Rod Stewart played with Ron Wood and Kenney Jones as the Faces for a Prostate Cancer UK gig.
The band played a seven-song set, including "I Feel So Good", "You Can Make Me Dance", "Ooh La La", "I’d Rather Go Blind", "(I Know) I’m Losing You", "Stay With Me" and "Sweet Little Rock ‘n’ Roller...
Rod Stewart played with Ron Wood and Kenney Jones as the Faces for a Prostate Cancer UK gig.
The band played a seven-song set, including “I Feel So Good”, “You Can Make Me Dance”, “Ooh La La“, “I’d Rather Go Blind”, “(I Know) I’m Losing You”, “Stay With Me” and “Sweet Little Rock ‘n’ Roller”.
The show took place at the Hurtwood Park Polo Club, which is owned by Jones.
Nine additional musicians performed with horns and backing vocals in the absence of Ronnie Lane and Ian McLagan.
The Faces split up in 1975, and Stewart has not appeared with the band since a one-off gig at the 1993 Brit Awards; Stewart, Wood and Jones briefly reunited for a private, one-off event at Stewart’s 70th birthday party earlier this year.
A version of the Faces did tour in 2011, with Mick Hucknall filling in for Stewart and Glen Matlock for Laine.
Uncut has recently been hosting a number of track premiers from the forthcoming Faces’ box set, 1970 – 1975: You Can Make Me Dance, Sing Or Anything.
Unfortunately, these tracks are not available to hear outside the UK.
The History Of Rock – a brand new monthly magazine from the makers of Uncut – a brand new monthly magazine from the makers of Uncut – is now on sale in the UK. Click here for more details.
With Neil Young more than ever fixed in the public imagination as an ancient grump, possibly there may be no greater point to a book about his childhood than proving he had one. Sharry Wilson’s Young Neil: The Sugar Mountain Years is rather more than that, however. Across 400 pages dense with new ...
With Neil Young more than ever fixed in the public imagination as an ancient grump, possibly there may be no greater point to a book about his childhood than proving he had one. Sharry Wilson’s Young Neil: The Sugar Mountain Years is rather more than that, however. Across 400 pages dense with new testimony, this is a fascinating portrait of a life taking shape, a hugely detailed account of the first 20 years of Young’s life, the book ending in 1966 with Neil leaving Canada for Los Angeles, where he would soon be reacquainted with Stephen Stills and form Buffalo Springfield. Wilson’s account draws heavily on both Neil And I, by Young’s father Scott, the more comprehensible bits of Neil’s own Waging Heavy Peace, and Jimmy McDonough’s Shakey, but is supplemented significantly by much original first-hand research.
Wilson has clearly spent long hours in national and provincial newspaper archives, scoured town and city files, school records and yearbooks, and gleaned much from local historical societies. She’s also had valuable access to Scott Young’s papers at Trent University Archives, including unpublished letters to Neil and to his estranged wife, Rassy, who by late 1959 was separated from Scott and bringing up Neil alone in Winnipeg. Wilson also interviewed more than 150 people who knew Neil when he was growing up, and whose memories are often splendidly evocative.
By Wilson’s description, Young’s childhood was often idyllic, although “Little Neiler”, as the family called him, was prone to illness, most seriously the polio he contracted in 1951. More traumatic still was his parents’ disintegrating relationship, exacerbated by his mother’s heavy drinking and his father’s continual pursuit of new starts in new towns, a restless impulse that kept the family on the move. Every time the family relocated, Neil would have to make new friends, always the new kid at a new school. It was a sometimes intimidating experience which he managed through a growing obsession with music.
By the time he moved to Winnipeg with Rassy, that obsession even overshadowed a previous passion for, of all things, poultry farming. Wilson doesn’t have to try too hard to connect the later Neil with his younger self and the Canadian childhood she describes. He has, after all, written enough about it over the decades, starting with “Sugar Mountain”, written when he was 19. But not everyone who knew Young then or played with him in the many early bands (whose brief careers are recalled here in sometimes punishing detail) would have predicted what he’d become. And none of them were as ruthlessly driven by such great ambition. As Richard Koreen, who played bass in Neil’s band The Stardusters, puts it, “He was the only one of us who was looking at the horizon.”
The History Of Rock – a brand new monthly magazine from the makers of Uncut – a brand new monthly magazine from the makers of Uncut – is now on sale in the UK. Click here for more details.
Jerry Dammers has released a tribute to Rico Rodriguez, who died aged 80 on Saturday [September 4, 2015].
The Jamaican trombonist is perhaps best known for his work with The Specials. But he played on numerous key ska and reggae singles, as well as recording his own albums.
Born in Kingston, he pl...
Jerry Dammers has released a tribute to Rico Rodriguez, who died aged 80 on Saturday [September 4, 2015].
The Jamaican trombonist is perhaps best known for his work with The Specials. But he played on numerous key ska and reggae singles, as well as recording his own albums.
Born in Kingston, he played on a number of early ska singles – including The Folks Brothers’ “Oh Carolina” – before moving to the UK in 1961.
He worked as a session musician played on many reggae singles, including Dandy Livingstone’s “Rudy A Message To You“. He also recorded and toured with Prince Buster.
In 1977, he recorded Man From Wareika. His other solo credits include Blow Your Horn and Brixton Cat with his band Rico and the Rudies.
In 1979, he was invited by Jerry Dammers to play on The Specials’ version of “Rudy A Message To You” and continued to play with the band until 1980. His relationship with Dammers’ Two-Tone label continued and he played on The Selecter’s debut album, Too Much Pressure. Two Tone also released his albums That Man Is Forward and Jama Rico.
In recent years, he played with Jools Holland’s Rhythm And Blues Orchestra.
His death was announced by The Specials..
Our dear friend Rico passed away today.We offer our deepest condolences to his family.His legacy will go on forever and a day. RIP dear Rico
“It’s hard to express how sad I feel about the death of Rico Rodriguez yesterday. He taught me so much about what a proper musician is supposed to try and do. For me, getting to play with him was one of the greatest things about the Specials. His album ‘Man from Wareika’ had been one of my all time favourites and a great inspiration. I could not believe that he had agreed to play with us, and his contribution to the Specials was immeasurable. He provided an all -important link to authentic Jamaican ska and reggae, which we had tried to copy, and his trombone added the essential element which took us to a next level and helped offer the band a possibility of progression beyond the confines of punk.
“To me his majestic solo on the 12” version of Ghost Town is the musical highpoint of The Specials and when I play it as a DJ it still elicits cheers from audiences, as the beginning of any Rico solo always has done live. When the Fun Boy Three left The Specials it seemed like the most natural thing in the world for the bassist, drummer, and myself to follow Rico and his constant companion, trumpeter Dick Cuthell. We toured as his backing band in Germany and Europe for a while.
“Rico’s time with The Specials was only a small part of his huge musical achievements and international reputation. Already a legend in Jamaica, along with Dandy Livingstone and a few others, he had been an ambassador of reggae music to Britain in the 60’s, amongst the first to play it live and record it in this country. A student of the legendary Alpha school in Kingston Jamaica, where very strict nuns taught music to boys from the poorest of backgrounds, Rico has stated that he then saw his role as using his trombone to express the suffering, and the aspirations of his people for a better and more just world. This was no less powerful being in an abstract way, with an instrument, than if it had been a singer using lyrics. His intentions in music were always very serious and dedicated.
“Rico’s playing was influenced by jazz, but was not jazz, and combined all the influences of the Caribbean, from mento, calypso and Cuban music, to folk music, blues, and African traditions which had survived doggedly through 400 years of slavery -most notable in this respect was the Nyabinghi drumming of Count Ossie in the Rasta community of Wareika Hills, of which Rico was a part.
“At the last gig he ever did, where Rico could no longer play his trombone, but still continued to sing as other musicians played his music, the legendary Jamaican producer Bunny Lee said Rico was just as responsible as his fellow Jamaican trombone legend Don Drummond, in creating the iconic sound which for a while made the trombone virtually the national instrument of Jamaica , eventually playing it’s part in making reggae probably the most popular music in the world. Rico’s band supported Bob Marley on tour internationally at the height of their success. Rico received the highly prestigious Jamaican Musgrave Medal for art, as well as an MBE in this country.
“I think it was the incredible mixture of joy and sadness at one and the same time in his playing, which gave it its power. The mournful and melancholic sound of sufferation , the humour and joy of living , and the righteous anger and defiance of the poor and oppressed people of Jamaica , all combined in a highly melodic way with no unnecessary frills. Rico said the silences in music were just as important. His playing could break your heart and make you smile and determined, all at the same time. I will greatly miss him, as will many people around the world.”
The History Of Rock – a brand new monthly magazine from the makers of Uncut – a brand new monthly magazine from the makers of Uncut – is now on sale in the UK. Click here for more details.
Pond, Ought and Gulp at End Of The Road Festival – Day 1
Low, Tame Impala and Fuzz at End Of The Road – Day 1
Sufjan Stevens, Sleaford Mods and Euros Childs at End Of The Road – Day 2
The final day of End Of The Road has been hot and sunny, a change from the chill of the first two days, but i...
The final day of End Of The Road has been hot and sunny, a change from the chill of the first two days, but it hasn’t stopped festivalgoers from venturing into the shade of the Uncut Tipi Tent Stage to see Jessica Pratt. After taking part in an onstage Uncut Q&A earlier in the afternoon, the Californian returns to the same stage for a hushed, magical 45-minute set as the evening begins.
Pratt draws mostly from her second album, this year’s On Your Own Love Again, even taking the shape of the set from the record – she begins with the circling, ominous “Wrong Hand”, then ends with the duo of “Back, Baby” and “On Your Own Love Again” which close her album. Her records are so stripped-down that she manages to recreate them perfectly, with the help of an electric guitarist, Cyrus Gengras, though “Strange Melody” misses her exotic vocal harmony throughout.
“Night Faces”, taken from her debut album (recorded in 2007 but not released until 2012), is a highlight, the complex chords and melodies shifting slowly as Pratt sings of remembering “sad faces in the mirror by me“.
When we check out Future Islands on the Woods Stage, singer Samuel Herring is already drenched in sweat. The Baltimore-based synth-pop trio, joined by Michael Lowry on drums, have drawn an enthusiastic crowd, cheering all of the frontman’s unique dance moves and the occasional guttural, metal-style growls that Herring unexpectedly produces.
“I’m having way too much fun up here,” says the singer, before “A Song For Our Grandfathers”, an ode to North Carolina’s burned-out tobacco fields. “I’ve got to stop being silly.”
Of course, “Seasons (Waiting On You)” is the song most people have been waiting for, and a large part of the crowd sings along with each chorus, cheering Herring’s recreation of his dance moves from their pivotal appearance on Letterman last year. With the ‘hit’ over, they still stick around for “Lighthouse”, “Tin Man”, showing that Future Islands have now probably transcended that one song in the eyes of casual fans. The closing “Little Dreamer” is the final track on their debut album, 2008’s Wave Like Home, and Herring reveals that they’re playing it for the first time in a long while due to a special request.
“This song’s very important to me,” he says. “We wrote it back in the summer of 2007, when I was deeply in love with someone. I lost them a long time ago, but she’ll always be my little dreamer.”
“We’ve played a lot of festivals this summer with Future Islands out of Baltimore,” says Adam Granduciel during The War On Drugs‘ headline show on End Of The Road’s main stage a couple of hours later. “This one’s for them.”
The following “An Ocean Between The Waves” is one of many tonight taken from the band’s last album, 2013 breakthrough Lost In The Dream, and on almost every song the group whip up a robust wall of noise, a treble-heavy, bombastic onslaught of guitars and keys. Even without their usual guitarist Anthony LaMarca, the sound is hefty and punishing, if not as defined as the crystal-clear quality that Tame Impala and Sufjan Stevens enjoyed over the last few nights.
“Red Eyes” is brought out surprisingly early in the set, its pounding motorik-Bruce coda extended. Later on, the mellower “Eyes To The Wind”, complete with its smoky sax solo, is a highlight. Without the rich, ambient textures of Lost In The Dream‘s production, Granduciel’s classic rock influences really come to the fore on these more straightforward live versions – Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen, Pink Floyd, even Dire Straits, can be heard. A little more straightforward, yes, but perfect for warming up a cold field of tired festivalgoers on the last night of End Of The Road.
Pond, Ought and Gulp at End Of The Road Festival – Day 1
Low, Tame Impala and Fuzz at End Of The Road – Day 1
The War On Drugs, Future Islands and Jessica Pratt at End Of The Road – Day 3
Euros Childs has prepared well for his gig headlining the Uncut Tipi Tent Stage at End Of The Road. "I've...
Euros Childs has prepared well for his gig headlining the Uncut Tipi Tent Stage at End Of The Road. “I’ve been practising what to say between songs at festivals,” he says. “I Googled it and apparently you should say, ‘How y’all doing’, in a bad American accent…”
Of course, Childs is joking – the former Gorky’s Zygotic Mynci frontman doesn’t need to rely on cliché when he has such a strong canon of solo material (his 11th solo album Sweetheart is out in October). With his piano and vocals backed by guitar, bass and drums, Childs leans on the more upbeat side of his work – the glam-tinged “Horse Riding”, the manic dash of “Second Home Blues” and the poppy, tender “That’s Better”.
Watched by Cate Le Bon and H Hawkline, both of whom had performed on the Garden Stage earlier in the day, Childs also finds time to showcase his weirder side with the crazed “Like This? Then Try This” (“Do you like mayonnaise?/I like mayonnaise!“) and delve back into the distant past for a take on “Heywood Lane” from Gorky’s 1997 album Barafundle.
Sufjan Stevens unsurprisingly draws a huge crowd for his first ever proper UK festival show, headlining the largest Woods Stage. End Of The Road have been trying to get him to play since they started nearly 10 years ago, but only now has he deigned to appear. The man himself puts this change of heart down to God telling him to play End Of The Road, during a lengthy speech taking in angels, the clouds parting and God appearing to him in flame then playing what sounds like the main Star Wars theme.
This is later on in the set, however. To begin with, Stevens starts off with some of his quieter, darker songs. There’s a selection from this year’s bleak Carrie & Lowell, such as “Should Have Known Better” and “Eugene”, but also “In The Devil’s Territory” and “That Dress Looks Nice On You”, from 2004’s Seven Swans, and a hushed take on “Futile Devices”, originally on The Age Of Adz, which features a delicate, minimal coda of spacey synth.
These quiet songs have such a rich, lush sound that Stevens manages to hold most of the crowd’s attention through what doesn’t seem like ideal festival material. Their patience is rewarded with some louder, more ecstatic material, with his four-piece band of multi-instrumentalists (including singer-songwriter Dawn Landes) joined by a horn section. From a louder reworking of Seven Swans‘ “Sister” (“This next song is about my sister Megan,” Stevens says, “who many years ago changed her name to Liberty. She’s thinking of changing it back to Megan…”).
“Carrie & Lowell” itself somehow fits in well here, but the best-received song is left until last. “It’s a ten-year-old song for a ten-year-old festival,” Stevens says, introducing “Chicago” from his 2005 Illinois album. Throughout the whole set, Stevens has been switching between piano, guitar and synth, often – as on “Chicago” – all three during the course of a song. With Sufjan throwing streamers over his band members and the screens on stage showing a kaleidoscope of colour, it’s a truly euphoric moment.
“Blue Bucket Of Gold” from Carrie & Lowell ends the set, dissolving into 15 minutes of intense ambient noise, delicate synth chords gradually shifting into what sounds like a rocket taking off into space.
From the stars to the gutter, then, as Sleaford Mods headline the Big Top Tent after Stevens’ set is over. Jason Williamson is on typically manic form, raging his way through “Jolly Fucker”, “Tiswas” and “Giddy On The Ciggies”. “Face To Faces”‘ line “Boris on a bike/Quick, knock the cunt over” gets a huge cheer from the packed tent, as does “Fizzy”‘s closing call to “sack the fucking manager“.
End Of The Road is normally pretty civilised for a festival, but something about Williamson’s ranting and anger seems to bring out the animal in some of the audience. The frontman gladly engages with them, too, effectively bringing the kind of lines that would slot into a Sleaford Mods song to life. “‘Fuck off’? Who said that?” he shouts, before unleashing a tide of expletives. When someone chucks some liquid at Williamson, he glowers. “That better not be piss… My daughter’s back there, and I’ve got to pick her up and take her back to her tent and if she gets piss round her chops I will not be happy… I will not be happy… I will not be happy…”
Pond, Ought and Gulp at End Of The Road Festival – Day 1
Sufjan Stevens, Sleaford Mods and Euros Childs at End Of The Road – Day 2
The War On Drugs, Future Islands and Jessica Pratt at End Of The Road – Day 3
There's a lot of guttural grunting coming from the normally sedate Garden Stage here...
There’s a lot of guttural grunting coming from the normally sedate Garden Stage here at End Of The Road – but don’t worry, it’s just Fuzz‘s unique between-song banter.
As primal as these noises are, however, the stoner-metal trio’s music is surprisingly complex. Californian wunderkind Ty Segall is on drums and vocals, his face covered in corpsepaint, Charles Moothart from the Ty Segall Band is on guitar and vocals and Chad Ubovich is on bass and vocals, and the three seem to have an almost telepathic bond; they jump between Sabbath-like riffs at breakneck speed, and oscillate crazily between crashingly loud riffs (mostly) and very quiet sections (rarely).
As well as highlights from their self-titled 2013 debut, such as “What’s In My Head?”, Fuzz use their set at End Of The Road to showcase some of the best cuts from their album II, due for release in October. Ferocious single “Rat Race” gets an airing, and the trio end with the speedfreak madness of 14-minute instrumental “II”, which evokes Blue Cheer, The Mars Volta and King Crimson in equal measure. It’s nearly as astonishing as Segall’s octopus drumming.
Before Friday’s headliners Tame Impala start, there’s a huge influx from the rest of the site to the Woods Stage. More electronic third record Currents seems to have considerably widened the appeal of Kevin Parker’s group, and they duly play a fair amount from it, beginning (after a short intro) with pounding, euphoric album opener “Let It Happen”.
“Mind Mischief” and “Why Won’t They Talk To Me?” from 2012’s Lonerism are next, the group’s swirling synths and echoed guitars aided by crystal-clear sound and some well-judged phasing from their sound guy. Reflecting Currents‘ sound, though, these are arranged with more synths, leaving the songs sometimes sounding a little too slick.
“It Is Not Meant To Be”, the first track on Tame Impala’s debut Innerspeaker, suffers a little from this too, before a hazily heavy “Elephant” restores the balance, its twin-guitar sections strangely reminiscent of Fuzz’s performance from an hour before. A wiser band would have left this song, their most well-known to casual listeners, until later in the set – but before we can find out how this strategy pans out, we head over to see Low headline the Garden Stage.
Last time they played End Of The Road in 2008, singer and guitarist Alan Sparhawk had something of an onstage meltdown and threw his hefty Gibson Les Paul into the crowd, but tonight he’s on his best behaviour. “Hey, I’m really surprised they invited us back,” he says. Tonight Sparhawk is on his best behaviour, and his band turn in probably the most impressive set we’ve seen today.
The performance is heavy with songs from their forthcoming Ones And Sixes album, such as “Lies”, “The Innocents” and “What Part Of Me”, but they blend in well with older material such as “Especially” from 2011’s C’Mon, or an apocalyptic “Pissing”, which ends with the guitarist screaming into his pickups. He reprises the noise after the song has ended, dedicating the feedback to “the guy who’s flying the Confederate flag down there… what the hell, man?”
Both Sparhawk and drummer Mimi Parker are in fine voice, and the audience are on the whole quiet and respectful despite the group’s minimal volume throughout. The music almost dissolves completely during the closing “Murderer”, Parker and Sparhawk’s wordless voices rising up to the clear black sky and visible stars above.
Low, Tame Impala and Fuzz at End Of The Road – Day 1
Sufjan Stevens, Sleaford Mods and Euros Childs at End Of The Road – Day 2
The War On Drugs, Future Islands and Jessica Pratt at End Of The Road – Day 3
Uncut are back in Dorset again this year, hosting a stage at our favourite festival, End...
Uncut are back in Dorset again this year, hosting a stage at our favourite festival, End Of The Road, and some informal (and informative) onstage Q&As – Gulp today, Sleaford Mods on Saturday and Jessica Pratt on Sunday.
In between taking photos of peacocks and trying to avoid the lure of the hot cider bus, we checked out some music – Ought, who seem to be stealthily becoming relatively ‘big’, draw quite a crowd to the pretty Garden Stage in the middle of the afternoon. The Montreal post-punk quartet, who draw on the complexity of math-rock, the jagged edges of Fugazi or The Fall and the dramatic momentum of Patti Smith, perform tracks from their debut, 2014’s More Than Any Other Day, as well as a selection from their new album, Sun Coming Down.
They start with the pulsating “Pleasant Heart”, the first song from their debut, Tim Beeler clawing at his guitar and drawling like a mid-Atlantic Mark E Smith, before launching into second-album highlight “Beautiful Blue Sky”. On the latter, and “More Than Any Other Day”, the angular-looking frontman launches into speak-singing a la Lou or Patti, as Matt May distorts his keyboards so they spit out guitar-like fragments.
We leave Ought to see Perth’s psychedelic explorers Pond, who pull a huge crowd in the Big Top tent – today its cavernous canvas insides are covered with stars, prompting frontman Nick Allbrook to describe it as “like a child’s bedroom”.
They kick off with “Waiting Around For Grace” and “Elvis’ Flaming Star”, the first two songs from January’s excellent Man It Feels Like Space Again, their sixth album. For the first time in years, Pond are now back to their core quartet onstage, with keyboardist Jamie Terry playing synth bass with his left hand and guitarist Joseph Ryan occasionally filling out low-end with an octave pedal. With the help of a couple of backing tracks too, they sound as colourful as ever, especially on the ridiculous prog riffing of “Giant Tortoise”.
We hear they later cover Brian Eno’s “Baby’s On Fire”, but sadly we’ve had to leave in order to check out Gulp on the Uncut Tipi Tent Stage. The band’s Guto Pryce (also the bassist in Super Furry Animals) and Lindsey Leven took part in our first Uncut Q&A of the weekend earlier in the afternoon, and revealed that they’ve just begun recording their second album in Wales – during their set we get treated to two new tracks, including the delicate, downbeat “Spending Time Right Here With You”, with Leven’s sun-dappled synths adding a woozy element to the vintage electronic rhythms.
The rest of the highlights are taken from their debut album, 2014’s Season Sun, though, especially the sublime, swung “Game Love”, and “Seasoned Sun”, laced with distorted guitar.
May 2015 marked the 100th anniversary of Orson Welles’s birth, prompting a flurry of releases. For a man whose legacy is so vast and rich, yet simultaneously so scrappy and impoverished, and so misunderstood, it’s inevitable these centennial tributes have been scattered and of variable worth.
L...
May 2015 marked the 100th anniversary of Orson Welles’s birth, prompting a flurry of releases. For a man whose legacy is so vast and rich, yet simultaneously so scrappy and impoverished, and so misunderstood, it’s inevitable these centennial tributes have been scattered and of variable worth.
Last month, the Mr Bongo label issued a fantastic trio: Chimes At Midnight, a Blu-Ray restoration of Welles’s (anyone’s) greatest Shakespeare adaptation; The Immortal Story, the first UK DVD for the last fiction Welles released, a beautiful miniature that sees obsessions that nagged him since Citizen Kane refined to their essence; and Too Much Johnson, a movie Welles made before he made movies, originally designed to be screened during a 1938 theatre production, but which, riffing on silent cinema tropes, shows him already both naively in love with film and mischievously self-aware – already Welles. (This immaculate footage had been thought lost until its rediscovery in 2008.)
Equally worthwhile is the BFI’s beautifully restored Around The World, a series of six playful little home-movie style travel essays Welles made for British TV in 1955. The big draw is the inclusion of “The Third Man In Vienna,” an episode thought lost for decades. It’s not the best of the series – that has to be the programme exploring the lost beatnik world of Paris’s St Germain-des-Pres – but it’s to be savoured for the passage in which Welles simply purrs the luxurious names of Viennese cakes, while his camera drools over them.
The biggest event, however, has been the most disappointing: Magician: The Astonishing Life And Work Of Orson Welles a new documentary by Chuck Workman. Content to take a “career highlights” approach, the bare skeleton of Welles’s trajectory – or at least its most widely accepted version – gets sketched out in telegraph form, just: child genius; theatre genius; War Of The Worlds; Citizen Kane; long “decline” doing all that weird work that’s difficult to get a handle on. But that’s about it.
The problem isn’t that there’s nothing new, but that, aside from running together (great) clips, Workman has nothing to say, or suggest, about any of it. We’re left with a documentary that resembles a Jive Bunny megamix of DVD extras. For newcomers, it will be almost incomprehensible. (The most frustrating thing is that Workman’s redundant film plunders freely from the greatest film ever made about Welles: the delightful, genuinely astonishing three-hour interview Leslie Megahey conducted for the BBC’s Arena in 1982.)
The greatest “centennial” event is still to come: the promised completion and release of Welles’s legendary final film, The Other Side Of The Wind, which has languished in legal hell since 1976. It stands closer than ever to being released, but we’re not there yet. The plan was to have it out for his anniversary. Now the estimate is 2016. Maybe. 100 years on, we’re still trying to catch up with him.
The History Of Rock – a brand new monthly magazine from the makers of Uncut – a brand new monthly magazine from the makers of Uncut – is now on sale in the UK. Click here for more details.
The Dead Weather have released a new video for "I Feel Love (Every Million Miles)", which is taken from band's new album, Dodge & Burn.
The video for the song finds the band performing together at Jack White's Third Man Records studio.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TorZwoajwxQ
The album wil...
The Dead Weather have released a new video for “I Feel Love (Every Million Miles)“, which is taken from band’s new album, Dodge & Burn.
The video for the song finds the band performing together at Jack White‘s Third Man Records studio.
The album will be released in September 2015 on Third Man Records.
It will feature eight new songs alongside four previously released tracks that have been remixed and remastered for this album.
“Open Up (That’s Enough)“, Rough Detective”, “Buzzkill(er)” and “It’s Just Too Bad” were previously available as subscription-only 7″s.
The tracklisting for The Dead Weather’s Dodge & Burn is:
I Feel Love (Every Million Miles)
Buzzkill(er)
Let Me Through
Three Dollar Hat
Lose The Right
Rough Detective
Open Up
Be Still
Mile Markers
Cop and Go
Too Bad
Impossible Winner
The History Of Rock – a brand new monthly magazine from the makers of Uncut – a brand new monthly magazine from the makers of Uncut – is now on sale in the UK. Click here for more details.
Black Sabbath have announced their farewell tour, The End.
The lineup on this tour will consist of Ozzy Osbourne, Tony Iommi and Geezer Butler; as yet, a drummer has not been announced.
Former Rage Against The Machine drummer Brad Wilk played on the band's last album 13, after the original drummer...
Black Sabbath have announced their farewell tour, The End.
The lineup on this tour will consist of Ozzy Osbourne, Tony Iommi and Geezer Butler; as yet, a drummer has not been announced.
Former Rage Against The Machine drummer Brad Wilk played on the band’s last album 13, after the original drummer Bill Ward fell out with his bandmates ahead of making the record.
Rolling Stone reports that the tour will begin in in January in Omaha and end in February at New York City’s Madison Square Garden.
As yet, no UK or European dates have been announced.
The band announced the tour in a video – which you can watch below.
“It’s the beginning of the end,” intones the narration. “It started nearly five decades ago with a crack of thunder, a distant bell ringing and then that monstrous riff that shook the earth. The heaviest rock sound ever heard. In that moment heavy metal was born, created by a young band from Birmingham, England barely out of their teens.
“Now it ends, the final tour by the greatest metal band of all time, Black Sabbath. Ozzy Osbourne, Tony Iommi and Geezer Butler close the final chapter in the final volume of the incredible Black Sabbath story. Black Sabbath’s farewell tour, ‘The End,’ begins on January 20, 2016 and it promises to surpass all previous tours with their most mesmerizing production ever. When this tour concludes, it will truly be the end, the end of one of the most legendary bands in Rock ‘n Roll history… Black Sabbath.”
The tour dates for the North American leg of The End are:
January 20 – Omaha, NE @ CenturyLink Center
January 22 – Chicago, IL @ United Center
January 25 – Minneapolis, MN @ Target Center
January 28 – Saskatoon, SK @ Sasktel Centre
January 30 – Edmonton, AB @ Rexall Centre
February 1 – Calgary, ON @ Scotiabank Saddledome
February 3 – Vancouver, BC @ Rogers Arena
February 6 – Tacoma, WA @ Tacoma Dome
February 9 – San Jose, CA @ SAP Center
February 11 – Los Angeles, CA @ The Forum
February 13 – Las Vegas, NV @ Mandalay Bay Events Center
February 15 – Denver, CO @ Pepsi Center
February 17 – Kansas City, MO @ Sprint Center
February 19 – Detroit, MI @ The Palace of Auburn Hills
February 21 – Hamilton, ON @ FirstOntario Centre
February 23 – Montreal, QB @ Bell Centre
February 25 – New York City, NY @ Madison Square Garden
The History Of Rock – a brand new monthly magazine from the makers of Uncut – a brand new monthly magazine from the makers of Uncut – is now on sale in the UK. Click here for more details.
Following on from my End Of The Road blog earlier in the week, a quick reminder here that you can follow all the action from the festival at www.www.uncut.co.uk this weekend. It might also be worth following Tom (@thomaspinnock) and Charlotte (@charltread) on Twitter, who are down there representing...
Following on from my End Of The Road blog earlier in the week, a quick reminder here that you can follow all the action from the festival at www.www.uncut.co.uk this weekend. It might also be worth following Tom (@thomaspinnock) and Charlotte (@charltread) on Twitter, who are down there representing for us.
In the meantime, I’m trying to play other things besides Bitchin Bajas, writing about Israel Nash’s cosmic Iron John album, finishing an issue and enjoying very much the Radiohead/Teo Macero/Four Tet vibes of Floating Points, the very Real Estate-like solo album from Real Estate’s Martin Courtney and Brittany Howard’s rowdy extra-curricular larks away from The Alabama Shakes in Thuderbitch. Here you go…
Led by sonic genius Kevin Parker, TAME IMPALA emerged from stoned squalor in the suburbs of Perth to pioneer a new form of questing psychedelia. We catch up with Parker over cocktails in the California desert to hear how music saved him: “I was totally into the thrill of breaking the law.” Origi...
While he’s waiting for the waitress to bring him another New Zealand Donkey, Parker considers a question about how it works with Tame Impala when he’s recording an album. Does he play them tracks as they are completed or is there a grand unveiling of the whole thing when it’s finally done?
“It depends how confident I’m feeling, which is seldom,” he says. “So on a rare day when I’m feeling good about the songs I’ll sheepishly play them some. It’s a terrible time for me. Jay especially is brutal when he thinks something’s not as good as it needs to be. I take everything they say into account, massively. Theirs are the opinions I value most. I’m super-anxious when I play them something for the first time. I pretend I’m not, but I’m fucking hanging on their every word.”
When it comes to teaching them the songs ahead of touring, does he expect them to replicate exactly what he originally played?
“That wouldn’t be interesting or fun. And it’s always got to be fun. Sometimes I can be a bit of a Hitler, but we never forget that we’re basically friends making music together. We never lose that vibe. There’s no point in getting stroppy with anyone. If getting the song sounding immaculate and exactly like the recorded version is at the cost of not having a good time with your friends, it’s not worth it. The way we play a lot of songs live is very different to the records, almost as if they were different songs, written in a parallel universe because it feels better with five guys in a room playing them that way. In the studio, it’s a different environment altogether. One guy in the studio with all the time in the world to work on the music is totally different to five guys onstage playing live, and comparing the two is absurd. We just accept they’re two different things and just get on with it.”
“In the early days, we were a lot more precious about wanting to be considered valid members of the group,” Jay had told me before the band’s set at Coachella. “Now we don’t give a fuck. It’s easier to play something the way Kevin wants to hear it and, more importantly, it sounds better that way.”
The question begging to be asked about now, the waitress making her way back towards us, a tray full of drinks, is if Parker thinks Jay, Dom, Nick and Julien are good enough to play his music live, why doesn’t he use them on the albums?
“It goes back to me needing the outlet of doing stuff on my own,” Parker says, probably hoping this is the last word on the subject. “Playing live for me is about having fun, putting on a good show, sharing a great musical time with your buddies. I’m more protective of the music in the studio. That’s when I need to be by myself. I’ve just grown up that way. I’ve done it like that since I was really young. I’ve just done everything myself. I think it has to do with a certain purity of vision. When you’re on your own, you become every instrument. You’re playing with different versions of yourself. And when it all comes together, it’s a lot more satisfying. I love band music. I love the sound of people working together because you can hear all the different personalities. It’s a beautiful thing. It’s just not what I want my records to sound like. Tame Impala would sound totally different if more than one person made the records.”
And what about the next album, you wonder, hoping for a breeze to blow in from somewhere and suck the heat out of the suffering air. What will that sound like? It turns out there may not be one.“Right now, doing another album doesn’t excite me,” he says. “There’s something narrow-minded about thinking an album is the only way you can put out music, especially in the world we’re in at the moment. Anything is possible. There’s so many people doing interesting things with the internet and technology, there could be so many ways of listening to music and also making it. It’s 2013 and you can make music anywhere. We’ve got laptops. You can make music anywhere. I just recently caved in and bought an iPhone and I’ve been downloading all these musical apps and I can control my recording programme from my iPhone pad and that’s fucking blowing me away. There are so many possibilities, my brain is overloading on them all. I just need to wait, think about things a bit more. Then I’ll know what to do next.”
The History Of Rock – a brand new monthly magazine from the makers of Uncut – a brand new monthly magazine from the makers of Uncut – is now on sale in the UK. Click here for more details.
In 1973, when Howard Alk and Seaton Findlay were putting together this documentary about her life, Janis Joplin was only three years gone, but a mythology had already grown up around her. In common with Brian Jones, Jim Morrison and Jimi Hendrix, the tales of Joplin’s drinking, drugging and serial...
In 1973, when Howard Alk and Seaton Findlay were putting together this documentary about her life, Janis Joplin was only three years gone, but a mythology had already grown up around her. In common with Brian Jones, Jim Morrison and Jimi Hendrix, the tales of Joplin’s drinking, drugging and serial provocations – which culminated in her death from an overdose in October 1970 – had already become enshrined in legend.
Within this context, the subtitle of Alk and Findlay’s 90 minute portrait is no afterthought. The directors’ aim, clearly, was to return Joplin to flesh and blood, focusing on her achievements as a music maker rather than a hell-raiser. They placed at the film’s centre frequently remarkable footage – some of it from Monterey and Woodstock, but much of it less well known, culled from European concerts and TV shows – of Joplin performing “Mercedes Benz”, “Ball And Chain”, “Piece Of My Heart”, “Me And Bobby McGee” and nine other songs, backed by Big Brother and the Holding Company, Kozmic Blues Band and the Full Tilt Boogie Band.
Much of it is electrifying. After becoming distraught during a rehearsal (a friend had been busted and then screwed over by his band mates), she delivers an extraordinarily visceral version of Gershwin’s “Summertime”. Her performance of “Try (Just A Little Bit Harder”) on the Dick Cavett Show is similarly gutsy, but much more fun. Bedecked in purple and green boas, she tears around the stage like some shamanic medicine woman – and the interview is a blast, too. Entertainingly, Joplin rarely seemed to dress down. In Germany, her outfit suggests that at least one polar bear gave up the ghost for the noble cause of blues-rock.
Though it’s now 40 years old and its production values are rudimentary, The Way She Was feels remarkably contemporary in terms of its free-flowing construction. There is no commentary. Instead, a plausible narrative is stitched together from archive interviews and live footage. In a film refreshingly free of retrospective analysis from solemn, wise-after-the-fact elders, the undoubted tragedy of her early demise is not allowed to unbalance all that came before.
Without cleaving to anything as rigid as a linear narrative – Alk, after all, worked with Bob Dylan on Eat The Document and Renaldo & Clara – the film follows Joplin through her early life to her position as the most powerful and confrontational female rock singer of the late 1960s. In early interview footage, as grainy as it is frank, she recalls her childhood in Port Arthur, Texas – “they laughed me out of class, out of town and out of the State” – and her life-changing discovery of the blues and Lead Belly. Her move to San Francisco in the mid-60s was a burned bridge. There is terrific footage of her returning to the town after her success, strutting like a conquering queen but wearing the wounds of earlier humiliations heart-breakingly close to the surface.
The interviews reveal her as a mercurial spirit, irreverent but acutely sensitive, articulate when the mood takes her but rarely far from the sense of chaotic spontaneity which was given full rein while she performed. Life is portrayed as an eternal battle between the “straights” and the “free people”. Her on stage raps about “getting action”, “being turned on” and “working your sweet ass” may not have worn well, but in this context they reveal as much about her motivating forces as any interview. “If you’re a woman, you already know what you’re looking for,” she drawls to the crowd during “Tell Mama”. “I found out at 14 years old and I’ve been looking ever since.”
Elsewhere, she talks unguardedly about the emotional depths she plumbs when singing. “It’s real, it’s not just a veneer or a performance, it’s a moment when you get inside yourself,” she says. “I’m just trying to feel and not bullshit myself.” The implication that hangs over the entire film, of course, is that she went further into her own pain than was healthy. Every performance here is undertaken at full tilt, and if at times one yearns for her to dial things down a little, such a notion fundamentally misunderstands the subject of this documentary. That simply wasn’t the way Janis Joplin was built.
The History Of Rock – a brand new monthly magazine from the makers of Uncut – a brand new monthly magazine from the makers of Uncut – is now on sale in the UK. Click here for more details.
Grandaddy are working on a new album: their first since Just Like The Fambly Cat in 2006.
The band's frontman Jason Lytle broke the news on Twitter on September 2.
https://twitter.com/jasonlytle/status/638533663685148672
Lytle has since confirmed that the tweet is a reference to Grandaddy. The Or...
Lytle has since confirmed that the tweet is a reference to Grandaddy. The Oregon based artist most recently released a record with Aaron Espinoza of Earlimart, a soundtrack to a distance running film entitled This Is Your Day.
Grandaddy split up in 2006 after 14 years together, with Lytle telling NME:
“It was inevitable… On one hand our stubbornness has paid off, but on the other hand refusing to buy into the way things are traditionally supposed to be done has made things worse for us… The realistic part is it hasn’t proved to be a huge money-making venture for a lot of guys in the band.”
Since 2012, however, they have reformed to play occasional live shows.
They played at the End Of The Road festival in 2012; for information about this year’s End Of The Road, and Uncut’s various activities on site, click here.
The History Of Rock – a brand new monthly magazine from the makers of Uncut – a brand new monthly magazine from the makers of Uncut – is now on sale in the UK. Click here for more details.
The producer of the Elliot Smith documentary Heaven Adores You has revealed that a batch of new songs by the singer will be released on the film's official soundtrack album.
As Pitchfork reports, producer Kevin Moyer has published a statement in which he gives an update on his plans for the officia...
The producer of the Elliot Smith documentary Heaven Adores You has revealed that a batch of new songs by the singer will be released on the film’s official soundtrack album.
As Pitchfork reports, producer Kevin Moyer has published a statement in which he gives an update on his plans for the official soundtrack LP. “Right now my track list is 20 Elliott songs from the film with only around four or five having been previously released,” he wrote.
While discussing the release plans for the album, meanwhile, he added: “We are still finishing it all up, but I know that the label plans to make an announcement in the upcoming weeks that will reveal the release date and also the full track list too.”
Speaking to NME earlier in the year, Moyer said of the music featured in the film: “I’m one of the few people who have been able to look into both the Universal and Kill Rock Star vaults. Elliott’s masters are split between two labels. It was fun to be able to get in there and listen to songs and try to get some of that music that had never been heard out there and into the fans’ ears.”
Heaven Adores You was directed by Nickolas Rossi. The film is the first full-length documentary with access to Smith’s close circle of friends, and was funded by a Kickstarter campaign. It was premiered at the San Francisco International Film Festival in 2014.
You can read Uncut’s review of Heaven Adores You by clicking here.
The History Of Rock – a brand new monthly magazine from the makers of Uncut – a brand new monthly magazine from the makers of Uncut – is now on sale in the UK. Click here for more details.
Alabama Shakes' Brittany Howard has released a new album under the name Thunderbitch.
Her self-titled album is streaming in full on the Thunderbitch website.
Nashville Scene reports that a vinyl copy is available to purchase for $15 via Alabama Shakes' online store, along with t-shirts.
The album...
Alabama Shakes‘ Brittany Howard has released a new album under the name Thunderbitch.
Nashville Scene reports that a vinyl copy is available to purchase for $15 via Alabama Shakes’ online store, along with t-shirts.
The album is also available digitally from iTunes for $8.
For Thunderbitch, Howard is joined by members of the Nashville bands Fly Golden Eagle and Clear Plastic Masks.
A biography on the band’s website identifies Howard’s bandmates as “Matt Man, B Bone, ThunderMitch, Char Man and A Man”.
The bio simply states: “Thunderbitch. Rock ‘n’ Roll. The end.”
The tracklisting for Thunderbitch is:
Leather Jacket
I Don’t Care
I Just Wanna Rock’n’Roll
Eastside Party
Closer
Wild Child
Very Best Friend
My Baby Is My Guitar
Let Me Do What I Do Best
Heavenly Feeling
Alabama Shakes released their latest album, Sound & Color, earlier this year.
You can read our exclusive interview with Howard and the rest of the Shakes by clicking here.
The History Of Rock – a brand new monthly magazine from the makers of Uncut – a brand new monthly magazine from the makers of Uncut – is now on sale in the UK. Click here for more details.
Animal Collective have announced their first live album of a single show.
Live At 9:30 was recorded at their June 12, 2013 show during a sold out three night run at the historic Washington DC venue, 9:30.
Their previous live release, 2002’s Hollinndagain, was a compilation of live recordings fro...
Animal Collective have announced their first live album of a single show.
Live At 9:30 was recorded at their June 12, 2013 show during a sold out three night run at the historic Washington DC venue, 9:30.
Their previous live release, 2002’s Hollinndagain, was a compilation of live recordings from 2001.
Animal Collective’s Geologist had the following to say about the shows:
“Growing up in Baltimore, we’ve been seeing shows at 9:30 for over 20 years, back to when the building was called WUST. First time was Pavement in 1994. Always one of our favorite places to see shows, and always one of the most fun places to play a show. Unless the power goes out.”
Live at 9:30 is available as a limited edition hand-numbered 3xLP boxset to purchase online now exclusively from Animal Collective or Domino.
All orders ship immediately and receive an instant download of the entire release.
For a limited time the first 100 American orders will receive a screenprinted show poster designed by Shaun Flynn.
The album is also available to pre-order from iTunes and all other digital platforms from Friday September 4.
In addition to announcing the new live album, the band have also launched a new Animal Collective website.
The tracklisting for Animal Collective – Live At 9:30 is:
Amanita
Did You See the Words
Honeycomb
My Girls
Moonjock
New Town Burnout
I Think I Can
Pulleys
What Would I Want? Sky
Peacebone
Monkey Riches
Brothersport
The Purple Bottle
The History Of Rock – a brand new monthly magazine from the makers of Uncut – a brand new monthly magazine from the makers of Uncut – is now on sale in the UK. Click here for more details.
Tesco has revealed plans to become the first UK supermarket to stock vinyl albums.
55 of the chain's Tesco Extra stores will stock copies of Iron Maiden's new album, The Book Of Souls, which goes on sale on Friday, September 4.
The Independent reports that Tesco could well be followed by other sup...
Tesco has revealed plans to become the first UK supermarket to stock vinyl albums.
55 of the chain’s Tesco Extra stores will stock copies of Iron Maiden‘s new album, The Book Of Souls, which goes on sale on Friday, September 4.
The Independent reports that Tesco could well be followed by other supermarkets, after vinyl sales hit 1.3 million in the UK last year – the highest since 1995, accounting for 2 per cent of the 2014 music market.
Previously Tesco had sold record players in their largest stores. Speaking to Endgadget, Tesco’s music buyer, Michael Mulligan, said “In the last year we began selling record decks in our largest stores and initial sales are very encouraging so giving our customers some new vinyl to play on those decks seems like the logical next step.
“If the trial is a success then we would consider selling more vinyl albums before the end of the year.”
Mulligan confirmed that The Book Of Souls album will cost £24.
Tesco isn’t the only supermarket chain to have sold record players in store. Last year, we reported that discount supermarket chain Lidl had been selling the Silvercrest USB Record Player in store for £49.99.
The History Of Rock – a brand new monthly magazine from the makers of Uncut – a brand new monthly magazine from the makers of Uncut – is now on sale in the UK. Click here for more details.
Not sure how your festival summer has panned out this year (maybe you could let me know your highlights in the comments box?), but next weekend Uncut will be making our annual belated entrance into the fray, with plenty of activity at the tenth anniversary End Of The Road festival. Once again, we'll...
Not sure how your festival summer has panned out this year (maybe you could let me know your highlights in the comments box?), but next weekend Uncut will be making our annual belated entrance into the fray, with plenty of activity at the tenth anniversary End Of The Road festival. Once again, we’ll be sponsoring the Tipi Tent, one of the more intimate venues at the Larmer Tree Gardens, where we’ll be hosting Sam Amidon, Julie Byrne, Euros Child, a bunch of late night surprise sets and, I think best of all, a performance by Jessica Pratt early on Sunday evening. Also, Uncut’s Tom Pinnock will be conducting Q&A sessions each day (as well as blogging from the site all weekend), with the aforementioned Jessica Pratt (Sunday, 1.30 at the Tipi Tent), Sleaford Mods’ Jason Williamson (Saturday, 3.15 on the Library Stage), and someone as yet unannounced that will probably turn out to be Ryley Walker (Friday, 3.45, Library Stage). Please drop in and say hi.
Last week, another website asked me (along with Edith Bowman, Tom Ravenscroft and some other folk) to put together some potential highlights from the End Of The Road bill. Ryley, predictably, was one of them, and I was actually playing yet another Walker album, a duets set with Bill MacKay called, maybe aptly, “Land Of Plenty”, when the request came in. Walker moves so fast, and has such an energised and dispassionate attitude to his previous work, that it’s hard to imagine quite what he’ll do this weekend: a clue came in a tweet last week when he announced, “Band is crushing right now top form long jams and new things and old things and ale yes ale in UK for a bit come witness.”
More and more, he comes across as a genuinely unmediated talent, a free spirit who at the same time is so commendably unabashed about his influences. Also his vibe is rowdy and unprecious, quite the opposite of what you might imagine: he’s often my favourite person on Twitter (Aug 30: “Went to rave in Manchester and now I’m in happy Mondays”. Aug 30: “Manchester is great a guy barfed on my hand last night”. Aug 31: ” My new nick name is beans. Nobody gets called beans anymore.” Etc), and every time I write something like this I get retweeted by his parents, sweetly.
Walker is opening the Garden Stage at midday on Friday, kicking off maybe the best run of this year’s End Of The Road given that it also includes Frazey Ford, Natalie Prass and Ty Segall’s Fuzz before a headline set by Low. Two of the albums I’ve played most in the past year or so have been by Prass and Ford – here’s the extended review of the Natalie Prass album I wrote at the start of the year. My knowledge of Ford and her old, folkish band The Be Good Tanyas is pretty sketchy, to be honest, but the solo album she put out last year, “Indian Ocean”, is wonderful; a southern soul record made with members of Al Green’s old band, that is nuanced, groovy and emotionally engaged in a very artful way (I reviewed it in greater depth here). Ford’s voice is very impressionistic, understated, and she conveys passion, heartbreak, ecstacy etc with the merest flecks. Also, this video is wonderful…
One last recommendation. I think this might be the first time Houndstooth have played over here, which is cool. They’re from Portland, and they’ve released a couple of albums on the great No Quarter label: initially they reminded me of something like Avi Buffalo, something fairly indie, but the more I listen, the more I hear Richard Thompson, late chugalong VU, a spindly psychedelia which, on record, never quite stretches itself as far I want it to. I noted last week that I hoped they’d head into looser, jammier territory, and in response this morning they got in touch to say, “Not to worry, plenty of long jams in our live set!” So there you go. Have a great time, everybody…
The programme for this year's BFI London Film Festival was announced earlier this morning.
As usual, there's a strong line-up among the 238 fiction and documentary features on show.
Among the headline films, I've already written about Todd Haynes' Carol, and I'm looking forward to seeing Ben Wheat...
The programme for this year’s BFI London Film Festival was announced earlier this morning.
As usual, there’s a strong line-up among the 238 fiction and documentary features on show.
Among the headline films, I’ve already written about Todd Haynes’ Carol, and I’m looking forward to seeing Ben Wheatley’s JG Ballard adaptation, High Rise, Bone Tomahawk – a cannibal western starring Kurt Russell – and Trumbo which stars Bryan Cranston as Dalton Trumbo, the Hollywood screenwriter who was blacklisted after refusing to testify before the House Committee on Un-American Activities in 1947. There’ll be more, of course: but for now, I wanted to flag up some of the key music documentaries showing in Festival.
Here, then, is my pick of – apologies for the alliteration – this year’s crop of rock docs…
This documentary on Leon Russell was filmed between 1972 – 1974 by director Les Blank; surprisingly, it has never previously been released.
JANIS: LITTLE GIRL BLUE Directed by Amy Berg
Amy Berg’s Janis Joplin documentary drawing on archival footage, contemporary interviews and the singer’s personal correspondences.
THE AMERICAN EPIC SESSIONS Directed by Bernard MacMahon
Part of Jack White and T Bone Burnett’s American Epic project; this documentary recreates the recording conditions of the 1920s, with artists including Elton John, Willie Nelson and Alabama Shakes recording straight to wax.
THEY WILL HAVE TO KILL US FIRST: MALIAN MUSIC IN EXILE Directed by Johanna Schwartz
Filmmaker Johanna Schwartz documents life for musicians forced into exile when Islamic Jihadists took control of Northern Mali in 2012. A companion piece, if you like, to Timbuktu.
STRETCH AND BOBBITO: RADIO THAT CHANGED LIVES Directed by Bobbito Garcia
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Gm5OhJszpU
Garcia’s documentary about The Stretch Armstrong and Bobbito Show which broadcast on New York’s WKCP radio during the 1990’s and incubated emerging artists including Jay Z, Nas and Eminem.
You can find more information about this year’s BFI London Film Festival by clicking here.
The History Of Rock – a brand new monthly magazine from the makers of Uncut – a brand new monthly magazine from the makers of Uncut – is now on sale in the UK. Click here for more details.
