Swiftly this week, as I have a heap of proofs to read for the next Uncut Ultimate Music Guide (the subject this time is The Smiths and Morrissey, hence the appearance of “Hatful Of Hollow” below).
David Bowie’s return to active service with The Next Day has been described as the greatest comeback ever and I’m sure every Bowie fan is hoping this will in fact be the truth of the matter when they finally get to hear the album, which is released on March 11, still a tantalising couple of weeks away at the time of writing.
A recording of Kraftwerk’s “Trans-Europe Express” night at the Tate Modern seems to have fallen off the back of the internet this morning: genuinely not sure where one of my colleagues found it, before you ask.
An unintended consequence of the My Bloody Valentine release: plenty of plays this week for “Straight Outta Compton”, following directly after “m b v” in my iTunes library. As you can see, though, it’s been an amazing few days for new music, and consequently I’ve added plenty of links so you can hear Mikal Cronin, Library Of Sands (to recap: Naynay Shineywater from Brightblack Morning Light), Jennie O (produced by Jonathan Wilson), and Retribution Gospel Choir’s amazing “Seven” (featuring Nels Cline, and especially recommended to fans of “Psychedelic Pill”).
In Part 3 of this exclusive interview from Uncut’s October 1999 issue, David Bowie looks back on 30 years of genius, drugs and derangement. Words: Chris Roberts
There’s a lot to be said for the charisma of premature death. And the manner of his particular dying – turning blue on a motel floor at the age of 26, his heart fatally faltering, ice cubes being stuffed up his ass in a pathetic attempt to bring him back from the brink after one binge too many – booked Gram parsons an automatic place of honour in a rock’n’roll Valhalla already overcrowded with dead young heroes, Jimi, Janis, Brian Jones, Jim Morrison, Otis Redding, Sam Cooke and more already among its spectral population when Gram died in September, 1973.
What is Lawrence for? Given the acclaim for the recent “Lawrence Of Belgravia” documentary, you could be forgiven for thinking that his role as a British eccentric and pop star manqué is now much more important than the actual music he makes. That his character is more entertaining than his records.
Things aren’t due to kick off for a couple of hours at the Pavilion Theatre where throughout this year’s Great Escape Festival Uncut is hosting a splendid line-up. So early Thursday evening I’m at the Dome, where Australian psyche rockers POND are making enough noise to wake the long-time dead.
