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3 items from 2012

19 May 2012 12:01 PM, PDT | www.culturecatch.com | See recent CultureCatch news »

This was a particularly sad week for the musical world. We lost four greats: Chuck Brown, the godfather of Go-Go; country-rock pioneer Doug Dillard; supreme disco diva Donna Summer; and Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, who did more to promote art song than anyone else in the recording era.

Chuck Brown was the most innovative of them, and the funkiest. Born in 1936, he paid his dues as a guitarist in various R&B bands in the '60s. His funk band The Soul Searchers made two classic albums for Sussex, We the People (1972) and Salt of the Earth (1974). "Ashley's Roachclip" on the latter includes a drum break that became one of the sampled breaks in hip-hop; "Blow Your Whistle" from the same LP is also much-sampled.

It's debatable when Go-Go originated as a separate style; originally, it denoted merely party music or a dance club. But in live performance, in Brown's home territory in and around Washington D. »

- SteveHoltje

27 March 2012 7:39 AM, PDT | The Guardian - Film News | See recent The Guardian - Film News news »

The Carlisle-born film-maker delighted the crowd with some frank tales about how – and how not – to make it in Hollywood

On Saturday night at the Guardian's Open Weekend, film-maker Mike Figgis promised he was going to name names – and he duly did. Figgis gave a brilliant insight into the ups and downs of being a Hollywood director; in his case, more downs than ups. Figgis was born in Carlisle and grew up in Kenya (his father was a frustrated musician and DJ, his mother secretary to Ernest Hemingway, who may or may not have had a passion for her), and in the 1990s looked as if he could become one of Hollywood's top directors, with films such as Internal Affairs and Leaving Las Vegas. But, as he explained to a captivated audience, every time he got within sight of the pinnacle, he blew it.

The trouble is, Figgis said, he »

- Simon Hattenstone

22 March 2012 10:07 AM, PDT | The Guardian - Film News | See recent The Guardian - Film News news »

Catch up with the last seven days in the world of film

Read our 4-star Hunger Games review

The big story

With the John Carter fiasco rumbling on Hollywood was desperate for some good news, and it duly came in the slinky form of Jennifer Lawrence and Hunger Games. The set of novels by Suzanne Collins have been touted as the new Twilight and – to all astonishment – have been turned into a rather good film, if you believe Xan Brooks, our man at the first press preview. As the week wore on, it became clear that The Hunger Games was looking at a serious pile of cash when it would finally be released – perhaps even beating the first Twilight film's opening weekend mark of $69m in 2008. Fortunately, as is their way, the Guide had got in quickly and interviewed Lawrence last weekend – and she had little truck with the Twilight »

3 items from 2012