Latest news with #Thirteen
The Guardian
22-05-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Scotland's most reliable sunshine! Teenage Fanclub's greatest songs
In 2018, bassist Gerry Love departed Teenage Fanclub (TFC) after 29 years, much to fans' despair. It's perhaps a little romantic to see The First Sight as his parting gift, but it's certainly an impressive closing statement of his songwriting talent: an intricate mesh of guitars, a buoyant horn section, and a typically stunning tune. Most artists called upon to pad out a best-of collection with a few new tracks – by a major label about to drop them – would understandably offer something substandard. Not TFC. Driven by an unexpectedly tricky rhythm, Did I Say is folky, beautiful and a noticeable diversion from their usual style. Bandwagonesque's follow-up Thirteen gets a bad rap, not least from the band themselves – its recording was fraught – but 30-odd years on, it sounds better than its reputation suggests. Escher certainly smooths out Bandwagonesque's rougher edges, but its drawing of a muddled relationship is no less charming for that. From its title down, TFC's most recent album Nothing Lasts Forever conjured up a kind of twilit optimism: a band staring down their 60s, slightly bruised by life but facing forward. Final track, I Will Love You sums the mood up: slowly shimmering atmospherics that eventually burst into striking, warm vocal harmonies. A joy. The arrangement of Your Love Is the Place Where I Come From is almost wilfully understated – for most of its three minutes, you could be eavesdropping on a rehearsal – but its no-frills simplicity allows the songwriting, a sigh of contentment in musical form, to shine all the more clearly. TFC aren't famous for brooding, which makes the sombre tone of Cells all the more striking: the muted take on their sound perfectly fits a set of lyrics haunted by a very middle-aged sense of ageing and loss. And the lengthy acoustic guitar coda is just exquisite. Before their perplexing second album, The King – seven grungy instrumental originals and covers of Pink Floyd's Interstellar Overdrive and Madonna's Like a Virgin – TFC released one-off single God Knows It's True. It's solo-heavy and slacker sloppy but crucially also a fabulous song. Initially, TFC were a boozy, chaotic proposition, particularly live, but they proved surprisingly adept at growing up in public. Planets alchemises an unpromising subject – relocating to the countryside with your growing family – into musical gold. Sweet, but not cloying, there's something really moving about its string-laden sense of contentment. You couldn't miss the influence of Big Star on Bandwagonesque – it even featured a quote from their lyrics on the cover – but nowhere was it deployed more spectacularly than on Alcoholiday, a glorious, harmony-laden depiction of uncertainty over a blossoming relationship: 'Went to bed, but I'm not ready / Baby I've been fucked already.' It was Bandwagonesque producer Don Fleming who first suggested TFC concentrate on harmony vocals, but nowhere in their catalogue were they deployed to more euphoric effect than on the second single from Songs from Northern Britain, which is furthermore blessed with the kind of tune that isn't ripped off from anywhere yet sounds instantly familiar. The chaotic early Fanclub had their moments, but the release of The Concept introduced the TFC that Kurt Cobain called 'the best band in the world': the guitars are still unruly with feedback, but the melodies are amped up to match them, the vocal harmonies are luscious, the lyrics smart and witty. The idea that none of the singles from Grand Prix made the Top 30 seems absolutely confounding: how could anything as self-evidently brilliant, as insanely tuneful as Neil Jung – romantic disaster plus incredible chorus plus fantastic (and suitably Neil Young-ish) guitar solo – not have been a huge hit? What was wrong with people? The great TFC deep cut, Broken was inexplicably relegated to a B-side. An acoustic guitar and organ-driven masterpiece of beautiful, mournful simplicity – the lyrics feature just one line, endlessly repeated – it has subsequently also evaded streaming services. If you don't know it, seek it out and luxuriate in its divine melancholy. Packaged in a terrible sleeve and released by an indifferent major label to a decidedly muted response, 2000's Howdy! tends to get overlooked. But if it's not quite as good as its two predecessors (Songs from Northern Britain and Grand Prix), it's still pretty great, as demonstrated by opener I Need Direction: unassuming but utterly delightful, thick with Beach Boys harmonies. By the time of 2010's Shadows, it was clear that TFC were refining their sound rather than radically overhauling it, but they could still surprise you with the sheer quality of their songwriting. The Norman Blake-penned Baby Lee – lyrical misery, impossibly sunny music – is a triumph. Apparently, Love's favourite among the songs he wrote for Teenage Fanclub, the autumnal Don't Look Back builds wonderfully from reflective verses into a monster chorus. The advice said chorus doles out, and the acoustic version on the Teenage Fanclub Have Lost It EP, are both worth heeding. Debut album A Catholic Education is messier and noisier than the rest of TFC's output: a decisive, Crazy Horse-influenced, instrumental jam-laden break with the members' C86 pasts. But, Everything Flows – twentysomething ennui with a wonderful, wistful melody beneath the guitar overload – pointed the way ahead, an early song as good as any they've written. Star Sign initially sounds like a Sonic Youth-y drone experiment – over a minute of beat-less monotone guitar – before exploding into life: an irresistible tune built around the kind of descending-but-uplifting chord sequences that helped define glam rock, and a lyric that keeps indifferently shrugging 'big deal' in a way that's very early 90s. Songs from Northern Britain's jewel, and – perhaps – TFC's essence distilled: plangent guitars, sunlit harmonies, a melody the Fifth Dimension-era Byrds would have been proud of, life's simple pleasures unfashionably hymned at the height of Britpop's gruesome cokey grandiosity ('here is a sunrise – ain't that enough?'). What a lovely song. The songs at the top of this list are all so great, ranking them is mostly just a matter of personal preference, but the highlight of Grand Prix clinches it on the basis of its sheer ebullience – enough to pull any listener out of a gloomy mood – and its absolutely preposterous abundance of hooks: the main riff, the moment in the verses where the vocal melody soars upwards, the solo guitar motif that introduces the chorus, all three parts of the chorus. It's essentially an album's worth of incredible tunes crammed into three minutes – not a second of them wasted – and it sounds effortless.
Daily Mirror
20-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mirror
Coronation Street fans baffled as they hear Mick actor Joe Layton's real accent
Coronation Street fans have been left in shock after hearing Mick Michaelis' actor Joe Layton's accent for the very first time - and he sounds nothing like his character Earlier this year, Coronation Street fans were introduced to new character's Mick and Lou. In their short time on the Street they've caused. Just yesterday Mick (Joe Layton) hit fan favourite Craig Tinker over the head, leaving him for dead. Just before this, the soap aired a special throwback episode on Friday 16 May, which explored the "complex history" of Kit Green. The episode, which took place in 2007, took a closer look at Kit's friendship with Mick and Lou Michaelis when they were teenagers. Behind the scenes, the actors took part in a social media video where they were tasked to name things from 2007. However, fans were more focused on Mick actor Joe's real accent, which is nothing like hic character's strong Manchester accent. "Mick sounds completely different!" exclaimed one fan, while another agreed: "Mick's real accent. Wow what an actor." A third laughed: "Mick is so posh. Perhaps he should of been played with that voice!" Joe spent years living in the US for six years where he starred in Marvel TV show Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Speaking about other roles he'd previously done, Joe said: I have worked on a bunch of Netflix and BBC shows and I also worked on an ITV show called The Trouble with Maggie Cole with Dawn French. "I also worked with Jodie Comer on Thirteen, who's really great. Most recently, I've worked on a show called Lockerbie - which isn't the Colin Firth one! I've been getting so many texts from friends saying they are about to start it but there's two - and I think this one will come out later this year." Despite only joining the soap earlier this year, it was recently announced that Mick and Lou would be leaving the Cobbles this summer as part of an explosive storyline. The quick departures had always been planned, with the characters only brought in for a particular storyline. Addressing the claims about his sudden exit and denying it was a shock for anyone, he told us: "I knew about it from when the casting came through from my agent, so even for the prep for the tape you take a dive into the psychology of him, how you inhabit these kind of head spaces. I think for me, the opportunity to step into Corrie for six months with a start and a finish point is a real gift."
Daily Mirror
06-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mirror
Time is running out for Jodie Comer's 'dark, grim and close to uncomfortable' drama on BBC
It might be one of the star's lesser known roles Fans have only a few days left to watch Jodie Comer's 'dark, grim and close to uncomfortable' crime drama. The Liverpool-born actress, who later won an Emmy and BAFTA for her role in Killing Eve, starred in the five-part series Thirteen, which was originally released by the BBC in 2016. Since then, she has also bagged a Tony Award for her performance in one-woman show Prima Facie and landed roles in films like The Bikeriders, Free Guy and the upcoming horror sequel 28 Years Later. However, fans are being urged to catch one of her earlier performances that showcased her rising star before it disappears from BBC iPlayer on Friday, May 16. In Thirteen, Comer plays Ivy Moxam, a woman who escapes from a cellar where she has been held captive for half her life - a total of 13 years. Now free, she tries to live her life but things get complicated when the police discover she is hiding certain secrets. The series was a historical moment as it was the first to be released online-only, following BBC Three's move away from traditional broadcasting. This means it could be one of Comer's lesser-known performances, reports Surrey Live. After the first episode originally aired, the Mirror's reviewer was struck by its intense atmosphere, saying, "dark, grim and close to uncomfortable delivering a bleak-yet-thrilling tale from start to finish." They went on to praise the show further: "chilling, captivating and brilliant but also thankfully so much more than that" – sentiments that are echoed by other fans and crtics. Audience opinions are also mostly favourable too, with one viewer commenting on Rotten Tomatoes, where the series has an impressive 88% rating. One posted: "Very creepy, lots of mysteries and tons of questions begging to be answered. I find myself waiting for each new episode with anticipation. That is the mark of a good series, in my opinion. Definitely more mystery with a horrific edge though." Another critic described their experience: "Creepy, measured, and mesmerizing, this drama takes a cliched premise and makes it fresh and absorbing with finely drawn characters played by magnetic actors." Even those who weren't entirely taken with the show as a whole recognise its value, especially due to Jodie Comer's performance at its heart. One person stated: "Jodie Comer is clearly a once in a generation actor." While another offered a more mixed review, stating: "Thirteen is a dime a dozen crime drama. Yes, the premise is interesting but that's just about all this has going for it, apart from the aforementioned Jodie Comer performance."
Washington Post
05-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Washington Post
The Thirteen offers its interpretation of a ‘New American Songbook'
Over the weekend, after the local choir the Thirteen gave its Friday performance of 'The New American Songbook' at Hood College's Coffman Chapel in Frederick, Maryland, artistic director Matthew Robertson received a notice from the National Endowment for the Arts terminating a $25,000 grant for its Vocal Fellows Program. 'The NEA is updating its grantmaking policy priorities to focus funding on projects that reflect the nation's rich artistic heritage and creativity as prioritized by the President,' the notice read. 'Funding is being allocated in a new direction in furtherance of the Administration's agenda.'
Yahoo
02-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Former News 8 reporter brings new personal film to ROC film festival
ROCHESTER, N.Y. (WROC) — The Rochester International Film Festival is back at the George Eastman Museum's Dryden Theatre. It's one of the longest-running short film festivals in the world, and all of the screenings are free. One of them comes from a former News 8 reporter returning to ROC as a filmmaker. It's called 'Thirteen' and Allison Norlian stopped in our Sunrise studio to share more about her movie ahead of Saturday's screening. She describes it as a very personal film inspired by real life — her mom and sister. It's told through the eyes of a determined mother fighting tradition to honor her child, who faces a profound disability, with a Bat Mitzvah. Learn more by watching the interview in the player on this page. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
