When The Rolling Stones appeared here in 1969, they played on a stage so ultimately flimsy it afterwards could have been towed away on the back of a truck or broken down on the spot and sold for scrap. Unlike the Stones, it was not built to last.
The Rolling Stones are preparing for their forthcoming Hyde Park concerts by having trees installed.
Huge model oak trees have been planted on top of the stage, while bushes have been installing on the sound desk and other equipment. They want to recreate the first time they played in the Royal park in 1969.
We pay tribute to the late Ray Manzarek in the new issue of Uncut (dated August 2013, and out now) – in this archive piece from Uncut’s September 2011 issue (Take 172), Manzarek, Robby Krieger, John Densmore – the latter pair now reunited in the wake of Manzarek's death – Jac Holzman and more look back on the making of LA Woman, and the final days of Jim Morrison. “The damn thing,” says Ray Manzarek, “just rolls and rolls…” Words: David Cavanagh
Peter Gabriel has recorded a new song and score for a forthcoming film, Words With Gods.
It will be Gabriel's first new material since "Down To Earth", which written for the Pixar film, WALL-E.
Gabriel - who has also written scores for Martin Scorsese's The Last Temptation Of Christ and Phillip Noyce's Rabbit Proof Fence - hasn't released a new album of original material since Up in 2002.
His last album, 2011's New Blood, comprised orchestral reworkings of his own material.
When it's announced that The Rolling Stones are planning a free concert in Hyde Park on July 5, 1969, we decide we have to be there. There are four of us, 16-year-old school friends, music a common bond between us.
In case we need reminding, the last time Bruce Springsteen played Hard Rock Calling – at Hyde Park, last July – a curfew was broken, the PA switched off, and Springsteen and a guesting Paul McCartney were silenced mid-song. It seems unlikely there would be a repeat of such shenanigans this year.
Last week started on an absolute high when Neil Young & Crazy Horse’s Alchemy tour rocked up to London’s 02 Arena, turbulence in its wake, some of the crowds they had recently played to evidently unhappy with aspects of the band’s current set, notably the long jams around the songs they are playing from last year’s Psychedelic Pill, especially “Walk Like A Giant” and the extended feedback cacophony of its final 10 minutes, which was spectacularly brutal. Audiences in Birmingham and Newcastle had been from all accounts clearly agitated.
From Uncut's September 2002 issue: In one of the most revealing interviews of his career, Bruce Springsteen talks exclusively to Adam Sweeting about his new album, The Rising, much of which was written in the aftermath of September 11, and which reunites him with the E Street Band for their first studio album since Born In The USA.
If I’d had the time/guts to put my favourites of 2013 list into some order, I suspect Steve Gunn’s “Time Off” would’ve come out pretty near the top, so it’s a great pleasure to host these new videos today of Gunn and his band in session.
