Uncut UK - December 2022

ARCTIC MONKEYS GET IN THE CAR
ROUGH
AND ROWDY
WAYS TOUR 120
SPECIAL!
R E V IE WS!
“KEEP GOIN’ KING GIZZARD
STRAIGHT AHEAD” THE BEATLES
PJ HARVEY
BOB
+ MORE!
DYLAN
A LIFE ON FLAMING LIPS
THE ROAD “WE GOT LUCKY!”
DAVY
GRAHAM
FOLK, BLUES
AND BEYOND
MISTY
IN ROOTS
REVOLUTION! RIOTS!
EUROVISION!
WEYES BLOOD
SONGS FOR
THE APOCALYPSE
PLUS!
L7 PHAROAH SANDERS
TRAVELS ON
ROBYN HITCHCOCK
PETER FRAMPTON WILLY DEVILLE
THINK MINK!
CAITLIN ROSE
ALAN PARSONS
DRY CLEANING
The new album out now

“And at the last hour of need, we entirely agreed/Sacrifice was the code of the road”
• ROBYN HITCHC
MTON OC
FR A K•
AL TER
AN PE •
PA L7
RS E•
O LL
VI
E
S
YD
•AR
ILL
CT
•W
IC
ERS
MO
D
N
SAN
KEY
OD • PHAROAH
S • THE
BEATLES •CAIT
BLO
EYES
LIN R
•W
On the cover:
OS
TS
Bob Dylan by
OO
•A
Matthew Rolston/
LA
NR
DECEMBER
BA
I
MR Photo/
TY
ST
RD
2022
IS
E
EP •M Contour/Getty
LU M
M TAKE 307 HA Images
E •T
HE G RA
FLA VY Arctic Monkeys by
M I NG • DA
LIPS • BOB DYLAN
Zackery Michael
ART of the mission statement here at Uncut is to bring you new California, to go deep into this new record. Elsewhere, Sam Richards
P and seldom-told stories from the past 60 years of music. This

month, I’m especially proud to run Dave Simpson’s brilliant
interview with Misty In Roots. It’s a powerful tale – rest
assured, I won’t spoil the details for you here – and not one
that I recall being told in the mainstream UK music press before. In many
respects it’s a story that still feels vital today, and despite the tragedies and
travails that unfold, there is something ultimately deeply nourishing about
checks in with Wayne Coyne and Steven Drozd to recall the high times and
sonic breakthroughs of The Flaming Lips’ Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots
as it turns 20.
The main event, of course, is Bob Dylan’s return to the UK this month for
his first tour here in five years. As Nick Hasted confirms, in his hot-off-the-
press report from Dylan’s Stockholm show he witnessed on September 27,
the Rough & Rowdy Ways Tour has proved full of surprises. In addition to
the band’s celebration of community and, critically, the unifying power of Nick’s piece on Dylan live in 2022, a number of our writers and a few friends
music. As one fan, Pete Townshend, tells Dave, “The music… this rose relive some of their favourite Dylan shows for us from the past seven
above the troubles, the violence and the sadness.” I’d also recommend Rob decades: Richard Williams kicks us off with an elegant report of Dylan
Hughes’ piece on Davy Graham – I’m ashamed to admit, I think this is our at Sheffield City Hall in 1965. You’ll also find a host of
first deep dive into the gifted guitarist’s life and music. Rob is helped in his musicians sharing their memories with us of touring
task by a bevy of admirers and friends, from Shirley Collins and Roy Harper with Dylan down the ages. If there is one constant
to Ray Davies. It’s another great read, I hope you’ll agree, in a packed issue. throughout, it’s Dylan’s endless capacity for
I’m also very pleased that we’re able to follow-up Weyes Blood’s Album Of reinvention. Bob Dylan and his band, in show and
The Year win back in 2019, for the sublime Titanic Rising, with a grand reveal concert. Don’t you dare miss it!
of her excellent new album, And In The Darkness, Hearts Aglow. Jaan
Uhelszki joins Natalie Mering at home in the tiny town of Altadena, Michael Bonner, Editor. Follow me on Twitter @michaelbonner
CONTENTS
4 Instant Karma! 58 Davy Graham 84 Bob Dylan

Pharoah Sanders, Peter Frampton, Willy Shirley Collins, Martin Carthy, Ray Davies Legendary encounters from Bob’s past
DeVille, International Anthem, Skullcrusher and other key players celebrate the guitar seven decades of ever-evolving live music.
maverick in the vanguard of ’60s folk Plus: Rough And Rowdy Ways in Stockholm!
14 Robyn Hitchcock
An Audience With… 64 L7 100 Lives End Of The Road Festival
The Making Of “Pretend We’re Dead”
18 New Albums 102 Films Neptune Frost and more
Including: King Gizzard & The Wizard 68 Weyes Blood
Lizard, Richard Dawson, Arctic Monkeys, Natalie Mering refines her vison with a new 104 DVD, Blu-ray and TV
Caitlin Rose, Big Joanie, One Eleven Heavy record. To be discussed: Buddhist anthems, King Crimson, Blondie, Creedence
Greek myths and the apocalypse
38 The Archive 106 Books
Including: The Beatles, PJ Harvey, 74 Alan Parsons Kate Bush, Brian Johnson, Graham Coxon
Iris DeMent, Louis Philippe, Bright Eyes, Album By Album
Julie Tippetts, Macie Stewart 109 Not Fade Away Obituaries
78 Misty In Roots
52 The Flaming Lips The remarkable story and legacy 112 Letters… Plus the Uncut crossword
As a new boxset expands the universe of of the British reggae group who
Yoshimi…, Wayne Coyne tells the story of battled injustice and inequality in 114 My Life In Music
how his band of freaks inherited the Earth the mid-’70s and beyond Alabaster DePlume
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DECEMBER 2022 • UNCUT •3

THIS MONTH’S REVELATIONS FROM THE WORLD OF UNCUT
FEATURING... Peter Frampton | Willy DeVille | International Anthem
Wisdom
through music
PHAROAH SANDERS | 1940–2022
Azar Lawrence on his lifelong friendship with the spiritual sax master
BECAME melodic with a beautiful sound; people were crying, they didn’t Southern cuisine. One day he
“I fond of
Pharoah
Sanders’ music
Pharoah insisted on showing the
contrast. Which is how life is – it
takes both sides, the alternating
know how to react.
Pharoah and I had communed
over the years, when I was with
actually gave me one of his
mouthpieces. It was beautiful – he
gift-wrapped it, so it was like a
as a teenager current. So it was a beautiful McCoy Tyner and Elvin Jones. We ceremony when he gave it to me!
around the era marriage that Coltrane and Pharoah would do shows on the same bill We did a live performance together
of “The Creator had. And out of that together and he was at the Zebulon to celebrate Pharoah’s
Has A Master emerged the choral very forthcoming 80th birthday [in 2020] and we
Plan” [from structure of “The in answering my wrote some new music for that. His
1969’s Karma]. Creator Has A Master
“The first time questions. I learned health became an issue; he had an
It was a very Plan” and the I saw him so much from him, injury that hampered him getting
enlightening period: all kinds of beautiful tones he about how he’d around. But I saw him the day
different levels were unfolding, used, but also the
play, people produce those before he passed and I’m honoured
peeling back. Pharoah Sanders is dissonance. He was were crying” deep guttural to have been so close to him.
His legacy is that he contributed so
a great ambassador for that era.
He spoke directly to the spiritual
a master of that.
The first time I saw
AZAR LAWRENCE sounds, and the
fullness and the much to uplift society. Through his
realities that we all had to face. Pharoah perform at projection of his music, he helped people make
The way Pharoah was playing The Lighthouse it was a revelatory sound. He was a scientist! better choices and started them
with John Coltrane was certainly a experience. The tones that he was We spent a lot of time together in thinking about living their lives
GETTY IMAGES
contrast. I talked to him about that using affected the emotional the last 10 years. He turned me on to according to a different plan. He’s
and his answer was, “You had to situations of the body – you’d feel a couple of restaurants here in South part of the spiritual revolution of
be creative.” Coltrane was very everything he was doing. A lot of Central Los Angeles: Thai cuisine, culture.” SAM RICHARDS
4 • UNCUT • DECEMBER 2022

In search of
transcendence:
Pharoah Sanders,
December 1970

A QUICK ONE
Remade/remodelled!
The latest Deluxe
Ultimate Music Guide
is a fittingly luxurious
Hair today: 148-page edition
Frampton in dedicated to Roxy
his Humble Pie Music on the band’s
pomp, 1971
50th anniversary.
“My looks got

Featuring an exclusive
new interview with the
band on the road and
Bryan Ferry’s own guide
to their classic studio
me into trouble” Peter Frampton on reluctant Yeah, it might be tough for

albums, it’s in shops
now or available direct
from us at Uncut.co.uk/
single…
Thinking of buying the
someone to play you at 16 and new Revolver Special
stardom, Bowie’s advice and his now 72… It’s been a long journey. Edition (reviewed on
page 38)? Strong idea.
“indefinite farewell” tour I made it before Bowie, in fact. The
story goes that he was watching Top But what are the other
I Peter. if it goes well, I might be able to go Of The Pops one day, he hadn’t yet greatest albums of the
H You’re about
to resume
your ‘farewell tour’,
other places too. I would love to do
more shows. So it’s an indefinite
farewell, really.
had a hit himself. And The Herd come
on Top Of The Pops. He looked at the
screen and went, “Oh my god, that’s
1960s? We’ve voted to
bring you a definitive list.
Check out the rundown
in our latest Ultimate
which you first Peter! Why isn’t he at school?” Record Collection: The
announced three years ago. Your famous blond locks are no 500 Greatest Albums
Given the pandemic and your longer with you, but given Didn’t Bowie also once Of The 1960s, out on
health condition, did you worry your battle to be taken save you from a October 26…
you might not get to finish it? seriously as an burning plane?
Yeah, definitely. But with IBM artist, wouldn’t it Action movie gold!
[inclusion body myotis, a muscle- have been better if Well, that’s a major
wasting disorder], everybody has their you’d cut them off exaggeration. We
own speed, and so far I’m very lucky years ago? Well were on a plane
mine’s incredibly slow. So even though yeah, exactly! In taxiing on the
it’s really affecting my legs right now – fact, David [Bowie] runway one time and
I’ll be sitting down on stage – it hasn’t said to me before I someone saw smoke.
affected my playing. I’ve played toured with him in ’87, Everyone panicked so
acoustic shows seated before, and it’s “Now’s the time to cut we rushed to the back of The soundtrack to the
more informal and lends a different your hair.” I said, “What? the plane, they open the BBC series This Is Going
vibe to the night. People just want to Are you kidding me?” So emergency slide, and To Hurt – performed by
say ‘Hi’ and hear the music, and that the master of reinvention
“Bowie was although I’d been sitting
Jarvis Cocker’s new
outfit Jarv Is… – comes
isn’t going to be any different. is trying to teach me a good sort. behind David, he to vinyl on October 21,
and I didn’t listen. But grabbed me and pushed
Your career has been marked by then nature took its
Always me down the slide before
with £1 from every
sale going to benefit
MICHAEL PUTLAND/GETTY IMAGES; GETTY IMAGES; TOM JAMIESON
unexpected turns ever since your course anyway… looked him! He was a good sort. NHS charities…
teens, when you were a brilliant Always looked after me…
guitar player who got shoved in You’ve had a pretty
after me…” David Bowie’s Divine
Symmetry – a 4xCD
front of the mic in The Herd in storied career, from Any plans for a new alternative journey
1967… Yeah, becoming a teen idol being at school with Bowie to album? I’m recording brand-new through Hunky Dory
was as big a surprise to me as the working with George Harrison material right now. No co-writers, all – will be released
other guys. My guitar playing did and Steve Marriott, then the my own songs, and I’m throwing out by Parlophone on
good for me, but my looks got me into biggest-selling album ever, as a lot already because every track’s got November 25. Among
trouble – both I thank my parents for, Frampton Comes Alive was at one to be a winner. I’m going where no the 48 previously
ha! But through all the ups and time. Surely a biopic is waiting to Frampton has gone before! unreleased tracks are
hotel room demos of
downs you have to pick yourself up be made. But who’d play you? JOHNNY SHARP
several rejected songs
and move on. I don’t ever give up on No idea. But I would want Cameron and 1971 live recordings
things. That’s why I didn’t give up on Crowe to direct – who I helped with Peter Frampton plays Victoria Hall, from Paris Cinema
the farewell tour coming to the UK Almost Famous. He’s another one Stoke (Nov 5), SEC, Glasgow (6) Studio in London and
and Europe. It was a must for me. And who started his career young. and Royal Albert Hall, London (8) Friars in Aylesbury…

DeVille inside:
on stage in
the late ’70s
Mink
condition
Stroll on! A new film aims to restore the
reputation of talented but troubled
CBGB legend Willy DeVille
HEN Mink DeVille performing and interviews
W exploded out of CBGB

in 1976 they were
recognised as one of the most
with those who knew him
best, it details a musician
blessed with remarkable
Willy and Toots DeVille
exciting bands on the Lower East talent yet cursed by wildly in Times Square, New
Side. Led by Willy DeVille, a stick self-destructive behaviour. York City, 1977
insect with the voice of an angel and “I saw it as an injustice that
the temperament of a devil, Mink an artist as talented as Willy
DeVille mixed stripped-back rock was totally forgotten – at least in non-romantic times like the CBGB Amazed! He said, ‘Willy, I’m gonna
with Latin and R&B flavours, the US,” says director Larry Locke. punk days. He certainly had his work with you. We’re gonna make it
creating a music that mirrored NYC’s “A few weeks after Willy died there issues, like Johnny Thunders and happen.’ But Willy had no manager
then-mean streets. Tours opening was a memorial concert in NYC many others. He could be his own and didn’t want to work for it.”
for Elvis Costello and Rockpile consisting of his band members worst enemy and struggled until the “What Willy is about,” concludes
demonstrated a potent band with a from over the years. Crispin Cioe, day he died. But he never let it stop Locke, “is deep feeling, a lot of it
magnetic vocalist, while everyone who played sax for Willy, was him from making music.” painful. A yearning that, if allowed,
from Nick Kent to Tom Waits, Mick in the group. During a break, Paul Indeed, DeVille’s final album, will have a great effect on you.
Jagger and Bob Dylan McCartney came up 2008’s Pistola, is among his Somehow everything accumulated
considered Willy a to Crispin and said, ‘I strongest. Sober, Toots-free and into shaping him as a deeper artist
formidable talent. Yet know Willy’s music. focused, he was considering later in his life. To me, that is what
when DeVille died of “Willy was a “Spanish Stroll” was returning to play British dates made him unique.” Locke hopes
cancer in August a hit in the UK. I before cancer took hold. Freddy Heaven Stood Still will awaken the
2009 he was a
romantic, always liked him Koella, who played guitar so well world to one of American music’s
forgotten figure, at often in very very much.’ That with DeVille that Bob Dylan most overlooked figures. “Willy’s
least in the US and gave me the courage subsequently dead, but his music lives. Let’s
UK (he retained a
non-romantic to start.” hired him, says, celebrate this.”
sizeable following in times” Back in the ’80s, “Willy, with all his GARTH CARTWRIGHT
continental Europe). many dismissed excesses, had a
DeVille left a legacy
LARRY LOCKE DeVille as just very good heart Heaven Stood Still
of 14 studio albums – another wasted and was a truly screens at this
the first six as Mink DeVille, the next talent. A monstrous heroin habit, great singer. I’m year’s Doc’N Roll
eight as a solo artist – which is only surly personality and a wife called still pissed that Film Festival from
now beginning to be properly Toots who liked to pull switchblades, Americans never Oct 27 to Nov 13,
reappraised. A documentary film, meant he alienated journalists, got him. Once we alongside films
Heaven Stood Still: The Incarnations record labels, musicians and fans. did a festival in about Damo Suzuki,
Of Willy DeVille, is getting its world Locke acknowledges this but insists Austria, opening Thelonious Monk
EBET ROBERTS
premiere at London’s Doc’N Roll DeVille’s talent, no matter how bad for Neil Young, and Cymande. See
film festival in November and, his behaviour, kept developing. and Neil was docnrollfestival.com
through footage of DeVille “Willy was a romantic, often in very amazed. for full listings

Us Anthem (main
pic): Jeff Parker;
(right) Angel Bat
Dawid; (below)
Ben LaMar Gay
“We call it ‘Chicago-born’”

How International Anthem grew from a ex-Tortoise guitarist Jeff Parker, and
Tom Skinner (currently playing
farther than that, to jazz: in the 1920s,
Chicago was a place for innovation.
Windy City backroom to become the drums in The Smile with Thom Sometimes people hear that word
global go-to label for new and leftfield jazz Yorke and Jonny Greenwood). Most
of them have been labelled jazz, but
‘improvised’ and assume that the
musician is not taking whatever
HENEVER people ask release the live recordings they McNiece insists that’s not wholly they’re doing seriously, but this is
“W me how to start a
record label, I always
tell them, ‘Go get a bartending job
made in the Curio backroom. “We
all thought this would be a passion
project,” admits McNiece. “We
accurate. Each artist mixes
disparate styles, including avant-
garde noise, hip-hop, Latin funk
actually very intentional music.”
How intentional? In These Times,
the latest album by Makaya
somewhere.’” That’s sage advice figured we’d support some artists and whatever else is at hand. McCraven, has been in the works
from Scottie McNiece, co-founder of we loved and would never make “People continually label us jazz, since before the label even existed.
the Chicago-based International any money. We’re not rich, but which is fine,” says McNiece. “If it The drummer and composer was one
Anthem Recording Company, which we’re in a much different place of the first musicians McNiece booked
has risen over the last eight years now than we were a few years for his free jazz series, and McCraven
to become probably the most ago. We’re experiencing a level of has been making and manipulating
important label around for new jazz sustainability and growth that we
“I’ve worked with live recordings for the label ever since
and improvisational music. At the never, ever thought was possible.” a lot of these then. “It’s the culmination of the
beginning of the 2010s, Since their first release in music I’ve been working on for
McNiece was mixing 2014 (Rob Mazurek’s
musicians for International Anthem,” he says. “I’ve
drinks at a Alternate Moon years, and we’ve worked with a lot of these musicians
downtown bar Cycles), IA’s roster for years and years, and we’ve built
called Curio and has expanded
built deep bonds deep bonds and connections. So it’s a
organising to include and connections” very personal record, but it’s also a
weekly free jazz an array of communal record.”
showcases in adventurous
MAKAYA McCRAVEN Although rooted in local history,
the backroom. artists, the label draws from scenes and
“It was the including keeps going the way it has, though, sources well beyond the Windy City.
beginning of that clarinetist Angel people’s idea of ‘jazz’ is going to be Says McNiece, “We call it ‘Chicago-
wave of everyone Bat Dawid, very broad. We work with a lot of born’ because it was born from the
getting into craft artists who came up through the music community here. But we also
cocktails. Musicians jazz tradition, and we always will. called it International Anthem. It’s
would come in and I would Scottie McNiece But it’s not the only thing they do.” about everywhere. We want to keep
shake them a couple of drinks and David Allen What unites these artists is their expanding and working with people
Above: Makaya
before they played. I think that’s McCraven emphasis on improvisation, for regardless of where they’re from.”
ALEJANDRO AYALA; LEE ANNE SCHMITT
why they started to like me!” playing in the moment and not STEPHEN DEUSNER
Launching a label for always knowing where they’re
improvisational music took a lot headed – an approach that has deep International Anthem Presents
of improvisation. Neither McNiece roots in the label’s hometown. Chicago X London as part of the
(a drummer in his spare time) nor “Chicago has been a breeding EFG London Jazz Festival at the
co-founder David Allen (a live ground for everything we do,” says Barbican on November 12,
engineer) had any experience in McNiece. “There was the post-rock featuring Alabaster DePlume,
the music industry, but they scene of the ’90s, which Jeff Parker Angel Bat Dawid, Ben LaMar Gay
devised International Anthem to was part of. But it goes back even and Jeff Parker

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01.04 MUSIC HALL OF WILLIAMSBURG
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Helen Ballentine:
“I do have an
aggressive nature”
UNCUT PLAYLIST
On the stereo this month...
THE MURDER CAPITAL
“A Thousand Lives” HUMAN SEASON
From their forthcoming second
LP, Gigi’s Recovery, the Dublin
quintet deliver meaningful
big-room rock with none of the
bombast. Exciting times ahead…
NATHAN SALSBURG
Landwerk No 3 NO QUARTER
Another collection of uncanny, time-
travelling reveries, Salsburg adding
crystalline guitar work to scratchy loops
of century-old 78s.
I’M BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN
NEW “Do I Love You (Indeed I Do)” COLUMBIA
HERE The Boss goes full “Rosalita” on a storming
version of Frank Wilson’s northern soul
staple, a highlight of his new covers album
Only The Strong Survive.
Skullcrusher
Definitely not a thrash the music. Among the more unexpected
MONTPARNASSE
MUSIQUE
Archeology REAL WORLD
Congotronics evolves again,
with members of Konono No 1,
influences the pair bonded over was Avicii. “We Kasai Allstars and Mbongwana
metal band – but possibly had to have a little Avicii moment in every song,” Star blessing this beat-driven blowout.
laughs Ballentine – and while the work of the late
just as intense Swedish EDM producer isn’t the most obvious
LCD SOUNDSYSTEM
“New Body Rhumba” COLUMBIA/DFA
ELEN Ballentine is not yet sick of jumping-off point, there’s a big difference in tone
H questions about the name she chose for

her recording project. In fact, the US
singer-songwriter – who releases her deceptively
and texture between the album and the simpler,
softer songs of the Skullcrusher EPs. “Window
Somewhere” opens with an ambient electronic
“I need a bit of shape and tone” complains
James Murphy archly on LCD’s first
new music in five years, as a classic
dance-punk frug gradually assumes
delicate music as Skullcrusher – actively passage, subtle beats underpin “Whatever Fits U2-sized proportions.
welcomes them. “Skullcrusher allows me to Together” and found sounds proliferate.
speak about the project in a context that, had I They recorded at Chicken Shack studio in MARY ELIZABETH REMINGTON
used my own name, I don’t think would be upstate New York, close to that childhood home In Embudo LOOSE
Those selfless Big Thief buccaneers
happening,” she explains. “I like the idea of using whose presence permeates the record. “When I
continue to do great work, fleshing out
this violent-sounding thing for music that would was really little and my parents were separating, – ever so gently – idiosyncratic fireside
otherwise be seen as very light and soft and they would have their most serious conversations folksongs from an intriguing new talent.
pretty, when a lot of these songs are about power in the middle of the night, and I would wake up
and anger and aggression.” and try to listen. I developed insomnia and JEFF PARKER
The Skullcrusher name actually comes from recurring nightmares. So in my memories it’s as Mondays At The Enfield Tennis
a term that Ballentine and a friend used for the though there are two sides of my house, and I Academy AGUIRRE
shoes they used to wear as “tiny women going to think a lot of that is present in the album: how Four long sides of warmly exploratory
techno shows – but it’s also about challenging the your memories of childhood can be beautiful and improv bliss, recorded live at Infinite
Jest’s sporting dystopia (aka a bar in LA’s
perceptions of people who expect certain things nostalgic and warm, but there’s a darker side too.”
Highland Park).
from you. I don’t want to say that I’m a violent Nowhere is this dichotomy more apparent than
person, but I do have an aggressive nature, and on the title track – a song which actually appears TREVOR BEALES
even though the songs come out sounding softer, twice, as if bookending the record. Opener “They Fireside StoriesBASIN ROCK
they’re still powerful.” Quiet The Room” is haunted and graceful, with Ace Todmorden label makes a significant
This idea of looking behind the obvious feeds Ballentine’s layered vocals and gently strummed discovery on its own doorstep: a superb
into the debut Skullcrusher album, on melody emerging from a hiss of static. cache of ‘loner folk’ songs recorded
which Ballentine interrogates Penultimate track “Quiet The Room” in the early-’70s by Hebden Bridge’s
I’M YOUR FAN answer to Nick Drake.
memories of her childhood in New is a carnival mirror image: it was the
York’s Westchester County. Quiet The first song written for the album, on
ETCETERAL Rhizome TAK:TIL
ANGELA RICCIARDI; SEAN MATHIS/GETTY IMAGES FOR SXSW
Room is, she says, her attempt to piano, Ballentine’s voice closer to the From Slovenia, an irresistible
capture the full, complex picture of listener than it has ever been. splurge of jazz sax, krautrock
that time: the anxiety and loneliness “The two versions mark the passage grooves and heavy modular
as much as the innocence and beauty. of time,” she explains. “I’m revisiting doom that should excite fans
Producer Andrew Sarlo – of the first the words at a different time of my of Bent Arcana, Holden/Zimpel
four Big Thief albums – joined life. A song – or one recording of it – is and The Comet Is Coming.
Ballentine and partner/collaborator “Helen’s songs just one kind of temporal experience.
Noah Weinman for the album, in a feel like that exact There are many different iterations of VIOLATORS OF THE
departure from her previous home- moment when a song, and even if you perform it a
ENGLISH LANGUAGE
the seasons Violators Of The English Language
recorded EPs. Sarlo, she says, shared change: new, but million times, every one is going to HYPOCRITICAL BEATDOWN
her interest in “moving more towards very familiar, be different.” LISA-MARIE FERLA Old-school beats and droll Manc raps
a more experimental electronic comforting and from Andy Votel’s crew: “When you’re
sound”, using Pro Tools, plugins and necessary” Quiet The Room is released by going wild in the clubs/I’m drinking mild
samples to distort and add depth to Gia Margaret Secretly Canadian on October 14 in the pubs…”

CARGO COLLECTIVE
FENELLA GOAT JULIAN COPE TWAIN

THE METALLIC INDEX OH DEATH ENGLAND EXPECTORATES NOON
FIRE RECORDS LP ROCKET RECORDINGS LP / CD HEAD HERITAGE CD KEELED SCALES 2LP / CD
Jane Weavers experimental ensemble in collaboration Goat – the masked psychedelic collective from Sweden England Expectorates, cough splutter! A brand new Twain’s new album Noon is a completely analog
with Peter Philipson & Raz Ullah. Fenella returns with return with their first album of new music since 2016. album of 13 new songs from our nation’s favourite experience that marries nostalgic warmth with
a hallucinogenic excursion into ambient textures & ‘Oh Death’ sees the band at their fuzziest, funkiest Wrong-Righter… this is the Archdrude at his most existential beauty. Twain has shared stages with Big
hypnagogic drones. “Up there with Weaver’s best, most best...’do the dance’! succinct, tripped-out, punky, blasted and beautiful. Thief, Courtney Marie Andrews, and Langhorne Slim.
creative work” All Music
MOTEL RADIO ABRAXAS THE LEAF LIBRARY DARREN HAYMAN

THE GARDEN MONTE CARLO LIBRARY MUSIC VOLUME ONE YOU WILL NOT DIE
SINGLE LOCK RECORDS LP / CD SUICIDE SQUEEZE LP / CD WHERE ITS AT IS WHERE YOU ARE 2LP FIKA RECORDINGS 2LP / 2CD
The Garden is where indie meets folksy, using a In a 12-song span, the duo weave patterns of Cumbia A sixteen track album collecting the North London A much slower and more brooding voyage through
kaleidoscope of synths and pedals. Pretty, optimistic dancehall stylings by way of Uruguayan born, Carolina dronepop band’s 7” singles, one-offs and compilation similar waters to 2020’s Home Time. It is a seductive,
melodic rock is a saturated field, but Motel Radio does it Faruolo (ex-Los Bitchos) with Danny Lee Blackwell’s tracks spanning the first 14 years of the group’s soulful collection of songs that sits among Darren’s
with class and care. (Night Beats) desperado R&B. existence. most emotive and intelligent work.
SKINSHAPE SAY SHE SHE TENCI OLD FIRE

NOSTALGIA PRISM A SWOLLEN RIVER, VOIDS
LEWIS RECORDINGS LP / CD KARMA CHIEF RECORDS LP / CD A WELL OVERFLOWING WESTERN VINYL 2LP / CD
Skinshape’s seventh album features the singles ‘High The highly anticipated debut LP from Say She She, the KEELED SCALES LP / CD Featuring vocals by Bill Callahan, Adam Torres, and Julia
Tide, Storm Rising’, ‘Theme For Lazarus’ and ‘Turn Away’. all female discodelic soul band that will transport you Tenci’s 2nd album follows their critically-acclaimed Holter, Voids spans baroque dream-pop, filmic ambient,
Will Dorey creates epic soundscapes and pastoral with their dreamy harmonies, catchy hooks and up 2020 debut My Heart Is An Open Field. Pitchfork wrote drones, avant-country, and even spiritual jazz, all
sounds all touched by the ‘Skinshape’ sound. tempo grooves! “Quietly eludes convention & expectation, creating its seared by the West Texas sun.
own hermetic world.”
FAUNESS GHOST FUNK ORCHESTRA DAWN RICHARD ARCHERS OF LOAF

THE GOLDEN ASS A NEW KIND OF LOVE AND SPENCER ZAHN REASON IN DECLINE
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The debut album from Fauness arrives in the form of Each song on Ghost Funk Orchestra’s 3rd album resonates like MERGE RECORDS LP / CD This is 30 years of unfettered chemistry & creativity
The Golden Ass - 10 alternative pop songs that see the soundtrack to a scene from an imaginary movie. The music Dawn Richard and Spencer Zahn come together in a new reawakened. This is a document of four gentlemen who
acoustic and electronic elements gently combine. could score a romantic drama, an action thriller, or a modern collaboration that sets Richard’s vocal melodies in a vast helped redefine rock ’n’ roll in the 1990s coming back
Listen and be carried on a mythological odyssey across twist on a classic film noir... orchestral landscape. smarter & stronger than ever.
mountains, cities and seas.
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Contains
Multitudes
15 tracks of the month’s best new music
1 BIG JOANIE extensive feature with Mering
Confident Man on page 68.
We start this month with a punky,
synthy cut from Back Home, the 5 RAYLAND BAXTER
new album from London’s Graffiti Street
righteous feminist trio – on This Nashville polymath’s
Thurston Moore’s own Daydream fourth LP perfects his brand of
Library Series label, of course. We psychedelic soul, with help from
review the album and speak to some of Alabama Shakes and
Stephanie Phillips on page 30. even his late father, Bucky
Baxter. “Graffiti Street” is a
deliciously modern take on a
vintage style.
6 BILL NACE
The Giant
Best known for his work in Body/
Head alongside Kim Gordon, length on page 18. Here’s one
Nace also makes his own records, stunning half of the krautrockin’
torturing his guitar into brave new Laminated Denim.
spaces. His new album Through A
Room is a hallucinatory triumph, 9 AOIFE NESSA FRANCES
uneasy listening taken to Back To Earth
transcendent levels. The Dublin singer-songwriter is
back with her second album
7 CAITLIN ROSE Protector, inspired by County Clare,
Nobody’s Sweetheart synths and dreams. “XTC’s
It’s been almost a decade since Skylarking heard through heavy-
Macie Rose’s last album, The Stand-In, but sedation fog,” we say on page 26.
Stewart she’s returning now with Cazimi, a One Eleven
slick, boisterous take on modern 10 OLD FIRE (FEATURING Heavy
2 MACIE STEWART Americana, borne aloft by BILL CALLAHAN)
Maya, Please swaggering cuts like this. It’s our Corpus
Mouthful Of Glass is the debut Americana Album Of The Month On his new album Voids, John 13 MORTON VALENCE
album from Stewart, serial Chicago on page 28. Mark Lapham has enlisted some Together Through
collaborator and half of Finom impressive guests to provide vocals The Rain
(formerly known as Ohmme). A 8 KING GIZZARD & THE to his cinematic, spiritual Robert Jessett and Anne Gilpin have
spiky acoustic lament, like much of LIZARD WIZARD Americana drones; Bill Callahan struck gold with their latest, self-
the record it’s enhanced by stellar, Hypertension lends his thoughts to this particular titled LP, recorded with producer
sweeping strings. Read more on 15 minutes long, this is just a cosmic, jazzy meditation. and pedal-steel maestro BJ Cole.
page 34. small taste of the three albums Here’s the closer, a fittingly
the Melbourne band are releasing 11 ANGELINE MORRISON plaintive end to this irresistibly
3 PERSONAL TRAINER in one month – all reviewed at Black John moody album.
Texas In The Kitchen Morrison explores the folk voices of
Hailed by Stephen Malkmus, this historic black Britain on her new 14 DERYA YILDIRIM
Amsterdam septet transmit from album, The Sorrow Songs, casting a & GRUP ŞIMŞEK
some parallel-universe ’90s to light on tales that have been largely Yeni Yürekle
thrilling effect on new album Big ignored. Here’s a highlight, the singer Anatolian psych-folk is more widely
Love Blanket. Wonky, angular gradually whipped into a dance by a known now than ever, but there’s
and noisy, this mini-epic finds chorus and fiddle. Morrison chats still much to discover in this Berlin-
frontman Willem Smit on gloriously about the project on page 32. based Turkish collective and their
sulky form. new album, Dost 2. Here’s a fleet-
12 ONE ELEVEN HEAVY footed, pleasingly retro waltz
4 WEYES BLOOD Fruit Loops as a taster.
Grapevine Another shape-shifting epic from
And In The Darkness, Hearts Aglow these Anglo-American cosmic- 15 HONEY HARPER
is Natalie Mering’s new magnum rockers. Taken from their new Hard To Make A Living
opus, her follow-up to 2019’s LP, Poolside, “Fruit Loops” moves While William Fussell’s music is
excellent Titanic Rising. from languid Southern rock to taut undeniably retro, it packs a punch,
“Grapevine” is as sumptuous and new wave and even Tropicalia with the ghostly country of new
strange as you might imagine, with shimmy over eight and a half album Honey Harper & The Infinite
ASH DYE
classic LA vibes stretched and Caitlin minutes. The album’s reviewed Sky elevated by the greater role of
transformed. Check out our Rose on page 33. keyboardist Alana Pagnutti.

• WILL OF THE PEOPLE •
A COLLECTION OF B-SIDES, RARITIES AND REMIXES

COMPILED BY PAUL WELLER
INCLUDES THE COVER VERSION OF THE BEATLES‘ ‘BIRTHDAY’,
THE REMIX OF ‘COSMIC FRINGES’ BY THE PET SHOP BOYS PLUS MUCH MORE.
AVAILABLE ACROSS 3LP, 3CD & DIGITALLY
OUT 28TH OCTOBER
The long and
shirt of it:
Hitchcock
in 2022
“For me, life

veers between
the inane and
profound, the
banal and the
terrifying”

AN AUDIENCE WITH...
Robyn
Hitchcock
E
VEN on London’s teeming Bay is still unbeatable. A few days ago
Commercial Street, Robyn As the singular psych-folk it was cloudy, so you could see the
Hitchcock cuts a conspicuous
figure: imposingly tall and
troubadour releases his plesiosaurs coming out of the water and
the pterodactyls swooping around the
clad in a brightly patterned
Paul Smith shirt, today he’s joined by his
22nd album with help from headland and over the ice cream van…
Then, yesterday, all that was left were
partner, singer-songwriter Emma Swift,
and their Cavalier puppy Daphne. Basking
famous friends, he answers these little flies and the sun, and people
casting very bright shadows, like one of
in the late summer sun, fresh from a your pressing enquiries those Dalí paintings. It becomes like a
trip to his usual home in Nashville, he’s dream, wandering up and down Compton,
delighted to be back in the UK. Interview by TOM PINNOCK
reinhabiting my earlier selves. It recharges
“I’d prefer to go over the waterfall here me – so much so that I left three shirts in
than in the States,” the former Soft the hotel. But they weren’t top-drawer
Boy muses. “The great thing about You’re capable of amazing ones, not stage shirts.
here is we don’t have Jesus and we profundity, but then the next line
don’t have guns, but it’s the same might be about, say, seafood… Do you Where do you get your shirts from?
mindset really – Britain and America consciously vandalise your songs? James Reid, Kent
swap insanities. I never pursued it, William Gale, California Blaqua has been really good; they’re down
but America was where I caught on, You don’t really want a song entirely about in Deal now. Last time I visited, Glenn
maybe because I am so English?” seafood, or a whole song of profundities, Tilbrook was there, and Vic Reeves. They’re
Hitchcock is preparing to release you’ve got to balance it out. That’s how it not paisley shirts, exactly; the closest you
his 22nd album, the remotely Phone is – life is vandalised. You go back to “The could get to one is if you walked out of the
recorded Shufflemania!, which saw a friend: Waste Land” by TS Eliot, and he lurches Pink Floyd in 1967 – and obviously that’s
Johnny
guests such as Johnny Marr, Sean Marr between the vernacular and sublime; the goal in every field. I have a lot of odd
Ono Lennon and Wilco’s Pat Sansone Dylan, an Eliot disciple, he’s shirts too, from odd shirt people.
adding to the psych-folk songwriter’s also good at that. For me, life
solo recordings in their own studios. veers between the inane and Can you tell us more about your
“They’re all people who can intuit profound, or the banal and the fascination with Bryan Ferry?
what the song needs,” Hitchcock explains, terrifying. I’m very aware of that Peter Worth, London
“and they play things I don’t. When I sent in my songs, and in a way the I guess it’s a mature crush. I love his
‘The Inner Life Of Scorpio’ to Johnny Marr, darker it gets, the dafter you have distance from me – he’s so not what I am.
it was just a phone recording… I think it all to be. It’s the Fool in King Lear: You can put me in Gucci and Armani, and
sounds pretty together.” he’s the only one who’s allowed I’m still an innately scruffy guy. But Bryan
We settle in an upmarket pub on Brick to speak the truth. He’s an idiot, is an innately groomed fellow. He doesn’t
EMMA SWIFT; ANDREW COTTERILL; JORGEN ANGEL/REDFERNS
Lane, where Hitchcock – aptly for the so he can stand there, bopping break a sweat, you don’t see him getting
writer of a song called “The Cheese “Mature himself with a pig’s bladder and too agonised. He does something with his
crush” Bryan
Alarm” – orders a cheese plate to Ferry, 1973 speaking words of wisdom, and music and himself as a commodity that’s
sustain him. Up for discussion the king’ll say, “Good on you, just so seductive and appealing. On one
are The Soft Boys, the power man, have a sardine…” level, he’s a vapid Tory fop who hasn’t had
of gatefold sleeves, his love of a new idea in 40 years; on another level,
Bryan Ferry and Syd Barrett, his You lived on the Isle what does it matter? The first time I met him
friendship with Gillian Welch, Of Wight in the ’90s. Do was at breakfast after a festival in Norway:
and the crucial matter of where you ever go back? he was wearing blue jeans with a tailored
he gets his shirts. Clara Lubeck, via email blue shirt, and I thought that was cheeky,
“That’s a motherlode of I just made a short visit, actually. two different shades of blue! He was having
chutney,” he marvels as the I’ve been seduced by the shores trouble making the tea dispenser work:
cheese arrives. “This place is of Australia and lapped by the “Oh, it’s a bit early for this sort of thing…”
fantastic – I recommend it!” Mediterranean, but Compton I said. “My liege, let me.” So I actually

on the idea of reconnecting with him, and
they kind of hoped he’d stay away. Syd was
gone; all that was left was his host body,
Roger. But the songs have a miraculous
life of their own that nobody can replicate.
Most of us eke our talent out, but he was
like a kid who squeezed it all out over the
page. It was gone in 18 months.
How did you meet Gillian Welch

and David Rawlings?
Stella Smith, via email
I’d met Dave at an instore in Boston in
1989 – I signed his guitar – and Gil
used to see me in Santa Cruz when she
was a young Deadhead. I met them
“I’m grateful to be properly at a show in Shepherd’s Bush,
their friend”: with
David Rawlings and and then I wound up going to their
Gillian Welch at studio in Nashville while I was filming
Newport Folk
Festival, Rhode [Jonathan Demme’s] The Manchurian
Island, July 26, 2015 Candidate. Me being me, I had a suitcase
full of material ready to go, so
poured a cup of Norwegian PG Tips for I think your adolescence we recorded about two-thirds of
Bryan Ferry, that’s my claim to fame. is [always] the making [Hitchcock’s 2004 album] Spooked
of you. In a confined over a few days. There are some
What’s happened to the album of society like boarding terrific outtakes on two-inch – we
piano songs you’ve talked about? school, things like did half The Basement Tapes, a
Jenna Solomon, Philadelphia gatefold-sleeve import Velvet Underground song... I saw
I’m still working on them, but they haven’t albums became the them last week – they’ve got some
congealed yet. Emma got us to get a nice currency: I memorised fantastic new songs, and I hope
piano in Nashville, and I spent ages on the timings to Trout they finish their project before the
these pieces and never finished any. It Mask Replica, “Ant Man Hitchcock (right) in world ends. I’m incredibly lucky
The Soft Boys, live in
was hard to work on them in Nashville Bee, 2:42” or whatever London, April 1978 and grateful to be their friend.
during lockdown because all those houses it was… This was all
are so open-plan, but now Emma’s out a incredibly important to In “The Yip Song”, is “Molly”
bit more. I don’t know if it would merit a me as an Aspergic 15-year-old. I referring to [Ulysses character]
whole LP, though. Maybe four or five songs come from a long line of gatefold Molly Bloom?
would be good. sleeves, so yeah, it made me, Mike Thompson, via email
but the things that make you Oh, that’s a nice thought! I think Molly’s
Why have you never released The are also the things that destroy probably an angel in the mind of a
Ballad Of Jacob Lurch? you. I’m a 1953 baby, so I missed dying veteran, somebody who’s being
Eddie, via email frying my brain by about 18 eased out of life on morphine. Part of
This was a novel I wrote, also called months. That’s why it’s nice the delirium is they keep getting this
The Unbaby. It was the story of someone working with Joe Boyd – though little Highland terrier going “yip yip
who literally fades out of life because he’s one of those guys like Brian yip” and then they go back into their
his parents never actually got together, Eno who stood to one side like a morphine reverie. It’s based on my
back in the ’50s. One of those time-shift toreador while the psychedelic father’s exit. Songs are usually hybrids;
stories, you know? I can write poems bull thrashed past him. Maybe so much arises from the compost of
and songs, but to make a narrative that that’s why I’ve always been keen daily life, like dreams do.
works and to engage the reader with the to recreate psychedelia – in a Cantabridgian
man: Syd Barrett
characters, that’s a gift, and not one that way, I represent the unexploded with Floyd in 1967 Are you surprised by the enduring
I have. If you read something by a proper bomb, I’m the thing that never appeal of The Soft Boys?
writer, even a clichéd one, it’s better than quite went off. Jon Leland, via email
mine. So the answer is no, it’s all been I think they could be big in
TAYLOR HILL/WIREIMAGE; GUS STEWART/REDFERNS; ANDREW WHITTUCK/REDFERNS
buried! Sorry, Eddie. Did you ever see Syd Barrett 2025! The plan is to rerelease
in Cambridge? Underwater Moonlight and A Can
After “Balloon Man” was almost a Anthony Rowle, Blackpool Of Bees next year on Tiny Ghost.
hit, have you consciously shied away I was always on the lookout, and I’m glad the stuff has lasted – if
from songs with chart potential? at one point I thought I’d seen you’re under 25 and wanted to
Harry Rag, via email him, but I think it was just some get into my stuff, Underwater
Oh, not really. I wrote “Balloon Man” for other derelict guy in blue suede Moonlight is probably still the way
The Bangles, but I’d just signed to A&M and shoes, another used groover. I’ve to do it. Punk was very Stalinist
they heard the demo and said, “It’s got to be met a lot of people that knew him, if you didn’t comply with the look
a single.” My partner at the time disliked it but generally nobody was keen and the sound, and we didn’t
intensely, but out it came and it was a radio – though we were as noisy and
hit. It still brings me in some royalties, so negative as them, we just used a slightly
I’m very grateful for it. I do sometimes play different language. I remember someone
it, but I’m not tethered to any one song:
once you’ve had a proper hit, you’ve got to
“Songs are usually hybrids; in Manchester in 1978, by which time
punk had swept the land, saying after our
play the bloody thing every night. so much arises from set: “That were good, but we haven’t had a
harmony up here in six months…”
Was Winchester College the making the compost of daily life,
of you?
Martin Lester, via email like dreams do” Shufflemania! is out on October 21 on
Tiny Ghost

Wilco
Yankee Hotel Foxtrot
(Super Deluxe Edition)
‘A model of box-set shock and
awe. This reissue goes the extra,
illuminating distance.’
Mojo, Reissue of the Month
‘America’s greatest band. The

album has always been a Wilco
landmark. This new monolithic
reissue restates the case that it’s still
their most crucial record, opening
82
the way to everything they’ve done
since. A cast-iron rock classic.’
previously
Uncut, 10/10
unreleased
‘There’s not enough space here to tracks
list all of the moments that’ll make Wilco’s landmark 2002 album
Wilco fans’ heads spin. Discs of
experimentation and soul-searching Original album, remastered
that lay bare the creation of a 11 LPs comprising alternates, outtakes & demos,
landmark in American music.’ drafts and instrumentals charting the making
Record Collector of a now-classic album
Plus a live 2002 concert, a 2001 radio

performance and interview
Includes a deluxe 84-page book featuring

previously unpublished photos, an in-depth
history of the album by Bob Mehr and an
extensive conversation among Jeff Tweedy,
Glenn Kotche and Jim O’Rourke
Also available on 7LP, 2LP, 8CD, 2CD, and

digital formats
“Exploding golden sun/Bursting radiation/Get on your feet and run for the shelter”
THE UNCUT GUIDE TO THIS MONTH’S KEY RELEASES
KING GIZZARD &

THE LIZARD WIZARD
Ice, Death, Planets, Lungs, Mushrooms And Lava/
Laminated Denim/Changes
KGLW
2022’s third, fourth and fifth from the prolific psych rockers. By Sharon O’Connell
I
N a challenge to name the undisputed overlords ways since 2012’s 12 Bar Bruise. As introductions go,
of modern psych rock, two heavyweight ALBUMS it’s fun if hardly original – a rough-necked mix of
OF THE
contenders spring to mind – Osees and King MONTH ramalama punk, bluesy garage rock, surf rock and US
Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard. Both bands have a alt.rock that’s light years away from where they are now.
lot in common: their resistance to said definition,
8, 7, The following year’s Float Along – Fill Your Lungs saw
for starters, along with their omnivorous musical 8/10 their first dabblings in psychedelia, but they swiftly moved
appetites and protean vision. They also share a on to stretch that descriptor by embracing kosmische (via
ferocious work ethic, releasing an avalanche of records in what Neu!, an ever present guide), sci-fi metal, Afro-funk, thrash,
seems like an urgent and endless artistic venting. prog, ’70s heavy rock and jazz, also guided by their curiosity
It’s hard not to boggle at King Gizzard’s stats. This month down side roads of Tropicalia, Turkish psych folk and Ghanaian
the Melbourne sextet release three albums of new material, highlife. For all the genre switching, though, there are constants:
bringing 2022’s tally to five. So far. Since their 2012 debut, they’ve KG’s grip on melody is steadfast and assured, while their vividly
averaged 2.3 albums per year, going into overdrive (again with poetic lyrics (often a group effort) address serious subjects –
five) in 2017. It’s the kind of rate that seems diarrhoeic, a likely environmental crises, concerns about humanity’s survival
sign of bloated creativity and reluctant self-editing, but KG have and the power of technology. Body horror has a place, too. All
been scratching their expressive itch in increasingly inventive of which has shaped a unique world thick with metatextual
MACLAY HERIOT

Twenty studio
albums in 12
years: KG with
frontman Stu
Mackenzie
(top left)

NEW ALBUMS
to be no way forward, they abandoned

the sessions, diving into Gumboot Soup SLEEVE NOTES
instead. The unfinished album niggled, ICE, DEATH,
but it was left alone until KG returned to PLANETS, LUNGS,
MUSHROOMS
it during the pandemic. Though motorik
AND LAVA
beats carry much of the set and there are 1 Mycelium
prog and sci-fi-metal elements, Changes 2 Ice V
Setting throws back to tracks like “Ambergris” 3 Magma
themselves and “Kepler-22b” (from the terrific 4 Lava
structural
challenges: Omnium Gatherum) in its tapping of soul, 5 Hell’s Itch
the Gizzards disco and R&B, styled along both classic 6 Iron Lung
and modern lines. Across the set it’s lighter 7 Gliese 710
references and symbology – whether psychedelic pop and a high-speed on guitars, heavy on synths.
Produced by:
fan-interpreted or intended, it’s hard to say prog wig-out to an outro of cosmic The epic “Change” is a strong opener: it
Stu Mackenzie
– dubbed “the Gizzverse”. Clavinet shimmering. starts with a rinky-dink keyboard-and-hi- Recorded at:
Their latest splurge isn’t a trilogy in the Laminated Denim is a very different hat tune and then morphs into a sleek, ’70s KGLW’s studio,
conceptual sense, but each album has beast. Like Ice, Death, Planets…, it’s built R&B beast, before it’s off and running at a Melbourne
been shaped by a structural puzzle of from jams but is largely digital and plays to different tempo, nudging Herbie Hancock
the band’s own devising. It’s something a clock – two tracks of precisely 15 minutes and Quincy Jones as it goes, then settling LAMINATED DENIM
they’ve done before: Quarters! is made up each. Time contains KG structurally, into a retro kosmische groove before exiting 1 The Land Before
of four sections, each 10 minutes and 10 but not creatively: “The Land Before on a prog charge. Next on the tracklist (a Timeland
seconds long; Nonagon Infinity plays as Timeland” is a lyrical workout of delicate crafty acrostic) is “Hate Dancin’”, which 2 Hypertension
an endless loop; and on Flying Microtonal intricacy, pegged to a light motorik groove sees singer Mackenzie moving from
Produced by:
Banana all instruments use quarter-tone over which post-rock/jazzy guitars are professed loathing to a deep love of same, Stu Mackenzie
tuning. These are games of skill that interlaced in circular patterns, the whole over a Michael Jackson/yacht-rock hybrid. Recorded at:
sharpen KG’s inventive edge. taking flight at the close via choral vocals The tempo drops for the languid “No KGLW’s studio,
First off the blocks is Ice, Death, Planets…, and rushing synths. “Hypertension” Body”, which corrals mid-’70s Floyd into Melbourne
in which all seven modes of the major scale is every bit as light on its feet and the a snapshot of an out-of-body experience.
are represented, the initial letters of the conversational playing between the Very different are “Astroturf”, a warning CHANGES
words in the title acting as a mnemonic for Gizzards is equally impressive, but it takes against our sanitising of the natural world, 1 Change
those modes. The tracks were built from more of a pastoral-prog path, with staccato cast in sweet cosmic disco and pastoral 2 Hate Dancin’
3 Astroturf
the ground up in the studio over seven days guitar vamps and Mackenzie’s exultant prog-jazz, and the hard-driving “Gondii”,
4 No Body
(numerology geek alert) of jamming, with whoops marking switches in energy and which suggests The Cars raised on Neu! 5 Gondii
members playing for 45 minutes and then direction. The record’s title is an anagram and is certainly the first pop song to 6 Exploding Suns
switching instruments to go again. Jams of Made In Timeland, an album made for namecheck a parasitic organism found in 7 Short Change
that passed muster were then edited into KG’s two dates at Red Rocks Amphitheatre cat faeces and uncooked meat. One track
songs by guitarist/producer Stu Mackenzie in 2020. The two 15-minute tracks were saved from the 2017 Changes sessions Produced by:
and overdubbed with flute, organ and designed to be played during the break appears: “Exploding Suns” is a gorgeous, Stu Mackenzie
extra guitar. The result is a glorious, dizzy between each set, but since Covid put a laidback symphony of psychedelic soul Recorded at:
riot with no direct precursor, though the stop to those shows – twice – KG decided to and synth jazz, its murmurous, multi- Various studios,
home studios,
fun KG had recording “The Dripping Tap”, just release the music. This, then, is a new tracked vocals belying the lyrical horror:
buses, hotel
the 18-minute motorik jam that opens this album recorded especially for the Colorado “Exploding golden sun/Bursting radiation/ rooms, green
April’s Omnium Gatherum, was the spur. shows KG finally get to play this month. Get on your feet and run for the shelter/A rooms, planes,
It carouses from the sweetly meandering The most substantial of KG’s three change is gonna come/Eight minutes and parking lots, etc…
pop of “Mycelium”, with its top notes new releases – and surely their most 20 seconds/Over before begun”. Personnel
of Vampire Weekend, and “Magma”’s pop-attuned so far – is Changes. It had a The title is a neat fit, but it’s not only (all albums):
lysergically groovy outflow of Can difficult birth. In 2017, the band committed Changes that underscores its makers’ Stu Mackenzie
and Flower Travellin’ Band, to the pastoral to releasing five albums but also found commitment to evolution. And it’s not just (piano, bass,
psych funk of “Iron Lung”, with its themselves struggling to finish one this triad, either: from 2015’s Quarters! guitar, vocals,
organ, Mellotron,
flute trills and sudden wah-wah guitar particular project. Having set another onwards, KG have demonstrated their
vibraphone,
vamps. “Lava” is the standout in a truly structural teaser – switching between two future-facing drive in projects with a big- synth, keys,
virtuosic set, KG’s unerring internal logic different scales with every chord change picture aspect that extends even beyond percussion, flute,
leading them from Dirty Three-aligned in each of the songs – they found they the Gizzverse. The intrigue lies in where Clavinet), Joey
experimental blues, through sweet, couldn’t pull it off. Since there seemed that Mach-speed drive takes them next. Walker (bass,
keys, guitar, synth,
HOW TO BUY... vocals), Nicholas
Craig (bass, keys,
THE LIZARDS OF OZ synth, guitar,

vocals), Ambrose
Kenny Smith
Three high points from the band’s swelling catalogue (keys, saxophone,
percussion,
I’m In Your Mind Fuzz Polygondwanaland Omnium Gatherum harmonica,
HEAVENLY, 2014 HEAVENLY, 2017 KGLW, 2022 vocals), Lucas
Hyperspeed drone, “Make tapes, make Their first studio release Harwood
slow jams, harmonica, CDs, make records,” following the Covid (bass, keys,
explosive guitar solos, exhorted the note estrangement, which piano), Michael
horses neighing – it’s all accompanying KG’s explains why it’s a Cavanagh
in the mix on KG’s fifth, released in the US fourth album of the year, whose master 16-track double album of an extended (drums)
on (no surprise) John Dwyer’s Castle tapes they uploaded. “We do not own jam-y nature. It’s out with the grand
Face label. Mind control is the album’s this record. You do.” The set marks a conceptual ideas and in with the sheer
concept, hammered home in the first diversion from “straight” psych rock and pleasure of playing in a room together
four songs, where choogling psych, post- is a deep wade into prog à la Yes and ELP, again. Opener “The Dripping Tap” is an
punk and ’60s beat pop are underpinned with the odd satisfying dump of sludge 18-minute tour de force of shredding,
by an identical groove. 8/10 metal, too. 8/10 undercut with ecological despair. 8/10

NEW ALBUMS
Melody makers: KG creative process because the

at the All Together creativity is still unbounded.
Now festival in
Waterford, Ireland, It’s really important to the
July 31, 2022 DNA of the band that we’re
able to work quickly, because
when you set these boundaries
you know what you can and
can’t do and you start to
accrue an album’s worth of
songs and music – sometimes
more than that – within a fairly
short space of time.
Why was it so
difficult to finish
Changes in 2017?
Q&A The core concept of the
oscillating scales is a
jazz thing: most songs in
popular music would be
in a set key and you sit in
the key and move around
Multi-instrumentalist How do you view 12 Bar the chords within that key.
Bruise, 10 years on? Whereas with this, even
Joey Walker on King There’s definitely a through- though they’re really basic
Gizzard’s self-imposed line in terms of the spirit of all chords, each time the chord
of us as a band: just kind of changes, you change to a
challenges tumbleweeding around and different scale. I feel part of it
Why are King Gizzard so not overthinking what it is may have been because on a
extraordinarily prolific? that we are doing. There was theory level, that limitation
I think we’re aware of how lucky we are some intangible thing that we all is kind of hard and semi-
to be musicians and to have found each felt from the start when we would play advanced. So maybe we were a bit
other, and to be challenged and inspired together. I think that’s something we all stifled by that, initially. I definitely felt
by each other. Everyone is constantly had that was a natural instinct back then, slightly inhibited, but it’s really good to
bringing something to the table that is but we were stabbing in the dark in terms have those challenges and then try to
amazing. I wouldn’t say it’s competitive of what we were as an entity. That was transcend them, because that’s how you
in any way, it’s more motivational in just a straight-up, simple garage-rock
terms of how we all gel. We have a space album. Since then we’ve just developed
in Melbourne where we are able to just so much as musicians and in how we
make music and make a living off it, so
we’ll go to the studio at least three or four
days a week, sometimes five, whether it’s
interact with each other. That garage-
rock thing was reflective of what we
were all into, and bands in and around
“Everyone is
just to hang out or jam or whatever. We
make use of our time and what we have
Melbourne and Geelong. Then we started
to experiment with different genres or
constantly bringing
at our disposal. Then, I think the natural
disposition of Stu, being the vanguard
concepts, and that did feel pretty novel
to us. With some people there was a bit of
something to the table
of the operation, is to be the polar
opposite of pedantic and precious when
pushback because they couldn’t really
comprehend the genre-jumping. But
that is amazing”
it comes to making music – that’s a bit of now I feel like that’s come to define us.
a rare ability. I was more precious about grow. With the early version, we booked
putting things on the table that I didn’t What’s with the endless studio time – which was also a thing we
think were ready or valid, but Stu is just structural challenges? don’t usually do – and recorded the initial
like, no, every idea is a valid idea. It is a challenge in many ways but sessions of what was to become Changes.
counter-intuitively, it almost has Every 10 times where we’re trying
What’s crucially common to all the opposite effect. When you’re something and letting it be, it’s usually
your songs? making an album, traditionally fine and we feel happy putting whatever
I think there’s always a fairly strong you’re feeling around in the dark that is out there. I feel like that was the
pursuit of melody at the forefront to try and find a formula or time it just
of Gizzard music, and I guess our just a direction, so you wasn’t
DEBBIE HICKEY/GETTY IMAGES, MARIANO REGIDOR/REDFERNS
songwriting has developed a lot, so can expel whatever quite there.

we’re able to be slightly more creative you need to. So Also, it was
in that respect. Even though it can be when we do set during 2017,
quite dense, or appear to be complex on challenges for when we had to put out
certain levels, we really try to find the ourselves, like those other five albums!
simplicity in pure melody. The times that the microtonal It just didn’t materialise
we do muck around with polyrhythmic thing or, with as quickly as we thought
things or the microtonal world, if you Changes, the it would. So Stu was like,
strip that stuff away, at their core [the chord-based “OK, let’s put this to bed for a
songs] are quite simple in what they’re idea, it while.” Then during the pandemic
trying to convey. And as time goes on, sets up we opened it back up and, as we
that’s a starting place. If it’s a really good these walls assumed, it had slightly shifted.
“We make use
melody, it’s like, OK, that could become that we can work within. of our time”: Once that happened, it just opened
a Gizzard song. That really frees up the Joey Walker the doors. INTERVIEW: SHARON O’CONNELL

Richard
Dawson:
raising the
stakes
KUBA RYNIEWICZ

NEW ALBUMS
AtoZ
storytelling might be
RICHARD science fiction – think
the rich and detailed
DAWSON world-building of a
figure like Ursula Le
Guin or Philip K Dick.
This month…
The Ruby Cord
DOMINO
Another might be
video games – fantasy
P24 ARCTIC MONKEYS
RPGs like Skyrim that
9/10 dispense little nuggets
P26
P28
FIRST AID KIT
CAITLIN ROSE
of lore as you explore,
Geordie folklorist wraps up giving you a sense of
P30 BIG JOANIE
trilogy in typically eccentric P33 ONE ELEVEN HEAVY
a wider world beyond
style. By Louis Pattison P34 MACIE STEWART
your immediate
P35 STARCRAWLER
experience.
P36 LEAH WELLER
R
ICHARD DAWSON is on quite The narratives here can be dark and discomfiting,
some creative streak. The past 12 but the mood is generally calm and tranquil, largely
months have already seen one lacking the roar and churn we hear in much of THE 1975
great album from the Tyneside Dawson’s work. He’s backed by a mini-ensemble Being Funny In A Foreign
bard – Henki, a collaboration with consisting of harpist Rhodri Davies, violinist Language
the Finnish metal alchemists Angharad Davies and drummer Andrew Cheetham. DIRTY HIT
Circle. Now here’s another: The On “The Hermit”, they sprawl out in improvisatory 6/10
Ruby Cord is framed as the conclusion to a trilogy of fashion, more concerned with mellifluous texturing Matty Healy’s pop mavericks play
albums that Dawson began back in 2017. The first of than familiar song structure. Deeper into the it safe
the three, Peasant, surveyed a number of album, there are moments that raise the Being Funny... is the
colourful characters living in the Middle SLEEVE NOTES temperature a couple of notches: the 1975 album for those
Ages kingdom of Bryneich back circa the 1 The Hermit
wild harp freakouts buried in the midst who always found
6th century AD. It was followed by 2020, 2 Thicker Than of “The Fool”; the romping metal riff that their sprawling
which cast an empathetic eye across the Water briefly flowers at the heart of “The Tip Of pretension a bit much,
lives of those occupying familiar early 21st- 3 The Fool An Arrow”. But these are generally used the band knuckling
century spaces – the football field, the local 4 Museum as a sort of dramatic punctuation, and down with Jack Antonoff and delivering
5 The Tip Of An 11 well-behaved tunes in 45 minutes.
pub, the Amazon fulfilment centre. Where consequently are fairly short-lived.
Arrow It might have been credited to The
next? To the future, of course – specifically Whatever Dawson is writing about, he 1986 – songs like “I’m In Love With
500 years into the future, into a sort of 6 No-one tends to return to human stories – our
7 Horse And Rider You” belong on a Gary Davies playlist
liminal reality that straddles real life and ambitions, fears, disappointments and between Curiosity Killed The Cat and
something more virtual. Produced by:
frailties. You get the feeling that he’s Bruce Hornsby. Though there are
It’s certainly within the scope of Dawson’s Sam Grant, contrived the setting of The Ruby Cord as a tantalising hints of adventure on the
powers to pull off some kind of neon-lit Richard Dawson way of tackling such a theme from a variety sumptuous “Part Of The Band” and
space opera. But this is not that album. The Recorded at: of unusual vantage points. “Thicker Than the LCD-ish piano of the eponymous
Ruby Cord certainly has some epic qualities Blank Studios, Water” is a gentle canter of chiming guitars opening track, the overall mix of MOR
Newcastle- and torturous wordplay recalls no-one
– for one, it’s long, clocking in at an hour and little flourishes of harp, but it holds
upon-Tyne so much as Robbie Williams.
and 20 minutes in length, and kicking a sense of terrible absence at its core; the STEPHEN TROUSSÉ
off with an opening track, “The Hermit”, Personnel: Richard narrator, fleeing from cyberspace back into
Dawson (vocals,
that itself stretches out to a panoramic
guitar, bass,
the real world, passes through deserted cities ACID KLAUS
40 minutes. But where 2020 felt direct synth), Rhodri
and empty dual carriageways, in search of Step On My Travelator: The
and upfront, both in its music and in the Davies (harp), the bodies that he and his family long ago left Imagined Career Trajectory
manner of its storytelling, The Ruby Cord Angharad Davies behind. “The Fool” seems to hark back to the Of Superstar DJ & Dance-Pop
feels more cryptic, dense and complex, as if (violin), Andrew territory of Peasant, a love affair conducted Producer, Melvin Harris ZEN FC
Dawson – never not ambitious in his art – is Cheetham in a medieval town – or presumably the 7/10
intentionally raising the stakes. (drummer) simulation of one? – that ends with an Moonlandingz mastermind enlists
There is some feat of imaginative creation enigmatic fizzle. The remarkable “The Tip Richard Hawley, Maxine Peake and
going on here, and it’s only by scrutinising Of An Arrow”, meanwhile, has the feel of a more for retro-rave project
the lyric sheet that you can really begin to comprehend video game quest, the narrator and her plucky daughter Yet another project from
the shape of the world that Dawson has designed. Isagog crafting arrows before venturing “into the realm the endlessly prolific
The Ruby Cord is set in an augmented reality, humans of the fabled three-faced hare”. There, we are reminded Adrian Flanagan of
existing somewhere between the world we know and that pride comes before a fall. International Teachers
a virtual space in which the lines between history, Dawson’s work has always required a certain Of Pop, Moonlandingz,
mythology and imagination blur. On “The Hermit”, amount of buy-in from the listener, which it Eccentronic Research
Council and more, the debut Acid Klaus
the familiar intermingles with the deeply strange. One traditionally pays back with dividends. The Ruby Cord
album is a catchy collection of electro
minute Dawson is sketching a bucolic scene of “crow- is no different, and in its depth and ambition may go and acid throwback tracks featuring
pocked copses” and a “caterpillar’s ardent mandibles”; further than any of his records before. If Dawson’s multiple star guests including Richard
the next he’s singing of “an update to my visual and discography was the books of Tolkien, this wouldn’t Hawley, Sink Ya Teeth’s Maria Uzor and
ontoceptual cortexes”. “Museum”, meanwhile, follows be The Hobbit, or even Lord Of The Rings, but The regular Flanagan collaborator Maxine
an unnamed visitor as they explore a complex that Silmarillion. As such, this might not be the first Richard Peake. The album’s loosely conceptual
contains an archive of human memory, projected onto Dawson record you would recommend to a newcomer: narrative chronicles the rise and fall of
the walls. One reference point for The Ruby Cord’s too much, too soon. Still, if you’ve got the measure of a hedonist rave DJ, but any background
him and his work, The plot is skimpy and superfluous. Kinetic,
nimble, jitter-funk bangers like “Party
Ruby Cord won’t fail to
Sized Away Day”, sardonic electroclash
impress. You leave it
In depth and ambition it goes mind reeling, happily
baffled, dazzled
robo-chant “Crashing Cars In Ibiza” and
the eerie Peake-voiced coda “Eulogy
To A Quiet Life” work just fine as stand-
further than any of his records by the scope of its
achievement.
alone, wonkytronic gems.
STEPHEN DALTON

NEW ALBUMS
depicts a kind of Black Mirror-style

dystopia, where meaningful experiences
can only be accessed by means of a VR
headset (“The simulation cartridge for City
Life ’09 is pretty tricky to come by”). The
suffocating sense of dread is underscored
by a lurching industrial beat, in the
manner of Portishead’s “Machine Gun”.
Meanwhile, the title track finds another
way to recast our traditional symbol of
escape as something both mundane and
sinister. “It ain’t a holiday until you go
to fetch something from the car”, croons
Turner, darkly. At best, this is a mutually
resentful couple making any excuse to
escape each other’s company for a few
SLEEVE NOTES moments. But as they’re “sweeping for
1 There’d Better bugs in some dusty apartment”, you
Having Be A Mirrorball suspect something even murkier is going
their cake 2 I Ain’t Quite on: maybe there’s a brick of cocaine
and eating
it: Arctic Where I Think I Am in the glovebox, a cudgel in the boot?
Monkeys 3 Sculptures Of The arrangements nod knowingly to
Anything Goes Jean-Claude Vannier and Piero Umiliani,
golden boy was in bad shape then, he’s in 4 Jet Skis On all twanging bass, muted timpani and
ARCTIC real trouble now.
There’s a brilliant Ian Penman essay
The Moat
5 Body Paint
6 The Car
fin-de-siècle strings. It’s cinematic, but
not in the traditional, ride-into-the-sunset
MONKEYS entitled “A Dandy In Aspic”, psycho-

analysing Scott Walker’s early ’70s as
he sinks into a comfortably numb “MOR
7 Big Ideas
8 Hello You
9 Mr Schwartz
sense. Mostly, this feels like one of those
French arthouse films where a bourgeois
get-together goes slowly very wrong.
The Car limbo” of brown-carpeted studios and
European TV spots. This is very much the
10 Perfect Sense There’s nothing here quite as
spectacular as “…Mirrorball”, arguably
DOMINO
mental terrain of The Car. “Let’s shake a Produced by: Turner’s crowning achievement to date,
8/10 few hands”, Turner declares unsteadily James Ford
Recorded at: La
worthy of a seat at the big white piano
on the clipped orchestral funk of “I Ain’t alongside Burt and Hal. Perhaps Side Two
Top gear: the Yorkshire Quite Where I Think I Am”, stumbling like
Frette Studios,
of the album could have done with more
near Paris; Butley
cads’ lavishly orchestrated a Xanaxed celebrity through a roomful of Priory, Suffolk; rockers, more drum-machine curveballs,
seventh long-player. “stackable party guests” and “formation RAK Studios, a couple of tracks without the ever-
By Sam Richards displays of affection”. On “Sculptures Of London present string cascade or guitar solos that
Anything Goes”, he’s a zombie pop star Personnel: sound like they’ve been painstakingly
THE car is one of going through the motions, “performing Alex Turner excavated from the site of Trident
the most potent in Spanish on Italian TV” while yearning (vocals, guitars, Studios, carbon-dated 1973. But on the
keyboards, piano,
symbols in rock’n’roll. pathetically for a simple love his chosen other hand, this meticulous mood-setting
synthesiser,
Typically it stands lifestyle has rendered impossible. And on is what allows the lyrics to take hold,
drums), Jamie
for freedom, escape, “Big Ideas” he’s a burnt-out bandleader, Cook (guitar, expertly conjuring an exotic, enfeebled
personal agency singing “the ballad of what could have synthesiser, demi-monde of “blank canvases lent
and a mysterious, been”. He’s “conjured up wonderful organ, slide against gallery walls”, “Jet Skis on the
no-strings sexuality. But where rock’n’roll things”, he coulda been a contender. But guitar), Matt moat” and “a four-figure sum on a hotel
symbolism is concerned, Arctic Monkeys these days, “I just can’t for the life of me Helders (drums), notepad”. It’s empty and amoral but it’s
like to have their cake and eat it: whatever remember how they go”. Nick O’Malley also irresistibly smooth and clever. Much
you think it is, that’s what it’s not. In As always, the brutal precision of (bass), Tom like For Your Pleasure or Gaucho, The Car
Rowley (guitars),
lead single and album opener “There’d Turner’s observations and the way he functions both as intoxicating advert and
Tyler Parkford
Better Be A Mirrorball”, the car is not the relishes a smart turn of phrase brings withering critique.
(backing vocals),
beginning of a new adventure but the these vignettes to life in a way that’s strings arranged Has there ever been a band who’ve sold
end of one, the place to walk someone almost frighteningly vivid, even when his by Alex Turner, out football stadiums while releasing
when giving them the ultimate brush-off: circuitous melodies don’t always land. James Ford and music as nuanced as this? Arctic Monkeys
“‘Baby, it’s been nice’”. “Sculptures Of Anything Goes” chillingly Bridget Samuels are having their cake and eating it, again.
This is a different Alex Turner to the one
we’re used to hearing. Wrong-footed for HOW TO BUY...
once, he’s desperately trying to “throw
the rose-tint” on a failing relationship,
pleading poignantly for the slow-dance WALK YOU TO THE CAR
scene we all know he’s not going to get. The albums that paved the way for the Monkeys’ latest
However, “…Mirrorball”’s exquisitely
fizzling romance is atypical of the album THE LAST ALEX ARCTIC
as a whole. Turner is soon back in his SHADOW TURNER MONKEYS
favoured role as cynical chronicler of a PUPPETS Submarine Tranquility Base
decadent milieu. As he once scrutinised The Age OST Hotel & Casino
Sheffield taxi queues, now he stalks cover Of The DOMINO, 2011 DOMINO, 2018
Understatement Richard On which the

shoots and riviera resorts, the Bryan
DOMINO, 2008 Ayoade’s awkward teenage band elegantly uncoupled
Ferry de nos jours. And while there was Early sign of Alex Turner’s retro- rom-com demanded that themselves from the guitar-bass-
a knockabout humour to the sci-fi Vegas orchestral ambitions, as part of Turner park the raised-eyebrow drums format to side-eye the
fantasia of Tranquility Base Hotel & Casino, the turtlenecked supergroup rock for a set of low-key 21st century via the rantings of
The Car on the whole feels pretty bleak. If with Miles Kane. 8/10 acoustic charmers. 7/10 a washed-up playboy. 8/10

NEW ALBUMS
DANIEL BACHMAN touches on electroclash, all created

Almanac Behind THREE LOBED
8/10
with the same sure touch and love of
songwriting craft. PETER WATTS
REVELATIONS
Fingerstyle guitarist’s elegies for the BREATHLESS
Anthropocene See Those Colours Fly TENOR VOSSA
Daniel Bachman is
8/10
a rare figure doing
something genuinely Weightless dream-pop that’s all
new with the acoustic filigree and shadow
guitar. On Almanac Breathless’s eighth was
Behind, his guitar shaped by drummer
and banjo improvisations intermingle Tristram Latimer
with tape manipulations, emergency Sayer’s absence after
radio broadcasts and recordings of a car crash left him in
freak weather conditions to create a coma, with bassist
dense audio collages. Beyond the Ari Neufeld instead programming
often fascinating sounds, there’s a Moe Tucker-esque rhythms while he
message here: these songs function like recovered. Mixed by Kramer, its sparse
mini-documentaries of an ecosystem instrumentation allows Gary Mundy’s
spinning off the rails. On “Gust Front
(The Waiting)”, his playing sounds
kaleidoscopic guitars more room to
shimmer and flare – “Let Me Down HUGH CORNWELL
exhausted, depleted. But as the track Gently” could almost be Slowdive
The ex-Strangler on tapping into painful memories
segues into “540 Supercell”, his guitar – while This Mortal Coil veteran
leaps into sprightly motion as the Dominic Appleton sounds especially EEP into his career bedside at death’s door and I
heavens suddenly open. Bachman
doesn’t breathe a word, but Almanac
compassionate on the sublime “My
Heart And I” and hymnal “The City
D as a solo singer-
songwriter, Hugh
thought we were going to have
a moment of understanding.
Behind’s message rings loud and clear. Never Sleeps”. For closer “I Watch You Cornwell is mining reserves of He said, ‘Can I have some
LOUIS PATTISON Sleep”, however, such restraint’s gently vulnerability he rarely showed pineapple juice?’ That was my
cast aside, its serenity patiently replaced in The Stranglers. Though the epiphany with my father! He
RAYLAND BAXTER by a – relatively – frenzied squall of bruised emotions on new was gone within 24 hours.”
If I Were A Butterfly ATO noise. WYNDHAM WALLACE album Moments Of Madness’s While The Stranglers endure,
8/10 “When I Was A Young Man” are Cornwell is relishing his solo
FIONA BRICE sheathed in his trademark craft. “In The Stranglers, John
Arresting return of Nashville And You Know I Care BELLA UNION sneer, these painful fragments [JJ Burnel] would come up with
pop polymath of youthful memory, such as a chord sequence and I’d turn it
8/10
Baxter’s largely upbeat reminding his late father of “the into a song,” he recalls, “or vice
fourth masks heavy Indie’s favourite arranger takes cardboard in your hug”, still feel versa.” Though he lacks that
themes of emotional time out raw. “Writing and recording it collaboration’s unexpected
reckoning and Given her industrious was cathartic,” Cornwell enhancements, there’s less in
renewal, typified by nature – performing agrees. “I had a very difficult the way of his imagination now.
the dubby psych-soul live with Elbow, relationship with my father “Doing it on my own, I feel more
of the ruminative title track. And while orchestrating for John and it was never resolved. I complete and fulfilled.”
“Buckwheat” and the Gruff Rhys-ish Grant, composing remember him calling me to his NICK HASTED
“Rubberband Man” keep the party documentary scores –
grooves going, the recent loss of father Fiona Brice’s urge to create a meditative
Bucky – best known for his work with refuge is reasonable. Opening
Bob Dylan and Steve Earle – seeps into instrumental “Ascending” descends in subtle detail. Ambient drones and we’ve come to associate with her. It
nostalgic piano ballad “Tadpole” and into windswept noise, but thereafter field recording chatter frame Armour’s serves as a timely reminder that over
the doleful “Violence”. There’s plenty such clamour’s left behind, with lovely voice in a sinister glow, from the the last three decades she has built a
of help too (including Shakey Graves, strings and piano dominant, if rarely harmonium-like hum of “The Hermit” canon of work that spreads the gospel
members of Alabama Shakes and stiffly formal, whether on the solemn to “The Chariot”’s piped sustain of English traditional music as proudly
Cage The Elephant, plus Bucky himself), “Through Her Eyes” or the effectively (courtesy of Lankum’s Ian Lynch). as anything by her illustrious parents,
as Baxter bows out with a dramatic compassionate title track. Surprisingly, It’s all crowned by a magnificent, Norma Waterson and Martin Carthy.
double whammy of “Thunder Sound” given her day job, it’s Brice’s vocal 14-minute version of Alasdair NIGEL WILLIAMSON
and “My Argentina”. ROB HUGHES contributions which lift this above Roberts’ “Under No Enchantment”.
much New Classical fare, with “We ROB HUGHES HUGH CORNWELL
BLACK LIPS Rise We Fall” tenaciously uplifting, Moments Of Madness TALLY-HO-H0
Apocalypse Love FIRE “Nocturnal” borne aloft on choral ELIZA CARTHY & 7/10
7/10 voices, and “Today Will Be Different” THE RESTITUTION
a balm for challenging times. Queen Of The Whirl HEMHEM Muscular self-reflection on solo 10th
Effortlessly diverse set from Atlanta WYNDHAM WALLACE While the current
garage graduates 7/10
Stranglers dig
Twenty years and BURD ELLEN Old songs with a new sound from unaccustomed
10 albums into their A Tarot Of The Green Wood folk heiress poignancy from
career and there’s a MAVIS After inviting time’s depredations,
comfort, a natural followers on social their erstwhile leader
8/10
ease, to Black Lips’ media to nominate finds dignity in his endurance without
Apocalypse Love that Spellbinding third from Glasgow- their favourite songs them. “Coming Out Of The Wilderness”
could never be mistaken for laziness. based spook-folk duo from the two dozen is thunderously tribal garage-rock
It’s a sound honed in the garage-rock Debbie Armour and albums she’s made from a singer toying with his rep for
renaissance of the early noughties, Gayle Brogan have solo and in collaboration, Carthy testosterone provocation – needing
here incorporating impeccable nods been reshaping has re-recorded 16 of them, re- “a damn good shave…/I promise I’ll
to surfer psych (“Love Has Won”), traditional song upholstering ancient folk ballads behave” – while his guitar rings like
Spectorish pop (“Operation Angela”) into semi-abstract (“Pretty Ploughboy”), Pete Seeger Link Wray. “When I Was A Young Man”
and some of the band’s trademark form as Burd Ellen songs (“My Father’s Mansions”) and is the stand-out confession, clambering
outlaw country (“Stolen Valor”, for the past few years now. As the title her own compositions (“Mr Magnifico”) over verses’ minor-key vulnerability
BERTRAND FEVRE
“Apocalypse Love”, “Tongue Tied”). implies, A Tarot Of The Green Wood with full band arrangements, electric to a tough, pummelling chorus.
But the band aren’t quite standing still is rooted in the Major Arcana, the guitars and keyboards combining Ruefully considering his late parents,
– “Sharing My Cream” is an unlikely pair pulling from classic imagery to with fiddle and accordion to create his tart sneer repels sentiment, the ex-
embrace of rap, while “No Rave” generate a minimal song-suite rich a much denser folk-rock sound than Strangler not yet gone soft. NICK HASTED

NEW ALBUMS
EZRA COLLECTIVE with either song, but it’s nevertheless

Where I’m Meant a relief to discover that they are more
To Be anomaly than mission statement.
PARTISAN The rest of Palomino is the familiar
bonding of the Söderbergs’ unearthly
7/10
harmonies to yearning, indelible
Hefty guestlist on London quintet’s country melodies. “Ready To Run”
potent second and “Nobody Knows” are particular
Ten years on, EC’s highlights, and “Wild Horses II” joins
aim is still to stretch their own immortal “Emmylou” in
the possibilities of the top tier of country songs about
what jazz might be. country music.
Led by drummer ANDREW MUELLER
Femi Koleoso, they
borrowed the pulses of Afrobeat, hip- FOXTON & HASTINGS
hop, dancehall and Afro-Cuban salsa The Butterfly Effect
for their 2019 debut, You Can’t Steal BASS TONE
My Joy, and though their follow-up is
7/10
Sister act:
no less celebratory, its focus is tighter,
First Aid Kit its punches more considered. With a Eclectic outing far removed from
guestlist including Sampa The Great, exercises in nostalgia
Kojey Radical, Emeli Sandé and (in Bruce Foxton and
CRAVEN FAULTS AMI DANG a clip of a recorded phone call) Tony Russell Hastings
Live Works The Living World’s Demands Allen, it’s a solid listen-through, but are more commonly
LEAF PHANTOM LIMB & LEAVING highlights include an exhilaratingly sighted ploughing
paced “Victory Dance”, the dub- through the former’s
8/10 6/10
propelled “Ego Killah” and “Live past in From The
Hypnotic live electronic excavations Ambient electronica inspired by Strong”, a joyful hybrid of jazz and Jam, but this third album of original
from DJ/producer Indian classical music funky house. material finds them spreading their
Since 2017’s Amrita “Ami” Kaur SHARON O’CONNELL wings considerably wider. The sassy
“Netherfield Dang is a Baltimore- horns and strutting rhythm of “Time
Works” EP, Craven based singer and FENELLA On Your Side” brings to mind Chairmen
Faults’ anonymous sitar player who puts The Metallic Index Of The Board, “Electronic Lover” is the
mastermind has Indian ragas through FIRE kind of psych blues Steve Marriott used
created a rich body a space-age electronic to do so well, while both the sun-kissed
8/10
of work falling somewhere between filter. Her proper “songs” are rather “Feet Off The Ground” and “Lula” weld
electronica and folklore, invoking unsatisfactory and aimless – the Jane Weaver project returns acid jazz to bucolic folk. Closer to home,
imagined journeys across a post- only melody that registers is the slow, with an immersive and ghostly the sprightly “Circles” reconnects with
industrial Yorkshire landscape minor-key electronica of “Unstruck soundtrack those moments when The Jam would
through their repetitive, modular Sound”. More interesting are the After 2019’s scratch their power-pop itch.
transmissions. Live Works finds Craven frictionless, arrhythmic soundscapes, reimagined TERRY STAUNTON
Faults revisiting three earlier tracks like “Circuit” (a series of discordant soundtrack to
and adding one new one, “Ravelands sitar flourishes and ambient drones) Marcell Jankovics’ AOIFE NESSA FRANCES
Brow” – named after a rural road. It’s or “BƗlnƗ” (a 15th-century Sikh hymn, cult animation Protector
typical of Craven Faults’ hypnotic or shabad, put through endless reverb Fehérlófia, Jane PARTISAN
electronic minimalism: oscillators and accompanied by fuzzy, FX-laden Weaver, Raz Ullah and Pete Philipson
8/10
whir, a melody slowly uncoils through sitar voicings). Best of all is “Oh Dha Ta return for a follow-up album but
the motorik drones, the detail and Na (Tarana)”, a digital nursery rhyme with a soundtrack of different sorts. Dubliner’s second portrait of the
texture are rich and involving. that gets pulses racing by constantly Loosely based on the real story of a artist as a Jung woman
For all its metal machinery, this is shifting its tempo. young psychic nurse in 1920s London, “I’ve been dreaming
warm, organic-feeling and strangely JOHN LEWIS the album is a largely instrumental all this time for too
nostalgic music. MICHAEL BONNER work intended to be consumed as long”, sings Aoife
JACKEN ELSWYTH one complete journey, with Weaver’s Nessa Frances on
RACHAEL DADD Six Static Scenes breathy, often ghostly voice added “Only Child”, but
Kaleidoscope NEOLITHIC as texture or subtle guidance rather if the follow up to
MEMPHIS INDUSTRIES than hand-holding narrative. Texture 2020’s Land Of No Junction comes
8/10
plays a big part on an album that with a back story of reawakening in
6/10 Hypnotic banjo mantras from a takes in atmospheric ambient, County Clare, Protector maintains its
Skylarking seventh album from major new folk voice immersive synth soundscapes and creator’s woozy MO. XTC’s Skylarking
Bristolian multi-instrumentalist Originally released ripples of cosmic electronics that heard through heavy-sedation fog, her
“Diving and swooping, on London venue shift from beautifully immersive to second LP comes with extra flourishes
sleeping in the sky, Café Oto’s digital hauntingly eerie. – other-worldly horns on “Day Out
I know bounds”, label Takuroku, DANIEL DYLAN WRAY Of Time”, mangled violin on “Only
coos Rachael Dadd, Six Static Scenes is Child” – but Broadcast synths persist,
singing about banjo player Jacken FIRST AID KIT the otherworldly auteur still floating
swifts, but also Elswyth’s second full-length, of sorts, Palomino somewhere in the background of her
describing her own music, blithely after self-releasing a batch of small- COLUMBIA own songs like a psychedelic ghost.
crossing borders from folk to jazz and edition cassettes. There are hints to Dream on.
8/10
electronica, often within the same the unpredictable, rangy sound of JIM WIRTH
song. Kaleidoscope is the seventh Elswyth’s playing in the artists she Glorious fifth from Stockholm’s
album in a restlessly prolific DIY pays tribute to on Six Static Scenes Söderberg sisters
career, and with production polish – Hobart Smith, Dock Boggs, Dink “Out Of My Head”,
from Rob Pemberton (Emily Barker Roberts, Margaret Barry – but those Palomino’s opener
and the Fernweh), it might be closest inspirations aren’t limitations. For and lead single, might
she’s flirted with the mainstream. much of Six Static Scenes, Elswyth’s prompt nervousness
Though the opener, “Children Of revenant take on the banjo is insistent in fans of First Aid Kit’s
The Galaxy”, is a little too guilelessly in its dogged repetition, calling winsome country:
cosmic, at her best, on the sparkling forth the whirling hillbilly drone of it’s unabashed pop, all cavernous ’80s
OLOF GRIND
“Ox” and “River Spirit”, she Henry Flynt, in a strange, seemingly keyboards and thunderclap drums. It is Fenella:
approaches the mercurial musings of paradoxical capacious minimalism. followed by “Angel”, nearer Abba than hauntingly
prime Jane Siberry. STEPHEN TROUSSÉ JON DALE the Burritos. There is nothing wrong eerie

NEW ALBUMS
AMERICANA GOLD DUST

The Late Great Gold Dust
CENTRIPETAL FORCE
Album of the month
8/10
Massachusetts folk auteur channels
’70s folk-rock and ’90s lo-fi
“Go Gently”, the opening
track on Stephen Pierce’s
second album as Gold
Dust, opens with a gigantic
doomsday riff, as though
the sky has cracked open,
but gradually it gives way to a disarmingly
placid folk melody. Pierce loves this sort
of contrast, and The Late Great… toggles
between the quiet and the loud, the storm
and the calm. Heavy drums rumble beneath
his gentle tunes, and J Mascis even disrupts
“Larks Swarm A Hawk” to do some majestic
shredding. The album casts a strange spell,
as though Pierce is playing every note from
the other side of a dying campfire.
STEPHEN DEUSNER
CAITLIN ROSE HONEY HARPER

& THE INFINITE SKY
Cazimi Honey Harper & The Infinite Sky
NAMES ATO
7/10
8/10 Friends and family on board as space
Nahville singer-songwriter’s triumphant, overdue return cowboy comes back down to earth
For his second album,
THE Stand-In, Caitlin Rose’s with a renewed sense of self-possession. Honey Harper (né William
third release in five years, placed Low-key opener “Carried Away” addresses Fussell) recruited a
her at the top of Nashville’s list the need to break patterns of behaviour and backing band that includes
of essential young artists back self-destruction, something echoed in a number his wife/collaborator
in 2013. But it appears she wasn’t of subsequent tracks. Co-written with Courtney Alana Pagnutti as well as
quite ready for all the attention. Marie Andrews, who also sings backing members of Calexico, Spoon and TOPS.
She found the spotlight debilitating rather vocals, the terrific “Getting It Right” makes its They’re a dexterous honky-tonk outfit
than enabling, its unwanted glare suggesting narrator’s position clear: “Call it bad timing/ that bolster his askew hooks, especially
the prospect of imminent burnout. Rose did Call it whatever you want/I won’t spend another on “Boots Mine Gold”, which showcases
eventually return to the studio in early 2020, only lifetime/Getting it wrong”. “Black Obsidian”, one his curious twang. His previous releases
to be scuppered by the pandemic. Now, after a of several songs coloured by Spencer Cullum’s conveyed the weightless isolation of space,
few readjustments, she’s back in earnest, brighter pedal steel, is another standout, examining the but here he nails his boots to the floor, so
and more assured after what she calls “this inherent conflict between holding on and letting that his flights of fancy barely get airborne.
10-year streak of doom and disappointment”. go, between the familiar and the unknown. Dropping the word “Baudrillardian” in
Named after an ancient astrological term that “Blameless” is a pristine ballad, marked by a “Ain’t No Cowboys In Georgia” certainly
relates to a planet being consumed by the sun, measured guitar break, that sounds resigned doesn’t help matters. Instead of looking
Cazimi acknowledges her past experience while to simple fate: “There’s no point in making it ahead, he sounds like he crash-landed
proposing a fresh set of terms. painless/It’s nobody’s fault and baby we’re somewhere in the ’70s. STEPHEN DEUSNER
It feels like the work of someone who’s come blameless”. By the time we get to the ringing
to some kind of acceptance, a self-appraisal of “Only Lies” (written with co-producer Jordan HORSE LORDS
sorts, with the tough wisdom that entails. Lehning), it seems like Rose has undergone a Comradely Objects
RVNG INTL
Rose’s voice remains as effortlessly supple as breakthrough: “My tune was changin’, though
ever, navigating the emotional terrain of these I hadn’t touched the dial”. A brave, thoroughly 8/10
songs – part country, part shimmery pop – welcome comeback. ROB HUGHES Baltimore quartet continue to expand
their post-post-rock scope
AMERICANA ROUND-UP
A guitarcentric array of
Acoustic guitar prodigy Billy Strings was saw off competition from Big Thief, Los dexterous convolutions
among the big winners at 2022’s Americana Lobos and Robert Plant & Alison Krauss to that alternately evoke
Awards at Nashville’s Ryman Auditorium. be crowned Duo/Group Of The Year. Don Tortoise, Tinariwen and
The Michigan-reared bluegrasser made off Williams, Chris Isaak, Indigo Girls and The Terry Riley, “Zero Degree
with Artist Of The Year, feeding anticipation Fairfield Four were recipients of lifetime Machine” establishes
for Me/And/Dad, out in late November on honours. Back on the new release front, a thrilling trajectory for the Baltimore
ROUNDER . Recorded with stepfather Terry Margo Price has announced Strays, due four-piece’s fifth album. While not the
Barber, the album finds him digging into the mid-January on LOMA VISTA . Produced by Price only contemporary act revisiting the post-
work of those who inspired him, via songs by and Jonathan Wilson, the successor to rock aesthetic of the 1990s, Horse Lords
the likes of Mac Wiseman and Doc Watson. 2020’s That’s How Rumours Get Started may be the most consistently surprising
Guests include Jerry Douglas and Ronnie features guest spots from Sharon Van and inventive thanks to their fluidity
LAURA E. PARTAIN, ALYSSE GAFKJEN
and Rob McCoury. Etten, Mike Campbell and and versatility. Indeed, given that their
Meanwhile, other gongs Lucius. Expect psych country, spectrum of nods and references runs
were won by Allison rock’n’roll, “iridescent pop” and from early Warp techno to bluegrass to
Russell (Album Of The Year R&B. “I feel more mature in the Trout Mask Replica – horn-heavy freakouts
for Outside Child), Brandi way that I write now, I’m on like the full-bore “May Brigade” also
Carlile (Song Of The Year: more than just a search for demonstrate a kinship with The Comet
“Right On Time”) and large crowds and accolades,” Is Coming – the focus and coherence of
husband-and-wife team Margo Price explains. “I’m trying to find Comradely Objects is even more impressive.
The War And Treaty, who Price what my soul needs.” ROB HUGHES JASON ANDERSON

NEW ALBUMS
JAMBINAI JUNIOR BOYS

Apparition Waiting Game
BELLA UNION CITY SLANG
8/10 8/10
Audacious anti-pop from Korean Ontario duo take a deep dive into
sonic visionaries introspective soultronica
At the other end of the Canadian electro
spectrum to the K-pop group Junior Boys dial
phenomenon sits down the decibels for
the South Korean their first album in
post-rock trio six years, a sonically
Nadine
Jambinai, although lush audio experience Khouri:
on the follow-up to 2019’s wondrous born from family bereavement, Covid- less self-
ONDA there is an unexpected squaring era introspection and contemplative conscious
of the circle, with K-pop superstar swja promenades around pandemic-
lending her haunting voice to “From empty ghost towns. In their new fundamental musical reform, ripping and blues shivers on “Nachekita’s
The Place Been Erased”, a typically home studio, designed to prioritise up Western notation’s hierarchical Lament”, while on “Tales From Rumi”
intense slab of noise that sounds like dynamic range and noise reduction, nature for a cyclic, karma-like system. percussion reverberates like raindrops
an Asian tribute to MBV. The other Jeremy Greenspan and Matt Didemus Percussionist Korwar reaches his pounding in a cave, with Lloyd’s tenor
three tracks on this short 28-minute maximise “deep listening” texture desired future by pulling free of a purified version of the rough-edged
album are equally striking, as drones and detail on warm, wafting, ambient European gravity to return to a floating attack he learned as ’50s sideman to
build to cacophonous crescendos reveries like “Must Be All The Wrong world, where pulsing rhythms merge Howlin’ Wolf. NICK HASTED
of noise, with piri (bamboo oboe), Things” and beatless synth-jazz into musique concrète streams and
yanggeum (hammered dulcimer), paintings like “Dum Audio”. Between simmering ambience. “Remember DAN MANGAN
geomungo (zither) and saenghwang heavily treated, gently glitchy vocal Circles Are Better Than Lines” places Being Somewhere ARTS & CRAFTS
(reed mouth organ) blending effects, Greenspan sounds like Arthur jazz flute in such a sound-world, part
7/10
thrillingly with the primary rock Russell cooing along to The Blue Nile rave, part reintegrated Eden. This is
colours of guitar, bass and drums. on the softly percolating soul-tronica rebel music as passive resistance, Canuck singer-songwriter makes
NIGEL WILLIAMSON of “Night Walk”. An immersive, gently blissfully embodying change. good use of his lockdown downtime
hypnotic and sporadically sublime NICK HASTED Assembled piecemeal
JEAN-MICHEL JARRE album. STEPHEN DALTON over the pandemic
Oxymore LITTLE WINGS by the Vancouver
SONY NADINE KHOURI Froggy’s ASTRAL EDITIONS singer-songwriter and
7/10 Another Life TALITRES 7/10 producer Drew Brown
with long-distance
Elder statesmen of French 8/10 Woozy, lo-fi Americana from contributions by drummer Joey
synthtronica extends his late- Elegant and soulful third, produced cult hero Waronker, harpist Mary Lattimore,
career purple patch by John Parish Little Wings’ Kyle Broken Social Scene’s Kevin Drew and
He may still be widely It was her second Fields has spent the more, Dan Mangan’s s seventh album
associated with 1970s album, 2017’s The past 20 years quietly strikes a fine balance between the
easy-listening synth- Salted Air, that amassing one of quiet intimacy of his best work and Bon
pop, but the Peter Pan swivelled ears the most singular Iver’s most fractalised folktronica. And
of Parisian electronica Khouri’s way. A bodies of work in the although the emphasis on nuance and
has recently sparse, almost American underground for labels like texture means Mangan’s gift for melody
amassed an impressive autumnal meditative set, it showed the British- K and Woodsist; he’s also a trusted can get a little obscured, the more
portfolio of boundary-pushing sonic Lebanese artist’s soulful mien and sideman for artists as diverse as The extroverted likes of “Fire Escape” and
innovation and pan-generational way with a Mazzy Star-ish drift, yet Microphones, Devendra Banhart and “All Roads” provide Being Somewhere
collaboration. Paying posthumous didn’t quite stick. Her follow-up is Peaches. Froggy’s, his first release on with some welcome warmth and
homage to musique concrète pioneer much less self-conscious: here are Astral Spirits’ imprint Astral Editions, immediacy without disrupting the
Pierre Henry, who died in 2017 while nine songs with a slightly dusty, is inspired by a defunct restaurant delicate mood. JASON ANDERSON
planning a joint album with Jarre, countrified complexion, whose natural in Topanga Canyon. Spontaneously
the 74-year-old composer’s latest grace and restraint doesn’t preclude composed in one sitting, Fields’ world THE MARS VOLTA
project nudges him in a pleasingly intimacy. Khouri has a terrific voice, of warped keys and vintage drum The Mars Volta CLOUDS HILL
glitchy, lightly experimental direction. its hushed, bluesy tone recalling machines is so fully formed that a
8/10
Layered with ghostly vocal samples, Cat Power, while her songs’ settings, record with such a seemingly flimsy
found sounds and deluxe squelch which include judicious saxophone concept bursts with vivid imagery LA-based neo-prog icons keep it all
effects, stand-out tracks like the and keys, have a small-hours allure. and invention. JACK MILNER tightly distilled for first since 2012
burbling, bouncy “Neon Lips” and The seductively smouldering “Vertigo” Though deserving
the gleaming, rumbling “Crystal scores high on that count, but the CHARLES LLOYD of their rep as one of
Garden” are lavishly embroidered anguished, electronic pulse of Trios: Sacred Thread BLUE NOTE the most ambitious
audio tapestries. The spacious, stereo- “Briefly Here” proves her versatility. and singular US rock
7/10
panning “binaural” sound mix works SHARON O’CONNELL acts of the 2000s,
particularly well as a headphones Spiritual jazz master in The Mars Volta were
album. STEPHEN DALTON SARATHY KORWAR meditative Indian mode hardly known for their brevity. Yet
Kalak THE LEAF LABEL Charles Lloyd’s sax on the band’s first effort in a decade
solo on his friends – during which guitarist Omar
Junior Boys: 8/10
immersive The Beach Boys’ “Feel Rodriguez-Lopez and singer Cedric
Indo-futurist manifesto rips up time Flows” was just a Bixler-Zavala reactivated their post-
“Heat a non-stick footnote in the first hardcore rockers At The Drive-In with
pan with the past”, jazz career to properly mostly satisfying results – they eschew
“A Recipe To Cure connect with the rock counterculture. the proggy sprawl of landmarks like
Historical Amnesia” The 86-year-old’s recent popular, 2005’s Frances The Mute in favour of a
starts, as a dish prolific resurgence on Blue Note more economical approach, with no
invitingly sizzles. continues with this year’s three Trios decline in force or complexity. Indeed,
“Memories need to cook, nostalgia albums. This last entry, with Indian the furious cumbia/rock fusion of
is steamed away…” Where Korwar’s percussionist Zakir Hussain and “Graveyard Love” and the gentler
STEVE GULLICK
breakthrough album More Arriving star guitarist Julian Lage, is perhaps cosmic pop of “Tourmaline” may
(2019) challenged anti-immigrant closest to his spiritual essence. comprise a new creative apex for
xenophobia through revelatory Hussain’s tablas and sacred singing these inveterate overachievers.
Indian rappers, Kalak attempts are met by Lage’s sitar-like drones JASON ANDERSON

NEW ALBUMS
Big Joanie: (l–r) art is a tapestry, by artist Angelica Ellis,

Estella Adeyeri, depicting Taylor-Stones’ nephew on a
Stephanie
Phillips, Chardine barber’s chair, made in a style evoking the
Taylor-Stone wall hangings frequently seen in British-
Caribbean living rooms after Windrush.
“I can’t find you, come back home”, sings
Philips on the chiming indie rock of
“Today”, while on “Insecure” she boards
a train to “ride far away from here… I sit
and think of all the things that I could be”.
There’s plenty of demonstration of
the things Big Joanie could be here: the
gothic guitars and chill Euro synths of
the brooding “Your Words”, the chunky,
Amps-esque grunge-pop punch of
“Taut”, the sweetly fuzzy Omnichord and
charmingly naive beat of “Count To 10”.
“Confident Man” exults in deliciously fat
synth riffs and drum-machine handclaps,
while “Happier Still”, inspired by Nirvana,
hammers home the fake-it-’til-you-make-
it aspect of grinding through depressive
episodes with a brutal, bouncy grunge
BIG JOANIE
to release it. They’ve also put out 7”s on attack. “I Will” evolves from a deliciously
Kill Rock Stars and Third Man, as well languorous mood – muted organ and
as touring with Bikini Kill, appearing ghostly reverb softening the edge of
Back Home at Grace Jones’s Meltdown, and being
picked by Sleater-Kinney to contribute
Phillips’s promise: “If I could write the book
on us/I’d tell the truth of what has passed”,
DAYDREAM LIBRARY SERIES
towards a Dig Me Out tribute album. Their to a Mellotron-laced psychy jam.
8/10 live shows, in which overt activism and
delirious dancing collide delightfully,
Perhaps the most irresistible hook on
Back Home is “In My Arms”, a peppy
Feminist post-punk trio fearlessly expand have won them instant converts from their rock’n’roll love song that plays to the
their horizons. By Emily Mackay early days at DIY Space for London to this yearning power of Phillips’ voice, with a
year’s Glastonbury debut. finger-clicking sunny warmth and a lovely
BY all rights, Big But what their second record, Back outro of chiming and intertwining vocals;
Joanie shouldn’t have SLEEVE NOTES Home, underlines more than ever is it returns towards the close of the record in
enough spare time 1 Cactus Tree that Big Joanie can’t be encompassed a stripped-back, Shangri-La’s like reprise.
to sound as good as 2 Taut in an elevator pitch or a checking-off of But probably the most impressive track
they do. Formed in 3 Confident Man influences. There’s an entrancing breadth is closer “Sainted”, whose thrummingly
4 What Are You
2013 as the result of of style and mood here, one that proves motorik synth-iced gothic flounces recall
Waiting For
a chance encounter 5 In My Arms
them keepers indeed. Opener “Cactus the best of big-coated ’80s post-punk.
– when drummer Chardine Taylor-Stone 6 Your Words Tree” recalls the woozy, haunted indie Amid all these stylistic wanderings,
noticed that guitarist and singer Stephanie 7 Count To 10 of Belly and early Throwing Muses in its though, Big Joanie never forget to keep
Phillips was carrying a Raincoats tote 8 Happier Still surreal, mystical imagery, heavy, swirling faith with their core sound – that raw punk
bag – this London trio of committed, 9 Insecure guitar and ghostly-sweet backing vocals. heart and touch of girl-group sugar – with
creative women have built something 10 Today “He looks like home and I feel saved”, sings the result that Back Home is a cohesive,
truly remarkable over the past nine years, 11 I Will Phillips, the first of many references to strong statement as well as an exciting
becoming a formidable force in principled 12 In My Arms homecomings on the album, whose title one. This is a band at home with who they
(Reprise)
DIY music. reflects on what “home” means for people are, exploring who else they could be with
13 Sainted
Philips, a music writer as well as a with more than one heritage. The cover thrilling verve.
musician herself, started the collective Produced by:
DIY Diaspora Punx, which then founded
Decolonise Fest, an event by and for DIY
Margo Broom
Recorded at:
Q&A
musicians of colour that is still thriving. Hermitage Works Stephanie Phillips: on this album? What else is
She also wrote a book, Why Solange Studios, London “There was a lot of We were more aware of coming up?
Matters, for University of Texas Press. Personnel pushing boundaries” what recording an album We’re doing
Bassist Estella Adeyeri is a member of Girls includes: Estella was about. We knew we shows in
Rock London, a branch of the Portland, Adeyeri (bass, How was Decolonise could work with more November,
Oregon, organisation set up to help young
guitar, vocals), Fest 2022? elements, build up more including with
Chardine It was great. It was our of a scene for each song. Courtney
women and non-binary people get into Taylor-Stone first one since before There was a lot of trying Barnett,
making their own music. Taylor-Stone has (drums, vocals), the pandemic, and we to push the boundaries of and then
won awards for her LGBT+ activism, and Stephanie Phillips didn’t get any funding what Big Joanie could be. we’re doing
is working on her first book, Sold Out: How (guitar, vocals, and relied on donations. I’d written “Your Words” our UK and
Black Feminism Lost Its Soul. They are the Omnichord, But we had great crowds years ago on the bus, Europe tour
sort of band who would send Jacob Rees- organ, synth), and the bands were and then we added in from January.
Mogg running in terror to Nanny. Charlotte happy. It felt like people that layering, a Mellotron I’m working
Valentine (violin have been missing the for the synth strings – it’s on a new book
Their music walks the walk as much
on “Today”) space Decolonise Fest really beautiful. I also about the history
as the rest of what they do: their 2018
creates to be a person love the last three songs, of black people
debut album, Sistahs, with its slanted, of colour into punk and the melody from “I Will” in alternative music
girl-group-flavoured, riot grrrl-laced alternative music. running into “In My Arms scenes. Yeah, we’ve got a
indie punk, inspired Thurston Moore (Reprise)” and then lot of stuff going on.
AJAMU X
and Eva Prinz to set up a whole new What new sides did “Sainted”. It takes us to INTERVIEW:
label, Daydream Library Series, in order you want to represent that next level. EMILY MACKAY

LAMBCHOP
“THE BAND'S BEST ALBUM IN A DECADE” – NPR
OUT NOW
CD, DOWNLOAD, STREAM
2LP BLACK VINYL
2LP TRANSLUCENT GALAXY VINYL (INDIE STORES ONLY)
“It's the work of a focused artist who “An expressionistic, existential musical “The Bible is a subtly implicit state SCAN ME
is consistently attempting to stretch masterpiece" of the nation album … orchestral art
out the parameters of their own ever- music which sounds like a sad sunrise”
expanding sonic world. Yet another
9/10 GOD IS IN THE TV
THE ARTS DESK
late-career highlight”
“Lambchop's most eclectic album to
9/10 UNCUT date – an anything-goes explosion of
creativity that rewards repeated “A new testament from Nashville’s
“Consistently surprising and brilliant” listening … Another late-career gem” enduring sage”
NARC RECORD COLLECTOR MOJO
NEW ALBUMS
GIGI MASIN
Vahiné LANGUAGE OF SOUND REVELATIONS BILL NACE
Through A Room DRAG CITY
7/10 7/10
Italian ambient maestro’s latest, full Heavy drones and jousting loops
of flickering, mesmerising details from American noise sculptor
Gigi Masin is one Bill Nace’s guitar
of many European playing, whether
composers whose solo or with groups
careers have been such as Body/Head
re-evaluated thanks (where he’s joined
to a wave of interest by Kim Gordon),
in New Age and ambient from the is particularly volatile – spun from
Continent; he appeared on the bursts of string static and fried
groundbreaking 2016 compilation feedback, there’s often been a
The Microcosm, for example. While he stream-of-consciousness illogic to his
may be best known for his ’80s music music. Through A Room feels far more
– beautiful albums like Wind and sculpted and weightier, however, and
compositions like “Clouds” – Masin’s
recent music is just as seductive,
ANGELINE MORRISON the overall tone here has a strange,
ectoplasmic radiance, as though
perhaps more so, teasing the listener Recreating the UK’s pre-Windrush black history it’s leeching, perilously, out of the
with tightly woven minimalist speakers. Expanding his instrumental
repetition, before flooding the senses hen Angeline Morrison History Month, the songs, as armoury significantly, the longer cuts
with ravenous texture, as on the
swooning “Barumini”. Hypnotic but
W read WEB Du Bois’ book
The Souls Of Black Folk,
Morrison explains, are about
“real people and events that
like “Les Echos”, “Ann” and “Crooked
Teeth” are most compelling, with
never boring, Vahiné is rich with subtle describing how enslaved black really happened”. loops projecting through the air and
poetry and revelation. JON DALE people and their descendants When not singing and writing clashing like streamlined silver darts.
in America had chronicled their folk songs, she’s an enthusiastic JON DALE
DAVID JOHN MORRIS experience in song, she was Morris dancer and a respected
Wyld Love Songs struck by a profound thought: academic, who lectures at MAGGIE NICHOLS
HINTERGROUND “There have been people from Falmouth Uni on Critical Popular Are You Ready? OTOROKU
the diaspora in the UK for Musicology, with courses
7/10 centuries, so why do we not covering such non-folk subjects
8/10
Ex-Red River Dialect man continues have folk songs about the black as the origins of doo-wop and Free-improv legend finds spotlight
fine run of form experience here?” She posed the work of Joe Meek. Yet there Within the world of
A companion piece to the question to the Arts Council, is nothing academic about her free improv, Nichols
last year’s beguiling which funded her to research music, which has a visceral is spoken about in
Monastic Love Songs, the history of Britain’s pre- authenticity. “My hope is the same breath as
written during his Windrush black population people will connect with the trailblazers such as
tenure at a Buddhist and the felicitous result is The songs on an emotional level and Derek Bailey and
monastery in Canada, Sorrow Songs: Folk Songs of the British folk scene will begin Evan Parker, so it comes as some
Morris’s second solo effort is another Black British Experience. to have a broader variety of surprise that this is her first physical
extended hymn to community. Released to coincide with Black voices,” she says. NIGEL WILLIAMSON solo album. Having contributed
This time it’s informed by a shared to many wonderful records and
guardianship in north London during performed consistently since the mid-
lockdown, the experience manifesting ’60s, Are You Ready? is worth the wait.
itself in thoughtful, sometimes playful gorgeous voice and autoharp render Dave Rawlings, and perhaps even The piano and vocals are filled with
songs that fork into several streams the likes of “Unknown African Boy” Richard & Linda Thompson. an abundance of beautifully vertical
of consciousness. Drum machines and “Cruel Mother Country” as instant NIGEL WILLIAMSON melodies and hooks, bringing to
and double-tracked guitars form folk classics, while a fine supporting mind the scope and ambition of Carla
the bedrock, augmented by various cast includes producer/fiddler Eliza THE MURLOCS Bley’s Escalator Over The Hill while
members of Red River Dialect. The Carthy and Martin Carthy on the Rapscallion ATO retaining Nichols’ fearless dedication
epic “Ballad Of Ross Wyld” dominates, moving, Watersons-like closer “Slave to economy and space. A quietly
7/10
expertly aligning references to black- No More”. NIGEL WILLIAMSON triumphant high-wire act. JACK MILNER
tie parties, fantasy homes and Robin Slight shift on quintet’s self-
Williams in Hook. ROB HUGHES MORTON VALENCE produced sixth THE NIGHTINGALES
Morton Valence COW PIE Cross-pollination The Last Laugh
ANGELINE MORRISON 8/10 between bands TINY GLOBAL PRODUCTIONS
The Sorrow Songs: Folk Songs and often furious
7/10
Of Black British Experience Eighth album from British release rates are both
TOPIC country duo markers of Australia’s Four decades in, here’s another
The English-born, febrile psych-rock clattering, spirited gem
9/10
Americana-fixated scene. Melbourne’s Murlocs feature The success of
Majestic tales from black Britain’s duo of Robert two members (vocalist and guitarist 2020’s King Rocker,
lost past “Hacker’ Jessett and Ambrose Kenny-Smith is one) of the a film about British
Born in Birmingham Anne Gilpin travelled famously prolific King Gizzard & The independent
to immigrant parents, to the Sierra Nevada Lizard Wizard and one of Orb, yet institution The
Morrison fell in love mountains to record this felicitous they’ve still managed to rack up Nightingales, would
with English folk collection of cosmic country-rock half a dozen albums in eight years. be a banner moment for lesser groups.
music after hearing with producer BJ Cole. It’s a perfect Though their sound remains a pop- But for them it feels like just another
the voice of Shirley fit, for Cole more or less invented attuned amalgam, with Rapscallion strange turn of events. The Last Laugh
Collins. Discovering there had been British country half a century ago and they’ve slightly cranked the prog is the latest in a recent run of excellent
black people in Britain since Roman his pedal steel weeps gorgeously all and stoner/blues-rock elements, albums. Songs like “Frances Sokolov”
times, she spent a year researching over these 11 original songs, from the recalling Utopia, Melvins and early are full-blooded, laced with rattling
the neglected history of her diaspora effervescent “‘I’ve Been Watching Black Keys as well as Ty Segall, ’60s garage-punk organs; “Mind Of
ancestors and turned their stories You/You’ve Been Watching Me’” without losing their way. It’s a smart, Stone” folds Robert Lloyd’s droll vocals
into this wonderful, deathless set to the plaintive closer “Together exuberant set, with the freewheeling among chiming guitar and tumbling
of songs, framed as if they were Through The Rain”. Listening to the “Compos Mentis” and the Bolan-ish, drums. Like labelmates and peers The
NICK DUFFY
traditional ballads but imbued interplay between Jessett and Gilpin’s harmonica-strafed “Bowlegged Blue Orchids, The Nightingales are
with the contemporary sensibilities voices evokes comparisons with The Beautiful” just two highlights. making their best music in the here
of #blacklivesmatter. Morrison’s Handsome Family, Gillian Welch and SHARON O’CONNELL and now. JON DALE

NEW ALBUMS
Heavy souls: a swaggering 12/8 Southern rock shuffle,
Nick Mitchell
Maiato and goes into an introspective Pink Floyd-ish
James breakdown and features a Tropicalia-style
Jackson Toth
interlude. Even the straight-up 12-bar
blues workouts, like “Cici”, transform into
a hypnotic jabber of musique concrète.
Throughout, Mitchell Maiato plays some
wonderfully untutored piano parts, often
sounding like a demented cat creeping
along the keyboard.
Not all the lyrics move into magical
realist territory. “Billy” is a wonky piece
of tribal glam rock where Mitchell Maiato
pays tribute to a faded local rock star
whose career has been a failure (“third on
the bill and over the hill”) but who remains
a hero (“I had to bend my knees to look
murder a supernatural monster. The song
ONE ELEVEN
you in the eye but I still looked up to you”).
manages to turn this dark source material Two compositions are about recovering
into a piece of joyous, freewheeling from horrific hangovers: “Rizzo In The
HEAVY Southern rock: one where machismo is

a front for terrified, evasive men who are
perpetually on the run. It’s followed by
Wig” appears to narrate a drug-fuelled
comedown in a suitably disjointed and
funky 6/4 time signature (“I looked at the
Poolside a very different kind of American gothic clock it was 4:89/It was out of the bag, I was
KITH & KIN called “Bama Yeti”, a cheery, upbeat, legally blind”); while “Plinth” is a chaotic
Creedence-style boogie inspired by a piece of Southern soul about a couple who
7/10 news story about a sighting of a sasquatch spend an entire relationship wallowing
crossing the Florida/Alabama border. in endless hangovers (“I remember one
Anglo-Americans’ novelistic, ‘western The band’s sound has changed time I suggested we fly to somewhere hot in
gothic’ vision. By John Lewis considerably in recent years. Their first December/You said ‘I’m not a goose’ and
two LPs – 2018’s Everything’s Better and walked out of the house/And went off on a
ONE ELEVEN HEAVY 2019’s Desire Path – sounded like jam-band three-day bender”).
were something
SLEEVE NOTES sessions, recorded quickly in the brief “Michael Landon” is a piece of
of a transatlantic 1 Tyrant King windows of time that all five band members storytelling Dylanesque prose set to
2 Bama Yeti
supergroup when could assemble in a single studio (Mitchell a tempo-defying piece of Dylanesque
3 Plinth
they formed a few Maiato lives in Spain, Toth and the other vocalese, featuring a violin solo from
4 Treasure
years ago. James 5 Rizzo In The Wig band members lived in completely different Sandy Lane, about a journey along a
Jackson Toth – aka 6 Fruit Loops parts of the US). But, under lockdown, they coastal mountain road. It was, apparently,
Wooden Wand, the singer-songwriter 7 Billy had to find new ways of working. Poolside inspired by a drive from Valencia to
behind numerous “New Weird America” 8 Cici (If You was recorded remotely: Toth and Mitchell Benidorm, where Mitchell Maiato
outfits like Dunza, Grim Jim, Hassara and Want To) Maiato swapped audio recordings, sang witnessed the surreal sight of a bar full of
James And The Giants – met Bradford- 9 Michael Landon harmonies on each other’s songs and British expats watching an episode of the
born musician Nick Mitchell Maiato at enlisted Stephen Malkmus’s drummer Jake old western series Bonanza on a big screen
Produced by:
a Manchester gig in 2010 and instantly Morris. These are more structurally detailed (“the projection of Michael Landon, who
‘Colin Sick’
bonded over a shared love of Neil Young, and carefully considered arrangements, had no idea where he was”). This is cosmic
Recorded in:
Little Feat and the Grateful Dead. After Valencia, Spain; often epic in scale. One highlight is “Fruit American music, but one with a sense of
forming a band with assorted members of Green Bay, Loops”, an episodic suite which starts as distance and an international perspective.
Royal Trux, Hiss Golden Messenger and Wisconsin, and
Solar Motel Band, they started wearing
these influences on their sleeve; the kind
Portland, Oregon,
USA Q&A
of connoisseurs who sonically curate Personnel: Nick
Mitchell Maiato Nick Mitchell Maiato I’ve been re-reading The It’s weird: when The Beatles
half a century of leftfield Americana. “I hope it's uplifting" Hawkline Monster, a gothic and the Stones were making
(vocals, guitars,
On Poolside, you can hear shades of western he wrote in 1974. music, nobody worried about
piano, synths,
everything from Gram Parsons to Willie Is it a challenge being in There’s a shape-shifting these things. It’s fascinating
percussion,
Nelson, from Michael Hurley to David banjo), James a transatlantic band? Native American character how that has changed
Crosby, from the Allman Brothers to Toth (vocals, It can be but, to be honest, I called Magic Child in it that – I think it’s a fallout from
Santana, with nods to Led Zeppelin, Mike guitars, synths), had similar problems when I reminds me of the “sweet little post-punk. James thinks
Cooper and the Incredible String Band for Guy Fowler was living near Manchester Indian” girl in David Crosby’s rock’n’roll can only be sung in
and in a band with people If I Could Only Remember My an American accent. I don’t –
good measure. But this is also an album (bass), Jake
Morris (drums, who were two miles down Name. Me and James talked I’ve played in plenty of bands
that buzzes with cultural references, both the road from me! Now my a lot about this gothic western where I’ve tried singing in
high and low. “You mixed up Lee Majors percussion),
Michael Troutman main collaborator lives 4,000 vibe, telling magical realist a Yorkshire or Lancastrian
with Mark E Smith when I said that I liked miles away but we speak stories, and James was into accent. But I think the accent
(synths), JayVe
the Fall guy” is a typically bathetic line, on the phone pretty much that idea because a lot of his and the lyrics need to serve
Montgomery
and there are dozens of similar lyrics that (sax), Sandy Lane every day, and we’re both songs are already in that vein. the imagery of the music.
namecheck everything from Twin Peaks (violin) fanatically enthusiastic “Gothic western” makes it To some extent, rock’n’roll is
to Grease, from “Chatanooga Choo Choo” about what we do. Obviously sound dark and gloomy but dependent on Americanisms.
to Little House On The Prairie, from trashy Covid put a damper on things I hope this is the opposite – The only way of getting away
– a tour and a session were funny and uplifting. from that is to do a Mark E
cowboy flicks to dark literary fiction.
both cancelled in early 2020. Smith and reshape rock’n’roll
The opening track, “Tyrant King”, is Do you ever worry so that it fits into English roads
apparently inspired by Richard Brautigan’s How influential was about what someone and roundabouts and town
1974 novel The Hawkline Monster – a gothic the writer Richard British like you can centres. But then it becomes
western about two itinerant contract killers Brautigan on this bring to “cosmic a very different kind of music.
hired by a Native American prostitute to album? American music”? INTERVIEW: JOHN LEWIS

Of Glass in 2019, pausing pianist and string arranger to the album’s
the project while Finom 30-minute runtime. Tonal shifts do much
worked on their second of the emotional heavy lifting: “Finally”
album Fantasize Your begins with a sweet, lilting, guitar-picked
Ghost, the bulk of the work – melody before sweeping the listener up
unsurprisingly – took place in a lush, romantic string arrangement;
during the pandemic, with “What Will I Do” is elegant chamber
their more collaborative music for piano and guitar until a moment
creative avenues closed of brash, electronic noise creates a gap
off to them. Living alone into which an elegant string arrangement
after a major relationship can flow.
breakup, grappling with Stewart recorded and stitched together
loss of structure as a touring many of the instrumental parts at home,
musician and dealing but several notable Chicago musicians
with family bereavement, add additional flourishes: Sen Morimoto’s
Stewart took lots of long serpentine saxophone entangles Stewart’s
walks around the nature acoustic guitar on “Garter Snake”, and
preserve close to their home, regular collaborator VV Lightbody adds
giving them time to ponder, a dancing flute part to the deceptively
process and learn from their pretty “Defeat”. Cellist Lia Kohl (who has
inner self, their queerness, released two duo albums for violin and
their relationships and their cello with Stewart) adds heft to the string
hopes for the future. arrangements of “Finally” and “Tone
The version of truth-telling Pome”. The title of the last of these alludes
Stewart ultimately lands to the orchestral ‘tone poems’ inspired by
on is poetic, minimalist landscapes and nature, and its lyrics and
and image-rich in turn. The instrumentation capture the changing of
titular reptile on “Garter the Chicago seasons: the softness of newly
Snake” – which Stewart recalls crossing fallen snow, the twinkling shoots of life
MACIE SLEEVE NOTES

1 Finally
paths with frequently on those Chicago
walks – becomes a metaphor for shedding
beginning anew.
Among a work that is often extraordinary,
STEWART 2 Garter Snake

3 Mouthful Of
Glass
one’s less desirable traits and starting
fresh, the singer’s confessions to qualities
such as wickedness and indecision sung
sometimes spectacular, two tracks in
particular stand out. “Golden (For Mark)”
is a sombre hymn for someone who died in
Mouth Full Of Glass
FULL TIME HOBBY
4 Golden (For
Mark)
without guilt or shame. “What Will I Do”,
perhaps the wordiest song on the album,
childhood but, while the imagery is stark
(“a picture upon her mantle/Saw her cry
5 Where We Live
6 What Will I Do exquisitely captures the tension and pain a handful of times wondering who you’d
8/10 7 Tone Pome at the end of a long-term relationship have been”), by keeping the music sparse
8 Wash It Away both parties know is over: “I see you in and leaving space for the song to breathe,
Consummate collaborator 9 Defeat the street, in open air and in my core/I feel Stewart ends up with something that
finds own voice. 10 Maya, Please a rhythm of a song I knew before”. At the lingers long past the three-minute mark.
By Lisa-Marie Ferla other end of the scale, the airy almost- And “Wash It Away”, the closing track on
Produced by:
title track “Mouthful Of Glass” barely the original US version of the album, is a
Macie Stewart,
“FINALLY,” sings features lyrics at all: the song was inspired precision-crafted composition, Stewart’s
with additional
Macie Stewart, on the production by by a dream featuring the central image voice practically soaring above Ayanna
opening track of their Dave Vettraino and Stewart draws out the words like Woods’ horn arrangement before the
debut album, “I tell Personnel: their voice was itself an instrument, the song’s discordant, more experimental
the truth to myself, to Macie Stewart approach that of an impressionist artist to chorus hits like a reset button. Whether
you.” The songwriter, (vocals, other the paintbrush. the album has scratched Stewart’s solo
singer and composer instruments), Lia But the lyrics are only part of the story, creative itch remains to be seen, but it’s
is much-loved in the jazz, improvisational Kohl (cello), Sen with Stewart bringing the full depth of hard to imagine a better record to finally
Morimoto (sax), put their own name on.
and indie music scenes of their native their experience as a composer, violinist,
Ben Lamar Gay
Chicago, but Mouth Full Of Glass offers
(cornet), Dustin
up a deeply intimate, skilfully crafted,
alternative portrait of their inner world.
You’ve probably heard Stewart’s work
Laurenzi (sax),
VV Lightbody Q&A
(flute), Ayanna
without knowing it: on strings for artists Woods (horn Macie Stewart on the things I work on are often own projects – it’s something
as diverse as SZA and Whitney, as a arrangement) new music, emotions very collaborative. I’ve been doing for a really
touring multi-instrumentalist with The and garter snakes long time for other people.
Weather Station and Claire Rousay or,
Were there things you
Why did the time feel could do with this album Where did the ‘garter
most likely, as one half of art-rock duo right for a solo album? that you couldn’t in your snake’ image come
Finom (until recently, Ohmme) with I had a couple of songs that other work? I often use from? Garter snakes were
Sima Cunningham. There are parallels didn’t feel like they fit on the songwriting to understand popping up all over in my life:
to be drawn between all of those and last Finom album, but I didn’t my own emotions and my on my walks around Chicago,
Stewart’s first music under their own have time to do anything own process. It’s hard for in little gifts from friends.
name – but the precise arrangements with them – and then the me to say things in words Snakes are often used to
and experimental flourishes perhaps pandemic happened. I was to other people. Here, I was represent evil, but the garter
most closely resemble Stewart and living by myself, kind of having able to work on those things snake is one of the most
a hard time and it felt good to and didn’t have to tell anyone harmless. I was really drawn
Cunningham’s recent collaboration with
put my energy into making anything concretely. It was to that – as well as the image
Iron & Wine on an EP of songs by the new music. I also wanted to also nice to have space to of shedding skin, being able to
country musician Lori McKenna. know what it would sound like work on some things that move forward in life and leave
ASH DYE
Although Stewart began recording the if it was just me spearheading were more string-heavy and a layer behind.
songs that would become Mouth Full a project, because so many of incorporate it in one of my INTERVIEW: LISA-MARIE FERLA

OLD FIRE to songwriting and shared Southern
Voids WESTERN VINYL upbringing. The pair’s resulting
collaborative album - a one-off, they
8/10 say, to be accompanied by a US tour - is
Strong second by ex-Earlies man a contemporary update to the classic
Originally conceived country sound of Harris, Parton and
as a collaborative Ronstadt’s Trio. Plains’ narrators
project with Micah P temper their heartbreak with control
Hinson, Old Fire saw of their own destinies: Williamson’s
John Mark Lapham keening “Abilene” keeps all the Texas
take the reins when town represented in the rearview
they parted ways, shanghaiing mirror, while gorgeous opener
various singers and musicians into “Summer Sun” sighs “in another life,
service for 2016’s covers set, Songs it’s simple”. Crutchfield’s distinctive,
From The Haunted South. Now, the smoky voice couldn’t be more different
Texan producer and synth player from Williamson’s softer one, yet the N’Awlinz
no wave
has recruited Bill Callahan and Julia way they melt together on the choruses collective
Holter, among others, for Voids. you’d swear it was fated. LISA-MARIE FERLA Special
Whether in fulsome tidal flow (“Blue Interest
Star”), sombre psych drone (“When POLE
I Was In My Prime”) or haunting Tempus MUTE
electronic symphony (“Window”),
7/10
STEVE QUERALT & THE SOFT PINK TRUTH
it’s strong on nuanced dynamics and MICHAEL SMITH Is It Going To Get Any
tonal variation. The high point is the Dark jazz investigations from Sun Moon Town BYTES Deeper Than This?
“Void” suite, four tracks of a cosmic, dubwise Düsseldorf producer THRILL JOCKEY
8/10
meditative bent totalling 25 minutes, Dub music has laid
Superb synths-and-spoken-word 8/10
that recall Jon Hopkins’ Music For down unlikely roots
Psychedelic Therapy. SHARON O’CONNELL in Germany, where debut by Ride bassist Roxy-ish rhetorical raving from
the music’s artful This magical Matmos polymath
PERSONAL TRAINER use of echo and delay collaboration sees Drew Daniel’s
Big Love Blanket THE INDUSTRY has manifested in a north-eastern writer mischievous solo
generation of electronic music. One and broadcaster project The Soft
7/10
such musician is Stefan Betke aka Michael Smith provide Pink Truth plays
Dutch slacker-pop mob’s Pole, whose sideways take on dub laconic, poetic, second fiddle to the
infectiously carefree debut has sustained him across a couple of occasionally sardonic commentary records he makes as
Compared to the decades of activity. Tempus is framed and observation over music created Matmos with partner MC Schmidt, but
Stephen Malkmus- as a natural extension of 2020’s by Steve Queralt, Ride’s bass player. this full-bodied, all-star immersion
produced racket Fading, an album about dementia Queralt really spreads his wings, into an insalubrious world inspired
he makes with his and the aging process. It lacks the conjuring evocative, uplifting synths by late-’70s/early-’80s continental
noisier other band, crumbly warmth of Betke’s early ’00s on “Vespertina” (with thundering disco is somehow more appealing
Canshaker Pi, there’s work, but the likes of “Grauer Sand” crescendo from Ride drummer Loz than Matmos’ recent foray into Polish
a sense of a labour of love around and “Stechmück” – pensive, jazzy Colbert) and the churning psychedelia mid-century avant-garde. Assisted by
this first studio effort from Willem constructions drawing on the whine of “Chaldean Oracle”. Sun Moon Town members of Horse Lords, Drugdealer,
Smit’s Amsterdam supergroup, a of an ailing Minimoog – draw a certain touches on post-rock, shoegaze and Xiu Xiu and a host of wind and brass
loose collective gathered from friends beauty from their tone of smoky Pulp B-sides as Queralt and Smith find players, Daniel peaks early after
on the scene who sound like they’re introspection. LOUIS PATTISON a beautifully judged space between sumptuous opener “Deeper” with “La
focusing on having fun rather than experimental and warmly welcoming, Joie Devant La Mort”, a carnivorous
making ears bleed. They might sound THE PRESCRIPTIONS like something you might chance revamp of Grace Jones’ “La Vie
in pastiche mode on Pavement-y Time Apart SINGLE LOCK upon on the radio at midnight and En Rose” sung by Jamie Stewart.
romps like the title track and “Former then wonder if it was all a dream. Thereafter he saunters around the
8/10
Puppy”, or on the LCD Soundsystem- More please. PETER WATTS afterparty, blissfully amiss. PIERS MARTIN
aping sardonic funk of “Rug Busters”, Young Nashville power-pop band
but there’s a raucous tunefulness and expands its range on impressive SHABASON & KRGOVICH SPECIAL INTEREST
Jonathan Richman-ish charm to Smit’s second LP At Scaramouche IDÉE FIXE Endure ROUGH TRADE
delivery and lyrical wit that frequently Hays Ragsdale’s
8/10 8/10
threatens to turn these shoutalongs boy-next-door tenor
into bohemian anthems. JOHNNY SHARP and soaring chorus Urban nostalgia from Canadian New Orleans dance-punks’ reserves
hooks give The collaborators of energy unleashed
PLAINS Prescriptions their A meditative Although the
I Walked With You A Ways ANTI- engaging personality, album that finds pandemic temporarily
which producer Brendan Benson (The quiet rapture in deprived this
7/10
Raconteurs) spotlights: the dual-guitar urban living, At clubland-formed
Country strong on Waxahatchee/ majesty and heavenly harmonies Scaramouche is the American collective
Jess Williamson collab of opener “April Blossoms” and the second collaborative from expressing
On trading copies hurtling Southern boogie of “Love Is album from sometime War On Drugs themselves onstage, they seem to
of their most recent Red” are pure Big Star. But ex-Alabama saxophonist Joseph Shabason and have bottled up those vibes in order
albums, Katie Shakes keyboardist Ben Tanner, who indie veteran Nicholas Krgovich. 2020’s to uncork them in gloriously chaotic
Crutchfield of guides the tight quartet through the Philadelphia – which also featured fashion on this third studio album,
Waxahatchee and rest of the LP, steers them out of their Krgovich’s occasional sideman, Chris their first for Rough Trade. Coruscating
Jess Williamson comfort zone. They bring a Ziggy Harris – was a similarly muted work, post-punk guitars, gnarly bass, gutsy
connected over their direct approach Stardust shimmer to “Out Satellite” full of glassy synth tones, unhurried soul vocal licks and infectious funk
and a Nirvana-like explosiveness grooves and discreet beats. On At grooves elbow each other around
to “Compartmentalize” before Scaramouche, the neighbourhood is with the result that “Foul” and
ominous strings and synths changing – “Childhood McDonalds’ “Impulse Control” sound like The
darken the mood on the gone/There used to be some woods Slits having a fight in the moshpit with
conjoined “I Might Try”/“Baby there” – with Krgovich on hand The Stranglers and Happy Mondays.
Be Nice”. By the time the sun to document it over Shabason’s Elsewhere, guest Mykki Blanco adds
shimmering, air-conditioned backing, soulful vocals and rap flow to the
ALEXIS GROSS
reappears over closer “Camp

Personal Hill”, there’s no question that somewhere between smooth jazz and synths that cut through the DIY rumble
Trainer: this band has aced the test. New Age ambience. Effortless and of “Midnight Legend”. Irresistible.
focus on fun BUD SCOPPA beautiful. MICHAEL BONNER JOHNNY SHARP

NEW ALBUMS
STARCRAWLER Lou Turner: WIZRD Seasons KARISMA

turning old
She Said BIG MACHINE into new 7/10
7/10 Jazz-schooled Norwegians show
Los Angeles upstarts keep growing flair for ecstatic psychedelia
up fast Originally formed
When Starcrawler at Trondheim’s Jazz
first gained traction in Conservatory by
2018, they seemed like players who’ve also
such a quintessential served in the similarly
creation of the Sunset genre-bending likes of
Strip, it was easy to Spidergawd, Soft Ffog and Megalodon
imagine them sneaking into the Viper Collective, the members of WIZRD take
Room every night only to get kicked such joy in their performances that
out for being underage. Now with their their agility is almost an afterthought.
third album and major-label debut, In that respect, the best of this debut
the most LA thing about Starcrawler album matches Garcia Peoples in its
is the inspiration that singer Arrow giddy exuberance. Those infectious
De Wilde and guitarist Henri Cash high spirits also save Seasons from
draw from hometown heroes such becoming as unwieldy as it might’ve
as X and The Go-Go’s. That makes been, the journey from gnarly prog-
for their strongest, punchiest batch funk to sunny, harmony-laden acid-
of songs to date, with standouts like folk in “Show Me What You Got” being
the glam-rocker “Thursday” and She typical of the terrain travelled here.
Said’s bubblegum-grunge title track JASON ANDERSON
giving De Wilde ample opportunities
to demonstrate her bruised bravado DERYA YILDIRIM &
and outsized charisma. Nashville-based WEYES BLOOD GRUP ŞIMŞEK
JASON ANDERSON singer-songwriter And In The Darkness, Dost 2 BONGO JOE
Lou Turner has a Hearts Aglow SUB POP 7/10
TELEFÍS knack for fitting
9/10
a Dó complex ideas Turkish psych-folk delight, redux
DIMPLE DISCS into beautifully Second part in trilogy offers more Berlin-based
simple packages. Microcosmos, her widescreen beauty Yildirim’s powerful,
8/10
second solo LP, masterfully blends One of the few alluringly melancholic
Eire pollution: Cathal Coughlan’s questing (and often dryly funny) comforts we can voice is the heart of
queasy final statement lyrics with homespun melodies and cling to amid fire ùimúek, whose latest
Cork’s own twisted laidback boogies. It’s a winning and flood is the work follows last year’s
Scott Walker, Cathal contrast, never overly cerebral, but of Weyes Blood aka Dost 1 and is another set of updated
Coughlan continued never lapsing into cliché. There’s Natalie Mering, Anatolian folk covers and original
to make dense, sour, a surprise in virtually every verse, America’s siren of the climate crisis. songs, delivered via a retro-edged
transcendent music a turn-of-phrase that makes you This second album in a trilogy begun blend of spacey funk, jazz, psychedelia
right up to his death pay attention, a double-meaning with 2019’s Titanic Rising moves from and pop. Though the likes of Altın Gün
in May, aged 61, with a Dó – his second always there if you’re looking for it. horror to hope: on “It’s Not Just Me, and the reissue of artists such as Selda
“hiberno-futurist” collaboration Turner may be working with vintage It’s Everybody”, Mering is at first lost means these sounds aren’t unfamiliar,
with producer Jacknife Lee – another materials, but she’s an original, amid Laurel Canyon luxury, but finds there’s fresh charm in these tracks.
septic, analogue-synth heavy take open-hearted but quizzical, finding strength in solidarity; “We don’t have Notably, “Odam Kireç Tutmuyor”,
on the Ireland that spawned him. A fresh ways to look at old questions. time anymore to be afraid”, she sings on with its trilling flute and air of Vashti
Certain Ratio (“Stock Photo Guy”) Or, as one song title puts it, she’s the almost Bacharachian “Children Of Bunyan, the groovy interplay of synth,
and Coughlan’s old Microdisney “Green And Growing”. The Empire”. Her voice alone is worth guitar and ba÷lama (Turkish lute)
collaborator Sean O’Hagan (“Space TYLER WILCOX preserving humanity for, hitting peaks that is “Bal” and closer “Ayúe Halam
Is Us”) assist as the singer reanimates of gorgeous, sleek torment on the Ariyor”, a haunting and prayer-like
a not-so-distant past dominated by LEAH WELLER cosmic beauty of “A Given Thing”. vocal piece. SHARON O’CONNELL
bland entertainment and unresolved Leah Weller EMILY MACKAY
conflict, with the Fatima Mansions MODERN SKY YOUNG GUN SILVER FOX
kingpin’s fiercely concise closing
7/10 AA WILLIAMS Ticket To Shangri La CANDELION
take on the notorious 1975 Miami As The Moon Rests BELLA UNION 7/10
Showband killings, “On A Country Sweet soul debut, produced by
Steve Cradock 7/10 Anglo-American duo gets funky,
Road”, a sobering, understated
farewell. JIM WIRTH With Dee C Lee and Gothic ballads given HM twist à la Doobies, Hall & Oates and AWB
Paul Weller her South London’s Aware that their
LOU TURNER parents, it’s tempting AA Williams is previous three LPs
Microcosmos SPINSTER SOUNDS to compare Leah something of a were perceived
Weller’s solo debut one-trick pony, but as replications of
9/10
with the work it’s a very good trick. yacht-rock standards,
Compellingly charismatic second of the Style Council. Certainly, two She sings achingly Young Gun Silver Fox
outing from Tennessee songstress highlights – the string-drenched slow, self-loathing, minor-key ballads have dialled up the energy level here.
jazz waltz “Freedom” and the which would function well with Drawing on the more rhythmic work
woodwind-assisted soul of “Dive just a clawhammer acoustic guitar of their 1970s touchstones, US expat
Telefís: a
sobering In” (the latter produced by her old accompaniment (as songs like “Ruin” Shawn Lee and Englishman Andy
farewell man) – could have come straight and “Shallow Water” do here). But she Platts uncannily evoke top-down
from Café Bleu. Like most of the best transforms the rest of them into epic excursions along the Pacific Coast
songs here, both are written by Leah pieces of sludge metal – thick, viscous Highway on purring tracks like “West
alone, but her main collaborator Steve tangles of distorted drones, chugging End Jet” and “Rolling Back”, imbuing
Cradock co-writes the McCartney- power chords and Bill Ward-style them with a Steely Dan sophistication.
esque secular hymn “Change”, flailing drums. “For Nothing” is a The two multi-instrumentalists, often
Paul Barry co-writes the epic fuzz compelling piece of gothic grunge joined by brass players, divide the
rock of “Something Sacred”, and featuring some U2-style hands-free labour, Lee focusing on the grooves
Angus Havers helps with the dubby guitar, but best of all is “Hollow Heart”, as Platts stacks the lead and backing
tango “Strangers”. which sounds like Black Sabbath vocals. The result is an expertly crafted
JOHN LEWIS mutilating a nursery rhyme. JOHN LEWIS genre exercise. BUD SCOPPA

“Another road where maybe I/Could see another kind of mind there”
REISSUES | COMPS | BOXSETS | LOST RECORDINGS
THE BEATLES
Revolver: Special Edition
APPLE CORPS LTD./CAPITOL/UME
Their pivot-point LP gets a fresh spin. By Tom Pinnock
S
INCE it began in 2017, removed from the more polite Rubber Soul,
The Beatles’ lavish remix REISSUE released nine months earlier.
campaign has dealt with the OF THE Revolver hardly needs improving, but
downers. Paul McCartney MONTH Martin has done his best to revamp it for
might have relished making 10/10 the 21st century. He’s had the assistance of
Sgt Pepper, but a tripping John some Terminator-level AI machine-learning
Lennon was largely losing interest; developed in New Zealand during the making of
much of ‘The White Album’ was made solo by the Get Back series. There it was used to separate
an increasingly disjointed band; Let It Be captures music and speech on old Nagra tapes, but here it’s
the group’s fatal disintegration and the mess that been employed to split instruments that have been
followed; and Abbey Road’s majesty was largely imprisoned on a single track for decades, so opening
possible only because it was a last hurrah. To the rest the possibility of a remix. In “Taxman”, for example,
of us, these are stunning, sometimes world-altering drums, bass and guitar have been separated, and the
listens, but they certainly make being a Fab seem like results are fantastic, especially on Starr’s drums and
a chore; it was a time of deadlines, joyless business McCartney’s bass, which are clearer, punchier and
meetings and sizzling resentment, as old friends grew even more nuanced. Ringo is essential across this
apart and others fought for recognition. new Revolver: his inventive fills are foregrounded
Where was that camaraderie, that warmth, that and endlessly fascinating, whether taut and heavy
sense of wonder that we associate with The Beatles? on “She Said She Said” or subtle and atmospheric on
Certainly, Peter Jackson’s Get Back put a more positive “Here, There And Everywhere”.
spin on a dark time – but to find As with Martin’s other special-
them truly united, excited and edition remixes, his work is
at their creative peak, we have to subtle and tasteful. That’s not
look to Revolver, the latest staging to say there aren’t noticeable
post on Giles Martin’s journey changes, however. On “For No
through the albums made One”, McCartney’s Clavichord
by his old man and the Fabs. and piano are separated across
Here’s the group expanding the the stereo field, lending the
possibilities of recorded music track a new lustrousness.
just as they were expanding their Starr’s drums were barely
minds with drugs, spirituality there in the original, drowned
© APPLE CORPS LTD
and avant-garde arts; taking out by tambourine in the

influence from soul, funk, Indian left channel, but that’s been
music, the baroque and musique rectified. The overall effect is
concrète; creating a sound far now more reminiscent of Brian

At their peak,
and at the end
of something:
the Fabs play
“Paperback
Writer” on Top
of The Pops,
June 16, 1966
DECEMBER 2022• UNCUT •39

final version; Take 2
of the first version of
SLEEVE NOTES
“And Your Bird Can CD1: New stereo mix Unnumbered mix Can Sing (Second (Highlighted
1 Taxman 5 Got To Get version) – Take 5 sound effects)
Sing” is a Byrds-y
2 Eleanor Rigby You Into My Life 2 Taxman (Take 11) 14 I Want To Tell
delight, all glittering 3 I’m Only Sleeping (Second version) – 3 I’m Only Sleeping You (Speech and
12-string, with 4 Love You To Take 8 (Rehearsal Take 4)
different harmonies 5 Here, There And 6 Love You To fragment) - mono 15 Here, There
and the eventual Everywhere (Take 1) 4 I’m Only Sleeping And Everywhere
main riff appearing 6 Yellow 7 Love You To (Take 2) - mono (Take 6)
Submarine (Unnumbered 5 I’m Only Sleeping 16 She Said She
only as a solo; “Yellow
7 She Said She Said rehearsal) - mono (Take 5) - mono Said (John’s demo)
Submarine” arrives as 8 Good Day 8 Love You To 6 I’m Only Sleeping 17 She Said She
a forlorn Lennon waltz Sunshine (Take 7) (Mono mix RM1) Said (Take 15)
(“In the place where 9 And Your Bird 9 Paperback 7 Eleanor Rigby – Backing track
I was born/No-one Can Sing Writer (Takes 1 (Speech before rehearsal
One part of the
hive mind: John cared”) like something 10 For No One and 2) – Backing Take 2)
Lennon recording 11 Doctor Robert track – mono 8 Eleanor Rigby CD4: Original mono
Revolver, 1966
off Plastic Ono Band a 12 I Want To Tell You 10 Rain (Take 5 – (Take 2) master
lifetime later. 13 Got To Get You Actual speed) 9 For No One (Take 1 Album tracklist
For the first time, Into My Life 11 Rain (Take 5 – 10) – Backing track (same as above)
Wilson’s contemporary work, surely McCartney’s The Beatles had the 14 Tomorrow Slowed down for 10YellowSubmarine
intention, and it clearly shows the song to be a freedom to entirely Never Knows master tape) (Songwriting work CD5: Revolver EP
12 Doctor Robert tape – Part 1) - mono 1 Paperback
stepping stone to the lusher “Penny Lane” the arrange songs in the
CD2: Sessions One (Take 7) 11 Yellow Writer (New
following year. studio. As a result, 1 Tomorrow Never 13 And Your Bird Submarine stereo mix)
“Doctor Robert”, not Revolver’s strongest there are a host of extra Knows (Take 1) Can Sing (First (Songwriting work 2 Rain (New
moment, is enhanced by a walloping bass harmonies, melodies 2 Tomorrow Never version) – Take 2 tape – Part 2) – stereo mix)
drum and snare, and fits closer with the and overdubs on Knows (Mono mix) 14 And Your Bird mono 3 Paperback
super-compressed Revolver aesthetic. “Love some of these earlier 3 Got To Get You Can Sing (First 12 Yellow Writer (Original
Into My Life (First version) – Take 2 Submarine mono mix
You To” benefits from a tighter, more upfront versions that didn’t
version) – Take 5 (giggling) (Take 4 before remastered)
sound too, the sitars, tabla and fuzz guitars make the final cut – 4 Got To Get sound effects) 4 Rain (Original
buzzing with a humming, psychedelic energy. “anybody got a bit of You Into My Life CD3: Sessions Two 13 Yellow mono mix
“Here, There And Everywhere”, on the other money” on “Taxman (Second version) – 1 And Your Bird Submarine remastered)
hand, is opened up: the backing vocals are clearer – Take 11”, say, or the
than before, each singer discernible. The horns “somehow, some way” on the chorus of “Got To Get Lane”, “Fixing A Hole” and “Martha My Dear”,
on “Got To Get You Into My Life” are still spiky, You Into My Life – First Version, Take 5”. Perhaps while “She Said She Said” presaged the white-
but they’re up close in the verses – reedy, breathy that’s part of Revolver’s charm, as opposed to hot fuzz of “Revolution” and “Helter Skelter”,
and present. the woollier, Technicolor Pepper, for instance: in and “Love You To” would find reincarnation as
While there are no real revelations on finalising the arrangements, the band and George “Within You Without You”.
“Tomorrow Never Knows”, it’s still a sea of sound, Martin dramatically thinned them out, leaving Darker clouds are forecast here, too. “For No
one of the most striking three minutes of music only the best elements – often the noisiest electric One” was recorded by only McCartney and Starr,
ever created. It’s a mongrel – Stockhausen tape guitars – in stark monochrome. a throw-forward to the studio fragmentation of
loops meets Indian drone meets Tibetan Book Of Some of these early versions also remind us of Pepper and ‘The White Album’, while Harrison’s
The Dead – but the result seems entirely new, even the hive-mind of The Beatles, of how ideas and third composition was apparently only allowed
56 years later. Shockingly, of course, it was the first inspirations flowed between them. Each writer, when Lennon failed to deliver more songs – his
song recorded for Revolver. for instance, contributes a song based around a lack of engagement, and material, would soon
As is customary with these special editions, drone, with an occasional hinted chord a tone become an issue.
there are also two discs of session highlights. As below: Lennon with “Tomorrow Never Knows”, Before all that, though, The Beatles would play
always, there’s great chat – the band’s argument Harrison with “Love You To” and McCartney their final proper gig, three weeks after Revolver’s
about Paul’s organ at the start of an early version with the verses of “Got To Get You Into My Life”. release, without ever performing a note of this
of “Got To Get You Into My Life”, for instance, An early demo of “She Said…” is also built around album’s songs. They were a fully operational
or George Martin, Paul and the string octet a droning bass note, the chords shifting above group no more. The aftershocks, as documented
discussing how to approach “Eleanor Rigby” that constant, while “Taxman” almost pulls the on the rest of Giles Martin’s remixed albums, are
– and some cuts we’ve heard on the Anthology same trick in its middle-eight. incredible, but the epicentre – their peak, as well
series, such as the aqueous first take of “Tomorrow Listening to this package, it’s clearer than ever as the end of something – can be found here. As
Never Knows”. But there are new treasures here just how Revolver set the template for The Beatles’ McCartney writes in the new liner notes, “all in all,
too: the second version of “Got To Get You Into future: the sound effects of “Yellow Submarine” not a bad album.”
My Life” with fuzz guitars taking the place of bubbled up into “Revolution 9”, and “For No One” Extras: 7/10. Available in a variety of formats,
the horns is meaner and perhaps better than the and “Eleanor Rigby” would blossom into “Penny some with a hardbound book or booklet.
HOW TO BUY...
BEATLES FOR SALE

The Fabs’ other super deluxe editions so far
Sgt Pepper’s The Beatles Abbey Road Let It Be
Lonely Hearts APPLE CORPS LTD./CAPITOL/
UME, 2018
APPLE CORPS LTD./CAPITOL/
UME, 2019
APPLE CORPS LTD./CAPITOL/
UME, 2021
Club Band Here’s ‘The White Perhaps the most Their hodge-podge
APPLE CORPS LTD./
PARLOPHONE/CAPITOL/ Album’ in a lovely, popular Beatles album/soundtrack/
UME, 2017 woozy new mix, plus album today, the memorial still sounds
© APPLE CORPS LTD
The psychedelic triumph, packed great early takes and the essential final LP they recorded is here raw and strangely unsatisfying, but
with delights: the various takes of acoustic Esher demos (including enhanced by great chat and some Glyn Johns’ original, rejected
“Strawberry Fields Forever”, later Lennon’s “Child Of Nature” and surprisingly upbeat moments. The version makes this set as essential
combined, and “A Day In The Life” Harrison’s “Sour Milk Sea”), rescued early “I Want You (She’s So Heavy)” as the rest.
are highlights. 10/10 from bootleg hiss. 9/10 is the one. 10/10 8/10

ARCHIVE
songs, but they wanted to write great
songs to be the most successful pop
band in the world. But the end of that
innocence was happening [on Revolver]:
‘We’ve been screamed at for so long.
We don’t necessarily want to write
the most successful pop songs in the
world, we don’t want to be a pop band
anymore. We don’t want to wear the suits
anymore.’ In this period, they seemed to
be very progressive, very deliberate and
Q&A The Beatles in Abbey
very measured in how they did things.
Creativity for me is a lot like surfing –
Road Studios during there’s been times in my life where I’ve
the recording of
Revolver, 1966 managed to catch a wave and done some
really good stuff, but most of the time I’m
either paddling, treading water or being
Giles Martin: What did Paul make of hit by waves. But The Beatles spent the
the finished thing? whole time surfing, especially in this
“Revolver was He loved it. I mean, he period of time. Whatever ideas they had
like the end of didn’t really think about the seemed to work, it really is bizarre.
technology, and nor do
innocence…” I really want anyone to. The extras seem to definitively
There’s a surprising He said to me that when answer the question of whether
amount of extra stuff here! they first mixed Revolver, Paul was on “She Said She Said”...
Yeah, we were surprised as well, to he thought the whole Yeah, he’s definitely on it. That’s not a
be honest with you – when we started thing was out of tune. I separate bass overdub. He wasn’t even
digging into the tapes, we found think he’s got more of sure if he was on it, but that’s definitely
there was quite a lot of good stuff. an appreciation of how him playing. It’s very Paul, the way the
At first we did wonder if it should be good they were than he bass is driving it. The bass and the two
Revolver and Rubber Soul together, but ever did – what I mean guitars, they’re all locked in together
actually when you listen to the albums by that is how good the actually, and we had to separate them.
it wouldn’t make any sense, really. other members were, for
They’re quite different, as far as it goes example, how important Do you have a highlight among
artistically. Most of the tapes are here it was that George’s guitar the extras? Probably just because it’s
at Abbey Road, even Apple Corps stuff. is heard. The guitar, personal, I do like the “Eleanor Rigby”
It was very fortunate everything was bass and drum parts, they all have a tape with my dad [speaking with the
kept: when The Beatles were doing this purpose on Revolver, and they’re all not musicians]. Paul says he can’t hear the
in 1966, they certainly weren’t thinking straightforward. Paul said to me, “This difference between the strings with
anyone was going to go through it in 56 was the album where we sort of became vibrato and without, and one player
years’ time. I don’t think there’s a band individuals.” I think what he means says it’s better without. There’s a pause,
© APPLE CORPS LTD, KARWAI TANG/WIREIMAGE

that has as comprehensive an archive as was that they weren’t following this you can hear my dad thinking and then
The Beatles. Merseybeat kind of thing – they were he says, “OK, let’s do it without... but if
pulling in different directions, but in a you have something to say…” – I love
So this new AI tool was very fruitful way. You get the sense that expression, they’re just playing a
developed for the Get Back of them giving themselves licence, score he’s written – “…then you should
series? and giving each other licence to probably put vibrato in it.” He was
It’s been developed by Emile de la be themselves. just a nice man, very considered, and
Rey [who works with Peter Jackson]. passionate. All of them loved what they
They were developing it as a means Revolver feels like a creative were doing. I’ve never known anyone
of cleaning dialogue for movies, peak, and almost the end love being in the studio more than Paul
and they honed in on it for Get Back of something as well. McCartney! INTERVIEW: TOM PINNOCK
because the audio quality was a It was the end of innocence, if
real problem. I think they started you like. The Beatles weren’t
McCartney:
by looking at forensic police successful accidentally, they ‘We don’t
AI – you know, for when there’s were successful because they want to be
a recording of someone and they Giles Martin wanted to be the biggest band a pop band
attends the UK any more’
need to hear them for a court Premiere of in the world. My dad used to
case. A lot of companies are doing The Beatles: say, “The Beatles didn’t change
Get Back at
this, there’s a huge demand now London’s a bit. They were always the
because of spatial audio. Bands are Cineworld same arrogant bastards as they
Empire, Nov
trying to remix their stuff and finding 16, 2021 were when I first met them.”
they haven’t got the tapes. Yes, they wanted to write great
So presumably this tech can be

used to split the tracks on earlier
Beatles records?
Yeah. I mean, obviously, the more
“I’ve never known
ingrained stuff is, the harder it is to dig
out. Vocal harmonies are quite hard,
anyone love the studio
and acoustic guitar and drums is always
hard. It can get unstable, and start ping-
more than Paul”
ponging on your headphones, so you
have to be careful.
GILES MARTIN
Polly Harvey:
turning up
the volume
by making
less noise
haircut gangster drama Peaky Blinders. delivered in a whisper. It is a lullaby
PJ HARVEY For Cave, “Red Right Hand” is a chance

to embrace rock’n’roll at its most blood-
performed by a siren, sung quietly
because the children are already asleep.
B-Sides, Demos & Rarities raw. It is a tent-revival song in which

fear and belief are locked in hideous
It’s possible that Harvey would have
taken “Red Right Hand” in a different
ISLAND
quickstep. Since its subject is Hell and its direction if she had performed it a few
8/10 declining suburbs, no performance of it
can be too extreme. PJ Harvey, of course,
years earlier. This 3CD or 6LP set shows
how her career has been a matter of
A journey down Polly’s is no stranger to calibration. It caps a programme of
less-travelled B-roads. shock and awe. reissues in which the demo versions of
Her early career Harvey’s albums have been compared,
By Alastair McKay was constructed often favourably, to the more polished
from fragments official releases.
L
ET’S start at the end. of spit, feather Steve Albini’s recording of Harvey’s
The final track on this and bone. But in second album, 1993’s Rid Of Me, has
exhaustive trawl of the Harvey’s “Red Right been the subject of much critical
FRANS SCHELLEKENS/REDFERNS
ditches and crossroads Hand” the horror circumspection. Like (another

of PJ Harvey’s oeuvre is comes wreathed in controversial Albini production) Nirvana’s
“Red Right Hand”, the understatement. In Utero, it favours pain over relief, volume
signature song of Harvey’s There is a tolling over restraint. And since Albini is a master
one-time collaborator Nick Cave. It is piano, a wailing of the choreography of headbanging, there
a song about devilry, written in blood; harmony and is a kind of poetic power in his rhythm of
subsequently reshaped as the theme of the abominable news drills. But it’s a tough workout.

ARCHIVE
AtoZ
SLEEVE NOTES
CD Disc One 10 Maniac I Go (4 Track Version) 2 Dance (previously
1 Dry – Demo 11 One Time 7 Nina in Ecstasy 2 3 Cat On The Wall unreleased)
(previously Too Many 8 Rebecca – Demo (previously 14 I’ll Be Waiting –
unreleased) 12 Harder 9 Instrumental #2 unreleased) Demo (previously
2 Man-Size – 13 Naked Cousin 10 This Wicked 4 You Come Through unreleased) This month…
Demo (previously 14 Losing Ground Tongue – Demo (previously 15 Homo Sappy
unreleased) 15 Who Will Love 11 Memphis unreleased) Blues – Demo P44 JIMI HENDRIX
3 Missed – Demo Me Now 12 30 5 Uh Huh Her – (previously
P44 BERT JANSCH
(previously 16 Why D’ya Go 13 66 Promises Demo (previously unreleased)
unreleased) To Cleveland 14 As Close As This unreleased) 16 The Age Of
P45 IRIS DEMENT
4 Highway 61 (previously 15 My Own Private 6 Evol – Demo The Dollar – Demo P46 SUPERGRASS
Revisited – Demo unreleased) Revolution (previously (previously P47 BRIGHT EYES
(previously 16 Kick It To The unreleased) unreleased) P48 JULIE TIPPETTS
unreleased) CD Disc Two Ground (4 Track) 7 Wait 17 The Camp P51 PAUL WELLER
5 Me-Jane – Demo 1 Instrumental #1 17 The Falling 8 Heaven 18 An Acre Of Land
(previously 2 The Northwood 18 The Phone Song 9 Liverpool Tide 19 The Crowded
unreleased) 3 The Bay 19 Bows & Arrows 10 The Big Guns Cell CACTUS
6 Daddy 4 Sweeter Than 20 Angel Called Me Back 20 The Sandman – Evil Is Going On: The
7 Lying In The Sun Anything 21 Stone Again Demo Complete Atco Recordings
8 Somebody’s Down, 5 Instrumental #3 11 The Nightingale 21 The Moth – 1970-1972 CHERRY RED
Somebody’s Name 6 The Faster I CD Disc Three 12 Shaker Aamer Demo
6/10
9 Darling Be There Breathe The Further 1 97° 13 Guilty – Demo 22 Red Right Hand
Short-lived blues rockers’ entire
output in one tidy box
How else could it have been? The first Although only a
five tracks (four previously unreleased) going concern for
present Harvey’s demos from Rid Of
Me, recorded in Dorset in 1991–92. Albini focuses on the less than three
years, the post-
First, “Dry – Demo”. There is nothing Vanilla Fudge outfit
wrong with the finished version, except
perhaps that it allows Harvey to hide
pain, while on the demo headed by bassist
Tim Bogert and drummer Carmine
behind the electric fury of the guitar. It
sounds like a dry run for Nirvana. The
Harvey licks the bruise Appice nonetheless put out four
albums, and the addition of a
plethora of live recordings means
demo has a different flavour: the guitar there’s enough material to fill eight
still grinds like an argument conducted inside Huh Her – Demo” is another memo for the attention of discs on this boxset. Stylistically,
a cement mixer, but the vocal is brighter. Albini Jack White. “Evol – Demo” is not the most interesting it’s a more streamlined version of
focuses on the pain, while on the demo Harvey licks song, but offers a brief primer in the sexual power of the Fudge’s rock grandeur, with
the bruise. Likewise, “Man-Size – Demo”. Harvey’s the electric guitar. erstwhile Amboy Dukes singer Rusty
home recording is more primal, less concerned with Not everything is unsalted. The B-sides and rarities Day upping the blues elements, most
sonic architecture. Albini does a thing with a drum – many from film soundtracks – allow Harvey to notably on covers of Willie Dixon and
and an off-kilter rhythm. The demo just burns. Albini’s stretch herself into Brechtian oompah, Beefheartian Mose Allison. Of the original LPs,
1971’s One Way Or Another stands
“Missed” wears grunge fatigues and sounds like a discord, neo-folk. Some of these waifs and strays are
out, especially the grit and grind of
steamroller landscaping a peace garden. The demo excellent. “Losing Ground” from a Rainer Ptacek “Hometown Bust” and the Allmans-
moans and weeps. Instead of submitting to rhythmic tribute (with Parish and Eric Drew Feldman) is a like strut of “Rock’n’Roll Children”,
pugilism, the song’s sense of hurt emerges through vital cacophony, and Harvey’s song for Jeff Buckley, but the records bookending it have a
the clatter. The voice remains similarly upfront on “Memphis”, carries much emotional weight. “Guilty”, tendency to overindulge the outfit’s
“Me-Jane – Demo”, which has the urgency of a busk on which she invents Fontaines DC, is more restrained love for stoner rock with little in the
in a warzone, delivering the song with heightened in demo format; the demo of “I’ll Be Waiting” is way of light and shade. Swansong
theatrics and breathless despair. It offers a prototype grimier than the original. “Homo Sappy Blues” is a ’Ot ’n’ Sweaty is a looser affair, closer
for The White Stripes, with Meg in charge. Only the slight thing, playful, lyrically bleak. “The Age Of The in spirit to the barroom vibes of the
Faces. Extras: None. TERRY STAUNTON
demo of “Highway 61 Revisited” sounds weaker than Dollar” was recorded for the film A Dog Called Money
the original album version, though that in itself was but was shunted to the closing titles after John Parish CELTIC FROST
an experiment in playful irrelevance. told Harvey it sounded “like a jam in a pub”. Danse Macabre – The
There are nine other unreleased tracks, of which It’s quite a journey. By the end it’s clear that Harvey Complete Recordings:
“Why D’Ya Go To Cleveland” is the only entirely has learned how to turn the volume up by making less 1984–1987 BMG
unheard thing. An offcut from the Dance Hall At Louse noise. Perhaps she always knew. One of the highlights 8/10
Point sessions with John Parish, it offers a clattering is “Nina In Ecstasy 2”, a 1996 recording, released as
Full document of first, superior
rearrangement of rock’n’roll cliche (a motor car, an a B-side in 1999. It’s a funereal fairytale, a hymn of
phase from Switzerland’s metal
American dreamboat, a dead-end love affair) and innocence which segues into a chorus of “Where’s avant-gardists
is more fun than it should be. The other unreleased your mama gone?” from the multi-million-selling
It’s odd to think
demos bring the story up to date, but the differences anthem of child abandonment, “Chirpy Chirpy Cheep that Hellhammer’s
in shading reflect Harvey’s evolving understanding Cheep”. It sounds both serene and alarming, because “Apocalyptic Raids”,
of how her music should sound. On the sleeve of sometimes the most the only EP by the
Uh Huh Her (2004), Harvey’s handwritten notes dangerous place in predecessor to Celtic
are instructive: turned up loud but playing the world is the Middle Frost, was hated
gently; keep all noises, crashes, hiss and bangs; Of The Road. when released in 1984. It’s a stealthy,
all that matters is my voice. Consequently, the Extras: None. tight, yet unpredictable beast, a
demos from this period offer clear indicator of the direction Tom
Warrior and Martin Eric Ain would
less contrast. “Cat On
take on the first few Celtic Frost
The Wall – Demo” is albums, Morbid Tales and To Mega
murkier, with a dash of Therion, which make up a good half
melodica, “You Come of the Danse Macabre box. For all
Through – Demo ” has their early material’s experimental
more restraint, “Uh edges though, such as the droning,

ARCHIVE
ambient lacuna of “Danse Macabre” guitar work needs to hear it. Young and a brain-melting “Spanish Castle
itself, Celtic Frost’s early material is shows up on five of the LP’s 11 Magic”. There’s no shortage of Hendrix
best when it’s aiming straight for the tracks, adding a bracing shot of live recordings out there, and while
gut – see the woozy sludgefeast of Old Black to his longtime backing Heavenly: this isn’t essential, it’s a very good
charmingly
“Procreation (Of The Wicked)”, or the band’s brand of crunchy country rock. uninhibited recording of a fantastic performance.
unchecked fury of “Into The Crypts The closer, “Thunder And Lightning”, Extras: 6/10. Sleevenotes. PETER WATTS
Of Rays” and “Circle Of The Tyrants”. is particularly intense, with Neil
You can hear, here, formative lines unleashing an unholy, piercing HEAVENLY BERT JANSCH
drawing through to black metal. tone that would sound right at Heavenly Vs Satan (reissue, 1990) Bert At The BBC EARTH
Extras: 6/10. Vinyl box includes book, home on Zuma. While Crazy Moon’s SKEP WAX
8/10
USB drive, poster and badge. JON DALE songwriting and singing, shared
8/10 Eight discs of acoustic guitar magic
equally by bassist Billy Talbot,
CLARK drummer Frank Molina and guitarist First of the none-more-indie band’s from folk legend
Body Riddle (reissue, 2006) Frank “Poncho” Sampedro, is four albums reissued on vinyl “The guitar today
WARP leagues below their leader, it’s Heavenly arose seems to encourage
not without its charms; Molina’s swiftly from the ashes composers, and our
8/10
“Going Down Again” has a of C86 stalwarts guest Bert Jansch has
Warp stalwart’s breakthrough pleasingly wasted vibe, while Tallulah Gosh, a song of his own for
beefed up Talbot’s loose ’n boozy “New Orleans” maintaining four us,” intones a plummy
Chris Clark’s third is featherweight but fun. Sampedro, of their original Reithian BBC voice introducing the
album marked his meanwhile, gets a chance to shine members and sounding at best only guitarist’s first radio broadcast for
transition from fluky on “Downhill”, his high, lonesome marginally less shambolic. Their 1990 the Light Programme in 1966. Jansch
Aphex acolyte to a vocals competing with Young’s debut, released, perhaps inevitably, proceeds to sing a deathless version of
distinctive producer even higher, even more lonesome by C86 disciples Sarah Records, “Running From Home”, just one of 147
with a commanding mid-song solo. was therefore characterised by tracks here taken from dozens of radio
style and presence. On Body Riddle, Extras: None. familiar virtues, chiefly a deceptive and TV sessions recorded over the
the 26-year-old assembled a kind of TYLER WILCOX amateurism. Amelia Fletcher’s next 40 and more years, most of which
sloppy medieval techno that buckled innocently off-key vocals masked have never been heard since they were
and flailed elegantly, drawing GUIDED BY VOICES occasional, subtle barbs – like “Cool originally broadcast. It’s invidious
influence from Can, his Birmingham Scalping The Guru Guitar Boy” who “never speaks, which to pick out highlights from such a
pals Broadcast and the rolling cadence GBV INC I like” – while “Shallow” and “I Fell In cornucopia of acoustic delights, but
of old-school hip-hop, all imbued with Love Last Night” shared understated the version of his classic “Blackwater
7/10
real emotional heft. The range and tales of betrayal and heartbreak. Side” from his 60th-birthday concert
dexterity on display led naturally to Indie veterans dip into archive Peter Momtchiloff’s guitars, too, in 2003 is spellbinding, while surprises
his later work in modern dance and for surprisingly crisp collection are traditionally downplayed include a brilliant, bluesy “Heartbreak
film soundtracks. Remastered and of four-track recordings as ‘jangling’ but represented a Hotel” from 1992 and a stunning 1967
bolstered by 05-10, a companion 2LP Taking a break streamlined version of Johnny duet with John Renbourn on “Tic-
of 12 offcuts and unreleased tracks from releasing a new Marr’s geared for a punk-ish 1960s Tocative” from their Bert & John album.
from that time – jointly released as the studio album (there girl band, and, even when galloping Extras: 7/10. A 40-page booklet with
2CD Body Double – the new material have been seven in energetically through “It’s You”, contributions from fans including
includes a ghostly jam with Broadcast the last two years), Matthew Fletcher’s rhythms were Bernard Butler and Johnny Marr.
“Herr Barr (improv)”, junglist bruiser the permanently thrillingly economical. To some they NIGEL WILLIAMSON
“Urgent Jell Hack” and pastoral pieces busy Guided By Voices are now remain merely twee, but this was a
“Dusk Swells” and “Sparrow Arc Tall”. raiding their archive. These four-track charmingly uninhibited rebirth. L7
As always with Clark, it’s brawny rave cassette recordings comprise tracks Extras: 6/10. 7” booklet with lyrics Bricks Are Heavy (reissue, 1992)
nuggets like “Dead Shark Eyes” that from a bunch of hard-to-find EPs and sleevenotes by band members. LICORICE PIZZA
produce the goosebumps. released between 1993 and ’94 on WYNDHAM WALLACE
7/10
Extras: 7/10. 12-track 05-10 album. a variety of labels. Tracks like “My
PIERS MARTIN Impression Now” capture the spiky THE JIMI HENDRIX The 30th-anniversary reissue of
zeal of peak-era Guided By Voices, EXPERIENCE band’s breakthrough
CRAZY HORSE combining melody-soaked indie Los Angeles Forum: It wasn’t altogether
Crazy Moon (reissue, 1978) rock bolstered by the band’s April 26, 1969 LEGACY fair on L7 that they
FLOATING WORLD inherent gritty charm. The quality were characterised as
8/10
of the 30-year-old recordings is an early-’90s Seattle
6/10 The Experience in fantastic
surprisingly good, with the slight grunge band: they’d
Neil’s boys’ feisty fourth grain actually managing to emphasise form for Jimi’s 80th formed in Los Angeles
MARCUS TORNCRANTZ
It’d be lunacy to call and celebrate the rough edges of a Released to mark in the mid-1980s. However, they
Crazy Horse’s Crazy group for whom shabby lo-fi and what would have signed to Sub Pop around the same
Moon a lost classic sprightly power pop are treated with been Hendrix’s 80th time Nirvana did, played distortion-
exactly – but any equal reverence. birthday, this spring drenched guitars and didn’t appear to
self-respecting fan of Extras: None. 1969 show was one of spend much time getting dressed, and
Neil Young’s electric DANIEL DYLAN WRAY the last performed by so grunge they were duly declared.
the Experience. Originally recorded Bricks Are Heavy saw L7 pursue the
by the great Wally Heider, it was only Nirvana path further: they signed
Three’s a
crowd: the the third rock show to be held at the LA to a major label (Slash, then owned
latter-day Forum, a lack of experience that saw by Polygram) and hired Butch Vig as
Experience the crowd repeatedly rush the stage, producer. Lead single “Pretend We’re
forcing the good-natured Hendrix Dead” [see Making Of, p64], a pretty
to deliver a mild admonishment – obvious attempt at an ennui-laden
partly, it feels, to placate the grumpy anti-anthem in the manner of “Smells
Noel Redding, whose grumbles are Like Teen Spirit”, sounded somewhat
picked up by his mic. Hendrix is chatty twee and cartoonish in comparison;
throughout, taking particular pleasure however, on the tracks where L7 sound
in baiting the police, even changing more like they’re trying to please
the lyrics of “Purple Haze” to “’Scuse themselves than radio programmers,
me while I kiss that policeman”. That Bricks Are Heavy has an enduring
comes after a pre-Woodstock burst pugnacious charm: “Everglade”
of “Star-Spangled Banner” in a set and “Monster” splendidly suggest
that kicks off with a 15-minute “Tax a hypothetical Stooges/Runaways
Free” and features a thrilling “Foxy supergroup. Extras: 5/10. Black-and-
Lady”, a wild and woolly “Red House” gold vinyl edition. ANDREW MUELLER

ARCHIVE
IRIS
DEMENT
Infamous Angel
(reissue, 1992)
YEP ROC
9/10
A bare-bones reissue of one
of the 1990s’ finest debuts.
By Stephen Deusner
SEVERAL years
before she recorded
her first album, Iris
DeMent was driving
through a small
town in Oklahoma
and noticed the
place was largely abandoned. There were what makes this album sound timeless. abilities and especially her eccentricities.
homes and businesses and all the signs Born in small-town Arkansas, raised
SLEEVE NOTES Her voice is piqued but never shrill, with
of civilisation, but no people anywhere. in a musical family in Los Angeles, and 1 Let The a Southern-to-Midwestern barb in her
Imagining herself in such a place, she based in Kansas City before she hightailed Mystery Be twang that sells the hot-and-bothered-
2 These Hills
wrote an upbeat, downcast song called it to Nashville, DeMent wasn’t necessarily ness of “Hotter Than The Mojave In My
3 Hotter Than
“Our Town”, which gives listeners a tour part of any scene, neither the country Heart” as persuasively as it conveys the
The Mojave
of where she met her first boyfriend and mainstream nor the alt.country movement In My Heart gratitude of “Mama’s Opry”.
where she bought her first car (“It rolled just starting to form. But her songs had 4 When Love As a songwriter, DeMent comes across
over once but then it never went far”). It’s a attracted some famous fans – including Was Young like a smalltown theologian, especially
final glance backwards as her character Emmylou Harris (who sings harmony 5 Our Town on opener “Let The Mystery Be”, about
leaves for good, and DeMent understands on Infamous Angel) and John Prine (who 6 Fifty Miles Of as perfect a song as you could imagine.
that everyone leaves a town like this for penned the liner notes) – and landed her Elbow Room It’s a wry examination of the afterlife, as
good. “Go on now and kiss it goodbye”, she a deal with Philo Records, an imprint of 7 Infamous Angel she ponders heaven, hell, oblivion and
8 Sweet
sings, “but hold on to your lover ’cause your Rounder. She recorded at the Cowboy reincarnation: “Some say that they’re
Forgiveness
heart’s bound to die”. Arms Hotel & Recording Spa, the Nashville coming back in a garden, bunch of carrots
9 After You’ve
Especially for a debut, Infamous Angel studio founded and operated by Cowboy Gone and little sweet peas”. Rather than
is full of goodbyes. DeMent sings about Jack Clement, with a backing band that 10 Mama’s Opry embrace any particular theory or outcome,
empty towns, parting lovers, dying includes some of the best bluegrass players 11 Higher Ground she chooses to savour not knowing, and
family, good times and bad times alike around: Jerry Douglas, Stuart Duncan and she hopes there’s a nice surprise when she
coming to unceremonious ends. With her Mark Howard, among others. Produced by: does have to say goodbye to this old world.
eloquent lyrical style, her warm humour Together, that crew makes sure every Jim Rooney Perhaps because death seeps into all of
and especially her deeply humane voice, note that’s played, every melody and Recorded at: these songs, Infamous Angel becomes an
Cowboy Arms
DeMent evokes a world where everything every rhythm reinforces her vocals and album about savouring the little things,
Hotel & Recording
must come to an end. Rather than grim her songs. There are no solos, no feats the fleeting moments of joy that don’t
Spa, Nashville
or pessimistic, her songs are bittersweet of musical derring-do; instead, the Personnel: Iris advance a plot or add up to an epiphany.
and realistic – and that attitude, more players offer sympathy amid all DeMent’s DeMent (vocals, For DeMent, those everyday pleasures
than her phrasing or any of her acoustic goodbyes. As a result, Infamous Angel guitar), Flora Mae add up to a full life, and they’re what she’ll
arrangements, is what connects her music sounds less like a debut and more like an DeMent (vocals), miss “when the whole thing’s done”.
to the past, to the era of her parents and album made by an artist deep into her Jeff Black She relishes the fine details of these
grandparents. Thirty years later, it’s also career, by someone who is confident in her (vocals), Jerry songs, too: the playful rhythm of the
Douglas (dobro), phrase “little sweet peas”, the grain in her
Stuart Duncan
mother’s voice when Flora Mae DeMent
(fiddle, mandolin),
sings the old hymn “Higher Ground”, and
Smalltown Emmylou Harris
theologian: (vocals, guitar), especially the way words can rhyme and
Iris DeMent Mark Howard the way that rhyme can subtly change
in 1992
(guitar), Jeff those words. “There’ll be laughter, even
Hushkins (bass), after you’ve gone”, she sings gently on
Roy Husky Jr “After You’ve Gone”, lingering on those
(bass), Hal two words – laughter and after – like
Ketchum (vocals), they hold some promise of healing.
Al Perkins (dobro),
Penned in the wake of her father’s stroke,
Jim Rooney
it’s another goodbye among many, but
(vocals), Pete
Wasner (piano) DeMent’s scepticism about the afterlife
means she doesn’t cling to the hollow
hope of a reunion in the sweet by-and-
by. On this bittersweet album, there are
no easy answers, no false consolations,
but she comforts herself with the simple
understanding that a painful farewell
means you loved well and deeply.

ARCHIVE
floridly Bacharach-ian creations. lineup conjured its own glistening

REVELATIONS A collection of largely out-of-print
recordings Auclair released between
atmospheres. “Spellbound” is a rare,
familiar single here, galloping drums
Philippe Auclair: 1993 and 2007 compiled by his friend and John McGeoch’s Marr-influencing,
“I hate listening Sean O’Hagan, The Sunshine World Of burrowing riff building a whirling
to my own music” Louis Philippe celebrates the skill of an world around Siouxsie’s madhouse
artist who brings his own flourishes to nursery rhymes. “Supernatural
the template set by the Brill Building Thing” turns Ben E King’s 1975 hit
greats, Brian Wilson, and Michel into skeletal post-punk funk sung
Legrand. Though a feather could with an alienated erotic roar, akin to
knock over songs such as “Delta Talking Heads. Horror touchstones
Kiss”, the hints of bossa nova, the – Clive Barker, Ray Bradbury – meet
masterly arrangements, and the icy psychedelia, climaxing here with
contributions of players such as 1988’s “Peek-A-Boo”, which puts
XTC’s Dave Gregory lend a surprising Balkan brass through an industrial
sturdiness to his irresistibly melodic mincer, like Fleetwood Mac’s “Tusk”
confections. taken still further out. Whatever its
Extras: 7/10. New notes by O’Hagan. rationale, this is a new angle on the
JASON ANDERSON Banshees’ sonic peak.
Extras: 5/10. Orange vinyl option.
RIDE NICK HASTED
4EPs WICHITA
LOUIS PHILIPPE 8/10 SUPERGRASS
Supergrass: Remastered
Sunshine popsmith gets a little help from a friend Shoegaze darlings’ early work Deluxe Expanded Edition
S an esteemed football Llamas’ Sean O’Hagan The 32 years since BMG
A journalist and a long-

revered craftsman of
thankfully had no such
reservations about making the
Ride’s first three
EPs have seen the
8/10
The ’Grass’s difficult third gets
baroque pop, Philippe Auclair is deep dive. “He understands me Oxford quartet go
from floppy-fringed thoroughly revisited
evidently capable of many completely,” notes Auclair, who
things. Yet he readily admits couldn’t be more pleased inky darlings to “The X-Ray Album” –
the special task of putting about the musical portrait that respected elder statesmen, whose as it was often dubbed
together a compilation from resulted. “Looking back and legacy increasingly owes more to thanks to the cover
the songs he created as Louis listening back, it was quite their songcraft than their sonics. art – has often been
Philippe between 1993 and refreshing for me to listen to This compilation of their first four seen as a drop in
2007 was better placed in what somebody else made of 12” EPs, however, reminds us of their standards following
other hands. this music. And it’s not just a noisy breakthrough at the start of the the exceptional first two records.
“I hate listening to my own collection of this, that and the ‘90s – and how valuable the format That said, it still contains a trio of
music,” he tells Uncut. “I’m other – it has an emotional and was for independent bands trying to stunning singles – “Moving”, “Mary”
always working on the songs musical logic to it. get heard. Released between January and “Pumping On Your Stereo” – plus
that are being developed right “I’d hoped that if it was and September 1990, the band’s first some wonderful, moody deep cuts like
now so revisiting what I’ve done presented like an album, it three EPs confidently defined the “Eon”, “Shotover Hill” and “Faraway”.
in the past is not something I could take on a life of its own,” band’s sound – meticulously textured This reissue comes with a bunch of
would naturally do.” Auclair says of O’Hagan’s and located at the more accessible additional material, including new
Being a fan, a sometime handiwork, “and he’s managed end of shoegaze. Meanwhile, the mixes of four tracks – two by John
collaborator and a close friend to do that, the bugger!” EPs’ identically designed sleeves Leckie and Mick Quinn, and two by
since the mid-1980s, the High JASON ANDERSON established a visual identity for the Quinn and original producer John
band: inscrutable images of flowers, Cornfield. There are also demos,
initially, that captured the band’s B-sides, alternative versions and live
hazy, romantic melodies. Melodies? tracks, among them “Wild Wind”,
NOVOS BAIANOS guitarist Pepeu Gomes rock up They were always there, buried an early version of the first section
Acabou Chorare (reissue, 1972) “Tinindo Trincando”, while “Misterio beneath the scything guitar riff of of “Moving”; but the real highlights
MR BONGO do Planeto” roves out through Astrud “Chelsea Girl” or the hypnotic grind are the strong B-sides, including
Gilberto introspection to meet Marquee of “Drive Blind”. Meanwhile, the “Lucky (No Fear)”, “Sick” and “What
8/10
Moon art rock. Alegria alegria, as they blissful “Sennen” threw forward to the A Shame”.
Brazilian hippie marvel gets say in those parts. mature songwork that characterises Extras: 8/10. Bonus material;
50th-anniversary revamp Extras: 7/10. An RSD Black Friday their later writing. 20-page booklet featuring band
A Brazilian special comes in blue-and-yellow Extras: 7/10. White vinyl and a photos, original single artwork and
analogue to Fairport coloured vinyl with a free poster. 16-page booklet. sleevenotes by Charles Shaar Murray.
Convention, Novos JIM WIRTH MICHAEL BONNER PETER WATTS
Baianos (New
Bahaians) started LOUIS PHILIPPE SIOUXSIE AND
out as a West The Sunshine World Of THE BANSHEES
Coast-influenced rock band before Louis Philippe TAPETE All Souls UNIVERSAL
ingesting indigenous samba, forró and
7/10 7/10
baiao styles (and a bit of communal
living) under the influence of bossa Celebrating the pop finery of a Strange, seasonal vinyl comp of
nova guru João Gilberto. While the French football journalist half-speed remastered ’80s highs
military dictatorship was torturing It’s safe to presume Siouxsie calls
dissidents and putting the frighteners that all football this an autumnal
on Tropicália giants Caetano Veloso journalists have collection,
and Gilberto Gil, Novos Baianos secret lives but few of something to
reached pointedly for the light on them are as intriguing huddle up with as
their second album, 1972’s Acabou as Philippe Auclair’s. the nights draw in;
Since the mid-1980s, the French “Spellbound”’s use in Stranger
FIN COSTELLO/REDFERNS
Chorare (translation: No More Crying).

The mandolin-spangled “Preta writer and footie analyst has led a Things’ season finale may be
Pretinha” encapsulates its ecstatic parallel existence as Louis Philippe, a more pertinent factor. At any
essence, sunlight and saudade an indie-pop maverick who served as rate, these mostly B-sides Join
hands
sparkling through Moraes Moreira’s a writer, arranger, and producer for and album tracks revive with
delivery. Peppermint Patti-voiced él Records and artists like Bertrand the ’80s at its most exotic, Siouxsie
Baby Consuelo helps acrobatic Burgalat when not crafting his own as an unstable Banshees Sioux

ARCHIVE
and Oberst sets out America’s crazed

contradictions in a phantasmagoric
I’M WIDE AWAKE, gush, with only “the flashlights of
IT’S MORNING our love” as guide. Emmylou Harris’s
1At The Bottom backing vocals add totemic weight
Of Everything
to “We Are Nowhere And It’s Now”,
2 We Are
Nowhere And
which makes the crisis existential. “Old
It’s Now Soul Song (For The New World Order)”
3 Old Soul Song reports from February 2003’s New
(For The New York protests prior to the war’s start,
World Order) slide-guitars swooning as police lines
4 Lua dissolve, and Oberst’s vocal crests in an
5 Train Under ecstatic, shivering peak. He meanwhile
Water tramps New York’s frozen streets, eyes
6 First Day Of
at once wide and exhausted. Imagine
My Life
7 Another
Simon & Garfunkel, politically engaged
Travellin’ Song and terrified in the 21st century. That
8 Land Locked extraordinary voice quietly trembles in a
Blues lover’s ear on “Lua”, one of several songs
BRIGHT EYES
9 Poison Oak observing dissolution among models
10 Road To Joy and actors from the inside. “Land
DIGITAL ASH IN
Locked Blues” laces it all together,
I’m Wide Awake, It’s Morning/Digital A DIGITAL URN
1Time Code
as Oberst and Emmylou plead for a
ceasefire from drink, relationships and
Ash In A Digital Urn (reissues, 2005) + 2 Gold Mine war, Nate Walcott’s trumpet sounding
“I’m Wide Awake It’s Morning: A Gutted
3 Arc Of Time
the retreat. This still feels like an urgent
dispatch, from unfinished warzones.
Companion”/“Digital Ash In A Digital Urn: (Time Code)
4 Down In The
Digital Ash… is if anything more
A Companion” DEAD OCEANS Rabbit Hole
5 Take It Easy
personal, coolly gliding synths hardly
calming the heart-bursting fear of
9/10, 8/10, 7/10, 7/10 (Love Nothing) “Time Code”. Vintage synthpop beauty
graces “Gold Mine Gutted”, a Nebraskan
6 Hit The Switch
Two sides of a convincing new death-haunted 7 I Believe In memoir also about human entropy:
Manhattan adventure. By Nick Hasted Symmetry “We were a stroke of luck/We were a gold
8 Devil In The mine, they gutted us”. “Arc Of Time (Time
CONOR OBERST’S life came heavy breaths. Despite the latter’s Details Code)” answers the new millennium’s
9 Ship In A Bottle fears with dreams of digital heaven,
in a rush around now. He synth experiments, these albums
10 Light Pollution
had moved to New York City are complementary sides of the same compensation for death’s crushing
11 Theme To
from his home in Omaha, pressurised brain. Pinata
inevitability which sounds like a
Nebraska, found relative fame I’m Wide Awake…’s biographical 12 Easy/Lucky/ new form of snake-oil. Digital Ash…’s
with Lifted, Or The Story Is In elements are, though, more upfront, Free sometimes harder, gleaming edge
The Soil, Keep Your Ear To The interweaving the Iraq War, celebrity and makes its obsession with extinction
Ground (2002, also reissued decadent relationships, as Oberst and more clammily claustrophobic,
this month), dated Winona The Strokes passed on the street. “That an album of squeezed, desperate
Ryder, and been profoundly album was about moving to New York, a huge heartbeats. “Hit The Switch” finds the thread back
affected by the Iraq War. Then change from growing up in Omaha, which opened to I’m Wide Awake… as Oberst hunches over the
I’m Wide Awake, It’s Morning my mind to a lot of things,” Oberst reflects. “It’s a toilet, praying he won’t die, knowing he will, and
and Digital Ash In A Digital record about New York from a person who’s never wanting, like Dorothy longing for Kansas, to get
Urn were released on the same lived there before, a fresh off the boat Midwesterner, back to Omaha. It ends with acoustic guitars and
day in 2005, alchemising his mordant political not as jaded or cynical as some other New York fragile hope.
and personal fears and his life’s hard-partying records. It was overwhelming, and it coincided with These reissues’ “A Companion” EPs see
imbalance into intimate generational statements, my profile rising. It was a strange time, and I was 23 Bright Eyes re-record selected tracks alongside
which became international hits. years old. You don’t know much.” The album’s fast relevant covers. Swapping the LPs’ styles here is
I’m Wide Awake… especially, an explicitly folk taping back in Nebraska gave perspective. revelatory, “Goldmine Gutted” now lush, ambling
record which updated Greenwich Village protest Oberst’s acoustic guitar tattoos out a beat on “At country-rock replete with harmonica, while “We
and confessional modes with his voice’s jittery The Bottom Of Everything”, a banjo settles into an Are Nowhere And It’s Now” growls Manhattan
edge, made his torrent of brilliant, pained words optimistically rising melody styled as a folk round, paranoia through grinding, spectral synths.
seem Dylanesque. That tag never quite fitted as
well again, but both these records still judder with
undimmed life, rawly experienced yet reported Q&A
with deceptive finesse. Conor Oberst “It’s a little – You transpose the albums’ Yeah. It was funny to me at the
“At that point in my life I was just making things how d’you say – cheeky?” styles on these new EPs. time, because Wide Awake… was
all the time, really frantically,” Oberst explains of The EPs with the first three pretty much universally liked more
this prolific period. “We put out so many records. You said when it came out albums’ reissues were easy to than Digital Ash... It got described
There was a manic, anxious streak to me, where I that Digital Ash was about make different from the originals, as an electronica record, but
felt like I had to get everything down. Music was “fear of death and oblivion”. because they were so old. With it’s really not. It’s got drums with
the only thing I really cared about. And I had a Was the Iraq War feeding these, I thought I’d do Digital Ash… effects on them. It’s not acoustic
constant feeling like death is right around the into that subject matter? in Wide Awake…’s style, and vice guitars, basically. I wrote a lot of
Well, I feel that death is a constant versa. It’s a little, how would you these songs at the same time, and I
corner. I still feel that way. But now it’s true!” in all my records! I was alive for the say – cheeky? felt if we had recorded these songs
I’m Wide Awake… starts with a monologue
BUTCH HOGAN
first Iraq War, as a kid. And it felt with acoustic guitars, banjos and
about a desperate romantic gesture on a crashing real, I knew kids from Nebraska You certainly put Wide shit, people would have liked it a lot
plane. Digital Ash… opens with electronic that went over there. It was the first Awake…’s songs through more. So here it is? Exactly!
crackle, running footsteps and a panic attack’s time I really saw it for what it was. the industrial mincer. INTERVIEW: NICK HASTED

ARCHIVE
REDISCOVERED T.REX
1970, 1971 DEMON
Uncovering the underrated and overlooked 8/10, 8/10
Eclectic warrior: two sideways looks
Peerless: Julie Tippetts at Marc Bolan’s glitter years
at King’s College “I want to give every child
London, 1977 the chance to dance”,
Marc Bolan announced
unexpectedly on “Childe”
– as featured on 1970, the
first of two impish vinyl
sets documenting his pop ascent. Not
exactly born to boogie, Bolan’s cross-legged
meanderings with Tyrannosaurus Rex
delighted Nightride listeners, making his
decision to go electric boogie on 1970s A
Beard Of Stars a “Judas” moment for some.
Slathered in strings and very much doing
it for the kids, his “Oh Baby” single as Dib
Cochran & The Earwigs was a dry run for his
relaunch as T.Rex, “Beltane Walk” and “Ride
A White Swan” (included here with bonus
studio chatter) both squelchy marvels. By
the following year’s “Hot Love” he sounded
positively MOR-ish, but 1971’s alternate
versions show that, beneath Tony Visconti’s
productions, Bolan’s inner flower-child
remained, his “Electric Warrior” poem,
“Children Of Rarn” demo and a bongo-laced
“Telegram Sam” all clippings straight from
Gandalf’s garden.
Extras: None. JIM WIRTH
TINARIWEN
JULIE TIPPETTS Kel Tinariwen WEDGE
6/10
Sunset Glow (reissue, 1975) Long-lost early recordings by
CHERRY RED
desert-blues warriors
9/10 After participating in the
Tuareg uprising against
Avant-garde masterpiece from the artist formerly the Malian government in
1990, Tinariwen laid down
known as Julie Driscoll their rifles and committed to
music full-time, travelling to
BY her early twenties, Julie the arrangements sway between extreme unease Abidjan in 1991 to make their first recordings.
Tippetts, or Julie Driscoll as and pure bliss. Opener “Mind Of A Child” is At the time, the Côte d’Ivoire capital boasted
she was known then, was framed by a deceptively understated melody the best studios in West Africa and the band
something of a pop star. She that bends and stretches; the instruments whir recorded an album’s worth of material,
had emerged from London’s around each other in a carefully choreographed released locally on cassette but never finding
rhythm and blues community dance that eventually ascends into an wider circulation until now. The sound heard
in the mid-’60s, finding fame as the singer with overwhelming euphoric outro, something in these neophyte recordings is both familiar
Brian Auger’s Trinity. Chart success came when like a flock of birds taking to the air. and unfamiliar: on “Kedou Kedou” and “Awa
their 1968 take on Rick Danko and Bob Dylan’s “Oceans And Sky” rumbles along, wah-wah’d Idjan War Infa Iman” one can recognise the
Basement Tapes number “This Wheel’s On Fire”, guitars, brass and mercurial piano rising and loping rhythms, hypnotic guitar lines and
arguably the song’s best-known version, reached falling around the awkward groove, grasping call-and-response vocals of their classic
No 5 in the UK. Her sparkling, controlled voice, for a moment in the sun. Tippetts’ voice, never desert-blues style, albeit swathed in drum
meanwhile, was showcased particularly well on sounding this expressive before or since, machines and keyboards. Elsewhere, on
their 1969 version of “Let The Sunshine In”. eventually breaks into a high falsetto that darts tracks such as “A L’histoire” with female
Tippetts continued to record with Auger above the freefall mêlée. The album’s title vocalist Keltoum Walet, they sound more
throughout the ’70s and became an in-demand track and centrepiece is stylistically the most like a 1980s Arabic synth-pop band than the
session singer, working with Robert Wyatt and reminiscent of her work with the Spontaneous Tinariwen we’ve come to know. Fascinating,
Carla Bley. As the decade progressed, however, Music Ensemble. Marrying this abstract form though fans of their later work are advised to
she turned her back on the glamour of the of free improvisation with a densely rich array approach with caution.
mainstream and set her sights on the outer of piano, horns and multi-tracked vocals, it’s Extras: None. NIGEL WILLIAMSON
reaches, immersing herself in the world of free tonal music, melodic and familiar, but it feels as
music, jazz and improvisation. Embarking expansive as a Jackson Pollock painting. TO ROCOCO ROT
on a series of collaborations primarily with Although she continues to make fantastic John Peel BBC Sessions 97–99
her husband, the wonderfully gifted pianist records, Tippetts would never combine popular BUREAU B
and composer Keith Tippett, she established music with the avant-garde quite as vividly
8/10
a musical palette that would lead to her again. Whether it’s down to confusion regarding
masterpiece, 1975’s Sunset Glow. her name change or her unwillingness to look German pop-electronica trio in their
Accompanied by a group of musicians back, Sunset Glow remains somewhat of an imperial phase
who orbited her and Keith’s previous work, obscurity. For its singularity and invention, For the members of To
GUS STEWART/REDFERNS
Sunset Glow’s defining characteristics are the however, it deserves to be held in the same Rococo Rot, performing for
beautifully restrained compositions and regard as Robert Wyatt’s Rock Bottom or David John Peel must have been
her expertly crafted vocal arrangements. Crosby’s If I Could Only Remember My Name. For something like a dream
Combined with her matured technique, her sheer joy, it’s peerless. come true; Robert Lippok
experimentations with microtonal singing and Extras: 7/10. Remastered, with sleevenotes. once described their first
the influence of Asiatic and Celtic improvisation, JACK MILNER session for the legendary DJ as his greatest

LON DON
CALLING LP
PLAY
THE SEMINAL DEBUT
R
SPECIAL GUESTS 45TH ANNIVERSARY TOU
1977-2022
‘Private View’ Tour 2022 FRI 14 OCT - DUNDEE, BEAT GENERATOR
GILLINGHAM, THE GR
EAT HALL
Thu 13 Oct Colchester Arts Centre SAT 15 OCT - GLASGOW, ORAN MOR FRI 14 OCT ML AN D
MA RG ATE , DR EA
Fri 14 Oct &DUGL; Y Plas THU 20 OCT - NORWICH, EPIC STUDIOS SAT 15 OCT
FRI 21 OCT - GILLINGHAM, GLASSBOX THEATRE SAT 22 OCT DERBY, THE VENUE
Sat 15 Oct Frome Cheese and Grain ERN
SAT 22 OCT - BEDFORD, ESQUIRES THU 10 NOV LIVERPOOL, THE CAV
Thu 20 Oct Reading Sub 89 LEEDS,
SAT 29 OCT - SOUTHAMPTON, THE BROOK FRI 11 NOV CLUB
Fri 21 Oct Nottingham The Level FRI 04 NOV - PETERBOROUGH, THE MET LOUNGE BRUDENELL SOCIAL
Sat 22 Oct Gillingham Glassbox Theatre TLE, RIV ER SID E
SAT 05 NOV - SOUTHEND, CHINNERYS SAT 12 NOV NEWCAS ER YS
Thu 27 Oct Bristol The Fleece THU 10 NOV - BRISTOL, THE FLEECE UT HE ND , CH INN
THU 24 NOV SO
, 229
Fri 28 Oct Guildford The Boileroom FRI 11 NOV - LONDON, KOKO FRI 25 NOV LONDON
SAT 12 NOV - NOTTINGHAM, THE LEVEL MI NG HAM, THE CROSSING
Sat 29 Oct Wimborne The Tivoli FRI 03 MAR BIR
THU 17 NOV - LEEDS, THE OLD WOOLLEN F, THE GLOBE
Fri 4 Nov Exeter The Phoenix SAT 04 MAR CARDIF
FRI 18 NOV - EDINBURGH, LIQUID ROOM VE NT RY, HMV EMPIRE
Sat 5 Nov Southampton The Brook FRI 17 MAR CO
SAT 19 NOV - MANCHESTER, REBELLION STER, REBELLION
Thu 10 Nov Birmingham The Mill FRI 24 MAR MANCHE
FRI 02 DEC - BLACKPOOL, BOOTLEG SOCIAL SL EY , BIRDWELL VENUE
Fri 11 Nov Lancaster Kanteena SAT 25 MAR BARN
SAT 03 DEC - NEWCASTLE, RIVERSIDE , BEAT GENERATOR
FRI 07 APR DUNDEE
Sat 12 Nov Barrow-in-Furness The Forum SUN 11 DEC - GUILDFORD, THE HOLROYD UR GH, LIQUID ROOM
SAT 08 APR EDINB
Thu 17 Nov Diss Corn Hall , WATERFRONT
FRI 14 APR NORWICH
Fri 18 Nov Manchester Gorilla OR D, ESQUIRES
SAT 15 APR BEDF
Sat 19 Nov Liverpool Hangar 34
Thu 24 Nov Leeds The Wardrobe
Fri 25 Nov 6KHͿHOG Leadmill
Sat 26 Nov Newcastle Riverside
Thu 1 Dec Aberdeen Lemon Tree
Fri 2 Dec Edinburgh Liquid Room
Sat 3 Dec Glasgow QMU
Fri 9 Dec Brighton Concorde 2
Sat 10 Dec London Islington Assembly Hall
‘KEEPS ON BURNING’ TOUR
FRIDAY 04 NOVEMBER 2022 SATURDAY 10 DECEMBER 2022

COVENTRY, HMV EMPIRE LONDON, 229
FRIDAY 11 NOVEMBER 2022 FRIDAY 27 JANUARY 2023
MANCHESTER, REBELLION WORTHING, THE VENUE
THURSDAY 24 NOVEMBER 2022 SATURDAY 04 FEBRUARY 2023
LIVERPOOL, THE CAVERN GUILDFORD, THE HOLROYD
FRIDAY 25 NOVEMBER 2022 FRIDAY 24 MARCH 2023
BEDFORD, ESQUIRES BLACKPOOL, BOOTLEG SOCIAL
THURSDAY 01 DECEMBER 2022 SATURDAY 25 MARCH 2023
EDINBURGH, LIQUID ROOM NEWCASTLE, THE CLUNY
FRIDAY 02 DECEMBER 2022 FRIDAY 31 MARCH 2023
DUNDEE, BEAT GENERATOR BILSTON, THE ROBIN
SATURDAY 03 DECEMBER 2022 FRIDAY 07 APR 2023
GLASGOW, SAINT LUKES NORTHAMPTON, ROADMENDER
SUNDAY 04 DECEMBER 2022 SATURDAY 08 APR 2023
ABERDEEN, LEMON TREE CARDIFF, THE GLOBE
FRIDAY 09 DECEMBER 2022
LONDON, 100 CLUB SOLD OUT
THE BLOW MONKE YS

‘Journey To You’ Tour 2022 ’ t h i rd d e g re e’ 4 0 t h a n n i ve rs a r y t o u r 1 9 8 2 -2 0 2 2
10 Nov Birmingham, Jam House
11 Nov Cardiff, Globe
Friday 14 October Haslemere Haslemere Hall 12 Nov Lancaster, Kanteena
13 Nov Shrewsbury, Theatre Severn
Saturday 15 October Chester St. Mary’s 17 Nov Cobham, The Church
18 Nov Derby, Flowerpot
Thursday 27 October Gillingham The Great Hall 19 Nov Bristol, Thekla
26 Nov Shoreham-by-Sea, Ropetackle
30 Nov Stroud, Subscription Rooms
Friday 28 October London Islington Assembly Hall 1 Dec Liverpool, The Cavern
2 Dec Glasgow, Oran Mor
Saturday 29 October Worthing The Venue 9 Dec Newcastle, The Cluny
10 Dec Wimborne, The Tivoli
Thursday 03 November Liverpool The Cavern 20 Jan
21 Jan
Chelmsford, Social Club
London, 100 Club
27 Jan Milton Keynes, The Stables
Friday 04 November Manchester Rebellion 28 Jan Haslemere, Haslemere Hall
AGMP.CO.UK | SEETICKETS.COM
0871 220 0260 facebook.com/agmpconcerts @agmpconcerts
ARCHIVE
THE SPECIALIST moment, given how significant Peel’s radio

shows were to Robert and his brother Ronald
while growing up in the GDR, recordings of the
broadcasts acquired through an underground
network built around sharing magnitizdat
cassette dubs. By the time of these sessions,
the Lippoks and collaborator Stefan Schneider
were at the vanguard of German electronica,
their controlled yet ecstatic music effortlessly
leveraging the monastic discipline of techno
with the spatiality of dub and the melodic
nous of great pop. After an intro from Peel,
this set begins with an abstraction out of
their Pastels remix, “Thomson Colour”;
“This Sandy Piece” is itchy, pulsating,
bellwether electronics; “Telema” is a ’90s
answer to Kraftwerk’s “Autobahn”.
Extras: None. JON DALE
TWINK
Think Pink (reissue, 1970) FLOATING WORLD
8/10
Spaced-out oddity from the London
underground
If you were trying to explain
to an extraterrestrial what
ERNEST HOOD 1960s English psychedelia

was all about, Think Pink
would serve perfectly as
Back To The Woodlands a demonstration disc.
FREEDOM TO SPEND/RVNG INTL
Recorded in 1969 by Twink, aka John Alder,
renegade ex-drummer for Tomorrow and The
8/10 Pretty Things, every psych trope of the times
is here, from sitars and ethnic percussion
Beautiful zither-led audio snapshots, quietly unearthed to wigged-out guitar jams, sound collage
freakouts, hippie chanting, apocalyptic
THE 2019 rediscovery of allowing gentle zither melodies and flickering visions, dope anthems and lysergic whimsy
Neighborhoods, the 1975 private electronics to shade between the lines. Back To on songs with such titles as “Dawn Of Magic”,
press album by Portland, The Woodlands isn’t too far removed from the “Mexican Grass War” and “Rock An’ Roll
Oregon composer, musician and structuring logic of its predecessor, but it trades The Joint”. Produced by Mick Farren, the cast
broadcaster Ernest Hood, was a in the languorous, slow-moving dramaturgy of list reads like a ‘who’s who’ of the Ladbroke
high point of the recent wave of Neighborhoods for a series of snapshots. Grove underground, including the Deviants,
crate-digging reissue mania. A glorious, out-of- Indeed, photography and homespun Steve Peregrin Took and future members of
nowhere audio documentary, its oneiric magic animation feel like good analogies for what the Pink Fairies, for whose debut this was
also begged the simple question – what more? Hood captures here, more so than the cinematic effectively a dry run. “Ten Thousand Words In
Freedom To Spend has answered with Back To comparisons that are often brought to bear on A Cardboard Box” is the stand-out and an all-
The Woodlands, a similarly gorgeous collection his compositions. Hood is very careful with his time psych classic, but “Fluid” – later sampled
of unreleased Hood compositions that spans the framing: everything that’s in the picture is there by Gnarls Barkley – is not far behind.
decade between 1972 and 1982. because its presence is necessary. “Pleasant, Extras: None. NIGEL WILLIAMSON
A quiet, homely visionary, Hood’s creative This Garden” leans on a moseying melody
history proves instructive. Growing up in to slowly canter across the stereo spectrum; VARIOUS ARTISTS
Portland, an early interest in big-band jazz had “Bedroom Of The Absent Child”, an evocative Detroit Artists Workshop:
him learning guitar and joining a jazz band, title already, works loss into a luscious, slowly Community, Jazz And Art In
before his performing career was cut short by developing image that combines the tunes of The Motor City 1965–1981 STRUT
polio. He’d subsequently take up the zither as kids’ toys with the shuttering clack-and-clatter
8/10
his main instrument: mobile via wheelchair, the of a zoetrope.
instrument rested neatly in his lap. In the early Hood’s music is often read as nostalgic, John Sinclair’s archive opened
’60s, Hood was part of the team that opened The something he seemed comfortable enough Even in Jack White’s day,
Way Out, Portland’s first jazz club; a decade later with. But it’s also dogged with comparisons to Sun Ra cultists mingled
he was aligned with the burgeoning community ambient music, which feels reductive nearly with garage-rockers in
radio movement, helping to start KBOO-FM, to the point of insult, as though any music that Detroit’s deep underground,
where he’d broadcast spends some of its allotted a relationship fomented
self-assembled audio time drifting between from 1964 by MC5 guru John
narratives through his points is just New Age Sinclair in the Detroit Artists Workshop.
Radio Days show. palliative. But there’s This double album raids Sinclair’s extensive
Sound design for little ‘ambient’ about archive of Workshop jazz gigs and promotions,
radio asks intriguing Back To The Woodlands. as musicians met in a clubhouse redolent
questions of artists: how It’s evocative, certainly, with weed and charged with purpose in what
best to communicate and it has a romantic the liner notes call “days of lightning and
narrative through the fog cast, but there’s something thunder”. This atmosphere is engrained in the
and haze of broadcast? very sturdy about these tape of The Detroit Contemporary 4’s “Effie” as
How can composers glinting, kaleidoscopic Stanley Cowell’s lonesome bop piano begins
work differently with miniatures. They’re his soul-jazz ballad, embodying sensual
dynamics, when even designed with fierce love. warmth and insistent, humane advancement.
brief stretches of silence Extras: 6/10. Liner notes Donald Byrd’s flugelhorn is the plaintive
equate to dead air? Hood: by Michael Klasuman. heart of the gorgeous, sultry spiritual “Christo
Neighborhoods answered music The CD edition appends Redentor” on Easter Sunday, 1978; Bennie
those questions by designed another album, Where Maupin’s muscular, sinuously individual
with
using field recordings as fierce The Woods Begin. solo powers the rolling funk of “Water
evocative markers, then love JON DALE Torture”. If these recordings aren’t always

ARCHIVE
THE WATERSONS
Frost And Fire: A Calendar
Of Ritual And Magical Songs
(reissue, 1965) TOPIC
9/10
Hull awakes: astringent UK revival
powerhouse back on record
Seemingly
dredged up from
the Humberside
Phantom Band: a
dream machine of wetlands like a
punkish electronica trad-folk Tollund
Man, the Waterson
easily related to their intriguing he produced for the likes of Peter family emerged in the mid-1960s COMING NEXT
context, the earthy, purposeful
idiosyncrasy and potent entertainment
Sellers and Bernard Cribbins, but this
four-disc set presents a more complete
with a youthful, unfiltered take on
arcane song. Ex-skifflers, siblings
MONTH...
are all Motor City staples. canvas. Lesser-known highbrow Norma, Mike and Lal were joined EXT time there’ll be a
Extras: 6/10. Liner notes by Sinclair
and others. NICK HASTED
humour like Peter Ustinov’s curious
“Mock Mozart”, excerpts of Peter
by cousin John Harrison in an
industrial-strength harmony group
N bounty of exciting
records up for review:
Cook & Dudley Moore from Beyond that sang “ritual and magical songs” not only new ones from Bruce
VARIOUS ARTISTS The Fringe, and maniacal offerings on their much-plundered 1965 debut. Springsteen and Neil Young &
Eins Und Zwei Und Drei by Spike Milligan all get a look-in, as Now reissued at audiophile-friendly Crazy Horse, but also Nathan
Und Vier Vol 2: Deutsche does the mainstream-friendly jazz 45rpm, it remains an icy blast, the Salsburg, Gaye Su Akyol,
Experimentelle Pop-Music of John Dankworth and Humphrey sheer power of the voices on “Jolly Phoenix, Plaid and more. In the
1978-1987 BUREAU B Lyttleton. There’s also space for the Old Hawk”, “Hal-an-Tow” and “The world of archival releases,
mannered drawing-room humour Holly Bear A Berry” still liable to set hotting up in time for Christmas,
8/10 there’ll be The Beach Boys, Love,
of Flanders & Swann, plus the lush window panes rattling 57 years on.
Second volume of German balladry of Matt Monro, while the At a time when traditional song was AR & Machines, Steely Dan, David
electronica from late ‘70s/early ‘80s closing disc presents his favourite supposedly dying out – the preserve Bowie, Tom Petty, Cymande and
Were you to imagine classical works by Debussy, Chopin, of fusty academics and ancient Donna Summer.
a fictitious parody Ravel and Holst. The overall picture, farmhands – the Beatle-cutted EMAIL: TOM.PINNOCK@UNCUT.CO.UK
of the German post- however, is of a man scratching Watersons offered a lusty, unfettered
punk scene, written several stylistic itches, relishing take on traditional song, an entry-
perhaps by Jonathan his role in exploring the possibilities point into a living tradition rather in Weller’s career, a year after
Coe or David Mitchell, of studio technology still in its than a dying artform. “Their voices similar Jam and the Style Council
you could picture it featuring many of relative infancy. and their musicality were unique,” compilations. The slightly uncertain
the weird and wonderful characters Extras: None. TERRY STAUNTON said fellow frost-and-firebrand Anne early singles like “Uh Huh Oh Yeah”
on this 20-track compilation. Among Briggs. “Raw, passionate and brilliant, and “Into Tomorrow” – credited
the obscurities is “Dream Machine” VENOM and so were they.” Hear hear. to “The Paul Weller Movement”
by Phantom Band, a punky piece of In Nomine Satanas Extras: None. – soon make way to a growing
garbled electronica from 1981 featuring BMG JIM WIRTH confidence and maturity. The trippy
the distinctive sound of Can’s Jaki “Changingman”, the bucolic “Wild
7/10
Liebezeit on drums; and a digital PAUL WELLER Wood” and the piano ballad “You
tango called “Tanne-tot-Samba” by Newcastle’s metal trailblazers Modern Classics (reissue, 1998) Do Something To Me” were the
EMP (End Manmade Power), created celebrated across six CDs and UMC hits that seemed to reboot Weller’s
solely by the deadpan vocalist, one DVD career, but some more obscure
8/10
multi-instrumentalist and feminist The satanic screech singles are worthy of reappraisal,
art historian Cäcilia Rentmeister of black metal is Deluxe re-release of 24-year-old like the swirling psych-friendly
(who was, of course, in a band called generally understood compilation Southern rock of “Sunflower” and
the Flying Lesbians). There’s the to have emerged from This 1998 best-of “The Weaver” (both from 1993), the
wonderfully hypnotic, TikTok-friendly the frozen wastes takes us from the McCartney-esque chord changes of
Jupiter 6-assisted synth-pop of “Der of Norway, but the fallout of The Style 1994’s “Hung Up”, or 1997’s lysergic
Zauberer” (The Wizard) by Volker documented truth is that a bunch Council to the mod anthems “Friday Street” and
and Norbert Schultze, AKA VoNo; of Geordies got there first. In 1982, peak dad-rock of the swirling “Mermaids”.
and a piece by Frieder Butzmann Venom laid out their stall with their 1995’s Stanley Road Extras: 7/10 The special two-disc
and Thomas Kapielski called “Do second album, Black Metal, a set of and the rawer, live-in-the-studio edition also features a disc with a
The VoPo”, which features the Soviet rambunctiously heavy thrash songs sound of 1997’s Heavy Soul. It was 1998 concert recorded at Victoria Park
national anthem over some Cabaret that made Black Sabbath sound like released at a point of furlough in Hackney. JOHN LEWIS
Voltaire-style digi funk. Best of all is a group of effete virtuosos. In Nomine
the weird, discordant Scritti Politti-ish Satanas is a slightly more affordable GREAT
dub of “Pissnelke 2000” by outsider issue of the group’s 2019 deluxe vinyl
artist turned music journalist Detlef boxset, collecting their first four studio
SAVINGS
Diederichsen. Extras: None. JOHN LEWIS albums along with live album Eine
VARIOUS ARTISTS
Kleine Nachtmusik, a disc of demos
and a DVD of their 1984 performance SUBSCRIBE
George Martin: A Painter
In Sound – Pre-Beatles
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Productions And Classical
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partly earned; their music tends to AND SAVE
8/10
Far-reaching showcase for a
shun complexity or soloing in favour
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UP TO 40%!
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largely focusing on the comedy hits vinyl. LOUIS PATTISON

THE FLAMING LIPS
ORLD
W
WTED
I
REV NE
IS
E
BRAV

Lips shtick:
Wayne Coyne
and friends
at Koninklijk
Circus, Brussels,
March 9, 2003
Axl Rose! Cat Stevens!

Songs to sing at funerals!
As a 20th-anniversary
boxset expands the
technicolour universe
W
of THE FLAMING LIPS’
Yoshimi Battles The Pink
Robots, WAYNE COYNE
reveals the real story of
how his band of freaks
inherited the Earth.
“We just embraced it
all, and did it our way,”
learns Sam Richards
Photo by GIE KNAEPS

THE FLAMING LIPS
you’d like it, and if
you’re the right kind
of 90-year-old you’d
like it, so it’s great.”
The same could be
said of Yoshimi Battles
The Pink Robots itself,
a multi-hued 21st-
century quasi-concept
classic. It contains
hummable anthems,
universal sentiments
and vaudeville
Light entertainment:
songwriting tricks, but also makes room for touring Yoshimi at
trip-hop instrumentals and a Japanese the Paramount
Theatre, Oakland,
experimental musician screaming. Twenty November 26, 2002
years on, it feels like the moment the Lips
became part of the cultural firmament,
allowing them to go on and do pretty much
anything and everything they wanted.
It even bagged the band a Grammy –
although as Coyne reminds us, they didn’t
actually win the award for Yoshimi… as a
whole, but for its blissed-out closing track,
“Approaching Pavonis Mons By Balloon”,
which triumphed in the Best Rock
Instrumental category. “We only went to the
Grammys because it’s absurd to sit there
with Tony Bennett and Slash,” he laughs.
“But once we won, all that changes.
Suddenly, you’re not the weirdo in the room
– you’re just in the room. Which is great. I
mean, you don’t really want to just be doing
the same thing, year after year after year.
We’ve been around a long, long time. But
luckily, every five or six years, it’s a little bit
of a new world.”
You’re in the middle of a run of

American dates. Does it feel like things
are finally back to normal over there,
post-Covid? You know, I would say that
they’re even more robust. All the shows that
we had booked from 2020 that kept getting
moved, it’s amazing that they all got
rebooked and people kept the tickets.
So now you’ve got all these shows
happening at once. I think
there is this feeling of, “We’d “WE façade of “We’re all sad and acid liked it or not. We would smile and we would
better go out and see shows
while they’re here.” I don’t DIDN’T CARE leave us alone, even though
we’ve dressed up to come to
enjoy ourselves. It seemed like the less we tried to
be normal, the more people liked it.
know how it can keep going IF 20-YEAR- this club to meet with a
at this pace, it’s crazy. But
maybe it’s just the new way. OLDS ON bunch of people.” By the time you came to write Yoshimi
Battles The Pink Robots, was there a sense of
The shows are great – most
of the places you go now are
ACID LIKED IT Your 1999 tour in support
of The Soft Bulletin felt
writing songs with this new, fantastical live
approach in mind? Our records are mostly
just top-notch. I would go OR NOT” quite bold in that way, made up of a bunch of lucky accidents. I never
myself, but I’m already there! bringing joy and theatricality really think, ‘What am I going to do when I’m in
into the alternative rock world, front of people?’ Because you don’t really know if
Do you feel a responsibility for a where those qualities were still people are going to like it. I think the best thing is
Flaming Lips show to provide the unity and viewed with suspicion… Yeah, I think it was probably to just make great songs that people will
togetherness that people are looking for at because we took the attitude on Zaireeka and The like when they’re sitting in their car by themselves.
this time? I think it’s just a lucky by-product of Soft Bulletin of just being a studio group, like Then when they come to the concert, we’ll figure
TIM MOSENFELDER/GETTY IMAGES
the stuff that we like to do, the songs that we want Steely Dan or The Beach Boys, where we wanted to out something to entertain them besides just
to perform and the attitude that we have. So it’s spend time making records and we didn’t really standing there being embarrassed, you know.
not a responsibility, it’s just a great thing that care that much about playing shows like a typical
happens. I remember seeing The Jesus And Mary rock band. So that gave us a lot of confidence and To write a song as rousing and universal as
Chain the first time they played in America, and freedom: I’m just going to be a dork and be me, and “Do You Realize??” though, that must be
everything was about being cold and detached. I I’ll have some puppets and throw confetti. We did more than a lucky accident? I guess we were in
always thought that was weird, so I’m glad it feels emotional music because it was what we wanted the flow at that point. We already had some good
more like a celebration now, as opposed to this to do, and we didn’t really care if 20-year-olds on ones and a cool sound. We made a template of

what we thought the song would be, we were doing listened to it five or six more times, just to be like,
pretty good demos at that time. Dave Fridmann felt “Does it really sound like that?” He didn’t even
good about it, so he did it quick. “Do You Realize??” has ask very much, I think it’s a quarter of the song.
taken a long time to achieve its status of being a song We were like, “You want a quarter of one song on
that’s played at weddings or when people’s kids are a Flaming Lips album – do you know what this is?
born. If that had happened when we did it, we would This isn’t anything!”
have just run away and hid. Even if you said it would
really work, we’d be like, “Well, we don’t want that How did Yoshimi P-We from The Boredoms
because it would be embarrassing to us – we wouldn’t and OOIOO end up becoming the album’s
know how to stand there in front of titular character? We knew
people whose grandmother has her from being on Lollapalooza
died and sing the song.” Now we together in 1994 and always
can, because it’s been part of the stayed in touch. Those first
show for a long time. I think we just couple of OOIOO albums are
got lucky that we did it quickly. insane! She’s just an amazing,
unique musician and we wanted
But equally there are some to get her on some songs. She
Caped crusader:
classic songwriting moves in was playing at one of the South T In The Park, Balado,
there, like the old trucker’s By Southwest things in Austin, Scotland, 2003
gear change! Yeah, it’s a funny and we drove down there and set
old-fashioned vaudeville trick in up a studio. I think we only had
this futuristic, freaky, cosmic
song about life and death or
whatever. But you don’t really
one or two songs, but she was
receptive to it. She played trumpet
and she did a lot of this good
STRIPE
know if these things are going
to work; if they’re hokey or if
they’re perfect. Sometimes they
work because they make it
screaming that ended up on what
became “Yoshimi Battles The Pink
Robots Part II”. We remarked that it
sounded like Yoshimi was doing
TEST!
Steven Drozd explains
more emotional. But sometimes battle with robots, and I remember the profusion of White
they work just because people adding in, “Well, they would be pink Stripes-related material
are familiar with the way these robots, because it’s a Flaming Lips on the Yoshimi boxset
things happen. The best thing song.” We sat there, like, “Fuck,
“Y
that modulation does is extend that could be what this record is!” OSHIMI… had been out and
we were touring with Beck
the song and give it some energy Because we wanted a theme – it – that’s a whole ’nother
without needing another verse… wasn’t necessarily a concept chapter right there! Anyway, we’re in
record, but philosophically it sounds the same, it’s Detroit and Jack White came to the
You had to end up giving Cat Stevens a credit reaching for the same sorts of things: this very show, and he brought us this weird
for “Fight Test”. Was the melodic similarity colourful, very optimistic mood, but still based little gift, a light-up Jesus thing. You
to “Father And Son” intentional? It wasn’t, but around a kind of sadness and death. That was probably don’t have them so much
in England, but in America you see
we thought it was the greatest thing ever to finally really all we needed to set it in motion. We had them in people’s front yards around
be involved in a plagiarism claim. We thought, a song with a cool sound and a good melody Christmas time. Wayne just wrote
‘We’re legit! A real songwriter thinks it matters!’ It but no lyrics, so I turned that into “Yoshimi Battles a song about it called ‘Thank You
made the song more interesting. People probably The Pink Robots Part 1”. Jack White (For The Fiber-Optic
Jesus That You Gave Me)’. The song
is literally about Jack White giving us
that gift and that’s all there is to it. It’s
a pleasant song, you know?
“The next year, we were playing
T In The Park – I think Jack White had
broken a finger or something, so they
put us on in The White Stripes’ place.
Wayne sent us down to one of the
department stores to buy matching
red-and-white outfits and we opened
with ‘Seven Nation Army’ to much
fanfare! People really dug that quite
a bit. I remember Peter Buck from
REM was watching from the side and
getting into it. We played the song for at
least one BBC Session. By all accounts,
Jack White thought it was great.”
JEREMY SUTTON-HIBBERT/ALAMY STOCK PHOTO
Fully Realized:
Coyne with
Steven Drozd
and Michael
Ivins in 2002

THE FLAMING LIPS
What did Yoshimi bad.” We were already everybody, because we’re making normal music
herself make of it all? kind of successful and we’re just complete freaks out here – we have
You know, I don’t think I’ve enough that even if no idea what we’re doing!
ever known. She doesn’t no-one plays it on the
really speak English, so radio, we don’t really Which must have made it all the sweeter to
even when we were with care. When you’re win your Grammy ahead of the likes of Joe
her, everything would be working on something Satriani and Slash… I mean, if I was Slash and
through interpreters. But I that intense, when you’re I looked around the room, I would have been like,
guess I look at it like, if she up there for a couple of “I got this.” He’s not gonna go all the way down
hated it, we would know! years and it’s building there just to lose, you know? So it was hilarious.
and building and I remember years later we’re doing one of Neil
What were you “An amazing building, that’s already Young’s benefits for the Bridge School. At the end
listening to around musician”: its own reward. A lot of the night, Neil has everybody come on and sing
Yoshimi P-We
that time which of love was put in. But a song together, and I ended up being right next to
influenced the we’re really just doing Axl Rose. Right as we’re walking off the stage, he
sound and it for ourselves. says, “You’re that guy who took the Grammy from
approach of Slash!” It occurred to me he’s probably sat on the
Yoshimi…? We were So what do you think is the internet and looked at any story where something
very curious about album’s biggest achievement? bad happens to Slash. They’re back together now,
Missy Elliott and Man, it’s such an amazing-sounding but at the time it felt like anything that made Slash
Timbaland and how record. The production is set up so look bad, he’d get some joy out of it. So I had to retell
the fuck are they doing that by the time the singer comes in, him the story and it probably got more embellished
that? We started to you’re ready for something to be that it was worse for Slash than it really was.
say, “Well, how do we great. Then I come in as opposed to
use some of these Rihanna or Beyoncé and it’s not Did you notice a change in the people who
elements? And will that bizarre. It’s like, “Yeah, OK, I were coming to see you after that? Yeah. We
they work?” We’d never can hear that song on the radio.” were starting to play more mainstream festivals
DIMITRIOS KAMBOURIS/WIREIMAGE; MARIA JEFFERIS/REDFERNS
really done Top 40/hip-hop Sure! Because I’m still not a singer, after The Soft Bulletin, but when Yoshimi came
production, we’re a space-rock I’m just a guy that likes to write songs out we were pretty high up on the bill at T In The
group! But the way Dave Fridmann and do music. If you go back too far Park and Glastonbury. And we’re still just an
was working back then, every week along the way, someone would have underground bunch of freaks. We didn’t know;
he would be a thousand times better, stopped me and said, “Look, dude, if is this the beginning of something? Should we
a thousand times faster, everything you can’t sing, you’re not a singer in a become better at doing this? Or is this just a
really kicked in. band.” It’s just the way punk rock was moment where we go back to playing to the same
in America in the early ’80s, it was a 200 weirdos a night that we always did? But we
When you finished the album, badge of authenticity if you couldn’t just embraced it all and did it our way. None of us
was it immediately apparent sing and you would get up there and looked at this like, ‘Oh good, now we can really be
that you’d created something with broader do it anyway. But by the time we’re making a big-time group.’ Any time that we would have
appeal than previous Flaming Lips albums? Yoshimi…, we’re making music that’s usually some success, it would just reinforce in us, like,
At the time, the people from Warner Brothers only made because there’s a really beautiful ‘Now we get to do whatever the fuck we want!’ You
weren’t like, “Wow, this is amazing,” or “This is singer out front. It was like we’re tricking know, we escaped the executioner for another
week. It just made us feel like we
can relax for a minute and really
have fun and do some crazy shit.
What happened to the Yoshimi

Battles The Pink Robots musical
that ran for a while in San Diego
in 2012? We absolutely love and
trust Des McAnuff, who’s the
visionary director behind that, so
at the time I didn’t really want to be
involved. He would show me ideas,
but I didn’t want to be the one to
say, “Here’s what I think the story
can be”, because I didn’t really
have a story, or any idea of how
Broadway musicals work. He was
wanting to use some of the songs
off Yoshimi… and The Soft Bulletin
and make this musical about the
pink robots as a metaphor for
cancer, because his father-in-law
was battling with cancer at the
time. We watched it a couple of
times and loved it. We sat next to a
woman who had cancer, who wept
the entire time and just couldn’t
believe there was a story like this.
“It was hilarious”:
winning their So as removed as it is from our sci-fi
Grammy in 2003 fantasy, it’s still a powerful couple
Animal magic:
Glastonbury,
June 29, 2003
“AWEIRD
CLOUD OF
of hours of storytelling and songs. During the
pandemic Des and I talked again and he was like,
“Maybe the woman shouldn’t die at the end?” I said,
I mean, everything that happens plays into it for the
good and for the mediocre, for the boring and the
amazing. Nothing is as good as experience – every
SOUND”
“OK, if that means we can make it work.” time you do something, the muscle memory of the
Unravelling the mystery
other million times you’ve done it will come to your aid.
of the “Psychedelic
You’ve obviously spent a lot of time thinking Hypnotist Daydream”
about Yoshimi… recently; how do you square Do you tend to set aside time for songwriting or
C
OYNE: One day we discovered
that with your compulsion to keep looking are you always just grabbing ideas as they come? a four-track cassette with
forward and creating new stuff? I think that’s just No, you’re just doing five minutes at a time in between this 24-minute meandering
psychedelic instrumental that sounds
the way it goes. When I was younger, it was almost all the other stuff. That’s really the way it’s always
like it’s doing “The Hypnotist” and
like you have to kill the old shit. When we been. I spend a lot of time working by then veers towards something else,
made The Soft Bulletin we talked about, myself, Steven spends a lot of time and parts of it would be backwards
“How are we still gonna play ‘She working by himself. If we stumble and forwards at the same time.
Don’t Use Jelly’? Like, those people “WE’RE upon something, that’s when we It sounded cool but I didn’t have
much recollection of it, and nor did
are dead!” But that was a long
time ago now. These days I’m a STILL JUST start to go, “Hey, check this out.”
And if you’re always doing it, it
Steven. So we thought it’s probably
lot more relaxed – you can do AN UNDER- doesn’t take you very long to get
something Dave Fridmann did while
Steven and I were grabbing coffee.
something new and that doesn’t
mean everything else that you GROUND five or six things, and those
things start to give you more
But he had no idea either.
DROZD: We would use a four-track
did doesn’t exist any more. I’m BUNCH OF things, because you’re starting to for demos. We’d let these things go
on for long periods of time and just trip
writing new stuff, we’re always
doing new stuff, that’s just where FREAKS” find a vibe. But mostly you’re just
fumbling in the dark. Then there
out or create a weird cloud of sound.
It wasn’t even intentionally kept. Not
your head’s at. But it’s great that comes a time where Steven and I will a lot of thought went into saving or
people are still interested in Yoshimi…. agree that we have to work on these as our keeping these things.
obligation to the gods of music: “Look, I gave COYNE: The engineer that we’re
Do you think the experience of revisiting you this great fucking chorus – you got to come up with working with, who’s 28 years old, was
Yoshimi… might influence your new material a fucking cool sound and a cool verse, otherwise you’re like, “How the fuck do you guys do stuff
like this?” And I’m thinking, ‘Well, you
somehow? Well, Steven I kind of work in two ways. gonna be struck by lightning.” So when you have
know, kid, we’re The Flaming Lips!’
We’re listening to everything in the world because something really great, it just makes you more inspired. Finally we realised that we’d only
we want to sound like something that’s never been ‘Do You Realize??’, when I first wrote it, had the verse – been recording on two tracks, and
made before. But also we’re too easily influenced, so but really the cool bit of it is the throwaway chorus, we also recorded on the other side
of the cassette. So when you put it
MICK HUTSON/REDFERNS
sometimes I don’t want to hear anything. We love which I came up with in as long as it takes to hear it on
music, we love listening to music, we love dissecting the album. To have the magic thing is the hardest part. into a four-track, two tracks play
forwards and the other two tracks
music, we love playing with music, everything about
play backwards simultaneously. It’s
it. But at some point you have to say: these are the Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots: 20th Anniversary a total accident but it sounds amazing,
colours, this is the vibe, this is what we’re trying to do. Deluxe Edition is released by Warner Records in which is probably the best Flaming
You’ve got to stick to your vision or whatever. But yeah, November, with a vinyl release to follow in 2023 Lips outcome.

DAVY GRAHAM

Midnight
Man He was a revolutionary spirit at the vanguard
of the ’60s folk movement, until drug
addiction and mental health issues waylaid
his mercurial talent. Here friends and
collaborators and – among them Shirley
Collins, Martin Carthy and Ray Davies –
celebrate the nimble-fingered magic
of DAVY GRAHAM. “He burned very
brightly for a short time, and no-one
forgot that,” hears Rob Hughes
Photo by BRIAN SHUEL
S
HIRLEY Collins has never fusion of styles drawn from North Africa,
cared much for jazz. So in the Middle East and Indian raga forms.
1964, when her husband World music transposed onto a clutch of
suggested getting together traditional folk songs. “At that time in
with a hotshot guitarist folk music, nobody was making much
he’d seen in a London jazz effort to go through archives or
club, she hardly jumped collections to hear anything good, with
at the idea. Undeterred, Austin John the exception of Martin Carthy,”
Marshall pressed on with introductions, explains Collins. “But Davy had dug
inviting 23-year-old Davy Graham over to deeper and had a real understanding of
their home in Blackheath. the music. He could light up a song.”
“I thought, ‘God, this is going to be Folk Roots, New Routes and the solo
awful,’” Collins recalls. “This tall young Folk, Blues & Beyond, also released in
man, rather unsmiling at first, came 1965, affirmed Graham’s reputation
in and starting playing ‘She Moved as the most prized guitarist of his
Through The Fair’, which I’d seen generation. He’d spent the previous
Margaret Barry sing at the Albert Hall. few years gigging around the capital’s
I couldn’t see how anybody could get folk dens and coffee houses, expanding
away from her banjo sound, but the the remit of traditional music in ways
minute Davy started to play it, I realised that hardly seemed feasible. Not only
that he absolutely understood the was he a dazzling technician, but he
essential Irishness of the song. Yet he redefined folk guitar through a process
also somehow managed to bring it of modal experiments, supple jazz
several stages forward, in the most phrasings and the absorption of his
beautiful way. When I started singing, own tuning: DADGAD.
the possibility of it was almost God- “Everybody saw his genius,”
BRIAN SHUEL/REDFERNS
given. It was just mind-changing.” acknowledges Roy Harper, another

The result, Folk Roots, New Routes, contemporary who shared bills with
“He could light issued early the following year, proved Graham during the ’60s. “In some way,
up a song”:
Davy Graham a landmark. Collins’ pure voice found we all worshipped him. He was almost
at home in 1966 thrilling contrast in Graham’s sinuous existing in a separate realm where

DAVY GRAHAM
Graham
jazz had been at least as important as in 1965: a
acoustic folk.” pervasive
influence
Graham’s calling card was “Angi”. A
ravishing instrumental, first heard on
a joint EP with Alexis Korner, it swiftly
became a go-to for every aspiring folk
guitarist in Britain. Key disciples of
Graham’s like Bert Jansch, John Renbourn
and Paul Simon were among those who
covered it (the version on Sounds Of Silence
kept Graham in royalties for some time).
“Everybody in that particular folk guitar
circle looked up to Davy, because he’d gone
into it in such detail,” says Martin Carthy.
“He was just incredibly adventurous for the
time. He knocked everybody out.”
But Graham never quite capitalised on
that early potential. A mercurial soul
whose talent became compromised by
drug addiction and mental health issues,
by the turn of the ’70s he was making
albums that only occasionally flickered
with his old brilliance. He spent a couple
of decades in relative obscurity, living
a modest, semi-retired
existence in Camden, before
finally being rediscovered by
a new generation of admirers.
At the time of his death in
2008, aged 68, Graham was
rightfully acknowledged for
his pervasive influence,
though recognition hadn’t
always been so forthcoming.
Never a commercial success,
he seemed to operate in a
business that felt alien, his
capricious instincts gradually Monk, Mingus, Lennie Graham’s reputation had spiked the previous
dulled by the formal Shirley Tristano. As a teenager in the year, when he’d appeared in Ken Russell’s BBC TV
Collins,
obligations of touring and 1965 late ’50s, Graham busked documentary about the new breed of homegrown
recording. His personality around Paris and the South of guitarists, Hound Dogs And Bach Addicts:
mirrored his music, France, pushing on into Greece The Guitar Craze. The highlight was an 18-year-
occupying a space somewhere and Morocco. This itinerant old Graham, perched on inner city rubble,
way outside of convention.
“I think Davy was always “There was sense of the exotic fed directly
into his guitar-playing, soaking
reconfiguring Julie London’s “Cry Me A River”. It
was an audacious introduction to instrumental
handicapped by his inability to
overcome an inherent shyness,”
says Harper. “A shyness
a lot of up a multitude of ethnic styles
and flavours.
“We all had this kind of
folk guitar.
Graham soon went one better with his own
composition, “Angi”. Named after his girlfriend,
that manifested as a strange
eccentricity. It messed up his gravity romantic dream of getting away
and finding our true selves,”
the song made it to vinyl in April 1962, on the
shared Topic EP, “3/4 AD”.
desire to become a rounded
purveyor of his own work. It
stopped him from being the
about him” recalls singer-guitarist and
busking ally Wizz Jones. “But
Davy was the first of us to really
“It was Alexis Korner’s idea that he and Davy
record together,” recalls producer Bill Leader.
“They knew each other. I lived on the first floor
entertainer that he should have SHIRLEY COLLINS do it. In 1960 I was living in of 5 North Villas, off Camden Square, and my
been. But then his whole nature Paris, and late one evening I mother was renting the basement. For some
only added to the mystique.” saw him walking towards me. reason, we ended up recording ‘Angi’ in the front
He’d just come up from Greece room of that basement flat.”
OT much about Davy Graham was routine. or wherever, and he looked like some Greek God.” In an act of neat symmetry, Leader’s upstairs
N Born in Leicestershire but raised in west

London, he was the son of a Scotsman
and a Guyanese mother. It was, by all accounts,
Already a prodigious figure around Soho,
In Ken
flat hosted the sessions for Bert Jansch’s debut
LP – which included his own extrapolation of
Graham’s tune – a couple of years later. “Bert
a difficult upbringing, the young Graham Russell’s
definitely looked up to Davy,” adds Leader.
navigating the racial tensions of post-war 1959 doc “Davy was a real innovator, and ‘Angi’ took
Notting Hill. His father taught him to speak Hound over every guitarist’s imagination.”
Dogs…
Gaelic, his mother instructed him in French, In the meantime, Graham contributed a couple
further sharpening his linguistic skills at the of tracks to 1963’s “From A London Hootenanny”,
Kensington Lycée. a split EP with Martin Carthy’s Thamesiders.

Lonnie Donegan and Elvis were early musical The undisputed standout was Graham’s
signposts, before Graham became fascinated radical reworking of “She Moved Through
with folk guitarist Steve Benbow and bluesmen The Fair”, marked by a perpetually shifting
like Big Bill Broonzy and Snooks Eaglin. Jazz too: bass rhythm. He’d discovered the tuning while

travelling in Tangier, keen
to relocate the sound of oud
and sarod to traditional
acoustic guitar.
“Davy would turn up at the
Troubadour and always play
something that was new to
him,” Carthy recalls.
“I remember one
night he tuned his
guitar in this very
odd way and that was
the first time I heard
him do ‘She Moved
Through The Fair’.
That was the birth
of DADGAD. He was
so imaginative.”
Graham’s version
eventually seeped
into the wider rock GOLDEN “On a different
level”: Graham at
a Nadia Cattouse
culture, from Jimmy Page’s Yardbirds
instrumental, “White Summer”, to Stephen Stills’
solo on Buffalo Springfield’s “Bluebird”.
GRAHAM recording session
in the ’60s
Another young believer was Ray Davies, just FIVE ESSENTIAL ALBUMS It’s my least favourite way of singing. So there was
starting out on the London circuit. “When I was this remoteness about the sessions, but the music
FOLK, BLUES
guitar player with Dave Hunt’s band, Davy & BEYOND doesn’t sound remote at all.”
borrowed my guitar and did a few songs during (DECCA, 1965) Indeed, the exquisite Folk Roots, New Routes
our intermission when we played the Richmond Two years after jazz-centric suggests the kind of rare compatibility that
Jazz Club,” he tells Uncut. “I was in awe, like debut The Guitar Player, demands further exploration. It was certainly an
watching an angel playing the devil’s music. My Graham returns with a West- unlikely pairing – the jazz-averse traditionalist
meets-East masterclass that showcases
guitar was blessed after he’d played it and a few meets the voracious cultural voyager – but they
the full range of his ability. Songs like Blind
months later I played that same guitar when The Willie Johnson’s “I Can’t Keep From Cryin’ were evidently bonded by a deep respect for the
Kinks recorded ‘You Really Got Me’. Later, Davy Sometimes” are breathtaking. source material. Alas, that’s where the
and I became friends.” commonality appears to end.
Meanwhile, anticipation for Graham’s first FOLK ROOTS, NEW “Davy was absolutely lovely and I liked him a
album was high, at least among his peers. The ROUTES (DECCA, 1965) lot, but he was a quite self-contained, silent
Rich, deep and powerfully
Guitar Player duly arrived later in ’63, brimming person,” Collins explains. “He was courteous, he
emotive, Graham’s sole
with limber instrumental covers of Cannonball collaboration with Shirley was grave. There was a lot of gravity about him. In
Adderley, Ray Charles, The Dave Brubeck Quartet Collins is often quietly his top left-hand pocket, he always had some little
and more. “We were all waiting for it,” says Jones. spectacular, not least on “Nottamun Town” book about Eastern philosophy. But he wasn’t
“And we devoured it. That really made waves and “Reynardine”, igniting the charge of the always too serious, he could be funny sometimes.
amongst us enthusiasts. It wasn’t until years later British folk-rock boom that followed. So there was this sort of nice affection between us
that I met a young John Renbourn, doing a set in a that wasn’t any more than that. We were very
LARGE AS LIFE AND
folk club, and he started to play all this amazing TWICE AS NATURAL different people.”
stuff from Davy’s album. He’d worked it all out. (DECCA, 1968) Another distancing factor was Graham’s
But it was the next one, Folk, Blues & Beyond, that Bassist Danny Thompson increasing reliance on heroin. He was starting to
really put him on the map.” and drummer Jon Hiseman become wayward at times, a little unstable.
are among the musicians on Collins doesn’t remember a second collaboration
Graham’s fourth solo LP, at its scintillating best
T
HE exhilarating Folk, Blues & Beyond, ever being mooted, but she’d already decided to
on the traditional “Bruton Town” and his own
issued in January 1965, brought Graham’s open-ended instrumental, “Sunshine Raga”. record with her sister Dolly, a resolutely more
talent into full focus. Backed by double dependable presence.
bassist Tony Reeves and drummer Barry Morgan, ALL THAT MOODY On his wall at home in Robin Hood’s Bay, Martin
it showcased Graham as singer-guitarist, (ERON ENTERPRISES, 1976) Carthy has a photo of himself, with Graham, at a
assimilating everything he’d learned from his Arguably Graham’s most recording session for Nadia Cattouse in the early
underrated album, issued
cross-continental travels. And while his vocal ’60s. “When we finished the session, we walked
on a tiny Kent-based imprint,
limitations were clear, his phrasings carried the featuring spirited reworks up the road together,” he says. “Davy started the
natural cadence of jazz. of tunes from his back catalogue. Jazz, blues conversation by saying, ‘I had my first fix last
“For us, Folk, Blues & Beyond had the same and ethno-folk dominate, capped by an night. It’s great. I’m gonna do it again.’ Within 10
effect as the first Incredible String Band album inspired “Tristano”, named after jazz pianist days, I walked into a party next door to Cecil
had later on,” says Jones. “It was the ultimate Lennie Tristano. Sharp House and saw Alexis Korner there. He
bible to have under your arm, along with maybe shouted across the room at me: ‘Do you know
AFTER HOURS (AT
Rubber Soul or Revolver. You had all these HULL UNIVERSITY, what that stupid bastard has done now? He’s only
important albums that people latched onto.” 4TH FEBRUARY 1967) gone and registered himself.’
Graham had already been playing shows and (ROLLERCOASTER, 1997) “Those were the days when you could register
recording with Shirley Collins by the time of its Graham during his peak as a drug addict and get heroin straight from the
release. Their studio experiment, Folk Roots, years, recorded on tape at a NHS. Davy was like that for maybe four years. He
friend’s digs on campus. Loose, intimate and
New Routes, finally landed the following month. made a big mistake. Addiction just took him
playfully intense, highlights include “Cocaine”,
“We did it all in two days,” Collins remembers. “Misirlou” and the irrepressible “Grooveyard”. away. But I refuse to criticise him, because he
“In the studio, Davy was on a stool on the far Also recommended: 2007’s Live At St was such a lovely human being. So generous in
side and I was at the other end, perched on a stool. Andrews Folk Club 8th May 1966. showing you what he knew, musically.”

DAVY GRAHAM
Interplay: with
Martin Carthy and
Nadia Cattouse
in the 1960s
It was a while before Graham’s powers truly possibilities thrown up by Graham’s Think Twice, It’s All Right’ with a complicated
waned, however. 1966’s harder-edged Midnight collaboration with Shirley Collins. clawhammer style. I ended up singing as he
Man may not have lived up to its immediate Graham knew he was losing ground. “In 1967 I played. That was when, he told me later, he fell
predecessors, but there was enough invention to became a casualty of too much self-indulgence,” in love with me. It was Guy Fawkes day. When
suggest that he remained at the forefront of what he told Terrascope in 1991. “I was also capable of he lit fireworks out in his mother’s garden
reviewer Karl Dallas termed “folk baroque”. He too much self-denial. I suppose I was a bit like afterwards, I thought he was celebrating me!”
was still revered by those around him, too. Roy Peter Green, who disappeared The pair were inseparable by
Harper recalls his first encounter with Graham from Mayall’s band.” the following spring. Gwinn
around that time. “When I first knew Davy he became his tour manager,
“I was over at Bert [Jansch] and John was very bright and quick- booking agent and, in July 1972,
[Renbourn]’s flat in Kilburn one day, doodling minded,” says Harper. “The his wife. They recorded two
with guitars, when Davy called round,” says problem was, his bouts of albums together – The Holly
Harper. “My first impression was of a forthright addiction constantly dragged Kaleidoscope and Godington
character with a kind of junior military officer him down. Around ’69 or ’70, Boundry – briefly ran a folk club
presence. It was enhanced by the public school he wanted to put a band in an old church in Sandwich
accent, the polo pullover, the blazer, the cavalry together with me. But he was and, with royalties from Simon &
twills and brogues. He looked like a ’50s jazzer. It so temperamentally erratic Garfunkel’s “Anji”, bought a
was something you didn’t expect. that he was a liability. We Bedford van and travelled to the
“Bert put the guitar down quite quickly,” he were potentially a good South of France. There they
continues. “Then Davy just took over with a match, but it just wasn’t played waterfront cafés in
virtuosity that only he was capable of, playing going to work. I was quite St Tropez, passing the hat.
one thing after another. A softer voice was sad about that.” It appears to have been an idyllic
emerging from this guy you’d first met at the door. Graham made a couple time in Graham’s life. “Davy loved
It was a rather studious persona. Then he played more albums before the the place, having, as he said,
his party piece, which was a rendition of Ravel’s decade was out. But his ‘sweated in the sun and suffered
Boléro. You could hear his brilliant mimicking of interest in performing and slept on the beaches without
woodwinds, strings and brass. We were all seemed to be disappearing. money’ in Morocco and France in
stunned. He was on a different level.” He often failed to turn up for his younger days,” Gwinn
shows, preferring to stay at recalls. “He was returning a
S the ’60s wore on, however, Graham’s his mother’s flat in Notting Hill, success, with records to his
A devotees were catching up. And, in some

cases, overtaking him. Roy Harper was
emerging as a progressive singer-songwriter
where he’d started earning money
teaching guitar. One visiting
student was American folk singer
credit, a sweetie, plenty of
food, some money…”
He also had other priorities.
with scant concession to trad folk. Martin Carthy, Holly Gwinn, who booked a Graham became involved
John Renbourn and Bert Jansch had made lesson in November 1969. with various mental health
significant solo albums, the latter two men “He was charming, attentive, causes, serving on the
also banding together as Pentangle. Fairport energetic and handsome,” executive council of Mind.
Convention, had begun to further the Gwinn recalls. “He played ‘Don’t He also got further into

G
mysticism. Musician Pete Watson had first RAHAM’S renaissance was
met him while busking at Soho Fair with Long gradual. Channel 4 featured
John Baldry in 1956. Returning to London him in their late-night
17 years later, after a spell in the States, Watson maverick series, The Other Side, in
sought out his old ally. “Davy was pretty much 1999. Around the same time, Topic
into composing then and still teaching,” he issued a compilation of late-’60s
says, “but more into books and religion. A lot work, Fire In The Soul, that sat
of it was about going around helping charities. alongside recent reissues from
He went and painted the church door in Rollercoaster and Ace.
Camden at two o’clock in the morning. It didn’t He’d been coaxed back into
even need painting. He was just trying to be a playing live again too, something
do-gooder, I guess.” that continued over the next few
Graham’s unpredictability only grew. years, sometimes accompanied by
Struggling to deal with his sudden changes of allies like Martin Carthy and Duck
mood, Gwinn returned to America in late 1973. Baker. One such occasion was at
They remained legally married for another Oxford’s Holywell Music Room in
21 years, but the split had already happened. October 2005. “Davy could still be
Graham revived a number of old tracks for brilliant,” maintains Carthy. “I
1976’s All That Moody, followed by a couple of remember him just walking up onto
instrumental albums, before turning his the stage and starting to play. It was
back on the recording studio for much of the a very good set. He knew he’d been
next 20 years. letting himself down at some of
American guitarist Duck the other shows,
Baker, who shared stages with so he really
him in the late ’70s and from the concentrated like Performing at
the London Spitz,
early ’90s onwards, remembers
he “could be erratic sometimes.
I remember going up to play a
“He was the mad before he got
to the gig. He just
took over.”
September 9,
2006, two years
before he died
festival in Liverpool and Davy

suddenly got out these porno
man who sat In 2005, BBC
Radio 2 sought to are now plans for another
mags on the train. And I don't
just mean Playboy, it was
triple-X stuff. And of course
there and gave highlight his legacy with a
thoughtful documentary,
Whatever Happened to Davy
plaque on the wall of
Graham’s old Lyme Street
house in Camden.
there’s all these people
on the train looking around.
of his genius” Graham?. Later that year,
BBC Scotland’s Ealtainn traced
“Davy was absolutely
unique,” says Shirley Collins, “His
When we got there he was
interviewed by some guy, who
ROY HARPER his journey to explore his
father’s roots on the Isle Of
extraordinary ability and strength of playing –
and I’m thinking in terms of rock musicians
wanted to know why Davy Skye, with Graham also filmed too, not necessarily folk musicians – enlarged
didn’t write more tunes. And jamming with Bert Jansch. people’s idea of how you could accompany a
Davy replied: ‘Some of us think most of the great His reappraisal continued with BBC Four’s Folk traditional song. Of course, he influenced people
tunes have already been written.’ I thought that Britannia, which included a brief interview and like Bert Jansch and John Renbourn, but – and I
was the perfect answer. He’d already achieved so excerpts from “Angi” and “She Moved Through don’t mean to be unkind – they came nowhere
much by then.” The Fair”. Graham was making music again too. near Davy in certain respects. There was some
Everyone, it seems, has a theory about what While nobody expected marvels from 2007’s depth to his playing that they didn’t have.”
happened to Davy Graham. Wizz Jones believes Broken Biscuits, it did at least suggest that he was For Roy Harper, Graham remains a guiding
he may have been bipolar. Martin Carthy re-engaged with the creative process. Its release light in the folk world. “Davy had a huge
attributes his decline to the after-effects of heroin coincided with a 13-date UK tour, a relatively effect on us all, because he showed us the
abuse in the ’60s. major commitment at any stage in his life. way to go,” he says. “He showed us what was
“It was always lovely to see Davy, but he was Diagnosed with lung cancer in the autumn of possible. We followed him. It wasn’t anything
just puzzling to be around, because he wasn’t 2008, Graham passed away that December, to do with the songs so much as the pose and
himself,” Carthy explains. “He was just so following a seizure at home. The tributes the poise. He was the man who sat there and
colossally damaged by that shit. It’s a real poured in. He’s since been honoured with a blue gave of his genius. It was a very guarded
tragedy, it’s heartbreaking. And all the other lads plaque at his birthplace in Market Bosworth, genius. A crazy open book, full of perplexity.
– John, Roy Harper, Wizz – were heartbroken too, installed in 2016 on what would’ve been his He burned very brightly for a short time, and
because they absolutely loved him.” 76th birthday. According to Holly Gwinn, there no-one forgot that.”
DAVY GRAHAM SPEAKS

A rare interview with Melody Maker from 1970
D
AVY Graham interviews from or perhaps join in the background of singing an old song of seduction as if it’s
the initial phase of his career are jazz. After all, it’s a terrible strain getting something funny, without realising it all
scarce. But he did agree to an up on your own to sing and play. It’s all comes down to pain and death. After
audience with Melody Maker in April right for The Beatles, there are four of all, everything I create has been drawn
1970, the first of three that year. Invited them – which makes them a force. But from the energy of someone else’s life…
BRIGITTE ENGL/REDFERNS
into his basement flat in Camden Town, it’s only me, and I’m not sure how much “People sing new songs much too
where they drank wine in front of a longer I can carry it on alone.” easily. I heard The Beatles’ ‘When I’m
silent TV, interviewer Karl Dallas found Described by Dallas as “a sensitive Sixty-Four’ and I went down to the
Graham in doleful, reflective mode. instrumental genius”, Graham went swimming baths and tried to swim 64
“I’m very tempted after this last LP to on to describe the emotional depths lengths so I could know how it really
say it’s the last,” offered Graham. “Then that his work often took him: “I can’t feels to live through 64 years. When I’d
I shall just stay at home and teach guitar, stand to hear someone at a folk club dragged myself out I had a better idea.”
JANUARY 2020
Pretend
We’re Dead
The anatomy of a Republican-baiting, tampon-hurling grunge anthem.
by L7
“It was a call to action for people to wake up and smell the coffee…”
W
HAT’S up with lobbing a used tampon into the crowd, SPARKS: We always had a ‘thing’ from KEY PLAYERS
what’s going down? pulling her pants down on live TV – that the very beginning, because we weren’t
While grunge was burnished L7’s rebel credentials. The band playing the sex card. I think people were
often stereotyped may have struggled to repeat the magic a bit mesmerised by the way we looked,
as self-indulgent formula of “Pretend We’re Dead”, but because we always had this fashion
angst, Rock For Choice founders L7 for helping to destroy rock’s complacent mash-up sense. People were just staring
embodied the movement’s strong macho façade, their legend is assured. at us at first.
moral and political creed, as well as When we speak, L7 are in rehearsals GARDNER: We had overlapping things
its sharp sense of humour. Released at for a US tour in support of the 30th that we liked: punk rock and hard
Donita Sparks
the height of Nirvanamania, “Pretend anniversary reissue of Bricks Are Heavy. rock and pop and surf. It was a great
Lead vocals,
We’re Dead” was a pithy tirade against Attempting to accurately recreate its combination of styles and sensibilities. guitar, songwriter
apathy and conformism, couched in the songs has revealed hidden depths. SPARKS: LA took itself kinda seriously
language of supercharged bubblegum “Suzi’s been trying to decipher the solo and it was not very political at all, which
pop. Its insanely catchy riff was allied that she played that was recorded and was a frustration of mine for years. So
GIE KNAEPS/GETTY IMAGES; GETTY IMAGES
to a bulldozing Butch Vig production, then played backwards,” explains it was cool to connect with people up in
designed to sound good on the radio Sparks. “How I’m gonna get that Seattle who we felt were our tribespeople.
without sacrificing any crunch. spacey sound on the riff, I have no idea!” VIG: L7 opened for the Butthole Surfers at
“Pretend We’re Dead” duly cracked Nevertheless, scenes of mayhem can be the Palladium in LA when I was producing
the UK Top 40 in April 1992, landing L7 expected when they reach that point in Nevermind. I went to the gig with Nirvana,
Suzi Gardner
a slot on the main stage at that year’s the set. “For a lot of people, ‘Pretend We’re I think Dave Grohl was dating [L7 bassist] Guitar, backing
Reading Festival, and an appearance on Dead’ was a generational anthem. I can Jennifer Finch at the time. I thought they vocals
Channel 4’s The Word. Both occasions tell the song holds up live. It sparks up sounded amazing, and they looked cool
were enlivened by co-frontwoman Donita the audience, and they’re so joyous when as fuck. They came by Sound City the next
Sparks’ “absurdist” feminist protests – they’re singing it.” SAM RICHARDS couple of sessions and hung out. I thought
they were super-
cool, funny and
had tons of attitude.
One afternoon
we ordered Texas Butch Vig
BBQ for lunch and Producer
Nirvana and L7
had a food fight. It
was pretty crazy,
very funny, but a
terrible mess that
the assistant had to
clean up.
SPARKS: Other
bands were signing
to majors and we
just thought, ‘Let’s
go for it’. But the
label that we signed
“We weren’t playing the
to was a cool, once-
sex card”: (l–r) L7’s Donita independent label
Sparks, Demetra Plakas, called Slash. They
Jennifer Finch and Suzi
Gardner, Belgium, had signed X and The
November 1992 Germs and Violent

Femmes. We only really tasted the SPARKS: We would take a cassette
major label thing when the videos tape home every night of the work
came and the machine started to
click in.
“They didn’t seem to have any that we had done, and I would
listen in my room with headphones
GARDNER: There definitely was patience for alt.rock’s doom on. That’s where I got the idea for
pressure because the recording those call-and-response vocals. I
sessions were at bigger studios. But and gloom” BUTCH VIG love when Dee Dee Ramone comes
I think we rose to the occasion. in with a backing thing, or any
SPARKS: I think I got braver with days, I was like, ‘Oh, pretend we’re Nirvana’s record hadn’t come out time you can hear Keith Richards
expressing my melodic side as time dead – now that’s a cool lyric.’ There yet. So he gave us a lot of attention in the background, that’s always
went on. At first, we were just trying was horrible apathy going on with and a lot of encouragement. like a bonus. And it makes it cool to
to be these tough cookies with politics in the United States and VIG: I fell in love with “Pretend perform live when everybody’s got
almost a lack of melody. But power people not voting. We had Reagan We’re Dead” the first time I heard it. their little part in it, you know?
can only take you so far. It’s great to all those years, and then the first It was heavy but also super-hooky. GARDNER: One of the cool things
have a hook, it’s great to have songs President Bush. It was scary times, SPARKS: Butch really liked the drum about our band is that everybody
– I’ve always loved that stuff. they were clamping down on civil sound at Sound City. But Nirvana can provide vocals when necessary.
VIG: They were a tight band, liberties. So it was a call to action had the budget to stay at Sound City And it’s neat to hear all the different
they had that sort of ‘clique’ that for people to wake up and smell their whole recording, we did not. voices and personalities.
develops when you hang out as a the coffee, because bad stuff can So we recorded the drums in LA VIG: We spent a lot of time on the
gang all the time. They could finish happen. I suppose I was trying to and then we went out to Butch Vig’s overdubs for “Pretend We’re Dead”.
each other’s sentences and had a inspire without being preachy. studio in Madison, Wisconsin, in the For some reason I kept hearing a
wicked sense of humour. They were GARDNER: It just seemed obvious snow and the cold. reference to Tommy James’ “Crimson
really fun to hang around with, they that we were going to sing about our GARDNER: I had never experienced And Clover”, so we decided to add
didn’t seem to have any patience for life experiences and comment on that length of time in a snowy place tremolo guitars and lots of ear candy
alt.rock’s doom and gloom. the world around us. I’m grateful – it seemed like The Shining! and psychedelic effects to the track.
SPARKS: “Pretend We’re Dead” that our music had a message. VIG: L7 took Madison by storm. SPARKS: For the riff, we were just
was originally written as “Pretend SPARKS: We were allowed to choose Within 24 hours they had met all trying to get an effect that would
You’re Dead”. I was going through our producer. Nobody told us what the local oddball street musicians, stand out from the thickness of the
a very difficult breakup – it was so to do; I think people were terrified of bartenders, bookies, drug dealers… rhythm bed. We were putting so
time-consuming and frustrating us! I liked Butch a lot – he was from It was a constant procession of freaks many fucking pedals together that it
that I was like, ‘OK, I’ve just got to the Midwest, I’m from the Midwest, coming by the studio every night. To started to sound like a synthesiser.
pretend they’re dead.’ I didn’t want there’s a certain lack of pretension. this day, when I’m back in Madison, I VIG: Peter Love, aka Spydog, was
that person dead, it was just the He wasn’t too big for his britches. still run into people who say, “Those my good friend and tour manager
way I could cope. After a couple of He wasn’t already huge, because L7 gals were really wild, hey?” for my ’80s band Fire Town. He

There were a couple things
going on that I thought
were weird, like they were
filming Oliver Reed with
a hidden camera in his
dressing room. OK, that’s
fucked up. And then there
was a male ‘best bum
contest’ going on. It was
kind of shocking, actually,
because that wouldn’t be
on in the US. So you can’t
objectify women now, but
you can objectify men? Fuck
that. That’s not cool. Anyway,
I was like, ‘I think I’m gonna
drop my pants, fuck this bum
contest.’ And so I climbed up
on my amp and that’s what
I did. There was quite the
Mud and blood: Donita hullabaloo in the production
Sparks and Jennifer office. But the kids in the
Finch at Reading
Festival, 1992 audience dug it and our crew
was laughing hysterically.
GARDNER: The entire career
of the band ’til now, there’s
was a real character, always surreal moments that you can’t
hanging around the studio, Oh my God, it felt so cool. even begin to explain. They’re pickled for
and he struck up a friendship Sometimes we’d go out to a club posterity, but the way you’re feeling when
with the band. They partied and hear it being played, or we’d that’s coming down, usually you’re sleep-
hard. Peter ended up doing some hear it on the radio over there. It was deprived and you’re nervous, you’re on
backing vocals at the end of “Pretend amazing, mind-blowing. Who would television and shenanigans are going on…
We’re Dead”. have thought? but I’m happy about Donita’s spontaneity.
SPARKS: He just cracked us up. We got FACT FILE GARDNER: No 21, that’s pretty groovy. I SPARKS: The fact that we weren’t a bunch
him to do some bizarre vocals on the end thought we’d do a couple of regional US of hotties probably worked in our favour,
Written by:
of the song when he was kinda tipsy, and tours, get in a fight and break up! ’cos we weren’t expected to play up to
Donita Sparks
we put a bunch of effects on it. So there’s Personnel includes: SPARKS: We were riding high. But that glamourpuss stuff. We’re as vain as
joyousness in that song too, even though Donita Sparks even when you’re riding high, it’s not any other rock people, but we’d rather
it’s serious. (vocals, guitar), perfect. At Reading, we had mud thrown look cool than beautiful. We’d rather give
VIG: I knew it would be a big single for Suzi Gardner at us the whole time. That was a huge attitude or humour than glamorousness,
them. It was heavy but tight, super-hooky (guitar, backing heartbreaker. I was like, ‘Fuck, I thought and that resonated with a lot of people.
and the lyrics were brilliant. vocals), Jennifer the UK liked us. Are we over already, is VIG: Nineties alt.rock was pretty much
SPARKS: The video shoot was a shitshow. Finch (bass), Dee this some backlash?’ So clearly, I took out a mopey dude’s world, and L7 were a
The director wanted to try this shot with Plakas (drums) the tampon – I was hormonal, I was on the breath of fresh air. They redefined punk
Produced by:
Suzi lying on the floor. The crane was not rag, so maybe I took it more personally. feminism, formed Rock For Choice,
Butch Vig
fastened securely and it came crashing Recorded at: Mudhoney got the mud too. But all kinds musically pushed the envelope by mixing
down and hit Suzi right on her cheekbone. Sound City, LA; of gender politics come to mind when hard rock with a punk sensibility. And
It could have been way worse. But it was Smart Studios, you’re being pelted with mud. Triggers get they were kickass, definitely trailblazers
bad – the shoot was cancelled and she had Madison, WI set off. There was a kind of a misogynistic and a huge influence on generations of
to have surgery. When we reconvened, Released: bent to it. So they threw mud, I threw feminist rockers to come. I think “Pretend
[my ideas] were being dismissed by the April 1992 blood! It was an absurdist moment, but it We’re Dead” still sounds really fresh.
director. I had to put my foot down. It was Chart peak: also was political in my mind. GARDNER: A lot of our song messages are
a bummer, but it turned out cool. UK 21; US – VIG: I don’t know who else would have still relevant today. It’s a shame that things
GARDNER: There were struggles had the balls to throw a tampon on stage. haven’t gotten better in certain areas, and
throughout our career where we really They were fearless. Their shows were that’s a drag. But these songs make me
had to stand our ground. But that’s just legendary, almost like performance art. happy in a way I can’t describe, that just
part of the process and ultimately we GARDNER: The four strong personalities goes all the way to the marrow. You know,
navigated those difficult times. that make up this band, we’re all free I was a kid in my bedroom in the suburbs,
SPARKS: We flew over to the UK, and spirits who’re gonna react in a certain kind and I got to take it all the way to Reading.
it was my birthday, April 8. The record of way. I love the way our stage banter Do I live in a mansion? No, but I got to live a
company brought in a Bart Simpson cake happens, the way crazy stuff goes down. dream – I got to live a rock’n’roll dream.
for me, and one of the guys said, ‘How SPARKS: We were on tour with Faith
does it feel to be a pop star? You’re on the No More. And on one of our days off we The 30th anniversary reissue of Bricks
charts in the UK!’ We were like, ‘What?!’ had to go into London to do The Word. Are Heavy is out now on Licorice Pizza
TIME LINE
May 1991 L7 sign to Slash, Studios in Los Angeles Dead” released as the after being pelted with September 2022 The
MICK HUTSON/REDFERNS
by then a subsidiary of December 1991 The band lead single from Bricks Are mud at Reading Festival 30th-anniversary
London Records decamp to Madison, Heavy, climbing to No 21 November 1992 L7’s remaster of Bricks Are
November 1991 Recording Wisconsin, to complete on the UK charts performance of “Pretend Heavy is released by
sessions for their third the album at Butch Vig’s August 1992 Donita We’re Dead” live on The Licorice Pizza, followed by
album Bricks Are Heavy own Smart Studios Sparks throws a used Word culminates with a a US tour on which L7 play
begin at Sound City April 1992 “Pretend We’re tampon into the crowd flash of “full frontal nudity” the album in full

NEW ALBUM 14•10•2022
FOREVERANDEVERNOMORE
BRIAN ENO
CD / LP / Limited Edition Clear Vinyl LP
Digital / DOLBY Atmos
WEYES BLOOD
STRAIGHT
FROM
THE HEART With Titanic Rising – Uncut’s Album Of The Year in 2019 – WEYES BLOOD’s
Natalie Mering conjured up a beguiling mix of bold cinematic dreams and
ecological fears. For her follow-up, And In The Darkness, Hearts Aglow, she
has further refined her singular vision. She tells Jaan Uhelszki about Buddhist
anthems, Greek myths and – of course! – the end of the world: “My idea of
impending doom is a lot closer than people think.”
Photo by NEIL KRUG
A
LTADENA – the tiny Californian 2019 Album Of The Year, the prophetic Titanic Rising.
town that Natalie Mering now calls Wild flocks of peacocks and peahens dart from rooftop
home – is one of those places that to Altadena rooftop – including Mering’s, where a
time forgot. Pushed back against the stately male is unfurling his plumage on the low slope
towering San Gabriel mountains, it’s of her slate roof. “It’s no big deal,” she says, waving
isolated on three sides by jagged her hand dismissively as she unlocks the door to her
foothills and dark primeval woods. rambling white ranch house, set far back from the street.
Eldridge Cleaver is buried here; so are Alice Walker and “They’re everywhere. They have the run of the town.”
George Reeves, the first TV Superman, who died under If no-one looks askance at a majestic blue peacock on
mysterious circumstances. Johnny Otis spent his final a rooftop, what are the chances that Altadenans will
years here without anyone the wiser. recognise an artist of Mering’s calibre living in their
Largely ignored by Pasadena, its haughty neighbour midst? That must be part of the appeal, to move here
to the south, Altadena was where rich millionaires from two years ago.
the east and well-heeled Angelenos used to come to “Well, that, and I’m certainly a lone wolf! But I got this
beat the heat, before moving on to more exotic and house cheap because it doesn’t have air-conditioning,”
cooler playgrounds to the north and south. It has few she laughs. “Which wasn’t that big of a deal until last
restaurants or shops. The single art store is called week, when the power kept going out and I had to
McGinty’s Gallery At The End Of The World. stay with friends.”
It’s the kind of place where you could elude the She’s talking about a 10-day heatwave that
law, exes or creditors, wait out the apocalypse… overtook Southern California, sparking
or maybe just be left alone to make an album. wildfires and sending temperatures soaring
As Mering did over the last two years, to 110. “I think my idea of impending doom
plotting and writing And In The is a lot closer than people think,”
Darkness, Hearts Aglow – the says Mering quietly. And,
follow-up to Uncut’s unfortunately, it’s

“I’m certainly a
lone wolf”: Weyes
Blood’s Natalie
Mering, 2022

WEYES BLOOD
Promoting
getting closer all the time. When Mering made 2019’s Titanic
Titanic Rising, the year before the pandemic, she Rising and
(inset) her
wrote about a world where technology was father Sumner
evolving as fast as the climate was collapsing. Mering’s 1980
solo album
“As a kid, I thought we just needed to clean
things up. I was shocked when everyone else
wasn’t as concerned as I was,” she says, edging a
little forward on her white velvet settee. She has
perfect posture and small elfin ears that she tucks
her lush hippie hair behind. “I always felt our
generation couldn’t really put our finger on what
was wrong, but making art about the stuff in a
way that didn’t feel trite or bizarre or off-base
seemed like the way to go. I was always toying
with how can I put these concerns into a beautiful
song so this is specific to our generation, and not
more pebbles on the mound of music. How
can I make this about now?”
Mering has been busy since
Titanic Rising. She toured the
album, and supported
Kacey Musgraves in 2019
“AS A KID,
(she was due to tour with I THOUGHT
Nick Cave in 2020, but
the pandemic put paid
WE JUST
to that). Most high NEEDED
profile of all, she and
Zella Day joined Lana
TO CLEAN
Del Rey on stage at THINGS UP”
Hollywood Bowl to cover
Joni Mitchell’s “For Free”. NATALIE MERING
“Lana and I became friends
when I was working on Titanic
Rising and she was working on Norman
Fucking Rockwell!,” laughs Mering. “She said, ‘My
record’s kind of nautical.’ I said, ‘My record’s
nautical too!’ We developed a camaraderie.”
Finding time at last, she began work on And In
The Darkness, Hearts Aglow, her fifth album. In
many respects it continues to mine the lush, been about being in service to had been startled mid-play
KATHRYN VETTER MILLER; JAAN UHELSZKI
baroque folk stylings of Titanic Rising and its something. Which I think I and abandoned them. There
predecessor Front Row Seat To Earth – as well as always did. But I feel pain! I are no books or magazines on
their fears and anxieties. The future is uncertain, think I have extra emotional the shelves. In fact, there’s no
but on And In The Darkness, Hearts Aglow, Mering hardware. Or maybe it’s paper of any sort except an
isn’t convinced it’ll end well. software. I feel more than Elton John Greatest Hits
“I’d never have the ego to say I’m a prophetess,” most people. I can feel pain songbook and a Joni Mitchell’s
she says. “Like the wisest man says, ‘I know on every side of anything.” Hits on her Weber piano.
nothing.’ I have had friends that get a little Jesus “Natalie is a freak and I love “My parents were really
Christ complex. I’ve never had that. It’s always her for that,” says guitarist Christian, so they didn’t
Meg Duffy, a long-term really care about books,”
collaborator. “She’s very uniquely her. She’s a Mering explains. “It was like there’s one book, it’s
loner, but a lot of her songs are about longing, the Bible. My parents were still cool. They were
heartbreak, regret and nostalgia. But people don’t like born-again weirdos; they were rock people.”
understand that she’s in on the cosmic joke too.” Her father, Sumner Mering, released a solo
Pressed to define the themes of And In The album on Asylum Records in 1980, produced by
Darkness, Hearts Aglow, Mering pauses and Jack Nitzsche. At various times, he dated Anjelica
unconsciously raises her hand to touch her Huston and Joni Mitchell. He opted out of the
T-shirt – a gift from the Jokermen podcast, which music business after he had a dream that his
displays the titles of all of Bob Dylan’s albums then-girlfriend/now-wife was in the front seat of
from the ’70s. “This is about the constant change his car and the devil was in the driver’s seat while
and the polarities of our time, the dances of he sat in the back singing “Radioland”, the first
opposites,” she says. “It is a very sacred dance.” song from his album… but the car wasn’t moving.
Taking this as a clear sign that he was going
ERING’S house is sparsely but nowhere fast, shortly afterward he became born
M thoughtfully furnished with dark

tapestry rugs and thrift-store paintings.
There is a rich brocade love seat and a white
again in the Pentecostal church and started his
own ministry. He eventually moved his family –
Natalie and her brother Zak (a musician in his
velvet sofa covered with a gold throw. Albums are own right who used to perform as Raw Thrills
Tangled up in stacked neatly on side tables and in perfect piles and in a chill-wave band called Greatest Hits) –
Bob: Natalie in
her Jokermen on the hardwood floors. Amps and keyboards out of their California home to Doylestown,
T-shirt, 2022 seem to occupy every spare space, as if someone Pennsylvania, in 1999. He never mentioned
With Lana Del Rey and
Zella Day at the Grammy
Museum in LA, October
13, 2019; (inset) sleeve
for the first Weyes Bluhd
CD-R, Strange Chalices
Of Seeing, 2007
the experimental towards warmer,
SERGIONE INFUSO/CORBIS VIA GETTY IMAGES; JESS WILLIAMSON; REBECCA SAPP/GETTY IMAGES FOR THE RECORDING ACADEMY
harmonious ’70s sounds). Titanic Rising
continued to weave her romantic soul-
searching into the evolving, bigger story,
using the saga of the doomed passenger
liner to symbolise our lack of dominion
over nature. She describes the period
Shooting for the she worked on it as “an anxiety-inducing
moon: as support time – especially for Americans. But
act to Father John
Misty in Milan, when you look at it zoomed out, big
November 2017 picture, you see the absurdity in all of
it.” The cover for Titanic Rising featured
until years later that he had ever had his own “I loved her experimentation. But over time, I’ve Mering in a drowned approximation of a
musical career. watched her voice get more and more prominent childhood bedroom; a welcoming, comforting
That move to Pennsylvania, and her exposure in the music and blossom. But she still has that space where something has clearly gone
to the city’s improvisatory noise-rock scene, true weirdo inside of her.” appallingly wrong. “I’ve always considered the
contributed more than anyone would suspect to Meg Duffy remembers seeing Mering in an bedroom to be a strange initiation into society
Mering’s burgeoning aesthetic. “My first forays early incarnation. “She was still performing solo, for a westernised teenager,” she says. “In a lot of
into music and culture were very much based on playing along to a tape she had made. It was ways, it’s inadequate; it’s an isolated capsule
an old, rotting warehouse building that people hybrid karaoke, like punk meets The Carpenters.” where you come up with your own concepts of
would rent out and make their weird art,” she Mering’s activism and crusading spirit reality based on imagination, movies you’ve
explains. “Everything there was all about the emerged, intertwined with her most personal seen, records you’ve heard. It’s easy to
decay and death of a culture, and out of that storytelling, on 2014’s The Innocents, which disassociate from reality. That makes a lot
sprouted something that was unique and new. documents her first love, her first heartbreak of real issues like climate change hard to wrap
“I feel my thing has always been trying to wed and the first time she had written about feeling your head around – so what can you do to help?
opposites – [for instance] extremely beautiful disenfranchised from the American ideal. Those are the two main themes: this strange
music with noise – but I always love the term She expanded on that last theme on 2016’s Front initiation into adulthood and massive, huge
‘sublime violence’, the idea that you can make Row Seat To Earth, where she also began to pivot impersonal problems that still have a personal
beauty out of death and decay.” increasingly towards big themes (and away from effect on people.”
She dropped out of college in 2006 and took the
long route back to California. For a while, she lived
Hammer time:
in a tent in the New Mexico desert. For several Mering in the
months, she wildcrafted plants for a tincture studio
recording the
company, using her knowledge of herbal new album
medicine acquired while working on a farmstead
in rural Kentucky. During a stint living in Portland
she toured with Jackie O Motherfucker. There
were travels round Oregon and Maryland before
she reached California, where she self-released
Strange Chalices Of Seeing, an 11-track CD-R, under
the name Weyes Bluhd in 2007. Since then, her
music has continued to develop from the ghostly
drones of her debut and its witchy follow-up, 2011’s
The Outside Room, gradually revealing Mering’s
striking gift for otherworldly folk, lysergic
experimentation and baroque melodicism.
“When I think of Natalie, I think more about
her in terms of noise music,” says harpist Mary
Lattimore, who has known the musician since
2007 and plays on four of the new album’s tracks.
WEYES BLOOD
“I thought,
‘What would
show that we
have human
souls?’”: cover
shoot for And In
The Darkness…
ERING’S mellifluous reports on the album. I’m going to do my Metal Machine Music!’” She reconvened with producer Jonathan Rado,
M human condition deepen on And In The

Darkness, Hearts Aglow. Musically,
meanwhile, she continues to refine her
But evidently the songs had other ideas.
Coming to her in dreams, or while she sat at her
piano late at night. This was in March 2020, just
who worked on Titanic Rising, in April 2021.
Joining them at various points were old friends
including Lattimore and Duffy and new ones,
sumptuous, cinematic songcraft. Together they as the world was locking down. “I realised I had such as Joey Waronker. Of her collaborators,
make for a potent if unsettling brew: who knew a few songs left over from Titanic Rising,” she Mering talks about experiencing a kind of
the end of the world could sound so beautiful and explains, including “Children Of The Empire”. spiritual recognition with them.
beguiling? With And In The Darkness…, Mering “As I kept writing, the [new] songs “She has good taste in people,” says
sets out her stall with the opening track, “It’s Not were like the ones on Titanic Rising. Rado. “I think it requires a certain
Me, It’s Everybody”. It begins simply enough with That meant I still had more to type of musician to be able to
just Mering at a piano, while strings surge and say on this front.” bend to Weyes Blood. She’s
swell in the background until they finally burst, When the songs stopped very singular. Like, she
propelling the song towards a ripe, full-blown flowing, she had rituals came out fully formed.
psychedelic conclusion. From a similar, simple to coax them out. You can hear it on her
piano intro, “Children Of The Empire” Working at night, she’d early records. Her
transmogrifies into something grander, this time “open up a channel” harmonic centre, where
involving handclaps, swooning backing vocals, via improvised she’s deriving melodies
tubular bells. The lyrics are no less grand in their performance, seeking to from, is so different
scope. Mering talks about the “interconnectivity catch fleeting moments from most people. I don’t
of all beings, and the fraying of our social fabric”. of inspiration. One song know where it comes
Against this, characters can be found “Trying to on the album, “God Turn from. Maybe it’s the
break away/From the mess we made” or “Looking Me Into A Flower”, came religious upbringing,
for love/In all the wrong places”. She describes “It’s to her when she was in something like the Church
Not Me, It’s Everybody” as a “Buddhist anthem”, quarantine during a bout of Covid. mixed with the noise-music drone.”
while the narrator in “Children Of The Empire” is, “It was tough. I thought, ‘I need to write The sessions for And In The Darkness…
Mering explains, “an American kid living in the some kind of hymn.’ I was playing my organ and were partially recorded in Studio 3 at Los Angeles’
death of the American dream”. Another song, it came out. That night, in my dream, I wrote all East-West Studios – one of the key locations for
“The Worst Is Done”, is “about the end of the the lyrics out on a piece of paper. I woke up the The Beach Boys’ Pet Sounds sessions. “I think
pandemic but also feeling like we’re just kinda next day and thought, ‘That’s it.’ I’d finished it.” Natalie is the main architect of her sound right
starting down this path of torrential change”. The song, she goes on to explain, is a reading of now,” says Waronker. “Or maybe she always has
It wasn’t necessarily always meant to be this the myth of Narcissus. “I never fully understood been. But I was amazed how she was putting all
way, of course. When she finished Titanic Rising, it, because in it people misinterpret and think the pieces together. There was more input than
Mering had other ideas for what path to follow that he’s obsessed with himself. But the truth is I’m used to. When I work with people like that, I
next. “My first impulse is always to destroy what he doesn’t recognise the reflection as himself. feel blessed, because you learn something. They
NEIL KRUG
I create. My first thought was, ‘Oh, the next He’s obsessed with otherness and the sad thing is are obviously striving for everyone to get the best
record’s going to be an experimental noise he doesn’t realise it’s him.” possible musical results. I feel the Wrecking Crew

HOW TO
R
OMANCE and hope at the end
of the world? Sounds like a
multiplex blockbuster – and
in true movie studio fashion, Mering BUY WEYES
reveals that she views And In The
Darkness, Hearts Aglow as the
second instalment in a trilogy.
BLOOD
“I didn’t envision it being that
THE OUTSIDE ROOM
With Foxygen’s MEXICAN SUMMER, 2011
Jonathan
at first!” Mering says resolutely. Natalie Mering’s first album
Rado, producer “I felt Titanic Rising was the proper (as Weyes Blud) is
of the two most sounding alarm, and then all of witchy and ancient, uneasy
recent Weyes
Blood albums the things I was singing about and atonal. She wrote,
kinda… happened. Titanic Rising played, and produced
everything on this avant-pop
really took off, and then all of a
offering of minor-key unrest,
would say the same kind of stuff about Brian sudden the world completely shut down. summoning restless ghosts
Wilson that I’m saying about Natalie.” That was a pretty steep drop into myself. I and generational isolation over six songs that
Further sessions took place at Rado’s home felt I had to say something really explicit about borrow Nico’s chilly spirit to create an album
studio in Woodland Hills, Dream Star in Los that. Because And In The Darkness, Hearts of uncommon beauty and anxious grace.
Angeles and again at East-West, with the core Aglow is – I wouldn’t say it’s necessarily gloomy, “Romneydale”, with its clanging chains and
abject sadness, points at what’s to come.
team meeting once a month to continue the songs but it’s a very emotional, introspective record.
until February 2022. Later, Mering reveals that I figured there had to be one more album THE INNOCENTS
And In The Darkness… is “a break-up album” – afterward that was hopeful. So that’s MEXICAN SUMMER, 2014
although she won’t be drawn into divulging where the trilogy idea came from.” The first hint of her
further details. “That’s the thing about a twin Mering says “hopeful”, but is it too much burgeoning activism appears
flame, sometimes when it seems that intense, it’s to ask for a Hollywood happy ending? on “The Land Of Broken
Dreams”, but most of Mering’s
actually quite destructive.” “I don’t want to be too big of a downer,”
second album is rooted in her
All the same, Mering is still alert to the says Mering, swerving a definitive answer. tales of romantic idealism
nourishing qualities of romance. She cites “I do think there needs to be a call to action. dashed, first love lost and
“Hearts Aglow”, with its doo-wop harmonies and It’s funny, everybody thought the future found, and the scars left
billowing strings, as her “secret favourite track” was going to be about Big Brother, with this big behind. Her lovely voice is more ascendent in
on the album. “It’s a real love song. I wrote it in governmental force banning books and forcing songs that skirt the edge of folk ballads, but
that doesn’t mean she’s abandoned the found
real time. Somebody took me down to Santa everybody to be some way. But there’s no need to
sounds and odd instrumentation that give the
Monica pier and it all came to me while I was on ban books, because nobody will read any more, songs their haunted edginess and beautiful grit.
the Ferris wheel. I felt we live in times where they’re so inundated with pleasure and their own
sincerity and empathy are totally on the fritz. kind of addictions. People don’t want to FRONT ROW SEAT
Most people feel these things, but just don’t know give up their comforts. They don’t want to AT EARTH
how to take all the abstract information and turn move to a commune and go off-grid and MEXICAN SUMMER, 2016
While matters of the heart still
it into action. I thought, ‘What would show that grow their own vegetables. They don’t
seem to haunt her, Mering’s
we have human souls and that we’re alive?’ That’s want protest for the rest of their lives.” third record marks the
the idea that we’re glowing from the inside out.” Of course, how all these thoughts and lightbulb moment when she
“I’ve been waiting for my life to begin”, she sings. ideas manifest on the follow-up to And In realised that saying nothing
“For someone/To light up my heart again/And in The Darkness, Hearts Aglow, only Mering about a world on the brink
the darkness I can guide you in”. For an artist who knows – and clearly she’s not telling. of a collapse was no longer
an option. Particularly on “Generation Why”,
tackles big, existential themes, the song offers a Whatever metaphorical flights and symphonic
her music takes on environmental and political
sentiment that’s otherwise in scarce supply on rhapsodies she achieves next time, though, realties in the same way Joni Mitchell did with
And In The Darkness, Hearts Aglow: hope. Natalie Mering is in an excellent place creatively “Big Yellow Taxi” 46 years before. Doomsday
at the moment. And In The Darkness, folk at its most effective.
Hearts Aglow feels like a step on
from Titanic Rising – beautiful and TITANIC RISING
SUB POP, 2019
unsettling, wholly compelling
Co-produced with Foxygen’s
and entirely her own. Jonathan Rado, Mering’s
“My dream,” she says. “Is to be fourth was inspired by the
able to afford to go off the grid. sinking of the RMS Titanic in
I’ve always wanted to hike the 1912, as a symbol of a sinking
Appalachian Trail for, like, six civilisation. She has grown
massively as a songwriter:
months. Or I’ve always wanted to go
the lyrics are less abstract,
and stay somewhere beyond the the words more meaningful, and her voice is a
water or live on a boat or…” crystalline bellwether.
Her voice trails off and a warm,
radiant smile lights up her face. AND IN THE
“I think the problem is, the DARKNESS, HEARTS
more you have to hustle to keep
AGLOW SUB POP, 2023
A conscious and considered
everything up, the more time you follow-up to Titanic Rising,
lose. For me, the biggest marker of this second entry in Mering’s
success would be that I could afford proposed trilogy is a
to take time off. Which is difficult. pulse-taking of the state
I’m always thinking, ‘No, you’re not of the world, and whether
JESS WILLIAMSON
there’s still time to reverse its

there yet. You’re not there yet.’”
collapse. The songs trace a relationship as well
as a world hoping for mercy. Co-produced by
And In The Darkness, Hearts Aglow is Rado again, it’s about finding love and meaning
released on November 18 via Sub Pop in this historical moment.

Alan Parsons
The ultimate backroom boy on his
massively successful “prog pop” career
FOR an artist who has sold in excess of 55 million
albums worldwide, Alan Parsons is not a face you’d
immediately recognise. “It’s because we never played
live, so no-one ever saw me!” he says. “Frankly, I was
pretty happy not being recognised. I saw what other
artists had to deal with, and it was madness. Poor old
Paul [McCartney] couldn’t go to restaurants or clubs. He
couldn’t even be in his own house in Sussex – he’d have
fans breaking through the fences to get a look at him!”
Parsons has always been comfortable as a backroom boy. After dropping
out of school at the age of 16 he embarked on an EMI training scheme before
working as a “balance engineer” at Abbey Road studios, where he assisted
on key recordings by The Beatles, Pink Floyd, The Hollies and Wings, and
later produced huge hits for the likes of Steve Harley, Pilot, Al Stewart and
John Miles. But it was The Alan Parsons Project, established in 1976 with the
Scottish musician Eric Woolfson, that made his name. Their works weren’t so
much concept albums, more audio musicals, themed around single subjects,
including albums based on Edgar Allan Poe, Isaac Asimov, Antoni Gaudí
and Sigmund Freud. After 11 studio albums – which next month are gathered
into a new boxset, The Complete Albums Collection – Parsons and Woolfson
split in 1990, but Parsons has continued solo, even finally taking his music
on stage. “It’s not really prog rock,” he says. “I’ve always seen it as prog pop.”
Here, he takes us through his remarkable catalogue – starting with a rite of “Endless
passage at notable addresses in Mayfair and St John’s Wood… JOHN LEWIS takes”: The
Beatles, 1969
THE BEATLES doing “Something” and “Here out by all the other Abbey Road PINK FLOYD
ABBEY ROAD Comes The Sun” on his own. I engineers, in white coats. It was THE DARK SIDE OF
APPLE RECORDS, 1969 remember John doing “Polythene really the first opportunity I THE MOON
A baptism of fire for the teenage Pam” and also coming in while I had to do some engineering HARVEST/EMI, 1973
studio engineer was doing the final mix of “I Want experimentation. I think John Clocks, money and Clare Torry:
I started You (She’s So Heavy)” and telling me Leckie was another engineer Parsons adds to the magic
working at to cut it dead rather than fade it out! on that album. The main thing I The first
Abbey Road as My line manager was Geoff remember is Roy’s constant need to sessions I
a tape operator Emerick, who was a genius. I experiment. “Can we try some kind did with Pink
in October 1968, remember how he got that fluttering of effect on this?” he’d say. On some Floyd were on
at the age of 19, effect on the synth sounds on “Here of the mixing sessions, the patch Ummagumma
and the Let It Be Comes The Sun” by threading sticky bay would look like spaghetti. Every as a tape op.
sessions were one of my first jobs. I tape around one of the pressure available tape machine would be Then I was
was sent down to the Apple Corps rollers on the tape player, so it was used for something, there would be second engineer on Atom Heart
studios in Savile Row in the absence literally juddering all the time. cables being fed all over the place. Mother. When engineer Peter Bown
of Apple’s own operational staff. I The band were clearly working It’s a fascinating album – nearly was unable to do the mix, they
don’t appear in the original Let It Be very separately by that stage. everything is being done by Roy on kindly offered me the job because
film, but I’m in shot for a total of You barely saw all four of them guitar, but it’s so densely textured. I knew the music backwards. I did
KIRSTY O’CONNOR - POOL/GETTY IMAGES; ABACA PRESS/ALAMY STOCK PHOTO
about 10 seconds in Peter Jackson’s together until the day they did the Every effect in those days was a good enough job to be hired to do
Get Back, which is a thrill! My job zebra-crossing shoot. through tape effects. There was Dark Side…. I remember everyone
was to keep the tape rolling and obviously no digital effects then. being comfortable working with
replace it when needed. The Beatles ROY HARPER Every delay and reverb had to be each other, which isn’t the case
were literally recording all the time STORMCOCK achieved through analogue means. now, of course. Each of them made
during these sessions. But it was a HARVEST, 1971 We might be using more than valuable contributions. It was clear
month later, at Abbey Road, that Cult favourite with the constantly one echo device, a chamber and an that the songs were very strong; it
was the more technically complex experimenting guitarist echo plate at the same time, and was clear that they were making
job. Unlike Let It Be, Abbey Road I remember then other delays on other tape their best album to date, no
was a proper studio album, like Sgt doing the first machines. Jimmy Page joined on question. I really felt that I made
Pepper, made with great precision. ever session on one track, but I didn’t do the session solid contributions to the record,
The band members would record the 16-track with him. I got on very well with notably the introduction of Clare
separately, usually in Studio 2, at desk with Roy Roy. He was very friendly, very Torry, who I got to sing on “The
all hours, and they always needed Harper in the gracious in sessions. We enjoyed Great Gig In The Sky”. If it hadn’t
to be covered by tape ops. There number three ourselves. It was a real recording been for me, she wouldn’t have got
were seven or eight of us in total. I studio. That was a good one. I was laboratory. There were some the call. Also the intro to “Time”,
remember Paul doing endless takes the first to get my hands on that experiments that didn’t work, but the clocks, that was my idea to
of “Oh! Darling”. I remember George 16-track. I would have been helped lots that did. bring in these recordings of antique

“I knew the music
backwards”:
Pink Floyd, 1973
clocks, all recorded one at a time rehearsals before we recorded it the time they recorded this album.
on a portable tape machine, and with the orchestra. On the chorus, The big one on this album was “The
then we transferred them all onto a “Paul was after the “Whoa-whoa-wo-wo” Air That I Breathe”, which had some
multi-track tape, made them all tick bit, Paul sang a syncopated line lovely orchestrations. That was a
and chime in sync with each other. adventurous, when they did it live, which he terrific song. This, I think, was their
Pink Floyd liked that. They were
very much into cutting up
always pushing then changed. I always told
Paul that I preferred the original!
first proper album – before then
they were very much a singles band.
bits of tape, experimenting with
different sounds. They’d often
to get better I still have the original version
on cassette.
Apart from “Air…” there are some
great tracks – Allan’s compositions
leave the studio at nine at night,
and I would spend the next hour or
sounds” Me and Paul worked extensively
around that period. I have to admit
“Don’t Let Me Down”, “Falling
Calling” and “Rubber Lucy”
so doing a rough mix, which I’d play that I was extremely upset when he are all really good songs. I
for them the next day. So there were along with Tony Clark. Wings was did the Bond theme, “Live And Let remember while we were laying
lots and lots of rough mixes. I ended an interesting environment. There Die” at another studio, Air, with down “Falling Calling”, Paul
up mixing the quadrophonic was no George Martin, it was just George Martin. Oh Paul! That’s an McCartney came into Abbey
version of the album. The clocks on Paul and Linda with Denny Laine amazing track, why didn’t you ask Road and asked the drummer
“Time” exist in all four speakers. on guitar and Denny Seiwell on me to do it? Bobby Elliott if he wanted to join
Likewise with the “Money” loop – drums. Even though he wanted Wings. Bobby politely declined,
that was designed to go around the it to be a band, it was really a THE HOLLIES as I recall…
room, all those cash register Paul thing. Linda was very much THE HOLLIES I think, by this time, I was starting
sounds. It was a wonderfully part of the sound, although I don’t POLYDOR, 1974 to go beyond the remit of the
immersive mix. recall her contributing to many of Allan Clarke rejoins as the band, engineer. Engineers were only
the melodies. Paul was quite just as they reinvent themselves for supposed to be responsible for the
PAUL McCARTNEY adventurous, always pushing the ’70s album market technical aspects, the balance,
& WINGS to get better sounds. He was always One of the first the sounds, the microphones.
RED ROSE SPEEDWAY like, “Let’s get a better guitar big singles I Otherwise, we were expected to
APPLE RECORDS, 1973 sound.” I’d scratch my head: what worked on, keep our mouths shut. But I was
Macca gets into his stride with did he mean, “Better”? So I’d be back in 1969, incapable of that! I would always
help from Parsons trying different EQs, different was “He Ain’t have some input into a production.
This was the reverbs, different echoes, and Heavy, He’s My Sometimes I might politely and
second Wings then at the end he’d say, “Oh, that Brother”. I diplomatically point out that a
album I worked sounds pretty good.” I remember think that was my first big hit as guitar was out of tune: “Guys, can
on – I’d also recording the strings on “My Love”; engineer. Not many people know we address the tuning issue?” or
been the I’d done a few orchestral recordings that Elton John played piano on “I think it would sound better if we
engineer on by that stage. Paul used to sing that! So I had known the band for a all had a tune-up.” But that, strictly
1971’s Wild Life, the chorus differently on the live while, particularly Allan Clarke, by speaking, is the producer’s job.

In the control
room of Media
Sound Studios,
New York, 1979
sampler for that. That was a game

changer, a great little toy that
opened up so many possibilities.
The rhythm section for the Project
was effectively Pilot: Dave Paton
on bass, Ian Bairnson on guitars,
Stuart Tosh on drums. Stuart was
replaced by Stuart Elliott from
Cockney Rebel after a couple of
albums, that became the regular
lineup. Eric became more important
as a keyboard player by the time Eye
In The Sky came out. I love the ballad
“Old And Wise”, which features a
great vocal from Colin Blunstone. I’d
known him for years. He’d appeared
on Pyramid, in 1978, but we used
to drink in the same pub in
Hampstead. He’d be in and out of
Abbey Road with the Zombies and
Parsons, or something along those but our philosophies were Argent and various projects.
lines, but the record company were somewhat different. Asimov thought
keen to centre it around a single that man would also be in control of ALAN PARSONS
name. Various Artists made it technology. We weren’t so sure – we FROM THE NEW WORLD
sound like a K-Tel comp. So The thought that tech had the power to FRONTIERS MUSIC SRL, 2022
Alan Parsons Project it remained. take over. I think events since then, Parsons comes full circle with a
When you listen to the particularly the development of AI, theme he remembers from childhood
album nowadays, Orson have suggested we may have been I’ve always
UNCUT Welles provides the right! We were amused by the fact enjoyed
CLASSIC narration, but he wasn’t on that, in the songs, it was confused as anonymity.
THE ALAN the original LP. The album to whether it was a human talking or It’s only since
PARSONS PROJECT was already at the pressing a robot talking. “I Wouldn’t Want To I started touring
TALES OF MYSTERY plant when we had the idea for Be Like You” – is that the human in 1995 that
AND IMAGINATION him to read the intro. It wasn’t until talking to the robot or the robot I became
CHARISMA, 1976 we remixed that album that we got talking to the human? That query moderately recognisable,
Stepping out of the shadows and to use his dialogue. It got used at the can be applied to pretty much every particularly in Germany and
teaming up with fellow multi- album launch at the Griffith Park lyric on the album. Rather than prog America. People recognise me in the
instrumentalist and songwriter Eric Observatory, a famous planetarium rock, I see it as progressive pop. street, which they never used to do!
Woolfson, their first foray was this in LA. They’d been doing a Laserium There’s a lot of disco and funk in And this LP is very much a product
Edgar Allan Poe-themed concept show with The Dark Side Of The there. We had a couple of proggy of playing live. It’s also very much
album. Plus Orson Welles! Moon, and we got them to come up things going on – odd time inspired by Anton Dvorak’s New
Eric originally managed me and with a production that would serve signatures and key changes – and World Symphony, which was a
got me paid for producing Pilot, as the launch for Tales Of Mystery there were a few instrumentals, favourite of my father’s. And it’s a
Cockney Rebel and John Miles and And Imagination. We sent Orson the which were much more my creation piece that’s always been very close
all the other bands I was working script and said, “Can we arrange a than Eric’s and we became less to my heart, especially since moving
with. But he was also a very good recording session?” Then a tape reliant on them as we went on. to the States. The final track, “Going
musician – he had worked as a arrives on one of the record exec’s Home”, is a version of that melody,
session pianist around London desks and it turned out he’d THE ALAN PARSONS and there are other tracks that tap
throughout the mid-1960s, and he’d recorded it himself. We played it and PROJECT into that spirit, like “Fare Thee Well”
written songs for dozens of acts, said, “Oh my god, this is superb.” It EYE IN THE SKY and “Give ’Em My Love”. It’s also an
including Marianne Faithfull, adds so much to the project. ARISTA, 1982 album very much inspired by the
Marmalade and The Tremeloes. The Project’s biggest-selling album live set up – there are some guest
While he was managing people like THE ALAN PARSONS – a commercial soft-rock monster slots from Joe Bonamassa, and
myself and Carl Douglas, he also PROJECT that went platinum and topped the Tommy Shaw from Styx, while the
had unfulfilled ambitions to create I ROBOT charts around the world singer on “I Won’t Be Led Astray” is
his own material. He’d talk about it ARISTA, 1977 Much of this my old friend David Pack from
while we were having lunch in the Funky concept album based around album’s success Ambrosia, who I’ve been working
Abbey Road canteen. It really wasn’t the work of sci-fi author Isaac Asimov is down to the with since about 1975. The hidden
long before he said to me, “Hey, I’ve If you say you opening track at the end is a version of “Be
got some songs based on the poems want to release instrumental, My Baby” by The Ronettes, probably
of Edgar Allan Poe, we should a concept “Sirius”, my favourite song ever. I heard that
collaborate and record our own album now, because it got around the time I picked up a guitar,
music.” He had great faith in what I everybody featured regularly in dozens of aged 14, and from that moment on
could do, which I was very flattered yawns and sports stadiums around the world. my life changed. My academic life
by. We disappeared into a demo says, “Oh no…” Most famously, it’s used as a fanfare went out of the window and I ended
studio in Islington to record early But they were big then. I thought by the Chicago Bulls, and became up dropping out of public school at
RICHARD E. AARON/REDFERNS
demos of the piece, with various conceptual records were great fun. It synonymous with Michael Jordan. 16. So that song really takes me back
musicians who eventually became also made the songwriting easier – We still get requests for its use in to the very start of my musical life!
the core team behind the band. you had a story to tell or a sequence documentaries and ads and so on.
That name, “The Alan Parsons of events to narrate. Most of our “Mammagamma” was also used The Alan Parsons Project – The
Project”, was just the working title – albums were themed around central in lots of TV themes and ads – it Complete Albums Collection is
I assumed we’d eventually be called ideas, to some extent. I Robot is became a snooker theme in the UK. released by Cooking Vinyl on
Various Artists, or Woolfson- loosely influenced by Isaac Asimov, I was really getting into the Fairlight November 18

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PEOPLE UNITE!
Emerging from their west London squat during the racially charged late ’70s,
they battled inequality and injustice through their powerful “progressive protest
music”. They went on to record one of the greatest live albums of all time, enjoy
the patronage of John Peel and Pete Townshend, and become the first British
reggae group to play in Russia – before relocating to a farm in Zimbabwe. All
while they endured trauma and tragedy whose scars can still be felt to this day.
This, then, is the remarkable story of MISTY IN ROOTS. “The music is our legacy,”
they tell Dave Simpson. “It will outlast all of us.”
Photo by ERICA ECHENBERG

MISTY IN ROOTS
“We achieved
a lot in a very
short time”:
Poko fronts
Misty In Roots,
London, 1976
T is Friday afternoon in Southall, west the place where a community came together to was unsuccessful, so 2,750 police officers had
I
London. Cars pass along the high street defend itself. been deployed to protect the far-right party’s
while the shops bustle with customers “There were police horses everywhere,” Poko right to assembly, in the face of around 3,000
preparing for the coming weekend. It is a recalls, with palpable emotion in his voice. community and Anti-Nazi League protestors. In
typical suburban scene in early August, “Special Patrol Group in riot gear. There was no the ensuing clashes, 345 people were arrested
in other words. But it wasn’t always this way to get out, so everyone came inside… the and charged. Thirty-three-year-old special
way. Watching all this is Poko, singer organisations, the politicians, Indians, local needs teacher Blair Peach was struck on the
with Misty In Roots, who remembers lawyers, everybody. Then police let all the head and later died in hospital. Misty In Roots
exactly how Southall looked 33 years ago. politicians out, then all the white people, then manager Clarence Baker was truncheoned,
“This was one end of a no-go area set up the Indians. Then they went inside and beat up suffered a fractured skull, spent five months in
by the police,” he says, brow furrowing as all the black people. It was a free-for-all. They a coma and was lucky to survive. Co-manager
he gestures towards the traffic. “No-one could smashed up all our equipment, destroyed all our Chris Bolton – a white man – was also beaten.
come down this road at all.” records and beat everybody up.” As the Daily Telegraph later reported, “Nearly
ERICA ECHENBERG/REDFERNS
Fatefully, Misty In Roots lived just outside the The events at 6 Park View Road were the every demonstrator had blood flowing from
police cordon, in a squat at 6 Park View Road. culmination of a long day of violence. Earlier, some sort of injury.”
The house was also the base for their community the National Front had held a demonstration in Evidently, the events in Southall had a huge
organisation and record label as well as the centre of Southall, one of the most racially impact on Misty In Roots. As well as the injuries
providing a rehearsal space for around 40 local diverse areas in London. A petition to stop the sustained by their managers, organist player
musicians. On April 23, 1979, however, it became meeting had received 10,000 signatures, but Vernon Hunt – a mild-mannered Guyanan

View Road (although today a plaque
on the pavement honours the
location). “But we rallied,” insists
Poko. “Because we had to.”
These traumas interrupted an
otherwise brief but potent ascent,
Blair Peach’s
with Misty In Roots’ influence partner Celia
expending far beyond the borders of Stubbs,
October 1979
Southall. Via a handful of records
issued on their own People Unite
collective earlier in 1979, they
recorded one of the great concert
albums of all time – Live At The Counter
Eurovision 79 – become John Peel
favourites and kickstarted the career of a
who Poko insists “wouldn’t hurt a fly” – was key band from punk’s second wave – The
jailed for six months. He was so broken by his Ruts, whose “Jah War” single grimly
experiences he never rejoined the band. Other documented the events of April 23. Misty
members spent two years fighting what Poko In Roots were also a key part of what Bob
insists were trumped up charges. “It destroyed Marley called the UK’s “punky reggae
the group,” he sighs. Their home was gone, too. party”, opening up music, fashion and
After the protests, the council demolished 6 Park racial understanding and helping to
turn public opinion against the far right.

“They were very special people who helped
enormously in their community and gave dignity
and hope and real musical guidance to the
young people who listened to their music,” Pete
Townshend, a long-standing champion of the
band, tells Uncut.
“We achieved a lot in a very short time,” Poko
acknowledges. “But I wonder what else we might
have done if the police had left us alone.”
VER a beer at the Terrace bar on Southall
O High Street – which the singer still refers to

by its previous name, the Red Lion – Poko
reflects on a turbulent trajectory since he
left St Kitts aged just nine years old. He arrived
in the UK using his given name Walford Tyson,
via a flight to St Lucia and boat to Southampton,
settling in London with his mother and father and
brother, Delvin – aka Duxie – as part of the first
generation of immigrants from the Caribbean.
“I’d never seen fog before,” he says, emitting the
first of several mischievous chuckles that pepper
his conversation. “When I breathed out, I could
see my breath.”
Although he felt accepted in primary school, by
secondary school he’d “started to find out what
kind of environment we were in”. Poko and Duxie
started the band with Grenadian guitarist Dennis
Augustin [“Chop Chop”] and other teenage friends
as Misty in 1974, after watching musicians of their
father’s generation playing calypso, reggae and
HULTON-DEUTSCH COLLECTION/CORBIS/CORBIS VIA GETTY IMAGES
R&B. Poko began singing over the dub versions

found on reggae B-sides. They’d just left school
when “For The Love Of The Common People”
DAVID CORIO/REDFERNS; PA IMAGES VIA GETTY IMAGES;
singer Nicky Thomas spotted them playing in a

small club and took them around the country as
his backing band. “That was a great experience,”
smiles Poko. “He taught us a lot of different styles.
When we came off that tour we were really good.”
The band started recording – cutting dub versions
for sound systems – and the lineup expanded to a
dozen members. Among their number, they were
joined by bassist Tony “Tzungi” French – who is
Misty In Roots at a still in the band today, along with Poko – and
Rock Against Racism
show, Victoria Park, organist Vernon Hunt, whose sublime playing
London, April 30, 1978 gave the otherwise roots reggae band a light,

MISTY IN ROOTS
corporation, Island Records or whoever.
We decided to do something for ourselves.”
This attitude, notes David Hinds, made
Misty different. “With Steel Pulse, we were
trying to be TV-friendly, get on the radio, into
magazines and stuff. But Misty didn’t give a
rat’s ass. They were an anti-establishment,
self-empowered organisation.”
One punk band who came into their orbit were
The Ruts. Singer Malcolm Owen squatted in
nearby Hayes and was introduced to Poko by
Misty co-manager Chris Bolton. A bond quickly
formed between the two bands, forged out of
common interests and shared foes: “We realised
we were all fighting the same battles,” confirms
A demonstration
against the National Ruts bassist John “Segs” Jennings. “The Ruts
Front, Southall, used to pile in the back of a Transit with Misty
spring 1979
and head off around the country. When we
started, they’d be at the opposite end of the
dressing room, playing dominoes. But gradually
melodic flair. “He was trained,” Poko explains. ISTY were not alone among the second-
M
we mingled. In the end, we’d all be sitting in the
“We called him Zapata [after the Mexican wave British reggae scene to discover that middle – punk girls in bin liners and all sorts –
revolutionary] because Vernon was revolutionary.” their objectives chimed with those of with a newspaper full of weed and one of Misty
British reggae had already become established punk. Misty got an reading from the Bible. I still
by now. Pioneers included The Cimarons, who early boost when John get former skinheads or
had formed in 1967, followed by The Undivided in
1969 and Dennis Bovell’s Matumbi in 1971. But
the next wave of bands had a different energy:
Lydon declared them “the
reggae band it was good for
punks to like”. Poko reveals
BUYERS’ GUIDE
Your path through
whatever coming up saying,
‘Those gigs changed my
life.’ It was really powerful,
often harder, less Jamaican-sounding and with that Misty also attended because it wasn’t just black
lyrics reflecting the British black experience. Clash rehearsals. “We’d the incredibly rare and white. There were
“We liked those older groups,” says Steel Pulse’s see Joe [Strummer], Paul discography of Indians and Pakistanis. It
David Hinds. “But they sounded dated. We said, [Simonon] and that,” he Misty In Roots was so multicultural; it
‘We can do this, but in our different style.’ Soon explains. “They played LIVE AT THE really felt like humanity
enough, reggae bands were springing in almost reggae their own way and COUNTER was changing for the better
every city where there was a black community.” became very good at it.” EUROVISION 79 and we thought it would
These included Aswad, Tribesman and Black The punk DIY ethic (PEOPLE UNITE, 1979) be forever.”
inspired them to set up the The legendary (live) The Au Pairs singer/
debut: mellifluous roots reggae at
community organisation guitarist Lesley Wood –
its finest. Currently out of print and
People’s Unite and its record highly collectable, especially on CD. who played Rock Against
“THEY HELPED label, People Unite. They

occupied 6 Park View Road
– part of a row of “six or
WISE AND
FOOLISH
Racism gigs alongside Misty
– notes the importance of
“bringing reggae/ska into
ENORMOUSLY IN THEIR seven” properties – which

Poko remembers as a “great
(PEOPLE UNITE,
An enforced lineup
change brings a
1981) the punk arena as a counter
to the racism that also
COMMUNITY” house. Three storeys high. It

was a beautiful Georgian
building that had been
mellower, horns-led roots reggae
sound to anthems such as “Bail Out”.
Another rarity.
existed amongst the youth
of the time and in society
generally. Punk was about
PETE TOWNSHEND somebody’s home before it
had been left empty. We just FORWARD
(KAZ, 1989)
rebellion and it was vital to
make racism part of what
took over it and started we were rebelling against.”
In come electronic
squatting, which you could drums and a lighter, With their name now
Slate (London), Capital Letters (Wolverhampton) do back then. A lot of similar more soulful lovers’ expanded to Misty In Roots,
and Black Roots (Bristol). When Hinds first groups and organisations rock feel. “The Midas Touch” Poko observes that their
encountered Misty, playing live, he was blown were going into such and “Jah See Jah Know” are audiences were changing.
away. “There were 12 or 13 of them on stage, all houses. We started working particularly sublime. While in London, they
bouncing together,” he remembers. “They looked with young people in the mainly played to black
THE JOHN PEEL
like the Masai. They played from the heart.” area, cooking food in the SESSIONS crowds, but “when we’d go
With Hunt’s mellifluous playing to the fore, the house. The council knew we (STRANGE FRUIT/ around the country with
early Misty were a mix of sublime melodies and were there but turned a BBC, 1995) The Ruts, we’d be playing
lyrical protest, fire and brimstone, inspired by the blind eye. At least, they Assembles 13 tracks to more white people than
Bible and British Rastafarianism – which had didn’t kick us out!” from the nine sessions Misty In Roots black people. Years later,
recorded for Peel’s Radio 1 show
spread through the younger black community They used the basement Jerry Dammers he told
between 1979 and 1986.
after the popularity of Bob Marley and Burning for rehearsals, installed a me that he’d seen us in
EVENING STANDARD/GETTY IMAGES
Spear’s 1975 album, Marcus Garvey. “But also, printing press and even ROOTS Coventry and that it had
you couldn’t avoid the charts or Top Of The Pops,” turned part of the house CONTROLLER a big effect on him.”
says Poko. “We’d grown up with that. So we into a crèche. “The punks (REAL WORLD, 2002) Certainly, like People
played roots reggae, but at the same time catchy were doing it,” Poko After a decade-long Unite, Dammers’ 2-Tone
sabbatical, MIR
songs, with conscious lyrics. The lyrics were explains. “Self-help, label further promoted
recorded new tracks and revisited
a group effort. Together we decided on the people helping themselves. a couple from Counter Eurovision for racial unity and musical
message. Everywhere felt run-down. It was Then we decided that we this fine career overview. Available cross-pollination.
progressive protest music.” weren’t going to join any and affordable! Meanwhile, the bond
An “anti-
establishment,
self-empowered
organisation”:
Misty in Roots live
in the late-’70s
between Misty and The Ruts deepened when stealing a pint of milk – both Misty In Roots and listeners to the John Peel show began hearing
People Unite released “In A Rut” in January 1979. The Ruts decided that they wanted to move away the striking monologue that opens Live At The
“For a black reggae label to put a white punk band from playing under banners and focus more on Counter Eurovision 79: “When we trod this land
out for one of its first music. For Misty In Roots, we walked for one reason. The reason is to try and
releases is such a meanwhile, an unexpected help another man think for himself. The music of
statement,” says invitation to play at the Cirque our art is roots music. Music which recalls ’istory,
Segs. “I’m so proud Royal in Brussels presented a because without the knowledge of your ’istory
that they did it.” new opportunity. you cannot determine your destiny. The music
Championed by about the present, because if you’re not conscious
John Peel, “In A S Poko tells it, it was never about the present you’re like a cabbage in this
Rut” sold 52,000
copies. Meanwhile,
with race relations
in Britain in crisis,
on April 30, 1978,
A the band’s intention to
make a live album. He
chuckles: “Nothing we ever
did was planned.” Put together by
a loose grassroots collective,
society. Music which tells about the future and the
judgment to come. The music of our art is roots.
Presenting… Misty In Roots!” This was the voice
of dub poet William Simon, aka MC Smokes. “The
monologue developed over time,” explains Poko.
100,000 people headed by a non-profit making “Then he introduced us like that every night.”
marched from organisation called CAFIT Forty-three years on, Live At The Counter
Trafalgar Square (Collectif d’Animation pour la Eurovision 79’s inimitable mix of roots rhythms,
to Victoria Park for Formation et l’Information des melodic bass, gospel-tinged keyboards, euphoric
a Rock Against Travailleurs), the Counter horns and mellow, spiritual, uplifting vibes
Racism concert Eurovision at the Cirque Royal continue to resonate. A song like “Ghetto Of The
headlined by The took place in opposition to City” (“Come here to look for prosperity/What you
Clash. Misty In the Eurovision Song Contest, found was hatred and oppression”) still acutely
Roots led the held that year in Israel. reflects the experience of many who’ve come to
parade from the back of a “They had artists from the UK seeking a better life. While the question
lorry. The following year, in all over Europe, just like asked by “How Long Jah” – “How long, Jah Jah,
the lead up to the general Eurovision,” Poko explains, must we suffer?” – and the song’s hope for an end
election, both Misty In Roots cackling at the irony. “We to racial and social injustice are as relevant now
and The Ruts took part in Rock were representing Inglan’!” as when the album was recorded.
Against Racism’s Militant Playing abroad for the first Peel gave substantial airtime to tracks from
ERICA ECHENBERG/REDFERNS
Entertainment tour, featuring time, Misty In Roots went Live At The Counter Eurovision 79 during 1980
40 bands at 23 concerts. While on stage very late – but and into the following year. “The record took off
the fight continued – one Poko knew the gig was – topping the alternative chart for weeks – after
member of the band was great. “Fortunately, it was John Peel played it,” Poko smiles. “He helped
arrested while walking home, recorded, and we took us a lot.” Misty In Roots also recorded nine
after the local milkman the tape.” sessions for Peel. Later, MC Smokes’ vocal
wrongly accused him of From spring 1980, intro formed part of Peel’s funeral address

in 2001 (it was also sampled by The Orb). “THEY WERE
As well as Peel, Pete Townshend was
another champion of the band. He let
Misty In Roots use his studio, but PEACE-LOVING,
critically, he also headlined the first
of two Rock Against Racism concerts
at the Rainbow in London – under
the banner The Southall Kids
GENTLE PEOPLE”
Pete Townshend on his friendship
Are Innocent – to raise funds for with Misty In Roots
those arrested during the April 23
demonstration. “He was good, man,” “IN the spring of 1979, I was
working through my charity,
smiles Poko. “Fantastic. The Clash Double O, to help community
played too. We were very grateful.” give it up after things started getting out of studios in deprived areas. Brent
control while we were away touring,” Poko Black Music was one of them
FTER the events in Southall, Misty In explains. “The people looking after it for us and I think Misty In Roots may
A Roots embarked on a slow process of

recalibration and relocation. A 1981
album, Wise And Foolish – their first
studio long-player – brought back into focus
their gifts for melody and message while horns
wanted to move on, but it was the greatest time.”
One of the band’s most prescient releases is
1983’s album Earth – which warned of dire
consequences for the planet if humanity didn’t
change its ways. But while Misty In Roots
have worked there. But the
main connection was through
The Ruts. They were friends
with Misty In Roots and shared
some of their music. The Ruts had supported The
Who on a UK tour, and we hung out a bit.
added an extra dimension to their sound. A continued to flourish creatively, further “Around the same time, Blair Peach had been
short while after its release, Misty In Roots tragedy lay ahead. In 1992, Poko’s brother battered by the police in Southall after attending an
were invited to Zimbabwe, to perform at the Duxie drowned while swimming after a show anti-racism march and died. Southall was close to
where I grew up, and where I had many friends and
country’s independence celebrations. They in Ghana. Today, the singer looks visibly upset knew some Indian families. I couldn’t get my head
became the first reggae band to tour there as while talking about it. “I can’t explain that one,” around why the police were being so outwardly
well as Zambia, Poland and South Africa; they he sighs, quietly. “Duxie was found and buried. racist, even though the marches of the time were
were also the first British reggae group to play It was tragic. It affected Chop Chop particularly very vocal and potentially violent. I had some friends
in Russia. because he was swimming with him at the time, who were coppers and they told me they felt
“Russia was funny, man,” Poko grins. “We but we were all affected. It was a big, big blow.” threatened as well. It seemed a bizarre conflict.
“I allowed Misty some free studio time at my
weren’t the only reggae band there because Astonishingly, Poko insists the tragedy never Oceanic Studio and was amazed to see that even
[Jamaican singer] Bob Andy was there with seriously made them think of stopping. “Not when they were recording serious sessions they
the Inner Vision band, some blind musicians really, you know. The band and the music is a allowed four ‘apprentice’ guitar players to play along
from Jamaica. The Russians loved it. They vocation, man. It’s what we do.” with the band, and then afterwards allow each of
couldn’t understand the stories [in the lyrics] of The subsequent career of Misty In Roots them to hear what they contributed when their
course because they don’t speak English, but found them pursuing their righteous agenda. tracks were redubbed with echo repeat sends. It
was magical. Misty In Roots were like an academy!
they could relate to the music because we… A song like 2002’s “Cover Up” addressed the “Their manager, Clarence Baker, was a very
we dance!” 1993 murder of Stephen Lawrence: “black male spiritual, calm, kind and almost guru-like man, but he
Seeking to further distance themselves from cut down in south London… black man feels no was also beaten by police. Everyone in the business
the events of 1979, they finally relocated to justice, and it’s a cover-up”. was shocked. This was how I got involved so deeply in
Zimbabwe, living communally on a farm. Today, most of the Counter Eurovision lineup the Rock Against Racism shows.
“We were thinking, ‘We’re Africans’, so our are gone – most recently Delbert McKay, aka “The music… now this rose above the troubles, the
violence and the sadness around Clarence’s injuries.
cry was ‘Back to Africa’,” Poko grins. “Going “Ngoni”, vocalist, who passed away on October Like Toots And The Maytals, there is great music with
ADAM GASSON/REDFERN; ANL/SHUTTERSTOCK;

there was a culture shock, but it was an 1, 2021, aged 67. The band haven’t released any a genuine spiritual context. Many of Misty In Roots
amazing time.” They even set up a new People new music since Roots Controller in 2002. But were of course Rasta men. So that meant ganja was
Unite organisation, with local youths. “We Poko sees their studio work as done. Instead, a part of their culture. But they were peace-loving,
spent five or six years there before having to Misty In Roots continue to tour, recently gentle people. Their music was and still is wonderful
DAVE J HOGAN/GETTY IMAGES

making a triumphant return to the UK and I still listen to it often, usually on vinyl.
“I felt honoured to be a part of Misty In Roots’
stage at R-Fest in August. journey, but devastated at what happened to
While the band continue to spread their Clarence. I found it very hard to continue to try to
message on stage, their original struggles work with local police I knew to accept their use of
and achievements haven’t been forgotten the awful ’suss’ laws some twat of a politician had
elsewhere. In 2019, Southall council erected introduced. It caused fear and unfairness on both
three plaques on the side of the Town Hall. sides and that always leads to trouble.”
One honours Gurdip Singh Chaggar, an
18-year-old student killed in a racist
attack on June 4, 1976. One honours Blair
Peach. The third honours Misty In Roots
and the People Unite Musicians
Collective. The commendation reads
“Unity against racism”.
“That’s our legacy,” smiles Poko,
finishing his beer and preparing to
head back off down the high street,
past the old fault lines. The scars will
never entirely fade, but Poko is resolute.
“And the music, of course. The music will
outlast all of us.”
Beaten by the
Continuing the Misty In Roots play a Rock Against police: Misty
cause: Poko on manager
stage in Bristol, Racism gig at Chalk, Brighton on Clarence
February 2016 October 8 and will tour in 2023 Baker, 1980
ONTHE
ROADWITH
BOBDYLAN
“PLAY
IT
LOUD!” As BOB DYLAN live fever reaches its peak, Uncut travels to Stockholm
to experience the Rough And Rowdy Ways Tour up close. First, though,
Uncut’s writers – and some close associates – relive their own legendary
encounters with Bob from his past seven decades of challenging, constantly
evolving live music. Take your seat alongside us at Sheffield City Hall in
1965, Madison Square Garden in 1974, the Spokane Opera House in 1980
and beyond, down 50 transformative years, in our definitive,
eye-witness report on Dylan in concert.
LYNN GOLDSMITH/CORBIS/VCG VIA GETTY IMAGES
PLUS! Dylan’s former bandmates tell wild tales of near-riots,

massed singalongs and on-stage epiphanies, revealing a man of
contradictions, a man of many moods. “Yeah. He’s complicated…”
Photo by LYNN GOLDSMITH

”
Live at the Brendan Byrne
Arena, East Rutherford,
NJ, October 27, 1981

THE 1960s
“NEW POSSIBILITIES”
• Sheffield City Hall – April
At the Royal
30, 1965 Albert Hall,
London
during his
RICHARD WILLIAMS European
catches Dylan in his Tour, May 9,
1965
first incarnation
A
HANDFUL of folk-club
appearances during a stay in
London in December 1962 to
record the BBC TV play Madhouse
On Castle Street and a sold-out
concert at the Royal Festival Hall in
May 1964 were Bob Dylan’s only
British appearances before he
stepped on stage at Sheffield’s City
Hall on the evening of April 30, 1965,
opening a seven-date UK concert
tour. None of us present that night
knew was that this was our last
chance to see a full-length
exposition of Dylan in his first
incarnation: the solo troubadour
on stage with nothing more than
an acoustic guitar and a bunch
of harmonicas.
There was no support act. With
no preliminaries, he launched
straight into “The Times They Are
A-Changin’”, probably his most
famous song just then, since it had
been released as a single in the UK
in advance of the tour, making the
Top 10. He sang it straight, neither
leaning in to the song nor drawing
back, playing it just a touch too fast,
as if to get it out of the way. It was a
first tiny indication that Dylan
might be capable of ambivalent
feelings towards his own work,
or at least towards the way it was
absorbed and used by his audience.
A lot had changed since he chose to
open another concert with the song
in November 1963, two or three
nights after JFK was killed and just a
week after he’d recorded it in New
York. Now you could tell he felt that
the song had left his ownership; behaviour was that of the concert Blue”, all new-minted. To hear these Bloomfield and Al Kooper. And in
he was no longer responsible for it, hall or the folk club, attentive epic songs for the first time, sung May 1966 he would return to Britain
nor would he allow himself to be and respectful. with such commitment and control, with The Hawks, shredding the last
defined by the simple slogan that “To Ramona” was warmer. Now he was to be given a vision of new of the old restraints.
had spoken to and for so many. was inhabiting the song rather than feelings, new possibilities. They
As it ended, the applause was just singing it. But with his third were like starbursts against the
ardent. In his documentary Dont song came the first revelation. backdrop of the already familiar
Look Back, DA Pennebaker captured Bringing It All Back Home would not songs: “Don’t Think Twice…”, “…
DAILY MIRROR/MIRRORPIX VIA GETTY IMAGES
how it faded to silence as Dylan be released in the UK until the Hattie Carroll”, “With God On Our
stepped back, slid a capo on to the following month, so the deep, dark, Side” and others.
second fret and took his time extended complexity of “Gates Of If our minds were reeling as we left
choosing a harmonica from the Eden” came as a shock, redoubled a the hall, his was already elsewhere.
selection on a bar stool next to his few minutes later by “It’s Alright A month after returning home he
microphone stand. Although there Ma…”, its rapid-fire lyric precisely was in a New York studio, recording
were plenty of school-age fans enunciated, its harmonica stabs 20 takes of “Like A Rolling Stone”.
present to see a performer who shooting through the hall. Then In July he was scandalising the
was now a pop star, albeit a new “Love Minus Zero”, “Mr Tambourine Newport Folk Festival with a
variant of the genre, the audience’s Man” and “It’s Over Now, Baby raucous band including Mike

DYLAN LIVE
Electrifying:
Dylan live in
1965
“IT’S GONNA BE A LITTLE MILLION

NUTS OUT THERE” MILES
Bobstats!
• Forest Hills Stadium,
S
Forest Hills was a tennis stadium going, “Keep goin’. Straight ahead.” INCE he first started
Queens, New York – and there was no-one on the grass, Robbie and I look at each other and performing in New York
August 28, 1965 because, in those days, they weren’t we go, “Well… Yeah! Let’s follow the City in 1961, Bob Dylan
has played around 4,000 shows
going to put any chairs on the tennis man.” So we just kept playing.
in 55 countries.
HARVEY BROOKS, bassist court, right? The audience were way It was a unique experience. I’d
on Highway 61 Revisited, back, in the seats around the court. never seen that happen, never even O Since 1988 alone – when Dylan
launched the Never Ending Tour
recalls one of Dylan’s most So there were no people we could thought about anything like that – he’s played over 3,090 shows
infamous concerts see. But we could hear the crowd. happening at a gig. The people were with 26 different band lineups, and
WOLFGANG KUHN/UNITED ARCHIVES VIA GETTY IMAGES; GETTY IMAGES

You could hear this… rumbling. just kind of like mindless lemmings. clocked up over 1,000,000 miles
WE rehearsed for When Bob went out and did his solo It made no sense. But I’d say that, in on the road.
Forest Hills for a acoustic set, it was appreciative, spite of themselves, we ultimately O The most gigs Dylan has played
couple of weeks, at quiet. But you could still feel it: they won the audience over that night. in a single year is 117 in 1999.
Carroll’s Rehearsal were anticipating getting angry. As soon as we played the last O His longest show took place
Hall. That’s when I They were holding it back. They chord, Dylan was gone. He was off on January 12, 1990, when he
found out Robbie were saving it for us. When we and out of there and we took off played for four hours at Toad’s
Robertson and Levon Helm were finally did come out, there was after him. We all went over to his Place, a 1,000-capacity club in
going to play along with Al Kooper loud, screaming boos and cursing. manager Albert Grossman’s place in Connecticut.
and me in the band. It was just after We heard some strange sounds, Manhattan and talked about the O Dylan’s website calculates he’s
Dylan had played Newport, but and a lot of hostility. I mean, gig. “You think they liked it?” sung 727 different songs live. “All
there hadn’t been much talk about people get impassioned about “Yeah. It was a little wild, but… they Along The Watchtower” is the
most performed, at 2,268 outings,
any possible craziness – except for stuff like that. liked it.” Everybody was happy. It with “Like A Rolling Stone” second
the day of the show, when we got When folk started to rush the was a great gig in our minds. Aside at 2,075.
there in the afternoon for the stage, that put it up at the next level. from some of the surreal absurdity
O Several dozen songs have been
soundcheck, and it really became a My first real awareness of that was, of it, the set went off great. performed once or twice
topic. Dylan just said, “Y’know, it’s little shadowy figures crossing the But the difference between only, including covers
gonna be a little nuts out there. So field. Then a guy came running on Forest Hills and the next show at of Van Morrison’s
be ready.” And he was right. from the side of the stage. I turned Hollywood Bowl, about a week “Moondance”
It was a cold and windy August and I saw Kooper go down. I mean, later, was staggering. At Hollywood (once in 1991),
night. It was eerie, actually, because he’s gone. They’d pulled his stool The Clash’s
Bowl, the people were perceptive.
“London Calling”
it’s not often like that at that time of out from underneath him. They They got it: this guy’s evolving. (twice, 2005),
year. So we had that happening: were trying to do the same thing to The day after Hollywood Bowl, I The White Stripes’
wind, coldness, dark, and the lights Levon, drag him off his drum stool. had to leave to play another gig. “Ball And Biscuit”
blinded you, so you couldn’t see These big security guards tried to That’s when The Hawks came (once, 2004), and
much of the audience at all. It was tackle people on the stage. I mean, in and became The Band. And Richard Thompson’s
funny, because we just saw a big “1952 Vincent Black
we’re still playing. I looked over at the rest is history.
Lightning” (once, 2013).
empty green lawn in front of us – Dylan and Robbie and Dylan’s INTERVIEW: DAMIEN LOVE
DAMIEN LOVE

THE 1970s The Band plays on:
Madison Square
Garden, January
30, 1974: (l-r) Rick
Danko, Levon Helm,
Robbie Robertson
and Bob Dylan
“HE STARED ME IN THE EYE ”

• Madison Square Garden York to play three sold-out concerts neck. Re-appearing to another hullabaloo around the tour with The
– January 31, 1974 at the Garden. This was also one of standing ovation, he went Band, Dylan had apparently soured
the first big super-arena tours – straight into “The Times They Are on its big ‘corporate’ nature, which
• Springfield Civic Center – tickets were only available by mail A-Changin’”, then four more before, prompted him to create this more
November 6, 1975 order and caused a frenzy – that set finally, “It’s All Right Ma (I’m Only hands-on, small-scale, raggedy-
the pace for the private-jets-and- Bleeding)” which – in the light of taggedy caravan.
CHRIS CHARLESWORTH extended-entourage undertakings Richard Nixon’s downfall – was This was the fifth stop of the tour,
witnessestwo legendary that followed during the decade. unusually apposite. At every concert its dates advertised locally, 24 hours
outings from Bob, less “Lay Lady Lay” was stripped of its the line “even the President of the in advance. Everyone got a go,
than a year apart country origins, replaced with a United States sometimes must have among them Joan Baez, Roger
jerky, R&B tempo, Bob stretching to stand naked” brought an ovation. McGuinn, Ronee Blakley, Mick
n all the hundreds of rock out those sensuous syllables. His The Garden was no exception. Dylan Ronson, Ramblin’ Jack Elliott and
I concerts I attended during eight

years on Melody Maker, I only
once sat front row centre, for Bob
voice was perfect. A standing
ovation greeted “Rainy Day Woman
#12 And 35”, the crowd yelling the
grinned ruefully.
After four more from The Band,
Dylan offered up his newly minted
Arlo Guthrie, all of whom played
at least one song of their own
alongside the band that
Dylan & The Band at Madison choruses; everybody stoned. “It blessing, “Forever Young”. Then it accompanied Dylan.
Square Garden on January 31, 1974. Ain’t Me Babe” was also arranged was “Highway 61”, at a furious pace. Bob was magnificent too, in a
Section A, row 1, seat 8, right slap contrarily. For “Ballad Of A Thin After “Like A Rolling Stone” he came wide-brimmed hat and white face
bang below Bob and when he Man” he played piano, then quit as back for “Maggie’s Farm”, closely paint, performing not for profit or
looked down, as was his habit, The Band played four numbers. followed by “Blowin’ In The Wind”, even to promote a new record,
he stared me in the eye, and I Robbie’s guitar runs were joyful, another whopping singalong. simply because he wanted to.
stared back. perfectly executed time and again. Fifteen minutes later we were still Some of the songs would later
He looked like he meant business, Dylan played the Fender again for there, calling for more. Changed into appear on Desire, not yet released,
too. Dressed sharp, black-suited, “All Along The Watchtower”. “The a hockey top, he returned to thank and “Sara”, his homage to his wife,
waistcoat, check shirt and brown Ballad Of Hollis Brown” was easy us again. “See you next year,” he was spellbinding. The shows ended
boots, he strapped on a sunburst on the volume so the lyrics were said, one hand waving free. with the ensemble gathered round
Strat for “You Go Your Way And I’ll audible. The first half closed with several mics for “This Land Is Your
Go Mine”, the tour’s regular opener. “Knocking On Heaven’s Door’”. E was as good as his word. Land”, Woody Guthrie’s alternative
Robbie Robertson stood to his right,
next to Rick Danko on bass and
Richard Manuel at the piano. Garth
“Back in 10 minutes,” he said, the
first words he’d spoken.
The second half’s opening salvo
H But this time Dylan was
leading his Rolling Thunder
Revue, playing halls of modest size,
American National Anthem, a fitting
finale to an evening of music in
which Bob Dylan explored his roots,
MICHAEL OCHS ARCHIVES/GETTY IMAGES
Hudson was alongside Levon Helm, was the highlight; Dylan alone with accompanied by up to 15 musicians mused on his past and offered a
whose kit was like Charlie Watts’: a Martin, harmonica around his in various combinations. After the glimpse into his future. In hindsight,
compact, functional. Rolling Thunder was a foretaste of
As Dylan arrived on stage, he the impulsiveness that saw Dylan
was greeted by a huge ovation, eternally confuse and confound –
which he coolly ignored. This was with a world tour in 1978, a Gospel
his first tour in eight years – a Tour to end the decade and heaps
major deal that took in 21 cities of impish unpredictability in the
across America, returning to New decades to come.

I’LL REMEMBER YOU
Four of the most famous faces
With Joan Baez,
December 8, Dylan has played for
1975, New York
MARTIN LUTHER KING JR
August 28, 1963
Dylan performed at the Lincoln
Memorial in Washington DC
when Dr King led the March On
Washington, the high-water mark of the
1960s civil rights struggle. “I was up close
when King was giving the ‘I Have A Dream’
speech,” Dylan recalled in No Direction Home.
“It still affects me in a profound way.”
FRANK SINATRA
November 19, 1995
Most performers at Sinatra’s 80th
birthday concert sang songs
associated with Sinatra. Dylan
played his own “Restless Farewell” at Frank’s
request – only the second time he’d ever
performed the song live.
POPE JOHN PAUL II
September 27, 1997
Dylan played for His Holiness at
the World Eucharistic Conference
in Bologna. In his sermon, the
Pontiff quoted “Blowin’ In The Wind”.
PRESIDENT BARACK
OBAMA February 10, 2010
After performing “The Times
They Are-A Changin’” at the
Whitehouse’s Celebration Of
Music From The Civil Rights Movement, Dylan
stepped to the front row and shook President
Obama’s hand. “And that was it – then he
left,” Obama later recalled. “That’s how you
want Bob Dylan, right?” DAMIEN LOVE
“IT WAS LIKE HERDING CATS”

ROB STONER reveals his if you listen, they don’t have to the later gigs, and you’ll hear a said: “You basically want to do
secrets from the Rolling endings, they don’t have intros, distinct improvement. a greatest hits.” While we were
Thunder Revue and 1978 there’s sloppy transitions from verse rehearsing, we got a telegram from
World Tour to chorus, no hooks, no dynamics, HEN I went out with Bob the Japanese promoter, who’d heard
THE hardest thing

about being
everybody’s playing at the same
time. It was just a nightmare –
musically, I mean, from the point of
W in 1978, it was a radically
different thing. That
came from Jerry Weintraub, who
that, during Rolling Thunder, Bob
hadn’t been doing “Blowin’ In The
Wind” or “Like A Rolling Stone,” his
bandleader on view of someone who’s nominally managed the tour. He also produced biggest hits. The promoter said,
Rolling Thunder music director. That surprised concerts for John Denver, Elvis, “Look. We expect those tunes.”
was that it was so… me, because there were so many Sinatra, Neil Diamond – you get my For that reason, this is where we
administrative. It people there who knew about drift. Really commercial acts, who started to make Bob Dylan songs
was nominally a musical job, but arranging: Mick Ronson, T Bone make a lot of money, efficiently. sound unrecognisable from
you know that metaphor, “herding Burnett, David Mansfield. All these Bob didn’t make money on Rolling previous incarnations. Bob and
cats”? It was like herding cats, man. great players. But the Thunder. He lost I would sit around and see how
This was a rambling, freewheeling thing was: no-one money. So he asked radically we could change them, yet
bunch, and they liked to party. wanted to be the himself, who are the still have them technically be the
Everybody had a professional spoilsport, the biggest acts in the tunes. That was the beginning of the
attitude. But they were also having disciplinarian. It’s an world? And who runs thing he’s been doing ever since live,
too much fun. It was hard to get unpopular role. But their show? totally reinventing tunes – partly to
them to rehearse, polish up. Every somebody’s gotta be Weintraub said, keep himself interested. He’s not
night, everybody’s out partying bandleader. Sad but “You gotta have a like some group who just goes out
after the show, you know what I’m true. So I’d be up slick act. None of this and recreates it, like an oldies act.
doing? I’m in my room, listening to there playing bass blue jeans crap…” So That period is unfairly
the night’s tape, making notes about and conducting at we all got measured condemned. People said we were
what we’ve got to tighten. the same time, for matching outfits, trying to copy Springsteen, because
I’d call rehearsals – often to no waving, trying to get and suddenly Bob’s we had a tenor sax player. Sorry,
ICON AND IMAGE/GETTY IMAGES
avail. This one would be out someone’s attention out there with an act what the fuck? That sax player is
horseback riding; this other one on the other side of that looked like Neil Steve Douglas. He’s the guy on all
would be on a bender; this one the stage. But I’ll rest Diamond’s show. the Phil Spector stuff. He’s one of
would be hungover. If I could get a on the evidence: Matching outfits, a The Wrecking Crew, man. We
few people present, I was glad. listen to the early slick presentation, weren’t imitating anybody.
A lot of the tunes, early in the tour, gigs compared staging. Weintraub INTERVIEW: DAMIEN LOVE

THE 1980s
PART 1: THE GOSPEL YEARS!
“FEROCITY
OF BELIEF”
• Spokane Opera House,
Washington – Jan 17, 1980
LENNY KAYE hymns

Dylan’s most shocking
transformation
BOB came to see us

when Patti and I were
hanging out in the
West Village around
’75. He invited Patti
to audition for the
Rolling Thunder Revue. But we were
working on integrating Jay Dee
Daugherty and preparing to record
our album that September, so she
didn’t feel there was enough time to
go off and be part of Bob’s traveling
medicine show.
In 1980, I was in Spokane quite
Live at
randomly, visiting my wife-to-be Massey Hall,
who lived there. When I arrived, I Toronto, 1980
saw Bob was there on his Slow Train
Coming tour. I had seen him a couple
of times before – Madison Square
Garden in ’74 was one – but in
“THERE WAS A GUY
Spokane, the concert was awesome.
He was so committed. He wasn’t
trying to be confrontational or
contradictory, he delivered the
DRESSED LIKE JESUS”
Guitarist FRED TACKETT them, and he had some famous little people could just get on it.
music on Slow Train Coming with real spreads the word on preaching moments. He’d say, Bob started reintroducing
ferocity of belief. No matter what one Dylan’s controversial “Yeah. I’m gonna play this song, some of his older songs toward
thinks of those albums – whether he gospel tour and it’s about Jesus…” Everybody in the end of 1980. There was nothing
was trying on a different hat or just the audience went, “Boooooooo.” said about it. We just started
looking to see how he could shake WHEN we went out Man, this sound, it was so weird: rehearsing them again. We all went
himself up – man, he was there in on that first gospel Boooooooo. I’d never heard a whole back to this place where we always
Spokane. It was the most intense tour at the end of ’97, audience boo before, but it was kind rehearsed, and one day we started
show I’ve seen him give. His everyone was on the of funny on top of it. When that kind playing “Girl From The North
emotional commitment was not to same page. We were of thing goes on, you kind of circle Country”, “Like A Rolling Stone”
be denied. It brought the album alive all doing everything the wagons. You get a kind of “Fuck stuff like that. Nobody said, “Oh,
to me. It’s not my favourite Bob we could to promote Bob’s mission. You!” attitude. There was a little bit wow, man, you’re playing your
period, but all of a sudden you We were definitely playing religious of that attitude from us sometimes. old songs again.” It was just
could see that he meant it. He was music and it was a chance to just But most of the time, audiences we’d be doing that instead of
preaching the Word. He was a concentrate on doing that. were actually very supportive. “Saved” or something.
righteous Hellfire preacher. We got a combination of There were a few people shouting But I’ll tell you: the first tour we
I’m sure he was getting resistance responses. It was like a circus, stuff, but they were in a minority. did after that, we played two or
from people who wanted him to be sometimes. We had Madalyn The majority were just enjoying the three weeks up in the Warfield. And
who he was yesterday, but no-one O’Hair, the famous American music: people like to hear gospel the first night was the first time we
yelled out “Judas!” I think, by then, atheist, picketing outside some music getting played and most did “Like A Rolling Stone”. We’d
people expected things to be places we played back East. At the done a couple of the religious
different. Spokane is the queen of same time, there was a guy dressed songs first, but when we started
the Inland Empire, as they call it, it’s up like Jesus, carrying a cross up “Like A Rolling Stone” the crowd
not one of your major stopovers on the street. The best thing I saw was started to realise what was going
PETER NOBLE/REDFERNS; PAUL BERGEN/REDFERNS
any tour, so people were just happy when we were playing the Warfield down, you could hear people
to see him and in the flesh. in San Francisco: there was a guy saying, “Oh… my… god...” You
What’s Bob like? I don’t know sitting in the front row, and he’d could feel the joy from people, just
anything about what Bob’s like as a made this big sign: JESUS LOVES hearing this song. It honestly sent a
person. I never interacted with him YOUR OLD SONGS TOO. I chill down my spine. That was
when we toured together in ’95, or remember seeing that, and really, definitely, a big moment in
when we went around Australia thinking, ‘Yeah, well, good point.’ my musical life, being on that stage
with him in – I believe – ’98. He kept People would yell things, and when he started doing that again.
to himself, and me, I kept to myself... sometimes Bob would turn the People were just hollering out.
Sometimes that’s the way I like it, to house lights on so he could see INTERVIEW: DAMIEN LOVE
keep our heroes equidistant.

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THE 1980s
PART 2: THE HEARTBREAKERS!
Live with Tom
Petty at Great
Woods Pavilion
in Mansfield, MA,
July 8, 1986
“AN UNFLAGGING ENERGY”

• Pacific Amphitheatre, Flames Tour of Israel, Europe and closed the regular set with all the lament “I Forgot More Than You’ll
Costa Mesa, California – the UK – were performed with a gospel fervor Rev Bob And The Ever Know”, a single-mic duet with
June 17, 1986 fiery precision rivalling Dylan’s Queens Of Rhythm gospel quartet Petty, along the way. Thanks to the
indelible performances with The could muster. dexterity of The Heartbreakers, what
Bob rocks again! Band during the prior two decades. He sprinkled in 11 of his crowd might have unravelled into an
By BUD SCOPPA The show I saw – the second of two pleasers, from “Positively 4th interminable hodgepodge played
sellouts at the 37,000-seat Pacific Street” early in the show to “Like A out as a seamless, wholly satisfying
HE first half of the 1980s was Amphitheatre in Orange County Rolling Stone”, with Al Kooper evening of American music.
T as confusing a time for Dylan

as it was for his fans. After
completing his ‘Christian trilogy’
near the midpoint of the True
Confessions run – packed 31 songs,
including three solo-acoustic
sitting in on Benmont Tench’s
Hammond, right before “In The
Garden” to “Blowin’ In The Wind”
“I learned a lot of new stuff from
working with Bob,” Petty told me in
the summer of 1987, during some
with 1980’s Shot Of Love, he holed up numbers and a pair of four-song and “Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door” downtime while Dylan was on the
in various studios experimenting Heartbreakers mini-sets, into just during the encore. Sandwiched road with the Grateful Dead. “As a
with his sound, on 1983’s Infidels over two-and-a-half hours, with an between those two was a hot-rod unit, we had a sense of paying
and 1985’s Empire Burlesque, with unflagging energy. The setlist was take on John Lee Hooker’s “Rock attention and getting a song down
mixed results. At that point, Dylan all over the place, with no less than With Me”, one of the show’s six real fast.” He demonstrated some
was lost in the wilderness – but four songs from Empire Burlesque, cover tunes. He’d opened it with a signals Dylan used to cue the band;
his prayers were answered at the as the Heartbreakers showed how supercharged, Stones-style a raised finger, a nod or a wink
inaugural Farm Aid in ’85, when he hard that album might’ve rocked rendition of Weldon Rogers’ could convey worlds of musical
first shared a stage with Tom Petty without Arthur Baker’s shellacking. rockabilly standard “So Long, Good meaning. “At the rehearsals for the
And The Heartbreakers. Their The other recent offering were “I Luck And Goodbye”, while crooning tour, we sometimes played a
chemistry was so immediately and And I” from 1983’s Infidels and “In the Ricky Nelson ballad “Lonesome hundred songs in a night – it was
gratifyingly apparent that Dylan The Garden” from Saved, which Town” and Cecil Null’s 1953 country inspiring. Bob was excited. And
invited them to back him on a when we started realising how to
RON POWNALL/GETTY IMAGES
series of dates that included his drive that thing, we really started
first concerts in the US since late getting excited.”
1981. The 90 shows they played Revitalised, Dylan and Petty’s
together – 60 on the 1986 True two-year roll led them straight into
Confessions Tour of Down Under, to The Traveling Wilburys, Full
Japan and North America and 30 Moon Fever and the launch of the
on the following year’s Temples In Never Ending Tour.

DYLAN LIVE
“TIME STANDS JOKERMAN!

Dylan tends not to speak on
stage much. But when he
BENMONT TENCH
STILL” on stage until two years later, just we’ve never once played this song
does… he has a penchant for
bad jokes
Bayside Festival Park, Duluth,
Minnesota, July 3, 1999
on Dylan’s live outside of Detroit. – so why not play it for the first time “My first girlfriend came from here.
comeback with the Also, there’d be songs we hadn’t to 60,000 people? It was terrific. If She was so conceited I used to call
Hearbreakers learned that he’d throw out on it’s all about staying present in the her Mimi.”
stage a couple of times. For song, that’s an experience that Civic Memorial Auditorium
EVERYBODY in example, one night in Australia, keeps you present in the song. Fargo, North Dakota,
The Heartbreakers Bob was over on the far side of the Another one I really remember is March 30, 2000
“Tony Garnier’s playing bass
loved Bob Dylan. stage, and he just started playing “Tomorrow Is A Long Time”. The
tonight. Tony was here once
Nobody had to chords, showing Howie [Epstein] on first time that song was mentioned before. He got a bicycle for his wife.
think twice about the bass. Four chords in, I realised, was when we were actually That was a good trade.”
us becoming Bob’s “Holy fuck, we’re going to play walking out on stage in Sweden. I
Saint Andrews Hall, Detroit,
band for those tours. Everybody ‘Desolation Row’.” In all the said, “What do you want to do as Michigan, July 6, 1999
knew half the songs. Although extensive rehearsals we’d done, the slow song this set, Bob?”
GARY GERSHOFF/GETTY IMAGES; AXELLE/BAUER-GRIFFIN/FILMMAGIC

“I thought I’d go to the Motown
sometimes he’d teach them to you “I dunno. Uh, do you know Museum today. I was looking for
in a different way. ‘Tomorrow Is A Long Time?’” I all the Smokey Robinson stuff.
Bob had ideas about what songs said, “Well, damn straight, I know I asked the guy where all the
Smokey Robinson stuff was. ‘I don’t
he wanted to do, and he had a it…” Completely unrehearsed, in
know,’ he said, ‘but you know what
lot of covers for us to learn. We front of however many thousand happens to Clark Kent when he
learned a massive amount of songs, people. That was one of those gets hungry?’ I said ‘What?’ He
a million old blues songs. I don’t moments when time stands still. said, ‘He turns into Supperman.’”
remember how much sets actually That’s what Bob can do, what he Reilly Center Arena
changed night to night, but we can still do. He’s got a way with a St Bonaventure University
could throw these things in at any song. When he decides to break St Bonaventure, New York,
time. Bob had us learn “All My that way out, and you’re getting to November 11, 2004
Tomorrows”, the Sinatra song. be in the presenting of the song “On drums, George Receli.
Then we never played it – actually, with him, that’s a moment that time George’s from Louisiana, got
a bunch of snakes. Every time
we played it once, one night in a just stops. it rains, he puts them on the
hotel bar – but we never played it INTERVIEW: DAMIEN LOVE windshield of his car. Calls’em
windshield vipers.”
Madison Square
Garden, New York, The Capitol Theatre
July 17, 1986 Port Chester, New York,
November 23, 2021
“I don’t know nobody named Bob.
You’re at the wrong show.”

THE 1990s
“HE SOON
Live in 1997
(with Tony
Garnier
behind)
HIT HIS
STRIDE”
• Bournemouth International Centre –
October 1, 1997
After a brush with mortality Dylan

was never more alive, reports
NIGEL WILLIAMSON
N May 1997, Dylan was hospitalised with a potentially
I fatal chest infection. Although he won the fight, it had

been touch and go: “I really thought I’d be seeing Elvis
soon,” he later said. To seasoned Dylan watchers, it
seemed as if the Never Ending Tour, then in its ninth year,
might finally reach the end.
Yet just months after his brush with mortality, Dylan was
back on tour in the UK. The event was like a thanksgiving
for his survival, a ripe and pensive appreciation of the
fragility of life. As if offering prayers of his own, Dylan
had performed three songs days before the tour began –
including “Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door” – for the Pope.
The mood of mortality and reflection continued with Time
Out Of Mind – an album imbued
with the tombstone blues,
yet written, with chilling
prescience, prior to his
near-death experience.
In the event, only “Love Sick”
from the new album received
“THE NOT KNOWING”
The frantic race to keep Wrong [1993], it definitely had an influence
an outing at Bournemouth in a up on the Never Ending Tour, when we played live. He really got interested
set that drew on songs from by guitarist JOHN JACKSON in the old blues guitar players. He helped me
four decades of his career. Only learn a finger-style guitar I’d never done
three songs survived, too, from IN the late-1980s, I was before, he’d show me all these old blues
the last time I had seen him playing guitar with Cajun records and get really excited about them,
two years earlier at Brixton accordion player Jo-El Sonnier and it influenced the direction the band went,
Academy. Clearly, his pleasure in downtown Manhattan, and more of an old country blues style.
in surprising us had not Bob came to see Jo-el’s show. As things went on, we’d go to rehearse for
deserted him. He took the Afterwards, I was talking the next tour and end up just playing, like, a
stage dressed in a powder blue with Tony [Garnier], who’d just started playing riff, for an hour or more, every day. I’d be like,
suit. He moved stiffly at first and, on medical advice, bass with Bob. He said, “Hey, Bob asked for “Uh, are we gonna play this in the shows…?”
there’s no wheezing into a harmonica. But after a slow your number, he liked your playing.” Two Then I gradually figured it out: he’s writing a
start he hit his stride with the first revelation of the night – years later, I get this call. Bob asks if maybe I’d song. Two years later, Time Out Of Mind came
a storming “Tough Mama”, performed live for the first time like to join his band. I went for rehearsal, this out, and I remember hearing songs and
since 1974. The band was tight and new guitarist Larry was the end of January 1991, we rehearsed thinking, ‘Oh, yeah – we played that for two
Campbell, replacing John Jackson, shone alongside Bucky about four days, then took off straight for hours one day at rehearsal two years ago.’
Baxter’s pedal steel on a luminous “You Ain’t Goin’ Europe. I played with Bob until 1997. The hardest thing about being in Bob’s band
Nowhere”, performed in Byrds/Burritos classic country- To begin, it was the most stressful gig I’ve was just not knowing. Not knowing what he’s
PG BRUNELL/EVERETT COLLECTION INC/ALAMY STOCK PHOTO; GETTY IMAGES
rock style and stretched out to more than five minutes with ever done. Trial by being thrown into it. You’re thinking, what he wants, whether he knows
a beautiful a cappella chorus at the end. just there, and you’re gonna play whatever what he wants. You just never knew, from the
Dylan put aside his electric guitar for a semi-acoustic Bob wants to play. Even on that first tour, we’d first day to the last day. It’s probably the same
segment that began with another surprise – “Cocaine be in the dressing room and Bob would name today. A lot of it’s just the way his face is: he
Blues”. It was followed by an impassioned “Tangled up In a song – something he’d heard on the bus that could look at you on stage, and that look could
Blue” and a joyous “Mr Tambourine Man”. “Stuck Inside day, maybe – and whether we’d heard of it or either be, “Yeah, keep doing that!” Or, “No:
Of Mobile…” was played with a fair approximation of the not, we were going to play it that night. Back don’t do that.” But you didn’t know which.
wild mercury sound while “Blind Willie McTell” received a then, there was no internet, you had to Sometimes, after a show, he’d say, “Hey, JJ,
new arrangement. He ended with a raucous tear-up on scrounge around, run to a record store, find why didn’t you keep playing that riff?” I’d be
“Highway 61 Revisited” and left drenched in sweat. He was that song and hear what the hell it sounded like, “I thought you wanted me to stop...”
back for four encores, including “Love Sick”. Bobcats like. Then be ready to play it. That happened “No, no, I wanted you to keep playing.” It
already knew the new album, of course, and the opening pretty much every show. But it was a helpful could be stressful. But the great-great times
chords were greeted with wild applause. learning experience. Even though it’s about to outweighed any bad times. Bob could’ve
The following night, seven of the 15 songs were different. give me a heart attack. gotten rid of me after the first show, but seven
By the time I saw him at Wembley four days later, the set When Bob did his solo acoustic albums, years later I was still there, so I figure I did
list has changed again. Meeting Elvis was clearly going to Good As I Been To You [1992] and World Gone something right. INTERVIEW: DAMIEN LOVE
have to wait.

& friends present
CHRIS THILE
+ Sam Amidon
Wed 9 Nov BRISTOL St. George’s
Thu 10 Nov COVENTRY Warwick Arts Centre
Fri 11 Nov LONDON QueenSOElizabeth
LD OUT Hall
COWBOY JUNKIES
Returning with their new album Songs of the Recollection.
Sat 12 Nov MANCHESTER RNCM
Sun 13 Nov GLASGOW GRCH New Auditorium
Chris Thile is a founding member of Punch Brothers and

Nickel Creek. His new album Laysongs is out now on Nonesuch.
Thu 10 Nov BASINGSTOKE Anvil
Sat 12 Nov CHESTER Storyhouse
Wed 16 Nov BELFAST Mandela Hall
Sat 19 Nov BUXTON Opera House
Sun 20 Nov EDINBURGH Assembly Halls
Wed 23 Nov SUNDERLAND The Fire Station
Thu 24 Nov COVENTRY Warwick Arts Centre
Fri 25 Nov CANTERBURY Gulbenkian Theatre
SUN 27 NOV LONDON ROYAL FESTIVAL HALL
Book now at serious.org.uk/events
E D GE ST L I V E P RE S E N T
GRETCHEN
PETERS
NEW ALBUM ON
BUXTON OPERA HOUSE
& PAVILION ARTS CENTRE
@EdgeStreetLive
edgestreetlive.com
THE 2000s
“DYLAN
A rare
magic:
live in
2004
WAS ON
A TEAR
RIGHT
NOW”
• Barrowland Ballroom,
Glasgow – June 24, 2004
DAMIEN LOVE in fine

voice for a rare sing-along-
with-Bob
S
INCE 1989, when he returned
for the first time since the 1966
tour with The Hawks, Dylan’s
customary Glasgow haunt has been
the cavernous SECC conference
centre. He played there again the
night before this – an impromptu
extra date at Barrowland, the
legendary, lived-in former
dancehall in the east end. Until
he actually stepped onto the
chest-high stage and ripped
into a ferocious “Drifter’s Escape”,
it still seemed too good to be true.
Barrowland looked,
magnificently, like it was last
decorated in 1963, and on this
sweltering summer’s night held
in the audience burst. The crowd
started singing and the sound
astonished everyone. The band
“BOB
1,900 elbow-to-elbow. It’s almost
certainly the smallest venue
Dylan has played in the UK since
practically took a step back as it hit
the stage, sharing helpless smiles.
Dylan listened. A surprised grin THREW
he turned up in London folk clubs
in 1962, an intimacy that works
an alchemy.
flashed across his face. His
determination to rearrange and
reconsider songs live can sometimes AWAY THE
Pounding electric piano stage left,
Dylan came dressed for Civil War –
yellow neckerchief, dove-grey
Fender-fold hat – and played like he
seem like a game of stump-the-
listener, but soon, as the audience-
choir took the song back to 1966,
Dylan seemed to be singing along
SETLIST”
Serving the songs with the words, or just not seeming open
was leading a cavalry charge. He’d with the crowd. It changed the LARRY CAMPBELL onstage. But with Bob, the burden,
abandoned guitar, but rediscovered night’s DNA. Not every song was a the onus, is on him every night.
harmonica, producing astonishing sing-a-long – thankfully – but in I PLAYED guitar in Sometimes you could feel him
plaintive wails that turned playful this small room, the chemistry now Bob’s band eight feeling the onus; some other times
and seductive as the band rocked into flowing between crowd and band years, from 1997 to you could feel that he couldn’t care
a cosmic “I’ll Be Your Baby Tonight”. was palpable. Dylan was so close the end of 2004. If I less about the onus; and sometimes
He was on a tear right now. If he you could see the Oscar he carries had to single out you could feel him just having a
shifted gears in the late-’90s, he’d on the road shivering to the beat. one tour, there was good time with the whole thing.
kicked it into overdrive since the You could see sweat beading on his a run in 2002 when the band was Yeah, he’s complicated.
millennium, still accelerating from hat brim, falling from his nose. At just kicking it. We were doing When I went on to play
the blast of his first 21st century the evening’s most intense moment, “Brown Sugar” by the Stones, we subsequently with Levon Helm,
masterpiece, “Love And Theft”, as a a rare, devout, “I Believe In You” it did a Neil Young tune, a Warren everybody in that band was just
breakneck “Tweedle Dee & Tweedle was as if the rest of the band and the Zevon tune or two, and we were there having a sort of joyous
Dum” illustrated. This tour came rest of the building had melted away. doing all these rootsy tunes and all collaborative experience. With
sandwiched between his film, We eventually got to “Like A these Bob Dylan tunes, and we had Bob, that kind of collaboration
MYCHAL WATTS/WIREIMAGE; GETTY IMAGES
Masked & Anonymous and his book, Rolling Stone”. The crowd’s voice all just arrived at a place where we was more limited, because it’s a
Chronicles, a few months away, with rose again – “How does it feeeeeel?” were a band. It was really working. I different thing. This is Bob Dylan:
Scorsese collaboration documentary – and now Dylan was conducting remember feeling good about every it’s his stuff, it’s his material, it’s his
No Direction Home just beyond. them, pointing to cue us in. After it show. Bob was in good spirits, you legacy, and obviously there have to
But this show underlined his main was over, he didn’t bother hiding his could feel him having a good time. be parameters on how much you
vocation as performing artist. It grin, came stage centre, shaking his Which wasn’t always the case. contribute to the presentation of
happened on the fourth song, a head, and acknowledged a rare You can tell when Bob’s having a his music.
waltzing “Just Like A Woman”. As he magic: “I must say, you’re the best- good time. It’s in his performance. I’d heard stories about tours he’d
got to the chorus – “Aw, she takes...” singin’ audience we’ve ever heard.” Sometimes he would just be saying done before, where he could be
– something that had been brewing This wasn’t sound, it was spirit.

THE 2010s DYLAN LIVE
kind of uncommunicative with the
band and would just start doing
stuff, like springing songs on them
“HAND RAKISHLY “Long And Wasted Years”: more
highlights. Led by Donnie
Heron’s mournful fiddle, “Long
without warning. There weren’t a
lot of last-minute surprises with us.
There were some. Like, one time,
AT THE HIP” And Wasted Years” was the set’s
showstopper, an elegantly played
track about love, hardship and
we were playing Bonnaroo, and • Royal Albert Hall, of “Simple Twist Of Fate”, with death – “We cried because our souls
there was a set worked out, and London – November 26, Dylan’s piano playing nicely were torn/So much for tears, so much
right before the show, Bob just 2013 complimenting Sexton’s leisurely, for these long and wasted years”. It
threw it away and made this whole rolling guitar melodies. “Early was as good as anything Dylan’s
other setlist, with songs like “Sing This band’s on fire! Roman Kings” was one of the done in years.
Me Back Home” and “Pancho And By MICHAEL BONNER night’s highlights. From the lean, For our encore, we got a
Lefty”, all these tunes we had Elmore Leonard-style lyrics – “All pleasingly subdued “All Along
WENN RIGHTS LTD/ALAMY STOCK PHOTO

“Y
never even played before, let alone OU Brits need an the early Roman kings/In their The Watchtower” before “Roll
rehearsed. We had a half hour to try injection!” raged the sharkskin suits/Bow ties and On John”, a song Dylan’s only
and get an arrangement of these Australian in the gents’ buttons/High top boots” – to the played in Blackpool and here
songs. I don’t know what his toilet. As it transpired, he was full-blooded roadhouse blues at the Albert Hall: two locations
purpose was there – but we pulled unhappy with what he believed to whipped up by the band, this associated with its subject, John
it off. During my tenure with Bob, be a lacklustre response from the was a persuasive example of how Lennon. It was a great ending,
though, there wasn’t a lot of that. crowd to this show. It’s slightly strong Dylan’s current creative roll incidentally, a graceful and
A thing I learned playing with odd, because what I remember was. A similarly high level ran moving comedown after the show’s
Bob – and I knew it before, but it most about the audience who’ve through the haunting “Forgetful many, earlier peaks.
was even more clear with Bob – is turned out for the first of three Heart”, from
that you’ve got to support the song. nights at the Albert Hall is how Together
For a performer, especially like enthusiastic they appeared, from Through Life.
him, people want to hear what he’s the person close to us who volubly Then a jazzy
got to say, and, in the band, you’re and repeatedly called for “Lay “Spirit Of The
there to enhance what he’s got to Lady Lay”, to the huge cheers Water” and a
say. You’ve got to find this river of that erupted when Dylan started fierce “Scarlet
sympathetic connection to what a new song. Town” led us to
the song is about and to what his Dylan himself arrived on “Soon After
presentation of the song is about. stage at 7.30, dressed in his Civil Midnight” and
When you can do that, you’re War uniform, standing at the
giving people what they want, and microphone for a brisk rendition
At the
of “Things Have Changed”, one Royal
hand rakishly at the hip, a little jig Albert Hall,
November
of the leg evident. The set – as it
“THE unfolded across two hours, with
one intermission – was skewed
2013
BURDEN heavily towards material from his

recent studio album, Tempest.
IS ON Live, these seven new songs
HIM played to the strengths of his

current band: sensitive,
EVERY sympathetic musicians, whose

discreet professionalism equalled
NIGHT” the terrific work from Leonard
Cohen’s similarly well-tailored
band who’d played the previous
month at the O2 Arena.
they put out this reaction that In the relatively intimacy of the
comes back to you, sparks Albert Hall, Charlie Sexton, Stu
something in you, and you send it Kimball, Donnie Herron, Tony
right back to them again. Garnier and George Receli shone.
There’s a moment I always Early on, Sexton and Kimball’s
remember, one of those pinch- intuitive playing on a breezy
yourself moments. Two or three “Duquesne Whistle” resembled a
years after I joined, we were in more reserved version of Tom
Europe, a big outdoor concert, Verlaine and Richard Lloyd. A fire-
playing “Blowin’ In The Wind”. and-brimstone “Pay In Blood” was
Bob was really present. Totally followed by a beautiful, mellifluous
communicating with the audience. take on “Tangled Up In Blue”. They
It just came over me, what I was closed the first half with a wicked
doing: I was playing this iconic “Love Sick”, Kimball’s punchy
song, probably one of the first upstrokes mingling with Sexton’s
songs I learned on guitar in the growling lead lines and Dylan’s
1960s, with the guy who wrote it, harmonica blasts.
in front of all these people. Bob is The second half felt more
totally into it, we’re all totally energised, somehow. They opened
into it. INTERVIEW: DAMIEN LOVE with “High Water (For Charley
Patton)”, then into a lovely version
2022
“THINGS HAVE
CHANGED AGAIN”
• Avicii Arena, Stockholm – September 27, 2022
NICK HASTED gets a first look at the Rough

And Rowdy Ways Tour as it reaches Europe
“I
HEARD all about it,” open spaces of mid-’60s songs
Bob Dylan murmurs such as “Tombstone Blues” and
sadly. “I heard it in Key “Desolation Row”.
West…” It’s the second So here’s Dylan, in the seventh
night of the Rough And Rowdy decade of his career, immersed in
Ways European tour, and outside the sort of epic that made his name
Stockholm’s functional Avicii Arena at his wild mercury peak. “I do
lies a barren, resolutely unromantic what I think is right,” he explains in
plaza, shopping centre and football the song. “What I think is best…”
stadium. Up on stage, though, is
N
something else. Dylan is sitting at OW 81, Dylan shows no signs capital, had a ticket reserved for him
the piano, a spot he’ll barely leave of slowing down. His new until Young’s death in 2019; part of
all night, black jacket removed to book, The Philosophy of the ritual when Bob came to town.
reveal a shiny, baggy shirt, which Modern Song, promises “60+ essays The Clarion Hotel, across the river
turns from peach to gold under and riffs on 60 years of popular from tonight’s venue, is the meeting
the lights, and black white-piped music”, with an audio version part- place for veteran Swedish Bobcats.
trousers. He is finding the heartbeat read by Bob himself, while rumours “Today will be my 124th show,” Per
of “Key West (Philosopher Pirate)” persist of a new Bootleg Series boxset Sandwall tells Uncut. “I’ve seen all
– a song about a shimmering, being readied. There has also been his Swedish shows since 2002. The
chimerical version of the Florida the unveiling of Rail Car, his largest first was with Tom Petty and the
town, playing it for so long it’s like sculpture to date, at Château La Heartbreakers in 1986, when I was Rough cut: Dylan and
his band, Riverside
he’s moved there. Coste in Aix-en-Provence as well as 17, then in ’89 I saw him in tonight’s Theatre Milwaukee,
Dylan’s latest album, Rough And art retrospectives in France and arena, when it was newly built. I November 2, 2021
Rowdy Ways, is all about mood, Florida. Most auspiciously of all, his really liked the ’91 tour, which a lot of
weaving its spell at a stately, Rough And Rowdy Ways Tour, which people didn’t, because it was chaotic he says. “That’s what I like about
meditative pace. The nine songs he’s began on November 2, 2021 at the rock’n’roll. But it had so much him – that’s what I tell people. Bruce
played from it for much of the last Riverside Theatre in Milwaukee, energy, it was dynamic – you didn’t Springsteen cares, the Stones care,
year mean that his live show now Wisconsin has finally reached know what was going to happen.” when people demand to hear their
favours atmosphere and nuance, Europe, his first Sandwall also old songs. He hasn’t gone this far
the tempo decidedly gentler and dates on the attended a show since 1979, though, when he only
more fluid than on previous tours. Continent since at London’s wanted to play his new, religious
During phases of the Never-Ending
Tour, Dylan sometimes mangled,
2019. Along the
way, he’ll return
“HE Royal Albert
Hall during
songs. It’s an interesting phase we’re
going through!”
murmured or made-up lyrics. Clearly,
these new songs mean too much to
to the UK for his
first full tour
DOESN’T Dylan’s 2013
tour. Critically,
“If you don’t like Rough And Rowdy
Ways, this is not the show for you!”
him. He wants us to hear every word in five years, GIVE A that tour was a Sandwall laughs. “But I get the
and shuffles lyric sheets so there can
be no mistake.
playing 12 dates
in total, among SHIT WHAT turning point.
Dylan’s voice
feeling he’s moved on. You won’t hear
‘Like A Rolling Stone’ or ‘Blowin’ In
He’s leading a six-piece band
anchored by bassist Tony Garnier
them four nights
at the London YOU AND was restored,
he sang clearly
The Wind’. He’s saying, ‘This is what
I want to do now, this is where my
and multi-instrumentalist Donnie
Herron, with guitarist Bob Britt, who
Palladium.
He’s started,
I THINK” and after years of
seemingly ad hoc
heart is.’ At the moment, he’s done
with the hit parade.” Clearly, these
joined in autumn 2019, joined by as he often does, set-lists, the tour new songs are his priority. “He’s been
newcomers, guitarist Doug Lancio in Scandinavia. was dominated playing them for a whole year now,”
and drummer Charley Drayton. They To mark this year’s opening show by what was then his current album, Ballstav says. “This album sums his
convene intently on “Key West”, at the Oslo Spektrum on September Tempest. Meanwhile, the last time a life up. It’s about death, people that
a confession, elegy and love song 25, a local paper uncovers unlikely UK crowd saw Dylan, at Hyde Park in have gone – and who he is himself.”
which references “Harlem Shuffle” photos from 1991 of Bob in red- 2019, he still found room for the likes
NATHAN A. CLARK VIA TWITTER @HWN2013
O
and Hemingway, not wanting its and-white all-weather jacket, old of a thrilling “Like A Rolling Stone”, SLO was, by all accounts,
musical weather to break. Dylan’s jeans, tennis socks, sailing shoes and a sublime “Girl From The North a case of shaking the rust
piano phrases are dreamy, hypnotic. and incongruous Fedora, having Country”. But for his current tour, off for the first few songs.
Over 10 minutes, the song sustains embraced the Nordic lifestyle things have changed again. “They were getting back in the
a soft, seemingly endless beauty, sufficiently to go for an impromptu For Michael Ballstav – another groove,” Sandwall confirms. From
drawing the cavernous arena crowd sail up the Oslofjord. In Stockholm, fan, who’s travelled down from a Stockholm’s rollicking opener
in with its warmth. Country, soul Izzy Young, Dylan’s one-time mentor small town in the north – this is what “Watching The River Flow”, though,
and blues whisper through it. Most at Greenwich Village’s Folklore makes Dylan great. “He doesn’t give the groove is right there. “Most
of all, it recalls the glorious, wide- Center, who moved to the Swedish a shit about what you and I think,” Likely You Go Your Way (And I’ll Go

DYLAN LIVE
SET LIST
1. Watching The
River Flow
2. Most Likely You
Go Your Way
Mine)” is the only really familiar concentrated on him,” “My Own Version bliss took precedence. “I’ll Be Your
(And I’ll Go Mine)
’60s song, Dylan relishing and Ballstav marvels. “I 3.I Contain Of You” is the sort of Baby Tonight” and “To Be Alone With
rephrasing every word, musing: said to my wife, ‘Look at Multitudes bizarre narrative epic You” are both sung with Bob choking
“Sometimes it gets so hard to care/It that, all five are looking 4.False Prophet Dylan hasn’t really back laughter, clearly light of heart,
can’t be this hard – every-where!” at him now.’ Everyone 5.When I Paint My penned since Desire, for all the lingering shadows of Rough
He follows it with a brace of Rough was following him. He Masterpiece fantasising about And Rowdy Ways.
And Rowdy Ways songs. “I Contain played the piano the 6.Black Rider creating a new being There’s a remorseless quality to
Multitudes” is carried on downtempo whole show, which I’ve 7.My Own Version from the best bits of those new songs. You can hear it in
Of You
guitar strums and sly murmurs. never heard of in all individuals he admires. the desolate “Crossing The Rubicon”,
8.I’ll Be Your Baby
“False Prophet” rocks to the whomp these years.” Tonight He stands at the front where his piano smashes into the
of Drayton’s drums. Then “When The stage falls into 9.Crossing The of the stage at the end, middle-eight, or the languid romance
I Paint My Masterpiece” – which darkness after every Rubicon hand cocked at his side of “I’ve Made Up My Mind To Give
Dylan played in Oslo with just song, before lights 10.
To Be Alone With as the audience cheers. Myself To You” – which might be
You
Donnie Herron’s violin and Bob rise on the band in Dylan’s position the emotional core of what Dylan
11.
Key West
Britt’s acoustic guitar – is restored silhouette. But for (Philosopher onstage is another of is saying now. “It’s extraordinary,”
to a full band version, its honky- “Black Rider”, the Pirate) tonight’s stories. He Ballstav tells Uncut after the show. “A
tonk breeziness sometimes almost shadows never really 12.
Gotta Serve moves to the front to guy who’s been playing for 61 years,
collapsing, everyone hanging onto lift. The intensity of Somebody adjust the mic-stand who still finds something new.”
Dylan’s strange, bouncing piano these Rough And Rowdy 13.
I’ve Made Up several times, but never Even in this most recent material,
My Mind To Give
lines for dear life. Ways shows can’t be Myself To You stays around long Dylan truffles out new angles – the
Dylan’s piano-playing is one of the denied and they deepen 14.
That Old Black enough to sing. “He long, jazzy outro to a transformed
surprises of the night. When he first and solidify around Magic did the same in Oslo,” “Goodbye Jimmy Reed”, for instance,
switched from guitar to keyboard, this song: Dylan’s 15.
Mother Of Muses Sandwall reports. “But feels wild and fresh tonight.
he favoured a percussive way of conversation with Death 16.
Goodbye Jimmy I don’t care, he can play Lastly, one of the glories of his Born
Reed
playing. Now his sensitive, rippling is slow and spooked, its the piano like he is for Again phase, “Every Grain Of Sand”
17.
Every Grain
roadhouse lines sit at the heart of swampy atmosphere Of Sand the next 10 years. He’s is played as a gospel song. When
his band’s artful highway music. recalling Time Out as sharp and witty he summons a long and glorious
Balancing the serious musical Of Mind. “Black rider, onstage as ever.” harmonica solo on this final song in
quality, he sometimes slips slowly black rider, my soul is distressed”, Certainly, Dylan is in a chipper Stockholm, it’s like a benediction,
out of sight on his piano stool, as if Dylan moans, before making funny, mood. Maybe that’s why the old summoning Dylan music through
he’s guesting in a Morecambe & Wise bloody threats: “The size of your cock songs he wants to sing include the years. He stands strong now,
sketch. “I’ve seen many, many Dylan will get you nowhere!” This terminal, breezy, happy ballads from the late taking in the final applause, and
shows, and I’ve never seen a band so haunted song shivers to an end. ’60s and early ’70s, when domestic then he’s gone.

Rosali
END OF
THE ROAD
Larmer Tree Gardens, Wiltshire,
September 1–4 Tinariwen
Khruangbin
A magical weekend of peacocks and

Pixies, Bright Eyes and Magnetic Fields
HEN I first came blues, encouraging the crowd to
“W out, there was

nobody here –
just a peacock,”
says Rosali Middleman, gazing out
across the idyllic lawns of the Garden
sway along to their infectious,
undulating rhythms. And while
Fleet Foxes are keen to remain true
to the sparse strangeness of their
early material, there is now a more
Stage on Friday lunchtime. A sigh: celebratory side, embodied by the
“Quite magical.” It’s an image that twin trombones of their new brass
captures End Of The Road’s unique section who crash in at the end of
vibe, and after a Thursday-night “Third Of May/ľdaigahara” or the
amuse-bouche from Sudan Archives closing “Helplessness Blues” to
and Khruangbin, Rosali makes the euphoric effect.
quintessential music to lull us into Up against them on the Garden
the weekend proper. Alone with her Stage, it’s Black Midi who truly prise
electric guitar, she weaves chiming open the chaos portal. Howling
alt.folk full of quiet agonies. jazz-punk gives way to hardcore Naima
Bock
Naima Bock strips back the thrash, evil math-prog and, in
orchestral layers of tracks such the case of “The Defence”, a Billy
as “Giant Palm” and “Working” Joel piano song. And to finally
to expose soft pastoral folk songs dispel the wholesome vibe with a
adorned with sax and peppered curmudgeonly late-night secret set,
with blasts of Celtic chorale. Anaïs heeeere’s Beak>. Or as Geoff Barrow
spits, “Hi everyone, we’re fucking
Mumford And Sons.” In between
complaining about Londoners, or
Pixies have Louis Theroux’s snoring, or having
to play too quietly to avoid spooking
rediscovered the horses in the next farm, they play
a set of brilliantly curdled kraut-
a passion for rave, even encouraging an outbreak
of righteous air-punching on a
their classic monstrous “Alle Sauvage”.
The long-coveted Pixies are an
Uncut’s Tom The
material obvious highlight of the festival for
many, especially as they seem to
Pinnock with
Kurt Vile
Weather
Station
have rediscovered a passion for their
Mitchell picks up the beatific baton classic material. There are some Day The Politicians Died” (“We’ve For those feeling a little
with the seagoing Americana of promising newies from Doggerel got the taste for blood, now let’s discombobulated come Sunday
“Ships” and the soul-scraping folk of too, but most of us are here to howl eat all the priests”) and breaking lunchtime, Cassandra Jenkins
RACHEL JUAREZ CARR; CHRIS JUAREZ; MATHEW PARRI THOMAS
“Young Man In America”, while over along contentedly to “Debaser”, every heart in a five-mile radius with can empathise. She hasn’t been
on the Talking Heads stage – home “Monkey Gone To Heaven” and “’14 I Wish I Had Pictures”. getting much sleep recently either.
to Uncut’s revealing Q&As with an uproariously apt “Where Is My Talking of magnetic personalities, “But not for the reasons you think,”
Kurt Vile, The Weather Station and Mind?”. Saturday, though, belongs to Alabaster DePlume’s afternoon set she explains. “I was asked to write
Black Midi – James Yorkston gets The Magnetic Fields, who begin the is a curious mix of wistful improv an essay about my favourite movie
more raw and intimate still, playing day on the bijou Piano Stage, playing jazz, medieval chants and wild- – turns out I have a lot to say about
laments for his disappointing album a stripped-down “The Luckiest eyed motivational rants. “You’re Wayne’s World…” Her raconteurial
chart placings and poetic paeans to Guy On The Lower East Side” and beautiful!” he yells at the crowd. gifts inform her gorgeously slow-
“towns the size of a teacup”. a cranky cover of Thunderclap “Thanks for living, it’s fucking burning, consoling songs. Jake
It’s almost as if acts are hesitant Newman’s “Something In The Air”. tough!” His secret set at 1.30am in the Xerxes Fussell is another performer
to turn up the volume, for fear of They end it on the Garden Stage, Tipi tent is even more emotionally who manages to make it feel like
breaking the bucolic spell. But with lugubrious mainman Stephin intense, while in between he joins he’s playing in your living room,
gradually Tinariwen quicken the Merritt earning celebratory whoops The Weather Station to add an with his unshowy but mesmeric
pace of their shimmering desert for the bold, satirical chorale of “The ecstatic saxophone solo to “Robber”. folk fingerpicking. Jana Horn also

L IVE
Pixies
Bright Eyes Fleet

Foxes
James
Holden and
Waclaw
Zimpel
plays solo, though not by choice: her a very respectable crack at “Knuckle Stage headline set which even they The festival gets a fitting send-off
guitarist was held up at the airport, Down” by local heroes XTC. don’t seem sure will stay on the rails. down on The Boat stage, deep in the
necessitating an even more minimal Aldous Harding’s songs feel This is largely due to the woozy state woods. Standing opposite each other
RACHEL JUAREZ CARR; CHRIS JUAREZ; MATHEW PARRI THOMAS
set than usual. But songs such as light as air, but they’re freighted of Conor Oberst, who loses himself like duelling warriors, saxophonist
“Optimism”, sparse as they are, have by unsettling, cryptic allusions. in elaborate dance moves that Tim Waclaw Zimpel and modular synth
a strange, hypnotic allure. She’s a captivating presence, even Booth might consider over the top shaman James Holden summon a
No reticence from Ryley Walker, when she’s sitting stock-still behind and attacks the graceful agonies throbbing, elemental jazz-techno
as he and his crack trio successfully her acoustic guitar; when she gets of “Dance And Sing” with such maelstrom. “This is a tune we wrote
add a jaw-dropping free-jazz up and starts artfully whacking intensity that, for a whole verse, yesterday,” declares Holden. But
freakout to the middle of “The a cowbell for “Old Peel”, it’s like he doesn’t notice he’s shaken his it could have been written 1,000
Halfwit In Me”. “The surcharge on a piece of avant-garde ballet. But microphone lead loose. It adds to the years ago. At the end of the set, a
your ticket is for extra psychedelia!” what does it all mean? Her set gives sense of unstable chaos that powers man dressed as Catweazle raises
he barks. Yet for the most part his nothing away, which ultimately his songs. As soon as they kick in a giant wooden staff to the sky, a
songs are more thoughtful and makes it difficult to love. he’s naturally swept along by them, salute to the ancient sonic gods who
nuanced than his exaggerated party After 75 minutes of Kurt Vile’s usually towards some howling have overseen such a transcendent
bro persona suggests. He also knows agreeably mellow choogle, Bright emotional crescendo of brass, weekend. Quite magical.
exactly which county he’s in, taking Eyes throw themselves into a Woods strings or sweeping noise. MARK BEAUMONT & SAM RICHARDS

A falling-out in rural
Ireland; all at sea in
a satire of inequality;
an intriguing sci-fi
fable; and more…
HE BANSHEES OF INISHERIN
T
Though he made his name
with ludic stageplays
set around the coast of
Galway, it felt like Martin
McDonagh couldn’t get out
of the theatre soon enough.
So after the hitmen, psychos and cops of
his filmography it’s a surprise that his fifth
film returns to the big skies, quiet lives and
mythic landscape of his youth.
Banshees reunites Farrell and Gleeson
from his first hit, In Bruges, and is a kind of
Beckettian prequel, hinting at some eternal
odd-couple archetype, recurring through
time and space. Here they’re Pádraic and
Colm, old friends on a fictional Aran island Into the black stuff:
in 1923, oblivious to the civil war raging on Colin Farrell and
Brendan Gleeson in
the mainland, spending their time blithely The Banshees Of
herding cows, playing the fiddle and Inisherin
supping pints at the local pub.
Until one morning when Gleeson plainly
declares, “I just don’t like you any more,” pie-eyed dereliction of duty leads the yacht
and the friendship is suddenly severed, into a violent storm and an extraordinary
prompting bewildered derangement in
Farrell (those eyebrows permanently set
Gleeson declares, extended gross-out set-piece of panic, vomit
and overflowing toilets, like John Waters
at twenty past eight), scornful disdain
from Gleeson, and a brutal and quickly “I just don’t like you directing the video for “Paranoid Android”.
When the ship is wrecked, the passengers
murderous escalation.
Though Farrell and Gleeson are once more
splendid foils, their faces roiling with grief
any more,” and the are washed up on a desert island where
suddenly the ability to start a fire and catch
fish is more valuable than crypto billions,
and contempt like the clouds surging over
the wild Atlantic shore, Banshees… feels
friendship is severed and a new hierarchy is established
Though Östlund and cast are evidently
tonally unanchored, uncertain of whether having a ball ladling on the decadence,
it really wants to be a kind of dark, extended channel this scabrous energy. Directed by the film feels overlong and unfocused
episode of Father Ted or a portentous parable Ruben Östlund, whose own 2017 Palme – the opening chapter on fashion-world
of trivial disagreements curdling into bitter, D’Or-winning The Square now feels like an etiquette seems to belong to another movie
atavistic emnities. artworld precursor to the new mood, the completely. Crucially, for all the allegorical
PHOTO COURTESY OF SEARCHLIGHT PICTURES. © 2022 20th CENTURY STUDIOS ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
film follows a couple of bickering models, disaster, until the very final moments,
TRIANGLE OF SADNESS The incredible Thobias Thorwid and Charbli Dean, on a there’s none of the life-or-death jeopardy
success of Parasite and then Squid Game insta-influencer holiday aboard a luxury Bong Joon-ho brings to his dramas.
confirmed there was a vast international superyacht populated by Russian oligarchs, Ultimately, Triangle… feels like a very
audience for scathing satires of neoliberal tech bros and English arms dealers. squalid holiday in other people’s luxury.
inequality and seemed to herald a promising This Boschian ship of fools is led by
new genre for the 2020s: blockbuster Woody Harrelson, giving a spectacularly VESPER The directors have talked of how
agitprop. Triangle Of Sadness is one of broad performance as a permanently they were inspired by Lithuanian forests of
the first English-language attempts to drunk, Chomsky-quoting captain. His Buožytē into creating an updated Grimm
REVIEWED THIS MONTH

THE BANSHEES TRIANGLE OF VESPER NEPTUNE A BUNCH OF
OF INISHERIN SADNESS Directed by FROST AMATEURS
Directed by Directed by Kristina Directed by Directed by
Martin Ruben Östlund Buožytė, Bruno Anisia Kim Hopkins
McDonagh Starring Samper Uzeyman, Starring Colin
Starring Colin Thobias Starring Saul Williams Egglestone,
Farrell, Brendan Thorwid, Dolly Raffiella Starring Harry Nicholls,
Gleeson, Kerry De Leon, Chapman, Cheryl Isheja, Joe Ogden
Condon Woody Eddie Marsan, Bertrand Opens Nov 11
Opens Oct 21 Harrelson Rosy McEwen Ninteretse Cert 12a
Cert To be Opens Oct 28 Opens Oct 21 Opens Nov 4 8/10
confirmed Cert 15 Cert 15 Cert To be
7/10 6/10 8/10 confirmed
7/10

ALSO OUT
BLACK PANTHER: WAKANDA
FOREVER
RELEASED OCTOBER 11
Bringing Phase 4 of the faltering
Marvel Cinematic Universe to
an end, without the star power of
Chadwick Boseman, the second
Black Panther movie has a lot riding
on it, and sees the grieving Wakanda
refocus to fend off the threat of
the Atlantean Prince Namor
(Tenoch Huerta).
DECISION TO LEAVE
RELEASED 21 OCTOBER
Following his 2016 period
masterpiece The Handmaiden,
South Korean auteur Park
Chan-wook returns to the
present day with this unsettling,
Hitchcockian investigation of
murder and obsession.
BROS
RELEASED 28 OCTOBER
Though Fire Island stole its thunder
somewhat, Bros, from the Judd
Apatow team that produced
Forgetting Sarah Marshall, is
staggeringly the first theatrically
released mainstream rom-com
about a gay couple - Billy Eichner
and Luke Macfarlane meeting
cute in Manhattan.
fairytale, but for the first half an hour of Vesper, a radically different dimension, and in place of
you might feel like you’ve stepped into the muddy Birnin Zana’s gleaming spires, we find a ragged
post-apocalyptic mire of Tarkovksy’s Stalker. village of escapees from a post-colonial world
Vesper is set after the world’s ecological collapse; of psychic, mineral and labour exploitation,
the one percent are barricaded in a hi-tech citadel hacking together a post-colonial counterforce.
of luxury, while the rest of humanity scavenges a The plot, following renegades Matalusa and
meagre living from old scrap and selling blood. Neptune, proceeds by a shadowy dream logic
Vesper – Raffiela Chapman, with the wide- and can be hard to parse, but visually, musically
eyed, wise beyond her years attitude of a young and thematically this is a sensational, richly
Louis Armstrong’s
Winona Ryder – is a 13-year-old girl, living out in suggestive experience, conjuring a moodboard, Black And Blues
the woods with her bedridden father, avoiding seedbed and launchpad for a whole new genre.
local ganglord (a superbly sinister Eddie Marsan)
and cultivating a surreal greenhouse with her A BUNCH OF AMATEURS As the film industry LOUIS ARMSTRONG’S BLACK
prodigious biohacking skills. When she rescues as we know it struggles to re-emerge from AND BLUES
a princess-like citadel dweller whose jet has lockdown, and audiences remain reluctant to RELEASED OCTOBER 28
Drawing on Armstrong’s own
crashed in the woods, she senses a way out of her return to the old theatres, there are welcome
meticulous audio diaries and
desperate circumstances… signs of the resilience of the spirit of cinema stunning archive footage, director
In summary the plot might sound trite, but in Kim Hopkins’ mordant, modestly glorious Sacha Jenkins follows the legendary
this is a wonderfully rich film. Vesper’s plants documentary about Bradford Movie Makers, the career from New Orleans to
shimmer like surreal creations from a Björk video UK’s oldest surviving movie-making club. Hollywood and examines his
but the real magic lies in the performances – Rosy You might pitch it as Last Of The Summer Wine continuing legacy.
McEwan as the lost princess with a secret and meets Be Kind Rewind. The club’s archives reveal
Richard Brake, immobile but hovering paternally a treasure trove of low-budget delights: Boudica SOUND FOR THE FUTURE
around his daughter via their spluttering drone, in wonky helmets, gravy-brown Cortina car RELEASED OCTOBER 28
Matt Hulse returns to his pre-teen
gliding through the forests like the severed head chases through cobbled streets, and shonky
1979 group, The Hippies, in this
of the world’s saddest Cyberman. horror flicks. But today the club has fallen on lyrical, essayistic memoir and
hard times: in arrears with their rent, struggling investigation into the roots of post-
NEPTUNE FROST Variously conceived as an to recruit new members, and as lockdown hits, punk, featuring Sleaford Mods and
album (songs from co-director Saul William’s teetering on the brink of bankruptcy. one of the last appearances of Gang
2016 MartyrLoserKing appear here in reworked There no sentimentality in these delicate of Four’s Andy Gill.
form), graphic novel and stage musical, Neptune portraits of lonesome lives, but there’s the hint of
LOUIS ARMSTRONG HOUSE MUSEUM
Frost finally emerges, with a little help from a Hollywood ending in the form of a covid small- LIVING
producer Lin-Manuel Miranda, as an uncanny, business recovery grant that allows the club to RELEASED NOVEMBER 4
Oliver Hermanus and Bill Nighy
kaleidoscopic feature film, arguably the first refurbish the cinema, stage their annual awards
team up in this shameless
Afro-futurist cyberpunk transgender musical. and present the big-screen premiere of stalwart best-actor Oscar bid, bringing
When it was first introduced in the 1960s pages member Harry’s loving recreation of the opening Kurosawa’s Ikiru (itself an
of Fantastic Four, the kingdom of Wakanda scene of Oklahoma!, the first picture he saw with adaptation of a Tolstoy novella)
was located on the site of modern-day Rwanda. wife Mary, back in the innocent cinemascope to the stifled, pin-striped lives of
Neptune Frost is set in the same country, albeit evenings of the 1950s. STEPHEN TROUSSÉ postwar London bureaucracy.

THE BALLAD
OF TAM LIN BFI
7/10
Forgotten Brit-horror with
Pentangle angle
Few recall that
Roddy McDowall
directed a pre-
Wicker Man,
Scotland-set ’70s
folk horror featuring
Ian McShane, Ava
Gardner and music
by Pentangle, but you’ll be glad he
did. Adapting an ancient Scottish
border ballad – young rogue falls foul
of vengeful faerie queen – McDowell
indulges his photographer’s eye
with a contemporary update that
sets the story against a post-Blow
Up vision of ’60s swingers gone to
green supernatural seed. Pentangle’s
opening “The Best Part Of You” surely
awaits its Tarantino revival.
Extras: 9/10. Cast interviews,
soundtrack feature, archive shorts,
In The Court Of The
Crimson King : Robert book. DAMIEN LOVE
Fripp and inset left
centre, drummer
Pat Mastelotto
BLONDE NETFLIX
6/10
IN THE COURT OF THE CRIMSON Some like it overwrought in

disappointing Marilyn Monroe biopic
KING: KING CRIMSON AT 50 ON DEMAND

If you thought Marilyn
Monroe was tragically
ill-treated by men,
Hollywood and
9/10 stardom in general,
you’ll still think it
More than just a historical documentary. By John Robinson after director Andrew
Dominik’s long, long
ROBERT Fripp, the so you get a feeling that he has a Rolling Stones documentarians to film, but you might have forgotten how
power behind the strong grasp on how far he’s willing find a way around the problem of a terrific she was along the way, even
King Crimson throne to humanely go. In lieu of pushing screen full of “old men talking”, this though Ana de Armas is sensational in
(is he the throne behind (often literally) closed is precisely what he fears. the lead. Adapting Joyce Carol Oates’
fictionalised take on Monroe’s life,
itself? Possibly even doors, he gets his own truth from But for this film, the age of the
Dominik’s movie is less biography,
the king?), is an the outside, interviewing ex-KC players and participants is an more feverishly horrified – yet
artist who enjoys a members in their big armchairs important part of the story – if not stylish! – dissection of celebrity. The
certain element of at home and grabbing time with the more interesting one. King blunt point is Marilyn never existed
surprise. When you have him pegged members of the 2019 touring lineup Crimson has lasted a long time, and Norma Jeane was crushed from
as an incredibly serious musician to assemble an impressionistic and its members have taken some existence; but she’s ground up again
and innovator, he debuts a YouTube version of the band’s history. knocks along the way. In much here. With airy ambient angst tones
series of amusing cover versions in the same way as the fans, their from Nick Cave and Warren Ellis, and
partnership with his wife. When you dedication to the cause is such a wee talking foetus. DAMIEN LOVE
say he’s short back and sides, he gets that they will put their personal
TRAVELIN’ BAND:
a Mohican. And when you perceive
him as someone who never lets their
In Toby considerations to one side in
the hope of being something
CREEDENCE
CLEARWATER
guard down, he opens the doors of
King Crimson to a documentarian.
Amies’ film, transformative, bigger than the
participants themselves.
REVIVAL AT THE ROYAL
ALBERT HALL NETFLIX
In The Court Of The Crimson King,
made to celebrate the band’s 50th
we see Fripp Key here is the story of
percussionist Bill Rieflin. In a band
7/10
anniversary in 2019 but only seeing
the light of day now, shows the
nakedly of amiable older gents, Rieflin stands
out as sharing a wry and playful
From the Bay to SW7, via the Bayou
Despite the title,
extent to which those doors might
actually be opened. In Toby Amies’
emotional sensibility, undiminished by his
advanced-stage bowel cancer, and
this is more than
a concert film. Jeff
Bridges narrates
film, we see Fripp nakedly emotional his rapport with Amies is at the CCR’s rise to fame
– crying as he recalls spiritual For the paid-up fan, it’s unshowily heart of the film. When we learn around their
mentor JG Bennett. We see him revelatory. When talk turns to that his disease has fatally run its show at London’s
describe an observation made by the Greg Lake, it seems you can speak course, King Crimson carries on, Royal Albert Hall in 1970 – a point at
director as “shite”. When Amies asks ill of the dead if you try. An early and we are reminded that as sad as which, in the wake of The Beatles’
whether he can film him warming lineup is described anecdotally as his passing is, he spent a chunk of demise, CCR were plausibly the
up, Fripp throws the question back “a bunch of cunts”. Larks’ Tongues his final months doing something biggest band on Earth. The story is told
serviceably, with archive interviews
at him, the answer hanging implicit. percussionist Jamie Muir is revealed remarkable, which took him out of
and footage – including the group’s
Amies is an empathetic kind of to be quite a dude, and we learn (sort the everyday. As it stands today, it own on-tour movies. The hit-heavy if
filmmaker – during the making of of accidentally) that singer Jakko seems likely that King Crimson might almost businesslike Albert Hall show
TONY LEVIN
his previous doc The Man Whose Jakszyk got custody of a bed and also have played for the last time. itself mostly reminds how faithful
Mind Exploded (2013) he effectively a canteen of cutlery in his recent Although Robert Fripp might have CCR’s albums were to their unadorned
became his subject’s carer – and divorce. When Mick Jagger tells other ideas on that, of course. country rock. ANDREW MUELLER

FROM
THE JAM
SURRENDER
40TH ANNIVERSARY
+ VERY SPECIAL GUESTS
‘CELEBRATE THE BULLET’ 40 YEARS ON

PLAYING THE ALBUM AND OTHER FAVOURITES
NOVEMBER 2022
7 OCT DORKING, DORKING HALLS
PLUS
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4 NOV GILLINGHAM, THE GREAT HALL
12 NOV LEEDS, BECKETT UNIVERSITY
18 NOV CHELTENHAM, TOWN HALL
THU 10 NEWCASTLE BOILER SHOP
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COVENTRY, HMV EMPIRE
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26 NOV NOTTINGHAM, ROCK CITY SAT 12 EDINBURGH LA BELLE ANGELE
2 DEC GUILDFORD, G LIVE
3 DEC BRIGHTON, CENTRE SUN 13 NORWICH EPIC STUDIOS
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20 JAN
LONDON, INDIGO AT THE O2
BATH, THE FORUM
TUE 15 SOUTHAMPTON THE 1865
21 JAN
27 JAN
CAMBRIDGE, CORN EXCHANGE
EDINBURGH, QUEENS HALL
WED 16 CAMBRIDGE JUNCTION
28 JAN GLASGOW, BARROWLANDS THU 17 MANCHESTER BAND ON THE WALL
10 MAR NEWCASTLE, BOILER SHOP
11 MAR MIDDLESBROUGH, TOWN HALL FRI 18 LONDON KOKO
31 MAR
1 APR
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MANCHESTER, O2 RITZ
SAT 19 COVENTRY HMV EMPIRE
14 APR ROYAL LEAMINGTON SPA, THE ASSEMBLY
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Th e c ro s s i n G BOWWOWWOW
4 0 t h A n n i v e r s a r y To u r 1 9 8 3 - 2 0 2 3
P LU S V E RY SPE C IA L G U E ST S
Fri 26 May Bexhill De La Warr Pavilion
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Thu 01 June Lincoln Engine Shed
Fri 02 June Leeds Beckett University
Friday 07 April Saturday 22 April Friday 12 May Saturday 27 May Sat 03 June Manchester o2 Ritz
Manchester Birmingham Nottingham Northampton Sun 04 June Norwich Epic Studios
o2 Ritz The Crossing The Level Roadmender Wed 07 June Edinburgh Queens Hall
Saturday 08 April Friday 28 April Saturday 13 May Wednesday 31 May Thu 08 June Newcastle Boiler Shop
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C
ONFIRMED Kate Bush fan
John Lydon can remember
the reaction when he played
her debut single “Wuthering
Heights” to his mother:
“Oh Johnny, it sounds like a bag o’cats.”
The 19-year-old Bush’s strident vocals
and taste for interpretive dance divided
opinions, Melody Maker not far off the
mark when it described her 1978 debut
album The Kick Inside as “a cross
between Linda Lewis and Macbeth’s three
witches”. However, Tom Doyle’s excellent
compendium, Running Up That Hill,
shows how the wide-eyed hippie came
to be fêted as a great pop visionary.
As with Craig Brown’s Beatles
extravaganza One Two Three Four, Doyle
eschews a straight narrative, instead
capturing Bush’s essence through
50 fragments. There’s a memorable
appearance on Saturday-morning kids’
show Swap Shop, eyewitness insight
into her recording process, details of the REVIEWED
‘KT’ logos hidden in her album sleeves, THIS MONTH
and – most significantly – notes from
the day Doyle spent at Bush’s Berkshire
pad for an interview in the run-up to her
2005 comeback album, Aerial. “I just
find it frustrating that people think I’m
Major fandom:
some kind of weirdo recluse that never Kate Bush in
comes out into the world,” Bush told Tokyo, June 1978
him. Her records can be challenging and
otherworldly, and her working methods draughtsman before taking redundancy softened some of Damon Albarn’s gor-
somewhat haphazard, but the woman to seek stardom with Geordie. The band blimey excesses as the Essex boys became
behind the music seems remarkably RUNNING UP THAT made Top Of The Pops but lived hand- incredibly successful young British
grounded. “Friends of mine in the HILL: 50 VISIONS to-mouth, Roger Daltrey taking pity on artists. Amiable but troubled, Coxon was
business don’t know how dishwashers OF KATE BUSH Johnson, inviting him to his Tommy-built a forces kid who wound up at the same
TOM DOYLE
work,” she says darkly. “For me, that’s NINE-EIGHT, £20
mansion one weekend to tell him, “The Colchester school as super-confident
frightening.” The deepest mysteries of 9/10 secret is don’t give up. Never give up.” Albarn. As he writes in his angsty memoir
Bush’s art remain largely unsolved, then, Following that advice was a struggle Verse, Chorus, Monster!, the pair
but Running Up That Hill offers a range of after the hits dried up, but Johnson’s collaborated through a range of school
new ways to appreciate the single-minded passion was rekindled in 1978 when he and college bands, with the last of them –
inspiration that it springs from. was called on to help fix Ian Dury’s limo. Seymour – morphing into Blur when they
signed to Food Records.
WHEN he was invited to join AC/DC in A baggy hit with ’91’s “There’s No Other
1980 in the wake of singer Bon Scott’s Way” might have defined them, but a long-
death, Brian Johnson was 32, living
with his parents near Gateshead, fitting Her records can haul US tour helped to excise yearnings
for transatlantic success and signalled a
car roofs during the day and playing
working men’s clubs at night with the THE LIVES OF BRIAN
be otherworldly, change of direction. 1993’s Modern Life
Is Rubbish was the Britpop blueprint,
second incarnation of his glam-rock band though the ultra-indie Coxon bridled
Geordie. Within days of saying yes he
was at Compass Point Studios in Nassau,
BRIAN JOHNSON
PENGUIN, £25
8/10
but Bush herself as Albarn’s ironic take on Englishness
charmed a huge audience. “I just wanted
helping to put together the immense Back
In Black. As he writes in The Lives Of
seems grounded arty-farty people to like us as I thought we
were arty-farty people,” he concedes. “I
Brian, he was very much unprepared: was uncomfortable when the hooligans
“I just had a carrier bag containing two “Suddenly, I just knew that I could do it and new-lad brigade caught wind of us.”
pairs of socks, three pairs of underpants, again – even in my thirties, even after Tellingly, Verse, Chorus, Monster!
one pair of jeans, a denim jacket, trying and failing,” he writes. That logic barely mentions the colossal Parklife,
KOH HASEBE/SHINKO MUSIC/GETTY IMAGES
three T-shirts… and a cloth cap. It was may be hard to follow, but on the basis and becomes increasingly bleak as
everything that I owned.” of this good-natured book, who would it documents the alcohol issues that
His second pass at an autobiography begrudge the garrulous Johnson the luck dominated Coxon’s life from the mid-
(following 2009’s car-oriented Rockers that came his way? 1990s (he was in the Priory for much
And Rollers), this volume focuses on VERSE, CHORUS, of the recording of 2003’s Think Tank).
Johnson’s circuitous route to the top. MONSTER! “YOU’RE the only one I like out of your Cleaned up but forever fragile, it’s easy to
GRAHAM COXON
Raised in mean-spirited circumstances – FABER, £20
shit band,” Liam Gallagher tended to see why his contemporaries liked Coxon
his father’s family were disdainful of his 7/10 tell Graham Coxon whenever they met at so much, but the border between self-
Italian mother – Johnson married young, the height of the Blur vs Oasis wars, the effacing and self-annihilating here
had two children and was working as a guitarist’s nervous, discordant bits having is something of a blur. JIM WIRTH

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Looking to a
Not Fade Away

cool soul-jazz
future: Ramsey
Lewis in 1960
Fondly remembered this month…
RAMSEY LEWIS
Crossover jazz pianist
19352022
A
FTER hearing Dobie Gray’s “The ‘In’ Crowd” on the radio in
May 1965, jazz pianist Ramsey Lewis opted to lead his trio
through an instrumental version of the song that evening
in Washington DC. The response from the audience at the
Bohemian Caverns nightspot was overwhelming. Lewis and
bandmates Eldee Young (bass) and Issac “Red” Holt (drums) injected it
with a cool soul-jazz swing, setting a precedent for their recordings that
followed. Their live version of “The ‘In’ Crowd” duly went Top 5 in the US,
shifting over a million copies and winning a Grammy. The Ramsey Lewis
Trio consolidated their crossover success with another couple of hits: a
funky reworking of “Hang On Sloopy” and the old gospel spiritual “Wade
In The Water”. The latter featured a fresh iteration of the trio, with bassist
Cleveland Eaton and drummer Maurice White, later to form Earth, Wind &
Fire. Both singles went gold.
Raised in Chicago, Lewis was playing piano at four, fascinated by the
nuances of jazz, gospel and classical music. He performed in his father’s
choir and jazz group The Clefs while still at school, before hooking up with
Young and Holt in 1955, the trio debuting a year later with Ramsey Lewis
And His Gentle-Men Of Swing. Later, Lewis helped popularise the Fender
Rhodes electric piano, his fusionist blend of jazz, funk and R&B hitting an
artistic high on 1974’s Sun Goddess, co-produced with White and fronted
by another Earth, Wind & Fire member, singer Philip Bailey.
In later years, Lewis balanced live and studio work with duties as a radio
presenter in Chicago, hosting Legends Of Jazz and The Ramsey Lewis
Morning Show. Much sampled by the likes of Run-DMC, Gang Starr, Mos
Def and Beck, he was named a Jazz Master by the National Endowment
For The Arts in 2007.
DRUMMIE ZEB SONNY WEST ANTON FIER JOHN HARTMAN

Aswad mainstay Texan rock’n’roller Golden Palominos captain Doobies drummer
19592022 19372022 19562022 19502021
Alongside Brinsley Forde and Tony Sonny West didn’t release his first Drummer Anton Fier had already Initially drawn to California for
Robinson, Angus “Drummie Zeb” solo album until 2002, though his played in various bands around his a supposed Moby Grape reunion
Gaye was part of the classic Aswad legendary status had long been native Cleveland, including Pere in 1969, Virginian drummer John
lineup, having co-founded the band secured by then. Aside from issuing Ubu, prior to moving to New York Hartman instead co-founded The
in London’s Ladbroke Grove in 1975. a handful of rockabilly rarities in the and joining The Feelies for their 1980 Doobie Brothers 12 months later.
The first British reggae outfit signed late ’50s, West saw Buddy Holly & debut, Crazy Rhythms. A year later 1971’s arrival of Michael Hossack
to an international label (Island), The Crickets record his “All My Love” he founded highly eclectic outfit The heralded the band’s double-
Gaye excelled as the band’s drummer as “Oh Boy!” in 1957 before Holly cut Golden Palominos, whose initial drummer lineup, with Hartman
and lead singer, fronting big hits like another of his efforts, “Rave On”, ranks included John Zorn and Bill remaining a key player until
“Don’t Turn Around” and “Shine”. early the following year. Laswell. Fier subsequently led the quitting in 1979. He rejoined the
band for over three decades. Doobies for a 1987 reunion, sticking
Aswad’s around for comeback albums Cycles
Drummie Zeb
sings their hit WES FREED and Brotherhood.
“Don’t Turn Drive-By Truckers illustrator
Around”, 1988
19642022 JOHN TILL
The distinctive iconography of Janis Joplin guitarist
GAI TERRELL/REDFERNS; DAVID REDFERN/REDFERNS
Virginian artist Wes Freed became 19452022

synonymous with Drive-By John Till played alongside Richard
Truckers after he created the cover Manuel as a teenager in Ontario,
of 2001’s Southern Rock Opera. before joining Ronnie Hawkins’
Freed first met the band in 1997 at band, The Hawks, when the previous
Bubbapalooza, the festival he lineup defected to Bob Dylan. Till
co-founded in Atlanta. He went remained with Hawkins until 1969,
on to design the majority of the when he replaced Sam Andrew in
Truckers’ album sleeves, along with Janis Joplin’s Kozmic Blues Band. He
posters, merchandise and guitarist was a member of the Full Tilt Boogie
Mike Cooley’s signature ‘Cooley Band that backed Joplin on 1971’s
Bird’ logo. posthumous classic, Pearl.

On the cusp of
reel revolution:
Jean-Luc
Godard in 1959
JEANLUC GODARD
Pioneer of La Nouvelle Vague
19302022
A
RGUABLY the most influential French filmmaker of his
generation, Jean-Luc Godard came to the fore with 1960’s
Breathless, upending the tenets of traditional cinema by
making use of bold jump-cuts, semi-improvised dialogue,
handheld camerawork and a fluid narrative. Ostensibly a
crime caper, the film made stars of Jean-Paul Belmondo and Jean Seberg,
holding true to Godard’s assertion that “all you need to make a movie is a
girl and a gun”. It marked the beginning of a golden period in his artistic
life. Wife Anna Karina took the lead in “neorealist musical” A Woman Is
A Woman (1961), followed by the episodic It’s My Life (1962) and 1964’s
Band Of Outsiders, which included a memorable dance routine later
used as a template for Uma Thurman and John Travolta in Pulp Fiction.
Other key films included the Brigitte Bardot-led Contempt (a particular
favourite of Martin Scorsese) and 1965’s Alphaville, a sci-fi noir filmed
entirely around Paris at night.
As the decade wore on, Godard’s radical political views became more
prominent in his films, largely centred around Marxist philosophy. One
such outlet was 1968’s One Plus One, also known as Sympathy For The
Devil, which documented The Rolling Stones’ recording of said track at
London’s Olympic Studios, interspersed with scenes of rifle-toting Black
Panthers reading from revolutionary texts in a junkyard. Always a volatile
character, Godard punched producer Iain Quarrier when the latter made an
unauthorised edit.
Originally a movie critic based in Paris’s Latin Quarter, Godard’s art
became even more challenging throughout the decades, from 1987’s
exploratory reimagining of King Lear to 2004’s overtly political, self-
referencing Our Music. In tribute, French President Emmanuel Macron
likened the writer-director to “an apparition in French cinema. Then he
became a master of it. Jean-Luc Godard, the most iconoclastic of New Wave
filmmakers, invented a resolutely modern, intensely free art.”
LUKE BELL well as a songwriter, arranger electronica, hitting an early peak at the turn of the millennium,
Country singer and occasional singer – Paul with 1984’s Assassin. Two years later the drummer also known as Mr
(1990–2022) Sartin formed irreverent folk he co-wrote Sam Fox’s international Razzcocks had played with a wide
Inspired by Merle Haggard, Waylon duo Belshazzar’s Feast with Paul hit “Touch Me (I Want Your Body)” range of acts including singer-
ALBUM/ALAMY STOCK PHOT; PAUL NATKIN/GETTY IMAGES
Jennings and Hank Snow, former Hutchinson in 1995. Three years and, in 1996, formed the Tangerine songwriter Roger Moon and rapper
ranch hand Luke Bell fashioned later he founded Dr Faustus, before Dream-influenced Redshift. Blade. Frustrated by their failure
his own brand of timeless honky- accepting an invitation to join to get signed, Dufour quit The
tonk, drawing on vivid character folk ensemble Bellowhead. ART ROSENBAUM Libertines in 2001, replaced by
narratives and a rich baritone. He cut Sartin’s tenure lasted until their Grammy-winning folklorist Gary Powell.
a self-titled debut in 2012, followed dissolution in 2016. 19382022
by 2014’s Don’t Mind If I Do and, two University professor, artist, banjo PnB ROCK
years later, Luke Bell. JIM POST player and archivist Art Rosenbaum Rapper and singer
Chicago folk veteran travelled around the US for decades, 19912022
PAUL SARTIN 19392022 documenting blues, country, Philadelphia’s Rakim Allen, aka
Bellowhead man Texas-born singer-songwriter Jim gospel, folk and bluegrass. He won PnB Rock, first broke through with
19712022 Post hit the US Top 10 in 1968 with a Grammy for 2008’s Art Of Field 2016’s “Selfish”, the lead single
A master of oboe and violin – as “Reach Out Of The Darkness”, billed Recording Volume I: Fifty Years Of from mixtape GTTM: Goin Thru
with his wife Cathy Traditional American Music. The Motions. He issued two official
as Friend And Lover. studio albums and collaborated
Still reaching
out: Jim Post
He settled in Chicago JESSE POWELL with the likes of Young Thug and
in Sept 1977 after the couple R&B singer Ed Sheeran.
split, becoming 19712022
a regular on the Co-written with producer Carl IRENE PAPAS
local folk scene Roland, “You” became a sizeable US Greek actor and
alongside John Prine hit for Indiana singer Jesse Powell singer
and Steve Goodman. in 1999, reaching the Billboard Top 19262022
10. Parent album ’Bout It went gold, Irene Papas was primarily known
MARK further bolstered by minor success for her decades-long career
SHREEVE “I Wasn’t With It”. Powell’s fourth in film, though she made her
Synth-savvy and final LP, Jesse, landed in 2003. recording debut with 1969’s Songs
songwriter Of Theodorakis. Three years later
19572022 PAUL DUFOUR she appeared, controversially, on
Mark Shreeve Early Libertines drummer Aphrodite’s Child’s 666, simulating
emerged during DOB UNKNOWN2022 orgasm on “‘∞’ (Infinity)”.
the first wave of UK Prior to joining The Libertines ROB HUGHES

d CDs
al it y co lle ct io ns of vinyl records an
in viewing ALL qu
We are interested d Irel an d. We’ll travel to yo
u.
ut th e U K an
ANYWHERE througho lk w ith one of our spec
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STRUMMER LOVIN’ Joe Strummer & The

Very persuasive and tempting Mescaleros backstage
at the Fillmore, San
review of the new Strummer boxset Francisco, July 6, 1999
and book by Damien Love in your
November issue. Unlike the
predominantly unreleased and
rare tracks on Joe Strummer 001,
volume 2 is three old albums, all
excellent in their own right, and just
one disc of unreleased rarities. I’ll
hold out for the 2023 RSD single disc,
fingers crossed.
I know Damien had a lot of ground
to cover, but I’m surprised there’s
no mention of the 20-minute
“Minstrel Boy” that ends Global
A Go-Go in some style. The
Mescaleros show their musical
chops in a magnificent display of
repetition that builds into a groove
that definitely does not outstay its
welcome. Think Dylan & The Band
down in the basement.
I dug out Joe Strummer 001 and
found Allan Jones’ review from
Uncut Take 257 [October 2018].
Imagine my surprise to see that
Anton Corbijn’s stunning
photograph of Joe in the early
noughties accompanied the 2018
review first. Is Uncut consciously or
subconsciously critiquing the
overwhelmingly recycled content of
the new boxset? I imagine I’m not time. He wrote so well about her and Then there was the story about FLOYD FACTS
the only Uncut subscriber to notice it felt like he joined a lot of dots. Her Rusty, which I read just before In the August issue, Pink Floyd fan
the (un)intended repeat. talk of mushrooms did make me seeing Elvis Costello and Nick Lowe. Les Gallop asked for more info on a
Bruce Marsh, Newbury Park laugh, though. I remember seeing The Resurrection Of Rust played charity gig the band did in late 1970
Björk for the first time at Reading between the acts, and Elvis high- or early ’71. According to Glenn
COVERS ROCK Festival in 1995. My friend and I had lighted it during his set. After the Povey’s The Complete Pink Floyd:
ANTHONY PIDGEON/REDFERNS
Your cover story with Björk in your taken a load of mushrooms and we show I went to the merch booth and The Ultimate Reference (Sterling,
November issue was terrific. Having were transfixed by the fireworks bought a copy, which had been New York, 2016; p166), the Floyd
followed her for many years, I know that went off as her set closed. We signed by both members of Rusty. It played The Roundhouse on January
she always gives good interviews. stood there, watching the skies light sounds pretty good, too. 17, 1971 with “Atom Heart Mother” in
But I thought Stephen Troussé’s up with all manner of colourful Then there was An Audience With the setlist as was customary for any
piece on her was one of the best and explosions… long after the colourful Roger Chapman. I loved his answer Floyd show in that period. Povey
most personal I’ve read for a long explosions stopped! Good times. to the question about throwing a does not mention the show being
Anyway, thanks again for mic-stand at Bill Graham at a Family a charity, and that seems like the
another great issue. Miles Davis, show. I saw them at the Fillmore kind of arcana he unearths in this
Wilco, Björk… feels like you’ve East, where they were sandwiched excellent reference book, so maybe
broken some ground this year. between The Nice and Ten Years this was not the same gig. However,
Susie Meadows, Brentford After. Unfortunately for Family, they it’s the only London Roundhouse
were virtually unknown in the US, show listed in that time period.
THE DEVIL’S MUSIC while both other acts had gotten Mike Villano, Lake Balboa, CA
I’ve been an Uncut reader and some radio play. During their set a
subscriber for 20 years, dating heckler yelled out “It sucks!”, to HILLAGE PEOPLE
back to Keith Richards telling us which Chapman snarled back “Oh, I enjoyed an Audience With Steve
all about The Devil’s Music, but it sucks, does it?” You could tell he Hillage in your September issue. It
for various reasons Take 303 was more than a little ticked; maybe reminded me of one strange trip that
[August issue] may be the best that was the show where he threw a took place on a cold February in 1979
I’ve read. For starters, the cover mic-stand and was told never to – being a little dazed and confused,
story on The Beatles 60 years on darken Graham’s doorknob again. and at the time being a metal and
offered a lot of details on the Add in articles about Christine Johnny-come-lately punk fan who
stories we’ve long heard; for McVie and George Clinton and Al had failed to get into a local gig up
example, I never thought about Jardine’s My Life In Music and one the road that night – when
Pete Best playing in bands after couldn’t ask for much more. Thanks a long-haired philosophy student
he got the sack. again. Larry Pryluck, via email named Nigel (who I was on nodding

CROSSWORD
One set of King Gizzard And The Lizard Wizard’s
three new albums on vinyl: Ice, Death, Planets,
Lungs…, Laminated Denim and Changes
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
terms with at my regular central
Newcastle watering hole) persuaded DECEMBER 2022
EDITOR Michael Bonner
me to come and see Steve Hillage
8 9 EDITOR (ONE-SHOTS) John Robinson
with him at Newcastle City Hall, as
ART EDITOR Marc Jones
he had a spare ticket (of course). REVIEWS EDITOR Tom Pinnock
After having only partially CONTRIBUTING EDITOR Sam Richards
convinced me Hillage was no longer 10 11 12 13 14 15
SENIOR DESIGNER Michael Chapman
the Hurdy Gurdy Man and had in PRODUCTION EDITOR Mick Meikleham
fact recently discovered punk, I SENIOR SUB EDITOR Mike Johnson
agreed. Support had been French PICTURE EDITOR Phil King
16 17
“punk” outfit Téléphone (more like EDITOR AT LARGE Allan Jones
CONTRIBUTORS Jason Anderson, Laura
’70s hard rock) whom we just caught 18
Barton, Mark Bentley, Greg Cochrane,
the tail-end of. The main event was a 19 20 21
Leonie Cooper, Jon Dale, Stephen Dalton,
mixture of old Hillage songs like Stephen Deusner, Lisa-Marie Ferla, Michael
Hann, Nick Hasted, Rob Hughes, Trevor
“Light In The Sky” with new songs 22 Hungerford, John Lewis, April Long,
like “1988 Aktivator” (Hillage was of Damien Love, Alastair McKay, Piers Martin,
23 24 25 26 27 Rob Mitchum, Paul Moody, Andrew
course then at a crossroads between Mueller, Sharon O’Connell, Michael Odell,
Gong, his solo albums and System 28
Erin Osmon, Pete Paphides, Louis Pattison,
Jonathan Romney, Bud Scoppa, Johnny
7). The “punk” tracks sat a little Sharp, Dave Simpson, Neil Spencer, Terry
oddly with the more psychedelic 29 30 Staunton, Graeme Thomson, Luke Torn,
tracks, but of course, his elongated Stephen Troussé, Jaan Uhelszki, Wyndham
31 32 Wallace, Peter Watts, Richard Williams,
cover of Donovan’s “Hurdy Gurdy Nigel Williamson, Tyler Wilcox, Jim Wirth,
Man” was the mind-warping Damon Wise, Rob Young
33 34
standout as the bearded guru COVER PHOTOGRAPH: Matthew Rolston/
MR Photo/Contour/Getty Images
morphed before me in a haze of HOW TO ENTER THANKS TO: Johnny Sharp
neon and patchouli and my TEXT AND COVERS PRINTED BY
The letters in the shaded squares form an anagram of a song by Bob Dylan. When you’ve
consciousness span out into the worked out what it is, email your answer to: competitions@uncut.co.uk. The first correct
Gibbons UK Ltd
cosmos on that faraway Saturday entry picked at random will win a prize. Closing date: Wednesday, November 9, 2022.
night. Over the years, I’ve got into PRODUCTION & OPERATIONS
This competition is only open to European residents.
PUBLISHING PRODUCTION MANAGER
Gong, but nevertheless, I’d rather CLUESACROSS 3 There’s a lot of talk about “Standing In The Craig Broadbridge
have had the short sharp shock 1+34A A single from ELO that wasn’t a hit, Way Of Control” (6) DISTRIBUTED BY Marketforce (UK) Ltd,
of a punk gig at the time! But thanks, but I’m thinking of the tune all the time 4+11D The Jam present their final studio 5 Churchill Place, Canary Wharf,
London E14 5HU
anyway, Nigel, for expanding my (4-3-2-3-2-2-4) album (3-4)
horizons… under slightly false 9+8A Guitarist whose solo albums include 5 The last advert to include mention of a
Empty Glass (4-9) grunge band (3) CLIENT SERVICES
pretences. Dave McKie, Newcastle MANAGER, COMMERCIAL & PARTNERSHIPS
10 Email gang he confused with Van 6 Band that had ’60s hit with cover of
Morrison’s The _______ ____ (7-4) traditional blues song “Baby, Please Don’t Paul Ward advertise@uncut.co.uk
ALL JAZZED UP 14 The Alarm were unprepared to release Go” (4)
Been meaning to do this for a while, this title track from album (3) 7+26D Number one hit maker with “Band Of NME NETWORKS
but I’ve finally got around to writing 16 “And in my ____ of darkness, she is Gold” (5-5) CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER Meng Ru Kuok
standing right in front of me”, from The 11 (See 4down) CHIEF OPERATING & COMMERCIAL OFFICER
to say thanks for turning me on to Holly Bishop
Beatles’ “Let It Be” (4) 12+15D In 2008 Van Morrison performed his
the new British jazz scene. Like a lot MANAGING EDITOR Jeremy Abbott
17 A very meaty compilation album from 1968 album _____ _____ Live At The
of music fans who grew up on a diet The Cramps (3-3-4) Hollywood Bowl, also released on album ART DIRECTOR Simon Freeborough
of guitar rock, for years I ignored 19 (See 24 down) (5-5) PRODUCTION EDITOR Eustance Huang
contemporary jazz as “not for me” – 20 Incorrectly state the name of Rory 13 “We got a love between us and it’s like REGIONAL EDITOR (APAC) Karen Gwee
too wilfully complex, too indulgent, Gallagher’s band (5) ___________”, Suede (11) HEAD OF MARKETING Benedict Ransley
too tough a nut to crack. But after 21 George Michael and Mary J Blige hit 14 “There’s a ____ goin’ on down in cell SENIOR MANAGER, OPERATIONS &
version of a Stevie Wonder song (2) block number 9”, as covered by Dr Feelgood EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT Amy Fletcher
reading about the likes of Sons Of 23 Grandaddy single that was previously (4) CONTENT PRODUCTION ASSOCIATE
Kemet, Moses Boyd, Nubya Garcia, switched off (3-3-2) 15 (See 12 down) Billy Chua
Floating Points (with the late, great 25 That’s torn it, Sonic Youth had an album 18 Strangely softened a US alt.metal band
Pharoah Sanders), The Comet Is called Rather ______ (6) (8)
Coming and many more mentioned 29 Blue Mink, fronted by award winning 21 Johnny ___, US R&B singer who
songwriter Roger Cook, had a hit with “The accidentally shot himself dead backstage
in your pages – in full-page reviews
______ Man” (6) in 1954 (3) A Caldecott Music Group Company
and features, not just token 30 “For _____, Whenever I May Find Her”, 22 Fontaines DC album is a remix of Lodger
mentions – I have recently taken the song from Simon And Garfunkel’s Parsley, (6)
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Alabaster DePlume
The motivational jazz poet on the records that make him want to
live: “When I hear someone giving a voice to the surreal, it’s a relief”
PAUL ROBESON CAPTAIN BEEFHEART
“An Eriskay Love Lilt” HIS MASTER’S VOICE, & THE MAGIC BAND
1938 “Peon” STRAIGHT, 1970
When I was a kid, my parents had a gramophone. Beefheart wrote this on a piano because he
Sometimes when they were getting really drunk, couldn’t play piano. He wanted to escape the
we’d put on some old stuff, and I remember railroad tracks of what your skills turn into. If you
Paul Robeson singing “An Eriskay Love Lilt”. get well practised at something, your behaviour
Something about the peaceful enjoyment of sadness has stuck with me. It’s becomes predictable. So he wrote this music on a piano, because he’d then
a Scottish tune but it’s pentatonic – I use a lot of pentatonic shit on my tunes have to approach it more like a child. That idea stuck with me, because I
and people have said it sounds Ethiopian, but it’s just pentatonic scales. want to escape the mechanical behaviour I develop. I believe there’s a lot of
Paul Robeson was persecuted under McCarthyism, and that’s what killed mechanisms in our society that that destroy lives, actually. I want to do the
him really. He was an astonishing talent that we’ve not heard about enough opposite, which is to become more human and more vulnerable. “Peon”
as he was a black communist in the States, a dangerous combination. sounds like it’s bonkers random noises, but it touches my heart somehow.
MELT-BANANA JOHN COOPER CLARKE

Teeny Shiny A-ZAP, 2000 “Twat” EPIC, 1979
Some of their songs are five seconds long. It’s “What kind of creature bore you/Was it some
brutal and childish and hilarious. I love how kind of bat?/They can’t find a good word for you/
they take the work seriously but they don’t take But I can: twat!” There was a period when I put
themselves seriously. They have a grasp of down music and gave up on trying to make a
the absurd. I don’t know about you, but I find band happen. I began travelling as a poet and
this whole world absurd – I couldn’t explain this world to you, I don’t performing by myself, just speaking. And it’s at this time that I was very
understand it, in my experience it is surreal. So when I hear someone giving inspired by John Cooper Clarke and the character that he brings to a
a voice to the surreal, it’s a relief. Growing up, I was into Guns N’ Roses performance, that kind of bitter humour and being able to play with insults
and Pantera and Corrosion Of Conformity. They all took themselves very in that Mancunian way. He’s just amazingly powerful with his words. If
seriously and that’s fine. But it was great to experience something that has we’re having poets we could have Vladimir Vladimirovich Mayakovsky,
a joyous, surreal sense of humour. he’s amazing. But I don’t think he put any records out.
THE SEATBELTS DEAD KENNEDYS

Cowboy Bebop OST VICTOR, 1998 Fresh Fruit For Rotting Vegetables
CHERRY RED, 1980
Somebody asked me not long ago, “How did you
get into jazz? Who did you listen to first?” And The material is pretty grisly and trashy, yet it’s got
I thought to myself, ‘What’s the true answer to this politics in there. And I love to see a trashy voice
that question?’ Was it John Coltrane? Maybe it speaking with a noble heart. I didn’t feel I could
was Thelonious Monk? No, come on Gus. There’s speak politics overtly in my material until my dad
something deeper and truer than that. And I realised that I got into jazz died in 2014. One of the things he complained about to me as he was dying
because I was watching a funny, ridiculous Japanese action cartoon called was that no-one talks about politics properly in their music. And I realised
Cowboy Bebop, where crazy business happens. The music is very precision later on that I would start putting overt politics in my music, because my
stuff, and it’s a very Japanese version of what jazz is. But before then I would dad had complained that I wasn’t. Actually, there is no apolitical act. But I’ll
never have enjoyed any jazz. It felt sort of impregnable, but somehow I got tell you what: the kids, the young people of this world, they’re amazing at
into it through this anime cartoon. organising and they’re gonna do awesome shit. I believe in them.
THELONIOUS MONK LEONARD COHEN

“Japanese Folk Song (Kojo No Tsuki)” “Anthem” COLUMBIA, 1992
CBS, 1967
When I go to my mum’s in Manchester, we listen
“Kojo No Tsuki” translates as “The Moon Over
INTERVIEW: SAM RICHARDS. PHOTO: CHRIS ALMEIDA
to Leonard Cohen. She used to listen to this stuff

The Ruined Castle”. The original Japanese song in the car driving us to school. And we listen to
has a lot of sorrow inside, and when he translates this stuff now, when I go up to visit and we get
it into the American language of improvisation it hammered and speak the truth about whatever’s
retains that sorrow, but in a playful way. There’ll be people for whom jazz going on. “Ring the bells that still can ring/Forget your perfect offering/There
just sounds like random notes, and fair enough, when I was listening to is a crack in everything/That’s how the light gets in…” I love his sense of
this I realised there is a piece of composed music in these random notes, it’s humour, his appreciation of sadness, and especially his willingness to be
just that no-one is playing it. If you listen carefully, you can hear it. And it’s vulnerable, to hold himself up as a funny or disgusting or human example
exciting to hear something that’s there, even though no-one is playing it. that helps us accept ourselves, ’cos that’s what I’m working on.
Alabaster DePlume’s Gold is out now on International Anthem/Lost Map/Total Refreshment Centre; he plays Lost Horizon,
Bristol (October 20), Barbican, London (November 12) and Norwich Arts Centre (November 25)

the new album
21st october

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ARCTIC MONKEYS GET IN THE CAR

The new album out now

P and seldom-told stories from the past 60 years of music. This

4 Instant Karma! 58 Davy Graham 84 Bob Dylan

DECEMBER 2022 • UNCUT •3

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“My looks got

me into trouble” Peter Frampton on reluctant Yeah, it might be tough for

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W exploded out of CBGB

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“We call it ‘Chicago-born’”

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MELODY’S ECHO CHAMBER LIVE

H questions about the name she chose for

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FENELLA GOAT JULIAN COPE TWAIN

MOTEL RADIO ABRAXAS THE LEAF LIBRARY DARREN HAYMAN

SKINSHAPE SAY SHE SHE TENCI OLD FIRE

FAUNESS GHOST FUNK ORCHESTRA DAWN RICHARD ARCHERS OF LOAF

17 HEATHMAN’S ROAD, LONDON SW6 4TJ - CARGORECORDS.CO.UK - INFO@CARGORECORDS.CO.UK

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A COLLECTION OF B-SIDES, RARITIES AND REMIXES

“For me, life

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How did you meet Gillian Welch

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‘America’s greatest band. The

Plus a live 2002 concert, a 2001 radio

Includes a deluxe 84-page book featuring

Also available on 7LP, 2LP, 8CD, 2CD, and

THE UNCUT GUIDE TO THIS MONTH’S KEY RELEASES

KING GIZZARD &

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to be no way forward, they abandoned

THE LIZARDS OF OZ synth, guitar,

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Melody makers: KG creative process because the

songwriting has developed a lot, so can expel whatever quite there.

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depicts a kind of Black Mirror-style

MONKEYS entitled “A Dandy In Aspic”, psycho-

Understatement Richard On which the

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DANIEL BACHMAN touches on electroclash, all created

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EZRA COLLECTIVE with either song, but it’s nevertheless

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AMERICANA GOLD DUST

CAITLIN ROSE HONEY HARPER

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JAMBINAI JUNIOR BOYS

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Big Joanie: (l–r) art is a tapestry, by artist Angelica Ellis,

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