Scan To Listen

CARGO COLLECTIVE

ROYAL TRUX ELLA RAPHAEL GODSPEED YOU! EMMA ANDERSON

UNTITLED (REMASTERED) MAD SOMETIMES BLACK EMPEROR SPIRALÉE: PEARLIES REARRANGED
FIRE RECORDS LP FIRE RECORDS LP / CD “NO TITLE AS OF 13 FEBRUARY 2024 SONIC CATHEDRAL LP / CD
Re-cementing Royal Trux as the progenitors of the lo-fi A rich tapestry of love, longing and fleeting romance. 28,340 DEAD” Rearrangements of all ten tracks from the Lush
genre. A breakthrough eight-song opus from 1992. Like The Shirelles fronted by folk icon Karen Dalton on co-founder’s solo debut by Julia Holter, LoneLady, The
CONSTELLATION 2X180GLP / CD
“Royal Trux were nothing if not fearless.” Pitchfork. Also the set of Blue Velvet. “A timeless, Tropicalia-tinged Orielles, Daniel Hunt (Ladytron), deary, MEMORIALS,
The post-rock titans return with a searing new double
available “Hand Of Glory” on LP. day-dream” Gorilla Vs Bear Maps, Lorelle Meets The Obsolete, Concretism & Masal.
album of instrumental protest music.

WARMDUSCHER CHAT PILE SILVERBACKS LONE JUSTICE

TOO COLD TO HOLD COOL WORLD EASY BEING A WINNER VIVA LONE JUSTICE
STRAP ORIGINALS LP / CD FLENSER LP / CD CENTRAL TONES LP / CD AFAR LP / CD
TCTH sees the band stretch out, open up and produce Chat Pile’s highly anticipated sophomore album “Cool 3rd album from Irish indie-rockers. Artful, melodic and Their first release in almost four decades from the
their most dazzlingly album to date. Featuring guest World” delves into global disasters with a unique blend razor sharp as usual, this will be a treat for fans of a inventors of alt-country. Featuring Maria McKee and the
appearances by Irvine Welsh, Janet Planet, Lianne La of noise rock, goth, and alt/indie, exploring modern more slack vein of ‘90s US rock. original line up. “I have loved Lone Justice since they
Havas, Jeshi & CouCou Chloe. violence through apocalyptic soundscapes. started out” Dolly Parton.

ANDREW GABBARD KELLY FINNIGAN EBO TAYLOR, ADRIAN YOUNGE, JENNIFER CASTLE
RAMBLE & RAVE ON! A LOVER WAS BORN ALI SHAHEED MUHAMMAD CAMELOT
KARMA CHIEF LP / CD COLEMINE RECORDS LP / CD EBO TAYLOR JID022 PARADISE OF BACHELORS LP / CD
You’ll find Andrew Gabbard (touring & studio musician Quintessential soul music from Monophonics front man JAZZ IS DEAD LP / CD Jennifer Castle’s Camelot distills everyday experience
of The Black Keys) in his creative prime on this Kelly Finnigan. ‘A Lover Was Born’ roots itself in the best The Ghanian highlife and afrobeat pioneer Ebo Taylor into art and art into faith, subliming terrestrial concerns
power-rock-pop astral road trip aptly titled ‘Ramble traditions of midwest soul and is a testament to love, returns with a brand new album recorded with, and into sublime celestial prayers to Mother Nature, and to
& Rave On!’ hope, and longing. released on, Adrian Younge’s incredible label, Jazz is Dead. perfecting imperfection in one’s own nature.

NAKED ROOMMATE HOMER KEELEY DAVID LANCE CALLAHAN

PASS THE LOOFAH ENSATINA BEAUTIFUL MYSTERIOUS DOWN TO THE MARSHES
TROUBLE IN MIND LP / CD BIG CROWN RECORDS LP / CD TINY GLOBAL PRODUCTIONS LP / CD TINY GLOBAL PRODUCTIONS LP / CD
Naked Roommate’s second album retains the wild Debut solo album from world renown drummer Homer Acclaimed dream-rockers KEELEY’s brilliant From The Wolfhounds to Moonshake, Callahan has been
energy of their debut, but leans into the rhythmic throbs Steinweiss featuring guest appearances by by KIRBY, second album. This set further illustrates a knack for at the forefront of avant-alternative for nearly forty
of 80s NYC, but with a decidedly West Coast irreverence Hether, MINOVA, and more. condensing decades of influences into a heady brew years. “Down To The Marshes” is a work of musical and
& a knack for absurdist exposition. of contemporary songcraft. Features the BBC hit, lyrical magnificence.
“Trans-Europe 18”.
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 CON T EN T S
LONDON ✦ MEMPHIS ✦ CR AWLEY

DECEMBER 2024 ISSUE 373

FEATURES
32 KENNEY JONES
A wise head in Small Faces, Faces
and The Who, the polo-playing
percussionist looks back. Cue
high jinks, sad losses and pissing
on a future king’s shoes.

38 THE SAINTS It crawled

from the South(ern hemisphere),
a splenetic premonition of punk.
Their classic line-up was short-fused
but the records and legacy cast
long shadows.

44 SUPERTRAMP How a
yin-and-yang songwriting team from
each end of England morphed prog
with pop and pulled off the Crime Of
The Century. Fifty years on, the guilty
step forward.

50 EZRA
COLLECTIVE Taking
UK jazz to the next level, the
Mercury Prize-winning, Wembley
Arena-filling quintet who integrate
Afrobeat and dub and get
chin-strokers shaking a leg.

54 TOM PETTY A reissue

of Long After Dark and an unearthed
doc by Cameron Crowe throw light
on Petty’s struggles with fame.
Heartbreakers and indie-rock
acolytes weigh in.

62 THE CULT The post-punks

turned goth popinjays turned
“I used to write fringe-jacketed monsters of rock
relive the transformations that
about stuff brought a Stateside breakthrough,
but at what cost?
that I thought
I understood. COVER STORY
Now I know I 70 DAVID BOWIE It’s 1974
and the Dame is moving at speed,
understand it.” chewing through glam rock and
George Orwell, Gouster suits and
ROBERT SMITH, P12 Philly soul. The major players – Earl,
Tom Sheehan

Ava, Carlos, Angie and more – revisit

a year of creativity, conflict and
mounds of cocaine.

MOJO 3
Marginal gains:
Michael Kiwanuka
makes Small Changes,
Filter Albums, p86.

REGULARS
9 ALL BACK TO MY PLACE
Arooj Aftab, Peter Capaldi and P.P. Arnold share
songs for every occasion.
114 REAL GONE Herbie Flowers, Sergio
Mendes, Tito Jackson, JD Souther, Roli
Mosimann and others, farewell.
120 ASK MOJO Who came on stage on
a motorbike/horse/flying saucer/other?
122 HELLO GOODBYE It was the
band he always wanted to be in. Then he was.
And then he wasn’t. Jakko Jakzsyk reflects on
his time in – and the end of – King Crimson.

WHAT GOES ON!

12 THE CURE A 16-year wait for a new LP
is over: Songs Of A Lost World is coming next
month. But what is it, why did it take so long, and
is it a full-stop to the story that began in Crawley
almost 50 years ago, or a new beginning?
20 MANIC STREET
PREACHERS The Manics have
another LP in preparation. But what’s driving
them this time, and what do Dalis Car have to
do with it? James Dean Bradfield reveals all.
22 JOE TALBOT Idles’ frontman talks
Banksy, the upsides of AI and making the
audience feel things. Just don’t try and make
him name the people he wants to piss off.
23 PYE RECORDS The bedrock label of
old record buying was put out of its misery in
No ordinary Joe:
Idles’ frontman
1980. Now, one man has brought it back,
is in confessional groovy logo and all. Read on for the full story.
mode, p22. 24 REDD KROSS The powerpop-punk
lifers reflect on 45 years of rock. “We weren’t
concerned about getting taken seriously,”
they note.

MOJO FILTER
82 NEW ALBUMS Breeder Kim Deal
spreads the love, plus Michael Kiwanuka,
Primal Scream, Soccer Mommy and more.
96 REISSUES Queen’s debut repackaged,
plus Bryan Ferry, The Beatles and Thin Lizzy.
110 BOOKS An oral biography of the MC5,
plus Vivien Goldman collected, the
Thunderclap Newman story and more.
112 SCREEN On the road with Bruce
Springsteen, written/produced by The Boss.
MOJO ISSN 1351-0193 (USPS 17424) is published 12 times a year by H Bauer Publishing Ltd, Media House, Peterborough
Business Park, Lynch Wood, Peterborough PE2 6EA United Kingdom. Airfreight and mailing in the USA by agent named
Deal or no Deal?: World Container INC 150-15, 183rd St, Jamaica, NY 11413, USA. Periodicals Postage Paid at Brooklyn, NY 11256.
Breeders’ Kim POSTMASTER: Send address changes to MOJO, Air Business Ltd, c/o World Container INC 150-15, 183rd St, Jamaica,
NY 11413, USA. Subscription records are maintained at Bauer Media, Subscriptions, CDS Global, Tower House, Sovereign
takes flight, Lead Park, Lathkill Street, Market Harborough, Leicester LE16 9EF, United Kingdom. Air Business Ltd is acting as our mailing agent.
Album, p82.

THIS MONTH'S CONTRIBUTORS INCLUDE...

Pat Gilbert Phil Alexander Sarah Sumeray
A MOJO veteran of 28 years, Our Contributing Editor delivers Sarah is an artist based in
Sarah Sumeray, tomhamphoto.com

Pat recounts The Cult’s bonkers a story about a band that he London specialising in retro
conquest of America in the late first saw with his mum and comic-inspired art and pop
’80s on page 62 and reviews dad at Earl’s Court back in the culture reimagined as vintage
Amyl And The Sniffers’ new summer of ’83. Since then, cartoons. Her work has been
album on page 88. By day, he Supertramp’s Crime Of The featured in galleries both in
edits MOJO’s Special Editions, Century album has left an, er, the UK and abroad and clients
and talks rare vinyl every Sunday indelible stamp on him and he include The Cure, Jack White, The
afternoon on Simon Mayo’s revisits the making of that ’70s Smashing Pumpkins, Wheatus,
Greatest Hits Radio show. masterpiece on page 44. Live Nation and the BFI.

4 MOJO
 15 TRACKS OF DYSTOPIAN
SCI-FI ROCK
FATHER JOHN MISTY
ST. VINCENT, HAWKWIND
THE FLAMING LIPS , THE THE
IGGY POP/JAMES WILLIAMSON
MOJO JOHN FOXX & MORE

1 ST. VINCENT 2 THE FLAMING LIPS 3 THE THE 4 JOAN AS

FEAR THE FUTURE RIDING TO WORK IN THE COGNITIVE DISSIDENT POLICE WOMAN
“When the Earth split in two…” A YEAR 2025 (YOUR If Matt Johnson has been mapping SWEET THING
suitably catastrophic start to Future out dystopias for some four
Legends, with a machine-tooled
INVISIBLE NOW) decades, 2024’s The The comeback,
Bowie originally conceptualised
A phantasmagoric glimpse of what Diamond Dogs as a Broadway
rendering of existential dread from Ensoulment, found him elucidating
Gerald Jenkins, Michael Putland/Getty, Mariano Regidor/Getty, Heather Kennedy/Getty, David Corio/Redferns/Getty, Frank Lennon/Toronto Star via Getty Images,

the daily commute might look like musical, but Joan Wasser’s sinewy
Michael Loccisano/Getty Images, Kevin Winter/Getty Images, Mick Hutson/Redferns, Paul Bergen/Redferns/Getty, Erica Echenberg/Getty, Shannon Fagan/Getty

the fifth St. Vincent album, 2017’s how so many of those predictions
next year – as envisaged by Wayne take on Sweet Thing relocates the
Masseduction. Like Bowie, Annie had come true. Note how Cognitive
Clark has long been a connoisseur Coyne in 1997. Originally on the Lips’ action to a more claustrophobic
Dissident takes some of its cues
of impending doom, beginning Zaireeka LP, where four CDs had to New York. “When I was 11 I dressed
from Orwell’s doublethink concept:
with The Apocalypse Song on be played simultaneously to hear up as David Bowie for Halloween,”
“War is peace – West is East.”
her 2007 debut, Marry Me. tracks in their complex entirety. she told davidbowie.com in 2006.
Composed by Matt Johnson and Barrie Cadogan. “Come to think of it, I may still be
Written by Clark. Published by Nail Polish Written by Michael Ivins, Steven Drozd, Wayne Published by Lazarus/Kobalt Music Group – Bucks dressing up as him today!”
Manifesto Music (ASCAP). Administered by Coyne. Publisher by EMI Blackwood Music, INC, Music Group. From Ensoulment. &©2024 Cineola
Hipgnosis Music Publishing and &©2017 Loma BMI, Lovely Sorts Of Death (BMI), 1997 WEA Limited under exclusive license to earMUSIC, a From the EP Joan As Police Woman (Reveal
Vista Recordings. From Masseduction (Loma Vista) International Inc. Licensed courtesy of Warner label of Edel Music & Entertainment GmbH. ISRC Records, 2005) - Written by David Bowie (Warner
– ISRC USC4R1702211 Music UK Ltd, ISRC USWB12004718 – GB8KY2400015 Chappell Music) ISRC - GB - LDH - 05 - 00002

9 FATHER JOHN MISTY 10 THOMAS DOLBY 11 JOHN FOXX 12 JOHN VANDERSLICE

THINGS IT WOULD HAVE WHITE CITY PLAZA BE ELUSIVE, BUT
BEEN HELPFUL TO KNOW The late ’70s and early ’80s brought John Foxx was a few years ahead of DON’T WALK FAR
BEFORE THE REVOLUTION a new generation of bright Bowie Thomas Dolby, initially as a founder The title might not be immediately
acolytes into the pop mainstream, member of Ultravox. On his first
(THE HAXAN CLOAK REMIX) few brighter than Thomas Dolby. solo album, 1980’s Metamatic, he
familiar, but the song will be – a
On the third FJM LP, 2017’s Pure renamed version of We Are The
The gleaming electrofunk of White leaned harder still into electronic Dead. A longtime indie artist,
Comedy, the meticulously detailed City comes from his second solo futurism, so that the machine
horror show of Things… sounded producer and associate of Sufjan
album, 1984’s The Flat Earth, a beats and spectral synths of Plaza Stevens, St. Vincent, Spoon and
like a lavish Elton showstopper. On document of drug paranoia where soundtrack a tale of everyday urban
this remix by Yorkshire electronic The Mountain Goats, Vanderslice
protagonist Keith sought to alienation, Foxx blankly describing covered Diamond Dogs, brilliantly,
producer The Haxan Cloak, “hide from young Orwellians”. a germ-free, emotion-free new
however, the song’s dystopian in its entirety in 2013.
world where “behind all the
potential is ramped right up with Written by Thomas Robertson. Scale Music And smoked glass no-one sees you”. Published by transcendental brats (2014).
illbient noise and avant effects. Sound Hits Ltd. 1984 The Echo Label Limited, a Administered by Tiny Telephone (2014). From John
BMG company trading as Echo. Licensed courtesy Written by John Foxx. Published by Universal Vanderslice Plays Diamond Dogs Tiny Telephone
©2017 Bella Union Records, under exclusive of BMG Rights Management (UK) Ltd. ISRC: Music Publishing. &©Metamatic Records 1980 Records ISRC QM6N21589931
license to [PIAS]. Kobalt Music Publishing GBAYE8400139

6 MOJO
W
HEN DAVID BOWIE SAT DOWN WITH MOJO IN 2002,
he described Diamond Dogs as encapsulating, “My
usual basket of apocalyptic vision, isolation, being
terribly miserable.” Paul Du Noyer, the interviewer
and MOJO’s founding editor, pressed the self-deprecating
Bowie on a certain strain of apocalyptic visions that had
recurred throughout his work. “Dystopian, absolutely,” he
smirked. “I went to the doctor’s for it.”
As in so many ways, Bowie was both a trailblazer and a
product of his times. Nuclear dread, urban alienation, chemically-
induced anomie and a strong reading list all fed into his work;
preoccupations shared by many of his contemporaries and
descendants. This, then, is the blasted megalopolis inhabited
by our latest MOJO CD, Future Legends, a musical interzone
where art-rock, glam, prog and futurism meet and mutate. Where
the dogs decay, the synths hum and samizdat copies of Nineteen
Eighty-Four, A Clockwork Orange and J.G. Ballard paper the
streets. And where it’s not always easy to tell whether dystopia
is the stuff of sci-fi nightmares – or an uncomfortable reality.

5 HAWKWIND 6 IGGY POP & JAMES 7 KING GIZZARD & 8 CAMPAG VELOCET
HIGH RISE WILLIAMSON THE LIZARD WIZARD DRENCOM VELOCET
The Brit-psych overlords in KILL CITY MARS FOR THE RICH SYNTHEMESC
distinctly Bowie-ish form here, The London band’s compelling
A fried dispatch from the edgelands, Aussie heads King Gizzard &
from 1979’s PXR5. The churchy glam mix of PiL, spacerock and Happy
“where the debris meets the sea”, The Lizard Wizard have released
grandeur of High Rise paints a bleak Mondays caused a brief sensation
captured by Pop in 1975 on weekend a mere 26 albums in the last
picture of multi-storey dysfunction, at the end of the ’90s, when they
release from psychiatric hospital. 12 years, most recently this
inspired by J.G. Ballard’s 1975 novel appeared on the NME cover and
of the same name. Simon House, The Kill City album was recorded year’s Flight b741. The full-bore
as demos, in between the Bowie- Motörhead throb of Mars For headlined a tour over Coldplay.
keyboardist/violinist and co-writer
produced final Stooges album (Raw The Rich, however, comes from Singing in the Nadsat language of
of High Rise, left shortly after the
Power, 1973) and his first formal solo 2019’s Infest The Rats’ Nest, a A Clockwork Orange perhaps wasn’t
1978 recording to join Bowie’s
albums, The Idiot and Lust For Life, heavy metal sci-fi concept album a recipe for long-term success, but
band for the Isolar II tour.
also produced by Bowie. about – what else? – eco-disaster. this 1997 single still reverberates
Written by House, Calvert. BMG Rights with cosmic menace.
Management (UK) Ltd. 1979, 2008 Cherry Red Written by Iggy Pop & James Williamson. Produced by Stu MacKenzie. Written by Michael
Records Ltd. GBBLY0802722. Licensed courtesy of Published by Bug Music. Taken Kill City. Cavanagh, Joey Walker and Stu MacKenzie. ISRC Written by Pete Voss. From Bon Chic Bon Genre
Cherry Red Records Ltd ©1977/2010 Bomp! Records. ISRC USA2B1009901 code - AUTZK1900038 (1999), PIAS Recordings (PIASXLP003)

“WITH THE
DRUGS... HE’D
SIT DOWN
AND READ
13 BONNIE DOBSON 14 BEAUTIFY 15 DAVID J 15 BOOKS
MORNING DEW
The apparent bucolic beauty of
this folk standard is, of course,
JUNKYARDS
RADIOACTIVITY
THE PRESENT
In 1984, Bauhaus bassist David J
released a grinding industrial
AT A TIME.”
Ready for another unnervingly
deceptive. Morning Dew navigates pretty song about nuclear soundtrack to Alan Moore’s
the fallout in a post-nuclear holocaust? Kraftwerk’s futurism graphic novel, V For Vendetta,
wasteland and asks, desolately, is generally more utopian than from which The Present comes.
“Where have all the people gone?” dystopian, but their 1975 lullaby It’s left to Moore here to nail
Tim Rose and The Grateful Dead’s to Radioactivity is the exception the reality of dystopian art. “As
versions might be better known, to the rule – rendered with delicate with most of the future worlds in
but here’s the strikingly stark grace here by the Portuguese acid- science fiction, you’re not talking
original, written in 1961 and folkers and sometime Paul Weller about the future,” he says, “you’re
recorded a year later by the talking about the present.”

1974
associates Beautify Junkyards.
Canadian singer Bonnie Dobson
at Gerde’s Folk City in New York. David J/Tim Newman (Featuring Alan Moore).
Composed by Florian Schneider, Ralf Hütter and
From the EP V For Vendetta: Grande Edition (Glass
Emil Schult. 1975, 2009 Capitol Records, LLC. All
Written by Bonnie Dobson. Essex Music. Originally Modern) 2019 Publisher: Urbane Music (BMI)
rights reserved. © 2009 Ralf Hutter/Kraftwerk
released in 1962 on Live At Folk City
STARTS PAGE 70
 THE NEW ALBUM
featuring BOBBY
GILLESPIE
CARLOS O’CONNELL
JOHNNY MARR
& MANY MORE
LP/CD - RELEASED 1ST NOVEMBER
ON TOUR - FEBRUARY 2025
Wednesday 12th The Deaf Institute Manchester
Thursday 13th King Tuts Wah Wah Hut Glasgow
Saturday 15th Trades Club Hebden Bridge
Sunday 16th Rescue Rooms Nottingham
Tuesday 18th The Fleece Bristol
Wednesday 19th Islington Assembly Hall London

ENDLESS RAIN
THE NEW ALBUM
OUT 25th OCTOBER
“Recorded with John “Spud” Murphy and members of neo-
folk-mavericks Lankum… Elegiac and uncompromising”
++++ MOJO
One True Pairing Live: Sat 16th November 2024 – Purcell Room (Southbank Centre), London
 Arooj Aftab
BROOKLYN BOUNDARY CROSSER
What music are you currently Which musician, other than your-
grooving to? self, have you ever wanted to be?
Well, I’m currently in the thick of a Michael Jackson all the way, baby!
tour, which is basically an arduous What do you sing in the shower?
tromp from airport to airport, hotel
I don’t, but lately there’s a riff from
room to hotel room… so the Fountain
my friend Madison McFerrin’s song
Baby album by Amaarae is on signifi-
God Herself where she goes “you
cant rotation and makes everything
gon’ see me and believe.” It is so ridic-
in my head way swaggy and fun.
ulous and good so I just belt that out.
What, if push comes to shove, is
What is your favourite Saturday
your all-time favourite album?
night record?
There are so many perfect LPs by the
I tend to not control the music choic-
likes of OutKast, George Michael,
es on Saturday. I’m extremely social
Sade, Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, esper-
anza spalding, Jill Scott, Meshell so on the weekend you’ll find me in
Ndegeocello. But one that I super the company of friends, chilling and
love is Dimi Mint Abba’s Moorish partying to whatever they put on,
Music From Mauritania. I put it on very such as Sade, Wizkid, Bally Sagoo,
infrequently but when I do, it delivers Thundercat… it’s a fun time.
from top to bottom. And your Sunday morning record?
What was the first record you ever The Dreaming Room by Laura Mvula
bought? And where did you buy it? and Older by George Michael.
Totally insane, but it was Ace Of Arooj Aftab co-curates and plays Le Guess
Base’s The Sign. I got it at the Al-Akar- Who? festival in Utrecht on November 10.
ia mall when I lived in Riyadh. See leguesswho.com

A LL B AC K TO MY PL AC E
THE STARS REVEAL THE SONIC DELIGHTS GUARANTEED TO GET THEM GOING...

Peter Capaldi is right up my crack of doom.

What was the first record you ever
P.P. Arnold
TIMELORD, SPIN bought? And where did you buy it? LONDON’S FIRST LADY
DOCTOR, CROONER Slade’s Mama Weer All Crazee Now OF SOUL
from Woolworths, in 1972 when I
What music are you currently What music are you currently
was 14.
grooving to? grooving to?
I don’t know whether grooving’s Which musician, other than your- To be honest, my own songs,
a word I’d apply to myself, but self, have you ever wanted to be? because I’m preparing for a tour.
listening intently and haunted by I’m stuck with who I am, but I’m And I have been listening to Paul
Alison Moyet’s Such Small Ale, very taken with anybody that can Weller’s 66 recently, that’s really
Lisa O’Neill’s Old Note and Bill make music. I just want to be anyone good. He’s a great songwriter and I
Fay’s Time Of The Last Persecution. that’s gifted. like the way he just keeps it moving.
I don’t quite understand them, but What do you sing in the shower? I always have respect for different
they have something at their core That’s Life, by Frank Sinatra, which times but I’m not going to lie and say
that’s powerful. is a more fun precursor to My Way. that I’m all up on everything that’s
happening today, because I’m old else, so I kind of like being myself.
What, if push comes to shove, is Growing up in Glasgow in the ’70s, I wouldn’t mind realising my
your all-time favourite album? there was a lot of Frank. school, you know?
professional aspirations, after
Diamond Dogs is sort of fundamen- What is your favourite Saturday What, if push comes to shove, is surviving all the challenges, like
tal to me. This dramatic, doomy kind night record? your all-time favourite album? Tina Turner, because I’m still out
of sleazy mystery and rocking sound In the West of Scotland, being mel- I have so many, but I’ll always put here doing what I’m doing.
ancholy is part of having a good Marvin Gaye’s What’s Going On in
What do you sing in the shower?
time. So I’d have The Rolling the mix. I love that record, it’s still so
relevant and important, spiritually I like taking relaxing baths. I tend to
Stones. Jumpin’ Jack Flash and do my affirmations, just like meditat-
Gimme Shelter – a bit of malevo- and politically.
ing and just trying to focus, right?
lence creeping in there. Then Oasis’s What was the first record you ever
What is your favourite Saturday
Amy Sussman/Getty Images, Ray Burmiston, Gered Mankowitz

Some Might Say – I love Oasis – and bought? And where did you buy it?
Anarchy In The UK, balanced with night record?
My Guy by Mary Wells. I grew up in
Suspicious Minds by Elvis and Sister South Central Los Angeles, and our I’m gonna go back to Marvin Gaye,
Rosetta Tharpe’s I Heard My Mother record store was on Main Street. Got To Give It Up. That’s a groove,
Call My Name. And the big, sad, end that’s a Saturday night on the
of night song would be Tom Waits Which musician, other than your- dancefloor. I’m not out there party-
singing Somewhere. Everyone could self, have you ever wanted to be? ing and grooving any more though,
join in. I’ve always found that I can be I’ve done that.
myself better than I can be anybody
And your Sunday morning record? And your Sunday morning record?
The Mission soundtrack by Ennio Miles Davis, In A Silent Way. It takes
Morricone. Gabriel’s Oboe is deeply me back to when I lived in the
moving and spiritual. I got to meet “I’m old school, Cotswolds and looking out on the
fields. It’s just a nice meditative
Morricone once. I don’t have many
selfies, but I got one with him.
you know?” thing, you know?
Peter Capaldi’s Bin Night is out now.
P.P. ARNOLD P.P. Arnold’s Live In Liverpool is out
New album Sweet Illusions is released this month on Ear Music. For gigs see
in March 2025. pparnold.com

MOJO 9
 H Bauer Publishing
The Lantern
Theories,
rants, etc.
75 Hampstead Road
London NW1 2PL
Tel: 020 7437 9011
Reader queries: mojoreaders@
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Website: mojo4music.com London, NW1 2PL. E-mail to: [email protected]
Editor
John Mulvey
Senior Editor WE REJOIN DAVID BOWIE IN 1974, IN A CITY
Danny Eccleston on the cusp of musical revolutions. Bowie had moved to New York in April, the
Creative Director
Mark Wagstaff same month Television played their first gig at a newish club on the Bowery
Production Editor
(Entertainment)
called CBGB. By August the Ramones, an even fresher and more ramshackle
Simon McEwen SKHQRPHQRQKDGGHEXWHGWKHUHWRR KRSHIXOO\\RXUHDGWKHIXOOVWRU\RIWKDW
Associate Editor
(Reviews)
one in MOJO 372).
Jenny Bulley For now, though, Bowie’s voracious taste detectors were focused elsewhere.
Associate Editor
(News)
If his 1970s often seem a relentless and brilliant series of reinventions, 1974 can
Ian Harrison appear that decade’s most radical year. But as Mark Paytress illustrates in his
Deputy Art Editor
Del Gentleman MOJO cover story this month, Bowie was constantly evolving as much he was
Picture Editor
Matt Turner
completely transforming. R&B had subtly informed Diamond Dogs, and within
Senior Associate Editor days of arriving in New York, Bowie was out seeing The Temptations and The
Andrew Male
Contributing Editors
Detroit Spinners – a soul boy reincarnate, an adopted Young American. Disco
Phil Alexander, was also entering the conversation, the emerging soundtrack at New York night-
Keith Cameron,
Sylvie Simmons
clubs a little less scuzzy than CBGB. Note mention in Mark’s feature of one
Thanks for their
Broadway hotspot called the Hippopotamus Club, where Bowie met Nina
help with this issue: Simone. A basement themed like a safari lodge, apparently, but can anyone
confirm one outlandish story on the internet: that the dancefloor was a gigantic
Keith Cameron, Chris
Catchpole, Ian Whent

This month’s contributors: fibreglass hippo, suspended from the ceiling?

John Aizlewood, Phil Alexander,
Martin Aston, Mike Barnes, Mark
Blake, Glyn Brown, John Bungey,
Keith Cameron, Chris Catchpole,
Stevie Chick, Andy Cowan, Grayson
Haver Currin, Max Décharné, Bill
DeMain, Tom Doyle, Stephen
Thomas Erlewine, David Fricke,
Andy Fyfe, Pat Gilbert, John Harris,
Will Hodgkinson, David Hutcheon,
Jim Irvin, David Katz, Andrew Male, JOHN MULVEY, EDITOR
James McNair, Bob Mehr, Kris
Needs, Lucy O’Brien, Mark
Paytress, Andrew Perry, Jon
Savage, Victoria Segal, David The reality is infinitely of a song from Big Pink), and Like A Rolling Stone.
One assumes Bob only played those four songs with
Sheppard, Michael Simmons,
Sylvie Simmons, Irina Shtreis, Mat more subtle them then went off-stage?
Snow, Ben Thompson, Kieron Tyler, Amazing Dylan articles in MOJO 371. I’m a Dylan- Noel Mayeske, College Park, Georgia
Charles Waring, Roy Wilkinson, phile who’s read dozens of Bob books. Every time
Lois Wilson, Jim Wirth.
I think the story’s been told, another writer like
This month’s photographers:
Cover: Terry O’Neill/Iconic Images
Grayson Haver Currin or John Mulvey opens a new These are our people
(inset: Evan Agostini/Invision/AP) door for us to understand Dylan’s art and personality. Great to see the interview with peerless producer,
Peter Ashworth, Richard Bellia, The Mercury Rising! article is particularly illuminat- author and record label boss Joe Boyd [MOJO 370].
George Bodnar, Bleddyn Butcher,
ing as a roadmap of the twists and turns of Dylan’s +LVLQÁXHQFHRQWKHPXVLFEXVLQHVVVLQFHWKHV
Drew Carolan, Steve Catlin, Fin
Costello, Kevin Cummins, Ian relationship with the Hawks/Band. Truly adroit and is staggering. Among his many achievements was to
Dickson, Jennifer Fay Gow, Erica insightful writing by Mulvey, noting the way Dylan SURGXFHWKHÀUVW.DWH $QQD0F*DUULJOHDOEXPRQH
Echenberg, Ron Galella, Andy
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Hosie, Neil Massey, Robert Matheu,
Jim McCrary, Paul Natkin, Tom became The Band), gently moving away from them in as we’re approaching the 50th anniversary of the re-
Oldham, Aliyah Otchere, Jan the studio from ’74 onwards. If Mulvey were to write OHDVHRIWKLVPDVWHUSLHFHKRZDERXWDIHDWXUHRQ.DWH
Persson, Michael Putland, Aaron a whole book about the Dylan/Band relationship, and Anna’s extraordinary career and legacy, and their
Rapoport, Drew Sackheim, Tom
Sheehan, Gus Stewart, Mark Sullivan. I’d love to read it. refusal to bow to the demands of the music industry?
One addition to the list of Bob/Band recorded PS: Loved the sheer diversity of MOJO 371’s CD –
MOJO SUBSCRIPTION HOTLINE collaborations. On the reissue of 1972’s Rock Of Ages /LWWOH)HDW0DUFLD*ULIÀWKV+DUPRQLDDQG$UWKXU
live LP by The Band, Capitol included four songs 5XVVHOO.HHSWKHPFRPLQJ
0185 8438884 Dylan played with them in New York on New Year’s Steve Forshaw, Whitley Bay
For subscription or back issue queries contact
CDS Global on [email protected] Eve 1971 – Down In The Flood, When I Paint My
To access from outside the UK
Dial: +44 (0)185 8438884
0DVWHUSLHFH'RQ·W<D7HOO+HQU\ RQHRIWKHRQO\ …Your Forever Young: The Best Of 1974 CD was
RIÀFLDOO\UHOHDVHGYHUVLRQVZLWK'\ODQDQG7KH%DQG absolutely outstanding! To feature my favourite song

10 MOJO
(The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face), my three best song, Dogs: “But you’ll reap what you sow/ Head of Magazine Media
favourite drummers (Bill Bruford, Tony Allen and $V,IRXQGORQJDJRµ7KH0RQWJROÀHU%URWKHUV Clare Chamberlain
Levon Helm), my favourite guitarist (Robert Fripp), cover, Between Two Points, makes me wonder MD Bauer Media Advertising
Simon Kilby
my favourite singer (Robert Wyatt), my favourite what Gilmour would do with their masterpiece, Head Of Magazine Brands Anu Short
band (The Band), and favourite African musician Journey’s End? Tom is absolutely right, “It’s Brand Director Joel Stephan
(Fela Kuti) all on one CD, with every track a stunner EULOOLDQWPRYLQJVWXII«µHVSHFLDOO\WKHSRLJQDQW Media Planner Ricky Duff
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– quite an achievement! cameo of the much mourned Rick Wright on Classified Sales Executive
Chris Lee, Ripley Luck And Strange and the bonus extended jam Imogen Jackaman
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It’s staying human Bruce Marsh, Newbury Park Sales Operations Executive,
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that’s important …There’s No Way Out Of Here, on your list of Co-CEOs of Bauer UK Print Business
I’ve been enjoying your magazinw ever since my father David Gilmour’s greatest hits [MOJO 372], was Helen Morris, Steve Prentice
(my biological father, a US hardcore punk legend, written solely by Ken Baker and features on the
EA to CEOs Vicky Meadows
Chief Financial Officer, Bauer
ZKRP,·GÀQDOO\IRXQGRXWDERXWDQGPHWLQP\ IDQWDVWLF8QLFRUQDOEXPToo Many Crooks Magazine Media UK Lisa Hayden
ÀIWLHV ERXJKWPHDVXEVFULSWLRQDIHZ\HDUVEDFN *LOPRXUFRYHUHGLWKHGLGQ·WZULWHLWZLWK.HQ EA to CFO Stacey Thomas
I immediately valued what MOJO brings to the table I think a piece on the very underrated Unicorn
Director Of Magazines Lisa Sinclair
Director Of Brand & Content
– something which almost all other music rags don’t: ZRXOGPDNHXSIRUWKLVHUURUQLFHO\:HOLYHLQKRSH Sophie Hearsey
a non-snotty, apolitical appreciation for all of the Matt Allan, via e-mail Publisher, Premium and
Entertainment Lauren Holleyoake
VRXQGVRXWWKHUH,KDYHDWRRZLGHVRQLFSDOHWWH Group Production Lead Jenny Croall
but with tons of gaps, so I can dive into almost any
SDJHLQDQ\LVVXHRI02-2DQGÀQGVRPHWKLQJ The past is forbidden. Why? PA to Publisher/Director Of
Magazines Tayla Todd

recognisable, along with discovering something ,·YHMXVWÀQLVKHGUHDGLQJ02-2DQGIRXQG Commercial Director - Entertainment

Gemma Dick
,QHYHUNQHZDERXW:LWKWKDWXQFWXRXVSUDLVHIRU your article on Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan a fascinating Commercial Marketing Director
\RXUUDJRQWRWKHUHDOSRLQWRIP\HPDLO UHDG6DGO\LWUHPLQGHGPHRI\RXUWRWDOODFNRI Liz Martin
Managing Editor Michelle Thorn
Thanks for your interview in MOJO 368 with LQWHUHVWLQ)ODPHQFRPXVLF%HLQJDUHDGHU Editorial Assistant Whitney Jones
3HWH7RZQVKHQG²KH·VRQHRIWKHÀUVWURFN·Q·UROOHUV collector of your magazine since issue one, I haven’t MOJO CD and Honours Creative
Director Dave Henderson
that really broke my nascent childhood musical read a piece yet on one of the world’s most innovating Senior Events Producer
interests wide open, and encouraged me to listen, and invigorating music genres; not even when Paco Marguerite Peck

DQGQRWMXVWKHDU7KHPLVWDNHLQWKHDUWLFOH,ZDQWHG de Lucia (a master of the Spanish guitar in the 20th Business Analyst Tracey Pickering
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to point out: when describing his addiction to Ativan, century and one of the most respected players in Marketing Manager Zoe Blanchflower
WKHHGLWRUDGGVLQEUDFNHWVWKDWLWLVDSDLQNLOOHU WKHZRUOG SDVVHGDZD\LQ'RQ·W\RXWKLQN Marketing Executive Sofie McIntyre

%]]]W²ZURQJVRUU\$WLYDQ DOVRNQRZQE\LWV it’s about time, after more than 30 years, to mend Direct Marketing Manager Julie Spires
Direct Marketing Assistant
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PR MOJO 11
WH AT GOE S ON!
THE HOT NEWS AND BIZARRE STORIES FROM PLANET MOJO
 Lonely
Planet
Boy
Haunted by bereavement and disintegration
(and Disintegration), The Cure’s Songs Of A
Lost World – their first album in 16 years –
is finally with us. But what’s it all about?
And will it be Robert Smith’s last? “Often
seen as the soundtrack to an eternally
doomy adolescence,” judges Victoria Segal,
“The Cure might just be coming of age.”
HERE IS NO blue plaque at The Railway in Craw-

T
ley, no photographs celebrating the most culturally
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an old friend on Crawley Town Council about organising
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NLGVZHDULQJ%R\V'RQ·W&U\7VKLUWV
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sions that cling to a person as they

versions of PRYHWKURXJKWKHLUOLYHVZDUSLQJDQG
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The Cure, Primavera Sound,
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ROBERT SMITH
MOJO 13
 The Cure
★★★★
Songs Of A
Lost World
(Fiction CD/DL/LP)
Recorded at:
Rockfield,
Monmouthshire,
and Lost World
Line-up:
Robert Smith: voice/
guitar/six-string
bass/keyboard
Simon Gallup: bass
Jason Cooper:
drums/percussion
Roger O’Donnell:
keyboard “Where did I go?”: (clockwise) Smith on-stage at
Reeves Gabrels: Accor Arena, Paris, November 28, 2022; Songs Of
guitar A Lost World; The Cure in 1980 (from left) Smith,
Key tracks: Lol Tolhurst, Simon Gallup, Matthieu Hartley;
The Cure performing in Hamburg, October 16,
And Nothing Is
1980; Smith in Brussels, 1985; Alone inspiration,
Forever poet Ernest Dowson; Cure associate Billy
I Can Never Say Mackenzie; the new album’s enigmatic
Goodbye announcement outside The Railway in Crawley;
Endsong Smith with Roger O’Donnell, 2014; The Railway
AKA The Rocket, where The Cure debuted in 1978.

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Robert and he ORQJHUµ6PLWKMRNHGLQ0DUFK´,W·V
NLOOLQJPHµ
%HHIKHDUWDQGKLVFRPSDQLRQLQDQHDUOLHU said, ‘I’m going 7ROKXUVWOLQNVWKLVGHOD\WRDNLQGRI
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5LFKDUGOLYHGLQ3RODQGIRU\HDUVKDUURZLQJ to do this album IURPWKHVWDUW´)RUWKHÀUVWWKUHH\HDUVZH
SOALW VRQJ,&DQ1HYHU6D\*RRGE\HZDV ZRXOGMXVWUHKHDUVHµKHUHFDOOV´%\WKHWLPH
ÀUVWSOD\HGRQ2FWREHUDW.UDNRZ·V and that’s kind ZHJRWWRSOD\LQ/RQGRQZKHQZHZHUH
7DXURQ$UHQD,W·VWKHVRQJDWWKHH\HRIWKH
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of it.’ He always RUSHRSOHZHUHOLNH¶:RZ\RXFDQSOD\·
:HFDPHRXWSUHWW\ZHOOIRUPHGZKLFK,
´6RPHWKLQJZLFNHGWKLVZD\FRPHV7RVWHDO says that.” WKLQNLVWKHZD\5REHUWSUREDEO\VWLOOOLNHV
LOL TOLHURST
14 MOJO
 to do things. He doesn’t let deed, on a record so 'RZVRQDQGKLVSRHP'UHJV´7KHÀUHLVRXW
anything out, let anything be alert to the cataclysmic and spent the warmth thereof/(This is the end
seen, until it’s completely effects of mortality, of every song man sings!)” It’s a telling addi-
done and right.” it’s remarkable how tion to Smith’s lace-edged, blood-speckled
Smith, meanwhile, can fundamentally un- treasury of Poe, Rimbaud and Baudelaire.
sound like he’s questing changed Smith’s voice If Alone’s pain is couched in universal
for an almost intangible is, uncracked into a Bob terms, And Nothing Is Forever comes from a
grail. “When it gets done Dylan croak or plunged YHU\VSHFLÀFVHWRIFLUFXPVWDQFHV´DSURPLVH

Tom Sheehan, Gabor Scott/Shutterstock, Dan Jessup/Eddie Mitchell/sussexnewsandpictures (2), PA Images/Alamy

it will be the best thing to new Leonard Cohen I made to someone that I would be with them
we’ve ever done,” he said depths. Yet there is no kit- when they died,” Smith writes. “But for
in February 2020. “Which tenish levity on this record, reasons beyond my control, I didn’t keep that
is why I can’t afford not nothing approaching a promise. It upset me dreadfully.” There’s a
to do the best vocals I’ve pop song – no equivalent painful, escalating catch in Smith’s phrasing,
ever done. It’s not about of Disintegration’s spidery twisting the opulent backing into something
tone or notes, it’s emo- Lullaby to break the mood. more desperate, the light of an implacable
tion, it’s trying to capture The Never Enough grooves pink moon just detectable in the piano.
that point where you feel of the spectacular Drone: Yet if death is at the core of Songs Of A Lost
something enough to com- nodrone slide closest to World, it’s not the only loss. The torrential
municate it but you don’t a gear-change, but even dialogue of A Fragile Thing rolls in the deepest
break down, ’cos I hate myself there, the ground is unsteady. romantic gloom – “‘Every time you kiss me I
when I do that… I want “I’m breaking up again,” sings could cry,’ she said” – while Warsong, opening
it to be perfect but Smith. Disintegration, in other with a martial drone reminiscent of Disinte-
it’s really hard for words, with all its oceanic ex- grationHUDUDULW\3LUDWH6KLSVLVÁRRGHGZLWK
Pictorial Press Ltd/Alamy, Camera Press/Paul Slattery

me to just get the panses, its cold glittering light. deep emotional water. “Warsong is about
right moment.” someone who over the decades I’ve kind of
By 2021, he was PENER ALONE fallen out with, made up with, fallen out with,
even harder on himself. “I
was listening, thinking, This
is the best music the band
O LVWKHÀUVW
station on the
album’s audaciously bleak,
PDGHXSZLWKRYHUDQGRYHUµ6PLWKUHÁHFWV
yet he says it could be repurposed as a wider
lament for humanity: “All we will ever know
has made, and my words are beautiful journey. “Once this is bitter ends/For we were born to war.”
drivel. Last year I just gave up. song was written, I knew that Another kind of loss explored by SOALW
I thought I can’t do it. They the Songs Of A Lost World album is loss of self, a concept refracted in the
can all be instrumentals.” would be made,” writes Smith, crunched-spine funk of Drone: nodrone,
Smith stuck at it, with acknowledging the inspiration of LQVSLUHGVD\V6PLWKE\DGURQHWKDWÁHZRYHU
striking results. In- tubercular Victorian poet Ernest the singer’s garden, throwing him into a ➢
Smith in 2024, plus
– above, The Cure’s
Naked Record Club
release and 1989’s MOJO 15
Disintegration LP.
 W H AT G O E S Nothing is forever:
Robert Smith, always
saying goodbye,
Florence, June 16, 2019.

PLAYS FOR
TODAY
Post-millennial Cure,
➣ recapped by Victoria Segal.
confusion of doubt. Was he being spied a spiky-haired Robin Hood when he took Bloodflowers
on, or not? Smith doesn’t know what to think, on Ticketmaster over their pricing for the
and not knowing what to think is almost worse Shows Of A Lost World tour. The band had ★★★★
(Fiction, 2000)
than being watched. Yet it’s also a song about already declined to take part in any surge or “Inextricably linked”
not being sure who you are any more – even dynamic pricing; when he became aware of to Pornography and
if your identity, your image, seems as to be as the high fees, Smith also spoke out, securing Disintegration according to
solid as Smith’s. a partial refund for fans. When an Italian fan Robert Smith, Bloodflowers
All I Ever Am, meanwhile, pushes the rock on social media nudged him towards eco-vinyl completed the line-up for
star towards the nightmare of a “dark and concern Naked Record Club, two songs – I 2002’s played-in-full Trilogy
concerts. After the pop glories of 1992’s
HPSW\VWDJHµDQXQÀOODEOHYRLG6PLWKVD\VLW·V Can Never Say Goodbye and And Nothing Is Wish and the scattered Wild Mood Swings,
DERXW´KRZKDUG,ÀQG¶EHLQJ·LQWKHSUHVHQW )RUHYHU²ZHUHUHOHDVHGZLWKSURÀWVJRLQJWR here was Y2K Cure returning to core values.
moment is, informed by questions of how Brian Eno’s climate charity Earth Percent (the
¶,·UHPDLQV¶,·WKURXJKWLPH«,NQRZLQP\ 5,000 copies sold out in two hours). It’s worth The Cure
head that I am the sum of a multitude of other remembering before any valedictions, too, ★★★
\RXQJHUYHUVLRQVRIPH«EXWWKHUHDUHPR- that Smith has long promised not one but two (Geffen, 2004)
ments when I just can’t believe it, I just can’t albums, as well as a solo noise LP. “Anyone who doesn’t like
this just doesn’t like The
accept it!” ´,WDONHGWR5REHUWDQGKHVDLG¶,·PJRLQJ Cure,” said Smith. In a rare
That “strange feeling of dissociation” to do this album and that’s kind of it,’” says acknowledgement of the
peaks in Endsong’s grand celestial collapse, Tolhurst. “He always says that – that it’s the outside world, though,
recorded around the 50th anniversary of last thing. But I like the idea that he always had their twelfth album was
the moon landings and testament to Smith’s when we started off – that we should always co-produced by nu-metal supremo Ross
life-long stargazing tendencies. “I was outside look at everything that we do as the last time Robinson. A notable heaviness prevailed,
but nothing could dilute The End Of The
looking up and back a lot that summer, we’re ever going to do it. It puts an intensity World’s perfect chorus.
lamenting age and an increasingly broken to your actions that you should have because
world, and always seemed to return to the otherwise, why are you doing it? As I got older 4:13 Dream
same two questions; where did that old and met different artists who had been around ★★★
world go and where did I go?” for a long time, there’s a sense of entitlement (Geffen, 2008)
that whatever they do, people are going to Allegedly the lighter half of
NDSONG MIGHT feel like an asteroid- like it. Robert’s never had that attitude. He’s an intended double album,

E sized, extinction-event full-stop, but it

is not impossible that The Cure could
simply be entering another phase in their
DOZD\VEHHQ¶,·YHJRWWRGRWKHEHVWYHUVLRQRI
whatever it is I’m doing.’”
While The Cure are fortunate to have a
4.13 Dream was cruising-
altitude Cure, The Only One
and The Perfect Boy in pop
mode, The Reasons Why
remarkable career. The album artwork looks regenerating fanbase, the audience who have and Underneath The Stars hitting the
like an ancient stone head, an Atlantis relic, its grown up with them will be staring down the Disintegration switch. It ended, ominously,
with It’s Over: “I can’t do this any more.”
features so worn they are barely visible. Yet it barrel of the same gun as Smith, facing similar
is a 1975 piece by the Slovenian sculptor Janez griefs, uncertainties, questions. With Songs Torn Down
★★★
Luigi Rizzo/Pacific Press/Sipa USA

Pirnat, and the face could just as easily be Of A Lost World, The Cure, often seen as the
emerging from the stone as vanishing into it. soundtrack to an eternally doomy adoles- (Fiction, 2018)
The band have faced cruel recent setbacks cence, might just be coming of age. This companion to the
– keyboardist Roger O’Donnell missed their “I don’t foresee Robert swanning into his reissue of 1990 remix
2023 South American dates to be treated for twilight years sipping a margarita on a boat collection Mixed Up was
originally conceived as a
aggressive lymphoma – but Smith has not somewhere,” says Tolhurst, smiling. “Well, compilation of Cure tracks
given up completely on the world. Ahead maybe – but the boat would be going some- remodelled by their
of the Oasis controversy curve, he played where to play a show.” M favourite bands. Smith instead took
control, forging new versions of one song
from each Cure album. Nicely unstuck.
16 MOJO
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Logo a-go-go!:
(clockwise from top left)
The Yardbirds; The Beat;
Wings; The Kinks; Adam
& The Ants; The Monkees;
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18 MOJO
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 MOJO WO R K I N G

“We played a weird

parlour game when
we’d finished…”
JAMES DEAN BRADFIELD

was about two years of intense, scatter-

Staying free: (right) James Dean
Bradfield gets inspired by the brained work.”
past, Door To The River studio, Produced by regular foils Dave Eringa and
Caerleon, Wales; (above) Sean Loz Williams, and mixed by Caesar Edmunds,
Moore’s drum kit (and gloves); the album was finished in February after a
(below) co-producer Dave Eringa.
month recording Sean Moore’s drum tracks
and other overdubs at Rockfield Studios in
Monmouth. “We played a weird parlour game
when we’d finished,” says Bradfield. “It was,
‘What do you hear in this song?’ And the an-
swers were 10,000 Maniacs, Weather Proph-
ets, Shriekback, Waterboys, Bangles, Dalis
Car… not that we were trying, but they were
all references.” As well as the aforementioned
’80s groups, he also mentions Manics faves
FACT SHEET Skids, Echo & The Bunnymen and Big Country.
Title: TBC “Their message was delivered so forcefully,
Due: 2025 they weren’t bleak about it,” says Bradfield.
Production: Dave “All those people from the ’80s were teachers.
Eringa and Loz Whenever you reference the past, you’re still
Williams, Caesar
Edmunds (mixing) inspired by it… to be part of a future that you
Songs: Being know is kind of trying to dispose of you.”
Baptised; Decline The let-it-happen approach meant there
And Fall; Critical was no preconceived concept for the album,
Thinking
The Buzz:
he goes on. Bradfield wrote three of the 12
“Sometimes just to lyrics: main lyricist Wire sang three songs.
have your best songs “Nick’s trying to analyse his position in the
is enough, just world and reconcile his antagonism towards
putting a record out
and not trying to modern-day politics or beliefs – his song
describe a big Critical Thinking talks about empathy and the
overarching well-being industry, whilst we revel in other
concept, even people’s destruction. My three songs were
though there is a
thread there. We optimistically looking for an answer in a more
wanted to sing, play, pragmatic way. I’ve got a song called Being

THE MANICS GET be free, and for what

Nick was writing
lyrically to have a
Baptised, which is a postcard from the past
about a fucking lovely day I spent with
Allen Toussaint, basking in his wisdom
FREE ON ALBUM 15 place to shine.”
James Dean Bradfield and judgement and talent. So that’s the
dichotomy they have.”
N 1985, the Manic Street Preachers had ist Nicky Wire’s 2023 solo LP Intimism took

I
Unlike previous albums, this time there
their first rehearsal and wrote their first precedence. That said, Bradfield adds, “we aren’t any name guests – “I suppose our guest
song, Aftermath, about the miners’ strike. started with a bit more urgency than usual. vocalists have been replaced by Nick singing
How does it feel to be on the cusp of 40 years’ Without knowing it, we had five or six demos three songs,” says Bradfield – though touring
active service, asks MOJO, when checking in already… maybe it was that subconscious guitarist Wayne Murray’s partner Lana
with James Dean Bradfield? “To be honest,” threat of time running out after Covid. McDonagh appears on one song. “Perhaps
he says, “I feel an immense sense of freedom.” “There was no MO,” he adds. “Sometimes we will have to use this sense of freedom to
This sense of open vistas is ingrained in we played live together in a definite band challenge ourselves on the next record,” he
their latest long-player, whose title was still environment, other times it was more concludes. “Looking for that other version
unknown at press time. The group convened isolated, where I just laid a guitar down to a of yourself sometimes involves somebody
at their Door To The River studio in Caerleon click [track], or Nick [Wire] put a vocal down else. But with this album, this is definitely
outside Newport in late 2022, working in with a click, or I’d do a really rough acoustic what we wanted.”
chunks of time as gigs, family life and bass- version, and we’d build from those. So it Ian Harrison

A L S O WO R K I N G TOWNSHEND may have assured that she is playing on new recordings Q-Tip …FRANZ FERDINAND’s The
Getty, Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images

MOJO that The Who “aren’t done yet,” by MORRISSEY …in September, Human Fear arrives in January 2025.
…after STEVIE WONDER’s but he’s admitted that, “I am in a Liam Gallagher posted that Recorded with producer Mark
(right) September single period of writers’ block” OASIS had recorded a new Ralph, songs include The
Can We Fix Our Nation’s …work goes on for the album. Asked to describe Doctor, Black Eyelashes
Broken Heart, film has long-gestating BRIAN its sound, he gnomically and Hooked …NADIA
emerged of him and WILSON/FRED VAIL remarked, “TURDOS” REID (left) is recording
George Clinton country album Cows In …Raphael Saadiq her fourth album and
duetting on The The Pasture. As well as a told Rolling Stone that promises a “new, fuller
Parliaments’ 1967 single documentary featuring D’ANGELO is making a sound. I still feel
(I Wanna) Testify …of his Wilson and Van Dyke new LP, saying, “He’s uncomfortable about
new 2025 LP, Bauhaus’s Parks among others, working on six pieces right the word ‘folk’ and being a
PETE MURPHY says, “it’s a live show is also planned now.” One song is expected folk singer,” said the
produced by Youth and has …guitarist Carmen Vanden- to be by their one-time group now-Manchester resident. “It
big names guesting” …PETE berg has confirmed to Total Guitar Linwood Rose, which also featured makes me sort of cringe”…

20 MOJO
 mindy smith
PLUS VERY SPECIAL GUESTS
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 ROCK’N’ROLL No sweat!: Idles’

CONFIDENTIAL
Joe Talbot wants
to make you laugh
and scream.

means that it’s harder to be

impactful and poignant. He has
figured out ways of doing that.
That was one of those moments.
HEY JOE
“Impactful and poignant” – does
Five tasty
Talbot that act as Idles’ manifesto, too?
one-twos. I was constantly going to gigs back in
1 Adrianne Lenker the early 2000s, watching models
Real House (4AD, 2024)
look bored on-stage. It was an insult
2 Tirzah F22 (DOMINO,
2023) to me and my mates who paid
3 The Alessi money to see them, so I wanted to
Brothers Seabird start a band that made people feel.
(A&M, 1977)
4 Electrelane
And I hope that we have.
Tram 21 (TOO PURE, 2007)
5 Donny
Do you want to name names?
Hathaway I Love Joseph Talbot, Adam Devonshire…
The Lord; He Heard
My Cry (Parts I & II) [continues naming Idles]. You will
(ATCO, 1973) not catch me naming bands other
than mine and bands I love. I’m not
playing that fucking game. I started the band
to be the antithesis of those people. Those
people are the kinds of people who would
name names.
Why make the video for Grace an AI
Chris Martin singing your song in the
Yellow video?
I thought it would be funny – but also brilliant
– to just AI him singing my lyrics in the Yellow
video because it’s one of the best videos of
that era. I was a film student and all my
favourite ideas in art are simple ideas
executed brilliantly. My manager knows
someone who knows someone, and next
thing I know, Chris Martin’s calling me. What
can I say? He’s charitable, he’s kind, he’s
hard-working. He’s a real one. He was willing
to have the piss taken out of him if that was
part of it – which I reassured him it wasn’t.
I told him why and I’ll tell anyone why: this is
cool, it kind of sounds like a Coldplay song. It
will obviously piss some people off and those
sorts of people I like to piss off.
You’ve been writing lyrics in the recording
booth recently. What are the pitfalls?
I’m very insecure and my insecurity comes
out in two ways: either in a loving romantic
relationship, though I’ve been working on
that, or in my songwriting, in being a
frontperson. I know I’m good at my job, no
matter what certain journalists say, but with
that comes a lot of insecurity. The more I
would write things down, the more opportu-
nity I had to come back and think about what
wakeful child materialises. “I want to make someone else would think about it. So I write a

Joe Talbot SHRSOHODXJKDQGVFUHDPDQGVHHWKHPVHOYHV

LQWKHPLUURURIRXUDOEXPVµ
song in about 15 minutes and I never change
the words. It’s easy because I listen to that
song 200 and 300 times. The song is in me. I
Idles’ front-dynamo talks love, Did you genuinely not know Bansky was know what it’s going to be about. I don’t just
lyric-writing and liking Chris going to launch his migrant boat artwork go, Right, er, sandwiches. A fencing competi-
Martin. And he’s not scared, right? into the audience during tion is seconds in the doing,
your Glastonbury set? but it’s decades in the making.
T’S 8.30PM AND Joe Talbot is on parenting “A fencing
I duty, code-switching between caring dad
DQGURFN·Q·UROOÀUHVWDUWHUDVKHDQVZHUV
MOJO’s questions. It ÀWVJLYHQWKHWRXJK
No. That particular thing that
he made was beautiful and
powerful and brilliant, and I
think that Danny Nedelko
competition
is seconds
Tell us something you’ve
never told an interviewer
before.
WHQGHUFRPELQDWLRQWKDW,GOHVKDYHPDGH [from 2018’s Joy As An Act Of It’s a tough one (long pause).
their own since their 2017 debut Brutalism; Resistance] was the perfect
in the doing, I’m not scared of you lot, so
with this year’s Tangk, produced by Radiohead song. We were an appropriate but it’s I don’t ever hide anything.
associate Nigel Godrich, they found new band and we’re huge fans Honestly, I can’t think of
ways of stretching out their incendiary and we’re very grateful not
decades in anything I haven’t told a
H[SORUDWLRQVRIORYHSROLWLFVIULHQGVKLSDQG just for the involvement but the making.” journalist.
masculinity. “I want to make people dance and also the free press (laughs). As told to Victoria Segal
Tom Ham

JOE TALBOT
,ZDQWWRPDNHSHRSOHORYHµVD\V7DOERW Obviously over time the Idles tour the UK and Ireland in
keeping a careful eye on the door in case his saturation of Banksy’s work November and December.

22 MOJO
 W H AT G O E S O N !
L A ST N I G H T
A RECORD
CHANGED
MY L I F E PINK LABEL AND ALL,
Elkie Brooks PYE RECORDS IS BACK FROM
The Grand Dame of blues, rock THE DEAD – BUT HOW?
and jazz hails Dino & Sembello’s NOWN FOR years as a voice on Scot- SLHFHJURXSLW·VIXOORIVLJQLÀFDQFHVIRU
Pearl’s A Singer (A&M, 1974).
It was 1976. I was in AIR
Studios in London with my
K tish radio and TV – as well running his
own Radio Six International station –
broadcaster Tony Currie has a new objective.
its creator: the title song’s a version of Johnny
Scott’s swinging fanfare which themed Cur-
rie’s 1970s show on Radio Clyde, for exam-
producers Jerry Leiber and To wit, he’s resurrected historic British label ple, while the arrangement of Tony Hatch’s
Mike Stoller. We were Pye, erstwhile home of The Kinks, Sandie Downtown by Johnny Harris was transcribed
looking for songs for my Shaw and Petula Clark, among many others. from a hissy 1969 appearance on Lulu’s TV
second LP [1977’s] Two Days “I always cherished Pye,” says Currie from show found on YouTube (sessioneer Mark
Away. Jerry said he had one to play me, the label’s headquarters in the Inner Hebri- Nightingale played the trombone belonging to
he knew I liked blues and jazz so he des. “I was heavily into big pop instrumentals, original soloist Don Lusher on it). Of his pal
wasn’t sure if I’d like it because it was and they had John Schroeder, Laurie Johnson, Hatch, with whom he wrote the LP’s Radio
more in a country style, but he knew I Tony Hatch… I was very sorry in 1980 when Six Theme, Currie says, “a lot of stuff owed its
was open-minded and I already liked the Pye trademark disappeared. I found out origins to him – he thought it was great, which
some country. So he put on Pearl’s A later that the owners were too mean to pay the really meant quite a lot to me.”
Singer by Dino & Sembello. Ralph Dino
£2,000 to renew it.” The new Pye has also released Harvest Gold
and John Sembello were singers and
writers in America. They’d already
Fast forward to 2016 and an idle search on by singer-songwriter Andrea Black, and more
written songs for The Lovin’ Spoonful, Companies House, and learning that Pye Re- new releases are planned. The label does not
The Turtles and Tim Hardin and they had cords had been dissolved, he duly established have access to Pye’s post-1962 catalogue. “I
worked with Jerry Leiber and Mike his own Pye limited company and parked it. want it to be a forward-looking company,”
Stoller on their only album [1974’s] Dino Then life happened, including leaving the says Currie, who’s planning another orchestra
& Sembello. Anyhow, this song was from BBC, ill health and the death of his wife Karin /37KH¶QHZ·3\HFDWDORJXHSUHÀ[HVFDUU\RQ
that album and I immediately got it. in January 2023. IURPZKHUH3\HOHIWRIIKHDGGVDQGRIÀFLDO
It was the story that got me – “She “I thought, I could sit every night, pissed Pye merch is promised.
sings songs for the lost and lonely… all out of my skull, watching Talking Pictures TV It also begs the question: how many other
those dreams that never came true.” I DQGHDWLQJ3RW1RRGOHVµKHUHÁHFWV´2U, historic dormant labels await rebirth? Noth-
love stories. I’d grown up listening to Ella could do something ing seems to be happening
Fitzgerald and Billie Holiday and Dakota outrageous. What’s going to with such evocative names of
Staton, who all sang story songs. So we absorb all my attention and old as Regal Zonophone, Blue
did the song and I put my bluesy stamp give me some pleasure? Pye Beat, RAK, Factory, Liberty
on it. I was lucky enough to work with an Records. I’m going to get or Small Wonder, for exam-
incredible pianist called Jean Roussel and the trademark.” ple, though anyone intending
he played the most wonderful piano part. He set about getting the to reanimate them should be
We released it as the first single from the distinctive Pye roundel and prepared for a rough ride.

Neil Kirk, courtesy Tony Currie, Mirrorpix

LP, the release date was actually on my precise colour scheme from “It involved a great deal of
32nd birthday – February 25, 1977 – and the Philips company in the
the record label really went for it. For the
legal wrangling and expen-
Netherlands. This unlocked sive bills,” says Currie of his
promo they dressed me in a gown and it
went into the chart and into the Top 10.
another arguably quixotic acquisition of Pye. “It took
I did Top Of The Pops and suddenly,
scheme. “I thought, I’m going about a year and cost me a
after all these years, after singing with to make an album with a big “Tony Hatch fucking fortune – 10 grand!
orchestra,” says Currie, “just But it really has thrilled me.”
Humphrey Lyttelton, Eric Delaney, Dada
and Vinegar Joe, I had a hit record. like Pye Records always did.” thought it Ian Harrison
So hearing Dino & Sembello literally So it came to pass: Race was great.” See pyerecords.com for more info.
changed my life. I still sing it at every The Sun by The Tony Currie TONY CURRIE
show. Sometimes I forget the words, but Orchestra is a sparkling big
it doesn’t matter because the audience band pop album of just the
know all of them and sing along. sort they used to make, from
As told to Lois Wilson its cover art and Ken Bruce’s
Elkie’s Long Farewell Tour continues in
sleevenote up. Played by a
November and into 2025. See elkiebrooks.
com for dates.

Fingers in the Pye:

(above) workers check
the audio quality of vinyl
at Pye Records, Mitcham,
Surrey, 1967; (inset)
2-Tonys: Pye-lovers
Hatch (left) and Currie.
 C U LT H E R O E S

In pole position: (left)

Redd Kross (clockwise
REDD HOT from top) Jeff
McDonald, Steve
McDonald, Robert
Three McDonald’s Hecker, Roy McDonald,
1987; (above) Jeff (left)
takeaways. and Steve today, better
Born Innocent than they’ve ever been.
(SMOKE SEVEN, 1982)
Redd Kross’s Redd Kross were well placed
45 YEARS IN, PUNK-POP lovably chaotic
hardcore-era LP
to cross over, but somehow
they blew it. At a hometown
BELIEVERS REDD KROSS debut, with an
adoring paean to gig packed with hungry A&R,
for example, why open their
POWER ONWARDS The Exorcist’s early-teen star
Linda Blair, a ramshackle cover set with a complete rendition
E’RE HAVING a moment,” and Steve (bass) formed their
of Charles Manson’s Cease To of side two of Sgt Pepper’s? “All

“W says Steve McDonald,

one half of Californian
punk-poppers Redd Kross’s fraternal core,
snotty punk band in 1978
when Steve was just 11,
initially as The Tourists,
Exist, and sloppy thrills aplenty.
Phaseshifter
(THIS WAY UP/MERCURY, 1993)
Going into this
we had to offer was who we
were,” reasons Jeff, “and the
crowd were on the same page,
just not the biz guys.”
“and I’ve been around long enough to know then Red Cross, until a legal second
those don’t come by very often.” threat forced them to major-label Starting with 1990’s Third
By any standards, autumn ’24 is proving Zeppelin-ise it. outing, new Eye (that’s future director So-
a golden season for fans of RK’s melody-rich “We latched onto the only sticksman Brian ÀD&RSSRODLQWKHEXIIRQWKH
music and colourful lore, with the near- other like-minded people we Reitzell introduced the blissfully cover), their three major-label
unaware McDonalds to alt-rock
simultaneous arrival of a lurid documentary FRXOGÀQGµVD\V6WHYHRIWKHLU like Pixies, but the beefed-up albums stiffed, too geekily
(the Andrew Reich-directed Born Innocent), early days, “which turned Kross still sounded more like British Invasion-inspired in
a roller-coaster autobiography (Now You’re out to be Black Flag.” As the Cheap Trick or the Raspberries, the age of Nevermind, and their
One Of Us) and a bonanza self-titled double- two groups gigged together in with tunes galore. support acts Foo Fighters and
LP, whose 18 infectious tunes scarcely dip. ’80 to ’81, Steve’s tender age Redd Kross Stone Temple Pilots promptly
A sibling odd couple to rank alongside was a helpful gimmick. “We (IN THE RED, 2024) leap-frogged them to the top.
Sparks’ Ron and Russell, the McDonald weren’t concerned about Fighting fit in Following a ’00s hiatus,
brothers were raised in Hawthorne, CA, the getting taken seriously,” he their fifth decade, though, their off-centre,
the brothers
LA suburb that was also home to The Beach laughs, “we just wanted to enlisted ex-Chili
Fabs-esque neo-psych com-
Boys’ Wilsons. There, Jeff (vocals, guitar) get noticed!” Pepper Josh mands niche adoration and,
Jeff ’s lyrics “pulled in Klinghoffer to oversee a double beams Jeff, it’s a blessing they
everything that polluted our deluge of Beatles-go-new wave never made it.
brains from the TV culture we powerpop, climaxing with “We’re not saddled with
“We’re not grew up in,” but soon their self-chronicling epic, Born
having to live up to the one
Innocent. A mid-career classic.
saddled with gonzo mainstream shtick
(Kiss covers; songs about The
hit song we had in our past.
So now we’re able to show
having to live up Runaways’ Lita Ford) chafed against austere up and be as good as, if not better than, we’ve
ever been.” He catches himself giving it the
hardcore-punk diktat, and they broke free.
to the one hit Says Steve, “We were like, ‘Screw that, we hard sell. “Hold on, I sound like Paul Stanley
actually like rock stars! We wanna put on a from Kiss…”
song we had.” show!’ We no longer felt we needed to impress Andrew Perry
JEFF McDONALD these older guys.” Now You’re One Of Us is published on October 10 by
Getty

As alt-rock burgeoned in the late ’80s, Omnibus Press. Redd Kross is out now on In The Red.

24 MOJO
 MARCH 2025
FRI 7 IPSWICH REGENT THEATRE
SAT 8 OXFORD NEW THEATRE
SUN 9 SWANSEA ARENA
TUE 11 GUILDFORD G LIVE
WED 12 HULL CONNEXIN LIVE
Plus Special Guests FRI 14 LIVERPOOL GUILD OF STUDENTS
SAT 15 WOLVERHAMPTON CIVIC HALL
MON 17 YORK BARBICAN
TUE 18 EDINBURGH USHER HALL
THU 20 GLASGOW ROYAL CONCERT HALL
FRI 21 NEWCASTLE O2 CITY HALL
SAT 22 MANCHESTER O2 APOLLO
MON 24 BRISTOL BEACON
TUE 25 PORTSMOUTH GUILDHALL
THU 27 LEICESTER DE MONTFORT HALL
FRI 28 CAMBRIDGE CORN EXCHANGE
SAT 29 LONDON OVO ARENA WEMBLEY

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WED 18TH - THE FLEECE, BRISTOL
THU 19 - UNIVERSITY OF WOLVERHAMPTON AT THE WULFRUN HALL, WOLVERHAMPTON
TH
TUESDAY 15 OCTOBER 2024
LONDON PALLADIUM
FRI 20TH - ISLINGTON ASSEMBLY HALL, LONDON
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FRI 15
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YORK
BARBICAN 20/12
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LONDON
NEW THEATRE INDIGO
MON 18
LIVERPOOL AT THE O2
PHILHARMONIC HALL
AEGPRESENTS.CO.UK | AXS.COM
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 MOJO R I S I N G

“People think,
‘These guys must be
really fucked up.’”
BEN ROMANS-HOPCRAFT, FACT SHEET
● For fans of:
WARMDUSCHER The Fall, James Take a shower: Warmduscher
Chance, Renegade (from left) Bleu Ottis, Adam J
Soundwave Harmer, Clams Baker, Ben
● Too Cold To Hold Romans-Hopcraft, Quinn
is Warmduscher’s Whalley and Marley Mackey.
first album on Pete
Doherty’s Strap
Originals label,

ARE LONDON AGENTS OF following stints on

Trashmouth, The
Leaf Label and Bella
are an odd mix, too. In the ’90s
Baker made a name running club

CHAOS WARMDUSCHER Union. “I don’t think

labels can be homes
nights in Manhattan, mentored by
drag queens. Quinn Whalley’s dad
TOO HOT TO HANDLE? any more,” says Ben
Romans-Hopcraft.
“They just can’t
was Noddy Holder’s replacement in
Slade. Multi-instrumentalist Marley
provide that kind of Mackey is the son of the late Pulp
TOOK A LONG hit on the pipe,” in-

“I
to be hanging with these ne’er-do- long-term support. bassist Steve (“He can do anything,”
tones a lugubrious Edinburgh brogue. wells? “Oh no,” says Baker. “She’s There’s no insurance marvel his bandmates, “except
“The 5-MeO-DMT is smoother than proper south London.” Besides, adds policy in music.”
the conventional stuff… I felt my body slowly ● Warmduscher wash his clothes”). Romans-
Romans-Hopcraft, people get the
dissolve into digital dots…” guitarist Adam J Hopcraft is also half of Insecure
wrong impression of Warmduscher Harmer is also in
Describing the “pre-birth experience” Men, a band with schoolmate Saul
from their anarchic shows. Fat White Family.
of a short but profound DMT trip is Irvine Adamczewski – co-founder of Fat
“People think, ‘These guys must “They left him in a
Welsh, providing a spoken-word intro to fifth motorway service White Family and Warmduscher –
be really fucked up,’” he notes, one
Warmduscher album Too Cold To Hold. The
station once,” says whose problems with hard drugs
eyebrow slightly raised. “But the cha- Romans-Hopcraft.
Trainspotting novelist is a big fan of the south and mental health have been well
os of the music is more a reflection of “He was deliberating
London band, having met frontman Clams what ice cream to getdocumented. “He’s a complicated
the environment that we live in.”
Baker and synth-prodder Quinn Whalley on A case in point: on the way to for, like, an hour.” customer,” says Romans-Hopcraft.
● The band used “But I learned so much from Saul.”
a spree in Miami some years back. “It was us, the Ritzy today, the bassist had to to employ noms
Irvine and the producer Arthur Baker,” recalls negotiate a murder scene at the end de Warmduscher.
As a now-stable sextet, Warm-
the singer. “It turns out Irvine’s really into box- of his street. Baker has his own tales Roman-Hopcraft duscher forge into the future,
ing. We text each other about the fights.” of just-surviving in the metropolis.
was ‘Mr Salt-Fingers with UK gigs this autumn and a
Lovecraft’. Quinn US tour booked for February and
Along with languid Warmduscher bassist “In the past, my lyrics have been Whalley was ‘The
Ben Romans-Hopcraft, Baker is dodging a more surreal,” he says. “This time March. In that, they’ve benefited
Witherer’. Clams (real
late-summer downpour in the bar of Brixton’s maybe there’s more reality. Staying name: Craig Higgins) from a government grant to aid
is the holdout. creative exports. It was when the
Ritzy cinema. Sporting a Modelo beer trucker Alive is about seeing family members
cap and a thin Ronald Coleman moustache, go into the military, and 100 per cent KEY TRACKS Sun newspaper inveighed against
he looks like he could land a punch himself. wanting to get out. Weeds In Your
● Big Wilma this insult to the UK taxpayer that
● Midnight Dipper
Today, however, the transplanted Cape Cod Garden came from me nearly getting ● Staying Alive
Warmduscher realised they’d truly
native is cordiality incarnate, enthusing about evicted. I had this stupid idea that I arrived. “They were referencing our
the motley band of artists who’ve helped aug- was gonna plant a bunch of Japanese knot- lyrics like we were gangsters, like
ment Warmduscher’s scuzzy, rumbustious weed to get my revenge on the vendors…” NWA in the ’90s,” chuckles Romans-Hopcraft.
electro-punk, among them Iggy Pop and Kool Musically, Warmduscher’s eclecticism “We were like, This is… gold!”
Keith. Their latest album includes vocal con- hits a peak on the new album – a collision of Danny Eccleston
tributions from Confidence Man singer Grace guitars and beats with inspirations as diverse Too Cold To Hold is released on November 15 by
Stephenson (AKA Janet Planet) and neo-soul as Big Black, Big Fun-era Miles Davis and raw Strap Originals. Warmduscher tour the UK from
star Lianne La Havas. Isn’t the latter too nice South African house variant gqom. The band October 29.

26 MOJO
 
   

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PLUS SPECIAL GUESTS
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          FRI 28 MARCH FRI 18 APRIL SAT 03 MAY FRI 23 MAY
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            SAT 29 MARCH SAT 19 APRIL THU 08 MAY SAT 24 MAY
#+$,$&  ,( $,$& ,'$,$'  #($,$' BELFAST       
        WED 02 APRIL THU 24 APRIL FRI 09 MAY FRI 30 MAY
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THU 03 APRIL FRI 25 APRIL SAT 10 MAY SAT 31 MAY
$($,$&  #)$,$' #$$,$'  $%$,$'
          
       
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       WALSALL       
 ,*$,$& $'$,$'  $'$,$' THU 17 APRIL FRI 02 MAY THU 22 MAY SAT 14 JUNE
               x x   

UK TOUR 2024

+ very special guests

“RETURN TO STEELTOWN” TOUR

MARY
40TH ANNIVERSARY 19842024
+ VERY SPECIAL GUEST
28.11 Manchester
Academy 2 CO UGHLA N
+ special guests 29.11 Birmingham 4 0 T H AN NI V ER S A RY TO U R 2 0 2 5

SAT 07 SEPTEMBER SAT 26 OCTOBER

The Crossing + SPE C I A L GUE ST S
EDINBURGH BUCKLEY SOLD OUT
SOLD OUT FRI 01 NOVEMBER
30.11 Liverpool MON 14 APRIL
FRI 13 SEPTEMBER WARRINGTON Hangar 34 EDINBURGH
SHEFFIELD SAT 02 NOVEMBER TUE 15 APRIL
SAT 14 SEPTEMBER STOKE 01.12 Glasgow LONDON
MIDDLESBROUGH FRI 15 NOVEMBER Days In Europa: WED 16 APRIL
FRI 20 SEPTEMBER BRENTWOOD 45th Anniversary Tour QMU BRISTOL
BURY ST. EDMUNDS SAT 16 NOVEMBER
SAT 21 SEPTEMBER
SWINDON
LINCOLN FRI 8 NOV SAT 23 NOV 03.12 Newcastle FRI 18 APRIL
THU 21 NOVEMBER CARDIFF LIVERPOOL LIVERPOOL
FRI 04 OCTOBER GLASGOW
SAT 9 NOV FRI 6 DEC
Wylam Brewery SAT 19 APRIL
WALSALL FRI 22 NOVEMBER NOTTINGHAM EDINBURGH LEAMINGTON SPA
SAT 05 OCTOBER PERTH 04.12 Cambridge
COVENTRY FRI 15 NOV SAT 7 DEC MON 21 APRIL
SAT 23 NOVEMBER LONDON GLASGOW Junction
TUE 15 OCTOBER ABERDEEN BURY ST EDMUNDS
SOLD OUT THU 12 DEC
FALMOUTH THU 28 NOVEMBER TUE 22 APRIL
WED 16 OCTOBER LONDON
SAT 16 NOV BRISTOL 05.12 Brighton MANCHESTER
BIRMINGHAM FRI 13 DEC
EXETER FRI 29 NOVEMBER Chalk
THU 21 NOV SOUTHAMPTON WED 23 APRIL
THU 17 OCTOBER MARGATE
BOURNEMOUTH NEWCASTLE SAT 14 DEC LEEDS
FRI 25 OCTOBER
SAT 30 NOVEMBER
PETERBOROUGH FRI 22 NOV BRIGHTON
06.12 London THU 24 APRIL
TENBY LEEDS SOLD OUT GATESHEAD

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 MOJO R I S I N G MOJO PLAYLIST

DIG THIS! SHOVEL DANCE

COLLECTIVE’S ANARCHIC
NEW TAKE ON FOLK
TEELEYE SPAN meets Henry Cow meets noise and meditative instrumentals. “It just

S the Wu-Tang Clan? London folk ex-

perimentalists Shovel Dance Collective
have been delivering an esoteric combina-
expanded into this behemoth,” says Evans.
Members kept busy with a huge array of
solo and smaller group projects (Gentle
Listen up for the month’s freedom
songs, indie-grot and bluegrass.
tion of traditional song, improv and political Stranger, caroline, peb, Sullow) while the
consciousness-raising since they were drawn
together for the first time
collective’s second LP slowly came together
over the course of the last
1theWILLIE NELSON DO YOU REALIZE??
Aged 91, reed-strong Willie sees anew
tripping-balls revelations of The Flaming
by the concept of drone two years. A mix of studio Lips’ 2002 gem. Beautiful.
folk around Christmas 2020. “Communication recordings and pieces Find it: streaming services
Drawn from a pool of taped in other spaces (a
with the dead is
hearteningly young musi-
cians, Slade art college kind of baked in.”
church and – in the case of
their Four-Loomed Weaver 2afterSTEVIE NICKS THE LIGHTHOUSE
A grave call to defend women’s rights
the US Supreme Court’s decision to
students and dissident MATAIO AUSTIN DEAN,
– an old warehouse), it
strike down Roe Vs Wade, this moves from
anarcho punks, there are SDC shows that they can do
a whisper to a roar.
nine Shovel Dancers in Lankum-style dour: a Find it: YouTube
total: in alphabetical order, gothic The Worms Crept In,
Mataio Austin Dean (guitar, vocals), Joshua
Barfoot (bodhrán, hammered dulcimer,
apocalyptic closer The Grey Cock. However,
there is a hugely joyous feeling about much 3 KAKTUS EINARSSON
GUMBRI (WITH DAMON
ALBARN)
percussion, vocals), Jacken Elswyth (banjo, of the collection. The
shruti box, vocals), Daniel S Evans (drums, Rolling Wave is gleeful, FACT SHEET Intriguing Icelander and friend
cello, cittern, guitar, piano, pipe organ), Nick their exploded The Merry ● For fans of: rhyme wryly about life’s magic
Lankum, The over mulchy dance-pop. From Lobster Coda,
Granata (organs, vocals), Oliver Hamilton (vio- Golden Tree is ecstatic, Incredible String out this month.
lin, vocals), Fidelma Hanrahan (harp, vocals), while a medley of Kissing’s Band, Crass Find it: YouTube
Tom Hardwick-Allan (harmonica, trombone, Nae Sin/Newcastle/ ● The band’s name

4
was extracted from
vocals), Alex McKenzie (accordion, burdola, Portsmouth exemplifies
traditional North- P.J. HARVEY HOLLOWAY
clarinet, flute, whistles, vocals). their sense of folk as an east mining song From Dickens stage adaption London
Some come from folkie backgrounds, enlightened musical seance. Byker Hill that goes, Tide, actor Bella McLean voices Our Mutual
but by no means all (“My parents are still “The communication “Geordie Johnson Friend’s cash-strapped Bella Wilfer, reflecting
with past generations had a pig, and he hit on what’s valuable, to a pure-P.J. soundtrack.
kind of shocked that I’m doing this,” admits it with a shovel and it
Evans, whose father’s idea of dad rock was and the dead is kind of Find it: YouTube
danced a jig.”
baked into the thing,” says
5EX-VÖID SWANSEA
the Pixies). Drawing in threads from a lot of ● Rough Trade boss

far-left field music (US droners Pelt were Austin Dean. Geoff Travis stepped
in to help finance The Richard and Linda
an early influence on some members), they “I definitely draw some the making of The Thompson of 2020s indie grot
play a bewildering variety of acoustic sort of comfort from think- Shovel Dance; “pump follow up their duets in The
instruments, and offer a new perspective ing about the way people priming” as Elswyth Tubs with this instant classic
on old songs plus an idealistic hive-mind have expressed them- put it, so the band of jangle-pop. Riffs galore that peak Marr
selves through this music; could cover recording would be proud of.
creative vision. costs.
”It’s all both egalitarian and ad hoc,” their joys and sorrows,” ● “We’re all massive
Find it: streaming services
Elswyth says of the Shovel Dancers’ modus adds Elswyth, who feels nerds,” concedes
operandi.
“Often people say, ‘Who’s the boss?’” adds
that by breathing new
life into these songs, the
Evans, who is
currently working up
the courage to invite
6 SEX PISTOLS AND FRANK CARTER
MY WAY
Heartfelt take on the Sid-sung song of finali-
Austin Dean. “And I say, No-one. And they say, Shovel Dance Collective Lankum’s Ian Lynch ty, by the rump Pistols and Rotten’s stand-in,
‘Yeah, but who’s really in charge?’ And I’m like, are drawing the dead into – apparently a fellow live in September. To all absent friends.
a new musical conversa- enthusiast – to join
Honestly, no-one.” him for a session of
Find it: YouTube
That might explain the band’s unruly tion: “We’re playing with
7
table-top wizarding
recording career. Their moody 2022 debut them, even though they’re game Magic The BILLY STRINGS ESCANABA
The Water Is The Shovel To The Shore was an not there.” Gathering. Lightning-fingered highlight of the guitar
Jim Wirth prodigy/weed proselytiser’s new Highway
EP that got dangerously out of hand, the KEY TRACKS Prayers LP. A bluegrass Django Reinhardt
Shovel Dancers communing through Shovel Dance Collective’s The ● The Merry Golden
gone prog. Loosely.
lockdown isolation to forge a double Shovel Dance is out October Tree
● Kissing’s Nae Find it: streaming services
LP-length collection of trad songs, riverside 11 on American Dreams. Sin/Newcastle/
Portsmouth
● The Grey Cock 8LES HOMMES
SONORISSIMA BAY
The London organ trio bring
mesmeric bongo exotica for
mental flights of fancy. From
molto bene new album Sì, Così.
Find it: YouTube

9 BOB DYLAN DESOLATION ROW

Dylan live in Buffalo gives a rare outing
to his storied classic, and whacks his mic
Pamela Springsteen, Jordan Reyes

stand with a spanner while he’s at it.

Industrial Dylan!
Find it: YouTube

Ace of spades:
10 WEST 11 THE GREATER THE LOVE
Ex-Lush/JAMC bassist Phil King and Beth
‘Moon Safari’ Hirsch combine for indie-groov-
Shovel Dance
Collective converse ing uplift. From LP Atlantic Coast Highway.
with the deceased. Find it: streaming services

MOJO 29
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 THE MOJO INTERVIEW

The percussive force of the

Faces, Small Faces, The Who
and more on “cuddly” Don
Arden, plans with Rod
and Ron, and the tragic
roll call of fallen comrades.
“Too young… too young,”
laments Kenney Jones.
Interview by TOM DOYLE • Portrait by TOM OLDHAM

N EAST END LAD STANDING ON THE held on tight throughout the joyride that was the Small Faces’ four-
manicured pitch of his Hurtwood Park Polo year career, before the band messily morphed into the Faces. Down
Club in Surrey, where he has wielded a mallet the years, he enjoyed a parallel existence as a sessioneer for Chuck
alongside the royal formerly known as Prince Berry, Joan Armatrading, The Rolling Stones and Status Quo.
Charles, Kenney Jones still can’t quite believe Famously, he became The Who’s drummer after Keith Moon’s
the journey he’s been on. “I was saying this shock death in 1978.
morning,” he grins, “‘Fucking hell, I’m 76 next week, and what the Looking back,KHVD\VWKHRQO\WLPHKHHYHUIHOWWKDWIDPHLQÁDW-
fuck has happened to me? What am I doing here?’” ed his head was as a young lad returning as a Small Face to his local
The septuagenarian drummer discovered his equestrian skills pub in Stepney. “Every Sunday lunchtime I’d have a drink with my
by chance in the 1960s, when Small Faces frontman Steve Marriott dad, seeing all my mates. I was telling them, ‘I’ve been to Germany,’
booked the band riding lessons in Epping Forest. “They all fell off, dah dah dah. One day, everybody was not really talking to me. My
and I stayed on,” Jones remembers. “And then I got hooked on it.” dad said, ‘Every time we see you, it’s all about you.’ So, I thought,
When he turned 70 in 2018, he played his last polo match. “It is I’m not going to do this any more.”
dangerous,” he laughs. “Very dangerous. So you’ve got to be taught This ego-free attitude is much in evidence today, particularly
properly. Most of the time, you’re not looking forward, you’re look- when he relates his favourite tale about Britain’s current monarch.
ing behind you.” “We’d played a match, and I was having a pee,” he smiles. “I said
Jockey-sized and sporting a black, Ronnie Wood-designed shirt to my son, ‘Has Prince Charles gone?’ I hear this voice saying, ‘No,
white-printed with images of the Faces, Jones is meeting MOJO he’s still here’… it was Prince Charles. I was so surprised I turned
to celebrate the release of the new Faces At The round and pissed on his boots.” He stops for a
BBC box set of the band’s radio sessions. While WE’RE NOT WORTHY beat. “He’s still got ’em…”
the group earned a reputation for their loose, Your mum was an engraver and cutter in a
thrilling rock’n’roll and drunken shenanigans, Zak Starkey, Ringo’s lad, glass factory, your dad a lorry driver. Was there
Tom Oldham, Tim Mosenfelder/Getty

Jones says these recordings capture the Faces at on a drumming mentor. much music in the house?
their slightly less inebriated best. “My dad gave me one Nah. My mum and dad used to scratch their heads
lesson, but whenever and go, “What the fuck have we given birth to
“We still went to the pub,” he says. “But be- Kenney was around he’d here?” They wondered where it came from. The
cause it was radio, and we were playing live, we show me something to only way I can trace it back is my great, great
had to just keep it together.” learn. If you listen to grandfather was a sergeant major in the Boer War
Ogdens’, his fills were
On a stool at the bar of his rustic club house, amazing. He can bump
and he played harmonica.
-RQHVUHFDOOVSOD\LQJRQKLVÀUVWKLW:KDWFKD and grind, with incredible fills. It’s a bit like The Krays were distant cousins on your father’s
Gonna Do About It, aged 15. From there, he my dad on uppers, even though Kenney
didn’t do drugs. He’s brilliant… one of the
side, and you’re sure you must have met ➢
greatest British rock’n’roll drummers.”
MOJO 33
 ➣
them alongside other East End ‘rogues’… ’cos it’s easier.” So we went into J60 [music shop Nah nah nah. I can’t imagine him being tough.
Ever felt you might have been drawn into a in Manor Park, East London] and a cocky little In the ’50s and ’60s, it was all the rage to be a
criminal life? guy said, “Can I help you?” So we said, “He wants gangster. So Don Arden wanted to be one of
Oh, yeah. I mean, playing drums saved my life. to try bass.” I saw this white drum kit and I said, them. When we first met him, he said, “I can sing
I often wonder what I would have done. I was “Shit, I like that.” I started playing it, and Ronnie opera,” and he comes out with this (hooting
a nasty little tea leaf when I was a kid (laughs). started playing bass. This guy, who turned out noise). Woah, fucking hell (laughs). He was a bit
to be Steve Marriott, picked up a guitar. The like that.
You stole a Lambretta when you were 11? shop’s full of people now and we ended up
almost getting thrown out of it because we But it’s true about him having Robert
Yeah, with my mates. The clutch was broken on
were creating such noise. So we invited Steve to Stigwood hung out of a window when he
it, so we repaired the clutch, and we got caught
a Pioneers gig in a pub across Tower Bridge. He tried to poach the band?
with it. The guy got his Lambretta back and he
said, “What the fuck? It’s in better nick than I got on the piano and then all of a sudden, he Oh yeah, it happened. Someone else was
had it before.” was singing away, and it was like… “Fuck!” His hanging him out, not him. Basically, he was a bit
voice was amazing. He stood on top of the paranoid. That’s why we never went to America
What was the first music that blew your piano and his feet broke one of the keys, so the because he was frightened to let us go
mind? landlord threw us all out. We ended up sitting anywhere out of his sight.
Skiffle. We had a little TV, looked like a big on the curb, waiting for my dad to pick me up
eyeball and this guy come on with a banjo. And in his Ford Anglia. The three of us just looked at This is when the ‘e’ gets added into your
that was Lonnie Donegan. When I heard Rock each other and burst out laughing. And that was name to avoid confusion with other
Island Line, aw, that was it. to me the birth of the Small Faces. musicians on the Performing Rights Society
register. Yet you were still sometimes
At the dawn of the ’60s, you’re there for the Weirdly, you’d had a recurring dream about credited on records as “Kenny”?
the three of you performing on TV?
birth of Mod. It was a reaction to rockers? There were a few people in the PRS called Kenny
Yeah, I saw Steve Marriott as clear as day.
Yeah, the Italians brought the scooters over, and Jones, Kenneth Jones, there must have been
Before I’d even met him. It’s strange, innit.
they also brought the Cuban heels. And they about seven. They were forever getting each
It’s a premonition. The Small Faces, we had this
looked great. I always say a Mod developed out other’s royalties. I said, “Well, tell you what, stick
wonderful telepathy between us. He never told
of a rocker. an ‘e’ in mine.” That’s how it came about. The
me what to play. I never told him what to play.
None of us. We just knew what to do. fact is, I like it without ‘e’. But if I leave the ‘e’ out,
The first instrument to attract you was a
the amount of stick I get for that…
banjo that you saw in a pawn shop window.
Don Arden comes into the picture, and you
But then a mate said another friend had a Take us to the house the Small Faces shared
negotiate a management/record deal with
drum kit and he brought it over to your in Pimlico. Chaos? Not much sleep?
him. But you later discover that he was
house. A revelation? charging everything he spent against your No (laughs). None at all. I had my own room
Well it turned out to be a bass drum, a floor paltry shared 1.5 per cent royalty. You’ve there but I thought, I’m gonna get no fucking
tom-tom, and two sticks, one of them broken said he screwed you. sleep here. So I’d sleep at my house in the East
in half. So I started playing it on one and a Well, I don’t think he meant to screw us, but he End. I’d go round Pimlico and McCartney might
half sticks. probably had a lot of debts. I don’t know. As you be there, or Jagger, spliffing away. So it was
You met Ronnie Lane via his brother Stan, get older, you get wiser. I’m constantly making great… I used to have a great night’s sleep,
which led to your first bands The Outcasts excuses for him because he was a big teddy wake up, go round there and they’d all be (loud
and The Pioneers in ’64-65. Then you and bear. He was a bit of a father figure, in a sense. snoring noise), sparko on the floor.
Lane had a chance jam with the sales He said, “Boys, I’ll look after your money.” As
Ronnie Lane said, “Yeah, you certainly fucking Sha-La-La-La-Lee in 1966 reframes the Small
assistant in a music shop… Faces as a pop band and not everyone,
did an’ all!”
Ronnie had a Gretsch guitar, and it was really particularly keyboard player Ian McLagan,
too much for him. He said, “I want to play bass, So Arden wasn’t as tough as his reputation? was comfortable with that?

A LIFE IN PICTURES 2 3
If the Face fits: Kenney down the years.

1 Lazy Sunday: a young

Kenney Jones, with chum. 7 It was only rock’n’roll:
Jones with The Rolling
Stones’ Charlie Watts in 1983.
2 Portrait of a beatmaster:
Jones behind his kit for a
Small Faces TV appearance, 8 Stay with me: the three
remaining Faces, Ronnie
Copenhagen, 1966. Wood, Kenney Jones and Rod
Stewart, reunite at the Brit
3 Gone nuts: Ogdens-era
Small Faces in London, Awards, February 18, 2020.
1968 (from left) Ian McLagan,
Ronnie Lane, Kenney Jones,
Steve Marriott.
9 “The cuteness took over”:
Jones grins and bears it
during the peak of the Small
Faces’ pop phase, 1966.
4 Five guys walk into a bus:
the Faces reckon
it’s someone else’s
round, September 1971
(from left) Jones, Rod 1 4
Stewart, Ronnie Wood,
McLagan, Lane.

5 Face dancing:
The Who in 1981
(from left) Pete
Courtesy of Kenney Jones, Alamy Getty (7)

Townshend, Kenney
Jones, Roger Daltrey,
John Entwistle.

6 Groovy chukka:
Jones in action
during the Asprey
World Class Cup,
Hurtwood Park Polo
Club, Ewhurst Green,
Surrey, July 17, 2010.

34 MOJO
Well, by this time, we could all play a lot better. ’68, Marriott quits then heads off with one. And part of your emotion goes.
We would jam all the time to Jimmy McGriff and Frampton to form Humble Pie. Did it all feel
Ray Charles and Booker T And The M.G.’s. But quite sudden? You’re rehearsing in the Stones’ gear storage
once you get a cute little set of boys all the same space in Bermondsey and Ronnie Lane
I don’t think it was that sudden. I used to love invites Ronnie Wood, who in turn brings in
age, the cuteness took over. Frampton’s playing. For me when he started to Rod Stewart, and the Faces are born. A new
You split with Arden and Stones manager play it was like a flower opening. I didn’t realise lease of life instantly?
Andrew Loog Oldman comes in, signing you that Steve and Peter were connecting. And so I
Yeah. Rod didn’t sing at all [at first]. Sat on the
to his Immediate label. Did you feel think Steve saw a way out.
amps. Then he’d look at his watch and go, “Pub’s
empowered by Oldham? You felt “short changed” when it came to the open.” So we went down to the Bermondsey
We were young, and kind of impressed with end of the Small Faces and believe if you’d Arms, got pissed on brandy. One day I said,
him. He had a Rolls-Royce Phantom with a toured Ogdens the band would’ve gone to “Rod, can I have a quiet word? You fancy joining
phone in it. Really impressive. It worked as well. the next level? the band?” He went, “Fucking hell, you think
It had a big battery that took up all everyone would let me?” I said [to
the boot. He was really into music, the rest of the group], “I’ve asked
so he was geeing us up. Rod to join the band.” Little old me,
The band embraced psychedelia
with ’67’s Itchycoo Park and then
“I saw Steve Marriott y’know. The quiet one. They all
went, “Oh, no, we don’t want
’68’s Odgens’ Nut Gone Flake. But
you only experienced acid once
as clear as day. another prima donna… another
Steve Marriott walking out on us.”
I just held my ground, and I won.
when the band spiked you?
Oh, yeah, IBC Studio. I don’t know
Before I’d even met But Rod already had a solo deal
in place with Mercury. Did that
what came over me. It was awful. I
went, “Look at my left hand!” I got
too out of it. All I know is that was it.
him. It’s strange, innit. imbalance the band from the off?
You felt he was holding back
“Don’t come near me with any of
that fucking junkie shit.” Drummers
It’s a premonition.” some of his best material for his
solo records?
can’t do that. I’ve thought about that quite a lot.
Yes, I think he was. I think everyone’s guilty of it.
Oldham mixed and released Lazy Sunday Oh, I think so, yeah. If we’d have stayed together Every frontman. ’Cos if they’re doing solo stuff,
without your permission, and you all hated and done what The Who did with Tommy, they’ve got to deliver albums.
the idea of it as a single. Were you still angry maybe America would’ve opened their doors
even after it was a Number 2 hit? for us, and we could have gone on to do better The band’s irreverent, knockabout vibe was
Yeah, because we were trying to lose this things. But I think what happened was when we always part of your charm. But was it also
teenybopper image. It put fuel to the fire. It was finished Ogdens, we thought, “How the fuck are your weakness? Did you not look like you
only a bit of fun in the studio. When we were in we going to top this?” So that was going took it seriously enough?
Germany, we read about it in Melody Maker or through Steve’s mind as well… all our minds, I’m still confused to this day ’cos it’s a bit of a
somewhere like that. “We’ve got a hit record in but especially it got to him. drunken blur (grins). No, I think, because we had
the charts? Oh fuck me, it’s that piece of shit.” Did you feel betrayed by Marriott when such a rapport with the audience, the party
We weren’t very happy with Andrew. Lazy he left? atmosphere, they went with it. And there
Sunday… I can’t stand it to this day. were times when we were sober enough to
I did a bit, yeah. It was like losing one of your play properly…
Marriott wanted Peter Frampton to join the soulmates, one of your brothers. Not just a
band, but Ronnie Lane and Ian McLagan friend, but part of you. When you’re playing, Did your own drinking intensify when you
were totally against the idea. At the end of all your emotions as musicians become as were in the band? ➢

8
 “As you get older, you
get wiser”: Kenney Jones,
➣ still happy to have been a
You couldn’t help but do it. I love brandy Story organised by Paul McCartney. How did
part of it, Hurtwood Park
and Coke. Port and brandy as well. I’ll never Keith seem? Polo Club, Ewhurst Green,
forget when we were touring America, and they I said, “How you been?” He said, “Yeah, great. I’m Surrey, September 9, 2024.
had this new beer called Löwenbräu. I drank so not taking any drugs, and I’ve stopped drinking
much of that, when I was playing, the sweat felt completely.” I turn the TV on in the morning,
sticky. It was the Löwenbräu coming out. and the news came on: “Keith Moon was found
By Ooh La La in ’73, Rod was distracted and dead in his flat last night.” I said, “What the fuck?
apparently didn’t turn up for the first two I just left him. He’s up to mischief again.” I never
weeks of the sessions. Then he slated the LP believed it. Then I found out it was real. Keith’s
in the press as “a stinking rotten album”. funeral was in Golders Green, and I didn’t want
Not long after, Ronnie Lane quit… Were to see anyone. So I crept up, I did a little poem,
the Faces not really viable without him? little bunch of flowers, and I just left it and
nipped out, so no one knew I was there.
It didn’t really work. As Rod said to me, “When
Ronnie left the band, the spirit of the band left.” You initially turned down the offer to be his
replacement in The Who because you were
Free’s Tetsu Yamauchi replaced Lane on in the early stages of working with your new
bass. He too apparently enjoyed a drink? band, Lazy Racer?
Oh, a bottle of Teacher’s every fucking day. He’d I got a call from [Who manager] Bill Curbishley
go on-stage and when he was sober, he was and he said, “Kenney, The Who have had a
fine. But he’d end up leaning against the amp, meeting, Pete, Roger and John. They want you
that sort of thing. to join the band. They’re not considering
In ’73, you play on the Stones’ It’s Only Rock anyone else.” I said, “That’s quite a compliment,
’N Roll (But I Like It) which comes out of a jam but I can’t.” He said, “Well, Pete’s coming into
session you have with Jagger at Ronnie
Wood’s home studio… SMALL WONDERS
We all lived around Richmond Park. So, as soon
as I’ve got one foot into bed, the phone would The best of Kenney on the
ring. “Kenney, we haven’t got a drummer.” kit. By Tom Doyle.
(Blearily) “All right, Ronnie, I’ll be right round.”
You’d go round and one night Clapton would be THE PSYCHEDELIC URCHINS
there, another night Bob Dylan would be there. Small Faces
I get this phone call again; drive nervously
around the park ’cos I’d had a brandy and Coke. ★★★★★
I get round there and there was just me and Ogdens’ Nut Gone Flake
(IMMEDIATE, 1968)
Jagger in the studio. Don’t forget it’s about four
o’clock in the fucking morning now. We were Recorded in fits and starts over
playing and Jagger said, “Oh, I like that, play it five months, the Small Faces’
like that.” I said, “It’s only rock’n’roll.” He said, magnum opus was broken into
“But I like it.” It was daylight when I left, and I two parts: the ‘straighter’ side
thought nothing more about it. I kept thinking one and the conceptual
about Charlie when I was there. What would second side, Happiness Stan,
Charlie do? When I found out they were going in which professional garbler Stanley Unwin
related the tale of the titular character’s
to release it as a single, I said, “I only did it as a
attempts to find the missing half of the moon.
fucking demo.” I called up Charlie and said,
Jones’s drumming drives it all along: see his
“I really didn’t want this to happen, man, I’m ever-shifting rolls in the title track and the way
sorry.” He said, “No it’s OK, Kenney. It sounds Afterglow explodes.
like me anyway.” (Laughs) Only Charlie would
be so gracious. THE BOOZY BROTHERHOOD
Small Faces tried to reunite with the original Faces
line-up in the mid ’70s. How soon did Ronnie
Lane and Steve Marriott start arguing?
★★★★ the office this afternoon… come and see him.”
I was always happy to see Pete ’cos we were so
A Nod Is As Good As A Wink… close. We talked for about two hours about the
Straight away they didn’t get on. By that time To A Blind Horse
there’d been the space between us, and Ronnie good old days. Then Pete went, “You’ve got to
(WARNER BROS, 1971)
became more Ronnie, and Steve became join the band. You’re one of us.” When I did join,
The Faces’ third was their most I said, “Well, I’m not going to copy Keith Moon.”
more Steve.
cohesive, and successful I could only play me.
Was the Small Faces’ reunion without Lane, (Number 2 in the UK, Number 6
which produced two poor-selling albums in the States). Rod’s summer Was it an almost impossible task?
(1977’s Playmates and ’78’s 78 In The Shade), ’71 solo hit with Maggie May Well, I never felt like I was taking his place.
worthwhile in any way? hadn’t hurt, and as a result, People would say, “What’s it like to fill Keith’s
touring in America, as Jones notes, “We were
We shouldn’t have done it. It didn’t seem shoes?” I’d say, “Nah… wrong fucking shoe size
bigger than the Stones, which is unbelievable.”
complete. My soul was not totally in it. It was for a start.”
Low-slung opener Miss Judy’s Farm set the
just around about the punk time. Steve was, like, tone, thrillingly speeding up partway through, You took some flak from fans and critics
gobbing all over everybody and swearing. I just while Stay With Me demonstrated Jones’s during the subsequent tour. That must have
thought, “Oh fuck, I don’t like this.” penchant for swing over flash. been frustrating.
Hiring boozy, unpredictable ex-Thunderclap THE WOUNDED WARHORSE It was unfair. No one had enough time to mourn
Newman/Wings guitarist Jimmy McCulloch the death of Keith, ’cos it happened too quick.
in the latter stages of the reunion… was that The Who
a bit, “Here we go again…?” ★★★ The disaster in Cincinnati at the Riverside
Coliseum on December 3, 1979 – where 11
Oh Jimmy was great. He was the only breath of Face Dances fans were killed in a crush – must have been
fresh air in that. He wasn’t really a nutter; he’d (POLYDOR, 1981)
a horrible thing to happen around the band.
just get out of it. He was a great guitarist, great Jones’s heavy, groovy playing You didn’t find out until you came off-stage?
to play with… I’ll never forget going to his is a stark contrast to the late
funeral, and Steve’s. It’s kind of weird, just being Keith Moon’s fiery flailing, and What happened was all around the building
there, going, “Oh fuck, they’re not here any his fills, particularly on You were so many doors that should have been left
more.” Too young… too young. Better You Bet, are of a more open, and they weren’t. Two buses arrived late,
orchestral bent. John and we’d already started playing. So, they
You and Keith Moon were pals from the days Entwistle’s The Quiet One was meanwhile rushed down this flight of stairs… I knew
when The Who and the Small Faces toured inspired by a metal-y beat he heard Jones something was up. It was weird, because I didn’t
Tom Oldham

together in the ’60s. You saw Moon the night playing. But for the drummer, the kit sound see anyone on the side of the stage. Then Bill
before his death in September ’78, when you Eagles producer Bill Szymczyk achieved in the Curbishley, as soon we’d done the last song,
attended a screening of The Buddy Holly studio was unsatisfactory, sounding to his ears Won’t Get Fooled Again, shouts out, “Come
wet and “pudding”-like.

36 MOJO
“People would say, ‘What’s it like to fill Keith Moon’s
shoes?’ I’d say, Nah… wrong fucking shoe size.”
straight off… no encore!” We were straight in Stadium in 1986, when you joined Rod Some are great. Some are not. And we’re
the dressing room, and he told us what had on-stage. Bill Wyman stepped in on bass and discovering [older] stuff all the time. I’ve got
happened. And it seemed like the whole room Ronnie Lane stuck to singing due to his loads of my multi-tracks. I’ve got about 350,
filled up with water. debilitating MS. An emotional night? same with Woody. So we’ve got to try and go in
Very emotional. ’Cos all of us were more worried the studio and listen to it all and be inspired by
You say you “virtually taught” Ringo’s son other ideas. Also, if we can get some tracks
Zak Starkey to play drums? You gave him and concerned about Ronnie than anything
together with Ronnie [Lane] and Mac on them,
one of Moon’s old kits when he was learning else. Losing Ronnie [Lane passed in 1997] was a
even better.
to play? big problem for me. We started everything so it
was kind of strange. Would you be up for one last world tour?
I was talking to Zak one day, and Maureen his
mum. He said, “Keith kept saying he was gonna Then you, Rod and Ronnie Wood performed ’Course. Fucking right! What, are you going to
give me his drum kit, the white one.” So when I here at the polo club in 2015 and then rehearse for two or three weeks and just do one
was rehearsing one day at Shepperton Studios, reunited again for the Brit Awards in 2020. show? Nah. But the emotional side of it is the
I said, “Put it in the van.” So we drove it over to Any chance of more shows? fact that Ronnie and Mac are not there. We were
Zak, set it up in his front room. It took up all the thinking, “Who’s going to take the place of
It’s always being talked about, all the time. Mac?” Steve Winwood came up. It’d be lovely.
fucking room. When he came home from school
People want it more than we realise. So let’s put Watch this space.
I said, “Zak, I’ve got a surprise for you.” He
it this way, we’re getting closer and closer.
couldn’t believe it, all these drums. He was 13, Ultimately, when you look back, any regrets?
14, something like that. Ronnie has talked up the possibility of a new
No, no regrets. I’m just happy to be alive
Faces album, made up of fresh material
So did it feel somehow like fate that Zak and here.
would end up in The Who in ’96? Or was it a [from 2021] and unreleased songs from the
bit weird? past. How’s that going? And your proudest achievements?
It was fine. When he joined The Who, I thought, It’s taking a long time. Basically, Woody and I I sum it up this way – the Small Faces were the
Great, good on you. have been in the studio together – he plays most creative band I’ve ever been in; the Faces
guitar, and I play drums to it, then Ronnie plays were the most jovial and drunken and
Down the years there have been sporadic bass, and that’s about it, and we hang on to wonderful; and The Who were the most
Faces reunions. The first was at Wembley these ideas. We’ve done about 10 or 11 tracks. exciting. So, I’m happy to have been part of it. M

MOJO 37
 N A MUGGY EVENING IN SUBTROPICAL BRISBANE IN JUNE 1976, A
surly band of late-teenagers collectively known as The Saints entered a local
studio, in a despairing effort to make their roar of frustration heard.
Even within Australia, their home city was regarded as a backwards
country town by the more sophisticated folks in Sydney and Melbourne, and
its state government under Queensland’s right-wing premier Joh Bjelke-
Petersen was notoriously repressive, using state-of-emergency measures to
quash trades union and anti-war demonstrations.
After convening at Corinda State High School in 1971, singer Chris
%DLOH\JXLWDULVW(G.XHSSHUDQGGUXPPHU,YRU+D\KDGDOUHDG\EHHQFKLVHOOLQJDWDÀHUFHDXUDO
UHVSRQVHWRWKHJHRSROLWLFDOVLWXDWLRQIRUÀYH\HDUVWKHLUGLVVDWLVIDFWLRQIXUWKHUH[DFHUEDWHGE\
Brisbane’s moribund music scene. Lame boogie-rock covers combos prevailed, and venue book-
ers shunned The Saints for not playing ball.
“In Australia generally, nobody took native bands or the potential of music here seriously,” says
Mick Harvey, who, along with Nick Cave, saw a life-changing Saints gig at Melbourne’s Tiger Room
LQ$SULO·ZKLFKGLUHFWO\LQÁXHQFHGWKHLUEDQG7KH%LUWKGD\3DUW\´,WZDVDOO2OLYLD1HZWRQ
John, and Howzat by Sherbet. The Saints were really in the vanguard of changing all that.”
Forced to cut their teeth live via rowdy parties at the city centre shopfront they’d occupied on
Petrie Terrace, they routinely played to 20 or 30 mates who all agreed they’d got one song which
channelled the youthful anger they felt in Brisbane – isolated, disenfranchised, hopeless. For
them, (I’m) Stranded nailed it.
Credit in here

With zero prospects of reaching more people even locally, Kuepper, who’d
Nowhere to run to:
The Saints in Brisbane,
left school at 16 to work in the distribution warehouse at Astor Records,
Australia, 1976 (from left) struck upon the idea of recording and releasing the song themselves. ➢
Ed Kuepper, Chris Bailey,
Ivor Hay, Kym Bradshaw.
MOJO 39
 Angelic upstarts: The Saints rocking Club 76, their
live-in venue at 4 Petrie Terrace, Brisbane, (from
left) Bailey, Kuepper, Hay, Bradshaw; (insets) 1976
original punk blueprints (from left) Ramones, The
Saints’ self-released 45, The Damned’s New Rose.

➣
“Making a record was a world of mystery to us,” says Kuep- N ALBUM RELEASED IN THE 1990s STYLED THE SAINTS
per today, “until I noticed these people coming into Astor to have as ‘The Most Primitive Band In The World’. Recorded on a
custom pressings done – usually country & western or folk singers. mono cassette deck in Kuepper’s parents’ garage in 1974, it
It was amazing, you could bring in a tape, and later go out with a captures the formative ensemble blasting through tracks destined
whole pile of records.” for February 1977’s full-length debut, (I’m) Stranded, plus a couple
So, in September ’76 they collectively stumped up 500 dollars of R&B covers, with a corrosive sound predating Transatlantic punk
for studio hire and another 500 for manufacture of a single, blasted by a clear two years. As with other prescient acts including Ohio’s
out (I’m) Stranded and B-side No Time in a few hours, and eagerly Rocket From The Tombs and Ontario’s Simply Saucer, there’s a
awaited the end product of this magical process. wonderful romance about these wayward youths incubating proto-
“When we got the box of records in at Petrie Terrace,” says Hay, punk in isolation.
“we put one on the record player, and the world just sort of lit “It was a quest to make our own culture,” says Kuepper, “to
up. Ed, Chris, me, and all our friends, went outside and danced have something that was valid. I bought Funhouse by The Stooges
around in the street in the rain, so elated that we’d got this far – the in 1971, on the strength of one of the worst reviews I had ever read
single worked!” of a record, and that was kind of the shining light. At my instiga-
At 48 years’ distance, (I’m) Stranded still resonates as a singular WLRQWKHUHZDVDFHUWDLQWUDVK\DHVWKHWLFOLNLQJPLG·V(OYLVÀOPV
Jennifer Fay Gow, Richard Bellia/Dalle/IconicPix, George Bodnar Archive/IconcPix, Bleddyn Butcher

howl from the void. It quickly transpired, however, that The Saints [they’d cover Kissin’ Cousins], just because you knew it would rub
were not alone. Similar feral energies were bubbling in Anglo- people the wrong way. All this stuff is what bonded us.”
American rock: two or three weeks earlier, the Ramones’ debut There was, however, a deeper bond between Kuepper and com-
long-player landed from New York, and the following month, The bustible frontman Bailey.
Damned’s New Rose became UK punk rock’s inaugural waxing. “Chris was born in Kenya, but had this Northern Irish parental
:LWKLQDIHZPRQWKVWKHIRXUÀUHEUDQGVZHUHWUDQVSODQWHG background, quite political,” says Hay. “He had one brother and
10,000 miles away to London, where their confrontational atti- ÀYHVLVWHUVZKRDOOGRWHGRQKLPDQGRQHRIWKHP0DUJDUHWZDV
WXGHSURYHGWREHLQVXIÀFLHQWDUPRXUDJDLQVWWKHEUXWDO%ULWLVK involved with the feminist movement. He also had ties with the lo-
record business. cal Communist Party and the Anti-Vietnam Moratorium.
Under fire, they cut three fast-evolving albums whose “Then, Ed’s parents were immigrants from Bremen, Germany,
VXEVHTXHQWLQÁXHQFHKDVEHHQFRORVVDORQDUWLVWVIURP&DYHDQG which had been bombed to hell in the war – literally, young refugees
Mudhoney through to contemporary Aussie punks Amyl & The coming to a new country with Ed under their arm. I think they
Sniffers, while a copy of their self-released 45 has been archived both found commonality in a disconnectedness they’d both come
at their home country’s equivalent of the Smithsonian Institute WKURXJKDQGWKHPXVLFWKDWFDPHRXWUHÁHFWHGWKHJURZWKWKH\
as a totem of indigenous rock. Next month, a vinyl box set is due, found in each other.”
consisting of their debut album – also (I’m) Stranded – plus a demo For their initial songs, Kuepper would write a verse and a cho-
mix, contemporaneous singles and live tracks from 1977 shows in UXV%DLOH\DGGHGO\ULFVDQGWKH\·GÀQLVKWKHPFROOHFWLYHO\LQUH-
Sydney and London. It’s an overdue reminder of their potency and hearsals, which, their guitarist adds, “were diligent, not just drunk-
enduring value. fests”. Often short of a bassist, Kuepper and Hay discovered a
At the time, though, none of The Saints’ evident strengths could unique, combined rhythmic propulsion.
save them from bitter ruin. (I’m) Stranded came to Kuepper as he sat on a railway platform

40 MOJO
 Doing the robot: (clockwise
from main) The Saints kill it
at London’s Marquee, autumn
1977 (fom left) Bailey, Algy
Ward, Kuepper, Hay; solo-era
Ed Kuepper; mid-’80s vintage
Bailey in Paris; (insets) unholy
spirit of ’76 vibes from
Sherbet and Deep Purple.

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GLR%UXFH:LQGRZZKLFKPDMRUHGLQDGYHUWLVLQJMLQJOHV WKHKDUGZRUGµRQWKHLU$QWLSRGHDQFROOHDJXHVWRVHFXUH7KH6DLQWV
´,WZDVDWUDFNSODFHYHUJLQJRQWKHSRNH\VLGHµ.XHSSHU RQDWKUHHDOEXPFRQWUDFW
UHFDOOV´DQGZHORDGHGLQXQGHUFRYHURIGDUNQHVV7KHHQJLQHHU %\HDUO\'HFHPEHUDVWKH$QDUFK\EXVWUXQGOHGIUXLWOHVVO\
0DUN0RIIDWWPDGHLWFOHDUWKDWKHGHÀQLWHO\GLGQ·WOLNHZKDWZH DFURVV(QJODQGDQG:DOHV.XHSSHUDQGFRZHUHEDFNLQ%UXFH
ZHUHGRLQJPXVLFDOO\EXWKHZDVDJHQHURXVIHOORZDQGHYHQOHQW :LQGRZZLWK(0,$XVWUDOLD·VLQKRXVHSURGXFHU5RG&RHEDVKLQJ
PHDEHWWHUDPSWKDQWKHRQH,KDG:HUHFRUGHGDQGPL[HGWKH RXWDIXUWKHUQLQHVRQJVDVOLYHLQWZRGD\VIRUWKHXQFRPSURPLVLQJ
WZRWUDFNVIRUWKHVLQJOHWKDWQLJKWLQDERXWÀYHRUVL[KRXUVµ (I’m) Stranded /3
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JHVWHGWKDWWKHUHFRUGLQJVQHHGHGEHHÀQJXS7KH\KDVWLO\PXOWL- ZHUHWKHULJKWEDQGDWWKHULJKWWLPHEXWLQWKHZURQJSODFH,Q
WUDFNHG.XHSSHU·VJXLWDURUPRUHWLPHVHDFKWUDFNYHU\VOLJKWO\ HDUO\ -XQH EDUHO\ LQWR WKHLU WZHQWLHV WKH IRXU \RXQJVWHUV
RXWRISKDVH´WRJHWWKLVUHDOO\WKLFNZDOORIVRXQGµ ZHUHSDFNHGRIIWR/RQGRQZLWKVFDQWPDQDJHULDOJXLGDQFHRU ➢

MOJO 41
Product placement:
The Saints contain
their delight at
being in Plymouth,
June 29, 1977 (from
left) Kuepper, Bailey,
Bradshaw, Hay.

Saints alive: Bailey and

Kuepper reunited at the Forum,
Melbourne, January 14, 2009;
(above) The Saints in March
1982 (from left) Janine Hall,
Bailey, Ian Shedden; (inset)
Wuthering Heights, AKA This
Perfect Day’s chart nemesis.

➣
professional experience. Within a mere 16 any stock in the shops. After that, it felt like it be-
months, they had imploded. came this self-perpetuating thing, like, ‘If you’re
QRWPRYLQJXSZH·OOMXVWIRFXVRQRWKHUDUWLVWV·µ
HE SAINTS WERE WAY AHEAD OF THE
punk curve: their disdain for mid-’70s rock; FTER THEIR INITIAL SHOWS IN THE
the DIY release to circumnavigate the main- 8.DQG(XURSH.XHSSHUDQG+D\ÁHZEDFN
stream biz (four months before Buzzcocks’ Spiral down under to collect more belongings,
Scratch EP); and even the multitracked wall-of- ZKLOH%DLOH\GDWLQJDQ(0,SXEOLFLVWVWD\HGRQ
guitars characteristically purloined by Steve Jones With the mood increasingly sullen, Bradshaw quit
for Never Mind The Bollocks, Here’s The Sex Pistols. WRMRLQ7KH/XUNHUVWKHQ&DSWDLQ6HQVLEOH·VVROR
So they had plenty going for them when they land- band, before leaving music for investment banking.
HGLQ%OLJKW\EXWRQDQLQWHUSHUVRQDOOHYHOWKH\ZHUHIDWDOO\ÁDZHG “I was more comfortable working with other people,” he says.
´$WWKHEHJLQQLQJµUHÁHFWV+D\´&KULVDQG(GUHDOO\VXSSRUWHG With Alasdair ‘Algy’ Ward – later of The Damned – substituting
HDFKRWKHULQWKHLURZQZD\,WZDVQ·WWKDW&KULVZDVVHFUHWLYHEXW on bass, The Saints’ autumn tour played out under a bombard-
WKHUHZDVDUHKHDUVDORQHWLPHLQ(G·VJDUDJHDQG&KULVMXVWZDVQ·W PHQWRIVDOLYDDQG.XHSSHUEHJDQWRFXWDFRQIURQWDWLRQDOÀJXUH
in the game that day, and Ed said, ‘What the fuck is wrong with incensed by patronising music-press headlines like “Would you let
\RX"·&KULVVDLG¶0\IDWKHUMXVWGLHG·(GZDVJHQXLQHO\VKRFNHG these men tie your kangaroo down, sport?” Harvest’s effort to steer
like, ‘Why the hell didn’t you tell us?’ the band towards the new wave via matching green suits was “met
´7KHUHZDVQHYHUPXFKWDONLQJµVD\V+D\´7KHUHZDV&KULV·V with derisive laughter”, says Kuepper, not too ruefully.
ZHLUGZD\RIGRLQJVWXIIDQG(GXVHGWRÀQGLWKDUGWRVKRZHPR- 'HVSLWHWKHLUIDOWHULQJFRPPHUFLDOWUDMHFWRU\KRZHYHU7KH
WLRQ2QFHZHZHQWWR(QJODQG&KULVGLGQ·WVHHPWRIHHOKHQHHGHG Saints remained creatively impeccable. By October, they were back
that support thing any more, like he could do everything himself.” at Wessex recording a second album, much of it written pre-Lon-
,PPHGLDWHO\RQDUULYDO7KH6DLQWVZHUHVWULFNHQE\WKHLUÀUVW don, but with lyrics raging against the machine that was exploiting
disaster. On June 5 and 6, 1977, without any warm-ups, they yet undervaluing them. Know Your Product led off the campaign
opened for the Ramones and Talking Heads at the Roundhouse, with a swaggering brass riff as its chorus. Released as a single in Feb-
and everything went wrong: Kuepper broke strings and blew an UXDU\·DOPRVWWZR\HDUVEHIRUH7KH&ODVKGHSOR\HGKRUQVRQ
DPS+D\·VEDVVGUXPSHGDOGLHG7KH8.SXQNIUDWHUQLW\·VÀUVW London Calling, it was anything but standard-issue punk and failed
impression was they dressed boring, and stood there like statues. to chart. Undeterred, for their third UK tour they hired a horn
The only visual document of The Saints playing live derives from section, but that sparked the disagreement which split the band.
Sydney’s Paddington Town Hall two months earlier (the audio is ´&KULVKDGWKLVLGHDWKDWWKH\VKRXOGEHGUHVVHGLQWX[HGRVDQG
included in November’s box set), and indeed, there’s no leaping I really hated the idea,” sniffs Kuepper. “I wanted it to look like
DURXQG$V0LFN+DUYH\DSWO\VD\V´WKH\·GMXVWVWDQGDQGGHOLYHUµ a rock’n’roll band, and not cater to that silly showbusiness idea.
Several days after the Roundhouse, Harvest rushed them into $Q\ZD\WKHWRXUGLGQ·WJRWKDWEULOOLDQWO\DQG&KULVOHIWµ
Shutterstock, Retna/Avalon, Bleddyn Butcher

Wessex studios with Pistols engineer Bill Price to cut another ex- Even before their second album, Eternally Yours, was released
plosive single, This Perfect Day. Hopes were still high, and when it LQ0D\7KH6DLQWVKDGHIIHFWLYHO\VSOLW\HWUHIRUPHGRQD
charted promisingly at Number 34 in the UK chart in mid-July, the temporary basis to record a third, Prehistoric Sounds. At the sessions,
label secured a Top Of The Pops appearance, usually guaranteed to Bailey pushed in a soulful direction, arguing successfully for Otis
propel a song further upwards. Redding and Aretha Franklin covers, while Kuepper explored brass
“We watched the show on the boat over to Paris the next day,” LQDOHVVGHÀQDEO\JHQHULFVW\OH
says Hay, “really excited about what lay ahead, but instead of mov- “I didn’t want to be a white R&B band,” he says today. “Look-
LQJXSLWGURSSHGVWUDLJKWRXWRIWKHFKDUWVDJDLQEHFDXVH(0,ZDV ing back, it’s easy to see how the two could’ve been reconciled, but
so busy pressing Wuthering Heights for Kate Bush, there wasn’t that wasn’t an option for me at the time. We had no manager, and

42 MOJO
a wiser head might’ve just advised us to take a holiday. It would’ve
been great to continue.” Desolation Row-style symbolism
(the narrator’s a “one-eyed midget
For his part, Hay reveals that he and Ward hadn’t been told the with a curse”). Could they ever
band was already over. have topped it?
“I don’t have a clear memory of Ed and Chris wrestling on the
ground or anything,” he says. “There might’ve been
times where Chris drank too much and got snarly. The Prisoner
Messin’ With (from Prehistoric Sounds LP,
He could be stubborn, and had a mischievous streak, The Kid Harvest, 1978)
seeing how far things could be pushed, which could (from (I’m) Another extraordinary stand-out
be nasty. Ed wouldn’t say a lot, but that was all just Stranded LP, from their valedictory waxing,
the normal dysfunctional Saints we’d come to know Harvest, 1977) its ace perambulatory Algy Ward
bass line propelling The Saints’
and love! Chris obviously thought he was a big boy The Saints’ debut
answer to Dylan’s Ballad Of A
album was a
now and could do his own thing and be in control.” pulse-racing Thin Man (which they formatively
The day after Prehistoric Sounds came out in Octo- blammo affair covered), as Bailey scathingly
ber ’78, it was announced that The Saints were over. nodding to The yowls of “a man in a cage”,
Stooges, early imprisoned by straight society.
Stones and Aussie
VEN AS THE REPUTATION OF THEIR ’60s-garage
three mould-breaking albums has burgeoned brutes The Year Of The Bloater Goat
across the intervening 46 years, Bailey, Kuepper and Hay Missing Links, except for this (from Everything That Flies Is
spectacularly elegant hymn for
never enjoyed a related payday. In the immediate aftermath, Bailey the downtrodden, evoking that
Not A Bird EP, Red Flame/Prince
Melon, 1983)
bought the rights to The Saints’ name and traded on it for a further broken feeling in the Faces’ Debris. Ed Kuepper’s
11 albums, but, claims Kuepper, “he always had a chip on his shoul- “It makes you crawl,” indeed. next band was a
GHUDERXWWKHRULJLQDOEDQGEHFDXVHLWÁHZDOLWWOHELWKLJKHUµ five-year exercise
“In our early days,” says Mudhoney’s Mark Arm, “The Saints in abandoning
This Perfect Day punk for more
were foundational. When I’d throw out a ‘yeah’ or a ‘c’mon’ in (Harvest single, 1977) experimental
Touch Me I’m Sick, that was a nod to The Saints. Burn It Clean was The Antipodean pastures, often tinged with
our attempt to do the fast chord changes in This Perfect Day, and emigrés’ first skronk-jazz thanks to foregrounded
IDLOHGPLVHUDEO\0\ÀQJHUVGRQ·WPRYHWKDWIDVW6RZHHQGHGXS London recording sax and trumpet, but also packing
infectious moments like YOTBG,
putting it on a B-side.” was written by
Kuepper in Brisbane whose gambolling alt-rock is
Post-split, Kuepper, deprived of their £60-a-week EMI wage, the previous topped with a quintessential
had no option but to return home and start again, initially with the Christmas Day while his parents Kuepper horn-riff chorus.
VNURQN\/DXJKLQJ&ORZQVWKHUHDIWHUDVDFODVV\OHIWÀHOGVRORDUWLVW were out at church, on his dad’s
classical guitar. Its breakneck chord
and, intermittently, with The Aints. changes and Bailey’s ferocious Just Like Fire Would
,QWKHRULJLQDO6DLQWVEULHÁ\UHXQLWHGRQVWDJHDWWKH attitude have attracted covers by (from All Fools Day LP,
ARIAs, AKA the Aussie Grammys, only to be overshadowed by The Fall and Tropical Fuck Storm. Mushroom, 1986)
world events – it was 9/11. In the ’00s, both Kuepper and Bailey With 1984’s
were drafted into Nick Cave’s Bad Seeds, Bailey for a duet on ’03’s Know Your Product
mournful down-
under hit Ghost
Nocturama, and Kuepper replacing Harvey mid-tour circa ’08’s Dig, (Harvest single, 1978) Ships, Bailey sought
Lazarus, Dig!!! ´,ZDVDELWRIDÀIWKZKHHOµKHFRQFHGHV Disgusted by to “make strings
Harvey, ironically, occasioned the only full Saints reunion, as the orchestrated as powerful as
curator of ’09’s touring Aussie version of the All Tomorrow’s Par- brass deployed by Les Pauls and Marshalls,” but this
smouldering Springsteenian
early-’70s musos
ties festival, where they played (I’m) Stranded in full, but it was fric- such as Chicago, rocker is the pick of his post-split
tional, and the following year’s Bailey-Kuepper duo shows saw the Kuepper says he Saints repertoire, so great that
inebriated singer mouthing off on-stage, leading to what Kuepper “heard horns in a melodic role”, Bruce himself covered it on
2014’s High Hopes.
drily terms “a separate limos situation”. here effectively making a blaring
trumpets-and-sax riff the chorus of
“Over time, Chris’s drinking became totally debilitating to his a rollicking anti-capitalist rock tune.
health,” says Hay, who drummed on Bailey’s All Fools Day in ’86, and, Since aped by Thee Hypnotics and Everything I’ve Got
after leaving music to become a technical writer, remained in contact Mudhoney, but never bettered. Belongs To You
with the singer at his home in Haarlem, Holland. “He’d become (from Honey Steel’s Gold, Hot, 1991)
pretty reclusive. A year before he died, he’d lost a kidney and had No, Your Product
Starting with ’85’s
some sort of gangrene in his leg, which was going to be amputated.” Electrical Storm,
(from Eternally Yours LP, Kuepper’s solo
“During Covid,” says Kuepper, “I spoke to him a few times Harvest, 1978) incarnation helped
about doing something around the box set, and we probably got on A Who-ishly define Antipodean
better than we had for decades. Often times our phone conversa- expansive four alt-rock, and he
minutes, exhausting finally broke through with the
tions would end in mildly abusive tirades, and I remember saying to in its fury, about ARIA-winning HSG, and this
P\ZLIHKHDOPRVWVRXQGHGUHÁHFWLYH,GLGQ·WNQRZKHZDVJRLQJ breaking free of attendant Top 30 Aussie hit, whose
to die, though, and it’s slightly mysterious how he actually did so.” society’s many lyrics of break-up malice are offset
After Bailey passed on April 9, 2022, Kuepper and Hay have draggy impediments, seemingly by rolling acoustic/piano splendour.
a response to both borderline-
enlisted Harvey (second guitar), Arm (vocals) and Sunnyboys’ apartheid Queensland and racist
Pete Oxley (bass) plus a three-piece brass section to air the original London, where Bailey saw “NF Red Aces
Saints repertoire across 12 Aussie shows in November, with a UK banners flying in the wind/Like free (from The Church Of Simultaneous
visit possibly late next year. lobotomies/I don’t recommend one”. Existence, ABC Music, 2018)
“I just accept the fact that we’ll never really get our dues, and I In the ’90s,
Kuepper’s Aints
don’t let it get to me,” concludes Kuepper. “Rehearsals won’t start Swing For The Crime reignited the
in earnest for a little while yet.” He smiles. “We don’t want to get (from Prehistoric Sounds LP, energies of ’77-78
too good, you know?” M Harvest, 1978) Saints. In 2017, he
Less than two years convened a new
The Saints’ (I’m) Stranded 4-LP deluxe edition is released on In The Red on after (I’m) Stranded, line-up and added an exclamation
November 15. A new Saints album, The Long March Through The Jazz Age, The Saints, about mark to air unreleased Harvest-
featuring Chris Bailey performances and the latest line-up of the band, is to disband, hit this era compositions, including this
peak of sophistication brassed-up banger which was up
released in January 2025 on the Saints label. thanks to Hay’s against Know Your Product for
choppy polyrhythms, Kuepper’s single selection but was instead,
sweeping brass and Bailey’s bafflingly, shelved.
Grand designs: Supertramp
(from left) Rick Davies,
Dougie Thomson, John
Helliwell, Roger Hodgson,
Bob C. Benberg, 1975.
 AM AS BROAD-MINDED AS THE NEXT
man, but I was surprised to see bare breasts on
the cover of Supertramp’s Indelibly Stamped al-
bum. I was also astounded to see contraceptives
on the cover of Birth Control’s album. Are album
covers going to get more obscene? If so, something should
be done about it.” So began a letter from outraged reader
C Allen of Tooting that appeared in the issue of British week-
ly music paper Melody Maker published on July 1, 1971.
The week previously, Supertramp had released their sec-
ond album – its sleeve featuring the bare, heavily tattooed
chest of one Marion Hollier – and receiving, as Sounds
newspaper pointed out, “a noticeably cooler reception”
than the band’s self-titled debut a year earlier.
Salacious artwork aside, the 10 tracks on offer sounded
uneven: the quasi-Quo boogie of opener Your Poppa Don’t
Mind at odds with the seven-minute-plus album closer, the
DFRXVWLFÁXWHGULYHQ$ULHV$VGDZQHG²DIWHUDWZR
year run of bad shows (including an ill-advised Scandinavian
jaunt which left them temporarily stranded) and minimal
record sales – the band’s principal songwriters, Rick Davies
and Roger Hodgson, had a decision to make.
“Rick and I did sit down and say, ‘Let’s call it quits,’ and
we did,” Hodgson told this writer in 2014. “For two days. I
ZDVWKLQNLQJRIJRLQJWR,QGLDµ,QWKHHQGWKH\HDUROG
opted for a less mystical adventure, signing up to play guitar
in Chuck Berry’s pick-up band for a short run of UK shows.
The notoriously temperamental rocker met his new band
PLQXWHVSULRUWRWKHLUÀUVWJLJLQ0DQFKHVWHURUGHULQJ
them to follow his lead. Halfway through the gig, he spotted
the shy, retiring Hodgson loitering towards the back of the
stage. “Go out front and earn your money! Take this solo!”
he barked.
´,WURWWHGRXWWHUULÀHGLQWRWKHPLGGOHRIWKHVWDJHDQG
did a solo and then slid back into the shadows of my amp!”
Hodgson recalled. “Chuck Berry winked at me. It was quite
an experience.”
Eighteen months later, in an unlikely turnaround, a re-
constituted Supertramp would release Crime Of The Cen-
tury – an album that matched the harmonic power of turn-
of-the-decade Beach Boys to the musical ambition and
eccentric textures of British progressive rock. A cousin to
contemporary releases by El-
ton John (Caribou) and Fleet-
wood Mac (Heroes Are Hard To
Find) but which eclipsed both,
creatively and commercially.
Photographs of Super-
tramp from 1974 show an al-
most book-ish set of individu-
als seemingly unprepared for
Getty

the stardom about to over- ➢

MOJO 45
 Super troopers: (clockwise from left) early-Tramp line-
up (from left) Davies, Hodgson, Richard Palmer-James,
Robert Millar, Dave Winthrop, outside the Revolution
Club, London, August 1970; chairmen of the keyboards:
Hodgson (left) and Davies, Olympic Studios, January
15, 1974; Tramps (from top) bassist Dougie Thomson,
sax man John Helliwell, drummer Bob C. Benberg;
billboard ad for Crime, Sunset Strip, LA, 1974; Helliwell
gets it bloody well (quite) right, 1975; A&M Records
founders Herb Alpert (left) and Jerry Moss.

➣
take them, as they embarked on a run
of hits that would peak in 1979 with a US
Number 1 in Breakfast In America and end
in 1983 with Hodgson’s shock departure
from the group.
“I don’t think we had a goal in mind
when we started the album,” says Hodg-
VRQUHÁHFWLQJRQWKHDOEXP·VLPSDFW´DQGZH
GLGQ·WUHDOLVHZKDWZH·GFUHDWHGDWÀUVWHLWKHUµ

HE AD THAT RICK DAVIES PLACED

LQWKHFODVVLÀHGVHFWLRQRI0HORG\0DNHU
RQ$XJXVWZDVXQÁRZHU\RIIHU- a 10-minute blues-rock version of Dylan’s All
ing a “Genuine opportunity for good musi- Along The Watchtower.
cians”. Roger Hodgson called the listed number Originally, lyrical duties were entrusted to
and secured an audition for the mystery band. His guitarist Richard Palmer, who also shared lead
initial impressions weren’t good but when Davies vocals on two of the tracks on Supertramp. It was
and Hodgson headed to the pub, they enjoyed his departure in December 1970 that forced
each other’s company, kicking off a relationship Davies and Hodgson to assume full responsi-
of contrasts. bility for the band’s output, both lyrically and
An arch-realist, Richard Davies was born into a with a shift in sound to a more piano-based ap-
working-class family on July 22, 1944, in Swindon, proach. The pair’s differing personalities were
Wiltshire. Inspired by percussionist Gene Krupa and boogie player already evident but both had begun to view music as more than just
0HDGH/X[/HZLVKHVZDSSHGKLVHDUO\SDVVLRQIRUGUXPVIRUWKH a way of scratching a living.
piano before studying art at Swindon College. By the time he met “Rick and I were very different,” Hodgson admits. “And there
Hodgson he’d already played in a rock’n’roll band, his own blues ZDVDKXJHGLIIHUHQFHLQRXULQÁXHQFHVEXWZHZHUHDOVRERWKYHU\
band – Rick’s Blues – with a young Gilbert O’Sullivan, and The alike because we were very dysfunctional. We looked to music to
Joint, a soul-inspired combo based in Europe who were funded by a feel good about ourselves.”
Dutch millionaire. According to Davies himself, he was driven by
fear: “Fear of ending up back in a factory.” ) 7+( ),567 7:2 683(575$03 /3s SUGGESTED A
Nearer the other end of Britain’s social scale, Portsmouth-born EDQGLQVHDUFKRIDVRXQGWKHGXR·VQHZVHWRIVRQJVVLJQLÀHGD
&KDUOHV5RJHU3RPIUHW+RGJVRQVL[\HDUV'DYLHV·MXQLRUJUHZXS new-found cohesion.
LQ2[IRUGDQGZDVSDFNHGRIIWRERDUGLQJVFKRRODWDQHDUO\DJH² Before Hodgson’s brief spell with Chuck Berry, Davies had al-
ÀUVWWR:RRGFRWH+RXVHLQ6XUUH\DQGWKHQ6WRZH6FKRROLQ%XFN- ready written the strident Bloody Well Right. Hodgson had had
LQJKDPVKLUH ROGER\V3ULQFH5DLQLHURI0RQDFR'DYLG1LYHQ 'UHDPHUVLQFHKHZDV²´,WH[SORGHGRXWRIPHRQHGD\DWP\
Richard Branson). mother’s house in Wantage,” he told me. Another song, School
“I was a sensitive boy thrust into the middle of nowhere with ²URXWLQHGH[WHQVLYHO\ZLWK'DYLHV²ZDVDVFDWKLQJDWWDFNRQWKH
600 other boys,” he recalled of his time at Stowe, describing his alienation he felt as a result of his elite education. “I had a lot of
education as being akin to living through “the end of the Victorian wounds to heal,” he noted.
HUDµ/HDYLQJVFKRROKHMRLQHGSV\FKRXWÀW3HRSOH/LNH8VFXW- What they needed were musicians who could do justice to these
ting a 7-inch for Decca, before recording a second single with the songs. First through the door was 22-year-old Glaswegian bass play-
HTXDOO\VKRUWOLYHG$UJRV\²DZKLPVLFDORXWÀWWKDWIHDWXUHGWKH er Dougie Thomson, formerly of The Alan Bown Set.
young Reginald Dwight (AKA Elton John) on piano, guitarist Caleb “The original group had collapsed and there was a sense of the
4XD\HDQGGUXPPHU1LJHO2OVVRQ0XVLFDFFRUGLQJWR5RJHUZDV EDQGEHLQJLQGLVDUUD\µUHFDOOV7KRPVRQWRGD\´:KHQ,ÀUVWPHW
always “a quest”. A quest for what? “Happiness, love and peace.” Rick and Roger, they were a little dishevelled, shall we say.”
7KHÀUVWPXVLF'DYLHVDQG+RGJVRQPDGHWRJHWKHUZDVXQ- As auditions continued at the Pied Bull pub in Islington, north
der the name Daddy, before switching to Supertramp (taken from London, Thomson proved to beDJDOYDQLVLQJLQÁXHQFH+HZDV
Getty (7), Alamy

Welsh poet W.H. Davies’s 1908 The Autobiography Of A Super- QHYHURIÀFLDOO\DVNHGWRMRLQ6XSHUWUDPSEXWVXFKZDVKLVSUDJPD-

Tramp). There’s YouTube footage of them playing in Germany in tism, Hodgson handed him a bag of receipts. “‘You can take care of
early 1970 – as a four-piece with Hodgson on bass – blasting out the business,’ is what he said,” smiles Thomson. And, for a majority

46 MOJO
of the band’s career the bassist would do just that. until they felt it was right. And there was also
For the new recruits, Supertramp’s songs-in- the contrast between Rick and Roger, which
waiting were the convincers. “Roger played me a version of Break- I thought was really interesting.”
fast In America on pump organ when we were at his mum’s house
and that was it,” says Thomson. Y THE AUTUMN OF ’73 THE IMPACT OF THIS LATEST
California-born drummer Bob C. Benberg (né Siebenberg – a batch of songs was already evident on their new bandmates.
name he would return to in the latter part of the band’s career), The question now was whether, after the polite failure of their
then a member of pub rock combo Bees Make Honey, popped by last two albums, anyone at their label, A&M, would give a damn.
the band’s shared house in Holland Villas Road and heard another Thomson decided that he and Hodgson should appeal to label
batch of unreleased songs, Hodgson’s If Everyone Was Listening boss Derek Green face to face. Green was surprised to see them but
and Davies’ Asylum among them. introduced the pair to A&R man Dave Margereson. An irrepressible
“I knew then that there was something special there,” says Londoner who’d started out as an actor, Margereson had worked
the drummer, who shared the songwriters’ love of Traffic, at CBS where he’d signed Johnny Nash (overseeing his 1972 UK
Spooky Tooth and Procol Harum. “I liked Number 1, I Can See Clearly Now), the
that stuff and I knew I could add the Ameri- \HDUROG%RE0DUOH\DQGDÀHU\\RXQJ
can feel of someone like Levon Helm from Irish guitar player named Gary Moore, be-
The Band – different from the feel that you fore being poached by Green to join A&M.
got from British drummers at the time. Cue a familiar pattern: Margereson heard
A sense of power.” the band’s latest demos and was hooked. All
)RUWKHÀQDOSLHFHRIWKHVRQLFSX]]OH they needed to do now, he felt, was become a
Benberg had hoped to enlist the services of proper band.
his brother-in-law Scott Gorham (later of To that end, in November 1973 Marger-
7KLQ/L]]\ DQGWKHJXLWDULVWÁHZRYHUIURP eson persuaded Supertramp to decamp to
LA to audition. His arrival, however, coin- Southcombe, a £20-per-week farmhouse in
cided with Thomson’s call to an old friend he Somerset. Benberg and Helliwell brought
knew from The Alan Bown Set, sax and reeds their wives, Thomson his wife and daughter.
player John Helliwell. Davies and Hodgson had yet to start their
“I went to meet the band at Manfred own families. “I felt alone and so did Rick,
Mann’s studio where they were rehearsing,” so we concentrated on the music,” admitted
Helliwell recalls. “Rick was there wearing an anorak Hodgson years later. “But we had a relentless pas-
and I thought, What a strange-looking guy. Roger was sion that drove the band.”
WKHUHWRRDQGWKHÀUVWWXQHKHSOD\HGPHZDV)URP Southcombe would prove to be a hugely posi-
Now On [destined for 1977’s Even In The Quietest tive experience for Supertramp. After a leisurely
Moments]. I thought, Woah! morning, they’d begin playing mid-afternoon and
“I’d been used to playing with jobbing musicians routine new songs into the night. With their gear
that just got on with it but these guys were different,” set up in the low-ceilinged room next door to the
FRQWLQXHVWKH<RUNVKLUHERUQMD]]HU´7KH\ZHUHH[- kitchen, the results were captured on a Sony reel-
perimenting and changing things as they went along to-reel and constaQWO\ÀQHWXQHG6RQJZULWLQJ ➢

MOJO 47
Ciggy stardust:
Crime producer Ken
Scott, Tower Records,
LA, 1976; (below)
Helliwell’s wine glass
solo on Dreamer, The
as a sign of life. Land Ho, hurriedly produced by the A&R and the
Old Grey Whistle Test, band and released on March 1, 1974, failed to chart.
October 21, 1974. Undeterred, Margereson ploughed on. His original choice of
producer for the single had been Ken Scott, who’d engineered El-
ton John’s last two albums and was fresh from producing Bowie’s
The Rise And Fall Of Ziggy Stardust And The Spiders From Mars and
Aladdin Sane. Yet, despite Margereson’s ebullience, Scott remained
resistant to the idea of working with Supertramp.
“I didn’t really like the demos at all,” he admits. “They just
seemed to be half-baked, half an idea at a time, but Jack Nelson,
who ran the producers at Trident Studios where I worked, told me
A&M really wanted me to do the band. In the end I went to see
them live at a showcase with Jack. When we left, Jack said, ‘You’re
right, don’t bother doing them.’ I turned around and said, ‘Are you
kidding? They’re incredible!’”
On February 4, 1974, Scott travelled down to Somerset to put
the band through their paces. Further impressed with what he
KHDUGÀYHGD\VODWHUKHWRRNWKHPEDFNWR7ULGHQW
“The music was really ambitious and they really wanted to push
things. So that’s what we did in the studio,” he says. “The band
were just open to any suggestions about how to make the record
sound different. I used all the experience that I’d had from some
pretty intense sessions with The Beatles and we tried everything we
could think of.”
“Ken was a good mentor,” says Hodgson. “He encouraged us to
“I NEVER LISTENED to the first school garden during lunch hour,” experiment with everything from saws being bowed, to glasses
two Supertramp albums, and I still while the claustrophobic ambience
haven’t,” says Ken Scott. That was of Hide In Your Shell is enhanced by
EHLQJSOD\HGZLWKDÀQJHU+HJDYHXVWKHXOWLPDWHRSSRUWXQLW\
probably a good thing; in truth, a bowed saw. That combination to create.”
neither suggested a band capable of of space and detail also ensured For Scott, the contrasting songwriters put him in mind of some
making an era-defining album. And that Crime soon became the go-to of his more celebrated clients.
yet, Crime Of The Century is just that. disc for hi-fi shops showcasing the
The legendary producer is quick latest stereo system to potential “The partnership between Rick and Roger reminded me of Len-
to state that there was no master new customers. non and McCartney,” he says. “Those differing personalities made
plan when he entered Trident Amusingly enough, Scott faced a the music sound the way it did.”
Studios with the band in 1974. His similar listening experience recently
instinct, encouragement and deft as he was prepping what he hopes
touch proved enough. “I knew the will be the 50th anniversary release HE AVERAGE COST OF A HOUSE IN THE UK IN THE
band were special, the material of Crime. summer of 1974 was £9,000. Supertramp had already spent
was special, so the album had to be “I was in Abbey Road listening GRXEOHWKDWEHIRUHWKH\·GHYHQFRPHFORVHWRÀQLVKLQJWKH
special,” he tells MOJO today. “We to the copy tapes of Crime the other
had to go above and beyond for it day with their half-speed mastering album that became Crime Of The Century.
to stand a chance. Which is exactly guy, Miles Showell, because we can’t One factor was Ken Scott’s meticulousness. Benberg recalls that
what we all did.” locate the originals,” says Scott. it took three days for the producer to get the drum sound he want-
By his own admission, producer “God knows where they are! But he
Scott is “a pain in the arse” when it listened to the set of tapes we put
ed. “And that was working almost 10 hours a day!” he laughs.
comes to capturing sound in the on and he turned round and said, The overspend was such that LA-based label boss Jerry Moss
studio. And yet, despite Crime’s ‘This is absolutely astounding!’ I was (the ‘M’ in A&M) felt the need to pay them a visit.
sonic splendour, he believes that the also speechless because it sounded “I panicked totally because we had what amounted to the basic
album’s real secret lies in the band’s so good. Like I said, we all set out
ability to play intuitively together, to make something special, and I tracks and that was about it,” recalls Scott. “I’d never really met a
allowing him to capture a great suppose we managed just that.” head of a record label at that point, either, but Jerry came down,
performance first and foremost. heard what we were doing, said, ‘That’s great!’ and left.”
Roger Hodgson would always have In the end Crime WRRNÀYHPRQWKVWRUHFRUGLQWKUHH/RQGRQVWX-
a final say on the guitars, Rick Davies
would sign off the piano – and both dios: Trident, Ramport, and Scorpio Sound – where it was mixed
combined on the vocal harmonies. because Scott was particularly keen on the monitors. But it was time
Above all, Scott captured the space ZHOOVSHQWWKHFRQVLGHUHGSURGXFWLRQGHFLVLRQVMXVWLÀHGE\WKH
in the band’s sound, allowing each
track to breathe before adding
results. From Rick Davies’ ethereal, Morricone-esque harmonica
the detail. part that opens School to the sweeping Richard Hewson-arranged
Scott also insisted that the sound strings that conclude Davies’ blue-collar mini-epic, Rudy, Crime was
effects – like the wine glass played by full of bravura touches.
Helliwell on Dreamer – should be
real (Old Grey Whistle Test footage
Like The Dark Side Of The Moon, it was an album designed to be
from ’74 shows him doing it live). The listened to in one sitting – although the band couldn’t be sure of
playground sounds on School, says how well it worked until the very end of the process. “Because the
Scott, were recorded “in a primary mix was manually done, it meant that 10- or 20-second sections
were done at a time,” says Hodgson. “When we heard it, our minds
➣ were blown.”
and team bonding combined. Hodgson wrote Hide In Your Crime’s astounding spatial and sonic qualities were matched with
Shell at Southcombe after every member of the band bar Davies emotional writing that sprang from Hodgson and Davies’ hopes
had consumed a plate of hash brownies. The song’s juxtaposition of and fears. Never before, either, had the two been so well-balanced.
the composer’s love-led idealism against the “scramble” of real life Davies’ earthy baritone married Hodgson’s light tenor to heady ef-
outside encapsulated Southcombe’s idyllic retreat. “It was the place
Getty (3), Shutterstock

fect, and while previously Davies had dominated, each assumed lead
where we learnt to see each other as we really were,” says Benberg, duties on four tracks each.
“and we learnt the dynamics of the band as people and as players.” “When I sat down and listened to the album as a whole,” re-
Conscious that it had been over two years since the band’s last members Ken Scott, a man known for his modesty, “I thought we’d
release, Margereson suggested they record and release a new song achieved perfection.”

48 MOJO
 Y THE TIME CRIME WAS FINALLY Dreamer team: (clockwise from top) Supertramp
(from left) Hodgson, Davies, Benberg, Helliwell,
released in October 1974, Dave Thomson, on-stage, May 1975; Crime pays:
Margereson – now also Supertramp’s the band with their gold disc, 1976 (Dave
Margereson is second from right); Rolling Stone
manager – had whipped A&M’s promo- ad from December ’74 for “startling vision of
tional department into a frenzy. Yet re- sanity,” Crime Of The Century; happy Trampers
in 1975: (from left) Benberg, Davies, Helliwell,
sults were initially disappointing. Crime Thomson and Hodgson.
swam in the lower reaches of the UK
albums chart – peaking at 40 in late would top 20 million. And yet, it would also
November before slipping out entirely. speed the classic line-up’s demise, with a sapping tour
Heading out on tour, they took the ‘fake it ’til that deepened divisions among the band members.
you make it’ approach – Margereson and the band “I had the impression that Supertramp was dis-
determined they would only play headline shows integrating,” Hodgson would tell band biographer
in order to present their new music properly. Su- Abel Fuentes. “In those concerts, I felt like an actor
pertramp’s sound man and trusted friend, Rus- performing the same part night after night. We had
sel Pope, would ensure the band’s live sound was become slaves to a huge production.”
pristine, complemented by the work of lighting In 1983, wearied by disputes with Davies over
designer Tony Shepherd. their respective songwriting contributions in Su-
´:HKDGWRFUHDWHDQDWPRVSKHUHµUHÁHFWV pertramp, Hodgson announced he was going solo.
John Helliwell, who adopted the role of the band’s live ringmas-
ter due to Davies and Hodgson’s continued reluctance as front- VER TIME, THE COMMUNAL SPIRIT OF SOUTH-
men. “So, we also made the decision to present the album itself by FRPEHKDVORQJHYDSRUDWHG/HJDOVKRWVKDYHEHHQÀUHGEH-
SOD\LQJWKHÀUVWVLGHWKHQDIHZROGHUWXQHVDQGQHZWXQHVWKDWZH tween band members – Hodgson claiming that while he
KDGQ·WUHFRUGHG\HWEHIRUHÀQLVKLQJZLWKWKHHQWLUHVHFRQGVLGHµ had allowed Davies to keep the Supertramp name in 1983, he had
Town hall and university shows through to the end of 1974 beat done so without granting Davies the right to play any of his songs.
a drum for Supertramp’s new LP, supported by positive live reviews. Another case between band members went to court earlier
Sales rallied in late January ’75 and were ignited by the release of this year over a 1977 agreement where Davies and Hodgson had
Dreamer in February (described by band champion John Peel as a granted a share of songwriting royalties to Helliwell, Siebenberg
track that “should rivet lovers of good music whenever they gather and Thomson. While Davies settled out of court, Hodgson contests
together”). Between February and April, Hodgson’s keening an- that the arrangement was intended to last in perpetuity. He won the
them was unavoidable on UK radio, and peaked at 13 in the UK case but an appeal is pending.
singles chart on March 8. The following week, its parent album hit Against this backdrop, any kind of anniversary celebration of
Number 4, in time for Supertramp to head off on tour in the US, Crime Of The Century by the band seems unlikely. Yet the LP’s musical
where Crime ZRXOGEHWKHÀUVW6XSHUWUDPS/3WRFUDFNWKH7RS impact remains undimmed, its key themes – tackling what Helli-
“A&M took us to a hotel overlooking Central Park and gave us well describes as “‘The Man’, education and governmental issues” –
DVXLWHRQWKHWKÁRRURUVRPHWKLQJµUHFDOOV+HOOLZHOO´:H sounding even more pertinent in 2024. And beyond that, the record
thought, ‘Wow! This is fantastic!’ We embraced it all and we got to endures as a conversation between two songwriters with contrast-
know the cities bit by bit as we played. Then Roger broke his wrist ing but complementary takes on the world, both at the top of their
so we had to cancel gigs but we decided we’d stay out there and game.
record our next album.” “It’s an honest, autobiographical album,” concludes Hodgson,
Supertramp’s embrace of the US would pave the way for the stag- “because we wore our inner selves on it. And, in the end, I think
gering commercial success of 1979’s Breakfast In America, sales of which that’s what people identify with.” M

MOJO 49
 MOJO PRESENTS

Winning last year’s

Mercury Prize was a boon
for EZRA COLLECTIVE
and a landmark for British
jazz. But with inspirations
as diverse as Cannonball
Adderley and Damon
Albarn, they’re already
moving on, with a new
album that updates yet
exalts the spontaneous
spirit of their genre. “It’s
as real as music gets,”
they tell MAT SNOW.
Photography by ALIYAH OTCHERE

HEN EZRA COLLECTIVE WON LAST YEAR’S MERCURY MUSIC PRIZE WITH
their second album, Where I’m Meant To Be, and sold out a headlining show at the
cavernous Wembley Arena this November, something building for over a decade had
shifted a tectonic plate.
Jazz wasn’t supposed to do this. A jazz LP would always make the Mercury shortlist
for best British album, earn a polite round of applause, then the gong and £25,000
purse would go elsewhere. And when jazz enjoyed one of its generational revivals, it
would stall on the club, theatre and festival circuit, never scaling up.
That London’s Ezra Collective have bust through the ceiling tells us many things. About the passionate, idealistic
grandchildren of the long-gone British Empire bringing it all back home to a multicultural, multigenerational audi-
ence hungry for a fresh sound and story. About a century-old art form long settled into sedentary scholasticism re-
discovering its dancing shoes and youthful joie de vivre. Indeed, the Ezras’ Soweto Kinch-inspired saxophonist James
Mollison’s career highlight so far is “a seated jazz festival in Poland full of middle-aged people. They didn’t seem
that impressed but over the course of the gig we chipped away and by the end they’re all out of their seats dancing.”
Aliyah Otchere

It’s a story with very deep roots, in Ezra drummer-bandleader Femi Koleoso’s view, going back some 2,500 years.
“Not to get too nerdy with you,” he tells MOJO, explaining how the group takes its name from
a symbol of renewal based on learning from the past, “but the Book of Nehemiah and the Book of Ezra ➢

50 MOJO
The shape of jazz to come:
Ezra Collective (from left)
TJ Koleoso, Ife Ogunjobi,
James Mollison, Femi
Koleoso, Joe Armon-Jones,
London, July 2024.
 Collective consciousness: Ezras (clockwise
from left) Femi, Armon-Jones, Mollison,
TJ, Ogunjobi, July 2024; Femi finds his
groove, WOMAD festival, 2018; on-stage at
the Royal Albert Hall, London, November
7, 2023; new LP, Dance, No One’s Watching.

“WE’LL NEVER BE
ENTERED FOR THE
MERCURY PRIZE AGAIN. church song and, like Miles Davis’s version of Porgy And Bess’s Prayer
I WOULDN’T WANT TO TAKE (Oh Doctor Jesus), a sublimely beautiful peak.
THAT SPACE AWAY “A night out can be exemplary of life,” Koleoso
expands. “It has a birth, a middle, an end.” With
FROM SOMEONE.” that concept in mind, the band “started writing mu-
Femi Koleoso sic in that direction.” The Ezra method is tried and
tested. Individuals will bring in a basic idea – Ko-
➣ leoso, for example, will voicenote a melody and bass
were written in the same breath…” line – which the whole band then develops in jam
Biblical exegesis is rare in the music scene. sessions and often road-tests before recording in
Committed, active Christianity is rarer still, just one or two takes to preserve freshness.
ZLWKWKUHHRXWRIÀYHRIWKHZLOGO\IDVKLRQDEOH Where a tune calls for a vocal, Ezra have friends
Collective – they modelled Burberry in Vogue aplenty, including Loyle Carner, Jorja Smith and Ol-
this summer – attending a Nigerian Baptist ivia Dean from the intersecting worlds of rap, grime,
church. Beyond career and stardom, beyond neo-soul, pan-African pop and jazz – the lines have
even music, Ezra Collective are on a mission to give back, just as been getting ever more blurred, especially since Kendrick Lamar’s
WKH\UHFHLYHGLQWKHÀUVWSODFH SURIRXQGO\LQÁXHQWLDO7R3LPS$%XWWHUÁ\in 2015. On the new al-
bum’s single, God Gave Me Feet For Dancing, Yazmin Lacey ran
UT HOW TO TOP A PARADIGM-SHIFTING ALBUM? with a tune Koleoso came up with in the shower coupled with an

B Perhaps, by recording a better one.

“Immediately after pressing ‘submit’, I always think, I’d
rather do this, should have done that,” confesses Koleoso over juice in
idea he’d had chatting with DJ Annie Macmanus on her Changes
podcast. “From Kojey [Radical] and Emeli [Sandé] to Sampa [The
Great] and Moonchild Sanelly, it’s always been, give them a concept
London’s Hoxton, a natty green neckerchief offsetting his crisp white and direction and see what they come up with,” says Koleoso.
7VKLUW´%XWIRUWKHÀUVWWLPHLQP\OLIH,SUHVVHGWKHUHGEXWWRQWR Freedom within guidelines is the essence of jazz, and for all the
stop recording and felt we’d really done justice to all our ideas.” tautness of Ezra’s Afrobeat-inspired horn riffs and rhythms – Fela
+LVEDQG·VWKLUGDOEXPWKULOOLQJO\MXVWLÀHVKLVFRQÀGHQFH/LNH Kuti and his drummer Tony Allen and bassist Nweke Atifoh are in-
its prize-winning predecessor, Dance, No One’s Watching UHÁHFWV spirations for Femi and his bassist brother TJ – players are free to
its highly charged moment of creation. The preceding Where I’m ÀQGWKHLULPSURYLVDWRU\ÁRZDQGQRQHPRUHVRWKDQ(]UDFRIRXQG-
Meant To Be had the pandemic’s pent-up bunker-mentality energy er and keyboardist Joe Armon-Jones, who nonetheless relishes their
– “In lockdown, me, James and Femi used to go for runs, our only ensemble discipline: “It’s taxing to improvise, a different kettle of
physical interaction,” recalls the trumpeter Ife Ogunjobi, who’d ÀVKWRJURRYLQJZLWKDEDQGSDUWRIDXQLWORFNLQJLQWRWKHJURRYH
Eyevine (2), Camera Press, Getty, Alamy (2)

only joined Ezra the year before. “To see each other more, we ended playing different genres – that feels very natural and satisfying.”
XSGRLQJPRUHH[HUFLVHDQGJHWWLQJUHDOO\UHDOO\ÀWµ%\FRQWUDVW Despite its detailed concept and sophisticated sound – much of
Dance, No One’s Watching celebrates reopening and release. It’s in- it was recorded in Abbey Road (Koleoso is a Beatles fan) – Dance,
VSLUHGE\·VMR\RXVO\OLEHUDWHGJLJDQGGDQFHÁRRUFURZGVDQG No One’s Watching is far from overcooked. “What you hear is exactly
also by their friend Steve McQueen’s BBC drama Lovers Rock in what happened live, literally every sound with no editing, nothing,”
KLV6PDOO$[HVHULHV0F4XHHQ·VÀOPVXSSOLHVWKHDOEXP·V Koleoso explains. “It’s as real as music gets. The organic nature of
binding concept and loose storyline: a Saturday night out and Sun- this record was having our friends and family in the room when
day morning homecoming with an epiphanic vision of heaven, as we recorded it – like Cannonball Adderley’s [1966 track] Mercy,
captured on the LP’s closer, Everybody, based on a Nigerian Baptist Mercy, Mercy where you hear the presence of people in the room.

52 MOJO
 Let it …Be: (clockwise
from left) EC pick up the
2023 Mercury Prize for
Where I’m Meant To Be;
hanging out with Nubya
Garcia, London, 2018;
Armon-Jones finds the
right key at home, 2019;
Femi bangs out the
polyrhythms, Buster
Mantis, Deptford, 2018.

LET JOY BE
UNCONFINED
The best of the Ezras
(and family) so far.
By Mat Snow.
EZRA COLLECTIVE
★★★
Chapter 7
(Self-released, 2016)
Quoting Duke
Ellington’s Caravan,
the TJ Koleoso-
originated Enter The
Jungle kicks off Ezra’s
template-setting
debut EP, mashing bop, Afrobeat and
more. Fela Kuti’s Colonial Mentality
“The very deepest level of human emotion gets dubbed up, Ty raps and Zara space. “Nothing Ezra Collective do will ever be
McFarlane sublimely hosannas on
FDQEHKDUGWRFRQMXUHRQGHPDQGµKHUHÁHFWV I Have A God.
entered for the Mercury Prize again,” says Ko-
“But when I’m looking at my mum who took me leoso. “I wouldn’t want to take that space away
to my drum lessons, or at Joe’s siblings or TJ’s EZRA COLLECTIVE from someone that hasn’t had their show yet.”
wife, to invoke that feeling becomes so much ★★★★ Despite never having been a Tomorrow’s
easier and more natural; it hits differently. Re- You Can’t Steal My Joy Warrior – he studied physiotherapy rather than
cording this album, there were kids in my youth (Enter The Jungle, 2019) music – TJ shares his brother’s philosophy.
group in the room, and when I’m playing songs Cut overnight and “I’ve questioned my purpose within music
bookended by Sun
about joy, that’s what I want for them.” Ra and Fela Kuti because I never thought myself much of a mu-
compositions, this sician,” he admits. “But my knowledge of my
DAD FOR LESS THAN A YEAR, FEMI purpose on earth has become stronger, and my

A
Afro-boom-bap-to-
samba debut album
Koleoso has a lot to juggle. On top of spotlights John Gilmore devotee
faith in Jesus is a big part of that.”
Ezra Collective, he puts into practise saxophonist James Mollison (who TJ draws on the Parable of the Talents for
the principles he learned from his parents Tope originates the earworm Quest For inspiration: “When you stand before God, the
and Kemi, who came to the UK from Nigeria as, Coin). Loyle Carner and Jorja Smith question will be, What did you do with what
spice and sweeten proceedings.
respectively, a biomedical scientist and a nurse, you had? We’ve got instruments, voices, fami-
and now are pastors at the Jubilee Church in En- JOE ARMON-JONES lies, proximity to certain communities. Did
ÀHOGQRUWK/RQGRQLQZKRVH\RXWKEDQGVWKHLU ★★★★ you use what you had to help people?”
sons Olufemi and Toyosi (TJ) played. Turn To Clear View Though now an enthusiastic mentor, Femi,
Community work is among the values rein- (Brownswood, 2019) just turned 30, remains a mentee too: of DJ and
forced and examples set over the years by, among Ezra keyboardist impresario Gilles Peterson; of Moses Boyd as
others, the late reggae poet Benjamin Zephaniah Armon-Jones musters a reliably wise head (“Any contract I don’t un-
his contemporaries
when he visited Koleoso’s primary school; his in immersive jazz/ derstand, I’ll call him up”); of the late ‘Uncle’
drum teacher Tim Giles who hipped him to jazz, neo-soul/dub/ Tony Allen who Femi befriended as his informal
dub and funk; and, most importantly, the distin- hip-hop/broken drum student; and “this era of Ezra Collective
beat soundscapes from which
guished jazz double-bassist Gary Crosby whose emerge terrific tunes like Yellow
is most closely mentored for me by Damon…”
Tomorrow’s Warriors jazz development pro- Dandelion, sung by Georgia Anne Koleoso toured as drummer with Damon
gramme, based in London’s Southbank Centre, Muldrow, and You Didn’t Care, Albarn’s Gorillaz in 2019 and 2022, and eve-
ran free workshops for young talent (alumni also starring sax queen Nubya Garcia. rything on those jaunts “became a learning
include drummer Moses Boyd and saxophonist EZRA COLLECTIVE experience. Damon’s ability to bring the very
Nubya Garcia). Ezra Collective were born there ★★★★ best out of everyone he’s with. The art of killing
in 2012 when, as the Tomorrow’s Warriors Youth Where I’m Meant To Be gigs: how to get a crowd on your side and get
Ensemble, they won the Yamaha Jazz Experience (Partisan, 2022) them going; one after the other, he tears every
competition at the Cheltenham Jazz Festival. Its sleeve art a nod to VKRZWRWKHÁRRU$QG,VDZKLPZULWHDQGUH-
Obeying Crosby’s motto of ‘Each one, teach Thelonious Monk’s lease Cracker Island [Gorillaz] and The Ballad Of
one’, as well as donating a portion of their gig Underground LP, Ezra’s
Mercury Prize-winner
Darren [Blur] in the same year.
fees to youth organisations, these former To- embraces a starry “I’m School of Damon,” chuckles Koleoso.
morrow’s Warriors work hard to pass on their list of vocal feats, “I’m already writing past this album for Ezra…”
knowledge, expertise and experience to new including Nao on Sun Ra’s Love In He pauses. There’s another motto here.
Outer Space. Inspired by Damian
generations. This nurturing includes making Marley’s Welcome To Jamrock, “Make the song. Put it out. Move on.” M
Mollison’s Togetherness is the
cherry on a feast for feet and ears.
MOJO 53
54 MOJO
Lucky man: Tom Petty
in an outtake from the
Long After Dark album
cover shoot, 1982.
 TAN LYNCH WAS ON THE BEACH IN same payload of singles as Damn The Tor-
Santa Monica when he realised his life pedoes, and the distractions were mount-
ing: hard drugs, intra-band dramas,
had changed, that his adolescent rock star financial dilemmas, looming divorces,
dreams were suddenly real. outside collaborations, stalkers, tonsilitis,
Lynch and another drummer friend, Robert Wil- interviews. As Petty told Circus in Janu-
ary 1983, “There are two things we can
liams, had been jogging down the California shore- constantly do without even trying: spend
line when they heard one of Lynch’s drum breaks money, and stay in trouble.”
blasting from a transistor radio. Tickled, they Two months earlier, the band released
WKHLUÀIWKDOEXPLong After Dark. Its 10
stopped to listen. That’s when the duo noticed tracks represented the apotheosis of their
that three nearby radios were each playing sepa- work so far. Petty’s elliptical scenes of
rate singles from Damn The Torpedoes, the third loneliness and alienation balanced atop
a band with one foot in the past
album by Lynch’s band, Tom and the other in the future,
Petty And The Heartbreak- with synthesizers and percus-
ers: Refugee, Here Comes My sion pulling against Campbell’s
incisive guitars, Lynch’s punchy
Girl, Don’t Do Me Like That. In drums, and Benmont Tench’s
the dawning days of 1980, this wasn’t soulful piano. “It’s a good lit-
a blip; this was a phenomenon. tle rock’n’roll record with
good songs and good playing,”
“I’m from fuckin’ Florida, and the last thing I Petty told Paul Zollo 20 years
remember, I’m playing in a titty bar for 50 bucks a later. “But I don’t know that we
week,” a grinning Lynch tells MOJO from the same advanced a lot.”
Florida house he bought later that year. “Now I’m in a In 2024, two expanded reis-
famous rock band, I guess? We’re like a sauce, and the sues – of Long After Dark itself
and of Heartbreakers Beach Party, an unex-
world is marinating in this shit.”
pectedly intimate documentary portrait of
Just three years earlier, the Heartbreakers’
Petty that Cameron Crowe made for MTV in
rock’n’roll ambitions had seemed stillborn. Their self-
1982 but was only shown once – reveal what
titled 1976 debut had sold only a few thousand copies Petty was endeavouring to gloss. Here was a
Stateside when the band opened for Nils Lofgren in band wrestling not only with their sound
the UK in May 1977 and positive British press grew but also with fame itself, or how to
momentum. With Mike Campbell’s ser- remain what Lynch calls “fingers
rated riff cutting beneath Petty’s sneer, RQDÀVWµZKHQWKHZRUOGVHHPHG
Breakdown had become a tardy hit, help- to be prising them apart. Origi-
ing propel the Heartbreakers’ follow-up nally titled Between Two Worlds,
album, You’re Gonna Get It!, to the charts Long After DarkÀQGV3HWW\DQGWKH
only months later. Heartbreakers inching toward an
That record, though, was but a minor existential crisis.
prelude to Damn The TorpedoesÀQDQFHG “He would never talk about
by Neil Young/Joni Mitchell manager what songs were about, but
Elliot Roberts and fixated over they were always about our lives,”
by producer Jimmy Iovine as Petty’s oldest daughter, Adria, tells
Petty wrestled his way out of MOJO from her Connecticut home,
the record contract that had drawn him a portrait and a doll of her father
from the Sunshine State to the Golden over her left shoulder. She has been
one. The Heartbreakers quickly became methodically exploring and issu-
one of the country’s biggest bands, the hitmak- ing his archive since his death from an accidental
ers at the crossroads of old-fashioned rock and the drug overdose in 2017. “It looks like he’s caught
burgeoning new wave. between two relationships – and this relationship
Indeed, just weeks after that beachside with fame, wanting more of it or wanting to walk
epiphany, Lynch remembers leaving LA’s The away from it.”
Forum in a limousine next to Roberts, who blew
smoke from a joint he’d just rolled into the drum- OR MUCH OF HIS LIFE, PETTY
mer’s face. The Heartbreakers had just played had not been an obvious frontman, let
Getty (3), Aaron Rapoport, Jim McCrary/Redferns/Getty

WKHLUÀUVWVKRZWKHUHDQGWKHFDUZDVERXQGIRU alone a certain star.

an afterparty at the Whisky A Go Go. Lynch asked A kid of the lower middle class in Gaines-
Roberts if they needed to let anyone know they ville, Florida, Petty long seemed a shiftless
were on their way, so they wouldn’t have trouble PLVÀW$WSHUSHWXDOZDUZLWKDQXQVDWLVÀHG
getting past the crowds. Roberts just laughed. father who worried he was gay, and so bad at
“Elliot goes, ‘Crosby, Stills & Nash would give their school he once burned a hole in a report card
left nut to be hot, but right now, you’re hot. One day, you trying to transform an F into a B with what he
may be rich. One day, you may be famous. But this is the called “special ink”, his raison d’être became
best,’” Lynch remembers. “He was right.” rock’n’roll. At 10, Petty shook Elvis’s hand
But being too hot, of course, can burn, as Petty and when the star was making a movie nearby.
the Heartbreakers were beginning to learn. A year later, He duly traded his slingshot for a stack of 45s
their fourth album, Hard Promises, had not yielded the and, two years later, hDGKLVÀUVWJXLWDU ➢

56 MOJO
Hit the lights: (main) Tom Petty
And The Heartbreakers, 1982
(from left) Howie Epstein, Stan
Lynch, Tom Petty, Benmont Tench,
Mike Campbell; (top, clockwise
from left) Petty and Campbell
fight to win at the Los Angeles
Forum, June 29, 1981; Mudcrutch
(from left) Campbell, Petty, Tom
Leadon, Randall Marsh, 1974;
Petty rips it up, 1981.
 ➣
In that rapidly expanding college town, he wasn’t
alone. Instead, he was the unremarkable bassist for a string
of covers bands cobbling together gigs. Even in Mudcrutch,
his band after he’d bailed on high school and a series of
hated manual labour jobs, he shared singing and songwrit-
ing duties for years. But Tench – the private-schooled son
of a judge – recognised an uncanny bond between Petty
and Campbell as soon as he saw them, sneaking into a bar
underage. He wanted in. “There was some kind of extra
charisma coming off Tom and Mike from the get,” Tench
says. “It felt different.”
Indeed, it felt different enough that, in 1974, Petty and
a few other Mudcrutch emissaries headed west to Los An-
geles with a demo. They returned with a record deal and
an invitation to migrate. As they packed, Danny Cordell
called with another offer from Shelter Records, an imprint
cofounded by Leon Russell, then very hot himself. They
accepted, left on April Fool’s Day, stopped by Russell’s fa-
PRXV&KXUFK6WXGLRLQ7XOVDDQGÀQDOO\PDGHLWWR/RV$QJHOHV
“It was like being on Mars – fast, crazy, intense, kind of exotic,”
Campbell remembers today. “There were hookers walking up and
GRZQWKHVWUHHWÁDVKLQJPRWHOOLJKWV$V6WDQSXWLWZHZHUHOLNH
rednecks in space.”
Though the band was excited to be in California and its vaunted
record industry, the relationship didn’t seem reciprocal, as if their
departure date had been a portent. A rock band from Florida, Mud-
crutch actually debuted with a reggae song called Depot Street,
which Billboard said was the “closest thing to actual reggae to have
a chance to be a major AM hit to come along in some time.” That
didn’t happen, and Shelter soon dropped Mudcrutch, keeping
Petty (and co-writer Campbell) around as a solo act. Petty became
a kind of accidental sidekick to Russell, tagging along to sessions
with Brian Wilson, George Harrison,
and Terry Melcher. These brushes with
icons only made Petty long for what
he’d lost. “It made me ready to be back
with my people,” he told biographer voice, and deservedly so: woes with
Warren Zanes. “Not rock stars. Not the rhythm section had hamstrung the
session players. My band.” Long After Dark sessions, so much so
Petty stumbled back into his band they’d cost the Heartbreakers’
accidentally, after Tench asked him original bassist Ron Blair and al-
to stop by to add harmonica to most lost them Lynch, too.
some demos. Lynch, an- Blair was likely on the way out, an-
other member of that yway. The road had worn him down,
fertile Gainesville scene, had and he was daunted by the high stakes
also come west. He and Tench were at this level of success. “Everything
scheming a cock-rock concept called was just life or death,” he told Rolling
The Drunks, with a self-titled debut theoretically followed by Back Stone a quarter-century later, “and it just took its toll on me.” He
For MoreDQGDÀIWKDOEXPGXEEHGZHOOA Fifth. bailed on a week-long band vacation in Florida and rejoined them
“I was feral, and it was wonderful, a logical extension of Gaines- alongside his wife, Liz, a faux pas for this marauding posse. He re-
ville,” Lynch says. “I was riding a stolen motorcycle to work. I corded the prowling Between Two Worlds with the Heartbreakers,
would cash a check that wasn’t mine – a street kid.” WKHÀUVWVRQJWKH\FXWIRULong After Dark, and was soon gone.
But the idea for The Drunks evaporated on Petty’s arrival. Eve- “We played with a couple of different bass players, including
ryone understood this was different. By the end of 1975, they had Graham Maby, who played with Joe Jackson. A great bass player,
all committed to the Heartbreakers; by the end of 1976, they had EXWKLVVRXQGGLGQ·WÀWLQµUHPHPEHUV7HQFK´%XWWKHGD\+RZLH
released their debut, which Lynch stacked himself in the record showed, it’s, ‘Who’s this guy?’ He knew stuff of ours that hadn’t
store where he worked. They waited for the world to notice. been released. He left more space, and he grooved like mad.”
“The Heartbreakers were a squad – brothers, locked in, going to Petty met Howie Epstein – a Milwaukee multi-instrumentalist
ÀJKWWRWKHHQGWRPDNHWKLVKDSSHQµ&DPSEHOOVD\V´:HKDGRQH drawn to California for a gig with John Hiatt – while producing
purpose: to make the band great, together.” Drop Down And Get Me, a kind of comeback for early rock crooner
Del Shannon. Epstein’s knack for high harmony worked like cat-
E GOT IOVINE BOPPING,” PETTY MUTTERS nip on Petty, an Everly Brothers acolyte, and he recognised Epstein
in his soft Southern way just off microphone at the could add welcome vocal reinforcement. Petty had struggled with
end of Straight Into Darkness, a Long After Dark an- tonsilitis and vocal cord nodules in the early ’80s, forcing him to
them about an innocent love corrupted. cancel or postpone shows. “The main difference,” as Petty put it
7KHDOEXPZDVÀQLVKHGDQGZRXOGEHRXWLQVL[PRQWKV1R- simply in Record, “is that now we sing a little better.”
vember 1982, but Petty and the Heartbreakers were back in the The addition, however, made Stan Lynch less indispensable. He
Getty (5)

Record Plant, cutting live studio takes for French TV rock show was, as Tench remembers, “a fantastic harmony singer”, but Lynch
Houba Houba. There were hints of relief and sarcasm in Petty’s admits he was anything but consistent. “Howie could sing, man. I

58 MOJO
 Miracle worker: (main) Petty damns
the torpedoes, Santa Cruz Civic
Auditorium, July 24, 1979; (inset, left)
producer Jimmy Iovine; (opposite
page, clockwise from left) Petty with
wife Jane, 1979; Tom gets a pass from
Jerry Lee Lewis, January 17, 1984;
Petty and Mike Campbell with Bob
Dylan at Farm Aid, 1985.

was back there screaming my brains out, trying, tlety. “You’re full of shit, and you’re full of your-
and sometimes I’d get it,” Lynch says. “But Howie self,” he says. He simply wishes the Heartbreakers
never had a bad night.” had been mature enough to communicate beyond
Since Iovine enlisted as the Heartbreakers’ disses and dismissals.
producer for Damn The Torpedoes, however, Lynch “Being the drummer in the Heartbreakers was
had had quite a few bad days. During those ses- wonderful, amazing, but it tore a hole in my central
VLRQVKHZDVÀUHGTXLWDQGUHKLUHGPXOWLSOH nervous system,” says Lynch, hesitantly. “There was
times, with session drummers recruited to no avail. Iovine knew a lot of cruelty in the room sometimes, unnecessarily, and I gave as
Lynch could play hard but didn’t think he grooved, especially in good as I got.”
a way that would propel those songs onto the radio. When the
Heartbreakers did a reported 70 takes of Refugee, they were hunt- VERYTHING WASN’T COPACETIC BETWEEN IOVINE
ing for a feel, for a smash. During Long After Dark, the cycle repeated and Petty, either.
itself. Hard Promises hadn’t produced a massive hit, and they wanted Damn The Torpedoes had been a breakout for both of
RQH3HWW\·VGHFLVLRQWRNHHS/\QFKDURXQGÁXPPR[HG,RYLQH´,Q them and, mXFKOLNH3HWW\,RYLQHKDGJRQHIURPDÀJXUHLQPXVLF
his mind,” Lynch says, “I was eminently fucking replaceable, like I industry marginalia to someone who, in Roberts’ parlance, was
was in the way.” hot. He had dated Stevie Nicks and facilitated the chart-climbing
Lynch and Tench were best friends in the Heartbreakers, the collaborations between her and Petty. But, according to Petty, he
counterpart to Campbell and Petty’s unspoken brotherhood. Tench spent much of those Long After Dark sessions on the phone, often
saw his pal as an underappreciated listener, responsive to how eve- to Bob Seger talking about The Distance, the other album he had
ryone else moved. He couldn’t comprehend Iovine’s grievance. on the go. More than once, Petty told Paul Zollo the singer took
“Jimmy hated the way he played, and I don’t think they liked each razor blades and kitchen scissors to the phone cord, literally cutting
RWKHUIURPWKHÀUVWPLQXWHµVD\V7HQFK´,WKRXJKW:KDWLVWKLV Iovine off so he would work.
bullshit? But I had no sway over Jimmy, and Tom was trying to make “It was that album when I felt he’d betrayed me,” Petty later told
the best record he could. Zanes, doubling down. “As I saw it, I’m a full-time job.”
“But in neither case, Torpedoes or Long After Dark, did we get Petty and the Heartbreakers cut 19 songs across multiple ses-
a single track from drummers we brought in – B.J. Wilson from VLRQVDQGVWXGLRVEXW,RYLQHGLGQ·WWKLQNVHYHUDORIWKHPÀWWKH
Procol Harum and Terry Williams from Rockpile, one of the best UHSXWDWLRQWKH\·GEXLOWDWWKHQH[XVRIFODVVLFURFN·VDFFHVVLELOLW\
drummers ever,” Tench continues. “But the day Stan came back, we and punk rock’s attitude. Don’t Make Me Walk The Line was as ra-
got two tracks. What the hell? Quit messing around.” GLDQWDVDQ\(6WUHHW%DQGMHZHOLWVSRXQFLQJSLDQRDQG[\ORSKRQH
Looking back across four subsequent decades as a session musi- chimes making the lovesick song feel like a blatant bid for radio af-
cian, songwriter, and producer, Lynch understands. He was a kid fection. With its cantering beat and warm group harmonies that re-
high on testosterone and anything else he wanted, pounding away called the Everlys, Keeping Me Alive sounded too country to Iovine,
because that’s all he knew. He had yet to develop dynamics or sub- as did Turning Point, an optimistic anthem about hard times ➢

MOJO 59
 ➣
fading in the rearvieZ $OOWKUHHÀQGD more for his albums, provided easy fodder
home on the Long After Dark reissue.) for inquiring journalists. But he started going
There were some advances. An avowed only skin-deep, choosing to talk more about
fan of Roxy Music’s Avalon, Petty was the basics of production or the outline of his
a synthesizer enthusiast. “They’re the past rather than the real stuff that motivated
instruments of the times, and you should his songs. After evading Rolling Stone’s Mikal
deal with them,” he told Record. They Gilmore for days after losing his voice in 1979,
splash through the cracks of Long After 3HWW\ÀQDOO\UHVSRQGHGWRDFRQFHSWXDOTXHV-
Dark, like bits of stained glass making a tion about antiheroes with, “You know, I don’t
room glow. Petty plays a Prophet-5, while think about these things that much.”
Tench’s Oberheim OB-Xa traces through But in an earlier Rolling Stone interview,
several songs. before the songs of Torpedoes catapulted Petty,
Synths plunge in and out of You Got Cameron Crowe captured a much more open
/XFN\WKHÀUVWVLQJOHDQGDVQHHULQJWDXQW person, an endlessly quotable prankster who
about a pending break-up. Petty compared talked about switchblades in his boots and who
it to Breakdown, “except with more mod- could badmouth Elvis Costello and Johnny
ern instruments,” but, for Campbell, it Rotten in a single thought. Recognising this
was a real coup, combining old and new rapport, Danny Bramson – the head of Back-
ways of working. In a bedroom that’s now street Records, the Heartbreakers’ home since
part of his kitchen, Campbell looped a Torpedoes – contracted Crowe to make a docu-
drum snippet from a record he no longer mentary about Petty they could deliver to MTV
remembers with a TEAC 4-track. He add- to promote Long After Dark.
ed guitar and bass using a small Soundcraft Petty was in, with one caveat: it needed to
mixing board, then took it to the Record EHZHLUG´7KLVLGHDRILWEHLQJDVHOIVDWLVÀHG
Plant. They’d recorded so much of Long portrait, he was not into that,” Crowe remem-
After Dark live, and this was a distinctly bers. “He wanted it to be cool and irreverent
different approach. Lynch, Campbell and not look like the corporate thing he’d just
said, added new life on drums, while Petty come out of a battle with. If he was going to
inspired the guitar solo. splash around in these waters, fame by way
“I said, What do you think I should of corporate promotions, he wanted it to be
something that wouldn’t be a compromise.”
play? And he said, ‘Play something like ADAM GRANDUCIEL Indeed, there are few portraits of a rock
Clint Eastwood, The Good, The Bad And (THE WAR ON band so disarming, real, or goofy as Heart-
The Ugly,’” Campbell says, laughing as he DRUGS) ON YOU
breakers Beach Party, named for an antic 1980
sounds out those tremolo notes. “That was WRECK ME: “In high
Heartbreakers number about a seaside cook-
school, Wildflowers
Tom directing me.” [1994] was a Top 40 out. It was screened after midnight just once
The one exception to Long After Dark’s rock record. And Tom
on MTV. Crowe soon got a call from MTV ex-
spring-loaded rock came at the end with was, what, 44? And
HFXWLYH&KLS5DFKOLQVD\LQJLWZDVQ·WÀWIRU
You Wreck Me was
A Wasted Life, a soft-focus plea for some- my song when I was coming of age, the channel, then barely a year old. It became
one Petty loves not to ruin their life with eighth or ninth grade. I wore corduroy an object lesson for Crowe, still years away
GHSUHVVLRQRUGUXJV 3HWW\·VÀUVWZLIH pants, always thrifting for a pair of cool
from making Say Anything and Singles, not to
corduroys. I never wore a pair of jeans
Jane, had just given birth to their second until I was 29. So the line about ‘I’ll be bargain. “Tom was quietly proud it aired only
daughter; their marriage was fraying, the boy in the corduroy pants,’ that was once, so it became like Cocksucker Blues,” he
though they would remain together for fucking me. And then worlds collided
remembers, laughing. “You had to be there.”
PRUH\HDUV ,WZDVLURQLFDOO\WKHÀUVW when Dave Grohl played with them
on SNL. I remember Mike Campbell When Adria Petty saw the footage last year
time Lynch saw opium smoked in the stu- playing the big red Gibson 335, and I as part of an archival dump, she was stunned.
dio. “It helped create the weirdness of that thought, These guys are cool as shit. I 6KHUHPHPEHUHGWKHÀOPEHLQJVKRWLQKHU
track,” says the drummer, shrugging. was starting to play guitar, and it was so
family home when she was seven, and she rec-
easy to play along to those songs. It all
It was a desperate end to a dark album, started coming together with Petty, all ognised the assorted rooms of her childhood.
Petty often writing as if he’d been cor- started to just make sense.” But she didn’t expect to see her sometimes-
nered by fame until he felt ostracised, lash- KURT VILE ON enigmatic father opening up so much about
ing out at whatever and whomever neared. LEARNING TO FLY: “I songwriting, whether showing Crowe how
The dead ends of A One Story Town, the thought the Learning American Girl owed more to Bo Diddley than
To Fly video was cool,
dangerous possibilities of We Stand A but it wasn’t until a Roger McGuinn or how much patience waiting
Chance, the doubtful perspective of Deliv- little while later that I for the lyrics to The Waiting required.
er Me: when Iovine circumscribed Petty’s realised it was the best Petty wrestled with the ridiculousness and
sounds, he circumscribed his feelings, too. song ever. We lived
convenience of limousines, how to keep his
Getty (2), Alamy, Shawn Brackbill, Lance Bangs, Cameron Crowe

in the ’burbs outside

“There was so much fortitude in those Philly, and we had this one tiny diner, concerts safe without making them sanitised,
three records with Jimmy,” says Adria Pet- I think the Olympic Diner. There were and how to deal with the honours and riches of
ty. “But by the time the last one was edited five booths, but they all had their own fame while remaining a rebellious kid from the
personal jukebox. I’d be there with
down, it was darker. Tom liked to play with my high school friends, and I’d play Florida swamps. It pulled open a window on a
duality, even if he didn’t know what to call Learning To Fly. It would make me feel period of Petty’s career during which he’d kept
it, where there was always hope. He always insanely nostalgic even then. Learning things opaque. “He’s talking about his record-
To Fly is a blueprint to a pop song I want
thought things had possibility.” to write. I’m always chasing that. Every ing process, all this stuff he was pretty cryptic
song that comes through the radio of about later in life,” Adria remembers. “That
N THE EARLY ’80S, PETTY WAS his is awesome. Petty doesn’t have a was insane.”
stinker on the radio. He seemed tough
not exactly an easy or candid interview. and cool but melodic and a great singer
During oQHRIWKHSRLJQDQWÀQDOVFHQHV
+LVSXEOLFÀJKWVZLWKKLVUHFRUG who just delivered all the time.” Petty sits in his home garden and tells Crowe
labels, first over an unfavourable con- about reconciling his public and private imag-
tract and then over an attempt to charge The Bad Monkey soundtrack – which also es, or how he has realised there is no costume.
includes Sharon Van Etten, Nathaniel
Rateliff and Jason Isbell – is out now.
60 MOJO
 Walking the line: (clockwise)
Petty with (from left) Campbell
and Blair on-stage at the Capitol
Theatre, Passaic, New Jersey,
June 27, 1980; Petty in 1986;
Petty and his fellow Traveling
Wilbury George Harrison, 1992;
Petty with director Cameron
Crowe in a still from the newly
rediscovered 1982 documentary
Heartbreakers Beach Party.

What’s in his life makes it on record and vice versa. Boys Of Summer, and Tench
“I hate those rock stars or any artist who goes, ‘Well, was now an in-demand ses-
there’s me, and then there’s the character,’” he tells sion player. His marriage had worsened, as had
Crowe. “It’s you, man.” KLVUHODWLRQVKLSZLWK/\QFKGDPDJHGE\ÀQDQ-
Crowe remembers it well, with the kids playing cial disagreements and those taxing sessions with
and Jane cooking inside. That was the stuff of Life Af- Iovine. Petty was one of the world’s biggest rock
ter Dark, with Petty letting his world bleed stars, but fame suddenly felt pain-
onto tape – even if he didn’t always want to ful. “We had too much time on our
explain it. “That was bold at the time, be- hands,” Petty told Zollo. “I didn’t
cause you were supposed to have a persona know how to live in the world.”
that was bigger than life,” Crowe says. “He Long After Dark , then, rep-
said, ‘I’m not bigger than life. Life is bigger resented the end of relative in-
than me, and I’m just a guy living my life.’ nocence. Fame cost the Heart-
That showed in his later stuff.” breakers a bassist and strained
Petty’s long-standing rela-
N OCTOBER 1984, ALMOST TWO tionship with Lynch in ways
years after the release of Long that, the drummer admits, would
After Dark, Tom Petty shat- never fully heal. The Heartbreak-
tered his hand. He’d been in ers would become Dylan’s backing
his home studio late in Encino, trying and band and Petty a Traveling Wilbury
IDLOLQJWRÀQGWKHPDJLFKH·GFDSWXUHG before they would make another
during an early demo for what would be- great album together, 1991’s Into
come the Heartbreakers’ sixth album, The Great Wide Open. But even that
Southern Accents. Exasperated, he punched (or slapped, as he some- came amid a truly hot streak for Petty – 1989’s Full Moon Fever and
times put it) the wall, breaking several bones in his fretting hand. “I 1994’s :LOGÁRZHUV, two monumental solo albums where he fully
wasn’t trying to hurt myself,” he insisted to Creem a year later. tapped the pop and so-called country impulses Iovine had resisted
Petty had been trying to make his world smaller since Long After on Long After Dark. Indeed, those sorts of tunes made Petty the best
Dark’s draining sessions and exhausting tour. He’d built his own he would ever be.
studio, let Iovine go, and started penning songs about back home. “It’s just a record of pop songs, but I was feeling pressure, peo-
There was a productive co-writing dalliance with Eurythmics’ Dave ple saying that you didn’t send us a message,” Petty said of Long
Stewart, but Southern Accents initially suggested a beleaguered Petty After Dark in that Creem story where he explained the broken hand.
WU\LQJWRVWHSVLGHZD\VIURPIDPHWRÀQGVRPHFHQWUH7KHZRUN “Well, I didn’t have any message to send.”
was slow and sporadic, but the booze, cocaine, and pot were not. That’s not quite right: Long After Dark did have a message, one
The broken hand meant he had to call Iovine back in, and what DERXWSOXQJLQJVWUDLJKWLQWRGDUNQHVVDQGWKHQÀQGLQJWKHWKLQJV
started as a strong concept album soon got away from him. He’d that helped you get out again. In 1982, though, Petty, the Heart-
also passed on the Campbell demo that Don Henley turned into breakers, and Iovine only managed to share half of that story. M

MOJO 61
Charged up: The Cult’s
Billy Duffy (left) and Ian
Astbury take a break
during the recording of
Electric, Electric Lady
studios, New York, 1987.
 MOJO EYEWITNESS

Riding the success of 1985’s Love LP, THE CULT looked West,
plugging into hard rock and hip-hop for Electric and West
Coast vibrations for Sonic Temple, a US smash in 1989. Forty
years since their transition from Death Cult into the band they
resemble today, they relive the creative ferment, emotional
turmoil and on-the-road chaos. “That was such an intense
period,” they say. “It’s amazing that we survived.”

Interviews: PAT GILBERT Portrait by DREW CAROLAN

Billy Duffy: We’d had a hit with She Sells Bob Rock: I thought Love was such a great you look. I remember walking into the
Sanctuary and were in pre-production album, it sounded so new. It had all those Hammersmith Palais just after Love had
for the Love album. Nigel Preston, our layers of psychedelic noise going on with come out, I think it was a Killing Joke show,
drummer, had got into some serious Class Billy’s guitars, and Ian’s voice sounded so and this kid just walked up to me and
A drug use, so Mark Brzezicki from Big powerful… It’s still my favourite (laughs). punched me square in the face. Didn’t
Country stepped in. The last two songs we even say anything.
worked on were Love and Phoenix, and BD: We went to America to tour Love and
Mark lit up these heavy riffs with his suddenly we were exposed to a broader Alan Edwards: Ian Grant [co-manager]
playing. Ian [Astbury] heard it, and range of music. The stuff we listened to at and I were really focused on breaking
thought it was the best thing ever, home – Free, Bad Company, Led Zeppelin them in America. Billy was really keen,
particularly Phoenix. – was actually on the radio and the people because he’d been stuck in northern
we encountered in America really England for years, in the rain and the cold.
Jamie Stewart: Suddenly we regained embraced us. In Britain we felt very much But Ian was obsessed with it. He’d grown
our focus. There was a lot of pendulum- under the jackboot of journalists who’d up partly in North America, so he had this
swinging in our career, coming in and out never gotten over punk rock. interest in Native Americans which played
of sync. But with those tracks we seemed into the imagery of The Cult.
to get it together. Ian Astbury: The commercial success
was head-spinning. I’d been homeless BD: When we came back from the
BD: We began to develop this idea of for quite a while, then I got asked to join American tour of Love, we were deter-
mixing rock, goth and disco. But Love was Southern Death Cult and I was on the mined to make something a bit more
Drew Carolan

a weird set-up: the album was recorded cover of the NME [October, 1982] when rock. Then Ian had a bit of a wobble. I
on a digital desk made by Mitsubishi. there wasn’t even an album out. All of remember in Italy, on a little tour we did
A Japanese chap slept underneath it in a sudden you’re in the public eye and before we went into the studio, he threw
case it broke. everyone’s judging you based on the way all these lyrics out, like, “They’re all ➢
MOJO 63
 “ELECTRIC CAME OUT,
AND EVERYBODY’S LIKE,
‘YOU’VE TRASHED YOUR
ROOTS AND YOUR ORIGINS.
HOW DARE YOU!?’”
IAN ASTBURY
➣
shit.” So when we went into record, I don’t IA: I remember Cult following: (clockwise from above left)
think Ian was really there. There was a separation Rick putting on Southern Death Cult (from left) Haq Nawaz
‘Aki’ Qureshi, Barry Jepson, David ‘Buzz’
between him and the band. He’d work on his own a VHS of Blue Burrows, Ian Astbury, Bradford, 1982;
with [producer] Steve Brown late into the night. Cheer playing flowered up: The Cult (clockwise from left)
Summertime Astbury, Billy Duffy, Jamie Stewart, Nigel
IA: We were at Richard Branson’s Manor studios Blues. He said, Preston, 1985; “Anything for dessert?”:
in rural Oxfordshire. It was so far away from what “You like the Astbury minds his table manners, July 1985.
our real life was. We weren’t really interested in [MC]5? Check
hanging out in the garden, you know? Except these guys IA: At the MTV New Year’s Ball, 1986, the
we found out they had a wine cellar. We soon out.” I was like, Beastie Boys are like, “Come on-stage with
got that open. So we kind of got entrenched Wow, that is us.” So that’s me on-stage with the Beastie
and it was almost as if this album was going to raw. How do you get that in a room? Boys, doing No Sleep Till Brooklyn. Overall, we
be Love II. It was heavily layered. And as usual were pretty excited about Electric. It felt less like
I was pushing for something more raw. It felt BD: Rick was like, “Do you like early AC/DC?”
Erica Echenberg/Redferns/Getty, Peter Ashworth/Avalon.red, Andy Hosie/Daily Mirror/Mirrorpix/Getty Images

we were aspiring to something, and more like we

like we were making a record, as opposed to Yeah. “Early Led Zeppelin? Aerosmith?” He just were becoming something. But it came out, and
birthing one. wanted to establish what we considered to be everybody’s like, “You’ve trashed your roots and
the fundamental pillars of good rock. A lot of your origins. How dare you!?”
BD: When it was finished, Peace [as the record
things went on from a guitar player’s point of
was then called] wasn’t the quantum leap we AE: They went out on tour in America with Billy
view. He said we’d only use a rented Les Paul and
expected. But the songs were OK. Idol, then Guns N’ Roses. Ian was a real frontman
Marshall. He was like Pol Pot and just scraped
AE: Ian came up with idea of getting Def Jam’s everything away, which was sort of genius. Him – fights, getting bottles of whiskey smashed over
Rick Rubin to remix a track or two. He’d had all and [engineer] George Drakoulias were like his head, insulting record label people, wrecking
this success with Run-DMC and the Beastie Boys Batman and Robin. hotels. At one of the gigs, Guns N’ Roses had to
and was the hottest producer around. Nobody smuggle him out of the venue to stop him
really got it. The label, Beggars Banquet, here [in Rick Rubin: The idea that I was still going to NYU getting arrested for swearing on-stage. He made
the UK] were resistant. I just don’t think any of us and walking from my dorm room to Electric Lady John Lydon look like a choir boy, but on the other
really saw that as a way forward. studios every day to produce an album was hand he had a spirituality about him and really
insane. And it was a group from England who I original ideas. He was an artist.
IA: We’d been in a club in Toronto in late 1985 had only met because they liked my Def Jam
and I heard Cookie Puss by the Beastie Boys. 12-inches. I remember Ian really embracing the JS: I’d sit in the gym the next morning, talking to
I was instantly stopped in my tracks and went to whole process. Billy about what Ian had been doing the night
the DJ and said, What is this? I felt a real kindred before – whether it was walking naked across his
spirit with this music, the sound, how stripped AE: Rick was like a student. He used to eat balcony railings at two o’clock in the morning or
back it was, how raw it was. hamburgers and drink Coca-Cola. But Ian [Grant] getting drunk and trashing some club. He was
and I were playing catch-up doing the deals. This having a difficult time of it. It got to the point
BD: We went to meet Rick in New York. It was was all costing money. where no one could relate to him.
funny, he didn’t drink, never smoked weed, I
didn’t trust him (laughs). He hadn’t moved out BD: Electric was sort of a cartoony record, because IA: That’s around when we got banned from
of his dorm at NYU and I don’t think he’d even we were living cartoony lives. We were young Rolling Stone. It was some kind of fashion piece
recorded a band at this point. He said, “I’ll remix men in New York going mental, right? One day we on music moguls and their protégés, which we
your album, but you need to let me cut one came in and the Beastie Boys are all jamming on did with Seymour Stein, who’d licensed us to Sire
track from the ground up.” We ended up doing our gear. Public Enemy came down. Then we all for the States. We arrived at the studio for a fitting,
a whole album. went to see Slayer, met the guys in Anthrax… and I looked at the clothes on the rail, and I said,

64 MOJO
 DRAMATIS
PERSONAE

● Ian Astbury
(vocalist)

I’m not wearing any of this. I know how Ian [Grant] and That’s where Christopher
to dress myself. So the session got Alan were mad Isherwood went, Aldous Huxley,
wrapped pretty quickly, and I was with us. the Theosophists. There’s a lot of
given the whisper: “You just screwed mythology to be discovered in
our relationship with Rolling Stone.” AE: I got a call Los Angeles. Also, it was a place
from their new manager Howard
Paul Natkin/Getty, Jeff Kravitz/FilmMagic, Inc/Getty, DPA Picture Alliance/Alamy Stock Photo, Lynn Goldsmith/Corbis/VCG via Getty Images,

● Billy Duffy
where we got left alone a bit. It was getting
AE: It was all getting a bit Spinal Tap. Kaufman. From a mobile phone in dangerous walking around London. I was
Someone lost it once when a limo (guitarist) his Rolls-Royce, driving through attacked several times.
turned up that was the wrong colour. Beverly Hills…
BR: I got a call from Billy, who I’d met briefly, and
BD: We’d gotten into this habit of JS: They weren’t happy. They were in
Lisa Haun/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images, Brian Rasic/Getty Images, Andy Hosie/Daily Mirror/Mirrorpix/Getty Images

went down to LA to talk to him and Ian. I liked

breaking up all the gear on-stage, every the process of setting up a New York
Electric, but as a fan, I was like, What the fuck? I
rock cliché. It got a little grisly, a lot of office and we were still under contract.
wanted to bring back what Billy did on Love, a lot
shenanigans. I drank very enthusiasti- Lawsuits flew and it got horrible.
of guitars and stuff. So Sonic Temple set out to be
cally in those days, and even I was like,
AE: It ended up with a major a cross between Electric and Love.
Whoah, this is getting a bit pie-eyed. ● Jamie Stewart
altercation watched by a crowd in the
(bassist) BD: We took a massive gamble with Bob Rock.
AE: They got to somewhere like street. It was pretty extraordinary. The
We didn’t really entertain doing another record
Brisbane and literally ran out of police were called.
with Rick. It was a great one-off. Rick’s not a
equipment. After that Australian leg,
IA: I was personally very, very attached producer that can help you if you only have half
the tour didn’t get completed. It
to Ian and Alan. They were like bigger an album of material. Bob is.
started to fall in on itself.
brothers. For the first time in my life,
BR: With Ian, it was the first time I ever met, like,
JS: That tour had been a disaster and I felt I had some mentorship. My own
a rock star, a guy that totally lived it. He was
lost money. We’d already recorded in father wasn’t as present as I would
suspicious of me on that album and took a while
one of the most expensive studios in ● Rick Rubin have liked him to have been. But the
to warm up. I’d worked with Bon Jovi and
Britain without releasing a record [ie, (producer) momentum around me was so much
Aerosmith, but I came from a punk background,
Peace]. The records were successful but I couldn’t fight it.
which he came to understand. He was great: I
we were in debt.
BD: I felt like we had a window of don’t want to say Jim Morrison but… he had lots
IA: It seemed to be exploding on the opportunity to make it in show of notebooks and ideas. One night we went to
commercial side. But I went to Harley business, in a serious way. But it’s like, see Iggy Pop and Ian brought him back to the
Street to see the doctor and he I don’t think we’re going to be able studio on the back of his chopper.
diagnosed nervous exhaustion. That to fake this. We need to be properly
good. We need to write good songs, IA: I would have continued with Rick. Bob was
was the first time I really felt I was on a ● Bob Rock
play them really well. I noticed on tour very much more about getting in the room,
dangerous path. (producer)
with Slash and [Billy Idol’s guitarist] working songs out, pulling things apart. It was
BD: We had spent a lot of our spare Steve Stevens that they practised all actually quite challenging. And I just wanted
time in Los Angeles in ’87 between the time. America’s too vast to blag it. to do things instinctively. There was a certain
tours. I didn’t go back to England. I agenda creeping in the room that I railed against
ended up meeting Steve Jones and IA: Sonic Temple was an LA record. But every day. I was saying, Let’s strip it down. Let’s
riding around with long hair on a not the superficial, Beverly Hills LA. It’s keep it raw. The record, in many ways, is a
Harley-Davidson. I decided to stay Doors territory, it’s Love territory. It’s combination of Billy, Bob, myself, all pulling in
there and get American management. also the seat of esoterica in the West. different directions. ➢
● Alan Edwards
(co-manager)
MOJO 65
 “Wanna ride?”:
Astbury on his
chopper, July 1989.

“WITH IAN, IT WAS

THE FIRST TIME
Astbury and Duffy, 2024:
indulging in “ideas,
textures and sounds…”
I EVER MET,
LIKE, A ROCK
STAR, A GUY The Cult Now
THAT TOTALLY the show, my father sat me down and said, “My
The group are galloping into
LIVED IT.” cancer’s terminal.” I was ripped apart. I walked
on-stage that night and gave zero as a perfor-
the future “like a burning
unicorn,” says Ian Astbury.
BOB ROCK mance. I was just so not connected to it. I actually
got berated by my manager, and my partner ON THEIR current 8424 tour, Ian Astbury and
at the time, for throwing away this ‘incredible Billy Duffy celebrate 40 years since they
➣ opportunity’ by not doing the little dance. retired their Death Cult moniker and
BR: Ian wanted it a bit rougher, yes. Jamie? embraced an unknown future.
He was the John Paul Jones figure. He was a JS: I made up my mind going into that tour that “I don’t think of it as a retrospective, or an
great bass player. He held it together. it was going to be the end. I got married around anniversary, though,” Astbury tells MOJO. “I
that time. No one was talking to anyone else. Billy don’t need a cake. ‘8424’ is just a convenient
BD: We were friends with Metallica and toured moniker. I like how it looks like it could be a
said, “Fuck it, it’s a drag but you’ve made up your
with them in summer 1989. I wasn’t convinced year in the future, like a date out of Blade
mind.” I’ve no idea what Ian thought. I went to
that their crowd would like us. They still had their Runner or something.”
see him in his hotel room and he was surrounded
very hardcore, primarily male fan base. They with books and the TV was on. Ian and Billy As far as Astbury is concerned, even at 62,
hadn’t changed into the new, improved, couldn’t talk to each other. This enormous castle the same fire burns within that produced the
touchy-feely Metallica. So it was a hard tour for was built on those shifting sands. songs on Love and Electric. “I’ve never felt
us. But it won us a lot of fans. Fire Woman [the that sense of entitlement,” he insists. “I was
single] went platinum. IA: That tour was chaos for me. I was distraught always the most earnest person in the room.
about my father. I was exhausted. The lifestyle And I’m pushing for a future for this band
AE: We watched on as The Cult had a Top 10 hit took over. We had to pull the tour early. I went where we can really, truly incubate and
in America with Sonic Temple. The dream of home to my father’s funeral. That was such an indulge in ideas, textures, sounds…”
breaking America had come true. intense period. It’s amazing that we survived. The Cult’s current tour embraces the
entirety of the group’s history, including
IA: I thought Fire Woman was our albatross. BD: Howard Kaufman said, “Well, now you’ve had more recent albums Choice Of Weapon (2012)
I didn’t think it was a fair representation of the success and made some money, it’s going to be and Under The Midnight Sun (2022), with a
band. It was like we were evolving into this A&R very interesting.” I said, Why? He said, “Well, you band including Robert Plant vet Charlie
person’s wet dream of what The Cult should be. don’t need to do it any more.” They call it Jones on bass. The singer concedes,
Kevin Cummins/Getty Images, Tim Cadiente

‘fuck-you money’ – y’know, I never liked you however, that last year’s Death Cult dates,
BD: Ian had some relationship issues ongoing which concentrated entirely on songs from
anyway, time for my solo album (laughs). The
with his girlfriend, Renee [Beach], and that was funny thing is, we’ve never really cracked the 1981-85, “was a reset. It was, Let’s go back to
falling apart on the back of all the touring. So he middle of America, the heartland. Most of the zero. When a performer is like that, on fire,
was in a bad, bad shape towards the end. I think people in the Midwest who liked The Cult had it’s like a burning unicorn. It’s all your
he was just struggling with the success to a already moved to the big cities on the coast. trauma, all your lived experience. When I
degree. I don’t think it sat that well with him. But they still like us over there… M step over that threshold, I don’t know what’s
gonna happen.”
IA: There was another component in that I found Additional material provided by Danny Eccleston And these shows? “They’re like Death
out my father was dying of cancer. So I was kind and Andrew Perry. The Cult begin a UK tour on Octo- Cult on steroids.”
of vulnerable, less vigilant. We were doing the ber 21 at Leicester’s De Montfort Hall. More info at Danny Eccleston
MTV awards in Los Angeles in ’89, and the day of thecult.us

66 MOJO
 Music’s legends.
MOJO’s finest writers.
The full stories.
Available Now!
Buy online at greatmagazines.co.uk/mojocollectors
 DAVID BOWIE’s 1974 beggars
belief. Two genius albums –
Diamond Dogs and Young
Americans – completed.
Multiple shifts in music and
iconography undertaken.
All in the midst of personality
crisis and management
meltdown. Fifty years on,
bandmates and associates
relive a rollercoaster ride.
“There were so many drugs,”
they tell MARK PAYTRESS.
“Even John Lennon hadn’t
seen so much cocaine.”
ID-APRIL 1974: 22-YEAR-OLD EARL
Slick was hungr y for work. He’d
recently auditioned for Dr. John on a
tip from Michael Kamen, his some-
time band leader, but it hadn’t led to
much. Nevertheless Kamen, Slick’s
mentor of sorts, had a good feeling
The Sun/News Syndication, Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images

about this one. “You’re gonna get a

call from somebody,” he told the
guitarist. “It’s a big one, so get your shit together.”
“First of all, I’d expected a rehearsal place,” says Slick,
“not a dark, empty room at RCA studios in midtown New
York City.” After some small talk with an assistant who
introduced herself as Coco, he plugged his 1965 SG Junior
into one of the two amps there, before a voice came over the
monitor: “Put the headphones on. We’re going to play you
some tracks. Just play along…”
First up was Diamond Dogs. Slick remembers that,
because his hero was Keith Richards and the song had a
Stones-like swagger. “The audition couldn’t have lasted more
than 20 minutes,” he says. “Then… dead fucking silence.” ➢

70 MOJO
“Who can I be now?”: two faces of
Bowie in ’74 – performing Rebel
Rebel on Dutch TV in February;
on-stage during the Diamond
Dogs Tour in LA in September.
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72 MOJO
Pedigree chum: Bowie brings a friend
(and significant reading, bottom right)
for the Diamond Dogs publicity shoot,
1974; (opposite page, from top) ‘Philly
Dogs’ Bowie and Earl Slick on-stage at
Michigan Palace, Detroit, October 16,
1974; Bowie and Mike Garson during
Young Americans sessions, Sigma Sound
Studios, Philadelphia, August 1974.
 JACKBOOT STOMPIN’
novel in Burroughsian cut-up fashion.
We Are The Dead reimagines Winston and
Julia’s final assignation before the Thought
Police arrive. Dodo, severed from 1984 and
Bowie included Orwell’s then dropped altogether, describes how
Bowie’s plans for George novel on a 2013 list of his Winston’s colleague Parsons was betrayed
by his own children and dispatched to the
Orwell’s 1984 were thwarted, favourite books. He must
have discovered it young. “scorching light” of the Ministry of Love.
but his dystopian visions of “You always felt you were in Chant Of The Ever Circling Skeletal Family
is Bowie’s Two Minutes Hate, approximat-
1984,” he said of his childhood
chaos and tyranny lived on in in post-war Brixton and ing the ritual’s “hideous grinding screech”
and “subhuman chanting”. He was clearly
Diamond Dogs and beyond, Bromley. “That’s the kind of
gloom and immovable society intimate with the text. The song 1984’s
writes DORIAN LYNSKEY. that a lot of us felt we grew up reference to an alleged plot against Big
Brother (“Looking for the treason I knew
in.” He was born in January
in ’65”) is a very deep cut indeed.

T
HE WAY BOWIE told it, there would 1947, when snow and Siberian
be no Diamond Dogs if not for George cold led to fuel rationing and Whether Bowie possessed the
Orwell’s widow Sonia. In September power cuts. Orwell, living narrative discipline or political sympa-
1973 he began working on a musical six miles away in Islington, thies to have pulled off a
adaptation of Orwell’s Nineteen complained of a “lousy winter” successful adaptation is
Eighty-Four with playwright Tony Ingrassia. with “unheard-of weather”. debatable. Orwell was
The following month he debuted a song-in- The next time Britain suffered profoundly sceptical of power
progress, 1984/Dodo, on-stage in London such severe fuel shortages was and those who seek it. Bowie,
at the punningly titled 1980 Floor Show. In October 1973, due to the oil embargo however, was intoxicated by
November he told William S Burroughs it arising from the Yom Kippur War. the intersection of stardom,
would be a TV special. He was to play Orwell’s Planning to emigrate and addicted to mass media and dictatorship,
unhappy rebel Winston Smith, with Marianne doom, Bowie was acutely sensitive to from the teenage Nietzscheans
Faithfull rumoured for his hedonistic lover the country’s escalating anxiety about of Oh! You Pretty Things to the
Julia. Yet within weeks the project was dead unrest and decline, leading to either tyrant-hustler in Somebody
and Bowie was building a new home for the societal collapse or some kind of Up There Likes Me. His songs
orphaned songs: Diamond Dogs. Speaking to dictatorship. Having recently teemed with supermen and
Circus magazine in 1976, Bowie blamed Sonia travelled through the USSR, he saviours. When John Lennon
Orwell for the change of plan. “She was the was already devouring books and Stevie Wonder sang about
biggest upper-class snob I’ve ever met in my about totalitarianism. He was in Big Brother, they identified with
life,” he complained. “‘Good heavens, put it an Orwellian frame of mind. the little guy but Bowie’s craving
to music?’ It was really like that.” for “someone to follow… someone
to fool us” is gloriously anthemic

I
It’s a good story with a convenient killjoy N THE END, Diamond Dogs
villain but they never actually met and it wasn’t was a dystopia of two halves. – a sweet surrender. Whose side
personal. The fiercely protective Sonia had been Side one’s hectic, lurid Hunger was he on?
so dismayed by a 1956 Hollywood neutering City owes more to the lawless Bowie gave set designer Mark
Ravitz three dark touchstones for
of Nineteen Eighty-Four that she blocked all sci-fi ganglands of Burroughs’ The
the Diamond Dogs Tour: “Power,
further screen adaptations until her death Wild Boys and Anthony Burgess’s
Nuremberg and Fritz Lang’s
in 1980, musical or otherwise. What’s more, A Clockwork Orange than to the
Metropolis.” Soon, he was
Bowie’s manager Tony Defries had submitted a grey, monolithic tyranny of
describing Hitler as “one of the first
sloppy proposal and an insultingly low offer. It Orwell’s Airstrip One. The rock stars” and claimed the chaos
was a non-starter. Still, Bowie felt that his dream Orwellian show tunes arrive late, of the mid-1970s demanded “an
of “19-bloody-84” had been stolen from him. rearranging fragments of the extreme right front” to “tidy
everything up”. Berlin soon
“YOU ALWAYS smacked the glamour of
FELT YOU WERE IN fascism out of him and he
disowned the “bizarre
1984. THAT’S THE nihilistic fantasy world”
KIND OF GLOOM that spawned his half-mad
provocations, but he was
THAT A LOT OF US a long way from Orwell’s
GREW UP IN.” moral clarity.
Bowie got another shot at
DAVID BOWIE Orwell a decade later, when he
pitched to soundtrack Michael
Radford’s movie 1984. But the film’s
producer, Richard Branson, politely
declined and chose the Eurythmics instead.
Like Winston Smith, Bowie couldn’t win.
Dorian Lynskey is the author of The Ministry Of
Truth– A Biography Of George Orwell’s 1984 and
Everything Must Go: The Stories We Tell About The
End Of The World.

Wild boys: Bowie meets

William S Burroughs,
February 1974; (right)
George Orwell, author
of Diamond Dogs inspi-
ration Nineteen Eighty-
Four, at work in 1946.
 Rebel soul: (from left) Bowie
says goodbye to glam on
TopPop, February 13, 1974;
recording Diamond Dogs;
(inset) the Guy Peellaert-
illustrated sleeves for The
Rolling Stones and Bowie.

“ONE OF THE
THINGS DAVID
LOVED ABOUT
➣ AMERICA WAS THAT
opening salvo of “This ain’t rock’n’roll 7KHSDLUKDGÀUVWPHWDWDSDUW\IRU6WH-
– this is genocide.”
THEY’D THROWN OUT vie Wonder in February 1973; by the au-
Seeing Fritz Lang’s 1927 silent cinema THE BRITISH AND tumn, Cherry was Bowie’s live-in lover at
masterpiece Metropolis on his 27th birth-
day – January 8, 1974 – helped Bowie visu-
DESIGNED IT his new Oakley Street townhouse in Chel-
sea. She soon became the latest in a growing
alise it: a near-future cityscape hosting vari- THEMSELVES.” OLQHRISURWpJpVÀUVW²ZLWK0DF&RUPDFN²DV
ous dreamlike set-pieces: Bowie roped by the ANGIE BOWIE part of vocal trio The Astronettes, then as a so-
‘Dogs’, wild boys who stalked the blood-stained loist. Cherry was also Bowie’s conduit to the latest
rooftops; boxing his way out of despair in a makeshift sounds from young black America.
ring for Panic In Detroit; playing Hamlet during Cracked “David was checking out Marvin Gaye, Al Green and Mi-
Actor; surveying the crowd from a mechanical cherry-picker dur- chael Jackson but his favourite was Aretha,” Cherry tells MOJO
ing Space Oddity. As he told his small army of helpers, the musician WRGD\´:KHQ,JRWP\RZQÁDWLQ&KHOVHDKH·GSKRQHDQG,·GDO-
now known simply as ‘Bowie’ in his publicity material wanted the ways be playing Aretha’s [1973 single] Until You Come Back To Me
show to evoke “Metropolis, Nuremberg, Power.” (That’s What I’m Gonna Do). He loved it. But he’d also say, ‘Don’t
“When we were kids, like nine,” says MacCormack, “we were you have any other records?’”
round his house looking at the records, books and magazines his Back in 1965, for his Manish Boys single, I Pity The Fool, Bow-
dad would get him. One [magazine] had this story about a couple ie had summoned up an approximation of blues shouter Bobby
RIZUHVWOHUVÀJKWLQJWRWKHGHDWK,WZDVJURVVJRXJLQJHDFKRWKHU·V Bland, the song’s original singer. Now, a decade on, having fallen in
eyes out and shit like that. And the more freaked out I became, the love all over again with contemporary black music – Ann Peebles’
more David got into telling it.” I Can’t Stand The Rain was, he said, the “best record in years” –
Terry O'Neill/Iconic Images, Ullstein Bild/Getty, Pictorial Press Ltd/Alamy Stock Photo, Michael Ochs Archives/Getty

Bowie’s enduring taste for the macabre was all over Diamond Bowie appreciated its more sophisticated, even feminine aspects.
Dogs. Before leaving for New York, he’d overseen the album art- Early signs of his new soul kick were evident on side two of Di-
work which depicted him as half man, half dog amidst a circus of amond Dogs. Rock’n’Roll With Me, a co-write with Geoff Mac-
curiosities inspired by Tod Browning’s 1932 cinema classic, Freaks. Cormack, was a big-sounding R&B ballad. We Are The Dead set
The artist, Guy Peellaert, had already been commissioned by Mick Bowie’s mouth-watering word salad against a solemn, otherworldly
Jagger to illustrate the next Rolling Stones album cover. Jagger Fender Rhodes gospel sequence. But it was 1984, with its chatter-
learned never to mention names in front of Bowie again. ing wah-wah guitar and swooping string arrangement, that marked
Photographs by Terry O’Neill, on which the cover artwork was the biggest musical shift. “[David] kept playing me Barry White
based, reveal that stardom was another theme obsessing Bowie songs and saying, ‘I want it to sound like that,’” recalled the cut’s
more than ever. Beside his outstretched left boot in one shot is a RULJLQDOSURGXFHU.HQ6FRWW<HWWKHÀQLVKHGWUDFNZDVFORVHUWR
copy of Walter Ross’s The Immortal, a pulpy 1958 novel concern- the darting menace of The Temptations’ 1972 hit, Papa Was A
ing the fast life and early death of one Johnny Preston. “A combina- Rollin’ Stone.
tion of James Dean, Marlon Brando and the Devil,” claimed the US In fact, within days of docking at New York, Bowie boasted of
dustjacket, the Preston character is a busy bisexual and drug-using having seen The Temptations, as well as The Detroit Spinners.
actor “who became so much a part of the world of illusion and There was something else he was grooving to. “Latin music was the
shadow that he seemed to exist even when he was no more.” great unknown,” says MacCormack, recalling the “ghastly” Brit-
For a budding fantasist in suburban Bromley, The Immortal was ish TV show Come Dancing, where amateur ballroom dancers at-
the ultimate entrée to the dark glamour of fame-chasing US-style. tempted Anglicised versions of the samba and rumba. “Hearing
genuine Latin and Puerto Rican musicians in clubs in New York,”
WAITING BOWIE’S ARRIVAL IN NEW YORK ON he adds, “was a revelation.”

A April 11 was Ava Cherry, a striking young black singer with

peroxide hair. In addition to recruiting for his upcoming
tour, he was, he’d told her back in London, crossing the Atlantic to
By April 17, the pair were at RCA Studios giving Rebel Rebel a
Latino makeover for the US, although neither was a rival for Tito
Puente. “I’m a table-top percussionist,” chuckles MacCormack,
“do a soul record”. “about as good on congas as [T. Rex’s] Mickey Finn.” ➢

MOJO 75
 A spot of bovver: (clockwise from left) Bowie and
Lulu, December 27, 1973; a Sunset Strip billboard
heralds the Diamond Dogs’ arrival in Los Angeles,
1974; recording Young Americans at Sigma Sound,
Philadelphia, August 1974 (from left) Bowie, Ava
Cherry, Geoff MacCormack; Richard Pryor kicks off.

➣
That same day, Bowie con- na,” tour coordinator Fran Pillersdorf told Bowie biographers
ducted a session for another protégé, Peter and Leni Gillman. “There was only one man inside and he
Lulu. Can You Hear Me, a new Bowie held the stage like [Judy] Garland.”
ballad, was a potential follow-up to her The production’s 10 musicians and dancers stayed mostly hid-
Bowie-produced hit version of The Man Who den. The music – supervised by Michael Kamen – was lighter, more
Sold The World. Two nights later, after seeing Todd Rundgren at showbiz than the Spiders From Mars. Both All The Young Dudes
Carnegie Hall, Bowie mentioned that he hoped to produce Lulu and The Jean Genie had been dramatically rearranged, the latter
at Willie Mitchell’s Royal Studios, Memphis, home of Hi Records now more a pair with Lou Reed’s Walk On The Wild Side, that
and the sublime Al Green sound. “She’s got a real soul voice,” he song’s starring bass line played by tour bass man Herbie Flowers.
enthused. “She can get the feel of Aretha.” “That original Diamond Dogs Tour was the thing I was most
RCA in-house guitarist and member of The Main Ingredient proud of,” says Geoff MacCormack. “Some people were a bit
Carlos Alomar played the Lulu session. “The booking didn’t men- freaked out because he wasn’t Ziggy any more, but it was so clever
tion Bowie,” he says. “It was just a band putting down a rhythm DQGZHOOGRQHZLWKRXWORRNLQJÁLSµ
section. Then David walks out of the control room… Remember, By the time the tour reached Philadelphia’s Tower Theatre in
Terry O'Neill/Iconic Images, Kent Gavin/Mirrorpix/Getty, Robert Landau/Corbis via Getty, NBCU Photo Bank/GettyGetty

I’m a Puerto Rican with a big Afro and a dashiki. He was the whitest July – taped for the subsequent David Live double album – two R&B
person I’ve ever seen and, oh my god, with orange hair! We were numbers had been added. One was a relative obscurity, The Ohio
quite a pair. He wanted to talk about Thelonious Monk, Cab Callo- Players’ 1969 single, Here Today And Gone Tomorrow. The other,
way and Mary Lou Williams, about the chitlin’ circuit and the Apol- (GGLH)OR\G·V6WD[ÁRRUÀOOHU.QRFN2Q:RRGHPHUJHGIURPD
lo. I invited him to my place, and we started hanging out together.” chat with Earl Slick.
“My R&B roots come from Memphis,” says the guitarist, “Otis,
AYS LATER, BOWIE, MacCORMACK AND AVA CHERRY Eddie Floyd, Steve Cropper’s ‘Wrecking Crew’. You had that, you

D made their way to the Apollo Theatre, Harlem, where The

Main Ingredient were the house band.
“David came to see The Main Ingredient, but he also wanted to
had Motown and later you had Philly, which was much more pop.
David went with Philly.”

see Billy Paul and Richard Pryor,” says Alomar. “I invited him to OWIE FIRST VENTURED INTO SIGMA SOUND
meet Richard, who was nice to begin with, then he was like, ‘You
guys, get the fuck out of my room!’ I tried to apologise, but David
VDLG¶1RSHUIHFWO\ÀQH·,WVHHPHGWKDWEHLQJNLFNHGRXWRI5LFKDUG
B Studios, the home of Gamble & Huff ’s ‘Philly Sound’, dur-
ing the tour’s Philadelphia residency. An Ava Cherry session
on July 9, which included her take on Sweet Thing with Bowie on
Pryor’s room was good for bragging rights!” sax and backing vocals and Earl Slick on guitar, gave Bowie a chance
Had the new buddies passed through Times Square, they would to scope it out. He block-booked it for two weeks beginning August
have seen the giant billboard for ex-Spider Mick Ronson’s debut 8. However, his initial plan, to use the studio’s regular musicians,
solo album, Slaughter On 10th Avenue. By late May, with Diamond fell through when – with the exception of conga player Larry Wash-
Dogs out and the tour opening on June 14, it was Bowie’s turn – ington – they turned him down. “David was disappointed,” says
emerging from the shadows in a blaze of publicity, including a US Carlos Alomar, “but I reassured him: you saw me at RCA, I’ve got
TV ad. Rebel Rebel stalled at 64 in the Billboard singles chart, but my people, we can do this.”
the album was Bowie’s most successful yet Stateside, hitting 5. Retaining just Mike Garson, sax player David Sanborn, Ava
7KHÀYHZHHNHDUO\VXPPHUGDWHVEURXJKWQHZOHYHOVRI%RZLH- Cherry and Geoff MacCormack from the touring band, Bowie re-
mania to the USA. With frequent set and costume changes, it was cruited bassist Willie Weeks and drummer Andy Newmark, both
more Broadway than rock gig. “We had this huge city in a huge are- fresh from work on Ron Wood’s I’ve Got My Own Album To Do.

76 MOJO
 Caning it: (clockwise from above) Bowie during the “DAVID WALKS
Dick Cavett Show broadcast, December 5, 1974;
Diamond Dogs Tour musical director Michael OUT OF THE CONTROL
Kamen; Young Americans BV team Anthony
Hinton, Diane Sumler and Luther Vandross; Dogs ROOM… HE WAS THE
Tour bassist Herbie Flowers; Young Americans
producer Tony Visconti; “workaholic” Bowie. WHITEST PERSON I’VE
Weeks’ reputation was assured by his ap-
EVER SEEN AND, OH with David’s groove. Finding Luther made
pearance on Donny Hathaway’s 1972 Live MY GOD, WITH 'DYLGIHHOPRUHFRPIRUWDEOHZLWKZKDWKH
album; Newmark had recently played on Sly ORANGE HAIR!” was trying to do.”
Stone’s Fresh. ´/XWKHUZDVWKHULQJOHDGHUµDGGV0LNH
)RUWKHÀUVWWZRGD\VWKHPXVLFLDQVZRUNHG CARLOS ALOMAR *DUVRQ ´+H ZRXOG DVVLJQ KDUPRQ\ SDUWV
with regular Sigma engineer Carl Paru- they’d all huddle in a circle and Carlos and I would
RORZKR·GEHHQDWWKHFRQWUROVIRU:LOOLDP play phrases over and over.”
'H9DXJKQ·V867RSKLW%H7KDQNIXO)RU ,WZDVDSDWWHUQRIGHOHJDWLRQWKDW*DUVRQZDVXVHG
What You’ve Got. Then Tony Visconti – back to seeing at Bowie sessions: “David knew when to be the
LQ/RQGRQDQGUHFHQWO\UHVWRUHGWR%RZLH·V student and when to be the teacher.”
inner circle in time to mix Diamond Dogs –
received an urgent call.

T
+( 75$&. 7+$7 :28/' (9(178$//<
´'DYLGVDLG¶&DQ\RXJHWWR3KLODGHOSKLD title Bowie’s next album – his most surprising mu-

Terry O'Neill/Iconic Images, Ann Limongello/Disney General Entertainment Content via Getty, Michael Ochs Archives/Getty
by tomorrow?’” the producer told me last VLFDOOHIWWXUQDFFRPSDQLHGE\KLVPRVWVWDUWOLQJ
\HDU´,WRRNDQHDUO\ÁLJKWDQGJRW>WKHUH@ YLVXDOWUDQVIRUPDWLRQWKXVIDU²RZHGPRUHWR9DQGURVV
RQDVZHOWHULQJKRWDIWHUQRRQ,KDGQ·WVOHSW than just its vibe.
'DYLG·VGULYHU7RQ\0DVFLDPHWPHDWWKH ´<RXQJ$PHULFDQVKDGDVWURQJOHQJWK\GLDORJXHEXW
airport and spirited me away to Sigma where QRKRRNµ9LVFRQWLWROGPH´7KHQRQHWLPHDV/XWKHU
a session was already in progress. I walked in and OHGWKHEDFNLQJYRFDOVKHVQDWFKHGDWWKHZRUGV¶<RXQJ$PHUL-
WKHUHZDV&DUORV$QG\:LOOLH>DQG@'DYLG6DQ- FDQV·DQGFDPHXSZLWKWKHSHUIHFWPXVLFDOKRRN¶<RXQJ$PHUL-
ERUQDOOFUDFNVHVVLRQPXVLFLDQV%XWQR'DYLG FDQ<RXQJ$PHULFDQVKHZDQWVWKH<RXQJ$PHULFDQ«·µ
Gilles Petard/Redferns/Getty David Redfern/Redferns/Getty, Michael Putland/Getty

The musicians were just jamming.” 7KHSRLQWVRIGLIIHUHQFHZLWK%RZLH·VHDUOLHUZRUNZHUHSLOLQJ

Bowie arrived around 11pm. “He was very skin- XS<RXQJ$PHULFDQV·YHUVHVSRXUHGRXWOLNHHDUO\6SULQJVWHHQ
Q\µFRQWLQXHG9LVFRQWL´+HKDGQ·WEHHQHDWLQJZHOO – hardly surprising as Bowie had had Greetings
and wasn’t in good health. But he did have a new song: From Asbury Park, N.J. on constant rotation
<RXQJ$PHULFDQV:HVWDUWHGZRUNLQJRQLWLPPHGL- VLQFHKH·GVHHQWKH1HZ-HUVH\W\URDW0D[·V
ately. The basic track was completed in a couple .DQVDV&LW\LQ)HEUXDU\$QGZLWKRXW
RIKRXUVµ DOHDGJXLWDULVWDGGLQJURFNEDOODVWLWZDVRI-
$ FRXSOH RI GD\V ODWHU $ORPDU EURXJKW WHQOHIWWRVD[SOD\HU'DYLG6DQERUQWRSHU-
DORQJ¶KLVSHRSOH·²ZLIH5RELQ&ODUN$QWKRQ\ IRUPWKHÀOOVDQGVRORV%RZLHHQYLVDJHG
+LQWRQ'LDQH6XPOHUDQG\RXQJKRSHIXO/X- 6DQERUQZKR·GPDGHKLPVHOILQGLVSHQ-
WKHU9DQGURVVDOOVLQJHUV VDEOHRQWKHUHFHQWWRXUDVWKHFRPER·V
´&DUORVDQG5RELQEURXJKW/XWKHUDORQJ .LQJ&XUWLV´+HSOD\HGWKHDOWRZLWK
DQG VDLG ¶:H WKRXJKW \RX PLJKW OLNH WR WKHJXWVRIDELJLQVWUXPHQWµVD\V(DUO
KHDUZKDWKHVRXQGVOLNH·µUHPHPEHUV$YD 6OLFNZKR·GDOVRSOD\HGZLWK6DQERUQ
&KHUU\´:HOO'DYLGGLGQ·WVWRSWDONLQJ LQ 0LFKDHO .DPHQ·V EDQG ´,·G ULS
DERXWKLPDOOQLJKW¶+H·VJRWWKHVPRRWK OLFNVIURP'DYLGDOOWKHWLPHµ
tone and the soul. I want him to arrange )RU WKH ILUVW WLPH LQ \HDUV WKLV
all the vocals.’ Luther’s groove connected was Bowie music that minimised ➢

MOJO 77
SIGMA SOUNDS
The best of the Philly soul that blew Bowie’s mind,
1971-74. By LOIS WILSON.
THE EBONYS RUTH McFADDEN
You’re The Reason Why Ghetto Woman (Part 1)
(Philadelphia International (Gamble, 1972)
Records, 1971) Sounding like
The Ebonys, a nothing else coming
dramatic vocal out of Philly at
quartet built the time, Ghetto
around duelling Woman, produced
tenor and falsetto by Gamble and
leads, put the co-written with Cary Gilbert,
fledgling Philadelphia International features the vocally unabashed
Records on the map when this McFadden – part Marlena Shaw,
Gamble & Huff-penned, Thom part Betty Davis – declaring
Bell-arranged ballad gave the valorous liberation over an
label its first US R&B Top 10 hit uncompromising funk groove.
in summer ’71.
FIRST CHOICE
DAVID SIGLER & Armed And Extremely Dangerous
DEE DEE SHARP (Philly Groove Records, 1973)
Conquer The World Together Not Gamble, Huff
(Philadelphia International or Bell (although it
Records, 1971) does feature some
A statement of of Sigma house
purpose from band MFSB) but
‘the holy trinity’ the work instead
– G&H, plus Bell – of Philly’s other mainstays Norman
where Sigler and Harris and Alan Felder, who sweeten
the honey-voiced the churchy fervour of singers
then-Mrs Gamble update Marvin Rochelle Fleming, Annette Guest
Gaye and Tammi Terrell’s call and and Joyce Jones to great effect.
response for the ’70s. A plausible
prototype for Bowie and Luther THREE DEGREES ➣
Vandross’s vocal to-and-fro on When Will I See You Again LQWHOOHFWXDOFRQWHQW´,W·VRQHRIWKHÀUVW>WKLQJV@,·YHGRQHWKDW
Young Americans. (Philadelphia International ERXQGVDORQJRQHPRWLRQDOLPSDFWµ%RZLHZRXOGFRPPHQWODWHU
Records, 1974) LQ´7KHUH·VQRWDFRQFHSWLQVLJKWµ
THE O’JAYS “The vocal range 7KDQNVWRWKHHQVHPEOHDQHIIRUWOHVVPRRGSHUYDGHVWKHUH-
Love Train they achieve is FRUGLQJVQRWDEO\WKHPRUHUHVWUDLQHGFXWV:LQDQG5LJKW´5LJKW
(Philadelphia International incredible. Just
Records, 1972) listening to them ZDVGLIÀFXOWWRGREHFDXVH'DYLGZDQWHGWKHVHFURVVHGYRFDOVDQ-
Backstabbers turns me on,” Bowie VZHULQJKLPµVD\V$YD&KHUU\´,WZDVVRLQWULFDWHEXW/XWKHUZDV
warned of “smiling said of Fayette VXFKDGHGLFDWHGSHUIHFWLRQLVWWKDWLWZRUNHG'DYLGORYHGLWµ
faces” in the wake Pinkney, Valerie Holiday and Sheila
Ferguson, who were dubbed Philly ´'DYLGZRXOGVD\¶1RWKDW·VDOLWWOHWRRGUDVWLF·RU¶7KDW·VQLFH
of Watergate; this
Bobby Martin- soul’s Supremes but shared leads. OHW·VWU\WKDW·µ$ORPDUDGGV´%XWKH·VQRWJRLQJWRWHOOXVZKDW
arranged follow-up Familiarity has reduced their critical WRSOD\,I\RXJHWJRVSHOPXVLFLDQVLQDQGDVNWKHPWRSOD\JRVSHO
stock, but listen with fresh ears and
put smiles on faces for all the right
there’s no denying their magic.
PXVLFZK\RQHDUWKZRXOG\RXVWLFN\RXUWZRFHQWVLQ"0DQKH·V
reasons; a gospel-infused unity
anthem featuring Eddie Levert’s
JRWKLVRZQMREWRZRUU\DERXW:HJDYHLWWRKLPLQVXFKDÁDVK
vigorous tenor, it gave the group MFSB ÁRRGWKDWKHKDGDZKROHDOEXPGRQHLQWZRZHHNV¶1RZZKHUH
their sole US pop Number 1. TSOP (The Sound Of DUHWKRVHO\ULFV"·µ
Philadelphia) +DYLQJWKHÀQDOVD\PXVLFDOO\ZDVRQHWKLQJJLYLQJWKDWPXVLFLWV
THE STYLISTICS (Philadelphia International
People Make The Records, 1974)
YRLFHZDVTXLWHDQRWKHU8QNQRZQWRYLUWXDOO\HYHU\RQH%RZLHZDV
World Go Round MFSB were WDNLQJUHJXODUFRXQVHOZLWK7KH+LJK3ULHVWHVV2I6RXO
(Avco, 1972) Philadelphia 1LQD6LPRQHKDGVHHQ%RZLHDW0DGLVRQ6TXDUH*DUGHQLQ-XO\
Thom Bell with International’s 'D\VODWHUDIWHUDFKDQFHHQFRXQWHUDW1HZ<RUN·V+LSSRSRWDPXV
lyricist Linda Creed engine room.
Stretching to some
&OXEWKHSDLUVWUXFNXSDSKRQHIULHQGVKLS7KHVLQJHUDQGDFWLYLVW
took soul music
to new levels of 30 musicians, they ZKRWKRXJKW%RZLHUHVHPEOHG&KDUOLH&KDSOLQLQKLV´FORZQVXLW
sophistication worked in simpatico harness to DQGELJEODFNKDWµKDGEHHQJRLQJWKURXJKDURXJKSDWFK´'RQ·W
with The Stylistics, create a sophisticated style with OLVWHQWRWKRVHZKRFDOO\RXFUD]\µKHUHDVVXUHGKHU´2QO\VRPHRI
a group synonymous with romantic gritty undertow. This Gamble & Huff
ballads (the sublime Betcha By composition, a US Number 1 single, XVFDQUHDFKZKHUH\RXKDYHULVHQµ
Golly, Wow) but equally capable also provided the exultant main /LNH-DJJHURUHYHQHDUOLHULQVSLUDWLRQV0DUF%RODQDQG/LQGVD\
of expressing urban tension over theme to US TV show Soul Train, .HPS1LQD6LPRQHZDVIRU%RZLHDNHHSHURIDUDUHDQGH[TXLVLWH
palatial orchestration, as here. which debuted in 1971.
ÁDPH)RUHYHU\TXLHWDVVXUDQFHKH·GJLYHKHUVKH·GXQZLWWLQJO\
BILLY PAUL HAROLD MELVIN AND VKDUHKHUVHFUHWVEDFN7KHIROORZLQJ\HDUKH·GUHSD\KHUZLWKDQ
Am I Black Enough For You THE BLUENOTES KRPDJHDQXSGDWHRIKHUYHUVLRQRI:LOG,V7KH:LQG
(Philadelphia International Satisfaction Guaranteed ´:KHQLWFRPHVWRWKRVHKHFRQVLGHUHGVRXOIXOLWZDVJHQHUDOO\
Records, 1972) (Or Take Your Love Back) IHPDOHVLQJHUVµVD\V&DUORV$ORPDU´HVSHFLDOO\LQWKHMD]]JHQUH
Coming off (Philadelphia International +HNQHZZKR0DYLV6WDSOHVZDVZKR'LRQQH:DUZLFNZDV,FDQ-
the back of his Records, 1974)
worldwide hit Best known for their
QRWVD\KHVLQJVOLNH(GGLH.HQGULFNVEXWKHFHUWDLQO\WULHGWRUHDFK
Me And Mrs Jones, tortured ballads – If WKRVHKLJKQRWHVOLNH(GGLH.HQGULFNVµ
this firebrand You Don’t Know Me
protest couldn’t By Now; I Miss You,

O
be more different as the former etc – sung by the
1-8/<'$<6%()25((17(5,1*6,*0$%2:,(
jazz man, over studded horns tender growler KDGDFRQYHUVDWLRQZLWKKLV0DLQ0DQPDQDJHPHQWFRP-
and Afrocentric licks, is recast Teddy Pendergrass, The Bluenotes SDQ\3UHVLGHQW7RQ\=DQHWWDWKDWZRXOGFKDQJHWKHFRXUVH
as the socially conscious could also essay a more pacey
revolutionary with raised opulence, as evidenced by this
fist aloft. infernally catchy ear worm.
 VRQ%DQG²ZDUPHGXSWKHFURZGZLWKDVHOHFWLRQRIVRXOWXQHV
IHDWXULQJ9DQGURVVDQGWKHVLQJHUV´,QVRPHFLWLHVZHJRWEHWWHU
ZULWHXSVWKDQ'DYLGµVD\V*DUVRQ(DUO6OLFNZDVOHVVLPSUHVVHG
´:HZHUHGRLQJVWXIIOLNH7KH2·-D\V·/RYH7UDLQ,WKRXJKW:KDW
WKHIXFNDP,GRLQJXSKHUH"µ
'UHVVHGLQDGRXEOHEUHDVWHG¶*RXVWHU·VXLWQRZPRUHRIWHQ
EURZQWKDQWKHVLOYHUEOXHRXWÀWKHZRUHGXULQJWKHHDUO\VXPPHU
%RZLHFRPPDQGHGWKHVWDJHDVLIDQLQWHUZDUJDQJVWHUIURP&KL-
FDJR·V6RXWK6LGH+HFKHULVKHGWKHDVVRFLDWLRQHVSHFLDOO\DIWHUD
FRQYHUVDWLRQZLWK$YD&KHUU\·VMD]]SOD\LQJIDWKHUZKRSUHVHQWHG
him with his own original Gouster suit. During the
DXWXPQKDYLQJWR\HGZLWK¶6KLOOLQJ7KH5XEHV·
DQG¶2QH'DPQ6RQJ·¶7KH*RXVWHU·EHFDPHWKH
SURYLVLRQDODOEXPWLWOH
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XSWKHWRXUSXOOHGLQWR%RVWRQ´:KHQZHZDONHG
RQVWDJHµVD\V$YD&KHUU\´WKHSHRSOHLQWKHÀUVW
two rows were all sitting with these [skull] masks
RQ$QGWKH\ZRXOGQ·WWDNHWKHPRII'DYLGVDLG
¶:KDW·VDOOWKDWDERXW"·,VDLG,GRQ·WNQRZµ
$V*HRII0DF&RUPDFNUHPHPEHUVLWWKDWZDV
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ZRUGV´+HOOR%XIIDORµ
“SOME PEOPLE
M
($1:+,/(%$&.,1/21'21
Fame fatales: (clockwise from above) John Lennon
and Bowie at the Grammy Awards, March 1, 1975;
WERE A BIT FREAKED %%&SURGXFHU $ODQ<HQWREZDV
Bowie on-stage at Cobo Hall, Detroit, June 23,
1974; white-hatted producer Lou Adler joins OUT BECAUSE HE UHYLHZLQJIRRWDJHÀOPHGRYHU
GD\VLQHDUO\6HSWHPEHUGXULQJWKHWRXU·V
Britt Ekland in the audience for Diamond Dogs’
seven-night stay at LA’s Universal Amphitheatre, WASN’T ZIGGY second leg. He’d originally titled his docu-
September 1974; Bowie confidante Nina Simone.
ANY MORE, BUT IT PHQWDU\7KH&ROOHFWRULQVSLUHGE\%RZ-
WAS SO CLEVER AND LH·VPDJSLHSHQFKDQWIRUDQ\WKLQJIURP
of his year. Having always assumed that his styles to accents. Yet so much of the mate-
career was founded on a wholly favourable WELL DONE.” ULDOUHYHDOHGDSHUIRUPHUDGULIWLQKLVRZQ
ÀQDQFLDOIRRWLQJ%RZLHZDVGLVWUDXJKWWR XQLYHUVHEHVWLOOXVWUDWHGE\DVFHQHVKRZLQJD
learn that manager Tony Defries and MainMan GEOFF FRUSVHOLNH%RZLHLGHQWLI\LQJDVDÁ\LQDFDUWRQ
owned more of him than he’d ever imagined. MacCORMACK RIPLONZKLOH$UHWKD)UDQNOLQ·V1DWXUDO:RPDQ
´'DYLGGLGQRWOLNHFRQIURQWDWLRQµVD\V$QJLH SOD\VLQWKHEDFNJURXQG<HQWREJDYHLWDQHZWLWOH
%RZLH%XWFRPLQJXSIRUDLUWRZDUGVWKHHQGRI$XJXVW &UDFNHG$FWRU
%RZLHNQHZKHZDVKXUWOLQJWRZDUGVWKHNLQGRIVKRZGRZQKH 7KLQJVJRWVWUDQJHUDIWHUWKHWRXU·VHQG2Q'HFHPEHUYLHZ-
DOZD\VGLGKLVEHVWWRDYRLG´7KHH[SHQVHVZHUHHQRUPRXVDQG ers of the Dick Cavett Show were shocked by the sight of a cane-
'DYLGZDVSD\LQJIRUWKDWµ$QJLHDGGV´+HZDVH[KDXVWHGDQGKH ZLHOGLQJYLVLEO\FDQHG'DYLG%RZLH·VXQUDYHOOLQJLQIURQWRIWKHP
ZDVSLVVHGRIIµ ´7KDWZDVDÀYHVWDUGHEDFOHLI,·YHHYHUIXFNLQJVHHQRQHµUH-
7KHVHFRQGOHJRIWKH'LDPRQG'RJV7RXUVWDUWHGRQ6HSWHPEHU PHPEHUV(DUO6OLFN´+HZDVVRRXWRILWµ7KHJXLWDULVWVDZLWDV
ZLWKDZHHNDW/RV$QJHOHV·V8QLYHUVDO$PSKLWKHDWUH,QFDPH the culmination of a tough year marked by overwork and mounting
&DUORV$ORPDUMRLQLQJ(DUO6OLFNRQJXLWDUV/XWKHU9DQGURVVDQG EXVLQHVVSUREOHPV´,IKH·GEHHQOLNHWKDWDOOWKHWLPHZH·GQHYHU
WKHVLQJHUV0LNH*DUVRQUHSODFHG0LFKDHO.DPHQDV0'DQGD KDYHJRWWKURXJKDOOWKDWWRXULQJµ
new (albeit short-lived) rhythm section – bassist Doug Rauch and ´,ZRUULHGDERXWKLVKHDOWKµVD\V$YD&KHUU\´,WZDVQ·WQHFHV-
GUXPPHU*UHJ(UULFR²DUULYHGYLD6DQWDQD VDULO\WKHFRFDLQH,ZDVWU\LQJWRJHWKLPWRVWRSVPRNLQJVRPXFK
Robert Matheu/Camera Press, Mark Sullivan/Getty, Michael Ochs Archives/Getty, Ron Galella/WireImage

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MOJO 79
FRAME , FRAME ,
FRAME , FRAME!
Visit the Iconic
Images Gallery,
the exclusive
home of Terry
O’Neill, to view
and purchase the
best in pop culture
photography and Hard to be a saint in Hunger City:
books. The archive contains some of the Bowie rehearsing for the Diamond
greatest music photography of the last Dogs Tour’s second US leg, Los
75 years, including iconic shots of David Angeles, September 1974, with (from
Bowie, The Rolling Stones, Jimi Hendrix, right) Greg Errico, Earl Slick, Doug
Elton John, Oasis, and hundreds more. Rauch and (far left) Geoff MacCormack
with (bearded) Gui Andrisano.
iconicimagesgallery.com
“DAVID DID
➣
come in with the granny glasses on?’ NOT LIKE constructing three- and four-foot buildings
He was like a little kid. The bell rang, the CONFRONTATION. from clay and mounting them across tables.
door opened and there’s John wearing the THE EXPENSES WERE His visions of civilisation in meltdown
granny glasses! They hugged, David asked were returning. But was it society that was
John to play guitar, and we had the most ENORMOUS, AND HE crumbling, or Bowie? As he’d admit to
amazing session.”
Once Across The Universe was bagged,
WAS PAYING FOR MOJO in 2002, “I think you can see the
apocalyptic thing as the manifestation of an
Carlos Alomar started knocking around a THAT. HE WAS interior problem.”
funk rhythm. “David said, ‘Carlos, do some- PISSED OFF.” %XWÀUVWWKHSUDFWLFDOLVVXHV,QODWH-DQX-
thing with that,’” the guitarist recalls. “I said, ary 1975, Bowie instigated legal proceedings
2.OHWPHKDYHÀYHPRUHJXLWDUSDUWVDQGOHW·V ANGIE
BOWIE against MainMan. The case took months to un-
see what you say. When he came back, he said, ‘I say ravel, and would come at huge cost, with Defries ulti-
done!’ He just threw in this little extra part and that was it.” mately entitled to take a percentage of Bowie’s sales until
That became the basis for Fame. 1982. The success of Young Americans, which hit the US Top 10 in
“David talked about the power of fame a lot,” says Ava Cherry, April and charted for a year, helped soften the blow. Meanwhile, the
title track peaked at 28 in the Billboard pop chart in May, before
especially with Lennon, who was still bothered by his life as an ‘ex-
Beatle’ and embroiled in his own business tangles. Hardly surpris- )DPHUHOHDVHGLQ-XO\ÀQDOO\GHOLYHUHGZKDW%RZLHKDGEHHQPLVV-
ing, then, that Bowie improvised a rap about the trappings of fame ing. Hitting Number 1 for two weeks in September, Fame served as
over the rhythm: “Bully for you/Chilly for me” wasn’t the half of it.
VZHHWFRQÀUPDWLRQWKDWKLVDERXWWXUQLQWR$PHULFDQEODFNPXVLF
“He asked me to sing a vocal part on the ‘descending fame’ bit,”and last-minute bet on a team-up with Lennon had paid off.
says Cherry, recalling the session. “Then he asked John to do it. By this time, Bowie was living in Los Angeles, having just spent
Then he did his part. That’s all our voices on it.” three months in the lunar-like landscapes of Arizona working on
Alomar had partly based the song on The Flares’ Foot Stompin’, 7KH0DQ:KR)HOO7R(DUWK$YD&KHUU\ZDVWKHUHZKHQWKHÀOP
featured on the October/November tour dates. Clearly rooted in script landed in Bowie’s lap, late in January 1975, offering the
the music Bowie had devoured with Geoff MacCormack in his ÁHGJOLQJDFWRUWKHFKDQFHWRORVHKLPVHOIFRPSOHWHO\
teens, including James Brown (Brown would recycle the riff on “We were sitting watching The Beatles on television, talking
his 1975 single Hot (I Need To Be Loved, Loved, Loved, Loved), about Otis [Redding] and Led Zeppelin,” she remembers. “David
as if to re-establish proprietorship), Fame was nevertheless a mas- VDLG¶6HHKRZZHFDQLQÁXHQFHSHRSOHIRUJRRGRUIRUEDG",ZDQW
sive step forward into hard-edged funk. Conversely, Across The WRLQÁXHQFHWKHPIRUJRRG·7KHQWKHGRRUEHOOUDQJµ
Universe is often regarded as one of the great missteps in Bowie’s It was casting agent Maggie Abbott – who said Bowie looked
FDWDORJXH<HWLW·VGHÀDQWO\RIWKHPRPHQWVWDQGLQJDVDVWUDQJOHG“ghastly” – delivering the script to his New York home.
sounding reminder of Bowie’s state of mind at the end of a roller- “This whole sense of the otherworldly just fell even more into
coaster 1974. It confused the hell out of Lennon. “John couldn’t place as he was sitting there, reading me lines from the pages,”
&KHUU\UHÁHFWV´,WZDVSHUIHFWIRUKLP+HZDVKDQGHGWKHVFULSW
Terry O'Neill/Iconic Images

ÀJXUHRXWZK\KHZDVGRLQJLWµVDLG0D\3DQJ
and he just went into the zone.” M

O
9(5&+5,670$6%2:,(+$'+2/('83,1+,6 Further reading: All That Glitters: The Ava Cherry Story, by Ava Cherry; David
QHZVXLWHDWWKH3LHUUH+RWHO1HZ<RUN:LWKSOHQW\RQKLV Bowie: Rock ’N’ Roll With Me by Geoff MacCormack; Guitar: Life And Music
mind, yet restless with the urge to create, he found himself With David Bowie, John Lennon And Rock And Roll’s Greatest Heroes by Earl
rebuilding the ‘Hunger City’ set from Diamond Dogs in miniature, Slick. Angie Bowie’s many books are available via angiebowie.net.

80 MOJO
 MOJO FILTE R
YOUR GUIDE TO THE MONTH'S BEST MUSIC
EDITED BY JENNY BULLEY [email protected]

CONTENTS
82 ALBUMS
• Kim Deal: we’ve never loved her more
• God of small things: Michael Kiwanuka
• Top toons from Amyl And The Sniffers
• Peter Perrett cleans up
• Primal Scream bring the love
• Plus, Bon Iver, Laura Marling, The War On Drugs,
Willie Nelson, Soccer Mommy, Coldplay, Leon
Bridges and more.

96 REISSUES
• Fit for Queen: their debut LP sumptuously
reupholstered
• Carry on screaming: The Beatles’ US LPs
on mono vinyl
• CSNY live in ’69
• File Under: solo John Cale
• Plus, Bryan Ferry, Johnnie Taylor, Thin Lizzy,
New Order, Yara Asmar, Ian Hunter and more.

110 BOOKS
• Opposition party: an oral history of the MC5
• Plus, Van Halen, MF Doom, Sinéad O’Connor,
Thunderclap Newman and more.

112 SCREEN
• Meet The Boss: Bruce Springsteen’s 2023
tour doc.

INDEX
Amyl And The Sniffers 88 Friday, Gavin 90 New Order 98
Aphex Twin 98 Gendel, Sam 91 Neufeld, Sarah,
Asmar, Yara 99 Godspeed You! Black Parry, Richard Reed,
“We were always Beatles, The
Blasko, Sarah
100
93
Emperor
Hard Quartet, The 84
92 Foon, Rebecca
Parks, Tess
89
87
precocious boys Bon Iver
Bridges, Leon
Bug, The
94
84
85
Hart, Beth
HOO
91
93
Perrett, Peter
Peterson, Oscar
90

Hooker, D.R. 101 with Ellis, Herb 101

and that’s how it Butterss, Anna
Cale, John
87
104
Hunter, Ian
Isbell, Jason
101
87
Petty, Tom & The
Heartbreakers 98
should be.” Cantrell, Jerry
Chitra Neogy,
Manoshi
84

99
Jobson, Peter
Alexander 93
Pixies
Primal Scream
90
92
Joy, Samara 91 Propaganda 87
BRIAN MAY HAS HIS Coldplay 84 Kelly, Paul 93 Queen 96
WAY. REISSUES P96 Cooder, Joachim 89 Kilbey, Steve 103 Regan, Fionn 93
Courteeners 85 King Crimson 101 Saints, The 98
Crosby, Stills, Kiwanuka, Michael 86 Sakamoto, Ryuichi 103
Nash & Young 103 Laine, Pekka 89 Seeds, The 101
Danny & The Lancaster, Byard 98 Soccer Mommy 85
Champions Of Lee, Toby 91 Sophie 92
The World 87 Lone Justice 92 Spoon 103
Dar Disku 91 Manzanera, Phil 103 Stick In The Wheel 93
Deal, Kim 82 Marling, Laura 85 Swayze, A. &
Double Exposure 99 Marr, Johnny + The The Ghosts 90
Doug Carn Trio, The 99 Healers 103 Taylor, Ebo 89
Elucid 91 Martin, Horace 99 Taylor, Johnnie 101
Etran De L’Air 87 MOMO. 84 Thin Lizzy 103
Ezra Collective 92 Mortimer 87 Underworld 90
Famous 89 Motörhead 101 VA: The Albarika Story 99
Ferry, Bryan 99 Necks, The 85 War On Drugs, The 85
Finnigan, Kelly 89 Nelson, Willie 85 Wunderhorse 89

MOJO 81
 F I LT E R A L B UM S

Raw Deal
Breeders founder’s solo debut synthesises loss, grief and pain into glorious,
life-affirming pop. By Stevie Chick. Illustration by Sarah Sumeray.
permeates the album, its songs referencing struggle,
Kim Deal trauma and bereavement. And yet Nobody Loves You
★★★★★ More LVDVLQJXODUO\XSOLIWLQJOLIHDIÀUPLQJOLVWHQ
where joy and despair, love and loss, are irrevocably
Nobody Loves You More HQWZLQHGDQGNHSWDÁRDWE\'HDO·VXQIDLOLQJOLJKWQHVV
4AD. CD/DL/LP
of touch.
The back story is most explicit on Are You Mine?,
HILE PEERS like former Pixies bandmate though still veiled enough that it could pass as a simple
W Frank Black and fellow Daytonian Robert
Pollard revel in their productiveness, Kim
Deal prefers the slow-drip approach. Her band The
love song. The titular refrain: “Are you mine/Are you
my baby?” began as words Deal’s mother Ann, in the
late stages of Alzheimer’s, asked her daughter one
%UHHGHUVKDYHUHOHDVHGDPHUHÀYHDOEXPVRYHUWKH night. The song unspools with economy and restraint,
years since they formed, while her sole side-project, “Nobody Loves its crooning pedal steel establishing a subtle empathy,
7KH$PSV²DVWRSJDSRXWÀWIRXQGHGGXULQJDWHP- while strings sound a note of uncertainty: the choppy
porary feud with twin-sister and Breeders bandmate You More is waters that surround her. The understated lyrics
.HOOH\²IROGHGDIWHURQHDOEXPDQGKHUÀUVWVROR a singularly inhabit Ann’s sense of disorientation, her displace-
album under her own name has been over a dozen ment, while also locating bonds of love and mother-
years in the making. Deal ascribes this slow pace to a uplifting, hood thought lost to the fog of dementia. “I have no
hazy perfectionism on her part. Though she says she’s life-affirming mind,” Deal sings, the line dangling precarious and
always writing, she told me a decade or so ago that XQÀQLVKHGXQWLOVKHUHVROYHVLWZLWK´)RUQRWKLQ·EXW
“avoiding cliché” was paramount, suggesting that for listen.” love.” “Have you seen me lately?” she asks, adding,
every song we get to hear, there are dozens more lying “I have no time,” referencing the temporal confusion
rejected in the demo pile. For Deal, songwriting is a experienced by Alzheimer’s patients. Still, that
slow process of honing, of homing in to that precious sliver of recognition remains in the song’s refrain. It’s a
unique voice so recognisable from her work brilliant, frankly devastating piece of songwriting.
to date – a voice that rings so clear, and funny, Throughout, Deal layers the happy with the sad with more happy
and sad, and with such deft power here. and more sad, her songs rich with chiaroscuro. The opening lines of
7KHSDWKWRKHUÀUVWVRORDOEXPEHJDQZLWK the opening title track – “I don’t know where I am” – again conjure
Deal – who believed that the “disruption” of Ann, but we’re in Kim’s head now, experiencing the complex,
the internet had left the music industry so limitless, painful love felt by the carer for her ailing parent: “I just stop
impoverished that “nobody could afford at the sight of you standing there.” The impossibly upbeat Coast – its
bands any more” – starting up her own lackadaisical lilt scored by Chicago marching band Mucca Pazza – is
cottage industry in her hometown of Dayton, moored in the darkness of Deal’s addiction years, revisiting a winter
BACK STORY: Ohio, self-recording a batch of songs, two decades past when, Deal tells MOJO, she was “losing my mind in
EPIC FAIL self-released as a series of two-track 7-inch Nantucket, trying to dry out on the island.” It opens with a grimly
● The album’s cover, by
singles that she mailed to customers herself. droll assessment of her circumstances – a “hard, hard landing” leaving
Alex Da Corte, is inspired
by the artist Bas Jan 6KHÀUHGRIIÀYHRIWKHVHSHUIHFWO\LPSHUIHFW her believing she should “duck and roll out of my life” – but focuses
Ader’s ill-fated solo nuggets between 2012 and 2014 – an instead on the Nantucket youth, ditching their day-jobs and grabbing
attempt at sailing across impressive work rate by her standards, all the surf boards at merest rumour of waves, the exuberance of these
the Atlantic – and also,
Deal’s fascination with more impressive considering Deal was doing “beautiful kids on the coast” reinvigorating a momentarily defeated
the concept of failure. double-duty caring for her elderly parents. Deal. The slow-motion surf music of Wish I Was delivers some further
“It has to do with all
Deal had planned to compile these tracks as wisdom from this era, Deal singing, “Coming around is easy/Coming
the pathos I was
experiencing,” she says. an album, but decided she’d rather record a down is rough” over a knowing and lovely Velvets-y chug.
“My dad died, and I batch of new songs, a process complicated by Mortality is forever a background presence here. The impossibly
would drive his old
the writing and recording of The Breeders’ dreamy Summerland traces the path of Bas Jan Ader’s doomed
Caddy around and listen
to his old Mellow Hits Of most recent album, 2018’s All Nerve. And attempt to sail the Atlantic Ocean (see Back Story DQGÀQGVURPDQFH
The ’70s cassette, and then, a year before the pandemic and within within his fatal misadventure (“This world’s for me… I’ll follow the
think about the bravado
12 months of each other, Deal’s parents night”). But amid all this pain and loss – the very stuff of life,
of these old stars like
George Jones and passed away. Add in the complications of especially once you pass a certain age – remains a sense of vitality, of
hope. The anthemic Disobedience is mired in existential dismay –
Waylon Jennings in their
middle-aged heyday,
lockdown, and it’s amazing this album was “If this is all we are,” she whispers, “I’m fucked” – but is, in essence,
and how by the late ’80s completed at all. a raging against the dying of the light, an assertion of life over death,
they’re tired, they’re on Nobody Loves You More doesn’t signal the Deal snarling, “I go where I want/While I’m still on the planet.” The
their third wife, and HQGRI7KH%UHHGHUVWKH\·YHMXVWÀQLVKHGD
they’ve got mutton album closes with A Good Time Pushed, a shadowy love song where
chops and cop glasses tour of America’s stadiums as guests of pop Deal is either fantasising about “follow[ing] you off of this world” or
and high liver superstar Olivia Rodrigo, while band ´SXVK>LQJ@\RXRIIRIWKLVZRUOGµLWVÀQDOZRUGVUHSHDWLQJWKHFKRUXV
enzymes… Like Bas Jan
Ader – he’s all bravado, members past and present make guest over and over: “We’re having a good time.” This, she’s saying, is
setting off in search of appearances throughout this record. And it ultimately all there is. Life is short, and hard, and invariably ends with
the miraculous… And doesn’t herald any grand stylistic shift for sorrow for your loved ones, but the joys somehow make it all worth it.
he fails. They never see
him again. I don’t know Deal, comprising swooning pop, subterra- Especially if, once in a glorious blue moon, life brings with it sublime
if there’s anything to be nean dissonance and at least one waltz, all Kim Deal records such as this.
Steve Gullick

learned from that. I just

think it’s good that
ÀUPO\ZLWKLQKHUORQJHVWDEOLVKHGSDUDGLJP
It is, however, the most autobiographical
people try.”
record of her career. The loss of her parents KIM SPEAKS! DEAL ON CARING FOR HER MOTHER, SUPPORTING
OLIVIA RODRIGO AND A BREEDERS XMAS SONG…

82 MOJO
 Coldplay Leon Bridges More’s Mike Bordin and Guns
★★★ ★★★★
N’ Roses’ Duff McKagan, I Want
Blood is a dense wall of guitar
Moon Music Leon wizardry with solos to spare on
PARLOPHONE. CD/DL/LP COLUMBIA. CD/DL/LP Let It Lie. There’s variety, too,
in the galloping title track, the
Tenth album and sister Texan singer’s fourth revisits dreamy closer It Comes and,
record to 2021’s Music Of old haunts and aims for the best of all, Afterglow with its
The Spheres. toppermost. climax-building verses and
Overseen once Following rather beautiful chorus. There’s
again by 2021’s nothing here to startle, just
Swedish pop future-facing further confirmation that
producer Max R&B set Cantrell remains a force to be
Martin, Moon Gold-Diggers reckoned with.
Music picks up Sound and John Aizlewood
where its predecessor left off, recent years collaborations
with the opening piano-led with Khruangbin that ventured
title track setting the into left-field funk, Leon
atmospheric mood. But it Bridges’ (partly) self-titled The Hard
soon becomes clear that a fourth returns him to more Quartet
Hair-raising
adventures: Kim
slight desperation to stay
commercially competitive
straightforward commercial
territory, likely after its ★★★★
Deal swears The is the main driver here: predecessor saw his chart The Hard Quartet
Breeders have a feelslikeimfallinginlove is positions slip. While recorded MATADOR. CD/DL/LP
Christmas song. four-on-the-floor synth-pop in Mexico City with Kacey Stephen Malkmus-anchored
with a “la-dee-lo” hookline; the Musgraves collaborator Ian
alt-supergroup’s excellent
perky Good Feelings throws Fitchuk, it sees him revisiting
debut effort.
“The songs put disco into the mix. A title-free
track represented by a rainbow
emoji provides the standout,
his years growing up in Fort
Worth, with the breezy, ’70s
Isley Brothers-styled Panther
Perhaps
not what

themselves in a being a Floyd-go-Flaming Lips

slowie that samples Maya
Angelou singing gospel
City referencing the city’s
nickname, a friend’s sibling
who’d “always borrow my
Malkmus-
watchers
might’ve

sorting hat.” standard God Put A Rainbow

In The Cloud. But, overall, the
suspicion lingers that if
tapes and lost them things”
and his father warning him to
hurry home and avoid “all the
requested
post-2022’s auspicious
Pavement reunion, The Hard
Kim Deal speaks to Stevie Chick. Coldplay followed their noses crack heads and prostitutes on Quartet is still a highly
back in the direction of 2019’s the Rosedale”. Peaceful Place desirable proposition: an
How was The Breeders’ recent tour supporting 21-year-old experimental, if flawed, slips in a bit of Afrobeat and extravagantly skilled four-man
pop superstar Olivia Rodrigo? Everyday Life, the result would That’s What I Love echoes team that knows every angle
be far more interesting music. Channel Orange-era Frank on rock music-making, here
“We did four nights at Madison Square Garden! Being the opening While their emphasis on Ocean, and throughout shoehorning it all into 15
act to a big thing like Olivia basically means playing to people who sustainability is admirable – Bridges’ vocal talents continue electrifying in-the-moment
are trying to find their seats. But it was an exciting adventure. the vinyl and CDs for this to shine. compositions. Superficially,
She’s a fantastic singer, and she’s been very supportive of us. She release are ground-breaking Tom Doyle it may be the most
talks about how, for her, there’s ‘before hearing Cannonball’ and eco models – too much of Pavement-y record their
‘after hearing Cannonball’, and how we broke her little brain.” this sounds like recycled singer’s been involved with
plastic pop. since 1999’s valedictory
In 2013, you told me you were releasing solo 7-inches, Tom Doyle Jerry Cantrell Terror Twilight, yet on closer
because “no-one can afford bands any more”.
★★★ inspection it’s not even
“After five of them, I thought about putting the singles out as an I Want Blood Malkmus singing on seemingly
album, so people didn’t have to keep getting up to turn the MOMO. characteristic lopes like Rio’s
DOUBLE J. CD/DL/LP
7-inches over, but felt weird about selling people the same songs Song (that one’s sometime
again. I decided to write a bunch of new songs for the album, ★★★★ Fourth guitar-drenched solo Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy cohort
but then the 20th anniversary of Last Splash happened, and then Gira album from Alice In Chains Matt Sweeney). Also
The Breeders recorded our All Nerve album. Once all that was leader. outstanding: Ty Segall
BATOV. DL/LP
done, I started writing solo songs again. I’m always writing.” Singer Layne sideman Emmett Kelly’s two
Doing it for the kids, entries (mid-’60s Byrdsian
Staley may
What determines if something you write becomes a Breeders a Rio-born guitarist gem Our Hometown Boy;
have been the
song or a Kim Deal song? comes good. deconstructed desert-blues
face of Alice In
“They put themselves in the sorting hat – they sort of say what For his eighth Chains, but North Of The Border). With
house they’re going to be in. For instance, Summerland has a album, Jerry Cantrell Malkmus on the mike, Six Deaf
ukulele on it, and I knew that would really bum [Breeders bassist] Brazilian was the brains. His guitar Rats stretches out across six
Josephine Wiggs out in such a deep, profound way it could never guitarist unleashed the classic rock mesmerisingly edge-of-
Marcelo Frota edge which enabled them to collapse minutes, its
be a Breeders song. And when I wrote Coast, I could hear the horn
moved to escape the grunge cul-de-sac; labyrinthine improv expertly
part in my head, and I tried to get Kelley [Deal, Breeders guitarist]
London, recruited a fairly his harmonising with Staley steered by drummer Jim
to play the horn part on guitar. But it didn’t sound as fun; I knew it stellar gang of friends – Angus White, while gambolling
humanised them and, an
would be more fun to have the horns. But again, I knew Josephine (Alabaster DePlume) Fairbairn, addict himself back then, he opener Chrome Mess and
wouldn’t like that, so…” Jessica Lauren, Carwyn Ellis co-wrote most of the twisty-turning Action For
Tell me about Are You Mine?. The title suggests it’s a love among them, with each of heroin-based lyrics. With Alice Military Boys also score top
song, but it’s more complex than that, isn’t it? the guests getting a track In Chains still ongoing, solo marks. A delectable-sounding
to shine on – for a series of Cantrell has never strayed too record slathered in guitar
“My mother had Alzheimer’s. I was caring for her, and one day she spontaneous live recordings, far from the mothership. With magic: what’s not to like?
stopped me in the hallway and asked me, ‘Are you my baby?’ And with minimal advance guests including Faith No Andrew Perry
there was something so sweet about it – she didn’t know my planning. A risky endeavour
fucking name, but she knew that I looked more than familiar. It then – even if his only goal was
was more than, ‘Who the fuck are you?’ – she meant, ‘Were you to make something his young
my little baby doll?’ It just showed that the strand of motherhood daughter could dance to – yet
actually can endure. Even with the mind completely gone, when it works it is spellbinding.
and all notion of what a family might be gone, there was still The opener, Pára, is a case in
some umbilical cord there. When she said, ‘Are you my baby?’, point: a slow, swampy funk
it was a beautiful sentiment that I wanted to live in – I wanted workout with built-in chills.
to think about it, to understand it. And it’s a good love song, Fairbairn steals the honours
on Oqueeei, an Ethiopian-
too. I was so lucky. She was so sweet. So the thought of it is just flavoured jam that builds in
so warm and great, to live in her asking me that, and then just seductive circles; inspired by
thinking about it.” Tim Maia, Jão has an insistent
Will you make another solo album? Is there more Breeders samba beat and, again, great
music to come? horns and keyboards. An
album that demands repeated Lone star: Texan
Steve Gullick

“I swear to God, The Breeders have a Christmas song. It’s not done, playing… let’s hope his singer Leon Bridges
but it’s an idea. A pretty good idea. Josephine’s not pleased, but daughter appreciates it as returns to more
she’ll just have to live with it…” much as the rest of us will. commercial territory.
David Hutcheon

84 MOJO
 F I LT E R A L B UM S

The War sings of her own life at the

album’s arresting climax,
music of Buried sounds like
rave tunes played at the
On Drugs pledging herself in this brilliant wrong speed.
★★★★ entry into public parenting.
Grayson Haver Currin
Stevie Chick
Live Drugs Again
SUPER HIGH QUALITY RECORDS.
CD/DL/LP Courteeners
Live recordings from The Bug ★★★★
their 2022-23 tour find
Philadelphia’s neo-classic
★★★★ Pink Cactus Café
rockers aiming for a Machine IGNITION. CD/DL/LP/MC
communal connection. RELAPSE. DL/LP
Seventh LP from increasingly
The Necks Arriving a swift
Laura Marling Dub diabolist Kevin expansive Mancunians.
★★★★ four years after ★★★★ Martin’s first instrumental 2020’s More.
Bleed the first album brings the noise,
Patterns In Repeat and then some.
Again. Forever.
NORTHERN SPY. CD/DL/LP concert album PARTISAN/CHRYSALIS. CD/DL/LP began a new,
from The War Kevin Martin’s mature
Aussie post-jazz trio create On Drugs, Live Exquisite and spare, a wide- The Bug Courteeners
another classic on the quiet. Drugs Again flirts with some eyed study of parenthood’s project phase. Four
Given how The Necks cinematic sequel clichés, anxiety and awe. enlisted a years on, they’ve evolved
established their fearsome rep particularly in how it sounds After the 2023 birth of her murderer’s row again. They remain wholly
through pieces lasting for the bigger and brighter than its daughter, Laura Marling – of dancehall beholden to Liam Fray’s
best part of an hour, their last predecessor. The grander scale whose stunning and stark 2020 and grime MCs to collaborate songwriting, but they’re
two albums – 2020’s Three and largely derives from the album album Song for Our Daughter on dystopian-future dub that assisted by contemporaries:
last year’s Travel (No. 13 in being culled from recordings was written long before she could shred any sound-system. upwardly mobile Scottish soul
MOJO’s Albums Of 2023 captured on the supporting was a parent – found herself On his first instrumental singer Brooke Combe offers
rundown) – looked a bit like tour for I Don’t Live Here with unexpected time. She’d album under that moniker – depth-giving harmonies on
commercial cop-outs, with Anymore, the 2021 album that watch the sleeping kid and comprising tracks from a series Sweet Surrender, as does Pixey
tracks barely stretching found leader Adam Granduciel play guitar, surveying her flood of self-released digital EPs – on the unusually sweary First
beyond 20 minutes each. opting for optimism. The of feelings and realisations in the space left by the absent Name Terms. Solitude Of The
Not exactly the stuff of zingy positive vibes in the source songs she recorded at home, vocalists is occupied by an Night Bus skirts too close to
Spotify playlists, of course, material reverberate strongly largely alone. We hear her overload of industrial textures, Arctic Monkeys, but Fray is
but this 23rd Necks album is a on-stage, echoing through become a mother and the din of malevolent developing apace. There are
reassuring return to the (even) the handful of older numbers musician in real time, baby machinery. Bound to mutant anthems such as the heroic The
longer form – one track, 42 here – repeated from Live babbling as Marling laughs reggae rhythms, Martin’s Beginning Of The End – DMA’s
minutes of profound, unbroken Drugs, the epic Under The while taking hesitant strums sounds are of a grain so guest – and the Union City
musical exploration. If the Pressure can be used as a during opener Child Of Mine. abrasive as to draw blood, Blue-esque Love You Any Less,
trio’s music has traditionally mile marker – and finding It is a sharp and tender but while much of Machine’s but Bitten By Unseen Teeth
manoeuvred between genres, flight within the heavy dose document of dawning considerable power to thrill is a reflective closer, there’s
tending closest towards of newer songs. Live, the domesticity, Marling realising derives from Martin’s sonic whistling on the title track,
improvised jazz, Bleed zeroes band’s urgency and dual roles as guardian and extremism, there’s an impish and Weekend Shy Of A Feeling
in on their ambient instincts. spaciousness transform observer above a chorus of creativity also at play. lollops like prime Coral, whose
Hence Chris Abrahams’ guiding their fondness for cavernous astonished oohs and ahhs. Shafted sounds like the BBC Ian Skelly is another guest.
piano and organ lines are arena rhythms and Magnificently paced and Radiophonic Workshop Courteeners could have found
more space than notes, while antiquated synths from candid, these 11 songs surface cooking up some fearsome themselves marooned in a
Tony Buck orbits around his clever re-appropriations self-doubt and self-assurance dub, while Hypnotised creeps meat’n’potatoes indie ghetto.
percussion arsenal and guitar into something that teases as Marling learns to let parts of like Ghost Town fed through Right now, they’re bigger and
with herculean restraint. One transcendence. herself go. “I want you to know the Kevin Martin mangle, better than that.
to file alongside fan favourites Stephen Thomas Erlewine that I gave it up willingly,” she and the eerie, slo-mo chase John Aizlewood
Aether (2001) and Open (2013):
records that initially appear
starkly minimalist, but
gradually reveal boundless, Soccer Mommy
★★★★
beautiful depths. Mum’s the word:
John Mulvey Sophie Allison,
AKA Soccer
Evergreen Mommy, is still
pondering it all.
Willie Nelson LOMA VISTA. CD/DL/LP

★★★★ Nashville singer elegantly expands her

Last Leaf On The Tree sound and mines her soul.
LEGACY RECORDINGS. CD/DL/LP WRITTEN AND recorded in the wake of
Another entry to Willie’s list DQXQVSHFLÀHG´SURIRXQGDQGDOVRYHU\
of esoteric collections.
SHUVRQDOµORVVLW·VFOHDUIURPWKHRSHQLQJ
Ever since
Nelson’s 1971
of EvergreenMXVWKRZGHHSO\6RSKLH$OOLVRQ
concept LP AKA6RFFHU0RPP\KDVEHHQDIIHFWHGE\
Yesterday’s LW/RVWLVDQRUFKHVWUDWHGEHDXW\IRUH-
Wine, he’s
periodically
JURXQGHGE\$OOLVRQ·VDFKLQJGHOLYHU\LQD
released records that show a VRQJRIUHJUHWIRUWKLQJVQHYHUVDLGRUGRQH
philosophical and ethereal side 7KHUH·VDQHZOHYHORIVRSKLVWLFDWLRQKHUH
of his personality. So it is with EHÀWWLQJWKHIDFWWKDWWKHRQHWLPHWHHQDJH
this 153rd LP. It’s appropriate
for the 91-year-old singer- KRPHUHFRUGHULVQRZDQGWKLVLVKHU
songwriter to focus on IRXUWKDOEXP7KHUH·VKXPRXUWRR²LQ
mortality, and with the help WKHJUXQJ\'ULYHUVKHGHVFULEHVKHUVHOIDV
of producer and son Micah
Nelson, Willie pulls it off. The ´DÀYHIRRWIRXUHQJLQHZDLWLQJWRPRYHµ
title song by Tom Waits and ²DQG0VRXQGVOLNH(OOLRWW6PLWKLIKH·G
Kathleen Brennan, Keep Me In EHHQSURGXFHGE\&RFWHDX7ZLQV·5RELQ
Your Heart by Warren Zevon
and Jorge Calderon, and If It *XWKULH%XWDVKHUDGPLVVLRQVLQWKH
Wasn’t Broken by LA GHOLFDWHFORVLQJDFRXVWLFWLWOHWUDFN
anarcho-busker Sunny War all SURYH ´7ZR\HDUVJRQHE\DQG,·P
stand out as life lessons set to
powerful melody and rendered VWLOOSRQGHULQJLWDOOµ JULHIXOWLPDWHO\
in Willie-sing. His voice is a bit FRORXUVHYHU\WKLQJRQWKLVIUHTXHQWO\
Zhamak Fullad

more raw in his 91st year, but EHDXWLIXODOEXP

that just adds yet more
resonance. Long may he run. Tom Doyle
Michael Simmons

MOJO 85
 Do you know Michael
Kiwanuka? MK’s latest
makes emotional
connections.

Little wonder
First-rate songwriting, hypnotic London. If the singer has
PD[LPXPHIIHFW7KHVSLULWRI
’70s soul still clearly informs
his work, but Small Changes
is also modernist, with its
always been confessional, subtly overdriven beats (fast
beats and empathetic emotions becoming this decade’s sonic
even when he’s gently
on north Londoner’s fourth. fretting, it now comes with vogue), or the thick, wobbly
By Tom Doyle. OLIHH[SHULHQFHDQGVRPH synth riff that drives Follow
sagacity. Made once again Your Dreams.
Michael Kiwanuka with the production team of Danger Mouse It’s playful, too. Audience applause and
★★★★ DQG,QÁR.LZDQXNDVD\VWKHODWWHULQSDUWLFXODU babble opens Lowdown (Part I), in which a
KHOSVWRWRSXSKLVVHOIFRQÀGHQFHDQGVWRSKLP rolling Pino Palladino bass part and Al Kooper-
Small Changes second-guessing himself. styled Hammond interjections from Jimmy
Jam conspire to evoke a kind of downtrodden
POLYDOR. CD/DL/LP
“We can be solid but barely make a dent,” he take on The Beta Band’s Dry The Rain, replete
TWICE DURING his spellbinding set on the offers in slow-burning opener Floating Parade, with a naggingly beautiful melody. Even if they
Pyramid Stage at Glastonbury this summer Mi- with its Melody Nelson bass line, wafting strings, aren’t often evident in the songs, Kiwanuka
chael Kiwanuka attempted to perform the intro and oblique narrative involving a desire to lose VD\VKLVLQÁXHQFHVWKLVWLPHDURXQGZHUHPRUH
to Solid Ground, the penultimate track on his KLPVHOILQWKHFURZGDQGNLOOKLVDQ[LHW\´, wide-ranging: Gene Clark, Sade, Beth Gibbons,
last album Kiwanuka, before his malfunctioning chased the waterfalls/I was the leaving kind,” he 0D]]\6WDU
synth forced him to abandon the song. “This sings elsewhere, with a hint of Fred Neil-styled Listening to the latter band’s 1993 song
is like my worst nightmare,” he sheepishly escapism, in One And Only, a song that’s ulti- Fade Into You apparently inspired the closing
grinned, before quickly recomposing himself mately about resolving to be a better partner. track, Four Long Years, which sounds nothing
and seamlessly carrying on. But it was a glimpse Though there aren’t any drastic changes like it but retains its 6/8 time signature and
RIWKHGLIÀGHQWDQ[LRXVPDQ²DVHOIFRQIHVVHG to his warm, woody sound, there’s an evident elegant moodiness in a lament for lost love
´RYHUWKLQNHUµ²VRRIWHQDSSDUHQWLQKLVVRQJV assurance that the record-making team know featuring tremolo guitar and a melody that curls
Five years have passed since that Mercury- ZKDWWKH\·UHGRLQJLVH[DFWO\ULJKW7DVWHIXO like smoke. But as personal as all of these songs
winning third album and this long-gestated tones and masterful grooves feature through- sound, there’s a universality to Small Changes
VXFFHVVRUUHÁHFWVWKHKRSHVDQd fears of a out, in a production that is artfully sparse, that, as with all Kiwanuka’s records, will emo-
37-year-old father of two now living on the so that when an orchestral part swoops into tionally connect with others. Everybody hurts,
English south coast having quit his native WKHPL[RUÀ]]\JXLWar solo bursts in, it has it seems to say, but this might help.

86 MOJO
 Anna Butterss F I LT E R A L B UM S
★★★★
Mighty Vertebrate
Propaganda INTERNATIONAL ANTHEM. CD/DL/LP

★★★ Their spine is the bass line! In-demand

Propaganda LA sessioneer’s second solo LP.
BUREAU B. CD/DL/LP THE AUSTRALIAN-born, LA-based
Düsseldorf’s dark synth- bassist Anna Butterss has a pretty
poppers pick up from where
they left off in 1990. eclectic CV, including as it does sessions
For the first
with Phoebe Bridgers, Aimee Mann,
album credited Makaya McCraven and Jason Isbell. It’s
to Propaganda their work alongside Tortoise guitarist Jeff
since 1990’s
1234, founder
Parker, however, that’s the strongest
Ralf Dörper is indication of where this exceptional
joined by Michael Mertens, second solo album lands. Mighty Vertebrate
who came on board in the often sounds like a stylish update of
run-up-to 1984’s debut ZTT
single The Nine Lives Of Dr. Tortoise circa TNTDÁH[LEOHDPDOJDPRI
Mabuse. The singer now is the jazz, post-rock, noir twang (Seeing You),
UK’s Thunder Bae. Intriguingly, squelchy electronica (Pokemans) and
1234’s opener Vicious Circle is
reworked. Back then, the
more, dovetailing nicely with much of the
singer was Susanne Freytag. music recently released on International
More rhythmic than before, Anthem. Butterss evidently doesn’t shy
the new Vicious Circle is more
electroclash than filmic.
away from the comparison, given Parker is
Elsewhere, the dark here contributing a trademark solo to
Love:Craft’s swirling, swooping Dance Steve, and another Tortoise man,
strings evoke the ’80s while John Herndon, provides the cover art. But
the bubbling Tipping Point
could have been recorded at their musical identity is playful, too, and
any point in the past 40 years. though the album opens with an isolated
The sense of history is further funky bass line, Butterss proves a demo-
stressed by Distant’s
Wire-referencing line, “I feel
cratic bandleader, often ceding the
mysterious today.” Closing spotlight to saxophonist Josh Johnson and Spine-tingling:
Anna Butterss
with the German classic guitarist Gregory Uhlmann, Butterss’ shares the spotlight
Wenn Ich Mir Was Wünschen FRPSDQLRQVLQDQRWKHUÀQHJURXS60/ on exceptional
Dürfte – with Hauschka on
piano – confirms this iteration John Mulvey second effort.
of Propaganda isn’t afraid to
embrace the past.
Kieron Tyler low-key Soft Bulletin-era hot tarmac mirages, and trippy scores a solid point too. shredding, no Tinariwen
Flaming Lips than any of closer Surround coming on like John Aizlewood melancholy, just the sort of
Wilson’s more typical Parks and key collaborator mood-enhancing beat music
references, it concludes with Ruari Meehan’s nod to The that ought to get every
a happy-sad paean to human Orb’s Little Fluffy Clouds. wedding guest on the floor
fallibility, scored by syn-drum Repeat listens focus the Etran De L’Aïr from sunset to sunrise.
eruptions and uplifting piano, kaleidoscope. ★★★★ David Hutcheon
that feels like the anthem he’s James McNair
been working towards for
100% Sahara Guitar
SAHEL SOUNDS. DL/LP
almost 30 years.
Stevie Chick There’s a good reason no Mortimer
Jason Isbell And one at a Niger wedding has ★★★★
The 400 Unit ever done the Birdie Dance. From Within
Tess Parks ★★★ On tour in the United States
last year, the longest-running
EASY STAR. CD/DL/LP
Danny & The ★★★★ Live From The wedding band in Agadez, Promising debut from rising
reggae hopeful. The 2-LP
Champions Of Pomegranate Ryman Vol. 2 Niger’s febrile Tuareg
stronghold, took the version includes dub cuts
The World FUZZ CLUB/HAND DRAWN DRACULA. SOUTHEASTERN. CD/DL/LP
opportunity to record their from Tippy I Grade.
★★★★
CD/DL/LP Admirably non-
retrospective live album. third album in a Portland One of the
Toronto-born singer- current wave
You Are Not A studio, the first time any of
songwriter dials-up The home of of upcoming
them had been in a building
Stranger Here transporting languor. country may designed for making music. artists
LOOSE. CD/DL/LP For fans of be steeped in Anyone expecting them to changing the
Danny’s Champs return with dysfunctional nostalgia, but lose the plot and get bogged direction of the
love songs and negotiations cool-dom à la Jason Isbell down in Second Coming-like contemporary Jamaican music
with maturity. Royal Trux’s isn’t. Six years sloth and overthinking will be scene, Mortimer McPherson
Herrema and after his first Live From The disappointed: 100% Sahara became part of Winta James’s
Always one of the UK’s finest Hagerty, Tess Ryman, the second comprises Guitar is simply a better- Overstand Entertainment
purveyors of Americana- Parks’ LPs with The Brian 15 songs from his most recent sounding version of their stable through a guest spot
indebted songcraft, Danny Jonestown Massacre’s Anton non-covers albums (2020’s previous albums – two lead on Protoje’s Ancient Future LP;
George Wilson has only Newcombe looked appetising. Reunions and 2023’s guitarists playing up-tempo solo single Lightning was a
become more intriguing and The hazy psych of 2015’s I Weathervanes), plus 2009’s desert blues against each chart-topper in 2019. This
compelling a songwriter. His Declare Nothing and its not wholly prophetic The other while the rhythm section much-anticipated debut is
first album with his Champions self-titled 2018 follow-up were Last Song I Will Write and a groove away. Indeed, Alghabid complex and deeply personal,
Of The World in seven years somewhat hit and miss, reverential trawl through Tom Ghabdouan on drums may unafraid of crossing genres
is perhaps a little more however, their hereafter Petty’s bleak Room At The Top: steal the whole affair, his and taking risks: Balcony
“glass-half-empty” than his marked by a long Parks “my favourite of all his songs,” unshowy swing is an absolute Swing is an R&B ballad about
more optimistic works of sabbatical during which she Isbell tells the crowd. So joy. No Mdou Moctar unplanned pregnancy, Whole
the past, foregrounding was “…taking refuge making instead of being a raucous Heap an unplugged
negotiations with relinquished paintings, sitting in silence for career celebration, Vol. 2 is meditation on personal
dreams, negotiations with hours.” Pomegranate continues both a moment of growth, and the moving Not
the disappointments of the sun-dazed ruminations of consolidation and one to A Day Goes By a superior new
adulthood, seismic revelations 2022 solo comeback And Those reflect upon how far he’s roots groove that details
within the quotidian. But Who Were Seen Dancing, Parks’ evolved since leaving Drive-By mental anguish. James’s
there’s also tender magic – trademark tranquillised drawl Truckers in 2007. These are big, unobtrusive production has
I’m In Love, which feels more piloting slow-burning psych often Neil Young-evoking, plentiful keyboard earworms
Robert Wyatt than Willie daydreams which flag songs (especially the anthemic and judicious use of Nyabinghi
Nelson, ruminates on gold-painted coffins and Overseas), but the acoustic percussion, plus there’s guest
moments of precarious joy petals on eyelids. Whatever section showcases Isbell’s craft spots from Damian Marley,
within a catalogue of random ‘flow’ is, she has it, Koalas and and depth. In the long run it’s Kabaka Pyramid and Lila Iké.
objects. Sounding more like a Charlie Potato shimmering like a footnote, but it makes and David Katz

MOJO 87
 F I LT E R A L B UM S Sleazy riders: Amyl And
The Sniffers are more
emotionally nuanced
on their third offering.

Never mind the bollocks!

Melbourne punks’ smart, Cartoon DarknessDFKLHYHVWKLVE\GRLQJ %LNLQLWKHWUDYHORJXHRIFRQWUROOLQJEHKDYLRXU
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88 MOJO
 Feeling plucky:
Joachim Cooder’s
latest is tangibly
nourishing.

Ebo Taylor
★★★★
JID022
JAZZ IS DEAD. CD/DL/LP
Ghanaian highlife and
Afrobeat pioneer still
grooving hard at 88.
Festooned with awards in
his native Ghana, Afrobeat
grandee Taylor was pivotal
in putting his motherland’s
music on the map in the Joachim Cooder music ventures airy harmonies on Let Me See My
(see Sight And Brother Walk and Godspeed Little
1960s. Largely perceived
as an obscure cult figure ★★★★ The Sound). Children… feel untethered, un-
outside of Africa, in recent
Dreamer’s Motel Cooder’s Array occluded, and the head-clearing,
years, however, reissues
and compilations have TEMPLE OF LEAVES. CD/DL
mbira playing – think a more versatile almost tangibly nourishing music of
exponentially helped to widen cousin of the African thumb-piano Dreamer’s Motel really breathes. It’s
his audience, as has US R&B California dreaming on solo LP four. – is the prominent colour in a joyful, all over in 30 minutes or so, seven
star Usher sampling Taylor’s
1977 track Heaven for his 2010
BROADLY A concept LP about largely major-key palette, while dad TXLHWO\H[RWLFVRQJVÁRZLQJFOHDUDVD
song She Don’t Know. Eager fondly-remembered places now Ry’s rich but subtle input on guitar, mountain stream until gruff, sinuous
to spread the word about impossible to revisit, Dreamer’s Motel mandolin and banjo is also EQ’d closer Down To The Blood alights in
Taylor’s genius, Jazz Is Dead’s sometimes conjures the questing with a softer focus. Consequently, Tom Waits’s boneyard.
Adrian Younge and Ali
Shaheed Muhammad have intricacy of Paul Simon’s early ‘world’ Joachim and Juliette Commagere’s James McNair
helped him create one of the
most satisfying ventures of his
long career. From the get-go, slow-burning Superman similar quality pervades the Holds You quakes like The century comic strip Little
JID022 crackles with a kinetic sounds like Jeff Buckley self-explanatory Duelling Birthday Party, but he Nemo In Slumberland, this
energy that drives the album’s fronting The Velvet Flutters and hymnal Maria, murmurs It Goes On Forever crazy-quilt album manifests
unrelenting, addictive dance Underground and involves while Day Three introduces (“two sheets of fentanyl and musical visions which would
pulse. Standouts include the metaphysical escape rumbling percussion and we can do it all again”) like normally be limited to dreams.
the intoxicating Get Up, the fantasy of an office worker. billows of dissonance. he’s suffering withdrawal Kieron Tyler
super-funky Obi Do Wa and Altogether, it’s a brilliant, Occasionally, things err symptoms.
horn-flecked Obra Akyedzi, rock-revitalising offering. towards churning, reverb- Martin Aston
all of which are characterised Tom Doyle soaked opacity, but the next
by ecstatic chanted vocals, moment of plaintive reverie
Kelly Finnigan
jazzy flute arabesques, is never far away. Pekka Laine ★★★★
David Sheppard
belching saxes and being
irresistibly danceable.
Sarah Neufeld, ★★★ A Lover Was Born
COLEMINE. DL/LP
Charles Waring Richard Reed Pekka Laine &
Coming-of-age second
Parry, Rebecca Famous The Enchanted solo album by the

Wunderhorse
Foon ★★★★ In Slumberland Monophonics frontman.
★★★ Party Album SVART. CD/DL/LP Kelly Finnigan
★★★★ First Sounds UNTITLED (RECS). CD/DL/LP Finnish equivalent of John began his
Midas Peel fashions the music of musical
ONE LITTLE INDEPENDENT. CD/DL/LP From the same Brixton his dreams. journey in
COMMUNION. CD/DL/LP Windmill pub scene as Black
Montreal instrumental the ’90s as a
Midi and Black Country, New In his native
Shades of Pixies, The Smiths, trio return to dreamy teenage DJ
Road: the latest post-punk Finland, Pekka
The Lemonheads and first principles. in the Bay Area, and on his
commotion. Laine is familiar
Nirvana pass through this Violinist second solo album the singer/
from his music
top-drawer second album. Sarah Neufeld Famous is writer/producer hymns the rare
journalism, as
Jacob Slater and multi- essentially a documentary ’60s soul records he spun back
served time as instrumentalist south Londoner director and radio DJ. A John then. It’s a collaborative project
the frontman Richard Reed Jack Merrett, Peel-like champion of music’s featuring myriad members
of London Parry are plus revolving margins, he was also the of modern-retro soul’s new
neo-punkers storied Quebecois art music contributors. guitarist of the surf/ generation (The Ironsides,
Dead Pretties fellow travellers, best known This debut forges its singular exotica-leaning garage-psych Parlor Greens, Dap-Kings etc),
(and even played drummer for their Arcade Fire tenure vision from what he’s called, “a outfit Hypnomen. There have all whom he’s previously
Paul Cook in Danny Boyle’s if not their Bell Orchestre flawed and partial human life”, been other bands but his first worked with. He calls it “a
Pistol series), before writing side-project, while Rebecca running a highly quotable solo album, the surf-a-delic homecoming”, referring not
the songs that made up Foon’s cello has helped gamut from “I’m the prince of The Enchanted Guitar Of Pekka just to the album’s sound and
Wunderhorse’s 2022 debut, propel Montreal post-rockers darkness Abaddon” (The Laine, arrived in 2021. It was personnel but also to a move
Cub. The quartet have taken a Esmerine and A Silver Mt Destroyer) to “Love you mum, a sensation in Finland. The he made midway through
big leap with this follow-up, Zion. This collaboration call me if you need anything” mostly instrumental follow-up recording to Ohio, where his
recorded with producer Craig is a part-improvised (Love Will Find A Way), spiced opens with Ruhr By Night, parents originated. There’s
Silvey at Pachyderm Studios re-exploration of the with confessional splurging which posits the union of Neu! definitely the sense he’s found
in Minnesota, scene of the chamber-ambient and manic epiphanies. Like and ’60s session-guitar ace Al his natural habitat and people
making of Nirvana’s In Utero atmospheres the three friends their established peers, Casey. Further in, The Drifter here, his vocals an intoxicating
and P.J. Harvey’s Rid Of Me. conjured together as neophyte Famous have their own fuses spaghetti western moves mix of might and mercy,
Even if the influences are experimenters a quarter of a thrilling take on post-punk, with a jazz-funk groove. wailing and crying over
clearly apparent, it’s all done century ago. Wistful opener embracing ’60s garage and Elsewhere, genre mash-ups imploring ballads with
with such verve that it’s Slow New Year sets the tone, ’70s rock, more CBGB’s than nodding to Lee Hazlewood, bespoke Hammond warble,
entirely infectious. The title its yearning violin arpeggios south London, enhanced by Joe Meek’s jerry-built space scritchy guitar and hungover
track fizzes with attitude and etched with Foon’s swooping Merrett’s croaky drawl, music, Italian giallo brass. Key tracks are Prove My
Abby Ross

melody and slashing guitars bow work, a transporting slowing to Sprechgesang or soundtracks and Zapp’s Love and Chosen Few, but it’s
(imagine Thin Lizzy playing marriage of elegiac melody exploding into screams. He’s electro-funk. Pointedly titled all top quality.
Sultans Of Swing), while the and immersive texture. A clearly drawn to extremes: God after the surreal early 20th Lois Wilson

MOJO 89
 F I LT E R A L Doing it clean: Peter
Perrett’s new songs come
return as The One. The narrative shifted,
with a bionic, titanium- though, with 2017’s How The West Was Won
reinforced bounce. and 2019’s Humanworld, records that forced a
fresh perspective on a career that once seemed
irrevocably withered.
The Cleansing continues this cheering trend,
Perrett rounding up a cross-generational pool
of musicians to realise his still-sharp vision.
There are his sons, producer and guitarist Jamie
and bassist Peter Jr, but also Johnny Marr –
once thrown into a police cell wearing an Only
Ones Baby’s Got A Gun T-shirt – Fontaines
D.C.’s Carlos O’Connell, who co-produced
and arranged three tracks, and Bobby Gillespie
and Douglas Hart, the former Jesus And Mary
Chain comrades reunited on the artfully scuffed
title track.
If his support network is striking, it is Perrett
himself who steals focus, his voice – a mys-
terious substance that seems to have been
GXJRXWIURPEHWZHHQWKHÁRRUERDUGVRID
condemned building – so immediate that it
almost seems like an unfair advantage over
other singer-songwriters. I Wanna Go With
Dignity piles up painful testimony to the lost,
but offers solace in a glorious, almost tactile
Stooges thump; Set The House On Fire

Still the one

Perrett makes a fresh start, All That Time doubles down on that sorrow-
astutely delineates the difference between
setting the world alight and having a Richard
Pryor-style accident. He might be physically
frail – COPD, a recent broken hip – but these
again. By Victoria Segal. ful drift. “All that time I thought I was having songs come with a bionic, titanium-reinforced
fun,” the former Only One sighs over enervated bounce. A double album of them, too, which
Peter Perrett piano and strings, “just another wasted life.” tells its own story.
That’s before Art Is A Disease, a cautionary tale If The Cleansing is steeped in a wistful
★★★★ DERXWÁRJJLQJ\RXUVHOIIRUDGUHDPWKDWPLJKW acknowledgement of decline – and it’s probably
The Cleansing never pay out more than a handful of buttons best not to listen to the nihilist Sweet Jane chug
DOMINO. CD/DL/LP
and a pile of dead calendars. of Less Than Nothing if you’re having the slight-
The highs and lows of Perrett’s life are well- est wobble about your mortality – it’s also the
YOU WOULD need to be made of marble GHÀQHGDEULJKWEROWRIVXFFHVVZLWK7KH2QO\ work of a man who takes real pleasure in story-
not to pick up on the deep regret that churns Ones and their three albums, a modern stand- telling, melody, laser-guided metaphors. Perrett
underneath The Cleansing. “You’re just an ard under his skinny belt with Another Girl, might not have been having fun before, but even
old man/Who went too far out to sea,” Peter Another Planet, and then ruinous stretches factoring in a song called Do Not Resuscitate,
Perrett sings on Mixed Up Confucius, while of addiction interspersed only by a brief ’90s WKLVÀQDOO\VRXQGVOLNHWKHUHDOWKLQJ

in-lane highlights include this 13-track set is high on Suite were inspired by the Sniffers, The Chats and Those
Denver Luna’s fluctuating orchestral manoeuvres and 1950s standard Que Sera, Sera New South Whales, this trio
Pearl’s Girl-style stream-of- dark, clubby moves. The title (Whatever Will Be, Will Be). The excelled with their Hives-like
consciousness rap, and Sweet track sounds like The The gone sombre I Hear You Mary was shout-along choruses. Halted
Lands Experience’s nod to raving, The Church Of Love has triggered by the Pixies’ time at by Covid, Andrew Swayze got
Born Slippy’s shouting-lager a hint of The Human League’s Rockfield Studio in 2012, but sober and channelled the
geezerdom. Forty-two Love Action about it, and Lady frames this Welsh corner with attendant energies into
minutes in, Ottavia brings a Esquire dares to retrofit Iggy gargoyles and cobblestones. transforming his Ghosts’
major shift as a female voice Pop’s Nightclubbing with Most acute in its ancient sound. To that effect, parts of
laments “women’s miserable Glitter Band cries of “hey”. revisionism is Hypnotised. this second LP go post-punk:
sex” over wonky beats, while With lyrics informed by loss The lyrics are modelled on with lyrics of joyful self-
Stick Man Test closes out with, and his current post-divorce the sestina, a verse form from liberation, opener Tell You All
of all things, reverb-heavy folk relationship with a man, at the 12th-century Provence. There’s The Time introduces a twitchy
Underworld picking. Thirty years on from age of 64, Friday has clearly none of their foundational Devo feel, echoed later by Sick
★★★★ Dubnobasswithmyheadman,
the masters of post-rave audio
found himself and made a
deeply heartfelt record, most
bloodied rampage but the
near title track Jane (The Night
Kinda WRLD, with its hilarious
borderline-Telstar synth solo,
Strawberry Hotel narrative still know how to of which is perhaps best heard The Zombies Came) deftly and the goofily irresistible Cool
SMITH HYDE PRODUCTIONS. CD/DL/LP blow your tiny mind. at club-level volume. blends a Spector-esque baion Cucumber. With Hives-y
Andrew Perry Tom Doyle beat with a haunting dual moments still afoot (see Easy
First ‘conventional’ album
since 2016’s Barbara Barbara, vocal from frontman Black Come), it’s a bit like pinballing
We Face A Shining Future. Francis and new bassist Emma between festival stages circa
’03, just as garage-rock gave
After the 52-tracks-in-52- Gavin Friday Pixies Richardson, formerly of Band
way to NYC punk-funkers The
weeks online splurge of
2018-19’s Drift Series 1, Rick
★★★★ ★★★★ Of Skulls. This most thrillingly
deathly of bands remains alive. Rapture, and LCD Soundsystem
The Night The – in a good way. With four or
Smith and Karl Hyde doubtless Ecce Homo Roy Wilkinson
five outright bangers aboard
needed a minute to regroup. BMG. CD/DL/LP Zombies Came (again), Swayze’s Ghosts now
While that format allowed First album in 11 years from BMG. CD/DL/LP swiftly rise.
them to explore the long-form erstwhile Virgin Prune (and A. Swayze & Andrew Perry
First Pixies LP with new
potential of digital infinity, this U2 creative director).
relatively concise 65-minute
bassist Emma Richardson. The Ghosts
album nevertheless finds
Underworld trading in
Ecce Homo
reunites Gavin
Their T-shirts
proclaimed
★★★★
limitlessness, as Strawberry Friday with “Death to the Let’s Live A Better
Hotel expertly blurs the Soft Cell’s Dave Pixies” decades Life Than This
listener’s perception of time, Ball close to ago, which IVY LEAGUE. CD/DL/LP
often drifting, indeed, for four decades maybe negates
minutes on end (to wit: And after the latter helmed the the gormlessly undead album Devilishly good Devo-y
The Colour Red’s acid- Virgin Prunes’ second (and title. The record is full of more post-punk from Tasmania.
squiggling pulsation), subtly last) 1986 album, The Moon idiosyncratic kinds of revenant Arriving with 2020 debut Paid
shifting sonic perspectives Looked Down And Laughed. Far – and ensnaring music. The Salvation amid Grade-A Aussie
and intensities. Other trancey from that record’s gothy rock, bell-pretty hooks of The Vegas punk rock from Amyl & The

90 MOJO
 JA ZZ
B Y A N DY C O WA N
Samara Joy and North Africa), and looks and sometimes uncomfortable
★★★★
for inspiration to India, (see CCTV’s shrill metallic
Istanbul and the Maghreb. screech), but always enthralling.
Portrait Recorded in Bristol, but the Andy Cowan
VERVE. CD/DL/LP highlights come from the
duo spreading their net wide:
A new jazz voice from Gen Z. Indian disco queen Asha Puthli
Jazz in 2024? stars on the steamy, Toby Lee
In the UK it’s Moroder-quoting Baar Baar; ★★★★
the hipsters Algeria’s Aymen Attia sounds
mashing up remarkably like Cheb Khaled
House On Fire
100%. CD/DL/LP
the form with on Galbi (particularly his 1992
Afrobeat, dub, single Didi, a huge global Incendiary third LP from
grime, house and hip-hop hit); and Sabir adopts a very British blues-rock prodigy.
who are making the running. Khruangbin-like groove At 19, Toby
But from the States comes with the Turkish singer Billur Lee is the
24-year-old singer Samara Battal featured. Not totally unlikeliest
Joy, trailing TikTok fame and original, then, but still a road-hardened
triple Grammy wins, who kitchen-disco smash. blues veteran.
sings in a purist style that has David Hutcheon Born far from
echoes of Sarah Vaughan and the Mississippi Delta in
Ella Fitzgerald. There are songs Banbury, Oxfordshire, Lee
here that Frank Sinatra and Nat swapped his ukulele for a
King Cole made famous, and guitar when he was six and Sam Gendel, Benny
she adds her own imaginative
lyrics to Charles Mingus and
felt an immediate connection Bock, Hans Kjorstad
Lou Donaldson tunes. But
with the instrument while
developing an affinity with ★★★★
Joy is much more than a rote Dream Trio
blues music via axe gods like
singer of standards: her
Stevie Ray Vaughan and B.B. LEAVING. CD/DL/LP
voice, mixing sensuality and
King. Now, the award-winning Three avant-jazz improvisors push
power, can be exquisite;
youngster has released his first the boundaries on intimate set recorded in Japan.
her a cappella opening to
LP of all-original material, an
Reincarnation Of A Lovebird Having reworked Joni Mitchell and Judee Sill on The Doober
is stunning. Soaring vocal impressive, well-rounded
Elucid collection highlighting Lee’s (with bassist Sam Wilkes) and explored bossa nova on The Room
improvisations have a (with guitarist Fabiano do Nascimento), Sam Gendel’s third
precision perfection. Joy’s ★★★★ versatility as well as virtuosity.
Standouts include Count On collaborative album of 2024 is his most unorthodox yet.
popularity isn’t about young
fans tuning into the music of
REVELATOR Me, a sanctified soul-rocker, Alternating between wind controller and soprano sax, his
FAT POSSUM. CD/DL/LP and Into The Light, lit up by dexterous cascades of notes are punctuated by unexpected
their parents – it’s more their flashes of skronk as he weaves between Bock’s udo synth and
grandparents’. So hardly Intense third solo outing Lee’s searing slide guitar. In
contrast, the soulful Patiently Kjorstad’s subtle violin. While a cheerful sense of abandon
cutting edge, but she makes from the other half of runs through the liquid phraseology of India and glitchy,
plenty of today’s R&B singers left-field New York rap duo Waiting For Love pays homage
to Stax-style R&B. Joe microtonal Charango, it’s often hard to determine where one
sound one-dimensional. Armand Hammer. player ends and the other begins – particularly amid the
John Bungey Bonamassa once hailed Lee as
A deep thinker with an Sakamoto-like drift of FallsLake. Elsewhere, the unlikely
“the future of the blues” and
ever-changing rap style mutations of Ten Dreams reveal something more impressionistic,
although that expectation-
that rolls with reckless performed with grace and restraint.
loaded accolade might seem
Dar Disku vigour, Elucid’s third solo
a heavy burden for one so
★★★
LP strays farther out from
hip-hop, its increasingly
young, on this evidence, ALSO RELEASED
Lee carries it with ease.
Dar Disku freeform songs embracing
Charles Waring
SOUNDWAY. DL/LP/MC discord and dissonance. Badbadnotgood Work Money
Bahraini DJ duo reveal their
Whether addressing his
negligent landlord (SLUM OF A
★★★ Death
passion for the disco beat DISREGARD) or self-analysing Beth Hart Mid Spiral ★★★★
that thrived from Algiers on IKEBANA (“I feel everybody
★★★ People Of The Fast
XL/INNOVATIVE LEISURE. CD/DL/LP
to Bollywood. knew but me!”), Elucid’s songs In contrast to 2021’s Flowing River
Though Mazen tackle modern life’s travails via You Still Got Me dense Talk Memory,
ATA. DL/LP
Almaskati and teasing, cryptic wordplay, PROVOGUE. CD/DL/LP Mid Spiral captures
the Canadian trio of In the spirit of
Vish M’s debut mordant humour and acerbic
Renowned blues-rocker’s Al Sow, Chester Impulse! and
is founded on wit. While a flurry of guest Strata-East’s
eleventh studio album is a Hansen and Leland Whitty at
their youthful spots (Sketch185, Creature) late-’60s/early-’70s
model of sonic diversity. their most straight-up and
love of Talking spice its potent brew, his output, these
Heads and Arthur Russell, what After the aural laid-back. A sprawling double
chemistry with Armand Leeds-based torch-bearers for
assault of that rifles through styles
shines through is how much Hammer bandmate Billy spiritual jazz hit their groove
2022’s A Tribute (jazz-funk, fusion, samba, psych)
they missed the melting pot of Woods reverberates heaviest with a new maturity – movingly on album number three. Masters
home (Bahrain) after moving on BAD POLLEN around a To Led Zeppelin, of hypnotic slow builds, On The
on Rewind Your Mind,
to London. If the notion of a dusty piano loop and Hart offers a anonymously on Last Laugh – Fast Flowing River’s galvanising
Bahrain music scene doesn’t fractured Arabic vocal sample. more nuanced it forgoes the hip-hop energy pulse and We Are The People’s
ring any bells, that may be Co-produced with avant- approach on You Still Got Me, jaunty piano refrain give tenor
and rough edges that once
because it’s at the heart of the garde musician Jon Nellen, lit up by a stellar cameo from saxophonist Tony Burkill ample
defined them.
SWANA belt (Southwest Asia REVELATOR is confrontational Slash. The Guns N’ Roses man’s space to prove his way with a
lingering hook.
fiery fretwork lends heavy TRAINING with
metal thunder to the strutting
opener, Savior With A Razor,
Ruth Goller Weird Of Mouth
but after that, Hart mostly ★★★★ ★★★★
tones down her blowtorch Threads To Knot Weird Of Mouth
voice, softening her hard rock SQUAMA RECORDINGS. DL/LP OTHERLY LOVE. DL/LP
edges. The ghost of Kurt Weill Sax/drums Berlin Nothing is held back
haunts Never Underestimate duo Johannes on this improvisation
A Gal, a vaudevillian tale of Schleiermacher and between alto
feminine guile, while the jazzy Max Andrzejewski saxophonist Mette
Drunk On Valentine, with its like to warp sound Rasmussen, pianist
muted trumpets and softly via modular synth circuitry in Craig Taborn and drummer
swooning strings, resonates ways that will appeal to the Ches Smith. While abstract
like a Tom Waits outtake from adventurous. Schleiermacher standout Existension combines
One From The Heart. Elsewhere, veers from lyrical Coltrane to wailing screams, quixotic keys
heated Brötzmann over Ruth and complex grooves, In Search
Hart switches chameleon-like Goller’s thunderously upfront Of Soul Pane is positively
from rockabilly (Wanna Be Big bass lines and Andrzejewski’s tranquil, Rasmussen’s muted
Bad Johnny Cash) and power skittering backbeats on tones hovering at an alien
ballads (Wonderful World) to standouts Threadfin and pitch. Weird by name, nutty
Picture perfect: socio-political indictments Longingly. The trio craft an by nature, it’s a feast of contrasts
(Don’t Call The Police) and noir evolving industrial jazz with a where melody and cacophony
AB+DM

Samara Joy sings

in a pure style. nihilism (Machine Gun Vibrato). powerful emotional core. collide. AC
Charles Waring

MOJO 91
 F I LT E R A L Bob’s full house:
Gillespie and crew’s
latest is up there with
Primal Scream’s best.

Godspeed You! for the bliss. It’s late summer

sunshine in music form.
Black Emperor Danny Eccleston
★★★★
No Title As Of 13
February 2024 Lone Justice
28,340 Dead ★★★★
CONSTELLATION. CD/DL/LP Viva Lone Justice
Canadian crew issue eighth AFAR. CD/LP/DL
transmission from the edge. Unreleased early-’80s tracks
A flickering from LA cow-punks.
projection Though not
reading “hope” the ‘band
has long been re-forming,
part of gigs ahoy!’
Godspeed You! event it was
Black Emperor’s performances, dressed up to
a beacon that has guided them be – Maria McKee quashed
through more than a quarter of such rumours in last month’s
a century of heavy global MOJO – Viva Lone Justice
weather. Following 2021’s reminds us of all that made the
G_d’s Pee At State’s End!, their original line-up special. These
latest sees the Montreal group 10 salvaged/refurbished
again pushing the limits of treasures from bassist Marvin
what music can mean at times Etzioni’s and guitarist Ryan
of darkness, the martial Hedgecock’s respective

Love is the message

witness-bearing of Pale personal archives include
Spectator Takes Photographs stirring McKee vehicle You
as much part of their work as Possess Me and a raucous take
the fiercely willed on The Undertones’ Teenage
Bobby Gillespie and co deliver reassuringly expensive proto-disco of Gam- transcendence of Babys In A Kicks, which McKee saw as a
ble & Huff ’s Philadelphia International. Thundercloud. Where they find nod back after Feargal
a Philly disco-influenced mid- There’s a sense of the Scream growing
beauty, it is often implacably
bright – the fireball guitar of
Sharkey’s hit cover of her own
A Good Heart. The ‘drinking in
career high. By Andrew Perry. up here: opener Ready To Go Home Sun Is A Hole Sun Is Vapors – my Sunday dress’ vibe is most
PDUULHVDVRSKLVWLFDWHGJOLWWHUEDOOVKXIÁHWR while the transition from pronounced on Rattlesnake
Primal Scream lyrics about facing the toughest of mid-life Raindrops Cast In Lead’s
ecstatic whirl to the
Mama, a gloriously feral

★★★★ realities – mortality. Gillespie apparently

sang them to his own father in hospital
scorched-earth strafe of
Broken Spires At Dead Kapital
testament to LJ thriving where
LA punk met rockabilly and
honky-tonk. McKee is currently
Come Ahead the night before his passing, yet with shows their dynamic mastery.
No consolation, no platitudes:
writing a book about her
BMG. CD/DL/LP its ecstatic eight-strong choral intro just stark commitment to
colourful family history, but
there’s certainly public appetite
(mirroring Screamadelica’s introductory picking up human signals
PRIMAL SCREAM were never a band rush on Movin’ On Up) and violin-racing through the storm.
for a Lone Justice last hurrah.
James McNair
reasonably destined for “mature work”. celebration of release from life’s agonies, Victoria Segal
From 1988’s Stooges/MC5 black-leather it’s a wonderfully joyful treatment of the
ramalama, and ’91’s disco-psych Screama- darkest topic. Sophie
delica, through to the brutal agit-electroni- Ezra Collective
ca of 2000’s XTRMNTR, Bobby Gillespie’s
In a self-penned accompanying state-
★★★★ ★★★
ment, Gillespie talks of how penning Sophie
team were always too single-minded in his 2021 autobiography Tenement Kid Dance, No One’s TRANSGRESSIVE. CD/DL/LP
their experimental rock’n’roll crusade to XQORFNHGXQIRUHVHHQFRQÀGHQFHIRUKLPDV Watching Posthumous release from
UHÁHFWXSRQOLIHEH\RQGLW DZULWHUÀUVWIHOWZKLOHFUHDWLQJWKDW\HDU·V PARTISAN. CD/DL/LP
avant-pop figurehead.
Thirty years since Motown-stomping duet outing with Savages’ Jehnny Beth, Brit-jazzers ac-cent-tchu-ate Nearly four
Rocks, however, the war-torn Scream are a Utopian Ashes. That album’s excruciat-
the positive on third album. years after
very different proposition these days from ing narrative of marital decline here gets
After last year’s Sophie’s
landmark sudden death,
that Glaswegian gang of old, their creative a belated happy ending, perhaps, in Heal Mercury Prize the DJ and
core long since reduced to just Gillespie and Yourself ’s redemptive hymn of gratitude to win, and with producer’s
guitarist Andrew Innes. After 2016’s Chaos- DVXSSRUWLYHORYHULWVZRUGVRIXQÁLQFKLQJ Sons Of Kemet brother and studio manager
mosis chased the synth-pop Zeitgeist to little self-analysis (“I wouldn’t let her in to share
now dissolved,
Femi Koleoso’s ebullient group
Benny Long and a crew of
trusted collaborators have
commercial reward, Bobby G says he strug- my darkness”) carrying a palpable confes- inherit the ‘scene leaders’ finished the LP intended to
gled to summon the motivational purpose sional charge. mantle. An array of crisp, follow-up 2018’s Oil Of Every
for another long-playing transformation. Elsewhere, political ideas loom large: danceable grooves and
multiple melodists in tenorist
Pearl’s Un-Insides. While these
tracks were apparently close to
It was Belfast producer/soundtrack class inequality (Innocent Money) and reli- James Mollison, trumpeter Ife their final form before Sophie
maestro David Holmes, overseer of 2013’s gious war (Deep Dark Waters) are urgently Ogunjobi and keysman Joe died, they form part of a
More Light (their best since XTRMNTR), addressed, while on two longer borderline- Armon-Jones have made them planned “pop album” and
the most approachable of their therefore don’t quite hit the
who cajoled him into breaking the stale- spoken-word songs, stirring yarns tell of contemporaries, and Dance, No unearthly replicant extremes
mate, reversing their usual process by war veteran neglect (False Flags) and English One’s Watching sees their mix of of their predecessors, never
sending ready-made beats recorded with an colonial evil (Settlers Blues). African, Caribbean and black quite as brutal as Ponyboy, nor
British musics further dial down as strange as It’s Okay To Cry.
LA rhythm section, for Gillespie and Innes If Gillespie’s newfound authority the ‘j’ word. Whether delivering Behind the moments that
to write words and music over. impresses, Innes, too, adds beautifully tough Afrobeat grooves, sound like megachurch guided
The resultant Come Ahead has plenty of understated guitar throughout, and pierced by Mollison and meditation, however, are
the Primals’ trademark sonic edge, thanks somehow Holmes creates sublime order Ogunjobi’s whistleable unisons,
on The Herald, Lagos-recorded
flashes of brilliant disturbance:
Plunging Asymptote, narrated
to a strong electronic undercurrent, but the amid Brian Irvine’s elite-class string Ajala and thrilling Expensive, or by multi-media artist Juliana
foregrounded gospel choir and arrangements, the House turning wistful on Palm Wine Huxtable, plots its own
astonishing orchestration bring Gospel Choir’s testifying, and (where a filigree of highlife- nightmare graph with
inspired guitar beguiles), minimalist precision, while
an overriding sense of classi- the volumising electronics. they’re always reaching out, Gallop (featuring Evita Manji)
Adam Peter Johnson

ness. A pervasive hand-on-hip A triumph in thematic/aural with melodies underlined by and Elegance (featuring
street-funky groove, with the juxtaposition, Come Ahead vocal contributions on three POPSTAR) escalate the drill-bit
sweep of the strings and the is up there with Primal tracks, and even their most intensity. Inevitably, though,
introspective number, N29 Sophie stands as a monument
voices, frequently evokes the Scream’s best. – starring Armon-Jones’s to what might have been.
spangled electric piano – goes Victoria Segal

92 MOJO
 FOLK
BY JIM WIRTH
Fionn Regan whether wondering on opener HOO
★★★ ★★★
The Way if losing faith caused
her personal problems, or
O Avalanche embracing her Godless future III
NETTWERK. CD/DL/LP on the closing Divine. In spite BIG POTATO. CD/DL/LP
of such heavy thoughts, the
The Irish singer returns to album has a lightness of touch Shoegazing staples reassert
his idyllic past with adult that is both joyous and their core values.
bittersweetness. redemptive, its gospel flavours HOO used to
When the bordering on deep soul that, be Holton’s
tender voice of on tracks such as In My Head Opulent Oog.
Fionn Regan and I Can’t Wait Anymore, lifts III is their
broke through it alongside such imperious third album
clouds of piano break-up albums as Mavis under the
during Bon Staples’ Only For The Lonely. contracted name, and fifth
Iver’s landmark 22, A Million, With Blasko’s crystalline voice overall. While former Coley
the throwback sample never sounding more assured Park mainman Nick Holton is
prompted a question: where, or relaxed, this is her defining the prime mover, the band
exactly, had the one-time Irish album so far. also features sundry founder
sensation gone? Regan had Andy Fyfe members of Chapterhouse,
been making records all along, Mojave 3 and Slowdive.
but none of them matched the Jackie Oates sings on one
hype or acclaim of the 2006 track. All of which points to
debut Bon Iver borrowed from,
Peter Alexander what the follow-up to 2021’s Stick In The Wheel
The End Of History. Written in Jobson We Shall Never Speak (on ★★★★
Mallorca and played almost
entirely by Regan, his seventh
★★★★ which Oates also appeared)
might cleave to. And, indeed,
A Thousand Pokes
album tries to salvage some Burn The Ration it largely does: sky-high FROM HERE. CD/DL/LP

promise and glory from his Books Of Love shoegazing with dives Crafty Cockneys reject the
mid-twenties, its tender ABSOLUTE. CD/DL/LP into pure noise and the English pastoral.
songs about looking for incorporation of electronics The pearly queen and king of modernist London song, Nicola
Northumberland song- as textural augmentation
companionship or at least Kearey and Ian Carter deliver a filthy pea-souper with their fourth
writer’s belated solo debut. and to enhance melodic
belief in oneself built on studio album, a determinedly ungentrified vision of misrule from
exquisite folk atmospherics Formerly bass/ focus. Each of III’s 10 tracks the capital’s margins. With thudding percussion, distorted guitars
that shimmer like early Bon keys anchor of achieves a different outcome and eerie Auto-Tune deepening Stick In The Wheel’s slightly
Iver or sprawl like vintage Fleet Manchester’s I from the same building gleeful vision of a world galloping out of control, A Thousand
Foxes. It is gorgeous in the way Am Kloot, who blocks: the second-album Pokes stirs up old ballads and broadsides (Brisk Lad or sucker’s
a hotel painting is – very split in 2016, Slowdive stratospherics lament Cracks), sentimental street songs (Lavender; What Can
pleasant to look at once or Jobson has of Snake, a Flying Saucer The Matter Be?) and political material (Watercress-O) into an
twice but not to ponder for too since delved into film/TV Attack cavernousness on apocalyptic Bertolt Brecht stew: knees up, Mother Courage.
long, an autumnal soundtrack soundtracks and touring album closer Method Papers, “We’re born to walk on rotten ground,” Kearey states mournfully
whose glow fades like leaves. duties (Guy Garvey; Nadine the jittery Chapterhouse-like on Burnt Walk, and here Stick In The Wheel are sure-footed with
Grayson Haver Currin Shah) while crafting this richly dance-adjacence of Myself their daunting urban music of defiance. Nymphs and shepherds
saturated country-noir beauty When I Am Real. Assured, run away; nasty urchins rule OK.
along the way. Burn… shares and decisively on-piste.
Kloot’s hungover tenderness Kieron Tyler
Sarah Blasko but shifts the mood toward ALSO RELEASED
★★★★ Richard Hawley; PAJ’s
deep-trawling baritone and
I Just Need To northern Leonard Cohen Paul Kelly Angeline Morrison The Rheingans
Conquer This Mountain aura dispensing hard-won ★★★★ ★★★★ Sisters
MVKA. CD/DL/LP philosophy and wry
autobiography in slow doses. Fever Longing Still Ophelia ★★★★
Losing God and an Occasionally, he taps into the COOKING VINYL. CD/DL/LP ANGELINEMORRISONMUSIC. Start Close In
BANDCAMP. CD/DL/LP
“inseparable” friend never spirit of the variety club circuit: RHEINGANS SISTERS. CD/DL/LP
After four decades and 29 If 2022’s The Sorrow
sounded so joyful. Holiday (Live) and Just ’Cause With end times
albums, one of the Aussie Songs – the
Sometimes I’m Dead are very Jake singer-songwriter’s finest. deep-fake folk dread and faint
everything has Thackray. Jobson documents record that gave a hope the colours for
Few do love autumn 2024,
to break before the extremes of his experience: voice to England’s
and nostalgia Derbyshire’s
being put back the ache of homelessness long-standing black
better than fiddling siblings capture the
the right way. (Home); the day he almost communities – brought Morrison
Australia’s rightful acclaim, it underplayed mood on their first since 2020’s
Raised in a burned down his home village
Paul Kelly, and her spooky side. Her opus on Receiver. There’s Lankum menace
Pentecostal church believing of Alnmouth (The Night Of
the songs alchemy remains in the works, on Devils but Drink Up is a
the rapture would come The Fire); bad decisions in love
bracketing Fever Longing Still but in the meantime Ophelia tubthumping ode to weary joy,
before she was 30, 47-year-old (Mountain); and friendships in while Un Voltigeur, Shade Chaser
express both as well as brings hand-whittled tales of
Sarah Blasko long ago Kesta’s 11 minutes of and Si Sabiatz Drolletas manage
he’s ever done. Opener ghosties, elusive women and
extricated herself from her spoken-word remembrance in their own way to inveigle
Houndstooth Dress (“It sticks astrology to restate her Linda
church’s doomsday thinking, over a soundtrack of ABBA, Philip Glass and Robert
to you like a judge sticks to Perhacs/Licorice McKechnie
but losing contact with a close slow-burning ambience, Wyatt into a joyous clog dance
the law”) sparks with sexual uncanniness. Hearken to the
friend with a similar encapsulating Jobson’s witches’ tunes. up the Pyrenees. Take a bow.
tension, while the closing
background brought it all intensely personal vision.
Going To The River With
back. God is ever-present, Martin Aston Henry Parker & Cohen Braithwaite-
Dad is its upside down, a
heartwarming childhood David Ian Roberts Kilcoyne
fishing memory. The depth
of feeling expressed in these ★★★★ ★★★★
opposite ends of love’s Chasing Light Play Up The Music!
spectrum shows Kelly’s CUP AND RING. CD/DL/LP GRIMDON. CD/DL
songwriting powers are still Gasping for more Britfolk’s
on peak form. Elsewhere, guy-on-guy Appalachian
Taught By Experts, first acoustic action adventures are well
written 30 years ago, sounds after Jim Ghedi & known, but with his
like a refugee from his 1986 Toby Hay’s LP for third LP, Midlands
Topic last year? Fill your boots concertina mage Braithwaite-
breakthrough album Gossip,
as Lammas Fair prog-folk beast Kilcoyne spiders Anansi-style
Back To The Future wistfully
Parker and Cardiff twangler around the Caribbean and US
asks an ex “what if?”, and to show how black performers
Roberts get their GADGBEs
Double Business Bound and DADGADs together for this reshaped trad material.
could’ve been dug up for one mesmeric set of Jim O’Rourke’s Hangman, Slack On The Line
of Bob Dylan’s recent covers Eureka-via-Bert And John collabs. and Tacoma’s Song show the
albums. The stylistic shifts Trip on their light at its most Granny’s Attic man’s thousand-
and sheer quality of the fantastic on Wedber Wood, suns-bright style, while a churchy
Orlando Gili

Landslide victory: Fionn songwriting make Fever Road To Mallaig and pre- Little Musgrove (as remade in
Regan conjures an Longing Still almost the perfect Raphaelite mood-board The Jamaica) smoulders rapturously.
Paul Kelly album. English Dreamers. Play loud. JW
autumnal soundtrack.
Andy Fyfe

MOJO 93
 F I LT E R A L B UM S E X T R A

P.P. Arnold Cahill//Costello Craven Faults Fievel Is Glauque Paula Rae Gibson
★★★★ ★★★★ ★★★★ ★★★★ ★★★★
Live In Liverpool Cahill//Costello II Bounds Rong Weicknes The Roles We Play To
EAR MUSIC. CD/DL/LP GEARBOX. DL/LP THE LEAF LABEL. DL/LP FAT POSSUM. CD/DL/LP/MC Disappear
UK soul grande dame’s 2019 Experimental guitarist and jazz Yorkshire’s mysterious electronic Zach Phillips and Ma Clément 33 XTREME. DL/LP
performance at Liverpool’s drummer’s mutual passion for maverick returns to the moors on condense more ideas into one Backed by Alex Bonne, Kit
Grand Central Hall; a mix of minimalism peaks on a second his heady, elemental third. The song than some bands ever
manage. A leap on from 2022 Downes, Matthew Bourne and
then-current album The New set of ambient post-rock overlapping arpeggios, sly
improvs. From Ae//FX’s insistent debut Flaming Swords that Rob Luft, this husky-voiced
Adventures Of… tracks and ’60s rhythmic shifts and evolving
polyrhythms and MBV-esque melodic builds of 18-minute interpolates improvised takes Londoner marries electronica
Mod club faves including blurs to JNGL’s hypnotic motifs centrepiece Waste & Demesne with a hired octet, these 14 and avant-jazz with spectral
thrilling takes on The First Cut Is and high-adrenaline beats, the refine his gift for evoking natural jazz-pop miniatures offset songs. Amid downbeat squirls,
The Deepest and Angel Of The Glasgow duo evoke atmospheric, warmth from banks of impassive whimsical structures and playful Gibson evokes Jarboe, David
Morning. LW emotive soundscapes. AC analogue tech. AC flaws with sharp hooks. AC Sylvian and Keeley Forsyth. AC

Julie Kurious La Paire D’Or Scions Ulrich Troyer

★★★★ ★★★★ ★★★★ ★★★★ ★★★★
My Anti-Aircraft Friend Majician La Paire D’Or To Cry Out In The Transit Tribe
ATLANTIC. CD/DL/LP METALFACE. CD/DL/LP HEX ENDUCTION. DL/LP Wilderness 4BIT PRODUCTIONS. DL/LP
LA trio’s youthful vigour belies Following Common/Pete Rock Australia-via-Seattle duo serve IDÉE FIXE. DL/LP Top-drawer future-dub
the superior songwriting basis to and LL Cool J, a stealth contender hot kosmische soup outta the explorations from Venetian
their debut’s grungey twist on “When we go down/We go down avant-garde electronicist/DJ
for Dad-rap album of 2024. A Can, as Martin Bland’s drumming
shoegaze. Catalogue, sung by marginal ’90s figure, Kurious’s swinging,” wails Cormac Culkeen Troyer. A collab-heavy set, with
urges Guy Maddison’s mantric on Fight Song, a left-field
bassist Alexandria Elizabeth, fifth is unrepentantly old school, British poet Roger Robinson
confirms a Sonic Youth fixation, exec produced by late mentor synth diabolism beyond the chamber-pop-folk dust-up emoting over undulating bass
while Knob’s Slint-like dynamics and kindred spirit MF DOOM. darkside. Annabella Kirby brings between Polyphonic Spree and synths (Lago Di Garda) and
hit further ’90s alt-rock pleasure Neat Theme From A Summer vocal flight, and Mark Arm fruitily Marry Waterson. It’s the climax of balafon master Mamadou
centres. Drummer Dillon Lee is Place sample for the super-old intones cautionary tale Merde this offbeat septet’s rallying Diabaté providing melodic
heroic throughout. JB school, too. JM Du Chien Sur La Palouse. KC stand against climate disaster. AC bounce to Latzfonser Kreuz. SM

EXTENDED PLAY

Bon Iver Back in black:

Bon Iver and
SABLE, friend take stock.
JAGJAGUWAR. CD/DL/EP

THIS NEW EP signals the end of Us

the vision quest Bon Iver’s Justin ★★★★
Vernon has undertaken over the last Underground
decade. Which is not to diminish Renaissance
his unlikely collaborations with KRAUT POP! DL/LP

Kanye West, Mouse On Mars and Supercharged young Finns play

speeding rocking blues, garage
Travis Scott, or challenging opuses punk and even some sunshiney
like 2016’s 22, A Million. But on pop, with the restless leg
righteousness of those hassled
SABLE, Vernon’s voice is no longer for ID in pubs (one song seems
obscured by electronic distortion, to be about snowball fights). A
and he’s no longer complicating his seismic experience live, too. IH

acoustic tangles with digital glitches.

And while the lyrics capture a man
still sorting through his uncertainty
(“There are rings within rings with-
in rings,” he murmurs gnomically
on Things Behind Things Behind
Things), there’s a trace of hope in
WKHUHWRR$ZDUGV6HDVRQÀQGVKLP Various
reasoning, “You can be remade/You ★★★★
can live again.” The wandering is Tonight I’ll Go Down
over, and Vernon’s in- Swingin’
vesting all he’s learned NINE MILE. CD/DL/LP
in music hewing closer Lone Justice drummer Don
to the folk-founded Heffington gets a wide-ranging
tribute. See Jackson Browne’s
songwriting which
Erinn Springer

heartsore Everywhere I Look,

made his name. with drums from Jim Keltner,
Stevie Chick who also sings over MOMO’s
beatnik clatter; and Fiona Apple’s
country ballad Lately. JB

94 MOJO
 OCTOBER
by arrangement with THE MAGNIFICENT AGENCY presents
& friends by arrangement with Selective Agency & Hug Live presents 11 HULL SOCIAL
12 NORWICH WATERFRONT
25 CARDIFF CLWB IFOR BACH
26 SWANSEA SIN CITY
NOVEMBER
01 NOTTINGHAM METRONOME
02 SOUTHEND CHINNERY’S
08 MANCHESTER GORILLA
09 LEEDS THE OLD WOOLLEN
15 PAISLEY THE BUNGALOW A celebration of 2024
16 NEWCASTLE THE CLUNY EXILE ON COLDHARBOUR LANE SAT 07 DEC
22 HITCHIN CLUB 85 & LA PESTE MANCHESTER O2 RITZ
23 SOUTHAMPTON plus the greatest hits
ENGINE ROOMS
FRI 13 DEC
29 BRIGHTON THE ARCH BRISTOL O2 ACADEMY
30 CHESTER THE LIVE ROOMS SAT 14 DEC
DECEMBER LONDON
06 LONDON O2 ACADEMY ISLINGTON
plus special guests 07 NORTHAMPTON
O2 FORUM KENTISH TOWN
THE BLACK PRINCE 2025
13 BIRMINGHAM O2 ACADEMY2 FRI 14 MAR
14 MEXBOROUGH
GORILLA BEER HALL BIRMINGHAM O2 ACADEMY2
BLOOD AND BUBBLEGUM 20 LIVERPOOL O2 ACADEMY SAT 15 MAR
TOUR 2024 SPACEBANDUK.CO.UK LIVERPOOL O2 ACADEMY

ACADEMY EVENTS PRESENTS

by arrangement with MPI presents

FEATURING
IMELDA MAY
LIAM
Ó MAONLAÍ
,CAMILLE
PLUS SPECIAL GUEST

O SULLIVAN
MUNDY
, CAIT
A TRIBUTE TO
2024
07.12 Bristol O2 Academy
O RIORDAN
11.12 Edinburgh O2 Academy DECEMBER 2024
12.12 Manchester O2 Ritz 20 BIRMINGHAM O2 INSTITUTE
13.12 Birmingham O2 Academy 21 LONDON O2 SHEPHERD’S BUSH EMPIRE
20.12 London O2 Shepherd's Bush Empire 22 MANCHESTER O2 RITZ
presents

BY ARRANGEMENT WITH RAN TOURING PRESENTS in association with SPIDER TOURING present

PLUS SPECIAL GUEST

UK TOUR 2024 + CHANGING MAN (PAUL WELLER TRIBUTE) *

DECEMBER + THE REPLICATORS (BRIT POP TRIBUTE) **

02 LEICESTER O2 ACADEMY2
PERFORMING ‘GET READY’ LIVE AND IN FULL FRI 25 OCT 2024 LONDON O2 ACADEMY2 ISLINGTON*
PLUS A SELECTION OF JOY DIVISION
03 OXFORD O2 ACADEMY2 AND NEW ORDER’S GREATEST HITS
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04 BIRMINGHAM O2 ACADEMY2 www.peterhookandthelight.live THU 19 DEC 2024 MANCHESTER O2 RITZ**
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plus special guest
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thesmyths.net
 F I LT E R R E I S SU E S

First in line
Time to give the crown another polish: Queen’s debut album rebuilt and extensively
revisited over multiple formats that restore the originally intended running order.
Plus demos, live tracks and a new stereo mix. By James McNair.

Queen \RXEDVWDUG,W·V\RXZKR·VÁDWµODXJKV0D\DIWHU
aborting a take of Mad The Swine, here restored to the
★★★★ original LP’s tracklisting. It’s just ‘bantz’, though, and
the bond between he and Mercury is obvious. “All
Queen I right Bry-sy!” parries/patronises Freddie seconds
EMI. CD/DL/LP/MC
later, and off they go again.
Subtitled Queen I Sessions, CD3 is a fascinating
ORDS DENOTING regal splendour are glimpse into the groundbreaking complexity of
W clichéd when discussing Queen, but
tasked with describing this extensive 2024
“rebuild” of the band’s 1973 debut, one must fall in. It
what the band was attempting. We hear Mercury
count in the bossa nova sections of Doing All Right,
and note that this version leads with acoustic guitar,
comes in a plush purple box embossed with heraldic- not piano. Further in, Liar’s primal riffage and
looking gold script. It reminds you that Queen have the operatic, one-word refrain have monolithic power,
bottomless resources – and appetite, still – for prompting Mercury to at one point shout, “Get a load
exemplary archiving. In terms of re-animating the of this!” Quite.
ÁHGJOLQJEDQG·VXQPLVWDNDEOHOLIHIRUFHLW·VDUR\DO The story behind Queen I’s snatched, wee-small-
ÁXVK´Queen I is the debut album we always dreamed hours recording stint at St Anne’s Court in Soho,
of bringing you,” Brian May and Roger Taylor have said, London still seems romantic. Picture it: the console
alluding to CD1’s stereo remix/forensic refurbishment at Trident Studios still warm from Bowie’s Ziggy
of the original release’s compromised sonics. Stardust sessions, and Queen’s four very different
Gone, you immediately notice, is the papery drum personalities jousting their way through the backwards
sound that at times made Queen’s exuberant hello feel guitars and daft, ‘books-with-maps’ melodrama of
ZDWHUORJJHG1RZ7D\ORU·VUDSLGÀUHÀOOVQHDUWKHWRS Mercury’s My Fairy King.
of Great King Rat sound like a one-man Edinburgh “Queen had <HV\RXFDQKHDUWKHLQÁXHQFHVEXW0D\·V
Tattoo. Better yet, each little element of Queen I’s ROGÀUHSODFHDQGDVL[SHQFHÀUHGJXLWDUVRXQGDQG
ÁDPER\DQWVRPHWLPHVSUHSRVWHURXVH[FHVVQRZ yet to rein in Mercury’s exotic, shapeshifting song structures trod
KDVLWVRZQSODFHLQWKHVRQLFÀUPDPHQW\RXWKIXO their virtuosity pastures new, while Roger Taylor’s castrato-pitch
incomparable Freddie Mercury close enough to touch. vocal harmonies brought Carl Orff-like drama to the
Rest assured, though, that the integrity of the original in the full band’s upper strata. Queen had yet to rein in their
recordings remains. There are no new overdubs. service of virtuosity in the full service of songcraft, but they
Across six CDs, one vinyl LP and a lavish, 108-page
book, this is Queen I viewed from various pertinent songcraft, but already sounded like nobody else. They were aiming
higher, though, and felt the original version of Queen I
angles. CD2, also remixed for 2024, has versions of they already was close, but no cigar. Between the lines, the 1973
ÀYHRIWKH/3·VVRQJVWDNHQIURPWKHIDPHGSUHTXHOWKH version’s sleevenotes said as much: “[This] represents
band demoed at De Lane Lea sounded like at least something of what Queen’s music has been the
Studios in London in January nobody else.” ODVWWKUHH\HDUVµ7KHDOEXPZDVÀQLVKHGDQGPL[HG
1972, while CDs 5 and 6 by November ’72, but a lengthy shop-around for deals
demonstrate how Queen I meant it wasn’t released until July ’73. May recalled
PDWHULDOWUDQVODWHGOLYHÀUVWO\ “feeling sick” at the loss of momentum, especially
via period sessions for BBC Radio (CD5), while attending a landmark 1972 gig by a certain glam icon: “Bowie
then largely via set stand-outs from the band’s had made his mark, and we were still struggling to put a record out.”
celebrated March 1974 show at London’s Now, more than a half-century on, May and Taylor can put all that
BACK STORY: Rainbow Theatre (CD6). angst and frustration behind them, presumably with the full blessing
HERE’S ONE WE The latter disc also brings previously of reclusive former bandmate, John Deacon. Nothing here is done
MADE EARLIER unreleased rarities including a cassette-
● Queen I’s The Night
by halves, and the care and attention lavished upon this box set is
Comes Down was an sourced performance of Jesus – or “Big J”, obvious. “It’s been a delight to bring it up to where we wanted it to
outlier. It actually hailed as Mercury calls him – from London’s be,” notes Roger Taylor, but revisiting Queen I has also left him
from their first ever Imperial College in August, 1970; ie, prior “amazed how bloody religious some of the lyrics are.”
recording session, which
took place on January 7, to John Deacon joining Queen on bass. This is not, it’s true, the cross-dressing, pointy-breasted Freddie
1972 at Wembley’s De Elsewhere, a rare performance of early Queen Mercury of the I Want To Break Free video, far less the incorrigible
Lane Lea after the song Hangman recorded in San Diego in thrill-seeker of Don’t Stop Me Now. Instead, the Zanzibar-born
still-unsigned band was
© Douglas Puddifoot, Queen Productions Ltd

hired to test new studio 0DUFK·LVLQÀQLWHO\PRUHPHDWDQGSRWD- singer raised in the Iranian Parsi Zoroastrian faith brought rock
gear. Queen got their WRHVLWVREYLRXVGHEWWRNH\HDUO\LQÁXHQFH SURFHVVLRQDO-HVXV²TXLWHFRQFHLYDEO\LQÁXHQFHGE\$QGUHZ/OR\G
preferred version of the Free likely explaining why it was never given Webber’s recently-premiered Jesus Christ Superstar – and Liar’s
song onto their John
Anthony and Roy the studio treatment. Catholic confession-box rifferama (“Father, I have sinned”). One
Thomas Baker-produced Perhaps CD4’s instrumental backing- YHUVHRI-HVXVHYHQÀQGV0HUFXU\ZDWFKLQJ&KULVWKHDODOHSHUZLWK
debut by smuggling in track version of Queen I – “suitable for the touch of his hand. It was a tad unusual, certainly, but it was all
the De Lane Lea master
in a box labelled ‘Trident karaoke!” announces its sleeve – seems grist to the Queen singer’s mill.
Studios’. It was then VXSHUÁXRXVDOLWWOHJLPPLFN\EXWDOOLV Even more miraculous Freddie songs lay ahead.
mixed there, the powers forgiven listening to CD3, where outtakes,
that be seemingly none
studio chit-chat, guide vocals and false starts
the wiser.
take us behind the veil. “Oh, it’s you Bulsara, BRIAN SPEAKS! MR MAY ON FREDDIE’S RELIGION,
FIXING THE PAST, AND THE FUTURE.

96 MOJO
Royal command performance:
Queen (clockwise from top
left) John Deacon, Roger
Taylor, Brian May and Freddie
Mercury, March 1973.
 Tom Petty & The year. An essential document
this, from one of the era’s
Order’s most underrated
album welds machine-
Heartbreakers fiercest and greatest groups. augmented rock thrills
★★★★ Jon Savage (Paradise; Way Of Life) to
gorgeous expansiveness (All
Long After Dark Day Long; As It Is When It Was)
(Deluxe Edition) and the dancefloor exaltation
GEFFEN/UME. CD/LP Aphex Twin of Bizarre Love Triangle. Eight
Petty’s 1982 LP, his last with ★★★★ tracks here are listed as
producer Jimmy Iovine, gets Selected Ambient previously unreleased,
an expanded remaster. including longer versions.
Works Volume II Broken Promise and All Day
Something of WARP. CD/DL/LP/MC Long acquire new potencies
an overlooked as instrumentals, the latter
record in Tom ‘Expanded Edition’ of
electronica classic, still drawing heavily on the prelude
Petty’s canon, from Wagner’s Das Rheingold.
Long After Dark too selective.
The exhilarating Stephen
arrived just as Late 1993, Hague remix of Bizarre Love
MTV started to supplant AOR MOJO Triangle now extends to near
as the primary avenue for interviewed six minutes. The DVDs feature
bands like The Heartbreakers. Richard ‘Aphex TV appearances and two
Crowning glory: Brian The group responded in kind, Twin’ James as concerts, including Echo & The
May in November 1973; broadening their palette with he was locating Bunnymen’s Ian McCulloch
nowadays still passionate such new wave affectations as the music for his next album: crooning memorably on
about Queen’s legacy. the synths that add a gilded “This weekend I thought I’d go Ceremony at Manchester’s
nocturnal pulse to You Got round [to my friends’ houses] Festival Of The Tenth Summer.
Lucky. The sleek sound glosses and get all the tapes of tracks
Roy Wilkinson
over how the LP isn’t much I didn’t have,” he confided.
“We were always more than a simple,
old-fashioned rock’n’roll
“There were 75! And that
was only friends in London.”
Selected Ambient Works Volume Byard Lancaster
precocious boys.” record, a collection of songs
held together by robust riffs
and an unyielding sneer. That
II, released in March 1994,
ended up having 24 tracks (25 ★★★★
on vinyl), so it’s disappointing The Complete Palm
Brian May speaks to James McNair. attitude is amplified on the
bonus disc on this double-disc this 30th anniversary edition Recordings 1973-1974
expansion which captures an only features 27. No quibbling
How did it feel to revamp the sound of Queen’s debut 50 about the quality, of course.
SOUFFLE CONTINU. DL/LP
years on? unvarnished Heartbreakers Avant-garde jazz
through a combination of SAW II remains an authentic
“It felt great! I’m not saying the original version was bad – it just wasn’t masterpiece, a collection that saxophonist/flautist’s
cracking live-in-the-studio fertile early-’70s period
what we dreamed of. Freddie and John, too, were always conscious performances and worthy found uncanny new textures
of this thing in our past which seemed like it couldn’t be fixed.” and resonances in minimalist in deluxe 7-LP box set.
unreleased tunes, highlighted
by the aching ballad Never Be electro-soundscaping. A Berklee
Roger’s drum sound is a revelation. What else has been improved? Nevertheless, with just two graduate who
You, the punchy pop of Don’t
“Everything. Every instrument has been re-examined from the excellent tracks – th1 apprenticed in
Make Me Walk The Line and the
bottom up. The guitars were originally recorded very dry, so we’ve [evnslower] and Rhubarb Orc. Sunny Murray’s
lean menace of One On One.
remedied that. I remember my dad saying, ‘There’s no ambience, 19.53 Rev – previously ’60s free jazz
Stephen Thomas Erlewine
Brian. I don’t feel like I’m in the room with you playing next to me.’ unavailable on physical quintet, Byard
But we weren’t in a position to lay down the law, and we felt that if formats (they were part of a Lancaster’s leader game took
Soundcloud dump in 2015), flight in the early ’70s under
we stepped out of line we would lose the opportunity altogether.
Roy Thomas Baker did an excellent job under the circumstances, but The Saints there’s a sense here of an pianist/producer Jef Gilson’s
he was wedged between us young hopefuls and this management ★★★★★ opportunity missed. Why give
us only Volume II now, when
guardianship. The
Philadelphian repaid his faith
company [Trident Audio Productions] who saw us as a can of beans.” (I’m) Stranded Volumes III and IV could have with a quartet of stand-alone
Queen’s legacy clearly still matters to you. (Deluxe Edition) been added to the box? outings that showed a
John Mulvey 360-degree picture of his
“Absolutely. The passion is still there. We still get angry if things IN THE RED/UNIVERSAL. LP
talents – his distinct, keening
aren’t right, and it’s still fun. We recently sold our wares to Sony, of Four-LP reissue of the tone and Eric Dolphy-like
course, so we’re clearly not doing this for the money. When I pop Australians’ epochal debut flute to the fore on the
off from this planet, I would like to know that I’ve done my best on with extra mixes, singles New Order trio-recorded Us, then in
anything that I ever touched.” and live shows. ★★★★ funky unison with trumpeter
Does John Deacon still have a say? Before New Brotherhood Clint Jackson across Mother
Rose or WARNER MUSIC. CD/DL/LP Africa’s two long conga-
“John still has a ‘yes’ or ‘no’ say. We get messages that he’s happy Anarchy In The enhanced movements.
with what we’re doing, but he doesn’t want the stress of being UK, The Saints’ Box set of New Order’s While Funny Funky Rib Crib
involved creatively, and we respect that. Freddie we can’t talk to, September fourth album, from 1986. explored floor-shaking
sadly. But the four of us worked as a team for so long that Roger 1976 single Kamala Harris Afro-funk with nuance and
and I have a pretty good idea what our fellow Queen members (I’m) Stranded was only second prefers jazz, wit, it’s Exactement where
would be saying. This thing is longer that anybody’s marriage.” to the Ramones in heralding but her the risk-taking is unbound,
the furious velocity of 1977. husband, Doug whether mixing alto and
Revisiting the album, Roger has said he’s “amazed how Arriving shortly afterwards, Emhoff, was soprano saxes on the
bloody religious the lyrics are…” the group’s first album totally recently filmed mournful/erosive C. Marianne
“I was surprised, too. Freddie was obviously born a Parsi into the delivered on that promise, exiting a record shop with Alicia or processing himself
Zoroastrian faith, but he also attended a school in Zanzibar which with 10 tracks of fast and angry Brotherhood on vinyl. He via Octavoice on Dr Oliver W
I believe was a Christian school. The workings of Freddie’s mind rock music that – unlike the should’ve waited for this Lancaster. Beautifully curated,
were interesting and sometimes obscure. I don’t really know Ramones and their copyists – ‘Definitive’ box set – 1-LP/2- all four albums are also
where his lyrics for Jesus came from any more than I know where used tension and release to CDs/2-DVDs; audio also available as stand-alone CDs.
Bohemian Rhapsody came from.” heighten the effect of the available as download. New Andy Cowan
mid-tempo Story Of Love and
Any plans to apply this approach to the rest of your back the shredding feedback jam
catalogue? Nights In Venice. Everything
“I certainly think Queen II deserves that treatment. There are many here has been released on the
2004 CD box All Times Through
layers on that record and there wasn’t really the technology to
Paradise, but the hook here is
make that heard. I think we’ll stop there, though. By Sheer Heart the first issue on vinyl of the
Attack we had everything under our fingers.” 1976 white label version of
Are you surprised new opportunities to burnish the crown the album, with extra track
keep coming? Untitled. Also included is
© Queen Productions Ltd

another disc of contemporary

“I am, but you make your own opportunities, don’t you? I can get singles – including the ultimate
very stressed if things aren’t done properly and discussed the in teenage nihilism, This
way they used to be. We were always precocious boys who’d say, Perfect Day – and five songs
‘We want the record promoted this way, we want these images from the unbelievably intense Brotherhood beyond: New
used…’, and that’s how it should be. The sculptor doesn’t deliver April 1977 Paddington Town Order’s fourth LP gets the
that statue and then say, ‘OK, you can chip away at it now.’” Hall show, which is the best live ‘definitive’ treatment.
footage anywhere from that

98 MOJO
 The life of Bryan: Ferry’s
Retrospective reminds
us what lies beneath the
surface perfection. F I LT E R R E I S SU E S

Various
★★★★
The Albarika Story
ACID JAZZ. CD/DL/LP
Top-drawer sampler of
1970s Benin Afro-funk
imprint.
Named with
the Arabic
word for
“divine
blessing”,
Albarika Store
was a record shop opened in
the mid-’60s in Porto-Novo,
Benin, by one Seidou Adissa,
stocking the indigenous
waxings assimilating US soul
and Cuban rhythms which had
proliferated, like ska in
Jamaica, in the wake of ’60s
independence from colonial
rule. By the early ’70s, Adissa’s
label was bankrolling
Bryan Ferry technique, the suave style, and reverie. From a
generously staffed combos those rare moments where we brilliantly tense
like Orchestre Poly-Rythmo de
Cotonou to buy sharp suits,
★★★★ JOLPSVHWKHÁDZHGLQGLYLGXDO 1977 cover of the
and to record in Lagos’s Retrospective: Selected behind the performance. Listening Detroit Emeralds’ 1972 disco hit Feel
hi-tech EMI studios, where to this 5-CD journey through Ferry’s The Need, to a Velvets-drone
local Nigerian Afrobeat
inevitably rubbed off on their
Recordings 1973-2023 past, from ’70s cover-artist alchemist, re-murking of Dylan’s She Belongs
sound. Consequently, his
BMG. CD/DL/LP to ’80s ambient ghost and the arch To Me and his recent doomy techno-
100-plus LP releases and 250 81-track celebration of the former ’20s jazz trickster of The Bryan Ferry goth NIN collaboration Star, these
singles were exuberant, Roxy frontman’s 50-year solo Orchestra, it’s easy to be dazzled by URXJKUDZDQGXQÀQLVKHGJHPV
diverse and extraordinarily
high-fidelity for an indie. Here,
career, plus outtakes CD. the smooth, immaculate surfaces. remind us that Ferry’s art was never
Acid Jazz collect stand-outs THERE’S ALWAYS been something Thankfully, the collectioQ·VÀIWK&' just about surface perfection but
from their four-year Albarika of Jeremy Brett’s Sherlock Holmes a selection of recent experiments and always in what lies beneath.
Store reissue programme (Les
Sympathics’ joyful Yoruba-pop
about Bryan Ferry; the meticulous old outtakes, shakes us out of our Andrew Male
chant Ego-Ibo), and some rare
45s (Orchestre Anassoua-Jazz
Original Fire Fire transforms call for sexual, spiritual unity dexterous guitar. A solid but no less beautiful, a slow
De Parakou’s hypnotically
Calypso Rose’s soca anthem and abandonment on the soul-jazz offering. gentle drift into abstract
woven funk, Bakassine Gabou)
into dancehall and the title dancefloor. Charles Waring memory and psychedelic
– a divine blessing, indeed, as
track is a humorous take on a Lois Wilson inner space.
surviving originals fetch a
stale relationship. Arabusta’s Andrew Male
packet.
quality reissue includes lyrics,
Andrew Perry
rare photos and the whole
Yara Asmar
backstory, the limited-edition
The Doug ★★★★
Carn Trio Manoshi
blue vinyl holding the greatest Home Recordings Chitra Neogy
appeal. ★★★ 2018-2021/Synth
David Katz
The Doug Carn Trio Waltzes & Accordion ★★★★
REAL GONE. LP Laments Wood Orchid
MODERN HARMONIC. CD/DL
Ultra-rare late-’60s jazz
Double Exposure record makes a Lazarus-like
HIVE MIND. DL/LP
First CD release of Indian
★★★★ comeback.
Double vinyl reissue of the
young Lebanese puppeteer,
poet/filmmaker’s ‘lost’
My Love Is Free Before his second LP, recorded in
video artist and musician’s
spiritually Prague in the early ’00s.
SOULMUSIC/THE SECOND DISC. CD earliest recordings.
inclined After making a
Excellent 4-CD box It’s testament
Horace Martin recordings for counterculture
containing three Salsoul to the power
Black Jazz splash with
★★★★ albums plus bonus remixes.
Records in the
and beauty
of this
1968’s The
You’ve Changed Double early ’70s, this Florida-born Perfumed
Exposure took twenty-
keyboard wizard cut his debut Garden, an
ARABUSTA. CD/DL/LP
the Philly soul something’s
album in 1969 leading an erotically-charged reading
Scarce mid-’80s digi-reggae baton during instrumental music that her
organ trio for Herman first two cassette-only releases of a 15th-century sex manual,
nugget. the second half Lubinsky’s Savoy label. The Chitra Neogy pursued careers
of the 1970s are already being given the
Horace Martin began his career LP was quickly deleted and deluxe vinyl treatment a year as actor, academic and
in the late 1970s after hanging with a trio of LPs recorded for forgotten but now commands filmmaker. A meeting with Petr
Salsoul; 1976’s Ten Percent, or so on from initial release.
out in studios with Gregory three-figure prices on the Recorded at home on cassettes Filák in New Mexico ultimately
Isaacs and Alton Ellis. Early 1978’s Fourplay and 1979’s secondhand market. Copies returned her to the studio, the
and mobile phone, utilising
singles for Prince Huntley, Locker Room, all three are so rare that for this first musician’s stripped-back mix
percussion, piano, synths, tin
Witty Henry and Dentlock led featuring lush male tenor reissue, the cover had to be of tabla with oud, guembri,
toys, glockenspiel and her
to overseas performances and voices, rooted in R&B – they recreated from photos of the grandmother’s old Hohner shalm, guitar and cello
after a debut LP for Blackbeard, were previously the United original artwork. Thankfully, Marchesa accordion, and retaining her debut’s discrete
Martin cut You’ve Changed at Image signed to Stax – but the master tape survived and interspersed with field sonic blueprint. However, only
Channel One for aspiring backed by four-to-the-floor is now remastered, allowing us recordings of hymns sung in Live In Love (“I touch my body/I
producer Garfield Brown, drums, thumping bass and to hear the first chapter of Lebanon churches, all of which feel the glory”) sounds like a
with Huntley handling hooky strings, forward-looking Carn’s career in vivid detail. Asmar reworks into miniature throwback, with more spiritual
arrangements. Atop the to disco. The quartet are best Sounding more like Larry waltzes, Home Recordings is a concerns dominating Ganesha
minimal backing of bassist known for the Walter Gibbons Young than Jimmy Smith, hauntingly beautiful collection and Broken Bird’s wordplay,
Danny Axeman and drummer 12-inch remix of their debut Carn’s forte is succulent, of intimate ambient while faint echoes of Nico peek
Rangatan, Mallory Williams album’s title track – it’s often organ-led grooves, which soundscapes that enchant with through I Walked And Walked’s
adds a futuristic synthesizer cited as the first 12-inch range from exploratory their celestial sorcery. Blending slow cello sprawl. Throughout,
edge and Soljie Hamilton commercial release. It isn’t, originals such as the the mournful wheeze of her Neogy’s mystical wanderings,
brings a dubwise element to although it was one of the meditative Yna Yna’s Delight, grandmother’s accordion with delivered in a resonant poetic
the mixdown, as heard most earliest. A better starting point which hints at his later work delicate New Age synth and tone not a million miles from
notably on War (an update on is their outlandish cover of The for Black Jazz, to standards her grandfather’s reel-to-reel Moor Mother, weave their
Neil Kirk

the Stalag riddim) and on the Four Tops’ Baby I Need Your like My One And Only Love, recordings of birdsong, 2023’s meditative magic.
cautionary Gambling Man; The Loving – in their hands, a joyful distinguished by Don Hales’s Synth Waltzes… is more elegiac Andy Cowan

MOJO 99
 F I LT E R R E I S SU E S

Back in the USA:

The Beatles in 1964 –
the unbeatable sound
of conquest.

7KH'RQD\V/HQQRQDQG
Love me dudes Harrison’s rare lead-vocal
exchange in The Miracles’
You Really Got A Hold On
A vinyl box set of The Beatles’ first But this helter skelter Me. McCartney owns the
six American studio LPs in mono. has a story of its own, /LWWOH5LFKDUGERQÀUH
By David Fricke. a weirdly reordered, /RQJ7DOO\6DOO\ QRW\HW
uniquely illuminating arc out in the UK) and She
The Beatles of breakthrough at once belying /RYHV<RXE\WKHQROG
and beholden to Capitol’s mer- news in Britain, closes
★★★★ FHQDU\GLVUHJDUGIRUWKH3DUOR- the record like radiant,
1964 US Albums In Mono SKRQHFDQRQ VKRUWHQHG/3V breaking news. In short,
APPLE CORPS LTD/UMR. LP
to save on publishing royalties; pure party from a band
made-up platters sequenced and year like no other.
AMERICA AND BRITAIN are two nations with the logic of a roulette Beatles ’65 – released
separated by salt water, a common language wheel). If Please Please Me is in December 1964 and
(per George Bernard Shaw) and different WKHÀUVWJLDQWVWHSRIDNLOOHU based on the fourth UK
Beatlemanias. The UK phenomenon in 1963 bar band led by two emerging- /3Beatles For Sale –
remains the gold standard for pop hysteria, virtuoso composers, Capitol’s debut, Meet The comes close, a half-hour of robust roots (Chuck
a massive rush of love at the speed of light Beatles!, is that genius unleashed with visceral %HUU\&DUO3HUNLQV DQGPRGHUQLVP WKH
detonated by a handful of singles and an album, ÀQHVVHQHDUO\DOO-RKQ/HQQRQ3DXO0F&DUWQH\ plaintive sheen of No Reply; the feedback intro
Please Please Me, almost half of which was covers originals, largely drawn from the British jump to I Feel Fine). As for the rest, there’s not much
from the club sets. forward, late-’63’s With The Beatles. In this tell- reason now to love the truncated US edition of
The former colonies were late to the party ing, America doesn’t stand a chance – the shot- A Hard Day’s Night except nostalgia. Something
– EMI’s Yankee arm, Capitol Records, spent gun entrance of I Want To Hold Your Hand and New is plenty of fun but barely coherent: more
WKDW\HDUH[HUFLVLQJLWVULJKWRIÀUVWUHIXVDO²EXW ,6DZ+HU6WDQGLQJ7KHUHWKHKDUG/LYHUSRRO FRYHUVOHIWRYHUVIURPWKHÀOPDQGWKH*HUPDQ
we caught up fast. And this deluxe, vinyl set of stares in Robert Freeman’s iconic Mod-noir language version of I Want To Hold Your Hand.
7KH%HDWOHV·ÀUVWVL[$PHULFDQVWXGLR/3VIURP cover photo – and George Harrison is a writer And The Early Beatles, actually a ’65 release,
mono-master tapes in period sleeves (also from the start (Don’t Bother Me). LVDUJXDEO\WKHÀUVW%HDWOHVUHLVVXH&DSLWRO·V
available separately) – is hardly the full chaos. In his 2007 book, The Beatles’ Second round-up of lingering Vee-Jay tracks.
Add the cash-ins by ’63 licensee Vee-Jay plus Album, Dave Marsh makes a convincing case for 7KHLQHYLWDEOHLURQ\LVWKDWWKHÀUVWFODVV
the sudden worth of the 1961 Hamburg that April ’64 grab bag of With… remnants and SDFNDJLQJDQGPRQRÀGHOLW\PDNHVWKLVVHULDO
sessions, and nearly two dozen US albums and B-sides as “an ungainly, fraudulent mess” cap- potpourri feel new and thrilling again – while
45s were issued over 1964. Capitol’s trade turing “the greatest rock’n’roll band the world none of iWDFFXUDWHO\UHÁHFWV7KH%HDWOHV·FUHD-
pitch for The Beatles’ StoryDWZR/3DXGLR has ever seen… with maximum brute force.” tive intent and daily momentum. Yet no matter
documentary released that November and a Here are the Fabs of Cavern and Star-Club how you slice it, this is the historic, unbeatable
Apple Corps Ltd

bonus in the box, put it bluntly: “The greatest lore, heavy on the Detroit soul – the hip rescue sound of conquest. Britain has its gospel. This
SURÀWSDFNDJHLQhistory.” of Devil In Her Heart, then a ’62 obscurity by is ours.

100 MOJO
 Johnnie Taylor
★★★★
One Step From The Blues
D.R. Hooker STAX. CD/DL/LP
★★★★ New compilation reveals legendary soul
The Truth man’s bluesier side.
NUMERO GROUP. DL/LP
Evangelical 1972
WITH HIS hoarse-throated singing style
private-press oddity that sounded like he’d gargled with razor
gets a bright-sounding blades, church-reared Johnnie Taylor
new reissue. followed his mentor Sam Cooke from
Depending on
which version
the gospel into the secular world. Taylor
of the story sang alongside Cooke in The Highway
you read, QC’s and later replaced him in The Soul
Donald Hooker
was either a
Stirrers. After a stint at Cooke’s SAR
Connecticut businessman who label in the early ’60s, Taylor joined Stax
found God or an acid-fried ZKHUHKHTXLFNO\ÀOOHGWKHYRLGOHIWE\2WLV
hippy who reinvented himself 5HGGLQJ·VGHDWK7KLVQHZUHWURVSHFWLYH
as a ‘born again’ evangelical.
Either way, in 1972 at Dynamic focuses on his blues-tinged Stax repertoire,
Recording Studios, in New ÀQGLQJKLPUXPLQDWLQJRQDIIDLUVRIWKH
Haven, Hooker, along with a
group of local Connecticut
heart. The killer track is Cheaper To Keep
musicians laid down these +HUDQDVWXWHREVHUYDWLRQDERXWWKHYDOXH
10 tracks of semi- of marital compromise. He also muses on
autobiographical Christian
psych. Drawing heavily from
IRUELGGHQORYH 6WHDO$ZD\ ZURQJGHFL-
the paranoid Vegas art-rock of VLRQV :RPDQ$FURVV
The Doors’ The Soft Parade, but 7KH5LYHU DQGLQÀGHO-
imbued with apostolic lyrical
fervour, The Truth exists as
LW\ ,·G5DWKHU'ULQN
more than mere outsider-art 0XGG\:DWHU &DSWXU-
oddity, thanks to the tightness ing Taylor before the
of Hooker’s ragtag pick-up
band and the effects-laden disco inferno consumed
engineering skills of former KLPWKLVLVDÀQHWULEXWH
doo wop producer Tom Sokira. to the man dubbed ‘The The Philosopher’s
Standouts include apocalyptic
surf-rock freak-out The Sea Philosopher of Soul’. soul: Johnnie
Taylor gets the
and harmonic doom-funk Charles Waring blues, 1967.
reprimand Forge Your Own
Chains, but there’s nothing
here that gets by on mere experimentalism on Noises. buffed until they sparkle like the core group – Daryl Hooper, King Crimson
comic novelty and, at its best, new sports cars, it is
★★★
An extra disc/album of mixes, Jan Savage, Rick Andridge
it’s enough to have you demos and cast-offs is almost humanising to hear Lemmy – upholding their punk
singing to the heavens. identical to the 1995 reissue. wrestle with age during the aesthetic before overdubs. Red: 50th
Andrew Male John Aizlewood lurching I Don’t Believe A Word Lois Wilson
and shout himself out of
Anniversary Edition
breath during the semi- PANEGYRIC. CD
symphonic God Was Never On New mixes and bootlegs
Motörhead Your Side. Want to hear The Oscar round out a four-disc set.
★★★★ Motörhead be crass and
churlish, ribald and righteous?
Peterson Trio It’s always worth celebrating
We Take No They never stopped. With Herb Ellis an album as monumental as
Prisoners (The Grayson Haver Currin ★★★★ Red. Here was a band emerging
from prog to create a new form
Singles 1995–2006) Hello Herbie of cerebral heavy rock that
BMG. CD/DL/LP MPS. CD/DL/LP would have a huge influence
Who says old rockers need The Seeds A joint effort by two
on the more thoughtful players
new tricks to be convincing? ★★★★ jazz masters.
of grunge and metal; Red still
sounds modern today. This
Motörhead were a band for Future Along with Art
Ian Hunter 40 years, from Lemmy’s Tatum, Bud
edition features the glossy
surround sound mixes from
★★★★ unceremonious Hawkwind
BIG BEAT. LP
Superb vinyl deluxe edition
Powell and Steven Wilson that mark such
Short Back N’ Sides exit in 1975 until his death in Phineas anniversaries. Some remixes
2015, a lifetime of hard living of 1967 third album with Newborn, few by David Singleton offer a few
CHRYSALIS. CD/LP second disc of outtakes.
and relentless touring jazz pianists insights into old favourites.
1981’s Clash-produced fifth crammed into that span. But The Seeds possessed the technical facility However, anyone hoping for
solo album. Includes reggae. when most people mention went flower of Oscar Peterson. The revelatory outtakes will be
By 1979, it was clear that Ian Motörhead, they’re power with Canadian virtuoso’s right and disappointed and no one is
Hunter’s solo career would referencing a classic six-record Future, their left hands often played in going to listen to Starless:
never eclipse Mott The run that ended in the early third album, counterpoint or could also Percussion Overdubs more than
Hoople. You’re Never Alone ’80s, irascible LPs that helped influenced not simply double the right and once. The live album USA
With A Schizophrenic (also fling open heavy metal’s by Sgt. Pepper as is often cited left’s lines in harmony and appears in primped-up form,
reissued, but only on vinyl) ironclad gates. Motörhead, – recorded before that was lightning speed. Guitarist Herb so too some foggy 1974
broke the US Top 40, but was though, actually pummelled issued – but more likely Love’s Ellis was equally superlative, bootlegs that didn’t make the
curiously anaemic. Two years on to the bitter end, as this Da Capo, with Sky Saxon and joined by Sam Jones on Road To Red box set. Robert
later, Short Back N’ Sides was collector’s compendium of recruiting that group’s Tjay bass and Bob Durham on Fripp always says that no one
co-produced by Mick Jones choice cuts from 1995-2006 Cantrelli to play on it. The drums, this 1969 collab was is forcing you to buy, but
and featured Clash team-mate loudly reaffirms. In this album was Saxon’s concept, truly a super session. Primarily sometimes you fear for
Topper Headon on drums in a moment of tech-assisted elder its 11 songs augmented with a blues album, Naptown Blues completists.
rare moment of the new guard superstars, where voices get woodwind, tabla, tuba and a and Blues For H.G. are perfect John Bungey
embracing the old. Long-term full string section, with only examples: down and dirty
collaborator Mick Ronson one track, Out Of The roadhouse. Seven Come Eleven
co-produced, Todd Rundgren Question, drawing on their is a standard popularised by
Bill Carrier Jr/Courtesy of Concord

dropped in on I Need Your previous Pushin’ Too Hard/No jazz guitar pioneer Charlie
Love and the results were Escape template. The rest Christian and highlights Ellis’s
Hunter’s most inspired effort, capture a more innocent, string prowess in Christian’s
incorporating the elegiac child-like Saxon preoccupied finest tradition. There are
(rather than the pubby) side with fantasy, fairy tale and the moments throughout when
of Mott on Old Records Never chimerical on standouts March both leaders are wailing in
Die and the standout Central Of The Flower Children and tandem, creating a hip
Park N’ West. He also veered Flower Lady & Her Assistant, cacophony, rarely equalled
into Clash-style reggae on both utterly transfixing. The by others.
Theatre Of The Absurd and bonus cuts, meanwhile, reveal Michael Simmons

MOJO 101
 + -  44  42 2  /    ,
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 The boys are back…: Thin Lizzy (from
left) Brian Robertson, Phil Lynott and
Scott Gorham, live and dangerous at E R R E I S SU E S
Colston Hall, Bristol, October 22, ’76.

Spoon
★★★★
They Want My Soul
(Deluxe More Soul
Edition)
MATADOR. CD/DL/LP
The Texans emerged from a
hiatus, re-energised and,
turns out, vulnerable.
The secret to Spoon has long
been their ability to swagger
through songs of self-doubt or
sadness, to strut like rock stars Thin Lizzy Fox, the best studio LPs The Fox in his
featuring both Scott Gorham hospital bed, later
★★★★
in moments that would derail
mere mortals. Think of Britt and Brian Robertson. Jailbreak’s ÀQHVVLQJVRQJVDERXWROGÁDPHVRI
Daniel’s aplomb as a singer,
Jim Eno’s propulsive drums, 1976 piano-led outtake Brian’s Number Robertson and Gorham (Borderline;
or the way the guitars always UMR. CD/LP
ÀQGVWKHWUXFXOHQW*RUKDPLQ Sweet Marie). Fiery radio sessions and
seem to bare barbed teeth. unusually tender mode, while alt. take seedling demos bring context, while
The moment leading to 2014’s Lizzy’s pivotal year, heard across 2 of Don’t Believe A Word drips with sleevenotes by MOJO’s Mark Blake
They Want My Soul must have five CDs of remixes, demos,
been rife with questions, since outtakes and live tracks. confessional danger. May 1976 had shed light. Neat that drummer Brian
the exhausted band had just seen Phil Lynott’s hepatitis nix a US Downey cites The Meters/The O’Jays
taken a few years apart. The REMARKABLY, MORE Lizzy gold tour that would have cemented The as inspirations for Johnny The Fox
sound didn’t show it. The
walloping rhythm of Rent I Pay,
surfaces. This time it’s from 1976, Boys Are Back In Town’s hit single Meets Jimmy The Weed.
the cascading keys of Outlier, year of both Jailbreak and Johnny The status, but he wrote parts of Johnny James McNair
the sparkling essence of the
title track: this was full Spoon
radiance. This generous influenced me” noted others, his music retains a creative gifts. A touching cover with added warmth and
tenth-anniversary edition, Sakamoto wryly, and the twist lustre that envelopes the of Dylan’s Don’t Think Twice, wisdom.
though, finds the soft spot in Coda’s tail is two bonus listener in his dreamlike It’s All Right is among seven John Aizlewood
beneath, especially on an tracks from 1981 which throw bubble, eloquently captured extras.
exquisite piano version of the solo piano fish firmly back on this anthology. Pat Gilbert
Inside Out that summons After into the limpid pool of 1980s Andy Fyfe
The Gold Rush and a version of electronica. Crosby, Stills,
Rent I Pay that feels like The Ben Thompson
Phil Manzanera Nash & Young
Beatles on a budget. Here’s the
softness inside one of the
Johnny Marr + ★★★★ ★★★★
United States’ best rock bands. The Healers 50 Years Of Music Live At The Fillmore
Steve Kilbey
Grayson Haver Currin
★★★★ ★★★ UNIVERSAL. CD
East, 1969
RHINO. CD/LP
Bespoke Wheels Boomslang (Deluxe) Roxy Music mainstay’s
BMG. CD/DL/LP 10 solo albums, plus one Previously unheard 8-track
Ryuichi And Winged Heels Marr belatedly goes rarities collection. Full of recording of September 20,
1969 concert.
Sakamoto EASY ACTION. CD/DL/LP
Britrock, ably abetted by overlooked gems.
★★★★ Solo career-spanning
compendium of The
Zak Starkey and Kula Shaker
bassist Alonza Bevan.
At first glance,
since 1975’s
The story is in
the title of this
Coda Church’s mainman. Diamond double live LP:
WEWANTSOUNDS. CD/LP
U2 dubbed the date a mere
For his them ‘nurdles’, Head, Phil
Long-awaited first UK Manzanera’s month and two
seventieth XTC ‘ernies’, days since they
release for Yellow Magic birthday, and in solo career has
Orchestra mainstay’s solo done little more than bobble played Woodstock, which was
Church post-punk only their second show. It was
piano landmark. frontman Steve Britain such along. Releases have been
intermittent, charts have been an almost new band that
Sakamoto’s Kilbey decided bendy, bluesy guitar licks –
untroubled and his reluctance played two sets that night at
14-track it was finally time to revisit his for it was they – were all but
to sing has helped keep him the Fillmore East in New York.
piano-only extensive solo career. Whittling outlawed. So it was ironic that,
invisible. Yet, taken as an Yes the crowd knew CSN and
version of his down that career – Kilbey having seemingly obviated
estimates he’s released around enormous, beautifully Neil Young, but not CSNY;
hugely nurdles for good with his
100 LPs, although it gets a bit presented slab where extra while touring they were still
influential breathtakingly original picking
hazy during his worst drug tracks abound, it’s a revelation. writing songs for their 1970
soundtrack for the sado- in The Smiths, Johnny Marr
years – is no easy task, but should succumb to them with Manzanera’s church is broad, debut Déjà Vu. Two of those
masochistic David Bowie
Bespoke Wheels… rounds out a vengeance in 2003. It’s whether he’s channelling songs are in the set: Stills’ 4+20
buddy movie Merry Christmas,
to 20 tracks stretching from obvious why: having diverted punk on Remote Control, and Nash’s Our House, a lovely,
Mr. Lawrence was originally
released under the title Avec 1986 debut solo LP Unearthed, into EDM with Electronic, trying his hand at a sea intimate performance, alone at
Piano in a luxurious cassette a brace from his mid-’90s Jack Marr was a bystander to shanty on Big Day or the organ, singing to Joni
book format to a Japanese Frost collaboration with the rambunctious ’90s nurdling by collaborating with out-there Mitchell in the audience. The
public hungry for Walkman late-Go-Between Grant Oasis, The Stones Roses, The percussionist Charles Hayward rest are now-classics from CSN
fodder in 1983. More than 40 McLennan (Aviatrix and the Charlatans et al, and here was of This Heat on After Magritte. or solo records, including an
years on, even ears potentially sublime Providence), and up finally a chance to show a He embraced his Latin epic Down By The River. Some
jaded by intervening decades to his Kilbey Kennedy latent Manc nurdle-master at American roots, especially of the best moments, though,
of Gonzales and Nils Frahm collaboration with fellow work. Hypnotic riffage over on 1999’s Vozero album, are when you can get past
will struggle to avoid Australian Martin Kennedy punchy beats on the likes of where his vocals suggested their familiarity and hear the
acknowledging how great this from last year. Down the The Last Ride and Long Gone there wasn’t really a singing newness of the individual
playful mid-Pacific take on the decades Kilbey has maintained fail to break new ground, issue at all. By the most recent voices creating the harmonies
Western classical tradition a semi-mystical, often however, and it’s the gentler offering here, his 2015 – and also hear how much
sounds on vinyl. “Asian music impenetrable free-association numbers, such as Down On guitarist’s travelogue The they seem to enjoy and inspire
Getty

heavily influenced Debussy, approach to lyric writing, and The Corner and Another Day, Sound Of Blue, Manzanera is each other.
and Debussy heavily no matter whether solo or with that far better represent Marr’s the craftsman he always was, Sylvie Simmons

MOJO 103
Getting the Fear:
’70s-vintage John Cale,
an unreliable narrator
but prolific creator of
greatness, notably (inset,
right) 1973’s Paris 1919.

F I L E U N D E R ...

comes iQH[SDQGHG&' /3HGLWLRQVDGG-

Unsettle down
Left to his own devices, around marimba, viola and heavy whisper-
LQJÀYHDOWHUQDWLYHPL[HVRXWWDNH,0XVW1RW
Sniff Cocaine, plus striking new recording,
)HYHU'UHDP<RX·UH$*KRVW
Moving to Island, Cale recalibrated, possi-
John Cale took a while to figure ing. It’s a composer’s showcase, recorded for bly in response to the recent successes of Lou
Reprise while Cale worked in A&R for Warner Reed’s TransformerDQG5R[\0XVLF,QGHHG
out where he lived. By Jim Irvin. Brothers, in the age when artistic freedom, WKHH[FHOOHQWFear ★★★★ (Proper/UMR),
POOKED AS a child by The Gift, John and cocaine, were all the rage and there was co-produced with Eno and Phil Manzanera,
S Cale’s claustrophobic tale of a guy post-
ing himself to a lover, with (spoiler!) fatal
results, on White Light/White Heat, your corre-
enough cash to pay for the Royal Philharmon- LQFOXGHV*XQVRXQGLQJOLNHDFRXVLQWR5R[\·V
ic on a whim. Fascinating, eccentric, hardly a
crowd-pleaser.
The Bogus Man, while Fear Is A Man’s Best
Friend would be considered a stone classic if
spondent developed an early wariness towards Much easier going, 1973’s engaging Paris /RXKDGFXWLW$JUHDWDOEXP-XVWÀYHPRQWKV
The Velvet Underground and Cale’s voice. 1919 (Domino) ★★★★, a concise 31-min- later came Slow Dazzle ★★★★ (Proper/
Now I enjoy its chewy languor, rolling like ute suite, produced with the great Chris UMR), yet another bravura collection, with
Welsh hills, but for a surprisingly long time I Thomas, of nine off-kilter songs, like Hanky its splendidly queasy Heartbreak Hotel, the
found it unsettling, and gave his 1970s records Panky Nohow with its repeated line about breezy tribute to Brian, Mr Wilson (“Wales is
the swerve while being aware that, stylistically, “elephants that sing to keep the cows that agri- not like California in any way”), and The Jew-
it was a restless decade for him. Now, a chance culture won’t allow”. There’s eller, aVSRNHQZRUGÀQDOH
WRÀ[WKHJDSLQP\NQRZOHGJH a reggae song called Graham unnervingly like The Gift.
,HQMR\HGUHFHQWH[SRVXUHWRÁDZHGEXW Greene, sung in a broad :LWKLQVL[PRQWKV&DOH
addictive 1970 solo debut, Vintage Violence, but Welsh accent, that mentions had produced Patti Smith’s
I knew its country-rock quirkiness dissatis- Enoch Powell. The closing Horses and his own follow-up
ÀHG&DOHVRKH·GÁLSSHGLQWRDYDQWJDUGH Antarctica Starts Here is an Helen Of Troy ★★★ (Proper/
territory, collaborating with composer Terry opaque poem, possibly about UMR), which he complained
Riley on 1971’s Church Of Anthrax, an album a woman’s twilight years, that ZDVXQÀQLVKHGEXWLQFOXGHV
that haunted record libraries in my youth. But comes out of nowhere and VXFKSHDNVDVWKHURXVLQJÀUVW
I didn’t know quickly-written-and-recorded goes nowhere, but is strangely version of I Keep A Close
follow-up The Academy In Peril (Domino) affecting. Oh, and there’s a Watch (drums Phil Collins),
★★★, an equally challenging jumble of clas- glam-rock stomp called Mac- his cover of Jonathan Rich-
sical sketches – the piano solos of Brahms and beth. It’s like random pages man’s Pablo Picasso and the
the title track, bristling with clanging chord stitching themselves together “The Academy prowling Sudden Death with
clusters, the string quartet of Legs Larry At and posing as history, Cale an In Peril is its pre-echoes of post-punk.
Television Centre, starring former Bonzo, unreliable narrator reading This edition restores the
Legs Larry Smith, as a camp TV director aloud from a deranged com- fascinating, original 1975 tracklisting.
(“Watch the cello, love. Mind yer boom!”) monplace book. Little Feat eccentric, In one year, three albums
– and rock instrumentals, The Philosopher, and Wilton Felder are among as rewarding as Bowie’s ‘Ber-
Ed Thrasher

featuring Ronnie Wood, the brief Days Of the cast. Though brevity is hardly a OLQ·WULORJ\([FXVHPHZKLOH
Steam and the bizarre King Harry, crafted one of its strengths, it now crowd- I make up for lost time…
pleaser.”
104 MOJO
 MOJO’S FINEST WRITING ON THE
WORLD’S GREATEST SONGWRITERS.

Our JOHN LENNON and PAUL McCARTNEY

specials in a single deluxe anthology edition.
 B U R I E D T R E A SU R E CREDITS
Tracks: Dear Fool/
Igloo/Nothing New/I
Won’t Get My Feet
Wet Again/Who Is
India?/Let Me NotWURXEOHGSLDQRZLWKDGHWRXULQWRTXRWHV
IURP.LQJ/HDUKLQWLQJDWWKHVLQJHU·V
Put You Down/Only A
Week Away/PlayingVHFUHWGHVLUHWRDFW$OVRFXULRXVLV:KR,V
Is No Song/You’re So
Right, September/,QGLD"ZLWKVRORJXLWDUDQGYRLFHVHHP-
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her debut album. Recorded: MayfairVRPHWKLQJ\RXGRQ·WKDYHWRH[SODLQµ
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1972, with producer and ex-Trees guitarist Da- EXVLQHVV,ZDVWRRVHQVLWLYHWRZKDWSHRSOH
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deal with Island Records. “I did a wonderful PLQXWHWRGRWKHYRFDOVZKLFKGLGMDUZLWKPH %XV\ZLWKOLIHWKHUHDIWHUVKHNHSWRQZULWLQJ
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Pathway studios. Now a painter, she continues
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and it all fell through…” Cox and backingYRFDOLVWV7KXQGHUWKLJKV releaVHRQWKH6RXO-D]]ODEHOZLWKWZRVRQJV
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found itself a celebrated strand in that storied, ZKRZDVEULHÁ\UHQGHUHGPXWH %RYULOFRPSDQ\EHIRUHLWZDV
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Instead, it sank without trace. ORGJHGLQKLVLQVWUXPHQW IDPLO\EXVLQHVVµVKHVD\V
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GRRPHG$PHULFDQLQ(XURpe Scott Walker. ELOLW\DQGPRUHORRVHQHG VKDPHGO\µVKHVD\V´,GRQ·W
“I used to cry listening to those early Scott PRRULQJV7KHODWWHUVRQJVDUH Scott Walker WKLQNLW·Vlike anything. That
:DONHUDOEXPVµVKHVD\V´,OLNHRUFKHVWUDV GHOLFDWHVPDVKDQGJUDEVRI albums.” DOZD\VJHWVP\YRWHµ
DQGWKHHPRWLRQWKDWFDQSURGXFH,ZDV LQWULJXHDQGVWLPXODWLQJFRQIX- As told to Ian Harrison
JULIET LAWSON
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7KH%HDWOHVDQG6FRWW:DONHUµ 'HDU)RROÀQGVSHUFXVVLRQ is released on Soul Jazz on October
:LWKWKHDVVLVWDQFHRIKHUPDQDJHUDQG rattling and scraping as her 25. See www.julietlawson.com for
later husbaQG6LPRQ&URFNHUVKHVLJQHGZLWK YRLFHWULOOVDQGZKLUOVRYHU more information.

106 MOJO
Entertainment
Memorabilia
Live Auction
London Nov. 15, 2024

Over 350 pieces of iconic

music memorabilia
 Taking you higher: Tina
Turner in 1964, arguably
already the greatest
screamer in the business.

10 Ike & Tina

Turner The
Greatest Hits Of
SUE, 1965
You say: “Tina goes places
JB had yet to discover in
the R&B days.” Peter Allen,
via e-mail
Between 1961 and 1965, the
Turner franchise released
seven LPs (four studio, two
live and an instrumental set by
their musicians, The Kings Of
Rhythm), with two singles, A
Fool In Love and It’s Gonna
Work Out Fine, each selling
1,000,000-plus. Tina is already
arguably the greatest screamer
in the business – and in a league
of her own in laying down the
law on I Idolize You. If James
Brown and Ray Charles
monopolise the kudos in the
era prior to Motown taking soul
mainstream, this all-killer
compilation from those early
LPs redresses an oversight: the
Turners were blazing a trail
long before Phil Spector
became involved. Combine
CAST YOUR with Kent’s 1966 collection The
VOTES… Soul Of… and you are cooking.
This month you
chose your Top 10
Tina Turner/Ike &
Tina LPs. Next
month we want
your Taylor Swift
Top 10. Send
selections via

Tina Turner/Ike & Tina

Twitter, Facebook,
Instagram or
e-mail to mojo@
bauermedia.co.uk
The soul star whose story you just 7KLVVHWWKHSDWWHUQIRUWKH\HDUV with the subject

4 Tina
couldn’t make up. By David Hutcheon. WRFRPHYLROHQFHLQWLPLGDWLRQDQG ‘How To Buy Taylor
VRXOPXVLFFRQMXUHGIURPWKH Swift’ and we’ll Turner
print the best
S NUMEROUS ELRJUDSKHUVÀOPGLUHFWRUVDQG GDUNHVWFRUQHUVRIWKHKXPDQ Private Dancer
A %URDGZD\SURGXFHUVFDQWHVWLI\WKH,NH 7LQD
7XUQHUVWRU\KDVHYHU\WKLQJ0DQLQYHQWV
URFN·Q·UROOWKHQGLVFRYHUVSHUKDSVWKHJUHDWHVWIHPDOH
SV\FKHURDGWHVWHGWKURXJKD
comments.

UHOHQWOHVVZRUNHWKLFDQGWKHVH[LHVWVKRZRQOHJV7KH\
PDGHRQHRIWKHJUHDWHVWVLQJOHVRIDOOWLPHDQGEURXJKW
CAPITOL, 1984
You say: “Designed to be
as big as possible, it invents
the ‘Superstar Mates’
YRFDOLVWLQURFNKHWXUQVRXWWREHDORXVHRIWKHKLJKHVW RYHUW$IULFDQ$PHULFDQVHQVXDOLW\LQWRZKLWHKRPHVYLD genre, even if she wasn't
RUGHUDQGORVHVHYHU\WKLQJWRGUXJVVKHDVFHQGVWR 79SHUIRUPDQFHVWKDWEURNHUXOHVDQGEXVWWDERRVDQG one then.” Ian Wade, via
VXSHUVWDUGRPGHÀQLQJZKDWVHFRQGDFWVLQSRSXODU WKHQ,NHGLVFRYHUHGGUXJV²LQWURGXFHGWRKLP Facebook
PXVLFFDQORRNOLNH$6WDU,V%RUQHDW\RXUKHDUWRXW DOOHJHGO\E\IHOORZ6XQODEHODOXPQXV(OYLV3UHVOH\²WKDW Don’t be deterred by its
%RUQLQLQ&ODUNVGDOH0LVVLVVLSSL,]HDU7XUQHU FRXOGPDNHKLPZRUNKDUGHUDQGDFWZRUVH ubiquity (12 million copies)
or production (four sets of
-UZDVZKHQKLVEDQG7KH.LQJV2I5K\WKPPDGH :KHQ7LQDÀQDOO\ZDONHGVKHGLGQ·WKDYHHQRXJKWR producers so, arguably, it’s
WKHLULQLWLDOIRUD\LQWRUHFRUGLQJZLWK5RFNHWDQ5 % EHDEOHWRSD\IRUDKRWHOURRPIRUWKHQLJKW7KHUHZDV that 1980s sheen that holds
FKDUW1XPEHU FUHGLWHGWR-DFNLH%UHQVWRQ 7KHIDPH DWZLVWLQWKHWDOHKRZHYHU²RQHWKDWQRVFULSWZULWHU it together), this is the template
for turning a legend into a
WRUHWKHEDQGDSDUWDQG7XUQHUSXWWRJHWKHUDQRWKHU ZRXOGKDYHGDUHGVXEPLW:KHQVKHGLHGLQDJHG stadium-filler. With Tina
RXWÀW,QKHUDXWRELRJUDSK\,7LQD VKHKDGEHHQRIÀFLDOO\UHWLUHGIRU seemingly washed up, Capitol
WKHWKHQ$QQD0DH%XOORFNGHVFULEHG \HDUVKDGDIRUWXQHHVWLPDWHGDW bet on her adapting to the
JRLQJLQWRDWUDQFHRQVHHLQJWKHQHZ “Ike & Tina PLOOLRQDQGKDGSXEOLFO\IRUJLYHQ contemporary scene after
hearing her guest slot on
.LQJV2I5K\WKPLQ%URZQVYLOOH made one of ,NH,WZRXOGEHJRRGWRWKLQNWKDWKHU the B.E.F.’s 1982 cover of Ball Of
7HQQHVVHH6KHVRRQKDGDVRQZLWKWKH H[KXVEDQGZKRIDWDOO\RYHUGRVHGLQ Confusion. In its wake came
EDQG·VVD[RSKRQLVW LQ DQG the greatest DJHGKDGDOVRIRXQGVRPH the modern music industry,
heritage acts, Live Aid et al.
PDGHKHUVLQJLQJGHEXWRQ$)RRO,Q singles ever SHDFHZLWKLQKLPVHOILQKLVODWHU\HDUV The buck stops here, then…
/RYHD7RSKLWIRUWKHPLQ ,WUHDOO\LVDVWRU\ZLWKHYHU\WKLQJ but listen to that voice on
and brought
Getty, Jeff Kravitz

,NHUHFKULVWHQHGKHU7LQD7XUQHU ²LIRQO\WKHUHZHUHDVLPSOHZD\WR Let’s Stay Together, to Jeff

FRS\ULJKWLQJWKHQDPHVRKHFRXOG GHVFULEHWKHGHSWKVWRZKLFKLW Beck on the title track, to the
UHSODFH%XOORFNLIVKHTXLW+HDOVREHDW
overt African- GHVFHQGVDQGWKHKHLJKWVWRZKLFKLW
feminist payback of Better Be
Good To Me. A landmark
KHUXSLQRUGHUWRFRQYLQFHKHUQRWWR American ULVHV²DQGWKLVLVLWVVRXQGWUDFN achievement.
sensuality into
108 MOJO white homes.”
 H OW T O B U Y

9Country
Tina Turner
Tina Turns The
On!
8 Ike & Tina
Turner And
The Ikettes
7Live!Ike
Turner
& Tina

The Ike & Tina

6 Tina Turner
Acid Queen 5 Ike & Tina
Turner River
Deep-Mountain High
UNITED ARTISTS, 1975

UNITED ARTISTS, 1974 Come Together Turner Show You say: “Proof that Tina was LONDON, 1966
You say: “From her ready to make Private Dancer You say: “So much money,
CAPITOL, 1970 WARNER BROS, 1965
wilderness years in the 10 years before the industry so many egos, and an elite
You say: “The definitive You say: “60 years old, but caught up with her.” Alice
1970s, the Dylan covers studio band like no other.”
version of I Want To Take you can still smell the sex and Thomas, via e-mail
in particular are superb.” Phil Sutcliffe, via Facebook
You Higher. Ike may have sweat in the air that night.”
Vinyl Car Booty, via X Inspired by Tina’s role in Ken
got higher, but Tina could Andy Johns, via Blue Sky Phil Spector cancelled his
Though their fortunes were take you all the way.” Russell’s Tommy, the last solo retirement after seeing the
again on the slide by 1974, Releasing two live sets within album she recorded with Ike is Turners live, buying them out
Lauren II, via Facebook
Ike was still calling the shots two months of each other perhaps the most Tina Turner of their Loma contract in order
when Tina’s solo debut was While the previously indicates where Ike identified LP of them all. If you want to to record a single he hoped
recorded, though his input abstemious Ike lamented that their strengths after the sound know why she remained a would top You’ve Lost That
was minimal. There’s a 1969 was the year he was of young America had shifted legend in the depths of a Lovin’ Feelin’. He repeated his
consequent sense of freedom introduced to cocaine, it was on its axis in 1964. As an entrée, decade’s obscurity, it’s all Wagnerian magic on five more
in the air as Tina interprets also a pivotal year for the duo …Live (1964) captured the grit here. The first side features tracks, while Ike extravagantly
Dolly Parton, Kris Kristofferson, musically, their tour supporting of the couple’s Revue (Tina is rock covers: a re-recording re-cut earlier material with
Hank Snow and Bob Dylan the Stones introducing them to featured vocalist on only three of Pete Townshend’s Acid The Kings Of Rhythm and The
(Tonight I’ll Be Staying Here rock crowds in the US. Their first songs, however), but for the Queen; subtext aplenty in Ikettes, resulting in a disjointed
With You and He Belongs To LP of the new decade courted full bump’n’grind of two her reading of Under My yet constantly thrilling
Me). There’s a serious band this new audience: eight Ike shows recorded in Fort Worth Thumb; lust overload in Let’s spectacle, one of the most
behind her – including Glen compositions are put in the and Dallas, start here (Vol. 2 – Spend The Night Together; storied long-players in the
Hardin and James Burton, shade by covers of Honky Tonk Loma, 1966 – completes the and, by ditching Plant’s pre-album age. When the title
on a break from Elvis – plus Women, I Want To Take You picture). The Kings Of Rhythm wham-bam, she transforms track, possibly the greatest
Merry Clayton, Clydie King Higher and Come Together, are in full flight on a risk-free Whole Lotta Love into a 45 of all time, flopped in the
and Jessie Smith on backing and Tina reclaims her own Janis series of R&B covers, and you woman’s slow-burning night States, Spector shelved the LP,
vocals, and plenty of funk in Joplin-like swagger that would are regularly reminded just of passion. Rising to the task, though it would be issued in
the grooves, but the album suit her well in the coming how good the early Ikettes Ike takes control of the second the rest of the world, where (to
was ignored by all potential years. In an LP that oozes funk, were – especially Venetta side, with Baby Get It On, one quote Phil) people were “more
audiences, and the writing marks are deducted for the Fields, who goes toe to toe of the duo’s best – and funniest appreciative of talent and
was on the wall. hideous Young And Dumb. with Tina on I Know. – later outings. exciting music”.

NOW DIG THIS

3 2
There’s no shortage of video
Ike & Tina Ike & Tina evidence of Tina’s second act,
Turner Turner Live In while both Live In ’71 and Soul
Nutbush City Limits Paris – Olympia 1971 To Soul (recorded in Ghana the
same year) catch the duo’s
UNITED ARTISTS, 1973 LIBERTY, 1971 stage show at its peak. Men-
You say: “That hit You say: “Superb double tion has to be made of Ike’s
dominates, but Tina is album, largely responsible pre-Tina years – try A Proper
testing the waters as a solo for introducing/hyping the Introduction To Ike Turner/Jackie
artist.” Flash G, via e-mail duo in France.” Ana Leorne, Brenston (Proper, 2004) – when
via X The Kings Of Rhythm invented
The Turners had only two rock’n’roll then disintegrated,
monster hits in the US (three Recorded at L’Olympia while leaving Ike as A&R guru and
elsewhere), and following up on tour to promote Workin’

1Workin’
session kingpin for the Sun and
the second, Nutbush City Together, the Turners’ sixth
Limits, almost proved their live set harnesses a hurricane
Ike & Tina Turner Modern labels – he discovered
Howlin’ Wolf, Bobby Bland and
undoing. With Ike losing his while showcasing both how far Together many more. Nor should The
own battles – creating the they had come since 1964, and LIBERTY, 1970 Ikettes be overlooked, they
oxygen for a rumour that Marc how close they had stayed to
You say: “Forget the riverboat, this is were never simply Tina’s back-
Bolan plays one of the guitars their roots. The material is
a steamroller of funk, soul and pop.” ing singers: Can’t Sit Down…
on Nutbush – Tina steps up as a almost entirely covers – and
Sam Frost, via e-mail (Kent, 2007) compiles their
writer, contributing five songs, songs they hadn’t previously
excellent 1964-66 output.
including the title track. Once recorded – but they tackle The duo’s most successful album is also their best, and home
again, however, rejigged the soul favourites with an to their biggest-selling single (Proud Mary, in both “nice and
previous material (You Are My enthusiasm that suggests easy” and “rough” modes). Covers of Get Back and Let It Be
Sunshine, a de-Spectorfied they thought they could make (adding new verses even Paul McCartney would have been
River Deep, Mountain High) them – even Respect – their
happy with) complement five Ike tunes (two of them, including
pads out the LP, but at its own. They certainly do that
gritty, funkiest best – Fancy with the X-rated I’ve Been the formidable title track, by “Eki Renrut”) that suggest –
Annie; Daily Bread – it should Loving You Too Long and this finally – his writing can now both consistently hold its own
really have kept them in the may be the final word on Proud with the prestigious imports and match Tina’s full-throttle
spotlight. Perhaps it would Mary. Introducing it, Tina performances. The rarely credited musicians in The Kings Of
have done, had their next describes her husband as “a Rhythm, meanwhile, deliver in spades. To quote one of the
release not been a collection little man with a stone face”, songs within, provided by Aillene Bullock, Tina’s big sister,
of gospel standards. which must have stung. Workin’ Together is funkier than a mosquito’s tweeter.

MOJO 109
Famous five: rock’n’roll
seditionaries MC5 (from
left) Fred ‘Sonic’ Smith,
Dennis Thompson, Wayne
Kramer, Rob Tyner,
Michael Davis, 1969.

WHAT WE’VE
LEARNT
● The MC5’s
hometown break
was opening for
the Dave Clark Five
at Cobo Arena in
December 1965 –
to play a protest concert at a gig Kramer calls

Revlon in the head the Democratic National

Convention in Chicago in
1968 that wowed none
their “consolation
prize” for a
scheduled support
slot for The Rolling
The trailblazing proto-punks get clair, the counter-culture guru who envisioned other than Norman Mailer.
Stones collapsing.

the raucous history they deserve. the group as the conduit for his revolutionary His praise in Harper’s
● The MC5’s debut
single was to be a
By Stephen Thomas Erlewine. dreams. Their deaths mean that all the major 0DJD]LQHZDVWKHÀUVWVWHS version of Them’s
players in the MC5 drama are now gone, their Gloria, but after
absence lending the book a sense of poignancy toward securing the band The Shadows Of
MC5: An Oral that only escalates as the band buckles from a contract with Elektra Knight – in Tyner’s

dashed dreams and rampant drug abuse. Records, who agreed to words, “those little
Biography Of Rock’s have their debut, Kick Out
rats” – turned the
It’s a tragic and perhaps inevitable end for a same song into a
Most Revolutionary band that spent its brief life charting unknown The Jams, document the Top 10 hit, the

WHUULWRU\$FROOHFWLRQRIPLVÀWVEHDWQLNV MC5 in their native habitat: group decided to

Band and greasers united by their mutual love for live on-stage at Detroit’s
switch to another
Van Morrison song,
★★★★ The Rolling Stones, the MC5 cut their teeth Grande Ballroom.
Soon, the chaos the
I Can Only Give You
Everything.
Brad Tolinski, Jaan Uhelszki, at teenage record hops. Those early years are ● When The
brought to vivid life through the testimony of MC5 courted came Beatles launched
Ben Edmonds Rob Tyner, the band’s lead singer who died crashing down on them, an open call for
OMNIBUS. £25 in 1991, and Tyner’s wife Becky. Rob Tyner’s systematically losing the submissions at
Apple Corps, the
sharp, witty insights are counterbalanced by band allies at record labels MC5 submitted a
HE STORY of the MC5 – the pioneer- and causing a permanent
T ing Detroit band who blazed a trail
that pointed toward punk – is riddled
with missed opportunities, bad breaks and
Kramer’s earthiness. Their complementary,
VRPHWLPHVFRQÁLFWLQJDFFRXQWVDUHSXQFWX-
ated by Thompson and bassist Michael Davis
– Fred ‘Sonic’ Smith, the group’s second
rift with Sinclair. MC5: An
Oral Biography untangles
demo that was
swiftly rejected.

the web of contradictory stories and enduring

self-sabotage. The book that became MC5: An JXLWDULVWQHYHUGHOLYHUVDÀUVWSHUVRQDFFRXQW grievances, illustrating how the band was
Oral Biography Of Rock’s Most Revolutionary yet his presence looms large in most stories – simultaneously guided and suffocated by
Band nearly became a posthumous chapter in capturing the combative chemistry that shone Sinclair. The band’s dissolution after the
that doomed saga. Former Creem editor and through on stage and record. excellent if idiosyncratic High Time is dealt
0&FRQÀGDQWH%HQ(GPRQGVVWDUWHGZRUN That’s not the only way
on a biography way back in 1990, labouring on
with swiftly: by the time they
the telling of MC5: An Oral split, most of the band had
the project until his death in 2016. Edmonds’ Biography mirrors the band’s “Like the descended into heroin
Creem colleagues Brad Tolinski and Jaan
Michael Ochs Archives/Getty

career. Once Sinclair comes on MC5 itself,

8KHOV]NLKDYHWXUQHGKLVUHVHDUFKLQWRDÀQ- the scene, he overshadows the addiction. The ugliness of
ished book every bit as alive as the group itself. band he took under his wing, this book their ending does give this
Death nevertheless hangs over this oral SRQWLÀFDWLQJDQGSKLORVRSKLV- biography’s conclusion an
history. Founding guitarist Wayne Kramer died ing with eloquent profanities.
soars when unavoidable sourness but the
earlier this year, followed swiftly by the band’s His radical politics shaped the it’s at its book, like the band itself,
drummer Dennis Thompson and John Sin- MC5’s identity, pushing them peak.” soars when it’s at its peak.

110 MOJO
 F I LT E R B O O K S

VH frontman David Lee Roth songwriting pal (and driver), Sinéad

was the first person Alex called drummer/singer John ‘Speedy’
after Ed died from cancer in Keen, eccentric boogie- O’Connor: The
2020, but Brothers pays playing pianist Andy Last Interview
grudging respect to Roth, even ‘Thunderclap’ Newman and
as it tars him “a pseudo- teenage guitar wonder Jimmy And Other
intellectual who only knew a McCulloch constituted a “great Conversations
lot about one thing: himself.”
At the book’s close Alex writes
adventure” for him. He even
reckons elsewhere that the ★★★
of Ed: “We still communicate. making of their 1969 UK Introduction by
I’ll never say goodbye.” He’s Number 1 was “better than Kristin Hersh
clearly lost without him. any Who session for me”. But MELVILLE HOUSE. £13.99
James McNair Thunderclap Newman weren’t
built to last and despite Sinéad in her own words:
making one top-drawer album some key interviews and
(1970’s Townshend-produced conversation.
The Chronicles Hollywood Dream), they In her
Rebel Musix: Of DOOM: suffered from an inability to
punk-minded Stooges
compassionate
properly represent their studio introduction,
Scribe On A Vibe Unravelling Rap’s sound live, in addition to devotees subverting LA’s Kristin Hersh
★★★★ Masked perhaps inevitable personality glam-rock orthodoxy, recalls a 2005
clashes. Keen and Newman glitter-splattered entertainers backstage
Vivien Goldman Iconoclast didn’t get on, neither did Keen upending grunge’s plaid-clad encounter with
WHITE RABBIT. £22 ★★★ and McCulloch, and the centre pity party… Redd Kross have Sinéad O’Connor in which
of this uneasy triumvirate spent over four decades not
Vital collection from one S.H. Fernando Jr. could not hold. Wilkerson fitting in, a theme that’s a
the latter was deeply
of the UK’s foremost FABER. £25 uncomfortable with the
admirably tells the tale over constant through this giddy celebrity spotlight. This
music writers. Deep dive into the life and more than 400 pages, justly tome. Author Epstein keeps collection of interviews,
Writing for the music press music of MF DOOM, the man illuminating once again this the story rolling, training the spanning the Irish Times in
during that pivotal era from Q-Tip described as ”your oft-forgotten group. spotlight on Jeff and Steven, 1986 to an ABC chat show
1975 to the early ’80s, Vivien favourite rapper’s favourite Tom Doyle who wax rhapsodic on cult The View in 2021, foregrounds
Goldman forged a path rapper”. pop-culture, reminisce on the outspoken, prickly and
focusing on punk, reggae, Dan Charnas’s police brutality and skinhead unbiddable O’Connor. “I’m
Afrobeat and jazz, what she Dilla Time violence at Black Flag gigs, proud to be a troublemaker,”
defines now as Rebel Musix – established a new
Now You’re and occasionally squabble, she told Rolling Stone in 1991.
“progressive musical territories gold standard for One Of Us: The entertainingly so, over the Here are O’Connor’s views on
seen as the margins”. A details. It gets dark in places
musician herself, Goldman
the explication of Incredible Story – the brothers are unsparingly
child abuse, trauma, the
hip-hop enigmas. Catholic Church, her children,
enables interviewees to open
While S.H. Of Redd Kross open about their ’80s drug and why she abandoned the
up with deep insight on the
creative process, such as John
Fernando’s determined ★★★★ hell, while an underage Steven
gets abducted by his older
pop world for a more
attempt to shed light on the rewarding and sustaining
Lydon in the early stages of
legend of Daniel Dumile Jr
Jeff & Steven punk-scene lover in one spiritual landscape. These
PiL, or Bob Marley keeping the McDonald With hair-raising plot twist. But interviews capture her raw
lacks Charnas’s writerly polish,
power of Rastafari as his music
goes global. Goldman writes
it does supply an abundant Dan Epstein Now You’re One Of Us mostly testimony behind the
harvest of fascinating detail. OMNIBUS. £30 keeps the emphasis on the headlines, even to the point (as
with literary elegance and a brothers’ wild and unlikely
From the exact circumstances Spin did in 1991) of turning her
political charge, whether she The brothers McDonald adventures, delivering a
of Dumile’s birth in the into a freak show. However,
is infiltrating a National Front narrate their powerpop
hip-hop Mecca of Hounslow, hilarious, engaging there could be deeper insight
gig, celebrating The Slits’ concern’s wild ride
to the impact of cult leader Dr page-turner as uplifting as into O’Connor as a musician
anarchic she-punk or, more through rock.
Malachi Z York’s teachings on any of their overdriven and artist – the reason we
recently, investigating the
his Daisy Age rap trio KMD, to Partridge Family-loving misfits powerpop anthems. loved her in the first place.
death of Trinidadian rapper
the almost biblical spell in the in the LA hardcore moshpit, Stevie Chick Lucy O’Brien
Rebel Sixx. Most moving is
her work on Fela Kuti, wilderness which followed the
documenting the tough, violent death of his bandmate
brutal life of an extraordinarily and brother Subroc and
spiritual artist, the centrepiece Elektra’s rejection of KMD’s
of this essential collection. controversial second album, Three’s a crowd:
Lucy O’Brien Fernando’s book does a great Thunderclap Newman
job of laying the foundation (from left) John
for its subject’s remarkable ‘Speedy’ Keen, Andy
masked second act. The latter ‘Thunderclap’ Newman
Brothers half of the book loses its way and Jimmy McCulloch.
★★★ slightly in foregrounding
DOOM’s embrace of the
Alex Van Halen Non-Fungible Token over
HARPER NON FICTION. £22 his remarkable creative
Van Halen drummer mourns evolution, but there is enough
kid brother Eddie/hangs-up of a flavour of this unique
his sticks. talent to keep fans hanging
on ’til the last in the hope of
Non-English a happier ending.
speaking Dutch Ben Thompson
émigrés to
Pasadena,
California in 1962,
Alex and Eddie Hollywood
were profoundly
close-knit siblings. Brothers
Dream: The
details them sharing classical Thunderclap
piano lessons, fame and
alcoholism, and immortalises
Newman Story
their bond, something ★★★★
jeopardised by Eddie Mark Ian Wilkerson
moonlighting on Michael THIRD MAN. £20
Jackson’s Beat It (“We had a
huge fight,” fumes Alex). Jazz Detailed account of the
Getty/Ron Howard/Popperfoto

clarinettist dad Jan introduced short life of the mismatched

them to booze aged six (Alex) Something In The Air trio.
and 12 (Ed), while Alex’s first As Pete
erotic encounter aged 11 and Townshend recalls
his almost losing Ed to an in his foreword
early-period drugs overdose here, the band
make sobering reading. that he put
Given the well documented together in 1969
animosities, it’s surprising that featuring his
 Glory days: (clockwise from
left) scenes from writer/narra-
F I LT E R S C tor Bruce Springsteen’s Road
Diary; saxman Jake Clemons;
E Street Band (from left) Gary
Tallent, Nils Lofgren, Steven
Van Zandt, Springsteen, Max
Weinberg, Patti Scialfa; Bruce
and Little Steven share the
mike; Weinberg keeps time;
Springsteen and Curtis King
soak up the love.

the complicated dynamics that underpin any

Soul driver
Measured explication of veteran ÁHFWLQJRQ´WKe white hot light of an oncoming
YHWHUDQRXWÀW2GGO\JLYHQWKHWLWOHWKHUH·VQR
mention of the bouts with Covid that dogged
the band in spring 2023 or the peptic ulcer that
forced Springsteen off the road at the end of
that summer.
band’s global joust with mortality, train” rushing his way since the loss of band- On the plus side, there’s copious stage
mates Clarence Clemons and Danny Federici, footage as the tour moves from American
written and produced by The Boss his 2016 autobiography and 2020’s Letter To
himself. By Mark Cooper. arenas to European stadiums while the band,
You which confronted the death of George the additional brass players and backing sing-
Theiss, Bruce’s brother in arms in teenage ers are on-message talking heads. Thus Nils
Road Diary: Bruce ’60s garage band The Castiles. Hence Last /RIJUHQVWHSVIRUZDUGWRH[SODLQWKHUHZDUGV
Springsteen & The Man Standing from that album and The Com- RIGLYLQJGHHSLQWRDÀ[HGVHWOLVWZKLOHORRNLQJ
modores’ elegiac Nightshift, from 2022’s soul askance at the high jinks of the 2017 tour with
E Street Band covers album, Only The Strong Survive, emerge its audience signs and song requests.
★★★ as constant pivots in the narrative framing the
tour’s largely pre-millennium setlist.
Springsteen is older than that now and
Dir: Thom Zimny while there’s romantic archive glimpses of the
Zimny’s cameras are there when the band on the road in the ’70s, whether in station
DISNEY+. S
E Street Band and Springsteen reunite in Janu- wagon or bus, he’s not about to let us see how
HEN DIRECTOR/EDITOR ary 2023 in Red Bank, New Jersey, to begin re- his tour party eats, sleeps or travels these days,

W Thom Zimny’s latest col-

laboration with Team Springsteen
premiered mid-September at the Toronto
KHDUVLQJIRUWKHLUÀUVWWRXULQVL[\HDUV7KRVH let alone meditate on the impact of dynamic
ÀUVWÁ\RQWKHZDOOKXJVDUHDERXWDVLQWLPDWH ticket pricing. Instead, he and his fellow play-
as KHJHWVLQDÀOPWKDWVKDUHV ers carefully unlock the process
Film Festival, Patti Scialfa’s quiet admission on method and motivation at behind multiple on-stage
PLGZD\WKURXJKWKHÀOPWKDWVKHKDVPXOWLSOH WKHH[SHQVHRIDQLQGHSHQG- musical epiphanies. Ultimately,
“Springsteen writer/narrator
myeloma, a blood cancer that attacks the im- ent observational eye. When Springsteen
mune system, stole the headlines. A week later, SURGXFHU-RQ/DQGDXH[SODLQV and players wants to impart his mission in
Bruce turned 75. Back in February, Spring- that Springsteen isn’t that keen unlock the the face of that runaway train
steen’s 98-year-old mother Adele died and a on rehearsing these days and – to bring intensity, to share
clip of them dancing to Glenn Miller’s In The lone wolf Steven Van Zandt process ´OLIH·VSRVVLELOLWLHVµWROLIW\RXU
Mood is the coda to this methodical account wryly shrugs that he’s been behind on- spirits. Once he was born to
appointed MD a mere 40 years
of the E Street Band’s post-Covid world tour.
stage musical run, now The Boss is working
Disney

The Boss has been reassessing his work and re- late, there’s a rare glimpse of on how to endure.
epiphanies.”
112 MOJO
 (4)
IN HOLLYWOOD
(1)
SNOWFIST
(3)
I ONLY CRY ONCE

(5)
ONE MORE NIGHT
(2)
15 DAYS

(8)
CZECH SPEED

(6) (9)
COLD SIDE OF HILSDOWN
MY PILLOW & HILARY
(7)
THANK GOD YOUR IN
MY WORLD

(12)
MILLION

(13)
NOBODY’S GONNA
(10) STEAL OUR DREAM
LATE DAY SUN
(11)
CASH CASTLES

(14) (16)
BROKEN BIRD
MAD LOVE

(17)
YEAH! DANCIN’

(15)
FOR THE LONELY
SOULS AND BURNT OUT
LOVERS

The BANK DIG

On all Streaming DEEPER
Platforms www.wonderment.site
REAL NE
Low end theorist: bass
maestro Herbie Flowers
made musical history.

THE LEGACY
The album: Herbie
Flowers/Barry
Morgan – Bass Guitar
And Percussion Vol. 2
(KPM, 1971)
The sound: His

Four Strings Good work with Bowie,

Lou and the rest is
immense, but to
hear Flowers the
line-up of T.Rex and Blue Mink, who
scored six UK Top 20 singles from
1969 to ’73. In 1978, he co-founded
classical rockers Sky with John
Bass master and session legend What came out of those sessions consummate bassist Williams: active until 1995, the
is bewildering to contemplate, at the fore? This LP
Herbie Flowers left us on amounting to a secret history and of funky library cues group reached UK Number 1 with
September 5. from the famed KPM 1980’s Sky 2 and Number 5 with its
shadow career that’s comparable to 1000 Series (subtitled single Toccata. He also appeared
E PLAYED bass lines generations of names of much greater familiarity. ‘Dramatic Activity

H listeners can recognise in a heartbeat,

but session musician Herbie Flowers
was no gear fetishist. He said that he’d only
As well as recordings with Bryan
Ferry, Cliff Richard, Roger Daltrey,
Melanie, Tim Rose, Steve Harley,
Camel, Sally Oldfield, Al Kooper, Cat
And Suspense’
and recorded with
drummer Barry
Morgan) allows him
to cut loose with
on 1978 huge-seller Jeff Wayne’s
Musical Version Of The War Of The
Worlds, co-wrote Clive Dunn’s
1970 UK Number 1 Grandad and
ever owned three instruments: a second- represented the UK at the 1979
Stevens and all The Beatles except hypnotic minimalism
hand tuba, an English-made double bass and and wild fuzz tones, Eurovision Song Contest with Mr
a Fender Jazz Bass. By such modest means, John Lennon, Flowers’ eminent never playing more Moonlight, one of numerous solo
musical history was made. early-’70s credits included Elton than necessary and singles which included Tuba
Born Brian Flowers in Isleworth on May 19, John’s Tumbleweed Connection and always aware of Smarties and Don’t Take My Bass
Madman Across The Water, Serge the bass’s unique
1938, he recalled an early encounter with a role at the cusp of Away. Though he’d played on hits
pair of headphones, and pressing the Gainsbourg’s Histoire De Melody rhythm and melody. including The Scaffold’s Thank U
earpieces close to better hear the low end. He Nelson, Bowie’s self-titled second LP Movement (1), Very Much, Barry Ryan’s Eloise
started his national service in the RAF aged (including 1969’s debut hit Space incidentally, ended and Tom Jones’s Delilah, he
up on The Sweeney.
18, where he earned his nickname. He stayed Oddity) and Diamond Dogs, and Lou Volume 1’s lighter questioned why people needed to
for nine years, playing tuba and then double Reed’s Transformer. The latter themes for grooving know exactly what he’d played on.
bass as a bandsman. As a civilian he played album featured the bassist’s most offers bass-centric At a one-man show in Edinburgh in
jazz and worked on the Queen Elizabeth celebrated creation, the exquisite contrast. 1998, he memorably reflected on
cruise liner, acquiring an two-note ascend/ his part in Walk On The Wild Side:
electric bass in New York. descend that drives Walk On “Two notes! It’s supposed to be legendary
Ingrained punctuality and “Two The Wild Side, but his mastery but it’s bollocks.”
ability to sight read made him of the instrument stunned just In later years, Flowers played jazz, taught
notes! It’s
Steve Catlin/Redferns/Getty

suited to London’s session as much on Harry Nilsson’s bass and worked with young musicians. In
world, he said, and from supposed to Jump Into The Fire and Rock 2005 he reflected on his life in the session
the later 1960s he was On by David Essex, among age to MOJO’s Phil Sutcliffe, calling it, “an
immersed in it, coming and be legendary many others. illustrious life, but a ghostly one because I
going from studios each but it’s As well as doing sessions,
Flowers played in bands
was always working for somebody else…
I can’t believe the glory of it all now.”
morning and afternoon,
with gigs in the evening. bollocks.” including C.C.S., the final Ian Harrison
HERBIE FLOWERS
ON WALK ON THE
114 MOJO WILD SIDE
 Sérgio Mendes David’s The Look Of Love, and he
could work wonders with the
Bossa Nova VIP Lennon and McCartney songbook.
BORN 1941 Though his fortunes waned in
the States after 1970’s Stillness LP,
“NOBODY KNEW who I was,” Sérgio Mendes remained respected
Mendes would reflect on his New internationally and never stopped
York debut, at Carnegie Hall in working or innovating: his 2006
November 1962. Such an album Timeless featured Erykah
auspicious start would be an omen, Badu, John Legend and Jill Scott,
however: within four years his among others, and his final tour
debut American single, Mas Que included a sold-out appearance at
Nada, would enter the US charts, the 2023 EFG London Jazz Festival,
and the piano player’s blend of almost exactly 61 years to the day
bossa nova, jazz and pop would after that Carnegie Hall date.
make him the most commercially David Hutcheon
successful Brazilian artist of all time.
The new sound of Rio De
Janeiro broke internationally in Frankie Beverly
1962, with Antônio Carlos Jobim The mastermind of Maze
and João Gilberto headlining the
Bossa Nova At Carnegie Hall
BORN 1946
celebration, while Mendes’s RAISED IN East
Sexteto Bossa Rio were further Germantown,
down the bill. A military coup in Philadelphia, Renaissance woman:
Brazil in 1964 convinced him to young Frankie Caterina Valente –
move to California, where he Lymon fan Howard star of stage, screen
recorded – with little success – for Beverly sang in and dancefloor.
Capitol and Atlantic, but a switch to church and joined
A&M and a change of direction in doo wop act The and Too Many Games, they were Jimi Hendrix, who borrowed his
1966 brought instant success. Blenders and Gamble & Huff- also popular with jazz-funk fans in Wandre guitar and clicked with
Mendes’s new outfit, Brasil ’66, produced soul group The Butlers. the UK, where they sold out large lodger Kathy Etchingham. In
combined his driving piano- After forming Raw Soul in 1970, he venues including Wembley Arena. psychedelic 1967, Zoot’s band
playing with complex, funky moved to San Francisco and toured In 2019, Beyoncé paid tribute by became Dantalian’s Chariot,
Brazilian rhythms and the airiest with Marvin Gaye, who suggested covering Maze’s Before I Let Go in releasing Madman Running
of female vocals. a name change. As Maze, with the a medley with Cameo’s Candy. The Through The Fields, splitting after
The hip may have decried it as baseball capped, smart-yet-casual singer announced his retirement CBS rejected their album. He joined
easy-listening but its class was Beverly as lead singer, guitarist, early this year before playing the Eric Burdon’s New Animals before
undeniable, and Mendes had his keyboardist, songwriter and farewell I Wanna Thank You Tour, playing with Peter Green, Kevin
finger on the pulse, covering producer, the band’s mellow kind which ended in Philly on July 6. Ayers, Steve Marriott and many
Buffalo Springfield and Simon of funk won them five gold-selling Ian Harrison others. As G.B. Money, Zoot
& Garfunkel as well as Brazilian US albums from 1977 (the same enjoyed a healthy acting career,
composers, and toured twice with year Beverly played percussion on including Bergerac, The Bill,
Frank Sinatra. A convincing case Marvin’s Got To Give It Up) to 1993, Zoot Money Coronation Street, Breaking Glass
could be made that his is the all of them R&B chart Top 10s. Hammond-toting and 1979’s Porridge movie.
definitive version of Bacharach and Thanks to tracks like Joy And Pain R&B hellraiser Kris Needs
BORN 1942
LEADING
Caterina
Bournemouth’s
first R&B outfit,
Valente
larger-than-life Multitalented, multilingual
singer-organist singer/guitarist
Tony Gale/Alamy, United Archives via Getty Images, Fred Sabine/NBC via Getty Images, David Corio/Getty

George ‘Zoot‘ BORN 1931

Money arrived
in London in 1963 SINGER, DANCER, actress, guitarist,
to replace Graham Bond in Blues comic – Caterina Valente excelled
Incorporated. Massive on the R&B at them all to such an extent the
circuit, his Big Roll Band (featuring Italian press dubbed her the female
Andy Summers) took Georgie equivalent of Sammy Davis Jr. That
Fame’s Flamingo Club residency in may have been underselling her:
January 1964. Signing to Columbia, she was equally at home playing
Zoot released eight singles bossa nova with Dean Martin as
(including 1966 hit Big Time she was singing rock’n’roll with
Operator) and It Should’ve Been Bill Haley or scatting with Ella
Me. His West Kensington flat was Fitzgerald. Born into an Italian
the first place Chas Chandler took showbiz dynasty living in Paris,
she was a stage veteran before the
Second World War began. In the
1950s, she registered hits both in
“Zoot Europe and the US in a variety of
Money’s West languages, danced in a string of
German musicals and became a
Kensington popular, regular guest on British
and American TV; her biggest UK
flat was the single being a million-selling
Key player: Sérgio
Mendes – the most
first place Chas version of The Breeze And I (Top 5
in 1955). Having retired from
commercially
successful Brazilian
Chandler took performing in 2001, she died in
artist of all time. Jimi Hendrix.” Switzerland in September, aged 93.
David Hutcheon

MOJO 115
RE AL GONE Family affair: Tito
(left) and Marlon of
the Jackson 5, 1970.

“slave galley” style was key to post-Janis Big Brother, and

the band’s sound. Subsequently, Quicksilver Messenger Service.
he collaborated with J.G. Thirlwell Compositions included Buried
in the duo Wiseblood and became Alive In The Blues, Work Me, Lord
a producer for artists including and the autobiographical standard
The The, Faith No More, Celtic Born In Chicago: he also produced
Frost, That Petrol Emotion and cannabis classic One Toke Over
The Young Gods – in demand for The Line by Brewer & Shipley.
the way he used digital and Despite his own eclecticism, he
sampling technology to give a derided Butterfield’s later work
new kind of staccato edge to as “blues-ish”, remaining a true
rock intensities. Mosimann’s Blues Brother to the end.
production reputation was Michael Simmons
based in large part on his
extensive studio work with Swiss
trio The Young Gods, for whom Benny Golson
he became a de facto fourth Jazz saxophonist and
member, creating an innovative composer
machine-rock hybrid – a kind of
audio parallel to another bio- BORN 1929
mechanical Swiss outlier, H.R. BORN IN Philadelphia, Benny
Giger. Mosimann died in hospital Golson began playing saxophone
in Wrocław in Poland where he’d aged 14, practising with his friend
been treated for lung cancer. John Coltrane. He carried on for
Roy Wilkinson more than 70 years. Influenced by
Ben Webster and Lucky Thompson,
Nick as a young musician he played with
Art Blakey, Earl Bostic and Dizzy
Gravenites Gillespie, among others, and began
recording solo in 1957: two years
Original Blues Brother later he co-founded The Jazztet
BORN 1938 with Art Farmer. As well as writing
numerous songs that attained
A TOUGH standard status – I Remember
working-class Clifford, his homage to trumpeter
son of Greek Clifford Brown, is the most-covered
immigrants who’d – he worked in film and TV from the
landed in Chicago, early 1960s, creating cues for shows
“Nick The Greek” including M*A*S*H and Mission:
immersed in the Impossible. He also arranged for
African-American artists including Eric Burdon, Peggy
subculture in which Southern black Lee and Lou Rawls. Returning to
Tito Jackson 1979’s breakthrough Off The Wall,
left after 1984’s Victory, and after
musicians brought electrified Delta
blues with them from Mississippi.
jazz in the 1980s, 2015’s final solo
Jacksons guitarist album Horizon Ahead was, for a
1989’s 2300 Jackson Street the Instrumentally proficient and a fine player who said he never stopped
BORN 1953 remaining brothers splintered. crooner, he took a harp-blowin’ learning, aptly named. Widely
They were inducted into the Rock kid named Paul Butterfield under honoured, he died at home in
KNOWN AS the ‘quiet one’ of the & Roll Hall of Fame in 1997. his wing and the duo became the Manhattan, a short cab ride

Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images, Andrew Lepley/Redferns/Getty, Ed Perlstein/Redferns/Getty Images, Courtesy JG Thirwell
Jackson family group, the man In the ’90s Tito managed his prototype of the Blues Brothers. In away from where he and
born Toriano Adaryll Jackson in sons’ group 3T and in 2007 was a the Bay Area he collaborated with other Olympians of jazz were
Gary, Indiana would recall his judge on the BBC celebrity singing guitar god Mike Bloomfield and photographed for the celebrated
10-year-old self secretly borrowing gameshow Just The Two Of Us. He they founded scorching blues- 1958 image dubbed A Great Day
his hard-driving, ambitious father also returned to playing the blues, rockers The Electric Flag. He In Harlem.
Joe’s guitar. When he heard him releasing belated solo LPs Tito Time worked with solo Janis Joplin, Clive Prior
play, R&B musician and boxer Joe (2016) and Under Your Spell (2021),
gave his blessing. A blues fan from where Stevie Wonder, George
an early age, Tito recalled playing Benson, Big Daddy Kane and Joe Sax colossus: Benny
the music at home before a family Bonamassa all guested. He would Golson was an
band was ever a notion, but rejoin his brothers on occasion, Olympian of jazz.
autonomy was curtailed when most recently in a touring
Joe marshalled his sons, including incarnation of The Jacksons with
five-year-old Michael, into the Marlon and Jackie. They played in
Jackson 5 in 1964. Signed to Germany five days before Tito died
Motown, 1969’s I Want You Back suddenly in New Mexico on
was their debut US Number 1: September 15.
they had another three in quick Ian Harrison
succession, followed by 13 more
hit singles and eight chart albums.
While Tito sang vocals and played Roli Mosimann
guitar in live shows, the group’s Swans drummer, producer
recordings featured sessioneers:
he was able to play and contribute BORN 1955
to songwriting when the band BORN IN the Swiss
rebranded as The Jacksons and canton of Thurgau,
moved to Epic in 1976. He also Roli Mosimann first
appeared on recordings by his came to musical
siblings, Betty Wright, Livin’ Proof prominence in
and the 1985 USA For Africa charity New York,
single. Michael, who had begun a drumming on the
simultaneous solo career in 1971 first two Swans
and ascended to hyperfame after albums, where his pummelling

116 MOJO
 Writ large: JD
Souther, keeper
of the faith.

JD Souther once sang in his assured tenor,

capturing the tensions of
Rare singer, songwriter, generational change.
actor But Souther will invariably
BORN 1945 linger in folk rock’s footnotes as a
contentious muse and the
“I WAS YOUNG and stupid and songwriter who supplied some of
riding around Hollywood on a his generation’s anthems. When,
motorcycle,” JD Souther told MOJO already married, he stepped out on
in early 2022, talking about his Judee Sill with Linda Ronstadt, Sill
salad days as a songwriter among dubbed him an “unrepentant
the likes of the Eagles, Jackson bastard” and penned Jesus Was A
Browne and Judee Sill, as the late Cross Maker in his dishonour, a
’60s slid into the’70s. “None of us romantic rebuke so cutting and
had made any money yet. You have catchy he couldn’t help but be
to make yourself feel invulnerable, proud. Though he almost became
because you are quite vulnerable.” an Eagle, he instead helped author
In the years that followed, several of their irreproachable hits,
Souther and his friends would not like New Kid In Town and Best Of
only make money but would write My Love, plus Linda Ronstadt’s
a crucial chapter in the Faithless Love. Years after his
development of folk rock in the country-rock supergroup with
United States. The albums of the Chris Hillman and Richie Furay
Detroit-born, Texas-raised fizzled, Souther corralled many of
songwriter were plenty sharp his famous friends for the soulful
themselves, with his 1974 debut, You’re Only Lonely, his biggest hit
John David Souther, reckoning with under his own name. (Later, he cut and successfully pursued a home most incisive writers, his work
love, infidelity, and the faith of the Her Town Too with James Taylor.) life and acting, famously as a worthy of remembrance whether it
faithless in rich lines. “Well, the But sensing there was more to seasoned record producer in TV was he or his more famous friends
family possessions passed on to life than rock’n’roll marginalia, drama Nashville. Still, Souther was delivering it.
me/No longer fit in my hand,” he Souther left music for some time one of the early-’70s generation’s Grayson Haver Currin

THEY ALSO SERVED

DANCER, SINGER AND farewell in December 2022. four studio albums and 1976 tenure with Simple Minds energetic stage presence,
choreographer CAT (below, Along the way the band singles chart entry Ships In began in 1981, having she made seven albums with
b.Catherine Glover, 1964) opened for names including The Night, the band split in previously played in Slik with the band, their latest Age Of
worked with Prince from The Kinks and the Dead, 1978. Fox later played with Midge Ure and on the Skids The Ego arriving in 2019.
1987 to 1989. Among played at the invitation of Trevor Rabin, Blazer album Joy. A fan of funk and She was also a DJ.
her credits was Lennon and Yoko, and Blazer, The Pretty Things soul, Hyslop came up with a SONGWRITER, SINGER AND
choreographing the had their own US TV and post-ELO project the riff upon which Promised You artist BILLY EDD
U Got The Look show. Simon also Orkestra. A Miracle was based. Though WHEELER (b.1932)
video, taking co-wrote the DRUMMER ROGER PALM he left Simple Minds before recorded solo but found
part in the Sign song Sandy (b.1949) played on early the hit song was released, he greater acclaim as a
‘O’ The Times for the Grease ABBA sessions, following appeared in the videos for composer. As well as
and Lovesexy OST, played stints in Swedish bands the previous singles Love Song co-writing the Johnny and
tours, and with Chuck E Gimmicks and later the and Sweat In Bullet. June Carter Cash hit Jackson
rapping, Weiss, and Beatmakers. In 1970 he POP ARTIST DEREK and Coward Of The County
at Prince’s released solo became a session drummer, BOSHIER (b.1937) was, like for Kenny Rogers, his songs
insistence, on LP Transmissions playing on a Benny his peers David Hockney and were covered by Elvis, Neil
hit single Alphabet From Space in 1981. Andersson-produced single Peter Blake, interested in the Young, Judy Collins, the
Street. She also GUITARIST RISE by Anni-Frid Lyngstad as role of music as part of Jefferson Airplane and
appeared on the withdrawn KAGONA (b.1962) played Frida in 1971. When they commercial culture. Suitably, many more. He also wrote
Black Album, though a with Zimbabwean ’80s pop became ABBA, Palm in 1979, his old Central Saint plays and books, all with
mooted Prince-produced contenders the Bhundu followed, his most famous Martins student Joe an Appalachian bent.
solo LP did not appear. She Boys. Success at home was credits including Mamma Strummer commissioned
later worked with Bomb JOHNNY THUNDER
followed by international Mia, Dancing Queen and him to design The Clash’s
The Bass’s Tim Simenon. (below, b.1931) was best
attention: championed by Take A Chance On Me. 2nd Song Book, and the same known for his 1963 hit Loop
BASSIST DICK Andy Kershaw and John TRAILBLAZING BLACK year he co-designed the De Loop. Born Leeroy
DIAMONDE (b. 1948) Peel, the group signed to British actor CLEO sleeve for David Bowie’s Hamilton in Florida, he
co-founded Australian pop Warner Bros and supported SYLVESTRE (b.1945) Lodger (in 1983 his art moved to New York
group The Easybeats in Madonna at Wembley in 1987. recorded a version of Phil was used for the in the 1950s,
1964. Born in Hilversum, the Wider success was not to be Spector’s To Know Him Is To cover of Let’s performing with
Netherlands, Diamonde’s and, beset by problems, the Love Him with The Rolling Dance). He also The Drifters
family emigrated to Australia group splintered in the ’90s. Stones in 1964. A teenage worked with and The Ink
when he was four. He formed Kagona later collaborated regular at London’s Marquee, The Pretty Spots, and
The Easybeats with fellow with Champion Doug she met Mick Jagger at a Things and singing
emigres including Harry Veitch and died in his blues night and skipped inspired early backing
Vanda and George adopted home of Scotland. school to do the session. She Roxy Music vocals for
Young, who later produced R&B SINGER-DRUMMER later found success on-stage, with his 1962 Dionne
AC/DC. The group found SIMON FOX (below, becoming the first black painting Warwick. After
international success with b.1949) was an art student woman to play a leading role Rethink/Re-Entry. 45s under the name
1966 single Friday On My and played in bands in at the National Theatre, and SINGER DANIELLE Gil Hamilton, he recorded
Mind before disbanding in Birmingham before on TV, playing Melanie Harper MOORE (b.1972) was the Loop De Loop as Johnny
1969. Diamonde rejoined his joining hard rockers on Crossroads, among frontwoman of UK electronic Thunder and hit US Number
bandmates for a tour in 1986. Hackensack. He much else. act Crazy P. Growing up near 4. His 1968 track I’m Alive was
PIANIST AND VOCALIST graduated to DRUMMER Manchester and a regular at a favourite of Bob Dylan and
SCREAMIN’ SCOTT Bill Nelson’s KENNY the Haçienda, she was invited was recently used in an
SIMON (b.1948) played Be-Bop HYSLOP ’s to join Crazy P – formed in advert for Samsung.
with rock’n’roll revivalists Sha Deluxe in (b.1951) brief Nottingham as Crazy Penis Jenny Bulley, Chris Catchpole
Getty (4)

Na Na from 1970 to their 1974. After but significant – in 2002. Known for her and Ian Harrison

MOJO 117
T I M E M AC H IN E

King of the Afrobeat:

(clockwise from above) Fela
Kuti (top, centre) is released
from Alagbon Close police
station, 1974; Kuti performing
at the Africa Shrine, Lagos;
pivotal Kuti LPs Expensive Shit
(1975) and Kalakuta Show
(1976); Fela on-stage in 1974.

NOVEMBER 1974
…the state wages war on Fela Kuti
Afrobeat trailblazer the police raided his house, hoping to find told Vivien Goldman, adding that he found
NOVEMBER 23 Fela Kuti was a marijuana and imprison this troublesome a kind of parallel society in jail, with its
relentless thorn in the side of the military radical. Not finding any, the law returned own authorities and administration. “I told
government of Nigeria. As well as naming his in May just as Kuti and band were about to [the inmates] I would rename my house
donkey after head of state General Yakubu leave for a tour of Cameroon and planted Kalakuta Republic,” he went on, “not
Gowon, he’d recently condemned post- an incriminating joint. Kuti quickly swallowed knowing I was bringing real trouble
colonial corruption on 1973’s landmark LP it, reportedly with a gulp of whisky. and confusion on my head…”
Gentleman. Today, the authorities took Kuti was then hauled off to the crowded Soon the Alagbon Close and Expensive Shit
revenge when the Nigerian army attacked cells at the Alagbon Close police station, albums, both welters of polyrhythms, horns
Kuti’s HQ in the Lagos suburb of Surulere. home of the Nigerian Criminal Investigation and keyboards underpinning broadsides in
A force of 60 men armed with machetes Department. The inmates referred to the cells Yoruba and pidgin English, would give his
descended on the commune of free love, as the Kalakuta Republic, which was said side of the story. Affronted by his defiance,
music and weed-smoking on the pretext of to refer to India’s notorious Black Hole of in November the police came again.
Getty (6), Alamy, Courtesy Felakuti.com, Courtesy Partisan Records

locating a kidnapped woman. “They beat Calcutta, or local slang for ‘rascal’. While the The Kalakuta Republic was protected
the hell out of me,” Kuti later recalled. cops waited for nature to take its course and by a 10-foot-high barbed wire fence with
Born in 1938 when Nigeria was a British bag their evidence, Kuti switched his stool guards at the entrance. In 2003 compendium
colony, he was used to taking the hard road. sample with a drug-free substitute provided Fela: From West Africa To West Broadway,
Rather than studying medicine, as his parents by fellow inmates, and was freed on bail. eyewitness John Collins later recalled, “scores
had planned, he played highlife with his “I gave them a nice, clean shit,” Kuti later of riot police in blue shirts, tin hats and wicker
group Koola Lobitos in London at the turn basket shields were attacking Fela’s heavy
of the ’60s. In 1969 the band played in the US, concrete and barbed-wire fence with axes.
where the radical tenor of the times and its
emphasis on black consciousness, as well as
“They beat the Fela and his people were on the flat roof of
the two-story Kalakuta throwing down
the piledriving funk of James Brown, had a
huge effect. Back in Lagos, Kuti re-imagined
hell out of me.” anything and everything they could lay their
hands on…”
his group, soon renamed Afrika 70, and set FELA KUTI Kuti was beaten badly, spending three
up the club that would be dubbed the Africa days under police guard in hospital. After his
Shrine in the old Empire Hotel. lawyer succeeded in getting bail, the crowd
1974 was to prove a pivotal year. In April accompanying his return to the Kalakuta

118 MOJO
 ALSO ON! TOP TEN
UK SINGLES
NOVEMBER 17
Republic was estimated at 10,000: Collins

1DAVID
recalls him playing the Shrine that very GONNA MAKE
night, with a bandaged head and his arm YOU A STAR
in a sling. ESSEX CBS

As before, he turned the trauma into

constructive art. Wrapped in Lemi
2 QUEEN
KILLER QUEEN
EMI

Ghariokwu’s graphic cover painting – where 3LAST,

YOU’RE THE
FIRST, THE
MY
bestial police beat the people as tear gas
canisters fly – Kalakuta Show’s title song, an MOTT NOT EVERYTHING

3 Mott The Hoople’s last 45 BARRY WHITE 20TH

CENTURY
Afrobeat earthmover with an accusing sax
4
Saturday Gigs peaks at UK ( HEY THERE )
lead line, puts it bluntly: “5am/One day/ Number 41. A UK tour scheduled LONELY GIRL
November 23/The whole thing change… Grand finale: to begin on November 10 is EDDIE HOLMAN ABC

5BOOTHE
cancelled, and in December
Dem make sure dem use tear gas, baton and Nico releases
singer Ian Hunter (above)
EVERYTHING
bullet… Everybody dey run/Look head dem The End… in 1974. I OWN KEN
quits to work with guitarist TROJAN
break/Look blood him dey flow…” Similarly
6 PEPPER
Mick Ronson.
BOX
accusatory, Zombie followed in 1976.
Nico FLOYD TOUR THE PEPPERS

contemplates 4
SPARK
While overt harassment ceased for a Pink Floyd begin a tour at the
while, a worse clash was to come. In
February 1977, 1,000 soldiers razed the
Edinburgh Usher Hall. The
setlist features all of The Dark 7 NO
JET
HONESTLY
LYNSEY DE PAUL
Side Of The Moon and Syd
Kalakuta Republic to the ground and
viciously beat Kuti and his followers. They The End Barrett lament Shine On You
Crazy Diamond. Released on the
8RUBETTES
JUKE BOX
JIVE THE
POLYDOR
14th, comp Syd Barrett collects
also threw his educator/activist mother
Funmilayo from a window: she died the NOVEMBER 18 Nico records a
John Peel session,
Syd’s two solo LPs. In August,
Syd attempted a final session at
9THELET’S PUT IT
ALL TOGETHER
STYLISTICS
following year. including a sub-zero version of The Doors’ Abbey Road, but to no avail. AVCO
Indomitable, Kuti continued to record The End. The song appears on her new DURY ROUGHS IT
10 ALL OF ME

15
prolifically into his fifties, with albums album The End… Out this month, it Led by Ian Dury, Kilburn LOVES ALL
And The High Roads OF YOU BAY CITY
including Sorrow, Tears And Blood and features Brian Eno, Phil Manzanera and ROLLERS BELL
release their debut 45 Rough
Original Sufferhead serving as bulletins from producer John Cale, with whom Nico Kids. The band don’t last, but
the frontlines. In 1997 he succumbed to reunited at a gig in London in June. It’s her Dury makes it big with The
Aids, a disease he denied existed, though first LP since 1970’s Desertshore. “So much Blockheads in 1977. Rough
his incendiary message of liberation and time has been wasted,” she tells Nick Kent. Kids is later covered by
Madness, Wreckless Eric and
musical freedom continues to inspire. “I must work now. I can’t go on as before” Pearl Harbour.
“When about 15 policemen turn their (she also calls Cale, “a dirty old man. He
BLAM BLAM PICKETT
21
gun butts and hit you on the head and is so… married”). On December 13 she Wilson Pickett is arrested
you don’t have a single scratch… that is supports Tangerine Dream at Reims in the Catskills after
power,” Kuti told NME’s Len Brown in 1986. Cathedral. For the rest of the decade, firing a gun into The Isley
“I have physically experienced death… she appears in films directed by her Brothers’ motel room while
on a hunting trip. In 1975 he
and came back.” partner Philippe Garrel: her next album pleads guilty to reckless
Ian Harrison is 1981’s Drama Of Exile. endangerment.
GOODBYE NICK

Beatle’s about: John Lennon and

25 Nick Drake dies from an
overdose of prescription
drugs at his family home in
Elton John join forces at Madison Tanworth-in-Arden. Largely
Square Garden, New York, 1974. Crowning glory:
unknown in his lifetime, his
Lynsey de Paul
three LPs will come to be
hits Number 7.
regarded as classics.

AD ARCHIVE 1974

LENNON’S LAST GIG John Lennon joins Goodnight Vienna, which is out this month.
NOVEMBER 28 Elton John on-stage On November 2, George Harrison’s North
at Madison Square Garden for three songs, American tour, the first ex-Beatle US jaunt,
having lost a bet that recent 45 Whatever began in Vancouver. Ravi Shankar supports.
Gets You Thru The Night would not be This month, Paul McCartney & Wings chart
a hit. In his last public live performance, with Junior’s Farm: on November 13
Lennon plays the hit, Lucy In The Sky With McCartney appears on ITV’s This Is Your A bendy action figure of the famed American
Diamonds and I Saw Her Standing There. Elton Life in honour of his boxer pal and Band stunt rider? Yes please. Don’t forget his latest
album, where he advises you not to take drugs.
and Lennon have contributed to Ringo’s On The Run cover star John Conteh.

MOJO 119
A S K MOJO

On-stage antics: (clockwise

Who came on from top left) George

Clinton steps down from
the mothership; AC/DC

stage riding what?

busting balls in 1996;
Judas Priest’s Rob Halford
revs up, 1979; Throbbing
Gristle used Macca’s gear
for …Funk Greats; the real
show in Philadelphia, and Kurt
Come with us as we answer your Cobain being wheeled on-stage at
Mick Taylor.
rock-related questions and lay Reading 1992 in a wheelchair and Strange: only on
uncertainties to rest. hospital gown, addressing streaming services, not
rumours of an ill-health no-show. on CD/vinyl. Is this the
Rob Halford is known for riding on-stage on a A particularly admirable example, though, has Mick Taylor who used to play with the Stones in
Harley-Davidson at Judas Priest gigs, and in 1970 to be the case of late blues and folk singer-guitarist their prime? The music sounds a little bit different
Leonard Cohen rode a horse on-stage at a festival ‘Spider’ John Koerner, who sometimes bounced from his other albums.
in Aix-en-Provence in France. Who else has done on-stage on a pogo stick. Who’s seen similarly Klaus-Peter Finke, Germany
this, and did anyone go further? unorthodox rock transports of delight? Let us know!
Paul Reilly, via e-mail MOJO says: We asked a representative who
MOJO says: They may travel between gigs on
MORE NAMED LP SIDES confirmed that this is certainly not the Stones’
Re: Who named their album sides (MOJO 371)? Mick Taylor, so don’t bother if the real Mick is what
tourbuses, jets or limos, but arriving and then you’re after.
moving about on-stage via novel conveyances is a The Smashing Pumpkins also named the two
popular rock notion. Lana Del Rey motored to her sides of their magnum opus, Mellon Collie And
The Infinite Sadness. Disc one was named ‘Dawn HELP MOJO
slot at this year’s Coachella festival at the head of
To Dusk’, and disc two was named I was fascinated to read that Squeeze’s early
a long line of motorbikes, while Lauryn
‘Twilight To Starlight’. demos were recorded on a 4-track owned by The
Hill and Divine, on occasion, made do
Damien Lavizzo, via e-mail Only Ones’ Peter Perrett (MOJO 369). Are there
with just one. Those who’ve made
any other good examples of notable musicians
their stage entrance on horses, MOJO says: It was two CDs but it
meanwhile, include Shania helping each other out with gear? There must be.
still counts, we reckon! Thanks
Twain, Lil Nas X and country star also to Philip Duce of Wigston Jon Hamer, via e-mail
Tanya Tucker, who became the for pointing out that The Soft MOJO says: A good example is the tale of Paul
first singer to put the Grand Ole Machine Volume Two’s sides McCartney lending Throbbing Gristle a 16-track
Opry’s hallowed stage at risk of are called, respectively, ‘Rivmic tape recorder to record 1979’s infamous 20 Jazz
being manure’d when she rode Melodies’ and ‘Esther’s No Job’. Funk Greats. A connection existed because TG’s
Friesian stallion Lauwe The Other examples include the Peter ‘Sleazy’ Christopherson worked on the
Magnificent onto it in June 2023. ‘Night Side’ and ‘Day Side’ of cover of Wings’ Venus And Mars when he was
Ziplines are also popular – see Joe Jackson’s Night And Day, the employed at design studio Hipgnosis. “We
high-wire acts Kiss, Robbie Williams ‘Fast Side’ and ‘Slow Side’ of Rod borrowed his 16-track from Mull of Kintyre, his
and Lady Gaga – as are coffins, as Stewart’s Foot Loose & Fancy Free island,” the late Genesis P-Orridge told journalist
Screaming Lord Sutch and Screamin’ Jay and A Night On The Town, the (subtitled) Alan Licht in 2009. “It had mould, moss and stuff
Lynn Goldsmith/Getty, Avalon, Getty (3)

Hawkins spookishly proved. As for getting ‘The Easy Side’ and ‘The Difficult Side’ of on it.” Rod Argent, meanwhile, recalled using
inventive, some of MOJO’s favourite alternatives to Todd Rundgren’s Hermit Of Mink Hollow, and John Lennon’s mellotron when The Zombies
simply walking include Brian Johnson clinging to a Extreme’s double LP III Sides To Every Story being were recording Odessey And Oracle at Abbey
wrecking ball on AC/DC’s Ballbreaker tour in 1996, split into ‘Yours’, ‘Mine’ and ‘And The Truth.’ Road. Anyone got any other good instances?
Freddie Mercury being carried on the shoulders of And how could we miss the Small Faces’ Ogdens’
both Superman and Darth Vader in 1979, George
Clinton emerging from the Parliament/Funkadelic
Nut Gone Flake, whose second side is billed as
‘Happiness Stan’?
CONTACT MOJO
mothership that descended from venue roofs, Peter Have you got a challenging musical question for the MOJO
Gabriel riding a Segway for Games Without WHICH MICK TAYLOR? Brains Trust? E-mail [email protected]
Frontiers in 2003, Mick Jagger singing from a By chance I discovered an album by Mick Taylor and we’ll help untangle your trickiest puzzles.
cherry-picker above the crowd at a 1981 Stones called Wild Ride from May 2024 on Apple Music.

120 MOJO
 MOJO C OM PE T I T I O N

ANSWERS ACROSS
1 See photoclue A (8,3,7)
MOJO 371 2 Prince Buster song for heading into the
unknown (3,4,6)
Across: 1 Joan
Armatrading, 8
11 ---- City Four, -deth or Banton (4)
Zilch, 9 Brown 13 AKA a crew member (6)
Acid, 11 AM, 13 15 Canterbury prog act – just what the
LL, 14 Da Capo, 16 doctor ordered (8,6)
Zulus, 18 Soo, 19 18 Reni’s unrecorded band The --- (3)
Rush, 21 DNA, 22 20 Bread work on their annals in ’72 (5)
UFO, 23 Heroic, 24 21 Jazzer Don Ellis in poetic, Japanese
Newsstand, 26 Cult, mood (5)
27 On, 29 SPK, 30 22 “You say we’re fantastic/But still we
Bonny, 31 Blackest, don’t head the bill.” (Kate Bush) (3)
33 INXS, 36 Scat, 23 Prefab Sprout’s debut – with Cronos
38 Racey, 40 EB, 42 from Venom’s brother Graham on drums (5)
Old, 43 Sponge. 45 25 Brrr, it’s Eddy Grant’s label (3)
Ogres, 46 Rhapsody, 26 Lambert, Hendricks & Ross, caught in a
47 Axemen, 48 Del, rainstorm (10)
49 Can, 50 Snob, 28 Reggae big seller, 1000 Volts Of ---- (4)
52 Draft, 53 Close
29 Definite article used by Headcoats (4)
To You, 54 Golden
Years, 55 Theatrics, 30 Merle Haggard LP featuring Jesus, Take
58 I Can See Clearly A Hold (3)
Now, 60 Mark E 32 Barry Hogan’s fondly remembered
Smith, 61 October. festival (1,1,1)
34 Björk’s got mail (4)
Down: 1 Jazz 35 Art Blakey, pieced together in 1961 (6)
A-Gogo, 2 All Mod

Minor Threat Cons, 3 Al Hazan,

36 She had Eurovision success with Boom
4 Mob, 5 Toots, 6 Bang-A-Bang (4)
Amnesia, 7 Nail, 39 The last Replacements LP to feature
10 Clouds Taste Bob Stinson (3)
Metallic, 12 Mu, 40 Post-rockers Fridge’s third (3)
Win! Marshall Minor IV Interaction is also customisable in the 41 The Boo Radleys rise from the dead? (7)
15 Ace, 17 Lawal,
Marshall app, and they’re geared up for 19 Rockin’ On, 20 42 A country radio and TV bash held in
True Wireless earbuds. next-generation Bluetooth LE Audio. Solex, 23 Hat, 25 Louisiana (7)
ROM LEGENDARY rock’n’roll audio Worth £119 each, we have FOUR sets Sacrosanct, 28 Nyce, 43 Slipknot’s home state and second LP (4)

F specialists Marshall, Minor IV earbuds

are small in size but big on sound.
Featuring the classic Marshall look, the
to give away. How to enter: complete the
crossword and take the letters from each
coloured square and rearrange them to
form the name of a musician. Visit www.
31 BT, 32 Eddie
Cochran, 34 Steel
Pulse, 35 Pachinko,
37 A Boy Named Sue,
44 Frontman with The Monochrome Set (3)
45 Bryan Adams’ 1984 breakthrough LP (8)
46 AKA Berry, Buck, Mills and Stipe (1,1,1)
47 Deke Leonard’s Welsh rockers (3)
Minor IV brings outstanding acoustic 39 ELP, 41 Tractor 48 The Smiths’ posthumous live LP (4)
performance and expertly balanced sound, mojo4music.com/crossword and fill out Beam, 44 Golden 50 Song title shared by The Monkees and
while their snug fit can be worn for long the form, along with your answer, in the Hair, 48 Dry, 51
Charles Aznavour (3)
Baduizm, 56 Ringo,
periods. They also pack 30-plus hours of provided field. Entry is free and closes at 57 Flat, 59 Woe. 51 Pet Shop Boys LP featuring their cover
wireless play time, connect to multiple midnight on January 2, 2025. Winners of Go West (4)
Anagram: Brian 52 Exotica singer --- Sumac (3)
devices, and allow easy playback are selected at random. For the rules of Jones
navigation and call management. the quiz, see www.mojo4music.com. 53 Ye Medieval-Progge ensemble who
enjoyed Midnight Mushrumps (7)
1A 2 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
55 Blues voice Ms. James (4)
56 She debuted with 1995’s Pieces Of You (5)
59 The Primitives’ biggest hit (5)
11 61 See photoclue B (5)
62 London venue for Bob Marley & The
9 10 12 11 Wailers’ 1975 live LP (6)
63 The Jam’s second number one single (5)
13 12 12 13
DOWN
1 Gershwins-penned jazz standard (1, 9)
13 14 15 16 17 2 The madness Hawkwind warned of in
1976 (6)
18 19 18 19 22 3 AKA Family Man, reggae drummer (5, 8)
4 Elvis Costello’s devilish label (3)
20 21 23 22 24 23 5 Bacharach and David hit for Dionne
Warwick and Cilla Black (6,3,3,1,5)
6 Fragile opening salvo from the Traveling
29 30 24 31 25 25
Wilburys (6,4,4)
7 Library music label of note (3)
26 27 28 29 8 Time of Bob Seger’s Moves (5)
10 Players in the Gulag Orkestar (6)
30 30 31 12 Lightning Seeds feel their second LP (5)
14 Paper strip on covetable Japanese LP
32 33 34 35 37 36 37
releases (3)
16 Michael Head gets around the rules? (8)
17 Florence + The Machine, feeling
39 38 39 40 33 40 peckish in 2018 (6)
19 Fujiya & Miyagi taking a pause (2)
41 43 42 46 20 UK imprint who signed the Stones (5)
24 Madness, emphatic on LP two (10)
47 48 43 50 44 27 See photoclue C (5, 7)
31 Enter the arena with roots reggae band
The ---------- (10)
45 46 47
33 Staffordshire rockers who said, You Are
The Music … We’re Just The Band (7)
55 55 48 57 57 49 50 37 Stevie Wonder song subtitled
(Everything’s Alright) (7)
51 52 53 38 Graffiti notable who’s designed for Blur
(6)
43 Siouxsie & The Banshees’ Middle
62 54 54 55 52
Eastern song (6)
49 Randy California’s group (6)
56 57 64 58 59 60 69 54 Sadie, Eyes or even a M.F. (4)
57 The Alan Parsons Project reflect on
61 56 gender roles (3)
58 Yann Tiersen’s side-project (3)
Getty (3)

62 63 60 UK label, home to The Verve, Auteurs,

B C Smashing Pumpkins, etc (3)

MOJO 121
H E L L O G O O D BY E

By royal appointment: King

Crimson’s final form (from left)
Jakko Jakszyk, Pat Mastelotto,
Robert Fripp, Gavin Harrison, Tony
Levin, Mel Collins, Jeremy Stacey.

Jakko Jakszyk
We had to abandon going to Australia,
and in Japan they were very, very strict, with
10 days alone in your hotel room. That made
the end of the tour – and King Crimson, as it

and King Crimson put my key in the front door. He said he’s
turned out – particularly surreal. At the end
of a show Robert would always stay on-stage
a bit longer than everybody else, but at the
last show [at Tokyo’s Bunkamura Orchard Hall]
It began with a blown mind he stayed on for ages, like he was looking at
re-forming King Crimson, and would I like
in Watford, and faded to to be the lead singer and second guitarist? everyone in the auditorium. Then he bowed.
silence in Tokyo. We did a load of pre-rehearsal, apart There’s a very poignant picture of us walking
and together. Gavin [Harrison] started writing off-stage. Robert wrote something afterwards
HELLO SEPTEMBER 2013 all these very complicated parts for three (“King Crimson’s final notes of Starless, the last
note of this Completion Tour in Japan, moved
drummers, like a jigsaw. We did some
King Crimson was about the third concert I saw, from sound to silence at 21:04”).
rehearsals at Elstree, in the round. I think it
at Watford Town Hall [on July 15, 1971]. I was 13. There wasn’t much of an aftershow. The
finally hit me on one of the big sound-stages,
A mate had played me 21st Century Schizoid next day Tony was so upset I couldn’t talk
you walked in and thought, Fuck, that looks
Man and it completely freaked me out. I left to him. We wrote to each other afterwards,
incredible. The very first show we did was in a
thinking that somehow my life had changed. instead. And that was kind of it. I was quite
really wacky looking venue called The Egg in
Later I worked with [King Crimson gutted, but… it’s Robert’s band. I was never
Albany, upstate New York. I’m trying to be a
co-founder] Peter Sinfield, and in 2002 there under the illusion that I was anything other
grown-up professional, but there’s a 13-year-
was the idea of ex-King Crimson members old boy in me going, What the fuck?! This is than a conduit for that.
playing the older material [as the 21st Century insane. And it really came to a head when we We’ve been recording a studio album
Schizoid Band]. They didn’t have a singer did the encore of …Schizoid Man. It was really of the newer material that we co-wrote –
or someone to play Robert [Fripp]’s guitar overwhelming. I’m singing and playing with Robert’s not contributing at the moment –
parts and Pete said, “Well, I know this guy…” Robert Fripp and Tony Levin… it was a but exactly what that will become is anyone’s
– that’s how I ended up, ironically, being the defining, extraordinary moment. guess. I’ve written a book [Who’s The Boy
only non-King Crimson member. With The Lovely Hair?] which covers a wide
It was a bit of a nightmare, but it became a
bonding thing with Robert, who became like GOODBYE DECEMBER 8 2021 range – identity, my adoptive parents, how I’d
gone from being a kid thinking about being
my own personal Samaritan I could phone We were the longest surviving line-up, and in bands like King Crimson, and then ending
up. That’s how I got to know him. [Ex-Crimson we’d do two tours a year. It was just getting up in King Crimson. Which was like the
drummer] Ian Wallace had tragically died, and bigger. Then, of course, Covid came and the maddest childhood dream, and it came true.
I organised, with his wife, a whole world was weird. As told to Ian Harrison
memorial for him in London. Special visas, no standard
Who’s The Boy With The Lovely Hair? The Unlikely
I sang Islands. After that commercial flights, Memoir of Jakko M Jakszyk is published by
Robert invited me to his everything was more costly. Kingmaker Publishing.
house for lunch. About a year Nothing was said directly,
later, we recorded these but I remember the last show
Schizoid behaviour:
improvisations, which he we did in America was in Jakszyk and Fripp preparing
gave me on a hard drive, and Washington DC [on to play; (left) Jakko today.
said, “I’m sure you’ll think of September 11]… Robert won’t
something to do with these.” touch a drink until the end of a
That became an album tour, but we were corralled
called A Scarcity Of Miracles. into the green room and had
Then, a year after he’d our glasses charged with
announced publicly that champagne, and he proposed
“Robert stayed
Dean Stockings (2)

he’d retired from the music a toast, “To the completion of

industry, my mobile rang
and it was Robert. I was
on-stage for King Crimson touring North
America.” I thought, What
standing outside my house ages… then he does that mean? Are we
in Berkhamsted, about to bowed.” completely done?
JAKKO JAKSZYK
122 MOJO
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