end of the road

The organisers of Hard Rock Calling have explained their decision to pull the plug on Bruce Springsteen and Paul McCartney last night. Yesterday (July 14), The Boss brought the second night of the Hyde Park festival to a close with a 29-song set which lasted over three hours. His performance featured guest appearances from John Fogerty and Tom Morello and culminated in two duets with Paul McCartney.

Today, as you may have heard, is apparently the 50th anniversary of the Rolling Stones’ first gig.

Six core, transitional works of Will Oldham's canon remastered...

When Bob Dylan played Hop Farm in 2010, it was the hottest weekend of the year and there seemed to be more people at the festival than the site could hold. There were queues for everything and queues to join those queues were not uncommon. By early afternoon, you could barely move for the people already there and the constant stream of new arrivals who added to an already considerable mass.

Sun Kil Moon’s excellent Among The Leaves is Uncut’s lead review in the new August 2012 issue, out now. In this feature from September 2010 (Take 160), Mark Kozelek looks back over the highlights of his recording career, from Red House Painters to his current wrestling-indebted incarnation. Words: Graeme Thomson –––––––––––––––––––––––––

This month’s issue of Uncut (dated July 2012) features Suede recalling the writing and recording of their debut single, “The Drowners” – so it seemed a good time to revisit frontman Brett Anderson’s An Audience With… from Uncut’s December 2010 issue as this week’s archive feature. Expect questions and answers on Damon Albarn, Brett’s obsession with art and The Great War, and the lure of East London’s kebab shops… Interview: John Lewis –––––––––––––––––––––––––––

Do opera-goers have low boredom thresholds? It certainly seems that way watching the production of Damon Albarn’s “Dr Dee” at the English National Opera – or at least that director Rufus Norris assumes they do.

Iggy Pop and Best Coast's Bethany Cosentino have teamed up to record a song for the TV show True Blood. The pair have apparently recorded a track called "Let's Boot And Rally", which will appear in the episode which airs in the US on July 8. Pitchfork reports that the song will receive its radio debut a few days before the television broadcast date, on July 5. Of the collaboration Iggy Pop said: "I've always liked to bite. I guess this makes me a singing vampire, does this mean I have a license to suck? Hi Bethany..."

Plenty of gold in this week’s haul, and not much better than the Duane Pitre album whose sleeve is posted above – a truly excellent record that I must admit I missed when it was released a few months back.

Speaking to Uncut around the release of The Proposition, Nick Cave conceded, “The whole thing was a struggle. So much effort was put into it. It’s the most agonising, frustrating business to be in. Years go by trying to get something off the ground – one idea! It’s unbelievable, the vision you have at the beginning is constantly chipped away at, and you haven’t even filmed anything.”