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Wyndham Wallace

Wyndham Wallace

Wyndham Wallace is genuinely the name of an Englishman who's lived in Berlin, Germany since 2004, after spending the previous eight years running the UK office of Berlin's City Slang Records. His first book, Lee, Myself & I (about his friendship with Lee Hazlewood) was published in May, 2015 by Jawbone Press. He often works as a music and (occasional) travel journalist, writing regularly for (amongst others) Uncut, The Quietus and Classic Pop (for whom he is the New Releases reviews editor), as well as contributing to other publications including The Guardian, The Sunday Times, Electronic Beats, BBC Music (RIP) and Slow Travel Berlin. He is also a writer/editor/photographer for the acclaimed A Poor Man’s Connoisseur Guide series, which has now published three volumes (Oslo, Tromsø and Træna), and his photographs have been published in The Guardian, Berliner Zeitung, Uncut, View and more.

In addition, he consults for two of Norway’s finest festivals, by:Larm and Træna, and managed legendary singer/songwriter/producer/entrepreneur Lee Hazlewood, as well as Nashville musician Cortney Tidwell, writing lyrics for both. He’s also been known to provide English language subtitles for German films, including Jan Ole Gerster’s award-winning Oh Boy (aka A Coffee In Berlin); Sebastian Schipper’s extraordinary My Name Is Victoria (for which he also acted as music consultant, working with composer Nils Frahm) and Mitte Ende August; Justus Von Dohnányi’s Disaster; Christian Alvart’s Banklady and Sigrid Hoerner’s Miss Sixty. Furthermore, he’s written album liner notes and artist press biographies for a diverse range of artists. Of course he’s never met anyone else called Wyndham, but he knows they’re out there.

Wyndham Wallace online

78 articles

List of articles in the library

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Lee Hazlewood: "I'm just an old cowboy who wrote a few songs…" A First Encounter with the legendary Lee Hazlewood

Book Excerpt by Wyndham Wallace, 'Lee, Myself & I' (Jawbone), May 2015

The following extract takes place within a few minutes of my first meeting with Lee Hazlewood in April, 1999, at New York's Grand Hyatt Hotel, ...

Bon Iver: Bon Iver, Bon Iver

Review by Wyndham Wallace, The Quietus, 7 June 2011

FOUR YEARS or so ago, the oft-repeated story goes, Justin Vernon was holed up in a cabin in the rural wilderness of Wisconsin, recovering from ...

It's Immaterial: Living in an Immaterial World

Retrospective and Interview by Wyndham Wallace, Classic Pop, October 2015

Emerging from the punk and art school scene of 1970s Liverpool, It's Immaterial are the band that time cruelly forgot. Despite one enduring big hit, ...

Levitation: Whirled Around: The Rise & Fall Of Levitation

Retrospective and Interview by Wyndham Wallace, The Quietus, 23 May 2012

20 years ago, on the eve of their debut album's release, Levitation looked like they'd explode. Instead, a year later, they imploded. Wyndham Wallace invites ...

Grizzly Bear: Shields

Review by Wyndham Wallace, bbc.co.uk, September 2012

WITH OPENING track 'Sleeping Ute''s initially perplexing time signature and the subsequent psychedelic noises that tear from the speaker to speaker, it's clear success hasn't ...

Morcheeba: Specs & Drugs & Rock 'N' Roll: True Stories Of Morcheeba

Profile and Interview by Wyndham Wallace, The Quietus, 18 October 2013

Morcheeba may no longer be flavour of the month, or even the decade, but they've lived it large and survived to tell great tales. As ...

Bat for Lashes: The Haunted Man

Review by Wyndham Wallace, bbc.co.uk, 2012

Ivor Novello Award winner takes things a little too seriously. ...

Simply Red: Let The Red Flag Fly: In Defence of Picture Book

Retrospective by Wyndham Wallace, The Quietus, 27 October 2010

The Quietus battens down the hatches and prepares for a storm as Wyndham Wallace risks all to defend Simply Red's debut album, Picture Book, on ...

Patrick Watson: Adventures In Your Own Backyard

Review by Wyndham Wallace, bbc.co.uk, 2012

SOMETHING OF a star in his Canadian homeland after winning the 2007 Polaris Prize – the country's equivalent of the Mercury Prize – for his ...

St. Vincent: Strange Mercy

Review by Wyndham Wallace, bbc.co.uk, Fall 2011

WITH THE CRITICAL mass now in her favour, a commercial breakthrough seems inevitable for St. Vincent, known otherwise as Annie Clark, poster girl for indie ...

Yello: Mad About Saffron: Thirty Years of Yello

Retrospective and Interview by Wyndham Wallace, The Quietus, 4 December 2009

Yello's Dieter Meier sits down with Wyndham Wallace to discuss the duo's new album Touch and three decades as an aristocratic prankster. ...

Bark Psychosis: I Put A Spell On You: The Story of Bark Psychosis' Hex

Retrospective and Interview by Wyndham Wallace, The Quietus, 14 August 2014

Twenty years after their debut album, Hex, Bark Psychosis' legacy may not be widely celebrated, but their influence is pervasive. Wyndham Wallace tells the complex, ...

East River Pipe: "A Songwriter Who Works at Home Depot": F.M. Cornog of East River Pipe interviewed

Interview by Wyndham Wallace, The Quietus, 15 June 2011

Cult singer songwriter Fred Cornog of East River Pipe talks to Wyndham Wallace about "scratching out a living, and trying to survive with a little ...

Tracey Thorn: Tinsel and Lights

Review by Wyndham Wallace, bbc.co.uk, November 2012

DECEMBER'S NORMALLY dominated by chart artists seeking to grab a slice of Christmas pie, whether it be Dean Martin, Cliff Richard or the latest X ...

World Domination Enterprises: A World Of Noise: World Domination Enterprises

Retrospective and Interview by Wyndham Wallace, The Quietus, 1 September 2009

"We were the most exciting band in the world, but the world never quite realised it," claims mainman Keith Dobson of the gargantuan World Domination ...

Can: The Lost Tapes

Review by Wyndham Wallace, bbc.co.uk, June 2012

Can do: quintessential krautrock rescued from the archives. ...

Vic Chesnutt's back with three new albums in as many months…

Report and Interview by Wyndham Wallace, The Quietus, 18 October 2009

He calls himself "the biggest fuck up in the music business" but, according to Wyndham Wallace, Vic Chesnutt is turning into one of its greatest ...

Micah P. Hinson: Micah P. Hinson and the Pioneer Saboteurs

Review by Wyndham Wallace, bbc.co.uk, May 2010

A powerfully ominous reshaping of old-school Americana. ...

Talk Talk: Laugh? I Nearly Died: The Story of Talk Talk's Laughing Stock

Retrospective and Interview by Wyndham Wallace, The Quietus, 12 September 2011

A triumph of art over commerce or ruthless, selfish exploitation? On the 20th anniversary of its release, Wyndham Wallace looks at the complex story behind ...

Bobby Womack: The Bravest Man In The Universe

Review by Wyndham Wallace, bbc.co.uk, June 2012

THEY'RE CALLING IT a masterpiece. That's the way when these beloved legends come in from the cold: so welcome is their return that weaknesses are ...

The Waterboys: There's Something In The Water: The Waterboys' This Is The Sea at 25

Retrospective and Interview by Wyndham Wallace, The Quietus, 27 April 2011

Wyndham Wallace talks to Mike Scott of The Waterboys about his classic album This Is The Sea, 25 years on from its release… ...

Cody ChesnuTT: Landing On A Hundred

Review by Wyndham Wallace, bbc.co.uk, November 2012

IF YOU'RE OF the opinion that soul music in the 21st Century lacks the authenticity of its golden late 1960s/early 1970s period, then Cody ChesnuTT's ...

Herbert Grönemeyer: Herbert Goes 'Banana': Germany's Biggest Star Takes On England

Profile and Interview by Wyndham Wallace, The Quietus, 22 August 2012

Virtually unknown in Britain, Herbert Grönemeyer is a huge star in his native Germany, having sold 18 million albums. Now his sights are set on ...

Propaganda: Your Wish Is My Command: Propaganda's A Secret Wish

Retrospective by Wyndham Wallace, The Quietus, 5 August 2010

Celebrating 25 years since its release, Propaganda's A Secret Wish has just been reissued with a bonus disc of rarities. Wyndham Wallace confronts their Sturm ...

Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark: From Kraftwerk to Craftsmen

Retrospective and Interview by Wyndham Wallace, Classic Pop, May 2013

They were just "two guys with a tape recorder and a name as long as the stage they were standing on", but Orchestral Manoeuvres In ...

Jenny Hval, rockettothesky: Jenny & the Jets: The Musical Universe of Rockettothesky

Interview by Wyndham Wallace, The Quietus, 12 January 2010

Rockettothesky's Jenny Hval may have made little impact outside of Scandinavia, but that needs to change. According to Wyndham Wallace, she's one of the most ...

Kathleen Edwards: Voyageur

Review by Wyndham Wallace, bbc.co.uk, January 2012

Classy Americana from Canadian chanteuse produced by Bon Iver. ...

Phil Selway: Familial

Review by Wyndham Wallace, bbc.co.uk, August 2010

GUARANTEED WORLDWIDE coverage because of his day job as Radiohead's drummer and signed to Bella Union, a UK indie label currently at the top of ...

Tears For Fears: This Is Going To Hurt: The Mad World Of Tears For Fears’ Debut LP

Retrospective and Interview by Wyndham Wallace, The Quietus, 20 September 2013

In his 100th piece for The Quietus, Wyndham Wallace talks to five key figures behind Tears for Fears to present an epic oral history of ...

The Jesus & Mary Chain: Upside Down – The Best Of The Jesus & Mary Chain

Review by Wyndham Wallace, bbc.co.uk, 27 September 2010

TO DECLARE, as this CD's artwork does, that East Kilbride's Jesus & Mary Chain are "arguably the last great British rock'n'roll band" is almost as ...

A-ha: Their Valuable Hunting Life: The Rocky Road to A-Ha's Hunting High & Low

Retrospective and Interview by Wyndham Wallace, The Quietus, 22 September 2015

Thirty years after a-Ha unveiled their debut, Hunting High & Low – and as they release a new album, Cast In Steel – Wyndham Wallace ...

Duran Duran: Looking Back to Planet Earth and Beyond: Five Decades of Duran Duran

Retrospective and Interview by Wyndham Wallace, Classic Pop, December 2012

Please, please tell me now! As John Taylor publishes his autobiography, In The Pleasure Groove: Love, Death & Duran Duran, Wyndham Wallace accompanies him through ...

Sinéad O'Connor: Institutionalised: The Faith and Courage of Sinead O'Connor

Interview by Wyndham Wallace, The Quietus, 5 June 2013

Though her personal life has often overshadowed her career, Sinead O'Connor remains a treasured musical force. Belatedly back on the road to promote her most ...

Sunn O))): Black Gold Of The Sunn O))): Earth's Loudest Band

Interview by Wyndham Wallace, The Quietus, 23 January 2012

Wyndham Wallace talks to Stephen O'Malley about volume, improvisation, the reissue of Sunn O)))'s debut album ØØ Void and Sunn O))) action figures… ...

Sigur Rós: Valtari

Review by Wyndham Wallace, bbc.co.uk, May 2012

IF THE RELEASE of Sigur Rós' last studio album, Með Suð Í Eyrum Við Spilum Endalaust, led people to fear that the band's days crafting ...

Frankie Goes to Hollywood: Beyond the Pleasuredome: Frankie Goes to Hollywood's Liverpool

Retrospective by Wyndham Wallace, The Quietus, 4 July 2011

Wyndham Wallace follows last year's celebration of Frankie Goes to Hollywood's landmark album, Welcome to the Pleasuredome, with a look at its neglected follow-up, Liverpool, ...

Kitchens of Distinction: An Accidental Comeback: Reassembling Kitchens of Distinction

Retrospective and Interview by Wyndham Wallace, The Quietus, 23 September 2013

The return of Kitchens of Distinction was unexpected, even for the band. Wyndham Wallace joins them for their first face-to-face interview together in almost two ...

Gorillaz: The Singles Collection 2001-2011

Review by Wyndham Wallace, bbc.co.uk, December 2011

THINK OF BLUR'S Damon Albarn and one thinks of Britpop, which is rather unfair, given that he's spent the last fifteen years working on projects ...

John Cale: Shifty Adventures In Nookie Wood

Review by Wyndham Wallace, bbc.co.uk, Fall 2012

IT'S UNFAIR THAT, almost half a century since their formation, John Cale remains best known for his role as co-founder of the Velvet Underground. ...

Tim Burgess, Felt: Killed by Felt: Tim Burgess discusses his love of Lawrence and "Birmingham's best band ever"

Interview by Wyndham Wallace, The Quietus, 18 July 2011

Wyndham Wallace takes a road trip from London to Essen, Germany, with a truckload of CDs, LPs, and the unlikely company of the Charlatans' Tim ...

Richard Hawley: Standing at the Sky's Edge

Review by Wyndham Wallace, bbc.co.uk, May 2012

"… AND THIS ONE'S for all the men in the house." Yes, after a decade of seducing career couples with the Roy Orbison stylings of ...

Bill Ryder-Jones: If…

Review by Wyndham Wallace, bbc.co.uk, November 2011

POP MUSICIANS have many aspirations, but one that is often hardest to fulfil is to be taken seriously. ...

Slowdive: Pygmalion

Review by Wyndham Wallace, bbc.co.uk, August 2010

Post-shoegazing classic reissued with bonus disc of demos. ...

Talk Talk: Classic Album: Talk Talk's Spirit Of Eden

Retrospective and Interview by Wyndham Wallace, Classic Pop, November 2013

Twenty five years ago, Talk Talk's fourth album was spurned upon its release, lasted only five weeks in the British charts and led the band ...

Travis: How We Learned to Hate Travis and Why We May Be Wrong

Retrospective and Interview by Wyndham Wallace, The Quietus, 28 May 2013

With Where You Stand, their seventh album – and first for five years – due out this summer, frontman Fran Healy joins Wyndham Wallace to ...

Chilly Gonzales: Piano Solos II

Review by Wyndham Wallace, bbc.co.uk, August 2012

THOUGH HE'S BEST known for his mischievous, multiple redefinitions of hip hop – including his last release which, he claimed, was the world's first orchestral ...

Atoms For Peace: Amok

Review by Wyndham Wallace, bbc.co.uk, February 2013

Radiohead frontman remains instantly recognisable despite electronic disguise. ...

The Waterboys: An Appointment With Mr Yeats

Review by Wyndham Wallace, The Quietus, September 2011

THOUGH MIKE SCOTT'S attempt to marry the poetry of William Butler Yeats to his own music has been promised for two decades, it offers neither ...

Guillemots: Hello Land!

Review by Wyndham Wallace, bbc.co.uk, May 2012

THEY CREEP up on you, Guillemots, as the best music so often does. There's no boasting, there are few brash novelties – unless you count ...

Neil Young: Le Noise

Review by Wyndham Wallace, bbc.co.uk, October 2010

NEIL YOUNG NOW belongs to that rare stratum of artists whose work is no longer judged purely on its merits but on the basis of ...

Art of Noise: The Art Of Noise: Who's Afraid Of The Art Of Noise

Review by Wyndham Wallace, bbc.co.uk, September 2011

Innovative, sample-pioneering debut on CD at last. ...

Jimi Hendrix: Winterland

Review by Wyndham Wallace, bbc.co.uk, September 2011

OVER FOUR DECADES since the six shows - recorded over three nights in October 1968 and documented in this four CD set – that helped ...

AR Kane, Bauhaus, Belly, The Birthday Party, Bon Iver, The Breeders, Cocteau Twins, Dead Can Dance, Lush, M/A/R/R/S, Modern English, The National, The Pixies, Red House Painters, This Mortal Coil, Throwing Muses, Xmal Deutschland: 4AD Records: Labelled with Love

Retrospective and Interview by Wyndham Wallace, Classic Pop, November 2013

A new book, Martin Aston's Facing The Other Way, tells the story of a label that scored just a single number one hit during the ...

Brian Eno/Rick Holland: Drums Between The Bells

Review by Wyndham Wallace, bbc.co.uk, July 2011

IT'S HARD TO know what's more surprising: the fact a man approaching his mid-60s continues to release groundbreaking music in such quantities that this is ...

Lindstrøm: Smallhans

Review by Wyndham Wallace, bbc.co.uk, November 2012

WHEN HANS-PETER Lindstrøm released Six Cups Of Rebel earlier this year, fans of the Norwegian producer might have wondered what they were putting in the ...

Boy George, Duran Duran, Bob Geldof, George Michael, Sting, U2, Midge Ure, Paul Young: A World Of Dreaded Fear: Band Aid's Unforgivable Crimes

Retrospective by Wyndham Wallace, The Quietus, 10 December 2013

Band Aid raised awareness of a disastrous famine, as well as huge sums of money to try ease it. But, one year ahead of its ...

a-ha: 25 – The Very Best Of

Review by Wyndham Wallace, bbc.co.uk, 6 August 2010

A DOUBLE CD celebrating the retirement, after 25 years, of what was once dismissed as a little more than a prototype Norwegian boy band seems ...

Nils Frahm: Screws

Review by Wyndham Wallace, bbc.co.uk, September 2012

WHILE A MUSICIAN'S ability to overcome the temporary loss of a thumb certainly doesn't match the achievements of the Paralympians last summer, there's something similarly ...

Leslie Winer: "If I Hit You, You'd Feel It": Leslie Winer, Trip Hop's Forgotten Pioneer?

Retrospective and Interview by Wyndham Wallace, The Quietus, 29 October 2012

Some argue that Leslie Winer aka © invented trip hop in 1990 with her ill-fated album, Witch. Now she's back with &c, a retrospective compilation ...

How The Music Industry Is Killing Music And Blaming The Fans

Comment by Wyndham Wallace, The Quietus, 24 May 2011

While the industry continues to blame illegal downloading for its financial woes, it's musicians who are paying the price while being forced to work harder ...

Levitation: "Don't Question Everything": Levitation's Need For Not Revisited

Retrospective by Wyndham Wallace, The Quietus, 15 May 2012

"They give birth astride of a grave, the light gleams an instant, then it's night once more." Wyndham Wallace celebrates a forgotten classic 20 years ...

DM Stith: Interview: DM Stith on his new album Pigeonheart

Interview by Wyndham Wallace, The Quietus, 6 June 2016

After touring with Sufjan Stevens, and working on the Revival Hour's debut album with the Earlies' JM Lapham, DM Stith discusses the difficult genesis of ...

Cashier No. 9: Cashier No.9: To The Death Of Fun

Review by Wyndham Wallace, bbc.co.uk, 20 June 2011

RIGHT FROM the off, it's clear that Cashier No 9 are not another of those bands who seek to revel in self-pity and navel gazing. ...

World Party: Arkeology

Review by Wyndham Wallace, bbc.co.uk, April 2012

TWELVE YEARS after their last studio album, Karl Wallinger has finally decided he's ready to resurrect World Party, the vehicle for his songwriting that birthed ...

David Sylvian: Laughter & Forgetting: The Strange & Frightening World Of David Sylvian

Retrospective and Interview by Wyndham Wallace, The Quietus, 19 March 2012

A new compilation, A Victim Of Stars 1982-2012, celebrates thirty years of solo work by David Sylvian, who guides Wyndham Wallace through some of its ...

Ed Harcourt: Death Before Silence: Ed Harcourt's Baker's Dozen

Interview by Wyndham Wallace, The Quietus, 4 March 2013

Singer, songwriter, pianist and all round bon viveur Ed Harcourt talks to Wyndham Wallace about his favourite records. ...

Talk Talk: James Marsh

Retrospective by Wyndham Wallace, Upon Paper, October 2012

"Breathe on me, eclipse my mind. It's in some kind of disarray." ('Chameleon Day') ...

Loney, Dear: "I Love Crying": Loney Dear's Lovely, Lonely World

Profile and Interview by Wyndham Wallace, The Quietus, 17 November 2011

Emil Svanängen's sixth album has just been released to quiet but universal acclaim, yet still he's not happy. Wyndham Wallace explores the intimate, ingenuous universe ...

Max Richter: Infra

Review by Wyndham Wallace, bbc.co.uk, Summer 2010

Roll Over Beethoven: blurring the boundaries between indie and classical. ...

It's Immaterial: "We got there!" Cult pop band It's Immaterial back after 27 years

Interview by Wyndham Wallace, The Guardian, 15 September 2020

The literate Liverpudlians had a one-off hit with 'Driving Away from Home' in 1986, but perfectionism and tragedy prevented their third album coming out until ...

Janelle Monáe: Postbahnhof, Berlin — Not The Archandroid We're Looking For

Live Review by Wyndham Wallace, The Quietus, 17 December 2010

Janelle Monáe's got it all, so why do we need any more? Wyndham Wallace reports from her recent Berlin show… ...

Coldplay: Mylo Xyloto

Review by Wyndham Wallace, The Quietus, 25 October 2011

It's the music you can enjoy between meals without spoiling your appetite, made by the world's favourite band and hand-built by robots. Lipsmackin', thirstquenchin', acetastin', ...

Moose: …XYZ

Review by Wyndham Wallace, The Quietus, 28 September 2009

IT'S AN ACCIDENT of history that Moose are said to have inspired the term 'shoegazing'.  ...

Semibreve festival: Braga, Portugal

Report by Wyndham Wallace, The Quietus, 3 November 2014

Wyndham Wallace reports from Braga on a weekend of eye-opening, ear-bending, mind-broadening performances at Portugal's premier digital arts festival. ...

Let's Take A Walk: Clara Hill Interviewed

Interview by Wyndham Wallace, The Quietus, 29 October 2013

With her fourth album, former Jazzanova protégé Clara Hill has reinvented herself as a singer of experimental indie-electronic torch songs. Wyndham Wallace asks her how ...

Radiohead: World Class: How Radiohead Gave Us The Bends

Memoir by Wyndham Wallace, The Quietus, 3 March 2015

Though The Bends has since been overshadowed by what followed, its release 25 years ago found Radiohead on the cusp of stardom. Wyndham Wallace joins ...

Leo Abrahams: Zero Sum

Review by Wyndham Wallace, bbc.co.uk, 4 March 2013

Prized session guitarist teases with six tracks of graceful simplicity. ...

Timber Timbre: Timber Timbre

Review by Wyndham Wallace, bbc.co.uk, 2010

Canadian trio take a trip to the Deep South. ...

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