Category Archives: Popular Culture

If there is a single problem with the annual Easter-weekend Bluesfest music festival in Byron Bay, it is deciding what to miss out on! It is hard not have “music envy”. Every year that I attend, there are headliners that I have to forfeit. Or there are the days or years that I don’t go at […]

View full post »

One of the many joys of the annual Easter long-weekend Byron Bay Bluesfest in coastal-eastern Australia is having talented performers from around the world brought to our doorstep. Some are musicians we have known and loved much of our lives; others are fresh young faces with edgy new material see:. Sometimes they bring with them music and […]

View full post »

Hong Kong has to be one of my favourite cities. The harbour, the skyline, the street markets, the parks, the culture, the shopping… Exotic and “oriental” while having all the familiar comforts of a large cosmopolitan city, Hong Kong buzzes with excitement, oozes with money, and, at the same time, feels accessible and safe. This sense of […]

View full post »

This year marked the 27th annual Byron Bay Bluesfest – that celebration of Blues and Roots music held every Easter in the sub-tropical Autumn on Australia’s East Coast. I love it! Now, I know I’ve said that before (Back to the Roots), but what else can you say about a collection of top-notch artists that ranges from acoustic solo performers and one-man […]

View full post »

“Let’s dance! Put on your red shoes and dance the blues…” David Bowie died earlier this month (January 10, 2016). There is no denying his influence over the zeitgeist of the era I grew up in, and the news of his death stunned me like a blow to the solar-plexis. All over the world, tributes have […]

View full post »