The Portal | The Quietus

The Portal

The Portal: 6 October 2025

We’re back once again with another haul from tQ’s archive, this week digging up a magnificent interview with the late, great Clive James in which he discusses his views on rock, especially why it needs turning down. Recently seeing the incredible footage of thirsty thinker Ian Nairn charging full of rage through the boozed up crowd at a 70s Oktoberfest reminded me to share Travis Elborough’s Low Culture Essay on the deeply-flawed genius. We’ve got Sarah Davachi and Cathi Unsworth as this week’s Baker’s Dozens, classic interviews with Stephen Malkmus and Mica Levi’s first odd-pop band, Micachu And The Shapes, Jeffrey Boakye on why grime, the genre, should be poet laureate, and the Strange World of Current 93. As a new Springsteen film hits the cinema, we revisit Jeremy Allen’s evergreen piece on the trouble with biopics. Thanks as ever for reading and supporting tQ.

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