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John Lydon: “I had to sell off bits of Sex Pistols publishing just to survive in the ’90s”

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John Lydon: “I had to sell off bits of Sex Pistols publishing just to survive in the ’90s”
John Lydon explains in the new issue of Uncut (dated November 2013), out now, that he was forced to sell some of his Sex Pistols publishing in the ‘90s to keep afloat. The Pistols and PiL singer experienced disagreements with his label, Virgin, when he released Psycho’s Path in 1997, which le...

John Lydon explains in the new issue of Uncut (dated November 2013), out now, that he was forced to sell some of his Sex Pistols publishing in the ‘90s to keep afloat.

The Pistols and PiL singer experienced disagreements with his label, Virgin, when he released Psycho’s Path in 1997, which led to his financial problems.

“The record company strangled me to the point I basically wasn’t allowed to record anything,” Lydon says, “until what they’d decided was an outstanding debt was paid back. But how can you recoup the money if you don’t promote the record?

“That became a really heavy, desperate bad situation. Painful. I had to sell off bits of Sex Pistol publishing, just to survive. Just to get through another month. But I came through.”

Lydon talks us through the making of his greatest records, from the Sex Pistols’ Never Mind The Bollocks… to his most recent, last year’s This Is PiL, in the ‘album by album’ feature.

The November 2013 issue of Uncut is out now.

Photo: Davis Factor ©Drrmgmt

Morrissey Autobiography: the Uncut review

Michael Bonner
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Morrissey Autobiography: the Uncut review

There are many revelations in Morrissey’s Autobiography, but perhaps the most unexpected arrives on page 194. “While in Denver,” writes Morrissey, “Johnny [Marr] and I attend a concert by A-ha, whom we have met previously and whom we quite like.” In the weeks leading up to the release – at last! – of Autobiography, we have been bracing ourselves for possibility that he would – or more depressingly, wouldn’t – divulge many truths. About his sexuality, his relationship with his former Smiths bandmates, what he thinks of Bowie… Nothing, however, appeared to prepare us for the comprehensive nature of Morrissey’s disclosures in Autobiography. Look - here he is, turning down parts in EastEnders and Friends, contemplating fatherhood, being detained by Special Branch, telling us that he represented his school in the 100 and 400 metres. And some stuff about a guy called Jake. As Dylan’s Chronicles or Neil Young’s Waging Heavy Peace have shown, it is possible for a musician writing an autobiography to successfully bypass niggly, pedantic details such as chronology, index and facts. Despite personally having little interest in great swathes of his solo career, the rock autobiography that’s given me most pleasure in the last few years has been Rod Stewart’s – simply because it satisfied the requirements of conventional storytelling. One concern was that Morrissey might also 'do a Dylan' and opt for a strategy of obfuscation: ignore The Smiths, write round some other quite important things, spend a lot of time going into forensic detail about the recording of, say, Southpaw Grammar. Instead, what we have here is a very traditionally structured book that moves at a satisfying pace through Morrissey’s life and times, from his birth in “forgotten Victorian knife-plunging Manchester” up to December, 2011, with our hero about to leave Chicago after a rapturously received gig at the Congress Theater. At 457 pages, that works out at just over 8½ pages for every one of Morrissey’s 52 years. Though, of course, some years are bigger than others. My overriding impression of Autobiography is the vividness of the detail. The bell that announces the end of the school day sounds at 3.40. With his Smiths advance from Rough Trade, he pays off a “lavish domestic phone bill of £80”. Ahead of their first Top Of The Pops appearance, the band are erroneously billed in The Sun as ‘Dismiss’. And so it goes. Such precise memories suggests Morrissey has been so profoundly affected by events that they have remained crystal-clear in his mind. Or perhaps he is a diligent archivist, with boxes full of clippings, cuttings and such ephemera. The book is littered with references and quotes from correspondence he's received: among the most affecting are a letter from Johnny Marr after the Smiths split and a postcard from Kirsty MacColl that he receives weeks after her death. The opening pages offer a fairly typical scene-setting: “Birds abstain from song in post-war industrial Manchester,” he writes, “where the 1960s will not swing, and where the locals are the opposite of worldly.” I’m reminded of Keith Richards’ Life, with its “landscapes of rubble, half a street’s disappeared… I couldn’t buy a bag of sweets until 1954”, a default setting for this kind of book. But Morrissey describes his childhood with a poet’s eye: “we are finely tailored flesh – good looking Irish trawling the slums of Moss Side and Hulme.” His descriptions of Manchester's working class districts are profound and poetic; the passages that cover the depravations suffered by his own family often heartbreaking. The relocation of Nannie, his maternal grandmother "from Queen's Square to a condemned house at 10 Trafalgar Square" captures the monstrous treatment of the working classes during the slum clearances. "Our lives are flattened before our eyes - as if the local council couldn't wait a minute longer for we pack rats to gather our trappings and transistors." The opening sections of the book also detail his schooldays. His inquiry into the cruel discipline dished out by a headmaster ("What job did he think he was doing? And… for whom?") or the sado-sexual behaviour of his PE teachers offers an insight into "the secret agony of a troubled child". As he remarks, with a weight of sadness, "This is the Manchester school system of the 1960s, where sadness is habit forming." This sadness dogs Morrissey for years to come. His first gig is T.Rex at the Belle Vue on June 16, 1972, then Bowie – “every inch the eighth dimension”– at the Stretford Hardrock in September, Roxy Music two months later, where Morrissey speaks to Andy MacKay who's pinball in the venue’s lobby. New York Dolls, Mott The Hoople, Lou Reed all follow. His prose captures the thrill of these formative musical encounters – a defining time in the life of the 12 year-old author. Roxy Music are "Agatha Christie queer,” he writes. It’s brilliant stuff. Johnny Marr arrives on page 145. As Morrissey points out, they had met previously – “in the foyer of the Ardwick Apollo” at a Patti Smith gig. “I am shaken when I hear Johnny play guitar, because he is quite obviously gifted and almost unnaturally multi-talented." In case you were wondering – and you probably are – Morrissey is extremely generous to Marr in the book – even after the Smiths’ split, when his emotional response to Marr veers from confusion to sadness. The Smiths section lasts 77 pages, from page 147 – 224; a good chunk – 16%, in fact – for what is essentially five years of his life. What, then, do we learn about the Smiths? That Mike Joyce drum kit was called “Elsie”, that Mick Jagger came to see them live in New York and left after four songs, that Craig Gannon was “a fascinating bungle”. While writing about their time together, Morrissey is positive about his bandmates – with the exception of Gannon, who is hilarious dismissed with a typical flourish: “nothing useful vibrates in Craig’s upper storey”. Morrissey writes fondly about “signature Smiths’ powerhouse full-tilt”, or pauses during describing The Queen Is Dead sessions to comment admiringly that “Johnny is in the full vigour of his greatness”. Morrissey’s ire is directed – during the passages on the Smiths, at least – towards Geoff Travis, head of Rough Trade, who describes “How Soon Is Now?” as “just noise”. In fact, Morrissey is at his funniest when rounding on a slight, real or perhaps imagined. His first TV appearance finds him in the Green Room with George Best, before he is (in his opinion) rather rudely interviewed by Henry Kelly, “a little, pinched Irish madam… wearing a suit that looked better on the hanger.” Meanwhile, “local newshound” Anthony Wilson is another frequent target, a man who “assumed the cocogniscenti cloak and found himself blessed with the need to assess, judge and grade – like a war general plastered with rows of ribbons but who had never actually seen battle”. He is spectacularly catty about Sandie Shaw, referred to here as "the Duchess of Cumberland Place" or "the Dagenhall Doll". David Bowie "feeds on the blood of living mammals". The Smiths’ early success sees Morrissey taking up residence in Hornton Court in Kensington, where he receives visitors, some more welcome than others. Vanessa Redgrave arrives, “then goes on about social injustice in Namibia, and how we must all build a raft by late afternoon – preferably out of coconut matting.” Ann West and Winifred Johnson, whose children Lesley Ann and Keith were among the children abducted and killed by Ian Brady and Myra Hindley also pay a visit, and Morrissey responds warmly and with understandable sympathy. Later, he tells us why he elected to be known professionally by his surname - “Only classical composers were known by their surnames, which suited by mudlark temperament quite nicely” – and that Marr gave him his most famous nickname, after the press started referring him as 'miserable': “Johnny putters with ‘misery’ and playfully arrives at ‘misery Mozzery’, which truncates to Moz, and I am classified ever after.” Such japes and camaraderie – and the closeness Morrissey conspicuously felt to his bandmates – are thrown into some kind of relief towards the end of the section on the Smiths. Looking back, he writes, “At the hour of the Smiths birth, I had felt at the physical and emotional end of life. I had lost the ability to communicate and had been claimed by emotional oblivion.” Hang on. And then: “I became too despondent for anyone to cope with, and only my mother would take to me in understanding tones. Yet their comes a point where the suicidalist must shut it down if only in order to save face, otherwise you become a nightclub act minus the nightclub.” It’s an astonishing revelation: is Morrissey saying the Smiths saved him from suicide? Elswhere, the first American tour finds a dejected Morrissey in pre-gentrified Times Square, in “a quagmire of midnight cowboys and sterile cuckoos” while he becomes convinced that “the other three Smiths are taking steps to oust me”. At one point, Morrissey writes that he and Travis became locked in litigation of Hatful Of Hollow, which delays the release of The Queen Is Dead by nine months. The end comes almost without fanfare, following the sessions for the Strangeways, Here We Come. "It happened as quickly and as unemotionally as this sentence took to describe it.” With the Smiths over, you could be forgiven for thinking that Morrissey’s solo career – and his domestic life – would perhaps take centre stage. Alas, no. The 1996 court case, in which Mike Joyce claimed his 25%, occupies 40 pages. It is inevitably the saddest, angriest and most bitter part of the book; a far cry from the withering put-downs and dismissals dished out to Travis, Wilson, the Manchester Evening News or whoever else has crossed him. Morrissey reserves particular venom for presiding judge Weeks, “a bent little man with big eyes in a small face, an unfortunate vision that even his personal wealth cannot save.” Morrissey’s 2013 has been an extraordinary year, but for entirely the wrong reasons. He should have spent it celebrating 25 years as a solo artist – perhaps with a new album and maybe a deluxe edition box set collecting together his many solo hits. Instead, he has been blighted by health scares and cancelled tours. The will it/won’t it fuss surrounding the publication of Autobiography only seemed to suggest that Morrissey’s career was heading further off the rails. But then comes this: the book we (mostly) wanted it to be. It may not quite scale the lofty heights of David Niven's deathless The Moon's A Balloon - surely the benchmark for any aspiring autobiographer. And yet... Is there an audiobook for this, and will Morrissey read it? I'd pay again for that. Autobiography is sharply written, rich, clever, rancorous, puffed-up, tender, catty, windy, poetic, and frequently very, very funny. Welcome back, Morrissey. Follow me on Twitter @MichaelBonner.

There are many revelations in Morrissey’s Autobiography, but perhaps the most unexpected arrives on page 194. “While in Denver,” writes Morrissey, “Johnny [Marr] and I attend a concert by A-ha, whom we have met previously and whom we quite like.”

In the weeks leading up to the release – at last! – of Autobiography, we have been bracing ourselves for possibility that he would – or more depressingly, wouldn’t – divulge many truths. About his sexuality, his relationship with his former Smiths bandmates, what he thinks of Bowie… Nothing, however, appeared to prepare us for the comprehensive nature of Morrissey’s disclosures in Autobiography. Look – here he is, turning down parts in EastEnders and Friends, contemplating fatherhood, being detained by Special Branch, telling us that he represented his school in the 100 and 400 metres. And some stuff about a guy called Jake.

As Dylan’s Chronicles or Neil Young’s Waging Heavy Peace have shown, it is possible for a musician writing an autobiography to successfully bypass niggly, pedantic details such as chronology, index and facts. Despite personally having little interest in great swathes of his solo career, the rock autobiography that’s given me most pleasure in the last few years has been Rod Stewart’s – simply because it satisfied the requirements of conventional storytelling.

One concern was that Morrissey might also ‘do a Dylan’ and opt for a strategy of obfuscation: ignore The Smiths, write round some other quite important things, spend a lot of time going into forensic detail about the recording of, say, Southpaw Grammar. Instead, what we have here is a very traditionally structured book that moves at a satisfying pace through Morrissey’s life and times, from his birth in “forgotten Victorian knife-plunging Manchester” up to December, 2011, with our hero about to leave Chicago after a rapturously received gig at the Congress Theater. At 457 pages, that works out at just over 8½ pages for every one of Morrissey’s 52 years. Though, of course, some years are bigger than others.

My overriding impression of Autobiography is the vividness of the detail. The bell that announces the end of the school day sounds at 3.40. With his Smiths advance from Rough Trade, he pays off a “lavish domestic phone bill of £80”. Ahead of their first Top Of The Pops appearance, the band are erroneously billed in The Sun as ‘Dismiss’. And so it goes. Such precise memories suggests Morrissey has been so profoundly affected by events that they have remained crystal-clear in his mind. Or perhaps he is a diligent archivist, with boxes full of clippings, cuttings and such ephemera. The book is littered with references and quotes from correspondence he’s received: among the most affecting are a letter from Johnny Marr after the Smiths split and a postcard from Kirsty MacColl that he receives weeks after her death.

The opening pages offer a fairly typical scene-setting: “Birds abstain from song in post-war industrial Manchester,” he writes, “where the 1960s will not swing, and where the locals are the opposite of worldly.” I’m reminded of Keith Richards’ Life, with its “landscapes of rubble, half a street’s disappeared… I couldn’t buy a bag of sweets until 1954”, a default setting for this kind of book. But Morrissey describes his childhood with a poet’s eye: “we are finely tailored flesh – good looking Irish trawling the slums of Moss Side and Hulme.” His descriptions of Manchester’s working class districts are profound and poetic; the passages that cover the depravations suffered by his own family often heartbreaking. The relocation of Nannie, his maternal grandmother “from Queen’s Square to a condemned house at 10 Trafalgar Square” captures the monstrous treatment of the working classes during the slum clearances. “Our lives are flattened before our eyes – as if the local council couldn’t wait a minute longer for we pack rats to gather our trappings and transistors.”

The opening sections of the book also detail his schooldays. His inquiry into the cruel discipline dished out by a headmaster (“What job did he think he was doing? And… for whom?”) or the sado-sexual behaviour of his PE teachers offers an insight into “the secret agony of a troubled child”. As he remarks, with a weight of sadness, “This is the Manchester school system of the 1960s, where sadness is habit forming.” This sadness dogs Morrissey for years to come.

His first gig is T.Rex at the Belle Vue on June 16, 1972, then Bowie – “every inch the eighth dimension”– at the Stretford Hardrock in September, Roxy Music two months later, where Morrissey speaks to Andy MacKay who’s pinball in the venue’s lobby. New York Dolls, Mott The Hoople, Lou Reed all follow. His prose captures the thrill of these formative musical encounters – a defining time in the life of the 12 year-old author. Roxy Music are “Agatha Christie queer,” he writes. It’s brilliant stuff.

Johnny Marr arrives on page 145. As Morrissey points out, they had met previously – “in the foyer of the Ardwick Apollo” at a Patti Smith gig. “I am shaken when I hear Johnny play guitar, because he is quite obviously gifted and almost unnaturally multi-talented.” In case you were wondering – and you probably are – Morrissey is extremely generous to Marr in the book – even after the Smiths’ split, when his emotional response to Marr veers from confusion to sadness. The Smiths section lasts 77 pages, from page 147 – 224; a good chunk – 16%, in fact – for what is essentially five years of his life.

What, then, do we learn about the Smiths? That Mike Joyce drum kit was called “Elsie”, that Mick Jagger came to see them live in New York and left after four songs, that Craig Gannon was “a fascinating bungle”. While writing about their time together, Morrissey is positive about his bandmates – with the exception of Gannon, who is hilarious dismissed with a typical flourish: “nothing useful vibrates in Craig’s upper storey”. Morrissey writes fondly about “signature Smiths’ powerhouse full-tilt”, or pauses during describing The Queen Is Dead sessions to comment admiringly that “Johnny is in the full vigour of his greatness”.

Morrissey’s ire is directed – during the passages on the Smiths, at least – towards Geoff Travis, head of Rough Trade, who describes “How Soon Is Now?” as “just noise”. In fact, Morrissey is at his funniest when rounding on a slight, real or perhaps imagined. His first TV appearance finds him in the Green Room with George Best, before he is (in his opinion) rather rudely interviewed by Henry Kelly, “a little, pinched Irish madam… wearing a suit that looked better on the hanger.” Meanwhile, “local newshound” Anthony Wilson is another frequent target, a man who “assumed the cocogniscenti cloak and found himself blessed with the need to assess, judge and grade – like a war general plastered with rows of ribbons but who had never actually seen battle”. He is spectacularly catty about Sandie Shaw, referred to here as “the Duchess of Cumberland Place” or “the Dagenhall Doll”. David Bowie “feeds on the blood of living mammals”.

The Smiths’ early success sees Morrissey taking up residence in Hornton Court in Kensington, where he receives visitors, some more welcome than others. Vanessa Redgrave arrives, “then goes on about social injustice in Namibia, and how we must all build a raft by late afternoon – preferably out of coconut matting.” Ann West and Winifred Johnson, whose children Lesley Ann and Keith were among the children abducted and killed by Ian Brady and Myra Hindley also pay a visit, and Morrissey responds warmly and with understandable sympathy.

Later, he tells us why he elected to be known professionally by his surname – “Only classical composers were known by their surnames, which suited by mudlark temperament quite nicely” – and that Marr gave him his most famous nickname, after the press started referring him as ‘miserable’: “Johnny putters with ‘misery’ and playfully arrives at ‘misery Mozzery’, which truncates to Moz, and I am classified ever after.”

Such japes and camaraderie – and the closeness Morrissey conspicuously felt to his bandmates – are thrown into some kind of relief towards the end of the section on the Smiths. Looking back, he writes, “At the hour of the Smiths birth, I had felt at the physical and emotional end of life. I had lost the ability to communicate and had been claimed by emotional oblivion.” Hang on. And then: “I became too despondent for anyone to cope with, and only my mother would take to me in understanding tones. Yet their comes a point where the suicidalist must shut it down if only in order to save face, otherwise you become a nightclub act minus the nightclub.” It’s an astonishing revelation: is Morrissey saying the Smiths saved him from suicide?

Elswhere, the first American tour finds a dejected Morrissey in pre-gentrified Times Square, in “a quagmire of midnight cowboys and sterile cuckoos” while he becomes convinced that “the other three Smiths are taking steps to oust me”. At one point, Morrissey writes that he and Travis became locked in litigation of Hatful Of Hollow, which delays the release of The Queen Is Dead by nine months.

The end comes almost without fanfare, following the sessions for the Strangeways, Here We Come. “It happened as quickly and as unemotionally as this sentence took to describe it.”

With the Smiths over, you could be forgiven for thinking that Morrissey’s solo career – and his domestic life – would perhaps take centre stage. Alas, no. The 1996 court case, in which Mike Joyce claimed his 25%, occupies 40 pages. It is inevitably the saddest, angriest and most bitter part of the book; a far cry from the withering put-downs and dismissals dished out to Travis, Wilson, the Manchester Evening News or whoever else has crossed him. Morrissey reserves particular venom for presiding judge Weeks, “a bent little man with big eyes in a small face, an unfortunate vision that even his personal wealth cannot save.”

Morrissey’s 2013 has been an extraordinary year, but for entirely the wrong reasons. He should have spent it celebrating 25 years as a solo artist – perhaps with a new album and maybe a deluxe edition box set collecting together his many solo hits. Instead, he has been blighted by health scares and cancelled tours. The will it/won’t it fuss surrounding the publication of Autobiography only seemed to suggest that Morrissey’s career was heading further off the rails. But then comes this: the book we (mostly) wanted it to be. It may not quite scale the lofty heights of David Niven’s deathless The Moon’s A Balloon – surely the benchmark for any aspiring autobiographer. And yet…

Is there an audiobook for this, and will Morrissey read it? I’d pay again for that. Autobiography is sharply written, rich, clever, rancorous, puffed-up, tender, catty, windy, poetic, and frequently very, very funny. Welcome back, Morrissey.

Follow me on Twitter @MichaelBonner.

Morrissey: “It sounds too much like Waitrose. It needs to be more Harrods”

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Morrissey: “It sounds too much like Waitrose. It needs to be more Harrods”
Here's what you might not find in Autobiography… wrestling matches with Vini Reilly! Ouija boards, sauna sessions and extravagant pastries! A secret love of Black Box’s “Ride On Time”!... 25 years on, in this week’s archive feature, from our September 2013 issue, Uncut takes a forensic loo...

Here’s what you might not find in Autobiography… wrestling matches with Vini Reilly! Ouija boards, sauna sessions and extravagant pastries! A secret love of Black Box’s “Ride On Time”!… 25 years on, in this week’s archive feature, from our September 2013 issue, Uncut takes a forensic look at Morrissey’s first acts as a solo artist: Viva Hate, Bona Drag, Kill Uncle, Your Arsenal and Vauxhall And I. The bandmates, songwriters and producers tell all. Story: Rob Hughes

_______________

VIVA HATE

Released: March 1988

Label: HMV

Producer: Stephen Street

Recorded at: The Wool Hall, Bath

Highest Chart Position: 1

Solo debut, issued six months after final Smiths album, Strangeways, Here We Come. Guitarist Vini Reilly added descriptive ambience to songs like “Late Night, Maudlin Street” and “Bengali In Platforms”, while Morrissey scored two major hit singles with “Suedehead” (No 5) and “Every Day Is Like Sunday” (No 9).

STEPHEN STREET, producer: Although it wasn’t long after Strangeways…, there was some trepidation, because this was pastures new and there was no guarantee that it would work. When Morrissey and I first started thinking about who could be involved, I wanted a technically good guitar player. But most of all I wanted someone who was completely different, style-wise, from Johnny Marr. Vini comes from Manchester too, so I thought that would help bring a mutual understanding.

VINI REILLY, guitarist: Recording with Morrissey was one of the best experiences of my life. I think the fact we were both Irish gave us something in common; we understood each other and there were lots of similarities. And we’d both had difficult childhoods and the rest of it. It forged a friendship between Morrissey and me, and a mutual respect that was based on him taking the piss out of me.

ANDREW PARESI, drummer: There was a terrific forward momentum throughout the recording. It was as if we were recording it on the Titanic and had half an hour to get it done. It had that kind of feel. And in that environment I think you can spark some very interesting things.

STREET: There was a tension in the sense that we were all worried about how we were going to follow in the footprints of The Smiths, but at the same time I think Morrissey found it refreshing to work with a new bunch of people. Andrew Paresi had a very wicked sense of humour and there was a lot of extremely witty, camp comedy flying backwards and forwards. It was actually fun times. I think he felt at home.

PARESI: Morrissey has a very acute understanding of funny, because he has a very firm grasp of the absurd realities of life. And you’ll find that view in all of his songs. He just had this fantastically humorous, mordant outlook on life. Plus he had a really calm, quiet, good-natured demeanour. It was a complete relief from the gallery of pop knob-ends that I’d been working with. At that time there was still this post-Live Aid, boozy, snorting, dick-wad kind of sensibility. Morrissey was the complete opposite. He could just as easily have been an ECM jazz musician, very esoteric.

REILLY: Me and Morrissey used to have wrestling matches. He was very physically together, very strong. We’d find a corridor, suddenly it would go off and no-one knew what to do. Or me and Mozza would be in the sauna, stark-bollock naked. Everybody else was too stupid about everything to do something like that, but Morrissey liked it: “What’s all the big fuss about?” Morrissey was trapped by a lot of people’s attitudes and stereotypes.

STREET: Every now and then Morrissey would come up with a reference. I remember him once referring me to Joni Mitchell. I didn’t realise until that point that Morrissey was a huge fan of hers. And that’s what led me to write “Late Night, Maudlin Street”. He told me: “I want a long, rambling track that loops round and round, à la Joni Mitchell.” That was the way Johnny Marr had worked with him. You had to come up with a backing track that wasn’t just a bunch of chords shoved down. I remember the night he did the vocals and just being absolutely stunned by the quality of the lyric and melody.

REILLY: There was a riff in my head for “Late Night, Maudlin Street”. It had a very ambient, hypnotic vibe to it. I remember it being late at night in the studio and Morrissey did a vocal that we didn’t expect. It made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up, because it was exactly the kind of vibe I was feeling. It was so perfect. That was why I’d always wanted to work with Morrissey, because I knew he had this instinctual sense of melody and atmosphere. Whenever he got up to do a vocal performance he’d absolutely astound you, because it changed from being my jumble of free-form guitar. You never knew what he was going to do.

_______________

BONA DRAG

Released: October 1990

Label: HMV

Producer: Stephen Street / Clive Langer / Alan Winstanley

Recorded at: The Wool Hall, Bath / Hook End Manor, Reading

Highest Chart Position: 9

Initially conceived as the follow-up to Viva Hate, Bona Drag instead morphed into a superior collection of singles (“Piccadilly Palare”, “November Spawned A Monster”) and killer B-sides (“Disappointed”, “Will Never Marry”, “Hairdresser On Fire”).

STEPHEN STREET: We made Viva Hate, then went back into the studio for the B-sides to “Everyday Is Like Sunday”. But the session was problematic in that there were quite a lot of mood swings from Vini Reilly at this point. So when we regrouped later in ’88, we decided not to use Vini this time. Instead it was like, ‘How about using Craig Gannon, Mike and Andy [Rourke]?’ Enough time had passed by then, which got me thinking even more that The Smiths were going to re-form.

MIKE JOYCE, drummer: We’d tried carrying on [as The Smiths], but it was that thing about having one quarter of what you love taken away from you. Then I got a call from Morrissey about a year later, asking me if I wanted to do some more work. He pretty much gave me carte blanche, so we got Andy and Craig and it felt natural.

STREET: I’m not a keyboard player, but for “Ouija Board, Ouija Board” it was Morrissey’s request to do something more like Sparks. Then, when I was no longer on the scene, Langer and Winstanley did their version.

CLIVE LANGER, co-producer: It very nearly didn’t happen at all. We’d been put together by the record company. I wasn’t a big Smiths fan and Morrissey wasn’t a Langer-Winstanley fan, though he liked Madness. So on the first day we were messing about with “Ouija Board…” and it just wasn’t sounding great. I didn’t want to put any pressure on him, so I said: “We don’t have to carry on with this.” And he said: “Fine, maybe we should just do this then leave it.” So we went to the pub. Then when we got back, the band had run through the tracks and they actually sounded pretty good. So we decided to make a start at some sort of relationship.

KEVIN ARMSTRONG, guitarist: I was quite open-minded about Morrissey. Obviously I realised that he’s an extremely sensitive, bright, intelligent artist. But on a personal level, I wasn’t really let in. I do remember Morrissey bringing in a record and us all dancing in the large studio room to “Ride On Time” by Black Box. It was his favourite record of the time.

LANGER: During the sessions, Morrissey made it clear that he was open to any of us giving him backing tracks. I wrote “November Spawned A Monster” on the piano and it sounded a bit Stones-like. He said he liked it, then did a vocal. When I realised what the subject matter was, I had this weird tune I’d been fiddling with and said: “How do you feel about me putting this in the middle as the ‘birth’?” And Morrissey said, “Let’s try it.” Then he suggested using Mary Margaret O’Hara, so the whole thing was very organic. She was completely bonkers, unfathomable, really.

ARMSTRONG: The other person who visited those sessions was Joan Sims, with Morrissey being a big Carry On fan and all that. She liked a glass of brandy and a good story. Suggs was there for a while, too. He did a voiceover on “Piccadilly Palare”.

LANGER: Morrissey had Madness come down for dinner, and also Vic and Bob one night. He’d say: “Clive, could you invite so-and-so down?” And when they’d come, he’d have dinner, then disappear. So I’d have to entertain them, which was interesting because I didn’t really know why they were there.

ARMSTRONG: Morrissey employed a chef at great expense. I think she was billed as Princess Margaret’s chef, so I thought it’d be an opportunity to eat really good food. But it was largely cream and pastries. Morrissey was always eating toast, but then there were these heavy, hearty, rich vegetarian meals. It wasn’t the worthy diet I expected.

PARESI: When you were having breakfast with Morrissey and something had got to him – whether it’s a criticism or a passionate feeling about something – he would look up and stare straight at you. It was right into your soul. You could actually feel your guts gripped. That was pretty impressive. What I remember is that sense of someone who was a beautiful savant, if you like.

ARMSTRONG: Morrissey had the haunted master bedroom at Hook End Manor. It’d belonged to David Gilmour, but originally it was the Bishop of Reading’s place or something, from the 16th Century. It’s got a long history and there were creepy vibes in the house. I think Morrissey got quite into that. We did actually play ouija one night. All sorts of things were spelt out. Alcohol and various things had been taken, so I can’t really remember. But we were in a darkened room with a candle.

_______________

KILL UNCLE

Released: March 1991

Label: HMV

Producer: Clive Langer & Alan Winstanley

Recorded at: Hook End Manor, Oxfordshire

Highest Chart Position: 8

Morrissey’s most underrated solo album, marked by fragile song-poems, atypical textures (piano, strings, vibraphone) and a belated rockabilly rush that pointed the way to the more cohesive Your Arsenal.

MARK NEVIN, co-writer: I was in the studio with Kirsty [MacColl], recording Electric Landlady, and got a call about Morrissey’s manager wanting to speak to me. He just said to send him some music. So I sent these tapes off, addressed to ‘Burt Reynolds’, as I was told to write on the envelope. Then a postcard reply came, saying: “It’s Perfect.” [See below] I started to send more and I’d get these fantastic replies, first as postcards, then as brief letters in that spidery Morrissey scrawl. When it came to record at the studio, I was driving along and he was coming out of Hook End on his pushbike, exactly like one of the lookalikes from the “Stop Me If You Think You’ve Heard This One Before” video. It was surreal.

LANGER: We weren’t interested in musical fashions at the time, like the whole Manchester thing. That’s why Kill Uncle got slated, because it didn’t fit in and didn’t sound like The Smiths. But I thought that was its strength. Each song had a different story and feel. I wanted to pull out the colour in each song, without making it sound too over the top.

NEVIN: It was a bizarre experience. There was no sit-down or deciding what we were going to do. One reason was that Morrissey was so private and shy and wasn’t forthcoming. So nobody really took the lead on it. Clive did quite a lot of different things than I’d originally imagined. Where I’d perhaps put an electric guitar, he’d put a piano, which was very much his style from the Madness thing. “Asian Rut” was a good example of trying to bring in different instruments. There’s vibraphone, Indian violin and double bass bows. All these instruments hadn’t been heard on a Morrissey record before.

PARESI: To use a parallel from the animal kingdom, it’s as if Morrissey went into a chrysalis stage and emerged out the other side as a rockabilly butterfly. Essentially that album was the changeover. It was like the driver going from the local train to the express.

NEVIN: “Our Frank” was the first one we recorded. Clive and Alan [Winstanley] put a load of slapback echo on Morrissey’s voice, so it was real Elvis style. Bedders [bassist Mark Bedford] and I were having this first-day-at-school giggly moment. The words of the song were very funny: “I’m gonna be sick all over your frankly vulgar red pullover”. So we were laughing at that and also because we were nervous and it was Morrissey. The whole thing escalated into hysteria. I think Morrissey was delighted by the effect he had on us.

LANGER: We used to socialise a bit. All of us went to see the Buzzcocks one night and we went bowling once. Morrissey’s pretty good at sports. We used to play football a lot and he was quite aggressive.

NEVIN: Around the dinner table there’d be lots of chat going on. Although Morrissey often wouldn’t say anything, which could be very intimidating. He’d sit there silently presiding over our nervousness and awkwardness. I felt a bit like a new kid at boarding school.

PARESI: I remember one twilit night at Hook End in autumn. A lot of apples had fallen in the orchard and Morrissey picked some of them up. Then he walked down to the wire fence and started feeding the cows. They were really enjoying the apples and making a loud noise, which made Morrissey burst out laughing. It was absolutely the most touching thing.

LANGER: Morrissey and I used to go on really long walks in the forest. I felt like I got pretty close to him and lived in his world for a year or so. And it’s not a logical world. He lives by his own rules and you have to live those rules as well when you’re with him. In a way it’s a bit sad, because it was an intense experience, then when you finished working with him, that was the end. It feels like you’ve made a friend, then you don’t hear from them again.

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YOUR ARSENAL

Released: July 1992

Label: HMV

Producer: Mick Ronson

Recorded at: Utopia, London / The Wool Hall, Bath

Highest Chart Position: 4

With Bowie’s one-time lieutenant as producer, and the arrival of what was to become his most trusted lineup (Boz Boorer, Alain Whyte, Gary Day), Morrissey embraced glam and his newfound love of rockabilly.

NEVIN: Due to prior commitments, I didn’t do the Kill Uncle tour, but Morrissey said: “Let’s do the next album anyway, I’d like us to write together.” But in the end there were only two songs of mine on Your Arsenal. The rest had been scrapped. I think it was Morrissey’s ‘up yours’ to me [for not going on tour]: you dumped me and now I’m getting you back. That was the implication.

NEVIN: Originally the Your Arsenal songs were all mine. He called me up and asked who we should get to produce it. I suggested Mick Ronson. At the time, Mick Ronson hadn’t been seen or heard of for a long time. Morrissey said: “What a great idea, can you get hold of him?” So I put the word out to different people I knew. Then one day Mick Ronson called me from New York: “I hear you want to talk to me about producing Morrissey. What’s he like?” I said: “He’s Morrissey, y’know, The Smiths.” And Mick just went: “What are they like?” He’d never even heard of them. Then he said he was coming to London in a few days, so Morrissey asked if I could get him to come round to my house in Camden the following Friday. A week later, I opened my front door and there was Mick Ronson, looking like he’d been frozen in time since the Ziggy Stardust tour, with this blond mullet. He sat down in my front room, then Morrissey turned up, all quiff and glasses, with [assistant] Peter Hogg. And they just sat on the opposite sofa looking at each other. It was very awkward, but thankfully Peter Hogg was gobby. At one point he turned to Ronson and said: “So Mick, did David ever try to shag ya?” And Mick went: “Bloody tried to a few times. Never bloody succeeded!” I don’t think we even spoke about the record. It was all so bizarre, then somewhere down the line it was arranged that Mick was going to produce it.

MORRISSEY: He asked me what kind of LP I wanted to make, and I said, “One people would listen to for a very long time,” and he said, “Oh, all right then,” as if I’d asked him to put the cat out.

SPENCER COBRIN, drummer: Mick Ronson was a lovely fella, completely understated, unassuming, soft-spoken. He was also very sick at the time. His spirit came out when he picked up the guitar. I remember sitting next to him at the console when he put down some eerie e-bow guitar on “Seasick, Yet Still Docked”. I noticed his fingertips were gnarly and calloused. I could see his passion for music by looking at those fingers of his.

MORRISSEY: I’d always pushed the vocal against the structure of the melody, and I didn’t know how long this could work. Mick said, “You haven’t even started.” He’d learnt all writing systems, tunings and chord combinations the best way – by ear, which is usually the secret of great music. But he took me aside one night and said, “You realise your drummer can’t actually play?” and I said, “Yes. But it isn’t always a problem.” Mick could have used this as a stick to beat me with, but his only instinct was to save all of us – drummer included – from the snake pit. There wasn’t a single moment when Mick wasn’t patient and understanding. We all absolutely loved him.

NEVIN: I did go to the studio to do “I Know It’s Gonna Happen Someday”, which is credited as being produced by Mick, but he wasn’t there. He had cancer and was undergoing treatment at the hospital, so I did all that with the band. Although there was a very strange moment when Mick did come back and started listening to the song. It got to the end where it’s doing that really obvious “Rock’n’Roll Suicide” rip-off and he looked at me as if to say, “Are you having a laugh?”

COBRIN: All I can remember of Your Arsenal was nerves and feeling totally under the gun. There was no real instruction given by Morrissey, or if there was it was probably something cryptic. On Southpaw Grammar [1995], for example, the directive for “The Boy Racer” was: “It sounds too much like Waitrose; needs to be more Harrods.” So we’d listen to the rough demos and flesh out the tracks in the studio. I’ve no idea what instruction Morrissey gave to Mick in terms of production. But I think just having Mick there with his sensibilities was probably enough to shape the record.

MORRISSEY: Mick had zero ego and cared only for the common good – he was without a shred of preciousness given the incredible turns his life had taken. Furthermore, he was blond-haired, blue-eyed handsome – still a shy smile. It struck me how he would have been magnificent for The Smiths’ first LP, but any mention of a top-notch producer and Rough Trade would drop like ’30s TB patients at the thought of having to pay for something.

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VAUXHALL AND I

Released: March 1994

Label: Parlophone

Producer: Steve Lillywhite

Recorded at: Hook End Manor, Oxfordshire

Highest Chart Position: 1

Arguably Morrissey’s finest solo work, in which he addresses the vagaries of a post-Smiths world in tones that veer from poignant and reflective to caustic and downright belligerent.

STEVE LILLYWHITE, producer: I’d mixed “Ask” for The Smiths, but I’d never met Morrissey until this album. He told me he’d booked the studio, so I phoned him back with a list of all Chris Dickie’s credits, to convince him that this was the guy to use as engineer. And Morrissey just went: “Steve, stop. How long is his hair?” I said it wasn’t very long, so he went: “Good. That’s all I need to know.” So Chris Dickie got the job because he didn’t have long hair!

JONNY BRIDGWOOD, bassist: There was a general air of excitement from day one. The feeling was that we were about to create something that was quite special. Everyone was keen and enthusiastic.

WOODIE TAYLOR, drummer: I learnt so much from Steve Lillywhite, who has the incredible gift of being able to draw the best performances from all those he works with. I think it certainly helped that there was a huge amount of new blood injected into the album. On the first sessions that he produced, Chris Dickie engineered, Danton Supple assisted, Jonny Bridgwood played bass, I drummed and Boz Boorer wrote the music – we had a lot to prove. Morrissey was singing better than ever, too.

LILLYWHITE: Morrissey looks at a song not as verse-chorus-verse, but as a story. He didn’t think like musicians do or really care about the nuts and bolts of it. I remember him coming in one day and we played him a track. He just looked at me and said, “Steve: Shepherd’s Bush 1964, The Who.” Then he just walked out.

BRIDGWOOD: Morrissey would come into the control room, have a listen and give his seal of approval, or not. Unlike other singers, he doesn’t interfere in the musical process, although he’ll steer it in a direction he’s comfortable with.

LILLYWHITE: Boz [Boorer] and Alain [Whyte] would send Morrissey cassettes of music and when he had enough, he’d go: “OK, it’s time to make a record.” Then he’d send the songs back that he liked and they’d have song titles next to each one. So we’d record the tune without knowing what the vocals or lyrics were. I couldn’t wait to do one called “Lifeguard Sleeping, Girl Drowning”. When Morrissey eventually came to do the vocals, he had the song in a completely different way, so his chorus would sometimes start halfway through the verse. I did three albums with Morrissey, of which Vauxhall And I was by far the most satisfying. It was certainly a crowning moment for me.

BRIDGWOOD: When Morrissey did his vocals, we all cleared out for a few days and let him get on with it. So when we came back we didn’t know what to expect. The vocal on “Lifeguard…” sounded totally different, but once you heard it, the whole thing made perfect sense.

LILLYWHITE: Morrissey would spend a lot of time in the bath or in his bedroom. We had this dice game that we used to love playing and he would occasionally join in. But he was always on the outside looking in. He’d watch as all these other things went on, just observing.

BRIDGWOOD: I remember Woodie and me sitting at the back of the control room and Morrissey was talking to us. He asked how I got into playing bass. I told him I just loved the sound of it and he said: “Yes, but it’s not the kind of thing that you want to do from the age of five, is it?” I thought that was very funny.

LILLYWHITE: There was a manager who looked after the biggest male artist of the time. I won’t say who it was, but this guy wanted to manage Morrissey. So he flew from Los Angeles to Heathrow and got a car to drive him all the way to Hook End Manor for this meeting. Morrissey glanced at him as he came in, then basically rushed off and disappeared. Two hours passed and there was no sign. It was all a bit embarrassing and eventually this guy left. In the end, Morrissey appeared from the pub. He literally said he didn’t like the look of his hair. He’d only glimpsed the back of his head and that meeting never did happen. Aesthetics for him are everything.

The 38th Uncut Playlist Of 2013, plus Morrissey Autobiography lucky dip!

John Mulvey
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The 38th Uncut Playlist Of 2013, plus Morrissey Autobiography lucky dip!

Page 366: Kenneth Williams. Page 437 Peter Wyngarde. Page 88 WH Auden. Page 384 Diana Dors. Page 27 JACKPOT! It's Myra Hindley! It’s deadline day at Uncut, but I’ve been somewhat distracted by playing Morrisssey Autobiography lucky dip. Michael’s working his way through it in a more organised and assiduous fashion, and will be posting something later in the day, with a prevailing wind. As for music, lots to play here. Let me gently steer you towards the Howard Ivans track, which is one of the Spacebomb projects that Matthew E White has been sitting on for God knows how long, and which shows the Spacebomb crew’s arranging virtuosity can stretch to elaborate symphonic funk in the vein of Quincy Jones. Impressive. Also worth checking out: a very promising taster of the Linda Perhacs comeback; the best Bowie track of the year; the Necks album, which has become my default album every single morning; and, again, Courtney Barnett, who I’ve now decided reminds me of Liz Phair signed to the Half A Cow label. “Avant Gardener” is really stuck in my head at the moment, and I’m OK with that. Hey, page 283: Dirk Bogarde! Follow me on Twitter: www.twitter.com/JohnRMulvey 1 The Necks – Open (Northern Spy) 2 Howard Ivans – Red Face Boy (Spacebomb) 3 Goat – Live Ballroom Ritual (Rocket) 4 Israel Nash Gripka – Israel Nash’s Rain Plains (Loose) 5 Joni Mitchell – Court And Spark (Asylum) 6 Parquet Courts – Tally All The Things That You Broke EP (What’s Your Rupture?) 7 Unknown Mortal Orchestra – Blue Record (Jagjaguwar) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MI5sCbEWROw 8 Low – The Visible End (Sub Pop) 9 Birds Of Maya – September 7, 2013 Paradise Of Bachelors/WXYC Day Show, Hopscotch Music Festival (nyctaper.com) 10 Linda Perhacs – Prisms Of Glass (Live At Mexican Summer: Five Years Festival) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=swfynsupEYk 11 White Denim – Corsicana Lemonade (Downtown) Read my review here 12 Various Artists – Purple Snow: Forecasting The Minneapolis Sound (Numero Group) 13 White Fence – Live In San Francisco (Castleface) 14 Brendan Benson – You Were Right (Lojinx) 15 La Femme 'Psycho Tropical Berlin' (Disque Pointo) 16 David Bowie – Love Is Lost (Hello Steve Reich Mix By James Murphy For The DFA) (ISO) 17 Courtney Barnett – The Double EP: A Sea Of Split Peas (House Anxiety) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bcnIhzaDTd0 18 Alasdair Roberts & Robin Robertson – Hrta Songs (Stone Tape) 19 Al Green – Let’s Stay Together (Hi/Fat Possum) 20 Al Green – I’m Still In Love With You (Hi/Fat Possum) 21 Al Green – Greatest Hits (Hi/Fat Possum) 22 High Water – The Beautiful Moon EP (Other People) 23 Jaakko Eino Kalevi - No End (Weird World) 24 Yo La Tengo – Fade: Deluxe Edition (Matador) 25 Four Tet – Beautiful Rewind (Text) 26 Sun Kil Moon – Micheline (Caldo Verde) 27 The Necks – Mosquito (ReR Megacorp) 28 Endless Boogie – Long Island (No Quarter)

Page 366: Kenneth Williams. Page 437 Peter Wyngarde. Page 88 WH Auden. Page 384 Diana Dors. Page 27 JACKPOT! It’s Myra Hindley!

It’s deadline day at Uncut, but I’ve been somewhat distracted by playing Morrisssey Autobiography lucky dip. Michael’s working his way through it in a more organised and assiduous fashion, and will be posting something later in the day, with a prevailing wind.

As for music, lots to play here. Let me gently steer you towards the Howard Ivans track, which is one of the Spacebomb projects that Matthew E White has been sitting on for God knows how long, and which shows the Spacebomb crew’s arranging virtuosity can stretch to elaborate symphonic funk in the vein of Quincy Jones. Impressive.

Also worth checking out: a very promising taster of the Linda Perhacs comeback; the best Bowie track of the year; the Necks album, which has become my default album every single morning; and, again, Courtney Barnett, who I’ve now decided reminds me of Liz Phair signed to the Half A Cow label. “Avant Gardener” is really stuck in my head at the moment, and I’m OK with that.

Hey, page 283: Dirk Bogarde!

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

1 The Necks – Open (Northern Spy)

2 Howard Ivans – Red Face Boy (Spacebomb)

3 Goat – Live Ballroom Ritual (Rocket)

4 Israel Nash Gripka – Israel Nash’s Rain Plains (Loose)

5 Joni Mitchell – Court And Spark (Asylum)

6 Parquet Courts – Tally All The Things That You Broke EP (What’s Your Rupture?)

7 Unknown Mortal Orchestra – Blue Record (Jagjaguwar)

8 Low – The Visible End (Sub Pop)

9 Birds Of Maya – September 7, 2013 Paradise Of Bachelors/WXYC Day Show, Hopscotch Music Festival (nyctaper.com)

10 Linda Perhacs – Prisms Of Glass (Live At Mexican Summer: Five Years Festival)

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

11 White Denim – Corsicana Lemonade (Downtown)

Read my review here

12 Various Artists – Purple Snow: Forecasting The Minneapolis Sound (Numero Group)

13 White Fence – Live In San Francisco (Castleface)

14 Brendan Benson – You Were Right (Lojinx)

15 La Femme ‘Psycho Tropical Berlin’ (Disque Pointo)

16 David Bowie – Love Is Lost (Hello Steve Reich Mix By James Murphy For The DFA) (ISO)

17 Courtney Barnett – The Double EP: A Sea Of Split Peas (House Anxiety)

18 Alasdair Roberts & Robin Robertson – Hrta Songs (Stone Tape)

19 Al Green – Let’s Stay Together (Hi/Fat Possum)

20 Al Green – I’m Still In Love With You (Hi/Fat Possum)

21 Al Green – Greatest Hits (Hi/Fat Possum)

22 High Water – The Beautiful Moon EP (Other People)

23 Jaakko Eino Kalevi – No End (Weird World)

24 Yo La Tengo – Fade: Deluxe Edition (Matador)

25 Four Tet – Beautiful Rewind (Text)

26 Sun Kil Moon – Micheline (Caldo Verde)

27 The Necks – Mosquito (ReR Megacorp)

28 Endless Boogie – Long Island (No Quarter)

Kim Deal ‘welcome to rejoin Pixies’

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Kim Deal ‘welcome to rejoin Pixies’
Kim Deal is welcome to rejoin Pixies if she wants to, drummer Dave Lovering has told NME. The band parted ways with Deal earlier this year and then replaced her with Kim Shattuck, who has previously played with The Muffs and The Pandoras. However, in a new interview with NME Lovering extends an ol...

Kim Deal is welcome to rejoin Pixies if she wants to, drummer Dave Lovering has told NME.

The band parted ways with Deal earlier this year and then replaced her with Kim Shattuck, who has previously played with The Muffs and The Pandoras. However, in a new interview with NME Lovering extends an olive branch to the bass player.

Speaking about the split, Lovering says: “We left it open. It was sad and tough when she left, but we wish her well and she has a welcome back if she’d like to. When she said she was leaving it was distressing and there was a lot of panic and we were like, ‘What are we going to do?’ We thought the correct thing is to go forward. So we did.”

Meanwhile, the band have also hinted that there will be a follow up to the ‘EP1’ they released earlier this year. “There’s definitely ‘EP2′” says guitarist Joey Santiago, “but the rest is a secret.” Lovering elaborates further, “I know ‘EP1’ is maybe missing some of the punk, and maybe the next one will come back to that.”

Pixies played their first UK gig with Shattuck at Camden’s Roundhouse last month (September 25) as part of the iTunes Festival. The Boston band delivered a bumper 28-song set which included ‘Andro Queen’ and ‘Indie Cindy’, from their new EP, ‘EP1’, as well as classics such as ‘Wave Of Mutilation’ and an encore of ‘Monkey Gone To Heaven’ and ‘Vamos’.

Prince to host ‘pajama party’ gig at his home

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Prince to host ‘pajama party’ gig at his home
Prince will be hosting a 'pajama party' at his home and personal recording complex Paisley Park Studios this weekend. The singer will be playing the late show on the night of October 19, following a similar gig at Paisley Park earlier this month. This time around however, the show, which is titled ...

Prince will be hosting a ‘pajama party’ at his home and personal recording complex Paisley Park Studios this weekend.

The singer will be playing the late show on the night of October 19, following a similar gig at Paisley Park earlier this month. This time around however, the show, which is titled The Breakfast Experience Pajama Dance Party, will require attendees to come in sleepwear. The dresscode states: “dress 2 impress – keep it classy!” The flyer for the gig also states that doors for the gig will open at 2am and that the band will “Party til’ the sun comes up!”. Prince will be backed by his 3rdEyeGirl band. A $50 donation is required on the door.

Prince played another show at his home studio on October 5. He opened his home and personal recording complex near Minneapolis to the public, where he was joined by both 3rdEyeGirl and his old band New Power Generation. Prince played tracks from throughout his lengthy career at the show – from ‘Cool’ and ‘Nothing Compares 2 U’ to ‘Breakfast Can Wait’ – which almost 2,000 people attended.

The Strokes hint at plans for 2014

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The Strokes hint at plans for 2014
The Strokes have announced that they are working towards a "return to the scene" in 2014. The band revealed the cryptic news in a fan email newsletter titled 'Fall 2013 Update', which was promoting guitarist Albert Hammond Jr's new solo album. "Hey folks, while The Strokes are toiling and writing...

The Strokes have announced that they are working towards a “return to the scene” in 2014.

The band revealed the cryptic news in a fan email newsletter titled ‘Fall 2013 Update’, which was promoting guitarist Albert Hammond Jr’s new solo album.

“Hey folks, while The Strokes are toiling and writing, looking at 2014 for a return to the scene, Albert Hammond Jr. has been busy on his solo EP…” it reads.

Comedown Machine, The Strokes’ most recent album, was released in March this year (2013). The band’s bassist Nikolai Fraiture subsequently revealed that they have no plans to tour the record.

Albert Hammond Jr later added that there could be “10 more Strokes albums” in the future, however. “There might be times when we’re not doing things but I don’t feel like we’ll ever stop,” he said. “We’ve come to the point where we’ve been together so long and been through so much that why announce anything besides what we’re doing? We’re just together.”

Albert Hammond Jr released a new EP, titled ‘AHJ’, last week (October 8) on his bandmate Julian Casablancas’ Cult Records label. The follow-up to his 2006 debut LP ‘Yours To Keep’ and 2008 record ‘¿Cómo Te Llama?’, Hammond Jr said of the material: “It’s a combination of both previous recordings, which in turn makes it feel like it’s the best material that I’ve made so far.”

Morrissey Autobiography: The Smiths, relationship revelations and more

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Morrissey Autobiography: The Smiths, relationship revelations and more
Morrissey has written about The Smiths as well as his first serious relationship in Autobiography, which is published today [October 17]. According to quotes published in The Guardian, Morrissey says that he did not have his first serious relationship until his mid-30s. "For the first time in my l...

Morrissey has written about The Smiths as well as his first serious relationship in Autobiography, which is published today [October 17].

According to quotes published in The Guardian, Morrissey says that he did not have his first serious relationship until his mid-30s.

“For the first time in my life the eternal ‘I’ becomes ‘we’, as, finally, I can get on with someone.”

The relationship was with a man The Guardian identify as Jake Owen Walters. “Jake and I neither sought not needed company other than our own for the whirlwind stretch to come,” Morrissey writes. “Indulgently Jake and I test how far each of us can go before ‘being dwelt in’ causes cries of intolerable struggle, but our closeness transcends such visitations.”

Morrissey also discusses his lack of interest in girls as a youth: “Girls remained mysteriously attracted to me, and I had no idea why, since although each fumbling foray hit the target, nothing electrifying took place, and I turned a thousand corners without caring … Far more exciting were the array of stylish racing bikes that my father would bring home.”

On the subject of The Smiths, The Guardian reports that Morrissey writes: “The Smiths’ sound rockets with meteroic progression: bomb-burst drumming, explosive chords, combative basslines, and over it all I am as free as a hawk to paint the canvas as I wish. It is a gift from Jesus.”

The Guardian also report disclosures including a potential kidnap attempt in Mexico and an incident where he was detained by officers from Special Branch following the release of “Margaret On The Guillotine”, “so that they might gauge whether or not I pose a security threat to Margaret Thatcher.”

The Guardian also reports that Morrissey is critical of the NME, Rough Trade records and the judge who presided over the 1996 court case which found in favour of Mike Joyce‘s claim for 25% of The Smiths’ earnings.

Morrisey confirms book signing

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Morrisey confirms book signing
Morrissey will be signing copies of his autobiography tomorrow [October 16]. According to his quasi-official website, True To You, Morrissey will be appearing in Gothenberg, Sweden to sign copies of Autobiography - which is published tomorrow. The post reads: "Morrissey will appear at Akademibokh...

Morrissey will be signing copies of his autobiography tomorrow [October 16].

According to his quasi-official website, True To You, Morrissey will be appearing in Gothenberg, Sweden to sign copies of Autobiography – which is published tomorrow.

The post reads:

“Morrissey will appear at Akademibokhandeln Nordstan in Goteborg (Sweden) on Thursday 17 October to sign copies of his Autobiography. The book is available throughout Europe on this date.

“Akademibokhandeln Nordstan is at Norra Hamngatan 26, 411 06 Goteborg. Their telephone number is +46 31 61 70 30, and their email is goteborg.nordstan@akademibokhandeln.se.

“Morrissey will appear at 5 pm.

“No additional book signings are planned.”

Mick Taylor to join Ron Wood onstage for Jimmy Reed tribute gig

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Mick Taylor to join Ron Wood onstage for Jimmy Reed tribute gig
Mick Taylor will join his successor in the Rolling Stones, Ron Wood onstage for a gig in tribute to the late blues pioneer Jimmy Reed. Taylor will appear in Wood's band on the closing night of Bluesfest (November 1), the four-day festival taking place at London's Royal Albert Hall, which runs from ...

Mick Taylor will join his successor in the Rolling Stones, Ron Wood onstage for a gig in tribute to the late blues pioneer Jimmy Reed.

Taylor will appear in Wood’s band on the closing night of Bluesfest (November 1), the four-day festival taking place at London’s Royal Albert Hall, which runs from October 29 until November 1.

Mick Taylor previously joined his former bandmates on their 50 & Counting tour earlier this year, and during their debut headline set at this year’s Glastonbury Festival.

Atoms For Peace stream surprise Austin gig – watch

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Atoms For Peace stream surprise Austin gig – watch
Atoms For Peace are currently streaming their last-minute gig at Austin's Moody Theatre on Sunday (October 13) after the festival they were supposed to be playing was cancelled. Following news that the final day of Austin City Limits was to be pulled and after Thom Yorke tweeted: "Austin Texas toni...

Atoms For Peace are currently streaming their last-minute gig at Austin’s Moody Theatre on Sunday (October 13) after the festival they were supposed to be playing was cancelled.

Following news that the final day of Austin City Limits was to be pulled and after Thom Yorke tweeted: “Austin Texas tonight. A storm to end all storms! Lightning and thunder & rain like I have never seen..” the band decided to play a surprise set in town. The gig is now streaming. Click below to watch the show and scroll down for a setlist from the evening.

The final day of Austin City Limits festival was cancelled due to poor weather conditions. Flash flood warnings were issued and it was reported that between five and 11 inches of rain fell overnight on Saturday (October 12) around the festival site. Announcing the cancellation on their website, organisers said they regretted having to pull the show, but they had to make people’s safety a priority.

“Our first priority is always the safety of our fans, staff and artists,” said Shelby Meade, communications director for C3 Presents, the promoter behind Austin City Limits Music Festival. “We regret having to cancel the show today, but safety always comes first.”

Atoms For Peace played:

‘Before Your Very Eyes…’

‘Default’

‘The Clock’

‘Ingenue’

‘Unless’

‘And It Rained All Night’

‘Harrowdown Hill’

‘Dropped’

‘Cymbal Rush’

‘Feeling Pulled Apart by Horses’

‘Rabbit in Your Headlights’

‘Paperbag Writer’

‘Amok’

‘Atoms for Peace’

‘Black Swan’

U2 aim to finish work on new album in November

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U2 aim to finish work on new album in November
U2 are aiming to finish their new album by the end of November, bass player Adam Clayton has revealed. The band last released an album in 2009 when they put out No Line On The Horizon. It is expected that their new record will appear in 2014 with Clayton confirming that the band are trying to wind ...

U2 are aiming to finish their new album by the end of November, bass player Adam Clayton has revealed.

The band last released an album in 2009 when they put out No Line On The Horizon. It is expected that their new record will appear in 2014 with Clayton confirming that the band are trying to wind up work and get the songs “absolutely right” prior to Christmas.

Speaking to Irish radio station 98FM, Clayton said of the sound of the album: “I think it’s a bit of a return to U2 of old, but with the maturity, if you like, of the U2 of the last 10 years. It’s a combination of those two things and it’s a really interesting hybrid.”

He added: “We’re in the studio. We’re trying to get these 12 songs absolutely right and get them finished by the end of November, and then we can kind of enjoy Christmas.”

In the same interview, guitarist The Edge said: “We always try to bring out something different, every time we’re in the studio. But it’s the fans who decide that really.”

Earlier this year U2 were reportedly spotted entering a New York studio with Coldplay’s Chris Martin, fuelling speculation that the singer may appear on the band’s new album. All four members of the rock group were seen at the Electric Lady Studios in New York in May, where Danger Mouse was reportedly mixing the new material.

Meanwhile, Bono had a newly-identified species of spider named after him in January. The trapdoor spider, which was one of 33 new species discovered by biologist Jason Bond of Auburn University in Alabama, can be found in the Joshua Tree National Park – the California landscape that the band’s seminal 1987 album was named after.

White Denim, “Corsicana Lemonade”

John Mulvey
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White Denim, “Corsicana Lemonade”

Playing spot-the-reference isn’t, I guess, the most elevated game for critics to indulge in. White Denim’s music, however, suggests that the Austin quartet are conceivably America’s most exciting record store nerds. Last time they put an album out (“D”, in 2011), I wrote a review in the mag that included this paragraph: “In the second-hand record shops of Austin, Texas, one suspects White Denim may have a bit of a reputation. A couple of months ago, the band posted a mixtape, on www.gorillavsbear.net, that could be read as a memorial to their crate-digging. Who were the choogling brothers that appeared to be singing in Japanese? Was that Crazy Horse (without Neil, mind), nestling just before Moby Grape? And what of the mesmeric last piece, a systems extravaganza reminiscent of Steve Reich, but more cosmically inclined?” I’ve just checked and the mixtape is still there (it was Moby Grape and Crazy Horse of course; the other artists I alluded to were Happy End and Roberto Cacciapaglia). As a primer for the eclectic and arcane roots of “D”, it remains both effective and enjoyable. When White Denim leaked the first track from “Corsicana Lemonade” a few weeks ago, though, there was a small but perceptible rumble of discontent from some of their fans. The relative directness of “Pretty Green”, along with the news that Jeff Tweedy had produced at least some of the forthcoming album, “Corsicana Lemonade”, led a few to conclude that White Denim were at least trying to sell out, to “do a Black Keys”. As Phil King in the Uncut office has pointed out, “Pretty Green” actually sounds more like a turbocharged version of this old Paul McCartney song, “Oh Woman Oh Why”… http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZzU-iqRHubM If there’s an echo of The Black Keys that I can spot on “Corsicana Lemonade”, it’s a rather skewed one: the superb title track at least begins with a frisson of Afrobeat that reminds me of what Dan Auerbach brought to “Ice Age” on the Dr John album he produced, “Ice Age”. “Corsicana Lemonade” (the song), though, soon enough evolves into a meticulously-plotted jam that’s more reminiscent of an old White Denim touchstone, The Allman Brothers. If there’s a change this time out, it’s perhaps that these jams don’t move into quite such transcendent spaces; in one piece I wrote about “D”, I talked a lot about how they were a kind of Southern Math-Rock, and about how their choogle could evolve into shamanic workouts that recalled the Boredoms, of all people. Without losing that trademark intricacy, and their progressive imperative, “Corsicana Lemonade” feels like a fractionally streamlined, compacted version of White Denim. The mathematical extrapolations have been cut back, the Minutemen jerks smoothed over a little, but the gushing invention of their music is still intact. At heart, “New Blue Feeling” is an impeccably crafted country-soul ballad, but it’s the way that the band empathetically tug it into something more revved-up, wired and expansive that makes it so special. I don’t have a mixtape to hand, like last time, with which I can parse the more obscure influences. There are some big name allusions here, though: a surfeit of Allmans (check out “Distant Relative Salute”, especially); Hendrix (“Limited By Stature” begins in a not entirely dissimilar way to “Burning Of The Midnight Lamp”); Ernie Isley (the blissfully fuzzed riffs that close “A Place To Start” and the album; the Thin Lizzy chops in “At Night In Dreams”. “Come Back”, meanwhile, suggests that White Denim might find investigation of the Chris Robinson Brotherhood worthwhile, however unlikely that might read. It all feels like a band subtly tweaking their sound for a potentially bigger audience, without alienating the loyalists who’ve loved their terrific earlier records. I think White Denim are one of the finest American bands of the past few years, and I really hope this works out for them. Follow me on Twitter: www.twitter.com/JohnRMulvey Photo: Mark Seliger

Playing spot-the-reference isn’t, I guess, the most elevated game for critics to indulge in. White Denim’s music, however, suggests that the Austin quartet are conceivably America’s most exciting record store nerds. Last time they put an album out (“D”, in 2011), I wrote a review in the mag that included this paragraph:

“In the second-hand record shops of Austin, Texas, one suspects White Denim may have a bit of a reputation. A couple of months ago, the band posted a mixtape, on www.gorillavsbear.net, that could be read as a memorial to their crate-digging. Who were the choogling brothers that appeared to be singing in Japanese? Was that Crazy Horse (without Neil, mind), nestling just before Moby Grape? And what of the mesmeric last piece, a systems extravaganza reminiscent of Steve Reich, but more cosmically inclined?”

I’ve just checked and the mixtape is still there (it was Moby Grape and Crazy Horse of course; the other artists I alluded to were Happy End and Roberto Cacciapaglia). As a primer for the eclectic and arcane roots of “D”, it remains both effective and enjoyable.

When White Denim leaked the first track from “Corsicana Lemonade” a few weeks ago, though, there was a small but perceptible rumble of discontent from some of their fans. The relative directness of “Pretty Green”, along with the news that Jeff Tweedy had produced at least some of the forthcoming album, “Corsicana Lemonade”, led a few to conclude that White Denim were at least trying to sell out, to “do a Black Keys”.

As Phil King in the Uncut office has pointed out, “Pretty Green” actually sounds more like a turbocharged version of this old Paul McCartney song, “Oh Woman Oh Why”…

If there’s an echo of The Black Keys that I can spot on “Corsicana Lemonade”, it’s a rather skewed one: the superb title track at least begins with a frisson of Afrobeat that reminds me of what Dan Auerbach brought to “Ice Age” on the Dr John album he produced, “Ice Age”. “Corsicana Lemonade” (the song), though, soon enough evolves into a meticulously-plotted jam that’s more reminiscent of an old White Denim touchstone, The Allman Brothers.

If there’s a change this time out, it’s perhaps that these jams don’t move into quite such transcendent spaces; in one piece I wrote about “D”, I talked a lot about how they were a kind of Southern Math-Rock, and about how their choogle could evolve into shamanic workouts that recalled the Boredoms, of all people.

Without losing that trademark intricacy, and their progressive imperative, “Corsicana Lemonade” feels like a fractionally streamlined, compacted version of White Denim. The mathematical extrapolations have been cut back, the Minutemen jerks smoothed over a little, but the gushing invention of their music is still intact. At heart, “New Blue Feeling” is an impeccably crafted country-soul ballad, but it’s the way that the band empathetically tug it into something more revved-up, wired and expansive that makes it so special.

I don’t have a mixtape to hand, like last time, with which I can parse the more obscure influences. There are some big name allusions here, though: a surfeit of Allmans (check out “Distant Relative Salute”, especially); Hendrix (“Limited By Stature” begins in a not entirely dissimilar way to “Burning Of The Midnight Lamp”); Ernie Isley (the blissfully fuzzed riffs that close “A Place To Start” and the album; the Thin Lizzy chops in “At Night In Dreams”.

“Come Back”, meanwhile, suggests that White Denim might find investigation of the Chris Robinson Brotherhood worthwhile, however unlikely that might read. It all feels like a band subtly tweaking their sound for a potentially bigger audience, without alienating the loyalists who’ve loved their terrific earlier records. I think White Denim are one of the finest American bands of the past few years, and I really hope this works out for them.

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

Photo: Mark Seliger

Arcade Fire to play Neil Young’s Bridge School Benefit Concert

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Arcade Fire to play Neil Young’s Bridge School Benefit Concert
Arcade Fire will perform at this year's Bridge School Benefit Concert, organised by Neil Young. The Montreal group, who release their fourth album Reflektor on October 29, will join Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, Queens Of The Stone Age and Tom Waits at the event, which takes place on October ...

Arcade Fire will perform at this year’s Bridge School Benefit Concert, organised by Neil Young.

The Montreal group, who release their fourth album Reflektor on October 29, will join Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, Queens Of The Stone Age and Tom Waits at the event, which takes place on October 26 and 27, 2013 at Shoreline Amphitheatre, Mountain View, California.

The event is held each year to raise money for The Bridge School, a non-profit organisation that aims to assist individuals with severe speech and physical impairments through the use of augmentative and alternative technology. Arcade Fire will play on the Saturday, and Waits on the Sunday.

Arcade Fire have also announced another live appearance, at Miami’s Little Haiti Cultural Center on October 24. Tickets go on sale at 10am EST tomorrow (October 16).

Paul McCartney defends ‘mildly shocking’ Miley Cyrus

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Paul McCartney defends ‘mildly shocking’ Miley Cyrus
Paul McCartney has stuck up for Miley Cyrus, claiming that "We've all seen worse than that." McCartney, who released his latest solo album New on Monday (October 14), was asked to give his opinion on Cyrus' recent activity, including her performance at the MTV VMAs, during an interview with Sky N...

Paul McCartney has stuck up for Miley Cyrus, claiming that “We’ve all seen worse than that.”

McCartney, who released his latest solo album New on Monday (October 14), was asked to give his opinion on Cyrus’ recent activity, including her performance at the MTV VMAs, during an interview with Sky News.

Admitting that he had watched the performance after hearing about the furore it caused, McCartney said: “I don’t think it was explicit at all. You couldn’t see anything,” McCartney said. “I watched it as an experiment to check, but you look at it and you say, ‘What’s everyone shouting about?’ She’s a young girl – she’s like only 20 or something – and she’s just having a go. Someone said to me that the world that people like Miley live in is all noise and they’ve got to get above the noise. So they’ve got to do something.”

Continuing his defence of the Bangerz singer, McCartney added: “I think it was only mildly shocking. She was dancing with Robin Thicke at the awards. So what? C’mon, we’ve all seen worse than that.”

Yesterday it was revealed that McCartney will appear at the newly reopened HMV flagship store at 363 Oxford Street this Friday (October 18). The singer will sign copies of his new album New for fans at 3pm the central London shop, the same location where The Beatles cut the demo disc that led to them meeting George Martin and subsequently signing to EMI in 1962. Some 60 tickets guaranteeing access to the signing will be given away as competition prizes.

Metallica: “Glastonbury is the one festival eluding us”

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Metallica: “Glastonbury is the one festival eluding us”
Metallica drummer Lars Ulrich has said the band would love to play Glastonbury Festival, saying they are "ready to go" as and when Michael Eavis needs them. The US band have never played at Worthy Farm before but, with no headliners yet revealed for the 2014 bash, Ulrich has put Metallica's name ...

Metallica drummer Lars Ulrich has said the band would love to play Glastonbury Festival, saying they are “ready to go” as and when Michael Eavis needs them.

The US band have never played at Worthy Farm before but, with no headliners yet revealed for the 2014 bash, Ulrich has put Metallica’s name into the hat. Speaking to MTV, the drummer revealed that he worries that the chances of seeing the band headline the Pyramid Stage are decreasing but he remains keen to play.

“Every year there’s probably less chance of us doing it than the previous year, but it just looks like it would be a fun night out,” said Ulrich. He adds: “We’ve been fortunate enough to play every other festival on this planet numerous times, so Glastonbury is the only one that’s eluding us.”

Ulrich continues: “There’s such a vibe and it’s maybe the most quintessentially English festival. Everybody who goes there loves it and obviously Michael [Eavis] doesn’t need our help – I completely appreciate and respect that – but if he ever wants to get hold of us we’re in the Yellow Pages and ready to go!”

Tickets for Glastonbury Festival 2014 sold out in record time, after going on sale earlier this month (October 6). 120,000 tickets were snapped up in 1 hour and 27 minutes, beating last year’s record of 1 hour and 40 minutes. Michael Eavis had recently revealed that over one million people have registered for tickets for next year’s event.

Earlier this year, Eavis revealed that he already has all three headliners in place for next year’s event.

Iasos – Celestial Soul Portrait

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Iasos – Celestial Soul Portrait

Open your third eye! Blissed-out new age voyager’s early work compiled... Iasos – like Lawrence, first name only – is a wide-eyed 66-year-old pioneer of what was dubbed “new age” music in the mid-1970s. Born in Greece but raised in California, he is the preeminent exponent of the kind of soothing, free-flowing, broadly electronic mood pieces that rightly or wrongly are forever associated with windchimes and dreamcatchers, yet Celestial Soul Portrait presents a persuasive case for Iasos as a radical, visionary figure operating on the same wavelength as Eno or Vangelis. Crucially, what separates Iasos from his peers is his belief that since the early ’70s he has been merely externalising the ecstatic musical visions transmitted to him telepathically by a being known as Vista. “The instant that I sensed him it released a huge waterfall of love from me to him,” says Iasos from his Marin County home, where he feeds the local wild deer each morning. “The music I was hearing was very unusual, it wasn’t like any earth music. It was lovely, it was sweet, it was uplifting and happy and full of love. It was so harmonious as to be unearthly.” In Iasos’ hands, it was also naïve, sincere and, on a flute-speckled cut such as “The Winds Of Olympus”, almost jazzy. Fans of modern-day drifters Emeralds and Oneohtrix Point Never will coo over the pitch-shifted drone and patchouli-scented vibe of “The Royal Court Of The Goddess Vesta” and “Crystal*White*Fire*Light”, while US psychologists have stated that Iasos’ 1978 meditative masterpiece “The Angels Of Comfort”, included here, most resembles the music heard by people who’ve had near-death experiences during their near-death moments. Even Buckminster Fuller enthused over the qualities of Iasos’ “profoundly beautiful” music. Though Celestial Soul Portait focuses on the first decade of Iasos’ output, when he released cassettes on his Inter-Dimensional Music label, he’s still active today. His latest single? “Smooth Sailing Over Enchanted Lands”. “People have always said: ‘Iasos, you’re way ahead of your time.’ And so now it’s 2013, people are getting interested in music I released in 1975. Better late than never.” Piers Martin

Open your third eye! Blissed-out new age voyager’s early work compiled…

Iasos – like Lawrence, first name only – is a wide-eyed 66-year-old pioneer of what was dubbed “new age” music in the mid-1970s. Born in Greece but raised in California, he is the preeminent exponent of the kind of soothing, free-flowing, broadly electronic mood pieces that rightly or wrongly are forever associated with windchimes and dreamcatchers, yet Celestial Soul Portrait presents a persuasive case for Iasos as a radical, visionary figure operating on the same wavelength as Eno or Vangelis. Crucially, what separates Iasos from his peers is his belief that since the early ’70s he has been merely externalising the ecstatic musical visions transmitted to him telepathically by a being known as Vista. “The instant that I sensed him it released a huge waterfall of love from me to him,” says Iasos from his Marin County home, where he feeds the local wild deer each morning. “The music I was hearing was very unusual, it wasn’t like any earth music. It was lovely, it was sweet, it was uplifting and happy and full of love. It was so harmonious as to be unearthly.”

In Iasos’ hands, it was also naïve, sincere and, on a flute-speckled cut such as “The Winds Of Olympus”, almost jazzy. Fans of modern-day drifters Emeralds and Oneohtrix Point Never will coo over the pitch-shifted drone and patchouli-scented vibe of “The Royal Court Of The Goddess Vesta” and “Crystal*White*Fire*Light”, while US psychologists have stated that Iasos’ 1978 meditative masterpiece “The Angels Of Comfort”, included here, most resembles the music heard by people who’ve had near-death experiences during their near-death moments. Even Buckminster Fuller enthused over the qualities of Iasos’ “profoundly beautiful” music. Though Celestial Soul Portait focuses on the first decade of Iasos’ output, when he released cassettes on his Inter-Dimensional Music label, he’s still active today. His latest single? “Smooth Sailing Over Enchanted Lands”. “People have always said: ‘Iasos, you’re way ahead of your time.’ And so now it’s 2013, people are getting interested in music I released in 1975. Better late than never.”

Piers Martin

Elton John – The Diving Board

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Elton John – The Diving Board

The rocket man returns to his very best on 30th LP... Combining intimacy and extroversion, immediacy and reflection, in a way only accessible to a performer able to tweak one's tearducts whilst wearing a lavishly embroidered, gold-lamé general's costume, The Diving Board may be the best album of Elton John's entire career. Clearly reinvigorated by The Union, his 2010 collaboration with Leon Russell, Elton hooked up again with producer T-Bone Burnett for a veritable blizzard of work. In three days, he and Taupin had written eleven songs, the bulk of which were recorded virtually live in the studio in just five days with a typical T-Bone crack team designed to re-focus the star on a basic piano trio format, with the peerless Jay Bellerose bringing snap, punch and roll to the grooves, and Raphael Saadiq lacing expansive basslines through the songs. Around these core tracks, further colouration is provided by keyboardist Keefus Ciancia, Motown percussionist Jack Ashford, and Doyle Bramhall II and Burnett on guitars. It's a supple, flexible crew more than capable of bending to accommodate whatever style and emphasis is demanded from Elton's best collection of songs and stories in ages, an anthology in which threads of maturity, melancholy, sympathy and insight are braided into a strong, compelling rope that pulls the listener from the opening valediction of "Oceans Away" to the closing rumination of "The Diving Board". In the former, he adopts a smart, in places almost military, inflection to pay tribute to old soldiers haunted by fallen friends, "the ones who hold onto the ones they have to leave behind", a respectful acknowledgement of duty discharged. By contrast, the latter deals waspishly with the modern fascination with empty celebrity, a talent-show lottery culture which places its supposed winners high up on the diving board - a place from where "you see it all", but which equally exposes your every move and mistake to public gaze. With Elton's bluesy delivery tinted with subdued horns, it's Ray Charles crossed with Randy Newman. In between these poles reside a host of characters struggling to find their rightful place, their due respect, their heart's ease: from the would-be poet of "My Quicksand", long since sucked into a corrosive lifestyle, and the Depression-era dance-contestants of "The New Fever Waltz", to the blind black musician of "Ballad Of Blind Tom", using his instinctive gift to both lubricate his way through life, and bring more intangible aesthetic satisfaction. Several tracks hint back to Elton's early career, with both the dustbowl odyssey "Town Called Jubilee" and the gospel number "Take This Dirty Water" throwbacks to Tumbleweed Connection territory. Leon Russell's influence is reflected in the frisky, rumbustious R&B piano of "Mexican Vacation", while the shadow of David Ackles, an important model for the John/Taupin songwriting style, falls across "Voyeur", once considered as the album's title-track. It's a sombre work dealing with the way that we seek respite from adversity and melancholy, wars political and emotional, in the temporary solace of snatched liaisons, where "a whisper in the dark is holding more truth than a shout". Elsewhere, the jaunty country-pop plaint "Can't Stay Alone Tonight" deals in more optimistic manner with the same theme of estrangement covered in "Home Again". One of the album's highlights, the latter confronts the need to leave, and the desire to return, against a bleak piano soundscape whipped by wispy, wind-like synth noise, the homesick protagonist regretting "all this time I spent being someone else's friend". Another standout is "Oscar Wilde Gets Out", in which the writer's flight from Reading Gaol to France is borne on a compelling piano setting whose momentum evokes both furtive escape and decisive break, driven along by the restrained slap-punch of Bellerose's drums. It's also one of Taupin's best lyrics, blending regret and fond reminiscence with the bitter sting of humiliation, Wilde compared to "the head of John The Baptist in the arms of Salome". Punctuated by three piano miniatures, "Dream #1, #2 and #3", which serve as palate-cleansing sorbets between sharp changes of mood and direction, it's an impressively strong set of songs, diverse in both lyrical themes and musical styles, and delivered with a confident range of drama and empathy by a "heritage" act resolutely refusing to rest on his laurels, an artist secure in his abilities - and, yes, in his continuing relevance. Andy Gill Q&A ELTON JOHN How did these sessions work? “On the first three days of recording, in 2012, we wrote 11 songs. All the tracks on the first session were done in five days. We went back this year and Bernie wrote some additional lyrics. I chose four and they were written and recorded in two days.” You continue to work prolifically with Bernie Taupin… “The great advantage of having Bernie as a lyricist is he’s a very cinematic writer. I get a piece of paper [from him] and it has as story on it. Then I sit down at the keyboard…and because the story he’s telling affects what I’m hearing…something comes out. I don’t know what it is. It’s as exciting as it was when I wrote the first melody to his first lyric, way back in 1967." Tell me about working with T Bone Burnett. “When you’ve got musicians like these guys behind you, it’s so exciting. This was done, more or less, live. That’s the way I used to record. In the old days, with the Elton John album [1970] we were recording live with an orchestra, and I was terrified. But it’s the way to do it. And that’s the way T-Bone does it, he assembles this great group of musicians, and hence things don’t take five or six months.”

The rocket man returns to his very best on 30th LP…

Combining intimacy and extroversion, immediacy and reflection, in a way only accessible to a performer able to tweak one’s tearducts whilst wearing a lavishly embroidered, gold-lamé general’s costume, The Diving Board may be the best album of Elton John’s entire career.

Clearly reinvigorated by The Union, his 2010 collaboration with Leon Russell, Elton hooked up again with producer T-Bone Burnett for a veritable blizzard of work. In three days, he and Taupin had written eleven songs, the bulk of which were recorded virtually live in the studio in just five days with a typical T-Bone crack team designed to re-focus the star on a basic piano trio format, with the peerless Jay Bellerose bringing snap, punch and roll to the grooves, and Raphael Saadiq lacing expansive basslines through the songs. Around these core tracks, further colouration is provided by keyboardist Keefus Ciancia, Motown percussionist Jack Ashford, and Doyle Bramhall II and Burnett on guitars.

It’s a supple, flexible crew more than capable of bending to accommodate whatever style and emphasis is demanded from Elton’s best collection of songs and stories in ages, an anthology in which threads of maturity, melancholy, sympathy and insight are braided into a strong, compelling rope that pulls the listener from the opening valediction of “Oceans Away” to the closing rumination of “The Diving Board“. In the former, he adopts a smart, in places almost military, inflection to pay tribute to old soldiers haunted by fallen friends, “the ones who hold onto the ones they have to leave behind”, a respectful acknowledgement of duty discharged. By contrast, the latter deals waspishly with the modern fascination with empty celebrity, a talent-show lottery culture which places its supposed winners high up on the diving board – a place from where “you see it all”, but which equally exposes your every move and mistake to public gaze. With Elton’s bluesy delivery tinted with subdued horns, it’s Ray Charles crossed with Randy Newman.

In between these poles reside a host of characters struggling to find their rightful place, their due respect, their heart’s ease: from the would-be poet of “My Quicksand”, long since sucked into a corrosive lifestyle, and the Depression-era dance-contestants of “The New Fever Waltz”, to the blind black musician of “Ballad Of Blind Tom“, using his instinctive gift to both lubricate his way through life, and bring more intangible aesthetic satisfaction. Several tracks hint back to Elton’s early career, with both the dustbowl odyssey “Town Called Jubilee” and the gospel number “Take This Dirty Water” throwbacks to Tumbleweed Connection territory.

Leon Russell‘s influence is reflected in the frisky, rumbustious R&B piano of “Mexican Vacation”, while the shadow of David Ackles, an important model for the John/Taupin songwriting style, falls across “Voyeur”, once considered as the album’s title-track. It’s a sombre work dealing with the way that we seek respite from adversity and melancholy, wars political and emotional, in the temporary solace of snatched liaisons, where “a whisper in the dark is holding more truth than a shout”.

Elsewhere, the jaunty country-pop plaint “Can’t Stay Alone Tonight” deals in more optimistic manner with the same theme of estrangement covered in “Home Again”. One of the album’s highlights, the latter confronts the need to leave, and the desire to return, against a bleak piano soundscape whipped by wispy, wind-like synth noise, the homesick protagonist regretting “all this time I spent being someone else’s friend”. Another standout is “Oscar Wilde Gets Out“, in which the writer’s flight from Reading Gaol to France is borne on a compelling piano setting whose momentum evokes both furtive escape and decisive break, driven along by the restrained slap-punch of Bellerose’s drums. It’s also one of Taupin’s best lyrics, blending regret and fond reminiscence with the bitter sting of humiliation, Wilde compared to “the head of John The Baptist in the arms of Salome”.

Punctuated by three piano miniatures, “Dream #1, #2 and #3”, which serve as palate-cleansing sorbets between sharp changes of mood and direction, it’s an impressively strong set of songs, diverse in both lyrical themes and musical styles, and delivered with a confident range of drama and empathy by a “heritage” act resolutely refusing to rest on his laurels, an artist secure in his abilities – and, yes, in his continuing relevance.

Andy Gill

Q&A

ELTON JOHN

How did these sessions work?

“On the first three days of recording, in 2012, we wrote 11 songs. All the tracks on the first session were done in five days. We went back this year and Bernie wrote some additional lyrics. I chose four and they were written and recorded in two days.”

You continue to work prolifically with Bernie Taupin…

“The great advantage of having Bernie as a lyricist is he’s a very cinematic writer. I get a piece of paper [from him] and it has as story on it. Then I sit down at the keyboard…and because the story he’s telling affects what I’m hearing…something comes out. I don’t know what it is. It’s as exciting as it was when I wrote the first melody to his first lyric, way back in 1967.”

Tell me about working with T Bone Burnett.

“When you’ve got musicians like these guys behind you, it’s so exciting. This was done, more or less, live. That’s the way I used to record. In the old days, with the Elton John album [1970] we were recording live with an orchestra, and I was terrified. But it’s the way to do it. And that’s the way T-Bone does it, he assembles this great group of musicians, and hence things don’t take five or six months.”

Ginger Baker on The Rolling Stones: “They’re not good musicians”

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Ginger Baker on The Rolling Stones: “They’re not good musicians”
Ginger Baker has criticised The Rolling Stones. Interviewed by Rolling Stone during his current run of dates at New York's Iridium Jazz Club, Baker is asked what he thinks of the Stones' playing these days. "Charlie [Watts] is a great friend of mine. I think the world of Charlie. When I was livin...

Ginger Baker has criticised The Rolling Stones.

Interviewed by Rolling Stone during his current run of dates at New York’s Iridium Jazz Club, Baker is asked what he thinks of the Stones’ playing these days. “Charlie [Watts] is a great friend of mine. I think the world of Charlie. When I was living in the States, Charlie came to see me at my house and he said, ‘I’d give you some tickets but I know you would never go!’ I won’t go within 10 miles of a Rolling Stones gig.”

When asked why, he says: “They’re not good musicians, that’s why. The best musician in the Stones is Charlie by a country mile.”

In the interview, Baker is also asked whether he is a fan of The Who. “No,” he replies. “I knew Pete Townshend’s dad better than I knew Pete Townshend. I worked with Pete Townshend’s dad in the early Sixties and late Fifties. Keith Moon was a friend of mine but I wouldn’t say he was a great drummer.”

You can read the full interview here.

Arcade Fire to play secret shows this coming weekend?

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Arcade Fire to play secret shows this coming weekend?
Arcade Fire are rumoured to be playing two secret gigs this coming weekend (October 19-20) in New York. As the Arcade Fire Tube Twitter account has pointed out, posters bearing the name The Reflektors – the name the band went under for their surprise shows in Montreal last month – have begun sp...

Arcade Fire are rumoured to be playing two secret gigs this coming weekend (October 19-20) in New York.

As the Arcade Fire Tube Twitter account has pointed out, posters bearing the name The Reflektors – the name the band went under for their surprise shows in Montreal last month – have begun springing up in Brooklyn.

No venue has been announced so far, but, just like their previous secret shows, fans have been asked to wear formal attire or costume to the gig.

Meanwhile, Arcade Fire have teased new track “Awful Sound (Oh Eurydice)” in a short video. The 34-second clip, which you can watch by scrolling to the bottom of the page and clicking ‘play’, shows the band recording in the studio along with footage of Haiti. There is no singing in the clip, just a warm droning sound.

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