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Morrissey: “Prince far more royal than the Queen”

Michael Bonner
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Morrissey: “Prince far more royal than the Queen”
Morrissey has paid tribute to Prince, who died last week. In a post on quasi-official website, True To You, Morrissey praised Prince but was quick to criticise the press for not making more of his veganism. "Although a long-serving vegan and a strong advocate of the abolition of the abattoir, neit...

Morrissey has paid tribute to Prince, who died last week.

In a post on quasi-official website, True To You, Morrissey praised Prince but was quick to criticise the press for not making more of his veganism.

“Although a long-serving vegan and a strong advocate of the abolition of the abattoir, neither of these points was mentioned in the one hundred television reports that I witnessed yesterday as they covered the enchanted life and sad death of Prince,” he wrote. “The points were not mentioned because they are identified as expressions against e$tabli$hment interests, therefore we, mere galley slaves, aren’t allowed to know.”

“Meanwhile, on the same day that Prince melts away in physical form, London and England remain two very different countries, and in London the news media (under tyrannized instructions from Buckingham Palace) are informing the world that Her Royal Slyness is celebrating her 90th birthday, and we are assured that all of the United Kingdom is celebrating a monarch who has ‘served’ (that is, served herself, not the people) for over 60 years. There is no evidence of celebrations, and in fact there are hushed reports of national indifference. In this mental maze the marrow of the matter has been grasped by everyone: monarchy is the new anarchy. It is the face of white supremacy, social repression, tyranny, oppression, thought control, big stick control, minority rule, dictatorship, and, on the streets beyond SW1, unfairness. All that can be honestly celebrated on Elizabeth’s 90th birthday is the reality that she is the end of the family line. What else could her point be?

“Prince, who made something of his life as opposed to having fortune handed to him, is far more ‘royal’ than Elizabeth 2, and he will be mourned far more than she, for she could never make herself loveable, no matter how many paid and promoted non-stories flood the newspapers of the world. The laughing gulls of Buckingham Palace will never allow you to forget who wields the stick. And, of course, we know very well what gulls tend to do on the people below.

“Prince is the royal that people love, whereas Elizabeth 2 was thrust on the people who have never been asked whether or not they want her.”

The June 2016 issue of Uncut is now on sale in the UK – featuring our cover story on Blondie, plus George Martin, Brian Eno, Dexys, The Monkees, Graham Nash, Merle Haggard, Ronnie Spector, Tony Joe White, Frank Zappa, Eric Clapton, The Coral, Max Richter and more plus 40 pages of reviews and our free 15-track CD

Uncut: the spiritual home of great rock music.

Watch Bruce Springsteen cover Prince’s “Purple Rain”

Michael Bonner
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Watch Bruce Springsteen cover Prince’s “Purple Rain”
Bruce Springsteen opened his show at Brooklyn's Barclays Center with a cover of Prince's "Purple Rain". The show took place on Saturday, April 23. This marked the third time during Springsteen's current River tour that he has paid tribute to a fellow musician following their deaths: he previously ...

Bruce Springsteen opened his show at Brooklyn’s Barclays Center with a cover of Prince’s “Purple Rain“.

The show took place on Saturday, April 23.

This marked the third time during Springsteen’s current River tour that he has paid tribute to a fellow musician following their deaths: he previously covered David Bowie‘s “Rebel Rebel” and Glenn Frey‘s “Take It Easy“.

Springsteen’s River tour arrives in the UK in May, where the E Street Band will play four shows.

The dates are:

Wednesday May 25: Etihad Stadium, Manchester
Wednesday June 1: Hampden Park, Glasgow
Friday, June 3: Ricoh Arena, Coventry
Sunday, June 5: Wembley Stadium, London

Meanwhile, Springsteen will release his autobiography later this year.

Born To Run will be published on September 27 by Simon & Schuster.

According to a post on Springsteen’s website, “the work will be published in hardcover, ebook, and audio editions by Simon & Schuster in the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, and India, and rights have already been sold to publishers in nine countries.

“Springsteen has been privately writing the autobiography over the past seven years. He began work in 2009, after performing with the E Street Band at the Super Bowl’s halftime show.

“In Born To Run, Mr. Springsteen describes growing up in Freehold, New Jersey amid the ‘poetry, danger, and darkness’ that fueled his imagination. He vividly recounts his relentless drive to become a musician, his early days as a bar band king in Asbury Park, and the rise of the E Street Band. With disarming candor, he also tells for the first time the story of the personal struggles that inspired his best work, and shows us why the song ‘Born to Run’ reveals more than we previously realized.

“’Writing about yourself is a funny business,’ Mr. Springsteen notes in his book. ‘But in a project like this, the writer has made one promise, to show the reader his mind. In these pages, I’ve tried to do this.’

“’This is the book we’ve been hoping for,’ said Jonathan Karp, publisher of Simon & Schuster. ‘Readers will see their own lives in Bruce Springsteen’s extraordinary story, just as we recognize ourselves in his songs.’

The June 2016 issue of Uncut is now on sale in the UK – featuring our cover story on Blondie, plus George Martin, Brian Eno, Dexys, The Monkees, Graham Nash, Merle Haggard, Ronnie Spector, Tony Joe White, Frank Zappa, Eric Clapton, The Coral, Max Richter and more plus 40 pages of reviews and our free 15-track CD

Uncut: the spiritual home of great rock music.

The 12th Uncut Playlist Of 2016

John Mulvey
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The 12th Uncut Playlist Of 2016
Apologies for the delay in posting this; events at the end of last week held things up somewhat. I appreciate it looks odd putting a list together without any sign of Prince, but all my albums are at home on vinyl and, as we've all found out over these sad and weird last few days, the internet is st...

Apologies for the delay in posting this; events at the end of last week held things up somewhat. I appreciate it looks odd putting a list together without any sign of Prince, but all my albums are at home on vinyl and, as we’ve all found out over these sad and weird last few days, the internet is strikingly empty of his music.

Some things to be getting on with here, anyhow, and a swift reminder that our new issue of Uncut is out more or less now; it’s the one with Blondie on the cover. More soon…

Follow me on Twitter @JohnRMulvey

1 Dave Heumann – Cloud Hands (2020/Bandcamp)

2 Lukas Nelson & Promise Of The Real – Something Real (Royal Potato Family)

3 Brigid Mae Power – Brigid Mae Power (Tompkins Square)

4 Bat For Lashes – The Bride (Parlophone)

5 Bert Jansch – From The Outside (Fire)

6 Olivia Wyatt + Bitchin Bajas – Sailing A Sinking Sea (Drag City)

7 Jackie Lynn – Jackie Lynn (Thrill Jockey)

8 Quasi – Featuring “Birds” (Domino)

9 Robert Ellis – Robert Ellis (New West)

10 Shakey Graves – And The War Came (Dualtone)

11 Steve Gunn – Eyes On The Lines (Matador)

12 My Morning Jacket – It Still Moves: Deluxe Reissue (ATO Records)

13 The Impressions – The Best Of The Impressions: The Curtom Years (Varese Vintage)

14 William Bell – This Is Where I Live (Decca)

15 Gunn-Truscinski Duo – March 26, 2016 Three Lobed Sweet Sixteen Spectacular, King’s (Raleigh, NC) (www.nyctaper.com)

16 Alèmu Aga ‎– Éthiopiques 11: The Harp Of King David (Buda Musique)

17 Beyonce – Lemonade (Parkwood)

Cheap Trick: “I hope we’re still obnoxious”

Tom Pinnock
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Cheap Trick: “I hope we’re still obnoxious”
Cheap Trick take us through their career, album by album, in the current issue of Uncut, out now. The group's Rick Nielsen and Tom Petersson discuss their best records, from 1977's self-titled debut right up to this year's new Bang, Zoom, Crazy… Hello. "I hope we haven't changed too much," says ...

Cheap Trick take us through their career, album by album, in the current issue of Uncut, out now.

The group’s Rick Nielsen and Tom Petersson discuss their best records, from 1977’s self-titled debut right up to this year’s new Bang, Zoom, Crazy… Hello.

“I hope we haven’t changed too much,” says Nielsen, “I hope we’re still obnoxious.”

“I like the same things as I did when we started,” adds Petersson. “We always see ourselves as a ’60s band.”

The band’s 1979 live album, At Budokan, which effectively saved the group’s career, still remains their best-selling effort worldwide. “I tell people that we made the Budokan famous and the Budokan made us famous,” explains Nielsen. “It’s a real live recording… it’s not overdubbed. I always tell people, our mistakes are real!”

The May 2016 issue of Uncut is now on sale in the UK – featuring our cover story on PJ Harvey’s new album, Brian Wilson, The National’s all-star Grateful Dead tribute, Jack White and T Bone Burnett’s American Epic, Cate Le Bon, Donovan, Jean-Michel Jarre, Cheap Trick, Graham Nash, Heartworn Highways, Sturgill Simpson and more plus 40 pages of reviews and our free 15-track CD

Uncut: the spiritual home of great rock music.

Prince’s Purple Rain – the inside story

David Cavanagh
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Prince’s Purple Rain – the inside story
Twenty-five years ago, Prince knew he was a genius. The rest of the world, however, needed a little convincing. How to change this? Teach your band and friends how to act, hire a rookie director who can “tell my life story in 10 minutes”, and convince Hollywood to bankroll a musical. The result...

Twenty-five years ago, Prince knew he was a genius. The rest of the world, however, needed a little convincing. How to change this? Teach your band and friends how to act, hire a rookie director who can “tell my life story in 10 minutes”, and convince Hollywood to bankroll a musical.

The result? Purple Rain. A film that grossed $70 million, an album that sold 20 million copies, and the greatest triumph of one of rock’s true superstars. This is the inside story… Words: David Cavanagh. Originally published in Uncut’s December 2009 issue (Take 151). Photo by Richard E. Aaron/Redferns.

________________________________

In April 1983, when he came off the road after the five-month ‘Triple Threat Tour’, Prince was 24 and in complete control of his fiefdom. “Little Red Corvette” was accelerating up the US charts, and 1999, his extravagant double album, had outsold its predecessor by over a million. This super-skilled multi-instrumentalist wasn’t slow in proclaiming his genius: “Produced, Arranged, Composed and Performed by Prince,” boasted 1999’s cover.

But Prince still had a mountain to climb. While the video for “Little Red Corvette” had been one of the first by a black performer to receive widespread exposure on MTV, for Prince and his managers, a Michael Jackson-style crossover to white pop and rock fans was a matter of gradual progress, not overnight miracles. The ‘Triple Threat Tour’ had not ventured to Europe, Australia or Japan. Huge numbers of people around the world (and in America, for that matter) had yet to hear Prince’s music. And despite his talent, he was a complicated ‘sell’ to rock audiences. A diminutive, pouting dandy, he made music that was heavy on electro-funk synths, drum machines and X-rated lyrics. “We can jump in the sack and I’ll jack you off” was hardly ZZ Top.

For some five years, Prince’s management team, Cavallo-Ruffalo-Fargnoli, had worked hard to take him from 100,000 sales (his 1978 debut, For You) into the double-platinum echelon (1999). With their deal about to expire, Cavallo-Ruffalo-Fargnoli assumed that Prince’s signature on a new contract would be a formality. Until, that is, Bob Cavallo got a call in early 1983 from his associate Steve Fargnoli.

Cavallo remembers: “Steve says, ‘You’re not gonna believe this. He says he’ll re-sign with us if we get him a motion picture.’ And this is Prince’s quote. ‘I want it from a major studio. I don’t want it from some drug dealer or diamond jeweller that you find. And I want my name above the title.’ I was shocked. I thought, Holy Christ, how am I gonna handle this?”

“It was preposterous,” laughs Alan Leeds, Prince’s tour manager. “A movie starring an artist with only two hit singles? How was he going to carry it to the mainstream? Where would he even find the backing from a studio?”

Reviewed! Mapplethorpe: Look At The Pictures

Michael Bonner
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Reviewed! Mapplethorpe: Look At The Pictures
In late 2011, I interviewed Patti Smith for a preview piece about her album, Banga. Banga was Smith's first album since the publication of her memoir, Just Kids. Aside from specific details about the musicians on the record or the subjects of the songs, Smith offered a couple of tantalising insight...

In late 2011, I interviewed Patti Smith for a preview piece about her album, Banga.

Banga was Smith’s first album since the publication of her memoir, Just Kids. Aside from specific details about the musicians on the record or the subjects of the songs, Smith offered a couple of tantalising insights into how she viewed her work. “All our records for me are like movies,” she told me. “I think of them as a movie or a soundtrack of my life at the time that we’re working on them, so that’s what this one will be. The record reflects things I’ve been studying. It could be Gogol or Bulgakov, it could be St Francis.”

“I’ve even taken Polaroids for artwork,” she continued. “The record has been much on my mind, even though it was postponed because the book [Just Kids] was very demanding – but I didn’t forget about the record. I know people listen to songs and they break down records in terms of songs, but I still think that it’s important to offer something holistic that’s thought of from beginning to end. I’m a 20th-century girl and I think of putting together an album in a 20th-century way, while understanding that the 21st century will take it apart. But I still have to stand on some of my process and my concept and the way albums should be presented to the people.

“For me, an artist does work and then they’ll give it to the people and they’ll decide.”

It seems fairly evident that Smith has long-cherished her principles; certainly, as far back as her days in the Chelsea Hotel with photographer Robert Mapplethorpe, which provided the narrative spine for Just Kids. Smith isn’t interviewed in Fenton Bailey and Randy Barbato‘s documentary about Mapplethorpe, but there is ample footage of her and Mapplethorpe together at the Chelsea Hotel: “a 25 hour art show,” according to their next door neighbour.

Mapplethorpe is undergoing a resurgence of interest in his life and work. Apart from Bailey and Barbato’s film, Just Kids is being developed for TV with Smith’s involvement, while former Doctor Who Matt Smith and Girls actress Zosia Mamet have been cast as Mapplethorpe and Smith in a biopic of the artist’s life.

Meanwhile, the title for Bailey and Barbato’s documentary comes from a phrase repeatedly used by American senator Jesse Helms during his attempts to demonise Mapplethorpe during the 1990s. But in some ways, the controversy Mapplethorpe attracted during his life and after his death – in 1989 from complications arising from AIDS, aged 42 – is the least interesting part of Mapplethorpe’s story.

Raised in the suburbs of New York by Catholic parents, he studied at the distinguished Pratt Insitute in Brooklyn where he met Smith. Based in the Chelsea Hotel with Smith, Mapplethorpe began to develop an interest in more transgressive work. “I went away for a summer. I got back and Robert was suddenly into S&M,” says Bob Colacello, the former editor of Andy Warhol’s Interview magazine. Bailey and Barbato – who covered similarly controversial subject with their Deep Throat documentary – assemble a strong cast of talking heads. Some of the best Debbie Harry, an early boyfriend David Croland, author Fran Lebowitz, who delivers the best line in the film: “He looked like a ruined cupid.”

Follow me on Twitter @MichaelBonner

The May 2016 issue of Uncut is now on sale in the UK – featuring our cover story on PJ Harvey’s new album, Brian Wilson, The National’s all-star Grateful Dead tribute, Jack White and T Bone Burnett’s American Epic, Cate Le Bon, Donovan, Jean-Michel Jarre, Cheap Trick, Graham Nash, Heartworn Highways, Sturgill Simpson and more plus 40 pages of reviews and our free 15-track CD

Uncut: the spiritual home of great rock music.

Heartworn Highways

Alastair McKay
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Heartworn Highways
To fully appreciate James Szalapski’s sketchy documentary about the music of Nashville and Austin in 1975, you have to understand what the film isn’t. It is not a film about Outlaw country, though it does include footage of David Allan Coe playing a show in Tennessee State Prison. It’s not ev...

To fully appreciate James Szalapski’s sketchy documentary about the music of Nashville and Austin in 1975, you have to understand what the film isn’t. It is not a film about Outlaw country, though it does include footage of David Allan Coe playing a show in Tennessee State Prison.

It’s not even a film about New Country, though that was the working title, and it does include the teenage Steve Earle, who would be a leading player in what became known as the New Country movement a decade later. It is, slightly, a lament for a lost Nashville, because it was made at a time when country music was becoming more corporate, and the Grand Ole Opry was betraying its heritage by abandoning its historic home downtown in the Ryman Auditorium in favour of a soulless new venue in a theme park and hotel complex.

But really, the flashes of old Nashville filmed inside the old Wigwam Tavern are used as seasoning, and their links to the new music celebrated in the film are tangential. Certainly, the denizens of the Wigwam – the tavern’s owner, Big Mac McGowan, “Smoky Mountain” Glenn Stagner, and the extraordinary singer Peggy Brooks (about whom nothing is known) – are right to be bemused by the commercial turns taken by country music in the 1970s. But, then, a conversation in which someone suggested to Guy Clark that he was a country musician would have been a short one.

The film, in essence, is a beautiful accident. Szalapksi, a New York director who had previously worked on the Miss Nude America movie, had a plan, and he executed it. Roughly, this was to capture the mood and the lifestyle of a group of alternative, younger musicians who were operating on the fringes of the Nashville establishment. At the time, Music City was in a post-Kristofferson moment. The success of “Sunday Morning Coming Down” had given hope to a new generation of songwriters, who really had more to do with the folk revival than country. As a filmmaker, Szalapksi took a ‘direct cinema’ approach. There is no narrator, no interviewing. The resulting film is a collage. It has a point of view, but it’s not stated overtly. The music, and the imagery, do the talking.

It is probably a bit harsh to suggest that Szalapksi got lucky when he decided to focus on Guy Clark and Townes Van Zandt. Both musicians had growing reputations at the time, even if major commercial success remained elusive. They were close friends too, offering different interpretations of a form of narrative songwriting that was particular to Texas. Neither man explains that in the film. Clark, an accomplished luthier, is pictured working on old guitar, while Townes offers a chaotic guided tour of the grounds surrounding his trailer home. (Drink, clearly, has been taken).

Then there is the music. Much of the best of it takes place at a Christmas Eve jam at Clark’s home, with the host, his songwriting artist wife Susanna, Rodney Crowell, Steve Earle and others swapping songs. The drunker they get, the harder they play, and they get pretty drunk. Meanwhile, in Austin, Townes plays “Waitin’ Around To Die”, and reduces his neighbour, ‘the walking blacksmith” Seymour Washington to tears. (The sleeve notes suggest that “Unk”, who had only a year to live, may have been playing to the camera, but that seems overly cynical).

A previous DVD reissue added an hour of extras, including more great clips from Clark, and John Hiatt (with hair!) doing “One For The One”. They’re included here. If anything, the extras show how Szalapski didn’t quite know what he had. With hindsight, the comic country monologues of Gamble Rogers should have been sacrificed, and the David Allan Coe material could have gone into a different film. But Szalapski wasn’t to know that history would judge Clark to be the true artist of the period, with Townes as his inebriated Tonto.

EXTRAS: A double vinyl soundtrack LP with five essential songs from Guy Clark, a couple from Townes, and three from Steve Earle. The album ends with a chaotic chorus of ‘Silent Night’, led by Rodney Crowell. Also included, an 80 page book with liner notes by Sam Sweet.

The May 2016 issue of Uncut is now on sale in the UK – featuring our cover story on PJ Harvey’s new album, Brian Wilson, The National’s all-star Grateful Dead tribute, Jack White and T Bone Burnett’s American Epic, Cate Le Bon, Donovan, Jean-Michel Jarre, Cheap Trick, Graham Nash, Heartworn Highways, Sturgill Simpson and more plus 40 pages of reviews and our free 15-track CD

Uncut: the spiritual home of great rock music.</strong

Watch Sturgill Simpson perform Nirvana’s “In Bloom”

Michael Bonner
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Watch Sturgill Simpson perform Nirvana’s “In Bloom”
Sturgill Simpson appeared on The Daily Show with Trevor Noah on April 21. He performed his cover of Nirvana's "In Bloom", which also appears on his new album, A Sailor's Guide To Earth. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9zj7E3_KJEM Speaking to Uncut about why he covered the song, Simpson explained:...

Sturgill Simpson appeared on The Daily Show with Trevor Noah on April 21.

He performed his cover of Nirvana’s “In Bloom“, which also appears on his new album, A Sailor’s Guide To Earth.

Speaking to Uncut about why he covered the song, Simpson explained:

“That was my wife’s idea. What happened was I realised, ‘OK, I’m talking about my life but I’m also talking to my son and my mistakes and lessons learned and what I want him to take from that. So I’ve also got to represent that awkward phase that every teenager goes through, where your identity hasn’t really formed yet and you’re trying to figure out where you fit in.’ And my wife said, ‘Well, what were you listening to when you were that age?’ And I was like, ‘Nirvana – who wasn’t?’

“I was that latchkey kid from the broken home so I really felt like those records were for me. There were a lot of days where those headphones and those records got me through some stuff that maybe would’ve been a little tougher without them. And I wanted to capture that. I know it’s not what he wrote it about – what the song’s actually about I can relate to too in terms of other things going on with my job. But I felt the lyrics captured that young, clueless, sexually charged point where you are like a loaded gun, just running around cluelessly. If I was gonna do it, I wanted to try to make it the most beautiful tribute to Kurt we possibly could.”

A Sailor’s Guide To Earth is available now on Atlantic.

The May 2016 issue of Uncut is now on sale in the UK – featuring our cover story on PJ Harvey’s new album, Brian Wilson, The National’s all-star Grateful Dead tribute, Jack White and T Bone Burnett’s American Epic, Cate Le Bon, Donovan, Jean-Michel Jarre, Cheap Trick, Graham Nash, Heartworn Highways, Sturgill Simpson and more plus 40 pages of reviews and our free 15-track CD

Uncut: the spiritual home of great rock music.</strong

Read Paul McCartney, Mick Jagger and Aretha Franklin’s tributes to Prince

Michael Bonner
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Read Paul McCartney, Mick Jagger and Aretha Franklin’s tributes to Prince
Paul McCartney, Mick Jagger, Ringo Starr, Ron Wood and Elton John are among the artists who have paid tribute to Prince, who died yesterday [April 21], aged 57. Aretha Franklin called him a "a one-of-a-kind". Franklin said that Prince's death was "such a blow. It's really surreal. It's just kind o...

Paul McCartney, Mick Jagger, Ringo Starr, Ron Wood and Elton John are among the artists who have paid tribute to Prince, who died yesterday [April 21], aged 57.

Aretha Franklin called him a “a one-of-a-kind”.

Franklin said that Prince’s death was “such a blow. It’s really surreal. It’s just kind of unbelievable,” in an interview on MSNBC which you can watch below.

She went on to describe Prince as “a very, very unique musical individual who was so into his music – he was music to the max.

“I think that he was a very explorative and as I said he was one of those artists that go into the studio and stayed in the studio – he would sleep in the studio.”

“Myself when I finish recording as an artist I go home and I am through with it until it’s time for me to go back in the studio but some artists just stay in the studio because they love music like that,” she continued.

Meanwhile, NASA Tweeted a photograph of a purple nebula, to mark Prince’s death.

Elton John posted a photo on Instagram, calling Prince “a true genius. Musically way ahead of any of us.”

The cause of Prince’s death has yet to be established, although an autopsy is due to be carried out later today [April 22].

The May 2016 issue of Uncut is now on sale in the UK – featuring our cover story on PJ Harvey’s new album, Brian Wilson, The National’s all-star Grateful Dead tribute, Jack White and T Bone Burnett’s American Epic, Cate Le Bon, Donovan, Jean-Michel Jarre, Cheap Trick, Graham Nash, Heartworn Highways, Sturgill Simpson and more plus 40 pages of reviews and our free 15-track CD

Uncut: the spiritual home of great rock music.</strong

Prince dies aged 57

Michael Bonner
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Prince dies aged 57
Prince has died aged 57. Associated Press reports that he was found dead at his home on Thursday [April 21] in suburban Minneapolis, according to his publicist, Yvette Noel-Schure. No details were immediately released. Prince has been hospitalised last week after his plane was forced to make an e...

Prince has died aged 57.

Associated Press reports that he was found dead at his home on Thursday [April 21] in suburban Minneapolis, according to his publicist, Yvette Noel-Schure.

No details were immediately released.

Prince has been hospitalised last week after his plane was forced to make an emergency landing in Moline, Illinois.

Released a few hours later, a rep told TMZ that he had been battling a bad case of flu.

The news of Prince’s death was broken by TMZ who cited ‘Multiple sources connected to the singer confirmed he had passed. We’ve obtained the 911 call deputies received for a “male down, not breathing.'”

During his career, the artist born Prince Rogers Nelson released 39 solo studio albums; last year, he released four new full-length records with his latest band, 3rd Eye Girl.

He won seven Grammy Awards, and has received 30 nominations.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F8BMm6Jn6oU

The May 2016 issue of Uncut is now on sale in the UK – featuring our cover story on PJ Harvey’s new album, Brian Wilson, The National’s all-star Grateful Dead tribute, Jack White and T Bone Burnett’s American Epic, Cate Le Bon, Donovan, Jean-Michel Jarre, Cheap Trick, Graham Nash, Heartworn Highways, Sturgill Simpson and more plus 40 pages of reviews and our free 15-track CD

Uncut: the spiritual home of great rock music.</strong

Hear Brian Eno cover the Velvet Underground’s “I’m Set Free”

Michael Bonner
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Hear Brian Eno cover the Velvet Underground’s “I’m Set Free”
Brian Eno has released his cover of The Velvet Underground's song, "I'm Set Free". The track is taken from Eno’s forthcoming album, The Ship, which is released by Warp on April 29. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ym4hmN_5ns0&feature=youtu.be Eno explains, “The first time I ever heard [The...

Brian Eno has released his cover of The Velvet Underground‘s song, “I’m Set Free”.

The track is taken from Eno’s forthcoming album, The Ship, which is released by Warp on April 29.

Eno explains, “The first time I ever heard [The Velvet Underground] was on a John Peel radio show… it was when their first album came out and I thought “This I like! This I want to know about!”. I was having a huge crisis at the time. Am I going to be a painter or am I somehow going to get into music. And I couldn’t play anything so music was the less obvious choice. Then, when I heard The Velvet Underground I thought, “you can do both actually”. It was a big moment for me.

“That particular song always resonated with me but it took about 25 years before I thought about the lyrics. “I’m set free, to find a new illusion”. Wow. That’s saying we don’t go from an illusion to reality (the western idea of “Finding The Truth”) but rather we go from one workable solution to another more workable solution.

Subsequently I think we aren’t able and actually don’t particularly care about the truth, whatever that might be. What we care about is having intellectual tools and inventions that work. [Yuval Noah Harari in his book “Sapiens”] discusses that what makes large-scale human societies capable of cohering and co-operating is the stories they share together. Democracy is a story, religion is a story, money is a story. This chimed well with “I’m set free to find a new illusion”. It seems to me what we don’t need now is people that come out waving their hands and claiming they know the Right Way.”

Eno discusses his love of The Velvet Underground, as well as his collaborative relationship with David Bowie and his solo career in an extensive interview in the June 2016 issue of Uncut, which is on sale from Tuesday, April 25

The May 2016 issue of Uncut is now on sale in the UK – featuring our cover story on PJ Harvey’s new album, Brian Wilson, The National’s all-star Grateful Dead tribute, Jack White and T Bone Burnett’s American Epic, Cate Le Bon, Donovan, Jean-Michel Jarre, Cheap Trick, Graham Nash, Heartworn Highways, Sturgill Simpson and more plus 40 pages of reviews and our free 15-track CD

Uncut: the spiritual home of great rock music.

Roger Daltrey confirms mega festival with The Who, the Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan, Roger Waters and Paul McCartney

Michael Bonner
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Roger Daltrey confirms mega festival with The Who, the Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan, Roger Waters and Paul McCartney
Roger Daltrey appears to have confirmed reports that a mega festival is being arranged featuring Bob Dylan, Neil Young, Paul McCartney, the Rolling Stones, The Who and Roger Waters. Last week, The LA Times reported that Goldenvoice Entertainment, the promoters behind Coachella Festival, were lookin...

Roger Daltrey appears to have confirmed reports that a mega festival is being arranged featuring Bob Dylan, Neil Young, Paul McCartney, the Rolling Stones, The Who and Roger Waters.

Last week, The LA Times reported that Goldenvoice Entertainment, the promoters behind Coachella Festival, were looking to hold the event in Indio, California – the same site as Coachella – this year between October 7 and 9.

Daltrey has now appeared to confirm the reports, telling Canada’s Postmedia Network: “I think it’s us and Roger Waters on the same day. It’s a fantastic idea for a festival. It’s the greatest remains of our era.”

“I hope a lot of normal fans can get tickets before they get snatched up,” he added.

Reports have suggested that two acts will each night of the festival: Bob Dylan and Paul McCartney on the first, the Rolling Stones and Neil Young on the second, and The Who and Roger Waters on the third.

Neil Young’s longtime manager Elliot Roberts had previously spoken on the reports, telling The LA Times: “It’s so special in so many ways. You won’t get a chance to see a bill like this, perhaps ever again. It’s a show I look forward to more than any show in a long time.”

The May 2016 issue of Uncut is now on sale in the UK – featuring our cover story on PJ Harvey’s new album, Brian Wilson, The National’s all-star Grateful Dead tribute, Jack White and T Bone Burnett’s American Epic, Cate Le Bon, Donovan, Jean-Michel Jarre, Cheap Trick, Graham Nash, Heartworn Highways, Sturgill Simpson and more plus 40 pages of reviews and our free 15-track CD

Uncut: the spiritual home of great rock music.

Freddie Mercury’s lyric notebook up for auction

Michael Bonner
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Freddie Mercury’s lyric notebook up for auction
Freddie Mercury's lyric notebook is up for auction. The notebook was used between 1988 and 1990 and includes the original lyrics for "I Want It All", "Too Much Love Will Kill You" and ‘The Show Must Go On". It will be sold by Bonhams at their upcoming Entertainment Memorabilia sale, taking place...

Freddie Mercury‘s lyric notebook is up for auction.

The notebook was used between 1988 and 1990 and includes the original lyrics for “I Want It All“, “Too Much Love Will Kill You” and ‘The Show Must Go On“.

It will be sold by Bonhams at their upcoming Entertainment Memorabilia sale, taking place at Bonhams Knightsbridge on June 29, 2016.

It is estimated at £50,000-70,000.

“Freddie Mercury was a brilliant musician, lyricist and performer,” said Katherine Schofield, Bonhams Head of Entertainment Memorabilia. “He once said of himself, ‘I am not going to be a star. I’m going to be a legend’, and indeed that’s what he became.

“The notebook was used by Freddie for writing his own songs, as well as noting down the words to songs written or co-written by guitarist Brian May. The lyrics, such as for ‘Too Much Love Will Kill You’, and ‘The Show Must Go On’, are both beautiful and sad, as on reflection, we know Mercury was battling HIV at the time. This knowledge makes the words all the more poignant.”

The May 2016 issue of Uncut is now on sale in the UK – featuring our cover story on PJ Harvey’s new album, Brian Wilson, The National’s all-star Grateful Dead tribute, Jack White and T Bone Burnett’s American Epic, Cate Le Bon, Donovan, Jean-Michel Jarre, Cheap Trick, Graham Nash, Heartworn Highways, Sturgill Simpson and more plus 40 pages of reviews and our free 15-track CD

Uncut: the spiritual home of great rock music.

End Of The Road announce Comedy Stage line-up

Michael Bonner
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End Of The Road announce Comedy Stage line-up
End Of The Road have announced the line-up for the Comedy stage at this year's festival. Along with Stewart Lee - who has already been announced - the line-up includes Arthur Smith, Josie Long, Bridget Christie, Andy Zaltzman, John Finnemore and Hardeep Singh Kohli. They join the festival's musica...

End Of The Road have announced the line-up for the Comedy stage at this year’s festival.

Along with Stewart Lee – who has already been announced – the line-up includes Arthur Smith, Josie Long, Bridget Christie, Andy Zaltzman, John Finnemore and Hardeep Singh Kohli.

They join the festival’s musical bill who include Teenage Fanclub, Thurston Moore, Savages and Scritti Politti.

This year’s headliners are Joanna Newsom, Animal Collective and Bat For Lashes.

The festival takes place between September 2 – 4 at its ususal home in Larmer Tree Gardens.

Uncut will be hosting events in the Tipi Tent Stage again this year; check back here for updates.

You can find more details about tickets and the line-up at the festival’s website.

The full line-up for the Comedy Stage at this year’s End Of The Road Festival is:

Bridget Christie
Josie Long
Stewart Lee
Arthur Smith
Bec Hill
Andy Zaltzman
John Finnemore
Hardeep Singh Kohli
Knightmare Live: Festival Expansion Pack
Lolly Adefope
Adam Bloom
Pappy’s
Bucket
Tom Bell
Stephen Carlin
Katie Mulgrew
Garrett Millerick
Joanna Neary
Lazy Susan
Sarah Bennetto
Hell To Play
Paul Flannery’s MMORPG Show
Storytellers’ Club
Political Animal
Tom Parry
Matthew Crosby
Paul Savage
Alexander Bennett
Joe Hart

Uncut: the spiritual home of great rock music.

The May 2016 issue of Uncut is now on sale in the UK – featuring our cover story on PJ Harvey’s new album, Brian Wilson, The National’s all-star Grateful Dead tribute, Jack White and T Bone Burnett’s American Epic, Cate Le Bon, Donovan, Jean-Michel Jarre, Cheap Trick, Graham Nash, Heartworn Highways, Sturgill Simpson and more plus 40 pages of reviews and our free 15-track CD

Uncut: the spiritual home of great rock music.

Grant-Lee Phillips – The Narrows

Rob Hughes
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Grant-Lee Phillips – The Narrows
Such are the caprices of time that Grant-Lee Phillips is probably better known in the US for his recurring role on Gilmore Girls than he is for leading one of the ’90s finest exports, Grant Lee Buffalo. TV fame may have brought him a different audience in recent years, but his USP remains pretty m...

Such are the caprices of time that Grant-Lee Phillips is probably better known in the US for his recurring role on Gilmore Girls than he is for leading one of the ’90s finest exports, Grant Lee Buffalo. TV fame may have brought him a different audience in recent years, but his USP remains pretty much the same: thoughtful, erudite roots-rock that pulls from long-held traditions of folk, country and blues.

The eighth album of his solo career often feels like a very personal portrait of selfhood and loss. It’s mainly informed by both the death of his father, in 2013, and his own Native American heritage (Phillips is from Creek and Cherokee descent), a connection that’s deepened since his recent move to Tennessee from California. This in turn has led to a fuller immersion in the music that moves him most. The Narrows, he says, is “the most Southern record that I’ve made, allowing me to wear my influences on my sleeve more gallantly.”

Heading up a core trio of bassist Lex Price and drummer Jerry Roe, whose father Dave played bass with Johnny Cash, Phillips has created a warm, intimate record with an agreeably grainy veneer. The gorgeous “Moccasin Creek” is an imagistic ancestral piece – full of old arrowheads, wildwood flowers and overgrown burial plots – that acts as a corollary to the familial themes explored on 2012’s Walking In The Green Corn. Likewise, “Yellow Weeds” pokes through a sepia past, guided by pedal steel and some filmy acoustic blues.

“Cry Cry”, meanwhile, is an impassioned commentary on the Indian Removal of the 1800s that saw generations of Native Americans forcibly ejected from the South, thousands dying in the process. A political element also surfaces in “Holy Irons”, which interweaves Southern history with the plight of an innocent draftee sucked into a war that’s not of his choosing. Like most everything on The Narrows, it’s a bittersweet study of fate and circumstance that continues to resonate long after it’s over.

The May 2016 issue of Uncut is now on sale in the UK – featuring our cover story on PJ Harvey’s new album, Brian Wilson, The National’s all-star Grateful Dead tribute, Jack White and T Bone Burnett’s American Epic, Cate Le Bon, Donovan, Jean-Michel Jarre, Cheap Trick, Graham Nash, Heartworn Highways, Sturgill Simpson and more plus 40 pages of reviews and our free 15-track CD

Uncut: the spiritual home of great rock music.

Hear a new song by Fleet Foxes’ Robin Pecknold

Michael Bonner
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Hear a new song by Fleet Foxes’ Robin Pecknold
Robin Pecknold has shared a previously unreleased solo track, "Swimming". He uploaded the song - which you can hear below - to Soundcloud yesterday [April 19]. According to Pecknold's post, the song was originally intended for a short film, A Study In Time Travel, directed by his brother, Sean. "...

Robin Pecknold has shared a previously unreleased solo track, “Swimming”.

He uploaded the song – which you can hear below – to Soundcloud yesterday [April 19].

According to Pecknold’s post, the song was originally intended for a short film, A Study In Time Travel, directed by his brother, Sean.

“Swimming” features Neal Morgan on percussion and was engineered by Gabe Wax. Aside from Pecknold, Morgan has played with Bill Callahan and Joanna Newsom.

https://soundcloud.com/robin-pecknold/swimming

Pecknold has recently been opening for Newsom on tour.

At the March 3 show in Dublin, Pecknold joined Newsom for a version of “On A Good Day“, from Newsom’s album, Have One On Me.

The May 2016 issue of Uncut is now on sale in the UK – featuring our cover story on PJ Harvey’s new album, Brian Wilson, The National’s all-star Grateful Dead tribute, Jack White and T Bone Burnett’s American Epic, Cate Le Bon, Donovan, Jean-Michel Jarre, Cheap Trick, Graham Nash, Heartworn Highways, Sturgill Simpson and more plus 40 pages of reviews and our free 15-track CD

Uncut: the spiritual home of great rock music.

Tom Waits pays tribute to Merle Haggard

Michael Bonner
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Tom Waits pays tribute to Merle Haggard
Tom Waits has paid tribute to Merle Haggard, who died on April 6 his 79th birthday. Click here to read Uncut's archive interview with Merle Haggard Writing in Rolling Stone, Waits admitted, “When I was a teenager I was listening to songs like they were books and studied them to learn how to writ...

Tom Waits has paid tribute to Merle Haggard, who died on April 6 his 79th birthday.

Click here to read Uncut’s archive interview with Merle Haggard

Writing in Rolling Stone, Waits admitted, “When I was a teenager I was listening to songs like they were books and studied them to learn how to write songs of my own. Who ever thought that something great could come out of Bakersfield? It made me feel a whole lot better about living in a place called National City.”

Waits goes on to say that he admires how Haggard “takes the lives of common ordinary folks who we had all stopped seeing and put them in songs and gave them a voice, and kept them alive.”

He adds: “‘Haggard songs’ are lived in, broke in and filled with longing – his last name will always be an adjective.”

Click here to read Uncut’s extensive interview with Tom Waits

Meanwhile, a biopic of Haggard’s life is reportedly in the works.

Deadline reports that the film – titled Done It All – is based on a script from Cinderella Man writer Cliff Hollingsworth.

Haggard authorised the movie’s development before his death.

Waits himself has announced details of his latest acting role.

He is to star in a new TV series, Citizen.

The show will air on the streaming service Hulu.

It is directed by Alfonso Gomez-Rejon, who directed Me And Earl And The Dying Girl.

Waits is set to play the role of a priest named Cesar. At his church in Boyle Heights, he runs a guerrilla humanitarian operation, which is described as “legally dubious”.

The May 2016 issue of Uncut is now on sale in the UK – featuring our cover story on PJ Harvey’s new album, Brian Wilson, The National’s all-star Grateful Dead tribute, Jack White and T Bone Burnett’s American Epic, Cate Le Bon, Donovan, Jean-Michel Jarre, Cheap Trick, Graham Nash, Heartworn Highways, Sturgill Simpson and more plus 40 pages of reviews and our free 15-track CD

Uncut: the spiritual home of great rock music.

Gimmer Nicholson’s “Christopher Idylls” reviewed

John Mulvey
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Gimmer Nicholson’s “Christopher Idylls” reviewed
Most of us generally assume that the story of Ardent Records, crucible of Memphis rock, begins at John Fry's studio in the early '70s, around the time Alex Chilton ambled his way into Big Star. In reality, though, Fry had been releasing 45s out of Ardent Studios since 1959 (The Ole Miss Downbeats' h...

Most of us generally assume that the story of Ardent Records, crucible of Memphis rock, begins at John Fry’s studio in the early ’70s, around the time Alex Chilton ambled his way into Big Star. In reality, though, Fry had been releasing 45s out of Ardent Studios since 1959 (The Ole Miss Downbeats’ honking version of “The Hucklebuck” being the first).

What came between primitive rock’n’roll and genre-defining power-pop is a little murkier, but the first full-length album planned for release on Ardent was, of all things, a proto-ambient collection of guitar instrumentals, played by a jobbing musician-cum-guitar maker called Larry “Gimmer” Nicholson. Nicholson moved in a local music scene populated by rowdy figures like Jim Dickinson, Sid Selvidge and Ronnie Milsap, but it seems he had an epiphany at some point in the mid-’60s, when he witnessed a Memphis show by John Fahey in his Blind Joe Death phase. “Gimmer saw that,” remembers Jimmy Crosthwait, a musician, artist, and puppeteer quoted in Andria Lisle’s superlative sleevenotes, “and he went off by himself for about a year and re-emerged with the ability to play circles around Fahey.”

A bold claim; and while Christopher Idylls doesn’t quite bear it out, Nicholson does come across as a remarkably sensitive and innovative musician, suddenly at odds with the Southern music tradition that surrounded him. The six pieces were actually composed and demoed in San Francisco, where Nicholson moved for a while. In 1968, his brother Gary handed the tapes to Terry Manning at Ardent, who recalled Nicholson to Memphis and recorded the album using a few guitars and a new delay pedal. Listening to the aqueous, courtly likes of “Charon’s Crossing” now, they sound less like a product of the late ’60s, more a New Age project from a decade later – as if Fahey had become beatific rather than ornery, perhaps, and found a place on the Windham Hill label alongside Robbie Basho.

 

As the first album release on Ardent, Christopher Idylls would certainly have been incongruous, but it was Nicholson himself rather than Fry and Manning who pulled the release, reputedly unhappy with the mix. In the intervening five decades, the album has briefly surfaced twice: in 1981, on Selvidge’s Peabody label alongside Chilton’s Like Flies On Sherbert; and in 1994, on Manning’s Lucky 7 imprint, with Nicholson’s full collaboration. The guitarist died, a marginal figure to the end, on December 30, 2000.

Before that, though, Nicholson’s masterpiece caused discreet reverberations across the musical landscape. Manning recalls a night in April 1970 at his apartment, playing Christopher Idylls to Jimmy Page (who would return to Ardent in the autumn, to mix Led Zeppelin III) and Chris Bell. On one level, Nicholson’s intimate meditations are a world away from the punch of early Big Star. On another level, though, they act as a kind of ghostly pre-echo of, say, “Watch The Sunrise”; “Here’s the deal,” John Fry told Andria Lisle, before he died, “music brings people together.”

 

 

 

 

AC/DC’s Brian Johnson: “I am not retiring”

Michael Bonner
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AC/DC’s Brian Johnson: “I am not retiring”
Brian Johnson has released a statement following the news that Axl Rose is to takeover as vocalist on the remaining dates of AC/DC's current world tour. "As many AC/DC fans know, the remaining shows for the 2016 AC/DC Rock or Bust World Tour, including 10 postponed U.S. shows, are being rescheduled...

Brian Johnson has released a statement following the news that Axl Rose is to takeover as vocalist on the remaining dates of AC/DC‘s current world tour.

“As many AC/DC fans know, the remaining shows for the 2016 AC/DC Rock or Bust World Tour, including 10 postponed U.S. shows, are being rescheduled with a guest singer,” writes Johnson.

“I want to personally explain the reason because I don’t believe the earlier press releases sufficiently set out what I wanted to say to our fans or the way in which I thought it should be presented.

“On March 7th, after a series of examinations by leading physicians in the field of hearing loss, I was advised that if I continue to perform at large venues, I risked total deafness. While I was horrified at the reality of the news that day, I had for a time become aware that my partial hearing loss was beginning to interfere with my performance on stage. I was having difficulty hearing the guitars on stage and because I was not able to hear the other musicians clearly, I feared the quality of my performance could be compromised.

“In all honesty this was something I could not in good conscience allow. Our fans deserve my performance to be at the highest level, and if for any reason I can’t deliver that level of performance I will not disappoint our fans or embarrass the other members of AC/DC. I am not a quitter and I like to finish what I start, nevertheless, the doctors made it clear to me and my bandmates that I had no choice but to stop performing on stage for the remaining shows and possibly beyond. That was the darkest day of my professional life.

“Since that day, I have had several consultations with my doctors and it appears that, for the near future, I will be unable to perform on stage at arena and stadium size venues where the sound levels are beyond my current tolerance, without the risk of substantial hearing loss and possibly total deafness. Until that time, I tried as best as I could to continue despite the pain and hearing loss but it all became too much to bear and too much to risk.

“I am personally crushed by this development more than anyone could ever imagine. The emotional experience I feel now is worse than anything I have ever in my life felt before. Being part of AC/DC, making records and performing for the millions of devoted fans this past 36 years has been my life’s work. I cannot imagine going forward without being part of that, but for now I have no choice. The one thing for certain is that I will always be with AC/DC at every show in spirit, if not in person.

“Most importantly, I feel terrible having to disappoint the fans who bought tickets for the canceled shows and who have steadfastly supported me and AC/DC these many years. Words cannot express my deep gratitude and heartfelt thanks not just for the recent outpouring to me personally of kind words and good wishes, but also for the years of loyal support of AC/DC. My thanks also go to Angus and Cliff for their support.

“Finally, I wish to assure our fans that I am not retiring. My doctors have told me that I can continue to record in studios and I intend to do that. For the moment, my entire focus is to continue medical treatment to improve my hearing. I am hoping that in time my hearing will improve and allow me to return to live concert performances. While the outcome is uncertain, my attitude is optimistic. Only time will tell.

“Once again, my sincere best wishes and thanks to everyone for their support and understanding.

“Love,

“Brian”

Over the weekend, AC/DC confirmed that Axl Rose will replace Brian Johnson for the remaining dates of their Rock Or Bust tour.

“AC/DC will resume their Rock Or Bust World Tour with Axl Rose joining on vocals,” the band announced in a statement Saturday.

The band’s tour was halted in March after doctors had advised Brian Johnson to stop touring immediately or “risk total hearing loss”.

“AC/DC band members would like to thank Brian Johnson for his contributions and dedication to the band throughout the years. We wish him all the best with his hearing issues and future ventures,” the statement continued.

“As much as we want this tour to end as it started, we understand, respect and support Brian’s decision to stop touring and save his hearing. We are dedicated to fulfilling the remainder of our touring commitments to everyone that has supported us over the years, and are fortunate that Axl Rose has kindly offered his support to help us fulfill this commitment.”

The band continued, “The European stadium tour dates begin on May 7 in Lisbon, Portugal and run through June 12 in Aarhus, Denmark as previously announced. Following this European run of dates with AC/DC, Axl Rose will head out on his Guns N’ Roses, ‘Not In This Lifetime’ Summer Stadium Tour.”

The May 2016 issue of Uncut is now on sale in the UK – featuring our cover story on PJ Harvey’s new album, Brian Wilson, The National’s all-star Grateful Dead tribute, Jack White and T Bone Burnett’s American Epic, Cate Le Bon, Donovan, Jean-Michel Jarre, Cheap Trick, Graham Nash, Heartworn Highways, Sturgill Simpson and more plus 40 pages of reviews and our free 15-track CD

Uncut: the spiritual home of great rock music.

Milk ‘n’ Cookies – Milk ‘n’ Cookies

Luke Torn
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Milk ‘n’ Cookies – Milk ‘n’ Cookies
Ushered in by The Velvet Underground and intensified by the New York Dolls, the NYC rock underground in the early 1970s was a bubbling cauldron, about to explode in a dozen different directions. As the decade wore on, CBGB opened and punk arrived, it did, bringing the world such wildly diverse talen...

Ushered in by The Velvet Underground and intensified by the New York Dolls, the NYC rock underground in the early 1970s was a bubbling cauldron, about to explode in a dozen different directions. As the decade wore on, CBGB opened and punk arrived, it did, bringing the world such wildly diverse talents as the Ramones, Television, Blondie and Talking Heads.

Milk ‘n’ Cookies, already bar-scene upstarts by 1973, arguably influenced them all. But timing is everything in such a high-stakes pressure cooker, and within the Cookies’ weird story the quintet’s timing was all wrong exactly when it seemed to be just right. Hit producer Muff Winwood came calling, inserting Roxy Music bassist Sal Maida into the lineup, and whisking them to London to record their Island debut. A series of misunderstandings and record company manoeuvres later, the band was dropped, and the record slipped out two years later as an afterthought, essentially shredding – reversing even – their once cutting-edge reputation. Milk ‘N’ Cookies’ moment vanished.

That ill-fated LP, a curious few would eventually learn, is grand, ahead of its time, a brash, genre-bending testament to the effervescence of youth. The group gleefully anticipated punk, dancing upon every non-conformist theme roiling through glam-drenched 1974: the Raspberries’ sturdy, melody-based pop, the Dolls’ hard-driving, sexually ambivalent rock’n’roll and T.Rex’s sly irony, plus David Bowie, Sparks and others – wrapping it all in a bubblegum sheen.

Singer Justin Strauss led the fray. A fascinating tangle of contradictions, he was poised yet impetuous, fey yet audacious, naïve yet knowing, with an edgy, theatrical, sexually ambiguous air. Songwriter Ian North, later a solo artist, answers Strauss’ persona with enveloping keyboard flourishes and snaking guitars. They had an experimental edge, too, with some odd time signatures and occasional bouts of minimalism – see the stop-start-stutter of their most risqué track, “Rabbits Make Love”.

At their most gripping, though, Milk ‘n’ Cookies penned pulsing guitar-pop anthems about impulsiveness, sex and youth: “Little Lost And Innocent”, “Not Enough Girls In The World” and “Just A Kid” all peer into that ephemeral moment when life feels wide open.

This special edition immaculately rights the band’s sad narrative, adding 20 unheard tracks, including a pugnacious 1976 Warner Brothers demo that both confirms Winwood’s original instincts and hints as to their would-be evolution. A 120-page hardbound book, recounting their Shakespearean twists and turns, treats the group with a reverence denied them in their prime.

The May 2016 issue of Uncut is now on sale in the UK – featuring our cover story on PJ Harvey’s new album, Brian Wilson, The National’s all-star Grateful Dead tribute, Jack White and T Bone Burnett’s American Epic, Cate Le Bon, Donovan, Jean-Michel Jarre, Cheap Trick, Graham Nash, Heartworn Highways, Sturgill Simpson and more plus 40 pages of reviews and our free 15-track CD

Uncut: the spiritual home of great rock music.

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