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
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
PITCHFORK ALBUM REVIEW: Public Image Ltd - The Flowers of Romance
Pitchfork | May 6, 2018
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
Art, Culture & Appropriation: Police and Thieves
On the intertwined histories of music, sampling and influence
Frieze | September 15, 2017
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
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
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
Culture Clash: Bob Marley, Joe Strummer and the punky reggae party
The Guardian | September 19, 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
The Riot Girls’ Style
Vivien Goldman discusses Pussy Riot and their Punk D.I.Y. style
T Magazine | August 9, 2012
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
Plan B's 'Ill Manors' Falls On Fertile Ground In Britain
NPR music | August 9, 2012
Dubspot Sub-Bass Studies Pt 1:
Winston Riley – ‘Ring the alarm! Another sound man dying!’
Dubspot | February 2, 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
The Biggest Football Song You Won't Hear In Indianapolis
NPR music | February 3, 2012
Local Groove Does Good: The Story Of Trip-Hop's Rise From Bristol
NPR music | January 31, 2012
Moumoon Is Japan's Guiltless Pleasure
NPR music | August 17, 2011
Bob Sinclar – Making Love Everywhere But Here
NPR music | August 2, 2011
France Is Sweet On Magic System's 'Cherie Coco'
NPR music | July 18, 2011
'Badman Riddim (Jump)' Charting In The U.K.
NPR music | July 6, 2011
Interview with Nicki Minaj for Billboard's Grammy Edition
Billboard | May 12, 2011
Poly Styrene, Lost & Found
Like many of her peers, she discovered the sound of being a grown woman
The Village Voice | May 4, 2011
David Byrne, The Artist on an Adventure
He Knows Will Last Forever
The FADER | April 29, 2011
For Him, Reggae Is the Family Business
Stephen McGregor, the leading young Jamaican dancehall producer
The New York Times | September 21, 2008
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
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
SELECTED RADIO/TV: HOST/SCRIPT/DIRECT/PRODUCE
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