Scritti Politti
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Scritti Politti: Everything's Gone Green
Retrospective by David Stubbs, Uncut, December 2001
David Stubbs on Scritti Politti's subversive pop-soul masterpiece, Songs To Remember ...
Audio interviews
Scritti Politti's Green (1988)
Interview by Barney Hoskyns, Rock's Backpages audio, January 1988
Scritti's Green talks about making Provision, meeting Jacques Derrida, working with Miles Davis, Roger Troutman and Chaka Khan, hanging out with Kraftwerk and struggling to come up with an album title...
File format: mp3; file size: 57.7meg, total interview length: 1h 00' 06" sound quality: ****
The RBP Album Club on the Incredible String Band (2013)
Interview by uncredited writer, Rock's Backpages audio, 9 May 2013
Robyn Hitchcock and Scritti's Green Gartside, aided by ringmaster Mark Ellen, discuss and play excerpts from the Incredible String Band's The Hangman's Beautiful Daughter. Recorded in 2013 at the RBP Album Club at the Idler Academy in London.
File format: mp3; file size: 79.9mb, interview length: 1h 27' 15" sound quality: ****
Scritti Politti's Green Gartside (2006)
Interview by Adam Sweeting, Rock's Backpages audio, May 2006
The Scritti Politti man talks about returning to live work with his band of part-timers; looks back at the early Rough Trade days, and the politics and theory; at his discovery of soul and funk, and going to America to make polished pop records; at struggling with promotion and flipping out; at the process of making records, mainly his new album White Bread Black Beer; at romance, nostalgia and (lack of) memory, working with Miles Davis, and his memories of Bernie Rhodes and Malcolm McLaren.
File format: mp3; file size: 78.8mb, interview length: 1h 01' 03" sound quality: ****
List of articles in the library
Interview by Sheryl Garratt, The Evening Standard, 21 July 2006
For almost a decade, Green Gartside abandoned his band and the pop scene. Now he's back with a new album — and a surprise Mercury ...
Scritti Politti's Green Gartside (2006) [transcript]
Audio transcript of interview by Adam Sweeting, Rock's Backpages transcripts, May 2006
This is a transcript of Adam's audio interview with Green. Listen to the audio of this interview. ...
How to buy: Rough Trade Records
Guide by Kieron Tyler, MOJO, December 2006
The revolutionary, still-smokin' independent. ...
Scritti Politti: White Bread, Black Beer
Review by Alfred Soto, Stylus, 24 July 2006
AUDIENCES IGNORE THE TRAVAILS of an aesthete who digs Gaultier pants and Immanuel Kant. Critics are more stupid. But when the aesthete hires producer Arif ...
Interview by Adam Sweeting, Daily Telegraph, 8 June 2006
Scritti Politti's Green Gartside has returned with a new album buzzing with ideas and pop hooks, writes Adam Sweeting ...
Simon Reynolds: Rip It Up and Start Again – Post-Punk 1978-84 (Faber)
Book Review by Andy Beckett, London Review of Books, September 2005
IN JANUARY 1978, the Sex Pistols, then and now the most famous punk band in the world, split up. Johnny Rotten, the band's singer, most ...
Scritti Politti: Pretension and polish
Interview by Adam Sweeting, The Guardian, 10 June 1988
Adam Sweeting drops in on one of the pop world's top name-droppers ...
Sandy Denny: The Battle Of Evermore
Report and Interview by Kate Mossman, The Word, April 2012
The Sandy Denny tribute show is expanding, a long-running fight to "give her songs a future". ...
Richard Russell: Rich Pickings
Interview by Jamie Atkins, Record Collector, March 2018
As Richard Russell's collaborative album, Everything Is Recorded, is released, RC's Jamie Atkins meets him to talk about the recording and the music that led ...
Scritti Politti: Cupid & Psyche 85 (Virgin)
Review by Andy Gill, New Musical Express, 15 June 1985
A BUNCH of words such as can be found on the new Scritti Politti album: heart, her, girl, baby, word, reason, love, boy, hurt, sugar, ...
This week's literary headline... Turn Of The Scrits
Interview by Dave McCullough, Sounds, 8 December 1979
Scritti Politti are the Henry James of rock, says DAVE McCULLOUGH, THE JOURNALIST. ...
The Nitty Gritty on Scritti Politti
Interview by Dave McCullough, Sounds, 13 January 1979
Tea and empathy shared by DAVE McCULLOUGH * ...
Green Gartside and Alexis Taylor: West End Centre, Aldershot
Live Review by Stephen Dalton, The Times, 12 December 2017
The blended vocal harmonies of the founder of Scritti Politti and the Hot Chip frontman made even the weaker songs shine. ...
Adam Kidron: The Man Behind the Mix
Interview by Andy Schwartz, New York Rocker, December 1981
Making Tracks with Adam Kidron, London's 21-Year-Old Production Prodigy ...
Latitude: Henham Park, Suffolk
Live Review by Robert Sandall, The Sunday Times, 17 July 2006
FESTIVALS HAVE a way of sorting out the truly great from the merely watchable, and so it proved at the weekend's Latitude event. ...
Scritti Politti: The Sweetest Boy
Interview by Max Bell, No. 1, 6 July 1985
BLACK MUSIC, ARTY IDEAS AND WORDS, WORDS, WORDS. THOSE ARE THE THINGS THAT INFLUENCE THAT WELL-KNOWN CLEVER CHAP GREEN. OH, AND CHOCOLATE, OF COURSE. MAX BELL ...
Red Crayola, Cabaret Voltaire, Scritti Politti, pragVEC: Acklam Hall, London
Live Review by Jon Savage, Melody Maker, 2 December 1978
IN THE collapse of trends, movements — individuals: when they combine, all the stronger. Tonight four bands moving forward, confidently or haltingly, but all with ...
Scritti Politti: The Politics of Green Land
Interview by Adam Sweeting, The Guardian, 6 July 1985
Adam Sweeting meets Scritti Politti's radical singer-songwriter ...
Scritti Politti: A Restauranteur's Guide To The Galaxy
Report and Interview by Rachel Felder, Alternative Press, 1988
GREEN GARTSIDE – Mr. Scritti Politti – describes his band's sound in the distanced terminology of a fed up rock critic; as he puts it, ...
Scritti Politti: Cupid and Psyche 85 (Warner Brothers)
Review by Richard Gehr, Spin, September 1985
SCRITTI POLITTI (Italian for "political writings") emerged in the late 70s as a hyperanalytic postpunk trio, breaking onto the pop-aesthetic horizon with a series of ...
Retrospective by Simon Reynolds, The Wire, June 2001
Simon Reynolds swoons to the sound of Scritti Politti's seditious soul music ...
Scritti Politti: The Sweetest Boy
Interview by Mark Cooper, Record Mirror, 17 July 1982
I'm not arrogant, just good, says Scritti Politti's Green Gartside ...
Scritti Politti: The Sweetest Boy
Retrospective and Interview by Simon Reynolds, Uncut, April 2005
From the post-punk squat-crusties to pristine '80s pop-funkers, Scritti Politti underwent one of the most radical transformations in rock history. Uncut meets the band's mastermind, ...
Joy Division, Pil et al: Futurama '79 Festival — Set The Controls For The Squalor Of Leeds
Live Review by Andy Gill, Ian Penman, New Musical Express, 15 September 1979
The World's First Science Fiction Music FestivalWords: Ian Penman and Andy Gill. Pix: Kevin Cummins ...
Report and Interview by Andrew Smith, Melody Maker, 5 October 1991
BEF (THE PART-TIME preoccupation of former Heaven 17 bods second Martyn Ware and Ian Craig Marsh) have just released a Music Of Quality and Distinction ...
Hearts and Flowers: Scritti Politti
Profile and Interview by Simon Reynolds, The Guardian, 26 May 2006
It's seven years since Green from Scritti Politti released an album – time spent boozing away in self-doubt. So what brought him back to his ...
Scritti Politti: Suspicious Minds
Interview by Mark Cooper, Record Mirror, 5 December 1981
Making their way from the margins to the mainstream SCRITTI POLITTI have discovered the beauties of pop. But what took them so long? "Professor" MARK ...
Scritti Politti: That Obscure Object of Desire
Interview by Stuart Maconie, New Musical Express, 20 August 1988
THE MEPHISTO of sophisto, GREEN GARTSIDE, and his slightly cool vehicle SCRITTI POLITTI have once more pulled into view with their new single 'First Boy ...
Interview by Paul Mathur, Blitz, June 1985
The Barest Of OutlinesScritti Politti. The Italian for political writing, you could say, a political music group. Or you could say, cack, my Scritti just ...
The Pop Group, Scritti Politti: University Of London
Live Review by Nick Kent, New Musical Express, 24 November 1979
THE TRADITION of the angry young idealist, full of righteous fervour, self-righteous condescension towards those at odds with his or her volatile beliefs, and a ...
Scritti Politti: Green Machines
Interview by Adrian Deevoy, International Musician & Recording World, July 1985
"I'D JUST like to say now that I am not a knobist." ...
Post-Punk: Lubricate Your Living Room
Retrospective by Simon Reynolds, Uncut, December 2001
FORGET ABOUT THE NOSTALGIA-MONGERING AND KITSCH REVIVALISM – THE POST-PUNK PERIOD OF 1979-81 WAS AN ASTONISHINGLY FERTILE TIME FOR BRITISH MUSIC, WHEN INDIE LABELS FLOURISHED ...
Scritti Politti: The Green Piece
Profile and Interview by Jim Irvin, The Word, July 2006
A PHILOSOPHICAL QUESTION to begin. Why are we all here? Well, it's because pop music's fucking great, isn't it? ...
Scritti Politti: Return Of An Eighties Enigma
Profile and Interview by David Sinclair, The Times, July 1999
AS DISAPPEARING TRICKS go, the strange case of Green Gartside is not quite up there with those of Richey Edwards or blues hero Peter Green, ...
Interview by Chris Roberts, Sounds, 18 May 1985
"I DON'T KNOW exactly what a pop theorist is," says Green. "I think everybody has their own ideas on what pop music's about and what ...
Scritti Politti: Intellectual Hooliganism
Interview by Chris Roberts, Melody Maker, 2 March 1991
"SO YOU USE the language of dreams and you toy around for the micropolitical effect of the goosebump. I like that – the goosebump as ...
Interview by Gavin Martin, New Musical Express, June 1985
THE TWO singers, a tall fresh-faced Welshman and a soft spoken bleary-eyed Mancunian, felt trapped. ...
Scritti Politti: Do The Gart, Man
Interview by Terry Staunton, New Musical Express, 16 March 1991
THE DANCEHALL FOUNDATIONS are shaking and there's outrage in the ragga ranks. A white pop star has plundered their culture with the aid of Lennon ...
Scritti Politti: Say A Little Prayer For Green
Interview by Richard Cook, New Musical Express, 10 March 1984
DEEP END, feet first. Is it true you're Mr Paranoid? ...
Scritti Politti: Songs To Remember (Rough Trade)
Review by Charles Shaar Murray, New Musical Express, 4 September 1982
HERE IT IS: Scritti Politti's greatest hits. Let me assure you that this isn't a problem (I like albums with lots of singles on) and ...
Scritti Politti: The Sweetest Groove
Interview by Lynden Barber, Melody Maker, 29 May 1982
Everything's gone GREEN, the voice of SCRITTI POLITTI tells Lynden Barber ...
Profile and Interview by Ian Birch, Smash Hits, 12 November 1981
From the underground...To the charts? We want hits, say the former cult heroes. Quite right, says Ian Birch. ...
Scritti Politti: The Green Manifesto
Interview by David Toop, The Face, 1988
The only pop artist who can incorporate Miles Davis and Jacques Derrida into the same repertoire, Green Gartside is still pondering the "the undecideability of ...
Scritti Politti: Enigma Variation
Interview by Simon Reynolds, Melody Maker, 5 March 1988
Break out the dictionaries and Post-Structuralist text books, pop's most perfect intellect, GREEN GARTSIDE, is back with a new SCRITTI POLITTI single ready for release ...
Scritti Politti: Natty Design Or Grand Illusion?
Interview by Chris Bohn, New Musical Express, 4 September 1982
THE WEEKEND before our final confrontation, Scritti Politti's Green went shopping for clothes for his debut Top Of The Pops appearance, its confirmation depending on ...
It's The Scritti Political Broadcast
Interview by Johnny Black, Smash Hits, 10 June 1982
Quiet please! The next feature will be on all three channels. Johnny Black gets a taste of modern soul music. ...
Reflections On In(ter)dependence: Scritti Politti
Interview by Ian Penman, New Musical Express, 25 November 1978
MEET SCRITTI Politti: three or four young musicians (one is a floating member), and equally important, a large circle of close friends who provide help, ...
Where Radical Meets Chic: Scritti Politti
Interview by Barney Hoskyns, New Musical Express, 31 October 1981
"SCRITTI POLITTI" – didn't you always wonder where their "political writings" were? I did. I always wondered whether their hearts were in their music or ...
Various Artists: Yes New York/New York Noise/Post Punk 01
Review by Barney Hoskyns, Uncut, 2003
AH MANHATTAN, so much to answer for – and so in vogue as a rock metropolis after decades as a Hip Hop Mecca. Yes New ...
Making Provision: Green speaks
Interview by Barney Hoskyns, Virgin Records press release, 1988
THREE YEARS of silence are finally broken this week as Scritti Politti release the first single off a new album. Featuring the inimitable trumpet of ...
This Week I am Mostly Wearing Soren Kierkegaard: Scritti Politti
Profile and Interview by Barney Hoskyns, MOJO, August 1999
GREEN STROHMEYER-GARTSIDE, to give him his full and slightly fantastical name, is feeling decidedly below-par on this muggy Manhattan afternoon. Clasping a Rolling Rock in ...
see also Fred Maher
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