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THE ULTIMATE

CELEBRA ION

JUNE 2016 £5.50 US$11.99 CAN$13.99


LONDON a MEMPHIS a GR E E N WOODS

JUNE 2016

FEATURES
42 SONNY
ROLLINS The
Saxophone Colossus guides
David Fricke through the
golden days of jazz and tales of
Bird, Miles, Coltrane and The
Rolling Stones.

48 CORINNE
BAILEY RAE
Emerging from a period of
mourning, the British soul star
talks to Stevie Chick about the
making of her new album.

52 SANTANA Back
together for the first time since
1971, the original line-up tell
Dave DiMartino all about the
high-stakes energy and chaos
behind their rapid rise and fall.

60 THE JAM From birth to


collapse: the life of the band, as
told through the photographs
of Tom Sheehan and the words
of Paul Weller.

COVER STORY
66 SYD BARRETT
The child inside the man. On
the 10th anniversary of his
death, his sister Rosemary
Breen speaks to Mark Blake
about the life of her brother
Roger before and after Pink
Floyd. Plus: writers and
musicians pay tribute to the
strange and unique fairy-tale
Tom Sheehan/thefloodgallery.com

world of Syd Barrett’s songs.

“We were very different people


but as a unit we were tight.”
PAUL WELLER LOOKS BACK AT THE JAM THROUGH
THE PHOTOS OF TOM SHEEHAN. PAGE 60

MOJO 3
Father John
Misty writes his
own myth, p118.

REGULARS
9 ALL BACK TO MY PLACE
Ronnie Spector, Donovan and Jehnny Beth from
Savages dig Frankie Lymon, Lou Reed and Miles.
10 THEORIES, RANTS, ETC
Invented languages and imagined memories…
38 REAL GONE It’s goodbye to Keith
Emerson, Frank more.
126 ASK FRED Includes Sir Elton, Max
Schmeling and Kenneth Williams!
Let Faris
Badwan
blow your
130 HELLO GOODBYE Simon Tong
mind, p23.
recalls being in The Verve. It wasn’t easy.

12 ABC Thirty-four years on from their epochal


The Lexicon Of Love LP and its attendant megahits,
the high-concept pop vehicle is resurrected in The
Lexicon Of Love II. Says mainman Martin Fry: “I want
to take the audience forward with me.”
14 THE SMITHS A new book presents
unseen images of Morrissey and Marr’s legendary
group by confidante Nalinee Darmrong. Could
that be Mozzer’s shirt once cast into the audience?
16 MERLE HAGGARD The country
titan, equally at home playing to presidents as the
dispossessed, passed away on April 6. MOJO says
farewell to the man who walked it like he talked it.
24 LUCINDA WILLIAMS In
Confidential mood, the Americana renegade talks
Dylan, vanishing truckstops, the appeal of true-
crime TV and why she’s the wandering type.

Michael Kiwanuka
28 CHEAP TRICK AT BUDOKAN
feels the Love & Hate In 1978, progress wasn’t as swift as they’d hoped.
Lead Album, p86. Then a trip to Japan and a live album sent them into
Beatles-like overdrive. Read our Eyewitness report.

85 NEW ALBUMS Michael Kiwanuka’s


new soulful ambition, Anohni’s intersectional
invocation, Dexys’Irish soul and Minor Victories
low-key supergroup.

100 REISSUES Manic Street Preachers’


Everything Must Go, 20 years on. Plus: Terry Reid,
The Associates, Metallica, and Nigerian rock .

114 BOOKS Falling off the straight edge in


Moby’s memoir. Plus: Brix Smith Start, Charles
Mingus, and the improbable life of Tiny Tim.

116 LIVES Chris Cornell in Reykjavik, Father


John Misty in Seattle.
TH RIBUTORS INCLUDE
Gates Tom Shee DiMartino
er Darryl, drifted Contributor Tom She tino is a former editor
ars ago, ended up photographed Paul Billboard, and Yahoo!
s at 5 Walkers 35-year period , from nterviewed Captain
W1 in 2002, tak- see pages 60-65) up or MOJO’s second issue,
e oldest working ent day shooting We of books about singer/
dio in Central ears MOJO cover. Ai rs and Steely Dan, has
12 years ago. This ook of Sheehan’s W a few more, and this
he illustrates our hotos is available , starting on p52, he
Tino Tran

bum (p86) www. rom www.theflood s the newly reunited


ondjacks.co.uk allery.com na – live from Las Vegas!

4 MOJO
Complete Music: New Order
A brand new edition of the album Music Complete
Extended mixes of each track from the original album
Even more style
Even more substance
Released 13th May

neworder.com
MOJO
PRESENTS

.....THE NEXT

A MIND-BLOWING COMPENDIUM OF MODERN PSYCHEDELIA


STARRING CATE LE BON, THE BEVIS FROND, GOAT, BLACK
MOUNTAIN, THEE OH SEES, THE CHEMISTRY SET, HERON OBLIVION,
WHITE, FENCE AND MANY, MIND-EXPANDINGLY MANY MORE…

1 Josefin Öhrn 2 Cate Le Bon 3 The Bevis Frond 4 White Fence


+ The Liberation I Was Born On Hot Sauce Or Nothing To The Boy I Jumped
Sunny Afternoon The Wrong Day As its title suggests, Example 22 is the In The Hemlock Alley
“An open and wild state of mind is There has always been a sense of twenty-second album by UK psych Those with long memories will recall
always accessible from anywhere,” ‘otherness’ to Cate Le Bon. Initially veterans The Bevis Frond. It also Tim Presley from his time in US
writes Josefin Öhrn, writing on The championed by Super Furry Animals happens to be one of their most punkers the Nerve Agents. Since his
Liberation’s website. A citizen of the frontman Gruff Rhys, she has worked satisfying, as this track reveals. The days signed to Rancid’s Hellcat label,
world, Öhrn and her Stockholm- with countless musicians who have organ-and-guitar thrust of Hot Sauce he has evolved his musical outlook,
based gang kick off this bespoke been transfixed by her unique voice. Or Nothing underlines the fact that releasing music under many names
compendium of modern psych with Taken from her latest album, Crab – despite some three decades of including White Fence – the most
a track that cuts across genres, an Day, I Was Born On The Wrong Day endless adventurism – leader Nick Barrett-influenced of his vehicles.
infectious motorik groove lying at its seems imbued with a sense of Syd- Saloman knows how to write a damn This captivating, guitar-swirling 2013
heart. Josefin’s own glacial style and ness. Read Cate Le Bon on Barrett’s fine, dark-hearted pop tune. tune underlines how Presley drew on
evocative lyricism confirms her free- impact of on page 83 of this issue. Available on: Example 22 (LP & CD) US country-psych influences as well as
spirited attitude, and suggests good Available on: Crab Day, released music made by British ’60s pioneers.
things to come on their new album. April 15, 2016 Available on: Cyclops Reap (LP/CD/DL)

9 Heron Oblivion 10 Goat 11 Cavern 12 Flying


Your Hollows It’s Time For Fun Of Anti-Matter Saucer Attack
US four-piece Heron Oblivion Claiming to hail from Korpilombolo, a Planetary Folklore
represent a convergence of a number small Swedish town steeped in
Feedback Song
“From now on the secret language of In all honesty, 1992 was not the most
of different tributaries in today’s voodoo worship, bemasked outfit cerebral art can no longer have psychedelic of years. And yet Flying
subterranean psych scene. Featuring Goat are masters of self-mythology. If currency…” So begins Planetary Saucer Attack emerged from the
the duo of Ethan Miller and Noel Von their mystique has contributed to Folklore, a six-minute rumination on Bristol indie scene and set off in
Harmonson (both ex-Comets On their success, then their music is the creative process in the modern search of space. It is also safe to say
Fire), Charlie Saufley (Assemble Head equally arresting. Fusing African- world, set against a spacial backdrop. that they actually found it, creating a
In Sunburst Sound) and Meg Baird styled influences and deep psych Here, Cavern Of Anti-Matter – with series of recordings that have grown
(ex-Espers). Their self-titled debut on wig-outs, their cult following has Tim Gane (Stereolab), drummer Joe in influence over the years. The
Sub Pop is full of pastoral beauty and grown. This track is their most recent Dilworth and synth manipulator recent reissue of this material via
heavy jams – Your Hollows single and typifies Goat’s euphoric Holger Zapf – echo the underground Domino Records confirms just how
exemplifying both of these elements sound and appeal. Fans of the band sounds of ’70s Germany to create significant FSA actually were. Lose
to glorious effect. should stand by for their imminent modern, bold musical statements. yourself in Feedback Song, and you’ll
Available on: Heron Oblivion new single, I Sing In Silence, which is
(CD / LP / DIGITAL / CASSETTE)
Available on: www.smarturl.it/ see what we mean.
due on May 27.
voidbeats-bleep Available on: Chorus (DOMINO)

6 MOJO
“H
e’s right in the heart of music,” says Julian Cope
speaking to MOJO this month, and discussing
the role played by Syd Barrett during his time
as Pink Floyd’s leader. In fact, Barrett’s impact
on Floyd in particular and modern music in general is hard to
overstate. His sensibilities remain utterly unique, informing
generations of subsequent musicians, some of whom are
gathered on this compendium of latter-day psychedelia. In
celebration of Barrett’s continued impact, we have housed
this collection in a sleeve that echoes the demo disc for Floyd’s
first single, Arnold Layne. This Is It, then! The Next Projected
Sound Of 2016! “Floating down…the sound resounds.”

5 Gnoomes 6 Fuzz 7 The Chemistry Set 8 Black Mountain


Myriads Let It Live Albert Hofmann Space To Bakersfield
Formed in 2014, Russian three-piece Fuzz are the sound of modern day Purveyors of music for ‘heads’ for Canadian collective Black Mountain’s
Gnoomes hail from Perm – a city 700 psychedelic wanderers getting over 30 years, London psych veterans self-titled 2005 debut album was
miles from Moscow. Their splendid heavy. The project began in 2011 The Chemistry Set always wear their hailed as an underground classic and
isolation has seen them create a when guitarist Charles Moothart Syd influence with pride. Their new has tended to overshadow their
world of their own, always looking attempted to write a hard rock tune. album, The Endless More And More, subsequent achievements. The
upwards. Describing their music as He then presented the results to his sees them continuing to make music band’s latest offering, IV, however, is
“stargaze”, the band’s influences are friend Ty Segall who dug what he that is sophisticated and liberating. their most expansive to date and
evidently both classic and heard. The pair formed Fuzz, and This ode to Swiss chemist Albert recaptures some of their previous
contemporary. Of all the tracks on were joined by bassist Chad Ubovich Hofman (the inventor of LSD) is full of heft, while adding greater texture.
their debut album, Ngan, Myriads is a who features on their second album, kaleidoscopic, post-Sgt. Pepper Nowhere is that more evident than
tune that owes a definite debt to Syd II. Let It Live confirms Fuzz as the melodies and a mean guitar work- on this epic number which boasts a
in terms of texture, vocals and lyrics. spiritual children of Blue Cheer and out thrown in for good measure. mid-period Floyd feel.
Floyd contemporaries, High Tide. Available on: The Endless More Available on: IV (JAGJAGUWAR)
Available on: II (IN THE RED) And More (FRUITS DE MER)

LIFE AFTER SYD...


PINK FLOYD – ON DEMAND
WATCH PINK FLOYD WHENEVER YOU WANT
WITH SKY ARTS ON DEMAND
PINK FLOYD: DELICATE
13 Spacin’ 14 Thee Oh Sees SOUND OF THUNDER
Human Condition Web Spectacular concert film from Pink Floyd’s 1988
Recorded over a period of a couple of San Francisco outfit Thee Oh Sees are A Momentary Lapse Of Reason tour.
years, Total Freedom – the second one of the most prolific groups of the
album by Philadelphia outfit, Spacin’
– marries loose-limbed jams with
past two decades. Initially an
experimental outlet for mainman
PINK FLOYD:
soulful grooves and hypnotic guitars.
Led by Jason Killinger (of local psych
John Dwyer (also in garage-punk
outfits, including Coachwhips), they
CLASSIC ALBUMS...
heroes Birds Of Maya), the collective have become standard bearers of …The Dark Side Of The Moon: Floyd reflect on the creation of
have delivered an intoxicating album. modern psych. Indeed, their latest their masterpiece, with rarely seen archive studio footage.
The scuffling Human Condition is an offering, Mutilator Defeated At Last
example of the band’s ragged
approach. In fact, if the Stones had
(released on Dwyer’s own Castle Face
label), was a highlight of 2015, and DISCOVERING: PINK FLOYD
returned to psychedelia while Web showcases their whirling, trans- Music critics and fans look back at
recording Exile On Main St., they fixing, at times unsettling sound. Floyd’s 30-year career.
would have sounded a lot like this. Available on: Mutilator Defeated At
Available on: Total Freedom (LP/CD/DL) Last (LP / CD / DL)
Ronnie Spector
BABY, SHE LOVES YOU
What music are you currently From a record store in my neigh-
grooving to? bourhood in Spanish Harlem. Every
My new album [English Heart], ha ha! record he made, I bought.
I like Bruno Mars and I still like The Which musician, other than your-
Ramones. But I make music more self, have you ever wanted to be?
then listen to it now. Back then, me
No one. I always wanted to be me, I
and my cousin Nedra would go
love me! Amy Winehouse wanted to
down to the jukebox and listen to
Rip It Up by Little Richard. When I’m be like me, too!
in the car I like a little Bruno Mars, I What do you sing in the shower?
just love his voice. Sam Smith I like. I don’t, never even at home in a bub-
And I still listen to the serious soul ble bath or walking round the house,
stations in my car, going shopping! doing the dishes, I never sing. I only
What, if push comes to shove, is sing my own songs with my band.
your all-time favourite album? What is your favourite Saturday
Frankie Lymon At The London night record?
Palladium. Playing there with The I’m working then! So I do that with
Ronettes blew my mind, because my audience. Performing, I love that!
Frankie Lymon was my whole inspi-
ration. Why Do Fools Fall In Love, I And your Sunday morning record?
was in love with this. I didn’t know if I like Billy Stewart, The Commodores’
it was a boy or a girl, that voice, it Easy. So smooth and calming. And a
pierced me! That’s the record that couple of Marvin Gaye songs, Billy
made me wanna sing. Joel. I’ll be easing out in my PJs.
What was the first record you ever Ronnie Spector’s English Heart is out now.
bought? And where did you buy it? She plays London’s Shepherds Bush
Why Do Fools Fall In Love, the single. Empire on May 15.

IN WHICH THE STARS REVEAL THE SONIC DELIGHTS GUARANTEED TO GET THEM GOING...

Jehnny Beth person you want to become.”


I still cherish that album Donovan
SAVAGES’ FRONT very much.
MELLOW HURDY
SCREAMER What was the first record
you ever bought? And where
GURDY SUNSHINE
What music are you current- did you buy it? MAN
ly grooving to? I remember buying What music are you currently
I’m really enjoying Kendrick Portishead’s Dummy and grooving to?
Lamar’s Untitled Unmastered. Smashing Pumpkins’ Adore, Well, I’ve been working on an
Also, because I wanna warm after Christmas when I had archive for some years now –
up for seeing them at some money when I was 10 or 700 mastertapes arrived at my
Coachella, LCD Sound- something. I got them from door! So I started listening to
system’s 45:33. The Massive You can’t do that can you? To
Gibert [Joseph] music in stuff I listened to when I was
Attack Ritual Spirit EP too, be in their shoes for a day… I
Poitiers. My first record was 16, as a young bohemian.
especially the track Voodoo like my own shoes! But I’d like
a 7-inch single by Janet Miles Davis’s Sketches Of Spain,
In My Blood with Young to have seen Paganini, and to
Jackson, but I can’t remember that’s the cool one, it really is a
Fathers, that’s a really have been with Beethoven,
what song, I’m sorry! mood. He was way out there
good track. and Robert Johnson. I’d like
Which musician, other than on his own. That blue jazz to have met him in one of
What, if push comes to yourself, have you ever mood entered a lot of my those juke joints.
shove, is your all-time wanted to be? writing. And fado, Jake Bugg,
favourite album? early Leonard Cohen and What do you sing in the
Meh. All of them! P.J. Harvey shower?
(Screams loudly) Oh my God! Bert Jansch. I’ve been going
probably, when I grew up I was O Sole Mio. I like pretending
The first thing that comes into back to the roots.
really in love with her work. opera sounds.
my head is Hunky Dory, which What, if push comes to shove,
What do you sing in the is your all-time favourite What is your favourite
was one of the first records
where I’d listen on and on
shower? NOW album? Saturday night record?
and on when I was a teenager. For the past few weeks, Only PLAYING Gosh. I have favourites in many Gosh. I’m thinking of cool drives
I was really obsessed with it. You by Elvis Presley (sings it). G Ronnie Spector in the evening in the Hertford-
loves the 1957 LP genres. But maybe the most
I think it was the lyrics, the I love that, it sounds perfect. influential one was the first shire countryside, get in, light
Frankie Lymon At The
intention behind it; he was What is your favourite London Palladium Buddy Holly album. Amazing. up a joint, listen to Green
always talking about, like, Saturday night record? still. She didn’t even Three minutes of altered states. Onions. Classic pop records.
a young person stuck with Q by Todd Terje. My ideal know if he was a boy What was the first record you Unchained Melody too, out
their parents, and the Saturday night is being in or a girl! of this world production.
ever bought? And where did
attraction of another world G Jehnny Beth finds
Copenhagen and seeing my you buy it? And your Sunday morning
that mayb Lou Reed’s 1976 album
emøller, Coney Island Baby I think it was Buddy Holly, record?
get to. I th
really gav the perfect balm for Peggy Sue, something like that. Yeah. Something easy and
Michael Collopy, Tom Hines

wings, yo morning Sunday morning, to be I was living in Hatfield and I’d cool – Pablo Casals’ The Swan.
served with pancakes. work on the market selling Hopeful, melancholy sounds, I
know, like
G Donovan loves cakes, get a bit of money and like – one has a very introspec-
message by Miles’s Sketches Of
“You can Sunday run straight to the record stall. tive feeling in the morning.
Spain,
S the album that
music, yo ght there, dates from his young Which musician, other than Donovan celebrates his 70th
travel and with bohemian days, yourself, have you ever birthday at the Beat Café at the
become t akes. when jazz was all wanted to be? London Palladium on May 6.
over his mind.

MOJO 9
Endeavour House,
189 Shaftesbury Avenue
THEORIES,
RANTS, ETC.
London WC2H 8JG
Tel: 020 7437 9011
E-mail: mojo@bauermedia.co.uk
Website: mojo4music.com

Editor-in-Chief &
Associate Publisher MOJO welcomes letters for publication. Write to us at: Mojo Mail, Endeavour House,
Phil Alexander 189 Shaftesbury Avenue, London WC2H 8JG. E-mail: mojo@bauermedia.co.uk
Deputy Editor
Andrew Male
Senior Editor
Danny Eccleston
Art Editor
IT HAS BEEN ALMOST A DECADE SINCE
Mark Wagstaff Syd Barrett left us. Of course, his absence was felt long before that. Nevertheless,
Reviews Editor
Jenny Bulley his passing in July of 2006 made us feel as though something intangible had been
Associate Editor (Production)
Geoff Brown
lost forever. Whether this was a sense of innocence or wonder are moot points,
Deputy Art Editor but certainly those are qualities that animated some of Syd’s most uplifting work
Russell Moorcroft
Associate Editor (News)
– a point overshadowed by his personal decline. This month, in the year that Syd
Ian Harrison would have turned 70 and as his hometown of Cambridge prepares to unveil a
Picture Editor
Matt Turner memorial to Barrett, MOJO is proud to celebrate the man and his music in a way
Picture Researcher
Ian Whent
that we hope sheds new perspectives on one of rock’s most enigmatic figures.
Contributing Editors “Won’t you miss me?” asked Syd in the song Dark Globe. The answer is resound-
Sylvie Simmons,
Keith Cameron
ingly in the affirmative…
Contributing Editor (US)
Ben Edmonds 313 897 2053
For mojo4music.com contact
Danny Eccleston

Thanks for their


help with this issue:
Keith Cameron, Fred Dellar,
Del Gentleman, Paul Stokes,
PHIL ALEXANDER, EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
Sarah Fagan

I would like to go into films So Mr Partridge, I’m really sorry, but count yourself
Among this month’s
contributors: The letter headings for Theories, Rants, Etc in remembered.
Martin Aston,Mike Barnes,
your Rolling Stones issue [MOJO 270] came from Garry Perkins, Lambley, Nottingham
Mark Blake,Glyn Brown,
Keith Cameron,Stevie Chick, the endlessly quotable Jagger/James Fox film,
Andy Cowan,Ian Crichton, Performance. Do I win anything? Am I allowed to talk?
Fred Dellar,Tom Doyle, Never written to you before, despite being a reader
Jim Farber,David Fricke,
Davy Rutter, Hartlepool, Cleveland
Andy Fyfe,Pat Gilbert, for what feels like decades. A constant monthly
Just our eternal respect, Davy.
Will Hodgkinson,David Hutcheon, confection on music and culture, with often great
Jim Irvin,Colin Irwin, CDs on the cover to boot! Although of late it has
David Katz,Paul Lester,
Dave Di Martino,James McNair,
It’ll be a great disappointment been a sad succession of obituaries of the greatest
Ben Myers,Chris Nelson,
Mark Paytress,Andrew Perry,
to him artists we’ve ever had. But today I write to you
Re MOJO 270: I beg to differ with Andy Partridge (albeit briefly) concerning Ronald Veeld’s letter on
Clive Prior,Jon Savage,
Victoria Segal,David Sheppard, in that XTC have already been forgotten in England Magma in MOJO 270. He asks if there is any band
Michael Simmons,Sylvie Simmons, and will not be remembered. I think he’ll still find that have invented their own language. Doesn’t
Mat Snow,Phil Sutcliffe, Jónsi’s Hopelandish that adorns Sigur Rós’s records
Kieron Tyler,Charles Waring, a dedicated band of us XTC enthusiasts alive and
Roy Wilkinson,Lois Wilson, kicking around the shires of England. I have also count? Or Liz Fraser’s more unEnglish warbles? Or
Stephen Worthy heard their influence steadily filtering through even Enya’s Loxian dialect from 2005? Are there
into a number of subsequent bands – Blur, Franz any I missed? Keep up the excellent work MOJO!
Among this month’s
Ferdinand, the early Kaiser Chiefs all owe a debt Geoff Pearson, via e-mail
photographers:
Outer cover: Premium Rockshot; to Messrs Partridge and Moulding. I recently saw
Magazine cover: Vic Singh
Back of pack: Rex (2), Alamy (3),
Field Music and their jerky angular rhythms took Part of the thing that started off
Emma Tillman, Getty Images, me straight back to early XTC. XTC may never have Thanks for the article on Long John Baldry in
Alex Lake, Alan Silfen, broke through to the major league as contemporaries MOJO 268. It was great to read something on an
John Abbott. The Police, U2, Elvis Costello et al all managed, individual who influenced so many, yet seemingly
Piper Ferguson, Ethan Hill,
Barry Plummer, Colin Prime, but cherry pick a handful of tracks and you’ll have remained under the radar. I was fortunate to catch
Adam Ritchie, Sheila Rock, some of the best pop music the ’80s produced. I him twice when he visited Montreal at the now
Tom Sheehan, Brian Stowell,
Hordur Sveinsson, Tino Tran,
also like the arc of their career – they’re strangely defunct and long-gone Esquire Show Bar. Paul
Barrie Wentzell, Baron Wolman fallible and human. Most CDs contain some OK Myers’ description is accurate. He did seem like
tracks, some not so good but the remaining tracks “Noel Coward impersonating Winston Churchill”.
MOJO Subscription Hotline are always belters – superbly crafted pop gems. You’ll I hope you continue to delve into the history of
01858 438884 not find anything catchier or stronger than Mayor Of
Simpleton, The Loving, Senses Working Overtime,
rock’n’roll, blues and soul in future issues. An
individual who comes to mind is Garland Jeffreys,
For subscription or back issue queries contact
CDS Global on Bauer@subscription.co.uk Towers Of London… I also think the frankly another talented musician who has influenced many,
To access from outside the UK
Dial: +44 (0)1858 438884
beautiful Chalkhills And Children should be up there but seemingly receives little or no recognition.
with Shipbuilding as one of the tracks of the ’80s. Grant, via e-mail

10 MOJO
Huge apologies. We have no excuses. For the correct
Maybe it’s a minority spelling and much more, go to Simon’s exemplary book
I see that another person witnessed David Bowie Do You Believe In Magic? The Story of The Lovin’ Spoonful,
on Top Of The Pops in 1972 doing Starman and available from all hip booksellers, and Amazon.
‘putting his arm around Mick Ronson’. This time it’s
Clint Mansell in MOJO 270. Did he really remember Everybody loves strong
this? He was eight years old at the time. It seems so relationships
many people remember this particular TOTP, and Unlike reader Steve Chapman of Thackley, Bradford
looking at clips of it… what’s so great about it? I I do not have quite all of the 266 editions of MOJO,
just don’t get it. It’s very similar to everyone saying but, like him, I have remained an unabashed fan of
they were there when the Sex Pistols played the 100 the Sutherland Brothers & Quiver. I’m particularly
Club. Yup I was there too, even though I was only fond of 1973’s Lifeboat on Island which features
five at the time. I wonder just how many people Sailing and includes The Attractions’ bassist-to-be
really and honestly remember when things originally Bruce Thomas as a member, as well as an amazing
happen or if they just watch I Love The 1970s on line-up of sidemen. And I recall being puzzled why
BBC3 and just say it for the sake of it? the band was excluded from May 2009’s Island Folk
Rob White, Gravesend, Kent edition. Hopefully Steve’s inquiry has prompted
others to contact you as well.
It’s all happening where Michael Wright, San Francisco
you are
I am reading MOJO 269 and feel I’ve hit the jackpot: It’s back to The Beatles really,
Dave Davies, Tracey Thorn, and a fantastic article isn’t it
about Joni Mitchell’s mid-’70s albums (her best). An hour or so ago I wrote a letter to MOJO
This issue is full of incredibly interesting stories about the social importance of The Beatles, and
about my favourite artists like Carly Simon. Out of George Martin’s involvement in that. I may have
interest, are you at all planning a major article about been a bit tiddly. I have been a professional in
Elton John’s career in near future? It would be very the music industry since the 1970s, as a guitar-
much appreciated! Many thanks, every month it is a repairer, recording engineer, record producer, and
delight to read your magazine. My monthly favourite occasionally as an artist and musician. What has just
is Time Machine. Keep up the excellent work. struck me is that none of these trades, and perhaps
Wouter Scholte, via e-mail not even this entire industry that we are all part
of, would be remotely the same if that EMI staff-
It’s sort of free, isn’t it producer hadn’t taken those lads from Liverpool
Firstly, the new free CD with MOJO 270 is a under his wing.
stonker! I shall definitely be using some of these Here is my original letter: “My wife wondered
tracks on my radio show! However, the pedant in me why I cried when I heard about George Martin’s
demands I make some corrections. Phil Alexander’s passing. It may be hard to explain, in some ways, but
sleevenotes say that “Aftermath followed in the I tend to think that, if there wasn’t a ‘Beatles’, the
wake of The Beatles’ Revolver, released five months world, as we know it now, would be very different.
earlier”. Tsk, that was Rubber Soul, not Revolver, but Sure, other folk were more involved in the social
I guess you realise that now. Also, the notes in the transitions that took place during the 1960s, but I
magazine state that The Yardbirds’ Still I’m Sad was would suggest that few others brought the clearly
the B-side of I’m A Man. Well, it was in the US, but defined hints of the counterculture to as many
here it was a double A-side with Evil Hearted You. people as did The Beatles. Other folk had a broader
I know… I bought it!! sword – Bob Dylan, Jefferson Airplane et al – but
Nigel Tant, Exmouth, Devon none had a broader sweep. In effect, through their
popularity, and with their wonderfully inclusive
What we say is of no use at all music, The Beatles brought what were previously
Re: the Lovin’ Spoonful piece in MOJO 270. I was left-wing, and occasionally marginal considerations,
overjoyed to see the photograph with Phil Silvers as into the widening frame of social conscience.
I am a huge Bilko fan. The reason John is banging The Beatles brought a new-found liberty. I would
on his organ is because Phil started an impromptu posit that Dylan would become the (inadvertent)
sing-along and was demanding backing without spokesman for this (our) generation, much as he’d
noticing the Spoonful had just mimed to Summer rather not have been, but that it was The Beatles
In The City (where did Bilko think the jackhammer that breached the proverbial dam. Dylan himself has
sounds were coming from?) and weren’t plugged in. always acknowledged the influence of the Fab Four.
Unfortunately MOJO has joined the lexicon of rock And if there was no George Martin, I would suggest
journals that have misspelt Zalman Yanovsky’s name. that there was a very high chance that we would have
It’s with a V not an F. also had no Beatles.”
Simon Wordsworth, via e-mail Andrew Knight, Lismore, NSW, Australia

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THE HOT NEWS AND
BIZARRE STORIES
FROM PLANET MOJO

SUPERFRY

ALPHABET CITY
’80s pop sophisticates ABC return Oh come let us
Thesaurus: (left)
With only two long players released since 1991, the
formerly cutting-edge ABC became regulars on the
with The Lexicon Of Love II! Frontman Love lexicogra-
nostalgia circuit. But in 2009, ABC went back to find
pher Martin Fry
Martin Fry explains all. in 1982; (bottom) their future: Fry performed Lexicon live at London’s

“I
with director Royal Albert Hall, accompanied by the BBC Concert
figured it was time to make a sequel to The Julien Temple
Lexicon Of Love, about a man in his fifties, (left) during an
Orchestra conducted by Dudley, to rapturous reviews.
assessing if he’s learned anything from his interval in film- Further shows with Dudley and the Southbank
travels,” says Martin Fry, with a flourish you’d expect ing the Viva Love Sinfonia made the new record inevitable.
single video, east “It’s all been leading up to this,” says Fry, explaining
from someone synonymous with pop at its most London, March
baroque. “It’s a big orchestral record, where you have 2016; The Lexicon that 80 per cent of his latest songs will feature strings.
a chance to catch up with the main character.” Of Love II and its “Through standing on a stage with an orchestra, I
It’s spring 2016 – 34 years since ABC released the
hallowed prede- became interested in making a widescreen record
cessor. with a lot of scope.”
single Poison Arrow, a miraculous blend of disco
flamboyance and post-punk attack – and the urbane It’s so grandly symphonic thanks to Dudley. Julien
Fry is in a studio north of Bicester, finishing the Temple filmed a video at Stratford East theatre – loca-
follow-up to one of the best-loved albums of its era. tion of the Poison Arrow clip – for first single Viva Love.
Issued in June 1982, The Lexicon Of Love – featuring But no other original members are involved, nor is
Poison Arrow and further singles The Look Of Love
“IT’S ALL Horn. Instead, Gary Stevenson is at the controls. “It
and All Of My Heart – became a benchmark for ’80s BEEN would have been wonderful to work with Trevor
immaculacy and sonic derring-do. With its witty lyrics LEADING UP again,” offers Fry, “but it would have been a bit like
(Fry was more influenced by Cole Porter than anyone TO THIS.” George Lucas and JJ Abrams in the same room.”
from the rock canon), epic production courtesy of With palatial soundscapes in place, Fry was
Trevor Horn and as many strings as arranger Anne
Martin Fry similarly audacious lyrically: “You came, you saw, you
Dudley could cram into 37 minutes, it was a critical taunted me/ High priestess powers anointed me,” he
and commercial triumph, entering the charts at croons on The Flames Of Desire. Aware of the
Number 1 and remaining there for four weeks. need to match the cascading images and
It also proved something of an albatross as puns from Lexicon, he has, to employ the
1982 parlance, Gone For It.
“They’re unapologetically romantic – as
much in the tradition of Rodgers & Hart as
Rodgers & Edwards,” he says of new songs
co-written with Rob Fusari, a Lady Gaga
collaborator. Fry, married for 30 years, says the
lyrics concern “the way love and relation-
ships can bloom, then fade and reignite”. This
is the 1982 Fry – who he calls “pretty hyper”
– grown up but “still trying to find something
magic in a song”.
“I really wanted to get back to
he flavour and spirit of that first
ecord,” he reflects. “But I didn’t
want to do it through the eyes of
he boy I was. I want to take the
audience forward with me.”
Back on a major label, all he has
o do now is agree a title. Fry, who
notes that Oswald Boateng suits
have now replaced the gold lamé
f 1982, had in mind The Lexicon Of
Lost Ideal. The label preferred The
exicon Of Love II. He didn’t need
oo much talking down. “I do listen
to good advice these days,” says Fry, who would like to
see LOL II filed beside the modern R&B of The Weeknd.
Sheila Rock, Henrik Knudsen

“I love The Weeknd,” he says. “He’s a guy in his own


movie. I wanted to make a record that defined, only
from my perspective. A shiny, cheeky, cosmopolitan
dance record.”
Paul Lester
The Lexicon Of Love II is released by Virgin/ EMI on May 27.

MOJO 13
PICAND ILL

Revealed! Nalinee
ME O revealing images to engage with? A rush and
PATIO
describing how she met the group at
For Smiths enthusiasts, this makes a push and a cafe the following day.
Darmrong’s hoard Nalinee Darmrong’s newly-published
Shetland is
“Going to show after show seemed
ours: (main)
of unseen Smiths book The Smiths a particularly The Smiths to happen organically, without
photography, 1985-86. tempting prospect. at Lerwick,
Shetland,
hesitation or awkwardness. And all the
Darmrong was an Anglophile rock while I had my modest Minolta 33mm
ne of the drawbacks of bands September 1985,
fan who in the mid-’80s, became a from left: Marr, camera in hand (I wasn’t a pro
with relatively short life spans: Smiths gig regular and got to know the Joyce, Morrissey photographer by any means),
after a while, you begin to band. She first saw them on the US and Rourke. documenting as much as I could.”
recognise the same portraits, live Meat Is Murder tour on June 11, 1985 at She also accompanied the group
images and other captured moments. the Warner Theatre in Washington, DC. on a September ’85 Scottish trip, and
If the music continues to have life, “I had absolutely no idea how my later saw 16 dates of the Queen Is Dead
doesn’t it help to have some new, life was about to change,” she writes, US tour. These are the scenes also

14 MOJO
Charming lensmen:
clockwise from left,
Shetlands show-
times, Morrissey on
The Queen is Dead
tour, an abandoned
shirt, Scottish tour
setlist and (below)
the book cover.

“I HAD NO
IDEA HOW
MY LIFE WAS
ABOUT TO
CHANGE.”
Nalinee
Darmrong

presented in the book. As well as up-close, time capsule-like proof


The Smiths outside the Clickimin of a fan’s undimmed ardour is
Centre in Lerwick and Morrissey enhanced by Darmrong’s
flaunting his torso and wielding election of treasured memora-
Images © Nalinee Darmrong, The Smiths, Rizzoli, 2016.

his anti-royalist sign, there are ilia – ticket stubs, concert


intimate on-stage shots of all the etlists, ragged gig posters,
members, various stage ll-areas guest passes and even
invasions, soundcheck reportage ne of Morrissey’s outsize The rise and fall of T
and other scenes of life on the owery blousons. subject I wholeheartedly leave for
road, such as Mike Joyce and The feeling of adoration is others to discuss and dispute,” she
Andy Rourke in a swimming pool. irrored in bittersweet declares. “I will forever be indebted to
The intimate and unguarded orewords by Ride’s Andy Bell The Smiths for one of the most
nature of these is revealing – see nd music writer Marc Spitz. But incredible musical and personal
the startlingly young and Darmrong, now house pho- experiences of my life.”
thin-looking Johnny Marr, and tographer for the 9:30 Club in The Smiths by Nalinee Darmrong is
Morrissey receiving homage from his Washington, DC, seems happier published by Rizzoli International
public. The sense that this is an letting her images speak for her. Publications.

MOJO 15
1937-2016

THE HONEST OUTLAW


Country giant Merle Haggard, a prolific The old man from He was not without contradic-
THE LEGACY
Album: Sing Me Back
Home (Capitol, 1968).
the mountain’s tions. Though his songs would be The Sound: Leading off
recording artist, left us on April 6. coming home:
covered by the Grateful Dead, The with the extraordinary

W
(above) Merle death row lament title
hen Merle Ronald Haggard died – on his 79th Haggard at home Byrds and Joan Baez, Merle’s 1969 track, this mainly
birthday – the flood of tributes from his peers in Reading, smash Okie From Muskogee was Merle-penned album
was immediate, with Willie Nelson, Dolly Parton California, 1999; brazenly anti-hippy, anti-peacenik takes in the past, booze,
(below) in the love, poverty, family, God
and Hank Williams Jr among those paying fulsome mid ’60s. and anti-marijuana. He would, over and human happiness, to
homage. Another was Charlie Daniels, who wrote, simply, the years, explain the song as a the wondrous sound of The
“Country music has suffered one of the greatest losses it parody of uneducated conservatives, Strangers and a voice of
will ever experience.” an imagined account of what his leather that does not lie.
Of any country singer, Merle Haggard lived it as much father would have thought and a
as sang it. He was raised in a converted Santa Fe boxcar in result of his own ignorance. Initially, rather than the
Oildale, north of Bakersfield, California: at nine years old more-of-the-same The Fighting Side Of Me, he wanted
he lost his fiddle-playing father James to a brain tumour. A the follow-up single to be Irma Jackson, a song of doomed
guitar player from the age of 12, Merle’s mind was opened interracial love. His label dissuaded him, though the track
to the songs of Jimmie ‘The Singing Brakeman’ Rodgers, did make it out on 1972’s Let Me Tell You About A Song LP.
which he listened to as a 16-year-old on 78s recorded by Contrary as he was, his place in country was assured.
“COUNTRY Over his career Haggard scored 23 Number 1 country
Lefty Frizzell. “Everything that Jimmie Rodgers sung
about, I thought I had to live those songs,” Merle told this MUSIC HAS singles. His prodigious album output, of original LPs,
writer last year. “The words fit the curiosity that I was living SUFFERED collaborations – notably with George Jones, Willie Nelson
with at the time, you know. It inspired me to do the ONE OF THE and The Carter Family – gospel records, live recordings,
wandering that I did.” GREATEST Christmas discs and more, numbered in triple figures. He
His wandering, maverick spirit, via various reform LOSSES IT paid tribute to the roots by recording the songs of Bob
schools, soon led him to San Quentin State Prison, where Wills, Lefty Frizzell and Jimmie Rodgers, expanded
he was imprisoned on car theft and robbery charges. It
WILL EVER country’s boundaries and influenced generations. With
was here that Merle saw Johnny Cash sing Folsom Prison EXPERIENCE.” occasional lulls, he kept on touring and recording, his own
Blues in 1958, another formative experience that drew man to the last. Dismissing rumours of a feud between
him closer to the music. Released on parole in 1960 h them in 2015 Bob Dylan said of him, “He’s a complete man
began playing in the Las Vegas and Bakersfield friends… we have a lot in common.”
home to a more hardcore country sound distinc d five times, the Grammy winner, honorary
Nashville’s countrypolitan polish. By 1965 he’d s nd multiple Hall of Famer, who played for Nixon
making chart headway and was soon gathering hite House and had his criminal record ex-
him the band that would become The Stranger by California governor Ronald Reagan in 1972,
tarist Roy Nichols, harmony singer Bonnie Owen ceived his high school diploma at the age of 78,
later, steel guitarist Norm Hamlet. His first Num 015. Soon after, he was back at the top of the
single, I’m A Lonesome Fugitive, followed in 196 harts with Django And Jimmie, one last collabo-
Piper Ferguson, Getty Images

would be many others. His genius was already p h Willie Nelson, which contained the senior’s
accessible yet resonant self-penned late-’60s hi song It’s All Going To Pot. The two were
Mama Tried and Sing Me Back Home – songs fu d to play dates together in May.
jailbirds, grieving mothers, grafters, drinkers an died on April 6 at his Palo Cedro, California,
others among life’s losers – with Haggard’s voic omplications related to pneumonia. Said Willie
cutting to the heart of songs informed and He was my brother, my friend. I will miss him.”
ennobled by his own lived experience. Ian Harrison

16 MOJO
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Singing Saw Lost Themes II Helter Seltzer
also available on vinyl also available on vinyl also available on vinyl

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also available on vinyl

home of entertainment
FACT SHEET
Working title: TBC
MOJOWORKING Due: Autumn 2016
Producer: T Bone Burnett

IMELDA MAY
Songs: Game-changer; How
co-write with seasoned Nashville Bad Can A Good Girl Be?; Bad
session aces, including Grammy- Habits; Human; When It’s
My Time
nominated Paul Moak. In 2015, The buzz: “The album’s
May split from her husband and about my life, and what I’ve
Dublin’s swinging rockabilly whirlwind gets Will you get that
Bono off my long-time guitarist Darrel experienced recently. The
ready to rumble with T Bone Burnett. back?: T Bone Higham, thus creating the perfect songs are more honest than
anythingbefore.”Imelda May

N
Burnett (left)
ot many albums gets disrupted by Bono’s and Imelda May
inspiration for a raft of soul-baring
boundless enthusiasm. But so it has been with the work on chang- songs. “I’ve gone through
forthcoming LP from Dublin’s rockabilly-jazz queen ing the game. friendship, divorce, falling in love again, falling out of love
Imelda May. For throughout recent sessions, the U2 singer again,” she explains. “I’ve had a rollercoaster year and I’m
has been bugging producer T Bone Burnett to check all is still in the middle of it. So there are breaking-up songs,
going to plan. “Bono has been like a mentor with this falling in love songs. It’s life. I like detail – if you write about
record,” explains May. “So he’s been hounding T Bone something you haven’t had experience of, you miss the
about me. They know each other very well, so it’s quite little details that make it ring true.”
funny. It’s like, ‘Jeez, will you get that Bono off my back? I’m Throughout the writing and recording process, Bono’s
gonna have to get this album just right now!’” support was constant. “He said if you get this record right it
The idea of a collaboration with Burnett – storied veteran will be a game-changer,” says May, “and that became a
of Bob Dylan’s Rolling Thunder Revue band and producer of “I’VE GONE song, Game-changer.”
myriad roots greats from Roy Orbison to Elvis Costello – was THROUGH Working in Burnett’s LA studio, in March the singer cut
mooted a while back, when May began writing material for a FRIENDSHIP, 15 songs in just seven days, with a crack band featuring
Marc Ribot on guitar and nourishment in the form of “too
follow-up to 2014’s Tribal, a fiery rocker that topped the chart DIVORCE,
in Ireland and reached Number 3 in the UK. Long a fan, T much tea, too much coffee, too much wine, and sometimes
Bone “had been keeping an eye” on the singer since her 2008
FALLING IN vodka too. I had all four on a tray at one time.” The music,
breakthrough Love Tattoo; hearing her new demos last year, LOVE, she says, branches out from her staple fare of sassy
he felt the time had come to work together. FALLING OUT rock’n’roll and ballads to embrace Northern soul, gospel
“We went for dinners and drinks and got on very well,” OF LOVE and some more “chilled-out stuff”.
says May. “I saw him in LA and Nashville. T Bone’s a great AGAIN…” “I’ve worked harder on this record than any before,” May
person to watch and learn from – he’s a genius.” concludes. “I’ve put my heart and soul into it. I’m very proud
On previous albums, the singer had written her own of what I’ve done.”
material, but this time round she was encouraged to Pat Gilbert

ALSOWORKING
…MAX RICHTER ’s been in the the need to “make it as fucking good environment of bubblegum and about six years, but LAWRENCE
studio recording his score for Morgan, as we can possibly make it… it won’t concrete and Top Of Th P f (l f ) l i F lt i d d
a sci-fi thriller about an artificially- have the help of being the first time” cub scouts and power c
created being and the “risk assessor” …Keith Richards and Ron Wood civil unrest and hazy
who has to decide w h b h firmed that THE summer lawns” …THE
or dies. It’s directed STONES have STONE ROSES were
son Luke… LCD pile of new spotted outside produc
SOUNDSYSTEM ings for a new Paul Epworth’s Church
definitely release a e said to expect Studio in Crouch End, n
album later this yea overs alongside London in March, admit
having reconstitute unbowed ’90s nothing… BRIAN WI
their studio set-up RASOUND are is promising to get back
“weird gear”. Jame ew album, set, studio for a new covers
Murphy (right) stre a ’70s he’s been threatening it
Rex

18 MOJO
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also available on coloured vinyl also available on vinyl also available on vinyl

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Mary Chapin Carpenter - The The Duke Spirit Oscar
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Yak Marissa Nadler Ziggy Marley
Alas Salvation Strangers Ziggy Marley
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home of entertainment
7 ANDY SHAUF THE MAGICIAN
Twinkling, symphonic melancholy and pop uplift, swinging in
the well-upholstered shag pile carpet studio of the mind. From the
new – ominously titled? – LP The Party, out May 20. Ace video, too.
Find it: YouTube

8 NIGHT BEATS SLOOP JOHN B


Recorded for The Reverberation Appreciation
Society’s Pet Sounds tribute, the Seattle trio make con-
vincing shipwreck survivors. Wide-eyed, frayed but
fizzing with life, a rollicking psych cover.
Find it: SoundCloud

9 LEON HAYWOOD I WANT’A DO SOMETHING


FREAK Y TO YOU
In tribute to a pianist in Sam Cooke’s last band. His later solo career
peaked with this funky, fruity 1975 track. Full obit next month.
Find it: YouTube

10 DÄLEK CONTROL
For their first new track in six years the New Jersey hip hop
noise archfiends chop-shop a Trump-felling Americruiser of uncivil
alliterative growling, Bug-heavy bass and slow-rolling illbient hiss.
MOJOPLAYLIST Find it: SoundCloud

11 KATE JACKSON METROPOLIS


From her new album British Road Movies, made with
Bernard Butler, the former Long Blondes voice mixes soul stomp,

1 case/lang/veirs
Saint Etienne and JG Ballard in a song of the endless ring road.
Find it: SoundCloud

BEST KEPT SECRET


12 THE RISING STORM I’M COMING HOME
A high school garage band from Andover, MA, in 1967 in full
flow, tuned into their moment’s ectoplasmic wireless of troglodyte
boneshaking. Get a nice new reissue 7-inch on Penniman Records.
Top country-folk-blues triumvirate (who, significantly, all appeared on
Find it: YouTube
Laura Veirs’ 2013 LP Warp & Weft) launch their collaborative album with

13
this vibrant, horn-propelled pop song. On an album of mostly slow burn- HERON OBLIVION ORIAR
ing material it’s a joyful anomaly, featuring bittersweet strings, what kd Skyrocketing guitars, crashing choruses and Meg Baird sing-
lang describes as “ba-da-da, ba-da-da” coda, and a lovely aerated vocal ing from behind the drum kit, yet there’s a stately serenity and
from Veirs (sorry, veirs – they’ve all gone lower-case here, in deference to beauty to the wildest cut on the San Franciscans’ self-titled debut.
lang’s typographic and music biz supremacy, presumably), who wrote the Find it: YouTube

14
song about her friend, guitarist Tim Young, who also plays on the record.
STICKY FT. TUBBY T TALES OF
Find it: SoundCloud/YouTube THE HOOD
Lower case is Ragga, bass and soul-infused UK garage smash from

2 THE WAR ON DRUGS TOUCH OF GREY


From the Day Of The Dead tribute album, a 59-track beast
featuring Courtney Barnett, The Flaming Lips and many more, that
ace: (above,
from left) Neko
Case, kd lang
2002, critiquing the short-termism of the criminal life,
by the late Neasden talent. Instrumental’s great too.
Find it: YouTube
benefits the Red Hot organisation. This finds Granduciel’s men in and Laura Veirs

15
spill the beans;
prime beer-glide swoon on the Grateful Dead’s ’87 song of survival. (below) Car Seat JESSICA CURRY WENDY’S THEME
Find it: YouTube Headrest’s Will With the imminent arrival of multi-garlanded first-person
Toledo looks to post-apocalypse computer game Everybody’s Gone To The

3 CAT POWER FIVE YEARS


Live and poignant from the Bowie tribute night at Carnegie Hall
on March 31, with bass and backing vocals by Tony Visconti and
the skies. Rapture on Windows PC, we’ve been revisiting Curry’s eerily
beautiful score (and MOJO’s Number 1 Soundtrack of 2015).
Find it: soundcloud.com/thechineseroom
drums by Woody Woodmansey.
Find it: YouTube
16 GOAT I SING IN SILENCE
The masked Swedes relax the voodoo intensity for a pastoral,

4 MERLE HAGGARD MISERY AND GIN


Raise a tall glass to the late country singer-song-
writer with this masterpiece of boozy self-pity from
“CAR SEAT
HEADREST
standalone single. A gentle breeze of flute, sitar and harmonies,
I Sing In Silence invokes the bliss of summer nights spent outside.
Find it: SoundCloud
his underrated 1980 concept LP, Back To The Barrooms, PLAYS
which also featured on the soundtrack to Clint
Eastwood’s elegiac modern western comedy, Bronco Billy.
Find it: YouTube
POWER-
LO-FI!” 17 KYLE CRAFT EYE OF A HURRICANE
Louisiana’s answer to Jobriath; big hair and a
voice shrill enough to pose a threat to amalgam fill-
ings, Craft’s nostalgia for junk shop glam and ’70s

5 CAR SEAT HEADREST


DRUNK DRIVERS/ KILLER WHALES
Like the UK Subs, Will Toledo lives in his car (sort of). Here he teases
piano pomp reaches peak teenage rampage here.
Find it: Sub Pop SoundCloud

his new Teens Of Denial album and plays this beauteous, power-lo-
fi allegory of automotive tro
Find it: YouTube
18 BLIND RICHARD YATES SORE BUNION BLUES
y Cokey is present in this obscure
ry, as the sufferer cries out to his
g/comb’n’paper solo adds levity.

6 THE GO-
FINDING Y
Ten years on from ONCRETE
of Grant McLenn ch duo who specialise in high-art,
folk-pop dream- euphoria return with migraine-
tion of how music, intangible in May.
provide the most ‘real’ experi
Find him, again.
Find it: YouTube WORLD CUP OPENING

bes in the shape of footballs”


reveal entertainment from the
Jason Quigley

e/Bulgaria/Scotland segue!

20 MOJO
SELFPORTRAIT

CYNDI
Cyndi Lauper
by Cyndi Lauper;
(below) Cyndi in

LAUPER
the pink.

Fun-loving she-bopper
talks vegging out, golf
biopics and winging it.
I describe myself as… All About Eve.
Ha! The characters are a little over the
top and that’s me… it’s, “enough
about you, now back to me.” Just
kidding. I am hard-working, passion-
ate, compassionate, can be self-cen-
tred, try not to be self-centred, and a
live-life-to the-fullest kind of person.
Music changed me by… well, it
changes me every time I listen. If I’m
listening to a chord change that’s
unexpected, it opens my mind to
a new way I think chords are put
together, and if I hear lyrics that tell
a different kind of story, it opens my
mind so I can see things through a
different lens. Music makes my mind
open to all new kinds of possibilities.
When I’m not making music… I’ll
look at fashion, photography, movies,
art. Spend time with my family. Go for
walks with my husband, listen to
music with my son, walk my dog, go to
restaurants with friends, visit my mom.
My biggest vice is… vegging out to
TV late at night. It’s how I relax. I fall
asleep to the TV most nights.
The last time I was embarrassed Francis Ouimet, The Father of Amateur It was filled with short stories by
was… sadly, I get less embarrassed as Golf]. It kills me. I’ve seen it a few times women who lived in Sicily in the early
time has gone on. Maybe that’s being and it gets me every time. 1900s, about how they lived in that
way too comfortable with myself? Vinyl, CD or MP3?… whatever I can place and time. The women there were
My formal qualifications are… I easily listen to at the time. I love vinyl not allowed to write, not their stories or
believe I have no qualifications, and “IN ALL the most but it’s a luxury – not always anyone else’s either. If they were found
that’s what makes me most qualified. ABOUT EVE… easy to get to a great turntable. But I writing, the pages were burned or
somehow destroyed. All these stories
There’s less nervousness when you THE still love the album experience. Sitting
were found hidden and saved by
just go about doing something new. It down, looking at the cover, reading
CHARACTERS women. I’m half Sicilian, so I was curious.
makes it easier for me to learn. I’m not the linernotes and listening. Digital is
one of those people that learn well in a ARE A LITTLE great because you have always access Is the glass half full or half empty? …
formal setting, but put me in the OVER THE to music, which is awesome. I love it all. wait, I know this! The glass is half full!
middle of something and I am pretty TOP AND My most treasured possession is… I My greatest regret is… when I hurt
good on my feet. I’m always learning THAT’S ME.” try not to become too attached to other people, especially the ones I love.
and studying through doing and possessions, because they can get lost When we die… what? I’ve got a crystal
living. I’ll research whatever I’m doing and broken. People I love are much ball or something?
a lot, so I can do a good job. I still study more important than any possessions.
singing – I go to vocal lessons every I would like to be remembered as…
The best book I’ve read is… sadly, I’m someone who tried to be better at who
week to stay strong in voice. not a big reader. Once in a while I fall I am, and what I do.
The last time I cried was… a few into a book or two. Usually it’s got
nights ago watching a movie, The history in it. I did read a book I got from Cyndi Lauper’s country album Detour is out
Greatest Game Ever Played [a biopic of the feminist press called The Back Door. on May 6 on Sire.

MONDOMOJO
…as vinyl proliferat before the Audrey’s complexity, and Olsen’s Doing it with the geniuses Toydrum.
lead us into a new g raham said performance, is the film o be in Unkle. Banging
know that Leeds fir OM strength. “What she co es, general fuckin’ chaos”
LEISURE is to be eft) as that if you think living w litical news, House Of
production of its Ro al biog, but guy like this is easy, you er EVERLAST follows
jukebox. Capable o relation- crazy” …those upset t d Springsteen in not
45s, it’s yours for jus sher, Fred mega-Swede Avicii is ting Donald Trump use
grand. Stitch that, A Audrey, from touring, fear not s music in this case ’93
“They didn’t under ABETH SUPERHANS from nger Jump Around at
dude,” says directo very easy Peep Show is to start D lies. Everlast also offered
Abraham, of the d her as the Declared his earthly av give the Republican
his HANK WILLI n,” says MATT KING (right), ontrunner a knuckle
biopic I Saw The Lig ham. But “Superhans DJing is leg dwich…

MOJO 21
MOJORISING

AMBINAI
Good for the “People who disliked us for
Seoul: Jambinai mixing up the music tried to cast
(from left)
Eunyong Sim, us into the wilderness in Korea, FACT SHEET
Ilwoo Lee and but we were already there. Then G For fans of: Mogwai,
Hard post-rock and Korean trad plunge into Bomi Kim think we won a prize at the national Sigur Rós, Godspeed You!
the void, fuelled by anger and giant zithers. of creatures Black Emperor.
music awards for ‘crossover G Not for fans of: K-Pop,

“S
yet to be
omebody – an old person – said we were ‘music for discovered. album’. We appreciated that, but Gangnam Style.
G The geomungo zither has
masturbation’, and I thought: Yeah! We must be we had just sold a few albums, I
been around since the
doing well. Success means people hate us.” don’t think we had crossed over 4th century and is more than
Speaking from Seoul, Ilwoo Lee, guitarist and piri (flute) to many people.” five-feet long.
More than two years touring G The haegum fiddle is
player with Korea’s post-rock pioneers Jambinai, is made of gold, bamboo,
marvelling at the way audiences in East and West have Différance abroad paid off when wood, leather, thread and a
been split by the trio’s blending of hard rock with their Bella Union signed them last gourd, plus rocks and soil.
autumn after a gig at London’s
homeland’s traditional music.
Rich Mix. Their new album, La
KEY TRACKS
It was while a student at the Korean National University G Time Of Extinction
of the Arts that Lee met Bomi Kim (who plays the fiddle-like Hermitage – “It translates as G Connection
‘eun-seo’,” says Lee, “a creature, G For Everything That
haegum) and Eunyong Sim (the giant geomungo zither).
who is undiscovered. Like You Lost
Faced with spending the rest of their lives playing to family,
fellow students and teachers, they decided to find a way to Jambinai because most people
reach a wider demographic. don’t know us yet” – is released in June and retains their
“We were studying traditional music but we were dark mixture of beauty, whiplash-fast changes in volume
listening to pop, hip hop, rock… I’m a big fan of heavy and spellbinding intensity. What has Lee got to sound so
metal. I read an article about Korean traditional instruments angry about?
that said there was a limit to what they could do, that “When I wrote songs before, I was a member of a
mixing them with metal was impossible. I just thought, Why traditional orchestra that wouldn’t allow me to play as
not? I can play an Eastern instrument and a Western “PEOPLE Jambinai. The job was stressful. The opening song,
instrument, so I’m gonna prove it is possible.” At Korean TRIED TO Wardrobe, is about a bad experience I had then. One of my
traditional music competitions, Lee soon became a regular CAST US superiors got me drunk and tried to make me take a bath
candidate for early elimination. INTO THE with him. So I quit, but the experience gave me a hint of
Their first recordings, the Jambinai EP, were released in WILDERNESS, what I had to do. And angry is my musical taste.”
2011 – “Nothing big successful,” says Lee – but it wasn’t until Lee later backs this up by asterisked email, issuing what
2012’s Différance LP that people started paying attention.
BUT WE could be the Jambinai cri de coeur, and a message to
Both the hard rock of Time Of Extinction and the sweeping, WERE everybody who thinks traditional shouldn’t be mixed with
Sigur Rós-like Connection were YouTube hits, leading to ALREADY modern: “F*** that crazy f***er!”
invitations to play festivals in Europe and the Americas. THERE.” David Hutcheon

22 MOJO
MINDBLOWERS!

FARIS BADWAN
The Horrors/Cat’s Eyes spectre recommends jazz-punk,
holy space-prog and Kraut Konspiracy!

4COZMIC
COZMIC
CORRIDORS

CORRIDORS
(Pyramid, 1973?/ PSI-FI,
Cat’s Eyes’ Treasure House is out on June 3 on Rough Trade

1996)
“Fans of Terry Riley’s Shri 5 RED SHARK
LE FIN
1SPOONFED
LEMON
KITTENS
AND
2 UNIVERSE
UNIVERSE 3 OH-OK WOW
MINI ALBUM
Camel or Julianna
Barwick’s The Magic Place
will like this one…
(Bite Back, 1986)
“This is a totally unknown
(PBR International, 1977) (DB, 1982)
WRITHING meditative synth drones cassette-only album by
“Christian-themed “I picked this up in a record and soundscapes that a band called Red Shark.
(Step-Forward EP, 1979)
space-prog from Dennis shop in Seattle along with sound almost sacred in I’ve had this for years and
“Scratty, erratic, Lee Askew. The record the Fast Product Earcom information on them is
places, produced and
atmospheric post-punk draws from a similar sonic double 7-inch. I had no scarce, although I do have
performed on by Tony
with slight jazz elements, palette to Robert Fripp or idea what it was but the a split 7-inch they did with
‘The Mad Twiddler’
and about as lo-fi as you Yes and is pretty photo of the band on the

Rory Van Millingen


Robinson. There’s so little another band called
can get: I love records that immersive despite only back plus the mention of Strange Men With Guns. At
info available that many of
sound as if they’ve been running for half an hour. Atlanta, Georgia 1981 their best, Red Shark are
the few people aware of it
made with the first Some of the songs are a made me think it was totally fucking insane, like
don’t believe it was a
objects available to hand, little patchy but there are worth a shot. And it’s the live Stooges bootlegs
recording from the 1970s
in an empty basement. some real high points… great! Each of the four or the noisiest Velvet
at all, but the ’90s. Kraut
Singer Karl Blake is maybe and the LP is worth songs are about a minute Underground freakouts
Konspiracy! However, I do
best known for his work in hearing just for Rock In long – they have loads of put through your uncle’s
know the lead singer
the Shock Headed Peters The Sky, an exhilarating personality and an broken car radio. Listening
Pauline Fund – from Metz
(John Peel refused to play Krautrock classic which amateurish charm close to to Thorn In My Side on
– appeared in another
their song I, Bloodbrother has a little of Here Come something like the headphones makes you
band on the same label
Be). The other permanent The Warm Jets about it. Mo-dettes or Big In Japan. feel like you’re being
called Temple who I also
member was Danielle Around the time of One of the members is blown around by a gale
really like… whether
Dax. Like a lot of the best release, Askew was Lynda Stipe, sister of force wind. They actually
either of these actually are
British underground apparently also working Michael Stipe, and the do a version of Sister Ray,
original ’70s recordings
music from the very end of on the Star Trek film band actually played their plus they cover I Wanna Be
remains unconfirmed, as
the ’70s, there’s a real soundtrack, before Jerry first gig when R.E.M. Your Dog twice, which I
no copies have ever
feeling of freedom all the Goldsmith took over.” needed a support for one thought was pretty funny.
surfaced.”
way through this EP. It’s of their early shows.” There’s also a bit of The
the kind of music that Jesus And Mary Chain and
makes me want to start a quite a lot of the Fire
band every time I hear it.” Engines in there.”

“Blown around by
a gale force wind”:
Faris Badwan has
been listening to
Red Shark again.
ROCK’N’ROLLCONFIDENTIAL

LUCINDA WILLIAMS
Does the America you depict in The
Ghosts Of Highway 20 still exist in
reality rather than memory?
The Americana maverick a languid Southern belle; more like a Cryptic chal- Yes, but not as much as before. Instead
cat on a hot tin roof. lenger: Lucinda
on whammies, Dylan and Williams with
of two-lane highways we have
her customised interstate highways now. For instance,
getting hitched on stage. Why such productivity after years of
Trussart guitar. Route 66 had mom’n’pop shops and

F
slow-moving perfectionism?
ar from slowing down now she is signs along the way saying, “Repent
63, Louisiana-born Lucinda I was in a horrible, abusive relation- now!” On the interstate you’re not
Williams is in a very un-Southern ship, then in 2004 my mother passed going through these little towns and
hurry. A career that took years to away. A huge double whammy. When seeing this stuff, but it’s still there. I
bloom only to progress in fits and I got out of the relationship I found have a romantic idea of living where,
starts now has fresh momentum. Her myself writing and writing. Then on for instance, Flannery O’Connor lived
new album, The Ghosts Of Highway 20, January 1, 2015, I lost my father. In on her family farm in Milledgeville,
is a double, released just 18 months between I met my soul mate Tom and Georgia, or Eudora Welty in Jackson,
after its predecessor, Down Where The got married. Life-changing events. BLESSED Mississippi, but the reality would be
Spirit Meets The Bone, also a double. And 30 years ago I was not so secure Lucinda’s Five Hot quite a bit different. I live in Los
Songs almost bleeding with urgency in my craft skills. Not until my thirties, Tunes With Attitude Angeles but I’m getting tired of it –
reflect an artist who really does seem when the Rough Trade album [Lucinda 1 Atmosphere it’s so big. Most of my friends have
to have one less layer of skin; live in Williams, 1988] came out, did I really Flicker (FROM SOUTHSIDERS,
RHYMESAYERS, 2014) moved away to Austin or Nashville. I’ve
London she breaks down seconds into think I can do this. I’d moved to Los 2 Sharon Van Etten lived both places, Houston too. That’s
a song and has to start again: “It’s all Angeles and had some meetings. One Every Time The Sun what I’m used to; when I grew up, we
right, honey,” she reassures her guy said, “Well, I don’t think you’re Comes Up (FROM ARE WE
THERE, JAGJAGUWAR, 2014) moved all over the South. Now I under-
husband and manager, Tom Overby, ready yet. None of your songs have 3 Courtney Barnett stand why Bob Dylan has houses all
side-stage. “I took my medication.” bridges.” I had to contend with that Pedestrian At Best over the place. I’m just a restless,
With Lucinda you get the extra a lot – go back to the drawing board. (FROM SOMETIMES I SIT AND
wandering type.
THINK, SOMETIMES I JUST SIT,
electric crackle of an artist feeling Back in my apartment I got out my Bob MARATHON, 2015)
rather than just talking about the Dylan and Neil Young song books and 4 Melanie De Biasio Your songs often lay down a cryptic
passion. Nor in person do you meet realised that guy was full of shit. No Deal (FROM NO DEAL, challenge to the listener. The
PLAY IT AGAIN SAM, 2013)
5 Savages Mechanics
(FROM ADORE LIFE, MATADOR,
2016)
24 MOJO
subject of If My Love Could Kill is
described but not named; is the LAST NIGHTA RECORD CHANGED MY LIFE
song better for making the listener

KEVIN
speculate? All the musicians had long hair and
I like to leave things open to a degree denims then. Being interested in
clothes, Mr Ferry wearing that white

ROWLAND
of interpretation. I wrote that song
tuxedo was completely outrageous!
about my dad’s Alzheimer’s disease.
It was using nostalgia in a brilliant
I was personifying it as if it was a
way, but being bang up to date as
murderer or thief. I was angry at the
well. I completely understood it.
disease. It seems to attack the most Dexys’ leader salutes Roxy Thank you Ferry
I didn’t buy the album ’til I came to
brilliant minds. My dad’s older brother, much: Kevin
who was head of the chemistry
Music’s 1973 LP Stranded. Rowland (below) Birmingham shortly after that. With

“G
remembers his Stranded, they went to another level.
department at Louisiana State rowing up, when I was nine, white tux epiph- It’s genius. Every song’s a work of art.
University, died from it too. 10, I saw The Beatles any; (bottom)
The production’s amazing, his
the Stranded
coming out. You think, singing’s at its best, the playing’s
Has working with a great musician sleeve, starring
When I’m older, there’ll be bands Marilyn Cole. great… fuckin’ ’ell! Psalm, Just Like
of a previous generation ever
that I can be into. But it wasn’t until You, so beautiful, Serenade, Song For
changed the way you make music?
Roxy came along that I found Europe, Sunset at the end – I can’t
I’ve been asked to co-write a few times something that was happening now think of a more complete album. It
and the results are never that that I could identify with. may be very stylised but there’s
satisfying. I tried to write with John I first heard Virginia Plain in ’72, incredible depth, it’s really straight
Prine once. He’s a nice, funny man. We and not long after that I got the first from the soul, packed with sincerity.
had a ball hanging out – we met for album. I really grew to love it. It was I think they were absolutely at the
drinks then went to his Oh Boy studio avant-garde but at the same time it peak of their powers. I thought to
on Music Row, Nashville, and ended up had beautiful melodies and soul myself, Did he put those clothes on
hanging out ‘til the sun came up, but singing, actually. At first I didn’t to write those songs? I hadn’t got a
we didn’t get a damn bit of work done. know if he was taking the piss, with band then, but I started to think,
Back in the ’90s I was on a bill that vocal style, but when you listen What shall I wear? I started to write
playing arenas with Bob Dylan and to it, it’s genuine yearning. Amazing, about ’75, ’76, and some of my early
Van Morrison. Everyone kept to mate. They were light years ahead of “I THOUGHT, songs did sound a bit Ferry-ish.
themselves; I only saw Bob Dylan everybody. I knew that it was more DID HE PUT I remember sitting in that bedsit
once. The band members were and reading a magazine interview
walking on eggshells because they
than just music. I knew it was art. THOSE
I first heard [single] Street Life in a with him. After the gig, he went to
didn’t know if they were going to be CLOTHES ON a club and danced to one of his own
bedsit in Liverpool in ’73. I’d just
fired from one day to the next. worked the summer season in TO WRITE records. I just thought that was great,
Nobody seemed to be having a good Butlins and was working in Oscar THOSE y’know. Why wouldn’t he?”
time. What I learned was that I didn’t Hood’s clothes shop selling suits. SONGS?” As told to Ian Harrison
want to be doing it like this. Then I was wearing double-breasted Let The Record Show: Dexys Do Irish
Your recent albums showcase rock chalk stripe suits, with wide Oxford And Country Soul is out on June 3 on
guitar-playing like the classics of bag trousers and big clumpy shoes. 100%/Rhino.
yore. Who is your all-time favourite
rock guitarist?
I love guitar-based bands. I’d have to
say Keith Richards. And ZZ Top with
Billy Gibbons. And I listen to a lot of
blues, so Robert Johnson and
Mississippi Fred McDowell.
You and Sly Stone: musicians who
got married on stage…
Hank Williams too. We were getting
ready to tour, and were discussing
where and when to get married. I just
wanted to invite everyone, so I said
Why don’t we get married on stage?
Tom’s family are from Minneapolis,
and then the First Avenue – where
Prince filmed Purple Rain – came up.
We did the show and exchanged vows
at the encore. My dad wrote the vows
and a good family friend was licensed
to marry us. It was all very rock’n’roll –
I wore black; it didn’t even occur to
me to wear white.
Tell the readers something you’ve
never told anyone else before…
I don’t watch TV as a rule but there is
one channel I love – ID (Investigation
Discovery). It’s all true-crime recon-
structions with interviews with the
actual victims and so on. And I like
certain horror films like Silence Of The
Lambs and Psycho. It’s what I do on
the tour bus instead of drugs.
Mat Snow
FACT SHEET
G For Fans Of: Suicide, Serge
Gainsbourg, The Stooges
(“with Ron Asheton”).
G “Cinema and music
share the same importance
for us,” says Lionel, who
recommends Jean-Luc
Godard’s A Bout De Souffle,
Animal House and Jean
MOJORISING Gabin’s movies “before and
after WW2”.

THE LIMIÑANAS
G At live shows the duo
veteran Pascal Comelade and a throw in a few covers.
B-sides compilation followed. The Randy Alvey’s Green Fuz
duo’s fifth album Malamore, is, like and The Lords Of The New
its predecessors, full of baroque Church’s Russian Roulette are
From the Mediterranean culture Cuisine genii: currently in the set.
The Limiñanas’ guitar riffs, trance-educing drum
crossroads, psych-pop garage flavour Lionel and Marie loops and cinematic atmospheres. KEY TRACKS
reflect on sec- G My Black Sabbath
with a burning urge to live. Recorded in their home studio, the
ond chances. G Kostas

A
duo’s output has been enhanced G Je Ne Suis Pas Trés Drogué
s song subjects go, listing an old family recipe by collaborators ranging from oud
sounds tasty, but hardly artful. However, for the players to chanteuses, Peter Hook
French duo The Limiñanas, culinary instructions to Francesca Cusimano, an Italian co-worker from Lionel’s
proved to be the starting point for their chic brand of old office job who had “a great accent”.
garage-rock infused psych. The open approach is in part due to Perpignan’s status
“We didn’t have any particular plan or ambition when as a crossroads city. Informed by Catalan, Jewish, French
we started,” explains guitarist/singer Lionel Limiñana of and Algerian family roots, ideas and cultural strands that
how the tempting recipe ended up as the lyrics for Migas “WE DECIDED have travelled across the Mediterranean also pepper the
2000, one of the first songs he and his drumming/vocalist TO RECORD band’s sound. “The Limiñanas are a combination of all these
wife Marie recorded. MUSIC elements,” says Lionel, noting the clearest example of their
Hailing from Perpignan, a French Mediterranean port AND LIVE multicultural approach are their lyrics, sung in English,
close to the Spanish border, the pair played in various punk INTENSE LIFE French and Italian. “It’s different each time,” he explains.
acts before opening their record shop, Vinyl Maniac. Their “You should choose the right language according to the
next collaboration, The Limiñanas, took on a more serious SITUTIONS.” type of sound, the riff. I think Italian and English are the two
focus after the family were caught up in the 2010 Haitian best languages for pop music. The Italian pop sound is
earthquake while visiting the country to adopt their son. crazy, really classy.”
“When we went back from Port-Au-Prince, we decided It’s an effective melting pot. Speaking of cooking, what’s
to do exactly what we want!” says Lionel of the life-chang- the Migas 2000 recipe actually like? “Migas are a Spanish
ing experience – at the last minute they changed hotels, popular dish including bread, crumbs and meats,” Lionel
and their original choice collapsed in the quake. “In short: says. “The song is the exact recipe of my grandmother, if
record music and live intense life situations. The principle you follow her instructions you will obtain a delicious dish,
of second chance.” but you must have a strong stomach!” Guts – something
After gaining attention via venerable social network The Limiñanas possess in spades.
MySpace, four full albums, a joint record with French Paul Stokes

ALSORISING
“I naturally sound like I’ve come from the 1920s,”
says jazz-informed London voice ALA.NI .
Delivered in tones pure and unaffected, her
A lready a respected solo guitarist in the under-
ground scene in the US, CHRIS FORSYTH
(left, seated far right) has drilled down into the
poised, emotionally charged songs full of motherlode of American rock with the formation of
implication see the smouldering Ol’ Fashioned THE SOLAR MOTEL BAND. Their second
Kiss can be heard on her album You & I, which long-player, The Rarity Of Experience, is an ecstatic
gets its UK release in June. A former backing singer homage to just about every great dual-guitar band
for Damon Albarn and Mary J. Blige, Ala.ni’s the US has ever produced, from Neil Young & Crazy
Marc Velavaud, Alex Jonas,

great uncle was the ’30s cabaret star Hutch Horse and the Grateful Dead to Television and
Hutchinson the inspiration for Jack Ross in Sonic Youth. “What I do is obviously informed by
Downton Abbey and she says, “I took a lot of history,” says Forsyth, before concluding: “But it’s
confidence from Great Uncle Hutch’s achieve- about what you do with the past, by running it
ments… I live in a freer world, so I should not fear through your own filter and coming up with a
being who I am.” Ian Harrison personal statement.” Joe Banks

26 MOJO
CARGO COLLECTIVE
AN AMALGAMATION OF RECORD SHOPS AND LABELS DEDICATED TO BRINGING YOU NEW MUSIC

A DEAD FOREST ORCHESTRA OF DEATH AND JESSE LANZA AMANDA SULK


INDEX SPHERES VANILLA OH NO BERGMAN NO ILLUSIONS
IN ALL THAT DRIFTS BROTHERS AND SISTERS DEATH AND VANILLA / HYPERDUB DOCKS PERFECT SOUND FOREVER
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SHOCK
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MOJOEYEWITNESS

THE SAGA OF
CHEAP TRICK AT
BUDOK AN, 1978
The cartoony Illinois rockers were making slow
progress in the US until a hysteric Beatle-
mania-like Japanese tour resulted in a break-
through live album. But what exactly went on
there, and was it all just an insane accident?

“THE
MANAGER
SAID, ‘NO
ONE OUTSIDE
OF JAPAN IS
GOING TO
SEE THIS…’”
PART 1 “IT MADE OUR CAREER.”
Cheap Trick bassist Tom Petersson recalls
screams, fortuity and offensive vinyl.

“I
n our minds, we were doing all right. We’d recorded
three albums, for a major label, and we’d had great
press and reviews. But none of the first three Cheap
Trick albums had sold. We’d had a bit of regional populari-
ty, like in Buffalo and San Diego, but we were still playing
dumpy clubs, Shakey’s Pizza Parlor, places like that.
Audiences didn’t know what to make of us, they thought
we looked weird, or like The Monkees, a put-together act.
They didn’t get the lyrical content either: we had songs
about suicide and mass murder, like scary nursery rhymes.
To us, we were pop, but heavier, funny, scary, dark. Epic
didn’t know how to promote us. We’d get comments like,
‘You guys would be great if you dressed the guitar player
[Rick Nielsen] up like Hendrix, and the drummer like
Bowie.’ For us, it was just us being us, being natural. Which
is what the Japanese liked about us.
We’d toured with all sorts of acts, like The Kinks, Kiss,
Rush, Kansas, Queen. Whether it made sense or not, we
did it, but the Japanese music press were at all those
shows, and that’s when it started to roll for us. We’d
started getting drawings of the band and all sorts of funny
stuff from Japan, they clearly got a kick out of this
strange-looking group. They saw us as cartoon charac-
ters, and they liked the music too. So we went off to Japan.
We discovered I Want You To Want Me had been a hit
there, but we’d dropped it from our set – we thought it
hadn’t caught on anywhere, and we were really unhappy
with the studio version, it was really wimpy. Epic had
pushed for a radio-friendly version that ruined it. But the
promoter couldn’t believe we’d dropped it, he said to
throw it back in, and it became the biggest hit from the
live At Budokan album when it was released.
First, Epic in Japan wanted to do a TV documentary, so
they filmed a few shows, and then said they’d love to
release a live album, just for Japan. We said, Sure, though
Long ago, high on a mountain
Robin and I hated the photo they chose for the cover, it
in Tokyo: Cheap Trick assume looked like we were midgets, with our teeth knocked out,
‘American Beatles’ majesty in and no necks. The manager said that classic line, ‘Don’t
Japan (from left) Bun E Carlos, worry, no one outside of Japan is going to see this…’
Robin Zander, Rick Nielsen and
Tom Petersson; (bottom row, Then we got back to the US, to the normal grind,
from left) advertising proof of touring like crazy. But the album started to get radio play
their growing fame; on-stage worldwide, and started selling on import, but outselling
at Budokan; the venue; the our other records, and at three or four times the price of a
cover and offending vinyl of …
At Budokan; plus the Japanese normal album. So Epic finally decided to release it
45 of I Want You To Want Me. worldwide. Our producer Tom Werman fought against it,
because we had a new studio album in the can, but the
bean counters prevailed. First At Budokan was released in
the UK, on what they called ‘Kamikaze
yellow vinyl’, which was pretty insulting,
but we didn’t find out until afterwards.
Then came Canada, and it went platinum
there before the US released it, which
shows how much faith Epic had in us then!
Live albums aren’t my favourite, but it does
sound exciting because of the audience. It
was like Beatlemania, all the young girls
screaming. People thought we had
dubbed them in but we had a hard time
getting them out of the mix.
I also think we got lucky. Peter Frampton
had sold something like 20 million of his
live album [Frampton Comes Alive!]. We
didn’t sell nearly as many, it was a few million, but
since we’d only sold around 75,000 of our studio
Getty Images/Shinko Music (2), Alamy

albums, we weren’t complaining! Without it, Epic


probably would have dropped us. But Budokan
dragged our other records along and really made a
career for us. If there was one downside, it was that
people thought acts who were big in Japan were a
novelty, or teenybopper act, meaningless every-
where else, and not heavy enough to be a rock act.
And for a year, we had to do press in Japanese
restaurants. But what the hell, we’ll take it.”

TURN OVER! FRONTMAN ROBIN ZANDER ON MOBS,


COPS AND WILD ADORATION…

MOJO 29
PART 2“A DREAM… AND A BIT OF A NIGHTMARE.”

THE SAGA OF CHEAP Purple show, so security was really


tight. Shows in Japan are on the early

TRICK AT BUDOK AN, 1978


side, so it was like playing in daylight,
which meant the atmosphere was
calmer. The audiences were allowed
and saw a commotion on the rooftop Divine mattress: to scream and clap and react only at
Cheap Trick singer Robin Cheap Trick live certain times, like between songs, and
of the airport, I thought the president
Zander on excitement, must be here or something. We got off
it up in Japan, when we played, they’d quieten down
’78; (below, from
danger and guerrilla the plane and there must have been left) a fan maga- to almost nothing.
hairdressing. five thousand there, screaming and zine; Tokyo We played two Budokan shows,
and then other cities around Japan. We

“W
crowd control.
yelling our names! Security was totally
e’d received some unprepared, we got chased through mostly travelled by bullet train, but
interesting Japanese fan the airport, there was a stream of 50 getting to the stations was chaos too.
mail, especially these cars following us down the freeway. At Kids were getting pushed out of the
comic books. The Japanese like to turn the hotel, they’d closed off the way by cars that were jamming us in,
actors and musicians into comic books windows in our rooms with masking just for a glimpse or a photo of us, and
– they’d have Kiss and Queen and then tape and sheets, with security on then we’d be literally carried through,
us as their younger brothers. We every exit. Everyone was in shock. We four guys around each of us, a
anticipated people would come see almost got thrown out of the hotel “SECURITY thousand kids there, all those piercing
our shows in Japan, but when we got when Tom and I waved at some fans. WAS voices, screaming. One girl tried to cut
to Tokyo, we were taxiing down the some of my hair off with scissors, and
runway and I looked outsi
They went mad, and ran across BEATING jabbed me in the back of the neck, one
d, and almost got THE CROWD
y a bus. It was tore the sleeve off my jacket, the
nderfully exciting BACK WITH security officers were beating the
ut dangerous and BATONS.” crowd back with batons, complete
cary too. mayhem. Bun E [Carlos] and Rick got
For the first the same attention, if not more. They
udokan gig, they were after Rick’s hat and Bun E’s glasses.
ent mail trucks to We did go out to eat once or twice, but
ck us up, with no only as a gang. Everyone around us had
ndows, or even seats, to be bodyguards, even our road crew
’d b i i and tour manager – their briefcases
eapons and shields. So it
building i s dream come true, and a
they’d had ma t of a nightmare too. But it
rallies there, a as unforgettable, one of
wrestling, but e high points of my life.”
the first show Martin Aston
Getty Images

since some fan eap Trick’s Bang Zoom Crazy…


been trample lo is out now on Big Machine
killed at a Dee ords.

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neilyoung.com
An ITB presentation
ONTHE ROAD

GO TELL IT ON, LAMONT


Playing a secret New York willing to sit with MOJO for an Never Mind The initially appreciate. “Like those albums
Ouroboros: Ray
hour-and-a-half when he usually this isn’t about songs or singles,” he
gig, Maine introvert Ray curtails interviews after 15 minutes,
LaMontagne
says. “This is a long story arc where
plays the Lodge,
talks opening up, being a the Ray who has gone from intense Manhattan, patience is the most important thing.”
blacksmith and mysticism. singer-songwriter on 2004 debut March 2, 2016;
(below) in out-
He’s not alone in hoping that his

W
album Trouble to Ouroboros’s doors mode. audience will take the leap with Ourob-
alking into the Lodge, a neo-prog rocker. Along the way he’s oros. As one of his team admits,
rooftop Manhattan bar that explored blue-eyed Stax (see You Are Supernova created not so much a
looks like Grizzly Adams’ log The Best Thing from 2008’s Gossip In backlash among his fans as “hesitan-
cabin re-imagined on Etsy, Ray The Grain), dirt-under-the-fingernails cy”. That he’s not touring the album
LaMontagne’s eyes widen. “Wow,” he Americana on Grammy-winning God until June is partly due to the
says quietly. “This looks just like my Willin’ & The Creek Don’t Rise, and the commitments of his backing band, My
home.” Hardly an exclamation of light psychedelia of 2014’s Supernova. Morning Jacket minus James, and also
Kanye West proportions, but from this Ouroboros leaps through the portal to allow fans to bed in with the album.
notoriously retiring singer-songwriter
even a low-key revelation is akin to
opened by Supernova, but where the “MY Not that anyone’s panicking too
latter wafted along with a hint of The much. LaMontagne’s team have been
him shouting “I am a golden god” from Zombies’ Odessey And Oracle, the new
FOUNDATION
marching to the singer’s erratic,
a hotel balcony. album reaches for the full Dark Side Of IS SO headstrong drum for over a decade.
The Lodge is part of the fictional The Moon. STRONG, Childhood saw the young Ray
McKittrick Hotel, supposedly locked Slightly dismissive YOU CAN’T criss-crossing the country with his
up and forgotten a week after opening but not entirely SHAKE THIS mother and five half-siblings, and he
in 1939, but in reality a Chelsea ware- displeased with
house dressed down to the shabby chic
HOUSE.” now covets stability above all else.
the comparison, “People just thought we were
nines as the set for interactive theatre what he and the trailer trash,” he says. “It was hard and
piece Sleep No More. LaMontagne is album’s producer, really scary.”
here for the live debut of his sixth My Morning Jacket’s Married for six years and with two
album, Ouroboros, in front of 250 people Jim James, were young sons before he scored his RCA
in a downstairs bar. He’s clearly jittery. specifically contract, he earned a reputation in
“I really hate shows where you can reaching for was some quarters as difficult.
see the audience’s eyes,” he says in his the feel of Talk “I wasn’t a kid, I was a grown-up
church mouse voice. “I prefer the big Talk’s epic Spirit with real responsibilities and I had no
shows where there’s 30 metres Of Eden and problem saying no,” he says.
between you and the crowd.” Laughing Stock No surprise, then, that LaMontagne
Brian Stowell (9), Rex

The sentiment’s not surprising albums. It’s measures his success differently to
coming from a man once given to a reach he other people. An early school-leaver,
performing with the lights off because concedes his he eked out a living as a carpenter and
he couldn’t bear to be on stage. This, fans may married his childhood sweetheart
however, is Ray LaMontagne 2.0, struggle to Sarah Sousa, now a successful poet.

32 MOJO
REPTILE COUNSEL
LaMontagne on occult snakes
and recording as sleep-driving.
According to his PR, Ray LaMontagne’s
new album Ouroboros came to him in
a dream. Coupled with the ancient
symbol that gives it its title a circular,
dragon-like serpent eating its own tail,
signifying constant renewal (see below)
Hey, Manhattan: LaMontagne built the couple’s first As they play through Ouroboros’s it suggests deep mysticism. Well, not
(clockwise from house where they home-schooled softly atmospheric opener Homecom- quite. “For the record, I would never say
top left) Ray’s that,” he says. “[To say] that it’s some kind
band (from left) their two sons and, after a musical ing, the band eyeball each other
epiphany in his early twenties, he nervously, but what begins hesitantly of prophetic thing is just ridiculous.”
bassist Tom
The album’s genesis was really more
Blankenship, decided to become a songwriter. quickly locks in during Hey, No phlegmatic. LaMontagne says he “never
guitarist Carl Unfortunately, that meant leaving the Pressure. No one – the band, the
Broemel, drum- noodles” at home, and for a long time
mer Patrick family in their cabin, hauling water audience – seems to breathe until could not see how the album’s individual
Hallahan; from an outside well, while he toured. they’ve played the entire album, pieces would fit together. “But you know
Blankenship “Now, I’m sitting here after six spiralling up into the cosmic heights when you’re driving for a long time, then
with pedals; the albums that I’m proud of on a major of The Changing Man and back down you lay down and start driving in your
setlist; back-
label, my eldest son is about to go to to In My Own Way then out through sleep? It was kind of like that, and just
stage guitar
stash; Broemel college, I’ve got my own farm… that’s blissful final track Wouldn’t It Make suddenly all the puzzle pieces fit.”
and keysman Bo success,” he says, almost shaking with A Lovely Photograph. Recording new demos of the tracks
Koster (right); emotion, fist clutched to his chest. “My The night’s performance is a close the next day, he emailed them to
the band admire producer Jim James, who wanted to
the skyline; foundation is so strong, you can’t copy of the album, although by release the album exactly as it was. “It was
showbill. shake this house. You can not shake it.” tomorrow’s Late Show appearance just harmonies and guitars,” says
As well as his west Massachusetts Hey, No Pressure has already taken on LaMontagne. “Beautiful in a stark way, but
retreat, he also discusses his hobby – a harder, less cosmic edge. I wouldn’t release it even as a bonus disc.
possibly unique amongst his peers in No one is ever again going to call I’m very proud of what we did in the studio.”
rock – of blacksmithing, noting, “the LaMontagne a folk singer after
smell and the tools are so beautiful.” Ouroboros. Not that he cares much.
By now the MMJ boys can be heard He’s still a man on the move, but
soundchecking downstairs, and we tonight’s performance was, in fact, the
head off to join them. After a quick play antithesis of the Ray LaMontagne who
through Ouroboros’s nominal lead used to perform with the lights off.
track, Hey, No Pressure, the band “Yeah, I don’t do that any more,
ambles backstage to discuss “technical people just yell at you,” he says with a
shit”. Mostly that discussion concerns chuckle. “These are my least favourite
LaMontagne’s stage position. gigs in the entire world, but it’s
Uncomfortable being front and centre, necessary. Well, I’ve been told it’s
by showtime he’s moved himself necessary.” Even Ray LaMontagne
stage-left, square on to the rest of the does what he’s told sometimes.
band rather than facing the audience. Andy Fyfe

OJO 33
TIMEMACHINE

MAY 1985 ...THE


Honest to Gordy:
(above) Patti
LaBelle (left)

HARLEM APOLLO’S
and Diana Ross
at the Apollo/
Motown bash;

MOTOWN BIRTHDAY
(inset) the
Japanese laser
disc release of one that was closed down after the
the night; death by shooting of an eight-year-old
(below) outside boy. Following a series of further ups
James Brown once their gold-braided top officers filled
MAY 5 claimed he would rather the blocked-off street. Motown sure
the venue.
and downs, it was bought by
play for the ‘old folks’ at the Harlem knows how to throw a party.” African-American media company
Apollo than at the White House. Elvis The Apollo had been kicked around Inner City Broadcasting in 1983,
Presley, during his first trip to New in its time. It started life in 1913 as receiving federal and city landmark
York, sat in the stalls there, transfixed Hurtig & Seamon’s New Burlesque status the same year. A multimillion
as he watched Bo Diddley send the theatre, a ‘whites-only’ venue. When dollar renovation prepared the theatre
audience into a frenzy. The Beatles, burlesque was banned by New York’s “PATTI for its star-studded reopening.
too, placed it on their ‘must-visit’ list mayor in 1932, the venue closed and LABELLE The Motown Returns To The Apollo
when they made it to the Big Apple. fell into disrepair until 1934, when it HIT THE show wasn’t short on glitz. Pop-soul
Just a few of the reasons why on reopened as the 125th Street Apollo. singer El DeBarge was on first, singing
POWER SOUL his hit Rhythm Of The Night; The New
May 4, 1985, a large number of men For a while it became the Mecca of all
wearing tuxedos, accompanied by an things great in black music, helping to BUTTON York Times reported that his “vibrant,
array of spectacularly dressed women, launch the careers of Ella Fitzgerald, WITH upbeat performance set the tone for a
gathered at the subway station at Dionne Warwick, The Jackson 5 and APLOMB.” musical event that brought together
Rockefeller Center on New York’s 49th scores of others. But by 1976 it was on such diverse talents as James Brown,
Street and Sixth Avenue. They were the skids again – a seedy movie fleapit, Cab Calloway, Sammy Davis Jr, Little
there to go to the theatre’s 50th Richard, Smokey Robinson, Diana
anniversary celebrations and gala oss, Sarah Vaughan and Stevie
reopening with Motown Returns To Wonder, along with white British
The Apollo, a TV special with a host of singers associated with soul music like
the label’s stars. Guests duly piled Rod Stewart and George Michael of
aboard a special 1948 A-train to the duo Wham!”
Harlem’s 125th Street, where, after To that list can be added the names
being serenaded by Motown hits en of Billy Preston, The Four Tops, Boy
route, they exited to walk two blocks George, Luther Vandross, Lou Rawls,
of red carpet leading to the Apollo. Wilson Pickett, Thelma Houston, Billy
“At that moment, 125th must have Eckstine and more. Sarah Vaughan
been the safest place in the world,” performed Body And Soul, the song
film-maker Charles J Dorkins told Jet that won her first prize at the Apollo’s
magazine: “Thousands of cops with famed Amateur Talent night many

34 MOJO
In the Strummer
time: (from left)
ALSO THIS Joe Strummer, Nick

MONTH Sheppard and Pete


Howard keep the Clash
fire buring.
years before. Other past Apollo heroes
such as Duke Ellington, Nat King Cole,
Jimmie Lunceford and Moms Mabley
appeared on screened archival
footage.
A young Sammy Davis Jr also made
his presence felt via filmed material,
before returning in the flesh to lead an
array of legendary dancers, including
Sandman Sims, Bunny Briggs and
Harold Nicholas in one of the evening’s
most memorable moments. The show
closed with the whole cast assembling
on-stage for version of Foreigner’s I
Wanna Know What Love Is.
Diana Ross had been appearing in
Atlantic City that very day, but flew
back in time to take part in the grand
finale. She appeared leading the cast,

…THE
standing out-front and clutching a
hand microphone. Then she made a
fatal mistake, and handed the mike on
to the next singer – who happened to

CLASH
be Patti LaBelle.
LaBelle had been involved in a
grudge match with Miss Ross since

BUSK IT
Cindy Birdsong had quit Patti’s Blue
Belles in 1967 to become part of The
Supremes. Given the opportunity to
upstage Ross, she hit the power soul
The post-Mick Jones
button with aplomb, raising cheers MAY 3 five-man Clash line-up
from the Apollo audience.
“She gave me the mike and I used begin a busking tour of Britain
it,” said Patti. The two divas never with a gig at Nottingham’s Garage Club. Bumming rides, sleeping at fans’
spoke again until meeting at Oprah’s houses or in poky B&Bs, for subsistence they pass the hat round after playing
Legends Ball in 2005. “We sat at the acoustic sets of old and new material and rock’n’roll covers. Guitarist Vince
same table,” LaBelle recalled. And, White later calls this “the best time” of his tenure with the group. It also proves
after years of ignoring each other, she to be the band’s last great statement: by the time the much-maligned Cut The
and Ross started talking and eventually Crap album is released in November, The Clash are over bar the shouting.
exchanged phone numbers.
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UNCOMMON MAN Cramer, to Jerry Lee Lewis and Little Moogy wonder- which leapt in the air and threatened
1944-2016 Sensitive soul,
joy-bringing Richard… all the while reckoning land: Keith
Emerson on-
to demolish the stage. Some debut.
himself “a serious child who used to stage with Through to 1978 they released
exhibitionist and keyboard walk around with Beethoven sonatas Emerson, Lake & seven studio albums – the damp squib
maestro Keith Emerson under my arm”. Palmer in 1974;
(below) Keith in
Love Beach emerged after they’d split
died on March 10. Barely touched by formal training, recent years.
– and two lives, which probably
portrayed them best, dynamics to

I
he graduated from the Worthing
t may be that even his death, by his Youth Swing Orchestra to joining Gary dynamite: Pictures At An Exhibition
own hand, expressed Keith Farr And The T-Bones and The V.I.P.s (1971) and Welcome Back, My Friends,
Emerson’s total immersion in music. (1966-67) on the R&B circuit before To The Show That Never Ends… Ladies
His long-time girlfriend, Mari forming a backing band for former- And Gentlemen, Emerson, Lake & Palmer
Kawaguchi, who found his body at Ikette-gone-solo P.P. Arnold. (1974). Five of them hit both the UK
their Santa Monica apartment, told a They turned into The Nice (1967-70): Top 10 and US Top 20.
Daily Mail reporter he was “a sensitive Emerson plus bassist/singer Lee Throughout, Emerson careered
soul” tormented with worry about Jackson and drummer Brian Davison. from genre to genre, often crash-
planned farewell concerts in Japan They gigged non-stop and recorded cutting from classical grandeur to jazz
because worsening nerve damage to four albums, as Emerson developed the heat or his own radical discordant
his right hand and arm – he’d had rumbustious musical and performance escapades for dramatic effect… or for a
surgery in 1993 – might prevent him elements he brought to ELP. laugh. Throughout, he broke ribs, broke
meeting his own “perfectionist” He rocked Bach, Bartók and his nose, ripped fingernails off, burnt or
standards. She added that derogatory Copland. He hauled his 350-pound stabbed sundry body parts and came
comments on social media following Hammond up on one corner and spun up smiling along with his fans. Once in
his final concert last year at London’s it like a top, and stabbed it with two Brighton the Tarkus armadillo-tank
Barbican in July had hit him hard. Hitler Youth knives (presented to him thing (don’t know? don’t ask) filled his
Although Emerson generally by roadie Lemmy Kilmister), producing piano with bits of polystyrene snow
seemed a light-hearted interviewee, wondrous new noises and much and on came the road crew armed
this echoes past hints that, hilarity (the flying piano did come “WE’VE with rock’n’roll dustpans and brushes.
intermittently, he’d suffered to the later). He heard Walter/ Wendy Carlos’s STUCK TO “The audience loved it,” Emerson
core the artist-performer’s exposed groundbreaking Moog synthesizer OUR told me, “they sat there fascinated as
vulnerabilities. album Switched-On Bach (1968), loved the road crew took the whole action of
When he composed his Piano
HERITAGE,
it, bought one as soon as he could the piano out, hoovered it on both
Concerto No. 1 (Works Volume 1, 1977) afford it and worked with its inventor, NOT sides, reassembled it and I came back
he admitted partial motivation from Bob, on constant improvements. Urged PRETENDED and did my solo.”
rock critics carping that he adapted to write his own material by manager TO BE Such was the joy of being Keith
classical pieces because he couldn’t Andrew Loog Oldham, as per Jagger SOMETHING Emerson. His final extravaganza –
write his own; he wanted to prove and Richards, he came up with The Five WE’RE NOT.” insisting on a 70-piece orchestra for
himself, he said – “Look, I’m a Bridges Suite (Five Bridges, 1970). ELP’s 1977 American tour – may have
composer!” And when this writer By which time he’d already realised sunk the band fiscally, but they went
interviewed him in 1991, amid fond he needed the greater oomph of King down all guns blazing. And no doubt
reminiscences, he said: “We did get a Crimson bassist/singer Greg Lake and he relished most of his post-megastar
hammering. They said we were doing Atomic Rooster drummer Carl Palmer, ventures in movie soundtracks,
it just from a ‘How clever I am!’ point of and started ELP. After one warm-up supergroups, solo and orchestral
view. But we never did.” Instead, he gig, they debuted at the Isle Of Wight albums and gigs, autobiography
insisted that ELP, a prog-rock band Festival, Saturday, August 29, 1970, (Pictures Of An Exhibitionist, 2003)
routinely dubbed alongside The Who and and reunions with both The Nice
“pretentious”, stood for Miles Davis. Concluding (2002) and ELP (1991-98; they last
their own kind of musical their unbridled version of played together at the High Voltage
honesty: “Whereas a lot of Mussorgsky’s Pictures At Festival, London, July 25, 2010).
bands from our An Exhibition, they fired Emerson is survived by Mari
generation developed two cannons Emerson had Kawaguchi, his former wife Elinor, and
their style from black picked up “on the Kings their two sons, Aaron and Damon.
blues bands, I think you Road” (so he told me) Phil Sutcliffe
can see that we’ve stuck to THE LEGACY
our heritage, what we Album: Emerson, Lake
really know, not & Palmer – Brain Salad
pretended to be SSurgery (Manticore, 1973).
The Sound: Blake’s grand
something we’re not.” hymn Jerusalem,
But that argument Ginastera’s tumbling
didn’t give his wildly Toccata, their own
eclectic musical scope due 30-minute rumpus at all
points of the musical
credit. An evacuee war compass Karn Evil… and,
baby born in Todmorden, well, Benny The Bouncer
Yorkshire, he then grew up with Lake future-
in Goring, Sussex, son of a channelling Ian Dury.
Emerson unbound: he
telephone engineer cum hammered the keys and
amateur pianist who hammered dow
encouraged him to wall ever built.
explore. So he bounded
Photoshot, Barry Plummer

from show-biz joanna merchants like


Joe Henderson and Russ Conway, to
diverse jazz pianists André Previn,
George Shearing and Keith Jarrett and
Hammond organists Jack McDuff and
Jimmy Smith, to Nashville’s Floyd

38 MOJO
He could

FRANK
kick it:
Phife Dawg.
SINATRA JR
SINGER,
ARRANGER,
SON
BORN 1944
Right from the
start, lumbered
with that name,
Frank Sinatra Jr
lived in his
father’s shadow.
He grew up
around rehearsals,
recordings, always listening. As
a singer, he sounded like dad; an
echo of greatness. In December
1963, aged 19, mere months into
his own singing career, Junior
was kidnapped. After Frank paid
the ransom, Junior led the FBI
back to the kidnappers, based
solely on the sounds of the journey.
Always listening. At the trial,
accused of collaborating with his
abductors as a publicity stunt,
PHIFE DAWG tor to the group’s 1990 debut –
source of their biggest UK hit, the
onwards (they made their final
public appearance last November
something broke. Frank Jr turned
inward, bitter, living a solitary life
A TRIBE CALLED Lou Reed/Blockheads-sampling 13, performing Can I Kick It? on on the road. He had a great talent,
QUEST’S FIVE FOOT Can I Kick It? – Phife would be a The Tonight Show). A keen sports best heard outside of standards,
ASSASSIN fully-fledged member for 1991’s fan, he was working on a as on 1971’s Black Night and Was
BORN 1970 jazz-informed landmark The Low biographical solo album at the (Not Was)’s Wedding Vows In
End Theory. The group would time of his death from complica- Vegas. In 1988, Junior became his
To fans of Queens hip hop continue to shift platinum with tions related to diabetes on March father’s arranger, but there was
philosophers A Tribe Called Quest, Midnight Marauders (1993) and 22. On April 5, a celebration of his often a cruelty in dad’s on-stage
Phife Dawg’s deft, upbeat raps Beats, Rhymes And Life (1996), but life at the Harlem Apollo saw treatment of his son. This writer
were an essential and grounding they would not record after ’98’s luminaries including Grandmaster met Frank Sinatra Jr a few years
counterpoint to his co-rhymer The Love Movement. Phife released Flash, Chuck D, Kanye West, back and he seemed resigned,
Q-Tip’s more cerebral wordplay. his sole solo album Ventilation: Da D’Angelo, KRS-One and The Roots tired. But he knew his music.
Born Malik Taylor, he met Q-Tip LP in 2000, and reunited with his old pay their respects. Always listening.
when he was two: a guest contribu- band for live shows from 2004 Ian Harrison Andrew Male

THEY ALSOSERVED
Sony Archive, Alamy

DJ Derek,
none
dreader.

40 MOJO
<· <Ö ï 8¸J ï @·
<­J¿ 8¹ C¬< <¬K¾

THE MOJO INTERVIEW

“Jazz is bigger than the


Earth!” declares sax god
Sonny Rollins, and he should
know. He’s watched history,
and jazz, unfold from
A Great Day In Harlem to
9/11. And at 85, he’s still
growing, still blowing.
Interview by DAVID FRICKE t Portrait by ETHAN HILL

N AUGUST 12, 1958, 57 MUSICIANS as if envisioning scenes on the other side of his eyelids. Then he

O
from jazz’s first half-century posed in front suddenly turns to you with a laser-like gaze to emphasise a vital
of a brownstone on East 126th Street in New point. The effect, over two non-stop hours, is akin to one of his
York City for Esquire photographer Art Kane. fabled, epic-length solos. “I don’t feel the flow,” Rollins says at one
That portrait came to be known as point, describing his state of mind as he improvises. “I’m in it.”
A Great Day In Harlem, an array of giants, Rollins has a new album, Road Shows, Vol. 4, part of a series of
among them trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie, dynamic live anthologies drawn from his last three decades of
big-band maestro Count Basie and a rising tenor saxophonist, touring. He has been off the road since 2012, coping with a lung
Sonny Rollins, then 27. Today, only two legends survive from that condition that he traces to the September 11, 2001 terrorist
photo: trumpeter Benny Golson, 87, and Rollins. attack on the World Trade Center. Rollins lived a few blocks
Born to parents from the US Virgin Islands and raised in from the devastation.
Harlem, the 85-year-old has been a titanic figure in every era of “I ingested a lot of that toxic stuff,” he explains. Yet only four
modern jazz – bebop, hard bop, free jazz, even fusion – since his days later, Rollins gave an incandescent, memorial performance in
earliest sideman sessions in 1949 for pianist Bud Powell and Boston, later released as Without A Song: The 9/11 Concert.
trombonist J.J. Johnson. Since, he has made He has been frustrated by his enforced
more than 50 albums under his own name, WE’RE NOTWORTHY time off. “I’m a guy that used to practise
including such historical leaps in vision and incessantly – it was quite a change not to be
improvising as 1956’s Saxophone Colossus; the able to play at all,” Rollins says. “But it’s
1958 civil rights broadside Freedom Suite; and coming,” he adds, that hawk-like profile
The Bridge, Rollins’ 1962 comeback from a breaking into a smile through his full white
legendary exile in private study. beard. “I’m going to blow my horn again.”
“I came up in the golden days,” says Rollins
When did you first realise that you had your
today, sheltering from a late-winter snowstorm own sound as a saxophonist?
inside his Woodstock home, bundled against
I had my heroes, starting from Coleman Hawkins
the chill in a red ski cap and green wool jacket. and [pianist] Fats Waller, people that I listened to
His voice is a deceptively drowsy growl. He and emulated. I learned as much from them as
often enters an anecdote with eyes half-closed, I could. I was playing in kid bands, and older ➢

MOJO 43
¢ anything about royalties. The record company
guys would say, “Wow, man, that’s great.” completely bogus. I had just finished junior high
My heroes would begin telling me that. Then school, and was going to this new high school slapped my name on it so they would get half
I realised I had something. opening in Little Italy, the one on the east side of of the action.
Harlem. It was a beautiful new school and the Don’t Stop The Carnival [first recorded in
Who was your first hero to say you “had beginning of racial busing. A lot of people that 1962] – that’s a calypso thing from Trinidad. My
something”? lived in that neighbourhood resented these mother used to take me to these Caribbean
Thelonious Monk. I was pretty young. I played black guys coming in. There were a lot of fights, dances [in New York], where I saw the calypso
a gig in a little night club in Harlem, and Monk people throwing garbage out the window at us. singer the Duke Of Iron [aka Cecil Anderson].
was on the other half of the bill. He would just It was a big deal in the papers. That’s where I might have heard the tune first.
be very friendly to me. Monk wouldn’t be Frank Sinatra came to the [school] I began playing it a lot and using it as my theme
friendly to somebody unless he liked them. He auditorium and gave a concert. Being Italian, song. Plus, I wanted to differentiate myself.
never said, “Hey, man, I liked that.” I could just he was a big hero to the community. He spoke A lot of people would go, “Gee, you’re not a
tell in the way he befriended me. I’m 13 years to the Italian guys: “C’mon, you should accept traditional jazz player. You’re playing calypso.”
younger than Monk. He and I weren’t people. You shouldn’t be fighting with people Hey, that’s who I am. Take it or leave it.
contemporaries. So the fact that he was just just because they’re different from you.” And
talking to me shows that he must have liked the community dug it. Things did get better. You started on alto sax, Charlie Parker’s
what I was playing. But Frank Sinatra didn’t change my life. He instrument. When did you move to tenor?
changed the neighbourhood. After I heard Coleman Hawkins, Body And Soul
What was the first jazz record that changed [1939]. I got everything he put out. I tried to
your life? Your grandmother was an early civil rights make my alto sound like a tenor. I’d put a tenor
There’s one that was significant, by one of my activist… reed on it, all this adolescent stuff. Finally my
saxophone idols, Don Byas. It was a Savoy My grandmother and I used to march in mother got me a tenor. And that was a big deal
record, How High The Moon [1945]. This guy parades, up and down Harlem, for various civil – getting your own horn. Then I began to dig
was phenomenal, one of the high gods to me. rights issues, for Paul Robeson, against what Bird was doing, so now I’m playing the
On the other side was Koko by Charlie Parker. segregation. I was a little boy holding her tenor like an alto. It was a funny juxtaposition.
I’d never heard of Charlie Parker. It was new for hand. When I started making records, I wrote When I was in Chicago years later, there was a
me. I thought, “Wow, this guy is playing a lot.” this song, Airegin, which is Nigeria spelled disc jockey, Daddy-O Daylie, who used to call
Eventually I heard more and more of him. I backwards. I would do other little things in my me “The Bird of the Tenor Men”. I really went
could tell, “This is a new thing.” records and shows, like play the Negro around a circle.
There was a schism over bebop with the National Anthem [Lift Every Voice And Sing, an
older musicians. But Louis Armstrong was tight Episcopal hymn first referred to that way by the What was it like to know and play with
with Dizzy Gillespie. In fact, Dizzy moved right NAACP in 1919]. My history was there. Parker?
next to him in Corona, New York. Don Byas had This was my first encounter… There was a
crossed the line. He came from the older You also drew on your Caribbean heritage great tenor player, Budd Johnson, a New
school, but he played bop. So did Coleman for two of your most famous compositions, Orleans guy maybe two generations before
Hawkins. The first time I heard Monk was on a St Thomas and Don’t Stop The Carnival. The me. He said, “C’mon, Sonny, I want you to play
Coleman Hawkins record, Flyin’ Hawk [1944]. former, named after one of the Virgin for Charlie Parker.” We went to this place, I
Islands, is based on a melody that your played and Charlie goes “Hey, man, that’s me!”
Frank Sinatra performed at your high school mother sang to you as a child. (Laughs) He always treated me in this
in Harlem in 1945, an event that has been St Thomas [on Saxophone Colossus] is a avuncular way. Guys like me and Jackie McLean
described in various accounts as a “life- traditional song. I just played it (hums the – we were like his progeny.
changing experience” for you. melody of the ballad Vive La Compagnie). In the The wrinkle came, of course, because
I’m glad you brought that up. I love Frank Sinatra. technical sense, I could claim authorship Charlie was hooked on drugs. And we got
He and Nat King Cole are my two top vocalists, because I changed this or that little thing. But hooked on drugs, many of us because of
always. But “Frank Sinatra changed my life”– I never claimed to be the author. I didn’t know Charlie. I hate to say it, but that played a big

A LIFE IN PICTURES 2
Sonny’s snaps: Rollins, blow by blow.
©Collection F Driggs/Magnum Photos, courtesy of Sonny Rollins, Getty Images (3), Rex (2), Alamy

3
1
4

44 MOJO
part in it. He felt responsible for all of these When did you first feel like you had – that was nothing strange to me. It was my
young guys doing drugs. I found that out. achieved jazz stardom? The 1956 album idea to dress up with the hat and the holster.
title, Saxophone Colossus, suggested It was also around the first time I had been
There is a story about a 1953 Miles Davis a healthy ego… to California. I had [West Coast drummer]
session that you did with Parker. Shelly Manne and [bassist] Ray Brown on
(Laughs) That wasn’t my title. It was somebody
He was there as Charlie Chan, because he had doing promotion at Prestige Records. (Pauses) In that album. That was my brand – the [saxo-
another contractual agreement. I had already a sense, I felt like a star. This was jazz – it was a phone] trio. So it all fell together. It was very
gotten in trouble with drugs. I had come out of small world. But I was able to make enough respectful of the art.
the penitentiary – “Hey, Sonny, back on the money to have my own life, move out of the You’ve spoken a lot about practising your
scene…” I was on parole, but I had reverted to house, get married. I did some really stupid saxophone alone on [Manhattan-Brook-
drugs again. So Bird was there, and he asked me, things because I felt like a star. (Smiles)
lyn’s] Williamsburg Bridge during your first
“How you doing? You straight?” I said, “Yeah, There are some stories I’m not going to tell
sabbatical in 1959. What did you find there,
man, I’m straight.” I could see Charlie Parker’s you now, which are very embarrassing to
as a musician, in the middle of that
face. It was lit up. He was so happy that one
noise and chaos?
of his people got away from drugs.
But it didn’t pass. One of the guys told
Bird later, “Oh, man, Sonny was out with “Bird asked me, It wasn’t so much the bridge at first.
I like solitude. I’ve always liked to play by
the ocean, in the park, where it’s
us getting high last night. Don’t believe
that.” After that, I could see the dejected
look on his face. I was ashamed. Then I
‘You straight?’ nothing but me and the sky above.
Nature’s setting – that was the pull.
got busted again. I decided, “I’m going to
show Bird I got the message.” I realised
how this was killing him. I did what they
I said, ‘Yeah, man.’ I found a place on the bridge, on the
walkway, where the trains were under
me and the cars couldn’t see me. Hardly
called “the cure”. About three weeks
before I got out, I heard the word: Bird
I could see his face. anyone walked over that bridge. I could
be up there three, four hours, and
died. That was a missed opportunity.
Later, I realised that there is no division
between this life and the next. I got the
It was lit up.” maybe two people would walk by.
As for the noise, I had the boats
coming up the East River. I’d play
message. And he knows. around the horns, blow along, have
me. But I learned. There were some people who fun with that. But it was completely private.
You recorded the title track of the 1956 pulled my coat, who hipped me to Maybe somebody would walk by and say,
album Tenor Madness with John Coltrane what was happening. “Gee, where is that music coming from?”
and were very close. Was he as spiritual in
The first time I saw the cover of [1957’s] Way There was a mysterious element that I loved.
conversation as he became in his music?
Out West – with you dressed up in a cowboy I was like Lamont Cranston [in the radio serial,
The first time we played together was with The Shadow].
outfit, toting a six-shooter – I couldn’t tell if
Miles Davis, at the Audubon Ballroom [in New I remember when I came back from the
you were having fun or the record company
York]. It was a great gig, and we became friends bridge. I was playing a place called Jazz
was making fun of you.
after that. It was brotherhood; it was love. He was Gallery. Someone said, “Gee, Sonny, you
like a preacher in a way. Coltrane didn’t waste That cover was not just a commercial thing. sound the same as you did before.” (Laughs)
time. He didn’t do things frivolously. Every- I had grown up seeing a lot of black cowboy I might have… But there were deeper levels. I
thing he did was important. Whenever we got films. That idea of a black cowboy did not just was quite happy for the all the time I spent there.
together, it was always a communion, talking come out of the blue. And the songs on that
about things that mattered. There was no jive. album like I’m An Old Cowhand and Wagon When you returned from the bridge, it was
It was always meaningful. It was a great boon Wheels – I grew up listening to the Grand Ole just as free jazz was causing another schism.
to me, to get a level of closeness with him. Opry on the radio. Crossing over into country What was its impact on you? ➢

5 9

8
“Jazz is a freeing sprit…
a spiritual force that
can’t be defined”:
Sonny Rollins, at home
in Woodstock, New York.

“I’m glad jazz is not popular. It will never


be a popular music. That keeps it special.”
¢
I liked Ornette [Coleman] the first time I far. But being demonstrative helped the music. I didn’t want to be credited. I was ashamed of
heard him. I didn’t have to get accustomed to It accentuated what I was thinking musically. doing it. I’ll tell you what happened. Mick
his music. We were kinship. And Coltrane – no Jagger came to see me play. A friend of his
problem there. What they did was already a Rock guitarists do that stuff all the time. brought him. This guy said, “They’d like you to
part of me, in the big sense. It was compatible They’re expected to do it. play with them.” I was like, “Playing with
with everything I thought of in music. That articulation can’t be helped, at least the rock’n’roll guys? Are you kidding? Me, Sonny
Now free jazz… (pauses) It’s hard to say. way I play. I was not like Charlie Parker. I’m a Rollins?” To me, it was a real put-down.
There was a lot of stuff that wasn’t making it. guy who moves around and does more crazy
The idea of free jazz – I was certainly a fan of stuff, to bring out what I’m playing. It’s a closer You thought it was an insult?
that. But having a place where you’re playing thing, between sound and action, in my case. Not an insult from them – just the idea of me
form, structure – I would need to have that in doing it, that it would somehow be beneath
any kind of music. Speaking of rock, how did you end up me, a step down. Enter my wife Lucille: “Oh,
playing on The Rolling Stones’ Tattoo You Sonny, you must do this. This is great.” She
There’s a paradox there. You’re faithful to [1981]? You are on three tracks – Slave, knew about The Rolling Stones.
the melodies and chord changes in pop Neighbours and Waiting On A Friend – but
standards, show tunes and movie themes. your name did not appear in the credits. And you didn’t?
It’s as if you need structure to be free. I might have heard the name. It was the last
I grew up going to the movies and listening to thing playing on my jukebox. But she said,
the radio, hearing a lot of these songs. My LEND US A TENOR “No, you must do this.” I said, “OK, I’ll do this
thing was to use standards as a starting point, anonymously, so nobody knows.”
then extemporise against the standard so
Did your wife think you should at least do it
there would always be something definite
for the money?
there. I could go out as far as I could against
that. That was my introduction into my own The bread was OK. It wasn’t that great. I
inner sense of making something my own. became convinced that it would be a test to see
how my inventiveness could fit in with these
Free jazz, though, was not about working guys, to see if there could be a meeting
against form; it was about breaking it down between A and Z. But no credits.
to achieve pure expression.
Did you at least enjoy the session?
Having a structure that one would recognise
and going off from that is not really different I didn’t particularly enjoy it. It was just Mick
from having a structure which is not defined. Jagger, myself and the track of the band. We
A guy could play and have a structure which is were overdubbing. If I’d been playing with the
not related to a fixed melody – an emotional band, it might have been more engaging for
structure. But there has to be a structure, even me. But after it came out, I felt I accomplished
if it’s Mary Had A Little Lamb. This is an something. It didn’t sound like different worlds.
important philosophical point: Life is
Your solo in Waiting On A Friend grounds
meaningful. Everything we do has a meaning,
the song in an earnest, emotional place –
a purpose. And if it means something, then it
you gave the recording a gravitas it might
has structure. It exists.
not have had with just another guitar solo.
You cut East Broadway Run Down with I appreciate what you’re saying. I was trying to
bassist Jimmy Garrison and drummer Elvin play. I wasn’t just messing around. A funny
Jones – Coltrane’s rhythm section – in the thing happened years ago. I used to live further
same year [1966] as Alfie, the album version upstate on the other side of the Hudson River. I
of your score for the hit British film. was shopping one day, walking through this
My career is quite varied (grins). I was in big supermarket, and I heard this record
London [in 1965], playing at my friend Ronnie playing [over the PA]. I thought, “Oh, gee,
Scott’s club. We had a great engagement there, what’s that? Wait a minute – that’s me and The
full every night. This guy from the film came Rolling Stones!” (Laughs) Boy, that was a funny
down and said, “We were wondering if you experience.
wanted to do the music for it.” I said yeah. I’d
never scored a film before. After the club You grew up at the centre of the bebop
closed at night, I would stay and work on the revolution and have lived through the entire
music. The club would be locked up and I’d be history of modern jazz. What are the music’s
in there playing. It was heaven. I did the lasting accomplishments? Has it truly
changed the world?
[soundtrack] session with English musicians. THE CROSSOVER HIT!
Ronnie Scott was there [on saxophone]. When Jazz is a freeing spirit. When I heard Fats Waller, I
I got back in the States, I did the [Impulse!] knew that was something celestial. This was
album with Oliver Nelson and a big band. going out of this world, into something
universal. That’s what jazz does. It can’t be
But you didn’t write the theme song. boxed. It shouldn’t be boxed. Of course, we
I composed a ballad for the movie. But I was have to box things in this society, to make them
overruled. They said, “No, we’ve brought Burt understandable. But I can’t look at it that way, at
Bacharach in.” That was fine. It was a beautiful this point. Jazz is a spiritual force that can’t be
song. I’ve had people confuse that: “Man, they defined. You can’t say what it is, that it did this in
took it away from you.” People thought I was that period. Jazz is way too big for that.
the guy who got stomped over – which is often
the case, but not in that one. It is often called America’s first classical
music, yet it has never become America’s
There is a famous description of you by the truly popular music.
New Yorker jazz critic Whitney Balliett, of a I’m glad it’s not popular. It will never be a
1972 performance at the Village Vanguard. popular music. That keeps it special. I’ll tell you
He made the music sound almost unhinged – I don’t think of this world as the place where
– “jarring staccato”, “furious double-time things come together. We’re here just for a
spurts” – and wrote that you were “shouting minute. This isn’t the place to say, “Oh, jazz
and gesticulating” with your horn “as if he changed the world.” Well, fuck the world. This
were waving his audience into battle”. Is world is always going to have ignorance, killing,
that what music physically did to you? hatred, bombing. The world happened to see
I was a pretty gesticulating guy. Some jazz, and that’s great. Good for the world.
musicians are more demonstrative when they But jazz has nothing to do with this world.
play. Charlie Parker – he just stood up straight Jazz is bigger than the Earth. All these cats like
and played. But you can go all the way to [the Bird, Ornette, ’Trane – you think they’re gone
’40s R&B saxophonist] Frank ‘Floorshow’ Culley. away? No, they’ve just moved into something
Ethan Hill

He would lay down on the floor, on his back, else. How high’s the sky? How high’s the moon?
and play with his legs in the air. I didn’t go that It’s there. That’s all you need to know. M

MOJO 47
MOJO 49
Bailey Rae
and Pharrell
Williams: they
gave it up for House when Paul McCartney won a congressional medal;
Lionel; (insets)
Corinne’s Nirvana were why I started making music”), Rihanna
Grammy win- (“She’s always been really sweet to me, she gave me a
ning Is This
Love? and standing ovation at the BRITs”) and Stevie Wonder (“We
new album. chat on the phone, he’s a joker, always putting on stupid
voices; he’s been through a lot of things, loss, pain, and we
talk about that”) – artists she’s come to know “just
through this weird life of travelling and being backstage
and bumping into people.”
MOJO first met Bailey Rae at Capitol Records Tower a
decade ago, as she met with her American label while on
her maiden voyage to the US, an ingénue with her debut
album in the wings. Today, she’s a different character en-
tirely: confident, focused, humbled by the talent she’s
worked alongside but sure of her own gifts. Chalk it up to
the passage of years, and all she’s achieved: that eponymous
2006 debut sold over four million copies worldwide and
went platinum in America, proving UK soul artists could
flourish in the US (Amy and Adele soon followed in her
wake); her second album The Sea, recorded in the after-
math of her husband Jason Rae’s sudden death, won com-
parisons to Astral Weeks and went Top 10 in the US,
while her jazzy reading of Bob Marley’s Is This Love, off
2011’s The Love EP, secured her a Grammy.
For much of this decade she’s been out of the pub-
lic eye, a necessary period of healing and recuperation.
Now, though, she’s about to release The Heart Speaks In
Whispers, the album’s roots in those darkest days, but
N THE GROUND taking hope and rebirth as its themes. It is, she says,
floor of Hollywood’s even more autobiographical than The
Capitol Records Sea, though she didn’t intend it as such.
Tower, that legend- “When I was writing it, I thought the
ar y ‘stack of wax’, album was about encouraging other peo-
you’ll find Capitol ple,” she says. “Now, I realise it’s about
Studios, America’s encouraging myself. That broken, sad,
answer to Abbey Road. Opera- under-confident person I’m singing to in
tional since 1956, the studio has hosted everyone from Frank those songs… it turns out it was me.”
Sinatra to Paul McCartney, Nat King Cole to The Beach Boys;
today, Bob Dylan is taking a break from work on N MARCH 2008 JASON RAE DIED
his 37th studio album, having retreated to a plush following a drunken night out where he
tour bus located in the parking lot. Our guide thi tried his friend’s prescription metha-
sunny Sunday morning, Corinne Bailey Rae be- done and didn’t wake up the next morn-
trays the knowledgeable enthusiasm of a lifelong ng. The Aberdeen-born saxophonist and
music boffin as she explains how the dimensions orinne had married six years earlier. His
of the storied Studio A create the room’s inimita- assing changed the course of The Sea, lending
ble sound and ambience, and what each priceless esh meaning to the material Bailey Rae had
item of irreplaceable vintage gear does. Give her ready written for that second album, and in-
a lab coat and glasses and she’s the George Martin iring new songs like Are You Here, a rumina-
of archival Beatles session footage. on on love, absence and loss evoking both the
It’s February 15, the day before the 2016 armth of Al Green and the stark, haunted
Grammy Awards, and the morning after the Mu- ality of Nirvana’s All Apologies. Released at
siCares Person Of The Year tribute event. Guest e start of 2010, Bailey Rae spent the next 18
of honour this year was Lionel Richie, whose onths touring the album.
songbook was revisited by a constellation of stars; Eighty two concerts later, she stopped, and
Bailey Rae sang Lionel deep-cut Love Will Find ed a reckoning. “I felt like I was held to-
A Way with Texan R&B revivalist Leon Bridges, her by bits of paper,” she admits. “When I
backed by The Roots and Pharrell Williams. The pped, I was faced with these questions:
sheer wattage of celebrity backstage at the Staples e band’s gone home, I’m here in this
Center arena that evening could have powered a use, alone. What is my life? What am I do-
medium-sized nation for weeks, but Corinne was unfazed; the stars ing with it? Have I even got a future? My daily experience was wak-
aren’t just her heroes any more, a good few are also friends. On this ing up alone and thinking, Ugh, another day.”
occasion that roll call includes Dave Grohl (“We met at the White In these darkest of moments, her creative subconscious an-

50 MOJO
swered those questions as she began writing again. “The music was and began spending as long as they could in the fabled Studio A.
saying to me, ‘All this stuff was here before you got married, before Bailey Rae called on the services of the highest calibre studio
you fell in love.’ Music was my one constant. I got two notebooks, musicians, veterans such as James Gadson (selected because she
and just started scribbling ideas down as they came.” loved his drumming with Bill Withers and on Marvin Gaye’s I Want
She honed these new ideas in her home studio in Leeds. Encour- You), bassist Pino Palladino (fresh from playing on D’Angelo’s Black
aged by her activity, her record label recommended she work with Messiah), guitarist Paul Jackson Jr, and Marcus Miller (“I wanted his
some professional songwriters. It was not an entirely fruitful expe- super-confident, soulful bass on the song Green Aphrodisiac… He
rience. “I’d meet them, and they’d play me the 10 most popular destroyed that song.”).
tunes on YouTube that week, and then pull up [Corinne’s 2006 hit] She also found kindred spirits in the local music community. Her
Put Your Records On, and then programme a drum- friend, Grammy-winning bassist/singer Esperanza
beat and ask me what my vocal range was…” She Spalding, played her the debut EP by hotly-tipped
scowls. “It was horrible, like writing for an advert. I soul trio KING. “Esperanza went to school with
learnt something about myself: I don’t want to make [KING member] Paris Strother, and drove me over
bad attempts at commercial pop music; I want to do to her house, and we started jamming together.” To-
something I believe in.” gether, they wrote the song Green Aphrodisiac, a
Sessions with some longtime heroes went much bet- delirious Rhodes-driven slow-jam, and another po-
ter, even if the tracks didn’t ultimately make the album. etic ode to rebirth. “It was so different from sitting in
“Paul Weller kicked my ass, he just destroyed me,” she a windowless room looking at what was hot on You-
grins. “He offered great criticism, but with love. His Tube for inspiration,” she says. “We were women, we
advice stayed with me, and I hear his voice when I’m were black, sharing this history, this friendship…
writing – like, ‘Trim the fat. Be more direct.’” Wu Tang Making music is like love; when it’s right, it’s easy.”
supremo The RZA, meanwhile, was “like a mad scien- Soulful where The Sea was spare, The Heart Speaks
tist. He taught me to be open and to not freak out. He’d In Whispers moves gracefully from classic balladry
start a track, and I’d be, What is that!? Then, after six “WE’D GOTTEN to know Valerie (the richly romantic Do You Ever Think Of Me?, co-
hours of sculpting, it would sound amazing.” and Nick [Ashford] at a weekly written with Valerie Simpson) to Tell Me, which ech-
Steve Brown, a musician and producer who’d been jam session they ran at their
venue The Sugar Bar in New York,” oes modern R&B star Amerie’s artfully arranged vo-
a close friend since 1997 and had co-produced The Sea, says Corinne Bailey Rae of the cals and dynamic future-funk. “I wanted to get to that
was a key collaborator throughout; the couple married husband-and-wife singing and luscious dreamworld,” she says, of the album’s devo-
in 2013. Bailey Rae is clear, however, that her relation- songwriting team behind soul tion to soul. “And I wanted it to sound modern. I love
classics that include Let’s Go Get
ship with Brown was not the key to her emotional re- Stoned (recorded by Ray Charles contemporary music – that Kendrick Lamar record
covery. “I had to be reborn to find love,” she says. “You in ’66), Ain’t No Mountain High is ridiculous. Hip hop is constantly evolving. I want to
can’t find a new love to get over another person. Grief Enough (Marvin Gaye and Tammi be like that. I want to know what’s coming next.”
is like a foot on your back, and however much you Terrell), I’m Every Woman (Chaka
Khan) and their own Solid (a hit
struggle it will still be there. But then one day, it doesn’t for the duo in ’84). In 2015 Corinne T’S FEBRUARY 12, AND A RELATIVELY
feel as heavy. I remember, being in New York, trying to saw Valerie backstage at a warm LA night. Rehearsals for the Lionel Richie
write, and I saw a dad playing with his kid in the park. It MusiCares show for the first time tribute segue into a Grammys party at intimate
brought me so much joy, and then I realised, I’m feeling since Nick’s death in August 2011.
They spoke about their shared venue Hotel Café. Before a 200 capacity audience,
happy, I’m feeling joy – this new, old sensation.” sense of loss, before discussing The Roots rattle through a set of murderously great
In finding love again, Corinne was laying to rest a the possibility of writing together. covers, offering the microphone to a revolving door
canard propagated by so much pop: the concept of “I had this song, Do You Ever
Think Of Me?, that was influenced of young soul talent, including Lianne La Havas, An-
the soul-mate, the one-true-love. “Pop tells us the by Curtis Mayfield’s The Makings dra Day and Moses Sumney. Around 1.30am, The
opposite,” she nods. “Pop tells us, ‘How can I live Of You, and I played it to her. She Roots begin vamping on Stevie Wonder’s Maybe
without you?’, that if someone you love is away from was like, ‘Yeah, OK, leave it with Your Baby, and Bailey Rae takes to the stage, revelling
you, you would yourself die. It’s a really unhealthy me.’ I thought, She hates it!”
Bailey Rae laughs. “A month later in the song’s salacious sass, and proving more than up
message; for people who have lost someone, it’s like I got an e-mail from her, entitled to its challenge. As the song ends, she smiles broadly.
saying, ‘You shouldn’t still exist.’ Finding myself in ‘Dibbles and dabbles – Valerie’. It’s a far cry from the person she was when her last
that position where I could be attracted to somebody She’d attached a file of her
singing my song, but her version album emerged, even if the past still weighs heavy.
again, where I could feel ‘light’ enough to hang out of the song, adding her own “Jason was two years older than me. I was 29
with them – could fall in love with them, that was a lyrics, and these amazing piano when he died, and he was 31. And then two years
great thing. These songs reflect my journey from bit- chords under where she sang, later, I was 31, and he was 31. I ‘overtook’ him,”
terness into sweetness, from darkness into light. The ‘Why did it have to end?’ She’d
smashed it,” recalls Corinne. she reflects. “So, I measure my life in terms of how
way the first drops of joy feel on that parched land- “We’d had a good conversation much more life I get to have than him. My life
scape, when you’re so starved of it.” – the song was talking about
seemed endless. Now I’m happy, I worry if I have
That sentiment is articulated by opening track love, and why did it ever have to enough time to do everything I want to do.
end? We could both
Skies Will Break, which Bailey Rae began as a keen- relate to that. She’s Valerie Simpson I’ M
ing, ascending riff on a single acoustic guitar stri (right) and
the late Nick
before Brown lent the song a four-on-the-floor th Ashford: working
and heavy Italian house piano chords, and she penn on some “dibbles
and dabbles”.
lyrics inspired by a dream she had of “a person wh
broken, and ashamed of feeling broken. I loved
idea: that the skies will break, that you won’t alw
feel this way.” She pauses for a second. “Like I sai
thought I was writing these songs for someone el
But really I was writing them for me.”
As work progressed on the album in Leeds, Virg
Records exec Ron Fair invited Corinne to Los Ange
to expand her writing circle further and “let the su
Getty Images (2)

shine in”. Originally she planned to stay for only a fe


weeks, but soon she and Steve rented a house with
pool and celebrity neighbours in the Hollywood Hil
Getty Images

52 MOJO
Waiting: “Everybody from
the Bay Area knew who
Santana was,” the band in
1968 (from left) Michael
Shrieve, Carlos Santana,
Gregg Rolie (squatting),
Chepito Areas, David
Brown, Mike Carabello.
Carlos with early
conga-player
Marcus Malone;
(right) burning
up Woodstock
with bassist
David Brown.

N AN EMPTY HOUSE OF
Blues banquet room atop the
Mandalay Bay hotel in Las Vegas,
Michael Carabello is recounting
his final days in Santana.
The percussionist had been in
and out of the band before, but
this was the Big One, the Fate-
ful Event, the Turning Point,
when, effectively, it all went awry.
There had been ample warning: A portentous
early morning conversation on a Hawaiian beach
in 1971, just after the New Year. He was
awakened by his old friend and bandmate
Carlos Santana, who wanted to talk
about the state of the band bearing
his name. Things were in disarray:
hard drugs were everywhere, par-
ties were non-stop, and the com- think we’re doing the right thing.
mercial success of Santana’s first But Carlos was the serious musician
two albums could not help but of the band – that’s why it was called
feed the fire. And the music? Santana. Little did I know that this
“Carlos took me aside in guy had a mission. And his mission
Hawaii and said, ‘Hey man, was that he was going to be the best that
we’ve got to start playing. You’ve he could be.”
got to help me out,’” Carabello By October of that year, Michael Cara-
recalls. “‘Everybody’s into these bello had left Santana.
chicks, and we’re not paying atten-
tion to the music no more.’ He said, N BROAD STROKES, THE STORY OF
‘You’ve got to help me out with this,’ and Santana The Band is a classical tragedy –
I went, OK.” ambitious visions undone by fatal flaws –
Pause. but it may be gaining a redemptive epilogue. Here at
“But I didn’t.” egas’s House Of Blues, the “original” band, as some call
Another pause. hem, have reunited to celebrate the unlikely release of a
“Instead I went away and did my thing. It just ew album – Santana IV – with a live performance to be
kind of dissolved and dissolved – and we finally med, displayed on TV, released on DVD and otherwise
broke up.” ductised. The album is thus numbered for a significant rea-
Santana’s ascent had been phenomenal, but h e last record featuring all of these players – guitarists Car-
blip-free. Even before the band’s first album release in los Santana and Neal Schon, singer-organist Gregg Rolie, drummer
August 1969 – the same month they captivated the world with a Michael Shrieve and Carabello – was Santana III, released in 1971.
mesmerising Woodstock performance – there had been line-up A lot has happened since then
ructions, health issues (Santana himself had been hospitalised with “After that third album came Caravanserai,” Michael Shrieve
tuberculosis), and a manslaughter charge that sent conga player says today. “And that’s the album when Carlos and I turned left. We
Marcus Malone off to San Quentin. But in 1971, under the wing of did it very consciously and on purpose. But it seriously pissed off
West Coast über-promoter Bill Graham and with three successful everybody else.”
albums on Clive Davis’s Columbia label, they were set fair. Clive Davis said they were committing label suicide. “And you
“This was all fun to us,” says Carabello. “Like, Oh my God, know,” says Shrieve, “rightfully so. But the way we looked at it is we
there’s money and women and cars and we’re buying houses. I were saving our lives. There was the debauchery of the rock’n’roll

54 MOJO
consistently enthusiastic reactions
from audiences.
“Everybody from the Bay Area
knew who Santana was,” says Cara-
bello. “So it’s like, do you want to go
play with Aum, do you want to go
play with It’s A Beautiful Day? No,
you want to play with Carlos, because
he’s different.”
Replacing the jailed Malone in
1969, Carabello brought
with him Nicaraguan
percussionist Jose ‘Chepito’
Areas, a pint-sized triple-
threat (timbales, congas,
drums, even trumpet) who
spoke barely a word of Eng-
lish. “All of a sudden we have
a timbales player and a conga
player and it’s not the blues
any more,” says Carabello.
“It’s African.”
After failed attempts at re-
cording the Malone-Living-
ston incarnation in Los Angeles
with producer David Rubinson
Future primitives: (the sessions finally emerged in
(from top) Santana, 2004), the revised line-up left
Neal Schon, Rolie,
Shrieve, Carabello, Pacific Recording Studio in
the reuniting band as San Mateo, May ’69 with a
they were back when.
career-launching album in the
can and waiting to go. Now, how to launch it
with a bang?

REGG ROLIE – THEN, AND ON


this particular day in Las Vegas, the
voice of Santana – oozes cordiality,
warmth, and maybe a little bemusement that
Santana’s breakthrough inspires such inter-
est nearly a half-century later. “Pretty sim-
lifestyle going on. And most importantly, there ply,” he says of the vehicle that took Santa-
was Miles Davis and Bitches Brew and Weather na’s unheard music to the world, “we were
Report and Mahavishnu and Return To Forever – in Woodstock. If you were
this exciting music, for Carlos and I, anyway. Very in Woodstock, you had a
exciting. Much more than what was happening in career. It was the most
rock’n’roll. And so, we wanted a piece of that. brilliant strategy that no-
Plus, we wanted to… not die.” body really planned. To be
In 1967, Santana were the Santana Blues Band, in this movie and have your
playing blues and R&B around the San Francisco album come out at the
area, with elements of Latin percussion that would later be same time, it was… There
expertly refined. Members included keyboardist/vocalist Rolie were no videos, there was
(ex-of the wonderfully-named, high garage-cred William Penn no anything.”
& His Pals), bassist David Brown, drummer Bob ‘Doc’ Living- The story goes like this:
ston, and Malone. Significant help in shaping the band came via it’s mid-1969. The Wood-
Stan Marcum – the man who, with friend Ron Estrada, would stock Festival is being
manage Santana during their forthcoming ascent, a scenario booked. The logistics, the
Yearbook Courtesy Randy Beucus, Getty Images (5), Eddie Kramer

some observers would later describe as the in- basics, the minutiae – it’s all
mates running the asylum. But they had been staggering. The man behind
instrumental in setting up Carlos Santana’s de- the festival, Michael Lang,
velopment as an inspirational musician – taking needs a helping hand and
him in rent-free, and feeding him. calls the experienced Bill
“Ron Estrada was a bail bondsman,” Cara- Graham to ask for assistance.
bello notes. “Stan used to cut hair, OK? And at Sure, says Graham. But
the same time, they both sold pot. Back then, you have to have Santana.
not a lot of people did it, but you get by however Who the hell is Santana?, asks Lang.
you get by.” You’ll see, says Graham.
Soon the band’s name was shortened to “It’s one of those things,” reflects Gregg
Santana and they were gigging regularly, greatly Rolie today. “We just connected with an au-
helped by Bill Graham (the group topped the bill dience – with a generation, with many gen-
at his Fillmore Auditorium in late 1968) and erations. Carlos has built on that for ­

MOJO 55
Voyage of discovery:
(above, from left) the
first classic band; before
video came Woodstock;
percussionist Coke
Escovedo; singles; that
festival ticket; Fillmore
poster (below).

Carlos enlightened,
1972; (insets, clockwise
from right) Abraxas
inspiration Hesse; with
John McLaughlin and Sri
Chinmoy; Mati Klarwein’s
artwork; Santana on 45;
Latin great and Oye Como
Va writer Tito Puente;
Carlos with Miles Davis.
¢
ages. And the music is kind of like blues – it doesn’t go away.” So, I ask. Why did one of rock’s most characterful and com-
The audience connection was there at Yasgur’s Farm on the af- manding guitar virtuosos need Neal Schon?
ternoon of August 16, and on the outside in the burgeoning under- “Miles Davis asked me the same thing,” says Santana. “And he
ground, who recognised Santana’s unique sound even if they asked me in a way that, like (imitates Davis’s famous gravelly pitch)
couldn’t quite put a name to it. The album soared to the upper ‘WHY WOULD YOU DO THAT?’ And I was like, Well, Peter
reaches of the Billboard charts and stayed around for a while, aided Green has another guitar player and they sound good, and Eric
by singles Jingo and Evil Ways and eventually the Woodstock film, Clapton’s been playing with Duane Allman, and Paul Butterfield’s
from which the band projected stunningly. Ironically, Rolling Stone, had Michael Bloomfield and Elvin Bishop, and I’m not threatened by
that bastion of the San Francisco sound, had given the album a jar- Neal. I like to think the both of us are so different with respect for
ringly negative pan, calling it “a speed freak’s delight – fast, pound- one another that we can bring a whole other dimension of it.
ing frantic music with no real content.” “But Miles, he just shook his head and said, ‘AHHHHHH.’ He
“I’ll never forget that,” says Rolie, whose keyboard style was definitely didn’t like that decision. But it wasn’t his decision to
likened to “the noise made by that guy in junior high who used to make. It was my decision. I basically did it for energy.”
scratch the blackboard with his fingernails”. “Like most of the me- There was energy all over Santana III. It was a guest-filled affair,
dia today, [they were] all locked up in their own little world, their including trumpeter Luis Gasca, Sly Stone drummer Greg Errico,
own little bubble about it. ‘Oh, it’s a San Francisco group – they The Loading Zone’s Linda Tillery, the Tower Of Power horns and,
should sound like the San Francisco bands.’ And we just totally did significantly, percussionist Coke Escovedo, who’d get a partial writ-
not. But on purpose!” ing credit on album hit No One To Depend On. Like its predeces-
Outside of Rolling Stone’s offices it was widely agreed that San- sor, the album took the Number 1 slot on the Billboard charts and
tana were becoming exquisitely good, unexpectedly commercial. seemed to signify a band at its peak both commercially and critically.
1970’s follow-up album, Abraxas, with its mind-blowing sleeve by But internally? Not so much.
German artist Mati Klarwein (the painter of Miles’s Bitches Brew Shortly before recording had started, Carabello and Santana had
cover), would make cultural inroads that were unprecedented in its had their conversation on the beach. And where the first album had
time. “It did me a world of good,” Klarwein himself would taken only three weeks to record, the new album needed six
later note. “I saw the album jacket pinned on the months, as studio sessions were slotted into those
wall of a shaman’s mud hut in Niger and inside few dates the band weren’t gigging elsewhere.
a Rastafarian’s ganja-hauling truck in Jamai- Meanwhile, Areas had been sidelined by a
ca. Muchísimas gracias Carlitos!” brain aneurysm.
The extracted version of Peter “My understanding is that he acci-
Green’s Black Magic Woman was an dentally took some acid at a concert in
instant US radio hit and propelled Santa Clara, California,” Michael
Abraxas to the top of the Billboard Shrieve says today. “He would never
album chart. Significantly, the song do that kind of stuff, but inadvert-
segued into Gábor Szabó’s Gypsy ently – which is the way things were
Queen, a nod to the Hungarian jazz in those days, you always had to be
guitarist and an indicator of the careful. Chepito didn’t take to it.
breadth and prescience of Santana’s And apparently that had something
concept of world music. Bolstering to do with him having an aneurysm
the impact of the album’s combo of at a later date. Things were never
aural and visual exotica was this con- quite the same after that.”
spicuous quote from Hermann Hesse’s Chepito was briefly replaced by Wil-
Demian: “We stood before it and began to lie Bobo in time for a March trip to Ghana
freeze inside from the exertion. We ques- for a festival dubbed ‘the African Woodstock’
tioned the painting, berated it, made love to it, and documented in 1971’s Soul To Soul film.
prayed to it: We called it mother, called it whore and “It was incredible,” recalls Shrieve. “I mean,
slut, called it our beloved, called it Abraxas…” could you imagine flying on a private 727 with Ike And Tina
Santana’s new commercial profile meant good things – there Turner and Wilson Pickett and The Staple Singers…?”
was money, there were significant friendships struck up or rekin- Santana the band was beginning to look like a high-stakes game
dled with the likes of Jimi Hendrix and Miles Davis, the latter of of musical chairs. Bobo left. Escovedo returned. Then there was
special significance both to Carlos Santana and Michael Carabello, David Brown, the bassist who’d been with the band since the early
with whom they shared friends in common. But there were bad days, but whose heroin use was causing problems (“David would be
things. Drugs, non-stop touring and management issues. One the first to say, ‘Yeah, I know – I’m in no shape to be playing,’” says
memorable passage from Santana’s 2014 memoir The Universal Shrieve). Out he went, temporarily replaced by Shrieve’s bassist
Tone recounts a dialogue between Santana, Shrieve and pianist friend Tom Rutley, and, eventually, Doug Rauch.
Keith Jarrett, then of Miles Davis’s band, waiting in a hotel elevator Coke Escovedo brought mixed blessings. “He had very much won
for Davis and Carabello to return after scoring some drugs. “How Carlos’s ear,” says Shrieve, while others noted the wedge it drove
do you do it?” Shrieve asked Jarrett, wondering how he coped with between bandleader and manager Marcum. “Coke made too much
the trumpeter’s wild ways. Jarrett snapped his fingers: “Like this. I trouble,” producer David Rubinson told Rolling Stone in 1972.
just turn it off, like a button.” In his book, Santana wrote: “I re- There followed an eventful meeting in September 1971, at
member thinking, Whoa what button is that?” which Carlos declared he would not embark on the upcoming San-
With money troubles brewing, splinter factions formed, both tana tour if both Marcum and Carabello were involved. “Because
within the group and between manager Marcum and Bill Graham, they’re supplying the band with the heavy stuff and we sound like
and it was time to record Santana III, the follow-up to Santana’s shit,” he said, recounting the conversation in The Universal Tone.
most successful album to date. Enter guitarist Neal Schon. But they stayed, and, quite unbelievably, he was out.

ARLOS SANTANA IS SITTING AT A TABLE IN THE T WAS ONLY FOR A FEW DATES, BUT THERE’S A CHANCE
House Of Blues Foundation Room this March afternoon, that if you saw Santana perform in October 1971, you did not actu-
Getty Images (4)

looking dapper, as he always does, and focusing intently on ally see – or hear – Carlos Santana. It still seems bizarre, and hard
his choice of words. His manager Michael Vrionis looks on, sitting to imagine how the band justified sacking their own bandleader.
down at the other end of the table, and we are both listening. “Well, I figure it’s more like how did Carlos have the balls to ­

MOJO 57
Bill Graham enjoys
Santana at Woodstock,
August 1969; (right)
later works; (below, left)
Journey with Rolie (far
left) and Schon (centre).

¢
say, ‘Get rid of this guy or I don’t
come,’” maintains Shrieve. “It was a Way, penned by Shr ,
real power play. But it was also Carlos instrumental album was an abrupt
saying, ‘I’m serious about this and departure both for Santana fans and
I’m not going to be involved with for several band members. Schon
people who aren’t taking their re- and Rolie stuck around, but barely.
sponsibilities seriously.’” “There were just different
Neal Schon remembers that dynamics,” says Neal Schon now.
time very well. When he’d been “Everybody was into a different
brought in to join the band, he was thing. When we were in the middle
already a good friend of Rolie’s, and of that record, [Carlos] was ver y
he’d developed a strong relationship moved by John McLaughlin – which is
with Santana himself. He was 15 then; obvious to everyone after that because
he’s 62 now. he did play with John [on 1973’s Love Devo-
“We hung out all the time,” says Schon tion Surrender]. Gregg and I sort of wanted to
today. “We were kind of inseparable. We had stay where we were at on Santana III.”
some really amazing experiences all over the world. Michael Shrieve stayed with Santana through
And I was just taking it all in. I was pretty shy, but I was de- 1973’s Welcome and the next year’s Borboletta before heading off to
termined and very sure of myself as a guitar player.” the UK. “It drove everybody else crazy, the direction that we were
Santana notes that it was Schon, on the road with the Santana-less going in musically,” he says today. “I mean, it really did. Not just
Santana, who rang and asked him to rejoin. Carlos said it would only drove them crazy, it pissed them off. And that’s why [Rolie and
Baron Wolman/Iconic Images, Getty Images, Maryanne Bilham

happen if Carabello and Marcum left. “It was actually really crazy Schon] went and started Journey.”
and uncomfortable for me,” says Schon. “But I remember, we were By 1978’s Inner Secrets, the only familiar name longtime Santana
playing Boston Gardens. There started to be a lot of fallout inside the fans would see in album sleeve credits was Carlos Santana’s.
band. I got turned on to some not so good things, which took me a
while to get out of and get back to myself. I’m glad to be there now.” HERE IS A MID-AFTERNOON PRESS CONFERENCE
Schon made the call, Santana flew to New York and percussionist in front of the House Of Blues today, all within the cavern-
Mingo Lewis was drafted to fill in for Carabello. Carlos had regained ous expanse of the Mandalay Bay’s casino area. The public is
control of his band, a victory almost immediately audible in the spir- invited. The subject matter is the Original Santana Band perfor-
itual questing (he would soon become a disciple of Sri Chinmoy) and mance, taking place in a few short hours. Hotel, House Of Blues,
impressionistic jazz-fusion textures of fourth Santana album Cara- and video production executives will speak, as will members of the
vanserai. From its opening track Eternal Caravan Of Reincarnation Original Santana Band.
– where the sound of crickets merged with Hadley Caliman’s nebu- The biggest applause comes with the introduction of Carlos San-
lous sax groan – to its near-10-minute closer Every Step Of The tana himself, who walks to the microphone exuding the warmth

58 MOJO
and sincerity that is uniquely his, then pointedly credits Neal Schon, On-stage at the House Of Blues, a few hours after MOJO’s inter-
standing with him on-stage, for making it all happen. “Neal is the views, there are no hints of anything other than mutual appreciation,
one that made it possible for us to believe that this is the perfect however recently re-forged. New songs from Santana IV stand proud-
time for us to create this music one more time,” Santana says. “Be- ly next to Soul Sacrifice, Jingo and Black Magic Woman, while there
cause we are the band that really tore it up at Woodstock, and Alta- are grins aplenty, most conspicuously on the face of Carlos Santana.
mont – and the time that we did it, it was perfect, because at that “Music is everything to Carlos,” Gregg Rolie had said earlier. “I
time there was the Vietnam War and Richard Nixon and LBJ. And mean everything. He eats it, drinks it, sleeps it, everything. And so
now it’s Donald Trump and it’s the same shit, you know?” he’s constantly changing. That’s just how it goes. When he wants to
There is applause and laughter at the mention of that name. get to another place, he’ll find somebody to take him to that place,
“So we’re here again to do the same thing that we did at Wood- so it’s really about the music. After reading his book, it was like –
stock, with the hippies’ things. We really believe the same thing that oh, now I get it. Because we never talked, we’d never talk about
John Lennon, the same thing that Bob Marley, we really believe, like things. I understand it now.”
The Doors, that music, and your heart and my heart, can transform Are the tensions the band might’ve felt in the early days now
fear. Let us conquer fear on this planet – with your light and your dissipated? Has time done that?
heart and the music.” “This music healed a lot of wounds without a word being said,”
Putting the love’n’Haight buzzwords aside, it’s been a long time says Rolie. “It’s just – look forward. All we’re doing is being who we
since a Santana band reunion seemed anything like plausible. “I are, and getting along because we want to. It’s a funny thing about
think that Carlos and Gregg really had not talked for years,” says saying yes.”
Schon. “I didn’t really know the ramifications behind it, or if they He laughs.
liked each other or whatever.” “Small words, man. That’s a huge word.” M
In 1997 – with Rolie long departed from a Journey who had
transformed from progressive unit (“a San Francisco jam band on
steroids,” smiles Schon) into a radio-rock staple, and Carlos poised
to unleash the duets-fuelled, monster-hit Supernatural album – there
was even a revival of the Santana-free Santana idea, with an album by
a band called Abraxas Pool featuring Rolie, Carabello, Shrieve, Ar-
eas, Schon, and Alphonso Johnson, bassist on several ’80s Santana
albums. “When we got together, it was a Santana vibe,” says Rolie.
“I lived in Novato, California at the time, and I had a little cabin up ic), with teenage prodigy
Neal Schon showcased on
there, in Marin County, up on top of this hill, and it overlooked this ++++ +++++ No One To Depend On and
valley, and the place was levitating from the music.” Columbia, 1969 Columbia, 1970 horn-parping R&B banger
So for Carlos Santana, getting the old band back together has This A weirder, Everybody’s Everything.
been no trifle. “I think everybody tried different ways without me corner- more The echt Latin-jazz piano of
stone of magical, Guajira adds variety, but the
personally in the centre of what they’re doing,” he says now. “Be- the third-eye- 2006 edition’s stunning live
cause it is called the Santana band for a reason, and I don’t mean to group’s dilated versh of Miles’s In A Silent
sound this-or-that, yet I will be clear…” He points down at the reputation vibe Way better indicates where
retains a ‘live’-ness permeates the classic Carlos’s head was er,
table settings. “This is a knife, this is a fork, and it is what it is. With- befitting an essentially line-up’s masterpiece, with heading.
out me, it’s a tribute. With me, it’s Santana.” improvisational collective. debts to The Doors and
2004’s reissue adds all 45 electric Miles but also
HOUGH HE MAY BE AT THE CENTRE OF THINGS BY earthy, urgent minutes of Carlos Santana’s most
their life-changing unforgettably melodic +++
definition – his band has borne his name for a near-half- Woodstock set and the LA guitar playing on Black Columbia, 1972
century – Carlos Santana is the first to admit he gets as much sessions from January Magic Woman and the Great
as gives. “What I bring to the centre are the things that I’ve learned 1969, whose inferior guitar all-instrumental Samba Pa playing
sounds alone prove the Ti. Simultaneously and daring
from all of them,” he says. “From Michael Shrieve I learned Coltrane wisdom of the venue syncopated, psychedelic ideas – the
and Miles, from Gregg Rolie I learned The Rolling Stones and The change to San Mateo. and sophisticated. near-two-
Beatles, from Michael Carabello I learned Sly Stone and Jimi minutes of
Hendrix – everybody in the band has taught me something.” crickets and avant-sax that
opens the whole thing is
So the obvious question: getting together with them +++ inspired – but haunted by
again, after all these years, what was it like? Would you con- olumbia, 1971 an overall sense of Carlos
sider yourselves… friends? Shape- not going as far as he’d like,
“That’s a great question,” he says. “I think we have always shifting while the vocal numbers
fare sound incongruous. Fans
been brothers – but we forgot to be friends. And I think what (Batuka missed the fiery grooves
happened, with the friendship going out the window, was could be of yore. So did the label.
because we were blindsided by what Bill Graham [had] said: b d
that we would be victims of an avalanche of adulation before
we were prepared. Nobody is really prepared. Michael Jack-
son, Whitney Houston, Marvin Gaye, Jimi Hendrix, Jim
Morrison, Janis Joplin, the guy from Nirvana, nobody is pre-
pared for the adulation worldwide that you get.”
They close Santana IV with a song called Forgiveness. Does
title have a special meaning for this group?
“Forgiveness, to me, is this,” says Santana. “There are th
kinds of speeds that we know: the speed of sound, the speed
light, and the speed and velocity of forgiveness. Once you forg
you don’t have to remember, because you let it go and you rel
it. So don’t bullshit yourself, man: ‘I’ll forgive but I can’t forg
That’s BS. You’re playing games with your ego, you know?
“To forgive, you’re moving really fast. That’s velocity,
that’s speed. Because now you’re moving at the speed of… at Santana today: (from
left) Mike Carabello,
speed of a saint.” Carlos, Gregg Rolie,
Neat Schon, Michael
Shrieve.
Tom Sheehan: This is backstage before the gig.
The pic is a bit cheesy, a bit of a skit on a Beatles
picture where they are all looking round a door.
The Jam were always a cut above the punks – one
minute after this picture Paul was putting on a suit.
Music had to be presented a certain way for them.
Paul Weller: We were always taking the piss out
of each other, especially in the early days. It was
a lot of fun but a lot of hard work too. The early
years were probably my favourite times, though.
It was less pressure and great just to be in a band.

MOJO 61
S CAREER-SPAN- Foxton and Rick Buckler were keen to lark
ning creative rela- around during shoots, Weller’s mind was al-
tionships go, this ways ticking. “Paul’s actually a very funny TS: They just came out and went for it
one didn’t exactly chap. He’s just always thinking.” completely. This was the first time I’d
get off to a flyer. You can almost see the cogs whirring be- seen a fan being used on-stage, but they
Newly freelance hind many of the iconic portraits in Aim needed it because of the heat they
and dispatched to High, Sheehan’s new Weller-devoted photo created. The velocity was tremendous.
London’s RAK stu- book, which traces the singer’s journey from PW: We always gave it all live, no fucking
dios in 1978 for one of the UK weekly music about. The whole experience was electrify-
RAK in 1978 to the 100 Club shoot that ing. There were very few nights we didn’t
papers, photographer Tom Sheehan didn’t graced MOJO’s front cover in April 2015. cut it. We had very high standards to meet.
much impress The Jam when he arrived dur- Featuring rarely seen Jam, Style Council and
ing the recording of All Mod Cons. solo era pictures from Sheehan’s extensive
“Basically I was there to get in and get archive, the book charts Weller’s emergence
some different shots,” Sheehan explains. “I from one of the gang into a confident and
spotted Paul Weller’s guitar covered in stick- thoughtful artist. TS: That was at the first Style Council session,
ers and as I loved the whole Pop Art thing I “I think with The Jam, Rick and Bruce and yes that’s me in the background, with
Paul up front and Mick Talbot on the left.
just said, Let’s get some pictures with the old went, ‘Ah fuck, you do it,’ when it came to It’s just a happy snap, not sure who took it.
guitar up. He went: ‘Oh shit, do I have to?’” photos because Paul had something to say, he
PW: Very early days of TSC – maybe our first
Despite Weller’s initial reluctance, this would vent his spleen on whatever in inter- tour? Ah, no, maybe it was a Melody Maker
opening salvo actually proved the foundation views, so he’d be in the pictures,” recalls shoot? Is that Tommy lurking in the back-
for a near 40-year (and counting) relation- Sheehan. “He’s got the curse that a lot of tal- ground? The plot thickens…
ship between Weller and the photographer. ented people have, he just has to
“I just thought, This looks great,” laughs keep fucking doing it! It’s not an
Sheehan. “Now here we are 30-odd years option for him not to keep striv
later talking about it! At the time you just ing. Maybe that’s the sign of a
didn’t know that All Mod Cons would have true artist: he’s got an un-
such an enduring appeal, so there was no big quenchable thirst.”
set-up. No flash, no nothing. Just get in, Along the way, despite the
blend in, get out. That’s fine, though; I like to awkward start, Sheehan has dis-
work fast.” covered the secret to shooting
Fortunately, Weller and Sheehan have Weller: don’t tell him to pose.
since found common ground to explore be- “To this day he probably
tween frames – art, haircuts and shoes are all hasn’t thrown a shape, he’s just
on the agenda – but the photographer ex- been himself,” he laughs. “He
plains that the crispness of that first shoot, feels like he’s done enough
and the spontaneity it yielded, has remained when he turns up spick and
a trait of their work together. span. He has a certain walk, a
“People assumed Paul was a bit standoff- certain stance, there’s that cool
Tom Sheehan (5), Rex

ish and miserable when The Jam started but element to it. I’d like to think
I’ve found it’s just because he’s so serious he’s going, ‘Well all right, I know
about what he does,” explains Sheehan, not- this bloke, he’s sound, I can
ing that early on, while Jam bandmates Bruce trust him, over to you…’”

62 MOJO
TS: That’s the Victoria Monument behind
him. We did a whole series of shots around
there. He arrived for this with a minder,
who was the brother of a boxer from the
’70s: John Conteh maybe…
PW: I loved that shirt!
A guy I knew was wearing
it, his mum had made it
but I managed to appeal
to his better nature and
got it off him. I wore it for
a whole year! Bruce and
Rick behind me don’t
look too happy, though!

Featuring archive performanc-


es and interviews with Paul
Weller, Bruce Foxton and Rick
Buckler, this documentary
tells the definitive tale of the
neo-Mod pioneers.

A classic performance filmed in


1980 at the Westfalenhalle,
Dortmund, Germany, featuring
hits Going Underground,
Start!, Eton Rifles and Down In
The Tube Station At Midnight.
TS: Our first encounter!
They didn’t play me
anything of what they
were working on, but I
wouldn’t have been
interested if they did.
When I’m working,
I’m thinking about
something else: the shot.
Good record, All Mod Cons…
TS: This was the morning after the Manchester
gig. Paul kindly did a round robin interview
with a lot of these cats from fanzines. There
were six kids just talking with him, which
I thought was a tremendous thing to do.
He’s a pretty honest cat.
PW: Ah, the wit, wisdom and random
thoughts of Comrade Weller! I didn’t enjoy
that role at all – apart from the dark recesses
of ego that might have faintly enjoyed it.
I could have fucked it all off but I wanted
to spread the word. You can’t have it both
ways, I came to learn.

TS: The NME had come through, I might


have even brought it with me. There’s
something about Mods in there, I recall.
PW: Me and Bruce probably reading
about ourselves!
PW: This is us hard at work. See, we had fun
and laughs amongst the stress. We were very
different people but as a unit we were tight.

PW: This is us in the park at St John’s Wood,


near RAK. We were making All Mod Cons
there. That record was a turning point for
us and I think we all felt it, too, whilst
making it. It felt special.
Tom Sheehan (5)

64 MOJO
PW: Tommy would always tell me to
keep my Gunga – Gunga Din, chin – up,
but here I didn’t follow his orders and
a much nicer shot it is too!
TS: It was an autumn day, chilly but
the light was great so we went for a
stroll in the park. I remember walking
across the grass with him, and he
turns to me and goes, “Tommy,
who’s your favourite artist?” and I go,
“Well it depends what mood I’m in…”
That’s the kind of relationship
we have on shoots.
66 MOJO
Adrian Boot/Urban Image

MOJO 67
Songs of innocence: Roger
‘Syd’ Barrett performing
with early Cambridge
band Those Without at
the Blue Horizon, 1965;
(opposite) with his sister
Rosemary, 1961.
P0RTRAIT 0F THE

AS A YOUNG MAN

T’S SOMETIME IN THE EARLY 1950s IN THE Nobody can be sure. Even as a child, Rosemary accepts that
Barrett family home at 183 Hills Road, Cambridge, her brother has what she now describes as, “an original
and youngest son Roger is conducting an orchestra head”, full of original thoughts.
from his bed. The future Pink Floyd frontman and
psychedelic poster boy is supposed to be asleep. In- HE YOUNG ROGER BARRETT HAD AN ORIGI-
stead, he’s staging an imaginary musical performance nal view of the world almost from the day he arrived
in the room he shares with his sister Rosemary. in January 1946. But there was nothing Roger liked
Sketches and drawings sit alongside fairytale books, in- more than to entertain.
cluding Lewis Carroll’s Alice In Wonderland, in the dark- “He was always conducting imaginary orchestras,” says
ened bedroom. Meanwhile, sheets billow like ocean waves Rosemary now, “and just doing silly things to amuse us. He
as the young Roger Barrett leaps from his bed, arms swiping wanted to be a clown, and if nobody was laughing he would
the air around him, directing the symphony playing inside make people laugh.”
his head. Roger ‘Syd’ Barrett turned his back on a performing ca-
Is it make-believe or can he actually ‘hear’ music? reer while still in his twenties, and lived the last 25 years of
his life in seclusion, with just family members for com-
pany. In October 2016, the Cambridge Corn Exchange
will unveil a memorial and host a concert, Syd Barrett
– A Celebration, in his honour. The Barrett family has
endorsed the event. Which is why, on an overcast after-
noon in March, his youngest sister Rosemary has agreed
to meet MOJO in a gastro-pub in Whittlesford, a village
just south of Cambridge.
Rosemary Barrett has been Rosemary Breen since
1974, and she remained close to her brother until his
Copyright Rosemary Breen, Courtesy www.i-spysydincambridge.com

death from pancreatic cancer in July 2006. For many


years, neither she nor the family spoke publicly about
the man once known as Syd Barrett. “I will always call
him Roger,” says Rosemary at the outset of our conver-
sation. “It’s what we do in the family. We call him ‘Syd’
when talking about… the damaged person.”
Rosemary is friendly, but understandably cautious; the
aftermath of periodically fending off the journalists and
Barrett obsessives who door-stepped her brother in later
life. She’s also bemused by the media’s fascination with
Syd Barrett. “I thought this concert might bring us clo-
sure… if you like.” She laughs gently. “But my husband,
who’s very wise, said, ‘Not likely’…’”
There were five Barrett children. Older brothers
Donald and Alan and sister Ruth came first. Then ­

MOJO 69
¢
Roger and Rosemary. “As children there are
no photos of me without him and him without
me,” she explains, before producing several
faded photographs: there’s the two of them as
toddlers on holiday in Norfolk, in fancy dress at
a primary school fete, as teenagers in 1961…
In Wonderland: Roger
It is indeed difficult to equate this cheerful,
and Rosemary on holiday grinning Roger with the haunted ‘Syd’
in Norfolk (below left), stretched out on the bonnet of his Pontiac in
in fancy dress (below
right). “There are no photographer Mick Rock’s images of 1969.
photos of me without According to Rosemary, her brother’s
him,” she says.
childhood was a blissful time. “He had huge
charisma almost from the day he was born,”
she recalls. “He had this incredible twinkle
in his eye. Girls adored him. My mother’s
girlfriends were all in love with him.”
His artistic talent was obvious long before
he started playing music. “Roger could just
ook at something and be able to draw it im-
mediately. Still lifes, figure drawings,
pictures of people in the family… He
had a natural artistic bent.” If there was
a theme to his taste in art, literature
and, eventually, music it was escapism: a
trait that endured long after he’d re-
treated from public life. “We used to
read all the fantasy books,” says Rose-
mary. “Alice In Wonderland was one of
his favourites. Anything fantasy – not
science fiction – and he’d be there.”
The order of service at Barrett’s fu-
neral included an extract from
The Little Grey Men, Denys
Watkins-Pitchford’s 1942
fairytale about the last gnomes
n Britain. “The Little Grey
Men was also about nature,”
points out Rosemary. “Roger
iked anything with nature or
children or the world of

Copyright Rosemary Breen (4), Mark Hayward Archives, Rex


make-believe. Something like
eing able to walk through a
wardrobe into another
orld [as in CS Lewis’s
The Lion, The Witch
And The Wardrobe].
That appealed to his
brain – the idea that you
could make something
magically happen. Roger
was always imagining
the next thing that could
magically happen.”

Cautionary tale: ‘Syd’


in 1969 on his Pontiac;
(insets, above right)
four books that
influenced (right)
The Piper At The
Gates Of Dawn.
The line between these childhood books and time playing guitar with fellow student David
Barrett’s music is obvious. Pink Floyd’s 1967 Gilmour. “This was a happy time for him,” says
debut, The Piper At The Gates Of Dawn, was
named after chapter seven of Kenneth Gra-
A CELEBRATION Rosemary. “It was before he got into any real
mischief. He would smoke the odd thing, but
hame’s The Wind In The Willows; The Little A PREVIEW OF THE there wasn’t that much around.”
Grey Men reappeared as The Gnome, and there HOMETOWN HAPPENING By now Roger had taken over their former
are shades of Alice’s mystical adventures and Hi- HONOURING FLOYD’S playroom in the house, and filled it with canvases,
laire Belloc’s Cautionary Tales in Matilda Moth- FIRST LEADER. paints, records and a stream of visitors. Among
er. Roger’s musical talent, however, came from them was Roger Waters, a then rather imposing
SYD BARRETT made his last known live
his father. Dr Arthur Barrett, known to all as appearance at the Cambridge Corn teenager with leather jacket and motorbike.
Max, was a pathologist, but also a keen musician, Exchange with the group Stars in February “Roger [Waters] was older than me, and there-
whose tastes included Debussy, Vaughan Wil- ’72. Fittingly, the Corn Exchange will be the fore always a bit dismissive,” laughs Rosemary.
venue for a tribute concert, Syd Barrett – A
liams and Beethoven. “My father was a very Celebration, on October 27 this year. By now, Barrett’s musical tastes encompassed
good pianist, and we all had piano lessons,” says The Celebration will feature a Chuck Berry, Bo Diddley and The Rolling
Rosemary, who played a piano duet with Roger at performance of Barrett’s music by the Stones, whom he always favoured over The Bea-
Cambridge Guildhall when they were 10 and 11. Swedish group Men On The Border,
backed by the Sandviken Symphony
tles. “He loved the Stones. But he never liked
But the future Syd Barrett’s musical jour- Orchestra, and a light show by Pink Floyd’s The Beatles. I’d have thought he’d have liked
ney began with playing the jew’s-harp as a sev- former lighting engineer Peter Wynne- what they did later on. But he never did.”
en-year-old, followed by the ukulele, before Willson. Barrett was soon playing in a couple of local
The charity Cambridge Live also
graduating to guitar as a teenager. invited artists to pitch ideas for a memorial groups. But there was still no question of mak-
Inevitably, Max Barrett’s death from cancer art installation, which will be unveiled at ing music for a living: “Art was his first love. My
in December 1961 had a huge impact on the the Corn Exchange on the same day. mother angled him towards that, and she got
Rosemary Breen and her nephew, Ian
family. But Rosemary believes her father and Barrett, who runs the official Syd website,
him to go to Camberwell.” Barrett moved to
his youngest son had a particular connection. helped choose the winning entry, entitled London to attend Camberwell art school in
“Roger was 15 when he died and I think he CODA, which incorporates LED images and summer ’64, and soon began playing in what
was very affected. I think my father understood Barrett lyrics plus a spinning bicycle wheel became Pink Floyd. Rosemary moved to Lon-
in honour of the Floyd song Bike. “We got it
him. He was an academic, but still very in down to four from about 17 artists,” don soon after to train as a nurse at St George’s
touch with humanity. I understood Roger as explains Rosemary, “and there were some Hospital in Tooting. “He got into a lot of other
well, but I was still his little sister.” very strange ideas I couldn’t get my head stuff very quickly,” she sighs. “It was a strange
around at all,” she adds, laughing.
Perhaps Dr Barrett sensed something dif- “But I have a feeling Roger would like time and I don’t know if he was very happy.”
ferent about him. But asked whether she was this one, I really do.” What would he think Rosemary is not a great fan of Pink Floyd: “I
aware of it as a child, Rosemary shakes her of the idea of a memorial and a tribute never liked the music, to be honest. I don’t un-
concert? “I think he’d laugh. One always
head: “No, when you grow up with it, you knew he was going to do something
derstand it.” That said, she sees a connection
don’t question it. But we knew he was com- unusual and big in his life. But not to this between her brother’s unique way of experienc-
pletely different from our brothers.” extent. ing the world and the early Floyd’s psychedelic
Numerous theories have been floated about “He didn’t make music for 40 years, light show. Rosemary confirms the theory that
didn’t pick up a guitar for 20, and it’s 10
Barrett’s condition. Among the more plausible years since he died. It’s rather strange in her brother experienced the condition, synes-
is that he may have had Asperger’s syndrome. anybody’s book.” thesia, in which he could, essentially, ‘see’
“Oh, more than likely,” concurs Rosemary. “We While Rosemary confesses to not sounds and ‘hear’ colours. “When he talked
understanding the ongoing fascination
are all on the spectrum, but he was way over the with her brother’s music (“It’s a mystery to
about how he felt, he would call it a colour,” she
other side,” she adds, smiling. “Nowadays he the family”), she’s happy to support the reveals. “Even as children, so I thought it was
would undoubtedly have been diagnosed. But event. “I would like it to celebrate a unique perfectly normal. It didn’t have a label then.
we didn’t know what that was and lovable man That psychedelic thing with the lights and the
who inspired many
in the ’60s” enerations,” she thump of the music was, I think, how he felt.
With the arrival of adoles- ays. “And it’s Sound was colour, and colour was sound.”
cence, Barrett’s interests vely that it’s But another inspiration for Barrett’s music was
appening here LSD. He was now moving in a social milieu where
moved beyond art and books Cambridge.”
to jazz and blues. “I liked taking acid was actively encouraged. LSD enabled
Adam Faith, and he was ter- him to experience “a magical happening” but with
ribly rude about him,” laughs disastrous consequences. “I think it was so dangerous when a brain like
Rosemary. “I came home his got in touch with LSD,” she says. “There was already so much going
with his LP, and Roger put it on there. The other problem was, Roger was also always looking for the
on. He played a second of next thing – and that applied to drugs: ‘Oh, if I take one of these and
one track, then put the nee- feel like this, what will I feel like when I take two?’ We all have a bit of
dle on the next track, and did that in us, but most people know when to stop. Roger didn’t.”
the same again – ‘Oh, no, this Rosemary saw Pink Floyd play London’s Roundhouse, most like-
isn’t music.’ But he liked n’t very nice,” she says flatly. “He was away
[Charlie] Parker and [Thelo- tt and Pink Floyd parted company the fol-
nious] Monk, so it was hardly he relieved? “Not relieved, no. I was wor-
surprising.” nobody looking after him. It was a bad
The charismatic teenage , softly. “I don’t really want to go there.”
Roger ‘Syd’ Barrett, with his
Levi’s, his guitar and his sunglasses at th ULAR LEGEND OF SYD BARRETT IS
(“He wore them once, and a week lat into sharp relief by the reality of Roger
doing the same”) was soon a familiar fi a very confused man adrift in early-’70s
Cambridge. mary has never listened to his solo albums,
In summer 1962, he enrolled at hs and Barrett. “I suppose I should,” she
Cambridge School Of Art. Gifted but r have nothing to do with me and him. I
bellious, he infuriated his tutors, What do you want?: erest in it.”
preferring to while away his “This isn’t music” – nt around 1976, Roger left the ninth- ­
Barrett’s verdict on
Adam Faith;
MOJO 71
Floyd (above) play
at the Architectural
Association Student
Party, 1966 with Syd
¢ (right); Rosemary,
floor flat in Chelsea Cloisters near Sloane Square, Roger and Winifred at
where he’d been living for years. His money had seem- Greenwoods, Essex.
ingly run out. “He didn’t open brown envelopes, basi-
cally, from the income tax people,” says Rosemary. “The money was
there, but it wasn’t going to him from what he called ‘the office’. He
was very badly advised.”
By the early 1980s, Roger was living at his mother Winifred’s new mary. “It made me realise how important it must be to him to get an
house at 6 St Margaret’s Square, Cambridge: “We tried to look after idea out of his head, and how worried he was in case something hap-
him within the family, but it was not easy. He was quite damaged. He pened to him. I always knew when he’d done a painting because he
also didn’t understand the interest in who he’d been.” Old Cambridge was much calmer.”
friends from the ’60s still talk of seeing him around town but being Barrett spent his pop star afterlife painting, sculpting, drawing,
reluctant to approach. “I turned anyone away who came to the house occasionally travelling to London to visit Harrods or the Tate
or asked him about Syd,” admits Rosemary. “I probably was ov llery, and doing DIY to what his family called “an interesting
protective but he used to say, ‘Don’t speak to those people, wil tandard”. The bathroom door was customised with a picture
you’ – and I respected that.” “Those people” also included his hook ‘handle’, and an occasional table was built with legs on
former bandmates. That said, David Gilmour kept in touch one side and a sheet of chipboard on the other; impractical
with Rosemary (“He was the only one that cared, to everyone, except maybe him. Sadly, after
really”) and is credited for ensuring Barrett was being diagnosed with diabetes in the ’90s,
later paid his royalties, fully and on time.
Barrett apparently spent most of 1981 and “A DA S his health deteriorated, compounded by his
reluctance to look after himself and remember
’82 living at Greenwoods, an institution in Stock,
Essex. Among Rosemary’s photographs is one of
the two of them and Winifred taken there in
AND A BEAUTIFUL to take his medicine.
“He had terrible health problems at the
end,” sighs Rosemary. “But we tried. I couldn’t

.”
’81. “It was an open day,” she recalls. “He was give him happiness because that was something
good when he was there. He made wastepaper he didn’t know much about. But I strived to
baskets.” She grins. “Then he just left.” give him contentment. I think he was content.
Barrett walked from Essex to Cambridge, “He got everything he needed,” she adds.
where he remained for the rest of his life. Re- SWIMS IN THE MURKY “But he was very reclusive. I’d have liked him to
turning was the catalyst for him going back to GOLDFISH BOWL OF have had a friend or two.”
what he loved as a child: art. He adored the Ro- BARRETT’ RRAPIN. Instead, Barrett saw out his final years living in
man and Byzantine periods – “It was the intri- the world inside his very ‘original’ head, escaping,
cacy that appealed to him” – and thought Pablo “TERRAPIN AND Late Night perhaps, to a place only he fully understood.
from The Madcap Laughs both
Picasso’s exaggerated heads and features were have that sense of childhood Shortly before his death, he went to London one
“very funny”. Today Rosemary produces one innocence shot through with last time to visit the Tate. At 4 o’clock that after-
of her brother’s signed pictures: a framed wa- a touch of darkness and noon, he called Rosemary from a phone box, ex-
tercolour containing a splash of swirling greens madness. That mood runs
through most of his songs but his madness
plaining that he’d spent all his money (“on abso-
and blues – “a lovely little bit of sea”. shone with a beautiful light. Terrapin floats lute rubbish,” she laughs) and couldn’t get home.
It’s one of the few artworks Barrett didn’t de- lazily around in a goldfish bowl and Late Rosemary sent a taxi from Cambridge to London
Night reflects how a late night would be in
©Adam Ritchie, Copyright Rosemary Breen, Rex, Pink Floyd Archives

stroy. Everything else was usually discarded, in- to bring him back. The car picked him up from
Syd’s world, an early morning, but through
cluding the numerous gadgets acquired and then a haze. His songs sound as if they’ll grind to outside Chelsea Cloisters: “He’d been to have a
thrown away days later. “He didn’t want to keep a halt at any moment, a sleepy morning look at the old place again.”
anything, because once it was done, it was done. It waking after a night of narcotics. It’s It was one of the few times Barrett acknowl-
was the same with music. Why do the same thing amazing it got finished at all. Thank God edged his old life. And it’s hard to shake the men-
for David Gilmour pulling it together and
twice? It had to be original.” ending up with a strange tal image of the latter-day Roger Barrett outside
That statement alone ex- masterpiece. Both of these the flat in which he’d lived when he was still Syd
plains why he walked away songs I’ve sung, Terrapin Barrett, the so-called rock star, but now unrec-
on Marc & The Mambas’
from Pink Floyd. mini-album Untitled as it
ognisable as the same man. Rosemary smiles at
Instead, art became Bar- illustrated how my mind the memory, before asking MOJO a question.
rett’s therapy. “I remember was at the time. There was “Has this helped you understand more about
him telling me that when he a lot of Syd’s spirit in that who he was?” she asks. It has. “He never had any
messy disc. I felt like that
had an idea for a painting, fish swimming around in responsibility, you see,” she says. “He never had
he was really careful cross- the bowl. Syd was the a job. He never had to grow up. He was a child,
ing the road,” says Rose- perfect soundtrack to that really. A child of 60 and a child of the ’60s.”
phase of my life, falling
apart, hazy, chaotic.”
72 MOJO
AN OPEN
he sings. There is also an ability English-accented singing voice, Remember Me
to summon the claustrophobic instead finds the singer adopting an American
grip of mental fracture: “You tear accent to sneer and snarl through an aggressive
me apart, you just won’t let me go, garage punk song. The latter, meanwhile, is a
u hold on so tight, so tight I just straightforward tribute to Bo Diddley with a
can’t breathe, now Lucy leave Lucy,” which topical reference to James Bond thrown in. The
would become an idée fixe as he got deeper band play a convincing Bo Diddley beat and the
into the lysergic experience on The Piper At The lyrics cast the bluesman as secret agent Double
Gates Of Dawn. O Bo. Syd owned Diddley’s 1955 debut single Bo
Also written in the spring of 1965, Butterfly is Diddley and his 1960 album, Have Guitar, Will
a Jimmy Reed blues played badly, but Barrett’s Travel and the group covered Bo Diddley songs
lyrics take it somewhere else entirely. A in their live sets up to the end of ’66.
THE EARLIEST SONGS OF beguiling paean with a sinister undercurrent, it’s By the time of the group’s second session, on
REVEAL the first appearance of Syd’s preoccupation with October 31, 1966 at Thompson Private Recording
A TALENT ALREADY ADEPT AT child-like fantasy, fairytale and the chimerical: Studios, Hemel Hempstead, Syd had written
“I’m gonna catch you soon in my butterfly net, another song. I Get Stoned (Stone Alone)
SPINNING UNSETTLING ENGLISH you better watch out,” he sings in a flat voice, captures a solitary Syd singing, “Living alone I
FAIRYTALES OF CLAUSTROPHOBIA that off key and unsettling, that helps emphasise get stoned/Sitting here all alone I get stoned,”
the duality between childlike wonder associated over strummed acoustic guitar.
AND DESPAIR. with the pastime of catching butterflies and the According to the Floyd’s then co-manager
SORTS THROUGH THE OFFCUTS. suffocation of being caught in the net and the Andrew King, I Get Stoned (Stone Alone) was the
obsession of the adult collector. The influences first song Syd wrote with the Floyd specifically in
YD BARRETT’S first attempts at writing are most likely the children’s books and nursery mind and it’s the beginning of a thread – his
placed The Pink Floyd in a contempo- rhymes that touched him when he was growing allegiance to recreational drug use – that runs
rary British R&B setting aligning them up; most pertinently Kenneth Grahame’s The throughout his career. He revisited the song on
with the mid-’60s sound of The Rolling Wind In The Willows with its juxtaposition of the February 27, 1970, demoing it under the title
Stones and The Yardbirds. Written in foreboding, hallucinatory nature of the wild Living Alone for the Barrett album.
early 1965, Lucy Leave, also known as Lucy Lee In wood and the sanctuary of the riverbank, the The closest any of the early songs got to issue
Blue Tights, was the first of his songs to be contrast becoming a metaphor for the LSD trip was Let’s Roll Another One. Intended for debut
recorded in their first session at London’s Regent – Piper At The Gates Of Dawn takes its name from a single Arnold Layne’s B-side and recorded in
Sound Studios, in that same spring, with a line-up chapter title in the book, of course – but also January 1967, it’s a simple anthem to smoking
that also comprised lead guitarist Rado ‘Bob’ Cautionary Tales For Children by Hilaire Belloc. It dope – “I’m high, don’t try to spoil my fun, don’t
Klose. Musically, it’s rough edged and guitar also marks the beginnings of Syd’s predilection cry, we’ll roll another one.” EMI refused to release
driven, and pays a debt to Bo Diddley, whom Syd for songs mentioning animals and it as the flip due to its
was a big fan of at this time. Barrett’s meandering sea creatures – Effervescing drug reference, so Syd
free-form guitar solo and rhythmically loose Elephant, Terrapin, Octopus – all rewrote the lyric and it
playing suggests a mind open to the possibilities featuring Belloc’s imprint. became Candy And A
of the progressive freakout and the avant-garde The group also recorded two Currant Bun.
and the lyrics elevate it above simple R&B copy other Barrett originals, Remember
too. An English villanelle, it contains some of Me and Double O Bo, at that first
what would become Syd’s compositional recording session. The former is an
hallmarks, introducing a femininity and fancy anomaly. The only track in the
proto-psychedelic whimsy in the first verse, Floyd and solo Syd canon not to
“…been in love with you and your charms Lucy,” feature Syd’s clearly enunciated

The Pink Floyd,


1965, (from left) Rick
Wright, Roger Waters,
Nick Mason, Rado
‘Bob’ Klose, Barrett;
(inset) Bo Diddley,
they owed him a debt.
“Don’t try to spoil my fun”: Pink Floyd in
Ruskin Park, Denmark Hill, south London,
1967 (from left) Rick Wright, Roger Waters,
Syd Barrett, Nick Mason; (insets opposite)
The Game’s contentious 45;
Floyd get ‘Projected’.
IN THE DARK
OISED BETWEEN GENIUS AND JESTER, THE
ON PINK FLOYD’S PIPER AT THE GATES OF DAWN WAS PLAYING BIZARRE
GAMES WITH POP FORMS. ASKS WHAT’S SO FUNNY.
T’S SATURDAY TEATIME, JANUARY 7, 1967. YOU’RE bridge, is now transmitting from – and to – middle-class England
eating cheese-on-crumpets and watching BBC1, waiting for and its pop culture, his songs a playful, trippy rippling of fairy tale,
the football results to finish so you can have your weekend space race, junk-shop Edwardiana and hippy philosophy, his paint-
blast of pop culture. er’s eye recording the scenery.
At 5.15pm, John Barry’s twangy, plucky theme heralds Arnold Layne concerns a man who steals and wears ladies clothes
Juke Box Jury, half an hour of hit-or-miss record reviewing and ends up in prison. That the life of a curious loner is a valid subject
featuring, this week, a formidable all DJ line-up of Simon Dee, Pete for a pop song was confirmed by Eleanor Rigby, about six months
Murray, Alan Freeman and Jimmy Savile. Then it’s Doctor Who ago. Barrett’s protagonist is a tragicomic unfortunate reminiscent of
with Patrick Troughton as the doctor, the hooting, haunting theme the subjects of Hilaire Belloc’s Cautionary Tales, much loved by Syd:
provided by the Radiophonic Workshop and Ron Grainer. After “Doors bang, chain gang… Arnold Layne don’t do it again.” Written
that: Hey hey, it’s The Monkees, manufactured pop-flavoured may- as a pithy vignette, its only concession to the Floyd’s current stage act
hem with a laugh track, this week – a secret-agent caper called – which features vivid improvisation at terrific volume – is Rick
Monkee See, Monkee Die. Wright’s wandering solo on his Farfisa Duo, 90 seconds in.
Meanwhile, The Pink Floyd – a young band whose sound is not The recording, produced by Joe Boyd at Sound Techniques
dissimilar to all three of those themes playing simultaneously – have 4-track studio in Chelsea (boasting a monitor for each track!), is
the evening off. They appeared last night at Freak Out Ethel, a hap- mixed in mono and has never had a stereo version. Though subse-
pening in the Seymour Hall, Paddington. Tomorrow they’re on at a quently used as the debut single, it’s cut as a demo for Boyd’s new
pub in Forest Gate. There’s a good chance they’re also watching Witchseason Productions to take to Polydor Records. His production
Juke Box Jury. Tonight’s episode is shorter than usual. Just before follows the commercial focus of the time, with Syd’s voice high in the
transmission, the BBC remove seven minutes con- mix over a subdued version of the band’s on-stage ca-
cerning a (subsequently withdrawn) Parlophone cophony. One shouldn’t underestimate the influence of
single by Mod band, The Game, entitled The Ad- Syd’s vocal delivery, premiered here, that unusual, nasal,
dicted Man. All four panellists object to the song’s British sneer. The way he sings “Moonshine, washing
drug references, and the debate gets a little too heat- line” will echo down through David Bowie, John Lydon,
ed. Pop stars on drugs is too hot a topic for teatime. Damon Albarn, Liam Gallagher and beyond.
The Pink Floyd haven’t cut their first 45 yet. The other song in the session is B-side Candy And
They will record it on January 29 in – according to A Current Bun, which began life as Let’s Roll Another
recording engineer John Wood – a haze of dope One, a staple of the Floyd live show in 1966, written
smoke, courtesy of singer Syd Barrett and manager ate in 1965 while Syd was attending Camberwell Art
Peter Jenner. They will officially turn professional College. Aware the lyric “I’m high/Don’t try to spoil
three days later, finally signing to EMI on February my fun” might ring warning bells for courting record
28. That single, Arnold Layne, will be on Juke Box ompanies, Syd pre-session rewrites render it innocu-
Jury just two months from tonight’s censored edi- us: “Oh my/Girl sitting in the sun.” Over a driving
tion, when ’50s hep-cat-turned-promising square iff, his vocal here marks a unique moment of sexy
Pete Murray will declare that the band is “hype” and swagger, with a breathy spoken interlude, “Ooh, don’t
that psychedelia is a “one-month wonder”. touch me child”. After about a minute, the guitar dis-
If any of the band are still watching BBC 1 at solves into 30 seconds of restrained freaking out, a
9.15 they might catch the latest episode of Adam suggestion of how it might have sounded live.
Adamant Lives!, a jokey drama about a cryo- When the demo’s ready, managers Peter Jenner and
genically frozen Edwardian sleuth defrosted in Andrew King are approached by agent Bryan Morrison
Swinging London, starring the plummy Gerald who uses it to broker a deal with EMI, attractive be-
Harper. The show’s camp mixture of cause it comes with Abbey Road on tap and, crucially,
history, humour, hip and derring-do is includes a firm commitment to an album. But signing to
perfect for this coming year of Sgt. Pep- EMI with its in-house producers effectively cuts Boyd loose.
per’s Lonely Hearts Club Band – also a When work begins on that long-player – working title
cryogenically frozen Edwardian outfit, ‘Projection’ – with EMI’s Norman Smith producing, the bulk
come to think of it. That mixture is of the material will be songs Syd had written the previous sum-
also present in the songs of Syd Bar- mer. The first to be recorded, on Tuesday, February 21, 1967,
rett. By this point, the Floyd’s is Matilda Mother, another nod to Belloc. In fact, its original
Colin Prime

blues’n’Bo Diddley roots are barely lyric was a straight lift from Cautionary Tales, which was still
audible. Syd, a nice boy from Cam- under copyright. The new version retains Belloc’s rhythms ­

MOJO 75
Floyd adamant: (from left) Mason, Wright,
Barrett and Waters look apprehensive at
the Beeb, 1967; (insets) Floyd and Bowie
Gnome in; the Binson box; the hit 45. did no thinking, his
arms didn’t move”
– but has a more in-
teresting arrange-
ment than The
nome, with Rick’s
ndering keyboard
me late-entry guitar.
e line “The black and green scarecrow was
er than me” lifts it out of the banal.
Chapter 24 simply recites chunks of that
pter of the I Ching. “None of us believed in
hippy philosophy,” Rick Wright told MOJO
007, which makes one wonder just how cyn-
Syd was being. Or perhaps he’d simply noted
n Lennon quoting The Tibetan Book Of The
d for Tomorrow Never Knows, as Revolver was
King was chewing little bits of string…” sun ased just as these songs were being written.
Rick Wright. In Floyd’s first press release stronomy Domine, which opens Piper ,
EMI, describing each member of the band, ches into outer-space, the lyric featuring no-
likes “fairy tales” and dislikes “having no ti le celestial objects, “Jupiter and Saturn/
for reading fairy tales”. He sings the secti beron, Miranda and Titania” (moons of
that concludes: “Fairy stories held me high… ranus), and references to ’50s ‘Pilot of the
oh mother tell me more.” uture’ Dan Dare, bookending a trippy,
Flaming is a stoned pastoral, “Watching instrumental core. At 1:38, ushering in the
buttercups cup the light/Sleeping on a breakdown, there’s the whooshing throb of
dandelion”, which Syd treats almost as a tape-echo, pulses of feedback generated
parody of itself, singing the couplet “Yip- between the recording and playback heads of
pee you can’t see me/But I can you” with
kind of mock sincerity, his voice cracking on
“THERE’S A a tape machine, code for “space” to pop-
pickers since Joe Meek’s Telstar of 1962. Echo,
“can”. As The Piper At The Gates Of Dawn unfolds, or delay, would remain a key element of the
one notices Syd’s tongue-in-cheek attitude to his Floyd’s recordings. They already used it live
job as frontman. The vocal performances all too. Thanks to the Binson Echorec, an early
seem to be winking at you, detached from reality,
but aware of the silliness of the material or, in-
TWIST THERE.” portable unit, they could bring outer space into
the basement of the UFO club in Tottenham
deed, the whole business of pop. He phrases KALEIDOSCOPE’S Court Road. Perhaps pointedly, the song
pointedly, rolling his ‘R’s, and exploding his ‘T’s, PRAISES THE POP ends with Wright and Barrett leaning into the
and the songs that include borrowed lyrics or AND WEIRDNESS OF PINK word “underground”.
self-conscious asides show what Barrett’s biogra- FLOYD’S SUMMER OF LOVE Lucifer Sam – for some reason the one
pher Rob Chapman calls “hidden layers of dis- 45, SEE E Y PLAY. Floyd song that Syd played with his short-lived,
traction and disengagement”. Syd won’t commit post-Floyd band, Stars – begins like a scrappy
“When See Emily Play came spy movie theme, drums at full tilt, before Sam,
to a stance, vibrating between being childishly out in June 1967 we heard
echoes of what we’d been a sinister, omnipresent ‘Siam cat’ is introduced.
open and maddeningly opaque. One reason why
doing on [Kaleidoscope debut “That cat’s something I can’t explain” goes the
this album, essentially filled with psychedelia’s LP] Tangerine Dream, which refrain. The instrumental features a bowed gui-
cliches-to-be, remains fascinating. was recorded from February
tar. Inspired by avant-grade musicians AMM,
To fairyland again for The Gnome, Syd’s to May 1967, the same as Piper At The Gates
Of Dawn. It’s a charming sound, but with who shared management with Floyd. Syd had
slightest song on Piper, sung to acoustic guitar, these unusual undertones. The song itself started to bring some of his art-school instincts
celeste and temple blocks, Grimble Gromble is a is very basic. It’s in A minor. It’s got two on stage, attacking his guitar with various ob-
small man in a scarlet cloak with a green hood lines, a chorus repeated three times and
jects and rolling ball bearings along the strings,
(“it looked quite good”) who one day finds a new two brilliant little instrumental sections,
one tiny one with the speeded up piano but such innovations are largely inaudible on
way to say “Ooooh my”. It was recorded mid-
Chris Walter/Photofeatures, courtesy Antony Miln/Soundgas.com, Rex, Getty Images (2)

and then the more spacey one. There’s a Piper. Syd’s nursery-psych offerings, a snapshot
March, roughly the same time David Bowie was darker twist we never went for. Lyrically, of his psychedelic summer of ’66, seem more
cutting The Laughing Gnome in Decca Studios you can hear the influence of fairy tales,
but there is one verse that jumps off the commercially pragmatic than a true indication
nearby. It’s unknown whether Bowie, later a de- page, and that’s where Syd sings, “Put on a of where the group intended to go.
clared Barrett fan, was influenced by an earlier gown that touches the ground/Float on a However, they finished the sessions and the
performance of this song or if it was pure coinci- river for ever and ever.” That immediately
brings to mind Shakespeare’s Ophelia in
album on May 27, 1967, with Bike; its lyric
dence, two like minds sensing something in the Hamlet and Millais’ Ophelia drowned in recalling the rhythms of AA Milne, its music
air. But Syd would be ambivalent about Bowie’s the brook, that natural poetic detail of the bizarre, and a first clue to Syd’s chaotic solo
Love You Till Tuesday in Melody Maker’s Blind Pre-Raphaelites feeding into British future. Purposefully derailing the comic metre
Date review column that psychedelia. See Emily
Play still works: it was in the verse about his cloak– “It’s red and black,
August, initially dismissive short and sweet, had a I’ve had it for months” – Syd again toys with his
– “Yeah, a joke number” – girl’s name in the title, you listener, the tempo stutters, the tuning wavers.
adding, “Everybody likes could remember the
chorus because they
“I know a room of musical tunes,” he keens,
jokes. The Pink Floyd like repeated it three times, ushering us, by the sound of it, into Abbey
jokes… Very chirpy, but I but then injected weird Road’s percussion cupboard as, halfway along,
don’t think my toes were Pink Floyd stuff – speeded- the track dissolves into chaos. The rest is noise.
up piano; larger instru-
tapping.” mental section with organ The chorus of quacking at the fade-out is the
Scarecrow cut barely and swirling guitars – band’s laughter, looped, sped-up and reversed:
any deeper – “His head which sends it in a slightly “The Pink Floyd like jokes.”
different direction from
what anyone was doing at
the time. Perfect.”
76 MOJO
the place for a place for me,” he

THE deadpans. “And it ain’t anywhere.”


Having just stripped bare, Syd
virtually checks out on Jugband Blues.
ere, the mood is no longer manic but
reflective, and painfully so. Barrett offers
mocking thanks to persons unstated “for making
it clear that I’m not here”, doubts his authorship of
the song, and, in a heartrending coda, questions
even dreams and jokes – always the last refuge of
the dispossessed. The Dadaist melee of Salvation
THE SONGS WROTE DURING HIS FINAL SIX MONTHS WITH Army brass and Floydian kazoo that divides the
lyric in two acts is a mercifully daft but only
PINK FLOYD REVEAL A YOUNG MAN SWAPPING POP’S PAISLEY TRAPPINGS temporary distraction.
FOR A FAR DARKER RAIMENT. FEELS THE CHILL. Work began on another Barrett original, In
The Beechwoods, on October 20. Unsurprisingly,
N MAY 12, 1967, The Pink Floyd played scrubbing bubbles on all fours”, he sounds like a given that the song evoked happier Boy Scout
London’s Queen Elizabeth Hall. An tripped-out Cinderella, a prisoner in his own song. days in Cambridge, it was ditched before vocals
evening of “space age relaxation for Pink Floyd’s most courageous, gallant explorer were added. Instead, they returned to the studio
the climax of spring”, Games For May had plunged into psychedelia’s dark side. on October 26 and 27 for what (overdubs aside)
was a new kind of pop experience Two further songs, taped between October 9 turned out to be Barrett’s studio Floyd swansong.
incorporating psychedelic lighting, quadraphon- and 19, form a gateway into this new wilderness, With its fruity title, upbeat melody and floaty,
ic sound and plastic ducks. where, by and large, he wandered for the rest of sunshine pop chorus, Apples And Oranges was
Syd Barrett, an early advocate of rock theatre, his life. Hastily thrown together before a session, cloaked in commercial acceptability. But Syd’s
had written a song for the event. Paradoxically, Vegetable Man was a voice is stilted and unin-
Games For May was so commercial that it was troglodyte stomper with volved, his guitar thin,
recorded, as See Emily Play, over the weekend of Barrett shedding his pop bouncing off walls in a
May 20/21, and released as the group’s second star trappings line by line wah-wah wail of hysteria. It
single on June 16. (“In my paisley shirt, I look bows out with a howl of
Emily was the song on which Barrett’s life a jerk”), riffing comically feedback. This was a new kind
turned. According to his sister Rosemary, it “was on the Batman theme of pop, a divided-self Summer
him”, the most complete realisation of fairy-tale and, contemplating deep, of Love come-down – and it
Syd. The entire song hangs on his voice, playful, vacant-eyed alienation. bombed. Syd told reporters
wistful and never more present on record. The “I’ve been looking all over he “couldn’t care less”.
perfect embodiment of Barrett’s unique pop
consciousness, Emily is simultaneously
effervescent and melancholic, filled with hooks,
glissando guitar innovation and seemingly the Ruffled by fame: Syd in
most charming invitation into wonderland, a London club dressing
room, 1967; (left below)
“You’ll lose your mind and play...” Wright, Barrett and
Freaked out by too many Top Of The Pops Waters enlighten
appearances, “Play Emily!” catcalls from Japanese reporter.
provincial audiences and handfuls of hash and
acid, Barrett briefly went AWOL in late July, with
Emily peaking at Number 6 and The Piper At The
Gates Of Dawn album imminent. On his return,
Floyd’s live sets began with Reaction In G, an
aggressive new instrumental closer to Sabbath-
era heaviosity than the Floyd’s abstract R&B.
The success of Emily had become burden-
some. Syd’s waltz-time (She Was A) Millionaire,
recorded on April 18 and tipped as an A-side back
in the spring, was passed up. Syd had a better
idea for a single – Old Woman With A Casket.
Recorded in Abbey Road on August 7, and
now known as Scream Thy Last Scream, the song
was as uncompromising as its title. With its
shackled, downbeat melody line and mixed-in
crowd noises, the mood was one of doom and
claustrophobia. Barrett has become a spectral-
like presence, hiding behind Nick Mason, who
declaims the malevolent lead vocal, and the
Chipmunk-like voice that shadows it. When he
finally emerges to whisper a forlorn “She’ll be
Right in the heart of the
music: (from left) Barrett,
Wright, Waters and Mason,
September 1967; (insets from
top) Floyd’s Relics and A Nice
Pair; influencers Hawkwind
and Robert Wyatt; Julian Cope
and “very Syd” Sunspots.
“THE
OF PSYCHEDELIC POP”
ON THE ANOMALOUS
GAME-PLAYING GENIUS OF LUCIFER SAM.
N 1972 MY GIRLFRIEND AT THE TIME, JANE SMITH, GOT ME A
copy of [Pink Floyd compilation] Relics. She was always going on about
Syd. She was an art student, so she was in love with people like Syd and
Kevin Ayers – people who came across as delicate. She got me Relics for
£1.49, but I thought it was crap and I know why. They felt the need to
put in rare stuff to sell it, but all this rare stuff was just the other guys
trying to be Syd – like Paint Box, which is just like Syd doing [The Beatles’] A
Day In The Life. But Lucifer Sam is one of my favourite songs of all time. I first
heard it in 1972, on a copy of A Nice Pair, which my friend Max Eacock in Tam-
worth had. I just thought it was incredible. We were obsessed by In Search Of
Space by Hawkwind – and I thought Lucifer Sam was space rock, like Hawk-
wind My favourite two psychedelic songs are Lucifer Sam and The Best Way To
Travel by The Moody Blues, which has these weird mellotron sounds and
is catchy as a bastard. Fucking brilliant! To me, Lucifer Sam and The Best
Way To Travel are the spearhead of psychedelic pop songs.
With Lucifer Sam, the riff sequence has a blues element to it, but he
changes the riff by the second time he plays it – like an old really-early
blues player. That’s the reason it’s so fucked up and good. He’s right in the
heart of the music – he’s not by rote, ever. He’s fucking with people’s
heads without telling them. But that riff is also quite spy-theme – you can
imagine saxes in the background, a bit John Barry. Lucifer Sam has things
ike that which allow it to exist in the wider world. I knew Robert Wyatt’s
Roc ottom album and that had a lot of what I call “wah-mouth” – interesting noises,
maybe gargling, done with the mouth. Syd on guitar always has a kind of gargling guitar
solo – which is good, because it’s just succinct. Maybe he wasn’t a technically impres-
sive guitarist like David Gilmour, so he did these more interesting things instead.
When I got to Liverpool in 1976 all I had in common with the Liverpool punks was
reggae and a dislike of Pink Floyd. During punk I found Barrett a really contentious
figure – because he was the fat guy who Floyd paid homage to on Shine On You Crazy
Diamond. And because Jane fancied him. I thought he was just this madman
who had somehow written Lucifer Sam, like a freak anomaly. I was still suspi-
cious of the Syd myth, but I became friendly with this older Irish guy called Dan
Bre mpletely modelled himself on the Syd of The Madcap Laughs.
rom be to understand Syd better and I got The Madcap Laughs and
Bar alb th hindsight, [1985 Cope single] Sunspots is very Syd. That
clan Apples And Oranges.
Wh fir et [wife] Dorian she was 19 and she came over to London
fro A], in the summer of ’81. We lay in bed and we played Lucifer
Sam d over again, over and over all day. On the second day she was
stil jet- ed, but I insisted we took acid and went out. We went to see
oby itchcock, supported by The Television Personalities. We were
fee weird. Dorian was scared to be out in public, ’cos we were
trip , because it wasn’t that long after [Teardrop Explodes hit]
ewa wa getting semi-mobbed by people. Then The Television Person-
alit and played Lucifer Sam (laughs). I thought they’d stolen our
bra with my friend Droyd and I asked him, “Have they just played
uci e said, “Yeah”, but I asked him to ask someone else because I
Mirrorpix, LFI/Photoshot

tho wa gining the whole thing. He asked this girl and she said it was
uci – at which point Dorian just ran off to the toilets.
As told to Roy Wilkinson
rthona Plays Atlantis, a soundtrack to Julian Cope’s novel One Three One,
is out now headheritage.co.uk

MOJO 79
THE ART OF
ness,” said David Gilmour, who saw the changes in his childhood
friend on returning to London in mid-1967 after a year in France.
You can hear that change in No Man’s Land. Its heavily distorted
guitar, lines like “we awful, awful crawl” and final collapse into near
unintelligibility, with Barrett mumbling “tell me, tell me, tell me”,
could well be the sound of a man falling apart. Even the music hall
romp of Love You, in which Barrett throws at his paramour a frantic
j mble of voices from the Cockney of “I seen you looking good the
other evening” to the hip talk of “oh, you dig it” has a false jollity,

APART
a manic quality that’s unnerving.
When the split came, Floyd’s managers Peter Jenner and An-
drew King chose to follow erratic Syd rather than his straighter,
more career-conscious band members, and on May 6, 1968, the
st of a handful of solo sessions produced by Jenner took place at
RECORDED BETWEEN MAY Abbey Road. Incredibly, given his parlous mental state, the Jenner
1968 AND JULY 1970, THE SONGS sessions captured the most sophisticated song Barrett ever wrote:
Clowns And Jugglers, released on The Madcap Laughs as Octopus.
ON THE MADCAP LAUGHS AND Set to a dampened Bo Diddley strum, Octopus pieces together
lines culled from 16th century verse, Shakespeare’s Henry VI, Part I
BARRETT WERE OBLIQUE, DIZZYING and The Wind In The Willows to create a surrealist poem that cannot
DISTRESS CALLS FROM A DECAYING make any sense but evokes a febrile atmosphere nonetheless. “The
idea was like those number songs like Green
NIGHT NURSERY OF TERROR AND Grow The Rushes, Ho, where you have, say,
12 lines each related to the next and an
SORROW. overall theme,” Barrett told Sounds’ Gio-
STEPS OVER THE THRESHOLD. vanni Dadomo in 1970, proving he retained
the ability to form order out of his own
chaos, even as confusion took hold. “Trip
ROM ITS PLAINTIVE OPENING CHORDS, and go, heave and ho,” sung with boy-
Terrapin introduces us to Syd Barrett’s post-Floyd scout vigour, comes from Summer’s Last
world in gently cracked fashion. Featuring Will And Testament by the Elizabethan
little more than Barrett’s reflective, some- poet Thomas Nashe. Mole’s journey
what wear y tones over a rudimentar y through the Wild Wood pops up in the
strum on what sounds like a weather- chorus as “isn’t it good to be lost in the
warped acoustic guitar, the song that begins The Mad- wood”, while the line “they’ll never put
cap Laughs eschews the sonic experiments of early me in their bag” is adapted from the nursery rhyme
Floyd for a seemingly simple evocation of the inno- The Winds They Did Blow and turned into a state-
cence of love and nature. The song features one of the ment of affirmation. Those sessions also produced
most tender lines in the history of 20th century song early versions of Late Night, one of Barrett’s many
– “Well oh baby, my hair’s on end about you” – yet songs of loneliness and lost love; and Golden Hair, an
with its images of “fins a luminous” and “fangs adaptation of a James Joyce poem that captures the
all round the clown”, within its dreamlike, courtly romance of the words with a mystery and el-
hazy tone, Terrapin hints at that pagan under- egance. Yet whatever diligence Barrett summoned to
world glimpsed in The Wind In The Willows record those magical songs emerged from the most
when Rat and Mole, in search of Otter’s lost dissolute period of his life.
child, are met by the Piper at the Gates of
Dawn – also known, with more sinister con- OR EVERY COMIC TALE ABOUT BARRETT, LIKE
notations, as the Great God Pan. the one broadcaster Jonathan Meades tells about arriving at
The Madcap Laughs, and its darker twin, Bar- his South Kensington pad to be told the banging upstairs
rett, offer glimpses of Pan’s dark globe, but from as a result of the residents locking the singer
a middle-class, eccentric, terribly English per- n a cupboard, only to discover Syd was actu-
spective. They also reveal a complete change in lly in the bathroom trying to work out how
Barrett’s songwriting approach, leaving behind o open the door – there is a darker one. Art-
the toy-town psychedelia of The Piper At The st Duggie Fields, who from late ’68 shared
Gates Of Dawn for something far more primitive an un inge . ith Barrett the Earls Court flat immortal-
Madcap’s second track No Good Trying may rock along in a manner sed on the cover of The Madcap Laughs, re-
that’s not so dissimilar to Floyd’s debut, but its wayward tempo and members him stubbing a cigarette out on his
all-round looseness make it clear we’re no longer flying high in the girlfriend Gayla Pinion. “He only did it
playful world of Piper-era Syd. once,” said Fields. “But once was too much.”
In late ’67, during his final months with Pink Floyd, Barrett Cut loose from Pink Floyd, their former
moved with his girlfriend Lindsay Corner to 101 frontman became directionless. After the
Cromwell Road, South Kensington, “a major enner sessions ground to a halt, Barrett
burn-out joint” according to former resident pent his days numbing himself with Mand-
Mick Rock. There he became something of a rax while Fields painted away in the next
golden boy to a well-meaning but naive group for oom. Nonetheless, by March 1969 he was ready to
Mark Hayward Archives

whom LSD was a portal to enlightenment. What- o into the studio once more. He called Abbey Road
ever deep truths the drug unearthed, it didn’t o book a session, leading to Malcolm Jones, youth-
help Barrett fulfil his commitments as the lead ful boss of EMI’s progressive wing Harvest Records,
singer of an increasingly busy pop group. eciding Barrett had enough material to work up a
“He’d definitely turned a corner into mad- solo album. Jerry Shirley of Humble Pie played ­

80 MOJO
Found on another
plane: Barrett, his
literary influences
and solo debut
(insets opposite) .

drums, and members of Soft Ma-
chine provided overdubs on a handful of
tracks. “We just clattered along amiably,”
remembered Soft Machine’s Robert
Wyatt. Among the songs Jones produced
was the elegant but despairing Opel, not
included on the album but released
eventually in 1988, on the compilation
of the same name. In June, David Gil-
mour and Roger Waters came on board
to knock the album into shape. Acting as
producer, Gilmour remembers the ses-
sions as “murder, murder trying to get
him to do anything”, and you only have
to listen to a howl of hopelessness like
Dark Globe, which features Barrett
screaming “wouldn’t you miss me at studio, joined once more by Rick Wright
all?” against a rudimentary acoustic bash on keyboards and Jerr y Shirley on
in G, to see what he meant. Rick Wright drums, for Barrett. It would be the last
added keyboards to Long Gone, one of album Syd would ever make. He was 24.
the saddest of all Madcap songs, with With Gilmour at the controls
Barrett singing “I stood very still by the throughout, Barrett became a more co-
window sill, and I wondered for those I hesive album than The Madcap Laughs,
love still” in tones suggesting profound isolation. but it’s also more disturbing. Gigolo Aunt describes a groovy trip to
With Pink Floyd in the ascendant, Gilmour had little time to give the beach with wry detachment, and the funfair-like Love Song,
the album cohesion. That led to contentious decisions like leaving with Rick Wright’s harmonium wheezing back and forth, is a whim-
out Opel but including Barrett singing hopelessly out of tune and sical ode to an old flame, but Waving My Arms In The Air/I Never
abandoning a take during the three-song sequence She Took A Long Lied To You begins as infantile and ends as anguished while Wolf-
Cold Look, Feel and If It’s In You, which Malcolm Jones later de- pack and Rats are nothing less than visions of despair. Wolfpack
scribed as a case of airing a troubled artist’s dirty linen in public. features Barrett lamenting how “this life that was ours grew sharper
Barrie Wentzell, David Hurn/Magnum Photos, Mark Hayward Archives

Gilmour defended the decision, saying, “Roger and I both thought and stronger away and beyond”, while Rats – Barrett chanting “rats,
that it was important that some of Syd’s state of mind should be rats, lay down flat, we don’t need you we act like that” against jag-
present in the record.” ged, pre-punk guitar – is positively psychotic. Then there’s Maisie,
Amid all this came flashes of Barrett’s gift for a perfect pop gem. a slow-crawl of a blues influenced by Howlin’ Wolf ’s Spoonful, yet
Here I Go, dating to early ’67 and intended originally for paisley with a crepuscular, malevolent vibe, suggesting dark forces at work.
ravers The Purple Gang, is a charmingly old-fashioned tune in David Gilmour had to catch Barrett when he could. Only Gigolo
which the singer writes a song to win over his big band-loving girl- Aunt featured the singer and the musicians playing alongside each
friend – but then he meets her sister. They stroll off into the sunset, other; elsewhere Gilmour either built on rough recordings of Bar-
happily wed, as if the sexual revolution never happened. rett’s voice and guitar or got him to play over tracks the band had
On its release in January 1970 The Madcap Laughs was welcomed worked on already. The Roger McGuinn-like solo at the beginning
by an underground scene emerging from the wreckage of the ’60s of Baby Lemonade was Barrett warming up; Gilmour tacked it onto
adventure. The cover design by Hipgnosis helped: crouched on the a song that evokes both rain-soaked melancholy and something
front amid painted floorboards and joined on the back by a naked more nightmarish, in its opening line: “In the sad town, cold iron
girl, scenester Iggy The Eskimo, Barrett was a vision of doomed hands clap the party of clowns outside.” Barrett wrote the wistful
youth, wild and poetic. Later that year Gilmour went back in the Wined And Dined in late ’69 in Formentera, Ibiza during a break

82 MOJO
Barrett in the offices of
manager Bryan Morrison,
above the Revolution club,

IT’S LIKE A Bruton Place, Mayfair, 1971;


(far left, top) Syd (green shirt in
front of invalid car) at the 1969


Isle of Wight festival; (left) Syd
in his Wetherby Mansion flat,
west London, spring 1969.

MARVELS AT
from Madcap sessions, while Gilmour and other THE FREEFORM SADNESS Gog Magog hills of his Cambridge childhood, a
members of Floyd worked on Ummagumma. OF SYD BARRETT’S RATS. bloody encounter with brambles, and creeping
It’s a reverie on a summer fling, recalling how a “There was a period when I into cupboards and sleeping in halls. David Gil-
“girl was so kind, kind of love I’d never seen.” was driving from the south of mour constructed the song from a series of dis-
Wales to the north of Wales, in
As Rick Wright’s organ hums along encourag- a Vauxhall Astra that only had ordered takes, working with what little he had to
ingly, you can imagine a Barrett with some a cassette player. Amongst my do justice to his old friend’s dissipating talent.
awareness of his own tragedy. tapes was Barrett. So I had Barrett played a short set at the Kensington
The saddest song on Barrett is its quietest. space to fall in love with it, battling it out
with these anti-songs, deconstructed
Olympia in June 1970 – it would have been
Dominoes is an ode to inactivity, with the singer landscapes you had to put together longer but he walked off after four songs – and
murmuring in defeated tones about passing the yourself. One of the first moments of two with doomed boogie band Stars in
day away by playing dominoes and lamenting wanting to listen again was to hear the Cambridge, in early 1972. There was an abor-
reprise, “Rats, rats…”
lost love against Rick Wright’s mournful organ. It felt like a moment you could cling tive Abbey Road session in August 1974 [see
It captures the bleakness of an old people’s onto. The song has so many different over] and then he retreated into a narrow life in
home – or possibly a psychiatric institute. You sections, it’s freeform, like stream of Cambridge, painting, pottering about, fending
consciousness. There’s no definitive chord
cannot help but picture Barrett slipping into change… it’s more like a tapestry. There’s a
off unwanted intrusions from fans and press,
inertia as his flatmate Duggie Fields works away sense it’s a cathartic exercise, that all these and living on the money Gilmour ensured he
in the room next door; as his old band mates words are just coming out of him. As with received for his Pink Floyd recordings until his
all of his songs, there’s a battle within
become superstars. himself, and a battle within love and the
death in 2006.
The final song recorded inside and the outside of Perhaps fittingly, Barrett ends, not with It Is
for Barrett , on July 21, a being, and he brings Obvious, but the jaunty Effervescing Elephant.
1970, was It Is Obvious. “It that down to something A sophisticated pastiche of a Hilaire Belloc
so familiar and common
is obvious, may I say oh and mucky as rats. cautionary tale, in which an elephant falls prey
baby, that it is found on There’s an integral to a cunning tiger, it is the sound of Syd Barrett
another plane,” it begins, sadness lurking retreating into the sanctity of childhood. Yet for
throughout his music,
outlining Barrett’s quest but it’s joyful as well,
all its outward naive whimsy, there’s a distinct
for what lies beyond in typ- there’s always moments, sadness in Barrett’s voice. It is the sound of a
ically vernacular fashion, a word or a phrase. man who journeyed to the Piper at the Gates of
before going on a lyrical Maybe that is from Dawn, yet, unlike Rat and Mole, never really
knowing, ‘I don’t know
ramble that references the what I feel like.’ He was came back.
a genius, whether he’s
mad or not.”
MOJO 83
“The odd glimpses of
Syd were there, then
they would disappear

NO LEFT into the fog”: Barrett


circa 1974 strums the
blues; (below) producer
Peter Jenner; (bottom)
engineer John Leckie.

’S 1974 ABBEY
ROAD SESSIONS WERE A TRIUMPH
OF HOPE OVER EXPERIENCE.
WITHOUT THE TRIUMPH,
LEARNS .
FTER THE misfiring 1968 sessions that
began The Madcap Laughs’ travails,
Peter Jenner had seen little to nothing
of Syd Barrett (“I think he did come into
our office once to get a passport
signed”). But in the wake of the rump Floyd’s
extraordinary success with The Dark Side Of The
Moon, the repackaging of The Piper At The Gates
Of Dawn and A Saucerful Of Secrets as A Nice Pair,
plus related interest in Madcap and Barrett, there
was appetite at EMI for Syd material. Bryan
Morrison, Floyd’s perma-tanned manager, now
handling Barrett too, booked Abbey Road Studio
3 for the week beginning August 12, 1974, and
asked Jenner to produce.
“We did know that Syd had songs that had
never been recorded – his juvenilia,” says Jenner.
“He had a binder with lyrics in. And there were
songs from the EMI period, like She’s A Million-
aire. It had a hook, had potential.”
Barrett arrived promptly at Abbey Road at
2pm on Monday 12, wearing scruffy clothes and
longish hair, along with four or five guitars, a bass
and a drum kit. “It was all new,” says John Leckie,
who was engineering.
“Still with the labels on
and some still in
cardboard boxes.
Not rented.”
If he brought a guitar
with no strings on – an
enduring Syd legend –
no one remembers it.
Barrett’s manner,
however, boded less
well: “Syd had this
vacant, scared look,”
recalls Leckie. “A bit like
he’d just got up. It was YouTube, entitled If You want us to hear, I think,” says Leckie). On the
like… shock.” , Don’t Be Slow takes 1 Thursday, he departed for good, leaving Jenner
Encouraged by d 2), Boogie #1, Boogie crestfallen: “I was very upset. Very upset.
Jenner or Leckie, Barrett , Boogie #3, Chook- Because he was the most creative person I’ve
would pick up a guitar ooka Chug Chug, Slow ever met, before or since. For him to end up a
and strum, then lose ogie, Fast Boogie, John shadow… that was the frustration. The odd
track, unplug, wander Hooker, Ballad and glimpses of Syd were there, then they would
off. “There was obviously titled). Every evening disappear into the fog.”
something still in there rrison would stop by to Could Jenner and Leckie have done anything
saying to him, ‘Ah! Guitar! ck on the non-progress. differently? They doubt it. “Probably what he
I play guitar, don’t I?’” says en ryan would give Syd a talking to,” Leckie really wanted was someone to play with,” says
confusion would descend. He’d play a line but recalls. “Shout at him, really. And Pete would sit Leckie. During Syd’s absences, he and Jenner
Urbanimage, Mark Hayward Archives, courtesy of John Leckie

couldn’t move on to the next line. It was like there staring at the mixer.” would call up tapes of unused Madcap and
occupational therapy. We were trying to see if the “The worst thing was that you felt that there Barrett material to see what could be mixed back
muscle memory would come back.” was something there,” sa F ra Vegetable Man
Leckie’s tape-op observed that if Barrett left there would be hints, littl Scream. But also to
Studio 3 and turned left, he would return after a and John would look at e
while; if he turned right, he would be gone for the go, I wonder if we could g rstood why the Floyd
day. “In the old Studio 3 at Abbey Road you could that again? But every mo them out,” says
see the famous crossing from a side window,” a new start. In 1968 it had atter tracks. “They’re
says Leckie. “That was the only view of the challenge but we’d had p s from this ghastly
outside world. We’d watch him cross the songs, something to wor pauses. “I say ‘ghastly’
crossing. Then we’d all fall around laughing. This was more chaotic, eally know. Perhaps
That’s how it was.” more fogged.” te’, certainly for us. I
Nothing like an Effervescing Elephant, or For four days, the patt r really sure with Syd
even a Maisie, was forthcoming, as Barrett repeated. Syd turned up r he was glad to be
essayed aimless blues strums and desultory time, refused headphon it. Was he unhappy?
overdubs (you can hear bootlegs of 11 of them barely played (“He didn’t knows?”

84 MOJO
YOUR GUIDE TO THE MONTH’S BEST
MUSIC. EDITED BY JENNY BULLEY

CONTENTS
86 ALBUMS
s Michael Kiwanuka walks the line
between Love & Hate
sAnohni’s disco inferno
sDexys up for the craic
sMinor Victories win out
sPlus, Gregory Porter, Rufus Wainwright,
Beth Orton, Eric Clapton, Kendrick Lamar,
Car Seat Headrest and more.

100 REISSUES
sThe Manic Street Preachers’ great triumph
sTerry Reid’s tributary to River
sThe Associates’ imperial phase
sMetallica’s thrash hits
sPlus, the Nigerian summer of love,
Bert Jansch, Kinks covers, Midlands roots
reggae and more.

114 BOOKS
sMoby’s modestly brilliant memoir
sPlus, biographies of Charles Mingus and
Tiny Tim, Wilko’s recovery and Jeff Beck’s
cars and guitars.

116 LIVES
sChris Cornell in Reykjavik
sFather John Misty in Seattle.

“With none of the ululation that


too often passes for soul…”
MICHAEL KIWANUKA SUSTAINS
GEOFF BROWN, ALBUMS PAGE 86

RATINGS & FORMATS


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##### #### ### ## # $


MOJO CLASSIC EXCELLENT GOOD DISAPPOINTING BEST AVOIDED DEPLORABLE
The illustrated man
Four years after making his assured debut on album, a young north Londoner fulfils
more of that depthless promise. By Geoff Brown. Illustration by Darryl Gates.

Michael Kiwanuka Barely pausing for breath, lead single Black Man
In A White World follows, and the subject matter of
##### this muscular composition needs little elaboration.
Against handclaps, kick drum and backing vocals,
Love & Hate the lyrics have the directness of Gil Scott-Heron, as
a synth echoes the strings of 1971’s What’s Going
POLYDOR. CD/DL/LP
On. The nub of Kiwanuka’s message is, it’s still

F
our years after his alarmingly mature debut, going on, a notion hammered home by the backing
the intimate and self-revealing Home Again, vocals’ repetition of the title refrain.
Michael Kiwanuka, at the ripe old age of 28, Reviewing Home Again, one of this writer’s few
musically swaggers back into the room with as criticisms was of a preponderance of mid-tempo
confident a second statement as you could wish for, songs, and here the balance is much better. While
full of strong melodies, affecting lyrics, sharp playing, Falling (“I don’t know why I stayed so long/I always
immense arrangements and sympathetic production. KEY TRACKS knew you’d let me down”) builds to a huge choral ending
For a young man who writes and performs with such G Cold Little Heart that just cuts off, no fade, Place I Belong has a similar
G Black Man In A
skill and apparent certainty and understanding, some of White World
mid-tempo but kick drum and tom-toms give it extra
his protestations are a mite baffling. Of that acclaimed G Rule The World
grounding. What also makes Kiwanuka convincing here is
first album, Kiwanuka said in a recent press release, “I G Love And Hate a vocal style that sings long notes and holds them, with
was just worried about everything”, and after it “I wanted none of the ululation that too often now passes for ‘soul’.
to give up making music.” “I don’t know when I said With the tempo and feel of, again, What’s Going On,
that,” he admitted, a tad puzzled at the end of March, Kiwanuka’s title track bristles with a dogged defiance:
“but it was difficult making the second one… but I’ll “Love and hate, how much more are we supposed to
always make music. I’m a bit hard on myself.” Well, with tolerate”; “You can’t steal the things that God has given
his persistence, attention to detail, and the help of new me… no more pain and shame and misery”; “You can’t
producers – Brian Burton (Danger Mouse), mostly, but take me down/You can’t break me down.”
also fellow Londoner Inflo and Home Again’s Paul Butler After the expansive choir and string arrangements of
– Kiwanuka’s talent reasserts itself on a broader canvas the opening five tracks, the funky 4/4 syncopations of the
through 10 compelling compositions that chart the life guitar-bass-drums that anchor One More Night bring an
and thoughts of a young man growing up fast and in effective burst of straighter shooting, and while waiting for
public, all expressed in ways anyone can empathise with. the guitar solo that never comes, the shortest track, the
Rarely, in fact, have the universal anxieties – doubt, pain, ballad I’ll Never Love, interrupts. A rumination on the
guilt, disconnection – sounded so attractive. loneliness that awaits him, this sad song will have them
There is no easing into Love & Hate. The bold and queueing up to give him a hug.
ambitious 10-minute opening track, Cold Little Heart, is He’s stricken with doubt again in Rule The World –
essentially structured as a five- “Help me to see/Who I can be… Take me out of myself
minute overture followed by the again/Help me lose control…I can’t do this on my own.”
song. Piano, shimmering strings After two minutes of questioning and disquiet, the track
and the word “cold” icily echoed set is lifted out of its slough by syncopating snare, hi-hat and
up a chilly theme before Kiwanuka’s kick drum that open the way for a choir and a Hendrix
guitar gently weeps into a solo that guitar solo to leads us to the end.
builds with an assured logic. At A Scandi TV series theme-in-waiting, Father’s Child
last, drums settle into a solid 4/4 has a pretty tune, nicely sung – “I’ve been looking for
and we find the song’s Cold Little miles and miles” – and lastly, coming full circle, spiky
Heart belongs not to a partner "A RUMI- guitar phrases above thwacked snare lead into Final
who’s discarded him, as would be NATION ON Frame: “You felt the pain of my foolish games…” A
the case in most love songs, but to LONELINESS, tremendously sad piece with the songwriter taking the
Kiwanuka, whose contrition and I’LL NEVER blame for hurt and a relationship’s end – as in Cold Little
pain knows no end: “Pleading, I’m Heart – synths swell in a fashion worthy of George
pleading, my cold little heart/Oh I, LOVE WILL
HAVE THEM Martin’s Eleanor Rigby until a guitar, at the last, proves as
I can’t stand myself” and “Did you eloquent as Kiwanuka’s voice.
ever notice, I’ve been ashamed all QUEUEING Defiance, shame, uncertainty yet ultimately so positive
my life”, a mood mirrored by the UP TO GIVE thanks to his voice and warmth. “I need something, give
sleeve’s image of a decaying heart. HIM A HUG." me something wonderful,” Michael Kiwanuka sings in
All sung, of course, in that Love And Hate. He’s indisputably given us something
believable, almost conversational wonderful. And it works on-stage, too, as a late-March
warm, grainy tenor that in the past night at London’s Cadogan Hall revealed, when the artist
has drawn comparisons to Bill and a five-piece band plus three backing singers played a
Withers, Richie Havens, Terry 90-minute set, over an hour of which was new material,
Callier and the Otis Redding of including Black Man… at syllable-squeezing breakneck
(Sitting On) The Dock Of The Bay. speed. “Bit of a risk, I guess,” he said of earlier live dates,
It’s a soul-folk, singer-songwriterly “but well received.” Expect likewise of the album.
style that draws the listener close.
A final guitar statement, gently
MICHAEL TALKS! ONIDENTITY
DANGER MOUSE, INFLO,
Alamy

g AND FITTING IN…


weeping again, closes the track.

86 MOJO
Elsewhere, though, tracks following the death of her
recorded with Cyndi Lauper husband Jason Rae two years
and Primal Scream (the latter a before, then its successor, six
questionable tartrazine house years in the making, is the
recreation of Screamadelica’s sound of someone alive with
Come Together) suggest renewal. Now remarried (to
some pruning might have co-producer Steve Brown),
made for a more impactful The Heart Speaks In Whispers
listening experience. largely reconnects the singer
Ian Harrison with the immaculate soul of
her self-titled 2006 debut.
There’s a sweet sadness to her
Eric Clapton declaration of new love in
Richard Ashcroft ####
Prince-like ballad Hey, I Won’t
Break Your Heart and funky
### I Still Do lust in Horse Print Dress, and
These People if there’s a desire to regain
BUSHBRANCH/SURFDOG. CD/DL/LP commercial ground in the
RIGHTEOUS PHONOGRAPHIC
ASSOCIATION. CD/DL/LP His 23rd studio album Coldplay-ish anthem of Stop
unidentified special g Where You Are, it’s offset by
Former Verve man’s first the lacoustic tenderness of its
new album in six years. Eric Clapton
has never verses. Altogether, a brilliant
Who are Skinny Richard’s been one for and very welcome return.
“What makes sounding blocks these days Tom Doyle
us human is the publicity
and how much say, if any, do stunts, but
ability to relate”: they have in his sound?
Michael Kiwanuka I Still Do comes
Listening to These People, with an unexpected whiff of
walks the talk. another sprawling, somewhat mystery. Prior to release,
overwrought Ashcroft solo rumours spread that his
record, you might well co-vocalist on I Will Be There,
wonder. Though Everybody one Angelo Mysterioso, was
Needs Somebody To Hurt is a George Harrison. Clapton
winning nod to early Talk Talk, issued an online statement
and both the evocative denying this, with others since
acoustic ballad Black Lines and suggesting it’s Harrison’s son,
swirling title track would bed- Dhani. At the time of writing,
down nicely on Urban Hymns, Angelo’s identity remains
there are moments where Wil
Malone’s strings seem a lazy
unknown. But the soulful Alun Woodward
embellishment, while the lyrics
I Will Be There is one of the
highpoints on an album that
####
– mostly aggrieved ‘I will stand also reunites Clapton with Music From Battle
alone’ sentiments or grandiose
yet opaque political
Slowhand producer Glyn Mountain
Johns. There’s a sense of CHEMIKAL UNDERGROUND. CD/DL/LP
pronouncements – can be purpose here absent from
draining. The three stars, then, 2013’s Old Sock and even its Former Delgado makes a
are for the album These People superior predecessor, Clapton. winning return to the saddle
could have been were it not Johns has lit a fire under his on cycling film soundtrack.
somewhat bloated on old friend. The winding solo on Seven years since he assumed
production steroids – and Spiral echoes his ’70s heyday,
for Ashcroft’s enduringly the alter ego Lord Cut-Glass
while wheezing Cajun for the subversive chamber-
sumptuous baritone. accordion adds grit to Cypress
James McNair pop of his first post-Delgados
Grove and Robert Johnson’s album, Alun Woodward
Stones In My Pathway. Clapton returns to his own name and
hasn’t sounded quite so ostensibly more familiar
Jean Michel Jarre inspired in years. territory: rueful instrumental
### Mark Blake atmospheres, with a bike
theme. The wheezy organ
Electronica 2: tones and arpeggiated
The Heart Of Noise Corinne guitars are the ideal
SONY. CD/DL/LP
Bailey Rae mesmeric fit for David Street’s
portrait of maverick Scottish
The synthesizer magis
guest-packed fifteent #### cyclist Graeme Obree’s bid to
An electronic The Heart Speaks break the human powered
land speed record in Nevada.
superstar In Whispers The album attains true
long before VIRGIN. CD/DL/LP
the advent of gravitas via I Was The King,
Sorrow gives way to jo one of two songs where
plug-ins, soul chanteuse’s third
dubsteppy Woodward’s careworn voice
bass drops and clean-cut EDM If Corinne communes with the man-as-
superstars like Avicii, Jean Bailey Rae’s machine’s heroic obsession:
Michel Jarre merged synth compelling “No needles or pills,
music past and present with and beautiful no potions just skills.”
last year’s Electronica 1: The 2010 album A beautiful record, worthy
Time Machine, a sprawling The Sea was a of its singular subject.
collaborative album featuring record made in a fog of grief Keith Cameron
Edgar Froese, Pete Townshend
and others. Second instalment
The Heart Of Noise is, if
anything, even more laden
with enticing names than its
predecessor, with Pet Shop
Boys, Jeff Mills, Yello and Gary
Numan among Jarre’s co-stars.
The experiment’s a successful
one, as classic Jarre chord
changes and analogue
grandeur meets with
contemporary forms;
the Siriusmo-augmented
arpeggiating disco house of Richard Ashcroft,
Phil Sharp

Circus and Julia Holter’s on production


emotive minimalism on These steriods again.
Creatures are two highlights.

88 MOJO
Wild cat strikes:
Anohni and an
African cheetah
friend, shunning
violent men.
Alice O’Malley

MOJO 89
The past is a foreign
country: looking
back, moving on,
Kevin Rowland.

wrought Sunday Morning,


with its Small Faces jauntiness,
and Full Circle, with its urgent
snare beats and swooning
choruses, demand live
performances of their own.
Mike Barnes

9Bach
####
Plants And Anian
Animals REAL WORLD. CD/DL/LP

### Bethesda duo discard the


valley vibe on neo-folk
Waltzed In From The upgrade.
Rumbling No album with
SECRET CITY. CD/DL/LP two hammer
dulcimer
Plants And Animals become
players
mamas and papas, find new
credited is
work aesthetic, grow.
taking a well-
Six albums in, and at that trodden path, but the third
stage in a band’s career when offering from the Welsh folk
members start procreating, modernists really is a leap into

The rover’s return


Montreal’s Plants And Animals the unknown. Though it is not
have found that making a the first time they have been
record sans deadline and tagged with a meaningless
around childcare duties can be label, there is little point in
a vitalising, freewheeling salve denying trip-hop’s influence
for otherwise regimented here – the bass on Yr Olaf is
lives. With its durable, undiluted Massive Attack – yet
pleasingly complex Lisa Jên’s vocals and Martin
arrangements, this all- Hoyland’s gitâr create an eerie
analogue-recorded LP packs reverie all of their own.
woody, indie skiffle, warming Intriguingly, the CD version is
pop soul and that rare thing, coupled with an extra disc of
a bassist (Nicolas Basque) vocal reinterpretations to open
whose playing is conspicuous it up to non-Welsh speakers.
for all the right reasons. Their previous album, 2014’s
Though the record perhaps Tincian, looked back to the
lacks that one killer tune or hardships of rural life in north
irresistibly ‘come hither’ song Wales, but this majestically
title that can really get you at does away with any hankering
it, the swooning Pure Heart, for the past. If they were
intermittently cinematic We Scandinavians they would be
Were One, neat instrumental selling out arenas very soon.
segue Fata Morgana and David Hutcheon
sonically startling So Many
Nights help flag a unique and
fruitful cocktail of influences
that includes J Dilla, Serge Foy Vance
Gainsbourg, Van Morrison and
Angelo Badalamenti.
###
James McNair The Wild Swan
GINGERBREAD MAN. CD/DL/LP
Twirly-’tached trouba
Bruce Foxton touted for toppermos

### From Bangor,


Northern
Smash The Clock Ireland, singer-
ABSOLUTE. CD/DL/LP songwriter
Vance is a man
Third solo album by th
with heavy-
ex-Jam man with gues ts
weight backing. Previously
by Paul Weller and Wil
bridging old and new(ish) in
The Jam still collaborations with Bonnie
cast a long Raitt and Snow Patrol, the
shadow, not raffishly moustachioed
least across troubadour is now signed to
former bassist Ed Sheeran’s label for his third
and vocalist album, of which Elton John is
Bruce Foxton, who is still executive producer. Here Vance
touring as From The Jam, dials down the surging, turbo-
while co-writing new solo emoting Springsteen/U2
material with that group’s wounded-heartness that in
guitarist Russell Hastings. 2013 so overshot the target of
Again funded through Pledge its predecessor Joy Of Nothing’s
Music, Smash The Clock builds big-time ambitions. More
on the promise of 2012’s Back idiosyncratic and subtly crafted
In The Room. Now The Time in its emotional appeal, The
Has Come is a sturdy soul Wild Swan echoes both John
vehicle with biting horns, but Hiatt’s gnarled, R&B-rooted wit
Round And Round, with wah (pitching that wang dang
wah guitars, is more character- doodle with a PhD, check
ful and original. Smash The Noam Chomsky Is A Soft
Clock is a mixed bag, with Revolution) and Van Morrison’s
some sketchy songs like the lyrical-mystic flights (The Wild
acoustic Louder, while Back Swans On The Lake) while
Street Dead End Street feels a developing Vance’s own
bit clichéd. But the best tracks romantic voice.
are excellent. The finely Mat Snow

90 MOJO
Thomas Cohen Morby has delivered largely
run-of-the-mill roots rock, but
The Rides
### Singing Saw is more measured, ###
Bloom Forever and even when he’s prone to Pierced Arrow
STOLEN. CD/DL/LP
chucking the kitchen sink at PROVOGUE. CD/DL
songs – the mariachi horns
Former S.C.U.M. singe nestled in the background of Blues-rock supergrou
song diary of life befo d I Have Been To The Mountain, saddles up again.
after bereavement. a saxophone solo on Destroyer, Stephen Stills
The writing of the actual singing saw on is no stranger
Thomas Singing Saw – it’s done with to supergroups
Cohen’s debut such finesse that the rich layers having lent his
solo album was of texture and emotion recall name to the
interrupted by the country gospel lushness of legendary
a very public Gene Clark’s No Other. country rock quartet Crosby,
tragedy – the death of his wife Andy Fyfe Stills, Nash & Young in the ’70s.
Peaches Geldof in 2014. As The 71-year-old’s latest project
such, the songs on Bloom finds him collaborating with a
Forever, written between 2012 noted blues guitarist, Kenny
and 2015, and presented here Wayne, and session keyboard-
chronologically, provide a ist/tunesmith Barry Goldberg
real-time commentary on his in the guise of The Rides. Their
joy of second-time fatherhood 2013 debut LP Can’t Get
(the opening Honeymoon and Enough was a substantial criti-
the title track), before the cal and commercial triumph
emotional fallout begins to roll and, buoyed by that success,
in. Rendered in dreamlike, jazzy the trio reconvened for this
band figurations, with an air of second album. Pierced Arrow's
the slower parts of Diamond 10 tracks range from strutting,
Dogs, it makes for moving
listening, not least in Country
Marissa Nadler power-chord anthems (Kick
Out Of It) and barroom boo-
Home with its desperate long- #### gies (Riva Diva) to riff-driven
ing for a vision of his lost part- Strangers shuffles (Game On). But brute
ner “at the top of the stairs in force isn’t the group’s sole
BELLA UNION. CD/DL/LP
your wedding dress”. Cohen’s dynamic, as attested by the
sometimes overly mannered, Anomie and melody chugging, soulful cover of I’ve
Brett Anderson-echoing vocals combine to soundtrack an Got To Use My Imagination, a
won’t be for everyone, but unsettled contemplation. Goldberg co-write here closer
nevertheless this is a brave and For an album so imbued with to Bobby ‘Blue’ Bland’s take
absorbing statement. filmic ebb and flow, it’s than the Gladys Knight hit
Tom Doyle invidious to point to particular version. Throughout, Wayne’s
moments that personify its fretboard work is on target,
character. Nonetheless, the especially his blistering solo
on the plaintive By My Side.
balance between chill and
Charles Waring
warmth running through
Marissa Nadler’s seventh
album is captured most
effectively on Janie In Love James
with its “natural disaster” of a
protagonist and sudden sonic McCartney
shifts into a vortex where slabs ###
of distorted guitar and strings The Blackberry Train
interweave to disturb the
MAYBENOT. CD/DL/LP
song’s stately pace and
Kevin Morby yearning melody. Strangers is Second full-length out
Beatle scion – Steve Al
or

####
about lone reflection and its
disruption by unwelcome twiddles the knobs.
Singing Saw intrusions. Having left her folk James McCart-
DEAD OCEANS. CD/DL/LP pigeonholing behind on ney waited
Strangers’ predecessor July, until he was in
Journeyman singer- Nadler has moved forward
songwriter plunders his thirties
with a delicate yet steel-spined before starting
previously hidden depths. album of intimate soliloquies out on a solo
They call the singing saw the positing her as having taken career – the colossal dynastic
“hillbilly Theremin”. It’s a up the baton which Mazzy Star legacy no longer a creative
perfect metaphor for this have so often dropped. If impediment. Me, his assured
LA-dweller’s third album as David Lynch were looking to 2013 debut LP, sporadically
simple front porch strums are soundtrack dreamlike evinced a familiar melodic gift,
upscaled with elegant strings disassociation, he need look but was mostly an insular affair,
and gritty, sophisticated no further. flecked with psych touches –
arrangements. Previously, Kieron Tyler more indebted to Red House
Painters than anything Fab.
The Blackberry Train ups the
Marissa Nadler: ante and the ampage – hence
weaving intimate Albini – with opener Too Hard
soliloquies. setting the tone, its brisk coun-
try-rock contours crested by a
baleful, self-knowing McCart-
ney (“I try just a little too
hard”) and a needling, over-
driven guitar solo from Dhani
Harrison. Waterfall adds a
psychedelic loop and lyrical
allusions to mum, Linda, while
Paralysis and Peyote Coyote
adhere agreeably enough to
Ebru Yildiz, Andy Goodwin

the bouncy, garage-rock-with-


a-grungy-edge formula. Only
the vaguely Aquarian, string
quartet-decorated Peace And
Stillness hints discernibly
at McCartney’s weighty
musical ancestry.
David Sheppard

MOJO 91
or Victories (from
): Justin Lockey,
hel Goswell,
art Braithwaite,
mes Lockey.

Winning ways

favour of computerised track into distortion, sounds like they were recorded in the back of a loops – for a flesh-and-blood
assembly, with Orton’s ethereal are trying too hard. But as Alas car. Toledo’s prodigious output version of electronica that
coo floatily patched in over the Salvation progresses it becomes – this is his thirteenth album – rocks as much as it throbs.
top. One song, 1973, is outright clearer why they have been and laconic witticisms certainly Human metronome Matt
techno-pop, while Falling picking up the praise. While the display shades of former young Schulz is the quartet’s fourth
recalls primetime Eurythmics production still feels ill-judged, prodigies of the American drummer (does the necessary
balladry. It’s all a big shock there are some cracking tracks alt-underground Conor Oberst on-stage stamina comes with a
initially, but over time the like the pummelling 6/8 groove or Ben Kweller. The trumpet- burnout date?) while bassist
fabulous variety in voicing and of Curtain Twitcher which laden Vincent references Matt ‘Punchy’ McQuaid earns
mood, Hung’s balmy sound- sounds a bit like souped-up Wikipedia searches for clinical his nickname behind
scaping, and even the sheer early Spoon or Parquet Courts. depression while another song keyboardists Brian Borcherdt
hippified, full-moon party Harbour The Feeling strides out is called (Joe Gets Kicked Out and Graham Walsh, whose
Beth Orton exuberance of Snow and Wave,
should melt the sternest
on whomping ‘60s R&B bass
lines with a mix of fuzz and
Of School For Using) Drugs
With Friends (But Says This Isn’t
vocals are manipulated to
sound as twisted as the music.
### opponent’s heart.
Andrew Perry
acoustic guitars, while the A Problem). Yet Car Seat If Congrats is no less aggressive
syncopated, largely distortion- Headrest are no mere arch than its three predecessors,
Kidsticks free Take It is more subtle and dilettantes, Toledo’s ability to the crisp Neon Dad qualifies as
ANTI . CD/DL/LP dynamic still, with mellotron craft songs that swerve from pop and Acidic is a weird kind
Brit-folkie goes EDM, with
help from Fuck Buttons’ Yak rising out of the mix like
pungent smoke.
fuzz-pop to jaded melancholia
making him a cut above his
of joyous electronic ska (a lot
better than it sounds). But the
Andrew Hung. ### Mike Barnes underground contemporaries. closing Crapture is more
Now here’s a serious career Alas Salvation All of which suggests the typically Holy Fuck, the aural
volte-face. On 2012’s Sugaring fervent, cult-like appeal of equivalent of a subterranean
ROUGH TRADE. CD/DL/LP
Season, Orton emerged from
Debut album by the h Car Seat Headrest Pavement or Guided By Voices
beckons – at the very least.
nightclub, speakers rattling
the walls, lasers bouncing
having two children to re-stake
her claim, post-Laura Marling, tipped trio. #### Ben Myers every which way – a hardcore
as queen of British folky singer- Yak’s lo-fi Teens Of Denial human-techno machine at
songwriting. Four years on, far roughness MATADOR. CD/DL/LP
your service.
from consolidating on that rebels against
Lo-fi pop sounds from Holy Fuck Martin Aston

####
sixth album’s success, the the techno-
newly LA-resident singer is logical impera- new young king of the
underground.
somewhere else entirely, tives of the day Congrats
keying into the pioneering and the over-compressed, Originally a INNOVATIVE LEISURE. CD/DL/LP
‘folktronica’ of her mid-’90s characterless sound favoured solo project for
recordings with William Orbit, by too many rock producers. then-teenage Fourth chapter of Canadians’
Andrew Weatherall and The But on the relatively slight frontman Will pulse-tastic electronica.
Chemical Brothers. What’s openers Victorious (National Toledo, Seattle- Toronto’s Holy Fuck sound
more, Kidsticks often checks Anthem) and Hungry Heart, the based Car Seat positively now, though they’re
the ‘folk’ half of that hybrid at group’s garage band sound and Headrest are a trio whose curiously old-fashioned,
the door, as conventional song fury, with ride cymbal white- throwaway name suits their eschewing digital manipulation
structures are all but erased, in outs and guitars breaking up lo-fi sensibility – early vocals – programming, samples,

92 MOJO
large metropolis will get the other than Macaulay Culkin he knows how to string a Moldy Peaches’ DIY anti-folk
metaphor. After that strong plays a rebel leader, and the series of self-penned, diverse charm. It’s not only the just-
triad, it gets a bit candlelit jazz. soundtrack is sculpted from songs into a totally cohesive, hanging-together songcraft,
Nice song about parenthood this ninth solo album. The on-the-money album. Record- or her winningly untutored
(Day Dream); piano refrain that point: “to create a single and ed at Fame Studios, with vocals, but also the way she
oddly keeps Bennie & The Jets unified experience to show- Emmylou Harris bassist can swing from knowing cyni-
in mind (In Fashion); then four case my music, art and writ- Michael Rinne handling the cism to vulnerable honesty.
love songs. But Fan The Flames ing”. Aladdin, the album, how- production chores, Tyson None of these songs sound like
and French African Queen end ever, feels like an afterthought, delivers not only whiskey- they took too long to write or
the CD with real vigour. Con- something hastily conceived sodden, soulful heartbreaks record, but her appeal lies in
firmed fans will lap it up. in between building 30 differ- such as Somebody Save Me how, despite her off-the-cuff
Geoff Brown ent film sets out of papier- but also a tear-’em up, organ- vibe, she often hits the bulls-
mâché, and visually represent- fuelled track-buster (Railroad eye or happens upon some-
White Lung ing Planet Earth getting a sex Blues), a doo wop jukebox thing enamouring, like the
#### Big Thief change. The songs are Green
at his most outré and sketchy,
rewind (Careless Soul), a rum-
bustious romp (Easy) and
homely high-register harmo-
nies of On The Lips, Sleep
Paradise #### with easy-cheesey arrange- other convincing forays into Song’s sardonic farewell to a
DOMINO. CD/DL/LP ments befitting a B-movie the art of country soul before
Masterpiece score, but woefully inadequate closing on Ain’t It Strange, a
horrid beau (“It all makes sense
Canadian trio now as SADDLE CREEK. CD/DL/LP
now, thanks so much/Good-
interested in melody as they when detached from the visu- string-laden summation that bye forever, what the fuck”), or
are malaise. Sharon Van Etten-end als. The inclusion of snippets says a memorable farewell. the way Outside With The
Brooklynites’ debut. of movie dialogue also jars Fred Dellar Cuties peters out midway, only
An unimpeachable name to with the lyrics, which aren’t
Nebraska label for Cosmos to add, “I haven’t
drop in cool indie rock circles script-specific (expect cocaine,
Saddle Creek written this part yet/Will you
ever since their debut, It’s The quirky sexual allusion, etc). All
(Bright Eyes, help me write it?”
Evil, six years back, Vancouver’s told, it’s a slight listen, which
Spoon) excel in Stevie Chick
White Lung return with album fails to stand alone from its
four. It’s impossible to look at ushering their
roster of fringe parent project.
their career trajectory and not Andrew Perry
glimpse a band writhing to artists towards the outer reach-
defy that which is expected of es of the mainstream. And
them. Paradise will, perhaps, latest signees Big Thief are
divide the band’s fanbase. surely destined for similar
reward. Anchored by the frag-
Cale Tyson
Thanks in part to producer
Lars Stalfors (HEALTH, Alice ile voice of guitarist/songwriter ###
Glass), it’s sleek through and Adrianne Lenker, the Brooklyn Careless Soul
through; vicious when it needs foursome’s debut is the work CLUBHOUSE. CD/DL Frankie Cosmos
###
to be, yet overwhelmingly of some feverishly creative
minds, as it effortlessly genre- First full-length albu
classy, in that way Sonic Youth the highly acclaimed .
became when afforded status hops between dusty Ameri- Next Thing
and a platform. Yet the shift cana (Paul), Breeders-style
angular art-pop (Humans) and
Tyson’s two
previous EPs
BAYONET. CD/DL/LP Dr. Robert
lies largely with the songwrit-
ing. Twenty-eight minutes of off-kilter folk (Randy). Guitarist stacked up DIY pop from the daughter
of actors Phoebe Cates and
####
tightly wound new wave punk; Buck Meek’s atonal twists and high praise Out There
turns, plus a smattering of and Careless Kevin Kline.
opener Dead Weight sounds FENCAT. CD/DL
tricksy time changes, found Soul does little Following a slew of releases on
like Blondie hanging around Andalucia blues with feeling
sounds and drones, all add to a to negate his reputation as a Bandcamp (sample titles: Birth
with the wrong crowd, while by the Blow Monkeys singer.
strange, bewitching brew. Hank Williams for today and Of Penis, Jared Leto Can’t
recent single Hungry is the
Lyrically, Lenker’s surrealist possibly tomorrow. He doesn’t Read, Collaborative Farting), Written in his kitchen and
precise highpoint between
flights of fancy are neatly possess Hank’s voice of course Frankie Cosmos’s second recorded on his 8-track Tascam
The Go-Go’s and Free Kitten.
summed up in closer Parallels, – few have got any- album-proper tape machine in his home
James McMahon
where she implores: “Caterpil- where near. But evokes The studio in Sierra Nevada, Anda-
lar on the floor/Can you teach lucia, Dr. Robert’s tenth album
me to transform?” Such is the is so intimate that you can
graceful intensity with which almost feel his breath upon
Lenker sings, this feels like the you. The songs, acoustic folk,
most important question porch blues and sea shanties
we could ever ask of anyone
were put down on first take,
or anything.
with Robert playing most of
Matt Yates
the instruments – acoustic
guitar, drums, bass. He says he
was influenced by early Marc
Adam Green Bolan and Tim Buckley, but his
## songs also share a transcend-
Gregory Porter Aladdin
ence of time and place with
Lead Belly’s folk and the drone
#### REVOLVER. CD/DL/LP of the Mississippi Hill Country.
Take Me To The Alley Audio strand of ex-Moldy “I am nobody, I am no one,” he
DECCA. CD/DL/LP Peach’s Arabian Nights sings on Here I Lie, a plaintive
adaptation. lament; on Lost In Rasa, he
Soul-jazz star’s follow-up hits a mesmeric groove; on
to 2013’s million-selling Anti-folk lumi-
A Bottomless Pit, another
Liquid Spirit. nary Adam
highlight, he delivers Jacques
Gregory Porter’s warm, rich Green has
Brel-like spectacle.
voice, couched in accessible spent three
years putting Lois Wilson
soul-jazz phrasing, has
together a
impressed since 2012’s Be Good.
movie treatment of Aladdin,
His fourth album, …Alley starts Alley cat in a hat
with himself in the starring
and ends strongly – the con- Gregory Porter,
role. The lamp is a 3D
templative Holding On and still being good.
printer, none
funky, driving Don’t Lose Your
Steam introducing these dozen
tracks. The title song follows.
Take me to the river, the pilot,
the mardi gras, the next phase
– these we understand. But the
alley? It’s an ambiguous propo-
sition. In the lyric’s context, of
course, it makes perfect sense:
“Take me to the alley, take me
to afflicted ones, take me to
the lonely ones that somehow
lost their way.” Spiritual, scrip-
tural, anyone out at night in a
Dan Micha
lots to thin
Rufus Malcolm
Wainwright Middleton
### ###
Take All My Loves: 9 Summer Of ’13
Shakespeare Sonnets NUDE. CD/DL/LP
DEUTSCHE GRAMMOPHON. CD/DL/LP Erstwhile Arab Strapp
Chamber-pop’s etern returns with new, elec c
youth gives it the big i . pop direction.
Pop songs An album of
featuring Ravel instrumentals
and Verdi, one as Human
opera written, Don’t Be
another in Angry, and a
progress: Rufus collaboration
Wainwright has never been with artist David Shrigley
shy of a high-cultural notwithstanding, this, his
challenge. With these settings sixth, is Malcolm Middleton’s
of Shakespeare sonnets, he first solo album in seven years.
goes for full-throttle To date a purveyor of mordant
Bardolatry, creating a super- folk rock-ish fare, Summer Of
charged divertissement of the ’13 signals a stylistic volte-face,
kind once expected at with guitars and drums
eccentric Victorian country replaced by sequencers and
houses. Guests gathered to drum machines – a sonic refit
sing and recite include William that seems inextricably bound
Shatner, Carrie Fisher, Florence up with a fresh artistic
Welch and Helena Bonham positivity. Typically, opener
Carter, an idiosyncratic cast Steps, underpinned by out-of-
matching the spirit of this the-packet beats and a two-
romantic folly. The project has chord electronic throb
its roots in Robert Wilson’s borrowed from Tubeway
2009 Berliner Ensemble Army’s Are ‘Friends’ Electric?,
production Shakespeare’s boasts a rousing chorus whose
Sonnets and a San Francisco lyric (“I’m taking small steps”)
Symphony commission, is as affirmatively forthright as
though, and there’s an uneasy its melody is undeniable. It’s
balance between the velvet- hard to begrudge Middleton a
and-cold-cream moments – lease of creative life, and even
Germanic drama, operatic if elsewhere the electronic
emoting and actorly elements occasionally err
recitations – and Wainwright’s toward the passé, ultimately,
scarce yet lovely songs, not this is as spirited as it is an
least his reprise of Sonnet 20. unexpected cavort through
It’s a grand gesture of a record, altered sonic pastures.
though, and if at times it’s a David Sheppard
little too much, that’s entirely
in character.
Walker Family Dan Michaelson Charles Lloyd Victoria Segal Kendrick Lamar
Singers And The & The Marvels ####
#### Coastguards #### Cyndi Lauper Untitled Unmastered
Panola County Spirit #### I Long To See You ####
AFTERMATH/INTERSCOPE/TOP DAWG
ENTERTAINMENT. CD/DL
DAPTONE. CD/DL/LP Memory BLUE NOTE. CD/DL/LP
Detour King of Compton close
A life-affirming debut THE STATE 51 CONSPIRACY. CD/DL/LP Veteran jazz reedman SIRE. CD/DL/LP To Pimp A Butterfly sag
from the ambassador His sixth album and th on a country excursio It’s been
a cappella gospel. Kinky Boots girl recko
closure of a trilogy. At 77, Charles making a country alb almost a year
In 2008, Dan Michael- Lloyd – who a bucket list item… since Kendrick
producer son has been describes Lamar’s
Michael Reilly himself as a If so, she can ground-
making a story add a huge tick
documented in albums, “sound seeker” breaking To
the powerful – is still on a and move on Pimp A Butterfly wrestled with
working because she’s
a cappella something out. quest to discover fresh musical success, corruption and race in
gospel of Como, Mississippi on vistas. The latest part of his nailed this America, and the “raw [and]
It began with 2013’s minimalist particular
Como Now, which, credited to Blindspot, harrowing on lost long and storied musical unfinished” demos prove the
The Voices Of Panola County, journey that began in ambition. Tackling material man still has plenty more to
love; moved into 2014’s that mainly originates in
Mississippi, comprised the Distance, trying to accept Memphis during the 1950s say on it. The rapper’s prolific
region’s church singers sees him collaborate with country’s golden era and lining talent and his illustrious
things; and here’s reflection. up an impressive array of help
including octogenarians Knowing that memories warp, category-defying guitarist gallery of jazz and funk
Raymond and Joella Walker Bill Frisell, who’s content to including Willie Nelson, musicians make Untitled
Michaelson’s trying to nail
aka The Brother And Sister play a sideman role as part of Emmylou Harris, Alison Krauss Unmastered feel anything but
them. But they’re agony.
Walker. Their three tracks, the quartet The Marvels. and Jewel, she immediately incomplete. The standout,
Tides – “The tide pulls me near
recorded in their local Mt Blending protest songs impresses with a solid version Untitled 03, and its lurching
just to break at your feet” – is
Mariah Church, provided the still about pain, and the (including a potent reading of Wanda Jackson’s Funnel Of groove, is as affecting as any
album’s focal points, and so baritone vocal, creaking like of Bob Dylan’s The Masters Love, then moves on to deliver deep cut from the final album,
Reilly returned two years later a ship’s hull coming apart, is Of War) with antique hymns a brace of Patsy Cline classics well served by Lamar’s coolly
to capture their singing over almost a bled-dry Nick Cave; and several Lloyd originals, that stand the comparison deadpan flow and piercing
a whole album. This time, the a pausing, hesitant piano the saxophonist/flautist test, before, with the aid of observations on unflattering
recording takes place in their treads alongside. Undo is a and Frisell combine to make Vince Gill, whooping it up on stereotypes. New ground is
living room and for the most narcotic, self-blaming calypso music that alchemises urban You’re The Reason Our Kids explored on the unsettlingly
part it’s just the elders’ stirring with screwed-up violin: “I’d jazz with rural Americana to Are Ugly, and reminding us cynical Untitled 02: Kendrick
voices, Raymond’s heavy with take it back, wouldn’t take it create something that is how fine a songwriter Dolly tries on singing for size, and it
experience, Joella’s full of out on you/But you can’t haunting and otherworldly. Parton can be with a version of suits him. The short length and
hope. But sometimes, as on Oh undo…”. Finally, Half The Willie Nelson brings his Dolly’s Hard Candy Christmas. minimal production means
Lord Hear My Voice and Jesus Reason shows there’s not even weathered tones to Last Night Best of all, though, is an Untitled Unmastered is
Gave Me Water, their leads are resolution. Against flugelhorn I Had The Strangest Dream, impressive Western Swing take occasionally lacking in the
framed by handclaps and their and piano, our hero admits while Norah Jones imbues on I Want To Be Cowboy’s dynamics of the original
five children’s heartening that he talks to the clothes she the Joe Cocker-associated Sweetheart, the first country work, but it’s still a sprawling
harmonies. Altogether, it really left. Memory, it turns out, can You Are Beautiful with a song by a woman to sell a and enthralling postscript to
is a joyful noise. be a curse. plaintive sensuality. million copies. his masterpiece.
Lois Wilson Glyn Brown Charles Waring Fred Dellar Ian Crichton

94 MOJO
Teho Teardo & and jazz, his solo music’s
increasing conceptualism has
Mark Pritchard
Blixa Bargeld seemingly precluded him, in ####
#### his own perverse creative
consciousness, from playing
Under The Sun
Nerissimo WARP. CD/DL/LP
guitar – at least, not in a man-
SPÈCULA. CD/DL/LP ner commensurate with his Beautiful, melancholic
Einstürzende Neubaut Trux-era avant-rock heroism. downtempo from mas l
linchpin reveals unexp d Denver, happily, finds him electronic polyglot.
playful side. cranking it up. On Colfax West In 1994, as
and Random Friends, segued Global Com-
Whimsicality
like tunes at a Ramones show, munication,
and Blixa
he doles out measured garag- Mark Pritchard
Bargeld aren’t
ey amp-sludge to a hi-speed and his fellow
obvious part-
clipped beat, while soloing sonic traveller
ners. But Ulgæ
insanely over the top. Canyon Tom Middleton delivered an
(A Micro-
features a fabulous descend- ambient milestone in 76:14.
Biological Opera), Nerissimo’s ing lick, set to a waltzy rhythm Since then, like some musical
seventh track, defines whimsy. favoured widely throughout. Alexander The Great, he’s
For his second album with Here finally is the record Trux conquered nearly every elec-
Italian composer Teho Teardo, might’ve cut after 2000’s tronic genre going, from
Bargeld sonorously intones swansong Pound For Pound, house to drum’n’bass, dubstep
the story of Ulgæ, the queen of just minus Jennifer Herrema’s to hip hop. Under The Sun sees
a country within a petri dish. yowling charisma. Hmm… Pritchard return to a more
She’s unaware that nobleman here’s hoping. reflective place. From a cre-
Melvek is in love with her. An Andrew Perry puscular gloom shuffles the
invasion brings them together. opener ? (sic), with its heavy,
The microscopic organisms resonant drone laced with
converse in helium-high voic-
es while the drama unfolds. Kristin Kontrol reverbed Floydian guitar,
while Bibio, one of a select
This quite wonderful fantasy
sits in Nerissimo – Italian for
### group of guests, adds Beach
X-Communicate Boys harmonies to twinkling
‘the blackest’ – as one chapter synth hymnal Give It Your
of an album which yields treat SUB POP. CD/DL/LP
Choir. Headlines may be
after treat. Bargeld and Teardo Chief Dum Dum Girl’s grabbed by Thom Yorke – in
first worked together in thea- ego plays windswept full just-woken-up mode on
tre and it shows: the cover sophisto-pop. the quasi-Tudor lament of
finds the duo re-enacting Operating on Beautiful People – but it’s
Holbein’s ever-enigmatic 1533 the belief that Pritchard’s dark-hearted, often
painting The Ambassadors. a side-project suffocating ambience that is
Atmospheric chromatic must break most seductive. Distorted,
harmonica, swirling strings, entirely from spectral piano and strings
shadowy woodwind and your day-job’s pitch Khufu into gothic horror,
Bargeld’s rich voice add up to modus operandi, X-Communi- and Ems hums with an Arctic
an album demonstrating that cate finds Dum Dum Girls aura. Each track on Under The
black has many shades. frontwoman shedding that Sun has its own unique, haunt-
Kieron Tyler band’s surf-guitar twang and ing spirit, lingering long after
dreamy shoegaze for a new the final note decays.
alter ego, Kristin Kontrol. Stephen Worthy
Neil Michael Judging from the poised,
polished, studio-baked pop of
Hagerty & The her debut album, Kristin hails Julianna Barwick
Howling Hex from an alternate-universe
###
###
’80s, her synth-heavy songs
evoking the haunt of Billy Will
Denver Idol’s Eyes Without A Face, the DEAD OCEANS. CD/DL
DRAG CITY. DL/LP/MC brash righteousness of Laura
Branigan, and the windswept Third album by the
Royal Trux dude’s rock melancholy of Madonna’s Brooklyn-based singe
outing in a while. darker balladry. A heroine ambient artist.
As the Trux built for the early days of MTV, Barwick has
reunion gath- the wry, upbeat, sax-laced said that in this
ers momen- Show Me and the icy, edgy album she
tum, Royal ache of (Don’t) Wannabe nev- wanted to get
watchers may ertheless make perfect sense more “rhythm
be miffed to in the era of Robyn, Sia et al. and low end”
see Hagerty back chipping The one-note nature of the into her music for the purpose
away at ’Hex. As American wracked, robotic torch songs of playing it live, and here her
post-hardcore’s most able and does wear thin by closer multitracked, ethereal vocals
fluid guitarist, with equal Smoke Rings, however. are supported by synth loops,
grounding in punk, classic rock Stevie Chick and piano and cello figures.
There are moments of a cham-
ber ensemble compactness
and clarity, but at times it all
gets suspended in and blurred
by clouds of ambience. Appro-
priately for someone who first
sang in church, Will seems to
occupy a vast ecclesiastical
space, so that her vocal style
encompasses the ecstatic lines
of early music composer Hilde-
gard Of Bingen on St Apolonia
and the airbrushed vocalese of
Julee Cruise on Same. But the
latter’s thick, slightly queasy
Alma Haser, Thomas Rabsch

layer of synthetic strings exem-


plifies a creeping unease that
lurks behind the mentholated
Black stars: beauty of Will, with the exces-
Teho Teardo sively reverb-heavy produc-
(left) and Blixa tion feeling at times comfort-
Bargeld get close. ing and at others oppressive.
Mike Barnes

MOJO 95
Ronnie Spector
###
English Heart
429. CD/DL/LP
The former Ronette pa
tribute to the Brit Inva
with an album of cover
Produced by
Scott Jacoby at
New York’s
Eusonia Stu-
dios, Ronnie
Spector covers
11 songs which struck a chord
with her in the ’60s, hence
versions of tracks by her pals,
Rolling Stones, Beatles, Zom-
bies et al. The Stones’ I’d Much
Rather Be With The Girls, writ-
ten with her in mind in ’65, best
captures the 72-year-old; her
voice, a streetwise rasp, placed
over a competent Brit-styled
backbeat with handclaps and
evocative Wurlitzer, is still
Anana Harouna capable of entrancing. Don’t
of Kel Assouf, and Let The Sun Catch You Crying,
friend, adrift in a originally by Gerry And The
strange world. Pacemakers is another winner,
with Ronnie’s cracked vocal
backed with cello and sympa-
The Jayhawks on this, his band’s second
album, arguably the most
ing shop floor, Jack Knife the
depersonalisation of the call
intelligibility by the simple,
near blanket expedient of no
thetic rhythm. Her rendition of
The Zombies’ Tell Her No is a
#### rock-influenced of all the centre, while there’s some- bass – and by the fresh, hyper- big mistake, though, with
Paging Mr. Proust Tamashek sets to have come thing extremely sinister going vivid production of Paul Sav- Ronnie drowned by runaway
out of the Sahara this century. on in the brilliant opener Red age, studio whiz at Chemikal drum machine and synths.
THIRTY TIGERS. CD/DL/LP
On tracks like Lab or Europa, Shift (Blame Thrower), the Underground’s Chem19. Lois Wilson
Their first since 2011’s the guitars only fleetingly stray creepy beats overlaid by James McNair
Mockingbird Time. into Tinariwen territory, words of accusatory disgust:
However erratic instead preferring hard blues
riffs and strains of Sabbath;
“Back stabber/Digit pointer/
Tongue wagger”. The mainly
Pantha Du Prince
####
or obstructed
their flight- sitting alongside them is Izlan electronic instrumentals trans-
path, The Jay- Nala (one of two tracks written port and tease on the hypnotic The Triad
hawks have and sung by the actress Toulou title track and throughout ROUGH TRADE. CD/DL/LP
always man- Kiki Bilal), an uplifting desert there isn’t a hint of stale ’80s
aged to alight with a decent stomp with an almost glam- nostalgia anywhere to be Further collaborative doings
album in tow. Their current rock beat provided on tinde, found. A triumph. of Berlin minimal techno
incarnation is (again) sans the women’s hand drum, and David Buckley producer Hendrik Weber.
Mark Olson, but some choice Maghrebi castanets; and Med- Having built a reputation for
writing – and the pooled pro- den is all about Tunisian pro- crafting meticulous minimal
duction nous of band linchpin ducer Sofyann Ben Youssef’s
RM Hubbert techno, Pantha Du Prince
Gary Louris, R.E.M.’s Peter Buck
and sometime My Morning
organ playing. The title can be
translated as “a strange world” ### King Gizzard waded into more rarefied
waters on 2013’s symphonic
Jacket enabler Tucker Martine or “surprise”: both are apt Telling The Trees And The Lizard Elements Of Light, in cahoots
– make Paging Mr. Proust espe-
cially welcome. The album’s
descriptions of what is hap-
pening within. CHEMIKAL UNDERGROUND. CD/DL/LP Wizard with The Bell Laboratory. Their
stray percussive input
exemplary and diverse array of David Hutcheon Fourth solo outing from #### continues across The Triad, a
toothsome guitar sonics – wit- tattooed, flamenco gu Nonagon Infinity cerebral yet more club-friendly
ness the unkempt lead work wielding Glaswegian, rt HEAVENLY. CD/DL/LP
extension of PDP’s signature
on The Devil Is In Her Eyes – McArthur Hubbert. style whose pulsing basslines,
helps, but more crucial still is Precision freak-beat snatches of fuzzy dissonance
File sharing brilliance, delivered at
yer Hawks’ oh-so-distinctive – “co-writing and atonal dronescapes reach
vocal harmony blend, a soar- maximum velocity. fresh heights of sophistication
at arm’s
ing, heart-warming thing on length”, Hub- Four albums in 18 months on You What? Euphoria! and
ace Byrdsian opener Quiet bert calls it might induce a malaise within 10-minute centrepiece
Corners & Empty Spaces. Lov- – made Telling lesser bands, but King Giz- Chasing Vapour Trails. It also
ers Of The Sun – think Glen The Trees do-able. Like his Alex zard’s current purple patch incorporates greater vocal
Campbell channelling Burt Kapranos-produced Thirteen peaks here. A sibling album to input. Kept low in the mix,
Bacharach – and the spare, Lost & Found, winner of the 2014’s lid-flipping I’m In Your Weber’s flat Phil Oakey tones
falsetto-rich I’ll Be Your Key Scottish Album Of The Year Mind Fuzz, Nonagon Infinity is contrast neatly with mutating
also charm, while a Mike Mills
guest vocal enriches Leaving Blancmange award in 2013, Hubbert’s cyclical; one frantic jam bleeds
into another and whose
non-linear outings that
constantly throw up fresh
####
latest is another left-field
The Monsters Behind. guest-fest. This time, though, ending is its beginning. melodic vistas, not least
James McNair Psychedelic they may be, but across the reverb-strewn
Commuter 23 all his foils are women, be
guitars of Wallflower For Pale
BLANC CHECK. CD/DL they singer songwriters such this septet play with dizzying
as Kathryn Williams and precision – like 13th Floor Saints. The Triad’s twinkly
Kel Assouf Neil Arthur’s rebooted muse,
half song, half instrumental.
Eleanor Friedberger, or instru- Elevators tackling kosmische
rhythms at hardcore pace. The
elegance is packed with rich
detail that greatly rewards
#### With a Frank Zappa-like pace
mentalists such as Rachel
Grimes (piano) and Aby glam-thrust of Big Fig Wasp, deeper investigation.
Andy Cowan
Tikounen of creativity, Blancmange’s Vulliamy (violin). With its blues freak-out of Gamma
IGLOO MONDO. CD/DL third album in under 12 near ambient textures and Knife and stratospheric space-
months is an almost perfect flamenco crash chords, the rock of the Hawkwind-like
Woke up this morning, fusion of the wry Pop Art- Grimes-assisted In Accordia Robot Spot capture a band
another variation on t observational tableaus of Semi is utterly transporting, while blazing a trail across the
old desert blues. Detached and the curious and Sweet Dreams, all sculpted cosmos, the strutting Mr Beat
The Brussels- disquieting instrumental mini- guitar-body beats and subtle offering a more playful pop
based Tuareg malism of Nil By Mouth. Like a electronica, is crystalline excursion. Fellow Aussie
Anana Harouna postmodern Alan Bennett, future-pop voiced by musical psychonauts Tame
has been in Arthur’s lyrics are sardonic, Ladytron’s Helen Marnie. Impala may have the plaudits,
exile for over funny and cutting. Last Night Elsewhere, passages profane, but KG&TLW are the band to
10 years, a fact (I Dreamt I Had A Job) depicts dark, outlandish or starkly give your life to.
of life that bears down heavily the hell of the Amazon pack- beautiful are lent extra Ben Myers

96 MOJO
The Chemistry Discharge The Dowling Eagulls Little Scream
Set ### Poole #### ####
#### End Of Days ### Ullages Cult Following
The Endless More NUCLEAR BLAST. CD/DL/LP One Hyde Park PARTISAN. CD/DL/LP MERGE. CD/DL/LP
And More Stoke peace punx’ first 369 MUSIC. CD/DL Titled from an anagram of Montreal’s Laurel
FRUITS DE MER. CD/DL/LP studio album in eight years Second crowd-funded album their name, Leeds’ Eagulls Sprengelmeyer has a
Double album by legendary (the first to feature bawler by British duo Willie Dowling have also reordered their crystalline folky voice and a
UK prog-psych outfit, full of Jeff ‘JJ’ Janiak) delivers 15 (ex-Honeycrack) and Jon Poole musical DNA on this second flair for turning opaque
Anglican charm and finely apocalyptic tracks. It may (ex-Cardiacs), full of buoyant, album. Their early temper now concepts into pop songs. Cult
crafted tunes. It sounds like a not capture the spirit of melodic swot-rock smarts. All lurks beneath, as chiming Following is an account of how
consecration of three decades ’82’s influential debut, but a that’s missing is a production post-punk atmos channels virulent ideology can draw in
of wild adventurism. PA righteous fire still burns. PA credit for Andy Partridge. PA affecting, emotional jabs. PS the most rational people. JB

The Magnetic Melt Yourself Metamono Radical Face Andy Shauf


North Down #### #### ####
### ### Creative Listening The Leaves The Party
Prospect Of Last Evenings INSTRUMENTARIUM. DL/LP NETTWERK. CD/DL/LP ANTI. CD/DL/LP
South London all-analogue The third in a trilogy, Ben The Canadian songwriter’s
Skelmersdale On Earth synth triad make psychotropic Cooper’s arboreal metaphor hazy harmonies and easy keys
FULL TIME HOBBY. CD/DL/LP LEAF. CD/DL/LP yet compelling electronic for the life of a fictional 19th belie the intricate concept of
A conceptual piece about the Afrobeat, punk-funk and hip jingles, mood pieces, cha-chas century family closes with a set his fourth full album. Using
west Lancashire new town. hop meld in Pete (Polar Bear) and other brain-transports, of sweet, pastoral portrait sharp snapshots and strange
Choral folk pop reveries and Wareham’s LP. Muezzin duels ideal for Stasi pursuit scenarios songs, intricately arranged and characters, Shauf paints an
soft rock tease out the cosmic with fellow tenorist Shabaka and broadcast on phantom intimately sung. Like a potting endearing sketch of his house
everyday. IH Hutchings hit the spot. DE testcard stations. IH shed Sufjan Stevens. JB party’s many moods. PS

N
Nils Frahm
Solo – Remains
arch 29, 2015 saw the

Sophia
####
Twin Peaks
Down In Heaven
M first Piano Day,
conceived by Berlin-
based composer Nils Frahm,
who hopes to see it celebrated
As We Make COMMUNION. CD/DL/LP
on the 88th day of each year
Our Way Chicago group for whom
(that being the number of keys
FLOWERSHOP RECORDINGS. CD/DL/LP Beggars Banquet provides the
on a piano). For 2016, live events
Robin Proper-Sheppard’s first ramshackle country rock
were staged around the globe
in seven years has a familiar touchstone on their third LP.
including performances in
grievous aura but isn’t, he says, But a little barroom brio goes
London, Brisbane, Moscow,
a heartbreak record. You need a long way and too often their
Tokyo and Tel Aviv, and the ‘Give
light to show dark, and the untethered jangle neglects the
A Piano’ donation drive
sublime Blame and California other side of the tight-but-
encouraged people to stop
radiate melancholy warmth. JB loose equation. JB
seeing their unused instruments
as furniture and find them new
homes where they could be
played again. As a gift for this
year, Frahm has Solo – Remains,
a free EP of outtakes from last
year’s elegiac Solo LP, recorded
on David Klavin’s 1987 M370, the
largest piano in the world.
Download it at pianoday.org. SB
Saul Williams Teleman
### #### A.K. Paul
Landcruisin’
Laura Mvula
Phenomenal
Martyr Loser King Brilliant Sanity Brother of shady soul Woman
FADER. CD/DL/LP MOSHI MOSHI. CD/DL/LP prodigy Jai Paul steps up The second single from
Slam-poetry legend spins yarn Second set of smart, retro- for a glorious release on forthcoming album The
about revolutionary African futurist pop by the London the siblings’ new Paul Dreaming Landd is a
hacker to soundtrack his group whose flow-chart Institute imprint. Like strident, vivacious
graphic novel; though the composition avoids sounding Prince making pop from anthem of female em-
album works better as vehicle clinical thanks to Tommy a car assembly line. powerment. What a title.
for Williams’ fiery, lucid spiels Sander’s lovely Ray Davies-ish (SoundCloud) What a woman. (Spotify)
and inventive productions vocal; an emotional restraint
than straight-up narrative. SC rare in the Metronomy era. JB

MOJO 97
98 MOJO
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Into the valleys
Bereft without their philosopher prince, the Welsh iconoclasts battled on and made
the album of their lives. A 20th anniversary box explains how. By Keith Cameron.

Manic Street there amid the 1984-85 Miners’ Strike, it had never
before been specifically invoked in their music. A
Preachers third lyric was more significant still: in the second
verse of Enola/Alone, amid emollient waves of
##### powerchordage, James Dean Bradfield sang, “All
I want to do is live/No matter how miserable it is”.
Everything Must Go This yearning grasp for humanity indicated how far
the Manics had shifted from the negaholic abyss of
SONY. CD/DL/LP+CD+DVD BOX SET
The Holy Bible, pulled back to the nurturing

O
n the night of April 28, 1996, before a embrace of their valley roots by that peculiarly
massive crowd in Manchester, the Manic Welsh longing for the departed, the hiraeth.
Street Preachers realised they might finally Its radio-propelled ubiquity – via four Top 10
be on the winning side of history. The occasion singles – conspired to diminish Everything Must Go
wasn’t one of their own gigs, but rather as support to KEY TRACKS in memory. But heard now, it feels fresh, natural and
Oasis, the UK’s rock phenomenon of the moment, at G A Design For Life ambitious, unlike so many records from the era; testimony
Maine Road football stadium – epicentre of a temporary G Kevin Carter to an astonishingly rigorous work ethic. The sequencing of
G Enola/Alone
but seismic cultural shift, when what could be loosely its 12 songs is as important as their individual quality.
G No Surface All
termed ‘indie’ music became the daily diet of mainstream Feeling Further Away, for instance: this plangent melancholia,
taste. The penny dropped when the Manics played their written by Nicky Wire amid the misery of touring The
new single, A Design For Life, which seven days earlier Holy Bible and pining for his wife, might have wilted in
had entered the charts at Number 2 – and the masses proximity to the agenda-setting …Design… or Edwards’
sang it back at them. A populist anthem was born. opaque opener Elvis Impersonator: Blackpool Pier. Yet by
For the Manics to be associated, however tenuously, the time of its penultimate slot the listener is immersed in
with the Britpop consensus would not have seemed the album’s bittersweet scheme, and the song is a perfect
plausible in 1994, when they terrorised Top Of The Pops primer for the purging finale No Surface All Feeling.
and the Glastonbury Festival in the name of The Holy Throughout, Bradfield’s vocals are resplendent, as they
Bible, their caustic third album, a wartime dispatch from needed to be, since he was now tasked with singing fewer
the troubled mind of Richey Edwards, the band’s words: Wire wisely chose not to mimic Edwards’
co-lyricist and intellectual furnace. Of course, as attested astringent lyric tangles. There are also relatively few guitar
by the stage-right gap at Maine Road, there was a major solos, which on previous records seemed to serve either as
caveat: Edwards had been missing for over a year. Such a primal counterpoint to the lyrics’ obscurity or a
was the Manics’ ambivalent experience of success. virtuosic dare. Here, by contrast, there is the masterful
Everything Must Go, the fourth and still the best-selling Kevin Carter – one of several Edwards lyrics successfully
Manic Street Preachers album, is one of the all-time great assimilated into the new MSP vision – where a trumpet
acts of artistic reinvention, its solo by drummer Sean Moore and the sumptuous Burt
mainstream putsch achieved Bacharach-honorific bridge add piquancy to terse guitar
entirely on the band’s own terms, chops. Bradfield’s vision, as he explained to producer
albeit this was not quite the same Mike Hedges, was: “The Sweeney theme tune with a hint
band which had made its three of Gang Of Four bossa nova.” Job done.
predecessors. Edwards disappeared For all its lush arrangements, Everything Must Go proves
before recording began, with just the value of economy in great pop. The extent to which
a handful of songs written. Nicky this latest repackaging represents economic value might
Wire now became sole lyricist. depend on whether the listener bought the 10th
BACK STORY: Given their situation – a uniquely “BOTH AN anniversary reissue, which replicates many of the B-sides
POST-PUNKY agonising twist on the bereaved APOLOGY here and also included demos. None of the studio
CHATEAU group narrative – it was common
G To make Everything Mustt AND ADIEU recordings are unreleased, though the Live At Nynex
Go the Manics went to sense to “Escape from our history”, TO THOSE concert from 1997 – the apex of EMG-era arena rock
Normandy’s Château de la as the title track declared. Driven majesty – appears in full on the 2-CD version. The EMG
Rouge Motte, home to by strings and tympani in pathos- FANS WHO
20 box (2-CDs, 2-DVDs, vinyl) wins out on visuals: a
producer Mike Hedges
sodden homage to Phil Spector, the COULDN’T beautiful 40-page book of notes, photographs and
(above) and Abbey Road’s
TG12345 Mk IV desk on song was both an apology and adieu ACCEPT THE ephemera, the Nynex show on DVD, and Freed From
which Pink Floyd recorded to those doctrinaire fans who BAND SANS Memories, a documentary by BAFTA-winning director
The Dark Side Of The Moon.
Producer of post-punk
couldn’t accept the band sans RICHEY.” Kieran Evans. What emerges is how happy the trio were
icons Siouxsie & The Richey. “The worst thing we could making the album with Hedges in his remote French
Banshees and The Cure, do,” says Wire now, “was try to be studio, and how conflicted their eventual success felt. “It
Hedges had been asked to a bad version of what we had been.”
produce The Holy Bible but was so bitterly ironic,” says Bradfield, “that we were in the
was busy. After hearing It wasn’t the only philosophical right place at the right time with this record.”
his work on McAlmont & shift. “Libraries gave us power”, the Everything Must Go proves the Manic Street Preachers
Butler’s Yes, they wanted a opening line of A Design For Life,
similarly organic, uplifting were stronger than perhaps even they realised. What a
sound. “I was like, I’m with affirmed a particular working-class shame Richey Edwards didn’t witness its perfect harmony
a producer who made identity, the autodidact tradition so – this might have been what he was looking for all along.
records I revered,” says prevalent in the mining towns of
James Dean Bradfield.
“I can’t fuck this up.” south Wales. Although the Manics’
political consciousness was forged MANICS TALK! BLISS
BRADFIELD AND WIRE ON PURGATORY,
AND SMASHING INTO THE CHARTS.

100 MOJO
derivative and a bit ropey in tracks from Havana-based
both music and sound quality, musicians with those of their
but the two albums (from East Harlem counterparts. Side
1968-69) are a marked one of this limited edition vinyl
improvement. By this point, he release thus begins in
was ready to change direction traditional mode, with Carlos
(and band name) once again, Embale & Orquesta Kubavana’s
but that’s another story. relaxed guajira track Camina Y
David Hutcheon Ven, moving on to Cachao’s
delightful Descarga Guajira
and Ibrahim Ferrer’s irresistible
Terry Allen Monte Adentro, but side two
Various ###
brings us into another
universe. To hear how Tito
#### Juarez Puente jazzes up the lively
Close To The PARADISE OF BACHELORS. CD/DL/LP Mambo Beat and to witness
Ray Barreto transforming a
Noise Floor Barking 1975 concept L pachanga with his percussive
CHERRY RED. CD/DL/LP Texan renaissance outl wizardry on the title track is to
Exploring the roots of Brit Over the years glean the music morphing in
electronica. Juarez has different directions, with the
Everything will come: served as the boogaloo and salsa tags of the
Nicky Wire (left) and In the latter half of the 1970s,
source material New York melting pot the
James Dean Bradfield near-perfect conditions led to
for Terry Allen’s ultimate result.
reach a turning point. Britain becoming a sandpit of
paintings, David Katz
electronic musical
installations, a screenplay, a
experimentation. With punk
musical with David Byrne and
having scorched the earth,

“I can’t be modest
Lord knows what else as he
lo-fi sonic explorations
explored its gnarly tale of Joanna Brouk
bloomed; hardware – synths
####
about it…”
whores, liars, murder, squalid
– tumbled in price and soared sex and a shoot-out. Over 15
in availability while the songs and poems, Allen tells of Hearing Music
widespread introduction of two couples who meet and NUMERO GROUP. CD/DL/LP
microcassette technology was
Nicky Wire and James Dean transforming the recording
argue in Colorado. Two of them A new age legend; mo
are left dead, the others flee to neo-classical minimali
Bradfield talk toKeith Cameron. process. The 61 tracks here the titular Mexican border town
chart the genesis and progress where it doesn’t end well. From Missouri,
Given preceding events, the new DVD suggests that of the UK electronic under- Brouk is a
Mostly just Allen and his piano,
making the album was a happy experience. ground from 1975 to 1984, at the songs are vivid, desperate, complete
NW: “It was. It had been a miserable two years, with which point it had become the poetic and brutal, like the anti- one-off:
Philip [Hall, MSP manager] dying and Richey going mainstream. Many of the acts Randy Newman. Its fellow Electronic
missing, and the baggage of The Holy Bible following responsible for that are reissue Lubbock (On Everything) Music
represented here – OMD, is more straight-forward and graduate, a student of Terry
you around. Just being ensconced in the Chateau with
Human League, John Foxx, much easier to digest, but no Riley, and Chopin expert who
Mike Hedges in the middle of nowhere in France was Blancmange – albeit in one ever called it “the greatest recorded five albums circa
the closest we’ve ever come to bliss in the band. Feeling nascent form. The real fun lies 1981-85, her scores inspired by
cocooned from any kind of reality. We basked in the concept album of all time” like
with the lesser-known artists, they have Juarez. Well, sure, but geometric shapes, before she
anonymity and the creativity of just being there.” whether the sullen, indie- ran GTE/Verizon’s 14 customer
only if greatness equates to
JDB: “We’d realised that on the other side of our lives electro ambience of Adrian K “mad as a sack of jackalopes”. care websites and became a
was an obviously intractable situation – we weren’t Smith’s Joe Goes To New York Andy Fyfe popular keynote speaker at
or hulking proto-techno of internet conferences. Her
going to get an answer about Richey. After three or four
Five Times Of Dust’s Computer album titles, such as Healing
months we just knew we were gonna be left in some Bank. This compelling, Music and Sounds Of The Sea,
kind of situational purgatory. So when it seemed like enlightening aural history Various point to Brouk’s home in the
actually something was sounding good, it was a relief
– we were happy something was going right for once.”
gives them a worthy platform.
Stephen Worthy
### new age racks but the music’s
meditative spells are more
What were the practical and emotional implications
Sugar’s Delight: 1955- complex and beguiling. Her
of Richey’s absence? 1962 Spanish Harlem first compilation is a double
NW: “The practical ones weren’t gigantic. Musically Fela Ransome Dancefloor Fillers CD, starting with the
15-minute Going Through The
there were no implications. And it’s not like I hadn’t Kuti And His GROSSO RECORDINGS. DL/LP
Veil – Becoming A Swan and
written any lyrics before. It was the emotional gap, the
idling and the watching TV, and talking, reading… all
Koola Lobitos The “roots of boogaloo
played in Havana and N
21-minute The Space Between,
those little things were amiss. The turning point was #### As with the
both exquisite piano
threnodies. The muted horns
James singing A Design For Life down the phone to me. Fela Ransome Kuti earlier Coco of Majesty Suites – Entrance Of
I’d written some really bad lyrics up to that point, just And His Koola May May The Queen Of Winter Dawn
stuff that was never going to work. From then on, compilation, and the Eno-esque drones of
everything came really easily. We might not have been Lobitos Sugar’s Delight Diving Deeper, Remembering
in a band without A Design For Life.” KNITTING FACTORY. CD/DL aims to show Love equally belie their drippy
Young man with a horn how various Afro-Cuban styles titles, to show Brouk’s
JDB: “I don’t think it’s ever been stated enough that no hit records. are at the root of the hybrid enthralling visions come in
work had already started on Everything Must Go before boogaloo craze that swept the different colours.
he went missing. We had the demos of No Surface All First released
in Japan (and US in the 1960s, contrasting Martin Aston
Feeling, Small Black Flowers… and Further Away. I’d
later – though
played acoustic versions of Elvis Impersonator… and
it angered the
Kevin Carter to him. This is conjecture, but perhaps in Kuti family – by
his mind he couldn’t envisage some of his lyrics in the Vampisoul),
frame of what Everything Must Go was obviously taking this 3-CD set rounds up early
shape to be. It’s a shame he couldn’t have seen that, singles and the first two
actually, there was a brilliant balance to be had there.” albums recorded by Kuti and
How do you think it stands up 20 years on? his bands in 1963-69, starting
when the Royal College of
NW: “It astounds me that a record like that could sell a Music-trained trumpeter
million copies in a year. The fact that a lyric like fancied himself as Africa’s
“Libraries gave us power” smashed into the charts. I Miles. Unluckily, Nigeria’s
love it. It feels really balanced. Sometimes in modern record buyers and club-goers
culture you overlook albums that are really massive had no interest in modern jazz,
– you tend to think they couldn’t have been good. And prompting a switch to what he
actually a lot of them were.” redubbed highlife-jazz, with its
emphasis on the dancefloor, He’ll take the
JDB: “You should never call yourself ‘classic’, it’s a heinous and the hiring of a new band highlife: Fela Kuti
sin – but I’m going to commit that sin: I just think it’s a
Alex Lake

that featured Tunde Williams (left) fronts his


classic album. I can’t be bothered to be modest about it!” and Tony Allen. The earliest Koola Lobitos.
singles on the first disc can be

102 MOJO
The Funkees:
beats, not bullets,
for Biafra.

A day in the life

depression. By the end of his Komety’s 1968 take on Chain repute, his career barely got a ska duo with Stranger Cole,
career in 1929, Reed was taking Of Fools smothers in-the- going before 2010. Only the but Coxsone Dodd convinced
on hypocritical preachers. basement phrasing in fuzz chaos that engulfed West him to go solo. A repeat hit-
People who know How Can guitar. On Flamingo’s Zlom Vaz Africa’s febrile music scenes in maker in rock steady, Boothe
A Poor Man Stand Such Times (Break Your Neck), from 1971, the 1970s stopped him from began recording for other
And Live thanks to Bruce Julie Driscoll-style vocals are breaking through and the producers in 1970 and his work
Springsteen’s version may be pinned to a pounding re-release of two classy LPs for Lloyd Charmers bore the
surprised by Reed’s original Hammond and bass. from that decade (also most commercial fruit. This
lyrics’ prescience: “Officers kill Meanwhile, 1970’s Kocicí Král available: 1975’s My Love And compilation reissues each of
without a cause, then Felix (Cat King Felix) by Pavel Music) shows what could have the five albums they made
complain about funny laws.” Novak, a former teacher, pays been. Here, the opening title together in chronological
Old-time music? Maybe not. homage to a beer-drinking, track (which translates as “trust order, so when you listen
Chris Nelson
Blind Alfred Reed music-loving feline over some
fervid boogaloo.
in God”) has an up-tempo
highlife swing. It’s on the
from beginning to end, you
get a sense of Boothe’s
### Lois Wilson second side that things get progression under Charmers’
Appalachian Various hot: Peace On Earth has a wing. Of course, the schmaltzy
Bread title track was the one
####
relaxed funk groove and
Visionary terrific guitar from Taylor; Boothe struck gold with in
DUST-TO-DIGITAL. CD/DL reggae, though the follow-up,
Czech Up! Vol. 1 Atwer Abroba, though, is a
Crying Over You, was purely
Portrait of a peer of The VAMPI SOUL. CD/DL stone classic, Taylor and the
Carter Family, served with horns duelling to great effect. original. Most of the cover
admirable detail. Czech freakbeat, fuzz The whole thing is over in 32 tunes here are tastefully
jazz pop and more fro minutes, but you’ll want to rendered, with Ain’t No
Alfred Reed, the revered old- Supraphon label, 1966 8. Sunshine, Let’s Get It On and Is
time fiddler, could scold with play it again and again – it’s
Named after really that superb. It Because I’m Black among the
the very best. Smokers and best; the patriotic Black, Gold
church-duckers earned his the record David Hutcheon
player of the And Green and Freedom Day
wrath; women fared worse. It’s are outstanding originals.
particularly rich to hear him same name,
admonish wives to “always lift Czech
company
Ebo Taylor Ken Boothe
David Katz
[a husband] up and never
knock him down,” when Supraphon was founded in #### ###
tearing down sometimes feels 1932, initially as a platform for Twer Nyame Everything I Own:
like Reed’s stock-in-trade. Yet classical music. But by 1966, MR BONGO. CD/DL/LP
these songs manage to reel in when this label sampler The Lloyd Charmers
One that got away in 1978
even the modern listener. A begins, it had expanded its
finally gets the release it
Sessions 1971-76
daughter’s plea to her miner remit to include pretty much TROJAN. CD/DL
dad – “don’t go down in that every style of music. The richly deserves.
emphasis here is on jazz, soul Taylor is still recording and Peak-period Boothe, aided
hole today” – rattles the
nerves. Despite its sexism, and garage, the kind aimed at gigging some 60 years after and abetted by his most
Always Lift Him Up offers a the in crowd, and it really is a first hitting the road, but as a perceptive producer.
sympathetic view of blast from start to finish. highlife artist of international Ken Boothe began his career in

MOJO 103
The long and
winding River:
Terry Reid, loosey
goosey soul.

A bunch of vibes

band; I Gotta Know, a saucy funk grooves. Reissued Jansch played electric on psychedelic revival celebrated
but sweet R&B number by alongside New Grass is 1969’s record). Yet as his enduring at London club nights the
Bertice Reading, who honed more radical Music Is The influence continues to glow, Groovy Cellar and the Clinic.
her craft playing Bessie Smith Healing Force…, Ayler’s final the experiments, which Featured emergent bands
in The Jazz Train Revue in Paris album before his tragic death originally condemned Nicola, included The High Tide, Miles
and London in the ’50s. in 1970. Featuring a soulful now sound like charming Over Matter and Mood Six.
Lois Wilson female vocalist, and, innocence. The trippy mood of Seeds sowed, Alice In
significantly, Canned Heat’s the title track is attractively Wonderland – with the Clinic’s
Henry Vestine on guitar, it bizarre; Life Depends On Love DJ, The Doctor: he of the
Albert Ayler finds Ayler – who plays
bagpipes on some tracks –
is an obvious pitch for pop
sensibility that maintains
Medics – opened in 1983.
Something had remained in
### performing with his customary wayward appeal; A Little the air. This 74-track set
Various New Grass/Music vigour against blues-infused
backdrops.
Sweet Sunshine could be a
Stones parody; and Bert’s
supplements the original
album with, among others,
#### Is The Healing Force Charles Waring stylised vocals on trad classic Alan McGee’s Biff Bang Pow!,
Rockin’ The Groove Of The Universe Love Is Teasing are wondrously Fall offshoot The Blue Orchids,
IMPULSE!. CD/DL eccentric. Yet there’s vintage Mod revivalists Squire, oddball
BEAR FAMILY. CD
Expertly compiled snapshot Free jazz maven’s final Bert Jansch blues too, and if Jansch himself
sometimes sounds ill at ease,
outsider Nick Nicely and UK
Sub Charlie Harper. Two of the
of the little-known R&B label
spanning 1953 to ’57.
reissued together.
### Nicola is nonetheless an 1981 comp’s offerings are MIA,
An avid agreeable relic from a but gems like the Costello-less
disciple of
Nicola strange time. Attractions’ Slow Patience and
Groove, a subsidiary of RCA TRANSATLANTIC. CD/DL/LP
Victor, helmed by Billboard John Coltrane Colin Irwin The Third Eye’s Pass Myself
reporter Bob Rolontz, existed – whose Beautifully remastered add ballast. Despite reminding
for just four years and funeral he reissue of Jansch’s most that a splendid time was had
managed only one hit –
Mickey And Sylvia’s fantastic
played at in
1967 – Ohio saxophonist
glorious failure.
Various by all, A Splash Of Colour
remains more grab-bag than
Love Is Strange, sadly not Albert Ayler was a leading
Roundly
ridiculed in ### coherent statement.
included on this 35 track light of the avant-garde 1967, Nicola Another Splash Kieron Tyler
collection – yet it clearly movement who arguably was seen as an
deserved more. The evidence: made his boldest artistic Of Colour: New
aberration. If
Zilly Mays’ Right Now from statement in 1968. That’s Jansch was the Psychedelia In Britain
1955, a sassy jump blues when he released New Grass, enigmatic prince of the British 1980-1985
voiced by a shouter in the an intrepid – though not folk boom, its denizens had no RPM. CD
mould of Ruth Brown and entirely successful or indeed, truck with Transatlantic’s
LaVern Baker; Clayton Love’s convincing – marriage of free Scattershot four hours make
attempt to court broader
Bye Bye Baby, a tough boogie jazz with gospel-inflected ’60s appeal with orchestrations, up the kaleidoscope-eyed
Getty Images

from the following year, which R&B. Famed for its visceral fire, snazzy arrangements and flipside to new romanticism.
impressed Ike Turner so much his saxophone is scorching on overloaded production, let In 1981, the compilation album
he recruited the Clarksdale a couple of exploratory cuts alone drums and, God forbid, A Splash Of Colour became
pianist for his Kings Of Rhythm but is mostly framed by pallid electric guitar (the only time aural reportage for the

104 MOJO
Josef K That might be your best plan/
Before you catch a bullet/That
out that the Professor – or Fess
– was one of the originators of
Bad Company dust over even the hoariest of
riffs – and lyrics. Old faithfuls
#### was meant for the next man.” the hip-grinding rhythm ## Feel Like Makin’ Love and
It’s Kinda Funny Andy Cowan called funk. This never-before- Bad Company Live: Good Lovin’ Gone Bad still
released concert was recorded shine, and the band builds
(The Singles) at the University Of Chicago
1977-1979
LES DISQUES DU CRÉPUSCULE. DL/LP RHINO. CD/DL
a ferocious head of steam on
Sound of Young Scotla
Professor Folk Festival in 1976, four years
before Fess rhumba-boogied Stadium rock goliaths’ 2-CD
the almost funky Live For The
post-punks on 45; rou Longhair his way to heaven, having in-concert extravaganza.
Music, but when, at times, the
pace slackens Bad Company
up on 33. #### never lost his chops or those
choked chicken, blue yodel
By the late ’70s Bad Company’s sound like a once sturdy road
Between 1979 Live In Chicago best work was sadly behind cruiser trundling along on
and 1982, Josef vocals. Like a mile-long them. Their strand of two flat tyres.
ORLEANS. CD snaking conga line, Longhair
K were the undemanding blues rock had Mark Blake
spiky, austere Previously unreleased shows were non-stop upbeat. sold millions, but the end was
counterpoint set of the New Orleans He and band mates played nigh. This 30-track set contains
to fellow pianist at his best. simultaneously at varied but two shows: Houston Summit
Postcard label luminaries Professor synchronistic tempos, creating in Texas in 1977 and London’s
Orange Juice, named after Longhair a polyrhythmic chug. Wembley Empire Pool, 1979.
Kafka’s anti-hero, and at heart played with Highlights include his On both, Bad Company were
as much Mittel-Europe as they a Caribbean- signature tunes Big Chief, flogging fair-to-middling
were Edinburgh. This 13-track derived Mess Around and Mardi Gras albums, namely Burnin’ Sky and
set of (almost all) their singles syncopation In New Orleans, as well as Desolation Angels. The two
starts with the A-sides. Their that writer Tony Russell lauded sizzling guitarist Billy Gregory. constants are Mick Ralphs’
Absolute label debut Romance as too “weird” for commercial And nobody whistled like Fess, expressive slide guitar playing
was indebted to Joy Division, success. (That’s a compliment.) as he does here in Big Chief. and Paul Rodgers’ voice; the
and their Postcard debut, Acolyte Dr. John has pointed Michael Simmons latter able to sprinkle magic
Radio Drill Time, to Gang Of

Personal record
Four’s pale, itchy funk, before
a prowling It’s Kinda Funny
became the first A-side to
sound quintessentially theirs.
Likewise, Romance’s flipside
Chance Meeting, like Lou
Reed’s Transformer, glammy
and louche, lent a delicious
cheap-Casio makeover, before
being radically made over
again – tauter, faster, laced
with brass – for their final
Postcard outing. Two Les
Disques Du Crépuscule singles
of the era underline how Josef
K chopped and changed, and
suffered commercially: from
Sorry For Laughing’s almost
Orange Juice-influenced jollity
to the frantic heaviness of The
Missionary, their only Top 5
indie charter.
Martin Aston

Big L
####
Lifestylez Ov Da
Poor & Dangerous:
Deluxe Edition
GET ON DOWN. CD
Twentieth anniversary
late Harlem rapper’s o
album. In a fancy box.
Big L pushed
everything to
the limit. The
self-styled Olympian heights:
Devil’s Son The Associates with
Billy Mackenzie (front
was a lyrical
centre) and Alan
stick-up kid who brought
Rankine (far left).
robbery-ridden Harlem
into vivid focus, armed with
horror flick imagery and
unrelentingly sick punchlines.
Backed by the hardy
production skills of D.I.T.C.’s
Showbiz, Buckwild and Lord
Finesse, concessions to radio
appeal leavened the album’s
openers Put It On and the
Debarge-sampling M.V.P.
before taking a darker turn
over the blaring horns of All
Black and Danger Zone.
Recorded prior to Nas’s
Illmatic, but held back by
prevaricating execs, its author
was slain in a drive-by
shooting before release. It
Sheila Rock

further heightened the


prophetic heft of Street
Struck: “Stay off the corners/
Flash and wallop: James
Hetfield (left) and Lars
Ulrich bring the noise;
(insets) Metallica in
London collect rewards
for Ride The Lightning.

Banging on
Thrash pioneers pull out all stops – and books, and
patches, and posters – for the devoted. By Chris Nelson

Michael Alago (3), Kevin Hodapp

106 MOJO
SU SAN
M A O RT F R O
PP S
SSI ING NTI
VE ME ERE
ATT DE S
AC CIN
K S
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effusive I’ve Got That Feeling producer Bob Thiele. Passin’


and an unhewn Look For Me Thru features Szabo’s brilliantly
Baby by Goldie And The Gin- mesmeric groove, Lady Gabor,
gerbreads, but also Dave Ber- while Man From Two Worlds’
ry’s This Strange Effect, which centrepiece is a ravishing
captures the spider’s web rendition of Charles Lloyd’s
delicacy of the Brill Building, classic tune, Forest Flower.
and Peggy Lee’s I Go To Sleep, Charles Waring
imbued with an evening gown
elegance. In observation,
Leapy Lee’s King Of The Whole
Wide World, produced by Ray
and featuring co-Kinks in his
ar ous brother Dave and Pete Quaife,
#### and a snarling I’m Not Like
Everybody Else by The Choco-
The Midlands late Watchband.
Roots Explosion Lois Wilson
Volume Two
REGGAE ARCHIVE. CD/DL/LP
More unknown reggae STYLOTONE. LP
pleasures from Birmingham Various
#### errmann’s insidiously catchy score for the macabre
and environs.
The latest excursion into the
forgotten West Midlands roots
reggae scene of the ’70s and
Jack Ashford Just
Productions
H little 1968 Boulting Brothers thriller gets the full
deluxe vinyl reissue treatment, with the full
backing of Quentin Tarantino (who used Twisted Nerve’s
KENT. CD “creepy-catchy” whistling theme in Kill Bill Vol. 1). The
’80s is a compelling set.
Starting off strong with Bun Ace productions from Abbey Road mastered 180g release – the first proper
Dem, a rare 1977 Steel Pulse Detroit’s very own Mr complete release of the full score – comes in “blood-
track produced by Dennis Tambourine Man. spattered” yellow or transparent vinyl with ‘vinyl replica’
Bovell, the only other vaguely Chico Hamilton As the percussionist in The
CD in gatefold sleeve, and access to a high-def digital
download. As well as the wonderful original score, the
familiar acts are Capital Letters
from Wolverhampton with the #### Funk Brothers, Jack Ashford
helped define the Detroit
package features complete unedited recording sessions,
rough-edged Equalisation, Passin’ Thru/Man sound with his fervid shaking a 7-inch single featuring Howard Blake’s “pop” and “jazz”
and an alternate configuration From Two Worlds of the tambourine, from The arrangements of the theme, a 30-inch x 40-inch quad film
of Musical Youth, here with a Supremes’ You Can’t Hurry poster and a limited-edition certificate signed by Mrs
IMPULSE!. CD/DL
tough anti-rude boy number Love to Edwin Starr’s War. He Norma Herrmann. AM
called Generals. Otherwise, Classic ’60s jazz titles
was handy behind the scenes
Birmingham’s Eclipse, Iganda, revived as 2-on-1 set.
too, helming his own
Sledge Hammer and Sceptre, Like Miles Davis and Art Blakey, production companies, first sections, the ebullient
and Leicester’s Groundation all drum maestro Chico Hamilton, Pied Piper and then, from trombone fiesta heard amid
offer critiques of Britain’s who died in 2013 aged 92, was 1967, Just Productions. The Back Bone alone proving a
social ills, with Carnastoan a savvy procurer of new jazz latter’s catalogue, which saw cause to celebrate.
singing of the reggae antidote talent. His bands over the years original issue on tiny labels Fred Dellar
on Sweet Melody. The often showcased young, including Sepia, Triple B,
compilers have tracked down exciting, up-and-coming Ashford, Soul Dimension and
some great, unreleased
material from the period too,
players and his discoveries in
the ’50s included guitarist Jim
Awake, is the focus of this
excellent 25-track selection. Keith Jarrett
including a warning of African
revolution by Bass Dance,
Hall and reedman Eric Dolphy.
When the ’60s arrived,
The names included are ####
familiar only to those in soul Fort Yawuh/Treasure
featuring Steel Pulse Hamilton freshened things up circles, yet the records were
co-founder Basil Gabbidon, again by recruiting made with mass consumption Island
and the brass-heavy Cannot
Take It Away by Mystic
saxophonist/flautist Charles in mind. Hence Eddie Parker’s a ones e IMPULSE!. CD/DL

Foundation. Essential listening


Lloyd and Hungarian guitarist
Gabor Szabo (whose ‘gypsy’
I’m Gone from 1968, a
dynamite dancer delivered Lewis Orchestra The piano legend’s
####
with quality packaging. adventurous band of t
style was a big influence on with real vocal gusto, 1970’s early-’70s spotlighted.
David Katz Carlos Santana). Their Let’s Do It Again by Billy Sha- All My Yesterdays This excellent
/DL twofer reissue
Various z recorded at the
6 debut dates.
pairs Jarrett
albums
#### 1966, ex-Basie
recorded with
Kinked!: Ki r Thad Jones and his highly
el Lewis pieced regarded American Quartet
& Sessions – Dewey Redman on sax,
ig band of stellar
ACE. CD bassist Charlie Haden, drum-
cluding Hank
Ray Davies rari rd Davis, Bob mer Paul Motian – for
mondaines, gir r, Jimmy Impulse! in the early ’70s.
idols and ruffi , Joe Farrell, Jarrett, who alternates
wn, Bill Berry, between soprano saxophone,
ion and others percussion and his more
nown. Fans familiar piano, was certainly
ound the block more experimental at this
opening gig at juncture of his career, with the
Village live Fort Yawuh (comprising
a sensational four roving, extended cuts
collected covers at would see the
songs either not recorded at the Village Van-
various guises, guard in 1973) demonstrating
cially recorded ced at the club
Kinks or version his band’s fearless navigation
onday night for between post-bop, free jazz
for the most par
Derek Bishton, Brian Homer & John Reardon

50 years. This and proto-world music. From


appeared befor set, which comes
The Kinks’ own 1974, Treasure Island (also
an impressive
take. For simplic reissued separately on 180
ok, documents
ity, they’re divid at first evening gram vinyl) is a more sharply
ed into two typ lus a further focused studio session that’s
expression – m how, just a few stylistically more accessible
vated by youthf eeks later. with the ambling country-
energy – and o nes’s heart- blues-tinged The Rich (And
vation, ie, chara he-matter The Poor) boasting a rock
study and insig gements are a backbeat while the title cut
the former cam ht, allowing not throws Jarrett’s trademark
The Orchids’ space for soloists lyricism into sharp relief.
take on the Midlands roots orays by individual Charles Waring
selfie: Afrikan Star
in Handsworth, ’76.

108 MOJO
PLUS SPECIAL GUESTS

DECEMBER 2016
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AXS.COM
AEG LIVE PRESENTATION IN ASSOCIATION WITH UNITED TALENT AND DUROC MEDIA
John Cale Circles
#### ###
Music For Circles
A New Society MENTAL EXPERIENCE/GUERSSON. CD
DOMINO. CD/DL/LP Private press exhumation by
Cale’s 1982 solo LP as radically Frankfurt “anti-muzak” outfit,
reinterpreted by its author on 1983. Rough electronics and
last year’s M:Fans. The original electric guitars make for post-
set of stark yet melodically Kraut weirdness – discordant
compelling songs benefits Chant is repetitive to point of
from remastering. Why not nausea, but short – will appeal
package both together? CP to fans of TG and Cluster. IH

FILEUNDER

Out come les chic Jones filtered into jerky funk,


Edgar ‘Jones’
Jones
George Jones
####
The reanimated One for the soul:
Lizzy Mercier heavy on the Linn drum and #### The Tour De Force
works of Ze’s poet, Descloux, yelps early ’80s tropes, created by Soothing Music 1972-1980
and grooves in
composer and world global mash-ups.
Jamaican in-house engineer For Stray Cats RAVEN. CD/DL
Steve Stanley for Mambo Across these two CDs Billy
citizen. By Jim Irvin. Nassau (##). Lizzy’s role
VIPER/ MELLOWTONE. LP
Sherrill’s weeping steel charts
Stairs man’s 2005 debut still combine with the sweet
aised in Lyon, France, seemed as much curator as

R Lizzy Mercier Descloux,


was a 19 year old Paris
art student when she visited
featured voice. You won’t be
listening for the quality of her
yelps and interjections but for
frabjous Crescent City-on-the-
Mersey R&B, rock’n’roll, blues
and jazz. Best tune: Catnip, a
gleeful frugging rocker. IH
sadness of Jones’s lonesome
whine, five of his best ‘70s
releases soaring to heights of
euphoric despair. AM
New York in 1975 with her the grooves and atmospheres
beau, Michel Esteban, she gathered around her.
publisher of Paris fanzine By the next album, Lizzy
Rock News. The couple was seeing new beau, English
mingled in arty circles: Patti producer Adam Kidron (Scritti
Smith and Richard Hell Politti) and Esteban, now her
contributed to Lizzy’s book of manager, escorted them to
poetry, Desiderata. After apartheid South Africa to
founding Paris punk clothes record with the locals, some
and record store, Harry Cover, years before Paul Simon, for Jack Scott Stargard
the pair moved to New York
permanently in 1978. Lizzy
Zulu Rock (###), a trendy
blend of highlife and funk ### ###
performed in a duo, Rosa (not miles from Malcolm Debut+What In Changing
Yemen, declaiming poetry McLaren’s Duck Rock a year The World’s Come Of The Gard
over freeform guitar, for earlier). First single Mais Où Over You BBR. CD/DL
Esteban’s label Ze, started Sont Passées Les Gazelles HOO DOO. CD
Split from Norman Whitfield
with their friend Michael (Where Are All The Gazelles?) (he’d given them a 1978 US R&B
1958 and ’60 LPs from Detroit’s Number 1 (Which Way Is Up)),
Zilkha to document the No was a surprise smash back in rival to Elvis (but who wrote his
Wave scene’s meld of post- Rochelle Runnells shone as a
France, voted Best Song Of own songs). Rockabilly, country writer (Runnin’ From The Law).
punk, dance music and 1984 in one poll, and Lizzy heartbreak, pop ballads. And But in general: OK on funk cuts;
performance art. Lizzy’s first seemed set for an intriguing Jack’s last LP came last year! IH ballads and disco weak. GB
solo release, an EP of the career. But follow-up One For
label’s trademark “mutant The Soul (###), recorded in
disco” called Press Color, newly liberated Brazil in 1985,
depicted her as skinny, caused a rift in the team. Lizzy
cropped, androgynous, the fell out with both Kidron and
height of ’79 chic. Esteban when this pleasingly
Two years later, after Ze confused, global mash-up,
had been picked up by Island with Lizzy crooning on top,
Records, the couple went to failed to connect. It’s worth
Chris Blackwell’s Compass
Point studio in Nassau to
“MAIS OÙ hearing for the pretty Fog Tiny Tim Various
redefine her sound. “We SONT
Horn Blues and the Samba-
flavoured Off Off Pleasure, #### ####
wanted to make post-colonial PASSÉES LES both with late performances The Complete Singles Funny Face
music, a new sort of hybrid, GAZELLES by Chet Baker on trumpet. Collection (1966-1970) SOUNDTRACK FACTORY. CD
mulatto music,” says Esteban,
in Vivian Goldman’s notes to a
WAS A Her final album, 1988’s NOW SOUNDS. CD The complete George and Ira
Gershwin soundtrack to the
Suspense (##) was more The falsetto-singing, ukulele
new set of reissues, through SURPRISE focused but less interesting playing one’s time as a pop star. 1957 musical with Fred Astaire
Light In the Attic, of Lizzy’s SMASH and she gave up music, moving We get Tip-Toe Thru The Tulips,
plus goofy nostalgia, whackjob
and Audrey Hepburn has a
splendid bonus: eight small-
four full albums. At Compass BACK IN to Corsica in the ’90s to write patriotism and a dread-filled group Gershwin readings from
Point the sounds of Tom Tom and paint. She died of cancer
Club, Sly & Robbie and Grace
FRANCE.” in 2004, just 47 years old.
version of In The Pines. Freakier
than the freakiest freak. IH
1952 by Astaire with the Oscar
Peterson Sextet. AM

110 MOJO
Eyes Of Blue John Foxx The Go-Go’s Highasakite Ahmad Jamal
#### #### #### ### ####
Crossroads Of Time A Man, A Woman Beauty And The Beat Camp Echo With Ray Crawford
ESOTERIC. CD/DL And A City EDSEL. CD PROPELLER RECORDINGS. CD/DL/LP EL/CHERRY RED. CD/DL
Graham Bond wrote the sleeve- METAMATIC. CD/DL Deluxe repackaging of 2011’s Norwegians’ pulse-quickening Two CDs of spacious, dream-
note (Quincy Jones bigged up This 17-track comp has 30th anniversary reissue of second album abounds with like mid-’50s recordings made
follow-up In Fields Of Ardath, collaborations (Louis Gordon, Belinda Carlisle et al’s double instruments, big choruses and by Jamal with guitarist Ray
also out) for strong late-’60s Benge, Robin Guthrie, Gary platinum-selling debut, in full political discourse (Camp Echo Crawford. The Pittsburgh
Welsh band. Their sound kept Numan), two of his best-ever remastered pop vibrancy. Plus is a Guantanamo Bay holding pianist was still in his mid-
good company: Nice, Family, songs – Evergreen and Catwalk 1981 live disc and 11 additional pen). Singer Ingrid Helene twenties; his music, modern
King Crimson, US West Coast. – and ample evidence of a still – if not essential – demos and Håvik’s vocals corral this heady yet timeless, shimmers with a
Their originals are good too. GB vital talent. DB more live tracks. JB mix into a coherent force. PS forlorn brightness. AM

Esther Phillips The Mickey Finn Teddy Max Richter Sonny Rollins
#### #### Pendergrass #### ###
Original Album Series Garden Of My Mind ### Songs From Before Holding The Stage
RHINO. CD RPM. CD TP DEUTSCH GRAMMOPHON. CD/LP DOXY/OKEH. CD
Five LPs from her Atlantic years, Raucous, fun East End band, who BBR. CD/DL Richters’ 2006 album for strings, Ten live recordings (most in
1966’s The Country Side Of…, predated Small Faces, with their His fourth US Top 20 pop LP, piano, electronics and spoken Europe, most post-2000, but
with US R&B Number 1 Release Complete Recordings 1964-1967. 1980’s TP had Teddy-mania in word (Robert Wyatt reading ’79 and ’96 are best) subtitled
Me; And I Love Him (also ’66) Bursting with energy, they do overdrive, but a 1982 car crash author Haruki Murakami) is a Road Shows Vol. 4 find the jazz
and ’67’s live Burnin’ good too; beat, Brit R&B, bluebeat, early ensured it was his last earth- lauded benchmark of his sax colossus still expansive,
1976’s Confessin’ The Blues is a soul and rock’n’roll. Jimmy Page shaker. Ballads Is It Still Good To “post-classical” compositional free-quoting. Disco Monk
cash-in comp after her ’70s plays harmonica! Lured abroad, Ya, Love T.K.O, Feel The Fire (with haiku. On heavyweight vinyl posits Thelonious, wittily, bitily,
Kudu hits. Great jazz-soul. GB they missed the boat in UK. GB Stephanie Mills) the picks. GB for it’s 10th anniversary. JB messing with the dancefloor. GB

FILTERINDEX
9Bach 90 Kuti, Fela Ransome 102 And Bargeld, Blixa 95
Allen, Terry 102 Lamar, Kendrick 94 Tyson, Cale 93
Anohni 89 Lauper, Cyndi 94 VA Another
Ashcroft, Richard 88 Lloyd, Charles 94 Splash Of Colour 104
Ashford, Jack 108 Manic Street Preachers 100 VA Close To
Associates, The 105 McCartney, James 91 The Noise Floor 102
Assouf, Kel 96 Metallica 106 VA Czech Up Vol 1 103
Suggs John Surman Ayler, Albert 104 Michaelson, Dan 94 VA Kinked! 108
## #### Bad Company 105 Middleton, Malcolm 94 VA Midlands Roots 2 108
Bailey Rae, Corinne 88 Minor Victories 92 VA Rockin’ The Groove 104
The Lone Ranger Westering Home Barwick, Julianna 95 Morby, Kevin 91 VA Sugar’s Delight 102
CHERRY RED. CD FLEDGLING. CD/DL
Big L 105 Nadler, Marissa 91 VA Wake Up You! 103
Madness singer’s ’95 debut has Surman’s groundbreaking ’72 Big Thief 93 Orton, Beth 92 Vance, Foy 90
nonchalant reggae moods, Island set sounds more startling Blancmange 96 Pantha Du Prince 96 Wainwright, Rufus 94
Beatles and Paul Simon covers, than ever, the West Country sax Boothe, Ken 103 Plants & Animals 90 Walker Family Singers 94
jokes, songs about booze and man soloing over contour lines Brouk, Joanna 102 Porter, Gregory 93 White Lung 93
more serious material. This of tape, electronics, bass Car Seat Headrest 92 Pritchard, Mark 95 Woodward, Alun 88
version’s extras and remixes – clarinet, musique concrète, as Clapton, Eric 88 Professor Longhair 105 Yak 92
eight of Cecilia alone – are only shanties and reels become Clark 95 Reed, Blind Alfred 103
for the truly Nutty. IH manic dervish dances. AM COMING NEXT MONTH
Cohen, Thomas 91 Reid, Terry 104
Cosmos, Frankie 93 Rides, The 91 Bob Dylan, Garbage, ELO,
Dexys 90 Spector, Ronnie 96 Laura Mvula The Kill J k
Dr. Robert 93
Foxton, Bruce 90
Fulks, Robbie 91
Green, Adam 93
Hamilton, Chico 108
Herrmann, Bernard 108
Holy Fuck 92
Howling Hex 95
Various Various Hubbert, RM 96
#### ### Jansch, Bert
Jarre, Jean Michel
104
88
Move On Up Rock’n’Roll Jarrett, Keith 108
Volume Two Classic 45s Jayhawks, The 96
UNIVERSAL. CD DEMON. LP Jones, Thad & Mel Lewis 108
Second helping of Northern Sturdy box of 10 jukebox-ready Josef K 105
soul chosen by vlogger Levanna singles pairing up rocking King Gizzard
McLean (’tis she on the cover), classics from Chuck Berry, the And The Lizard Wizard 96
75 tracks of varying rarity and Everlys, Little Richard, Buddy Kiwanuka, Michael 86
soulfulness, but Sister Lee (Sam Holly, Fats Domino etc. Oddly, Kontrol, Kristin 95 Garbage: new
Ward) tops the dance class. GB they’re not facsimiles. IH collection
next month.
Mon 27 June
PJ HARVEY
EDEN PROJECT, CORNWALL

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WHAT WE’VE

King of New York


LEARNT
Unhappy hard- only to find G While DJing at the NY
core: (main pic) himself ass-deep club La Palace in the
Richard Melville ’90s, Moby spots O.J.
Hall, NY, 1990;
in the burgeoning Simpson grooving along.
Richard Melville Hall) got his stage name rave scene. Moby He “dances like a black
Witty memoir of an unlikely from an ancestral connection to Herman
(clockwise) in
1988; DJing writes vividly of comedian imitating
raver and an even less likely Melville, author of the most famous book in ’89; ’92 tour; the thrill he felt white people,” Moby
writes.
the debauched
pop star. By Jim Farber. ever written about a whale. Despite such years.
moving thou- G The star found himselff
impressive connections, Moby grew up sands by spinning dragged by a girlfriend
Moby eating garbage and dodging rats in the
iffier parts of Darien, Connecticut, where
a song. In his later
club crawls, he has
to hear an unknown
singer, performing

#### he was reared by an unemployed mother


with a taste for dangerous men. “MILES
many encounters
with stars, from
before 15 people at the
East Village club Sin-é:
it’s Jeff Buckley. To the
Porcelain: A Memoir Moby developed his straight edge DAVIS Miles Davis, who author, he “looked like
FABER & FABER. £20 refused to shake that guy from 90210.”
lifestyle to try to find groun
G In the late ’90s, Moby
world without rules – and t his hand, to

E
nquiring minds want to know: how finally got to meet his
fate of his father, who died Madonna, who idol, David Bowie.
did a God-fearing, teetotal vegan
alcoholism. Yet the unforgi similarly refrained, Unfortunately, Bowie
get crowned king of the hedonistic only wanted to talk
demands of his lifestyle win though she did
club scene? That’s just one of the things about his upcoming
confusing him and irritatin manage to mutter,
the vegan in question – Moby – struggles apartment renovations.
to answer in his relentlessly self-depre- others. He finds temporary “You’re very
cating and hugely entertaining memoir. escape in the influential Ne talented.”
Fittingly, the title comes from a song York club scene of the ’90s. While he never loses his crippling
inspired by Moby’s unerring ability to classic venues like Mars and self-consciousness, Moby eventually
screw up romance. While the song Limelight, Moby met idol D falls far from the straight edge.
Porcelain went Top 5 in the UK (Top 40 Red Alert and Frankie Knuc He becomes a raging alcoholic and a
US), its namesake book ends just before Along the way, he provides bumbling womaniser, without finding
the DJ/musician breaks through to reminder that the cherishe much joy in either. The book ends with a
improbable pop stardom in 2000 with his we associate with ’70s New mopey Moby convinced he’ll never find
multi-platinum album Play. lingered well into the AIDS love or sustain his career, shortly before
The book obsesses instead on its crack-ridden city of the ’90 he finds both. In the meantime, his
author’s commercial missteps, erotic The more rousing sectio uncertainty proves poignant and his
fumbles and bouts with poverty in the Porcelain take place in the U hilarious telling of his tale makes the
music scene of the ’90s. Moby (born Moby has his first hit, Go, in reader pine for a sequel.

114 MOJO
Don’t You Leave shadowy presence in The
Yardbirds, touring with The
laughing with him. Tiny Tim
initially wanted to only sing
strange and gripping
autobiography, the teenage
Me Here: My Life Jeff Beck Group, jamming with songs written before 1945, Laura Elisse Salenger is led
### Jimi and eternally youthful
alongside his old pal Jimmy
a more innocent age. His
eccentric humour and
through a cracked California
landscape of sunlit highs and
Wilko Johnson Page. Beautifully rendered, articulate, gentle demeanour twilight lows by her TV
LITTLE, BROWN. £20 BECK 01 has all the class and chimed with the hippy producer mother and violent
Immortal ex-Dr. Fee d panache of the man himself. generation and guest slots on psychiatrist father. Yet the
guitarist’s second Mark Paytress TV show Rowan And Martin’s mood is always one of
autobiography. Laugh-In helped propel him to foreboding, because the
stardom. This is no reader knows that, at the age
If there’s
something familiar Boy, Interrupted: hagiography and the authors
also reveal his meanness,
of 19, the reborn Brix(ton)
Salenger (named after The
about a large
chunk of Don’t
Memoir Of A obsessions and violent Clash’s Guns Of Brixton) will
You Leave Me Former Smith outbursts through scores of
interviews, including insights
enter a new world of
considerable wretchedness as
Here, it’s because
Wilko Johnson has
### from ‘Miss Vicki’, his wife, 20 guitarist for The Fall, married
Dale Hibbert years his junior, whom he to the band’s leader, Mark E
told most of this story once married on Johnny Carson’s poet/autobiographer, music, Smith. Years of Jungian
before in his 2012 memoir, POMONA. £9.99
Tonight Show in 1969. Eternal relationships with musicians, analysis have imbued Smith
Looking Back At Me, Highly readable me Troubadour is a fascinating and Mingus/movies. Gabbard Start’s writing with an itchy
co-written with Zoë Howe. The taking in monochr account of a true one-off for is an enthusiastic Mingusphile cosmic positivity, but she is,
reason for this re-telling is Manchester and be . whom, ultimately, it’s difficult and knows his subject inside ironically, at her vivid best on
wholly justified: just after the not to feel affection. out, but while he appears to the Dickensian amphetamine
Morrissey has
publication of Looking Back… Mike Barnes have done time in the primary psychosis of Fallworld, and her
proven the odd
Johnson was diagnosed with research trenches, much here surreal life as the trophy wife
poetic line does
terminal cancer. Instead, a is rerun from other sources of Nigel Kennedy. As such,
not an author
life-saving operation rid him of
his tumour in 2015. That said,
make. Self-
awareness is not
Better Git It In and Mingus fans will know
most of the information.
readers might feel somewhat
deflated when the horror
Don’t You Leave Me Here is a
very slim volume (under 150
something that Your Soul: An Where the author adds to the drains away, and her fashion-
pages). But after a familiar first
Dale Hibbert lacks, though his Interpretive canon of Mingus literature is in
his examination of the great
forward marriage to Philip
Start leaves her happy, content
half, Johnson learns of his
insight has been hard won. As
a young studio engineer Biography Of man’s writings, aided by and fulfilled.
illness. The subsequent lows
and highs make for a
playing in Freudian Slip and Charles Mingus Gabbard’s access to the Andrew Male

###
The Adorables, his brief tenure unedited manuscript of the
compelling read, and range with The Smiths was a musician’s autobiography
from recalling transcendent serendipitous accident in an Krin Gabbard Beneath The Underdog.
gigs in Japan to outlining his early life overshadowed by the UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PRESS. Michael Simmons
brutal medical procedures. death of his mother when he £19.96
It’s here that the story comes was eight days old and A meditation on the mighty
alive and conveys all the awe
and palpable disbelief of an
undiagnosed Asperger’s that
prompted breakdowns and
Mingus. The Rise The Fall
author who fully expected to suicide attempts. His lonely
Jazz giant Charles Mingus is And The Rise
###
be dead by now. not only one of the finest
latchkey 1960s childhood in
Mark Blake bassists in music’s history; he’s
the Manchester back-to-backs
is the very essence of kitchen
among its top five composers. Brix Smith Start
He was also the jazz Jekyll and FABER & FABER. £14.99
sink grit. We learn The Smiths
Hyde: a man whose
intended to be a gay band One-time Fall guitarist and
temperament swung as hard
“but absolutely nothing like as his work. In this new London boutique mogul
Tom Robinson Band” with biography, Gabbard’s battles the forces of the
each member named after construct is to divide Mingus’s universe.
serial killers, and that their career into five categories: life, During the first third of this
leader was neither playful
nor charming. Hibbert’s later
life as a gardener, IT expert,
millionaire club owner, and Hot rod and hot
father of eight is chaotic and licks: Jeff Beck
colourful, yet arguably revs up.
more readable than
Morrissey’s output.
Ben Myers
BECK 01
#### Eternal
Jeff Beck
GENESIS PUBLICATIONS. £345 Troubadour: The
Luxurious, signed’n’limited Improbable Life
picture-led memoir of guitar Of Tiny Tim
legend and hot rod fan.
One night, late in 1966, Jeff
####
Beck passed Pete Townshend Justin Martell with
on the stairs at Blaise’s. He’d Alanna Wray
just caught the first set by McDonald
new-guitarist-in-town Jimi JAWBONE. £14.95
Hendrix. Townshend asked his
verdict. “Rubbish!” Beck Assiduously researc
quipped. “It was you without chronicle of that mo
the arm swinging!” Jeff Beck unlikely of stars.
wears his extraordinary life “People either
lightly. He discovered cars and got Tiny and what
guitars while in short trousers, he really was, or
and they’re strongly linked, he otherwise it
insists, both “boisterous and would be a geek
loud – an outward expression show,” said Hugh
of the inner spirit”. Evidently, Romney aka
Beck’s spirit is generous and Wavy Gravy about Herbert
likeable. Shots of the guitarists’ Khaury aka Tiny Tim’s early
guitarist in welder’s gloves, performances. The hulking
Robert M Knight

working on a replica 32 Ford six-footer sang falsetto while


gasser, or paying tribute to playing the ukulele. But
Gene Vincent in his blue cap, although he was a potential
sit comfortably alongside figure of fun, if you were
iconic snaps of him as a laughing you were definitely
Thor blimey
Soundgarden singer’s successful solo raid. By Keith Cameron.

Chris Cornell Ice and fire:


Chris Cornell
back: “Come on, call me a ‘cocksucker’ in
Icelandic!” He delivers his own verdict on You
Harpa, Reykjavik
seals his reputa-
tion as grunge’s Know My Name: “Ah, I fucked that right up.”

S
Man In Black His solo treatment of Soundgarden’s Rusty Cage
urrounded by massive cliffs plunging into in Reykjavik.
is a direct tip of the Stetson to Johnny Cash,
the sea and rain clouds joined in a whose Tennessee shuffle-style version is now
permanent dance with the wind and sun, arguably better known than the original.
there’s good reason why Chris Cornell looks so “I’m stealing it back!” Cornell chuckles.
at home in Reykjavik. “I opened my hotel So much for his forbidding reputation as
window this morning,” he tells his audience in grunge’s own Man In Black (it remains his
the Icelandic capital, “I looked out over the bay preferred colour scheme). In Trumped-up days,
and thought: ‘This is exactly like Seattle.’” updating Bob Dylan’s most famous protest song
Thanks to their faultline isolation, both to The Times They Are A Changin’ Back has
Reykjavik and the singer’s Seattle home have a potent currency; likewise John Lennon’s
frontier spirit that breeds self-sufficiency but Imagine the day after the Brussels terror
also hedonism and depression. Such conflicted attacks. But for a singer burdened by
impulses have long defined Cornell’s work, comparisons to Robert Plant, covering Led
most famously as the voice of Soundgarden, via Zeppelin isn’t an obvious move. That said,
Audioslave and subsequent solo excursions – a Thank You never was archetypal Viking-friendly
30-year journey charted in this two-hour golden god fodder, and with his deep Arabica
acoustic show by way of canny song selection, tones Cornell prevails. Meanwhile, on Temple
and moments of levity that debunk Cornell’s not Of The Dog’s Wooden Jesus, he dares to evoke
entirely unwarranted reputation for pomposity. Jeff Buckley and emerges with honour intact.
Reykjavik is the start of a lengthy European The whole exercise proves that, even at 51, the
solo tour in support of 2015’s Higher Truth, singer remains a serious student of his craft.
whose opening song, Nearly Forgot My Broken “The weird thing about Jeff Buckley was, in
Heart, is a definitive expression of the man’s order to like him, you had to get over his voice,”
ability to alchemise glory and gloom. Cornell Cornell says to MOJO afterwards. “If you listen
dispenses it early here, assisted by occasional to it, as a singer it’ll loosen up your voice.
auxiliary Bryan Gibson on mandolin, and It’s like doing warm-ups. If I listen to a very
what’s impressive is how nuanced the singer has shrieky, rigid voice before I went on stage, like
become. Possessing the range and power to Brian Johnson, it’ll tighten my voice up. But if I
reduce the most stentorian of rock bands to listen to Jeff, it’ll be free and open. There was
mere background music, in this bare context “LED ZEP’S something punk rock about his fearless nature.”
his hallmark caustic melancholy assumes more THANK YOU Speaking of Brian Johnson, MOJO notes
sensual qualities. Thus, the brooding Cornell has been suggested as a potential
NEVER WAS replacement for the stricken AC/DC singer.
Soundgarden bombast of Blow Up The Outside
World is refashioned as a confederacy of John ARCHETYPAL He smiles. “I don’t know! I’ve been asked to
Martyn’s ghosts, complete with Echoplex-style VIKING- do that a bunch of different times, with huge
delay. Likewise, denuding the portentous FRIENDLY bands, and I always feel like this may or may
anthemics of Hunger Strike, by the one-off GOLDEN GOD not be a good idea but you’ll have to find out in
Pearl Jam/Soundgarden amalgam Temple Of FODDER.” front of 50,000 people! Oh shit!”
The Dog, reveals the song’s essence. So, besides his long-term commitment to
The faithful would tolerate a set entirely Soundgarden, now recording their second LP
based on such dark-eyed material from grunge’s since reuniting in 2010, Cornell is taking the
halcyon era. But Cornell roams wider. The Higher Truth acoustic experience across Europe.
simplicity of the format permits – or even “I don’t rehearse for these shows,” he says. “It
demands – radical reinterpretation, whereby occurred to me, I can go and play an arena with
the onus is on him to reveal the song lurking Soundgarden and be proud of myself, but I
within the orchestral overload of his couldn’t walk into a room and entertain people.
James Bond theme You Know My
Name. He’d also consider this exercise
a success if it instigated a reappraisal
of his solo debut Euphoria Mourning,
which was, he says, recently reissued
on vinyl. As proof, he performs
When I’m Down by accompanying
a specially mixed acetate of the
song’s piano track on a turntable.
The song’s emotional weight is
Hörður Sveinsson (3)

undercut when Cornell cues the


record at the wrong speed.
He’s better at mood elevation
than might be expected. As
people shout requests, he shoots

116 MOJO
SETLIST
Before We Disappear /
Can’t Change Me / As
Hope & Promise Fade /
The Times They Are
A-Changin’ Back / Nearly
Forgot My Broken Heart /
Fell On Black Days / Thank
You / Doesn’t Remind Me/
Call Me A Dog / Blow Up
The Outside World / You
Know My Name / Nothing
Compares 2 U / Rusty
Cage / Seasons / When
I’m Down / Hunger Strike
/ Black Hole Sun / Worried
Moon / Wooden Jesus /
Imagine / Like A Stone/
Josephine / Higher Truth
SETLIST
Everyman Needs A
Companion / Hollywood
Forever Cemetery Sings /
When You’re Smiling And
Astride Me/Only Son Of
The Ladiesman / Tee
Pees 1-12 / Nothing Good
Ever Happens At The

Sincerely yours
Goddamn Thirsty Crow /
to the tour. The Funtimes In Babylon /
setlist is fixed, Nancy From Now On /
Chateau Lobby #4 (In C
and the live For Two Virgins) / I’m
renditions by his Writing A Novel / Now
six-piece band I’m Learning To Love The
Pappa knows faithfully War / Bored In The USA /
Singer, songwriter, elusive creation. The boundary between Holy Shit / True Affection
snide and sincere in his lyrics isn’t just best: Father replicate the / This Is Sally Hatchet / I
showman brings it all back fluid; it’s imperceptible. Whenever a
John Misty in
Seattle, writing
recordings. That Love You, Honeybear / I
presentation Went To The Store One
home. By Chris Nelson. song’s snark seems nearly over the top, his own myth. – along with a Day / Kiss It Better / The
the forthrightness of its execution makes Ideal Husband
Father John Misty you question whether it really could be scarcity of stage
as cynical as it appears. banter – means,
by and large, that the songs are left to
Paramount Theatre, Tonight, FJM dispenses with identity
speak for themselves.
straight away on the lush Everyman
Seattle Needs A Companion: “Joseph Campbell During When You’re Smiling And
Astride Me, FJM drops to his knees,
eattle seems as much a hometown and The Rolling Stones couldn’t give

S as any city for Father John Misty.


Though he lit out years ago for Los
Angeles and then New Orleans, it was
me a myth, so I had to write my own,”
he asserts. He sounds just a bit trium-
phant as he sings to the town he left
behind, “I never liked the name Joshua,
clenches his eyes shut and gushes the
title lyric. The capacity crowd soaks it in,
silently. No shouts, no whistles, none of
the hoots that typically accompany lines
here that we got to know him as Fleet penned for laughs.
Foxes drummer Josh Tillman, and here I got tired of J.”
On a slow-burning Nothing Good
that he recorded six solo albums as J. FJM is big on gestures: cradling his
guitar like a dance partner, crossing his
“TILLMAN Ever Happens At The Goddamn Thirsty
Tillman. But if he carries any feelings for
the Emerald City, no one’s expecting a arms, swivelling his hips (what was that WAGS HIS Crow, Tillman wags his finger at…
sentimental display this evening. Or so line about the Stones?). Some feel so FINGER AT… whom? The woman in the song? Us?
Himself for singing pompously about the
we think. Probably. natural as to suggest his persona isn’t WHO? THE Georgia Crawl? (There’s more than a hint
Father John Misty – composer of the strictly a sham. Who could keep that up
Laurel Canyon updates Fear Fun (2012) night after night?
WOMAN IN of audacity in the line, given that on
There is, another Honeybear track, he belittles a
and I Love You, Honeybear (2015) – is an
woman for invoking Sarah Vaughan.) As
the song builds to a climactic finish,
FJM is hollering and falling all over
the stage. The crowd goes nuts.
Whether he’s pulled some-
thing off for us or pulled one over
on us is really of no concern to
this room. It’s compelling either
way. Then, when he seems
unstoppable, FJM serves up a cover
of Rihanna’s Kiss It Better that’s so
even-keeled it misses every mark
but ordinary. Oh well.
One last song and the
band leaves, the lights are
up and the house music
plays. But there’s Father
John Misty – still on
stage. Shaking hands.
Smiling. Talking to
people in the first rows.
Tino Tran (3)

For a full two minutes.


It feels pretty sincere.

118 MOJO
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SEASICK STEVE
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EXPLOSIONS Sat 08 October 2016


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IN THE SKY Sun 09 October 2016


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UK TOUR JUNE 2016


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Tue 14 June EDINBURGH Usher Hall*
Wed 15 June LIVERPOOL Philharmonic*
Fri 17 June MANCHESTER Bridgewater Hall**
Sat 18 June GATESHEAD Sage Gateshead**
Mon 20/Tue 21 June LONDON Palladium**
Wed June 22 BRIGHTON Dome**
Thu 23 June CAMBRIDGE Corn Exchange**
Please call Joel Stephan on * Plus Lera Lynn ** Plus Olivia Chaney

0207 295 5474 Booking serious.org.uk/benfolds


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Academy Events present

HOME GROWN & ACADEMY EVENTS PRESENT

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28 MAY
+ DJ
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DEAN KENTISH TOWN
RUDLAND LONDON

ACADEMY EVENTS & FRIENDS by arrangement with ITB present

PLUS SPECIAL GUESTS


JULY 2016
17 BRISTOL The Lantern
18 NEWCASTLE O2 Academy2
19 GLASGOW O2 ABC
21 LONDON Electric Ballroom
22 BIRMINGHAM O2 Institute2
ticketweb.co.uk · seetickets.com

NEW ALBUM ‘LOVE AND THE DEATH OF DAMNATION’


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Christopher Cross
Plus special guest JOHN PARR
Friday 22nd July
O2 Shepherds Bush Empire
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Ticketweb.co.uk · 0844 477 2000
An Academy Events Presentation

3 0 T H A N N I V E R S A R Y T O U R

1986 2016

TICKETWEB.CO.UK

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SAT 01 OCT DUBLIN The Academy THU 06 OCT NOTTINGHAM Rock City
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MON 03 OCT GLASGOW O2 ABC SAT 08 OCT LONDON O2 Shepherds Bush Empire
WED 05 OCT MANCHESTER O2 Ritz SAT 05 NOV WHITBY Goth Weekend
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and DF CONCERTS by arrangement with THE MAGNIFICENT AGENCY presents by arrangement with THE MAGNIFICENT AGENCY presents

‘EXILE TO BLUES’
20 YEAR CELEBRATION OF

MAY
11 SOUTHAMPTON THE BROOK 21 MANCHESTER ACADEMY 2 PLUS SPECIAL GUEST WILLOW ROBINSON
12 CARDIFF TRAMSHED 22 NEWCASTLE O2 ACADEMY
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16 NORWICH WATERFRONT
17 NOTTINGHAM ROCK CITY 27 BELFAST LIMELIGHT I
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20 HOLMFIRTH PICTUREDROME 30 LEAMINGTON SPA ASSEMBLY ROOMS
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NEW ALBUM SACRED BLOOD “DIVINE” LIES OUT NOW
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A
Tribute
presents to
LEMMY

H AS
C & DAVE national tour 2016

presents
Fri 6 & Sat 7 May Fri 23 September
30th Anniversary Tour 2016 GLASGOW BRISTOL
PLUS O2 ABC2 O2 Academy
SPECIAL
GUESTS THE ......
Fri 13 May
SHEFFIELD
......
Fri 7 October
LEICESTER

ON TOUR 2016 SMYTHS O2 Academy2


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Fri 20 May
O2 Academy
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Fri 14 October
The Queen Is Dead BIRMINGHAM BOURNEMOUTH
O2 Academy2 Old Fire Station
FRI 30 SEPT NEWCASTLE O2 ACADEMY ...... ......
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SAT 15 OCT MANCHESTER O2 RITZ Fri 27 May Sat 15 October
SUN 16 OCT BRISTOL O2 ACADEMY NEWCASTLE OXFORD
SAT 22 OCT GLASGOW O2 ABC O2 Academy2 O2 Academy2
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THE ULTIMATE NIRVANA TRIBUTE

BILLY OCEAN
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CELEBRATING THE
25TH
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SAT 23 APR LONDON The Garage
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30 BLACKBURN KING GEORGES HALL
MAY 2016
03 CHATHAM CENTRAL THEATRE*
04 BOURNEMOUTH O2 ACADEMY*
The d 11 CARDIFF THE TRAMSHED*
13 WOLVERHAMPTON THE GRAND*
15 CANTERBURY THE MARLOWE*
18 STOKE-ON-TRENT VICTORIA HALL*
19 NEWCASTLE CITY HALL* 30THARY
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TOUR
21 SHEFFIELD O2 ACADEMY*
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To celebrate the 20th Anniversary of those SEPTEMBER 2016


historic Oasis gigs at Maine Road and Knebworth, FRI 02 OXFORD
O2 ACADEMY
DEFINITELY MIGHTBE will be performing a set list SAT 03 LONDON
made up from both iconic shows followed by FEMALE OF THE SPECIES · NEIGHBOURHOOD · AVENGING ANGELS O2 ACADEMY
a greatest hits set on the same night ISLINGTON

FRI 09 SEPT NEWCASTLE O2 Academy


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FRI 16 SEPT LEEDS O2 Academy 22 INVERNESS IRONWORKS O2 ACADEMY
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FRI 18 NOV BOURNEMOUTH Old Fire Station MAY
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27 CARDIFF CLWB SAT 01 LIVERPOOL
21 BIRMINGHAM IFOR BACH ARTS CLUB
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ticketweb.co.uk · 0844 477 2000 An presentation
good use,“ he recalled. “So I formed the
Fragile Carriage Company and used to loan
the cars out to film companies. There was a
1933 Phantom II, a black and yellow 1936
Phantom III, a 1952 MG sports car, a 1957
Chevy and various others.” All went well
until one day when he decided to employ
his fleet of beloved bangers to transport
friends to a Festival Hall concert. “The cars
all had mini-TV sets fitted,” Rick remem-
bers. “But by the time the concert was over
all the TVs had been nicked.”

DID WE MISS MAX?


ELTSCHMERZ
On the topic of singing boxers (Ask Fred,
MOJO 269), I’d like to remind everyone
that the German heavyweight boxer Max
Schmeling (who was married to German
film star Anny Ondra) successfully
recorded a song called Das Herz Eines
Boxers (The Heart Of A Boxer) as
confirmed by You Tube at
https://youtu.be/SN9gsWtUguw
Charles C Urban, via e-mail
Fred says: Schmeling hailed from Klein
Do you fear that Earth is the MORE TRUE LOVE WAYS Get kissed ahoy:
Luckow, a village near Stettin in what was
then Germany (now known as Szczecin,
only alien planet? Time to If you have finished your cider, may I offer
these facts regarding the longest period
(clockwise from Poland) and The Analogs, a band from this
main) George city, recorded a song titled Max Schmeling
tune into Dellar’s boxing, of marriage for a musician (MOJO 269)? Michael and on their album Hlaskover Rock.
car and team-up news! Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil have been Elton John
married since August 1961, while Brenda (right) have a
smooch; Rick
WANNA MONOCHROME
I came across an old magazine from 1993
that mentioned that George Michael was
Lee has been wed to Ronnie Shacklett
since 1963. It’s a marriage I remember Wakeman and BET?
about to release a charity EP for the because the news broke when I was on a part of his car Recent Ask Fred talk of comedy records
collection; The reminded me of the story that in the ’80s
Phoenix Foundation (set up in memory of school holiday in Paris, something I was Monochrome
Freddie Mercury) under the name of able to tell Brenda and Ronnie when I met Kenneth Williams was to record with The
Set’s Bid (left) Monochrome Set, a claim I read again
Trojan Souls. Apparently it formed them a few years ago at Nashville’s with Kenneth
part of a project that involved Country Music Hall Of Fame. Williams; happily
recently. Was it true? Ken’s On Pleasure
several other major artists. Charlie Brown, via e-mail wedded Cynthia Bent is a great comedy album, by the way!
I can’t recall any such Weil and Barry Gordon Smith, via e-mail
Fred says: There was a fair
release – so what Mann; Max Fred Says: We asked Mike Alway, AKA the
amount of correspondence
happened? Schmeling’s mastermind of él records, who confirmed
regarding marital loyalty. pugilistic
Lyle Murphy, via e-mail Bob Walker (Glasgow) that a plan was indeed hatched when he
waxing. and the group were involved with the
Fred says: George e-mailed to say Tom Jones
Michael was rumoured has been married to Linda Blanco y Negro label. “I did indeed formally
to have been given a since 1957, while Richard approach Kenneth Williams to cover
million pounds by Murdoch (also of Glasgow) [Monochrome Set singer] Bid’s great song,
Warner Brothers to set mentioned that country The Ruling Class,” recalls Mike. “Ken and his
up the Trojan Souls legend agent didn’t actually say no but they did
project, where he would Johnnie W utious man’ were the
duet with talents including until Johnnie ned to court them
Stevie Wonder, Elton John, Bryan short of their 74th w ft Blanco y Negro and
Ferry, Aretha Franklin, Janet Jackson and But now it’s time to c one.” How did he
Seal. Warners were angling to sign George wedded bliss as I res ration? “I think I’d have
at the time, though his manager Rob o him and let the genius
Kahane informed the LA Times: “People are WAS RICK S Alway. “The vision was
absolutely jumping to the wrong ABOUT HIS ould see him on Top Of
rtar board and a whip. I
conclusion if they think the Trojan Souls
album is something that will induce him
TRANSPOR mber 1.”
into signing.” Reportedly Michael I recall that Rick Wa
a fleet of vintage ca
completed several tracks but, due to
models did he own? CONTACTFRED
Getty Images, Alpha, Rex, Mirrorpix

complex reasons (he was still signed to


Sony) nothing was officially released, Martin Kell
Write to: Ask Fred, MOJO, Endeavour
though a bootleg exists which contains Fred says: Way back House, 189 Shaftesbury Avenue,
backing tracks intended for Stevie Wonder, ’70s, Wakeman form London WC2H 8JG.
Janet Jackson, Seal and Wendy Melvoin. vintage car company
Elton can be heard providing a fine parking several choi OR e-mail Fred Dellar direct at
emotive vocal on a song called This Kind Of jalopies in the street fred.dellar@bauermedia.co.uk
Love, while George lends his voice to early
takes of two tracks, You Slipped Away From
where he lived. “My
accountant told me
° www.mojo4music.com
for daily Ask Fred discussion
Me and Ain’t No Stoppin’ Us Now. ought to put them to

126 MOJO
PRISONERS ANSWERS
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MOJO 127
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THISMONTH

SIMON TONG AND


most revolting thing. I don’t think it
had actually been decided definitely,
“this is finished”, but there was a sense

THE VERVE
My first gig was a packed Sheffield of, “I can’t really see this going on.” I
Leadmill. I was the second guitar/ think they realised that they couldn’t
keyboard player, absolutely shitting do The Verve without Nick. It was sad.
myself. The last gig of any kind I’d done A few years ago I met a couple of
It began with adrenalin in Skem alert: The
Verve, post-gig, was years before playing to about 10 Irish people who’d been at the festival,
Sheffield, and ended with shortly before people in Wigan. The Verve were about and they said, “It was amazing, but you
Robbie Williams in a castle Nick McCabe‘s
to go massive, Bitter Sweet Symphony do realise that most of the people
departure (from were there to see Robbie Williams?”
in County Meath. left) Simon had been getting played all over the
Tong, Pete radio and was going to be the climax of That slightly ruined my memory of it,
Salisbury, and brought home the fact that you
HELLO AUTUMN 1995 McCabe, Simon
the set. In the days before laptops and
stress-free syncing, I had the nerve- can spend years making what you see
Jones and as the most beautiful, serious, moving
Aged 11, I moved from Bolton to a Richard racking job of manually triggering the
strange new town called Skelmers- Ashcroft; (bot- ‘litigious’ Andrew Loog Oldham/Bitter pop music, miraculously manage to
dale. On my first morning at school I tom right), the
Sweet Symphony sample. I just had a get it on prime time radio, and still the
band without public turn round and say, “Great! But
sat in an English class. Someone McCabe; (below) sampler with the loop on, and I just
behind started throwing rubbers at Tong today. remember looking down at my finger we really just wanted Robbie Williams.”
me and whispering “Is your name shaking uncontrollably above the Of course, the band got back
Simon, ha ha, are you Simon Le Bon?” keyboard, thinking, “Jesus, please just together years later, but for whatever
Over a decade later I was doing my get it vaguely in time.” reasons, they didn’t want me back. I’d
very first gig with The Verve, and the say I was disappointed, ’cos I’d have
same rubber thrower, Richard loved to have been playing a lot of
Ashcroft, was The Verve’s frontman. GOODBYE AUGUST 29 1998 those songs again. Luckily I’d been
Me, Richard and Simon [Jones, bass] Richard’s relationship with Nick had doing a lot of other work. If I hadn’t,
and Pete [Salisbury, drums] had all I might’ve been more pissed off.
broken down again, and Nick had left
kind of learnt music together, pissing the band [during a European tour in The Magnetic North’s Prospect Of
around as teenagers in different June 1998]. But we’d committed to Skelmersdale is out now on Full Time
bands. They started the Verve with some festival dates and a US tour. We Hobby. The band play at the Golden Dome
Nick [McCabe, guitar] after sixth form, got BJ Cole in on lap steel, and there of Enlightenment in Skelmersdale in May.
but we always kept in touch. “THERE were some really good shows, but me
They’d kind of split up, as they had WERE and BJ couldn’t fill that huge sonic gap
done many times, after A Northern Soul 100,000 – Nick’s so much the sound of The Verve.
in 1995. I was at college in Leeds, and Slane Castle in Ireland was the last
Richard came over for a couple of nights
PEOPLE
show of the Urban Hymns tour. We
and banged out these songs – Sonnet, SINGING were headlining with people like the
The Drugs Don’t Work – on an acoustic EVERY Manics and Robbie Williams. It was a
guitar. You could tell they were great WORD.” great show – there were 100,000
songs, just from that. Originally he was people stretching off into the distance
Chris Floyd, Camera Press

going to do a solo album, so I was singing every word, and Mo Mowlam


brought in and we worked with Pete dancing at the side of the stage.
and Simon. I think they missed Nick’s Afterwards, we ended up back at the
ear and his musicality, and his hotel. I think John Squire was there.
sonic-ness, and when he came back in We were all doing these horrible
they decided to carry on as The Verve. champagne and tequila slammers, the

130 MOJO
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