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Duane Allman – Skydog: The Duane Allman Retrospective

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Duane Allman – Skydog: The Duane Allman Retrospective

The charismatic slide guitar god and Southern rock avatar finally gets his due via a massive career overview... Until now, no guitar great’s career has been as under-represented as has that of Duane Allman, who packed a lifetime’s worth of music into seven intensive and wildly productive years. Previous efforts to compile Allman’s body of work were stymied by lawsuits and massive licensing issues. It took the concerted efforts of Bill Levenson, who’d been forced to shelve an earlier attempt at a career overview while working at Universal Music in the mid-’90s, and Galadrielle Allman, Duane’s only child, who’s been on a lifelong mission to get to know her father through his music, to finally bring the long-delayed project to fruition. To say the resulting seven-disc boxset – with 129 tracks, 33 of them either previously unreleased or unissued on CD – has been worth the wait would be a gross understatement. Skydog is an addictive, endlessly captivating aural history of a towering figure in rock history, with each disc forming a distinct chapter in the sprawling narrative. The first disc, which collects 23 of Duane and brother Gregg’s initial efforts with the Escorts, which begat the Allman Joys, which in turn begat Hour Glass, spilling into brief forays with Butch Trucks’ 31st Of February and long-forgotten group the Bleus, is a microcosm of the apprenticeships undertaken by so many musicians in the mid- to late ’60s. After an initial infatuation with the Beatles, the siblings began to explore the blues and R ‘n’ B, for which they shared a deep affinity, with a fascinating side trip into the psychedelic blues of the Jeff Beck-era Yardbirds, providing a key learning experience for Duane. They then made an early attempt at making commercial records, signing a deal with Liberty Records, which renamed them Hour Glass and forced them into confining stylistic contexts. Even then, the brothers’ soulfulness showed through –after two stiff albums, they headed to Muscle Shoals and essentially drew up the blueprint for the Allman Brothers Band with foreshadowing showcases like “The B.B. King Medley” and Gregg’s “Been Gone Too Long”, only to be shot down by the label. After the stint with the 31st Of February, the brothers went their separate ways, Gregg exiled to the West Coast in an aborted attempt at a solo career, while Duane remained in Florida, playing every gig he could find, treading water. Duane’s fortunes changed in the space of a single Wilson Pickett session in late 1968 at Rick Hall’s Fame Studio in Muscle Shoals, as the young interloper wowed Hall and the seasoned session players with his prodigious natural talent, erupting Vesuvius-like on a mind-blowing cover of “Hey Jude” after being pent up for so long in Hour Glass. Disc Two compiles Duane’s session work with Pickett, Clarence Carter, Arthur Conley, Aretha Franklin, the Soul Survivors, King Curtis and others, as Hall and Atlantic’s Jerry Wexler used him extensively in early ’69, knowing they’d discovered a prodigy with jaw-dropping chops and unlimited potential. Wexler thought enough of Duane to sign him to a solo deal, and three of his early efforts are compiled on Disc Three, which encompasses the spring and summer of 1969. But he was collaborative by nature, and he apparently realized that quickly enough to abandon the project, return to Florida, and begin assembling the Allman Brothers Band with Muscle Shoals drummer Jai Johanny “Jaimo” Johanson, bassist Berry Oakley, Butch Trucks and guitarist Dickey Betts, summoning Gregg from LA to complete the lineup. But he also continued to do sessions to pay the rent while developing the band’s sound, an audaciously open-ended amalgam of blues, R&B, jazz and rock’n’roll. If Duane was a magnetic presence to his fellow musicians in Muscle Shoals, Daytona Beach and New York, he remained unknown to the rest of the world until Atlantic’s September 1969 release of Boz Scaggs, recorded at Fame and containing the 13-minute blues epic “Loan Me A Dime”, with an extended performance from Duane so withering it stopped the critics in their tracks. Two months later, The Allman Brothers Band came out, unleashing the glorious tempest of “Whipping Post”, the prototypical harmonized guitar riffage of “Black Hearted Woman” and the crushed-velvet textures of “Dreams”. A month after that, the group blew the roof off the Fillmore East for the first time. And just like that, the train was roaring down the tracks, a runaway express bound for glory. The next three discs, each capturing a few retrospectively precious months at a time, as 1969 emptied into 1970, find Duane and his simpatico bandmates converting the masses on concert stages across the States with their enthralling, force-of-nature sets, their magisterial, all-business, no bullshit stage presence a direct reflection of their leader, willowy and bent to his task, a blue-collar Michelangelo. You couldn’t take your eyes off him. While the band was kicking back in Macon, enjoying the downtime, the tireless guitarist was showing up at sessions for everyone worth a damn from Ronnie Hawkins to Lulu, from Sam the Sham to Herbie Mann, changing the climate of every tracking room he entered. His abiding relationship with the knowing engineer/producer Tom Dowd led to Idlewild South and a few ecstatic nights at Criteria in Miami with Eric Clapton and his Dominos making what may be the most exalted example ever of dueling electric guitars. Disc Seven, charting what would be the last few months of his life – an acoustic workout with Delaney and Bonnie for New York’s WPLJ in July, an Allmans stop at the same station a month later, live and studio recordings from September, topped by the penultimate cut, an immersive 18-minute “Dreams”. Then, finally, the only recording that could end this opus, the shimmering acoustic duet with Dickey “Little Martha”, its heartbreaking beauty intensified by the cumulative tidal force of the music that preceded it, while being reminded of the first time we heard it, on Eat A Peach, not long after we lost him. If Duane Allman’s purpose in life was to play the guitar, his daughter’s purpose appears just as clearly to give voice to her father’s wordless expressiveness. Galadrielle, who’s finishing a book about her father, captures his prodigious soulfulness more vividly than anyone else who has yet attempted to do so in her notes to Skydog. “His spirit shines through every song,” she writes. “There is something forever unknowable in his music, a mystery I cannot solve by listening, an element that is wholly his own and does not translate into words. Music told the truth. He grabbed on to it from the very beginning and never let it go.” Amen. Bud Scoppa Photo credit: John Gellman

The charismatic slide guitar god and Southern rock avatar finally gets his due via a massive career overview…

Until now, no guitar great’s career has been as under-represented as has that of Duane Allman, who packed a lifetime’s worth of music into seven intensive and wildly productive years. Previous efforts to compile Allman’s body of work were stymied by lawsuits and massive licensing issues. It took the concerted efforts of Bill Levenson, who’d been forced to shelve an earlier attempt at a career overview while working at Universal Music in the mid-’90s, and Galadrielle Allman, Duane’s only child, who’s been on a lifelong mission to get to know her father through his music, to finally bring the long-delayed project to fruition.

To say the resulting seven-disc boxset – with 129 tracks, 33 of them either previously unreleased or unissued on CD – has been worth the wait would be a gross understatement. Skydog is an addictive, endlessly captivating aural history of a towering figure in rock history, with each disc forming a distinct chapter in the sprawling narrative.

The first disc, which collects 23 of Duane and brother Gregg’s initial efforts with the Escorts, which begat the Allman Joys, which in turn begat Hour Glass, spilling into brief forays with Butch Trucks’ 31st Of February and long-forgotten group the Bleus, is a microcosm of the apprenticeships undertaken by so many musicians in the mid- to late ’60s. After an initial infatuation with the Beatles, the siblings began to explore the blues and R ‘n’ B, for which they shared a deep affinity, with a fascinating side trip into the psychedelic blues of the Jeff Beck-era Yardbirds, providing a key learning experience for Duane. They then made an early attempt at making commercial records, signing a deal with Liberty Records, which renamed them Hour Glass and forced them into confining stylistic contexts.

Even then, the brothers’ soulfulness showed through –after two stiff albums, they headed to Muscle Shoals and essentially drew up the blueprint for the Allman Brothers Band with foreshadowing showcases like “The B.B. King Medley” and Gregg’s “Been Gone Too Long”, only to be shot down by the label. After the stint with the 31st Of February, the brothers went their separate ways, Gregg exiled to the West Coast in an aborted attempt at a solo career, while Duane remained in Florida, playing every gig he could find, treading water.

Duane’s fortunes changed in the space of a single Wilson Pickett session in late 1968 at Rick Hall’s Fame Studio in Muscle Shoals, as the young interloper wowed Hall and the seasoned session players with his prodigious natural talent, erupting Vesuvius-like on a mind-blowing cover of “Hey Jude” after being pent up for so long in Hour Glass. Disc Two compiles Duane’s session work with Pickett, Clarence Carter, Arthur Conley, Aretha Franklin, the Soul Survivors, King Curtis and others, as Hall and Atlantic’s Jerry Wexler used him extensively in early ’69, knowing they’d discovered a prodigy with jaw-dropping chops and unlimited potential.

Wexler thought enough of Duane to sign him to a solo deal, and three of his early efforts are compiled on Disc Three, which encompasses the spring and summer of 1969. But he was collaborative by nature, and he apparently realized that quickly enough to abandon the project, return to Florida, and begin assembling the Allman Brothers Band with Muscle Shoals drummer Jai Johanny “Jaimo” Johanson, bassist Berry Oakley, Butch Trucks and guitarist Dickey Betts, summoning Gregg from LA to complete the lineup. But he also continued to do sessions to pay the rent while developing the band’s sound, an audaciously open-ended amalgam of blues, R&B, jazz and rock’n’roll.

If Duane was a magnetic presence to his fellow musicians in Muscle Shoals, Daytona Beach and New York, he remained unknown to the rest of the world until Atlantic’s September 1969 release of Boz Scaggs, recorded at Fame and containing the 13-minute blues epic “Loan Me A Dime”, with an extended performance from Duane so withering it stopped the critics in their tracks. Two months later, The Allman Brothers Band came out, unleashing the glorious tempest of “Whipping Post”, the prototypical harmonized guitar riffage of “Black Hearted Woman” and the crushed-velvet textures of “Dreams”. A month after that, the group blew the roof off the Fillmore East for the first time. And just like that, the train was roaring down the tracks, a runaway express bound for glory.

The next three discs, each capturing a few retrospectively precious months at a time, as 1969 emptied into 1970, find Duane and his simpatico bandmates converting the masses on concert stages across the States with their enthralling, force-of-nature sets, their magisterial, all-business, no bullshit stage presence a direct reflection of their leader, willowy and bent to his task, a blue-collar Michelangelo. You couldn’t take your eyes off him.

While the band was kicking back in Macon, enjoying the downtime, the tireless guitarist was showing up at sessions for everyone worth a damn from Ronnie Hawkins to Lulu, from Sam the Sham to Herbie Mann, changing the climate of every tracking room he entered. His abiding relationship with the knowing engineer/producer Tom Dowd led to Idlewild South and a few ecstatic nights at Criteria in Miami with Eric Clapton and his Dominos making what may be the most exalted example ever of dueling electric guitars. Disc Seven, charting what would be the last few months of his life – an acoustic workout with Delaney and Bonnie for New York’s WPLJ in July, an Allmans stop at the same station a month later, live and studio recordings from September, topped by the penultimate cut, an immersive 18-minute “Dreams”. Then, finally, the only recording that could end this opus, the shimmering acoustic duet with Dickey “Little Martha”, its heartbreaking beauty intensified by the cumulative tidal force of the music that preceded it, while being reminded of the first time we heard it, on Eat A Peach, not long after we lost him.

If Duane Allman’s purpose in life was to play the guitar, his daughter’s purpose appears just as clearly to give voice to her father’s wordless expressiveness. Galadrielle, who’s finishing a book about her father, captures his prodigious soulfulness more vividly than anyone else who has yet attempted to do so in her notes to Skydog. “His spirit shines through every song,” she writes. “There is something forever unknowable in his music, a mystery I cannot solve by listening, an element that is wholly his own and does not translate into words. Music told the truth. He grabbed on to it from the very beginning and never let it go.”

Amen.

Bud Scoppa

Photo credit: John Gellman

The Making Of… The Animals’ The House Of The Rising Sun

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The Making Of… The Animals’ The House Of The Rising Sun
Eric Burdon’s new album, ’Til Your River Runs Dry, is reviewed in the new issue of Uncut, dated May 2013 and out now – so for this week’s archive feature we thought we’d revisit this piece from Uncut’s May 2009 issue (Take 144), which examines how Burdon and his Geordie bluesmen somehow ...

Eric Burdon’s new album, ’Til Your River Runs Dry, is reviewed in the new issue of Uncut, dated May 2013 and out now – so for this week’s archive feature we thought we’d revisit this piece from Uncut’s May 2009 issue (Take 144), which examines how Burdon and his Geordie bluesmen somehow turned a lengthy folk staple about a brothel into a massive international hit… but don’t mention the royalties… Words: Nick Hasted

_________________

The Animals was a bunch of egotists,” says Eric Burdon. “Which exploded like a hand grenade.” The song responsible, “The House Of The Rising Sun”, dates back to the 19th Century. A folk staple, Bob Dylan recorded it for his self-titled debut in 1962, and it’s this version that found its way to Newcastle. The Animals recorded it in 1964 as their second single. Up until then, they’d specialised in R’n’B covers. But “The House Of The Rising Sun” provided something of a change of pace. It was raw, adult R’n’B that not even the Stones could match. “When we met them at the Club A Go Go in Newcastle, I saw the look on the faces of Mick and Keith,” Burdon says. “It was quite clear they had to kill us off.”

“The House Of The Rising Sun” was a global hit, The Animals becoming the first UK band to top the US charts since The Beatles. But they never came close to matching its success again, and by September ’66, the band had split.

There was another twist. The single’s royalties, assigned to Alan Price as sole arranger, left a lingering bitterness. Price refused to talk for this piece – “he tries not to be drawn into the open wound of the publishing,” believes drummer John Steel. Burdon, too, has mixed feelings about his biggest hit. “The downside was realised by me just recently. I was frontman for a band that was screwing me from behind. We toured non-stop for almost two years, hardly a day off… for zero. We lost our monies in the Bermuda triangle. But at least I’m alive to tell the tale. And I’m still out on the road, keeping songs like this alive.”

_________________

John Steel (drummer): The song was first introduced into our crowd in Newcastle by a friend of mine called Bill Davison, the first guy to get the Bob Dylan album in 1962. No matter what Eric claims, that was the first time we ever heard ‘The House Of The Rising Sun’.

Hilton Valentine (guitarist): The first version I heard was Dylan’s. To this day I still think it’s the definitive one.

Eric Burdon (vocalist): It was sung by local folk hero Johnny Handel in one of Tyneside’s many jazz/folk clubs. I knew instantly it held some magic.

John Steel: We hadn’t long left Newcastle, and we were offered our first major tour, with Chuck Berry. Chas [Chandler, bass] said, “Everybody’s going to try to out-rock Chuck…”

Valentine: …which was impossible. We wanted to do something moodier and slower. “House…” was the obvious choice.

Steel: We’d been dicking about with the song anyway. We took three days at the Club A Go Go, our Newcastle stomping ground, to rehearse for the tour. And that’s when we worked out the whole thing, as we recorded it. Alan said Hilton should play an acoustic strumming style. Hilton had developed this arpeggio thing. Alan stormed off, because we opted for Hilton’s version. By the time he came back, all he had to do was drop in the organ solo. We’d sorted the rest of it out. Eric rewrote the lyrics [making the usually female fallen protagonist in the House a man], because we knew we couldn’t get a song about a prostitute on the BBC. My drum-pattern I picked up from Jimmy Smith’s “Walk On The Wild Side”, on a jukebox in Belgium. Everybody had a part in it.

Burdon: Playing “House…” on the Chuck Berry tour, we all knew it had to be recorded and released instantly. It got our biggest reaction. Constantly, every night, in spite of the fact the packed house was waiting for Mister Rock’n’Roll to take the stage. People were leaving the theatre singing it. We could hear them through the dressing-room window.

Steel: Halfway through the tour, [producer] Mickie Most put us into the studio to do Ray Charles’ “Talkin’ ‘Bout You” for the credits for Ready Steady Go!. We were so convinced by the reaction on tour that “House…” was something special, we persuaded Mickie to let us record it as well.

Valentine: We were travelling straight from Blackpool overnight, to either the Isle of Man or Jersey. And we went through London, and cut an LP, including “The House Of The Rising Sun”, in about an hour-and-a-half.

Steel: We didn’t have time to do a whole album. I’ve got letters I sent to my then-girlfriend which say we didn’t.

Burdon: We were on tour with Chuck Berry and we’d done a gig the night before in Manchester. We felt the crowd’s acceptance and we knew that we had to record this song. That night, we decided to jump on the milk train to London, dragging all our gear along and arriving at King’s Cross Station. We bribed a British Railways guy for the use of a hand-cart, put the gear on it and pushed it through the empty, early morning streets. It looked like a scene from The Day The Earth Stood Still. Arriving at the studio we carried the equipment downstairs, set it up and we were ready to go for it, around 11.30am. We were underground, in what I was told later was part of Winston Churchill’s WWII mapping room. It was cold, dark and concrete. The engineer had never recorded electric music before. I can’t recall Mickie Most being at the session. If he was, he let the band get on with it. He contributed very little as producer then.

Valentine: The dynamics of the song was what The Animals used to do when we played – start off with a certain pace, move it up a few notches, really drive it – and then drop it, right back down. And then build back to a crescendo at the end. Eric was total excitement, totally on the spur of the moment. We just put our heads down. We were all into it, responding to each other.

Burdon: I always sing with feeling. In my mind, the “house” was a polished Gentleman’s Club. It had to be a room full of women of many colours, sizes and shapes. It would have a spiral staircase. It must have had a black man playing ragtime piano. It must be three storeys high and smell of cheap perfume – and way too expensive for me to get across the threshold. I hate the word “whorehouse”. In London, some of my best friends were hookers. I’ve always had a soft spot for ladies of the night, but may I add that I’ve never, ever paid for it. Every time I sing that song, it’s like having a perfect sex partner. It just climaxes naturally.

Valentine: We all thought we’d really captured the mood in the studio. I remember thinking, ‘This is going to be a No. 1 record.’

Steel: One take did it, and Mickie said, “Come in and listen to this. That’s a hit.” Dave Siddle the engineer, turned round to Mickie and said, “We’ve got a problem here. It’s four-and-a-half minutes.” Mickie to his credit said: “Oh, the hell with that. We’re in the vinyl age now!”

Valentine: The BBC said that they wouldn’t play it as it was too long. It was possibly because it was about a brothel…

Steel: We got to do it on Ready Steady Go!, which created such a huge surge in the shops, the BBC had to change their minds. Within three weeks it was No 1.

Burdon: It was too sexy, too long for a single, wrong subject matter – and no idea how to promote it. Thanks to the crew at Ready Steady Go! and the fans at the Chuck Berry gigs, it ended up right in the corner of the net. It broke The Beatles’ grip on the No 1 spot, for a while.

Valentine: We were in a rehearsal studio in London when [manager] Mike Jefferey came in and said it was too long to put “Trad. Arranged by”… with all our names on the record. And we’ll sort the division of the money out later.

Burdon: Can you believe that we were so naïve? Well… we were. We all could have done with the extra cash… but I guess Alan Price felt he needed it more than anyone else.

Valentine: One day [in 1965] Pricey up and left the band. He didn’t give any notice. Chas said, “He must’ve got his first royalty cheque.” We were five guys from Newcastle. We were all buddies. And we started to realise we were getting ripped off, by everybody and his mother. But to be ripped off within the group, our circle – it was a bit sad.

Burdon: Many years later, on the ’83 Animals reunion tour, Chas Chandler called a meeting. He proposed that all the royalties from that day on be shared among the original members. Alan Price’s reaction was “Go fuck yourself,” or words to that effect. He got up and left. He has a head made of granite.

Steel: It rankled more with Hilton and Eric than anybody else. Eric still explodes about it. And I know it ate away at Hilton for a long time.

Burdon: The upside of the success was that it sent me off on a trip to the land of the blues, which I’d always dreamt about since I was a kid. In America, we were lumped in with the rest of the great bands that emerged from the UK and woke up the US to their own music. Legend has it that Bob Dylan was pushed into the electronic era due to The Animals’ version of the song.

Valentine: It was only when we were on tour there that we heard “House…” on the radio, and realised they’d chopped over a minute out of it. We were furious. No-one had told us.

Steel: In America they were still very conservative, very much in the 1950s. It was a shock to us. Whereas in Europe, we were a boys’ hardcore R’n’B and blues band, America introduced us to… waves of girls. We took whatever came at us.

Valentine: It was a two-and-a-half-year roller-coaster ride. “House…” was beyond our wildest dreams.

Burdon: I can separate the song from the debacle that was the band and still deliver it with conviction, knowing that a whole world of several generations of young people began an interest in music because of that song and that band, despite itself.

FactFile

Written by: Trad. Arranged by Alan Price

Performers: Eric Burdon (vocals), Alan Price (organ), Hilton Valentine (guitar), Chas Chandler (bass), John Steel (drums)

Produced by: Mickie Most

Recorded at: De Lane Lea Studios, Kingsway, London

Released as a single: July 1964

Highest UK chart position: 1

Highest US chart position: 1

Timeline

1962 The bandmembers first hear “House Of The Rising Sun” – either on Bob Dylan, or in Tyneside folk clubs

April 24-26, 1964 The Animals rehearse their version at Newcastle’s Club A Go Go, in readiness for a tour with the legendary Chuck Berry

May 18, 1964 Mid-tour, The Animals record the song in one take

July 1964 After initial resistance from the BBC due to its four-and-a-half minute length, it hits the UK No 1 spot. Within weeks, it’s a global smash

Matthew E White and the new Uncut

John Mulvey
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0
Matthew E White and the new Uncut

Three weeks and a few hours ago, I found myself on a small plane from Richmond, Virginia, to Washington DC. Most of the other passengers were members of the Harvard baseball team, who had spent the past three hours being harassed by schoolgirls making innumerable Harlem Shake videos. I, though, was sat next to a woman from Colorado, who was studying the use of horses in Gestalt therapy. The Harvard baseball team had, I think, just been beaten by Virginia Commonwealth University, who were enjoying a decent sporting run. On the Saturday, their basketball team had thrashed Butler 84 to 52: I know this, because the game had been on TV while I tried to explain the rules of cricket to a characteristically patient Matthew E White and his bandmate/housemate Pinson Chanselle. I spent the weekend with White, and his extended Spacebomb family, for a feature which appears in this week’s new issue of Uncut. The marvellous “Big Inner”, it transpires, was mostly recorded in the attic of White’s smallish Richmond pad, next door to that of a builder called DJ Doug who had, apparently, converted his house into a nightclub of sorts. On the Friday night, White opened up his house as a venue, too, hosting something called Free Jazz Friday. The prehistory of Spacebomb and “Big Inner” is to some extent rooted in a local jazz scene that White and his contemporaries helped establish, via the jazz programme at VCU, and consequently the players entertaining about 40 people in the Spacebomb loft were part of the 30-or-so strong crew who contributed to “Big Inner”. First, a trombonist called Bryan Hooten played a solo set of disconcerting moans, blowing/singing hybrids, Colin Stetson-ish ambience, insectivorous grind and something inspired by Dune. Then, more conventionally, there was a set by the Scott Clark 4Tet, with a rhythm section of Clark (second drummer, alongside Chanselle, in White’s touring band) and Cameron Ralston (the constant bassist in the Spacebomb House Band). I was pretty jetlagged, and distracted by an over-excited terrier and Ralston’s toddler, but they referenced Ornette Coleman and Fred Anderson quite a lot and sounded great… From the outside, reading a bunch of stories about White and his scene, it can be hard to tell whether such a fertile generation of players are typical in most medium-sized American cities. On the ground, though, and digging into the music they’ve made in the past, it’s clear there’s an unusual richness and depth here – notably the Fight The Big Bull big band… … and my personal favourites, Trey Pollard’s Old New Things… Pollard took the lead at a practice/demo session that I sat in on, as he, White, Ralston and Chanselle worked on a new tune built on a kind of sprung Meters groove, then overlaid with a piano line from Pollard that began like something by Leon Russell before slowly evolving into a spacey meditation closer in spirit to Bill Evans. It was all nothing like most people’s idea of a rock band rehearsal, mostly because the Spacebomb quartet are nothing like a rock band, being four virtuoso jazz players assiduously poring over sheet music. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dMHHG1K6vg4 A great and privileged trip – and hopefully, an interesting feature. The new issue is out on Thursday, I think (hopefully subscribers will get copies a little earlier than that), and also features The Who, Cream, a lovely piece about Kevin Ayers, Graham Nash, Steve Martin, Swans, Jeff Lynne, Kurt Vile, Shuggie Otis, Davy Graham and The Pastels. And besides the White/Spacebomb backstory, there’s also a clue or two about what they might do next. As revealed in the “Big Inner” sleevenotes, there’s a Nashville singer-songwriter on their books called Natalie Prass who sounds especially good. Have a look at one last link and see what you think… http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4OuVUQIE3gM Follow me on Twitter: www.twitter.com/JohnRMulvey

Three weeks and a few hours ago, I found myself on a small plane from Richmond, Virginia, to Washington DC. Most of the other passengers were members of the Harvard baseball team, who had spent the past three hours being harassed by schoolgirls making innumerable Harlem Shake videos. I, though, was sat next to a woman from Colorado, who was studying the use of horses in Gestalt therapy.

The Harvard baseball team had, I think, just been beaten by Virginia Commonwealth University, who were enjoying a decent sporting run. On the Saturday, their basketball team had thrashed Butler 84 to 52: I know this, because the game had been on TV while I tried to explain the rules of cricket to a characteristically patient Matthew E White and his bandmate/housemate Pinson Chanselle.

I spent the weekend with White, and his extended Spacebomb family, for a feature which appears in this week’s new issue of Uncut. The marvellous “Big Inner”, it transpires, was mostly recorded in the attic of White’s smallish Richmond pad, next door to that of a builder called DJ Doug who had, apparently, converted his house into a nightclub of sorts.

On the Friday night, White opened up his house as a venue, too, hosting something called Free Jazz Friday. The prehistory of Spacebomb and “Big Inner” is to some extent rooted in a local jazz scene that White and his contemporaries helped establish, via the jazz programme at VCU, and consequently the players entertaining about 40 people in the Spacebomb loft were part of the 30-or-so strong crew who contributed to “Big Inner”. First, a trombonist called Bryan Hooten played a solo set of disconcerting moans, blowing/singing hybrids, Colin Stetson-ish ambience, insectivorous grind and something inspired by Dune.

Then, more conventionally, there was a set by the Scott Clark 4Tet, with a rhythm section of Clark (second drummer, alongside Chanselle, in White’s touring band) and Cameron Ralston (the constant bassist in the Spacebomb House Band). I was pretty jetlagged, and distracted by an over-excited terrier and Ralston’s toddler, but they referenced Ornette Coleman and Fred Anderson quite a lot and sounded great…

From the outside, reading a bunch of stories about White and his scene, it can be hard to tell whether such a fertile generation of players are typical in most medium-sized American cities. On the ground, though, and digging into the music they’ve made in the past, it’s clear there’s an unusual richness and depth here – notably the Fight The Big Bull big band…

… and my personal favourites, Trey Pollard’s Old New Things…

Pollard took the lead at a practice/demo session that I sat in on, as he, White, Ralston and Chanselle worked on a new tune built on a kind of sprung Meters groove, then overlaid with a piano line from Pollard that began like something by Leon Russell before slowly evolving into a spacey meditation closer in spirit to Bill Evans. It was all nothing like most people’s idea of a rock band rehearsal, mostly because the Spacebomb quartet are nothing like a rock band, being four virtuoso jazz players assiduously poring over sheet music.

A great and privileged trip – and hopefully, an interesting feature. The new issue is out on Thursday, I think (hopefully subscribers will get copies a little earlier than that), and also features The Who, Cream, a lovely piece about Kevin Ayers, Graham Nash, Steve Martin, Swans, Jeff Lynne, Kurt Vile, Shuggie Otis, Davy Graham and The Pastels.

And besides the White/Spacebomb backstory, there’s also a clue or two about what they might do next. As revealed in the “Big Inner” sleevenotes, there’s a Nashville singer-songwriter on their books called Natalie Prass who sounds especially good. Have a look at one last link and see what you think…

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

Pete Townshend on The Who’s early days: “If I wasn’t working I would have been drinking, smoking grass and taking pep pills”

Uncut
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0
Pete Townshend on The Who’s early days: “If I wasn’t working I would have been drinking, smoking grass and taking pep pills”
Pete Townshend recalls The Who’s wild early days, including their legendary performances at London’s Marquee club, in the new issue of Uncut, out on Thursday (March 28). “If I wasn't working, I would have been drinking, smoking grass and taking pep pills,” Townshend tells Uncut. Referrin...

Pete Townshend recalls The Who’s wild early days, including their legendary performances at London’s Marquee club, in the new issue of Uncut, out on Thursday (March 28).

“If I wasn’t working, I would have been drinking, smoking grass and taking pep pills,” Townshend tells Uncut.

Referring to The Who’s famous early shows at London’s Marquee, where the group found their voice and established their dynamic ‘Maximum R&B’ image, the guitarist explains: “The Soho location was important. It was still a magical place back then.

“The Marquee was a good venue for sound and it made us appear to be cool.”

As well as telling the story of The Who launching their career with energy, violence, Pop Art stunts and overwhelming volume, the cover feature also takes a look at some of the other groups who performed at the Marquee, including the Jimi Hendrix Experience, The Rolling Stones, David Bowie, The Pink Floyd, The Yardbirds and even Gilbert & George.

The new issue of Uncut, dated May 2013, is out on Thursday (March 28).

Daft Punk announce new album title and release date

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Daft Punk announce new album title and release date
Daft Punk have announced the title of their new album and its release date. Titled 'Random Access Memories', the French dance duo's fourth album is out May 21 via their Daft Life imprint on Columbia Records. The pair, which consists of Thomas Bangalter and Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo, recently anno...

Daft Punk have announced the title of their new album and its release date.

Titled ‘Random Access Memories’, the French dance duo’s fourth album is out May 21 via their Daft Life imprint on Columbia Records. The pair, which consists of Thomas Bangalter and Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo, recently announced they had left Virgin, with whom they signed to in 1996.

The follow-up to 2005’s ‘Human After All’ will contain 13 new tracks, however, the tracklisting and song titles have yet to be confirmed. Earlier this month, the duo teased the album release with a brief 16 second promo on Saturday Night Live.

The pair have been working with Chic’s Nile Rodgers, who previously hinted their fourth album would appear in 2013, as well as Oscar-winning songwriter Paul Williams and disco pioneer Giorgio Moroder. Animal Collective’s Panda Bear and Feist collaborator Chilly Gonzales are also rumoured to have collaborated with the duo.

There were strong rumours Daft Punk would be among the performers at this year’s Glastonbury Festival, though organiser Emily Eavis has denied this will happen.

Daft Punk released their debut album ‘Homework’ in 1997, followed by ‘Discovery’ and ‘Human After All’ in 2001 and 2005 respectively. Their most recent release was the soundtrack for ‘Tron: Legacy’ in 2010.

St Vincent, Sharon Van Etten, Sufjan Stevens, others to appear on new The National album

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St Vincent, Sharon Van Etten, Sufjan Stevens, others to appear on new The National album
St Vincent, Sharon Van Etten and Sufjan Stevens are among the guests who appear on The National's forthcoming sixth studio album. Arcade Fire's Richard Reed Parry, Doveman and Nona Marie Invie, from US band Dark Dark Dark, also contributed to 'Trouble Will Fine Me', which is out on May 20. Drummer...

St Vincent, Sharon Van Etten and Sufjan Stevens are among the guests who appear on The National’s forthcoming sixth studio album.

Arcade Fire’s Richard Reed Parry, Doveman and Nona Marie Invie, from US band Dark Dark Dark, also contributed to ‘Trouble Will Fine Me’, which is out on May 20.

Drummer Bryan Devendorf let slip details of the impressive cast list in an interview with Gothamist. Speaking about Sufjan Stevens contribution, he said: “There are some drum machines provided by Sufjan Stevens—he did some other things too, but he had this drum machine and he did some cool little parts on that.”

He continued: “It’s [drum machine] on a bunch [of songs], it’s definitely on ‘Demons’, there’s some subtle stuff on ‘Pink Rabbits’, and definitely on ‘I Need My Girl’. But it’s not like Daft Punk or anything.”

Asked about other contributors, he added: “There are several. I know [Arcade Fire’s] Richard Reed Parry did a lot of great stuff. [Doveman] Thomas Bartlett was all over it. There are some great guest vocalists that did really awesome parts: [St. Vincent] Annie Clark, Sharon Van Etten, and Nona Marie Invie, from the band Dark Dark Dark.”

‘Trouble Will Find Me’, produced by Craig Silvey, is the follow-up to 2010’s ‘High Violet. The US band are promising fans that their new songs will be more “immediate and visceral” than their previous work.

Reincarnated

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Reincarnated

Snoop Dogg goes reggae; gets stoned... “I’m a point in my career now when I have to say something,” Snoop Dogg explains to Bunny Wailer, as the two men stoke up some fruity Californian weed. Reincarnated finds the Californian rapper at a transitional period in his life. He has just turned 40, but arguably of greater impact is the recent death of his school friend and collaborator Nate Dogg. In an introspective frame of mind, Snoop sees parallels between himself and Bob Marley – “not just the weed, [but] the struggle, the love, the peace, the power” – and heads to Jamaica to get a “real thorough understanding of reggae, Rastafari and the whole lifestyle” while also recording an album at one of the island’s high-end residential studio complexes. Directed by former NME staffer and now Vice editor Andy Capper, Reincarnated is an intimate film about Snoop’s personal journey to becoming Snoop Lion – an epithet bestowed upon him by Bunny Wailer, a man for whom weed is apparently best smoked through a device resembling a hollowed-out carrot. Throughout the film, Snoop finds resonances with his own life. A visit to Kingston’s beleaguered Tivoli Gardens neighbourhood prompts memories of gangbanging on the eastside of Long Beach – “21st Street block East Side LBC!” Elsewhere, a nocturnal trip to Trenchtown with Damian Marley sets Snoop musing on the parallels between Marley Snr, Wailer and Peter Tosh and his own friendship with Nate Dogg and Warren G. But this isn’t just a film about one man’s path to spiritual fulfilment and the recording on an album. It is also a film where some men get deeply stoned – often with hilarious consequences. A journey to a weed farm deep into the Blue Mountain Range with some toothless dudes who look like pirates provides some great stoner comedy – Daz Dillinger rolling around on the floor, too stoned to get up, is priceless. The film is particularly strong on context, with Capper getting good interviews with Snoop, commendably honest about his time as a gangbanger, his relationship with Death Row boss Suge Knight, the death of Tupac Shakur and his own criminal activities. “I’m wise, or a bit wiser,” says Snoop, with a smile. Michael Bonner

Snoop Dogg goes reggae; gets stoned…

“I’m a point in my career now when I have to say something,” Snoop Dogg explains to Bunny Wailer, as the two men stoke up some fruity Californian weed. Reincarnated finds the Californian rapper at a transitional period in his life. He has just turned 40, but arguably of greater impact is the recent death of his school friend and collaborator Nate Dogg. In an introspective frame of mind, Snoop sees parallels between himself and Bob Marley – “not just the weed, [but] the struggle, the love, the peace, the power” – and heads to Jamaica to get a “real thorough understanding of reggae, Rastafari and the whole lifestyle” while also recording an album at one of the island’s high-end residential studio complexes.

Directed by former NME staffer and now Vice editor Andy Capper, Reincarnated is an intimate film about Snoop’s personal journey to becoming Snoop Lion – an epithet bestowed upon him by Bunny Wailer, a man for whom weed is apparently best smoked through a device resembling a hollowed-out carrot. Throughout the film, Snoop finds resonances with his own life. A visit to Kingston’s beleaguered Tivoli Gardens neighbourhood prompts memories of gangbanging on the eastside of Long Beach – “21st Street block East Side LBC!” Elsewhere, a nocturnal trip to Trenchtown with Damian Marley sets Snoop musing on the parallels between Marley Snr, Wailer and Peter Tosh and his own friendship with Nate Dogg and Warren G.

But this isn’t just a film about one man’s path to spiritual fulfilment and the recording on an album. It is also a film where some men get deeply stoned – often with hilarious consequences. A journey to a weed farm deep into the Blue Mountain Range with some toothless dudes who look like pirates provides some great stoner comedy – Daz Dillinger rolling around on the floor, too stoned to get up, is priceless. The film is particularly strong on context, with Capper getting good interviews with Snoop, commendably honest about his time as a gangbanger, his relationship with Death Row boss Suge Knight, the death of Tupac Shakur and his own criminal activities. “I’m wise, or a bit wiser,” says Snoop, with a smile.

Michael Bonner

The Rolling Stones to play Hyde Park?

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The Rolling Stones to play Hyde Park?
The Rolling Stones will play London's Hyde Park in the summer, according to a story in Rolling Stone. The band are believed to be readying themselves for an 18-date North American tour, which Rolling Stone - quoting a source close to the band - reveals will start on May 2. The story goes on to say...

The Rolling Stones will play London’s Hyde Park in the summer, according to a story in Rolling Stone.

The band are believed to be readying themselves for an 18-date North American tour, which Rolling Stone – quoting a source close to the band – reveals will start on May 2.

The story goes on to say that, according to their source, the Stones will play Hyde Park in July, with the possibility of further European festival dates.

Rolling Stone goes on to report that the Stones have hired AEG Live as their promoter for the North American tour. According to the story, the Stones will receive between $4 and $5 million per show. The story also reveals that AEG will announce details of the tour in early April.

Kasabian’s Sergio Pizzorno recently let slip he believed the Stones were due to play Glastonbury this year.

Bob Dylan, David Bowie, the Rolling Stones, Kate Bush and Paul Weller head up Record Store Day 2013 releases

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Bob Dylan, David Bowie, the Rolling Stones, Kate Bush and Paul Weller head up Record Store Day 2013 releases

The complete list of 125 records due for release on Record Store Day 2013 on April 20 has been revealed. Among the highlights, David Bowie is releasing a 7” of “The Stars (Are Out Tonight”/”Where Are They Now” from his new album, The Next Day, alongside reissues of the 1973 single, “Drive In Saturday” and his “Bowie 1965!” EP. As previously reported on Uncut Bob Dylan will release demos of “Wigwam”/”Thirsty Boots” from the Self Portrait sessions. The White Stripes will reissue their 2003 album, Elephant, on coloured vinyl. Kate Bush will release a 10” picture disc remix of “Running Up That Hill” that first aired during last year’s Olympic Games. Pulp will release their track “After You” as a 12”, containing a Soulwax remix as well as the James Murphy-produced original. Paul Weller has recorded two exclusive tracks for a 7” single, “Flame Out”! and “The Olde Original”. The Rolling Stones will reissue their “Five By Five EP” from 1964. Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds will issue a 7” picture disc, “Animal X”. Stephen Malkmus will release his live cover of Can’s Ege Bamyasi album. You can find a full list of UK only Record Store Day releases here.

The complete list of 125 records due for release on Record Store Day 2013 on April 20 has been revealed.

Among the highlights, David Bowie is releasing a 7” of “The Stars (Are Out Tonight”/”Where Are They Now” from his new album, The Next Day, alongside reissues of the 1973 single, “Drive In Saturday” and his “Bowie 1965!” EP.

As previously reported on Uncut Bob Dylan will release demos of “Wigwam”/”Thirsty Boots” from the Self Portrait sessions.

The White Stripes will reissue their 2003 album, Elephant, on coloured vinyl.

Kate Bush will release a 10” picture disc remix of “Running Up That Hill” that first aired during last year’s Olympic Games.

Pulp will release their track “After You” as a 12”, containing a Soulwax remix as well as the James Murphy-produced original.

Paul Weller has recorded two exclusive tracks for a 7” single, “Flame Out”! and “The Olde Original”.

The Rolling Stones will reissue their “Five By Five EP” from 1964.

Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds will issue a 7” picture disc, “Animal X”.

Stephen Malkmus will release his live cover of Can’s Ege Bamyasi album.

You can find a full list of UK only Record Store Day releases here.

Read Tilda Swinton’s after-dinner speech from David Bowie exhibition launch in full

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Read Tilda Swinton’s after-dinner speech from David Bowie exhibition launch in full
Tilda Swinton launched the David Bowie Is exhibition at London's Victoria And Albert Museum last night (March 20). Scroll down to read her after-dinner speech in full. During the address, the actress made mention of the fact that Bowie himself was not in attendance. She said: "I know you aren't he...

Tilda Swinton launched the David Bowie Is exhibition at London’s Victoria And Albert Museum last night (March 20). Scroll down to read her after-dinner speech in full.

During the address, the actress made mention of the fact that Bowie himself was not in attendance.

She said: “I know you aren’t here tonight, but somehow, no matter. We are – and you brought us out of the wainscotting like so many freaky old bastards.”

Swinton – who starred in the video for Bowie’s latest single ‘The Stars (Are Out Tonight)’ – also called Bowie “every alien’s favourite cousin” in her speech.

A host of stars from the worlds of fashion, TV, film and music turned out to see the exhibition. Also in attendance at the V&A were Noel Gallagher, Bill Nighy, Doctor Who actor Matt Smith, Tracey Emin, Rosario Dawson, Kaya Scodelario, Nick Grimshaw and Pixie Geldof.

Pre-sale tickets for the show – which opens to the public on Saturday (March 23) – have sold faster than any other exhibit at the museum.

The exhibition features 300 Bowie related artefacts, including photographs, film, set designs, handwritten lyrics and 60 stage costumes.

Swinton’s speech – via the V&A’s website – was as follows (punctuation added):

“When I asked you if you wanted me to say anything here tonight, you said ‘Only three words, one of them testicular…’

“So I’ll pass that on.

“Here I am at surely the most eclectic of all the London branches of Bowie Anonymous. All the nicest possible freaks are here.

“We’re in the Victoria & Albert museum preparing to rifle through your drawers. It’s truly an amazing thing.

“This was my favourite playground as a child, 
medieval armour: my fantasy space wear.

“And, alongside, when I was 12 – and a square sort of kid in a round pond sort of childhood, not far from here – I carried a copy of Aladdin Sane around with me – a full 2 years before I had the wherewithal to play it.

“The image of that gingery, boney, pinky, whitey person on the cover with the liquid mercury collar bone was – for one particular young moonage daydreamer – the image of planetary kin, of a close imaginary cousin and companion of choice.

“It’s taken me a long time to admit, even to myself, let alone you, that it was the vision and not yet the sound that hooked me up – but if I can’t confess that here and now, then when and where?

“We all have our own roots.
 And routes
. To this room.

“Some of us – the enviable – found the fellowship early in the funfests of Billy’s Bowie Nights 
or equivalent lodges from San Francisco to Auckland to Heidelberg and all points in between.

“For others, it was a more lonesome affair, paced out in a sort of private Morse Code like following bread crumbs through a forest.

“I’m not saying that if you hadn’t pitched up I would have worn a pie crust collar and pearls like some of those I went to school with. I’m not saying that if you hadn’t weighed in, Princess Julia would have been less inventive with the pink blusher.
 Simply that, you provided the sideways like us with such rare and out-there company. 
Such fellowship
. You pulled us in and left your arm dangling over our necks. 
And kept us warm, as you have for – isn’t it? – centuries now. You were
, you are one of us.

“And you have remained the reliable mortal in amongst all the immortal shapes you have thrown.

“Nothing more certain than changes.

“Always with a weather eye out. 
Always awake and clocking the fallout.

“Those Mayans must have known something when they set their calendar down before. 
January 2013.

“Because, of course, now all bets are off.

“I know, because you told me, how tickled you were to knock Elvis – for once! – out of the headlines on your shared birthday this year.

“There’s so much for all of us to be happy about since then.

“Yet, I think the thing I’m loving the most about the last few weeks is how clear it now is – how undeniable – that the freak becomes the great unifier. The alien is the best company after all. 
For so many more than the few.

“They wanted a Bowie fan to speak tonight. They could have thrown a paper napkin and hit a hundred.
 I’m the lucky one, standing up to speak for all my fellow freaks anxious to win the pub quiz and claim their number one most super-fan tshirt.

“I want to give thanks to the Victoria & Albert museum for indulging us so. 
For laying on our dream show.

“To Gucci and Sennheiser for putting up the cash, laying on the sound and vision. 
To Geoffrey [Marsh] and [Victoria Broackes] for curetting an entire universe so beautifully, on behalf of us all. When I think of what it used to feel like once 
to be a freak who liked you. 
To feel like a freak like you 
- a freak who even looked a little like you.

“And then I think of the countless people of every size and feather who are going to walk through this trace of your journey here and pick up the breadcrumbs
in the great hub of this mothership over these Spring and Summer months.

“And how familiar and stamped you are into ALL of our our collective DNA.

“I’m just plain proud.

“So, where are we now?

“Well, 
I know you aren’t here tonight. But, somehow, no matter.

“We are – 
And you brought us out of the wainscotting like so many. 
Freaky old bastards.
 Like so many fan boys and girls. 
Like so many loners and pretty things and dandies and dudes and dukes and duckies and testicular types. 
And pulled us together.

“Together.


“By you 
Dave Jones.


“Our not so absent, not so invisible, friend.

“Every alien’s favourite cousin.


“Certainly mine.

“We have a nice life.

“Yours aye.

“Tilly.”

Bauhaus’ Peter Murphy pleads not guilty to hit and run and drug possession charges

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Bauhaus’ Peter Murphy pleads not guilty to hit and run and drug possession charges
Bauhaus' Peter Murphy has pleaded not guilty to hit and run and drug possession charges after being arrested in Glendale, California on Sunday (March 16). According to The Glendale News-Press, the singer pleaded not guilty to all charges relating to his arrest at the weekend including driving unde...

Bauhaus’ Peter Murphy has pleaded not guilty to hit and run and drug possession charges after being arrested in Glendale, California on Sunday (March 16).

According to The Glendale News-Press, the singer pleaded not guilty to all charges relating to his arrest at the weekend including driving under the influence of drugs or alcohol, hit-and-run driving and possessing methamphetamine (commonly known as crystal meth). Murphy did not appear at the Los Angeles County Superior Court on Tuesday (March 19) but entered his plea via his attorney. He has since been released from jail on his own recognisance, though the judge has prohibited Murphy from driving “anywhere” under “any condition.”

A statement on Murphy’s Facebook page reads: “All charges that were originally filled as felonies were lowered to misdemeanours and Peter was released with with no bail or restrictions. Even on the lower charges Peter has pleaded not guilty. He wishes to thank everyone for their support and can’t wait to start touring.”

A statement from his lawyer on the same Facebook page continues: “The amount of Alcohol in Peter’s Bloodstream was measured at 0.01 way under the 0.08 which is legal. This is the lowest amount of alcohol that is able to register on a breathalyser. We cannot say anything more right now as after pleading NOT guilty to all charges Peter now must say no more until this matter is resolved.”

Yesterday, it was reported that Murphy had been arrested after allegedly injuring another driver after crashing a car in Glendale, Southern California before fleeing to Los Angeles, where he was held up by an eyewitness until police arrived.

Earlier this year, Peter Murphy announced that he would be setting out to perform Bauhaus material on a 49-date US and European tour to support the band’s 35th anniversary. He is due to play five dates in the UK in June.

Stevie Nicks on Lindsey Buckingham split: ‘We never let love affairs break Fleetwood Mac up’

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Stevie Nicks on Lindsey Buckingham split: ‘We never let love affairs break Fleetwood Mac up’
Fleetwood Mac's Stevie Nicks has opened up about her break-up with fellow bandmate Lindsey Buckingham. Speaking in an interview on Oprah's Master Class on Saturday (March 24) the singer opens up about breaking up with Buckingham, which famously happened when the group began work on their seminal 1...

Fleetwood Mac’s Stevie Nicks has opened up about her break-up with fellow bandmate Lindsey Buckingham.

Speaking in an interview on Oprah’s Master Class on Saturday (March 24) the singer opens up about breaking up with Buckingham, which famously happened when the group began work on their seminal 1977 album ‘Rumours’. The album was recorded at California’s now-defunct Sound City studios – and features in Dave Grohl’s new documentary Sound City.

“The band was way more important than each separate person’s problems,” Nicks says in a video teaser for the interview, which you can watch below. “And we knew that. So we never, ever, with everything that happened to us, ever, let love affairs break Fleetwood Mac up. But Lindsey always blamed Fleetwood Mac for the loss of me. Had we not joined Fleetwood Mac we would’ve continued on with our music but we probably would’ve gotten married, and we probably would’ve had a child.”

Fleetwood Mac are set to come to the UK as part of a forthcoming world tour. Speaking about UK tour dates, drummer Mick Fleetwood recently said: “We’re doing a big world tour that starts in April. We’re coming here [the UK] in September, October and maybe a bit longer. We’re doing a lot of work here so we are coming.” The drummer also revealed that there is a new Fleetwood Mac album in the pipeline and that new songs will be released online in the coming months.

The band were rumored to be making their debut appearance on the Pyramid Stage at this years’ Glastonbury Festival, however a string of US dates announced over the same weekend makes this seem unlikely.

Fleetwood Mac will play:

Dublin 02 (September 20)

London O2 Arena (24, 25, 27)

Birmingham LG Arena (29)

Manchester Arena (October 1)

Glasgow The Hydro (3)

Morrissey ‘cautioned’ to retire from music because of health worries

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Morrissey ‘cautioned’ to retire from music because of health worries
Morrissey has said that he has been 'cautioned' to retire from music, because of his recent health troubles. Speaking to Mexican radio station Reactor 105.7 – via MSN - the singer said: "I have been cautioned to, but it's difficult for me because it's very ingrained in me." Morrissey recently ca...

Morrissey has said that he has been ‘cautioned’ to retire from music, because of his recent health troubles.

Speaking to Mexican radio station Reactor 105.7 – via MSN – the singer said: “I have been cautioned to, but it’s difficult for me because it’s very ingrained in me.”

Morrissey recently cancelled the remainder of his US tour. A statement issued on behalf of the singer cited “medical mishaps” as the reason for the cancellation of the planned shows. Morrissey has been suffering from mounting health issues over the past few months, including Barrett’s esophagus, a bleeding ulcer and double pneumonia.

The singer’s publicist, Lauren Papapietro, said in a statement: “Despite his best efforts to try to continue touring, Morrissey has to take a hiatus and will not be able to continue on the rest of the tour. Morrissey thanks all of his fans for their well wishes and thoughts.”

Speaking to Reactor 105.7, the former frontman of The Smiths said of his hospitalisation:

“I had a very bad time. I had internal bleeding and I was rushed into hospital and I had lost a lot of blood. They tried to patch me together over the following five weeks but it didn’t work… I was on lots of IV drips for almost five weeks, and each time it seemed as though I was back to robust health I would decline… I had lost so much blood I had become anaemic, but I’m still receiving ongoing treatment and I am very optimistic now.”

He continued: “It almost became absurd the number of things that happened to me, but everything just attacked me at once. The double pneumonia – everything was really a result of the fact I had lost so much blood, so the immune defenses were very, very low and couldn’t cope with anything, so therefore the slightest gust of wind and I would have a terrible cold.”

Need More-issey? Check out our Ultimate Music Guide: The Smiths on newsstands now.

Waterboys album Fisherman’s Blues honoured with box set, tour

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Waterboys album Fisherman’s Blues honoured with box set, tour

The Waterboys will celebrate the 25th anniversary of Fisherman’s Blues with a box set of the album and a UK tour. Due for release on October 14, Fisherman’s Box will comprise a seven-disc set with 121 tracks from the album sessions, including 85 unreleased tracks. Mike Scott will be writing the liner notes with additional contributions from Decemberist Colin Meloy. The tour, which begins in December, will reunite Scott and Steve Wickham with Fisherman's-era members Anto Thistlethwaite and Trevor Hutchinson alongside current Waterboys drummer Ralph Salmins. The tour dates are as follows: December 8, Liverpool Philharmonic. December 9, Glasgow Royal Concert Hall. December 10, Glasgow Barrowland. December 11, York Barbican. December 12, Birmingham Alexandra. December 15, Oxford New Theatre. December 16, Guildford Glive. December 17, Bristol Colston Hall. December 18, Hammersmith Apollo December 20, Drogheda Tlt. December 21, Killarney Inec. December 22, Galway Leisureland December 23, Dublin Convention Centre

The Waterboys will celebrate the 25th anniversary of Fisherman’s Blues with a box set of the album and a UK tour.

Due for release on October 14, Fisherman’s Box will comprise a seven-disc set with 121 tracks from the album sessions, including 85 unreleased tracks. Mike Scott will be writing the liner notes with additional contributions from Decemberist Colin Meloy.

The tour, which begins in December, will reunite Scott and Steve Wickham with Fisherman’s-era members Anto Thistlethwaite and Trevor Hutchinson alongside current Waterboys drummer Ralph Salmins.

The tour dates are as follows:

December 8, Liverpool Philharmonic.

December 9, Glasgow Royal Concert Hall.

December 10, Glasgow Barrowland.

December 11, York Barbican.

December 12, Birmingham Alexandra.

December 15, Oxford New Theatre.

December 16, Guildford Glive.

December 17, Bristol Colston Hall.

December 18, Hammersmith Apollo

December 20, Drogheda Tlt.

December 21, Killarney Inec.

December 22, Galway Leisureland

December 23, Dublin Convention Centre

The National reveal new album details

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The National reveal new album details
The National have announced the release date and track listing for their upcoming album, Trouble Will Find Me. The band's follow up to 2010's High Violet, Trouble Will Find Me will be released on on May 20, followed by an international tour. Speaking to Uncut for our 2013 Album Preview, The Nation...

The National have announced the release date and track listing for their upcoming album, Trouble Will Find Me.

The band’s follow up to 2010’s High Violet, Trouble Will Find Me will be released on on May 20, followed by an international tour.

Speaking to Uncut for our 2013 Album Preview, The National’s singer Matt Berninger said, “We’re a little worried, because we’re more excited at this point than we have ever been on a record. They were always very slow and difficult to make, with lots of anxiety. During Boxer, Aaron… I don’t know if technically he had a nervous breakdown but his lung collapsed. High Violet wasn’t that bad, but this time around we realised we should just enjoy the process. Everyone is pretty optimistic.”

Berninger added, “The theme that is coming up in a lot of songs is death and dying. But there are a lot of fun songs about it. I wouldn’t call them dark. Maybe its about being a husband and a father – before that, I wasn’t so afraid of death. Once you have people who depend on you, you start worrying about your mortality, not being about to protect them. But there’s not much anxiety in the songs, they’re just wondering about it, thinking it through. As the songs come together, all these subtle references about the passing into some other phase, or ending, keep coming into songs, in kind of funny ways. It’s a fun record about dying!”

The track listing for Trouble Will Find Us is:

1) I Should Live In Salt

2) Demons

3) Don’t Swallow The Cap

4) Fireproof

5) Sea Of Love

6) Heavenfaced

7) This Is The Last Time

8) Graceless

9) Slipped

10) I Need My Girl

11) Humiliation

12) Pink Rabbits

13) Hard To Find

The band’s current confirmed tour dates are:

May, 16, State Theater – Ithaca, NY

May, 26, Boston Calling/ City Hall Plaza – Boston, MA

June, 05, Barclay’s Center – Brooklyn, NY

June, 06, Merriweather Post Pavilion – Columbia, MD

June, 07, Mann Center for Performing Arts – Philadelphia, PA

June, 08, The National – Richmond, VA

June, 10, Red Hat Amphitheatre – Raleigh, NC

June, 11, Stage AE – Pittsburgh, PA

June, 13, Lachine Canal – Montreal, Canada

June, 14, Yonge Dundas Square – Toronto, Canada

June, 15, The LC Pavilion – Columbus, OH

June, 13-16, Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival – Manchester, TN

June, 21, Hurricane Festival – Scheessel, Germany

June, 22, Southside Festival – Neuhausen ob Eck, Germany

June, 25, Cirque Royal – Brussels, Belgium

June, 28, Live At The Marquee – Cork, Ireland

June, 30, Parco Della Musica – Rome, Italy

July, 01, City Sound Festival – Milan, Italy

July, 02, Salata – Zagreb, Croatia

July, 14, Bunbury Music Festival – Cincinnati, OH

August, 06, Roy Wilkins Auditorium – St. Paul, MN

August, 10, Greek Theatre – Los Angeles, CA

September 17, Red Rocks Amphitheater – Morrison, CO

Scott Walker to present show at the Sydney Opera House

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Scott Walker to present show at the Sydney Opera House
Scott Walker will present his most recent album, 2012’s Bish Bosch, as a unique three-dimensional experience at the Sydney Opera House. Running from May 24 to June 10, Bish Bosch: Ambisymphonic has been developed by Walker with mixed media artists Iain Forsyth and Jane Pollard. It will feature t...

Scott Walker will present his most recent album, 2012’s Bish Bosch, as a unique three-dimensional experience at the Sydney Opera House.

Running from May 24 to June 10, Bish Bosch: Ambisymphonic has been developed by Walker with mixed media artists Iain Forsyth and Jane Pollard.

It will feature the Bish Bosch album remixed and reassembled and will take place in a purpose-built geodesic dome of speakers, to create a 3D experience. The event will form part of this year’s Vivid LIVE series, which will also feature Kraftwerk’s 3D show, as well as sets from Bobby Womack and Matthew E White.

“Bish Bosch: Ambisymphonic” will run nightly with free admittance. Tickets can be booked on the Vivid LIVE website.

To read Uncut’s review of Bish Bosch, click here on your iPad/iPhone and here on your Kindle Fire or Nook.

Michelle Shocked: ‘I’m damn sorry’ as audio of the concert emerges

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Michelle Shocked: ‘I’m damn sorry’ as audio of the concert emerges
Michelle Shocked has finally responded to accusations that her comments at a California concert were homophobic. Shocked released a statement last night, claiming those comments have been gravely misinterpreted. Purported audio of the concert has also come to light. On Sunday (March 17), Shocked re...

Michelle Shocked has finally responded to accusations that her comments at a California concert were homophobic. Shocked released a statement last night, claiming those comments have been gravely misinterpreted. Purported audio of the concert has also come to light.

On Sunday (March 17), Shocked reportedly told her audience at Yoshi’sin San Francisco “When they stop Prop 8 [the California initiative that banned gay marriage] and force priests at gunpoint to marry gays, it will be the downfall of civilization and Jesus will come back.” In the commotion caused by those comments she was reported to have said, “”You are going to leave here and tell people ‘Michelle Shocked said God hates faggots.'”

In a written statement to radio station KQED, the born-again Christian Shocked doesn’t deny saying either of those things. What she does suggest is that the first statement was made in the context of other devout Christians incorrectly believing that “When they stop Prop 8…it will be the downfall of civilization.” Shocked further says that her request for listeners to report “Michelle Shocked said God hates faggots” was anticipating that her apologizing for her faith would be misinterpreted.

Shocked’s statement to KQED reads:

“I do not, nor have I ever, said or believed that God hates homosexuals (or anyone else). I said that some of His followers believe that. I believe intolerance comes from fear, and these folks are genuinely scared. When I said “Twitter that Michelle Shocked says “God hates faggots,” I was predicting the absurd way my description of, my apology for, the intolerant would no doubt be misinterpreted. The show was all music, and the audience tweets said they enjoyed it. The commentary came about ten minutes later, in the encore.

“And to those fans who are disappointed by what they’ve heard or think I said, I’m very sorry: I don’t always express myself as clearly as I should. But don’t believe everything you read on facebook or twitter. My view of homosexualtiy has changed not one iota. I judge not. And my statement equating repeal of Prop 8 with the coming of the End Times was neither literal nor ironic: it was a description of how some folks – not me – feel about gay marriage.”

The San Francisco Guardian released an anonymous recording claimed to be of the incident.

In it, Shocked struggles through a statement about her simultaneous support of gay rights and Christianity – leaving it somewhat possible to misinterpret. Things begin to veer off track after a song request mentions a love of the Gospel.

“Any other lovers of invisible men in here? This is sincerely the two things I’m passionate about, y’all. I love me some Jesus and I love liberation. And I did not know how I was going to go to San Francisco and authentically represent both…

“I was in a prayer meeting yesterday. You got to appreciate how scared, how scared folks on that side of the equation are. I mean, from their vantage point, and I really shouldn’t say ‘their’ because it’s mine too, we are nearly at the end of time. And from our vantage point we are gonna be — I think maybe Chinese water torture is going to be the means, the method, once Prop. 8 gets instated, and once preachers are held at gun point and forced to marry the homosexuals, I’m pretty sure that that will be the signal for Jesus to come on back.

“You said you wanted reality.

“If someone would be so gracious to tweet out ‘Michelle Shocked just said from stage ‘God hates faggots.’’ Would you do it now?”

At that point members of the audience appear to get the wrong impression, believing her to be insulting gays. She responds to their comments, thinking they are arguing against gay rights.

Yoshi’s has taken the audience’s side. They tweeted this yesterday (March 20) evening:

“WE AT YOSHI’S SF DO NOT & WILL NOT EVER TOLERATE THE TYPE OF BIGOTRY & HATRED EXHIBITED LAST NIGHT BY @MShocked SHE WILL NEVER BE BACK.”

The Yoshi’s tweet is representative of how badly this story has spun out of Shocked’s control between the initial reports of her comments and her statement yesterday. A spate of US shows were cancelled. Media outlets (including www.uncut.co.uk) were forced to react based on witness statements while Shocked declined to comment.

Shocked concluded her statement with an apology for any misunderstanding:

“But I am damn sorry. If I could repeat the evening, I would make a clearer distinction between a set of beliefs I abhor, and my human sympathy for the folks who hold them. I say this not because I want to look better. I have no wish to hide my faults, and – clearly – I couldn’t if I tried.”

John Grant – Pale Green Ghosts

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John Grant – Pale Green Ghosts

Former Czar's emotionally raw second - Sinead sings backing... John Grant is not a man of mystery. In the interviews around the release of his startling 2010 debut album Queen Of Denmark, the former leader of The Czars talked with bracing honesty about his homosexuality, his battle to overcome addictions to booze and drugs, his flirtations with suicide. He told us his mordant love songs were about a guy named Charlie. And then Grant topped all that by using an appearance at last Summer’s Meltdown festival in London with friends Hercules And Love Affair to announce to a shocked audience that he is HIV-positive. But Pale Green Ghosts, which takes its name from a song inspired by the Colorado drives young Grant would take to new wave clubs along a Denver to Boulder road lined by Russian olive trees, also betrays the confidence Grant has taken from the ecstatic reaction to the Midlake-produced Queen Of Denmark. Still, the album’s a big ask: specifically, he’s asking still relatively new fans to travel with him from bucolic Texas to his current creative base of Reykjavik and the quintessentially European electronica of Gus Gus’s Biggi Veira, co-producer of these eleven emotionally raw new songs. The lyrics are still dominated by witty, raging and self-immolating open letters to the chronically passive-aggressive Charlie, and the presence of Midlake rhythm section McKenzie Smith and Paul Alexander ensures that the album is roughly split between Grant’s familiar, ‘70s John Lennon-meets-John Cale balladry and the kind of stark industrial electro-pop that Grant was travelling along that tree-lined road to dance to back in the ‘80s. Little did he imagine, as he danced to “Mandinka”, that its maker Sinead O’Connor would be providing backing vocals on his records twenty-five years later, as she does on three of the songs here. The title track opens the album and introduces the listener to Grant’s new direction, his burnished croon bathed in reverb over the burbling, stark and discreetly disco analog synth backing, coming on somewhere between James Murphy and Clues-era Robert Palmer. It’s a style that works perfectly on “Ernest Borgnine” where Grant addresses his health in self-lacerating verses (“Now what did you expect/You spent your life on your knees”) while the chorus echoes the debut album’s “Sigourney Weaver”; a surreal juxtaposition and an escape into the melodramas and removed realities of the movies and actors Grant loves. The most purely beautiful song, based largely on acoustic guitar but enhanced by a ghostly Moog solo, is “It Doesn’t Matter To Him”, where Grant confesses that, despite a life of music, friends, family and sobriety, the grief over lost love, the final knowledge that “I am invisible to him”, invades every waking thought. But the song which, one suspects, is destined to be Grant’s anthem is “GMF”, another stately non-electronic ballad in which Grant declares, in an irresistible, unforgettable chorus, that he is '”The greatest motherfucker that you’re ever gonna meet.” It’s a masterpiece of narcissism laced with bathos, as Grant digs up Richard Burton’s corpse to play him in the inevitable movie, and concludes, as he analyses the reasons why he is not the King of the world, that “I should have practiced my scales/I should not be attracted to males”. The abrupt changes between lush vintage balladry and stark electro ensure that Pale Green Ghosts is not as instantly cohesive as Queen Of Denmark. But it is arguably more satisfying, in its artistic courage, its refusal to meet expectations, and its willingness to paint a brand new picture of a gay demi-monde where the triumphs and tragedies have a deeper resonance than simple melodrama or camp. It also lets us know that, whatever Grant does next, it will surprise and provoke because, even though its maker is 43-years-old, he is only on the beginning of a journey to find himself, in his art as in his troubled, chaotic life. You never know, perhaps album three will find someone to accuse that isn’t Charlie. The poor guy’s ears must be burnt to a crisp by now. Garry Mulholland Q&A John Grant Why so much synthesizer on Pale Green Ghosts? Because I love synthesizers more than anything in the whole world. Is Vince Clarke the prime influence? Well, I listened the shit out of the two Yazoo albums when they came out. But I also love New Order, Cabaret Voltaire, Chris And Cosey and Yello. “Ernest Borgnine” is the one song where you directly address the fact that you are HIV positive. Did you really meet him? Yes, and I was really delighted. He was Hollywood royalty. Amazing face, amazing voice… one of the greatest American character actors. The verses deal with the fact that I got HIV after I became sober, so I felt like there was no excuse. To still go out and make this horrible mistake was like, “Did you have to add this to the fucking mess?” The painful break-up songs concern the same ex-lover that you were singing about on Queen Of Denmark. But it seems like you’re shouting at a brick wall… Yeah. His motto was that he didn’t want to say things to hurt me so he didn’t say anything. Which I found much more hurtful than being told to fuck off. It affected me so deeply because it was the first relationship I experienced after I got sober. It was raw for me because I couldn’t just do a bunch of blow off some guy’s hard cock. In last month’s Uncut, Sinead O’Connor said that, if you ever decided to be straight, she was “oiled up and ready for you.” Tempted? Ha! Absolutely. I would give it a whirl. INTERVIEW: GARRY MULHOLLAND

Former Czar’s emotionally raw second – Sinead sings backing…

John Grant is not a man of mystery. In the interviews around the release of his startling 2010 debut album Queen Of Denmark, the former leader of The Czars talked with bracing honesty about his homosexuality, his battle to overcome addictions to booze and drugs, his flirtations with suicide. He told us his mordant love songs were about a guy named Charlie. And then Grant topped all that by using an appearance at last Summer’s Meltdown festival in London with friends Hercules And Love Affair to announce to a shocked audience that he is HIV-positive.

But Pale Green Ghosts, which takes its name from a song inspired by the Colorado drives young Grant would take to new wave clubs along a Denver to Boulder road lined by Russian olive trees, also betrays the confidence Grant has taken from the ecstatic reaction to the Midlake-produced Queen Of Denmark. Still, the album’s a big ask: specifically, he’s asking still relatively new fans to travel with him from bucolic Texas to his current creative base of Reykjavik and the quintessentially European electronica of Gus Gus’s Biggi Veira, co-producer of these eleven emotionally raw new songs.

The lyrics are still dominated by witty, raging and self-immolating open letters to the chronically passive-aggressive Charlie, and the presence of Midlake rhythm section McKenzie Smith and Paul Alexander ensures that the album is roughly split between Grant’s familiar, ‘70s John Lennon-meets-John Cale balladry and the kind of stark industrial electro-pop that Grant was travelling along that tree-lined road to dance to back in the ‘80s. Little did he imagine, as he danced to “Mandinka”, that its maker Sinead O’Connor would be providing backing vocals on his records twenty-five years later, as she does on three of the songs here.

The title track opens the album and introduces the listener to Grant’s new direction, his burnished croon bathed in reverb over the burbling, stark and discreetly disco analog synth backing, coming on somewhere between James Murphy and Clues-era Robert Palmer. It’s a style that works perfectly on “Ernest Borgnine” where Grant addresses his health in self-lacerating verses (“Now what did you expect/You spent your life on your knees”) while the chorus echoes the debut album’s “Sigourney Weaver”; a surreal juxtaposition and an escape into the melodramas and removed realities of the movies and actors Grant loves.

The most purely beautiful song, based largely on acoustic guitar but enhanced by a ghostly Moog solo, is “It Doesn’t Matter To Him”, where Grant confesses that, despite a life of music, friends, family and sobriety, the grief over lost love, the final knowledge that “I am invisible to him”, invades every waking thought. But the song which, one suspects, is destined to be Grant’s anthem is “GMF”, another stately non-electronic ballad in which Grant declares, in an irresistible, unforgettable chorus, that he is ‘”The greatest motherfucker that you’re ever gonna meet.” It’s a masterpiece of narcissism laced with bathos, as Grant digs up Richard Burton’s corpse to play him in the inevitable movie, and concludes, as he analyses the reasons why he is not the King of the world, that “I should have practiced my scales/I should not be attracted to males”.

The abrupt changes between lush vintage balladry and stark electro ensure that Pale Green Ghosts is not as instantly cohesive as Queen Of Denmark. But it is arguably more satisfying, in its artistic courage, its refusal to meet expectations, and its willingness to paint a brand new picture of a gay demi-monde where the triumphs and tragedies have a deeper resonance than simple melodrama or camp.

It also lets us know that, whatever Grant does next, it will surprise and provoke because, even though its maker is 43-years-old, he is only on the beginning of a journey to find himself, in his art as in his troubled, chaotic life. You never know, perhaps album three will find someone to accuse that isn’t Charlie. The poor guy’s ears must be burnt to a crisp by now.

Garry Mulholland

Q&A

John Grant

Why so much synthesizer on Pale Green Ghosts?

Because I love synthesizers more than anything in the whole world. Is Vince Clarke the prime influence? Well, I listened the shit out of the two Yazoo albums when they came out. But I also love New Order, Cabaret Voltaire, Chris And Cosey and Yello.

“Ernest Borgnine” is the one song where you directly address the fact that you are HIV positive. Did you really meet him?

Yes, and I was really delighted. He was Hollywood royalty. Amazing face, amazing voice… one of the greatest American character actors. The verses deal with the fact that I got HIV after I became sober, so I felt like there was no excuse. To still go out and make this horrible mistake was like, “Did you have to add this to the fucking mess?”

The painful break-up songs concern the same ex-lover that you were singing about on Queen Of Denmark. But it seems like you’re shouting at a brick wall…

Yeah. His motto was that he didn’t want to say things to hurt me so he didn’t say anything. Which I found much more hurtful than being told to fuck off. It affected me so deeply because it was the first relationship I experienced after I got sober. It was raw for me because I couldn’t just do a bunch of blow off some guy’s hard cock.

In last month’s Uncut, Sinead O’Connor said that, if you ever decided to be straight, she was “oiled up and ready for you.” Tempted?

Ha! Absolutely. I would give it a whirl.

INTERVIEW: GARRY MULHOLLAND

The 12th Uncut Playlist Of 2013

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The 12th Uncut Playlist Of 2013

Plenty to listen to here again this week, and less dubious content than there was in the 11th playlist. One off-the-scale stinker, though… Follow me on Twitter: www.twitter.com/JohnRMulvey 1 Kawabata Makoto's Mainliner – Revelation Space (Riot Season) 2 Glenn Jones – My Garden State (Thrill Jockey) 3 Merchandise – Totale Nite (Night People) 4 Laura Marling – Once I Was An Eagle (Virgin) 5 Helado Negro – Invisible Life (Asthmatic Kitty) 6 Various Artists – Midnight Steppers: 70 Masterpieces By 34 Blues Piano Heroes (Fantastic Voyage) 7 The Woolen Men – The Woolen Men (Woodsist) 8 Peter Gordon & Factory Floor –Beachcombing (Optimo) 9 Herbcraft – Astral Body Electric (Woodsist) 10 Alan Wilson – The Blind Owl (Severn) 11 Van Dyke Parks – Songs Cycled (Bella Union) 12 Golden Gunn - Golden Gunn (Three Lobed) 13 Vampire Weekend – Modern Vampires Of The City (XL) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mX46e4GtlXM http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_mDxcDjg9P4 14 Mark Lanegan & Duke Garwood – Black Pudding (Heavenly) 15 Parquet Courts – Light Up Gold (What’s Your Rupture) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JFQUVCAqCF0 16 Rod Stewart – Time (Decca) 17 Primal Scream – More Light (1st International) 18 Savages – She Will (Matador/Pop Noire) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kebq-cENNn0 19 Dirty Beaches – Drifters/Love Is the Devil (Zoo Music) 20 Kiki Pau – Pines (Beyond Beyond Is Beyond) 21 Lady Lamb The Beekeeper – Ripley Pine (Ba Da Bing ) 22 Charlie Boyer & The Voyeurs – Clarietta (Heavenly) 23 David Bowie – The Next Day (RCA) 24 The Pastels – Slow Summits (Domino)

Plenty to listen to here again this week, and less dubious content than there was in the 11th playlist. One off-the-scale stinker, though…

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

1 Kawabata Makoto’s Mainliner – Revelation Space (Riot Season)

2 Glenn Jones – My Garden State (Thrill Jockey)

3 Merchandise – Totale Nite (Night People)

4 Laura Marling – Once I Was An Eagle (Virgin)

5 Helado Negro – Invisible Life (Asthmatic Kitty)

6 Various Artists – Midnight Steppers: 70 Masterpieces By 34 Blues Piano Heroes (Fantastic Voyage)

7 The Woolen Men – The Woolen Men (Woodsist)

8 Peter Gordon & Factory Floor –Beachcombing (Optimo)

9 Herbcraft – Astral Body Electric (Woodsist)

10 Alan Wilson – The Blind Owl (Severn)

11 Van Dyke Parks – Songs Cycled (Bella Union)

12 Golden Gunn – Golden Gunn (Three Lobed)

13 Vampire Weekend – Modern Vampires Of The City (XL)

14 Mark Lanegan & Duke Garwood – Black Pudding (Heavenly)

15 Parquet Courts – Light Up Gold (What’s Your Rupture)

16 Rod Stewart – Time (Decca)

17 Primal Scream – More Light (1st International)

18 Savages – She Will (Matador/Pop Noire)

19 Dirty Beaches – Drifters/Love Is the Devil (Zoo Music)

20 Kiki Pau – Pines (Beyond Beyond Is Beyond)

21 Lady Lamb The Beekeeper – Ripley Pine (Ba Da Bing )

22 Charlie Boyer & The Voyeurs – Clarietta (Heavenly)

23 David Bowie – The Next Day (RCA)

24 The Pastels – Slow Summits (Domino)

Dave Grohl reveals he asked PJ Harvey to front Nirvana concert cover

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Dave Grohl reveals he asked PJ Harvey to front Nirvana concert cover
Dave Grohl has revealed that he asked PJ Harvey to join the remaining Nirvana members on stage to replace Kurt Cobain. Speaking in this week's NME the Foo Fighters frontman said that he approached Harvey to play with his Sound City players – the band featured in his documentary about the Califor...

Dave Grohl has revealed that he asked PJ Harvey to join the remaining Nirvana members on stage to replace Kurt Cobain.

Speaking in this week’s NME the Foo Fighters frontman said that he approached Harvey to play with his Sound City players – the band featured in his documentary about the California studio where Nirvana recorded ‘Nevermind’.

When asked if he would ever cover a Nirvana track live, he said: “Every once in a while we talk about it. For the Sound City gig here in London we were thinking about musicians that we could invite because Stevie Nicks and John Fogerty couldn’t make it. Someone came up with the idea of doing a Nirvana song with PJ Harvey. Kurt loved her and we love her and we thought, ‘Yeah, what would we do?’ I said: ‘God, what if we were to do ‘Milk It’ from ‘In Utero’ with Polly singing?’ We all looked at each other like, ‘Woah, that would be amazing…’ and then she couldn’t do it!”

He continued: “The thing is, it’s sacred ground. If we were ever to do something like that it would have to be right because you want to pay tribute. There’s a reason Foo Fighters don’t do Nirvana songs, and it’s a good reason.”

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