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Roger Daltrey and Pete Townshend take Teenage Cancer Trust to the US

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Roger Daltrey and Pete Townshend take Teenage Cancer Trust to the US
The Who's Roger Daltrey and Pete Townshend are taking their Teenage Cancer Trust initiative to the US. The pair have announced the Daltrey/Townshend Teen And Young Adult Cancer Program at the UCLA, the first project of its kind in the country. It will build on the work of the UK trust, which has h...

The Who‘s Roger Daltrey and Pete Townshend are taking their Teenage Cancer Trust initiative to the US.

The pair have announced the Daltrey/Townshend Teen And Young Adult Cancer Program at the UCLA, the first project of its kind in the country. It will build on the work of the UK trust, which has helped fund 19 special teen cancer units in the UK.

The charity’s aim is to ensure that every young person receives the best possible care and professional support to help meet the unique physical and emotional challenges resulting from a cancer diagnosis. The belief is that teenagers and young adults shouldn’t stop enjoying their youth just because they have cancer.

When hospitalisation is required for teens with cancer, they are often placed in either a pediatric or adult unit. The UCLA Daltrey/Townshend Teen And Young Adult Cancer Program’s special hospital unit will be a comforting environment where young people stay in adjoined patient rooms around a common lounge so they can provide emotional support for each other.

The units are designed to provide, as closely as possible, a normal life, helping the youngsters cope with grueling treatments and long hospital stays.

Daltrey has flown to the US where he will officially launch the program at a news conference in Los Angeles that will also be attended by Led Zeppelin singer Robert Plant. The rockers will sign a guitar that will be hung on the wall in the UCLA unit.

Meanwhile, the ‘Quadrophenia Director’s Cut’ album will be released in the UK on November 14.

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Uncut have teamed up with Sonic Editions to curate a number of limited-edition framed iconic rock photographs, featuring the likes of Pink Floyd, Bob Dylan and The Clash. View the full collection here.

Public Enemy’s Chuck D sues Universal over underpaid royalties

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Public Enemy’s Chuck D sues Universal over underpaid royalties
Public Enemy's Chuck D is suing Universal Music Group, alleging the underpayment of royalties for digital downloads. The rapper has brought the class action against the major in the San Francisco Federal Court. He claims that UMG routinely miscalculates the royalties owed to artists for downloads ...

Public Enemy‘s Chuck D is suing Universal Music Group, alleging the underpayment of royalties for digital downloads.

The rapper has brought the class action against the major in the San Francisco Federal Court. He claims that UMG routinely miscalculates the royalties owed to artists for downloads by treating them as “sales” of physical records rather than “licenses”.

Chuck D’s complaint follows this week’s decision to bring forward a similar consolidated class action brought by Rob Zombie and the estate of Rick James, according to Billboard.

His lawyers at Hausfiueld LLP said that UMG has underpaid hundreds of millions of dollars in royalties, and pointed to a decision last year by the Ninth Circuit Court Of Appeals that offers precedent that downloads should be treated as “licenses”.

Partner James Pizzirusso said: “Chuck D has been fighting the power over two decades and will continue to do so through this suit in order to help all musicians, including many legacy artists who are living on fixed incomes.”

A UMG spokesperson responded: “This complaint suffers from serious flaws and weaknesses, not least of which is that the claims asserted are not appropriate for class treatment. We will vigorously defend against it.”

Latest music and film news on Uncut.co.uk.

Uncut have teamed up with Sonic Editions to curate a number of limited-edition framed iconic rock photographs, featuring the likes of Pink Floyd, Bob Dylan and The Clash. View the full collection here.

John Lennon’s tooth fetches nearly £20,000 at auction

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John Lennon’s tooth fetches nearly £20,000 at auction

A tooth formerly belonging to John Lennon has fetched nearly £20,000 at an auction in the UK. The Beatles legend's molar was put up for sale at the Omega Auction House in Stockport over the weekend (November 4), and was eventually sold for £19,000 – almost double its listed reserve price of £10,000. According to Rolling Stone, the winning bidder was a dentist from Canada, although the Omega Auction House have not yet given any official verification or released the winner's identity. The tooth was put up for auction by former Creation Records boss Alan McGee. He also donated a suit worn by Lennon in the band's Hard Day's Night film, along with a painting by The Stone Roses guitarist John Squire, which McGee bought four years ago. A sizable collection of memorabilia from Oasis – who McGee signed to Creation in 1993 – was also featured. McGee was reportedly set to make up to £150,000 from the auction. He defended his decision to sell his memorabilia collection, which he has been collecting since 1983. "I can't be arsed with music any more," he protested last month. The tooth was originally given to Lennon's housekeeper Dorothy Jarlet, who worked for the singer at his home in Weybridge between 1964 and 1968. Previously, it was reported that a handwritten mystery letter written by The Beatles inviting a mystery drummer to audition for them will be auctioned off in London later this month (November 9), and is expected to reach up to £9,000. In September, meanwhile, a document showing how the band refused to play to segregated crowds was sold for $23,000 (£14, 875). Latest music and film news on Uncut.co.uk. Uncut have teamed up with Sonic Editions to curate a number of limited-edition framed iconic rock photographs, featuring the likes of Pink Floyd, Bob Dylan and The Clash. View the full collection here.

A tooth formerly belonging to John Lennon has fetched nearly £20,000 at an auction in the UK.

The Beatles legend’s molar was put up for sale at the Omega Auction House in Stockport over the weekend (November 4), and was eventually sold for £19,000 – almost double its listed reserve price of £10,000.

According to Rolling Stone, the winning bidder was a dentist from Canada, although the Omega Auction House have not yet given any official verification or released the winner’s identity.

The tooth was put up for auction by former Creation Records boss Alan McGee. He also donated a suit worn by Lennon in the band’s Hard Day’s Night film, along with a painting by The Stone Roses guitarist John Squire, which McGee bought four years ago. A sizable collection of memorabilia from Oasis – who McGee signed to Creation in 1993 – was also featured.

McGee was reportedly set to make up to £150,000 from the auction. He defended his decision to sell his memorabilia collection, which he has been collecting since 1983. “I can’t be arsed with music any more,” he protested last month.

The tooth was originally given to Lennon’s housekeeper Dorothy Jarlet, who worked for the singer at his home in Weybridge between 1964 and 1968.

Previously, it was reported that a handwritten mystery letter written by The Beatles inviting a mystery drummer to audition for them will be auctioned off in London later this month (November 9), and is expected to reach up to £9,000.

In September, meanwhile, a document showing how the band refused to play to segregated crowds was sold for $23,000 (£14, 875).

Latest music and film news on Uncut.co.uk.

Uncut have teamed up with Sonic Editions to curate a number of limited-edition framed iconic rock photographs, featuring the likes of Pink Floyd, Bob Dylan and The Clash. View the full collection here.

The Specials go back on their plans to split up

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The Specials go back on their plans to split up
The Specials have seemingly changed their mind about splitting up and have hinted that they will continue to perform together. Previously, frontman Terry Hall had claimed that he no longer wanted to play live shows with the band, indicating that last night's show at London's Alexandra Palace (Nove...

The Specials have seemingly changed their mind about splitting up and have hinted that they will continue to perform together.

Previously, frontman Terry Hall had claimed that he no longer wanted to play live shows with the band, indicating that last night’s show at London‘s Alexandra Palace (November 3) would be their final gig.

He had said: “I just don’t want to be in a band anymore. I think this is the time to say ‘Thanks very much. See you later really.’ I have been doing this for over 30 years and just think it its time to go now.”

However, The Specials‘ guitarist Lynval Golding told BBC 6 Music after the show that the band were now “in a completely different mood” and suggested that they had not decided to part ways.

Speaking of their previous agreement to disband, he said: “It was a decision we took after [guitarist] Roddy Byers left us recently. [Keyboardist] Jerry [Dammers] had left us a few years before, so we were wondering whether it actually made sense to keep going, but now we have played this tour it seems we are in a completely different mood.”

Singer Neville Staple, meanwhile, added: “A few months ago we were insecure and weren’t even sure if we could bare another long and tiring tour, but now it is all a different scenario. Seeing the people dancing right into the back of the venue made us reconsider our decision and we realised that an iconic band like The Specials shouldn’t go and leave their fans in this sad way.”

Staple also hinted that Dammers, a founding member of The Specials, could rejoin the band in the future.

The ska legends reformed minus Dammers in 2009, but when asked about a possible reunion, Staples said: “You never know. He is an amazing performer and it would be great to work with him again, so maybe one day.”

Latest music and film news on Uncut.co.uk.

Uncut have teamed up with Sonic Editions to curate a number of limited-edition framed iconic rock photographs, featuring the likes of Pink Floyd, Bob Dylan and The Clash. View the full collection here.

Darren Aronofsky to direct video for Lou Reed and Metallica’s ‘Lulu’

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Darren Aronofsky to direct video for Lou Reed and Metallica’s ‘Lulu’

American film director Darren Aronofsky will direct a video for Lou Reed and Metallica's 'Lulu' collaboration, according to reports. The Wall Street Journal is reporting that the Oscar-nominated director will be given control of the video for the song 'Iced Honey', and the clip will be available for screening later this month. Reed and Metallica released the album, which is based around German dramatist Frank Wedekind's 1913 play about the life of an abused dancer, earlier this week (October 31). Metallica drummer Lars Ulrich said that working with both former Velvet Underground rocker Reed and Aronofsky was "living the dream", while Reed revealed that he hopes the video will become "his Black Swan". Earlier this year, Aronofsky an received Academy Award nomination for Best Director for his work on Black Swan, with his other critically acclaimed films including 2000's Requiem For A Dream and 2008's The Wrestler. Lou Reed recently claimed that Metallica fans were so enraged by 'Lulu' that they had [url=http://www.nme.com/news/lou-reed/60148]threatened to shoot him[/url]. He said: "They haven't even heard the record yet, and they're recommending various forms of torture and death." Metallica are currently working on a new album, according to bass player Rob Trujillo. He explained that the follow-up to 'Death Magnetic' was the launch pad for "the beginning of something very, very cool". The metal legends will perform tracks from 'Lulu' with Reed on November 8 on Later… With Jools Holland. Latest music and film news on Uncut.co.uk. Uncut have teamed up with Sonic Editions to curate a number of limited-edition framed iconic rock photographs, featuring the likes of Pink Floyd, Bob Dylan and The Clash. View the full collection here.

American film director Darren Aronofsky will direct a video for Lou Reed and Metallica‘s ‘Lulu’ collaboration, according to reports.

The Wall Street Journal is reporting that the Oscar-nominated director will be given control of the video for the song ‘Iced Honey’, and the clip will be available for screening later this month.

Reed and Metallica released the album, which is based around German dramatist Frank Wedekind’s 1913 play about the life of an abused dancer, earlier this week (October 31).

Metallica drummer Lars Ulrich said that working with both former Velvet Underground rocker Reed and Aronofsky was “living the dream”, while Reed revealed that he hopes the video will become “his Black Swan“.

Earlier this year, Aronofsky an received Academy Award nomination for Best Director for his work on Black Swan, with his other critically acclaimed films including 2000’s Requiem For A Dream and 2008’s The Wrestler.

Lou Reed recently claimed that Metallica fans were so enraged by ‘Lulu’ that they had [url=http://www.nme.com/news/lou-reed/60148]threatened to shoot him[/url]. He said: “They haven’t even heard the record yet, and they’re recommending various forms of torture and death.”

Metallica are currently working on a new album, according to bass player Rob Trujillo. He explained that the follow-up to ‘Death Magnetic’ was the launch pad for “the beginning of something very, very cool”.

The metal legends will perform tracks from ‘Lulu’ with Reed on November 8 on Later… With Jools Holland.

Latest music and film news on Uncut.co.uk.

Uncut have teamed up with Sonic Editions to curate a number of limited-edition framed iconic rock photographs, featuring the likes of Pink Floyd, Bob Dylan and The Clash. View the full collection here.

The Beatles’ ‘Sgt Pepper’ sleeve declared world’s most valuable album cover

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The Beatles’ ‘Sgt Pepper’ sleeve declared world’s most valuable album cover

An adapted version of The Beatles' 'Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band' record sleeve has been declared the world's most valuable album cover. The modified artwork, which features pictures of music executives instead of The Beatles themselves, has been valued at approximately £70,000. The survey conducted by Record Collector names five albums by the Fab Four in the Top 10, with the first 10 copies of their 1968 album 'The Beatles', also known as 'The White Album', said to be worth £7,000 and coming in at second place. Other sleeves to make the list include AC/DC's '12 Of The Best' LP, which was valued at £3,000, and jazz musician Hank Mobley's self-titled 1957 album, which is estimated to be worth £2,000. Artist Sir Peter Blake designed the original 'Sgt Pepper's' sleeve, which was modified in 1967 to feature faces of executives from American record label Capitol Records for a limited edition version of the LP. It is thought that there were just 100 versions of the album created, and the whereabouts of only three copies are currently known. Previously, it was reported that a handwritten mystery letter written by The Beatles inviting a mystery drummer to audition for them will be auctioned off in London later this month (November 9), and is expected to reach up to £9,000. In September, meanwhile, a document showing how the band refused to play to segregated crowds was sold for $23,000 (£14,875). The 10 most expensive record sleeves of all time and their estimated value is as follows: 1. The Beatles – 'Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band' (limited edition Capitol version) (£70,000) 2. The Beatles – 'The Beatles' (£7,000) 3. Madrigals – Magic Key To Spanish Volumes 1 and 2 (£3,500); The Nation's Nightmare (£3,000) 4. The Beatles – 'Introducing The Beatles' (£3,000) 5. The Beatles/Frank Ifield – 'England's Greatest Recording Stars: The Beatles & Frank Ifield On Stage (£3,000) 6. Tinkerbell's Fairydust – 'Tinkerbell's Fairydust' (£3,000) 7. AC/DC – '12 Of The Best' (£3,000) 8. The Beatles – 'Yesterday And Today' (£2,000) 9. Dark – 'Dark Round The Edges' (£2,000) 10. Hank Mobley – 'Hank Mobley' (£2,000) Latest music and film news on Uncut.co.uk. Uncut have teamed up with Sonic Editions to curate a number of limited-edition framed iconic rock photographs, featuring the likes of Pink Floyd, Bob Dylan and The Clash. View the full collection here.

An adapted version of The Beatles‘ ‘Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band’ record sleeve has been declared the world’s most valuable album cover.

The modified artwork, which features pictures of music executives instead of The Beatles themselves, has been valued at approximately £70,000.

The survey conducted by Record Collector names five albums by the Fab Four in the Top 10, with the first 10 copies of their 1968 album ‘The Beatles’, also known as ‘The White Album’, said to be worth £7,000 and coming in at second place.

Other sleeves to make the list include AC/DC‘s ’12 Of The Best’ LP, which was valued at £3,000, and jazz musician Hank Mobley‘s self-titled 1957 album, which is estimated to be worth £2,000.

Artist Sir Peter Blake designed the original ‘Sgt Pepper’s’ sleeve, which was modified in 1967 to feature faces of executives from American record label Capitol Records for a limited edition version of the LP. It is thought that there were just 100 versions of the album created, and the whereabouts of only three copies are currently known.

Previously, it was reported that a handwritten mystery letter written by The Beatles inviting a mystery drummer to audition for them will be auctioned off in London later this month (November 9), and is expected to reach up to £9,000.

In September, meanwhile, a document showing how the band refused to play to segregated crowds was sold for $23,000 (£14,875).

The 10 most expensive record sleeves of all time and their estimated value is as follows:

1. The Beatles – ‘Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band’ (limited edition Capitol version) (£70,000)

2. The Beatles – ‘The Beatles’ (£7,000)

3. Madrigals – Magic Key To Spanish Volumes 1 and 2 (£3,500); The Nation’s Nightmare (£3,000)

4. The Beatles – ‘Introducing The Beatles’ (£3,000)

5. The Beatles/Frank Ifield – ‘England’s Greatest Recording Stars: The Beatles & Frank Ifield On Stage (£3,000)

6. Tinkerbell’s Fairydust – ‘Tinkerbell’s Fairydust’ (£3,000)

7. AC/DC – ’12 Of The Best’ (£3,000)

8. The Beatles – ‘Yesterday And Today’ (£2,000)

9. Dark – ‘Dark Round The Edges’ (£2,000)

10. Hank Mobley – ‘Hank Mobley’ (£2,000)

Latest music and film news on Uncut.co.uk.

Uncut have teamed up with Sonic Editions to curate a number of limited-edition framed iconic rock photographs, featuring the likes of Pink Floyd, Bob Dylan and The Clash. View the full collection here.

The Killers’ bassist Mark Stoermer gives away solo album as free download

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The Killers’ bassist Mark Stoermer gives away solo album as free download
The Killers' bassist Mark Stoermer has announced that he will be giving away his debut solo album as a free download. The album, which is titled 'Another Life' is available to download free from Stoermer's official website Markstoermer.com. The album, which is only downloadable for free for a li...

The Killers‘ bassist Mark Stoermer has announced that he will be giving away his debut solo album as a free download.

The album, which is titled ‘Another Life’ is available to download free from Stoermer‘s official website Markstoermer.com.

The album, which is only downloadable for free for a limited time, will also be available for purchase on CD and vinyl in the coming weeks.

You can also hear three tracks from the album, ‘Everyone Loves The Girl’, ‘The Way We Were Before’ and ‘Amber Bough’ by scrolling down to the bottom of the page and clicking.

Stoermer becomes the third member of The Killers to release a solo album. Frontman Brandon Flowers released his solo album ‘Flamingo’ in 2010 and drummer Ronnie Vanucci released his solo album ‘Big Talk’ earlier this year.

The Killers are currently working on their fourth studio album.

The tracklisting for ‘Another Life’ is as follows:

‘Weary Soul’

‘Shadow In A Dream’

‘Everyone Loves The Girl’

‘Need A Hand’

‘Amber Bough’

‘The Way We Were Before’

‘The Haunts’

‘No Time’

‘There Is No Is’

‘Another Life’

Mark Stoermer 3 songs by Mark Stoermer

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Uncut have teamed up with Sonic Editions to curate a number of limited-edition framed iconic rock photographs, featuring the likes of Pink Floyd, Bob Dylan and The Clash. View the full collection here.

Damon Albarn: ‘Blur have been meeting up regularly and recording again’

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Damon Albarn: ‘Blur have been meeting up regularly and recording again’
Blur have been meeting up "regularly" and recording again, Damon Albarn has confirmed. In an interview with NME, the Gorillaz man revealed that the Britpop band recorded a spoken word piece with poet Michael Horovitz earlier this year. The track was put together in response to the brief threat tha...

Blur have been meeting up “regularly” and recording again, Damon Albarn has confirmed.

In an interview with NME, the Gorillaz man revealed that the Britpop band recorded a spoken word piece with poet Michael Horovitz earlier this year.

The track was put together in response to the brief threat that this year’s Notting Hill Carnival would be cancelled. Albarn is coy about whether the track will see the light of day, commenting: “If they’d have cancelled the carnival – and thank God they didn’t – maybe we’d have put it out. It had its moment: it was a perfect plea to reinstate the carnival. So it wasn’t relevant – it was relevant for about 12 hours.”

Albarn added that he still gets an “amazing feeling” from playing with Blur and hinted at plans to play live with the band – possibly outside the UK – next year. But he also explained that he’s still working out how to fit Blur in with his other projects.

Over the weekend Albarn played his debut gigs with Rocketjuice To The Moon – his new band with Red Hot Chili Peppers man Flea and Tony Allen – and also has two gigs with The Good, The Bad & The Queen penciled in for later this month (both on November 10). He also released his DRC Music side-project album last month.

To read the full interview with Albarn, pick up [url=http://www.nme.com/magazine]this week’s issue of NME[/url], which is on UK newsstands and available digitally now.

Latest music and film news on Uncut.co.uk.

Uncut have teamed up with Sonic Editions to curate a number of limited-edition framed iconic rock photographs, featuring the likes of Pink Floyd, Bob Dylan and The Clash. View the full collection here.

PJ Harvey: ‘I only sing the songs that I can still believe’

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PJ Harvey: ‘I only sing the songs that I can still believe’
PJ Harvey has revealed why she no longer plays a lot of her early material during shows, explaining that she can only sing the songs she can still “believe” in. Speaking to GQ, the ‘Let England Shake’ star said that she hardly plays any material from her first albums, 1992’s ‘Dry’ and...

PJ Harvey has revealed why she no longer plays a lot of her early material during shows, explaining that she can only sing the songs she can still “believe” in.

Speaking to GQ, the ‘Let England Shake’ star said that she hardly plays any material from her first albums, 1992’s ‘Dry’ and 1993’s ‘Rid Of Me’, live because of her concerns over authenticity.

She said: “I find that I can only play the songs that I can sing with any authenticity still, my being a 42-year-old woman. Some of the words of those songs were written when I was very young and they no longer feel honest for me to sing now at this stage of my life.”

She added: “When I sing for people I want to be able to feel that I can inhabit the song during that performance and in order to do so I need to believe in it. So I only sing the songs that I can still believe as I sing them.”

Harvey also spoke about how she feels little nostalgia for that era of her career. “I don’t get nostalgic, really,” she said. “I’m somebody that enjoys living in the present moment that I’m in. In fact, I very rarely reflect because it all feels part of me still. My past feels part of the ongoing journey towards where I’m going next.”

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Uncut have teamed up with Sonic Editions to curate a number of limited-edition framed iconic rock photographs, featuring the likes of Pink Floyd, Bob Dylan and The Clash. View the full collection here.

The Cure to release Bestival headline set as a live album

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The Cure to release Bestival headline set as a live album
The Cure have announced that they will release a live album of their 2011 Bestival headline set this December. The band headlined the Isle Of Wight-based festival in September, playing a 32-song, two-and-a-half-hour set and have now announced that they will release a recording of the whole gig in ...

The Cure have announced that they will release a live album of their 2011 Bestival headline set this December.

The band headlined the Isle Of Wight-based festival in September, playing a 32-song, two-and-a-half-hour set and have now announced that they will release a recording of the whole gig in a 2CD package on December 5.

All profits from sales of the live album will be donated to the Isle Of Wight Youth Trust, a charitable, independent and professional organisation which offers counselling, advice, information and support services to young people aged 25 and under on the Isle of Wight.

The Cure frontman Robert Smith said of the reasoning behind the album’s release: “We had such a great time in the Isle Of Wight at Bestival that we wanted to release this show as a way of thanking fans and islanders alike.”

The Cure are set to perform their debut album ‘Three Imaginary Boys’ (1979), plus 1980’s ‘Seventeen Seconds’ and 1981’s ‘Faith’ in their entirety at London‘s Royal Albert Hall on November 15. The gig sold out in under three hours.

The tracklisting for ‘The Cure: Bestival Live 2011 Disc One’ is as follows:

‘Plainsong

‘Open’

‘Fascination Street’

‘A Night Like This’

‘The End of the World’

‘Lovesong’

‘Just Like Heaven’

‘The Only One’

‘The Walk’

‘Push’

‘Friday I’m In Love’

‘Inbetween Days’

‘Play For Today’

‘A Forest’

‘Primary’

‘Shake Dog Shake’

The tracklisting for ‘The Cure: Bestival Live 2011 Disc Two’ is as follows:

‘The Hungry Ghost’

‘100 Years’

‘End’

‘Disintegration’

‘Lullaby’

‘The Lovecats’

‘The Caterpillar’

‘Close to Me’

‘Hot Hot Hot!!!’

‘Let’s Go to Bed’

‘Why Can’t I Be You?’

‘Boys Don’t Cry’

‘Jumping Someone Else’s Train’

‘Grinding Halt’

’10:15 Saturday Night’

‘Killing Another’

Latest music and film news on Uncut.co.uk.

Uncut have teamed up with Sonic Editions to curate a number of limited-edition framed iconic rock photographs, featuring the likes of Pink Floyd, Bob Dylan and The Clash. View the full collection here.

Uncut Playlist 38, 2011, plus Wilco live

John Mulvey
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To the Roundhouse last Saturday, for the Wilco and Jonathan Wilson show, which I suspect one or two of you may also have seen. More and more often these days, I turn to “Kicking Television” before any other Wilco album, and am beginning to suspect it might actually be their defining work. Watching on Saturday night, it’s clear that stability hasn’t brought any complacency to the lineup, and that now would be a sensible time to put out another live album. For all their imaginative use of the studio (not least on “The Whole Love”), it occurs that like one of their clear antecedents, The Grateful Dead, Wilco are at their most potent onstage. Saturday’s show was a brilliant operation in drawing affinities between different phases of the band. So an opening “One Sunday Morning” flowed artfully into “Poor Places”, then into a take on “Art Of Almost” that, with Glenn Kotche playing breaks, was the closest Wilco have ever come to sonically justifying that old ‘American Radiohead’ tag. A bit of a frontloaded set, I think: it’s hard to top a 5-6-7 of “At Least That's What You Said”, “Bull Black Nova” and “Via Chicago”; and some of the makeweight powerpop songs from the new album blurred into one another in the second half (culminating in Nick Lowe guesting on “Cruel To Be Kind”). Even then, though, there was always something interesting at the edges: Nels Cline, of course, providing imaginative friction; Pat Sansone’s intuitive piano lines; the relentless energy of the whole band, and the sheer creative joy that they seem to generate. Wilson was good, too, though he probably should loosen up live a bit more; a jam on “Natural Rhapsody” was the definite highlight. Anyone else want to share opinions? In the meantime, the 2012 albums have started rolling in, and there’s some very good stuff in this week’s playlist, not least the extraordinary Blues Control/Laraaji collaboration. 1 Blues Control & Laraaji – FRKWYS Vol 8: Blues Control & Laraaji (RVNG) 2 Doug Jerebine - Jesse Harper (Drag City) 3 Elephant Micah – Louder Than Thou (Unknown) 4 High Wolf – Atlas Nation (Holy Mountain) 5 Black Bananas – Rad Times Xpress IV (Drag City) 6 Guided By Voices – Let’s Go Eat The Factory (Fire) 7 Calexico – Selections From Road Atlas: 1998-2011 (City Slang) 8 Tom Waits – Bad As Me (Anti-) 9 Chairlift – Something (Young Turks) 10 Etta James – The Dreamer (Decca) 11 Field Music – Plumb (Memphis Industries) 12 Black Truth Rhythm Band – Ifetayo (Soundway) 13 Prinzhorn Dance School – Clay Class (DFA) 14 Barry Dransfield – Barry Dransfield (Spinney) 15 Hiss Golden Messenger – Poor Moon (Paradise Of Bachelors)

To the Roundhouse last Saturday, for the Wilco and Jonathan Wilson show, which I suspect one or two of you may also have seen.

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New Order announce one-off London date

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New Order announce one-off London date
New Order have announced a one-off London show for later this year. The band revealed that they had reunited earlier this year when they announced that they would play two benefit gigs, but also confirmed that bass player Peter Hook would not be part of their line-up. The group, who now include k...

New Order have announced a one-off London show for later this year.

The band revealed that they had reunited earlier this year when they announced that they would play two benefit gigs, but also confirmed that bass player Peter Hook would not be part of their line-up.

The group, who now include keyboard player Gillian Gilbert and new bassist Tom Chapman, will play London’s Troxy venue on December 10. The gig will be New Order‘s first UK show for over five years.

Peter Hook has repeatedly expressed his unhappiness that the band have reformed without him, previously saying that he had vowed to “fuck over” his former bandmates in “any possible way” he can.

Hook is currently touring with his band The Light, who have recently been playing Joy Division‘s classic album ‘Closer’ as part of their set.

Tickets go onsale on Friday (November 4) at 9am (GMT). To check the availability of [url=http://nme.seetickets.com/Tour/New-Order?affid1nmestory] New Order tickets[/url] and get all the latest listings, go to [url=http://www.nme.com/gigs]NME.COM/TICKETS[/url] now, or call 0871 230 1094.

Latest music and film news on Uncut.co.uk.

Uncut have teamed up with Sonic Editions to curate a number of limited-edition framed iconic rock photographs, featuring the likes of Pink Floyd, Bob Dylan and The Clash. View the full collection here.

The Who’s Pete Townshend: ‘Apple is a digital vampire’

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The Who’s Pete Townshend: ‘Apple is a digital vampire’
The Who guitarist and songwriter Pete Townshend has labeled technology giant Apple as a "digital vampire". Townshend, who gave the first John Peel Lecture in Salford last night (October 31), said that he believed the internet was "destroying copyright as we know it" and was damaging the growth of ...

The Who guitarist and songwriter Pete Townshend has labeled technology giant Apple as a “digital vampire”.

Townshend, who gave the first John Peel Lecture in Salford last night (October 31), said that he believed the internet was “destroying copyright as we know it” and was damaging the growth of new music, reports BBC News.

He said of Apple: “Is there really any good reason why, just because iTunes exists in the wild west internet land of Facebook and Twitter, it can’t provide some aspect of these services to the artists whose work it bleeds like a digital vampire, like a digital Northern Rock, for its enormous commission.”

He continued: “Apple should employ 20 talent scouts from the dying record business to give guidance to new acts and provide financial and marketing support to the best ones.”

Townshend also laid into people who had downloaded his band’s music without paying, saying that they “may as well come and steal my son’s bike while they’re at it. If someone pretends that something I have created should be available to them free, I wonder what has gone wrong with human morality and social justice.”

The guitarist also said every new artist faced a dilemma about how they distributed their music, saying he believed creative people would prefer to starve then no-one hear their output. He added: “A creative person would prefer their music to be stolen and enjoyed than ignored. This is the dilemma for every creative soul: he or she would prefer to starve and be heard than to eat well and be ignored.”

Townshend is currently preparing for the release of his long-awaited memoir Who He? He has been writing the book for over 15 years and was cautioned by police in 2003 during its writing after accessing child pornography on the internet. When questioned by police about the material he cited researching for the book as his reason for doing so.

The Who guitarist has also described the book, which will be published by Harper Collins, as a “rite of passage”. It is expected to be published in the autumn of 2012.

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Uncut have teamed up with Sonic Editions to curate a number of limited-edition framed iconic rock photographs, featuring the likes of Pink Floyd, Bob Dylan and The Clash. View the full collection here.

Radiohead, PJ Harvey, Bon Iver nominated for Uncut Music Award

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Radiohead, PJ Harvey, Bon Iver nominated for Uncut Music Award
Radiohead, PJ Harvey and Bon Iver are among the nominees for the Uncut Music Award 2011. The award, which is given out by Uncut, sees one album chosen from a shortlist of eight by a panel of judges, which will include Uncut editor Allan Jones. Also nominated for the award are Bill Callahan, Fleet ...

Radiohead, PJ Harvey and Bon Iver are among the nominees for the Uncut Music Award 2011.

The award, which is given out by Uncut, sees one album chosen from a shortlist of eight by a panel of judges, which will include Uncut editor Allan Jones.

Also nominated for the award are Bill Callahan, Fleet Foxes, Josh T Pearson, Paul Simon and Gillian Welch.

The winner of the award will be announced in the new issue of

Uncut, which is on UK newsstands on November 27 or available digitally. The full transcript of the judging panel’s discussions about the album will also be published on Uncut.co.uk.

The full shortlist for the Uncut Music Award is as follows:

Bill Callahan – ‘Apocalypse’

Fleet Foxes – ‘Helplessness Blues’

PJ Harvey – ‘Let England Shake’

Bon Iver – ‘Bon Iver’

Josh T Pearson – ‘Last Of The Country Gentlemen’

Radiohead – ‘The King Of Limbs’

Paul Simon – ‘So Beautiful Or So What’

Gillian Welch – ‘The Harrow & The Harvest’

Latest music and film news on Uncut.co.uk.

Uncut have teamed up with Sonic Editions to curate a number of limited-edition framed iconic rock photographs, featuring the likes of Pink Floyd, Bob Dylan and The Clash. View the full collection here.

Hear Karen O and David Lynch’s collaboration ‘Pinky’s Dream’

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Hear Karen O and David Lynch’s collaboration ‘Pinky’s Dream’
Yeah Yeah Yeahs frontwoman Karen O and cult film director David Lynch have posted their collaboration track 'Pinky's Dream' online – scroll down to the bottom of the page and click to listen. The track is taken from Lynch's debut album 'Crazy Clown Time', which is released on November 7 on the S...

Yeah Yeah Yeahs frontwoman Karen O and cult film director David Lynch have posted their collaboration track ‘Pinky’s Dream’ online – scroll down to the bottom of the page and click to listen.

The track is taken from Lynch’s debut album ‘Crazy Clown Time’, which is released on November 7 on the Sunday Best label.

Lynch, who is best known as the visionary behind films such as Blue Velvet and Mulholland Drive, has described the LP as “modern blues”. He said: “The love of experimenting with sound and music is what was driving this boat. All of the songs on the album started as a jam. The jams eventually found a form and lyrics appeared.”

The director will play the guitar and sing on the album. The full tracklisting for ‘Crazy Clown Time’ is as follows:

‘Pinky’s Dream’

‘Good Day Today’

‘So Glad’

‘Noah’s Ark’

‘Football Game’

‘I Know’

‘Strange And Unproductive Thinking’

‘The Night Bell With Lightning’

‘Stone’s Gone Up’

‘Crazy Clown Time’

‘These Are My Friends’

‘Speed Roadster’

‘Movin’ On’

‘She Rise Up’

Latest music and film news on Uncut.co.uk.

Uncut have teamed up with Sonic Editions to curate a number of limited-edition framed iconic rock photographs, featuring the likes of Pink Floyd, Bob Dylan and The Clash. View the full collection here.

Muse’s ‘Hysteria’ voted best bassline of all time

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Muse’s ‘Hysteria’ voted best bassline of all time
Muse's 'Hysteria' has been voted as the track which features the best bassline of all time. In a new poll conducted by Musicradar.com, the bassline from the Devon trio's 2003 hit single came out on top, with Rush's 'YYZ' in second place. Queen held the next two places in the top ten, with 'Anoth...

Muse‘s ‘Hysteria’ has been voted as the track which features the best bassline of all time.

In a new poll conducted by Musicradar.com, the bassline from the Devon trio’s 2003 hit single came out on top, with Rush‘s ‘YYZ’ in second place.

Queen held the next two places in the top ten, with ‘Another One Bites The Dust’ and ‘Under Pressure at Number Three and Four respectively. Pink Floyd were at Number Five with ‘Money’, while Metallica, Michael Jackson, Yes, The Who and Tool made up the rest of the Top 10.

Muse are currently in the studio working on their sixth studio album, which is due to be released in late 2012.

The 10 best basslines of all time were named as follows:

1. Muse – ‘Hysteria’

2. Rush – ‘YYZ’

3. Queen – ‘Another One Bites The Dust’

4. Queen and David Bowie – ‘Under Pressure’

5. Pink Floyd – ‘Money’

6. Metallica – ‘Orion’

7. Michael Jackson – ‘Billie Jean’

8. Yes – ‘Roundabout’

9. The Who – ‘My Generation’

10. Tool – ‘Schism’

Latest music and film news on Uncut.co.uk.

Uncut have teamed up with Sonic Editions to curate a number of limited-edition framed iconic rock photographs, featuring the likes of Pink Floyd, Bob Dylan and The Clash. View the full collection here.

New Amy Winehouse album set for release in December

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New Amy Winehouse album set for release in December
Amy Winehouse will release a new, posthumous studio album later this year. The album, which is titled 'Amy Winehouse Lioness: Hidden Treasures', will be released on December 5 and has been put together by producers Mark Ronson and Salaam Remi using tracks that the singer left unfinished when she p...

Amy Winehouse will release a new, posthumous studio album later this year.

The album, which is titled ‘Amy Winehouse Lioness: Hidden Treasures’, will be released on December 5 and has been put together by producers Mark Ronson and Salaam Remi using tracks that the singer left unfinished when she passed away earlier this year.

‘Amy Winehouse Lioness: Hidden Treasures’ features 12 tracks, including covers of The Shirelles‘ ‘Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow’, Donny Hathaway‘s ‘A Song For You’ and Ruby & The Romantics‘ ‘Our Day Will Come’.

The album will also feature alternative versions of Winehouse‘s previously released material, including a demo version of ‘Wake Up Alone and slowed down versions of ‘Tears Dry On Their Own’ and ‘Valerie’. It also includes ‘Body & Soul’, her duet with Tony Bennett which was released earlier this year.

The record also includes a number of previously unreleased tracks. Among them are ‘Halftime’ and ‘The Girl From Ipanema’ – which were recorded during her sessions for debut album ‘Frank’ – and ‘Like Smoke’, which sees the singer duetting with Nas. Another new song, ‘Between The Cheats’, is thought to chronicle her troubled marriage with ex-husband Blake Fielder-Civil.

£1 from each copy of the album that is sold will be donated to the Amy Winehouse Foundation, the charity set up in the singer’s honour.

The tracklisting for ‘Amy Winehouse Lioness: Hidden Treasures’ is as follows:

‘Our Day Will Come’

‘Between The Cheats’

‘Tears Dry’

‘Wake Up Alone’

‘Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow’

‘Valerie’

‘Like Smoke’

‘The Girl From Ipanema’

‘Halftime’

‘Best Friends’

‘Body & Soul’

‘A Song For You’

Latest music and film news on Uncut.co.uk.

Uncut have teamed up with Sonic Editions to curate a number of limited-edition framed iconic rock photographs, featuring the likes of Pink Floyd, Bob Dylan and The Clash. View the full collection here.

CONTAGION

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CONTAGION
Directed by Steven Soderbergh Starring Marion Cotillard, Matt Damon, Laurence Fishburne In Contagion, Steven Soderbergh applies his intelligent, steely touch to the medical disaster movie. A multi-stranded ensemble piece – imagine Traffic with microbes – Contagion traces the outbreak of a glo...

Directed by Steven Soderbergh

Starring Marion Cotillard, Matt Damon, Laurence Fishburne

In Contagion, Steven Soderbergh applies his intelligent, steely touch to the medical disaster movie.

A multi-stranded ensemble piece – imagine Traffic with microbes – Contagion traces the outbreak of a global pandemic.

A decidedly peaky-looking Gwyneth Paltrow plays Patient Zero, no sooner home from the East than she’s dead on a dissecting slab.

mong the medics and bureaucrats trying to contain the situation are Kate Winslet, Jennifer Ehle and a scene-stealing Elliott Gould.

The weakest links are Jude Law’s conspiracy-theorist blogger, whose Antipodean accent could set off allergic reactions, and the scenes of panic and looting – so cursory that you wish Soderbergh had been able to develop his themes at mini-series length.

Still Scott Z Burns’ shrewd script makes pointed parallels between biological viruses and (mis)information as transmitted online.

Jonathan Romney

LOU REED & METALLICA – LULU

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LOU REED & METALLICA – LULU

“It’s maybe the best thing done by anyone, ever. It could create another planetary system. I’m not joking, and I’m not being egotistical.” Thus Lou Reed on his new album. It’s quite a big claim, especially as this is not only a collaboration with Metallica, but is also a set of songs based on the Lulu plays by the late 19th-century German playwright Frank Wedekind. You can almost hear the ringtones in the playground. Both Reed and Metallica have had a chequered 21st century, the former getting most career notice when Susan Boyle covered “Perfect Day” (Reed objected, then graciously gave his consent), the latter becoming the Spinal Tap of today after the often hilarious Some Kind Of Monster doc. Despite a decent showing at the Rock’n’Roll Hall of Fame, where Metallica backed Reed on “Sweet Jane” and “White Light/White Heat”, a collaboration on songs about an “anti-Eve” who becomes a willing victim of Jack The Ripper was hardly going to a) bring Reed new fans and b) entice the notoriously open-minded and liberal heavy metal community. Lulu turns out to be, if not the best thing Lou Reed or Metallica have ever done, then more than pretty good. Everything on this immense album is intense, exciting, loud and generally all three. Metallica don’t so much sweep away Lou Reed’s musical cobwebs as fire nuclear warheads at them, while Reed adds a lyrical intensity and visceral poetry that makes everything bar the most Norwegian of metal sound weedy. What you don’t get is a rock band trying to play Velvet Underground songs; what you do get is a very big and horrible noise with lyrics and vocals that completely match. Reed has always tried to bring the ideas and form of the novel to rock; admittedly, by “novel” he tends not to mean Dan Brown or even Graham Greene, but here his obsession with the spunk and shit of life works. “I would cut my legs and tits off/When I think of Boris Karloff and Kinski” he declares on the opening track, “Brandenburg Gate”, while James Hetfield roars out the phrase “Small town girl!” like a burning Aslan, and they pretty much take it from there. On “Pumping Blood”, a guitar cuts through the storm and Reed sings, “I swallow your sharpest cutter like a coloured man’s dick,” Over the relentless industrial laundry riff of “Mistress Dread”, he sings, “I beg you to degrade me/Is there waste I could eat?” It’s bleak, in the way that being pulled in half by tanks during a firestorm tends to be bleak. Lulu is a record that stomps onwards and downwards. Eleven-and-a-half minutes of “Cheat On Me”, eight-and-a-half of “Frustration” (“I want you as my wife/Spermless as a girl”, sings Reed over a classic Metallica riff), and, as we pass from “Little Dog”’s bitterness (“A puny body and a tiny dick/A little dog can make you sick”) and “Dragon”’s 11 minutes of blind contempt (there’s a reference to “a Kotex jukebox” and the “red star of idiocy”), we come to the big one. “Junior Dad” has been performed by Lou Reed with Laurie Anderson and John Zorn. Live, it was more of a drone, a few emotional and soul-wrenching lyrics about a father. With Metallica, unsurprisingly, it’s different. After cellos and the sound of Reed humming, the most extraordinary thing happens; a lovely New Order bass riff comes in, accompanied by a harmonium. It’s gorgeous, melancholy and recalls my two favourite Lou Reed tracks, “Street Hassle” and Songs For Drella’s “A Dream”, all in 20 extraordinary minutes. Reed’s lyrics – “Pull me up/ Would you be my lord and saviour?” – are hard to pin down but effective. “Scalding, my dead father has the motor/And he’s driving towards an island of lost souls,” he continues, sounding like a David Lynch (or Laurie Anderson) character. And then “Hiccup/the dream is over/Get the coffee, turn the lights on/Say hello to junior dad/ The greatest disappointment…” By now, the listener is feeling fairly overwhelmed – Hetfield and Kirk Hammett, who’d recently lost their own fathers, were moved to tears – as the song moves into six-and-a-half glorious orchestral minutes which recall, if anything, Gavin Bryars’ The Sinking Of The Titanic. “Junior Dad” is breathtaking; and, while nothing else here is quite as astonishing, it’s a perfect ending to the most extraordinary, passionate and just plain brilliant record either participant has made for a long while. David Quantick Photo: Anton Corbijn

“It’s maybe the best thing done by anyone, ever. It could create another planetary system. I’m not joking, and I’m not being egotistical.” Thus Lou Reed on his new album. It’s quite a big claim, especially as this is not only a collaboration with Metallica, but is also a set of songs based on the Lulu plays by the late 19th-century German playwright Frank Wedekind. You can almost hear the ringtones in the playground.

Both Reed and Metallica have had a chequered 21st century, the former getting most career notice when Susan Boyle covered “Perfect Day” (Reed objected, then graciously gave his consent), the latter becoming the Spinal Tap of today after the often hilarious Some Kind Of Monster doc. Despite a decent showing at the Rock’n’Roll Hall of Fame, where Metallica backed Reed on “Sweet Jane” and “White Light/White Heat”, a collaboration on songs about an “anti-Eve” who becomes a willing victim of Jack The Ripper was hardly going to a) bring Reed new fans and b) entice the notoriously open-minded and liberal heavy metal community.

Lulu turns out to be, if not the best thing Lou Reed or Metallica have ever done, then more than pretty good. Everything on this immense album is intense, exciting, loud and generally all three. Metallica don’t so much sweep away Lou Reed’s musical cobwebs as fire nuclear warheads at them, while Reed adds a lyrical intensity and visceral poetry that makes everything bar the most Norwegian of metal sound weedy. What you don’t get is a rock band trying to play Velvet Underground songs; what you do get is a very big and horrible noise with lyrics and vocals that completely match.

Reed has always tried to bring the ideas and form of the novel to rock; admittedly, by “novel” he tends not to mean Dan Brown or even Graham Greene, but here his obsession with the spunk and shit of life works. “I would cut my legs and tits off/When I think of Boris Karloff and Kinski” he declares on the opening track, “Brandenburg Gate”, while James Hetfield roars out the phrase “Small town girl!” like a burning Aslan, and they pretty much take it from there. On “Pumping Blood”, a guitar cuts through the storm and Reed sings, “I swallow your sharpest cutter like a coloured man’s dick,” Over the relentless industrial laundry riff of “Mistress Dread”, he sings, “I beg you to degrade me/Is there waste I could eat?” It’s bleak, in the way that being pulled in half by tanks during a firestorm tends to be bleak.

Lulu is a record that stomps onwards and downwards. Eleven-and-a-half minutes of “Cheat On Me”, eight-and-a-half of “Frustration” (“I want you as my wife/Spermless as a girl”, sings Reed over a classic Metallica riff), and, as we pass from “Little Dog”’s bitterness (“A puny body and a tiny dick/A little dog can make you sick”) and “Dragon”’s 11 minutes of blind contempt (there’s a reference to “a Kotex jukebox” and the “red star of idiocy”), we come to the big one.

“Junior Dad” has been performed by Lou Reed with Laurie Anderson and John Zorn. Live, it was more of a drone, a few emotional and soul-wrenching lyrics about a father. With Metallica, unsurprisingly, it’s different. After cellos and the sound of Reed humming, the most extraordinary thing happens; a lovely New Order bass riff comes in, accompanied by a harmonium. It’s gorgeous, melancholy and recalls my two favourite Lou Reed tracks, “Street Hassle” and Songs For Drella’s “A Dream”, all in 20 extraordinary minutes. Reed’s lyrics – “Pull me up/ Would you be my lord and saviour?” – are hard to pin down but effective. “Scalding, my dead father has the motor/And he’s driving towards an island of lost souls,” he continues, sounding like a David Lynch (or Laurie Anderson) character. And then “Hiccup/the dream is over/Get the coffee, turn the lights on/Say hello to junior dad/ The greatest disappointment…” By now, the listener is feeling fairly overwhelmed – Hetfield and Kirk Hammett, who’d recently lost their own fathers, were moved to tears – as the song moves into six-and-a-half glorious orchestral minutes which recall, if anything, Gavin Bryars’ The Sinking Of The Titanic.

“Junior Dad” is breathtaking; and, while nothing else here is quite as astonishing, it’s a perfect ending to the most extraordinary, passionate and just plain brilliant record either participant has made for a long while.

David Quantick

Photo: Anton Corbijn

THE BEACH BOYS – THE SMILE SESSIONS

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THE BEACH BOYS – THE SMILE SESSIONS

So here it is: such stuff as dreams and bootlegs are made on. Brian Wilson’s unfinished symphony was in production at the same time as Disney’s The Jungle Book. It finally emerges, with a little CG assistance, in the same year as Pirates Of The Caribbean: On Stranger Tides. Preposterously late, The Smile Sessions fits into no present-day category, context or franchise. How could it? Wilson’s carnivalesque music and Van Dyke Parks’ flabbergasting libretto share a sophisticated naïveté, a corny profundity, unrecognisable in the world today. Greet the morning, sunny side up (“I’m In Great Shape”), rustle up some breakfast (“eggs and grits and lickety-split”), and sally forth, hat tilted at a carefree angle. This isn’t the hip 1966 humour of Lenny Bruce; it’s the broad, big-boned comedy of Oliver Hardy. Laughter breaks out in a cantina. A red-faced man throws away a candy bar and eats the wrapper. A swanee whistle – the whoopee cushion of musical instruments – romps goofily alongside fruity clarinets and marimbas. Smile was envisaged as an LP that would make the population grin; but it was also an odyssey on a vast scale – a journey both coast-to-coast and backwards in time – so you might meet a widower talking proudly of his kids (“head to toe, healthy wealthy and wise”) or a family of 19th century Midwesterners bemused by the railroad (“Who ran the iron horse?”) cutting through their meadows. Wilson’s genius was that he could turn the mood from burlesque to eeriness, and then back, without undermining his concept. A key passage begins with a baroque ballad for harpsichord (“Wonderful”) and ends in some of rock’s most aristocratic wordplay (“Surf’s Up”) with vocal harmonies so resplendent that ships should be named after them. But phantoms live here. Wilson’s piano chords (“Look”) are peculiar, disturbed by their own shadows. A key metaphor (“the child is father of the man”) recurs. Inside the belly of Smile, in the heart-land of America, the humour has gone awry. The 24-year-old Wilson was unable to complete Smile, and at 69 he’s unlikely to be much help in an editorial capacity. Mark Linett and Alan Boyd, two experienced Beach Boys producers and archivists, deserve serious credit for The Smile Sessions. They’ve assembled a plausible, honourable, 19-track, monaural Smile, tracing an arc from “Our Prayer” to “Good Vibrations”, via “Cabin Essence” and “The Elements: Fire (Mrs. O’Leary’s Cow)”, deviating only slightly from the roadmap of the acclaimed Brian Wilson Presents Smile (2004). Picking and choosing from the original session masters, Linett and Boyd’s 49-minute ‘approximation’ (their word) of the cancelled 1967 album dominates all five formats of The Smile Sessions – 1CD, 2CD, 5CD deluxe box set, vinyl and download. The five CDs in the deluxe box, like the four in The Pet Sounds Sessions (1997), take a forensic look at the music’s inner workings. Arranged chronologically for each song or section – for example, a track might be listed as “My Only Sunshine: Part 2 (Master Take With Vocal Overdubs) (2/10/67)” – these stereo discs are packed with isolated verses, choruses, inserts and overdubs, allowing us to eavesdrop on the intricate draughtsmanship of Wilson’s creation; virtually every bar of it. On CD2, we watch “Heroes And Villains” advance episodically in structure between October 1966 and June 1967. It seems to mushroom in ambition before our eyes. On CD5, devoted entirely to “Good Vibrations”, we scrutinise the song’s mind-boggling architecture for 79 minutes. Do 24 versions of “Good Vibrations” become repetitive? Less than you’d think – you get used to Hal Blaine clicking his drumsticks each time the musicians stop and restart. “It feels like you’re way behind the whole thing,” Wilson admonishes the flutes. “Try to get that quarter-note feel as perfect as we can.” Partly because the Smile sessions ended so sadly with Wilson’s breakdown, the bittersweet moments tend to come when he’s marshalling his troops, sounding confident and focused. Then again sometimes he’s alone (“Surf’s Up 1967 Version”, CD1), or in smaller groups, shepherding them through “Wonderful” (CD3) or “Wind Chimes” (CD4). Progress can be slow. “Carl is having a big hang-up at home and says he’ll be late,” someone butts in. When Carl and the others are present, it’s illuminating to witness them honing their vocals. They struggle at first with “Our Prayer”, a fiendishly tough piece, false-starting like Spinal Tap at Elvis’ graveside. However, CD1 has an eight-minute montage of their vocals from various sessions, which could be bottled and sold as an amazing new psychoactive drug. Fans unwilling to pay £120 for The Smile Sessions (it includes a double vinyl LP, two 7” singles and a 60-page book) should consider the 2CD edition, featuring the mono Smile, eight bonus tracks and 63 minutes of highlights from the box (“Our Prayer”, “Heroes And Villains”, “My Only Sunshine”, “Cabin Essence”, “Surf’s Up”, “Vega-Tables”, “The Elements: Fire”, “Cool, Cool Water”, “Good Vibrations”). Retailing at £11, it’s a top-value, bang-for-buck, pragmatic alternative. Wilson, meanwhile, releases an album of Disney tunes this month. For him, clearly, the magic has never faded. David Cavanagh Photo © 2011 GuyWebster.com-Courtesy of Brian Wilson Archive

So here it is: such stuff as dreams and bootlegs are made on. Brian Wilson’s unfinished symphony was in production at the same time as Disney’s The Jungle Book. It finally emerges, with a little CG assistance, in the same year as Pirates Of The Caribbean: On Stranger Tides. Preposterously late, The Smile Sessions fits into no present-day category, context or franchise. How could it? Wilson’s carnivalesque music and Van Dyke Parks’ flabbergasting libretto share a sophisticated naïveté, a corny profundity, unrecognisable in the world today.

Greet the morning, sunny side up (“I’m In Great Shape”), rustle up some breakfast (“eggs and grits and lickety-split”), and sally forth, hat tilted at a carefree angle. This isn’t the hip 1966 humour of Lenny Bruce; it’s the broad, big-boned comedy of Oliver Hardy. Laughter breaks out in a cantina. A red-faced man throws away a candy bar and eats the wrapper. A swanee whistle – the whoopee cushion of musical instruments – romps goofily alongside fruity clarinets and marimbas. Smile was envisaged as an LP that would make the population grin; but it was also an odyssey on a vast scale – a journey both coast-to-coast and backwards in time – so you might meet a widower talking proudly of his kids (“head to toe, healthy wealthy and wise”) or a family of 19th century Midwesterners bemused by the railroad (“Who ran the iron horse?”) cutting through their meadows. Wilson’s genius was that he could turn the mood from burlesque to eeriness, and then back, without undermining his concept. A key passage begins with a baroque ballad for harpsichord (“Wonderful”) and ends in some of rock’s most aristocratic wordplay (“Surf’s Up”) with vocal harmonies so resplendent that ships should be named after them. But phantoms live here. Wilson’s piano chords (“Look”) are peculiar, disturbed by their own shadows. A key metaphor (“the child is father of the man”) recurs. Inside the belly of Smile, in the heart-land of America, the humour has gone awry.

The 24-year-old Wilson was unable to complete Smile, and at 69 he’s unlikely to be much help in an editorial capacity. Mark Linett and Alan Boyd, two experienced Beach Boys producers and archivists, deserve serious credit for The Smile Sessions. They’ve assembled a plausible, honourable, 19-track, monaural Smile, tracing an arc from “Our Prayer” to “Good Vibrations”, via “Cabin Essence” and “The Elements: Fire (Mrs. O’Leary’s Cow)”, deviating only slightly from the roadmap of the acclaimed Brian Wilson Presents Smile (2004). Picking and choosing from the original session masters, Linett and Boyd’s 49-minute ‘approximation’ (their word) of the cancelled 1967 album dominates all five formats of The Smile Sessions – 1CD, 2CD, 5CD deluxe box set, vinyl and download.

The five CDs in the deluxe box, like the four in The Pet Sounds Sessions (1997), take a forensic look at the music’s inner workings. Arranged chronologically for each song or section – for example, a track might be listed as “My Only Sunshine: Part 2 (Master Take With Vocal Overdubs) (2/10/67)” – these stereo discs are packed with isolated verses, choruses, inserts and overdubs, allowing us to eavesdrop on the intricate draughtsmanship of Wilson’s creation; virtually every bar of it. On CD2, we watch “Heroes And Villains” advance episodically in structure between October 1966 and June 1967. It seems to mushroom in ambition before our eyes. On CD5, devoted entirely to “Good Vibrations”, we scrutinise the song’s mind-boggling architecture for 79 minutes. Do 24 versions of “Good Vibrations” become repetitive? Less than you’d think – you get used to Hal Blaine clicking his drumsticks each time the musicians stop and restart. “It feels like you’re way behind the whole thing,” Wilson admonishes the flutes. “Try to get that quarter-note feel as perfect as we can.” Partly because the Smile sessions ended so sadly with Wilson’s breakdown, the bittersweet moments tend to come when he’s marshalling his troops, sounding confident and focused. Then again sometimes he’s alone (“Surf’s Up 1967 Version”, CD1), or in smaller groups, shepherding them through “Wonderful” (CD3) or “Wind Chimes” (CD4). Progress can be slow. “Carl is having a big hang-up at home and says he’ll be late,” someone butts in.

When Carl and the others are present, it’s illuminating to witness them honing their vocals. They struggle at first with “Our Prayer”, a fiendishly tough piece, false-starting like Spinal Tap at Elvis’ graveside. However, CD1 has an eight-minute montage of their vocals from various sessions, which could be bottled and sold as an amazing new psychoactive drug. Fans unwilling to pay £120 for The Smile Sessions (it includes a double vinyl LP, two 7” singles and a 60-page book) should consider the 2CD edition, featuring the mono Smile, eight bonus tracks and 63 minutes of highlights from the box (“Our Prayer”, “Heroes And Villains”, “My Only Sunshine”, “Cabin Essence”, “Surf’s Up”, “Vega-Tables”, “The Elements: Fire”, “Cool, Cool Water”, “Good Vibrations”). Retailing at £11, it’s a top-value, bang-for-buck, pragmatic alternative. Wilson, meanwhile, releases an album of Disney tunes this month. For him, clearly, the magic has never faded.

David Cavanagh

Photo © 2011 GuyWebster.com-Courtesy of Brian Wilson Archive

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