Rolling Stones’ Keith Richards has been hospitalised in New Zealand after injuring himself in Fiji. However, the injury isn’t what you might think, in fact, it happened after he had climbed a tree and a resort on the island and fell from it, hurting his head.
He was taken to hospital suffering a mild concussion, but the Stones will carry on regardless, gathering no moss.
Glastonbury are hoping to increase the number of people at the 2007 event by 20,000 to 173,000. This would mean 10,000 more tickets for festival go-ers and 10,000 more staff and backstage crew. Melvin Benn, the Operations Manager, said that although the festival is taking a year of this year, it’s going to return with it’s biggest year ever. Michael Eavis has confirmed this, saying neighbouring fields will be able to accommodate the larger number of people.
However, everything depends on the District Council who would need to approve any increase and they claim they have not had any information from the festival organisers as yet. Watch this field…er…space.
Cool Calm Pete
93 Feet East
25.04.06
Reading that a label was on Def Jux used to guarantee brilliant out put and a hot live show. Lately however, the label’s releases have been increasingly disappointing, so at least it’s a good sign that they tried something that sounds a little different with Cool Calm Pete. However, as quirky and fun as his album Lost may be, he really needs to work on his live show.
Coming out with his hype man, he let rip through his album’s tracks, the highlight of which was Brush PSA, a little ditty about the values of getting those molars clean, and even threw some sweets out to the crowd but making sure we all promised to brush twice a day if we took some. The problem with Pete was that he didn’t do [italics] anything, he just stood there and rapped. I wanted to see some running about the stage, some more interaction with the crowd, but I didn’t get it. At one point he did say he was going to bust out the b-boy styles, but it turned out to be a joke. Shame really, as it would’ve given his slot some edge, which it sorely missed.
Then Lif came on, hoodied up, shades on, ready to roll. His entrance was excellent, storming on from out of nowhere and ripping the mic apart as he showed his impeccable cadence. But the end of the entrance, he was lying on the floor, and hype man Metro [one half of SA Smash] had to prompt the crowd to lift Lif up off the floor.
The secret to Lif’s live show is the way he’s able to slam his lyrics over the banging beats, which sounded awesome over the sound system in Brick Lane, and it was this that made his classics like Live From The Plantation and Earthcrusher sound so impressive. The crowd got hype and Lif fed from it, discarding his hoodie and replacing the shades with his glasses, getting the crowd’s noise level to blast off the roof at any raise of his hand.
Unfortunately, after the brilliant opening few songs and the ever danceable Illy, an SA Smash song that Metro took the reigns of alone for this performance, the set list went downhill. Whether it was because they were new songs from his upcoming album Mo Mega that no-one knew, or the fact that he placed all the downbeat songs into a group, the crowd just died. There was no dancing, there was little interaction and Lif even pointed it out, without realising that his set list was to blame. He got momentarily back on track with Home Of The Brave and Put Out Your Cut, but the spark was gone.
If the set had finished half way through, I would have been able to say it was a great show, banging crowd, great delivery from the Bostonian and a fun time. But the second half of the set was such a damp squib that I came away from it feeling disappointed, knowing that if only the songs had been ordered differently, and he’d finished on the bangers, the vibe would’ve been a lot more positive.
The legendary Lemonheads are back with a bang, signing a new record deal with Vagrant Records. Evan Dando’s band will reportedly release their new album later this year, ten years after the last studio album they put out.
The line up is now Bill Stevenson [drums], Karl Alvarez [bass] and Dando on vocals. This is great news for everyone, let’s hope they continue to release high quality stuff like back in the day!
A new festival, put together by Mean Fiddler [who look after Reading and Leeds and Glastonbury], is to debut this summer.
The Latitude festival will take place in Southwold, Suffolk and will feature 3 live stages. There will also be readings, poetry, comedy, film, art and DJ sets. Additionally, a leftfield stage will also be present for politics and performances.
The headliners unveiled so far as Snow Patrol, Antony And The Johnsons and Mogwai and tickets will be on sale for £40 for a day and £95 for the weekend.
A fracas at Heathrow Airport involved Snoop Dogg and his entourage ended in arrest on Wednesday. The group were told they weren’t allowed to board their flight, to perform in South Africa, and they “became abusive and pushed officers” which reportedly left seven police officers with minor injuries.
The rapper and his crew were advised to go to the baggage reclaim when the incident occured and he and five other men are being held on suspicion of violent disorder and affray.
Stanley Donwood, who became widely long thanks to his work on the album and poster art for Radiohead will launch his own show for a month at the Lazarides Gallery in Greek Street, London, on May 19th. His work on The Bends was loved and his album cover for the limited edition of Amnesiac won a Grammy for Best Recording Package.
The show will feature his London Views collection which features 13 prints in linoleum, each print showing an apocalyptic image of modern London, featuring the likes of St Paul’s, Canary Wharf and Big Ben.
Exeter’s Thousand Natural Shocks are coming out with a double A side single [released on June 12th] and tour. The record, Under The Sun b/w Attack is the band’s debut and has been described by Dan from the band as ‘essentially new wave with a bit of an art-rock thing going on, played with the energy of punk. But there’s also a big emphasis on making it dance, big beat and fast funk based. We all like a bit of a rave!’
If you want to have a bit of a rave with the guys, then make sure you check them out on tour, which should be a treat as they have already supported for the likes of The Paddingtons and Morning Runner.
The live dates are:
MAY
1st – London, Stranger Future @The Ritzy Cinema, Brixton
2nd – London, On the Rocks, Shoreditch w/t Xerox Teens
19th – London, ULU, Bloomsbury w/t Piney Gir, Low Frequency in Stereo
23rd – Exeter Cavern w/t This et al, the Paperchase
28th – Nottingham, Dot to Dot Festival with British Sea Power, Mystery Jets, etc
JUNE
12th – Bristol, Louisiana
13th – London, Howl @ Catch, Shoreditch w/t punish the atom, boys of brazil
16th – Devizes, Sheer @ Bell On The Green, Devizes
17th – Newport, Meze Lounge, Newport (Gwent)
18th – Leicester, The Shed
19th – Exeter, Timepiece, Exeter
22nd – Bath, Moles Club
23rd – Portsmouth, Frog On The Front
24th – Leeds, The Faversham
Check out their tunes at www.myspace.com/thousandnaturalshocks
Gary ‘Woody’ Woodward has just added two brand new sponsors to his CV.
Woody can now be seen tearing things apart on his Independent Trucks and A Third Foot skateboards.
“The Destroyer!”
Yep, you guessed it, a dark and brooding shoe collaboration endorsed by Death Skateboards and designed by Vox Footwear is about to hit our shelves at some point in time. Probably not available in pink…
Check out www.deathskateboards.com and www.voxfootwear.com for all the fun.