"Pre-core" @ The Social

Police force last minute venue change for Black Francis

13 Feb 08 - The former Pixies frontman was planning on busking at Waxy O'Connors Bar in Rupert Street, Soho, ahead of his final tour date this evening (13 Feb), as part of the NME Awards tour at London's Koko.

Francis came to talk to Nemone this afternoon and broke the news to listeners that the Soho busk would not be taking place.

He then received the note, on air, that it had been moved to The Social on Great Portland Street:

"The Social, that's 5 Little Portland Street WC1 near Oxford Circus... It was supposed to be over on Leicester Square, the police didn't want me to go there because it's a public space and I don't have a license"

"Pixies were a big deal for us" -  Felix from The Maccabees

Westminster City Council step in

A huge crowd turned up to a street corner in Dublin on Saturday (16 Feb), where Francis played a mixture of solo material and Pixies classics, before Gardai appeared and took him away - to help disperse the crowd.

Off the back of this news, Westminster City Council felt that the "pre-core" would pose a health and safety threat.

As Francis did not have an official permit allowing him to perform a street gig anywhere within the Council's jurisdiction, he also ran the risk of being arrested and missing his show this evening.

The Maccabees rock out to the former Pixies Frontman

Around a hundred people turned out for the gig in the small, dark, rather crammed space in The Social. Francis played a few Pixies tracks including Where Is My Mind.

We caught up with Felix from the Maccabees who was queueing for the special gig:

"Absolutely amazing turn up for the books, to be on Oxford St and to go to see Frank Black is probably the best day you could ever imagine innit... Pixies were a big deal for us"

These fans were blown away:

"I managed to squeeze my way to the front and you could tell he really appreciated everyone turning out, because he thought he would only get a few people.

"Being that close to someone you have listened to your whole life..."

Black Francis is currently promoting his new album Svn Fngrs.


Ruth Barnes

Fat Boy for Wireless

Underworld, Bootsy Collins and Mark Ronson join him on Saturday night bill

13 Feb 08 - Norman Cook, aka Fat Boy Slim, travelled to London on Wednesday (13 Feb) for the announcement of the artists who will be playing on Saturday 5 July at the 02 Wireless Festival.

Speaking at the line-up launch at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel earlier, Fat Boy revealed that he, Underworld, Bootsy Collins and Mark Ronson will be the main acts.

The Wireless Festival, which is now in its fourth year, gets underway on 3 July and will run until 6 July.

"Hopefully we can bring some of the spirit of the Brighton shows into the heart of London town.”
Norman Cook

Speaking to reporters at the hotel which overlooks Hyde Park, where the festival will take place, Norman said: “I remembered the other day that Hyde Park was the venue for my first ever gig in 1975 when I came to see Queen.”

In an earlier statement he said: “For a long while I have wanted to play outdoors in London, but I just couldn’t find a beach. Hopefully we can bring some of the spirit of the Brighton shows into the heart of London town.”

Funk legend Bootsy Collins’ appearance at Wireless is a European festival exclusive and will mark his first UK appearance in seven years.

This year marks the second Wireless appearance for Mark Ronson who performed there last year.

Tickets for Wireless 2008 go on sale on 18 February at 9am and more acts are expected to be announced over the coming weeks.


Kelly Stooke

Rocking Against Racism

New club night launched, but without anticipated Doherty appearance

08 Feb 2008 - Rumours that Pete Doherty would perform at the inaugural Rock Against Racism London club night were dashed on Friday (8 Feb).

But that didn’t stop an impressive number of club goers, pleasure-seekers and social activists from turning up to support Rebels, Roots & Rockers – the first of a monthly run of music and social awareness nights set up by the Rock Against Racism organisation.

Jerry Dammers delivered a hearty ‘punky reggae’ DJ set in one section of the JAMM venue while live performances from The Krak (featuring, ironically, former Babyshambles drummer Gemma Clarke), The Mentalists, The Thirst and headliners The Others rocked the larger adjoining room.

To be fair, Pete was never officially confirmed on the bill, but hopes of his arrival were fuelled by his association with Brixton four-piece The Thirst.

The quartet met the Babyshambles frontman after working with producer Jake Fior.

That led to some informal sessions that they hope will result in material appearing on their debut album and Pete’s solo set.

"We didn’t know about this until we read about it in the paper yesterday."
Mensah from The Thirst on the Pete rumours

But speaking before they took to the stage, The Thirst’s singer/guitarist Mensah denied that the band had started the rumours for their own benefit: “We didn’t know about this until we read about it in the paper yesterday. We were like, oh, ok! We didn’t even know what was going on.”

Rebels, Roots & Rockers is one of a number of events that will mark the 30 ^th anniversary of Rock Against Racism’s 1978 Victoria Park carnival when 100,000 people marched from Trafalgar Square to Hackney in opposition of the National Front. Marchers then watched performances from The Clash, Tom Robinson and Steel Pulse.

Before welcoming each band to the stage tonight, host Geoff Martin reminded the audience of RAR’s legacy.

He told 6 Music News that 2008’s run of commemorative events were all-important: “Bands really want to be associated with this sort of campaign because they know how important it is.

“We’re trying to rekindle some of that energy and enthusiasm that created Rock Against Racism in the carnival 30 years ago.”

Jacqueline Springer

Radiohead hits row

EMI set to issue best of around band's tour

10 Feb 2008 - Radiohead and EMI are having another falling out, following the row over the band's departure from the label.

It's now emerged that EMI will release a Radiohead greatest hits album to tie in with the band's tour which is expected to begin in the US in May.

However, the band are clearly not impressed with the plans to cash in on their tour, according to fan site Atease.

“They’re planning to do a greatest hits for April, May to coincide with our tour," the site quotes Ed O'Brien. "That’s an interesting one. We won’t be doing any promotion for that, obviously.”

"We won't be doing any promotion for that" -   Radiohead's Ed O'Brien

Drummer Phil Selway admitted the label have the right to release a greatest hits.

Following the release of the In Rainbows discbox, EMI responded by issuing a box set of six studio albums and one live album. It also included download and USB versions.

Andre Paine

Elbow/ Hawley duet

Exclusive: Richard Hawley guests with Elbow

05 Feb 08 - Richard Hawley makes a guest appearance on the new Elbow album, singing a duet with Guy Garvey.

The pair wrote the track The Fix together - an idea they conceived after meeting on a trip to Tennessee in 2006.

Elbow frontman Guy Garvey spoke exclusively about how the collaboration came about.

"On the way back on the plane we formed a plan that we should write and record a really old fashioned kind of song, like a real story.

"I love the old duets that are about two cads, two bounders, who are up to something."

Also Richard Hawley told us the bonding on that Tennessee trip was all thanks to Battleships.

"I flew over with Guy and it was the first time I met him and I instantly got on with him because I'd brought travel battleships for the plane and we just played that all the way to America."

The song is about a horse race, as Guy Garvey explained.

"We recorded the vocal facing each other like Frank and Deano might have."
Guy Garvey

"The Fix is about two fellows who fixed a horse race in every way possible; they've drugged the horse, they've bribed the stewards, and they've fixed to win, and they're talking about how they're going to spend their money."

He also explained how the writing and recording process worked.

"I wrote all the lyrics and as I wrote them I was firing them at Rich, and if he liked them they got in the song, and if he didn't - they didn't."

"He plays the most amazing table top guitar solo at the end. It was so much fun making it with him. We recorded the vocal facing each other like Frank and Deano might have, years ago."

"And I think he totally outshone me on the voice department, but I quite enjoyed singing with him"

Richard Hawley though, seemed less convinced they were like Frank and Deano.

"That's in his fantasies. We recorded it live facing each other, but I think it was probably more like Laurel and Hardy."

He did say, though, that he would like make the odd live appearance with the band.

"I'd like to, it's just whether time prevails. But I'd really like to go out and sing it because, I know I'm involved in it, but it is quite a nice song."

The track can be heard on Elbow's 4th album The Seldon Seen Kid, which is released 17 March.

Glasto 'loses heart'

Lost Vagueness pulls out

03 Feb 2008 - Some sad news for Glastonbury revellers and fans of the legendary Lost Vagueness area.

After 10 years, what many have called the heart of Glastonbury, 'the festival within the festival', will not be taking place.

Lost Vagueness had grown from a small casino at the festival, to a massive area with eight venues and 1,500 performers.

The news comes as registration for the ticketing process began on Friday morning. Hundreds of thousands of hopefuls will be submitting their details in a bid to get to the biggest music festival in the country.

However, a statement on the Lost Vagueness official website states: "After 10 monumental years, the 'festival within the festival' which is Lost Vagueness will not be happening at Glastonbury 2008."

The area is famous for being a 'getwaway' from the music and mayhem of the main festival site, but it has a quirky kind of mayhem all of its own.

Jake Shears, from the Scissor Sisters, has called it heaven in the past. One year it was rumoured that Kate Moss and Pete Doherty got married there. It's famous for a colourful array of burlesque, trapeze and striptease, and has long been seen by some people as the heart of Glastonbury festival.

The details as to exactly why Lost Vagueness has pulled out are unclear for legal reasons, but founder Roy Gurvitz insists he has been forced to walk away after disagreements with the organisers, see his full statement below.

"We... hope this announcement won't disappoint too many of you" - Roy Gurvitz

The official announcement:

"After ten monumental years, the 'festival within the festival', which is Lost Vagueness, will NOT be happening at Glastonbury 2008.

It is rumoured that the vacuum created by the Lost Vagueness departure, will be filled by some ex Lost Vagueness crew and others, attempting to re-create a similar production in the same area.

In the absence of any Glastonbury festival press release on this matter, we do not want you to be misled by this omission.

Reproduction of our shows, without our permission or endorsement has been tried before, and however flattering these imitations may be, they will never come close to the real thing.

We would like to take this opportunity to thank all of our fans for their continued support throughout the years who have followed our shows at the festival, and hope this announcement will not disappoint too many of you.

To allay that disappointment, Lost Vagueness will be participating in other events and ventures around the country. Announcements will be made shortly."

Glastonbury wouldn't comment on the issue, or on the proposal that a similar programme of events will take its place.

DPT album probs

Second record is proving difficult for band

01 Feb 08 - Dirty Pretty Things have told 6 Music that they are having difficulties with their second album.

Bassist Didz has told us that the follow up to Waterloo to Anywhere is proving problematic:

"We keep running into things that we didn't think we would problem-wise, so we're just tying up a few loose ends. It was difficult writing it on the road and stitching it all together."

The lads recorded the album out in the desert near LA which they admit played on their minds a bit:

“We were out in the middle of nowhere by Howard Hughes’ aircraft hanger. We weren’t allowed in! There was not much to see and we went a bit stir crazy. It was not a nice time but we got things done.”

Lead singer Carl Barat looked visibly frustrated when talking about the album and agreed that the follow up has been a long time coming:

"The recording process was quite long. We were approaching from a different style of doing things as well, less jingly-jangly and happy-go-lucky. It was a bit more planned."

"It's a great record. I can't wait to get it out before we get bored of it!"

"It's quite frustrating not to have anything out. We're eager to get the record out but a lot of hiccups seem to be happening along the way."
Dirty Pretty Things

The problems with this second album could mean they miss out on a slot at Glastonbury if they don't come up with anything. The lads continued:

"Glastonbury's been rumoured but we don't have many bargaining chips when we don't have any songs out."

"It's quite frustrating not to have anything out. We're eager to get the record out but a lot of hiccups seem to be happening along the way."

"There are a lot of loose ends that need to be tied up properly and then someone had to go back to Los Angeles and pick up the files again and strange things like that."

When asked if they would consider following in Radiohead's footsteps when releasing this album, the lads were realistic:

"It's a nice idea but a lot of band's hands are tied with what they can do legally. Radiohead are in a great position as they're one of the biggest bands on the planet but not everyone can do that."

"Although, what they've done is very good and fair play to them for taking their position in the world and making use of it."