Contact Spike
SpikeMagazine.com is a website about books, culture and ideas. Spike has been online in various forms since 1996. Thanks to a small army of contributors over the last 11 years, Spike has hundreds of book reviews, interviews, music reviews and features with writers, artists and musicians.
Spike Contributors
:: Robin Askew is a journalist based in Bristol
Francis Ellen : The Samplist
“…its appeal will be limited to those like a good fart joke to round off a discussion on Bach as the composer’s composer…”
The Charlatans : Simpatico
Ben Granger
Charles Bukowski : Bukowski: Born Into This
Pedro Blas Gonzalez
Paul Neilan: Apathy and Other Small Victories
Jayne Margetts
Bettie Page : The Notorious Bettie Page
James McConalogue
Abby Lee: Girl With A One Track Mind
“…it’s about time that a different - non-sexist, non-passive, progressive female - perspective on sexuality broke though into the mainstream, so the more of us doing it, the better…”
Elementarteilchen - the film of Michel Houellebecq’s Atomised :
James McConalogue
Michel Houellebecq: The Possibility Of An Island
James McConalogue
Alexei Sayle: The Weeping Women Hotel
Ben Granger
Jack London: The Iron Heel
Ben Granger on Jack London’s neglected dystopian novel that rivals 1984 and Brave New World in its prophetic vision of the future
Niall Griffiths: Wreckage: Sifting The Wreckage
“…Despite having written five novels, selling thousands of books and having had his work translated into five languages, Griffiths has received little recognition in the city he was born - perhaps because of the controversial subject matter of his books…
Theo Eastwind: “The O”
A busker/dealer of songs that sprout from his clinical interest in (and monk-like reverence for) the New York subway commuters that comprise his audience, Eastwind is a walking theoretical about late-night collaborations between Sting, Jimmy Barnes and Jack Johnson. The confident chill-pop routed through this effort is hugely accessible, revealing […]
Joel Penner Sextet: “The Church of the Little Black Dog”
The star-studded list of session and live experiences of the individual members of this left-coast jazz crew could have served to ruin their joint output, but the oldies they chose were given full-spa treatments that leave no room for improvement. Leadoff track “You’d Be So Nice to Come Home To” does […]
Morrissey : Ringleader Of The Tormentors
Ben Granger
Michel Houellebecq: Lanzarote
Pedro Blas Gonzalez
Suhayl Saadi: Psychoraag
“…I see little point in attempting to mimic what’s already been done very well by others. But I mean, I didn’t write Psychoraag thinking, “Halleluia! Now I’m going to write the first Asian Scottish novel!”…”
Roger Morris: Taking Comfort
Ian Hocking
Bret Easton Ellis: Lunar Park
Ben Granger
David Nobakht: Suicide: No Compromise
Chris Mitchell
The 88: “Over and Over”
Along with the first couple of tunes, the cover for this record raises the hackles of non-stupid people by threatening a violent Spoon-feeding of nimrod nu-mod exhibiting heavy research into Small Faces, Raspberries and Beatles, the song structures leaning toward things like “Got to Get You Into My Life” and Madonna’s […]
Diablo Cody : Candy Girl - A Year In The Life Of An Unlikely Stripper
“…I found it to be cathartic, a very weird, twisted form of self-expression. I think I got addicted to just how subversive and how fun it was compared to my every day life…”
Suhayl Saadi : Psychoraag: The Gods Of The Door
Suhayl Saadi on why his writing remains ignored by the British literary establishment
Trainspotting The Play: Harry Gibson: 10 Years On
“…Trainspotting keeps bringing new people into theatres; theatre managers cry out happily, ‘We’ve never sold so much lager’…”
The Fall : Fall Heads Roll
Ben Granger
Boards Of Canada : The Campfire Headphase
Nick Mitchell
Suhayl Saadi: Psychoraag
Nick Mitchell
Nic Dunlop: The Lost Executioner
Chris Mitchell
Half Man Half Biscuit : Achtung Bono
Ben Granger
Carly Milne – Naked Ambition: Women Who Are Changing Porn
Chris Mitchell
Magnus : Sleepwalker
Chris Mitchell
Ralph Steadman: Gonzo: The Art
“Bloodsucking business men, venal politicians, dollar drugged gamblers, archetypal beholders of negation and power transmogrified into grinning reptilia… In the ferocious stroke of a few simple lines Steadman trans-atlantically expresses all the negative facets of the human condition to a terrifyingly hilarious degree.”
The White Stripes : Get Behind Me Satan
Ben Granger
Aisle 16: Live From The Hellfire Club
Edmund Hardy
Gert Hofmann: Parable Of The Blind
Edmund Hardy
Fritz Lang : Spione
Ismo Santala on the subversive pulp fiction of
Lang’s 1928 silent thriller