fade album, were somewhere along the lines of “Yo La Tengo have started channeling boy-band pop of the 1990s”. I could almost see Westlife rising from their stools during the final chorus. It took several listens to notice…
Tracey Thorn (Virago) Tracey Thorn has been with me for most of my adult life–we are of a similar age so I could project shared discoveries and concerns onto her as I tore through adolescence into adulthood. With the Marine Girls and the early incarnation of Everything But The Girl, she represented a strong feminist…
When I meet Sarah Baker at St Pancras train station, I am conscious that I keep looking at her face for longer than socially acceptable amounts of time; I apologise but keep doing it; she’s fine about it, which makes me think she must get that a lot. I could hear myself saying really stupid…
A&M’s resident realpolitik columnist Dave Lazer tells it like it is. This time it’s looking like it’s the end of the world… or is he just having the time of his life? Last Wednesday, as I was walking across the road at the traffic lights by Oxford Circus station, something bizarre happened. As soon as…
Rhiannon Parkinson reflects on the ways in which gender alters meaning and perception in pop songwriting. I generally believe that the gender of a songwriter should not matter. Women write songs which are sung by men, men write songs sung by women, with themes and sentiments often appearing to be universal, or at least gender…
Janeen Adams, aka Beanz, is a 22-year-old North London girl who’s part of hip hop collective The Funhouse. Alexis Jourrou met her when she invited his crew (Relative London) to spin some tracks on their radio show – here he explains why he believes she’s got what it takes to make her mark in the…