Edwyn Collins has announced that he'll release his new album, Badbea, on his own AED label on March 29.
Hear the first song from it, "Outside", below:
https://www.youtube.com/embed/bo5c728WpF4
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Badbea was recorded at Collins' n...
Edwyn Collins has announced that he’ll release his new album, Badbea, on his own AED label on March 29.
Badbea was recorded at Collins’ new Clashnarrow Studios in Helmsdale, north-east Scotland. The album is named after an abandoned village on a clifftop five miles north of Helmsdale, where his grandfather once lived.
The album was co-produced by Sean Read (Dexys, The Rockingbirds) and features long-term musical cohorts Carwyn Ellis (Colorama) and James Walbourne (The Pretenders / The Rails).
Peruse the tracklisting for Badbea below:
1. It’s All About You
2. In The Morning
3. I Guess We Were Young
4. It All Makes Sense To Me
5. Outside
6. Glasgow To London
7. Tensions Rising
8. Beauty
9. I Want You
10. I’m OK Jack
11. Sparks The Spark
12. Badbea
A new JJ Cale album called Stay Around will be released by Because Music on April 26.
It was compiled by his widow Christine Lakeland Cale and friend and longtime manager Mike Kappus from unreleased home and studio recordings.
Watch a video for the single "Chasing You" below:
https://www.youtube...
A new JJ Cale album called Stay Around will be released by Because Music on April 26.
It was compiled by his widow Christine Lakeland Cale and friend and longtime manager Mike Kappus from unreleased home and studio recordings.
Says Mike Kappus of the album: “Some of the tracks had detailed information, some of them had nothing. Some songs might be a full band of his buddies, others were him playing everything. These were songs he really did intend to do something with because they were carried to his typical level of production for release.”
Adds Christine Lakeland Cale: “I wanted to find stuff that was completely unheard to max-out the ‘Cale factor’… as much that came from John’s ears and fingers and his choices as I could, so I stuck to John’s mixes… You can make things so sterile that you take the human feel out. But John left a lot of that human feel in. He left so much room for interpretation.”
Check out the tracklisting below:
Lights Down Low
Chasing You
Winter Snow
Stay Around
Tell You ‘Bout Her
Oh My My
My Baby Blues
Girl Of Mine
Go Downtown
If We Try
Tell Daddy
Wish You Were Here
Long About Sundown
Maria
Don’t Call Me Joe
BBC2 will air a new documentary called David Bowie: Finding Fame on February 9.
The film is the third in a trilogy of documentaries about Bowie by director Francis Whately, following Five Years (about his 70s heyday) and The Last Five Years (about his comeback and the making of Blackstar).
Order...
BBC2 will air a new documentary called David Bowie: Finding Fame on February 9.
The film is the third in a trilogy of documentaries about Bowie by director Francis Whately, following Five Years (about his 70s heyday) and The Last Five Years (about his comeback and the making of Blackstar).
In the latest issue of Uncut – in shops now and available to buy online by clicking here – Whately shares his thoughts on Bowie’s pre-fame years.
“Most people know he was in a few bands before Ziggy, but this should be a good lesson for anybody in showing the way he kept failing, then dusted himself down and took a little bit of the failure into the next project,” he says. “In this film you see him developing all the components that went into Ziggy Stardust, but Ziggy was just one element of what he was. This long apprenticeship was still providing him with things in the years before he died.”
David Bowie: Finding Fame features previously unseen interviews with Mick Ronson, Gus Dudgeon and Ken Pitt, plus the last ever interview with Lindsay Kemp, conducted a week before his death. There’s even behind-the-scenes audio of Bowie and Dudgeon recording “The Laughing Gnome”.
Other Bowie footage unearthed for the documentary includes footage previously believed to be lost of Bowie performing Jacques Brel’s “My Death” on the Russell Harty show.
Whately has also tracked down a copy of what many regard as the holy grail of Bowie TV spots – his performance of “Starman” on ITV’s Lift Off With Ayshea, a few weeks before the famous Top Of The Pops appearance. The original reels were wiped long ago but a fan recorded it on computer tape. That tape is currently being painstakingly restored in the hope that it can be shown in the documentary.
You can read much more about David Bowie: Finding Fame in the current issue of Uncut, on sale now with Leonard Cohen on the cover.
End Of The Road festival has announced its first wave of acts for this year's festival, taking place at Larmer Tree Gardens on the Wiltshire/Hampshire border from August 19 to September 1.
Spiritualized, Beirut, Michael Kiwanuka and Metronomy are the headline acts.
Order the latest issue of Uncut ...
End Of The Road festival has announced its first wave of acts for this year’s festival, taking place at Larmer Tree Gardens on the Wiltshire/Hampshire border from August 19 to September 1.
Spiritualized, Beirut, Michael Kiwanuka and Metronomy are the headline acts.
As usual, there are plenty of Uncut favourites on the bill, including Low, Courtney Barnett, Deerhunter, Sleaford Mods, Cass McCombs, Jarvis Cocker, Moses Boyd, Lonnie Holley, Let’s Eat Grandma, Steve Gunn and many more.
Portishead's Beth Gibbons will release her performance of Henryk Górecki's Symphony No. 3 (Symphony of Sorrowful Songs) with the Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra as an album on March 29, through Domino.
The piece was recorded at The National Opera Grand Theatre in Warsaw on November 29, 20...
Portishead’s Beth Gibbons will release her performance of Henryk Górecki’s Symphony No. 3 (Symphony of Sorrowful Songs) with the Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra as an album on March 29, through Domino.
The piece was recorded at The National Opera Grand Theatre in Warsaw on November 29, 2014, with the Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra conducted by Krzysztof Penderecki.
The album comes packaged with a DVD which features a film of the performance and the rehearsals leading up to it, directed by Michał Merczyński. Watch a trailer for that below:
Hot on the heels of 2018's Performance, White Denim have announced that their next album Side Effects will be released on March 29 by City Slang.
Hear two songs from it, "Shanalala" and "NY Money", below:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WffATcSKUQE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cwJirNKUGR4
Ord...
Hot on the heels of 2018’s Performance, White Denim have announced that their next album Side Effects will be released on March 29 by City Slang.
Hear two songs from it, “Shanalala” and “NY Money”, below:
White Denim’s James Petralli reveals that “NY Money” is a tribute of sorts to The War On Drugs. “The first line was originally ‘The drugs quit smoking, I don’t find it inspiring.’ which I had written in a notebook after a night of drinking with the War on Drugs guys,” he says. “They had all recently ‘quit’ cigarettes which made me suspect that they were really hanging around me so they could pinch cigs every couple of minutes. I went through two packs in three hours with them. The Neu influenced production and meandering feel of the back part of the tune is a winking homage to what they’ve been up to for the past few years.”
Lord Of The Rings director Peter Jackson has announced that he is currently at work on a new Beatles documentary.
It's based on 55 hours of previously unreleased footage (plus 140 hours of audio) of The Beatles in the studio, shot between January 2 and January 31, 1969, during the making of Let It ...
Lord Of The Rings director Peter Jackson has announced that he is currently at work on a new Beatles documentary.
It’s based on 55 hours of previously unreleased footage (plus 140 hours of audio) of The Beatles in the studio, shot between January 2 and January 31, 1969, during the making of Let It Be. The footage was originally captured by Michael Lindsay-Hogg for the Let It Be movie.
Peter Jackson says: “The 55 hours of never-before-seen footage and 140 hours of audio made available to us, ensures this movie will be the ultimate ‘fly on the wall’ experience that Beatles fans have long dreamt about – it’s like a time machine transports us back to 1969, and we get to sit in the studio watching these four friends make great music together.
“I was relieved to discover the reality is very different to the myth. After reviewing all the footage and audio that Michael Lindsay-Hogg shot 18 months before they broke up, it’s simply an amazing historical treasure-trove. Sure, there’s moments of drama – but none of the discord this project has long been associated with. Watching John, Paul, George, and Ringo work together, creating now-classic songs from scratch, is not only fascinating – it’s funny, uplifting and surprisingly intimate.
“I’m thrilled and honoured to have been entrusted with this remarkable footage – making the movie will be a sheer joy.”
The footage will be restored by Park Road Post of Wellington, New Zealand, using techniques developed for Jackson’s recent acclaimed WW1 documentary.
The untitled Beatles film is currently in production and the release date will be announced in due course. Following its release, a restored version of the original Let It Be movie directed by Michael Lindsay-Hogg will also be made available.
David Gilmour has announced that he is auctioning off more than 120 guitars from his personal collection.
The collection includes many of his famous Pink Floyd guitars, including his 1969 Black Fender Stratocaster (AKA 'The Black Strat') played on "Money", "Shine On You Crazy Diamond" and "Comforta...
David Gilmour has announced that he is auctioning off more than 120 guitars from his personal collection.
The collection includes many of his famous Pink Floyd guitars, including his 1969 Black Fender Stratocaster (AKA ‘The Black Strat’) played on “Money”, “Shine On You Crazy Diamond” and “Comfortably Numb” (estimate: $100,000-150,000).
Other guitars offered for auction include ‘The #0001 Stratocaster’ played on “Another Brick In The Wall (Parts Two and Three)” (estimate: $100,000-150,000); a 1955 Gibson Les Paul, famous for Gilmour’s guitar solo on “Another Brick in the Wall (Part Two)” (estimate: $30,000-50,000); and a rare Gretsch White Penguin 6134 (estimate: $100,000-150,000). All sale proceeds will benefit charitable causes.
Says Gilmour: “These guitars have been very good to me and many of them have gifted me pieces of music over the years. They have paid for themselves many times over, but it’s now time that they moved on. Guitars were made to be played and it is my wish that wherever they end up, they continue to give their owners the gift of music. By auctioning these guitars I hope that I can give some help where it is really needed and through my charitable foundation do some good in this world. It will be a wrench to see them go and perhaps one day I’ll have to track one or two of them down and buy them back!”
The collection will be on show at Christie’s in London from March 27-31, with the auction taking place in New York on June 20.
As awards season approaches, leave it to Mexico’s Alfonso Cuarón to redefine the boundaries of Oscar bait.
After the interstellar $100m Hollywood thrills of Gravity, which partnered Sandra Bullock with George Clooney in space, his follow-up is a Spanish-language drama, made for just over a tent...
As awards season approaches, leave it to Mexico’s Alfonso Cuarón to redefine the boundaries of Oscar bait.
After the interstellar $100m Hollywood thrills of Gravity, which partnered Sandra Bullock with George Clooney in space, his follow-up is a Spanish-language drama, made for just over a tenth of the cost, starring a complete unknown in a film that could conceivably compete for both Best Picture and Best Foreign Film – even after making its debut on the small screen as a Netflix Original. The pros and cons of the streaming service can be debated endlessly, mostly negatively for its often lax quality control, but Roma is a terrific argument for its blank-cheque, no-questions-asked attitude to directors with a vision.
The setting is ’70s Mexico, where Cleo (Yalitza Aparicio) is maid to a professional married couple and their four children. What transpires is a low-key soap opera, but seen from the maid’s perspective, as the husband and wife drift apart, leaving Cleo to step in where the kids are concerned. The scenarios range from the slight to the melodramatic and, when local riots break out, even epic – mostly as a backdrop to Cleo’s troubled love life – but the beauty of Cuarón’s film is its simplicity. Though its production values are anything but basic, recreating the director’s youth in shimmering high-definition monochrome, Roma is really a film about human contact, and what seems at first glance to be a film steeped in middle-class privilege soon reveals itself to be so much more thoughtful.
Some of its technical excellence – notably its immersive Dolby sound, not to mention its beautiful cinematography, will be lost on even the biggest TV – but in the cinema (where it arguably belongs), Roma has a hypnotic power that only builds over its somewhat overlong running time. Cuarón has made more entertaining movies for sure, but none so heartfelt and even soulful.
Moved to define his creative identity in an interview early last year, William Tyler said he thinks of himself chiefly as “a composer who plays guitar, rather than a guitar player who writes instrumental music”. That might sound like an inconsequential fudge but is in fact pretty revealing in te...
Moved to define his creative identity in an interview early last year, William Tyler said he thinks of himself chiefly as “a composer who plays guitar, rather than a guitar player who writes instrumental music”. That might sound like an inconsequential fudge but is in fact pretty revealing in terms of his motivation and intent: Tyler’s understatedly eloquent playing may take the lead role in all his panoramic ‘scenes’, but what really makes him tick is set construction.
Which is presumably why the Nashville native’s fourth album sees him again opting for substantive composition over the melodic themes that dominated 2016’s Modern Country. It also sees him playing solely acoustic, with musicians including electric guitarist and loop wrangler Meg Duffy (who’s worked with the likes of Kevin Morby, Weyes Blood and The War On Drugs and records solo as Hand Habits) and, on one song, Bill Frisell. But despite these crucially empathetic contributions and subtle additions on piano, organ, Omnichord and more, it’s Tyler’s unplugged finger-picking that shapes these 10 tracks. As he told Uncut, since he always finds himself “gravitating back towards a certain kind of acoustic mindset” and most of his touring tends to be solo, it made sense to write songs that can easily be carried unaccompanied.
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Goes West was written in LA, where Tyler moved at the end of 2016, not only drawn there because his sister had already shifted but also propelled via emotional fallout from the US election and an urge to make the kind of major life change triggered by relocation – and thus discover something new. It’s a migration pattern rooted in the history of white US settlement, of course, and one endlessly romanticised, notably in the “go west, young man” exhortation spread via a 19th-century New York Tribune editorial. But although that gung-ho mythos has nothing to do with Tyler’s record, the symbolic hope of California – with its history, geography and general disposition so different from Tennessee’s – surely does.
Still, these songs aren’t “about” his new home in any real sense, certainly not in the way that the rambling, landscape-through-a-car-window evocations of Modern Country were his eulogy to a terminally ill rural America. Rather, California has made its mark via a kind of oxygenated expansiveness flooded with sunlight rather than pocked with regret, 10 individually kinetic pieces in a holding pattern of meditative calm.
Tyler has said that “most” of Goes West consists of love songs, a disclosure that’s slightly intriguing and also (brilliantly) 100 per-cent proofed against further probing due to the fact that there’s obviously no lyrical evidence of this. Titles like “Eventual Surrender”, “Rebecca” and “Venus In Aquarius” might point at matters of the heart, but no more. As with all Tyler’s work – and classical and instrumental music in general – there are no narrative levers, so all listeners can do is surrender to its nuanced glow. Thanks in no small part to Tucker Martine’s and bassist Bradley Cook’s impeccable production, this warmth spreads from opener “Alpine Star”, with its fleet-footed tempo changes, sudden shifts between minor and major chords and gently gushing synth, right through to spangled closer “Our Lady Of The Desert”, where Tyler’s acoustic, piano and shuffling brush patterns soar and dip as if in orbit around Bill Frisell’s elegantly minimal electric peals.
To mention purity in relation to Tyler’s music is tempting but misleading, not least of all because his early folk touchstones were fusionist Sandy Bull, Takoma school experimentalists John Fahey and Robbie Basho and determined outlier Michael Chapman. But however many brief diversions a track might make, on every one there’s a cleanness and single-minded articulacy of sound that somehow focuses the mind and lifts the spirits. Standouts are “Virginia Is For Loners”, which freckles its clear strings-picking with gnarly electric textures and blooms slowly while an organ moans and beats softly boom; the sweet “Fail Safe”, whose steady gallop is a reminder of Tyler’s love of Neu!; and “Man In A Hurry”, where brief flashes of Cline-ish electric guitar do vital character work without stealing the show. “Call Me When I’m Breathing Again” is the set’s most straightforward track in its echoing of late-’60s English pastoral folk, while “Not In Our Stars” nudges at Wyndham Hill’s jazzy New Age-ism, although there’s no great shame in that.
Tyler readily admits that he’s a romantic and jokes that his view of the world “almost always involves falling in love – either with someone specific or a national park”. There’s no radical change in that world view on Goes West, but the author’s humanistic, heart-first approach, coupled with his songs’ compellingly opaque expression and egoless playing makes reliability more rewarding.
As first reported in Uncut last year, a Frank Zappa hologram tour is coming to the UK in May.
The Bizarre World Of Frank Zappa will feature a holographic Zappa performing along with some his former bandmates, including guitarists Ray White and Mike Keneally, bassist Scott Thunes, multi-instrumental...
As first reported in Uncut last year, a Frank Zappa hologram tour is coming to the UK in May.
The Bizarre World Of Frank Zappa will feature a holographic Zappa performing along with some his former bandmates, including guitarists Ray White and Mike Keneally, bassist Scott Thunes, multi-instrumentalist Robert Martin and drummer and Zappa archivist Joe “Vaultmeister” Travers – with special guests set to join in on some shows.
The previously unseen footage of Frank Zappa is taken from a performance he filmed on an LA soundstage in 1974, with posthumous usage in mind.
“My father and I actively discussed 3D and ‘holography’ and it was a concept he actively engaged in,” says Ahmet Zappa, who is closely involved with producing the show. “This is a love letter and a journey celebrating the genius artistry of Frank Zappa. On a personal note, I feel like I am finishing something my father started years ago. And let’s not forget, Frank himself will be rocking his fans, alongside his bandmates like nobody’s business.
“We will be pushing the limits of what anyone has seen holographically on stage before in a live venue. Circumstances, objects, places and subject matter from Frank’s songs and imagination will be brought to life for the first time on stage. We are anthropomorphizing Frank’s music, so his own hand drawn illustrations, classic imagery from his album artwork and characters from his songs can all interact and perform on stage.”
Check our the tourdates below. Tickets are available here.
EDINBURGH Playhouse, Thu 9 May 2019
GATESHEAD Sage, Sat 11 May 2019
MANCHESTER Bridgewater Hall, Sun 12 May 2019
BIRMINGHAM Symphony Hall, Mon 13 May 2019
LONDON The Palladium, Tue 12 May 2019
Burt Bacharach has announced two dates at London's Eventim Apollo on July 16 and 17.
He'll be joined by singer Joss Stone and an orchestra to perform his greatest hits.
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The concerts are part of the Apollo Nights Summer Series 2...
Burt Bacharach has announced two dates at London’s Eventim Apollo on July 16 and 17.
He’ll be joined by singer Joss Stone and an orchestra to perform his greatest hits.
The concerts are part of the Apollo Nights Summer Series 2019, which include a dining experience by chef Bryn Williams. Dining experience tickets are available from £195, while non-dining tickets are available in the royal circle from £65.
Tickets go on general sale on Friday (February 1) at 10am from here, with a pre-sale starting tomorrow (January 30).
Other artists performing as part of the Apollo Nights Summer Series include George Benson and Marc Almond.
Green Man has unveiled its first tranche of acts for this year's festival, taking place in the Brecon Beacons on August 15-18.
Father John Misty, Sharon Van Etten, Idles, Stereolab and a live set from Four Tet are among the headline attractions.
Order the latest issue of Uncut online and have it s...
Green Man has unveiled its first tranche of acts for this year’s festival, taking place in the Brecon Beacons on August 15-18.
Father John Misty, Sharon Van Etten, Idles, Stereolab and a live set from Four Tet are among the headline attractions.
Further down the bill you can find a host of Uncut favourites, including Big Thief, Richard Thompson, Khruangbin, The Comet Is Coming, Hen Ogledd, Aldous Harding, Gwenno, Julia Jacklin, A Certain Ratio, Stealing Sheep, Anna St Louis and many more.
The Strokes have been unveiled as the latest headliners for All Points East festival in London's Victoria Park.
With rumours of a new album on the way, the band will play their first UK show in four years on Saturday May 25.
Order the latest issue of Uncut online and have it sent to your home!
A...
The Strokes have been unveiled as the latest headliners for All Points East festival in London’s Victoria Park.
With rumours of a new album on the way, the band will play their first UK show in four years on Saturday May 25.
Also on the bill for May 25 are Interpol, The Raconteurs, Johnny Marr, Parquet Courts, Jarvis Cocker, Courtney Barnett, Connan Mockasin and Anna Calvi.
New names have been added to the All Points East line-up for the other days that weekend. Joining The Chemical Brothers on Friday May 24 are Jon Hopkins, Peggy Gou, Róisín Murphy, Optimo, Petite Noir and Maurice Fulton; new to the Christine & The Queens day on May 26 are James Blake, Kamasi Washington, Princess Nokia, Bob Moses and Andrew Weatherall.
Tickets for The Strokes day go on sale on Friday (February 1) at 9am from here. General admission costs £65 with VIP passes at £109.95.
The Libertines' Pete Doherty has announced that the self-titled debut album of his new band, Peter Doherty & The Puta Madres, will be released by Strap Originals/Cargo Records on April 26.
Hear the first single from it, "Who’s Been Having You Over", below:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aWg...
The Libertines’ Pete Doherty has announced that the self-titled debut album of his new band, Peter Doherty & The Puta Madres, will be released by Strap Originals/Cargo Records on April 26.
Hear the first single from it, “Who’s Been Having You Over”, below:
The album was recorded at a family home overlooking a fishing village in Étretat, Normandy, over four days last summer. It was engineered by Dan Cox and produced by Jai Stanley. Check out the tracklisting below:
All At Sea
Who’s Been Having You Over
Paradise Is Under Your Nose
Narcissistic Teen Makes First XI
Someone Else To Be
The Steam
Travelling Tinker
Lamentable Ballad of Gascony Avenue
A Fool There Was
Shoreleave
Punk Buck Bonafide
Doherty is currently on a sold out solo tour of the UK but will join up with the Puta Madres for some full-band dates in February (see below). Tickets are available from here.
Wednesday 13th York – Fibbers
Thursday 14th Margate – Fort Road Yard SOLD OUT
Friday 15th Derby – The Venue
Saturday 16th Northwich – The Plaza
Monday 18th Swindon – Level 3
Tuesday 19th Swansea – Sin City
After revealing that they will release a new studio album this year, The Who will bring their orchestral tour to Wembley Stadium on July 6.
Backing Roger Daltrey and Pete Townshend on this occasion will be guitarist/backup singer Simon Townshend, keyboardist Loren Gold, bassist Jon Button and drum...
Backing Roger Daltrey and Pete Townshend on this occasion will be guitarist/backup singer Simon Townshend, keyboardist Loren Gold, bassist Jon Button and drummer Zak Starkey.
Support comes from Pearl Jam’s Eddie Vedder and Kaiser Chiefs, with more acts to be announced.
Pete Townshend says: “The Who are touring again in 2019. Roger christened this tour Moving On! I love it. It is what both of us want to do. Move on, with new music, classic Who music, all performed in new and exciting ways. Taking risks, nothing to lose. Looking forward to seeing you all. Are you ready?”
For early access to tickets, you can pre-order an exclusive limited signed edition of the band’s soon to be announced new studio album here. Pre-sale starts from Wednesday (January 30) at 10am. Tickets go on general sale on Friday (February 01) at 10am from here.
To celebrate "40 years at the coal face of modern popular culture", Madness have announced two huge outdoor shows for the summer.
The band will play North London's Kenwood House on June 15th, joined by a full orchestra. Then on August 26, they'll headline their own House Of Common festival on South...
To celebrate “40 years at the coal face of modern popular culture”, Madness have announced two huge outdoor shows for the summer.
The band will play North London’s Kenwood House on June 15th, joined by a full orchestra. Then on August 26, they’ll headline their own House Of Common festival on South London’s Clapham Common.
Tickets for both shows are on sale from Wednesday (Jan 30) at 9am from here.
In addition, Madness will release a new autobiography called Before We Was We on 26 September 26 through Virgin Books. They also have “new studio material in the works”.
Says Suggs: “We saw off 8 prime ministers, 12 England managers and a nasty bout of lumbago. But, it’s not the endless achievements, not the unforgettable memories, it’s the fact we’re even still alive! (and miraculously in the rudest of health, thanks for asking.) Raise your glasses, lower your swords ‘arise sir Madness!’ Get stuck in! Here’s to the next forty.”
Originally published in Uncut's May 2018 issue
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“I probably did myself a favour by not struggling on with it too long,” says Shirley Collins, discussing her 38-year retirement, ended by the release of Lodestar in 2016. “Alt...
“I probably did myself a favour by not struggling on with it too long,” says Shirley Collins, discussing her 38-year retirement, ended by the release of Lodestar in 2016. “Although I minded not being ‘Shirley Collins the singer’… but I’m that again now!”
To celebrate the publication of Collins’ new book, All In The Downs, and the release of the soundtrack to the recent film about her life, Uncut joins the garrulous Sussex-born folk singer, now 82, for a pot of Earl Grey at her picturesque cottage in Lewes. Up for discussion are nine of her finest albums, her journeys around America with Alan Lomax and the time Hendrix came for tea, as well her work with Davy Graham, various Fairport members and, of course, with her late sister Dolly.
“It’s all quite amazing that we came to make [2016’s] Lodestar,” she marvels. “And there’s another one that we’re going to record later this year. I’ve got the songs ready, and I think it’ll be better than Lodestar because my singing’s got stronger since I’ve been out on the road.”
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SHIRLEY COLLINS SWEET ENGLAND ARGO, 1959 Collins’ debut, a hastily recorded set of folk songs mostly accompanied by her own banjo
This was recorded by Alan Lomax and Peter Kennedy in ’58, before Alan went back to the States in July. He and Peter recorded two albums’ worth of songs before he went – they were basically all the songs I knew at that time, a lot of them from Cecil Sharp’s English Folk-Songs For Schools. I knew some from Aunt Grace and Grandad, and the rest I had been finding when I first came to London, in the library at Cecil Sharp House. I was quite proud of the fact these songs had been recorded, but it was too soon, really – it wasn’t very good! We had an awful lot to get through in those sessions, so some of them were one-takes – and they do sound like it. In 1959 I went to America for nine months [with Alan Lomax]; it was incredible. Recording Mississippi Fred McDowell was one of the great days of my life. Just after five o’clock, Fred walked out of the wood into the clearing, in his dungarees – he’d been picking cotton all day. He sat on one of the stoops and started to play, and it was just incredible. The most electrifying sound I’d heard. At the end of the first song, “61 Highway”, Alan wrote the word “perfect” in his notebook, because it was.
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SHIRLEY COLLINS & DAVY GRAHAM FOLK ROOTS, NEW ROUTES DECCA, 1964 Collins joins the pioneering guitarist for this landmark LP of folk fusion
[Producer] Austin John Marshall and I were married by this time. He loved jazz, but I hated it. One night he came home from a club and said, “I’ve seen this great guitar player – I think you and he could work together.” He explained that Davy played African and Indian riffs, and I thought, ‘I don’t think so…’ But Davy came up to the house and he was lovely. He played “She Moves Through The Fair”, and it was just extraordinary. It had all these African and Indian influences in it, but it made it more Irish in a way. I was completely bowled over. We started thinking about songs we could do, and the obvious ones were Appalachian ones like “Pretty Saro”; because of the modes, they had that Eastern sound. It was a thrill to do – though I was a bit scared of Davy, because he was very intellectual, always carrying a book about something that was above me, usually Eastern religions, of which I had no interest. And he took drugs, so you had to be slightly wary of him, yet he was a gentle and generous man. It was recorded at Abbey Road, with Davy and I perched on stools, which was never my favourite position for singing – and quite a distance apart! We played on TV, too. The producer said to me, “I thought you were supposed to be beautiful?” No, I never claimed that… And then he didn’t want “Reynardine”, so we did “House Of The Rising Sun” instead. I still feel annoyed to this day that we couldn’t do what we wanted to do!
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SHIRLEY COLLINS THE SWEET PRIMEROSES TOPIC, 1967 The start of a fruitful collaboration with sister Dolly Collins and the flute organ, and the LP that established Collins’ signature style
I realised it probably couldn’t continue with Davy, because he was too tricky to work with. One time we were doing a concert north of London, so we met at King’s Cross, and he said he couldn’t travel on the same train as me for some reason. It was a really bad start to an evening’s gig, to wonder why. He was just in a different world. So I was sitting one evening in the house at Blackheath, and I got Folk Songs Of North America out, which was the last thing Alan Lomax produced before he went back to the States. I was leafing through it, and I saw there were some keyboard arrangements – so I went over to Dolly’s, and she played them on the piano. They were perfectly nice, but they didn’t enhance the songs. So I said, “Why don’t you write some arrangements?” She turned up a few days later with her first arrangement, for three French horns… “Dolly! How are we going to take three French horns to gigs?” So she went away and started on keyboard arrangements. They were so lovely to sing with, so right and appropriate. John and I used to go to rehearsals at the Early Music Centre in London – it was there that we heard the portative organ. I heard the first few notes and thought, ‘God, I’ve got to sing with that.’ So Dolly began to write for the flute organ. We never owned it, we always had to hire it – £120 a time. We used to go to Noel Mander’s organ factory in Bow and put it in the back of the estate car that Dolly’s husband had.
Just a quick reminder that we have a splendid new issue in the shops - or you can buy a copy online now - featuring Leonard Cohen, The Yardbirds, Bob Marley, Crass, Lambchop and a ton of other great stuff. And now on with this week's selection of new goodies...
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Just a quick reminder that we have a splendid new issue in the shops – or you can buy a copy online now – featuring Leonard Cohen, The Yardbirds, Bob Marley, Crass, Lambchop and a ton of other great stuff. And now on with this week’s selection of new goodies…
On February 8, Sony Masterworks will release an album called Music Inspired By The Film Roma, in reference to Alfonso Cuarón’s new Netflix film Roma which has just been nominated for 10 Oscars.
Not to be confused with the film's soundtrack, Music Inspired By The Film Roma features new recording...
On February 8, Sony Masterworks will release an album called Music Inspired By The Film Roma, in reference to Alfonso Cuarón’s new Netflix film Roma which has just been nominated for 10 Oscars.
Not to be confused with the film’s soundtrack, Music Inspired By The Film Roma features new recordings by Beck, Patti Smith, Laura Marling, Unkle and more – some of which incorporate ambient sounds from the film.
“Tarantula” is a cover of a 1982 song by 4AD signees Colourbox. It features Feist on backing vocals and orchestral arrangements by Beck in collaboration with his father, David Campbell.
Check out the full tracklisting for Music Inspired By The Film Roma below:
Tepeji 21 (The Sounds of ROMA) – Ciudad de México
Wing – Patti Smith
Tarantula – Beck
When I Was Older – Billie Eilish
PSYCHO – Bu Cuarón
On My Knees – UNKLE featuring Michael Kiwanaku
Con El Viento – Jessie Reyez
Marooned – El-P & Wilder Zoby
Cumbia del Borras – Sonido Gallo Negro
La Hora Exacta – Quique Rangel
Cleo Who Takes Care Of You – Ibeyi
We Are Always Alone – DJ Shadow
Between These Hands – Asaf Avidan
Those Were The Days – Laura Marling
ROMA – T Bone Burnett
