Articles by Allan Jones - Uncut.co.uk

Club UNCUT: Okkervil River and AA Bondy

“This is an old song,” says AA Bondy, introducing the next number in his opening set at the third Club UNCUT night at the Borderline. He’s not kidding, either. What I had presumed would be some lost early gem from his back catalogue turns out to be a dark and powerfully brooding version of Blind Willie Johnson’s apocalyptic “John The Revelator”, originally recorded in 1930, which is going back some.

Neil Young live in London, second night

Neil Young
Hammersmith Apollo
Thursday, March 6 2008

The last time I saw Neil Young at the Apollo was in 2003, when he was touring to promote his ecological country rock opera, Greendale, still unreleased at the time, which meant no one had heard any of the songs. The unfamiliarity of what he then played provoked among the audience a certain restlessness that quickly gave way to collective dismay when it dawned on them that he wasn’t going to play merely a selection of songs from the record, but the album in what turned out to be its indigestible entirety.

A Night On The Town, With Mixed Results. . .

Earlier, I’d been telling someone that when I saw Pete Doherty at a small Soho club called Jazz After Dark, back in January 2006, it had occurred to me, no doubt somewhat fancifully, that this was to some perhaps small but nevertheless vital extent what it might have been like to see the fledgling Dylan in some bar in Greenwich Village, when the 60s were still young.

Scorsese, the Stones and Shine A Light

Bear with me a minute while I blow away a few of these cobwebs. Yeah, that’s better. Anyway, what I wanted to say is that I went yesterday to a screening of Martin Scorsese’s Shine a Light, his film of The Rolling Stones in concert at New York's Beacon Theatre.

The 1978 Anti-Nazi League Carnival - Were You There?

The Rock Against Racism manifesto at the time of the second of 1978's major anti-fascist festivals, held in September in Brockwell Park and featuring Elvis Costello and Aswad, called for: "Rebel music, street music. Music that breaks down people's fear of one another. Now music. Music that knows who the real enemy is. Rock against racism. Love music. Hate racism."

Uncut on the Led Zeppelin reunion!

I won’t after all be one of the 20,000 people who tonight will be at the O2 Arena for the much-anticipated Led Zeppelin reunion show. I had a ticket, but in the end gave it up to John Mulvey, who will now deservedly be there, along with uncut.co.uk news supremo, Farah Ishaq.

Babyshambles, again. . .

We arrive what we think is early at Wembley Arena on Tuesday night for Babyshambles’ biggest headline show of their career, but are anyway still too late to see opening act Joe Lean And The Jing Jang Jong, who are ending their set with a petulant burst of feedback when we get there.