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A Piece of Me: Levellers frontman Mark Chadwick chats about his debut solo album. Jeff Hemmings reports.

For over 20 years, Mark Chadwick has been fronting The Levellers, Brighton’s most successful band, with 15 top 40 hits and a number one album Zeitgeist on their impressive CV. But for the last few years Chadwick has been looking to do a solo album, an opportunity to bring to the fore another side to his songwriting talents that aren’t wholly suitable for the strident folk-rock of his main band.
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Former solicitor, Radio 4 regular, Glaswegian, feminist, lesbian, comic. Susan Calman is all these things and more, chatting with Victoria Nangle.

Victoria Nangle: Could you describe your show in your own words?

Susan Calman: It’s essentially about the thought of how one is going to be remembered if one died – a morbid thought! It’s about what you think about yourself. I’d had a few drinks one night and I wrote my own obituary and it was really quite harsh about myself.

VN: What prompted you to write your own obituary?

SC: I’m always criticising myself, I’m terrible. I go through things that have happened before and I go, ‘actually, that was really bad’. I’m entirely self-obsessed and so it just kind of came about. If I went right now, what would people actually say about me? There are people here who would try and be nice, but actually would they remember me fondly? And also, because I changed my career. It’s a bit of a strange life. I’m not a lawyer anymore but that was a huge part of my life. Read the rest of this article »

Comic Sarah Millican chats to Bella Todd about pudding porn, animals in clothes, and why being dumped by her husband was the best thing that ever happened to her

At 29, Sarah Millican was reeling from the sudden end of a seven-year marriage. At 35, the fast-talking Geordie is the winner of an if.comedy award and a TV panel show regular, with her own Radio 4 show, ‘Sarah Millican’s Support Group’, going into its second series. Read the rest of this article »

Village Voice: Villagers frontman Conor O’Brien talks to Jeff Hemmings about the Mercury Music Prize, dark imagery and ‘Becoming A Jackal’

The recent Mercury Music Prize awards ceremony cemented the fortunes of a recent spate of folk-based singer songwriters and bands with Mumford & Sons, Laura Marling and Villagers all producing exquisite albums that told stories rich in detail and melody. And like Marling, Dublin based Conor O’Brien and his Villagers band have quickly found acclaim.

“It was very exciting,” says Conor when I ask him about the Mercury Prize. “I felt it re-affirmed my belief in what I’m doing… but I treated it as any other gig.”
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