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New Funeral For a Friend single

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New Funeral For a Friend single
Funeral For A Friend have announced details of their new single; a double A-side called 'Waterfront Dance Club / Beneath The Burning Tree'. The band plan to release the song as a download and on 7" through their own record label, Join Us Records, on July 14. "We were fortunate to be on a major la...

Funeral For A Friend have announced details of their new single; a double A-side called ‘Waterfront Dance Club / Beneath The Burning Tree’.

The band plan to release the song as a download and on 7″ through their own record label, Join Us Records, on July 14.

“We were fortunate to be on a major label for the past five years,” said bassist Gareth Davies. “Now we are in a great position to start afresh, with a clean slate and with the fanbase already in place. This is a great stepping stone for us.”

The band will also play the following UK dates:

Woodstock Wakestock Festival (June 28)

Manchester Academy 3 (30)

Glasgow King Tuts (July 1)

London Kings College (2)

Newport TJ’s (4)

Abersoch Wakestock Festival (5)

Zoo Thousand and Eight Festival, Port Lympne Wild Animal Park (6)

Spiritualized Play One-off Gig

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Spiritualized Play One-off Gig
Spiritualized have announced they will play a small, one off gig at the Concorde 2 in Brighton on June 27 as a warm up for Glastonbury. Jason Pierce's outfit will then head to Somerset to play on the legendary John Peel Stage on June 29. The band have also announced dates for a UK tour in October...

Spiritualized have announced they will play a small, one off gig at the Concorde 2 in Brighton on June 27 as a warm up for Glastonbury.

Jason Pierce‘s outfit will then head to Somerset to play on the legendary John Peel Stage on June 29.

The band have also announced dates for a UK tour in October and released their latest album, Songs in A&E earlier this year.

The dates are:

Newcastle Academy (October 9)

Leeds University (10)

Manchester Academy (11)

Oxford Academy (13)

Portsmouth Pyramids (14)

Birmingham Academy (15)

London Roundhouse (16)

The 300th Wild Mercury Sound

John Mulvey
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Just back from a week’s holiday, and I’m working through the backlog of post that was waiting for me. Now playing: Lil Wayne’s “Tha Carter III”, from which we’ve particularly enjoyed “Dr Carter”, where the rapper babbles over a generous David Axelrod sample. I’ll put together a playlist tomorrow, but for now, a quick thankyou to all the regular readers and correspondents who’ve stuck with us for the past 300 posts. Nice to hear, this week, from Downstroke Per Minute, who wisely suggests we go and see The Night Marchers at the 100 Club tomorrow night. And from Tom, who audaciously goes against Uncut protocol by laying into The Hold Steady’s “Stay Positive”, suggesting, “Become a social worker and act your age, Craig”. Most of the action while I’ve been away has been over at the Live Reviews blog, though, where Andrew Mueller seems to have filed a thoughtful and heartfelt review of Bruce Springsteen at the Emirates and provoked a thoroughly entertaining shitstorm which goes from “Were you actually at the gig?” abuse to a substantially more satisfying debate. Join in, why don't you?

Just back from a week’s holiday, and I’m working through the backlog of post that was waiting for me. Now playing: Lil Wayne’s “Tha Carter III”, from which we’ve particularly enjoyed “Dr Carter”, where the rapper babbles over a generous David Axelrod sample.

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Carole King’s Tapestry Re-released

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Carole King’s Tapestry Re-released

A deluxe edition of Carole King’s landmark album, Tapestry will be released on August 4 to mark the 50th anniversary of King’s career as a musician. She met song writing partner and future husband, Gerry Goffin in 1958 and released her debut single ‘The Right Girl’ on ABC-Paramount Records in May of the same year. Originally released in 1971, Tapestry went on to become one of the most successful records of all time. It remained on the US charts for six years, sold ten million copies worldwide and won four Grammy awards: a record not bettered until Alanis Morissette in 1995. “I feel honoured that Tapestry has made a difference in small ways and large ways in people’s lives around the world. It’s been a major part of my life too,” said King. “As a songwriter, I’m so happy that the songs have held up for all of these years. As a performer, I’m still enjoying playing them live.” The double CD box set includes previously unreleased live performances, rare photos, lyrics and extensive liner notes by revered music writer, Harvey Kubernick. The live tracks were recorded in Boston, Maryland and in Central Park, New York in 1973 and in 1976 at the San Francisco Opera House. Tapestry: Legacy Edition by Carole King Disc One – Selections (studio album): I Feel The Earth Move So Far Away It’s Too Late Home Again Beautiful Way Over Yonder You’ve Got A Friend Where You Lead Will You Love Me Tomorrow? Smackwater Jack Tapestry (You Make Me Feel Like a) Natural Woman Disc Two – Selections (live – previously unreleased): I Feel The Earth Move So Far Away It’s Too Late Home Again Beautiful Way Over Yonder You’ve Got A Friend Will You Love Me Tomorrow? Smackwater Jack Tapestry (You Make Me Feel Like a) Natural Woman PIC CREDIT: PA PHOTOS

A deluxe edition of Carole King’s landmark album, Tapestry will be released on August 4 to mark the 50th anniversary of King’s career as a musician.

She met song writing partner and future husband, Gerry Goffin in 1958 and released her debut single ‘The Right Girl’ on ABC-Paramount Records in May of the same year.

Originally released in 1971, Tapestry went on to become one of the most successful records of all time. It remained on the US charts for six years, sold ten million copies worldwide and won four Grammy awards: a record not bettered until Alanis Morissette in 1995.

“I feel honoured that Tapestry has made a difference in small ways and large ways in people’s lives around the world. It’s been a major part of my life too,” said King. “As a songwriter, I’m so happy that the songs have held up for all of these years. As a performer, I’m still enjoying playing them live.”

The double CD box set includes previously unreleased live performances, rare photos, lyrics and extensive liner notes by revered music writer, Harvey Kubernick.

The live tracks were recorded in Boston, Maryland and in Central Park, New York in 1973 and in 1976 at the San Francisco Opera House.

Tapestry: Legacy Edition by Carole King

Disc One – Selections (studio album):

I Feel The Earth Move

So Far Away

It’s Too Late

Home Again

Beautiful

Way Over Yonder

You’ve Got A Friend

Where You Lead

Will You Love Me Tomorrow?

Smackwater Jack

Tapestry

(You Make Me Feel Like a) Natural Woman

Disc Two – Selections (live – previously unreleased):

I Feel The Earth Move

So Far Away

It’s Too Late

Home Again

Beautiful

Way Over Yonder

You’ve Got A Friend

Will You Love Me Tomorrow?

Smackwater Jack

Tapestry

(You Make Me Feel Like a) Natural Woman

PIC CREDIT: PA PHOTOS

In Search Of A Midnight Kiss

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In Search Of A Midnight Kiss

DIR: ALEX HOLDRIDGE ST: SCOOT McNAIRY, SARA SIMMONDS There is, you might assume, nothing new you could do with two people stumbling round a city, talking. After all, it's been a staple of pretty much any Woody Allen film you care to think of, while Richard Linklater's Before Sunrise and Before Sunset seemed to stretch the idea to its limit. But writer/director Alex Holdridge's no-budget Slackervettes take on what happens to two strangers who meet on a blind date in Los Angeles, brings something new to the party. Partly, Holdridge's black-and-white guerrilla-style of film making (he apparently paid for the film on his credit card) adds an enjoyably shambolic edge to the film. Partly, too, because in amidst the fortune cookie philosophising on Big Themes (life, love, loneliness), there's a set of gutsy performances from the leads that anchor the film in some kind of recognisable reality away from sanitised studio chick-flicks. The film spectacularly wrong-foots you at the start. McNairy's Wilson is caught by his flatmate, masturbating to pictures of his girlfriend. It's the mumblecore American Pie - d'oh! But after this flash of fratboy smut, Holdridge settles down to let his story spool out at a leisurely pace. Wilson, a twentysomething wannabe scriptwriter, is at a low after breaking up with his long-term girlfriend. Facing the dismal prospect of spending New Year's Eve alone, he places an ad for a date online, and signs it "the misanthrope". He gets "auditioned" in a cafe by Vivian (Simmonds), all Audrey Hepburn shades, fur coat and clouds of cigarette smoke. She is, unsurprisingly, a hurricane of trouble; but, as Midnight Kiss progresses, Holdridge softens her sharp edges. Wilson and Vivian set out on their night-long date, and the barbs and cynicism that define their initial conversations give way to a softer, more delicate kind of emotional dependency. With the decrepit movie theatres and empty rooftops of LA reinforcing the shared sense of loneliness experienced by Wilson and Vivian - both newcomers to Los Angeles - you get a sense, perhaps, of how easy it would be to get lost in a city of 10 million people. MICHAEL BONNER

DIR: ALEX HOLDRIDGE

ST: SCOOT McNAIRY, SARA SIMMONDS

There is, you might assume, nothing new you could do with two people stumbling round a city, talking. After all, it’s been a staple of pretty much any Woody Allen film you care to think of, while Richard Linklater’s Before Sunrise and Before Sunset seemed to stretch the idea to its limit. But writer/director Alex Holdridge‘s no-budget Slackervettes take on what happens to two strangers who meet on a blind date in Los Angeles, brings something new to the party. Partly, Holdridge’s black-and-white guerrilla-style of film making (he apparently paid for the film on his credit card) adds an enjoyably shambolic edge to the film.

Partly, too, because in amidst the fortune cookie philosophising on Big Themes (life, love, loneliness), there’s a set of gutsy performances from the leads that anchor the film in some kind of recognisable reality away from sanitised studio chick-flicks.

The film spectacularly wrong-foots you at the start. McNairy’s Wilson is caught by his flatmate, masturbating to pictures of his girlfriend. It’s the mumblecore American Pie – d’oh! But after this flash of fratboy smut, Holdridge settles down to let his story spool out at a leisurely pace.

Wilson, a twentysomething wannabe scriptwriter, is at a low after breaking up with his long-term girlfriend. Facing the dismal prospect of spending New Year’s Eve alone, he places an ad for a date online, and signs it “the misanthrope”. He gets “auditioned” in a cafe by Vivian (Simmonds), all Audrey Hepburn shades, fur coat and clouds of cigarette smoke. She is, unsurprisingly, a hurricane of trouble; but, as Midnight Kiss progresses, Holdridge softens her sharp edges.

Wilson and Vivian set out on their night-long date, and the barbs and cynicism that define their initial conversations give way to a softer, more delicate kind of emotional dependency. With the decrepit movie theatres and empty rooftops of LA reinforcing the shared sense of loneliness experienced by Wilson and Vivian – both newcomers to Los Angeles – you get a sense, perhaps, of how easy it would be to get lost in a city of 10 million people.

MICHAEL BONNER

Teeth

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Teeth

DIR: MITCHELL LICHTENSTEIN ST: JESS WEIXLER, JOHN HENSLEY This bizarre blend of dark comedy, gory horror and socio-feminist statement explores the vagina dentata myth. It's a true one-off - ludicrous and inspired, like a John Waters shocker scripted by Camille Paglia. It provokes thought, but by showing bloodied severed penises wriggling on the ground while men shriek in agony, it plays fast and loose with any desire to be taken seriously. To its credit, it builds ominously. Student Dawn (Weixler) leads the local chastity group. However when she succumbs to lust with a classmate, she discovers she really is unique. So does he, painfully. Before bewildered Dawn can get a grip she's taken the fingers off a gynaecologist and the manhood off another horny student. Warming to her powers, she gives sleazy stepbrother Brad (Nip/Tuck's Hensley) an overdue surprise. Farcically now, she goes rogue... In its quieter spells, with the cast deadpan, Teeth recalls Ginger Snaps and borders on (black) magic realism. Then it goes completely mental. CHRIS ROBERTS

DIR: MITCHELL LICHTENSTEIN

ST: JESS WEIXLER, JOHN HENSLEY

This bizarre blend of dark comedy, gory horror and socio-feminist statement explores the vagina dentata myth. It’s a true one-off – ludicrous and inspired, like a John Waters shocker scripted by Camille Paglia. It provokes thought, but by showing bloodied severed penises wriggling on the ground while men shriek in agony, it plays fast and loose with any desire to be taken seriously.

To its credit, it builds ominously. Student Dawn (Weixler) leads the local chastity group. However when she succumbs to lust with a classmate, she discovers she really is unique. So does he, painfully. Before bewildered Dawn can get a grip she’s taken the fingers off a gynaecologist and the manhood off another horny student. Warming to her powers, she gives sleazy stepbrother Brad (Nip/Tuck’s Hensley) an overdue surprise. Farcically now, she goes rogue…

In its quieter spells, with the cast deadpan, Teeth recalls Ginger Snaps and borders on (black) magic realism. Then it goes completely mental.

CHRIS ROBERTS

Bo Diddley gets a rock’n’roll send off

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Bo Diddley gets a rock’n’roll send off
Bo Diddley has been given a fitting send off at his funeral in Florida today (June 8). A gospel band played his songs as family members passed his coffin, before hundreds of mourners clapped and chanted his song ‘Hey, Bo Diddley‘. Joining friends and family members, The Animals’ Eric Burdon...

Bo Diddley has been given a fitting send off at his funeral in Florida today (June 8).

A gospel band played his songs as family members passed his coffin, before hundreds of mourners clapped and chanted his song ‘Hey, Bo Diddley‘.

Joining friends and family members, The Animals’ Eric Burdon paid tribute to Diddley and cited him as a lifelong influence:

“I’ve been a fan of his since 16, 17 years of age,” he said, according to BBC News. “Probably one of the first records I ever owned.”

George Thorogood, Tom Petty and Jerry Lee Lewis sent flowers.

Diddley, regarded as one of the founding fathers of rock’n’roll, suffered heart failure on Monday (June 2), which followed a recent stroke and heart attack.

Garry Mitchell, his grandson, was among those who addressed mourners, the Associated Press news agency reported.

“In 1955 he used to keep the crowds rocking and rolling way before Elvis Presley,” he said.

Earlier this week Mick Jagger paid tribute, calling Diddley an “enormous force in music”.

His music proved hugely influential on the Rolling Stones, The Who, The Clash, Bruce Springsteen and Elvis Costello.

Read our full obituary of a guitar hero remembered by clicking here.

Feeder announce intimate gig

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Feeder announce intimate gig
Feeder have announced a one-off show next week at the Proud Galleries in Camden, north London. The intimate gig on 12 June will be the smallest that the band have played in a decade. The Proud Galleries’ capacity is 400, and the band will play a 40 minute set previewing tracks from their new al...

Feeder have announced a one-off show next week at the Proud Galleries in Camden, north London.

The intimate gig on 12 June will be the smallest that the band have played in a decade.

The Proud Galleries’ capacity is 400, and the band will play a 40 minute set previewing tracks from their new album, ‘Silent Cry’, released June 16 on Echo.

Feeder’s last album, ‘The Singles’ collection, has sold over half a million albums to date.

Tickets will be priced £6 and are available via www.Feederweb.com.

Ronnie Wood plays on Starsailor’s new album

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Ronnie Wood plays on Starsailor’s new album
Rolling Stones’ guitarist, Ronnie Wood has been helping Starsailor with their new album. Wood has been in the studio recording guitar parts for a song called 'All The Plans We Made', which will appear on Starsailor’s fourth album. "We kept asking him if he'd be up for playing some guitar on th...

Rolling Stones’ guitarist, Ronnie Wood has been helping Starsailor with their new album.

Wood has been in the studio recording guitar parts for a song called ‘All The Plans We Made’, which will appear on Starsailor’s fourth album.

“We kept asking him if he’d be up for playing some guitar on the record, and at the time he was busy promoting Shine A Light,” said frontman, James Walsh talking to Billboard.com.

“Then I got a call about half past six one evening from his son Jesse saying, ‘My dad really wants to do this now. Can you be at the studio [at] nine o’clock?’ So from having given up the ghost it all came together out of the blue. It was amazing; he stood there playing the guitar, saying the song reminded him of ‘Maggie May’ – quite high praise, indeed.”

The band finished the new record in May, tentatively titled ‘All The Plans’, and are waiting to finalise a release date.

“It’s definitely frustrating when you’ve got a finished record you want to get out and promote,” added Walsh.

PIC CREDIT: PA PHOTOS

Creedence Clearwater release Best Of

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Creedence Clearwater release Best Of
The Best Of Creedence Clearwater Revival is released this week (June 2) featuring the original frontman, John Fogerty. The new CD features their best known hits, 'Proud Mary', 'Born On The Bayou' and 'Travelin' Band' as well as their cover of Marvin Gaye's 'Heard It Through The Grapevine'. Fogarty...

The Best Of Creedence Clearwater Revival is released this week (June 2) featuring the original frontman, John Fogerty.

The new CD features their best known hits, ‘Proud Mary’, ‘Born On The Bayou’ and ‘Travelin’ Band’ as well as their cover of Marvin Gaye’s ‘Heard It Through The Grapevine’.

Fogarty has also announced he will play two UK shows in June: Manchester’s Apollo venue on June 22 and London’s Royal Albert Hall on June 24.

The London show marks 38 years since he last appeared at the Royal Albert Hall and we’ve got two tickets to see John Fogarty performing at the Royal Albert Hall on June 24, click here for details.

John Lydon charged with beating a woman

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John Lydon charged with beating a woman
Sex Pistols lead singer John Lydon has been charged for hitting a woman in the face in Los Angeles last year. Roxane Davis, an assistant producer on a reality television show, alleges Lydon attacked her in January 2007, because he didn't like the hotel room he had been put in. The alleged incident...

Sex Pistols lead singer John Lydon has been charged for hitting a woman in the face in Los Angeles last year.

Roxane Davis, an assistant producer on a reality television show, alleges Lydon attacked her in January 2007, because he didn’t like the hotel room he had been put in.

The alleged incident did not lead to criminal charges, but Davis is suing Lydon in a civil court for sexual harassment and assault.

Lydon’s spokesman said the frontman was unavailable for comment.

American Music Club Announce UK tour

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American Music Club Announce UK tour
American Music Club have announced that they will be touring the UK in September. The band will be playing tracks from the new album, The Golden Age, alongside tracks from their back catalogue that haven’t been performed for many years. AMC will also make their only UK festival appearance at Dor...

American Music Club have announced that they will be touring the UK in September. The band will be playing tracks from the new album, The Golden Age, alongside tracks from their back catalogue that haven’t been performed for many years.

AMC will also make their only UK festival appearance at Dorset’s End of the Road on September 12.

The dates are:

Belfast Empire (September 2)

Manchester Academy 3 (4)

Glasgow Stereo (5)

Newcastle Cluny (6)

York, Duchess of York (7)

Bristol Thekla (9)

Leicester The Musician (10)

London Bush Hall (11)

Exeter Phoenix (13)

Cambridge The Graduate (15)

Winchester Railway (16)

For ticket information, contact the venue.

PIC CREDIT: MARK HOLTH

Bob Dylan talks!

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Bob Dylan talks!
Bob Dylan has talked openly about his art, the next instalment of his memoirs and his hope for the future, in an in-depth interview with The Times. “We've got this guy out there now who is redefining the nature of politics from the ground up...Barack Obama. He's redefining what a politician is,...

Bob Dylan has talked openly about his art, the next instalment of his memoirs and his hope for the future, in an in-depth interview with The Times.

“We’ve got this guy out there now who is redefining the nature of politics from the ground up…Barack Obama. He’s redefining what a politician is, so we’ll have to see how things play out. I’m hopeful that things might change,” said Dylan.

He also expressed his distaste for the music industry, saying he preferred his literary dealings: “The music world’s a made-up bunch of hypocritical rubbish. I know from publishing a memoir that the book people are a whole lot saner.”

The interview goes on to cover Dylan’s ‘Drawn Blank Series’, a collection of over 200 pictures completed by the singer, which will open at the Halcyon Gallery in Mayfair on June 14.

Following the success of his first ever art museum exhibition in Germany in October last year, the London show features new intense colour variations based on his drawings and sketches produced between 1989 and 1992 – originally published in a the Random House published book ‘Drawn Blank.’

“There was no predetermined brief. Just deal with the material to hand, whatever that is. And do it however you want. You can be fussy, you can be slam-bang, it doesn’t matter,” he said. And he thought that critics were reading too much into his paintings, saying; “If it pleases the eye of the beholder…There’s no more to it than that, to my mind. Or even if it repels the eye. Either one is fine.”

Talking on his memoirs, he also revealed that he didn’t enjoy aspects of writng his the first part of his autobiography Chronicles Volume One:

“Writing any kind of book is a lonely thing. You cut yourself off from friends and family to find, that necessarily quiet place in your mind. You have to disassociate and detach yourself from just about everything and everybody. I didn’t like that part of it at all.”

Dylan recently spent the seven week lay-off between the end of his last American tour and the start of his European tour working on Chronicles Volume Two. Now seven gigs into the tour, you can catch him live on one of the following dates:

Warsaw, Poland, Stodola (7)

Ostrava, Czech Republic, Cez Arena (9)

Vienna, Austria, Stadhalle (10)

Salzburg, Austria, Arena (11)

Varazdin, Croatia, Radar Festival (13)

Bergamo, Italy, Lazzaretta (16)

Aosta, Italy, Castello Borgia (18)

Grenoble, France, Palais des Sports (19)

Toulouse, France, Zenith (20)

Andorra la Vella, Andorra, Campo de Futbol Muni (22)

Zaragoza, Spain, Feia de Muenstras (24)

Pamplona, Spain, Plaza de Toros (25)

Vigo, Spain, Recinto Ferial (27)

Avilla, Spain, Parque Natural de Gredos (28)

Valencia, Spain, Auditorio Ciudad (July 1)

Cuenca, Spain, tbc (2)

Murcia, Spain, Plaza de Toros (4)

Jaen, Spain, Recinto Ferial (5)

Madrid, Spain, Rock in Rio (6)

Jerez, Spain, Campo de Football Muni (8)

Merida, Spain, Plaza de Toros (10)

Lisbon, Portugal, Optimus Live (11)

Stevie Wonder’s first European tour in a decade

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Stevie Wonder’s first European tour in a decade
Stevie Wonder announced details of his first European tour in over a decade. The legend marked the event with an intimate gig at London’s Hard Rock Café, during which he rolled out classics like ‘Masterblaster (Jammin')', 'Superstition' and 'Signed, Sealed, Delivered'. During a question and a...

Stevie Wonder announced details of his first European tour in over a decade.

The legend marked the event with an intimate gig at London’s Hard Rock Café, during which he rolled out classics like ‘Masterblaster (Jammin’)’, ‘Superstition’ and ‘Signed, Sealed, Delivered’.

During a question and answer session Stevie Wonder had words of praise for Barack Obama and Amy Winehouse.

Asked what he thought of Democratic US presidential nominee Obama, Wonder said: “He’s a combination of JFK [John F Kennedy, former US President, assassinated in 1963], and Martin Luther King. With that he can’t lose.”

Later, when asked what he thought about Winehouse, Wonder admitted: “She reminds me of a young Etta James. ‘Rehab’ is a very good song. The CD [‘Back To Black’] was good, my daughter turned me onto it.”

The dates for the forthcoming tour are:

Birmingham NIA (September 8)

Manchester MEN (9)

London O2 Arena (11)

Rotterdam Ahoy (14)

Aalborg Gigantium (17)

Stockholm Globe (19)

Hamar Vikingskipet (20)

Cologne Arena (22)

Mannheim Sap Arena (23)

Munich Olympiahalle (25)

Milan Datchforum (26)

Paris Bercy (28)

Latitude tickets sell out!

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Latitude tickets sell out!

Weekend passes and tickets for Saturday at this years Latitude festival have now completely sold out! With 6 weeks still to go and more top acts being announced today, tickets for Friday are selling fast. The line-up this year boasts the best music, comedy and performance with Franz Ferdinand, Interpol and Sigur Rós on the main stage, and Bill Bailey Omid Djalili and Ross Noble gracing the comedy tents. The latest announcements have added Joanna Newsom and The Coral to the bill, and Radio 1 DJ Huw Stephens’ said today that The Wave Pictures, Errors and Cheeky Cheeky and the Nosebleeds will play on The Lake Stage. Plus all the individual arenas dedicated to film, theatre, poetry, literature and cabaret. For a full line-up see www.latitudefestival.co.uk and keep up to date with announcements on our dedicated Latitude blog. Tickets are selling fast, priced £130 for the weekend tickets are available from the credit card hotline - 0871 231 0821. Or online at www.seetickets.com, www.festivalrepublic.co.uk

Weekend passes and tickets for Saturday at this years Latitude festival have now completely sold out!

With 6 weeks still to go and more top acts being announced today, tickets for Friday are selling fast. The line-up this year boasts the best music, comedy and performance with Franz Ferdinand, Interpol and Sigur Rós on the main stage, and Bill Bailey Omid Djalili and Ross Noble gracing the comedy tents.

The latest announcements have added Joanna Newsom and The Coral to the bill, and Radio 1 DJ Huw Stephens’ said today that The Wave Pictures, Errors and Cheeky Cheeky and the Nosebleeds will play on The Lake Stage. Plus all the individual arenas dedicated to film, theatre, poetry, literature and cabaret.

For a full line-up see www.latitudefestival.co.uk and keep up to date with announcements on our dedicated Latitude blog.

Tickets are selling fast, priced £130 for the weekend tickets are available from the credit card hotline – 0871 231 0821. Or online at www.seetickets.com, www.festivalrepublic.co.uk

Coldplay – Viva La Vida Or Death And All His Friends

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Coldplay – Viva La Vida Or Death And All His Friends

Chris Martin & Co reach for the stars on gently ambitious fourth album When Coldplay’s X&Y was delayed back in 2005, EMI were forced to issue a profits warning. This time round you get the feeling that slightest slip-up on their fourth album could trigger the collapse of the recording industry, if not the entire British economy. Admirably, the band seem more concerned with the state of their critical stock. After brazenly copping to having ripped off Radiohead for their first record, the Bunnymen for their second and themselves for their third, they’ve announced that this is where they step up to the plate of rock history. And so Brian Eno has been recruited, in the hope that he might do for Coldplay what he did for U2. Or as Martin himself cheekily put it: “He helped us realise there’s a lot more stuff out there to steal”. Viva La Vida references Frida Kahlo in its portentous title; gestures at a wider world of tabla rhythms, high-life guitars and flamenco handclaps; and hints at the warp and woof of My Bloody Valentine, the anthemic rush of Arcade Fire and - well, of course - the jittery ambience of Radiohead circa Kid A. But all this gently refreshes the Coldplay brand without severely testing or radically rethinking it. Things start off promisingly with “Life In Technicolour”, a twinkling electro-acoustic instrumental that might have strayed from an Eno solo record. But the limits to the band’s reinvention become apparent once Chris Martin opens his mouth. He aims for the vicinity of Bono, but singing lines about "rivers to cross" and "Jerusalem bells", or lamenting on “Yes” that “For some reason I can’t explain / I know St Peter won’t be calling my name” his thin, wistful voice can’t carry off the would-be Biblical gravitas - no matter how low he croons. When it’s not straining for Significance, though, Viva La Vida… is often rather lovely. “Lovers in Japan/Reign of Love” is genuinely grand rather than grandiose, while “Strawberry Swing” glides along on a gorgeous guitar figure, exclaiming "it’s such a perfect day… I wouldn’t want to change a thing". Beyond all the cosmetic tinkering and wishful profundity, there’s an endearingly cosy conservatism at the heart of Coldplay: the British MOR economy, at least, is still in safe hands. STEPHEN TROUSSÉ

Chris Martin & Co reach for the stars on gently ambitious fourth album

When Coldplay’s X&Y was delayed back in 2005, EMI were forced to issue a profits warning. This time round you get the feeling that slightest slip-up on their fourth album could trigger the collapse of the recording industry, if not the entire British economy.

Admirably, the band seem more concerned with the state of their critical stock. After brazenly copping to having ripped off Radiohead for their first record, the Bunnymen for their second and themselves for their third, they’ve announced that this is where they step up to the plate of rock history. And so Brian Eno has been recruited, in the hope that he might do for Coldplay what he did for U2. Or as Martin himself cheekily put it: “He helped us realise there’s a lot more stuff out there to steal”.

Viva La Vida references Frida Kahlo in its portentous title; gestures at a wider world of tabla rhythms, high-life guitars and flamenco handclaps; and hints at the warp and woof of My Bloody Valentine, the anthemic rush of Arcade Fire and – well, of course – the jittery ambience of Radiohead circa Kid A. But all this gently refreshes the Coldplay brand without severely testing or radically rethinking it.

Things start off promisingly with “Life In Technicolour”, a twinkling electro-acoustic instrumental that might have strayed from an Eno solo record. But the limits to the band’s reinvention become apparent once Chris Martin opens his mouth. He aims for the vicinity of Bono, but singing lines about “rivers to cross” and “Jerusalem bells”, or lamenting on “Yes” that “For some reason I can’t explain / I know St Peter won’t be calling my name” his thin, wistful voice can’t carry off the would-be Biblical gravitas – no matter how low he croons.

When it’s not straining for Significance, though, Viva La Vida… is often rather lovely. “Lovers in Japan/Reign of Love” is genuinely grand rather than grandiose, while “Strawberry Swing” glides along on a gorgeous guitar figure, exclaiming “it’s such a perfect day… I wouldn’t want to change a thing”. Beyond all the cosmetic tinkering and wishful profundity, there’s an endearingly cosy conservatism at the heart of Coldplay: the British MOR economy, at least, is still in safe hands.

STEPHEN TROUSSÉ

Emmylou Harris – All I Intended To Be

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Emmylou Harris – All I Intended To Be

Time is very much on Emmylou Harris’s mind. Now 61, for her follow-up to 2003’s Stumble Into Grace her themes are wasted years, love in vain, loss, death and, extraordinarily, what comes next. You could, as Bob Dylan did when discussing Time Out of Mind, define such concerns as "the dread realities of life". Or you could call it business as usual for a country record. Which, finally, is what All I Intended to Be turns out to be. Not insignificantly, Harris is working for the first time in 25 years with Brian Ahern, the producer behind her first 11 albums (and her ex-husband). Opening with a sound that recalls her recent work’s atmospherics, but then stripping back toward basics, the reunion heightens the sense of Harris looking back, considering the road she’s travelled. Split evenly between covers and originals, the album fuses the mature, potent songwriter who emerged on 2000’s Red Dirt Girl and Stumble… with the famously questing interpreter of other people’s work, shining her silver spotlight on neglected writers like Jack Wesley Routh, whose “Shores of White Sand” and “Beyond the Great Divide” bookend proceedings with an anthem and a spiritual. While Tracy Chapman (“All That You Have Is Your Soul”) and Merle Haggard (“Kern River”) may seem strange bedfellows, it's a collection as coherent as it is eclectic. On “How She Could Sing the Wildwood Flower”, meanwhile, a collaboration with Kate and Anna McGarrigle, she digs through the weeds into the real old, weird stuff. Strangest and most striking of all is another co-composition with the McGarrigles, “Sailing Round the Room," Harris singing out from the moment of death, her spirit lifting from her body, flying out the window to become part of nature. The remarkable thing is, there’s no trace of New-Age dippiness. A plain, mysterious, oddly happy little masterpiece, it’s the standout, but exemplifies the album. Harris is as proud, painful, and plaintive as ever here, dripping with life and dealing in dire certainties. But she never gets heavy about it, and in places sounds lighter than air. DAMIEN LOVE

Time is very much on Emmylou Harris’s mind. Now 61, for her follow-up to 2003’s Stumble Into Grace her themes are wasted years, love in vain, loss, death and, extraordinarily, what comes next.

You could, as Bob Dylan did when discussing Time Out of Mind, define such concerns as “the dread realities of life”. Or you could call it business as usual for a country record. Which, finally, is what All I Intended to Be turns out to be.

Not insignificantly, Harris is working for the first time in 25 years with Brian Ahern, the producer behind her first 11 albums (and her ex-husband).

Opening with a sound that recalls her recent work’s atmospherics, but then stripping back toward basics, the reunion heightens the sense of Harris looking back, considering the road she’s travelled.

Split evenly between covers and originals, the album fuses the mature, potent songwriter who emerged on 2000’s Red Dirt Girl and Stumble… with the famously questing interpreter of other people’s work, shining her silver spotlight on neglected writers like Jack Wesley Routh, whose “Shores of White Sand” and “Beyond the Great Divide” bookend proceedings with an anthem and a spiritual.

While Tracy Chapman (“All That You Have Is Your Soul”) and Merle Haggard (“Kern River”) may seem strange bedfellows, it’s a collection as coherent as it is eclectic. On “How She Could Sing the Wildwood Flower”, meanwhile, a collaboration with Kate and Anna McGarrigle, she digs through the weeds into the real old, weird stuff.

Strangest and most striking of all is another co-composition with the McGarrigles, “Sailing Round the Room,” Harris singing out from the moment of death, her spirit lifting from her body, flying out the window to become part of nature. The remarkable thing is, there’s no trace of New-Age dippiness. A plain, mysterious, oddly happy little masterpiece, it’s the standout, but exemplifies the album. Harris is as proud, painful, and plaintive as ever here, dripping with life and dealing in dire certainties. But she never gets heavy about it, and in places sounds lighter than air.

DAMIEN LOVE

My Morning Jacket – Evil Urges

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My Morning Jacket – Evil Urges

Since Band Of Horses and Fleet Foxes gatecrashed their grain silo, source of that imperial reverb, My Morning Jacket have had little option but to move on. If 2005's Z flirted with cautiously with funk synths and a more direct pop sound, Evil Urges makes it a full-blown, messy tryst. The slightly ludicrous Rick Rubinisms of "Highly Suspicious" seem designed largely to unsettle the traditionalists in their audience, but the two-part "Touch Me I'm Going To Scream" is astonishing: slick, simmering and – dammit – sexy, in a way these new cosmic Americana bands rarely are. Sadly, this revelation has also coincided with some of the blandest songwriting of My Morning Jacket's career, the Nashville corn of "Two Halves" and "Librarian"'s soft-focus fantasy being the worst culprits. It whiffs a little of mid-life crisis. SAM RICHARDS

Since Band Of Horses and Fleet Foxes gatecrashed their grain silo, source of that imperial reverb, My Morning Jacket have had little option but to move on. If 2005’s Z flirted with cautiously with funk synths and a more direct pop sound, Evil Urges makes it a full-blown, messy tryst.

The slightly ludicrous Rick Rubinisms of “Highly Suspicious” seem designed largely to unsettle the traditionalists in their audience, but the two-part “Touch Me I’m Going To Scream” is astonishing: slick, simmering and – dammit – sexy, in a way these new cosmic Americana bands rarely are. Sadly, this revelation has also coincided with some of the blandest songwriting of My Morning Jacket’s career, the Nashville corn of “Two Halves” and “Librarian”‘s soft-focus fantasy being the worst culprits. It whiffs a little of mid-life crisis.

SAM RICHARDS

Fleet Foxes – Fleet Foxes

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Fleet Foxes – Fleet Foxes

In the July issue of Uncut magazine, Sam Richards calls the new record by My Morning Jacket, "slick, simmering and – dammit – sexy". For some of us, though, Jim James’ noble experimental spirit is distracting him from the music that he makes best. Listening to “Highly Suspicious”- a needy, Robert Palmer-ish take on funk - it’s hard not to long for the time when My Morning Jacket were merely a cosmic Southern rock band. Of course, the pain of MMJ’s departure from some metaphysical backwoods has been mediated these past couple of years by the emergence of Band Of Horses. And now, even better, along comes the debut album by Fleet Foxes, a commendably hirsute five-piece from Seattle. Fleet Foxes don’t rock much, though the opening “Sun It Rises” does have a clanging guitar line that could well propel them into gutsier territory live. They have an echoing, sepulchral air: anyone who’s fixated on Jim James songs like “Golden” should find plenty of solace in “Ragged Wood” and “Your Protector”, for a start. It’s a highly aestheticised, mud-free treatment of folk, certainly – but then you could probably say the same of Crosby, Stills & Nash. At times, the massed voices that usher in a song like “White Winter Hymnal” are purposefully reminiscent of the Sacred Harp singing tradition that once flourished in white southern churches. But then, on a song like “Quiet Houses”, the pristine harmonies are closer to The Beach Boys: combined with firmly plonked piano, bells and what sounds like a six-string bass, it’s a glorious descendant of “Smile” ephemera like “Fall Breaks And Back To Winter”. Some Americana fans may find Fleet Foxes too precious and evanescent to be treated seriously. But like the equally rapturous “Sun Giant” EP which preceded it, Fleet Foxes’ debut album is a fastidious, sometimes overwhelmingly pretty evocation of the American wilderness; a dreamy companion piece to last month’s superb Bon Iver album. And an escapist fantasy, perhaps, to compare with the very best hymns - never mind My Morning Jacket. JOHN MULVEY Q&A with Robin Pecknold Do you come from a rural background, or are you city boys dreaming of one? We were all living in fairly bad environments during the recording of these things and that may have found its way into the songs, a feeling of wanting to be somewhere else. Are you, or have you ever been religious? Hymns seem to be a big influence on your music... Speaking for myself, I've never been religious. I think hymns and semi-religious music like Judee Sill or Trees Community are amazing in that the devotion of the singer is so powerful when they're addressing some higher power and it's not just a love song. I guess we wanted our singing to have that same spirit. Do you agree that you'll be seen as a godsend by old My Morning Jacket fans? We're not nearly as rock’n'roll as that band. I hope people listen to us for what we are - sorry about the reverb. INTERVIEW: JOHN MULVEY PIC CREDIT: DAVID BELISLE

In the July issue of Uncut magazine, Sam Richards calls the new record by My Morning Jacket, “slick, simmering and – dammit – sexy”. For some of us, though, Jim James’ noble experimental spirit is distracting him from the music that he makes best. Listening to “Highly Suspicious”- a needy, Robert Palmer-ish take on funk – it’s hard not to long for the time when My Morning Jacket were merely a cosmic Southern rock band.

Of course, the pain of MMJ’s departure from some metaphysical backwoods has been mediated these past couple of years by the emergence of Band Of Horses. And now, even better, along comes the debut album by Fleet Foxes, a commendably hirsute five-piece from Seattle. Fleet Foxes don’t rock much, though the opening “Sun It Rises” does have a clanging guitar line that could well propel them into gutsier territory live. They have an echoing, sepulchral air: anyone who’s fixated on Jim James songs like “Golden” should find plenty of solace in “Ragged Wood” and “Your Protector”, for a start.

It’s a highly aestheticised, mud-free treatment of folk, certainly – but then you could probably say the same of Crosby, Stills & Nash. At times, the massed voices that usher in a song like “White Winter Hymnal” are purposefully reminiscent of the Sacred Harp singing tradition that once flourished in white southern churches. But then, on a song like “Quiet Houses”, the pristine harmonies are closer to The Beach Boys: combined with firmly plonked piano, bells and what sounds like a six-string bass, it’s a glorious descendant of “Smile” ephemera like “Fall Breaks And Back To Winter”.

Some Americana fans may find Fleet Foxes too precious and evanescent to be treated seriously. But like the equally rapturous “Sun Giant” EP which preceded it, Fleet Foxes’ debut album is a fastidious, sometimes overwhelmingly pretty evocation of the American wilderness; a dreamy companion piece to last month’s superb Bon Iver album. And an escapist fantasy, perhaps, to compare with the very best hymns – never mind My Morning Jacket.

JOHN MULVEY

Q&A with Robin Pecknold

Do you come from a rural background, or are you city boys dreaming of one?

We were all living in fairly bad environments during the recording of these things and that may have found its way into the songs, a feeling of wanting to be somewhere else.

Are you, or have you ever been religious? Hymns seem to be a big influence on your music…

Speaking for myself, I’ve never been religious. I think hymns and semi-religious music like Judee Sill or Trees Community are amazing in that the devotion of the singer is so powerful when they’re addressing some higher power and it’s not just a love song. I guess we wanted our singing to have that same spirit.

Do you agree that you’ll be seen as a godsend by old My Morning Jacket fans?

We’re not nearly as rock’n’roll as that band. I hope people listen to us for what we are – sorry about the reverb.

INTERVIEW: JOHN MULVEY

PIC CREDIT: DAVID BELISLE

Latitude Update: BBC Introducing stage

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Latitude Update: BBC Introducing stage
The Wave Pictures, Errors and Cheeky Cheeky and the Nosebleeds will headline the Lake stage at this year’s Latitude festival, which will be curated by Radio 1 DJ Huw Stephens. Also appearing over the weekend will be Johnny Foreigner, Sky Larkin, The CocknBull Kid, Gideon Conn and Lovvers. The La...

The Wave Pictures, Errors and Cheeky Cheeky and the Nosebleeds will headline the Lake stage at this year’s Latitude festival, which will be curated by Radio 1 DJ Huw Stephens.

Also appearing over the weekend will be Johnny Foreigner, Sky Larkin, The CocknBull Kid, Gideon Conn and Lovvers.

The Lake Stage presents BBC Introducing… will host three days of brand spanking new acts who are tipped for great things. Last year’s line-up included Dan Le Sac and Scroobius Pip, Joe Lean and the Jing, Jang, Jong and Scouting for Girls, who went to number one with their debut album.

“Latitude, as well as being in an idyllic location with so many different things going on, has a huge emphasis on quality new music,” said Stephens. “The bands on the Lake Stage are like the first crop of new music, freshly squeezed playing a festival for the first time.”

Headlining this year’s event in the Obelisk Arena, Franz Ferdinand make their only English festival show, the Icelandic post-rock outfit Sigur Rós and New York titans, Interpol close the arena on the Sunday.

Throughout the rest of the weekend will see stunning performances from Nick Cave’s Grinderman, the beautiful poetry of Martha Wainwright, epic musicians The Mars Volta, the charming Death Cab for Cutie, the superb Elbow, legendary alt rockers The Breeders, legendary performer Julian Cope and grime, hip-hop, electro pop queen, MIA.

For all the up-to-date information see our Latitude blog.

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