The pick of this year’s offerings, according to these ears anyway, will be with you shortly. And elsewhere you’ll be getting variations of that and end of the decade blather for a while yet. In the meantime let’s take a look at what set the world on fire, and what didn’t, who put on the great shows, and who didn’t, at the beginning of the decade. Oh yes, and a film star who wanted to be a rock star. We'll get to Russell Crowe in a minute but, first, what was the news in music

News came last week that Alanis Morissette is marking the 25th anniversary of her decade-defining album, Jagged Little Pill – and her new album - with a tour boasting two other giants of the alterna-‘90s, Garbage and Liz Phair. That means it’s a perfect time to be reminded just how sharp, powerful, impressive and on-it was – is - the face, voice and soul of Garbage, Shirley Manson. In this profile from 1998, a hotel room isn’t big enough to contain her energy and ideas, in a

As Laura Marling’s three-show solo tour of Australia, in March next year, inches closer, it’s a good time to go back, right back, to her first performances in this country. This review, from August 2008 – when she played three gigs in three days and probably left Australia not certain she’d even been here - features the English singer/songwriter backed by a drummer/singer whose other band did a few things soon after too. It also shows how even in a semi-addled state, the raw

Actor, writer, director, songwriter and a woman who takes control, Julie Delpy, was always certain this life would end badly. When it didn’t, she was confused: wasn’t she at death’s door? Along the way to this expected early demise, there were a few films to make, some attitudes to straighten out, and, as this 2004 profile shows, no prisoners to take. She could write them, act them or direct them off the screen. As for those who think they can push her around, overrule her or

Last week, Wind Back Wednesday enjoyed an all too brief soak in the majesty that is Dusty Springfield’s Dusty In Memphis. The splendour that is Dusty can’t be touched. This is known. But Shelby Lynne, a woman without fear but with abundant talent and smarts, didn’t just touch, she dived headfirst into the songs of Dusty Springfield for 2008’s Just A Little Lovin’. It was a triumph then. It’s a triumph still. SHELBY LYNNE Just A Little Lovin' (Lost Highway/Universal) There is

Released 50 years ago, to underwhelming sales and attention, Dusty Springfield’s Dusty In Memphis has come to represent one of the great highs of soul and pop by one of the finest, if tortured, singers of all time. Songs by writers established and rising, alongside established greats. Performances by some of the best musicians in the field. And an Englishwoman of Irish descent whose connection with the American South was non-existent and yet deep and true. In this review from

Wait, didn’t she announce her retirement? Back in 2014? Two more shows this week – in Newcastle and Sydney – to round off the third (or is it fourth?) tour since then, and a documentary opening later this month, not to mention the near certainty that she’ll be back next year or the year after, suggest that report may have been premature. But then, as Wind Back Wednesday uncovers from 2015, retirement was more marketing than real for Detroit’s pioneering bass dynamo. She’s too

Mr Charles Jenkins had a birthday at the weekend, and as he is one of the finest pop craftsmen in the country that demands a raised glass and a turn in the Wind Back Wednesday hot tub time machine. In this interview from 2014 we discover how things can go so very wrong when a fanzine writer approaches, why he’s never likely to write a song suggesting “I’m too sexy for my shirt”, and just how much – or how little - he might resemble George Jones, or wish to be Randy Newman. Ch

Ben Watt, formerly of Everything But The Girl, producer/DJ and solo artist (hear two of his tracks on this week’s playlist …..), label head and author has a new album due in early 2020. A single, from that album, Sunlight Follows The Night, has a filmclip by filmmaker Rahim Moledina. Five years ago, after a long break from being a singer/songwriter, he released a new album which was a companion piece to his second book, this one about his parents – and in its way, about him t

The great Polly Jean Harvey edged past 50 last week, with the only disappointing part of that being it didn’t come with a new record – she’s been on a roll for a good long while after all. Wind Back Wednesday flits back 16 years to an interview with her where personas and passion were debated and talk of easing her commitment saw her offer that “It's not like I can distance myself, even after I've been on tour for a year. I can't do that.” And this was before her astounding a

Today the new Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds album, Ghosteen, is reviewed on this page. It is an album whose emotional landscape and musical explorations can best be understood by knowing not just his personal history but the context in which this music appears. Vital in that is the 2016 album Skeleton Tree. NICK CAVE & THE BAD SEEDS Skeleton Tree (Kobalt) Searching for one, wrapping-it-all-up, telling-us-exactly-how-he-feels meaning in this album, the first released by Nick Cave

Not just a composer and experimenter, and one of our finest at that, but a teacher, a passionate supporter of students and other composers, a bureaucratic rebel and a public activist, Martin Wesley Smith loomed large in many lives and in many forums. The Adelaide-born Smith, who wrote his first electronic composition in 1970, blending new technology (the Moog synthesiser) and an ancient form, war (this one in Vietnam), created the Electronic Music Studio at Sydney’s Conservat

As his 2020 tour has been announced (see dates below), it’s time to check out the last time Nick Lowe was in this corner of the world – all laidback charm and easy pop excellence. As Wind Back Wednesday can’t hide, it was a winning combination in 2012. NICK LOWE Sydney Opera House, March 29 Oh boy is Nick Lowe going to get a shock when the Cuban missile crisis hits. And what’s he going to make of Ipswich Town winning the English first division crown under that promising manag

A unique and prolific songwriter, a raw soul, a painter and a singer, Daniel Johnston died last week, drawing reflections from unlikely quarters (Mark Ruffalo tweeted “Living your broken dreams forever. Thank you for your art.”) as well as from fellow musicians such as Jenny Lewis who called him “the great American songwriter”. Able to write from a perspective some called childlike, capable of drawing on troubling as well as joyous depths, Johnston had a talent for melodies h

In a week which, more or less, marks both her birthday and the 10th anniversary of her first – and so far only – tour of Australia, you could see Aimee Mann appearing in Wind Back Wednesday as a giant hint to her that a return is overdue. As this Sydney show, hot on the heels on an almost as good Brisbane performance (yes, I saw her twice and only regret not making it to Melbourne), makes clear, she is just goddamn fabulous. That is all. AIMEE MANN Enmore Theatre, September 4

At the end of this month The Flaming Lips will mark 20 years since The Soft Bulletin turned them from low-selling weirdos with wild ideas to culturally significant, better-selling weirdos with wild ideas with an Australian tour including two nights at the Sydney Opera House. While there’s been some mixed results in recent years, most of the first decade of this century saw the Oklahoma band play some of the most spirit-lifting, communal-love-in, ultra-enjoyable shows you’re e

Clearly not ready yet to say farewell for good, despite her 2017 tour being declared her last to Australia, Patti Smith will return here in 2020. For Byron Bay Blues Festival, at the very least. As this review of her 2008 show at the Sydney Opera House recalls, there’s nothing quite like the spectacle and impact of Smith. No need for goodbyes, is there? PATTI SMITH Sydney Opera House, October 15 “She is the root connection/she is connecting with he” We all know that when we a

The man who provided a now legendary performance at a rugby league grand final by being heard by no one – which was infinitely better than Meat Loaf being heard by everyone - has had to endure a lot of name calling over the years. Some of it quite justified: Billy Idol is a cartoon punk, a daytime tv Elvis, a facsimile of a parody. So news of an Australian tour in 2020 – where in keeping with his sporting “connection” he will play a concert at the Australian Open. Yes, the te

Eight years after their first collaboration as Seeker Lover Keeper, Sally Seltmann, Holly Throsby and Sarah Blasko will release their second album, Wild Seeds, on Friday (keep an eye out in The Guardian, and here, for the review) and tour through September and October. Three successful singer/songwriters, two of them now novelists, all now mothers and living in the same artist-friendly hub of Sydney’s inner suburbs, it was a combination which made sense. But also one that did

The release of a great new score for the 1927 silent film The General – by UK trio Haiku Salut, reviewed here – prompted a turn to a 2004 screening of a fresh print and soundtrack. Not surprisingly for Sydneysiders of a certain age, the film screened at the now-lost, much lamented Valhalla. More surprisingly, perhaps, the film’s subtle emotional elements play as beautifully as the set-piece gems and physical comedy. The General Written and directed by Buster Keaton and Clyde