Category Archives: Hedonism

Bobby Gillespies memoir, Tenement Kid, starts by documenting Gillespies Glaswegian working-class background and ends in 1991, as Primal Scream prepare to release their Mercury prize-winning album, Screamadelica. As Gillespies final line in the book has it: Some say this is where the 1990s began.

Last month, he and old friend, author and fellow Scot Irvine Welsh, got together to discuss some of the books themes. Gillespie, 60, explained that he was first asked to write his life story a decade ago, and had only just agreed to do it when lockdown struck. Tenement Kid charts Gillespies personal and creative journey, via the prism of punk, rocknroll, acid house and drug-fuelled hedonism. It also delivers a vivid portrait of Gillespies early working-class life, at times permeated with strong anti-Tory sentiment: Of course, says Gillespie, Im from Glasgow, theres got to be.

Gillespies family lived in one room, sharing a bathroom with other families, later moving to a room and kitchen in the same tenement, with the then-family of four sharing a bedroom. For Gillespie, school was a washout, and he was put into a remedial class. Transfixed and transformed by punk, he joined the Wake and then alternative rock band the Jesus and Mary Chain, before focusing solely on Primal Scream. Earlier this year, Gillespie released Utopian Ashes, an album of duets with Savages singer Jehnny Beth.

Edinburgh-born novelist, screenwriter and playwright Irvine Welsh, 63, abandoned a TV repair apprenticeship when he suffered an electric shock and was taken to hospital, but also because he heard Anarchy in the UK by the Sex Pistols: As soon as I heard that, I jacked it in. I thought, my days are numbered here. Welsh published his era-defining novel, Trainspotting, in 1993: I didnt know how to write a novel, I just started writing. Trainspotting followed the lives of heroin-addicted youths (Welsh was himself addicted to heroin for a while). Among his screenplays is Creation Stories, the 2021 biopic of Alan McGee, Gillespies lifelong friend, and cofounder of Creation Records, Primal Screams first label.

Gillespie and Welsh met in the mid-1990s, and have a dense circuitry of connections, and much in common, including their Scottish working-class backgrounds and their cultural immersion in punk and acid house. I listened in as they talked.

Irvine Welsh: Its an incredible achievement to write about working-class life in this way. For anybody whos ever horrible term made it, theres a tendency to either amp up how nasty it was, or to sentimentalise it as the good old days. You avoid that completely: no sentimentality, but total respect as well. Its a fine piece of writing. My question is: how the fuck do you remember all that?

Bobby Gillespie: I just did a splurge. No diaries. I did a timeline from when I was born up until Screamadelica, and I wrote themes to discuss: class, my parents, my lack of schooling. For the first 10 years of my life, I lived in a Glasgow tenement: me, my brother and my parents, sharing the same bedroom, that stuff stays with you. Kids like me were judged to be stupid because the educational structures designated us as such. We were set up to be labourers, or unemployed, on the scrapheap. I wanted to learn, but I wasnt given anything to learn, and I didnt know how to ask. I remember feeling like a failure at that age.

I wanted to include stuff in the book that was outside rocknroll, but that helped shape me. For me, the late 70s/early 80s were a cultural revolution. Sex Pistols, the Clash my cultural education came from reading music papers of that time. Malcolm McLaren talking about the Situationists. Tony Wilson, Factory Records thered be a Factory band called the Durutti Column, and youd find out that it referenced a Spanish anarchist who fought against Franco. All these cultural markers.

IW For me, it started with Bowie, because what he did as an artist was quite rare. Normally, people are coy about their references, everybody wants to appear highly original. Bowie was incredibly generous and shared all his sources. He was working-class art school, basically. Through him, you got into Lou Reed, Kraftwerk, electronic music, Burroughs, the Beat writers He just threw it all out there for everyone to have a rummage around.

I saw the Clash, I never saw the Sex Pistols. I bought the original black cover of Anarchy in the UK and played it incessantly, driving people nuts. Punk validated you being a little cunt basically. I was very unruly and non-academic, so, it was, wow, great, these are my people and theyre making records. All these fucking misfits everywhere.

BG Punk was more of a state of mind than a dress code. Before Primal Scream, I was around people like Siouxsie and the Banshees and New Order, seeing how they treated either bands I was in, like the Wake, or my friends band, Altered Images. Just watching them work, it was heaven. We worshipped these people, truly.

You read interviews with Siouxsie and you were scared of her: this cold, austere ice queen. Siouxsie, Poly Styrene, Chrissie Hynde, Debbie Harry, the Slits, these women were not pushovers. What was important was that they were songwriters, it was their band. Whereas before, chances were, a guy wrote the songs. Women werent given more power, they demanded more power. They didnt dress to please men or sing sexually suggestive songs. They told their own stories. To me, that was one of the important breaks from the past of punk.

IW Race/ethnicity was another one. Those attitudes went through to other stuff, like ska, 2 Tone, and acid house. Same vibe then. It all came out of the same punk idea.

BG Punk, post-punk, it was a break from the old order. It was meant to be about a new kind of person. It wasnt racist, it wasnt sexist, it wasnt Tory.

I ask Gillespie and Welsh for their thoughts on Brexit and Scottish independence. In July, Gillespie expressed concern about Brexit making life harder for musicians. Previously, he described Scottish independence as inevitable, while emphasising that he in no way considered himself to be a nationalist.

BG Brexit is an English and Welsh thing. Scotland and Northern Ireland voted remain. I dont want to bring nationalist politics into this, thats not my thing. I guess all nationalism is exclusive, not just English nationalism When it happened, I thought, well, maybe this is English nationalism, which is, for me, frightening.

You could look at the different reasons for Brexit: socioeconomic, xenophobic, maybe 40 years of neoliberalism is to blame for the disconnect, the inequality. People at the bottom felt through their newspapers or Facebook groups that the EU was to blame for their circumstances It also became this emotional thing. I think its less about class-based politics now, and more about emotionalism.

IW The media fanned the spark that had been there for years. Brexit became a kind of civil war of elites that everybody else was dragged into Im not as much for Scottish independence as I am against imperialist nation-states. I think its better to be governed by non-hierarchical nation-states that arent based on imperialist precepts and entrenched beliefs. Im for Scottish independence as a mechanism for breaking up the UK, and Im for English independence and Welsh independence. The real fear of elites in England is that, if Scotland is independent, at a stroke, theres no royal family, no House of Lords, no Eton. And people in England are going to say well have some of that.

BG I remember reading you at the time of the vote in 2014, and thinking, thats interesting. This idea that, if Scotland gets independence and becomes a more social democratic, left, liberal country, maybe people in England will finally wake up. I totally understand that point of view, but I find it very hard. Im only nationalist when it comes to football. My dads influence was to be internationalist.

Gillespies father is a former Sogat [print union] official who came second representing the Labour party in the 1988 Glasgow Govan byelection. Gillespie has two sons with his wife, stylist Katy England.

BG Im glad weve got two beautiful sons [Wolf, 19, and Lux, 17]. Its about giving them a loving environment to grow up in, letting them be themselves. So long as theyre all right, Im all right.

IW I wouldnt have been a good parent. Im not interested. I always moved around physically. I would have been very absent, and conflicted. What I wanted to do required a lot of selfishness if you were doing it right. Ive met your dad. I recognise him from what you say in the book. I didnt meet your mum.

BG When Mum met Dad, she became politicised: she marched, made Young Socialists banners she was creative and strong, I guess she had to be my dads a big character I couldnt write too much about their marriage dynamic, its their private stuff. Politics and romance are very hard, I dont know if they really mix. I couldnt understand it as a child. I was just very upset. I was aware of that tension when theres going to be an explosion. You want to hide, but youre stuck. When youre very young, you dont have the emotional intelligence to understand. You think: Mum and Dad should love each other, and they dont [laughs ruefully]. Under the circumstances, they did their best, they loved us.

IW Youre finding out about the world through your parents, through the dynamics and changes in their relationship. You think: it cant always be sweetness and light. Its just life, it grinds people down. And youre aware, even when youre young, that youre only seeing the tip of the emotional iceberg. That theres more, but its not your place to intervene.

BG As you become older you start to understand more, but you still feel sad about it. Youre burying stuff and it comes out in other ways. You can turn it into good art. I havent done therapy for a while but, when I did, Id describe certain reactions and theyd say, youre disassociating. I thought, maybe thats right, just that feeling, the powerlessness. I could argue with you about football, or with the band about something creative. When it came to women, girlfriends, being angry and emotional, it was almost like I was a football and Id been punctured.

IW Im like that. I cant argue or anything like that with women. I almost remove myself. Ive had therapy: I once did it with a guy in Islington who actually made me lie down on a couch, which was fucking great. I always have therapy after a major relationship breakdown. I think, this is over, its done, I want to get myself into better shape for the next relationship. Anything that lasts for more than 10 years, youve got to put the time in.

BG When I attempted to stop taking drugs and drinking, what helped more than anything was making a commitment to getting up in the morning, getting dressed and going somewhere, swimming, an NA [narcotics anonymous] meeting. Putting structure into a chaotic life, building defences. Because if I drank, I took drugs. If I took drugs, I drank. I didnt like the way I was behaving. I hated myself. I didnt like the impact it was having on my wife and kids. I couldnt take it any more. I was becoming really deranged and paranoid. I was making myself psychotic basically. It was time to make a change, for many reasons, but mainly my family.

In the book, I write about drugs in a particular time period. About being on stage between Robert Young and Andrew Innes, blasting Les Pauls through Marshall stacks, all of us on speed, feeling like a god. I had to write about it: I experienced it, it was a rocknroll experience. Same as what got us into acid house was Alan McGee giving us ecstasy. At first, we were: Fuck that!

IW That lasts until your first pill goes down. And then you think youve invented acid house.

BG Theres Andrew Weatheralls quote: Ecstasy is a great drug but its also very dangerous because you find yourself on the dancefloor, punching the air to Lady in Red by Chris de Burgh. But you know, ecstasy, acid house, it all goes together. We liked drugs. I loved taking drugs. I wasnt wrong. We werent wrong. I was right to do it. Im glad I did it. I just got to the point where I couldnt take them any more and manage myself.

IW Ive never quite got to that point Ive just been at the Mucky Weekender festival I havent done so much MDMA powder in 15 years When lockdown started, I thought, Im not going to drink or take drugs at all until this is over. I dont want to wake up and find everything shut down. Im pretty good, Ill always take four months off at the start of the year and go back on drinks and drugs on April Fools Day, do it for the summer, and then October, November, December off again.

BG Youre seasonal?

IW Im a seasonal kind of guy.

Last year saw the loss of Denise Johnson, whose soulful vocals infused Screamadelica. Gillespie says: She was a big part of the band. Tenement Kid is dedicated to influential producer/DJ/mixer Andrew Weatherall who also died last year, of a pulmonary embolism and Primal Scream guitarist Robert Throb Young, who succumbed to drink and drug addictions and died in 2014, aged 49, several years after leaving the band.

BG Me and Andrew Innes were expecting [Throbs death] for a few years. But of course I was shocked. I remember where I was when I got the phone call. I was sitting in my car, I felt my body drop to the floor.

Its hard to talk about. Its deep, personal stuff, I dont want to upset his family. It was a long process Throb was my brother, a co-songwriter, a big personality, an incredibly creative, talented man. When we were making Vanishing Point, he kind of stopped being present. He wasnt there. He missed the whole record. When he was there, when he came up two or three times, he was on another planet, he was gone, he couldnt play.

IW He was in pubs in Primrose Hill a lot. He was always great, avuncular and fun. He seemed to lose interest in playing. Give Out But Dont Give Up, that was the Throb album, wasnt it? Total guitar, Stones-y kind of thing he was in his element. Maybe the way the sound moved, he didnt feel there was a place for him? If you look at any relationship, its the same isnt it? People going in different directions, and not realising it. Its an organic thing.

BG That definitely did happen we knew the band had to change But the door was always left open. If you look at that album [Vanishing Point], Throbs got an equal songwriting credit to everyone else. That was us saying: youre fucking part of the gang.

Andrew Weatherall was considered a pivotal influence on Primal Scream, a facilitator of the rock/acid house fusion of Screamadelica.

BG One hundred per cent: No Weatherall, no Screamadelica. I write about it in the book, its about trust. Trust in his taste. Trust that when he was mixing our stuff, if he threw something at it, it was needed. Andrew worked with Hugo Nicolson, who had the tech knowhow. Andrew had the imagination and the vision, and together they were an incredible team. Weatherall was unique. He wasnt a musician or a guy whod been in recording studios. He wasnt a geek, sitting in the back room with a computer since he was 13. He was a savant, an artist, who had this natural ability to make visionary music.

IW When Andrew passed, everything in the world just seemed to turn to shit. It was like the end of an era, for want of a better term. His creative and social tentacles went everywhere. He knew all sorts of people, he had all sorts of associations and collaborations. An amazing character, very conceptual and thematic in his thinking. Probably the defining artist of that era, right through the 90s, to the present day.

Do you remember his funeral? We were in that place in Clapham, and everybody was there, from across all different places and times. He kind of united everybody. That was the last night everybody was together and then, bang, the pandemic hit. In a strange way, if he had to go, that was the time to do it.

BG I remember in the 90s, whenever I called my parents, theyd say: Were just back from a funeral. Now weve reached this age.

IW The scheme where I grew up was the Aids capital of Edinburgh, which was the Aids capital of Europe. I came to expect people to die. I think weve maybe become more aware of death during Covid. During lockdown, you couldnt mourn people or go to funerals, just online nonsense. As a result, weve become a lot more focused on death, more morbid as a society. Death has always been around and its always going to be around.

At that festival I went to, I was thinking, well, this is kind of normal life now, I got back to normal life

BG In August, we did the NHS frontline workers benefit gig at the O2, with Liam Gallagher headlining. It was strange. I hadnt done anything since 2019 It was like being a football player who hadnt been in training and suddenly youre playing a game. It took me a few songs to get my sea legs, to start to enjoy it.

Id only had a one-day rehearsal with the band. Id been doing promo in France for the record I just did, Utopian Ashes, with Jehnny Beth, and I had to self-isolate Making Utopian Ashes felt very vulnerable, country soul. All the boys from Primal Scream play on it. I wrote lyrics on acoustic guitar, then worked through ideas with Jehnny Beth and her boyfriend, Johnny Hostile.

IW Its very good, very different, it touches on another side to you.

BG Thank you. I wanted to get to the heart of adult relationships, to make an adult record that was appropriate to my age. Ive always wanted to be a better songwriter, a better lyricist. In the past, I could be quite codified about what I wrote to protect myself. From my background, you hid what you felt, you didnt want to be ridiculed or mocked.

IW The good thing about being a writer is you become a writer because you think youre unemployable in any other environment or circumstance. It kind of cements that unemployability, you dig yourself in, five years, 10, 20, nobodys going to touch you for anything else. Does it ruin you for normal life? It certainly facilitated my own ruination and thank fuck as well Work is the only thing that keeps me out of trouble. The devil makes work for idle hands. If Im not working, Im basically just disrupting.

BG The band have always kept working, one way or another, Ive always kept working With this book, at first, I was, no, no, no, but a seed was planted. At the beginning of last year, I didnt want to make another rocknroll record, Ive done enough of them. I thought, Im ready to write a book, thats going to be my project for this year. I wanted to give a good account of myself and my family. I wanted to do something a bit different, something creative, challenging, something Ive never done before.

Tenement Kid by Bobby Gillespie is published by White Rabbit (20). To support the Guardian and Observer order your copy at guardianbookshop.com. Delivery charges may apply

The headline to this article was amended on 10 October 2021 to indicate that it was an abridgement of a quote from Bobby Gillespie.

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Bobby Gillespie: For the first 10 years of my life, I lived in a Glasgow tenement that stuff stays with you - The Guardian

Cancun is a place where the party quite literally starts as soon as you land. But while the areas well-documented debauchery isnt hard to find, there are glimpses of Mayan life to be found in pockets around the area. And, one look at its turquoise lagoons, white-sand beaches and palm-fringed shorelines is enough to understand why, back in the 1970s, a decision was made to build it into Mexicos enduring tourist hotspot. Naturally, there are plenty of incredible places to stay, from a family-friendly all-inclusive on Playa Mujeres, with a seemingly unending choice of restaurants and bars to the last word in luxury at one of the worlds most exclusive resorts, overlooking the Caribbean. We pick the best of the bunch.

Main photo: SLS Resort & Spa, Cancun (Booking.com)

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Le Blanc Spa Resort (Booking.com)

Best for all-inclusiveWith near-faultless service and world-class facilities, this exceptional adult-only resort just 15 minutes from downtown Cancun should be the blueprint for all-inclusive hotels. The Japanese and European restaurants are world class and no detail is too small; even your butler requests can be logged via the hotels phone app. Spend your days teeing off on the nearby Jack Nicklaus golf course before cooling off in an infinity pool, or taking a pilates class before unwinding on the pristine white-sand beach whatever you choose, this is a hotel you wont forget in a hurry.

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Best for serviceThe Mayakoba reserve located between Cancun and Playa del Carmen may only be half an hour from the airport, but it feels like a world away from Cancuns notorious hedonism. Here, surrounded by otherworldly beaches, lagoons and canals that connect the resort, your fellow guests include rare birds, iguanas, baby crocodiles and hatching turtles. Service is on another level; think pillowcases and napkins embroidered with guests initials, as well as a dedicated butler for every room. Plus, its great for wellness; there are microfibre pillow cases for optimal skin care, lamps to regulate your circadian rhythm and shower-activated aromatherapy pods.

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Best for privacyThis glamorous resort-within-a-resort is a boon for honeymooners; most signature overwater huts have uninterrupted views over the turquoise waters of Maroma Beach and the intimacy of its restaurant, spa and soft-as-sugar sandy beach makes guests feel like theyre staying on a private island. For those wanting to liven up proceedings theres access to its sister resort, El Dorado, which has buzzier restaurants and pools, as well as swim-up bars.

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Best for facilitiesThis beachfront luxury hotel occupies prime position in Cancuns Hotel Zone; here, the turquoise waters and pristine beach feel comparatively untouched. Guests wax lyrical about the amenities: a dedicated pool for aspiring divers, with a man-made coral reef; a lagoon-style infinity pool with chic day beds; a Mayan-inspired spa; and some of the best and most awarded restaurants in Cancun. Theres no need to stump up extra for an ocean view every room and suite has a balcony with a view of the Caribbean Sea.

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Best for architectureDespite being just ten minutes from the party pad of Cancun airport, this mega resort somehow manages to be bewilderingly tranquil. Located on Punta Nizuc known among snorkellers and scuba divers for its coral reef the hotel has two secluded beaches, a mangrove-lined canal and spectacular views of the cerulean Caribbean Sea. Although it has no fewer than 274 rooms, an ESPA spa and six restaurants, one of the most alluring things here is the sleek architecture if it looks a bit like an elegant Aman resort, its because it was designed to do so.

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Best for beachesIn the 1970s, Cancun was built to lure tourists to a remote stretch of Mexican coastline and this 300-key resort was there from the very start. No surprise, then, that it managed to nab one of the best beaches in the region; the waves are almost as calm as a swimming pool, and the sands soft. Plus, unlike many of its more youthful neighbours, the Presidente faces northwest, so sundowners at its Deck Bar are non-negotiable. The hotel has recently undergone a facelift, too, giving it a new lease of life; expect sleek, serene interiors and an altogether more elegant vibe.

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Best for familiesThis family-friendly all-inclusive, set on a pretty peninsula in Punta Cancun, is surrounded by ocean on three sides and was designed to resemble a little village. Expect all manner of activities to occupy the most restless of children; anything from theatre shows to watersports and dance classes plus, theres a microbrewery, regular tequila tastings and hydrotherapy circuits for grown-ups. We cant imagine even the most active of people getting bored here, but if you do, its well-located for day trips; the El Rey ruins are nearby, as well as a ziplining course and theres even a shopping centre a few miles from the resort.

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Best for adultsSet on an immaculate white-sand beach, the sheer height of this sleek skyscraper gives guests spectacular views of the Nichupt Lagoon, the Cancun skyline and the sparkling Caribbean Sea. This place is Disneyland for adults; theres a variety of watering holes including a sports bar, piano bar, wine tastings and cocktail classes as well as seven restaurants, all manner of sports and a 12,500 sq m spa. Look out for the resorts on-site winery and 3,000-bottle wine wall.

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Best for foodSet in Cancuns Hotel Zone, this enormous all-inclusive resort is well-regarded for the quality of its nine restaurants and bars its also home to a restaurant, Tempo, by seven-time Michelin starred chef, Martn Berasategui. The hotel itself made up of five interconnected, glass-topped pyramids is sprawled across 600 metres of pearly-white beach, with indoor botanical gardens, a decent kids club, spa and four lagoon-style pools. Look out for their nine-hole, par-three golf course just over the road from the main fray.

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Best for businessAt first glance, this beachfront behemoth has no reason to call itself as a boutique hotel; the installation of this glass-walled skyscraper was an imposing addition to Puerto Cancun, a gated community downtown. But the resort itself only makes up four floors of the building the rest are private residences and there are only 45 suites available for guests; meaning theres a personalised, members-club-style vibe to the property. Days here are spent on the 250m-stretch of private beach theres a roped-off area for swimming, as well as a separate area for watersports and an infinity pool with a whirlpool or at the on-site beach club.

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Best for spaThis chic, mangrove-lined resort, just 30 minutes drive from Cancun airport in beachy Maroma, takes a cue from its sister Chabl property in Yucatan in making a commitment to promote indigenous Mexican wellness. Unlike anything else in the region, here, the 17,000ft spa evokes ancient Mayan rituals, through a blend of natural potions and locally quarried quartz stones. You can even take part in traditional temazcal sweat-lodge ceremonies conducted by female shamans. The Mexico-meets-California-style food deserves a special mention, too its a winner.

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Best for locationWith one of the largest hotel beach fronts in Cancun, this colossal 360-key property is also home to nine restaurants, a bar with over 100 different tequilas, varied kids club and one of the biggest spas in the region clocking in at 5,500 square metres. Perhaps unsurprising for a resort of its size, it does a great job at pleasing everyone from business travellers to young families but its location, in the Hotel Zone, is particularly good for social butterflies; just ten minutes walk to the areas best shopping and ten minutes in a taxi to Cancuns hedonistic hub.

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Best for sportJust 450 yards from the talcum-white sands of Mujeres beach, this sizeable all-inclusive is connected by a network of artificial canals, on which guests often navigate the resort on floating sofa chairs. Its made for active types: heres a dedicated entertainment team, who schedule everything from salsa lessons to beach football, but the most impressive part of this hotel is its ongoing collaboration with tennis champion, Rafa Nadal; access to the fruits of their partnership. A state-of-the-art tennis centre is not to be missed for budding stars.

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Best for large groupsIn the quieter outskirts of Cancun on a peaceful slice of the Yucatan Peninsula, this 2,000-key all-inclusive is doing a roaring trade among families and big groups of friends. The hotel is, unsurprisingly, so large that its been divided into two sections and guests have access to 16 restaurants, two kids clubs, a golf course, meditation garden and even a waterpark. For people who want to holiday together, yet apart, this is a solid option.

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Inspired to visit Mexico but yet to book your trip? Here are the best places to stay from TUI and BA Holidays. Save up to 300 per holiday booking with British Airways, valid until 13 October 2021. T&Cs apply. And if youre still unsure of where you want to go or what type of holiday to book, get in touch hereand one of the Designer Travel experts will be in contact to help you arrange your perfect tailor-made break

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Best hotels in Cancun - Times Travel - The Times

After 15 years in the tuxedo, No Time to Die marks the end of Daniel Craig's reign as legendary super-spy James Bond. But what's next for the 007 franchise? WARNING: Mild spoilers ahead.

It seems an awful long time since anyone else starred as the world'smost famous fictional spy and it was - Pierce Brosnan's last outing as 007came nearly 20 years ago in 2002.

So as we wave goodbye to Daniel Craig - an actor who took ownership of the role and shaped Bond into an all together different creature - there are big questions as to where the Eon producers will head next.

As always, we are promised at the end of the latest instalmentthat "James Bond will return" and the debate over Craig's replacement has filled column inches ever since the 53-year-old announced he was hanging up his licence to kill.

But the more interesting question for me is not who - but HOWBond will return.

Talk of a "hard reset" isn'tparticularly new. Rumours first surfaced in 2015 before the release of Spectre - which at the time was expected to be Craig's last appearance as 007 -that a change of era was something being considered.

But now that many audiences have seen the emotional and dramatic ending of No Time to Die, tongues are wagging once again.

The bold finale, if anything, showed that those behind the franchise are not afraid to shake (and stir)things up.

We've seen a reboot before of course, albeit a softer one, at the beginning of the Craig era in Casino Royale.

There we saw Bond as an up and coming spy, who had just received his double-ostatus, and over the four films that followed we witnessed the rise of the agent, culminating in his retirement from the secret service.

Daniel Craig and Ana de Armas in No Time to Die- Credit: Nicola Dove

But going forwards, Ithink there are two ways it could go.

Bond 26 will need a new crop of support actors so either you cast a young James Bond and take it back to the start, as they did in Casino Royale, for a fresh tone of new films set in the present or - andthis would be my preference - you leavethe modern day andtake it back tothe 1960s.

What could be better than seeing Bondin an erawithout the internet, mobile phones or high-tech gadgets again?

A return to his Ian Fleming roots where a bit of a good old-fashionedespionage is the order of the day?

I think it's also fair to say the 1960s would be a little more Bond-friendly but that doesn't mean the character has to go back to the dark ages either.

Handling the attitudes of the time, and Bond's shortcomings, will needsome care, but I've no doubt a good scriptwriter would be able to get the tone right.

It could look fantastic as well, the fashions, the cars, the hedonism of the time could all make for a stylish and thrilling return to the big screen for 007.

Sean Connery played Bond in the 1960s - will we see a reboot made in that era?- Credit: PA

Another important question is whether we will see a story arc with the new Bond?

Craig's five filmswere the first to do that, with the shadowy influence of Spectre looming throughout, but is this the template going forward?

Each new Bond to get his own arc during his multi-filmtenure?

Maybe but I don't think it necessarily needs to be. Stand alone movies with the same actors could be just as successful.

Whatever happens, it'sa hugecall for Mrs Broccoli and Mr Wilson - and one I dearly hope they get right.

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Will Bond 26 go back in time to the 1960s? - Sudbury Mercury

In 2003, I booked a tiny venue for Melbourne fringe festival, to perform a show I had tortuously titled Navel: Cerebral Melodies With Umbilical Chords. It was a sort of dark, ridiculous cabaret, and a desperate attempt to shake off the pain of all the rejections I had been getting (agents/record companies/the dude who approves small loans at the bank), by showcasing my various talents, which arguably included unusually clear diction, considerable manual dexterity, and a love of cheap double entendre. (Which is to say there were some outstanding jokes about fingering.)

Navel was a gamechanger for me, because I knew I had an unusual toolkit, and although I knew I had a tendency to play the clown, I didnt by any stretch think of myself as a comedian. But that night, everything changed: the 30-odd weirdos perched on bar stools and chaises longues laughed. A lot.

Seven short years later, I was playing arenas. My 2010 tour involved a 55-piece symphony orchestra and dozens of crew, grand pianos and scissor lifts, massive light shows, tour buses, bouncers, booze, fans with my lyrics or my face tattooed on their legs; in my silliest dreams, I never imagined a life like it. The shows were joyous and complex and fun and challenging. The rewards were huge. I was flying.

So I stopped. And barring a couple of spasms of activism, I havent written a comedy song in more than 10 years.

The reasons I stopped are not particularly dramatic. There was no big crisis or breakdown; no Damascene moment of realisation that Id been suckling on the teat of the devil. The reason I stopped was temperance or so I like to claim. If Im honest, it was also ambition. But well get to that.

By temperance, I mean that I saw dangers ahead. I am married to my childhood sweetheart Sarah, and we had kids relatively young. I like my kids, and I like Sarah. I like peace and quiet. I love running and eating reasonably. I like playing piano by myself and I like being able to walk to the shops without being stopped. I like my liver.

But do you know what else I like? Like, really fucking like? I really like wine. I really like tour buses with cheese platters at midnight, and nice hotels and someone to sort my washing. I like 10,000 people leaping to their feet to applaud me. I like heads turning when I walk into a bar, and being stopped in Boots for photos. I like hanging with smart, funny people and getting papped on the way out of the Groucho. I like being respected by people I admire. I like ending up in late-night bars in romantic cities and having that shock of realisation that a sexy person is hitting on me. I, like everyone, love feeling wanted.

And I knew that none of that shit is good for a person.

All of it basically (actually, literally) rewires your brain. Fame takes that internal camera we call the self and puts it on a massive selfie stick, so when you are in public a percentage of your brain is always occupied by observing yourself in the third person. And eventually you dont know how to reel that camera back in, even when youre at home with your partner and kids. You start to believe that you are an entity. You learn to like yourself as much as you are liked, which means, when the trolls come trolling, you tend to hate yourself as much as you are hated. There is a reason why famous people are often screwed up: its not that wankers become famous, its that fame makes you a wanker.

In short: I wanted to head hedonism off at the pass. I wanted to not become an alcoholic, I wanted to not cheat on my partner, and I wanted to not become an unbearable tool with a huge-tiny ego.

But I also stopped doing comedy because Im very ambitious. My ambition is not for wealth (although thats another trap I can clang warning bells about), and its not for fame (although it is an addiction that, once tasted, most never quite shake), and its probably not for power (although some is useful to an artist). My ambition is immodest and obtuse: I want to be unpigeonholeable.

I grew up in Perth, Australia. Its one of the most beautiful cities in the world, but being small and isolated, its arts scene doesnt sustain a hell of a lot of artists. It also isnt a place from which the path to success is very clear. It was so unclear to me that I never really thought about it. Everything my friends and I did was for its own sake. We werent making art in the hope of being spotted by a talent scout or a movie producer, as there were none, and this afforded us incredible freedom. Not just the artistic freedom to make whatever the hell we wanted to make, but freedom from thinking of our plays and gigs as a step on a ladder, or even a viable way to make a living. Freedom from self-pigeonholing.

So I wrote scores for kids theatre companies. I did improv. I had a 70s cover band, a Burt Bacharach tribute band, a wedding band. My brother and I recorded an album in our houseshare. I produced soundtracks for friends documentaries and short films. I wrote songs for co-op musicals; rigged lights and built sets; played piano for an Aussie Piaf act in red-dirt mining towns; played the eponymous whiner in a three-hander Hamlet. All through my 20s, I was a Jack of all trades, master of making no money.

Then everything went bang and suddenly I was a fucking comedian.

I love and miss the UK, and know that I am incomprehensibly lucky to have been a embraced by audiences in all its nations, including Cornwall. But I was never comfortable with the label comedian. Standup even less so. Mostly because I am keenly aware that Im not in the same league as my friends who are dedicated to the form, but it also rubbed me the wrong way because it felt like a trap: I feared that if I were a comedian, other doors would close on me.

Then this six-year-old superhero came along and, hands on hips, she kicked down the doors for me. A song about an inflatable sex doll got me into comedy, and Matilda the Musical helped me escape it. What I learned in the two years I spent helping make that musical made me believe I could do more. And its success allowed me the space to take the risks required to do so.

Of course, with risk comes pain. I played Friar Tuck in historys most poorly reviewed Robin Hood. Our musical, Groundhog Day, despite awards and five-star reviews, took a bit of a battering on Broadway (I promise it will be back!). I spent four years in Hollywood working on an animated film that was shut down when the studio was sold. I have done humiliating auditions, had thousands of hours work go to waste, taken plenty of swipes.

But I have sung Judas at Wembley Arena. Ive played Rosencrantz in Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead and Ive eaten a chocolate bar out of Marcy Runkle in Californication. Ive written TV scripts, and voiced animated koalas, and written songs for kids films, and published a childrens book and a graphic novel. I have performed on the Sydney Opera House steps with a band made up of my siblings and cousins. I released an album and livestreamed it in the middle of a pandemic. Whats more, Ive been able to spend a lot more time with my kids, I have a wonderful marriage, and Im not (yet) a (proper) alcoholic. And it no longer matters to me how Im defined because in my head Ive done it: I am a pigeon without a hole. Im a box-less bird. A title-less tit. An emancipated emu.

But, holy shit, have I missed touring. Once youve felt that buzz of having a live audience on a string, the pure, unfettered joy of a group of musicians gelling perfectly, that relief of having got away with it again you never forget it. So I decided to come back, with a show called Back.

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There were a lot of discussions about what this tour was going to be. I knew I wanted it to reflect the journey Ive been on since I skulked away from comedy. I wanted it to reflect the development of my songwriting since Ive become a grownup composer. My intention was to let the songs speak for themselves and do less talking.

As if! Id forgotten the reason I accidentally became a comedian in the first place: when Im on stage, I feel compelled to go for the laugh. So within a week of getting Back on the road, it had started to resemble what I now realise is simply my thing: a ridiculous, dark cabaret show, now almost 20 years in the making.

And over the years, as things have gotten more complex in my life and more confronting in the world, there has been clarification. Whatever the title, my job is to engage. Using whatever tools I have in my kit, I just want to hold your attention. With my tongue. And my fingers. And my love of cheap double entendre. I just want to hold you.

Tim Minchins Back tours the UK 16 October to 28 November. The RSCs Matilda The Musical is on at the Cambridge Theatre in London.

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There is a reason why famous people are often screwed up: Tim Minchin on quitting comedy - The Guardian

Featuring Arushi Jains avant-garde sonic explorations, DijahSBs lo-fi beats, and Cleo Sols soulful introspections

In recent weeks on Dazed, weve covered or noted musical releases from significant and emerging figures such as UNIIQU3, Tirzah, PinkPantheress, Prettyboy D-O, Lil Nas X, Abra, Tems, Tommy Genesis, as well as spotlighting the next generation of South Asian talent in the UK and the rise of Amapiano: South Africas sound of freedom. Depending on where you are in the world right now, vaccination programs may be in full swing, and your local coronavirus restrictions may be continuing to loosen, or maybe not. Despite the sometimes spoken, sometimes unspoken uncertainties that colour the day-to-day realities of many, music continues to function as a shared communal space and a source of collective solace.

In a similar vein, regardless of the difficulty setting of the moment the pandemics economic impact has hugely affected the arts, with those already struggling financially being hit the hardest as always, new and under-discussed talents from the worlds of underground music continue to use community and craft to find a way. For the third edition of our quarterly roundup for 2021, were continuing to reflect and acknowledge musicians, artists, producers and DJs from across the globe, all with strong communities, real visions, and important statements to make. Here are ten essential Q3 releases, all available on Bandcamp.

WHO: The Brooklyn-based composer and vocalist navigating the slipstreams between modular synthesis and traditional Indian classical music.

WHY YOU SHOULD BE LISTENING: Arushi Jain has described her debut album as a sonic exploration of the magenta hues of the sky during the sunset hours, bookended by the statement, The deeper you listen, the more shades youll see. Here are a few of the shades: Growing up in New Deli. Training as a vocalist at the Prayag Hindustani Music School and the Ravi Shankar Institute. Discovering computer-generated sound and synthesis while studying Computer Science at Californias Stanford University. The influence of 20th-century avant-garde figureheads Suzanne Ciani and Terry Riley. Under the Lilac Sky sees Jain bringing all of this together, and more, while offering us a balm in these uncertain times.

FOR FANS OF: Charanjit Singh, Mary Lattimore, Arooj Aftab.

WHO: An agile Toronto rapper who tears up hip-hop and lo-fi house instrumentals with style and panache.

WHY YOU SHOULD BE LISTENING: The first time I heard DijahSB (a nod to Nike SBs) was through a viral Twitter video. In the clip, they rap with effortless confidence over a spaced-out lo-fi boogie beat, decrying the ways of the world with an unbeatable level of confidence. Although DijahSB got started a decade ago in the duo Class of 93 in recent years, theyve levelled up as a solo artist through a run of independent releases loaded with pop culture references and sharp observations about the challenges of daily life. Tasty Raps Vol.1, which features Chicagos Mick Jenkins and fellow Toronto artist RAY HMND, delivers all of this and more as DijahSB continues to turn the volume up.

FOR FANS OF: Kid Cudi, Lil Simz, Kaytranada.

WHO: The Edinburgh-based instrumental grime producer retooling Gaelic, Irish, and English folk music as 21st-century art-pop.

WHY YOU SHOULD BE LISTENING: Growing up in Edinburgh, Joe Powers, aka Proc Fiskal, often heard stories of his grandfathers and great aunt's roles within the Scottish folk music scene. However, when he came of age, his generation moved to a different beat. Throughout Siren Spine Sysex, Powers filters his folkloric family traditions, and a love of high-concept dream pop, through the syncopated shuffle and frosted glass melodies of grime and UK garage. In many senses, its a logical continuation of his 2018 album Insula, which explored Scottish culture from an electronic perspective. Cerebral and physical, Siren Spine Sysex is braindance body music with emotional depth and futuristic gloss.

FOR FANS OF: Lee Gamble, Todd Edwards, Cocteau Twins.

WHO: An experimental Chinese conceptual artist and composer exploring tradition and modernity in equal measure.

WHY YOU SHOULD BE LISTENING:Li Yileis latest album, / OF is a set of twelve fragmentary ambient compositions. Spare and inviting, they feel loaded with possibility and longing. Crafted with synthesisers, field recordings, vocal samples and traditional Chinese instruments, each song on / OF is a sonic portrait of a short poem tied to an hour on an analog clock face. Fittingly Yileis central theme here is translating the distance between measured time and the felt passage of time, as inspired by two weeks in a quarantine hotel in Shanghai after living in London. The sort of record that subtly shifts the atmosphere in a room with quiet grace, / OF captures the distance between our past, present and future.

FOR FANS OF: Pauline Oliveros, Foodman, Fatima Al Qadiri.

WHO: The veteran Chicago DJ and producer effortlessly abstracting jazz into juke and footwork.

WHY YOU SHOULD BE LISTENING: When you talk about Jana Rush, youre talking about a former paramedic and firefighter turned oil refinery chemical engineer who moonlights as a Cat Scan Technologist; and still has time for music. Youre also talking about a woman who started DJing when she was ten, picking up production three years later before releasing her first single through the legendary Chicago house label Dance Mania in 1996. Following on from 2018s Pariah, Painful Enlightenment is Rushs second album. Across thirteen fearlessly exploratory tracks, Rush, with her collaborators DJ Paypal and Nancy Fortune, unlock rhythmic, textural, and atmospheric depths only accessible by those who have spent a lifetime chasing elevation through sound.

FOR FANS OF: DJ Manny, Surly, Jlin.

WHO: The Melbourne-based duo who transmute post-punk and minimalist pop into haunted folk and country.

WHY YOU SHOULD BE LISTENING: Easy to sit with and even easier to return to, Rhinestones represents a high watermark moment within the eighteen-year career of HTRK, the Australian music project of Jonnine Standish and Nigel Yang. Informed by a recent love affair with eerie and gothic country music and the feelings around friendship, Rhinestones sees the duo crafting a cycle of hypnotic and beguiling minimalist singer-songwriter pieces led by Standishs affecting vocals and Yangs pictorial guitar figures. Ostensibly folkloric, in a range-roving Americana sense, across its nine songs, subtle 808s and soft synth pads ripple beneath a set of storybook folk/country gestures. Simultaneously hanging in the forefront and background, Rhinestones is lyrical, atmospheric, and, most of all, masterfully executed.

FOR FANS OF: Dean Blunt, Sibylle Baier, Tirzah.

WHO: A London-based singer-songwriter with an ear for the soulful, the infinite, and the sublime.

WHY YOU SHOULD BE LISTENING: After contributing to pseudo-anonymous UK soul collective Sault and having a breakout moment with her 2020 debut album Rose In The Dark, West Londons Cleo Sol returns with a new album, Mother. In part an exploration of Sols experience of becoming a mother, the album is an embarrassment of blissful and introspective riches. Over twelve 1970s progressive soul indebted songs, Sol summons a gloriously orchestral cycle of emotionally intimate yet sonically expansive RnB, neo-soul, and soul-jazz. Between her searching vocals and the elegant piano, warmhearted choirs, synthesisers and highly coiled drum breaks that surround them, Mother is one of those records that stretches out into infinity.

FOR FANS OF: Kadhja Bonet, Stevie Wonder, Solange.

WHO: Three of Jamaicas most confident, eloquent and undeniable hip-hop MCs.

WHY YOU SHOULD BE LISTENING: Strident and uplifting, Trilogy is a riotous and reflective statement of intent from Kingston rappers Five Steez, Nomad Carlos, and The Sickest Drama, known collectively as The Council of The Gods. Over eight dusty jazz, dub and soul informed instrumentals produced by Time Cow, Sawandi and Son Raw, the three MCs map out an expressive mode equally inspired by their Jamaican roots, the formalism of East Coast boom bap, and their overseas experiences throughout the UK, Canada and the US. Lyrical, stylish and charismatic, Five Steez, Nomad Carlos, and The Sickest Drama ride the groove with superhero levels of confidence, bravado, and a willingness to get introspective and reflective when the moment calls for it.

FOR FANS OF: Roc Marciano, Oddisee, Griselda Records.

WHO: The mind-melting multimedia solo project from the Riga-based interdisciplinary artist, DJ and classically trained multi-instrumentalist Sarah Badr.

WHY YOU SHOULD BE LISTENING: With her grandiose 2020 album, Excision After Love Collapses, British-Egyptian renaissance woman Sarah Badr aka FRKTL, presented herself as a sound alchemist with the ability to transmogrify ambient music, free noise, and contemporary classical into an unnatural catharsis. Too strange to live, too weird to die. In this sense, the ever-evolving alien soundworlds of AZIMUTH seem like an inevitably. The soundtrack to an equally extraterrestrial self 3D animated short film of the same name, AZIMUTH feels like an exploration of connection through a shared sense of displacement, all rendered through the visual and sonic grammar of a whole new world of possibilities.

FOR FANS OF: KMRU, Fis, Object Blue.

WHO: Two French garage rock and dance music legends coming together to soundtrack a perfectly sun-kissed summer road trip.

WHY YOU SHOULD BE LISTENING: Unfolding with the logic of an arthouse fever dream, De Pelcula is the product of a friendship that began in 2017, when French house/techno mainstay Laurent Garnier invited The Limianas to perform at his Yeah! Festival. The two parties found common ground over the motorik rhythms of krautrock, psychedelics and soft lapping dance music that hovers on the edge of sleep. From there, they began collaborating, leading to De Pelcula, a free-flowing, forward-moving album, where the finest of The Limianas chanson pop, garage rock, and OST music impulses bleed in and out of Garnier's retrofuturist body music. In all the very best ways possible, its a psychedelic joyride through the heat, sweat and hedonism of the golden season.

FOR FANS OF: Serge Gainsbourg, Can, Andrew Weatherall.

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10 under-the-radar releases you may have missed in the last three months - Dazed

Two titans of terror nearly met in a horror movie so bonkers it would make Freddy vs. Jason look like a kids movie. OK, that might be a bit dramatic, but its a fact that Halloweens Michael Myers nearly had a big screen battle with Hellraisers Pinhead.

Cast your mind back to the heady days of the early aughts, and the aforementioned Freddy vs. Jason has just made$116.6 million at the box office. As a result, studios all over Hollywood were looking in the back of their IP closets for any potential franchises, they could mash together in the hope of earning a bit of cash.

While scraping out the bottom of their particular barrel, Dimension Films found that they owned the rights to both Michael Myers and Pinhead, so the obvious solution was to let them fight. Dimension set a release date and started planning their ambitious crossover withHellraiser writer and director Clive Barker, and Halloweens own original co-writer and director John Carpenter both approached to work on the movie.

Barker was going to write it, and Carpenter would direct. In an interview with Den of Geek,Pinhead actor Doug Bradley revealed some of the Pinhead vs. Michael Myers plot details. He explained that Clive Barker didnt want the two horror icons to just have a fistfight for no reason. He instead was looking for a natural way to have the characters crossover.

Clive said that the versus bit, the Michael Myers vs Pinhead bit was a bit beside the point it was a bit boring given that Michael doesnt speak, which makes him a disappointment to Pinhead, Bradley explained. Clive wasnt interested in a mano-a-mano confrontation. He was interested in finding the places where the Hellraiser and Halloween landscapes might have crossed over.

Bradley explained that Barker planned to reveal that Myers was asadomasochistic sexual pervert and serial killer, and it was this twisted hedonism that would pique Pinheads interest in the mute killer.

Unfortunately, before work could properly begin on the movie, the whole thing was torn apart like Frank Cotton at the end of Hellraiser. Halloween producerMoustapha Akkad who owned the rights to the character hated the idea and put a stop to the movie.

Interestingly, though, Den of Geek reports that this wasnt the first time the duo nearly crossed over. In the late 90s Dave Parker, the moviemaker behindPsycho Granny andTwinsanity, pitched a Cenobite versus silent stalker action movie.

Parker outlined his vision for the movie to Fangoria. He planned on revealing that it was the Lament Configuration -the puzzle box that summons Pinhead and his mates that had, in fact, turned Michael into an unstoppable killer.

I was just trying to come up with a plausible way to get [Michael and Pinhead] to fight. So, why does he all of a sudden go out and kill his sister on Halloween? Hes trick-or-treating in a flashback, and he goes up to this one house and sees the guy with the black boots, who gives him the box, he explained. He opens it, and the Lord of the Dead Sam Hain escapes from Hell and takes over Michaels body because he doesnt want to be in Hell. Now, Sam Hain is who the Shape is, and thats why he cant be killed.

The story would then move to the modern day where some unnamed people (presumably helpless teens) discover the evil puzzle box in the old Myers house, and Hell literally breaks out as Pinhead tries to drag Sam Hain, possessing Michaels body back to Hell. Unfortunately for Parker, he was a few years too early for Dimension, and the studio rejected his Helloween movie for fear it would flop. I bet they regret that now.

If you want to see Michael Myers in a movie that actually got made, you can see the silent serial killer in Halloween Kills when it hits theatres on October 15. Check out our review here.

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Halloween nearly crossed over with Hellraiser in Michael Myers vs. Pinhead - The Digital Fix

It started with trench coats worn back to front, like trippy shift dresses.

Next came soft, drapey silhouettes in cool, muted tones, which looked as though they had been expertly fashioned out of bed sheets. (If your bed sheets were the finest known to mankind, you are to understand). There were towering shoes whose heels were seemingly made from bottles of nail varnish, cake candles and even broken eggs as well as denim midi skirts festooned with clouds of silk.

While the Loewe collection was inspired by Renaissance painter Pontormo there was also, to the naked eye at least, a certain homage to craft fashion; the notion of creating new, daring silhouettes through experimentation with what one already has. Exquisitely draped tops were blended with hard resin fronts, sculptural metal pieces were attached to classic black dresses, while trousers came with fun knee holes.

Its a welcoming thought. Whereas other designers have optimism (and hedonism) in their eyes this coming season, creative director Jonathan Anderson is different; a dreamy realist if you will, understanding that in a world on the brink of economic collapse, perhaps the best thing a girl can do is look in her existing wardrobe and think big.

Craft has, of course, always been at the heart of Loewe. The 175-year-old fashion house started life as a family-run leather goods company where luxury craftsmanship was what made Loewe stand out from the crowd - as well as helped it become the leather goods brand of choice for the Spanish royal family, no less. (The brand also launched one of the most important craft prizes in the world back in 2016 with the Loewe Foundation Craft Prize). This collection then felt both deeply connected to what this brand stands for, but also for the way fashion is heading.

Delightfully there was also a nod to the last 18 months, something other designers have been loath to do, presuming its easy to whip everyone out of the gym leggings theyve been wearing since 2020 and instead into mini dresses and bodysuits.

Big, soft tracksuits (which looked suspiciously like shell suits to those of us born south of 1986) made an appearance as did a Loewe take on Uggs with soft slouchy teddy bear boots. Even the now classic Loewe Flamenco bag was reimagined in soft, teddy bear fabric.

In many ways, Loewe is one of the most exciting fashion brands of the moment: daring but real; luxurious but fun; future-facing but an acknowledgment of what has come before. Which is exactly what this collection showed.

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Loewe's SS22 Show Was The Perfect Celebration Of 'Craft Fashion' At PFW - elle.com

In 2021, there isnt much dynamism to writing a song off the back of a drug-induced experience. In fact, going through the latest releases it could be very easy to pinpoint exactly what drug each artist was on when writing the track, such is the prevalence and wider public acceptance of art and narcotics going together like eggs and bacon. From The Beatles to Drake and everyone in between, nothing is off-limits for music.

Writing songs about drugs and taking narcotics used to be a covert operation. To create a track about ones penchant for substances today would be a little bit vulgar. Censorship is now so relaxed that writing a song about drugs is almost pointless. Back in the 1960s, as recreational drugs became a part of the swinging culture, using the secret codes within pop music to hidden references became a mark of a bands anti-establishment stance. Illicit songs soon became commonplace. However, there is something extra special about the songs written when inspired by LSD.

The very nature of LSD, or acid as it is more colloquially known, is that it transports the user through visual changes and mind-altering experiences, into a brand new plane of thinking. Ask anyone with experience of the drug and they will likely tell you just how much it changed their life, sometimes for the good and sometimes for the bad, but a seismic change nevertheless. Below, were picking out five classic songs which capture the essence of this transformation.

Apple co-founder and one of the centurys most brilliant minds, Steve Jobs once said, Taking LSD was a profound experience, one of the most important things in my life. It is this massive change of ones minds eye that invigorated much of music in the 1960s and 1970s as the drug became a prolific influencer on the pop charts. While acid rock arrived in the mid-1960s, perpetrated by bands like Jimi Hendrix Experience and Pink Floyd, its presence can be felt in every decade since.

Of course, drugs quickly go in and out of fashion but it would seem there is something holy about the hallucinogen, LSD. In every decade there is some reference to its power, some nod to the notions it helped to forge and a realisation that it provides many artists with the escape from reality they need to fully achieve their creative vision.

Below, we see five of those visions unfurl as we pick out our favourite songs inspired by acid.

Of course, no list about LSD would be complete without the addition of The Beatles and their seminal acid anthem. Though not directly written about drugs, they certainly influenced this piece as the words for I Am The Walrus leapt right up from the page. The song was directly inspired by Lewis Carrolls Alice in Wonderland and sees Lennon use an allegory to create a mystifying point. Walrus is just saying a dream, recalled John in his infamous 1980 interview with Playboy.

In the same 1980 Playboy interview, Lennon confirmed: The first line was written on one acid trip one weekend. The second line was written on the next acid trip the next weekend, and it was filled in after I met Yoko Id seen Allen Ginsberg and some other people who liked Dylan and Jesus going on about Hare Krishna. It was Ginsberg, in particular, I was referring to. The words Elementry penguin meant that its nave to just go around chanting Hare Krishna or putting all your faith in one idol.

It sees Lennon put down on paper the fuzzy drug-fuelled sessions that underwrote the bands output at this time and also showed that songs dont necessarily have to mean anything to be considered great.

Grace Slick was widely known as one of the most prominent voices of the scene which flourished out of San Francisco in the 60s, professing free thought and the utmost pursuit of creativity. The track, White Rabbit, is one of her finest and became an anthem for narcotics but Slick says that beyond drugs the song is about following your curiosity. The White Rabbit is your curiosity.

The singer also revealed that the songs references might have been shocking to some but seemed a natural progression to her, suggesting it may well be because of the previous generations own experimentations, Our parents read us stories like Peter Pan, Alice in Wonderland and The Wizard of Oz, Slick recalled.

She added: They all have a place where children get drugs, and are able to fly or see an Emerald City or experience extraordinary animals and people And our parents are suddenly saying, Why are you taking drugs? Well, hello!

While we may have noted that the mystification of drugs has been so neatly washed away from pop music that much of the modern chart is littered with drug references that have simply slipped by you, that doesnt mean every artist is willing to label their track as such.

Far from the mark of commendation drugs were in the 1960s and beyond, to have an explicitly drug-related song in modern times is just a little passe. One such track is The Flaming Lips Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots, which, despite being clearly flecked with the wild imagery of acid, has never been specifically declared as an LSD anthem.

Not only is the story that unfurls with Wayne Coynes lyricism a little on the odd side, but the singer is a known admirer of the drug. Couple this with the air-filled joy of the track and it isnt hard to draw a line between the two references.

One more addition from the Fab Four and while there are plenty of their songs inspired by drugs, and acid, in particular, this one was so neatly connected to the song we just had to add it in. Back in August 1965, The Beatles were holed up in a rented mansion hidden deep within the mountains above Beverly Hills, California. It was the perfect breeding ground for the newly famous Beatles to open up the taps on their celebrity and head straight for hedonism.

One such celebrity was Peter Fonda who somehow broke into the mansion to join the band during a particularly deep acid trip. For both Lennon and Harrison, this acid trip wasnt their first rodeo and, while believing in their new-found LSD enlightenment, the duo pushed both Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr to join them on their journey into the mind-melding trip. While Starr agreed, McCartney refused, Macca later shared his maiden voyage with his pal, Lennon.

As Harrison descended into a deep fear of death, Fonda tried to lighten up proceedings by recalling his own near-death experience. It stuck with Lennon and became the basis of the Revolver song She Said, She Said, the song written about Peter Fonda being suitably uncool, man.

What list about the musical effect of LSD would be complete without The Grateful Dead. Outwardly and openly honest about their consumption of the drug, before, during and after their infamous shows, the band rarely directly referenced it. Instead, Jerry Garcia et al would play their cards close to their chest.

The bands lyricist, Robert Hunter was also a well-known lover of the drug but was caught on the wrong side of it one fateful night when he drank an apple juice that contained a gram of crystal LSD, apparently worth over $50,000. During his trip, he experienced the deaths of Abraham Lincoln, JFK and many other assassinated figures.

When he had recuperated, it was enough to send Hunter to the drawing board with his pen and paper ready to write up the Deads tune Black Peter. It recalls the deaths of the aforementioned figures as well as his own as he writes: All of my friends come to see me last night / I was laying in my bed and dying / Annie Beauneu from Saint Angel / Say the weather down here so fine.

There is a paisley passion to of Montreal that quickly confirms their penchant for the drug. Their addition to the list is one of the most painstakingly obvious. Titled Lysergic Bliss in reference to the drug it leaves no questions to be asked of lead singer, Kevin Barnes as he lays it all out.

If we were a pair of jigsaw puzzle pieces / We would connect so perfectly, sings Barnes perhaps suggesting that he not only sought out experience with the drug but comfort too, he provides a new vision of the narcotic. While most songwriters focus on the mind-altering visuals or transportation cognitive behaviours, Barnes seemingly pens a complete love song to the warmth and comfort the escape gives him.

Released in 2008 as the titular track of Jenny Lewis album, Acid Togue was directly inspired by one fateful evening. Most of the songs on our list have a positive edge to their sound, Lewis, however, focuses on her first acid trip as a teen and how it shaped her life.

It culminated in a scene not unlike something from Fear and Loathing in Las Vegasthe scene where Hunter S. Thompson has to lock the lawyer in the bathroom., recalled Lewis when speaking to Rolling Stone. I sort of assumed the Hunter S. Thompson character and my friend she had taken far too much decided to pull a butcher knife out of the kitchen drawer and chase me around the house. That is not exactly what you need.

At the end of that experience, she continues, my mom was out of town on a trip of her own and she returned to find me about 5 lbs lighter and I hadI was so desperate to get back to normal I decided to drink an entire gallon of orange juice. I saw that it was in the fridge and decided that this would sort of flush the LSD out of my system, but I didnt realise that it did exactly the opposite.

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From The Beatles to The Grateful Dead: Seven classic songs inspired by LSD - Far Out Magazine

Its hard to tell if Andy Bell spent 18 months or 18 seconds pondering his outfit for the opening night of Erasures first post-pandemic tour an understated below-the-nipple bright blue corset and yellow tartan trews combination. Wonder Woman crossed with Lindsay Wagner Bionic Woman She-Ra slash Powerpuff Girl, he tells the crowd. Bells keyboard-prodding bandmate and studiously un-flamboyant foil Vince Clarke, in his inimitable having-none-of-it way, sports a trim grey suit, tie pin glinting under the stage lights.

The perennial bridesmaids of British synth-pop (32 consecutive UK Top 40 singles; only one No 1, the Abba-esque EP) are back to business, and its the fun and daft serotonin rush we all badly need. The duo have described their 18th album The Neon as a trip back to the beginning. Hey Now (Think I Got a Feeling) finds Bell beating the darkened city streets again, mildly off his box, looking for love and finding only empty hedonism, Clarkes vintage synth-scape cascading around him like sodium glow. The sound of new-old Erasure cant help but pale by comparison as the old-old classics drop Who Needs Love Like That, Blue Savannah and A Little Respect in the first half-hour alone but they remain a band who have never lost their essence.

A frontman from the say whatevers on your mind school of stage talk, Bell babbles entertainingly on his dislike for doing the dishes during lockdown, on messing with his iPads facial recognition technology by sometimes showing it his bum. Between the sight of two female backing singers in extravagant frocks swaying sweetly on an adult-sized swing set, and the morning-after tenderness of piano ballad New Horizons which leaves some in the crowd hugging tearfully, others sitting down for a breather its a heady cocktail.

The party hits a new high after Bell cuts loose quite literally, Clark theatrically snips him out of his corset with a pair of scissors for a final Hi-NRG dad-dancing flourish of Stop!, Victim of Love, Oh lAmour and Chains of Love. Lost in the moment and with hits still to burn as curfew comes, theyre practically chased off stage by the house lights going up.

This article was amended on 4 October 2021. A previous version stated that Erasure did not have a UK No 1 single; in fact, their 1992 EP Abba-esque reached No 1 on the UK singles chart.

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Erasure review a heady cocktail of corsets and classics - The Guardian

According to an excerpt from former White House Press Secretary Stephanie Grisham's new book, "I'll Take Your Questions Now: What I Saw in the Trump White House," former President Donald Trump told Grisham that Justin Trudeau's mother, Margaret, had sex "with all of the Rolling Stones."

The exchange on board Air Force One in early 2020, according to Grisham. The former president was in an overall "good mood" and chatted with Grisham about topics like going vegan.

"I was sitting with him in his cabin, and for whatever reason - maybe he had just read something or seen his face on TV - Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau popped into the president's head," Grisham says, setting up the exchange.

"Are you OK if I say this?" Trump reportedly prompted Grisham before making the bold claim.

"That was always a troubling question. Who knew what was going to come out of his mouth? Sure, I nodded," Grisham writes.

"Trudeau's mom. She [had sex with] all of the Rolling Stones," Trump said, according to Grisham's recounting.

Margaret Trudeau, the one-time wife of former Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau and current Prime Minister Trudeau's mother, is an author and actress. According to Vanity Fair, Margaret has lived a "life of glitz and unbridled hedonism," including a 1977 Rolling Stones concert where she reportedly "sang and strutted" and Mick Jagger's feet and "stared at him worshipfully throughout the performance."

She also hosted a party with the Stones in her hotel suite, only for Jagger to later tell the Evening Standard that Trudeau is a "very sick girl in search of something. She found it-but not with me. I wouldn't go near her with a barge pole."

For her part, Margaret Trudeau has denied any affair with members of the band, though she later said, at a conference on mental health, "I should have slept with every single one of them."

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Trump told his press secretary that Justin Trudeau's mom had sex with 'all of the Rolling Stones,' according t - Business Insider India