Morrissey appeared this week on The Late, Late Show With James Corden, giving a bravura, if clap-happy, performance of his new single, a cover version of ‘Back On The Chain Gang’. Originally released in 1982 by The Pretenders, written and sung by the indomitable Chrissie Hynde, I’ve always liked this… Read More »Back On The Chain Gang
Mark Simpson on how George Michael was the missing, subversive gay link between Bowie and Beckham (Rolling Stone, 28/12/2016) Back in the early 1980s, I was one of those annoying ‘alternative’ teens who, when pressed, would admit they quite liked ‘Wham Rap!’, which extolled the freedoms of unemployment (‘I’m a… Read More »The Straightness of George Michael
By Mark Simpson IN THE EARLY YEARS of the 1980s, stretch jeans were all the rage. Stretch jeans and The Human League’s Dare. Both were revolutionary but practical and, when wrapped around youth, snugly-smugly invincible. I was sweet sixteen when Dare was released in 1981 and it confirmed all the psychoses of teenagerdom. We… Read More »Stretch Jeans & Synthpop: The Human League’s ‘Dare’