Hitting The Penthouse And Pavement: Whatever Happened To Ian Craig Marsh?

By Emily Carney

Confession: I am a massive fan of the early output of the Human League (Reproduction and Travelogue era) and Heaven 17. I still have my vinyl copies of Penthouse and Pavement, The Luxury Gap, and How Men Are at my disposal. If anyone needs some surprisingly undated anti-capitalistic-fat-cat synthesizer masterpieces, please locate these albums right now.

At any rate, the small contingent of Heaven 17 fans which still linger to this day are well aware that the group still exists with two of its iconic three-man lineup—Glenn Gregory, the Rutger Hauer-esque, smooth-as-hell lead singer; and Martyn Ware, the mustachioed evil synth genius who had an ax to grind with one Phil Oakey (you know, the asymmetrically-haired one from the Human League).

But my question is, what the hell ever happened to my personal favorite member of H17, Ian Craig Marsh?
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“And Then It All Went Wrong”—VH1’s Behind The Music

By Emily Carney

Finally, the Rock Gods have heard my prayers, and they are bestowing unto us an episode of VH1’s infamous rockumentary series Behind the Music on. . . the Rock Widow of the Ages herself, Courtney Love.

This show will debut on June 21, and previews have shown it to be, well. . . interesting. At two hours length, I am curious if it will fill the void left from the 2006 Return of Courtney Love documentary from the UK’s Channel 4; will it address her musical output instead of her many tabloid travails over the last decade?
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Images Of Peter: Finding Peter Godwin, Part Two

Interview by Emily Carney

In this continuation of Popshifter’s interview with singer/musician Peter Godwin from our January/February 2010 issue, Peter discusses his memorable music videos, musical production, his new album with his project Nuevo, and plans for future projects.
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Torch Songs for the Heroin(e): Hole, Nobody’s Daughter

By Emily Carney

“You don’t understand how damaged we really are.” This is a lyric from the opening track of the “new” Hole album, Nobody’s Daughter, which seems like it has been 1,000 years or so in the making. (Well, it certainly has been feted by Courtney Love for the last five years or so). This is the “comeback” album, the one that has weathered all the setbacks, like drug issues, family problems, bad hair weaves, and ill-advised plastic surgeries.
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Joy Division’s Grandkids: Ceremony: A New Order Tribute & Reissues From The Other Two

By Emily Carney

Tony Wilson, the pretentious but well-meaning head of Factory Records (lovingly and hilariously immortalized by Steve Coogan in the 2002 film 24 Hour Party People) may be no more, but it goes without saying that his legend still exists—and how could it not? This is the man who made possible such bands as Joy Division and the Happy Mondays (who were good in their heyday, really). Since his death, the bassist for the now-defunct New Order, Peter Hook, has sort of appointed himself as the ambassador of Manchester’s musical history.
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Irish Folk With A Twist: Frank Tovey and The Pyros, Grand Union

By Emily Carney

Starting in the late 1980s, Frank Tovey (also known as Fad Gadget, whose music and general adventures were chronicled in a past Popshifter article) departed from avant-garde synth-pop, and started making Irish folk records.

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Images of Peter: Finding Peter Godwin

Interview and introduction by Emily Carney

Cherchez la femme: “Images of Heaven”

Years ago (it’s been so long, I’ve forgotten what year it was exactly), I was watching one of those late night “alternative” music shows on MTV, looking for videos by my then-favorites, Joy Division and New Order (I regularly bored friends to tears in school gushing about these two bands). I thought it was slightly insulting that the very best musical artists around were only seen on a Sunday night at 12:00 a.m. and later.

I had a crappy circa-1983 VHS recorder I would tape these videos on. . . I remember these tapes were filled with old-wave hits. Pete Shelley’s “Homosapien,” the Psychedelic Furs “Love My Way,” and the Human League’s “Love Action (I Believe in Love)” were just a few of the videos I remember seeing over and over again on extremely grainy videotape.

. . . But I digress. This one particular night a video by a guy called Peter Godwin flickered to life on the Magnavox TV screen. It was called “Images of Heaven” and it straddled the line between being ridiculously 1980s and strangely intriguing. The plot of the video included a man living in a rather sophisticated townhouse (with a spiral staircase!) being tormented by a sexy woman who existed in his television, and in his mind. His apartment was filled with fur, leopard-skin rugs, and silver couch cushions. (I’ll bet it smelled like Opium by Yves Saint Laurent.)
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We’re Still Watching: Pierre Trudeau in the 1970s

By Emily Carney

When I was a kid, we had these volumes and volumes of World Book Encyclopedia “Year Books” in the house; they came as subscription updates with our set, and were a summation of the events of the previous year (this was obviously way before the Internet).

In my house, we had the entire set from the 1970s, and when I was bored (which was often) I would make my way through these books. I kept noticing that a guy named Pierre Trudeau would frequently pop up, especially in the “Canada” section, usually looking glamorous, distinguished, yet slightly disheveled, and frequently with his gorgeous wife Margaret. They looked exactly like film stars, but weren’t. Being American, I had no clue who Trudeau was, so I assumed he was simply just some nameless, faceless personality from the 1970s who didn’t make much of a dent here in the US or internationally.

Damn, how wrong I was!
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You Only Die Twice: Casey Johnson Died For Your Tweets

By Emily Carney

It’s only six days into 2010, and already we’ve been forced to endure the dumbest hype over a celebrity death ever. Casey Johnson, the openly gay Johnson & Johnson heiress who has recently gained headlines for committing grand theft and getting engaged to (of all people) Internet “celebrity” Tila Tequila, was found dead in her residence on the morning of January 4 due to (guess what?) “natural causes.”
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Best Of 2009: By Emily Carney

Gogol Bordello at The Ritz in Ybor City, July 2009

Gogol Bordello put on a fantastic show despite the gymnastic theatrics of kiddie fans who only wanted attention and to “shock.” Ukrainian gypsy punk folk hero Eugene Hütz did not disappoint; his on-stage exuberance electrified the crowd for a full 90 minutes. The rest of the band gave it their all as well.

. . . And so did the crowd, unfortunately. I managed to leave with no fewer than 35 bruises on various parts of my anatomy from overeager crowd surfers. Despite all of this, I left happy and quite dazed, as the band happily greeted fans back at their tour bus and enthusiastically welcomed our requests for autographs and some music chatter. Everyone was overwhelmed by this superstar band’s European brand of generosity, both artistically and otherwise.
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