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Watch Elvis Costello pay tribute to Burt Bacharach at first night of New York residency

Ali Shutler
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Watch Elvis Costello pay tribute to Burt Bacharach at first night of New York residency
Elvis Costello paid tribute to Burt Bacharach at the opening night of his ten-night residency at The Gramercy Theatre last week – check out footage below. ORDER NOW: Led Zeppelin is on the cover of the latest issue of Uncut READ MORE: “Burt is an extremist for sure. Extreme in love and ...

Elvis Costello paid tribute to Burt Bacharach at the opening night of his ten-night residency at The Gramercy Theatre last week – check out footage below.

The legendary composer passed away of natural causes at his home in Los Angeles, California on Wednesday (February 8). He was 94 years old.

During the first show of Costello’s 100 Songs And More residency at New York’s Gramercy Theatre on Thursday (February 9), he performed Bacharach’s “Baby, It’s You”.

Bacharach co-wrote the song with Luther Dixon and Mack David, with the Shirelles releasing it as a single in 1961. It was later covered by The Beatles for their 1963 debut album Please Please Me.

“A really great man left us yesterday,” Costello said before performing “Baby, It’s You”. “People say when somebody reaches a great age, ‘Well, it was a good inning.’ [But] it’s never time to say goodbye to somebody if you love them. I’m not ashamed to say I did love this man for everything he gave, Mr. Burt Bacharach.”

Later in the set, Costello covered “Anyone Who Had a Heart”, which was co-written by Bacharach and Hal David, before it was released by Dionne Warwick in 1963.

Elvis Costello confirmed the residency last year while on The Tonight Show starring Jimmy Fallon. At the time, he explained that fans will “never hear the same song twice” over the course of the ten-nights and that the setlists would add up to “200 songs [played] over 10 nights.”

Nick Cave And The Bad Seeds share live gig and launch new website to celebrate 10 years of Push The Sky Away

Damian Jones
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Nick Cave And The Bad Seeds share live gig and launch new website to celebrate 10 years of Push The Sky Away
Nick Cave And The Bad Seeds have shared a live concert to mark the 10-year anniversary of their album Push The Sky Away. ORDER NOW: Led Zeppelin is on the cover of the latest issue of Uncut READ MORE: This Much I Know To Be True review The band performed tracks from the record at Los A...

Nick Cave And The Bad Seeds have shared a live concert to mark the 10-year anniversary of their album Push The Sky Away.

The band performed tracks from the record at Los Angeles’ Fonda Theatre on February 21, 2013. Three days earlier the album was released.

For a limited time the band are allowing fans to stream the concert, watch a performance of “Mermaids” from the show and a video showing how the album was made. You can stream the concert here on Spotify or via email here and watch the other videos below.

In addition the band are launching a new website celebrating Push The Sky Away along with video, audio, imagery, lyrics and exclusive merchandise. You can access it here.

The Bad Seeds at the time consisted of Nick Cave, Warren Ellis, Jim Sclavunos, Martyn Casey, Thomas Wydler and Conway Savage, with Barry Adamson and George Vjestica each joining for two tracks.

“Push The Sky Away was the start of a new, wild adventure for the Bad Seeds. The record opened up a whole different approach to the way we created our music. It was the beginning of a way of writing – a kind of controlled improvisation. Because of this shift, the record was to some extent divisive – but it was the necessary reinvention that the Bad Seeds desperately needed,” Cave said via press release.

“For that reason Push The Sky Away continues to stand as one of my most loved of all the Bad Seeds’ albums.”

The setlist for Push The Sky Away at Fonda Theatre was as follows:

“We No Who U R”
“Wide Lovely Eyes”
“Water’s Edge”
“Jubilee Street”
“Mermaids”
“We Real Cool”
“Finishing Jubilee Street”
“Higgs Boson Blues”
“Push The Sky Away”
“From Her To Eternity”
“O Children”
“The Ship Song”
“Jack The Ripper”
“Red Right Hand”
“Deanna”
“Love Letter”
“The Mercy Seat”
“Stagger Lee”

Earlier this year, Cave confirmed that he had started work on a new Bad Seeds album, sharing some early lyric ideas in the process.

The Making Of “The Magic Number” by De La Soul

Tom Pinnock
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The Making Of “The Magic Number” by De La Soul
This feature originally appeared in Uncut Take 232, September 2016 “We were all walking through Macy’s to a local mall,” remembers MC and producer Dave Jolicoeur, “and I saw a Mickey-Mouse T-shirt with a big daisy on it. It just looked great, and I was like, ‘How could I incorporate som...

This feature originally appeared in Uncut Take 232, September 2016

“We were all walking through Macy’s to a local mall,” remembers MC and producer Dave Jolicoeur, “and I saw a Mickey-Mouse T-shirt with a big daisy on it. It just looked great, and I was like, ‘How could I incorporate something that looks so cool to me into what we’re doing? What could daisy mean and be really cool?’”

With that revelation, Dave (then known as Trugoy) invented the ‘DAISY Age’ – ‘Da Inner Sound, Y’All’ – the concept that would embody De La Soul’s intelligent, sensitive lyrics, colourful style and sly humour. It would also quickly lead to them being labelled “the hippies of hip-hop”, a term they hated.

“At that time it was all about challenging yourself to be different,” says producer Maseo. “Run-DMC wasn’t the Beastie Boys, LL wasn’t Rakim, Rakim wasn’t Big Daddy Kane, Public Enemy wasn’t De La. Everybody was different.”

While the likes of Public Enemy and NWA took a harder, more streetwise approach to their sound, Pos, Maseo and Dave, who had grown up in similarly tough environments, sampled children’s TV and rapped about their unbreakable friendship and railed against hip-hop conformity on infectious tracks such as “Me, Myself And I” and “The Magic Number”. The end result was their classic debut 3 Feet High And Rising, co-produced by fellow Long Island DJ Prince Paul.

“We realised that there were no boundaries with it,” says rapper Pos aka Posdnuos. “We could hear Chicago’s ‘Saturday In The Park’ on the radio and realise, ‘Hey, this is a great record’ – all it needs is a beat that’s kind of accepted within a hip-hop realm to make it work.”

“We wasn’t high that much at that time,” says Dave, “but I think we were just kids who saw things a different way. We were obviously eyes wide open.”

DAVE: We must have demoed “The Magic Number” no later than ’86. At that time we were in Long Island – I had probably just graduated from high school [Amityville Memorial] and Pos and Mase were still in school. I used to go to Pos’s house after school and write concepts and talk about music and hip-hop and ideas.

MASEO: I came to Long Island in 1984 as a DJ. I met Prince Paul around the neighbourhood at different backyard parties, and parties at a centre called the Dugout. I actually talk about the Dugout on [1991’s] “Ring Ring Ring”: “party at the Dugout on Dixon Ave/Haven’t been to the jam in quite a while”. When Paul was in town he used to come to all the parties and get on the turntables for 10 or 15 minutes. He was a battle DJ, not only a producer. He wasn’t much of a party DJ like he is today – back then he was into tricks. We became friends, and Paul and I put a demo together of a guy in our neighbourhood, Eric, who called himself Gangster B. But privately, since 1985, me, Pos and Dave had been working on music. Nobody knew they were MCs.

DAVE: At that time, a lot of hip-hop solo artists were braggers and boasters, lyricists who talked about how good they were and were up for any battle. Those were things that we loved and respected, ’cause it was hip-hop, it was happening and it was amazing. But for us it was a little different to how we planned on approaching it.

POS: I was born in The Bronx, and Dave and Mase came from Brooklyn. We still knew that struggle, still knew the pain of being stopped by police because we were black, so nothing that NWA were saying was foreign or alien to us. It’s just that we chose not to express ourselves as De La Soul like that. Even Mase, who could be very honest about his early dealings in the streets and what he saw in Brooklyn and what he needed to do to support his family, he just chose that that wouldn’t be the element that he talked about in De La Soul. But we were always very familiar with it, and we could relate to it.

DAVE: Absolutely – we didn’t live in any fancy neighbourhoods, our friends were good students as well as kids on a corner selling drugs. We could’ve touched on a lot of those things, but we wanted a different perspective. We kinda approached those subjects in a different way, like “My Brother’s A Basehead’ or “Millie Pulled A Pistol On Santa”. We felt comfortable doing that stuff ’cause it felt like that’s who we were – interesting, humorous young kids having a good time.

POS: Unfortunately people think ‘the MCs, they rhyme, and maybe the DJ or whoever else produced’, but the quite honest truth is that we all produced. We all participated, and we all nourished each other’s ideas. What was really great about Paul is that he made sure that everyone was allowed to express themselves on the records.

MASEO: My first love is DJing and producing, [Pos and Dave’s] first love is MCing and producing. Our roles are what we chose, but the dynamics of how we create come from many different places. So it’s not like anybody has a designated position, some cuts on the records are done by Dave, and every now and again over the years I’ve challenged myself lyrically. Every now and again you’ll hear me rap on something. No-one really had a designated role – an idea can always spark from anyone. We’re in the song-making business, so it’s all about making a great song, whether it’s a hit or not.

DAVE: We grew up with television. Saturday morning obviously, for any kid, was the highlight of the week, when you’d wake up early and watch all these kiddy shows.

POS: Multiplication Rock was one of those great educational commercials that would play in between your favourite Saturday morning cartoons. There were different songs like “Three Is A Magic Number” or “The Letter A”. My parents purchased the music for us, as a complete set. So later, once we were using music for hip-hop purposes, that set was just the easiest place to go to. It was a great soundtrack to our lives, and therefore a great place to pull from to manipulate in a hip-hop sense. There were also three of us, so it was like ‘Yo, how about this?’

MASEO: It was just an idea that Pos had for so long – it never really had no lyrics, just had the records.

POS: When we came up with “The Magic Number”, we were working in Mase’s basement. We took the main sample from [Bob Dorough’s] “Three Is A Magic Number” on Multiplication Rock, then took Double Dee and Steinski’s “Lesson 3” for the drums [the famed “Amen” break, originally from The Winstons’ “Amen, Brother”].

MASEO: We sampled them at my mother’s house, on this little keyboard we had, a Casio SK1. It didn’t even have an input on it so you could get a clear sample, you just had to put it right next to the speaker. So that’s how we were doing pre-production then, before we even knew what pre-production meant! I finally played Prince Paul things we had been working on on a four-track, dubbing cassettes and that. Paul was excited about what he heard, he was just as excited as I was. He was like, ‘Man, I gotta meet with your guys. I can’t make no promises, but we could definitely go in the studio and clean all of this up and put all this together. I’m gonna do my best to shop for a record deal for you guys.’ I wish I’d had the concept the guys from the South had, which is just to sell your music out of the trunk of your car, I think that was a more lucrative mission! But in the very beginning it was all about trying to get a record deal, because that’s what it seemed like you had to do. How long did it take to record? Probably a day.

DAVE: That’s crazy, I feel like we were in the studio forever! Calliope Studios was basically just a loft where the owners had made it really comfortable. It was a big, empty space – you could fit 100 people in there. It was such a big space, you wanted to invite people over just to fill it up a little bit. And that’s what we did – there were probably a good 15 to 25 people in there at some points, and we’d be pulling people into the booth and saying, ‘Hey, go up and say that part.’ There was a big window by the mixing desk – the view was 36th and Broadway, and you could see the corner and everything going on. Calliope was on something like the 17th floor. So many people would drop by – sometimes people who you didn’t even know who were going to be somebody. I remember the singer Joe, he used to always be there! Then he becomes this R&B star. It always felt like something special was happening in Calliope.

MASEO: Calliope had this S900 sampler by Akai, that was my first introduction to Akai, and that’s what we used on the whole of 3 Feet High And Rising. That was the go-to device for us. We were always kind of relying on the engineer in the studio, because we didn’t really know those machines, but we knew that was the machine that was needed. But this is something I learned early on – engineers will bullshit just to make their money! They used to pretend that it was so hard and it took forever to catch the loop on the S900. Until one day, Paul got frustrated and he bought an S950. So when Paul bought an S950, I bought an S950 – and sure enough Paul learnt it, and he taught me some basic stuff. I was like, ‘Yo, this shit is not hard’, and that’s when we sussed out the engineer. That’s when we said, ‘OK, we’re not working with certain engineers anymore.’ Prince Paul was the first one who actually let me touch the equipment in a studio too. When we got to Calliope, Paul was like, ‘Look man, come over here – Mase, look at this board. It’s a 24-track board, look at every track on this board like the radio in your car. You’ve got bass, mid and highs. There’s other frequencies around that you’ll learn, but here’s your basic frequencies. And there’s your gain, right there. Look at this like 24 radios in your car.’ And I was like, ‘You couldn’t have made it any more simpler for me to grasp.’ The mixing desk used to look like Chinese letters to me, but then I got it when he pointed it out to me.

POS: One of the things that really blew my mind in Calliope was this device called an Eventide Harmoniser, which took different sounds and changed the tones or keys of one of the samples. That helped me present early works like “Say No Go”, where I took a Daryl Hall and John Oates record and changed the key so it worked with Sly & The Family Stone’s “Crossword Puzzle”. On “Eye Know”, I took “Peg” by Steely Dan and made it match with The Mad Lads’ “Make This Young Lady Mine”.

MASEO: The way we used to do the studio back then was the way we’d be in class – you’ve gotta come to school with your work! But the way we had things outlined, we always had room for more improvisational stuff, and being able to come up with some weird ideas on the spot.

DAVE: “The Magic Number” came out towards the end of our recording period of 3 Feet High And Rising, I don’t know if it was the very last song but I think it was towards the end of the recording process. We never intended on doing a title track or anything like that, but it really was a nice record that kind of was a manifesto of who we are, a song saying that this unit, Pos, Mase and Dave, is really important. I think how we respect each other’s ears, respect each other’s musical opinions, and just respect each other as friends, you know, this whole thing became something because of that. I think the combination of us three, the way we are, was magical, and the record spoke for itself. There is a double track of my rhymes on there. That was cool – again to compliment Paul, he liked to try different things. Often mistakes were kept. Maybe we said, “Oh, it’s double…”, and Paul would be the first to say, “It sounds cool double, maybe we should leave it. Anyone mad at that?” It was important to have Prince Paul around for something like “The Magic Number”.

POS: My rhyme honestly was just supposed to be about what I thought about me, and about what I was going through, but also coming together to give off the feeling of being three guys who have this magic bond. I sing first at the top, then I do my rhyme, and then I sing right after myself again, then Dave comes in and does the same thing – he sings, he rhymes, and he sings at the end when he goes “three times one, what is it?”. Singing was a very big part of hip-hop at the time – you would take a disco record or whatever was big at the time, and you would then battle someone and sing the actual R&B verses, but make it work for your name, your crew. So it was really simple to do with “The Magic Number”.

DAVE: One thing that was really amazing about “The Magic Number” was the end, where all those records were being scratched. It was funny, because it was just a pile of records that we were listening to, and on the spot trying to figure out what was cool to throw in there, from comedy records to cartoons to R’n’B and reggae stuff, just pulling out the next record and saying, ‘Ok, that sounds good, throw that one there. What’s next?’ That spontaneity in the record is what I’ll always remember.

POS: That’s what was great about back then – we were just so open to anything because we were just so happy to be living our dream and doing what we wanted. We were just really big on not doing what everyone else was doing. I mean, even when you look at some of our later work, when on the scene people were going in a more experimental way, we’d turn around and be more minimalistic in our approach, letting you know the message that we presented. We tried different cadences and different themes that might have been considered light-hearted compared to what was going on. It just kinda naturally felt that way.

DAVE: We felt like we were doing good music, but I also know that we sat back and said, “Wow, we’re pulling out some cool stuff.” We didn’t know 3 Feet High And Rising was going to be as huge as it was, we weren’t thinking that [i]at all[/i]. But we definitely were satisfied and proud of what we created.

POS: As much as we appreciate and love “Me, Myself And I”, I think we’ve been very vocal about the fact we got tired of it, but “The Magic Number” really wasn’t a song like that. Funnily enough, we just did a bunch of shows in the UK and Belgium and we do “The Magic Number” as one of the last songs, and the reaction to it was very fresh and genuine. It’s one of those songs that has always had this great energy and freshness, because it brings everything together at the end, and it means a lot – three friends who’ve stuck through everything and have been through so many ups and downs, and have maintained what people consider a magic bond. It just means a lot, so it always comes off well when we perform it live.

DAVE: We try to recapture that energy, and for a couple of old guys it’s funny, so we do it as best as we can, and it’s humorous and it’s silly. We were just talking about good times, and good messages, a lot of it pointed to yourself. There’s always room to grow, to learn and to acknowledge things.

MASEO: The childhood dream became a profession, and we still love it – that’s really the reality of it all.

FACTFILE

Written by: Prince Paul (Paul Huston), Pos (Kelvin Mercer), Dave (David Jolicoeur), Maseo (Vincent Mason), Bob Dorough
Recorded at: Calliope Studios, Manhattan, New York
Producer: Prince Paul, De La Soul
Personnel: Pos (vocals, production), Dave (vocals, production), Mase (production), Prince Paul (turntables, production)
Released: March 14, 1989
Label: Tommy Boy, Warner Bros
UK/US chart position: 7/-

TIMELINE

1985
On Long Island, Amityville Memorial High School students Pos, Dave and Mase begin demoing their own music

1986
Pos comes up with the idea for combining the chorus of “Three Is A Magic Number” with the “Amen” break

Late 1988
The trio record their debut album, 3 Feet High And Rising, in Manhattan’s Calliope Studios with Amityville DJ and producer Prince Paul

December 1989
“The Magic Number” is released as a single in the UK and Europe

Inside Led Zeppelin’s meteoric rise to the top during their 1973 Houses Of The Holy U.S. tour

Peter Watts
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Inside Led Zeppelin’s meteoric rise to the top during their 1973 Houses Of The Holy U.S. tour
By 1973, LED ZEPPELIN were on their way to becoming the biggest rock’n’roll band in the world. Embarking on an American tour to promote their new album Houses Of The Holy, they shattered box office records, rewriting the blueprint for rock’n’roll tours as they went. Peter Watts climbs aboard...

By 1973, LED ZEPPELIN were on their way to becoming the biggest rock’n’roll band in the world. Embarking on an American tour to promote their new album Houses Of The Holy, they shattered box office records, rewriting the blueprint for rock’n’roll tours as they went. Peter Watts climbs aboard the Starship to hear tales of glorious, transcendent music in the latest issue of Uncut magazine – in UK shops from Thursday, February 9 and available to buy from our online store.

July 29, 1973. Inside Madison Square Garden, the ground was shaking. It was the final night of Led Zeppelin’s 1973 tour of the United States and Eddie Kramer was recording the show behind the stage in Wally Heider’s Mobile Studio Truck. The three sold-out nights at the Garden marked the climax of a gargantuan trek in support of March’s multi-million selling album Houses Of The Holy. Over three months, Zep blazed across the States, playing to crowds that eclipsed The Rolling Stones’ huge American tour the previous year and breaking box office records held by The Beatles. From packed stadiums and surreal album covers to trashed hotel rooms, Zeppelin crafted a new reality, one that could even make the earth move.

“I was in the truck with my hands on the fader and all of a sudden it began moving up and down,” recalls Kramer. “It was like an earthquake. The audience was going crazy, cheering and stomping. When you can feel 20,000 people jumping up and down… well that gives you a moment to remember.”

Kramer was taping the Madison Square Garden show for The Song Remains The Same, a live album eventually released in ’76 alongside a rather bovine motion picture. It seemed apposite that Kramer should record the Garden show: after all, he’d been there the previous year, when the band had recorded Houses Of The Holy during unforgettable spring days at Mick Jagger’s Hampshire mansion. Back then, the band were looking to follow the blockbuster success of Led Zeppelin IV, expanding on their razor riffs and electric mayhem by embracing multiple styles and textures. While Zeppelin experienced the thrill of liberation in the studio, they also knew it was important to capture the vibe correctly.

“None of us really knew what we were doing,” admits Robert Plant. “We’d had a great deal of success, but it didn’t follow there would be more success as times move on. We wanted to spend time doing it properly and it was time well spent.”

America – a land Led Zeppelin had set out to conquer in 1969 – went wild. It seemed appropriate that the album title was a reference to the almost religious fervour experienced in the concert arena. Watching in New York from the side of the Garden stage – and sporting a knotted hankie and carrying a rubber monkey – was musician Roy Harper. Part of the entourage, the “emotional protection unit” that travelled with the band, Harper spent the tour in luxury hotels – the Drake in New York and the Hyatt in LA – before travelling to shows on the Starship, the band’s luxurious Boeing 720 private jet. Amid parties with George Harrison, cake fights with Robert Plant and motorbikes ridden along hotel corridors, Harper saw Zeppelin produce the goods on stage every single night. On this tour, he believes, the West was finally won.

“‘Unique’ is one of those words like ‘genius’ that is thrown around quite a lot, but Zeppelin were unique,” says Harper. “They pulled a crowd because of the bite, the sheer bite, of that. It became a thing – a walking, talking monster – and as the venues got bigger, they got better, heavier, because they could exercise control. It was a kind of magic and you were blasted into the middle of next week. You paid attention, because attention was being demanded. That wasn’t the same as being in England. You couldn’t pull that off in the Marquee.”

BP Fallon, the band’s effusive press officer, recalls the impact Led Zeppelin had the moment they arrived in a city on the Starship. Band and entourage were ushered into a fleet of limousines before speeding through the streets with a police escort, sirens wailing towards a stadium where 50,000 people awaited in feverish anticipation. “The Stones sang about sex,” he says. “The music of Led Zeppelin was sex. The audience knew that, the girls dug it and the guys too. This wasn’t a knitting lesson. And remember too, you can do a lot during a wild drum solo – especially if you’re not the drummer.”

PICK UP THE NEW ISSUE OF UNCUT TO READ THE FULL STORY

Ryuichi Sakamoto – 12

Michael Bonner
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Ryuichi Sakamoto – 12
On December 11, 2022, Ryuichi Sakamoto returned to public performance after an absence of two years. Recorded at Tokyo’s prestigious 509 Studio and streamed online, Playing The Piano 2022 found Sakamoto dressed in black, hunched over his grand piano, playing a selection of music from throughout hi...

On December 11, 2022, Ryuichi Sakamoto returned to public performance after an absence of two years. Recorded at Tokyo’s prestigious 509 Studio and streamed online, Playing The Piano 2022 found Sakamoto dressed in black, hunched over his grand piano, playing a selection of music from throughout his career. It brought into focus the Sakamoto we’re most familiar with – the artist in communion with his instrument of choice, playing music that is both delicate and fluid. But Sakamoto has travelled far and wide since his beginnings in the late ’70s with the pioneering techno-pop trio the Yellow Magic Orchestra – his work has encompassed Oscar-winning film soundtracks, critical electronic touchstones like “Riot In Lagos”, aesthetically heightened piano compositions and, as a tireless collaborator, he has recorded with everyone from David Sylvian to Caetano Veloso and Austrian digital adventurer Christian Fennesz.

Playing The Piano 2022 also marked Sakamoto’s first performance since his cancer diagnosis – his second in a decade. In a brief video interview to accompany the concert film, Sakamoto admits he finds concert projects too taxing, even when filmed one song at a time; live performance has been paused, at least, for the foreseeable future. As a consequence, the film – shot in crisp, atmospheric monochrome – captures a sense of quiet dignity and reflection suitable for the occasion. This mood extends further to Sakamoto’s first album of new solo material since 2017’s async. 12 was recorded following this latest diagnosis, the dozen pieces titled and sequenced by the dates each were written, culminating in what Sakamoto describes as a “sound diary” of this challenging period.

The album opens with “20210310”, a synthesiser piece that passes slowly through a series of softly sustained chords, occasionally moving far down the instrument’s lower register to create a more apprehensive effect. “20211130”, meanwhile, finds Sakamoto at his piano, picking out melodies while a crepuscular keyboard sound rises slowly and quietly in the background. Close listening is the key here: you might catch the sound of Sakamoto’s foot lifting off the piano pedal or the keys move as he lifts his hand. At the start of “20211201”, you hear Sakamoto breathing, then towards the end of the piece there’s a faint but quite defined sound, as if he’s shifting his position on his piano stool. The deeper you immerse yourself in the album, the more compelling these random, vérité details become; moments of intimacy and humanity that physically insert the composer into the music he’s performing. Sakamoto’s 21st-century output has tended towards ambient and abstraction, music that doesn’t naturally come with built-in narratives. Yet the emotional gravity of 12 is so palpable, one wonders how much our response is to the music, or to the context. During his treatment for throat cancer in 2014, Sakamoto collaborated with the ambient heavyweight Taylor Deupree and Corey Fuller and Tomoyoshi Date, known as Illuha, on Perpetual, which they improvised live at an event in the Japanese city of Yamaguchi. A mix of piano, processed guitar, pump organ and synthesisers, along with field recordings and found objects, Perpetual’s most radical quality was its silence – the way the music gradually dissipated like fine mist leaving nothing behind. In some ineffable way, the disappearance of sound on Perpetual seemed entwined with Sakamoto’s condition; a notion that reasserts itself on 12, particularly in the pauses where Sakamoto raises his hands above the piano keyboard and the room beyond him is still.

The most conventional pieces on 12 are “20220302 – sarabande” (the only song from 12 on the setlist for Playing The Piano 2022) and its companion piece “20220302”. A sarabande, a courtly dance popular during the Baroque period, seems to be a suitable reference point for Sakamoto’s precise, geometric configurations here.

As you might imagine, the ghosts of Erik Satieand John Cage are summarily evoked. On “20220302”, though, he introduces sudden, inquisitive flurries of notes that provides a playful interlude to these elegant, nuanced though ultimately melancholic compositions. Though “20220307” and “20220404” are also piano pieces, Sakamoto begins to gently disrupt the atmospherics: unlike the close-mic conditions of the earlier piano pieces, “20220307” sounds like it was recorded at a distance, while on “20220404” the music threatens to disappear in places until its final eight seconds experience a gradual falling away of sound. “20220304”, 12’s final track, consists entirely of bells. Perhaps because Sakamoto switches instrument, this track feels like a coda; a point where you sense things are being wrapped up, when the music has become so abstracted it disappears. As sparse as 12 is, we’ve worked hard to engage with it, and for it to gradually, finally vanish is a strangely disquieting experience.

Incidentally, the album is released on January 17 – which is also Sakamoto’s 71st birthday. As much as these graceful and meditative pieces became threnodies for Sakamoto’s condition, 12 is also something of a personal and creative victory for the composer. Once again, I guess, context is everything.

Lisa O’Neill – All Of This Is Chance

Stephen Troussé
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Lisa O’Neill – All Of This Is Chance
A couple of years ago Lisa O’Neill fulfilled a lifetime ambition by headlining at the National Concert Hall in Dublin. However, because of Covid restrictions she had to perform in an empty theatre. Or almost empty. Conscious of all the ghosts lingering around the stately Victorian auditorium, she ...

A couple of years ago Lisa O’Neill fulfilled a lifetime ambition by headlining at the National Concert Hall in Dublin. However, because of Covid restrictions she had to perform in an empty theatre. Or almost empty. Conscious of all the ghosts lingering around the stately Victorian auditorium, she called out to some friendly spirits to become her audience: Hilda Moriarty, who had been a medical student in the 1940s, back when the hall was still part of University College Dublin. Patrick Kavanagh, the infatuated poet twice her age, whom she mocked for only writing about turnips, and who in response wrote “Dark Haired Miriam Ran Away”. And The Dubliners, who set the verse to an ancient folk tune, and recorded it in 1971 as “On Raglan Road” – which Lisa performed in haunting a cappella, feet up on the seats into the dark of theatre.

But she conjured other spirits too, performing songs by Tom Waits, Ivor Cutler, Nina Simone and, in memory of a beloved relation, “My Pony, My Rifle And Me”, as sung by Dean Martin and Ricky Nelson in Rio Bravo. “I think I saw Ivor Cutler with Hilda and Paddy earlier,” she muttered, drifting into a brief reverie between songs. “Nobody’s social distancing in the Ghost Green Room…”

There’s no social distancing in O’Neill’s art either – it’s all here rolling around, hugger-mugger, in one big jamboree bag: the love, the grief, the rage, the strangeness, the humour and the wide-eyed wonder. And on All Of This Is Chance, she brings these elements together as never before, creating an album that feels like the first indisputable classic of 2023.

You may have heard the lead single “Old Note” already. It’s another of the songs that she debuted at the National Concert Hall, but here in radically different form. Back then, performed with just an acoustic guitar, it felt like some ancient folk song she’d plucked from oblivion. But the version as it appears here is entranced, born along on some starsailing, celestial drone. The arrangement was conjured by The Frames’ Colm Mac Con Iomaire as an experiment and it succeeds magically in casting O’Neill’s song as free on the breeze as the dandelion seeds gathering around the moon on the album’s cover.

Which isn’t to say that the songs are still rooted in the muck and clay of the everyday. The album begins with the title track, and some harsh words borrowed from Kavanagh: “Clay is the word and clay is the flesh / Where the potato-gatherers like mechanised scarecrows move / Along the side-fall of the hill…”

In 2020 The Abbey Theatre invited Lisa to perform in their adaptation of Kavanagh’s The Great Hunger on the grounds of the Irish Museum of Modern Art in Kilmainham. The experience of immersing herself in Kavanagh’s poem stuck with her and liberated her. On 2018’s stunning Heard A Long Gone Song, O’Neil pulled up old tunes by the roots, and delivered them with all the shock of new hurt. Here it feels like all her research, all her time in the archive, has spurred her ambition, sent her out voyaging into the universe afresh, like the long-buried tune on “Old Note” that longs to be resurrected and live among the songs of birds, in their “lawless league of lonesome lonesome beauty”…

Birds like the iridescent peacock on “Birdy From Another Realm”, which is like William Blake bringing his subversively psychedelic vision to play on the ancient Cuckoo songs. Or the puffins and gannets that dance around a damned lover in “Whisht, The Wild Workings Of The Mind”. Or the wild dreaming sparrow on “Silver Seed”.

While …Long Gone Song was released on Rough Trade’s folk imprint, River Lea, All Of This Is Chance is very clearly a Rough Trade record. Which isn’t to say that it “transcends” folk or anything so daft. O’Neill’s bitter, bruised but boundless voice is clearly coming from a very particular time and place.

But for all that it’s come out of a singer steeped in traditional music, this record’s peers might be Astral Weeks, Starsailor, Music For A New Society, New Skin For The Old Ceremony and, in particular, Mary Margaret O’Hara’s Miss America. She’s not out of place among these ghosts either. If you’ve ever been spellbound by those songs of love, loss, wonder and despair, you need to listen to Lisa O’Neill.

“Burt is an extremist for sure. Extreme in love and invention”

Sam Richards
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“Burt is an extremist for sure. Extreme in love and invention”
Consummate songwriter Burt Bacharach has died at the age of 94. The co-writer of more than 50 Top 40 hits including "I Say A Little Prayer", "The Look Of Love", "Make It Easy On Yourself" and "Raindrops Keep Fallin’ On My Head", Bacharach died of natural causes at his home in Los Angeles. Most ...

Consummate songwriter Burt Bacharach has died at the age of 94. The co-writer of more than 50 Top 40 hits including “I Say A Little Prayer”, “The Look Of Love”, “Make It Easy On Yourself” and “Raindrops Keep Fallin’ On My Head”, Bacharach died of natural causes at his home in Los Angeles.

Most of Bacharach’s hits were written with his long-time songwriting partner, lyricist Hal David, but in 1998 he embarked on an intriguing new collaboration with Elvis Costello, the fruits of which are collected in a box set, The Songs Of Bacharach & Costello, due out on UME next month. You can read the full review in the current issue of Uncut, but here’s an extract from the accompanying Q&A, where Costello talks about the experience of working with one of his songwriting heroes.

The relationship between you and Burt seems incredibly harmonious. Did you ever disagree about anything? Would you have the chutzpah to quibble with his ideas?


If you X-rayed these songs like they do old paintings, you’d be surprised that some ‘Bacharachian’ passages were actually my compositions. When I sketched a bridge that I thought we needed in “This House Is Empty Now”, Burt replaced it with even more dramatic music.

In your sleevenotes, you quote Burt describing himself as “an extremist”. Can you explain?

Making Painted From Memory, Burt told me, “I don’t demand 110 per cent any more, I settle for 98.” Listen
 to the music in the bridge of “Alfie”, for which Hal David wrote: “Until you find the love you’ve missed, you’re nothing.” Burt is an extremist for sure. Extreme in love
 and invention. INTERVIEW BY STEPHEN TROUSSÉ

Presenting Dancing Days: the free, 15-track CD available with Uncut’s April 2023 issue

Uncut
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Presenting Dancing Days: the free, 15-track CD available with Uncut’s April 2023 issue
All copies of Uncut's April 2022 issue come with a free, 15-track CD – Dancing Days. HAVE A COPY OF UNCUT SENT DIRECT TO YOUR DOOR The CD is the latest in our new music samplers, bringing together 15 tracks from artists who you can read about elsewhere in the issue - either in our bulging re...

All copies of Uncut’s April 2022 issue come with a free, 15-track CD – Dancing Days.

HAVE A COPY OF UNCUT SENT DIRECT TO YOUR DOOR

The CD is the latest in our new music samplers, bringing together 15 tracks from artists who you can read about elsewhere in the issue – either in our bulging reviews pages or among the features.

The CD is free with all copies of Uncut – both in the UK and overseas.

Here, then, is your guys to Dancing Days…

1 JANA HORN
Leaving Him
Our CD opens with this hushed, hypnotic ballad from the Texan’s new album. “I wrote it with some women in my life in mind,” she tells us. “I had this daydream that they would get out of their situations with men. It’s a song of wishful thinking.” Read more on p60.

2 SHANA CLEVELAND
A Ghost
What’s always made La Luz intriguing is the dark undertow to their short, lo-fi surf jams. For her second solo album, Cleveland has embraced those quieter, eerier qualities – ably demonstrated on this beguiling song about a spectral guest seeking to “come through” and connect with the living.

3 MAC DeMARCO
Crescent City
These instrumental recordings were made while on a road trip around America last year. Built on a loping rhythm and gentle chord progressions, the languid momentum of “Crescent City” evokes travel through wide-open spaces taken at a gentle pace.

4 LONNIE HOLLEY
Oh Me Oh My (with Michael Stipe)
This graceful, atmospheric song finds the American one-off divining deep miracles in his grandmother’s love for a favourite hymn. “‘Oh me, oh my’ has been a statement, whether or not we’ll have to translate it from different languages, that’s probably been spoken all over the world,” explains Holley.

5 ROBERT FORSTER
Tender Years
Forster’s homage to Karin Bäumler, his wife – “Her beauty has not withered” – has inevitably assumed unintentional pathos since her diagnosis with ovarian cancer after most of Forster’s new album, The Candle And The Flame, was written. Forster’s nimble melodies and spry lyrics endure; sustenance during difficult times.

6 STEVE MASON
The People Say
Mason’s latest is a typically warm and unfussy affair, bathed in open-hearted melodies and buoyed along by chiming guitars and uplifting piano chords. Essentially, “The People Say” reinforces a sense of a continuum in Mason’s work, as if the same stuff has been flowing out of him, with barely perceptible shifts in quality, for almost 25 years.

7 BILLY VALENTINE
Home Is Where The Hatred Is
During the ’70s and ’80s, Valentine worked as a songwriter for hire and, as one half of the Valentine Brothers, wrote and recorded “Money’s Too Tight (To Mention)”. Valentine returns to his roots for his latest, excellent album covering the likes of Stevie Wonder, Eddie Kendricks and, on this song, Gil Scott-Heron.

8 EDDIE CHACON
Step By Step
Another returning veteran: in this instance, Eddie Chacon, formerly of ’80s neo-soul duo Charles & Eddie. This languorous, jazz-flecked confessional “reflects my own journey”, Chacon explains to Uncut. “It’s about slowly breaking through your own self-imposed limitations and following your heart.”

9 UNKNOWN MORTAL ORCHESTRA
Layla
Although the song’s title may raise an eyebrow, Ruban Nielson’s loose, sun-dappled ode to escape – “Let’s get out of this broken place” – is in fact a tribute to his uncle. “He is mostly credited with inventing the Hawaiian style of reggae,” says Nielson. “My brother Kody [who co-wrote the song] and I tried to figure out a way to think about that style and pay tribute to it, but in a new way.”

10 ROGÊ
Pra Vida
Having emigrated to LA, Rio de Janeiro native Roger José Cury returns with his swinging but scuffed-up take on Brazilian soul. Arthur Verocai’s strings swell and acoustic rhythms dominate, while Rogê’s undoubted charisma bursts through on this uplifting and forward-looking track.

11 MAX JURY
Real World
The latest endeavour from Iowa’s Max Jury is more of the polished Americana-soul-country terrain he’s been navigating since his 2016 debut. This comes with a pleasingly Floydian whoosh, though the influence of Gram Parsons and Randy Newman is never far away in the scheme of things.

12 THE VEILS
Bullfighter (Hand Of God)
The first sign of activity from Finn Andrews and his rapscallious compatriots since they appeared in the 2017 Twin Peaks revival – Andrews broke his wrist, necessitating a lengthy hiatus. This raucous track channels some of the tent-revival theatrics of early Bad Seeds, but Finn’s own indomitable character emerges, bruised by not bowed, from within the sound and fury.

13 THE LONG RYDERS
Seasons Change
The beloved Paisley Underground veterans are at their wonderful Byrdsian best with this open-hearted tribute to their enduring friendships. “It came from us thinking about how much we mean to each other, having been a band for so long and finding each other again relatively recently,” they tell us.

14 THE HOLD STEADY
Sixers
A taster for The Hold Steady’s forthcoming album, The Price Of Progress. “She ordered me a Newcastle and handed me a Marlboro…” begins Finn, spinning a wry, hardboiled yarn about rock bands that unfolds against a typically rumbustious backdrop. “She said, ‘We’re gonna do a show at the Pyramids…’”

15 LONDON BREW
Miles Chases New Voodoo In The Church – Single Edit
We close this month’s CD in electric fashion with the cream of British jazz heads – including Shabaka Hutchings, Nubya Garcia, Theon Cross and Tom Skinner – who’ve recast Miles’ Bitches Brew with predictably powerful results. Much like Uncut, this succeeds in finding fresh insights on great artists.

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Inside the new Uncut: Led Zeppelin, David Crosby, Nina Simone, Nuggets and more!

Michael Bonner
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Inside the new Uncut: Led Zeppelin, David Crosby, Nina Simone, Nuggets and more!
Speaking to David Crosby in 2016, I asked him whether, looking back at his career through the prism of 50-plus years, he thought it had all been worth it. “Totally,” he told me. “Love it. I just wish I’d done more music and less drugs. I regret the time I wasted being wasted, that I could ha...

Speaking to David Crosby in 2016, I asked him whether, looking back at his career through the prism of 50-plus years, he thought it had all been worth it. “Totally,” he told me. “Love it. I just wish I’d done more music and less drugs. I regret the time I wasted being wasted, that I could have spent making more music.”

Of course, Crosby experienced bad times – especially during the 1980s and ’90s – but if there’s one takeaway from his discography it’s that great music can provide nourishment during profoundly difficult periods. For Crosby, that involved creating an album as breathtaking as If I Could Only Remember My Name in the aftermath of deep, personal tragedy. But latterly, as his fine run of solo albums since 2014’s Croz illustrated, he was able to reinvigorate and sustain his singular solo career after a 21-year gap.

I’ve spent most of this last week or so listening to the PERRO sessions – the bootleg recordings from If I Could Only Remember My Name – where Crosby was joined by a gang of friends and accomplices who constituted the cream of the West Coast music scene. It’s perhaps my favourite set of Crosby recordings, not because the songs are there – a lot of it is quite baked – but because the warmth and the vibe are sweet and seductive. For our tribute to Croz, we’ve revisited many of our own encounters with him from down the years, letting him tell his own colourful tale first-hand.

What else? Our first Led Zeppelin cover story for a decade digs deep into the band’s momentous 1973: a year in which they comprehensively shattered box-office records and rewrote the blueprint for rock’n’roll tours. For this piece, Peter Watts has even tracked down a handful of eyewitnesses and collaborators who’ve never been interviewed before about their experiences working with Zeppelin. It does feel like an untold story.

There’s a lot more, of course – Nina Simone, Nuggets, Paul Weller, Mark Eitzel, Faust, The Roches – as well as emerging artists like Jana Horn, Lonnie Holley, Elijah McLaughlin, Andrew Wasylyk and more. As ever, we strive to join the dots between the music of previous decades and the music that’s being made now.

Finally, I’d like to draw your attention to this month’s Feedback, which includes the best letter we’ve ever printed in Uncut…

Uncut – April 2023

Uncut
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Uncut – April 2023
HAVE A COPY SENT STRAIGHT TO YOUR HOME Led Zeppelin, David Crosby, Nina Simone, Paul Weller, Mark Eitzel, The Roches, Pulp, Faust, Jana Horn, Jeff Beck, Willie Nelson and Chuck D all feature in the new Uncut, dated April 2023 and in UK shops from January 12 or available to buy online now. This i...

HAVE A COPY SENT STRAIGHT TO YOUR HOME

Led Zeppelin, David Crosby, Nina Simone, Paul Weller, Mark Eitzel, The Roches, Pulp, Faust, Jana Horn, Jeff Beck, Willie Nelson and Chuck D all feature in the new Uncut, dated April 2023 and in UK shops from January 12 or available to buy online now. This issue comes with an exclusive free 15-track CD of the month’s best new music.

LED ZEPPELIN: Heavy band, heavy year. By 1973, Led Zeppelin were on their way to becoming the biggest rock’n’roll band in the world. Embarking on an American tour to promote their new album Houses Of The Holy, they shattered box office records, rewriting the blueprint for rock’n’roll tours as they went. Peter Watts climbs aboard the Starship to hear tales of glorious, transcendent music – but also unsolved robberies, giant mirrorballs, cake fights during John Bonham’s 25th birthday party and motorbike rides down hotel corridors. “As the venues got bigger, they got better,” recalls one confidant. “They blasted you into the middle of next week.”

OUR FREE CD! DANCING DAYS: 15 tracks of the month’s best new music, starring Lonnie Holley, Robert Forster, Shana Cleveland, Steve Mason, The Long Ryders, The Hold Steady, Unknown Mortal Orchestra, Mac DeMarco and more…

This issue of Uncut is available to buy by clicking here – with FREE delivery to the UK and reduced delivery charges for the rest of the world.

Inside the issue, you’ll find:

DAVID CROSBY: With the passing of David Crosby, we’ve lost one of the talismanic figures from music’s fecund 1960s and ’70s. Blessed with an unmistakable voice and bewitching harmonic gifts – not to mention a fiercely opinionated temperament – Crosby was a fearless, forward-thinking songwriter who survived bust-ups, freakouts, addiction and prison to enjoy a miraculous final act. In tribute, we revisit Uncut’s candid interviews with the mercurial, musical outlaw, drawing on his own words to tell his incredible story.

NINA SIMONE: From jazz superstar to civil rights activist and beyond, Nina Simone’s 1960s were a dazzling, defiant decade of profound transition and accomplishment. On the eve of what would have been Simone’s 90th birthday, we chart her journey from Greenwich Village folk clubs to her ascension as the High Priestess of Soul. “She was able to pull down a kind of psychic energy,” hears Stephen Deusner.

NUGGETS: Over 50 years on from its release, Nuggets remains one of the most influential and beloved compilation albums of all time. But what of the bands who appeared on Lenny Kaye’s original anthology? Nick Hasted tracks down 10 of the Original Artyfacts to discover what happened next. Stand by for stories of Beatles tour supports, getting high with Gram Parsons, exploding stages and JFK conspiracies told to us by… a messianic rabbi, a car dealer and a building contractor among others. “We played hard, people danced hard and everybody drank beer,” remembers one former bowl-haired mysterioso. “We rock’n’rolled ’til the crack of dawn.”

PAUL WELLER: Paul Weller reflects on his remarkable life in music in a new book, Magic: A Journal Of Song. In this exclusive extract, Weller revisits the inspiring early days of his ascent to mod magnificence with The Jam: “Folk music in its truest sense…”

JEFF BECK: The guitarist’s guitarist, remembered by his former Yardbirds bandmates.

MARK EITZEL: The former American Music Club mainman talks musicals, mushrooms, Lou Reed and why he’d tell his younger self “to get my fucking head out of my own fucking ass”

THE ROCHES: The making of “Hammond Song”. Comes with added Robert Fripp.

FAUST: The complex musical history of the German experimentalists.

CLICK TO GET THE NEW UNCUT DELIVERED TO YOUR DOOR

In our expansive reviews section, we take a look at new records from Lonnie Holley, The Long Ryders, Shana Cleveland, Chip Taylor and more, and archival releases from Elvis Costello & Burt Bacharach, The Strokes, Dave Brubeck, and others. We catch Lucinda Williams and The Delgados live; among the films, DVDs and TV programmes reviewed are Fight The Power: How Hip Hop Changed The World and This Is Sparklehorse; while in books there’s Karen Carpenter and Lou Reed‘s Tai Chi revelations!

Our front section, meanwhile, features Pulp, United States Of America, Willie Nelson and Andrew Waslyk while, at the end of the magazine, Chuck D shares his life in music.

You can pick up a copy of Uncut in all good supermarkets and newsagents. Or you can order a copy direct from us…

CLICK TO GET THE NEW UNCUT DELIVERED TO YOUR DOOR

We’re New Here – Mary Elizabeth Remington

Peter Watts
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We’re New Here – Mary Elizabeth Remington
Itinerant Big Thief associate channels “the magic of nature”, in our MARCH 2023 issue of Uncut, available to buy here. When Mary Elizabeth Remington was seeking a housemate while studying in Boston in 2010, she was excited to hear about “this really cool girl who played the guitar and went ...

Itinerant Big Thief associate channels “the magic of nature”, in our MARCH 2023 issue of Uncut, available to buy here.

When Mary Elizabeth Remington was seeking a housemate while studying in Boston in 2010, she was excited to hear about “this really cool girl who played the guitar and went to Berklee”. That “cool girl” turned out to be future Big Thief Adrianne Lenker and the pair’s ongoing friendship informs Remington’s wonderful debut LP In Embudo.

It was recorded in the New Mexico hamlet that gives the album its name, with Remington’s husky voice and gospel melodies combining with Lenker’s rippling guitar, as well as contributions from Big Thief drummer James Krivchenia and multi-instrumentalist Mat Davidson of Twain. It’s intimate and warm, with shades of Nick Drake and a sense of the spiritual. “Recording was pretty chill, I have to say,” says Remington.

“We were on the river, drinking delicious coffee, cigarettes in the sun, feet in the dirt and being with a group of people who were enjoying working together. I felt I was fulfilling my destiny. We were in a dreamland and could bask in these songs.”

Remington, “a closet singer since forever”, wrote the songs between 2008 and 2019, often composing by singing vocal melodies to herself while working solitary jobs in New Hampshire, Texas and California – her past careers include stone-carving and farming. Raised in a log cabin in rural Massachusetts, nature is an ever-present theme in her music, from the soaring “Fire”, inspired by West Coast wildfires, through to the Irish folk of “Water Song”, which opens with the sound of a rainstorm.

“It felt the elements were right there with us,” she marvels. “The night we did ‘Water Song’ was the only day it rained the whole time. I believe that nature has a voice and that is very much part of who I am. I grew up in the country, I feel connected to the earth, so if
in any way my songs can translate some of the magic of nature, that would be amazing.”

Remington’s deep voice combines beautifully with Lenker on minimalist duets like “Dresser Hill”, while “Mary Mary” finds the pair breaking into giggles at a fluffed lyric. That highlights the delicate intimacy of the recording as well as the friendship between Remington and Lenker. “I love singing with Adrianne,” says Remington. “When she first moved in with me in Boston, we had a connection through singing. It felt amazing to be admired and to admire somebody else and be able to sing together. That feeling of making music with somebody, harmonising, it’s so magical. Adrianne told me I had to record my songs and she’s really helped me make this happen in a way that isn’t forceful. It’s very casual – she has left it up to me, so it’s my record and my songs.”

Remington now lives in the town of Ware on the Swift River in Massachusetts, where she works as a ceramic artist and teacher at a cultural centre. “These songs have always been a little secret thing, but I am already excited about getting my next record done,” she reveals. “They are all written from vocal melodies. It might start with a whistle, a melodic riff, then I find some words. With art, there’s a lot to give, but there is a lot to receive too. If I am depleted, the best prescription is a walk in the woods and you can sit under a tree in nonsensical awareness. There’s no other option for me.”

Mary Elizabeth Remington’s In Embudo is out February 10.

New Paul McCartney documentary Man On The Run to explore post-Beatles life

Ali Shutler
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New Paul McCartney documentary Man On The Run to explore post-Beatles life
A new Paul McCartney documentary exploring the musician’s life following the breakup of The Beatles has been announced. ORDER NOW: Curtis Mayfield is on the cover of the latest issue of Uncut READ MORE: Introducing the Deluxe Ultimate Music Guide to Paul McCartney Man On The Run is set ...

A new Paul McCartney documentary exploring the musician’s life following the breakup of The Beatles has been announced.

Man On The Run is set to be directed by filmmaker Morgan Neville and will draw on “unprecedented access to a never-before-seen archive of Paul and Linda’s home videos and photos, as well as new interviews,” to chronicle the time between The Beatles’ breakup and the rise of Wings in the ‘70s.

According to a press release, Man On The Run will serve as “the definitive document of Paul’s emergence from the dissolution of the world’s biggest band and his triumphant creation of a second decade of musical milestones — a brilliant and prolific stretch.”

“As a lifelong obsessive of all things McCartney, I’ve always felt that the 1970s were the great under-examined part of his story,” said Neville in a statement. “I’m thrilled to have the chance to explore and reappraise this crucial moment in a great artist’s life and work.”

Morgan Neville earned an Academy Award for 2013 documentary 20 Feet from Stardom, which explored celebrated backing singers and recently helmed the Anthony Bourdain retrospective, Roadrunner.

“I was too young to buy Beatles records when they came out, but I could buy Wings records, and I loved them. To me, the story of what happened to Paul McCartney in the wake of The Beatles when he had to rediscover himself is the story that has never been told,” Neville said, announcing the project.

“When Universal called me about this, it took me about three seconds to say I have to do this. It’s the kind of thing I think I’ve been training for since I was 10 years old.”

Last month, a lost McCartney song featuring Jeff Beck was discovered. The track was recorded in 1994 and features a spoken pro-environmentalist message recorded by Beck.

Hear Peter Gabriel’s new track, “The Court”

Michael Bonner
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Hear Peter Gabriel’s new track, “The Court”
Peter Gabriel has released the Dark-Side Mix of "The Court", the second song from his forthcoming album, i/o. Released to coincide with this month’s full moon, you can hear "The Court" below. ORDER NOW: Curtis Mayfield is on the cover of the latest issue of Uncut https://www.youtube.c...

Peter Gabriel has released the Dark-Side Mix of “The Court“, the second song from his forthcoming album, i/o.

Released to coincide with this month’s full moon, you can hear “The Court” below.

Written and produced by Gabriel, “The Court” was recorded at Real World Studios in Wiltshire and The Beehive in London, and features contributions from Brian Eno alongside Tony Levin, David Rhodes and Manu Katché, as well as backing vocals from Gabriel’s daughter Melanie. The orchestral arrangement is by John Metcalfe with Gabriel and was recorded at British Grove Studios in London.

“I had this idea for ‘the court will rise’ chorus, so it became a free-form, impressionistic lyric that connected to justice, but there’s a sense of urgency there,” says Gabriel. “A lot of life is a struggle between order and chaos and in some senses the justice or legal system is something that we impose to try and bring some element of order to the chaos. That’s often abused, it’s often unfair and discriminatory but at the same time it’s probably an essential part of a civilised society. But we do need to think sometimes about how that is actually realised and employed.”

Just like the previous song “Panopticom“, “The Court” will come with differing mix approaches from Tchad Blake (Dark-Side Mix), Mark ‘Spike’ Stent (Bright-Side Mix) and Hans-Martin Buff’s Atmos In-Side Mix.

“I quite like this idea of the multiple mix approach because for most artists it’s the process, not the product, that is most important,” says Gabriel. “In some ways, I’m trying to open up the process a little more for those that are interested.”

The cover for “The Court” depicts the ritual installation Lifting the Curse by Tim Shaw. “Tim Shaw is a great artist whose work is powerful, political and shamanistic,” says Gabriel. “He has often dealt with tough themes such as war and torture. He grew up in Belfast so experienced the fear and reality of seeing violence around him, which I am sure must have made a deep impression.”

“I don’t know why that particular image was chosen for this track,” says Shaw. “But thinking about it, it could be that when you look at the figure perhaps it stands there to be accused, judged and in this case it’s burnt as a punishment process that takes place.”

As well as new music, Gabriel will tour later this year.

i/o The Tour – Europe 2023

Thursday, May 18: TAURON Arena, Krakow, Poland
Saturday, May 20: Verona Arena, Verona, Italy
Sunday, May 21: Mediolanum Arena, Milan, Italy
Tuesday, May 23: AccorHotels Arena, Paris, France
Wednesday, May 24: Stade Pierre-Mauroy, Lille, France
Friday, May 26: Waldbuehne, Berlin, Germany
Sunday, May 28: Koenigsplatz, Munich, Germany
Tuesday, May 30: Royal Arena, Copenhagen, Denmark
Wednesday, May 31: Avicii Arena, Stockholm, Sweden
Friday, June 2: Koengen, Bergen, Norway
Monday, June 5: Ziggo Dome, Amsterdam, Netherlands
Tuesday, June 6: Sportpaleis, Antwerp, Belgium
Thursday, June 8: Hallenstadion, Zurich, Switzerland
Saturday, June 10: Lanxess Arena, Cologne, Germany
Monday, June 12: Barclays Arena, Hamburg, Germany
Tuesday, June 13: Festhalle, Frankfurt, Germany
Thursday, June 15: Arkea Arena, Bordeaux, France
Saturday, June 17: Utilita Arena, Birmingham, UK
Monday, June 19: The O2, London, UK
Thursday, June 22: OVO Hydro, Glasgow, UK
Friday, June 23: AO Arena, Manchester, UK
Sunday, June 25: 3Arena, Dublin, Ireland

The 1st Uncut New Music Playlist Of 2023

Michael Bonner
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The 1st Uncut New Music Playlist Of 2023
Slightly later than I'd like, but welcome to our first playlist of 2023. I guess one advantage to having this a little delayed is there's more to include - so hopefully you'll find plenty of new music to your tastes. You'll notice that I've included two tracks by Brown Spirits, a trio from Australia...

Slightly later than I’d like, but welcome to our first playlist of 2023. I guess one advantage to having this a little delayed is there’s more to include – so hopefully you’ll find plenty of new music to your tastes. You’ll notice that I’ve included two tracks by Brown Spirits, a trio from Australia who are channeling Can and Hawkwind vibes. So far, they’re released two rare-as-hens-teeth 7″s on Soul Jazz. I gather there’s an album coming, so I’ll let you know more on that as and when.

Otherwise, it’s a welcome return to the playlist for Elijah McLaughlin Ensemble and North Americans back – we’ve previewed new tracks from both of them on this site recently. I’ve been playing both of their new albums for a while and they provided plenty of spiritual sustenance during a particularly long and wearying January. I’ve also included Kassi Valazza‘s “Watching Planes Go By”, which some of you may recognise from our current Sounds Of The New West Volume 6 covermount – she’s terrific, in a Paisley Underground meets Jefferson Airplane way, and you can be sure to read more about her very soon in Uncut.

Lots of other great stuff besides – Sam Burton, Trees Speak, Steve Gunn & David Moore, so without further do: dig in!

BROWN SPIRITS
“Space Race”
[Soul Jazz]

BROWN SPIRITS
“Dead End Exits”
[Soul Jazz]

NORTH AMERICANS
“Classic Water”
[Third Man Records]

JANA HORN
“After All This Time”
[No Quarter]

ROB MAZUREK – EXPLODING STAR ORCHESTRA
“Future Shaman”
[International Anthem]

ELIJAH MCLAUGHLIN ENSEMBLE
“Headwaters”
[Astral Spirits]

KASSI VALAZZA
“Watching Planes Go By”
[Loose]

SISSOKO SEGAL PARISIEN PEIRANI
“Banja”
[NØ FØRMAT!]

STEVE GUNN & DAVID MOORE
“Over The Dune”
[RVNG INTL]

ROSE CITY BAND
“Chasing Rainbows”
[Thrill Jockey]

TREES SPEAK
“Sospetto”
[Sounds Of The Universe]

BOBBY LEE
“Reds For a Blue Planet”
[Tompkins Square]

SAM BURTON
“Maria”
[Partisan]

BOYGENIUS
“$20”
[Interscope]

Hear North Americans latest open-sky marvel, “Classic Water”

Michael Bonner
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Hear North Americans latest open-sky marvel, “Classic Water”
North Americans return with "Classic Water" - the first track from their new album, Long Cool World. You can hear "Classic Water" below. ORDER NOW: Curtis Mayfield is on the cover of the latest issue of Uncut https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=83-JtdGJiqg&themeRefresh=1 Initially a ...

North Americans return with “Classic Water” – the first track from their new album, Long Cool World.

You can hear “Classic Water” below.

Initially a solo project for guitarist Patrick McDermott, North Americans became a duo with the addition of pedal-steel player Barry Walker Jr. Regular readers of Uncut will remember the inclusion of the North Americans’ track “American Dipper” on our acclaimed 2021 CD compilation, Sounds Of The New West Presents… Ambient Americana.

This latest open-sky marvel finds McDermott’s languid acoustic fretwork accompanied by Walker Jr’s ravishing pedal steel.

The follow up to 2020’s Roped In, Long Cool World is released on April 7, 2023 via Third Man Records. Click here to pre-order.

Send us your questions for Captain Sensible!

Sam Richards
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Send us your questions for Captain Sensible!
The Damned have announced that their new album Darkadelic – their first since 2018's Evil Spirits – will be released by EarMusic on April 28. The album was recorded by the current line-up of Dave Vanian, Captain Sensible, Paul Gray and Monty Oxymoron, with William Granville-Taylor replacing Pinc...

The Damned have announced that their new album Darkadelic – their first since 2018’s Evil Spirits – will be released by EarMusic on April 28. The album was recorded by the current line-up of Dave Vanian, Captain Sensible, Paul Gray and Monty Oxymoron, with William Granville-Taylor replacing Pinch on drums.

You can pre-order Darkadelic here and watch a video for lead single “The Invisible Man” below:

The punk survivors have also just added a second Alexandra Palace date to their upcoming European tour running throughout March and April – you can buy tickets for that and peruse the rest of their dates here.

But first! The band’s irrepressible bassist-turned-guitarist Captain Sensible has kindly submitted to a gentle grilling from you, the Uncut readers, for our next Audience With interview. So what would you like to ask a beret-sporting, chart-topping, flower-dispensing punk legend? Send your questions to audiencewith@www.uncut.co.uk by Monday (Feb 6) and Captain will answer the best ones in a future issue of Uncut.

Robert Forster – The Candle And The Flame

Pete Paphides
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Robert Forster – The Candle And The Flame
In 2006, following the death of his Go-Betweens foil and best friend Grant McLennan, Robert Forster stopped making music and, for a time, chose to write about it instead. A book, The 10 Rules Of Rock And Roll, collected the essays he wrote for Australian publication The Monthly – and introducing t...

In 2006, following the death of his Go-Betweens foil and best friend Grant McLennan, Robert Forster stopped making music and, for a time, chose to write about it instead. A book, The 10 Rules Of Rock And Roll, collected the essays he wrote for Australian publication The Monthly – and introducing the collection was the list of commandments with which it shared its title. In the fourth of these rock rules, Forster declared, “Being a rock star is a 24-hour-a-day job.”

You’re reminded of this edict when you watch the video for “Tender Years”, the second song on Forster’s eighth solo album. In the kitchen of the Brisbane house he shares with his wife Karin Bäumler, we see Forster miming to the song as he commences his daily breakfast ritual, making muesli for himself and Bäumler. And because being a rock star is a 24-hour-a-day job, it’s a performance to which he absolutely commits, ensuring he’s chopped the papaya in time to pick up his air guitar for the solo.

This is Forster in excelsis. A rock star happy in captivity, singing a sustained rapture to the woman he met 33 years ago, just as the first incarnation of his old band was imploding. “Her beauty has not withered,” he sings, “from her entrance in Chapter One”. Like much of what surrounds it, there’s a prophetic patina to what you hear – prophetic because almost all of The Candle… was written before Bäumler was diagnosed with ovarian cancer – news that would necessitate a course of chemotherapy and the agonising uncertainty that goes with that.

Perhaps the most startling moment of prescience comes with the spare, sunlit reassurances of “It’s Only Poison”, which see Forster urging his subject to keep their spirit strong in the belief that they will outrun any immediate challenges: “You won’t need a doctor / You won’t need a chef / You’re far from over and you can heal yourself”. But it’s there also in the jut-jawed repetition of the line which gives “There’s A Reason To Live” its name, and it’s in “The Roads”, a pencil-sketch of the byways that wreath the Bavarian landscape of Bäumler’s upbringing. That’s her violin arrangement you can hear on the song, and it makes all the difference between a great song and one that quietly steals the breath from your lungs.

In fact, only six words of the entire record were written in the wake of Bäumler’s diagnosis, and they form the entire lyric of “She’s A Fighter”, written during one of the impromptu domestic jams undertaken by the couple in order to distract from an outcome over which they had no control. Also featured here, and throughout the album, is Forster’s son, Louis. After three albums with his own band The Goon Sax, Louis’s guitar chops now arguably surpass those of his father – and the flame thrower attack he brings to the song gives it a purposefulness perhaps unmatched in Forster’s own canon since 1978, when he channeled the spirit of Patti Smith’s “Gloria” in a suburban library and called it “Karen”.

Between the enduring juvenilia of those earliest recordings and this one lies the arc of a lifetime. And much of Forster’s best writing is now an attempt to find the essence that unites him with the 15-year-old who picked up a guitar for the first time. In latter years, he’s done it by taking a lead from Guy Clark, Townes Van Zandt and perhaps Bill Callahan too, jettisoning ornamentation in pursuit of the raw fundaments – and the same can be said of some most affecting moments on here: the ticket stub to a long-forgotten show found in an old pocket on “There’s A Reason To Live” or “I Don’t Do Drugs I Do Time”, which sees Forster holding up the contact sheet of memory to the light of melody and conjuring a freewheeling folk-pop wonder in the process.

But it’s an approach which truly strikes songwriting gold right at the end of The Candle And The Flame. Grant McLennan was still only 24 when he delivered “Cattle And Cane”, his arrestingly cinematic collage of early childhood, and the song that continues to define him. Now here’s Forster, 65, on “When I Was A Young Man”: reflecting on the pop cultural lava that he couldn’t have possibly known would harden to form the landscape of his musical world. In your mind’s eye, father and son sit on stools stage left, plenty of space for the parade of ghosts summoned by references to the young Lou Reed, David Bowie, Tom Verlaine and David Byrne.

If you had to pare “When I Was A Young Man” down to a single bullet point, what you might be left with is an 11th rule of rock’n’roll: “Understand, at all times, that you didn’t choose this life; it chose you. And years later, when called upon to do so, that’s the story your work will tell.” Both here and on the eight songs that precede it, it’s one that Robert Forster tells in tongues of disbelief and gratitude. The sound of a man, entering his third act, still in service to the teenage dreams that prompted him to pick up a guitar in the first place. And as we all know, teenage dreams are hard to beat.

The Waeve – The Waeve

Wyndham Wallace
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The Waeve – The Waeve
It was December 2020 when Rose Elinor Dougall suggested she and Graham Coxon should write a song together, ostensibly for her fourth solo album. They’d met only briefly since Dougall was a Pipette and, huddling for a smoke outside a socially distanced benefit for victims of that summer’s Beirut ...

It was December 2020 when Rose Elinor Dougall suggested she and Graham Coxon should write a song together, ostensibly for her fourth solo album. They’d met only briefly since Dougall was a Pipette and, huddling for a smoke outside a socially distanced benefit for victims of that summer’s Beirut warehouse explosion, they had little idea that within two years they’d make their first album together, even less a baby.

Under normal circumstances, this brief encounter might have led nowhere, but, with another lockdown looming, time was in generous supply, and both were at a crossroads, personally and creatively. They began exchanging messages, testing each other’s musical boundaries, and, with common ground established, convened a month later amid the pandemic’s renewed desolation, beginning their collaboration soon afterwards. It took mere weeks to realise these meetings weren’t about a single song; they were about forming a band, on equal terms. And make no mistake: The Waeve is a band.

They illustrate this powerfully with opener “Can I Call You”, on which the individual hallmarks of Dougall’s and Coxon’s best work collide, then ignite. Dougall emerges first, seductively if pensively, to a doomy piano and submerged percussion, but once a synth starts pulsing with the urgency of Radiohead’s “Ful Stop” the song takes off with motorik efficiency, Coxon’s guitar wailing like Robert Fripp’s on Bowie’s Scary Monsters (And Super Creeps). They’re stopped in their tracks by multi-tracked blasts of a saxophone which has been squeaking in the background for quite some time, before, within moments, they’re casting spells in a gobby sprechgesang suited to this re-energised gallop. Then, abruptly, the tune slams to a halt.

Similar tensions dominate The Waeve, shared values blurring what might otherwise be familiar, jarring styles. Indeed, given how Dougall specialises in ornate but soberly sophisticated pop and Coxon in, well, whatever takes his fancy, tension is its lifeblood. Trade-offs are rarely sanctioned, with this instead again about testing boundaries. So,
if the mood’s often ‘tasteful’ – a pejorative word previously used flippantly by Coxon to describe Dougall’s tastes – that’s never such that refined classiness can’t accommodate more mischievous tendencies.

Their contrasting inclinations thus rub off on one another throughout, with their vocals notably displaying unanticipated qualities. The longest track, “Undine” – whose strings anchor a journey in and out of a swelling storm of burbling synths and ugly guitars – brings out a hitherto rarely heard sensitivity in Coxon, as does the sedate “Over And Over” (think Lambchop’s “Nashville Parent”), while he’s uncommonly assertive on “Drowning”, at least once its velveteen waltz has been overcome by a saturated malevolence. Dougall, too – as on “Can I Call You” – is tougher than ever amid “Someone Up There”’s determined post-punk, while “All Along”’s expanding folk-rock provokes a conspicuously unworldly innocence.

Furthermore, Dougall’s academic desire for subtle complexity finds common ground with Coxon’s unpretentious disposition in their restless, Radiohead-like quest for unpredictability. It was she who, despite her antipathy to his beloved Van Der Graaf Generator, encouraged his use of saxophone, and it’s as vital here – squawking through “Kill Me Again”, lending the lovely “Sleepwalking” an early Roxy Music edginess, reinforcing “All Along”s growing menace with sinister drones – as his guitars, whether they’re providing cultured licks on “Over And Over” or going all Thin Lizzy on “Sleepwalking”.

Coxon and Dougall combine forces, in other words, willing one another to take risks, basking in the ensuing, revelatory freedom, and studiously avoiding the temptations of what Lee Hazlewood called “girl boy songs”, with their narratives, double entendres and subversive stereotypes. There’s certainly no “Leather And Lace” here, and only one ‘traditional’ duet, the polished, doo-wop flavoured, out-of-character closer, “You’re All I Want To Know”, whose “I ain’t letting you go-woah-woah-woah” motif is as likely to draw comparisons with John Travolta and Olivia Newton John as Patsy Cline. To be fair, neither’s terribly close.

It’s tempting to search for clues to Coxon and Dougall’s romance, especially given this happy ending. But The Waeve is shot through instead with disintegrating relationships, glimpses of a mythic England, battles of instinct over intellect, and questions over the ties that bind us (and otherwise). If there’s one overarching theme, it’s merely to take back control, one way or another. Far better, then, to focus on the ambitiously structured, lovingly arranged nature of these unhurriedly crafted songs full of bona fide thrills, unexpected twists, and an elegant but never gratuitous grandeur. Ironically, the only thing likely to hold back The Waeve is parenthood.

How pedal steel upstart Spencer Cullum discovered bold new directions

Tom Pinnock
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How pedal steel upstart Spencer Cullum discovered bold new directions
From Romford to East Nashville, SPENCER CULLUM has taken a peripatetic journey from pedal steel to pastoral psychedelia. Tom Pinnock chats with collaborators along with the sonic upstart as he propels in bold new directions. “It’s more about gradually trying to find my identity…” in the late...

From Romford to East Nashville, SPENCER CULLUM has taken a peripatetic journey from pedal steel to pastoral psychedelia. Tom Pinnock chats with collaborators along with the sonic upstart as he propels in bold new directions. “It’s more about gradually trying to find my identity…” in the latest issue of Uncut magazine – in UK shops from Thursday, January 12 and available to buy from our online store.

“I’m not the biggest fan of Vegas,” says Spencer Cullum, hunched over his laptop high in a hotel over Nevada’s Sin City. “I’ve already seen two vehicles on fire from my window. One of them was a party bus in flames at 4am, right near a gas station! Downtown here is just crazy.”

Cullum, born and bred in Romford, Essex, is about to release his second album, Spencer Cullum’s Coin Collection 2, a sublime set of eccentric folk and psychedelic exploration. Such music, however, doesn’t get your name in lights in Las Vegas alongside Adele and Penn & Teller: so right now Cullum is here as the pedal steel player for country blockbuster Miranda Lambert.

“She writes great songs,” he explains, “and she lets me play what I want, but it’s still bizarre, these massive crowds. It’s nice playing for a female country artist, though, because the crowd doesn’t go into that ‘bro country’ territory that seems to be taking over America.”

“It is a bit of an anomaly, isn’t it, Spencer in Las Vegas!” laughs BJ Cole, pedal steel maestro and something of a mentor to Cullum. “An ongoing gig with somebody like Miranda means you don’t have to look around for work too much – you can relax and do your own thing.”

Most of the time, then, Nashville-based Cullum is playing country music, but over the last few years he’s branched out with his more eccentric Coin Collection project. On their self-titled album and its follow-up, due in April, Cullum explores the pastoral psychedelia of Robert Wyatt and Kevin Ayers, and the more austere folk-rock of Fairport Convention, with a naïve and easy-going charm.

“This whole phase of my music is new to me,” he explains. “Writing songs with lyrics and doing – I don’t even like saying it! – the singer-songwriter thing, still feels uncomfortable. But I like that feeling of fear… I’ve had a lot of help from really good singer-songwriters in Nashville, like Andrew Combs and Caitlin Rose.”

Collaboration is key to the Coin Collection records, and Cullum has assembled a group of likeminded souls in East Nashville: Americana artists keen to explore stranger sounds away from their own careers and the pressures of the city’s ‘country machine’.

“Spencer is a magnet,” says Caitlin Rose. “There aren’t many people doing what he’s doing in Nashville, but there’s people who understand it. Sometimes I think Spencer is like this weird time-travelling spirit; I think that’s why a lot of what he does feels authentic. He’s not apeing anything, it’s more that he just embodies [the feel of classic records].”

PICK UP THE NEW ISSUE OF UNCUT TO READ THE FULL STORY

Peter Hook says Rock & Roll Hall of Fame nomination could be “olive branch” amid New Order row

Charlotte Krol
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Peter Hook says Rock & Roll Hall of Fame nomination could be “olive branch” amid New Order row
Peter Hook has said that Joy Division and New Order's joint nomination for the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame this year could be an "olive branch" for his estranged bandmates. ORDER NOW: Curtis Mayfield is on the cover of the latest issue of Uncut READ MORE: New Order – Low Life (Definitive ...

Peter Hook has said that Joy Division and New Order’s joint nomination for the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame this year could be an “olive branch” for his estranged bandmates.

Nominees for the Class of 2023 were revealed earlier this week, with Kate Bush, Missy Elliott, Cyndi Lauper, Rage Against The Machine, George Michael and The White Stripes among some of the big names in line for potential induction.

Joy Division and New Order were nominated jointly. It stems from the fact that the former band’s guitarist/keyboardist Bernard Sumner, drummer Stephen Morris and bassist Hook regrouped as the latter in the wake of the death of their vocalist, Ian Curtis, in 1980.

Other bands with similar evolutions have been inducted jointly into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame previously, including Small Faces and Faces in 2012.

black and white photograph of New Order performing live in 1985
New Order perform live in 1985. Image: Geoff Campbell

Speaking to Billboard about the joint Joy Division/New Order nomination, Hook said that the nod “made me smile all day”, and may well offer the “olive branch that we may need to end the injustices”.

Those “injustices” Hook alluded to relates to a fall-out more than a decade ago when Sumner, Morris and New Order keyboardist/guitarist Gillian Gilbert reformed without him (Hook left the band in 2007) after a four-year hiatus in 2011. There was also an earlier row over royalties.

A lawsuit over royalties was later settled out of court. Hook said that the musicians “still haven’t spoken, personally in 11 years. We’re still fighting hammer and tong, tooth and nail… I think we’re going for the record for the longest group fallout in history. It’s very tragic.

“It will be a difficult awards ceremony if we get there, but as my wife said we’ve got to rise above these things… and be nice and be courteous and think the best.

“Maybe this is the olive branch that we may need to end the injustices that were done with New Order in the end. It’s a very strange position to be in but, y’know, we’re not the first group that’s been ostracised by each other, and we won’t be the last,” he added.

Ian Curtis
Joy Division. Image: Kevin Cummins

Hook spoke further about his pride at being nominated. “To be honest with you, we were always against this sort of thing when we started,” he said.

“It was the old punk thing – we hope we die before we get old and destroy all the old musicians, etc. etc. and what rubbish awards ceremonies are. Then all of a sudden you get one, and as you get older you realise… yeah, it’s a wonderful thing. I’m humbled, I really am. It’s nice, and it’s fun to be appreciated.

“I will be rooting for us. Ever since we started as Warsaw, I’ve always felt great competition towards other bands. You want to do better than them, you want to achieve something. So this really appeals to me.”

Joy Division have been eligible for the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame since 2004 and New Order since 2006. Acts become eligible for 25 years after the release of a debut album.

Hook added to Billboard he’s happy about the joint nod. “It feels OK to me,” he said. “It was an odd thing. Joy Division was such a wonderful, powerful entity, and it was so sad the way it ended. But the three of us – Bernie, Stephen and I – got real strength from starting New Order together.

“We started [Joy Division] after seeing the Sex Pistols, and we’ve been banging our heads against walls and doors and kicking them down musically since then. We were always the square peg in a round hole as Joy Division and very much a square peg in a round hole as New Order. [The Rock Hall] is a hell of an accolade, but my God, I think either band has earned it. We are definitely up there without a shadow of a doubt.”

The Class of 2023 will be announced in May and the induction ceremonies will take place this autumn.

Peter Hook
Peter Hook. Image: Derick Smith

Hook has been leading his band, Peter Hook & The Light, for more than a decade in which he also performs Joy Division and New Order albums in full. He kicks off a UK tour in April, playing both of Joy Division’s albums (Unknown Pleasures and Closer), a variety of New Order songs, and the Substance compilations from both bands.

New Order, meanwhile, recently announced plans to play this year’s South By Southwest Music Festival (SXSW) along with four other shows in the US.

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