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Laura Marling has narrated a new Joni Mitchell documentary for BBC Radio 4

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Laura Marling has narrated a new audio documentary about Joni Mitchell for BBC Radio 4.

The singer voiced Blue: Pain And Pleasure to mark the 50th anniversary of Mitchell’s seminal album Blue.

The documentary, which aired earlier today (June 17) and you can listen to here, sees Marling telling the story behind the writing and recording of the 1971 LP.

The record is also due to be reissued as part of a new box set – The Reprise Albums (1968-1971) – on June 25 to mark Blue’s 50th anniversary.

That release includes an essay from Brandi Carlile on Blue, which she calls “the greatest album ever made”.

Blue didn’t make me a better songwriter. Blue made me a better woman,” she wrote. “No matter what we are dealing with in these times, we can rejoice and know that of all the ages we could have lived through, we lived in the time of Joni Mitchell.

Marling recently reunited with Tunng’s Mike Lindsay to revive their LUMP project, with the duo set to release a new album, Animal, in July.

Thundercat announces UK and European tour for 2022

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Thundercat has announced details of his UK and European tour that will take place next year.

The LA artist, real name Stephen Bruner, will resume touring in 2022 in support of his 2020 album It Is What It Is after his previous live plans were cut short by the coronavirus pandemic.

Thundercat will head to the UK for a trio of dates in March and April 2022 before then moving on to the continent.

He’ll kick off the UK leg of his tour in Glasgow at the Barrowland Ballroom on March 29, 2022 before dates at the Manchester Academy on April 1 and the O2 Academy Brixton in London on April 3.

Thundercat Europe tour

You can see details of Thundercat’s upcoming UK and European live dates below.

March 2022

29 – Barrowland Ballroom, Glasgow

April 2022

1 – Manchester Academy, Manchester
3 – O2 Academy Brixton, London
4 – Paradiso, Amsterdam, NL
5 – Melkweg, Amsterdam, NL
6 – Élysée Montmartre, Paris, FR
9 – De Roma, Antwerp, BE
10 – Astra, Berlin, DE

Tickets for Thundercat’s 2022 UK and European tour are on sale now.

It Is What It Is landed in fifth place in Uncut’s 50 best new albums of 2020 list. We said: “Bass virtuoso and Kendrick veteran Stephen Bruner continued his journey into the furthest reaches of exploded fusion.

“Seeming to chronicle the boom-bust cycle of a love affair, his fourth album was composed of short pieces (the better, perhaps, to accommodate busy electronica, hard ’70s grooves and sweet soft rock) but visionary and unified in scope, floating on Thundercat’s falsetto and the sweetly candid nature of his lyrics. Joining him on the mind-expanding mission were guest stars Steve Arrington and the idiosyncratic rapper Lil B.”

Warren Ellis on if he’s the ‘Yoko Ono’ who split Nick Cave from the Bad Seeds

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In an excerpt from a Q&A being broadcast later today, Nick Cave has shared his thoughts on the “divisive” nature of new album Carnage – with Warren Ellis also responding to whether he’s the ‘Yoko Ono’ who split Cave from the rest of The Bad Seeds.

While many fans were expecting this year’s acclaimed lockdown album Carnage to be a release by Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds, it was instead released under the name of the frontman and Warren Ellis. While The Bad Seeds formed in 1983, Ellis only became a member of the band’s ever-changing line-up in 1997 – but has been Cave’s main collaborator and songwriting partner in most projects since, including Grinderman and many of his many TV, film and theatre scores.

Now, in a new audio Q&A being broadcast online tomorrow (June 18), Ellis has responded to a question posed by a fan as to his role as ‘Yoko’ in The Bad Seeds, in terms of alienating past members and pulling Cave away for their latest record.

Ellis replied: “I find it a bit insulting actually, that – because Yoko Ono is awesome and I’m clearly not.”

Cave then added: “Well, I’d also like to say here the best thing that Yoko Ono ever did was break up The Beatles. They’re a band in decline and Yoko Ono stepped in and allowed everyone the freedom to go on to make some really beautiful records. John Lennon and the other guy.”

After the pair discussed their love of All Things Shall Pass by George Harrison and Ringo Starr‘s Photograph, Cave then clarified that “The Bad Seeds haven’t split up”.

The Bad Seeds have always been something that morphs into different forms,” he continued. “And the line-up changes all the time, it always has changed all the time. I think what [the fan asking the question] might be saying is that did you cause Blixa Bargeld and Mick Harvey to leave the band?”

To which Ellis replied: “I’ve actually asked Mick Harvey that question. And he said clearly, and Blixa too, you know, I mean, I still break bread with Blixa when he comes to Paris and stuff like that, so clearly, there’s not a problem.

“But I think the question is more, is that what made you break away from the rest of the band, per se? Maybe, like, why we tend to work together more these days?”

Nick Cave The Bad Seeds 2016
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds in 2016. Credit: Press

Later in the interview, Cave and Ellis discussed their thoughts on whether or not recent records like Carnage and Ghosteen “divided” fans in leaning away from the rockier sound of The Bad Seeds’ earlier work.

“It’s interesting because I think both Ghosteen and Carnage, on first listen, to a lot of people they didn’t like those records, you know? They really felt that they were a step too far away from… their expectations around what a Bad Seeds record should be,” said Cave. “But I think they really gained traction on repeated listens, and people just came to really love those records and I get that message. After Carnage came out, I was worried, you know, it’s difficult to make a record that is going to divide people.”

Cave went on: “I think it’s our duty to divide people. That’s part of what keeps our music alive and what keeps it interesting. But it’s also difficult to do, to lose fans, you know, to do something where you lose fans. And I was worried that that might be the response on some level. When I looked at The Red Hand Files the following morning – because there had been some bad stuff going on that night or something, I can’t really remember why – there was something that made me very nervous about how people would receive Carnage.”

Nick Cave All Points East 2018
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds live at All Points East 2018. Credit: Getty

The frontman then revealed how he felt to visit his fan Q&A website The Red Hand Files the following morning to discover “this incredible support for the record” overall – although not from everyone.

“It was really incredibly moving to read. But then occasionally there were, ‘I’m sorry, this is just too far, you’ve lost me on this one, I just don’t like this record’,” said Cave. “So there was a little bit of that. Essentially, there was a great love for Carnage when it came out.”

Ellis then added: “I find it more terrifying when people would just say, ‘Oh, it’s like the last record’. That to me is way more terrifying than someone saying ‘I fucking don’t get it’ or ‘I hate it’. I personally would rather push beyond what last came out and not procrastinate to just keep moving, and ’til we get in a room and find that there’s just nothing happening, and then I think we have – that’s when we’ll have to look at what’s going on between us, and that hasn’t happened yet. But when it does, then we’ll know what to do with that.

“I remember hearing Here Come The Warm Jets [by Brian Eno] when it came out. I took it back to the record store because I just couldn’t afford to spend that much money on a record that I didn’t like, and it’s now one of my favourite records ever.”

To celebrate this week’s release of Carnage on CD and vinyl, Cave and Ellis’ fan Q&A will be streamed online today at 7pm BST here.

Cave recently released the solo single “Letter To Cynthia” online, as well as announcing more details of a European festival tour with the Bad Seeds in 2022.

Liverpool set to host the first David Bowie World Fan Convention in 2022

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The first-ever David Bowie World Fan Convention is due to take place across multiple venues in Liverpool next summer.

Scheduled for June 17-19, 2022, the inaugural event will see a host of Bowie collaborators and affiliates presenting panels, live performances, and a Bowie Ball to celebrate the 50th anniversary of The Rise And Fall Of Ziggy Stardust And The Spiders From Mars.

Former band members and musical collaborators, including Carlos Alomar, Robin Clark, Gail Ann Dorsey, Donny McCaslin, and Spiders From Mars drummer Woody Woodmansey, have all been confirmed for events at the convention, which is being organised by the David Bowie Glamour fanzine and Liverpool music festival producers Sound City.

In a press statement, Dorsey said she was looking forward to sharing “some thoughts and memories of my incredible experience working with one of the greatest artists of our time, David Bowie”. McCaslin added that he was relishing being part of “an event that appreciates and celebrates the depth and scope of David’s artistic vision.”

David Bowie convention
CREDIT: Press

Fans will also be able to get their hands on limited-edition prints, memorabilia and rare releases via The Duffy Archive, headed up by music and fashion photographer Brian Duffy, who took the iconic photo of Bowie‘s lightning bolt-adorned face for the Aladdin Sane album cover.

You can find more information and purchase tickets for the David Bowie World Fan Convention 2022 here.

Watch: Foo Fighters play their first gig in over a year at intimate California show

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Foo Fighters played their first proper gig in over a year on Tuesday night (June 15) – watch the footage and check out the band’s setlist below.

The band’s show at the 600-capacity Canyon Club in Agoura Hills, California, was attended by fully vaccinated fans and served as a precursor to the Foos’ upcoming headline show at Madison Square Garden in New York this weekend.

At the show, Dave Grohl and co. played a 23-song setlist, beginning with “Times Like These” and closing with “Everlong“. In between, they gave a live debut to the title track from their latest album Medicine At Midnight and covered Queen’sSomebody To Love“.

Foo Fighters played:

  • “Times Like These”
  • “No Son of Mine”
  • “The Pretender”
  • “Learn to Fly”
  • “Run”
  • “The Sky Is a Neighborhood”
  • “Shame Shame”
  • “Rope”
  • “My Hero”
  • “These Days”
  • “Medicine at Midnight”
  • “Walk”
  • “Somebody to Love” (Queen cover)
  • “All My Life”
  • “Arlandria”
  • “Cloudspotter”
  • “Breakout”
  • “Skin and Bones”
  • “This Is a Call”
  • “Aurora”
  • “Best of You”
  • “Making a Fire”
  • “Everlong”

Outside the show, a handful of protesters gathered to show their anger at the gig’s door policy of all ticketholders needing to be fully vaccinated.

It came after anti-vaccine fans of the band recently renounced Foo Fighters over the entry policy to their Madison Square Garden gig. “Foo Fighters, a band I’ve long admired, just held a concert for the jabbed only,” tweeted one fan. “That’s every album & playlist with them on, consigned to the bin.”

See footage of the protest from Tuesday’s show below.

Watch Noel Gallagher’s track-by-track guide to Back The Way We Came: Vol 1 (2011-2021)

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Noel Gallagher has shared a track-by-track video talking through each and every song from his new High Flying Birds greatest hits compilation, Back The Way We Came: Vol 1 (2011-2021). Watch it below.

The collection gathers songs from the former Oasis man’s three solo albums through to his latest trilogy of EPs – Black Star Dancing, This Is The Place and Blue Moon Rising – as well as new singles “We’re On Our Way Now” and “Flying On The Ground“. In the new video, Gallagher goes into a deep dive into the writing of each of the tracks, and why he chose to release a ‘best of’ compilation now.

“I’d done enough touring and didn’t want to go on tour, and after all of those EPs it seemed like the right time to go, ‘Right, that’s been 10 years’,” says Gallagher, introducing the video.

“For best ofs, the titles are always shit. This one just came to me one afternoon while sat at the kitchen table. It’s a saying, isn’t it – back the way we came. We’re looking back over a 10 year period. I actually thought it’s a great title. That’s why it’s called Volume 1 – if there’s a Volume 2 I’m not coming up with another fucking title because it’s fucking great!”

Back The Way We Came: Vol 1 (2011-2021) is out now via Sour Mash Records.

Check out the tracklist below:

Disc 1

1. Everybody’s On The Run
2. The Death Of You And Me
3. AKA … What A Life!
4. If I Had A Gun
5. In The Heat Of The Moment
6. Riverman
7. Lock All The Doors
8. The Dying Of The Light
9. Ballad Of The Mighty I
10. We’re On Our Way Now

Disc 2

1. Black Star Dancing
2. Holy Mountain (Remastered)
3. A Dream Is All I Need To Get By
4. This Is The Place
5. It’s A Beautiful World
6. Blue Moon Rising
7. Dead In The Water (Live At RTÉ 2FM Studios, Dublin)
8. Flying On The Ground

Bonus Disc

1. It’s A Beautiful World (Instrumental)
2. If I Had A Gun … (Acoustic Version)
3. Black Star Dancing (Skeleton Key Remix)
4. Black Star Dancing (12” Mix Instrumental)
5. The Man Who Built The Moon (Acoustic Version)
6. International Magic (Demo)
7. Blue Moon Rising (Sons Of The Desert Remix)
8. The Dying Of The Light (Acoustic Version)
9. This Is The Place (Skeleton Key Remix)
10. This Is The Place (Instrumental)
11. Black Star Dancing (The Reflex Revision)
12. Be Careful What You Wish For (Instrumental)

British neo-soul collective Sault announce new album Nine, only available for 99 days

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Sault have announced details of a new album – Nine is set to come out next week and will only be available online for 99 days.

The new album, which follows the British neo-soul collective’s pair of 2019 records, 5 and 7, was teased by the mysterious collective on Instagram earlier this week.

Taking to the same platform today (June 16), Sault have confirmed that Nine is indeed a new album, and gave details about its release.

“Nine will only exist for ninety-nine days,” they wrote. “You can download from sault.global. Available on vinyl and all streaming platforms.”

Upon visiting the band’s website, a message reads: “108 days left of nine,” hinting that the 99 days of its lifespan – and thus its release date – begin next Friday (June 25).

See the new post below.

Sault album cover nine

Since the release of 5 and 7 in 2019, Sault released two critically acclaimed albums in 2020, Untitled (Black Is) and Untitled (Rise).

Untitled (Black Is) took 17th place in Uncut’s 50 best new albums of 2020 list. We said: “Having released two intriguing albums in 2019, the anonymous neo-soul collective – believed to include Michael Kiwanuka collaborator Dean ‘Inflo’ Josiah, plus vocalists Cleo Sol and Melissa ‘Kid Sister’ Young – really seized the day with this urgent 20-track opus, written in response to the killing of George Floyd and released just three weeks later on the Juneteenth holiday.

“A multifaceted work of elegant defiance, they followed it up in September with the equally essential Untitled (Rise).”

Jeff Tweedy shares new song, “Cold Water”, written for Parks And Recreation

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Wilco‘s Jeff Tweedy has shared a new song as Scott Tanner, the character he played in a Parks And Recreation cameo.

In the sitcom, Tanner is the frontman of fictional band Land Ho! which Chris Pratt’s character Andy Dwyer successfully reunited for a benefit concert.

Tweedy (as Tanner) has now released “Cold Water”, a track written for The Awesome Album, the recently announced real-life debut album from Dwyer’s fictional band in the show, Mouse Rat.

Featuring on the song is Duke Silver, the saxophone-wielding alter-ego of the show’s character Ron Swanson (played by Nick Offerman) – watch its surreal video below.

The Awesome Album is a 15-track record and will arrive on August 27 through Dualtone Music Group and Entertainment 720 (the fictional company founded by Aziz Ansari’s character Tom Haverford in the show). The album will also be given a limited-edition vinyl run and merchandise range.

Back in his real life, Tweedy last week shared a cover of Sharon Van Etten and Angel Olsen’s new collaboration “Like I Used To” with his son Spencer.

Bob Dylan announces online show, streaming from July 18

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Bob Dylan has announced details of a paid-for online performance entitled Shadow Kingdom.

It launches on July 18 on the Veeps platform and will be available to watch for 48 hours after the initial airing, with tickets costing $25 – sign up here.

A press releases states that Shadow Kingdom “will showcase the artist in an intimate setting as he presents songs from his extensive renowned body of work created especially for this event.” There are no further details on the location, the musicians involved or whether the performance is a live broadcast or a pre-record.

It will be the first time Bob Dylan has played live since the release of Rough And Rowdy Ways, Uncut’s album of the year 2020.

Inside Sly Stone’s There’s A Riot Goin’ On: “Fame attracts wonderful people, but it also attracts guns and dogs”

It is 1969 and Sly Stone is on the brink of superstardom. Ensconced in his Bel Air mansion, he has begun work on a new album. But surrounded by dealers, groupies and gangsters, it takes over two years to finish the record – during with time the life-affirming utopianism of his music is replaced by darkness, drugs and isolation. Fifty years on, band members recall the turbulent making of a masterpiece: There’s A Riot Goin’ On.

For Sly Stone, Sunday, August 17, 1969 was an auspicious date. The weather was bad, but despite the deluge Sly & The Family Stone took control of the Woodstock festival – coming on stage at 3am, they lured the bedraggled audience out of their sleeping bags and on to their feet for an extended, transcendent version of I Want To Take You Higher.

“There was about a foot-and-a-half deep of mud, it was raining so hard,” remembers saxophonist Jerry Martini. “It was an incredible mess.”

“It put everybody into a higher level of performance,” says bassist Larry Graham. “We knew we’d tapped into a new zone. We wanted the next concert to feel musically like the Woodstock concert. That was our new measuring stick.”

Captured and amplified in Michael Wadleigh’s concert film, Stone’s irrepressible performance was one of Woodstock’s undoubted highlights – a riot of afro hair, white tassels, green satin, chunky jewellery and feather hats that captured both the Aquarian mood of guileless, free-spirited optimism and Stone’s immutable star power.

Both Wadleigh’s film and the three-disc soundtrack album were major successes, significantly bolstering the band’s profile in the States. Their label, Epic Records, re-serviced I Want To Take You Higher to radio, where it charted alongside Ike & Tina Turner’s version. But, the label stressed, this would not be treated as a new Sly & The Family Stone single. “New material from the star is expected in a matter of days”, reported trade magazine Cash Box that May.

It was an optimistic statement for an optimistic band. Certainly, after Woodstock, you could be forgiven for thinking that Stone had it all. And then, inexplicably, he began to throw it all away.

READ THE FULL INTERVIEW IN UNCUT AUGUST 2021

Introducing The Beatles Miscellany & Atlas

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BUY THE BEATLES MISCELLANY & ATLAS HERE

It was (very nearly) 60 years ago today…

The date: June 21st, 1961. The place: a civic building/sometime school hall in a suburb of Hamburg, in what was then West Germany. The occasion: a recording session for the fiery, notoriously wayward, and occasionally brilliant British rock ‘n’ roller Tony Sheridan, presided over by the producer and Polydor A&R man Bert Kaempfert. Sheridan’s pick-up band on the two day session are the Beat Brothers. Or, as the wider world will soon come to know them, The Beatles.

For all the prominent flags planted by the Beatles in their career – the huge concerts; the recording and songwriting innovations; the landmark albums – there’s also a lot to be said for giving some respect to the events at the margins of the main event, which were still pivotal to the major achievements. Much like the events of this Hamburg session: the first time The Beatles record music professionally.

Today the results might sound fun, but a little quaint. But as you look a little closer (the charm and vibrancy of the band’s Lennon-fronted take on Ain’t She Sweet; the appearance of an early self-composed – Lennon/Harrison – number, Cry For A Shadow) you begin to perceive some inkling of what the band would grow to become.

It’s a policy that we’ve followed on the following 120 pages, in the course of which we’ve found new ways to tell the story of the Beatles, 1960-1970 – and of the music we already know and love. How many gigs? How did they do that in the studio? He said what? It’s here: in maps, illuminating lists, graphs, timelines, quotes and indexes. You’ll find all their UK releases pictured in chronological order in their original sleeves. Some other things you’ll discover along the way:

  • Which Beatles intimate was once brought up on charges for impersonating an army officer
  • Which Beatle is good at putting up shelves
  • How much George Harrison paid for his house in 1964
  • Who sat where in the van on the trip to Hamburg
  • What the other Beatles were doing while Paul was getting married to Linda

There are licensed Beatle wigs and the story of litigated hotel bedsheets. All round, it’s a celebration of the Beatles, their world-changing influence and their music – and also of the size and depth of their footprint as they went about making it. It’s a wonderful tale, and my hope here is that we’ve told it with some innovation and originality; a lot of love and hard work. In a way that honours the process of the Beatles themselves, in fact. We hope you enjoy the show!

Buy a copy of the magazine here. Missed one in the series? Bundles are available at the same location…

The Beatles – Miscellany & Atlas

Celebrating 60 years – pretty much to the day – of The Beatles as professional recording artists, we present The Beatles Miscellany and Atlas. What is it? It’s a left-field history of the Fab Four: in lists, graphs, maps, numbers, seating plans, houses, merchandise, valuable ephemera items, and of course, their entire UK discography.

A perfect gift for Father’s Day too!

Buy a copy here!

Hear Bruce Springsteen and The Killers’ long-awaited collaboration, “Dustland”

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The Killers have unveiled their collaboration with Bruce Springsteen, entitled “Dustland”.

The single, released today (June 16) after several teases and previews, is a re-recording of the Las Vegas band’s song “A Dustland Fairytale”, which first appeared on their 2008 album Day & Age and served as the record’s fourth and final single.

The new version sees lead vocalist Brandon Flowers trading verses with Springsteen, before the two of them sing in unison.

Listen to “Dustland” below:

According to a statement from Flowers, Springsteen originally reached out to him in February 2020 and suggested they record the song together.

“Watching Glastonbury,” the text from Springsteen reportedly read. “You guys have become one hellacious live band, my brother. Love the gold suit. We gotta do Dustland one day. – Bruce.”

Upon receiving the text, Flowers was suspicious that a prank was being played on him. “I google the area code,” he explains. “It’s from Freehold, New Jersey, and I’m still not convinced. I text Evan (Bruce and Patti’s son who has become a buddy of mine) and get verification that the number really is coming from his old man.”

Although COVID ultimately put plans for the two to work together on ice, it was later made possible towards the end of 2020. Both The Killers and Springsteen released new albums in the interim – Imploding the Mirage and Letter to You, respectively.

Flowers went on to reflect on the initial writing of “A Dustland Fairytale”, which was an ode to his parents Jeannie and Terry Flowers.

“’Dustland’ was written in the middle of [Jeannie’s] battle with cancer,” he said.

“It was an attempt to better understand my dad, who is sometimes a mystery to me. To grieve for my mother. To acknowledge their sacrifices, and maybe even catch a glimpse of just how strong love needs to be to make it in this world. It was my therapy. It was cathartic.”

Flowers praised Springsteen for writing “a lot about people like my parents,” as well as finding “a whole lot of beauty in otherwise invisible people’s hopes and dreams.”

“I’m grateful to him for opening this door for me,” said Flowers of Springsteen. “I’m grateful to my parents for their example to me.”

The Killers and Springsteen are scheduled to appear alongside one another for the first time on TODAY on NBC. They will be interviewed together and also perform the song live.

Roger Waters rejects Facebook’s request to use “Another Brick In The Wall” in new ad: “I will not be a party to this”

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Pink Floyd co-founder Roger Waters gave a firmly negative response to Facebook’s request to use “Another Brick In The Wall Pt. 2” in an upcoming ad for Instagram.

Speaking at a forum in support of Wikileaks founder Julian Assange, as reported by Rolling Stone, Waters read out an email he claimed to have received from Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg requesting the right to use the song.

“It’s a request for the rights to use my song, ‘Another Brick In The Wall Pt. 2’ in the making of a film to promote Instagram,” Waters said.

The letter allegedly said that the team at Facebook “feel that the core sentiment of this song is still so prevalent and so necessary today, which speaks to how timeless the work is”.

“So it’s a missive from Mark Zuckerberg to me,” Waters continued, “[which] arrived this morning, with an offer of a huge, huge amount of money, and the answer is, ‘Fuck you! No fucking way!’

“And I only mention that because it’s [their] insidious movement to take over absolutely everything.”

“So those of us who do have any power,” he continued, “and I do have a little bit – in terms of control of the publishing of my songs I do anyway. So I will not be a party to this bullshit, Zuckerberg.”

Waters has recently found himself in dispute with ex-bandmate David Gilmour regarding Pink Floyd’s 1977 album Animals.

Waters claimed that Gilmour wanted the liner notes of the remastered album to be kept a secret so that Gilmour could allegedly “claim more credit […] than is his due”.

Unsurprisingly, Gilmour has also recently poured cold water on rumours of a reunion of the band, saying in March, “It has run its course, we are done.”

Lucy Dacus announces 2022 UK and European tour

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Lucy Dacus has announced details of her 2022 UK and European tour.

Next year’s live dates will be in support of the artist’s upcoming third studio album Home Video, which is set for release on June 25 via Matador.

Dacus’ 2022 UK and Ireland tour will kick off at The Brudenell Social Club in Leeds on March 18 before stops in Glasgow, Dublin, Manchester and Bristol. The run concludes with a gig at the Kentish Town Forum in London on March 25, 2022.

Dacus will then head to Europe for gigs in Belgium, Germany, Denmark, Austria and more. You can check out her 2022 tour schedule below.

March 2022

18 – Leeds Brudenell Social Club
20 – Glasgow St Lukes
21 – Dublin The Button Factory
23 – Manchester Gorilla
24 – Bristol SWX
25 – London Kentish Town Forum
29 – Brussels Botanique, Belgium
30 – Amsterdam Paradiso Noord, Netherlands
31 – Cologne Artheater, Germany

April 2022

2 – Hamburg Molotow, Germany
3 – Copenhagen Loppen, Denmark
4 – Aarhus Atlas, Denmark
6 – Oslo Parkteatret, Norway
7 – Stockholm Nalen Klubb, Sweden
9 – Berlin Lido, Germany
10 – Jena Trafo, Germany
12 – Vienna Chelsea, Austria
13 – Munich Milla, Germany
14 – Zürich Bogen F, Switzerland
15 – Paris La Maroquinerie, France

Tickets for Dacus’ 2022 UK and Ireland shows will go on pre-sale tomorrow (June 16) at 10am BST for those who pre-order Home Video via the Matador webstore here. All of Dacus’ tour tickets will then go on general sale on Friday (June 18) at 10am BST.

Dacus previewed Home Video last week by sharing the single “Brando”.

British neo-soul collective Sault tease new album in cryptic Instagram post

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Sault have teased their next release, after dropping a series of acclaimed albums throughout last year.

The British music collective remain steeped in mystery, but won praise for Untitled (Black Is), which was followed by Untitled (Rise).

Now, they’ve teased further material in a cryptic post shared on Instagram. The group wrote “Nine” against a plain black background, but shared no other information about what fans can expect from their latest offering.

See the post below:

 

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by SAULT (@saultglobal)

Sault’s Untitled (Black Is) album took 17th place in Uncut’s 50 best new albums of 2020 list. We said: “Having released two intriguing albums in 2019, the anonymous neo-soul collective – believed to include Michael Kiwanuka collaborator Dean “Inflo” Josiah, plus vocalists Cleo Sol and Melissa “Kid Sister” Young – really seized the day with this urgent 20-track opus, written in response to the killing of George Floyd and released just three weeks later on the Juneteenth holiday.

“A multifaceted work of elegant defiance, they followed it up in September with the equally essential Untitled (Rise).”

Nirvana, Sly Stone, Amy Winehouse, Paul McCartney: inside the new Uncut

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These days – inevitably, perhaps – many of our perceptions about Nirvana are filtered through the death of Kurt Cobain. An industry has gathered around his memory, truffling for clues in old interviews or in the hiss and howl of In Utero, that has essentially detracted from happier times in the band’s existence. Specifically, the thrill of Nirvana’s ascent with Nevermind. Everything seemed to move incredibly fast during autumn 1991 – there was an exhilarating mix of trepidation and excitement at their shows that year, a shared joy at the speed and scale of Nirvana’s success. The Word, Top Of The Pops, the stage at Kilburn National Ballroom and more were theirs for the taking.

All this is recalled with warmth and intimacy by Krist Novoselic, Dave Grohl and Butch Vig in this month’s cover story. There’s also an oral history of the band’s 1991 UK shows that provides compelling evidence for the chaos and brilliance of that tour – and happy memories if, like me, you were fortunate to see them live during that period.

These were fun times for Nirvana, full of optimism and the ethos of self-determination familiar from American bands of that period. We hear about poorly heated rehearsal spaces in Tacoma, a 1,000-mile drive from Seattle to Los Angeles, an unexpected admiration for the Bay City Rollers and how, 30 years on, Dave and Krist view the madness around their inexorable rise. The scale of their ambitions, we can reveal, was to earn enough money to buy an apartment each…

Elsewhere, it’s another hugely eclectic issue: Sly Stone, Laura Nyro, Amy Winehouse, Grateful Dead, Rodney Crowell, Angélique Kidjo, Sparks, Alice Coltrane, The Jam, Roy Harper, Altın Gün, Rodrigo Amarante, Will Sergeant, Arooj Aftab, PJ Harvey, Gruff Rhys and some bloke called Paul McCartney.

You can find some of those artists on this month’s free CD, which showcases 15 tracks drawn from the month’s best music. There’s further stand outs from Yola, Dot Allison, Lump, Mega Bog and The Grid featuring Robert Fripp.

Hope you enjoy the issue, the CD and (while it lasts) the sunshine.

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Radiohead are raffling off an ultra-rare Kid A test pressing

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Radiohead are raffling off a vinyl test pressing of their 2000 classic Kid A as part of a fundraiser for the charity Gig Buddies.

The band announced the prize on social media, along with a photo of the extremely rare collector’s item.

Gig Buddies is a charity and initiative that sees people with learning disabilities and/or autistic people paired with a music fan of similar interests with whom they can attend shows. You can get tickets for the raffle here.

The raffle is being organised by IDLES’ Adam ‘Dev’ Devonshire, with other prizes including tickets, signed records, merch and gear from the likes of his own band, Slowdive, Mogwai, Frank Turner, Florence And The Machine, Sharon Van Etten and Fontaines DC.

Also up for grabs is a guitar which has been signed by all of the performers who took part in a recent livestreamed charity show, also organised by Devonshire in aid of Gig Buddies.

The show was headlined by Welsh post-hardcore outfit Mclusky, as well as Willie J Healey, TV Priest, Fenne Lily, Dogeyed and Wilderman.

Stewart Lee topped a comedy bill that also featured Seann Walsh and Josh Weller. The show was streamed live from The Exchange in Bristol.

Last month, meanwhile, Thom Yorke and Jonny Greenwood of Radiohead revealed their new side-project The Smile, a trio completed by Sons Of Kemet drummer Tom Skinner.

The new group played as part of Glastonbury‘s Live At Worthy Farm livestream event, which was filmed at various spots across the iconic festival site.

Uncut – August 2021

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Nirvana, Paul McCartney, Amy Winehouse, Altın Gün, Sly Stone, Grateful Dead, The Jam, Will Sergeant, Rodney Crowell, Sparks, Rodrigo Amarante, Lump, Jakob Dylan and PJ Harvey all feature in the new Uncut, dated August 2021 and in UK shops from June 17 or available to buy online now. As always, the issue comes with a free CD, this time comprising 15 tracks of the month’s best new music.

NIRVANA: Thirty years after Nevermind transformed Nirvana from adolescent punks to global superstars, Uncut revisits this era-defining classic in the company of its surviving creators. In brand new interviews, Dave Grohl and Krist Novoselic trace the album’s remarkable journey from a rented barn in Tacoma to the stage of Seattle’s Paramount Theatre and beyond, while producer Butch Vig reveals the secrets of the band’s working practices. There are cameos from Neil Young’s producer, aspiring cast members of Annie – The Musical and an ill-fated blue Datsun B210. And what of Kurt Cobain, you might ask? “He was vastly underrated as a comedian.”

OUR FREE CD! ENTERTAIN US: 15 fantastic tracks from the cream of the month’s releases, including songs by Mega Bog, Rodney Crowell, Juni Habel, The Grid / Fripp, Charlie Parr, The Black Angels, Dot Allison, Los Lobos and more.

This issue of Uncut is available to buy by clicking here – with FREE delivery to the UK and reduced delivery charges for the rest of the world.

Inside the issue, you’ll find:

PAUL MCCARTNEY: Photographer Harry Benson was nonplussed when he received a commission to cover The Beatles in 1964. All the same, travelling from London to Paris and New York during this breakthrough year, he struck up a rapport with the band – and McCartney in particular – that endured through several decades. With a new collection of his images due for publication, Benson shows us McCartney at work and at play – backstage, in hotel rooms and on private jets.

ALTIN GÜN: From their base in a former Cold War nuclear bunker, the psych warriors are busy reinventing the deep and mystical sounds of Anatolian rock. Their tools? Fuzz pedals, electronics, and ancient instruments once used in shamanic rituals. But their message, they tell Uncut, is universal: “Songs about love, hate, tragedy, death,  war… it’s all basic human emotions…”

SLY STONE: It is 1969 and the singer is on the brink of superstardom. Ensconced in his Bel Air mansion, he has begun work on a new album. But surrounded by dealers, groupies and gangsters, it takes over two years to finish the record – during which time the life-affirming utopianism of his music is replaced by darkness, drugs and isolation. Fifty years on, band members recall the turbulent making of a masterpiece: There’s A Riot Goin’ On. “Fame attracts wonderful people,” hears Michaelangelo Matos. “But fame also attracts guns and dogs.”

SPARKS: Fifty years after releasing their first album as Halfnelson, Sparks are finally ready for their close-up. A new documentary, The Sparks Brothers, directed by Edgar Wright, pays tribute to the indomitable, pioneering spirit of music’s oddest couple. “People expect us to try to alienate them from time to time…”

GRATEFUL DEAD: Dead freaks unite! 1971 was a momentous year for the Californian band – involving landmark shows, bizarre ESP experiments, French Acid Tests, hypnosis, new faces and emotional farewells. Bob Weir, Bill Kreutzmann and other eyewitnesses share tales from this momentous journey with Uncut: “We were just coming alive.”

THE JAM: Previously unseen photos of the English mod band show Weller and co’s impatient evolution.

RODNEY CROWELL: The Americana star on wild times with Guy and Townes, the generosity of Johnny Cash and the sex life of the Tennessee cicadas.

AMY WINEHOUSE: The making of “Back To Black”.

ANGELIQUE KIDJO: Album by album with the Afro-fusion artist.

RODRIGO AMARANTE: On new album Drama, the Brazilian songwriter crafts an exquisite sonic world marked by global rhythms, cinematic textures and playful takes on tradition.

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In our expansive reviews section, we take a look at new records from Lump, John Murry, The Flatlanders, Kings Of Convenience, Sleater-Kinney, Yola, John Frances Flynn, and more, and archival releases from Alice Coltrane, Laura Nyro, PJ Harvey, The Shins, Michael Small, Chris Barber, Aretha Franklin and others. We catch Songlines Encounters Festival and Gruff Rhys live; among the films, DVDs and TV programmes reviewed are Martin Eden, Punk the Capital: Building A Sound Movement and Rockumentary: Evolution Of Indian Rock; while in books there’s Sinéad O’Connor and Nico.

Our front section, meanwhile, features The Jam, Will Sergeant, Ellen Folley, Roy Harper and Arooj Aftab while, at the end of the magazine, Jakob Dylan reveals the records that have soundtracked his life.

You can pick up a copy of Uncut in the usual places, where open. But otherwise, readers all over the world can order a copy from here.

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Belle & Sebastian announce 2022 UK and European tour dates

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Belle & Sebastian have announced a UK and European tour for 2022.

The gigs will be the band’s first live shows since 2019, with the tour set to kick off in Aberdeen on January 31 next year.

Belle & Sebastian will make stops in Leicester, Cardiff, Brighton, Cambridge and more during their 2022 UK tour, which also includes a pair of dates at the Roundhouse in London.

Following the conclusion of the UK tour on February 21 in Motherwell, Belle & Sebastian will then head to the continent for a European tour which begins in Munich, Germany on April 11.

Belle & Sebastian UK tour 2022
Belle & Sebastian UK tour 2022

The band’s European tour will include visits in April 2022 to Italy, France, Switzerland, the Netherlands and Scandinavia, before concluding in Brussels on April 29.

You can see Belle & Sebastian’s upcoming UK and European tour dates below.

January 2022

31 – Beach Ballroom, Aberdeen

February 2022

1 – Usher Hall, Edinburgh
3 – University Union Asylum, Hull
4 – De Montfort Hall, Leicester
6 – Great Hall, Cardiff
7 – Academy, Manchester
9 – Olympia, Liverpool
10 – O2 Guildhall, Southampton
11 – The Dome, Brighton
13 – Corn Exchange, Cambridge
14 – Roundhouse, London
15 – Roundhouse, London
17 – O2 Academy, Birmingham
18 – O2 Academy, Sheffield
19 – O2 City Hall, Newcastle
21 – Concert Hall, Motherwell

April 2022

11 – Tonhalle, Munich, Germany
12 – Fabrique, Milan, Italy
13 – Co-op de Mai, Clermont-Ferrand, France
14 – X-tra Limmathaus, Zurich, Switzerland
16 – Tempodrom, Berlin, Germany
17 – Laeiszhalle, Hamburg, Germany
20 – Sentrum Scene, Oslo, Norway
21 – Tradgarn, Gothenburg, Sweden
23 – Filadelfia, Stockholm, Sweden
24 – Vega, Copenhagen, Denmark
26 – Tivoli Grote Zaal, Utrecht, Holland
27 – Casino de Paris, Paris, France
29 – Les Nuits Botanique, Brussels, Belgium

Tickets for Belle & Sebastian’s upcoming UK and European tours go on general sale on Friday (June 18) at 10am BST / 11am CET, while a fan pre-sale for the UK shows begins on Wednesday (June 16) at 10am BST / 11am CET. Tickets will be available here.

Belle & Sebastian’s last release, the live album What to Look for in Summer, came out in December.