With Spinal Tap soon to return to our screens, plug yourself in for Uncut's guide to the 20 best fictional bands in the movies...
With Spinal Tap soon to return to our screens, plug yourself in for Uncut’s guide to the 20 best fictional bands in the movies…
20: THE BANG BANG, Brothers Of The Head Odd, Seventies-set mockumentary, from a novel by Brian Aldiss and directed by Keith Fulton and Louis Pepe – who made Lost In La Mancha, about Terry Gilliam’s aborted attempt to film Don Quixote. Brothers Harry and Luke Treadaway play conjoined twins who form a punk rock band.
19: THE ONEDERS, That Thing You Do Personal project from Tom Hanks – his only film as writer and director – about a one-hit wonder group it in the early Sixties. The band’s one hit – “That Thing You Do” – was written by Adam Schlesinger, bassist for Fountains Of Wayne.
18: THE KELLY AFFAIR/CARRIE NATIONS, Beyond The Valley Of The Dolls First, they were the Kelly Affair, then they changed their name to the Carrie Nations – after a grand old dame of the temperance movement – in Russ Meyer’s comedy. Their songs were written by future composer of the Battlestar Galactica theme, Stu Phillips.
17: BLUESHAMMER, Ghost World Steve Buscemi’s blues aficionado Seymour goes to see Fred Chatham, an 82-year-old blues veteran play a small bar. “If you really like authentic blues, you’ve got to check out Blueshammer,” he is told. But Blueshammer’s “authentic, way-down-in-the-delta blues” turns out to be closer to George Thorogood. Poor Seymour!
16: KIPPER, Confessions Of A Pop Performer Voted “worst British film of 1975” in Sight & Sound, this finds cheeky chappy Robin Askwith copping off with some saucy birds while also trying to make it big in the music scene with his band, Kipper.
15: THE SNARKS, Smashing Time Rita Tushingham and Lynn Redgrave wreak havoc on Swinging London in George Melly scripted comedy. Michael York sports a terrific cravat. Psychedelic hipsters Tomorrow turn up as the Snarks: some consolation, perhaps, after Antonioni chose the Yardbirds over them to appear in Blowup.
14: STRANGE FRUIT, Still Crazy Brilliant, if largely for the bit where Bill Nighy – as the band’s singer – opens his father-of-the-bride speech at a posh country house with the deathless lines: “Good evening, Wembley.” But worth it, too, for Bruce Robinson’s touching cameo as the band’s reclusive guitarist. Clive Langer provided the songs.
13: THE ULTIMATE LOSERS, Slacker It’s 1991, and arguably no film captured Gen X ennui better than Richard Linklater’s debut. But even the band – seen playing art-rock to the dysfunctional youth of Austin, Texas – can barely muster up the energy to get out of bed.
12: BREAKING GLASS, Breaking Glass An unusual convergence, this. So Hazel O’Connor’s backing band consists of future Bill star Mark Wingett, former Ant Gary Tibbs alongside Jonathan Pryce and ITV drama stalwart, Peter Hugo-Daly, who was also in real-life band The Cross alongside Breaking Glass co-star Phil Daniels.
11: AUTOBAHN, The Big Lebowski That’ll be Kraftwerk, of course. Flea, Peter Stormare and Torsten Voges are the German nihilists/would-be kidnappers/electronic pioneers. The Coen brothers even went as far as to get a sleeve designed for Autobahn’s sole album, Nagelbett (roughly translated as ‘bed of nails’).
10: THE FABULOUS STAINS, Ladies And Gentlemen The Fabulous Stains Diane Lane, Laura Dern and Marin Kanter are US punkers the Stains; connoisseurs of UK punk will no doubt enjoy Paul Cook and Steve Jones teaming up with Paul Simonon as the Looters, fronted by Ray Winstone.
9: VENUS IN FURS, Velvet Goldmine Basically, it’s the Spiders From Mars. But on record, it’s an intriguing collaboration between Thom Yorke, Jonny Greenwood, Bernard Butler and Andy Mackay. Worth pointing out, Greenwood did something similar, hooking up with Jarvis Cocker, Phil Selway, Steve Mackey, All Seeing I’s Jason Buckle and Add N To X’s Steven Claydon as Hogwarths favourites the Weird Sisters in Harry Potter & The Goblet Of Fire.
8: HEDWIG AND THE ANGRY INCH, Hedwig And The Angry Inch Colourful, out-there frock opera about a transexual punk rock girl from East Berlin. The songs are by Stephen Trask – who latterly succeeded Randy Newman as composer on the … Fockers movies.
7: WYLD STALLYNS, Bill & Ted The only band on our list to feature in their ‘classic’ line-up two medieval princesses, a pair of robots and – on bass – Death himself.
6: CITIZEN DICK, Singles From Cameron Crowe, this is grunge era shenanigans featuring assorted members of Pearl Jam as Matt Dillon’s group Citizen Dick, with lyrics written by Chris Cornell.
5: STRAY CATS, Stardust That’s David Essex, Keith Moon, Dave Edmunds and Paul Nicholas to you and me. In the sequel That’ll Be The Day, Essex’ British invasion rock star Jim MacLaine battles drugs, groupies, record company execs and sundry excess. Dark.
4: THE LENINGRAD COWBOYS, various Ostensibly the creation of film director Aki Kaurismäki and two members of Finnish rock band Sleepy Sleepers, the Leningrad Cowboys and their extraordinary hair have taken on a life of their own beyond the three films directed by Kaurismäki. There are eight studio albums, no less, and they’ve become something of a Finnish institution.
3: SPINAL TAP, This Is Spinal Tap Arch improvisers Michael McKean, Christopher Guest and Harry Shearer launched the British heavy metal on a TV sketch in 1979, stretching out for this deathless 1984 film and sundry other projects including an 1992 album, Break Like The Wind, with sleeve notes by Steely Dan’s Walter Becker. A sequel to the original film arrives in 2025. McKean, Guest and Shearer also performed as The Folksmen, an American folk revival trio, in the film A Mighty Wind.
2: FLAME, Slade In Flame They are Slade, playing Flame.
1: STILLWATER, Almost Famous Effectively a composite of a number of bands Cameron Crowe interviewed for Rolling Stone in the early 1970s – Skynyrd, Allmans, maybe the Eagles. The songs played by Stillwater in the film were co-writes between Crowe, his wife Nancy Wilson and Peter Frampton. Jason Lee’s singing voice was provided by Aerosmith collaborator, Marty Frederiksen, while Pearl Jam’s Mike McCready played lead guitar. On screen, Mark Kozelek played Stillwater’s bassist, Larry Fellows.
The Pogues often gave the impression that they somehow managed to pull together a career out of chaos and disorder. As it transpires, Pete “Spider” Stacy thinks the band were more thoughtful in their approach than it may have otherwise appeared. “Every step we took seemed to be a logical continuation of the journey,” he says, as he looks back at the band’s discography.
The Pogues often gave the impression that they somehow managed to pull together a career out of chaos and disorder. As it transpires, Pete “Spider” Stacy thinks the band were more thoughtful in their approach than it may have otherwise appeared. “Every step we took seemed to be a logical continuation of the journey,” he says, as he looks back at the band’s discography.
Originally the band’s tin-whistle player, Stacy co-founded the Pogues with Shane MacGowan, Jem Finer and James Fearnley in North London in 1982, going on to become their reluctant frontman after MacGowan left in 1991. By then, The Pogues had recorded five studio albums and one outstanding EP. Two more albums followed before they broke up in 1996.
After reforming with MacGowan in 2001, the band focused on live performances until MacGowan’s death in 2023. But The Pogues live on. In May 2024, Stacy, Finer and Fearnley performed under their old name at Hackney Empire, to mark the 40th anniversary of their debut album, Red Roses For Me, where they were joined by a slew of guests who included members of younger bands inspired and liberated by The Pogues’ approach to traditional music.
Earlier this UK, they toured in celebration of another landmark anniversary – this time for Rum, Sodomy & The Lash. “I struggle to call us ‘The Pogues’,” admits Finer. “It doesn’t feel right without Shane. The posters for the next tour are worded as ‘a celebration of The Pogues’ but the words ‘The Pogues’ are in rather large letters. But we aren’t a tribute band. Spider, James and I are very particular that we want to expand on the sound and add instruments, so it has the original power and feel but with a ceilidh sound.”
RED ROSES FOR ME STIFF, 1984 World-building mix of traditional songs and originals that doesn’t quite capture their live power
JAMES FEARNLEY, ACCORDION: We practised really hard. Jem was herding everybody in a room and making us go over the songs. Then we went to the studio in Wapping to make them real. Our producer Stan Brennan tried to discourage us from attending the mixes, but I am a busybody and felt one of us had to show up. He put reverse echo on our very first song, so that’s the first thing you hear of The Pogues – Shane’s voice saying the first syllable of the first line in reverse. It’s a bit of an anticlimax but it is also quite charming.
JEM FINER, BANJO: It was a learning experience, and I generally like learning. Hearing the record, I thought we had amazing songs and a very unique sensibility – we were so idiosyncratic – but I was never happy with how it sounded. Shane was very much the leader. He picked the traditional material and was writing original songs, drawing on his love of that music. Nothing would have happened without him.
SPIDER STACY, TIN WHISTLE: The most exciting thing was getting a finished copy and taking it to a friend to see what he thought. I was surprised to the extent of their enthusiasm because up until then we’d only really played to our own crowd. I was in two minds: on the one hand, I thought nobody would like it, but on the other, I wondered why nobody had done this before, because it sounded brilliant. We had this feeling we were onto something.
RUM SODOMY & THE LASH STIFF, 1985 Glorious second album recorded with Elvis Costello
FINER: Elvis came to see us play. I asked our manager to see if he was interested in recording with us. It was the same studio but a different ball game. We never intended to be constricted to the world of that first album, we had an openness to the music we heard around us and that gradually emerged. This was a tangible progression. Shane’s writing was getting stronger and it had a better sound and richer arrangements.
FEARNLEY: I remember Elvis being at the studio with his pork pie hat and glasses, peeling a pomelo. He and Cait [O’Riordan] were an item, living in Holland Park. They clearly went to a posh grocer to get a pomelo, so he had a piece of fruit that rhymed with his name. I was a bit jittery as I loved Costello’s work. He did a great job of capturing Shane’s voice over and above everything else. It’s great to hear it so well recorded.
STACY: Elvis was more involved than Stan had been. He had much more experience and a better understanding of the possibilities. Writing varied from song to song. Sometimes Shane brought us something fully formed but as time went on, songs had to be coaxed out by Jem and James. In the earlier days he was on fire and the songs were tumbling out of him. Originally, all the traditional songs came from Shane. But over time we all began to introduce ideas.
“POGUETRY IN MOTION” EP STIFF, 1986 Elvis returns for this classic EP which includes “A Rainy Night In Soho”
STACY: I don’t remember why the EP happened but “Rainy Night In Soho” is a magnificent song and “The Body Of An American” is brilliant. “London Girl” might have been a very late Nips [MacGowan’s first band] song that Shane decided to revive. It’s a very pleasing artefact. We also demoed “Fairytale Of New York”.
FINER: It’s a strange thing; I can’t remember why we made it. It might have been the beginning of an album, it might have been a Christmas record. “Rainy Night…” was mindblowing, it didn’t feel like anything we had done before. Shane didn’t make demos, so generally he would come to a session with an idea. As we began to write together, I’d come up with songs for him to write lyrics to. We would sit down and share ideas then go away and see how they developed.
FEARNLEY: Our manager wanted a calling card of some kind for the United States, but I don’t know why an EP was more palatable. It’s stunning how good that record is. “Body Of An American” is an incredible story, then you have “Rainy Night…”, Jesus Christ, and “London Girl”, which is brilliant. It’s a beautiful set of songs. We even did a version of “Fairytale…” with Elvis on piano and very different lyrics. I can’t wait to play “Planxty Noel Hill” because it has a false ending – I don’t remember ever playing that live before.
IF I SHOULD FALL FROM GRACE WITH GOD WARNER, 1988 New members, a different label and Steve Lillywhite conspire to hit new creative heights
STEVE LILLYWHITE, PRODUCER: Jem was the only member of the Pogues that Shane would listen to, mainly because he was the only one who didn’t do any drugs. I was king of the pile when we went in together and pretty empathic to their music. The thing I was most worried about was the fact there were so many in the band, I wouldn’t remember their names. The other problem was that I’d never recorded a whistle before. I began mixing and all I could hear was Spider’s whistle, so I kept turning it down. I called the band back from the pub and played them the mix. They said it was really good, but where was Spider’s whistle? I love that record, it’s very varied.
FINER: This was a really good balance between what we were known for and more unusual influences. It was the perfect moment with everything in the right place. Steve was a classic studio engineer and we were in a beautiful studio in RAK. We knew “Fairytale…” was good but the world is full of brilliant songs that people haven’t heard and rubbish songs that everybody knows, especially Christmas ones. But it doesn’t surprise me that a lot of Pogues music is so popular, because it was always based on something timeless and we made records that had the natural sound of the instrument unadorned by effects.
STACY: I vary between the first three albums as to which is my favourite, but my favourite song is certainly on Fall From Grace – “The Broad Majestic Shannon”. It captures a sense of yearning for a home you will never see again. It’s a beautiful song about memory and love. At Shane’s funeral, when I saw Shane’s sister, it made me realise that it might be about her, which is really beautiful.
FEARNLEY: We needed Steve to tell us how to put “Fairytale…” together. He never saw a problem he couldn’t solve – the bread always lands butter side up for him. It’s a great set of songs, brilliantly sequenced. I look at the different songs and stories now and always find new things that interest me. For “Fairytale…”, I did my utmost to be in sync with Shane and recording that song was one of the highlights of my life.
PEACE AND LOVE WARNER, 1989 The band’s first setback, as MacGowan’s focus slips and Lillywhite struggles to hold things together
FINER: It was problematic. There was a lot of over-indulgence, so objectivity went out the window and a lot of time was spent on too many guitar overdubs. Shane was in a really bad state. I had been writing songs and I gave them to Shane for the lyrics, but he now came to a point where he’d stick with my lyrics. I was happy with “Misty Morning, Albert Bridge” but some of the songs would have been better if he’d been more inclined to contribute. As Shane wasn’t there, we’d experiment with different ideas and instruments. If something didn’t quite work we’d throw more things at it. It was a classic example of a band getting too pleased with itself.
STACY: I can’t point too many fingers because I was on a difficult path myself, but Shane was losing interest. A song like “London You’re A Lady” is a good example – potentially a great song but it’s like a draft. We had killed ourselves touring, 250 shows in a calendar year, never home. It pulls you apart and nobody had a notion of wellness, you just drove yourself into the ground.
FEARNLEY: Things were getting difficult for Shane and I was into self-protection as the dynamics of the group changed. I played my part and kept out of the way. On Peace And Love, everybody was bringing in songs, so we had lots of different influences. “London You’re A Lady” was typical – it sounded amazing but the lyrics didn’t cut it – it could have been towering, but we missed the mark.
HELL’S DITCH WARNER, 1990 A return to form as Joe Strummer comes in as producer and takes the band to Rockfield
FINER: Joe was a good friend of the band and had a different approach. It was a much better experience. I stopped giving Shane complete songs so he had to write his own lyrics. One example is “Sunny Side Of The Street”, where I had the music and one line and left him to write a song I’d never have been able to write. We were in better shape and we all got on with Joe.
FEARNLEY: Shane showed up to do his singing, but a lot of the session was the rest of us having a great time hanging out in the Welsh countryside watching the World Cup from Italy. I remember dragging a Hammond B3 through the farmyard and coming across Jem, who was wandering around recording himself hitting different bits of metal. Joe was patient and a good mate and worked hard to ensure we got things on tape as Shane’s diction had gone to shit. Joe loved Shane.
STACY: I think we opened Joe’s eye to a slew of possibilities that he never got to properly explore himself. Shane had a second wind and we had some very good songs. The title track is brilliant. On the day of Shane’s funeral we were in Nenagh and the town was doing Shane proud, it was like a state funeral. I remember walking down the street and this hardware store had mounted a speaker on a telegraph pole and was blasting out “Hell’s Ditch” as the town laid its favourite son to rest.
WAITING FOR HERB WARNER, 1993 Without Shane MacGowan, Spider takes over lead vocals while the pressure mounts on Jem for songwriting
STACY: Things had reached a head. It was apparent Shane wasn’t interested any more, so we put that to him and his response was basically: “What took you so long?” But I think we made the wrong decision. We should have taken time off, but that wasn’t how things were done then. We all suffered as a result. For a while we had Joe as lead singer and that gave us the impetus to keep going. I’d been Shane’s stand-in on a few occasions, so I got the job.
FINER: We had to keep going otherwise we would have been in a very bad financial situation. We looked for a producer and thought about John Leckie. I wanted to work with Brian Eno, but he declined. I wrote him a letter saying we weren’t a bunch of diddly-eyed Irishmen, and he wrote a very nice one back to explain his thinking. There were some good songs on the record. Without Shane it would have been pointless to do what we usually did, so it was the Pogues with a different angle, but we were on a hiding to nothing even though “Tuesday Morning” was a minor hit.
FEARNLEY: It was scary without Shane. I wrote one song, “The Drunken Boat”, which was such a thrill. It was about a toxic tanker that was going round the ocean and nobody would let it dock. I used this as a metaphor for everything I had been through with The Pogues.
POGUE MAHONE WARNER, 1996 Fearnley quits before the final studio album, The Pogues having finally run out of steam
FINER: We tried to go back to something we felt was a natural musical progression from Waiting For Herb, but I began to feel it was pointless. There was always a sense it wasn’t really the Pogues without Shane. It would have done better if we had Shane, just as Shane would have been better if the Popes were the Pogues.
STACY: We’d run out of steam. I feel we had lost our identity. We had strayed so far away from what we had been doing. But it wasn’t too long before we reformed. I was sitting at home, I’d stopped drinking and come to terms with the fact the Pogues was over. But then Jem rang saying we’d been offered a Pogues tour and it all started up again. We then carried on for a long time.
FEARNLEY: The original reunion shows with Shane were fantastic but Shane had changed a lot, it was quite alarming. I cried my eyes out as I was so upset to see him like that. But the shows were fantastic.
THE POGUES IN PARIS: 30TH ANNIVERSARY CONCERT AT THE OLYMPIA UNIVERSAL, 2012 With “Fairytale Of New York” now a seasonal standard, The Pogues live show is captured on this anniversary release
FINER: When we split up, it felt like a long time to be in one band, but I seem to still be in it – it’s been 40 years now. We got back in 2001 then toured until 2014, but we didn’t write any new material. We tried but nothing emerged. In the end it was easier playing our old music.
STACY: We released Live In Paris in 2012 and as with a lot of the reunion shows, Shane was not always compos mentis, although his voice was still very powerful. The reunions shows were great, they had a certain chaotic quality and it’s nice to have this documentation of that period. Our shows for the anniversary of Red Roses were fantastic. It began as an evening at the Moth Club and turned into shows at Hackney Empire and in Dublin with people from the Bad Seeds, from Lankum, Fontaines DC and Nadine Shah. These young Irish bands would have happened without The Pogues, but I like to think we have had some influence. It’s a pool of luminous talent that we have been able to recruit from. We’ll take a similar approach for the Rum Sodomy & The Lash shows this year.
FEARNLEY: The shows in Hackney and Dublin made me feel that everything I had gone through and achieved with The Pogues was worth it. It is like the sweets inside the Easter egg, seeing all these other musicians we have influenced, as if MacGowan has spilled out into all these other expressions of himself with all these generations of musicians who think The Pogues were fucking great.
Originally published in Uncut Take 338 (May 2025 issue)
The benefit of having two vehicles is that you can drive one through the dirt while keeping the other pristine. Cory Hanson first came to our attention a decade or so ago as the frontman of Los Angeles group Wand, whose melodies were always a little sweeter and more soaring than the rest of the scuzzy West Coast psych-rock scene they came up in. Hanson has now found a way to follow his muse in two opposing directions, by interspersing Wand albums – increasingly dense, ominous and unpredictable, as on last year’s Vertigo – with solo records of impressive poise and restraint.
The benefit of having two vehicles is that you can drive one through the dirt while keeping the other pristine. Cory Hanson first came to our attention a decade or so ago as the frontman of Los Angeles group Wand, whose melodies were always a little sweeter and more soaring than the rest of the scuzzy West Coast psych-rock scene they came up in. Hanson has now found a way to follow his muse in two opposing directions, by interspersing Wand albums – increasingly dense, ominous and unpredictable, as on last year’s Vertigo – with solo records of impressive poise and restraint.
I Love People swells with strings, horns and choirs but in a way that is meticulously controlled and never gratuitous, every ounce of indulgent flab forensically removed in the manner of one of the great Nashville arrangers. But anyone who’s followed Hanson’s career thus far will know that he’s not in the business of providing earnest, easy-listening solace. And so it proves: his pristine vehicle is a Trojan horse, taking you on a journey into the dark heart of the American dream.
One of the abiding tropes of rock or country music is the promise (to men, anyway) of a vague, alluring freedom – the open road and the desert wind. But the misanthropic narrator of gorgeous opener “Bird On A Swing” lays out in deft couplets exactly what a life of running away really means: “I can count all my friends/Like I count all my debts/On the middle finger of my right hand/Where all my promises are kept”. This lone ranger is a “bitter soul” with “sadness in my skull” – but as he notes, ruefully, “that’s the cost of being free”.
As you probably also guessed, this album’s title track is not exactly a straightforward ode to humanity. Turns out Cory Hanson loves people in much the same way that Randy Newman loves LA: sardonically and selectively. “I love people, I think they are works of art,” he sings, his innocent voice bursting with mischief. “I love people, I know they’re animals at heart.” The song is joyously anthemic enough that you could imagine it being pumped out by gormless daytime radio DJs, without realising that their own fake bonhomie is one of the targets of Hanson’s scorn.
And what to make of “Santa Claus Is Coming Back To Town”, in which Hanson ladles on the schmaltz, only to relate some terrifying perversion of the nativity tale in which “the lamb lies in the manger and there’s a tombstone in his bed”? Later, “Old Policeman” steals the melody of the traditional lullaby “Hush, Little Baby” to paint a depressing portrait of a washed-up cop, “searching PornHub on his phone”. It gets more unsettling each time you hear it.
Yet the ravishing “Lou Reed” feels utterly sincere, a touching tribute to the old curmudgeon’s latter-day spiritual awakening, and how “the darkness came to life” amid the biting honesty of his New York tales: beacons of hope, despite their apparent hopelessness. A …Wild Side-style saxophone enters the song at the exact point Hanson sings the word “saxophones”, before doubling the wordless chorus – a touch that flirts knowingly with cheese, but is so perfectly executed that it becomes completely transcendent.
The album ends with a savage twist on that familiar country trope, the narrator “three sheets to the wind” in a “one-star town”, regretting his life choices. Except he hasn’t just lost his woman, he’s lost his mind, his subconscious stalked by emboldened racists, high-ranking perverts and the horror of waking up in a cold sweat with Naked And Afraid on the TV (we’ve all been there). “Their quilted flesh is on the scene/Sewn together by my dreams/As I light a fire in the jungle of my hotel room,” Hanson sings, as guitars twang cheerily and the pedal steel shimmers. “Get in the tomb.” It’s a pretty damning final verdict: that selfish pursuit of that fabled open road has driven generations of men insane and possibly even into an early grave. But the music is so lovely, and the lyrics so smart, you’re reassured that all hope is not lost.
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Three decades after debut Living With Ghosts, Patty Griffin’s songwriting only seems to grow richer and more intense with time. The only drawback, if we’re being pedantic here, is that sometimes you have to wait for it. Discounting 2022’s Tape – a bunch of home demos and rarities – Crown Of Roses is her first new album in six years.
Three decades after debut Living With Ghosts, Patty Griffin’s songwriting only seems to grow richer and more intense with time. The only drawback, if we’re being pedantic here, is that sometimes you have to wait for it. Discounting 2022’s Tape – a bunch of home demos and rarities – Crown Of Roses is her first new album in six years.
Griffin’s regular producer and bassist Craig Ross returns too, as does guitarist David Pulkingham, with another long-term ally, drummer Michael Longoria, completing her core band. It’s a musical understanding that feels deeply intuitive, draping these songs in delicate textures and subtle colours. With its scratchy groove and percussive shuffle, “Back At The Start” is about as busy as they get, but it’s a masterclass in the persuasive power of less is more. Similarly, “I Know A Way” – which evolves from droning guitar to humid gospel, with electric piano by Terry Allen’s son, Bukka – is all the more striking for its thoughtful build, as Griffin’s vocal banks into an exhilarating catharsis.
For the most part, Crown Of Roses succeeds via its concentrated hush, a rootless simmer that suggests the imminent arrival of a full storm. It’s there in the quietly tempestuous strings of “The End”, wherein cancer survivor Griffin acknowledges the cost of endurance: “There’s more scars on me now/That you can’t get around”. And the outstanding “Way Up To The Sky”, as Griffin – accompanied only by acoustic guitar – sings of raising kids, frayed nerves, seasonal cycles and a life blazing by. It’s possibly about her mother (whose portrait adorns the album cover), but is a wider hymn to parenthood and selflessness.
And while former beau Robert Plant sings backing vocals on restorative prayer “Long Time”, the truly wonderful “All The Way Home” feels like the album’s statement piece. Here, against flamenco guitar and hammered dulcimer, Griffin aligns herself to outsiders everywhere, in service to an itinerant creative spirit: “I’ve had enough rest and dust in my chest/I need music and smoke on the wind.”
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Growing up in a small Tennessee town in the late 1980s, I thought Ozzy Osbourne was the devil. Not just devilish or evil, but the Dark Lord made flesh and bone. He looked the part, of course, with his perpetually bugged-out eyes, wild hair, and that maniacal grin. And he certainly sounded like the devil. I got a shiver whenever I heard snippets of “Crazy Train” or “War Pigs” or even “Changes” blaring from the cars and boomboxes of the older boys at my school, all of whom were conceived during the heyday of Black Sabbath. Ozzy had that hellhound bark, with its particular grain that spoke from some other reality.
Growing up in a small Tennessee town in the late 1980s, I thought Ozzy Osbourne was the devil. Not just devilish or evil, but the Dark Lord made flesh and bone. He looked the part, of course, with his perpetually bugged-out eyes, wild hair, and that maniacal grin. And he certainly sounded like the devil. I got a shiver whenever I heard snippets of “Crazy Train” or “War Pigs” or even “Changes” blaring from the cars and boomboxes of the older boys at my school, all of whom were conceived during the heyday of Black Sabbath. Ozzy had that hellhound bark, with its particular grain that spoke from some other reality.
More than any of that, I thought Ozzy was the devil because that’s what every adult I knew told me. It was peak Satanic Panic, when community leaders honestly believed in a conspiracy among devil worshippers to recruit America’s youth to the dark side and even sacrifice a few of us to Beelzebub. While groups like Judas Priest, Iron Maiden, Slayer and Venom were targeted for the imagery in their lyrics and the heaviness of their riffs, few acts caused as much of a ruckus as Osbourne, who was a convenient boogeyman.
Teachers warned us against heavy metal, and one even showed parts of the legendary 1989 documentary Hell’s Bells: The Dangers of Rock ‘n’ Roll during class. Flipping channels, I caught glimpses of televangelists decrying the evils of pop music and politicians campaigning for censorship and warning labels.
And in 1985, the parents of a teenage fan from Indio, California, sued Ozzy claiming his song “Suicide Solution” included hidden lyrics: “Get the gun and try it, shoot shoot shoot!” They argued that the song encouraged their son to commit suicide. It was a horrific tragedy, but the case was quickly dismissed by a judge who described it as “more like a novel than a legal pleading.” Undeterred, concerned parents and preachers picketed Ozzy’s concerts. He received so many death threats that he had to increase security both on the road and at home.
At the Southern Baptist church my family attended, I heard frequent sermons and lectures about the evils of rock and roll, many of which mentioned Ozzy by name. One summer, my youth group spent a week in Panama City, Florida, and our guest pastor was a young seminary student who styled himself an expert on the evils of rock and roll.
He spent much of his daily sermons explaining to us how all secular music was Satanic and how the worst of it left us kids susceptible to demonic messages. He even hammered out a simple beat on his makeshift pulpit — BOOM boom-BOOM, BOOM boom-BOOM — and explained that this particular rhythm was descended from African tribes. (Yes, we got a little racism in our services!). It was now being used by American rock bands to put listeners into a trance. Ozzy used it. So did Prince and many others. It allowed them to literally hypnotize their fans at concerts, so that the devil could whisper evil nothings in our ears.
It all seemed so ridiculous, even to an impressionable kid like me. That’s around the time I stopped buying into the sermons and started listening to my favourites with no shame. It’s also the moment when I took my first steps toward becoming a music critic and journalist.
I did not watch the infamous 1988 episode of The Geraldo Rivera Show called Devil Worship: Exposing Satan’s Underground, which featured a priest, an FBI cult investigator, the daughter of Church of Satan founder Anton Lavey, and several teenager claiming to worship Satan. At least not back then. Much later I pulled it up on YouTube and laughed at how melodramatic and hokey the whole thing was.
It was sensationalist journalism, weighted more toward scaremongering and less toward engaging with actual trends, statistics, or beliefs. Still, it was quite a coup to get the Prince of Darkness himself, Ozzy Osbourne, to appear via satellite feed from London. He looked rumpled and disoriented, but he seemed ready to give good-faith answers to Rivera’s leading questions. When asked about the Satanic imagery in his music, Ozzy said, “All I do is make music. I don’t sit down and purposely plan to freak everybody out.” When he tried to explain how his working-class upbringing in Birmingham made him relate to his younger fans, Rivera cut him off and went to commercial.
Many years later, when rap music had replaced metal as the handwringers’ main target, I sat down with Ozzy’s solo catalog and gave it a close listen. I marveled at how different it was from his Black Sabbath output, how it moved so differently, a bit more spryly but still so heavy. That’s largely thanks to Randy Rhoads, the doomed guitarist who played on Ozzy’s first two solo albums.
What surprised me even more was that Ozzy no longer sounded like the devil. He certainly wasn’t trying to recruit kids or anyone else to Satanism. In fact, the first song on Blizzard Of Ozz, his debut, is called “I Don’t Know”, and it rejects the notion he’s the devil’s pied piper or any kind of authority on anything at all. “Don’t look at me for answers,” he tells his fans. “Don’t ask me, I don’t know.” In retrospect, that’s much more powerful and much more human than the rote certainties I got from other adults in the 1980s.
Blizzard Of Ozz has become one of my all-time favourite albums and it sounds very different from how it was portrayed forty years ago. It doesn’t celebrate hedonism and nihilism and amorality, but interrogates the lifestyle associated with rock and roll. “No Bone Movies” is about porn, but it’s not a ringing endorsement (“I’m being eaten by lust”). Now that I know who Aleister Crowley is, I can see how “Mr. Crowley” doesn’t glorify the noted occultist but pities him (“Your lifestyle to me seemed so tragic”). And “Suicide Solution” is about suicide, but Ozzy is lamenting that fate for a hard drinker in his life. Alcohol, he knew all too well, led to a slow self-annihilation (“The Reaper’s traveling at full throttle, it’s catching you but you don’t see”).
In other words, Ozzy’s message wasn’t too different from my pastor’s. “All those Jesus freaks ever had to do was listen to my records, and it would have been obvious,” he wrote in his 2009 memoir, I Am Ozzy. “But they just wanted to use me for publicity.” Blizzard Of Ozz is the sound of someone trying desperately to leave bad habits and old vices behind him.
The man who bit the head off a bat and who likewise decapitated a dove and who allegedly snorted a line of ants and who did enough drugs to get kicked out of Black Sabbath was trying to grow up. It’s still my favorite album of his, because it presents Ozzy at his most vulnerable, when he was examining his own decisions and regrets. It’s his most human.
While subsequent albums lack that heart, they’re brainier than I expected. Through his songs and tours in the 1980s, Ozzy found ways to exploit the Satanic Panic and comment on the hubbub in a language he knew his young fans would understand and their parents would not. Perhaps his greatest moment came in 1988, just before that Geraldospecial aired, when he released “Miracle Man” as a single. Two of his most outspoken foes – televangelists Jim Bakker and Jimmy Swaggart – had both made weepy public apologies for sexual misconduct and Ozzy called out their moral hypocrisy with a song and video that parodied them mercilessly. “They were always putting my records down and saying I was the anti-Christ,” he said at the time, “and it turned out they weren’t so holy after all.” The tide was turning, and Ozzy emerged victorious in that particular culture war.
Joan Shelley returns with a new album, Real Warmth. The follow-up to her 2022 album The Spur, it’s released on September 19 by No Quarter.
Shelley has also shared “Everybody” from the album, which you can hear below.
Real Warmth was produced at Casa Wroxton in Toronto by Ben Whiteley – bassist for The Weather Station and Jake Xerxes Fussell – and features drummer Philippe Melanson, saxophonist Karen Ng, singer/songwriters Doug Paisley and Tamara Lindeman, Matt Kelley and Ken Whiteley. Shelley’s partner, guitarist Nathan Salsburg, also appears.
Says Wheatley, “We had a few windows in mid-winter and it really felt like there was an urgency to capture a moment in time with these songs, performances, people involved, and against the political backdrop. The record really feels like a capture instead of a meticulous construction. Part of Joan’s concept was not only to go to a place but to draw on the community of musicians from that place.”
Offering three mutually inclusive readings of the album’s title, Shelley says:
“The warmth of actual bodies: connection and belonging as opposed to the facades we show each other, in person and also in the lifeless online world.
“A spiritual, humane warmth as opposed to performative or superficial kindness where love only applies to one’s own group, but will permit incredible suffering for another. How massive an effort it is to still love people at this time, in this place.
“The real warmth of the planet and the urgency of our moment. Finding ways to guard the fragile world and gentle people; searching for balance between extremes.”
Tracklisting for Real Warmth is:
Here in the High and Low On the Gold and Silver Field Guide To Wild Life Wooden Boat For When You Can’t Sleep Everybody New Anthem Heaven Knows Ever Entwine Give It Up, It’s Too Much The Orchard Who Do You Want Checking In On You The Hum
Shelley has also announced a run of Canadian and US tour dates:
October 16– Monarch Tavern – Toronto, ON October 18 – The Parlor Room – Northampton, MA October 19 – Nova Arts – Keene, NH October 21 – Passim – Boston, MA October 22 – Public Records – Brooklyn, NY October 23 – Harmonie Hall – Philadelphia, PA November 21 – Constellation – Chicago, IL Nomember 23 – The Whirling Tiger – Louisville, KY
You can read more about Shelley’s new album in the next issue of Uncut
Robert Plant and Graham Nash have both paid tribute to Terry Reid, who has died aged 75. Known as 'Superlungs' for his electrifying vocal gifts, and also known as the man who turned down both Led Zeppelin and Deep Purple, Reid had recently postponed a forthcoming tour as a consequence of cancer treatment.
Robert Plant and Graham Nash have both paid tribute to Terry Reid, who has died aged 75. Known as ‘Superlungs‘ for his electrifying vocal gifts, and also known as the man who turned down both Led Zeppelin and Deep Purple, Reid had recently postponed a forthcoming tour as a consequence of cancer treatment.
Writing on Instagram, Robert Plant, who became Led Zeppelin‘s vocalist after Reid turned down the offer, said, “Terry Reid’s enthusiasm and encouragement were incredible back then … still teenagers we crashed each others’ gigs and crucified Season of the Witch time and time again … So much fun. So on it. He was all of everything … such charisma.
His voice, his range … his songs capturing that carefree era … Superlungs indeed. He catapulted me into an intense new world he chose to decline … I listen now to his album The River and shed a tear for my brother in arms.”
Also on Instagram, Reid’s friend and collaborator Graham Nash wrote, “Finding it hard to put into words how sad I am about the passing of my dear friend Terry. How was it just a few short months ago we were smiling on my bus together? He was such a force. A talent beyond what I can express right now. It is still one of my proudest moments having produced his beautiful album Seed of Memory. That voice. That guitar playing. That wonderful person we will all miss so dearly.
My love goes out to his family and everyone who loved him.”
Reid first came to prominence aged 16, as frontman for soul stompers, Peter Jay & The Jaywalkers, supporting the Rolling Stones on their 1966 UK tour.
Going solo, he was managed by Mickie Most, releasing his debut album, Bang Bang, You’re Terry Reid, in 1968.
Speaking to Uncut in August 2004, Reid reflected, “Listening to the early stuff again, I have to say that Mickie Most’s conservatism held me back on those albums. He was going through an identity crisis. He made these great records with the animals and Donovan but their music started to evolve and he didn’t move with it I’d want to try new stuff and he wouldn’t go to the next page then Then I got friendly with Jimmy Page…
“Jimmy asked me to be the singer in Led Zeppelin, but I just done a deal to support the Stones on their first US tour in three years. I said I’d join if they paid me what I lose and told Jimmy he’d have to tell Keith [Richards]. ‘But you’re on your own on that one.’ I told him I’ll be hiding under the table so it never happened.”
In 1970, he played the Isle Of Wight festival and in 1971, he opened the inaugural Glastonbury Fayre, his band at the time including drummer Alan White and pedal steel from David Lindley; Lindley became a key collaborator on Reid’s River and Seed Of Memory albums.
That same year he relocated to Los Angeles. Around that time, Ritchie Blackmore invited Reid to join Deep Purple – an offer Reid declined.
Signing to Atlantic, he released River in 1973 – his free-roaming masterpiece. “But when I handed in River, they said I’ve made a jazz album and they wanted a rock ‘n’ roll record,” he told us. “So they paid me $20,000 to go away and didn’t get behind it. But I love that record because it was the first time I’ve got to do what I wanted to do.”
1976’s Seed Of Memory – produced by Graham Nash – and 1978’s Rogue Waves followed. Reid then paused his solo career to concentrate on session work, returning in 1991 with the Trevor Horn-produced The Driver.
Reid continued to collaborate and tour, while his songs were covered by artists including Crosby, Stills & Nash, Marianne Faithfull, Cheap Trick, The Hollies and the Raconteurs and appeared in numerous film soundtracks.
One of the last recordings Reid made was for Cardboard Sessions, a music series that brings musicians together to play instruments built out of cardboard.
Reflecting in Uncut‘s December 2014 issue, on the CD reissue of River, Reid said: “I still play songs from it and every now and then I have to pop it on and it’s an interesting thing – a lot of records you loved back in the day they are the stand up to the test of time or they sound dated. But with River I was coming from somewhere else and the record still stands up, I humbly think, as something different. That’s what was always more important most important to me. I always wanted to fly my own kite, you know.”
Terry Reid is survived by his wife, Annette and loving daughters Kelly and Holly.
Goodness gracious, so audacious! Edwyn Collins has been delighting us with his wit, insouciance and songwriting excellence ever since spearheading 'the sound of young Scotland' with Orange Juice back in the early 1980s.
Goodness gracious, so audacious! Edwyn Collins has been delighting us with his wit, insouciance and songwriting excellence ever since spearheading ‘the sound of young Scotland’ with Orange Juice back in the early 1980s.
From practically inventing indie, to a surprise global smash with “A Girl Like You“, to a miraculous third act following his recovery from two cerebral haemorrhages, Collins remains an inspirational figure.
Earlier this year he released his 10th solo album, Nation Shall Speak Unto Nation – and in September, he’ll embark on ‘The Testimonial Tour‘, his last ever lap around the UK (see here for the full list of dates).
But first, he’s kindly consented to a gentle grilling from you, the Uncut readers. So what do you want to ask a true indie hero? Send your questions to audiencewith@uncut.co.uk by Thursday (August 7) and Edwyn will answer the best ones in a future issue of Uncut.
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This fine magazine is out in UK shops tomorrow. But as this 172-page Definitive Edition Ultimate Music Guide to The Who reaches the USA, it will be doing so as The Who embark on their farewell North American tour, which begins in Florida on August 16th, winding up in Las Vegas on September 26th.
“Well, all good things must come to an end,” Pete Townshend said at the announcement in early May. “It is a poignant time. For me, playing to American audiences and those in Canada has always been incredible…”
Well might he think that. Never mind the musical triumphs at generational events like Monterey (1967) or Woodstock (1969), or playing Tommy live for the first time at classical music venues. The USA was also a scene of great legend-making notoriety. That might mean detonating a chunk of a TV studio on the Smothers Brothers show or being banned from the Holiday Inn chain of hotels following Keith Moon’s birthday party. It was their playground, and – to be momentarily vulgar – also a place where they made a lot of money.
The Who’s incredible story – via in-depth reviews of their stunning catalogue, to alarming recollections of Keith Moon’s high spirits, not to mention insightful interviews with Pete Townshend – are to be found in this new magazine. If you ever feel at sea in all those pages, our eight-page Miscellany timeline will quickly put you back on course.
But what of The Who, 2025? A new box set is said to be in the works, with UK dates possibly to follow – although Roger Daltrey was certainly hedging his bets when he faced questions about such a tour in May. “Let’s see if we survive this one…” he said.
DevendraBanhart has announced a 20th anniversary reissue of his album, Cripple Crow. It's due on September 12, and marks the first release on Banhart’s own label HeavyFlowers, distributed by Secretly Distribution.
DevendraBanhart has announced a 20th anniversary reissue of his album, Cripple Crow. It’s due on September 12, and marks the first release on Banhart’s own label HeavyFlowers, distributed by Secretly Distribution.
To coincide with this news, Banhart has released a demo of “I Feel Just Like A Child”.
The Cripple Crow 20th Anniversary album reissue includes a third bonus LP featuring “The Seventies” (a never-before-released recording from the Cripple Crow sessions), “Shame” (the long out of print B-side to “Long Haired Child”), five previously unreleased demos and two live recordings. It also includes expanded artwork and liner notes written by Banhart himself.
See below for the full deluxe edition tracklisting.
LP 1: Now That I Know Santa Maria da Feira Hear Somebody Say Long Haired Child Lazy Butterfly Quédate Luna Queen Bee I Feel Just Like A Child Some People Ride The Wave The Beatles Dragonflys Cripple Crow Inaniel
LP 2: Hey Mama Wolf How’s About Tellin’ A Story Chinese Children Sawkill River I Love That Man Luna De Margarita Korean Dogwood Little Boys Canela There’s Always Something Happening? La Ley Chicken Stewed Bard Of An Old Oak Tree La Pastorcita Perdida Lickity Split
LP 3: Shame The Seventies How’s About Tellin’ A Story (Demo) A Jalisco (Demo) I Feel Just Like a Child (Demo) So Long City (Demo) Long Haired Child (Live) Mama Wolf (Live) Tarot (Demo)
A day before the release of Cripple Crow 20th Anniversary Deluxe Edition, Banhart will embark on a limited run of performances in the USA, UK, and EU, including a show at London’s Union Chapel on November 12.
Devendra Banhart Tour Dates: 11 September: Center for the Arts of Homer – Homer, NY* 12 September: Bearsville Theater – Woodstock, NY* 13 September: The Stone Church – Brattleboro, VT* 14 September: SPACE Gallery – Portland, ME* 16 September: National Sawdust – Brooklyn, NY* 17 September: National Sawdust – Brooklyn, NY* 18 September: Institute of Contemporary Art – Boston, MA* 8 November: Le Guess Who? – Utrecht, NL 10 November: Le Trianon – Paris, FR 12 November: Union Chapel – London, UK 14 November: Church of Our Lady of Laeken – Brussels, BE 16 November: Antigel Festival. – Geneva, CH 17 November: Mühle Hunziken – Bern, CH 20 November: La Plazeta – Valencia, SP 22 November: Tetro Lope de Vega – Madrid, SP 24 November: Theatro Circo – Braga, PT 25 November: Theatro Tivoli – Lisbon, PT
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You might not expect an acoustic vocal harmony group to radiate “‘fuck yeah’ rock’n’roll energy” but this is how Melbourne’s Folk Bitch Trio characterise their sound and attitude. In practice, they produce a sometimes spare, sometimes sumptuous, always graceful blend with a lyrical sting in the tail, moving Phoebe Bridgers to describe them as “Boygenius if it was from the ’40s”.
You might not expect an acoustic vocal harmony group to radiate “‘fuck yeah’ rock’n’roll energy” but this is how Melbourne’s Folk Bitch Trio characterise their sound and attitude. In practice, they produce a sometimes spare, sometimes sumptuous, always graceful blend with a lyrical sting in the tail, moving Phoebe Bridgers to describe them as “Boygenius if it was from the ’40s”.
“We just set out to play music together with our means and the feelings in our hearts,” says Gracie Sinclair, “but singing songs in three-part harmony is what we are best at.”
Sinclair and bandmates Heide Peverelle and Jeanie Pilkington were not always folk bitches. “My head was really in the jazz game,” says Sinclair, who studied jazz voice and was performing corporate and club gigs by her mid-teens. Pilkington dropped out of the same course but held on to her love of harmonics. Peverelle dipped in and out of piano lessons, art school and their dad’s record collection. “There was a period of time when I rejected folk music in a really heavy way because I thought it was daggy and uncool,” they say. “Then you get to 17, 18 and think, ‘Whatever I like is cool to me, it doesn’t actually matter.’”
FBT formed in 2019, not long before they were hit by the world’s longest regional lockdown. But their vocal chemistry prevailed. “We were fresh out of school and maybe a little bit directionless and didn’t really want to do anything apart from hang out most days and sing,” says Pilkington. “I felt uninspired during that period, but maybe it was a nice amount of breathing space.”
They’ve spent the last couple of years touring with the likes of M Ward and Julia Jacklin, while consolidating their close harmonies, acoustic arrangements – all three play guitar “but never all at the same time” – and wry lyrics. They describe their songs as “pathetic teen tragedies”, distilled in bewitching yet wicked style on their debut album, Now Would Be A Good Time.
Their individual tastes converge around Rufus Wainwright, Nick Drake, Lucinda Williams and especially the masterful alchemy of Gillian Welch and David Rawlings. “Soul Journey was the car soundtrack when I was a kid,” recalls Pilkington. “Before I even had a formulated idea of what it meant to love music, I loved those songs. It’s so real and you can hear the room. All the things I care about now were on the first record that I loved as a kid.”
“They are just the best, with some of the most beautiful singing ever,” agrees Sinclair. “Dave is invisible and that is a marker of a beautiful blend.”
The trio describe their own intertwined vocals as a puzzle to be solved, even chiming around each other in natural harmony as they talk. So how would they define a Folk Bitch? “It’s a love of saying what’s on your mind in music and in life,” says Pilkington. “Unapologetically being earnest and stupid and silly,” adds Sinclair. “A lot of our songs touch on sex and general humiliation,” says Peverelle, “and then we accompany the song with very dainty acoustic guitar.”
“But we take our music as seriously as someone who’s playing heavy rock’n’roll,” concludes Pilkington.
Sinclair sums it up: “The sentiments we want to express are all the things you would be feeling as a 23-year-old – lame, frustrated, heartbroken, excited and overjoyed – and the essence of Folk Bitch Trio is, ‘Fuck everything, this is what we can do.’ And hopefully we’re going to do it as well as we can.”
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Disclosure, self-affirmation and avowal may be the presentation currencies of our time – mystique now seems so very 20th century – but still, it takes courage and conviction for a young band to state their case from the get-go. All the more so if it’s a group of women, who risk accusations of bad faith and superficiality should they choose to develop their artistry or change their image.
Disclosure, self-affirmation and avowal may be the presentation currencies of our time – mystique now seems so very 20th century – but still, it takes courage and conviction for a young band to state their case from the get-go. All the more so if it’s a group of women, who risk accusations of bad faith and superficiality should they choose to develop their artistry or change their image.
If they’ve considered it at all, none of this bothers Brighton four-piece The New Eves, who came together via a regular meet-up of creative women held in the early days after lockdown. Their name is an unambiguous wresting of power from the most enduring of female archetypes, while the title of their debut album packs a note of forewarning in its defiance. They’re hardly the first UK band nourished by community and eager to recast gender roles; but unlike, say, Goat Girl, Dream Wife, Big Joanie, Charmpit or Dream Nails, punk is not The New Eves’ bedrock. Patti Smith is clearly a touchstone but Swedish folk, post-punk, kosmische, art skronk and even musical theatre are in the mix too, with violin, cello and flute augmenting the usual guitar/bass/drums. Also, rather than directly reflecting personal experience, their songs borrow from mythology, folklore (both centuries-old and contemporary) and neo-Romantic poetry to present their definition of “womanhood”, air their sense of wonder at the cosmos and consider their place in it.
Written in Brighton and during a residency at The Cornish Bank in Falmouth, The New Eve Is Risingwas co-produced by the band with Jack Ogborne (of Bingo Fury) and Joe Jones. It follows a trio of singles, notably their debut of 2023, the double A-side “Mother”/“Original Sin”, which gives religious doctrine, internalised guilt and the patriarchy short shrift while asserting that “the serpent is your ally/Your witness is the sky/And every woman is your sister/And we whisper, ‘You’ll be fine, you’ll be just fine’”. As calling cards go it could hardly have been more emphatic, and this full-length follows through. It opens with the mournful saw of a cello, which introduces the band’s manifesto. Written and recited by Nina Winder-Lind, “The New Eve” is a poem cast as “a glorious battle cry” against a high-tension backdrop that builds to a piano-hammered, post-punk peak before suddenly slamming on the brakes. “The New Eve has autonomy over her soul and her body,” intones Winder-Lind. “The New Eve has learned to scream, to stand straight, to sing, to speak.”
A feminist reframing of “The Highwayman”, Alfred Noyes’ poem from 1906, follows, turning Bess’s role from one of tragic self-sacrifice to heroic self-defence, over a low-lying, loose gallop of a tune that recalls The Fall’s “Cruiser’s Creek” but adds shredded violin and a skronky guitar workout from Violet Farrer. Very different is “Cow Song”: over the course of more than six minutes it shifts between an agreeably elephantine lumber and a furious tumult of strings and drums, adding hypnotic vocal harmonies (inspired by the ancient Nordic practice of kulning) and a courtly outro.
The cosmic focus of “Circles” calls into service modern chamber music, Patti Smith’s early punk poeticism and ’70s no-wave, while the mood shifts again in the heavily rhythmic and chorally fulsome “Astrolabe”, which references “rattlesnakes and widow spiders” and Bonnie & Clyde in its tale of a romance determined by the stars. The set closes with “Volcano”, an eight-and-a-half-minute fusion of mystical folk and Horses-adjacent punk threaded with flute and vocal harmonies, which builds from reverie to incantatory whirl, electric violin stoking its fire. “There’s no forgiving and there’s no sinning,” it advises. “No thought is as big as what you see/Let it bleed/Set it free.”
Liberation – of body, mind and spirit, both individually and collectively – is The New Eves’ focus, but these darkly energised songs are celebratory, too. All four band members are credited as composer, lyricist and producer on every track and their collective creativity sparks and fizzes throughout. The New Eve Is Rising is a confident, adventurous debut, intuitive yet purposeful and full of reinvention’s promise. May the road rise with them.
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Mark Stewart tended to confound expectations wherever he went. Not because he wanted to – he just couldn’t help it. His innate curiosity, sense of humour and gently provocative nature, coupled with his enormous charisma and sharp mind, meant that while he dedicated his life to making intensely powerful music, he didn’t take himself too seriously. Spend even a couple of minutes in his company and he’d be ribbing you left, right and centre, barking ten to the dozen in his rich Bristolese; this towering post-punk prophet, all six and a half foot of him, had a touch of Tommy Cooper about him.
Mark Stewart tended to confound expectations wherever he went. Not because he wanted to – he just couldn’t help it. His innate curiosity, sense of humour and gently provocative nature, coupled with his enormous charisma and sharp mind, meant that while he dedicated his life to making intensely powerful music, he didn’t take himself too seriously. Spend even a couple of minutes in his company and he’d be ribbing you left, right and centre, barking ten to the dozen in his rich Bristolese; this towering post-punk prophet, all six and a half foot of him, had a touch of Tommy Cooper about him.
Stewart died unexpectedly in April 2023 at the age of 62, a force of nature suddenly silent, but he’d completed what would become The Fateful Symmetry, his eighth solo album, before his death. Looking back at what he worked on during the last decade or so of his life – two new albums with the reformed Pop Group and versions of their classic 1979 debut Y reissued through Mute, plus a couple of industrial dub solo releases that brought together the likes of Bobby Gillespie, Richard Hell, Kenneth Anger, Penny Rimbaud and Keith Levene – it’s tempting to assume that this new record would continue in the vein of his collaborative solo material: jagged, whacked-out dubstep and menacing funk fusion united by Stewart’s theatrical pronouncements on an array of conspiracy theories and political topics. In that mode, it was often too easy to dismiss Stewart as the strange man with the megaphone on the street corner who’d been ranting about the same thing for 40 years, even though, deep down, you know he’s cottoned on to some essential truth.
Not that The Fateful Symmetry, despite its eerily prescient title, is some kind of warning from beyond the grave – far from it. In fact, knowing that Stewart has gone, it comes across more like a love letter to life, full of arrestingly beautiful songs in which Stewart revels in the glorious absurdity of humanity. In a final twist he’d no doubt relish, Stewart has produced the most accessible album of his career, one that mashes together swooning chanson and smouldering ballads, new-wave grooves and candy-striped dub, while he offers a relatively restrained performance, crooning through the likes of “Neon Girl” and “This Is The Rain” in the manner of modern-day Nick Cave, a singer who once claimed that Stewart in his unhinged Pop Group prime “changed everything”.
Mute boss Daniel Miller, who began working with Stewart in the early ’80s, suggests that Stewart wanted this album to be more appealing so that he might reach a wider audience – and once he’s snared them with the sweet stuff, they might come to appreciate Stewart’s gnarlier heavyweight gear. Either way, there’s a level of quality control on this project, overseen by Miller, that still allows Stewart to probe and provoke but this time the medium of his message is more palatable. The noirish electronic disco of opener “Memory Of You”, produced with regular foil Youth, is almost deceptively straight, with Stewart singing, “I could’ve wrote a love song” while he pours his heart out, craving a better world.
Stewart was known for his generosity. In Bristol, he opened doors for the Wild Bunch and Massive Attack, helped Tricky record his breakthrough “Aftermath”, and championed new outfits like Ishmael Ensemble and Young Echo. Similarly, here he brings together a bunch of disparate producers whose mongrel mix of styles complement each other. After the pulsing doom-step of the 23 Skidoo-produced “Crypto Religion” – “This is how I live now – some days are better than others,” he mooches – comes the atmospheric post-punk of Belgian act Mugwump’s “Blank Town” (“You’re not alone on this hill of bones”). On Youth’s “Neon Girl”, which features The Raincoats’ Gina Birch and descends into boozy schlager, he asks: “Is it too late, too late for me?” He sounds even more exposed on “This Is The Rain”, a bruised piano ballad produced with his Pop Group bandmate Gareth Sager, as he speaks stirringly of “a world upside down and backwards – this is the rain that washes and heals in glory.”
In some ways it’s fitting that Stewart comes full circle on The Fateful Symmetry with an endearing cumbia-style dub, mixed by Adrian Sherwood, of “Everybody’s Got To Learn Sometime”, originally a hit in 1980 for The Korgis, who would have been contemporaries of The Pop Group, although their approaches differed, to put it mildly. “Change your heart, it will astound you,” Stewart sings through distortion, but the message – and his enduring positivity – could not be clearer.
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David Gilmour has announced details of a new live album and film, both recorded during his sold out 2024 Luck and Strange tour.
Scroll down to hear Gilmour’s live version of “Sorrow” – which originally appeared on Pink Floyd‘s 1987 album A Momentary Lapse Of Reason.
Live At The Circus Maximus, Rome – which is released via Sony Music Vision and Trafalgar Releasing – will be shown in cinemas & IMAX worldwide on September 17, for a limited time only. Tickets go on sale from August 6 at 2pm BST/ 9am EDT / 6am PDT. Full screening details will be available here. The film will also be released on 2 Blu-Ray and 3 DVD sets with bonus unseen footage on October 17.
Also on October 17, Sony Music release The Luck And Strange Concerts, featuring 23 tracks spread across 4LPs or 2CDs, recorded at selected shows from the tour and blends solo tracks from Gilmour’s most recent album alongside classic Pink Floyd tracks. The super deluxe edition of the album features all the formats as well as a 120-page hardback book featuring Polly Samson’s photographs taken on the tour. Pre-order here.
DAVID GILMOUR THE LUCK AND STRANGE CONCERTS 4 LP SET WITH 24-PAGE BOOK LP 1 A 5 A.M. Black Cat Luck and Strange
LP1 B Breathe (In The Air) Time Fat Old Sun
LP2 A Marooned A Single Spark Wish You Were Here
LP2 B Vita Brevis Between Two Points – with Romany Gilmour High Hopes
LP3 A Sorrow The Piper’s Call A Great Day For Freedom
LP3 B In Any Tongue The Great Gig In The Sky A Boat Lies Waiting
LP4 A Coming Back To Life Dark and Velvet Nights Sings
LP4 B Scattered Comfortably Numb (Encore)
DAVID GILMOUR THE LUCK AND STRANGE CONCERTS 2CD SET WITH 24 PAGE BOOK CD1 5 A.M. Black Cat Luck and Strange Breathe (In The Air) Time Fat Old Sun Marooned A Single Spark Wish You Were Here Vita Brevis Between Two Points – with Romany Gilmour High Hopes
CD2 Sorrow The Piper’s Call A Great Day For Freedom In Any Tongue The Great Gig In The Sky A Boat Lies Waiting Coming Back To Life Dark and Velvet Nights Sings Scattered Comfortably Numb (Encore)
DAVID GILMOUR LIVE AT THE CIRCUS MAXIMUS 2 BLU-RAY SET WITH 24 PAGE BOOK & BLACK CAT STICKERS DISC 1 LIVE AT CIRCUS MAXIMUS 5 A.M. Black Cat Luck and Strange Breathe (In The Air) Time Fat Old Sun Marooned Wish You Were Here Vita Brevis Between Two Points – with Romany Gilmour High Hopes Sorrow The Piper’s Call A Great Day For Freedom In Any Tongue The Great Gig In The Sky A Boat Lies Waiting Coming Back To Life Dark and Velvet Nights Sings Scattered Comfortably Numb (Encore)
142-min concert film with audio in Stereo 96/24, 5.1 and Dolby Atmos
DISC 2 THE LUCK AND STRANGE CONCERTS (AUDIO) Audio only in Stereo 96/24, 5.1 and Dolby Atmos VIDEO EXTRAS LUCK AND STRANGE TOUR REHEARSALS Rehearsals for the Luck And Strange Tour at King Alfred Leisure Centre, Brighton, September 2024 Between Two Points – with Romany Gilmour Breathe (In The Air)/Time Dark and Velvet Nights Luck and Strange
DOCUMENTARIES Rain in Rome Backstage at the Royal Albert Hall Backstage in America 8:55 The Making of Luck and Strange
MUSIC VIDEOS A Single Spark Live Between Two Points (Official Music Video) Between Two Points – GENTRY Remix – Editor’s Cut (Official Music Video) Wesley On Patrol The Piper’s Call (Official Music Video) The Piper’s Call Live from Around the World (Official Music Video) Luck and Strange (Official Music Video) Dark and Velvet Nights (Official Music Video) Dark and Velvet Nights (Animated Official Video)
DAVID GILMOUR LIVE AT THE CIRCUS MAXIMUS 3 DVD SET WITH 24 PAGE BOOK & BLACK CAT STICKERS DISC 1 LIVE AT CIRCUS MAXIMUS PART 1 5 A.M. Black Cat Luck and Strange Breathe (In The Air) Time Fat Old Sun Marooned Wish You Were Here Vita Brevis Between Two Points – with Romany Gilmour High Hopes
DISC 2 LIVE AT CIRCUS MAXIMUS PART 2 Sorrow The Piper’s Call A Great Day For Freedom In Any Tongue The Great Gig In The Sky A Boat Lies Waiting Coming Back To Life Dark and Velvet Nights Sings Scattered Comfortably Numb (Encore)
142-min concert film with audio in Stereo 96/24 & 5.1
DISC 3 VIDEO EXTRAS LUCK AND STRANGE TOUR REHEARSALS Rehearsals for the Luck And Strange Tour at King Alfred Leisure Centre, Brighton, September 2024 Between Two Points – with Romany Gilmour Breathe (In The Air)/Time Dark and Velvet Nights Luck and Strange
DOCUMENTARIES Rain in Rome Backstage at the Royal Albert Hall Backstage in America 8:55 The Making of Luck and Strange
MUSIC VIDEOS A Single Spark Live Between Two Points (Official Music Video) Between Two Points – GENTRY Remix – Editor’s Cut (Official Music Video) Wesley On Patrol The Piper’s Call (Official Music Video) The Piper’s Call Live from Around the World (Official Music Video) Luck and Strange (Official Music Video) Dark and Velvet Nights (Official Music Video) Dark and Velvet Nights (Animated Official Video)
DAVID GILMOUR THE LUCK AND STRANGE CONCERTS LIVE AT THE CIRCUS MAXIMUS SUPER DELUXE EDITION 120-page hardback book “David Gilmour Luck and Strange Live” Polly Samson photographs taken on the tour. Disc 1 CD1 – The Luck and Strange Concerts, Part 1 Disc 2 CD2 – The Luck and Strange Concerts, Part 2 Disc 3, 4, 5, 6 – The Luck and Strange Concerts 4 x LPs Disc 7 – Blu-ray Live at the Circus Maximus in stereo, 5.1 and Atmos Disc 8 – Blu-ray The Luck and Strange Concerts in stereo, 5.1 and Atmos & Video Extras Disc 9 – DVD David Gilmour Live at the Circus Maximus Disc 10 – DVD David Gilmour Live at the Circus Maximus Disc 11 – DVD Video Extras Memorabilia in dedicated envelope with embossed stamp 2 perforated postcard sheets with 2 postcards each 1 sheet of black cat stickers 1 sheet of Luck and Strange figure with outstretched arms stickers Set list sheet 930mm x 620mm double-sided 4-colour poster 8-page credits book
News reached us earlier this month that British rock original Terry Reid has sadly been forced to postpone his upcoming European tour due to an ongoing battle with cancer. Now his friends have set up a GoFundMe page to help raise money for his treatment – click here to read more and donate.We wish Terry a speedy recovery.
News reached us earlier this month that British rock original Terry Reid has sadly been forced to postpone his upcoming European tour due to an ongoing battle with cancer. Now his friends have set up a GoFundMe page to help raise money for his treatment – click here to read more and donate.We wish Terry a speedy recovery.
Below, you can read our Audience With Terry Reid from the October 2023 issue of Uncut (Take 317): from helping to assemble Led Zeppelin, to getting loaded with Bowie, to Chuck Berry stealing his amp, Superlungs has seen it all…
Terry Reid is sanguine about being forever known as the man who turned down Led Zeppelin. But he’d rather be known as the man who put together Led Zeppelin. “Jimmy [Page] asked me what he should do with the band,” explains Reid, Zooming in from his home in Indio, California. “He needed a singer who could sing around those guitar licks, and not everybody could do that. I’d seen Robert with John Bonham, so I said to him, ‘Not only is Robert perfect, you’ve got to get the drummer – he’s an animal!’”
It turns out that Reid might be the greatest rock matchmaker of all-time. The Jimi Hendrix Experience? That was him too. “Mitch [Mitchell] called me up and said, ‘Hey Terry, you know this guy who’s around town – big afro hair and he wears all this women’s’ clothing? He’s putting a band together and he wants me to audition for him.’ Now, I’d heard Jimi [play], so I went, ‘Get your arse down there right now!’ And the rest is history.”
With his infectious laugh and warm ‘Los Anglian’ burr, you can see why Terry Reid was mates with everyone. He may not have joined a big band himself, but he’s got no regrets. “When you’re in a band, you’re committed to that style. You’re not gonna be able to play any of that Brazilian music you like, cos they don’t do that. And all those folk things you like, well forget that.” So Reid ploughed his own furrow, making a couple of terrific 1970s solo albums that have only recently begun to get their dues. And he’s still playing and singing with whoever he likes, in whatever style he fancies, collecting amazing stories along the way…
What was Hendrix like as a friend? Andrew Verne, Berwick-upon-Tweed
A very sweet guy. Misunderstood by everybody, really. He was the quietest, calmest guy, but you would never think that when he hit the stage. He was always trying to outdo somebody! He had an apartment in London and he’d throw parties. All these hangers-on would turn up at his place and drink all his drinks, do all his drugs. I went over one night and it was so full of people that they were out of the door and in the street. Jimi couldn’t handle it, but he couldn’t bring himself to tell them to leave, so he came over to my place and crashed over there. Everybody just horded on him, because he really was that great. I still haven’t heard anybody who can play that good, emotionally. I never heard him play a wrong note – he’s so fluid when he’s playing that he doesn’t hit wrong notes, everything fits together. Before he passed, he was working on an album with Miles Davis. Boy, I would be really interested to hear what came out of that. Because I was [with Jimi] in New York one time and Miles came round. They were in the other room playing, and it was nothing like “Purple Haze”…
You played every date on The Rolling Stones’ 1969 US tour, joined on alternating dates by either BB King, Ike & Tina Turner or Chuck Berry. What was the scene like backstage before these performances? Diane Strauss, via email
Have you got a week?! We’d arrive at a hotel and there were already parties going on. Keith [Richards] had parties going on all over the planet! And playing with BB King was just amazing – what a gentleman. You realise where he came from and the years he put in and what he actually stood for. And that the blues was not a miserable thing, it’s a sign of hope. And then you’ve got Chuck Berry. Now you’re talking about a whole different ball of wax! One night he said to me, “Oh man, I got another gig tonight – let me go on before you.” I wasn’t too comfortable with having to follow Chuck Berry but you can’t say no, can you? Anyway, he comes off-stage, gets in his car and he’s taken my Twin Reverb with him! I never did see it again. But we had a lot of fun on that tour.
You’re probably sick of talking about missing out on the chance to front Led Zeppelin. But how do you think you’d have fared amid the subsequent madness surrounding them? Tim Lidyard, Macclesfield
There’s a lot of different bands we all could’ve been involved in. And, you know, [Led Zeppelin] did well! Five billion people can’t be wrong. So I figured that we actually did a real good job putting it together. I would still be interested in working with Jimmy [Page], because he’s got a lot more to offer guitar-wise than Zeppelin licks, and he works really well with people. Maybe we could get a piano player. He’s been to a couple of my gigs, so you never know what’ll happen next.
What do you remember about your night in the Worthy Farmhouse with David Bowie and Linda Lewis at 1971’s Glastonbury Fayre? Christophe T, via email
I don’t remember a hell of a lot, we were all so hammered. David was talking, talking, talking about the summer solstice and all sorts of things are gonna happen. Almost on the verge of being scary! [During my set] I’m playing this rhythm, and I’m leaving the ground by 12 inches. I’m very loaded, so I’m going, “Wow, what the hell is going on?” Suddenly it dawned on me that the people on the side of the stage are stomping their feet. The stage is built out of these scaffolding boards, which are flexible. So as they’re doing that, they’re flipping me up in the middle. I told David about it, that it was the people at the side of the stage, and he said [in a conspiratorial whisper], “It’s more than that…” We had such a good time. I got on great with David, he was a real sweetheart. He was very interested in everything. Everything was possible.
Were you disappointed that Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young’s recording of your song “Horses Through A Rainstorm” [aka “Without Expression”] was replaced by “Carry On” on the final Deja Vu tracklisting? Grahame Reed, Wiltshire
Yeah. I mean, ker-ching! They had recorded it, but I know what happened: when it comes to the last cut, you’ve got four songwriters. And even if it’s a double album, you aren’t getting all their songs on there. Crosby was really behind that song, same with Graham – The Hollies had done it, originally. I went to rehearsals when they put the band together, and I heard them briefly running it through. But it didn’t make the final cut. Hey, it’s their album! But then when they did the boxset, they went in and mixed it and put it on that. It’s an honour to be in that company.
What did you learn from hosting Gilberto Gil during his exile from Brazil in the early 1970s? Maria Sanchez, via email
I’d heard from my attorney, Bernard Sheridan, that England had given asylum to Gilberto Gil. I kept thinking to myself, “I’d love to meet this guy, now he’s over here in England.” We did the Isle Of Wight festival, which was 500,000 people, and I’m looking out into the audience and I see this beaming, smiling face looking back at me, with this big afro kinda haircut. I kept thinking, “Wow, what a happy guy.” Afterwards he came backstage and went, “Terry, it’s Gilberto Gil.” So we became best friends. He came and lived with me in the countryside up in Huntingdonshire. That woke the neighbourhood up! We had 10 Brazilian percussionists in a little thatched cottage. My poor neighbour daren’t shave with a straight razor, with all these Brazilian drums going. It was so much fun. Gil taught me so much just by listening to him, his attitude to music. But it took me years to figure some of them chords out.
Thanks for coming to record an EP with us in Paris in 2009 – you’re the most inspiring artist we ever met. What do you look for in a song or a musician that makes you want to collaborate? Guillaume Simon, Shine/Indolore, Paris
When you’re working with somebody, there’s two ways to go: either they tell you what they want, or they say, “Do whatever you want.” But if they ask you to do whatever you want, and then you turn up to the studio the next day and they go, “Well…”, you end up getting nowhere. [On this occasion] they sent me the songs that they had in mind for me to sing. I learnt all the songs religiously, because I don’t like messing around in the studio too much. They said, “We’ve got 10 days booked in the studio,” but we finished in three. I said, “D’you wanna do another song?” They said, “No, we’re gonna party!” That was a lot of fun – it was great to hang out with the young generation of Paris.
Are you currently working on new music? Joe McCall, Aberdeen
Yes, I am. I haven’t got an album planned but I’ve got lots of tunes. As they come up, I always hear them with different arrangements. I’m working on one tune here that’s a very Spanish/Mexican kind of song, somewhere between that and a samba, and I want to do it with a whole mariachi band. It’ll probably cost me more in tequila than I’ll make from it!
Today (July 25) sees the release of the highly anticipated new Nick Drake boxset, The Making Of Five Leaves Left, which tells the story of how his stunning debut album came together across four discs of demos, studio outtakes and previously unheard songs.
Today (July 25) sees the release of the highly anticipated new Nick Drake boxset, The Making Of Five Leaves Left, which tells the story of how his stunning debut album came together across four discs of demos, studio outtakes and previously unheard songs.
Here is Uncut’s guide to the most revealing tracks from the new boxset, which shine new light on one of the most mythologised albums of all-time:
“TIME HAS TOLD ME” (1st SOUND TECHNIQUES, MARCH 1968) Drake’s second ever studio recording fully unpacks the rich voice, complex guitar progressions and mysterious lyrics that will forever characterise him.
“STRANGE FACE” (ROUGH MIX WITH GUIDE VOCAL, SEPTEMBER 11, 1968) A studio experiment whose overdubs build into an artificial-sounding, proto-motorik groove, with Drake’s voice and guitar unperturbed at its heart.
INSTRUMENTAL (CAMBRIDGE, LENT TERM 1968) Only 1:40 long, this unknown guitar fragment taped in Robert Kirby’s room sounds packed with possibilities, forsehadowing Bryter Layter’s penchant for instrumentals.
“MICKEY’S TUNE” (CAMBRIDGE, LENT TERM 1968) The set’s new Drake song, supposedly named after his friend Micky Astor, is breezy and bossa nova-like. “When I played it at an event last year,” says Drake biographer Richard Morton Jack, “it hadn’t been heard publicly by anyone before – including Micky Astor, who was in the audience.”
“MADE TO LOVE MAGIC” (CAMBRIDGE, LENT TERM 1968) Dropped from Five Leaves Left, this lightly sung declaration of faith in the childlike and supernal now sounds like a major song. “Celestial,” Drake insists.
“STRANGE FACE” (TAKE 1, NOVEMBER 12, 1968) Danny Thompson’s bass gives Drake’s quicksilver, chiming guitar supple rhythmic backing.
“MAYFAIR” (TAKE 5, JANUARY 4, 1969) The outro features Drake and Thompson’s most telepathic improvisation, belying the former’s rep for repetition.
“’CELLO SONG” (TAKE 4, JANUARY 4, 1969) “Strange Face” reconfigured and retitled: Drake’s wordless humming and guitar arpeggios meet Clare Lowther’s titular instrument.
“RIVER MAN” (TAKE 1, JANUARY 4, 1969) Five Leaves Left’s greatest song arrives in solo acoustic form, with Drake’s guitar already suggesting its orchestral possibilities.
“RIVER MAN” (TAKE 2, APRIL 1969) Drake discarded the string middle section on this take for the rewrite heard on Five Leaves Left. But this version has its own wild power.
With the best progressive rock albums, you were on pretty safe ground judging the book (actually the record) by its cover. As you’d probably hope, with someone behind so many such covers, the artist Roger Dean has a very good take on how the whole progressive rock album package – the music, the logo, the futuristic icescape on the sleeve – all fitted together.
In a field so often criticised for excess, Roger sees the offering more in terms of generosity. “What we were doing was making an integrated and holistic gift,” he told me in 2019. “The LP cover was a fantastic gift to give and receive. If an album came with a plastic toy it was seen as an important icon.”
In this boom time for the music business, the package, and the music within it expanded – and this is where our latest Ultimate Record Collection takes its place. The 200 Greatest Progressive Rock Albums…Ranked!is filled with new innovations, and widened horizons. Finding themselves lacking the charisma and traditional beauty and showmanship of a Mick Jagger, a progressive musician might more comfortably retreat behind his futuristic artwork, logo, or banks of keyboards, the better to concentrate on developing the music.
This music now accommodated a huge new range of influences beyond rock’s traditional base in rhythm and blues. Literary inspirations. Classical motifs. Conceits like the Genesis double The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway. While a listener’s mind wandered into the fantastic landscape of a Hipgnosis or Roger Dean sleeve (bonus Roger fact: he was at art college with the Hipgnosis guys and shared a flat with Syd Barrett), musicians stretched themselves into strange new shapes beyond the map of traditional songs. You engage with a progressive album less like a record and more like a book: prepared for a journey and expecting the unexpected. No wonder it was a genre that thrived on the university circuit.
“It was nearly always brilliant fun,” Roger went on to tell me, still enjoying his recollections of this expansive period for music. “There hadn’t been a theatrical stage before. There were a lot of firsts.”
Enjoy the magazine. It’s in shops now. Or you can get yours from us here.
On September 12, Led Zeppelin will continue to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Physical Graffiti with an updated deluxe vinyl edition of the album, complete with bonus replica promotional poster.
But perhaps more interestingly, they will also release a new EP featuring four rare live recordings: “In My Time Of Dying” and “Trampled Under Foot” from Earl’s Court, 1975, alongside “Sick Again” and “Kashmir” from Knebworth, 1979. It will be the first time these performances have appeared on CD or vinyl, having only ever been previously released on the 2003 Led Zeppelin DVD.
Watch the video for “Trampled Under Foot (Live At Earl’s Court)” below:
Pre-order the Live EP and the new deluxe poster edition of Physical Graffitihere. You can read the full, fascinating story of the making of Physical Graffiti in the April 2025 issue of Uncut, which is still available from our online store.
Paul Weller is the star of our latest free CD, Movin On, available with the September 2025 issue of Uncut, in shops now.
Paul Weller is the star of our latest free CD, Movin On, available with the September 2025 issue of Uncut, in shops now.
The 10-track album includes rarities, deep cuts and B-sides, including blistering six-minute closer “I Work In The Clouds”.
There have been few artists who have had a career quite like Weller’s – not least in his stunning move into kaleidoscopic experimentation in his middle age. After last year’s impressive 66, he’s now returned with Find El Dorado, a covers album that’s much more than that: a “deeply personal new album of reinterpretations”, it shines a light on some of Weller’s own favourite songs, from the well-known – The Kinks’ “Nobody’s Fool” to the Bee Gees’ “I Started A Joke” – to the obscure – especially “Lawdy Rolla”, by French studio group The Guerillas.
To mark the new record, we’ve put together, in conjunction with the man himself, this survey of rarities and album tracks from one of his golden periods of exploration. It spans the eclectic, overdriven funk and fuzz rock of 2015’s Saturns Pattern, his gritty 2017 soundtrack to Jawbone and the psychedelic soul and jazz of the same year’s A Kind Revolution, and the acoustic, elegiac True Meanings (2018), drenched in strings.
Along the way, we’ll hear tender balladry give way to motorik frenzy, electronic gospel melt into dub, and much more. Plus, there’s a taste of the new Find El Dorado, courtesy of the superb “Lawdy Rolla”. Dig in.
1 Glide (Instrumental) We begin with this version from the deluxe expanded edition of 2018’s True Meanings, a waltzing acoustic reverie as gorgeous as anything Weller’s ever put his name to. As the fingerpicked notes from two acoustic guitars entangle, harp and pastoral strings blossom, before the whole thing’s done in just over two minutes.
2 The Ballad Of Jimmy McCabe Hard to believe, but Jawbone (Music From The Film) is the first ever soundtrack Weller has tried his hand at. It’s not to be slept on, though: one of the highlights is this robust acoustic ballad, hinting at the desperation and struggles of the film’s lead character. The music suggests an ancient folk ballad, which works to place McCabe’s struggles in a long line of hard times for the working classes.
3 I Spy This slice of lilting folk-rock debuted as the B-side of Saturns Pattern’s “Going My Way”, but also appeared on 2022’s collection of rarities, Will Of The People. It’s perfectly poised, reminiscent of the bucolic psychedelia of Traffic with its lazy sway, prominent bass guitar, ’60s organ, piano, Echoplex effects and – of course – Weller’s peerless soulful vocals.
4 Sun Goes The B-side to Saturns Pattern’s title track, “Sun Goes” is another demonstration of Weller’s melancholic, acoustic side – and yet, there’s a deeply lovely touch of cosmic Scouse psychedelia to it, from the sea shanty chords and the wandering electric lead guitar to the spaghetti western choir. It’s proof, should it be needed, that Weller’s muse flourishes within almost any style.
5 Hopper (White Label Remix) A reworking that first appeared on the deluxe version of 2017’s A Kind Revolution, this remix turns the New Orleans shuffle of the original into a piece of atmospheric dub. It proves to be a fine accompaniment to Weller’s vocals, hymning the magic of Edward Hopper’s late-night, nightlife paintings. “In late night bars the ghost of Hopper/Paints in such melancholy colours…”
6 The Soul Searchers (Richard Hawley Remix) Opening True Meanings, this co-write and collaboration with Villagers’ Conor O’Brien came on like Pentangle collaborating with Ennio Morricone; in its remix by the Sheffield songwriter and guitarist Richard Hawley, it’s given a pulsing disco workout. Over tight drums and looping bass, Weller’s vocal echoes serenely before lush, sour strings flood the dancefloor.
7 Movin On The lead single from True Meanings is one of the most heartfelt, pure songs Weller has written. There’s no time for experimentation here, no room for genre collisions that would blunt the focused lyrics: “I’ve got love all around/I don’t need nothing else…” Instead, his soaring vocals are backed by acoustic guitar, jazzy drums and the kind of ornate strings and horns that surrounded Nick Drake on Bryter Layter (no wonder, then, that Weller worked with Drake’s arranger Robert Kirby on 2000’s Heliocentric).
8 Praise If You Wanna Taken from the deluxe edition of A Kind Revolution, this brief snippet – a mantra meets jam, like something from the third LP of All Things Must Pass cut down to its essence – is written by Weller and all of his band, including longtime lead guitarist Steve Cradock. A bluesy gospel shuffle, scattershot with some deliciously retro guitar runs, it builds and builds until a rising synth note brings it to a premature close.
9 Lawdy Rolla Seemingly cat-nip for Weller, this obscure single by French group The Guerillas mixed jazz, soul and rock before vanishing into cult obscurity. Weller has brought it back into the light on his new covers album, Find El Dorado, and toned down its more fractious chants into a rolling, swinging groove. At key moments, especially the transcendent coda, London-born saxophonist Awoifaleke (Kevin) Haynes weaves spiritual, sinuous lead lines.
10 I Work In The Clouds A hard to find rarity, only available currently on the Japanese edition of Saturns Pattern, this barnstorming krautrock epic (spanning almost six minutes) deserves to be heard more widely. Again written with all of Weller’s regular band, it pirouettes between two chords, the spoken-word verses painting a faintly dystopian picture of disconnection in a high-rise office. Unhinged lead guitar spits and sparks over the relentless drums and bass, thrillingly raw.
15 months before they were invited to join Fleetwood Mac on New Year’s Eve 1974, Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks released the duo album Buckingham Nicks.
Although it was a commercial flop, the song “Frozen Love” persuaded Mick Fleetwood to get in touch, and the rest is history. Yet despite Buckingham Nicks’ burgeoning reputation as a cult classic, the album has never been officially reissued, until now.
“[We] knew what we had as a duo, two songwriters that sang really well together. And it was a very natural thing, from the beginning,” recalls Stevie Nicks, in the new liner notes.
Adds Buckingham: “It stands up in a way you hope it would, by these two kids who were pretty young to be doing that work.”
Newly remastered from the original analogue tapes, Buckingham Nicks will be released on vinyl, CD and hi-res digital by Rhino on September 19. A special high-fidelity LP version (limited to 2,000 copies) is available to pre-order here, including two replica 7-inch singles featuring the original single mixes of “Crying In The Night” b/w “Stephanie” and “Don’t Let Me Down Again” b/w “Races Are Run”.
