Lily Not Al-Wight

Singer's withdrawl from Isle of Wight Festival angers organiser

05 Mar 2008 - Lily Allen has pulled out of the Isle Of Wight Festival.

The announcement follows tabloid reports that the singer is being treated for depression.

6 Music News contacted festival organiser John Giddings and he told us he still isn't quite sure why she's not playing:

"We were told that it was because of her record (company) and her album not being ready but then I read in the tabloids a load of different reasons so I would've liked to have been told the right reason in the first place."

And Giddings told us that he doesn't think it's acceptable for Lily to cancel her appearance because she's late delivering her next album: "I didn't book a record I booked an artist! If I phoned them up and told them 'I've decided not to have you come now' they wouldn't be very impressed would they?"

And he added: "Unfortunately this country has developed some great new girl singer songwriters but they seem to be having a few problems don't they?"

" I didn't book a record I booked an artist!"
John Giddings - Isle of Wight Festival organiser on the reason behind Lily's cancellation

But Giddings told 6 Music that he has no plans to sue the star even though she'd agreed to perform at the event last November: "We've got it all in writing," he said, "but I'm not going to sue her I feel sorry for her."

Lily's record label is yet to respond to John's comments.

No replacement

The Isle of Wight Festival 2008 takes place on 13th, 14th and 15th of June with headliners The Police, The Sex Pistols and The Kaiser Chiefs, but Giddings told us he won't replace Lily on the bill instead using the money to 'green' the event: "If you read what Radiohead say that they're only going to play events in future that are properly ecologically sound, then I'd rather use the money to do that, and make the audience experience better, than just book another group."

"I want to make our festival ahead of the game in all of this, making it carbon neutral, and with the Isle of Wight bringing in their Eco Island policy this would dovetail perfectly into that".

And when 6 Music suggested to him that would also enable him to invite Radiohead to perform there he agreed: "Exactly ...If they say they won't play festivals that aren't carbon neutral then does that mean they'll play ours if it is?"


Julie Cullen

Truck Festival spin-off

Details of a new sister event revealed

04 Mar 2008 - Truck Festival organisers have announced details of a new three day event. The environmentally themed Wood Festival gets underway on 16 May and will precede Truck, which run from 19 to 20 July.

Get Cape. Wear Cape. Fly will headline The Wood Festival which will take place at Brazier’s Park in Oxfordshire. Other headline acts include Ashley Hutchings’ Rainbow Catchers (with special guest Judy Dunlop), King Creosote and Danny and the Champions of the World.

Organiser Robin Bennett told 6 Music they planned to keep the new festival small but effective:

“We have just 800 tickets. That event’s gonna be very acoustic and environmentally themed. Now whether Get Cape…will appear at Truck, I can only speculate!” 

Robin explained why they decided to organise another one:

"Doing a new, fresh, event is a way of reminding ourselves why we do what we do."
Robin Bennett, organiser of the Truck & Wood Festivals

“We started Truck Festival ten years ago when we were all teenagers and now, obviously, our lives have changed quite a lot.

“Truck Festival’s the same as it always has been which is great, but we also wanted to try out some new ideas and obviously the big ones for us are the environment and what we can do to reduce our impact.”

2007 Wash-Out

Robin admitted that the experience of the 2007 summer storms, which forced them to reschedule Truck was a hard one: “The level of flooding that we had was once in a lifetime. I’m not saying that it won’t happen again because of course with the way climate change seems to be affecting our weather we can’t really say that for sure. The impact was quite devastating and all we can do is trust that, that at least wont happen again for a while. There’s nothing you can do to defend against it.”

He admitted that the creation of the Wood Festival was inspired in part by last year’s experience:

“Obviously the environmental theme ties in with that, but also everyone in the village where we hold Truck is still looking forward to the summer and are a bit traumatised by the whole experience.

“Doing a new, fresh, event is a way of reminding ourselves why we do what we do. Doing two events for the budget of one really pushed everyone to their limits, emotionally and physically. I think just doing something new on a small scale where its really controllable is also very appealing to us. Getting something happening in the Spring and…then when we come to Truck we’ll all be ready to really celebrate.”

Although headline acts for the Truck Festival are yet to be announced, Robin confirmed that Maps, Ian Maclagan from The Small Faces, These New Puritans, Noah & The Whale and Emmy the Great are among the acts who will be heading to Hill Farm in South Oxfordshire in July.


Jacqueline Springer

V Festival line-up

The Verve and Kings of Leon join bill

04 Mar 2008 - The line-up for this year's V Festival has been announced, with some crossover with Glastonbury.

Glasto headliners The Verve and Kings of Leon will also be among the big names at V Festival in Chelmsford and Stafford.

They will be joined by Amy Winehouse, Stereophonics, Kaiser Chiefs, The Prodigy, and The Kooks. Winehouse pulled out of last year's V because she needed hospital treatment.

Muse have already been confirmed as one of the headline acts for the festival which runs over 16 and 17 August.

"We're really proud of the V Festival line-up this year," said festival director Bob Angus. "A European exclusive performance by Muse and some truly fantastic established live acts mixed with some exciting newcomers will result in a cracking weekend."

“We're really proud of the line-up."
V Festival's Bob Angus

Other acts confirmed include The Zutons, Pigeon Detectives, Maximo Park, Ian Brown, The Chemical Brothers, The View, The Pogues, The Charlatans, Reverend and the Makers, Duffy, Jamie T, Hot Chip, Girls Aloud, The Futureheads, Squeeze, The Twang, Travis and The Courteeners.

Tickets go on general sale at 10am on Friday 7 March.

Andre Paine

Jagger 'murder plot'

Claims singer escaped assassination in 60s

03 Mar 2008 - Rolling Stones singer Sir Mick Jagger escaped an assassination attempt in the late Sixties according to a new BBC documentary to be aired this month.

A former FBI agent told The FBI at 100 series on Radio 4 that Hells Angels tried to reach Jagger's home in Long Island, New York, by sea, but their boat was disabled by a storm.

Mark Young said the singer had become a target in a dispute over security at concerts in 1969.

The row was ignited after the death of a teenage fan at a free gig at Altamont Speedway in California. The Hells Angels, who provided security, were dismissed after the incident.

"They were going to kill him in retribution for his firing their security forces," said Young.

“They were going to kill him."
Ex-FBI agent

He added: "Their plan involved making entry onto his Long Island property, going by boat.

"As they gathered the weaponry and their forces to go out on Long Island Sound, a storm rolled up, which nearly sunk the watercraft that they were in, and they escaped with their own lives. They never went back and reinstituted the plan."

It is not clear whether Jagger was informed of the plot. His spokesman declined to comment.

The programme will be broadcast on 11 March at 3.45pm on Radio 4.

Andre Paine

New Franz Soundz

Exclusive: Alex hints at African feel for forthcoming album

03 Mar 2008 - Alex and Paul from Franz Ferdinand have spoken exclusively to 6 Music about the band’s new album.

The Music Week team caught up with the pair last week where they outlined details of what we can expect from the highly anticipated follow-up to You Could Have it So Much Better .

Frontman Alex Kapranos told us: “We’ve been writing and we’re just recording at the moment; we’re about a third of the way through. We set up a wee studio of our own in Glasgow and that’s where we’ve been for the last wee while.”

“We’ve been listening to a lot of Ethiopian stuff, maybe that’s gonna be in  there.”
 Alex Kapranos

The quartet’s working with Girl Aloud’s production team on the currently untitled set, and Alex hinted that we should expect something different: “We’ve been listening to a lot of Ethiopian stuff, maybe that’s gonna be in there a bit. It’s very rhythmic.”

Drummer Paul Thompson added: “I guess there’s definite rhythms, [but] it’s a bit too early to say really. We wouldn’t want to mislead anybody.”

Alex continued: “I guess we wanted to come up with something a little different, a little new. So the sound evolved a little over the year. We spent last year writing and getting a new sound together I suppose.”

You can listen back to the latest edition of The Music Week   here .

Click here for details of how to podcast The Music Week by clicking here .

Jacqueline Springer

UNKLE’s Monkey Man

Lavelle Joined By Ian Brown for London show

02 March 2008 - UNKLE had a queue of stars lining up behind them as they returned to London’s Brixton Academy last night.

Ian Brown, Badly Drawn Boy and Duke Spirit’s Leila Moss all but stole the show from super-producer James Lavelle, who played a selection from the band’s back catalogue as well as the latest album, War Stories .

Brown got the biggest cheers of the night when he appeared first to rekindle Reign and later Be There. Also drawing from UNKLE’s first album Psyence Fiction , Badly Drawn Boy stepped in to provide vocals for Nursery Rhyme / Breather.

Lavelle used the guest vocalists as a star touch on top of a hefty setup that combined a live band, DJ and some special effects and visuals from the man himself.

The gig was the last of four they’ve played in the UK this year to promote what is the first fresh material in four years. It’s more rock-focused than previous work – particularly 1998’s Psyence Fiction which was co-produced with DJ Shadow.

It was in the vein of newer, more guitar-orientated songs that Moss fitted in, singing on Mayday.

Rather inevitably, given that UNKLE’s history includes work with Richard Ashcroft, Massive Attack and Queens of the Stone Age’s Josh Homme, there were some notable omissions.

None of the above were available on the night, to the disappointment of some.

Some hopeful whispers in the crowd suggested Thom Yorke might drop in for Rabbit in Your Headlights, a track that DJ Shadow still plays on tour. The Radiohead frontman was, however, sadly absent.


Rodrigo Davies

Primal Scream return

Mani and Bobby talk about their new album

01 Mar 08 - Primal Scream have assured us there will be a new album from the band.

It has been two years since their last record, Riot City Blues , and frontman Bobby Gillespie has also been busy recording with Paul Weller for another project.

However, Mani said that Primal Scream will be around for some while yet.

"We love being together and we love making music," he said."Until one of us dies, we're going to keep on doing just that. Thank you."

He added: "We're right in the middle of recording the new album, which is going great."

"We love making music - until one of us dies, we're going to keep on doing just that"
Mani

Gillespie revealed some more details about which producers are involved with this record - including half of Simian Mobile Disco.

"We did some tracks with Youth, Paul Epworth - we did something with him," he said. "James Ford is going to do a mix for us as well and we've been producing stuff ourselves."

Former touring guitarist Kevin Shields re-joined the band for their V appearance last year, but he is unlikely to be available for their next album campaign as My Bloody Valentine have since reunited.

Andre Paine