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 1 NO. IN EUROPE & THE MIDDLE EAST.

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 EDITOR’S LETTER

B
ack when I was in school in the early 1990s,
music was a currency of sorts. Saturday
afternoons were spent traipsing around
Dublin city centre in the rain (it was always
raining) going from record shop to record
shop buying 12”s from around the world. As a 13-year-old,
my knowledge of geography came from dance music —
Detroit was all about techno, Chicago was house central;
London? That was where drum and bass originated.
Frankfurt had a crazy club under the airport called the
Dorian Gray. Florida? Forget Mickey Mouse; it was all about
spaced out breaks and ravers with baggy pants. It illustrates the
point that music is much more than something you listen to — it’s a
culture all of its own. No one emphasised the ‘singer as a
star’ more than Frank Sinatra. In Frank Sinatra Has A
Cold, that wonderful writer Gay Talese captures a middle-
aged man battling his demons and his past.
Brillianty written, Vanity Fair called the piece
‘the greatest literary-non fiction story of the 20th century’.
If you want evidence that music can bring people together, look no
further than Berlin in 1989. That a strange, electronic sound created by
black teenagers in their Detroit bedrooms could help bring East and West
Germany together shows the power of the right music at the right time.
Someone who knows all about timing is Kevin Cummins; he documented
the rise of Manchester as a musical force throughout the 1980s and 1990s.
Kevin also photographed Gilles Peterson for us; a DJ who brings new
meaning to the words ‘well travelled’. Enjoy the issue.

CONOR@OPENSKIESMAGAZINE.COM

Emirates takes care to ensure that all facts published herein are correct. In
the event of any inaccuracy please contact The Editor. Any opinion expressed
is the honest belief of the author based on all available facts. Comments and
facts should not be relied upon by the reader in taking commercial, legal,
financial or other decisions. Articles are by their nature general and specialist
advice should always be consulted before any actions are taken.
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EDITOR (JOB +PIOTPO ş HJOB!NPUJWBUFBF SENIOR EDITOR .BSL &WBOT ş NBSLF!NPUJWBUFBF EDITOR Conor Purcell
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motivate.ae GENERAL MANAGER PRODUCTION & CIRCULATION S Sasidharan PRODUCTION MANAGER C Sudhakar
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Spearman, Hind Mezaina, Gemma Correll, Phil Oh, PuiKin Ivan Cheung, Gregor McClenaghan, Boris Hamilton, Elle Timms,
Gay Talese, Mark Russell, Robin Denselow, Kevin Cummins, Adam Kennedy, David Drebin, Nick Rice, Axis Maps, Victor Besa,
COVER ILLUSTRATION by Simon Page MASTHEAD DESIGNCZ2VJOUşXXXRVJOUEVCBJDPN

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21
CONTENTS

APRIL ����

CLAIRE RIGBY EXPLAINS WHY SÃO PAULO IS NO LONGER RIO’S POORER

COUSIN (P29)… WE GO TO THE DARK SIDE OF THE MOON AND BACK WITH
A MUSIC�THEMED GRAPH (P30)… LONDON’S BEST RECORD SHOPS GIVE
US THEIR ELEVATOR TWEETS (P33)… MUMBAI’S BARS, RESTAURANTS
AND CLUBS GET THE ONCE OVER (P36)… WE CHART THE BRIEF HISTORY OF
MUSICAL GENIUSES �AND YES, THAT INCLUDES JUSTIN BIEBER� (P46)…
WE HEAD TO NEW YORK TO CHECK OUT THE CITY’S FASHIONISTAS (P50)…
BANGKOK’S BEST JAZZ BAR IS STILL GOING STRONG (P54)… DUBAI HAS
SOME HIDDEN TREASURE IF YOU KNOW WHERE TO LOOK. WE DO (P56)…
GAY TALESE DISCOVERS FRANK SINATRA HAS A COLD (P62)… KOREAN
POP MUSIC HAS TAKEN OVER ASIA. WE FIND OUT WHY (P72)… GILLES
PETERSON IS ONE OF MOST ECLECTIC DJS IN THE WORLD TODAY. ROBIN
DENSELOW VISITS HIS LONDON STUDIO (P82)… WHEN THE BERLIN WALL
CAME DOWN IN ����, TECHNO HELPED REUNITE THE COUNTRY, AS ADAM
KENNEDY DISCOVERS (P90)… ROLLING STONE MAGAZINE USED TO BE
CUTTING EDGE. RICHARD LUCK WONDERS WHAT HAPPENED (P98)… KEVIN
CUMMINS SHARES MANCHESTER’S DEFINING MUSICAL IMAGES (P106)…

22
CONTRIBUTORS

SOUNDMURDER BEASTIE BOYS:

& SK-1: REWIND CHECK YOUR HEAD
DIRECT FROM DETROIT, GREAT RAP TRACKS,
THIS IS THE ULTIMATE FUNNY, FUNKY —
SOUNDTRACK TO ALL- IT’S THE NEAREST
NIGHT PARTIES GONE THING TO AN
RIGHT. TECHNO GENIUS. INSTANT RECORD
COLLECTION.

EELS: MANCHESTER GIRL NEW ORDER: SUBSTANCE

STILL LOVE IT AS MUCH
AS I DID 24 YEARS AGO.
I CAN LISTEN TO IT,
DANCE TO IT AND IT
ORCHESTRA BAOBAB: BRINGS BACK GOOD
SPECIALIST IN ALL STYLES MEMORIES.
A SLINKY, TUNEFUL
BLEND OF CUBAN AND
AFRICAN STYLES BY
THE VETERAN MALIAN
DANCE BAND.

1 ADAM KENNEDY: A music journalist who has written for the Guardian, the BBC, NME, Arena and Kerrang! Career highlights include
surviving a firearms-festooned photoshoot with a crew of angry rappers in New York and an evening with The Fall’s legendary Mark E Smith.

KEVIN CUMMINS: One of the world’s leading photographers, his iconic covers for British music magazine NME defined a generation
2 of musicians. His work has been exhibited at The National Portrait Gallery and the Victoria & Albert Museum in London. His most recent
monograph, Joy Division, was published by Rizzoli last year.

ROBIN DENSELOW: A journalist, broadcaster and TV producer who specialises in both music and politics. He writes regularly on world
3 and folk music for the Guardian,travels extensively, and has reported from around the world for BBC TV and radio.

RICHARD LUCK: An award-winning feature writer, critic and author. Formerly Film4.com’s deputy editor, he regularly contributes to
4 Empire, Esquire, and SFX and has written books on Steve McQueen, Sam Peckinpah, Beastie Boys and the Manchester music scene.

HIND MEZAINA: A Dubai-based blogger who writes about film, photography and art. Her blog, www.theculturist.com, is the leading arts
5 and culture blog in the UAE. She also works as a photographer and has documented the city extensively.

24
 M A R Q U I S E BY PA S PA L E Y

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WHITE TIGERS. NOW ON EXHIBIT AT
AL AIN WILDLIFE PARK & RESORT.
Al Ain Wildlife Park & Resort expresses its gratitude to Sheikha Latifa Bint Rashid Bin Khalifa
Bin Saeed Al Maktoum for the generous donation of two extraordinary White tigers.

The almost two year old White tiger siblings, a female and a male, have relocated to their new
home at Al Ain Wildlife Park & Resort and are now on exhibit. Come and watch them in their
new enclosure in the zoo’s cathouse.

Today, White tigers are reported to live only in captivity. White tigers are ambassadors for
their cousins in the wild (India, South-East Asia and Russia). Tigers are critically endangered
with some subspecies such as the Sumatra tiger almost being extinct in the wild. They are in
a badly need for protection and it is our obligation to conserve them for future generations.

Al Ain Wildlife Park & Resort – In Touch With Nature.

INTRO
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Ahmed Seddiqi & Sons: Atlantis - Tel: 04 422 0233, City Centre – Tel: 04 295 3225, Wafi Shopping Mall – Tel: 04 324 6060,
Mall of the Emirates – Tel: 04 341 1211, Emirates Towers Bld - Tel: 04 330 0888, Dubai Duty Free – Tel Toll Free: 800 - 4443
Rivoli Prestige: Abu Dhabi Mall – Tel: 02 645 6220

SÃO PAULO
DESPITE BEING FOREVER IN RIO’S SHADOW, SÃO PAULO HAS A NIGHT-TIME RHYTHM ALL OF ITS OWN
I
t’s hard being the sensible
one — and even harder when
your sibling is a unanimously
acknowledged, effortless beauty.
While visitors thrill at the beaches,
lush green hills and brooding peaks
of nearby Rio de Janeiro, hard-
working über-metropolis São Paulo
has struggled to attract tourists
beyond a growing stream of industry,
service and finance visitors drawn to
its thriving business culture.
But as every paulistano knows,
beauty is skin-deep; and beneath São
Paulo’s serious monochrome veneer,
there’s plenty of substance. The city’s
self-assured, urbane inhabitants
are a testament to that; and a night
spent down on Baixo Augusta,
the rock’n’roll heart of São Paulo’s
buzzing nightlife scene, is cast-iron
proof of it.
Here on the gritty, northeasterly
stretch of Rua Augusta — a street
that also continues south-west of
skyscraper-clad Avenida Paulista —
there’s not much to write home about
in the way of looks. But for those
in search of late-night excitement,
music and street life, or an insight
into some of São Paulo’s more
colourful urban transitions, it’s one
Claire Rigby is a writer based in São Paulo. You can follow her at: www.twitter.com/saopaulo_claire
of the most interesting spots in town.
Stretching back to Rua Augusta’s chic
1950s incarnation and on into the
1980s, when the road’s fortunes took
a dive as the shopping scene shifted
to the malls, every hick cousin up for
a visit to the big city has found their
way to Augusta to gawp. First at its
fine shops; later at the adult clubs that
replaced the boutiques.
Many of the clubs — ‘American
bars’, as some of them call themselves
— are still there, with neon signs and
seedy entrances promising even
seedier interiors. But these days,
Baixo Augusta’s main attractions are
the dozens of bars, nightclubs and
music venues that have increasingly
colonised the street, and the hipsters
and the cool tattooed girls, the
goths, the emos and the rockers who
pack them out on weekend nights,
spilling out of them and into the
road, where hawkers sell cans of beer
and sizzling meat skewers. Vegas,
Studio SP, Z Carniceria: for every
one of these, Augusta’s best-known
nightspots, there’s a half-dozen
smaller, edgy joints also pulling in
the crowds, plus a scattering of the
kind of old-fashioned, stripped-
down bars and diners – botecos and
OUR MAN IN
lanchonetes — that grace every other
São Paulo street corner. Ibotirama,
at the intersection of Rua Augusta
and Fernando de Albuquerque, is one
of Rua Augusta’s finest. A crush of
party people table-hops there nightly,
gearing up to head to late-night spots
on Augusta and on its surrounding
streets — to slick Sonique on Bela
Cintra, Astronete on Matias Aires, or
neon-lit Volt on Rua Haddock Lobo.
But even as one more club closes
(it’s currently Maison, with a ‘Closing
For Demolition – Everything Must
Go’ sign up) and a new bar opens
(LAB Club, raising the tone — and
the price – with a menu of molecular
cocktails), there’s a new tribe in
town. Rua Augusta’s excellent
location, linking the city’s power
avenue — sleek, high-rise Paulista
— with the run-down city centre,
plus the gentrifying trailblazed by
the moderninhos — hipsters — who
frequent the area, some of whom
have settled there, has led to a
mini property boom. Maison is to
be replaced not by another grungy
club but by a brand new residential
building, just one of 11 currently
being constructed in the area. And so
the wheel turns again.
29
GRAPH
INFORMATION ELEGANCE

30
 ILLUSTRATION BY: ANDREW BAUMGARTNER

31

London
Record BM soho
Honest
Stores
Jon's
Legendary reggae, jazz, soul specialists
since 1974. Now with a label, releasing
cutting edge music, sounds unlimited
and outernational.
www.twitter.com/honestjonsldn
Soul
Brother
Perfect shop for new and classic/rare
soul & jazz, massive range on CD and
vinyl friendly. Informative staff, efficient
mail order. 20 years exp.
www.twitter.com/soulbrotherrec
Every month we profile a number
of venues in a different city. The
catch? The venues must be on
Twitter and must tell us in their own
words what makes them so special.
This month we feature London’s
best record emporiums. If you want
to get involved, follow us at:
www.twitter.com/openskiesmag
TWITTER PITCH
BM Soho, established in 1990,
is London’s longest running
independent dance music record
shop specialising in house/drum
& bass and dubstep.
www.twitter.com/bmsoho
phonica
records
London’s leading vinyl emporium:
specialists in dance music on vinyl &
CD, house, techno, disco, electro, funk
& soul, dubstep, folk and electronica!
www.twitter.com/phonicarecords
rough
trade
UK’s largest music store, where
curious minds hang out with like-
minded people. Featuring the finest
new music, Steidl photography books,
espresso bar and in-store gigs.
www.twitter.com/roughtradeshops
33
DUBAI – SOUK MADINAT, VILEBREQUIN STORE – HAMAC STORES – HARVEY NICHOLS – SAKS FIFTH AVENUE WWW.VILEBREQUIN.COM
BOOKED
NICK HORNBY —
HIGH FIDELITY
M
ost people came
to Nick Hornby’s
best-seller through
the entertaining, but inevitably
Americanised US film starring
John Cusack as obsessive record
shopowner Rob Fleming. But before
Hollywood laid its shimmering mitts
on it, High Fidelity was at the bottom
of every musos grubby record bag.
Charting his journey from
self-infl icted ruin (cheating on
and losing his girlfriend Laura)
to partial redemption (getting her
back), and narrated by Rob in a
witty, conversational tone, the novel
explores his immaturity, music
mania and fi xation on other women.
Rob and his employees, fellow
music snobs Dick and Barry, spend
their time making top five lists to
show off their musical knowledge.
So when Laura leaves him, Rob deals
with her departure in the only way he
knows how – by compiling a list of his
top five most memorable break-ups.
He contacts his past flames to see
what went wrong, which eventually
leads to the resurrection of his
relationship with Laura. Hornby’s
talent lies in making the everyday
funny, interesting and dramatic.
His message? You might not have it
all, but the life you already have is
probably pretty good . Penguin, 1995
INTERNET SPEED: 24MB, free
PILLOW THREAD COUNT: 300
PILLOWS: 8
ENGLISH TV CHANNELS: 18
IPOD DOCK: Yes
ROOM SERVICE: Yes, 117 dishes available
CLUB SANDWICH DELIVERY TIME: 16
minutes
COMPLIMENTARY SNACKS: Freshly
brewed coffee, fruit
TOILETRY BRAND: Conrad own brand
DAILY NEWSPAPER: The Nation
EXTRAS: Iron and board, hairdryer, safe,
blackout curtains, pillow menu
BUSINESS CENTRE: Yes
VIEW: 3/5
RATE: $190 per night
WWW.CONRADHOTELS1.HILTON.COM
ROOM
NO.3013
THE CONRAD HILTON
BANGKOK
Bangkok is one of the world’s great
hotel cities with a selection of some
of Asia’s best accommodation. We
stayed at the Conrad Hilton, a 392-
room hotel in the embassy district.
So what exactly is the Conrad? Well
it’s not a boutique hotel nor strictly a
business or family hotel. Despite this,
it still works, combining touches of
flair (live jazz, awesome views) with
the practicalities of a business hotel
(high-speed Wi-Fi, business centre).
Its location, just around the corner
from the main Sukhumvit drag,
is perfect; close enough to walk to
downtown Bangkok, distant enough
to ignore the city centre chaos if
you choose. The vibe is mellow —
dim lighting, piped chill-out music
and (this is Asia after all) superb,
discrete, service. A hidden gem in
the Bangkok hotel market.
35
MAPPED
MUMBAI

Oros
O ros
os
3 14
Enticingly exotic, quixotic but never boring
— Mumbai is a city rammed with 24-hour Vile Parle
arle
East
party people, worker bees, super achievers
Khar West Kurla
and oodles of mind-blowing human
Bandra
and mechanical traffic. In this bustling West
megatropolis, how best to make the most of
1
your valuable time? Caroline Eden strolls Sion
its downtown streets and starry suburbs in Mahim B
Bay Mahim
search of where the city’s gastronomes and Chembur
Bollywood royalty hang out.
Dadar West
WWW.HG2.COM
9 Priyadarshini
Parel
Ambica Nagar
7 Lal Baug

10
8
Mazagaon
11 Gi
Girgaon
Ch
Chowpatty Butcher
13 Island
K albad
Kalbadevi Mandvi

12 15
Back Fort
Bay 2 4

6 5
ff
ffe
Cuffe
arade
Parade 16
Colaba

HOTELS
1. Taj Lands End 2. The Oberoi 3. Le Sutra 4. Gordon House
RESTAURANTS
�. Indigo 6. Moshe’s 7. Tasting Room 8. Olive Bar & Kitchen

36
Ghatkopar Thane
West Creek

Vashi
Sector 20
Sanpada
Kharghar
Padghe
MUMBAI NAVI
MUMBAI
CBD
Belapur Kalamboli
Sector 44–A

Ganeshpuri
Panvel
Creek Vichumbe
Chinchpada

Dapoli

Elephanta Nandgaon
Island Javale

Sheva Jasai

Belpada
Jaskaar Rajanpada

JNPT
Dongri
Karanja
Lad

BARS / CLUBS
9. Blue Frog 10. Aer 11. Tote on the Turf 12. Valhalla
GALLERIES
13. Matthieu Foss 14. Project 88 15. Gallery BMB 16. Chaterjee & Lal

37
MAPPED
MUMBAI
HOTELS
1 TAJ LANDS END
Located right on the Arabian
sea in Bandra — ‘queen of
the suburbs’ — this is one of
Mumbai’s slickest hotels. The
service here is faultless and
sets the standard for many
other hotels in the city.
RESTAURANTS
5 INDIGO
The menu may change once
a year, but it’s one of the best
restaurants in town with cuisine
‘inspired by Asia’. Book your
table in advance; this is where
Angelina Jolie and the Clintons
dine when they’re in town.
BARS/CLUBS
9 BLUE FROG
Housed in a huge old mill
warehouse, Blue Frog offers
the city’s style tribes live music
most nights of the week. Expect
everything and anything from
psychedelic trance music to
Rajasthani folk.
GALLERIES
13 MATTHIEU FOSS
Mumbai’s first private space
dedicated solely to photography
— this cool, minimalist gallery
offers classic photography and
printing techniques as well as
more recent digital methods. A
window on the city.
38
2 THE OBEROI
Attentive and intuitive service,
location, minimal décor and
stunning views sets this hotel
apart. The spa is open 24 hours
a day too, so a jet lag massage
is ready for your arrival. A
glimpse of a bygone era.
6 MOSHE’S
A respectable deli counter and
chefs who’ve been trained at
top hotels whip up creamy
pastas and hearty soups with
several branches throughout
the city. This, however, is easily
the best location.
10 AER
Champagne cocktails are the
order of the day here, perfect
with some tapas. Be warned
this place gets so congested at
the weekends that there is a
risk of an embarrassing hold
up in the melee at the door.
14 PROJECT 88
At the cutting edge of the
Mumbai art scene, Sree
Goswami, the gallery’s director,
seeks out young artists and
displays them alongside
more recognised Indian and
international artists.
3 LE SUTRA
Billed as India’s first ‘art
hotel’ Le Sutra is in a chi-chi
neighbourhood, which has a
far slower pace than downtown
Colaba. The rooms are unique
in their design and the hotel a
magnet for creative types.
7 TASTING ROOM
Beautifully decked out – think
modern Raj with chic ethnic
twists mixed with European
style — you can easily kill an
afternoon here with a glass of
wine and some tasty eats, which
is what we suggest you do.
11 TOTE ON THE TURF
Since opening, it’s been all
about striking a pose here.
Models, celebrities and assorted
hangers-on all help to prop up
the split-level bar at Tote on
the Turf; probably Mumbai’s
coolest joint, for now at least.
15 GALLERY BMB
Gallery BMB, located in the
heart of Mumbai’s fashionable
Fort area, houses a unique art
bookshop with a dedicated
reading area and a chilled out
café. A great place to spend a
lazy afternoon or two.16
4 GORDON HOUSE
Location, location, location.
Just behind the iconic Taj Palace
hotel — by staying here you are
slap bang in the centre of town.
This is a small, stylish hotel
with three themed floors, buffet
breakfast and Wi-Fi included.
8 OLIVE BAR & KITCHEN
The Mediterranean dishes
are popular with Bollywood
beauties, cricket megastars
and their entourages. Go for
the Sunday brunch, stay all
afternoon and people watch
to your heart’s content.
12 VALHALLA
Decorated with rich reds,
purples and velvets, this
restaurant-lounge space has a
boudoir feel. A good spot for
settling into some comfy seats
and tucking into some of the
Spanish-influenced dishes.
16 CHATTERJEE & LAL
This 1,600 sq ft gallery set
within a Victorian, Raj-period
warehouse is one of Mumbai’s
preeminent art spaces and a
springboard for much of the
country’s new artistic talent.
Definitely worth a look.
FLICK
CELLULOID DISSECTED
T
he relationship
between film and
music is as old as the
cinema itself, but
for every epic score
there’s been a less-than-stellar turn
from a rock star wannabe.
It’s perhaps harder to imagine
movies without music than it is
motion pictures minus dialogue.
Indeed, some 30 years before Al Jolson
exclaimed “You ain’t heard nothing
yet!” in The Jazz Singer, the first ever
talkie, music had ensured there were
really no such things as silent movies.
And while a lot’s changed in the
years since, the soundtrack still
fulfils much the same purpose —
underscoring, emphasising and
punctuating pictures in ways
words never could.
As a wise man once said, “To
understand the power of music in
40
FAilure
to launch
RICHARD LUCK EXAMINES THE CHEQUERED HISTORY OF
SINGERS ON THE BIG SCREEN
the movies, you just need to remind
yourself that no one leaves a film
humming the scenery.”
John Williams, Hans Zimmer,
the late, great John Barry — the film
world’s great composers enjoy the
same acclaim as legendary stars
and directors. It’s just a pity that, for
every musician that has enhanced
a movie, there’s another who’s left a
dark stain on cinema history. For as
long as there has been rock ‘n’ roll,
there have been rock stars claiming
that what they really want to do is
act. The pioneering Elvis Presley
starred in 33 films over the course
of his short life, virtually all of them
now unwatchable.
However, Elvis looks like Olivier
when compared with some of
those who dared to follow in his
footsteps. From Sting in Dune to
Mariah Carey in Glitter, a stream of
pop stars have come to Hollywood
thinking acting looks easy only
to prove that it isn’t. And if you’d
imagine the run of failures might
lead them to think otherwise, think
again. This year alone we’ve already
seen Christina Aguilera take to
the screen in Burlesque, proving
that, as an actress, she’s pretty
good at remembering the American
national anthem.
“I see no reason why a singer should
make for a good movie star,” laughs
film-maker Julien Temple. And having
directed Sid Vicious in The Great Rock
‘N’ Swindle and David Bowie and
Patsy Kensit in Absolute Beginners,
he knows of what he speaks. “The
skills you require when on stage and
on screen couldn’t be more different.
Sure, there have been some good
performances from musicians. I
think David Bowie is very good in
The Man Who Fell To Earth, although
I reckon he’s just playing a version
of himself, or rather, the way he was
at the time he made the film. I think
the same’s also true of Mick Jagger in
Performance — he’s great but I don’t
think playing a bored rock star was
much of a stretch. Oddly enough, the
one musician I think could make for
a good actor is Neil Young. There’s
something authentic and understated
about him. Most musicians are very
‘big’ on screen, but I think Neil would
prove very subtle.”
In lieu of the ex-Crazy Horse
frontman becoming the next Al
Pacino, it’s Temple rather than the
musicians he’s worked with who’s
proved that a healthy relationship
can exist between singing and the
silver screen.
Over the last few years, the British
filmmaker has created a string of
superb music-related documentaries.
From the Sex Pistols expose The Filth
And The Fury to Oil City Confidential
— a celebration of the kings of Canvey
Island Dr Feelgood — Temple’s
demonstrated that the rock star life can
make for utterly compelling movies.
He’s even made a film about
Glastonbury that’s so good, it enables
you to experience the headiness of
the festival without having to fork
out for a pair of wellies and spend
hours talking to a bloke called
Sunshine who supports himself
selling funny tasting brownies and
little wooden hobbits.
Nor is Temple alone in
transforming stories of rock excess
into fascinating documentary films.
In Ondi Timoner’s Dig!, the sell-out
success of The Dandy Warhols
is juxtaposed with the mania
and quest for authenticity that
consumed their former buddies
The Brian Jonestown Massacre. And
in Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky’s
Metallica: Some Kind Of Monster,
we find out what happens when rock
behemoths spend some time with
a psychiatrist.
And the list doesn’t end there.
The Devil And Daniel Johnston,
Lemmy, Searching For The Wrong-
Eyed Jesus (crazy title, crazy film),
loudQUIETloud ; it’s almost as if the
movie gods decided to compensate
us for every time Madonna’s made a
movie by inspiring someone else to
create a knockout rock documentary.
Which is fair enough for, as the likes
of Alex North (Spartacus), Bernard
Hermann (Psycho) and Howard Shore
(The Lord Of The Rings) have proven
time after time, at its very best, music
can really turn the movie-going
experience up to 11.
41
SKYPOD
THE UK’S COOLEST NEW BAND, EVERYTHING EVERYTHING, GIVE US THEIR PLAYLIST WWW.EVERYTHING-EVERYTHING.CO.UK

ORNETTE COLEMAN — STREET WOMAN

Super-slippery and savage, this experimental
saxophone-led jazz piece dances and jolts like a
livewire. The Bad Plus did a suitably unhinged
version of this on their 2004 album, Give.

JAMES BLAKE —CMYK

James supported us in
December and did a
beautiful job, he’s an
extremely talented and
open-minded musician.
We can’t wait to hear his
album, which promises to
be as skilful, soulful and
fresh as this song.

WARPAINT — BILLIE HOLIDAY

Quoting the Mary Wells Motown
hit My Guy, this song shows the
sweet side of Warpaint. Live they are
brilliantly unpredictable, building to
ferocious improvised climaxes and
huge grungey grooves.
SCOTT WALKER — ON MY OWN AGAIN
On My Own Again seems to allude to the disorientating nature
of touring “city after city, granite grey as morning”, and some
erstwhile lost love left behind. The final heartbreaking line
refers to the very beginning of a relationship — “when it began
I was so happy, I didn’t feel like me”.

42
BIG BOI – SHUTTERBUGG
Retro-futuristic Sugarhill Gang-esque
synths, drums in space, robots singing the
bassline, it must be Big Boi. Baby, baby,
you’re in my system.
KATE BUSH — DEEPER UNDERSTANDING
It’s 1989 and Kate Bush is dreaming about the future of our relationship with
information technology. It’s a song of loneliness and solace in the modern
world: “As the people here grow colder, I turn to my computer.”
STEVE REICH – NEW YORK COUNTERPOINT
We all love Steve Reich and his percussive hypnotic
compositions. In this piece we hear multiple clarinets
and bass layered, kicking and squirming against one
another and a tape.
DESTINY’S CHILD
— SAY MY NAME
A classic R&B premise, Beyonce wants
her lover to say her name down the
phone to prove he’s not at another
woman’s house cheating on her. The
sentiment is reflected in the music
perfectly but more importantly it’s a
classic slice of American pop.
THE BEATLES —
A DAY IN THE LIFE
A perfect fusion of classic Lennon
and classic McCartney, A Day In The
Life is the bravura performance that
closes Sgt. Pepper’s. In 1967 it pushed
the boundaries — musically, lyrically
and conceptually — of what pop
music could be.
RADIOHEAD — EVERYTHING IN
ITS RIGHT PLACE
The opening track of Kid A, which blew
our minds as teenagers, Everything
In Its Right Place is the first thing
Radiohead fans had heard since OK
Computer. For us it surpassed it. This is
brave, bold and beautiful.
43

FRAMING
THE UAE
HIND MEZAINA WANTS LOCAL PUBLISHERS TO IMPROVE
THEIR PACKAGING OF THE UAE'S CULTURAL OUTPUT
I
often wonder what kind of
literature tourists take back
home after their holiday in
the UAE ends. Is it the ubiquitous
postcard-style picture book of the
city, or can we offer them something
more in-depth? I hope the day comes
when someone like me visits this
country and can find unique books
that can speak to them visually;
which can be taken back to their
home as memorabilia — something
they can share, something to show
there is more to this place than
initially meets the eye.
I’m always drawn to bookshops
during my travels, looking for
literature about the city I am
visiting or memorabilia to bring
ILLUSTRATION BY: VESNA PESIC
back home with me, searching for
books about photography, film,
music, architecture and design.
The Middle East has several
established book publishers, but we
are lacking publishers that cover the
LOCAL VOICES
JUDGE A BOOK
BY ITS COVER
arts. Discussions with my friends
always lead to one conclusion; there’s
no demand for them because no one
is interested to read about the arts in
our own language: Arabic.
Is this the case? Do we have to
resign ourselves to the fact that there
is no demand amongst an Arabic
reading audience for books that cover
the fields of art, design and culture?
There is an assumption that anything
modern and creative can be found in
other languages — just not in Arabic.
The GCC doesn’t lack original content,
it just lacks the will and dare I say, the
savviness, to bring our own literature
to the fore, especially when it comes
to books covering the creative arts.
When I recently took stock of my
collection, I noticed I own just a
handful of Arabic language books.
I have Arabic novels translated into
English, but it dawned on me I don’t
have a decent selection of books
in Arabic. It’s a reflection of my
45
generation’s disconnect to Arabic
books, or at least the ones who went to
English language schools. Although
we speak the language, we’ve lost
interest in seeking knowledge from
Arabic books. Wanting to make small
steps to change this for myself, I went
in search of Arabic books, curious
to see what I would discover, what
would grab my attention.
I headed to one of the oldest
suppliers of Arabic books in the
city, Dar Al Hikmah, on Diyafah
Street in Dubai. A medium sized
bookstore surrounded by fast-food
restaurants, It’s an ‘old school’ place
that I am glad to see is still standing
after 30 years.
But what struck me was the heavy
presence of Islamic literature and
political books about the Middle
East. It’s as if books in Arabic have
limited categories.
There were many international
best-sellers translated into Arabic,
but I couldn’t find any books with
a strong visual edge, something
that looked modern and fresh. Even
though the place is endearing — it had
a feeling of a family-run bookstore —
I couldn’t help but wonder if more can
be done to appeal to readers like me.
When I went to one of Dubai’s
newer bookstores, Book World by
Kinokuniya in The Dubai Mall
— a place that looks like any big
international bookstore — it lacked
atmosphere but it did have a large
selection of categories that went
beyond religion and politics, which
was refreshing. I felt however, for
all its choice, it was still lacking

A BRIEF HISTORY OF MUSICAL GENIUSES

175 6 1926 1935 1939

He borrowed heavily Marvin Gaye rose above the

Combining genius with
hard work, Mozart began
composing at the age of
five, which explains why,
despite his death at 35,
he remains one of the most
prolific classical composers.
Transcends mere music.
The genius of Miles Davis
was his ability to recognise
the importance of the
space in between the notes.
Also a very, very cool cat.
from rhythm and blues
and came up with rock 'n'
roll. Girls fainted, parents
complained and radio
stations exploded. Elvis
Presley was the first bona
fide global superstar before
developing a dehabilitating
cheeseburger addiction.
doo-wop music Motown
expected him to perform
and created one of the
greatest albums of the 20th
century, What’s Going On,
despite the label initially
refusing to release it. Beset
by demons, he was killed by
his father in 1984.

46
 LOCAL VOICES

something. Where are the books
told through a native’s perspective
about the architectural landscape
of the country for the past 40 years?
There’s a rich history of poetry and
storytelling here, which is passed
on verbally, but we also need this
to be recorded in books. And these
books need to be contemporary in
feel, utilising some of the amazing
graphic designers and illustrators
we have in this region.
Where are the books that talk
about embroidery, traditional
food and music — again told and
documented from a native’s point of
view, but with a modern aesthetic.
I’m talking about the quality of
books that are published by the likes
of Booth-Clibborn and Phaidon.
With so much reliance on imported
expertise and opinions, more needs
to be done internally to attract and
reintroduce Arabic readers to their
own cultural DNA.
Whether it’s the role of existing
publishers, new entrepreneurs or new
regulations to push through this
change, it is very clear that a change is
needed. Bookshops comfort me. They
are places where I can enjoy a mental
escape from daily life. Whether I go to
buy magazines or browse for new
books — and despite today’s digital
options to purchase and read books
— nothing can replace the feeling and
experience of being inside a bookshop.
It this experience that I look for when I
am abroad and I hope it is something
I can soon experience here in my
hometown when I go in search of
Arabic language books.

19 42 1955 1974 1994

A perfectionist who tottered
on the brink of madness
(he once spent three years
in his bedroom) Brian
Wilson married melody,
harmony and technology
better than anyone else.
Kool Herc invented hip hop
by combining James Brown
breaks with verbal exhorta-
tions over the top of the
records. A true original.
The originators of punk and
the idea that raw, stripped
down rock music was more
effective than the bloated
music of the time, The
Ramones were red-blooded
musical pioneers.
Justin Bieber and his haircut
have taken the world (or at
least the teenage part of it)
by storm. Despite his music
being less inventive than
a business card, his genius
lies in his marketing.

47
INTERVIEW

MY
TRAVELLED LIFE
SALLY-ANNE RUSSELL, 40, MEZZO-SOPRANO

ON TRAVEL ON MY SCHEDULE and pronounciation. At rehearsals everyone

When I first bought my passport I never
thought I would fill it, but I had to get a new
one after five years. The amount of travel I do
depends on the year, but I can be away for up
to six months in the year. This year it will be
closer to two months, but I will be travelling
a lot in Australia.
ON PLANES
You can meet some incredibly interesting
people on planes, but I do like to work. A lot
of my flights are long-haul so I get to work for
six or seven hours straight. It's a great place
to memorise, so on go the headphones and
I can get a lot of work done. I also sleep! It's
important to get lot of rest for my voice.
My schedule is booked two years in advance;
Pavarotti's schedule would be booked a
decade in advance. You can sometimes
forget things are booked. You agree to do
something and forget all about it, and then
next thing, you are on a plane! I get to travel
a lot around Australia, which is great.
ON WORK
The work is complicated. You have to
memorise the notes and memorise the
words, which are often in another language,
in French or German or Russian. You need
to know what you are singing, the right tone
is walking around in costumes, holding
books which they have to memorise. It is
very intense, but exhilarating.
ON DIFFERENCES
There are so many amazing places I have
been to. I could live in Vancouver, it's so
beautiful. Japan was really fascinating.
Hungary and Poland were great and Canada
is beautiful. I would love to live in Italy as
well. Stockholm had a great culture and was
a very interesting place. My job involves
a lot of travel, but it's one of the most
rewarding aspects of it.

ON MY VOICE
I have to protect my voice. I have sometimes
moved seats on a plane if the person beside
me has a cold. I chew a Jet Ease tablet every
two hours when I am flying and it really helps
with jet lag. Water, obviously helps too. For a
sore throat, I mix turmeric paste with warm
water and drink that; it really helps. There is
not much you can do to cure a cold.

48
STREET PEEP • ER
NEW YORK «WWW.STREETPEEPER.COM «
     ž
  

 
 TV PRESENTER
MUSICIAN & ARTIST
Lahssan trench coat, D&G
3.1 Philip Lim sweater boots, G-Star leather
and jacket, April77 jeans, trousers, Rodarte for
vintage boots. Opening Ceremony top.

 
BRAND DIRECTOR �.�
PHILIP LIM
  
3.1 Philip Lim coat and MODEL
skirt, Comme des Garcons
shirt, Celine bag. 3.1 Philip Lim coat.

50
       
BLOGGER MODEL

All vintage. All vintage.

    

    
EDITOR FASHION JOURNALIST

Vintage coat, J Crew Rochas sweater and skirt.

Pajama top, Chloé bag, Rochas scarf as turban.
Tom Binns necklace, 7 for Proenza Schouler skirt,
all Mankind jeans. Balenciaga bag.

51
PLACE
ARCHITECTURE MAPPED «GUANGZHOU OPERA HOUSE « Ž  ŽŽ  «ÈÆÇÆ

IMAGE: PUIKIN IVAN CHEUNG

52
 S O F T
M ICRO

TURKEY
S O F T
M ICRO
“We are running 79 countries from Istanbul and we are enjoying the dynamism,
diversity, and availability of high quality work-force. These attributes and more,
we believe, represent big potential for Turkey, in the way of development through
effective use of technology, as well as becoming a software and services provider
to other countries, particularly the EU. Microsoft Turkey will be there to support
economic development and capacity building.”

Jean - Philippe COURTOIS, President of Microsoft International,

Senior Vice President of Microsoft Corporation

• A population of 73 million, half of which is under
the age of 28.8
• Approximately 450,000 students graduated from
around 150 universities and other higher education
institutions in 2009
• Over 25 million young, well-educated and motivated
labor force
• Highly competitive investment conditions
• A country that offers 100% and more tax deductions
on R&D expenditures
• Access to Europe, Caucasus, Central Asia, the Middle
East and North Africa
• 16th largest economy of the world and the 6th largest
economy as compared to the EU countries in 2009
(IMF-WEO)
• 15th most attractive FDI destination for 2008-2010
(UNCTAD World Investment Prospects Survey)
• Fastest growing economy in Europe in 2010
VENUE
URBAN CARTOGRAPHY «BROWN SUGAR «BANGKOK «JAZZ

B
angkok’s nightlife has a lot to
offer, but good live music can be
tough to find in a city addicted to
karaoke and cover bands.
For more than 25 years, Brown Sugar,
on Sarasin Road just north of Lumphini
Park, has given Bangkok’s jazz lovers a
home. Not far from the embassy district
and far enough away from the main
nightlife drags, the venue is a rarity in a
rapidly gentrifying city.
Small and intimate, it oozes
atmosphere. The combination of neon
signs, unpainted brickwork and dark
wooden tables stained with decades’
worth of whiskey and beer gives the
place an authentic, film noir jazz vibe
before a note has been played.
Although there are better places to eat
in the city (the menu is small, and it’s too
noisy to hold much of a conversation),
and the drinks are a little more
expensive than average for Bangkok (a
bourbon will set you back $6), the music
lives up to the promise of the venue, with
two bands playing Monday to Thursday
and three at weekends, including a roster
of visiting guest musicians.
The backbone of the club is the Brown
Sugar Jazz Band, who night after night
belt out a varied mix of traditional jazz
standards, jazzed up versions of pop and
rock songs, and occasional blues.
“I love playing here because people
come for the music; when you play in
a hotel you get a mix of people who are
there for lots of different reasons, but
here you know the crowd has come for
WORDS: GREGOR MCCLENAGHAN / IMAGES: BORIS HAMILTON

54
the jazz,” said Pandz Lewis, who spent
three decades singing in jazz clubs all
over Asia, from the Philippines to Hong
Kong, before moving to Bangkok and the
Brown Sugar Jazz Band six years ago.
“Jazz can be a complicated form of
music, the equivalent of an abstract
painting, and it surprises me sometimes
that so many people come to tell us how
much they enjoy hearing us play.
“For a musician that’s really a lovely
feeling. Nobody does this to make a lot
of money; you play jazz because you
love it, and it’s wonderful to be able to
share that with others.”
The two-storey club attracts a mixed
crowd of all ages that includes — something
rare in a Bangkok venue — Thais, tourists
and foreign expatriates from around the
world. “I’ve come here a few times and it’s
always dependable; there aren’t many
places in Bangkok that are like this,” said
Elliot Voth, an American who has lived
in the city for two years.
“Plenty of bars have live bands, but they
always play the same stuff. Here you know
you’re going to get something different.”
His wife, Jenny, agreed. “Before I came
here I thought you would only find music
like this in the big hotels. Places like this
make you realise how much culture
there is in Bangkok,” she said. Twenty-
five years old and still going strong,
Brown Sugar keeps getting sweeter.

Brown Sugar, 231/20 Thanon Sarasin, Bangkok.

Tel: +66 (2) 2501826. Open Mon-Sat 5pm-2am;
music starts at 9.30pm

55
 1 2

BOOTY DUBAI
WE FIND SOME DESIGN
CLASSICS FROM DUBAI’S
HIDDEN BOUTIQUES
Fatma Candle, $82.
Form and function
Brownbook, $5.
A quality slice of
combine in this Middle East culture
decorative candle. from this Dubai-
o' de rose, Al Wasl Road, based magazine.
Umm Suqeim 2, Dubai. Jashanmal Books,
Mall of the Emirates.

3 4

56
 3 4 5 6

Vanity Box, $76 Sloan’s Liniment, $2. Vanity Box, $87. Fatma Candle, $82.
Classic Arabic Old school pain relief Arabic movie Another classic candle
typography ordains for all those aches and icons decorate this from this boutique on
this trinket box. pains brought on by delightful jewellery Al Wasl Road.
Zoo, Villa 142, Beach sight seeing. box. Zoo, Villa 142, Beach o' de rose, Al Wasl Road,
Road, Jumeirah. Jisr Al Madina Mart; GIGCO Road, Jumeirah. Umm Suqeim 2, Dubai.
metro station, Garhoud.

6
5

57
 CALENDAR

1
2
i
Fr
3
t
Sa
Su
n
4 THE MASTERS
on
M 5 Watch the world’s greatest
e players tough it out in Augusta.
Tu 6
ART COLOGNE
More than 200 galleries will www.masters.com
ed
W
7 take part in this five-day event.
u
Th
www.artcologne.com

8
Fri

t
9
Sa
10
Sun

n 11
Mo

Tue
12

Wed 13
Thu 14
ISTANBUL FILM FESTIVAL

15

april
Fri This, the 30th edition, will
feature a raft of indie flicks.
Sat 16 www.iksv.org/f ilm

Sun
17
Mon
18
Tue
19
Wed
20 TWO OCEANS MARATHON
Thu Enjoy stunning scenery and a
21 gruelling 56km ultra marathon.
Fri www.twooceansmarathon.org.za
22
Sa
t
Su
23 MALTA FIREWORKS FESTIVAL
n
M 24 Valletta’s picturesque harbour will be
on lit up by fireworks from around the world.
Tu 25 www.visitmalta.com
e
26
W
ed

27
Th

28
u
Fr
i
Sa

29
t
30

59
MAIN
P. Ü׺ the korean wave P. 82 º gilles peterson P. Þݺ rolling stone magazine’s rise and fall  ÖÕÛº  




 TECHNO
IT
HOW DETRO
D B RING EAST AND
HELPE
TOGETHER
WEST BERLIN
P90

61
FRANK SINATRA

S I N AT R A
FRANK HA S A C LD
O
Y G AY TALESE
B
FRANK SINATRA
FRANK SINATRA
F
rank Sinatra, holding a
glass of bourbon in one
hand and a cigarette
in the other, stood in a
dark corner of the bar
between two attractive but fading
blondes who sat waiting for him to
say something. But he said nothing;
he had been silent during much of the
evening, except now in this private
club in Beverly Hills he seemed even
more distant staring out through
the smoke and semi-darkness into
a large room beyond the bar where
dozens of young couples sat huddled
around small tables or twisted in
the centre of the dance floor to the
clamorous clang of folk-rock music
blaring from the stereo. The two
blondes knew, as did Sinatra’s four
male friends who stood nearby, that
it was a bad idea to force conversation
upon him when he was in this mood
of sullen silence, a mood that had
hardly been uncommon during
64
SINATRA, JOHNNY CARSON (LEFT) AND DEAN
MARTIN IN ST. LOUIS FOR A BENEFIT CONCERT
Frank Sinatra with a
cold is like Picasso
without paint, like a
Ferrari without fuel
this first week of November, a month
before his 50th birthday.
Sinatra had been working in a
film that he now disliked, could not
wait to finish; he was tired of all the
publicity attached to his dating the
20-year-old Mia Farrow, who was not
in sight tonight; he was angry that a
CBS television documentary of his
life, to be shown in two weeks, was
reportedly prying into his privacy,
even speculating on his possible
friendship with Mafia leaders; he was
worried about his starring role in an
hour-long NBC show entitled Sinatra
— A Man And His Music, which would
require that he sing 18 songs with a
voice that at this particular moment,
just a few nights before the taping
was to begin, was weak and sore and
uncertain. Sinatra was ill. He was the
victim of an ailment so common that
most people would consider it trivial.
But when it gets to Sinatra it can
plunge him into a state of anguish,
deep depression, panic, even rage.
Frank Sinatra had a cold.
Sinatra with a cold is Picasso
without paint, a Ferrari without fuel
— only worse. For the common cold
robs Sinatra of that uninsurable jewel
— his voice, cutting into the core of his
confidence, and it affects not only his
own psyche, but also seems to cause
a kind of psychosomatic nasal drip
within dozens of people who work for
him, drink with him, love him, and
depend on him for their own welfare
and stability. A Sinatra with a cold
can, in a small way, send vibrations
through the entertainment industry
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FRANK SINATRA
and beyond as surely as a President
of the United States, suddenly sick,
can shake the national economy.
For Frank Sinatra was now
involved with many things
involving many people — his own
film company, his record company,
his private airline, his missile-
parts firm, his real-estate holdings
across the nation, his personal staff
of 75 — which are only a portion
of the power he is and has come
to represent. He seemed now to be
also the embodiment of the fully
emancipated male, perhaps the
only one in America, the man who
can do anything he wants and can
do it because he has the money, the
energy, and no apparent guilt.
In an age when the very young
seem to be taking over, protesting
and picketing and demanding
change, Frank Sinatra survives as
a national phenomenon, one of the
few pre-war products to withstand
the test of time. He is the champ who
made the big comeback, the man
who had everything, lost it, then got
it back, letting nothing stand in his
way, doing what few men can do:
he uprooted his life, left his family,
broke with everything that was
familiar, learning in the process that
one way to hold a woman is not to
hold her. Now he has the affection
of Nancy and Ava and Mia, the fine
female produce of three generations,
and still has the adoration of his
children, the freedom of a bachelor.
He does not feel old, he makes old
men feel young, makes them think
66
that if Frank Sinatra can do it, it can
be done; not that they could do it, but
it is still nice for other men to know
that at 50, it can be done.
But now, standing at this bar in
Beverly Hills, Sinatra had a cold,
and he continued to drink quietly
and he seemed miles away in his
private world, not even reacting when
suddenly the stereo in the other room
switched to a Sinatra song, In the Wee
Small Hours Of The Morning.
Sinatra’s men will
never take a swing back
at him. He is Il
Padrone, the master
The two blondes, who seemed to
be in their mid-30s, were preened
and polished. They sat, legs crossed,
perched on the high bar stools. One
of them pulled out a Kent and Sinatra
quickly placed his gold lighter under
it and she held his hand, looked
at his and the pinkies protruded,
being so stiff from arthritis that he
could barely bend them. He was,
as usual, immaculately dressed.
He wore an oxford-grey suit with
a vest, a suit conservatively cut
on the outside but trimmed with
flamboyant silk within; his shoes,
British-made, seemed to be shined
even on the bottom of the soles. He
also wore, as everybody seemed to
know, a remarkably convincing black
hairpiece, one of 60 that he owns,
most of them under the care of an
inconspicuous little grey-haired lady
who, holding his hair in a tiny satchel,
follows him around whenever he
performs. She earns $400 a week.
The most distinguishing thing about
Sinatra’s face are his eyes, clear blue
and alert, eyes that within seconds
can go cold with anger, or glow with
affection, or, as now, reflect a vague
detachment that keeps his friends
silent and distant.
Frank Sinatra does things
personally. At Christmas time,
he will personally pick dozens of
presents for his close friends and
family, remembering the type of
jewellery they like, their favourite
colours, the sizes of their shirts and
dresses. When a musician friend’s
house was destroyed and his wife
was killed in a Los Angeles mud
slide a little more than a year ago,
Sinatra personally came to his aid,
finding the musician a new home,
paying whatever hospital bills
were left unpaid by the insurance,
then personally supervising the
furnishing of the new home down to
the replacing of the silverware, the
linen, the purchase of new clothing.
The same Sinatra who did this can,
within the same hour, explode in a
towering rage of intolerance should
a small thing be incorrectly done
for him by one of his paisanos. For
example, when one of his men brought
him a frankfurter with catsup on it,
which Sinatra apparently abhors,

he angrily threw the bottle at the
man, splattering catsup all over him.
Most of the men who work around
Sinatra are big. But this never seems
to intimidate Sinatra nor curb his
impetuous behaviour with them
when he is mad. They will never take a
swing back at him. He is Il Padrone.
It was the beginning of another
nervous day for Sinatra’s press agent,
Jim Mahoney. He was worried about
Sinatra’s cold and worried about the
controversial CBS documentary
that, despite Sinatra’s protests and
withdrawal of permission, would be
shown on television in less than two
weeks. The newspapers this morning
were full of hints that Sinatra might
sue the network, and Mahoney’s
phones were ringing without pause,
and now he was plugged into New
York talking to the Daily News’ Kay
Gardella, saying: “...that’s right, Kay...
they made a gentleman’s agreement
to not ask certain questions about
Frank’s private life, and then
SINATRA GETTING READY TO PERFORM IN 1965
Cronkite went right ahead: ‘Frank,
tell me about those associations.’ That
question, Kay — out! That question
should never have been asked....”
On the following Monday, a cloudy
and unseasonably cool California
day, more than one hundred people
gathered inside a white television
studio, an enormous room dominated
by a white stage, white walls, and with
dozens of lights and lamps dangling; it
rather resembled a gigantic operating
room. In this room, within an hour
67
FRANK SINATRA

THE ‘RAT PACK’ RECORDING A FILM SCORE

FOR COME BLOW YOUR HORN IN LA, 1963

Sinatra owns 60 hairpieces, most of them under the care of an old lady
who carries them around in a satchel, earning $400 a week

or so, NBC was scheduled to begin
taping a one-hour show that would
be televised in colour on the night of
November 24 and would highlight, as
much as it could in the limited time,
the 25-year career of Frank Sinatra
as a public entertainer. It would not
attempt to probe, as the forthcoming
CBS Sinatra documentary allegedly
would, that area of Sinatra’s life that
he regards as private. The NBC show
would be mainly an hour of Sinatra
singing some of the hits that carried
him from Hoboken to Hollywood, a
show that would be interrupted only
now and then by a few film clips and
commercials for Budweiser beer.
Prior to his cold, Sinatra had been
very excited about this show; he
saw here an opportunity to appeal
not only to those nostalgic for his
music, but also to communicate his
talent to some rock-and-rollers — in
a sense, he was battling The Beatles.

68
The press releases being prepared
by Mahoney’s agency stressed this,
reading: “If you happen to be tired of
kid singers wearing mops of hair thick
enough to hide a crate of melons...
it should be refreshing to consider
the entertainment value of a video
special titled Sinatra — A Man And
His Music....” But now in this NBC
studio in Los Angeles, there was an
atmosphere of tension because of the
uncertainty of the Sinatra voice.
A few minutes before 11 o’clock,
word spread quickly through the
long corridor into the big studio that
Sinatra was spotted walking through
the parking lot and was on his way,
and was looking fine. There seemed
great relief among the group that was
gathered; but when the lean, sharply
dressed figure of the man got closer,
and closer, they saw to their dismay
that it was not Frank Sinatra. It was
his double. Johnny Delgado.
Five minutes later, the real Frank
Sinatra walked in. His face was pale,
his blue eyes seemed a bit watery.
He had been unable to rid himself of
the cold, but he was going to try to
sing anyway because the schedule
was tight and thousands of dollars
were involved at this moment in
the assembling of the orchestra and
crews and the rental of the studio.
But when Sinatra, on his way to his
small rehearsal room to warm up
his voice, looked into the studio and
saw that the stage and orchestra’s
platform were not close together, as
he had specifically requested, his
lips tightened and he was obviously
very upset. A few moments later,
from his rehearsal room, could
be heard the pounding of his fist
against the top of the piano and the
voice of his accompanist, Bill Miller,
saying, softly, “Try not to upset
yourself, Frank.”
When he strolled into the studio
the musicians all picked up their
instruments and stiffened in their
seats. Sinatra cleared his throat a
few times and then, after rehearsing
a few ballads with the orchestra, he
sang Don’t Worry About Me to his
satisfaction and, being uncertain
of how long his voice could last,
suddenly became impatient.
“Why don’t we tape this mother?”
he called out, looking up toward
the glass booth where the director,
Dwight Hemion, and his staff were
sitting. Their heads seemed to be
down, focusing on the control board.
“Why don’t we tape this mother?”
Sinatra repeated.
The production stage manager,
who stands near the camera wearing
a headset, repeated Sinatra’s words
exactly into his line to the control room:
“Why don’t we tape this mother?”
Hemion did not answer. Possibly his
switch was off. It was hard to know
because of the obscuring reflections
the lights made against the glass booth.
“Why don’t we put on a coat and
tie,” said Sinatra, then wearing a high-
necked yellow pullover, “and tape this....”
Suddenly Hemion’s voice came
over the sound amplifier, very
calmly: “Okay, Frank, would you
mind going back over....”
“Yes, I would mind going back,”
Sinatra snapped. The silence from
Hemion’s end, which lasted a second
or two, was then again interrupted
by Sinatra saying, “When we stop
doing things around here the way
we did them in 1950, maybe we...”
and Sinatra continued to tear into
Hemion, condemning as well
the lack of modern techniques in
putting such shows together; then,
possibly not wanting to use his
voice unnecessarily, he stopped.
And Dwight Hemion, very patient,
so patient and calm that one would
assume he had not heard anything
that Sinatra had just said, outlined the
opening part of the show. And Sinatra
a few minutes later was reading his
opening remarks, words that would
follow Without A Song, off the large
idiot-cards being held near the
camera. Then, this done, he prepared
to do the same thing on camera.
“Frank Sinatra Show, Act I, Page 10,
Take 1,” called a man with a clapboard,
jumping in front of the camera — clap
— then jumping away again.
“Did you ever stop to think,” Sinatra
began, “what the world would be like
without a song?... It would be a pretty
dreary place.... Gives you something
to think about, doesn’t it?...” Sinatra
stopped. “Excuse me,” he said, adding,
“Boy, I need a drink.” They tried it
again. “Frank Sinatra Show, Act I,
Page 10, Take 2,” yelled the jumping
guy with the clapboard.
“Did you ever stop to think what
the world would be like without
a song?...” Frank Sinatra read it
through this time without stopping.
Then he rehearsed a few more
songs, once or twice interrupting
the orchestra when a certain
instrumental sound was not quite
what he wanted. It was hard to tell
how well his voice was going to hold
up, for this was early in the show;
up to this point, however, everybody
in the room seemed pleased,
particularly when he sang an old
favourite written more than 20 years
ago — Nancy, inspired by the first of
Sinatra’s children when she was a
few years old.
69
FRANK SINATRA
If I don’t see her each day I miss
her.... Gee what a thrill each time
I kiss her....
As Sinatra sang these words,
though he has sung them hundreds
and hundreds of times in the past, it
was suddenly obvious to everybody
in the studio that something quite
special must be going on inside
the man, because something quite
special was coming out. He was
singing now, cold or no cold, with
power and warmth, he was letting
himself go, the public arrogance
was gone, the private side was
in this song about the girl who, it
is said, understands him better
than anybody else, and is the only
person in front of whom he can be
unashamedly himself.
What the hell are you doing
up there, Dwight?” Silence from
the control booth. “Got a party or
something going on up there?”
Sinatra stood on the stage, arms
folded, glaring up across the cameras
toward Hemion. Sinatra had sung
Nancy with probably all he had in
his voice on this day. The next few
numbers contained raspy notes, and
twice his voice completely cracked.
But now Hemion was in the control
booth out of communication; then he
was down in the studio walking over
to where Sinatra stood.
A few minutes later they both left
the studio and were on the way up
to the control booth. The tape was
replayed for Sinatra. He watched
five minutes of it before he started
to shake his head. Then he said to
Hemion: “Forget it, just forget it.
You’re wasting your time. What you
got there,” Sinatra said, nodding to
the singing image of himself on the
television screen, “is a man with
70
a cold.” Then he left the control
booth, ordering that the whole day’s
performance be scrubbed and taping
postponed until he recovered.
Soon the word spread like an
epidemic through Sinatra’s staff, then
fanned out through Hollywood, then
across the nation, in the homes of
Frank Sinatra’s parents and his other
relatives and friends in New Jersey.
After spending the week in Palm
Springs, his cold much better, Frank
Sinatra returned to Los Angeles, in
time to see the long-awaited CBS
documentary with his family. At
9pm he drove to the home of his
former wife, Nancy, and had dinner
with her and their two daughters.
Their son, whom they rarely see
these days, was out of town.
The CBS show, narrated by Walter
Cronkite, began at 10pm. A minute
before that, the Sinatra family, having
finished dinner, turned their chairs
around and faced the camera, united
for whatever disaster might follow.
And like so much of Hollywood’s
fear, the apprehension about the
CBS show all proved to be without
foundation. It was a highly flattering
hour that did not deeply probe, as
rumours suggested it would, into
Sinatra’s love life, or the Mafia, or other
areas of his private province. While
the documentary was not authorised,
wrote Jack Gould in the next day’s New
York Times, “it could have been.”
Immediately after the show, the
telephones began to ring throughout
the Sinatra system, conveying words
of joy and relief — it had been a
tedious three weeks, he said, and he
just wanted to go to Las Vegas, let off
some steam. So he hopped in his jet,
soared over the California hills across
the Nevada flats, then over miles and
SINATRA AND SAMMY DAVIS JR., 1965
miles of desert to The Sands and the
Clay-Patterson fight.
The rest of the month was bright
and balmy. The record session had
gone magnificently, the film was
finished, the television shows were
out of the way, and now Sinatra was
in his Ghia driving out to his office
to begin coordinating his latest
projects. He had an engagement at
The Sands, a new spy film called
The Naked Runner, and a couple
more albums to do in the months
ahead. And within a week he would
be 50 years old.
Life is a beautiful thing. As long as
I hold the string, I’d be a silly so-and-
so, If I should ever let go...
Frank Sinatra stopped his car. The
light was red. Pedestrians passed by
his windshield quickly but, as usual,
one did not. It was a girl in her 20s.
She remained at the curb staring at
him. Through the corner of his left
eye he could see her, and he knew,
because it happens almost every
day, that she was thinking, ‘it looks
like him, but is it?’ Just before the
light turned green, Sinatra turned
toward her, looked directly into her
eyes waiting for the reaction he knew
would come. It came and he smiled.
She smiled and he was gone.
Frank Sinatra Has a Cold And Other Essays
by Gay Talese is out now on Penguin
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THE KOREAN WAVE

72
THE KOREAN WAVE

73
THE KOREAN WAVE
B
arcelona 2010. I am
sitting in a café on
the edge of the city.
The piped in music
is interesting. It’s not
Spanish, it’s not even ubiquitous
Euro-pop or saccharine R&B. It’s
Don’t Go Away by the South Korean
girl group Fin.KL.
The young Peruvian waiter
explains this weird cultural
juxtaposition. “One of the staff
here really likes K-pop” he says in
Spanish. “It’s catchy.”
It was not, admittedly, a major
milestone, but it illustrated the
inexorable march of Korean pop
culture around the world. First came
the explosion all across Asia — giant
posters of the singer Rain hanging
from shopping malls in Bangkok,
Korean stars appearing in magazines
in Singapore, sold out stadiums
of K-pop acts in Tokyo, Manila,
Shanghai and Jakarta.
The tail end of the 1990s and the
first years of the ‘noughties’ saw
Korean pop music dominate Asian,
and increasingly, global charts.
The Wondergirls opened for the
Jonas Brothers in the United States
in 2009. Artists such as Rain and
Lee Byung-hun appear in major
Hollywood movies. Korean designers
are profiled in American fashion
magazines. Korean animation is
turning up on TV shows in the United
States, Europe and Asia. And Korean
movies now routinely win awards
in film festivals around the world.
“It’s extraordinary, the pace of
change, especially over the past four
years or so,” says Tyler Brule, editor-
in-chief of Monocle magazine.
“There is a confidence to ‘made in
Korea’ now, that’s fascinating.”
74
It’s hard to believe how far Korean
pop culture has come. Back in the
1990s, the movies shown on Korean
TV were almost all American, the
music was equally divided between
homegrown and Western, and the
television was just dire in general.
When you travelled around Asia, you
would encounter a lot of American
culture, some European and some
Japanese, but nothing from Korea.
Korea was the home of
ship builders, dodgy cars
and blue-suited
salarymen grinding out
six-day work weeks
Korea was known as the home of
discount electronics manufacturers,
ship builders, and dodgy cars.
Korea was a nation of blue-suited
salarymen, grinding out brutal,
six-day workweeks for banks,
businesses, and government
bureaucracies. Korea was
hardworking and shabby, not
a trendsetter, not cutting-edge,
and certainly not sexy.
“Back in the 1990s, Koreans weren’t
really fashionable. Even fashion
editors were more bookish than
stylish,” says Miggi Chi, a Korean
club promoter and former model.
So how did Korea make such a
radical change in just a decade? Rising
affluence shifted the country’s
expectations and aspirations. The
establishment of democracy and
freedom after decades of military rule
allowed people to concentrate on less
serious matters, such as entertainment.
After the 1988 Olympics and
the end of a succession of military
dictatorships, South Koreans
opened up to the world, they began
to travel and study abroad, and,
as the country opened up at home
politically, it also opened up to
media, fashion, and design.
“Everything starting changing
around 2000,” says Chi, “The young
generation has really had an impact
on the design world. Koreans aren't
into the ‘authenticity’ of a culture. We
like new, modern, practical things.
We’re always building new streets,
new buildings, new things.”
One of the first leaders of this
new zeitgeist was Lee Soo-man,
founder of the music company
SM Entertainment. After much
success in folk and rock music in the
1970s, he lived in the United States
for much of the 1980s (studying
engineering, of all things); but, when
he returned to Korea, he had visions
of creating a conveyor belt of slick
pop acts; a Korean Motown.
There were several new pop acts
in the charts in the early 1990s, but
there was no system in place for
creating new stars. Lee’s big change
was to create a pop music factory,
finding talented young people and
giving them all the training they
would need to be successful — how to
sing and dance, how to deal with the
media, even how to act like stars.
SM Entertainment’s first success
was one of their biggest, the five-man
group H.O.T., who made their debut
in 1996. H.O.T. would sell more than
12 million albums in Korea over the
next six years, inspiring millions
of teenagers to scream louder than
anyone thought possible. Soon, H.O.T.
would be followed by an alphabet
THE KOREAN WAVE
soup of pop acts, developed by SM
Entertainment and a host of imitators
– SES, g.o.d, Fin.KL (short for Fine
Killing Liberty, seriously), Baby
V.O.X., 2NE1, JTL, JYJ, and many,
many more.
This conveyor-belt approach
was not without its problems. The
contracts the performers signed
were heavily skewed in favour of
the production houses. In 1999 a
three-sister act called Hans Band
sued their production company,
Yedang Entertainment, claiming
their contract was grossly unfair and
they had only been paid $15,000 — a
fraction of what they were owed —
after two successful albums. Some
claimed the band received welfare
76
payments to make ends meet. After
suits and countersuits, Yedang
agreed to cut two years off the band’s
five-year contract.
Even K-pop’s biggest names were
not free from problems. The biggest
scandal to hit the burgeoning scene
saw three members of the five-man
boy band H.O.T. quit SM Entertainment
in 2001 over their low fees – every time
the band sold one million albums, each
member would only receive $10,000.
“We would complain that we never had
enough money,” ex-H.O.T. singer Tony
An said at the time, “and Lee Soo-man
would say: ‘I even pay for your gas,
what are you complaining about?’”
However, the seamier side of the
K-pop industry did little to stem the
BIGBANG AT A MUSIC AWARD SHOW IN TOKYO
spread of Korean culture around the
globe — the internet was booming,
transforming Korea, a country
with more high-speed broadband
connections than anywhere else in
the world. New fashion designers,
architects and directors were
emerging. And they all had something
in common — the need to succeed
outside of their home country.
“I remember in the mid-1990s,
when there was only one website
that provided just basic English info
on maybe four or five artists,” said
Elsa Rodriguez, founder of the fan
club for Drunken Tiger, one of Korea’s
most respected hip hop groups. “Non-
Koreans listening to Korean music
was a rarity then. I think the internet
:3>8B39736^RTȨ
THE KOREAN WAVE

and the pioneering non-Korean fans

played a huge role in making Korean
music more international.”
The Korean economy was built on
exports, and pop culture would be
no different. For the music industry
in particular, there was a strong
sense that Korea was just too small
to be self-sustaining, and in order
to flourish you needed to find new
markets abroad.
SM Entertainment was one of
the first companies to really push
for international growth, targeting
China and Japan from the beginning.
Indeed, the very term ‘Korean Wave’
was coined at a H.O.T. concert in
China in 1999. Another SM star, Boa,
was trained in Japan from a very
young age, and became a big star
there before succeeding in Korea.
“It’s the total package of it,” says THE WONDER GIRLS (ABOVE) AND RAIN
(BELOW) HAVE STARTED PERFORMING TO
Brule. “The sexiness of the rawness FANS OUTSIDE OF ASIA IN EUROPE AND
THE UNITED STATES
of the presentation. If you look at
K-pop videos on YouTube, they’re
getting their numbers from around
the world, not just Asia, and not just
the Korean diaspora.”
Helping K-pop grow was not just
an improved Korean sense of style,
though – the music got better, too.
Throughout the period, Korean
producers tried to find the hottest
trends and newest ideas and give
them a local twist.
“The scene is very competitive,”
says Jimmy Jung, president of
JYP Entertainment, one of Korea’s
biggest music companies. “JY [the
company founder] has written for
top American acts, but to do so,
you have to be able to compete at
that level.” ideas faster than ever.” The internet to outright theft face an entire planet
“The internet helped, too,” Jung also helped cut down on the once- of watchful eyes and ears. It is, as one
added, “with YouTube and other troublesome problem of plagiarism, as Korean producer said, full of “psycho
channels helping to spread new songwriters who go beyond inspiration ‘netizens’ acting like [they are in] CSI”.

78
THE KOREAN WAVE

“Thanks to YouTube, going viral
has become vital in putting a local act
on the global map,” says Bernie Cho,
founder of DFSB Kollective, an online
distributor. “The fact the top K-pop
fan sites overseas attract more users
and generate more traffic that the
top Korean music portals in Korea is
unexpected, and proof that K-pop has
international appeal.”
Korea has essentially provided a
template for modern Asian glamour.
Its stars are glossy lipped and
porcelain smooth. A writer in a Thai
newspaper described the genre’s
calling card as “flawless, surgically
perfect cuteness”.
Another example of the appeal of
Korean culture came from television;
in particular dramas. In the 1990s,
Korean TV programmes were mostly
filler for Asian cable TV channels as
they were cheaper than American
or Japanese content. But gradually
they built an audience. And then
came Winter Sonata and Jewel In The
Palace, two incredibly huge hits in
Japan and around Asia, creating fans
of Korean culture around Asia, and as
far afield as Iran and Egypt, boosting
tourism, and transforming the image
of Korea. It was truly a phenomenon.
In Asia, it is K-pop and TV dramas
that lead the way. But in the West,
Korea’s more challenging movies
and alternative music has attracted
the most interest.
Park Chan-wook made the biggest
splash, when his over-the-top
revenge movie, Oldboy, won the
Grand Prix prize at Cannes in 2004.
But other directors have also done
well in film festivals and on the
art-house circuit around the world.
Kim Ki-duk was known as the bad
boy of Korean cinema, but he is most
famous in the West for his meditative
allegory Spring, Summer, Fall,
Winter… and Spring.
Lee Chang-dong is the most literary
of Korea’s directors, and the release of
his films Secret Sunshine and Poetry
in the United States last year saw
them appear on many critics’ best-of-
the-year lists (Sunshine also earned
Jeon Do-yeon the top actress prize
at Cannes in 2007). Kim Jee-woon is
a master of genre films, each movie
seemingly tackling a new form with
flair and creativity; his take on the

Mark Russell is a journalist, producer, and the author of Pop Goes Korea:
Behind the Revolution in Movies, Music and Internet Culture. He also
runs the music blog the Korea Gig Guide (www.koreagigguide.com).

THE NINE-MEMBER BAND SUPER JUNIOR PERFORM IN TAIPEI

80
spaghetti western, The Good, The
Bad, The Weird, had some of the most
kinetic action sequences ever seen in
Korean cinema.
And perhaps the most talented is
Bong Joon-ho, who is able to combine
smarts and fun in a truly unique way,
from his murder mystery Memories
of Murder, to his big-budget monster
movie The Host, to the moody
mystery Mother.
Yet the West’s focus on Korea’s
leftfield cinema is slightly missing
the point. It is the middle-of-the-
road pop acts that have had the
biggest impact globally.
Companies such as SM
Entertainment have figured out
how to develop and promote acts
that cross through cultural and
language barriers. Cynics believe
the whole K-pop phenomenon is
nothing more than another Korean
export, as commoditised as cars or
construction. They may have a point:
none of the K-pop acts are musically
that inventive yet try telling that to
the generation of Asian teenagers
who has grown up idolising the likes
of Rain or Boa.
Subsequent generations seem
equally enthused. Korean girl groups
Kara and Girls Generation were co-
named as top rookies at the Recording
Industry Association of Japan’s Gold
Disc Awards in January, a sign that
the Asian obsession with Korean
music shows no sign of abating.
What’s more it may even be
gaining credibility, with Korean rock
bands featuring at SXSW in Austin,
Texas, Canada Music Week, and the
legendary Coachella.
“Spring 2011 is in many ways a
watershed moment,” says DFSB’s
Cho. “Thanks to the convergence
of iTunes selling Korean music
tracks worldwide, YouTube exposing
Korean music videos worldwide, and
social media tools like Twitter and
Facebook connecting Korean music
fans worldwide, Korean acts are not
only running up the charts across
Asia, but also stepping onto major
music festival stages beyond Asia.”
Mark Russell is a writer who specialises in
Asian culture. His book, Pop Goes Korea,
explore the rise of Korean pop culture.
81
82
 MELODY MAKER

MELODY
MAKER
GILLES PETERSON IS THE MOST
FAMOUS DJ YOU HAVE NEVER HEARD
OF. ROBIN DENSELOW TALKS TO THE
ULTIMATE MUSICAL TASTEMAKER

83
MELODY MAKER
B
rownswood Road
doesn’t look a like
centre for cutting edge
music. It’s a pleasant if
featureless residential
street in north London, a few hundred
yards from the underground station
named after Arsenal football team,
whose stadium is close by. But for
music fans around the world who
listen to Brownswood Recordings
or the Brownswood Basement radio
shows, this street has an historic
importance. For hidden away behind
a little hedge, on the ground and
basement floors of one of the houses,
are the office and studios of Gilles
Peterson, one of the most influential
and experimental tastemakers in the
worldwide music industry.
He’s a broadcaster who is heard
around the world, a DJ who can pack
clubs or festivals from London to
Tokyo and New York, or from Rio de
Janeiro to Almaty in Kazakhstan
(which he describes as “a brilliant
city!”). He’s a record collector, and
a record company boss whose aim
has been to provide a platform either
for experimental new music, or for
classic old recordings that might
otherwise be ignored.
Above all, he’s an enthusiast, with
wildly eclectic musical interests,
from jazz and funk to soul, hip
hop, Latin and African styles and
84
electronica, and he’s constantly
expanding his range. When I visited,
he was sitting in the flat, surrounded
by cardboard boxes packed with
vinyl albums and new CDs. This is
where he used to live until 10 years
ago, but the number of records he had
collected became so great that he and
his family were forced to move out.
The home he shares with his wife and
two children is just over a mile away,
but this is where he works, listens to
music, and records his shows.
He apologised for the mess. The
studio is about to be expanded so
that he can record other artists here,
and the builders are about to move
in. Some of his 30,000 albums have
already been moved into storage, but
those that remain provide a reminder
of the eclectic styles he champions.
There are jazz albums by the great
saxophonist Pharoah Sanders, and
African albums include recordings
by the Ghanaian Afro-beat exponent,
Ebo Taylor. I picked up a new
recording of his classic song Love
And Death, but Peterson directed me
to the original vinyl version, recorded
in the 1980s. “I just got this and it cost
me $650. I still love records. There’s
always something new.”
Across the room are reminders of
his other musical interests. There
are posters of his Worldwide Music
Awards, an annual event in London.
I had to move house
when my collection of
records got too big
“The new thing for me is still
absolutely crucial and excites me,”
said Peterson. “The new electronica
scene is having a great time at the
moment. But then there’s the new
world music, which is being accepted
by a wider audience, and that’s a
good thing. People are more open to
everything now”.
The boxes of CDs on the floor
provide examples of his own global
experiments. There’s Gilles Peterson
Presents Havana Cultura, an album
released last year that he produced in
Cuba with help from the great Cuban
jazz pianist Roberto Fonseca. The
aim, he said, was to “celebrate the new
generation of artists from Cuba. So
this is me saying ‘OK, you had Buena
Vista Social Club, which was old
people, and we want to do something
to celebrate the youth’.”
There’s the latest release on his
Brownswood Recordings label, an
experimental blend of British and
African styles, by the Owiny Sigoma
Band, with Damon Albarn playing
keyboards on a couple of tracks.
This, said Peterson, is exactly
the sort of new music he likes to
discover and promote. The project
started when Jesse Hackett and other
members of the British electronic
hip hop band Elmore Judd went to
Kenya to record with local traditional
musicians, including Joseph
 PETERSON AT HIS
HOME IN NORTH
LONDON WHERE
HE RECORDS RADIO
SHOWS, PREPARES
FOR DJ SETS AND
STORES HIS GROW-
ING RECORD
COLLECTION

85
MELODY MAKER
Nyamungu, a celebrated exponent
of the nyatiti, eight-stringed lyre.
Judd played the track they recorded
on Gilles’ BBC Radio 1 show and he
was delighted. “I thought ’this is
brilliant’ — so I sent them back there
to record a full album. It’s good,
subtle, fresh and exactly the ‘world
music’ that I like to discover because
it’s respectful to the heritage but has
a certain attitude. It’s a weird collage,
with a great groove and a few bits
that sound like New York disco!”
In an age when music is
increasingly compartmentalised,
and divided into different categories,
Peterson breaks down barriers. He
plays the music that he loves both on
stage as a DJ, and on the radio, and at
the moment it’s the broadcasts that he
enjoys most. He has a regular weekly
show on BBC Radio 1, broadcast live
in the early hours of the morning but
with “95 per cent of listeners hearing
it later online – the audience figures
are very high”. And then there are
programmes which are recorded in
his Brownswood basement studio,
and syndicated around the world to ‘a
dozen or more stations’.
His fusion of different styles can
be heard in Australia, New Zealand,
Serbia and on Radio Nova in Paris,
“the station that inspired me most
In an age where music is increasingly compartmentalised, Peterson breaks
down barriers. He plays the music he loves both on stage as a DJ and on the
radio; with his shows being broadcast everywhere from Serbia and France to
New Zealand, Australia and Japan
86
PETERSON: FOCUSED
in the early days – they played this
melange, and a lot of different black
styles”. He’s particularly pleased that
he is heard in Japan, on the Tokyo
commercial station J-Wave. “They
asked me to do a 15-minute segment
which appears in a programme
called Rendezvous In The Afternoon ,
which is really a middle-of-the-road
show for Japanese housewives. But
I can play the music I want — Ebo
Taylor or James Blake — and it’s still
going, every day, after seven years.
It’s surreal.”
As for his DJ work, he’s currently
taking a four-month break, as
he prepares to run in the London
marathon, though he will be back
onstage behind the turntables later
in the year. “This is the first time I’ve
stopped in 26 years,” he says. “I’ve
tried to lead a healthy life and carry
on DJing, and doing the nightlife stuff,
and it’s very hard. It takes a strong
person to do the job and just drink
water and go for a run in the morning!
After not DJing for a while I’m really
hungry to do it again.”
As a DJ, he has played just about
everywhere, from the London clubs
where he started out, and “got a
reputation as the kid who played
jazz and jazz-funk records”, through
to venues and festivals around the
world. He says that he was unlike
many DJs because “I just play what
I feel. Lots of DJs have a set, like a
band would have a set, and they
know what they are going to play
from beginning to end. But I’m from
the old DJ ethos – I may go along
with 500 records and see what I feel
like playing.” So do his audiences
always approve? “Well, I made a
terrible mistake the first time I went
to Brazil, and just played Brazilian
music – and they didn’t want that.
They didn’t want to listen to Jorge
Ben. They’d already heard him, so
that was a bit weird!”
He’s also different from many
contemporary DJs because he
doesn’t compose his own music,
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unlike those “young DJs who are
computer-led and start DJing as an
alternative to creating a band. So
when they are DJing, they perform
the music that they have created,
but I’m doing it the old way, just
playing records and other people’s
music. And that’s becoming a skill
that people want. I don’t know how
many DJs exist today who can do a
six-hour set and take you from Fela
Kuti to Kanye West.”
Gilles Peterson’s career started in
humble style, in the south London
suburb of Sutton. His mum was
French and his dad a Swiss engineer
“who travelled a lot, so I must have
got the love of travelling from him”.
At school, in the early 1980s, he
defied the school fashion for heavy
metal music by becoming a soul and
jazz-funk fan. “So I was listening
88
to Cameo and Maze and Bobby
Caldwell. I only survived at school
because I was in the rugby team, or
I’d have been beaten up regularly!
I was good at rugby and that was
the balance to being what was
considered to be a camp soul boy.”
He started buying imported
American soul records in Sutton
market, and at the age of 15 set up his
own pirate radio station, recording
shows in a shed in his back garden,
which were broadcast from the hills
of Epsom Downs, with help from his
dad. “We’d put up an antenna and
connect it to a car battery. We took
calls from listeners in a phone box.”
As an aspiring DJ, he also made
money from weddings and bar
mitzvahs, and his activities came to
the attention of the main pirate radio
stations operating in London. Radio
Invicta, then the largest pirate black
music station, contacted him to ask
if they could borrow his transmitter,
as they’d been “busted” by the police,
“and I said ‘yes, but only if you give
me a show on the station’, and that’s
how I got onto Radio Invicta”. He
travelled across London, helping to
put up aerials on tower blocks, from
where the illegal broadcasts were
transmitted. It was “an exciting time”.
He kept working as a DJ at night,
while expanding into other sides of
the music business. In 1985 he was
asked to make his first compilation
album “and since then I’ve done over
100, including jazz albums for Blue
Note. I helped to open jazz up for a
younger generation”.
He also moved into legal
broadcasting, with stations like Kiss
FM, and became involved in a series

of record companies, co-founding the
Acid Jazz label, which specialised in
jazz-funk styles “and for two years
I put every penny I earned DJing —
which was not a lot — into the label,
and not getting many results, though
the scene I was part of was growing.”
In 1990 he moved on, invited by
Phonogram, a major record company,
to start his own label, Talkin’ Loud.
It was successful, with artists that
included Courtney Pine, Incognito
and Mercury-prize winner Roni Size,
but Peterson was uneasy about the
experience. “It was a brutal world.
PHOTOGRAPHS: KEVIN CUMMINS
What was more important to those
people? Selling an extra million copies
of Elton John, or breaking new artists?
It was selling more Elton Johns.”
So in 1999 he quit, after being
invited to join BBC Radio 1, and he
now began to make use of his power
PETERSON WITH SOME OF HIS THIRTY THOUSAND ALBUMS
as a celebrity DJ. “I realised that my
name could sell records,” he said, and
he began releasing compilations such
as Gilles Peterson In Brazil and Gilles
Peterson In Africa.
So what will he do next, once he has
got fit and run the London marathon?
He is launching a charity, the Steve
Reid Foundation, named after the
American jazz drummer, a close
friend who died of cancer last year,
and hopes to help musicians to pay for
medical treatment. To raise money
he plans to run more marathons, in
Sydney, Tokyo, Paris and New York,
and follow each one with a “marathon,
six-hour DJ set, because that’s when
I’m at my best. I need a great sound
system and a great environment”.
Then there’s the annual
summer festival that he runs in an
amphitheatre at Sète, in southern
PETERSON’S SETS VEER FROM FELA KUTI TO KANYE
France, where his DJ sets will be
mixed with live performances from
the likes of Brazilian star Seu Jorge.
And there will be a return to Cuba
to record a solo album with Roberto
Fonseca, and the next Havana
Cultura album. This one will be
more experimental as he’ll be joined
by Mala, who specialises in the
electronic music style, dubstep.
“And that’s important for me. I could
play in the same clubs, but that gets
boring. It’s good to do different things,
visit new places. I’m a fan of Mala and
dubstep, and Roberto Fonseca is an
amazing musician. So putting them
together, with me in the middle, that’s
what makes my life worth living”.
Robin Denselow is a broadcaster for the BBC
and contributes regularly to the Guardian.
89
90
BERLIN ELECTRONICA

TEXT BY ADAM KENNEDY

ILLUSTRATIONS BY KAREN KURYCKI

N
ovember 9, 1989.
An historic date
forever etched
on Berlin's
consciousness.
The
The day when the German capital’s
most controversial 27 miles of bricks
and mortar, the Berlin Wall, fi nally
fell. After days of civil unrest, it was
a pivotal point in communist Eastern
Europe's dissolution.
For electronic music, that freezing
cold November day represented
the kick-off point for a bloodless
revolution all of its own. The once-
compartmentalised city was united,
newfound freedom syphoned into a
huge outpouring of celebratory energy.
Berlin's harsh industrial cityscape was
about to hum to the strains of an ever-
mutating mechanical animal: techno.
BERLIN ELECTRONICA
Paul van Dyk, arguably Germany’s
most successful DJ export,
remembers the time well. “I went to
the wall numerous times. My mum
would show me the Brandenburg Gate
on the other side, like, ‘this is where
we want to go, this is where freedom
is’. People smuggled records and
magazines over the border.
“My grandma bought me my
very first record, Organisation by
[British electronic rockers] OMD, and
smuggled it into East Germany. There
was a big black market. An album sold
for 500 East German marks.”
Raised by his single mother in East
Berlin, the pair escaped to Hamburg
shortly before the wall was toppled.
Van Dyk returned soon afterward.
“There was no scene in East Berlin.
People like me could listen to West
Berlin radio stations. It was illegal,
but there were specialist shows so
we got well educated about music
without ever having a chance of
going to the clubs.”
In cosmopolitan West Berlin,
meanwhile, the seeds were also sown
for a soon-to-blossom germination.
Enter charismatic entrepreneurial
figure Dimitri Hegemann, who would
later found Berlin's most celebrated
club (and label), Tresor.
“I had a small label, Interfisch,” he
explains. “I was already connected to
Detroit before the wall came down.
These guys played a different type of
house music. They called it techno.
I liked it, but nobody really wanted to
buy it. There was this need for a club
91
BERLIN ELECTRONICA
BERLIN DOMINATES EUROPE’S CLUB SCENE
that played more electronic music, so
I started the UFO Club. It was illegal
but we just did it.”
By Hegemann's own admission,
the scale was small. UFO opened in
1988 beneath a former shoemaker's
store he transformed into a Dadaist
speakeasy. The first edition of Love
Parade, Berlin’s legendary electronic
music festival, was similarly
modest. Fast forward a decade and
Love Parade would attract 1.5 million
revellers. Its maiden 1989 outing
saw founder Matthias Roeingh, aka
Berlin DJ Dr Motte, joined by just
150 associates on their hometown's
streets. That was July. Four short
months later, everything changed.
“Until the day it happened, on
November 9, nobody expected
it,” says van Dyk. “When the wall
came down there was so much free
spirit that led to this electronic
music explosion. That energy was
let loose in a very positive way. A
lot of companies went bankrupt in
East Berlin, so there were empty
buildings. Nobody really knew what
to do with them. People had the idea
of putting up a PA and creating a
club. This is how it all started.”
92
“As soon as the east was open, it
exploded into a big youth movement,
especially among people from the
east,” agrees Tobias Rapp, pop music
editor of Germany’s best-selling
news magazine Der Spiegel and
author the of book Lost And Sound:
Berlin, Techno And The EasyJet Set .
“I moved to Berlin in June 1990 and
became part of the squatter scene in
the east. The authorities didn't really
know what was going on. There
We used a building on
the minefields in the
middle of the two walls.
It had not been used
since 1945
were lots of illegal clubs and raves.
We danced in lots of places and
made them ours, which was very
important for Berlin, a city where
so many bloody chapters of history
were written. It changed the city. In
retrospect, it was a celebration of
freedom. While you're in it, you don't
think that way; you were looking for
the next party, the next rush.”
“The atmosphere was incredible,”
Hegemann enthuses. “The kids in
East Berlin celebrated their new
freedom and we were happy. But
nobody really understood what
was going on.”
Following a transitional year
between the wall's demise and
Germany's full reunification on
October 3, 1990, Tresor opened.
Beginning life in March 1991
near the Potsdamer Platz public
square, Hegemann's new baby re-
appropriated a former bank vault
beneath the disused Wertheim
department store, once the largest
of its kind in Europe.
“A big problem in West Berlin
was space,” he says. “Then the wall
came down. The UFO Club was gone
because it was too noisy; it was
in a normal house. We checked
this building in the east, on the
minefields, between the two famous
walls. It had not been used since
1945. We discovered this wooden
door, and stairs and then this vault.
It was incredible. It was a Jewish
bank, I found out later, from 1926. It
was in the heart of the city, but there
was nothing. It was dark, maybe one
lamp, and people could not find it,
there were no buses. But Tresor was a
very big success. The first night was
completely busy, 2,000 people, and
they didn't stop partying.”
The music was raw and very
minimal; attributes mirrored in the
venue itself. “It was like walking
through a dead zone, nothingness,
until we came upon a few crumbling
buildings and walked inside one,”
says pioneering Canadian DJ and
producer Richie Hawtin. “A small
dirty bar, dark steps leading down
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BERLIN ELECTRONICA
into an old, dark bank vault full of
sweat-soaked people dancing to
pummelling techno, lit only by one
flashing strobe light. That was my
fi rst experience at Tresor.”
Mike Andrawis, a London-
based film-maker behind 2004
documentary Tresor Berlin: The
Vault And The Electronic Frontier,
remembers the club's infancy fondly.
“I was only the second British
person to visit Tresor, in 1991. I had
a German girlfriend and we decided
to drive to Berlin. Even getting
there was eventful; we nearly got
killed on the autobahn because my
accelerator cable broke.
“We walked down this street,
Leipziger Strasse, that just had
cobbles, so it was obvious we'd
TRESOR
TRESORNIGHTCLUB,
ON ITS CLOSING
CIRCANIGHT
2005 IN 2005
94
crossed the rubicon and were in
East Germany, even though the
wall was down. Tresor had only
been open for a month by then.
There was water all over the floor
and they were playing this really
sharp, aggressive music, bouncing
off concrete walls.
“You felt part of something very new,
but you couldn't work out what it was.
In a way I felt isolated, standing there
in this bunker, water running down the
walls and atonal noise being thrown
at me. It was unsettling, but great to
experience. There were hundreds of
people there. Later, in 1992 and 1993,
the whole street was packed.”
“Dimitri from Tresor is one of the
most important figures in shaping
what we think of Berlin today,” says
Hawtin. “Nearly all the successful
clubs today are run by people who
were spending most of their waking
moments at Tresor in the early 1990s.
The spirit lives through them and all
of us who were there.”
Andrawis agrees: “Tresor meant
a lot to a lot of people. Not only my
generation, but several generations
afterward. The techno scene unified
German youth in a way even punk
rock didn't. Tresor is one of the most
important clubs in history.”
Thrown into a post-wall melting
pot, Berlin's once-separated youth
could easily have slid into divided
factions. The loved-up vibe of the
burgeoning Berlin scene swiftly
smoothed over potential tensions,
a coalescing common bond.
 “It didn't really matter what you
looked like; poor, rich, what colour
your skin was, nobody cared,” says
van Dyk. “All that mattered was
that you were a respectful, tolerant
person, then you could feel free to
enjoy yourself. Whenever you found
someone who loved the music, you
were instantly friends. Music was
the uniting tool.”
And though many superstar
DJs emerged from Berlin, van Dyk
recalls those early nights being
resolutely ego-free. “The first time
I ever played in front of people was
in Tresor in March 1991. The DJ
booth was outside the dance floor,
actually in the walkway. It was all
about the music. Nobody really
cared what the DJ looked like.”
“DJs didn't matter to me that
much back then,” Rapp concurs.
He saw Berlin's development from
a different perspective. “In the
squatter scene, parties were quite
small, a couple of hundred people.
So we were astonished how many
people showed up for Love Parade.
We weren't used to those numbers.”
The Love Parade ballooned into
a monster that outgrew any one
DJ or promoter, an annual symbol
of Berlin's fertile underground
going overground in flamboyant
fashion. As the scene multiplied, the
inspiration soon became the inspired.

It didn’t matter what you looked like, where you were from; poor rich,
what colour your skin was, nobody cared

US HOUSE LEGEND MARSHALL JEFFERSON

95
BERLIN ELECTRONICA
The self same North American DJs
whose creations were thumping
through Berlin's sound systems
began to flood across the Atlantic
in person, notably from techno
motherland Detroit, investigating
a flourishing scene that made them
almost overnight figureheads.
“It grew over the period of a year or
year and a half,” van Dyk says. “There
was a big international exchange that
brought an extra energy push. These
guys were in Detroit doing their own
thing, then they were suddenly huge
stars on the other side of the world.
The importance of Berlin as a centre
for electronic music was established.”
This brave new world both
befuddled and bewitched US DJs who
arrived, many of whom would settle
permanently in the German capital.
“We started an alliance with
Detroit: Underground Resistance,
Jeff Mills, Blake Baxter, Derrick
May. We had many DJs from Detroit
over. Some had never been outside
of America before,” Hegemann says.
“They came here, like ‘Berlin? Are
there still Nazis?’ They had no idea!”
“The fi rst time I went was the
autumn of 1991,” says Hawtin. “I
remember driving east, the roads
getting worse, the buildings and sky
getting greyer. The old watchtowers
outside Berlin crumbling and
decayed. The empty streets of
Alexanderplatz, close to where I live
now, wide avenues, old buildings
and grey, grey, grey, except for 1970s
neon. It was strange. Those early
trips grabbed my imagination.
“The vibe reminded me a lot of
Detroit. There was something alien,
but at the same time comfortable.
Detroit is a city that had its core
ripped out by decades of decay, but
96
still
has an
incredibly
strong spirit
of survival
and passion
because of
the people who
remain. Berlin
and Detroit
always had
an ‘anything’s
possible’
feeling.”
The Love Parade was consigned world; it’s the centre of
to history after 21 deaths at the 2010 the universe for our scene.”
event. Tresor no longer stands at “It was a cultural revolution that
its original location, shut in 2005 is bigger than ever 20 years later,”
before re-emerging two years later van Dyk says. “As an artist, it’s the
on Köpenickerstrasse. Yet Berlin best thing in the world if you have
retains its reputation as the party the chance to give your little touch
capital of Europe. to what happens. Electronic music is
“Berlin is still incredibly vibrant,” the biggest youth culture in the world.
Hawtin says. “I don’t know another Everywhere, you find people loving
city in the world that has so much this music. That’s really special.”
going on within the club and
electronic music scene. Berlin was
a breath of fresh air for me. It still is; Adam Kennedy is a music writer based in
that’s why people are still coming. London. He has written for the BBC,
Berlin is unlike any other city in the Arena, the Guardian and NME
ROLLING STONE

ONCE A COUNTERCULTURE MAINSTAY, ROLLING STONE LOST ITS MOJO YEARS AGO.
RICHARD LUCK CHARTS THE DECLINE OF A ROCK ‘N’ ROLL INSTITUTION

98
 We take all kind of pills, that give us all kind of thrills/But the thrill we’ve never
known/Is the thrill that’ll getcha/When you get your picture on the cover of the
Rolling Stone/Wanna see my picture on the cover/Rolling Stone — wanna buy five
copies for my mother/Wanna see my smiling face/On the cover of the Rolling Stone.”
— On The Cover Of The Rolling Stone, Dr Hook & The Medicine Show

T
here was a time when
appearing on the
cover of Rolling Stone
magazine was the
equivalent of walking
on the moon. By far the biggest fish
in the musical periodical pond, the
publication launched for next to
nothing by Jann Wenner in the late
1960s dominated popular culture
throughout the 1970s. To this day,
it still maintains a hold on what’s
hip and happening in the realms of
music, movies, even politics — a young
guy called Barack Obama was very
pleased when the magazine decide to
endorse his presidential campaign.
There was an age, however, when
the magazine didn’t just support
politicians — it helped set the
nation’s agenda. “Rolling Stone was
as much a part of 1970s America as
Nixon and the Vietnam War,”
remembers Loaded founder James
Brown. “But no sooner did it have the
future of the US in its hands, than it
disappeared up its own backside.”
“I launched the magazine in 1967
with next to nothing,” explains
Jann Wenner, the man who is
to Rolling Stone what Richard
Branson is to Virgin. In fact it
was a sizeable injection of cash
from his future in-laws that made
Rolling Stone possible — the title
coming from a Muddy Waters song.
Originally published in the form
of a newspaper, it would take a
while for the San Francisco-based
ROLLING STONE
publication to find an audience.
By the early 1970s, however,
what began life as a hobby was
becoming very big business indeed.
As Wenner continues, “Anyone
who was anyone seemed to want
to write or work for Rolling Stone.
Hunter Thompson, [ Basic Instinct
screenwriter] Joe Eszterhas,
[M*A*S*H director] Robert Altman
— we were inundated with interest
from the hottest names of the day.”
Of the impressive list of
contributors, Dr Hunter S Thompson’s
name stood out. The proud Southern
son who’d become a big deal on the
back of writing about Sonny Barger
and his Hells Angels, Thompson
introduced himself to the Rolling
Stone editorial team in the 1967.
Arriving at the magazine’s offices
with a six-pack in one hand and
a cigarette holder in the other,
Thompson announced that he was
about to become the mayor of Aspen,
Colorado. As it turned out, the man
100
who would introduce the world to
‘Gonzo journalism’ narrowly missed
out on claiming this honour. Politics’
loss was to prove Rolling Stone’s gain,
however. Hired by another magazine
to cover the Mint 400 off road race
in Nevada, Thompson contacted
Wenner with an eye to writing a piece
that would lay waste to the smug
self-satisfaction of Nixon’s America.
Needless to say, the editor took great
pleasure in publishing the essays
that’d become the groundbreaking
treatise Fear & Loathing In Las Vegas.
And while Thompson set about
redefining journalism, Wenner,
Ben Fong-Torres and friends made
Rolling Stone the only critical
voice that mattered in the realm of
American music.
“There’d been music magazines
before Rolling Stone,” explains
Cameron Crowe, the movie director
who got his first taste of fame
writing for Wenner’s publication
while still in his mid-teens. “What
ROLLING STONE’S JANN WENNER, 1978
was special about Rolling Stone was
that, whatever appeared within its
pages became America’s gospel. A
hundred papers could write good
things about your band but it didn’t
mean squat until Rolling Stone had
given you its blessing.”
Crowe would later celebrate his
younger days with the magazine
in Almost Famous, a feature film
in which the 15-year-old writer
(reinterpreted by Spun star Patrick
Fugit) goes on tour with up-and-
coming rock combo Stillwater.
“Virtually everything that happens
in Almost Famous happened to me at
one time or another during my career
as a music journalist,” continues the
man behind such hits as Vanilla Sky
and Elizabethtown.
“The egos, the groupies, the
friendship with [ace music writer]
Lester Bangs, the longing and the
heartbreak — it’s all real. Even the near
death experience is real. I think I was
all of 16 when I found myself in a light
HUNTER S THOMPSON IN HIS COLORADO HOME

101

Rolling Stone had a hard time admitting that
anything after the early 1970s was any good. It
made it seem like a boring ‘dad’s’ mag
aircraft with the Allman Brothers
convinced that the end was nigh.
Fortunately it wasn’t but I had to put
that incident in the film, as amazing
and unreal as it might have seemed.”
And while Crowe was almost
coming a cropper, Rolling Stone was
reshaping the possibilities of what a
music magazine could be.
“We had real power for a while,”
remembers Wenner. “Hunter
Thompson’s Fear & Loathing On
The Campaign Trail was amongst
the most urgent political writing
to come out of this country. Hunter
got right under the skin of Nixon
and his cronies. And he couldn’t
have done more to get behind, who
Hunter believed to be the only honest
politician up to that point. Because
NIXON AND THOMPSON
WERE POLAR OPPOSITES
if that wasn’t enough, the day after
Hunter heard Jimmy Carter speaking
at a lunchtime meeting in 1976, there
was no doubt that we’d be endorsing
the Democrat candidate come the
next election. We even put it on the
front cover. I can’t think of many
other music magazines that would
not only deem endorsing a candidate
an important enough story to appear
on their cover, but would believe that
what it had to say might be sufficient
to help its choice make it all the way
to the Oval Office.”
No sooner was James Earl Carter Jr
in the White House than Rolling Stone
seemed to lose some of its influence.
A large part of the problem was that
Hunter Thompson, having for so long
revelled in the position of, started to
ROLLING STONE
believe the many wonderful things
that had been written about him.
The very definition of a functional
alcoholic, Thompson memorably
fouled up when he and Ralph
Steadman — the Welsh cartoonist
responsible for Fear & Loathing In Las
Vegas’s crazed illustrations — were
sent to Zaire to cover the Ali/Foreman
Rumble In The Jungle.
Up until this point, Thompson had
enjoyed great success using events
such as the Kentucky Derby and the
Mint 400 to comment upon the state
of 1970s America in typical ascerbic
style. When dispatched to Kinshasa,
however, Thompson lost the plot. He
decided to spend an evening in the
swimming pool rather than attending
what would become the defining fight
of Muhammad Ali’s career.
“That was a strange night,” recalls
Ralph Steadman, who’d remain a
close friend of Thompson’s up until the
writer’s untimely death.
“There we were, in Africa with the
fight of the era about to take place, and
Hunter insisted on swimming laps and
listening to the fight on a battered old
radio rather than going to the stadium
— I think he even gave our tickets
away which was stupid because they
were worth a fortune. Naturally I tried
to get him out of his trunks but when
Hunter sets his mind to something,
he’s not quick to change his mind.”
And while its greatest writer was
behaving like a spoilt child so Rolling
Stone began to over-indulge itself.
“When Rolling Stone was launched,
music was enjoying a real golden
age,” explains James Brown, now
editor of sabotagetimes.com.
“You had the Laurel Canyon scene
with Fleetwood Mac and Crosby, Stills
& Nash. You had The Who at the peak
103
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of their powers, The Rolling Stones
were recording their best records,
Led Zeppelin — four blokes from
Birmingham — had just conquered
the world. It was a truly amazing era.
The only problem with all of this was
that Rolling Stone had a hard time
acknowledging what came afterwards
as anything other than a pale imitation
of the late 1960s and early ‘70s. It was
like your older brother who keeps telling
you the music of today isn’t a patch on
the stuff he grew up listening too.”
Of course, it’s easy to understand
why Wenner and his team had such
a hard time bidding goodbye to that
age — periods like that come along
so infrequently. But their refusal to
embrace anything after, say, 1975
made Rolling Stone seem like a
boring ‘dads’ mag.”
With the new movements Rolling
Stone scorned including both punk
and disco, the magazine had its
fingers a long way from the pulse
come the early 1980s, the time when a
little something started coming out of
the New York projects called hip hop.
“Rolling Stone completely missed
the boat on rap and hip hop,” says
Angus Batey, the author of the
acclaimed Beastie Boys biography
Rhymin’ & Stealin’.
“It was a huge mistake. MTV had
also refused to embrace rap — when
Live Aid aired on MTV in 1985, Run
DMC were the only rap act on the
bill and they had their performance
entirely cut. So Rolling Stone, having
for years seemed daring and anti-
establishment, now seemed like it was
owned and run by ‘The Man’.
“They came around eventually.
MTV did, too — Yo! MTV Raps was the
station’s biggest show for ages, with
the genre too big to ignore.”
CAMERON CROWE WENT ON TO
BECOME A SUCCESSFUL DIRECTOR
But while MTV had always seemed
a bit out-of-step, it wasn’t hurt by
changing face. Rolling Stone, though,
had a hard time living down its
failure to recognise a new musical
phenomenon.
From hip style bible to safe, 1970s
obsessed music mag, it would be
wrong to suggest that Rolling Stone
completely fell off the cultural radar.
When Elton John decided to come
clean about his colourful personal life
in the late 1980s, it was Wenner who
took his call.
And when Hunter S Thompson
decided to ditch the excess and
remind the world that he was a writer
without equal, it was through articles
in Rolling Stone that he was to reclaim
lost ground. As Wenner explains,
“Hunter hated people talking about
him as yesterday’s man. I just think
that, after the heady 1970s, he had
a hard time finding things to write
about in the Reagan era — I think he
found it as safe and stultifying as the
ROLLING STONE
1950s. But Clinton and the Lewinsky
scandal and the election of George W
Bush — those issues had real meat on
the bone and Hunter didn’t disappoint.
“Do I think Rolling Stone misses
Hunter today? [Thompson committed
suicide in 2005, aged 67] Of course,
how could we not? And what do I miss
most about him? Everything. I miss
everything about Hunter.”
Even before Thompson died,
his superb late era articles were
insufficient to return Rolling Stone
to its previous place as the go-to
magazine for music fans. Still
published by Wenner, the little
magazine that could has for a long
time come on like the corporate
colossus that did.
It might still conduct interviews
with presidential hopefuls and
publish the work of legends like Annie
Leibovitz and PJ O’Rourke, but Rolling
Stone has had to come to terms with
the fact it’s no longer cool. Even
those who’ve enjoyed long standing
relationships with the paper admit
that its best days might be behind it.
“I loved working for Rolling Stone,”
reminisces Cameron Crowe. “To be a
young kid, writing about rock music
in the age of Tommy and Led Zeppelin
IV was the most amazing thrill. “A
lot’s changed since then, but in its own
way, that time with that magazine
was as much a highlight of my career
as directing movies today.”
Farewell then, Rolling Stone — you
might continue to be read from Perth
to Pittsburgh, but the sun has set on
your magic hour. But like the music
you lorded, the memory lingers on.
Richard Luck has written about music and
film for Esquire, Film4.com and Empire
105
MAGNETIC NORTH

magnetic north
FOR A BRIEF PERIOD OF TIME, MANCHESTER WAS THE
COOLEST PLACE ON EARTH — MANCUNIANS WILL ARGUE
IT STILL IS. KEVIN CUMMINS CAPTURES THE GENIUS, THE
MADNESS AND THE BEAUTY OF THE CITY’S MUSIC SCENE

106
 FEATURE STORY

Ian Curtis, Joy Division; Hulme, Manchester, January 6, 1979

A snowy day in Manchester. I was concerned that if I shot the band in the
snow the photos would date immediately, thus rendering them unsuitable
for use a few weeks later when they were to be published in the NME. My
editor told me to take a few but to concentrate on interior shots of the band.
For this session I could only afford to buy two rolls of film. Every shot had to
count. I’d taken several photos they wanted and a few band shots I wanted
but I hadn’t taken a solo shot of Ian for the cover. I asked him to lean against
a lamp post. He stood there, smoking in the gloomy light. If it hadn’t been for
the reflective quality of the snow it would have been too dark to shoot. He
didn’t say anything. I didn’t say anything. I shot the five frames remaining
in my camera and that was the end of the session.

107
MAGNETIC NORTH

Salford Market; July 1977

I was shooting a series of photos of people and street scenes around Manchester
and Salford. I hoped that, one day, they would contextualise some of the
band shots from the era. I love the three figures in this image spanning three
generations. It has the quality of a still life despite being shot on a market day.

108
The Factory at The Russell Club; August 22, 1979
The Factory was on the outskirts of Hulme, a huge inner-city council estate
in Manchester. The club, formerly The Russell Club, was originally intended
to showcase Factory Records’ bands. Peter Saville [legendary UK designer]
created the poster for the opening two gigs, but didn’t deliver it until a couple of
weeks later. This may explain why they were so poorly attended. Joy Division
played several gigs here and it hosted Iggy Pop, Echo And The Bunnymen and
Simple Minds, but closed as a live venue after less than two years.

109
110
Shaun Ryder; barber’s shop, Havana, Cuba, December 1995
The record company took Shaun and Bez to Cuba to promote the Black
Grape album to the US Press. I assume they thought it subversive to ship
American music writers into Cuba. Shaun was pretty bored during the whole
trip. He fell asleep and was belligerently monosyllabic to the writers during the
interviews. Eventually, he told them to ask me the questions as I could remember
more about his career than he did. A few years after this shot was taken, Shaun was
interviewed by Ted Kessler (the writer who accompanied me on this trip for the
NME). Ted was now working at the Guardian. As an icebreaker, Ted mentioned that
he’d not seen Shaun since the Cuba trip. Shaun looked puzzled. “I haven't been to
Cuba,” he said. Ted assured him that he had and that both he and I accompanied him.
“Did I meet Castro?” asked Ryder. Ted assured him that we hadn’t met Castro. “Thank
God for that" said Shaun. “I’d have hated to forget that I’d met Castro.”

111
MAGNETIC NORTH

Morrissey; bridge over Rochdale Canal, Manchester. September 1989

I love working with Morrissey. He has hundreds of ideas — many of which
wouldn’t work visually, but it makes working with him such an interesting
— and ultimately — collaborative affair. I was originally shooting him as he
walked along the towpath in the fading evening autumnal light. As he walked
up the brow of the hill all the elements fell into place. The cobbles, the bridge,
the silhouette — it’s so northern, yet so iconic — almost sculptural. There are
very few people who are recognisable in silhouette. Morrissey is one of them.

112
Scott King; Joy Division Tattoo, Old Street, London
I contacted British artist Scott King to shoot his Joy Division tattoo for
my book, as the typeface echoed that of the font used on Ian Curtis’
memorial stone in Macclesfield crematorium. I felt the two photographs
would work perfectly together for the book, in a fan fetishism kind of way.
Scott deliberately wore a white work shirt with the sleeve rolled up to
make the imagery ‘more northern’ — his words.

113
114
The Hacienda; October 5, 1988
The end of the Summer of Love. The Haçienda — owned by Manchester’s
Factory Records [home to Joy Division, New Order and the Happy Mondays] —
was the UK's first destination nightclub. I wanted to capture the excitement of
this period when people went to a club to dance and not to get drunk. That might
have also had something to do with the drug culture too — which ultimately
led to armed gangs forcing the club to close down. An apartment block now
occupies the site of this former Manchester landmark.

115
STYLE • MAPPED
6.30PM, ROOM 1211,
THE STANDARD HOTEL,
NEW YORK, 2009

52
IMAGE: DAVID DREBIN WWW.DAVIDDREBIN.COM

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119
 EMIRATES NEWS
HOME COMFORTS
THIS MONTH EMIRATES WILL OFFICIALLY
open the new lounge in Delhi,
India. The Delhi lounge is the 25th
international lounge and another
finely conceived space that offers
the refinement and consistency
that Emirates customers expect.
Passengers want the same
meticulous attention to detail they
enjoy up in the air whilst still on
the ground. To ensure a consistent
quality, Emirates ensures all the
materials used in the lounges come
from unchanging sources.
The high quality leather used for
all the chairs and sofas is from the
same tannery. All the wood veneer is
from the same source and carefully
120
selected according to colour and
quality. The interiors are decorated
with a neutral colour palette,
sidestepping seasonal colours
and avoiding a dated appearance,
preferring instead to maintain a
timeless and classic colour scheme.
The attention dedicated to making
the lounges of the highest quality has
repeatedly paid off, with recognition
and many accolades awarded — the
Emirates First Class and Business
Class lounges in Dubai have a look
of their own and are also frequently
ranked by independent bodies as
amongst the best in the world. Such
recognition from independent
surveys is an excellent indicator that
“THE LOUNGES
ARE OPERATED
LIKE FINE-DINING
RESTAURANTS”
lounges can be crucial differentiators
when customers choose an airline.
As Don Surrendra, Product
Development Manager, says: “The
lounges are a real value add to the
customer and we know that in some
instances, customers choose us
because of the lounge. Customers
who spend so much time working
can use the lounge to get work
done so they can switch off and
sleep on the flight.” In many ways
the 28 lounges are operated like
fine-dining restaurants with strict,
well-designed systems adhered
to. The menus are changed every
month and reviewed rigorously,
with international offerings always
available such as fine wines and
cheese in Australia and seasonal
fresh produce in India. All the
lounges are reviewed every six
months and Emirates staff are
encouraged to give suggestions
based on customer feedback. As
Surrendra says: “Nobody offers the
level of food, beverage and ambiance
that we do.”
Six more lounges are in the
planning phase and in the next four
months an opening is expected in
Colombo, as well as extensions in
London Heathrow and Auckland.
 EMIRATES NEWS

ENGINEERING EXCELLENCE
A SMOOTH EXPERIENCE FROM THE
beginning until the end of your
journey is what you expect from
any world-class transport service.
However, the majority of passengers
rarely consider the complex web
of operations in place that ensures
such efficiencies. A visit to the 136-
acre Emirates Engineering Centre on
the north side of Dubai International
airport reveals a facility of jaw-
dropping scale and scope.
The facility itself is so huge that
there are four modes of transport
used to navigate the place:
tricycles, segways, buggies and feet.
Thankfully, a guided tour is provided
via a swift buggy with Bob Lunn,
Emirates Vice President Engineering the hangars one sees the need for place in stages over a six-month
Facilities and Iain Lachlan, Divisional the different modes of transport. period, without a single days loss
Senior Vice President Emirates The eight bays form the largest free- of productivity. Again the facility is
Engineering. The whole site comprises spanned structure in the Middle East, looking at expansion to accommodate
eight huge hangars, each measuring with hangar doors 88 metres wide the airline’s exponential growth. Even
11,000 square metres, workshops, an accommodating the aircraft. with a number of aircraft released
administration building, engineering It is not only the largest Maintenance, from the fleet, space will be needed to
training centre, aircraft appearance Repair, and Overhaul (MRO) facility take in this growing number of planes.
centre, ground run-up enclosure, in the Middle East, but one of the Five of the hangars are kept full
engine shops and the main store. largest in the world, employing 3,500 with c-checks, cabin refurbishment,
The main store appears as a giant staff. The facility was opened in 2007 retrofit and refreshment programmes
warehouse with metal shelves costing AED2.3 billion. on the 151-strong fleet.
housing all the stock and spare A quarter of this cost was dedicated to The other two bays deal with
parts. Two billion dirhams worth fire prevention and protection systems light maintenance. The eighth bay
of materials are all marked and alone. The move from the old facility, is Emirates' first in-house paint
stored for easy access. Moving to which was four times smaller, took hangar. Here a team of 40 staff
will take up to 15 days to paint and

“THE FACILITY ITSELF IS SO HUGE THAT enhance the exterior of a plane to

the level of excellence expected.
THERE ARE FOUR MODES OF TRANSPORT Well, with Emirates huge

USED TO NAVIGATE THE PLACE” investment in new aircraft, you

would want the paint job to look the
best it possibly could.

121
 EMIRATES NEWS

LITTLE BOOK, BIG IDEAS

BOOK REVIEW

COMPACT AND POWERFUL, The Little
Book of Shocking Eco Facts, by
geographers Mark Crundwell and
Cameron Dunn, does not make for
a light and leisurely read. But that’s
a gauge for how much rainforest is
being destroyed on a daily basis —
but the effect is disturbing.
The 7,140 square metre size of THE AVERAGE REDUCTION IN FUEL�BURN
THAT FUTURE IMPROVEMENTS IN AIRLINE
an international football pitch OPERATIONS SUCH AS SINGLE�ENGINE TAXIING

4%
the point. disappears every one and a half AND CABIN WEIGHT REDUCTION WILL HAVE

The book is supposed to render seconds. About the time it took to

the reader uncomfortable and
outraged — in the hope that one
by one, people will make small
adjustments to their everyday lives
in order to mitigate the widespread
destruction of the environment.
read this sentence.
Other startling figures
include the fact that one species
(humans) uses 86.6 per cent of
the world’s biocapacity.
The other 1.7 million species WWW.ENVIRO.AERO

Divided into three sections: oceans, use the remaining 13.4 per cent.
atmosphere and land — the book Although the book takes
THE NUMBER OF JOBS IN MILLIONS

delivers one or two shocking facts about
the state of our planet on each page.
The information is sourced
and validated from the world's
most authoritative sources
and combined with graphic
imagery from the award-winning
Barnbrook Design studio in the UK
to create a potent impact.
Some of the analogies may seem
tired — the use of a football pitch as
392
a holistic view of the threat to GENERATED BY THE AVIATION INDUSTRY
our planet, there is no real
attempt at discussing solutions,
which can leave the reader
feeling powerless.
But the writers do want to effect
real change, and therefore are
donating a percentage of the profits
from each book sold to a charity,
The Rainforest Alliance.
WWW.FIELL.COM

EFFICIENCY KEY FOR EMIRATES

THE NEED TO EMBRACE ECOLOGICAL EFFICIENCY IS AN ISSUE
that affects all industries. Emirates operates three of
the world's longest non-stop commercial flights, from
Dubai to Los Angeles, San Francisco and Houston. It is
vital to set an example by maintaining a young efficient
aircraft fleet. Emirates is the largest airline in the
world in terms of scheduled international passenger-
kilometres flown and we operate one of the youngest
fleets of any major airline, using only wide-bodied
aircraft. These include the Airbus A330/A340, Airbus
A380 and the Boeing 777. Emirates reiterated this
commitment to maintaining the youngest fleet possible,
with an order for 70 A350 XWBs (Xtra wide bodies).
When orders are placed the new aircraft are not added
to the existing number of planes, but older planes
are replaced. Emirates is set to replace more than 80
aircraft over the next decade. Emirates can achieve
low emissions due to an average fuel burn of less than
four litres for every 100-passenger kilometres flown.
The A350s on order are 20 per cent more efficient than
current equivalent aircraft. This commitment ensures
exceptional fuel economy and more comfortable travel.

122
 EMIRATES NEWS

BEFORE YOUR JOURNEY

CONSULT YOUR DOCTOR BEFORE

TRAVELLING IF YOU HAVE ANY

MEDICAL CONCERNS ABOUT

MAKING A LONG JOURNEY, OR IF YOU

SUFFER FROM A RESPIRATORY OR

IN THE AIR CARDIOVASCULAR CONDITION.

PLAN FOR THE DESTINATION � WILL

TO HELP YOU ARRIVE AT YOUR rejuvenate for your holiday or be YOU NEED ANY VACCINATIONS OR

destination feeling relaxed and effective at achieving your goals on SPECIAL MEDICATIONS?

refreshed, Emirates has developed a business trip, these simple tips will GET A GOOD NIGHT’S REST BEFORE

this collection of helpful travel tips. help you to enjoy your journey and THE FLIGHT.

Regardless of whether you need to time on board with Emirates today. EAT LIGHTLY AND SENSIBLY.

SMART TRAVELLER AT THE AIRPORT

ALLOW YOURSELF PLENTY OF TIME

FOR CHECK�IN.

AVOID CARRYING HEAVY BAGS

DRINK TRAVEL THROUGH THE AIRPORT AND ONTO THE

PLENTY LIGHTLY FLIGHT AS THIS CAN PLACE THE BODY

OF WATER UNDER CONSIDERABLE STRESS.

ONCE THROUGH TO DEPARTURES TRY

AND RELAX AS MUCH AS POSSIBLE.

REHYDRATE WITH WATER OR JUICES FREQUENTLY. CARRY ONLY THE ESSENTIAL ITEMS THAT YOU
DRINK TEA AND COFFEE IN MODERATION. WILL NEED DURING YOUR FLIGHT. DURING THE FLIGHT
SUCKING AND SWALLOWING WILL HELP

EQUALISE YOUR EAR PRESSURE DURING

MAKE ASCENT AND DESCENT.

YOURSELF KEEP BABIES AND YOUNG PASSENGERS

COMFORTABLE MOVING MAY SUFFER MORE ACUTELY WITH

POPPING EARS, THEREFORE CONSIDER

PROVIDING A DUMMY.

LOOSEN CLOTHING, REMOVE JACKET AND AVOID EXERCISE YOUR LOWER LEGS AND CALF GET AS COMFORTABLE AS POSSIBLE

ANYTHING PRESSING AGAINST YOUR BODY. MUSCLES. THIS ENCOURAGES BLOOD FLOW. WHEN RESTING AND TURN FREQUENTLY.

AVOID SLEEPING FOR LONG PERIODS IN

THE SAME POSITION.

USE SKIN
WEAR MOISTURISER WHEN YOU ARRIVE
GLASSES TRY SOME LIGHT EXERCISE OR READ IF

YOU CAN’T SLEEP AFTER ARRIVAL.

CABIN AIR IS DRIER THAN NORMAL THEREFORE APPLY A GOOD QUALITY MOISTURISER TO ENSURE
SWAP YOUR CONTACT LENSES FOR GLASSES. YOUR SKIN DOESN’T DRY OUT.

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 CABIN
L BE
EMIRATES NEWS
CREW WIL
HELP IF
HAPPY TO
YOU NEED

ASSISTIANGNTCHEE
COMPLET
FORMS
TO US CUSTOMS & IMMIGRATION FORMS

WHETHER YOU’RE TRAVELLING TO, OR THROUGH, THE UNITED STATES TODAY, as hassle free as possible. The Cabin Crew will offer you two
this simple guide to completing the US customs and forms when you are nearing your destination. We provide
immigration forms will help to ensure that your journey is guidelines below, so you can correctly complete the forms.

CUSTOMS DECLARATION FORM IMMIGRATION FORM

All passengers arriving into the US

need to complete a CUSTOMS DECLARATION
FORM . If you are travelling as a family
this should be completed by one
member only. The form must be
completed in English, in capital letters,
and must be signed where indicated.

The IMMIGRATION FORM I-94 (Arrival /

Departure Record) should be
completed if you are a non-US
citizen in possession of a valid US
visa and your final destination is
the US or if you are in transit to a
country outside the US. A separate
form must be completed for each
person, including children travelling
on their parents’ passport. The form
includes a Departure Record which
must be kept safe and given to your
airline when you leave the US.
If you hold a US or Canadian
passport, US Alien Resident Visa
(Green Card), US Immigrant Visa or a
valid ESTA (right), you are not required
to complete an immigration form.

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 EMIRATES NEWS

ELECTRONIC SYSTEM FOR YOUR PASSPORT.

TRAVEL AUTHORISATION (ESTA) APPLY ONLINE AT WWW.CBP.GOV/ESTA

IF YOU ARE AN INTERNATIONAL

TRAVELLER WISHING TO ENTER NATIONALITIES ELIGIBLE FOR

THE UNITED STATES UNDER THE THE VISA WAIVER*:
VISA WAIVER PROGRAMME, YOU ANDORRA, AUSTRALIA,

MUST APPLY FOR ELECTRONIC AUSTRIA, BELGIUM, BRUNEI,

AUTHORISATION �ESTA� UP CZECH REPUBLIC, DENMARK,

TO �� HOURS PRIOR TO YOUR ESTONIA, FINLAND, FRANCE,

DEPARTURE. GERMANY, HUNGARY, ICELAND,

IRELAND, ITALY, JAPAN, LATVIA,

ESTA FACTS: LIECHTENSTEIN, LITHUANIA,

AD
CHILDREN AND LUXEMBURG, MALTA, MONACO,

INFANTS REQUIRE AN THE NETHERLANDS, NEW

INDIVIDUAL ESTA. ZEALAND, NORWAY, PORTUGAL,

THE ONLINE ESTA SYSTEM SAN MARINO, SINGAPORE,

WILL INFORM YOU WHETHER SLOVAKIA, SLOVENIA, SOUTH

YOUR APPLICATION KOREA, SPAIN, SWEDEN,

HAS BEEN AUTHORISED, SWITZERLAND AND THE

NOT AUTHORISED OR IF UNITED KINGDOM**.

AUTHORISATION * SUBJECT TO CHANGE

IS PENDING. ** ONLY BRITISH CITIZENS QUALIFY UNDER

A SUCCESSFUL ESTA THE VISA WAIVER PROGRAMME.

APPLICATION IS VALID

FOR TWO YEARS, HOWEVER

THIS MAY BE REVOKED OR

WILL EXPIRE ALONG WITH

THE NUMBER OF AIRCRAFT

CURRENTLY ON ORDER BY EMIRATES�

202
AIR TRANSPORT COVERS THE SHORTEST DISTANCE BETWEEN TWO
POINTS, GENERALLY �� PER CENT SHORTER THAN THE SAME ROUTE
TAKEN BY ANY FORM OF LAND TRANSPORT.

30%
THE NUMBER OF EGGS IN MILLIONS THAT THE EMIRATES FLIGHT
CATERING CENTRE USES EVERY YEAR:

2.2 127
128
EMIRATES NEWS

129
130
 EMIRATES NEWS

AD

131
 THE FLEET

For more information: www.emirates.com/ourf leet

133
FLEET GUIDE

Boeing 777-300ER Number of Aircraft: 53 Capacity: 354-442 Range: 14,594km Length: 73.9m Wingspan: 64.8m

Boeing 777-300 Number of Aircraft: 12 Capacity: 364 Range: 11,029km Length: 73.9m Wingspan: 60.9m

Boeing 777-200LR Number of Aircraft: 10 Capacity: 266 Range: 17,446km Length: 63.7m Wingspan: 64.8m
Boeing 777F Number of Aircraft: 2 Range (max payload): 5,000nm Length: 63.7m Wingspan: 64.8m

Boeing 777-200 Number of Aircraft: 9 Capacity: 274-346 Range: 9,649km Length: 63.7m Wingspan: 60.9m

Boeing 747-400F/747-ERF Number of Aircraft: 3/2 Range (max payload): 4445nm/4970nm Length: 70.6m Wingspan: 64.4m

134
Airbus A380-800 Number of Aircraft: 15 Capacity: 489-517 Range: 15,000km Length: 72.7m Wingspan: 79.8m

Airbus A340-500 Number of Aircraft: 10 Capacity: 258 Range: 16,050km Length: 67.9m Wingspan: 63.4m

Airbus A340-300 Number of Aircraft: 8 Capacity: 267 Range: 13,350km Length: 63.6m Wingspan: 60.3m

Airbus A330-200 Number of Aircraft: 27 Capacity: 237-278 Range: 12,200km Length: 58.8m Wingspan: 60.3m

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 NEXT
MONTH…

O
pen Skies travels to Africa next month with our entire issue dedicated
to a continent of unmatched diversity, beauty and scale. It is, of course,
impossible to capture a place so enchanting in one issue, but we have
picked some of our favourites from Dakar to Durban. We get the low-down
on South Africa’s coolest city (and it isn’t Cape Town), and bring back some
intriguing booty from Senegal. One of the most respected writers on Africa
profiles one of the continent’s most extraordinary leaders and we experience an
aerial view of South Africa with a difference. We unearth a raft of new African
creatives and showcase a classic piece of travel reportage — Africa is one of the
most spectacular places on Earth; come explore it with us.

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