Woodstock, NY – The Golden Notebook Bookstore presents a discussion and celebration of the music of the British Invasion with three experts on British Rock of the 1960s-1970s: Tony Fletcher, Jonathan Gould, and Gordon Thompson on Saturday, July 2nd at 3:30 PM at the Kleinert/James Arts Center, Woodstock, New York. Continue reading
Following on from the previous post: Part of the process by which I upped the ante from last year’s 45s party was by putting together a massive YouTube playlist from 1966 and having it play, at different sections from the playlist, on different computers scattered around the place. Continue reading
This past Saturday, the wife and I threw our third annual Catskill 45s party. The event started two years ago when the wife and we each turned 45, and for my part at least, seeing great significance in that number of revolutions per minute, I determined to put together a party where I would DJ Continue reading
(Thanks to Posie Strenz for the design.) Continue reading
This 31-song (count ‘em!) mix accompanies “The Apple Stretching,” Chapter 13 of my book All Hopped Up and Ready To Go: Music From The Streets of New York 1927-77. The chapter covers the growth of the “disco” scene in New York City, from the illicit loft parties and Mafia-controlled gay clubs of the late 1960s, Continue reading
This 31-song (count ‘em!) mix accompanies “The Apple Stretching,” Chapter 13 of my book All Hopped Up and Ready To Go: Music From The Streets of New York 1927-77. The chapter covers the growth of the “disco” scene in New York City, from the illicit loft parties and Mafia-controlled gay clubs of the late 1960s, Continue reading
I recently conducted an interview for the web site Find The Torch, Burn The Plans. As well as responding to a bunch of written questions, I was asked to compile a Playlist for the site Continue reading
HUDSON CHATHAM EMPIRE RESERVE WHITE TABLE WINE, NEW YORK, 2009, $15 American wine producers love to flip the finger to convention. Not for them the restrictions of European appellations, which dictate the specific grapes that can be planted, the quantity of the yields, the percentages of the blends, even the alcohol content of the finished Continue reading
When I was 17, it was a very good year. Among other brilliant things happening in my life – like having a gigging band and a successful fanzine and starting a record label and finally getting a steady girlfriend – I was fortunate enough to have some sort of a mentor-come-mate relationship with Paul Weller Continue reading
This past Saturday, we threw a little dance party at our house; we do that now and then. I like them to have themes, and this one was dedicated to the New Wave of the late 70s and very early 80s. Continue reading
Photographs from a Good Friday run-hike up Hunter Mountain: ascent via Devil’s Path, descent via Becker Hollow. “Aerial” shots taken atop the Fire Tower Continue reading
My long-standing friend Peter Jervis, who I know as Jaf from the days when he fronted the Jamming! Records band Zeitgeist, has always had impeccable taste in soul music. (Zeitgeist’s cover version of “Ball of Confusion” became what we may safely call a “turntable hit” back in 1981-82.) Just how impeccable will be apparent when Continue reading
Just some of the home-made signs at the anti-Fracking Legislative Day Of Action in Albany on Monday, April 11th. With the New York State moratorium on fracking due to expire in only one month’s time, it’s vital that our politicians understand that they must protect our water supplies, our air quality and our land from Continue reading
On Friday October 10, 2002, I posted a live review of LCD Soundsystem at the Bowery in Manhattan. Continue reading
If Britain is currently enjoying a Renaissance in Real Ale, then Cask is perhaps the Leonardo da Vinci of its rejuvenated pubs. (This may be a mixed metaphor, but we’re talking booze here, and plenty of it, so sticklers be silenced and stick with me.) Set underneath one of those multiple-angled, low-rise blocks of flats Continue reading
Read this post in its entirety here:I Witness: The Thin Line Between Winter and Spring
British drinkers of my generation grew up knocking back gaseous, industrially produced, primarily foreign lagers. I should know; I was amongst them. God knows why; perhaps because everyone else was doing so? Regardless, it went against my otherwise consistent support for the underdog, the small business, the “indie,” and at some point in the 1990s, Continue reading
This Sunday, March 27, at 3:30pm, I’ll be joining my good friends and fellow music authors HOLLY GEORGE-WARREN and WILL HERMES at the INQUIRING MIND bookstore, 65 Partition Street in Saugerties, for a special rock’n’roll flavored reading. The eternally busy Holly is currently at work on a biography of the great late Alex Chilton, while Continue reading
Six-year old Noel prepares to tackle Hellgate, his first ever black diamond, on Hunter Mountain, Saturday March 12th. (Yes, he fell, but only once, and he bounced right back up. He later completed a flawless run down black diamonds from top to bottom.) Yours truly on top of Wittenberg Mountain, with the Ashokan Reservoir in Continue reading
Welcome to the Front Room at the Queen Elizabeth Hall, Friday February 26. They didn’t put on nights like this when I was a kid. (Well, they didn’t have nights like this to put on!) Yes, that does look like a young Peter Buck on the black Rickenbacker. Warp Records’ The Hundred Hands, all the Continue reading
The following interviews were all conducted by Tony Fletcher unless stated. Some of them are exclusive to iJamming!, some were conducted for magazine features or record company bios, several provided research for Tony’s books; the remainder date from the days of Jamming! magazine. Those posted prior to June 2005 are in the “old-school” iJamming! html Continue reading
All Hopped Up and Ready To Go: Music from the Streets of New York 1927-77, published by W.W. Norton October 2009 in the United States, by Omnibus Press March 2010 in the UK. For more information, follow the All Hopped Up threads here, or follow the links at right. The Clash: The Complete Guide To Continue reading
Tony Fletcher has been writing about music since 1977 when, at the age of 13, he started a 6-page fanzine, Jamming, at school in London. Jamming grew to become a major music monthly, landing exclusive interviews with Paul McCartney, Pete Townshend and U2 and helping to introduce the likes of Scritti Politti, Aztec Camera and Continue reading
Apparently, February 18 is National Drink Wine Day. This year and every year. Who knew? (Not Gothamist!) Who needed an excuse? Anyway, in honor, here are some of the wines I/we have consumed over the last two months or more, all of which come recommended. None of which I have had time to review. Much Continue reading
VIOGNIER was the first wine I ever wrote about at iJamming! Indeed, I launched my site with an in-depth feature on the grape, describing its distinguished perfume and luscious taste, its roots in the Rhône, its near demise until recent rediscovery, and its then cult status as an ABC (Anything But Chardonnay) wine. That was Continue reading
