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Josh Ritter conquers London

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It must have been an unusually quiet day, because we are not usually out and about when we should be working, nose to grindstone, shackled to the pleasurable daily graft of putting together Uncut. Anyway, the young American singer-songwriter Josh Ritter, whose first two albums – The Golden Age Of Radio and Hello Starling - I had by then become somewhat besotted with, was playing an afternoon showcase at the Social to coincide with the release of his terrific new album, The Animal Years, and I dragged Michael along with me to see him. The Social was barely full, maybe a couple of dozen people milling around, drinks in hand, with Josh and his guitar on the small stage. He was instantly mesmerising, in the manner, a few years earlier, I had always found Ryan Adams to be. They had much in common – a talent for literate, evocative songwriting, an apparent mastery of whatever musical style they found most appropriate for any given song, buckets of easy charm, a winning way with anecdotal on-stage conversation, a great deal of humour, voices that rung with handsome confidence. The one big difference between them, of course, is that Josh is Ryan without the attendant traumas, tantrums, self-destructive stroppiness, narcotic dependencies, tendency towards unnecessary showboating, generally tousled waywardness and haughty self-regard that at one point threatened to wholly derail Ryan’s career, and from which behaviour that career has never entirely recovered, a lot of former fans too exasperated by his petulant excesses to persevere with him, even when he returned to some kind of form with last year’s trio of mostly fine albums. Ritter as a result of his relatively low-profile and absence of headline-grabbing antics hasn’t has nearly the attention devoted over the last several years top Adams, but on the evidence of the turn-out last week for his show at the Shepherd’s Bush Empire has accumulated no less a fanatical fan base. You couldn’t have got more people into the venue at gunpoint, and there’s a growing hum of anticipation when the stage lights go down and a teasing wait ensues before a spruce Ritter, clean-shaven and sharply suited, appears to great cheers. From where I’m pinned to the bar – well, you have to stand somewhere – what immediately follows is somewhat underpowered, the “London Calling” guitar intro to “Mind’s Eye”, all but lost in a muffled, bass-heavy sound. Things get reasonably quickly sorted, however, and the tongue-twisting rollicking Dylanesque romp of “To The Dogs Or Whoever” – the opening track from the new The Historical Conquests Of Josh Ritter, which provides nearly half of tonight’s set list – is expertly dispatched by a band whose only deficiency is a lack of obvious charisma. The surging “Good Man” is another early highlight, as the band and Ritter lock into what by now is a seamless groove, great tunes from all four albums jostling for attention, the simmering shuffle of “Monster Ballads” and, later, the Springsteen wallop of “Wolves” from The Animal Years, particularly striking. There are terrific moments when the band drop away and Ritter takes a ore or less solo spotlight on songs like the recent “The Temptation Of Adam” and the earlier “Harrisburg” and “Lawrence, KS”, both from The Golden Age Of Radio (there is, sadly, no “Me And Jiggs”, with its rousing namecheck for Townes Van Zandt). The audience is in full, passionate voice for the inevitable singalong that “Kathleen” has become, but respectfully hushed for the haunting “Girl In The War”. They are roaring again, however, on “Snow Is Gone”, but wisely leave it to Josh for most of the closing “Lillian, Egypt”, though a lot of them can’t help joining in on the song’s irrepressible chorus, which is genuinely heart-lifting. Ritter exits, finally, chased by cheers, a smile on his face as big as the arenas that if he keeps on going like this he’ll very soon be filling. Josh Ritter Set List Shepherd’s Bush Empire November 22, 2007 Naked As A Window Mind’s Eye To The Dogs Or Whoever Good Man Open Doors Here At The Right Time Monster Ballads Harrisburg The Temptation Of Adam Rumors Still Beating Real Long Distance Right Moves Wildfires Wolves Empty Hearts Lawrence KS Kathleen Encores Girl In The War Snow Is Gone Lillian, Egypt

It must have been an unusually quiet day, because we are not usually out and about when we should be working, nose to grindstone, shackled to the pleasurable daily graft of putting together Uncut.

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Help!

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Help!

Several years ago, director Richard Lester received an honorary scroll proclaiming him “the father of MTV”; by all accounts, he promptly wired back and demanded a blood test. Help! (1965), Lester’s second Beatles feature, has much to answer for: it leads directly to the cheaper but just as cheerful screen exploits of The Monkees and beyond that, to Duran Duran’s globe-trotting videos (presaged in Help!’s gratuitous jaunt to the Bahamas) and, heaven help us, to Spice World. The film’s pranky ’60s surrealism – owing a lot to Lester’s former collaborators Peter Sellers and Spike Milligan – has dated badly, and the Bond-spoofing premise, in which Ringo is pursued by Leo McKern’s band of sinister orientals, is a hanger for some unpalatable racial stereotypes. The farce is just about held aloft by the presence of such comedy stalwarts as Patrick Cargill and Roy Kinnear, and the odd visual gag still endures: notably, the first sight of the futuristic bachelor pad behind a terrace housing façade. The songs still look fresh, inventively shot by cinematographer David Watkin: check out the filters on “Another Girl” and the insouciantly inventive editing on “Ticket To Ride”, not to mention the gorgeous kaleidoscopic end credits (this restoration restores the colours to their vivid glory). Extras include EastEnders’ Wendy Richard on how she ended up on the cutting room floor with Frankie Howerd, whose scenes fell flatter than a Ringo vocal. EXTRAS: Docs on the making of Help! (including interviews with Lester, Eleanor Bron, Victor Spinetti and Watkin); on the missing Howerd sequence; and on the restored version; plus trailers. JONATHAN ROMNEY

Several years ago, director Richard Lester received an honorary scroll proclaiming him “the father of MTV”; by all accounts, he promptly wired back and demanded a blood test. Help! (1965), Lester’s second Beatles feature, has much to answer for: it leads directly to the cheaper but just as cheerful screen exploits of The Monkees and beyond that, to Duran Duran’s globe-trotting videos (presaged in Help!’s gratuitous jaunt to the Bahamas) and, heaven help us, to Spice World.

The film’s pranky ’60s surrealism – owing a lot to Lester’s former collaborators Peter Sellers and Spike Milligan – has dated badly, and the Bond-spoofing premise, in which Ringo is pursued by Leo McKern’s band of sinister orientals, is a hanger for some unpalatable racial stereotypes. The farce is just about held aloft by the presence of such comedy stalwarts as Patrick Cargill and Roy Kinnear, and the odd visual gag still endures: notably, the first sight of the futuristic bachelor pad behind a terrace housing façade.

The songs still look fresh, inventively shot by cinematographer David Watkin: check out the filters on “Another Girl” and the insouciantly inventive editing on “Ticket To Ride”, not to mention the gorgeous kaleidoscopic end credits (this restoration restores the colours to their vivid glory). Extras include EastEnders’ Wendy Richard on how she ended up on the cutting room floor with Frankie Howerd, whose scenes fell flatter than a Ringo vocal.

EXTRAS: Docs on the making of Help! (including interviews with Lester, Eleanor Bron, Victor Spinetti and Watkin); on the missing Howerd sequence; and on the restored version; plus trailers.

JONATHAN ROMNEY

Got A Question For Billy Bragg?

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Got A Question For Billy Bragg?

Billy Bragg is taking part in Uncut's An Audience With... feature next week, and we're after your questions to put to the great man. So, is there anything you've always wanted to ask him? Ever wondered whether he'd accept a knighthood..? What are his memories of working with Peter Mandelson during Red Wedge..? Who'd he like to see play him in the biopic, Bragg: The Barking Years..? Send your questions by next Monday (Nov 26) to: farah_ishaq@ipcmedia.com

Billy Bragg is taking part in Uncut’s An Audience With… feature next week, and we’re after your questions to put to the great man.

So, is there anything you’ve always wanted to ask him?

Ever wondered whether he’d accept a knighthood..?

What are his memories of working with Peter Mandelson during Red Wedge..?

Who’d he like to see play him in the biopic, Bragg: The Barking Years..?

Send your questions by next Monday (Nov 26) to: farah_ishaq@ipcmedia.com

The Assassination Of Jesse James By The Coward Robert Ford

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The Assassination Of Jesse James By The Coward Robert Ford

DIRECTED BY ANDREW DOMINIK | STARRING BRAD PITT, CASEY AFFLECK, SAM SHEPARD “Jesse James was a lowdown thief, a pervert and a sonofabitch,” Sam Fuller declared in his autobiography, A Third Face. “But you couldn’t show that stuff on a screen back then. The whole truth didn’t help get films made.” I Shot Jesse James (1948) was Fuller’s first picture, 10 days in the making, and filmed entirely on a Republic Studios backlot. Even biting his tongue, he made a more arresting entry in James-ian mythology than such celebrated auteurs as Nic Ray and Fritz Lang, who preferred to print the legend. Why mess with America’s favourite outlaw? Robin Hood with a six-shooter, Jesse James has inspired more movies than Billy the Kid or Butch and Sundance put together. Central planks in the Jesse James story were embedded in the public imagination early on, even during his lifetime. The fact that he’d tried to surrender after the civil war only to be shot in the chest; the maiming of his mother in an ill-advised Pinkerton raid on his home; and the important consideration that his robberies targeted supposed Yankee carpet-baggers: the banks and the railroads. A traditional ballad that crops up in many movies, including Fuller’s, lays it on thick: “He took from the rich and he gave to the poor, He’d a hand, and a heart, and a brain.” Fittingly enough, Nick Cave does the honours as a saloon troubadour in director Andrew Dominik’s rueful and elegiac film. Based on Ron Hansen’s novel of the same name, and borrowing from it large chunks of decorously antiquated narration, The Assassination Of Jesse James By The Coward Robert Ford breaks with tradition by sticking to the sorry end of Jesse’s career. That is, after the disastrous raid on Northfield and the breakup of the James-Younger gang. Heroics are nowhere in evidence, and the myth gets short shrift from Jesse himself (a dyed-dark, brooding Brad Pitt). “It’s all lies,” he gently disabuses his most avid acolyte, 19-year-old Robert Ford (Casey Affleck). This Jesse is not about to hand a red cent to the poor. Instead – in the film’s first and only robbery – we see him beat a railway guard with such excessive brutality even his partners are shocked. Pitt’s Jesse James may not be Fuller’s lowdown pervert, but he’s a sonofabitch if you cross him – or even if he suspects that you might. In this, the character bears some resemblance to Mark Brandon Reid, the garrulous Aussie sociopath ferociously played by Eric Bana in Dominik’s only previous movie, Chopper (2000). But this is an infinitely more reflective and self-conscious piece, and where Bana/Reid revelled in his volatility and his tabloid fame, a ruminative Pitt/James carries his celebrity heavily; like his propensity for violence, it is an affliction he appears to regret but cannot control; the cross he has to bear. Morbidly paranoid, he’s left alone to ponder which of his associates will be the first to betray him. This is Brutus and Caesar (the story Sam Fuller originally had his eye on), and it’s the story of Judas Iscariot. In Dominik’s movie the assassination takes place on Palm Sunday, and Judas – Ford – enjoys considerably more screen time than his victim. “People take me for a nincompoop,” Bob admits to Frank James (Sam Shepard) early on. “I have qualities that don’t come shining through.” That’s putting it mildly. The new makeshift James gang is a collection of dim opportunists and layabouts, mostly cousins and neighbours (they’re played with amiable flakiness by Jeremy Renner, Chris Speers, Garret Dillahunt and Sam Rockwell as Bob’s go-along brother, Charlie), but even in this unprepossessing crowd Bob is a standing joke, the designated boob. Frank can only shake his head and give him a wide berth. A desperado in his dreams, Bob idolises Jesse so fervently it’s as if he wants to pull on his boots in the morning. And he suffers mightily for it; this long movie describes Ford’s time in Jesse’s orbit as a series of abject disappointments, humiliations and indignities, mostly of his own making. Affleck doesn’t sentimentalise Bob’s pinched and wretched narcissism, but as the slow, sad coda makes clear, the assassination was Ford’s tragedy as well as Jesse’s, an infamous folly he would live to regret and replay – several hundred times in fact, for an audience of eager rubberneckers. Filmed by regular Coens DoP Roger Deakins in languid, wispy vignettes, the lens sometimes smudged with Vaseline, this is the West as Eadweard Muybridge might have photographed it if he’d only taken his experiments in kinetic motion a stage further. Malick, Kubrick and Cimino would surely recognise a kindred spirit in Dominik; this flagrantly uncommercial enterprise seems designed as a heroic folly in and of itself. It’s another weighty monument to the death of the West, and within a whisker of the masterpiece Dominik was evidently shooting for. Tom Charity

DIRECTED BY ANDREW DOMINIK | STARRING BRAD PITT, CASEY AFFLECK, SAM SHEPARD

“Jesse James was a lowdown thief, a pervert and a sonofabitch,” Sam Fuller declared in his autobiography, A Third Face. “But you couldn’t show that stuff on a screen back then. The whole truth didn’t help get films made.”

I Shot Jesse James (1948) was Fuller’s first picture, 10 days in the making, and filmed entirely on a Republic Studios backlot. Even biting his tongue, he made a more arresting entry in James-ian mythology than such celebrated auteurs as Nic Ray and Fritz Lang, who preferred to print the legend. Why mess with America’s favourite outlaw? Robin Hood with a six-shooter, Jesse James has inspired more movies than Billy the Kid or Butch and Sundance put together.

Central planks in the Jesse James story were embedded in the public imagination early on, even during his lifetime. The fact that he’d tried to surrender after the civil war only to be shot in the chest; the maiming of his mother in an ill-advised Pinkerton raid on his home; and the important consideration that his robberies targeted supposed Yankee carpet-baggers: the banks and the railroads. A traditional ballad that crops up in many movies, including Fuller’s, lays it on thick: “He took from the rich and he gave to the poor, He’d a hand, and a heart, and a brain.”

Fittingly enough, Nick Cave does the honours as a saloon troubadour in director Andrew Dominik’s rueful and elegiac film. Based on Ron Hansen’s novel of the same name, and borrowing from it large chunks of decorously antiquated narration, The Assassination Of Jesse James By The Coward Robert Ford breaks with tradition by sticking to the sorry end of Jesse’s career. That is, after the disastrous raid on Northfield and the breakup of the James-Younger gang. Heroics are nowhere in evidence, and the myth gets short shrift from Jesse himself (a dyed-dark, brooding Brad Pitt). “It’s all lies,” he gently disabuses his most avid acolyte, 19-year-old Robert Ford (Casey Affleck).

This Jesse is not about to hand a red cent to the poor. Instead – in the film’s first and only robbery – we see him beat a railway guard with such excessive brutality even his partners are shocked. Pitt’s Jesse James may not be Fuller’s lowdown pervert, but he’s a sonofabitch if you cross him – or even if he suspects that you might.

In this, the character bears some resemblance to Mark Brandon Reid, the garrulous Aussie sociopath ferociously played by Eric Bana in Dominik’s only previous movie, Chopper (2000). But this is an infinitely more reflective and self-conscious piece, and where Bana/Reid revelled in his volatility and his tabloid fame, a ruminative Pitt/James carries his celebrity heavily; like his propensity for violence, it is an affliction he appears to regret but cannot control; the cross he has to bear. Morbidly paranoid, he’s left alone to ponder which of his associates will be the first to betray him.

This is Brutus and Caesar (the story Sam Fuller originally had his eye on), and it’s the story of Judas Iscariot. In Dominik’s movie the assassination takes place on Palm Sunday, and Judas – Ford – enjoys considerably more screen time than his victim.

“People take me for a nincompoop,” Bob admits to Frank James (Sam Shepard) early on. “I have qualities that don’t come shining through.”

That’s putting it mildly. The new makeshift James gang is a collection of dim opportunists and layabouts, mostly cousins and neighbours (they’re played with amiable flakiness by Jeremy Renner, Chris Speers, Garret Dillahunt and Sam Rockwell as Bob’s go-along brother, Charlie), but even in this unprepossessing crowd Bob is a standing joke, the designated boob. Frank can only shake his head and give him a wide berth.

A desperado in his dreams, Bob idolises Jesse so fervently it’s as if he wants to pull on his boots in the morning. And he suffers mightily for it; this long movie describes Ford’s time in Jesse’s orbit as a series of abject disappointments, humiliations and indignities, mostly of his own making. Affleck doesn’t sentimentalise Bob’s pinched and wretched narcissism, but as the slow, sad coda makes clear, the assassination was Ford’s tragedy as well as Jesse’s, an infamous folly he would live to regret and replay – several hundred times in fact, for an audience of eager rubberneckers.

Filmed by regular Coens DoP Roger Deakins in languid, wispy vignettes, the lens sometimes smudged with Vaseline, this is the West as Eadweard Muybridge might have photographed it if he’d only taken his experiments in kinetic motion a stage further. Malick, Kubrick and Cimino would surely recognise a kindred spirit in Dominik; this flagrantly uncommercial enterprise seems designed as a heroic folly in and of itself. It’s another weighty monument to the death of the West, and within a whisker of the masterpiece Dominik was evidently shooting for.

Tom Charity

Casey Affleck Talks To Uncut About New Movie

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Uncut Q&A: Casey Affleck UNCUT: You’ve made a two-and-a-half hour movie about Jesse James with just one train robbery. A daring move, surely? CASEY AFFLECK: You’re right. It’s definitely not what people might expect from a Jesse James western. There aren’t many gunfights or train robberies. But I think it’s well-made and the story’s told well, so people should enjoy it. I don’t want to underestimate the audience for it. But I also wonder if people outside of America will care about it, knowing less about Jesse James. He’s part of American folklore, you know? He was also a folk hero when he was alive. Wasn’t that part of what attracted a wide-eyed Robert Ford to him? Robert Ford was just a little kid when he started reading comic books about Jesse James. But people didn’t really know who James was. They only knew him from comics. Everyone lived in small pockets of urban areas, like the big northern cities, New York or Washington, and they didn’t have any personal experience of Jesse James. To them, he was only what he’d become in the comic books as a legend. When he was killed, it was easy for people to romanticise it and turn him into this Robin Hood hero that he wasn’t, you know? Did you find it hard to see through the myth of Jesse James? I wonder what he was really like, how special he really was? In photos, he looks like a scrappy, weaselly guy, you know? I wonder what it was about him that people latched onto? Was he that magnetic? Was he just a good shot? Was he fearless? What was it about his character that made him a legend? Because he didn’t really rob trains and give to the poor that much. He didn’t have a political agenda, he was just like a lot of those people: a confederate, who lost the war and was bitter about it. I don’t think he was like a Che Guevara, someone who really had a cause. The film portrays him as a depressive. I think his own legend started to consume him, you know? And he tried to live up to it. He felt either maligned by things he’d read, or he craved positive attention, so he’d leave notes on trains that he’d robbed. The dynamic between Robert Ford and Jesse James is fascinating. Ford is like a deranged fan, and Jesse laps it up. But that changes later on. It’s pretty complex why those two guys end up in opposition to each other, but really it just boils down to one moment early on in the film. One accident turns everything on its head. Before then, things were going as well as ever for Robert Ford, he’d finally got close to his hero, and his hero is flattered by the way that Robert Ford flatters him and so he lets him in close. Then there’s this one gunfight, this totally irrelevant thing, which puts my character in a spot where he is easily manipulated by the police. It can’t have been easy for the director Andrew Dominik to make such a long, artful film for a Hollywood studio? We had an enormous amount of resistance because Andrew was trying to do something that wasn’t all that commercial, you know? There was a lot of money on the line and a lot of people who had seen the movie a different way. It could easily have been much more exciting, more of an action movie. I certainly think it’s exciting, but he definitely didn’t make an action movie. Was there much conflict between the director and the studio? Brad Pitt has said that there were countless different cuts of the movie. Andrew was always coming up against the powers-that-be, and he didn’t have the clout that a more experienced director might have. This is only his second film. He relied on his powers of persuasion, which were formidable, but he also had Brad as a producer, and Brad didn’t take any money from the film and he put his own money into it. When we needed extra days to shoot, Brad paid for them himself. He always supported Andrew. It’s pretty admirable, man. Brad is like the biggest movie star in the world, right? And he goes and does these movies? That’s risking a lot. Most other movie stars are like:Make sure the next one grosses so much, so I get so many points on the one after that.” Brad doesn’t give a damn. Interview: Dave Calhoun

Uncut Q&A: Casey Affleck

UNCUT: You’ve made a two-and-a-half hour movie about Jesse James with just one train robbery. A daring move, surely?

CASEY AFFLECK: You’re right. It’s definitely not what people might expect from a Jesse James western. There aren’t many gunfights or train robberies. But I think it’s well-made and the story’s told well, so people should enjoy it. I don’t want to underestimate the audience for it. But I also wonder if people outside of America will care about it, knowing less about Jesse James. He’s part of American folklore, you know?

He was also a folk hero when he was alive. Wasn’t that part of what attracted a wide-eyed Robert Ford to him?

Robert Ford was just a little kid when he started reading comic books about Jesse James. But people didn’t really know who James was. They only knew him from comics. Everyone lived in small pockets of urban areas, like the big northern cities, New York or Washington, and they didn’t have any personal experience of Jesse James. To them, he was only what he’d become in the comic books as a legend. When he was killed, it was easy for people to romanticise it and turn him into this Robin Hood hero that he wasn’t, you know?

Did you find it hard to see through the myth of Jesse James?

I wonder what he was really like, how special he really was? In photos, he looks like a scrappy, weaselly guy, you know? I wonder what it was about him that people latched onto? Was he that magnetic? Was he just a good shot? Was he fearless? What was it about his character that made him a legend? Because he didn’t really rob trains and give to the poor that much. He didn’t have a political agenda, he was just like a lot of those people: a confederate, who lost the war and was bitter about it. I don’t think he was like a Che Guevara, someone who really had a cause.

The film portrays him as a depressive.

I think his own legend started to consume him, you know? And he tried to live up to it. He felt either maligned by things he’d read, or he craved positive attention, so he’d leave notes on trains that he’d robbed.

The dynamic between Robert Ford and Jesse James is fascinating. Ford is like a deranged fan, and Jesse laps it up. But that changes later on.

It’s pretty complex why those two guys end up in opposition to each other, but really it just boils down to one moment early on in the film. One accident turns everything on its head. Before then, things were going as well as ever for Robert Ford, he’d finally got close to his hero, and his hero is flattered by the way that Robert Ford flatters him and so he lets him in close. Then there’s this one gunfight, this totally irrelevant thing, which puts my character in a spot where he is easily manipulated by the police.

It can’t have been easy for the director Andrew Dominik to make such a long, artful film for a Hollywood studio?

We had an enormous amount of resistance because Andrew was trying to do something that wasn’t all that commercial, you know? There was a lot of money on the line and a lot of people who had seen the movie a different way. It could easily have been much more exciting, more of an action movie. I certainly think it’s exciting, but he definitely didn’t make an action movie.

Was there much conflict between the director and the studio? Brad Pitt has said that there were countless different cuts of the movie.

Andrew was always coming up against the powers-that-be, and he didn’t have the clout that a more experienced director might have. This is only his second film. He relied on his powers of persuasion, which were formidable, but he also had Brad as a producer, and Brad didn’t take any money from the film and he put his own money into it. When we needed extra days to shoot, Brad paid for them himself. He always supported Andrew.

It’s pretty admirable, man. Brad is like the biggest movie star in the world, right? And he goes and does these movies? That’s risking a lot. Most other movie stars are like:Make sure the next one grosses so much, so I get so many points on the one after that.” Brad doesn’t give

a damn.

Interview: Dave Calhoun

Foo Fighters Add Another Night At Wembley

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Foo Fighters Add Another Night At Wembley

The first show has only been on sale for a couple of hours, but the Foo Fighters have already added a second show to their residency at Wembley Stadium next summer. The new date is on June 6, the day before the previously-announced show. As Grohl revealed yesterday, the massive shows will feature the band playing on a stage right in the middle of the hallowed turf. The band will now play the London venue on June 6 and 7, and Dave Grohl has announced they will play "in the round" - on a stage in the middle of the stadium. "When we were thinking about doing Wembley we were thinking it's so huge how do we make it feel like an intimate gig?" explained Grohl. "We are doing it in the round. We're going to build a stage in the middle of the stadium with ramps going in different directions. There won't be a bad seat in the house." Grohl added fans would not have to worry about having to stare at his back all night set up in the middle. "I believe the stage will probably rotate," he told Radio 1. "I don't want to give away all the secrets but no matter where you're sitting you'll be in spitting distance from me. Let's hope they don't make as much of a mess of the pitch as those American footballers who ruined the grass for the England vs Croatia game the other night!

The first show has only been on sale for a couple of hours, but the Foo Fighters have already added a second show to their residency at Wembley Stadium next summer.

The new date is on June 6, the day before the previously-announced show. As Grohl revealed yesterday, the massive shows will feature the band playing on a stage right in the middle of the hallowed turf.

The band will now play the London venue on June 6 and 7, and Dave Grohl has announced they will play “in the round” – on a stage in the middle of the stadium.

“When we were thinking about doing Wembley we were thinking it’s so huge how do we make it feel like an intimate gig?” explained Grohl. “We are doing it in the round. We’re going to build a stage in the middle of the stadium with ramps going in different directions. There won’t be a bad seat in the house.”

Grohl added fans would not have to worry about having to stare at his back all night set up in the middle.

“I believe the stage will probably rotate,” he told Radio 1. “I don’t want to give away all the secrets but no matter where you’re sitting you’ll be in spitting distance from me.

Let’s hope they don’t make as much of a mess of the pitch as those American footballers who ruined the grass for the England vs Croatia game the other night!

Dylan Revisits 1963 Classic For The World Fair

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Dylan Revisits 1963 Classic For The World Fair

There have been plenty of rumours surrounding Bob Dylan's recording activities these past few months. But here, at last, is some hard fact. The great man has recorded a new version of "A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall". The song will be used to promote next year's world fair, Expo Zaragoza 2008, in northern Spain. A local band, Amaral, have been chosen by Dylan to provide a Spanish-language version of the tune, too. The festival's theme is Water And Sustainable Development. Expo Zaragoza president Roque Gistau revealed that Dylan's contribution includes a spoken-word sectionon the importance of clean water across the planet. "A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall" will be heard on TV adverts for the festival, which will start appearing in Spain on December 17.

There have been plenty of rumours surrounding Bob Dylan‘s recording activities these past few months. But here, at last, is some hard fact. The great man has recorded a new version of “A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall”.

The song will be used to promote next year’s world fair, Expo Zaragoza 2008, in northern Spain. A local band, Amaral, have been chosen by Dylan to provide a Spanish-language version of the tune, too.

The festival’s theme is Water And Sustainable Development. Expo Zaragoza president Roque Gistau revealed that Dylan’s contribution includes a spoken-word sectionon the importance of clean water across the planet.

“A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall” will be heard on TV adverts for the festival, which will start appearing in Spain on December 17.

New Bonnie Prince Billy Album Sneaks Out!

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New Bonnie Prince Billy Album Sneaks Out!

With a lack of fuss remarkable even by his standards, Will Oldham appears to have released a new Bonnie "Prince" Billy album this week. "Ask Forgiveness" is an eight-track covers album, recorded in Philadelphia with Greg Weeks and Meg Baird from one of our favourite psych-folk groups, Espers. The most famous song tackled by Oldham is probably Bjork's "I've Seen It All", which originally appeared on the "Dancer In The Dark" soundtrack. He also gets busy with tunes by Phil Ochs, Merle Haggard, Mickey Newbury, Danzig and - yes! - R Kelly! Here's the full tracklisting: I Came To Hear The Music I've Seen It All Am I Demon? My Life I'm Loving The Street The Way I Am Cycles The World's Greatest

With a lack of fuss remarkable even by his standards, Will Oldham appears to have released a new Bonnie “Prince” Billy album this week.

“Ask Forgiveness” is an eight-track covers album, recorded in Philadelphia with Greg Weeks and Meg Baird from one of our favourite psych-folk groups, Espers.

The most famous song tackled by Oldham is probably Bjork‘s “I’ve Seen It All”, which originally appeared on the “Dancer In The Dark” soundtrack. He also gets busy with tunes by Phil Ochs, Merle Haggard, Mickey Newbury, Danzig and – yes! – R Kelly!

Here’s the full tracklisting:

I Came To Hear The Music

I’ve Seen It All

Am I Demon?

My Life

I’m Loving The Street

The Way I Am

Cycles

The World’s Greatest

Babyshambles Kick Off Arena Tour In Manchester

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Babyshambles Kick Off Arena Tour In Manchester

Babyshambles began their long-awaited arena tour at the Manchester MEN Arena last night (November 22), with a new tight, focused approach. The cavernous venue was far from sold out, but a plainly rejuvenated Pete Doherty and his well-drilled bandmates were in uncharacteristically professional form. The setlist was drawn mainly from their major label debut, "Shotter's Nation", and featured an acoustic interlude. There were no Libertines songs included in the set. Here's the setlist: 'Carry On Up The Morning' 'Delivery' 'Beg, Steal Or Borrow' 'Baddies Boogie' 'Unstookietitled' 'Side Of The Road' 'Unbilotitled' 'The Blinding' 'You Talk' 'Sedative' 'Crumb Begging Baghead' 'Lost Art Of Murder' 'There She Goes (A Little Heartache)' 'Albion' 'Pipe Down' 'Killamangiro' 'Back From The Dead' 'I Wish' 'Fuck Forever' The tour continues tonight (November 23) at Newcastle's Metro Arena, before heading to: Brighton Centre (25) Bournemouth International Centre (26) London Wembley Arena (27) Birmingham NIA (28) Nottingham Arena (30) Glasgow SECC (December 1)

Babyshambles began their long-awaited arena tour at the Manchester MEN Arena last night (November 22), with a new tight, focused approach.

The cavernous venue was far from sold out, but a plainly rejuvenated Pete Doherty and his well-drilled bandmates were in uncharacteristically professional form. The setlist was drawn mainly from their major label debut, “Shotter’s Nation”, and featured an acoustic interlude. There were no Libertines songs included in the set.

Here’s the setlist:

‘Carry On Up The Morning’

‘Delivery’

‘Beg, Steal Or Borrow’

‘Baddies Boogie’

‘Unstookietitled’

‘Side Of The Road’

‘Unbilotitled’

‘The Blinding’

‘You Talk’

‘Sedative’

‘Crumb Begging Baghead’

‘Lost Art Of Murder’

‘There She Goes (A Little Heartache)’

‘Albion’

‘Pipe Down’

‘Killamangiro’

‘Back From The Dead’

‘I Wish’

‘Fuck Forever’

The tour continues tonight (November 23) at Newcastle’s Metro Arena, before heading to:

Brighton Centre (25)

Bournemouth International Centre (26)

London Wembley Arena (27)

Birmingham NIA (28)

Nottingham Arena (30)

Glasgow SECC (December 1)

Magnetic Fields: “Distortion”

John Mulvey
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Rare candour from a musician in a press release today. This is Stephin Merritt talking about the Magnetic Fields album, “Distortion”. The goal, he says, was “to sound more like Jesus And Mary Chain than Jesus And Mary Chain.” I always think that Merritt’s most interesting when he’s grappling with a sonic concept rather than an intellectual one, which is why my favourite Magnetic Fields album has always been 1994’s ersatz-country “Charm Of The Highway Strip”, rather than the usual touchstone, “69 Love Songs”. More recent offerings have generally left me a bit nonplussed, though I did enjoy that last Gothic Archies album based on the Lemony Snicket books, whose name I forget. Merritt’s fathomlessly lugubrious baritone makes him a good, bookish goth – as did a hellish hour I spent with him in 1995, maybe, when he revealed himself to be one of the most deadpan and world-weary interviewees I’ve ever encountered. “Distortion” is great, though – and so much more satisfying than most indie chancers who try and co-opt the Reid brothers’ initial peerless formula of Spectorish bubblegum melody and great waves of feedback. Merritt proves himself to be a noise aesthete to stand comparison with Kevin Shields here: “Mr Mistletoe” takes layer after layer of penetrative crackle and arranges it into something uncommonly festive – even if Merritt’s voice conjures up images of the undead with a chilly precision that equals anything on that Gothic Archies album (as, actually, does the pretty explanatory “Zombie Boy” here, too). Beneath the racket, though, not that much has changed in the Magnetic Fields modus operandi – though the tunes are a damn sight poppier, if memory serves, than the underwhelming stuff served up on 2004’s “I”; some of his best ever, I’d say. “Distortion” is still, essentially, a chamber pop record: the feedback is generated by piano and cello as much as it is by the guitar. Again, Merritt’s meticulous orchestration of his sonics is what really impresses – a sense of how random sound can be organised into something so attractive that you barely notice the cacophony from which it is constructed. It’s a pretty record then – “69 Love Songs” vocalist Shirley Simms fronts maybe half of the tunes here. Funny, too: “Too Drunk To Dream” finds Merritt hamming it up, relatively, in some kind of high school musical-style paean to the solace delivered by alcohol. And yes, it sure sounds like the Mary Chain. Though Uncut is rather lucky in having one of that band, Phil King, on our staff. The other day, he spotted an even closer parallel to “Distortion”; Ultra Vivid Scene circa “The Mercy Seat”. A strange continuum, too, to Bruce Springsteen’s “Magic”, where Springsteen’s vocal on the “Girls In Their Summer Clothes” is probably meant to ape the Walker Brothers, but ends up being uncannily reminiscent of Stephin Merritt. But I digress. “Distortion” is out in January, when The Magnetic Fields promise, with reliably exacting contrariness, to play some gigs which will feature no feedback. “The Nun’s Litany” is playing now, and I’ve just noticed it appears to be about S&M, among other things. What a curious and excellent album, all round.

Rare candour from a musician in a press release today. This is Stephin Merritt talking about the Magnetic Fields album, “Distortion”. The goal, he says, was “to sound more like Jesus And Mary Chain than Jesus And Mary Chain.”

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Steve McClaren: A Rock’n’Roll Tribute

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Steve McClaren: A Rock’n’Roll Tribute

All we had to do was draw with Croatia to qualify for Euro 2008 in Austria and Switzerland… and, well, poor old Steve McClaren, he really blew it, didn’t he? The England coach was comprehensively outfoxed by his Croatian counterpart Slaven Bilic, and that defeat – to cap a truly dismal qualifying campaign – has cost him his job. Never mind, we have it on good authority (ie we made it up) that the following tunes are currently on his iPod shuffle – no doubt making him feel a whole lot better… “Croatian Divorce” – Steely Dan “Goodnight Vienna” – Ringo Starr “I Threw It All Away” – Bob Dylan “5-4-Three-Two-1” – Manfred Mann “Tango ‘Til They Score” – Tom Waits “When Euro Gone” – Avril Lavigne “(Let Me Stand Next To) You’re Fired” Jimi Hendrix “Trampled Blunderfoot” – Led Zeppelin “Mac – The Knifed” – Bobby Darin “Slaven To The Rhythm” – Grace Jones “Hopeless” Neil Young Surely you lot can come up with some better McClaren puns: email us! farah_ishaq@ipcmedia.com From Jamie, on behalf of our Scottish readers has today sent us these: On the result/performance: You Get What You Deserve – Big Star Its All Over Now – The Rolling Stones This Magic Moment – The Drifters The Sound Of Failure – The Flaming Lips More Pricks Than Kicks – Shane McGowan & The Popes Dancing In The Street – Martha & The Vandellas For Steve McLaren: You Better Move On – Arthur Alexander Aint Nobody Gonna Miss Me (When I’m Gone) – George Jones (except Scotland fans)

All we had to do was draw with Croatia to qualify for Euro 2008 in Austria and Switzerland… and, well, poor old Steve McClaren, he really blew it, didn’t he?

The England coach was comprehensively outfoxed by his Croatian counterpart Slaven Bilic, and that defeat – to cap a truly dismal qualifying campaign – has cost him his job.

Never mind, we have it on good authority (ie we made it up) that the following tunes are currently on his iPod shuffle – no doubt making him feel a whole lot better…

“Croatian Divorce” – Steely Dan

“Goodnight Vienna” – Ringo Starr

“I Threw It All Away” – Bob Dylan

“5-4-Three-Two-1” – Manfred Mann

“Tango ‘Til They Score” – Tom Waits

“When Euro Gone” – Avril Lavigne

“(Let Me Stand Next To) You’re Fired” Jimi Hendrix

“Trampled Blunderfoot” – Led Zeppelin

“Mac – The Knifed” – Bobby Darin

“Slaven To The Rhythm” – Grace Jones

“Hopeless” Neil Young

Surely you lot can come up with some better McClaren puns: email us!

farah_ishaq@ipcmedia.com

From Jamie, on behalf of our Scottish readers has today sent us these:

On the result/performance:

You Get What You Deserve – Big Star

Its All Over Now – The Rolling Stones

This Magic Moment – The Drifters

The Sound Of Failure – The Flaming Lips

More Pricks Than Kicks – Shane McGowan & The Popes

Dancing In The Street – Martha & The Vandellas

For Steve McLaren:

You Better Move On – Arthur Alexander

Aint Nobody Gonna Miss Me (When I’m Gone) – George Jones (except Scotland fans)

U2 Deny London Shows Rumour

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U2 Deny London Shows Rumour

U2 have formerly denied that they will play a series of shows at London's O2 next Summer. The band, who are due to release a new studio album in 2008, have warned fans this is not the case and they should not part with money. "There are no plans for live dates next year - so please don't buy tickets for any U2 shows you see advertised," they explained in a statement. See U2.Com for more details.

U2 have formerly denied that they will play a series of shows at London’s O2 next Summer.

The band, who are due to release a new studio album in 2008, have warned fans this is not the case and they should not part with money.

“There are no plans for live dates next year – so please don’t buy tickets for any U2 shows you see advertised,” they explained in a statement.

See U2.Com for more details.

Dave Grohl Is Ready To Make Rock History

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Dave Grohl Is Ready To Make Rock History

Foo Fighters have revealed a few more details about their mammoth show, set to take place at London's Wembley Stadium next Summer. The band who last weekend played two sold-out shows at the 20,000 capacity 02 Arena - are due to play the newly built stadium on June 7 as part of BBC Radio One's rock extravaganza. They claim that the show, which will be performed in the round, will be the biggest rock show at the new venue to date. Foo Fighters front man Dave Grohl has said in a statement: "Every time I think we can't take things any further, our UK fans prove me wrong. Headlining Wembley Stadium is an incredible honour. It's also a huge challenge and not one we take lightly, we guarantee there won't be a bad seat in the house. You have to make the most of a once in a lifetime gig like this." Dave Grohl and co played at the same venue as part of this years' Live Earth Charity concert. The show will also be the radio station's first live broadcast from the new Wembley Stadium. Tickets for the show will go on sale tomorrow, Friday (November 23) at 10am.

Foo Fighters have revealed a few more details about their mammoth show, set to take place at London’s Wembley Stadium next Summer.

The band who last weekend played two sold-out shows at the 20,000 capacity 02 Arena – are due to play the newly built stadium on June 7 as part of BBC Radio One’s rock extravaganza.

They claim that the show, which will be performed in the round, will be the biggest rock show at the new venue to date.

Foo Fighters front man Dave Grohl has said in a statement: “Every time I think we can’t take things any further, our UK fans prove me wrong. Headlining Wembley Stadium is an incredible honour. It’s also a huge challenge and not one we take lightly, we guarantee there won’t be a bad seat in the house. You have to make the most of a once in a lifetime gig like this.”

Dave Grohl and co played at the same venue as part of this years’ Live Earth Charity concert.

The show will also be the radio station’s first live broadcast from the new Wembley Stadium.

Tickets for the show will go on sale tomorrow, Friday (November 23) at 10am.

When Ronnie Wood Met Keith Richards

Michael Bonner
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The stories, of course, are pretty familiar by now. In 1974, tensions within the Faces were, as they say, running high, Rod Stewart’s increasing solo success causing much friction apparently. The situation doubtless exacerbated by the band’s predilection for “relentless, boozy madness”, as Ronnie Wood described it in UNCUT last year. Anyway, so what does Ronnie do? He gathers together some of his famous pals, records his own album and goes out on tour as The First Barbarians. I wondered last night, watching the concert film The First Barbarians: Live At Kilburn, recorded in London in 1974, how much of a good-natured two-fingers up to Rod’s own solo career the whole endeavour is. Here he is, signing up Faces keyboard player Ian MacLagan and two of the finest sessions musicians of their era, Willie Weeks and Andy Newark. Foreshadowing his post-Faces’ career, he even manages to lure Keith Richards away from the Stones. “In ’74, he [Keith] came back from the Speakeasy to get away from people,” Ronnie told UNCUT. “He met my ex-wife and she said: ‘Ronnie’s making his first album in Richmond. Let’s go back.’ Four months later, he was still there.” It is, however, very much Ronnie’s show. Keith, for instance, seems happy to hang by Newark’s drum kit for much of the time, coming forward to sing harmonies or chipping in with the odd bit of keyboard, letting Ronnie handle the vocals and guitar solos during the lengthy, but spirited, jams that each song pretty much ends up becoming. In fact, Rod does appear, to lend backing vocals to three numbers. He is, quite possibly, pissed, or at least not taking it entirely seriously, at one point sitting on the drum rise, apparently forgetting to come forward to the mic to sing his part, and when he does remember he's conspicuously holding up a lyric sheet to sing from. What with him, Ronnie and Keith lined-up at the mic, the film presents a pretty funny snapshot of the sartorial efforts of the time. Never have so many feathercuts been gathered together on one stage, waistcoats a plenty, Ronnie’s Ossie Clarke jacket bedecked with what look like crow’s feathers, Rod’s pink jacket a shocking fashion crime in any decade. And how does Ronnie sound as a vocalist? Not too bad, in the way you’d imagine guitarists stepping up to the mic would do. I wouldn’t say whether he could sing a Puccini aria, of course, but he can belt ‘em out good. What, I guess, is most interesting is the dynamic between the band. You can see tantalising glimpses of how Ronnie and Keith’s playing will eventually develop over the next 30-odd years. But, really, it’s the phenomenal interplay between Weeks and Newark that drives the music here. Weeks, for the record, is a pretty legendary session bassist whose credits include tours and albums with Eric Clapton, Steve Wonder and Bowie (he played bass on “Fame”); Newark, meanwhile, was on loan to Ronnie from Sly & The Family Stone. Certainly, compared to the kind of rhythm sections Ronnie and Keith were used to, Weeks and Newark are coming from a completely different place. These guys are extraordinary players, kicking out a ferocious soul/funk/rock hybrid, their intro to the closing “Crotch Music” extraordinarily tight and funky. You do wonder, of course, just how wise it is for rock stars with a lot of time and money on their hands, and presumably access to a large amount of illegal pharmaceutics, to embark on this kind of solo project. Certainly, it's not quite the stuff of rock’n’roll legend. But it was actually indearing endearing, clearly a lot of fun for all involved. And, conspicuously, it offered a fascinating glimpse of what was to come. Within a year of the Barbarians gig, on June 1, 1975, at the Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge, on his 28th birthday, Ronnie walked on stage again with Keith. This time, as a member of the Rolling Stones. Life, you'd suspect, doesn't get a lot better than that. The First Barbarians: Live From Kilburn is available as a CD/DVD now. Ronnie’s website is www.ronniewood.com

The stories, of course, are pretty familiar by now. In 1974, tensions within the Faces were, as they say, running high, Rod Stewart’s increasing solo success causing much friction apparently. The situation doubtless exacerbated by the band’s predilection for “relentless, boozy madness”, as Ronnie Wood described it in UNCUT last year.

Anyway, so what does Ronnie do? He gathers together some of his famous pals, records his own album and goes out on tour as The First Barbarians.

Continue

Yet Another New Radiohead Album Due Next Month!

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Yet Another New Radiohead Album Due Next Month!

Radiohead's frenetic rush of activity continues apace next month. Not content with the discbox version of "In Rainbows" arriving anyday, the USB stick of their back catalogue, and the formal shop release of "In Rainbows" on New Year's Eve, Jonny Greenwood is sneaking out his second solo album, too. Like its predecessor "Bodysongs", "There Will Be Blood" is a soundtrack movie, in this case the score to the latest movie by "Magnolia" director Paul Thomas Anderson. "There Will Be Blood" is released on December 17 on the Nonesuch label. It's an instrumental score, performed by the BBC Concert Orchestra led by Robert Ziegler, the Emperor Quartet, Caroline Dale (cello), and Michael Dussek (piano). According to the record label, it doesn't sound much like Radiohead. "Greenwood’s score is indicative of his current collaborations with the BBC Concert Orchestra as composer-in-residence, rather than his rock compositions," reads the press release. "The score incorporates material from an earlier orchestral piece he created in that position, 'Popcorn Superhet Receiver', which will have its US concert premiere in January when Greenwood appears as part of the Wordless Music Series in New York City. " “I saw some fairly long sections of the film, read the script, and just wrote loads of music," explains Greenwood. "I tried to write to the scenery, and the story rather than specific ‘themes’ for characters. It’s not really the kind of narrative that would suit that. It was all about the underlying menace in the film, the greed, and that against the fucked-up, oppressive religious mood - and this kid in the middle of it all.” Anderson's film, adapted from the Upton Sinclair novel Oil! and starring Daniel Day Lewis, will be released in the UK by Disney on February 8, 2008.

Radiohead‘s frenetic rush of activity continues apace next month. Not content with the discbox version of “In Rainbows” arriving anyday, the USB stick of their back catalogue, and the formal shop release of “In Rainbows” on New Year’s Eve, Jonny Greenwood is sneaking out his second solo album, too.

Like its predecessor “Bodysongs”, “There Will Be Blood” is a soundtrack movie, in this case the score to the latest movie by “Magnolia” director Paul Thomas Anderson.

“There Will Be Blood” is released on December 17 on the Nonesuch label. It’s an instrumental score, performed by the BBC Concert Orchestra led by Robert Ziegler, the Emperor Quartet, Caroline Dale (cello), and Michael Dussek (piano).

According to the record label, it doesn’t sound much like Radiohead. “Greenwood’s score is indicative of his current collaborations with the BBC Concert Orchestra as composer-in-residence, rather than his rock compositions,” reads the press release.

“The score incorporates material from an earlier orchestral piece he created in that position, ‘Popcorn Superhet Receiver’, which will have its US concert premiere in January when Greenwood appears as part of the Wordless Music Series in New York City. ”

“I saw some fairly long sections of the film, read the script, and just wrote loads of music,” explains Greenwood. “I tried to write to the scenery, and the story rather than specific ‘themes’ for characters. It’s not really the kind of narrative that would suit that. It was all about the underlying menace in the film, the greed, and that against the fucked-up, oppressive religious mood – and this kid in the middle of it all.”

Anderson’s film, adapted from the Upton Sinclair novel Oil! and starring Daniel Day Lewis, will be released in the UK by Disney on February 8, 2008.

Beatles Film To Get First TV Screening Ever

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Beatles Film To Get First TV Screening Ever

The Beatles' acclaimed 1965 film 'Help!' is to be broadcast on television for the first time ever, this Sunday (November 25). The newly restored film now boasts a 5.1 soundtrack and will screen on BBC4 at 7pm. The 1965 feature film follows the Fab Four as they are chased round from London to the Austrian Alps to the Bahamas, after Ringo takes possession of a sacrificial ring. The Richard Lester directed film features Beatles' hits 'Help! and 'Ticket To Ride' on it's soundtrack. The new Special Edition double-disc DVD features the restored version of Help! digitally restored. The second disc includes an exclusive behind-the-scenes documentary of The Beatles on the film set, as well as a documentary about the restoration process of the 60s film. More details are available from the band's official website here: www.thebeatles.com Click on the streams below to see a promo video for The Beatles' film track 'She's A Woman' Quicktime: lo/hi Real Media: lo/hi Windows Media Player: lo/hi

The Beatles‘ acclaimed 1965 film ‘Help!’ is to be broadcast on television for the first time ever, this Sunday (November 25).

The newly restored film now boasts a 5.1 soundtrack and will screen on BBC4 at 7pm.

The 1965 feature film follows the Fab Four as they are chased round from London to the Austrian Alps to the Bahamas, after Ringo takes possession of a sacrificial ring.

The Richard Lester directed film features Beatles’ hits ‘Help! and ‘Ticket To Ride’ on it’s soundtrack.

The new Special Edition double-disc DVD features the restored version of Help! digitally restored. The second disc includes an exclusive behind-the-scenes documentary of The Beatles on the film set, as well as a documentary about the restoration process of the 60s film.

More details are available from the band’s official website here: www.thebeatles.com

Click on the streams below to see a promo video for The Beatles’ film track ‘She’s A Woman’

Quicktime: lo/hi

Real Media: lo/hi

Windows Media Player: lo/hi

Ronnie Wood Working With The Faces Again

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Ronnie Wood Working With The Faces Again

Ronnie Wood took part in a brief Q+A session prior to a screening of his concert film, The First Barbarians: Live From Kilburn last night (November 23). During one answer, he admitted he was working on a Faces-related project. The Rolling Stone said: “I’m looking through about 5,000 hours of Faces footage. Stuff we shot on hand-held cameras, us messing around. It’s hopefully getting a release next year.” Wood’s comments add to speculation that the Faces might reform in 2008. There are already plans to release re-mastered editions of the band’s four studio albums, and UNCUT believes the surviving former members – Wood, Rod Stewart, keyboard player Ian MacLagan and drummer Kenny Jones – have recently been in negotiations to reform for live dates in 2008. The First Barbarians: Live From Kilburn is a concert film, a mix of colour and black and white footage, was shot in London in 1974 around the time Wood released his solo record, I’ve Got My Own Album To Do. The line up featured Ronnie Wood and Keith Richards on guitar alongside Ian MacLagan, session bassist Willie Weeks and Sly And The Family Stone drummer Andy Newark. Rod Stewart contributed backing vocals. The footage comes from Wood’s own archives and has been re-mastered by his son, Jesse. Wood, who earlier in the day had been signing copies of his autobiography Ronnie, spoke fondly of the concert and his relationship with Keith and Rod. On the subject of Keith’s rather dismal set of teeth, he joked: “Look at his railings. They look like a row of condemned buildings!” “Rod said to me about five minutes before we were going on stage: ‘You’re not going to sing, are you?’ I said: ‘It’s a bit late to start worrying about that now…’” The hour-long film is released as part of a CD/DVD package of The Last Barbarians” Live From Kilburn on Wood’s own label, Wooden. For more musings from Ronnie Wood at last night's screening, click here for the The View From here UNCUT blog. www.ronniewood.com.

Ronnie Wood took part in a brief Q+A session prior to a screening of his concert film, The First Barbarians: Live From Kilburn last night (November 23). During one answer, he admitted he was working on a Faces-related project.

The Rolling Stone said: “I’m looking through about 5,000 hours of Faces footage. Stuff we shot on hand-held cameras, us messing around. It’s hopefully getting a release next year.”

Wood’s comments add to speculation that the Faces might reform in 2008. There are already plans to release re-mastered editions of the band’s four studio albums, and UNCUT believes the surviving former members – Wood, Rod Stewart, keyboard player Ian MacLagan and drummer Kenny Jones – have recently been in negotiations to reform for live dates in 2008.

The First Barbarians: Live From Kilburn is a concert film, a mix of colour and black and white footage, was shot in London in 1974 around the time Wood released his solo record, I’ve Got My Own Album To Do. The line up featured Ronnie Wood and Keith Richards on guitar alongside Ian MacLagan, session bassist Willie Weeks and Sly And The Family Stone drummer Andy Newark. Rod Stewart contributed backing vocals. The footage comes from Wood’s own archives and has been re-mastered by his son, Jesse.

Wood, who earlier in the day had been signing copies of his autobiography Ronnie, spoke fondly of the concert and his relationship with Keith and Rod.

On the subject of Keith’s rather dismal set of teeth, he joked: “Look at his railings. They look like a row of condemned buildings!”

“Rod said to me about five minutes before we were going on stage: ‘You’re not going to sing, are you?’ I said: ‘It’s a bit late to start worrying about that now…’”

The hour-long film is released as part of a CD/DVD package of The Last Barbarians” Live From Kilburn on Wood’s own label, Wooden.

For more musings from Ronnie Wood at last night’s screening, click here for the The View From here UNCUT blog.

www.ronniewood.com.

Total Music Day, Bon Iver and your playlists. . .

John Mulvey
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Some thought-provoking responses to my No Music Day blog yesterday; scroll down to the bottom of my waffle and have a look. I particularly like Nigel's idea of Total Music Day, where we concentrate utterly on records without any distractions. Though realistically - as he acknowledges - that'd be as tough to pull off as No Music Day. Which was, you'll be unsurprised to hear, a total failure in Uncut, where the prospect of listening to Italian electronic library music from the late '60s was much more appealing than a sort of deadly, looming silence. Today has brought a fine discovery already (thanks to Ed for the tip-off) in the shape of Bon Iver, who resembles - as Pitchfork tried not to say in their review - a kind of soulful Iron And Wine. You can listen to Bon Iver's album here. I'll try and write something more substantial about the songs in a few days. Something else just occurred to me, too, prompted by Kris' thoughtful notes on the No Music Day blog. Kris mentions in passing that they're playing a Wu Tang Clan mixtape ("8 Diagrams" is pretty good, yeah, especially "Rushing Elephants". Again I'll get to this) and My Bloody Valentine (in response to Paul here, by the way, while I do get into most shows for free, I didn't want to take the chance on missing MBV next year. Think of it as conscientious insurance). But what Kris made me think of was that it'd be interesting to see your playlists. What have you played today at the office? I've shown you mine, now you show me yours (but don't try hyping your own bands, folks; I can spot a spam a mile off, usually).

Some thought-provoking responses to my No Music Day blog yesterday; scroll down to the bottom of my waffle and have a look. I particularly like Nigel’s idea of Total Music Day, where we concentrate utterly on records without any distractions. Though realistically – as he acknowledges – that’d be as tough to pull off as No Music Day.

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Magnetic Fields Reveal New Album Details

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Magnetic Fields Reveal New Album Details

The Magnetic Fields have now revealed more details and the track listing for their forthcoming album 'Distortion', which they announced last week will be released on January 14. The band’s eighth album and follow-up to 2004’s critically acclaimed 'i' will be preceded by the first single release 'California Girls' on December 17. The Stephin Merritt led group's most acclaimed work to date was 1999's three volume concept album '69 Love Songs'. Merritt explains that the new album title is indicative of the sound for the new material. Every instrument (except the drums) was made to purposely feed back. Merritt says: “I don’t know if anyone has done feedback piano before. The whole record has feedback acoustic piano. We put the amplifier directly up against the frame of the piano and turned it up enough to start feeding back.” The initial inspiration for Distortion was the Jesus And Mary Chain’s 1985 post-punk album Psychocandy. Merritt declares that his goal was “to sound more like Jesus and Mary Chain than Jesus and Mary Chain.” The Magnetic Fields are preparing to play several series' of short residencies in US cities to promote the new album. However, Merritt says that the band will not be bringing the album's feedback to the shows, to protect themselves from hearing damage! Merritt states: “We make records that can’t be duplicated live, and then we go out and do it completely differently.” 'Distortion''s full track listing is: 'Three-Way' 'California Girls' 'Old Fools' 'Xavier Says' 'Mr Mistletoe' 'Please Stop Dancing' 'Drive On, Driver' 'Too Drunk To Dream' 'Till The Bitter End' 'I’ll Dream Alone' 'The Nun’s Litany' 'Zombie Boy' 'Courtesans' Check out Magnetic Fields' website for more information Houseoftomorrow.com.

The Magnetic Fields have now revealed more details and the track listing for their forthcoming album ‘Distortion’, which they announced last week will be released on January 14.

The band’s eighth album and follow-up to 2004’s critically acclaimed ‘i’ will be preceded by the first single release ‘California Girls’ on December 17.

The Stephin Merritt led group’s most acclaimed work to date was 1999’s three volume concept album ’69 Love Songs’.

Merritt explains that the new album title is indicative of the sound for the new material. Every instrument (except the drums) was made to purposely feed back. Merritt says: “I don’t know if anyone has done feedback piano before. The whole record has feedback acoustic piano. We put the amplifier directly up against the frame of the piano and turned it up enough to start feeding back.”

The initial inspiration for Distortion was the Jesus And Mary Chain’s 1985 post-punk album Psychocandy. Merritt declares that his goal was “to sound more like Jesus and Mary Chain than Jesus and Mary Chain.”

The Magnetic Fields are preparing to play several series’ of short residencies in US cities to promote the new album.

However, Merritt says that the band will not be bringing the album’s feedback to the shows, to protect themselves from hearing damage! Merritt states: “We make records that can’t be duplicated live, and then we go out and do it completely differently.”

‘Distortion”s full track listing is:

‘Three-Way’

‘California Girls’

‘Old Fools’

‘Xavier Says’

‘Mr Mistletoe’

‘Please Stop Dancing’

‘Drive On, Driver’

‘Too Drunk To Dream’

‘Till The Bitter End’

‘I’ll Dream Alone’

‘The Nun’s Litany’

‘Zombie Boy’

‘Courtesans’

Check out Magnetic Fields’ website for more information Houseoftomorrow.com.

Billy Bragg Teams Up With Faces Man On New Album

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Billy Bragg Teams Up With Faces Man On New Album

Billy Bragg has revealed details about his forthcoming new studio album ‘Mr. Love & Justice’. Bragg's album, his first for six years, is due for release on March 3, 2008, and features celebrated musicians helping out the renowned singer/songwriter. The new twelve track album features his backing band The Blokes - including Rolling Stones and The Faces keyboardist Ian McLagan on Hammond organ and piano. Robert Wyatt also makes a guest appearance on Bragg's follow-up to 'England, Half English’. Wyatt contributes vocals to the track ‘I Keep Faith’. The collaboration came about when Bragg, in search of fresh rhubarb for a crumble, was in Louth where he bumped into Wyatt who lives in the town. Bragg says: “I hadn’t seen him since Red Wedge (the 1986 Labour Party youth vote initiative). He found me some rhubarb and then came along to the recording session and sang beautiful vocals to the chorus of ‘I Keep Faith’ – it was like angels singing!” Bragg is due to appear with Kate Nash at Islington's Union Chapel next week (November 26) as part of the Little Noise Sessions, raising money for Mencap. Bragg is also due to celebrate his 50th birthday at a special event at London’s Queen Elizabeth Hall on December 9. He will be 'in conversation' with Jude Kelly, artistic director of the South Bank Centre, discussing the political and musical influences that have shaped his life. The full track listing for ‘Mr. Love & Justice’ is: I Keep Faith I Almost Killed You M For Me The Beach is Free Sing Their Souls Back Home You Make Me Brave Something Happened Mr. Love & Justice If You Ever Leave O Freedom The Johnny Carcinogenic Show Farm Boy More details about Billy Bragg's 25th anniversary year are available from his webiste here: www.billybragg.co.uk.

Billy Bragg has revealed details about his forthcoming new studio album ‘Mr. Love & Justice’.

Bragg’s album, his first for six years, is due for release on March 3, 2008, and features celebrated musicians helping out the renowned singer/songwriter.

The new twelve track album features his backing band The Blokes – including Rolling Stones and The Faces keyboardist Ian McLagan on Hammond organ and piano.

Robert Wyatt also makes a guest appearance on Bragg’s follow-up to ‘England, Half English’. Wyatt contributes vocals to the track ‘I Keep Faith’.

The collaboration came about when Bragg, in search of fresh rhubarb for a crumble, was in Louth where he bumped into Wyatt who lives in the town. Bragg says: “I hadn’t seen him since Red Wedge (the 1986 Labour Party youth vote initiative). He found me some rhubarb and then came along to the recording session and sang beautiful vocals to the chorus of ‘I Keep Faith’ – it was like angels singing!”

Bragg is due to appear with Kate Nash at Islington’s Union Chapel next week (November 26) as part of the Little Noise Sessions, raising money for Mencap.

Bragg is also due to celebrate his 50th birthday at a special event at London’s Queen Elizabeth Hall on December 9.

He will be ‘in conversation’ with Jude Kelly, artistic director of the South Bank Centre, discussing the political and musical influences that have shaped his life.

The full track listing for ‘Mr. Love & Justice’ is:

I Keep Faith

I Almost Killed You

M For Me

The Beach is Free

Sing Their Souls Back Home

You Make Me Brave

Something Happened

Mr. Love & Justice

If You Ever Leave

O Freedom

The Johnny Carcinogenic Show

Farm Boy

More details about Billy Bragg’s 25th anniversary year are available from his webiste here: www.billybragg.co.uk.

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