Showing results by author "Paul Morley" in All Categories

To write about Tony Wilson, a.k.a. Anthony H. Wilson, is to write about a number of public and private characters and personalities, a clique of unreliable narrators, constantly changing shape and form. At the helm of Factory Records and the Haçienda, Wilson unleashed landmark acts such as Joy Division and New Order into the world as he pursued myriad other creative endeavours, appointing himself a custodian of Manchester's legacy of innovation and change.

As the founder of Island Records, fabled music producer Chris Blackwell has discovered and worked with some of the most important musicians of the second half of the twentieth century—from Steve Winwood to Cat Stevens, Bob Marley to Grace Jones, U2 to Roxy Music, plus countless others. He is also widely credited with having brought reggae music to the world stage. Now, as he turns eighty-five, Blackwell takes us back to the island where it all began: Jamaica.

As one of the world’s greatest musicians, Bob Dylan has enriched the American song tradition for over 50 years. With a talent that has been proven in the worlds of music, radio, art and poetry, Dylan is a man of many personas. From defying pop music conventions with protest songs such as 'The Times They Are a-Changin’ to releasing three of the most influential rock albums of the '60s, he not only has extended the parameters of music genres but has also showed us the fluidity his craft.

Respected arts commentator Paul Morley, one of the team who curated the highly successful retrospective exhibition for the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, David Bowie Is..., constructs the definitive story of Bowie that explores how he worked, played, aged, structured his ideas, invented the future, and entered history as someone who could and would never be forgotten.

Paul Morley grew up in Reddish, less than five miles from Manchester and even closer to Stockport. Ever since the age of seven, old enough to form an identity but too young to be aware that 'southern' was a category, Morley has always thought of himself as a northerner. What that meant, he wasn't entirely sure. It was for him, as it is for millions of others in England, an absolute, indisputable truth.

Bowie lived in the future, using the pop song to chronicle overwhelming and dangerous times, searching for the light, and creating a communication channel between post-war 20th-century times and where(ever) we are now. This anniversary book will place him in the now and next, as much as is past, and argue that his songs, and his messages, reflections, and warnings become ever more relevant and compelling as time passes.

Paul Morley had stopped being surprised by modern pop music and found himself retreating into the sounds of artists he loved when, as an emerging music journalist in the '70s, he wrote for NME. But not wishing to give in to dreary nostalgia, endlessly circling back to the bands he wrote about in the past, he went searching for something new, rare and wondrous - and found it in classical music.

From the mid-1970s the humble 7-inch vinyl single was joined by a much grander relative - the 12-inch single. It reached its peak in 1983 with "Blue Monday", by New Order, probably the biggest-selling 12-inch single of all time. Music Journalist and co-founder of ZTT Records Paul Morley talks to Peter Hook of New Order about how "Blue Monday" was written, and to designer Peter Saville about the famous sleeve. Paul explores the origins of the 12-inch single as a potentially higher-quality format than the 7-inch single and visits Abbey Road studios to watch an engineer cutting a 12-inch single.

Come along a be part of a very special friendship as Chris Morley & Paul Gilbert talk through life in lockdown, how they became the best of friends, what makes them giggle and any other guff that comes up along the way. Seriously who says the word 'guff'?Each episode comes out on a Friday every two weeks and for podcast updates check us out on Facebook & Instagram @postpavilionpodcast