Dave Simpson

1 week ago | theguardian.com | Dave Simpson

The early 2000s guitar rock wave which made stars out of the Strokes and the White Stripes left noisier Cardiff post-hardcore types Mclusky underground, despite a hugely acclaimed album in 2002’s Mclusky Does Dallas. Still, two decades after their acrimonious split, the trio’s fourth album The World Is Still Here and So Are We – their first in 21 years – is getting rave reviews and they’re playing to packed houses.

2 weeks ago | theguardian.com | Dave Simpson

Almost 30 years after Weak gave the London band a global smash, Skunk Anansie’s “painful truth” is facing up to middle age, parenthood, the loss of a longstanding manager, fears that their best days were behind them and two members being diagnosed with cancer. Recorded with drummer Mark Richardson in recovery and bassist Cass undergoing chemotherapy, their first album in nine years confronts such issues with candour and defiance.

2 weeks ago | davecsimpson.wordpress.com | Dave Simpson

Ethan Hunt is back on the back screen to attempt to save the world one last time (allegedly) in Mission Impossible: The Final Reckoning, a thoroughly entertaining resolution to the cliffhanger on which Dead Reckoning ended two years ago and a definite step up from its 2023 predecessor.

2 weeks ago | theguardian.com | Dave Simpson

Kevin Godley, singer, songwriterLol Creme and I left 10cc at the height of the success because we felt things were starting to become repetitive. We came from an art school background and we were thinking visually. Even at that stage, there were two film-makers waiting to come out. We made a short video to promote our single An Englishman in New York, and thought the medium was brilliant.

3 weeks ago | davecsimpson.wordpress.com | Dave Simpson

Rebel Alliance agent Captain Cassian Andor’s story has just concluded – on the small screen at least, it’s no secret that it actually concluded very definitively on the big screen in 2016 – with the end of his titular TV show’s second and final season, which, while not quite as strong as season one, is an enthralling assortment of Star Wars stories that leads very smoothly into the movie to which it’s a prequel.