bAD mind music

In an epic tale of two islands, the iconic Vivien Goldman returns to where she came of musical age—and seeks the source of the songs, shorn of bass and obsessed with “bad mind,” vibrating the Caribbean now.

pioneer works | Feb 27, 2024


‘Firebrand, poet and heart-throb’: how the film One Love captures the truth about Bob Marley

I was at the reggae superstar’s side before and after he escaped assassination. The new film took me back to this time, of love triangles, London punks and cold war conflict.

the guardian | Feb 9, 2024


Is It Still Punk When the Musician Makes It Big?

“Here, try it on!” the punk poetess Patti Smith urged me. Together with the photographer Dennis Morris and her guitarist Lenny Kaye, we were sifting the racks of a Japanese store, unusual for the times, in West London’s Notting Hill Gate. It was 1976, and Smith had recently begun to find herself in an unusual position for a native of the counterculture—making unprecedented cash from her first LP, Horses, a surprise critical and commercial success. Being a leftist bohemian, she was showing generous integrity by doing something unexpected—she bought both myself and Morris a proper present.

Lithub | May 9, 2019


Mighty Sparrow: the king of calypso on freedom, Windrush and oral sex

He inspired Bob Marley’s political awakening, survived a coma, and has sung about everything from sex workers to Khrushchev. And at 83, the calypso great still wants to turn the news into song.

The Guardian | November 16, 2018


Why Ed Sheeran’s Appearance on a Hit Reggae Compilation Actually Makes a Lot of SensE

We wrap musical genres around us as personal identifiers, like the plastic bracelets folded around newborns’ wrists. Their grooves become as familiar to us as our own heartbeat. So, to some steeped in the revolutionary associations of Jamaican music, hearing the one drop riddim blast out of regular old pop radio on a song like Ed Sheeran’s “Shape of You” meant betrayal; dancehall had been hijacked and given a bizarre transplant in order to sound like some new entity called “tropical house.”

Pitchfork | January 11, 2019


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PRESSING MATTERS IN JAMAICA

It is impossible to press records any more on the famously music-driven island. Produced and directed by Vivien Goldman for Vinyl Factory, this short was selected to appear at the Caribbean Film Festival in Amsterdam, Holland. Watch “Pressing Matters in Jamaica”.

YouTube | January 25, 2017

 
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looking at the way Punk culture used the language of sexuality

Punk Lust: Raw Provocation, 1971-1985. Vivien Goldman co-curated this exhibition at NYC's Museum of Sex, together with Serge Becker, Lissa Rivera and Carlo McCormick.

Art Daily | November 2018

 
 
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Art, Culture & Appropriation: Police and Thieves

On the intertwined histories of music, sampling and influence

Frieze | September 15, 2017

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The groundbreaking intersectionality of Laurie Anderson’s Big Science

35 years ago today, Laurie Anderson unleashed the era-defining album Big Science. As well as birthing synthesised art-rock, it now seems now to have the quality of eerie prophecy, argues Vivien Goldman.

The Vinyl Factory | April 19, 2017

 
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Vivien Goldman: my Kid Creole musical was a hard nut to crack

Three decades after I met Kid Creole and the Coconuts while profiling them for NME, their musical Cherchez la Femme has finally reached the New York stage

The Guardian | May 20, 2016

 
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Never mind the swastikas: the secret history of the UK's 'punky Jews'

Punk svengalis Malcolm McLaren and Bernie Rhodes were Jewish, and the faith had an influence on UK labels and journalists. For Jewish kids, meanwhile, the subculture was an 'inclusionary haven'

The Guardian | February 27, 2014


Dread, beat and blood

Late 1976, and rival political factions are warring on the streets of Kingston, Jamaica, with only Bob Marley calling for peace. In an exclusive extract from her major new book, Vivien Goldman remembers life with Bob Marley at his home on Hope Road and reveals exactly what happened when gunmen came to kill him

The Guardian | July 16, 2006

 

Pussy Riot's Cause Is Celebrated At The Ace Hotel

The Village Voice  |  August 17, 2012

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The Riot Girls’ Style

Vivien Goldman discusses Pussy Riot and their Punk D.I.Y. style

T Magazine  |  August 9, 2012

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The Best of Everything

Vivien Goldman on the importance of the steamy 1950s novel that was ahead of its time

BBC Radio 4  |  August 9, 2012

 

Lasses of the Mohicans

Vivien Goldman charts the history of Britain's rebellious female punks

NewStatesman  |  October 31, 2011

 

International Hit Parade Column | NPR Music


 
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Poly Styrene, Lost & Found

Like many of her peers, she discovered the sound of being a grown woman

The Village Voice  |  May 4, 2011

 
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For Him, Reggae Is the Family Business

Stephen McGregor, the leading young Jamaican dancehall producer

The New York Times  |  September 21, 2008

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Dread, Beat and Blood

Late 1976, and rival political factions are warring on the streets of Kingston, Jamaica, with only Bob Marley calling for peace. In an exclusive extract from her major new book, Vivien Goldman remembers life with Marley at his home on Hope Road and reveals exactly what happened when gunmen came to kill him.

The Guardian  |  July 15, 2006

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Jeepers Creepers

Style piece for New York Times T Mag on Teddy Boy fashion

The New York Times  |  August 29, 2004

 

BBC America's Ask The Punk Professor

BBC America  |  2007–2008

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A Tale of Two Punk Cities, the 2-part BBC Radio 5 series she wrote and presented on Punk’s UK and US roots, is often re-broadcast at festive periods. She is a frequent contributor to BBC Radio 5’s Up All Night with Dotun Adebayo.

Prior to moving to the US, Goldman produced and/or directed many music videos as well as UK documentaries. Her video for rappers Eric B & Rakim’s I Ain’t No Joke was shown at the Museum of the Moving Image. For the UK’s Channel 4, she co-hosted The Late Shift a music documentary series with DJ Charlie Gillett, and co-produced Big World Café, a pioneering international music TV series, through her production company, Spellbound Pictures