La Grande Dame

In the history of comedy and entertainment there has never been a character quite like her. There can be no imitators for she is truly unique; a cultural and comedic phenomenon. Armed with a crooked, wide-lipped smile, bejewelled gowns, an acid tongue and the most iconic pair of glasses in the world she has been dishing out her goodly brand of housewife wisdom for over fifty years to an adoring audience. She has been granted audience with some of the biggest stars in the world, cites herself as a friend and confidante to the Queen and now has her own line of make-up. And as this hapless journalist was about to find she can also inject a certain spookiness into a routine interview.

Razor-lite

Million selling albums, celebrity girlfriends, debaucherous revelry, charity gigs. Razorlight seem to embody all that is required for rock canonisation so why do the press constantly paint lead singer Johnny Borrell as a twat? Real Groove goes in search of the real Johnny Borrell.

Clubland March

Maybe it's the recession, perhaps it's the planetary alignment or it could even be down to Kanye's fashion mantourage making everyone pick their game up a little but there seems to be a wealth of incredible releases out there at the moment.

Mark Broom has been a constant figure on the techno scene since the mid nineties and unlike some of his peers has seemed to be able to adapt and push his sound with the times. He's pushing a particularly prolific level of output at the moment with no fewer than six releases to his name this year already.

No End In Sight

I love surprises; they relieve you of life's constant drudge through mundaneness, a breath of fresh air into the stale lungs of reality. Though some surprises are best left as the tantalising, unrealised morsel of promise they promote. To that end I was recently invited to a special function to celebrate the release of U2's latest collection of important music. It was to be held at a prestigious London hotel and would be followed by a big surprise!

Clubland February

The word purist used to get bandied around a lot when talking about techno in the 1990's. It was often in deference to the work of the (largely) Detroit and Berlin artists of the time as their music was tarred by association with the crude, cheesy Eurodance shtick of groups like 2 Unlimited and Aqua. The word became synonymous with the likes of Jeff Mills, Robert Hood, Derrick May and Underground Resistance; it was also a phrase used by ardent fans to align themselves with techno from the right side of the tracks.

Clubland January

There's something to be said for a sultry, disaffected German vocal electronic tune. The first time they won me over was back in 1983 when Nena's 99Luftballoons filled my ears with it's soft yearning incoherence. One year earlier Falco did the same thing when he cooed cool warnings about cocaine excess with Der Kommissar but I later found out he was Austrian so I'm not sure if that counts. In more recent years the Kompakt Pop series have catered to this penchant of mine for Kraut pop and steely synth tracks.

Peaches Geldof

FAME AND THE GIANT PEACHES
You'd be forgiven for forming an opinion on Peaches Geldof without meeting her. Splashed all over the tabloids, you can chart her ill-mannered escapades and impetuosity almost weekly; a marriage here, a near overdose there, a bitchy jibe sprinkled on top. Dig a little deeper and you can also find a young girl trying to forge her way in the world on her own merits, escape the endless comparisons to her dead mother and perhaps lastly, trying to enjoy a youth that all of the above has so far seemed to deny her.

Clubland 2008 in Review

So another year's diary heads towards obsolescence, presents are bought for nearest and dearest and we here at Real Groove mark off the time by summing up the year that was in music. 2008 has been an interesting year as far as techno and house are concerned. As an inevitable backlash to the rise of minimal that was suddenly branded as big and cool in 2007, house music made a proper comeback this year. It's not a necessarily fair comment to say that house music was foundering before that, because further inspection of some of the keys players this year (label Drumpoet Community, producer Sascha Dive for example) reveals a success achieved in 2008 but groundwork that stretches back many years.

The Killers

As one of the biggest bands in the world puts the finishing touches on album number three Real Groove ponders the cost of being at the top with Brandon Flowers.

If Brandon Flowers isn't guarded, then he's at least being a little bit weary. Arranging himself on a nondescript designer sofa in a roomy hotel suite, he appears coiled, ready for flight, ready for anything but than to answer another run of inquisitions about forthcoming album Day & Age. It is his last interview of three days solid questioning by international press so we can forgive The Killers front man for a certain reticence.

DEADBEAT

These are exciting times we live in. No, no, please keep reading. I'm not going to talk about the US elections. I couldn't give a toss, really. I'm referring to the astounding quality and fair quantity of albums being released that are patiently stacking themselves into my listen-to list this year.

Earlier in the year Sascha Funke, Loco Dice, Minilogue and The Mole all released superb albums. In the latter parts of 2008 we've had substantial additions from Shed, Stefan Goldmann, Headhunter and the topic of today's discussion, Deadbeat, with Roots and Wire.