News

Allan’s off today – something about a cat in the well, I think – so he’s asked me to write this week’s newsletter blog. It’s not an especially difficult task seeing as a new issue of Uncut goes on sale this week. You might have already caught some of our recent news stories on www.www.uncut.co.uk, in which case you’ll already know that our cover stars this month are the Rolling Stones.

Mick Jagger is to help turn James Brown's life story into a movie. The Rolling Stones frontman has joined Hollywood veteran Brian Grazer as a producer on the upcoming biopic. Grazer has been working on the project for some time, hatching plans with James Brown himself before the singer passed away in 2006.

Crosby, Stills & Nash are releasing the first subscription-based iPad app for a recording artist. According to a post on the group's website, for $3.99 a month/$39.99 a year subscribers will have access to exclusive content, updates, and premium fan features.

Concert promoter Live Nation is pulling out of Hyde Park after more than a decade of putting on events there. The live music company, which has hosted a raft of concerts and festivals including Hard Rock Calling, Wireless and the Bruce Springsteen concert this summer, has cited issues including noise restrictions and curfews for the decision, The Guardian reports. The company has reportedly written a formal letter of complaint to the Royal Parks Agency over the tender process for the new five-year contract for the central London site, dubbing it "flawed".

The new issue of Uncut, out today (October 23), features The Rolling Stones, Neil Young, Led Zeppelin, Donald Fagen and Radiohead’s Jonny Greenwood. The Stones are on the cover, and inside, Mick Jagger talks to us about the band’s new film, Crossfire Hurricane, their two new songs, and the future of the band. The story of the group’s groundbreaking, debauched 1972 tour of the US in support of Exile On Main St is also told by the people who were there on the inside.

Shane Meadows' documentary tracing The Stone Roses' reunion is to be released in cinemas next year. The as-yet untitled film was shot by the This Is England filmmaker at and around the band's reunion gigs in 2012, including those at Manchester's Heaton Park in June and July. Producers Warp Films are hoping to see the story hit the big screen in spring 2013.

Guns N' Roses, Jack White and surprise guest Eddie Vedder played Neil Young's annual Bridge School Benefit in California this weekend. The event, celebrating its 26th anniversary, featured an all-star line up with The Flaming Lips, Foster The People, Steve Martin, kd Lang and Ray LaMontagne all featuring on the strictly acoustic bill. According to Rolling Stone, Young opened the all-day event by performing a short set, including a duet with his wife Pegi on "Comes A Time".

Ahead of the release of his new album The Jazz Age - where he's reinterpreted his own solo hits as well as those by Roxy Music - Bryan Ferry is set to answer your questions in Uncut as part of our regular Audience With… feature. So is there anything you’ve always wanted to ask him? Whatever happened to the planned Roxy Music album from a few years ago? Who's his tailor? As a big Dylan fan, which Dylan song would he like to give The Jazz Age treatment?

The mural featured on the cover of singer songwriter Elliott Smith's Figure 8 album has been repainted for the 9th anniversary of his death. The mural, which is in the Silverlake neighbourhood of Los Angeles, had been badly damaged by graffiti, but was repainted on Saturday (October 20) by a group called the Punk Rock Marthas.

New Order's Bernard Sumner has said that Peter Hook's decision to tour Joy Division's albums "opened the gateways of hell". Hook's band The Light have recently been touring Joy Division's classic albums Unknown Pleasures and Closer in full and, in an interview with Billboard, Sumner said his old bandmate's shows had prompted him to work with New Order again.