Ted Kessler
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Former editor of magazines that no longer exist. geni.us/PaperCuts Also, The New Cue: thenewcue.substack.com
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Articles by Ted Kessler
The New Cue #636 October 23: Natalie Bergman, Michael Kiwanuka, Willie J Healey, Dean Blunt, Anderson.Paak & Cordae, Manics, Edgar Jones With The Agnostic 5, Comb, Hank, Bicep, The Avalanches
Good morning, Here we are again, ready for another round of prime Recommender action, which has actually already happened because we usually leave the intro until last and it doesn’t get written until after some passive-aggressive WhatsApps between us about who is going to write it and put the edition together.
The New Cue #635 October 19: James Acaster
Good morning, You join us today for a Life & Times with the legend that is James Acaster, the comedian, writer, broadcaster, podcaster, Ghostbuster associate, Traitor and musician. It’s that last one he was repping when he spoke to me – Niall here, hello – over Zoom last week. Later this month, his long-defunct duo The Wow! Scenario will release their debut album Stand In The Star. A Verse And A Chorus.
Fontaines D.C., Marika Hackman, Eels, Jess Williamson, Troye Sivan, dEUS, Sam Herlihy, Richard Thompson, Orbi
Good morning, evening and everything else in between, Welcome to this week’s Recommender edition, delivering words and sounds to your inbox since 2021. Much more of that coming your way today, but first let us take a moment to try and convince those amongst you who aren’t paying subscribers to come on board.
The New Cue #633 October 12: Clint Boon of Inspiral Carpets
“Who’s shouting now?” Good morning, Last Monday, I, Ted, Zoomed it up with Clint Boon of Inspiral Carpets from his home in Stockport, our trusty Life & Times questions by my side. Clint is going through a late career renaissance.
The New Cue #632 October 9: This Is The Kit, John Glacier, Star Moles, Fionn Regan, Lacrosse Club, Marital Bed, OR, Clara Mann, Twisted Teens, Michael Kiwanuka, The Big Moon, Everyone Says Hi
“Old music’s cool, but new music can change your wardrobe...” Good morning, Welcome, once again, to a watershed week for new music, some of which we will describe below the line. There’s an English guy on the Internet, popular Instagram page I believe, who has a schtick that he kicks off most posts with about how “new music is cool, but have you heard old music…” No shade. Good on him for sharing his knowledge and taste. I love old music too.
The New Cue #631 October 5: Johnny Marr
“I’ve never been an actual Pet Shop Boy, but near as damn it” Good morning, You join us today for a Life & Times interview with indie-rock national treasure Johnny Marr. Johnny’s new solo album The Age Of Everything came out on Friday and I highly recommend that you stick it on whilst you read: It’s an excellent record, one that feels like a jubilant culmination of everything Johnny has been doing as a solo artist over the past decade.
The New Cue #630 October 2: Fontaines D.C., Mogwai, SOAK, 7ebra, Victoryland, Greg Freeman, Blackhaine, Johnny Marr, Fat Dog, Lime Garden, Vincent Davies
“Everything sucks, I’m so sad and dumb all the time.” Good morning ledges, Welcome to another round of Recommender shenanigans from your hosts Niall and Ted. It’s Ted’s birthday tomorrow so don’t forget to wish him a happy birthday and buy him a pint if you bump into him.
The New Cue #629 September 28: E from Eels
What we’ve got for you today is a cracker of a Life & Times interview with E, aka Mark Oliver Everett, aka the ringleader and songwriter supreme of Eels, the band who turn up with a reliably excellent new album of sweetly melodic and lyrically wise indie-rock every two years. Their latest gem is called Cookie Happened and arrives in mid-October. It’s Niall here, and I spoke to E over Zoom a few weeks ago.
The New Cue #628 September 25: Jenny Sparks x 300SkullsAndCounting, Gurriers, The Cindys, Queens of The Stone Age, Julia Jacklin, RIP Magic, Basht., 7ebra
It’s Friday, nearly the weekend, come on! But it’s the international break so there’s no league football, just nonsense Nations League qualification. What are we going to do to while away the hours? Who knows, maybe listen to some music (insert face with glasses and buck teeth emoji) and boogie? Allow us then to suggest some below in our Friday Recommender edition. It’s a really good week for releases, a couple of stand-outs that you get tasters of here… Or here for the Apple Music crew.
The New Cue #627 September 21: Charles Hendy of The Mary Wallopers
Last Friday, Dundalk’s magnificent Mary Wallopers released their rollicking third album, Paddywhackery, produced by James Skelly of The Coral. I urgently advise you to put it on right now. It’s a good way to start any week. Meanwhile, last Monday I, Ted, got on the old Zoom with main man Charles Hendy. He was at home in Ireland, preparing to leave on a run of “guerrilla gigs”, including this week in Liverpool and London. “I'm feeling tired,” he admitted. “I'm feeling very tired.
Mary Wallopers, Beck, C.O.F.F.I.N., Kevin Morby, Dragonflies, Lottie Brazier, Shadowman
Welcome to your weekly dose of Recommender, a dose that will be even more potent by the time it’s delivered because TK has just messaged me to say he’s going to add some more stuff when he’s back from doing whatever it is he’s doing. Being a man about town, I hope, with a pint or two thrown in at some point, god willing. Hey, here’s this week’s playlist, press play and it’s all yours: And here it is for all you Apple Music cats.
The New Cue #625 September 14: Beth Orton
In June this year, I asked about a Beth Orton interview for our coveted Life & Times slot. She had a beautiful, elemental, self-produced new album called The Ground Above out that month, one of our favourites of the year, and it seemed as if the stars were aligning. Such a good record. It slipped through the cracks for a few months, until in August, during the week of the eclipse, I, Ted, Zoomed with her at her home down the road in London.
300Skulls AndCounting & Jenny Sparks, Mynolia, The Avalanches, June McDoom, The Tubs, La Ren
Good morning, Here we go for another Recommender edition, one that includes a couple of releases that have completely changed and improved my week, which is exciting. You’ll have to read below the line to find out more, of course, and to do that you’ll need to be a paying subscriber. It’s a club that enables twice weekly delivery of both New Cue editions, plus full access to our archive that now stretches beyond five years. You’ll also be honestly able to wear a badge that reads “I Am A Ledge”.
The New Cue #623 September 7: Kevin Rowland
Good morning, You join us today for a Life & Times (and near-death) natter with Dexys Midnight Runners don Kevin Rowland. On Friday, Dexys released their new album Love. Kevin has said it could be their last, although he has made similar noises before. Either way, it’s sumptuous and soulful and a hell of a way to go out: It’s Niall here. A couple of weeks ago, I hopped on a Zoom to speak to Kevin for today’s edition. He was feeling a little peaky but he talked his way into it.
The New Cue #622 September 4: Dexys Midnight Runners, DIIV, Clinic, Saskia, The Dresden Dolls, Cosign, Fat Dog, MorMor, Computerwife
Good morning everyone, Welcome to your Friday Recommender edition, wherein we recommend the week’s releases that have most tickled our fancies - I don’t know what that means either - and also bung in a Release Valve interview if we remember to get that together. This week we have, it’s with Amanda Palmer. It’s a good one and she’s sent in a better-than-usual selfie with it, too. But you only get to see and read all that if you subscribe. Sorry, I don’t make the rules, except in this case.
The New Cue #621 August 28: Interpol, Erykah Badu & The Alchemist, Johnny Marr, Queens Of The Stone Age, Heathers, Jeshi, Sam Herlihy, Bedouine, Julia Jacklin
Good morning crew, Welcome to a bumper Recommender edition, with two Release Valve Q&As amidst our regular selection of new music picks. A lot of great vibes to get stuck into, but only if you are in possession of a full TNC access-all-areas pass, which costs £5 a month and is just one click away: Our eternal thanks to our paying subscribers, we think you are the absolute nuts. Here’s this week’s playlist: Oh you’re more of an Apple Music sort, are you? Well, here you go.
The New Cue #620 August 24: Pauline Black
Good morning, You join us today for an enjoyable Life & Times chinwag with ska legend Pauline Black, the singer and irrepressible frontperson of The Selecter. Next week, her band release a sprawling box set collating their BBC recordings titled At The BBC: The Complete Recordings 1979-1981. Here they are on Look! Hear! in 1980: Pauline spoke to me, Niall, on Zoom a few weeks ago. Very funny, very affable, and very I would not like to be on the receiving end of the temper she talks about.
The New Cue #619 August 21: Denzil Curry, Erykah Badu, Getdown Services, The Womack Sisters, Julia Holter, The Cramps, Westside Cowboy, Fontaines D.C., Wishy, Sorry, Biita Houdei
Good morning, Don’t call it a comeback unless you really want to, but after a week away with Covid contracted somewhere between Ibiza and East London I am happy to return to the greatest home-working I can imagine: The New Cue, in this instance the Friday Recommender.
The New Cue #618 August 17: Greg Dulli
Good morning TNC crew, You join us on this fine Monday, which has only just started but now that we’ve said that it has no choice but to be fine, for a lovely Life & Times chat with Greg Dulli. Niall here. I joined Greg for a face-to-face chat in London last month. It was the Monday morning after England had beaten Mexico in the middle of the night, I was tired, I was weary, I was wondering why I’d opened another can at 4am, but Greg brought me back to the land of the living.
Rowena Wise, 7ebra, Django Django, Gurriers, Sadurn, Garefowl
Good morning, We’re a man down this week as Ted brought a little dose of Covid back from holiday with him. Thoughts and prayers, TK. No Covid for me, although I did come back from holiday with a cold sore which is an absolutely fantastic look, 45 years of that thrilling tingle and it still hasn’t got old, always so exciting to see how it might misshape my face. Highly recommend!!! Just my Recommender today, then. I hope you like it. I’m quite needy so if you don’t, just pretend.
The New Cue #616 August 10: Saul Williams
Good morning, We’re extremely happy to welcome the multi-talented and acclaimed American rapper, singer, songwriter,poet, writer, director and actor Saul Williams to the Life & Times hot seat this morning. On August 28, Saul releases Leap Life, his first solo album in seven years, returning to Big Dada, where he took his first musical steps in the 90s.
The New Cue #615 August 7: DIIV, The Cindys, Overmono, Keyside, TV For Cats, Rowena Wise, Westside Cowboy, Sam Burton, The Wow! Scenario
Good morning, This week’s Recommender comes courtesy of WhatsApp messages flying across the continent between me and Ted, both of us on holiday, him in Ibiza, me in Cornwall. Maybe one day we’ll go on holiday together. But not this year, nope, this time we were with our families, leaving them hanging whilst we went and dug out some quality time for our Recommenders. We did it. The proof is just a couple of scrolls away.
The New Cue #614 August 3: James Ellis Ford
Good morning, You join us today for a heartening Life & Times chat with James Ellis Ford, the producer, songwriter and musician who will release his second studio album Lost In Another World later this month. It’s Niall here. I spoke to James over Zoom from his home in east London last month.
The New Cue #613 July 31: The Durutti Column, Johnny Marr, Do Nothing, Comb, Insecure Men, Dexy's Midnight Runners, Blonde Redhead
Good morning, Welcome to our latest round of Recommender shenanigans, this week brought to you from the exotic climes of Ibiza (Ted) and the even more exotic, and erotic, climes of Southend-on-sea (Niall). Boy do we have some music picks for you today. We actually do, that’s what a Recommender edition is. Ted’s just broken off from sunbathing in his Speedos (I’m speculating) to message me about the Mercury nominations.
The New Cue #613 July 27: Getdown Services
Good morning, On August 14, Getdown Services release their hilarious, uplifting and wholly original second album, Massive Champion, which they’ll accompany with festival shows and in-stores during release weeks, before heading out on a must-see tour in November and December.
The New Cue #611 July 24: Robyn Hitchcock, RIP Magic, Body Type, Greg Freeman, C.O.F.F.I.N., John Glacier, Four Tet, Paul Heaton, La Ren, Henry Coke
Good morning, Hope your week has been good. We’ve been busy stocking up on future Life & Times interviews, enough to keep us going over the next three weeks while I’m in Ibiza and Niall is in Cornwall, because the wheels of industry do not stop pumping for The New Cue (apart from national holidays, of course). Burglars, please note we both have heavily armed cat sitters. We’ll still be recommending from the beach, too, don’t fret, because the Recommenders never stop coming. Look, here’s another now.
The New Cue #610 July 20: Sonic Boom
Good morning, You join us today for a lovely Life & Times chat with Sonic Boom, aka Rugby-raised Spacemen 3 co-founder, musician and producer Pete Kember. He spoke to me, Niall, over Zoom a couple of weeks ago from his home in Portugal, although he was half an hour late. “I’m sorry,” he said, “I totally spaced on it.” Fair enough, totally spaced is his thing. He’s just released another excellent collaborative record with Animal Collective’s Panda Bear titled A ?
The New Cue #609 July 17: Queens Of The Stone Age, Beck, Echo & The Bunnymen, Roxanne De Bastion, Nina Winder-Lind, Swapmeet, Lim Orion, Cornershop, Man/Woman/Chainsaw
Good morning peoples! Well done, you made it to the second sentence of today’s Recommender edition. There’s no reason why you can’t go on and absolutely nail this.
The New Cue #608 July 13: David Holmes
Good morning, We start this week with a free-wheeling Life & Times interview with the incredibly productive Belfast-born composer, artist and producer David Holmes, who this week announced the launch of Dream Drama, a new label dedicated to scores, compilations and other creative work he wants to organise for consumption. “For many years I've been creating film scores,” he explains to me, Ted, down the Zoom from his studio in the midst of the first great heatwave of 2026.
The New Cue #607 July 10: Ebbb, Ezra Collective, Sonic Boom & Panda Bear, The Womack Sisters, Jack White, Interpol, Getdown Services, Ed O'Brien, Genesis Owusu, The Mary Wallopers, Radie Peat
Good morning, Welcome to this week’s Recommender edition, for which your correspondents sent themselves off to the hottest room in their houses to go to avoid their families and select some fine new music picks for you to enjoy. And you will enjoy them. Oh yes, you will, let not the sweat be all for nothing. I’m feeling pretty dramatic, I think I’m just a bit hot.
The New Cue #606: Catherine Anne Davies aka The Anchoress
Good morning, It’s Monday. I am writing this on Saturday and have no idea what happened on Sunday night - obviously - but I can say that Sunday Ted had a table booked at his nearest local pub in East London that was accepting bookings for 11:30pm, so that he could enjoy Mexico v England in the World Cup at 1:00am while drinking six pints of cold, refreshing continental lager on his own. So, pray for Future Monday Ted as I too pray for you all, friends.
The New Cue #605 July 3: Gurriers, Fat Dog, Sera Cahoone, Dean Blunt, Django Django, Cusk, The Durutti Column, Margaret Glaspy, Tyler, The Creator, 7ebra, Thom Yorke, LA Priest
Goody gumdrops, It’s Friday again, or it will be because I’m writing this on a Thursday. Maybe one day we’ll do a live Recommender edition, like Babestation except it’s me and Ted exchanging WhatsApp messages about what we’re covering and then getting side-tracked with some tasty gossip and then about an hour later one of us messages to say something like “I haven’t started mine yet… might have a nap first”. One day, but not today. Today’s was done yesterday. But then finished today.
The New Cue #604 June 29: Yard Act's James Smith
Welcome to your free Monday edition of TNC, making your inbox a better place since 2021. You join us today for a Life & Times chinwag with Yard Act frontman James Smith, an affable chatterbox who sat down with me, Niall, in London last week. James was in a chipper mood as just before our chat he’d gone to see some of his paintings being exhibited at the Royal Academy’s Summer Exhibition – more on how his side-hustle into the world of art began below.
The New Cue #603 June 26: Beth Orton, Chanel Beads, Muse, Paulie Swan, Yard Act, Brandon Flowers, Aniqo, Black Bananas, Keyside, Richard Norris, Mark Barrott
Good morning TNC peoples, Welcome to the Recommender party, you chose wisely. We’ve got a whole stack of new music picks just for you, but you can share them with your friends too if you want. All you have to do is click this little thing here: If you want to keep it all to yourself then that’s also fine.
The New Cue #602 June 22: Danny McNamara of Embrace
Hello TNC legends, You join us today for a Life & Times chat with Embrace frontman Danny McNamara. Very lovely and chatty guy who couldn’t hide his joy at the new Embrace album Avalanche being high in the midweeks when we – Niall here, hello - talked on Friday. “It does feel like there’s another Embrace renaissance coming about,” he said, good news which was only dampened by his refusal to coin the phrase Embracenassiance, which I have rectified here.
The New Cue #601 June 19: Julia Jacklin, Saul Williams, Swim Deep, Squirrel Flower, Johnny Marr, Tiny Habits, Eels
Goof morning, Mmm I quite like that typo. It is a bit of a goof morning. Every morning seems to be a goof morning at the moment and the more I write goof morning the more I’m convinced goof morning is a way of life. I’m goof morning. Are you goof morning? Welcome to this week’s Recommender edition, featuring the usual je ne sais quoi of new music picks as well as a Release Valve from Swim Deep. Here’s this week’s playlist: And here it is for the Apple Music resistance.
The New Cue #600 June 15: Elias Rønnenfelt of Iceage
Good morning, Welcome to the 600th edition of The New Cue. How are you planning to celebrate? We’ve got the A127 between East London, where Ted lives, and Niall’s home in Southend, Essex, closed for a huge 30 mile street party. The bunting is up, police have been mobilised for the thousands of furious West Ham fans, and everyone in the region is really excited about it. We’re warming up for festivities with a Life & Times interview with Elias Rønnenfelt, the handsome and talented frontman of Iceage.
The New Cue #599 June 12: Interpol, Bethia Beadman, Jack White, Bonobo, KatzPascale, Overmono, Joan As Police Woman, Hovvdy, Charlie Hunter
Hallelujah people! Come on in, this is a safe space, no-one will try to add you on LinkedIn here. The only thing we’re going to connect you with is all the new music tips we can muster. Here’s this week’s playlist: And here it is for the more Apple Music-inclined amongst you. Today’s edition is for those amongst our flock with a paid subscription. You know this, we say it every Friday.
The New Cue #598 June 8: Alt-J's Joe Newman
Hello, You join us on this fine Monday morning for a Life & Times interview with Alt-J frontman Joe Newman. Later this month Joe releases his debut solo album The Canyon, under the catchy moniker of JJerome87. It’s a very enjoyable record – think the furrowed-brow art-rock of his band sunning itelf on a beach. Here’s a song from it: It’s Niall here and I spoke to Joe a few weeks ago over Zoom. He’s a lovely, friendly fella who sounds like he makes a killer sarnie.
The New Cue #597 June 5: Zoh Amba, Navy Blue, Divil, Tara Clerkin Trio, Laura Marling, Hermanos Gutiérrez, Swim Deep, The Youth Play, Liminal, LA Priest
Greetings earthlings! Sorry, trying to mix up my hellos and I’m just workshopping a few things. I know it didn’t work but it was between that and beginning this edition with a wink emoji. I’ve done it now, I won’t do it again. Welcome to your weekly fix of our new music picks, Ted and Niall up to their same old tricks.
The New Cue #596: James Skelly of The Coral
"I took my kids to the pub I grew up in and one asked if they were in Romania." Hello everybody, Welcome back to The New Cue and this morning’s Life & Times interview with The Coral’s James Skelly, conducted by me, Ted, just before the release of his band’s magnificently groovy, tuneful new album, 388. Influenced by ska, 60s Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry productions, early R&B and rock’n’roll recordings, it’s an unusually direct record - and all the better for it.
Boards of Canada, Paul Heaton, The Durutti Column, Iceage, Allah-Las, The Cramps, Chanel Beads, Oisin Mod
"It would still stop traffic" Good morning TNC crew, We come to you on this fine Friday morning with a big bundle of Recommender action for you to get stuck into. Half-term has not dampened our new music Spidey sense, although there might have been some minor communication issues and this intro is being written in a cabin somewhere on the Essex/Suffolk border. Oooh, I feel like Bon Iver. I’m gonna grow a beard and start crying into Auto-Tune.
The New Cue #594 May 22: Getdown Services, The Coral, Dexys Midnight Runners, La Ren, Hannah Peel & Beibei Wang, Westside Cowboy, Wu-Lu & POiSON ANNA, Gnoomes, Gurriers
"TAGABOWSOHN" Good morning, How was your week? Learn anything new? Let me tell you what I learnt. I learnt that some of our so-called rivals in the independent media sector charge acts to appear in their publications and on their podcasts. Once upon a time, we’d call that payola, but this is more like a Ponzi scheme which will collapse upon us all.
The New Cue #593 May 18: Tricky
Good morning, You join us today for a Life & Times interview with the force of nature known as Tricky. It’s Niall here and last week I met the trip-hop trailblazer and experimentalist dynamo in central London. He was excellent company, restless and chatty and excitable. There was a lot of life and a lot of times to discuss, and tragedy too.
The New Cue #592: Overmono, Baby Rose, Kevin Morby, Joan As Police Woman, Fat Dog, The Strokes, Hovvdy, KatzPascale, Theatre, Show Me The Body, Graham Coxon
Happy Friday, Made it through another week, people, tick it off the list. How many more weeks before we die? Who knows. (Why are you asking readers this?) Well, this is Thursday Ted writing for Friday Ted, knowing that Friday Ted will be mortally hungover from the TNC Books event he giddily hosted at The Social starring PJ Smith, Terri White, Richard Milward on Thursday, and he hopes he made it through the night alright. Stick the playlist on. And if Apple Music is your thing, stick this on.
The New Cue #591 May 11: Kasabian's Serge Pizzorno
Good morning, Let’s get this week off to a flier, and who better to fire the starting gun than Kasabian’s Serge Pizzorno? As the band’s artistic ringleader and, since 2021, their frontman, Serge has proved himself an expert in his field when it comes to bringing the ruckus. In July, the Leicester indie-dance titans release their ninth album, and third since Serge took over vocal duties, Act III.
Aldous Harding, RIP Magic, Little Simz, Max Cooper, Alice Barlow, Ebbb, Yard Act, Man/Woman/Chainsaw, Jackson Roy
Good morning everyone, Normally Niall, aka Mr Hilarious as his wife ruefully calls him, writes these cheery Friday intros, but in our WhatsApp editorial moments ago he revealed that he wasn’t feeling very funny today, he was hard at work, so I thought I’d do the intro instead as I can do not very funny with the best of them. It’s nearly the weekend. I hope your week has been productive and fulfilling.
The New Cue #589: Roy & Friends, live in London; Release Valve explosion
Morning, What’s this? A Tuesday edition of New Cue? Yes, it’s true. We don’t work Bank Holidays normally, but we are this one time because we forgot that there are two May Bank Holidays and we have to announce this event we’re hosting a week on Thursday, May 14th, at The Social in London… I’ve just returned from the sold-out Liverpool launch of PJ Smith’s second collection of stories, Boomerang Process.
Pigeon, Seefeel, Kneecap, Will White, Lulac, Beth Orton, Martial Arts, Truthpaste, Chanel Beads
Good morning, May the first be with you! I’m writing this from the distant past, the final day in April.
The New Cue #587: Kevin Morby
Greetings, We’re coming at you hard and fast this Monday morning with a Life & Times interview featuring Kevin Morby, the Midwestern singer-songwriter who for the past decade or so has been knitting together different strands of the great American songbook to deliver an armful of increasingly beautiful albums.
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