Cruel to be Kind: Will Birch + Nick Lowe (with Alison Stewart)
Вставка
- Опубліковано 26 сер 2024
- Join us as Nick Lowe and Will Birch as they talk about Birch’s new book covering Nick's career, along with with Alison Stewart, host of WNYC's hit show All of It! Purchase a copy of the book here:
www.strandbook...
Described as "Britain's greatest living songwriter," Nick Lowe has made his mark as a pioneer of pub rock, power-pop, and punk rock and as a producer of Elvis Costello, Graham Parker, the Damned, and the Pretenders. He has been a pop star with his bands Brinsley Schwarz and Rockpile, a son-in-law to Johnny Cash and June Carter Cash, and is the writer behind hits including "Cruel to Be Kind" and "(What's So Funny 'Bout) Peace, Love, and Understanding." In the past decades, however, he has distinguished himself as an artist who is equally acclaimed for the second act of his career as a tender yet sharp-tongued acoustic balladeer.
Biographer Will Birch has known Lowe for over forty years and melds Lowe's gift as a witty raconteur with his own authoritative analysis of Lowe's background and the cultural scenes he exemplifies. Lowe's parallel fame as one of the best interviews in the business will contribute to this first look into his life and work--and likely the closest thing fans will get to an autobiography by this notoriously charming cult figure.
This is not an authorized biography, but Lowe has given it his spiritual blessing and his management and label are fully on board. Cruel to Be Kind will be the colorful yet serious account of one of the world's most talented and admired musicians.
Will Birch is a former drummer and songwriter with the Kursaal Flyers ("Little Does She Know") and The Records ("Starry Eyes"). During the 1980s he moved into record production, working with such acts as Any Trouble, Dr Feelgood, Hollies, Billy Bremner (Rockpile) and the Long Ryders. Throughout the 1990s Will wrote many articles for MOJO and other music magazines. He is the author of No Sleep Till Canvey Island: The Great Pub Rock Revolution, and Ian Dury: The Definitive Biography. He lives near London.
Nick Lowe has made his mark as a producer (Elvis Costello, Graham Parker, Pretenders, The Damned), songwriter of at least three songs you know by heart, short-lived career as a pop star, and a lengthy term as a musicians’ musician. But in his current ‘second act’ as a silver-haired, tender-hearted but sharp-tongued singer-songwriter, he has no equal.
Starting with 1994′s The Impossible Bird, Nick has turned out a fantastic string of albums, each one devised in his West London home, and recorded with a core of musicians who possess the same veteran savvy. Lowe brings wit and understated excellence to every performance, leading Ben Ratliff of the New York Times to describe his live show as “elegant and nearly devastating.”
Alison Stewart is an award-winning journalist whose twenty-year career includes anchoring and reporting for NPR, NBC News, ABC News, and CBS News. She got her start covering politics for MTV News, and is currently a PBS correspondent and host. Stewart is a graduate of Brown University. She is the author of Junk: Digging Through America's Love Affair with Stuff.
Recorded September 10, 2019
What a treat for Nick these days. Loved by everybody, making music that he wants to make, loved by his fans. I only hope that perhaps the same thing happens to Graham Parker soon. A true peer.
I agree
"CRUEL TO BE KIND".....the title in itself is an attention grabber!!!🤗I'm 68 and a songwriter, I love the shine of his hair and a good example to other artists who have hung up their guitars!!! 🍰🥧Plus he writes most of his songs!!! I heard this when it first came out around 1981+82? And I was in my car after work and heard it for the first time and just flipped out and tried like crazy to hear it again and who it was!!! THANK YOU NICK!!! 🍦🍬🍭🧁🍩🍧❤️❤️❤️🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰
A Master songwriter,you can play his songs hundreds of times,and they still blow you away.He can write a good pop song, but some of them are so sensitive and deep,still retaining the simplicity and melody that makes you want to get up and dance.
How fortunate we all are to still have Nick Lowe, the most articulate musician I've ever heard.
Love cruel To be Kind, This has got to be the best version ever........Thanks Nick.
Love both of these guys, as well as Alison Stewart. Nick Lowe is easily one of the greatest songwriters, singers, bass players, producers of the 20th & 21st century.
"No Sleep 'til Canvey Island" is a must read for anyone interested in how British Rock 'n' Roll morphed from the breakup of The Beatles until the beginning of punk...via Pub Rock.
thanks for letting us "attend" through the magic of this video
He still got it, the man.
I have one of the pre release copies. With the family history in the beginning.
It's a great book! Nick is such an amazing artist. Go buy this book!
Nick Lowe is one hell of a guitar player,those chord shapes are mental.
Not sure what you're on about. Nick's not a fancy guitarist, those are just common major/minor fingerings.
The book is excellent! Well worth buying if you are a Nick Lowe fan.
I just saw Los Straightjackets w/X (12-13-22) nice poster; almost impossible to get ink to stick on it's 'pebbled'/dotted surface but lovely.
And, I recognize that Gent in the hat in the front left corner from here in SF. Every City needs some venue called The Strand: books, films, Indy stuff & to be Respected!
Lately I have been really loving Rose of England,but I've loved that song for over 20 years, never gets old.
Just seen this video now, 4 months later! Great book.
this makes me incredibly happy.
Reading the book now, quite enjoyable.
I did as well and enjoyed it very well
Great!!! So cool!!!!
Thanks for putting this up. Quite charming.
Fun to watch a great music producer/editor, talk about editing his biography...wonderful!
I'm going to have to look out for that book,haven't actually been to a bookshop for a while, I love a good music biography though.
Memorıes are made of thıs: Rockpıle at the Hammersmıth Palaıs, 1980 wıth Steve Nıeve playıng solo at the sıde of the stage prıor to the gıg. My oh my, unforgetable!
I was there. I remember Chris Difford and Terry Williams to name but two, entering the foyer, spotting Steve N and giving him the thumbs up. It was a matinee so Rockpile had to warm up a bit on a couple of old songs ("The race is on" was one) before they hit full strength. Highlight was Billy Bremner singing Carlene Carter's "Cry"; wasn't expecting it but great song. Brilliant gig.
Ah it seems like only yesterday that I was sitting in my neighbor's mother's car... usually after school I would attach myself to a girl in my class.
She was 13 and already well endowed lol. We would go sit in the garage and listen to the car radio.....quite often rockpile would be rotated in the mix... and I loved the band... still do
Just read it online with my beloved kindle I couldn't be happier well I could but you know Nick won't come by my house and play songs for me oh well
The book really is a great read. I still don’t think it ever cleared up why Rockpile broke up. Maybe there’s nothing really there. They were such a fabulous band that is sorely missed. Same thing with Little Village. They never looked comfortable onstage.
Must be some book,gets five stars in mojo
I don't profess to be a genealogist, but my own research traced the Lowe bloodline down to a tipsy but good-natured shrimp salesman in olde Hong Kong.
Great to see Alison Stewart. I wish she had her own journalism show on TV but she just never seems to stick on TV shows very long. I read her book "First Class" and used to watch her on that PBS show "Here and Now" or something like that. She should have her own weekend show. I don't get it, Charlie Rose was exposed for the sad pervert he was and now PBS runs all these damned repeats on the weekend. Why not give Alison Stewart a weekend show?? These stations just never can have any creativity of their own, just copy the 6 month fads.
This is a great Nick Lowe/Rockpile period piece, shot by the BBC in late 1978. When Will Birch asked Nick if he'd seen it over the last 40 years, Nick said, "I'd rather have my feet nailed to the floor and stare at the sun." ua-cam.com/video/lII5UptbIf0/v-deo.html