✱ Prima occasione di vedere Ross Wild on-stage in Europa! – First chance to see Ross Wild in Europe! Spandau Ballet introduce their new singer in three Italian shows 23–25 Oct in Milan, Rome and Padova. . . also two in the Netherlands, 27 Oct Utrecht, 28 Oct Tilburg… In London a one-off concert still has odd seats for the Apollo Hammersmith on 29 Oct, via Spandau Ballet tickets… Catch up on Martin, Ross and Gary’s very funny session on the Graham Norton R2 show from 6 October
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✱ Celebrating 40 years of music in her 60th year, Toyah Willcox remembers being styled as Medusa by Sean Chapman & photographed by Dean Stockings in 2007. Book for The Toyah60Tour’s four anniversary gigs 26 Oct, 1,2,4 Nov via Ticketweb – “Live with full electric band”
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✱ Photographic innovator Peter Ashworth is mounting a major retrospective of his career in music (Eurythmics’ Annie Lennox, pictured) and fashion from street to high-concept marketing since first shooting Visage in 1979. Open Tue–Sun noon till 5pm, from 16 Nov–8 Dec at Lever Gallery, 153 Goswell Rd, EC1V 7HD
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✱ For Dazed’s summer issue, its cover brings together “the characters making Britain truly great in 2018” over the heading Youth Is Revolting. So what’s the white-haired little old lady doing down front in the blue shirt that’s too big for her?
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✱ Welcome back Rhoda Dakar – we’ve missed you! The former vocalist with The Bodysnatchers and The Specials/Special AKA brings her band to London’s 100 Club for one night only on 7 December 2018. Your gritty single, The Boiler, brought dignity to the pop charts of 1982, and contributed a high spot to the year.
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✱ Johnny Marr gets magical with his new album. Recorded with his band in Manchester at his Crazy Face studios, Call The Comet introduces 12 tracks and is out now. The third solo record from the ex-Smiths guitarist follows 2013’s critically acclaimed The Messenger and 2014’s Playland, both of which made the UK top 10. Marr says: “Call The Comet is set in the not-too-distant future and is mostly concerned with the idea of an alternative society. It’s my own magic realism.” Touring Sept-Dec – tickets direct from Call The Comet Tour 2018.
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✱ Ex-Spandau singer Tony Hadley’s Talking To The Moon UK tour visits seven venues 8–17 October 2018 including The London Palladium. . . View Tone’s first YouTube music video – for his new single Tonight Belongs To Us, from new album Talking To The Moon … Hadley’s events list gives his live dates through to his Stepback! 80s Christmas Concert, 22 Dec in Coventry
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✱ 35 Years of No Parlez – Paul Young’s 16-date autumn tour from 29 Sept, Hastings to London Palladium 24 Oct
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✱ Latest from legendary Blitz Club deejay and remixer Rusty Egan: Welcome to the Remix at Bandcamp, plus Welcome to the Beach in which Austrian producer HP Hoeger and Egan have taken last year’s Welcome to the Dance Floor and transformed it for the beach with additional musicians joining in and adaptations and spoken word. . . More Egan mixes at Mixcloud. . . and personal playlists at Soundcloud. This man seems to own the interweb.
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✱ Jeff Young on Jazz FM recently made the new 18-track Siren his album of the week. Superbly crafted by Londoner Robb Scott, with strong supporting lineup, for the Expansion label. Soul Brother Records says: “A collection of classy soul/jazz grooves on that has jazz at its heart but with some superb soulful brushstrokes applied.” Purchase directly from the artist’s store
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✱ Heaven 17 promise a spectacular celebration tour of The Luxury Gap for 10 dates 9 Nov–8 Dec from Northampton, via London 30 Nov to Sheffield. They say their 1983 album is “a sly, post-modern, critique of modern society and has never been so necessary”
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✱ One Nation Under the Groove – Wag club legend Chris Sullivan currently resident on Fridays at Mau Mau, 265 Portobello Road “which looks like a New York rhythm ’n’ blues soul bar.” Playing rare funk and disco from the likes of Mantus, Father Time,The Kinsman Band plus Parliament, Bohannon and Larry Young – sample him at Mixcloud. . . Sullivan’s book Rebel Rebel, “a riotous history of people and things that broke the mould”, is due from Unbound soon
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✱ BBC Music’s rolling news updates live throughout the week
I’ve heard that he is currently working with Martin Gore, trying to write the ultimate synth classic… let’s hope for the best!