David Newbury is a freelance music and arts journalist who writes for The Line Of Best Fit, Londonist and The Quietus and many more. After failing as a mediocre indie drummer he took up being an indiepop DJ- aka taking the credit for other people’s music, but now journalism accommodates his cheese and gin requirements.
Personal reinvention is the crux of pop music, and people do it for a reason – being a pop star’s awesome and wannabes will do anything to achieve it, talent shows and crop-cuts included.
By David Newbury | Arts, Music | Saturday, 23 June 2012 at 4:00 am
Our weekly look at the best new acts to follow and fall in love with features grit spittin’ rock duos and underage rappers with cool names.
By David Newbury | Arts, Music | Monday, 18 June 2012 at 12:02 pm
Following new music seriously challenges ones prejudices and preconceptions. Ordinarily the thought of four boys with guitars or bedroom geeks with a laptop sampler and Second Life account sends me reaching for the Valium. So when bands Peace and Doldrums reinvigorate faith in guitars and MacBooks, it is exceptionally exciting.
By David Newbury | Arts, Music | Monday, 11 June 2012 at 4:00 am
Picking which bright young things to follow, and be able to name drop in a few years -boasting you preferred their early EPs, actually- is tricky, but this week’s five choices should ensure your gamble works.
By David Newbury | | Monday, 4 June 2012 at 4:00 am
With so much new music coming out it’s difficult to keep track of what’s out there. It’s a lucky dip where you could discover something truly exciting. But there’s also a risk…luckily, each week I’ll be sorting the inspirational new artists from the mass of chancers to bring you five new band tips.
By David Newbury | Arts, Music | Monday, 28 May 2012 at 4:01 am
Are pop concerts the latest battle ground of moral superiority? Well, with Lady Gaga’s Indonesian concert being cancelled after moral hardliners picketed against her corrupting outfits and dancing, as well as physical threats, it seems so. It’s hardly the first time gigs have been targeted for displays of moral outrage. The Americans have it down to an art form, with the seemingly anti-everything Westboro Baptist Church staging high profile protests outside concerts as varied as Justin Beiber, Radiohead and Kiss.
By David Newbury | Arts, Music | Tuesday, 22 May 2012 at 12:00 am
The Great Escape, Britain’s South By South West by the sea returns to Brighton this weekend for its annual cavalcade of blogbands, hipster spotting and being seen at the right gigs.
By David Newbury | Arts, Music | Saturday, 12 May 2012 at 12:00 am
For some solo artists the easy route just isn’t appealing. Rather than decamp to East London with a banjo and simple melodies, County Meath’s Wallis Bird opted to explore her personal contradictions in Germany’s introspective spaces, allowing her vitriolic song-writing to thrive.
By David Newbury | Arts, Music | Wednesday, 14 March 2012 at 3:09 pm
It’s a republican nightmare, but Britain’s fortunes are inexplicably linked with our Queen’s. Whether it’s Elizabethan New World exploration or Victorian industrialisation, Britain’s might requires reginae tactus. Yet never has the realm’s cultural wealth coincided with the Monarch, than with our Lizzie and pop music.
By David Newbury | Music | Wednesday, 7 March 2012 at 3:00 pm
Falling from the limelight is often damaging to any artist and devastating at the start of a career. Yet for Beth Jeans Houghton the rise of the Marling’s and the Welch’s, while the Sheeran’s took our dollar, couldn’t have been better.
By David Newbury | Arts, Music | Monday, 13 February 2012 at 1:11 pm
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