SUZY SHAW
I was introduced to Hacienda when Suzy Shaw, who manages Bomp! Records' online mailorder business (among other duties) included three recent releases in one of my usual orders of decades-old music. Besides the second Hacienda album, she also included a deilghtful psychedelic stew of an album by Mondo Drag called New Rituals; and Brian Olive's debut solo album, Brian Olive. Olive (ex-Soledad Brothers) is one of those amazing men – like Bob Dylan, Tom Petty and Nikki Sudden – to whom songwriting is as natural as breathing; he is working on a second album already. Although I very much enjoyed the albums that I had ordered, I found myself playing these new artists again and again. Anyway, it surely worked, for I have a nice stack of new CD's and LP's released by the Bomp! labels that I have since ordered.
(January 2011)
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Mick Farren is still recording albums regularly and has become a respected rock critic, journalist, and science fiction novelist. I used to read an occasional piece that he wrote for the Village Voice both before and after I lived there; one mused on why the English had such bad dental hygiene and featured a photo quiz asking the reader to match photos of rotten teeth with celebrities' names (including one member of the royal family). The acclaimed retrospective of the world of Greg Shaw called Bomp! / Saving the World One Record at a Time lists him as the co-author with Suzy Shaw, Greg's business partner and ex-wife.
(August 2011)
