Lynden Barber
He is now a Sydney-based freelance journalist specialising in film and music; a curator for the National Film and Sound Archive website, Australian Screen; and a lecturer in screen studies at Sydney Film School. His film and music journalism sometimes appears in The Australian, while his film reviews are published regularly at the SBS network's film website and in Limelight magazine. In 2006-7 he served as Artistic Director of the Sydney Film Festival.
He blogs on music and film at Eyes Wired Open and tweets as @lyndenbarber
56 articles
List of articles in the library
Phil Collins: Facing Up To New Values
Interview by Lynden Barber, Melody Maker, 7 February 1981
URPASSING even The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy and Crossroads in the bus-stop yapping stakes, the national adult pastime of watching Tiswas every morning of ...
Robert Fripp: Do you want me to sell you an album…or a treatise on neg-entropy?
Interview by Lynden Barber, Melody Maker, 21 March 1981
Robert Fripp lectures Lynden Barber ...
Bruce Springsteen: Brighton Centre
Live Review by Lynden Barber, Melody Maker, 6 June 1981
TRYING TO WRITE about a Bruce Springsteen concert without reinforcing the man's reputation for scarcely believable stage performances is like trying to cross the Atlantic ...
Echo & the Bunnymen: Knocking on Heaven's gate
Report and Interview by Lynden Barber, Melody Maker, 20 June 1981
Lynden Barber goes Dutch on a tequila sunrise with Echo and the Bunnymen. ...
Soft Cell: Soft See Cell Warfare
Interview by Lynden Barber, Melody Maker, January 1982
The Soft White Underbelly of Soft Cell ...
New Order: North London Polytechnic, London
Live Review by Lynden Barber, Melody Maker, 30 January 1982
FIRST THE RESOUNDING echo of the cumbersome mythology surrounding this group, then the subsequent, inevitable dismissals and sneers. Now, perhaps for the first time, it's ...
Interview by Lynden Barber, Melody Maker, 3 April 1982
ON THE first bright day of '82, two tramp-like figures lounge on a bench outside the South Bank complex overlooking the Thames. The sun is ...
British Electric Foundation: Music Of Quality And Distinction Volume One (Virgin)
Review by Lynden Barber, Melody Maker, 10 April 1982
BRIEFCASES bulging with credentials, the boardroom men of the BEF decided last year to live up to their status as "production company" within the mighty ...
Interview by Lynden Barber, Melody Maker, 10 April 1982
AN INTERRUPTION. You can forget your Bananajamas and their shrink-wrapped kharma, stuff your paedophiliac slobbering over little Lolita Grogan – wipe that saliva away, it's ...
Altered Images: Pinky Blue (Epic)
Review by Lynden Barber, Melody Maker, 8 May 1982
IF THE jolly-jolly blancmange and Jellytot frills on the cover of Happy Birthday didn't, like the kid at the party who stuffed all the eClares, ...
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 ...
Diamanda Galás: Heart Of Galás
Interview by Lynden Barber, Melody Maker, 5 June 1982
Is DIAMANDA GALÁS a devil woman? Lynden Barber finds out when he meets the golden-throated satanic majesty. ...
Live Review by Lynden Barber, Melody Maker, 5 June 1982
HAVING SUCCESSFULLY thrown off the worst aspects of their twee post-punk amateurism with the release of the refreshing Odyshape last year. The Raincoats took several steps backwards ...
Interview by Lynden Barber, Melody Maker, 12 June 1982
HOW COULD they have known? The caption under the BBC1 column in the Sunday Times television listings for May 30 was unmistakeable. "6.10. Sense And ...
Attila the Stockbroker: The Ultimate Hooligan
Interview by Lynden Barber, Melody Maker, 19 June 1982
STANDING against the kind of pastel sea and sky only seen in Turner paintings and south-coast resorts is a dog-eared set of leather and denim ...
Cabaret Voltaire: Venue, London
Live Review by Lynden Barber, Melody Maker, 19 June 1982
SOME shock, this. Hatched in the dreariest industrial crucible, Cabaret Voltaire have always crawled, and snivelled down their own dubious paths, hacking away in their ...
Rip Rig and Panic: I Am Cold (Virgin)
Review by Lynden Barber, Melody Maker, 19 June 1982
THINK OF Rip Rig And Panic and think of wily freedom, wit and dazzle, a flurry of mayhem to disrupt these days of a rapidly ...
This Heat: King's College, London
Live Review by Lynden Barber, Melody Maker, 19 June 1982
TRAGICALLY snubbed by both press and public in this country, This Heat may have played their final gig. ...
Tom Verlaine: Slurs From The Front
Live Review by Lynden Barber, Melody Maker, 19 June 1982
Tom Verlaine: The Venue, London ...
New Asia: Ian Little: Gateway to Asia
Interview by Lynden Barber, Melody Maker, 10 July 1982
CHECK THE scarf then consider all points east. Face more than slightly swarthy, eyes coffee dark, Ian Little could easily turn out to be a ...
Pink Floyd: The Final Cut (EMI SHPF 1983)
Review by Lynden Barber, Melody Maker, 19 March 1983
JUST PICTURE IT: over on the left there's wacky old Jack-the-lad Tony Ashton bobbing and weaving away beneath his dad's mangy cloth cap like Kevin ...
New Order: Brixton Ace, London
Live Review by Lynden Barber, Melody Maker, 26 March 1983
THE OMENS WERE poor. Judging from the new single, 'Blue Monday', you could be forgiven for supposing that New Order are simply the latest Factory ...
Comsat Angels: The Comsat Angels: Selling Sheffield By The Pound
Interview by Lynden Barber, Melody Maker, 20 August 1983
UNLIKE BOXING, there is no knockouts when art and commerce enter the ring, though the least we can do is award points. ...
Manu Dibango, Gasper Lawal: Hammersmith Palais, London
Live Review by Lynden Barber, Melody Maker, 24 September 1983
READING THE music papers in mid-'76, I'd suspected that the touted wave of punk groups resembled nothing so extraordinary as a cross between zealous youth ...
The Go-Betweens: Mysteries of Exile
Interview by Lynden Barber, Melody Maker, 1 October 1983
The GO-BETWEENS come from Australia, but you don't need a visa to love them. Lynden Barber suggests we drop our passport control mentalities and tune ...
KC & the Sunshine Band: The Venue, London
Live Review by Lynden Barber, Melody Maker, 5 November 1983
Getting on down... down ...
Interview by Lynden Barber, Melody Maker, 19 November 1983
Lynden Barber hero-worships SUN RA ...
Review by Lynden Barber, Melody Maker, 26 November 1983
TO HELL AND BACK ...
Einstürzende Neubauten: North London Polytechnic
Live Review by Lynden Barber, Melody Maker, 3 December 1983
THE MAKINGS of an iron foundry litter the stage. Austere men assume Stakhanovite postures, hammers posed momentarily before thundering metal-wards. Sparks shoots crimson from a ...
Fela Kuti: The Republic Of Kuti
Interview by Lynden Barber, Melody Maker, 3 December 1983
FELA KUTI gives Lynden Barber a lecture in African culture. ...
Live Review by Lynden Barber, Melody Maker, 10 December 1983
A FEW days previously BBC 2 had scored a century with their brilliantly presented tribute to the "Soundies", the juke box visual clips of the ...
Depeche Mode: Crushing The Wheels Of Industry
Report and Interview by Lynden Barber, Melody Maker, 7 January 1984
SPARKLERS. That's how German audiences display affection and appreciation. Sparklers, plus the odd lone klaxon crying out like a wolf with a peg on its ...
Bill Laswell: Baselines (Elektra Musician 60221-1 US Import)
Review by Lynden Barber, Melody Maker, 14 January 1984
I HAD HIGH hopes for Laswell's Baselines but large tracts turn out to be a bit of a pain, I'm afraid. ...
The Clash: The Brixton Academy, London
Live Review by Lynden Barber, Melody Maker, 17 March 1984
ONCE UPON a time when we were a little more naive than we like to admit, The Clash seemed pretty important, like they were the ...
Gil Scott-Heron: Beam Me Up (Scotty)
Interview by Lynden Barber, New Musical Express, 24 March 1984
HIS BEARD a jungle of burnt spaghetti and his clothes an apparent assortment of ill-fitting jumble bargains, Gil Scott-Heron cuts a less than (shall we ...
Live Review by Lynden Barber, Melody Maker, 14 April 1984
THE MOST simple consideration of live performance throws up two basic types; those shows that define musical experience, are the quintessential medium for the music ...
Art of Noise: State Of The Art: The Art of Noise
Report and Interview by Lynden Barber, Melody Maker, 19 May 1984
Zang! Zang! Zang! go Lynden Barber's art-strings as he meets pop cryptographers ART OF NOISE. ...
Carmel: Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, London
Live Review by Lynden Barber, Melody Maker, 26 May 1984
CARMEL COLLECTED ...
New Order: Royal Festival Hall, London
Live Review by Lynden Barber, Melody Maker, 26 May 1984
THICK AS THIEVES ...
Public Image Ltd: PiL: This Is What You Want, This Is What You Get (Virgin)
Review by Lynden Barber, Melody Maker, July 1984
JUST when you thought you had the bugger pinned down as a spent force, a wasted opportunist and black and white photocopy of a colourful ...
James Blood Ulmer: The Venue, London
Live Review by Lynden Barber, Melody Maker, 4 August 1984
IF, AS IT'S often noted, a week is a long time in pop, how long is four years in avant-jazz-funk? ...
Working Week: Shaw Theatre, London
Live Review by Lynden Barber, Melody Maker, 4 August 1984
WHILE THE nadir of pop's current dalliance with jazz was reached by the terminal twit who mimed a trumpet solo through a saxophone on Ear-Say ...
Bobby Womack: Poetry in Motion
Interview by Lynden Barber, Melody Maker, 6 October 1984
Lynden Barber puts a face to the music of BOBBY WOMACK, a genuine soul legend who remains virtually unknown to the majority of the Great ...
Afrika Bambaataa & The Soulsonic Force: Pink Elephant, Luton
Live Review by Lynden Barber, Melody Maker, 13 October 1984
THE CABBIE, waiting in the foyer, hadn't been too impressed. Now it was different when Demis Roussos and Johnny Mathis played here. Sounded just like ...
Interview by Lynden Barber, Melody Maker, 13 October 1984
Kidnapped heiress Patti Hearst is said to have listened to him incessantly during her captivity and the hip-hop crowd regard him as a guru. His ...
Afrika Bambaataa: Play It Again Bam
Interview by Lynden Barber, Melody Maker, 20 October 1984
Leader of the Zulu Nation. Godfather of hip-hop. Overlord of funk. Black youth guru. Creator of the most influential record of the Eighties. All this ...
Interview by Lynden Barber, Melody Maker, 17 November 1984
SPK bang on pieces of metal and go spot-welding. Lynden Barber wants to know why ...
Manu Dibango: Hammersmith Palais, London
Live Review by Lynden Barber, Melody Maker, 24 November 1984
IT TAKES TENOR TO TANGO ...
The Redskins: Red On Arrival: The Redskins
Report and Interview by Lynden Barber, Melody Maker, 8 December 1984
"TUC LEADER Norman Willis tells Arthur Scargill a few home truths," they said on Channel 4 news last night (and this is the Left Wing ...
Interview by Lynden Barber, Melody Maker, 22 December 1984
Lynden Barber accuses LEVEL 42 of showing off. Mark King stays cool. ...
Review by Lynden Barber, Melody Maker, 12 January 1985
SNOOKER EVERY time you switch on TV, the predatory growls of British Rail staff upon being asked for assistance, the ludicrously tasteless album sleeves of ...
Mick Jagger, The Redskins: The Tube: Thank God It's Friday
Interview by Lynden Barber, Melody Maker, 23 February 1985
MALCOLM GERRIE is the man behind Tyne Tees' groundbreaking pop TV show The Tube. Lynden Barber went to Newcastle to investigate the programme and its ...
The Triffids: Kangaroo Courting
Interview by Lynden Barber, Melody Maker, 18 May 1985
LATE AFTERNOON, the wind’s beginning to whip up a little. Two Triffids sit on the balcony of an Italian cappuccino bar taking in the passing ...
The Hoodoo Gurus: Hoodoo Gurus: Coogee Bay Hotel, Sydney
Live Review by Lynden Barber, New Musical Express, 7 September 1985
GURUS MISSILES ...
Nick Cave, Screamin' Jay Hawkins: Screamin' Jay Hawkins: The Man Who Ate Nick Cave
Interview by Lynden Barber, New Musical Express, 19 July 1986
The bats screech, and inside a rockin' coffin, something stirs...up fly the nails and out pops SCREAMIN' JAY HAWKINS, longtime voodoo swamp beast back to ...
Simple Minds: Jim Goes To Hollywood
Interview by Lynden Barber, New Musical Express, 3 January 1987
SIMPLE MINDS, and Jim Kerr in particular, always seem to be "out" when we phone... funny, that. But LYNDEN BARBER got a good connection, from ...
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