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Letters From Iwo Jima

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Letters From Iwo Jima

STARRING KEN WATANABE, KAZUNARI NINOMIYA, TSUYOSHI IHARA PLOT SYNOPSIS General Kuribayashi takes command of the defences of Iwo Jima, a strategically important Pacific island 520 miles south of Tokyo. Aware that the victory is impossible, he orders the men to dig a network of tunnels; he means to fight to the last man, delaying the Americans for as long as possible. Yet many of his officers are outraged: tactical withdrawals are considered dishonourable, they would rather commit seppuku. Several soldiers reflect on their fate over the long, brutal and hopeless battle. *** There's a scene in Flags Of Our Fathers when the US marines hear a series of muffled explosions, then break into one of the enemy tunnels dug into Mount Suribachi. Thy're appalled to find the obliterated corpses of an entire squad of Japanese soldiers, just minutes after they've blown themselves up. Letters From Iwo Jima replays that incident from the perspective of Saigo (pop star Kazunari Ninomiya), an enlisted man who's horrified by his comrades' suicidal zeal, and who makes his escape before the Americans arrive. Saigo is no one's idea of a hero, certainly not his own, but he's the heart and soul of this movie, a grim reverse angle on WWII's bloodiest battle and the militaristic nationalism that decreed there should be no Japanese survivors. Few movie stars have interrogated the nature of heroism as doggedly as Clint Eastwood over the years, but whatever else he may have left to say on the subject, Letters From Iwo Jima could prove to be his masterpiece. Even more monochromatic than Flags..., Letters... resonates with the themes in the earlier film, deepening and darkening our sense of young men wantonly sacrificed in the name of the state. In some ways this is a more straightforward picture, but not to its detriment. Beginning a few months before the US landings, it proceeds in linear fashion as General Kuribayashi (sympathetically played by Ken Watanabe) takes stock of a dire situation. Vastly outnumbered, denied reinforcements and air support (the Imperial Fleet has been decimated some months before), the Japanese have no chance of victory, even as they cling to the myth that the ruthlessly disciplined Japanese soldier is worth ten of his US adversaries. Ironically, his men's readiness to throw away their lives - to embrace death before dishonour - is the biggest hindrance to Kuribayashi's plan to make the Americans fight for the last inch of ground. Either way, Saigo loses. Iris Yamashita's screenplay draws on published correspondence from the general and imagines letters from Saigo to his wife in Tokyo, a device that allows us to understand them as men, not just military pawns (in Kuribayashi's first voice over, he's apologizing for not having seen to the kitchen floor). This is also the key to the film's mood, which hits the same rueful and reflective tone you find in Unforgiven, Bridges of Madison County and Million Dollar Baby... all films about the dying of the light. Directed with simple fluency and grace, Letters from Iwo Jima illuminates a desperately dark historical episode with rare insight and conviction. If Hiroshima is never mentioned, you might discern the shape of things to come in the ashen black sands of this volcanic outcrop. There is no triumphalism here, that famous flag-raising is relegated to the briefest long shot. This is a somber, moving, profound film that insists above all on the value of life itself. Tom Charity

STARRING KEN WATANABE, KAZUNARI NINOMIYA, TSUYOSHI IHARA

PLOT SYNOPSIS

General Kuribayashi takes command of the defences of Iwo Jima, a strategically important Pacific island 520 miles south of Tokyo. Aware that the victory is impossible, he orders the men to dig a network of tunnels; he means to fight to the last man, delaying the Americans for as long as possible. Yet many of his officers are outraged: tactical withdrawals are considered dishonourable, they would rather commit seppuku. Several soldiers reflect on their fate over the long, brutal and hopeless battle.

***

There’s a scene in Flags Of Our Fathers when the US marines hear a series of muffled explosions, then break into one of the enemy tunnels dug into Mount Suribachi. Thy’re appalled to find the obliterated corpses of an entire squad of Japanese soldiers, just minutes after they’ve blown themselves up. Letters From Iwo Jima replays that incident from the perspective of Saigo (pop star Kazunari Ninomiya), an enlisted man who’s horrified by his comrades’ suicidal zeal, and who makes his escape before the Americans arrive. Saigo is no one’s idea of a hero, certainly not his own, but he’s the heart and soul of this movie, a grim reverse angle on WWII’s bloodiest battle and the militaristic nationalism that decreed there should be no Japanese survivors.

Few movie stars have interrogated the nature of heroism as doggedly as Clint Eastwood over the years, but whatever else he may have left to say on the subject, Letters From Iwo Jima could prove to be his masterpiece. Even more monochromatic than Flags…, Letters… resonates with the themes in the earlier film, deepening and darkening our sense of young men wantonly sacrificed in the name of the state.

In some ways this is a more straightforward picture, but not to its detriment. Beginning a few months before the US landings, it proceeds in linear fashion as General Kuribayashi (sympathetically played by Ken Watanabe) takes stock of a dire situation. Vastly outnumbered, denied reinforcements and air support (the Imperial Fleet has been decimated some months before), the Japanese have no chance of victory, even as they cling to the myth that the ruthlessly disciplined Japanese soldier is worth ten of his US adversaries. Ironically, his men’s readiness to throw away their lives – to embrace death before dishonour – is the biggest hindrance to Kuribayashi’s plan to make the Americans fight for the last inch of ground. Either way, Saigo loses.

Iris Yamashita’s screenplay draws on published correspondence from the general and imagines letters from Saigo to his wife in Tokyo, a device that allows us to understand them as men, not just military pawns (in Kuribayashi’s first voice over, he’s apologizing for not having seen to the kitchen floor). This is also the key to the film’s mood, which hits the same rueful and reflective tone you find in Unforgiven, Bridges of Madison County and Million Dollar Baby… all films about the dying of the light.

Directed with simple fluency and grace, Letters from Iwo Jima illuminates a desperately dark historical episode with rare insight and conviction.

If Hiroshima is never mentioned, you might discern the shape of things to come in the ashen black sands of this volcanic outcrop. There is no triumphalism here, that famous flag-raising is relegated to the briefest long shot. This is a somber, moving, profound film that insists above all on the value of life itself.

Tom Charity

The Good Shepherd

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The Good Shepherd

STARRING MATT DAMON, ANGELINA JOLIE, ROBERT DE NIRO, WILLIAM HURT, JOHN TURTURRO, MICHAEL GAMBON PLOT SYNOPSIS Through the life and career of taciturn idealist Edward Wilson (Damon), who becomes "heart and soul" of the CIA, we follow the organisation's growth from its WW2 precursors through to its Cold War-era power and dominance. His steely dedication requires sacrifices which cost him first young love, then the trust of wife (Jolie) and son. He can count on nobody's loyalty, and his psychological battle with his KGB counterpart can never be fully won. THE Good Shepherd has the feel and span of a Great American Novel, crossing decades in pursuit of a mystery - the rise and reasoning of the Central Intelligence Agency. Mailer or De Lillo might broach such a subject, but in cinema few outside Oliver Stone have, since the late Seventies, possessed the cojones or hubris to chase after such a huge yet nebulous entity, whose very essence consists of secrets rarely yielded. Cinema is designed to show, not tell - how do you show the veiled, the hidden? By keeping things relatively straightforward - this is an austere, serious film. Long, sure, but in the wilful absence of any sensationalism it drives along with smart pacing and an awareness that this story is curiously gripping. And by giving us a central character who's flawed but intriguing. He represents the corruption of an ideal. Which is the perennial big American theme. De Niro has directed a full feature only once before (1993's A Bronx Tale). That he triumphs here, with intelligence and stamina (and a host of literary references, from Ovid to Le Carre), must be partly down to all he's absorbed from the giants he's worked with. But he's aided by a strong script from Eric Roth (The Insider, Munich), exec-producing from Coppola, and cinematography by Stone regular Robert Richardson. This may not grandstand like JFK, but it's more centred than the similarly ambitious Syriana or Bobby. It has real substance. At its heart is Damon's Wilson, who after a traumatic childhood becomes relentlessly focussed. As he deals with a close-to-home covert crisis during the Bay Of Pigs incident, we're given his back-story in flashbacks. A Skulls And Bones over-achiever at homo-erotic Yale, he's recruited by the Office Of Strategic Services during World War Two. In Blitz-era London and post-war Berlin, he excels, and is asked by General Sullivan (De Niro) to be one of the founders of the CIA. His acceptance defines the rest of his life: Wilson is a cold, clinical operator, a patriot beyond conscience, and thus the personal comes second to the political. He relinquishes his first (deaf) lover: then, after a shotgun marriage to insider "Clover" (Jolie, jumpy, too good-looking for the role), allows his own family to suffer. He's a machine, fuelled by belief but starved of trust. As Cold War paranoia reigns, he meets worthy Russian adversaries. By now, he's hooked on tension, codes, deceit, life-or-death decisions. Only those in the same game, from Washington to The Congo, can relate to him - fiery sidekick John Turturro, suspect superior William Hurt, foppish English spy Billy Crudup (patchy accent), FBI man Alec Baldwin and, ironically, the Russians who vow to bring him down (one of these is played, excellently, by John Sessions). The film also boasts Michael Gambon, as a British agent whose fall from grace denotes the loss of Wilson's initial innocence, plus cameos from Joe Pesci and Timothy Hutton. The Good Shepherd subtly criticises US interventionism - plus ca change - without beating its chest. As in the best drama, extreme violence occurs off-screen, but the threat is ever-present. (There's a rip-roaring exception to this when Turturro, torturing a Soviet informant, force-feeds him LSD - there follows an electric, trembling scene which throws you from your seat). All the foreboding, guilt and denial bears down on Wilson until, tricked into protecting his own son, he's a broken man. Or would be, were he not still buoyed by belief that "his" America is always right. "The rest of you are just visiting," he tells Pesci's mobster, flatly. Is Damon becoming the finest story-carrier working today? Having driven The Departed, he now bears nothing less than The Weight Of History here. Bespectacled but stoic, quiet "unless there's something to say", he underplays without a false step. He has acquired the genius to fade into invisibility when apt, to morph from grey-man to 3D-being when the heat's up. Could it be that De Niro is also a great director of actors? He certainly proves here that (like Eastwood) he can direct a mature, questioning film without didacticism or pomp. CHRIS ROBERTS

STARRING MATT DAMON, ANGELINA JOLIE, ROBERT DE NIRO, WILLIAM HURT, JOHN TURTURRO, MICHAEL GAMBON

PLOT SYNOPSIS

Through the life and career of taciturn idealist Edward Wilson (Damon), who becomes “heart and soul” of the CIA, we follow the organisation’s growth from its WW2 precursors through to its Cold War-era power and dominance. His steely dedication requires sacrifices which cost him first young love, then the trust of wife (Jolie) and son. He can count on nobody’s loyalty, and his psychological battle with his KGB counterpart can never be fully won.

THE Good Shepherd has the feel and span of a Great American Novel, crossing decades in pursuit of a mystery – the rise and reasoning of the Central Intelligence Agency. Mailer or De Lillo might broach such a subject, but in cinema few outside Oliver Stone have, since the late Seventies, possessed the cojones or hubris to chase after such a huge yet nebulous entity, whose very essence consists of secrets rarely yielded. Cinema is designed to show, not tell – how do you show the veiled, the hidden?

By keeping things relatively straightforward – this is an austere, serious film. Long, sure, but in the wilful absence of any sensationalism it drives along with smart pacing and an awareness that this story is curiously gripping. And by giving us a central character who’s flawed but intriguing. He represents the corruption of an ideal. Which is the perennial big American theme.

De Niro has directed a full feature only once before (1993’s A Bronx Tale). That he triumphs here, with intelligence and stamina (and a host of literary references, from Ovid to Le Carre), must be partly down to all he’s absorbed from the giants he’s worked with. But he’s aided by a strong script from Eric Roth (The Insider, Munich), exec-producing from Coppola, and cinematography by Stone regular Robert Richardson. This may not grandstand like JFK, but it’s more centred than the similarly ambitious Syriana or Bobby. It has real substance.

At its heart is Damon’s Wilson, who after a traumatic childhood becomes relentlessly focussed. As he deals with a close-to-home covert crisis during the Bay Of Pigs incident, we’re given his back-story in flashbacks. A Skulls And Bones over-achiever at homo-erotic Yale, he’s recruited by the Office Of Strategic Services during World War Two. In Blitz-era London and post-war Berlin, he excels, and is asked by General Sullivan (De Niro) to be one of the founders of the CIA. His acceptance defines the rest of his life: Wilson is a cold, clinical operator, a patriot beyond conscience, and thus the personal comes second to the political. He relinquishes his first (deaf) lover: then, after a shotgun marriage to insider “Clover” (Jolie, jumpy, too good-looking for the role), allows his own family to suffer. He’s a machine, fuelled by belief but starved of trust.

As Cold War paranoia reigns, he meets worthy Russian adversaries. By now, he’s hooked on tension, codes, deceit, life-or-death decisions. Only those in the same game, from Washington to The Congo, can relate to him – fiery sidekick John Turturro, suspect superior William Hurt, foppish English spy Billy Crudup (patchy accent), FBI man Alec Baldwin and, ironically, the Russians who vow to bring him down (one of these is played, excellently, by John Sessions). The film also boasts Michael Gambon, as a British agent whose fall from grace denotes the loss of Wilson’s initial innocence, plus cameos from Joe Pesci and Timothy Hutton.

The Good Shepherd subtly criticises US interventionism – plus ca change – without beating its chest. As in the best drama, extreme violence occurs off-screen, but the threat is ever-present. (There’s a rip-roaring exception to this when Turturro, torturing a Soviet informant, force-feeds him LSD – there follows an electric, trembling scene which throws you from your seat). All the foreboding, guilt and denial bears down on Wilson until, tricked into protecting his own son, he’s a broken man. Or would be, were he not still buoyed by belief that “his” America is always right. “The rest of you are just visiting,” he tells Pesci’s mobster, flatly.

Is Damon becoming the finest story-carrier working today? Having driven The Departed, he now bears nothing less than The Weight Of History here. Bespectacled but stoic, quiet “unless there’s something to say”, he underplays without a false step. He has acquired the genius to fade into invisibility when apt, to morph from grey-man to 3D-being when the heat’s up. Could it be that De Niro is also a great director of actors? He certainly proves here that (like Eastwood) he can direct a mature, questioning film without didacticism or pomp.

CHRIS ROBERTS

Muse Are Having An Invincible Year

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Muse Are Having An Invincible Year

Muse are to release new single "Invincible" on April 9, consolidating a fantastic start to the year. The track is taken from the band's double-platinum selling album "Black Holes And Revelations." The band kicked off 2007 with storming glitter-canon laden performances at The Big Day Out in Australia and they continue with a hectic touring schedule throughout the year- including shows in Indonesia, Hong Kong, Japan and the USA - as well as headlining this year's Isle Of Wight Festival. In June Muse will become the first band to play the newly built Wembley Stadium. The show sold out in hours and the band have now added a second date at the Stadium the following night. Fresh from winning a BRIT Award for Best Live Act, the band are also nominated for four categories at this year’s NME Awards – Best Band, Best Album, Best Single and Best Live Act. Formats and B-sides for the new single will be announced shortly. More Muse Musings available from their website by clicking here

Muse are to release new single “Invincible” on April 9, consolidating a fantastic start to the year.

The track is taken from the band’s double-platinum selling album “Black Holes And Revelations.”

The band kicked off 2007 with storming glitter-canon laden performances at The Big Day Out in Australia and they continue with a hectic touring schedule throughout the year- including shows in Indonesia, Hong Kong, Japan and the USA – as well as headlining this year’s Isle Of Wight Festival.

In June Muse will become the first band to play the newly built Wembley Stadium. The show sold out in hours and the band have now added a second date at the Stadium the following night.

Fresh from winning a BRIT Award for Best Live Act, the band are also nominated for four categories at this year’s NME Awards – Best Band, Best Album, Best Single and Best Live Act.

Formats and B-sides for the new single will be announced shortly.

More Muse Musings available from their website by clicking here

Noel Gallagher Roadshow Lands In Moscow

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Noel Gallagher Roadshow Lands In Moscow

Noel Gallagher & Gem of Oasis have confirmed that they will play a special semi-acoustic gig in Moscow next month. They will be appearing in Russia's capital at Club B1 on March 23. The appearence will be the first time anyone from Oasis has ever performed in Russia. The semi-acoustic shows are a regular gig for the pair and they have already received rave reviews in North America, Australia and Europe. They usually play a whole host of classic Oasis tracks at intimate venue's with deatils sent out via their website and MySpace page. Click here for online ticket details or call (T) +7 495 644 22 22

Noel Gallagher & Gem of Oasis have confirmed that they will play a special semi-acoustic gig in Moscow next month.

They will be appearing in Russia’s capital at Club B1 on March 23.

The appearence will be the first time anyone from Oasis has ever performed in Russia.

The semi-acoustic shows are a regular gig for the pair and they have already received rave reviews in North America, Australia and Europe.

They usually play a whole host of classic Oasis tracks at intimate venue’s with deatils sent out via their website and MySpace page.

Click here for online ticket details or call (T) +7 495 644 22 22

Read Uncut’s preview Of The Arctic Monkeys New LP here

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Read Uncut’s preview Of The Arctic Monkeys New LP here

The Arctic Monkeys are set to release the follow-up to their hugely successful debut "Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not" on April 23. Entitled "Favourite Worst Nightmare," Uncut was privileged to be amongst one of the first people to hear the eagerly awaited new album yesterday. Track titles include "Brainstorm," "D Is For Dangerous," "Fluorescent Adolescent" and "Girl Afraid." You can read the full preview account of the new LP on Wild Mercury Sound, Deputy Editor John Mulvey's blog. He begins, "So we’re sitting in Domino’s new offices, somewhere on an industrial estate in Wandsworth. There’s a train track outside one window, a gas holder outside the other, and some old Pavement and Sebadoh posters on the floor. Then there’s this massive crash of very heavy drums and guitars. The new Arctic Monkeys album has started, it seems..." Click here to read the full account

The Arctic Monkeys are set to release the follow-up to their hugely successful debut “Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not” on April 23.

Entitled “Favourite Worst Nightmare,” Uncut was privileged to be amongst one of the first people to hear the eagerly awaited new album yesterday.

Track titles include “Brainstorm,” “D Is For Dangerous,” “Fluorescent Adolescent” and “Girl Afraid.”

You can read the full preview account of the new LP on Wild Mercury Sound, Deputy Editor John Mulvey’s blog.

He begins, “So we’re sitting in Domino’s new offices, somewhere on an industrial estate in Wandsworth. There’s a train track outside one window, a gas holder outside the other, and some old Pavement and Sebadoh posters on the floor. Then there’s this massive crash of very heavy drums and guitars. The new Arctic Monkeys album has started, it seems…”

Click here to read the full account

Simply Red Not Over Yet

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Simply Red Not Over Yet

Simply Red have confirmed that their new single "So Not Over You" from their forthcoming LP - "Stay" will be released on March 5. Mick Hucknall and co previewed the album to eager fans at Ronnie Scotts jazz club last month to much acclaim, and as previously reported, are to play a five night residency at London's Royal Albert Hall in May. Written and produced by Mick Hucknall, with contributions from Andy Wright - whose previous credits include Natalie Imbruglia and Annie Lennox - the album as well as ten new tracks, also features a cover of the Ronnie Lane classic "Debris." The new single "So Not Over You" will be available on two CDs through, distrubuted through the group's own record label. The promo video for the single was shot in Cape Town by director Russell Thomas (Maroon 5, Placebo, Kylie Minogue) last month and you can see it by clicking on the following links: Quicktime lo / hi Windows lo / hi More information about the new release and for concert dates is available here

Simply Red have confirmed that their new single “So Not Over You” from their forthcoming LP – “Stay” will be released on March 5.

Mick Hucknall and co previewed the album to eager fans at Ronnie Scotts jazz club last month to much acclaim, and as previously reported, are to play a five night residency at London’s Royal Albert Hall in May.

Written and produced by Mick Hucknall, with contributions from Andy Wright – whose previous credits include Natalie Imbruglia and Annie Lennox – the album as well as ten new tracks, also features a cover of the Ronnie Lane classic “Debris.”

The new single “So Not Over You” will be available on two CDs through, distrubuted through the group’s own record label.

The promo video for the single was shot in Cape Town by director Russell Thomas (Maroon 5, Placebo, Kylie Minogue) last month and you can see it by clicking on the following links:

Quicktime

lo / hi

Windows

lo / hi

More information about the new release and for concert dates is available here

Placebo Add Second Date At Coronet

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Placebo Add Second Date At Coronet

Placebo have announced a second intimate warm-up gig at London's Coronet Theatre, to take place next month. The show previously announced for March 7 sold out within five minutes and the new show will take place the day before on March 6. The band have re-arranged rehearsals for their South American tour so that they could accomodate disappointed fans with the added UK date. These two shows will be the last Placebo shows in the UK this year, they will then head off to Mexico, Columbia, Brazil, Chile and Argentina, before they head to the US to play the Coachella Festival. Tickets for the Coronet go on sale next Tuesday (February 27) and will be limited to two per person. As previously reported, the band are to release a download version of their "Covers" album through iTunes on March 5. Tracks include Kate Bush's "Running Up That Hill" and Pixies "Where Is My Mind." More information available from placeboworld.co.uk

Placebo have announced a second intimate warm-up gig at London’s Coronet Theatre, to take place next month.

The show previously announced for March 7 sold out within five minutes and the new show will take place the day before on March 6.

The band have re-arranged rehearsals for their South American tour so that they could accomodate disappointed fans with the added UK date.

These two shows will be the last Placebo shows in the UK this year, they will then head off to Mexico, Columbia, Brazil, Chile and Argentina, before they head to the US to play the Coachella Festival.

Tickets for the Coronet go on sale next Tuesday (February 27) and will be limited to two per person.

As previously reported, the band are to release a download version of their “Covers” album through iTunes on March 5.

Tracks include Kate Bush’s “Running Up That Hill” and Pixies “Where Is My Mind.”

More information available from placeboworld.co.uk

John Martyn To Play Solid Air For Last Time

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John Martyn To Play Solid Air For Last Time

Blues and folk singer John Martyn has announced that he will be adding a further and final set of special concerts performing his brilliant 1973 album “Solid Air", following on from a sold-out tour of the UK last month. Speaking about "Solid Air" in an album by album feature last year, Martyn told Uncut that “looking back, I knew at the time it was a good album. People would come down to visit and I’d play them ‘May You Never’.” Thi will be the last time Martyn will be playing this ambient, trip hop and jazz album in it's entirety. The new dates kick off at London's prestigious Royal Albert Hall next month. He will play the following dates: London, Royal Albert Hall (0207 589 8212) (April 16) Dublin, Vicar Street (00818 719 300) (May 14) Perth, Perth Festival/ Concert Hall (0845 612 6323) (May 17) Coventry, Warwick Arts Centre (0247 652 4524) (19) Nottingham, Royal Concert Hall (0115 989 5555) (21) Basingstoke, The Anvil (0125 684 4244) (22) Bournemouth, Pavilion (0870 111 3000) (24) Isle Of Skye, Music Festival (08700 600 100) (26) Buxton, Opera House (0845 127 2190) (28) Croydon, Fairfield Halls (0208 688 9291) (30) Liverpool, Philharmonic (0151 709 3789) (June 1st) Tickets go on sale today, February 23. Pic credit: Elliot Franks

Blues and folk singer John Martyn has announced that he will be adding a further and final set of special concerts performing his brilliant 1973 album “Solid Air”, following on from a sold-out tour of the UK last month.

Speaking about “Solid Air” in an album by album feature last year, Martyn told Uncut that “looking back, I knew at the time it was a good album. People would come down to visit and I’d play them ‘May You Never’.”

Thi will be the last time Martyn will be playing this ambient, trip hop and jazz album in it’s entirety.

The new dates kick off at London’s prestigious Royal Albert Hall next month.

He will play the following dates:

London, Royal Albert Hall (0207 589 8212) (April 16)

Dublin, Vicar Street (00818 719 300) (May 14)

Perth, Perth Festival/ Concert Hall (0845 612 6323) (May 17)

Coventry, Warwick Arts Centre (0247 652 4524) (19)

Nottingham, Royal Concert Hall (0115 989 5555) (21)

Basingstoke, The Anvil (0125 684 4244) (22)

Bournemouth, Pavilion (0870 111 3000) (24)

Isle Of Skye, Music Festival (08700 600 100) (26)

Buxton, Opera House (0845 127 2190) (28)

Croydon, Fairfield Halls (0208 688 9291) (30)

Liverpool, Philharmonic (0151 709 3789) (June 1st)

Tickets go on sale today, February 23.

Pic credit: Elliot Franks

Specials Man To Take Part In Live Guilty Pleasures

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Specials Man To Take Part In Live Guilty Pleasures

Renowned clubnight Guilty Pleasures is to go live - with a one-off orchestral night next month. Backed by a 40-piece BBC Concert Orchestra, several artists will be singing classic 70s, 80s and 90s hits that no-one admits to liking, but which have made the regular clubnights hosted by Sean Rowley a massive success in the last few years. Artists performing at East London's Hackney Empire will include The Specials' Terry Hall, Ed Harcourt, Cerys Matthews, Chas N Dave, St Etienne's Sarah Cracknell and Bananarama's Siobhan Fahey. Excited by the prospect of staging a live Guilty Pleasures, Sean Rowley says: "I couldn’t believe it when I got the call from the BBC Concert Orchestra, not all of them of course, not in my wildest dreams did I think I would be working with a proper concert orchestra.” He adds: "Its like the peak of the powers of Guilty Pleasures, it’s the ultimate guilty pleasures experience. So I was quickly on the phone to friends and family of guilty pleasures asking them if they wanted to perform their own guilty pleasure with the orchestra and that’s how this great line up has come about. A lot of great opportunities have come my way since doing Guilty Pleasures, but this just takes the biscuit, this is truly amazing. A dream come true. Tickets for the event on March 20 will cost £12-£16. More details are available from the GP website by clicking here now

Renowned clubnight Guilty Pleasures is to go live – with a one-off orchestral night next month.

Backed by a 40-piece BBC Concert Orchestra, several artists will be singing classic 70s, 80s and 90s hits that no-one admits to liking, but which have made the regular clubnights hosted by Sean Rowley a massive success in the last few years.

Artists performing at East London’s Hackney Empire will include The Specials’ Terry Hall, Ed Harcourt, Cerys Matthews, Chas N Dave, St Etienne’s Sarah Cracknell and Bananarama’s Siobhan Fahey.

Excited by the prospect of staging a live Guilty Pleasures, Sean Rowley says: “I couldn’t believe it when I got the call from the BBC Concert Orchestra, not all of them of course, not in my wildest dreams did I think I would be working with a proper concert orchestra.”

He adds: “Its like the peak of the powers of Guilty Pleasures, it’s the ultimate guilty pleasures experience. So I was quickly on the phone to friends and family of guilty pleasures asking them if they wanted to perform their own guilty pleasure with the orchestra and that’s how this great line up has come about. A lot of great opportunities have come my way since doing Guilty Pleasures, but this just takes the biscuit, this is truly amazing. A dream come true.

Tickets for the event on March 20 will cost £12-£16.

More details are available from the GP website by clicking here now

Favourite Worst Nightmare

John Mulvey
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So we’re sitting in Domino’s new offices, somewhere on an industrial estate in Wandsworth. There’s a train track outside one window, a gas holder outside the other, and some old Pavement and Sebadoh posters on the floor. Then there’s this massive crash of very heavy drums and guitars. The new Arctic Monkeys album has started, it seems. This is "Brianstorm", the first track and the first single from "Favourite Worst Nightmare". My first thought is that Alex Turner hasn’t got any better at writing song titles. My second is that this is really, really good. I only hear the album once, and I’ve been over-excited at playbacks before – so apologies if the album turns out to be a stinker. I don’t think it will, though. "Favourite Worst Nightmare" is a whole lot bigger-sounding than "Whatever People Say. . .", but not in a lame stadium-wannabe way. It doesn’t feel bloated like so many follow-up albums by successful indie bands - the ropey new Kaiser Chiefs album being a case in point. Instead, it really is more ambitious, heavier – Jamie Cook’s guitar-playing resembles that of Josh Homme more than Carl Barat in many places – and with a fiercely bright production from James Ford, who did such a good job on The Klaxons’ debut. There are certain similarities with that Klaxons record, in fact. It’s not a new rave album, by any stretch, but it feels more part of an art-rock lineage than in the blokerock tradition of Oasis et al. The funk influence is more pronounced, particularly in the bass playing of Nick O’Malley (much better than Andy Nicholson, on this evidence). Tracks like "D Is For Dangerous", especially, are vaguely reminiscent of The Rapture finding a new terrace populism. The opening few tracks are frantic, awkward and pretty uncompromising, and my potentially untrustworthy notes also describe them as a hybrid of Queens Of The Stone Age and The Specials. Then Track Five, "Fluorescent Adolescent", ambles out, by some distance the catchiest song the Monkeys have ever recorded. From hereon in, the most notable influence is The Smiths, I think. Maybe the dreamy, elegiac Smiths of "Strangeways Here We Come": there are some twanging, quasi-ambient backdrops to a couple of songs, and Turner’s voice has matured beautifully, crooning like Morrissey or Richard Hawley. Another track (Turner has explicitly asked we don’t write too much about specifically-named songs, and I’m happy to comply at this stage) reminds me a bit of "Girl Afraid", though Turner is virtually rapping on it. If you still want Turner to be a northern romantic, writing about Sheffield teenage life with a documentary precision, you may be disappointed. There’s little of that, and I suspect he thinks he’d be faking it to place himself back in that world. A lot of these songs seem to be about women, about temptation, about being desired – in a self-satirising rather than arrogant way, though. "Do the bad thing/ Take off your wedding ring," goes one chorus. Turner’s melodies still have that wandering, made-up-as-he-goes-along charm. The heart of the Arctic Monkeys remains the same, it’s just the packaging that has got bigger and stranger. "Favourite Worst Nightmare" feels, too, like a band asserting themselves. If Alex Turner was highlighted as some kind of street poet last year, it’s harder to separate him out from his bandmates: Cook, in particular, is rampant here. I’m trying not to get carried away, but today I like it even more than "Whatever People Say. . ." Now, if only I could hear it again. . .

So we’re sitting in Domino’s new offices, somewhere on an industrial estate in Wandsworth. There’s a train track outside one window, a gas holder outside the other, and some old Pavement and Sebadoh posters on the floor. Then there’s this massive crash of very heavy drums and guitars. The new Arctic Monkeys album has started, it seems.

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Wychwood Festival Headliners Confirmed

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Wychwood Festival Headliners Confirmed

The third annual Wychwood Music Festival has been confirmed to take place in the surrounds of Cheltenham Racecourse on June 1-3. The first two headliners announced are NYC group Fun Lovin Criminals and festival veterans The Levellers. Wychwood Music Festival is an independent festival that seamlessly mixes pop with folk, jazz with indie with world music and chillout. The FLC will play the Friday, with other acts on the same day including Robyn Hitchcock and the Venus 3 – which consists of R.E.M.’s Peter Buck, Young Fresh Fellows front man Scott McCaughey and Ministry’s Bill Rieflin. Saturday’s line-up will see performances by Anoushka Shankar, virtuoso Indian musician and daughter of the legendary Ravi Shankar and Poptones-signed, Swedish folk hero Tobias Fröberg. Wychwood's Sunday’s line-up is also promising to be a wonderfully diverse mix, with BBC 3 Award for World Musoc nominated, Balkan Beat Box, Zion Train and Ba Cissoko already confirmed Friends of the Earth, are the festival's partner and over the weekend will be encouraging festival goers to get involved with The Big Ask - the FOE's campaign on climate change. The Big Ask is calling on the UK Government to introduce a climate change law which commits the UK to cutting its carbon dioxide emissions by at least three percent a year. Wychwood Music Festival has already secured no less than five UK Festival Awards nominations in just two years, including Best Family Festival in two consecutive years and Best Grassroots Festival. Weekend tickets are currently priced at £95 for adults and £75 concession (12-18, unwaged, disabled, NUS). You can get more information from the Wychwood Festival website by clicking here.

The third annual Wychwood Music Festival has been confirmed to take place in the surrounds of Cheltenham Racecourse on June 1-3.

The first two headliners announced are NYC group Fun Lovin Criminals and festival veterans The Levellers.

Wychwood Music Festival is an independent festival that seamlessly mixes pop with folk, jazz with indie with world music and chillout.

The FLC will play the Friday, with other acts on the same day including Robyn Hitchcock and the Venus 3 – which consists of R.E.M.’s Peter Buck, Young Fresh Fellows front man Scott McCaughey and Ministry’s Bill Rieflin.

Saturday’s line-up will see performances by Anoushka Shankar, virtuoso Indian musician and daughter of the legendary Ravi Shankar and Poptones-signed, Swedish folk hero Tobias Fröberg.

Wychwood’s Sunday’s line-up is also promising to be a wonderfully diverse mix, with BBC 3 Award for World Musoc nominated, Balkan Beat Box, Zion Train and Ba Cissoko already confirmed

Friends of the Earth, are the festival’s partner and over the weekend will be encouraging festival goers to get involved with The Big Ask – the FOE’s campaign on climate change.

The Big Ask is calling on the UK Government to introduce a climate change law which commits the UK to cutting its carbon dioxide emissions by at least three percent a year.

Wychwood Music Festival has already secured no less than five UK Festival Awards nominations in just two years, including Best Family Festival in two consecutive years and Best Grassroots Festival.

Weekend tickets are currently priced at £95 for adults and £75 concession (12-18, unwaged, disabled, NUS).

You can get more information from the Wychwood Festival website by clicking here.

TEN YEARS AGO THIS WEEK. . .

Terry Staunton
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HAPPENINGS TEN YEARS TIME AGO February 19 to 25, 1997 Ben Elton hosts the Brit Awards at London's Earls Court, where there are two gongs apiece for Manic Street Preachers (Best Group, Best Album - Everything Must Go) and the Spice Girls (Best Single - "Wannabe", Best Video - "Say You'll Be There"). Geri Halliwell's Union Jack mini-dress gets the lion's share of coverage in the following morning's tabloids, which also report on the group's first album entering the US charts at Number Six. The Bee Gees receive the Outstanding Contribution nod, as a total of 15 awards are given out during the evening, chicken feed compared to... Ninety prizes are handed out at the US Grammys, including five relating to the song "Change The World", a collaboration between Eric Clapton and producer Kenneth "Babyface" Edmonds from the soundtrack of the John Travolta film Phenomenon. Three awards go to The Beatles' Anthology albums and documentary project, double winners include Sheryl Crow, Beck, Fugees and Celine Dion, while First Lady Hillary Clinton takes home the Grammy for Best Spoken Word Album, for the audio version of her book It Takes A Village. Lawyers for two Goths charged with murder in Washington state claim the teenagers were "adversely influenced" by the music of Marilyn Manson. The shock rocker responds in an official statement, saying "Parents should raise their kids to listen to an album and know the difference between reality and fantasy." Cardigan crooner Pat Boone outrages elements of his cosy fanbase with the release of In A Metal Mood: No More Mr Nice Guy, an album of hard rock covers including "Smoke On The Water", "Enter Sandman" and "Stairway To Heaven". A Christian pressure group does the rounds of the daytime talk show circuit, expressing fears that Boone might be mentally ill. Sixties chart-topper and current Vegas fixture Engelbert Humperdinck reveals that he gave Jimi Hendrix an early break, after a member of his regular band fell ill midway through a tour. "When Jimi sat in it was like having 10 guitars behind me," he says. Folk singer Melissa Etheridge and her partner Julie Cypher, the former wife of actor Lou Diamond Phillips, announce the birth of their daughter, Bailey, but refuse to disclose the identity of the sperm donor. The couple's second child, born in 2000, is later revealed to have been fathered by music veteran David Crosby. Songwriting duo Thomas Kelly and William Steinberg take legal action against telecommunications giant AT&T, alleging that the ditty "True Voice" in the company's TV adverts infringes on the copyright of one of their own compostions, Cyndi Lauper's million-selling "True Colours" hit. Christopher Guest's Waiting For Guffman, a mostly improvised movie about the staging of a smalltown musical, and his first spoof since 1984's This Is Spinal Tap, opens in the US. Quentin Tarantino's Rolling Thunder Pictures, a company dedicated to making long lost cult films available on home video, issue their second title, 1975's Switchblade Sisters, directed by Roger Corman protege Jack Hill. Four of the five movies nominated for the Best Picture Oscar are the work of independents, Jerry Maguire being the sole contender from a major studio. "This is a great moment for independent cinema," says Harvey Weinstein, whose Miramax company receives 20 nominations across the board. "It shows that risk has its rewards." Sports shoe manufacturers Reebok are threatening legal action against the makers of Jerry Maguire, after a previously agreed product placement scene was cut from the final film. US Federal health experts are considering nationwide trials using marijuana to treat medical complaints, after successful test programmes in California and Arizona. Meanwhile, a study by Canadian medical researchers claims that car accidents caused by motorists using mobile phones have reached the same levels as crashes involving drunk drivers and pot smokers. HAPPENINGS TEN YEARS TIME AGO February 12 to 18, 1997 Just days after David Bowie receives a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, avant garde figurehead Philip Glass announces plans for a world tour performing an orchestral version of the Thin White Duke's Lodger album. Brian Connolly, lead singer of The Sweet, dies of kidney failure, aged 52. Connolly last appeared with his old bandmates to promote a video release in 1990, but had continued to tour with a new line-up on the nostalgia circuit, despite rapidly declining health, up to a few months before his passing. Michael Jackson's first son, Prince Michael, is born. The Simpsons becomes the world's longest-running prime time animated show, surpassing the number of episodes notched up by The Flintstones in the 1960s. A US judge dismisses a lawsuit against Oliver Stone by Patsy Ann Byers, who claimed the movie Natural Born Killers sparked a crime spree that left her in a wheelchair. Also in court are two former members of The Go-Gos. Drummer Gina Schock is suing Charlotte Caffey, claiming the guitarist failed to disclose full details of joint songwriting royalties. Blur's eponymous fifth album replaces Texas's White On Blonde at the top of the UK chart. No Doubt go straight into the singles chart at Number One with "Don't Speak", which sells almost 200,000 copies during its first week on release. In a continuing war of words between the metal veterans, singer Sammy Hagar tells reporters the reason he was thrown out of Van Halen was because the rest of the band were threated by the "huge" sales of his solo greatest hits album. The family of Martin Luther King campaign for a full trial of James Earl Ray, the man imprisoned for assassinating the civil rights leader in 1968. Dr King's son, Dexter, believes FBI surveillance documents will reveal that Ray did not act alone. The FBI are also under scrutiny in the investigation into the Oklahoma City bombing. A US Justice Department draft report criticizes the bureau's crime lab for its "sloppy" handling of evidence. Jurors at the inquest into the death of London schoolboy Stephen Lawrence rule that the black teenager was unlawfully killed "in a completely unprovoked racist attack by five white youths". Deng Xiaoping, the last of the chief revolutionaries in the People's Republic of China, dies, aged 92. The McDonalds fast food chain faces protests at its first restaurants in Israel. A Jewish student pressure group pickets the sites, opposed the young Jews being forced to work on Saturdays, and the violation of Jewish dietary teachings which forbid the eating of meat and cheese together.

HAPPENINGS TEN YEARS TIME AGO

February 19 to 25, 1997

Ben Elton hosts the Brit Awards at London’s Earls Court, where there are two gongs apiece for Manic Street Preachers (Best Group, Best Album – Everything Must Go) and the Spice Girls (Best Single – “Wannabe”, Best Video – “Say You’ll Be There”). Geri Halliwell’s Union Jack mini-dress gets the lion’s share of coverage in the following morning’s tabloids, which also report on the group’s first album entering the US charts at Number Six. The Bee Gees receive the Outstanding Contribution nod, as a total of 15 awards are given out during the evening, chicken feed compared to…

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T In The Park Festival Line-up Announced

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T In The Park Festival Line-up Announced

Arctic Monkeys, The Killers, Snow Patrol, Razorlight, Scissor Sisters, The Arcade Fire and Bloc Party are among the acts so far confirmed for this year’s T In The Park festival. Arctic Monkeys headline the main stage on the first night of the festival, which runs from Friday July 6 to Sunday July 8 at Balado by Kinross in Scotland. They are supported by Bloc Party, The Coral and Lily Allen. The Killers top the bill on the main stage on Saturday, with support from Razorlight, Arcade Fire, James and James Morrison. Sunday sees Snow Patrol closing the festival, heading a bill that also includes Snow Patrol, Scissor Sisters, Kings Of leon, The Fratellis, Paolo Nutini and The Goo Goo Dolls. The Kooks, Kasabian, My Chemical Romance, Babyshambles, Interpol and Maximo Park are among the bands who will be playing the Radio 1/NME Stage, while The View, Editors, The Klaxons and Jamie T have been lined up for the King Tut’s Tent stage. More acts will be announced in the next few weeks. Meanwhile, for further TITP info go to www.tinthepark.com by clicking here

Arctic Monkeys, The Killers, Snow Patrol, Razorlight, Scissor Sisters, The Arcade Fire and Bloc Party are among the acts so far confirmed for this year’s T In The Park festival.

Arctic Monkeys headline the main stage on the first night of the festival, which runs from Friday July 6 to Sunday July 8 at Balado by Kinross in Scotland. They are supported by Bloc Party, The Coral and Lily Allen.

The Killers top the bill on the main stage on Saturday, with support from Razorlight, Arcade Fire, James and James Morrison. Sunday sees Snow Patrol closing the festival, heading a bill that also includes Snow Patrol, Scissor Sisters, Kings Of leon, The Fratellis, Paolo Nutini and The Goo Goo Dolls.

The Kooks, Kasabian, My Chemical Romance, Babyshambles, Interpol and Maximo Park are among the bands who will be playing the Radio 1/NME Stage, while The View, Editors, The Klaxons and Jamie T have been lined up for the King Tut’s Tent stage.

More acts will be announced in the next few weeks.

Meanwhile, for further TITP info go to www.tinthepark.com by clicking here

Music Stars Back Warchild

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Music Stars Back Warchild

Musicians including rock bands Feeder, Lostprophets and singer Corinne Bailey Rae have joined a new War Child charity campaign. The artists have custom designed a limited batch of 100,000 dog tags, that will sold nationwide through HMV record stores to raise money for the children's charity. All the profits from the £2 tags– up to £1.54 per set - will go to War Child, which works with former child soldiers, street children and children in prison in conflict countries including Iraq, Afghanistan and the Democratic Republic of Congo. The dog tags are inscribed with the words “your war is not with me” and the logo of War Child Music. The charity's chief executive Mark Waddington welcomes the partnership with HMV, saying: “By buying and wearing the War Child dog tags HMV’s customers can show their support for War Child’s projects working to protect children. We are grateful to HMV, whose partnership with us sends a powerful message of commitment to our cause”. The tags will be available from March 19.

Musicians including rock bands Feeder, Lostprophets and singer Corinne Bailey Rae have joined a new War Child charity campaign.

The artists have custom designed a limited batch of 100,000 dog tags, that will sold nationwide through HMV record stores to raise money for the children’s charity.

All the profits from the £2 tags– up to £1.54 per set – will go to War Child, which works with former child soldiers, street children and children in prison in conflict countries including Iraq, Afghanistan and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

The dog tags are inscribed with the words “your war is not with me” and the logo of War Child Music. The charity’s chief executive Mark Waddington welcomes the partnership with HMV, saying: “By buying and wearing the War Child dog tags HMV’s customers can show their support for War Child’s projects working to protect children. We are grateful to HMV, whose partnership with us sends a powerful message of commitment to our cause”.

The tags will be available from March 19.

“Letsagettabittarockin'”

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More on Joe Strummer and The 101’ers Following my somewhat nostalgic post about calling in at the Elgin and being reminded of many great nights there watching Joe Strummer and The 101’ers in their short-lived scruffy pomp, I’ve received the following email from reader Peter Cabret. “Over the last few minutes,” Pete writes, “ I've been reading with interest your blog and memories of seeing The 101'ers at The Elgin. Now, I am 21 so they are years before my time but over the last 5 or 6 months I have been developing a website about The 101'ers. The Elgin page may be of particular interest to you: http://www.101ers.co.uk/theelgin.htm In addition the new Joe Strummer film by Julien Temple "The Future is Unwritten" will, I believe, include footage of The 101'ers playing at The Elgin. Thanks for your time. Cheers Pete” I’ve just spent a very happy half hour on Pete’s site and it’s well worth a look. As well as the basics of a band history and discography, there are fascinating ‘biographies’ of the London venues The 101’ers regularly played – The Elgin, of course, but also The Nashville Rooms, where on two occasions they were supported by The Sex Pistols, The Red Cow, Hope And Anchor, Windsor Castle, The Telegraph on Brixton Hill and The Charlie Pigdog Club, which was a room above The Chippenham pub where I first saw them in February 1975. There are also some great eye-witness accounts from fans recalling the gigs they saw, including a post from former Pink Fairies’ roadie, Joly, who remembers seeing them at ‘some hippie festival’, as he puts it, possibly Windsor or Stonehenge. I wonder if he is thinking of the Watchfield Festival in ’76. This was a chaotic affair, held on a deserted airfield some miles outside Swindon. I remember sitting in a tour bus getting high with Hawkwind when this white van came bouncing across the field, its battered flanks emblazoned with the legend: “The 101’ers – Rhythm & Blues Orchestra”. Joe and the band had turned up on the off-chance they could be added to the bill, but I can’t actually remember them playing. In fact, I can’t remember ANYONE playing, which is what sometimes happened when you hung with the Hawklords. What I do remember is the rain that started falling late in the afternoon, a torrential downpour that accompanied me on the long walk back to Swindon that night, a grim journey still guaranteed to give me nightmares. Anyway, not for the first time, I digress. Thanks to Pete for getting in touch. If anyone else has memories they’d like to share of seeing The 101’ers, you know how to get in touch.

More on Joe Strummer and The 101’ers

Following my somewhat nostalgic post about calling in at the Elgin and being reminded of many great nights there watching Joe Strummer and The 101’ers in their short-lived scruffy pomp, I’ve received the following email from reader Peter Cabret.

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Maximo Park Headline Homecoming Gig

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Maximo Park Headline Homecoming Gig

Maximo Park, who release their second album, Our Earthly Pleasures, in April, have confirmed they will healdine this year's Evolution festival in their hometown of Newcastle. The free festival takes place on May 28, at Newacstle's Gateshead Stadium. As previously reported on www.uncut.co.uk, Maximo Park release a new single, "Our Velocity", on March 19.

Maximo Park, who release their second album, Our Earthly Pleasures, in April, have confirmed they will healdine this year’s Evolution festival in their hometown of Newcastle.

The free festival takes place on May 28, at Newacstle’s Gateshead Stadium.

As previously reported on www.uncut.co.uk, Maximo Park release a new single, “Our Velocity”, on March 19.

Kings Of Leon Announce Extra Show

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Kings Of Leon Announce Extra Show

Kings Of Leon have added a further date to their forhtcoming series of sold-out UK shows. In addition to dates already announced to follow the release of their third album, Because Of The Times on April 2, the band will now alos play Blackpool Empress Ballroom on Monday April 16. Tickets for the Blackpool date are £22.50 and go on sale on February 23 and are available from 24 cc hitline 0871 2200 260 or to buy online at www.gigsandtours.com

Kings Of Leon have added a further date to their forhtcoming series of sold-out UK shows.

In addition to dates already announced to follow the release of their third album, Because Of The Times on April 2, the band will now alos play Blackpool Empress Ballroom on Monday April 16.

Tickets for the Blackpool date are £22.50 and go on sale on February 23 and are available from 24 cc hitline 0871 2200 260 or to buy online at www.gigsandtours.com

Dressed Up For The Letdown

John Mulvey
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I'm not sure what kind of symmetry this represents, but Richard Swift's new album begins with the sound of tapdancing and nears a close with him crooning, rather sweetly, "I wish I were dead most of the time." "Dressed Up For The Letdown" is Swift's third album, and is a concept album of sorts. It's about a singer-songwriter - let's call him Richard Swift - who struggles for years without success, cursing the ignorance of the labels who refuse to sign him. There's a whole heap of irony here, not least because "Dressed Up For The Letdown" is being released in the UK on Polydor and Swift is now poised for, I hope, a reasonable amount of success. He's one of those prolific types who has such a backlog of songs that each release is a snapshot of a state of mind that he grew out of three or four years ago. So "Dressed Up" presents Swift as fatally resigned to obscurity, while hype-monkeys like me jump around him and call him the new Rufus Wainwright, or the new Harry Nilsson, or maybe a bit of a Laurel Canyon Sufjan Stevens. He's great, clearly. We first came across him at Uncut a couple of years ago, when the fine Indiana label, Secretly Canadian, put out his first two albums, "The Novelist" and "Walking Without Effort". Both had been out before, though I suspect no-one besides Swift's immediate family and the Secretly Canadian A&R actually heard them. Like "Dressed Up", they showed Swift's gift for imbuing contemporary singer-songwriting with a kind of faded, Tin Pan Alley charm. There's a lot of gramophone crackle, and a sort of audio sepiatint that's reminiscent of Van Dyke Parks circa "Song Cycle". A different Americana, I suppose. And it's terrific. Swift has enough charm and skill so that, even at his most maudlin, he sounds playful. He can also put together a neat and direct pop song: check out the video for "Kisses For The Misses" at his Myspace. Now he's got all the suffering out of the way, there's a lot more in his songwriting file like this one. I'm off to Domino Records in a minute to hear the Arctic Monkeys album, by the way. I'll try and report back tomorrow.

I’m not sure what kind of symmetry this represents, but Richard Swift’s new album begins with the sound of tapdancing and nears a close with him crooning, rather sweetly, “I wish I were dead most of the time.” “Dressed Up For The Letdown” is Swift’s third album, and is a concept album of sorts. It’s about a singer-songwriter – let’s call him Richard Swift – who struggles for years without success, cursing the ignorance of the labels who refuse to sign him.

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The Second Comings Of Arcade Fire And Arctic Monkeys

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What I’ve been playing most recently has been Neon Bible, the second album from The Arcade Fire, the follow-up to Funeral and possibly one of the most keenly-anticipated albums of the year, for which great things are predicted and will probably happen. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ofDTk7j8_WE

What I’ve been playing most recently has been Neon Bible, the second album from The Arcade Fire, the follow-up to Funeral and possibly one of the most keenly-anticipated albums of the year, for which great things are predicted and will probably happen.

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The Only Ones Reform!

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The Only Ones Reform!

Peter Perrett, Alan Mair, John Perry and Mike Kellie - The legendary Only Ones, have just been confirmed to play the Dirty Three curated All Tomorrow's Parties weekend in April. As well as this one-off show - their first in 22 years - there is speculation that they will play this year's Glastonbury festival. In an interview with Scottish newspaper The Daily Record late last year, bassist Alan Mair suggested that a Glasto slot is theirs for the taking, if they chose to reform. The elusive Perrett has always said that the group would reform "over my dead body," and lead guitarist John Perry has ben quoted as saying "the English cricket team will win an Ashes series 5-0 before the Only Ones reform." However public demand from fans has surged since their long-held cult status went into the commercial stratosphere last Summer. Their hit '77 single, "Another Girl, Another Planet" was used on mobile phone company Vodafone's TV ad campaign, giving the group a fresh lease of life. There's no word if the Only Ones will record any new material, or indeed play any further shows. Perrett's last solo effort "Woke Up Sticky" came out in the mid '90s. The ATP weekend runs from April 27 - 30, and Nick Cave will headline. Other artists playing include Joanna Newsom, Spiritualised, Bill Callaghan, Cat Power and Cave's side-project Grinderman. Click here for more festival news from ATP

Peter Perrett, Alan Mair, John Perry and Mike Kellie – The legendary Only Ones, have just been confirmed to play the Dirty Three curated All Tomorrow’s Parties weekend in April.

As well as this one-off show – their first in 22 years – there is speculation that they will play this year’s Glastonbury festival.

In an interview with Scottish newspaper The Daily Record late last year, bassist Alan Mair suggested that a Glasto slot is theirs for the taking, if they chose to reform.

The elusive Perrett has always said that the group would reform “over my dead body,” and lead guitarist John Perry has ben quoted as saying “the English cricket team will win an Ashes series 5-0 before the Only Ones reform.”

However public demand from fans has surged since their long-held cult status went into the commercial stratosphere last Summer. Their hit ’77 single, “Another Girl, Another Planet” was used on mobile phone company Vodafone’s TV ad campaign, giving the group a fresh lease of life.

There’s no word if the Only Ones will record any new material, or indeed play any further shows.

Perrett’s last solo effort “Woke Up Sticky” came out in the mid ’90s.

The ATP weekend runs from April 27 – 30, and Nick Cave will headline.

Other artists playing include Joanna Newsom, Spiritualised, Bill Callaghan, Cat Power and Cave’s side-project Grinderman.

Click here for more festival news from ATP

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