Biopics are ten a penny these days; Walk The Line, Get On Up and At Last are just a few that have looked at prominent figures of the music industry in recent years. These are good, and let you relive the relevant artist’s music while you get a window into their personal life – but somehow, they lack a bit of authenticity.

‘What Happened, Miss Simone?’ by Liz Garbus differs in the fact that it’s a documentary – and, crucially – it features original recordings, film and photographs spanning Nina Simone’s life and career.

The film gives a rare insight into the intriguing life of Nina Simone: tormented soul, civil rights activist and singer. Interviews with her daughter, as well as contributions from key people in her life – such as her husband and guitarist - add gravitas to the story, as do sound bites from the lady herself, including raw and emotional revelations from her diary.

From her beginnings as Eunice Wayman, a young church pianist - “I studied to be the first black classical pianist, and that’s all I wanted to be” - to her musical comeback after a period of relative anonymity living in Africa, ‘What Happened, Miss Simone?’ attempts to answer its own question. Along the way you find out about her relationship with Andy Stroud, her abusive husband-cum-manager, her struggle with motherhood and ultimately, the diagnosis of Bipolar Depression.

One of the most fascinating elements of the documentary looks at Nina’s involvement with the American Civil Rights movement. Compelled to speak out, Simone wrote a number of songs which focussed on the subject – singing frankly about the persecution of the black population in the south (‘Mississippi God Damn'), as well as seeing the positive in desperate situations (‘I Got Life’) – the latter’s stark lyrics at one with the rather trivial use of them in a recent yoghurt ad.

She became friends with Martin Luther King and Malcolm X, whose daughters regale tales of Nina and her daughter Lisa staying with them at the time. But Simone’s views became extreme; she went against MLK’s peaceful stance and was vocal about using violence to fight back against the authorities. Hearing her speak out so candidly is quite an eye-opener – but then, it seems, that was her style.  

‘What Happened, Miss Simone?’ creates an interesting portrait of Nina Simone. Whether or not you’re a fan, it’s a fascinating look at what made her; it pieces together the enormous jigsaw of her life that many misunderstood, and explains a lot of the internal and external struggles she fought to gain success.  The film is littered with music –  ‘I Loves You Porgy’ and a chilling cover of ‘Strange Fruit’ are just a couple of the songs featured, and the documentary is worth a watch just for these. In particular the final scene of her playing ‘My Baby Just Cares For Me’ at the Montreaux Jazz Festival – where you’d be hard pressed not to find her performance captivating, and quite honestly, one of genius.

‘What Happened, Miss Simone?’ is an original documentary exclusive to Netflix and is released on June 26, 2015.

“It was fun back then, but 1977 was 1977”

Joe Keithley, AKA Joey Shithead, is frontman of original hardcore punk band, D.O.A. It’s said that D.O.A even originated the term ‘hardcore’ with their Hardcore’ 81 album.  

Keithley is happy to talk about the early years of punk; “The best guy I ever wrote songs with was Chuck Biscuits. He is a great drummer of course. Later I started songwriting with Wimpy, my old buddy who just passed away recently. He wrote on 3 albums; Murder, 13 Flavours Of Doom, and Black Spot. That was a powerful combo with him in the band.” But he’d rather look forward than back.

D.O.A. are getting ready to release their 15th album, “It's called Hard Rain Falling. We'll have copies when we get to Dublin. It just shipped off last week. The CDs will be ready by then but the vinyl won't be ready til August. It came out good, we’re really happy with it.”  

“There are 12 songs. Some political songs, songs about racism, street gangs, a song called 'Warmonger'. One called 'The Cops Shot A Kid' about stuff in Ferguson, Maryland and New York City. There's a cover of 'Johnny Too Bad' by The Slickers, from The Harder They Come soundtrack.”

In July the band will play their first show in Dublin after nearly 40 years on the road. “The one time we tried to play Dublin was in 1994 and the guy booked it on Easter weekend. It scheduled on the Good Friday so we got there and the gig was cancelled. We drove by the Guinness brewery to at least get a pint of Guinness while were there but of course the pubs were closed. So we drove up to Belfast and had an extra night there. The only places we played in '94 were Cork and Belfast.”

The Irish shows may have something to do with a new member of D.O.A. “Our new drummer is an Irish guy from Derry. He grew up in Canada but still goes back there a lot. His name is Paddy Duddy so he got some abuse over his name, as everyone does in school. He's been with the band for 2 years now.”

Joe spoke to Musos’ Guide in advance of the new tour.

Musos’ Guide: You're almost 60 now, I'm shocked.

Joe Keithley: So am I! I just had my 59th birthday a couple of weeks ago. Time moves on. I feel pretty good. I can still get up there and kick ass. I take Pete Seeger as a role model. He was still playing gigs til he was 93 so that’s the way I'm looking at it.

We all change as time goes on. Back when D.O.A. started I was an angry young man, I may not be that young but I'm still angry. I'm not going to pretend that I'm thirty cos I'm not. My ideals, I don't know that they have changed, I'm still very political. I love music and playing music. Those things are still the same.

You have to change and to adapt. I think that's why D.O.A. is still going and still popular. We have a perspective of being progressive, writing new songs that talk about what's going on at that time. That way D.O.A. doesn't become a punk rock nostalgia band. There's nothing wrong with talking about the old days. It was fun back then, but 1977 was 1977. That was a hell of a long time ago. The world has changed an awful lot since then and you have to adapt and change with the times or you won't survive.

MG: D.O.A. are almost the archetypal punk band, but you haven't put out the same album twice.

Joe: It's really important. You can be more popular if you hit a formula and you stick to it. I never thought that that was artistically satisfying. It's better to come up with new sounds or take someone else's take on the style and adapt that for yourself. I think that's more interesting. Of course someone might hear it and say this doesn't sound like the sound on my favourite album but time’s gonna march on, bands have to too. If they don't they can really get stuck in a period sound. I think bands have a rough time escaping that and can get stuck in a sound.

MG: Will you be back in the political arena again?

Joe: I tried to run in 2013 for formal politician. I’ve considered myself an informal politician for the last 30-35 years. I tried to run three times but I didn't make it. We have another provincial election for British Colombia on here in 2 years so I have a really good chance to be a candidate then.

This current one is a by-election. My friend is an old time punk rocker and he's running for the Green Party. I think he's got a pretty decent chance. The Greens are catching on quite a bit. Their direction is quite different to the European Greens. I don't know what it's like in Ireland but in Germany a lot of people can't stand the Green Party. The Green Party is pretty new here and unsullied by corruption and such, basically just trying to help people.

The biggest priority is trying to change the world from fossil fuels and get to renewable energy. There's a really big debate going on in Canada. There was oil found in Alberta from bitumen; oil, silt and sand and it has to be separated. The oil companies want to build four separate pipelines; one going east, one going south to the gulf of Mexico and two going through British Columbia, one of the last unspoiled forest and mountain areas in the world. So we want to put our foot down and stop that.

MG: You gave free solo acoustic performances in support of the Occupy protests. How did the D.O.A. material translate acoustically?

Joe: Well, you slow it down a bit. It's hard to play the really fast stuff. A lot of D.O.A. stuff would have a backbeat like the old rock n roll style. We took that in the '70s and speeded it up quite a bit. It's hard to make that work without the drums so take it down to about two thirds the speed with just the guitar. You can hear the vocal a bit better. You don't need earplugs.

You get the general intent across. You can take any song and rearrange it. You can make it acoustic, make it punk rock, make it ska, even hip hop. There's a lot you can do in how you approach the song, if it's a good song.

MG: I could picture you like Woody Guthrie, touring the world with your guitar on your back. Would you consider doing a solo acoustic tour like Bob Mould?

Joe: Yes and no. I'll be doing an acoustic gig this Friday for the Green Party. A friend of mine is running so we're doing a benefit for him. I find it hugely more fun to tour with the band. Bob’s an old friend of mine. He’s written some great songs. Bob can pull it off. He’s a good draw, people would go see him wherever he was.

MG: You still have the love of playing music?

Joe: My son and I, we jam together. He plays guitar, I play drums. We play 'Alternative Ulster'. Fantastic song!

Hard Rain Falling is available from amazon & iTunes and you can catch D.O.A. live in the UK & Ireland on the following dates:- 

The artist Formerly Known As Beth Jeans Houghton brought her new guise Du Blonde to the 100 club recently, gone are the chamber songs and alt-pop of her previous iteration. In their stead we find a new band, new attitude and a whole new set of songs. We sent our photographer Nick Bennett to capture all of the action. 

Hot on the heels of his Joy Division exhibition at Proud Camden in 2012, Kevin Cummins - rock photographer, music mag photo stalwart, documentarian of UK bands for forty years - returns with a strange and interesting look at New Order. 

New Order were a Factory band comprised of former Joy Division members, formed in the grief and fog after the death of Ian Curtis. The exhibition is dedicated to various points in the eighties, nineties and two-thousands, but the focal point is New Order in America, post-'Blue Monday', enjoying international acclaim. New Order in America were the strange, English ‘other’ band, and spent a long period in ‘83 touring around the States - more specifically, New York. 

In the middle of the exhibition is a photo of Bernard Sumner standing on a training pitch in an estate in front of John Barnes. Sumner looks grumpy. Barnes looks confused. There is a can of Stella on the floor. This photo represents the incongruity of Cummins’ best work, work that is typically English. The black and white New York stage shots of Peter Hook in leather trousers, bass slung low while playing a gig are greatest-hits-album-insert gold, but visually they aren’t nearly as interesting as when Cummins is setting the scene outside of a normal magazine photo shoot. He is at his best when he is photographing a band on a stage other than a live one - he is a masterful director when setting the band in a context less traditional than NME live pictures.

In the exhibition, photos of perennially sunglassed-Bernard Sumner looking grumpy in America are juxtaposed with photos of Bernard Sumner looking grumpy on stage. But although the onstage photos are (ironically) less staged, strangely they are less about the band than the posed ones. Visually, what is most interesting about New Order are the shots taken in the gaps between their performances: Gillian Gilbert wreathed in shadows; Sumner looking grumpy with an American number plate;Peter Hook bisected by shadows, lighting a fag, eyes to the floor; a tetraptych of the four band members basking by a pool in LA sunlight in 1983 during the height of their fame. Those sunbathing Kodak borders of C-type pictures epitomise New Order in the middle of something unreal: they look like they've wandered in from a Brett Easton Ellis novel.

The exhibition (in the middle of Camden market - prepare to walk through enthusiastic tourists and Noel Fielding fanboys to get there) is a view of Cummins’ transition, or perhaps evolution, through the ages. Between 1983 and the reformation of New Order in 2011, Kevin Cummins took staged photos of a Mancunian band not at home and bathing in America after 'Blue Monday' came out and a US tour beckoned. And these gelatin silver photos belie a band in the middle of a strange dream. Cummins’ exhibition is not Madchester, it’s not the Hacienda, it’s a band out of context. I would highly recommend you go and see it immediately.

**

©Kevin Cummins

Catch the exhibition, New Order by Kevin Cummins, at Proud Camden (23rd April - 7th June 2015). You can find out more at www.proud.co.uk