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Michael Nesmith has died aged 78

Michael Bonner
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Michael Nesmith has died aged 78
Michael Nesmith has died aged 78, his family have confirmed. ORDER NOW: Paul Weller is on the cover in the latest issue of Uncut “With Infinite Love we announce that Michael Nesmith has passed away this morning in his home, surrounded by family, peacefully and of natural causes,” his fa...

Michael Nesmith has died aged 78, his family have confirmed.

“With Infinite Love we announce that Michael Nesmith has passed away this morning in his home, surrounded by family, peacefully and of natural causes,” his family said in a statement.

Nesmith was born on December 30, 1942 in Huston, Texas. Famously, Bette Nesmith, his mother, invented Liquid Paper. After training as an aircraft mechanic for the US Air Force, Nesmith moved to Los Angeles and began singing in folk clubs around the city, including The Troubadour.

Via his connections into the LA music and arts scene, Nesmith was offered a part in The Monkees alongside Davy Jones, Micky Dolenz and Peter Tork. Nesmith was the group’s guitarist, and also one of its songwriters, writing the likes of “The Girl I Knew Somewhere”, “Listen To The Band” and “Mary, Mary”.

Although he didn’t participate in the Monkees’ 20th anniversary reunion, he gradually came round to the idea of revisiting his earliest success, re-joining his former bandmates for the Justus (1996) and Good Times! (2016) albums.

Outside The Monkees, Nesmith also formed pioneering country-rock group, First National Band. In 1970, they released Magnetic South – the first in a trilogy of “red, white and blue” albums. In November 1970, they released Loose Salute and then Nevada Fighter in May 1971.

The First National Band consisted of Orville J. Rhodes, the pedal steel player, who continued to collaborate on Nesmith’s later solo albums up until Rhodes’s death in 1995.

Nesmith’s last show was in November of 2021 at LA’s Greek Theatre as part of a Monkees farewell tour with Micky Dolenz, who is now the sole-surviving member of the group following the deaths of Jones in 2012 and Tork in 2019.

Aeon Station – Observatory

Jason Anderson
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Aeon Station – Observatory
To hope for the impossible is a favourite pastime of anyone who ever loved The Wrens. True believers have remained steadfast through the New Jersey band’s decades-long saga. Yet the near-misses, bad luck and self-sabotage that fill this history make it absurd to keep dreaming they’ll ever get th...

To hope for the impossible is a favourite pastime of anyone who ever loved The Wrens. True believers have remained steadfast through the New Jersey band’s decades-long saga. Yet the near-misses, bad luck and self-sabotage that fill this history make it absurd to keep dreaming they’ll ever get the love they’re due.

That’s why the very existence of Aeon Station’s Observatory – the first solo album by Wrens bassist and vocalist Kevin Whelan, and ostensibly the band’s first new music in 18 years – may prompt grateful sobs. From the yearning opener “Hold On” through to the life-affirming ruckus of “Queens” and “Better Love” and to the final epiphanies in “Alpine Drive”, Observatory is a triumphant expression of resilience in the face of all the hard knocks and harder lessons that fill a life.

As such, this album qualifies as a very satisfying new chapter in the story that began in Ocean City, NJ, in 1989, when Whelan and his brother Greg formed the band with another high school friend, Charles Bissell. After the addition of drummer Jerry MacDonald in 1990, The Wrens evolved into one of the era’s scrappiest indie-rock acts and close stylistic kin to then-peers like Built To Spill, the Grifters and Spoon. By the time of their second album Secaucus in 1996, the band had tempered their songs’ hard angularities with a brave vulnerability. With 2003’s The Meadowlands, they ventured far beyond the lessons learned from the Pixies and Pavement to help forge the warmer, more eagerly anthemic brand of indie-rock soon to be adopted by Arcade Fire and Death Cab For Cutie.

Yet even amid the rapturous reception for The Meadowlands, there were signs the band were in retreat. They’d struggled to extract themselves from the record label that later inflicted Creed on the world and a possible deal with Interscope also vaporised. The pull of careers and families made it hard to capitalise on any momentum they created. The Wrens didn’t break up (and seemingly still haven’t), but live shows ceased in 2010 and release dates for a fourth album came and went with crushing regularity, Bissell’s perfectionist tendencies and shifting dynamics within the band becoming trouble points.

In the meantime, Whelan worked on songs, though his own life’s many demands – including the challenges of being a parent to a son with autism – meant periods spent not making music, too. When plans for the fourth album’s release on Sub Pop in 2019 fell apart, Whelan decided to take the songs he’d finished for The Wrens (some of them in the can for as long as a decade) and fill out an album with newly written ones. Working under the name of Aeon Station, he performed nearly all of the music here, with assists by The Wrens’ Jerry MacDonald and Greg Whelan along with Kevin’s wife Mary Ann Coronel and Observatory’s co-producer Tom Beaujour.

The results are far richer than one could reasonably expect from a corporate exec and suburban dad in New Jersey beavering away whenever other obligations allowed. They may also be more emotionally resonant, Whelan continually taking account of his own failings and frailties. In “Leaves”, he reflects on the need to see himself clearly and acknowledge “the dreams that won’t come true” in order to find a way forward. The hope for change manifests in “Fade” just as strongly: “Today is the day we are finally free of pretending/To be something we never wanted”. Here and elsewhere, the lyrics bristle with an authenticity that feels fully lived in.

With MacDonald on drums, “Fade” marks a shift out of the plaintive mood of Observatory’s early goings into the feeling of liberation that suffuses “Everything At Once”, which demonstrates The Wrens’ capacity for Zombies-worthy melodicism. The album reaches its apex with “Queens”, a thunderous display of bruised bravado that’s simultaneously suggestive of everything Arcade Fire absorbed from The Meadowlands and The Wrens gleaned from Born To Run.

With its swings between moments of introspection and others built for air-pumping by middle-aged fists, Observatory retains the unpredictability and volatility that were among The Wrens’ virtues. Yet Whelan’s heart-on-sleeve approach belies the degree of sophistication here too, which is evident in his fondness for crystalline piano melodies that evoke Bach and Pachelbel and in the grace and beauty of “Empty Rooms” and “Alpine Drive”.

Though Whelan’s role in any future version of The Wrens is unclear, Bissell has expressed fresh intentions about finishing that troublesome fourth album after all. Here in the present, Observatory is strong enough to make the old hopes burn brighter than ever.

Marvin Gaye – What’s Going On 50th Anniversary 2LP Edition

Alastair McKay
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Marvin Gaye – What’s Going On 50th Anniversary 2LP Edition
Fifty years on from its initial release, Marvin Gaye’s masterpiece still sounds like an argument wrapped in a dream. Structurally, it has the shape and logic of a sermon, sounding both urgent and relevant to the turmoil of the moment. At the same time, its rhythms, and the timbre of Gaye’s voice...

Fifty years on from its initial release, Marvin Gaye’s masterpiece still sounds like an argument wrapped in a dream. Structurally, it has the shape and logic of a sermon, sounding both urgent and relevant to the turmoil of the moment. At the same time, its rhythms, and the timbre of Gaye’s voice, reach for something universal; a kind of peace, the reassurance of timelessness. The album is a religious thing, but also an inquiry into the notion of faith.

Gaye had a lot of questions in 1971. Some of these were personal, some were political. Many of them inhabited the part of the Venn where the personal and the political overlap, a voguish idea in the late-1960s, and the seed of what later became identity politics. What was on Gaye’s mind? Nothing particularly trivial. After a polite introduction – what’s happenin’? – he moves on to thornier questions. Who are they to judge us, simply ’cos our hair is too long? War is hell, when will it end? When will people start getting together again? Are things getting better, like the newspaper said? What’s been shaking up and down the line? Who really cares? Who’s willing to try to save the world? Who is to blame?

Reading through the lyrics now is to acknowledge that 1971 never went away. Gaye touches on conflict, prejudice, unemployment, drugs, ecology and other poignant details of “a world that is destined to die”. All the stuff.

But What’s Going On isn’t designed to be read. It is unusual for a protest record, in that its tone is not of anger or accusation. It is mellow, verging on numb. What’s Going On is also profoundly introspective. It imagines peace while mainlining pain.

The biographical influences on Gaye’s writing are perhaps less pertinent after 50 years of hindsight. But some understanding of Gaye’s state of mind is instructive. His tempestuous marriage to Anna Gordy (the sister of Motown boss Berry) was one obvious complication. Gaye was grieving the tragic death of his singing partner Tammi Terrell. His brother Frankie had returned from the Vietnam war, a changed man. Gaye himself was disillusioned with celebrity, and – as he told one interviewer – life in general. He was depressed, and had toyed, fruitlessly, with the possibility of becoming a football player.

Frankie’s experience is channelled directly in “What’s Happening Brother?”, and it is possible to view the whole album as a concept piece about a bewildered veteran taking stock of America on his return. But taking it literally underestimates the scope of what Gaye achieved. It’s worth noting too that the title track came first, and it wasn’t written with Gaye in mind. The song was prompted by a police attack on protestors in San Francisco, witnessed by Renaldo “Obie” Benson of The Four Tops. It was Benson rather than Gaye who wondered what was going on, working up the song with Motown writer Al Cleveland (the co-composer of Smokey Robinson’s “I Second That Emotion”). The rest of The Four Tops were less enamoured with Benson’s venture into social commentary, and an approach to Joan Baez reportedly went nowhere. Gaye, though, was intrigued and according to Benson added lyrics of his own, while spicing up the melody. Gaye made the song into something more like a story. He added the breezy chatter, and insisted that the title was a statement not a question. That small feint of punctuation alters the whole mood of the album.

Musically, it looked back to move forwards. Berry Gordy was unimpressed with the jazz influences on the sound and considered Gaye’s scat singing to be old hat. Gordy told Gaye that recording an LP of protest songs would end his career, but the success of the single prompted a pragmatic revelation, and he bet the singer he couldn’t record an album in 30 days.

The urgency of that deadline feeds into the record. The album plays like a deep dive into the themes of the title track, mining Gaye’s malaise. It glides from beginning to end. It grooves. Arguing for its significance, the critic Nelson George compared it to Sgt Pepper, but that is more a matter of canonical significance than musical style. The Beatles never approached the intense spirituality achieved by Gaye on What’s Going On.

The flow of the album also disguises its extremities. The conversational call and response of “Save The Children” is gently rendered. The singer sounds almost defeated, until strings and sax usher in his cries of “Save the babies!/Save the babies!” Such is the mesmeric quality of the music that the apocalyptic tone of the lyrics seems incidental, but Gaye is mired in biblical pestilence. “There’ll come a time when the world won’t be singing,” he croons, “flowers won’t grow… bells won’t be ringing”.

Without Gaye’s vocal command, such sentiments might sound cranky, but relief comes quickly in “God Is Love”. The album returns to earth with “Mercy Mercy Me (The Ecology)”, a solo composition by Gaye which describes a world of polluted air and poisoned seas, of overpopulation and radiation. Musically the celestial sweetness is foregrounded, while the turbulence of the saxophones offers a disturbing undertone, and the song ends with a psychedelic whimper. “Right On” takes the mood forward, though its roll call of contradictions (peace versus hatred, “enjoying ourselves” versus drowning in “the sea of happiness”) is given full expression before Gaye offers resolution with a vision of pure love which is, by the sound of his voice, both a sexual and an ecumenical matter. The album closes with the sublime “Inner City Blues (Make Me Wanna Holler)” with lyrics about the “have-nots” written by James Nyx, who also worked as a janitor in Motown’s offices. Nyx was inspired by a newspaper headline about the troubles of inner city Detroit, and when paired with Gaye’s sublime melody the song offers some relief in its crisp expression of political grievance, before giving way to a final reprise of the title track.

As an LP, What’s Going On is perfect. It is both sublimely mellow and full of jagged extremes. The urge to pull it apart and appreciate the mechanics of its peculiar subtleties is understandable. This vinyl edition adds an extra LP: a side of mono singles and B-sides, and four bonus tracks, three of which offer different mixes of “What’s Going On”. There is an unplugged intimacy when the horns and strings are removed, but when Gaye’s voice is absent, so is the song’s soul. The ‘stripped’ version of the song is previously unreleased and sits alongside “Symphony (Demo)” as a means of scratching into the lush surface of Gaye’s masterpiece. Reduced to a voice and the minimum of finger-snapping percussion, the religiosity of the singing is clear. Instructive as it is, ultimately the track is no more than half of a sandwich. “Symphony” appeared on the deluxe version of Let’s Get It On, but the improvised lyrics find Gaye still under the spell of What’s Going On. There is no great harm in these small acts of vandalism, but the adding and subtracting doesn’t achieve a great deal precisely because the original album is a carefully constructed collage of contradictions. The personal is political, the sense of history is eternal, Gaye’s analysis of world affairs is as depressing as his prescription is uplifting. Nothing has changed. Everything is the same, especially the need for change.

Pye Corner Audio – Entangled Routes

Louis Pattison
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Pye Corner Audio – Entangled Routes
Almost a decade has passed since Pye Corner Audio made its debut on Ghost Box. At the time, the label was vaunted as the epicentre of something called “hauntology”. The term, borrowed from the philosopher Jacques Derrida, had come to refer to a distinctly English aesthetic sensibility – a kind...

Almost a decade has passed since Pye Corner Audio made its debut on Ghost Box. At the time, the label was vaunted as the epicentre of something called “hauntology”. The term, borrowed from the philosopher Jacques Derrida, had come to refer to a distinctly English aesthetic sensibility – a kind of stillborn futurism that instead of looking forwards, harked back to the quotidian dread of ’70s public information films and the blurry, saturated sound and visuals of VHS technology.

No-one talks that much about hauntology anymore. But rather than fading away with the waning of that movement, it’s possible to see how the influence of Ghost Box – and its carefully curated roster of sonic sorcerers immersing themselves in the analogue eerie – have percolated into the culture at large. You can see it in the dystopian internet satire Scarfolk; in films such as Peter Strickland’s Berberian Sound Studio and Ben Wheatley’s A Field In England; and even in the rediscovery of figures like the late novelist Robert Aickman, whose uncanny not-quite-horror stories have a way of lingering in the imagination. These days, it feels like ghosts are all around us.

You could also track the influence of Ghost Box by the gently rising profile of Pye Corner Audio itself. The term “itself” feels more appropriate than “himself”, because although Pye Corner Audio is one man – a former tape operator turned musician named Martin Jenkins – his habit of referring to himself as “The Head Technician” gives the project the strange air of a shadowy bureau, investing its darkly evocative synth music with an eerie charge. In recent years, Pye Corner Audio has unfurled its tendrils into the mainstream, remixing the likes of Mogwai and Mark Lanegan and creeping onto sundry film and TV soundtracks. Yet somehow, The Head Technician has steered the project in a way that retains its sense of shadowy obscurity.

Entangled Routes is Jenkins’s fourth album for Ghost Box, and the third in a trilogy of releases exploring the high-concept sci-fi themes. The conceptual jumping-off point this time is “mycorrhizal networks” – underground fungal pathways that, some scientists believe, constitute a kind of plant communication. It’s a fitting idea for a style of music rooted in analogue synthesis – imagine nature as an underground web of patch cables, creating circuits that run deep into the earth. (You might say there’s something in the soil, as Ben Wheatley’s 2021 horror film In The Earth explored a similar theme.)

Certainly, this is some of Pye Corner Audio’s strongest output to date. The synths have never sounded better – hear how “Phantom Orchid” and “The Creeper” summon up thick, viscous tones that bring to mind the saturated colours of an ’80s TV ident. There is a sense of propulsion here, meanwhile, that separates Pye Corner Audio from his waftier kin. The Head Technician’s music has often lurked in the shadows around the edge of the dancefloor, and tracks like “Growth Potential” and “Earthwork” couple arpeggiated synths to thunking rhythms in a way that is unquestionably gripping.

Ultimately, though, this music is all about building atmosphere, and on that count even the interludes deliver. “Paleolith” and “The Long Now” are brief but evocative, intensifying the sense of narrative beat – little moments of repose before the tension cranks up again. The virtues of restraint pay off on a track like “Hive Mind”, a masterclass in slow build that resembles a rain-sodden English take on the ’80s horror soundtracks of John Carpenter. One can only guess at the specific plot details of this imaginary film, but you just know that this is the moment the pursuit begins.

The last decade or so has seen experimental musicians such as Blanck Mass and The Haxan Cloak make the leap from underground music ubiquity to become actual film composers. It’s a path you could certainly see Pye Corner Audio taking. Yet so well-crafted is his music, so fleshed out are his concepts, that you can perhaps see why he’s chosen not to hitch his sounds to another’s vision. An album like Entangled Routes doesn’t need to be tied to moving images to reach its potential. Press play and it works its magic, imprinting its strange and fantastic visions direct onto your mind’s eye.

Neil Young & The Crazy Horse – Barn

Tyler Wilcox
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Neil Young & The Crazy Horse – Barn
More than 50 years after “After The Gold Rush”, Neil Young still feels like getting high – Rocky Mountain high, that is. Barn, his latest album with Crazy Horse, was recorded way up in the Telluride, Colorado, area, 2,667 meters (8,750 feet) above sea level. Of course, the 10-song LP’s sessi...

More than 50 years after “After The Gold Rush”, Neil Young still feels like getting high – Rocky Mountain high, that is. Barn, his latest album with Crazy Horse, was recorded way up in the Telluride, Colorado, area, 2,667 meters (8,750 feet) above sea level. Of course, the 10-song LP’s sessions took place in a restored 19th-century barn, pictured on Daryl Hannah’s evocative cover photo.

The Rockies and the latterday Crazy Horse (now consisting of stalwart rhythm section Ralph Molina and Billy Talbot, plus multi-instrumentalist Nils Lofgren) are a good fit: craggy, elemental, monolithic; imposing from a distance but teeming with life the closer you get. And both have been providing natural highs for quite some time.

Barn is Young and Crazy Horse’s follow-up to 2019’s Colorado, and it generally follows the same template; Neil long ago gave up trying to force the Horse out of its comfort zone. There are warm ballads and fierce electric workouts, winsome journeys through the past and angry visions of the future, mostly captured live with minimal overdubs. On the whole, however, Barn is a stronger effort than its predecessor, with this particular lineup finding its footing. Where some of Colorado’s jams failed to ignite, the interplay here crackles frequently and the energy levels remains high, even in the quieter moments. Lofgren, at 70, is the young man of the band, but this is a band with plenty more to give. “Yeah, I’m older now, but I’m still dreaming,” Young sings at one point. Crazy Horse have always been able to bring his dreams to vivid life.

Neil and the Horse welcome us into the Barn in laidback fashion with “Song Of The Seasons”, a loose acoustic ramble, Young’s wheezing harmonica blending nicely with Lofgren’s accordion, Talbot and Molina treading lightly behind them. It feels like (and may well be) a first take, as though Neil’s still writing the tune in his head, stumbling a bit over the phrasing and melody. That’s not a complaint; rather, it enhances the touching fragility of the performance, with lyrics that refer to a lingering past (“I see the palace where the queen still reigns”) and an uncertain present (“Masked people walkin’ everywhere”). When the chorus rolls around, the softly swelling backing harmonies are familial and intimate, friends lifting one another up with music, one more time.

Lest you think that Barn is going to be all in this mellow vein, a blast of bracing electricity comes next on the standout track “Heading West”. It opens with a majestically crunchy riff that could have been lifted off Zuma, Old Black cranked all the way up for a spiritual sequel to “Don’t Be Denied”. Like that 1973 cut, Neil’s mind wanders back to his youth in Canada, recollecting his mother, fishing at the mill, his first guitar – “the good old days”, as the song’s stirring refrain goes. Most revealing of all is the line about putting his ear down on the railroad track to “listen for the train to come back”. Here’s a man who has had a lifelong love affair with pure sound. His restless search goes on.

As with most of Neil’s 21st-century output, there are a handful of throwaways here. But they’re charming throwaways, all the same. The band leans merrily into the Jimmy Reed-isms of “Change Ain’t Never Gonna”, Young’s barrelhouse piano blending with Lofgren’s sly slide guitar work. Meanwhile, “Canerican” is built around a cringeworthy portmanteau, but it gets by on the fumes of its relentless stomp. “Shape Of You” (no, not that “Shape Of You”) conjures up the rambunctious spirit of the tequila-soaked Tonight’s The Night sessions (minus the gloom), with Neil slipping into a hilarious falsetto in between boisterous harmonica breaks. “Human Race” is the lyrical low point; it’s essentially the same climate change rant Young has been writing for more than a decade now. A fine, necessary sentiment, but more of an op-ed than a song. Then again, the tortured, almost atonal solo Neil tears out at the end almost redeems the whole enterprise.

Barn’s twin peaks are two magnificently oblique dirges, “They Might Be Lost” and “Welcome Back”. The former finds the Horse in a dusty, minor-key acoustic mode as Young broods impatiently, waiting for “the boys to come get the goods”. It’s a blurry snapshot – we’re never quite sure what exactly will happen when they arrive – but it’s captivating all the same, capturing the strange stasis we’ve all been experiencing during recent years. “Welcome Back”, the longest track on the album at eight-plus minutes, is a feast for Crazy Horse aficionados, landing somewhere between the impossibly bleak mood of “On The Beach” and the slow-burn drama of “Danger Bird”. As his band hangs steadily back, Young whispers gnomic riddles, punctuating them with several exquisitely expressive solos, some of them spectral and haunting, others filled with a barely contained rage. A hypnotic, disquieting performance, rising ominously like a full moon over snowcapped mountains.

Neil doesn’t leave us in limbo, however. The Barn doors close with “Don’t Forget Love”, a fragile but reassuring pop song, its wide-eyed lyrics and melody calling to mind the childlike wonder and wisdom of Brian Wilson or Daniel Johnston. We may be a long way away from the Horse’s early days, but the ride somehow, thankfully, continues.

Khruangbin and Leon Bridges announce new joint EP, share music video for “B-Side”

Surej Singh
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Khruangbin and Leon Bridges announce new joint EP, share music video for “B-Side”
American trio Khruangbin and singer-songwriter Leon Bridges have announced their second collaborative EP, entitled Texas Moon. ORDER NOW: Paul Weller on the cover in the latest issue of Uncut READ MORE: Inside the nocturnal sessions for Leon Bridges’ Gold-Diggers Sound: “It’s hard to ...

American trio Khruangbin and singer-songwriter Leon Bridges have announced their second collaborative EP, entitled Texas Moon.

The EP is scheduled for release on February 18, 2022 via Dead Oceans, in partnership with Columbia Records and Night Time Stories Ltd. It serves as the continuation to Khruangbin and Leon Bridges’ 2020 EP, Texas Sun.

“Without joy, there can be no real perspective on sorrow,” Khruangbin said of Texas Moon via a press release. “Without sunlight, all this rain keeps things from growing. How can you have the sun without the moon?”

The EP announcement was accompanied by the release of its first single, “B-Side”, and a music video. The video, directed by Philip Andelman, sees Khruangbin and Bridges put their own unique spin on the spaghetti western genre, facing off against each other before finally coming together to perform as a unit.

Watch the music video for “B-Side” below.

Texas Moon will also feature three other tracks – “Chocolate Hills”, “Father Father”, “Mariella” and “Doris”. “Doris”, per the press release, tells the story of Bridges’ grandmother’s passing and her journey across realms.

“It’s like a short story,” Khruangbin’s Laura Lee said of Texas Moon. “And it leaves room to continue having these stories together. It’s not Khruangbin, it’s not Leon, it’s this world we created together.”

Khruangbin and Leon Bridges first teamed up to release Texas Sun in February last year. Four months later, Khruangbin released their third studio album Mordechai. And in July this year, Leon Bridges released his third studio album, Gold-Diggers Sound.

The Rolling Stones pay tribute to Charlie Watts in secret London club show

Daniel Seah
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The Rolling Stones pay tribute to Charlie Watts in secret London club show
The Rolling Stones paid tribute to late drummer Charlie Watts on Monday (6 December) in an intimate show held in Ronnie Scott’s in London’s Soho. ORDER NOW: Paul Weller is on the cover in the latest issue of Uncut READ MORE: How Charlie Watts turned the Rollin’ Stones into The Rolling...

The Rolling Stones paid tribute to late drummer Charlie Watts on Monday (6 December) in an intimate show held in Ronnie Scott’s in London’s Soho.

Frontman Mick Jagger, guitarists Keith Richards and Ronnie Wood, as well as former bassist Bill Wyman were in attendance at the gig, along with friends and family members of Watts.

Jools Holland led a house band consisting of Ben Waters, Axel Zwingenberger and Dave Green, one of Watts’ childhood friends whom often played with him in jazz groups.

Rolling Stones touring musicians also played that evening, with saxophonist Tim Ries performing a composition titled “Blues For Charlie” and singer Lisa Fischer performing “Trouble On My Mind” before being joined by Bernard Fowler on the gospel tune “Up Above My Head”.

The Stones closed the evening with two blues standards, “Shame Shame Shame” and “Down The Road Apiece”.

Charlie Watts passed away in August 2021 at the age of 80, right before the band embarked on a 13-date tour of the US. Drummer Steve Jordan sat in on those shows as a replacement for the legendary skin man.

Robbie Shakespeare has died, aged 68

Jackson Langford
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Robbie Shakespeare has died, aged 68
Robbie Shakespeare has died. He was 68 years old. It's been reported by The Jamaica Gleaner that Shakespeare had recently undergone surgery related to his kidneys. The Jamaican artist was hospitalised in Florida. ORDER NOW: Paul Weller is on the cover in the latest issue of Uncut Shakes...

Robbie Shakespeare has died. He was 68 years old.

It’s been reported by The Jamaica Gleaner that Shakespeare had recently undergone surgery related to his kidneys. The Jamaican artist was hospitalised in Florida.

Shakespeare, an iconic bassist, formed Sly and Robbie with drummer Sly Dunbar in the mid-70s after having both worked separately in other bands. After bonding over an affinity for reggae production, they went to work producing for other artists, with their breakout credit being Mighty Diamonds‘ 1976 album Right Time.

Their production work led them to work with a myriad of acts throughout the decades, including multiple albums for Bob Dylan and Grace Jones. They also helped produce and remix tracks by Bob Marley, Madonna, Britney Spears and Mick Jagger, while also helming production on No Doubt‘s 2001 smash hit “Hey Baby”.

Sly & Robbie alongside Keith Richards
Sly & Robbie alongside Keith Richards. CREDIT: Lynn Goldsmith/Corbis/VCG via Getty Images

Throughout their career, Sly and Robbie also went on to release several albums of their own, the last of which was 2019’s The Final Battle: Sly & Robbie vs. Roots Radics which was nominated for Best Reggae Album at the 2019 Grammys.

Sending his condolences, Jamaican prime minister Andrew Holness tweeted, “The legendary bassist Robbie Shakespeare played a significant role in recording and producing albums for various Reggae artists including Bob Marley, Peter Tosh, Bunny Wailer, U Roy, Culture, Burning Spear among other big names.

“When it comes to Reggae bass playing, no one comes close to having the influence of Robbie Shakespeare. He will be remembered for his sterling contribution to the music industry and Jamaica’s culture. May his soul Rest In Peace.”

Jamaica’s minister of culture, gender, entertainment and sport, Olivia Grange, released a statement with her condolences, saying “I am in shock and sorrow after just receiving the news that my friend and brother, the legendary bassist Robbie Shakespeare has died.”

“[Sly & Robbie] took bass playing and drumming to the highest level as they made music for themselves as a group, and for many other artists locally and internationally,” Grange continued.

“Robbie’s loss will be felt by the industry at home and abroad. He will be sorely missed.”

View more tributes from artists and other industry professionals below.

 

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George Harrison – Deluxe Ultimate Music Guide

Uncut
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George Harrison – Deluxe Ultimate Music Guide
As All Things Must Pass receives a deluxe anniversary release, The Ultimate Music Guide to one of the world’s best-loved musicians. Never mind “the quiet one”. Meet the other George Harrisons: Sonic innovator! Spiritual adventurer! Film producer! Buy a copy here!...

As All Things Must Pass receives a deluxe anniversary release, The Ultimate Music Guide to one of the world’s best-loved musicians. Never mind “the quiet one”. Meet the other George Harrisons: Sonic innovator! Spiritual adventurer! Film producer!

Buy a copy here!

Introducing the Deluxe Ultimate Music Guide to George Harrison

John Robinson
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Introducing the Deluxe Ultimate Music Guide to George Harrison
BUY THE GEORGE HARRISON ULTIMATE MUSIC GUIDE HERE When I last talked to anyone who knew George Harrison, it was about how he played the guitar. In the early 1960s, Brian Griffiths (“Griff”) along with his pals John Gustafson (“Gus”) and John Hutchinson (“Hutch”) was a member of The Bi...

BUY THE GEORGE HARRISON ULTIMATE MUSIC GUIDE HERE

When I last talked to anyone who knew George Harrison, it was about how he played the guitar. In the early 1960s, Brian Griffiths (“Griff”) along with his pals John Gustafson (“Gus”) and John Hutchinson (“Hutch”) was a member of The Big Three. Favourites at the Cavern, (where they recorded their debut EP) and in Hamburg, the band knew the Beatles before there was much screaming.

Gus told me about how he once met a sheepish George in Liverpool, shortly after his having been deported from Hamburg. George told Gus that Stuart Sutcliffe had recently left the band, and if he wanted to have a go, the Beatles were looking for a bass player. Griff, meanwhile, remembered George as someone eager to learn.

Aware of the spikier nature of his own tone, he asked the other guitarist for some advice on achieving a slicker and more accomplished kind of sound. Griff remembered George as a “very English” guitarist and also his enquiry: “How do you make the notes flow…?”

When you’re introducing a magazine dedicated to a musician like George Harrison, it’s a pretty helpful choice of words, illuminating aspects of some Georges we think we already know. There’s George the recessive Beatle, happy to try and sink into the shadow of popular music’s most powerful spotlight by smoothing out his sound. There’s George the seeker after spiritual enlightenment, looking to pass easefully but meaningfully from one state to the next.

Really, though, it reveals more about George simply as self-critical individual, an important part of the man and his music that you’ll find emerging constantly throughout the career covered in depth in this deluxe 148 page edition. As important as was the output he made while attempting to transcend the material world – his abiding friendship with Ravi Shankar and affinity for the music of India – much of his most characterful work comes from his interrogation of life and its problems. He wrote “Wah Wah” from his classic, recently remastered, All Things Must Pass after his walk-out on the Beatles during the Get Back sessions.

If Apple was a political vehicle for John, a crucible for new talent for Paul and a place with green carpets for Ringo, for George it was a place to take stock. “Getting back” was a McCartney phrase, but it’s a George sentiment. As leery as he may have been in the limelight and the consequences of being a worldwide celebrity, he knew as much as anyone that playing rock music again would be a possible way down from the studio-based experiments of Pepper. To read him talking about working with Jackie Lomax, or Elvis, or Little Richard is someone telling it like it is, even if no-one was giving him their full attention.

Musically, George wore his heart on his sleeve. It didn’t always reap huge rewards: “Only A Northern Song”, his thinly-veiled gripe about songwriting and its royalties was said to have made George Martin shudder. But this inability to conceal his feelings also brought us the outpouring of All Things Must Pass, the compassion behind the concert for Bangla Desh, the wit of “Taxman” – even the rock ‘n’ roll revivalism of the Traveling Wilburys. George had many guises, but his essential nature always remained intact.

Perhaps he was an English guitarist. But George was also an artist scanning round the world, and the worlds beyond.

Buy a copy of the magazine here. Missed one in the series? Bundles are available at the same location…

Watch Damon Albarn air new solo material and Blur classics on UK tour

Damian Jones
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Watch Damon Albarn air new solo material and Blur classics on UK tour
Damon Albarn showcased a host of new tracks from his solo album alongside Blur classics in Coventry Tuesday night (December 7) during his UK tour. ORDER NOW: Paul Weller is on the cover in the latest issue of Uncut READ MORE: Damon Albarn: “Change is necessary” The frontman performed...

Damon Albarn showcased a host of new tracks from his solo album alongside Blur classics in Coventry Tuesday night (December 7) during his UK tour.

The frontman performed a selection of cuts from The Nearer The Fountain, More Pure The Stream Flows at the HMV Empire including the title track, “The Cormorant” and “Royal Morning Blue”, footage of which you can view below.

He then went on to play a host of Blur classics such as “Beetlebum”, “For Tomorrow”, “Tender” and “Girls & Boys” before wrapping up with “The Universal”. You can view a host of those performances below too.

His tour will call at London’s Union Chapel on December 14, the Barbican on December 21 before wrapping up in Dublin on Christmas Eve (December 24).

Damon Albarn played:

“The Nearer The Fountain, More Pure The Stream Flows”
“The Cormorant”
“Royal Morning Blue”
“Daft Wader”
“Darkness To Light”
“The Tower Of Montevideo”
“Polaris”
“Particles”
“Beetlebum”
“Under The Westway”
“My Terracotta Heart”
“For Tomorrow”
“Tender”
“Girls & Boys”
“The Universal”

David Bowie 75th birthday livestream concert announced

Damian Jones
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David Bowie 75th birthday livestream concert announced
A livestream concert to mark what would have been David Bowie's 75th birthday has been announced. ORDER NOW: Paul Weller is on the cover in the latest issue of Uncut READ MORE: David Bowie’s contemporaries on lost album Toy: “We always felt that they were great songs” The event, wh...

A livestream concert to mark what would have been David Bowie’s 75th birthday has been announced.

The event, which will be held on January 8, will feature long term members of the late icon’s band along with appearances from Gary Oldman, Ricky Gervais, Evan Rachel Wood, Duran Duran’s Simon Le Bon and John Taylor, Def Leppard, Living Colour, Walk The Moon and Jake Welsley Rogers.

“It’s an honour to be able to continue to share David Bowie’s music with the world,” Bowie’s longtime keyboardist Mike Garson told Rolling Stone.

“I’m excited for everyone to be able to experience this very special show we’ve got in store in celebration of what would have been David’s 75th birthday with the bandmates he recorded and performed with, plus a great group of guest artists who he was such an influence to.”

Gary Oldman
Gary Oldman is set to make an appearance at the concert Image: Alamy / Netflix / Courtesy Everett Collection

Tickets to the event are on sale now and are available via RollingLiveStudios here.

The first celebration came together one year after Bowie died when Garson and several members of Bowie’s Reality Tour band played a series of shows around the world.

The following year, they staged an extensive world tour.

Meanwhile, a previously unseen video of David Bowie performing early single “Can’t Help Thinking About Me” was recently released.

Originally released in 1965, “Can’t Help Thinking About Me” was the first single Bowie released after changing his name from David Jones. Bowie performed the track during the 90s as he set to work on Toy, an album of re-recorded songs from his early days that was eventually scrapped due to a disagreement with his label.

Supergrass announce first hometown Oxford show in 12 years

Arusa Qureshi
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Supergrass announce first hometown Oxford show in 12 years
Supergrass have announced that they will be playing a hometown show at the O2 Academy2 Oxford later this month. ORDER NOW: Paul Weller is on the cover in the latest issue of Uncut READ MORE: Supergrass – The Strange Ones: 1994-2008 review The recently reunited band announced in Septemb...

Supergrass have announced that they will be playing a hometown show at the O2 Academy2 Oxford later this month.

The recently reunited band announced in September that they would be playing a huge London show at O2 Academy Brixton on December 20. The band’s reunion dates were all set to take place in 2020, before being postponed due to COVID.

Speaking to BBC News, bassist Mick Quinn commented the upcoming gig could be their last in Oxford as a band on December 18. He said: “You can never say never but it’s definitely on the cards in some way. It’s unlikely [there’ll be another] as far as I can see unless something amazing turns up.

“All reunions have a shelf life. You can play hit after hit and keep going for that, but eventually people want something more and we’ve been pretty firm about not recording new stuff.”

The upcoming Oxford date has been described as a “small low key gig”, with Quinn noting: “There’s a lot less pressure on us as a band to play a show like that… so for anyone who actually makes that gig, it’ll be very memorable.”

Tickets are on sale on Friday (December 10) at 10am and can be purchased here.

Lenny Kaye: “Music exists in the present tense”

Sam Richards
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Lenny Kaye: “Music exists in the present tense”
“It’s a house full of rabbit holes,” grins Lenny Kaye, rummaging around in his basement to show off his latest purchases: four crates of Detroit techno 12”s bought at auction and a boxset of obscure Philly soul. Surrounded by books and records, not to mention a 1965 Ludwig drumkit and a vint...

“It’s a house full of rabbit holes,” grins Lenny Kaye, rummaging around in his basement to show off his latest purchases: four crates of Detroit techno 12”s bought at auction and a boxset of obscure Philly soul. Surrounded by books and records, not to mention a 1965 Ludwig drumkit and a vintage sheet music collection – “even though I don’t read music!” – Kaye admits that it’s not a bad place to be locked down.

Still, he describes his recent return to the stage with Patti Smith at the Royal Albert Hall as an “ecstatic” moment. “I love playing live, I love the excitement in the air and the way the audience sends it back to you. Music exists in the present tense.”

This year marked the 50th anniversary of Kaye and Smith’s first tentative steps towards poetic rock’n’roll sublimation, breathlessly recounted as part of the chapter on New York’s punk awakening in his new book Lightning Striking, which documents the explosion of 10 epochal music scenes from Memphis in 1954 to Seattle in 1991. It confirms Kaye as that rare creature in rock: both instigator and chronicler, an instinctive guitarist as well as a compelling storyteller. “A great sentence has rhythm and melody, and a guitar solo has a narrative arc,” he suggests. “When those things fold in together, that’s who I like to be.”

Did you become a writer because you were a frustrated musician, or did you become a musician because you were a frustrated writer?

– Nick McCain, Scarborough

I was never frustrated! My parallel lines as a musician and writer have moved forward together. Sometimes one gets ahead of the other, but the way they interact within me makes me a whole personality. I started writing around the same time I started playing music. At college I had a band that played weekends at mixers and fraternity parties; at the same time I was writing for the college newspaper, and each medium seemed to inform the other. Patti came to me because she’d read something I wrote in Jazz & Pop magazine about the afterglow of doo-wop, so she met me as a writer. She also knew I played a little guitar. So we embarked on this thing that has a lot of literary influences but is very musical. As a writer I can be very analytical, but my gift as a musician is that I’m not analytical at all. When I play, I feel the music – I’m a pretty good dancer, I must say!

What are your own favourite books about music?

– Jack Walters, via email

I love Paul Morley’s Words And Music, I think that’s a totally genius book. I love all of Nick Tosches’ writings: Hellfire, his Jerry Lee Lewis biography, and Dino, are capturings of the way music and musicians should be written about. I love Bob Stanley’s Yeah Yeah Yeah. And I’m reading Bobby Gillespie’s book now. A lot of memoirs are more self-serving than they need to be, but Bobby’s is highly psychedelic! He understands the feelings that music brings out in you.

Rare interviews with The Beatles up for auction as NFTs

Tom Skinner
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Rare interviews with The Beatles up for auction as NFTs
Rare interviews with each member of The Beatles have been made into NFTs (non-fungible tokens) and are now up for auction. The online auction for The Beatles Collection began Monday (December 6) through the Voices Of Classic Rock Archive, which hosts 650 historic interviews and radio shows featur...

Rare interviews with each member of The Beatles have been made into NFTs (non-fungible tokens) and are now up for auction.

The online auction for The Beatles Collection began Monday (December 6) through the Voices Of Classic Rock Archive, which hosts 650 historic interviews and radio shows featuring major rock artists recorded between 1964 and 2008.

Four separate snippets from conversations with Paul McCartney (on Chaos And Creation In The Backyard), John Lennon (on A Day In The Life), George Harrison (on Abbey Road) and Ringo Starr (on His Lost Medallion) are available on the site.

The Beatles interview sale marks the first time VOCR has entered the NFT market. Each clip comes as a .WAV file along with a unique portrait of the Fab Four member in question – you can make a bid here.

Jonathan Firstenberg, managing director of the VOCR, said of the auction: “The extensive variety of Beatles interviews that we have in our collection are, perhaps, our most comprehensive and valuable assets – that is why we wanted to launch with John, Paul, George, and Ringo – the ultimate Classic Rock Stars!

The Beatles: Get Back
‘The Beatles: Get Back’. Image: Disney+

“The owners of VOCR acquired this remarkable archive from its creator, Kathleen Wittbold, because they understood that there would always be future growth in the value of audio content for all things related to classic rock music.”

He added: “All of the interviews contained with VOCR are unique, and, like any other important and unique object or artwork, they will continue to grow in rarity and value over time.”

Meanwhile, the family of Mal Evans – The Beatles’ longtime roadie, manager and general acquaintance, who features prominently in Peter Jackson’s docuseries Get Back – have announced the publication of an authorised biography set to cover his life and career.

Elvis Costello And The Imposters announce 2022 UK tour

Charlotte Krol
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Elvis Costello And The Imposters announce 2022 UK tour
Elvis Costello And The Imposters have shared details of a UK tour for next year. The Boy Named If tour, which is in support of the band's recently announced album of the same name, kicks off at the Brighton Dome on June 5, 2022 before wrapping up at London’s Hammersmith Eventim Apollo on June ...

Elvis Costello And The Imposters have shared details of a UK tour for next year.

The Boy Named If tour, which is in support of the band’s recently announced album of the same name, kicks off at the Brighton Dome on June 5, 2022 before wrapping up at London’s Hammersmith Eventim Apollo on June 23.

The Imposters are comprised of Steve Nieve (keyboards), Pete Thomas (drums), Davey Faragher (bass/backing vocals). Charlie Sexton is also joining Costello and the band on the 13-date tour.

Support comes from Ian Prowse, who will be performing songs from his upcoming album One Hand On The Starry Plough.

Tickets go on sale this Friday (December 10) at 10am GMT here.

Elvis Costello And The Imposters’ The Boy Named If UK tour 2022:

JUNE
Sunday 05 – Brighton Dome
Tuesday 07 – Glasgow Royal Concert Hall
Wednesday 08 – Newcastle O2 City Hall
Friday 10 – Liverpool Philharmonic
Saturday 11 – Manchester Opera House
Monday 13 – Birmingham Symphony Hall
Tuesday 14 – Leicester De Montfort Hall
Thursday 16 – Oxford New Theatre
Friday 17 – Bath The Forum
Sunday 19 – Portsmouth Guildhall
Monday 20 – Swansea Arena
Wednesday 22 – Ipswich Regent Theatre
Thursday 23 – London Eventim Apollo

The Boy Named If (full title: The Boy Named If [And Other Children’s Stories]) is released on January 14, 2022. You can pre-order/pre-save it here.

“‘IF’ is a nickname for your imaginary friend; your secret self, the one who knows everything you deny, the one you blame for the shattered crockery and the hearts you break, even your own,” Costello said about the album’s title in a press release.

Produced by Sebastian Krys and Costello and released on EMI, The Boy Named If will arrive via CD, vinyl, cassette, download, streaming, and a numbered and signed, 88-page “Hardback Storybook Edition”.

It’s Costello’s fourth album with The Imposters and his 32nd studio album overall.

Denis O’Brien dies aged 80

Tom Skinner
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Denis O’Brien dies aged 80
Denis O’Brien, the former manager of George Harrison, has died aged 80. O'Brien's daughter, Kristen O'Brien, told The Associated Press (via Billboard) that her father passed away at the Great Western Hospital in Swindon last Friday (December 3). ORDER NOW: Paul Weller is on the cover in t...

Denis O’Brien, the former manager of George Harrison, has died aged 80.

O’Brien’s daughter, Kristen O’Brien, told The Associated Press (via Billboard) that her father passed away at the Great Western Hospital in Swindon last Friday (December 3).

He had been admitted for severe abdominal pains although an exact cause of death has not yet been determined.

Kristen said that Denis was essentially retired over the past 20 years and had been “enjoying life with his wife, Phyllida O’Brien”, who died in 2019. He was married four times.

A native of St. Louis, Missouri, O’Brien relocated to Europe after receiving a law degree from Washington University.

He served as Harrison’s manager for much of the late Beatle’s solo career. In 1978 the pair founded the production and distribution company HandMade Films. Their first project was Monty Python’s Life Of Brian (1979) which they financed after EMI Films dropped out.

The company went on to produce titles such as Monty Python Live At The Hollywood Bowl (1982), Mona Lisa (1986), Withnail And I (1987) and Nuns On The Run (1990). HandMade Films went out of business in 1991, with Harrison and O’Brien’s partnership ending in court.

In 1996, O’Brien was ordered by a judge to pay Harrison damages of $11million (£8.3million) for alleged mismanagement of HandMade’s finances. Then in August 2001, three months before Harrison’s death, a judge rejected the musician’s effort to stop O’Brien from declaring bankruptcy.

Last week saw Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr pay tribute to Harrison on the 20th anniversary of his death. Harrison died of lung cancer on November 29, 2001. He was 58 years old.

“Hard to believe that we lost George 20 years ago,” McCartney wrote above a black-and-white image of the pair. “I miss my friend so much. Love Paul.”

Paul Weller, 2022 Preview, Eagles and more in the new Uncut

Michael Bonner
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Paul Weller, 2022 Preview, Eagles and more in the new Uncut
Welcome to the final issue of 2021. It’s a particularly good one to end the year, I'm pleased to say. You’ll find our first Paul Weller cover story for six years – where Pete Paphides witnesses firsthand the Guv’nor’s return to the stage after an absence of two years. Pete goes behind the ...

Welcome to the final issue of 2021. It’s a particularly good one to end the year, I’m pleased to say. You’ll find our first Paul Weller cover story for six years – where Pete Paphides witnesses firsthand the Guv’nor’s return to the stage after an absence of two years. Pete goes behind the scenes at tour rehearsals at Black Barn, production run-throughs in Wimbledon and, finally, catches Weller in full flight at one of the first shows on his recent tour. It’s full of great, fly-on-the-wall observations – and Pete even finds time to track the source of Weller’s most recent critical renaissance. There’s also our giant preview featuring some of the coming year’s essential albums, the return of Big Thief, the arrival of Margo Cilker, the birth of the Eagles and a rare audience with Elvis Costello, who has a lot to say about everything. What else? New chats with Ray Davies, Cat Power, Lenny Kaye, Cluster, Jake Xerxes Fussell, Robert Fripp, William Bell, Nicole Atkins and many more. For the time of year, this feels like a conspicuously busy issue Uncut. Please enjoy responsibly.

What can I tell you about next year, then? No spoilers, of course, but I hope you’ll be pleased to know that we’re already deep into our plans for 2022. Next month, for instance, print subscribers should look out for something extra with their issue. After the roaring success of our 5-track Weather Station CD sampler earlier this year, we’re gifting you a 5-track Hurray For The Riff Raff CD sampler. You’ll find a sneak peek of what to expect on page 13. It’s a modest token of our appreciation for your continued support for Uncut. We’re grateful and humbled that so many of you have either joined us in the last year or have renewed subscriptions.

I should also thank John, Marc, Tom, Sam, Mick, Michael, Mike, Phil, Johnny and Lora for their dedication and incredible work. I can never imagine working with a better team of people. Anyway, enough of my rambling. Have a great Christmas and New Year, folks.

See you next year.

Uncut – February 2022

Uncut
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Uncut – February 2022
HAVE A COPY SENT STRAIGHT TO YOUR HOME Paul Weller, Eagles, Elvis Costello, Big Thief, Margo Cilker, William Bell, Cluster, Jake Xerxes Fussell, Robert Fripp, and Lenny Kaye all feature in the new Uncut, dated February 2022 and in UK shops from December 9 or available to buy online now. As always...

HAVE A COPY SENT STRAIGHT TO YOUR HOME

Paul Weller, Eagles, Elvis Costello, Big Thief, Margo Cilker, William Bell, Cluster, Jake Xerxes Fussell, Robert Fripp, and Lenny Kaye all feature in the new Uncut, dated February 2022 and in UK shops from December 9 or available to buy online now. As always, the issue comes with a free CD, comprising 15 tracks of the month’s best new music.

PAUL WELLER: As Paul Weller plays his first live shows in over two years, Uncut visits the guv’nor and his band during tour rehearsals in South London, for fish and chip suppers at the storied Black Barn studios and, finally, as he makes his triumphant return to the stage. Along the way, Pete Paphides digs deep to locate the source of Weller’s current seam of inspiration. “When you go out, you go out with nothing,” we learn. “We’re not the fucking pharaohs. You don’t get buried with your gold, and even if you did… what good did it do them? The most important things you hand down aren’t material things…”

OUR FREE CD! HIT PARADE: 15 of the month’s best music, including songs by Cat Power, Garcia Peoples, The Soundcarriers, Eels, Tim Hecker, Imarhan, Rob Aldridge & the Proponents and more.

This issue of Uncut is available to buy by clicking here – with FREE delivery to the UK and reduced delivery charges for the rest of the world.

Inside the issue, you’ll find:

ALBUMS PREVIEW 2022: Our essential guide to some of the forthcoming year’s key albums, with news of Neil Young, Jack White, The Weather Station, Stephen Stills and many more.

BIG THIEF: Always seeking their next adventure, Big Thief roamed across America in the midst of the pandemic to create their stunning new double album, Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe In You – already a strong contender for 2022’s Best Of lists. Sam Richards hears the story of four disparate musical travellers who’ve sacrificed their egos for the benefit of the collective. “Tending to the fibre of our relationships is more important than the music we make,” says frontwoman Adrianne Lenker. “That’s the hardest thing, and the music just comes out of that.”

ELVIS COSTELLO: Elvis Costello has a brilliant new album to talk about, but as Michael Bonner soon discovers, his candour covers all bases. To be discussed: climate crisis, genre exercises, distorted truths, imaginary friends and the joys of beating up Sting. Every night. Oh, and the human race? “Everybody’s guilty!”

EAGLES: Fifty years ago, in the frozen depths of a British winter, the Eagles recorded their debut album, in doing so defining their signature blend of laid-back country rock. But what took this ambitious group of self-confessed “control freaks” from the sun-baked climes of California to a cavernous and draughty studio in Barnes, in pursuit of success? “The shop ladies would call you ‘dearie’,” learns Nick Hasted.

MARGO CILKER: With its vivid songs of fortitude and determination, Margo Cilker’s debut Pohorylle introduces a powerful new voice to country rock. Rob Hughes charts her long, strange trip from church choirs in Silicon Valley to Americana roots-rock free-for-alls in Bilbao, via Leytonstone’s Ex-Servicemen’s Club and a winter retreat near the Columbia River Gorge. Her philosophy for this peripatetic lifestyle? “There’s a lot of reckoning with the self,” she explains.

LENNY KAYE: The Patti Smith guitarist, Nuggets compiler and venerable rock scholar talks techno, Tom Verlaine and his own ‘lightning striking’ moment.

WILLIAM BELL: The making of “You Don’t Miss Your Water”.

CLUSTER: Album by album with Hans-Joachim Roedelius and Dieter Moebius.

JAKE XERXES FUSSELL: Timeless tales of loss and redemption fuel folk informed Southern songwriter’s stirring return.

CLICK TO GET THE NEW UNCUT DELIVERED TO YOUR DOOR

In our expansive reviews section, we take a look at new records from Cat Power, The Soundcarriers, Rob Aldrige & the Proponents, Imarhan, Black Flower, Jana Horn, and more, and archival releases from Robert Fripp, Kelley Stoltz, Mary Wilson, Carambolage, The Chieftains and others. We catch Bob Dylan and a tribute to Tony Allen live; among the films, DVDs and TV programmes reviewed are Titane, Memoria, Encounter and Peter Jackson’s Get Back; while in books there’s Lee Scratch Perry, Mark Lanegan and John Prine.

Our front section, meanwhile, features Janis Joplin, Ray Davies, Abiodun Oyewole of The Last Poets and Eve Adams, while, at the end of the magazine, Nicole Atkins reveals the records that have soundtracked her life.

You can pick up a copy of Uncut in the usual places, where open. But otherwise, readers all over the world can order a copy from here.

CLICK TO GET THE NEW UNCUT DELIVERED TO YOUR DOOR

The Cure announce UK and European tour for 2022

Charlotte Krol
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The Cure announce UK and European tour for 2022
The Cure have shared details of a 44-date UK and European tour next year, including five arena shows in the UK. Check out full dates and ticket details below. ORDER NOW: Bruce Springsteen and the review of 2021 feature in the latest issue of Uncut READ MORE: The Cure: “It was us against...

The Cure have shared details of a 44-date UK and European tour next year, including five arena shows in the UK. Check out full dates and ticket details below.

The band will kick the shows off in Riga, Latvia at the city’s arena on October 6, 2022 before wrapping things up at London’s SSE Arena on December 11.

Fans will be treated to a 135 minute show, with mention in a press release of a “67 minute” new album that is yet to be announced. The Cure’s last album was 2008’s 4:13 Dream.

In a tweet to fans, Robert Smith also confirmed that shows in the rest of the world were being “finalised” and would “announced in due course” – as well as promising to air material from the new album.

The Cure have also confirmed that the line-up for the tour will feature bassist Simon Gallup, who said back in August that he had left the band “with a slightly heavy heart,” writing that he’s “fed up of betrayal,” before appearing to confirm in October that he had re-joined the band.

Tickets for the upcoming tour go on sale this Friday (December 10) at 10am and will be available from venues’ online box offices, selected ticket agents and via Bookings Direct. Head to The Cure’s website for further details.

Support for all shows comes from The Twilight Sad.

The Cure’s 2022 UK/European tour dates are:

OCTOBER
06 – ARENA, Riga, Latvia
08 – HARTWALL ARENA, Helsinki, Finland
10 – AVICII ARENA, Stockholm, Sweden
12 – SPEKTRUM, Oslo, Norway
13 – SCANDINAVIUM, Gothenburg, Sweden
14 – ROYAL ARENA, Copenhagen, Denmark
16 – BARCLAYCARD ARENA, Hamburg, Germany
17 – QUARTERBACK IMMOBILIEN ARENA, Leipzig, Germany
18 – MERCEDES-BENZ ARENA, Berlin, Germany
20 – TAURON ARENA, Krakow, Poland
21 – ATLAS ARENA, Lodz, Poland
23 – MARX HALLE, Vienna, Austria
24 – O2 ARENA, Prague 9, Czech Republic
26 – ARENA, Budapest, Hungary
27 – ARENA, Zagreb, Croatia
29 – OLYMPIAHALLE, Munich, Germany
31 – UNIPOL ARENA, Bologna, Italy

NOVEMBER
01 – MANDELA FORUM, Florence, Italy
03 – KIOENE ARENA, Padova, Italy
04 – FORUM, Milan, Italy
06 – ARENA, Geneva, Switzerland
07 – HALLE TONY GARNIER, Lyon, France
08 – SUD DE FRANCE ARENA, Montpellier, France
10 – PALAU SANT JORDI, Barcelona, Spain
11 – WIZINK CENTER, Madrid, Spain
13 – ZENITH, Toulouse, France
14 – ARKEA ARENA, Bordeaux, France
15 – ZENITH, Nantes, France
17 – FESTHALLE, Frankfurt, Germany
18 – ZENITH, Strasbourg, France
19 – ST JAKOBSHALLE, Basel, Switzerland
21 – HANS-MARTIN-SCHLEYER-HALLE, Stuttggart, Germany
22 – LANXESS ARENA, Cologne, Germany
23 – SPORTPALEIS, Antwerp, Belgium
25 – ZIGGO DOME, Amsterdam, Netherlands
27 – STADE, Lievin, France
28 – ACCOR ARENA, Paris, France

DECEMBER
01 – 3ARENA, Dublin, Ireland
02 – SSE, Belfast, Northern Ireland
04 – OVO HYDRO, Glasgow, Scotland
06 – FIRST DIRECT ARENA, Leeds, England
07 – UTILITA ARENA, Birmingham, England
08 – MOTORPOINT ARENA, Cardiff, Wales
11 – THE SSE ARENA, Wembley, London, England

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