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Autoluminescent

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Autoluminescent

The sad story of Roland S Howard, vividly told... Romantic and beautiful, sad and funny, very cool and just a little bit pretentious – you’d have to say that Autoluminescent gets the flavor of its subject spectacularly well. That subject is Rowland S Howard: songwriter and guitarist with The Birthday Party, Crime And The City Solution, and a idiosyncratic solo performer whose career was finally picking up some belated momentum when he died of liver cancer in 2009 aged 50. Howard’s story – of a brilliant talent whose career rewards were postponed indefinitely by his heroin dependence – is sad, but the strength of Autoluminescent is that it paints a vivid picture of Howard, (someone who, as Henry Rollins says here, was “spectral. Like Rimbaud back from Africa”, even when at full tilt), and the major influence he had: on the women he loved, the bands he played in, and the scenes he animated. Tall, wry, and convinced of his own greatness (he signed pictures of himself saying, “tomorrow belongs to me”) he arrived on the late 1970s Melbourne rock scene, as Nick Cave confirms in a warm, frank and vaguely confessional interview, fully formed. At 16, Howard wrote “Shivers”, a piece sending up faux-suicidal teenage angst, which impressed Cave to the point of admitting him to The Boys Next Door, the band that became The Birthday Party. A good chunk of the film, as you might hope, is dedicated to The Birthday Party, to whom Howard gave a white light guitar sound, several abstract compositions and a consumptive glamour. Suspecting their greatness, the band moved to London, (where Howard got malnutrition and all the bands were terrible), were too savage for New York (Howard: “In three gigs, we played 25 minutes. It was fantastic.”), and finally decamped to Berlin. Wim Wenders remembers them arriving “like Siberian crows” and featured Howard (now kicked out of the Birthday Party) prominently for his film (i)Wings Of Desire(i). These bits, as you might expect, look spectacular. Other groups (Crime And The City Solution; These Immortal Souls) and collaborations (with Lydia Lunch) followed, but Autoluminescent has sufficiently warmed us to the wry, charming Howard, his romantic nature and his sporadic bursts of greatness, that we are happy to spend the rest of the film on the gentler currents of his rather erratic life. There are some significant relationships with some good people, some solid pieces of work, some other projects begun, and a late surge of good fortune. Illness then makes its inexorable entrance into the piece. Autoluminescent is a superior documentary because it takes you down these inclines, off the beaten track of the more extreme contrasts of the “rise and fall” rock narrative. Rowland S Howard was a great musician, but all the big names pulled in to assure you of this can’t make him a household name, so the job that is accomplished here is necessarily a subtler one. It doesn’t show you Howard’s accomplishments as if they were arrayed in a trophy cabinet, or his addictions as if they were a torment heroically vanquished, but both as features in a wider life. The more you hear from the people close to him, the more a picture emerges of just who Rowland S Howard was, and why they miss him, and in so doing, why rock music continues to miss him too. John Robinson

The sad story of Roland S Howard, vividly told…

Romantic and beautiful, sad and funny, very cool and just a little bit pretentious – you’d have to say that Autoluminescent gets the flavor of its subject spectacularly well. That subject is Rowland S Howard: songwriter and guitarist with The Birthday Party, Crime And The City Solution, and a idiosyncratic solo performer whose career was finally picking up some belated momentum when he died of liver cancer in 2009 aged 50.

Howard’s story – of a brilliant talent whose career rewards were postponed indefinitely by his heroin dependence – is sad, but the strength of Autoluminescent is that it paints a vivid picture of Howard, (someone who, as Henry Rollins says here, was “spectral. Like Rimbaud back from Africa”, even when at full tilt), and the major influence he had: on the women he loved, the bands he played in, and the scenes he animated.

Tall, wry, and convinced of his own greatness (he signed pictures of himself saying, “tomorrow belongs to me”) he arrived on the late 1970s Melbourne rock scene, as Nick Cave confirms in a warm, frank and vaguely confessional interview, fully formed. At 16, Howard wrote “Shivers”, a piece sending up faux-suicidal teenage angst, which impressed Cave to the point of admitting him to The Boys Next Door, the band that became The Birthday Party.

A good chunk of the film, as you might hope, is dedicated to The Birthday Party, to whom Howard gave a white light guitar sound, several abstract compositions and a consumptive glamour. Suspecting their greatness, the band moved to London, (where Howard got malnutrition and all the bands were terrible), were too savage for New York (Howard: “In three gigs, we played 25 minutes. It was fantastic.”), and finally decamped to Berlin. Wim Wenders remembers them arriving “like Siberian crows” and featured Howard (now kicked out of the Birthday Party) prominently for his film (i)Wings Of Desire(i). These bits, as you might expect, look spectacular.

Other groups (Crime And The City Solution; These Immortal Souls) and collaborations (with Lydia Lunch) followed, but Autoluminescent has sufficiently warmed us to the wry, charming Howard, his romantic nature and his sporadic bursts of greatness, that we are happy to spend the rest of the film on the gentler currents of his rather erratic life. There are some significant relationships with some good people, some solid pieces of work, some other projects begun, and a late surge of good fortune. Illness then makes its inexorable entrance into the piece.

Autoluminescent is a superior documentary because it takes you down these inclines, off the beaten track of the more extreme contrasts of the “rise and fall” rock narrative. Rowland S Howard was a great musician, but all the big names pulled in to assure you of this can’t make him a household name, so the job that is accomplished here is necessarily a subtler one.

It doesn’t show you Howard’s accomplishments as if they were arrayed in a trophy cabinet, or his addictions as if they were a torment heroically vanquished, but both as features in a wider life. The more you hear from the people close to him, the more a picture emerges of just who Rowland S Howard was, and why they miss him, and in so doing, why rock music continues to miss him too.

John Robinson

Rare Velvet Underground record up for auction again

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Rare Velvet Underground record up for auction again

A rare early Velvet Underground record made in 1966 and sold at auction in 2006 for $25,200 will be going back up for auction this July. The so-called Scepter Studios acetate contains several songs that would eventually be released on the group’s landmark debut, The Velvet Underground & Nico, the following year, including alternate takes and mixes for "I’m Waiting for the Man", "Venus in Furs" and "Heroin". It is one of only two known surviving copies, with drummer Mo Tucker possessing the other copy. The seller, a New York man who wishes to remain anonymous, told Rolling Stone that he initially bought the record both as a piece of musical history and financial investment. "I watched the auction first just because it was so rare, I was curious to see how high the sale would go," he said. "I bought it for $25,200, which, in my mind, was extremely undervalued for what the record was. I’m a big Velvet Underground fan, but to be honest, I’ve never been a big fan of this album. But the significance of the record for music is unmistakable. It’s obviously a piece of musical history, but I wouldn’t have purchased it then if I didn’t see its potential as a financial investment." In April 1966, engineer Norman Dolph recorded the test pressing in secret and after hours in exchange for a painting by the group’s then-manager Andy Warhol. Warhol wanted to record and cut the acetate before the band signed to a record label to minimize label intrusion. In 2002, record collector Warren Hill saw the acetate at a street sale in New York City and bought it for 75 cents, putting the record up for auction on eBay in 2006. Though the record initially sold for $155,401, it was determined that the winning bidder was fraudulent. Hill re-auctioned the vinyl record with more stringent buying requirements in place, selling the acetate to its current owner. The New York seller told Rolling Stone that once he bought the record, he immediately placed it in a safe and chose not to listen to it. "It wasn’t worth it to me to even handle the record, let alone drag a needle across it," he said. "This is not a conventional record that can be played thousands and thousands of times. It’s an acetate; it’s the equivalent of a CD you’d burn 10 years ago." In 2012, the acetate was officially released as the fourth disc of the album's "45th Anniversary Super Deluxe Edition" box set and a limited edition of 5,000 copies of the acetate were sold as part of Record Store Day that same year. Shuga Records, a Chicago record store specializing in rare and one-of-a-kind records, is assisting in the logistics of the sale, and told Rolling Stone that the acetate finds the band at its most individualistic. "This record represents a different take on the music industry, in which the labels were kept out of the mix to avoid artistic compromise, and the completed recording was pitched as-is," a spokesperson for the store said. "This is the Velvets as the Velvets and Andy Warhol saw them, unencumbered by label A&Rs worrying about how this lyric might affect album sales, or the music being hard to digest." Shuga Records has set up a website detailing more information about the sale, including the creation of a hand-crafted wooden LP featuring a replica label from the acetate. The seller would not disclose how much he is expecting the record to sell for, but says that 10 percent of the sale’s proceeds will go to an animal rights charity.

A rare early Velvet Underground record made in 1966 and sold at auction in 2006 for $25,200 will be going back up for auction this July.

The so-called Scepter Studios acetate contains several songs that would eventually be released on the group’s landmark debut, The Velvet Underground & Nico, the following year, including alternate takes and mixes for “I’m Waiting for the Man”, “Venus in Furs” and “Heroin”. It is one of only two known surviving copies, with drummer Mo Tucker possessing the other copy.

The seller, a New York man who wishes to remain anonymous, told Rolling Stone that he initially bought the record both as a piece of musical history and financial investment.

“I watched the auction first just because it was so rare, I was curious to see how high the sale would go,” he said. “I bought it for $25,200, which, in my mind, was extremely undervalued for what the record was. I’m a big Velvet Underground fan, but to be honest, I’ve never been a big fan of this album. But the significance of the record for music is unmistakable. It’s obviously a piece of musical history, but I wouldn’t have purchased it then if I didn’t see its potential as a financial investment.”

In April 1966, engineer Norman Dolph recorded the test pressing in secret and after hours in exchange for a painting by the group’s then-manager Andy Warhol. Warhol wanted to record and cut the acetate before the band signed to a record label to minimize label intrusion.

In 2002, record collector Warren Hill saw the acetate at a street sale in New York City and bought it for 75 cents, putting the record up for auction on eBay in 2006. Though the record initially sold for $155,401, it was determined that the winning bidder was fraudulent. Hill re-auctioned the vinyl record with more stringent buying requirements in place, selling the acetate to its current owner.

The New York seller told Rolling Stone that once he bought the record, he immediately placed it in a safe and chose not to listen to it. “It wasn’t worth it to me to even handle the record, let alone drag a needle across it,” he said. “This is not a conventional record that can be played thousands and thousands of times. It’s an acetate; it’s the equivalent of a CD you’d burn 10 years ago.”

In 2012, the acetate was officially released as the fourth disc of the album’s “45th Anniversary Super Deluxe Edition” box set and a limited edition of 5,000 copies of the acetate were sold as part of Record Store Day that same year.

Shuga Records, a Chicago record store specializing in rare and one-of-a-kind records, is assisting in the logistics of the sale, and told Rolling Stone that the acetate finds the band at its most individualistic. “This record represents a different take on the music industry, in which the labels were kept out of the mix to avoid artistic compromise, and the completed recording was pitched as-is,” a spokesperson for the store said. “This is the Velvets as the Velvets and Andy Warhol saw them, unencumbered by label A&Rs worrying about how this lyric might affect album sales, or the music being hard to digest.”

Shuga Records has set up a website detailing more information about the sale, including the creation of a hand-crafted wooden LP featuring a replica label from the acetate. The seller would not disclose how much he is expecting the record to sell for, but says that 10 percent of the sale’s proceeds will go to an animal rights charity.

Nick Cave, Roger Waters write songs for new Marianne Faithfull album

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Nick Cave, Roger Waters write songs for new Marianne Faithfull album

Nick Cave and Roger Waters are amongst those who have penned music for Marianne Faithfull's new album. Give My Love To London will be released this September, featuring lyrics by Faithfull and music from a host of guest artists, including Pat Leonard, Tom McRae and Steve Earle. Faithfull will be backed by guest musicians Warren Ellis and Jim Sclavunos, from the Bad Seeds, as well as Portishead's Adrian Utley on guitar, keyboards from Ed Harcourt, and a string quartet. The album has been produced by Rob Ellis and Dimitri Tikovoi, and mixed by Flood. Marianne Faithfull begins a year long world tour this autumn. Yesterday (May 22) Nick Cave and Warren Ellis accepted the Album Award at the 59th Ivor Novello Awards in London for Push The Sky Away, beating Arctic Monkeys' AM. The prize was presented by Chrissie Hynde of The Pretenders. "This is the one to get," said Cave. "We don't really go to many of these awards evenings but we come to this one." He then thanked Ellis, with whom he co-wrote the album, saying, "He taught me how to dispense with three chords and get it down to one."

Nick Cave and Roger Waters are amongst those who have penned music for Marianne Faithfull‘s new album.

Give My Love To London will be released this September, featuring lyrics by Faithfull and music from a host of guest artists, including Pat Leonard, Tom McRae and Steve Earle. Faithfull will be backed by guest musicians Warren Ellis and Jim Sclavunos, from the Bad Seeds, as well as Portishead’s Adrian Utley on guitar, keyboards from Ed Harcourt, and a string quartet. The album has been produced by Rob Ellis and Dimitri Tikovoi, and mixed by Flood. Marianne Faithfull begins a year long world tour this autumn.

Yesterday (May 22) Nick Cave and Warren Ellis accepted the Album Award at the 59th Ivor Novello Awards in London for Push The Sky Away, beating Arctic Monkeys’ AM. The prize was presented by Chrissie Hynde of The Pretenders.

“This is the one to get,” said Cave. “We don’t really go to many of these awards evenings but we come to this one.” He then thanked Ellis, with whom he co-wrote the album, saying, “He taught me how to dispense with three chords and get it down to one.”

Tony Visconti and Woody Woodmansey to perform David Bowie’s The Man Who Sold The World album live

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Tony Visconti and Woody Woodmansey to perform David Bowie’s The Man Who Sold The World album live

David Bowie's long-term producer Tony Visconti and Mick "Woody" Woodmansey - the only surviving member of The Spider's From Mars - will perform Bowie's third album The Man Who Sold The World, from 1970, in full. They will be joined by an ensemble of ten musicians including Spandau Ballet saxophone player Steve Norman and Heaven 17's Glenn Gregory, The Guardian reports. The event will take place at The Garage on September 17. "The Man Who Sold the World was the first album Mick Ronson and I played on, our first even in a proper London studio, yet it never got played live," Woodmansey told The Guardian. "It was the forerunner of what we could do sound-wise, and we just let rip. We spent three weeks recording [it] because we were creating the songs as we went." "This was the album that showed Bowie trying out things and finding his direction. The Man Who Sold The World was his first step into rock'n'roll. It got critical acclaim, but we never toured it, and in the live shows the album tracks never got touched on. So the idea of being able to go out and finally play some of those great tracks live was just so exciting." Visconti added that the album is key in Bowie's career: "The Man Who Sold The World became the blueprint for the rest of David’s career. Virtually everything he’s done since, you can trace back to something on that album." Bowie has reportedly given his blessing to the project.

David Bowie’s long-term producer Tony Visconti and Mick “Woody” Woodmansey – the only surviving member of The Spider’s From Mars – will perform Bowie’s third album The Man Who Sold The World, from 1970, in full. They will be joined by an ensemble of ten musicians including Spandau Ballet saxophone player Steve Norman and Heaven 17’s Glenn Gregory, The Guardian reports. The event will take place at The Garage on September 17.

“The Man Who Sold the World was the first album Mick Ronson and I played on, our first even in a proper London studio, yet it never got played live,” Woodmansey told The Guardian. “It was the forerunner of what we could do sound-wise, and we just let rip. We spent three weeks recording [it] because we were creating the songs as we went.”

“This was the album that showed Bowie trying out things and finding his direction. The Man Who Sold The World was his first step into rock’n’roll. It got critical acclaim, but we never toured it, and in the live shows the album tracks never got touched on. So the idea of being able to go out and finally play some of those great tracks live was just so exciting.”

Visconti added that the album is key in Bowie’s career: “The Man Who Sold The World became the blueprint for the rest of David’s career. Virtually everything he’s done since, you can trace back to something on that album.”

Bowie has reportedly given his blessing to the project.

Oasis’ Definitely Maybe 20 years on…

Michael Bonner
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Oasis’ Definitely Maybe 20 years on…

Like everything else, Noel Gallagher had an opinion about debut albums. “Definitely Maybe was the young, eager, wanting to get out there and fucking blow the world away album,” he told Uncut in 2000. As Gallagher claimed on many occasions, he’d been strategising a debut album, in whatever form, since his teenage years. With such apparent forethought, it’s no wonder that when Definitely Maybe appeared in August, 1994 it redrew the parameters of indie rock, filling a void left by The Stone Roses and gave Alan McGee’s Creation Records a world-class act. But, as this triple CD 20th anniversary set illustrates, there is more to this great album than that. The band’s evolution forms the rump of this reissue, which presents the finished (remastered) album alongside two additional CDs of demos, B-sides mixes and live versions, running bafflingly in a non-sequential order from the band’s 1993 Live Demonstration demo up to the isolated string track for “Whatever”. In March this year, Liam Gallagher took to social media to advise fans to boycott this reissue, Tweeting “HOW CAN YOU REMASTER SOMETHING THATS ALREADY BEEN MASTERED.DONT BUY INTO IT.LET IT BE LG X”. But it’s possible that Liam has other problems with this reissue. The earliest demos here demonstrate that Liam’s persona and delivery as of 1993 is very much a work in progress. There’s none of the elongated vowel business on the (undated) “Cigarettes & Alcohol” demo: no “sunshyyiiiiiine” or “white liiiiiine” to give the song that bit of heft. Liam’s cocksure attack on “Rock’n’Roll Star” – a critical component in setting out the album’s stall – is instead rather passive on the early version here. At this point, it’s fair to say, Liam has yet to make contact with his inner Liam. The process by which Oasis morph from indie foot soldiers to the swaggering generals sparheading the Britpop charge occured under the guidance of a number of different producers – Dave Batchelor, Mark Coyle and Owen Morris. You might wonder whether this extra view behind the curtain undermines the magic of the finished album. It doesn’t. For one, it provides an amusing corrective to the creation myth peddled by the likes of Alan McGee, that the band emerged fully formed as the saviours of rock’n’roll onto the stage of King Tut’s Wah Wat Hut, where he first saw them on May 31, 1993. Beyond that, it’s often a fascinating piece of archaeology, tracing the arc of Oasis’ development, as demonstrated by the three versions of “Columbia” here. The first in its spring, 1993 incarnation recorded at the Real People’s Porter Street studios in Liverpool (baggy groove, reedy-sounding guitars), then in Mark Coyle’s March, 1994 mix at London’s Eden Studios (bigger, tighter, yes; but Liam still not quite “Liam” enough), and finally, in the album version, all the ducks in a row, the guitars at full tilt and Liam in his swaggering pomp. However much this peels back the layers, Definitely Maybe remains utterly unshakeable, fulfilling Noel’s desire to “fucking blow the world away”. Against the introspection of shoegazing, the defiance of Definitely Maybe and the blithe arrogance of the young Gallaghers ushered in the Nineties in all its cokey, New Lad bagadaccio. Listening back to “Rock’n’roll Star”, “Shakermaker”, “Supersonic” and especially “Columbia”, it’s easy to see how the mix of punk spirit, Glam stomp and the indie penetrated so deeply into the consciousness. Musically, it offered a kind of populist ‘best of British’ sound, delivered with closing time, arms-round-your-mates choruses. “Live Forever” and “Slide Away” represent key components of Oasis’ arsenal. Pregnant with emotional resonance (“Maybe you’re the same as me / We see things they’ll never see” … “Let me be the one that shines with you”), but essentially meaningless, Noel later refined this kind of songwriting with “Wonderwall” and “Don’t Look Back In Anger” on Oasis’ second album, What’s The Story (Morning Glory)?. Elsewhere, the oft-repeated claim that Noel could pen classics in his sleep is mitigated by “Cloudburst” (a “Live Forever” B-side) and the previously unreleased “Strange Thing” (from March 1993), which both sound like by-numbers late 80s British indie. Still, Noel’s solo acoustic B-sides “Sad Song” and “Half The World Away” are still pleasing moments of tranquillity in between Liam’s mad fer it jollies. If Definitely Maybe still sounds pretty much as Noel envisaged, that’s certainly to do with the quality of the songs, the delivery and the timing. But Definitely Maybe is also untainted by the later decline and fall: the multi-tracking, the cocaine bloat and the imitators that followed in its wake. Follow me on Twitter @MichaelBonner.

Like everything else, Noel Gallagher had an opinion about debut albums. “Definitely Maybe was the young, eager, wanting to get out there and fucking blow the world away album,” he told Uncut in 2000. As Gallagher claimed on many occasions, he’d been strategising a debut album, in whatever form, since his teenage years. With such apparent forethought, it’s no wonder that when Definitely Maybe appeared in August, 1994 it redrew the parameters of indie rock, filling a void left by The Stone Roses and gave Alan McGee’s Creation Records a world-class act.

But, as this triple CD 20th anniversary set illustrates, there is more to this great album than that. The band’s evolution forms the rump of this reissue, which presents the finished (remastered) album alongside two additional CDs of demos, B-sides mixes and live versions, running bafflingly in a non-sequential order from the band’s 1993 Live Demonstration demo up to the isolated string track for “Whatever”. In March this year, Liam Gallagher took to social media to advise fans to boycott this reissue, Tweeting “HOW CAN YOU REMASTER SOMETHING THATS ALREADY BEEN MASTERED.DONT BUY INTO IT.LET IT BE LG X”. But it’s possible that Liam has other problems with this reissue. The earliest demos here demonstrate that Liam’s persona and delivery as of 1993 is very much a work in progress. There’s none of the elongated vowel business on the (undated) “Cigarettes & Alcohol” demo: no “sunshyyiiiiiine” or “white liiiiiine” to give the song that bit of heft. Liam’s cocksure attack on “Rock’n’Roll Star” – a critical component in setting out the album’s stall – is instead rather passive on the early version here. At this point, it’s fair to say, Liam has yet to make contact with his inner Liam.

The process by which Oasis morph from indie foot soldiers to the swaggering generals sparheading the Britpop charge occured under the guidance of a number of different producers – Dave Batchelor, Mark Coyle and Owen Morris. You might wonder whether this extra view behind the curtain undermines the magic of the finished album. It doesn’t. For one, it provides an amusing corrective to the creation myth peddled by the likes of Alan McGee, that the band emerged fully formed as the saviours of rock’n’roll onto the stage of King Tut’s Wah Wat Hut, where he first saw them on May 31, 1993.

Beyond that, it’s often a fascinating piece of archaeology, tracing the arc of Oasis’ development, as demonstrated by the three versions of “Columbia” here. The first in its spring, 1993 incarnation recorded at the Real People’s Porter Street studios in Liverpool (baggy groove, reedy-sounding guitars), then in Mark Coyle’s March, 1994 mix at London’s Eden Studios (bigger, tighter, yes; but Liam still not quite “Liam” enough), and finally, in the album version, all the ducks in a row, the guitars at full tilt and Liam in his swaggering pomp.

However much this peels back the layers, Definitely Maybe remains utterly unshakeable, fulfilling Noel’s desire to “fucking blow the world away”. Against the introspection of shoegazing, the defiance of Definitely Maybe and the blithe arrogance of the young Gallaghers ushered in the Nineties in all its cokey, New Lad bagadaccio. Listening back to “Rock’n’roll Star”, “Shakermaker”, “Supersonic” and especially “Columbia”, it’s easy to see how the mix of punk spirit, Glam stomp and the indie penetrated so deeply into the consciousness. Musically, it offered a kind of populist ‘best of British’ sound, delivered with closing time, arms-round-your-mates choruses. “Live Forever” and “Slide Away” represent key components of Oasis’ arsenal. Pregnant with emotional resonance (“Maybe you’re the same as me / We see things they’ll never see” … “Let me be the one that shines with you”), but essentially meaningless, Noel later refined this kind of songwriting with “Wonderwall” and “Don’t Look Back In Anger” on Oasis’ second album, What’s The Story (Morning Glory)?. Elsewhere, the oft-repeated claim that Noel could pen classics in his sleep is mitigated by “Cloudburst” (a “Live Forever” B-side) and the previously unreleased “Strange Thing” (from March 1993), which both sound like by-numbers late 80s British indie. Still, Noel’s solo acoustic B-sides “Sad Song” and “Half The World Away” are still pleasing moments of tranquillity in between Liam’s mad fer it jollies.

If Definitely Maybe still sounds pretty much as Noel envisaged, that’s certainly to do with the quality of the songs, the delivery and the timing. But Definitely Maybe is also untainted by the later decline and fall: the multi-tracking, the cocaine bloat and the imitators that followed in its wake.

Follow me on Twitter @MichaelBonner.

“The most difficult project I’ve ever done”: Graham Nash on CSNY’s Live 1974 box set

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“The most difficult project I’ve ever done”: Graham Nash on CSNY’s Live 1974 box set
Graham Nash has spoken about Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young's long-awaited live 1974 box set. In a new interview on Rolling Stone, Nash said, "This is the most difficult project I've ever done in my recording life. That's largely because of other people's agendas and trying to please four people ...

Graham Nash has spoken about Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young‘s long-awaited live 1974 box set.

In a new interview on Rolling Stone, Nash said, “This is the most difficult project I’ve ever done in my recording life. That’s largely because of other people’s agendas and trying to please four people at the same time. It only took us a year to actually do the physical work, but it took three or four years to get that work together.”

After an earlier report on Uncut, Rolling Stone confirms that the CSNY 1974 box set will be released in America on July 8, 2014. It will be released on July 7, 2014 in the UK and Europe.

It will be released as a 3 CD/DVD set, a Pure Audio Blu-Ray (192kHz/24-bit), a limited edition box set and also a 16-track single CD.

The 3 CD/DVD set, the Blu-Ray and the box set will also contain a 188-page booklet of previously unseen tour photography. The box set is limited to 1,000 copies and features a coffee table-sized book, a bonus DVD and six 180-gram 12” vinyl records.

Copies can be pre-ordered from the CSNY website from next week [Monday May 28].

The complete track listing for CSNY 1974 is:

3CD/ Bonus DVD or Pure Audio Blu-Ray / Bonus DVD

Disc One – First Set

1. “Love The One You’re With”

2. “Wooden Ships”

3. “Immigration Man”

4. “Helpless”

5. “Carry Me”

6. “Johnny’s Garden”

7. “Traces”

8. “Grave Concern”

9. “On The Beach”

10. “Black Queen”

11. “Almost Cut My Hair”

Disc Two – Second Set

1. “Change Partners”

2. “The Lee Shore”

3. “Only Love Can Break Your Heart”

4. “Our House”

5. “Fieldworker”

6. “Guinevere”

7. “Time After Time”

8. “Prison Song”

9. “Long May You Run”

10. “Goodbye Dick”

11. “Mellow My Mind”

12. “Old Man”

13. “Word Game”

14. “Myth Of Sisyphus”

15. “Blackbird”

16. “Love Art Blues”

17. “Hawaiian Sunrise”

18. “Teach Your Children”

19. “Suite: Judy Blue Eyes”

Disc Three – Third Set

1. “Déjà Vu”

2. “My Angel”

3. “Pre-Road Downs”

4. “Don’t Be Denied”

5. “Revolution Blues”

6. “Military Madness”

7. “Long Time Gone”

8. “Pushed It Over The End”

9. “Chicago”

10.”Ohio”

Bonus DVD

1. “Only Love Can Break Your Heart”

2. “Almost Cut My Hair”

3. “Grave Concern”

4. “Old Man”

5. “Johnny’s Garden”

6. “Our House”

7. “Déjà Vu”

8. “Pushed It Over The End”

Single CD Track Listing

1. “Love The One You’re With”

2. “Wooden Ships”

3. “Immigration Man”

4. “Helpless”

5. “Johnny’s Garden”

6. “The Lee Shore”

7. “Change Partners”

8. “Only Love Can Break Your Heart”

9. “Our House”

10. “Guinevere”

11. “Old Man”

12. “Teach Your Children”

13. “Suite: Judy Blue Eyes”

14. “Long Time Gone”

15. “Chicago”

16. “Ohio”

He Wasn’t Just The Fifth Member Of Joy Division: A Film About Martin Hannett

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He Wasn’t Just The Fifth Member Of Joy Division: A Film About Martin Hannett

The disorderly story of the architect of the Factory Records sound... Martin Hannett’s gravestone is inscribed with the legend “Creator of the Manchester Sound”, but the fact that he lay in unmarked ground for 17 years shows that he hasn’t always been revered. This ambivalence to his artistic single-mindedness was shared by the artists he produced. Joy Division, whose two albums can be viewed as Hannett’s most significant legacy, were nonplussed by the sonic surgery applied to their 1979 debut Unknown Pleasures. And U2, who sought him out for their 1980 single, “11 O’Clock Tick Tock”, swiftly moved on, fearing they might become just another Martin Hannett group. Needless to say, time has softened attitudes. Peter Hook notes in this lo-fi documentary that, “without Martin, [Joy Division’s music] would definitely not have lasted because we would have made it upfront, punk, all fast, and no depth, no atmosphere.” Factory boss Tony Wilson puts it more simply, saying Hannett was aware of the way music was changing and “he changed music”. With hindsight, it’s clear that Hannett’s contribution was to hijack the energy of punk and apply a pre-punk sensibility. His approach endures in dance music, partly because of his influence on New Order, who couldn’t help inhaling his methods, but also because of his interest in rhythm. He had dabbled in various improvisational combos, jamming with the likes of Magazine’s Dave Formula and The Durutti Column’s Bruce Mitchell in a style that betrayed an interest in The Grateful Dead. Even then, he tended to view the bass as a lead instrument - a trick that would define Joy Division’s sound. He played it with a Zippo lighter. Hannett was a hi-fi buff. “He would starve just to get money to buy his expensive Quad bollocks,” Mitchell observes. He studied chemical engineering, and applied his studies recreationally, using - as Wilson noted elsewhere - “every fucking drug”. Prior to Factory, he was involved in a musicians’ co-op, and Rabid Records, which released Jilted John before morphing into Absurd Records, whose releases included an unplayable picture disc, decorated with pictures cut from The Dandy. He managed John Cooper Clarke, and played in The Invisible Girls, enhancing the punk poet’s voice by recording him shouting into a lift shaft. The significant part of the story begins with the austere sound he drought to Buzzcocks’ DIY EP Spiral Scratch. Hannett’s association with Tony Wilson began when he urged him to go and see Slaughter and the Dogs (in an odd pre-echo, one of their posters had the slogan “Slaughter and the Dogs Will Tear You Apart”). The producer’s influence on Joy Division is obvious. His approach to recording them was painstaking, with the emphasis on pain. Stephen Morris’s drums were literally deconstructed, because Hannett claimed he could dear the springs inside. By the time of Closer, the group’s patience was wearing thin. Hook - the only band member who owned a cassette player - had to borrow petrol money to let the rest of the band hear “Love Will Tear Us Apart” in his car. “It sounded bloody awful.” There was a fall-out with Factory - not explored - and a reconciliation. He recorded Bummed with The Happy Mondays, and had a tilt at The Stone Roses (“he was 5% sound and 95% aesthetic,” they note). Creatively, thanks to his drug and alcohol intake, he faded out, dying in 1991. It’s a messy tale, and with a four hour running time, it sprawls. Filmmaker Chris Hewitt follows his own interest in sound, so while there is much talk of echo plates, the human story is sometimes forgotten. The picture and sound quality are poor, but there is valuable archive footage, some of it rescued from an abandoned documentary by Anthony Ryan Carter, for which Jon Ronson interviewed Tony Wilson. The key to the Factory sound? That would be the sound of a factory. Hannett apparently became fascinated by the beats he heard in the air-conditioning units at a Ferranti plant, and was inspired to locate music in unusual places: footsteps, lifts, cups smashing. Probed by Wilson, he offers a simpler explanation. The snare drum, he suggests, is the essence of rock’n’roll. “Playing the offbeats with a good deal of vigour.” EXTRAS: None. Alastair McKay

The disorderly story of the architect of the Factory Records sound…

Martin Hannett’s gravestone is inscribed with the legend “Creator of the Manchester Sound”, but the fact that he lay in unmarked ground for 17 years shows that he hasn’t always been revered. This ambivalence to his artistic single-mindedness was shared by the artists he produced. Joy Division, whose two albums can be viewed as Hannett’s most significant legacy, were nonplussed by the sonic surgery applied to their 1979 debut Unknown Pleasures. And U2, who sought him out for their 1980 single, “11 O’Clock Tick Tock”, swiftly moved on, fearing they might become just another Martin Hannett group.

Needless to say, time has softened attitudes. Peter Hook notes in this lo-fi documentary that, “without Martin, [Joy Division’s music] would definitely not have lasted because we would have made it upfront, punk, all fast, and no depth, no atmosphere.” Factory boss Tony Wilson puts it more simply, saying Hannett was aware of the way music was changing and “he changed music”.

With hindsight, it’s clear that Hannett’s contribution was to hijack the energy of punk and apply a pre-punk sensibility. His approach endures in dance music, partly because of his influence on New Order, who couldn’t help inhaling his methods, but also because of his interest in rhythm. He had dabbled in various improvisational combos, jamming with the likes of Magazine’s Dave Formula and The Durutti Column’s Bruce Mitchell in a style that betrayed an interest in The Grateful Dead. Even then, he tended to view the bass as a lead instrument – a trick that would define Joy Division’s sound. He played it with a Zippo lighter.

Hannett was a hi-fi buff. “He would starve just to get money to buy his expensive Quad bollocks,” Mitchell observes. He studied chemical engineering, and applied his studies recreationally, using – as Wilson noted elsewhere – “every fucking drug”. Prior to Factory, he was involved in a musicians’ co-op, and Rabid Records, which released Jilted John before morphing into Absurd Records, whose releases included an unplayable picture disc, decorated with pictures cut from The Dandy. He managed John Cooper Clarke, and played in The Invisible Girls, enhancing the punk poet’s voice by recording him shouting into a lift shaft.

The significant part of the story begins with the austere sound he drought to Buzzcocks’ DIY EP Spiral Scratch. Hannett’s association with Tony Wilson began when he urged him to go and see Slaughter and the Dogs (in an odd pre-echo, one of their posters had the slogan “Slaughter and the Dogs Will Tear You Apart”). The producer’s influence on Joy Division is obvious. His approach to recording them was painstaking, with the emphasis on pain. Stephen Morris’s drums were literally deconstructed, because Hannett claimed he could dear the springs inside. By the time of Closer, the group’s patience was wearing thin. Hook – the only band member who owned a cassette player – had to borrow petrol money to let the rest of the band hear “Love Will Tear Us Apart” in his car. “It sounded bloody awful.”

There was a fall-out with Factory – not explored – and a reconciliation. He recorded Bummed with The Happy Mondays, and had a tilt at The Stone Roses (“he was 5% sound and 95% aesthetic,” they note). Creatively, thanks to his drug and alcohol intake, he faded out, dying in 1991.

It’s a messy tale, and with a four hour running time, it sprawls. Filmmaker Chris Hewitt follows his own interest in sound, so while there is much talk of echo plates, the human story is sometimes forgotten. The picture and sound quality are poor, but there is valuable archive footage, some of it rescued from an abandoned documentary by Anthony Ryan Carter, for which Jon Ronson interviewed Tony Wilson.

The key to the Factory sound? That would be the sound of a factory. Hannett apparently became fascinated by the beats he heard in the air-conditioning units at a Ferranti plant, and was inspired to locate music in unusual places: footsteps, lifts, cups smashing. Probed by Wilson, he offers a simpler explanation. The snare drum, he suggests, is the essence of rock’n’roll. “Playing the offbeats with a good deal of vigour.”

EXTRAS: None.

Alastair McKay

Devo to tour rare and early recordings

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Devo to tour rare and early recordings
Devo are preparing to go on their first tour without rhythm guitarist Bob Casale, where they will perform songs that haven’t been performed live since 1977. Bassist Jerry Casale told Rolling Stone: "At the end of our last tour we started talking about abandoning everything and doing a tour that w...

Devo are preparing to go on their first tour without rhythm guitarist Bob Casale, where they will perform songs that haven’t been performed live since 1977.

Bassist Jerry Casale told Rolling Stone: “At the end of our last tour we started talking about abandoning everything and doing a tour that was purely artistic. We thought it would be cool to revisit the old basement recordings. The thought was, ‘What if we play songs we haven’t played in 35 years for a crowd that never heard them except on old basement recordings?'”

The new tour was in the early planning stages when Bob Casale, Jerry’s brother, died suddenly of heart failure in February. “It was a horrific shock and an explosion in the Devo universe,” Casale told Rolling Stone.

“For a month or so, nobody talked about anything. But then we realized we can still do it and make it a memorial to Bob and raise money for his family. He died without a will and life insurance. Devo hadn’t been playing many gigs when he died, so his finances were pretty depleted. We’ve also raised money for his family through an online donation drive.”

The tour kicks off on June 18 in Baltimore and runs through to July 2 in Austin. The band have said that they have no idea how crowds will react to the shows without the inclusion of more familiar songs like “Whip It” and “Girl U Want”.

“It might create the early Devo experience of people yelling at us and walking out,” said Casale. “It will really jolt us back into the past.”

For the shows, the group will not wear their trademark red energy domes or yellow jumpsuits.

“We’re going to shock people with our outfits,” Casale said. “We may just dress in street clothes and possibly, as happened in real life; a friend will interrupt us with yellow jumpsuits. That’s what happened in real life. I bought them through an industrial catalog. One night we were rehearsing and a friend rang the doorbell and brought them down to the basement. We tried them on in front of each other, so we might try them on onstage.”

The 19th Uncut Playlist Of 2014

John Mulvey
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The 19th Uncut Playlist Of 2014

A new office this week, although a good few crates remain. These, though, are the tunes that’ve sensitively assisted our transition. Special props to Bob Carpenter’s rediscovered album from ’74, very much kin to “No Other”; to the Mauritanian desert rock of Noura Mint Seymali; to the reissue of an old Imaginary Softwoods ambient set from John Elliott, ex of Emeralds; and to the enduring usefulness of Pye Corner Audio and Girma Yifrashewa. Moving on, another Mark Kozelek album (live, I should say) just arrived… Follow me on Twitter: www.twitter.com/JohnRMulvey 1 Bob Carpenter – Silent Passage (No Quarter) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c8TMRjSpSoY 2 Michael Chapman – Playing Guitar The Easy Way (Light In The Attic) 3 Alexander Turnquist – Wildflower (Western Vinyl) 4 Jungle – Jungle (XL) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BcsfftwLUf0 5 White Fence – For The Recently Found Innocent ( Drag City) 6 Sylvan Esso – Sylvan Esso (Partisan) 7 Pye Corner Audio/Not Waving - Intercepts (Ecstatic) 8 Jenny Lewis – The Voyager (Warner Bros) 9 Noura Mint Seymali – Tzenni (Glitterbeat) 10 Imaginary Softwoods –The Path Of Spectrolite (Archives Intérieures) 11 Wolfgang Voigt – Rückverzauberung 9/Musik für Kulturinstitutionen (Kompkakt) 12 OOIOO – Gamel (Thrill Jockey) 13 Morrissey – Istanbul (Harvest) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r7fOJZ68gc0 14 Van Morrison – Veedon Fleece (Polydor) 15 Steve Gunn & Mike Cooper – FRKWYS Vol. 11: Cantos De Lisboa (RVNG INTL) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mpCOGCWCjXY 16 Hot 8 Brass Band – The Life and Time Of... (Tru Thoughts) 17 Bonnie “Prince” Billy & The Cairo Gang – We Love Our Hole (Empty Cellar) 18 The The – Soul Mining: 30th Anniversary Deluxe Edition (Sony) 19 John Oswald – Grayfolded (Important) 20 Girma Yifrashewa – Love And Peace (Unseen Worlds)

A new office this week, although a good few crates remain. These, though, are the tunes that’ve sensitively assisted our transition. Special props to Bob Carpenter’s rediscovered album from ’74, very much kin to “No Other”; to the Mauritanian desert rock of Noura Mint Seymali; to the reissue of an old Imaginary Softwoods ambient set from John Elliott, ex of Emeralds; and to the enduring usefulness of Pye Corner Audio and Girma Yifrashewa.

Moving on, another Mark Kozelek album (live, I should say) just arrived…

Follow me on Twitter: www.twitter.com/JohnRMulvey

1 Bob Carpenter – Silent Passage (No Quarter)

2 Michael Chapman – Playing Guitar The Easy Way (Light In The Attic)

3 Alexander Turnquist – Wildflower (Western Vinyl)

4 Jungle – Jungle (XL)

5 White Fence – For The Recently Found Innocent ( Drag City)

6 Sylvan Esso – Sylvan Esso (Partisan)

7 Pye Corner Audio/Not Waving – Intercepts (Ecstatic)

8 Jenny Lewis – The Voyager (Warner Bros)

9 Noura Mint Seymali – Tzenni (Glitterbeat)

10 Imaginary Softwoods –The Path Of Spectrolite (Archives Intérieures)

11 Wolfgang Voigt – Rückverzauberung 9/Musik für Kulturinstitutionen (Kompkakt)

12 OOIOO – Gamel (Thrill Jockey)

13 Morrissey – Istanbul (Harvest)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r7fOJZ68gc0

14 Van Morrison – Veedon Fleece (Polydor)

15 Steve Gunn & Mike Cooper – FRKWYS Vol. 11: Cantos De Lisboa (RVNG INTL)

16 Hot 8 Brass Band – The Life and Time Of… (Tru Thoughts)

17 Bonnie “Prince” Billy & The Cairo Gang – We Love Our Hole (Empty Cellar)

18 The The – Soul Mining: 30th Anniversary Deluxe Edition (Sony)

19 John Oswald – Grayfolded (Important)

20 Girma Yifrashewa – Love And Peace (Unseen Worlds)

Pixies frontman Black Francis announces plans to co-present film and literature event

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Pixies frontman Black Francis announces plans to co-present film and literature event

Pixies frontman Black Francis has announced plans to co-present a film event at the British Library. He will be attending an evening of film and literature with Josh Frank and Steven Appleby - the co-creators of his SelfMadeHero illustrated book The Good Inn, a novel about art, conflict and the pioneers of early cinema - on June 7. The event will include a screening of Luis Buñuel and Salvador Dalí's Un Chien Andalou, and Georges Méliès's iconic 1902 film A Trip To The Moon. This will be followed by an onstage discussion with Francis, Frank and Appleby. After the event there will be a book signing by all three of the artists. Appleby's artwork for The Good Inn will also be on display at the British Library in London on the night. Based on a yet-to-be-written soundtrack to a movie that doesn't yet exist, The Good Inn weaves together two historical events - the explosion on the battleship Iéna at the French port of Toulon and the making of La Bonne Auberge, the earliest known pornographic film from France.

Pixies frontman Black Francis has announced plans to co-present a film event at the British Library.

He will be attending an evening of film and literature with Josh Frank and Steven Appleby – the co-creators of his SelfMadeHero illustrated book The Good Inn, a novel about art, conflict and the pioneers of early cinema – on June 7.

The event will include a screening of Luis Buñuel and Salvador Dalí‘s Un Chien Andalou, and Georges Méliès’s iconic 1902 film A Trip To The Moon. This will be followed by an onstage discussion with Francis, Frank and Appleby.

After the event there will be a book signing by all three of the artists. Appleby’s artwork for The Good Inn will also be on display at the British Library in London on the night.

Based on a yet-to-be-written soundtrack to a movie that doesn’t yet exist, The Good Inn weaves together two historical events – the explosion on the battleship Iéna at the French port of Toulon and the making of La Bonne Auberge, the earliest known pornographic film from France.

The Black Keys says they ‘feel embarrassed’ for Jack White over leaked emails

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The Black Keys says they ‘feel embarrassed’ for Jack White over leaked emails

Dan Auerbach and Patrick Carney of The Black Keys have said they "feel embarrassed" for Jack White following an incident last year in which e-mails he allegedly sent criticising the duo were revealed. In 2013, an email leaked to TMZ which was allegedly sent by White to his ex-wife Karen Elson appeared to show White branding Dan Auerbach a "copy" and an "asshole". Elson divorced White in 2011 but she took out a restraining order against her ex-husband on July 22 amid allegations of "harassment" and "bullying" behaviour. One of the emails allegedly found White complaining that Elson has enrolled their two children, seven-year-old Scarlett and six-year-old Henry, into the same school as Auerbach's daughter, five-year-old Sadie. In a new interview with Rolling Stone, drummer Patrick Carney said White "sounds like an asshole" but added: "I actually feel embarassed for him...I don't hold grudges, man. I really don't. We've all said fucked-up shit in private, and divorce is hard." "I really think personal things are personal things," Carney continued. "Like, TMZ? Honestly, they should be fucking ashamed of themselves, that they make a living dragging poor souls that have nothing, that aren't famous, into this world. Everybody should be scrutinised? I don't believe that. I think that if you come off with a strong platform or moral agenda, then, yeah, maybe you should be scrutinised if there's a conflict there. Like, if you're a TV evangelist who's doing something awful. But you're a fucking rock musician, you're a fucking actor, you're a fucking model or whatever. It's your job, you know what I mean? No one's doing anything illegal, it's just that people are living lives that get complicated." The Black Keys released their latest album, Turn Blue, earlier this month. Jack White releases his second solo album in June.

Dan Auerbach and Patrick Carney of The Black Keys have said they “feel embarrassed” for Jack White following an incident last year in which e-mails he allegedly sent criticising the duo were revealed.

In 2013, an email leaked to TMZ which was allegedly sent by White to his ex-wife Karen Elson appeared to show White branding Dan Auerbach a “copy” and an “asshole”.

Elson divorced White in 2011 but she took out a restraining order against her ex-husband on July 22 amid allegations of “harassment” and “bullying” behaviour. One of the emails allegedly found White complaining that Elson has enrolled their two children, seven-year-old Scarlett and six-year-old Henry, into the same school as Auerbach’s daughter, five-year-old Sadie.

In a new interview with Rolling Stone, drummer Patrick Carney said White “sounds like an asshole” but added: “I actually feel embarassed for him…I don’t hold grudges, man. I really don’t. We’ve all said fucked-up shit in private, and divorce is hard.”

“I really think personal things are personal things,” Carney continued. “Like, TMZ? Honestly, they should be fucking ashamed of themselves, that they make a living dragging poor souls that have nothing, that aren’t famous, into this world. Everybody should be scrutinised? I don’t believe that. I think that if you come off with a strong platform or moral agenda, then, yeah, maybe you should be scrutinised if there’s a conflict there. Like, if you’re a TV evangelist who’s doing something awful. But you’re a fucking rock musician, you’re a fucking actor, you’re a fucking model or whatever. It’s your job, you know what I mean? No one’s doing anything illegal, it’s just that people are living lives that get complicated.”

The Black Keys released their latest album, Turn Blue, earlier this month. Jack White releases his second solo album in June.

Jimmy Page on Led Zeppelin reissues: “It’s just undeniable, the power of the band”

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Jimmy Page on Led Zeppelin reissues: “It’s just undeniable, the power of the band”
Jimmy Page discusses the extra tracks on Led Zeppelin’s upcoming reissues, in the new issue of Uncut, dated July 2014 and out tomorrow (May 23). Led Zeppelin I, II and III are all being reissued on June 2, with alternate takes, mixes and live sets included across the three packages. “It’s ...

Jimmy Page discusses the extra tracks on Led Zeppelin’s upcoming reissues, in the new issue of Uncut, dated July 2014 and out tomorrow (May 23).

Led Zeppelin I, II and III are all being reissued on June 2, with alternate takes, mixes and live sets included across the three packages.

“It’s just undeniable, the power of the band on all of this stuff,” Page tells Uncut. “So I would I get all these different versions [of songs] and then find the one which is going to complement the original version that everybody knows, and yet still be different enough that it makes a really interesting listen and a little journey into the band and

the recording.”

The new issue of Uncut, dated July 2014, is out tomorrow (May 23).

Paul McCartney cancels another gig due to illness

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Paul McCartney cancels another gig due to illness
Paul McCartney has cancelled a further tour date in South Korea on doctors' orders. Rolling Stone reports that McCartney's date at the Jamsil Sports Complex Main Stadium on May 28 will now no longer go ahead. The latest cancellation follows the scrapping all of McCartney's scheduled dates in Jap...

Paul McCartney has cancelled a further tour date in South Korea on doctors’ orders.

Rolling Stone reports that McCartney’s date at the Jamsil Sports Complex Main Stadium on May 28 will now no longer go ahead.

The latest cancellation follows the scrapping all of McCartney’s scheduled dates in Japan earlier this week after he contracted a virus.

McCartney postponed two dates in Tokyo over the weekend, explaining that he had come down with a virus and was told by doctors not to perform on the evening of May 17. A message on his website confirms the cancelled tour with doctors ordering him to have a “complete rest” and that he “hates to let people down”.

McCartney’s next scheduled gigs are a 19-date US tour beginning in June.

Rolling Stones “mastermind” dies aged 80

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Rolling Stones “mastermind” dies aged 80
Prince Rupert Loewenstein, the former business manager of The Rolling Stones, has died aged 80. The Bavarian banker, full name Rupert Louis Ferdinand Frederick Constantine Lofredo Leopold Herbert Maximilian Hubert John Henry zu Loewenstein-Wertheim-Freudenberg, was the long-term financial advisor t...

Prince Rupert Loewenstein, the former business manager of The Rolling Stones, has died aged 80.

The Bavarian banker, full name Rupert Louis Ferdinand Frederick Constantine Lofredo Leopold Herbert Maximilian Hubert John Henry zu Loewenstein-Wertheim-Freudenberg, was the long-term financial advisor to the band for 40 years. He is understood to have died peacefully in the early hours of yesterday (May 20) after a battle with a long illness, reports Music Week.

In an article in Forbes, Keith Richards called Loewenstein “the mastermind of our setup.”

Loewenstein is credited with turning around the band’s financial fortunes. During almost four decades of handling the Stones’ affairs he helped Mick Jagger alone amass an estimated fortune of £200 million.

Loewenstein, the managing director of the merchant bank Leopold Joseph & Co, was invited to look after the Stones finances at the personal invitation of Jagger. His advice in the early 1970s prompted the band to abandon their UK residence for the south of France, helping them save millions while becoming Britain’s first musical tax exiles. He ended his business relationship with the band four decades later, in 2007.

He was born in Majorca in 1933 to Prince Leopold of the royal house of Wittelsbach, but was educated in England and studied History at Magdalen College in Oxford before going on to work in the City.

His funeral will be held on Friday (May 30) in London.

Watch Jimmy Page unveil unreleased Led Zeppelin tracks tonight!

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Watch Jimmy Page unveil unreleased Led Zeppelin tracks tonight!
Jimmy Page will introduce music from his brand-new remasters of Led Zeppelin albums I, II and III at 7.30pm BST. Page will present the music live from the legendary L’Olympia Theatre in Paris, which is where the companion audio for Led Zeppelin I was recorded 45 years ago. This will be followed ...

Jimmy Page will introduce music from his brand-new remasters of Led Zeppelin albums I, II and III at 7.30pm BST.

Page will present the music live from the legendary L’Olympia Theatre in Paris, which is where the companion audio for Led Zeppelin I was recorded 45 years ago.

This will be followed by a question and answer session drawn from questions submitted by fans across the world.

Finally, both at the venue and online the brand new video for “Whole Lotta Love” will see its world premiere.

Just click back here at 7.30pm BST (or 2.30pm EDT and 11.30am PDT, in you’re watching from the States) and – as if by magic – watch Page reveal all live through the embed below.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=frUavIOFPOM

The Eagles on Desperado: “We were quite taken with the idea of being outlaws…”

Graeme Thomson
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The Eagles on Desperado: “We were quite taken with the idea of being outlaws…”
In tribute to Glenn Frey, who died on January 18, 2016, we look back on the legend of 1973’s Desperado in this archive piece from Uncut’s June 2013 issue (Take 193). Forty years on, with help from Jackson Browne and JD Souther, the band tell the story of their “fucking cowboy record” recorde...

In tribute to Glenn Frey, who died on January 18, 2016, we look back on the legend of 1973’s Desperado in this archive piece from Uncut’s June 2013 issue (Take 193). Forty years on, with help from Jackson Browne and JD Souther, the band tell the story of their “fucking cowboy record” recorded in wild west London. “We’ve had the hits, now we want acceptance as serious artists…”

______________________

Some 80 years after Bob Dalton met his bloody end during a shoot-out in smalltown Kansas, a book is being passed around a $60-a-month apartment in Echo Park, the low-rent Los Angeles locale where Glenn Frey, Jackson Browne and JD Souther live, write, drink, smoke and plot their futures.

The Album Of Gunfighters by J Marvin Hunter and Hoan H Rose contains photographs and brief biographies of the outlaws, bandits and bounty hunters of the Old West. Among the usual suspects – Jesse James, Billy the Kid, John Wesley Hardin – are the Dalton Gang, a band of train robbers from the early 1890s. Rootless and reckless, the Daltons lived outside conventional rules and were rarely seen until they blew into town, grabbed the spoils and split again. To the young musicians in Echo Park, hugely ambitious yet by no means immune to romance, certain parallels start to become apparent.

“We were quite taken with the idea of being, or at least portraying, outlaws,” says Souther. “It was a serviceable metaphor for our story.”

Alongside Browne, Souther was one of two honorary Eagles who would shortly co-write “Doolin-Dalton”, the lead song on the band’s second album. Although some of the participants now express reservations about the premise – “Generally, I thought there were limitations to the metaphor of musicians as gunslingers!” Browne tells Uncut – the framing device for the songs on Desperado had personal resonance for the Eagles. Frey was from Michigan, Don Henley from Texas. Bernie Leadon hailed from Minnesota and Randy Meisner from Nebraska. Like generations of Americans before them, including the Dalton Gang, they had each headed west in search of glory.

“All of us went out west,” says Leadon. “People would go to LA and fail, and the responsible ones would move back home and start a family, while the malcontent never-say-die type personalities said, ‘No, I’m staying!’ That was our story. The idea was: ‘How are we feeling about our lives and what we’re doing, and would the people in a gang have felt the same way?’ Breaking out of societal expectations and doing something extraordinary. We were just kids, but we were looking at our lives and trying to make reasonable comment about it.”

The result was an ambitious song-cycle that sold poorly, had no hits and was slated by their label as a “fucking cowboy record”. But the LP made the Eagles more than just another country-rock band. It made them mythic.

Wayne Coyne of The Flaming Lips – My Life In Music

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Wayne Coyne of The Flaming Lips – My Life In Music
The Flaming Lips play London's Brixton Academy on May 28, ahead of their full cover of The Beatles' Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band on October 28 – but back in September 2010's Uncut (Take 160), frontman Wayne Coyne revealed the strange listening experiences that have shaped his life… Neil ...

The Flaming Lips play London’s Brixton Academy on May 28, ahead of their full cover of The Beatles’ Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band on October 28 – but back in September 2010’s Uncut (Take 160), frontman Wayne Coyne revealed the strange listening experiences that have shaped his life… Neil on acid! The Beatles through one speaker! And Amy MacDonald… Interview: John Lewis

______________________

The first record I ever bought

Jimi Hendrix – Crash Landing (1975)

I’m not proud of this buy. It’s one of many Hendrix records made after he died, completed by Alan Douglas with session musicians. My older brothers used to buy all the LPs I needed, but I bought this as nobody I knew owned it. So I was filled with glee, but that soon faded after putting it on. There’s one great, crazy, distorted song, “Peace In Mississippi”, but I’m not sure if Hendrix is even playing on it!

My first experience of sonic weirdness

The Beatles – Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (1967)

My older brothers listened to music on an eight-track cartridge, but they didn’t connect up their stereo system right. So, for years, all we could hear was the left side of the system. I listened to Sgt Pepper a lot, not realising that huge chunks of vocals and instruments were missing. When I hear a proper mix, it sounds wrong. My versions sound better! They have this eerie, empty quality.

The record that takes me back to childhood

The Bee Gees – Lonely Days (1970)

A strange arrangement, with spooky harmonies. It’s sloppy, slightly out-of-time, and with bad handclaps instead of a drumkit… but, I don’t hear it often enough, and when I do it’s like a time machine. Suddenly, it’s 1970, I’m in fourth grade, in love with my childhood crush. Music has that ability. It’s a motherfucker. You never know which spot in your mind is going to be illuminated. It can be wonderful, or treacherous.

My favourite Pink Floyd album

Pink Floyd – Meddle (1971)

I veer between loving the Syd stuff and then going for the Roger Waters-driven era. But I’ll pick Meddle as my favourite. It’s a group effort, with lots of Gilmour vocals. I also like The Dark Side Of The Moon. That was until we re-recorded it last year. Now we’re all sick of it, ha! We recorded every song in a weekend. It was entirely relaxed, no pressure, no desire for immortality. Often the best stuff is made like that.

My favourite jazz album

Miles Davis – Bitches Brew (1970)

I’m obsessed with Miles from [1969’s] In A Silent Way up to about 1975. Whenever I want to hear music that’s just a strange cacophony of sometimes melodic stuff, sometimes abstract stuff, I just have to listen to that. It’s not like pop music where you know every millisecond of it, it’s sprawling, freaky stuff. Every time I solve one mystery about the album, 10 other mysteries pop

up behind it.

The song I’d like to have written

Joe Cocker – You Are So Beautiful (1974)

This is basically a piano vamp with Cocker singing the same line, “You are so beautiful to me”, over and over, with hardly any other words. The chord changes go around in an endless cycle. It sounds so simple, but it’s devastatingly effective; it’s moving as hell. I think about songs I’d like to have written all the time, and they’re usually very simple and functional. “Happy Birthday To You”, that’s a killer.

My guilty pleasure

Amy MacDonald – A Curious Thing (2010)

When you’re young, you listen to certain music because it’s cool. Then you stop caring about that. So no musical pleasures are guilty to me. I saw Amy sing at some festivals over the last few years and thought, ‘Wow, this is powerful.’ When listing new music I liked, I’d mention her, and people would be like, “You like that?” And I was like, “Sorry, she’s not cool then?” But I was utterly blown away by her performances.

My favourite film soundtrack

Jerry Goldsmith – Planet Of The Apes (1968)

A landmark recording, and one that influenced the soundtrack to Christmas On Mars. Oddly, I don’t think the music is used very well in the movie. But on its own it’s fucking crazy. It’s dense, cleverly written, sometimes atonal and shronky, and I still don’t know what some of the sounds are. That’s what I love about it. I don’t think many girls are going to be dancing to it if you put it on at your house.

The first music I heard on acid

CSNY – Helpless (1970)

I’m often told our music has hallucinogenic properties, even though I don’t like LSD much. I distinctly recall my first experience of hallucinogens, and this Neil Young song playing. There’s something in the slide guitar part that is still a bad trigger for me – it haunts me to this day. In fact it’s probably derailed the interview! It’s crazy how a sweet, benign song can become freighted with danger because of your own experience of it.

My favourite dance record

LCD Soundsystem – Sound Of Silver (2007)

For me, dance music works by establishing a trance – one that relaxes your mind – but it can also be very dense. James Murphy is amazing. I saw LCD Soundsystem the other night, and there were moments where it reminded me of Black Flag in the early ’80s, when Greg Ginn would do these long, strange guitar jams. LCD were making music that was hypnotic and dancey, but with real rock intensity.

Black Sabbath: “We thought we were Pink Floyd meets The Beatles meets acid!”

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Black Sabbath: “We thought we were Pink Floyd meets The Beatles meets acid!”
Black Sabbath talk through the creation of their greatest albums in the new issue of Uncut, dated July 2014, and out on Friday (May 23). Ozzy Osbourne, Tony Iommi and Geezer Butler discuss drugs, Top Of The Pops, ‘Satan’s Christmas’ and drowning out the Eagles, as they recall the making of ...

Black Sabbath talk through the creation of their greatest albums in the new issue of Uncut, dated July 2014, and out on Friday (May 23).

Ozzy Osbourne, Tony Iommi and Geezer Butler discuss drugs, Top Of The Pops, ‘Satan’s Christmas’ and drowning out the Eagles, as they recall the making of their albums, from 1970’s self-titled debut to 2013’s 13.

“Paranoid went from four tracks to 16 tracks. 16 tracks!” says Osbourne. “The temptation was to fuck around with effects: we thought we were Pink Floyd meets The Beatles meets acid, y’know?

“I could afford to have a bath and put some smelly stuff on. It was just a great period of my life. The early days are always the best.”

The new issue of Uncut, dated July 2014, is out on Friday (May 23).

Tom Petty announces release date for new album + tour details

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Tom Petty announces release date for new album + tour details
Tom Petty And The Heartbreakers have confirmed the release date for his new album, Hypnotic Eye. The band's first studio album in four years will be released on July 29; the band will begin a North American tour on August 3. Petty has also announced that every ticket purchased for the upcoming tou...

Tom Petty And The Heartbreakers have confirmed the release date for his new album, Hypnotic Eye.

The band’s first studio album in four years will be released on July 29; the band will begin a North American tour on August 3.

Petty has also announced that every ticket purchased for the upcoming tour will include a copy of Hypnotic Eye.

The album will also be available on high-resolution Blu-ray audio and also on vinyl formats: a single LP or a double-album containing a track unavailable elsewhere.

Fan club members will also release a digital album, Live 2013, when they purchase Hypnotic Eye.

You can watch a promo for the album below.

Tom Petty And The Heartbreakers will play:

August 3: San Diego, CA – Viejas Arena

August 5: Boise, ID – Taco Bell Arena

August 7: Eugene, OR – Matthew Knight Center

August 9: San Francisco, CA – Outside Lands Music and Arts Festival

August 12: Portland, OR – Moda Center

August 14: Vancouver, BC – Rogers Arena

August 15: George, WA – The Gorge

August 17: Edmonton, AB – Rexall Place

August 19: Calgary, AB – Scotiabank Saddledome

August 21: Winnipeg, MB – MTS Centre

August 23: Chicago, IL – United Center

August 26: Toronto, ONT – Air Canada Centre

August 28: Montreal, QC – Bell Centre

August 30: Boston, MA – Fenway Park

September 6: Arrington, VA – Lockn’ Festival

September 7: Darien Center, NY – Darien Lake PAC

September 10: New York, NY – Madison Square Garden

September 13: Hartford, CT – XL Center

September 15: Philadelphia, PA – Wells Fargo Arena

September 18: Raleigh, NC – PNC Arena

September 20: West Palm Beach, FL- Cruzan Amphitheater

September 21: Tampa, FL – Tampa Bay Times Forum

September 23: Nashville, TN – Bridgestone Arena

September 25: Houston, TX – Toyota Center

September 26: Dallas, TX – American Airlines Center

September 28: Tulsa, OK – BOK Center

September 30: Kansas City, MO – Sprint Center

October 1: Lincoln, NE – Pinnacle Bank Arena

October 7: Anaheim, CA – Honda Center

October 10: Los Angeles, CA – The Forum

Rare U2 recordings go up for auction

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Rare U2 recordings go up for auction

A rare U2 live recording and audio from an interview are set to go up for auction. The recordings come from an early concert from the band, which took place at the Vera venue in Groningen, Holland on October 16, 1980. The live recording is made up of four songs, and the previously unheard interview audio is 15 minutes long and consists of Bono and The Edge discussing their plans for the band. Stockport's Omega Auctions have said that the interview includes quotes from the pair in which they say: "We don't like England". They also show their ambitions for the group, commenting: "U2 wanna be the biggest group in the world." In addition they add their thoughts on the United States, saying: "America is sick and wounded and has a lot of bad groups". The sale takes place on May 30 and the recordings are expected to sell for £1,000. The recordings also come with previously unpublished photos, shown above, which come complete with copyright, as does the interview audio. However, the live recording is being sold as an artefact and is therefore for personal use only. A spokesperson for U2 recently denied that the band have pushed back the release date of their 13th studio album to 2015. Investigations by Billboard suggested that the band would now be releasing their new LP next year. It reported that the band had booked further studio time with producers Paul Epworth and Ryan Tedder, who would join the project's main producer Danger Mouse. Speaking to The Guardian, a spokesperson for the band flatly denied the claims, saying: "U2's album is planned for this year (2014), is still on track and touring plans haven’t been confirmed yet."

A rare U2 live recording and audio from an interview are set to go up for auction.

The recordings come from an early concert from the band, which took place at the Vera venue in Groningen, Holland on October 16, 1980. The live recording is made up of four songs, and the previously unheard interview audio is 15 minutes long and consists of Bono and The Edge discussing their plans for the band.

Stockport’s Omega Auctions have said that the interview includes quotes from the pair in which they say: “We don’t like England”. They also show their ambitions for the group, commenting: “U2 wanna be the biggest group in the world.” In addition they add their thoughts on the United States, saying: “America is sick and wounded and has a lot of bad groups”.

The sale takes place on May 30 and the recordings are expected to sell for £1,000. The recordings also come with previously unpublished photos, shown above, which come complete with copyright, as does the interview audio. However, the live recording is being sold as an artefact and is therefore for personal use only.

A spokesperson for U2 recently denied that the band have pushed back the release date of their 13th studio album to 2015. Investigations by Billboard suggested that the band would now be releasing their new LP next year. It reported that the band had booked further studio time with producers Paul Epworth and Ryan Tedder, who would join the project’s main producer Danger Mouse.

Speaking to The Guardian, a spokesperson for the band flatly denied the claims, saying: “U2’s album is planned for this year (2014), is still on track and touring plans haven’t been confirmed yet.”

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