Monkey album

Albarn says don't treat their tangent, the Opera album, with prejudice

07 August 2008 -  Monkey: Journey To The West is out on 18 August and the former Blur frontman has admitted to the BBC that making it has been a labour of love.

The opera opened at the Royal Opera House last month and the album, which he worked on with Jamie Hewlett, is out in a few weeks (18 August).

Speaking to the BBC, Damon said their recent project is something people will just have to get their heads around.

He explained: “It has taken up like three years of my life. Making the record came out of having done lots of demos when I started to put the Opera together, and on stage you can’t get that electronic sound - so I’ve really tried to make what I think is a cool sounding record, with a lot of mad music. And yes, it is all in Mandarin.”

Damon says his creative relationship with his Gorillaz other-half Jamie Hewlett is as good as ever, and people need to listen to the Monkey record without prejudice.

“As soon as he gets his images with the music something really happens and what I would say about this record is, ‘yes it’s in Mandarin and it doesn’t have that immediacy maybe that Gorillaz has, but it is made by the two of us and we’ve just sort of gone off on a bit of a tangent’,” said Albarn.

"Yes it’s in Mandarin and it doesn’t have that immediacy maybe of Gorillaz, but it is made by the two of us."
Damon Albarn

Conducting research

Hewlett and Albarn went travelling around China extensively before attempting to make this record.

“We didn’t agree to even start the project until we’d been there twice,” Albarn said. “We got a chance to travel round mad parts of southern China where really at that point four years ago not many Westerners had gone.

“China’s opening up at such a massive rate but you have to understand how big the place is. There’s like a hundred different ethnic groups in China.”

Whilst travelling there, Albarn said they had some bizarre experiences - under the watchful eye of the government.

He told the BBC: “Everyone in these mountain villages were there in costume ready with ghost wine which is this lethal drink everyone in China drinks - and they’d be playing music and we’d get thrown into that, and there’d be a schedule for two hours and we’d get drunk and not know where we are, and we’d get almost pushed back into the little van, and then we’d go down one mountain and up another and then we’d be out of it again.”

Touring with the Opera

The Opera, directed by Chen Shi-Zheng, was premiered at the Manchester International Festival last summer - and features a series of animations by Hewlett.

Albarn was pleased with the fact that Monkey: Journey To The West was performed at London's Royal Opera House in July, because he thought it was a good way of getting young people interested in opera.

“I think we got a lot of younger people into Covent Garden and that has to be a good thing because, you know, it’s not trying to compete with Piccini or Mozart at all,” he said.

The pair have also contributed to BBC Sport’s coverage for this year’s Beijing Olympics.

Monkey and his friends will be the faces of our coverage, with music composed by Albarn and the animation done by Hewlett.

Georgie Rogers

Hawkins exclusive

Justin unveils his new project Hot Leg and looks back on The Darkness

06 August 2008 - The Darkness’ former frontman Justin Hawkins makes his live return at a gig at London’s Proud Galleries tonight (6 August). 

Hawkins quit the Darkness in 2006 after a much publicised battle with substance abuse, but now he’s back with his new band, Hot Leg.

Post Darkness

Hawkins told 6 Music that he left The Darkness to give himself a chance to recover from his battle with alcohol and drug addiction.

He said: “I left for lost of different reasons. Obviously the ones that were to do with my recovery were fairly well publicised at the time. I think, by and large, there were creative differences as well.”

So, with newfound time on his hands, Hawkins said he got into tennis and dealt with the come down from his former lifestyle.

He said: “I needed to do that, just in terms of the booze stuff, it was pretty important to do that anyway. If you’re gonna give your recovery a fighting chance then you really have to put it first until you’re stronger.”

As to whether it feels strange to be back in the public eye after all this time, Hawkins said: “Yeah, I mean I don’t think the eye is as public as it used to be, this is much more low key.”

"The drummer’s amazing, the bass player’s amazing, the guitarist is phenomenal. I think it will just be an intense night of man rock."
Justin Hawkins

His new band

And it seems the genesis of his band name is already a mystery.

When 6 Music asked him how it sprang to existence, Hawkins responded: “I think it’s because when I originally conceived the name I saw it as a leg for an L, so it was like a name with a built in logo type, and I never realised it was nuclear reactor.”

And he’s fond of the new name and project: “I liked the fact that it was singular as well, much more focussed – which I think musically is the difference between this and my previous band, much more single minded in its pursuit of man rock.”

As for what people should expect from the first Hot Leg tour, which sees them play four dates in London, Birmingham, Manchester and Glasgow from 6-9 August, Hawkins said: “The drummer’s amazing, the bass player’s amazing, the guitarist is phenomenal and me. I think it will just be an intense night of man rock.”

For this project Hawkins has taken control, setting up Barbeque Rock Records, of which he is Managing Director and head of A & R.

He jokingly told us they’ve just signed a new record label, for the impressive amount of 100 million dollars. Before laughingly saying: “It’s a tax maneuver, it’s just paper.”

Looking back on The Darkness days

The singer said he's not at all worried about being forever associated with his former band.

“I spent 6 years of my life in The Darkness. It’s not the sort of thing you can turn around and pretend didn’t happen and I’m actually quite proud of the work that we did – not all of the work we did.

“When I think of what we achieved in a year, we went from opening Glastonbury to headlining Reading and I don’t know if many people can say that really.”

Georgie Rogers

Keane on album

The band speak on the new record and Tom’s 2006 rehab spell

05 August 2008 - Following the surprise release of their single, Spiralling on 4 August, Keane have told 6 Music’s Steve Lamacq about their 3rd album, taking a break and going off the rails.

Having a break

Frontman Tom Chaplin explained why they needed time out after album number 2.

He said: “By the time we’d finished touring with Under The Iron Sea, I think we thought we need to take a break this time, allow ourselves to chill out and make space and not let music completely and utterly rule our lives.”

He went on to say that the break helped them prepare properly for their forthcoming record, Perfect Symmetry.

During their time apart songwriter and pianist Tim Rice-Oxley got writing, as Tom explained: “He came up with a batch of songs which we liked, and then he came up with another batch of songs which we thought were just unbelievable - and I suppose that was the point which we felt inspired to get back in the studio and start recording again.”

"I think it was an accumulative thing - the mania of what happened with Hopes and Fears."
Tom Chaplin

Back in the studio

Explaining to Lamacq how the band knuckled down to writing and recording again, Tom said: “We took the train to Berlin and we got underway.

“It was an incredibly experience, just the three of us in this place all together for the first time for a long period of time, and just using whatever sounds and instruments, and anything we could find.”

Frontman’s rehab spell

Tom notoriously went off the rails in 2006, when they rescheduled a North American tour.

It culminated in him spending a brief time in rehab for drug and alcohol addiction.

He said it was down to a number of factors and the knock-on effect of a quick rise to success: “I don’t know what it was, I think it was an accumulative thing - the mania of what happened with Hopes and Fears and not really being prepared for everything.”

Tom also said that Under The Iron Sea mirrored the band’s traumas of that period.

“It was a very dark record and I suppose it was a record really about the rumblings that were going on between the three of us – and our best way of articulating ourselves has probably always been through our music,” he said.

The new album

According to Tom, Keane’s new contribution, Perfect Symmetry , which is out on 13 October signals a change of direction in their sound.

 “A lot of people will be surprised to hear some of the influences and where these songs have come from,” he told 6 Music. “But I think we wanted to get out of our comfort zone.

“I think there’s a lot of bands who end up writing six or seven records through their careers and they basically don’t move anywhere and I think for us, our goal at the start was to always be experimental.”

And they took their cue from one of the biggest bands of all time.

Tom spoke about their inspiration: “The first band who we were all into together was The Beatles. You look at a band there, who over the years went from writing love songs for the masses, to changing the face of music and popular culture.”

“Those are lofty ambitions but we wanted to try and emulate that in some kinda way. With this record, at this stage, we really feel we’ve pushed ourselves and gone out of our comfort zone as much as we can.”

Check out their first taster here.

Georgie Rogers

Noah - Marling's split

Both acts speak on the reason they had to part with each other's projects

04 August 2008 - Noah and the Whale's new single Five Years Time, featuring Mercury nominated Laura Marling is in the shops today (4 Aug).

The single has already been a hit on downloads alone and is currently sitting at no. 10 up from 14 in the top 100 singles chart.

Laura Marling – who’s album was produced by the Noah And The Whale frontman Charlie Fink – also appears in the single’s video.

But she actually called it day with Noah and the Whale when they played a final gig at the Great Escape festival in Brighton in May.

6 Music caught up with both acts to find out about the moment they went their separate ways.

Laura Marling on parting ways

The Reading-based songstress explained: “It was really sad, I almost burst into tears on stage which is the most embarrassing thing I’ve ever done.

“It feels like we’ve all gone through it together and now we have to go our separate ways. Oh, it’s so weird.”

But she is predicting great things for singer Charlie Fink – with whom she was romantically involved - and the band.

“They’re gonna do brilliantly, he’s an absolute genius and so are the band. The reason we had a final gig was because we got to just put a stop to it.

“They’ll get someone else, I can’t just come back whenever I can make it and kick someone out of the band,” she said.

"They’re gonna do brilliantly, he’s an absolute genius and so are the band."
Laura Marling

Charlie Fink on making the break

Noah And The Whale’s debut album Peaceful, The World Lays Me Down is out on 11 August and vocalist Fink told 6 Music about Laura’s involvement with the band.

He said: “For the last year, she’s definitely been a member of Noah And The Whale. She sang on the whole album, and she’s toured with us and she’s done as many gigs as the rest of the band - but obviously because she’s got her own project, from now on it’s gonna be difficult to sustain both.”

Laura released her stunning album Alas I Cannot Swim back in February and has been going from strength to strength, with a heap of rave festival reviews and her deserved Mercury nomination.

Producer Fink told 6 Music it's time to go their separate ways and make the break.

“Although we’re both so heavily involved with each other’s projects I do feel really part of what she’s doing now,” he said, “but at the same time I feel we both have to make the projects separate.

“They have to feel independent because I think it’s very dangerous when bands get closely lumped together.”

However, he didn’t rule out future collaborations with his former flame, saying: “We may end up working together again, we might not,” explaining, “I mean, we may end up working together in a few years or something but I’m not sure. We both wanna have that identity of being independent.”

See below for Noah And The Whale’s forthcoming tour dates:

4 Aug: 6pm instore at Banquet Records London
5 Aug: Instore at Rough Trade East, London
8 Aug: Summer Sundae
9 Aug: Field Day Festival (around 1pm)
11 Aug: London Roundhouse - album launch
12 August: Instore signing at Zavvi, Oxford Street (6pm)
16/17 August: V Festival
13 September: End Of The Road Festival
13 September: Zodiac, Oxford
20 October: The Duchess, York
21/October: The Cockpit, Leeds
22 October: Fat Sams, Dundee
24 October: Stereo, Glasgow
25 October: Academy 3, Manchester
27 October: Whelans, Dublin
28 October: The Limelight, Belfast
29 October: MTV Liverpool Music Week @ Bumper, Liverpool
31 October: Rescue Rooms, Nottingham
1 November: Phoenix, Exeter
2 November: Wedgewood Rooms, Portsmouth
3 November: Waterfront, Norwich
4 November: Koko, London
6 November: Concorde 2, Brighton
7 November: Kasbah, Coventry
8 November: Thekla, Bristol
9 November: Junction, Cambridge
10 November: Glee Club, Birmingham
11 November: Leadmill, Sheffield
12 November: The Old Fire Station, Bournemouth

Georgie Rogers

Abba are No. 1

Swedish supergroup make chart history

04 August 2008 - The four most recognisable faces in pop music have made UK chart history, with the return of their greatest hits album, Gold, to number one.

Abba first released Gold - The Greatest Hits in 1992, making it the oldest album ever to reach number one. 

Figures released by the Official Charts Company this weekend revealed it is the fourth biggest-selling album of all time in the UK, and one of the top 40 worldwide with sales topping 26 million. 

This is the fifth time that the album has topped the UK chart, and the second time that Abba have claimed a number one selling album in the last few weeks. The soundtrack to the Abba-inspired film Mamma Mia! took the top spot in July.

As a result Coldplay's Viva la Vida has been knocked back a place to number two.

Meanwhile in the UK singles chart, Pamela Anderson's ex Kid Rock took the top spot with All Summer Long, ending rapper Dizzee Rascal's four-week reign.


Ruth Barnes

The Big Chill Day 3

Our reporter's blog with the latest from the Big Chill festival.

03 August 2008 - Today is the last day of a festival which has flown by.

Something I’ve loved at this festival is the amount of great covers the artists have been doing. I’ve already mentioned Lykke Li – others include the DJ Trentmoller, who whipped out his remix of White Stripes’ Seven Nation Army. Fink covered The Model by Kraftwerk, Hot Ape Brass Band played Marvin Gaye’s Sexual Healing and I’ve just seen Norman Jay open his set with a reggae, dub style, saxophone heavy version of the Pink Panther. It was the perfect way to start the day.

I can’t get enough of how lovely it is to see such a variety of ages in harmony. There is no aggression here from anyone. You feel so safe here. There's also lots of people dressed up as all sorts. Yesterday I saw a Scooby Doo, a dad dressed as Banana man, a troop of leopard print, fluorescent yellow catsuits, some bears - and I’ve been loving the huge variety of random wigs and men in bizarre dresses.

I’m signing off now to go and watch some more music. I know Orchestra Baoab are playing, and Asian Dub Foundation - which I might check out and a bit later a bit of Joe Goddard from Hot Chip playing Hip Hop would go down well. This is all, of course gearing up for Leonard Cohen. Not sure if I'm going to stay for David Holmes even though I’m crazy about the songs from his new album that we’ve been playing on 6 Music - but I’m going to need to exit sharpish and head back to London town for a night of blissful sleep in a bed before normal life resumes.

Will touch base later with news of Sunday’s antics.


Georgie Rogers

The Big Chill Day 1

Our reporter's blog with the latest from the Big Chill festival.

01 August 2008 - Our reporter Georgie Rogers has donned her wellies and waterproof gear and headed to the Big Chill festival near Hereford. She reports back with the latest from the site:

I finally arrived at The Big Chill at about 9.30pm, after a heap of traffic when leaving the big smoke, and was greeted by a spot of drizzle - but I found the 35,OOO strong crowd here in very high spirits already.

The rain shortly ceased, I didn’t even bother trying to find my friends’ campsite in the darkness so decided a night’s sleep in the car was the likely outcome and set off to hook up with my chums.

Set in the stunning grounds of Eastnor Castle, the site really is breathtaking. It is set along a lake which when lit up at night looks magical. Creatively it is a feast for the eyes, especially at night when everything comes alive.

There is so much to do here, the Victorian fun fair looks like a real treat which I am planning on checking out later on. Apparently there are traditionally dressed women wearing beards! There’s kids all over the place practicing their circus tricks, painting workshops and all sorts of activities to keep everyone entertained.

The atmosphere is great, whilst wandering the first night it has struck me that everyone here is really letting their hair down and going wild, which is something I hadn’t anticipated with it being called The Big Chill. I was very much mistaken, the chill aspect of the festival is just as strong as its counterpart – the party! It’s a really manageable size and even though the ages range from babies to 60 year olds, for the younger generation – it still remains one big party.

A leather shredded dress with this strange, beige oval mask hiding her face

On arrival I caught most of the former Moloko singer Roisin Murphy’s set on the main stage which was incredible. She’s got such stage presence and with several costume changes, she came alive on the stage.

One of the most interesting was, what I can only describe as - a leather shredded dress with this strange, beige oval mask hiding her face. She was working the stage and the title track from her second album Overpowered was a definite crowd pleaser. I was very impressed.

After this I went and watched The Orb, another great set. The mixture of retro with psychedelic visuals was mesmerising. The set was live and so they had a drummer, bassist on stage and I was blown away when they played a dubstep version of Louis Armstrong’s What A Wonderful World. It went down a treat with the Big Chillers here.

Later on I caught some of Daedelus, a DJ who was playing the Club Tent which fulfilled my desire to have a boogie but tiredness soon set in so I wandered back to the car, wound the seat right back as horizontal as it would go, got tucked up in my sleeping bag and was out light a light.


Georgie Rogers