Pop iggy

Iggy Pop is one of the highlights of the festival in Chelmsford

Around the turn of the decade, I used to go and see a Brooklyn band called Les Savy Fav every time they played London. They were a fantastic night out. The singer, Tim Harrington, occasionally behaved like a cross between Iggy Pop, Salvador Dali and Captain Birdseye.

The International Festival de Benicassim is over, and we're back in a grisly ill-weathered England - craving sunshine, and the return of destroyed brain cells... Muse, closed the Fib festival with great space rock aplomb - the soaring nature of the trio combined with their spectacular video projections that included giant marching robots and melted acid-like views from the stage - proved to be amazing.

John Fogerty has just played the Glastonbury Jazz/ World Stage (June 23), only his second show in the UK since 1972. Coming on to massive applause and cheering, Fogerty looked very pleased to be here, saying: " It's beautiful to be here at Glastonbury. I'm so happy to be in England again. But I ain't here to do speeches, I'm here to play rock'n'roll!

HAPPENINGS TEN YEARS TIME AGO April 30 to May 6, 1997 The first issue of Uncut – the UK’s first music and movie magazine – is published With a cover story that revisits Elvis Costello’s calamitous 1979 Armed Forces tour of America. Also featured in our first issue are Bob Dylan in Pat Garrett & Billy The Kid, a major retrospective on Billy Mackenzie, Counting Crows, Clint Eastwood and Taxi Driver. Albums reviewed in the issue include a Jam 20th anniversary box set, described by guest reviewer Alan McGee as “drop dead punk rock genius”, Foo Fighters, Paul McCartneyJimi Hendrix, Iggy And The Stooges and Morrissey’s Viva Hate.

Back to work after the long Easter weekend, and we're being lulled into action by the debut album from Original Silence. Original Silence are ostensibly The Good, The Bad & The Queen for men of a certain age who went to All Tomorrow's Parties and never came back. Their ranks include Mats Gustafsson - a great, spluttery, avant saxophonist from The Thing - one of The Ex, Jim O'Rourke (who claimed he'd quit music a while back, with Sinatra-esque implausibility) and, perhaps inevitably, Thurston Moore.

See Iggy's band play live in Washington D.C.

Another guest blogger today, as I put my feet up, listen to an excellent Terry Riley reissue and hand over Wild Mercury Sound to April Long. Like Luke, who did my work for me yesterday, April spent last week at South By Southwest in Austin, Texas. And like Luke, she completely let Uncut down by missing Psychedelic Horseshit. Oh well, here's her fine report:

No fun? Iggy and the Ashetons reconvene after 34 years

Iggy Pop and co are promoting new LP “The Weirdness”