Features

This primal blast of sexual energy – penned by Chip Taylor and later hijacked by Jimi Hendrix – would prove an immediate ’66 hit for Reg Presley and his ‘proto-punk’ beat boys... Reg, manager Larry Page, writer Chip Taylor and more explain how the iconic song was made. From Uncut’s April 2009 issue (Take 143)… ___________________

Just before starting to write this morning, I spent a while digging around for the old office ghettoblaster, computer-connecting technology having failed us in our attempts to play a new EP that turned up yesterday in cassette form. The EP forms part of the capricious launch strategy of Library Of Sands, a new project from a mesa-dwelling outlier called Naynay Shineywater, who used to front Brightblack Morning Light.

Last night, it was all about anticipation. First, the rumours started circulating that Michael Gove was implicated in some job-threatening scandal, only for those rumours to reach a resounding anti-climax, as The Observer’s story was revealed to be a little spat between a couple of hacks and some unsavoury Tory operatives.

We head to Los Angeles in the new issue of Uncut (dated March 2013), out now, to meet Richard Thompson and discuss his extraordinary new album, Fairport Convention and recording in Nashville with Buddy Miller. Here, in this piece from Uncut’s May 2006 issue (Take 108), Thompson talks us through the making of some of his finest albums, including Liege & Lief, I Want To See The Bright Lights Tonight and Rumor And Sigh. “It was the best way to lose our audience overnight…” Words: Nigel Williamson __________________

Today’s looking like it might shape up as Stephen Stills day: as I write, we’re on track 16 (“Helplessly Hoping”) of his new career boxset, with 60-odd more to come.

It’s been a decade since the words ‘A Walter Hill film’ have graced the screen.

In this archive feature from Uncut's May 2003 issue (Take 72), rock's greatest living soap opera tell the story of how they went to hell and back to bring the world some of the most popular, and most perfect, hard-centred easy listening music of all time. However, it nearly cost them their sanity. And their lives… Words: Nigel Williamson _________________

The deluxe reissue of Saint Julian is reviewed in the new issue of Uncut, dated March 2013, and out now, so it seemed time to revisit October 2007's issue (Take 125), when the always-enlightening Julian Cope answered questions from readers and famous fans… Words: John Lewis / Photo: Sam Jones ____________________

This month’s Uncut (dated February 2013) features the story behind Gram Parsons’ landmark solo albums, GP and Grievous Angel. His closest collaborator during this period, Emmylou Harris, has her own amazing tales to tell, so it seemed time to bring out this archive feature, originally in Uncut’s August 2007 issue, where Harris takes us through the making of her greatest records. Interview: Bud Scoppa __________________

Reading a little about the whole Beyoncé lipsynching controversy the other day, I was tangentially reminded of an interview I did with Jim O’Rourke in, I think, 1999 (bear with me…).