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Producer Phil Ramone dies aged 79

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Producer Phil Ramone dies aged 79

US music producer Phil Ramone has died aged 79. Ramone, who was nicknamed the 'Pope of pop' by Billy Joel, who he produced many albums for, was known as a pioneer of digital recording and produced records for Bob Dylan, Paul Simon and Frank Sinatra among others. According to Billboard, Ramone was hospitalised in late February with an aeortic aneurysm and died at the New York Presbyterian Hospital on Saturday (March 30). Confirming his death, his son Matt Ramone said he was "very loving and will be missed". Born in South Africa in 1941, Ramone was gifted musically from a young age and could play the violin and piano when he was three years old. He came to the US as a teenager to study violin at New York's Juliard School, before launching the A&R Recording studios in 1958. Ramone had a prolific career and won 13 Grammys including ones for Album of The Year for Paul Simon's 'Still Crazy After All These Years', Bill Joel's '52nd Street' and Ray Charles 'Genius Loves Company'. He was session engineer on Bob Dylan's 'Blood On The Tracks', and produced Frank Sinatra's 1993 comeback album, 'Duets', and a further six Bill Joel records. Most recently, he worked with Tony Bennett, Rod Stewart, Joss Stone and Lela Hathaway. Along with his son Matt, Ramone is survived by wife Karen and sons BJ and Simon.

US music producer Phil Ramone has died aged 79.

Ramone, who was nicknamed the ‘Pope of pop’ by Billy Joel, who he produced many albums for, was known as a pioneer of digital recording and produced records for Bob Dylan, Paul Simon and Frank Sinatra among others.

According to Billboard, Ramone was hospitalised in late February with an aeortic aneurysm and died at the New York Presbyterian Hospital on Saturday (March 30). Confirming his death, his son Matt Ramone said he was “very loving and will be missed”.

Born in South Africa in 1941, Ramone was gifted musically from a young age and could play the violin and piano when he was three years old. He came to the US as a teenager to study violin at New York’s Juliard School, before launching the A&R Recording studios in 1958.

Ramone had a prolific career and won 13 Grammys including ones for Album of The Year for Paul Simon’s ‘Still Crazy After All These Years’, Bill Joel’s ’52nd Street’ and Ray Charles ‘Genius Loves Company’. He was session engineer on Bob Dylan’s ‘Blood On The Tracks‘, and produced Frank Sinatra’s 1993 comeback album, ‘Duets’, and a further six Bill Joel records. Most recently, he worked with Tony Bennett, Rod Stewart, Joss Stone and Lela Hathaway.

Along with his son Matt, Ramone is survived by wife Karen and sons BJ and Simon.

Queens Of The Stone Age debut new song ‘My God Is The Sun’ at Lollapalooza Brazil – watch

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Queens Of The Stone Age debut new song ‘My God Is The Sun’ at Lollapalooza Brazil – watch
Queens Of The Stone Age debuted new song "My God Is The Sun" at Lollapalooza Brazil on Saturday (March 30). The track is the first taste of new music from the Josh Homme-fronted group and is taken from the band's forthcoming new album …Like Clockwork. You can watch a video of the band playing the...

Queens Of The Stone Age debuted new song “My God Is The Sun” at Lollapalooza Brazil on Saturday (March 30).

The track is the first taste of new music from the Josh Homme-fronted group and is taken from the band’s forthcoming new album …Like Clockwork. You can watch a video of the band playing the song by scrolling down the page and clicking ‘play’.

The gig at the Lollapalooza festival in Sao Paulo, Brazil was the rock band’s first live performance since a string of dates in 2011 to support the re-release of their 1998 self-titled debut album.

Queens Of The Stone Age are set to release …Like Clockwork, this June on their new label, the independent Matador. The album contains a list of guest stars, including Arctic Monkeys frontman Alex Turner, Dave Grohl, Elton John, Trent Reznor, Jake Shears of Scissor Sisters.

To hear short snippets of tracks from the follow-up to 2007’s ‘Era Vulgaris’ visit QOTSA.com.

Photo: Danny North/NME

Signed copy of Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band auctions for $290,500

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Signed copy of Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band auctions for $290,500

A signed copy of The Beatles' Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band has sold at auction for $290,500 (£191,000). The record was purchased by an anonymous buyer at an auction in Dallas, US on Saturday (March 30). The sale was originally estimated to be around $35,000, with the final price shattering the previous record for a similar item, according to The Hollywood Reporter. The UK Parlophone copy of the record, with high gloss cover and gatefold, is believed to have been signed by all members of The Beatles around the album's original release date in 1967. According to Rolling Stone, the item was originally priced at $15,000 but early pre-auction pushed the price up to $110,000 a week before the auction date. Gary Shrum, consignment director of Heritage Auctions, which ran the sale, said that the bidding had "taken on a life of its own". Last November, a collage by artist Sir Peter Blake used for the insert in The Beatles' Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band fetched more than £50,000 at auction. The collage featured on the 1967 album and shows Sergeant Pepper along with the four Beatles. Copies of it were inserted in the record for fans to cut out and keep.

A signed copy of The Beatles’ Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band has sold at auction for $290,500 (£191,000).

The record was purchased by an anonymous buyer at an auction in Dallas, US on Saturday (March 30). The sale was originally estimated to be around $35,000, with the final price shattering the previous record for a similar item, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

The UK Parlophone copy of the record, with high gloss cover and gatefold, is believed to have been signed by all members of The Beatles around the album’s original release date in 1967.

According to Rolling Stone, the item was originally priced at $15,000 but early pre-auction pushed the price up to $110,000 a week before the auction date. Gary Shrum, consignment director of Heritage Auctions, which ran the sale, said that the bidding had “taken on a life of its own”.

Last November, a collage by artist Sir Peter Blake used for the insert in The Beatles’ Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band fetched more than £50,000 at auction. The collage featured on the 1967 album and shows Sergeant Pepper along with the four Beatles. Copies of it were inserted in the record for fans to cut out and keep.

Blue Öyster Cult – The Columbia Albums Collection

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Blue Öyster Cult – The Columbia Albums Collection

“Guess what? I got a fever. And the only prescription is more cowbell.” Classic BOC, boxed... As much as it is in their umlaut and heavy rock, Blue Öyster Cult’s story is also written in their cover versions. A faithful, affectionate “Be My Baby”. After John Lennon’s murder, a screamingly heavy note-perfect “I Want You (She’s So Heavy)”. A crazed 1972 “Born To Be Wild”, not to mention a 1978 “Kick Out Their Jams”. While they enjoy a reputation, in part thanks to the efforts of The Simpsons and Saturday Night Live, as the archetypal metal band of middle America, Blue Öyster Cult were a far poppier, more melodic, even more countercultural proposition. A lot of guitar, a lot of show, a lot of mythology: at their best, the band were an arena rock MC5. A garage rock band with chops in excess of their calling, the young members of Blue Öyster Cult couldn’t fit in on Elektra, and instead spent the 1970s making a fantastical world of their own on Columbia. Strange hierarchies. Automotive speed. Sado-masochism. Blue Öyster Cult might well have been designed with the interests of the college-age male in mind. Rather than show the world their unimpressive faces, the band hid behind a firewall of mystical imagery and enormous riffs. Even until the end of their career, their albums were assembled with the help of clandestine guests: producer Sandy Pearlman; journalist Richard Meltzer; Patti Smith. All intoxicating stuff. But without the band’s classic 1976 single “(Don’t Fear) The Reaper”, it’s doubtful we’d be talking in quite this detail. Written alone, as were later hits like “Godzilla”, by the band’s extraordinary guitar player Donald “Buck Dharma” Roeser, the single was a watershed moment for the band. It took BOC from a band you would see play at a city college to one you would see at a metropolitan sports arena and made the inescapable fact of death a staple of FM rock radio like no song since “Stairway To Heaven”. Having tasted the highs of success, however, it became difficult for the band to know quite where to go next. Their records remained as theatrical as they had hitherto been, but their concepts were now written with the mainstream rather than underground in mind. Spectres from 1977 was propelled by “Godzilla” and “RU Ready To Rock”. Meanwhile, throughout the late 1970s, the band would be able to feed their live repertoire (there are three original live albums in here, a “best of the broadcasts” live radio disc, and also a download code to four more full concerts) by adding to their repertoire of decent songs at about the rate of one an album. Most, like “Black Blade” (from 1979’s Mirrors) or the Rainbow-like “Burnin’ For You”, another Buck Dharma joint from Fire Of Unknown Origin (1981) are good. Their parent albums, beyond 1980’s Cultösaurus Erectus, however, are more of a challenge, a mixture of self-glorifying heavy metal anthems and science-fiction hijinks (writer Michael Moorcock wrote songs for BOC, as he had done for Hawkwind) played out in Jim Steinman-style AOR soundscapes. It’s particularly painful to attempt to reconcile, say, ’85’s flat Club Ninja as the work of the same band that made the first three records included here. Known for their monochromatic covers, the band’s eponymous debut (1972), Tyranny And Mutation (1973) and Secret Treaties (1974) enjoy a mythology of their own, and rightly so. These are “the black and white albums”, and they announce the death knell of 1960s peacerock culture in terms abstract (“Transmaniacon MC”, about Altamont), anthemic (“The Last Days Of May”) and formal (“Hot Rails To Hell”, written on their first tour, supporting Alice Cooper). The band’s management had initially proposed them as an American riposte to Black Sabbath, (the two would later tour together), but what they got was something less monolithic, but ultimately far more enjoyable and dangerous. At their peak Blue Öyster Cult played music with the fury of punk, the classicism of Bruce Springsteen and the macabre preoccupations of the Velvets. It’s hilarious, and at the same time no laughing matter at all. Cowbell and all, it is simply great rock’n’roll. John Robinson Q+A Eric Bloom What’s it like seeing your career laid out in a box like this? My favourite disc is the rarities, the live tapes of “I Want You (She’s So Heavy)”, and the three songs that we submitted to the movie Teachers. Terrible movie, but I think the songs are good. Our management did the dirty work of listening to all the tapes. Our soundman George had a lot of these, and he did a lot of work cleaning them up. There’s a Who song, I think. I was talking to our manager and he said, “There’s a better performance of that but the lyrics are so wrong we couldn’t put it on there.” Do you see your career as pre-“Reaper” and post-“Reaper”? That’s sort of true. When we weren’t making a living we had band houses; a lot of the writing was collective. We would create in the basement or living room. Tyranny And Mutation, a lot of it was written on tour. I remember sitting in hotel rooms and Albert would hit a spoon on a book for a drum sound. But as we got more successful, we got four-track recorders: Buck wrote “Reaper” like that and just walked in with a completed song. How did you evolve from the underground Stalk-Forrest group to the heavier Blue Öyster Cult? Before I got there, it was like a jam band with improvised lyrics. We were not making a living playing original material, so we had to go back to the bars and play cover material, which honed our skills a little bit. We would get fired if we played originals. It was a lot of fun. We used to play biker bars and there were fights every night, guys would shove another guy’s head in the bass drum. So we got louder and heavier – it was evolution. We would play an original and say, “Here’s a Glen Campbell song…” How did it work in the band with contributions from Sandy Pearlman and Richard Meltzer? The first band house we had on Long Island, Meltzer lived in with his girlfriend and he had lyrics he would lay on us, and Sandy had lyrics he would lay on us. Sandy would give us direction: if he thought it was wrong, he would speak up. What do you make of it when Blue Öyster Cult shows up in The Simpsons or Saturday Night Live? We’re always happy to show up in mainstream places like that. The “More cowbell” sketch was from the mind of Will Ferrell, I think. INTERVIEW: JOHN ROBINSON

“Guess what? I got a fever. And the only prescription is more cowbell.” Classic BOC, boxed…

As much as it is in their umlaut and heavy rock, Blue Öyster Cult’s story is also written in their cover versions. A faithful, affectionate “Be My Baby”. After John Lennon’s murder, a screamingly heavy note-perfect “I Want You (She’s So Heavy)”. A crazed 1972 “Born To Be Wild”, not to mention a 1978 “Kick Out Their Jams”. While they enjoy a reputation, in part thanks to the efforts of The Simpsons and Saturday Night Live, as the archetypal metal band of middle America, Blue Öyster Cult were a far poppier, more melodic, even more countercultural proposition.

A lot of guitar, a lot of show, a lot of mythology: at their best, the band were an arena rock MC5. A garage rock band with chops in excess of their calling, the young members of Blue Öyster Cult couldn’t fit in on Elektra, and instead spent the 1970s making a fantastical world of their own on Columbia. Strange hierarchies. Automotive speed. Sado-masochism. Blue Öyster Cult might well have been designed with the interests of the college-age male in mind. Rather than show the world their unimpressive faces, the band hid behind a firewall of mystical imagery and enormous riffs. Even until the end of their career, their albums were assembled with the help of clandestine guests: producer Sandy Pearlman; journalist Richard Meltzer; Patti Smith.

All intoxicating stuff. But without the band’s classic 1976 single “(Don’t Fear) The Reaper”, it’s doubtful we’d be talking in quite this detail. Written alone, as were later hits like “Godzilla”, by the band’s extraordinary guitar player Donald “Buck Dharma” Roeser, the single was a watershed moment for the band. It took BOC from a band you would see play at a city college to one you would see at a metropolitan sports arena and made the inescapable fact of death a staple of FM rock radio like no song since “Stairway To Heaven”.

Having tasted the highs of success, however, it became difficult for the band to know quite where to go next. Their records remained as theatrical as they had hitherto been, but their concepts were now written with the mainstream rather than underground in mind. Spectres from 1977 was propelled by “Godzilla” and “RU Ready To Rock”. Meanwhile, throughout the late 1970s, the band would be able to feed their live repertoire (there are three original live albums in here, a “best of the broadcasts” live radio disc, and also a download code to four more full concerts) by adding to their repertoire of decent songs at about the rate of one an album.

Most, like “Black Blade” (from 1979’s Mirrors) or the Rainbow-like “Burnin’ For You”, another Buck Dharma joint from Fire Of Unknown Origin (1981) are good. Their parent albums, beyond 1980’s Cultösaurus Erectus, however, are more of a challenge, a mixture of self-glorifying heavy metal anthems and science-fiction hijinks (writer Michael Moorcock wrote songs for BOC, as he had done for Hawkwind) played out in Jim Steinman-style AOR soundscapes.

It’s particularly painful to attempt to reconcile, say, ’85’s flat Club Ninja as the work of the same band that made the first three records included here. Known for their monochromatic covers, the band’s eponymous debut (1972), Tyranny And Mutation (1973) and Secret Treaties (1974) enjoy a mythology of their own, and rightly so. These are “the black and white albums”, and they announce the death knell of 1960s peacerock culture in terms abstract (“Transmaniacon MC”, about Altamont), anthemic (“The Last Days Of May”) and formal (“Hot Rails To Hell”, written on their first tour, supporting Alice Cooper).

The band’s management had initially proposed them as an American riposte to Black Sabbath, (the two would later tour together), but what they got was something less monolithic, but ultimately far more enjoyable and dangerous. At their peak Blue Öyster Cult played music with the fury of punk, the classicism of Bruce Springsteen and the macabre preoccupations of the Velvets. It’s hilarious, and at the same time no laughing matter at all. Cowbell and all, it is simply great rock’n’roll.

John Robinson

Q+A

Eric Bloom

What’s it like seeing your career laid out in a box like this?

My favourite disc is the rarities, the live tapes of “I Want You (She’s So Heavy)”, and the three songs that we submitted to the movie Teachers. Terrible movie, but I think the songs are good. Our management did the dirty work of listening to all the tapes. Our soundman George had a lot of these, and he did a lot of work cleaning them up. There’s a Who song, I think. I was talking to our manager and he said, “There’s a better performance of that but the lyrics are so wrong we couldn’t put it on there.”

Do you see your career as pre-“Reaper” and post-“Reaper”?

That’s sort of true. When we weren’t making a living we had band houses; a lot of the writing was collective. We would create in the basement or living room. Tyranny And Mutation, a lot of it was written on tour. I remember sitting in hotel rooms and Albert would hit a spoon on a book for a drum sound. But as we got more successful, we got four-track recorders: Buck wrote “Reaper” like that and just walked in with a completed song.

How did you evolve from the underground Stalk-Forrest group to the heavier Blue Öyster Cult?

Before I got there, it was like a jam band with improvised lyrics. We were not making a living playing original material, so we had to go back to the bars and play cover material, which honed our skills a little bit. We would get fired if we played originals. It was a lot of fun. We used to play biker bars and there were fights every night, guys would shove another guy’s head in the bass drum. So we got louder and heavier – it was evolution. We would play an original and say, “Here’s a Glen Campbell song…”

How did it work in the band with contributions from Sandy Pearlman and Richard Meltzer?

The first band house we had on Long Island, Meltzer lived in with his girlfriend and he had lyrics he would lay on us, and Sandy had lyrics he would lay on us. Sandy would give us direction: if he thought it was wrong, he would speak up.

What do you make of it when Blue Öyster Cult shows up in The Simpsons or Saturday Night Live?

We’re always happy to show up in mainstream places like that. The “More cowbell” sketch was from the mind of Will Ferrell, I think.

INTERVIEW: JOHN ROBINSON

Ask Debbie Harry

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Ask Debbie Harry

Ahead of a run of June UK tour dates for Blondie, Debbie Harry is set to answer your questions in Uncut as part of our regular An Audience With… feature. So is there anything you’ve always wanted to ask her? What are her favourite memories of playing CBGBs in its heyday? What's her favourite Blondie song? She acted in films for directors including David Cronenberg and John Waters. Are there any other film makers she'd like to work with? Send up your questions by noon, Thursday, April 4 to uncutaudiencewith@ipcmedia.com. The best questions, and Debbie's answers, will be published in a future edition of Uncut magazine. Please include your name and location with your question. Blondie will play: Nottingham Sherwood Pines Forest Park (June 14) Thetford Forest (15) Isle of Wight Festival (16) Liverpool Academy (18) Isle of Man Villa Marina (19) Gloucestershire Westonbirt Arboretum (21) Kent Bedgebury Pinetum (22) Dublin Olympia (25) Belfast Waterfront (26) Yorkshire Dalby Forest (28) Staffordshire Cannock Chase Forest (29) Glasgow Clyde Auditorium (July 1) Edinburgh Usher Hall (2) Newcastle Academy (4) Cheshire Delamere Forest (6) London Roundhouse (7) London Kew Gardens (9)

Ahead of a run of June UK tour dates for Blondie, Debbie Harry is set to answer your questions in Uncut as part of our regular An Audience With… feature.

So is there anything you’ve always wanted to ask her?

What are her favourite memories of playing CBGBs in its heyday?

What’s her favourite Blondie song?

She acted in films for directors including David Cronenberg and John Waters. Are there any other film makers she’d like to work with?

Send up your questions by noon, Thursday, April 4 to uncutaudiencewith@ipcmedia.com. The best questions, and Debbie’s answers, will be published in a future edition of Uncut magazine. Please include your name and location with your question.

Blondie will play:

Nottingham Sherwood Pines Forest Park (June 14)

Thetford Forest (15)

Isle of Wight Festival (16)

Liverpool Academy (18)

Isle of Man Villa Marina (19)

Gloucestershire Westonbirt Arboretum (21)

Kent Bedgebury Pinetum (22)

Dublin Olympia (25)

Belfast Waterfront (26)

Yorkshire Dalby Forest (28)

Staffordshire Cannock Chase Forest (29)

Glasgow Clyde Auditorium (July 1)

Edinburgh Usher Hall (2)

Newcastle Academy (4)

Cheshire Delamere Forest (6)

London Roundhouse (7)

London Kew Gardens (9)

Wilko Johnson cancels final two shows

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Wilko Johnson cancels final two shows
Wilko Johnson has cancelled the final two shows of his farewell tour. The two sold-out shows were due to take place at the Oysterfleet Hotel on Canvey Island on Sunday, March 31 and Monday, April 1. Johnson, who was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer before Christmas, recently told Uncut editor Alla...

Wilko Johnson has cancelled the final two shows of his farewell tour.

The two sold-out shows were due to take place at the Oysterfleet Hotel on Canvey Island on Sunday, March 31 and Monday, April 1.

Johnson, who was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer before Christmas, recently told Uncut editor Allan Jones that he anticipated having to cancel dates on the farewell tour if his condition became too difficult to manage.

“Obviously I hope I’ll be fit enough to do [the tour],” he said. “I’m not going onstage ill. I don’t want people to see me like that. But I’ve got every reason to hope I’ll be fit to do those dates.”

Johnson’s final gig was a guest spot with Madness at the BBC on Saturday, March 22, to mark the closure of BBC Television Centre in Shepherd’s Bush, London.

Johnson joined them for “Madness”. The BBC are streaming the show on the iPlayer until the end of the week.

Good Vibrations

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Good Vibrations

There already exists a hefty body of work documenting the adventures of record label bosses from the punk era and beyond – but the accomplishments of Terri Hooley have so far been largely unrecorded. Hooley, a Belfast native, is a man with impressive rock credentials: he berated Bob Dylan for not withholding his taxes in protest at the Vietnam war (Dylan told him to “fuck off”), and on a visit to London found himself in a fight with John Lennon: “There was some talk of money being sent to the IRA and I chinned him. He hit me back,” Hooley said. In the mid-Seventies, Hooley opened a record shop, Good Vibrations, on Belfast’s Great Victoria Street and launched a sister label in 1978. While it’s fair to say that Hooley’s greatest musical success is Good Vibrations’ fourth single – “Teenage Kicks” by the Undertones – his broader achievements are perhaps harder to calculate. Both shop and label offered a valuable creative outlet for the city’s teenagers during the worst of the Troubles, with Hooley’s enthusiastic commitment to northern Ireland’s punk scene providing a powerful counter-argument to joining the paramilitaries. It’s this depiction of Belfast in the 1970s – commendably understated, but resonant throughout – that adds an extra level to Lisa Barros D’Sa and Glenn Leyburn’s film. For much of the time, Hooley’s tale is, while enjoyably ramshackle, a familiar one of skanky pubs, transit vans, snooty major label executives and poorly attended gigs. As befitting a label boss operating in the independent sector during the late Seventies, Hooley combines shameless self-promotion and committed idealism with woeful business acumen. A benefit gig is intended to raise funds for the shop and label, but Hooley’s generously proportioned guest list ensures it ends up making a loss. As Hooley, Richard Dormer is a lively, gangly mass of teeth and relentless optimism, dedicated to bringing “one love to the people of Belfast.” Michael Bonner

There already exists a hefty body of work documenting the adventures of record label bosses from the punk era and beyond – but the accomplishments of Terri Hooley have so far been largely unrecorded.

Hooley, a Belfast native, is a man with impressive rock credentials: he berated Bob Dylan for not withholding his taxes in protest at the Vietnam war (Dylan told him to “fuck off”), and on a visit to London found himself in a fight with John Lennon: “There was some talk of money being sent to the IRA and I chinned him. He hit me back,” Hooley said.

In the mid-Seventies, Hooley opened a record shop, Good Vibrations, on Belfast’s Great Victoria Street and launched a sister label in 1978. While it’s fair to say that Hooley’s greatest musical success is Good Vibrations’ fourth single – “Teenage Kicks” by the Undertones – his broader achievements are perhaps harder to calculate.

Both shop and label offered a valuable creative outlet for the city’s teenagers during the worst of the Troubles, with Hooley’s enthusiastic commitment to northern Ireland’s punk scene providing a powerful counter-argument to joining the paramilitaries. It’s this depiction of Belfast in the 1970s – commendably understated, but resonant throughout – that adds an extra level to Lisa Barros D’Sa and Glenn Leyburn’s film. For much of the time, Hooley’s tale is, while enjoyably ramshackle, a familiar one of skanky pubs, transit vans, snooty major label executives and poorly attended gigs.

As befitting a label boss operating in the independent sector during the late Seventies, Hooley combines shameless self-promotion and committed idealism with woeful business acumen. A benefit gig is intended to raise funds for the shop and label, but Hooley’s generously proportioned guest list ensures it ends up making a loss. As Hooley, Richard Dormer is a lively, gangly mass of teeth and relentless optimism, dedicated to bringing “one love to the people of Belfast.”

Michael Bonner

Laura Marling pens new track for Shakespeare play ‘As You Like It’ – watch

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Laura Marling pens new track for Shakespeare play ‘As You Like It’ – watch
Laura Marling has penned a song for a new production of the Shakespeare play 'As You Like It'. The track, which you can hear in a trailer on YouTube below, is set to feature in act two scene five of the play by the Royal Shakespeare Company. The clip shows people at a modern-day garden party, surro...

Laura Marling has penned a song for a new production of the Shakespeare play ‘As You Like It’.

The track, which you can hear in a trailer on YouTube below, is set to feature in act two scene five of the play by the Royal Shakespeare Company. The clip shows people at a modern-day garden party, surrounded by Christmas lights and bunting and letting off fire balloons.

The production stars former The Bill actress Pippa Nixon as Rosalind and Psychoville actor Alex Waldmann as Orlando. ‘As You Like It’ will be staged at the Royal Shakespeare theatre in London from April 12 to September 28, then at the Theatre Royal, Newcastle Upon Tyne from October 29 to November 2.

Marling, meanwhile will release her fourth album ‘Once I Was An Eagle’ on May 27. It was recorded at the Three Crows studio owned by Marling’s pet producer and instrumentalist Ethan Johns (Kings of Leon, Ryan Adams, Vaccines), with Dom Monks on engineering duties. It features Marling’s friend Ruth de Turberville on cello. Read Uncut’s ‘first listen’ to the upcoming album here.

The full tracklisting for ‘Once I Was An Eagle’ is:

‘Take The Night Off’

‘I Was An Eagle’

‘You Know’

‘Breathe’

‘Master Hunter’

‘Little Love Caster’

‘Devil’s Resting Place’

‘Interlude’

‘Undine’

‘Where Can I Go?’

‘Once’

‘Pray For Me’

‘When Were You Happy? (And How Long Has That Been)’

‘Love Be Brave’

‘Little Bird’

‘Saved These Words’

British Sea Power to launch new album with ‘communist table tennis’, mystery bus tour and gig

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British Sea Power to launch new album with ‘communist table tennis’, mystery bus tour and gig
British Sea Power are set to launch their new album, 'Machineries Of Joy', with a event that will feature a boat trip, 'communist table tennis' and a mystery bus tour. Taking place in London on April 3 – two days after the album's release on April 1 – the band will start the Boat! Bus! Guitars!...

British Sea Power are set to launch their new album, ‘Machineries Of Joy’, with a event that will feature a boat trip, ‘communist table tennis’ and a mystery bus tour.

Taking place in London on April 3 – two days after the album’s release on April 1 – the band will start the Boat! Bus! Guitars! event at 6pm [GMT] on Westminster Pier with a cruise on the Thames.

This will be followed by a mystery tour in a British Sea Power branded bus. The bus trip is set to include dancers, the aforementioned communist table tennis, a beer bar and historical sight-seeing.

After the bus tour, British Sea Power will play live in a secret London venue. For more information and ticket details, visit Britishseapower.co.uk.

‘Machineries Of Joy’ is the follow-up to 2011’s ‘Valhalla Dancehall’. It was written in the mountains in north Wales and recorded in their Brighton hometown.

“We’d like to think the album is warm and restorative,” singer Yan has said of the record.

“Various things are touched on in the words – Franciscan monks, ketamine, French female bodybuilders-turned-erotic movie stars. The world often seems a mad, hysterical place at the moment. You can’t really be oblivious to that, but we’d like the record to be an antidote – a nice game of cards in pleasant company.”

The album release will be accompanied by a full UK tour kicking off in Exeter on April 4 and finishing up in London’s Shepherds Bush Empire.

British Sea Power will play:

Exeter Phoenix (April 4)

Birmingham Library (5)

Newcastle University (6)

Glasgow Oran Mor (7)

Leeds Met University (9)

Nottingham Rescue Rooms (10)

Manchester Gorilla (12)

Cardiff Coal Exchange (14)

Portsmouth Wedgewood (15)

Norwich Waterfront (16)

London O2 Shepherd’s Bush Empire (17)

This month in Uncut!

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This month in Uncut!

The new issue of Uncut, out today (March 28), features The Who, Cream, Kevin Ayers, Jeff Lynne and Matthew E White. The Who are on the cover, and inside Pete Townshend relives the band’s electrifying early gigs at the Marquee club. The piece also looks at early Marquee performances from David Bowie, The Pink Floyd, Jimi Hendrix and The Yardbirds. The full story of Cream’s tumultuous rise and fall is also told in the new issue, including stunning gigs, talented collaborators and a good dose of hatred. We pay tribute to the late, great Kevin Ayers too, with contributions from friends and musical acquaintances including Robert Wyatt, Mike Oldfield and Peter Jenner. Elsewhere, Jeff Lynne takes us through the making of the greatest albums he’s worked on, including classic records from The Move, ELO, the Traveling Wilburys and The Beatles, and we visit Matthew E White in his hometown of Richmond, Virginia, to learn more about the soulful newcomer’s homegrown Spacebomb studio, label and family of like-minded artists. Steve Martin answers your questions, Eddie & The Hot Rods explain the creation of their timeless “Do Anything You Wanna Do”, and Davy Graham, Colin Stetson and The Pastels feature in our Instant Karma! section alongside news of Graham Nash’s new photography exhibition and the Coen brothers’ upcoming film based on the early ’60s Greenwich Village folk scene. Kurt Vile, Morrissey, Iggy & The Stooges, Iron And Wine and Phoenix all feature in our 39-page reviews section, while My Bloody Valentine, John Grant and Wilko Johnson are in our live section. The free CD, titled Strange Brew, features the cream of this month’s best new music, including Steve Earle, John Murry and Todd Rundgren. The new issue of Uncut is out today (Thursday, March 28).

The new issue of Uncut, out today (March 28), features The Who, Cream, Kevin Ayers, Jeff Lynne and Matthew E White.

The Who are on the cover, and inside Pete Townshend relives the band’s electrifying early gigs at the Marquee club. The piece also looks at early Marquee performances from David Bowie, The Pink Floyd, Jimi Hendrix and The Yardbirds.

The full story of Cream’s tumultuous rise and fall is also told in the new issue, including stunning gigs, talented collaborators and a good dose of hatred.

We pay tribute to the late, great Kevin Ayers too, with contributions from friends and musical acquaintances including Robert Wyatt, Mike Oldfield and Peter Jenner.

Elsewhere, Jeff Lynne takes us through the making of the greatest albums he’s worked on, including classic records from The Move, ELO, the Traveling Wilburys and The Beatles, and we visit Matthew E White in his hometown of Richmond, Virginia, to learn more about the soulful newcomer’s homegrown Spacebomb studio, label and family of like-minded artists.

Steve Martin answers your questions, Eddie & The Hot Rods explain the creation of their timeless “Do Anything You Wanna Do”, and Davy Graham, Colin Stetson and The Pastels feature in our Instant Karma! section alongside news of Graham Nash’s new photography exhibition and the Coen brothers’ upcoming film based on the early ’60s Greenwich Village folk scene.

Kurt Vile, Morrissey, Iggy & The Stooges, Iron And Wine and Phoenix all feature in our 39-page reviews section, while My Bloody Valentine, John Grant and Wilko Johnson are in our live section. The free CD, titled Strange Brew, features the cream of this month’s best new music, including Steve Earle, John Murry and Todd Rundgren.

The new issue of Uncut is out today (Thursday, March 28).

The Rolling Stones confirmed for Glastonbury 2013

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The Rolling Stones confirmed for Glastonbury 2013
The Rolling Stones have been confirmed as headlining the Saturday night of this year's Glastonbury festival. A post on the official Glastonbury festivals website appeared at 7pm today confirming the line-up of this year's festival. Arctic Monkeys will headline on Friday and Mumford & Sons will...

The Rolling Stones have been confirmed as headlining the Saturday night of this year’s Glastonbury festival.

A post on the official Glastonbury festivals website appeared at 7pm today confirming the line-up of this year’s festival.

Arctic Monkeys will headline on Friday and Mumford & Sons will headline on Sunday. Other bands playing include Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds, Portishead, Alabama Shakes, Elvis Costello, Primal Scream, Vampire Weekend, Dinosaur Jr and Cat Power.

Immediately after the announcement was made, Mick Jagger Tweeted: “Can’t wait to play Glastonbury. I have my wellies and my yurt.”

This year’s Glastonbury festival is to be live streamed for the first time with viewers able to watch different stages as they happen. The BBC will use the latest digital technology to allow viewers to choose from simultaneous live streams from all the major stages.

The Glastonbury line-up as it stands is:

Pyramid stage

Arctic Monkeys; the Rolling Stones; Mumford & Sons; Dizzee Rascal; Primal Scream; Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds; Vampire Weekend; Elvis Costello; the Vaccines; Kenny Rogers; Ben Howard; Rita Ora; Rufus Wainwright; Jake Bugg; Professor Green; Laura Mvula; Billy Bragg; Rokia Traoré; First Aid Kit; Haim

Other stage

Portishead; Chase & Status; The xx; Foals; Example; The Smashing Pumpkins; Alt-J; Two Door Cinema Club; PiL; Tame Impala; Alabama Shakes; Editors; Azealia Banks; Of Monsters and Men; the Lumineers; Enter Shikari; I Am Kloot; The Hives; Amanda Palmer

West Holts stage

Chic featuring Nile Rogers; Public Enemy; The Weeknd; Seasick Steve; Major Lazer; Tom Tom Club; Maverick Sabre; Lianne Les Havas; Toro Y Moi; Ondatrópica; Sérgio Mendes; Dub Colossus; the Orb & Indigenous People; The Child of Lov; Alice Russell; Goat; Badbadnotgood; The Bombay Royale; Matthew E. White; Riot Jazz

The Park stage

Cat Power; The Horrors; Fuck Buttons; Django Django; Rodriguez; Dinosaur Jr; Calexico; Steve Mason; Palma Violets; Devendra Banhart; Michael Kiwanuka; Solange; King Krule; Stealing Sheep; Tim Burgess; Melody’s Echo Chamber; Ed Harcourt; Half Moon Run; Josephine; Teleman

John Peel stage

Crystal Castles; Hurts; Phoenix; Bastille; Everything Everything; James Blake; Johnny Marr; The Courteeners; Jessie Ware; Tyler, The Creator; Frightened Rabbit; Miles Kane; Local Natives; The Strypes; Savages; Tom Odell; Peace; Daughter; Villagers; Toy; Jagwar Ma

Silver Hayes

Nas; Hot Natured; Disclosure; Rudimental; The Family Stone; Skream & Benga; Sub Focus; Charles Bradley; SBTRKT; Netsky; Dogblood; The Congos; The 2 Bears; Aluna George; Julio Bashmore; Wiley; TEED; Gold Panda; David Rodigan

Acoustic tent

Sinéad O’Connor; Stevie Winwood; Lucinda Williams; Glen Hansard; Bill Wyman’s Rhythm Kings; Gabrielle Aplin; The Proclaimers; Martha Wainwright; Seth Lakeman; KT Tunstall; Gretchen Peters; Martin Stevenson & The Daintees

Avalon stage

Ben Caplan; Beverley Knight; Crowns; Evan Dando; Gary Clark Jr.; JJ Grey & Mofro; Josh Doyle; Lucy Rose; Mad Dog Mcrea; Molotov Jukebox; Newton Faulkner; Oysterband; Penguin Café; Shooglenifty; Stornoway; The Destroyers; The Staves; The Urban Voodoo Machine; Vintage Trouble; Xavier Rudd

Damon Albarn, Graham Coxon, Paul Weller, Michael Horovitz collaborate for Record Store Day releases

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Damon Albarn, Graham Coxon, Paul Weller, Michael Horovitz collaborate for Record Store Day releases

Poet Michael Horovitz has teamed up with Damon Albarn, Graham Coxon and Paul Weller for a pair of Record Store day releases. The quartet will appear on Horovitz' single, "Ballade Of The Nocturnal Commune" / "Extra Time Meltdown", which will be released by London-based vinyl-only jazz label, Gearbox Records. Weller, Albarn and Coxon will also appear on Horovitz' album Bankbusted Nuclear Detergent Blues, the title track of which was commissioned by Weller, who printed the text in the artwork for his 2012 album Sonik Kicks. The tracks were recorded at Weller’s Black Barn Studio and Albarn’s Studio 13, then mixed at Studio 13. Of his involvement, Weller said “It was my absolute pleasure to work in these recordings with Michael. Damon and Graham. I am a big fan of all three of these artists and just to be so free with all the music and ideas was a real buzz. A lot of fun and no egos in the way. Fabulous. The end results are amongst some of the best things I've ever worked on.” Horovitz agreed, saying “The three of them connected with the verse and each others’ responses to my performance of [the poems] with scintillating flights of harmony dissonance and poetic improvisations, way beyond my fondest hopes." Gearbox will also release for the first time Blues For The Hitchhiking Dead, a jazz/poetry recording from 1962 featuring spoken word performances by Horovitz and Cream collaborator, Pete Brown, along with the Live New Departures Jazz Poetry Septet. Horovitz, Albarn, Weller and Coxon performed "Ballade Of The Nocturnal Commune" at the Teenage Cancer Trust benefit concert at London's Royal Albert Hall on Saturday, March 23. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3UQ8COl9IQE Pic credit: Yui Mok/PA Wire/Press Association Images

Poet Michael Horovitz has teamed up with Damon Albarn, Graham Coxon and Paul Weller for a pair of Record Store day releases.

The quartet will appear on Horovitz’ single, “Ballade Of The Nocturnal Commune” / “Extra Time Meltdown”, which will be released by London-based vinyl-only jazz label, Gearbox Records.

Weller, Albarn and Coxon will also appear on Horovitz’ album Bankbusted Nuclear Detergent Blues, the title track of which was commissioned by Weller, who printed the text in the artwork for his 2012 album Sonik Kicks.

The tracks were recorded at Weller’s Black Barn Studio and Albarn’s Studio 13, then mixed at Studio 13.

Of his involvement, Weller said “It was my absolute pleasure to work in these recordings with Michael. Damon and Graham. I am a big fan of all three of these artists and just to be so free with all the music and ideas was a real buzz. A lot of fun and no egos in the way. Fabulous. The end results are amongst some of the best things I’ve ever worked on.”

Horovitz agreed, saying “The three of them connected with the verse and each others’ responses to my performance of [the poems] with scintillating flights of harmony dissonance and poetic improvisations, way beyond my fondest hopes.”

Gearbox will also release for the first time Blues For The Hitchhiking Dead, a jazz/poetry recording from 1962 featuring spoken word performances by Horovitz and Cream collaborator, Pete Brown, along with the Live New Departures Jazz Poetry Septet.

Horovitz, Albarn, Weller and Coxon performed “Ballade Of The Nocturnal Commune” at the Teenage Cancer Trust benefit concert at London’s Royal Albert Hall on Saturday, March 23.

Pic credit: Yui Mok/PA Wire/Press Association Images

Kings Of Leon confirm new album for September

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Kings Of Leon confirm new album for September
Kings Of Leon bassist Jared Followill has confirmed the band's new album will be out in September. The record, the four-piece's sixth studio effort, is finished and is currently being sequenced. Speaking in this week's NME Followill said: "I thought we were going to make a really mature album but I...

Kings Of Leon bassist Jared Followill has confirmed the band’s new album will be out in September.

The record, the four-piece’s sixth studio effort, is finished and is currently being sequenced. Speaking in this week’s NME Followill said: “I thought we were going to make a really mature album but I’m amazed how youthful it sounds. It’s like a mix of ‘Youth & Young Manhood’ and ‘Because Of The Times‘.”

Before the album is released, Kings of Leon will headline this summer’s V festival. Taking place over the weekend of August 17-18 at Hylands Park, Chelmsford and Weston Park, Staffordshire, the two-day event will see the band take to the main stage along with Beyoncé – which will be her only European festival appearance this year. They will also play shows in London, Manchester and Birmingham in June and July, staring at London’s O2 Arena on June 12 and 13 before playing Manchester Arena on June 24 and 25. The tour then runs to Birmingham’s LG Arena on July 9-10.

The 13th Uncut Playlist Of 2013

John Mulvey
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The 13th Uncut Playlist Of 2013

In haste, and listening to an unexpected return to music from Douglas Hart as I type. Twenty-one items on the playlist this week, mostly approved. Special attention here, I think, for the new Oh Sees album (that’s the sleeve above), which very much builds on “Purifiers II”. Increasingly keen on the James Blake, too, especially the RZA track. In the meantime, we have a new issue which, among more prominent business, includes my piece on Matthew E White. Let me know what you think of it all when you’ve had a look. Follow me on Twitter: www.twitter.com/JohnRMulvey 1 Goran Kajfeš Subtropic Arkestra – The Reason Why Vol. 1 (Headspin) 2 White Fence – Cyclops Reap (Castleface) 3 Scott Clark 4Tet – A & B 4 The National – Trouble Will Find Me (4AD) 5 Thee Oh Sees – Floating Coffin (Castleface) 6 Daft Punk – Random Access Memories (10 Minute Loop) SNL #2 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fu17fxjvk6I 7 Mikal Cronin – MCII (Merge) 8 Pick A Piper – Pick A Piper (Mint) 9 Primal Scream – More Light (1st International) 10 Axis:SOVA – Past The Edge (Testoster Tunes) 11 Peter King – Shango (Mr Bongo) 12 Bobby Whitlock – Where There’s A Will There’s A Way: The ABC-Dunhill Recordings (Future Days) 13 Brother JT – The Svelteness Of Boogietude (Thrill Jockey) 14 The Handsome Family – Wilderness (Loose) 15 The Flaming Lips – The Terror (Bella Union) 16 Six By Seven – Truce 17 James Skelly & The Intenders – Love Undercover (Cooking Vinyl) 18 Peals – Walking Field (Thrill Jockey) 19 James Blake – Overgrown (Polydor) 20 Various Artists – Youths Boogie: Jamaican R&B And The Birth Of Ska (Fantastic Voyage) 21 Douglas Hart - X Film Plus Ultra/Pre-Paradise (Memories Of The Future ) (Blank Editions)

In haste, and listening to an unexpected return to music from Douglas Hart as I type. Twenty-one items on the playlist this week, mostly approved. Special attention here, I think, for the new Oh Sees album (that’s the sleeve above), which very much builds on “Purifiers II”. Increasingly keen on the James Blake, too, especially the RZA track.

In the meantime, we have a new issue which, among more prominent business, includes my piece on Matthew E White. Let me know what you think of it all when you’ve had a look.

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

1 Goran Kajfeš Subtropic Arkestra – The Reason Why Vol. 1 (Headspin)

2 White Fence – Cyclops Reap (Castleface)

3 Scott Clark 4Tet – A & B

4 The National – Trouble Will Find Me (4AD)

5 Thee Oh Sees – Floating Coffin (Castleface)

6 Daft Punk – Random Access Memories (10 Minute Loop) SNL #2

7 Mikal Cronin – MCII (Merge)

8 Pick A Piper – Pick A Piper (Mint)

9 Primal Scream – More Light (1st International)

10 Axis:SOVA – Past The Edge (Testoster Tunes)

11 Peter King – Shango (Mr Bongo)

12 Bobby Whitlock – Where There’s A Will There’s A Way: The ABC-Dunhill Recordings (Future Days)

13 Brother JT – The Svelteness Of Boogietude (Thrill Jockey)

14 The Handsome Family – Wilderness (Loose)

15 The Flaming Lips – The Terror (Bella Union)

16 Six By Seven – Truce

17 James Skelly & The Intenders – Love Undercover (Cooking Vinyl)

18 Peals – Walking Field (Thrill Jockey)

19 James Blake – Overgrown (Polydor)

20 Various Artists – Youths Boogie: Jamaican R&B And The Birth Of Ska (Fantastic Voyage)

21 Douglas Hart – X Film Plus Ultra/Pre-Paradise (Memories Of The Future ) (Blank Editions)

Extra tickets released for V&A’s David Bowie Is… exhibition

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Extra tickets released for V&A’s David Bowie Is… exhibition

London's Victoria & Albert Museum have released extra tickets for their David Bowie Is... retrospective exhibition. The show, which opened last Saturday, is the fastest-selling event in the museum's history, with 42,000 advance tickets already sold, more than double the advance sales of previous exhibitions. The V&A have now announced that the exhibition is going to be open on Sunday nights from 7 April. You can book tickets online at the V&A's website. You can read Uncut's review of the exhibition here.

London’s Victoria & Albert Museum have released extra tickets for their David Bowie Is… retrospective exhibition.

The show, which opened last Saturday, is the fastest-selling event in the museum’s history, with 42,000 advance tickets already sold, more than double the advance sales of previous exhibitions.

The V&A have now announced that the exhibition is going to be open on Sunday nights from 7 April.

You can book tickets online at the V&A’s website.

You can read Uncut’s review of the exhibition here.

Chelsea Light Moving – Chelsea Light Moving

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Chelsea Light Moving – Chelsea Light Moving

Rock’s poet-noise iconoclast debuts new underground supergroup... Sonic Youth may or may not have ended, but Thurston Moore doesn’t seem to be pausing too long for bouts of reflection. He’s always seemed like a tireless character and instigator, involved in multiple projects, meet-ups, noise blowouts, record labels, curatorial projects, chapbook publications, and the past year or so has been little different. There’s the teaching workshop gig (see panel below for more details). There are the ongoing noise/improv collaborations, including a recent duo with Chelsea Light Moving drummer John Moloney, Caught On Tape. There are the publishing houses: the Ecstatic Peace Library and its associated Ecstatic Peace Poetry Journal, and the smaller poetry imprint, Flowers & Cream Press. And all this connects with his ongoing romance with New York: when asked about his connectedness with the lineage of ‘New York School’ poets and creatives, Moore admits, “with Chelsea Light Moving I feel like I want to have the words of the city fly from my fretboard and my teeth in a very direct and charged way.” Chelsea Light Moving also appear to be on the road a lot, floating from continent to continent. They are, in a very real sense, a working band. The individuals Moore has pulled together for Chelsea Light Moving all move in similar circles, part of that nebulous American underground that has housed the New Weird America, free-folk and neo-psych delirium. But the connective forces are even more blasted and open-ended, aesthetically or personnel-wise, than you’d expect. The group’s ranks include Samara Lubelski (bass), who has released a handful of graceful baroque-pop albums, but also a gorgeous drone duo with Hototogisu’s Marcia Bassett, Sunday Night, Sunday Afternoon; Keith Wood (guitar), who records beautiful acid-folk as Hush Arbors; and of course, the irrepressible Moloney, one of the heads of Sunburned Hand Of The Man. Not too much of that agrarian weirdness has really worked its way into the 10 songs that make up the group’s debut album, admittedly. Moore is pretty much whittling away at his peculiar vision of songcraft here; many of these songs are modular, piecing together constituent parts into odd Frankensteins of rock anti-anthems. And while Chelsea Light Moving is far from a simplistic repro of Sonic Youth’s moves, it does sometimes illuminate what Moore brought to that particular equation: spindly, almost math-rock-y guitar interplay; melodic turns that meander down byways; broad-brush sweeps of heavy riffage; occasional bouts of clumsy out-of-tuneness; and a weirdly brutish pop heart, at times as willfully awkward yet compelling as Mayo Thompson of The Red Krayola. Sometimes, you can hear Moore exploring the songs as he goes, feeling out new terrain, sometimes stumbling and sometimes hitting the ace. Unsurprisingly, it’s not always successful: that modular approach goes seriously awry on “Alighted”, where every twist and turn feels less agile and more forced than the last. But that doesn’t happen too often. Chelsea Light Moving are generally a heads-down, fighting force, capable of swinging with a Mastodon’s gait – “Groovy & Linda” is one of Moore’s most satisfyingly Neanderthal songs yet (at least, until that ungainly “don’t shoot” hardcore coda); “Burroughs” pounds the floor, with Moloney’s primal thud corralling the group into pulling out some of their most rock-reverent moves; and “Mohawk” is gorgeous, with Moore working his poetic tongue over a rumbling, Rhys Chatham-esque guitar pile-up. Half way through “Empires Of Time”, Moore sings, in his by now patented half-yowl/half-sigh, “We are the third eye of rock and roll/We are the third mind of rock and roll.” Well, that’s a little ambitious for a group on their first run, pulled together out of unlikely circumstances and yet to fully find their feet as a fully working entity. But Chelsea Light Moving suggests there’s plenty of space to move around for Moore and his cohorts. This new group is neither a redux of his Sonic Youth moves, nor a solo project with sidekicks. Awkward moments or not, this group moves as one. The next album might well be the ticket. Jon Dale Q&A Thurston Moore Your music has always referenced textual culture, poetry, but Chelsea Light Moving seems to make this most explicit – “Frank O’Hara Hit”, “Burroughs”… It may very well be the fact that I’ve been on faculty at the Summer Writing Workshop at the Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics at Naropa University in Boulder Colorado the last few years. Burroughs taught there quite a bit and to be able to be in a place where he was active, a school founded on Buddhist principles of engagement and founded by Allen Ginsberg and Anne Waldman, has allowed me to not only continue to investigate their world of alien America perspective but become spiritually immersed in their footsteps and fingerprints. What other projects are you involved with now – I know there’s a collaborative album with Moloney out on Feeding Tube… There are some other improv recordings being released – a very limited LP in benefit to Café OTO, that is a duo with me and reeds-maestro Alex Ward. And live recordings with Swedish free jazz sax demon Mats Gustafsson and, hopefully, an amazing session with prepared-guitar genius Bill Nace and jazz sax legend Joe McPhee that’ll blow yr mind, and a guitar duo freakout with Nels Cline. And I’m set to record a duo CD with John Zorn soon! INTERVIEW BY JON DALE

Rock’s poet-noise iconoclast debuts new underground supergroup…

Sonic Youth may or may not have ended, but Thurston Moore doesn’t seem to be pausing too long for bouts of reflection. He’s always seemed like a tireless character and instigator, involved in multiple projects, meet-ups, noise blowouts, record labels, curatorial projects, chapbook publications, and the past year or so has been little different. There’s the teaching workshop gig (see panel below for more details). There are the ongoing noise/improv collaborations, including a recent duo with Chelsea Light Moving drummer John Moloney, Caught On Tape. There are the publishing houses: the Ecstatic Peace Library and its associated Ecstatic Peace Poetry Journal, and the smaller poetry imprint, Flowers & Cream Press. And all this connects with his ongoing romance with New York: when asked about his connectedness with the lineage of ‘New York School’ poets and creatives, Moore admits, “with Chelsea Light Moving I feel like I want to have the words of the city fly from my fretboard and my teeth in a very direct and charged way.”

Chelsea Light Moving also appear to be on the road a lot, floating from continent to continent. They are, in a very real sense, a working band. The individuals Moore has pulled together for Chelsea Light Moving all move in similar circles, part of that nebulous American underground that has housed the New Weird America, free-folk and neo-psych delirium. But the connective forces are even more blasted and open-ended, aesthetically or personnel-wise, than you’d expect. The group’s ranks include Samara Lubelski (bass), who has released a handful of graceful baroque-pop albums, but also a gorgeous drone duo with Hototogisu’s Marcia Bassett, Sunday Night, Sunday Afternoon; Keith Wood (guitar), who records beautiful acid-folk as Hush Arbors; and of course, the irrepressible Moloney, one of the heads of Sunburned Hand Of The Man.

Not too much of that agrarian weirdness has really worked its way into the 10 songs that make up the group’s debut album, admittedly. Moore is pretty much whittling away at his peculiar vision of songcraft here; many of these songs are modular, piecing together constituent parts into odd Frankensteins of rock anti-anthems. And while Chelsea Light Moving is far from a simplistic repro of Sonic Youth’s moves, it does sometimes illuminate what Moore brought to that particular equation: spindly, almost math-rock-y guitar interplay; melodic turns that meander down byways; broad-brush sweeps of heavy riffage; occasional bouts of clumsy out-of-tuneness; and a weirdly brutish pop heart, at times as willfully awkward yet compelling as Mayo Thompson of The Red Krayola. Sometimes, you can hear Moore exploring the songs as he goes, feeling out new terrain, sometimes stumbling and sometimes hitting the ace.

Unsurprisingly, it’s not always successful: that modular approach goes seriously awry on “Alighted”, where every twist and turn feels less agile and more forced than the last. But that doesn’t happen too often. Chelsea Light Moving are generally a heads-down, fighting force, capable of swinging with a Mastodon’s gait – “Groovy & Linda” is one of Moore’s most satisfyingly Neanderthal songs yet (at least, until that ungainly “don’t shoot” hardcore coda); “Burroughs” pounds the floor, with Moloney’s primal thud corralling the group into pulling out some of their most rock-reverent moves; and “Mohawk” is gorgeous, with Moore working his poetic tongue over a rumbling, Rhys Chatham-esque guitar pile-up.

Half way through “Empires Of Time”, Moore sings, in his by now patented half-yowl/half-sigh, “We are the third eye of rock and roll/We are the third mind of rock and roll.” Well, that’s a little ambitious for a group on their first run, pulled together out of unlikely circumstances and yet to fully find their feet as a fully working entity. But Chelsea Light Moving suggests there’s plenty of space to move around for Moore and his cohorts. This new group is neither a redux of his Sonic Youth moves, nor a solo project with sidekicks. Awkward moments or not, this group moves as one. The next album might well be the ticket.

Jon Dale

Q&A

Thurston Moore

Your music has always referenced textual culture, poetry, but Chelsea Light Moving seems to make this most explicit – “Frank O’Hara Hit”, “Burroughs”…

It may very well be the fact that I’ve been on faculty at the Summer Writing Workshop at the Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics at Naropa University in Boulder Colorado the last few years. Burroughs taught there quite a bit and to be able to be in a place where he was active, a school founded on Buddhist principles of engagement and founded by Allen Ginsberg and Anne Waldman, has allowed me to not only continue to investigate their world of alien America perspective but become spiritually immersed in their footsteps and fingerprints.

What other projects are you involved with now – I know there’s a collaborative album with Moloney out on Feeding Tube…

There are some other improv recordings being released – a very limited LP in benefit to Café OTO, that is a duo with me and reeds-maestro Alex Ward. And live recordings with Swedish free jazz sax demon Mats Gustafsson and, hopefully, an amazing session with prepared-guitar genius Bill Nace and jazz sax legend Joe McPhee that’ll blow yr mind, and a guitar duo freakout with Nels Cline. And I’m set to record a duo CD with John Zorn soon!

INTERVIEW BY JON DALE

Arctic Monkeys’ Alex Turner, Elton John to appear on new Queens Of The Stone Age album

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Arctic Monkeys’ Alex Turner, Elton John to appear on new Queens Of The Stone Age album

It has been confirmed that Arctic Monkeys frontman Alex Turner will appear on the new Queens Of The Stone Age album '...Like Clockwork'. The album was officially announced earlier this week with the band having signed to Matador to release the album in June. A new press release circulated by the band's label confirms the list of guest stars appearing on the album with Turner lining up alongside the previously known guests such as Dave Grohl, Sir Elton John, Trent Reznor, Jake Shears of Scissor Sisters. Previous Queens Of The Stone Age collaborators Mark Lanegan and Nick Oliveri will also appear on the album as does James Lavelle, better known as the man behind UNKLE. In addition to the guest stars, it has also been confirmed that the band will embark on a world tour to promote the album. A new drummer will also be revealed shortly, as the band make their live return next weekend at Lollapalooza Brazil. Dave Grohl contributed drums to '...Like Clockwork', but is not thought to be touring with the Josh Homme fronted band. Joey Castillo and Jon Theodore have also recorded drum parts for the album. Hear short snippets of tracks from the follow-up to 2007's 'Era Vulgaris' at QOTSA.com. The band will be playing a number of festivals this summer, including Benicàssim in Spain, and Download in the UK.

It has been confirmed that Arctic Monkeys frontman Alex Turner will appear on the new Queens Of The Stone Age album ‘…Like Clockwork’.

The album was officially announced earlier this week with the band having signed to Matador to release the album in June. A new press release circulated by the band’s label confirms the list of guest stars appearing on the album with Turner lining up alongside the previously known guests such as Dave Grohl, Sir Elton John, Trent Reznor, Jake Shears of Scissor Sisters. Previous Queens Of The Stone Age collaborators Mark Lanegan and Nick Oliveri will also appear on the album as does James Lavelle, better known as the man behind UNKLE.

In addition to the guest stars, it has also been confirmed that the band will embark on a world tour to promote the album. A new drummer will also be revealed shortly, as the band make their live return next weekend at Lollapalooza Brazil. Dave Grohl contributed drums to ‘…Like Clockwork’, but is not thought to be touring with the Josh Homme fronted band. Joey Castillo and Jon Theodore have also recorded drum parts for the album. Hear short snippets of tracks from the follow-up to 2007’s ‘Era Vulgaris’ at QOTSA.com.

The band will be playing a number of festivals this summer, including Benicàssim in Spain, and Download in the UK.

Cat Power, Suede and The Strypes to kick off new series of Later…

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Cat Power, Suede and The Strypes to kick off new series of Later…

Later…Live with Jools Holland will return on April 9 with guests including Suede and Cat Power. The long-running music show will start its 42nd series with the first in eight half-hour live shows on BBC 2 at 10PM on Tuesday, April 9. Suede will appear to perform songs from their new album 'Bloodsports' while Cat Power will make a rare live appearance in the UK, playing songs from her 2012 album 'Sun'. Meanwhile, newcomers Laura Mvula and The Strypes will also perform. The Strypes have won over celebrity fans including Noel Gallagher and Elton John with the former Oasis guitarist among the crowd that crammed into London's Old Blue Last on January 23 to catch the band, who have signed to Mercury. The Irish teenagers play energised takes on classic rock and R&B covers including Bo Diddley's 'You Can’t Judge A Book By It's Cover', T-Bone Walker's 'Call It Stormy Monday (But Tuesday Is Just As Bad)' and Muddy Waters' 'Mannish Boy' as well as their own original material. A longer version of Later…Live with Jools Holland will air on Friday, April 12.

Later…Live with Jools Holland will return on April 9 with guests including Suede and Cat Power.

The long-running music show will start its 42nd series with the first in eight half-hour live shows on BBC 2 at 10PM on Tuesday, April 9. Suede will appear to perform songs from their new album ‘Bloodsports’ while Cat Power will make a rare live appearance in the UK, playing songs from her 2012 album ‘Sun’.

Meanwhile, newcomers Laura Mvula and The Strypes will also perform. The Strypes have won over celebrity fans including Noel Gallagher and Elton John with the former Oasis guitarist among the crowd that crammed into London’s Old Blue Last on January 23 to catch the band, who have signed to Mercury. The Irish teenagers play energised takes on classic rock and R&B covers including Bo Diddley’s ‘You Can’t Judge A Book By It’s Cover’, T-Bone Walker’s ‘Call It Stormy Monday (But Tuesday Is Just As Bad)’ and Muddy Waters’ ‘Mannish Boy’ as well as their own original material.

A longer version of Later…Live with Jools Holland will air on Friday, April 12.

Tom Morello speaks about ‘challenge’ of joining Bruce Springsteen’s band

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Tom Morello speaks about ‘challenge’ of joining Bruce Springsteen’s band
Tom Morello has spoken about his recent time spent as guitarist for Bruce Springsteen, saying that it is an "honour" to play with the E Street Band. Rage Against The Machine guitarist Morello joined the E Street Band three months ago to cover for Steven Van Zandt, who is filming his show Lilyhamme...

Tom Morello has spoken about his recent time spent as guitarist for Bruce Springsteen, saying that it is an “honour” to play with the E Street Band.

Rage Against The Machine guitarist Morello joined the E Street Band three months ago to cover for Steven Van Zandt, who is filming his show Lilyhammer at the same time as Springsteen is touring Australia. Morello admitted to Rolling Stone that he has been tested by Springsteen’s four-hour shows. “I learned about 50 songs in three months for the tour, and every night, 90 minutes till soundcheck, Bruce will text me with seven or eight songs we’ve never played before. And then during the show, he’ll call up songs we’ve never even discussed – some I’ve never even heard!”

Morello added: “Our band plays very differently night to night. It’s not a repetition, it’s a renewal. If you’re doing it right, that’s how it feels. Every night, there’s six to eight songs I have literally about a nanosecond to prepare for. But it’s fun. Now that I know that’s the gig I’m like, ‘Let’s go!’ Make it clear – I’m not asking Bruce to stump me. I would love to play ‘Thunder Road’. But it’s been a really fun challenge.”

However, Morello was full of praise for the band, saying: “It’s been great. It’s been really an honour being on stage with one of my favourite bands – one of the greatest live bands of all time,” Morello said. “I’ve been to a lot of Bruce Springsteen shows, but I’ve never been to four consecutive ones. And every show isn’t just a different show – it’s a completely different experience.”

Bruce Springsteen and Kasabian have been confirmed as headliners at this year’s Hard Rock Calling festival. The festival, which takes place at Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in Stratford, London, runs on June 29 and 30 and will see Springsteen headline on the second night.

Jeff Lynne: “The Beatles would take the piss when I was producing them”

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Jeff Lynne: “The Beatles would take the piss when I was producing them”
Jeff Lynne has revealed that the surviving Beatles would “take the piss” when he produced them. The Electric Light Orchestra songwriter and producer explains what it was like working with the group on their “Free As A Bird” and “Real Love” singles in the mid-’90s, in the new issue o...

Jeff Lynne has revealed that the surviving Beatles would “take the piss” when he produced them.

The Electric Light Orchestra songwriter and producer explains what it was like working with the group on their “Free As A Bird” and “Real Love” singles in the mid-’90s, in the new issue of Uncut, out on Thursday (March 28).

“There was no real tension,” Lynne tells Uncut. “They would take the piss, but it was good-natured.

I loved it, but it was tough.

“At Paul’s studio it was just me and them, and I’m listening to all this amazing Liverpool folklore – Hamburg stories, the lot.”

Lynne also takes us through the making of the Traveling Wilburys’ first album, which featured Lynne alongside George Harrison, Bob Dylan, Tom Petty and Roy Orbison, and a host of classic records from Electric Light Orchestra and The Move.

The new issue of Uncut is out on Thursday (March 28).

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