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Club Uncut @ The Great Escape: Gang Gang Dance/ Babe, Terror/ Alexander Tucker, Pavilion Theatre, Brighton, May 12, 2011

Michael Bonner
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As the first night of Club Uncut’s annual seaside trip to Brighton’s Great Escape festival comes to an end, a girl passes me yelling “My ears! My ears!”. New York’s Gang Gang Dance have just come off stage at the Pavilion Theatre, where they’ve cranked up the decibels to ear-splitting levels. Really, it was loud. Earlier this week, I’d been listening to their latest album, Eye Contact, recorded in relaxed circumstances near rural Woodstock, and been impressed by the ambient textures of tracks like “Glass Jar”. Live, they’re clearly a very different proposition: the sheer intense forcefulness of their sound physically impacts on the body. It had all been so very different three hours earlier… The evening opens with experimental English guitarist Alexander Tucker, demonstrating his spectral mix of electronic effects, field recordings and samples, over which he layers improvised guitar sounds. It’s bewitching stuff, and clearly enthrals the audience. “It’s like machines crying,” one person tells me. Tucker is followed by Babe, Terror, another one-man outfit (real name = Claudio Szynkier) who hails from Sao Paolo’s hippie district and is doing much the same with his voice that Tucker did with his guitar. For half an hour, he hunches over, singing phrases into a sequencer that sits on the floor, twisting dials, filtering his voice further. Occasionally, I’m reminded of the way Thom Yorke’s voice has increasingly been processed on Radiohead’s recent releases. By the end of his set, he’s so stiff from being bent over, he can hardly stand up. Everything changes when Gang Gang Dance crank up the volume. The Pavilion Theatre is now rammed. There’s what resembles a black bin-bag being waved like a flag on stage by one of the band, while the guitarist seems to have what resembles a foot-long rollie hanging from the side of his mouth. Liz Bougatsos herself seems to channel some of the witchy allure favoured by her female label-mates at 4AD. Mostly, though, she’s there having a great time. And we do, too. Befitting, perhaps, a band who’ve spent a decade immersed in New York’s bohemian scene, you can detect some art-funk rhythms and chiming Afropop guitars in their make-up. But there’s endless, odd twists, too. It all goes a bit Middle Eastern for a while, and later the bouncy, echoing beats and synth patterns could be Tango In The Night-era Fleetwood Mac. At one point, Bougatsos just stands on stage, swaying, thwacking a drum. It’s all pretty loose, admittedly. All of a sudden, you notice that the bass beats have ploughed deep into House territory and, as if from nowhere, the gig has turned into a rave. Bougatsos can hardly stop laughing. It’s been a fine start. Tonight, Villagers and the great Josh T Pearson will be taking the stage at Club Uncut. Should be a good one. Nick Hasted

As the first night of Club Uncut’s annual seaside trip to Brighton’s Great Escape festival comes to an end, a girl passes me yelling “My ears! My ears!”. New York’s Gang Gang Dance have just come off stage at the Pavilion Theatre, where they’ve cranked up the decibels to ear-splitting levels. Really, it was loud. Earlier this week, I’d been listening to their latest album, Eye Contact, recorded in relaxed circumstances near rural Woodstock, and been impressed by the ambient textures of tracks like “Glass Jar”. Live, they’re clearly a very different proposition: the sheer intense forcefulness of their sound physically impacts on the body. It had all been so very different three hours earlier…

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ATTACK THE BLOCK

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ATTACK THE BLOCK
Directed by Joe Cornish Starring Jodie Whittaker, Nick Frost Joe Cornish already has experience directing movies, as anyone who can remember Channel 4’s comedy series, The Adam And Joe Show (1995-2001), will attest. Along with co-host Adam Buxton, Cornish recreated films using stuffed toys, acti...

Directed by Joe Cornish

Starring Jodie Whittaker, Nick Frost

Joe Cornish already has experience directing movies, as anyone who can remember Channel 4’s comedy series, The Adam And Joe Show (1995-2001), will attest. Along with co-host Adam Buxton, Cornish recreated films using stuffed toys, action figures and ropey cardboard sets – Toytanic, Saving Private Lion and Tufty Club among them.

Now, Cornish has turned his attention to more serious filmmaking endeavours. He’s written the Tintin screenplay for Spielberg and Peter Jackson, due for release in October. But we can sample the fruits of his labours earlier, however, with Attack The Block, which Cornish has written and directed – an alien invasion movie, if you will, set on a south London housing estate.

It’s November 5, and a trainee nurse, Sam (Jodie Whittaker), is mugged by a gang of hoodies on her way back to the Brixton tower block where she lives. Which is when, amidst the fireworks, an alien falls to earth. Believing it to be some kind of feral status dog, the gang’s leader, Moses (John Boyega), kills it and takes the carcass back with him to the block as a trophy. Then more aliens turn up, invading the housing estate, looking for revenge. Before long, the hoodies are defending the block from a full-scale alien invasion.

Although very much a British movie in its casting and setting, it’s interesting that Attack The Block’s DNA is conspicuously American. References to The Warriors, Assault On Precinct 13 and Aliens are clearly detectable. Movie references aside, it says much about the globalisation of youth culture that our gang of hoodies share many colourful traits with their American counterparts. The love of hip hop, both the music and its vernacular, is particularly evident here. Phrases like “5-0”, for the police are co-opted directly from American slang. Cornish apparently let the cast rewrite their dialogue, to incorporate their own idiom and mannerisms.

Indeed, it’s to the credit of the cast, largely unknowns, that they hold our attention so well. John Boyega’s Moses is a fierce and charismatic presence, while Alex Esmail’s wheedling Pest and Leeon Jones’ bookish Jerome are also stand-outs. Of the professional actors around them, Nick Frost plays Nick Frost as a cheery drug dealer, Jodie Whittaker is strong as the film’s moral centre while Luke Treadaway is slyly funny as a stoned posho.

Cornish has made a very accomplished debut; an exuberant genre mash-up, part sci-fi, part action movie, part comedy, executed with tremendous energy and flair.

Michael Bonner

JOHN MARTYN – HEAVEN AND EARTH

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JOHN MARTYN – HEAVEN AND EARTH

In late 2006 I interviewed John Martyn in the beer garden of his local in Thomastown, Kilkenny. In between bombing pints of cider laced with vodka and demolishing a cheese and onion toastie in three mouthfuls, he told me the follow-up to his 2004 album, On The Cobbles, was almost done. Perhaps it was, but at the time of his premature death from pneumonia in January 2009 it still hadn’t appeared. Finally, here it is. Apparently completed just before he died and released without any posthumous tinkering, it’s almost impossible to prevent hindsight from partially hijacking our expectations. Perhaps many of us hoped Martyn’s last recordings would take the form of a hushed, elegiac final reckoning, forgetting that these nine songs were never intended to carry that weight. Instead we get something very different. Flawed, undeniably, but rudely, robustly alive. At times On The Cobbles returned to within an ace of Martyn’s best work. Heaven And Earth isn’t so obviously beguiling. Mostly recorded at Martyn’s home in Thomastown, the textures are less organic, the songs looser and happier to embark on extended workouts. There is some evidence that these final recordings were created in extremis. Always a tippler and toker extraordinaire, having lost a leg to septicaemia in 2003 Martyn entered his final years in a state of advanced disrepair. While it’s great to hear that inimitable voice one more time, there’s no denying it had seen better days; for much of this record he sounds like Barry White nursing a bad grudge and a 30-year hangover. In short, Heaven And Earth is more “Big Muff” than “May You Never”, with perhaps a hint of “Johnny Too Bad” around the edges. Several songs are defined by a kind of thick, slow funk, ambling forward on great slabs of rhythm. When it works it’s a fine sound. “Stand Amazed” is a spare, sinewy, swampy skank stretching out over seven delicious minutes, the spaces fleshed out by a wall of girl singers. Caught between blues and funk, “Bad Company” and “Heel Of The Hunt” are similarly steamy affairs which rumble and roll without ever quite producing a lightning bolt. “Gambler” is far more convincing, with its rattling drums, boogie piano, organ swirls and badass bass. It’s taut and vaguely dangerous, filled with late night menace. The remaining tracks lean towards a more ragged approximation of the slick, slinky sound which characterised many of Martyn’s ’80s albums. The title track is all tinkling piano, burbling bass and a lightly vocoded vocal which turns every vowel into a cosmic gargle. Despite the ripe entertainment of hearing this salty pirate making like some melismatic R&B siren, the end result is less “Solid Air” and more cocktail hour. Much better is “Could’ve Told You Before I Met You”, an uplifting piece of shimmering pop with a zinging chorus. Once again Martyn’s voice is heavily treated, giving his honey-and-gravel tones even more of a woozy, narcotic edge. Where Paul Weller and Mavis Staples guested on On The Cobbles, this time Garth Hudson and Martyn’s old friend, Phil Collins, provide celebrity cameos. Hudson adds lovely drunken accordion to “Stand Amazed”, but it’s Collins’ “Can’t Turn Back The Years” – the only non-Martyn original here, on which the ex-Genesis man also contributes backing vocals and keyboards – that is the real highlight. If it doesn’t quite scale the peaks of the pair’s previous collaborations on Grace And Danger, it’s not far short, a seductive, carefully calibrated ballad which features the best Martyn vocal on the album. “Colour” has a fine bluesy riff running through it but veers towards the anonymous, while the closing “Willing To Work” – “woop-de-doos”, barking dogs and all – is little more than an extended jam which hardly justifies its eight minutes. When Martyn growls “give me a name and I’ll live up to it” it’s partly bottled bravado, but it also reveals a genuine desire to stay within touching distance of his greatness. There’s little on Heaven And Earth to truly trouble his best work, but throughout there’s plentiful evidence of the many qualities which made Martyn so indefinable and influential. And, lest we forget, utterly irreplaceable. Graeme Thomson

In late 2006 I interviewed John Martyn in the beer garden of his local in Thomastown, Kilkenny. In between bombing pints of cider laced with vodka and demolishing a cheese and onion toastie in three mouthfuls, he told me the follow-up to his 2004 album, On The Cobbles, was almost done. Perhaps it was, but at the time of his premature death from pneumonia in January 2009 it still hadn’t appeared.

Finally, here it is. Apparently completed just before he died and released without any posthumous tinkering, it’s almost impossible to prevent hindsight from partially hijacking our expectations. Perhaps many of us hoped Martyn’s last recordings would take the form of a hushed, elegiac final reckoning, forgetting that these nine songs were never intended to carry that weight. Instead we get something very different. Flawed, undeniably, but rudely, robustly alive.

At times On The Cobbles returned to within an ace of Martyn’s best work. Heaven And Earth isn’t so obviously beguiling. Mostly recorded at Martyn’s home in Thomastown, the textures are less organic, the songs looser and happier to embark on extended workouts. There is some evidence that these final recordings were created in extremis. Always a tippler and toker extraordinaire, having lost a leg to septicaemia in 2003 Martyn entered his final years in a state of advanced disrepair. While it’s great to hear that inimitable voice one more time, there’s no denying it had seen better days; for much of this record he sounds like Barry White nursing a bad grudge and a 30-year hangover.

In short, Heaven And Earth is more “Big Muff” than “May You Never”, with perhaps a hint of “Johnny Too Bad” around the edges. Several songs are defined by a kind of thick, slow funk, ambling forward on great slabs of rhythm. When it works it’s a fine sound. “Stand Amazed” is a spare, sinewy, swampy skank stretching out over seven delicious minutes, the spaces fleshed out by a wall of girl singers. Caught between blues and funk, “Bad Company” and “Heel Of The Hunt” are similarly steamy affairs which rumble and roll without ever quite producing a lightning bolt. “Gambler” is far more convincing, with its rattling drums, boogie piano, organ swirls and badass bass. It’s taut and vaguely dangerous, filled with late night menace.

The remaining tracks lean towards a more ragged approximation of the slick, slinky sound which characterised many of Martyn’s ’80s albums. The title track is all tinkling piano, burbling bass and a lightly vocoded vocal which turns every vowel into a cosmic gargle. Despite the ripe entertainment of hearing this salty pirate making like some melismatic R&B siren, the end result is less “Solid Air” and more cocktail hour. Much better is “Could’ve Told You Before I Met You”, an uplifting piece of shimmering pop with a zinging chorus. Once again Martyn’s voice is heavily treated, giving his honey-and-gravel tones even more of a woozy, narcotic edge.

Where Paul Weller and Mavis Staples guested on On The Cobbles, this time Garth Hudson and Martyn’s old friend, Phil Collins, provide celebrity cameos. Hudson adds lovely drunken accordion to “Stand Amazed”, but it’s Collins’ “Can’t Turn Back The Years” – the only non-Martyn original here, on which the ex-Genesis man also contributes backing vocals and keyboards – that is the real highlight. If it doesn’t quite scale the peaks of the pair’s previous collaborations on Grace And Danger, it’s not far short, a seductive, carefully calibrated ballad which features the best Martyn vocal on the album.

“Colour” has a fine bluesy riff running through it but veers towards the anonymous, while the closing “Willing To Work” – “woop-de-doos”, barking dogs and all – is little more than an extended jam which hardly justifies its eight minutes. When Martyn growls “give me a name and I’ll live up to it” it’s partly bottled bravado, but it also reveals a genuine desire to stay within touching distance of his greatness. There’s little on Heaven And Earth to truly trouble his best work, but throughout there’s plentiful evidence of the many qualities which made Martyn so indefinable and influential. And, lest we forget, utterly irreplaceable.

Graeme Thomson

KATE BUSH – DIRECTOR’S CUT

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KATE BUSH – DIRECTOR’S CUT

In last year’s biography, Under The Ivy, Uncut’s Graeme Thomson celebrated Kate Bush as a great Romantic Modern: “Her career is largely without retrospectives. Like the witch-woman celebrated in Bob Dylan’s ‘She Belongs To Me’, Bush is ‘an artist, she don’t look back’.” What are we to make, then, of the fact that the first Kate Bush album in five years consists entirely of reworkings and refashionings of songs originally recorded for 1989’s The Sensual World and 1993’s The Red Shoes? It’s not unprecedented. When her greatest hits compilation was released in 1986, Bush re-recorded the vocal to “Wuthering Heights”, a little embarrassed at the high notes. But the title of this set, typically used by aggrieved filmmakers, implies that some original vision for these songs was betrayed or compromised. Yet it’s difficult to think of a pop artist who has assumed, from the moment of her teenage debut, such creative control as Kate Bush. So what was betrayed or lost, and by whom? And do these new versions set the record straight? “Flower Of The Mountain” offers the simplest answer to the conundrum. It’s a version of “The Sensual World”, restored to its original conception, setting some of Molly Bloom’s closing monologue from James Joyce’s Ulysses to music. Back in 1989 Bush was prevented from using the text by the Joyce estate, but they appear now, in the final year of their copyright, to have relented. It’s not clear whether this is the originally recorded version, but what’s surprising is how “Flower Of The Mountain” still pales besides “The Sensual World” we’ve known for years. “Our arrows of desire rewrite the speech”, she had sung, copyright laws inadvertently prompting her to a more passionate, perfectly phrased lyric than a mere faithful setting of Ulysses allowed. This new take is an interesting curio, but it’s testament finally to Bush’s fearless ambition at the 1980s height of her powers. Elsewhere, Director’s Cut simply marks the changes in musical fashion – most notably on the reworked “Deeper Understanding”, a song about the questionable solace of technology, which now features a multitracked, pitchshifted Kate as the voice of the computer, as though she had just heard Kanye West’s 808s & Heartbreak. But generally these are subtler reworkings. Ironically, now that young groups spend countless studio hours trying to recreate the astonishing gated boom of “Sat In Your Lap”, Bush seems slightly uncomfortable with her studio excesses. Whereas The Red Shoes in particular suffered from a surfeit of guest appearances and special effects, the songs here have the drums dialled down to a jazzy shuffle and the vocals of the Trio Bulgarka are mixed more sparingly. The recording marked a tempestuous time in Bush’s life: the death of her mother and a couple of bandmates, the end of her relationship with Del Palmer. On songs like “Lily” and “Song Of Solomon”, she now seems able to recall the heightened emotion in something approaching tranquillity. A touring musician might register their changing relationship with their back catalogue by reworking the songs in performance. Apparently, The Red Shoes was originally intended to be a simpler set of songs to be taken on tour. As the Stonesy jam of “Rubberband Girl” indicates, maybe this is how they would have ended up. The best, most radical revision here is “This Woman’s Work”. Originally commissioned for the soundtrack of She’s Having A Baby, it provided the title for her boxset and, especially in the US, has become her most celebrated song. Written before Bush had a child, its coda (“All the things I should have said that I never said...”), could be interpreted as the fear that, for a female artist, becoming a mother means sacrificing your art. This new version restores the song’s strangeness and force. “Give me these moments back, give them back to me” she sings, shifting from consolation to determination. But the most significant moment is found on “...And So Is Love”. Back in 1993, the verse ran: “We used to say/Ah hell, we’re young/But now we see that life is sad/And so is love.” Now, with the hard-won wisdom of 50-odd years, Kate sings: “And now we see that life is sweet...”. When the song first appeared, I thought she sounded so dispirited it would be a miracle if she ever made another record. Here she sounds revitalised. After the intermission of Aerial, could this mark the real beginning of the second act of Kate Bush’s brilliant career? Let’s hope, like Molly, the answer is “Yes…” Stephen Troussé

In last year’s biography, Under The Ivy, Uncut’s Graeme Thomson celebrated Kate Bush as a great Romantic Modern: “Her career is largely without retrospectives. Like the witch-woman celebrated in Bob Dylan’s ‘She Belongs To Me’, Bush is ‘an artist, she don’t look back’.” What are we to make, then, of the fact that the first Kate Bush album in five years consists entirely of reworkings and refashionings of songs originally recorded for 1989’s The Sensual World and 1993’s The Red Shoes?

It’s not unprecedented. When her greatest hits compilation was released in 1986, Bush re-recorded the vocal to “Wuthering Heights”, a little embarrassed at the high notes. But the title of this set, typically used by aggrieved filmmakers, implies that some original vision for these songs was betrayed or compromised. Yet it’s difficult to think of a pop artist who has assumed, from the moment of her teenage debut, such creative control as Kate Bush. So what was betrayed or lost, and by whom? And do these new versions set the record straight?

“Flower Of The Mountain” offers the simplest answer to the conundrum. It’s a version of “The Sensual World”, restored to its original conception, setting some of Molly Bloom’s closing monologue from James Joyce’s Ulysses to music. Back in 1989 Bush was prevented from using the text by the Joyce estate, but they appear now, in the final year of their copyright, to have relented. It’s not clear whether this is the originally recorded version, but what’s surprising is how “Flower Of The Mountain” still pales besides “The Sensual World” we’ve known for years. “Our arrows of desire rewrite the speech”, she had sung, copyright laws inadvertently prompting her to a more passionate, perfectly phrased lyric than a mere faithful setting of Ulysses allowed. This new take is an interesting curio, but it’s testament finally to Bush’s fearless ambition at the 1980s height of her powers.

Elsewhere, Director’s Cut simply marks the changes in musical fashion – most notably on the reworked “Deeper Understanding”, a song about the questionable solace of technology, which now features a multitracked, pitchshifted Kate as the voice of the computer, as though she had just heard Kanye West’s 808s & Heartbreak.

But generally these are subtler reworkings. Ironically, now that young groups spend countless studio hours trying to recreate the astonishing gated boom of “Sat In Your Lap”, Bush seems slightly uncomfortable with her studio excesses. Whereas The Red Shoes in particular suffered from a surfeit of guest appearances and special effects, the songs here have the drums dialled down to a jazzy shuffle and the vocals of the Trio Bulgarka are mixed more sparingly. The recording marked a tempestuous time in Bush’s life: the death of her mother and a couple of bandmates, the end of her relationship with Del Palmer. On songs like “Lily” and “Song Of Solomon”, she now seems able to recall the heightened emotion in something approaching tranquillity. A touring musician might register their changing relationship with their back catalogue by reworking the songs in performance. Apparently, The Red Shoes was originally intended to be a simpler set of songs to be taken on tour. As the Stonesy jam of “Rubberband Girl” indicates, maybe this is how they would have ended up.

The best, most radical revision here is “This Woman’s Work”. Originally commissioned for the soundtrack of She’s Having A Baby, it provided the title for her boxset and, especially in the US, has become her most celebrated song. Written before Bush had a child, its coda (“All the things I should have said that I never said…”), could be interpreted as the fear that, for a female artist, becoming a mother means sacrificing your art. This new version restores the song’s strangeness and force. “Give me these moments back, give them back to me” she sings, shifting from consolation to determination.

But the most significant moment is found on “…And So Is Love”. Back in 1993, the verse ran: “We used to say/Ah hell, we’re young/But now we see that life is sad/And so is love.” Now, with the hard-won wisdom of 50-odd years, Kate sings: “And now we see that life is sweet…”. When the song first appeared, I thought she sounded so dispirited it would be a miracle if she ever made another record. Here she sounds revitalised. After the intermission of Aerial, could this mark the real beginning of the second act of Kate Bush’s brilliant career? Let’s hope, like Molly, the answer is “Yes…”

Stephen Troussé

PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN – ON STRANGER TIDES

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PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN – ON STRANGER TIDES
DIRECTED BY Rob Marshall STARRING Johnny Depp, Penelope Cruz, Geoffrey Rush Since Avatar broke every box office record going, 3D has swiftly and predictably become the norm for any random blockbuster. But no amount of groovy technology can stop a film being a load of toss, right? Only wily old Wer...

DIRECTED BY Rob Marshall

STARRING Johnny Depp, Penelope Cruz, Geoffrey Rush

Since Avatar broke every box office record going, 3D has swiftly and predictably become the norm for any random blockbuster. But no amount of groovy technology can stop a film being a load of toss, right? Only wily old Werner Herzog, in his marvellous Cave Of Forgotten Dreams, has understood that 3D can be used in ways other than to disguise a paucity of genuinely thrilling creative ideas.

But wait! For those of you who’ve glazed over at the thought of seeing this week’s favoured costumed crusader busting out of your cinema screens in three action-packed dimensions – there is this. We are in England, and it is 1718. For around 15 minutes, we find ourselves plonked in the Hanoverian court of King George II – in 3D! It’s a moment of strange and incongruous brilliance – look! Richard Griffiths as George II, waddling around St James’ Palace, right there in 3D!

Surely, this is what Michael Gove means when he says he wants to incentivise deeper knowledge of our cultural heritage among school children?

In fact, this opening sequence is by far the most engaging thing in an otherwise tiresome and noisy picture, watching Johnny Depp, Geoffrey Rush and Richard Griffiths, three intelligent and fine actors, bantering and playing off each other.

Sadly, such moments are few and far between. Although incoming director Rob Marshall attempts to inject a frothier tone after the incomprehensible plotting of the two previous instalments, On Stranger Tides’ default setting is still loud, going on bang. There are zombies, mermaids, pirates, the Spanish navy, the English navy, Bluebeard, his daughter Angelica and the search for the Fountain of Eternal Youth all clamouring for your attention. As befitting a $3 billion franchise that’s spun off from a theme park ride, the emphasis here is on splash and spectacle.

Odd moments, though, do filter through the roiling bluster and effects-driven hurly burly. A meeting in a pub between Depp’s Captain Jack Sparrow and his father, Captain Teague, played one again by Keith Richards, is amusing enough: “Does this face look like it’s been to the Fountain of Youth?” Asks Richards. “Depends on the lighting,” deadpans Depp.

We’re now so used to Depp’s lop-sided Sparrow that, to some extent, he feels like more than part of the scenery here. Far better, in fact, is Geoffrey Rush’s Captain Barbossa, who’s exchanged his pirating days for life as a privateer, working for George II’s navy. Dressed in powder and wig and doing his best “Lah-di-dah” posh voice, he gets many of the best lines, and plays them well. Ian McShane, an unearthly shade of orange, struggles to make Bluebeard more than a PG version of Deadwood’s Al Swearengen. Penelope Cruz, as Angelica, who – of course – was once involved with Jack Sparrow, does feisty and Spanish, pretty much as you’d expect she would.

It’s alright. But you could probably have more fun with a Pirates Of The Caribbean Lego set.

MICHAEL BONNER

Pete Doherty won’t be charged over the death of Mark Blanco

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Pete Doherty won’t be charged over the death of Mark Blanco
Pete Doherty will not be charged over the death of actor Mark Blanco, police have said today (May 12). According to BBC News the Crown Prosecution Service have said there is insufficient evidence to charge anybody in connection with the actor's death. Blanco died in 2006 in East London as a result...

Pete Doherty will not be charged over the death of actor Mark Blanco, police have said today (May 12).

According to BBC News the Crown Prosecution Service have said there is insufficient evidence to charge anybody in connection with the actor’s death. Blanco died in 2006 in East London as a result of a head injury sustained from falling from a first floor flat during a party The Libertines man was also at.

Jenny Hopkins, a spokesperson for the Crown Prosecution Service said of the verdict: “None of the evidence is capable of establishing to the required standard that Mr Blanco was thrown or pushed from the balcony or that any other individual was present at the time he fell.”

Doherty was implicated in the case after an [url=http://www.nme.com/news/nme/31608]inquest into the actor’s death in 2007[/url] heard that Doherty asked his minder Jonathan Jeannevol to “have a word” with Blanco after he had “annoyed” him. Doherty man was also apparently seen on CCTV running away from Blanco‘s body.

An open verdict was delivered after the inquest and the presiding coroner ordered a fresh police inquiry into the case, which has now concluded with no-one being charged. Blanco‘s family are said to have reacted furiously to the verdict and are considering launching their own private prosecution against Doherty and Jeannevol.

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.

Arcade Fire record song with David Byrne for ‘The Suburbs’ re-release

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Arcade Fire record song with David Byrne for ‘The Suburbs’ re-release
Arcade Fire have announced that former Talking Heads frontman David Byrne will feature on the new deluxe version of their 2010 album 'The Suburbs'. Byrne has recorded backing vocals for a new track, 'Speaking In Tongues', which is one of two new songs on the re-release. The other is titled 'Cultur...

Arcade Fire have announced that former Talking Heads frontman David Byrne will feature on the new deluxe version of their 2010 album ‘The Suburbs’.

Byrne has recorded backing vocals for a new track, ‘Speaking In Tongues’, which is one of two new songs on the re-release. The other is titled ‘Culture War’.

The new edition is set to be released on June 27 and will also include a new version of ‘Wasted Hours’, which has been re-titled ‘Wasted Hours (A Life That We Can Live)’.

The re-released album will also include the band’s short film, ‘Scenes From The Suburbs’. A ‘Making Of’ documentary will also be part of the package.

The new tracks are set to receive their first play on BBC Radio 1 on May 23.

Arcade Fire return to the UK in June to headline Hyde Park.

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.

Paul Simon says he ‘doesn’t like being second to Bob Dylan’

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Paul Simon says he ‘doesn’t like being second to Bob Dylan’
Paul Simon has said that being compared to Bob Dylan throughout his career has really started to annoy him. Speaking to Rolling Stone, he said that although Dylan had inspired his own work he didn’t like "coming second" to the singer. "I usually come in second to to Dylan, and I don't like comin...

Paul Simon has said that being compared to Bob Dylan throughout his career has really started to annoy him.

Speaking to Rolling Stone, he said that although Dylan had inspired his own work he didn’t like “coming second” to the singer.

“I usually come in second to to Dylan, and I don’t like coming in second,” he said. “In the beginning, when we were first signed to Columbia, I really admired Dylan‘s work. ‘The Sound of Silence’ wouldn’t have been written if it weren’t for Dylan. But I left that feeling around The Graduate and ‘Mrs Robinson’. They weren’t folky any more.”

He added: “One of my deficiencies is my voice sounds sincere. I’ve tried to sound ironic. I don’t. I can’t. Dylan, everything he sings has two meanings. He’s telling you the truth and making fun of you at the same time. I sound sincere every time.”

In an interview with Uncut earlier this year Simon revealed that he’d asked Dylan to appear on his new album ‘So Beautiful Or So What’, but didn’t receive a response. “I thought Bob could sing, put a nice voice on the verse from ‘So Beautiful or So What’ that begins, ‘Ain’t it strange the way we’re ignorant/How we seek out bad advice’,” he said.

He continued: “I thought it would be nice if he sang that, since his voice has become so weathered I thought he would sound like a sage. I sent it to him, but I didn’t hear back. I don’t know why.”

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.

Brian Wilson planning to retire from touring next year

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Brian Wilson planning to retire from touring next year
Brian Wilson has said that he plans to retire from touring in around a year's time. Speaking to the Evening Standard, The Beach Boys man said his three London shows in September would almost certainly be the last time he toured the UK. Asked about if he ever thought about retiring Wilson said: "...

Brian Wilson has said that he plans to retire from touring in around a year’s time.

Speaking to the Evening Standard, The Beach Boys man said his three London shows in September would almost certainly be the last time he toured the UK.

Asked about if he ever thought about retiring Wilson said: “Oh God yes. Another year, maybe. This could be the last time I play here. I’m going to miss it, but I’m getting a little bit old for touring.”

He also said that he found touring “very hard work” and that it was getting more difficult as he gets older. “As I get older it gets harder for me,” he added. “But when I’m sitting down at the keyboard and my band’s behind me, I can do it.”

The composer also spoke about his ongoing battle with hallucinations, adding that he still hears voices in his head constantly. He explained: “What the voices say is still pretty much the same, negative things, ‘You’re going to die’, or, ‘You better watch out’, life-threatening kinds of things. Performing helps, but I’ll still have the voices there when I’m on stage. They’re always with me.”

Brian Wilson plays three nights at London‘s Royal Festival Hall, on September 16, 17 and 18. He is also booked to play Bestival in the same month.

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Carl Barat: ‘There is no Libertines future’

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Carl Barat: ‘There is no Libertines future’
Carl Barat has said that there is "no future" for The Libertines with things standing as they are between him and Pete Doherty. The frontman was speaking in the new issue of NME which is out now. In the interview he alluded to a bust-up with co-frontman Doherty and suggested that the pair's relatio...

Carl Barat has said that there is “no future” for The Libertines with things standing as they are between him and Pete Doherty.

The frontman was speaking in the new issue of NME which is out now. In the interview he alluded to a bust-up with co-frontman Doherty and suggested that the pair’s relationship is too damaged for more band commitments to take place.

“We are all in very different places,” he said. “Right now is not the time for The Libertines. I thought the water under the bridge was under the bridge, but maybe it’s not. It’s a very fucking hard thing. Every time we talk it just brings it back up.”

He added: “I don’t believe we’re healed from the hurt. If our hearts heal up then we can break them all over again. But right now… it’s hard.”

Barat was speaking to NME at the recent London premiere of new Libertines documentary There Are No Innocent Bystanders[/url], directed by Roger Sargent. Get the new issue of the magazine for the full interview plus chats with the other band members, previously-unseen pictures from the premiere and a review of the film.

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The Killers to begin work on ‘piles of songs’ next week

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The Killers to begin work on ‘piles of songs’ next week
The Killers will start working on new songs next week, according to drummer Ronnie Vannucci. The sticksman-turned-solo-artist told XFM that the band already had a "pile of songs" that they wanted to show off to each other, and they had already nailed a date to do it. "Tuesday [May 17] I think we ...

The Killers will start working on new songs next week, according to drummer Ronnie Vannucci.

The sticksman-turned-solo-artist told XFM that the band already had a “pile of songs” that they wanted to show off to each other, and they had already nailed a date to do it.

“Tuesday [May 17] I think we start doing some writing again,” he said. “We have piles of songs we want to show each other. We’re going to get back in that room and start working.”

Meanwhile, Vannucci will release his debut solo album ‘Big Talk’ on July 11. Speaking about the LP he said: “I needed to do this, it’s such a departure from what I’m used to, but now, having done it, it feels like the right thing to do. It all feels very natural. I can’t sit on a couch very long!”

The Killers will headline this year’s Hard Rock Calling Festival on June 24 in London.

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The 18th Uncut Playlist Of 2011

John Mulvey
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Weird list, I think. Two terrific albums from Preservation’s Circa offshoot, though. The mystery record that’s been intriguing so many of you , by the way, is going to be announced in about ten days. So I guess maybe one more week of prickteasing after this… 1 Damon & Naomi – False Beats And True Hearts (Broken Horse) 2 Jonas Reinhardt – Music For The Tactile Dome (Not Not Fun) 3 Weyes Blood – The Outside Room (Not Not Fun) 4 Robert Ellis – Photographs (New West) 5 Cankun – Jaguar Dance (Not Not Fun) 6 The Walker Brothers – I Can’t Let It Happen To You (Philips) 7 Roy Harper – Stormcock (Harvest) 8 Frank Fairfield – Out On The Open West (Tompkins Square) 9 Low – Africa (http://www.avclub.com/articles/low-covers-toto%2C53049/) 10 Quiet Evenings – Transcending Spheres (Circa) 11 Deep Magic – Lucid Thought (Circa) 12 Leon Russell – The Best Of Leon Russell (EMI) 13 Spindrift – Classic Soundtracks (Xemu) 14 That Record Again

Weird list, I think. Two terrific albums from Preservation’s Circa offshoot, though. The mystery record that’s been intriguing so many of you , by the way, is going to be announced in about ten days. So I guess maybe one more week of prickteasing after this…

Continue

John Lennon’s Beatles Strawberry Fields gates removed

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John Lennon’s Beatles Strawberry Fields gates removed

The red gates that inspired John Lennon to write The Beatles' 1967 song 'Strawberry Fields Forever' have been taken down and put into storage. The gates had stood on the Strawberry Field site, which was a Salvation Army children's home in Woolton, since the Victorian era. The charity, which owns the gates, recently put them into storage at a secret location and have erected replicas, reports BBC News. The site is on the route of some bus tours that showcase the city's Beatles landmarks, with some organisers up in arms over the move. The site closed in 2005 and its long-term future remains undecided, although the charity hopes to develop a centre for children with learning difficulties there. Maj Ray Irving, director of social services for The Salvation Army, said: "Although care has been taken to ensure the original gates to the site have remained in good condition, inevitably time has taken its toll. This [replacing them with replicas] means that the original gates can be kept safe from further deterioration and with the replica gates in place, allow for an authentic experience for the many thousands of people who come on a musical pilgrimage to Strawberry Field." 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 red gates that inspired John Lennon to write The Beatles‘ 1967 song ‘Strawberry Fields Forever’ have been taken down and put into storage.

The gates had stood on the Strawberry Field site, which was a Salvation Army children’s home in Woolton, since the Victorian era. The charity, which owns the gates, recently put them into storage at a secret location and have erected replicas, reports BBC News.

The site is on the route of some bus tours that showcase the city’s Beatles landmarks, with some organisers up in arms over the move. The site closed in 2005 and its long-term future remains undecided, although the charity hopes to develop a centre for children with learning difficulties there.

Maj Ray Irving, director of social services for The Salvation Army, said: “Although care has been taken to ensure the original gates to the site have remained in good condition, inevitably time has taken its toll. This [replacing them with replicas] means that the original gates can be kept safe from further deterioration and with the replica gates in place, allow for an authentic experience for the many thousands of people who come on a musical pilgrimage to Strawberry Field.”

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.

Pink Floyd to release remastered back catalogue this year

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Pink Floyd to release remastered back catalogue this year
Pink Floyd are set to re-release remastered versions of the albums in their back catalogue with EMI later this year. The band resolved a legal dispute with the label earlier this year and have now announced an extensive reissue campaign under the banner ‘Why Pink Floyd?', which will start in Sept...

Pink Floyd are set to re-release remastered versions of the albums in their back catalogue with EMI later this year.

The band resolved a legal dispute with the label earlier this year and have now announced an extensive reissue campaign under the banner ‘Why Pink Floyd?’, which will start in September this year. All 14 of their studio albums have been remastered and repackaged, and will be released on September 26.

On the same day special and deluxe editions of their classic album ‘The Dark Side Of The Moon’ will be released, with both a six-disc ‘Immersion’ box set and a two-disc ‘Experience’ box set coming out. They will also be released on vinyl and in digital editions.

On November 7, meanwhile, the band’s 1975 album ‘Wish You Were Here’ will be released in the same formats as well as a new compilation, ‘A Foot In The Door: The Best Of Pink Floyd’. Finally, on February 7 next year, their 1979 LP ‘The Wall’ will be available as ‘Immersion’ and ‘Experience’ collections and on vinyl and digital editions.

Roger Faxon, CEO of EMI Group said: ”This is a unique collaboration between EMI and one of the most creative and influential bands in history. We have worked together for more than a year on this programme which incorporates all the elements that have made Pink Floyd one of the most inspiring forces in modern music.”

See Pinkfloyd.com for more information.

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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.

Morrissey’s new studio album is ready

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Morrissey’s new studio album is ready
Morrissey has revealed that his new studio album is "ready" – but he still hasn't got a record label to release it on yet. The former Smiths singer suggested that his first new album since 2009 was in the bag and that he was getting a touch frustrated at not having sorted out how to get it in the...

Morrissey has revealed that his new studio album is “ready” – but he still hasn’t got a record label to release it on yet.

The former Smiths singer suggested that his first new album since 2009 was in the bag and that he was getting a touch frustrated at not having sorted out how to get it in the shops.

“The follow-up to [last album] ‘Years Of Refusal’ is ready and fluttering wildly against the bars,” he wrote in a statement to True-to-you.net. There is still no record label and the years shuffle like cards. My talents do not lie in DIY.”

Morrissey also mentioned his [url=http://www.nme.com/news/morrissey/56339]recent BBC Radio 4 interview, in which he branded the British Royal Family “benefit scroungers” ahead of Prince William and Kate Middleton’s wedding[/url], claiming the interview had been heavily edited.

“If my interview sounded chopped and cropped, that’s because it was,” he wrote. “I had spoken fluently about the royal dreading, but an Iranian censorship confiscated all of my views. It is distressing, but in all manner of British media in 2011 we are only allowed to hear the same old thoughts and feelings expressed over and over and over again.”

Read the full statement at True-to-you.net.

Meanwhile, the singer has recently announced details of three new live dates for July. He’ll play the Stoke Victoria Hall on July 5, the O2 Academy Leeds on July 7 and Middlesbrough Town Hall on July 8.

Tickets go on sale on Friday (May 13) at 9am (BST). To check the availability of [url=http://www.seetickets.com/see/event.asp?artist=morrissey&filler1=see&filler3=id1nmestory]Morrissey 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.

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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.

Depeche Mode’s Dave Gahan honoured at LA charity event

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Depeche Mode’s Dave Gahan honoured at LA charity event

Depeche Mode frontman Dave Gahan has been honoured for his sobriety at an annual charity event in LA. The singer received the MusiCare's Stevie Ray Vaughan Award in recognition of his 15 years of staying free from drugs and his efforts to help others in similar situations, over the weekend. Gahan was presented with the award by Aerosmith singer Steve Tyler, whose own drug problems have been well documented. The Depeche Mode frontman later performed a selection of covers, including David Bowie's 'Cracked Actor' and The Damned's 'New Rose', before his bandmate Martin Gore made a surprise appearance for 'Personal Jesus'. Jane's Addiction and Paramore also played in front of a star-studded audience which included Smashing Pumpkins singer Billy Corgan and Billy Idol, reports Reuters Gahan survived a heroin overdose in 1996 and he has remained clean ever since. The annual event raises cash for the MusiCares Map Fund to aid artists with health or financial problems. Latest music and film news on Uncut.co.uk.

Depeche Mode frontman Dave Gahan has been honoured for his sobriety at an annual charity event in LA.

The singer received the MusiCare‘s Stevie Ray Vaughan Award in recognition of his 15 years of staying free from drugs and his efforts to help others in similar situations, over the weekend.

Gahan was presented with the award by Aerosmith singer Steve Tyler, whose own drug problems have been well documented.

The Depeche Mode frontman later performed a selection of covers, including David Bowie‘s ‘Cracked Actor’ and The Damned‘s ‘New Rose’, before his bandmate Martin Gore made a surprise appearance for ‘Personal Jesus’.

Jane’s Addiction and Paramore also played in front of a star-studded audience which included Smashing Pumpkins singer Billy Corgan and Billy Idol, reports Reuters

Gahan survived a heroin overdose in 1996 and he has remained clean ever since.

The annual event raises cash for the MusiCares Map Fund to aid artists with health or financial problems.

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

Arcade Fire joined onstage by Cyndi Lauper in New Orleans

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Arcade Fire joined onstage by Cyndi Lauper in New Orleans

Arcade Fire performed onstage with Cyndi Lauper at the New Orleans Jazz And Heritage Festival on Friday (May 6). The band have taken to covering Lauper's 1983 hit single 'Girls Just Wanna Have Fun' in their live set, and she joined them onstage to perform it with them as well as 'Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains)'. You can watch a video of the performance by scrolling down to the bottom of the page and clicking. Arcade Fire's Win Butler did not introduce the singer, simply saying to the crowd "We'd like to do one of our favourite songs from the 80s", at which Lauper walked onstage. Arcade Fire headlined the New Orleans Jazz And Heritage Festival, which also saw sets from Bon Jovi, Mumford And Sons, The Strokes, Wilco and The Decemberists. They return to the UK on June 30 to headline London's Hyde Park. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2pSCbNpWd9I Latest music and film news on Uncut.co.uk.

Arcade Fire performed onstage with Cyndi Lauper at the New Orleans Jazz And Heritage Festival on Friday (May 6).

The band have taken to covering Lauper‘s 1983 hit single ‘Girls Just Wanna Have Fun’ in their live set, and she joined them onstage to perform it with them as well as ‘Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains)’.

You can watch a video of the performance by scrolling down to the bottom of the page and clicking.

Arcade Fire‘s Win Butler did not introduce the singer, simply saying to the crowd “We’d like to do one of our favourite songs from the 80s”, at which Lauper walked onstage.

Arcade Fire headlined the New Orleans Jazz And Heritage Festival, which also saw sets from Bon Jovi, Mumford And Sons, The Strokes, Wilco and The Decemberists.

They return to the UK on June 30 to headline London‘s Hyde Park.

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

REM’s Michael Stipe: ‘I tried to save Kurt Cobain’s life’

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REM’s Michael Stipe: ‘I tried to save Kurt Cobain’s life’

R.E.M frontman Michael Stipe has said he tried to get Nirvana's Kurt Cobain to record a duet with him in order to "save his life." Speaking to Interview Magazine, Stipe said he sent a plane ticket and driver to Cobain's home in Seattle to try and get him to come and record with him, but that the singer wouldn't leave his house. Asked about his failed attempt to record with Cobain, Stipe said: "I was doing that to try to save his life. The collaboration was me calling up as an excuse to reach out to this guy. He was in a really bad place." He continued: "I constructed a project to try to snap Kurt out of a frame of mind. I sent him a plane ticket and a driver, and he tacked the plane ticket to the wall in the bedroom and the driver sat outside the house for 10 hours. Kurt wouldn't come out and wouldn't answer the phone." Stipe denied that the collaboration was part of an album, saying that it had "become part of mythology." The R.E.M frontman also opened up about when he suffered from bulimia in the early 1980s, describing it as "a complete meltdown." He said: "I went through this difficult time when we were making our third record where I kind of lost my mind. That's when the bulimia kicked in. And that's when I got really freaky." Stipe described the illness as "a control thing" and said it lasted for "about a year. Latest music and film news on Uncut.co.uk.

R.E.M frontman Michael Stipe has said he tried to get Nirvana‘s Kurt Cobain to record a duet with him in order to “save his life.”

Speaking to Interview Magazine, Stipe said he sent a plane ticket and driver to Cobain‘s home in Seattle to try and get him to come and record with him, but that the singer wouldn’t leave his house.

Asked about his failed attempt to record with Cobain, Stipe said: “I was doing that to try to save his life. The collaboration was me calling up as an excuse to reach out to this guy. He was in a really bad place.”

He continued: “I constructed a project to try to snap Kurt out of a frame of mind. I sent him a plane ticket and a driver, and he tacked the plane ticket to the wall in the bedroom and the driver sat outside the house for 10 hours. Kurt wouldn’t come out and wouldn’t answer the phone.”

Stipe denied that the collaboration was part of an album, saying that it had “become part of mythology.”

The R.E.M frontman also opened up about when he suffered from bulimia in the early 1980s, describing it as “a complete meltdown.”

He said: “I went through this difficult time when we were making our third record where I kind of lost my mind. That’s when the bulimia kicked in. And that’s when I got really freaky.”

Stipe described the illness as “a control thing” and said it lasted for “about a year.

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

Ray Davies added to Hard Rock Calling festival line-up

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Ray Davies added to Hard Rock Calling festival line-up

Ray Davies has been added to the line-up for this year's London Hard Rock Calling festival. The former Kinks man will play at the event on June 25 before headliners Bon Jovi. The bash takes place at Hyde Park - The Killers and Rod Stewart are set to headline the other two days of the event, on June 24 and June 26 respectively. Aside from the headliners Ryan Bingham and Evaline are the only other acts confirmed to play on the same day Davies is so far. See Hardrockcalling.co.uk for more information. Latest music and film news on Uncut.co.uk.

Ray Davies has been added to the line-up for this year’s London Hard Rock Calling festival.

The former Kinks man will play at the event on June 25 before headliners Bon Jovi. The bash takes place at Hyde Park – The Killers and Rod Stewart are set to headline the other two days of the event, on June 24 and June 26 respectively.

Aside from the headliners Ryan Bingham and Evaline are the only other acts confirmed to play on the same day Davies is so far.

See Hardrockcalling.co.uk for more information.

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

Beastie Boys’ Adam Yauch cancer update: ‘Treatment is going well’

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Beastie Boys’ Adam Yauch cancer update: ‘Treatment is going well’

Beastie Boys have said that Adam Yauch's treatment for cancer is going well. Adam 'Ad Rock' Horovitz confirmed that the rapper is still receiving medical attention following [url=http://www.nme.com/news/beastie-boys/46215]his diagnosis of cancer[/url] of the preaortic gland and lymph node in July 2009. He also said that despite the recent release of new album 'Hot Sauce Committee Pt Two' they have no plans to tour. "He's doing OK," he said. "He's still in treatment, so it's not 100 percent. But things are looking good. We're not touring, we're just getting the record out – and we're not making any plans until he is better. Which is definitely going to happen." His comments come after Yauch released a statement in January saying [url=http://www.nme.com/news/beastie-boys--2/54481]reports that he'd been given the all-clear weren't true[/url]. Bandmate Mike 'D' Diamond admitted it has been a difficult for the band to come to terms with Yauch's illness. "It's a very strange thing. Unfortunately, we've had a high attrition rate of friends growing up in New York, but more from drug overdoses and crazy shit like that," he told The Guardian. He added: "This is, actually, the first time that a friend who is a contemporary - basically one of my best friends for life - called me up to say, 'Hey, I've got some really bad news', and having a really serious illness. And when you're friends for a long time, and one of that group of friends gets a very serious, potentially terminal illness, it's just kind of like, it's a game-changer." Despite going through a tough time, Horovitz said that Yauch's illness is likely to push them to more ludicrous extremes for the next album. "I have a feeling the next record is going to be the most insane party record you ever heard," he said. "Because if you go through something like what Yauch's going through. I mean, shit. After that, you must feel pretty good. Latest music and film news on Uncut.co.uk.

Beastie Boys have said that Adam Yauch‘s treatment for cancer is going well.

Adam ‘Ad Rock’ Horovitz confirmed that the rapper is still receiving medical attention following [url=http://www.nme.com/news/beastie-boys/46215]his diagnosis of cancer[/url] of the preaortic gland and lymph node in July 2009. He also said that despite the recent release of new album ‘Hot Sauce Committee Pt Two’ they have no plans to tour.

“He’s doing OK,” he said. “He’s still in treatment, so it’s not 100 percent. But things are looking good. We’re not touring, we’re just getting the record out – and we’re not making any plans until he is better. Which is definitely going to happen.”

His comments come after Yauch released a statement in January saying [url=http://www.nme.com/news/beastie-boys–2/54481]reports that he’d been given the all-clear weren’t true[/url].

Bandmate Mike ‘D’ Diamond admitted it has been a difficult for the band to come to terms with Yauch‘s illness. “It’s a very strange thing. Unfortunately, we’ve had a high attrition rate of friends growing up in New York, but more from drug overdoses and crazy shit like that,” he told The Guardian.

He added: “This is, actually, the first time that a friend who is a contemporary – basically one of my best friends for life – called me up to say, ‘Hey, I’ve got some really bad news’, and having a really serious illness. And when you’re friends for a long time, and one of that group of friends gets a very serious, potentially terminal illness, it’s just kind of like, it’s a game-changer.”

Despite going through a tough time, Horovitz said that Yauch‘s illness is likely to push them to more ludicrous extremes for the next album.

“I have a feeling the next record is going to be the most insane party record you ever heard,” he said. “Because if you go through something like what Yauch‘s going through. I mean, shit. After that, you must feel pretty good.

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

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