It is always dangerous to claim the birth of a particular genre of music, but a case can be made that 45 years ago on May 27 there was a major delivery — the arrival of British folk rock. The midwives at this event were the members of Fairport Convention, a group that is still wildly popular among aficionados of the genre and which spawned many others from Steeleye Span right though, arguably, to today’s Bellowhead and even the likes of Mumford & Sons and Fleet Foxes. What Fairport did when they showed up at Golders Green church hall in 1967 was blend traditional British folk music — all that finger-in-the-ear and dancing-’round-the-Maypole stuff — with some heavy rock. Yes, there was fiddle and the ... Continue reading →
In theory these would still fit Left outside the European Central Bank in the dead of night, the horse has now been moved into the ECB’s central lobby where it is proudly on display. A gift tag attached to the horse, which is surprisingly light for its size and has small holes along the length of its body, suggested that it should be placed in the bank’s vaults overnight to avoid it being targeted by thieves. Mario Draghi, President of the ECB, said: “How nice of the Greeks to acknowledge the trouble we’ve been put to on their behalf with this wonderful horse, handmade and so large it could hold a dozen double-decker buses. “The card with it, which had a teddy bear dressed as ... Continue reading →