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Stereolab, Kikagaku Moyo: End Of The Road Festival 2021 – Day 1

Mark Beaumont
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Stereolab, Kikagaku Moyo: End Of The Road Festival 2021 – Day 1

When you get to the bottom, custom dictates, you go back to the top of the slide. Certainly when you’ve brought your three-year-old to End Of The Road festival – the boutique Dorset weekender for the discerning alt-rocker – and she spots the helter skelter from half a mile away.

Ten quid and two dizzying descents later, you’re thankful for the opportunity to see 2021’s late-reviving festival season through fresh eyes. Though the more colourful extremes of the site are yet to open on Thursday – the pirate ship, Magic Garden and idyllic croquet lawn are all cordoned off with bunting – there’s no little wonder in being here at all. Hence the site teems with early arrivals, loading up on scrumpy at the Somerset Cider bus, wandering woodlands lit up with neon cactuses and putting their way through cars and giant wooden badgers on the Crazy Golf course. While the three-year-old hones in on a pair of revellers with a bubble gun, we settle, somewhat blissfully, back into the great sonic outdoors.

The bill is sadly short on visiting US acts – Pixies and Bright Eyes were amongst the headliners unable to appear due to Covid restrictions – but with Hot Chip, Damon Albarn and Sleaford Mods drafted in as replacements, End Of The Road continues to offer the finest alternative line-up of any summer, and particularly such a truncated one. Thursday’s bill seems designed to ease us in gently, echoing the routines and mentalities of lockdown: it’s all looping, repetitive motifs building gradually in intensity and occasionally freaking out and breaking all nearby furniture.

At the main Woods stage the three-year-old is surprisingly taken with Kikagaku Moyo, the Tokyo psych revivalists determined, like paisley shirted Donnie Darkos, to utilise cosmic krautrock, Floyd-ish interludes and heady sitar workouts to open a wormhole to San Francisco, 1967. Their untethered kosmische-jazz journeys are laced with an endearing delicacy, particularly in the wispish dual vocals of Tomo Katsurada and drummer Go Kurosawa. For an audience overfamiliar with four walls, they’re a refreshing reminder of far broader horizons.

The only other stage open today is the Tipi Tent, where art pop trio Regressive Left set about deconstructing ‘80s electropop and Talking Heads into melodic yelps akin to a more excitable LCD Soundsystem, between unexpected jogs around the stage. But Thursday’s prime draw are Woods stage headliners Stereolab, the perfect band to bridge the mildly agoraphobic period between lockdown isolation and rock’n’roll communalism. Familiar, soothing and hermetically sealed into their own clinically chic Gallic bubble, they demand neither euphoric mosh nor anti-social distance. There’s an urgency to their jazzy sci-fi grooves which speak to the tensions and fears of 2021, but also a timeless reassurance to their evocations of ‘60s samba lounge pop, still chaining Gauloises through a sinewy steel cigarette holder, decades on. Laetitia Sadier even reflects the simmering anger of the times: “Lo Boob Oscillator” might be introduced as “a hymn to the moon and the sacred feminine”, but a compulsive “French Disko” is retitled “fuck the Daily Telegraph” for the occasion.

Most fittingly of all, they’re a hypnotic experience, as if brainwashing away any lingering fears live music. They lock into electronic drone grooves around the core of simple in-the-round melodic loops and then push at the fringes, sometimes – as on “Metronomic Underground” – building to atonal firestorms of sound. Moments of charm abound: 1991 EP track “Super-Electric” is surprisingly sunny for a song about emotional exorcism, “The Extension Trip” is elegance incarnate and “Lo Boob Oscillator” comes on like blue-eyed ‘50s pop reprogrammed in French. “It’s such a treat to spend an hour and a half with you,” Sadier says, and the feeling is undoubtedly mutual. Stereolab weave a serenity spell which even Sleaford Mods will struggle to break before Monday.

Nathan Salsburg – Psalms

Sam Richards
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Nathan Salsburg – Psalms

Nathan Salsburg lives on an old tree farm just outside Louisville, Kentucky, with his partner Joan Shelley, their newborn baby daughter, a cat, a couple of goats and a barnful of old 78s and roots reggae 45s. He has a dream day job working for the Alan Lomax Archive and a burgeoning reputation as an intrepid folk guitarist, having released three solo albums and backed up the likes of Shelley, The Weather Station, Shirley Collins and Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy. But there was still something missing.

Since forgoing the synagogue for the church of hardcore punk as a teenager, Salsburg felt he had lost touch with his essential Jewishness. And so, over the last few years, he has taken to leafing through a book of Hebrew psalms and turning them into brand new songs. It’s the kind of practice that would seem to satisfy his curatorial mindset, but unlike Salsburg’s two recent low-key Landwerk releases – which found him playing along to loops from that prodigious collection of 78s as a way of convening directly with the past – Psalms is a ‘proper’ album that marks the emergence of Salsburg as a singer-songwriter in his own right.

Certainly, Salsburg is more conscious than most of the shoulders on which he stands. On Psalms, he was keen to reference various styles of Jewish music, whether that be the folk music of Maghrebi Jews in North Africa or the happy-clappy “American nusach” played in the Jewish summer camps he attended as a kid. But these stimuli merge naturally with his usual folk, blues and post-rock influences, becoming something fresh and his own.

Where Landwerk was slow-moving, eerie and solemn, Psalms is cautiously rousing. Opener Psalm 157 begins with an organ drone, introducing a resonant acoustic guitar riff reminiscent of Saharan desert rock. Salsburg’s playing is bright and purposeful, capable of driving a song forward as well as filling in crucial detail. Singing mostly in Hebrew, his voice is low but not gruff, with Israeli singer-songwriter Noa Babayof providing harmonies but more often simply doubling the melody an octave higher. The aim was to remain faithful to the source material by shaping these psalm fragments into songs that listeners could play or sing along to themselves; Salsburg achieves this with simple and inviting refrains that avoid tweeness or banality.

In places, though, his ambitions are bolder. The beautiful Psalm 33 is freighted with yearning, even when singing phrases that, in the English translation provided, may struggle to engage secular listeners (“Sing gladly, O righteous, of the lord”). Salsburg’s evident passion for the project and his earnest mission to reconnect with his Jewish heritage provides the emotional trigger.

The overall effect is not unlike Sufjan Stevens’ Seven Swans, an album that drew heavily on the songwriter’s religious upbringing to say something about his relationship to the world in the here and now. On Psalms, it’s the arrangements – by close friend and regular collaborator James Elkington – that really elevate this album beyond the level of quaint personal project. A canopy of clarinet and strings lends the music a verdant, mystical quality, with Salsburg’s quizzical guitar figures often answered by a stirring burst of flugelhorn. Psalm 104 is swathed in descending piano chords and Hammond swirls, supporting a melody that nods to Lou Reed’s Perfect Day, itself a kind of urban hymn.

O You Who Sleep – based on a poem by the medieval Hebrew poet Judah Halevi – is the only song performed in English, but it provides enough lyrical fibre to give you a strong impression of Salsburg’s infectious, can-do worldview (“As birds shake off the dew of night when they wake/Like swallows soar/And free yourself of time/That seething sea”). It’s credit to his newfound confidence that it takes you a few lines to realise the elegant lead vocal is being sung by Salsburg himself and not actually Will Oldham, who adds a counter-melody midway through.

You might suspect that a quasi-conceptual venture such as this serves partly as a protective shield for its creator, to avoid the messy business of revealing too much of themselves. But actually the opposite feels true here. For a musician who has up until now released largely instrumental music or played sideman to others, Psalms finds Salsburg stepping up to the plate as a songwriter and delivering a rich, full-blooded experience. The words may be centuries old but his emotional commitment to these songs and the way they throb with meaning and urgency – even in a language that will be unfamiliar to most listeners – is mightily impressive.

George Harrison – All Things Must Pass: 50th Anniversary Super Deluxe

Tom Pinnock
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George Harrison – All Things Must Pass: 50th Anniversary Super Deluxe

For a while now, 51 years maybe, there’s been talk of de-Spectorising All Things Must Pass, of wiping away the reverb like grime from a golden murti. Phil didn’t make it easy, though: rather than adding effects during mixing, the layers of echo that cloud this motherlode of songs and jams are often baked onto the tapes themselves.

This 50th-anniversary edition, therefore, is not the clear and crisp version of All Things Must Pass that’s hovered in some people’s imaginations for decades like some audiophile Holy Grail, as sparse and dry as 1973’s Living In The Material World. On this new mix by Paul Hicks, the fog is very much there, but a little daylight (good at arriving at the right time, you may recall) has been let in. The breadth and ambition of All Things Must Pass remain astounding in better definition: for a sense of scale, George’s contributions to the White Album total 13 minutes, while All Things Must Pass is itself 13 minutes longer than the entirety of The Beatles.

The most striking difference here is Harrison’s voice, set forward, intimate and relatively dry, so that quivers or inflections in his singing that might have been subsumed in the mush are unearthed. Instrumental parts are also clearer: the acoustic guitar picking, timpani rolls and low, buzzing synth on Isn’t It A Pity, the subtleties in the drums on I’d Have You Anytime, every curlicue of Pete Drake’s pedal steel, even the maelstrom of free-jazz horns and guitars at the end of the immense Let It Down. Harrison’s masterful slide guitar parts (he had only taken up the technique the year before) are even more striking in this new setting.

If we don’t get an entirely new All Things Must Pass though, what we do get are a number of hypothetical alternative versions. For an ATMP where Harrison’s passion for The Band and John Wesley Harding-era Dylan takes precedence, check out day one’s acoustic guitar, drums and bass demos of Behind That Locked Door, Dehra Dun, I Live For You, a slower, funkier My Sweet Lord or the Bob co-write Nowhere To Go, or day two’s plaintive Run Of The Mill or a dirgier Art Of Dying. As an album, it would have been no starker than Plastic Ono Band, released two weeks later.

However, if Harrison had only had ears for the soulful gospel and R&B he loved around that time, then electric band demos of What Is Life, Awaiting On You All and Going Down To Golders Green give a good idea of what might have arisen. For some other avenues ripe for exploration, see the Fabs-y garage of the I Dig Love demo, a solo Hear Me Lord that’s today reminiscent of something baked and slow from Neil Young’s Zuma, or the three-minute demo of Isn’t It A Pity, which shines a light on how the song could have sounded if The Beatles hadn’t rejected it for Revolver.

The two discs of proper early takes demonstrate how the final recordings came together through live performances, with Harrison refusing to dictate what the musicians played after suffering such treatment at the hands of top songwriting duo Lennon-McCartney.

The first take of Wah Wah is already a whirlwind of sound, pretty much ready, with just vocals to be improved; take 27 of the second version of Isn’t It A Pity is almost done. Some tracks are presented in more embryonic states: take five of I’d Have You Anytime, with its overbearing drums and Spector-ish grand piano, shows little sign of its later spectral grace, while take 36 of Run Of The Mill opens with harmonised lead guitars which are a little too bombastic for such a thoughtful piece. Other highlights include take five of Hear Me Lord, nine minutes that culminate in a hypnotic, spiralling outro, and a funkier take on What Is Life, with Harrison’s voice raspily throwing forward to 1974’s Dark Horse. Curiously, like Lennon during the Plastic Ono Band sessions, he also has a jam on Get Back.

The genius of the completed All Things Must Pass is that Harrison managed to combine all those possible results into a cohesive whole that sounds like little else. Excavating all the possible permutations is an illuminating exercise, but in the end you’ll most likely find that you prefer the original record – tapestries do have a habit of ceasing to exist when they’re unpicked.

This is a world where the thundering tumult of Wah Wah happily sits alongside the Greenwich Village folk of Apple Scruffs or the soul groove of I Dig Love, and a lot of that success is down to the echoey fug laid by Spector around most of these songs, like the accessory that completes a whole outfit. It’s the holy haze of voices, the distant clang of massed instruments, that elevates and unifies this album’s spiritual hymns of longing and its earthly tales of desire and pain.

Harrison may be the best-loved Beatle in 2021; his grace, humour and spiritual searching feel very relevant to now. Musically, too, he seems to make sense in our anxious times: the most played Beatles song on streaming services, by a country mile, is Here Comes The Sun. This new mix updates his finest work for today, in greater detail than ever before, while still managing to retain the atmosphere that binds these 106 minutes together. It seems a mind can blow, at least some of, those clouds away.

Liars – The Apple Drop

Sharon O'Connell
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Liars – The Apple Drop

Listener expectation is something that most bands who have stayed the course must contend with, choosing either to acquiesce to it, meet it halfway or defiantly turn their backs and wear the consequences. Liars, however, seem to have never even acknowledged its existence. A luxury long afforded them by their record label, maybe, but far more an indicator of their protean constitution. Over 20 years, change really has been Liars’ only constant.

Their 2001 debut was as an NYC-based four-piece, whose They Threw Us All In A Trench And Put A Monument On Top was a set of pleasingly rowdy and abrasive tracks that cut Gang Of Four– and The Pop Group-style post-punk with US hardcore, but closed with a 30-minute, psych-doom raga. Singer Angus Andrew later claimed Underworld’s Beaucoup Fish was actually its inspiration, which illustrates the nature of Liars’ entertainingly unknowable mindset. Done with that, they switched to monstrously degraded noise-rock with dread-filled beats for the witchcraft-themed They Were Wrong, So We Drowned. After relocating to Berlin, they followed up with 2006’s bravura Drums Not Dead, which thrust brutalist beats to the fore while mixing fields of electronic static and no-wave guitar scree with warm, ambient drifts. Subsequent albums variously featured more structured songs, introduced strings and piano, delivered mutant dance music and more. In terms of consistency, Liars have never yielded an inch.

Which is not to say that they’ve been unstable. The creative partnership of Andrew and guitarist Aaron Hemphill lasted until 2017, at which point Andrew suddenly found himself adrift. However, that split opened a fresh chapter and he made two albums in self-imposed isolation in the Australian bush, TFCF and Titles With The Word Fountain. Computer-created, they leaned on field recordings, earlier scrapped material made over and acoustic guitar craft; both were documents of their author’s external environment and inner turmoil.

The Apple Drop is also a kind of mind map, representing change on several significant fronts. Firstly, it’s a stepping out of solitude and a return to teamwork for Andrew, with guitarist and bass player Cameron Deyell, drummer and percussionist Laurence Pike, and Mary Pearson Andrew, his wife, who sings and collaborated on the lyrics. On a deeper level, the record represents shifts both conceptual and perceptual resulting from Andrew’s quitting of SSRI medication and self-administration of psilocybin. He told Uncut: “I took the ’shrooms in all forms. Some group-guided ‘hero doses’, also microdosing in regular and not so micro ways.” The record also sees him looking back at Liars’ history (a first) and considering connections between records (he was keen to foreground drums again), revisiting themes (the reappearance of Mt. Heart Attack, the character that represents fear and anxiety on Drums Not Dead, is crucial) and reviving a few ideas abandoned in previous album sessions. A balance has been struck between live instrumentation and digitally treated sounds, both in experimental pieces such as closer New Planets New Undoings, where rumbling electronics and unintelligible vocals wash over treated keys in a gentle ebb and flow, and in songs with more conventional structures, including the TV On The Radio-toned From What The Never Was and Big Appetite, which suggests nothing so much as a swinging Nine Inch Nails.

Liars’ unpredictability has previously manifested not as genre switching but as apparent randomness within individual tracks and wilful disruption of the flow of the albums as set pieces. The Apple Drop is less obstreperous on both counts. It begins gently, with the floppy (off)beat pattern, subtle electronic drone and feel of a corrupted Disney score that is The Start, then builds steadily to the dark, mid-point intensity of the monolithic Star Search, which summons both the ominous dread and sublime beauty of space and sees a resolution of Andrew’s ongoing conflict with Mt. Heart Attack. The measured climb-down before exit is via the terrific “Leisure War”, with its groovy synth, Fripp-ish guitar passage and clattering beats, and the slow-fried thump of Acid Crop, which connects to the well known “acid drop” and so supplies the album’s title. It underlines one aspect of Andrew’s existential thinking too: “What we do now will forever define us/What we do now will absolutely define us/What they do may somehow hurt us but/What they ever gonna do about what happened to my mind?”

He’s clearly referring to something much broader and deeper than artistic definition but Andrew’s mercurial mindset is again the key to Liars’ singularity. If The Apple Drop is more, in light of their history, a considered experiential teaser than a synapse frazzler, it’s his choice. Once more, expectation can go to hell.

Liam Kazar – Due North

Michael Bonner
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Liam Kazar – Due North

During lockdown, Liam Kazar found new ways to make a living. With his regular gigs playing in Jeff Tweedy’s live band on hold, Kazar opened Isfahan – a delivery-only kitchen, named after a Duke Ellington song, whose cuisine is inspired by his Armenian heritage.

Such resourcefulness has been evident throughout Kazar’s career so far. As a teenager in Chicago, he was a member of Kids These Days, an eight-piece musical collective whose sole album Traphouse Rock was produced by Tweedy. Since then, Kazar has busied himself as a journeyman guitarist, performing with Tweedy, Steve Gunn, Chance the Rapper and Daniel Johnston. Before the pandemic, he and some friends put together a David Bowie tribute show.

Inevitably, Kazar – born Liam Cunningham – arrived late to a solo career. He finally made his debut solo recording on Uncut’s Wilcovered compilation in 2019, where his version of Sunloathe came bathed in warm slide tones that foregrounded the George Harrison influence on the original. Meanwhile, the first sightings of Kazar’s original material arrived last year with Shoes So Tight, a sprightly, soulful jam built around Kazar’s core band: Spencer Tweedy on drums, Lane Beckstrom on bass, Dave Curtin manning a punchy Prophet VI and co-producer James Elkington on pedal steel. The video found Kazar in full Pierrot make-up, inspired by Lindsey Kemp – but with his mop of tousled brown hair, he looked more like Dylan on the Rolling Thunder Tour. The song was a terrific calling card from an artist who, nine years after his recording debut with Kids These Days, had at last found his own voice. “I lost a few good years killing time,” he sings on So Long Tomorrow, which seems like he’s doing himself a great disservice: Due North might have been a long time coming, but it’s very much the work of someone who’s benefitted from spending a long time watching others do it well. Much like a chef at a pop-up restaurant, you might say – following treasured recipes and putting his own spin on them.

Tweedy, of course, is an influence – but not in ways you might imagine. There’s something of Wilco’s inherent intensity in the thrumming, needle-y guitar intro to Shoes Too Tight, and on On A Spanish Dune, which recalls the mellow and soulful temperament of Sky Blue Sky. You can also hear Tweedy’s lyrical dryness in lines such as “I hang my coat on any old hook/But I prefer the second from the left” on So Long Tomorrow, and his fragile songcraft in lines like “It seems I haven’t changed/Half as much as I let you down” on Something Tender.

But instead of Tweedy’s affable, rumpled narrators, Kazar has swagger – even when addressing matters of the heart. “Don’t leave me hanging on the laces of your shoes,” he sings on Old Enough For You. But it’s hard to sound anything other than confident when the music swings like this. Spencer Tweedy and Lane Beckstrom provide tight, upbeat backing – everything is lit up, like the first day of summer – while Kazar and Curtin’s array of synths provide infectious undercurrents. On Old Enough For You, Kazar and his cohorts sound like they’re channelling Talking Heads, while Shoes Too Tight boogies along on crunchy, glam grooves. He maintains this wide-open spirit of optimism on Frank Bacon – “Keepin’ my feet on solid ground/I’m never gonna let you down” – where Elkington’s slide twangs playfully against Kazar’s layered guitars.

But Kazar has evidently worked hard not just on his songwriting. His arrangements have grain and depth, even on deceptively lighter songs like So Long Tomorrow and Shoes Too Tight, you’ll hear pianos, synths and multiple guitar lines artfully enter and depart the songs, but they never risk overwhelming their momentum. Even the more reflective songs are richly textured. The soulful grooves of Give My Word and spacey expanse of Something Tender both find a complementary space between Elkington’s lachrymose slide and the analogue burblings from a Korg. Then there’s Kazar’s voice. He has a slightly theatrical croon, indebted to Bowie and David Byrne, that brings different weights of feeling to the songs. He projects playfulness to the up-tempo strut of So Long Tomorrow but also warmth to the wistful I’ve Been Where You Are.

Even with lockdown, Due North has taken three years to complete, which suggests that Kazar has taken the time to think everything through. After all, having spent so long at the side of other artists, wouldn’t he want to ensure his debut album was good enough to hold its own in such exalted company. As the final synth whooshes of Something Tender evaporate, Due North feels like Kazar coming to terms with his place in the rock’n’roll firmament.

The Flaming Lips team up with young fan for new Nick Cave covers album

Elizabeth Aubrey
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The Flaming Lips team up with young fan for new Nick Cave covers album

The Flaming Lips have teamed up with a young fan for a new Nick Cave covers album.

The album, Where The Viaduct Looms, arrives on October 25, and The Flaming Lips have shared a preview of a cover they recorded with young 13-year-old fan, Nell Smith. They have covered the 2016 Bad Seeds track, “Girl In Amber”.

Smith has been attending Flaming Lips gigs for three years and caught the attention of frontman Wayne Coyne after being spotted at the gigs with her father several times. The pair eventually exchanged contact details and recorded the covers album together remotely during the pandemic.

In a statement (via Consequence of Sound), Coyne said: “It is always great to meet excited, young creative people. With Nell we could see she is on a journey and thought it would be fun to join her for a while and see if we could get things going.

“It was a great way to connect with her and help harness her cool attitude to making music.”

Smith added: “I still really can’t believe it, it was hard to get through all the songs but Wayne was so encouraging when I was struggling with a few of them that I kept going.

“It was a really steep learning curve. I hadn’t heard of Nick Cave but Wayne suggested that we should start with an album of his cover versions, and then look at recording some of my own songs later.

“It was cool to listen and learn about Nick Cave and pick the songs we wanted to record.”

ABBA Voyage: Pop icons return for new album and “revolutionary” shows

Andrew Trendell
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ABBA Voyage: Pop icons return for new album and “revolutionary” shows

ABBA have at long last announced their return, confirming details of a new album and “revolutionary” concert experience ABBA: VOYAGE – as well as releasing two brand new songs.

In 2017, it was announced that the band would reunite in digital form in 2019, performing as “Abbatars” for the first time since they split in 1983. When the reunion tour was then delayed, the Swedish pop icons announced in 2018 that they would be sharing two new tracks: “I Still Have Faith In You” and “Don’t Shut Me Down”, which was then expanded to five new tracks as a reward to fans waiting for the reunion tour due to COVID-related delays.

Now, along with the release of “I Still Have Faith In You” and “Don’t Shut Me Down”, yesterday (September 2) saw the band announce that all four members have reunited to put together ABBA: VOYAGE – a full new album and their first new music in over 40 years which will be released on November 5 on Universal Music.

“First it was just two songs, then I said, ‘Maybe we should do a few others – what do you say girls?’,” said Benny Andersson at yesterday’s press conference. “They said yeah, so I asked them, ‘Why don’t we just do a whole album?’”

Björn Ulvaeus continued: “The first song, ‘I Still Have Faith In You’, I just knew that when Benny played the melody that it had to be about us. It’s about realising that it’s inconceivable to be where we are. No imagination could dream up that – to release a new album after 40 years and still be the best of friends, and still be enjoying each other’s company and have total loyalty. Who has experienced that? Nobody.”

The pair went on to discuss how the making of the album was “very emotional.”

“There were memories rushing back, or should I say the relationships and bonds that we have. It was great,” said Björn in an interview with Zoe Ball during the announcement. “We went into the studio knowing that if we didn’t think it was up to scratch then we wouldn’t never release it. We’re really proud of it. There’s also an old saying in the music industry: you should not leave more than 40 years between albums.

Benny added: “That’s the funny thing. It was 39 years since we last recorded together, but then in seconds it was like no time had passed. It was quite amazing. Everyone went into the roles we had in the studio.

“[The album] is a little mixture of everything. We have a little Christmas tune, it’s called ‘Little Things’. There are a number of pop songs. I think it’s pretty good. We’ve done as good as we can at our age.”

Benny Andersson, Björn Ulvaeus, Agnetha Fältskog and Anni-Frid “Frida” Lyngstad have all been involved in motion-capturing themselves for the upcoming concert experience.

The tracks for VOYAGE were written when assembling new music to go with their “revolutionary” new concert experience of the same name – which will see a “digital” version of ABBA (not holograms) perform alongside a 10-piece live band at a the purpose-built 3,000-capacity ABBA Arena at London’s Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park at a run of shows from May 27, 2022.

The show will feature 22 songs, including the two new ones released today.

Pre-sale registration for tickets begins at 6pm tonight. Fans who have pre-ordered the album from the official ABBA store by Saturday September 4 at 12pm will get first access to concert tickets from September 5 at 10am. Fans who register for early ticket access by September 5 at 12pm will be able to purchase tickets from September 6 at 10am. ABBA Voyage tickets will then go on general sale to the public on Tuesday September 7 from 10am.

Visit here for tickets and information.

Yesterday’s press conference also heard how the band will be presented as digital characters of “ABBA in their prime” of 1979, created using performance capture techniques on ABBA in recent years to animate them and make them look “perfectly real”.

Using 160 cameras, the band “performed every song to perfection over five weeks” with the technical team “capturing every mannerism, emotion and the soul of their beings,” to create something that’s not “a version or a copy of ABBA, but actually them.”

Explaining why the band chose London as the location for the concerts, the band said it was because “the Brits see us as their own”.

Visit here for tickets and information.

Watch the ABBA Voyage announcement and press conference below.

Rather than following the trend of hologram shows, ABBA: VOYAGE has been described a “revolutionary” digital version of the band made in collaboration with George Lucas’ special effects company, Industrial Light & Magic – using motion capture technology and created by an 850-strong team.

The live show was made in collaboration with Svana Gisla (who produced Jay-Z and Beyonce‘s On the Run Tour), choreographer Wayne McGregor, Johan Renck (who directed David Bowie‘s videos for “Blackstar” and “Lazarus”, Baillie Walsh (who has directed for Massive Attack and Bruce Springsteen) and many more.

Here’s a never-before-seen clip of Oasis playing “Live Forever” at Knebworth

Elizabeth Aubrey
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Here’s a never-before-seen clip of Oasis playing “Live Forever” at Knebworth

A new, never-before-seen clip of Oasis playing at Knebworth in August 1996 was released yesterday (September 2).

The clip shows the group performing “Live Forever” during their iconic performance at the event. Last month marked 25 years since the first of Oasis’ two outdoor gigs at Knebworth, which were witnessed by over a quarter of a million music fans from all over the world.

The footage is taken from a new Jake Scott-directed documentary about the two Knebworth shows, which is set to be screened in cinemas worldwide from September 23. The documentary tells “the story of that weekend and the special relationship between Oasis and their fans that made it possible”.

The footage of the group also features new commentary from Noel Gallagher, who reflects on how the song changed Oasis’ career.

He said: “We were a pretty decent band the night before I wrote ‘Live Forever’ but it was indie music. The day after I wrote ‘Live Forever’, we were gonna be the biggest band in the world. I knew it.”

A synopsis for the film reads: “Directed by Jake Scott from extensive concert and exclusive never before seen footage, this is a joyful and at times poignant cinematic celebration of one of the most important concert events of the last 25 years.

“It is told through the eyes of the fans who were there, with additional interviews with the band and concert organisers.”

Tickets to cinema screenings of the film are available to buy here.

A new Oasis Knebworth 1996 live album, as well as a DVD/Blu-Ray of the film, will also be released later this year.

Set to be released via Big Brother Recordings Ltd on November 19, physical formats include a Super Deluxe Box Set (which features triple LP, 2xCD and triple DVD) plus replicas of the original gig memorabilia which will be exclusively available from the band’s online store. Pre-order is available here.

Pink Floyd announce remixed and updated A Momentary Lapse Of Reason

Michael Bonner
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Pink Floyd announce remixed and updated A Momentary Lapse Of Reason

Pink Floyd release A Momentary Lapse Of Reason – Remixed & Updated on 29 October through Warner Music in the UK.

This edition has been upgraded from the original 1987 master tapes for The Latest Years box set by Andy Jackson with David Gilmour, assisted by Damon Iddins. The album will be available on Vinyl, CD, DVD, Blu-ray and digitally with Stereo and 5.1 mixes. It is available to pre-order by clicking here.

Never shy of trying out new technology, the album will be presented in 360 Reality Audio – a new immersive music experience that closely mimics the omni-directional soundscape of live musical performance for the listener. A Momentary Lapse Of Reason will also be released in Dolby Audio and UHD in addition to 360 Reality Audio, all of which will continue with other Pink Floyd releases.

The release of The Later Years project in 2019 gave an opportunity for a fresh overview of A Momentary Lapse Of Reason. Producers David Gilmour and Bob Ezrin returned some of Richard Wright‘s original keyboard takes and re-recorded new drum tracks with Nick Mason.

Says David Gilmour: “Some years after we had recorded the album, we came to the conclusion that we should update it to make it more timeless, featuring more of the traditional instruments that we liked and that we were more used to playing. This was something we thought it would benefit from. We also looked for and found some previously unused keyboard parts of Rick’s which helped us to come up with a new vibe, a new feeling for the album.”

Reflecting on originally recording the album, Gilmour recalls: “Bob Ezrin had worked on The Wall with us back in ’79 and on some solo albums with me. I learnt a lot from Bob and he’s a valuable person to have on board. We started working on pieces of music that I had been writing and, come Christmas, we knew it was going well. One day, I felt this ‘thing’ coming on me that became Sorrow. I wrote five verses one evening. They just flowed out from nowhere in one of those great serendipitous moments that you recognize later as having been very valuable…. I knew that we were on a good roll and that this thing was going to work.”

Nick Mason: “Initially it seemed a bit odd to start re-assembling a record after 35 odd years, but the public’s appetite for alternate views of the same work has undoubtedly increased immeasurably over time.

“Inevitably the opportunity to revisit earlier work from a period where digital technology was the brave new world became increasingly interesting.

“There’s little doubt of the advantages in being able to find new elements within the music, or more often uncovering elements that became overwhelmed with all that new science…I think there is an element of taking the album back in time and taking the opportunity to create a slightly more open sound – utilising some of the things we had learned from playing so much of the album live over two massive tours.

“I enjoyed re-recording drum tracks with unlimited studio time. Momentary Lapse had been recorded under considerable stress and time constraints, and indeed some of the final mixing was done at the same time as rehearsals for the forthcoming tour.

“It was also nice to have an opportunity to enhance some of Rick’s work. Again, that positive tidal wave of technology just might have provided too many digital opportunities to overwhelm the band feel. Hopefully, that’s one of the benefits of this remix!”

The remixed and updated A Momentary Lapse Of Reason album also features a new album cover using an alternative beds photo by Robert Dowling from the original album cover shoot directed by the late Storm Thorgerson. Echoing the iconic original sleeve the 2021 album artwork is designed and art directed by Aubrey Powell/Hipgnosis and Peter Curzon/StormStudios.

Aubrey Powell explains, “I was looking to update the iconic five hundred beds picture my partner in Hipgnosis, Storm Thorgerson, had designed. On looking through the archives I discovered a version where the sea was encroaching on the set, just before Storm shut down the shot worried he would lose all the beds. I also wanted to make something more of the microlight. There were no shots of the plane in close up, so I hunted one down that was similar but white, and had Peter Curzon retouch the fuselage with the right colouring – red – then strip the microlight into the picture in an upfront position. David Gilmour and Nick Mason gave their approval and, voila, a fresh approach to an original favourite.”

Damon Albarn shares new single “Particles” with intimate live video

Patrick Clarke
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Damon Albarn shares new single “Particles” with intimate live video

Damon Albarn has shared another taste of his forthcoming second solo album in the form of elegant new single “Particles”.

The slow, tender new song will be the closing track of Albarn‘s upcoming LP ‘The Nearer The Fountain, More Pure The Stream Flows, due to be released on November 12.

According to a press release, the song “originated in a chance conversation between Albarn and a fellow passenger on a plane bound for Reykjavik, one which covered the disruption of the pandemic and the acknowledgment that disruption is impossible to maintain as peace always prevails.”

You can listen to “Particles” below:

As with preceding single “Polaris”, the song comes with an intimate solo piano live performance. You can see that below.

Albarn announced in June that he’d be signing to Transgressive Records to release the follow-up to his 2014 solo debut Everyday Robots, and shared the title track shortly afterwards.

He debuted a number of album tracks at Glastonbury’s Live At Worthy Farm livestream that month, then again at Latitude Festival in July. He’s also set to perform at this weekend’s End Of The Road Festival.

Elton John announces collaborations album The Lockdown Sessions

Will Lavin
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Elton John announces collaborations album The Lockdown Sessions

Elton John has announced the release of a new collaboration album called The Lockdown Sessions – featuring Lil Nas X, Miley Cyrus, Dua Lipa, Eddie Vedder and more.

Recorded over the last 18 months, work on the singer’s 32nd studio album – which is due to arrive on October 22 – began after he was forced to pause his Farewell Yellow Brick Road tour due to the coronavirus pandemic.

“The last thing I expected to do during lockdown was make an album,” John said in a statement. “But, as the pandemic went on, one‐off projects kept cropping up.”

The diverse 16-track collection – 10 of which are brand new and previously unreleased – celebrates togetherness and sees John collaborating with a wide range of artists, including Miley Cyrus, Gorillaz, Young Thug, Andrew Watt, Brandi Carlile, Yo-Yo Ma, Stevie Wonder and more. The album also features John‘s recently released collaboration with Dua Lipa, “Cold Heart”.

“Some of the recording sessions had to be done remotely, via Zoom, which I’d obviously never done before,” John said of how he recorded the project. “Some of the sessions were recorded under very stringent safety regulations: working with another artist, but separated by glass screens. But all the tracks I worked on were really interesting and diverse, stuff that was completely different to anything I’m known for, stuff that took me out of my comfort zone into completely new territory.”

John said the way in which he laid down the album felt similar to how he used to work on music when he was a session musician.

“At the start of my career, in the late 60s, I worked as a session musician. Working with different artists during lockdown reminded me of that,” he recalled, before adding that with The Lockdown Sessions he’d “come full circle: I was a session musician again. And it was still a blast.”

Due out October 22, you can pre-order/pre-save The Lockdown Sessions here – see the album artwork and tracklist below.

Elton John

1. Elton John & Dua Lipa – “Cold Heart” (PNAU Remix)
2. Elton John, Young Thug & Nicki Minaj – “Always Love You”
3. Surfaces feat. Elton John – “Learn To Fly”
4. Elton John & Charlie Puth – “After All”
5. Rina Sawayama & Elton John – “Chosen Family”
6. Gorillaz feat. Elton John & 6LACK – “The Pink Phantom”
7. Elton John & Years & Years – “It’s a sin” (global reach mix)
8. Miley Cyrus feat. WATT, Elton John, Yo-Yo Ma, Robert Trujillo & Chad Smith – “Nothing Else Matters”
9. Elton John & SG Lewis – “Orbit”
10. Elton John & Brandi Carlile – “Simple Things”
11. Jimmie Allen & Elton John – “Beauty In The Bones”
12. Lil Nas X feat. Elton John – “One Of Me”
13. Elton John & Eddie Vedder – “E-Ticket”
14. Elton John & Stevie Wonder – “Finish Line”
15. Elton John & Stevie Nicks – “Stolen Car”
16. Glen Campbell & Elton John – “I’m Not Gonna Miss You”

Björk will return to UK to headline Bluedot Festival 2022

Ali Shutler
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Björk will return to UK to headline Bluedot Festival 2022

Björk has been confirmed as the first name for Bluedot Festival 2022, headlining the Sunday night of the event as a UK festival exclusive.

She’ll be joined by The Hallé Orchestra for her performance at the UNESCO World Heritage site of Jodrell Bank Observatory. The show will also feature a unique visual display as video and animation is projected onto the iconic, 76-metre wide Lovell Telescope.

The festival takes place July 21-24, 2022, with a limited number of weekend and day tickets going on sale this Friday (September 3) here.

Speaking about the booking, Festival Director Ben Robinson said: “After the postponements of the last two summers we wanted to return with something extra special and unique.

“We spoke to Björk’s team about curating visuals to accompany the show & being the first confirmed artists to project onto the surface of the Lovell Telescope at Bluedot Festival. Björk and her team are already working on this unique spectacle & we are incredibly grateful for their enthusiasm for making the closing set of Bluedot’s return truly unique.”

The 2020 edition of Bluedot Festival was supposed to be headlined by Björk, Groove Armada and Metronomy but was postponed to 2021 because of COVID-19. With restrictions still in place this June though, the festival was once again forced to postpone to 2022.

In a statement released at the time about the headliners returning, it was confirmed organisers were “working with these artists to hopefully welcome them back in 2022”.

Lindsey Buckingham shares triumphant new song “Scream”

Will Lavin
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Lindsey Buckingham shares triumphant new song “Scream”

Lindsey Buckingham has shared a brand new single called “Scream” – you can listen to it below.

The triumphant track is the latest to be taken from the former Fleetwood Mac guitarist’s upcoming self-titled solo album – his first since 2011’s Seeds We Sow – and follows recent tracks “I Don’t Mind“ and “On The Wrong Side“.

“Many of the songs on this album are about the work and discipline it takes in maintaining a long-term relationship. Some of them are more about the discipline and some of them are more about the perks,” Buckingham said. “‘Scream’ is about the perks. It felt very celebratory and it was also very, very simple and short. To the point.”

He continued: “It didn’t evolve into some huge thing. It made its case and got the hell out. It just seemed like a good place to start the album, somehow. It’s very upbeat and very optimistic and very positive. It’s a celebration of an aspect of life.”

You can listen to “Scream” below:

Tweeting about his forthcoming seventh solo album, which is his first since leaving Fleetwood Mac, Buckingham said last month: “My new self-titled album is one I’ve been intending to get out for a couple of years now, but on more than one occasion, unforeseen circumstances necessitated a postponement of plans.

“Now that we’re back in gear, I’m thrilled to finally be sharing new music with my listeners!”

The album is due to arrive on September 17.

Buckingham kicked off his 2021 US tour last night (September 1) in Milwaukee, WI. Ending on December 20 in Boulder, CO, the tour will stop off in New York, Atlanta, Los Angels, Austin, Dallas and more. Remaining tickets can be purchased here.

Buckingham was fired by Fleetwood Mac in 2018. The band continued to tour without the guitarist, replacing him on the road with Tom Petty And The Heartbreakers’ Mike Campbell and Crowded House’s Neil Finn.

In March, it was revealed that Mick Fleetwood had reconciled with Buckingham – and he said he would like to think a reunion could happen.

Previously, Fleetwood had been adamant that his former bandmate would never be allowed to rejoin the band.

Asked in an interview whether or not he could see a scenario in which the band would play with Buckingham again, Fleetwood said: “No. Fleetwood Mac is a strange creature. We’re very, very committed to Neil and Mike, and that passed away a time ago, when Lindsey left. And it’s not a point of conversation, so I have to say no.”

But now, it appears Fleetwood has had a change of heart about Buckingham. The pair are apparently on good terms after they started talking following the death of Fleetwood Mac guitarist Peter Green.

Meanwhile, Lindsey Buckingham has said he never got “closure” with former Fleetwood Mac bandmate and ex-partner Stevie Nicks following their much-publicised breakup.

“Something to really lift your spirits” – John Grant’s End Of The Road picks

Sam Richards
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“Something to really lift your spirits” – John Grant’s End Of The Road picks

“End Of The Road is one of the most beautiful festivals ever,” says John Grant, looking forward to his imminent return visit to Larmer Tree Gardens. “The crowd is really just heavy-duty music fans, and the setting is so special. I’m a tree freak, you know? I really love to be in amongst the trees. I know that might sound extremely basic but it’s an amazing thing.”

Like everyone else, Grant is excited to be out in the wild again. He recently debuted his new live show at Terry Hall’s Home Sessions in Coventry, which involves him getting more hands-on with the technology. “I can rearrange songs on the fly if I want to and remix them live. I’ve been working on a redo of ‘Queen Of Denmark’ which is really fun and nasty and gigantic.” But when his own set is over, who else at End Of The Road is he hoping to catch?

LONELADY

“I became familiar with her through working with Stephen Mallinder from Cabaret Voltaire. It’s choppy, full-on electropop – lots of really beautiful synth sounds and heavy beats. In a live setting, you probably feel it in your balls! The way she sings reminds me of Jane Wiedlin from The Go-Go’s. I imagine a show by her being something to really lift your spirits.”

GWENNO

“She’s got a really strong presence. I don’t wanna say the accursed word ‘folktronica’, so I’m not going to. But she’s got songs with structure and there’s beautiful, dancey electro vibes going on there as well. If you like Beth Orton, especially her later stuff where she went really electronic, then I might put Gwenno in that category.”

ARLO PARKS

“She’s somebody that I would seek out and go listen to her set. I thought her album was really sexy and smooth. She’s got a beautiful voice but she uses it in a very simple manner with great rhymes and great lyrics. I know people want to hear more about the sun, but for me it’s getting too fuckin’ hot all over the place, so her music gave me a real sexy, cosy, rainy-day vibe.”

ANNA MEREDITH

“She’s my pal, though we’ve never met; she did a lovely remix for me. I think she’s really great but I don’t know how the fuck you would describe her music. I would think of her as more of a classical composer, but with synthesisers – and I’m a synth freak, obviously. It’s very bright and shiny, like jewels sparkling. It’s kitchen-sinky in a positive way, there’s a lot going on, and you never really know what you’re going to get. I saw a guy playing a tuba on the video I was watching just now, and who doesn’t love a tuba? Maybe there’s a hurdy-gurdy and a giant Moog modular, or there’s just kitchen implements and a computer. These are all possibilities!”

MELIN MELYN

“There’s a whole mess of them, about six or seven. Their music is really poppy and surfy with electronics going on, and it has a nice edge to it. They remind me of my friend Cate Le Bon, and Gruff Rhys – all that delicious Welsh music.”

If you’re heading to End Of The Road, check out the Uncut Q&As at 3.45pm each day on the Talking Heads stage, where our very own Tom Pinnock will be chatting to Jason Williamson of Sleaford Mods (Sat), Richard Dawson (Sun) and more. You can read our daily coverage of the festival on this site throughout the weekend.

Kacey Musgraves on writing new album Star-crossed: “You aren’t owed a visit by the muse. She can visit or not visit”

Stephen Deusner
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Kacey Musgraves on writing new album Star-crossed: “You aren’t owed a visit by the muse. She can visit or not visit”

Two days before she entered the studio to record her new album, Kacey Musgraves drove to a house outside Nashville, put on a blindfold and took a dose of psilocybin mushrooms. Her only sensory stimulation was a special playlist curated by neuroscientists at Johns Hopkins University to trigger different emotions and guide the listener through the journey. “Music has never sounded so good than it did when I was in that state,” she says. “You notice every nuance of every note. You react viscerally to it. And that served as a lot of the inspiration for the new record.”

Listening to the regal melodies of Vivaldi’s “Concerto For Lute, 2 Violins” early on the playlist, “I remember thinking, ‘Why the fuck did I do this? What am I even doing here?’ But then you move out of that place of anxiety and grief.” By the time Musgraves heard Strauss’s dramatic Tod Und Verklärung (Death and Transfiguration), “I was ripped open. I was sobbing like a child. And that felt good. I needed that.” Toward the end, around the time The Beatles burst in with Here Comes The Sun, “I moved into this more hopeful place of gratitude and warmth and thankfulness for the relationships you do have, for the angels you have in your life.”

Going into that experience and making herself so vulnerable scared her, but “I knew there would be some kind of reward at the end of it. When you face whatever demons you have, it instantly makes them smaller.” The demons she was confronting were connected to her recent divorce from a Nashville artist named Ruston Kelly, who was the inspiration behind the open-hearted love songs on her 2018 studio album Golden Hour. Their separation after three years of marriage understandably left her feeling hurt, confused, and traumatised. Most days she barely felt she could get out of bed, let alone make a new record.

It’s a very different kind of trip for Nashville – which is less known for songs about psilocybin and wellness – yet there’s an outlaw edge to her experience. Musgraves is hesitant to say too much about the couple who guided her through her trip: “With the way the laws are in Tennessee, I don’t want to blow their cover! They open up their home to people who are looking to turn their pain into something beautiful. They’re doing some insane spiritual warfare, and it’s still crazy to me that a plant that has been used for thousands of years for therapeutic reasons could ever be considered a felony.”

“Kacey makes a stand without it being all about her,” says Wayne Coyne, who worked with Musgraves on the Flaming Lips’ 2020 album American Head. “There’s a lot of people out there who take a stand on things, but it really is just another platform by which you get to see their ego. With her, I don’t get that. I get a feeling like, ‘Hey, I believe in these things very passionately.’ That can be a hard road to walk.”

The Specials delay release of new album Protest Songs 1924–2012

Charlotte Krol
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The Specials delay release of new album Protest Songs 1924–2012

The Specials have pushed back the release of their forthcoming protest song covers album by a week.

Protest Songs 1924–2012, which was originally due to hit shelves on September 24, will now be released on October 1 to allow for the vinyl format to reach fans on the same day.

The band confirmed the move in a statement posted to their Twitter: “In order to get everyone their vinyl on [the] release date we’ve had to move the release of Protest Songs 1924–2012 back a week to October 1st.”

Earlier this month the group shared the first track “Freedom Highway“, a track written by the Staple Singers for the famous civil rights marches from Selma to Montgomery in 1965.

Across the album’s 12 songs, The Specials also take on versions of tracks by Talking Heads, Bob Marley, Leonard Cohen and more.

Meanwhile, the band kicked off a new UK tour yesterday (August 31) at Bristol’s O2 Academy before wrapping things up at London’s Troxy on September 25. They also play Dublin’s Trinity College next year on July 2.

The Specials’ UK tour 2021:

August

Tuesday 31 – Bristol, O2 Academy Bristol

September

Thursday 02 – Plymouth, Plymouth Pavilions
Friday 03 – Bournemouth, Windsor Hall (BIC)
Saturday 04 – Brighton Centre
Monday 06 – Glasgow, Barrowland
Tuesday 07 – Edinburgh, Usher Hall
Thursday 09 – Manchester, O2 Victoria Warehouse
Friday 10 – Cardiff, Motorpoint Arena
Saturday 11 – Coventry, Coventry Building Society Arena
Monday 13 – Hull, Bonus Arena
Tuesday 14 – Blackpool, Empress Ballroom
Thursday 16 – Birmingham, O2 Academy Birmingham
Friday 17 – Nottingham, Motorpoint Arena
Saturday 18 – Doncaster, Dome
Monday 20 – Newcastle upon Tyne, O2 City Hall
Tuesday 21 – Reading, Rivermead Leisure Complex
Thursday 23 – London, Roundhouse
Friday 24 – London, Roundhouse
Saturday 25 – London, Troxy

Lindsey Buckingham announces first solo European tour dates

Elizabeth Aubrey
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Lindsey Buckingham announces first solo European tour dates

Lindsey Buckingham has announced his first-ever solo European dates.

The 2022 tour will begin in Dublin, before he plays three UK shows in Glasgow, Liverpool and London. The self-titled tour then goes on to dates through Belgium, France, Netherlands, Germany, Sweden, Norway and Denmark.

Pre-sale tickets will be available from September 1 from 10am for registered users on Buckingham’s website here. Tickets will go on general sale at 10am on September 3 here.
Check out the full dates below:

May 2022

17 – The Helix, Dublin, Ireland
19 – SEC Armadillo, Glasgow, UK
21 – Philharmonic Hall, Liverpool, UK
22 – The London Palladium, London UK
24 – Capitole, Ghent, Belgium
25 – La Cigale, Paris, France
26 – TivoliVredenburg Grote Zaal, Utrecht, Netherlands
28 – Theater am Potsdamer Platz, Berlin, Germany
30 – Cirkus, Stockholm, Sweden
31 – Folketeateret, Oslo, Norway

June 2022

02 – Heartland Festival, Kværndrup, Denmark

Back in July, Buckingham said his firing from Fleetwood Mac “harmed the legacy” that the band established over 43 years.

The guitarist was fired from the legendary group back in 2018, and was replaced by Tom Petty And The Heartbreakers’ Mike Campbell and Crowded House’s Neil Finn.

Buckingham’s ex-partner and bandmate Stevie Nicks later explained that the musician was kicked out because he wanted too much time off to concentrate on his solo career.

He denied that was the case and claimed the band’s manager, Irving Azoff, called him at home in LA to pass on a message from Nicks. “Stevie never wants to be on a stage with you again,” he was reportedly told.

Meanwhile, Buckingham is set to release his new self-titled solo album on September 17. He has previewed the project with the singles “I Don’t Mind” and “On The Wrong Side”.

Suede to release new photo-journal, So Young: Suede 1991-1993

Elizabeth Aubrey
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Suede to release new photo-journal, So Young: Suede 1991-1993

Suede are set to release a new photojournal called So Young: Suede 1991-1993.

The journal, which has been compiled by drummer Simon Gilbert, documents his arrival in the band in 1991 through to 1993, when the group’s self titled debut album reached number one.

Released on October 8, the book is a “rich collection of previously unseen archive photography” which “captures Suede at every moment of their formative years”, according to a press release.

Speaking about the project, Gilbert said: “So Young is the book that’s been in my head for over thirty years. When I was getting into music I was more interested in seeing bands away from the bright lights of Top of the Pops. Photos of the Pistols in the pub or The Clash at a checkpoint in Belfast fascinated me, and filled me with visions of what it was actually like to be in a band.

Suede's new book
Suede’s new book ‘So Young’ – Credit: Press

“When the opportunity was handed to me to do just that in 1991, I made sure we were armed with cameras to catch all the tiny details of life on the road, in the studio and beyond.

“Being in lockdown gave me the time to get the book together. Reading through my diaries and finding corresponding photos has been a wonderful experience, taking me right back.”

The book also contains a forward from Stuart Maconie. Speaking about the book, he added: “The diaries and pictures and text in this book are a powerful, even pungent snapshot of the early Suede.

“You can taste the fizzy lager and the roll ups, smell the pub toilets and sweat, later to become champagne and sushi, expensive hotel toiletries and on one memorable occasion in Japan, margaritas.”

Meanwhile, the band have rescheduled the 25th anniversary tour of Coming Up to November due to the ongoing coronavirus crisis.

The band had been due to hit the road next month to celebrate the 25th anniversary of their third album, with the dates originally having been set for October 2020.

The UK stops on the tour will now take place in November, with all previously purchased tickets valid for the new dates.

Hear Johnny Marr’s new single, “Spirit, Power And Soul”

Michael Bonner
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Hear Johnny Marr’s new single, “Spirit, Power And Soul”

Johnny Marr returns with new music. “Spirit, Power And Soul” is the first taster from his forthcoming double album and fourth solo full length record, titled Fever Dreams Pts 1-4.

“Spirit, Power And Soul is a kind of mission statement,” says Marr. “I had an idea about an electro sound with gospel feeling, in my own words… an electro soul anthem.”

The Fever Dreams Pt 1 EP will be released digitally, and on limited edition 12” silver vinyl via BMG from October 15th. Pre-order by clicking here. The double album release date, and more details, are soon to be announced.

The full tracklisting for The Fever Dreams Pt 1 EP is:

Spirit, Power And Soul
Receiver
All These Days
Ariel

Marr is also due to play the following UK shows:

September 20 – Leeds, Stylus

September 21 – Blackburn, King George’s Hall

September 23 – London, Electric Ballroom

September 25 – Manchester, Old Trafford Cricket Ground (supporting The Courteeners)

Kacey Musgraves announces 2022 North American tour dates

Rhian Daly
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Kacey Musgraves announces 2022 North American tour dates

Kacey Musgraves has announced a string of North American tour dates for 2022 in support of her forthcoming album star-crossed.

The musician will make her return with the follow-up to Golden Hour next week (September 10).

Next January, Musgraves will then hit the road in the US and Canada, kicking off the tour in St Paul, Minnesota on January 19 and continuing on to a final show in Los Angeles on February 20. She will be supported by King Princess and MUNA across all dates.

Tickets for the tour will go on sale soon – you can register for pre-sale access here now. Kacey Musgraves will play:

January 2022

19 – St Paul, Minnesota, Xcel Energy Center
20 – Chicago, IL, United Center
21 – Kansas City, MO, T-Mobile Center
23 – Cleveland, OH, Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse
24 – Toronto, ON, Scotiabank Arena
26 – Philadelphia, PA, Wells Fargo Center
27 – Boston, MA, TD Garden

February 2022

3 – Washington D.C., Capital One Arena
5 – New York, NY, Madison Square Garden
9 – Atlanta, GA, State Farm Arena
11 – Nashville, TN, Bridgestone Arena
14 – Dallas, TX, American Airlines Center
16 – Denver, CO, Ball Arena
19 – Oakland, CA, Oakland Arena
20 – Los Angeles, CA, Staples Center

Last week (August 23), Musgraves announced the release of her new album star-crossed and an accompanying film of the same name. The record will be “structured as a modern-day tragedy in three acts” and “tells an extremely personal journey of heartache and healing”, according to a press release.

She also shared the title track from the record on the same day and followed it up on Friday (August 27) with new single “justified”. The video for the track saw the musician take a road trip as she sang about how “healing doesn’t happen in a straight line”.

Earlier this month, Musgraves previewed two new songs during an appearance on the podcast A Slight Change Of Plans. During the episode, she sang verses from the unreleased tracks “angel” and “camera roll”.

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