The deluxe reissue of The Jam’s final album, The Gift, is reviewed in the new issue of Uncut (December 2012, Take 187) – so for this week’s archive feature, we’ve stepped back to Uncut’s December 2008 (Take 139) issue, to spend a year by Paul Weller’s side, as he celebrates his 50th birthday. We are invited into the Guv’nor’s inner sanctum, to his star-studded birthday party, and into dressing rooms across Britain and America. And we learn that, like any good mod, Weller remains “more interested in the future than the past”. Words: Paul Moody
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Queens Of The Stone Age frontman Josh Homme has revealed that rockabilly artist Carl Perkins was the artist who made him first want to pick up a guitar.
Homme explained that he decided he wanted to be a musician after he saw Perkins play and found out that he had written the song "Blue Suede Shoes" for his idol Elvis Presley. Perkins - who died in 1998 - took part in the 'Million Dollar Quartet' recordings at Sun Studio in Memphis alongside Elvis, Jerry Lee Lewis and Johnny Cash.
A new track from Queens Of The Stone Age frontman Josh Homme, titled 'Nobody To Love', has hit the internet – scroll down to the bottom of the page and click to listen.
The song, which was co-written by composer and Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds producer Dave Sardy, is featured in the new film End Of Watch featuring Jake Gyllenhaal, but has now also surfaced on YouTube.
Elbow, Band Of Horses and Hot Chip are among the new additions to the line-up for London's iTunes Festival this year.
Elbow and Bat For Lashes will play together at London's Roundhouse on September 7, while Hot Chip will headline the venue themselves on September 29.
Band Of Horses will support Jack White on September 8.
Damien Hirst has said he believes The Stone Roses are more important than Picasso.
Hirst, who is Britain's richest living artist with a fortune estimated at £215 million, is one of a host of celebrities to have contributed their memories of The Stone Roses ahead of their hugely anticipated shows at Manchester's Heaton Park this weekend.
Writing in the gigs' official programme, which will be onsale at all three of the shows, Hirst simply writes: "The Stone Roses are more important than Picasso."
Flair, grit and determination - not to mention a nine-figure outlay on players - have all been cited in recent days as the reasons why Manchester City won the Premier League over the weekend.
However, fans of the club actually have one man to thank for their first title win in 44 years - and it's apparently not manager Roberto Mancini.
Nope, ironically it's staunch Manchester United fan Mani - who infamously said The Stone Roses wouldn't reform until the Blues tasted major success.
Radiohead headed up the bill at the second day of Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival in Indio, California yesterday [April 14].
The band, who previously headlined the festival in 2004, opened their set with "Bloom" from their 2011 album, The King of Limbs, following it with "15 Step". As well as airing "Lotus Flower", the band also played new song "Identikit".
Paul Weller has criticised the spate of "effing talent shows" on TV and claimed he would be "too embarrassed" to appear any of them.
Last year, former Oasis guitarist Noel Gallagher claimed that Weller was a big fan of The X Factor but, in an interview with the Radio Times, the Modfather insisted he was sick of TV singing contests and dismissed them as "Saturday-night viewing for the masses".
The Beatles' iconic 'Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band' album cover has been redesigned by original sleeve designer Peter Blake on his 80th birthday.
