Regions

Why We Need Ireland’s Therapy?

PUBLISHED IN THE HAMILTON SPECTATOR Thursday, October 3, 1996   NICK KREWEN Hamilton Spectator Thursday, October 3, 1996     There’s something to be said for touring smaller markets. Passionate Irish rock quartet Therapy? has been spending the last ten days crossing Canada as special guests of The Doughboys, and it’s given singer, guitarist and chief songwriter Andy Cairns a whole new perspective. “It’s really opened my eyes,” says Cairns…


A Sip of The Refreshments

  NICK KREWEN Hamilton Spectator August 22, 1996   You’ve gotta admire a band that can rhyme the word “guard” with the name Captain Jean-Luc Picard,  whom Trekkers know as the captain of the most powerful Starship in the United Federation Of Planets, the Enterprise. And you’ve gotta admire a band who tried to contact Patrick Stewart, the classy actor who immortalized the role of Picard in the classic cult…


Van Halen’s Hip Factor

PUBLISHED IN THE HAMILTON SPECTATOR Thursday, August 17, 1996  NICK KREWEN There’s good news in the Van Halen camp: Namesake guitar wizard Eddie Van Halen won’t be wailing — in pain, that is — because his bad hip is giving him minimal trouble. “He’s jumping around again, and playing better than ever,” reports bassist Michael Anthony, 41, from a recent sound check in Boston, where the band played last week…


Ian Anderson: Life With and Without Jethro

  NICK KREWEN Hamilton Spectator May 25, 1996   For almost 26 years, Ian Anderson has sung loudly and carried a big flute as frontman for British progressive rock group Jethro Tull. A few years ago, however, the 47-year-old made a shocking discovery: after playing the wind instrument on 28 Jethro Tull albums, he’d been using the wrong technique. “I’d say 80 percent of my fingering was incorrect,” says the…


Simply Red’s Mick Hucknall On…

As appeared in the late, lamented on-line magazine Magnet, 1996   Stardust, Baked Beans, Orgasms and The Meaning Of Life   NICK KREWEN   The Bowery Boy of blue-eyed soul is back, and man is he stylin’. Although the only reason Mick Hucknall, singer and architect of Simply Red, Britain’s most astoundingly successful R&B export at 26 million records sold and counting, is in Toronto in the first place is…