One of my favourite singers of all time has to be Nick Drake. Reason being he is the definition of beauty. To his observant lyrics of the little things of this world, to his soft and calming vocals, to his particular way of playing his guitar etc makes Nick one of the most talented musicians. But Nick did something with his music that only few could achieve, he connected with his audience. In his lifetime, he wasn’t successful. With the lack of promotions of his albums, no singles released, little touring etc Nick only really sold a few thousand copies of his albums. The lack of success brought Nick to depression and on the 25th of November,1974 Nick died of an overdose of antidepressant at age 26. Wherever it was attentional or accidental, nobody knows, but a beautiful soul was lost. I discovered Nick Drake in March 2018 when I went record shopping with my Mother in Cardiff. It was coming to the end of the day and this was the last shop we were going to visit for the day. The record shop had a magazine section for mojo magazine. On the front cover was Nick. I was taken aback from his looks. He had greasy hair, the longest fingernail, and his eyes looked sad and lost. It was as if he was crying right in front of you, there was something about his eyes that said: “help me”. The reason I brought the magazine was that they interviewed Mike Nesmith of The Monkees and I love the Monkees and with Mike being one of my favourite members, of course, I wanted to buy it. But there was something about Nick that I wanted to know more about. At first I thought he was from the 90s, a member of a grunge band judging by the cover, however there was also a cd of people covering Nick’s music. There was another picture of Nick on this cd. In the photo he still seemed lost but he seemed more, I guess, healthier. He looked more like Jeff Buckley than Kurt Cobain like he did on the front cover. I read bits of the article where I leant that Nick was actually a folk singer in the early 70s. I wanted to know more about him and his music, however, it took me another month till I would actually listen to Nick’s music. Mid-April 2018. My crazy, obsessive phase of The Small Faces was slowly coming down, I was looking for someone new. What about that guy on the front cover of that magazine I brought? Maybe I can listen to him? it seemed like a good idea. Except for me being really lazy, I couldn’t be asked to find the magazine. That night I had totally forgotten about the magazine and I was watching a couple random videos on youtube and “The top 10 Folk musicians” was recommended to me and I guess I just felt like watching it. And who was at number 9? Nick Drake. I remember the first thought was “this name is familiar to me, who is this guy?…wait! he’s the guy on the front cover!”. I got out of my bed and looked for the magazine, I couldn’t find it but I found the cd that was on the front cover and seeing the name above the picture “Nick Drake” confirmed that this was the same guy.

I watched the rest of the video and learned more about Nick. He went to Cambridge, he released three albums between 1969 to 1972, he was unfortunately, the Vincent Van Gogh figure in music. Both being artsy and ahead of their time and not successful in their lifetime. When I listened to Pink moon for the first time i was amazed by this mans beauty. I felt connected to Nick, it was as if he was talking to me and for most of it, it was very sad. Songs like ‘Black- eyed dog’ or ‘parasite’ are almost painful to listen to as it sounds like Nick is crying to you.

A boy was born on the 19th June 1948 in Myanmar. The little boy would soon move back to England in Warwickshire with his Father, Mother and big sister, Gabrielle.

The boy grew up with a loving family. He would end up going to Cambridge where his interests with music were growing. Inspired by Donovan, Bob Dylan, Van Morrison, and some various other Jazz musicians, Nick decided to buy a guitar and was on his way to being a musical hero. While playing at one of Nicks early Cambridge gigs, Ashley Hutchings was impressed by Nick and introduced Nick to American producer, Joe Boyd. Joe Boyd is an important figure in Nick’s life. He acted as a mentor to Nick and was probably the closest to him when Nick was suffering from depression. Nick got a record deal with island records and was on his way to recording his first album. ‘Five leaves left’ was released in 1969. Unfortunately the album sold less than 5,000 copies. Nick was sent out to promote ‘Five leaves left’ with a few gigs, however, Nick hated performing in front of people. Nick was shy and wasn’t the type of guy to tell a guy to shut up when he’s talking too loud, plus it took him a while to tune his guitar, he didn’t communicate with the audience. It perhaps felt awkward to him. Nick wasn’t confident. Girls and even guys were attracted to Nick and though every girl who ever set eyes on Nick tried to flirt with him, he felt awkward and shy.

The second album, ‘Bryter Layter’ went for a more pop tune to attract more people in buying the album. Songs like ‘Fly’ and ‘Northen sky’ had contributions from John Cale, who had just been kicked out of his band The Velvet Underground. And the song ‘Poor Boy’ had backing vocals by P.P Arnold. By this time Nick had officially left Cambridge and was fully committed to his music career. His depression had begun in this period. Although ‘Bryter Layter’ had musical contributions from music legends, the album only sold a few thousand copies.

By this time Nick had moved back to his parents home and his depression had gotten stronger. He felt ashamed of his illness, It is 1972, mental illness was still in the taboo and wasn’t talked about. Nicks parents persuaded Joe Boyd to talk to Nick and tell him that he shouldn’t be ashamed about his depression. By now the doctors had given Nick antidepressants to help with his depression. Two years later, the pills would kill him. Joe Boyd by now had moved to America and so when Nick recorded his final album he was alone. He felt alone with a little fan base and though he had many people who loved him, he felt unloved. His third album, Pink Moon, had no fancy orchestra backing him up, no new musicians helping Nick out. It was just Nick and his guitar. Pink moon shows Nicks struggle. Songs like ‘parasite’ and ‘Place to be’ showed Nicks cry for help. Like every other Nick Drake album, Pink moon didn’t sell well.

Late November 1974. Nick who was living with his parents’ house had gone to bed early. His parents had hidden his pills so they felt Nick was okay for the night. Night time Nick had gone downstairs to eat some breakfast. Most of the time Nicks mother would hear him and go downstairs to talk to him. This time she didn’t hear him. The next morning she went to wake her son up only to find her son dead in his bed.

Although I never knew Nick, I have never felt as close to someone as I do with Nick. He wanted his music to connect to someone and it has. Thank you, Nick.

This Stanley Kubrick classic stands to be one of my favourite films of all time. When thinking why it’s my favourite, I can’t give one definitive answer. Its just many mini things that make this movie a masterpiece, an unforgettable classic.

As well as it being my favourite film, it also has my favourite acting performances by any actor I have ever seen in any movie. Malcolm Mcdowell, who plays the main protagonist Alex, did a brilliant performance of this complex character, though anyone who knows this movie doesn’t need that be told. When working with Kubrick, the perfectionist director, Mcdowell really had to get this performance right. With the help of the book ‘A Clockwork Orange’ by Anthony Burgess, which is what the film is obviously based on, Mcdowell was responsible for how this character would turn out. And there’s no doubt about it that he did a memorable performance, one we’ll remember and praise for a very long time. Of course, there’s also brilliant performance through the movie, but there’s no doubt about it that Malcolm Mcdowell takes the prize

Of course, when talking about this movie you must talk about the creator of this movie…Stanley Kubrick. ‘A Clockwork Orange’ was released in 1971. The early 70s saw cinema taking risks when it came to topics religion, or showing graphic violent acts and sexual acts. Films such as ‘The Devils’ or ‘The last house on the left’ caused both films to be banned for its controversial portrayal of violence and religion. But neither film came close to being controversial as ‘A Clockwork Orange’. Unlike Kubrick other films, ‘A Clockwork Orange’ was made with a low budget which gave him little artistic freedom unlike his other works such as ‘2001:A Space Odyssey’. The way we view Alex’s’ character is also affected by the way of Kubrick’s way of filming e,g the characters and how they are portrayed. There is not one single good character in ‘A Clockwork Orange’. Wherever its the scientists torturing Alex to become less human and more machine, or the police guards and the other colleagues laughing at the pain that is being forced on with Alex. Of course, Alex is the worse character out of these however he is aware of what he is doing, he’s honest to his audience when it comes to the violence he is committing, while the others make out that they are good people of society. Through this, the audience has a different view of Alex as a character.

In conclusion, many, many things make ‘A Clockwork Orange’ one of the best films ever made. To Stanley Kubrick’s way of filming to the acting to the writing. It will take me hours to list everything that makes this film what it is: A classic.

This month i have been working on a mini documentary focusing on mental health on teenagers. 

This topic meant something to me because many of my inspirations have suffered from some sort of mental health problem such as Nick Drake, Syd Barrett, Vincent Van Gogh etc. Making this documentary required much research and i discovered how much of a serious topic this and how it isn’t talked about enough. Mental health within teenagers is serious, research has shown that half the girls who suffer from mental health say they compare themselves to others on social media, teenagers who are part of the LGBTQ+ are double more likely to suffer from mental health issues, and the list goes on. 

For the documentary i had interviewed the School counselor, Jonathan, to talk about these issues and his experience with teenagers who have suffered from mental health. The interview was really interesting and he believed that more girls go to him for help than boys. 

The intro to the documentary was inspired by a scene in ‘Call me by your name’ where Elio is sitting outside underneath a royal blue sky colour. Its not a memorable scene is the movie, but it was a scene in which i found really fitted the aesthetic tone of the movie. As much as i wanted to, i decided not to use Sufjan Stevens music, but am now choosing between The Velvet Underground OR Nico.

I have yet to finish my documentary as there’s still much more editing to do, however i’m looking forward to finishing it as it’s been very stressful but overall it was fun to make, and i have learnt many things about this subject and how important it is that we spread awareness about this certain topic. 

Hello, and welcome to my blog! I’m 16 years old and I’m from Wales. For 3 years now I’ve been listening to classic rock music. Of course, it all started with The Beatles. My sister loves The Beatles and I remember listening their songs. It was only till July 2015 when I listened to ‘She loves you’ and I was amazed. Since then I’ve discovered many, many other musicians such as The Kinks, The Small Faces, David Bowie, Syd Barrett, Nick Drake etc.

 

What Music means to me

Before I discovered the Beatles, my sister who I was very close to, moved out. After that, I felt very lonely. I believe discovering the Beatles helped me in many ways. First of all, they made me feel less lonely. They made me laugh, smile, and made me forget about what was happening in my life. John was always my favourite Beatle and still is today. The man is a songwriting genius. He shared his pain from his early childhood through his songs such as ‘Julia’ and ‘Mother’. Although such a sad topic, he abled to turn that into a beautiful song in which almost 50 years later, people still listen to those songs.

 When you’ve been listening to the same band for 2 years, you slowly get bored. In March 2017, I discovered a new band. A band that changed my life. The Kinks. One day I was wondering around the shop, looking at the magazine section as my Mum does the boring food shopping, I come across a music man. On the front it had a man with short brown hair (sounds exciting, doesn’t it), but it wasn’t the man on the front that got my attention but rather the name. Ray Davies. I’ve heard that name before, “isn’t he from The Kinks?”, I thought. I knew a few songs from The Kinks, such as ‘You really got me” and “Set me free”. I begged my mum to buy me these magazine, I wanted to know more about this band. My Mum was hesitant at first to buy me a £5.00 magazine about “This random man”, according to her, but with some persuasion she brought it for me. I discovered many facts about this band, and realized this band had a very interesting journey. And through then my love for this band began to grow. 

Knowing that I could be into different bands other than The Beatles, made me want to discover more about 60s and 70s music. Each band and singer that I’ve been listening to have taught me things about life for example David Bowie taught me it’s okay to be weird, George Harrison taught me to appreciate life and the people around me, Freddie Mercury taught me to be happy with yourself and to not care about what people think about me. Overall, music has shaped me into the person I am today and I wouldn’t be the same person if I didn’t listen to The Beatles that one day in July 2015