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Articles by Michael Stuart

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About Michael Stuart

After university, Michael spent twelve years working for MELODY MAKER before going freelance. He claims to keep doing it because it is all he knows. More Posts

John Wilson Orchestra/ Brighton Dome

There is an awful lot of snobbery in music, not least in its classification of classical, light orchestral and pop. Occasionally you read the the Beatles produced the classical music of our generation or that if Puccini or Verdi were composing nowadays they would be producing musicals. One [...]

November 10, 2015 // 0 Comments

Magic of Motown/ Theatre Royal Brighton

I don’t really enjoy nor appreciate tribute bands and rock musicals so I was apprehensive last night about The Magic of Motown. It was a dedication to the great Motown artists of the sixties and seventies, Stevie Wonder, Marvin Gaye, Smokey Robinson, Diana Ross and Gladys Knight. Six black [...]

October 17, 2015 // 0 Comments

A Rock and Roll hero is something to be …

No apologies from me for being a Rolling Stones fan – when about fifteen years ago I took part in a survey conducted by a family member I picked their 1971 and 1972 albums Sticky Fingers and Exile on Maine Street among my Top Ten all-time favourites – thus any reservations or criticisms [...]

September 18, 2015 // 0 Comments

Back where it all began

Last night, after my first visit to the gym for about a month, I settled down to make my evening ‘TV dinner’ meal and watch my recording of Up On Cyprus Avenue [originally transmitted on BBC Four on the evening of Sunday 6th September], which had been billed as the highlights of two concerts [...]

September 8, 2015 // 0 Comments

The summer concert / Schonbrunn Palace, Vienna

I have followed the discussions  on the Rust of the pros and cons of attending a sporting event or watching it in the comfort of your own home. The same applies to the performing arts. Last night BBC 4 transmitteda the summer concert from the Schonbrunn Palcae in Vienna performed by the Viennese [...]

July 6, 2015 // 0 Comments

It’s more complicated than you think

About every six or seven years my brother runs a musical survey which he sends out to all his pals – and indeed, via that constituency, accepts responses from anyone else (e.g. family members, friends, acquaintances) that they make aware of its existence. The survey has a very simple structure [...]

June 3, 2015 // 0 Comments

Barely leaving the pier

Although as the Rust’s ‘music man’ I am entrusted with commenting upon all kinds of music and performer, like any human being I have my heroes. A personal favourite of mine is Brian Wilson, the mastermind behind the Beach Boys, whom I regard as one of the greats of the past seventy five [...]

May 25, 2015 // 0 Comments

Trucking into town

From time to time, as part of a bonding process with our North American cousins and their descendants, the Stuart men-folk on both sides of the Atlantic swap suggestions for rock/pop gigs that might be worth attending. About ten years ago we in Blighty received a strong recommendation from our [...]

March 1, 2015 // 0 Comments

A man who ploughed his own furrow

Joe Cocker, the Sheffield-born rock and blues singer died yesterday in America, where he had lived for most of the past forty years. His distinctive rasping, soulful voice earned him many plaudits and fans, not least amongst journalists and major rock artistes around the world. Having always sung [...]

December 23, 2014 // 0 Comments

The slippery slope

It is in the spirit of the urgings of our esteemed editor that – in amongst anything else we might offer – we should shed light upon our descent into senility by noting aspects of our decline whenever we come across them that I begin my post today. The past 36 hours have not been amongst my [...]

December 9, 2014 // 0 Comments

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