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John Lennon letter blaming Harry Nilsson and Keith Moon for urinating in studio up for auction

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John Lennon letter blaming Harry Nilsson and Keith Moon for urinating in studio up for auction

A letter from John Lennon to Phil Spector blaming The Who drummer Keith Moon and singer-songwriter Harry Nilsson for urinating on a console at an LA recording studio is up for auction in London tomorrow (March 21), with an estimated value of £6,000. The three musicians shared a studio in Los Angeles during Lennon's infamous 'Lost Weekend' in the early 1970s, and Lennon was moved to complain to his producer about their behaviour after Capitol Records threatened to evict them. Titled 'A Matter Of Pee', the letter is written in red felt tip pen on lined paper, and was given by Lennon to session guitarist Jesse Ed Davis, who played on 1974's 'Walls And Bridges' and 1975's 'Rock'N'Roll'. The letter is being sold via Cooper Owen Music Media Auctions of London, reports The Telegraph. Lennon wrote: "Phil - Should you not yet know it was Harry and Keith who pissed on the console. Jerry now wants to evict us or that's what Capitol tells us. Anyway tell him to bill Capitol for the damage if any. I can't be expected to mind adult rock stars nor can May [Pang, Lennon's personal assistant] besides she works for me not A+M. I'm about to p..s off to Record Plant [another recording facility] because of this crap." Auctioneer Louise Cooper said: "This is a rare note in that it mentions so many well-known figures from the era… The note will be of huge interest to Lennon and Beatles fans around the world. And the provenance is excellent, coming as it does from Lennon's session guitarist Jesse Ed Davis." Moon, Lennon and Nilsson were noted hellraisers. Moon died in Nilsson's flat in 1978 after overdosing on pills that were meant to curb his alcoholism. The letter is being sold alongside a set of Lennon's doodles, including a self-portrait with Nilsson, a drawing of Jesse Ed Davis sitting on a tram in Palm Springs, a mountain scene and a picture of a seated figure with a balloon.

A letter from John Lennon to Phil Spector blaming The Who drummer Keith Moon and singer-songwriter Harry Nilsson for urinating on a console at an LA recording studio is up for auction in London tomorrow (March 21), with an estimated value of £6,000.

The three musicians shared a studio in Los Angeles during Lennon’s infamous ‘Lost Weekend’ in the early 1970s, and Lennon was moved to complain to his producer about their behaviour after Capitol Records threatened to evict them.

Titled ‘A Matter Of Pee’, the letter is written in red felt tip pen on lined paper, and was given by Lennon to session guitarist Jesse Ed Davis, who played on 1974’s ‘Walls And Bridges’ and 1975’s ‘Rock’N’Roll’. The letter is being sold via Cooper Owen Music Media Auctions of London, reports The Telegraph.

Lennon wrote: “Phil – Should you not yet know it was Harry and Keith who pissed on the console. Jerry now wants to evict us or that’s what Capitol tells us. Anyway tell him to bill Capitol for the damage if any. I can’t be expected to mind adult rock stars nor can May [Pang, Lennon’s personal assistant] besides she works for me not A+M. I’m about to p..s off to Record Plant [another recording facility] because of this crap.”

Auctioneer Louise Cooper said: “This is a rare note in that it mentions so many well-known figures from the era… The note will be of huge interest to Lennon and Beatles fans around the world. And the provenance is excellent, coming as it does from Lennon’s session guitarist Jesse Ed Davis.”

Moon, Lennon and Nilsson were noted hellraisers. Moon died in Nilsson’s flat in 1978 after overdosing on pills that were meant to curb his alcoholism.

The letter is being sold alongside a set of Lennon’s doodles, including a self-portrait with Nilsson, a drawing of Jesse Ed Davis sitting on a tram in Palm Springs, a mountain scene and a picture of a seated figure with a balloon.

Campaign to turn Kurt Cobain’s childhood home into a museum launched

John Mulvey
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Campaign to turn Kurt Cobain’s childhood home into a museum launched

A campaign has been launched to raise money to turn Kurt Cobain's childhood home into a museum. At the end of last year, the singer's mother, Wendy O'Connor, put the bungalow in Aberdeen, Washington on the market for $500,000 (£313,000), even though it was last valued at less than $67,000 (£42,000). Her hope was that somebody would turn the property into a museum. Now, one fan has launched a campaign to raise money to make this to happen. Portland resident and journalist Jaime Dunkle set up a GoFundMe page earlier this month featuring a video clip of her in Cobain's old bedroom. She hopes to raise $700,000 (£423,000) for the museum to "[make] sure this house is memorialised by us fans so it doesn't end up in the clutches of capitalist greed". Watch the video below. Speaking to the Broward-Palm Beach New Times, Dunkle said she sent a bio about herself to Cobain's mother to prove that she wasn't a "crazed fan" and could actually pull the project off. "I used to be in the American Criminal Justice Association, so I made a long list of everything I've ever done and emailed it to the real estate agent, and she said she was forwarding it to Mrs O'Connor," she said. "After that, they started taking me more seriously, I think. It took weeks of phone calls and emails, but I successfully set up an appointment to see the house. I deliberately arranged it to be on what would have been Kurt Cobain's 47th birthday." "Being inside was a total head spin," she continued. "I had to meet with city officials and the realtor first, and by the time we finished hashing out some logistics for making it a museum, I only had 15 minutes to take pictures and make a video. As I wandered around, looking in closets, I imagined him as a teen, crouched inside, scribbling in his diaries or making sketches. The walk up the stairs into his bedroom made the hairs on my neck stand up. All I could think was that I was seeing through his eyes and walking in his footsteps, literally." O'Connor and Cobain's father originally purchased the house in 1969, when the singer was two years old. He lived there until his parents separated when he was nine, and also returned for another stint in the home as a teenager.

A campaign has been launched to raise money to turn Kurt Cobain’s childhood home into a museum.

At the end of last year, the singer’s mother, Wendy O’Connor, put the bungalow in Aberdeen, Washington on the market for $500,000 (£313,000), even though it was last valued at less than $67,000 (£42,000). Her hope was that somebody would turn the property into a museum.

Now, one fan has launched a campaign to raise money to make this to happen. Portland resident and journalist Jaime Dunkle set up a GoFundMe page earlier this month featuring a video clip of her in Cobain’s old bedroom. She hopes to raise $700,000 (£423,000) for the museum to “[make] sure this house is memorialised by us fans so it doesn’t end up in the clutches of capitalist greed”. Watch the video below.

Speaking to the Broward-Palm Beach New Times, Dunkle said she sent a bio about herself to Cobain’s mother to prove that she wasn’t a “crazed fan” and could actually pull the project off. “I used to be in the American Criminal Justice Association, so I made a long list of everything I’ve ever done and emailed it to the real estate agent, and she said she was forwarding it to Mrs O’Connor,” she said. “After that, they started taking me more seriously, I think. It took weeks of phone calls and emails, but I successfully set up an appointment to see the house. I deliberately arranged it to be on what would have been Kurt Cobain’s 47th birthday.”

“Being inside was a total head spin,” she continued. “I had to meet with city officials and the realtor first, and by the time we finished hashing out some logistics for making it a museum, I only had 15 minutes to take pictures and make a video. As I wandered around, looking in closets, I imagined him as a teen, crouched inside, scribbling in his diaries or making sketches. The walk up the stairs into his bedroom made the hairs on my neck stand up. All I could think was that I was seeing through his eyes and walking in his footsteps, literally.”

O’Connor and Cobain’s father originally purchased the house in 1969, when the singer was two years old. He lived there until his parents separated when he was nine, and also returned for another stint in the home as a teenager.

Paul Rodgers: “The album I made with Queen could have been better”

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Paul Rodgers: “The album I made with Queen could have been better”
Paul Rodgers takes us through his career in albums in the new issue of Uncut, dated April 2014 and out now. The singer discusses his work with Free, Bad Company, The Firm and solo, along with his one-off collaboration with Queen’s Brian May and Roger Taylor, The Cosmos Rocks. “We did some am...

Paul Rodgers takes us through his career in albums in the new issue of Uncut, dated April 2014 and out now.

The singer discusses his work with Free, Bad Company, The Firm and solo, along with his one-off collaboration with Queen’s Brian May and Roger Taylor, The Cosmos Rocks.

“We did some amazing shows. We played Latvia, and the President came up and played drums on ‘All Right Now’!” says Rodgers. “I thought, ‘Wait’ll I tell the folks back home.’

“I honestly don’t think we were quite ready to go into the studio. We could have done it better.”

The new issue of Uncut is out now.

Photo: Jim McGuire

The Hold Steady’s Craig Finn – My Life In Music

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The Hold Steady’s Craig Finn – My Life In Music
The Hold Steady release their sixth album, Teeth Dreams, on March 24 – in this piece from the Uncut archives (June 2009, Take 145), Craig Finn reveals 10 of the albums or songs that have changed his life, raising a glass to St Joe Strummer and his other heroes – including Billy Joel! Interview: ...

The Hold Steady release their sixth album, Teeth Dreams, on March 24 – in this piece from the Uncut archives (June 2009, Take 145), Craig Finn reveals 10 of the albums or songs that have changed his life, raising a glass to St Joe Strummer and his other heroes – including Billy Joel! Interview: Rob Hughes

___________________

The first record I owned

The Bay City Rollers

Greatest Hits (1977)

The TV companies put the Bay City Rollers on a Saturday morning cartoon show over here when I was five or six. I was just the right age for that stuff and I went out and bought this record at a target store. In fact, the first few records I bought were Rollers ones. They were a kooky bunch, cartoon-like in a similar way to The Monkees, but they had great singalong choruses. It was fun for a kid on a Saturday.

The record that made me start a band

The Replacements

Let It Be (1984)

Growing up in Minneapolis, the biggest band for me was The Replacements. It was the fall of my eighth grade when let it be came out. Eighth grade is such a difficult time, but songs like “Unsatisfied” and “Sixteen Blue” really talk about the scary parts of being that age. My first band just played covers, including songs by The Replacements. They were real hometown heroes that we looked up to.

The record that made me become a songwriter

Bruce Springsteen

Born To Run (1975)

There was a real cinematic, epic quality to these songs. They weren’t necessarily confessional for Springsteen, but were full of characters and strange scenes. And that approach showed me that you didn’t have to write a song just about you and your little problems; it could be something much bigger. It could all happen like a movie. “Thunder road” is the song I wish I’d written. It’s still the one that gives me chills.

The record that makes me kind of embarrassed

Billy Joel

52nd Street (1978)

I was reading the Slash biog recently and he was talking about meeting Billy Joel. He said he was impressed with the fact he was such a fuck-up. I know his records are kind of schmaltzy, but my parents had this record when I was young, and for a guy growing up in Minneapolis, Billy Joel was real New York. In my head, that’s what I thought New York was like. His late-period stuff is really awful, though!

My quintessentially English album

The Kinks

The Kinks Are The Village Green Preservation Society (1968)

I’m a huge fan of The Kinks. It wasn’t just Ray Davies’ lyrics, it was the melodies, too. They’re so simple and super-catchy. There was something that made sense to me the more time I spent here. The best artists write about the people and places they know, which is just what Ray Davies does. Springsteen is the same.

The LP that reminds me of a night on the town

Arctic Monkeys

Whatever People Say I Am That’s What I’m Not (2006)

For Alex Turner to have so much talent at that age is astounding. This LP is all about a night on the town, a sense of expectation and how it all falls apart. That’s from the viewpoint of being his age. Now, when I go out, I don’t have to fall apart and no-one’s going to lose their shoe. At his age, a night out is wrapped up in so much expectation that it just gets crazy.

The LP that reminds me of losing my virginity

The Stone Roses

The Stone Roses (1989)

My first sexual encounter was to The Stone Roses. I wasn’t super-aware of British indie music before then, but the Roses singles that started coming over to the US sparked my interest. I was in Minneapolis, about to move to Boston, and the posters were up everywhere. Before that I’d been very suspicious of British music. I even refused to listen to the first Pixies records. Being on 4AD, I thought they were from England.

The reason I play guitar

Hüsker Dü

New Day Rising (1985)

They just made so much noise. I used to go see Hüsker Dü a lot in my teens and those shows were deafening. They were very workmanlike onstage. They’d just put their heads down and blast through it all, whereas The Replacements were sort of shambling. I’d go home after a Hüsker Dü gig, plug in my little amp, play a chord and then think, ‘Why doesn’t it sound like them?’ I still haven’t been able to do it.

The record that made me want to leave Minneapolis

The Clash

London Calling (1979)

That line in “Lost In The Supermarket” – “we had a hedge back home in the suburbs/Over which I never could see” – taps into the idea that there’s something huge out there. For a suburban kid, it felt like somewhere you couldn’t get to. The Clash sang about strange places like Brixton, and Sten guns in Knightsbridge. A very romantic image. Maybe they were the reason I wanted to leave home for something else.

The record that reminds me of new beginnings

REM

Reckoning (1984)

Reckoning was just incredible. I loved the way it sounded, sort of deliberately murky and blurry. I transferred schools to a private school in ninth grade, where there were more creative kids. So I met new friends and heard a lot of cool new records. That’s when someone played me REM. I’d read they were influenced by The Byrds and the Velvets, but they didn’t sound like them. They felt like something totally new.

Kate Bush to play 15 live dates later this year

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Kate Bush to play 15 live dates later this year
Kate Bush has announced she will play a series of live shows later this year. Bush will play 15 shows at London's Eventim Apollo Hammersmith starting on August 26. The title of the shows is Before The Dawn. Tickets will go on sale from 9.30am on Friday, March 28. These are Bush's first major liv...

Kate Bush has announced she will play a series of live shows later this year.

Bush will play 15 shows at London’s Eventim Apollo Hammersmith starting on August 26.

The title of the shows is Before The Dawn.

Tickets will go on sale from 9.30am on Friday, March 28.

These are Bush’s first major live dates since 1979’s Tour of Life, since when she has given only the occasional live performance.

Tickets are available only from the following outlets: www.eventim.co.uk, www.gigsandtours.com and www.ticketmaster.co.uk.

Tickets are limited to 4 per booking and photo ID will be required to be presented by the lead booker on arrival at the venue on the night of the show.

The dates are:

August: 26, 27, 29, 30.

September: 2, 3, 5, 6, 9, 10, 12, 13, 16, 17, 19

Tickets cost £49, £59. £79, £95 and £135 and are subject to a booking fee.

“I was born into show business”: the extraordinary dance skills of Christopher Walken revealed

Michael Bonner
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“I was born into show business”: the extraordinary dance skills of Christopher Walken revealed

“The truth is, I don’t like dangerous things and am quite normal,” Christopher Walken told Uncut in September 2006. “I was born into show business and that brings with it being a little eccentric, the way you speak, the way you approach things. This innately gives me a sense of foreignness, which can easily translate into…s-t-r-a-n-g-e.” Of course, when you think of Christopher Walken, it's likely you'll picture him as Nick Chevotarevich in The Deer Hunter, clutching a pistol to his temple in the Vietnamese jungles, or as Frank White, the ruthless kingpin he played in King Of New York, or perhaps you’ll remember him as Vincent Coccotti in True Romance, the sharply dressed consigliere who shoots cinema’s other great on-screen psychopath, Dennis Hopper, in the head. But as Walken attests, “I had come from musical comedy theatre”, and there is arguably more than just shooting people to the actor’s skillset. Indeed, as far back as issue 44, we had begun to piece together an extraordinary secret history threaded through Walken’s work, stretching back as far as 1977’s Roseland. There, in this early role, he in fact played a former dancer. But perhaps it wasn’t until 1981 that his soft-shoe attributes became more explicit: in the Hollywood remake of Dennis Potter’s Pennies From Heaven, Walken mimed – but more importantly, danced – his way through a routine to “Let’s Misbehave” that, so we’re told, so impressed Fred Astaire and Gene Kelly they both offered their congratulations. We discovered evidence of Walken’s dancing interludes through 16 movies, finding proof that the actor would burst into tap or essay a sneaky rumba in films as diverse as At Close Range, King Of New York, Wayne’s World II and even Things To Do In Denver When You’re Dead – the latter an especially remarkable feat, considering he is wheelchair bound for much of the film’s duration. Of course, Walken effectively ‘came out’ as a hoofer in Spike Jonze’s sublime video for Fatboy Slim’s 2001 single, "Weapon Of Choice". Anyway, the point of all this is that the Huffington Post have edited together a marvellous five minute compilation of Walken busting some impressive moves. You can watch their edit below. It's a thing of considerable beauty. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sNaau2uPFqI Follow me on Twitter @MichaelBonner.

“The truth is, I don’t like dangerous things and am quite normal,” Christopher Walken told Uncut in September 2006. “I was born into show business and that brings with it being a little eccentric, the way you speak, the way you approach things. This innately gives me a sense of foreignness, which can easily translate into…s-t-r-a-n-g-e.”

Of course, when you think of Christopher Walken, it’s likely you’ll picture him as Nick Chevotarevich in The Deer Hunter, clutching a pistol to his temple in the Vietnamese jungles, or as Frank White, the ruthless kingpin he played in King Of New York, or perhaps you’ll remember him as Vincent Coccotti in True Romance, the sharply dressed consigliere who shoots cinema’s other great on-screen psychopath, Dennis Hopper, in the head. But as Walken attests, “I had come from musical comedy theatre”, and there is arguably more than just shooting people to the actor’s skillset.

Indeed, as far back as issue 44, we had begun to piece together an extraordinary secret history threaded through Walken’s work, stretching back as far as 1977’s Roseland. There, in this early role, he in fact played a former dancer. But perhaps it wasn’t until 1981 that his soft-shoe attributes became more explicit: in the Hollywood remake of Dennis Potter’s Pennies From Heaven, Walken mimed – but more importantly, danced – his way through a routine to “Let’s Misbehave” that, so we’re told, so impressed Fred Astaire and Gene Kelly they both offered their congratulations.

We discovered evidence of Walken’s dancing interludes through 16 movies, finding proof that the actor would burst into tap or essay a sneaky rumba in films as diverse as At Close Range, King Of New York, Wayne’s World II and even Things To Do In Denver When You’re Dead – the latter an especially remarkable feat, considering he is wheelchair bound for much of the film’s duration. Of course, Walken effectively ‘came out’ as a hoofer in Spike Jonze’s sublime video for Fatboy Slim’s 2001 single, “Weapon Of Choice”.

Anyway, the point of all this is that the Huffington Post have edited together a marvellous five minute compilation of Walken busting some impressive moves. You can watch their edit below. It’s a thing of considerable beauty.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sNaau2uPFqI

Follow me on Twitter @MichaelBonner.

Wild Beasts – Present Tense

Uncut
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Wild Beasts – Present Tense

Synths and sex... the Kendal clan's excellent fourth... “Please be wary / The pit of a man’s heart is dark and scary,” advised Hayden Thorpe on one of Wild Beasts’ earliest compositions, an extraordinary, teetering, football-themed melodrama called “Woebegone Wanderers” that eventually graced their 2008 debut album alongside some equally fruity numbers called things like “The Club Of Fathomless Love” and “She Purred, While I Grrred”. It introduced them as a band confidently rushing in where most of their peers conspicuously feared to tread, into the murky realm of male sexuality. Wild Beasts remain pretty much out a limb as band who regularly entertain the topic of male lust and its sometimes terrible consequences. It’s difficult to think of many singers of their generation who would dare to adopt the role of a gloating Don Juan with such menacing relish as Tom Fleming does here on “Nature Boy”, working a catchphrase borrowed from wrestler Jake “The Snake” Roberts – “" – into a narrative that points up the destruction wrought by the myth of the alpha male. Their previous album, 2011’s Smother, felt a little frigid (in both senses), so it’s good to see the colour returning to their cheeks. Present Tense finds a more acceptable compromise between their passionate urges and their modest temperaments. Fleming’s fellow vocalist Hayden Thorpe has long since tamed his more rococo lyrical flourishes but, encouragingly, much of the fervour that fuelled the likes of “The Fun Powder Plot” has returned. Steely opening track “Wanderlust” is a trenchant takedown of careerist rockers with nothing to say, concluding with a sideswipe at those who adopt American accents in order to get on: “In your mother tongue, what’s the verb ‘to suck’?” Thorpe’s voice is still a swooping, exotic pleasure, fuller and more controlled than in the early days, only dominating the picture when absolutely necessary. Fleming’s is charming, cautioning, the keeper of dangerous knowledge. His songs, such as “Daughters” and “A Dog’s Life”, are ominous affairs, full of dark imagery, ulterior motives and dire consequences. Thorpe tends to handle the more tender, romantic stuff, such as “A Simple Beautiful Truth”, a gorgeous grown-up funk smoulderer, and “Palace”, a soaring, heart-on-the-table love song. “Sweet Spot” is an eloquent paean to orgasm, the moment of ecstasy described as “a godly state/ Where the real and the dream they consummate”. Musically, it’s as if Wild Beasts heard Jon Hopkins and Oneohtrix Point Never’s stunning remixes of their own “Two Dancers” and thought: we could probably do all that ourselves. Synthesisers dominate, but there is none of the metallic harshness that implies. Nor is there any of the diffuse bluster often created when sensitive guitar bands attempt to bolster their sound with electronics. With the aid of producers Alex Dramgoole AKA Lexxx and Eno protégé Leo Abrahams, Wild Beasts have meticulously selected only the richest, most evocative synth tones with which to reconstruct their distinct soundworld. Benny Little’s patient, eddying guitar figures haven’t been jettisoned, but subsumed seamlessly into the new order; or, as on “A Dog’s Life”, employed to provide exultant relief from the chorus’s menacing machine drone. As a result, Present Tense never sounds alien or abrasive, but intimate, eerie and seductive. Its antecedents are Sylvian & Sakamoto, side two of Kate Bush’s Hounds Of Love and particularly The Blue Nile, Fleming’s vocal line on “New Life” assuming more than a hint of Paul Buchanan’s sad, rain-lashed majesty. But mostly, Wild Beasts still sound like nobody else but themselves. For the fourth album in a row, they’ve moved the goalposts, challenging themselves to apply their whooping idiosyncrasies to a new aesthetic framework. On Present Tense they’ve done so with such exquisite attention to detail, you can’t help but submit to their advances. Sam Richards Q&A Tom Fleming Were there a few favourite pieces of kit that ended up dictating the sound of this album? We don’t have loads of synthesisers: a Roland Juno-6, a Prophet 08 – which is a lovely thing and all over the record – and we had access to a working Jupiter-8. But equally we did a lot with the Roland 404 sampler, a little tabletop thing that looks a Game Boy. Obviously we’re interested in sound and we tried to get things right because in electronic music the style is the substance to some extent; you have to take care over these things. But ultimately we’re not really programmers – we like things we can hit. Your song “Nature Boy” seems to allude to various myths about male sexual potency. Were you thinking of anything specific when you wrote it? It’s a play on all kinds of macho-ness: the blues song Back Door Man, the old myth of Reynard The Fox, and also WWE wrestlers and rappers – “I’m the peacock”, that kind of thing. “Nature Boy” is about the archetype of man’s conquering sexuality. Sex and sexuality is certainly a recurring topic in Wild Beasts in lyrics, so why do you think most of your peers are scared to broach the subject? It’s weird. Indie bands, for want of a better term, don’t like to talk about sex. Probably because it’s difficult to come across convincingly. Bearing in mind that chat about sex is everywhere in our daily lives, but none of it’s actually . Sex isn’t talked about as a real thing, it’s all glammed up and sanitised. The actual flesh and bone and sweat and hair is left out. It’s all very happy, healthy, heterosexual and not very interesting. So it does take a few leaps of logic to write about that stuff, but it’s a shame that more don’t try. You’ve got to be comfortable with ridicule if you’re going to stand up on stage in front of a thousand people. In hindsight, do you think maybe you went a bit too far on Smother in trying to counteract the ribaldry of the first two albums?strong> Potentially. I think that record needed to be made, otherwise we could have found ourselves stereotyped as this oddball, sexual indie band, so it was a very deliberate rejection. But this new record definitely had to be a bit more aggressive. We wanted to sound like a gang again. INTERVIEW: SAM RICHARDS Photo credit: Klaus Thymann

Synths and sex… the Kendal clan’s excellent fourth…

“Please be wary / The pit of a man’s heart is dark and scary,” advised Hayden Thorpe on one of Wild Beasts’ earliest compositions, an extraordinary, teetering, football-themed melodrama called “Woebegone Wanderers” that eventually graced their 2008 debut album alongside some equally fruity numbers called things like “The Club Of Fathomless Love” and “She Purred, While I Grrred”. It introduced them as a band confidently rushing in where most of their peers conspicuously feared to tread, into the murky realm of male sexuality.

Wild Beasts remain pretty much out a limb as band who regularly entertain the topic of male lust and its sometimes terrible consequences. It’s difficult to think of many singers of their generation who would dare to adopt the role of a gloating Don Juan with such menacing relish as Tom Fleming does here on “Nature Boy”, working a catchphrase borrowed from wrestler Jake “The Snake” Roberts – “” – into a narrative that points up the destruction wrought by the myth of the alpha male.

Their previous album, 2011’s Smother, felt a little frigid (in both senses), so it’s good to see the colour returning to their cheeks. Present Tense finds a more acceptable compromise between their passionate urges and their modest temperaments. Fleming’s fellow vocalist Hayden Thorpe has long since tamed his more rococo lyrical flourishes but, encouragingly, much of the fervour that fuelled the likes of “The Fun Powder Plot” has returned. Steely opening track “Wanderlust” is a trenchant takedown of careerist rockers with nothing to say, concluding with a sideswipe at those who adopt American accents in order to get on: “In your mother tongue, what’s the verb ‘to suck’?”

Thorpe’s voice is still a swooping, exotic pleasure, fuller and more controlled than in the early days, only dominating the picture when absolutely necessary. Fleming’s is charming, cautioning, the keeper of dangerous knowledge. His songs, such as “Daughters” and “A Dog’s Life”, are ominous affairs, full of dark imagery, ulterior motives and dire consequences. Thorpe tends to handle the more tender, romantic stuff, such as “A Simple Beautiful Truth”, a gorgeous grown-up funk smoulderer, and “Palace”, a soaring, heart-on-the-table love song. “Sweet Spot” is an eloquent paean to orgasm, the moment of ecstasy described as “a godly state/ Where the real and the dream they consummate”.

Musically, it’s as if Wild Beasts heard Jon Hopkins and Oneohtrix Point Never’s stunning remixes of their own “Two Dancers” and thought: we could probably do all that ourselves. Synthesisers dominate, but there is none of the metallic harshness that implies. Nor is there any of the diffuse bluster often created when sensitive guitar bands attempt to bolster their sound with electronics. With the aid of producers Alex Dramgoole AKA Lexxx and Eno protégé Leo Abrahams, Wild Beasts have meticulously selected only the richest, most evocative synth tones with which to reconstruct their distinct soundworld. Benny Little’s patient, eddying guitar figures haven’t been jettisoned, but subsumed seamlessly into the new order; or, as on “A Dog’s Life”, employed to provide exultant relief from the chorus’s menacing machine drone. As a result, Present Tense never sounds alien or abrasive, but intimate, eerie and seductive. Its antecedents are Sylvian & Sakamoto, side two of Kate Bush’s Hounds Of Love and particularly The Blue Nile, Fleming’s vocal line on “New Life” assuming more than a hint of Paul Buchanan’s sad, rain-lashed majesty.

But mostly, Wild Beasts still sound like nobody else but themselves. For the fourth album in a row, they’ve moved the goalposts, challenging themselves to apply their whooping idiosyncrasies to a new aesthetic framework. On Present Tense they’ve done so with such exquisite attention to detail, you can’t help but submit to their advances.

Sam Richards

Q&A

Tom Fleming

Were there a few favourite pieces of kit that ended up dictating the sound of this album?

We don’t have loads of synthesisers: a Roland Juno-6, a Prophet 08 – which is a lovely thing and all over the record – and we had access to a working Jupiter-8. But equally we did a lot with the Roland 404 sampler, a little tabletop thing that looks a Game Boy. Obviously we’re interested in sound and we tried to get things right because in electronic music the style is the substance to some extent; you have to take care over these things. But ultimately we’re not really programmers – we like things we can hit.

Your song “Nature Boy” seems to allude to various myths about male sexual potency. Were you thinking of anything specific when you wrote it?

It’s a play on all kinds of macho-ness: the blues song Back Door Man, the old myth of Reynard The Fox, and also WWE wrestlers and rappers – “I’m the peacock”, that kind of thing. “Nature Boy” is about the archetype of man’s conquering sexuality.

Sex and sexuality is certainly a recurring topic in Wild Beasts in lyrics, so why do you think most of your peers are scared to broach the subject?

It’s weird. Indie bands, for want of a better term, don’t like to talk about sex. Probably because it’s difficult to come across convincingly. Bearing in mind that chat about sex is everywhere in our daily lives, but none of it’s actually . Sex isn’t talked about as a real thing, it’s all glammed up and sanitised. The actual flesh and bone and sweat and hair is left out. It’s all very happy, healthy, heterosexual and not very interesting. So it does take a few leaps of logic to write about that stuff, but it’s a shame that more don’t try. You’ve got to be comfortable with ridicule if you’re going to stand up on stage in front of a thousand people.

In hindsight, do you think maybe you went a bit too far on Smother in trying to counteract the ribaldry of the first two albums?strong>

Potentially. I think that record needed to be made, otherwise we could have found ourselves stereotyped as this oddball, sexual indie band, so it was a very deliberate rejection. But this new record definitely had to be a bit more aggressive. We wanted to sound like a gang again.

INTERVIEW: SAM RICHARDS

Photo credit: Klaus Thymann

The Rolling Stones reschedule Australia and New Zealand dates for October

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The Rolling Stones reschedule Australia and New Zealand dates for October
The Rolling Stones have rescheduled a series of shows in Australia and New Zealand for October, after they were postponed following the death of L'Wren Scott. A list of the dates affected by the postponement can be found below. Promoters Frontier Touring have urged fans with tickets to hold on to...

The Rolling Stones have rescheduled a series of shows in Australia and New Zealand for October, after they were postponed following the death of L’Wren Scott.

A list of the dates affected by the postponement can be found below.

Promoters Frontier Touring have urged fans with tickets to hold on to their tickets for the rescheduled shows, which they claim will come in October and November, though no specific dates have yet been announced.

“If the new dates are not suitable, rest assured you will be able to secure a refund,” a spokesperson for Frontier Touring told The Guardian. “While we encourage fans to hold on to their tickets, the option to secure a refund is now available to you via the official ticketing agency you purchased from.”

The postponed shows are:

Perth Arena (March 19)

Adelaide Oval (22)

Sydney Allphones Arena (25)

Melbourne Rod Laver Arena (28)

Hanging Rock Macedon Ranges (30)

Brisbane Entertainment Centre (April 2)

Auckland Mt Smart Stadium (5)

Iggy Pop casts doubt on the future of The Stooges following Scott Asheton death

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Iggy Pop casts doubt on the future of The Stooges following Scott Asheton death
Iggy Pop has cast doubt on the future of The Stooges following the death of Scott Asheton aged 64 earlier this week. Speaking to Rolling Stone about Asheton, Pop says that he "Can't see" the band playing in the future. I don't want to say that I'm done with the band," he says. "I would just say...

Iggy Pop has cast doubt on the future of The Stooges following the death of Scott Asheton aged 64 earlier this week.

Speaking to Rolling Stone about Asheton, Pop says that he “Can’t see” the band playing in the future. I don’t want to say that I’m done with the band,” he says. “I would just say that I feel like the group has always included the Asheton brothers. When Ron passed away, Scott represented him. Nearly everything we play, Ron played on originally. I don’t feel right now like there’s any reason for me to go jumping out onstage in tight Levi’s. What am I going to scream about?”

Continuing, Pop said that he has no plans to tour in any capacity for at least two years: “I just can’t see the band playing in the near future. It would just be wrong. But if something comes up, you should be open to it. It depends on the feeling of the family and the surviving members. James Williamson was in the group and I’ve been there since it started. It would depend on the realities and the musical truth.”

Asheton’s bandmate and brother, guitarist Ron Asheton, passed away in 2009. The Asheton brothers founded The Stooges in Ann Arbor, Michigan in 1967 with bassist Dave Alexander and Iggy Pop.

Neil Young delays Time Fades Away reissue

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Neil Young delays Time Fades Away reissue
Neil Young has postponed the Record Store Day reissue of his long-out-of-print 1973 album, Time Fades Away. The album was scheduled for release as part of Young's Official Release Series Discs 5-8 Vinyl Box Set, alongside On The Beach, Tonight's The Night and Zuma. According to a press release quo...

Neil Young has postponed the Record Store Day reissue of his long-out-of-print 1973 album, Time Fades Away.

The album was scheduled for release as part of Young’s Official Release Series Discs 5-8 Vinyl Box Set, alongside On The Beach, Tonight’s The Night and Zuma.

According to a press release quoted on Pitchfork, the delay comes “due to several other projects that Young has in the works that he wishes to focus on.”

Apart from his high quality digital music player Pono, Young is also due to release a new album, A Letter Home on Jack White’s Third Man Records and a new memoir as well as number of upcoming live solo acoustic shows in Los Angeles, Texas and Chicago.

The 11th Uncut Playlist Of 2014

John Mulvey
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The 11th Uncut Playlist Of 2014

After a very long wait, the second album on Matthew E White’s Spacebomb label has turned up… and it may not be quite what most of you would have envisaged… Plenty more here, anyhow, not least a reissue of the first Yes album. It’s been that kind of week. If you’re in London, though, may I suggest ending it by seeing either Michael Head at the Union Chapel or The Necks at the Bishopsgate Institute? I’ll be very jealous of you either way. Follow me on Twitter: www.twitter.com/JohnRMulvey 1 Toumani Diabaté & Sidiki Diabaté - Toumani & Sidiki (World Circuit) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oCEeaERMfNo 2 Fennesz – Bécs (Editions Mego) 3 Ben Frost – A U R O R A (Mute) 4 Class 50 – Freerider (Electric Record Company) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lhW14z0OXd4 5 Michael Kiwanuka – You’ve Got Nothing To Lose (Third Man) 6 Sturgill Simpson - Metamodern Sounds In Country Music (Loose) 7 Various Artists - Axels & Sockets: The Jeffrey Lee Pierce Sessions Project (Glitterhouse) 8 Yes – Yes (Panegyric) 9 The Field - No.No... (Tim Hecker Mix) (Kompakt) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nbwJcx_r5ew 10 Rodrigo Amarante – Cavalo (Mais Um Discos) 11 Dylan Shearer – Meadow Mines (Fort Polio) (Castleface/Empty Cellar) 12 Tiny Ruins – Brightly Painted One (Bella Union) 13 Greg Ashley – Another Generation Of Slaves (Trouble In Mind) 14 Metronomy – Love Letters (Because) 15 Dolphins Into The Future - On Seafaring Isolation (Not Not Fun) 16 Grace Jones – Nightclubbing: Deluxe Edition (Island) 17 Lee Bains III & The Glory Fires - Dereconstructed (Sub Pop) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YucWOXSCa4U ) 18 You Are Wolf – Hawk To The Hunting Gone (Stone Tape) 19 Diane Cluck – Boneset (Important) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qXwqgczZw5s 20 Grandma Sparrow - Grandma Sparrow & his Piddletractor Orchestra (Spacebomb) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xk_-JK9kYlU 21 Amen Dunes – Love (Sacred Bones)

After a very long wait, the second album on Matthew E White’s Spacebomb label has turned up… and it may not be quite what most of you would have envisaged…

Plenty more here, anyhow, not least a reissue of the first Yes album. It’s been that kind of week. If you’re in London, though, may I suggest ending it by seeing either Michael Head at the Union Chapel or The Necks at the Bishopsgate Institute? I’ll be very jealous of you either way.

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

1 Toumani Diabaté & Sidiki Diabaté – Toumani & Sidiki (World Circuit)

2 Fennesz – Bécs (Editions Mego)

3 Ben Frost – A U R O R A (Mute)

4 Class 50 – Freerider (Electric Record Company)

5 Michael Kiwanuka – You’ve Got Nothing To Lose (Third Man)

6 Sturgill Simpson – Metamodern Sounds In Country Music (Loose)

7 Various Artists – Axels & Sockets: The Jeffrey Lee Pierce Sessions Project (Glitterhouse)

8 Yes – Yes (Panegyric)

9 The Field – No.No… (Tim Hecker Mix) (Kompakt)

10 Rodrigo Amarante – Cavalo (Mais Um Discos)

11 Dylan Shearer – Meadow Mines (Fort Polio) (Castleface/Empty Cellar)

12 Tiny Ruins – Brightly Painted One (Bella Union)

13 Greg Ashley – Another Generation Of Slaves (Trouble In Mind)

14 Metronomy – Love Letters (Because)

15 Dolphins Into The Future – On Seafaring Isolation (Not Not Fun)

16 Grace Jones – Nightclubbing: Deluxe Edition (Island)

17 Lee Bains III & The Glory Fires – Dereconstructed (Sub Pop)

)

18 You Are Wolf – Hawk To The Hunting Gone (Stone Tape)

19 Diane Cluck – Boneset (Important)

20 Grandma Sparrow – Grandma Sparrow & his Piddletractor Orchestra (Spacebomb)

21 Amen Dunes – Love (Sacred Bones)

May 2014

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May 2014
The feature on William Burroughs in this month's issue by John Robinson made me think of some of the bands who took their names from Burroughs' books, most famously The Soft Machine, Steely Dan, and Grant Hart's Nova Mob . There was also Thin White Rope, a band from Davis, CA, named by a friend aft...

The feature on William Burroughs in this month’s issue by John Robinson made me think of some of the bands who took their names from Burroughs’ books, most famously The Soft Machine, Steely Dan, and Grant Hart’s Nova Mob

. There was also Thin White Rope, a band from Davis, CA, named by a friend after the term used by Burroughs for male ejaculation in Naked Lunch. Largely forgotten now, it seems, TWR’s 1987 LP, Moonhead, caused quite a stir at Melody Maker. We were so taken by them we ended up putting them on the cover a couple of years later, recklessly ignoring the fact that at the time no-one outside the office had even heard them.

Moonhead arrived unheralded, from a dark, uncharted place, somewhere off the map. The twin guitars of Guy Kyser and Roger Kunkel were torrential, terrifying, full of feedback, fury and dread, Kyser’s voice on disturbing songs like “Wire Animals”, “Wet Heart”, “Take It Home”, and “Crawl Piss Freeze” sounding like the dismal wailing of something not quite human from The Hills Have Eyes.

Not long after it came out, I called Kyser at Radio WDR in Davis. I don’t know if Kyser was working at the station at the time, but I later found out he’d been an aspiring DJ before he started making music with The Lazy Boys, a local Saturday night bar band inspired by The Stooges and Captain Beefheart and one of the evolutionary distractions that preceded the then-current TWR lineup. The connection when I called him was bad and there was a delay on the line that meant we ended up either listening to each other’s silences or shouting at each other simultaneously. One way or another, it was difficult to make much sense of the conversation or the scribbled notes I’d made of what Kyser had to say, which wasn’t a great deal to begin with. So I found out a little about not very much, except that “Crawl Piss Freeze” had been written about a friend diagnosed with cancer of the colon and given poor odds on pulling through. When I finally meet Kyser and Roger Kunkel in the bar of a west London hotel, in April 1988, the day after TWR’s UK debut at a pub in Finsbury Park, where they bizarrely open for John Cooper Clarke, I ask after the girl for whom “Crawl Piss Freeze” had been written. “It was rough,” Kyser says, rolling a cigarette, threads of tobacco falling through his fingers, into a pool of beer on the table in front of him. “But she didn’t die. She’ll just,” he adds grimly, “have to shit in a bag for the rest of her life.

“I was so angry and depressed when I wrote that song,” he goes on, and I feel like I’m teasing something from him he doesn’t really want to talk about. “It was because Reagan had just been admitted to hospital with the same complaint. And of course everyone was making this big fuss. It was a real big deal. But she gets it and she’s just another poor sucker and nobody really cares.”

TWR have just put out a new LP, In The Spanish Cave. How does he think their music has developed? “Things have lightened up,” Kyser says. “Moonhead barely had a grip on reality.”

“A lot of Moonhead came across as gut-wrenching, dreadful, intense music,” Kunkel adds. “But we’ve always wanted to play real good country swing. Typically, when it comes to it, we back off. But the new LP, the first guitar thing you hear is a direct steal from Marty Robbins.”

I now recall Kyser telling me he liked Marty Robbins because in his songs everybody dies.

“That’s right,” Kyser says. “His songs always start with him singing, ‘I’ll tell you how he met his fateful end…’ It’s hysterical. Like Utah Carroll, riding off a cliff. A lot of our own stuff is just as funny.” I wasn’t so sure. Taking as an example, I mention the rather frightening “Wand” from In The Spanish Cave. It’s about genetic mutation, isn’t it?

“No,” Kyser says. “‘It’s OK’ is about genetic mutation.” So what’s “Wand” about? “That’s a real angry, scary song,” Kyser says. “‘Wand’ starts off with me talking about my guitar. Then it goes into this fantasy about all the things my guitar is going to do to change the world and in the end I realise my guitar is going to do about as much to change the world as my dick.”

Enjoy the issue.

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We want your questions for Bob Mould!

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We want your questions for Bob Mould!

With the release of his latest album, Beauty & Ruin, on June 3, Bob Mould is set to answer your questions in Uncut as part of our regular An Audience With… feature. So is there anything you’ve always wanted to ask the legendary musician? What does he remember of the Minneapolis music scene during the late Seventies in the earliest days of Hüsker Dü? How did Sugar end up signing to Creation Records in the 1990s? What did he learn from his stint writing scripts for professional wrestling in the late 1990s? Send up your questions by noon, Friday, March 28 to uncutaudiencewith@ipcmedia.com. The best questions, and Bob's answers, will be published in a future edition of Uncut magazine. Please include your name and location with your question.

With the release of his latest album, Beauty & Ruin, on June 3, Bob Mould is set to answer your questions in Uncut as part of our regular An Audience With… feature.

So is there anything you’ve always wanted to ask the legendary musician?

What does he remember of the Minneapolis music scene during the late Seventies in the earliest days of Hüsker Dü?

How did Sugar end up signing to Creation Records in the 1990s?

What did he learn from his stint writing scripts for professional wrestling in the late 1990s?

Send up your questions by noon, Friday, March 28 to uncutaudiencewith@ipcmedia.com. The best questions, and Bob’s answers, will be published in a future edition of Uncut magazine. Please include your name and location with your question.

REM to release two ‘Unplugged’ concerts for Record Store Day

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REM to release two ‘Unplugged’ concerts for Record Store Day
REM will release two Unplugged concerts for Record Store Day 2014. The band will put out Unplugged: The Complete 1991 And 2001 Sessions on April 19, Rolling Stone reports. The band were the only group to headline the MTV live show twice. The release will feature complete versions of both shows al...

REM will release two Unplugged concerts for Record Store Day 2014.

The band will put out Unplugged: The Complete 1991 And 2001 Sessions on April 19, Rolling Stone reports.

The band were the only group to headline the MTV live show twice. The release will feature complete versions of both shows along with 11 previously unaired tracks. The four-LP set will initially be available on vinyl for Record Store Day before CD and digital versions will be put out on May 20.

The 11 unaired tracks consist of five from 1991 set and six from the 2001 show.

The tracklisting is:

1991 Unplugged

Side One

‘Half A World Away’

‘Disturbance At The Heron House’

‘Radio Song’

‘Low’

Side Two

‘Perfect Circle’

‘Fall On Me’

‘Belong’

‘Love Is All Around’

Side Three

‘It’s The End Of The World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine)’

‘Losing My Religion’

‘Pop Song 89’

‘Endgame’

Side Four

‘Fretless’

‘Swan Swan H’

‘Rotary 11’

‘Get Up’

‘World Leader Pretend’

2001 Unplugged

Side Five

‘All The Way To Reno (You’re Gonna Be a Star)’

‘Electrolite’

‘At My Most Beautiful’

‘Daysleeper’

Side Six

‘So. Central Rain (I’m Sorry)’

‘Losing My Religion’

‘Country Feedback’

‘Cuyahoga’

Side Seven

‘Imitation of Life’

‘Find the River’

‘The One I Love’

‘Disappear’

Side Eight

‘Beat A Drum’

‘I’ve Been High’

‘I’ll Take the Rain’

‘Sad Professor’

Neil Young built “a barn roof” out of 200,000 copies of Comes A Time

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Neil Young built “a barn roof” out of 200,000 copies of Comes A Time
Neil Young has admitted he once bought thousands of copies of his own album and used them as shingles on the roof of his house. Young, who recently launched his high quality digital Pono music player and service at South By South West in Austin, Texas revealed that a "mastering error" on the 1978 ...

Neil Young has admitted he once bought thousands of copies of his own album and used them as shingles on the roof of his house.

Young, who recently launched his high quality digital Pono music player and service at South By South West in Austin, Texas revealed that a “mastering error” on the 1978 album Comes A Time left him dissatisfied with the release and forced him to take the existing copies off the market.

Asked if the story was true by Rolling Stone, Young replied: “The tape got damaged when it went through the airport or something. I had to go back and use a copy of the master — it was a copy, but it had better-sounding playback than the other one. No, no, I made a barn roof out of them. I used them as shingles.”

Young also spoke about recording his new album, A Letter Home, on a 1947 Voice-o-Graph machine in Jack White‘s vinyl recording booth.

“Yeah, we did the whole album on that,” he said. “We’re going to get it out there. It’s an amazing time capsule. From nothing, to nowhere. No one knows why. [Laughs] It’s a good piece, a real nice piece. I look forward to people getting it, especially in light of what I’m doing now. It’s coming out pretty soon.”

The Rolling Stones postpone remaining Australian tour dates

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The Rolling Stones postpone remaining Australian tour dates

The Rolling Stones have announced the postponement of the rest of their 14 On Fire tour of Australia and New Zealand following the death of L’Wren Scott. In a statement issued this evening, the band "wish to thank all of their fans for their support at this difficult time and hope that they will fully understand the reason for this announcement. "The Rolling Stones are planning to reschedule these postponed shows at a later date. "The postponed shows are: "Perth Arena – 19 March - postponed Adelaide Oval – 22 March - postponed Sydney Allphones Arena – 25 March - postponed Melbourne Rod Laver Arena – 28 March - postponed Macedon Ranges Hanging Rock – 30 March - postponed Brisbane Entertainment Centre – 2 April - postponed Auckland Mt Smart Stadium – 5 April - postponed "Australia/New Zealand promoters ask ticket holders to please hold on to their tickets until further notice. A new schedule of dates is presently being worked on and will be advised as soon as possible. Information will be made available via rollingstones.com and frontiertouring.com as soon as available."

The Rolling Stones have announced the postponement of the rest of their 14 On Fire tour of Australia and New Zealand following the death of L’Wren Scott.

In a statement issued this evening, the band “wish to thank all of their fans for their support at this difficult time and hope that they will fully understand the reason for this announcement.

“The Rolling Stones are planning to reschedule these postponed shows at a later date.

“The postponed shows are:

“Perth Arena – 19 March – postponed

Adelaide Oval – 22 March – postponed

Sydney Allphones Arena – 25 March – postponed

Melbourne Rod Laver Arena – 28 March – postponed

Macedon Ranges Hanging Rock – 30 March – postponed

Brisbane Entertainment Centre – 2 April – postponed

Auckland Mt Smart Stadium – 5 April – postponed

“Australia/New Zealand promoters ask ticket holders to please hold on to their tickets until further notice. A new schedule of dates is presently being worked on and will be advised as soon as possible. Information will be made available via rollingstones.com and frontiertouring.com as soon as available.”

Kiss’ Gene Simmons says hip-hop artists have no place in the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame

John Mulvey
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Kiss’ Gene Simmons says hip-hop artists have no place in the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame

Gene Simmons of rockers Kiss has spoken out about his frustration with rap and hip-hop artists being inducted into the Rock And Roll Hall of Fame. The singer/bassist argued that the likes of Run-DMC have no place in the Hall of Fame, believing that all they do is "sample and they talk, not even sing". Speaking to Radio.com, the singer said: "You go on with your bad self and get more disco artists... A long time ago it was diluted. It’s really backroom politics, like Boss Tweed. A few people decide what’s in and what’s not. And the masses just scratch their heads. You've got Grandmaster Flash in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame? Run-DMC in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame? You’re killing me! That doesn’t mean those aren’t good artists. But they don’t play guitar. They sample and they talk. Not even sing!" Simmons continued: "If you asked Madonna, 'What kind of artist are you?' do you think she would say, 'Oh, rock!' So what they hell are they doing in the Hall of Fame? They can run their organisation any way they’d like, but it ain't rock! It just isn’t! If you don’t play guitar and you don’t write your own songs, you don’t belong there." Simmons also spoke about his frustration with the Hall Of Fame's selection committee for only inducting the original members of Kiss, and ignoring members of the band in its most recent form. In protest of their decision, the band have chosen not to perform at the induction ceremony this April in New York. Chad Channing, the original drummer for Nirvana, recently claimed he will be inducted alongside the rest of the former members at the same ceremony.

Gene Simmons of rockers Kiss has spoken out about his frustration with rap and hip-hop artists being inducted into the Rock And Roll Hall of Fame.

The singer/bassist argued that the likes of Run-DMC have no place in the Hall of Fame, believing that all they do is “sample and they talk, not even sing”.

Speaking to Radio.com, the singer said: “You go on with your bad self and get more disco artists… A long time ago it was diluted. It’s really backroom politics, like Boss Tweed. A few people decide what’s in and what’s not. And the masses just scratch their heads. You’ve got Grandmaster Flash in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame? Run-DMC in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame? You’re killing me! That doesn’t mean those aren’t good artists. But they don’t play guitar. They sample and they talk. Not even sing!”

Simmons continued: “If you asked Madonna, ‘What kind of artist are you?’ do you think she would say, ‘Oh, rock!’ So what they hell are they doing in the Hall of Fame? They can run their organisation any way they’d like, but it ain’t rock! It just isn’t! If you don’t play guitar and you don’t write your own songs, you don’t belong there.”

Simmons also spoke about his frustration with the Hall Of Fame’s selection committee for only inducting the original members of Kiss, and ignoring members of the band in its most recent form. In protest of their decision, the band have chosen not to perform at the induction ceremony this April in New York.

Chad Channing, the original drummer for Nirvana, recently claimed he will be inducted alongside the rest of the former members at the same ceremony.

Raconteurs reunion with Jack White ‘off the table’, says Brendan Benson

John Mulvey
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Raconteurs reunion with Jack White ‘off the table’, says Brendan Benson

Brendan Benson has said that any potential reunion of The Raconteurs is "off the table." The band, which features Benson and Jack White among its members, were believed to be working together on new music after White confirmed in 2013 that all of the group were currently living in Nashville. However, in a new interview with Billboard, Benson paints a less certain future for the band, who released their last album 'Consolers Of The Lonely' in 2008. "That's kind of off the table," Benson says. "It always felt spontaneous. I liked that about it, too. And I think it remains that way. We never planned anything. We never planned a breakup. All of us but one live in the same town, so [in the future] it could very well happen… or not." Benson also said that he has stepped back from his own solo career as he focuses on his new label, Readymade Records. "Since I started the label, I have been going through this transition, and it’s almost like an identity crisis – like leaving my solo career a bit. I’m still going to make records." White previously confirmed that he is working on new solo material, though does not have any idea if and when he will release the follow up to his debut solo record 'Blunderbuss', and is also releasing infrequent singles with The Dead Weather. It was reported recently that White will appear on two songs on Neil Young's next album, which was recorded at the former White Stripes frontman's Third Man studios.

Brendan Benson has said that any potential reunion of The Raconteurs is “off the table.”

The band, which features Benson and Jack White among its members, were believed to be working together on new music after White confirmed in 2013 that all of the group were currently living in Nashville. However, in a new interview with Billboard, Benson paints a less certain future for the band, who released their last album ‘Consolers Of The Lonely’ in 2008.

“That’s kind of off the table,” Benson says. “It always felt spontaneous. I liked that about it, too. And I think it remains that way. We never planned anything. We never planned a breakup. All of us but one live in the same town, so [in the future] it could very well happen… or not.”

Benson also said that he has stepped back from his own solo career as he focuses on his new label, Readymade Records. “Since I started the label, I have been going through this transition, and it’s almost like an identity crisis – like leaving my solo career a bit. I’m still going to make records.”

White previously confirmed that he is working on new solo material, though does not have any idea if and when he will release the follow up to his debut solo record ‘Blunderbuss’, and is also releasing infrequent singles with The Dead Weather. It was reported recently that White will appear on two songs on Neil Young’s next album, which was recorded at the former White Stripes frontman’s Third Man studios.

The Rolling Stones cancel tour date after death of L’Wren Scott

John Mulvey
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The Rolling Stones cancel tour date after death of L’Wren Scott

The Rolling Stones have cancelled the first date of their Australian tour after the death of Mick Jaggar's girlfriend, the US fashion designer L'Wren Scott. The band were due to play Perth tomorrow night (March 19) but according to the BBC, the date has now been pulled with ticketholders being asked to keep hold of their tickets until further information is available. The band have five more dates booked in Australia – the next of which is Sydney on March 25. Scott was found by her assistant at 10am local time in her flat in New York in an apparent suicide. Yesterday, a spokesperson for Jagger said he was "completely shocked and devastated" by her death. The singer began dating Scott in 2001. Later yesterday, a spokesperson also denied a report in the New York Post that the pair had recently ended their relationship. "The story in the New York Post re a split between Mick Jagger and L'Wren Scott is 100 per cent untrue," said his spokeswoman. "There is absolutely no basis in fact to this story. It is a horrible and inaccurate piece of gossip during this very tragic time for Mick." Scott was found dead by her assistant 90 minutes after sending her a text message asking her to come to her Manhattan apartment. Police said there was no sign of foul play and no note was found. Following the date in Sydney, The Stones are due to continue their On Fire tour in Melbourne and Macedon later this month before playing two dates in Brisbane and Auckland, New Zealand, in April. Concerts are then planned in the Netherlands, Germany, Italy and Belgium.

The Rolling Stones have cancelled the first date of their Australian tour after the death of Mick Jaggar’s girlfriend, the US fashion designer L’Wren Scott.

The band were due to play Perth tomorrow night (March 19) but according to the BBC, the date has now been pulled with ticketholders being asked to keep hold of their tickets until further information is available.

The band have five more dates booked in Australia – the next of which is Sydney on March 25.

Scott was found by her assistant at 10am local time in her flat in New York in an apparent suicide.

Yesterday, a spokesperson for Jagger said he was “completely shocked and devastated” by her death. The singer began dating Scott in 2001.

Later yesterday, a spokesperson also denied a report in the New York Post that the pair had recently ended their relationship. “The story in the New York Post re a split between Mick Jagger and L’Wren Scott is 100 per cent untrue,” said his spokeswoman. “There is absolutely no basis in fact to this story. It is a horrible and inaccurate piece of gossip during this very tragic time for Mick.”

Scott was found dead by her assistant 90 minutes after sending her a text message asking her to come to her Manhattan apartment. Police said there was no sign of foul play and no note was found.

Following the date in Sydney, The Stones are due to continue their On Fire tour in Melbourne and Macedon later this month before playing two dates in Brisbane and Auckland, New Zealand, in April. Concerts are then planned in the Netherlands, Germany, Italy and Belgium.

Evan Dando and Lily Allen turn out for charity album

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Evan Dando and Lily Allen turn out for charity album

You may recently have seen posters advertising an album called Tarka & Friends: Life and wondered rather dopily if it didn’t have something to do with riverbank wildlife, not too many people of your acquaintance called Tarka. As it’s since been explained to me, the Tarka of the album’s title was Tarka Cordell, a musician and son of record producer Denny Cordell [Joe Cocker, Procol Harum, The Move, The Moody Blues], who grew up around the likes Bob Marley, Gram Parsons and Keith Richards, and lived in his younger years at the legendary Chateau Marmont hotel in LA. He was by all accounts handsome and charming, counted Kate Moss, Sophie Dahl and Evan Dando among his closest friends and frequented the hottest nightspots on both sides of the Atlantic. An aspiring and talented musician, he spent a lot of his time in the studio working on various musical projects throughout his life, not surprising, considering his musical heritage, but all was not what as it seemed. At the age of 40, Tarka took his own life. Only now is his musical output available to the public in the form of tribute album Tarka & Friends: Life, which features Dando and Tarka’s sister in law, Lily Allen, among others, putting voice to the tracks he never saw released. It is a tender and touching compilation of songs, not least because of Tarka’s death. It illustrates the many sides of Tarka, both as a lyricist and as a fallible human being. He clearly felt comfortable expressing his inner-most thoughts through music, yet still felt unable to face the world, day to day. It’s always complicated when someone so young, so talented and surrounded by loving family and friends takes their own life. It raises a myriad of unanswered questions for those left behind, not least why someone with so much to give could be so bereft of hope that they no longer want to go on living. It is particularly difficult to understand why someone so comfortable sharing their inner most thoughts through lyrics and music, could find it so hard to seek help and talk in the real world. This is not an uncommon situation. The male suicide prevention charity CALM, one of two charities benefiting from money raised by the album, have long held the notion that men find it infinitely more difficult to openly talk about their problems than women. It’s not that men are unable to do so. There are many centuries of poetry, literature, art and music showing that men are not emotionally illiterate – quite the opposite. Many men are more than able to express themselves through music and creativity, but may struggle when they don’t have the safety net of lyrics or harmonies to fall back on. CALM have talked to many well-known musicians over the years, such as Frank Turner and Professor Green, who have themselves experienced depression or been affected by suicide, and have expressed the notion that music is a great catharsis. What CALM aim to do is to create a society where men can feel comfortable talking to a partner, friend or colleague about their problems when lyrics aren’t enough, because until they do, over three quarters of suicides in this country every year will continue to be men. For further information on CALM, please go to www.thecalmzone.net CALM Helpline: 0800 585858, open every day, 5pm – midnight

You may recently have seen posters advertising an album called Tarka & Friends: Life and wondered rather dopily if it didn’t have something to do with riverbank wildlife, not too many people of your acquaintance called Tarka.

As it’s since been explained to me, the Tarka of the album’s title was Tarka Cordell, a musician and son of record producer Denny Cordell [Joe Cocker, Procol Harum, The Move, The Moody Blues], who grew up around the likes Bob Marley, Gram Parsons and Keith Richards, and lived in his younger years at the legendary Chateau Marmont hotel in LA.

He was by all accounts handsome and charming, counted Kate Moss, Sophie Dahl and Evan Dando among his closest friends and frequented the hottest nightspots on both sides of the Atlantic. An aspiring and talented musician, he spent a lot of his time in the studio working on various musical projects throughout his life, not surprising, considering his musical heritage, but all was not what as it seemed. At the age of 40, Tarka took his own life.

Only now is his musical output available to the public in the form of tribute album Tarka & Friends: Life, which features Dando and Tarka’s sister in law, Lily Allen, among others, putting voice to the tracks he never saw released. It is a tender and touching compilation of songs, not least because of Tarka’s death. It illustrates the many sides of Tarka, both as a lyricist and as a fallible human being. He clearly felt comfortable expressing his inner-most thoughts through music, yet still felt unable to face the world, day to day.

It’s always complicated when someone so young, so talented and surrounded by loving family and friends takes their own life. It raises a myriad of unanswered questions for those left behind, not least why someone with so much to give could be so bereft of hope that they no longer want to go on living. It is particularly difficult to understand why someone so comfortable sharing their inner most thoughts through lyrics and music, could find it so hard to seek help and talk in the real world. This is not an uncommon situation.

The male suicide prevention charity CALM, one of two charities benefiting from money raised by the album, have long held the notion that men find it infinitely more difficult to openly talk about their problems than women. It’s not that men are unable to do so. There are many centuries of poetry, literature, art and music showing that men are not emotionally illiterate – quite the opposite. Many men are more than able to express themselves through music and creativity, but may struggle when they don’t have the safety net of lyrics or harmonies to fall back on.

CALM have talked to many well-known musicians over the years, such as Frank Turner and Professor Green, who have themselves experienced depression or been affected by suicide, and have expressed the notion that music is a great catharsis. What CALM aim to do is to create a society where men can feel comfortable talking to a partner, friend or colleague about their problems when lyrics aren’t enough, because until they do, over three quarters of suicides in this country every year will continue to be men.

For further information on CALM, please go to www.thecalmzone.net

CALM Helpline: 0800 585858, open every day, 5pm – midnight

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