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Photographer Diana Frangi meets musician Gary Moore

You don’t usually associate top rock and blues guitarists with a really genuine ‘good guy’ personality but that’s how you have to describe Gary Moore, Hove resident, former member of Skid Row and Thin Lizzy, and universally acknowledged as one of the world’s foremost blues guitarists.

Such a long list of great achievements with great bands, but my favourite is his work as a solo artist for his unique style, especially his landmark album Still Got The Blues, and his legendary collaboration with Phil Lynott in ‘Parisienne Walkways’.

Gary’s new album, Bad For You Baby, shows he is still at the cutting edge of contemporary blues. The tracks I really like are called ‘Holding On’ and ‘I Love You More Than You’ll Ever Know’. In fact they are all really good, just get the CD – blues wizardry from the Merlin of the genre!
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Photographer Diana Frangi meets musician Chris Difford

When it comes to lyrics, my favourite song is ‘Up The Junction’. It came out in the 1979 album Cool for Cats, and marked a whole new departure in pop lyrics – earthy, witty, lively, irresistible. Close-up this week features its genius lyricist – Chris Difford, of seminal group Squeeze.

Chris can’t stop writing magical songs. His latest album, Last Temptation of Chris, had such fantastic reviews I had to buy the CD (I really like the song ‘My Mother’s Handbag’). Chris’s lyrics make the songs so exciting. It is one of those albums you must have and you must listen to, especially late on a Saturday night. There is an extraordinary video too of his song ‘Fat As A Fiddle’ – highly watchable!
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Photographer Diana Frangi meets musician Nik Kershaw

Nik Kershaw is my favourite rock star from the eighties, a great songwriter. He had three international hits ‘I Won’t Let the Sun Go Down on Me’, ‘Wouldn’t it Be Good’ and ‘The Riddle’, and I am sure everyone remembers the UK hit ‘Wide Boy’ too.

Nik is going to be the special guest at The Space at the Latest Music Bar in Brighton on Tuesday 7 October. If you’re in the area you can catch him on 12 November at The Lights in Andover, and you London commuters will find him performing on 16 November at The Luminaire on Kilburn High Road – great opportunities to see one of the truly great British pop geniuses!

Beside those iconic singles, he’ll be promoting his latest album You’ve Got to Laugh which is available via www.nikkershaw.net or iTunes.

How did you get your big break?
After sending out the usual batch of demos to record companies (and getting back the usual batch of rejection slips) I advertised in Melody Maker for a manager. Read the rest of this article »

Photographer Diana Frangi meets Skint Records co-founder Damian Harris

God, isn’t Brighton just full of talent? My guest this week is Damian Harris, who, as the man behind Skint Records, has been creating some of the most exciting music of recent times – not surprising when you learn his first artiste was our local saint, FatBoy Slim.

If all that wasn’t enough, in his alter ego as DJ MIDFIELD GENERAL, whose new album General Disarray came out in April, he has put himself at the forefront of creative dance music, and has earned the soubriquet, ‘the supremo of big beat‘.

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Photographer Diana Frangi meets comedian Stephen Grant

If Stephen Grant’s career as a stand-up falters, he knows he can always go back to his first love, software design (he created his first game, Dieste, at the age of 13!). But billed as the ‘Renaissance man of comedy’ and definitely coming to a crest of public acclaim, he can let his computer gather dust for a while yet.

Born and still living in Brighton, he cut his comedy teeth at the Good Companions pub in the late ‘90s. Moving on to the Edinburgh Festival, he was spotted by BBC Radio, who took him on as a writer. Now he’s busy performing around the country to rave reviews. We can catch him on Wednesday 16 July at the Komedia starting at 9pm. www.komedia.co.uk

How did you get your break?
There’s not really ‘breaks’ in comedy, like there is in acting, dance etc. It’s a hard profession, but if you’re any good, you’ll always work.

The ‘breakthrough’, as such, came when I got a job writing jokes for Radio 1, which meant I could leave my day job and concentrate entirely on comedy.

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