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REM Give New Yorkers Preview Of New Single

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REM Give New Yorkers Preview Of New Single

New Yorkers passing through the Lower East Side yesterday may have had more cause than usual to pause at a sex shop called Babeland. It was here, apparently, that REM chose to film the video for the first single, "Supernatural Superserious", from the forthcoming "Accelerate". According to a blog posted on the shop's website, Messrs Buck, Mills and Stipe filmed at the Italian restuarant next door before taking over the sex shop. Jamye Waxman, Babeland's blogger, is not, unfortunately, much help in letting us know what "Supernatural Superserious" actually sounds like. "R.E.M., the band that feels like they may have gone bye-bye just a few years ago, is back," she writes, "and if the single from last night is any indication of the future of their music, let me just say I’m hooked." "Accelerate" is due to be released in the UK on March 31.

New Yorkers passing through the Lower East Side yesterday may have had more cause than usual to pause at a sex shop called Babeland.

It was here, apparently, that REM chose to film the video for the first single, “Supernatural Superserious”, from the forthcoming “Accelerate”.

According to a blog posted on the shop’s website, Messrs Buck, Mills and Stipe filmed at the Italian restuarant next door before taking over the sex shop.

Jamye Waxman, Babeland’s blogger, is not, unfortunately, much help in letting us know what “Supernatural Superserious” actually sounds like. “R.E.M., the band that feels like they may have gone bye-bye just a few years ago, is back,” she writes, “and if the single from last night is any indication of the future of their music, let me just say I’m hooked.”

“Accelerate” is due to be released in the UK on March 31.

Portishead Reveal The Title Of Their Third Album

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Portishead Reveal The Title Of Their Third Album

After years of anticipation, Portishead have finally revealed more info on their third studio album. According to a message posted on their website yesterday, the record will be called - wait for it! - "Third". "Third" now has a firm release date of April 14. No song titles have been leaked yet, though the website does tell us that the album has 11 tracks and is 49 minutes, 13 seconds long. Following their All Tomorrow's Parties show in December, Portishead return to touring at the end of March. The full itinerary now looks like this: Oporto Coliseum Wednesday March 26 Lisbon Coliseum Thursday March 27 Milan Alcatraz Sunday March 30 Florence Sashall Monday March 31 Munich Tonhalle Wednesday April 2 Berlin Columbiahalle Thursday April 3 Copenhagen KB Halle Friday April 4 Cologne Palladium Sunday April 6 Amsterdam HMH Monday April 7 Manchester Apollo Wednesday April 9 London Hammersmith Apollo Thursday April 10 Edinburgh Corn Exchange Saturday April 12 Wolverhampton Civic Sunday April 13 Coachella Festival Saturday April 26 Paris Zenith Monday May 5 Brussels Forest National Thursday May 8 Barcelona Primavera Sound Thursday May 29

After years of anticipation, Portishead have finally revealed more info on their third studio album. According to a message posted on their website yesterday, the record will be called – wait for it! – “Third”.

“Third” now has a firm release date of April 14. No song titles have been leaked yet, though the website does tell us that the album has 11 tracks and is 49 minutes, 13 seconds long.

Following their All Tomorrow’s Parties show in December, Portishead return to touring at the end of March. The full itinerary now looks like this:

Oporto Coliseum Wednesday March 26

Lisbon Coliseum Thursday March 27

Milan Alcatraz Sunday March 30

Florence Sashall Monday March 31

Munich Tonhalle Wednesday April 2

Berlin Columbiahalle Thursday April 3

Copenhagen KB Halle Friday April 4

Cologne Palladium Sunday April 6

Amsterdam HMH Monday April 7

Manchester Apollo Wednesday April 9

London Hammersmith Apollo Thursday April 10

Edinburgh Corn Exchange Saturday April 12

Wolverhampton Civic Sunday April 13

Coachella Festival Saturday April 26

Paris Zenith Monday May 5

Brussels Forest National Thursday May 8

Barcelona Primavera Sound Thursday May 29

Ringo Starr Storms Out Of US TV Show

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Ringo Starr Storms Out Of US TV Show

Ringo Starr's promotional campaign for his new "Liverpool 8" album continued to be incident-packed on Tuesday (January 22), when he walked out of the US daytime TV institution, Regis And Kathy. After seeming to offend fellow Liverpudlians with his comments about the city to Jonathan Ross last week, Starr became involved in a dispute about performing "Liverpool 8", with current collaborator Dave Stewart, live on the American TV show. Starr refused to play a shortened version of the song - to fit in a slot lasting two and a half minutes - and pulled out of appearing on the show. The Ex-Beatle's American publicist, Elizabeth Freund, told the Associated Press that there had been a misunderstanding between herself and the programme's musical director. "We offered to cut back our chat time and asked them to fade or go to commercial," said Freund. "They were not willing to do that and Ringo was not willing to cut it further, so without a compromise we were not able to stay."

Ringo Starr’s promotional campaign for his new “Liverpool 8” album continued to be incident-packed on Tuesday (January 22), when he walked out of the US daytime TV institution, Regis And Kathy.

After seeming to offend fellow Liverpudlians with his comments about the city to Jonathan Ross last week, Starr became involved in a dispute about performing “Liverpool 8”, with current collaborator Dave Stewart, live on the American TV show.

Starr refused to play a shortened version of the song – to fit in a slot lasting two and a half minutes – and pulled out of appearing on the show.

The Ex-Beatle’s American publicist, Elizabeth Freund, told the Associated Press that there had been a misunderstanding between herself and the programme’s musical director.

“We offered to cut back our chat time and asked them to fade or go to commercial,” said Freund. “They were not willing to do that and Ringo was not willing to cut it further, so without a compromise we were not able to stay.”

BRITISH SEA POWER – DO YOU LIKE ROCK MUSIC?

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BRITISH SEA POWER – DO YOU LIKE ROCK MUSIC?

They've staged concerts on the Scilly Isles, on board a Mersey ferry and down a Cornish slate mine. Since 2005's Open Season they've released a split single with The Wurzels and attempted a live collaboration with Krautrock curmudgeons Faust that ended with bassist Neil Wilkinson getting punched in the face by one of his supposed collaborators. British Sea Power are literally on a different map to most of their contemporaries. Behind the silly title of their third album is a serious quest for the essence of rock music - and naturally British Sea Power aren't searching for it in the backstage toilets of the London Astoria but on the dark slopes of mighty Helvellyn. Not since Julian Cope has a British outfit worked so hard to equate rock with rocks. Aided by Graham Sutton of vaporous post-rockers Bark Psychosis, they've summoned a typhoon of swooshing sonics to bolster their biting guitars. The awesome elemental racket of "Lights Out For Darker Skies" matches Arcade Fire for pomp and circumstance. When a twinkling celestial choir pipes up at the end of instrumental “The Great Skua" it's a successful attempt to muscle onto Sigur Ros' glacier. Strip away the raging atmospherics though, and the milieu is still stodgy indie rock, with BSP's old debts to Joy Division and Echo & The Bunnymen remaining unpaid. At least the expansive lyrical concerns of the Wilkinson brothers are a source of fascination. "H5N1 killed a wild swan/It was a kind of omen of everything to come" runs the opening line of "Canvey Island" - only British Sea Power could turn the bird flu panic into a pensive estuary elegy. British Sea Power are still without a "Wake Up" or a "Float On" but Do You Like Rock Music? is exhilarating in its ambition, full of songs that will warm the cockles at whichever National Heritage site they choose to play next. SAM RICHARDS Q&A SCOTT WILKINSON UNCUT: You recorded the album in Montreal, Cornwall and Prague. Where did it start coming together? When we were recording by ourselves at Fort Tregantle in Cornwall. The Royal Marines were doing their exercises nearby and suddenly 30 men with guns would appear on the horizon. We got some great ambient recordings of Chinook helicopters. Originally we were planning on doing a series of live Krautrock jams - the album turned out very far from that but we hope it still conveys the adventure we had recording it. How are we meant to interpret the album title? It's meant to be funny, but we also wanted to emphasise our appreciation of The Stooges, Julian Cope, Jerry Lee Lewis... good rock music. Rock music is danger of dying out. It's become feebler and weaker and incapable of giving purpose to the world. So we thought we'd have a go at expanding its remit.

They’ve staged concerts on the Scilly Isles, on board a Mersey ferry and down a Cornish slate mine. Since 2005’s Open Season they’ve released a split single with The Wurzels and attempted a live collaboration with Krautrock curmudgeons Faust that ended with bassist Neil Wilkinson getting punched in the face by one of his supposed collaborators.

British Sea Power are literally on a different map to most of their contemporaries. Behind the silly title of their third album is a serious quest for the essence of rock music – and naturally British Sea Power aren’t searching for it in the backstage toilets of the London Astoria but on the dark slopes of mighty Helvellyn. Not since Julian Cope has a British outfit worked so hard to equate rock with rocks.

Aided by Graham Sutton of vaporous post-rockers Bark Psychosis, they’ve summoned a typhoon of swooshing sonics to bolster their biting guitars. The awesome elemental racket of “Lights Out For Darker Skies” matches Arcade Fire for pomp and circumstance. When a twinkling celestial choir pipes up at the end of instrumental “The Great Skua” it’s a successful attempt to muscle onto Sigur Ros‘ glacier.

Strip away the raging atmospherics though, and the milieu is still stodgy indie rock, with BSP‘s old debts to Joy Division and Echo & The Bunnymen remaining unpaid. At least the expansive lyrical concerns of the Wilkinson brothers are a source of fascination. “H5N1 killed a wild swan/It was a kind of omen of everything to come” runs the opening line of “Canvey Island” – only British Sea Power could turn the bird flu panic into a pensive estuary elegy.

British Sea Power are still without a “Wake Up” or a “Float On” but Do You Like Rock Music? is exhilarating in its ambition, full of songs that will warm the cockles at whichever National Heritage site they choose to play next.

SAM RICHARDS

Q&A SCOTT WILKINSON

UNCUT: You recorded the album in Montreal, Cornwall and Prague. Where did it start coming together?

When we were recording by ourselves at Fort Tregantle in Cornwall. The Royal Marines were doing their exercises nearby and suddenly 30 men with guns would appear on the horizon. We got some great ambient recordings of Chinook helicopters. Originally we were planning on doing a series of live Krautrock jams – the album turned out very far from that but we hope it still conveys the adventure we had recording it.

How are we meant to interpret the album title?

It’s meant to be funny, but we also wanted to emphasise our appreciation of The Stooges, Julian Cope, Jerry Lee Lewis… good rock music. Rock music is danger of dying out. It’s become feebler and weaker and incapable of giving purpose to the world. So we thought we’d have a go at expanding its remit.

COUNTING CROWS – AUGUST AND EVERYTHING AFTER

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COUNTING CROWS – AUGUST AND EVERYTHING AFTER

It's hard, several million sales later, to approach the Counting Crows' 1993 debut with fresh ears. The ironies of the album's big hit, "Mr Jones", on which Adam Duritz aspires to be a lion, Bob Dylan, and a big star - though not necessarily in that order - were always present, but they assumed greater poignancy when the singer found himself trapped inside a sudden fame that turned these San Francisco college rockers into one of the biggest bands of the 90s. That mass popularity was based on adhesive melodies and the irresistibility of the Crows' choruses. Songs such as "Mr Jones" and "The Rain" have a warmth which disguises the more general tone of the lyrics. But Duritz's subsequent emotional troubles can't have come as a shock: his words are flecked with anxiety; from heartbreak to existential dread and on to full-blown depression. Then you realise that the sunny horizons of "Mr Jones" were a mirage. Even before fame got him in a headlock, Duritz knew this was only, in a way, to be expected. All of which made Counting Crows a peculiar arena band. True, those harmonies find echoes in REM (see "Sullivan Street"), but the demos show that before Duritz reshaped the sound (with T-Bone Burnett producing) the group were politely polished in the style of Avalon-era Roxy. The live set which accompanies this reissue (from a December '94, Paris show) has the band tugging the songs to breaking point, with "Round Here" and "A Murder Of One" swollen into neurotic improvisations, and nodding to the group's roots with a maudlin cover of Sordid Humor's "Jumping Jesus". It's dark stuff, all this riffing about meaninglessness and oblivion, and not a place you'd need to revisit often. This isn't Duritz's favourite Counting Crows album. He prefers Recovering The Satellites, feeling that some of the songs on August weren't fully realised. Maybe so. But there's something to be said for brevity, and the illusion of good cheer. ALASTAIR McKAY Q&A Adam Duritz Uncut: What are your memories of recording this album? "That record was brutal to make. Everybody tried to quit at one point, including me. When you're in a young band you're all democracies, and I just decided it wasn't one anymore. It came as a shock to everybody and it was really difficult. But we got through it, and that's why we're still here today. It wasn't personal. It was just musical." What do you think about the record? "Some of those songs we learned to play a lot better later. That's not to say we could have done anything better. It's just I don't think I was as good a singer then. I'd never been on tour before. That experience of playing every night changes you as a singer. By the time we go to play that show at the end of the tour, on the second disc, I'm a way better singer." INTERVIEW: ALASTAIR McKAY

It’s hard, several million sales later, to approach the Counting Crows‘ 1993 debut with fresh ears. The ironies of the album’s big hit, “Mr Jones”, on which Adam Duritz aspires to be a lion, Bob Dylan, and a big star – though not necessarily in that order – were always present, but they assumed greater poignancy when the singer found himself trapped inside a sudden fame that turned these San Francisco college rockers into one of the biggest bands of the 90s.

That mass popularity was based on adhesive melodies and the irresistibility of the Crows‘ choruses. Songs such as “Mr Jones” and “The Rain” have a warmth which disguises the more general tone of the lyrics. But Duritz‘s subsequent emotional troubles can’t have come as a shock: his words are flecked with anxiety; from heartbreak to existential dread and on to full-blown depression. Then you realise that the sunny horizons of “Mr Jones” were a mirage. Even before fame got him in a headlock, Duritz knew this was only, in a way, to be expected.

All of which made Counting Crows a peculiar arena band. True, those harmonies find echoes in REM (see “Sullivan Street”), but the demos show that before Duritz reshaped the sound (with T-Bone Burnett producing) the group were politely polished in the style of Avalon-era Roxy. The live set which accompanies this reissue (from a December ’94, Paris show) has the band tugging the songs to breaking point, with “Round Here” and “A Murder Of One” swollen into neurotic improvisations, and nodding to the group’s roots with a maudlin cover of Sordid Humor‘s “Jumping Jesus”. It’s dark stuff, all this riffing about meaninglessness and oblivion, and not a place you’d need to revisit often.

This isn’t Duritz‘s favourite Counting Crows album. He prefers Recovering The Satellites, feeling that some of the songs on August weren’t fully realised. Maybe so. But there’s something to be said for brevity, and the illusion of good cheer.

ALASTAIR McKAY

Q&A Adam Duritz

Uncut: What are your memories of recording this album?

“That record was brutal to make. Everybody tried to quit at one point, including me. When you’re in a young band you’re all democracies, and I just decided it wasn’t one anymore. It came as a shock to everybody and it was really difficult. But we got through it, and that’s why we’re still here today. It wasn’t personal. It was just musical.”

What do you think about the record?

“Some of those songs we learned to play a lot better later. That’s not to say we could have done anything better. It’s just I don’t think I was as good a singer then. I’d never been on tour before. That experience of playing every night changes you as a singer. By the time we go to play that show at the end of the tour, on the second disc, I’m a way better singer.”

INTERVIEW: ALASTAIR McKAY

RUFUS WAINWRIGHT – RUFUS DOES JUDY AT CARNEGIE HALL

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RUFUS WAINWRIGHT – RUFUS DOES JUDY AT CARNEGIE HALL

Though avowedly a labour of love, it's probably no accident that the title of this Rufus Wainwright live album should instead make it sound more like a work of porn. Rufus Does Judy... is a record of Wainwright's attempt to recreate a live album made by Judy Garland in 1961, and to inhabit material that the performing legend had unequivocally made her own. Certainly, it was a challenge. At the London show, Wainwright expressed a harsher view. "It's like a rape," he beamed. Frothy, fabulous, Rufus Does Judy is very far from that, but it is a definite departure for Rufus Wainwright - specifically, from his traditional subject matter, Rufus Wainwright. Rufus' art is to confer on dissipated and occasionally grubby scenes a bizarre romance. Though this material is undoubtedly no less personal to him - Rufus tells a couple of anecdotes in which he wittily tells the bildungsroman of his Garland-assisted sexual self-discovery – this LP asks him to be, as far as possible, someone else. Nonetheless, there are familiar Wainwright faces along the way. Mum Kate McGarrigle plays piano. His sister, Martha, frankly steals the show with a devastating "Stormy Weather", at the show's centre. Around it, though, Rufus himself tackles manfully material which though fun in the room, is horribly perky on record. Medleys, fancy jazz arrangements, the ghastly "Swanee"...the LP creates, like a movie, the atmosphere of a high-end supper club in a time before The Beatles - a time, evidently, when people had a far sweeter musical tooth. In the middle of all this performance, the piano-less Rufus can sometimes seem a little lost, the jump from singer-songwriter to raconteur/white tie dinner entertainer too large to make. His strength, though, reveals itself in the sad ones: the terrific masochism of "Do It Again", the millstone "Somewhere Over The Rainbow" transformed, in their way, into Wainwright originals. For Judy Garland, her 1961 Carnegie Hall LP was a comeback record after recovery from addiction and illness. The strength of this homage, is that it still says as much about Rufus Wainwright's music as it does about hers. It might be playful, and it might be versatile, but however light-hearted it may sound initially, it ends up sounding serious. JOHN ROBINSON Q and A Rufus Wainwright UNCUT: How did you decide to do these concerts? RUFUS: I made a comment in the car, like 'Wouldn't it be funny to redo this as a song cycle...' And the next thing you know, it's happening. You've unleashed a phantom which much have its due. Have you known the LP a long time? I really got into the album after the war in Iraq. When that started, I was so traumatised and disillusioned with anything American - nothing put me in a good mood except for that record. I was instantly reminded how great the US used to be. How did this dovetail with Release The Stars? It affected my singing, and how I think about lyrics. I think I knew in the back of my mind that these songs are greater than any performer who has sung them. INTERVIEW: JOHN ROBINSON

Though avowedly a labour of love, it’s probably no accident that the title of this Rufus Wainwright live album should instead make it sound more like a work of porn. Rufus Does Judy… is a record of Wainwright‘s attempt to recreate a live album made by Judy Garland in 1961, and to inhabit material that the performing legend had unequivocally made her own. Certainly, it was a challenge. At the London show, Wainwright expressed a harsher view. “It’s like a rape,” he beamed.

Frothy, fabulous, Rufus Does Judy is very far from that, but it is a definite departure for Rufus Wainwright – specifically, from his traditional subject matter, Rufus Wainwright. Rufus‘ art is to confer on dissipated and occasionally grubby scenes a bizarre romance. Though this material is undoubtedly no less personal to him – Rufus tells a couple of anecdotes in which he wittily tells the bildungsroman of his Garland-assisted sexual self-discovery – this LP asks him to be, as far as possible, someone else.

Nonetheless, there are familiar Wainwright faces along the way. Mum Kate McGarrigle plays piano. His sister, Martha, frankly steals the show with a devastating “Stormy Weather”, at the show’s centre. Around it, though, Rufus himself tackles manfully material which though fun in the room, is horribly perky on record. Medleys, fancy jazz arrangements, the ghastly “Swanee”…the LP creates, like a movie, the atmosphere of a high-end supper club in a time before The Beatles – a time, evidently, when people had a far sweeter musical tooth.

In the middle of all this performance, the piano-less Rufus can sometimes seem a little lost, the jump from singer-songwriter to raconteur/white tie dinner entertainer too large to make. His strength, though, reveals itself in the sad ones: the terrific masochism of “Do It Again”, the millstone “Somewhere Over The Rainbow” transformed, in their way, into Wainwright originals.

For Judy Garland, her 1961 Carnegie Hall LP was a comeback record after recovery from addiction and illness. The strength of this homage, is that it still says as much about Rufus Wainwright‘s music as it does about hers. It might be playful, and it might be versatile, but however light-hearted it may sound initially, it ends up sounding serious.

JOHN ROBINSON

Q and A Rufus Wainwright

UNCUT: How did you decide to do these concerts?

RUFUS: I made a comment in the car, like ‘Wouldn’t it be funny to redo this as a song cycle…’ And the next thing you know, it’s happening. You’ve unleashed a phantom which much have its due.

Have you known the LP a long time?

I really got into the album after the war in Iraq. When that started, I was so traumatised and disillusioned with anything American – nothing put me in a good mood except for that record. I was instantly reminded how great the US used to be.

How did this dovetail with Release The Stars?

It affected my singing, and how I think about lyrics. I think I knew in the back of my mind that these songs are greater than any performer who has sung them.

INTERVIEW: JOHN ROBINSON

VAN MORRISON – TUPELO HONEY

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VAN MORRISON – TUPELO HONEY

Considering he's a notoriously intense thundercloud of a man, it's a curious fact that Van Morrison likes his music to be described (by biographers, reviewers, sleevenote essayists) in the blandest, most impersonal way. Mild compliments; nothing emotional; mention the awards he's won; avoid unnecessary opinions. I'm afraid the scowling figure in the black hat will have to avert his gaze for the next few minutes, then, as the official, fully approved Van Morrison remaster series, featuring 29 of his greatest (and not so greatest) albums, finally gets under way. It's overdue. Morrison is legendary for good reason, yet, since 1989, much of his historic catalogue has languished on feeble, first-generation Polydor CDs - including some sacrosanct evergreens (Saint Dominic's Preview, Veedon Fleece, Irish Heartbeat) that really should have been taken better care of. The new editions, alongside Morrison's output from the '90s and early '00s, will emerge during 2008-9, in non-chronological order, with bonus tracks (mostly alternate takes). Judging by the first batch of seven - led by 1971's beautiful Tupelo Honey - the remastered sound is pin-sharp, a definite upgrade. Sadly, Astral Weeks and Moondance, to which Van does not own the rights, are excluded from the campaign. A young man and woman, posing by a makeshift paddock on their hilltop Californian farm, face the world from the inner sleeve of Tupelo Honey. This is Morrison, 26, and his wife, Janet Planet. Van is dressed like an 1870s settler just returned from a mustang auction. The congeniality is awe-inspiring (look, he's got his arm round a cat!) but the photography is, actually, in vogue. CSNY's Déjà Vu, The Band and Workingman's Dead had all, in 1969-70, evoked a kinship with bygone eras, illustrating American rock's exodus from urban centres to rural communities. Morrison, a veteran of "Gloria", "Brown Eyed Girl" and the rhapsodic Astral Weeks, probably needed rural contentment badly, having suffered betrayal, near-starvation and two contractual disputes that soured his view of the music industry forever. "And so, look at the photographs and marvel, as we do, at the good feeling that radiates from him now," Janet Planet wrote in a sleevenote to his 1970 album His Band And The Street Choir. Soul power and domestic bliss made for a satisfying amalgam, if only for Van. But his follow-up, Tupelo Honey, was easily superior. Not mystical, nor furrowed-brow. Not as patchy as His Band... It was warm, open-hearted, perfectly relaxed. Or most of it was. "Wild Night", an American Top 30 hit, was a hybrid of R&B, fast soul and C&W, with a skittish brass arrangement and silky guitar skills from future heavy-metal axe hero Ronnie Montrose. Recorded 'live' in the studio (as all Morrison's albums are), it sounds intricately layered, highly sophisticated by 2007's standards, like speeded-up Steely Dan meets Allen Toussaint. It's fluid but meticulous; ultra-rehearsed but effortless. It promises a party to come. A standout song from the other end of the spectrum is the seven-minute title track. Building upwards from a gentle flute refrain, and then pushed forwards by mighty fills from jazz drummer Connie Kay (who played on Astral Weeks), "Tupelo Honey" is sung by a man who has grabbed us by the lapels and won't let go until we understand precisely what he's experiencing. On an album where the vocals are exultant to say the least, this song sees Morrison use larynx, diaphragm, teeth and tongue to find new ways of enunciating the lines "she's as sweet as Tupelo honey" and "she's all right with me", seemingly in ever-increasing adoration. The remainder of the album is a sympathetic supporting cast rather than a classic sequence. "Old Old Woodstock" salutes Van's erstwhile home in a Moondance-style ballad. "(Straight To Your Heart) Like A Cannonball" is a beguiling waltz. "When That Evening Sun Goes Down" (try synchronising your limbs to those syncopated New Orleans rhythms) is terrific fun. Certain tracks aren't so memorable ("Starting A New Life" never sticks in my head, for instance), but others, like "You're My Woman", transcend their simple lyrics to become gripping, almost slobbering testimonies of love and faith. Least characteristic of Tupelo Honey's prevailing fireside vibe is "Moonshine Whiskey", the final number. After a somewhat twee introduction, it gradually assumes a more volatile personality, with Morrison throwing himself into exhortation, repetition, aggression ("wait a minute... wait a minute"), bizarre nonsense ("bubbles... watch the fish") and agitated self-aggrandisement. If this means we leave Tupelo Honey with the peculiar feeling that Morrison is a hopeless case, an obsessive even when it comes to relaxing, history suggests we're right. The marriage to Janet lasted only until 1973, and on his next album, Saint Dominic's Preview, Morrison ended sides one and two with mammoth, recondite song-sagas on a par with "Madame George". Note: there are six other reissues in this batch. They are the crowd-pleasing double live album, It's Too Late To Stop Now (1974); Wavelength (1978), where Morrison brought in a synthesizer and wrote some great FM radio choruses; Into The Music (1979), a much more religious album that spotlights violinist Toni Marcus and includes the epic "And The Healing Has Begun"; Sense Of Wonder (1985), if you like your lush '80s productions; Avalon Sunset (1989), which opens with a Cliff Richard duet and, luckily, improves post haste; and Back On Top (1999), a decent hootenanny of bluesy 12-bars, fat harmonicas, typical complaints ("New Biography") and lonesome meditations resonating gruffly from Churchillian jowls. DAVID CAVANAGH

Considering he’s a notoriously intense thundercloud of a man, it’s a curious fact that Van Morrison likes his music to be described (by biographers, reviewers, sleevenote essayists) in the blandest, most impersonal way. Mild compliments; nothing emotional; mention the awards he’s won; avoid unnecessary opinions. I’m afraid the scowling figure in the black hat will have to avert his gaze for the next few minutes, then, as the official, fully approved Van Morrison remaster series, featuring 29 of his greatest (and not so greatest) albums, finally gets under way.

It’s overdue. Morrison is legendary for good reason, yet, since 1989, much of his historic catalogue has languished on feeble, first-generation Polydor CDs – including some sacrosanct evergreens (Saint Dominic’s Preview, Veedon Fleece, Irish Heartbeat) that really should have been taken better care of. The new editions, alongside Morrison‘s output from the ’90s and early ’00s, will emerge during 2008-9, in non-chronological order, with bonus tracks (mostly alternate takes). Judging by the first batch of seven – led by 1971’s beautiful Tupelo Honey – the remastered sound is pin-sharp, a definite upgrade. Sadly, Astral Weeks and Moondance, to which Van does not own the rights, are excluded from the campaign.

A young man and woman, posing by a makeshift paddock on their hilltop Californian farm, face the world from the inner sleeve of Tupelo Honey. This is Morrison, 26, and his wife, Janet Planet. Van is dressed like an 1870s settler just returned from a mustang auction. The congeniality is awe-inspiring (look, he’s got his arm round a cat!) but the photography is, actually, in vogue. CSNY‘s Déjà Vu, The Band and Workingman’s Dead had all, in 1969-70, evoked a kinship with bygone eras, illustrating American rock’s exodus from urban centres to rural communities. Morrison, a veteran of “Gloria”, “Brown Eyed Girl” and the rhapsodic Astral Weeks, probably needed rural contentment badly, having suffered betrayal, near-starvation and two contractual disputes that soured his view of the music industry forever.

“And so, look at the photographs and marvel, as we do, at the good feeling that radiates from him now,” Janet Planet wrote in a sleevenote to his 1970 album His Band And The Street Choir. Soul power and domestic bliss made for a satisfying amalgam, if only for Van. But his follow-up, Tupelo Honey, was easily superior. Not mystical, nor furrowed-brow. Not as patchy as His Band… It was warm, open-hearted, perfectly relaxed. Or most of it was.

“Wild Night”, an American Top 30 hit, was a hybrid of R&B, fast soul and C&W, with a skittish brass arrangement and silky guitar skills from future heavy-metal axe hero Ronnie Montrose. Recorded ‘live’ in the studio (as all Morrison‘s albums are), it sounds intricately layered, highly sophisticated by 2007’s standards, like speeded-up Steely Dan meets Allen Toussaint. It’s fluid but meticulous; ultra-rehearsed but effortless. It promises a party to come.

A standout song from the other end of the spectrum is the seven-minute title track. Building upwards from a gentle flute refrain, and then pushed forwards by mighty fills from jazz drummer Connie Kay (who played on Astral Weeks), “Tupelo Honey” is sung by a man who has grabbed us by the lapels and won’t let go until we understand precisely what he’s experiencing. On an album where the vocals are exultant to say the least, this song sees Morrison use larynx, diaphragm, teeth and tongue to find new ways of enunciating the lines “she’s as sweet as Tupelo honey” and “she’s all right with me”, seemingly in ever-increasing adoration.

The remainder of the album is a sympathetic supporting cast rather than a classic sequence. “Old Old Woodstock” salutes Van‘s erstwhile home in a Moondance-style ballad. “(Straight To Your Heart) Like A Cannonball” is a beguiling waltz. “When That Evening Sun Goes Down” (try synchronising your limbs to those syncopated New Orleans rhythms) is terrific fun. Certain tracks aren’t so memorable (“Starting A New Life” never sticks in my head, for instance), but others, like “You’re My Woman”, transcend their simple lyrics to become gripping, almost slobbering testimonies of love and faith.

Least characteristic of Tupelo Honey‘s prevailing fireside vibe is “Moonshine Whiskey”, the final number. After a somewhat twee introduction, it gradually assumes a more volatile personality, with Morrison throwing himself into exhortation, repetition, aggression (“wait a minute… wait a minute”), bizarre nonsense (“bubbles… watch the fish”) and agitated self-aggrandisement. If this means we leave Tupelo Honey with the peculiar feeling that Morrison is a hopeless case, an obsessive even when it comes to relaxing, history suggests we’re right. The marriage to Janet lasted only until 1973, and on his next album, Saint Dominic’s Preview, Morrison ended sides one and two with mammoth, recondite song-sagas on a par with “Madame George”.

Note: there are six other reissues in this batch. They are the crowd-pleasing double live album, It’s Too Late To Stop Now (1974); Wavelength (1978), where Morrison brought in a synthesizer and wrote some great FM radio choruses; Into The Music (1979), a much more religious album that spotlights violinist Toni Marcus and includes the epic “And The Healing Has Begun”; Sense Of Wonder (1985), if you like your lush ’80s productions; Avalon Sunset (1989), which opens with a Cliff Richard duet and, luckily, improves post haste; and Back On Top (1999), a decent hootenanny of bluesy 12-bars, fat harmonicas, typical complaints (“New Biography”) and lonesome meditations resonating gruffly from Churchillian jowls.

DAVID CAVANAGH

Patti Smith To Exhibit Artwork In Paris

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Patti Smith To Exhibit Artwork In Paris
Patti Smith is to exhibit a selection of her artwork, including drawings and photography, at a prestigious Parisian gallery. “Land 250”, named after Smith’s Polaroid camera, sees the singer and poet exhibit 250 polaroids, including photos of poet Arthur Rimbaud’s cutlery and Jimi Hendrix’...

Patti Smith is to exhibit a selection of her artwork, including drawings and photography, at a prestigious Parisian gallery.

“Land 250”, named after Smith’s Polaroid camera, sees the singer and poet exhibit 250 polaroids, including photos of poet Arthur Rimbaud’s cutlery and Jimi Hendrix’s guitar.

Some 25 drawings also feature in the exhibition at Fondation Cartier, alongside found objects, including a stone from the River Ouse in Sussex where novelist Virginia Woolf committed suicide.

Smith has also recorded explanations of her artwork to be played in the gallery.

Herve Chandes, the director of Fondation Cartier, said: “Everything Patti does is very emotional, but this is particularly personal to her. It is an immensely romantic, lyrical show which I think will reveal a side to her that not many people have seen before.”

“Land 250” runs from March 28 to June 22.

Pentangle Announce Full Summer Tour

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Pentangle Announce Full Summer Tour

The original line-up of influential folk-rock group Pentangle have announced a comprehensive UK tour, to take place in the summer. Guitarists Bert Jansch and John Renbourne, singer Jacqui McShee and rhythm section Danny Thompson and Terry Cox will call at cities including Cardiff, Manchester, London and Liverpool on their ‘Sweet Child 40th Anniversary Tour’. The group’s work includes seminal folk albums “Sweet Child” (1968), “Basket Of Light” (1969) and “Cruel Sister” (1970), while the members went on to generally successful solo careers. Each gig will begin at 8pm and will see the band play two sets, each lasting an hour. Tickets for the tour go on sale on January 28. Pentangle play: Cardiff St David’s Hall (July 1) Brighton Dome (2) Cambridge Corn Exchange (3) Birmingham Symphony Hall (5) Oxford New Theatre (6) London Lyceum Theatre (7) Manchester Palace Theatre (9) Harrogate International Centre (10) Gateshead Sage (12) Glasgow Royal Concert Hall (13) Liverpool Philharmonic (14)

The original line-up of influential folk-rock group Pentangle have announced a comprehensive UK tour, to take place in the summer.

Guitarists Bert Jansch and John Renbourne, singer Jacqui McShee and rhythm section Danny Thompson and Terry Cox will call at cities including Cardiff, Manchester, London and Liverpool on their ‘Sweet Child 40th Anniversary Tour’.

The group’s work includes seminal folk albums “Sweet Child” (1968), “Basket Of Light” (1969) and “Cruel Sister” (1970), while the members went on to generally successful solo careers.

Each gig will begin at 8pm and will see the band play two sets, each lasting an hour.

Tickets for the tour go on sale on January 28.

Pentangle play:

Cardiff St David’s Hall (July 1)

Brighton Dome (2)

Cambridge Corn Exchange (3)

Birmingham Symphony Hall (5)

Oxford New Theatre (6)

London Lyceum Theatre (7)

Manchester Palace Theatre (9)

Harrogate International Centre (10)

Gateshead Sage (12)

Glasgow Royal Concert Hall (13)

Liverpool Philharmonic (14)

Ellen Page Q & A

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Ellen Page Q & A
Uncut: How did you get involved with Juno? Ellen Page: I was sent the script a couple of years ago and I fell head over heels, obsessively in love with the character. This was one of those scripts where I felt: 'I need to play this person!' It was just one of the best scripts I've ever read. I lov...

Uncut: How did you get involved with Juno?

Ellen Page: I was sent the script a couple of years ago and I fell head over heels, obsessively in love with the character. This was one of those scripts where I felt: ‘I need to play this person!’ It was just one of the best scripts I’ve ever read. I love the witty, intelligent dialogue, and I was so thrilled that a character had been written like this for a teenage girl… she’s unique, honest, sincere, but unapologetic, and unbelievably refreshing. And completely necessary for right now. I just feel so grateful that I was given the chance to play her. I don’t think we’ve ever really had a teenage female lead like Juno in a film that looks like it’s going to be seen by a lot of people. It really excites me that that girl’s out there for a lot of girls who aren’t like what the popular media portrays. That’s really exciting.

What did you like so much about the script?

One of the most exhilarating things about it is that, even though it’s a dark comedy, it’s also delicate. It would have been easy to force it and make it annoying and contrived. But luckily I was working with Jason Reitman, who I think is incredible at creating tones, and he created an excellent balance, and just guided me through it.

What attracted you to the character of Juno?

She’s extremely independent, and intelligent, and so genuine, so herself… and I love her abruptness. But she’s still very naive, especially in the relationship with the Jason Bateman character.

Do you have much in common with Juno?

I feel like whenever I play a character I have lots of things in common with them, because we’re all made of the same stuff. It’s always a really interesting experience when you enter a film to know what a character’s like on a surface level and then realise as you’re shooting how much you’re like them. It happens with every character I play.

Did you identify with Juno’s independence and refusal to conform?

I do think there’s this hypersexualised energy that happens with young girls, especially because so much is projected on you. You’re told what you’re supposed to find sexy, what to listen to, how to dress, it just goes on and on. I get pretty frustrated with how young females are commonly portrayed in popular media, but maybe with a film like Juno that will slowly start changing and people will be less narrow-minded and less judgmental. Because it is hard when you’re in junior high and you don’t dress like everyone else. Things get projected on you about lots of different things. It’s too bad that it has to be that way. It’s a drag.

I heard you introduced the director, Jason Reitman, to the music of the Moldy Peaches, which features prominently in the film. Did you have any other input – for example on the way that Juno looks?

Yes… I was very specific, I was like: “This girl’s wearing a sweater-vest!” I knew how I wanted her to look. I wanted her to wear a sweater-vest, or wear baggy pants or wear a flannel shirt and be unapologetic for it. Like: that’s okay, that doesn’t mean anything, you know what I’m saying? People get judged for the way they dress, especially in junior high or high school, and it’s, like, really childish.

Are you worried about getting sucked into that whole media circus, with the Oscar nomination and people suddenly getting interested in who you’re dating?

I think that, like a lot of people, I don’t really understand why actors are treated the way they’re treated. I just try not to take it too seriously. This is what I love to do, but I’m not going to attach my happiness to it because it’s remarkably fragile and there are a lot of other things going on in the world. And I feel like if you really want that media attention you can have it, and if you really genuinely don’t want it, it’s something that can be avoided: I think there is an element of personal choice.

Things are getting a little crazy right now and I feel it, but I think it’s about using it to your advantage, and also being able to step away from it. Clearly you need an element of that to be an actor these days, that’s just the way it is. But no, I will never submit to my privacy being completely invaded – and I think you can avoid it.

You know, I still live in Nova Scotia in a small apartment with used furniture and that’s just genuinely who I am. It’s not to make some judgment or statement against Hollywood. I keep my feet on the ground and just try to be as sincere as… you know, as honest as possible. And anyway I’m pretty boring. I mean, I’m an active person, I love camping, I love hiking, and I love to travel, and I love to read, and I play the guitar, and that’s about it. I don’t go out a lot. I’ll never receive that kind of Lindsay Lohan attention because people will be like: “Here’s Ellen Page with her tent going camping!” I don’t really think they’ll do a story about Ellen Page eating a mooseburger in Newfoundland.

Is there anything you like about Hollywood?

The sushi’s great.

What other actors do you admire?

I’m a huge Sissy Spacek fan. I love her. I like all of her work but I really love her work in the seventies – I love Badlands, and I really love Carrie. I’m also a big Kate Winslet fan, I think she’s fantastic, and I think Laura Linney’s great too, and Catherine Keener. You know, there are so many really awesome, really strong women out there, who clearly act because they love it.

You’ve done one big commercial film, X-Men: The Last Stand. How was that experience?

It was interesting, obviously, though they were shooting the film for five months and I was sitting around a lot. But it was pretty surreal to be wearing a leather suit and running through fire or dropping 70 feet into the ground, just extremely surreal.

Would you do such a commercial film again?

It’s completely situational. It depends on the film and the role. Playing Kitty Pride was awesome because I’m five foot one and I got to be a superhero and portray this young, very intelligent woman, and that’s kind of cool. So yeah, if the right thing comes up, and if doing the big movies lets you shoot the smaller ones. Kate Winslet has that figured out.

But if it were up to you you’d be more inclined to choose the indie movies?

You know, it depends on the script. Yeah, the last four or five movies I’ve shot have been relatively low-budget, but that’s just been the scripts that I responded to.

You’ve been cast in some pretty extreme roles in the last couple of years: a teenage torturer in Hard Candy, a teenage torture victim in An American Crime… is it you, or is it just the scripts?

I don’t know. I think they’re just two separate scripts that at different times I responded to. I mean, Hard Candy was one of the best scripts I ever read, and a character that I madly wanted to play. And an American Crime was a film that I thought was telling a story that really needed to be told, and it just kind of happened. I always want to challenge myself, and those roles were very challenging. But being in a film like Juno about a lighter human side of life was really good too because I’d been shooting a lot of darker, edgy material, and it felt wonderful to do a film that was honest, but had an element of lightness to it.

I heard you write your own songs. Do you have any plans to record any of them?

No, I’m not good enough.

What are the songs like?

Some of them are folk, some of them are weird and sexually intense, but super-cute. Like Peaches meets Kimya Dawson.

You’ve described yourself as a feminist…

All I mean by that is that I would like women to be equal to men, so I’d probably hope that everyone’s a feminist. Women still get paid less than men, and women’s bodies are still treated like ornaments, and young girls are being hypersexualised, and it’s really unfortunate. I hope that most people would be feminists, whether male or female.

Another obvious imbalance is the lack of female film directors. Do you have any ambitions to direct?

Oh yes, I would love to direct. And I’d love to see more female directors. Actually, one of my favourite films is Ratcatcher by Lynne Ramsay, she’s incredible. To me she’s like a modern female Truffaut. I know that’s like a BIG statement to make but I just think Ratcatcher’s brilliant.

Radiohead’s Jonny Greenwood Ruled Out Of Oscars

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Radiohead’s Jonny Greenwood Ruled Out Of Oscars
Jonny Greenwood’s score for the Oscar-nominated film “There Will Be Blood” has missed out on its own nomination after being deemed ineligible. Only a minority of the score was written specifically for the film, leading to its automatic disqualification from nomination. The original score las...

Jonny Greenwood’s score for the Oscar-nominated film “There Will Be Blood” has missed out on its own nomination after being deemed ineligible.

Only a minority of the score was written specifically for the film, leading to its automatic disqualification from nomination.

The original score lasts for around 35 minutes, but another 46 minutes of Greenwood‘s music is also used in the film, including excerpts from his BBC-commissioned 2006 piece “Popcorn Superhet Receiver”.

The film scores that received Oscar nomination are as follows:

“Atonement”

“The Kite Runner”

“Michael Clayton”

“Ratatouille”

“3:10 To Yuma”

However, Greenwood has been nominated for a BAFTA for his work on “There Will Be Blood”.

Alex Turner Plays Surprise London Gig

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Alex Turner Plays Surprise London Gig
Arctic Monkeys' Alex Turner made a surprise appearance in London last night, performing with Lightspeed Champion in an impromptu indie supergroup. Turner and Lightspeed’s Dev Hynes were joined by The Rascals’ Joe Edwards, Ferry Gouw from Semifinalists and members of Ipso Facto and Ox-Eagle.Lion...

Arctic Monkeys‘ Alex Turner made a surprise appearance in London last night, performing with Lightspeed Champion in an impromptu indie supergroup.

Turner and Lightspeed’s Dev Hynes were joined by The Rascals’ Joe Edwards, Ferry Gouw from Semifinalists and members of Ipso Facto and Ox-Eagle.Lion.Man at Soho’s Madame Jojo’s.

The supergroup performed six covers at the launch of Lightspeed Champion’s debut album “Falling Off The Lavender Bridge”, including versions of tracks by Interpol, The Walkmen and The Vines.

The final song of the set was a version of The Strokes‘ “Reptilia”, which was led by Turner.

The group performed:

“C’mon C’mon” (The Von Bondies)

“Slow Hands” (Interpol)

“The Rat” (The Walkmen)

“Get Free” (The Vines)

“NYC” (Interpol)

“Reptilia” (The Strokes)

Take a look at NME.COM for the full story.

Be Your Own Pet: “Get Awkward”

John Mulvey
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After all the mature, relatively sedate stuff I’ve been writing about recently like Roedelius and the Imaginational Anthems “Primitive American Guitar” comp, something a bit livelier today. Be Your Own Pet, you may remember, were the subject of some hype on both sides of the Atlantic a couple of years back, being a bunch of smart-ass Nashville teenagers who took the Yeah Yeah Yeahs’ initial punky imperative and made hay with it. They made much more of a racket than most of their NME contemporaries, and consequently I liked them a lot more – not just because Thurston Moore released them on Ecstatic Peace in the States, a label that’s been praised ad nauseam at Wild Mercury Sound over the past year. Be Your Own Pet also sired Turbo Fruits, who I got fairly excited about, too. But anyway, the new BYOP arrived the other day. It’s called “Get Awkward”, and it’s excellent. The Yeah Yeahs Yeahs comparison is still valid: there’s that same tearaway exuberance that marked the first YYY EP especially, with that faint goth edge brought by Nick Zinner conspicuously absent here. There’s also an incredibly knowing pastiche of teenage manners in the lyrics. In fact, it’s hard to remember that Jemina Pearl is only just 20; her evocation of brattish American neuroses are so sharply, cutely hokey, so removed from actual trauma, so parodically bitchy. “Becky”, which reminds me a bit of one of those shambolic high school ramalams on the last Black Lips album, features references to slumber parties, secret crushes, friendship bracelets and the line, “You signed my yearbook and that was pretty rad.” On the cover she is caught talking on a white dial phone while wearing rollerskates. I imagine she’s wryly in love with Chachi, or at least Joey Ramone. Pearl can sing, too. She has a great full-bodied, melodic yowl, surprisingly soulful in the context of so many ramalams; “You’re A Waste” especially, which is uncharacteristically close to a ballad, proves there’s plenty of depth to explore in the future. For the time being, though, I’m quite happy with her and her bandmates sticking with the goofy, accelerating bubblegum hardcore of songs like “Blow Your Mind” and “Bummer Time”. They play great, they’re snarky as hell, and as long as they write songs as good as these 15 little neon exclamation marks, we can stay friends.

After all the mature, relatively sedate stuff I’ve been writing about recently like Roedelius and the Imaginational Anthems “Primitive American Guitar” comp, something a bit livelier today.

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The Breeders Return After Seven Year Break

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The Breeders Return After Seven Year Break
The Breeders, led by Pixies bassist Kim Deal, are set to release a new album after a seven year wait. “Mountain Battles”, out on April 7, features the same line-up who performed on 2001’s “Title TK”, including Deal’s sister Kelley on guitar. The album was in part recorded by legendary ...

The Breeders, led by Pixies bassist Kim Deal, are set to release a new album after a seven year wait.

“Mountain Battles”, out on April 7, features the same line-up who performed on 2001’s “Title TK”, including Deal’s sister Kelley on guitar.

The album was in part recorded by legendary producer Steve Albini and recorded in Chicago and Dayton, Ohio.

The tracklisting is:

“Overglazed”

“Bang On”

“Night Of Joy”

“We’re Gonna Rise”

“German Studies”

“Spark”

“Istanbul”

“Walk It Off”

“Regalame Esta Noche”

“Here No More”

“No Way”

“It’s The Love”

“Mountain Battles”

The Breeders head to Europe after “Mountain Battles”’ release, calling at:

Glasgow ABC (April 8)

Leeds Metropolitan University (9)

Nottingham Trent University (10)

Sheffield Leadmill (12)

Birmingham Academy 2 (13)

Manchester Academy 2 (14)

London KOKO (16, 17)

Guillemots Ready ‘Poppier’ New Album

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Guillemots Ready ‘Poppier’ New Album
Guillemots have announced details of their second album, the follow-up to 2006’s "Through The Windowpane". "Red" apparently sees the band heading in a more mainstream direction, demonstrated by the lead single "Get Over It", out March 17. The album, produced by Adam Noble, who has previously wor...

Guillemots have announced details of their second album, the follow-up to 2006’s “Through The Windowpane”.

“Red” apparently sees the band heading in a more mainstream direction, demonstrated by the lead single “Get Over It”, out March 17.

The album, produced by Adam Noble, who has previously worked with U2 and Paul McCartney, features writing credits split between all four members.

“Red” is set to be released on March 24, after Fyfe Dangerfield and co. head out on a short UK tour:

Manchester Ritz (March 9)

Oxford Academy (10)

London Shepherd’s Bush Empire (11)

Heath Ledger, 1979 – 2008

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Heath Ledger, 1979 – 2008

The shock death of Heath Ledger in New York yesterday (Tuesday January 22) was not just a tragic loss for friends and family, but also for cinema. The 28-year-old Australian actor had only recently begun to prove his emotional range in complex and challenging films, including Todd Haynes' Bob Dylan biopic I'm Not There. Shunning his pin-up past, he was entering a fruitful and promising new career phase. Ledger was found naked and unconscious at his Broome Street apartment, in downtown Manhattan, by his housekeeper and a masseuse. An emergency medical team pronounced him dead around 3.30pm EST. Wrapped in a black body bag, his corpse was later carried out in front of huge crowds. Speculation continues in the media and online as to whether the actor's death was self-inflicted or accidental. New York City Police are awaiting an autopsy report, but claim they do not suspect foul play. "We are investigating the possibility of an overdose," said police spokesman Paul Browne. "There were pills within the vicinity of the bed." According to the New York Post, these pills included the prescription anti-anxiety drugs Diazepam and Alprazolam. In November last year, Ledger told the New York Times that he had tried the sleeping pill Ambien to combat insomnia. "Last week I probably slept an average of two hours a night," he said. "I couldn't stop thinking. My body was exhausted, and my mind was still going." Five years ago, the Perth-born Heathcliff Andrew Ledger was just another junior beefcake actor with a CV of mostly colourless surf-bum roles and supporting turns. But froth like A Knight's Tale and The Order convinced him he had hit a "plateau of nothing" and needed to raise his game. Defying advice from agents and managers, Ledger resolved to pursue work that prioritised depth and quality over obvious commercial appeal. The fruits of this new strategy paid off handsomely in Ang Lee's drama Brokeback Mountain in 2005. Ledger's quietly powerful, mostly internalized performance earned him an Oscar nomination and his first serious industry respect. He also began a romance with co-star Michelle Williams, who gave birth to their daughter Matilda in October 2005. Settling in Brooklyn, the couple announced their engagement last year, only to separate in September. After Brokeback Mountain, Ledger continued to impress in further offbeat, anti-heroic roles. He played against type as Matt Damon's nerdy sibling in Terry Gilliam's ambitious but flawed The Brothers Grimm, and as a messed-up junkie rent boy in Neil Armfield's low-budget Australian heroin drama Candy. Todd Haynes then cast Ledger as one of his metaphorical Bob Dylans, a cocky, swaggering actor, in I'm Not There. His performance arguably provided the film's emotional centre. At the time of his death, he had also just completed his much-anticipated turn as The Joker in Christopher Nolan's new Batman blockbuster, The Dark Knight. Ledger recently described The Joker as "definitely the most fun I've had with any character... a psychotic, mass-murdering clown." The Dark Knight will now be Ledger's swansong, but his commanding performance in Brokeback Mountain will most likely be his lasting epitaph. STEPHEN DALTON

The shock death of Heath Ledger in New York yesterday (Tuesday January 22) was not just a tragic loss for friends and family, but also for cinema. The 28-year-old Australian actor had only recently begun to prove his emotional range in complex and challenging films, including Todd Haynes‘ Bob Dylan biopic I’m Not There. Shunning his pin-up past, he was entering a fruitful and promising new career phase.

Ledger was found naked and unconscious at his Broome Street apartment, in downtown Manhattan, by his housekeeper and a masseuse. An emergency medical team pronounced him dead around 3.30pm EST. Wrapped in a black body bag, his corpse was later carried out in front of huge crowds.

Speculation continues in the media and online as to whether the actor’s death was self-inflicted or accidental. New York City Police are awaiting an autopsy report, but claim they do not suspect foul play. “We are investigating the possibility of an overdose,” said police spokesman Paul Browne. “There were pills within the vicinity of the bed.”

According to the New York Post, these pills included the prescription anti-anxiety drugs Diazepam and Alprazolam. In November last year, Ledger told the New York Times that he had tried the sleeping pill Ambien to combat insomnia. “Last week I probably slept an average of two hours a night,” he said. “I couldn’t stop thinking. My body was exhausted, and my mind was still going.”

Five years ago, the Perth-born Heathcliff Andrew Ledger was just another junior beefcake actor with a CV of mostly colourless surf-bum roles and supporting turns. But froth like A Knight’s Tale and The Order convinced him he had hit a “plateau of nothing” and needed to raise his game. Defying advice from agents and managers, Ledger resolved to pursue work that prioritised depth and quality over obvious commercial appeal.

The fruits of this new strategy paid off handsomely in Ang Lee‘s drama Brokeback Mountain in 2005. Ledger‘s quietly powerful, mostly internalized performance earned him an Oscar nomination and his first serious industry respect. He also began a romance with co-star Michelle Williams, who gave birth to their daughter Matilda in October 2005. Settling in Brooklyn, the couple announced their engagement last year, only to separate in September.

After Brokeback Mountain, Ledger continued to impress in further offbeat, anti-heroic roles. He played against type as Matt Damon‘s nerdy sibling in Terry Gilliam‘s ambitious but flawed The Brothers Grimm, and as a messed-up junkie rent boy in Neil Armfield‘s low-budget Australian heroin drama Candy.

Todd Haynes then cast Ledger as one of his metaphorical Bob Dylans, a cocky, swaggering actor, in I’m Not There. His performance arguably provided the film’s emotional centre. At the time of his death, he had also just completed his much-anticipated turn as The Joker in Christopher Nolan‘s new Batman blockbuster, The Dark Knight.

Ledger recently described The Joker as “definitely the most fun I’ve had with any character… a psychotic, mass-murdering clown.” The Dark Knight will now be Ledger‘s swansong, but his commanding performance in Brokeback Mountain will most likely be his lasting epitaph.

STEPHEN DALTON

Just in — 2008 Oscar nominations

Michael Bonner
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The nominations are just in for the 2008 Oscars, so here’s my first impressions of what’s what in the major categories. It’s no great shock to see No Country For Old Men and There Will Be Blood leading the field (8 nominations a piece), but there’s certainly a few surprises… Here, anyway, are the nominations in the main categories. FILM OF THE YEAR Atonement Juno Michael Clayton No Country For Old Men There Will Be Blood No major surprises here. No Country For Old Men and There Will Be Blood are both the kind of prestige pictures Academy voters favour, and Atonement ticks all the right boxes in terms of intelligent, classy period drama. I’m mildly surprised to see Michael Clayton in there – a good film, certainly, but not a great one. And, if you’ll permit me a moment’s rare excitement – hurray for the mighty Juno! BEST DIRECTOR Julian Schnabel (The Diving Bell And The Butterfly) Jason Reitman (Juno) Tony Gilroy (Michael Clayton) Joel and Ethan Coen (No Country For Old Men) Paul Thomas Anderson (There Will Be Blood) The Coens – Joel and Ethan taking joint director’s credit for the first time – and PTA both delivered major career peaks here, so I suspect it’ll be a two-horse race. But Schnabel’s film about French journalist Jean-Dominique Bauby, partly paralysed after a stroke, is the kind of story of folk struggling against adversity that also finds favour with the Academy. Brilliant to see Jason Reitman up for Juno, though I don’t think either he or Tony Gilroy stand much of a chance against this heavyweight competition. BEST ACTOR George Clooney (Michael Clayton) Daniel Day-Lewis (There Will Be Blood) Johnny Depp (Sweeney Todd) Tommy Lee Jones (In The Valley Of Elah) Viggo Mortensen (Eastern Promises) Clooney’s done better films, but this is a really strong performance. All the same, it’s going to be hard to better Day-Lewis or Tommy Lee Jones, who both deliver powerful performances in their respective films. Nice, too, that Depp and Mortensen get nods, but it’s not really their best work. BEST ACTRESS Cate Blanchett (Elizabeth: The Golden Age) Julie Christie (Away From Her) Marion Cotillard (La Vie En Rose) Laura Linney (The Savages) Ellen Page (Juno) In what’s been a conspicuously weak year for strong female characters in films, though I suspect that Julie Christie will win for her sensitive and graceful performance of an Alzheimer’s sufferer. Blanchett gets a nod for Elizabeth here, and also a Best Supporting Actress for her “Dylan” in I’m Not There – a far better peformance, and one more likely to be recognised come Oscar night itself. So, surprises: no Keira Knightley for Atonement, and apart from Cate Blanchett, nothing for I’m Not There (I’d thought Todd Haynes would have got some acknowledgment of his fantastic, impressionistic take on the life of Bob Dylan). Also, surprised to see The Assassination Of Jesse James By The Coward Robert Ford pretty much left out in the cold, aside from a Best Supporting Actor nomination for Casey Affleck. Anyway, the awards themselves are on Sunday, February 24. So, what do you think? Any glaring omissions? Who do you think’s likely to walk home with a statuette on the night..? Let me know your thoughts.

The nominations are just in for the 2008 Oscars, so here’s my first impressions of what’s what in the major categories. It’s no great shock to see No Country For Old Men and There Will Be Blood leading the field (8 nominations a piece), but there’s certainly a few surprises…

Here, anyway, are the nominations in the main categories.

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Yeasayer Add Another London Show To March Tour

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Yeasayer Add Another London Show To March Tour

One of our favourite new bands from the flourishing Brooklyn scene, Yeasayer, have added another date to their forthcoming UK tour thanks to what is being described by their publicist as "an overwhelming demand for tickets". The quartet - a curiously wonderful cross between TV On The Radio, The Beach Boys, African music, Lindsey Buckingham and Peter Gabriel, more or less - now play a second London show on March 10 at the ICA. Tickets are £8.00 advance and you can get them from www.livenation.co.uk / 0870 400 0688. The full tour now looks like this: Mar 5 - Birmingham Bar Academy Mar 6 - London ICA Mar 8 - Glasgow King Tuts Mar 9 - Manchester Night & Day Mar 10 - London ICA Yeasayer's acclaimed debut album, All Hour Cymbals, is out now.

One of our favourite new bands from the flourishing Brooklyn scene, Yeasayer, have added another date to their forthcoming UK tour thanks to what is being described by their publicist as “an overwhelming demand for tickets”.

The quartet – a curiously wonderful cross between TV On The Radio, The Beach Boys, African music, Lindsey Buckingham and Peter Gabriel, more or less – now play a second London show on March 10 at the ICA. Tickets are £8.00 advance and you can get them from www.livenation.co.uk / 0870 400 0688.

The full tour now looks like this:

Mar 5 – Birmingham Bar Academy

Mar 6 – London ICA

Mar 8 – Glasgow King Tuts

Mar 9 – Manchester Night & Day

Mar 10 – London ICA

Yeasayer’s acclaimed debut album, All Hour Cymbals, is out now.

The Fourth Uncut Playlist Of 2008

John Mulvey
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A fair number of reissues in this one, that I've compiled over the past day or so. But there's also a couple of auspicious new releases just in, that I'll be writing more about in the next few days. One is the new album by Be Your Own Pet, which confirms them as an immensely entertaining cute/gonzoid pop-punk band. The other is "Mountain Battles" by The Breeders, which is playing for the first time as I type. We're on Track Five, "German Studies", right now. I'll report back when it's fully digested. For the time being, here we go. . . 1. Hans-Joachim Roedelius & Tim Story - Inlandish (Gronland) 2. Mike Nesmith - The Wichita Train Whistle Sings/Timerider (Edsel) 3. Laura Nyro - More Than A New Discovery (Rev-Ola) 4. Grand Archives - The Grand Archives (Sub Pop) 5. The Rascals - Anthology 6. Various Artists - Imaginational Anthems Volume Three (Tompkins Square) 7. Pegi Young - Pegi Young (Warner Bros) 8. Be Your Own Pet - Get Awkward (XL) 9. The Triffids - Beautiful Waste And Other Songs (Domino) 10. The Triffids - The Black Swan (Domino) 11. Beck - Odelay: Deluxe Edition (Universal) 12. The Breeders - Mountain Battles (4AD)

A fair number of reissues in this one, that I’ve compiled over the past day or so. But there’s also a couple of auspicious new releases just in, that I’ll be writing more about in the next few days.

Continue

Morrissey Returns To London For Live Residency

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Morrissey Returns To London For Live Residency

Morrissey's week of shows at the Camden Roundhouse in London began last night (January 21) with a cry of "Good evening, West Ham!” He and his band then launched into "How Soon Is Now?", the first of four Smiths songs performed in a wide-ranging set, along with "Stop Me If You Think You've Heard This One Before", "Death Of A Disco Dancer" and "Stretch Out And Wait". Along with rarely-performed early b-sides like "Sister I'm A Poet" and the enduringly controversial album track, "The National Front Disco", Morrissey also found time for four new songs. The sold-out shows continue this week on January 22, 23, 25, 26 and 27. Morrissey's "Greatest Hits" album, meanwhile, is out on February 4. Last night's setlist: 'How Soon Is Now?' 'First Of The Gang To Die' 'I Just Want To See The Boy Happy' 'That's How People Grow Up' 'Stop Me If You Think You've Heard This One Before' 'Sister I'm A Poet' 'Something Is Squeezing My Skull' 'All You Need Is Me' 'The National Front Disco' 'Death Of A Disco Dancer' 'Life Is A Pigsty' 'The Loop' 'Billy Budd' 'Mama Lay Softly On The Riverbed' 'The World Is Full Of Crashing Bores' 'I'm Throwing My Arms Around Paris' 'Why Don't You Find Out For Yourself?' 'Stretch Out And Wait' 'Irish Blood, English Heart' 'Last Of The Famous International Playboys'

Morrissey’s week of shows at the Camden Roundhouse in London began last night (January 21) with a cry of “Good evening, West Ham!”

He and his band then launched into “How Soon Is Now?”, the first of four Smiths songs performed in a wide-ranging set, along with “Stop Me If You Think You’ve Heard This One Before”, “Death Of A Disco Dancer” and “Stretch Out And Wait”.

Along with rarely-performed early b-sides like “Sister I’m A Poet” and the enduringly controversial album track, “The National Front Disco”, Morrissey also found time for four new songs.

The sold-out shows continue this week on January 22, 23, 25, 26 and 27.

Morrissey’s “Greatest Hits” album, meanwhile, is out on February 4.

Last night’s setlist:

‘How Soon Is Now?’

‘First Of The Gang To Die’

‘I Just Want To See The Boy Happy’

‘That’s How People Grow Up’

‘Stop Me If You Think You’ve Heard This One Before’

‘Sister I’m A Poet’

‘Something Is Squeezing My Skull’

‘All You Need Is Me’

‘The National Front Disco’

‘Death Of A Disco Dancer’

‘Life Is A Pigsty’

‘The Loop’

‘Billy Budd’

‘Mama Lay Softly On The Riverbed’

‘The World Is Full Of Crashing Bores’

‘I’m Throwing My Arms Around Paris’

‘Why Don’t You Find Out For Yourself?’

‘Stretch Out And Wait’

‘Irish Blood, English Heart’

‘Last Of The Famous International Playboys’

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