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Patti Smith added to End of the Road festival bill

Tom Goodwyn
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Patti Smith added to End of the Road festival bill
Patti Smith has been added to the bill for this summer's End Of The Road festival. The punk legend is the final act to be announced for the festival, which takes place at Larmer Tree Gardens in Wiltshire from August 31 – September 2 and will be headlined by Grandaddy, Midlake and with a co-head...

Patti Smith has been added to the bill for this summer’s End Of The Road festival.

The punk legend is the final act to be announced for the festival, which takes place at Larmer Tree Gardens in Wiltshire from August 31 – September 2 and will be headlined by Grandaddy, Midlake and with a co-headline effort from Grizzly Bear and Tindersticks.

Of Smith’s addition to the line-up, the festival’s directors have said: “We have been huge fans of Patti Smith’s work for many years and to have her finally play our festival is frankly surreal and a real honour. There are few musicians whose names alone can evoke such a vast array of images, sounds and stories as Patti Smith’s”.

For more information, visit Endoftheroadfestival.com.

Patti Smith recently released her new album ‘Banga’ – which features a guest appearance from actor Johnny Depp.

As well as featuring a tribute to Amy Winehouse, the album closes up with a cover of Neil Young‘s ‘After The Gold Rush’. ‘Banga’ is Smith’s first album since her 2007 covers record ‘Twelve’ and her first record of original material since 2004’s ‘Trampin’.

Patti Smith plays a number of UK headline shows in September, finishing up at London’s Troxy on September 13.

The line-up for End Of The Road is as follows:

Grandaddy

Tindersticks

Grizzly Bear

The Antlers

Patti Smith

Delicate Steve

Doug Paisley

Driver Drive Faster

First Aid Kit

Frank Fairfield

I Break Horses

Jeffrey Lewis & The Junkyard

Justin Townes Earle

Moulettes

Mountain Man

Midlake

The Low Anthem

Alessi’s Ark

Cashier no 9

Dirty Three

John Grant

Graham Coxon

Alt-J

Patrick Watson

Savages

Creature with the Atom Brain

Gravenhurst

Abi Wade

Big Wave

Olympians

Horse Thief

Hurray For The Riff Raff

King Charles

The Step Kids

Woods

Zachary Cale

Jonathan Wilson

Lanterns On The Lake

Roy Harper

Veronica Falls

Beach House

The Antlers

I Break Horses

Jeffrey Lewis & The Junkyard

Justin Townes Earle

Moulettes

Robyn Hitchcock

Anna Calvi

Villagers

Abigail Washburn with Kai Welch

Cold Specks

Dark Dark Dark

Francois & The Atlas Mountains

Islet

Toy

Outfit

Blur’s Alex James says ‘I’ve got no idea what happens next’

Tom Goodwyn
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0
Blur’s Alex James says ‘I’ve got no idea what happens next’
Blur's Alex James has spoken out about the band's release of two new tracks, 'The Puritan' and 'Under The Westway', both of which debuted last night (July 2) via a live rooftop video streamed performance. Speaking on Steve Lamacq's show on BBC 6 Music, the band's bassist said that he was sure fan...

Blur‘s Alex James has spoken out about the band’s release of two new tracks, ‘The Puritan’ and ‘Under The Westway’, both of which debuted last night (July 2) via a live rooftop video streamed performance.

Speaking on Steve Lamacq’s show on BBC 6 Music, the band’s bassist said that he was sure fans would have baulked had they released 10 new songs, but that two was the perfect number. Of their future plans, he added: “I’ve got no idea what happens next, or if it ever happens again.”

He went on to explain that since the band’s formation and despite musical hiatuses, never has more than half a year gone by in which they haven’t made music together. He revealed: “There’s never been a period where more than six months have gone by and [we haven’t] stuck our heads in and had a bish-bash… It’s just really, really good fun.”

James said that when they make music together “we click back into it like a family at Christmas” though added that things have changed since their Britpop heyday: “We’re not having fist fights any more, but I sort of miss that!”

He revealed that the band only finished recording ‘The Puritan’ last week, after starting the recording process three weeks ago, and then explained added that the song ‘Under The Westway’ is a “baroque, Bach chord-y thing”.

Blur will embark on an intimate UK tour next month. The band will play four shows, beginning at Margate’s Winter Gardens on August 1. They will then play two shows at Wolverhampton’s Civic Hall on August 5 and 6, before finishing off at Plymouth’s Pavilions on August 7.

The shows will act as a warm-up for the band’s huge outdoor gig at London’s Hyde Park on August 12, which sees Blur topping a bill that also includes New Order and The Specials. The gig has been put on to coincide with the closing ceremony of the Olympic games.

UK album sales down by almost seven million during first half of 2012

Tom Goodwyn
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0
UK album sales down by almost seven million during first half of 2012

The number of albums sold in the UK fell by almost seven million from the same period in 2011, according to figures published today (July 3) by the British Phonographic Industry (BPI). 43.6 million albums were sold in the first half of 2012, which is a fall of 6.9 million from the first half of 2011, when 50.5 million albums were shifted. Overall, digital sales are up again by 17.3%, with sales of singles up by 6% overall. In total, 93.6 million singles were bought in the first half of 2012, up from 88 million during the same period last year. In terms of artist sales, Adele's '21' remains the biggest seller of the year so far, with Emeli Sande's 'Our Version Of Events' in second and Lana Del Rey's Born To Die' in third place. Gotye's monster hit 'Somebody That I Used To Know' is the year's biggest selling single, with sales of over one million so far. It is followed by Carly Rae Jepsen's 'Call Me Maybe' and David Guetta's 'Titanium'. Speaking about the figures, BPI chief executive Geoff Taylor said: "We've had another solid quarter of digital growth in sales volumes, both in albums and on singles. Album unit sales are down quite significantly year-on-year. But it's important to remember that these unit sales figures do not take into account the growing importance of music streaming and subscription services." Taylor also said that the second half of 2012 was looking "promising" as the likes of Mumford & Sons, Robbie Williams, The Killers, The Vaccines, Muse and Plan B are all set to release new albums.

The number of albums sold in the UK fell by almost seven million from the same period in 2011, according to figures published today (July 3) by the British Phonographic Industry (BPI).

43.6 million albums were sold in the first half of 2012, which is a fall of 6.9 million from the first half of 2011, when 50.5 million albums were shifted.

Overall, digital sales are up again by 17.3%, with sales of singles up by 6% overall. In total, 93.6 million singles were bought in the first half of 2012, up from 88 million during the same period last year.

In terms of artist sales, Adele‘s ’21’ remains the biggest seller of the year so far, with Emeli Sande’s ‘Our Version Of Events’ in second and Lana Del Rey‘s Born To Die’ in third place.

Gotye’s monster hit ‘Somebody That I Used To Know’ is the year’s biggest selling single, with sales of over one million so far. It is followed by Carly Rae Jepsen’s ‘Call Me Maybe’ and David Guetta’s ‘Titanium’.

Speaking about the figures, BPI chief executive Geoff Taylor said: “We’ve had another solid quarter of digital growth in sales volumes, both in albums and on singles. Album unit sales are down quite significantly year-on-year. But it’s important to remember that these unit sales figures do not take into account the growing importance of music streaming and subscription services.”

Taylor also said that the second half of 2012 was looking “promising” as the likes of Mumford & Sons, Robbie Williams, The Killers, The Vaccines, Muse and Plan B are all set to release new albums.

Bob Dylan, Hop Farm, June 30, 2012

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Bob Dylan, Hop Farm, June 30, 2012

When Bob Dylan played Hop Farm in 2010, it was the hottest weekend of the year and there seemed to be more people at the festival than the site could hold. There were queues for everything and queues to join those queues were not uncommon. By early afternoon, you could barely move for the people already there and the constant stream of new arrivals who added to an already considerable mass. Where were all those people last weekend though? The festival grounds don’t seem to have greatly expanded in the last couple of years to the extent that a crowd of a similar size to the 2010 throng might look like it’s been swallowed up in acres of extra space, so speculation would appear to be more or less correct that there’s only a fraction of that year’s total audience, perhaps as few as a third, in attendance today. Many were no doubt discouraged from going this year because of the recent calamitous weather and a likely weekend of inhospitable bogginess, drenching rain and mud – which in the event happily wasn’t the case, the sun out for most of the day and a chill evening wind the only evidence of the currently fractious climate. As many more absentees, you can only imagine, were somewhat put off by a bill across the weekend that seemed in some respects to have been put together in a mood of haphazard whimsy and included such apparent eccentricities as an appearance on Saturday by Sir Bruce Forsyth. The veteran trouper’s performance was less anomalous in context however, with interminable sets by Joan Armatrading and Randy Crawford further contributing to an atmosphere of end-of-the-pier light entertainment and a general mood so politely restrained it made even Latitude at cosiest seem like the worst hours at Altamont. In the circumstances, it’s left to Patti Smith to bring things to something approaching life and introduce some much needed fire and excitement to the evening’s increasingly soporific drift. Despite a clearly valiant effort on her part to seem rousing and incandescent, her set unfortunately refuses fully to ignite. She opens with “Dancing Barefoot” from Wave, which is pleasant enough. But like “April Fool”, from the recent Banga, which immediately follows, and several other numbers after that, it wouldn’t sound entirely out of place on a Magic FM playlist, that kind of soft rock you must sometimes endure in dentist’s waiting rooms, soothing aural balm for the nervous patient. When Patrick Wolf joins the line-up on violin, you could at times mistake what you’re listening to for The Corrs. “Because The Night” is met with inevitable cheers and is perhaps the first thing the bulk of the crowd recognise. But the highlight of her set is the last things she plays, a terrific version of “Gloria”. It’s electrifying in ways nothing else she’s played so far has been and the false ending is sheer genius, one of those moments you want to re-play immediately. This is not something I am inclined to think of the longwinded set by Damien Rice that follows, which is an exhausting thing to have to endure, the crowd’s generous applause a source of some mystery. Veterans of what Dylan dislikes being described as the Never-Ending Tour – but which is what we continue anyway to call it - were in sage agreement that his performance here in 2010 was probably the best UK show they’d seen by him since he pitched up at Wembley Arena for two absolutely epic concerts in October 2000. Tonight, Dylan, a few faltering moments aside, such as a version of “It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue” on which he seems to lose his bearings and come almost entirely adrift from what the band behind him are playing, is in similarly imperious form. It starts without the usual fanfare, long-serving guitarist Stu Kimball strolling on stage, already playing some sharp blues licks as one by one Dylan and the rest of his superb group join him, Dylan taking a familiar place behind his usual keyboard set-up for what turns out to be the only time tonight. With the band now all cheerfully crashing away around him, he leads them into a swaggering “Leopard-Skin Pill-Box Hat”, Dylan bopping and grinning at guitarist Charlie Sexton, with whom he seems to keep up a running joke all night, Bob evidently in great good humour, as evidence in spry little dance moves, hand gestures and the little whoops and chuckles that punctuate the song. “Things Have Changed” is similarly and just as wonderfully playful, Dylan’s first harmonica solo of the night getting a huge cheer, as it usually does, and Bob having a ball with the song’s lyrics, phrases plucked out for sometimes hugely comic effect, and not for the fist time tonight gesturing expansively, like Al Jolson or some other fabled entertainer from a different time, head tilted back, chest out, an arm raised, palm open. Even “Tangled Up In Blue” is played with the same insouciance, the song delivered more than ever as a magnificent shaggy dog story that more than once makes me laugh out loud, Dylan’s voice full of gravel for sure, but his phrasing still often quite dazzling. “Cry Awhile”, from “Love And Theft”, is altogether darker, a staccato 12-bar blues, with an undertow of swampy malevolence that spill over into an ominous “Love Sick”, with Dylan now at the grand piano he plays on eight of the next ten songs. Dylan’s hardly Nick Hopkins or Hans Chew, but the simple switch from electric keyboards to the grand is hugely refreshing, rejuvenating even the old war horses in tonight’ set list, especially “Highway 61 Revisited”, which sounds more spritely than it has in a while, less blustery road-house blues than blistering honky tonk. Dylan is back centre stage with a hand-held microphone for mesmerising versions of “Ballad Of Hollis Brown”, a terrifying highlight tonight, and a hugely dramatic “High Water (For Charley Patton)”. He’s back at the piano for a majestic “A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall” with a testifying final verse full of gospel fervour. If Hop Farm had a roof, it would have been righteously raised at this point. He’s still at the piano for what may have been the set’s biggest surprise – an astonishingly brooding “Can’t Wait”, a seething, wriggling thing that more closely resembled the version that appeared on Tell Tale Signs than the one that originally featured on Time Out Of Mind. The song’s atmosphere has the sultry tang of the air before a storm, some creeping insidious shift from twilight towards a turbulent darkness, after which “Thunder on the Mountain” is a rollicking delight and even “Ballad Of A Thin Man” with its sinister echoed vocals is a relief. The evening’s surprises are not quite over, even this late in the set. “Like A Rolling Stone”, usually dispatched with triumphal gusto, is here laced with the kind of ruefulness that characterised the reworking a few years ago of “Positively 4th Street”, while a closing “All Along The Watchtower” inclines more to the John Wesley Harding original than the Hendrix version that followed, and is equally as memorable for Dylan’s huge grin as he winds it up and takes a final bow alongside the band before heading for the wings and who knows where. Photo credit: Gus Stewart/Redferns/Getty Images

When Bob Dylan played Hop Farm in 2010, it was the hottest weekend of the year and there seemed to be more people at the festival than the site could hold. There were queues for everything and queues to join those queues were not uncommon. By early afternoon, you could barely move for the people already there and the constant stream of new arrivals who added to an already considerable mass.

Where were all those people last weekend though? The festival grounds don’t seem to have greatly expanded in the last couple of years to the extent that a crowd of a similar size to the 2010 throng might look like it’s been swallowed up in acres of extra space, so speculation would appear to be more or less correct that there’s only a fraction of that year’s total audience, perhaps as few as a third, in attendance today.

Many were no doubt discouraged from going this year because of the recent calamitous weather and a likely weekend of inhospitable bogginess, drenching rain and mud – which in the event happily wasn’t the case, the sun out for most of the day and a chill evening wind the only evidence of the currently fractious climate.

As many more absentees, you can only imagine, were somewhat put off by a bill across the weekend that seemed in some respects to have been put together in a mood of haphazard whimsy and included such apparent eccentricities as an appearance on Saturday by Sir Bruce Forsyth. The veteran trouper’s performance was less anomalous in context however, with interminable sets by Joan Armatrading and Randy Crawford further contributing to an atmosphere of end-of-the-pier light entertainment and a general mood so politely restrained it made even Latitude at cosiest seem like the worst hours at Altamont.

In the circumstances, it’s left to Patti Smith to bring things to something approaching life and introduce some much needed fire and excitement to the evening’s increasingly soporific drift. Despite a clearly valiant effort on her part to seem rousing and incandescent, her set unfortunately refuses fully to ignite. She opens with “Dancing Barefoot” from Wave, which is pleasant enough. But like “April Fool”, from the recent Banga, which immediately follows, and several other numbers after that, it wouldn’t sound entirely out of place on a Magic FM playlist, that kind of soft rock you must sometimes endure in dentist’s waiting rooms, soothing aural balm for the nervous patient. When Patrick Wolf joins the line-up on violin, you could at times mistake what you’re listening to for The Corrs.

“Because The Night” is met with inevitable cheers and is perhaps the first thing the bulk of the crowd recognise. But the highlight of her set is the last things she plays, a terrific version of “Gloria”. It’s electrifying in ways nothing else she’s played so far has been and the false ending is sheer genius, one of those moments you want to re-play immediately. This is not something I am inclined to think of the longwinded set by Damien Rice that follows, which is an exhausting thing to have to endure, the crowd’s generous applause a source of some mystery.

Veterans of what Dylan dislikes being described as the Never-Ending Tour – but which is what we continue anyway to call it – were in sage agreement that his performance here in 2010 was probably the best UK show they’d seen by him since he pitched up at Wembley Arena for two absolutely epic concerts in October 2000. Tonight, Dylan, a few faltering moments aside, such as a version of “It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue” on which he seems to lose his bearings and come almost entirely adrift from what the band behind him are playing, is in similarly imperious form.

It starts without the usual fanfare, long-serving guitarist Stu Kimball strolling on stage, already playing some sharp blues licks as one by one Dylan and the rest of his superb group join him, Dylan taking a familiar place behind his usual keyboard set-up for what turns out to be the only time tonight. With the band now all cheerfully crashing away around him, he leads them into a swaggering “Leopard-Skin Pill-Box Hat”, Dylan bopping and grinning at guitarist Charlie Sexton, with whom he seems to keep up a running joke all night, Bob evidently in great good humour, as evidence in spry little dance moves, hand gestures and the little whoops and chuckles that punctuate the song.

“Things Have Changed” is similarly and just as wonderfully playful, Dylan’s first harmonica solo of the night getting a huge cheer, as it usually does, and Bob having a ball with the song’s lyrics, phrases plucked out for sometimes hugely comic effect, and not for the fist time tonight gesturing expansively, like Al Jolson or some other fabled entertainer from a different time, head tilted back, chest out, an arm raised, palm open. Even “Tangled Up In Blue” is played with the same insouciance, the song delivered more than ever as a magnificent shaggy dog story that more than once makes me laugh out loud, Dylan’s voice full of gravel for sure, but his phrasing still often quite dazzling.

“Cry Awhile”, from “Love And Theft”, is altogether darker, a staccato 12-bar blues, with an undertow of swampy malevolence that spill over into an ominous “Love Sick”, with Dylan now at the grand piano he plays on eight of the next ten songs. Dylan’s hardly Nick Hopkins or Hans Chew, but the simple switch from electric keyboards to the grand is hugely refreshing, rejuvenating even the old war horses in tonight’ set list, especially “Highway 61 Revisited”, which sounds more spritely than it has in a while, less blustery road-house blues than blistering honky tonk.

Dylan is back centre stage with a hand-held microphone for mesmerising versions of “Ballad Of Hollis Brown”, a terrifying highlight tonight, and a hugely dramatic “High Water (For Charley Patton)”. He’s back at the piano for a majestic “A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall” with a testifying final verse full of gospel fervour. If Hop Farm had a roof, it would have been righteously raised at this point.

He’s still at the piano for what may have been the set’s biggest surprise – an astonishingly brooding “Can’t Wait”, a seething, wriggling thing that more closely resembled the version that appeared on Tell Tale Signs than the one that originally featured on Time Out Of Mind. The song’s atmosphere has the sultry tang of the air before a storm, some creeping insidious shift from twilight towards a turbulent darkness, after which “Thunder on the Mountain” is a rollicking delight and even “Ballad Of A Thin Man” with its sinister echoed vocals is a relief.

The evening’s surprises are not quite over, even this late in the set. “Like A Rolling Stone”, usually dispatched with triumphal gusto, is here laced with the kind of ruefulness that characterised the reworking a few years ago of “Positively 4th Street”, while a closing “All Along The Watchtower” inclines more to the John Wesley Harding original than the Hendrix version that followed, and is equally as memorable for Dylan’s huge grin as he winds it up and takes a final bow alongside the band before heading for the wings and who knows where.

Photo credit: Gus Stewart/Redferns/Getty Images

Robert Plant & The Band Of Joy – Live From The Artists Den

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Robert Plant & The Band Of Joy – Live From The Artists Den

Relaxed session from the Golden God of Nashville... In the interview included as one of the Extras on this live DVD, Robert Plant muses upon the history of his Band Of Joy, from its original '60s versions as, firstly, a soul group playing Otis Clay covers, then a hippie combo that would effectively join forces with the New Yardbirds to form Led Zeppelin, through to its more recent incarnation in which his interests in Americana and psychedelia have become ingeniously braided. "Who would have known," he says, "that in my 62nd year that the Band Of Joy would become trippy again?" Who indeed? Although, admittedly, Plant's course didn't actually involve that big a jump from the Raising Sand experience that revitalised both his musical and commercial profiles, with guitarist Buddy Miller retained as a sort of roots guru, Patty Griffin substituting for Alison Krauss, and Darrell Scott bringing an extra multi-instrumental dimension to the band's sound. But this time round, the live show recorded at the Tennessee Performing Arts Centre in Plant's current home Nashville reveals a band looser in approach, tighter in feel, and unafraid to take liberties: the opening version of "Black Dog", for instance, is taken at a languid swagger, rootsier than the Zep original, though not lacking for bite courtesy of Miller's snarling lead solo. Both Miller and Scott look like grizzled extras from a Sam Peckinpah western, and Griffin is a picture in her black leather mini-dress; Plant, meanwhile, is as genially leonine as ever: he could play the Cowardly Lion in a production of The Wizard Of Oz without overly troubling the make-up department, and his smiles reveal a man well at ease with his direction. Los Lobos's "Angel Dance" suits him perfectly, its great rolling groove like a big warm hug, with Scott's mandolin providing top notes and Griffin's harmonies setting off Plant's delivery, which throughout is relaxed rather than raucous, teasing meaning from lyrics rather than wringing them dry. At the song's heart, though, is drummer Marco Giovino, using unusual beaters to get that floppy-boot sound, and cloths to damp the hi-hat. The interplay between Miller and Scott is crucial to the Band Of Joy sound: Scott's mandolin on Richard Thompson's "House Of Cards" is set off beautifully by Miller's wiry lead break, a blur of string-bending curlicues, while the new, countrified approach to Zep's "Houses Of The Holy" matches Miller's lead with Scott's whining pedal steel. Both guitarists, along with Griffin, get individual vocal showcases, Plant's bluesharp wailing behind Miller on "Somewhere Trouble Don't Go", and Scott's aching, plaintive delivery of "A Satisfied Mind" serving as a teasing taster to his own new album. Plant's always had a folk-rock spirit, even in his hard-rock days, and here he gets to give it freer rein than ever, on a hauntingly sombre "Satan Your Kingdom Must Come Down" and an "In The Mood" incorporating fragments of "Come All Ye". Even the Zep back-catalogue is reinterpreted in this light, with a folk-rock "Ramble On" and "Gallows Pole" on which Scott's banjo picks over the skirling swirls Miller draws from an odd-looking guitar. A climactic "Rock And Roll", by contrast, is done as a rockabilly stinger, with a hefty swing and a lovely, affectionate little tribute to John Bonham's signature drum figure right at the end. Finally, the entire band downs instruments to join forces on an acappella "I Bid You Goodnight". It forms the perfect bridge between Plant's memories of The Incredible String Band, and the American players' native gospel-country heritage: different routes now leading to the same place. EXTRAS: Interview with Plant; Inside The Artists Den documentary; picture gallery. 6/10 Andy Gill

Relaxed session from the Golden God of Nashville…

In the interview included as one of the Extras on this live DVD, Robert Plant muses upon the history of his Band Of Joy, from its original ’60s versions as, firstly, a soul group playing Otis Clay covers, then a hippie combo that would effectively join forces with the New Yardbirds to form Led Zeppelin, through to its more recent incarnation in which his interests in Americana and psychedelia have become ingeniously braided. “Who would have known,” he says, “that in my 62nd year that the Band Of Joy would become trippy again?”

Who indeed? Although, admittedly, Plant’s course didn’t actually involve that big a jump from the Raising Sand experience that revitalised both his musical and commercial profiles, with guitarist Buddy Miller retained as a sort of roots guru, Patty Griffin substituting for Alison Krauss, and Darrell Scott bringing an extra multi-instrumental dimension to the band’s sound. But this time round, the live show recorded at the Tennessee Performing Arts Centre in Plant’s current home Nashville reveals a band looser in approach, tighter in feel, and unafraid to take liberties: the opening version of “Black Dog”, for instance, is taken at a languid swagger, rootsier than the Zep original, though not lacking for bite courtesy of Miller’s snarling lead solo.

Both Miller and Scott look like grizzled extras from a Sam Peckinpah western, and Griffin is a picture in her black leather mini-dress; Plant, meanwhile, is as genially leonine as ever: he could play the Cowardly Lion in a production of The Wizard Of Oz without overly troubling the make-up department, and his smiles reveal a man well at ease with his direction. Los Lobos’s “Angel Dance” suits him perfectly, its great rolling groove like a big warm hug, with Scott’s mandolin providing top notes and Griffin’s harmonies setting off Plant’s delivery, which throughout is relaxed rather than raucous, teasing meaning from lyrics rather than wringing them dry. At the song’s heart, though, is drummer Marco Giovino, using unusual beaters to get that floppy-boot sound, and cloths to damp the hi-hat.

The interplay between Miller and Scott is crucial to the Band Of Joy sound: Scott’s mandolin on Richard Thompson‘s “House Of Cards” is set off beautifully by Miller’s wiry lead break, a blur of string-bending curlicues, while the new, countrified approach to Zep’s “Houses Of The Holy” matches Miller’s lead with Scott’s whining pedal steel. Both guitarists, along with Griffin, get individual vocal showcases, Plant’s bluesharp wailing behind Miller on “Somewhere Trouble Don’t Go”, and Scott’s aching, plaintive delivery of “A Satisfied Mind” serving as a teasing taster to his own new album.

Plant’s always had a folk-rock spirit, even in his hard-rock days, and here he gets to give it freer rein than ever, on a hauntingly sombre “Satan Your Kingdom Must Come Down” and an “In The Mood” incorporating fragments of “Come All Ye”. Even the Zep back-catalogue is reinterpreted in this light, with a folk-rock “Ramble On” and “Gallows Pole” on which Scott’s banjo picks over the skirling swirls Miller draws from an odd-looking guitar. A climactic “Rock And Roll”, by contrast, is done as a rockabilly stinger, with a hefty swing and a lovely, affectionate little tribute to John Bonham’s signature drum figure right at the end. Finally, the entire band downs instruments to join forces on an acappella “I Bid You Goodnight”. It forms the perfect bridge between Plant’s memories of The Incredible String Band, and the American players’ native gospel-country heritage: different routes now leading to the same place.

EXTRAS: Interview with Plant; Inside The Artists Den documentary; picture gallery.

6/10

Andy Gill

Flaming Lips set world record for live shows

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Flaming Lips set world record for live shows
The Flaming Lips have broken the world record for playing the most live shows in 24 hours. BBC News reports that the Oklahoma band performed eight times across the Mississippi Delta as part of MTV's O Music Awards, beating the previous record set by Jay-Z. The rapper played seven gigs from Atlan...

The Flaming Lips have broken the world record for playing the most live shows in 24 hours.

BBC News reports that the Oklahoma band performed eight times across the Mississippi Delta as part of MTV’s O Music Awards, beating the previous record set by Jay-Z.

The rapper played seven gigs from Atlanta to Los Angeles in 2006, but Wayne Coyne and co went one better after starting their run of shows in Memphis, Tennessee and finishing in New Orleans, Louisiana, with 20 minutes to spare before the deadline.

Speaking from the stage, Coyne said: “At five this morning you thought you were going to crawl in, barely be able to sing and hope you can just survive it. But as the day went, everywhere we would go they’d give us energy – now I feel I could go another 24 hours.”

The singer also released a statement commenting on their historic achievement, writing: “To be published alongside the man who ate 22lbs (10kgs) of his own boogers, beside the woman with the longest toenails, or perhaps even to be published beside an individual who has had maybe 1,000 cockroaches stuffed into their ears… that, to me, would be one of life’s absurd joys.”

Rolling Stones debut new logo

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Rolling Stones debut new logo
The Rolling Stones have debuted an updated version of their famous lips and tongue logo, in honour of their 50th anniversary. The original logo was designed in 1971 by John Pasche, a student the Royal College of Art in London. It made its debut on the sleeve for the band's Sticky Fingers album. Th...

The Rolling Stones have debuted an updated version of their famous lips and tongue logo, in honour of their 50th anniversary.

The original logo was designed in 1971 by John Pasche, a student the Royal College of Art in London. It made its debut on the sleeve for the band’s Sticky Fingers album.

The updated version was designed by Shepard Fairey, best known for his work in the 2008 American presidential election campaign, for which he designed the Barack Obama “Hope” poster.

Fairey also collaborated recently with Neil Young, create paintings to represent each of the 11 songs on Young’s Americana album.

Previously, Fairey had worked with Mick Jagger on the Stones’ singer’s SuperHeavy project.

“I’ve been a big fan of the Rolling Stones since my dad introduced me to ‘Satisfaction’,” Fairey told Rolling Stone. “Tattoo You is one of the earliest albums I bought with my own money… when Mick Jagger reached out to me about designing a logo to mark the Rolling Stones’ 50th anniversary I was quite overwhelmed… I was very humbled and honored to be asked to work on the 50th logo, so my objective was to service and showcase the Stones’ legacy rather than try to make my contribution dominant.”

Arctic Monkeys planning ‘heavier’ fifth album

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Arctic Monkeys planning ‘heavier’ fifth album
Arctic Monkeys have spoken about their plans for the follow-up to Suck It And See and have said they want to make a "heavier' new album. The Sheffield band, who have just completed their world tour in support of their fourth studio album, told Artrocker that they're making plans for its follow-up ...

Arctic Monkeys have spoken about their plans for the follow-up to Suck It And See and have said they want to make a “heavier’ new album.

The Sheffield band, who have just completed their world tour in support of their fourth studio album, told Artrocker that they’re making plans for its follow-up and are hoping to keep writing tracks in the vein of recent single “R U Mine”.

Asked about their future plans, frontman Alex Turner said: “I think we’re going to go the direction of those heavier tunes. We did ‘R U Mine’, and I think that’s where it’s going to be at for us for the next record.”

Turner then said that the band felt the strongest moments of Suck It And See were the heavier bits, adding: “We feel the strength of the last record is ‘Don’t Sit Down…‘, the other songs like that – ‘Brick By Brick’ – the other side of it is fine, but I don’t know how much more of that we can do.”

Turner added that he hoped the band would record an album in their home city of Sheffield soon and that he would be glad to write in the band’s rehearsal space, rather than on acoustic guitar apart from his bandmates. He said:

“It would be nice to record in Sheffield, which we haven’t done for a while. I was living in New York, and that’s where I wrote a lot of those songs, and the fact that me and the other chaps were on either side of a large body of water – I wrote a lot on acoustic guitar in the flat. Then we went and applied to it what we thought they needed, which is not really a way that we worked before.”

He continued: “Mostly it’s the just the four of us hashing it out in a rehearsal space, but those kind of songs were in the minority on the last record due to circumstance really.”

Vampire Weekend’s Ezra Koenig gives update on new album

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Vampire Weekend’s Ezra Koenig gives update on new album
Vampire Weekend's Ezra Koenig has given an update on the progress of the band's new LP and says that they now have "80 per cent of the songs" ready for the album. The singer, who was speaking to The Walkmen's frontman Hamilton Leithauser for Spin, said that working on the follow-up to their 2010 e...

Vampire Weekend‘s Ezra Koenig has given an update on the progress of the band’s new LP and says that they now have “80 per cent of the songs” ready for the album.

The singer, who was speaking to The Walkmen‘s frontman Hamilton Leithauser for Spin, said that working on the follow-up to their 2010 effort Contra had been a “long process” but hinted that they were nearing completion on the record.

“We’re working on our album. It’s been a long process. We always try to write and record at the same time,” he said, before adding, “So we’ve always got some ProTools session demo that tends to actually turn into the finished product. I think we have 80 per cent of the songs now.”

Koenig also paid tribute to The Walkmen by describing them as “the band that I’ve paid to see the most in my life”. The New York band released their seventh studio album ‘Heaven’ in May of this year.

Previously, Koenig hinted that the as-yet-untitled new album could be released later this year, but added: “I always want to release music as soon as possible, but more and more I’m realising it’s something you almost have no control over.” The band, who released their self-titled debut album in 2008, are set to play their first live date in almost a year at the Pitchfork music festival in July.

Photo: Tom Oxley/NME

This month in Uncut!

Tom Pinnock
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This month in Uncut!

The new issue of Uncut, which hits shelves today (Monday, July 2) features Neil Young, the MC5, Peter Gabriel and Phil Manzanera. Young graces the cover, exclusively speaking to Uncut about his second album of the year with Crazy Horse, as well as his upcoming autobiography, and Americana. MC5’s incredible story of wild revolution, intense drug-taking and extreme rock’n’roll is told in detail by the band’s own guitarist, Wayne Kramer, while Peter Gabriel reveals the protracted, bizarre birth of his 1986 hit “Sledgehammer” in this month’s The Making Of…. Elsewhere, Phil Manzanera talks Uncut through the greatest albums he’s been involved with, Peter Tosh’s amazing, tragic story is told, Graham Coxon answers your questions in An Audience With…, and Dirty Projectors show just why they’re the most forward-thinking band in the US. The expansive, 40-page reviews section features Blur, Robert Plant, Roxy Music, Mazzy Star, The Gaslight Anthem, Sun Kil Moon and the Ty Segall Band, and films including Cosmopolis, Detachment and The Hunter, and books such as Who Is That Man? and The Rolling Stones: 50, are also reviewed. The issue comes with a fine free CD of hand-picked new music, including tracks from Hot Chip, Sun Kil Moon, Go-Kart Mozart and Mission Of Burma. The new issue of Uncut is out now on newsstands.

The new issue of Uncut, which hits shelves today (Monday, July 2) features Neil Young, the MC5, Peter Gabriel and Phil Manzanera.

Young graces the cover, exclusively speaking to Uncut about his second album of the year with Crazy Horse, as well as his upcoming autobiography, and Americana.

MC5’s incredible story of wild revolution, intense drug-taking and extreme rock’n’roll is told in detail by the band’s own guitarist, Wayne Kramer, while Peter Gabriel reveals the protracted, bizarre birth of his 1986 hit “Sledgehammer” in this month’s The Making Of….

Elsewhere, Phil Manzanera talks Uncut through the greatest albums he’s been involved with, Peter Tosh’s amazing, tragic story is told, Graham Coxon answers your questions in An Audience With…, and Dirty Projectors show just why they’re the most forward-thinking band in the US.

The expansive, 40-page reviews section features Blur, Robert Plant, Roxy Music, Mazzy Star, The Gaslight Anthem, Sun Kil Moon and the Ty Segall Band, and films including Cosmopolis, Detachment and The Hunter, and books such as Who Is That Man? and The Rolling Stones: 50, are also reviewed.

The issue comes with a fine free CD of hand-picked new music, including tracks from Hot Chip, Sun Kil Moon, Go-Kart Mozart and Mission Of Burma.

The new issue of Uncut is out now on newsstands.

August 2012

Ipclee
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August 2012
When Neil Young brings Crazy Horse to London in 1976, I'm four rows from the front of the stage at Hammersmith Odeon. It's late March, a Sunday night. I still have the tickets, somewhere, probably curled at the edges and yellow with age by now, a bit like most of us who were there at the time. "It ...

When Neil Young brings Crazy Horse to London in 1976, I’m four rows from the front of the stage at Hammersmith Odeon. It’s late March, a Sunday night. I still have the tickets, somewhere, probably curled at the edges and yellow with age by now, a bit like most of us who were there at the time.

“It seems like I just got here from somewhere else,” is the first thing Neil says, appearing unannounced on stage, standing in a spotlight blinking, shielding his eyes with a hand, like someone looking into the far distance, not sure what might be out there. He looks bedraggled, like he’s spent the night in a ditch, dressed in a torn and clearly battered old suede jacket, a shirt he might have been wearing for a week and patched up jeans. Crows for all I know are nesting in his hair. He sits down behind a cluster of mics, as if he’s giving evidence against the Mob at a congressional hearing, picks up a guitar and falteringly plays “Tell Me Why”. This is followed by a monologue, during which he affects to believe he’s in Germany. It’s funny at first, then oddly disconcerting, although you’re inclined to suspect his disorientation is a clever impersonation of someone too whacked out to know where they are. If he’s truly this barbecued, it’s a wonder he’s conscious.

Anyway, his aw-shucks haplessness continues as he grapples with a banjo and a harmonica rack into which he fits a harmonica. There’s a horrible noise when he blows into it. “Put it in upside down,” he drawls somewhat distractedly. “Don’t do that every night,” he adds, although you suspect he probably does as part of a performance whose haphazardness is possibly a carefully crafted illusion. He then plays a version of “Mellow My Mind” from Tonight’s The Night whose rustic twang makes it sound more like “For The Turnstiles” from On The Beach. Three new songs quickly follow – “Too Far Gone”, which we won’t hear again until he includes it on 1989’s Freedom, and “Day And Night We Walk These Aisles” and “Don’t Say You Win, Don’t Say You Lose”, which nearly 40 years on remain unreleased. He finishes this opening set with “Heart Of Gold” and promises to return after a short break with Crazy Horse, “to keep this story moving”.

Then, here they are: Neil and Crazy Horse. It’s been seven years since Everybody Knows This is Nowhere introduced us to the raw elemental noise they make together, a long wait to see them live at last, during which time they’ve lost original guitarist Danny Whitten to drugs and replaced him with the intimidating Frank ‘Poncho’ Sampedro, who’s on stage now slugging it out with Neil on a malarial “Down By The River”, which is full of swampy dread and festering malevolence. It sounds unbelievable. Elsewhere there are epic versions of “Southern Man” and “Cortez The Killer”, the gloriously sloppy gospel hoe-down of “Let It Shine”, from the Stills-Young album, Long May You Run, and ferociously dispatched takes on “Drive Back” and “Cinnamon Girl”.

Best of all is something no-one’s heard before, which Neil, deadpan, introduces as “another laidback song” and turns out to be one of the first ever performances of “Like A Hurricane”. All night, people around me have been wondering aloud about what a huge industrial fan is doing on stage. We find out now, when it whirs noisily to life and what feels like a gale-force wind nearly blows the band off their feet, Neil’s hair streaming behind him as he hunches into it, like someone walking home through a blizzard. The noise Crazy Horse are making behind him is the one, basically, they will go on making, on and off, for the next four decades, up to and including the new Americana, a great reunion they and Neil tell us all about in this month’s terrific cover story by Jaan Uhelszki. As ever, enjoy the issue and if you want to get in touch you can email me at the usual address: allan_jones@ipcmedia.com

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Phil Manzanera: “Roxy Music were hellbent on doing something innovative…”

Tom Pinnock
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Phil Manzanera: “Roxy Music were hellbent on doing something innovative…”
Roxy Music guitarist Phil Manzanera talks Uncut through the most fascinating albums of his career in the new issue, out on Monday (July 2). Manzanera explains just why Roxy Music stood out when he joined them in February 1972, how he secretly worked on Brian Eno’s Here Come The Warm Jets at the...

Roxy Music guitarist Phil Manzanera talks Uncut through the most fascinating albums of his career in the new issue, out on Monday (July 2).

Manzanera explains just why Roxy Music stood out when he joined them in February 1972, how he secretly worked on Brian Eno’s Here Come The Warm Jets at the same time as Roxy’s Stranded, and how working with David Gilmour and his impeccable sense of tuning was “a challenge”.

On recording Roxy’s second album, For Your Pleasure, Manzanera says: “We were going out on tour in a couple of weeks so it was quite demanding, but we were very excited, and hellbent on looking forward and doing something innovative.”

The guitarist also talks about his work on albums such as John Cale’s Fear, 801’s 801 Live and Quiet Sun’s Mainstream.

The new issue of Uncut (August 2012, Take 183) is out on Monday, July 2.

Neil Young: “I spend money as soon as I get it”

Tom Pinnock
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Neil Young: “I spend money as soon as I get it”
Neil Young sheds light on Americana, his next album and his time with Crazy Horse in the new issue of Uncut, in shops from Monday, July 2. In the cover feature, Uncut visits Young near his home in California to hear more about Waging Heavy Peace, his upcoming memoir, his treasure-trove of unrelea...

Neil Young sheds light on Americana, his next album and his time with Crazy Horse in the new issue of Uncut, in shops from Monday, July 2.

In the cover feature, Uncut visits Young near his home in California to hear more about Waging Heavy Peace, his upcoming memoir, his treasure-trove of unreleased albums, and just why he was inspired to record versions of US folk songs on Americana.

Crazy Horse are also interviewed in the piece, and explain what it’s really like working with Neil, waiting for his call, and being his longest-serving and most legendary band.

“I spend money as soon as I get it,” reveals Young in the piece. “I don’t care how much money I have, I can use it to do something. So I don’t save money.”

The new issue of Uncut (August 2012, Take 183) is out on Monday, July 2.

Rare and unseen images for new Springsteen photographic exhibition

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Rare and unseen images for new Springsteen photographic exhibition

A new exhibition of Bruce Springsteen images will showcase a selection of rare and unseen photographs of the Boss caught in his breakthrough years. Springsteen: The Turning Point 1977 - 1979 features images taken by Lynn Goldsmith, and runs at the Proud Galleries, Chelsea, from July 12 - 29. The period covers the Darkness On The Edge Of Town album and the subsequent 1978 tour of north America, up to the first recordings of The River. Bruce Springsteen next plays in London at Hyde Park Calling on July 14. You can find more information about Springsteen: The Turning Point 1977 - 1979 at www.proud.co.uk.

A new exhibition of Bruce Springsteen images will showcase a selection of rare and unseen photographs of the Boss caught in his breakthrough years.

Springsteen: The Turning Point 1977 – 1979 features images taken by Lynn Goldsmith, and runs at the Proud Galleries, Chelsea, from July 12 – 29.

The period covers the Darkness On The Edge Of Town album and the subsequent 1978 tour of north America, up to the first recordings of The River.

Bruce Springsteen next plays in London at Hyde Park Calling on July 14.

You can find more information about Springsteen: The Turning Point 1977 – 1979 at www.proud.co.uk.

Flaming Lips to replace Erykah Badu in controversial video?

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Flaming Lips to replace Erykah Badu in controversial video?
Wayne Coyne has revealed that he wants to replace Erykah Badu with Amanda Palmer in the highly NSFW video to "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face". The controversial Flaming Lips clip shows Badu and her sister naked and in a bath of what appears to be blood and semen. It appeared online earlier thi...

Wayne Coyne has revealed that he wants to replace Erykah Badu with Amanda Palmer in the highly NSFW video to “The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face”.

The controversial Flaming Lips clip shows Badu and her sister naked and in a bath of what appears to be blood and semen. It appeared online earlier this month before being removed a day later. Badu claimed that she felt “violated” by its contents and insisted that Coyne should have sent the video to her for approval.

Coyne responded to her comments in this week’s NME which is on newsstands now or available digitally claiming that, “Erykah Badu knew what she was getting into.” He also suggested that her angry reaction to the video was merely a twisted show of affection. “When she said that to me, I took it as ‘I’m going to show you that the way I love you is that I’m going to scratch your face off and we’re going to go for it,'” he said.

However, The Flaming Lips frontman has now revealed that he intends to re-shoot the controversial clip with a more willing participant – Amanda Palmer from Dresden Dolls.

He told MTV News: “At the moment I’m talking with Amanda Palmer about remaking the video and having Amanda sing it and just be in the video.”

In spite of the ruckus, Coyne also told the NME that he would probably work with Badu again. “It’s a joy to be with people like her. If it was just me and her I would fight with her all day. It’s just a video, y’know. It’s a silly thing.”

Charlie Watts to release album

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Charlie Watts to release album
Rolling Stones drummer Charlie Watts is to release an album with his other band, The A, B, C & D Of Boogie Woogie. The album, Live In Paris, is released next week by Eagle Records. Recorded in September 2010 at the Duc Des Lombards jazz club in Paris, the album mixes originals alongside blues ...

Rolling Stones drummer Charlie Watts is to release an album with his other band, The A, B, C & D Of Boogie Woogie.

The album, Live In Paris, is released next week by Eagle Records.

Recorded in September 2010 at the Duc Des Lombards jazz club in Paris, the album mixes originals alongside blues and boogie woogie standards, including “(Get Your Kicks On) Route 66”, which the Stones recorded for their debut album in 1964.

The A, B, C & D Of Boogie Woogie features Axel Zwingenberger, Ben Waters, Charlie Watts and Dave Green.

The tracklisting for Live In Paris is:

Bonsoir Boogie!

Evolution Blues

(Get Your Kicks On) Route 66

Somebody Changed The Lock On My Door

Roll ‘Em Pete

Duc De Woogie Boogie

Street Market Drag

Struttin’ At Sebastopol

More Sympathy For The Drummer

Blues Des Lombards

Down The Road A Piece

St Louis Blues

Low Down Dog

Encore Stomp

Earlier this week, the Rolling Stones unveiled a new logo, designed by Shepard Fairey, which reworked their iconic lips and tongue emblem to include a mention of their 50th anniversary, which they are celebrating later this year.

Van Dyke Parks – Song Cycle/Discover America/Clang Of The Yankee Reaper

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Van Dyke Parks – Song Cycle/Discover America/Clang Of The Yankee Reaper

The vanguard's first three albums are difficult, but peerless... Van Dyke Parks is pop’s weirdest straight guy. Or, just as plausibly, he is rock’s straightest weird guy. Whether the foreground of his reputation is dominated by his oddness or his ordinariness depends on who is holding the binoculars. To Mike Love of the Beach Boys, listening to the lyrics penned for SMiLE, Parks might represent the embodiment of kooky indulgence. There is a case for that. (The prosecution will now hear a recording of Brian Wilson singing “Vega-tables”.) But listen to Parks now, with a clearer understanding of the context of his work, and its plain that his primary motivation has always been to celebrate common decency. In truth, Parks has always been misunderstood, and the incomprehension which greeted his debut in 1967 clouded his reputation. Warner Brothers signed Parks in the belief that he might bring with him the secrets of Brian Wilson’s genius. Over time, he delivered, though his success came as a producer, midwifing the careers of Randy Newman and Ry Cooder, among others. But, thanks to the Warners publicist who took a trade ad, boasting that the company had “lost $35,509 on 'the album of the year' (dammit)”, Song Cycle was seen as an expensive folly, albeit one worth revisiting (it inspired Joanna Newsom’s Ys). Parks modestly suggests that it’s a record on which he made every possible mistake. It’s true that Song Cycle does not go out of its way to accommodate the listener. It flits between styles. Its songs are abstruse affairs, masking the intentions of their author. In a way, it’s a protest record, but the iron fist of Parks’ anger is gloved in velvety sonic experiments, as he and producer Lenny Waronker explore the possibilities of 8-track recording. It offers a kaleidoscopic vision of American popular music, drifting in and out of focus, like show tunes wafting from a passing riverboat. A snippet of Steve Young playing a gospel country tune crashes into the theatrical melancholy of “Vine Street”, a Randy Newman composition in Brechtian dungarees; then you get “Palm Desert”, which has a chorus, almost, and some birdsong, while musing lyrically about “the very old search for the truth within the bounds of toxicity”. It feels, at times, like California, reimagined as a musical, but without hackneyed references to girls or surf. Instead, on “Widows Walk”, Park addresses civil strife, while the beautiful instrumental, “Colours” employs Caribbean colours, to point forward to the record that Parks considers his best, 1972’s Discover America. On paper, Discover America is a calypso record, with Parks remodelling traditional songs in a celebration of Trinidadian culture. It does that, and it sounds joyous. But it’s not all sunlight. Hidden behind the breezy rhythms, he’s also making a sly comment about post-colonial Trinidad and, by implication, race relations in the US. That sounds grim, but it’s largely playful, and sometimes straightforwardly funny (see “G-Man Hoover”, which tirelessly mocks the fabled FBI chief). Little Feat provide the salty atmospherics on “FDR in Trinidad”, and the gangster theme is continued on the lazy, tropical-sounding “John Jones”. Ry Cooder is an obvious point of reference, but, really, it’s not too much of a stretch to suggest that The Clash colonised this territory a decade later in their pan-global phase (though Parks is slower to anger, and has superior table manners). The calypso experiment was continued on the 1975 release, Clang Of The Yankee Reaper, which has its moments (the exuberant “Tribute To Spree”), while sounding more frivolous, and dated in a way the first two albums do not. On Song Cycle and Discover America, Parks looked back to face the future, and made music that still sounds mysterious. It’s not timeless, exactly, but neither is it dated. Perhaps it still intrigues because it has almost nothing to do with rock. You might call it beat, without the jazz; or Americana, without the tractors. Alastair McKay Q&A Song Cycle still seems mysterious: what was it about? From June 1963, when I got my first job, arranging “The Bare Necessities” - that was to pay for the black suit and the airplane ticket to my brother’s funeral. That is before John Kennedy got his, and then Bobby Kennedy and Martin Luther King. In fact, we were in a psychological collapse, Americans, every damn one of us! So when you listen to Song Cycle, you get that sense of catastrophe. I talk about my father’s war trunk. I say ‘God send your son home safe to you’. I use that squaresville expression for my father, who had lost his son, my brother. So it was an expensive record for me. Warner Brothers said it was expensive for them – they were lying through their teeth. Discover America has an interesting mood – both happy and sad. You can feel that there is an underlying contentment, but beyond that there is urgency. Those are the writings of Trinidadian authors and they show great authorial command. I liked the troubadour: music that is the truth, the ballad, and the news that’s fit to sing. I saw that in Phil Ochs work; it somehow captured an era. INTERVIEW: ALASTAIR McKAY

The vanguard’s first three albums are difficult, but peerless…

Van Dyke Parks is pop’s weirdest straight guy. Or, just as plausibly, he is rock’s straightest weird guy. Whether the foreground of his reputation is dominated by his oddness or his ordinariness depends on who is holding the binoculars. To Mike Love of the Beach Boys, listening to the lyrics penned for SMiLE, Parks might represent the embodiment of kooky indulgence. There is a case for that. (The prosecution will now hear a recording of Brian Wilson singing “Vega-tables”.) But listen to Parks now, with a clearer understanding of the context of his work, and its plain that his primary motivation has always been to celebrate common decency.

In truth, Parks has always been misunderstood, and the incomprehension which greeted his debut in 1967 clouded his reputation. Warner Brothers signed Parks in the belief that he might bring with him the secrets of Brian Wilson’s genius. Over time, he delivered, though his success came as a producer, midwifing the careers of Randy Newman and Ry Cooder, among others.

But, thanks to the Warners publicist who took a trade ad, boasting that the company had “lost $35,509 on ‘the album of the year’ (dammit)”, Song Cycle was seen as an expensive folly, albeit one worth revisiting (it inspired Joanna Newsom’s Ys). Parks modestly suggests that it’s a record on which he made every possible mistake.

It’s true that Song Cycle does not go out of its way to accommodate the listener. It flits between styles. Its songs are abstruse affairs, masking the intentions of their author. In a way, it’s a protest record, but the iron fist of Parks’ anger is gloved in velvety sonic experiments, as he and producer Lenny Waronker explore the possibilities of 8-track recording.

It offers a kaleidoscopic vision of American popular music, drifting in and out of focus, like show tunes wafting from a passing riverboat. A snippet of Steve Young playing a gospel country tune crashes into the theatrical melancholy of “Vine Street”, a Randy Newman composition in Brechtian dungarees; then you get “Palm Desert”, which has a chorus, almost, and some birdsong, while musing lyrically about “the very old search for the truth within the bounds of toxicity”. It feels, at times, like California, reimagined as a musical, but without hackneyed references to girls or surf. Instead, on “Widows Walk”, Park addresses civil strife, while the beautiful instrumental, “Colours” employs Caribbean colours, to point forward to the record that Parks considers his best, 1972’s Discover America.

On paper, Discover America is a calypso record, with Parks remodelling traditional songs in a celebration of Trinidadian culture. It does that, and it sounds joyous. But it’s not all sunlight. Hidden behind the breezy rhythms, he’s also making a sly comment about post-colonial Trinidad and, by implication, race relations in the US. That sounds grim, but it’s largely playful, and sometimes straightforwardly funny (see “G-Man Hoover”, which tirelessly mocks the fabled FBI chief). Little Feat provide the salty atmospherics on “FDR in Trinidad”, and the gangster theme is continued on the lazy, tropical-sounding “John Jones”. Ry Cooder is an obvious point of reference, but, really, it’s not too much of a stretch to suggest that The Clash colonised this territory a decade later in their pan-global phase (though Parks is slower to anger, and has superior table manners).

The calypso experiment was continued on the 1975 release, Clang Of The Yankee Reaper, which has its moments (the exuberant “Tribute To Spree”), while sounding more frivolous, and dated in a way the first two albums do not. On Song Cycle and Discover America, Parks looked back to face the future, and made music that still sounds mysterious. It’s not timeless, exactly, but neither is it dated. Perhaps it still intrigues because it has almost nothing to do with rock. You might call it beat, without the jazz; or Americana, without the tractors.

Alastair McKay

Q&A

Song Cycle still seems mysterious: what was it about?

From June 1963, when I got my first job, arranging “The Bare Necessities” – that was to pay for the black suit and the airplane ticket to my brother’s funeral. That is before John Kennedy got his, and then Bobby Kennedy and Martin Luther King. In fact, we were in a psychological collapse, Americans, every damn one of us! So when you listen to Song Cycle, you get that sense of catastrophe. I talk about my father’s war trunk. I say ‘God send your son home safe to you’. I use that squaresville expression for my father, who had lost his son, my brother. So it was an expensive record for me. Warner Brothers said it was expensive for them – they were lying through their teeth.

Discover America has an interesting mood – both happy and sad.

You can feel that there is an underlying contentment, but beyond that there is urgency. Those are the writings of Trinidadian authors and they show great authorial command. I liked the troubadour: music that is the truth, the ballad, and the news that’s fit to sing. I saw that in Phil Ochs work; it somehow captured an era.

INTERVIEW: ALASTAIR McKAY

Mark Kozelek – Album By Album

Tom Pinnock
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Mark Kozelek – Album By Album
Sun Kil Moon’s excellent Among The Leaves is Uncut’s lead review in the new August 2012 issue, out now. In this feature from September 2010 (Take 160), Mark Kozelek looks back over the highlights of his recording career, from Red House Painters to his current wrestling-indebted incarnation. Word...

Sun Kil Moon’s excellent Among The Leaves is Uncut’s lead review in the new August 2012 issue, out now. In this feature from September 2010 (Take 160), Mark Kozelek looks back over the highlights of his recording career, from Red House Painters to his current wrestling-indebted incarnation. Words: Graeme Thomson

–––––––––––––––––––––––––

The Get-To-Know-You-Demos

RED HOUSE PAINTERS

Down Colorful Hill

(4AD, 1992)

Six bewitching demos of bleached, glacial folk-rock, recorded in San Francisco by Kozelek, bassist Jerry Vessel and drummer Anthony Koutsos. The astonishing debut makes an immediate impact, particularly in the UK.

Mark Kozelek: “We were playing locally and had made several demos, but we didn’t really know where to send them. Back in 1991 you’d look at the back of a CD and try to find an address, but we didn’t have a manager or a lawyer. Our break came from Mark Eitzel of American Music Club, who really took to us. When he was in England he mentioned us to a journalist called Martin Aston, and when Eitzel came home I sent Martin a tape of about 20 songs. I just wrapped it up in a paper bag from the grocery store and put some stamps on it. Within a few months I was taking a bath and the answering machine picked up this British accent; it was Ivo [Watts-Russell] from 4AD, and that was it. Ivo picked the six songs he liked off those demos and released them as a kind of a get-to-know-you introduction to the band. We did the demos quickly and we never really thought anybody beyond our friends would hear them, but the press just ate it up. Looking back, it’s representative of that time and how I felt. A song like ‘24’ is a whole different thing now I’m 43, but when I wrote it I was working at the front desk of a hotel and didn’t have a career in music and didn’t know if I ever would. It’s all relative.”

Taking Things Doubly Seriously

RED HOUSE PAINTERS

Red House Painters I and II

(4AD, 1993)

Commonly called Rollercoaster and Bridge due to the cover art, the two albums are recorded simultaneously and released only a few months apart. Containing some of Kozelek’s most potent writing,

the sprawling Rollercoaster is a career stand-out.

“If records were movies, I guess this one would be my Apocalypse Now! It was supposed to be one album covering this backlog of songs I had. It was the first time we’d had a budget and we knew we were going to have to be turning this stuff in to a record company and, because of the reaction Down Colorful Hill had been getting, it was going to go much further than the East Bay. We just threw ourselves in there, we didn’t really know what we were doing. We bounced back and forth between a couple of pretty expensive studios, had technical problems, different engineers, and we were learning a lot about the studio and what it meant to be on a record label.

“That time was very intense. The records took about nine months and I was in the studio four days a week and then spending the weekends listening to rough mixes and basic tracks. I wasn’t sleeping well, I just immersed myself in the world of recording. I became very analytical with everything: the tempos of the songs, the intonation of the guitars, my vocals. I wanted everything perfectly in pitch. I think the band thought, ‘Why don’t we just do it like we did it before?’, but psychologically it was a whole different thing. You feel more like a proper band before anything happens, but then the press hones in on the singer and the songwriter and the reviews would talk about me a lot. It did change things. I couldn’t put myself in the frame of my mind I was in before. I needed to take it more seriously. I felt the weight of the world on me.

“In some ways it was a high point. It was such a catharsis of music and a very exciting time, because we were going to Europe and touring the US for the first time. Although I probably haven’t played ‘Strawberry Hill’ for 15 years, there are a few songs on there – ‘Katy Song’, ‘Grace Cathedral Park’, ‘Mistress’ – that really have some staying power and longevity. But honestly, it’s quite difficult to listen to, because it was difficult to make. Also, you look at something from 20 years ago and you like to think your music has matured. I feel like my singing is much stronger now than then. The sound of my voice from my early recordings is kind of cringey to me, the timbre is higher pitched. For a lot of reasons it’s a difficult record for me to go back to.”

The Stripped-Back Third

RED HOUSE PAINTERS

Ocean Beach

(4AD, 1995)

Junking much of the surface atmospherics evident on previous LPs, Kozelek strips the sound back to simpler, more organic acoustic textures, the songs haunted by memory and place.

“I was beginning to relax a little more in the studio. I’d learned a lot from the Rollercoaster and Bridge records and I was gaining more confidence as a producer, learning how to make a cohesive record that sounded right from beginning to end. It may have lacked the dynamics of Rollercoaster, but to me, Ocean Beach was the most cohesive album up to that point, warmer in tone and a little easier on the ears. It was the first album we recorded in one place. We settled on one engineer and worked in a studio mainly used for voice-over for commercials, it had a small tracking room and we really focused. At the same time my world was becoming more broad and my perspective was changing. Rollercoaster and Down Colorful Hill are kind of isolated to one area in San Francisco, and I think Ocean Beach was about me learning how being out of town all the time could have an effect on your personal life and relationships. My whole scope was changing, and that’s where songs like ‘Drop’ or ‘Brockwell Park’ come from. I also felt some nervousness, as it was my third record and that’s a crucial point in an artist’s career. Are you going to have a life in music or be a maths teacher or whatever? Getting past that feeling felt wonderful.”

A Solo Album In All But Name

RED HOUSE PAINTERS

Songs For A Blue Guitar

(Supreme/Island, 1996)

Their biggest seller

in the US, this album of off-beat covers (including Wings’ “Silly Love Songs”) and ragged guitar pyrotechnics alienates 4AD, who sever their ties with the band.

“I started this as a solo record. Jerry wanted to take a break so the timing seemed right. I like to change things up and you can really hear that on this record: three cover songs and taking liberties on the guitar, loosening up and stretching out. We cut the basic tracks in Mendocino in about four days and I sent them to Robin Hurley at 4AD. The next day I got a call in the control room. Robin said, ‘Ivo wondered how you’d feel about losing the cover songs and the guitar solos?’ I thought, ‘If we do that we’ll have Ocean Beach again!’ I called Robin the next day and said I didn’t want to change anything, so could I take the record somewhere else. He called back and said, ‘Ivo says you’re free to go if you repay the $30,000 we’ve spent on the record.’ And that was it. I have to admit when I hung up the phone I was like, ‘Oh fuck!’ In the end we signed to movie director John Hughes’ label Supreme, a subsidiary of Island, and got $100,000. The album came out as Red House Painters because Jerry was back, and in the end I felt it was a vindication. In the US it’s still our biggest seller and one song [a cover of The Cars’ ‘All Mixed Up’] ended up in a Gap commercial.”

A Delayed Swansong

RED HOUSE PAINTERS

Old Ramon

(Sub Pop, 2001)

The band’s career momentum is halted as the release of their final LP is delayed for over three years, bogged down by record-company changeovers.

“And this is the downside of being on a major label! We had that money behind us and, well, I was using it. I was getting pretty relaxed in the studio, bouncing between Mendocino, Austin, Texas and San Francisco, and the record started costing a fortune and going over-budget. All of a sudden there was a merger with the labels, Island was now becoming Universal, and a lot of bands were getting dropped. We were one of them and that was pretty hard. We’d spent about $180,000 on the record, and we were in the same boat as we were with 4AD: “Sure, anybody can come along and take this record, but they owe us $180,000.” Things were changing in the music business and people weren’t throwing that kind of money around. Sub Pop eventually contacted us and our lawyer made a negotiation with Universal. It was just like buying a foreclosure, they cut us a deal and we got the record back. It was recorded from fall 1997 into spring of 1998, but it didn’t come out until 2001. There was a lot of build-up from it being shelved – these days it would be leaked on the internet, but that wasn’t going on then – and I think the delay caused exaggerated expectations. But it was just an album, albeit a good album. In fact, it’s my favourite Red House Painters record.”

A Whole Lotta AC/DC Covers

MARK KOZELEK

What’s Next To The Moon

(Jetset, 2001)

Kozelek’s first solo album features 10 Bon Scott-era AC/DC covers tenderly deconstructed for voice and acoustic guitar. Want to hear “Bad Boy Boogie” as mournful country shuffle? Step this way.

“While I was on that whole hiatus between records I found odd things to do to stay busy. I had a part in Almost Famous, I put together a John Denver tribute record, and then I became obsessed with AC/DC covers. I’d been touring Spain and I was doing ‘What’s Next To The Moon’ and another AC/DC song, and they blended into the set fine. People kept saying, ‘Hey, I like the new songs!’ Nobody knew they were AC/DC tracks, because I do tend to change the songs I’m covering. There was something about the way Bon Scott’s lyrics fitted into that folkie acoustic context; once I’d seen how well one song worked I wanted to do the whole lot. The next thing you know, we had 10 tracks. It was the easiest record I ever made – fun, relaxed, a good way to decompress. I didn’t even have to write lyrics. I’m quite compulsive. When I become obsessed, one bite isn’t enough. I did the same thing later with Tiny Cities [Sun Kil Moon’s album of Modest Mouse covers].”

A New Approach

SUN KIL MOON

Ghosts Of The Great Highway

(Jetset, 2003)

Kozelek forms Sun Kil Moon in 2002 and their debut appears a year later, a mix of dusty ballads and Neil Young-esque rockers, all around a loose boxing theme.

“I see all my music as a continuum. I’ve produced every record, they’re my songs, it’s my voice, but the one thing I can do is to change the colour a little bit. Sun Kil Moon was an experiment to create a buzz and get some excitement back into my life. The band wasn’t new – Anthony and Jerry from Red House Painters played on it – but I thought I’d give it a new title and see what kind of excitement it created. And I was right! All of a sudden these journalists in England who hadn’t talked to me since 1993 were calling me. I’m a big boxing fan. ‘Salvador Sanchez’ was recorded and I didn’t have any lyrics. I just recall humming his name over the main guitar riff and it fitted so well. It was another one of those obsessions that became played out on that record. Ghosts Of The Great Highway was another turning point, because afterwards I set up my own label, Caldo Verde. I reckoned that people who buy my records didn’t give a fuck what it said on the label. It was time to put that to the test.”

A masterpiece of loss

SUN KIL MOON

April

(Caldo Verde, 2008)

Bruising, hauntingly beautiful songs of loss and redemption written “in honour” of Kozelek’s ex-girlfriend and long term muse Katy, who died in 2003. It might just end up being his masterpiece.

“The timing was right to make this record. Katy had passed away early in 2003, but it wasn’t time, I needed to get some perspective. I wanted to pay tribute to her, honour her and make beautiful music about her. I didn’t want it to be angsty, but I wasn’t aware of how heavy it was until I saw people’s reactions. To me, I was just singing songs the way I always had, but the people around me were having a hard time with it. During songs like ‘Tonight The Sky’, the backing musicians would take a break and say, ‘Mark, this is really heavy.’ To this day Katy is the longest relationship I’ve had. She introduced me to lots of places and things. Every corner I walk around in San Francisco is filled with memories about her. She was a wealth of inspiration. The fact that she passed away under such extreme circumstances, dying of cancer at 35, is something I think about every single day and can’t help but always go back to in my music. It will affect me for the rest of my life.”

Classical-Guitar Minimalism

SUN KIL MOON

Admiral Fell Promises

(Caldo Verde, 2010)

Another left turn, a stunning new LP of minimal solo works hung on Kozelek’s voice, often multi-tracked, and his clean, intricate classical guitar-playing.

“A few years ago I was on tour in New Zealand and I picked up a 5CD Segovia set, and then I got another one of his records that I just fell in love with. I’ve always liked classical guitar. I played it a bit when I was younger, and it features on some of my records, like ‘Summer Dress’ and ‘Blue Orchids’, but I’ve been listening to a lot more of it recently. There was something about listening to Segovia that made me feel like I wasn’t doing as much as I might be. I felt like I wanted to make a record where I played guitar and sang as beautifully as I could. It made me want to raise the bar. I really bunkered down and started practising more on a nylon-string guitar and listening to more classical music, because I wanted something that made me feel the way those old classical guitar recordings made me feel. My engineer said that the vocal and nylon guitar really covered the whole range, and as we went along we realised that bass and drums would only clutter it up.”

MC5’s Wayne Kramer: “America went up in flames”

Tom Pinnock
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MC5’s Wayne Kramer: “America went up in flames”

The full story of Detroit’s wild rock’n’roll revolutionaries, the MC5, is told in the new issue of Uncut, dated August 2012, and out on Monday, July 2. The group's guitarist Wayne Kramer explains how, from having their house raided by the police to “shooting dope and trying to destroy the government”, the MC5 lived life on the edge of society, playing incendiary gigs along the way. Kramer not only describes the band’s countercultural activity, he also reveals the stories behind the making of their three seminal albums, Kick Out The Jams, Back In The USA and High Time, and the political and social changes that inspired them. "We had these long hot summers, poor people, black people, had enough of police brutality and inequality and America went up in flames," explains Kramer. "This was a defining time." The feature also includes a guide to MC5’s records, an interview with the band’s manager and guru, John Sinclair, and a profile of each bandmember. The new issue of Uncut (August 2012, Take 183) is out on Monday, July 2. Picture credit: Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images

The full story of Detroit’s wild rock’n’roll revolutionaries, the MC5, is told in the new issue of Uncut, dated August 2012, and out on Monday, July 2.

The group’s guitarist Wayne Kramer explains how, from having their house raided by the police to “shooting dope and trying to destroy the government”, the MC5 lived life on the edge of society, playing incendiary gigs along the way.

Kramer not only describes the band’s countercultural activity, he also reveals the stories behind the making of their three seminal albums, Kick Out The Jams, Back In The USA and High Time, and the political and social changes that inspired them.

“We had these long hot summers, poor people, black people, had enough of police brutality and inequality and America went up in flames,” explains Kramer. “This was a defining time.”

The feature also includes a guide to MC5’s records, an interview with the band’s manager and guru, John Sinclair, and a profile of each bandmember.

The new issue of Uncut (August 2012, Take 183) is out on Monday, July 2.

Picture credit: Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images

An Audience With… Brett Anderson

Tom Pinnock
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An Audience With… Brett Anderson
This month’s issue of Uncut (dated July 2012) features Suede recalling the writing and recording of their debut single, “The Drowners” – so it seemed a good time to revisit frontman Brett Anderson’s An Audience With… from Uncut’s December 2010 issue as this week’s archive feature. Ex...

This month’s issue of Uncut (dated July 2012) features Suede recalling the writing and recording of their debut single, “The Drowners” – so it seemed a good time to revisit frontman Brett Anderson’s An Audience With… from Uncut’s December 2010 issue as this week’s archive feature. Expect questions and answers on Damon Albarn, Brett’s obsession with art and The Great War, and the lure of East London’s kebab shops… Interview: John Lewis

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Brett Anderson has some fans in odd places. This month, Uncut’s email boxes are positively heaving with questions from adoring fans in Peru, Serbia, Japan, New Zealand, Belgium, South Africa, Slovenia and Russia.

“I’m quite popular in odd places,” he says. “Suede had No 1s in Chile and Finland. We were massive in Denmark. If asked why Denmark, my stock answer was that, well, I’m a depressed sex maniac and so are most Scandinavians. We toured China long before most Western pop groups. I remember playing Beijing, to a crowd divided by armed soldiers facing the audience. That was pretty scary.”

Anderson is currently back in the Far East, speaking to Uncut as he overlooks Kowloon Harbour, preparing for solo dates. Later in the year he’ll be in London for a big O2 show with Suede (sans original guitarist Bernard Butler, although the two remain good friends).

“I wanted to check out what the stage was like at the O2 Arena,” he says. “So I went to see The Moody Blues with my father-in-law. Come on, you can’t argue with ‘Nights In White Satin’. What a tune!”

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I presume you’re aware of the ‘reallybanderson’ Twitter account purporting to be by you. Amused or offended?

Helen, Birmingham

Twitter is one of those strange things, like Facebook, that I don’t have anything to do with. But I have to grudgingly admit that the reallybanderson Twitter updates are rather funny [starts giggling]. And the guy doing it is obviously a bit of a Suede fan, because there are some very detailed references to b-sides and bla-di-blah. I can’t exactly complain about it without coming across as a real tit. It’s just fun and no-one really thinks it’s me, it’s a cartoon version of me reflected through some fairground mirror. I don’t think anyone reads it and thinks, ‘Oh, Brett Anderson has Jas Mann from Babylon Zoo doing his washing up, or Brett punched Damon in the street.’ It is, ha ha ha, quite witty.

Having shown them the picture inside the Best Of Suede CD, my kids would like to know why you refused to feed me for five years? Also – can my mum have her top back? And are you around for a trip to the Imperial War Museum?

Bernard Butler

Yes, what most fans don’t realise is that we kept Bernard in a cage for five years, and fed him edamame beans and tap water. Regarding his mum’s top – he should know that it’s long been ripped up and destroyed by the front row of the Southampton Joiners, or somesuch venue. Now, the Imperial War Museum – me and Bernard were talking about getting older the other day and he said: “Are you finding yourself increasingly interested in British military history?” And I have become oddly fascinated with watching WWI docs on YouTube. It’s not just the personal tragedies, but the sense of it being a shocking transition point between the Victorian world and modernity. The idea that they were going into war on horseback, and by the end of it they were in tanks. Blimey. So tell Bernard I will be going to the museum, soon…

What’s your favourite Duffy song?

Kris Smith, Wembley

I thought “Rockferry” was a very beautiful, stirring track. So that’s the only one I know well, but I’m really pleased for Bernard that that was a big success [Butler co-wrote and produced much of the album]. He’s an incredibly talented person and works incredibly hard, and he’s one of those people who is just obsessed with music. People like that deserve success. Did I ask him to join the Suede show at the O2? No. I told him about it, but he’s moved on so far from Suede that it would have been odd, and we’ve had a completely different lineup since he left. I don’t think he’d want to be jumping around a stage again! He’s much happier doing what he does now, I think he’s really found his calling.

Do you still have your cat, Fluffington?

Claire Vanderhoven, Holland

Unfortunately, he’s ascended to cat heaven. He had 15 long years of adoration. Am I getting another cat? Well, I recently got married, and my wife brought two Italian greyhounds with her. I don’t know if anyone is aware of them, but Italian greyhounds are like little cats. Ours are eight years old but look like miniature foxes, bonsai greyhounds. But incredibly fast, like little bullets. When they’re not running they spend their whole life under the duvet. Someone once told me they were bred by the Pharaohs as bedwarmers!

Brett, do you have a copy of the single I recorded with Suede: “Art” b/w “Be My God”? If so, could I have one?

Mike Joyce

Mike, I think I destroyed my copy years ago. I’m not one to keep memorabilia. They’re about 100 quid on eBay. Mike was an early member of Suede. We were advertising for a drummer and listed The Smiths as an influence. Then at an audition, their drummer pokes his head through the door and says, “Hello, lads!” Ha! It was a bit Jim’ll Fix It. I don’t think anyone thought it was going to last, Mike was far too big a name for us. But he just took us under his wing, guided us through the industry, and was so charming. I still keep in contact with him.

What’s the weirdest story you’ve heard about yourself?

Badabingbadaboom

Someone once told me that they’d heard a story about me wanting to shit in someone’s mouth. But I also heard the same story about David Byrne, so I think it’s one of those urban myths that gets transferred from one slightly kooky pop star to another. That’s probably the most unsavoury thing I’ve heard about myself. Maybe I should give it a go.

Which actors would you like to play the lead members of Suede in a biopic?

James Kumar, Manchester

This is the kind of thing we talk about on tour. Matt Osman is convinced I should be played by Peter Egan, who was in Ever Decreasing Circles. I think Nic Cage should play Matt. Arsène Wenger reminds me of Bernard. That’s what Bernard will look like when he’s 60. Billy Idol could play Simon Gilbert, couldn’t he?

Would you ever consider working in musical theatre?

Neil Tennant

It’s funny he should ask that, because only the other day, I was listening to the album Neil and Chris did with Liza Minnelli in the late ’80s. Results, I think it’s called, with “Losing My Mind”. That sounded great, so emotive, and real. I’m a big fan of the Pet Shop Boys, they’re one of those amazing bands that almost created their own genre. But anyway, musical theatre. Yeah, I think I would. Sondheim? Rodgers and Hart? Definitely. I’m always open to new ideas. Musical theatre sounds like it’s going to have camp undertones, but I’d love to do it in an interesting way.

What’s the worst song you’ve ever written?

Mark Catley, Christchurch, NZ

That’s a good question. I wrote lots of terrible songs that were never recorded in the early days. But there’s a song called “Duchess” – a B-side to something from the Head Music era [actually to 1997 single “Filmstar”] – which is pretty rubbish. I’ve often regretted the production on certain songs, like “Trash” and “Animal Nitrate”, even though they’ve been pretty good songs. But you can’t go messing around with things like that. You start to interfere with what people originally liked about it. I also think people like your mistakes, as they give your work humanity. I quite like that about Prince. He seems to throw stuff out – some of it genius, some unlistenable – but all quite honest. I respect that.

Do you enjoy art? Excited about Gauguin at the Tate?

Katarina Janoskova, London

Absolutely. I’m a big fan of Gauguin and the post-impressionists. My favourite visual artist, if I had to narrow it down to one, would be Manet, the pre-impressionist. Not Monet, who doesn’t do it for me. But Manet had this revolutionary technique of painting on black, which gives his pictures a real depth, there’s something very sumptuous about his paintings. And further back, the kind of medieval-style stuff like Holbein and Brueghel – they’re so well observed and so real. You look at these pictures of people who lived 500, 600 years ago, you can imagine them walking down Tottenham Court Road now, the same face, they’re so real. It’s a little window into the past. I’ve quite got into art recently. It’s all part of expanding yourself and your education, appreciation of beauty in life, innit?

Now that you’re no longer coming to work in Bow, how are you coping without the salad pitta?

Leo Abrahams, musician and producer

Ha ha! I’ve been working on an album with Leo, in his studio, and I have an unhealthy obsession with East London’s kebab shops. You don’t get many good kebab shops in west London. It reminds me of being a student. I’m surprised Leo’s got the time to email you questions! He’s far too busy producing Eno or Grace Jones or Florence & The Machine. He also does these bizarre things where he plays entirely improvised gigs, no rehearsals. And that inspired the latest solo LP I’ve done with him. It was based on improvs. Me, Leo, Seb Rochford on drums, and Leopold Ross on bass just jammed for days, cut up them up and improvised, and did overdubs. It’s a full-on rock record. I love Leo, he’s great. He never takes the easy option. He pushes you a bit, which can be terrifying.

Can you give us not-so-slim-in-2010 Suede fans some health tips?

Simon Quinton, Oxford

My wife is a naturopath – she’s conscious of what she eats, so we eat a lot of sushi and seeds. I’ve got into cycling recently, particularly living in London, through the parks and the backstreets. It makes you fall back in love with the city. I cycled to Bow the other day from my house in Notting Hill. So that’s staving off the fortysomething belly. I’m sure I’ll get it when I’m fiftysomething. I’m looking forward to that.

What do you think of Gorillaz?

Ruiz, São Paulo, Brazil

To be honest, I don’t know much about them. I like the drawings.

I guess that’s a veiled question about my relationship with Damon? Well, we don’t have a relationship to talk about. We all have things that happened years ago, rivalries and so on, and people assume that they’re still on your radar and part of your life. It’s like some musical soap opera, often one that’s been fabricated, without much substance. I have different issues in my life now.

Is the art of songwriting dead? If it isn’t, who is flying the torch?

Paloma Faith

Oh, it’s not dead at all. I’m constantly inspired by new music. If you look on YouTube, there’s a clip of me singing Christina Aguilera’s “Beautiful”. When you’re covering stuff it’s interesting to try things that are out of your genre, which gives it a frisson. So I always try songs that aren’t, you know, British indie, stuff like Blondie, or The Pretenders. That Christina Aguilera song is amazing. I try not to look at songs as the finished product, I look at it as the chords and the melody and the words, like sheet music to be interpreted. You’ve got to keep moving with your musical appreciation. I loved the last Horrors record, I liked The National, The Drums, These New Puritans, lots of stuff. I never listen to the records I grew up with. Why bother? It’s all in my head!

Brett, you’re from Haywards Heath. What’s the deal with the swimming pool there? It’s deep in the middle, not at one end. What’s your take on that? And were you ever caught out by it?

P Newman, Brighton

I don’t know what they’re referring to at all, but funnily enough my dad used to work there as a swimming pool attendant. And I don’t really know how he got the job because he couldn’t swim. It’s lucky there weren’t any accidents. Every Tuesday, we had to troop down to the local pool, and everybody would be pointing at my dad saying, “Oh look there’s your dad, he’s working as a pool attendant.” And I was hoping none of them would start drowning, ’cos my dad wouldn’t be much use. Still, this was the early ’80s, and I guess we all thought the world was going to end any second with a nuclear bomb. Ha ha.

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