Our first new music playlist to usher in the New Year. Quite gratified that this week has produced so many goodies, which bodes well for the coming 12 months.
Anyway, here we go.
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1.
LUCY DACUS
“Night Shift”
(Matador)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0WDZdT0...
Our first new music playlist to usher in the New Year. Quite gratified that this week has produced so many goodies, which bodes well for the coming 12 months.
Rick Hall, the influential Muscle Shoals record producer, has died aged 85.
Judy Hood confirmed Hall’s death to TimesDaily, saying: “It’s a very, very sad day for Muscle Shoals and music in general.”
Hall began his career in music playing guitar, mandolin and fiddle with the group Carmol T...
Rick Hall, the influential Muscle Shoals record producer, has died aged 85.
Judy Hood confirmed Hall’s death to TimesDaily, saying: “It’s a very, very sad day for Muscle Shoals and music in general.”
Hall began his career in music playing guitar, mandolin and fiddle with the group Carmol Taylor And The Country Pals. He set up the FAME (Florence Alabama Music Enterprises) studio in Muscle Shoals, Alabama in 1959. He went on to record major acts including Aretha Franklin, Etta James and Wilson Pickett.
Hall also recorded country artists including George Jones and Brenda Lee and produced pop acts including Paul Anka and the Osmonds.
Other artists who more recently used Fame’s facilities include Gregg Allman, who recorded his final album, Southern Blood, at the studio.
Among the tributes to Hall, Jason Isbell wrote: “American music wouldn’t be the same without his contributions.”
Rick Hall and his family gave me my first job in the music business, and nobody in the industry ever worked harder than Rick. Nobody. American music wouldn’t be the same without his contributions. His death is a huge loss to those of us who knew him and those who didn’t.
First of all, let me wish you a happy New Year on behalf of everyone at Uncut. We hope you all enjoyed a peaceful Christmas and that this, the first day back at work for many of us, hasn't been too arduous so far.
The end of last year involved a lot of necessary reflection on the best 2017 had to o...
First of all, let me wish you a happy New Year on behalf of everyone at Uncut. We hope you all enjoyed a peaceful Christmas and that this, the first day back at work for many of us, hasn’t been too arduous so far.
The end of last year involved a lot of necessary reflection on the best 2017 had to offer – incidentally, you can catch up with our Albums Of The Year, Reissues Of The Year and Films Of The Year polls here. So for the first blog of 2018, it made sense to throw forward to some of the records we’ll be covering in Uncut over the coming 12 months.
You can find many of them, of course, in the eight-page 2018 Albums Preview in the current issue of Uncut. An annual institution for us here, the Preview is an opportunity to catch up with various familiar faces – Paul Weller, Johnny Marr, Marianne Faithfull, The Breeders, Eleanor Friedberger, Belly, Cowboy Junkies, Josh T Pearson and Yo La Tengo among them – and pry from them some salient information about their latest projects.
Ryley Walker, for instance, called us from a windy park Chicago to tell us about his new record which, he claimed, sounds like “really stoned Red Crayola meets Genesis minus the costume changes”. The interview included, I should add, a lengthy encomium from Ryley on the guitar prowess of Steve Hackett that, alas, didn’t make it into print.
Slightly less glamorously, Matthew E White was on a trip to London when we caught up with him. He told us about some collaborative work he’s undertaken with Natalie Prass as well as his own new album, currently gestating: “Before Big Inner, I was an experimental jazz arranger,” he said. “Part of me that misses some of that exploration.” He continued in this vein, before extolling the many and luminous virtues of Kamasi Washington, Frank Ocean and Kendrick Lamar.
We spoke to Eleanor Friedberger, when she was visiting her folks for Thanksgiving, who told us what we can expect from her follow-up to 2016’s New View. It involved an entertainingly digressive consideration of a certain nightclub scene in Athens, Greece – “The only thing I can compare it to is a club in a Black Mirror episode,” she told us that has proved unexpectedly influential on at least one new song.
Josh T Pearson was commendably specific about his whereabouts when we spoke to him: “It’s 2pm Texas time, temperature is 72 degrees Fahrenheit. It’s overcast but I’m living in a warehouse.” Ostensibly, we were talking to Josh about his new solo album, The Straight Hits, but it transpires that this might not be the only record he releases this year. There is another album, he confided, which he refers to as a “punk rock hee-haw album… I think it could do some good out there. I maybe be naïve enough to think it, but music can change peoples lives and minds if done correctly. I’m still optimistic in the better angels of our nature.”
Josh’s comments strike a warm, positive note for the year ahead. Let’s leave it at that for now.
As rock’s catalogue becomes ever more expansive and complicated, the album of cover versions is no longer seen as the last refuge of the showbiz sellout suffering from writer’s block. Instead it has become an easy way to connect with the rock canon and a portal into the artist’s own influences...
As rock’s catalogue becomes ever more expansive and complicated, the album of cover versions is no longer seen as the last refuge of the showbiz sellout suffering from writer’s block. Instead it has become an easy way to connect with the rock canon and a portal into the artist’s own influences, as with Bowie’s Pin Ups or Nick Cave’s Kicking Against The Pricks.
Jim James has a long history with the cover version. With My Morning Jacket, the Louisville band with whom he’s made his name in the past 20 years, he performed more than 60 of them. Some ended up on albums and B-sides – a mournful guitar-and-voice version of Elvis Presley’s “Suspicious Minds”, an echo-laden acoustic reading of Elton John’s “Rocket Man” – while dozens more were performed live. As well as large helpings of Gram Parsons, Bob Dylan and The Band, James chose a fascinating selection of soul standards (by Curtis Mayfield, Lionel Richie, Kool & The Gang and Bobby Womack), metal anthems (by AC/DC, Blue Öyster Cult, Poison and Black Sabbath), country faves (by Willie Nelson, Johnny Cash and Dolly Parton) as well as more arcane choices by the likes of Danzig, The Misfits and Erykah Badu.
He’s continued this side-career as a solo artist, usually recording privately in his home studio. In 2009 he released “Tribute To”, a six-track EP of primitive, echo-laden guitar and vocal versions of songs by George Harrison; three years later came some tracks for an album of Woody Guthrie covers. Tribute To 2 is a richer and more complete collection than either.
The two best songs on the album – and the pair that give the collection a narrative theme – are the opener, The Beach Boys’ “I Just Wasn’t Made For These Times”, and the penultimate track, “The World Is Falling Down”, by the jazz singer Abbey Lincoln. Both paint a dystopian picture of a world slowly slipping into chaos. On the former, James replaces Brian Wilson’s guileless tone with a demented resignation, assisted by an ominous string section and deliciously static pedal chords borrowed from the Isaac Hayes version of “By The Time I Get To Phoenix”. On the latter, redemption comes with the line “The world is falling down/Hold my hand.” Lincoln’s gospel-tinged original, from a 1990 album, is turned into a ghostly folk ballad, complete with wobbly digital manipulations.
These spectral effects are particularly evident on the versions of standards from the 1920s and 1930s. As well as a miniature, country-tinged version of Irving Berlin’s “Blue Skies”, there are two songs by the Englishman Ray Noble: “Midnight, The Stars, And You” and “Love Is The Sweetest Thing”. Both were recorded by Noble and his friend Al Bowlly, who together launched British pop’s first invasion of the States a full three decades before The Beatles. Pianist Bo Koster stays close to the original arrangement, but James – who first heard Noble’s songs on the soundtrack to Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining – plays up the spooky connotations, with a vocal performance full of owlish hoots, ghostly howls and exaggerated sibilance, as if deliberately trying to replicate an ancient 78rpm recording.
This distressed quality is also echoed with other arrangements. James uses a double-tracked voice and an echo-laden acoustic guitar to add a suitably ghoulish quality to the old Elvis ballad “Crying In The Chapel” and to Willie Nelson’s “Funny How Time Slips Away”.
Bob Dylan’s “I’ll Be Your Baby Tonight” gets a full-on Nashville bar-room treatment, complete with a lavish pedal steel orchestration and a yodelling hillbilly vocal from James, while ELP’s “Lucky Man” – a song reputed to be about Robert Kennedy – is performed with spangly guitars and a beautiful Mellotron solo.
But the most interesting revelation here is a spartan, acoustic guitar and glockenspiel version of “Wild Honey” by Diane Izzo, a Chicago songwriter who died in 2011. The song is something of a gem: a poetic meditation on Izzo’s own death, freighted with Buddhist melancholy. “Someday your chariot of air will vanish from this world of wine and bone/And then what remains of you is pure and genuine as wild honey.” It serves as a poignant but oddly optimistic headstone for an album that is wreathed in melancholy.
A few years ago, around the time of Sky Blue Sky, Uncut asked Jeff Tweedy for his thoughts on Americana. He had a few. “I’ve never had the fuckin’ slightest clue as to what it means,” he replied. “I’ve been a reluctant participant at best, and a violent contrarian more often, to that lab...
A few years ago, around the time of Sky Blue Sky, Uncut asked Jeff Tweedy for his thoughts on Americana. He had a few. “I’ve never had the fuckin’ slightest clue as to what it means,” he replied. “I’ve been a reluctant participant at best, and a violent contrarian more often, to that label.” Tweedy said much more in that vein, before suggesting that: “Americana is just a fundamentalist reactionary stance to the modern world. It’s imagining some pure, altruistic past that does not exist. It’s a desperate grasp for authenticity, that you either have or you don’t have. Ultimately, it’s either a good song or it’s a bad song. Or: ‘That guy can sing, and when he sings, it makes me feel great.’”
AM, Wilco’s first album, can be seen as an argument about Americana. It was recorded quickly, in Memphis, almost before the dust had settled on Jay Farrar’s decision to split Uncle Tupelo after a hostile final tour in 1994. Uncle Tupelo, of course, were a cornerstone of alt.country, delivering the imagery of Steinbeck with the splattered urgency of punk. It had started out as Farrar’s band, but Tweedy made a vital contribution. The fact that his input was growing in significance may have been a factor in the split, just as the group seemed poised to make a commercial breakthrough.
What, then, would Wilco sound like? There was some continuity of personnel. Tweedy took drummer Ken Coomer, bassist John Stirratt and multi-instrumentalist (dobro, fiddle, mandolin player) Max Johnston with him, as well as offering a guest slot to steel guitar player Lloyd Maines, who had played on Uncle Tupelo’s swansong, Anodyne. The other guest player, Brian Henneman (of The Bottle Rockets) pulled the sound in another direction, bringing a more straightforward rock’n’roll energy. At the time of its release, AM was seen as a continuation of the work done in Uncle Tupelo, and that was how it was designed. It is a conservative record, made in a rush. But it has aged well, and it’s clear that the process of getting it done helped to set the template for how Wilco would function in the future.
There is, at the outset, a gap between the plan and the delivery. There was talk in those early days, and some effort made, to make sure that Wilco functioned more democratically than Uncle Tupelo had. That’s not exactly what happened. John Stirratt supplied three songs for the record, but only “It’s Just That Simple” made the cut. It’s a gorgeous song, a pained lament in the style of The Flying Burrito Brothers; the vulnerability of Stirratt’s voice floated over Maines’ steel guitar. Is it too alt.country? Too Americana? Too Uncle Tupelo? Otherwise, you have to wonder why another fine Stirratt tune, “Myrna Lee”, wasn’t selected. The song emerged on an album by Blue Mountain (featuring Stirratt’s sister Laurie) in 1997. It’s included here, and is one of the finest things on the record. The same holds for “When You Find Trouble”, said to be the last studio recording made by Uncle Tupelo. It’s like Keith Richards singing country: stately, and collapsing.
But AM is about something else. It’s about Tweedy finding a voice, and edging his songwriting from the generic to the personal. Some of the generic efforts are successful. “Pick Up The Change” is a beautiful break-up song, with a tune that never aspires to be more than a busk. “That’s Not The Issue” is a love song for banjo that opens with the writer observing the moon, before dissolving as Tweedy complains of being a songwriter who has run out of metaphors. On “I Must Be High”, Tweedy starts to master the air of weary disdain which will colour so many of his songs. “Box Full Of Letters” is a lovely rush, another break-up song, which some insist is aimed at Farrar, largely because of the verse about giving back some borrowed records. But the song is more notable for its sense of writerly confusion. “I just can’t find the time,” Tweedy sings, “to write my mind, the way I want it to read.” And there’s nothing finer than “Dash 7”, a poetic, mysterious paean to a jet plane landing (Tweedy has not, after all, exhausted his stock of metaphors).
The remaining unreleased tracks are the stodgy “Those I’ll Provide”; “Lost Love” and “She Don’t Have To See You” (both emerged later on Golden Smog albums); an early pass at “Outtasite – Outta Mind”; the punk country of “Piss It Away”, and “Hesitation Rocks”, a stolid attempt at a rock anthem.
Ken Coomer tells a story about the first time Wilco heard Trace, Jay Farrar’s first album with Son Volt. Wilco were in a van and listened in silence. At the end, the band’s manager, Tony Margherita wound down the passenger side window and threw the disc into the street. Trace, says Coomer “lit a fire under somebody’s butt, to be: ‘Hey, we can do better than we did.’”
On Being There, Wilco did better. The addition of Jay Bennett allowed the band to stretch in different directions, and his skill with overdubbing (a necessity in his band Titanic Love Affair) brought an experimental pop sheen to the record. Ultimately, Bennett would threaten Tweedy’s role as the group’s benign dictator, but here he gives him wings. There are country moments – the frisky “Forget The Flowers”, the plangent shuffle of “Far Far Away” – but Being There is the sound of a band inventing its own creativity. The squall of noise that opens the album, leading into “Misunderstood”, on which the band swapped instruments, is the sound of a group of musicians who have finally begun to understand their purpose.
The glories of Being There don’t need to be restated. Arguably, it is Wilco’s best record. Certainly it is a joyous, celebratory thing, the sound of a band in full spate. Previously it was a tight, 19-track set. Here, it sprawls (on 4LP and 5CD versions). There are a number of alternate takes that show paths not taken. “Dynamite My Soul” is a fine Tweedy folk song, “Losing Interest” is a comic blues song (about blues songs) delivered with Lou Reed-ish disdain, there’s an early run at “Capitol City”, and “Sun’s A Star” is an intimate strum, on which the singer employs cosmic imagery to circle around loneliness.
Also included is a live set from the Troubadour (previously issued as a promo cassette) and four songs performed on KCRW from the same period. They show that Wilco’s creativity didn’t stop at the studio door. The songs explode with verve. “Passenger Side” is delivered in punk and regular versions. “Kingpin” meanders over nine minutes before speeding into a wall. “New Madrid” shuffles sweetly towards romantic oblivion. The KCRW session includes a fine “Sunken Treasure”, that ebbs and flows over seven minutes of weary resilience as Tweedy details the ways in which music saved his life. It’s classic Jeff: self-aware, struggling to create a new language with old words. Maimed, tamed, named by rock’n’roll, though not necessarily in that order.
Only God knows who’s responsible for Bob Dylan’s conversion to Christianity. He had already been touring most of the year when he rolled into San Diego in November 1978, physically and creatively weary from the road. Toward the end of the show, an unidentified fan lobbed a small silver cross ons...
Only God knows who’s responsible for Bob Dylan’s conversion to Christianity. He had already been touring most of the year when he rolled into San Diego in November 1978, physically and creatively weary from the road. Toward the end of the show, an unidentified fan lobbed a small silver cross onstage. Dylan picked up and kept it, even wearing it around his neck at later shows. In December, he debuted two new songs with overtly Christian lyrics and claims to have been visited by Jesus Christ.
Soon Dylan converted to a particularly evangelical strain of Christianity, even engaging in an intense three-month course at the Association of Vineyard Churches. Over the next three years he transformed his concerts into tent revivals and churned out three gospel-rock records. He cast himself as a fire-and-brimstone preacher cheering the glory of God and warning of His almighty wrath. It’s not just one of the weirder chapters of his career, but one of the most unexpected plot twists in rock history.
Forty years later it’s been written so deeply into the narrative of his career that it seems like a momentary distraction in retrospect, a waystation on a longer spiritual quest, a new guise adopted by a mercurial artist. And it’s such a short era as well. In fact, by Dylan’s fascination with Sinatra has dwarfed his Christian output in both duration and output. With each year and each new album it becomes more and more difficult to reconstruct this moment, when fans and critics alike wondered if Dylan was actually serious and how long it would last. That makes Dylan’s Christian period more fitting—not less—for an entry in his remarkable Bootleg series. If there’s any phase that need a hearty defense and demands explication, it’s the late 1970s.
One of the most exhaustive installments in the series—100 previously unreleased live and studio cuts gathered on 9 CDs, plus a DVD featuring a feature-length film — Trouble No More does a fine job with the task, arguing with varying degrees of persuasiveness that the era wasn’t entirely a wash. It was, though, a low point for his songwriting. Gone are the tangles of metaphor and allusion, the haunted American backdrop, the thickly veiled social and political commentary, and the ambiguity that compelled his listeners to engage actively with his songs. Suddenly, Dylan was suddenly writing with emphatic, disconcerting certainty. Slow Train Coming, released in 1978, remains his most compelling testament from the era, with “Gotta Serve Somebody” generally considered a greatest hit. But apart from “Every Grain of Sand”, 1979’s Saved and 1980’s Shot of Love remain the province of only the most committed fan.
Trouble No More is not apologetic about or embarrassed by Dylan’s conversion. Rather, these outtakes and live cuts show just how thoroughly he had committed himself to his newfound faith and just how fundamental a change it exerted on his craft. If his studio albums suffered, the songs found new life and purpose onstage, and Dylan sounds like Lazarus on “Solid Rock” and “Ain’t Gonna Go To Hell From Anybody”. The live version of “I Believe In You” from 1980 features a surprisingly soulful vocal, as he conveys not only the hardship but the joy in belief. His backup singers are a near-constant presence on these songs, almost as prominent as the man himself—and for good reason: Dylan dated two of them and married the third a few years later.
What truly saves these songs, however, is Dylan’s band, which includes guitarist Fred Tackett, keyboard player Spooner Oldham, drummer Jim Keltner, and occasionally Mark Knopfler. They turn these songs into elastic rock jams, turning “Slow Train Coming” inside out and injecting some fervor and fury into “Dead Man Dead Man.” Dylan cut almost all of his old material from his set, but he still cautioned his generation about letting the counterculture curdle into complacency, especially on a fiery “When You Gonna Wake Up.” On the rare occasion when he did revisit older songs, they sound wholly different in this new context. It’s especially bracing to hear this band rip through a triumphal version of “Blowin’ in the Wind” that might have more to say about God than any of his overtly Christian songs.
Dylan’s Christian phase seemed to end as abruptly as it began. His attention turned to the Kabbalah, and 1983’s Infidels addressed that subject, albeit more obliquely. It’s tempting to dismiss this chapter in Dylan’s career as something akin to a temporary illness, although it might be more accurate to think of it as a temporary fix to a different illness. Trouble No More presents a very humane portrait of a man on a serious spiritual quest, which makes it as biographically fascinating as it is musically frustrating.
Last one of the year, then, and my last one for Uncut, since I’ll be leaving the magazine today. Housekeeping: I’ve updated my 2017 albums list with a few late discoveries; and a few more new 2018 things have snuck in here, especially the next Prana Crafter tape. Also my final Uncut will be on s...
Last one of the year, then, and my last one for Uncut, since I’ll be leaving the magazine today. Housekeeping: I’ve updated my 2017 albums list with a few late discoveries; and a few more new 2018 things have snuck in here, especially the next Prana Crafter tape. Also my final Uncut will be on sale mid-January, and I can promise that those of you who’ve stuck with this playlist may well be interested in the free CD Tom’s compiled to go with it; I’m very proud of it, as I have been of most things we’ve done in my time here.
Thanks for all your support over such a long time, and all my best wishes for the season. You can probably guess how this is going to end…
Led Zeppelin will celebrate 50 years since the band's formation by collaborating with London's Reel Art Press on an official illustrated book.
The band revealed the news via their social media:
https://twitter.com/ledzeppelin/status/943889451377344512
"Led Zeppelin are pleased to announce that Ji...
Led Zeppelin will celebrate 50 years since the band’s formation by collaborating with London’s Reel Art Press on an official illustrated book.
The band revealed the news via their social media:
Led Zeppelin are pleased to announce that Jimmy Page, Robert Plant & John Paul Jones are collaborating with @ReelArtPress to publish the official illustrated book celebrating 50 years since the formation of the group.
“Led Zeppelin are pleased to announce that Jimmy Page, Robert Plant & John Paul Jones are collaborating with @ReelArtPress to publish the official illustrated book celebrating 50 years since the formation of the group.
“Coming 2018.
“For updates visit http://reelartpress.com”
Page admitted in a recent interview that plans were afoot to mark the band’s anniversary next year, saying: “There’ll be Led Zeppelin product coming out, for sure, that people haven’t heard, because I’m working on that. Next year will be the 50th year, so there’s all manner of surprises coming out.”
Jonny Greenwood’s score to Paul Thomas Anderson’s new film, Phantom Thread, is getting a release in the New Year.
The soundtrack will be available digitally on January 12; the CD will be available February 9 and the vinyl will be available on April 21 to correspond with Record Store Day.
The s...
Jonny Greenwood’s score to Paul Thomas Anderson’s new film, Phantom Thread, is getting a release in the New Year.
The soundtrack will be available digitally on January 12; the CD will be available February 9 and the vinyl will be available on April 21 to correspond with Record Store Day.
The soundtrack includes eighteen compositions by Greenwood and has been nominated for a Golden Globe. It was recorded in London with a sixty-member string orchestra conducted by Robert Ziegler. Phantom Thread is available to preorder from the Nonesuch Store, along with an instant download of the album track “House Of Woodcock”.
Aside from the Golden Globe nomination, the Phantom Thread soundtrack’s many other accolades to date include the Best Score prizes from film critics’ associations in Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, Phoenix, San Francisco, Seattle, and St. Louis.
Anderson and Greenwood’s previous collaborations include the soundtrack for Academy Award–winning There Will Be Blood (2007), The Master (2012), and Inherent Vice (2014), all released by Nonesuch.
30 SUPER FURRY ANIMALS
Radiator
BMG
If SFA’s first album showed their breezy way with classic indie-rock tropes, its follow-up, Radiator, revealed the real extent of their ambitions. The 20th-anniversary deluxe edition covered the whole gamut – prog, powerpop, techno and beyond – chucking...
30 SUPER FURRY ANIMALS Radiator BMG
If SFA’s first album showed their breezy way with classic indie-rock tropes, its follow-up, Radiator, revealed the real extent of their ambitions. The 20th-anniversary deluxe edition covered the whole gamut – prog, powerpop, techno and beyond – chucking in the outstanding “Ice Hockey Hair” EP and a daft rave cover of “The Boy With The Thorn In His Side”.
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29 THE REPLACEMENTS For Sale: Live at Maxwell’s 1986 RHINO
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZJE5t-cWFVs
A characteristically messy phase in the ’Mats’ career – just after the breakthrough of Tim, just before Bob Stinson was fired – was revisited on this evocative live set. Westerberg and co’s attempt to play Sweet’s “Fox On The Run” – a song they clearly did not know – captured the unruly spirit of proceedings; a masterclass in turning rock’n’roll sloppiness into something romantic and even noble.
Rhino’s ongoing, exhaustive Ramones project again rendered one of their brisk classics into an unlikely epic – hence a remastered version and a thunderous new mix of the whole album, plus extra discs featuring outtakes and a ’77 CBGB’s show. Glue, mental illness, horror movies were par for the course, but here was where Joey’s cute, romantic streak came to the fore, too.
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27 JON HASSELL Fourth World Volume Two: Dream Theory In Malaya TAK:TIL
Hassell’s heavily processed trumpet tone became a signal of the exotic and unearthly through the late ’70s and ’80s, as he took on
a role as the art/ambient scene’s Miles Davis. Two albums with Brian Eno cemented his reputation; this second, from 1981, also featuring kindred spirits Daniel Lanois and Michael Brook. Reissue the pre-Eno albums next, please!
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26 LIFT TO EXPERIENCE The Texas-Jerusalem Crossroads MUTE
Reuniting just in time for the apocalypse they predicted back in 2001, perhaps, Texas’ Lift To Experience restaged their sole album at shows in 2016, prefacing this deluxe reissue. Critically, the whole Biblical space-rock masterpiece was remixed to the greater satisfaction of Josh Pearson and his bandmates. A debut album and fiery Peel session completed the tale of a band whose time, finally, was now.
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25 UNDERWORLD Beaucoup Fish UMC
Overshadowed a little by its predecessors – Second Toughest In The Infants and Dubnobasswithmyheadman – on release in 1999, the third album of Underworld’s techno phase may well have aged the best of all of them. Here was reliably encyclopaedic evidence, the original prog-disco marvels augmented by a deluxe boxload of remixes.
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24 THE SMITHS The Queen Is Dead WARNER BROS
With Morrissey’s latest comeback a familiar combination of average music and problematic politics, it was a comfort to return to the third Smiths album, now complemented by a hearty 1986 concert (Craig Gannon on second guitar), B-sides and demos, plus the unedited version of the still-thrilling title track. “All those people, all those lives/Where are they now?”
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23 VARIOUS ARTISTS Soul Of A Nation SOUL JAZZ
As usual with Soul Jazz comps, the subtitle told the whole story: “Afro-Centric Visions In The Age Of Black Power: Underground Jazz, Street Funk & The Roots of Rap 1964-79”. And as ever, their superb curatorial skills mixed canonical picks (Gil Scott-Heron’s “The Revolution Will Not Be Televised”) with deep cuts from Phil Cohran, Horace Tapscott and Phil Ranelin. A soundtrack to the superb Tate Modern exhibition of the same name.
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22 TONY CONRAD Ten Years Alive On The Infinite Plain SUPERIOR VIADUCT
To rock fans, Conrad was mostly known as a pre-Velvets cohort of John Cale. In other circles, however, the musician and filmmaker (who died in 2016) was revered as an avant-garde superstar, and this previously unreleased soundtrack performance was greeted as a holy grail of minimalism: an unyielding 90-minute violin drone, reminiscent of Conrad’s collaboration with Faust, Outside The Dream Syndicate.
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21 MIDORI TAKADA Through The Looking Glass PALTO FLATS/WRWTFWW
Another minimalist gem unearthed in 2017, the Japanese composer’s Through The Looking Glass was a more approachable work than that of Conrad: a polyrhythmic Asian response to Steve Reich and Terry Riley, on which Takada overdubbed herself playing everything from a marimba to a Coke bottle. The missing link between Olivier Messiaen and Boards Of Canada?
50
THE XX
I See You
YOUNG TURKS
The XX might have patented a shy, minimalist take on dance music that became a ubiquitous British sound over the past decade. But there was always a chance, not least as their imitators multiplied, that it would become a creative cul-de-sac. Hence this more expansive...
50
THE XX I See You
YOUNG TURKS
The XX might have patented a shy, minimalist take on dance music that became a ubiquitous British sound over the past decade. But there was always a chance, not least as their imitators multiplied, that it would become a creative cul-de-sac. Hence this more expansive, brighter third album, which expanded the trio’s remit – Hall & Oates samples! – and shook off some of the goth cobwebs, without losing any of their understated charm.
49
MICHAEL HEAD AND THE RED ELASTIC BAND Adios Senor Pussycat
VIOLETTE
While the bandnames – The Pale Fountains, Shack, The Strands – changed over the last four decades, much about Mick Head’s music remained heroically consistent. His first album in 11 years was another beauty, all hallucinatory social realism and ringing jangles in the great tradition of The Byrds and Love. Another useful piece of evidence, in fact, to argue that this Liverpool street poet is one of the era’s finest British singer-songwriters.
48
LINDSTRØM It’s All Right Between Us As It Is
SMALLTOWN SUPERSOUND
Last spotted collaborating with Todd Rundgren on 2015’s Runddans, Hans-Peter Lindstrøm’s fourth solo album showcased the Norwegian maestro’s ability to keep stretching the parameters of electro-disco. Amidst the pop bangers and prog extrapolations of techno, there was also a creepy extra dimension manifested on “Bungl (Like A Ghost)”. Jenny Hval, whose own Blood Bitch featured prominently in the 2016 Uncut Albums Of The Year list, provided the necessarily uncanny vocals.
47
POND The Weather
MARATHON ARTISTS
Very much following the trajectory of their old friends Tame Impala (whose Kevin Parker produced The Weather), Perth’s Pond moved away from heavier jams towards a shinier kind of pop music for their seventh and most successful album. The psychedelic otherness remained, though, not least on the two-part epic “Edge Of The World”, which tackled Australian colonial privilege while channelling the apocalyptic grandeur of Diamond Dogs.
46
BROKEN SOCIAL SCENE Hug Of Thunder
CITY SLANG A good year for the extended Broken Social Scene family also saw Feist’s Pleasure charting in our Top 75. Bigger plaudits, though, were directed to BSS themselves, as Kevin Drew, Brendan Canning and their myriad collaborators reconvened for a first album in seven years. As the title suggested, a rousing communitarian spirit dominated – and one whose warmth contrasted sharply with the ironies attempted in 2017 by the most famous of BSS’ descendants, Arcade Fire.
45
SPOON Hot Thoughts
MATADOR
Another North American indie-rock institution, whose admirable singularity and persistence paid dividends in 2017. The Austin quartet’s ninth, co-produced by Dave Fridmann, was again remarkable for refining Spoon’s long-nurtured USPs: concision, groove and unwavering focus. Notable too, though, was a poignant influence coming more than ever to the fore. As Britt Daniel told Uncut, “Bowie is, to put it bluntly, the guy I’ve ripped off the most.”
44
JAKE XERXES FUSSELL What In The Natural World
PARADISE OF BACHELORS At once scholarly and swinging, Fussell’s second album was a roistering investigation of the traditions of the South-Eastern States. The son of folklorists, Fussell’s song selections were compelling: Child Ballads, Duke Ellington tunes, an obscure, absurdist country blues called “Have You Ever Seen Peaches Growing On A Sweet Potato Vine?” Easygoing virtuosity – co-conspirators included Nathan Salsburg and Nathan Bowles – and an idiosyncratic character ensured, too, that everything felt much more like a party than a historical re-enactment.
43
TRIO DA KALI & KRONOS QUARTET Ladilikan
WORLD CIRCUIT
As Africa Express’ take on “In C” and the chamber recitals of Toumani Diabaté proved, traditional Malian music and Western classical traditions can make serendipitous bedfellows. The latest evidence came on Ladilikan, twinning as it did the ever-adventurous Kronos strings with a group led by the extraordinary singer, Hawa Diabaté. Amidst harmonious culture clashes, Diabaté even added gospel hues to her griot technique – never more so than on the title track, her radical rewrite of an old Mahalia Jackson tune.
42
THUNDERCAT Drunk
BRAINFEEDER
A formidable jazz bassist, Stephen ‘Thundercat’ Bruner is also an eclectic collaborator. One of his old associates, Kendrick Lamar, turned up on this slick, freaky and inventive display of virtuosity, as did Pharrell Williams, electronica auteur Flying Lotus and Bruner’s actual cat. Surreal pride of place, though, went to Michael McDonald and Kenny Loggins, honeyed tones intact, on the outstanding soft-rock jam, “Let Me Show You”.
41
FLEET FOXES Crack-Up
NONESUCH
Back from hiatus at Columbia University, Robin Pecknold reactivated Fleet Foxes; now, an open-hearted corrective to the antics of their former drummer, Father John Misty. Time away had not dimmed Pecknold’s ear for a ravishing harmony. It had, though, widened his scope and ambition, as multi-part songs – play “I Am All That I Need/Arroyo Seco/Thumbprint Scar”! – were augmented by all manner of filigree esoterica. Unabashedly earnest, not a little pretentious and still quite, quite lovely.
To celebrate the Velvet Underground’s 50th anniversary, Verve Records/UMe is releasing The Velvet Underground, a limited-edition career-spanning box that collects all four of the band’s studio albums, Nico’s debut LP, Chelsea Girl, and a reconstruction of the fabled “lost” 1969 album, maki...
To celebrate the Velvet Underground’s 50th anniversary, Verve Records/UMe is releasing The Velvet Underground, a limited-edition career-spanning box that collects all four of the band’s studio albums, Nico’s debut LP, Chelsea Girl, and a reconstruction of the fabled “lost” 1969 album, making it available on vinyl for the first time.
The six albums housed in a special black slipcase will be pressed on 180-gram black vinyl and feature stereo mixes and meticulously reproduced original cover art. The box will also include an exclusive 48-page booklet, featuring vintage photos, lyrics and a new foreword penned by Moe Tucker. Limited to 1000 copies worldwide, the box set will be released February 23.
The set features:
The Velvet Underground and Nico (March 1967) Side One
1. Sunday Morning
2. I’m Waiting For The Man
3. Femme Fatale
4. Venus In Furs
5. Run Run Run
6. All Tomorrow’s Parties
Side Two
1. Heroin
2. There She Goes Again
3. I’ll Be Your Mirror
4. The Black Angel’s Death Song
5. European Son
Nico: Chelsea Girl (October 1967) Side One
1. The Fairest of the Seasons
2. These Days
3. Little Sister
4. Winter Song
5. It Was A Pleasure Then
Side Two
1. Chelsea Girls
2. I’ll Keep It With Mine
3. Somewhere There’s a Feather
4. Wrap Your Troubles In Dreams
5. Eulogy To Lenny Bruce
White Light/White Heat (January 1968) Side One
1. White Light/White Heat
2. The Gift
3. Lady Godiva’s Operation
4. There She Comes Now
Side Two
1. I Heard Her Call My Name
2. Sister Ray
The Velvet Underground (March 1969) Side One
1. Candy Says
2. What Goes On
3. Some Kinda Love
4. Pale Blue Eyes
5. Jesus
Side Two
1. Beginning To See The Light
2. I’m Set Free
3. That’s The Story Of My Life
4. The Murder Mystery
5. After Hours
1969 (recorded May – October 1969) Side One
1. Foggy Notion (original 1969 mix)
2. One Of The Days (2014 mix)
3. Lisa Says (2014 mix)
4. I’m Sticking With You (original 1969 mix)
5. Andy’s Chest (original 1969 mix)
Side Two
1. I Can’t Stand It (2014 mix)
2. She’s My Best Friend (original 1969 mix)
3. We’re Gonna Have A Real Good Time Together (2014 mix)
4. I’m Gonna Move Right In (original 1969 mix)
5. Ferryboat Bill (original 1969 mix)
Side Three
1. Coney Island Steeplechase (2014 mix)
2. Ocean (original 1969 mix)
3. Rock & Roll (original 1969 mix)
4. Ride Into The Sun (2014 mix)
Side Four – Bonus Tracks
1. Hey Mr. Rain (version one)
2. Guess I’m Falling In Love instrumental version)
3. Temptation Inside Your Heart (original mix)
4. Stephanie Says (original mix)
5. Hey Mr. Rain (version two)
6. Beginning To See The Light (early version)
Loaded (November 1970) Side One
1. Who Loves The Sun
2. Sweet Jane
3. Rock & Roll
4. Cool It Down
5. New Age
Side Two
1. Head Held High
2. Lonesome Cowboy Bill
3. I Found A Reason
4. Train Round The Bend
5. Oh! Sweet Nuthin’
The new issue of Uncut, dated February 2018, is out on December 21, and features Britain’s great lost venues, Keith Richards, Buffalo Springfield and our 2018 albums preview.
Our lost venues feature is on the cover, and inside, Ray Davies, Bryan Ferry, Pete Townshend and more recall 50 beloved ho...
The new issue of Uncut, dated February 2018, is out on December 21, and features Britain’s great lost venues, Keith Richards, Buffalo Springfield and our 2018 albums preview.
Our lost venues feature is on the cover, and inside, Ray Davies, Bryan Ferry, Pete Townshend and more recall 50 beloved hotspots large and small – from The Silver Thread Hotel in Paisley to Cornwall’s Folk Cottage.
“I feel for new bands,” explains Davies. “There’s nowhere for them to learn their trade. The 100 Club is the last of that type of venue left. There aren’t many places where a musician is allowed to be bad; they have to be programmed and efficient.”
In a new interview, Keith Richards looks back at The Rolling Stones‘ ’60s BBC sessions and forward to the group’s next tour and plans for 2018 – “I think there’s a tour in the works,” he tells Uncut. “I miss the old joint.”
Richie Furay tells the story of Buffalo Springfield, a band of five exceptional talents – Neil Young, Stephen Stills, Bruce Palmer, Dewey Martin and Furay. “We thought we had no competition but The Beatles,” he explains. “We had the songs, we had the singers, we had the talent. We just didn’t have someone to help hold us together.”
In our 2018 albums preview, Paul Weller, Father John Misty, Kim Deal, My Bloody Valentine, Josh Pearson and many more discuss their upcoming releases for the year ahead. “I’ve been getting a little bit more reflective,” says Weller. “But not for too long.”
Also in the new issue, Michael McDonald answers your questions, The Sweet recall the making of 1973’s “Block Buster!” and Jim White looks back on his work with Dirty Three, Cat Power, Smog, Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy and Xylouris White.
This Is The Kit‘s Kate Stables lets us in on the records that have shaped her life, while we pay tribute to Malcolm Young and hear from the Fabs’ barber Leslie Cavendish, and Boubacar Traoré, in our front section.
In our extensive reviews section, we take a look at new releases from Neil Young, HC McEntire, No Age, First Aid Kit, Tune-Yards and more, and archival offerings from Richard Hell & The Voidoids, Roy Harper, Willie Nelson, The Durutti Column and Stack Waddy. Live, we catch The Hold Steady and Rhiannon Giddens, while in books we take on Liner Notes by Loudon Wainwright III, and Clinton Heylin on Bob Dylan‘s gospel years; in films, we review the life stories of Eric Clapton and Suggs, and DVD & Blu-ray goodies including Twin Peaks and a Hansa Studios doc.
Our free CD, The New Year Starts Here!, features 15 tracks of the month’s best music, including cuts by HC McEntire, No Age, Roy Harper, Xylouris White, Calexico, Lankum, Stick In The Wheel and Tyler Childers.
The new Uncut, dated February 2018, is in shops from December 21.
The new issue of Uncut, dated February 2018, is out on December 21, and features Britain's great lost venues, Keith Richards, Buffalo Springfield and our 2018 albums preview.
Our lost venues feature is on the cover, and inside, Ray Davies, Bryan Ferry, Pete Townshend and more recall 50 beloved hots...
The new issue of Uncut, dated February 2018, is out on December 21, and features Britain’s great lost venues, Keith Richards, Buffalo Springfield and our 2018 albums preview.
Our lost venues feature is on the cover, and inside, Ray Davies, Bryan Ferry, Pete Townshend and more recall 50 beloved hotspots large and small – from The Silver Thread Hotel in Paisley to Cornwall’s Folk Cottage.
“I feel for new bands,” explains Davies. “There’s nowhere for them to learn their trade. The 100 Club is the last of that type of venue left. There aren’t many places where a musician is allowed to be bad; they have to be programmed and efficient.”
In a new interview, Keith Richards looks back at The Rolling Stones‘ ’60s BBC sessions and forward to the group’s next tour and plans for 2018 – “I think there’s a tour in the works,” he tells Uncut. “I miss the old joint.”
Richie Furay tells the story of Buffalo Springfield, a band of five exceptional talents – Neil Young, Stephen Stills, Bruce Palmer, Dewey Martin and Furay. “We thought we had no competition but The Beatles,” he explains. “We had the songs, we had the singers, we had the talent. We just didn’t have someone to help hold us together.”
In our 2018 albums preview, Paul Weller, Father John Misty, Kim Deal, My Bloody Valentine, Josh Pearson and many more discuss their upcoming releases for the year ahead. “I’ve been getting a little bit more reflective,” says Weller. “But not for too long.”
Also in the new issue, Michael McDonald answers your questions, The Sweet recall the making of 1973’s “Block Buster!” and Jim White looks back on his work with Dirty Three, Cat Power, Smog, Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy and Xylouris White.
This Is The Kit‘s Kate Stables lets us in on the records that have shaped her life, while we pay tribute to Malcolm Young and hear from the Fabs’ barber Leslie Cavendish, and Boubacar Traoré, in our front section.
In our extensive reviews section, we take a look at new releases from Neil Young, HC McEntire, No Age, First Aid Kit, Tune-Yards and more, and archival offerings from Richard Hell & The Voidoids, Roy Harper, Willie Nelson, The Durutti Column and Stack Waddy. Live, we catch The Hold Steady and Rhiannon Giddens, while in books we take on Liner Notes by Loudon Wainwright III, and Clinton Heylin on Bob Dylan‘s gospel years; in films, we review the life stories of Eric Clapton and Suggs, and DVD & Blu-ray goodies including Twin Peaks and a Hansa Studios doc.
Our free CD, The New Year Starts Here!, features 15 tracks of the month’s best music, including cuts by HC McEntire, No Age, Roy Harper, Xylouris White, Calexico, Lankum, Stick In The Wheel and Tyler Childers.
The new Uncut, dated February 2018, is in shops from December 21.
While other pioneers of progressive rock play cruise ships, split into rival factions or think about retiring, King Crimson seem shockingly active these days. Currently touring North America for the second time this year, they’ve released two recent live albums (Live In Chicago and the Japan-only ...
While other pioneers of progressive rock play cruise ships, split into rival factions or think about retiring, King Crimson seem shockingly active these days. Currently touring North America for the second time this year, they’ve released two recent live albums (Live In Chicago and the Japan-only Live In Vienna) as well as an EP (Heroes – Live In Europe) and the latest instalment in their ongoing ‘tour box’ series, The Elements Of King Crimson. Onstage in cities like Raleigh and Newark, their eight-piece line-up goes deep into the back catalogue.
They play, oddly enough, a lot of the music on Sailors’ Tales, a lavish-looking 27-disc boxset (21CD/2DVD/4Blu-Ray) that focuses on the years 1970–2. This was a troubled period when Crimson lost crucial personnel, leaving Robert Fripp and lyricist Pete Sinfield with the name, the determination and the vision – just about – to create three albums with ad hoc line-ups and guest musicians. In The Wake Of Poseidon, Lizard and Islands rubbed shoulders with jazz, chamber-rock and the avant-garde (and appear here in their 2009–10 Steven Wilson remix versions), but were soon forgotten when Fripp, in autumn ’72, put together the ferocious, free-improvising Wetton-Bruford-Muir-Cross line-up that made Larks’ Tongues In Aspic.
Although the Poseidon, Lizard and Islands discs all contain bonus tracks and outtakes, the boxset’s primary focus is on live material. Over a dozen concerts from 1971–2 are included, four of which are previously unreleased. The remainder have been available over the years through the King Crimson Collectors’ Club or as downloads via Fripp’s website. For the majority of Sailors’ Tales, then, we’re in the ribald, raucous company of singer-bassist Raymond (Boz) Burrell, drummer Ian Wallace and sax/flautist Mel Collins. The stage is set for powerhouse drumming, uncertain jazz, thick peasoupers of gothic Mellotron and gales of nervous laughter. “We’d now like to render ‘In The Court Of The Crimson King’,” Burrell tells an audience in Frankfurt. Render it unconscious with a severely good kicking, he means.
Like a ballet in hobnail boots, this line-up of Crimson certainly belched some crude masculinity into Fripp’s cultivated, effete, elaborately English music. Wallace is a heavy-hitting brute. Burrell, a future co-founder of Bad Company, applies his gruff voice to Sinfield’s flowery poetry – imagine Hawkwind-era Lemmy singing Samuel Taylor Coleridge – while Fripp, playing his guitar like a demon, doubles on Mellotron to give the illusion of a fifth member. They may not be adept at the music’s filigree embroidery, but they know how to make a right old racket. The seesawing sturm und drang of “Cirkus” (from Lizard) is a nightly highlight, as is “Sailor’s Tale” (Islands), a storm-tossed instrumental that Collins, clearly a Pharoah Sanders fan, approaches with all the glee of a free-jazz open goal. “Groon”, an old B-side, becomes a blistering skronk-sax blowout incorporating a 12-minute drum solo. “Improv”, a 27-minute piece that they play at the Marquee in August ’71, sees Fripp drop a few tantalising hints towards “Larks’ Tongues In Aspic, Part One”, but is mostly utter pandemonium, if you like that sort of thing. As for “The Devil’s Triangle”, an ominous bolero march from Poseidon, those random whooshes and bleeps come from Sinfield’s VCS3 synthesiser, which he operates from the mixing desk, and sound like he’s aiming gunfire over the audience’s heads while trying to tune a shortwave radio. At the opposite end of the prog-rock spectrum, however, Collins puts down his tenor sax, picks up his flute and becomes a man transformed. His playing on “Cadence And Cascade” every night is like a fawn admiring its reflection in a brook.
The sound of the ’71 gigs is gritty and realistic, and often mixed in stereo. But there’s a noticeable drop in quality when the ’72 gigs start (on disc 10) in Wilmington, Delaware. These are cassette recordings, very rough and bootleggy. It’s the kind of distorted sound that made Crimson’s American record label baulk at releasing Earthbound (disc 18), a ’72 live album that angered and disappointed fans in the UK even at a budget price. It’s possible to get used to the sonic sludge, of course, and appreciate the gigs for their historical value; but several tracks on discs 10–16 and 26–27 cut out unexpectedly, or begin in mid-performance, depending on whether the band’s soundman has remembered to put a tape in the machine.
By the time of that February–March US tour, Crimson had grown in confidence, introducing a lewd groove or two into their repertoire (“Ladies Of The Road”) and even inserting a boogie shuffle in the middle of “Cirkus”. By April, though, they were defunct, merely three more names added by Fripp to the growing ranks of the Crimson departed. Burrell became a stadium rocker with Bad Co. Wallace was hired by Bob Dylan to play drums on Street-Legal. Collins, after four decades as one of rock’s most in-demand session men, rejoined Crimson in 2013 and has been reacquainting his tenor sax with “Cirkus”, “Sailor’s Tale” and more. For those listeners who intend to go the full distance with Sailors’ Tales, Collins – along with Fripp himself – will surely emerge as the boxset’s heroic figure. The ’71–’72 band is not over-fondly remembered by aficionados, perhaps, but it enabled King Crimson to get from B to C, and from D to E, and from there to wherever they are now.
Here, for your consideration, is Uncut's list of the 20 Best Films Of 2018. If you're interested in the administrative aspect of this list, it was voted for by a shadowy cabal of Uncut staffers, writers and a few trusted confidants. It broadly dovetails with my own personal Top 20, though I think th...
Here, for your consideration, is Uncut’s list of the 20 Best Films Of 2018. If you’re interested in the administrative aspect of this list, it was voted for by a shadowy cabal of Uncut staffers, writers and a few trusted confidants. It broadly dovetails with my own personal Top 20, though I think the film that’s stuck with me most throughout the year is the Good Time. And, in case you were wondering — no, we didn’t include Twin Peaks, because that’s a TV series not a film.
Much to look forward in the year ahead, by the way, starting with Paul Thomas Anderson’s Phantom Thread. But more about that nearer the time…
A new Bob Dylan compilation tied around the recent play Girl From The North Country has been announced.
Due on January 12 from Sony Music, the 2 CD set, The Music Which Inspired Girl From The North Country, comprises the original Dylan recordings of songs selected by writer/director Conor McPherson...
A new Bob Dylan compilation tied around the recent play Girl From The North Country has been announced.
Due on January 12 from Sony Music, the 2 CD set, The Music Which Inspired Girl From The North Country, comprises the original Dylan recordings of songs selected by writer/director Conor McPherson for his play.
The compilation follows the release of the Original London Cast Recording of Girl From The North Country, which is available now on CD and vinyl.
Girl From The North Country transfers to London’s Noël Coward Theatre on December 29.
The tracklisting is:
CD1 Sign On The Window [from ‘New Morning’, 1970] Went To See The Gypsy [from ‘New Morning’, 1970] Tight Connection To My Heart (Has Anybody Seen My Love) [from ‘Empire Burlesque, 1985] Slow Train [from ‘Slow Train Coming’, 1979] License To Kill [from ‘Infidels’, 1983] Ballad Of A Thin Man [from ‘Highway 61 Revisited’, 1965] I Want You [from ‘Blonde On Blonde’, 1966] Blind Willie McTell [from ‘The Bootleg Series Volumes 1-3 (Rare & Unreleased) 1961-1991’] Like A Rolling Stone [from ‘Highway 61 Revisited’, 1965] Make You Feel My Love [from ‘Time Out Of Mind’, 1997] You Ain’t Goin’ Nowhere [from ‘Bob Dylan’s Greatest Hits Volume II’, 1971] Jokerman [from ‘Infidels’, 1983] Sweetheart Like You [from ‘Infidels’, 1983]
CD2 True Love Tends To Forget [from ‘Street-Legal’, 1978] Girl From The North Country [from ‘The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan’, 1963] Hurricane [from ‘Desire’, 1975] All Along The Watchtower [from ‘John Wesley Harding’, 1967] Idiot Wind [from ‘Blood On The Tracks’, 1975] Lay Down Your Weary Tune [from ‘Biograph’, 1985] Duquesne Whistle [from ‘Tempest’, 2012] Señor (Tales Of Yankee Power) [from ‘Street-Legal’, 1978] Is Your Love In Vain? [from ‘Street-Legal’, 1978] Lay, Lady, Lay [from ‘Nashville Skyline’, 1969] Forever Young [from ‘Planet Waves’, 1974] My Back Pages [from ‘Another Side Of Bob Dylan’, 1964]
A small market town in North Nottinghamshire did not seem much of a musical hotspot in 1980. But when I bought Adam & The Ants’ Kings Of The Wild Frontier at the end of the year, the smallprint in the Catalogue that came with it revealed a slightly different story. On March 16, 1978, it transp...
A small market town in North Nottinghamshire did not seem much of a musical hotspot in 1980. But when I bought Adam & The Ants’ Kings Of The Wild Frontier at the end of the year, the smallprint in the Catalogue that came with it revealed a slightly different story. On March 16, 1978, it transpired, the Ants had played my local venue, Retford Porterhouse. Soon enough, I would discover that the Porterhouse was a place where gangs from the mining villages would come to fight on a Friday night, and where live bookings would mostly devolve into alternating visits from Doctor & The Medics and Guana Batz. But like so many other unpretentious clubs up and down Britain, the Porterhouse had its own discreet claims to fame, its own unexpected mythology.
The list of shows in the Ants’ Catalogue now reads as a litany of quondam rock landmarks: Middlesbrough Rock Garden and London Lyceum; Bishop’s Stortford Civic Hall and The Marquee Club. It’s a world that we revisit, with much affection, in the new issue of Uncut, on sale in the UK this Thursday (though subscribers may already have their copies). Our cover story is on the Great Lost Venues of the UK, and the stories about these eccentrically-run, hygienically-dubious dancehalls and backrooms are vivid, and our thanks go out to The Rolling Stones, The Who, Suede, The Damned, The Specials and many more musicians, managers, promoters and punters who shared their memories with us.
More poignant still, we discover the fates of these storied venues. Where once there were vibrant and unpredictable incubators of talent, now there are Irish theme pubs, luxury flats, swimsuit shops and old people’s homes. Grouped together, a picture emerges of an abandoned network; a live circuit that no longer exists, to the incalculable detriment of music in this country. “I feel for new bands, there’s nowhere for them to learn their trade,” Ray Davies tells us. “There aren’t many places where a musician is allowed to be bad.”
Elsewhere in the new issue we have an exclusive chat with Keith Richards. Richie Furay walks us through the brief and seismic story of Buffalo Springfield. There are interviews with Michael McDonald, The Sweet, Richard Hell, Jim White and This Is The Kit, and reviews of HC McEntire, First Aid Kit, Tune-Yards, Neil Young, Roy Harper, Willie Nelson, Fela Kuti, The Hold Steady and Rhiannon Giddens. Plus you’ll find the definitive guide to 2018’s key albums, featuring Jack White, Paul McCartney, Paul Weller, Johnny Marr, Father John Misty, The Breeders and My Bloody Valentine.
Plenty, hopefully, to see you through the season and up to speed for a brave new year. See you down Redcar Jazz Club!
A Rare Cheese, Podgy The Bear and The Ballad Of Jock And Yono? Join us on a seasonal journey through the lost BEATLES Christmas singles – a tale that involves surreal pantos, long-suffering fan club secretaries, unhinged experiments and Kenny Everett. And which tells, in a strange new way, how Joh...
A Rare Cheese, Podgy The Bear and The Ballad Of Jock And Yono? Join us on a seasonal journey through the lost BEATLES Christmas singles – a tale that involves surreal pantos, long-suffering fan club secretaries, unhinged experiments and Kenny Everett. And which tells, in a strange new way, how John, Paul, George and Ringo charmed the world with their in-jokes and irreverence, and how they slowly fell apart, while keeping up a festive front. Words: John Robinson
________________________________
For The Beatles, Christmas didn’t just come once a year – in December 1963, it arrived on no fewer than 30 separate occasions. A few weeks earlier, the group had lined up behind a barricade and shaken hands with fans at a convention in Wimbledon. Now, at shows supported by Cilla Black, The Fourmost and Billy J Kramer, they proved to be the gift that kept on giving.
Rather than a pure rock’n’roll event, the two-shows-a-night, 16-night stand that their manager Brian Epstein arranged for them at London’s Finsbury Park Astoria in December was all about displaying Beatle-related versatility at the festive season. NEMS Enterprises, newly moved to the capital, was not, after all, solely The Beatles’ management office, but an outfit that nurtured the careers of a wide roster of talent. Nor, in turn, were these simply pop stars – they were personalities, rounded entertainers, such as you might see on television.
“We didn’t just play the songs,” remembers Billy Hatton from The Fourmost. “The Beatles did some routines, we did some of our impersonations – to prove the versatility of the Liverpool fellers.”
As conceived by their director, Peter Yolland, the shows were “to change the concept of the pantomime”. In practice, they were a difficult fusion of theatre and rock’n’roll. The sets were wobbly, and the glittering performers’ rostrums so unstable they occasionally cut the power cables. Into this chaos then periodically emerged The Beatles, performing sketches in advance of their closing 30-minute set. The one sketch everyone remembers was one in which John Lennon (as the villainous “Sir Jasper”) tied a helpless damsel (George Harrison) to the railroad tracks.
“It was obvious it was the first time The Beatles had done anything like that, but they did it well,” remembers Peter Langford from The Barron Knights, who were on the bill backing Cilla and compère Rolf Harris. “The crowd could see the movements. But because of the screams it was impossible to hear what was going on.”
Screams, however, were inevitable. The Christmas shows rounded off a year that had seen Beatlemania spark with the August release of “She Loves You”, and catch light with the band’s October appearance on Sunday Night At The London Palladium. By the time John Lennon had told rich guests at the Royal Variety Performance to rattle their jewellery in early November, the phenomenon was out of control.
For Brian Epstein, whose theatrical ambitions led him to produce Alan Plater’s play Smashing Day, and even to buy a London theatre, the Saville, the Christmas shows were a vindication of his belief not just in The Beatles, but in a certain type of Beatles, positioned at the very heart of the mainstream.
He had seen the characterful, showbiz-appropriate charmers under the scowling leather-clad rockers, and now delighted in revealing them to the world. Wobbling scenery, screams, Rolf Harris and all, the Christmas shows (another followed in 1964) allowed Beatles fans to have as full an experience of the band’s characters as possible. They also showed the wisdom in Epstein’s central conviction: if he added professionalism to their abundant charm, nobody would be able to resist them.
“When they first started out their humour was very insular,” says Billy Hatton. “They used to have jokes, but they were in-jokes. They broadened it out – they were trying to improve themselves.”
It would not always be practical for them to play Christmas shows, but reaching out to their fans at this time of year would always be a responsibility The Beatles took seriously. Even when there was barely a Beatles to do so.
Nearly time to wrap up the year now, but I’m still fishing out more recommendations for my end of year albums list: this week including SZA, Delia Gonzalez and Prana Crafter. Elsewhere here: two righteous sets from my beloved Hiss Golden Messenger; Psychic Temple covering Curtis; Chris Dave, and m...
Nearly time to wrap up the year now, but I’m still fishing out more recommendations for my end of year albums list: this week including SZA, Delia Gonzalez and Prana Crafter. Elsewhere here: two righteous sets from my beloved Hiss Golden Messenger; Psychic Temple covering Curtis; Chris Dave, and many others from D’Angelo’s band, going it alone; Jack White’s tantalising collage; and a fantastic new one from Sunwatchers.
