Lollapalooza, greatest British album, Britney Spears, Rough Trade compilation, Interpol, Radio 4, David Bowie and Noel Gallagher...
Intro...
Welcome to today’s slice of stuff. Read on to learn about what 100 musicians and critics think is the greatest British album of all time, Britney Spears marrage plans, news of a cool compilation, details of new albums from both Interpol and Radio 4, why David Bowie had to halt a show in Scandinavia and how one short-sighted fan managed to rile Noel Gallagher. But first up news that one of the biggest festivals in the world has been binned.
Festival Cancelled...
Poor ticket sales have meant that one of the world’s biggest music gatherings has been cancelled. This summers Lollapalooza tour has been canned after organisers predicted that hey stand to lose a considerable amount of money.
The travelling festival was set to kick off in just three weeks but on Monday evening it was announced that the 16-city tour was off. With the exception of the New York area, advance ticket sales were below what was originally estimated by promoters and organisers.
A statement from Lollapalooza co-founder Perry Farrell read: "My heart is broken.
"My heart aches along with the bands and all of our employees, whose hard work developed one of the most exciting and important tours that this nation was to see."
Marc Geiger of the William Morris Agency and another Lollapalooza co-founder said: "On the average, the losses, had ticket sales not dramatically picked up — which they showed no indication of doing — the people involved faced losses in the mid-to-high six figures on a per-show basis.
"Lollapalooza is not alone in this. Everyone from the Dead to Dave Matthews to Norah Jones is suffering. There's not one explanation for this. It might be that ticket prices are too high, which doesn't account for Lollapalooza, because our tickets were priced between $15 and $25.
"Maybe it's the sundry add-ons [like service charges] that up the cost? Maybe gas prices are too high? Just like the record industry is suffering, the concert business is not exempt.
"After people get through this summer season there's going to be a lot of fixing that needs to be done in the concert industry."
Fans who bought tickets to see the likes of Morrissey, Sonic Youth, PJ Harvey and the Flaming Lips on the 31-date event will receive a full refund.
Fools Take Gold...
Another day another poll. The Observer Music Monthly supplement ran a feature over the weekend where they polled 100 musicians and critics to ask them to list their top 100 British albums of all time. All the usual suspects were included but there a bit of a shock at number one.
It turns out that those in the know thought that the Stone Roses’ self-titled debut album was the Best of British, beating The Beatles ‘Revolver’ to the top spot.
Observer Music Monthly’s hilariously named editor Caspar Llewellyn Smith said: "This is the sort of poll you might conduct over Sunday lunch with friends; which are the greatest British albums of all time.
"Once you start to draw up your own list, the questions begin: should I pick my favourites, or albums which conform to an idea of greatness."
This top 10 looks like this:
10 Metal Box – PiL
9 Blue Lines - Massive Attack
8 Exile on Main Street - The Rolling Stones
7 Sticky Fingers - The Rolling Stones
6 The White Album - The Beatles
5 Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band - The Beatles
4 Astral Weeks - Van Morrison
3 London Calling - The Clash
2 Revolver - The Beatles
1 The Stone Roses - The Stones Roses
Other noticeable absentees from the top 10 include Radiohead's ‘OK Computer’ (24), Oasis' ‘Definitely Maybe’ (19), The Smiths' ‘The Queen is Dead’ (37) and Primal Scream's ‘Screamadelica’ (68).
Get Married...One More Time!
Audio Truckstop favourite, Britney Spears, is going to break a million hearts (again) when she gets married later this year (again again). The 22-year-old spank-bank all-star is all set to cartwheel down the aisle with boyfriend Kevin Federline.
Spears will no doubt be hoping that this marriage lasts longer than the 55 hours the last one did. She got hitched in Las Vegas (the romance capitol of the world incidentally) 6 months ago to friend Jason Alexander but got it annulled a couple of days later claiming it was all a "bad joke".
We are unsure as to whether Britney gave Alexander her ring at the ceremony or waited until they got back to their hotel room... Ahem.
The singer is currently in bed healing after having surgery on her knee. She injured herself while filming the video to her next single ‘Outrageous’ and is convalescing with her 26-year-old beau as we speak (I wonder if he is keeping a close eye on her under-nork stitches? – Ed).
The pair have been an ‘item’ for a while now, being snapped snogging on a Californian beach and recently hit the tabloid front pages when they were caught going for a bollocko midnight dip in the pool at London hotel they were staying at.
All in all this Federline character sounds a nice lad...just ask the girlfriend he dumped to run off with Britney...the 8 month pregnant girlfriend...the girlfriend who is already the mother of one of his children. Ooops!
Actress Shar Jackson is resigned to losing her man but isn’t going to make it easy for the pair. She wasted no time in reminding the pop princess that her husband to be has baggage: "There are two kids. She better be prepared to baby-sit."
Meanwhile our Brit is currently sitting atop the singles chart after ‘Everytime’ became her second number one in Britain taken from the album ‘In the Zone’, her fifth number one in the UK.
Rough Album...
There is a new compilation coming out in a couple of months which could well be worth a look. Rough Trade records are releasing 'Rough Trade Shops: Indiepop 1' on the 23rd August featuring all your favourite Indie bands from days gone by.
Classic bands like Primal Scream, The Wedding Present, Lush, Jesus And Mary Chain, My Bloody Valentine and Pop Will Eat Itself all appear on the 46 track CD as well as more contemporary label mates like V Twin and Camera Obscura.
A 7" single which will feature four tracks from Juniper Moon, Aberfeldy, Primal Scream and Josef K will hit the shops before the album is available to give you all a taster of what to expect.
The track listing looks something like this:
CD One
1. Primal Scream - 'All Fall Down'
2. Modesty Blaise - 'Carol Mountain'
3. Popguns - 'Waiting For The Winter'
4. The Clouds - 'Get Out Of My Dream'
5. Sea Urchins - 'Pristine Christine'
6. Jesus And Mary Chain - 'You Trip Me Up'
7. Mary Lou Lord - 'Some Jingle Jangle Morning (When I'm Straight)'
8. The Monochrome Set - 'The Monochrome Set'
9. Felt - 'Penelope Tree'
10. Juniper Moon - 'El Resto De Mi Vida'
11. Shop Assistants - 'Safety Net'
12. V Twin - 'Gifted'
13. Jesse Garon & The Desperadoes - 'Splashing Along'
14. Television Personalities - 'Look Back In Anger'
15. Dressy Bessy - 'You Stand Here'
16. The Wedding Present - 'Once More'
17. Helen Love - 'Beat Him Up'
18. Pop Will Eat Itself - 'Black Country Chainstore Massacreee'
19. I, Ludicrous - 'Preposterous Tales'
20. Heavenly - 'Sort Of Mine'
21. Beat Happening - 'Indian Summer'
22. The Groove Farm - 'The Best Part Of Being With You'
23. Field Mice - 'Landmark'
CD Two
1. My Bloody Valentine - 'Paint A Rainbow'
2. Love Is All - 'Spinning and Scratching'
3. Josef K - 'Sorry For Laughing'
4. Talulah Gosh - 'Talulah Gosh'
5. Aberfeldy - 'Vegetarian Restaurant'
6. The Pooh Sticks - 'I Know Someone Who Knows Someone Who Knows Alan McGee Quite Well'
7. This Poison! - 'Poised Over The Pause Button'
8. The Magnetic Fields - '100,000 Fireflies'
9. The Vaselines - 'Molly's Lips'
10. AR Kane - 'When You're Sad'
11. Darling Buds - 'Uptight'
12. Pastels - 'Truck Train Tractor'
13. Camera Obscura - 'Eighties Fan'
14. McCarthy - 'Should The Bible Be Banned'
15. Lush - 'Hypocrite'
16. June Brides - 'Every Conversation'
17. The Velvet Crush - 'Walking Out On Love'
18. The Flatmates - 'I Could Be In Heaven'
19. Marine Girls - 'Honey'
20. Bis - 'Icky Pooh Air Raid'
21. Razorcuts - 'Sorry To Embarrass You'
22. Eggs - 'Government Administrator'
23. Spearmint - 'Sweeping The Nation'
Yes New York...
Two of New York’s brightest young things are set to release new albums in September. Both Interpol and Radio 4 are ready to share their new material with the world after breaking through a couple of years ago with two quality albums.
Interpol’s ‘Turn Out The Bright Lights’ and Radio 4’s ‘Gotham!’ were hailed as modern classics when they were released and the two bands will now be hoping that their follow ups will achieve the same lever of critical acclaim.
The exquisitely dressed quartet of Interpol have revealed that their new album is to be called ‘Antics’ and will be available in all good stores (and a lot of crap ones) on 27th September. The tracklisting looks something like this:
‘Next Exit’
‘Evil’
‘Narc’
‘Take You On A Cruise’
‘Slow Hands’
‘Not Even Jail’
‘Public Pervert’
‘C'mere’
‘Length Of Love’
‘A Time To Be So Small’
Radio 4 meanwhile will release ‘Stealing Of A Nation’ on September 7th with the first single ‘Party Crashers’ going on sale on July 12th. You can catch the lads around Britain this summer at the following venues:
June 21 Academy – Birmingham
June 22 93 Feet East (with Kaito) – London
August 17 Islington Academy - London
August 24 Rescue Rooms – Nottingham
August 25 The Welly – Hull
August 26 T In The Fringe Festival @ The Venue – Glasgow
August 27 Leeds Festival
August 29 Reading Festival
Aye Eye!!!
David Bowie was temporarily blinded at a recent gig in Oslo when one of the audience lashed a lollipop at him! The ‘Chuppa Chup’ came hurtling from the crowd and managed to hit him in his brown eye (not that brown eye you filthy minded delinquent!).
20 minutes into the performance last Saturday one of his excited followers obviously decided that the singer wasn’t sweet enough and threw him the sickly sweet confectionary. Unfortunately for the 73-year-old singer/songwriter/actor the lollipop seemed laser-guided as it hit it’s target with pinpoint accuracy.
Luckily the veteran rocker took it well, as one fan confirmed: "He [Bowie] grabbed a mike and called the person responsible a coward and bastard for hiding in the crowd. Everyone booed as the concert was stopped."
Quick to smooth over the incident Bowie’s official website had a different story altogether.
"I'm sure there was no malice intended, but yesterday's incident could have been far more serious than it was.
"However, in typical Bowie fashion, and despite his understandable initial anger, David made light of the incident when he threw a plectrum into the crowd and then said he would have to go and hide in the band as he thought he may have got somebody in the eye."
What a card...
Return Of Clint Eastwood?
I love reading about rock stars spitting the dummy. I love hearing about them losing their cool revealing the real person behind the carefully constructed, well-choreographed façade. I love it when it turns out to be funny too...
It was reported that one half of the ‘eyebrow brothers’, Noel Gallagher, of Oasis was left speechless and fuming after a ‘fan’ somehow managed to mistake the Mancunian for his arch nemesis Damon Albarn.
The pair have been seemingly at each others throat since the heady days of 1995 when Brit-pop was in full swing and Oasis & Blur where the kings of the chart. Both bands released their albums and singles within days of each other and the press had a feeding frenzy as both camps did their best to bad mouth the other.
A few years ago Albarn got involved with a dance influenced side project which eventually turned into Gorillaz. This band was to be the cause of the confusion for one clueless fan.
Gallagher said: "This bloke said, 'I'm a massive fan. When's the next album out?' So I said, 'Some time next year.'
"He asked, 'Will it be with the band or with Gorillaz?'"
The guitarist was not amused by this apparently and stormed off. I don’t know what his problem is to be fair as Gorillaz weren’t half bad!
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