Subscribe
Home Blog Page 13

Introducing Uncut’s Review Of 2024

Michael Bonner
-
0
Introducing Uncut’s Review Of 2024

THE REVIEW OF 2024, NICK CAVE, ALICE COLTRANE, ELVIS COSTELLO, KRIS KRISTOFFERSON, CASSANDRA JENKINS AND MORE STAR IN THE NEW UNCUT - ORDER A COPY HERE!

THE REVIEW OF 2024, NICK CAVE, ALICE COLTRANE, ELVIS COSTELLO, KRIS KRISTOFFERSON, CASSANDRA JENKINS AND MORE STAR IN THE NEW UNCUT – ORDER A COPY HERE!

AMONG the many surprises 2024 had to offer, arguably the most unexpected took place on the night of September 25. “Happy Birthday Mary Jo!” Bob Dylan wrote on X. “See you in Frankfort.”

https://twitter.com/bobdylan/status/1839062887408476449

Whoa – who was Mary Jo? And did he mean Frankfort, the state capital of Kentucky, or Frankfurt, where Dylan was due to play a few weeks later? And hang on, was that really Bob Dylan anyway? A further post on September 30 said, “I just found out the other day that Bob Newhart was gone. Rest in peace Bob. You brought us a lot of joy.”

More followed – including a restaurant recommendation when in New Orleans and a thwarted experience at a publishing convention in – yes – Frankfurt.

While Dylan’s presence on social media may well have sent scholars into a lather (are the posts canon?), his missives, however random or cryptic they may appear, are nevertheless an intriguing development. They read more like short stories, full of chance meetings and melancholy outcomes: “I ran into one of the Buffalo Sabres in the elevator at the Prague hotel,” Dylan wrote on October 9. “They were in town to play the New Jersey Devils. He invited me to the game but I was performing that night.”

It’s unlikely Dylan will be posting much about our Review Of The Year, although – no spoilers, really – he’s in it. For this year’s poll, 44 contributors voted for a total of 426 new albums and 180 archival releases. For anyone who is interested, there were 86 votes between our Album Of The Year and the album in second place, but only six votes separating the next three albums.

Alongside our Albums Of The Year, Archival Releases Of The Year, Best Books, Films and Music Documentaries, you can find Nick Cave, Alice Coltrane, Bruce Springsteen, Mick Head, Cassandra Jenkins, Julia Holter, Waxahatchee, Beak> and English Teacher.

There’s plenty to dig into besides the Review Of The Year polls, including Elvis Costello, Joe Boyd, The Troggs and a 32-page supplement: My Year In Music, where the stars of 2024 share their favourite albums, reissues, books and gigs of the year with us.

I’d especially recommend Alastair McKay’s powerful tribute to one of Uncut’s formative influences, Kris Kristofferson. As Margo Price tells Alastair, “His plain-spoken yet eloquent way of writing was a gift. He wrote from the heart and could paint a story or an entire landscape in just a few verses. His writing and acting both encapsulate the woes and the wins of humanity. His words and songs, they have living, breathing souls. They are sacred.”

THE REVIEW OF 2024, NICK CAVE, ALICE COLTRANE, ELVIS COSTELLO, KRIS KRISTOFFERSON, CASSANDRA JENKINS AND MORE STAR IN THE NEW UNCUT – ORDER A COPY HERE!

Quincy Jones: “I learned the difference between music and the music business”

Neil Spencer
-
0
Quincy Jones: “I learned the difference between music and the music business”

This article originally appeared in Uncut Take 163 from December 2010

This article originally appeared in Uncut Take 163 from December 2010

Quincy Jones keeps Uncut waiting for an hour before we’re finally ushered into his presence. Thankfully, this proves to be the only evidence of prima donna behaviour from the legendary producer and arranger – when we finally meet, he’s charming and affable, brandishing photos of his kids and relating tales of his extensive travels (China is a current obsession). As we talk through a handful of his many career highs, “Q” heads off on entertaining tangents: numerology, the banning of slave drums in 1692 America, the similarity between Chinese and African languages, the emotional pull of a major seventh chord and why Pro-Tools will never replicate his sound. In passing, he name-drops the Stones, Brando, Picasso and David Beckham. At 77, with a credit on over 100 albums, we have to ask what the secret is to his success. “The sequence is very important,” he says. “That’s the architecture of an album…”

THE CURE, BRYAN FERRY, THE MC5, RADIOHEAD, KIM DEAL, PAUL WELLER AND MORE STAR IN THE NEW UNCUT – ORDER A COPY HERE

QUINCY JONES
THE BIRTH OF A BAND

(MERCURY, 1959)

Jones’ third album was recorded half in New York, half in Paris – a reflection of how important the latter city had become to him in the late 1950s

JONES: I first came to Europe with the Lionel Hampton band when I was in my early 20s. In 1957 Eddy Barclay offered me the job of musical director at Barclay Records in Paris, which was great firstly because I also got to study under Nadia Boulanger, who had been mentor to Stravinsky, Aaron Copland and many other classical musicians. She was the lady. I learned so much from her – in New York they wouldn’t let you arrange strings if you were black – only horns or rhythm section.

Paris at that time was hot. Bardot was 24, Jeanne Moreau 23, I got to meet people like Pablo Picasso and James Baldwin. Lots of American jazz musicians went and lived in Paris because they loved the freedom and respect they got compared to back home. France nurtured jazz.

I went back to Paris in 1959 with an all-star band for the European tour of a Broadway show, Free And Easy. The band was terrific – guys like (trumpeters) Clark Terry and Harry Edison and (alto sax) Phil Woods, all the guys on Birth Of A Band!, but after the show bombed I lost a lot of money trying to hold the band together. That’s when I learned the difference between music and the music business.

RAY CHARLES
THE GENIUS OF RAY CHARLES

(ATLANTIC, 1959)

In previous years Charles had scored a string of R&B hits but after signing with Atlantic the scene was set for crossover success. Who better to help arrange than Ray’s old sidekick…

That was the first time I worked with Ray in the studio, though we had been friends since we were teenagers. He had wanted to get as far away from Florida as he could and that was Seattle, which in 1946 was on fire.  It was a port for the Pacific Theatre in WW2.  You could hear R&B, be-bop, any kind of music. The Chicago pimps moved there ‘cos that’s where the business was. We used to wear sailor suits because the sailors got the girls. That was an amazing time to come up.

After our paying gigs playing pop hits, Ray and I would go down to the Elks Club and play bebop all night for free. Ray sang like Nat Cole and Charles Brown and played alto sax like Charlie Parker. By 1959 he was a big star but controversial in the black community because he had taken gospel music and made it into pop records like “I Got A Woman”. Then he broadened out into big band jazz like Genius, with people from the Basie and Ellington bands playing. We did it again a few years later on Genius Plus Soul = Jazz, which has a great arrangement of “One Mint Julep”.

QUINCY JONES
BIG BAND BOSSA NOVA

(MERCURY, 1961)

A trip to Brazil in 1961 furnished Quincy with a new source of inspiration and another signature tune, “Soul Bossa Nova”, a swaggering big band blast still familiar two generations on through the Austin Powers soundtrack

We had previously made a State Department trip to the Middle East with Dizzy Gillespie, and it got back to Washington that we had done a good job. They said “We’re gonna send you to Latin America.” We went to Ecuador, Montevideo, Buenos Aires and finally to Brazil. Lalo Schiffrin (pianist and composer) had told me, ‘Wait until you get there!’ It was during the time that Antonio Carlos Jobim and Joaos and Astrid Gilberto and the rest of the bossa nova – ‘new wave’ – were happening. When you listen to it (hums Jobim’s “She’s A Carioca”) – all those flattened fifths in bossa, you can see how influenced it was by jazz. Everyone caught the bug – Stan Getz obviously, and Sinatra did an album with Jobim.

I still go every year to Carnival in Rio and then to see my friends up in Bahia for the carnival in Salvador de Bahia. Next year we’re planning a float in the Rio carnival parade for New Orleans musicians, have them meet up with Brazilians, and we’re gonna have William Friedkin [director of The Exorcist] shoot a film there for an IMAX movie, because a lot of Americ`ns don’t know about carnival, which is a spectacular and spiritual event. Imagine – all those girls dancing on a giant screen!

FRANK SINATRA
SINATRA AT THE SANDS

(REPRISE, 1966)

In 1964 Quincy had arranged a Sinatra hit, “Fly Me To The Moon”, which appeared on It Might As Well Be Swing, with backing from the Count Basie orchestra. When Sinatra decided to cut his first live album, Basie and Quincy were his go-to guys

I first met Frank when I was playing a gig for one of Princess Grace Kelly’s events in Monaco in the late ‘50s. He had me playing “Man With The Golden Arm” as he came on stage and worked the crowd, which included people like Cary Grant and David Niven, then he just took off into “Fly Me To The Moon”. Sensational. Then I worked with him and the Count Basie orchestra in 1964. Those were the days when singers were expected to deliver words like musicians played notes. Frank was actually the one who started calling me “Q”. When we were flying out to Vegas, he asked if we could play “Shadow Of Your Smile”. I said, Sure, as long as you know the lyrics. Then he wrote out the words over and over again and the next night he hit it perfectly – just check the record. And I worked with him again on ”LA Is My Lady”, one of his last records, in 1984.

Sinatra had certain catchphrases. He would say; “Q, live every day like it’s your last and one day you’ll be right.”

THE ITALIAN JOB
MUSIC FROM THE ORIGINAL MOTION PICTURE SOUNDTRACK

(PARAMOUNT, 1969)

Quincy had scored a dozen films by the time the call came to soundtrack The Italian Job – among them The Pawnbroker, In Cold Blood and In the Heat Of The Night. From The Italian Job an English national anthem would emerge …

I recall it well, as that was the time my son (Quincy Jones III) was born – he was born in London. We had a lot of fun doing the score – we were recording in the daytime at Olympic Studios where the Stones were cutting Sympathy For The Devil at night. Michael Caine would come by every day, then we’d go eat spaghetti con vongele in the King’s Road. Michael and I became great friends – I was with him and Shakira [Caine’s wife] just last month – and I discovered we were born the same year, day and hour – we’re celestial twins. Michael taught me cockney rhyming slang – “Watch the boat on the ice cream and check out the bristols on the richard.” No-one knows what you’re talking about.

I got an Ivor Novello award a couple of years ago and Elton John told me that only a Brit could write “Self Preservation Society”, which became the anthem of the movie, and I said wrong! Don Black did the words but I did the melody. I heard that they play it at every English soccer game – David Beckham told me that!

MICHAEL JACKSON
OFF THE WALL

(EPIC, 1979)

Prior to producing Off The Wall, Quincy was known as a jazz man and soundrack composer – the nearest he had come to making a crossover black pop record was working with guitarist George Benson on Give Me The Night. That was about to change

My connection with Michael came through love, like everything else y’know! I met him when he was twelve at Sammy Davis’s house. Then Michael played the part of the scarecrow in The Wiz (1978 Motown adaptation of Wizard Of Oz) where I was the musical director. On a musical the most important thing is the pre-recording because the movie is shot to that, at least the songs are, the score comes later.

Michael asked me for suggestions on who might produce his first solo album. I didn’t know how intuitive he was; he knew everyone’s lines, dance steps, he didn’t miss a thing. They were rehearsing one day and Michael’s thing was to read a famous quote – he pronounced Socrates as ‘so-crates’ and when I corrected him he looked like a deer in the headlights he said ‘Really?’. At that point I said I’d like to take a shot at his solo album and he said ‘Really?’ in the same way.

The record company said “No, Quincy’s too jazzy,” but that record saved half the A&R jobs there because it sold 12 million copies. I got Michael to sing “She’s Out Of My Life”, a song I was saving for Sinatra, and he cried during every take. The tears are there on the record, man.

MICHAEL JACKSON
THRILLER

(EPIC, 1982)

Where Off The Wall had been been recorded quickly, making Thriller sprawled over months, with obsessive attention to detail. Matters were complicated by the decision to make another album concurrently – E.T. , a ‘storybook’ of Spielberg’s feature film that Quincy scored and Michael narrated (it was soon wthdrawn as at Epic’s insistence). Deadlines loomed

In the summer of 1982 I had too many projects on the go. I was working on Thriller with Michael, working with the McCartneys, and working on E.T. To record Thriller I had three studios on the go – there would be Michael in one, Eddie Van Halen in another (Guitarist on “Thriller”), Bruce (Swedien, Q’s engineer and mixer) in another. We recorded a huge amount of material for the album. Then when we’d assembled nine tracks I took out the weakest cuts and put in “Beat It” and “Human Nature”, that really turned the album upside down cos we had “Billie Jean”, “Starting Something” and “Thriller”. It was incredibly strong. The sequence is very important – that’s the architecture of an album. When you have multi-producers you end up in trouble ‘cos they don’t have any sense of overal architecture and the dramatic sequencing.

Eventually we finished at nine in the morning after putting the overdubs on “Beat It”. I took Michael to my house and said Bruce is going to take the tape to get it mastered, so I got three hours sleep. When it came to the playback the album wasn’t working, so Michael starts to cry.

I’d been telling ‘em all along that if you want big grooves, you have to have 18 or 19 minutes a side, not 24 or 27 cos it won’t hold it, you get a tinny sound. I’d been asking Michael to cut down the introduction to ”Billie Jean” ‘cos it’s 11 minutes long and he’s saying “But it makes me want to dance,” and who are we to argue with him, us fat belly guys? Anyway we had to cut it down, take out a verse.

I’ve always tried to make records that have six exits and six entries so you can’t hear all of it at once; you have the bass line here, the backing singers there and so forth and you can’t hear it all, so you play it until the vinyl wears out and have to buy another copy.

Nobody knew Thriller would become the biggest album in the history of music, nobody, because that’s what God sends.

It never ceases to shock me that wherever in the world I go – and I travel constantly, man, I love it – that at twelve o’clock you are going to hear “Billie Jean” or “Wanna be Starting Something”. Else it will be “Ai No Corrida” from my album The Dude, or George Benson’s “Give Me the Night”. Absolutely everywhere!

MILES DAVID & QUINCY JONES
MILES & QUINCY IN MONTREAUX

(WARNER BROS, 1991)

Jazz’s dark prince finally acceded to Quincy’s request to revisit the tunes he’d recorded with producer Gil Evans in the 1950s on classic albums like Miles Ahead and Sketches of Spain. It proved to be Miles’ final album

Miles never wanted to do that concert. It took me 15 years to talk him into that. He was never one to look back, always wanted to keep moving forwards. His early stuff, though, has to be some of my all time favourite music. People always ask me how to get kids into jazz and I say “Give em Kind Of Blue’ and make them take it every day, like orange juice.” But I also liked Bitches Brew. People were telling us not to mix jazz with rock, that myopic mentality. That’s bullshit. Miles, Cannonball Adderley Herbie Hancock and myself used to talk about this, how you should try everything. We’d talk about rock bands. I used to say, “How come we’re drinking on a Saturday night and they’re the ones with the gigs?” One by one we expanded – Herbie wrote “Watermelon Man,” Cannonball did “Mercy Mercy Mercy”, I did “Walkin Into Space” in 1969 and Miles did Bitch’s Brew in 1970. See, the electric bass changed everything. That instrument was the one changed the genre – there would be no rock and roll, no Motown, no nothing without an electric rhythm section.

Montreux was the first time I ever saw Miles smile at the audience! He waved a towel at the audience and smiled. Once Miles had done the show he loved it. He said “We should take this shit all over the world.” I don’t know why he was so resistant, man, that was Miles. He was mad on technology, like Brando – they were complex guys.

QUINCY JONES
BACK ON THE BLOCK

(QWEST, 1989)

After three Jackson albums and We Are the World, had Quincy run out of road? Uh-uh. Back On The Block mixed old school talents like Ella Fitzgerald and Ray Charles with cutting edge rappers and mixed genres into a seamless whole. It won seven Grammys, including best album

We’d won Grammys on other albums like The Dude and Smackwater Jack, but nothing like Back On The Block. It had the widest range – be-bop, zulu music, soul…that’s my speciality, I love that conglomerate. It kind of ushered in hip-hop too, ‘cos we had Ice T, Daddy Kane, Melle Mel, Kool Moe Dee.

I’m all for the rappers, because the spoken word is the third genre after music and singing, right? It’s like praise songs in Africa. The lyrical skills are astounding but the lyrical content is often a problem and sampling is also a bad habit. I understand the fascination with gangsterism because I grew up in Chicago, the home of that stuff.

So a lot of hip-hop’s problems have a social source and that’s why I’m working hard now to build a consortium to get to the kids in school to know their roots. It’s crazy that kids don’t know about Duke Ellington and The Cotton Club. It’s starting to turn round – a lot of young guys come to me and say “I want you to teach me how to be a musician.” That’s the attitude we want.

The Cure, The Troxy, London, November 1 2024

Michael Bonner
-
0
The Cure, The Troxy, London, November 1 2024

It’s probably a couple of decades too late, but Robert Smith is finding that his deepest fears are coming true. Now aged 65, he recently fretted about whether he’d make it to 70 – and still be around to celebrate the 50th anniversary of The Cure. Certainly, the coal-black angst and existential melancholia that has become the band’s stock-in-trade has taken on an additional potency in the last few years: health scares proliferated, loved ones have died. We have become used to venerable artists like Dylan, Neil Young and Springsteen ruminating on ageing and mortality, now it seems that it’s Smith’s turn to manage the problematic business of growing old.

It’s probably a couple of decades too late, but Robert Smith is finding that his deepest fears are coming true. Now aged 65, he recently fretted about whether he’d make it to 70 – and still be around to celebrate the 50th anniversary of The Cure. Certainly, the coal-black angst and existential melancholia that has become the band’s stock-in-trade has taken on an additional potency in the last few years: health scares proliferated, loved ones have died. We have become used to venerable artists like Dylan, Neil Young and Springsteen ruminating on ageing and mortality, now it seems that it’s Smith’s turn to manage the problematic business of growing old.

THE CURE, BRYAN FERRY, THE MC5, RADIOHEAD, KIM DEAL, PAUL WELLER AND MORE STAR IN THE NEW UNCUT – ORDER A COPY HERE

When Seventeen Seconds came out in 1980, it gave The Cure their unique voice, setting them on a path that took them from tortured post-punk doomsayers to alt-goth superstars with 1989’s Disintegration – an album which included some of the band’s sweetest songs (“Pictures Of You”, “Lovesong”) and their most fraught (“Disintegration”, “Fascination Street”). On the title track, Smith was already predicting “how the end always is”; he was just 30.

Songs from both Seventeen Seconds and Disintegration feature significantly in tonight’s show – as if Smith is deliberately showing us his workings, tracing a specific throughline that leads to their new album, Songs Of A Lost World. The ‘lost world’ is the promise and optimism the Apollo 11 Moon landing represented to the 10-year-old Smith. In “Endsong”, one of Smith’s most straightforwardly autobiographical songs, he is “outside in the dark staring at the blood red moon / Remembering the hopes and dreams I had and all I had to do / And wondering what became of that boy and the world he called his own / I’m outside in the dark wondering how I got so old”.

Powered by Jason Cooper’s hypnotic drum tattoo, “Endsong” is a highlight of the band’s first set – Songs Of A Lost World played in full. This allows us to take stock of The Cure in 2024, a band partly changed by the events of the last few years, but coming back together to usher in their latest milestone, their first album of new music for 16 years. There are other reasons to celebrate, too. Smith takes a moment to reveal that he and Simon Gallup are celebrating 45 years of performing live together. Essentially Smith’s consigliere, Gallup, dressed tonight in a leopard-skin overcoat, offers a more dynamic and dramatic stage presence than his capo, prowling the stage, delivering low-slung basslines that run from teeth-rattling heaviosity to alienated funk. Elsewhere, Roger O’Donnell returns to keyboards following his battle with lymphoma while another old face, multi-instrumentalist Perry Bamonte, has been back in the band since 2022. As much as it is a celebration of music, tonight also feels like a testament to enduring friendships. Of the ‘junior’ members, Reeves Gabrels (now a mere decade into his tenure with the band) is more naturally inclined to stretch out in the songs – no doubt his expansive solos on “A Night Like This” and “From The Edge Of The Deep Green Sea” dovetail with Smith’s unabated love for Hendrixian flourish.

When the band reach the Seventeen Seconds section – “At Night”, “M”, “Secrets”, “Play For Today” and “A Forest” – they build on the wintry minimalism of the original album, underscoring the keen melodies that power Smith’s songwriting. A triumphant, hit-laden home stretch – “Lullaby”, “The Walk”, “Friday I’m In Love”, “Close To Me”, “Why Can’t I Be You?”, “Boys Don’t Cry” – reinforces both the celebratory nature of tonight’s show and the unspoken camaraderie that exists between Smith and his bandmates. The resilience of these songs and the resilience of The Cure are there for us to marvel at.

The Cure setlist:

Alone

And Nothing Is Forever

A Fragile Thing

Warsong

Drone:Nodrone

I Can Never Say Goodbye

All I Ever Am

Endsong


Plainsong

Pictures Of You

High

Lovesong

Burn

Fascination Street

A Night Like This

Push

Inbetween Days

Just Like Heaven

From The Edge Of The Deep Green Sea

Disintegration

At Night

M

Secrets

Play For Today

A Forest

Lullaby

The Walk

Friday I’m In Love

Close To Me  

Why Can’t I Be You? Boys Don’t Cry

The Verve announce This Is Music: The Singles 20th Anniversary 2 LP set

Michael Bonner
-
0
The Verve announce This Is Music: The Singles 20th Anniversary 2 LP set

The Verve are releasing a 2 LP edition of their 2004 compilation, This Is Music: The Singles on January 24, 2025 through UMR.

The Verve are releasing a 2 LP edition of their 2004 compilation, This Is Music: The Singles on January 24, 2025 through UMR.

THE CURE, BRYAN FERRY, THE MC5, RADIOHEAD, KIM DEAL, PAUL WELLER AND MORE STAR IN THE NEW UNCUT – ORDER A COPY HERE

This is the first time This Is Music: The Singles has been released on vinyl. It comes in black and light blue/red vinyl editions. You can pre-order here.

This vinyl edition has been updated with the two tracks pulled from the sessions for Urban Hymns – “This Could Be My Moment” and “Monte Carlo” – replaced by the singles from the band’s 2008 reunion album, Forth – “Love is Noise” and “Rather Be“.

In addition, “She’s A Superstar” is included in its original, full- length, eight-and-a-half-minute form (rather than the five-minute edit that featured on the first edition of this compilation).

The tracklisting for This Is Music: The Singles is:

LP 1

Side A

This Is Music

Slide Away

Lucky Man

History

Side B

She’s A Superstar

On Your Own

Blue Sonnet

LP 2

Side C

All In The Mind

The Drugs Don’t Work

Gravity Grave

Side D

Bittersweet Symphony

Love Is Noise

Rather Be

Uncut’s New Music Playlist for October 2024

Sam Richards
-
0
Uncut’s New Music Playlist for October 2024

As you furiously carve those pumpkins and meticulously apply the zombie make-up, why not dig into our latest playlist?

As you furiously carve those pumpkins and meticulously apply the zombie make-up, why not dig into our latest playlist?

THE CURE, BRYAN FERRY, THE MC5, RADIOHEAD, KIM DEAL, PAUL WELLER AND MORE STAR IN THE NEW UNCUT – ORDER A COPY HERE

Below, you’ll find terrifyingly good new tunes from the likes of King Gizzard, Kim Gordon, Panda Bear (feat Cindy Lee), Rose City Band, Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy, Dot Allison & Anton Newcombe (stepping out together as All Seeing Dolls), Sharon Van Etten, TV On The Radio’s Tunde Adebimpe and plenty more besides. Plus a few Hallowe’en frights…

KING GIZZARD & THE LIZARD WIZARD
“Phantom Island”
(p(doom))

PANDA BEAR
“Defense (feat Cindy Lee)”
(Domino)

SHARON VAN ETTEN & THE ATTACHMENT THEORY
“Afterlife”
(Jagjaguwar)

KIM GORDON
“Bangin’ on the Freeway”
(Matador)

EDDIE CHACON
“Empire” (ft. John Carroll Kirby)
(Stones Throw)

TUNDE ADEBIMPE
“Magnetic”
(Sub Pop)

MOGWAI
“Lion Rumpus”
(Rock Action)

MANIC STREET PREACHERS
“Hiding In Plain Sight”
(Sony)

ROSE CITY BAND
“Lights On The Way”
(Thrill Jockey)

BONNIE ‘PRINCE’ BILLY
“Our Home (feat. Tim O’Brien)”
(Domino)

RICHARD DAWSON
“Polytunnel”
(Weird World)

BLUE LAKE
“Oceans”
(Tonal Union)

BABA ZULA
“Pisi Pisi Halayı” 
(Glitterbeat)

BONNIE TRASH
“Red Right Hand”
(Hand Drawn Dracula)

JESSE MALIN
“Argentina”
(Wicked Cool)

TUNNG
“Didn’t Know Why”
(Full Time Hobby)

OUIJA
“The Man Who Would Not Die”
(Agent Anonyme)

ALL SEEING DOLLS
“That’s Amazing Grace”
(A Recordings)

PENELOPE TRAPPES
“Sleep”
(One Little Independent)

CLAIRE ROUSAY
“VIII” (from The Bloody Lady)
(Viernulvier)


Send us your questions for Mogwai!

Sam Richards
-
0
Send us your questions for Mogwai!

Today, Mogwai have announced that their 11th album The Bad Fire will be released through their own Rock Action label on January 24. The follow-up to 2021 chart-topper As The Love Continues, it was produced by John Congleton at Chem19 studios in Blantyre, Scotland.

Today, Mogwai have announced that their 11th album The Bad Fire will be released through their own Rock Action label on January 24. The follow-up to 2021 chart-topper As The Love Continues, it was produced by John Congleton at Chem19 studios in Blantyre, Scotland.

THE CURE, BRYAN FERRY, THE MC5, RADIOHEAD, KIM DEAL, PAUL WELLER AND MORE STAR IN THE NEW UNCUT – ORDER A COPY HERE

Watch a video for the track “Lion Rumpus” below:

You can pre-order The Bad Fire in various formats here. Mogwai will be also be touring the world in early 2025 – dates and ticket info here.

But before all that, they’ve kindly submitted to a friendly interrogation from you, the Uncut readers. So what do you want to ask the legendary Glasgow noisemakers? Send your questions to audiencewith@uncut.co.uk by Tuesday (November 5) and Mogwai will answer the best ones in a future issue of Uncut.

Iggy Pop announces new live album from Montreux Jazz Festival 2023

Sam Richards
-
0
Iggy Pop announces new live album from Montreux Jazz Festival 2023

Iggy Pop has today announced that his Live At Montreux Jazz Festival 2023 album will be released on January 24 via earMUSIC. The set was recorded at Stravinski Auditorium on July 6 this year, with Iggy performing songs from throughout his career (Stooges and solo) with a seven-piece band.

Pre-order Iggy Pop’s Live At Montreux here

Iggy Pop has today announced that his Live At Montreux Jazz Festival 2023 album will be released on January 24 via earMUSIC. The set was recorded at Stravinski Auditorium on July 6 this year, with Iggy performing songs from throughout his career (Stooges and solo) with a seven-piece band.

THE CURE, BRYAN FERRY, THE MC5, RADIOHEAD, KIM DEAL, PAUL WELLER AND MORE STAR IN THE NEW UNCUT – ORDER A COPY HERE

Watch a video for “Five Foot One” below:

“I give something extra every time I do Montreux Jazz,” says Iggy Pop. “In ’23 it was deep cuts like ‘Mass Production’, ‘Endless Sea’, ‘Five Foot One’ and a hell of a lot of sweat.” 

The CD version of Live At Montreux Jazz Festival 2023 will come with a Blu-ray disc of the filmed performance. The album will also be released in 2xLP and digital formats. Check out the tracklisting below:

1.) Rune*
2.) Five Foot One
3.) T.V. Eye
4.) Modern Day Rip Off
5.) Raw Power
6.) Gimme Danger
7.) The Passenger
8.) Lust for Life
9.) Endless Sea
10.) Death Trip
11.) Sick of You
12.) I Wanna Be Your Dog
13.) Search and Destroy
14.) Mass Production
15.) Nightclubbing
16.) Down On The Street
17.) Loose
18.) Frenzy

*Blu-ray/download video only

Paul Morrissey – filmmaker, Warhol collaborator and Velvet Underground manager – has died aged 86

Michael Bonner
-
0
Paul Morrissey – filmmaker, Warhol collaborator and Velvet Underground manager – has died aged 86

Paul Morrissey, the cult filmmaker, Andy Warhol collaborator and Velvet Underground manager, has died aged 86, reports The New York Times.

Paul Morrissey, the cult filmmaker, Andy Warhol collaborator and Velvet Underground manager, has died aged 86, reports The New York Times.

THE CURE, BRYAN FERRY, THE MC5, RADIOHEAD, KIM DEAL, PAUL WELLER AND MORE STAR IN THE NEW UNCUT – ORDER A COPY HERE

Born in 1938 in Manhattan, Morrissey met Warhol in 1965, via the poet and filmmaker, Gerard Malanga. Morrissey began working at the Factory, collaborating first with Warhol on My Hustler in 1965.

Morrissey’s low-budget explorations of New York subculture – including Chelsea Girls (1966), Lonesome Cowboys, Flesh (both 1968), Trash (1970) and Women In Revolt (1972) – proved influential on the next generation of independent filmmakers like Henry Jaglom, Jim Jarmusch and Hal Hartley. Morrissey was also an early champion of Brian De Palma.

Between 1966 and ’67, Morrissey also managed The Velvet Underground and Nico. Morrisey also helped conceive and titled the Exploding Plastic Inevitable happenings, which included appearances by the band.

After parting ways with Warhol in 1974, Morrissey continued to make films – most notably his 1978 adaptation of The Hound Of The Baskervilles starring Peter Cook and Dudley Moore.

Morrissey’s final film News From Nowhere was released in 2010.

The Cure – Songs Of A Lost World

Peter Watts
-
0
The Cure – Songs Of A Lost World

Dignity and despair go hand-in-hand on Songs Of A Lost World, as Robert Smith stands on the precipice of life and wonders what lies beyond. We have always known that this album would be imbued with sadness following the deaths of his parents and brother within a few years. Throughout Songs Of A Lost World, the writing is very much on the wall. Smith takes account of his life and career, asking what’s been the point of it all. “Where did it go?” he asks on stately opener “Alone” as he ponders his youthful hopes and dreams. Seven songs later, he answers that question on closing number “Endsong”. “It’s all gone”, he sings, “left alone with nothing, the end of every song”. The last word of the last song? “Nothing”.

Buy Songs Of A Lost World here

Dignity and despair go hand-in-hand on Songs Of A Lost World, as Robert Smith stands on the precipice of life and wonders what lies beyond. We have always known that this album would be imbued with sadness following the deaths of his parents and brother within a few years. Throughout Songs Of A Lost World, the writing is very much on the wall. Smith takes account of his life and career, asking what’s been the point of it all. “Where did it go?” he asks on stately opener “Alone” as he ponders his youthful hopes and dreams. Seven songs later, he answers that question on closing number “Endsong”. “It’s all gone”, he sings, “left alone with nothing, the end of every song”. The last word of the last song? “Nothing”.

THE CURE, BRYAN FERRY, THE MC5, RADIOHEAD, KIM DEAL, PAUL WELLER AND MORE STAR IN THE NEW UNCUT – ORDER A COPY HERE

“Alone” and “Endsong” are bound together in theme and sound – huge, dark clouds of synth and piano, a razor blade guitar and thunderous drums that are placed high in the mix like a heartbeat through a stethoscope. Few bands do atmosphere as well as The Cure, and while Songs Of A Lost World is not as angry as Pornography or as claustrophobic as Disintegration, it instead possesses an immersive, graceful beauty and more energy than you might expect. Five of these songs have been in The Cure’s setlists since 2022 and the studio versions are every bit as intense as their live counterparts but also sound a little crisper. The melodic and lyrical allusions to The Cure’s history now pop out of “And Nothing Is Forever”, while “A Fragile Thing” has a sparkle that was absent from its live incarnation. The bleak, beautiful “I Can Never So Goodbye”, with its heart-stopping line about “something wicked this way comes, to steal away my brother’s life”, remains as desolate and personal a song as Smith has ever written, but one whose incessant melody lines draws you in.

There are whispers of love and glimmers of hope, but resignation is the prevailing emotion. The gnarly grind of “Warsong” is about a friendship that turns sour, while the zesty industrial rock of “Dronenodrone” has Smith shrugging, “down down down, I’m pretty much done”. The penultimate song “All I Ever Am” is propelled by kick drum and guitar as Smith surveys everything he has achieved with a critical eye before threatening to give up “his weary dance with age” and move “toward a dark and empty stage”. We have been here before, of course – “I’ve run right out of thoughts and I’ve run right out of words”, he sang on “39” from 2000’s Bloodflowers, an album awash with imitations of the end: “One more time before it’s over…”, “when it all stops…”, “nothing left to say”. But back then, Smith had just turned 40; now in his mid-60s, Smith’s stocktake of his position is at the other end of middle age and all that entails.

The end is inevitable, but let’s hope the lights aren’t going down just yet.

When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it works.

Laura Marling – Patterns In Repeat

Rob Hughes
-
0
Laura Marling – Patterns In Repeat

In 2020, Laura Marling released Song For Our Daughter, a metaphoric discourse with, and about, her fictional offspring. “I drew pictures of you/Long before I met you/Just a fragment of my mind,” she sang on the wistful “For You”. And so it went on: “Now that I have you/I will not forget/What a miracle you are.”

Buy Patterns In Repeat here

In 2020, Laura Marling released Song For Our Daughter, a metaphoric discourse with, and about, her fictional offspring. “I drew pictures of you/Long before I met you/Just a fragment of my mind,” she sang on the wistful “For You”. And so it went on: “Now that I have you/I will not forget/What a miracle you are.”

THE CURE, BRYAN FERRY, THE MC5, RADIOHEAD, KIM DEAL, PAUL WELLER AND MORE STAR IN THE NEW UNCUT – ORDER A COPY HERE

Conceptually at least, it was slightly out of step with her previous albums, which tended to map the emotional chorography of her journey from teenage nu-folk ingénue to singer-songwriter of serious repute. Yet there was more at play than pure imagination. For all its acoustic delicacy and gentle percussive touches, Song For Our Daughter ran deep and dark.

Marling referenced the trials of making her way in a male-dominated industry that had once encouraged her to ditch the guitar and be a ‘proper’ frontwoman instead. The same industry where factions of the press often sought to diminish and define her presence by picking over her early romantic relationships with fellow musicians. Song For Our Daughter addressed it all in abstract terms – anguish, application, the premature death of innocence, femininity and modern society. “Lately I’ve been thinking/About our daughter growing old/All of the bullshit that she might be told”, went the title track, Marling’s voice unwaveringly clear.

The album turned out to be prophetic. Marling called it a premonition. Her first child, Maudie, was born in February last year, a joyous landmark that’s now prompted another new arrival: Patterns In Repeat. If Song For Our Daughter was intended to offer her imaginary child “all the confidences and affirmations I found so difficult to provide myself”, then Patterns In Repeat attempts to put it into practical use.

It is, primarily, an album about familial love and parenthood, in all its mosaic forms. A song cycle – a pattern in repeat – of shifting generational dynamics, legacies, consequences, fresh perspectives. Marling describes it as “the drama of the domestic sphere…the good intentions we hold onto for our progeny and the many and various ways they get lost in time. So much complexity in the banal, the caged, the everyday.”

This complexity, this curious tension between the ecstatic and the ordinary, is perfectly illustrated on Patterns In Repeat’s first track. “Child Of Mine” opens onto a scene from the Marling household in London in early 2023. She’s softly fingerpicking chords on guitar, singing to her four-week-old daughter, who’s presently occupied by Marling’s partner: “You and your dad are dancing in the kitchen/Life is slowing down but itʼs still bitchinʼ.” You can even hear Maudie let out a contented ambient gurgle. And somewhere the family dog shakes its collar.

“Child Of Mine” is the perfect primer for what follows. Everything is intimate, close-miked, often conversational. No drums. And while the scene is ostensibly a study in homely bliss, Marling brings to bear the full weight of what it is to be a first-time parent – from exhilaration to terror, from total and unconditional devotion to the realisation that nothing will ever be the same again. Furthermore, she doesn’t want to miss any of it: “Everything you want is in your reach right now/And anything thatʼs not I have to teach somehow/Everything about you is intuitive/So those who miss the point might rush right through it.”

What began as an acoustic demo is given fuller form by muted piano, Katt Newlon’s cello, discreet backing vocals by Big Thief’s Buck Meek and a graceful string arrangement courtesy of violinist Rob Moose, reprising his role – another recurring pattern – from Song For Our Daughter and its 2017 predecessor, Semper Femina. This semi-symphonic approach is a key element of Patterns In Repeat. In the weeks after giving birth, Marling immersed herself in Leonard Bernstein’s score for West Side Story, its swirling dramatic currents helping her to process a tidal wave of new sensations. Of interrelated value, too, was Tom Waits’ rueful, orchestrated cover of “Somewhere” (from 1978’s Blue Valentine) that she and Moose discussed as a touchstone.

The haunted demeanour of Waits’ “Somewhere” is crucial. Patterns In Repeat may be rhapsodic at times, but its mood is investigative rather than merely celebratory. “Patterns” examines how behavioural traits recur almost unconsciously across generations, of their own volition. The exquisite “Your Girl” – musically inspired, initially, by guitarist Larry Carlton, best known for sophisticated turns on albums by Steely Dan and Joni Mitchell, another Marling touchstone – is written from a daughter’s viewpoint after the death of her father.

The song, based on an acquaintance of Marling’s, suggests a sometimes imperfect relationship, but also a deeply loving one. A deliberation on loss, womanhood and how we attempt to reconcile ourselves to grief, it’s sensitively measured in minimal guitar, a little piano, strings and Marling double-tracking herself on seraphic harmonies.

The experience prompted thoughts of her own father, Charlie, who ran a recording studio when she was young. Marling uncovered “Looking Back”, written by her dad nearly 50 years ago, while rooting through old tape archives. There’s a doubly reflective quality to Marling’s version of the song, viewed through the lens of an old man – his body bent, imprisoned in a chair – reflecting on distant places and past love. “I wonder if you think of me,” she sings, the air alive with strings and pale trails of synth. “Watching evening summers/Perhaps somewhere beyond the dark.” It’s a beautiful, bittersweet moment – the interior world of a young parent, shaped by hope, vulnerability and desire, suddenly reanimated by their own child. At the time of writing, Marling Snr. has yet to hear his daughter’s rendition.

Marling reserves the best for last. The title track is the most involved of the bunch, not only in practical terms – a seven-strong team deliver a gorgeous surge of strings; co-producer Dom Monks adds a decorative smatter of cymbals, bouzouki and synth bass – but thematically. Sparked by the recent death of a relative who raised her daughters without surrendering much of her personal liberty – only for those daughters to prioritise stability when it came to building their own families – it’s a song about the ripple effect of parenting: “You had your children on the fly/Another child, another guy, another chance to fall in love again/I fear they may have paid the price for the freedom of your life.”

But “Patterns In Repeat” is also about benefaction, the wisdom of experience, the legacies we inherit. And the artistic impulse itself. The song includes a fleeting musical nod to 2013’s Once I Was An Eagle, written when Marling was a twentysomething dreamer, chasing her own notions of freedom and self-autonomy. The reference acts as an acknowledgement that motherhood, despite initial doubts, has accentuated her creativity rather than tapered it.

“I want you to know that I gave it up willingly,” Marling intones, leaning into the final verse. “Nothing real was lost in the bringing of you to me/I want you to have a piece of my maternal flame/Part of me, eternity, a tolerance for pain.” And so it all ends, just as it begins: with a message for her daughter. Simple, graceful, moving, tender. Patterns in repeat.

When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it works.

Tributes paid to Grateful Dead’s Phil Lesh

Michael Bonner
-
0
Tributes paid to Grateful Dead’s Phil Lesh

Phil Lesh has died aged 84.

Phil Lesh has died aged 84.

The official Instagram account for the bassist and co-founder of The Grateful Dead, said he “passed peacefully this morning” [October 25, 2024]. “He was surrounded by his family and full of love.”

THE CURE, BRYAN FERRY, THE MC5, RADIOHEAD, KIM DEAL, PAUL WELLER AND MORE STAR IN THE NEW UNCUT – ORDER A COPY HERE

Lesh, who was born on March 15, 1940 in Berkeley, California, was invited to join pre-Dead band The Warlocks by his friend Jerry Garcia in 1965.

When The Warlocks became The Grateful Dead, Lesh’s bass playing became critical in the evolution of the band through their many sonic adventures.

After Gacia’s death in 1995, played with several touring iterations of the band – including the Other Ones, the Dead and Furthur.

In 2015, the four surviving core members of the Dead – Lesh, Mickey Hart, Bill Kreutzmann and Bob Weir – performed together in a series of concerts, Fare Thee Well: Celebrating 50 Years of the Grateful Dead.

Following the news of his death, Hart, Kreutzmann and Weir paid tribute to their fallen bandmate.

Today we lost a brother. Our hearts and love go out to Jill Lesh, Brian and Grahame. Phil Lesh was irreplaceable. In one note from the Phil Zone, you could hear and feel the world being born. His bass flowed like a river would flow. It went where the muse took it. He was an explorer of inner and outer space who just happened to play bass. He was a circumnavigator of formerly unknown musical worlds. And more. We can count on the fingers of one hand the people we can say had as profound an influence on our development – in every sense. And there have been even less people who did so continuously over the decades and will continue to for as long as we live. What a gift he was for us. We won’t say he will be missed, as in any given moment, nothing we do will be without the lessons he taught us – and the lessons that are yet to come, as the conversations will go on. Phil loved the Dead Heads and always kept them in his heart and mind. The thing is… Phil was so much more than a virtuoso bass player, a composer, a family man, a cultural icon… There will be a lot of tributes, and they will all say important things. But for us, we’ve spent a lifetime making music with Phil Lesh and the music has a way of saying it all. So listen to the Grateful Dead and, in that way, we’ll all take a little bit of Phil with us, forever. For this is all a dream we dreamed one afternoon, long ago…. – Mickey, Billy and Bobby

The estate of Jerry Garcia also paid tribute to Lesh’s “sharply dry humor, wry smiles and brilliant insights.”

Watch Kate Bush’s short film, Little Shrew (Snowflake)

Michael Bonner
-
0
Watch Kate Bush’s short film, Little Shrew (Snowflake)

Kate Bush has written and directed a short animation film called Little Shrew (Snowflake).

Kate Bush has written and directed a short animation film called Little Shrew (Snowflake).

THE CURE, BRYAN FERRY, THE MC5, RADIOHEAD, KIM DEAL, PAUL WELLER AND MORE STAR IN THE NEW UNCUT – ORDER A COPY HERE

The film, just over 4 minutes long, depicts a little shrew searching for hope as she makes her way across a bombed-out city.

The music for the short film is a new 2024 radio edit of the track “Snowflake“, which originally appeared on Bush’s 2011 album, 50 Words For Snow.

The film has been made in collaboration with the charity, War Child.

“I started working on it a couple of years ago, it was not long after the Ukrainian war broke out, and I think it was such a shock for all of us,” Bush explained on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme earlier today [October 25].

Photo: press

“It’s been such a long period of peace we’d all been living through. And I just felt I wanted to make a little animation that would feature, originally, a little girl. It was really the idea of children caught up in war. I wanted to draw attention to how horrific it is for children.

“And so I came up with this idea for a storyboard and felt that, actually, people would be more empathetic towards a creature rather than a human. So I came up with the idea of it being a little shrew.”

Sharon Van Etten & The Attachment Theory announce debut album

Michael Bonner
-
0
Sharon Van Etten & The Attachment Theory announce debut album

Sharon Van Etten & The Attachment Theory have announced details of their self-titled debut album, which is released on February 7 via Jagjaguwar. You can hear "Afterlife" from the album below.

Pre-order Sharon Van Etten & The Attachment Theory

Sharon Van Etten & The Attachment Theory have announced details of their self-titled debut album, which is released on February 7 via Jagjaguwar. You can hear “Afterlife” from the album below.

THE CURE, BRYAN FERRY, THE MC5, RADIOHEAD, KIM DEAL, PAUL WELLER AND MORE STAR IN THE NEW UNCUT – ORDER A COPY HERE

The album was written and recorded by Van Etten, Jorge Balbi (drums, machines), Devra Hoff (bass, vocals), and Teeny Lieberson (synth, piano, guitar, vocals) and produced by Marta Salogni.

The tracklisting for Sharon Van Etten & The Attachment Theory is:

Live Forever

Afterlife

Idiot Box

Trouble

Indio

I Can’t Imagine (Why You Feel This Way)

Somethin’ Ain’t Right

Southern Life (What It Must Be Like)

Fading Beauty

I Want You Here

They have also announced a string of tour dates:

Friday, February 28 – Oslo, NO @ Rockefeller *

Saturday, March 1 – Stockholm, SE @ Fållan *

Sunday, March 2 – Copenhagen, DK @ Vega *

Tuesday, March 4 – Berlin, DE @ Astra Kulturhaus *

Thursday, March 6 – Paris, FR @ Le Trianon *

Friday, March 7 – Antwerp, BE @ De Roma *

Saturday, March 8 – Amsterdam, NL @ Paradiso *

Monday, March 10 – London, UK @ Royal Albert Hall *

Tuesday, March 11 – Manchester, UK @ Albert Hall *

Wednesday, March 12 – Glasgow, UK @ Barrowland Ballroom *

* with special guest Nabihah Iqbal

When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it works.

What’s up, doc?

Stephen Troussé
-
0
What’s up, doc?

As this year's Doc’n Roll Film Festival unveils a new season of revelatory music films, festival co-founder Colm Forde picks out some highlights...

As this year’s Doc’n Roll Film Festival unveils a new season of revelatory music films, festival co-founder Colm Forde picks out some highlights…

THE CURE, BRYAN FERRY, THE MC5, RADIOHEAD, KIM DEAL, PAUL WELLER AND MORE STAR IN THE NEW UNCUT – ORDER A COPY HERE

GODDESS OF SLIDE: THE FORGOTTEN STORY OF ELLEN McILWAINE

(Dir. Alfonso Maiorana)

Ellen’s story was a revelation for me. She passed away in 2021 and had many, many lives. Born in Nashville but raised in Japan, she worked with Hendrix in New York in the ’60s, and built a huge cult following in Australia in the ’80s. Her version of Stevie Wonder’s “Higher Ground” was sampled by Fatboy Slim on “Song For Lindy”, so she was revived in the mid-’90s. Such a rich life with so many ups and downs. Pure passion, doggedness and perseverance – from the artist and the filmmakers. At the festival we feel such an affinity for that.

THE 9 LIVES OF BARBARA DANE

(Dir. Maureen Gosling)

Talking about sacrificing everything for her beliefs! Barbara Dane was a white folk and blues singer with an incredibly powerful voice. She came up through Bob Dylan’s world but people like Louis Armstrong and Muddy Waters were huge fans. There were a lot of civil rights activists but she went even further, campaigning for racial and economic justice, protesting the war and nuclear power. She was the first US artist to play in Cuba in 1966, and she’s still playing and fighting the good fight in her nineties. This film is directed by Maureen Gosling, a legend of American documentary filmmaking.

I SHOULD HAVE BEEN DEAD YEARS AGO: STU SPASM

(Dir. Jason Axel Summers)

A lot of the films we show are passion projects made on shoestring budgets, but this one is a real labour of love. Stu came up in Australia just after the Birthday Party with his band Lubricated Goat, then jumped ship to New York in 1992. A fascinating character who influenced a lot of the early grunge scene. A lot of the films we show are about artists’ artists, people who didn’t make it for various reasons, and this is a classic example. Opiates played a major part in Stu’s life, but I think he’s recently clean. His current band, The Art Gray Noizz Quintet, played the premiere in New York.

DORY PREVIN: ON MY WAY TO WHERE

(Dir. Julia Greenberg and Dianna Dilworth)

A brilliant film about a fascinating character. She was a lyricist for MGM in the ’50s and ’60s, writing songs for Judy Garland and Doris Day. She was married to Andre Previn and had a very difficult 1960s, struggling with mental health issues. She then became an intensely personal singer songwriter in the 1970s. Even in the time of Joni Mitchell and Judi Sill, Dory’s songs were just too raw, and way ahead of their time. It’s a great story about struggling through life, despite the shit that’s thrown at you. It’s a story of survival against the misogynist odds.

TEACHES OF PEACHES

(Dir. Philipp Fussenegger and Judy Landkammer)

This is a great film about the 20th anniversary tour Peaches did two years ago. There’s a lot of humour to it – can she pull off the old dance moves in her fifties? She’s got such a great spirit. A lot of what she was pushing against is only really being spoken about now, whether it’s queerness or being non-binary. The film is just a really great celebration of life, of not giving a fuck and taking the piss out of everything. It’s very non-linear – there’s nothing more boring than a linear Wikipedia documentary.

PAULINE BLACK: A 2 TONE STORY

(Dir. Jane Mingay)

Pauline is a woman I have a lot of respect for, from being into The Selecter when I was a kid. She was raised as an adopted child into a white family in Essex that was quite racist. It’s a tough story. She went to university in Coventry and found her people at the right time. She put up with all the misogynist bullshit from the business, but she also had to put up with it on her own tour bus from the band! Then of course she came up against the same stuff when she became an actor. It’s a very telling story about Britain at the time, and what’s been happening more recently.

Doc’n Roll Film Festival’s 11th edition runs from October 24 to November 10 at cinemas across the country; see the full programme at docnrollfestival.com

Bright Eyes – Five Dice, All Threes

Andrew Mueller
-
0
Bright Eyes – Five Dice, All Threes

If you’ve never understood or attempted the Yahtzee-adjacent dice game Threes, the first 100 seconds of Five Dice, All Threes should see you more or less right. This opening fanfare, the near-title track “Five Dice”, consists of a clearly experienced Threes player explaining it to some new mark: in the background, radio static punctuates the flicking of channels between opera, rock, old-timey music and old-school radio dramas. The suspicious listener may, by this point, already be forming concerns to the effect that Five Dice, All Threes is some sort of concept album.

Buy Five Dice, All Threes here

If you’ve never understood or attempted the Yahtzee-adjacent dice game Threes, the first 100 seconds of Five Dice, All Threes should see you more or less right. This opening fanfare, the near-title track “Five Dice”, consists of a clearly experienced Threes player explaining it to some new mark: in the background, radio static punctuates the flicking of channels between opera, rock, old-timey music and old-school radio dramas. The suspicious listener may, by this point, already be forming concerns to the effect that Five Dice, All Threes is some sort of concept album.

THE CURE, BRYAN FERRY, THE MC5, RADIOHEAD, KIM DEAL, PAUL WELLER AND MORE STAR IN THE NEW UNCUT – ORDER A COPY HERE

Such misgivings are likely to be both reinforced and ameliorated as Five Dice, All Threes proceeds. This preamble is not the last we hear of clattering dice. There are, also, recurrent samples from the 1954 noir flick Suddenly!, in which Frank Sinatra plays a psychotic assassin with designs on the life of the US president. The conceit is not oversold, however: if there is a coherent theme underpinning Five Dice, All Threes, it is a certain anxious bewilderment about how we got here and what we all think we’re doing here now that we have – though as that could be said reasonably accurately about Bright Eyes’ entire catalogue to date, it would be unwise to read overmuch into it.

When we first hear from Bright Eyes properly, on “Bells & Whistles” – a track which contains both of those things – they come out swinging, in both senses of the phrase. The song itself is downright jaunty, and the opening couplet one of those declarations liable to make the listener both curious and apprehensive about where someone might be going with this (“I was cruel, like a president/It was wrong, but I ordered it”). The rest reads like a droll catalogue of regrets from some jaded minor rock god (“…the label asked for a meet and greet/I agreed reluctantly, I couldn’t be alone”) assessing the lessons he has learned the hard way, including the historically sage counsel, “You shouldn’t place bets/On the New York Mets”.

Like a little over half the album, “Bells & Whistles” was co-written with Alex Orange Drink – aka Alex Levine – of The So-So Glos, and like quite a lot of the record, appears laden with nervously grateful nostalgia for the journey so far, and amount of anxiety about what lies ahead. “I never thought I’d see 45,” wonders Coner Oberst on “Bas Jan Ader”, “how is it that I’m still alive?” (Technically, Oberst doesn’t get there until February, so whatever fears do plague him, tempting fate is not among them.) “Bas Jan Ader”, a gentle grunge lullaby, is named for the Dutch performance artist whose final performance was – intentionally or otherwise – disappearing at sea in 1975, putatively attempting a solo crossing of the Atlantic. Like many of the narrators of Five Dice, All Threes, he has arguably set sail with a sub-optimal idea of what he is doing, but then haven’t we all: “It takes a lot of nerve,” notes the first chorus, “to live on planet Earth.”

The album’s other semi-title track, “All Threes”, also serves as its centrepiece. It’s a spectral, minimal ballad, Oberst’s fretting echoed to Nico-like effect by Chan Marshall, and reduces to the barest fundamentals the thesis that we are all, pretty much, rolling dice until they come up something conclusive, one way or the other: “You were so beautiful before/Until you weren’t”.

Absolutely none of which should be read as indication that Five Dice, All Threes is any kind of mawkish manifesto for a mid-life crisis. On quite a lot of the album, Bright Eyes sound like they’ve never had so much fun in their lives. “Rainbow Overpass” is a glorious Old 97s-ish cowpunk romp, “El Capitan” a Joe Ely-like hallucination of incipient apocalypse cresting on a big brass outro, “Trains Still Run On Time” a clattering country singalong which seems to be wondering if the collapse of a republic can really be this ridiculous (“There’s a Disney character breaking down the door/And the orchestra plays a cartoon score for war”).

This is the second album of Bright Eyes’ second act, following 2020’s hiatus-ending Down In The Weeds, Where The World Once Was. It was always likely that the approach of middle age would suit them: their recent “Companions” series, re-recording selected earlier works, felt like a reconnection with works their creators now understand to have been old, and wise, before their time. Five Dice, All Threes sounds like they’ve caught up with themselves: even if Bright Eyes are struggling to scrape together optimism about the future, there is every reason why their fans should.

When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it works.

Bob Dylan And The Band – The 1974 Live Recordings

Richard Williams
-
0
Bob Dylan And The Band – The 1974 Live Recordings

In Toronto’s Maple Leaf Stadium on January 9, 1974, Bob Dylan and The Band delivered a concert including a brutally ugly “Lay Lady Lay” and a version of “Like A Rolling Stone” that didn’t so much end as collapse in a heap. Barely a week after making a solid and warmly received start to their reunion tour of 21 US cities, they had arrived in Canada, the birthplace of four members of The Band, and perhaps celebrated the homecoming not wisely but too well. At the next concert, in Montreal two nights later, Dylan was halfway through the first verse of “The Times They Are A-Changin’” when he forgot the words.

Buy The 1974 Live Recordings here

In Toronto’s Maple Leaf Stadium on January 9, 1974, Bob Dylan and The Band delivered a concert including a brutally ugly “Lay Lady Lay” and a version of “Like A Rolling Stone” that didn’t so much end as collapse in a heap. Barely a week after making a solid and warmly received start to their reunion tour of 21 US cities, they had arrived in Canada, the birthplace of four members of The Band, and perhaps celebrated the homecoming not wisely but too well. At the next concert, in Montreal two nights later, Dylan was halfway through the first verse of “The Times They Are A-Changin’” when he forgot the words.

THE CURE, BRYAN FERRY, THE MC5, RADIOHEAD, KIM DEAL, PAUL WELLER AND MORE STAR IN THE NEW UNCUT – ORDER A COPY HERE

At that point the tour’s promoter, the legendary Bill Graham, may have had a quiet word. Those listening to the new 27-disc boxset of soundboard and multitrack recordings from the tour in strict sequence will notice that two nights later, during an afternoon show in Boston, discipline has been restored, particularly in a pin-sharp five-song solo acoustic set featuring exquisite harmonica solos, each number – including “The Times…”, “Don’t Think Twice…” and “Gates Of Eden” – sung in a respectful approximation of the voice used on the original recording.

There’s also a wonderfully subtle “Ballad Of A Thin Man”, a song which, throughout the tour, will have each of its hidden facets turned towards the light. The many versions of that song sprinkled throughout the discs illustrate the fluctuations of interpretation, form and commitment that were a feature of Dylan’s first tour in eight years, unremarked at the time but now on full view.

He had been talked into the project by David Geffen, who had just lured him away from Columbia Records to sign with his Asylum label. Planet Waves gave Geffen something to promote as Dylan and The Band embarked on one of the first real arena tours, playing to 650,000 people at 40 concerts in 21 cities across five and a half weeks.

At the time, now the ’60s were over and a new decade had begun, it was hard to get a clear idea of exactly who Dylan currently was. The disconcerting kaleidoscope of Self Portrait, the enigmatic retrenchment of New Morning, guest spots in studios with Doug Sahm, Steve Goodman and Bette Midler and in charity concerts for Chile and Bangla Desh, a trip to Israel and domestic relocation to Malibu, a couple of random singles and his participation in Pat Garrett & Billy The Kid – all of it had blurred his outline. After he’d stepped up to play harmonica with John Prine at the Bitter End in 1972, Prine remarked: “No-one believed it. They thought Bob Dylan was either dead or on Mount Fuji.”

So the tour amounted to a relaunch. With Planet Waves giving him his first ever No 1 album in the US, the setlist featured a handful of its new songs, including many versions of “Something There Is About You” and “Forever Young” (yet to become an anthem), and occasional airings of “Wedding Song”, “Tough Mama” and “Nobody ’Cept You”, a lightweight love song dropped from the album’s final running order. But the bulk of each concert would consist of pre-loved material in recognisable versions, making it easy for commentators to proclaim his return to form.

The final shows at the LA Forum provided almost all the material for Before The Flood, the double album released four months after the end of the tour, in which equal weight was given to the three elements that made up the concerts – Dylan with the Band, Dylan alone, the Band alone. The new boxset omits all the Band’s numbers, allowing us to concentrate on how Dylan reconciled the decision to present older material with his restless search for new angles.

So we can hear how, on opening night in Chicago, he delivers “The Lonesome Death Of Hattie Carroll” in a way that shrinks a packed sports stadium to the dimensions of a Greenwich Village coffee house. In the first two shows at Madison Square Garden, he and The Band attack the set with a kind of wild exuberance, while staying within the songs’ guardrails. When waywardness threatens to return in the first half of the third show at the Garden, Dylan pulls it together with a magnificent “It’s Alright, Ma…”, although there’s not much he can do when something similar happens in Seattle a week later.

This time around he was giving the people the songs they wanted, mostly played the way they wanted to hear them. When Sara, his then-wife, attended the LA show, she was rewarded with the tour’s sole rendering of “Mr Tambourine Man”, her own favourite, in a full-band arrangement with Garth Hudson’s accordion (and a highlight throughout the box is the wonderful variety of the eight-bar organ solos Garth plays on the many versions of “All Along the Watchtower”).

As a result, there was none of the hostility encountered around the world eight years earlier. Yet this tour, too, would achieve its own historical significance. Whereas 1966 was a journey into the unknown, 1974 was a voyage into well-charted territories that showed him a path he didn’t want to follow: the one that involved playing, as he reflected later, the role of Bob Dylan. Never again would an audience’s expectations take precedence over his own instincts. It’s worth the investment to hear him reaching that career-redefining conclusion, on which so much further controversy would hang.

When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it works.

Exclusive! Stevie Van Zandt and Jon Landau on Bruce Springsteen’s Road Diary

Peter Watts
-
0
Exclusive! Stevie Van Zandt and Jon Landau on Bruce Springsteen’s Road Diary

As they sit side-by-side in a hotel room in Mayfair, Stevie Van Zandt and Jon Landau are a study in contrasts. These are Bruce Springsteen’s two right-hand men – his Will Scarlett and Little John – and they are dressed for their part. Van Zandt is head-to-toe in puce, with a paisley patterned shirt, silk trousers and red-pointed Chelsea boots, while Landau, Springsteen’s long-time manager, is in a fitted black T-shirt, looking more like the CEO of a tech company on dress-down Friday.

As they sit side-by-side in a hotel room in Mayfair, Stevie Van Zandt and Jon Landau are a study in contrasts. These are Bruce Springsteen’s two right-hand men – his Will Scarlett and Little John – and they are dressed for their part. Van Zandt is head-to-toe in puce, with a paisley patterned shirt, silk trousers and red-pointed Chelsea boots, while Landau, Springsteen’s long-time manager, is in a fitted black T-shirt, looking more like the CEO of a tech company on dress-down Friday.

THE CURE, BRYAN FERRY, THE MC5, RADIOHEAD, KIM DEAL, PAUL WELLER AND MORE STAR IN THE NEW UNCUT – ORDER A COPY HERE

But the odd duo make a great double act, as they talk exclusively to Uncut about Road Diary: Bruce Springsteen And The E-Street Band, Thom Zimny’s new Disney+ documentary capturing the Boss and his band on tour through America and Europe in 2023 and 2024. The film shows the band getting back on the road after six years, starting with rehearsal and then travelling through US and Europe as they deliver a set focussed around Springsteen’s 2020 album Letter To You, balancing a theme of mortality with the vitality expected from an E-Street concert.

UNCUT: What can we expect from the new film?

VAN ZANDT: This one’s different. It was really a wonderful time for Thom to capture what was going on. It was six or seven years since we’d played, so there were a lot of questions around that – the audience would have been wondering what we were going to be like. Plus we had the most intense record Bruce has ever written, with the possible exception of The Rising, but even more thematic and literal and linear. These were intense songs to communicate and meant there were a lot of questions for Thom’s film to answer – and he does an absolutely wonderful job of it, while showing some of the mechanics of how a show like this is done. 

It’s quite an unusual move, showing the band in rehearsal…

LANDAU: The first 25 minutes is rehearsal, different stages of rehearsal starting at a local theatre and then an arena, leading to the opening night in Tampa. It’s counter-intuitive in some ways because instead of opening with big crowds and noise, it starts with a very subtle slo-mo. It’s very emotional and that sets the tone, because the underlying emotion of the film, and the thing that really distinguishes it from most documentaries, is the story it tells, which is of this tour, of Bruce and the E Street, a subtext of the story of Bruce and Stevie, and it also gives great insight into the history of the band with some unseen footage. It gives insight into those bonds of connection that keep the thing going. 

Those bonds go back a long way now, don’t they?

LANDAU: Stevie and Bruce go back 60 years, Gary [Tallent] joined in ’71, Roy [Bittan] and Max [Weinberg] in ’74. I came along in ’74 as well. The guy who runs our tours has been doing it since ’77. We aren’t big on change around here. If you get the job, you have to really work at losing it! That’s how I survived anyway.

How does the film progress?

LANDAU: What you see is four chapters. One is the coming together, which begins with the end of recording Letter To You when we were all set to go on tour until Covid happened.

VAN ZANDT: We did that album right before Covid. We did it around November and December 2019, I cut my own tour short in November and went in to record.

LANDAU: The coming back together after Covid was special. That leads to the Tampa opening night, then you get a capsule of the US tour intercut with an insight into the band. Then you have a third chapter of Europe, which will be a revelation for the fans at home as these are spectacular shows. And then the final chapter is where Bruce has a monologue and really tries to set in context what he’s about and what the band is about, putting that in very rich language with a beautiful montage. And then it ends on a very quiet and emotional note. 

How is it different to most music documentaries?

LANDAU: What you usually see in rockumentaries is excitement, and we have plenty of that, some of the best footage we ever had. But then you see scandal, you see rehab, ugly break-ups. Unfortunately we can’t provide that as we are a bunch of grown-ups. But what you do see is the depth of emotion. That emotional element is the signature of the film.

VAN ZANDT: It comes from the most emotional album he’s probably ever written, so that’s a direct relationship but it doesn’t necessarily mean you are going to be able to capture it. It looks inevitable but it’s not, and it takes incredible craft from Thom. Bruce never wrote a record in two weeks in his life until this one, and then we recorded it in four days, so there was an intensity from the very beginning and we had to move that to the stage. My role in the band was to make sure Bruce had the time to do what he needs to do, which is to think about what he wants to say and how he wants to say it. 

Was that different to previous E Street tours?

VAN ZANDT: This happens every tour, but it was a little bit more intense on this one. I could tell he was thinking about it, man, through all six days of rehearsals.

Was that really all the rehearsal you did?

LANDAU: They have me on camera at one point asking if we are a little under-rehearsed. And then Bruce says to me he’s going home, and you can see my face – two hours and he wants to go home when we open in four days? I said, ‘Stevie, help!’ We needed to rehearse. Bruce didn’t need it, he had the big picture figured out, he had his own voice in shape. He realised that what he needed to do was let go.

As you say, there’s a lot of emotion in this film – a lot of it is about ageing and mortality…

LANDAU: There are four key songs from the album in the show that are about mortality, inspired by the death of his first bandleader. We also learn in the film about Patti’s health struggle. This was all happening in the wake of the United States losing more than one million people to Covid. Those issues were therefore very resonant for the audience. We didn’t do a show all about mortality, we did a show with these as pillars.

VAN ZANDT: That’s the brilliance of Bruce. He knew he had to balance the most intense music with the most popular ones. That’s the set. We played some of the most popular songs this time, which we don’t always do.

How do you still motivate yourself before a show?

VAN ZANDT: It’s never an issue. From the very first song, even if you are sick as a dog, the music brings you right up. Music is absolutely magical that way, and it’s not just for the audience. We then get energy from the audience, it’s an exchange.

There’s also a strong focus on the fans in this film…

LANDAU: Thom shows this very well. There are big shots of big crowds, which is always very impressive, but lots of bands get big crowds. Thom then goes into the crowd and really focuses on individual faces. There’s a montage sequence starting with “Promised Land” where the focus is on the folks on the front row, and you see their individual emotional experiences. He also speaks to five people from five different countries, shooting them at home and talking about Bruce. It’s that two-way conversation between Bruce and the fans that you see a lot in the film.

What were your favourite shows from the tour?

VAN ZANDT: They were all so good but there’s a bit of a joke in the film. Bruce was talking to Anthony Almonte, the new guy on percussion I brought in from Disciples Of Soul. Anthony goes from playing clubs with me to these stadiums and he says he’s never seen anything like it before. Bruce says, “Wait until Barcelona” and that becomes a running joke: “Wait until Barcelona”. And then we cut to Barcelona. It’s wild.

LANDAU: My favourites were the two shows at Wembley. They were just incredible. Bruce’s relationship with the UK goes back to ’75. He got the Ivor Novello Award this year, which meant a lot to him. He came down the stairs at the end and I spoke with him. I always wait at the end and say, “Hey, great show Boss” – it’s hard to be creative after 50 years – but this time I told him to stand next to me for a minute. I said, “We are standing on sacred ground. This country has been so great to us.” He loved that because it’s the goddamn truth.

Road Diary: Bruce Springsteen And The E-Street Band is streaming on Disney+ from October 25

THE CURE, BRYAN FERRY, THE MC5, RADIOHEAD, KIM DEAL, PAUL WELLER AND MORE STAR IN THE NEW UNCUT – ORDER A COPY HERE

Brian Eno announces new book, What Art Does

Sam Richards
-
0
Brian Eno announces new book, What Art Does

Brian Eno has revealed details of a new book called What Art Does, created in collaboration with Dutch artist Bette A.

Brian Eno has revealed details of a new book called What Art Does, created in collaboration with Dutch artist Bette A.

THE CURE, BRYAN FERRY, THE MC5, RADIOHEAD, KIM DEAL, PAUL WELLER AND MORE STAR IN THE NEW UNCUT – ORDER A COPY HERE

According to the press release, What Art Does “examines the function of fictional worlds – such as pop songs, detective novels, soap operas, shoe tassels and the hidden language of haircuts – and suggests a new theory of art. Why do we do it? How does it help us? And how does it hold us all together?”

What Art Does is a full colour illustrated hardback book, initially available in a limited edition of 777 signed copies, each coming with its own unique slipcase hand-painted by Eno and Bette A. This limited edition will be available exclusively from the Enoshop and shipped on December 3 – pre-order here. A black and white PDF will be available for £1 for seven days from initial release of the limited edition.

All profits from the limited edition and PDF go to the charities Earth Percent and The Heroines! Movement. Hardback and ebook editions will be available on general release from Faber on January 16.

Jeff Lynne’s ELO to play farewell show at BST Hyde Park in July

Sam Richards
-
0
Jeff Lynne’s ELO to play farewell show at BST Hyde Park in July

BST Hyde Park have announced their first headliner for 2025 in the shape of Jeff Lynne's ELO, who will play their final ever show at the London outdoor concert series on Sunday July 13.

BST Hyde Park have announced their first headliner for 2025 in the shape of Jeff Lynne’s ELO, who will play their final ever show at the London outdoor concert series on Sunday July 13.

THE CURE, BRYAN FERRY, THE MC5, RADIOHEAD, KIM DEAL, PAUL WELLER AND MORE STAR IN THE NEW UNCUT – ORDER A COPY HERE

“My return to touring began at Hyde Park in 2014,” explains Jeff Lynne. “It seems like the perfect place to do our final show. We couldn’t be more excited to share this special night in London with our UK fans. As the song goes, ‘We’re gonna do it One More Time!'”

Tickets go on general sale at 9am BST on Friday (October 25), although there is also an Amex pre-sale from 10am BST today (October 21).

The full line-up for the ELO show – along with BST Hyde Park’s other headliners – will be announced in due course.

City To City: Introducing Gallus

Peter Watts
-
0
City To City: Introducing Gallus

In partnership with Marshall

In partnership with Marshall

As they bicker genially over afternoon pints in a Glasgow beer garden, Gallus can agree on one thing. “We want to have fun,” says singer Barry Dolan. “That’s the goal for us. The best thing about live music is seeing a band having the time of their lives. We want people to come and forget their problems and let off steam for 45 minutes.” And the old friends go back to happily squabbling about which member originally wanted to name them The Alphabets, whether Frank Sinatra played Celtic Park or Ibrox, and how many songs they managed to get through at their debut gig before running out of material.

THE CURE, BRYAN FERRY, THE MC5, RADIOHEAD, KIM DEAL, PAUL WELLER AND MORE STAR IN THE NEW UNCUT – ORDER A COPY HERE

The Glasgow five-piece were founded by cousins Eamon Ewins (guitar) and drummer Paul Ewins after they left university and realised they needed to find something to do. They recruited Dolan, a pal they hung out with at Gallus, the bar near Kelvingrove Park that ultimately supplied their name – it’s a Scottish word for bold or confident. Although Dolan had never sung before, he had studied acting so the Ewins figured he might provide the stage presence the other two were lacking. The plan worked. After making their debut at the city’s legendary King Tut’s, Gallus were soon carving out a reputation as an unpredictable and entertaining live act.

Fast forward a few years and Gallus signed to Marshall to release their 2023 debut album, We Don’t Like The People We Become, a series of punky songs fuelled by that heady combination of anxiety and adrenaline. Accolades have continued to follow, including being named Best Rock Band at the Scottish Alternative Music Awards in 2022 and shows supporting Biffy Clyro up the road in Edinburgh.

Now featuring second guitarist Gianluca Bernacchi and Matt McGoldrick on bass – both formerly of Paisley’s Vegan Leather – Gallus are preparing to unveil a new approach for a December tour supporting fellow Glaswegians Dead Pony, which will include shows at the Garage in London, Leadmill in Sheffield and The Deaf Institute in Manchester.

“A lot of the album is quite sad because we wrote it in lockdown,” says Eamon. “We wanted to write stuff that is a bit more upbeat as Matt and Gian have changed our sound a bit. ‘Wash Your Wounds’ is about how things in Britain are shit if you are young, but feeling sorry for ourselves won’t fix anything.”

That bullish attitude has long been present in Gallus live shows. When bassist McGoldrick first saw the band perform in a Glasgow dive bar, he was impressed by Dolan’s ability to command an audience. Stunts are part of the fun. At one recent gig, Dolan pulled out his phone and FaceTimed McGoldrick while he was on holiday, encouraging the audience to chant an impolite greeting to their missing bassist and his bewildered girlfriend.

“We have more of these off-the-cuff moments,” muses Paul Ewins. “We might have to start subbing out songs for bits.” Dolan feels humour is important as a way of building camaraderie with their fans. “We want to make the crowd feel like part of the show, because if they are involved they are more inclined to have a good time,” says Dolan.

Gallus cherished the opportunity they were given to record We Don’t Like The People We Become at Marshall’s state-of-the-art studio in Milton Keynes. Being on the label gave them access to equipment and experiences that would otherwise be far beyond their reach, with a huge live room, Neve console, Natal drums, experienced engineers and access to the factory next door to fine-tune their Marshall amps. “They are very artist-friendly, understand the music scene and run the label as a way of developing bands,” says Paul.

The group want to take the experience they have gained at the Milton Keynes studio into local Glasgow studios. Bernacchi will produce their forthcoming EP and new songs are already bedded in. As well as “Wash Your Wounds”, Gallus have one inspired by Coronation Street serial killer Richard Hillman called “Cool To Drive” and another called “Depressed Beyond Tablets”, a title borrowed from a Brass Eye sketch. The topics are serious, but the approach is playful. “We are playing to our new musical strengths, which are a lot more energetic,” says Dolan. “We want to really throw ourselves into the music.”

City To City: Glasgow

Gallus conduct Uncut around some of their home city’s significant spots

Photo: Jeff Pitcher

Although Gallus are named after a pub in Glasgow’s West End, they arrange to meet Uncut on the other side of the city at St Luke’s, a converted church in the East End. That’s partly because the 600-capacity St Luke’s is a venue that the group have twice headlined, but it’s also because they now avoid Bar Gallus after an acquaintance stole the door from a toilet cubicle. That’s a very Glasgow reason to be barred. This is as hedonistic a city as any in the UK, and therefore a great place for young bands to take their first steps.

“One of the great things about Glasgow music is there is always a history of bands,” says Dolan, who cites groups as diverse as Mogwai and Biffy Clyro as influences. The small size and friendly nature of Glasgow creates a unique scene, in which superstars rub shoulders with fans. Bassist McGoldrick talks about the importance of seeing Franz Ferdinand in local bars, venues and record shops as he was growing up. “Franz Ferdinand were the quintessential Glasgow rock band,” he says. “They had a buzz about them and were approachable. Being 16, 17 and having them right in front of you was really exciting.”

While bands like Franz Ferdinand and Belle & Sebastian coalesced around the 13th Note – since closed – the key venue for alternative guitar bands of the 2010s was the Priory. Located on Sauchiehall Street and run by Gallus’s manager, it was a home for young bands and a testing ground – if you could win over the Priory audience, you had fans for life. Gallus were regulars – on stage and in the audience – though the bar closed in 2023. Fortunately, there are still plenty of other grassroots Glasgow venues such as King Tut’s, St Luke’s, Stereo and Mono.

St Luke’s and Mono are participants in one of the biggest events of the year for Glasgow music, the Tenement Trail. “It’s a festival that takes place at venues all around here,” explains Eamon. “All the venues have bands playing through the day, and it’s like a neighbourhood all-dayer.” Dolan describes it as “one of the best things about Glasgow. It’s given us a platform and it’s great for local bands.”

The East End is also home to Glasgow Green, which hosts the annual TRNSMT festival, another event at which Gallus have performed, but the area is best known as the location of Barrowland, the legendary ballroom that has hosted just about every Scottish band of distinction as well as groups from all over the world. When asked which venue in Glasgow they’d most like to play, the members of Gallus answer as one: Barrowland. “It’s the pinnacle for any Scottish band,” says Dolan. “International bands have said it’s the best venue in the world.”

A headline spot at Barrowland is well within their scope. It was Gallus’s reputation as a feverish live act that first brought them to the attention of Marshall, who were quick to see the potential. “Their head of music loved our song, ‘Fruitflies’, and signed us after we sold out King Tut’s in our first gig after Covid,” says Eamon. “It was really quick between hearing they were interested and us going down to Milton Keynes to record.” That journey down to Buckinghamshire was made easier by access to Marshall in-ear Motif earbuds – essential items for a group where five different members with five different musical preferences are all cooped up together in one small van.

Photo: Jeff Pitcher

Thanks to Glasgow’s long history as a music city and its location in the centre of Scotland, the city boasts the other important features of a thriving music scene. There are excellent record shops like Monorail, the cheap utopia of Missing Records near the station and Assai on Sauchiehall Street. The latter is an independent Scottish chain that celebrates Scottish music with in-stores and signings for local bands. There are also excellent recording studios, many run by older Glasgow musicians such as Mogwai’s Castle Of Doom, while the long-running Carlton Studios is an indie institution that includes rehearsal rooms and community spaces.

Music is embedded in the culture of Glasgow in a way seen in few other cities. It’s in the numerous karaoke pubs and bars, the festivals, the abundant record shops – even the pipe bands, buskers and bagpipes that are found on every other street corner. And the existence of that music encourages young bands like Gallus – and all the other Glasgow bands that came before – to have big dreams. “The Hydro is one of the top five big venues in the UK, so there is that appetite for music in Glasgow,” muses Paul Ewins. “Barrowlands still has a gig basically every single night, there’s the Academy on the south side. People want to go to gigs.”

“You see guitar bands like Idles and Fontaines playing the Hydro – that’s something you might not have seen a few years ago and that gives us hope,” says Dolan. “To see bands you can identify with performing at such a high level – that’s really inspiring.”

Photo: Jeff Pitcher
1...121314...1,269Page 13 of 1,269

SHOP UNCUT