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Unique Radiohead Remix Could Make Ultimate Gift

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Unique Radiohead Remix Could Make Ultimate Gift

A unique Radiohead remix of the In Rainbows track "Videotape" has been put up for sale on trading website eBay. The four hour remix video, which is signed by the band, was recorded by producer and musician James Rutledge, whose previous credits include remixing Bloc Party and MGMT. Money raised from the sale of the one-off VHS will go to the Missing People charity. Click here to see the listing, and place your bids! For more music and film news click here Pic credit: PA Photos

A unique Radiohead remix of the In Rainbows track “Videotape” has been put up for sale on trading website eBay.

The four hour remix video, which is signed by the band, was recorded by producer and musician James Rutledge, whose previous credits include remixing Bloc Party and MGMT.

Money raised from the sale of the one-off VHS will go to the Missing People charity.

Click here to see the listing, and place your bids!

For more music and film news click here

Pic credit: PA Photos

Gonzo- The Life & Work Of Dr Hunter S Thompson

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Gonzo- The Life & Work Of Dr Hunter S Thompson

DIRECTED BY Alex Gibney NARRATED BY Johnny Depp Somewhere near the start of this terrific biography of one of the most influential journalists of the 20th century, two pieces of prose are read aloud. One, from Hunter Thompson’s breakthrough book, 1966’s Hell’s Angels, is wonderful: an evocation of the freedom and elation of two-wheeled travel that purrs and growls absolutely like a gently revved Harley-Davidson, and ruminates, rather presciently as it turned out, on the notion of “the edge”, and how close to it one may prudently ride. The other, Thompson’s instant response to the Al-Qa’ida attacks on his native America on September 11, 2001, is rubbish: ignorant, fatuous hackery that sounds like a post by a self-righteous blogger failing, as so many do, to emulate the furious jabber of Thompson at his splenetic best. That both pieces were written by the same man is the essential tragedy of Hunter Thompson. That both pieces, and their implications, are acknowledged by this brilliant and bracingly honest film is the essence of the triumph of Gonzo: as good a documentary about Thompson as could be made, and as good a documentary about anyone as might be imagined. Director Alex Gibney was previously responsible for the equally unimpeachable Enron: The Smartest Guys In The Room and Taxi To The Dark Side. They both tackled subjects – monstrous corporate rapacity, America’s War on Terror –which should have provided the subject of Gonzo with abundant inspiration to maintain (or, really, reclaim) the standards of his late 60s/early 70s prime. Instead, Thompson shot himself dead in February 2005, aged 67. Gibney was wise to permit the gush of better-to-burn-out-than-fade-away drivel that attended Thompson’s demise some time to subside. Though none of the cast of contributors – which includes many of Thompson’s adversaries – speaks entirely ill of the dead, friends, family and foe alike unite around a consensus of flagrantly squandered talent. When Thompson was good, he was astonishing. Turned loose by Rolling Stone upon American politics in the early 1970s, he set about the fixtures and fittings with a destructive glee unrivalled since the pomp of HL Mencken (then-president Richard Nixon, Thompson jeered, was “a cheap crook and a merciless war criminal… he speaks to the werewolf in us, on nights when the Moon comes too close.”) The books resulting from that period, notably Fear & Loathing In Las Vegas and Fear & Loathing On The Campaign Trail still read as lively, angry and vicious as a boated shark (Johnny Depp, who played Thompson in the 1998 film of Fear & Loathing In Las Vegas, is an excellent narrator, investing a studied deadpan with a hint of menace). Thompson’s journalism was an enduringly hilarious riot of observation, allegation and borderline fabrication (in 1972, Thompson wrote of “rumours” that Democratic presidential hopeful Ed Muskie was addicted to the hallucinogen Ibogaine – other news agencies picked up the story, without pausing to wonder who might have started said rumours). He was a superstar. And then… “He lost it,” admits Jann Wenner, Rolling Stone’s publisher and Thompson’s chief patron. “He was a prisoner of his own fame.” Everywhere he went, Thompson became the story – a problem even for a reporter known for his freewheeling self-indulgence on the page, and one exacerbated by Thompson’s willingness to make manifest his obnoxious, drug-baked, gun-nut caricature for the gratification of his groupies. He grew bored, and his writing grew boring. In an attempt to reinvigorate him, Wenner dispatched Thompson to Kinshasa in 1974 to cover the Mohammad Ali - George Foreman title bout. While Norman Mailer returned from Zaire with notes towards an imperishable masterpiece of sports writing, Thompson didn’t even show for the Rumble In The Jungle, choosing instead to idle in the hotel pool. It was a dereliction that would – and should – have been career-ending for any other writer, even if they’d exhibited such disdain for the village dog show. But Thompson was, as he always was, forgiven: he’d become an early example of what we now call a celebrity, ie someone whose works are judged by their reputation, rather than the other way around (Thompson’s former landlord in Woody Creek, Colorado, attests, with unmistakeable and baffling affection, that Thompson “Never paid his rent, broke up my marriage and taught my children to smoke dope.”) A less sentimental but more astute testament issues from the artificial larynx of cancer-stricken Hell’s Angel icon Ralph “Sonny” Barger: “It doesn’t mean he isn’t a jerk, but he was a great writer.” It does become hard not to wonder how much more good work Thompson might have produced – and, indeed, how much longer he might have lived – had he not been quite so cossetted and indulged by those in awe of his legend. Gonzo is deftly assembled from archive footage, previously unseen family material, previously unpublished writings, and interviews with a quite startlingly array of commentators, including one former President (Jimmy Carter) and three presidential aspirants (Gary Hart, George McGovern, the appalling Pat Buchanan – the latter of whom may now at least be considered a good sport, given his precise embodiment of absolutely everything Thompson hated). The stories and memories that unfurl are giddying, provocative, hilarious. One all but weeps that no record exists of the conversation that occurred when, as Buchanan recalls, Thompson accepted a lift in the presidential limousine of Richard Nixon. And, as one considers Thompson’s substantially self-inflicted decline (some interviews filmed in his later years are accompanied by sub-titles), one marvels at America’s genius for adopting, assimilating – and, perhaps, neutralising – its dissidents. ANDREW MUELLER

DIRECTED BY Alex Gibney

NARRATED BY Johnny Depp

Somewhere near the start of this terrific biography of one of the most influential journalists of the 20th century, two pieces of prose are read aloud. One, from Hunter Thompson’s breakthrough book, 1966’s Hell’s Angels, is wonderful: an evocation of the freedom and elation of two-wheeled travel that purrs and growls absolutely like a gently revved Harley-Davidson, and ruminates, rather presciently as it turned out, on the notion of “the edge”, and how close to it one may prudently ride.

The other, Thompson’s instant response to the Al-Qa’ida attacks on his native America on September 11, 2001, is rubbish: ignorant, fatuous hackery that sounds like a post by a self-righteous blogger failing, as so many do, to emulate the furious jabber of Thompson at his splenetic best. That both pieces were written by the same man is the essential tragedy of Hunter Thompson. That both pieces, and their implications, are acknowledged by this brilliant and bracingly honest film is the essence of the triumph of Gonzo: as good a documentary about Thompson as could be made, and as good a documentary about anyone as might be imagined.

Director Alex Gibney was previously responsible for the equally unimpeachable Enron: The Smartest Guys In The Room and Taxi To The Dark Side. They both tackled subjects – monstrous corporate rapacity, America’s War on Terror –which should have provided the subject of Gonzo with abundant inspiration to maintain (or, really, reclaim) the standards of his late 60s/early 70s prime. Instead, Thompson shot himself dead in February 2005, aged 67. Gibney was wise to permit the gush of better-to-burn-out-than-fade-away drivel that attended Thompson’s demise some time to subside. Though none of the cast of contributors – which includes many of Thompson’s adversaries – speaks entirely ill of the dead, friends, family and foe alike unite around a consensus of flagrantly squandered talent.

When Thompson was good, he was astonishing. Turned loose by Rolling Stone upon American politics in the early 1970s, he set about the fixtures and fittings with a destructive glee unrivalled since the pomp of HL Mencken (then-president Richard Nixon, Thompson jeered, was “a cheap crook and a merciless war criminal… he speaks to the werewolf in us, on nights when the Moon comes too close.”) The books resulting from that period, notably Fear & Loathing In Las Vegas and Fear & Loathing On The Campaign Trail still read as lively, angry and vicious as a boated shark (Johnny Depp, who played Thompson in the 1998 film of Fear & Loathing In Las Vegas, is an excellent narrator, investing a studied deadpan with a hint of menace). Thompson’s journalism was an enduringly hilarious riot of observation, allegation and borderline fabrication (in 1972, Thompson wrote of “rumours” that Democratic presidential hopeful Ed Muskie was addicted to the hallucinogen Ibogaine – other news agencies picked up the story, without pausing to wonder who might have started said rumours). He was a superstar. And then…

“He lost it,” admits Jann Wenner, Rolling Stone’s publisher and Thompson’s chief patron. “He was a prisoner of his own fame.” Everywhere he went, Thompson became the story – a problem even for a reporter known for his freewheeling self-indulgence on the page, and one exacerbated by Thompson’s willingness to make manifest his obnoxious, drug-baked, gun-nut caricature for the gratification of his groupies. He grew bored, and his writing grew boring.

In an attempt to reinvigorate him, Wenner dispatched Thompson to Kinshasa in 1974 to cover the Mohammad Ali – George Foreman title bout. While Norman Mailer returned from Zaire with notes towards an imperishable masterpiece of sports writing, Thompson didn’t even show for the Rumble In The Jungle, choosing instead to idle in the hotel pool. It was a dereliction that would – and should – have been career-ending for any other writer, even if they’d exhibited such disdain for the village dog show. But Thompson was, as he always was, forgiven: he’d become an early example of what we now call a celebrity, ie someone whose works are judged by their reputation, rather than the other way around (Thompson’s former landlord in Woody Creek, Colorado, attests, with unmistakeable and baffling affection, that Thompson “Never paid his rent, broke up my marriage and taught my children to smoke dope.”)

A less sentimental but more astute testament issues from the artificial larynx of cancer-stricken Hell’s Angel icon Ralph “Sonny” Barger: “It doesn’t mean he isn’t a jerk, but he was a great writer.” It does become hard not to wonder how much more good work Thompson might have produced – and, indeed, how much longer he might have lived – had he not been quite so cossetted and indulged by those in awe of his legend.

Gonzo is deftly assembled from archive footage, previously unseen family material, previously unpublished writings, and interviews with a quite startlingly array of commentators, including one former President (Jimmy Carter) and three presidential aspirants (Gary Hart, George McGovern, the appalling Pat Buchanan – the latter of whom may now at least be considered a good sport, given his precise embodiment of absolutely everything Thompson hated). The stories and memories that unfurl are giddying, provocative, hilarious. One all but weeps that no record exists of the conversation that occurred when, as Buchanan recalls, Thompson accepted a lift in the presidential limousine of Richard Nixon. And, as one considers Thompson’s substantially self-inflicted decline (some interviews filmed in his later years are accompanied by sub-titles), one marvels at America’s genius for adopting, assimilating – and, perhaps, neutralising – its dissidents.

ANDREW MUELLER

Bicycle Thieves

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Bicycle Thieves

DIR Vittorio De Sica ST Lamberto Maggiorani, Enzo Stalola By the time World War 2 ended, serious film-making seems to have become the providence of the Italians. Understandably keen to distance themselves from two decades of Mussolini, they dragged their cameras and equipment onto the city streets with commendable egalitarianism, eager to record working class families, struggling to get by in the aftermath of the War. Vittorio De Sica’s Oscar winner, Bicycle Thieves, is one of the best Italian Neo-Realist films. The bicycle was the utilitarian symbol of the working class, and here – no spoilers necessary – one is stolen from its owner, long-term unemployed Antonio, on his first day in a new job. In the company of his nine-year-old son, Bruno, he sets off on a desperate hunt round Rome looking for it. This being an Italian film, there are scenes in both a brothel and a church. The grainy black and white images reinforce the idea that is a social document of sorts, but De Sica never lets socio-realism get into the way of drama: a final sequence, where Antonio stands outside a football stadium looking longingly at rows of parked bicycles – and what he does next – is heartbreaking. As re-releases go, a better bet than White Christmas. MICHAEL BONNER

DIR Vittorio De Sica

ST Lamberto Maggiorani, Enzo Stalola

By the time World War 2 ended, serious film-making seems to have become the providence of the Italians. Understandably keen to distance themselves from two decades of Mussolini, they dragged their cameras and equipment onto the city streets with commendable egalitarianism, eager to record working class families, struggling to get by in the aftermath of the War.

Vittorio De Sica’s Oscar winner, Bicycle Thieves, is one of the best Italian Neo-Realist films. The bicycle was the utilitarian symbol of the working class, and here – no spoilers necessary – one is stolen from its owner, long-term unemployed Antonio, on his first day in a new job. In the company of his nine-year-old son, Bruno, he sets off on a desperate hunt round Rome looking for it.

This being an Italian film, there are scenes in both a brothel and a church. The grainy black and white images reinforce the idea that is a social document of sorts, but De Sica never lets socio-realism get into the way of drama: a final sequence, where Antonio stands outside a football stadium looking longingly at rows of parked bicycles – and what he does next – is heartbreaking.

As re-releases go, a better bet than White Christmas.

MICHAEL BONNER

AC/DC Announce UK Stadium Gigs

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AC/DC Announce UK Stadium Gigs
AC/DC have announced two new stadium dates in the UK, as part of their upcoming Black Ice European tour. The added shows will take place at London's Wembley Stadium on June 26 and Glasgow's Hampden Park on June 30. AC/DC's arena tour which starts at London's O2 Arena on April 14 is fully sold-out....

AC/DC have announced two new stadium dates in the UK, as part of their upcoming Black Ice European tour.

The added shows will take place at London’s Wembley Stadium on June 26 and Glasgow’s Hampden Park on June 30.

AC/DC’s arena tour which starts at London’s O2 Arena on April 14 is fully sold-out.

The band’s latest album Black Ice has helped AC/DC become the biggest selling catalogue artist in the US this year.

Information on how to buy tickets for AC/DC’s stadium shows will be announced soon.

For more music and film news click here

Blur Add Second Hyde Park Live Date

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Blur Add Second Hyde Park Live Date
Blur have announced that they will play a second headlining show at London's Hyde Park on July 2, the day preceding the previously announced date of July 3. Tickets for the July 3 concert went on sale this morning at 9am, while tickets for the new show will be available from 4pm today (December 12)...

Blur have announced that they will play a second headlining show at London’s Hyde Park on July 2, the day preceding the previously announced date of July 3.

Tickets for the July 3 concert went on sale this morning at 9am, while tickets for the new show will be available from 4pm today (December 12).

For more music and film news click here

The Specials Announce More Live Dates!

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The Specials Announce More Live Dates!
The Specials have added five extra dates to their 2009 reunion tour, after selling over 45, 000 tickets when they went on sale thi morning (December 11). The group, celebrating the 30th anniversary of their debut single "Gangsters" will now play a further three nights at London's Brixton Academy on...

The Specials have added five extra dates to their 2009 reunion tour, after selling over 45, 000 tickets when they went on sale thi morning (December 11).

The group, celebrating the 30th anniversary of their debut single “Gangsters” will now play a further three nights at London’s Brixton Academy on May 8, 10 and 11 – bringing the total to five nights at the venue.

The Specials have also added a second night at Glasgow Academy on April 28, and a second night at Manchester Apollo on May 4.

Tickets for the new dates are on sale now.

The band have also responded to founder member Jerry Dammers’ claims that he was “driven out of the band” and not invited to take part in the reunion by saying: “We don’t agree with what Jerry has said, but we don’t want to talk about it, not least because it is in the hands of our lawyers. We are all very excited about the overwhelming support shown to us, and the rush to buy tickets would appear to prove that the fans are looking forward to joining us in these dancehalls across the country next year as much as we are looking forward to playing them.”

The Specials live dates are now as follows:

NEWCASTLE, Academy (April 22)

SHEFFIELD, Academy (23)

BIRMINGHAM, Academy (25, 26)

GLASGOW, Academy (28, 29)

MANCHESTER, Apollo (May 3, 4)

LONDON, Brixton Academy (6, 7, 8, 11, 12)

For more music and film news click here

Blur To Play ‘Quite a few’ Warm Up Shows Prior To Hyde Park Show

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Blur To Play ‘Quite a few’ Warm Up Shows Prior To Hyde Park Show
Blur frontman Damon Albarn has revealed that the newly regrouped band will play some warm-up shows prior to their Hyde Park concert on July 3, one of which will be in Wolverhampton. The singer, speaking to Zane Lowe on Radio 1 on Thursday (December 11) said: "We'll have to play quite a few warm-ups...

Blur frontman Damon Albarn has revealed that the newly regrouped band will play some warm-up shows prior to their Hyde Park concert on July 3, one of which will be in Wolverhampton.

The singer, speaking to Zane Lowe on Radio 1 on Thursday (December 11) said: “We’ll have to play quite a few warm-ups. So we’ll start really small and get bigger. You can’t just walk on stage after a ten-year hiatus and play Hyde Park, it’s a bit foolhardy.

“We’ll definitely be playing Wolves, that’s for certain. We would play Dudley JBs but it doesn’t exists any more, so the nearest to that. There are some people who have been very close to us for a very long time who emanate from the Black Country.”

As reported earlier this week the full line-up Damon Albarn, Graham Coxon, Alex James and Dave Rowntree – will play Hyde Park on July 3. Tickets for the concert will go on sale on Friday (December 12) at 9am.

For more music and film news click here

Joe Strummer Benefit Show Announced

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Joe Strummer Benefit Show Announced

A benefit show celebrating the life of Clash frontman Joe Strummer is to take place in London this month, on the eve of the annivesary of the icon's death, December 21. The show will see live performances from The Rotten Hill Gang, The Riff-Raff, Dan Smith and The Savage Nomads as well as DJs. The fundraiser at The Tabernacle venue in West London will raise money for the Strummerville Foundation, a charity that "aims to create new opportunities for aspiring musicians" and which was set up by Strummer's widow Lucinda shortly after his death in 2002. The foundation currently runs The Roundhouse Studios in Camden and funds musical projects for those who wouldn't otherwise be able to afford to. For more details about their work and the benefit show, see www.strummerville.com For more music and film news click here

A benefit show celebrating the life of Clash frontman Joe Strummer is to take place in London this month, on the eve of the annivesary of the icon’s death, December 21.

The show will see live performances from The Rotten Hill Gang, The Riff-Raff, Dan Smith and The Savage Nomads as well as DJs.

The fundraiser at The Tabernacle venue in West London will raise money for the Strummerville Foundation, a charity that “aims to create new opportunities for aspiring musicians” and which was set up by Strummer’s widow Lucinda

shortly after his death in 2002.

The foundation currently runs The Roundhouse Studios in Camden and funds musical projects for those who wouldn’t otherwise be able to afford to. For more details about their work and the benefit show, see www.strummerville.com

For more music and film news click here

Jarvis Cocker To Edit Radio 4 Today Programme

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Jarvis Cocker To Edit Radio 4 Today Programme
Jarvis Cocker has been revealed as one of the guest editors of Radio 4's Today programme to be broadcast this Christmas. The singer, who follows on from previous musician guests including U2's Bono and Damon Albarn, will use his programme to discuss money issues and the credit crunch. Also taking ...

Jarvis Cocker has been revealed as one of the guest editors of Radio 4’s Today programme to be broadcast this Christmas.

The singer, who follows on from previous musician guests including U2‘s Bono and Damon Albarn, will use his programme to discuss money issues and the credit crunch.

Also taking part this year, as part of the Today programme’s annual group of guest editors are novelist Zadie Smith, head of the Catholic Church in England and Wales, Cardinal Cormac Murphy O’Connor and architect Zaha Hadid amongst others.

Speaking about this year’s Christmas guest editors, Today editor Ceri Thomas said: “They think of things that wouldn’t normally occur to us; they take us places we wouldn’t ordinarily go. I think this year’s group is the most fascinating we’ve ever worked with.”

For more music and film news click here

Pic credit: Andy Willsher

Echo & The Bunnymen – Ocean Rain – Collecters Edition

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Echo & The Bunnymen – Ocean Rain – Collecters Edition

There can be few greater testaments to Julian Cope’s theory of Liverpool’s spendthrift celtic artistic spirit – the tendency of scouse groups to gloriously “piss it all away” - than Ocean Rain. While their contemporaries knuckled down to break America, in 1983 the Bunnymen toured the Hebrides and resolved to make an album of “kissing music”: psychedelic sex shanties, crooned beneath a Sinatra moon and swathed in the Parisian strings of Piaf and Brel. The shiver and swoon of singles “Silver” and “The Killing Moon” marked their high tide of UK pop success, but may have scuppered chances of serious stadium rock crossover, and after such languor the group themselves seemed to lose momentum and ran aground. This latest reissue, timed to coincide with Liverpool's City Of Culture shindig, now incorporates the superb, much bootlegged 1983 Albert Hall show. STEPHEN TROUSSÉ For more album reviews, click here for the UNCUT music archive

There can be few greater testaments to Julian Cope’s theory of Liverpool’s spendthrift celtic artistic spirit – the tendency of scouse groups to gloriously “piss it all away” – than Ocean Rain. While their contemporaries knuckled down to break America, in 1983 the Bunnymen toured the Hebrides and resolved to make an album of “kissing music”: psychedelic sex shanties, crooned beneath a Sinatra moon and swathed in the Parisian strings of Piaf and Brel.

The shiver and swoon of singles “Silver” and “The Killing Moon” marked their high tide of UK pop success, but may have scuppered chances of serious stadium rock crossover, and after such languor the group themselves seemed to lose momentum and ran aground. This latest reissue, timed to coincide with Liverpool’s City Of Culture shindig, now incorporates the superb, much bootlegged 1983 Albert Hall show.

STEPHEN TROUSSÉ

For more album reviews, click here for the UNCUT music archive

Nina Simone – To Be Free: The Nina Simone Story

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Nina Simone – To Be Free: The Nina Simone Story

Rarely has an artist been so incompletely represented by a signature track. Though only the flintiest-hearted curmudgeon would find fault with the giddy froth of “My Baby Just Cares For Me” – the ancient cut which became an inescapable hit in 1987 after soundtracking a Chanel commercial – Nina Simone’s real strength was always her anger: a quality which is generously present in this hefty collection. The songs Simone wrote or covered in response to the Civil Rights struggle of the 1960s suited her throaty snarl perfectly. The versions of her own “To Be Young, Gifted & Black” and “Mississippi Goddam” (the latter a scorching live delivery, recorded not long after the assassination of Martin Luther King), Dylan’s “The Times They Are A-Changin’”, and The Beatles’ “Revolution” remain bracingly, invigoratingly furious. ANDREW MUELLER For more album reviews, click here for the UNCUT music archive

Rarely has an artist been so incompletely represented by a signature track. Though only the flintiest-hearted curmudgeon would find fault with the giddy froth of “My Baby Just Cares For Me” – the ancient cut which became an inescapable hit in 1987 after soundtracking a Chanel commercial – Nina Simone’s real strength was always her anger: a quality which is generously present in this hefty collection.

The songs Simone wrote or covered in response to the Civil Rights struggle of the 1960s suited her throaty snarl perfectly. The versions of her own “To Be Young, Gifted & Black” and “Mississippi Goddam” (the latter a scorching live delivery, recorded not long after the assassination of Martin Luther King), Dylan’s “The Times They Are A-Changin’”, and The Beatles’ “Revolution” remain bracingly, invigoratingly furious.

ANDREW MUELLER

For more album reviews, click here for the UNCUT music archive

Ry Cooder – The UFO Has Landed: The Ry Cooder Anthology

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Ry Cooder – The UFO Has Landed: The Ry Cooder Anthology

An unusual mix of musician and anthropologist, Ry Cooder has voyaged through the exotic rhythms of the Americas for nearly 40 years, leaving his mark on such luminaries as the Rolling Stones and Lowell George in the process. The problem with this two-disc anthology is that it isn’t big enough to encompass the kaleidoscopic shades of Ry, even if it has been produced by his son Joachim. There’s still plenty to enjoy, whether it’s his brisk rejig of Johnny Cash’s “Get Rhythm”, the Louisiana brass and gospel voices of “Jesus On The Mainline”, or the joyfully sparkling guitars and voices in “Little Sister”. His soundtrack work is represented by spine-tingling excerpts from Paris, Texas and Southern Comfort, and his talent for whisking up a polyrhythmic stew of blues, cajun and zydeco shines on “Let’s Work Together”. Yet surely vintage Cooder roof-raisers like “It’s All Over Now” or “Smack Dab In The Middle” would have been better bets than slight instrumentals such as “Smells Like Money”? ADAM SWEETING For more album reviews, click here for the UNCUT music archive

An unusual mix of musician and anthropologist, Ry Cooder has voyaged through the exotic rhythms of the Americas for nearly 40 years, leaving his mark on such luminaries as the Rolling Stones and Lowell George in the process. The problem with this two-disc anthology is that it isn’t big enough to encompass the kaleidoscopic shades of Ry, even if it has been produced by his son Joachim.

There’s still plenty to enjoy, whether it’s his brisk rejig of Johnny Cash’s “Get Rhythm”, the Louisiana brass and gospel voices of “Jesus On The Mainline”, or the joyfully sparkling guitars and voices in “Little Sister”. His soundtrack work is represented by spine-tingling excerpts from Paris, Texas and Southern Comfort, and his talent for whisking up a polyrhythmic stew of blues, cajun and zydeco shines on “Let’s Work Together”. Yet surely vintage Cooder roof-raisers like “It’s All Over Now” or “Smack Dab In The Middle” would have been better bets than slight instrumentals such as “Smells Like Money”?

ADAM SWEETING

For more album reviews, click here for the UNCUT music archive

Roy Orbison – The Soul Of Rock And Roll

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Roy Orbison – The Soul Of Rock And Roll

Among the glowing tributes in this first full career retrospective, it’s Tom Waits who nails the Big O: “Part opera, part mariachi, part lonesome yodel and part Irish tenor via Texas.” From uncertain 50’s rockabilly for Sun, Roy Orbison found his niche with dramatic, mournful ballads for Fred Foster’s Monument, starting with 1960’s “Only The Lonely”. He turned country music’s obsession with spurned lovers and born losers into pop perfection with hits like “In Dreams” and “Crying”. By 1965 his career was waning: a return to Monument for 1977’s overlooked Regeneration kept him in the game but it took the guidance of stellar admirers, notably Jeff Lynne, Tom Petty and George Harrison to re-invent Orbison in the 80s. Nothing dinted Orbison’s raw emotionality, memorably evinced here on the un-issued demo “Precious”, from around 1968. MICK HOUGHTON For more album reviews, click here for the UNCUT music archive

Among the glowing tributes in this first full career retrospective, it’s Tom Waits who nails the Big O: “Part opera, part mariachi, part lonesome yodel and part Irish tenor via Texas.” From uncertain 50’s rockabilly for Sun, Roy Orbison found his niche with dramatic, mournful ballads for Fred Foster’s Monument, starting with 1960’s “Only The Lonely”.

He turned country music’s obsession with spurned lovers and born losers into pop perfection with hits like “In Dreams” and “Crying”. By 1965 his career was waning: a return to Monument for 1977’s overlooked Regeneration kept him in the game but it took the guidance of stellar admirers, notably Jeff Lynne, Tom Petty and George Harrison to re-invent Orbison in the 80s. Nothing dinted Orbison’s raw emotionality, memorably evinced here on the un-issued demo “Precious”, from around 1968.

MICK HOUGHTON

For more album reviews, click here for the UNCUT music archive

Portishead To Screen Short Film At Cinemas

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Portishead To Screen Short Film At Cinemas
Portishead are to screen a new short film, made to accompany forthcoming single "Magic Doors" at selected cinemas nationwide from Friday (December 12). The film will show for four weeks at the thirteen independent cinemas listed below. Contact the cinemas for screening info. The single is out on ...

Portishead are to screen a new short film, made to accompany forthcoming single “Magic Doors” at selected cinemas nationwide from Friday (December 12).

The film will show for four weeks at the thirteen independent cinemas listed below. Contact the cinemas for screening info.

The single is out on Monday (December 15), available as an etched 12″ vinyl and digital bundle which includes live versions of “Silence”, “Threads” and “Mysterons”, recorded at Coachella earlier this year.

You can watch the video for Magic Doors here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yRZlBNaFYqk&hl=en&fs=1

See Portishead’s film at the following cinemas:

London , Curzon Soho

Edinburgh, Cameo

Birmingham, Electric

Southampton, Harbour Lights

Sheffield, Showroom

Cambridge, Picturehouse

Manchester, Cornerhouse

Bristol, Watershed

Derby, Quad

Nottingham, Broadway

Hull, Screen

Leicester, Phoenix

Darlington, Barn

For more music and film news click here

The 50th Uncut Playlist Of 2008

John Mulvey
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As the year comes to an end, I’m putting the finishing touches to a Wild Mercury Sound Top 75 of 2008, which I’ll post here sometime next week. In the meantime, you can muck about with the Uncut hivemind’s 50 favourites by visiting our Rate The Albums feature: let’s make an effort to hype the Endless Boogie album up the charts, people (even though they had to cancel last week’s London show due to some kind of visa problem). This week’s playlist, meanwhile, betrays the impact of the Reviews Editor’s current jazz binge. Since I haven’t said it for a while and one or two people have got the wrong end of the stick again, it may be time to point out again that these are just the records we’ve played in the office in the past couple of days: listening is not always the same as liking, and there are three or four here that didn’t do much for me. 1 Bonnie “Prince” Billy – Beware (Domino) 2 Peter Tosh – Legalize It (EMI) 3 Dan Auerbach – Keep It Hid (V2) 4 Mountains – Choral (Thrill Jockey) 5 Pharaoh Sanders – Live At The East (Impulse) 6 Various Artists – 6OOA Golden Years (Mixtape) 7 Tim Hardin – 1 (Water) 8 Jimi Hendrix – Electric Ladyland: 40th Anniversary Collector’s Edition (Universal) 9 Miles Davis – Another Unity: Tokyo, January 22, 1975 (Bootleg) 10 Peter Tosh – Equal Rights (EMI) 11 Aidan Moffat & The Best-Ofs – How To Get To Heaven From Scotland (Chemikal Underground) 12 William Elliott Whitmore – Animals In The Dark (Anti-) 13 Death - . . .For The Whole World To See (Drag City) 14 Megapuss – Surfing (Vapor) 15 Dälek – Gutter Tactics (Ipecac) 16 Michael Chapman – Time Past And Time Passing (Electric Ragtime) 17 Eddy Current Suppression Ring – Primary Colours (Goner) 18 Six Organs Of Admittance – RTZ (Drag City)

As the year comes to an end, I’m putting the finishing touches to a Wild Mercury Sound Top 75 of 2008, which I’ll post here sometime next week. In the meantime, you can muck about with the Uncut hivemind’s 50 favourites by visiting our Rate The Albums feature: let’s make an effort to hype the Endless Boogie album up the charts, people (even though they had to cancel last week’s London show due to some kind of visa problem).

Continue

Pearl Jam Reissue Debut Album With Lots Of Extras

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Pearl Jam Reissue Debut Album With Lots Of Extras
Pearl Jam are to release four different Special Editions of their 1991 debut album 'Ten' next March. The remastered album reissue will be accompanied by a remix version created by Pearl Jam longtime producer Brendan O'Brien. The four different packages will feature varying bonus material, includin...

Pearl Jam are to release four different Special Editions of their 1991 debut album ‘Ten’ next March.

The remastered album reissue will be accompanied by a remix version created by Pearl Jam longtime producer Brendan O’Brien.

The four different packages will feature varying bonus material, including extra tracks: ‘Brother’, ‘Just a Girl’, ‘State of Love and Trust’, ‘Breath and a Scream’, ‘2,000 Mile Blues’ and ‘Evil Little Goat’.

Other extras include a DVD of the band’s MTV Unplugged performance, recorded in 1992, a live LP of from their ‘Drop

in the Park’ concert, and a replica Eddie Vedder composition notebook.

Commenting on the remixed version of the 12 million selling album, O’Brien says: “The band loved the original mix of ‘Ten’, but were also interested in what it would sound like if I were to deconstruct and remix it. The original ‘Ten’ sound is what millions of people bought, dug and loved, so I was initially hesitant to mess around with that. After years of persistent nudging from the band, I was able to wrap my head around the idea of offering it as a companion piece to the original – giving a fresh take on it, a more direct sound.”

Pearl Jam’s Ten Club are offering pre-orders of the reissue from today (December 10). Physical copies will be available to buy from March 23, 2009.

See www.pearljam.com for more details.

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THE REAL JIMMY PAGE – PART 3

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THE REAL JIMMY PAGE – PART 3

In the January issue of UNCUT, we celebrated the career of rock's greatest and most mysterious guitar hero through the first hand accounts of the people who know him best. Here at www.uncut.co.uk, we'll be posting the full and unedited transcripts from those interviews, including words from Robert Plant, Jeff Beck, Roy Harper, Steve Albini and more. Today… Richard Cole The former tour manager for The Who, The Searchers and The New Vaudeville Band, Cole looked after Zeppelin’s on the road needs from 1968 – 1979. *** UNCUT: When did you first meet Jimmy? COLE: I heard about him before I met him, because it was rumoured he played on a lot of people’s records, which he’s never confirmed and kept quiet about. I knew his name as a session man, and I think that more than likely he did stuff for Mickey Most, and I worked for Peter Grant and Mickey Most. Peter had known him for years. And then, of course, Peter managed The Yardbirds and also managing the New Vaudeville Band, so that’s how I got involved with Jimmy. Near the end of ‘67, the New Vaudeville Band went into pantomime and there wasn’t really anything for me to do, and so Peter sent me down to Jimmy’s house to do a couple of shows for The Yardbirds. They needed a road manager. So I went to Jimmy’s house in the country to pick up the guitar amps and bits and pieces for him. I think I went back a few days later and picked him up and we went down to do the shows. It could have been in Plymouth, but I can’t be too specific on it. This was when he had a house on the river in Pangborne. It’s the same house that Robert and the rest of Led Zeppelin went to in the early days to listen to what sort of stuff they were going to do. I could be wrong because I wasn’t in the country at the time, but I believe they did some rehearsals there as well. What was your first impression of him? He was very polite and gentlemanly. He didn’t know me, I had to introduce myself. I always remember he had a great sound system, he had these Tannoy speakers and a Fischer amplifier and we sat there listening to Magical Mystery Tour. It was a boathouse, converted boathouse, which had the living accommodation downstairs, and below that he had one of those Flipper launches, one of those 20s or 30s boats with the sloping back of polished wood. We used to go for runs up the Thames and back again. He used to keep the amps down in the boathouse, so he went down there and helped me move them around and make adjustments. But he was just very polite and very nice. He was a good friend to me. I bought a house down the road not far from him, in 1970. Because he didn’t drive, I used to drive him all over the place when he was buying books and antiques and all that sort of thing. He had a Bentley in the garage that I don’t know whether he bought off Peter Grant or Peter gave it to him and sometimes if we were going on tour we’d take the Bentley, if we were going on long journeys. Did you relationship change much, as Zeppelin got bigger? In the early days, obviously because of the Yardbirds, there was six of us on the road, three rooms, and I always used to share a room with Jimmy. And then either in the early Zeppelin days quite often I used to share a room or a two-bedroom suite with him. It didn’t happen that rapidly. The rooms we used with Zeppelin on the first tour were no different to the rooms we used with the Yardbirds on their last tour. It changed maybe a few years down the road into suites and stuff. It went from sharing a room to your own room, and then into suites. 1969 was my favourite year. Every tour you went to got bigger, and places got bigger, and the audiences got bigger. Everything got faster and faster. I don’t think the bonds of relationships changed. If I look back on it, he was more comfortable that the other two – when I say “the other two”, I mean I’ve worked for Eric Clapton and Jeff Beck, and Jimmy was always the showman. I always felt in the early days – well, I worked with Eric in 1974 and Jeff in 1968, this was with Rod Stewart – even with the Yardbirds, he was right out there in front, strutting around and being, well, a rock star. There was no shyness there, he was always very confident in what he did. He was always dressed well, he always dressed the part. What effect did Zeppelin’s success have on Jimmy? Well, it was his baby, wasn’t it? When I was with the Yardbirds, the Yardbirds tour wasn’t advertised as the farewell tour because for all intents and purposes, the band Jimmy was going to form was the New Yardbirds. I was in America working at the time, but apparently what happened was they were so good they decided to take a chance with a new name and start afresh (as Led Zeppelin). The early days… the first three shows were pretty incredible. But then once they kind of gelled, because they hadn’t done that many shows together, as far as I know they’d only done a few dates in England and a small tour of Scandinavia, as I say I wasn’t with them so I don’t know many it was exactly. And then by the time they got to the fourth show in America, they’d already gone from good and great to pretty incredible, especially Bonzo with the drum solo. I remember standing with Jonesy and Paul in Oregon, which was many the third or fourth show or something, and both of us were mesmerised. It was always the professionalism with Jimmy, it could have been also that he had that training with the session musicians were very disciplined as well, they have to turn up at a time, do their job for three or four hours or whatever the session time is, and then go onto something else. How did the pressure affect Jimmy? I’m not a musician, I run around a lot. The first time in all honesty I saw Led Zeppelin play and sat down for two hours was when they played the 02 show. I mean, I don’t know how to explain it. He was just incredible. He practised a lot as well, I don’t think he went anywhere without a guitar, even on holiday. How did he and Robert get on? I wouldn’t profess to have a great deal of insight here. I wasn’t here for the first record, the second record they more or less wrote and recorded while they were on the road, and the third one they went away to Bron-Yr-Aur to record it and I didn’t have to go up there – they had another crew. The live dynamic was incredible, the voice and guitar seemed to talk to one another, they’re obviously in the same pitch. I never felt that the success had an adverse affect on their relationship. It was always the gang’s solid and together? Well, it isn’t, never over 12 years. I mean, yes, definitely on stage, and often between all of us there was the odd argument, nothing important, and usually nothing to do with music. I think the thing about Zeppelin is that they had tremendous respect for each other. Jonesy and Bonzo, you only have to watch them play, one of them only had to raise an eyebrow and the other one knew what to change. Did you stay in touch with Jimmy after Zeppelin split? I went with him to Los Angeles, he did the ARMS concert [1983] for Ronnie Lane, and he was playing great then. The three of them were on that show – Jeff, Eric and Jimmy. They all seemed to have a great respect for each other. There was never any rivalry between them. They wouldn’t discuss it with me if there was, anyway. Did you notice any change after he left Zeppelin? I wouldn’t make any comment. When you’re working with someone, you’re dealing with a different side – there’s the two hours or three hours on stage and then there’s the other 21 hours you’re dealing with them, when you have the other person. I think it’s a bit of a myth that people switch off, I think it takes them time to unwind after doing shows with all the excitement and adrenalin. Jimmy, Peter and John Paul Jones who financed the first American tour. There was no tour support in those days, we didn’t do a tour budget. In those days, it was like OK the hotels are going to cost us this much, the air fares this. It wasn’t even worked out, the job had to be done. We haven’t got that much money, we’ve got to make it as economic as possible without it being too uncomfortable. As there was more money coming in for shows, things were escalating. The other thing was that TWA used to have a thing called Discover America, where you’d buy your airline tickets, you would work out the route of an entire tour, and as long as it went in a circle so you flew into New York and ended up back in New York and didn’t go back to the same city twice, you’d get 50% off. The only problem with that was if dates come in or fall out, you’d have to redo all the tickets again. They’d hate it when you took the tickets into the Hilton, where TWA had a desk, because everything was written by hand in those days. And each ticket had maybe 20 stops on it, but everything was economically worked out, even the 707 jets. With a jet like that, you didn’t need to order room service because it was supplied, so most of the times we ate on the plane. MICHAEL BONNER

In the January issue of UNCUT, we celebrated the career of rock’s greatest and most mysterious guitar hero through the first hand accounts of the people who know him best.

Here at www.uncut.co.uk, we’ll be posting the full and unedited transcripts from those interviews, including words from Robert Plant, Jeff Beck, Roy Harper, Steve Albini and more.

Today… Richard Cole

The former tour manager for The Who, The Searchers and The New Vaudeville Band, Cole looked after Zeppelin’s on the road needs from 1968 – 1979.

***

UNCUT: When did you first meet Jimmy?

COLE: I heard about him before I met him, because it was rumoured he played on a lot of people’s records, which he’s never confirmed and kept quiet about. I knew his name as a session man, and I think that more than likely he did stuff for Mickey Most, and I worked for Peter Grant and Mickey Most. Peter had known him for years. And then, of course, Peter managed The Yardbirds and also managing the New Vaudeville Band, so that’s how I got involved with Jimmy.

Near the end of ‘67, the New Vaudeville Band went into pantomime and there wasn’t really anything for me to do, and so Peter sent me down to Jimmy’s house to do a couple of shows for The Yardbirds. They needed a road manager. So I went to Jimmy’s house in the country to pick up the guitar amps and bits and pieces for him. I think I went back a few days later and picked him up and we went down to do the shows. It could have been in Plymouth, but I can’t be too specific on it.

This was when he had a house on the river in Pangborne. It’s the same house that Robert and the rest of Led Zeppelin went to in the early days to listen to what sort of stuff they were going to do. I could be wrong because I wasn’t in the country at the time, but I believe they did some rehearsals there as well.

What was your first impression of him?

He was very polite and gentlemanly. He didn’t know me, I had to introduce myself. I always remember he had a great sound system, he had these Tannoy speakers and a Fischer amplifier and we sat there listening to Magical Mystery Tour. It was a boathouse, converted boathouse, which had the living accommodation downstairs, and below that he had one of those Flipper launches, one of those 20s or 30s boats with the sloping back of polished wood. We used to go for runs up the Thames and back again. He used to keep the amps down in the boathouse, so he went down there and helped me move them around and make adjustments.

But he was just very polite and very nice. He was a good friend to me. I bought a house down the road not far from him, in 1970. Because he didn’t drive, I used to drive him all over the place when he was buying books and antiques and all that sort of thing. He had a Bentley in the garage that I don’t know whether he bought off Peter Grant or Peter gave it to him and sometimes if we were going on tour we’d take the Bentley, if we were going on long journeys.

Did you relationship change much, as Zeppelin got bigger?

In the early days, obviously because of the Yardbirds, there was six of us on the road, three rooms, and I always used to share a room with Jimmy. And then either in the early Zeppelin days quite often I used to share a room or a two-bedroom suite with him. It didn’t happen that rapidly. The rooms we used with Zeppelin on the first tour were no different to the rooms we used with the Yardbirds on their last tour. It changed maybe a few years down the road into suites and stuff. It went from sharing a room to your own room, and then into suites. 1969 was my favourite year.

Every tour you went to got bigger, and places got bigger, and the audiences got bigger. Everything got faster and faster. I don’t think the bonds of relationships changed. If I look back on it, he was more comfortable that the other two – when I say “the other two”, I mean I’ve worked for Eric Clapton and Jeff Beck, and Jimmy was always the showman. I always felt in the early days – well, I worked with Eric in 1974 and Jeff in 1968, this was with Rod Stewart – even with the Yardbirds, he was right out there in front, strutting around and being, well, a rock star. There was no shyness there, he was always very confident in what he did. He was always dressed well, he always dressed the part.

What effect did Zeppelin’s success have on Jimmy?

Well, it was his baby, wasn’t it? When I was with the Yardbirds, the Yardbirds tour wasn’t advertised as the farewell tour because for all intents and purposes, the band Jimmy was going to form was the New Yardbirds. I was in America working at the time, but apparently what happened was they were so good they decided to take a chance with a new name and start afresh (as Led Zeppelin). The early days… the first three shows were pretty incredible. But then once they kind of gelled, because they hadn’t done that many shows together, as far as I know they’d only done a few dates in England and a small tour of Scandinavia, as I say I wasn’t with them so I don’t know many it was exactly. And then by the time they got to the fourth show in America, they’d already gone from good and great to pretty incredible, especially Bonzo with the drum solo.

I remember standing with Jonesy and Paul in Oregon, which was many the third or fourth show or something, and both of us were mesmerised. It was always the professionalism with Jimmy, it could have been also that he had that training with the session musicians were very disciplined as well, they have to turn up at a time, do their job for three or four hours or whatever the session time is, and then go onto something else.

How did the pressure affect Jimmy?

I’m not a musician, I run around a lot. The first time in all honesty I saw Led Zeppelin play and sat down for two hours was when they played the 02 show. I mean, I don’t know how to explain it. He was just incredible. He practised a lot as well, I don’t think he went anywhere without a guitar, even on holiday.

How did he and Robert get on?

I wouldn’t profess to have a great deal of insight here. I wasn’t here for the first record, the second record they more or less wrote and recorded while they were on the road, and the third one they went away to Bron-Yr-Aur to record it and I didn’t have to go up there – they had another crew. The live dynamic was incredible, the voice and guitar seemed to talk to one another, they’re obviously in the same pitch. I never felt that the success had an adverse affect on their relationship. It was always the gang’s solid and together? Well, it isn’t, never over 12 years. I mean, yes, definitely on stage, and often between all of us there was the odd argument, nothing important, and usually nothing to do with music. I think the thing about Zeppelin is that they had tremendous respect for each other. Jonesy and Bonzo, you only have to watch them play, one of them only had to raise an eyebrow and the other one knew what to change.

Did you stay in touch with Jimmy after Zeppelin split?

I went with him to Los Angeles, he did the ARMS concert [1983] for Ronnie Lane, and he was playing great then. The three of them were on that show – Jeff, Eric and Jimmy. They all seemed to have a great respect for each other. There was never any rivalry between them. They wouldn’t discuss it with me if there was, anyway.

Did you notice any change after he left Zeppelin?

I wouldn’t make any comment. When you’re working with someone, you’re dealing with a different side – there’s the two hours or three hours on stage and then there’s the other 21 hours you’re dealing with them, when you have the other person. I think it’s a bit of a myth that people switch off, I think it takes them time to unwind after doing shows with all the excitement and adrenalin.

Jimmy, Peter and John Paul Jones who financed the first American tour. There was no tour support in those days, we didn’t do a tour budget. In those days, it was like OK the hotels are going to cost us this much, the air fares this. It wasn’t even worked out, the job had to be done. We haven’t got that much money, we’ve got to make it as economic as possible without it being too uncomfortable. As there was more money coming in for shows, things were escalating.

The other thing was that TWA used to have a thing called Discover America, where you’d buy your airline tickets, you would work out the route of an entire tour, and as long as it went in a circle so you flew into New York and ended up back in New York and didn’t go back to the same city twice, you’d get 50% off. The only problem with that was if dates come in or fall out, you’d have to redo all the tickets again. They’d hate it when you took the tickets into the Hilton, where TWA had a desk, because everything was written by hand in those days. And each ticket had maybe 20 stops on it, but everything was economically worked out, even the 707 jets. With a jet like that, you didn’t need to order room service because it was supplied, so most of the times we ate on the plane.

MICHAEL BONNER

Coldplay Deny Copying Joe Satriani

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Coldplay Deny Copying Joe Satriani
Coldplay have issued an online denial, refuting claims by guitarist Joe Satriani that they have plagiarised a riff of his on their track "Viva La Vida". The band state at their website that they felt compelled to respond to Satriani's allegations publically. The response reads: "With the greates...

Coldplay have issued an online denial, refuting claims by guitarist Joe Satriani that they have plagiarised a riff of his on their track “Viva La Vida”.

The band state at their website that they felt compelled to respond to Satriani’s allegations publically.

The response reads: “With the greatest possible respect to Joe Satriani, we have now unfortunately found it necessary to respond publicly to his allegations. If there are any similarities between our two pieces of music, they are entirely coincidental, and just as surprising to us as to him.

“Joe Satriani is a great musician, but he did not write or have any influence on the song Viva La Vida. We respectfully ask him to accept our assurances of this and wish him well with all future endeavours. Coldplay.”

When filing court papers to seek damages in Los Angeles last week, Satriani claimed Viva La Vida has “substantial original portions of his own track “If I Could Fly” which was released in 2004.

This is the first time Coldplay have responded to the allegation.

Viva La Vida, recently nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Song has credits attributed to Coldplay’s four members: Chris Martin, Guy Berryman, Johnny Buckland and Will Champion.

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Death: “. . . For The Whole World To See”

John Mulvey
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Over the past year or so, the Drag City label have quietly embarked on a series of reissues whose provenance is so obscure that I’ve briefly suspected them of being exquisite fakes: my favourite reissue of this year, Suarasama’s “Fajar Di Atas Awan” from Sumatra; the incredible Gary Higgins album; JT IV and so on. “. . . For The Whole World To See”, by Death, is another such release – a wild and exhilarating garage rock album from the 1970s, with a backstory of such mythological heft that it seems, initially at least, implausible. Briefly, Death were a Detroit band of three African-American brothers, the Hackneys, who switched from R&B in the early ‘70s when they were turned on to the local insurrectionist rock’n’roll promulgated by the Stooges, The MC5 and so on. They were reputedly almost signed to Columbia by Clive Davis, who wanted them to change their name. Stubbornly, they refused, and the album they recorded never saw the light of day. One single, “Politicians In My Eyes”, sneaked out and is now allegedly worth about $1,000. The Hackney brothers gradually veered into gospel-rock territory, and then to reggae. The whole fascinating story is here, courtesy of the Burlington Free Press. The story, of course, wouldn’t be half as fascinating if the ironically-titled “. . . For The Whole World To See” wasn’t such a blinder. For the most part, Death focus on the sort of cranked-up, diamond-sharp rock’n’roll as heard on The MC5’s “High Time”. But there’s plenty more going on here, not least that weird, probably accidental hybrid of garage rock, psych, prog and proto-punk that flourished in isolation and obscurity across North America at the time. I’m thinking of bands like Simply Saucer, or Rocket From The Tombs, maybe, fervid outsiders raging into what evidently seems, at the time, to be the void. From the opening clang and gush of “Keep On Knocking”, through to the locked, winding riffs which close “Politicans In My Eyes”, there’s a blend of feistiness and clarity, complexity and directness which is mighty intoxicating. Someone mentioned Blue Oyster Cult and The Dictators when we were playing Death the other day, and it occurs to me today that, from another time, it’s not a million miles from some of those old Love As Laughter albums like “Destination 2000” that I cite from time to time. We often talk here at Uncut about how, when the reissue business should theoretically have exhausted itself by now, something comes along out of nowhere to remind us of the sheer implausible bulk of great records that may yet languish in obscurity, from private press folk jams to the neglected marginalia of feted mainstream imprints like Elektra. “. . . For The Whole World To See” is one of those albums. I’ve just tried to optimistically find them on Myspace, by the way, with no joy: I suspect Hackney Death Squad might be something else entirely. . .

Over the past year or so, the Drag City label have quietly embarked on a series of reissues whose provenance is so obscure that I’ve briefly suspected them of being exquisite fakes: my favourite reissue of this year, Suarasama’s “Fajar Di Atas Awan” from Sumatra; the incredible Gary Higgins album; JT IV and so on.

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PJ Harvey Readys New Studio Album

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PJ Harvey Readys New Studio Album
PJ Harvey has revealed that she has been working on a new album 'A Woman A Man Walked By', in collaboration with producer and composer John Parish. The new record is due for release on March 30, 2009. Parish previously worked on Harvey's 1996 album 'Dance Hall at Louse Point' as well as co-produci...

PJ Harvey has revealed that she has been working on a new album ‘A Woman A Man Walked By’, in collaboration with producer and composer John Parish.

The new record is due for release on March 30, 2009.

Parish previously worked on Harvey’s 1996 album ‘Dance Hall at Louse Point’ as well as co-producing ‘To Bring You My Love’ and 2007’s ‘White Chalk” (2007).

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