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Sigur Rós announce details of huge world tour

Elizabeth Aubrey
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Sigur Rós announce details of huge world tour
Sigur Rós have announced details of a huge world tour. ORDER NOW: Kate Bush is on the cover in the latest issue of Uncut READ MORE: Sigur Rós – Ágætis Byrjun: A Good Beginning review It's the group's first in almost five years and will see the acclaimed Icelandic collective appear i...

Sigur Rós have announced details of a huge world tour.

It’s the group’s first in almost five years and will see the acclaimed Icelandic collective appear in Mexico, Canada and the United States later this year.

Tickets for the gigs in Canada and the US are on sale at 10am local time on February 25, while those in Mexico will go on sale 11am local time on February 26. You can purchase tickets here.

More dates are expected to follow – check out the first round of dates here:

Sigur Rós – World Tour 2022

APRIL
30 – Festival Vaivén, Mexico

MAY
3 – Citibanamex Auditorium, Monterrey
5 – Auditorio Telmex Guadalajara
9 – Orpheum Theatre – Vancouver, BC
11 – Theater of the Clouds – Portland, OR
13 – Paramount Theatre – Seattle, WA
17 – Frost Amphitheater – Stanford, CA
19 – Shrine Auditorium – Los Angeles, CA
23 – ACL Live at the Moody Theater – Austin TX
24 – ACL Live at the Moody Theater – Austin TX
25 – Winspear Opera House – Dallas, TX
27 – Cobb Energy Performing Arts Centre – Atlanta, GA
28 – Ryman Auditorium – Nashville, TN
31 – State Theatre – Minneapolis, MN

JUNE
1 – Riverside Theater – Milwaukee, WI
3 – Masonic Temple Theatre – Detroit, MI
4 – Auditorium Theatre – Chicago, IL
6 – The Anthem – Washington, D.C.
7 – The Met Philadelphia – Philadelphia, PA
8 – Boch Center Wang Theatre – Boston, MA
10 – Place des Arts – Montreal, QC
11 – Meridian Hall – Toronto, ON
14 – Kings Theatre – Brooklyn, NY
17 – Beacon Theatre – New York, NY
18 – Beacon Theatre – New York, NY

A statement also said that the band “are in the process of writing and recording their first new studio album since 2013’s Kveikur“.

It went on to say that the group “will air new songs at the shows, alongside material drawn from their acclaimed 25 year discography.”

Last week, the band also confirmed that founding members Jónsi and Georg Holm are joined in the studio and on tour by former member Kjartan Sveinsson, who is rejoining the band almost a decade after stepping away to focus on other projects.

Sveinsson was previously a member of the group from 1998, leaving in 2013 to “do something different”.

The multi-instrumentalist was not replaced following his departure, with Jónsi telling Paste that year: “We never thought about getting somebody else to replace him. I think we just wanted to keep on with the three of us.”

Sigur Rós shared a screenshot of a video call featuring Jónsi, Georg “Goggi” Holm and Sveinsson. “Two old faces and one new old face,” they captioned the post. “Three of us happy to be back together and doing what we love doing. Exciting times ahead.”

In 2020, Sigur Rós released the collaborative soundtrack album Odin’s Raven Magic with Hilmar Örn Hilmarsson, Steindór Andersen, Páll Guðmundsson and Maria Huld Markan Sigfúsdóttir. The composition originally served as an orchestral score to a poem by Hrafnagaldr Óðins and was created in 2002.

Last year, Jónsi released his latest solo album, Obsidian, alongside a visual art installation of the same name.

Procol Harum lead singer Gary Brooker has died, aged 76

Elizabeth Aubrey
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Procol Harum lead singer Gary Brooker has died, aged 76
Gary Brooker, the lead singer of Procol Harum, has died aged 76. The pianist, composer and lyricist was being treated for cancer. He died peacefully at home over the weekend according to a statement on Procol Harum's website. The statement described Brooker as “a brightly shining, irreplacea...

Gary Brooker, the lead singer of Procol Harum, has died aged 76.

The pianist, composer and lyricist was being treated for cancer. He died peacefully at home over the weekend according to a statement on Procol Harum’s website.

The statement described Brooker as “a brightly shining, irreplaceable light in the music industry”, adding that he “exhibited and developed a highly individual talent.

“His first single with Procol Harum, 1967’s ‘A Whiter Shade of Pale’, is widely regarded as defining the ‘summer of love’, yet it could scarcely have been more different from the characteristic records of that era.

“Gary’s voice and piano were the single defining constant of Procol’s 50-year international concert career. Without any stage antics or other gimmicks he was invariably the most watchable musician in the show.”

Procol Harum in 1967
Procol Harum in 1967. Image: Getty

The statement went on to add that Brooker’s “charisma was by no means confined to the stage.”

It added: “He lit up any room he entered, and his kindness to a multilingual family of fans was legendary. He was notable for his individuality, integrity, and occasionally stubborn eccentricity. His mordant wit, and appetite for the ridiculous, made him a priceless raconteur.

“He was above all a devoted and loyal husband to Franky, whom he met in 1965 and married in 1968.”

The group’s standout hit, “A Whiter Shade of Pale”, went to Number 1 in the UK charts two weeks after its release at the start of the ‘summer of love’ in 1967. The song also dominated the US and European charts, selling more than ten million copies.

You can see some of the tributes to Brooker here:

Mark Lanegan has died, aged 57

Sam Richards
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Mark Lanegan has died, aged 57
Former Screaming Trees frontman and renowned solo artist Mark Lanegan has died, aged 57. "Our beloved friend Mark Lanegan passed away this morning at his home in Killarney, Ireland," read a statement from his manager. "A beloved singer, songwriter, author and musician he was 57 and is survived by...

Former Screaming Trees frontman and renowned solo artist Mark Lanegan has died, aged 57.

“Our beloved friend Mark Lanegan passed away this morning at his home in Killarney, Ireland,” read a statement from his manager. “A beloved singer, songwriter, author and musician he was 57 and is survived by his wife Shelley. No other information is available at this time.”

Lanegan first rose to prominence during the grunge era as the frontman for Screaming Trees, who formed in Ellensburg, Washington, in 1985. He began a concurrent solo career with 1990’s acclaimed The Winding Sheet and released a further 11 solo albums, the most recent being 2020’s Straight Songs Of Sorrow.

He was also an on-off member of Queens Of The Stone Age, making key contributions to their hit albums Rated R and Songs For The Deaf. A prolific collaborator, Lanegan latterly teamed up for memorable releases with Isobel Campbell, Greg Dulli (as The Gutter Twins), Soulsavers and many more.

In 2020, he released the darkly comic memoir Sing Backwards And Weep, detailing his struggles with addiction alongside his colourful musical escapades and close friendships with the likes of Kurt Cobain and Alice In Chains’ Layne Staley. Last year he published a follow-up, Devil In A Coma, revealing how he nearly died from Covid-19.

“Mark Lanegan was a lovely man,” wrote Peter Hook on Twitter. “He led a wild life that some of us could only dream of. He leaves us with fantastic words and music! Thank god that through all of that he will live forever.”

“Hearing about Mark Lanegan passing away has properly stopped me in my tracks,” wrote Badly Drawn Boy. “I’m absolutely gutted. Met him on a couple of occasions and I was nervous because I loved him so much. He was a perfect gentleman, really kind. One of THE great singers of the last 30 years. So sad”

The 1st Uncut New Music Playlist Of 2022

Sam Richards
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The 1st Uncut New Music Playlist Of 2022
Apologies – we've been a little preoccupied with putting together something special for our 300th issue next month, hence the lack of new music playlists this year so far. But hopefully this bumper selection makes up for it. Behold, exciting new stuff from Fontaines DC, Aldous Harding, Cowboy ...

Apologies – we’ve been a little preoccupied with putting together something special for our 300th issue next month, hence the lack of new music playlists this year so far. But hopefully this bumper selection makes up for it.

Behold, exciting new stuff from Fontaines DC, Aldous Harding, Cowboy Junkies, The Smile and The Weather Station – all of whom you can read about in the current issue of Uncut, in shops now.

There are also early sighters for new albums from Kurt Vile, Daniel Rossen, Rolling Blackouts CF and Hannah Peel, who we’ve just been chatting to for the following issue. Plus the raucous return of The Afghan Whigs and a tonne of other great music that’s been helping us through the storms. Welcome, belatedly, to our world…

FONTAINES DC
“I Love You”
(Partisan)

KURT VILE
“Like Exploding Stones”
(Verve/Virgin)

OUMOU SANGARÉ
“Sarama”
(World Circuit)

THE SMILE
“The Smoke”
(XL)

THE AFGHAN WHIGS
“I’ll Make You See God”
(Royal Cream/BMG)

JO SCHORNIKOW
“Visions”
(Keeled Scales)

ROLLING BLACKOUTS COASTAL FEVER
“The Way It Shatters”
(Sub Pop)

RUBBER OH
“Nothing”
(Rocket Recordings)

MDOU MOCTAR
“Nakanegh Dich”
(Matador)

CONGOTRONICS INTERNATIONAL
“Banza Banza”
(Crammed Discs)

ALDOUS HARDING
“Lawn”
(4AD)

COWBOY JUNKIES
“Five Years”
(Proper Records)

DANIEL ROSSEN
“Unpeopled Space”
(Warp)

THE WEATHER STATION
“Endless Time”
(Fat Possum)

PASTOR CHAMPION
“I Just Want To Be A Good Man”
(Luaka Bop)

TOMBERLIN
“Happy Accident”
(Saddle Creek)

COLA
“So Excited”
(Fire Talk)

YE VAGABONDS
“Blue Is The Eye”
(River Lea)

LEYLA McCALLA
“Vini Wè”
(Anti-)

NAIMA BOCK
“Every Morning”
(Sub Pop)

TOM ROGERSON
“Chant”
(Western Vinyl)

HANNAH PEEL & PARAORCHESTRA
“The Unfolding”
(Real World)

ŠIROM
“Grazes, Wrinkles, Drifts Into Sleep”
(Glitterbeat)

David Crosby says he’s unimpressed by Joe Rogan and criticises streamers for “ripping” acts off

Charlotte Krol
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David Crosby says he’s unimpressed by Joe Rogan and criticises streamers for “ripping” acts off
David Crosby has called Joe Rogan "not real impressive" amid detailing in a new interview his reasons for pulling all his music off of Spotify. ORDER NOW: Kate Bush is on the cover in the latest issue of Uncut READ MORE: An audience with David Crosby: “I made so many mistakes that I can’...

David Crosby has called Joe Rogan “not real impressive” amid detailing in a new interview his reasons for pulling all his music off of Spotify.

Earlier this month, the member of the disbanded folk supergroup Crosby, Stills & Nash (which when completed by Neil Young were known as Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young) joined his former bandmates in support of Young’s demand that his music be erased from Spotify.

Young took particular aim at controversial podcaster Joe Rogan – a prominent skeptic of the COVID vaccine who has a $100million exclusivity contract with Spotify – pointing out widespread misinformation shared through his podcast The Joe Rogan Experience.

“We support Neil and we agree with him that there is dangerous disinformation being aired on Spotify’s Joe Rogan podcast,” Crosby, who also performs solo, said along with the group in a joint statement via his social media.

Now, in an interview with Stereogum, Crosby has expanded on his decision to shun Spotify and remove his music from the platform. He also made it clear that he takes issue with all streaming services – not just Spotify, with which Rogan has the lucrative content deal.

“Here’s how I feel about it. I think Joe Rogan is… eh, not real impressive. But I think he has a right to spew his garbage. He has a right to do it. I think Spotify has a right to put him up there,” Crosby said.

“I absolutely will fight for their right to do that. I have a right to not be associated with it. I told a friend this morning, ‘Listen man, if I was selling my records in a marketplace, I don’t want to be selling them next to some spoiled meat.’

“That’s why I don’t want to be on the same platform as Joe Rogan. He’s calling people the n word all the time. He’s talking about women as if they’re a mouth and a pair of tits. He doesn’t really represent me at all, so I don’t want to be there with him.

“That’s all I said. I said I’m removing me. I’m not trying censor him or you. That’s of course the first thing that all his fans said: ‘This is censorship! You used to be a hippie!’ I still am. I still have the exact same set of values. I just don’t want to be associated with that guy.”

He continued: “With me, you have to understand – I don’t like Spotify. I don’t like any of the streamers, because they don’t pay us properly.”

Additionally, Crosby indicated that the Rogan controversy was the last straw in terms of him personally eschewing digital streaming services (DSPs).

Joe Rogan
Joe Rogan. Image: Michael S. Schwartz / Getty Images

When asked by the interviewer if he would want his music returned to Spotify should it remove Rogan’s podcast, Crosby said: “No, I don’t want to be in there. I don’t like ’em and their quality’s lousy and their payscale’s lousy and I don’t want anything to do with them.”

He added that he does “not envision going back” to the platform.

Crosby also stressed that he’s knows that he’s financially able to reject having his music on DSPs but that smaller acts don’t have as much choice.

“In principle, I think everybody should pull their stuff off [streaming platforms] but I don’t think most people can afford to simply because even the pittance they pay is better than nothing for most people.”

Since Young issued his demand in January, Joni Mitchell, Stewart Lee and cult alternative rockers Failure have followed suit in requesting their music be pulled.

Elizabeth Fraser announces first release in 13 years

Rhian Daly
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Elizabeth Fraser announces first release in 13 years
Elizabeth Fraser has announced her first new release in 13 years as part of this year’s Record Store Day output. ORDER NOW: Kate Bush is on the cover in the latest issue of Uncut READ MORE: Cocteau Twins – Treasure Hiding: The 
Fontana Years review The former Cocteau Twins singer’...

Elizabeth Fraser has announced her first new release in 13 years as part of this year’s Record Store Day output.

The former Cocteau Twins singer’s last record came in 2009 with the single “Moses”, although she has collaborated with other artists on their own material since then.

In April, she will share a new five-song EP under the name Sun’s Signature – a new project she has formed with her partner Damon Reece, who has played the drums for Spiritualized among other artists. The self-titled EP will feature some familiar tracks to Fraser fans, including the rare 2000 single “Underwater” and two songs she played during a solo appearance at 2012’s Meltdown Festival, “Golden Air” and “Make Lovely The Day”.

The record will be completed by two tracks called “Bluedusk” and “Apples”. The EP will be released via Rough Trade on April 23.

Elizabeth Fraser
Elizabeth Fraser. Image: Patrick Ford / Redferns

Among the collaborative projects Fraser has taken on in recent years is work with Oneohtrix Point Never on a new version of his track “Tales From The Trash Stratum”. The reworked take on the song was released last year and sees Fraser’s vocals laid over plucked strings and keys, which replace the original’s frantic, glitching synths.

In 2020, meanwhile, she teamed up with Sigur Rós frontman Jónsi, appearing on his track “Cannibal”. “When Sigur Rós was starting, we were always compared to Cocteau Twins and I really didn’t like that,” Jónsi said at the time. “I hated being compared to anybody. Then I got really into Cocteau Twins like two or three years ago. They’re so good. I understood the comparison then.”

Fraser’s new release is one of hundreds of new records that have been announced for this year’s Record Store Day. Returning for the 15th time, RSD will see hundreds of vinyl, CD and cassette releases sold exclusively through independent record shops – with over 260 stores from every corner of the UK and thousands around the world taking part in the celebrations.

The releases for 2022 include output from the likes of Blur, Taylor Swift, Elvis, Bring Me The Horizon, Pinkpantheress, Sam Fender, Blondie and many more. Check out the full list here.

BMG acquires publishing and royalty rights to John Lee Hooker’s music

Cillian Breathnach
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BMG acquires publishing and royalty rights to John Lee Hooker’s music
BMG has acquired the rights to the music of legendary blues musician John Lee Hooker. The deal covers the publishing, recording and performance rights to most of his catalogue. ORDER NOW: Kate Bush is on the cover in the latest issue of Uncut READ MORE: John Lee Hooker – King Of The Boogie...

BMG has acquired the rights to the music of legendary blues musician John Lee Hooker. The deal covers the publishing, recording and performance rights to most of his catalogue.

Hooker’s publishing catalogue was acquired from his estate in a joint deal with BMG and Fujipacific music. The entirety of the rights to his recorded and performance royalties has also been acquired solely by BMG, as well as a selection of the recording copyrights from 1980 onwards.

No financial details of the deal were revealed.

The deal means that a number of parties still own parts of Hooker’s catalogue, however BMG will now take a lead role in managing it. The acquisition follows many other similar ones carried out by BMG and other large firms.

Other blues artists represented by (or whose catalogue is owned by) BMG include Son House, Willie Dixon, Howlin’ Wolf, Muddy Waters, Little Walter, Sonny Boy Williamson II and Mississippi Fred McDowell.

Hooker’s estate is managed by JAM Inc. CEO Jeff Jampol said in a statement: “As the longtime managers of the John Lee Hooker estate, JAM, Inc was happy to help the estate and BMG conclude this transaction.

“We are very pleased that an artist-first company like BMG will be the stewards of this great legacy moving forward, and we are grateful to remain in a consulting and management role of the John Lee Hooker legacy, in partnership with BMG, moving forward.

“This is a rare triple-win for everyone: the Hooker family, BMG, and for the millions of John Lee Hooker fans all across the world. We can’t wait to see, and be a part of, what’s coming next!”

BMG’s Thomas Scherer added: “BMG is proud to be the definitive home of John Lee Hooker’s music, one of the key inspirations and foundation stones of popular music. BMG will ensure John Lee Hooker’s legacy is honoured and respected wherever and whenever John Lee Hooker’s music is used, performed, recorded or sold.”

Watch Beach House perform Once Twice Melody songs live for the first time

Will Lavin
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Watch Beach House perform Once Twice Melody songs live for the first time
Beach House kicked off their US tour in Pittsburgh last Friday (February 18), and they gave live debuts to a number of tracks from new LP Once Twice Melody. ORDER NOW: Kate Bush is on the cover in the latest issue of Uncut READ MORE: Beach House – Once Twice Melody review The Baltimore ...

Beach House kicked off their US tour in Pittsburgh last Friday (February 18), and they gave live debuts to a number of tracks from new LP Once Twice Melody.

The Baltimore duo – comprised of Victoria Legrand and Alex Scally – released the follow-up to 2018’s 7 in four separate parts, with the final instalment arriving Friday.

Beach House’s show at Pittsburgh’s Stage AE saw them give multiple songs from the album – “Pink Funeral”, “Superstar”, “Masquerade”, “New Romance” and the title track – their live debut.

You can check out some clips from the show below:

Beach House played:

“Once Twice Melody” (Live debut)
“Silver Soul”
“Dark Spring”
“PPP”
“Pink Funeral” (Live debut)
“Lazuli”
“Beyond Love”
“Superstar” (Live debut)
“Bluebird”
“Masquerade” (Live debut)
“Myth”
“Drunk In LA”
“Take Care”
“New Romance” (Live debut)
“Somewhere Tonight”
“Girl Of The Year”
“Space Song”
“Lemon Glow”

Beach House will kick off a UK and European tour in May; the stint includes a headline performance at the O2 Academy Brixton in London – remaining tickets can be found here.

The full schedule is as follows:

MAY 2022

21 – The National Stadium, Dublin
23 – Barrowland Ballroom, Glasgow
24 – Manchester Academy, Manchester
26 – O2 Academy Brixton, London
28 – De Roma, Antwerp
30 – Ancienne Belgique, Brussels
31 – L’Olympia, Paris

JUNE 2022

2 – Paloma, Nimes
4 – Primavera Sound Festival, Barcelona
7 – Carlswerk Victoria, Cologne
8 – Columbiahalle, Berlin
9 – Falkoner Centre, Copenhagen

Paul McCartney announces Got Back US tour dates

Damian Jones
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Paul McCartney announces Got Back US tour dates
Paul McCartney has announced his plans for a tour of North America in the spring. The legendary Beatle will hit the road for 14 dates, kicking off in Washington on April 28. His tour will call at Seattle, Los Angeles, Boston and Baltimore before wrapping in East Rutherford in New Jersey on June 1...

Paul McCartney has announced his plans for a tour of North America in the spring.

The legendary Beatle will hit the road for 14 dates, kicking off in Washington on April 28. His tour will call at Seattle, Los Angeles, Boston and Baltimore before wrapping in East Rutherford in New Jersey on June 16.

Pre-sale tickets for the jaunt go on sale on Tuesday (February 22) at 12pm local time, before they go on general next Friday (25th) at 10am local time. You can purchase tickets here.

The Got Back tour will be McCartney’s first since his FRESHEN UP tour wrapped up in July 2019.

“I said at the end of the last tour that I’d see you next time. I said I was going to get back to you. Well, I got back!” he said of Got Back.

Elsewhere, an NFT of McCartney’s handwritten notes for “Hey Jude” recently sold for over $76,000 (£56,136).

Six Beatles-related NFTs sold for a combined $158,720 (£117,236), with McCartney’s personal “Hey Jude” notes coming in as the biggest-seller.

The Beatles’ “Hey Jude” arrived as a standalone single in August 1968 ahead of the group releasing their classic White Album later that year. The track remains a staple of McCartney’s solo concerts.

In other news, The Beatles’ legendary 1969 rooftop performance from Get Back was recently released as a live album on major streaming platforms for the first time.

The unannounced gig took place on top of Apple Corps’ headquarters on Savile Row in London, marking the Fab Four’s final public performance of their career.

Dallas Good, founder of Canadian rockers The Sadies, has died aged 48

Will Richards
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Dallas Good, founder of Canadian rockers The Sadies, has died aged 48
Dallas Good, founder of Canadian rockers The Sadies, has died aged 48. The band's label in the United States, Yep Roc, confirmed the news that Good died “of natural causes while under doctor’s care for a coronary illness discovered earlier this week.” The label's full statement read: "We...

Dallas Good, founder of Canadian rockers The Sadies, has died aged 48.

The band’s label in the United States, Yep Roc, confirmed the news that Good died “of natural causes while under doctor’s care for a coronary illness discovered earlier this week.”

The label’s full statement read: “We are deeply saddened by the sudden passing of our dear friend, Dallas Good, of the Sadies. He died on Thursday, February 17 of natural causes while under doctor’s care for a coronary illness discovered earlier this week. He was 48 years old.

“Dallas was such a special individual who is in one of my favourite bands of all time,” said Glenn Dicker, co-owner of Yep Roc Records. “We’ve lost a cornerstone of the label. The Sadies have always been the band to watch and hear out there for me. I am grateful to you, Dallas, for so many great shows, spine shaking music and good times. I’ll never stop listening.”

“Since their formation in 1994, Sadies have developed, even perfected, a style of music that is uniquely their own. Their first record with Yep Roc was 2002’s Stories Often Told and over the past 20 years on the label, they’ve released six studio albums, a live record, a soundtrack and collaborations with both Andre Williams and John Doe. Last month, the band shared their latest single, “Message to Belial”, produced by Richard Reed Parry of Arcade Fire.

“We send our love + condolences to Dallas’ family, friends and fans during this devastating time. The stage is dark today with the all too soon passing of one of music’s brightest lights.

“We love you, Dallas. Rest In Peace.”

The Sadies were founded by Good and his brother Travis in 1994, releasing debut album Precious Moments in 1998. The band emerged as frontrunners of the alt-country scene of the early to mid 2000s. Across their career, they collaborated with Kurt Vile, Neil Young, Neko Case and more.

In the wake of the news of Good’s death, tributes have poured in across social media. Legendary producer Steve Albini wrote: “Just got word of Dallas Good of the Sadies passing. He was a beautiful guy and naturally gifted musician. Opened every conversation laughing, a warm, unpretentious soul. Everybody who knew him feels like they lost a brother. Requiescat.”

He added: “I had the pleasure of recording the Sadies several times, and the down time was as memorable as the sessions. Dallas and his brother Travis two peas in a pod, speaking the pidgin English native to Canada. Bottlers, Peameal, pylon…

“Less anthropologic than fraternally generous, they let me in and as much as I feel the loss I retain the warmth of their company and am grateful. Good man down.”

Fucked Up’s Damian Abraham added: “I got to play, blaze and become friends with a god. Trying to live in those good memories. I love you Dallas. RIP.”

See other tributes to Dallas Good from Ron Sexsmith, members of Arcade Fire and more, below.

John McLaughlin: “I need structure in order to leave structure”

John Lewis
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John McLaughlin: “I need structure in order to leave structure”
On January 4, John McLaughlin celebrated his 80th birthday – but he shows no sign of slowing down. “I will not pass the day without meditation and yoga,” he tells Uncut. “It’s like eating breakfast. It’s as stimulating for me as working with Herbie or Miles.” McLaughlin is speaking to ...

On January 4, John McLaughlin celebrated his 80th birthday – but he shows no sign of slowing down. “I will not pass the day without meditation and yoga,” he tells Uncut. “It’s like eating breakfast. It’s as stimulating for me as working with Herbie or Miles.” McLaughlin is speaking to Uncut on Zoom from his home in Monaco, where he has lived since the 1980s, and where he still practises the guitar every day. “For me, playing electric guitar is like riding a motorbike – it comes easily. But the acoustic guitar, that’s like riding a pushbike in the Tour de France. It’s hard, physical work and I need to keep myself in shape. Since Covid, I’ve barely been able to play live, and I feel like an athlete preparing for a race that’s never happening. But I’ll keep on doing it.”

McLaughlin was born in Doncaster, although, having lived around the world for more than 50 years, he has long lost any traces of Yorkshire from his speech. As a teenager, he relocated to London where – by the time he was 25 – had assembled the kind of CV that most rock musicians would kill for. He’d played guitar with everyone from the Stones and Tom Jones to Georgie Fame and The Four Tops, and worked with top-flight producers including George Martin, Burt Bacharach and Tony Visconti. But despite these substantive achievements, something wasn’t right.

“The problem is that, as a session player, you had no autonomy,” McLaughlin says. “You were told exactly what to play. For a creative musician, this is torture.” So, in mid-1967, McLaughlin jacked in his lucrative session career to concentrate on his first love – jazz. Only 18 months later he found himself flying out to New York where, within a few days, he was recording with some of his jazz heroes and helping to create a brand new genre: jazz rock. McLaughlin became the first-choice guitarist for every jazzer who wanted to plug in and connect with the world of rock’n’roll, and for every rocker who wanted some jazz intensity. In 1969, he kicked off a friendship with Miles Davis, one that would
last until Miles’ death in 1991. He fronted the pioneering Lifetime, with fellow Miles alumni Tony Williams on drums, and formed the Mahavishnu Orchestra, a jazz-rock supergroup that could pack arenas around the world.

In the last 50 years McLaughlin has immersed himself in dozens of genres – North and South Indian classical music, heavy-duty fusion, Hammond funk, flamenco, contemporary orchestral music and straight-ahead jazz. Much of it is compiled in his latest album, a collection of live performances that McLaughlin has played at the Montreux Jazz Festival over the last half century. “I think I’ve played Montreux 21 times with more than 50 different musicians,” he says. “The eight tracks on this album are something of a greatest hits for me.”

What’s your first memory of the Montreux Jazz Festival?

I first went in 1971. It was already well established, but it would soon become the most important jazz festival on the planet. I’ve been playing there since the mid-’70s, it’s such a beautiful part of the world. I always loved the late Claude Nobs, who founded the festival in 1967. He was actually a chef but he was so passionate about jazz and soul that he started this festival for the Montreux Tourist Office. One man’s passion changed the entire economy of Switzerland!

Inside Uncut’s new visionary folk CD

Tom Pinnock
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Inside Uncut’s new visionary folk CD
The new issue of Uncut, dated April 2022 and available now, comes with a free CD comprising tracks from 15 new folk visionaries: Blackwaterside. CLICK HERE TO GET THE NEW UNCUT DELIVERED DIRECT TO YOUR DOOR Subtitled Sounds Of The New Weird Albion, the compilation features songs from the lik...

The new issue of Uncut, dated April 2022 and available now, comes with a free CD comprising tracks from 15 new folk visionaries: Blackwaterside.

Subtitled Sounds Of The New Weird Albion, the compilation features songs from the likes of Jim Ghedi, Sam Lee, Michael Tanner, Modern Nature, Waterless Hills and more.

1 MICHAEL TANNER
Ecce Quadragesimo Tertio
We begin our exploration into the wild margins of modern British folk with this hushed, twilit piece from Lewes-based musician Tanner. It’s the opening track to his recent Vespers album, the rest of which was recorded live in his local graveyard at dusk.

2 THE LEFT OUTSIDES
As Night Falls
Are You Sure I Was There? is the latest long-playing transmission from the London duo of Alison Cotton and Mark Nicholas. “As Night Falls” is one of its glowering highlights, with nods to The Velvet Underground and Low.

3 CATH & PHIL TYLER
The Old Churchyard
This traditional tune gets a sympathetic, sparse reworking from the Newcastle-based pair, harmonies beautifully intertwining over a sole picked guitar. Originally released on the Tylers’ To The Dust EP, in aid of East London’s Café OTO.

4 HENRY PARKER
The Brisk Lad
Mike Waterson and Richard Dawson have both performed a cappella versions of this dark tale of desperation and sheep-rustling, while on 2021’s Lammas Fair, Parker electrifies and extends it. The result is a slow-building epic that blossoms into some stunning duelling guitar solos.

5 ROB ST JOHN
Surface Tension
Recently reissued on vinyl by Blackford Hill, here’s a taster of the Lancashire musician’s experimental suite. A conceptual piece examining London’s River Lea, it mixes plaintive melodies, piano and picked guitars with Basinski-esque loops degraded in the waterway’s polluted channels.

6 BURD ELLEN
The High Priestess And The Hierophant
This new, limited single finds the questing Glasgow duo of Debbie Armour and Gayle Brogan pairing a minor-key trad lament with ambient sweeps of sound that only serve to underscore the mournful tale.

7 WATERLESS HILLS
The Garden Of The Tribe
This Brit quartet mixed trad folk with Eastern modes and free exploration on their beguiling debut, 2020’s The Great Mountain. Here’s a short, sweet and uptempo track, recorded live. As with the rest of the LP, its title was inspired by pioneering traveller Freya Stark.

8 MODERN NATURE
Blackwaterside
While Jack Cooper’s jazz influences have come to the fore on Modern Nature’s latest album Island Of Noise, there’s always been a deep and timeless folk current running through his subtle, filigreed music. This take on the trad classic, most memorably recorded by Bert Jansch, originally appeared on 2019’s Nature EP.

9 LAURA CANNELL
Memory And Desire
2020’s The Earth With Her Crowns found the Norfolk-based musician recording inside East London’s Wapping Hydraulic Power Station. She also sings and plays wind instruments, but it’s on the violin that she really excels, sounding here like a cross between John Cale and Dave Swarbrick.

10 SAM LEE FEATURING ELIZABETH FRASER
The Moon Shines Bright
A fervent collector of folk songs, Lee placed the traditional music he loved into smoother, richer settings on 2019’s Old Wow. As if Bernard Butler’s production wasn’t sumptuous enough, here he welcomes Elizabeth Fraser as a sublime guest vocalist.

11 AMY MAY ELLIS
A Fresh Drone
Raised on the North Yorkshire Moors, Ellis has retained some of that wildness in her music. Harmonising against herself on this pensive original from her recent EP, When In The Wind, she’s also accompanied by distant field recordings for a dreamlike edge.

12 DUNCAN MARQUISS
Minor History
Marquiss’ debut solo album, Wires Turned Sideways In Time is a fine mix of the modern and the traditional, with picked acoustic guitar meditations, kosmische lead guitar and washes of processed sound. The LP closer, “Minor History” starts in one place and ends up in another.

13 JON WILKS
John Riley
Like Cath & Phil Tyler, writer and musician Jon Wilks takes a sparse, unvarnished approach to traditional folk. Here’s a highlight from 2021’s Up The Cut, his third solo LP, an impressive set of rediscovered folk songs originally from Birmingham and the Midlands.

14 JIM GHEDI
Lamentations Of Round Oak Waters
Ghedi made his name as a guitarist, but last year’s In The Furrows Of Common Place documented the finding of his striking, unruly voice. “Lamentations…”, driven by a harmonium drone, finds the songwriter repurposing a piece by Northamptonshire poet John Clare (currently having quite the moment as a songwriting inspiration, 158 years after his death).

15 ARIANNE CHURCHMAN & BENEDICT DREW
The Branched Body To A Maypole
Two mixed-media artists with an interest in folklore and weird customs, Churchman and Drew released their two-track LP, May, on the latter’s Thanet Tape Centre label in 2020. Mixing traditional song with all manner of cut-up sounds and drones, the result is thrillingly reminiscent of Broadcast & The Focus Group, White Noise and The Wicker Man soundtrack.

Modern Studies – We Are There

Graeme Thomson
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Modern Studies – We Are There
Perhaps it is the awareness, inescapable of late, that life is both precious and fragile, but the fourth album by Modern Studies exhibits a toughening of sinew, a quickening of intent. The sense of urgency marks a small but significant evolution from their last record, The Weight Of The Sun, release...

Perhaps it is the awareness, inescapable of late, that life is both precious and fragile, but the fourth album by Modern Studies exhibits a toughening of sinew, a quickening of intent. The sense of urgency marks a small but significant evolution from their last record, The Weight Of The Sun, released in early summer 2020.

Since forming in 2015, the music created by this collaborative quartet has tended towards shiver, shimmer and murmur. Modern Studies blend into an unclassifiable whole elements of hazy, pastoral psych-folk and the slips and sighs of analogue electronica, alongside pickings from krautrock, Brubeckian jazz, blissed-out Cali canyon harmonies and the sweet tang of chamber pop.

Instruments seemingly named after decommissioned weaponry or tools of torture (sub 37, ms10, clock gong, saw) bubble beneath the contrasting voices of the group’s two songwriters, Emily Scott and Rob St John. The former is cool, clear and unsentimental, with echoes of the some of the great English stylists, from Sandy Denny to Jacqui McShee. The latter is rich and deep, near-gothic. Working in tandem, singing over and under each other, the effect is of a stiff, freshening breeze blowing through the embers of a good, strong fire.

All the familiar elements remain on the fourth Modern Studies record, yet they have undergone a spring clean; the cobwebby aura of old meets a more focused quest for direct connection. Opener “Sink Into” begins with an aural sleight of hand that nods towards this shift in priorities: a miasma of ghostly strings quickly dissipates, giving way to a crunchy rhythmic riff. The verses glisten, bursting out, fulfilling the promise in the lyric of the “summer sky that splintered blue”.

Not for the last time, the music edges towards the skew-whiff pop of This Is The Kit. These songs are twisty, awkwardly rhythmic, odd but accessible, featuring thrilling swoops of strings over Pete Harvey’s motoring bass pulse and Joe Smillie’s drums.

The lopsided motifs and leaping time signatures of “Won’t Be Long” recall the Kate Bush of “Suspended In Gaffa” and “Sat In Your Lap”. The influence surfaces again on “Two Swimmers”, where the connection to tidal rhythms and the cycles of sunrise and sunset suggest an affinity with Bush’s Aerial. Beginning with a savage drum tattoo and falling into a kind of campfire chant, the song depicts humanity at one with nature yet lacking a sufficiently sweeping perspective to view the full picture. “You should see yourself”, sings Scott. “Light A Fire” is closer to ’80s Fleetwood Mac and the REM of “Texarkana”, a keening synth line and ringing guitar arpeggios skipping over warm beats, low strings and Scott’s imploration to “let that magic come to me”. “Mothlight”, written by St John, is zonked-out synth-pop, dancefloor-friendly, sleek and slinky.

There are pop songs here, certainly, but a beguiling weirdness remains. The oblique closing track, “Winter Springs”, begins with isolated reverbed piano notes framed by the rock and rattle of found sounds. It feels like a song at sea, a corrupted nursery rhyme, Scott spooked yet elevated: “I feel the child in me”.

Of St John’s two other compositions, “Open Face” is the more gentle, a sad, sighing love song in waltz time. “Wild Ocean”, meanwhile, is an outstanding summation of the expansive psych folk of previous Modern Studies records. Over a drone building from spidery guitar lines and punctuating drum rolls, Scott and St John sing in devotional unison: “All keeps turning…” The dynamics mimic the drift and swell of the sea; near the end, the currents fall still before cresting to a magnificent wave.

Though the range is wider and more varied than before, these songs are bound together by the unifying interplay of voices, instrumentation and, above all, a powerful sense of connection to nature. Modern Studies remain poets of the senses; words such as “selvedge” and “telluric” don’t tend to feature heavily in the standard pop lexicon. We Are There strives to honour the wildness, and childlike wonder, of our existence.

The overarching concern of these 10 tracks is to maintain the bonds of magic and heightened sensory experience through an awareness of our interactions – however fleetingly experienced – with a cosmic vastness. On “Comfort Me”, Scott beckons the land as a lover. The song rides a slow, heavy beat, thick as treacle, guided by doleful piano chords, as the singer chases “some low sound far beyond the edges of the trees”.

It’s as fitting a metaphor for this record as any. Modern Studies are still in pursuit of the unknowable – and the signal is getting stronger.

Brian Wilson – Long Promised Road

Stephen Troussé
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Brian Wilson – Long Promised Road
Near the start of Brent Wilson’s modest, elliptical, ultimately desperately moving new documentary, the director sits Brian Wilson at a piano in his lambent Beverly Hills mansion and tosses him a few questions about his unexpectedly productive third act. “You’ve been working non-stop since you...

Near the start of Brent Wilson’s modest, elliptical, ultimately desperately moving new documentary, the director sits Brian Wilson at a piano in his lambent Beverly Hills mansion and tosses him a few questions about his unexpectedly productive third act. “You’ve been working non-stop since your late fifties. Where did this sudden surge of creativity come from?” “Well,” says Brian, looking about as comfortable as a Californian black bear asked to explain exactly what goes on in the woods, “it starts from my brain, works its way out into the piano and then into the speakers in the studio.” “Is that something you can explain?” the director enquires, hopefully. “No,” responds Brian firmly, “I can’t.”

At this stage another film about Brian Wilson may seem less than necessary. After I Just Wasn’t Made For These Times (1995), Endless Harmony (1998), Beautiful Dreamer (2004) and 2014’s biopic Love & Mercy, it’s a story that Uncut readers will know better than most: the California childhood overshadowed by a brutally domineering father, the Beach Boys riding early-’60s surfmania into international acclaim, how Pet Sounds became Brian’s own sonic Sagrada Família before LSD shattered his beautiful mind. And then his long, dark 1970s of the soul.

Long Promised Road pitches itself as a kind of sequel to Love & Mercy, hoping to understand how, with the love of a good woman, Brian bounced back to finish SMiLE, reform the Beach Boys and enjoy an extended victory lap. Wilson the director has a background in TV documentaries, and initially Long Promised Road feels as formulaic as a lifetime achievement reel, with the great and the good enlisted to pay homage. Springsteen and Elton both talk touchingly of the seductions of Brian’s imaginary California, while Don Was is on hand to fade up the individual channels of “Good Vibrations” with a beatific smile. But Linda Perry, Nick Jonas and the Foo Fighters’ drummer add little insight.

The film really gets going with the arrival of Rolling Stone writer Jason Fine, something of a confidant because of his calming, supportive presence. The two cruise around California through a landscape Wilson immortalised in song, from Hawthorne, through Paradise Cove and on to the Hollywood Bowl.

It’s Carpool Karaoke meets Twin Peaks: The Return. Brian, it quickly becomes clear, is still in a very fragile emotional state. As an intertitle briefly states, he has experienced auditory hallucinations since his early twenties – hearing violent and abusive voices – and in later life has been diagnosed with schizoaffective disorder. He seems to move through life on a precipice of panic and terror.

If nothing else, Eugene Landy’s cruel and punishing years of exploitation therapy did at least wean Brian off cigarettes, alcohol and cocaine – but now it seems he self-medicates with music. “Play “It’s OK” from 15 Big Ones,” he urgently requests every time they pass a childhood home or old haunt, and he seems overwhelmed by memories. Van Dyke Parks (one of a few key characters not involved this time round – Mike Love is also notably absent) memorably described Wilson’s music as “teenage symphonies to God”, but it’s clear they are also elaborate, fortified stain-glass structures designed
to keep the darkness out.

Eventually, after many hours on the road together, and some intriguing hints of anecdotes – Little Richard and Sly Stone visiting the Wilson compound in the mid-’70s – Fine mentions Pacific Ocean Blue, Dennis’ great, yearning 1977 solo album. Incredibly, Brian says he has never heard it. This revelation – he’s seen eyes closed, rocking back in his chair in pleasure as he listens for the first time – along with the belated news of the death of Beach Boys manager and co-writer Jack Rieley, seems to mark some emotional breakthrough for Brian. If the past has often seemed a locked room, too painful for him to enter, he’s now overwhelmed with sudden memories of love – the months in Holland, free of his father, recording fairy tales in Utrecht…

The journey comes to a conclusion at Carl Wilson’s old house and Brian can’t leave the car – “It’s just too sentimental for me.” The cameras keep rolling though – Brian alone, staring bewildered at the car stereo as it plays “Long Promised Road”, biting his lips, his eyes welling. It’s a beautiful, intrusive moment of intimacy that justifies the film: Brian’s face a rolling symphony of turmoil as he communes with his dead brothers in ancient, immortal harmonies.

Licorice Pizza

Jonathan Romney
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Licorice Pizza
Ever since Paul Thomas Anderson reinvented himself as the new dark genius of American cinema, he’s been disinclined to let his hair down. Films like There Will Be Blood, The Master and Phantom Thread are works of formidable brilliance – but they’re not what you’d call insouciant. So Licorice...

Ever since Paul Thomas Anderson reinvented himself as the new dark genius of American cinema, he’s been disinclined to let his hair down. Films like There Will Be Blood, The Master and Phantom Thread are works of formidable brilliance – but they’re not what you’d call insouciant. So Licorice Pizza comes as a surprise, and a delight.

A coming-of-age comedy set in Encino, Los Angeles in the mid-’70s, it stars newcomer Cooper Hoffman – son of the late Philip Seymour Hoffman – as Gary, a 15-year-old former child actor branching out bullishly into entrepreneurship, while falling for Alana, a woman 10 years or so his senior. He basically sales-talks her into becoming his friend and companion, and while maintaining a platonic relationship, they sail together through a series of comic misadventures – a waterbed franchise, political campaigning, run-ins with Hollywood crazies (Sean Penn as a macho actor, Bradley Cooper deranged as Barbra Streisand’s hairdresser-turned-mogul boyfriend Jon Peters, Tom Waits basically just Waitsing to the hilt).

It’s a film crammed with surprises, not least in the casting. Hoffman uncannily echoes his dad’s nervy heft, but adds a hucksterish ebullience mixed with wide-eyed gaucheness. Then, as Alana, there’s Alana Haim, one third of the music trio whose videos Anderson has recently directed. Her real-life sisters Danielle and Este play Alana’s sisters, with their parents played by the real Haim seniors. The ploy works, not least because Alana is a phenomenal discovery – creating a character at once neurotic, vampish and belligerently abrasive, with an irresistibly casual comic timing.

One of the joys of Licorice Pizza is the way that things just happen – bizarre incidents that seem to go nowhere, elaborate set-ups for punchlines that never come – yet they leave you hooked from start to finish. Anderson depicts ’70s Californian suburbia as the last hurrah of ’60s naivety, and the soundtrack – Taj Mahal, Wings, yet another sublimely counter-intuitive Jonny Greenwood score – adds to the sometimes perplexing magic. It’s a joy, and the sort of film that like a great LP – it’s named after a Californian record store – you’ll want to play over and over.

Beach House – Once Twice Melody

Jason Anderson
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Beach House – Once Twice Melody
There are moments in Beach House’s eighth album so full of texture and detail, the effect can be overwhelming. In “Pink Funeral” – one of many songs on Once Twice Melody in which the Baltimore duo make startling use of arrangements by Beck and Adele collaborator David Campbell – that pheno...

There are moments in Beach House’s eighth album so full of texture and detail, the effect can be overwhelming. In “Pink Funeral” – one of many songs on Once Twice Melody in which the Baltimore duo make startling use of arrangements by Beck and Adele collaborator David Campbell – that phenomenon begins to happen even before the strings kick in, adding scope and drama to music that may already seem improbably huge. “How sweet the sound,” Victoria Legrand coos ever so aptly as her voice enters the song and adds a further layer of sumptuousness.

The first of Beach House’s albums to incorporate a live string ensemble as well as the first produced by themselves, Once Twice Melody is their biggest effort in more ways than one. Yet it’s not as if the band were ever hesitant about granting their music a degree of grandeur. Even in the earliest songs of Legrand and Alex Scally’s fruitful partnership, there was the sense that what they were creating was fuller and stranger than the constituent parts would normally allow. Of course, as any practitioner of dreampop’s dark arts knows, an arsenal of reverb and delay pedals lends girth to just about anything. But there was another alchemy at work in the most bewitching passages of Devotion in 2008 and 2010’s Teen Dream as Legrand’s plangent vocals wended their way through the duo’s dreamy thicket of gauzy guitar and vintage organ and synth sounds.

With that template in place, Beach House were free to dial the intensity up or down as circumstances demanded. And whether their songs required the softer edges of Bloom in 2012 or the more muscular sensibility that producer Peter “Sonic Boom” Kember helped bring to 7 in 2018, that alchemy’s enduring potency meant Beach House always sounded too voluminous to ever be mistaken for wispier peers.

Nevertheless, Once Twice Melody dwarfs what’s come before. For one thing, it’s their longest album at 18 tracks. Though a few songs date back before recording began in 2018, most are newly written, Legrand and Scally being evidently as productive during the lockdowns as they were during the period that yielded both Depression Cherry and Thank Your Lucky Stars in 2015. Such a bounty is a lot to absorb, which is why the album is wisely presented as a series of four chapters. The first quartet of songs is the headiest, lushest music here. Like “Pink Funeral”, Once Twice Melody’s title track, “Superstar” and “Through Me” are stunning demonstrations of their flair for the cinematic. Though the candy-coated menace of Angelo Badalamenti’s scores for David Lynch has long been discernible in Beach House’s aesthetic wheelhouse, the addition of strings adds a swoony romanticism well-suited to the reveries of love, longing and night-time stargazing that fill Legrand’s lyrics.

That same richness distinguishes second-chapter standouts like “ESP”. But by Once Twice Melody’s midpoint, it’s clear how the more unexpected elements are key to keeping these displays of grandeur and glamour from becoming sickly sweet. One counterbalance is the flickers of acid-rock guitar that pierce through the densest passages. And with its combination of swirly synth arpeggios and burlier beats, “New Romance” is one of many songs that eschew shoegaze’s easy raptures for a chillier intensity. Indeed, however large Cocteau Twins may loom in Beach House’s pantheon of ’80s-vintage inspirations, the darkly beguiling “Over And Over” and the eerie electro of “Masquerade” suggest Once Twice Melody’s dark heart truly belongs to Chris & Cosey.

As is typical for an album that comes in such a generous serving, some items on the plate can seem extraneous. An otherwise pretty piece built around Scally’s spangly guitar, “The Bells” is indicative of the thinning supply of fresh ideas in Once Twice Melody’s final two chapters. Thankfully, Legrand and Scally have worked too hard not to finish this out without a flourish worthy of the occasion, following the album’s sparest song, “Many Nights”, with the most sweeping. But just as Campbell and his string players are about to go for the full John Barry in “Modern Love Stories”, Legrand and Scally pull it back to close the album with something more delicate. The moment underscores the possibility that Once Twice Melody’s greatness lies not in its hugeness – it’s in the duo’s ability to create music that possesses the same intimacy regardless of its scope. And that’s a magic trick that never loses its allure.

Listen to The Coral’s remastered version of “Dreaming Of You” to mark its 20th anniversary

Sam Moore
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Listen to The Coral’s remastered version of “Dreaming Of You” to mark its 20th anniversary
The Coral have released a remastered version of their 2002 hit "Dreaming Of You" to mark its 20th anniversary this year. The track is also part of the forthcoming reissue of the band's self-titled 2002 debut album, which is set for release on March 4 via Run On Records in association with Modern ...

The Coral have released a remastered version of their 2002 hit “Dreaming Of You” to mark its 20th anniversary this year.

The track is also part of the forthcoming reissue of the band’s self-titled 2002 debut album, which is set for release on March 4 via Run On Records in association with Modern Sky.

Coral frontman James Skelly said in a press release that “Dreaming Of You” “nearly didn’t make the album” 20 years ago.

“It was a song we hadn’t yet recorded during the main studio sessions, but when [producer Ian] Broudie heard it, he said it had to be on there,” Skelly recalled. “We went back into the studio to get down this angular version that fitted the rest of the album.

“I’d had the song since meeting [Shack founders] Mick and John Head for the first time, and they said they really liked our stuff. We sat and spoke about Love, who we are massively influenced by, as he actually knew Arthur Lee a bit. I just went home from their praccy room, picked up my guitar and ‘Dreaming Of You’ came out of nowhere.”

The original “Dreaming Of You” video has also been remastered, which you can watch above.

The Coral will head out on tour next month to celebrate 20 years of their debut album. You can see details of their support acts here, find tickets here and view the dates of the tour below.

March
3 – The Leadmill, Sheffield
4 – O2 Institute, Birmingham
5 – Albert Hall, Manchester
10 – O2 Forum Kentish Town, London
11 – Marble Factory, Bristol
12 – O2 Academy, Oxford
17 – Students Union, Leeds
18 – The Level, Nottingham
19 – Barrowland, Glasgow
24 – Riverside, Newcastle
25 – The Invisible Wind Factory, Liverpool
26 – The Invisible Wind Factory, Liverpool

Listen to Fontaines D.C.’s passionate new single “I Love You”

Sam Moore
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Listen to Fontaines D.C.’s passionate new single “I Love You”
Fontaines D.C. have shared their brand new single "I Love You" – listen to the track below. ORDER NOW: Kate Bush is on the cover in the latest issue of Uncut READ MORE: Fontaines DC: “The most normal things become absolutely terrifying” The song is the latest to be taken from the Du...

Fontaines D.C. have shared their brand new single “I Love You” – listen to the track below.

The song is the latest to be taken from the Dublin band’s upcoming new album Skinty Fia, which is set for release on April 22 via Partisan Records.

The five-piece’s follow-up to the record’s lead single “Jackie Down The Line” was released Thursday (February 17). First aired at a London gig last October, “I Love You” is described by Fontaines frontman Grian Chatten as “the first overtly political song we’ve written”.

Written from the perspective of an Irishman abroad who is “enjoying great personal success and a sense of cultural pride”, the subject “simultaneously metabolises deep disappointment, and swirling anger, at the current political climate as well as the country’s grimmest historical atrocities, such as the decades of tragic brutality at the Tuam Mother and Baby Home in Galway”.

The Sam Taylor-directed video for “I Love You” has also been released, featuring Chatten walking through a candlelit church before he then addresses the camera to deliver the song’s passionate second half.

“It’s standing in the centre of our beloved home country as a multitude of things are brought to tragic ends in an apocalyptic state of affairs,” the singer has explained of this moment in the clip. “That’s how it feels to me, and what I felt when I wrote it.”

Fontaines D.C. will play a number of UK live shows this year including slots at Reading & Leeds Festival, Sam Fender’s Finsbury Park gig and TRNSMT Festival.

The band played an intimate gig in London earlier this month as part of War Child’s BRITs Week.

Elvis Costello & the Imposters unveil new North American tour dates

Elizabeth Aubrey
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Elvis Costello & the Imposters unveil new North American tour dates
Elvis Costello & The Imposters have unveiled details of a new North American tour. ORDER NOW: Kate Bush is on the cover in the latest issue of Uncut READ MORE: Elvis Costello: “My conscience is clear!” The Imposters are comprised of Steve Nieve (keyboards), Pete Thomas (drums) and...

Elvis Costello & The Imposters have unveiled details of a new North American tour.

The Imposters are comprised of Steve Nieve (keyboards), Pete Thomas (drums) and Davey Faragher (bass/backing vocals). Costello released The Boy Named If – his new album with the group – on January 14 and it features the singles “Farewell, OK”, “Magnificent Hurt” and “Paint The Red Rose Blue”.

The tour will begin in August and end in September and will see support from either Nicole Atkins or Nick Lowe & The Straitjackets.

Check out the full list of dates here:

AUGUST
06 – Huber Heights, Rose Music Center at The Heights
08 – Toronto, Massey Hall
09 – Buffalo, Artpark Amphitheater
11 – New York, The Rooftop at Pier 17
12 – Bensalem, Xcite Center at Parx Casino
13 – Ledyard, Foxwoods Resort Casino
15 – Boston, Leader Bank Pavilion
16 – Northampton, The Pines Theater
18 – Vienna, Wolf Trap
23 – Denver,  Levitt Pavilion
25 – Salt Lake City, Sandy Amphitheater
28 – Thousand Oaks, Thousand Oaks Civic Arts Plaza
30 – Anaheim, City National Grove of Anaheim

SEPTEMBER
2 – Paso Robles, Vina Robles Amphitheatre
3 Las Vegas, The Theater at Virgin Hotels

Back in January, Costello stopped by The Late Show With Stephen Colbert to deliver a pair of performances including an impromptu medley with The Imposters.

During Costello’s appearance on the US late night chat show, he and the band performed a standalone rendition of “Magnificent Hurt” followed by a surprise medley that combined “Farewell, OK” and his 1978 cover of Nick Lowe’s “(What’s So Funny ‘Bout) Peace, Love, And Understanding”.

In addition to the performances, Costello sat down with Colbert for a three-part interview which saw him discuss the new album, working with Paul McCartney, Peter Jackson’s recent Beatles documentary Get Back, defending Olivia Rodrigo and more.

Costello and the band recently announced that they’ll be heading out on a UK tour in support of the new album.

The Boy Named If tour kicks off at the Brighton Dome on June 5, 2022 before wrapping up at London’s Hammersmith Eventim Apollo on June 23. Charlie Sexton will also join Costello and co. on the 13-date tour.

You can see those dates here:

JUNE
Sunday 05 – Brighton Dome
Tuesday 07 – Glasgow Royal Concert Hall
Wednesday 08 – Newcastle O2 City Hall
Friday 10 – Liverpool Philharmonic
Saturday 11 – Manchester Opera House
Monday 13 – Birmingham Symphony Hall
Tuesday 14 – Leicester De Montfort Hall
Thursday 16 – Oxford New Theatre
Friday 17 – Bath The Forum
Sunday 19 – Portsmouth Guildhall
Monday 20 – Swansea Arena
Wednesday 22 – Ipswich Regent Theatre
Thursday 23 – London Eventim Apollo

Beatles’ manager Brian Epstein to get statue in Liverpool

Elizabeth Aubrey
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Beatles’ manager Brian Epstein to get statue in Liverpool
A statue of The Beatles manager, Brian Epstein, has been given planning permission by Liverpool council. ORDER NOW: Kate Bush is on the cover in the latest issue of Uncut The statue of the famous manager, who also worked with acts including Cilla Black and Gerry and The Pacemakers, will be p...

A statue of The Beatles manager, Brian Epstein, has been given planning permission by Liverpool council.

The statue of the famous manager, who also worked with acts including Cilla Black and Gerry and The Pacemakers, will be positioned near his family’s former record shop in Whitechapel.

Epstein discovered the Beatles in 1961 after seeing them perform at The Cavern Club. He died at the age of 32 in 1967 following an accidental overdose.

Jane Robbins, one of the statue’s sculptors and Paul McCartney’s cousin, told the BBC: “[Paul] said a few rude words but we were at a family party and I had the photos of the final clay on my phone.”

“I showed him the photograph and he said ‘bleep, bleep, bleep Janie, that’s dead good like’. He spent several minutes looking at it and he was delighted.”

“I don’t know if there was an actual a tear in his eye but he was very moved to see the clay and that, I think, speaks volumes.

“When you get a likeness, people do often cry because that person isn’t around anymore.”

A date for the statue’s installation is expected in the coming months.

Meanwhile, Sara Sugarman, director of films like Vinyl and Confessions Of A Teenage Drama Queen, was hired to helm an upcoming biopic of Epstein last year.

The project, titled Midas Man, was placed on hiatus last year after it was announced original director Jonas Akerlund was “taking a break” from the film.

As reported by Deadline, Akerlund was replaced by Sugarman, with hopes of it re-entering production as soon as possible.

In a statement issued to the publication, Akerlund said: “I regret that things haven’t turned out as we had planned on Midas Man. I wish Jacob [Fortune-Lloyd] and the team the best with the film.”

Jacob Fortune-Lloyd, who starred in Wolf Hall and The Queen’s Gambit, will play Epstein in the biopic, which will chart the entrepreneur’s huge influence on pop music within the 1960s.

The cast also includes Emily Watson (Chernobyl), Eddie Marsan (The World’s End), Rosie Day (Outlander) and Bill Milner (X-Men: First Class). It’s yet to be revealed who will play the Fab Four themselves.

Filming on the project started late last year in Liverpool.

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