Articles by Allan Jones - Uncut.co.uk

The Jesus And Mary Chain – why aren’t all reunion shows this good?

I’m not sure how keen I am on the current trend for groups to reform, especially when, as is the case with, say, The Police and Genesis, I have actually much preferred them in their absence.

Another massive night for The Hold Steady

I knew I was heading for trouble at last night’s Hold Steady show at Camden’s Electric Ballroom when I realised that I was so excited by what I was listening to that I was knocking back a pint per song – which meant by rough reckoning that I was soon going to be either behaving outrageously or completely unconscious, unless one of us slowed down.

The Stones bring it all back home, amazingly

I had originally intended to fill this space on Wednesday with some excited words on the first of this week’s three shows by The Rolling Stones at the O2 Arena, but I had urgent business in Birmingham with a former rock god whose new album may be the best thing he’s done in nigh on 30 years. But more on that later, let’s get back to the Stones.

Bryan Ferry And The Beauty Of A Decent Record Shop

I’ve just been reading Re-Make/Re-Model, Michael Bracewell’s new book on the formative years of Roxy Music and was particularly struck by an early passage in which Bryan Ferry – thankfully not talking about fox-hunting or the Third Reich – waxes nostalgically about a music shop in Newcastle called Windows, where as a teenager he spent many astonished hours browsing through racks of records he couldn’t always afford, but liked anyway just to spend time poring over.

That New Babyshambles Album, Track By Track. . .

Since I first wrote about the new Babyshambles album, there’s been a huge amount of on-line traffic about both the initial preview and what some correspondents have been concerned is guarded praise on my part for the record.

First Thoughts On The New Babyshambles Album

Well, it’s here, the record I’ve been looking forward to with a mix of high excitement and an anticipatory dread that it might not be the album I’ve been waiting for.

Babyshambles Guitar Genius Resurfaces At Rock Against Racism 30th Anniversary Show

Where was everyone?

In 1978, closing in on 100,000 people marched six miles from Trafalgar Square to Victoria Park in East London to see The Clash headline a benefit concert for Rock Against Racism.

Arcade Fire, The Good, The Bad And The Queen, The Hold Steady And More At Latitude 2007

Without wanting to turn this space into a shameless plug for Uncut, I’d just like to point you in the direction of the blogs the Uncut team has been posting on uncut.co.uk over the weekend from the Latitude festival.

Freewheelin' With Bob Dylan

Bob Dylan fans still reeling from the unexpected news that Amy Winehouse and Lily Allen producer Mark Ronson has remixed “Most Likely You Go Your Way (And I’ll Go Mine) – the mind, she boggles – may have something to get more obviously excited about.

Rod Stewart Wears It Well, Especially Considering The Weather. . .

One of the first festivals I covered not long after joining Melody Maker in 1974 was in Buxton, a bleak outpost on the Yorkshire Moors, headlined by Rod Stewart and The Faces, as they were increasingly billed after the departure of Ronnie Lane and not long before Rod himself legged it to LA and a subsequent solo career of great success if variable artistic merit.