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Introducing the new issue of Uncut…

John Mulvey
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Introducing the new issue of Uncut…
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!

Fab Christmas: inside The Beatles’ surreal, seasonal singles

John Robinson
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Fab Christmas: inside The Beatles’ surreal, seasonal singles
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.

The 47th Uncut Playlist Of 2017

John Mulvey
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The 47th Uncut Playlist Of 2017
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.

Follow me on Twitter @JohnRMulvey

1 Nicole Mitchell – Mandorla Awakening II: Emerging Worlds (FPE)

Mandorla Awakening II: Emerging Worlds by Nicole Mitchell

2 Psychic Temple – We Got to Have Peace (Joyful Noise)

Holiday Party, Vol. 1 by Psychic Temple

3 Ty Segall – Freedom’s Goblin (Drag City)

Freedom’s Goblin by Ty Segall

4 Chris Dave And The Drumhedz – Destiny N Stereo (Feat. Elzhi, Phonte Coleman & Eric Roberson) (Blue Note)

5 Tomaga – Memory In Vivo Exposure (Hands In The Dark)

6 Hiss Golden Messenger – Bowery Ballroom, New York 7/12/17 (nyctaper.com)

7 SZA – Ctrl (Top Dawg)

8 Delia Gonzalez – Horse Follows Darkness (DFA)

Horse Follows Darkness by Delia Gonzalez

9 Jack White – Servings And Portions From My Boarding House Reach (Third Man)

10 Amir El Saffar/Rivers Of Sound – Not Two (New Amsterdam)

Not Two by Amir ElSaffar / Rivers of Sound

11 Brigid Mae Power – The Two Worlds (Tompkins Square)

12 Hiss Golden Messenger – Bowery Ballroom, New York 8/12/17 (nyctaper.com)

13 Creep Show – Mr Dynamite (Bella Union)

14 Hamad Kalkaba And The Golden Sounds – 1974-1975 (Analog Africa)

15 Jaimie Branch – Fly Or Die (International Anthem)

Fly or Die by jaimie branch

16 Gospel Of Mars – Gospel Of Mars (Amish)

17 Prana Crafter – MindStreamBlessing (Eiderdown)

Prana Crafter “MindStreamBlessing” by Prana Crafter

18 Sunwatchers – II (Trouble In Mind)

19 Robert Stillman – Portals (Orindal)

20 Amir ElSaffar & The Two Rivers Ensemble – Crisis (Pi)

Crisis by Amir ElSaffar & The Two Rivers Ensemble

21 Desertion Trio – Midtown Tilt (Shhpuma/Clean Feed)

22 Flying Saucer Attack – In Search Of Spaces (VHF)

23 Iggy Pop & Jarvis Cocker – Red Right Hand (Rough Trade)

Hear Jarvis Cocker and Iggy Pop cover Nick Cave’s “Red Right Hand”

Michael Bonner
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Hear Jarvis Cocker and Iggy Pop cover Nick Cave’s “Red Right Hand”
Jarvis Cocker and Iggy Pop have recorded a version of Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds' "Red Right Hand". The song appears as the theme tune to the Peaky Blinders TV series. Their version featured in this week’s episode, broadcasted last night on the BBC, and it is available on all digital platforms n...

Jarvis Cocker and Iggy Pop have recorded a version of Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds‘ “Red Right Hand“.

The song appears as the theme tune to the Peaky Blinders TV series.

Their version featured in this week’s episode, broadcasted last night on the BBC, and it is available on all digital platforms now.

The January 2018 issue of Uncut is now on sale in the UK – with Bruce Springsteen on the cover. We also celebrate the best of the last 12 months with our Ultimate Review Of 2017 – featuring the best albums, reissues, films and books of the year. Elsewhere in the issue, there are new interviews with LCD Soundsystem, Bjork, The Weather Station, Hurray For The Riff Raff, Mavis Staples and more. Our free 15 track-CD celebrates the best music from 2017.

David Byrne announces 2018 tour

Michael Bonner
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David Byrne announces 2018 tour
David Byrne has announced an upcoming solo tour – his first in nine years. He will be performing a small number of shows on the American East Coast and South America, as well as European festivals including Inmusic in Croatia and Roskilde, Denmark. A number of new songs, as well as more familiar...

David Byrne has announced an upcoming solo tour – his first in nine years.

He will be performing a small number of shows on the American East Coast and South America, as well as European festivals including Inmusic in Croatia and Roskilde, Denmark.

A number of new songs, as well as more familiar tunes, will hit the setlist.

“I’m excited. This is the most ambitious show I’ve done since the shows that were filmed for Stop Making Sense, so fingers crossed,” he wrote on Twitter.

The musician also detailed an ambitious visual approach for the show, centred on his band using mobile instruments.

“With everyone mobile, I realized the stage could be completely clear. If we could have the monitors in our ears, the amps off-stage and the lights up high, then we had the possibility of a completely empty space,” he told Brooklyn Vegan.

He then revealed the difficulty in hiding the “people and gear” around the stage, initially considering drapes before settling on lightweight chains.

“It takes color beautifully. Not only does it take color, one can cast shadows on the chain,” he said.

David Byrne’s tour dates below:

March 3: Red Bank, NJ, USA – Count Basie Theatre
March 4: Wilkes-Barre, PA, USA – F.M. Kirby Center For The Performing Art
March 6: Buffalo, NY, USA – Center For The Arts
March 7: Hershey, PA, USA – Hershey Theatre
March 9: Waterbury, CT, USA – Palace Theater
March 10: Kingston, NY, USA – Ulster Performing Arts Center
March 16: Santiago, Chile – Lollapalooza Chile
March 18 Buenos Aires, Argentina – Lollapalooza Argentina
June 25: Zagreb, Croatia – Inmusic Festival
July 06: Roskilde, Denmark – Roskilde Festival

The January 2018 issue of Uncut is now on sale in the UK – with Bruce Springsteen on the cover. We also celebrate the best of the last 12 months with our Ultimate Review Of 2017 – featuring the best albums, reissues, films and books of the year. Elsewhere in the issue, there are new interviews with LCD Soundsystem, Bjork, The Weather Station, Hurray For The Riff Raff, Mavis Staples and more. Our free 15 track-CD celebrates the best music from 2017.

Jack White reveals “Servings And Portions From My Boarding House Reach”

Michael Bonner
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Jack White reveals “Servings And Portions From My Boarding House Reach”
Jack White has released a a four-minute collage containing new music. Titled “Servings And Portions From My Boarding House Reach”, the clip mixes vocal lines, guitar riffs and beats with other sonic textures. You can watch the film below. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QClzlZTXj4Y The Janua...

Jack White has released a a four-minute collage containing new music.

Titled “Servings And Portions From My Boarding House Reach”, the clip mixes vocal lines, guitar riffs and beats with other sonic textures.

You can watch the film below.

The January 2018 issue of Uncut is now on sale in the UK – with Bruce Springsteen on the cover. We also celebrate the best of the last 12 months with our Ultimate Review Of 2017 – featuring the best albums, reissues, films and books of the year. Elsewhere in the issue, there are new interviews with LCD Soundsystem, Bjork, The Weather Station, Hurray For The Riff Raff, Mavis Staples and more. Our free 15 track-CD celebrates the best music from 2017.

Introducing Kate Bush: The Ultimate Music Guide

John Mulvey
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Introducing Kate Bush: The Ultimate Music Guide
Forty years ago next month, a very weird debut single was released, against the better judgment of the record company, EMI. The executives were keen on "James And The Cold Gun" as the best way to launch their new prodigy. Kate Bush, though, had other ideas. “I felt that to actually get your name ...

Forty years ago next month, a very weird debut single was released, against the better judgment of the record company, EMI. The executives were keen on “James And The Cold Gun” as the best way to launch their new prodigy. Kate Bush, though, had other ideas.

“I felt that to actually get your name anywhere, you’ve got to do something that is unusual,” she told Melody Maker’s Harry Doherty, “because there’s so much good music around and it’s all in a similar vein.” “Wuthering Heights”, by most measures, was not much like the other good music around in 1978. It was a world away from punk, though its antic, non-conformist spirit would gain the admiration of prime iconoclasts like John Lydon. It made sense to both prog and pop fans, but occupied a hitherto unexplored interzone somewhere between the two extremes. The effect was remarkable and, it seemed, not a little unhinged. Even in the volatile charts of the 1970s, success felt like a long shot.

And yet, of course, “Wuthering Heights” went to Number One, and Kate Bush immediately disproved those who believed that its ravishing eccentricities were the hallmarks of a one-hit wonder. Over 40 years, Bush’s music has become a cornerstone of the British canon: idiosyncratic, potent, proudly beyond fashion or expectation.

We celebrate these 40 years in a deluxe, updated version of our Ultimate Music Guide to Kate Bush, out in the UK on Thursday (but available now in our online shop). It’s the usual deal: forensic and revealing essays on every one of her albums contributed by Uncut’s finest writers, alongside a host of interviews we’ve taken from the archives of NME and Melody Maker. They show an artist who slowly gains the confidence to assert herself and – very slowly – gains the respect of the press. But also one whose idiosyncratic vision, and whose determination to bring that vision to fruition, has been there right from the start.

In the autumn of 1980, a rather excited Melody Maker journalist found himself in a Munich TV studio, watching Bush perform “Babushka” while she danced enthusiastically with a double bass. Like many male writers drawn into the presence of Bush at that time, there’s a certain vigour to his descriptions which doesn’t come across awfully well.

Nevertheless, once the show was over, the interview with Bush is fascinating. She talks about wanting to tour again, about the books and films that have influenced her, about the permeable lines between confession and fiction. “I rarely write purely personal songs from experience,” she says. “I worry about being too indulgent and giving too much away.” A little later, she is discussing the specifics of “Army Dreamers”, sung from the perspective of a mother mourning a son killed in action. “I seem to link on to mothers rather well,” she admits. “I find it fascinating about mothers, that there’s something in there, a kind of maternal passion which is there all the time, even when they’re talking about cheese sandwiches. Sometimes it can be very possessive, sometimes it’s very real.”

Even at her most elliptical, there is a clarity and consistency to Kate Bush which, looking back, seems a lot more obvious now than it might have done at the time. Latterly, for instance, the maternal fortitude implied in 1980 has become an explicit part of the most recent phase of her career, culminating in Before The Dawn – a theatrical spectacular inspired by her son Bertie McIntosh, and a showcase of his talents as a “very talented actor and beautiful singer,” as his mother wrote in her programme notes.

This, then, is the story of Kate Bush, a genius on her own remarkable trajectory. “There are always so many voices telling me what to do that you can’t listen to them,” she told another Melody Maker journalist in 1985. “All I ever do is listen to the little voices inside me. I don’t want to disappoint the little voices that have been so good to me…”

 

Johnny Marr and Maxine Peake collaborate on new track, “The Priest”

Michael Bonner
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Johnny Marr and Maxine Peake collaborate on new track, “The Priest”
Johnny Marr and Maxine Peake have collaborated on a new project, which sets Peake’s spoken word performances to Marr’s instrumental soundscapes. The first taster of the project comes with the lead track "The Priest", which is out now. "The Priest" is based upon the characters that Joe Gallagher...

Johnny Marr and Maxine Peake have collaborated on a new project, which sets Peake’s spoken word performances to Marr’s instrumental soundscapes. The first taster of the project comes with the lead track “The Priest“, which is out now.

“The Priest” is based upon the characters that Joe Gallagher met on the streets in the first few days after becoming homeless in Edinburgh. Gallagher wrote a diary of his experiences for the Big Issue under the pseudonym James Campbell when he first became homeless in May 2015 and continued until he found a new home in March 2016.

“I wanted to do something different and I thought of asking Maxine to collaborate having been a fan of her work,” says Marr. “We started a creative process that clicked and culminated in ‘The Priest’, a song and short film inspired by a facet of modern life as we see it and feel it.”

The accompanying short film for the track was filmed in Manchester and features Molly Windsor, who recently alongside Peake in the BBC drama Three Girls.

Johnny Marr is due to release his third solo album in spring 2018.

The January 2018 issue of Uncut is now on sale in the UK – with Bruce Springsteen on the cover. We also celebrate the best of the last 12 months with our Ultimate Review Of 2017 – featuring the best albums, reissues, films and books of the year. Elsewhere in the issue, there are new interviews with LCD Soundsystem, Bjork, The Weather Station, Hurray For The Riff Raff, Mavis Staples and more. Our free 15 track-CD celebrates the best music from 2017.

Tim Buckley – Venice Mating Call / Greetings From West Hollywood

David Cavanagh
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Tim Buckley – Venice Mating Call / Greetings From West Hollywood
Some live albums document a tour. Others are souvenirs of a single, magnetic performance. And then there are others, like a 
Tim Buckley album issued in 1994 by the LA-based Manifesto label, that seem to chronicle not so much an event as an essence. Connecting us to the voice and vision of a long-...

Some live albums document a tour. Others are souvenirs of a single, magnetic performance. And then there are others, like a 
Tim Buckley album issued in 1994 by the LA-based Manifesto label, that seem to chronicle not so much an event as an essence. Connecting us to the voice and vision of a long-departed cult hero, Live At The Troubadour 1969 shone a light on two September evenings when Buckley forged new directions in folk-jazz at a West Hollywood nightclub. Receiving some good reviews, the album joined two prior live releases, Peel Sessions and Dream Letter: Live In London 1968, in his posthumous catalogue.

Buckley would have turned 70 this year, a poignant anniversary that evidently prompted Manifesto – run by Evan Cohen, a nephew of Buckley’s former manager Herb – to have another rummage in its archives. Venice Mating Call and Greetings From West Hollywood have been assembled from the same shows as Live At The Troubadour, drawing on five sets that Buckley performed over two nights (four before an audience, one a rehearsal) and repeating none of the versions that made up the 1994 album. Between them, Venice Mating Call and Greetings From West Hollywood add about two hours and 45 minutes of unreleased material to what’s out there.

Buckley, just 22 when these gigs took place, was about to make his fourth and final album for Jac Holzman’s Elektra label. Launched as a folk-rocker in 1966, he now viewed himself primarily as a jazz singer, which may be one reason why these albums often occupy a similar meditative headspace to Astral Weeks; rather than racing to the point, Buckley turns single words and individual syllables into lingering, probing ecstasies. Indeed, he’s transported within seconds of strumming his first chord on “Buzzin’ Fly”, the opening song on both albums, and immediately can be heard humming to himself, squealing, yelping, moaning sensually and – on Venice Mating Call – happily whistling.

The albums take somewhat different routes, offering alternative views of roughly the same setlist, before they really start to cook around track five or six. Venice Mating Call, a two-disc set, achieves take-off on “Gypsy Woman”, from Buckley’s then-current album Happy Sad. Lee Underwood, his lead guitarist, switches to electric piano 
and a groove starts up. Rolling and pulsing like Bitches Brew, it withdraws into a long percussion-only section, whereupon another groove gets going and Underwood returns to his guitar. Throughout all the changes, a delirious Buckley seems hellbent on locating every note in his four-octave range in whichever order he sees fit. It’s an astounding feat of singing. Really, the producers of The Voice should send an MP3 of “Gypsy Woman” to every applicant and tell them to try again 
in 10 years.

A similar epiphany, meanwhile, occurs in “Nobody Walkin’” on Greetings From West Hollywood. After a discouraging start (“Sounds horrible,” Buckley mutters), it soon livens up (“Yeah! All night long!”) and – again – Buckley rhapsodises and free-associates while his band play a Bitches Brew electric piano groove for a head-nodding 12 minutes. This is some pretty advanced stuff for the Troubadour crowd. Miles Davis had recorded Bitches Brew in New York only a fortnight earlier, and nobody outside Columbia Records would hear any of it until the following March.

Not every song on these sets will send people scurrying to check the recording dates of groundbreaking jazz-rock records. A lot of Buckley’s music is easy to lie back and luxuriate in. No Mingus or Dolphy expertise is needed to appreciate the sweet, swoony words and serene tempo of “Blue Melody”, for instance. But it’s telling that, with Happy Sad not even two months old, Buckley was already previewing the next album he would make (Lorca) and the one after that (Blue Afternoon), while pointedly ignoring the one that had won him his plaudits in the first place (Goodbye And Hello).

Spread across the second disc of Venice Mating Call are the five songs from Lorca – a formidable, fanbase-polarising step into the unknown 
that even the avowedly pro-artist Holzman found hard to swallow. 
Its title track, not yet saturated in 
that eerie pipe organ, is performed 
on a marimba and lacks the scary drama of the studio version.

Other tracks, however, are fully formed. Literally so in the case of “Driftin’”, which, give or take a bit of EQing, is revealed to be the same eight minutes of music that appears on Lorca’s second side. It gets a great reception, too. How ironic to hear Buckley’s fans in 1969 warmly applauding an album that would alienate so many of them when it 
came out in 1970.

Attractively presented and well recorded, Venice Mating Call and Greetings From West Hollywood will 
be lapped up by Buckley completists and should appeal to casual fans of Happy Sad and Blue Afternoon. Issuing this music as two separate 1CD and 2CD packages does seem an unnecessarily pedantic way of making it available, though, especially as the sets duplicate two songs (“Blue Melody” and “Chase The Blues Away”) and share identical sleevenotes. Wouldn’t an all-embracing 3CD release have been a more sensible idea? But then, if everything in the world made sense, Tim Buckley 
would still be alive.

The January 2018 issue of Uncut is now on sale in the UK – with Bruce Springsteen on the cover. We also celebrate the best of the last 12 months with our Ultimate Review Of 2017 – featuring the best albums, reissues, films and books of the year. Elsewhere in the issue, there are new interviews with LCD Soundsystem, Bjork, The Weather Station, Hurray For The Riff Raff, Mavis Staples and more. Our free 15 track-CD celebrates the best music from 2017.

The Cure to play London’s Hyde Park

Michael Bonner
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The Cure to play London’s Hyde Park
The Cure have announced details of an exclusive European concert for 2018. The show marks the band's 40th anniversary. The band will play Barclaycard presents British Summer Time Hyde Park on Saturday July 7. The bill also features Interpol, Goldfrapp, Ride, Editors, Slowdive and The Twilight Sad. ...

The Cure have announced details of an exclusive European concert for 2018. The show marks the band’s 40th anniversary.

The band will play Barclaycard presents British Summer Time Hyde Park on Saturday July 7. The bill also features Interpol, Goldfrapp, Ride, Editors, Slowdive and The Twilight Sad.

Fanclub and Barclaycard presale begins today (Tuesday, December 12) while general sale begins on Friday, December 15.

The Cure are the latest edition to this year’s line-up for concerts, which also includes Roger Waters and Eric Clapton.

The January 2018 issue of Uncut is now on sale in the UK – with Bruce Springsteen on the cover. We also celebrate the best of the last 12 months with our Ultimate Review Of 2017 – featuring the best albums, reissues, films and books of the year. Elsewhere in the issue, there are new interviews with LCD Soundsystem, Bjork, The Weather Station, Hurray For The Riff Raff, Mavis Staples and more. Our free 15 track-CD celebrates the best music from 2017.

Watch Björk’s new video for “Utopia”

Michael Bonner
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Watch Björk’s new video for “Utopia”
Björk has released a video for the title track of her recently released album, Utopia. It is the third promo film to come from the album, which is the singer's ninth. The video is directed by Nick Thornton Jones and Wareen Du Preez. You can watch the video below. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=...

Björk has released a video for the title track of her recently released album, Utopia.

It is the third promo film to come from the album, which is the singer’s ninth. The video is directed by Nick Thornton Jones and Wareen Du Preez.

You can watch the video below.

The January 2018 issue of Uncut is now on sale in the UK – with Bruce Springsteen on the cover. We also celebrate the best of the last 12 months with our Ultimate Review Of 2017 – featuring the best albums, reissues, films and books of the year. Elsewhere in the issue, there are new interviews with LCD Soundsystem, Bjork, The Weather Station, Hurray For The Riff Raff, Mavis Staples and more. Our free 15 track-CD celebrates the best music from 2017.

Neil Young’s 1953 Buick Roadmaster Skylark sells for £300,000 at auction

Michael Bonner
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Neil Young’s 1953 Buick Roadmaster Skylark sells for £300,000 at auction
Neil Young's collection of classic cars, model trains and gear were auctioned on Saturday, December 9 at Julien’s Auctions in Los Angeles. A portion of proceeds from the auction went to The Bridge School, which Young and his ex-wife Pegi Young co-founded in 1986 for children with severe speech an...

Neil Young‘s collection of classic cars, model trains and gear were auctioned on Saturday, December 9 at Julien’s Auctions in Los Angeles.

A portion of proceeds from the auction went to The Bridge School, which Young and his ex-wife Pegi Young co-founded in 1986 for children with severe speech and physical impairments.

Young’s 1953 Buick code 76X Roadmaster Skylark convertible with a steering wheel hub that says, “Customized for Neil Young,” went for $400,000 (£299,230.98), the auction house said on Saturday. A rare 1941 Chrysler Series 28 Windsor Highlander 2-Door 3-Person Coupe, which was once owned by Steve McQueen according to Young, that sold for $35,200 (£26,332.33).

Young, a model train enthusiast for decades, offered more than 230 pieces from his collection of Lionel trains, including a custom-painted Commodore Vanderbilt 4-6-4 locomotive that sold for $10,000 (£7,480.77).

Of the musical gear, a 1977 Martin D-19 acoustic 6-string guitar played by Young on “Goin’ Back” and “Human Highway” on the 1978 Comes A Time album and on “Lost in Space” from 1980’s Hawks & Doves, sold for $43,750 (£32,728.39) well above its original estimate $2,000 – $3,000.

The January 2018 issue of Uncut is now on sale in the UK – with Bruce Springsteen on the cover. We also celebrate the best of the last 12 months with our Ultimate Review Of 2017 – featuring the best albums, reissues, films and books of the year. Elsewhere in the issue, there are new interviews with LCD Soundsystem, Bjork, The Weather Station, Hurray For The Riff Raff, Mavis Staples and more. Our free 15 track-CD celebrates the best music from 2017.

Exclusive! Watch the new video for Gregg Allman’s “Song For Adam”

Michael Bonner
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Exclusive! Watch the new video for Gregg Allman’s “Song For Adam”
To celebrate what would have been Gregg Allman's 70th birthday today, we're delighted to bring you the new music video for "Song For Adam" from Allman's posthumous album, Southern Blood. The song was written and features background vocals by Allman's longtime friend, Jackson Browne. The video its...

To celebrate what would have been Gregg Allman‘s 70th birthday today, we’re delighted to bring you the new music video for “Song For Adam” from Allman’s posthumous album, Southern Blood.

The song was written and features background vocals by Allman’s longtime friend, Jackson Browne.

The video itself was directed by Erica Alexandria Silverman and stars Zach Chance (Jamestown Revival), Yates Robertson, Zoe Graham, and Johnny McPhail. It was filmed entirely in Texas.

You can read Uncut’s review of Southern Blood by clicking here.

The January 2018 issue of Uncut is now on sale in the UK – with Bruce Springsteen on the cover. We also celebrate the best of the last 12 months with our Ultimate Review Of 2017 – featuring the best albums, reissues, films and books of the year. Elsewhere in the issue, there are new interviews with LCD Soundsystem, Bjork, The Weather Station, Hurray For The Riff Raff, Mavis Staples and more. Our free 15 track-CD celebrates the best music from 2017.

Bang! The Bert Berns Story

Michael Bonner
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Bang! The Bert Berns Story
Bert Berns was a triple threat: writer, producer and, according to Exciters singer Brenda Reid, “white soul brother”. A swaggering, charismatic Bronx boy who wrote dozens of classics – “Piece Of My Heart”, “Under The Boardwalk”, “Here Comes The Night” and “Twist And Shout” amon...

Bert Berns was a triple threat: writer, producer and, according to Exciters singer Brenda Reid, “white soul brother”. A swaggering, charismatic Bronx boy who wrote dozens of classics – “Piece Of My Heart”, “Under The Boardwalk”, “Here Comes The Night” and “Twist And Shout” among them – Berns was “one of the greatest songwriters of all bloody time”, according to Keith Richards, one of several stellar interviewees in a film narrated, with full Noo Yawk brio, by Stevie Van Zandt.

It’s a colourful tale, mostly pieced together by wiseacre Brill Building types talking out of the sides of their mouths. Mobsters pepper the narrative and tall tales abound. When 35-year-old Berns marries Ilena, a “22-year-old Jewish go-go dancer”, his mother warns him her youthful beauty will prove fatal to a heart weakened by a childhood bout of rheumatic fever. Aware that his time on earth was likely to be limited, Berns lived life to the full, but an underlying sadness played out in his songs. They were “complex and neurotic” pieces, says his biographer, “masquerading as teenage records”.

His love of Cuba – he claimed to have run guns and drugs for the revolution – can be heard in his early hits for Atlantic, including Solomon Burke’s “Cry To Me” and The Exciters’ “Tell Him”, which introduced Afro-Cuban rhythms to rock’n’roll and R&B. After The Beatles covered “Twist And Shout” and The Rolling Stones recorded “Everybody Needs Somebody To Love”, Berns travelled to London to scout talent, working briefly with Them. Van Morrison pops up in Ray-Bans and Barbour jacket, in unusually gracious form. “The guy was a genius,” he says. 
“A brilliant songwriter with a lot of soul.”

Later, Berns formed BANG! Records and made “Brown Eyed Girl” with Morrison, as well as launching the career of Neil Diamond. By now, he has “money coming out the yin-yang” and is bosom buddies with Tommy Eboli, head of the Genovese crime family, “a knee-buster and leg-breaker of the first order”. When things go awry, Diamond is threatened and his manager mugged. Morrison goes through similar torture. A spectacular feud with Jerry Wexler, Berns’ mentor and business partner, ends with GoodFellas levels of intimidation. His desk is loaded with pill bottles and a revolver, and “he seemed stressed all the time” – which coming from Van Morrison is saying something.

Berns’ fragile heart finally failed on December 30, 1967, aged 38. “I don’t know where he’s buried, but if I did I’d piss on his grave,” was Wexler’s eulogy. This vibrant film – while acknowledging the dark stuff – offers a more generous assessment of a man who, says Paul McCartney, “deserves 
to be elevated to his rightful place”.

The January 2018 issue of Uncut is now on sale in the UK – with Bruce Springsteen on the cover. We also celebrate the best of the last 12 months with our Ultimate Review Of 2017 – featuring the best albums, reissues, films and books of the year. Elsewhere in the issue, there are new interviews with LCD Soundsystem, Bjork, The Weather Station, Hurray For The Riff Raff, Mavis Staples and more. Our free 15 track-CD celebrates the best music from 2017.

Roxy Music to release a super deluxe edition box set of their debut album

Michael Bonner
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Roxy Music to release a super deluxe edition box set of their debut album
Roxy Music have announced details of a box set devoted to their self-titled debut album. It'll be released by UMC on February 2, 2018. It'll be available as a four-disc Super Deluxe Edition featuring previously unreleased demos, outtakes, radio sessions, rare footage and 136-page book. Meanwhile, ...

Roxy Music have announced details of a box set devoted to their self-titled debut album.

It’ll be released by UMC on February 2, 2018.

It’ll be available as a four-disc Super Deluxe Edition featuring previously unreleased demos, outtakes, radio sessions, rare footage and 136-page book. Meanwhile, the whole album has been remixed in 5.1 by Steven Wilson.

A deluxe 2CD set, featuring a 24-page booklet, will also be released, as well as a digital version and on 180GM vinyl.

Speaking today about the band’s debut, guitarist Phil Manzanera commented, “At 21, my musical dreams came true, recording this album with these wonderfully talented and unique band members. Magical times, magical music.”

Saxophonist Andy Mackay recalls, “Late ’71/’72 Roxy was our Arts Lab. The place where we exchanged ideas and dreams freely and created and explored a new sound landscape. We stepped into Command Studios with a complete album in our heads (and half the next one) and it only needed the tape to start running… no album was as easy to record again.”

Drummer Paul Thompson: “The first Roxy Music album was my opportunity to create. I wasn’t used to this type of line-up, I was used to being in guitar-based bands but always wanted to broaden my horizons and here was my chance. A landmark in the history of pop!”

Looking back on the album, Bryan Ferry reflected, “We never really felt accepted, I can see how the old guard would have felt threatened by it, because it was so jammed full of ideas and a massive amount of energy. But we hadn’t paid our dues, not in the same way. And we’re still not a part of it, not really, even to this day. That’s been very hard over the years, to try and make it work without being one of them. The ‘them’ is always different, but we’re not part of it. It’s been one of the triumphs, that we’ve managed to stay sane. Or sane-ish. We’re a part of it all, somehow, but still on the outside.”

Here’s the tracklisting for the Super Deluxe Edition:

DISC ONE THE ALBUM

Re-Make/Re-Model
Ladytron
If Tere Is Something
Virginia Plain
2 H.B.
The Bob (Medley)
Chance Meeting
Would You Believe?
Sea Breezes
Bitters End

DISC TWO DEMOS & OUT-TAKES

EARLY DEMOS April/May 71
Ladytron
2 HB
Chance Meeting
The Bob (Medley)

ALBUM OUT-TAKES
Instrumental
Re-Make/Re-Model
Ladytron
If There Is Something
2 H.B.
The Bob (Medley)
Chance Meeting
Sea Breezes
Bitters End
Virginia Plain

DISC THREE THE BBC SESSIONS

THE PEEL SESSIONS 4/1/72
If There Is Something
The Bob (Medley)
Would You Believe?
Sea Breezes
Re-Make/Re-Model

THE PEEL SESSIONS 25/5/72
2 HB
Ladytron
Chance Meeting

THE PEEL SESSIONS 25/5/72
Virginia Plain
If There Is Something

BBC IN CONCERT 3/8/72
The Bob (Medley)
Sea Breezes
Virginia Plain
Chance Meeting
Re-Make/Re-Model

DVD
The full album remixed in 5.1 by Steven Wilson

VIDEOS
Re-Make/Re-Model
The Royal College Of Art, 6/6/72
Ladytron
The Old Grey Whistle Test, 20/6/72
Virginia Plain
Top Of The Pops, 24/8/72
Re-Make/Re-Model
Full House, 25/11/72
Ladytron
Full House, 25/11/72
Would You Believe
French TV, Bataclan, Paris, 26/11/72
If There Is Something
French TV, Bataclan, Paris, 26/11/72
Sea Breezes
French TV, Bataclan, Paris, 26/11/72
Virginia Plain
French TV, Bataclan, Paris, 26/11/72

The two disc set features the album and also the BBC material, including the Peel sessions and In Concert.

You can pre-order the album here.

The January 2018 issue of Uncut is now on sale in the UK – with Bruce Springsteen on the cover. We also celebrate the best of the last 12 months with our Ultimate Review Of 2017 – featuring the best albums, reissues, films and books of the year. Elsewhere in the issue, there are new interviews with LCD Soundsystem, Bjork, The Weather Station, Hurray For The Riff Raff, Mavis Staples and more. Our free 15 track-CD celebrates the best music from 2017.

The 46th Uncut Playlist Of 2017

John Mulvey
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The 46th Uncut Playlist Of 2017
Thanks for all your kind messages about my favourite albums of 2017 list. I’ve spent some of the last two or three days picking through some other interesting end-of-year charts and investigating what I’d missed. Especially useful have been Marc Masters’ thread on Twitter of neglected records ...

Thanks for all your kind messages about my favourite albums of 2017 list. I’ve spent some of the last two or three days picking through some other interesting end-of-year charts and investigating what I’d missed. Especially useful have been Marc Masters’ thread on Twitter of neglected records

and Stewart Smith’s Jazz list for The Quietus, which lead me to the superb Amir El Saffar/Rivers Of Sound and Nicole Mitchell records: please check them out.

A good crop of new 2018 things here, too, kicked off by what I think may be Ty Segall’s best ever LP. I never thought I’d have cause to recommend a Hot Chocolate, but here we are – it’s a killer. Also strongly recommended among this lot: the expanded Hiss Golden Messenger letting fly on the Seth Meyers show; Jerry David DeCicca’s Cohenish reverie; Pharrell and NERD bringing the Dead Kennedys; Kate Carr (from Marc’s fine list); and, at last, something from the terrific Tomaga record I’ve been playing a hell of a lot…

Follow me on Twitter @JohnRMulvey

1 Ty Segall – Freedom’s Goblin (Drag City)

Freedom’s Goblin by Ty Segall

2 Neil Young – Live At Coronation Hall, Omemee, Canada 1/12/17

3 The Hold Steady – Entitlement Crew/A Snake In The Shower (Bandcamp)

Entitlement Crew b/w A Snake In The Shower by The Hold Steady

4 Brigid Mae Power – The Two Worlds (Tompkins Square)

5 Robert Stillman – Portals (Orindal)

6 The Lightmen – Free As You Wanna Be (Now Again)

7 Bedouine – Louise (Spacebomb)

8 Imarhan – Temet (City Slang)

9 Jonathan Wilson – Rare Birds (Bella Union)

10 Desertion Trio – Midtown Tilt (Shhpuma/Clean Feed)

11 Bitchin Bajas – Bajas Fresh (Drag City)

12 Olden Yolk – Olden Yolk (Trouble In Mind)

13 Hiss Golden Messenger – Domino (Time Will Tell) (Late Night With Seth Meyers)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LkOrhGkka_Y

14 Hans Chew – Open Sea (At The Helm)

15 Gwenno – Le Kov (Heavenly)

16 Björk – Utopia (One Little Indian)

17 NERD & Future – 1000 (RCA)

18 Tyshawn Sorey – Verisimilitude (Pi)

Verisimilitude by Tyshawn Sorey

19 HC McEntire – Lionheart (Merge)

20 Amir El Saffar/Rivers Of Sound – Not Two (New Amsterdam)

Not Two by Amir ElSaffar / Rivers of Sound

21 Tomaga – Memory In Vivo Exposure (Hands In The Dark)

22 Kate Carr – The Story Surrounds Us (Helen Scarsdale)

The Story Surrounds Us by Kate Carr

23 Nicole Mitchell – Mandorla Awakening II: Emerging Worlds (FPE)

Mandorla Awakening II: Emerging Worlds by Nicole Mitchell

24 Jerry David DeCicca – Time The Teacher (Impossible Ark)

 

Ask Gary Numan

Michael Bonner
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Ask Gary Numan
With a new album Savage: Songs From A Broken World on sale now and a run of UK dates coming up in March, Gary Numan has a commendably busy schedule at present. But in a rare moment of downtime, he's agreed to answer your questions as part of our regular An Audience With… feature. So is there anyt...

With a new album Savage: Songs From A Broken World on sale now and a run of UK dates coming up in March, Gary Numan has a commendably busy schedule at present. But in a rare moment of downtime, he’s agreed to answer your questions as part of our regular An Audience With… feature.

So is there anything you’ve always wanted to ask the legendary techno-warrior?

Would he ever reform Tubeway Army?
What’s his biggest extravagance?
Did he ever meet David Bowie?

Send up your questions by noon, Monday, December 18 to uncutaudiencewith@timeinc.com.

The best questions, and Gary’s answers, will be published in a future edition of Uncut magazine.

The January 2018 issue of Uncut is now on sale in the UK – with Bruce Springsteen on the cover. We also celebrate the best of the last 12 months with our Ultimate Review Of 2017 – featuring the best albums, reissues, films and books of the year. Elsewhere in the issue, there are new interviews with LCD Soundsystem, Bjork, The Weather Station, Hurray For The Riff Raff, Mavis Staples and more. Our free 15 track-CD celebrates the best music from 2017.

New Jimi Hendrix album includes 10 previously unreleased songs

Michael Bonner
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New Jimi Hendrix album includes 10 previously unreleased songs
A 'new' Jimi Hendrix album will contain 10 songs which have never before been released. Both Sides Of The Sky is due on March 9 from Experience Hendrix and Legacy Recordings on CD, digitally and as a numbered 180 gram audiophile vinyl 2LP. The songs were recorded between 1968 and 1970. Many of th...

A ‘new’ Jimi Hendrix album will contain 10 songs which have never before been released.

Both Sides Of The Sky is due on March 9 from Experience Hendrix and Legacy Recordings on CD, digitally and as a numbered 180 gram audiophile vinyl 2LP.

The songs were recorded between 1968 and 1970. Many of them feature the trio that would come to be known as Band Of Gypsys: Hendrix on guitar and vocals, Billy Cox on bass and Buddy Miles on drums. “Hear My Train A Comin'” features the original line-up from the Jimi Hendrix Experience: Hendrix, bassist Noel Redding and drummer Mitch Mitchell.

The album includes notable guest collaborators including Stephen Stills, Dallas Taylor, Johnny Winter and vocalist/saxophonist Lonnie Youngblood who played with Hendrix in Curtis Knight & the Squires.

The tracklisting for Both Sides Of The Sky is:

“Mannish Boy” (previously unreleased)
“Lover Man” (previously unreleased)
“Hear My Train A Comin'” (previously unreleased)
“Stepping Stone” (previously unreleased)
“$20 Fine” (previously unreleased, featuring Stephen Stills)
“Power Of Soul” (previously unavailable extended version)
“Jungle” (previously unreleased)
“Things I Used to Do” (featuring Johnny Winter)
“Georgia Blues” (featuring Lonnie Youngblood)
“Sweet Angel” (previously unreleased)
“Woodstock” (previously unreleased, featuring Stephen Stills)
“Send My Love To Linda” (previously unreleased)
“Cherokee Mist” (previously unreleased)

The January 2018 issue of Uncut is now on sale in the UK – with Bruce Springsteen on the cover. We also celebrate the best of the last 12 months with our Ultimate Review Of 2017 – featuring the best albums, reissues, films and books of the year. Elsewhere in the issue, there are new interviews with LCD Soundsystem, Bjork, The Weather Station, Hurray For The Riff Raff, Mavis Staples and more. Our free 15 track-CD celebrates the best music from 2017.

John Prine announces new studio album plus tour dates with Kurt Vile, Margo Price and Sturgill Simpson

Michael Bonner
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John Prine announces new studio album plus tour dates with Kurt Vile, Margo Price and Sturgill Simpson
John Prine has announced a spring tour and a new album. The tour begins in April in New York and winds up in Norfolk, Virginia in June. Prine will be joined on select dates by Sturgill Simpson, Kurt Vile and Margo Price. Here's Kurt Vile introducing Prine's recently-published book, John Prine Beyo...

John Prine has announced a spring tour and a new album.

The tour begins in April in New York and winds up in Norfolk, Virginia in June. Prine will be joined on select dates by Sturgill Simpson, Kurt Vile and Margo Price.

Here’s Kurt Vile introducing Prine’s recently-published book, John Prine Beyond Words, and briefly cover “That’s the Way the World Goes Round”.

Prine will also release his first album of original material since 2005’s Fair & Square to coincide with the dates. No details have yet been announced about the record, though.

The tour dates are:

April 13 — New York, NY @ Radio City Music Hall (with Sturgill Simpson)
April 14 — Philadelphia, PA @ Merriam Theatre (with Kurt Vile)
April 25 — Milwaukee, WI @ Riverside Theatre
April 27 — Chicago, IL @ Chicago Theatre
April 28 — Champaign, IL @ Virginia Theatre
May 11 — Beaver Dam, KY @ Beaver Dam Amphitheater
May 12 —Indianapolis, IN @ Clowes Hall
May 19 — San Diego, CA @ Balboa Theatre
May 23 — Folsom, CA @ Harris Center
May 24 — San Francisco, CA @ The Warfield
June 2 — Norfolk, VA @ Chrysler Hall (with Margo Price)

The January 2018 issue of Uncut is now on sale in the UK – with Bruce Springsteen on the cover. We also celebrate the best of the last 12 months with our Ultimate Review Of 2017 – featuring the best albums, reissues, films and books of the year. Elsewhere in the issue, there are new interviews with LCD Soundsystem, Bjork, The Weather Station, Hurray For The Riff Raff, Mavis Staples and more. Our free 15 track-CD celebrates the best music from 2017.

Gun Outfit – Out Of Range

Peter Watts
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Gun Outfit – Out Of Range
You might want to pick up a guide to ancient myths before listening to the latest Gun Outfit album, which includes songs about Orpheus and Cybele as well as references to “monads”, “viridian”, “hierophants” and “syrinxes”. From Ancient Greece to contemporary California, there’s a f...

You might want to pick up a guide to ancient myths before listening to the latest Gun Outfit album, which includes songs about Orpheus and Cybele as well as references to “monads”, “viridian”, “hierophants” and “syrinxes”. From Ancient Greece to contemporary California, there’s a fascination with myth and legend on Out Of Range, due in part to co-songwriter Dylan Sharp’s job as a security guard in an art gallery, time that allowed him to gaze upon visual art for six hours a day, and also to contemplate ways of incorporating what he self-mockingly calls “pretentious” references into the band’s fifth LP of cosmic Americana.

Opening song “Ontological Intercourse”, a rough-necked samba, is in part about Orpheus, the Greek “father of songs” who made rocks dance and worshipped only the sun, a heresy that led to his death, while “Landscape Painter” sees Sharp celebrate the work of Brueghel. The myths of drugs and California also feature, and by closer “Second Decade”, he’s exploring the legend of the band itself. “We’re building a labyrinth/And playing hide and seek,” he sings in a self-declared love song to the band he has co-led for 10 years.

Gun Outfit were formed in Olympia when Sharp and co-songwriter Carrie Keith began playing as a duo around the city’s fertile hardcore scene. After expanding to a four-piece and moderating their punky vibe, Gun Outfit released a couple of hard-to-find but well-received albums and then moved to LA where they released two more – the driving Hard Coming Down and looser, atmospheric Dream All Over. They now play as a five-piece following the addition of Henry Barnes, whose homemade instruments (the “sibanjar”, the “springocaster lap-slide”) as well as his mastery of the dulcimer and bouzouki, adds to the sense of mystery that hangs over their music and which Gun Outfit are so adept at exploiting in their more abstract lyrics. It’s Barnes who coined the phrase “western expanse” to describe the band’s sound, a label that hints at both geography and their sense of openness. There are elements of folk and country in their music, but it’s also the sound of the desert, the ocean, the prairie and the loneliness of LA. Within this vibe, there’s little space for the band’s hardcore origins. Instead there’s the sardonic drawl of Silver Jews, the incandescent richness of Phosphorescent, the unsettling dislocation of Lift To Experience and the more adventurous moments of Wilco.

There’s also a diversity that comes from the contrasting styles of Sharp and Keith. Loosely put, Sharp favours oblique non-narrative lyrics with wry asides, while Keith is more direct, both in terms of delivery and content. Keith provides Out Of Range with its sense of momentum, moving things forward where Sharp will circle his themes like a vulture. The clearest example is “The 101”, an ode to the road that took the band from Washington to California. With Barnes playing bouzouki and Keith accompanying her vocal with fiddle, the song sounds ancient even as it picks apart modern LA where “the first lesson you learn is how to project”. “California’s a legend,” she sings, “on the brink of destruction every day”, arcing back to “Cybele”, Sharp’s Ozymandian lament about a lost ancient cult.

Keith is always on the move. Amid the swirling “Sally Rose” she sings, “not gonna run, I’m gonna fly… Quitting all my jobs is good for my career”, while love song “Three Words” has her threaten “and you know in a moment I’ll be on my way”. Sharp, though, is more likely to be chasing his own thoughts. On country rattler “Strange Insistence” he starts by contemplating the perceived outcomes of taking different drugs – “Speed makes you a genius/Cocaine will make you rich/LSD shows you divinity/And everything’s alright on opiates” – before exploring related themes of authenticity and reality, while on the crawl of “Slow Realisation”, he pauses to apologise for his own drift towards abstraction: “Pardon me for the hippie talk…”

On “Second Decade” he abandons that strategy to sing an unalloyed love song for his band, directed at Keith: “Oh my Caroline/Can you believe how swiftly a decade has gone by?”. In the process, he neatly captures the sonic atmosphere of the band – “A simple recollection of the rhythm of waves” – but still finds time to reference Samuel Beckett. It’s a tricky thing to pull off without sounding self-obsessed, but it shows that Gun Outfit can sing from the heart as well as from the brain.

The January 2018 issue of Uncut is now on sale in the UK – with Bruce Springsteen on the cover. We also celebrate the best of the last 12 months with our Ultimate Review Of 2017 – featuring the best albums, reissues, films and books of the year. Elsewhere in the issue, there are new interviews with LCD Soundsystem, Bjork, The Weather Station, Hurray For The Riff Raff, Mavis Staples and more. Our free 15 track-CD celebrates the best music from 2017.

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