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Oasis Promise Three New Albums

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Oasis Promise Three New Albums
Oasis have guaranteed three new albums by signing a record deal with Sony BMG. Billboard.com reports that Liam and Noel Gallagher and the band have agreed a deal to release their future records through their own label, Big Brother, responsible for producing their last three albums "Standing on the...

Oasis have guaranteed three new albums by signing a record deal with Sony BMG.

Billboard.com reports that Liam and Noel Gallagher and the band have agreed a deal to release their future records through their own label, Big Brother, responsible for producing their last three albums “Standing on the Shoulder of Giants,” “Heathen Chemistry” and “Don’t Believe the Truth.”

The first fruit of the pact will be Oasis’ seventh, as-yet-untitled album, which is expected by the end of the year.

Oasis have recently announced their dates for a tour of North America and a few shows in Mexico.

Live dates:

Seattle, United States, WaMu Theater (August 26)

Vancouver, Canada, GM Place (27)

Edmonton, Canada, Rexall Place (29)

Calgary, Canada, Pengrowth Saddledome (30)

Winnipeg, Canada, MTS Centre (September 1)

Ottawa, Canada, Scotiabank Place (4)

Montreal, Canada, Bell Centre (5)

Toronto, Canada, Toronto Island Park (7)

London, Canada, John Labatt Centre (9)

Mexico City, Mexico, Sports Palace (November 26)

Guadalajara, Mexico, VFG Arena (28)

Monterrey, Mexico, Arena Monterrey (29)

Micah P Hinson beats back injury to tour UK again

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Micah P Hinson beats back injury to tour UK again
Micah P Hinson, the Texan singer and songwriter, has announced he will tour the UK, just two years after a dislocated vertebra put him into early retirement. He will play his first show for Club Uncut at the Borderline before he embarks on a 16 date tour of the UK and Europe. The tour will previe...

Micah P Hinson, the Texan singer and songwriter, has announced he will tour the UK, just two years after a dislocated vertebra put him into early retirement.

He will play his first show for Club Uncut at the Borderline before he embarks on a 16 date tour of the UK and Europe.

The tour will preview tracks from his third album, Red Empire Orchestra, due for release on July 14.

During the making of his second album, Micah P Hinson And The Opera Circuit, Hinson dislocated a vertebra. His health rapidly deteriorated and retired from touring to his home in Texas.

The new album came about after an intervention from Anthony and the Johnsons’ producer and engineer John Congleton who wrote to Hinson about recording together.

“This letter pulled me out of the rut I had found myself in,” says Hinson. “Once I got this letter, something felt right and I knew the calling was there.”

“I find myself ready to take on the world again, and show them what I have up my sleeve,” he said.

Micah P Hinson will release the first single, called When We Embraced, on June 30.

The tour dates:

London, Borderline Uncut show supporting White Denim (July 14)

Tickets available from www.seetickets.com

London, Bush Hall (16)

Suffolk, Latitude Festival (18)

Spain, Benicassim Festival (20)

Germany Berlin Privcat Club (23 )

Italy, Roseto Degli Abruzzi, Soundlabs Festival (25 )

Palais Du Grand Large – La Route Du Rock (August 15)

Stradbally, Ireland, Electric Picnic (31)

Cardiff Club Ifor Bach (September 2)

Leeds Holy Trinity Church (3)

Liverpool Academy 2 (4)

Cheltenham Frig & Fiddle (6)

Isle Of Wight, Bestival (BBC Stage) (7)

Cambridge Junction 2 (9)

Nottingham Bodega (10)

Dorset Larmer Tree Gardens, End Of The Road Festival (12)

Countdown To Latitude: Michael Nyman

John Mulvey
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A fascinating one, this. For some of us, Michael Nyman provided a sort of entry point into the world of modern classical music, thanks to his scores for those inscrutable Peter Greenaway films through the ‘80s and early ‘90s. Nyman was never an ascetic minimalist, mind, and as his career progressed towards stuff like the soundtrack to “The Piano”, a fairly ravishing romantic style came to the fore, too. I saw his band play a few times what must be nearly two decades ago now, and was always struck by the vigour and playfulness which he brought to classical music through pieces like that demented theme from “A Zed And Two Noughts”, or the Purcell reboot of “The Draughtsman’s Contract”. There was a classical discipline there, certainly, but also a certain intangible spirit that could grab the attention of a tentatively adventurous indie student, too. Seeing Nyman perform in the Music & Film Arena at Latitude, then, will be something of a rare treat. Apparently, he’ll be playing solo, showcasing some short films (hopefully including the one about his obsession with QPR), and giving a talk about his music; he first found acclaim, if memory serves, as a groundbreaking classical music critic. Latitude harbours many esoteric pleasures, but this session looks like a real highlight. See you down the front. . .

A fascinating one, this. For some of us, Michael Nyman provided a sort of entry point into the world of modern classical music, thanks to his scores for those inscrutable Peter Greenaway films through the ‘80s and early ‘90s.

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Hendrix Guitar Brought Back from the Dead

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Hendrix Guitar Brought Back from the Dead

The 1965 Fender Stratocaster guitar that Jimi Hendrix famously set fire to at the London Astoria on March 31, 1967 has been brought back from the dead. After 40 years in storage the guitar will be put up for auction this summer. It is believed to be the first guitar that Hendrix destroyed on stage, an act which would become his trademark. "When I arrived there was a discussion about setting fire to his guitar,” said Hendrix's former manager, Tony Garland. "So I went and got some lighter fuel and let them do what they wanted to do." "Jimi was sensational. I can still remember the way his hands moved across the strings. People can do the notes... it's how you play them, the individual interpretation. He was a serious maestro." The guitar features on the cover of the forthcoming August issue of Guitar And Bass Magazine.

The 1965 Fender Stratocaster guitar that Jimi Hendrix famously set fire to at the London Astoria on March 31, 1967 has been brought back from the dead.

After 40 years in storage the guitar will be put up for auction this summer.

It is believed to be the first guitar that Hendrix destroyed on stage, an act which would become his trademark.

“When I arrived there was a discussion about setting fire to his guitar,” said Hendrix’s former manager, Tony Garland. “So I went and got some lighter fuel and let them do what they wanted to do.”

“Jimi was sensational. I can still remember the way his hands moved across the strings. People can do the notes… it’s how you play them, the individual interpretation. He was a serious maestro.”

The guitar features on the cover of the forthcoming August issue of Guitar And Bass Magazine.

New York Dolls and Courteeners added to Benicàssim 2008

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New York Dolls and Courteeners added to Benicàssim 2008
The New York Dolls have been added to the line up for this year’s Benicàssim festival. The band will play a mixture of new material from their 2006 album One Day It Will Please Us to Remember Even This and older classics like ‘Jet Boy’ and ‘Trash’. The New Pornographers, who were due to...

The New York Dolls have been added to the line up for this year’s Benicàssim festival.

The band will play a mixture of new material from their 2006 album One Day It Will Please Us to Remember Even This and older classics like ‘Jet Boy’ and ‘Trash’.

The New Pornographers, who were due to play at the festival, have cancelled their European tour citing personal reasons.

Other additions to the Spanish festival, including American indie duo, Mates of State and The Courteeners, will join the newly reformed My Bloody Valentine, Babyshambles, American Music Club and Leonard Cohen who is touring the world for the first time in fifteen years.

Click here for more festival information and to buy tickets: tickets.fiberfib.com

Artists confirmed to play Benicassim so far are:

Leonard Cohen

Roisin Murphy

Justice Live

Beirut

David Duriez

Eef Barzelay

Erol Alkan

John Acquaviva

Micah P. Hinson

Moriarty

These New Puritans

Richard Hawley

Supermayer

Tommie Sunshine

American Music Club

José González

Metope

Metronomy

The National

The New Pornographers

Robert Babicz

Siouxsie

Spiritualized

Vive La Fête

My Bloody Valentine

The Rumblestrips

The Raconteurs

Black Lips

Nada Surf

Battles

The Glimmers

Kakovia

Nick Cave To Publish Book on Bad Seeds’ Hit

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Nick Cave To Publish Book on Bad Seeds’ Hit
Nick Cave is to publish a book based on the song ‘Dig, Lazarus, Dig!!!’ on sale from July 8. The 40 page, four-inch hardback book chronicles the story behind the Bad Seeds hit song, its history and evolution. “It is a curiosity that deals with the preparation and final glorious outcome of a...

Nick Cave is to publish a book based on the song ‘Dig, Lazarus, Dig!!!’ on sale from July 8.

The 40 page, four-inch hardback book chronicles the story behind the Bad Seeds hit song, its history and evolution.

“It is a curiosity that deals with the preparation and final glorious outcome of a project that began on the back of an envelope, a literal “scrap” of an idea and ended up evolving into a genuine cultural icon and classic rock’n’roll song,” said Cave.

The book features notes, handwritten lyrics, photographs and a short story about the meaning of the song.

The volume is part of a collaborative project with Brit Artists Sue Webster and Tim Noble.

“The song, which is a comic re-imagining of the Lazarus myth (placing the recently “risen” Lazarus in ’70s New York City), is accompanied by an eight-foot-square light sculpture, employing over 750 light bulbs, built by Webster and Noble,” added Cave.

Nick Cave’s side project, Grinderman, will play two live dates this summer at Latitude Festival (July 20) and Hydro Connect (August 29).

David Gilmour Gives Floyd Strings On New DVD

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David Gilmour Gives Floyd Strings On New DVD
David Gilmour will release a double live album with a DVD on September 15. The release documents his landmark gig in the Gdansk Shipyards, including the first ever performance of Pink Floyd classics 'High Hopes' and 'A great day For Freedom' with an orchestra. In 2006 Pink Floyd's singer and guita...

David Gilmour will release a double live album with a DVD on September 15.

The release documents his landmark gig in the Gdansk Shipyards, including the first ever performance of Pink Floyd classics ‘High Hopes’ and ‘A great day For Freedom’ with an orchestra.

In 2006 Pink Floyd’s singer and guitarist appeared in front of 50,000 people to celebrate the 26th anniversary of Solidarity, the trade union that eventually ended communist rule in Poland.

The Gdansk event came at the end of Gilmour’s ‘On An Island’ tour, which saw the six members – including Roxy Music‘s Phil Manzanera, who also co-produced the DVD – playing with a 40 piece string section.

“This was the first time I have played in Poland and it was a thrill to be there helping to mark one of the most important anniversaries in recent European history,” said Gilmour.

“The Gdansk shipyard is a deeply symbolic place and it was an honour to perform our music there. It was particularly exciting to have my friend Zbigniew Preisner there conducting the Polish Baltic Philharmonic Orchestra and to be able to perform my album for the first time as it was intended.”

The DVD contains 113 minutes of concert footage and a documentary of Gilmour’s private meeting with former Polish President Lech Walesa, chats with the band and crew, and rehearsals.

Five different versions of the package will be released: ranging from the basic three disc collection to a five disc deluxe box set with collectable memorabilia items and, for the really hardcore, a five LP set including a version of ‘Wot’s… Uh The Deal?’ and private recording sessions known as the ‘Barn Jams’.

See www.davidgilmour.com for more details.

Charlatans, Klaxons and Carl Barat to record album

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Charlatans, Klaxons and Carl Barat to record album
The Charlatan’s Tim Burgess has formed a ‘super-group’ with Jamie Reynolds from the Klaxons and Carl Barat from Dirty Pretty Things. Burgess has named the group, The Chavs and plans to begin recording in August providing Barat recovers from the acute pancreatitus, which is currently keeping ...

The Charlatan’s Tim Burgess has formed a ‘super-group’ with Jamie Reynolds from the Klaxons and Carl Barat from Dirty Pretty Things.

Burgess has named the group, The Chavs and plans to begin recording in August providing Barat recovers from the acute pancreatitus, which is currently keeping him in hospital.

Speaking to BBC 6Music, Burgess said: “The idea is to actually record something proper over the summer when we get a chance.

“Myself, Carl and Jamie from Klaxons actually went out for a bit of a band meeting and I think that we are all free in August – but I’ve just heard the news yesterday that Carl got quite sick so hopefully he’ll be recovered by then.”

Describing how the band will sound, Burgess said: “I just want it to be very serious you know, which would kinda be conflicting in the way that people have seen us in the past, but I think it might be quite avant-garde to be honest.”

Countdown To Latitude: Wild Beasts

John Mulvey
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Looking through the extensive musical bill for Latitude, there aren't many artists making a return from last year's line-up. But on Saturday on the Uncut Stage, Kendal's extraordinary Wild Beasts will be making a much-deserved second visit to Henham Park. I first saw Wild Beasts - caught like mil...

Looking through the extensive musical bill for Latitude, there aren’t many artists making a return from last year’s line-up. But on Saturday on the Uncut Stage, Kendal’s extraordinary Wild Beasts will be making a much-deserved second visit to Henham Park.

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Radiohead: The Best Of

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Radiohead: The Best Of

It is difficult not to perceive something of the sulkily slung-together cash-in about this package. After a decade and six albums with Parlophone - an increasingly rare career pattern, and one that would have been much valued by a major record company in a volatile climate - Radiohead decamped, leaving their label with the memories and the back catalogue. This DVD seems, to at least some extent, the equivalent of the abandoned spouse conducting a jumble sale of their former partner's outfits. The desultory title, absence of involvement from the band, failure to include any Extras, and lack of any mention of the artefact on Radiohead's website - so far as it's possible to tell - all contribute to an impression of somewhat petulant score-settling. That still leaves 20 videos, nine of which have never been previously available on DVD. Presented in chronological order, from 1993's "Creep" to a live version of "2+2=5" at the 2003 Belfort Festival, these visual interpretations of consistently stunning music unfurl as a fascinating, even heartwarming study of a band acquiring the confidence to be themselves. "Creep" is the type of video almost everyone makes first - a straightforward facsimile of live performance. By accident or design, though, this served Radiohead well - for all the miracles they've wrought in the studio, they remain at their best on stage, and the intensity captured in the video for "Creep" helped make them stars in America. This is followed by the bad haircuts, awkward acting and high-concept nonsense - chameleons, perspex coffins, that kind of thing - that invariably descends upon any suddenly successful and slightly uncertain young artist. But by the time Radiohead needed to put images to the music of their second album, 1995's The Bends, they were notably less hesitant in front of camera - Thom Yorke in particular, who was now conjuring the unselfconscious sincerity that transports him on stage. And they were making much better choices about the people behind it. A couple of the clips of this period are widely recognised masterpieces. There's Jamie Thraves' "Just", a story of a man compelled by a glimpse at ultimate truth to lie on the sidewalk, Jonathan Glazer's elegant, black-and-white, slow-motion trailer-park hallucination of "Street Spirit (Fade Out)" (Glazer would be asked back for "Karma Police"). It's still impossible to avoid noticing that for sheer viscerality, neither quite beats the clip for "My Iron Lung" - another live performance (directed, tellingly, by Brett Turnbull, also responsible for "Creep"). Radiohead are clearly well suited by the extraordinary autonomy under which they now operate - most famously signified by last year's startling decision to sell current album "In Rainbows" online for the price of whatever downloaders felt like paying. If you plotted one career-long graph of Radiohead's pleasure with being Radiohead against another indicating the degree to which Radiohead have been beholden to the music business, you'd end up with an X. In retrospect, the video for "Paranoid Android", the first single from 1997's "OK, Computer" looks an even more significant milestone in this regard - Radiohead declined to appear in it, instead offering the song's six-and-a-half-minute running time as a soundtrack for Magnus Carlsson's animation. Radiohead have subsequently sat out other videos - Shynola's submarine fantasy for "Pyramid Song", Johnny Hardstaff's beautiful CGI odyssey for "Push Pull/Spinning Plates", Ed Holdsworth's car-window cityscape for "Sit Down Stand Up", Alex Rutterford's "Go To Sleep", which stars a computer-generated Yorke. But as their career progresses, this looks less and less like disdain for the form and more and more like a generous curiosity about where others might be able to take their music. Much like their obvious touchstones and mentors REM, Radiohead have been one of the - still depressingly few - artists who've approached the rock video as something potentially more than a tiresome commercial necessity. Whether more or less straightforward interpretations of a song's theme (Yorke half-drowning himself in Grant Gee's clip for the claustrophobic "No Surprises") or not (Chris Hopewell's brilliantly deranged fairy tale for "There There"), the videos collected here amount to an extraordinary body of work, and further sterling service to Radiohead's ongoing efforts to reclaim intelligence as a virtue. ANDREW MUELLER EXTRAS: None.

It is difficult not to perceive something of the sulkily slung-together cash-in about this package. After a decade and six albums with Parlophone – an increasingly rare career pattern, and one that would have been much valued by a major record company in a volatile climate – Radiohead decamped, leaving their label with the memories and the back catalogue.

This DVD seems, to at least some extent, the equivalent of the abandoned spouse conducting a jumble sale of their former partner’s outfits. The desultory title, absence of involvement from the band, failure to include any Extras, and lack of any mention of the artefact on Radiohead’s website – so far as it’s possible to tell – all contribute to an impression of somewhat petulant score-settling.

That still leaves 20 videos, nine of which have never been previously available on DVD. Presented in chronological order, from 1993’s “Creep” to a live version of “2+2=5” at the 2003 Belfort Festival, these visual interpretations of consistently stunning music unfurl as a fascinating, even heartwarming study of a band acquiring the confidence to be themselves.

“Creep” is the type of video almost everyone makes first – a straightforward facsimile of live performance. By accident or design, though, this served Radiohead well – for all the miracles they’ve wrought in the studio, they remain at their best on stage, and the intensity captured in the video for “Creep” helped make them stars in America. This is followed by the bad haircuts, awkward acting and high-concept nonsense – chameleons, perspex coffins, that kind of thing – that invariably descends upon any suddenly successful and slightly uncertain young artist.

But by the time Radiohead needed to put images to the music of their second album, 1995’s The Bends, they were notably less hesitant in front of camera – Thom Yorke in particular, who was now conjuring the unselfconscious sincerity that transports him on stage. And they were making much better choices about the people behind it. A couple of the clips of this period are widely recognised masterpieces. There’s Jamie Thraves‘ “Just”, a story of a man compelled by a glimpse at ultimate truth to lie on the sidewalk, Jonathan Glazer‘s elegant, black-and-white, slow-motion trailer-park hallucination of “Street Spirit (Fade Out)” (Glazer would be asked back for “Karma Police”).

It’s still impossible to avoid noticing that for sheer viscerality, neither quite beats the clip for “My Iron Lung” – another live performance (directed, tellingly, by Brett Turnbull, also responsible for “Creep”).

Radiohead are clearly well suited by the extraordinary autonomy under which they now operate – most famously signified by last year’s startling decision to sell current album “In Rainbows” online for the price of whatever downloaders felt like paying.

If you plotted one career-long graph of Radiohead’s pleasure with being Radiohead against another indicating the degree to which Radiohead have been beholden to the music business, you’d end up with an X. In retrospect, the video for “Paranoid Android”, the first single from 1997’s “OK, Computer” looks an even more significant milestone in this regard – Radiohead declined to appear in it, instead offering the song’s six-and-a-half-minute running time as a soundtrack for Magnus Carlsson‘s animation.

Radiohead have subsequently sat out other videos – Shynola‘s submarine fantasy for “Pyramid Song”, Johnny Hardstaff‘s beautiful CGI odyssey for “Push Pull/Spinning Plates”, Ed Holdsworth‘s car-window cityscape for “Sit Down Stand Up”, Alex Rutterford‘s “Go To Sleep”, which stars a computer-generated Yorke.

But as their career progresses, this looks less and less like disdain for the form and more and more like a generous curiosity about where others might be able to take their music. Much like their obvious touchstones and mentors REM, Radiohead have been one of the – still depressingly few – artists who’ve approached the rock video as something potentially more than a tiresome commercial necessity.

Whether more or less straightforward interpretations of a song’s theme (Yorke half-drowning himself in Grant Gee‘s clip for the claustrophobic “No Surprises”) or not (Chris Hopewell‘s brilliantly deranged fairy tale for “There There”), the videos collected here amount to an extraordinary body of work, and further sterling service to Radiohead’s ongoing efforts to reclaim intelligence as a virtue.

ANDREW MUELLER

EXTRAS: None.

Love: Love Story

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Love: Love Story

When John Densmore of The Doors first saw Arthur Lee's Love perform at Bido Lito's club in Hollywood in 1965, he knew he was witnessing something revolutionary. "They were deafeningly loud and they were mixed racially," Densmore tells the makers of Love Story. "My mind was blown, to use a '60s term... Here we've got a psychedelic black man." Love - with their three-guitar frontline of two Memphis-born blacks and a white Brian Jones lookalike - did a lot more than combine volume, visual impact and psychedelia. By their second and third albums (Da Capo and Forever Changes) they'd travelled so many dimensions from the garage-punk juvenescence of their debut LP that they effectively invented a new form of pop. Bacharach, Brasil '66 and Alpert (and, sublimely, the classical guitars of Rodrigo) were discombobulated into a schizophrenic imbalance of easy-listening euphoria and blood-in-the-bath-taps paranoia. In this universe, where the sun is not on its axis, premonitions of death in Vietnam are crooned prettily by men with peach Melba voices. Love Story, a 109-minute documentary shot by British filmmakers Chris Hall and Mike Kerry, argues that Love should have (and, if promoted more aggressively, could have) been a household name - which is debatable. They became a sleeper hit instead, destined to disintegrate, but never to be forgotten. Forever Changes may have hobbled into the Billboard chart at a lowly 154 (as an effective, slow-moving rostrum camera reveals), but it has since climbed 153 places in a few surveys listing the Greatest Albums Ever Made. Today its appeal is limitless and surprising; among the fans in Hall and Kerry's film is Ken Livingstone, no less, for whom Forever Changes was "the nearest that anything musical has come to changing my life". Using both new and archive footage, Love Story, which premiered at the London Film Festival two years ago, relies heavily on interviews with Arthur Lee (some of his last before his death from leukaemia in 2006) and Love's lead guitarist Johnny Echols. The latter is straight-talking, moderately bitter, easy to relate to. Lee, by contrast, wearing a series of implausible wigs and hats, speaks in slow, mumbled riddles. Sometimes he's funny, sometimes angry (notably on the race issue), sometimes too indistinct to comprehend. It's an odd criticism, but a fair one, that the undisputed leader of Love is overused in the documentary. A dull sequence early on, in which Lee drives around LA, must have been fun for his passenger but is sluggish for the viewer. Moreover, when Lee escorts us around the castle that was Love's communal home, we just know we're going to be shown every single room. Better use is made of Elektra boss Jac Holzman, wonderfully dry, and the fabled Alban 'Snoopy' Pfisterer, the original Love's somewhat hapless, Swiss-born drummer-turned-harpsichordist. Pfisterer, whom Hall and Kerry portray as a fitness-obsessed backwoodsman, seems a lovely chap. He and the aforementioned Holzman feature in an impressive sequence when Love, super-inspired, record "7 And 7 Is" (a 1966 single) and the planet appears to explode in astonishment. The ensuing Da Capo album, which has tended over the years to be overshadowed by Forever Changes, is given a pleasing amount of recognition. When "Orange Skies" is accompanied by some film of an orange-streaked sky, it's corny, it's literal and it's beautiful. A wholly successful effect. Forever Changes is handled as one would handle a priceless, delicate, easily chipped work-of-art. The masterpiece that broke the band up, it led to serious drug problems among the already divided personnel (although nobody goes into much detail), and its aftermath broke Lee's spirit. The musicians in his next line-up of Love hated Forever Changes and Lee was forced to laugh along with their mockery. I'd have liked more on this - and on the 30 years of Lee's life that followed - but Love Story discreetly lowers the curtain in 1968. A postscript jerks us forward to 2003 when Lee, not long released from prison where he has served five years for a firearms offence, goes on tour performing Forever Changes (something he refused to do at the time) and is cheered by full houses, new and old fans, rapturous disciples, Primal Scream members, newt-fancying Mayors of London, and all walks of life besides. DAVID CAVANAGH

When John Densmore of The Doors first saw Arthur Lee’s Love perform at Bido Lito’s club in Hollywood in 1965, he knew he was witnessing something revolutionary.

“They were deafeningly loud and they were mixed racially,” Densmore tells the makers of Love Story. “My mind was blown, to use a ’60s term… Here we’ve got a psychedelic black man.”

Love – with their three-guitar frontline of two Memphis-born blacks and a white Brian Jones lookalike – did a lot more than combine volume, visual impact and psychedelia. By their second and third albums (Da Capo and Forever Changes) they’d travelled so many dimensions from the garage-punk juvenescence of their debut LP that they effectively invented a new form of pop.

Bacharach, Brasil ’66 and Alpert (and, sublimely, the classical guitars of Rodrigo) were discombobulated into a schizophrenic imbalance of easy-listening euphoria and blood-in-the-bath-taps paranoia. In this universe, where the sun is not on its axis, premonitions of death in Vietnam are crooned prettily by men with peach Melba voices.

Love Story, a 109-minute documentary shot by British filmmakers Chris Hall and Mike Kerry, argues that Love should have (and, if promoted more aggressively, could have) been a household name – which is debatable.

They became a sleeper hit instead, destined to disintegrate, but never to be forgotten. Forever Changes may have hobbled into the Billboard chart at a lowly 154 (as an effective, slow-moving rostrum camera reveals), but it has since climbed 153 places in a few surveys listing the Greatest Albums Ever Made. Today its appeal is limitless and surprising; among the fans in Hall and Kerry’s film is Ken Livingstone, no less, for whom Forever Changes was “the nearest that anything musical has come to changing my life”.

Using both new and archive footage, Love Story, which premiered at the London Film Festival two years ago, relies heavily on interviews with Arthur Lee (some of his last before his death from leukaemia in 2006) and Love’s lead guitarist Johnny Echols. The latter is straight-talking, moderately bitter, easy to relate to. Lee, by contrast, wearing a series of implausible wigs and hats, speaks in slow, mumbled riddles. Sometimes he’s funny, sometimes angry (notably on the race issue), sometimes too indistinct to comprehend. It’s an odd criticism, but a fair one, that the undisputed leader of Love is overused in the documentary. A dull sequence early on, in which Lee drives around LA, must have been fun for his passenger but is sluggish for the viewer. Moreover, when Lee escorts us around the castle that was Love’s communal home, we just know we’re going to be shown every single room.

Better use is made of Elektra boss Jac Holzman, wonderfully dry, and the fabled Alban ‘Snoopy’ Pfisterer, the original Love’s somewhat hapless, Swiss-born drummer-turned-harpsichordist. Pfisterer, whom Hall and Kerry portray as a fitness-obsessed backwoodsman, seems a lovely chap. He and the aforementioned Holzman feature in an impressive sequence when Love, super-inspired, record “7 And 7 Is” (a 1966 single) and the planet appears to explode in astonishment.

The ensuing Da Capo album, which has tended over the years to be overshadowed by Forever Changes, is given a pleasing amount of recognition. When “Orange Skies” is accompanied by some film of an orange-streaked sky, it’s corny, it’s literal and it’s beautiful. A wholly successful effect.

Forever Changes is handled as one would handle a priceless, delicate, easily chipped work-of-art. The masterpiece that broke the band up, it led to serious drug problems among the already divided personnel (although nobody goes into much detail), and its aftermath broke Lee’s spirit. The musicians in his next line-up of Love hated Forever Changes and Lee was forced to laugh along with their mockery. I’d have liked more on this – and on the 30 years of Lee’s life that followed – but Love Story discreetly lowers the curtain in 1968.

A postscript jerks us forward to 2003 when Lee, not long released from prison where he has served five years for a firearms offence, goes on tour performing Forever Changes (something he refused to do at the time) and is cheered by full houses, new and old fans, rapturous disciples, Primal Scream members, newt-fancying Mayors of London, and all walks of life besides.

DAVID CAVANAGH

Peep Show: Season 5

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Peep Show: Season 5
David Mitchell and Robert Webb are now getting on for comic ubiquity, but are never better than in Peep Show, Jesse Armstrong and Sam Bain's tale of flatmates Mark and Jez. The show continues to be wonderfully observed - everything from work tea mugs to the intellectual property of dance music comes...

David Mitchell and Robert Webb are now getting on for comic ubiquity, but are never better than in Peep Show, Jesse Armstrong and Sam Bain’s tale of flatmates Mark and Jez. The show continues to be wonderfully observed – everything from work tea mugs to the intellectual property of dance music comes in the show’s scope – though it’s the characters’ hilarious descent into dark, dark places that make it so compelling. Never was the interior monologue used to grubbier, or better ends.

EXTRAS: None.

JOHN ROBINSON

Mercury Rev’s First Record For 3 Years

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Mercury Rev’s First Record For 3 Years
Mercury Rev have announced details of their forthcoming new album, Snowflake Midnight. The album is due for release on September 29, the same day that the band plan to make a companion album, Strange Attractor, available as a free download on their website. The last full length origianl studio rec...

Mercury Rev have announced details of their forthcoming new album, Snowflake Midnight.

The album is due for release on September 29, the same day that the band plan to make a companion album, Strange Attractor, available as a free download on their website.

The last full length origianl studio record from Mercury Rev was The Secret Migration, which was released three years ago in 2005. The band also wrote the soundtrack to the film Bye Bye Blackbird and were asked to make a Back To Mine compilation in 2006.

The group have also been confirmed as headliners for the Hydro Connect Festival (August 29) and the End Of The Road Festival (September 13).

For more information see www.mercuryrev.com

Billy Idol Makes Live Comeback

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Billy Idol Makes Live Comeback
Billy Idol has revealed his plans to play two homecoming shows in the UK this summer. The gigs in Manchester and London are his first live dates since his surprise appearance at Download festival in 2005 and when he sold out the Brixton Academy in 2006. “I always look forward to returning home t...

Billy Idol has revealed his plans to play two homecoming shows in the UK this summer.

The gigs in Manchester and London are his first live dates since his surprise appearance at Download festival in 2005 and when he sold out the Brixton Academy in 2006.

“I always look forward to returning home to the UK,” says Billy. “British audiences are the best and as always we will rock ‘em to their core. Brace yourselves; we’re comin’!”

On his Idolize Yourself Tour, Billy will perform a mixture of old and new material, including such classics as ‘White Wedding’, ‘Rebel Yell’ and ‘Eyes’ Without a Face’ and two new songs from his forthcoming album, The Very Best of Billy Idol: Idolize Yourself’.

Tickets are available from 0844 576 5483 or to buy online at www.livenation.co.uk

White Denim And Micah P Hinson For Club Uncut!

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White Denim And Micah P Hinson For Club Uncut!
White Denim and Micah P Hinson have been confirmed as joint headliners for the fifth Club Uncut, set to take place on July 14. First up will be a solo turn from Micah P Hinson, the hard-lived Texan singer-songwriter whose fourth album, Micah P Hinson And The Red Empire Orchestra, is acclaimed as ou...

White Denim and Micah P Hinson have been confirmed as joint headliners for the fifth Club Uncut, set to take place on July 14.

First up will be a solo turn from Micah P Hinson, the hard-lived Texan singer-songwriter whose fourth album, Micah P Hinson And The Red Empire Orchestra, is acclaimed as our Americana Album Of The Month in the next issue of Uncut. Then, closing the show, will be three more Texans – the exuberantly deranged garage rockers White Denim from Austin, who you can read more about at our Wild Mercury Sound blog.

It should be a brilliant night. As usual, Club Uncut takes place at the Borderline on Manette Street, just off the Charing Cross Road in London’s glamorous West End. Tickets are available for a bargain £8.00, and you can get hold of them from our exclusive ticket link here.

As White Denim are in the habit of shouting, “Let’s react to it!”

Inara George With Van Dyke Parks: “An Invitation”

John Mulvey
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An exciting, slightly confusing package arrived for me last week, addressed to John Mulvey at Melody Maker; a magazine which hasn’t existed for, what, eight years, and which, in any case, I never worked for. Beneath the address, though, was a tantalising tagline: “Compliments of Van Dyke Parks”. Parks, I guess, is entitled to get the name of my workplace wrong. I can’t pretend to be intimate with the great man, though I did spend an hour or two at his house in LA in 1995, being shown paintings by what seemed to be an obscure school of Californian impressionists, and trying to get him to spill the beans about “Smile”. This was around the time of his underrated collaboration with Brian Wilson, “Orange Crate Art”, and I spent the next day up at Wilson’s house, a marvellous and strange time which culminated in him playing a medley of “Surfer Girl” and “Satisfaction” at the piano, noticing that my tape recorder was still running, then offering me $100 to get the track on the radio. I digress. Parks, I think, has contributed some lyrics to the new Brian Wilson album, “That Lucky Old Sun”, which arrived at Uncut this week (I need to listen to it some more, but in the meantime here’s my review of the piece’s live premier last year). But the package didn’t contain that, and, in fact, came from an LA label called Everloving rather than Parks himself. Smart move, there. The record turned out to be the new album from Inara George, Lowell George’s daughter and an artist whose previous work (including the somewhat twee electropop Bird And The Bee project with Greg Kurstin) hasn’t really grabbed me much. This time, though, she has enlisted Van Dyke Parks – a presence in her life from birth, thanks to his closeness to her father – to provide orchestral settings for her songs. There are two obvious contemporary models for “An Invitation”. One is Joanna Newsom’s “Ys”, or at least the lavish, quixotic arrangements which Parks created for the songs on that record. George’s songs are not much like those of Newsom: there are no roots in folk here, and her style is more jaded boho than elevated poet. But the way George and her songs act as a still, emotional centre while Parks’ flighty score darts around them is highly reminiscent of “Ys”. The second reference is Fiona Apple’s “Extraordinary Machine”, with a similar twisted showtune feel to some of the songs – though George avoids the breakbeats and harrowing confessional tone of that fine record. Nevertheless, it’s sometimes hard to spot George’s character here: her songs aren’t always entirely memorable (though they’re growing stronger with each listen, in fairness), and there’s a sense that Parks is stealing the show with his endlessly inventive chamber pop. When it all works together, though, this is a really lovely record. There’s a run of songs towards the end of the album which are strong and satisfying, but the best comes at the start, after Parks’ “Overture”. It’s called “Right As Wrong”, and it finds George’s quizzical LA hipster setting out her tentative, playful, touching dreams: “I want to have regrets, because I want to do absolutely all I can,” she sings, and the prettiness and ambition of “An Invitation” come right into focus.

An exciting, slightly confusing package arrived for me last week, addressed to John Mulvey at Melody Maker; a magazine which hasn’t existed for, what, eight years, and which, in any case, I never worked for. Beneath the address, though, was a tantalising tagline: “Compliments of Van Dyke Parks”.

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The Mighty Boosh Band Make Debut

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The Mighty Boosh Band Make Debut
The Mighty Boosh Band will make their live debut at London’s Cargo club on June 24 followed by a second performance on July 1. Noel Fielding and Julian Barratt will preview their new musical project to an intimate audience in preparation for their set at The Big Chill Festival in August. The com...

The Mighty Boosh Band will make their live debut at London’s Cargo club on June 24 followed by a second performance on July 1.

Noel Fielding and Julian Barratt will preview their new musical project to an intimate audience in preparation for their set at The Big Chill Festival in August.

The comedy duo are also curating their own event, called the Mighty Boosh Festival, at Hop Farm in Kent on July 5.

Jarvis Cocker, The Charlatons and Gary Numan have been confirmed for the day-long celebration as well as live comedy from The Boosh, Ross Noble and Frankie Boyle.

Tickets for the warm up show cost £8, see www.cargo-london.com for details.

Arthur Lee’s Love to Tour UK

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Arthur Lee’s Love to Tour UK
Arthur Lee's bandmates in the last incarnation of Love will be performing his songs on a UK tour this autumn. Baby Lemonade formed the backbone of Lee's band both before and after his jail sentence in the late '90s. Now, Lee's widow, Diana Lee, has officially endorsed Baby Lemonade's UK tour, bi...

Arthur Lee‘s bandmates in the last incarnation of Love will be performing his songs on a UK tour this autumn.

Baby Lemonade formed the backbone of Lee’s band both before and after his jail sentence in the late ’90s. Now, Lee’s widow, Diana Lee, has officially endorsed Baby Lemonade’s UK tour, billed as ‘A Celebration Of The Music Of Arthur Lee and Love’.

The band will play seventeen shows, kicking off in Swansea on October 16.

Following Arthur Lee’s much publicised release from prison in 2001, Baby Lemonade were invited to perform as Love on sell out tours of sell-out tours of the UK, Europe, USA and Australia.

The band were part of Lee’s re-creation of the classic Love album ‘Forever Changes’, which was filmed by the BBC at Glastonbury Festival and ‘Later With Jools Holland’ in 2003.

Baby Lemonade escorted Arthur Lee when he was awarded a ‘Living Legend’ award from NME in the following year.

UK tour dates:

Swansea Pontardawe Arts Centre (October 16)

Southampton The Brook (17)

Coventry Warwick Arts Centre (18)

London The Scala (19)

York The Duchess (20)

Edinburgh Liquid Room (21)

Glasgow ABC 2 (22)

Manchester Academy 3 (23)

Sheffield Boardwalk (24)

Milton Keynes Stables (25)

Leicester The Musician (26)

Cambridge Junction 2 (27)

Norwich Arts Centre (28)

Wolverhampton Robin (29)

Brighton Komedia (30)

Cardiff The Joint (31)

Bristol The Fleece (November 1)

PIC CREDIT: COURTESY OF RETNA

Led Zeppelin ‘hope’ to release Live Reunion DVD

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Led Zeppelin ‘hope’ to release Live Reunion DVD
Led Zeppelin have hinted that they will release a DVD of their reunion gig, which took place at the London O2 Arena last December. Rumours about a DVD have been circulating since it became apparent that the show was being filmed. Guitarist Jimmy Page said yesterday (June 17) that a release of the ...

Led Zeppelin have hinted that they will release a DVD of their reunion gig, which took place at the London O2 Arena last December.

Rumours about a DVD have been circulating since it became apparent that the show was being filmed.

Guitarist Jimmy Page said yesterday (June 17) that a release of the sold-out gig seems likely.

“I hope so, one day, yeah,” he said, when asked by BBC 6Music if the DVD would be released. “Yeah, I should think one day the DVD will come out, but there is no hurry to do it,” added bassist John Paul Jones.

“It was a special occasion, you know, and we really wanted that just to be it really,” he added, when asked why the DVD was taking so long to come out.

Conor Oberst Reveals New Tour Dates!

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Conor Oberst Reveals New Tour Dates!
Conor Oberst & The Mystic Valley Band have added four new dates to their forthcoming tour of UK and Ireland, including shows in Portsmouth, London, Manchester and Belfast. The Bright Eyes frontman has also just finished work on his new solo album, named simply Conor Oberst, due for release on ...

Conor Oberst & The Mystic Valley Band have added four new dates to their forthcoming tour of UK and Ireland, including shows in Portsmouth, London, Manchester and Belfast.

The Bright Eyes frontman has also just finished work on his new solo album, named simply Conor Oberst, due for release on August 4 on Wichita Records.

The new album, recorded in México during the January and February this year, is Oberst’s first solo outing for thirteen years.

Two songs from the new record, “Souled Out!!!” and “Danny Callahan”, are available to hear on www.conoroberst.com

Tracklisting:

Cape Canaveral

Sausalito

Get-Well-Cards

Lenders In The Temple

Danny Callahan

I Don’t Want To Die (In The Hospital)

Eagle On A Pole

NYC – Gone, Gone

Moab

Valle Místico (Ruben’s Song)

Souled Out!!!

Milk Thistle

Live Dates:

Leeds Carling Festival (August 22)

Reading Carling Festival (24)

Portsmouth Wedgewood Rooms (26)

London Electric Ballroom (27)

Manchester Academy 2 (28)

Argyll Connect Festival (29)

Belfast Spring & Airbrake (30)

County Laois Ireland, Electric Picnic (31)

Dorset End of The Road Festival (12)

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