WILL STONE fact-checks the colourful life of Ozzy Osbourne
What folk music is all about
A trio of new releases moves body and soul
LIKE NOBODY ELSE: Headsticks
JAMES CROSSLEY applauds a lucid biography of the German radical preacher who reemerged as a hero in the GDR
Prizes all round: the Bard hands plaudits to the Miners Gala, OT&JC, Joe Solo, Black Sabbath’s frontman and the Lionesses
Star cartoonist JAMIE BRITTON is in awe of a graphic novel of epic proportions that explores class, religion and globalisation via the strange cultivation of Ginseng in the US Midwest
GUILLERMO THOMAS is intrigued by a history of the Middle East that demonstrates how promising post colonial beginnings were snuffed out by Western imperialist interests
MARIA DUARTE recommends the intricate study of a high-performance and highly dysfuntional German family
BY SHEER coincidence, three wonderful albums have just come out, all of which take folk music by the scruff of the neck, stick it through a proper amplifier and get your brain cells and feet moving, which is what such music is for.
Two of them feature brand new material from a brace of our finest and most popular outfits. The third is a valedictory blast from the co-leader of one of the finest bands this country has ever produced.
Let’s start with Stefan Cush, who so sadly died of a heart attack aged just 60 on February 4. Along with Swill Odgers he was the heart and soul of The Men They Couldn’t Hang, whose anthemic, rousing and politically inspirational songs have provided me with a soundtrack to my life and many stage-sharing moments for nearly four decades.
More from this author
Back from a mini tour of Yorkshire and Stockport and cheering for supporting act Indignation Meeting
Given the global plague of Agent Orange, the bard channels his energy into community self-help
In which we accompany the Bard into Cymru to meet his musical accomplices, young and old
The bard ditches an unspecial relationship, encounters a new subdivision of metal, and discovers the cure for a stiff neck
