Historically, AC/DC have triumphed making the best of a bad job. When Bon Scott, the charismatic singer who fronted the band on their rise to fame died in London in 1980, they responded the only way they could. Namely, heavily: employing a new singer, and turning Back In Black into one of the 10 biggest-selling albums of all time. “Oblique strategies” aren’t something you imagine the band have a lot of time for, but their pragmatic problem-solving has often yielded spectacular results.
I reviewed The Velvet Underground: 45th Anniversary Super Deluxe Edition for new issue of Uncut. It's a comprehensive, six-disc set compiling the band's third album in an assortment of mixes, plus 1969 demos and a live recording from The Matrix in San Francisco. Of course, it marks the first album the band recorded after John Cale had left, with Doug Yule assuming bass and (some) vocal duties. I was fortunate enough to speak to both Yule and Mo Tucker for a Q&A to accompany my review.
Björk, Nas, the French House music scene and a beguiling tribute to the work of Alan Lomax are among the highlights of this year's BFI London Film Festival. Watch the trailers below.
With the remastered “fictional documentary” Feast Of Friends set to be released properly for the first time on November 11, here’s a piece from the Uncut archives (February 2007 issue, Take 117) – a look at how The Doors created the epic closer to their final studio album, LA Woman, which would prove to be Jim Morrison’s haunted, spiritual swansong. Ray Manzarek, Robby Krieger and John Densmore tell the story… Words: Mick Houghton
U2’s shock-released new album, Songs Of Innocence, is largely themed around the band’s childhoods and adolescence in Dublin, according to Bono. Well, here’s what came next… This is the full story, as told by those who were there, of U2’s rise from indie hopefuls to becoming the Biggest Rock Band On The Planet. Written by Stephen Dalton, and originally published in Uncut’s December 1999 issue (Take 31).
