Music
"Unfortunately, like many of his ilk who still have a consistent or even prolific output, he is forever marked by the early fame and big hits, with most of the seated Palais audience expecting a dose of hits like ‘Breaking Us in Two’ (from his classic 1982 album Night and Day). So although he’s touring on the back of a new album, the nostalgia crowd isn’t here to listen to that, and Joe has to sneak in the new tracks by alternating them with the fodder still getting regular airplay over at sponsor Gold 104. And he doesn’t disappoint on that front."
Live review: Joe Jackson at the Palais, May 2008 - fasterlouder
"Classics like ‘Accident Waiting to Happen’, ‘Little Time Bomb’, ‘Greetings to the New Brunette’ and ‘Levi Stubbs’ Tears’ need nothing but his plugged-in axe and flat-vowelled Essex accent to work their magic. The lyrics are still evocative of the cold, Thatcherite Britain that inspired them, yet they take me straight back to a suburban Australian teenage bedroom where I played them over and over."
Live review: Billy Bragg at the Prince of Wales, January 2008 - PBS online magazine
"Like Henry Rollins, he has parlayed his punk prophet credentials into a career as a kind of alternative motivational speaker – rallying the despondent troops, now well into middle age, to Keep It Real."
Live review: Don Letts at the Corner Hotel, May 2008 - fasterlouder
"There aren’t many people in the known universe who haven’t been exposed to the ridiculously radio-friendly hit single Africa, with its driving beat and infectious falsetto chorus which can prove so disastrous when attempted at drunken karaoke nights. The song has been on high rotation on most classic hits stations around the world since it first topped the charts in 1983."
The Legend of Toto: serving up classic rock - fasterlouder January 2008
Films about music
"The ghosts of so many people’s youthful memories haunted these venues’ dark, sticky interiors – but it was the silence that followed; the dwindling of public spaces to gather and hear new live music, that caused aftershocks more profound than the loss of the physical space."Persecution Blues: the battle for the Tote (review) - artshub, 2011
"That a film as specialised as Sticky Carpet has screened to a packed house at ACMI and the Melbourne International Film Festival is a tribute to Butcher’s own vision and tenacity – and the power of word of mouth on the radio stations and in the pubs and venues of the very scene he has managed to capture."
Interview: Sticky Carpet - Poster Spring/Summer 2006
Radio
"Radio stations have to be versatile across all media platforms in order to stay afloat. Market research is essential: in the current media landscape, listeners expect to interact with and influence the cultural artefacts they consume, traditional indicators (charts, polls and ratings) are more fragmented, and there is a need to keep ahead of the targeted demographic."
Has Digital Killed the Radio Star? Double J and Real-time Radio - Metro Issue 182 (Spring 2014)
"Unfortunately, like many of his ilk who still have a consistent or even prolific output, he is forever marked by the early fame and big hits, with most of the seated Palais audience expecting a dose of hits like ‘Breaking Us in Two’ (from his classic 1982 album Night and Day). So although he’s touring on the back of a new album, the nostalgia crowd isn’t here to listen to that, and Joe has to sneak in the new tracks by alternating them with the fodder still getting regular airplay over at sponsor Gold 104. And he doesn’t disappoint on that front."
Live review: Joe Jackson at the Palais, May 2008 - fasterlouder
"Classics like ‘Accident Waiting to Happen’, ‘Little Time Bomb’, ‘Greetings to the New Brunette’ and ‘Levi Stubbs’ Tears’ need nothing but his plugged-in axe and flat-vowelled Essex accent to work their magic. The lyrics are still evocative of the cold, Thatcherite Britain that inspired them, yet they take me straight back to a suburban Australian teenage bedroom where I played them over and over."
Live review: Billy Bragg at the Prince of Wales, January 2008 - PBS online magazine
"Like Henry Rollins, he has parlayed his punk prophet credentials into a career as a kind of alternative motivational speaker – rallying the despondent troops, now well into middle age, to Keep It Real."
Live review: Don Letts at the Corner Hotel, May 2008 - fasterlouder
"There aren’t many people in the known universe who haven’t been exposed to the ridiculously radio-friendly hit single Africa, with its driving beat and infectious falsetto chorus which can prove so disastrous when attempted at drunken karaoke nights. The song has been on high rotation on most classic hits stations around the world since it first topped the charts in 1983."
The Legend of Toto: serving up classic rock - fasterlouder January 2008
Films about music
"The ghosts of so many people’s youthful memories haunted these venues’ dark, sticky interiors – but it was the silence that followed; the dwindling of public spaces to gather and hear new live music, that caused aftershocks more profound than the loss of the physical space."Persecution Blues: the battle for the Tote (review) - artshub, 2011
"That a film as specialised as Sticky Carpet has screened to a packed house at ACMI and the Melbourne International Film Festival is a tribute to Butcher’s own vision and tenacity – and the power of word of mouth on the radio stations and in the pubs and venues of the very scene he has managed to capture."
Interview: Sticky Carpet - Poster Spring/Summer 2006
Radio
"Radio stations have to be versatile across all media platforms in order to stay afloat. Market research is essential: in the current media landscape, listeners expect to interact with and influence the cultural artefacts they consume, traditional indicators (charts, polls and ratings) are more fragmented, and there is a need to keep ahead of the targeted demographic."
Has Digital Killed the Radio Star? Double J and Real-time Radio - Metro Issue 182 (Spring 2014)