John Mulvey

Local singer-songwriter will also perform on the main stage

Tuesday night, I went to see the War On Drugs guy again. I mention this, in relation to Mark Kozelek and Sun Kil Moon's Hackney show, because Kozelek doesn't stop mentioning it himself for much of the two and a half hour show; a show which, by the by, is one of the very best and certainly most surprising I've ever seen him play.

Calexico’s new album, Algiers, is reviewed in the current issue of Uncut (October 2012, Take 185) – so we thought we’d take a trip back to April 2003 (Take 71), when Uncut’s John Mulvey flew out to Tucson, Arizona to discover more about the duo’s redrawing of the alt.country map. __________________________

An exciting, slightly confusing package arrived for me last week, addressed to John Mulvey at Melody Maker; a magazine which hasn’t existed for, what, eight years, and which, in any case, I never worked for. Beneath the address, though, was a tantalising tagline: “Compliments of Van Dyke Parks”.

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

Uncut's John Mulvey's final report from the music world's biggest annual conference in Texas

Uncut's John Mulvey reports from the music world's biggest annual conference in Texas

Uncut's John Mulvey reports from the music world's biggest annual conference in Texas

Uncut's John Mulvey reports from the music world's biggest annual conference in Texas

Lewis was instrumental in NME's resurgence of the late 1980s