WILL STONE fact-checks the colourful life of Ozzy Osbourne
Robert Smith's memorable Meltdown
The Cure legend is in charge of this year's festival and it got off to a very impressive start, says MIK SABIERS
MEMORABLE: The Psychedelic Furs
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
Meltdown
South Bank, London
THE SOUTH Bank’s annual Meltdown Festival is a celebration of music, art and performance that allows one artist to not just make their mark but show their influences and inspiration.
For the special 25th anniversary celebration this year, and following in the footsteps of such luminaries as John Peel, Patti Smith, David Bowie and Yoko Ono, the curator is none other than the enigmatic Robert Smith of goth legends The Cure — he of the smudged lipstick, eyeliner and birds-nest hair.
Over 10 days Meltdown is hosting a wide roster of bands and events, all under the watchful eye of Smith, with post-punk rockers the Psychedelic Furs opening the festival to a packed house at the Royal Festival Hall.
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