Circle x

Reg Presley has died at the age of 71. Presley died at his home in Andover, Hampshire – the town of his birth – from cancer yesterday (February 4), in the company of his family. He was diagnosed with lung cancer in December 2012 during a tour of Germany, and is reported to have had a number of strokes before the diagnosis, according to messages posted by music publicist and close friend Keith Altham.

Recently reunited hardcore group Black Flag are set to record a brand new album. Last week, the 1979-80 line-up of the band - fronted by Ron Reyes - announced that they would be reforming to play the Hevy Fest in Kent as well as Ruhrpott Rodeo in Germany and the Muddy Roots Music Festival in Tennessee. However, on the same day, another incarnation of the band also announced that they would be playing shows in 2013.

Black Flag have reformed and will play this year's Hevy Fest, it has been confirmed.

The deluxe reissue of Saint Julian is reviewed in the new issue of Uncut, dated March 2013, and out now, so it seemed time to revisit October 2007's issue (Take 125), when the always-enlightening Julian Cope answered questions from readers and famous fans… Words: John Lewis / Photo: Sam Jones ____________________

I don’t have any tattoos, for many reasons, but one of the best I can think of is that I don’t trust my aesthetic tastes to remain constant. I don’t feel confident that the art I like now will all, necessarily, be the same things that I like a few years down the line.

Gram Parsons' legendary solo career is examined in the new issue of Uncut, out on Thursday (January 3, 2013). The back-to-basics approach of the country-rock singer's acclaimed GP and Grievous Angel albums were in sharp contrast to the more psychedelic work of his previous group, The Flying Burrito Brothers. Parsons' collaborator in his early band, The International Submarine Band, Ian Dunlop explains: "He’d got into a maze with the Burritos. The thing about the GP album is that he’s coming out of that maze wanting to make pure country music again.

From Laurel Canyon to jazz-rock's far outposts - the suffragette of sensuality's stunning first decade...

After all the hoo-ha, huff, hysteria and hot air, here, finally, are The Rolling Stones doing what they do even better than raising the collective temperature with impertinent ticket prices, something they seem to have been doing at least since their 1969 American tour, nothing new in the Stones being accused of commercial banditry and the cynical exploitation of their fans, on whose behalf so many complaints have been indignantly voiced since the 50 And Counting dates in London and New York were announced. Why don’t they celebrate their half-centenary with, say, a free concert, the cry went up in some quarters, and let more people have a chance to see them, and for nothing too? Well, when they tried that in 1969, look where it got them: Altamont.

Roll up for the definitive remaster of The Fab Four’s car-crash Christmas television special...

Jailed Russian punk collective Pussy Riot have spoken out about their time in prison and claimed they had been spending their time reading the Bible. Nadia Tolokonnikova, Maria Alekhina and Yekaterina Samutsevich received two-year prison sentences on August 17 after being found guilty of hooliganism motivated by religious hatred – and in an interview with GQ, Tolokonnikova revealed that the only text she had been able to read to stave off boredom was the Christian tome.