Innholdsfortegnelse for December 2016 i UNCUT

IT’S probably fortuitous Christmas is approaching, given the valuable investments showcased in this month’s Uncut. Two gigantic boxsets provide a motherlode of long-awaited music: a 36CD set compiling Dylan’s all known live recordings from 1966; and Pink Floyd’s relatively abstemious The Early Years 1965-1972, weighing in at a mere 27 discs. Together they represent a potentially shelf-breaking addition to your collection, and a significant moment in musical history, as era-defining recordings are moved out of the black economy, bootlegs of legend finally transformed into key parts of the authorised catalogue. For Pink Floyd, in particular, it seems an auspicious month. Our cover story, constructed with the help of Nick Mason and many Floyd intimates, focuses on the unveiling of those fabled Syd-era songs that have languished for so long –…

“I ALWAYS say that when God creates a genius, He gives them a whole lot of creativity but maybe shorts them on the practical side!” Todd Mayfield, son of soul superstar Curtis Mayfield, laughs, but he isn’t joking. Traveling Soul, a new biography of his father, co-written with Travis Atria of Florida psych-rockers Morningbell, is a loving yet unflinching look at a complex man. In the ’60s, Mayfield’s songs “Keep On Pushin’” and “People Get Ready” – recorded with The Impressions – became empowering anthems of black consciousness. After going solo in 1970 he released a run of classic albums, including Curtis, Roots, There’s No Place Like America Today and Super Fly. Traveling Soul charts these highs but also acknowledges the lows: Mayfield’s numerous infidelities – he fathered 10 children…

“Mick wanted me to join the Stones, but Keith didn’t want an American in the band” FOR the past 50 years, Harvey “the Snake” Mandel has played the blues – his virtuoso technique landing him a gig with Canned Heat at Woodstock with the Rolling Stones on Black And Blue , and with Dylan at the 2011 Grammys. For the past three years, however, he’s had blues of a more personal and life-threatening kind. “I’ve been going through medical weirdness,” says the laconic guitarist. “I got cancer in the back of my nose and they chopped up half my face getting rid of it. The good news is the cancer is gone, but I’m still having reconstructive surgery so I can have a normal face again. I’m about two operations…

“My parents introduced me to a lot of music I hated as a kid and now I like. Steely Dan, Billie Holiday, Al Green, Buffalo Springfield, Tom Petty, the Traveling Wilburys…” “EVERYONE is super-nice here,” says Julia Holter from her hotel in Mar Del Plata, Buenos Aires. Holter is in Argentina for her first live dates in South America – “We haven’t actually played a show yet,” she confides. “We’re doing that later today”. She is still technically supporting her 2015 release, Have You In My Wilderness. A work of exceptional pop constructed on avant-garde foundations, it was Uncut’s Album Of The Year and provided a commercial breakthrough of sorts for an artist whose work has been inspired by Euripides, Virginia Woolf and Colette. Back in the Elegance Hotel, Holter…

Plenty to shout about at the annual Americana Music & Awards Show at Nashville’s Ryman Auditorium last month. Jason Isbell won Album Of The Year for Something More Than Free and Best Song for “24 Frames”. On the back of the big-selling Traveller , Chris Stapleton took the Artist Of The Year gong, while Margo Price – whose Midwest Farmer’s Daughter is one of 2016’s essential releases – won Emerging Artist Of The Year. There were awards, too, for Sara Watkins, Shawn Colvin, Billy Bragg, Jim Lauderdale, Emmylou Harris and Rodney Crowell. And Bob Weir, who had kicked off the night with Merle Haggard’s “Mama Tried”, was presented with the Lifetime Achievement Award. Next January sees the release of…

How did the record evolve? We started in Berkeley, then travelled to Dublin and set up in a Martello Tower along the coast. Its 8ft-thick walls soundproofed and isolated us from unnecessary distractions. The main chamber of the tower is a large, circular dome-shaped room, perfect for live tracking as it has a controlled reverb delay that gives the music a comfortable breathing space. We experimented and wrote a lot of material during the winter of 2015/16, laying down the backbones of the album. Was there a particular mood you were chasing? We lean towards what people may call psychedelic. It’s for us a natural place. We invited a number of musicians to contribute that we knew would add further dimensions and beauty to the tracks. Our suggestions were subtle,…

How did Wolf People find room for beats and breaks next to folk and prog? Me and Tom [Watt] grew up in the same town playing in different bands as teenagers. It was the time of Britpop and eventually we felt like, “Forget this, we’re going to be hip-hop producers!” So we got deep into making beats and collecting and sampling records. Finding all these amazing blues and folk and psych records, we realised that we wanted to play this music instead. Why do you think it’s unusual for a band to brandish such unabashedly British influences? I think with people who make music in this country, there may be a little bit of embarrassment. Maybe it’s something to do with Britpop being too recent in people’s minds or maybe…

THIS MORTAL COIL Song To The Siren 4AD, 1983 One of Buckley’s most covered songs, though singers like Bryan Ferry and George Michael got it all wrong. However, this denuded, ghostly cover by Liz Fraser and Robin Guthrie of Cocteau Twins, moonlighting as part of This Mortal Coil, is exquisite. BRENDAN PERRY I Must Have Been Blind 4AD, 1999 One half of Dead Can Dance, Perry’s deep, luxuriant voice is just right for Buckley at his most direct. Buckley was a 4AD cornerstone, between this and the three This Mortal Coil covers – they also took on this song, on 1986’s Filigree & Shadow . MOOSE Sing A Song For You MANIFESTO, 2000 Dismissed as shoegazers, Moose’s transformation into avant-country dreamers had them ideally positioned to channel…

Shows included: SOUNDBOARD RECORDING Sydney, April 13, 1966 Melbourne, April 20, ’66 Copenhagen, May 1, ‘66 Dublin, May 5, ’66 Belfast, May 6, ’66 Bristol, May 10, ’66 Cardiff, May 11, ’66 Birmingham, May 12, ’66 Liverpool, May 14, ’66 Leicester, May 15, ’66 Glasgow, May 19, ’66 Edinburgh, May 20, ’66 Newcastle, May 21, ’66 Paris, May 24, ’66 CBS RECORDS RECORDING Sheffield, May 16, ’66 Manchester, May 17, ’66 London, May 26, ’66 London, May 27, ’66 AUDIENCE RECORDING White Plains, NY, February 5, ’66 Pittsburgh, PA, February 6, ’66 Hempstead, NY, February 26, ’66 Melbourne, April 19, ’66 Stockholm, April 29, ’66…

“PLAYING the blues had been a little bit cynical,” Ian Anderson admits of Jethro Tull’s first incarnation. “It was the street-cred underground form that would get you a few shows per week.” Stand Up was Anderson’s attempt to move the band beyond blues-rock into something “more inventive and eclectic”. Inspired by listening to Roy Harper, Pentangle and Ornette Coleman, he came up with a set of folk- and jazz-influenced songs that were road-tested in America on tour with Led Zep before being recorded in London in spring 1969. By the time the album went to No 1 in the UK charts that summer, Tull were back in America, where they were invited to play Woodstock. “I said, ‘No, this is not for us,’” Anderson reveals. “What…

Christiane F: Wir Kinder Von Banhof Zoo RCA, 1981 Soundtrack to Uli Edel’s gritty movie about teenage heroin addicts. Bowie appears as himself, playing “Station To Station” live, while the titular Christiane tattoos herself during (yet another) grim scene. A nice compilation of Bowie’s “Berlin” period, with a bit of Station To Station , too. 7/10 David Bowie In Bertolt Brecht’s Baal RCA, 1982 “ Naked, young… immensely marvellous! ” The disjointed nature of Brecht’s lyrics on this five-song EP allows Bowie to pour in a fine, playful delivery. Put together to accompany Bowie’s quality appearance in a BBC dramatisation in 1982, here “The Drowned Girl” is possibly the keeper. The 11-minute whole has been available digitally since 2007 – vulture soup and all. 8/10…

DAMNED DAMNED DAMNED STIFF, 1977 Thundering, riff-laden debut album, kicking off with blistering MC5-ish “Neat Neat Neat”. a taste of their gothier future can be detected in the creeping Vanianisms of “Feel The Pain”. a reissue is due next year. 9/10 MACHINE GUN ETIQUETTE CHISWICK, 1979 Following the disappointing Music For Pleasure , the reformed Damned delivered this pop-punk masterclass, showcasing a more commercial side on “Love Song” and “Smash It Up Part II”, the gloomy “Plan 9 Channel 7” and Captain’s piano-led ditty “Melody Lee”. 10/10 THE BLACK ALBUM CHISWICK, 1980 Double album ends with Vanian’s sprawling operetta “Curtain Call”, but is a beautifully balanced affair, with Paul Gray’s bass supporting Sensible’s exquisite melodies, as on “Wait For The Blackout” and “Therapy”. 8/10 STRAWBERRIES…

TELEVISION PERSONALITIES A pivotal figure of C86, Dan Treacy booked the Room At The Top venue and was an influence on Creation boss Alan McGee. Treacy’s band, meanwhile, exemplified the C86 essence of DIY psychedelia. “I was into Syd’s Floyd,” says Luke Haines. “No-one was doing new music like that, so the TVPs seemed quite radical.” ORANGE JUICE Edwyn Collins’ band was the breakthrough act for Postcard Records – a blend of the Velvets, Chic and their own idiosyncratic charm. For some it pointed the way. “The first Orange Juice LP is one of my favourites of all time,” says David Gedge. “In Glasgow after Orange Juice there was a vacuum,” says Stephen Pastel. THE GO-BETWEENS “They seemed like they were an enormous band,” says Luke Haines of the Australian…

AMIINA Kurr (BLÁSKJÁR RECORDS, 2007) Once Sigur Rós’ string section, this Icelandic quartet employ kalimbas, music boxes, saws and even wine glasses on their deceptively naïve debut. ÓLAFUR ARNALDS ...And They Have Escaped The Weight Of Darkness (ERASED TAPES, 2010)   Darkness (ERASED TAPES, 2010) Unashamedly emotive, Arnalds incorporates strings and electronics for a mournful but beautiful second album. A WINGED VICTORY FOR THE SULLEN A Winged Victory For The Sullen (ERASED TAPES, 2011) Delicate string arrangements gild Dustin O’Halloran’s heartfelt piano melodies and Adam Wiltzie’s atmospheric drones. EIGHTH BLACKBIRD Filament (CEDILLE, 2015) Bryce Dessner contributes his sprightly “Murder Ballades” to this collection of avant-garde chamber music. Son Lux and Nico Muhly are also present. NILS FRAHM Spaces (ERASED TAPES, 2013) Frahm’s breakthrough compiles live recordings underlining his musical range…

“TO me, everything now is an opportunity,” says David Pajo, “even when shit sucks. At least I’m still fucking here. It’s a new adventure.” The guitarist, bassist, singer and songwriter certainly knows how to play a bad hand – in February 2015 he attempted suicide, while earlier this year he was hit by a motorbike and narrowly avoided the amputation of one of his legs. “I’m hoping I’ll be walking again by the end of the year, but we’ll see if Santa’s nice to me or not!” he laughs. “I’m still recovering, but it’s a long process.” David Pajo today genuinely seems like a man rejuvenated, excited about music and life again; on the phone from his Los Angeles home, Pajo takes Uncut through some of the stellar albums he’s…

At the last count, the total number of recordings attributable to Robert Johnson stands at 42 – not much, you’d have thought, to sustain a legend. The past half-century or so, of course, has proved otherwise, as the scarcity of music and authoritative facts about Johnson has actively encouraged the creation of one of the 20th century’s most enduring cultural myths. Assiduous blues scholars might not feel, as a consequence, they need to read much more about Johnson. But Love In Vain: Robert Johnson 1911-1938 is a beautiful retelling of the yarn in the form of a graphic novel. The author is a former music journalist, JM Dupont, but it’s the dramatic illustrations that really capture the uncanny potency so many have found in Johnson’s fable. The artist, an enigmatic-sounding…

 ALBUM OF THE MONTH ““I don’t want to leave you ever/And that’s a long, long, time” IT’S not too much of a stretch to imagine that a record apparently named after the First Lady Of The United States, released four days before a former First Lady will hopefully become president, might have a polemical agenda. Hunting through the crumpled textures and digital folds of Lambchop’s 12th album, however, overt political content is hard to find. A song called “JFK” seems more of an exercise in dislocation, a rifling through of disparate images that coalesce around Kurt Wagner’s repeated declaration he “talks too much”. A lyric hidden in “Writer” might hint at the political climate of the past few months, as Wagner sings about how, “Now we walk with weather most…

Chrissie Hynde: “If you’re a rock’n’roll figure, you don’t change” How did you hook up with Dan Auerbach? It wasn’t really that we both came from Akron – I bailed out of that place years ago! It was more that I had admired The Black Keys from afar. You can tell a lot about a musician by the way he holds his guitar. You really can tell if he gets rock’n’roll music. How did he change the way you worked? He’s half my age but seems older than me! He sits in his studio surrounded by vintage recording equipment, listening to obscure, crackly old records. He works fast – we recorded this in two weeks. I wrote most of these songs on my own – most…

Had you planned to make this record for some time? This album was strange in that I didn’t set out to write it. It all started with improv pieces where I was playing the organ and Brian Reitzell was on drums. We were working on scoring films and got fired for being too weird! But I loved a lot of the music and it resurfaced. When I met Shun [Shungudzo Kuyimba] I felt like her voice became a beautiful connecting line across the record. Somehow it just kept collecting more and more beautiful souls. The tone of Eternally Even recalls protest-soul albums from the past, from Marvin Gaye to Curtis Mayfield. Curtis Mayfield is like the Buddha. I feel his spirit always seeps into my work…

“The music of America, of the world, was in Tim’s blood. His voice was better than you’ve heard in all your days” A lot of myths have gathered around Tim Buckley over the years – but one of the revelations of these demos is his writing songs for a “singles market”. It must have been interesting for both of you to be presented with such a challenge. “Sixface”, “Contact”, “Lady, Give Me Your Key” and “Once Upon A Time” were the single demos. We scorned the business of music: singles, promotion, chart positions, radio, money. We loved the art of music: songs too long, too experimental, for pop transmission. When Elektra asked us to write a single , we didn’t feel strong enough to say no. So we wrote subversive…

TIM Smith’s completion of On The Dry Land , the “lost” Sea Nymphs album of the early ’90s, is one of the more rousing stories of 2016. This belated return to work seemed improbable after the combined heart attack and stroke that befell the Cardiacs’ leader eight years ago. “ On The Dry Land was always on my mind, but there’s so much more Sea Nymphs stuff to be finished whenever we can find the box,” says Smith, whose recovery continues to be an ongoing process. “The album was made with whatever we found lying around. I remember us building a huge monolith of sand right in the middle of the carpet. It stood 7ft high and we stuck mussel shells and bits of…

ARCHIVAL releases continue to impress at this time of year, and our next issue promises reviews of Gillian Welch’s Boots No 1: The Official Revival Bootleg , containing eight previously unheard songs, Lee Hazlewood’s expanded Cowboy In Sweden , and more. The new-release schedule isn’t too shoddy, either – look out for The Rolling Stones’ Blue & Lonesome , Thee Oh Sees’ An Odd Entrances and Kate Bush’s Before The Dawn , a lavish live album of 2014’s even more lavish live production. TOM.PINNOCK@TIMEINC.COM…

“IS there one huge Floyd warehouse?” says Aubrey Powell. “I wish! There are various warehouses where different bits of Floyd things are to be found. For example, there’s a pile of pigs! All deflated, some of them rotting, some of them in excellent shape…” Powell, longtime designer for Pink Floyd and David Gilmour, has nevertheless managed to dredge up a host of archival material for inclusion in Their Mortal Remains, the extravagant Pink Floyd exhibition set to open at London’s V&A Museum in May 2017. “When the V&A said they would like to do something with us,” explains Nick Mason, “I thought, ‘No, no, I’ve seen the Bowie exhibition and he’s got so much stuff – the costumes and so on. What could we put on show?’ With the big…

BRIEFLY returning to the UK from Brussels in 1975, Brian James saw an advert in Melody Maker mentioning the Stooges. It was for a band Bernie Rhodes put together called London SS featuring Mick Jones and Tony James, later of Chelsea and Generation X. “There was never really a band, it was a bunch of auditions,” says Brian James. “It was a nucleus of Mick and Tony with others joining up. We never did any gigs; it got boring after a while. Tony brought a portable TV along and we’d watch that instead.” among those that sat in for sessions were Chrissie Hynde, Matt Dangerfield of The Boys, Paul Simonon and Rat Scabies. Through London SS, Scabies got involved in a Malcolm McLaren project featuring Hynde,…

ROBERT RATHS, ERASED TAPES: “Most of us come from a rock, punk background. We’re more grounded in that DIY mindset than, say, the classical, academic world. In fact, only a few of us are academics, and those usually either didn’t finish or decided to turn their back on it and start something different. I like the fact that we feel more related to rock, punk, electronic communities because that’s how we first discovered music. I think it still shines through.” DAVE HOWELL, 130701: “We’re living in a time and space where certain old modes of thought and behaviours, certain old hierarchies are increasingly breaking down. It’s so much easier to access, connect to and play with different things, and so it’s become more natural and normal for crossovers and experimentation.…

AS the story goes, Uncut’s founding editor, Allan Jones, came up with the idea for the magazine during a trip to Nashville to see one of the most inspiring bands he’d heard in years. They were called Lambchop and, the best part of 20 years down the line, they still have a critical position at the heart of Uncut’s musical world. The 12th Lambchop long player, FLOTUS, is this issue’s Album Of The Month, and one of the most interesting records that Kurt Wagner and his shape-shifting ensemble have ever made: a gentle fusion of country-soul with a very discreet brand of electronica. It finds, too, Wagner adjusting his voice with a variety of digital tools, which modernise the band’s sound without detracting from their signature grace. FLOTUS is a…

Two new issues of our sister titles are currently in the shops. There’s our deluxe edition of the John Lennon Ultimate Music Guide , as well as the latest instalment of History Of Rock , which this month reaches 1980 – Joy Division are on the cover. It seems reports of Robert Wyatt’s retirement may have been premature: he’s coming back to the stage for a rare collaboration with Paul Weller and Danny Thompson. The event? A concert in support of Jeremy Corbyn. You can witness this momentous occasion at the Brighton Dome on December 16. Joy abounds in the Uncut office as we learn that Lego have immortalised The Beatles’ Yellow Submarine in a new…

SOLANGE A Seat At The Table RCA A deep nu-soul meditation on black identity from Beyoncé’s sister, repositioned as a kind of millennial Erykah Badu. GILLIAN WELCH Boots No 1: The Official Revival Bootleg ACONY Five years on from her last solo album, the meticulous Welch raids her archives for an essential adjunct to her ’96 debut. THE ROLLING STONES Just Your Fool POLYDOR First taster from the blues connoisseurs’ covers LP: a honking homage to Blue & Lonesome’s key influence, Little Walter. KIM GORDON Murdered Out MATADOR Ferocious solo blast from the noted memoirist, back in the vicinity of Goo for the first time in years. FERAL OHMS Live In San Francisco CASTLE FACE A hardcore treat for Ethan Miller fans,…

LAMBCHOP Up With People (Zero 7 Remix) CITY SLANG, 2000 The rousing highlight of Nixon briefly threatened to turn Lambchop into a mainstream band, at least in Europe. Zero 7, flourishing at the time as a kind of UK analogue to Air, provided a suitably millennial remix, reconfiguring the original’s raw soul with tasteful chill-out symphonics. MORCHEEBA What New York Couples Fight About SIRE, 2002 Not dance music or electronica, exactly, but Wagner’s short period of pop recognition resulted in a hook-up with Morcheeba, coffee-table trip-hop artisans nonpareil . Sadly, Wagner and one of the Charango album’s other guests – Slick Rick! – don’t cross paths among the spy-movie harpsichords and shuffle beats. X-PRESS 2 Give It (Featuring Kurt…

AMOR-CONVERTINO The Western Suite And Siesta Songs LIVING MUSIC DUPLICATION 8/10 Unconventional desert rock from Calexico drummer and French multi-instrumentalist Having collaborated in 2001 as ABBC (alongside Joey Burns and Thomas Belhom), John Convertino and Naim Amor apply their shared experience of Tucson life to this atmospheric, instrumental road trip through the Southwestern states. Sparse production ensures Convertino’s delicate brushwork and Amor’s Gallic roots shine on the accordion flavours of “Xo Waltz”, while “Round ’Em Up”’s whistled melody inevitably points to Morricone’s influence. There are further playful nods to Tom Waits in “Jello Roll Tango”’s saloon piano and junkyard percussion, while the lovely “Rye Grass Waltz” recalls Convertino’s former band, Giant Sand. WYNDHAM WALLACE ARCHIVE The False Foundation DANGERVISIT 7/10 Sporadically sublime 10th outing from progressive trip-hoppers Still oddly overlooked…

Oh Be Joyful ONE KIND FAVOR/ DEBACLE, 2012 A guitar prodigy who has been writing, recording, and touring since he was 17, Bachman’s percussive picking style prizes fervour over precision. Oh Be Joyful is a fine example of what the Virginia native has called “psychedelic Appalachia”, which combines folk, gospel, country, jigs, reels and blues into original songs shaped like question marks. 8/10 Seven Pines TOMPKINS SQUARE, 2013 Seven Pines was inspired by a year spent living in Philadelphia, and while there is some urban bustle in Bachman’s rapid fingerpicking, it doesn’t feel particularly urban. Instead, songs such as the eight-minute “Copperhead” and “Mount Olive Cohoke” evoke rural settings of his home state, conjuring a homesickness that makes this his most poignant record. 9/10…

8/10 TO a large extent, you know what you’re going to get with any album featuring the voice of Hope Sandoval, the Californian singer and songwriter best known for her work with Mazzy Star. Sandoval’s blurred narcotic swoon, deadpan yet strangely emotive, dominates everything she touches without seeming even to try. One long sighing fall, it’s not a voice designed to get the party started; rather, it slips exquisitely through the shadows of some eternal comedown. Over the past three decades Sandoval has wrapped it around a variety of musical styles – Gothic-country, sadcore, hazy dreampop, tripped-out soul and slo-mo psychedelia, as well as on records by Massive Attack, The Jesus And Mary Chain and Bert Jansch – but it has always gravitated naturally towards an unhurried sadness. That hasn’t…

“And sometimes I wonder, just for a while/Will you remember me?” IN 1967, Tim Buckley’s star was in the ascendant. Performing off the back of a promising debut album, released the previous year, Buckley was playing clubs in the Village, as part of the folk firmament; supports for groups such as The Doors, Jefferson Airplane and the Jimi Hendrix Experience, and festivals like Bread For Heads at the Village Theater. He seemed oddly positioned – notionally connected to a folk scene, even Tim Buckley’s period-piece production couldn’t hide an artist whose ambitions far outstripped both the genre’s conventions and the music industry’s machinations. And while he was dissatisfied with that debut – Buckley once said, “Going into the studio was like Disneyland, I’d do anything anybody said” – on…

Why did you decide not to tour behind this album? We had never had a chance to consider where the band was going. Within weeks of playing our first show, we were writing songs, demoing, playing five nights a week. We needed to step away. We were just getting some distance for our sanity. That involved switching up instruments. Why did you gravitate toward the mandolin? I bought a mandolin on tour in ’87, I think. It became a good songwriting tool. It never occurred to me to play mandolin in a bluegrass style. For me it was a rock instrument. The reissue emphasises the creation of these songs, from individual demos to finished tracks. Every couple of weeks we would go into John Keane’s studio and record some things…

“IN many ways, they are defined by Wire,” Colin Newman reflects, thinking about the umbilical link between the three LPs released by his late ’70s post-punk group, and his subsequent three solo albums. “I already had an album of material, A-Z was already a project. It was not a project to be done instead of Wire, it was a project to be done as well as Wire – that was the original idea of it.” With Wire reaching an impasse, going on hiatus in early 1980, A-Z became Newman’s first album outside the host outfit. “What do you need to be a solo artist?” he asks. “What do you need to go around being an industry with your own name? I don’t…

PERHaPS the Floyd piece that appears most frequently on The Early Years , both as audio and video, is the title track of the group’s 1970 album, Atom Heart Mother , recorded in collaboration with experimental composer Ron Geesin. “They were absolutely a democratic group, then,” he explains. “When they were in the studio, everyone had to have a hand on the fader.” Full footage of a very early live version, performed at Blackhills Garden Party in London’s Hyde Park on July 18, 1970, is the centrepiece of one of the box’s DVDs. “When I saw them perform it at Hyde Park, I left in tears,” recalls Geesin, “because it was awful. It was a fucking disgrace. The conductor [John alldis] was more of…

PRIMAL Scream tambourine man Martin ‘Joogs’ St John had a sheet-metal tambourine with its own custom flight case. Both were designed and fabricated by Scream guitarist Paul Harte at the garage where he worked. C86 club promoter and Television Personalities frontman Dan Treacy (“The Alexis Korner of C86”) lived in a council flat in Clapham just below TV magician Ali Bongo. David Gedge from the The Wedding Present was a major John Peel enthusiast. When he was on tour he would get his girlfriend to tape the shows so he could listen to them when he got back. The budget for each C86 track was £100. More than a few bands offered up something they already had and kept the hundred quid. Alan McGee’s group Biff Bang Pow! had oil-wheel…

THE LIGHT BETWEEN OCEANS OPENS NOVEMBER 4 Drama with Michael Fassbender and Alicia Vikander as a couple who raise a baby they rescue from a rowboat. THE ACCOUNTANT OPENS NOVEMBER 4 Ben Affleck is a mathematics savant who makes a living as a freelance accountant for bad guys. ARRIVAL OPENS NOVEMBER 10 A good month for Amy Adams fans. Here she’s a linguist attached to the US military to help when the aliens land. AMERICAN PASTORAL OPENS NOVEMBER 11 Ewan McGregor directs and stars in Philip Roth’s Pulitzer-winner about a businessman whose life falls apart. NAPOLEON OPENS NOVEMBER 11 Abel Gance’s 1927 epic – all 5½ hours of it – has been extensively restored. FANTASTIC BEASTS AND WHERE TO FIND THEM OPENS NOVEMBER 18 Potterverse prequel, with Eddie Redmayne’s magizoologist…

DUKE ELLINGTON & JOHN COLTRANE Duke Ellington & John Coltrane 1963 I don’t think I heard this record until about five years ago, as there are so many great records that they’ve both done. The first track, “In A Sentimental Mood”, is just one of my favourites of all time now. The intro is so beautiful, it’s just such a mood. This is a night album for me, definitely, good for a nice dinner at home. There are a lot of different periods of Coltrane’s that I love, but he’s definitely better known for his later, far-out stuff. TOM WAITS Mule Variations 1999 I think this was probably my first introduction to Tom Waits. I hadn’t really been that into him before this, but I just fell in love with…