Quill

Ask Mr. H: ATC: Meridian, ATC and Harbeth SHL 5s

Hello Howard, I feel as though i know you although we have never met, having read your articles and comments for some time. Frankness and honesty is a quality i greatly admire. I’m a music and audio enthusiast of 40+ years. Won’t bore you with my hi fi history but in my sitting room is […]

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RACHEL FULLER: Music career

As an in-demand orchestrator, with her works recorded by the London Chamber Orchestra, Fuller met The Who’s Pete Townshend in 1996, becoming the arranger for his The Lifehouse Chronicles album and subsequent concerts at London’s Sadler’s Wells Theatre. With Townshend she co-wrote a song titled “It’s Not Enough” featured on The Who’s studio album Endless […]

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STRATHEARN: Their depressing story

Many will remember the British Leyland Motor Corporation, the nineteen seventies state owned purveyor of such automotive design masterpieces as the Morris Marina and Austin Allegro. A decade of industrial strife and dreadful quality ensured that BLMC’s dalliance with disaster was well publicised, but what many don’t know is that hi-fi had its very own […]

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Blurring the boundary between classical music and jazz – the long read

GRAMOPHONE: Composer and pianist Iain Farrington surveys the interwoven history of classical and jazz as his new album, ‘Gershwinicity’, is released on the Somm label lthough the terms ‘classical’ and ‘jazz’ are frustratingly vague for such a broad wealth of music, they provide a useful distinction for two different musical traditions. When the two styles […]

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ARROw

SCHUBERT: Our podcast of the day

GRAMOPHONE In 2019, Joyce DiDonato and Yannick Nézet-Séguin performed Schubert’s great song-cycle in concert at New York’s Carnegie Hall, and Erato were on hand to record it. James Jolly caught up with the multi-Gramophone Award-winning mezzo to talk about her unique approach to the work. As one of a handful of women singers who have […]

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LED ZEP: Was John Paul Jones really an accepted member of the band?

Eric Johnson (former Radio Promotions Director Remote Engineer at CBS (1990-2002)) replies … Of course he was….Someone once asked if JPJ was, to paraphrase, “the weakest talent in the band” at which point Page just laughed at the foolishness of the statement and said “go sober up sometime and have another listen” and he continued […]

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CCR / Creedence Clearwater Revival’s John Fogerty wins music rights

Following a 50-year legal battle, the founding member of Creedence Clearwater Revival now owns the global publishing rights to the iconic rock band’s songs. It came after Mr Fogerty, 77, bought a majority stake in the rights to the band’s catalogue from Concord Records, which has owned the rights since 2004 —//— At its peak, […]

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‘It speaks straight from the heart’: Bryan Ferry, Adele and Engelbert Humperdinck on Bob Dylan’s Make You Feel My Love

THE GUARDIAN / Annie Zeleski When Adele covered Bob Dylan’s Make You Feel My Love on her debut album 19, her interpretation was a sparse piano ballad that exuded tortured romantic longing. “The lyrics are just amazing and summed up exactly what I’d been trying to say in my songs,” Adele said then. “It’s about […]

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Quill

Dear Sir … (Max Townshend)

Published a long time ago Dear Sir Howard (well everything is possible). I look forward to your newsletters, Simply-STAX & Listen Carefully ever since their inceptions. Some of it washes over me yet some of the content sticks with me for months. Thank you. By way of example I relate to a comment you made […]

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EDDIE BOYD: Worth investigating!

Blues pianist Eddie Boyd’s 7936 South Rhodes was recorded in London in January 1968 with three members of the early lineup of Fleetwood Mac: Peter Green (guitar), John McVie (bass), and Mick Fleetwood(drums). It’s a tantalizing setting for Boyd’s straight up Chicago piano Blues, going heavier on the slow-to-mid-tempo numbers than the high-spirited ones. Eddie […]

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GREED: A new route to market for beleaguered and/or greedy audio makers? Part #2 of 3

First published in 2017 It can’t happen here! Oh really? Well ….. take a look at the Dell computer company. They’ve become vast and have done so with having any retailers whatsoever. PCs and laptops are infinitely more complex that audio equipment. All an audio maker needs to do is to have the will and […]

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NEIL YOUNG: Why was he mentioned in Sweet Home Alabama? Who did he put down?

Amy Christa Erano wries … Southern white men in general (“Southern Man”) and white Alabamans in particular (“Alabama”). Those two songs painted a very negative picture of Southern white men, and while the South certainly has a history of racism as well as slavery, Ronnie Van Zant was a Southern white man (from Florida, not […]

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“Okay, fine. So which piano is the more accurate – the Steinway or the Bosendorfer?” – a deliberately illogical question (to make a point!) by Howard Popeck

Stupid question of course that doesn’t warrant consideration, let alone an answer. Unless of course it is useful as a basis for pondering on the well-intentioned but ultimately futile debate about accuracy – within the current meaning of the word. Only a cretin would fail to recognise that the reproduction of a piano on even […]

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STATUS QUO: Accept No Substitute – The Definitive Hits (2DVD)

  Released on 20th November 2015 through Universal Music, the Status Quo career retrospective releases ‘Accept No Substitute: The Definitive Hits’ 3CD and ‘Accept No Substitute: The Definitive Hits & More’ 2DVD are a true celebration of the entire body of work of one of the world’s greatest ever rock acts. For the first time […]

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A new route to market for beleaguered and/or greedy audio makers? Part #1 of 3

Howard Popeck ….. I don’t claim to be a futurologist. However sometimes it’s possible to read some signs and occasionally form a view of which way the commercial wind is blowing. And I mean the way that wind is blowing, but not necessarily the speed and strength of that wind. My belief is that with […]

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CUSTOMERS: The customer as a dealer-groupie aka am I just one more on the list?

Normal, counter-intuitive – or what? If in the normal course of events you engage with sufficient people, then inevitably you’ll get to experience a wide cross-section of attitudes and behaviours. And so it is, in the audiophile world. And yes, I do from time to time encounter perverse (well, perverse as far as I’m concerned) […]

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ARROw

SCHUBERT: Our podcast of the day

GRAMOPHONE: Joined by Yannick Nézet-Séguin, the American mezzo takes a different approach to this song masterwork In 2019, Joyce DiDonato and Yannick Nézet-Séguin performed Schubert’s great song-cycle in concert at New York’s Carnegie Hall, and Erato were on hand to record it. James Jolly caught up with the multi-Gramophone Award-winning mezzo to talk about her […]

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EQUIPMENT ISOLATION SUPPORTS

Hello Howard, wanted to ask what your view of isolation supports etc is? Over many years I have had personal experience of isolations systems from everyone from Russ Andrews, Mana and latterly Townshend Audio. My conclusions are these: Anyone who claims that an isolation support, in your home, at your listening levels will automatically provide […]

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JONI MITCHELL: Hejira – an opinion

After the expanded instrumental scale and sonic experimentation of Court and Spark and The Hissing of Summer Lawns, Joni Mitchell reverses that flow for the more intimate, interior music on Hejira, which retracts the arranging style to focus on Mitchell’s distinctive acoustic guitar and piano, and the brilliant, lyrical bass fantasias of fretless bass innovator […]

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A new route to market for beleaguered and/or greedy audio makers? Part #3 of 3

So now you know my views. Are they interesting views? How do you feel about them? While you are pondering this, given that I’m far from infallible it’s worth considering that although I might be right I could also be wrong: The direct marketing strategy has already worked in the case of Eastern Electric in […]

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