Little evokes as eye-watering a Proustian rush as images of Waddington’s Horror Top Trumps. Despite my best efforts, I have not been able to ascertain the artist of the two packs of cards released in the 1970s, their felt-tip pen work now sadly attributed to ‘anonymous’. It was a German company, Dubreq, who first devised […]
Since the late 1960s, zombies have become one of the most referenced monsters in popular culture, whether it be film, literature or art. It makes sense – creatures that are essentially ‘us’ as the greatest threat to our survival, killing and consuming us for no reason other than an inherent, primal desire are going to […]
All God’s Children – Songs From The British Jesus Rock Revolution 1967-1974 I’m hoping it wouldn’t be terribly unreasonable to express surprise that there was a Jesus rock revolution – at any point! At least, that was my first thought. 1967-1974 is an odd period to highlight as one to probe for answers, given that it […]
There will be a great number of people in the world who think Brian May, the guitarist from Queen, wrote the music for the film ‘Mad Max’. This is perfectly understandable to a point – the dates work out and he has a history of working on films (‘Flash Gordon’ and ‘Highlander’ most obviously, but […]
An Overview of Horror Films Transformed into Comics Forgive the slightly hand-holding title but there is, of course, a very big distinction between comics which were based on horror films and those which spawned films. Very much the errant cousin of film novelisations, this strand of comic allowed the writer and illustrator to ‘finish off’ […]
Various Artists – ‘March of the Flower Children – The American Sounds of 1967’ ‘March of the Flower Children’, as well as delivering exactly what you might well expect, is cunning enough to throw in the odd curveball. Yes, three discs of sounds from 1967 include psych, pop, and daisy sniffing, but there’s also a […]
If you believe in God, the inevitable consequence is that you must also believe in the Devil. Fond of saints and angels? There are a surprising number of their dark counterparts to acquaint yourself with. You can’t have it all your own way. The big surprise is that the story of the Devil and his […]
BAD NEWS Every Mistake Imaginable – The Complete Frilly Pink Years 1987-1988 1991. The Berlin Wall has fallen only a few weeks ago. The Iron Curtain has given way, the shackles on the Eastern Bloc have been wrenched asunder, and the world watched agog as the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics dissolved. Meanwhile, cloaked by […]
Martin Denny – Deep Exotica Music From Martin Denny’s Lush Lounge Righteous/Cherry Red Records There aren’t many genres of music where you could confidently, hand on heart say that one particular artist was the absolute pinnacle of their art. However, with all due respect to spluttering fans who would put forward someone else as an […]
The Lasry-Baschet Sound Structures might not be the go-to group on Spotify right now, I really couldn’t say. However, it would give humanity as a whole a tremendous boost if everyone were to run out immediately and listen to their remarkable, otherworldly creations. There are some composers who worked for years to bring to life […]
