Charles Shaar Murray visits Chalkie Davies at Snap Gallery at his rock photography exhibition in London

The great rock photographer Chalkie Davies was reunited with his old NME mucker, the great music journalist Charles Shaar Murray, when we visited him at his exhibition at London's Snap Gallery last week. 

All the photographs evoke the age of the Clash, the Sex Pistols, David Bowie and Mick Ronson, Blondie, The Specials whose Jerry Dammers is a bona fide genius, he tells us. Many are iconic. Ian Dury stares at his teeth in the dentist's mirror. A large print in three sections of David Byrne catches your eye and fixes it (1981). Johnny Rotten in handsome profile as if he can't be bothered to acknowledge your existence like all good punks, stares off camera at more important matters than your humble presence: a cat may look at a king. And then there's THAT Sid and Nancy photograph. Doomed lovers in the bathroom — where else?

Charles and I took some pix of Chalkie at the Gallery.

Not the first, though. Here's the one I took of Chalkie standing behind Keith Moon (who's wearing my Vivienne Westwood customised leather jacket) in younger days.

Restaging Revolutions: alternative theatre on Madam Miaow's Culture Lounge tonight 5pm, Resonance 104.4FM

Tonight live at 5pm on Resonance 104.4FM, Madam Miaow's Culture Lounge's guests are Dr Susan Croft and Neil Hornick of The Phantom Captain theatre company.

Presented by Anna Chen. Charles Shaar Murray rides shotgun.

The alternative theatre movement in Britain was a post-war explosion of talent and ideas that took theatre to the masses in the two decades from 1968. Dr Susan Croft, curator of the Restaging Revolutions exhibition currently on at Holborn Library, talks about this rich cultural period with Neil Hornick, veteran of the movement in his role as founding member and director of The Phantom Captain theatre company.

With clips from The Phantom Captain's productions.

Unfinished Histories website — a great resource for the period.

Listen live (click on the Resonance FM widget in the sidebar) or afterwards online.

Full set of Madam Miaow on Resonance FM.

Resonance 104.4FM

BBC axes The Review Show

This Sunday sees the last edition of The Review Show, ending a longstanding BBCTV arts strand. Already shunted from its weekly Friday spot on BBC2 to a monthly graveyard shift on BBC4, even that has proven too much for the philistines at the top who have decided to axe it. All those ginormous management salaries in return from destroying our common cultural experience. Well done.

The Review Show was a must-watch for sharp informed cultural debate anchored by Kirsty Walk and her regulars: Germaine Greer, Tom Paulin, Tony Parsons, Paul Morley and Mark Kermode. Alison Pearson may be an unpleasant right-wing idiot but her flaws could be absorbed by her panel peers.

Before that, its forerunner, The Late Review, was a nightly event on BBC2 from 1994, presented by Tracy McCloud.

We used to have Arena, The Old Grey Whistle Test, Top of the Pops (pre-scandal), Melvyn Bragg, and Newsnight Review down from its weekly slot.

Now BBC2's The Culture Show and Later With Jools are the last men standing. Jools Holland is increasingly looking like a fish caught in a tiny pool as the tide goes out.

What happened to regular doses of animation, dance, silent movies, international cinema, movie greats, Play for Today and all the other cultural coverage that was woven into the fabric of the media reflecting our rich and illustrious arts mix? You used to be able to get a solid education in the arts just from watching the BBC. Now it's wall-to-wall Simon Cowellesque copies and business shills.

The BBC promises better arts coverage just as they drop their arts show. I guess there's not enough room for reality shows, soaps and ghastly "talent" contests harking back to They Shoot Horses, Don't They? Make us stupid, why dontcha? Capitalism demands it and the men and women running the media are serving it up with a spoon.

Chinese arts tonight on Madam Miaow's Culture Lounge, Resonance FM, 5pm

Aowen Jin's Factory Girls

Tonight live at 5pm on Resonance 104.4FM, Madam Miaow's Culture Lounge's guests are actor Daniel York, playwright Jingan Young, and artist Aowen Jin.

Presented by Anna Chen. Charles Shaar Murray rides shotgun. With added Wondermare.

Expect a lively discussion on the conflicting state of Chinese artists in Britain as the West recognises there may be vulgar dosh at stake. And mainland Chinese artist Aowen Jin talks about her work looking at Factory Girls, China's One Child Policy and having Boris Johnson open her Sound Fountain in China.

Live music in the studio from Wondermare, practically my resident house band.

Listen here, live (click on widget) or afterwards online.

Resonance 104.4FM

MUSIC TRACKS:
1) INTRO: WOODY GUTHRIE — I Ain't Got No Home In This World Anymore
[LIVE MUSIC: WONDERMARE — Ode to Billy Joe]
2) ROLLING STONES — Can't You Hear Me Knocking
3) SYL JOHNSON — Is It Because I'm Black?
4) LANG LANG & METALLICA — One (Live at the Grammys 2014)
5) DRAGONFORCE with Herman Li — Through the Fire and Flames
6) AOWEN'S TRACK
[LIVE MUSIC: WONDERMARE — White Horses]
7) FRANK CHICKENS - We Are Ninja

A thousand years of the changing map of Europe in one time-lapse video

Definite Wow! factor in this video of the changing map boundaries of Europe over the last 1,000 years. I quite liked the dramatic Inception music track.

Sad to think that every time there's a lurch in the boundary changes, people died.

Keep an eye on them Golden Horde Mongols!

The Life & Crimes of Anna May Wong on Madam Miaow, Resonance FM, 5pm today

Later today on Madam Miaow's Culture Lounge, Resonance 104.4FM, listen to "The Life and Crimes of Anna May Wong", the story of Hollywood's first Chinese screen legend. 5-6pm. Presented by Anna Chen from her one-woman show, Anna May Wong Must Die!

With Charles Shaar Murray.

Listen afterwards here or even better, as it's radio, LIVE via the Resonance FM widget in the right sidebar.