Ike & Tina

Now this is what you call a SHOW! Amazing performance from Ike & Tina and stay tuned till the end for a surprise appearence from no other than Illya Kuryakin, of course. Jaysus but who wouldn't want to be back in the sixties?

My thanks to the great people at The Word magazine for turning me on to this one.

Ill Advised "Cock Duster"

Here's a snap of Keith Richards inducting the Ronettes into the Rock N' Roll Hall of Fame at the recent ceremony. We sincerely hope that our man was called back for re-shoots on the new Pirates of The Caribbean movie. Otherwise that moustache is a rare lapse in fashion judgement for the world's coolest man. For other Stones news, check out the electronic press kit for the upcoming European tour. Fingers will be on buzzers early Friday morning in the hope of securing Slane tickets.
Other summer gig news has Hot Press magazine circulating rumours that The Good, The Bad & The Queen (album of the year so far) will be gracing the Electric Picnic. We can only hope. In the meantime, here they are Live in Washington.
Hot Press also list a possible appearance of those ultimate faker bakers, Primal Scream. I shall be at the bar for that one.
In other news, The Coff and I went to see "300" this evening. Fantastic entertainment, can't recommend it highly enough. Swords, Magic, semi-naked women, monsters, honour, plummy accents, fights to the death- this stuff writes itself. Here's the trailer;

Get It While You Can

Razorlight's new single has a version of Prince's 'When Doves Cry' which should be of interest, an early nomination for cover of the year is what I'm saying. A fine band and a great live act if you get a chance. I've seen them a few times and the only bad memory is The Coff and I dancing 'the robot' at the end of their gig in the Olympia. We had been drinking you see.

It Was Twenty Years Ago Today (approximately)

Twenty Years since U2 released 'The Joshua Tree". Jesus. I can still remember walking back to school after my lunch break, I'd just bought the cassette from my local record shop and was listening to the first bars of 'Where The Streets Have No Name' on my crappy walkman wondering what the hell this was. How is that 20 years ago? Where did all that time go? I'm not crazy about this getting old shit. Anyway, BBC 6 Music celebrates this happy/sad anniversary.

Stones for Slane

News has just reached us here that the Stones are an almost sure thing for Slane this year, no dates as yet but I'll have them up as soon as I get them. With Aerosmith, Razorlight, Kings of Leon and The Who tickets already in the bag, this may be the summer where your host finally explodes with the sheer rockingoutness of it all. Won't see much of the family this summer I'm afraid, oh well.

More: looks like the 18th of August for the Stones and the NME report a strong possibility of The Police stopping there as well. The Missus will not be pleased.

The '2

Some people just really do not like the mighty 2, go to the end for my opinion.

Gimme A Break

I've just been sent this file, Patti Smith covering 'Gimme Shelter'. One has to admire the balls on the woman for even having a go at covering one of the great, may be the greatest, rock n' roll recordings of them all but , for me, it's a mistake. I like every other teenager who got interested in the music, bought 'Horses' on the recommendation of everyone and, while it's certainly not bad, it remains hugely overrated as does the woman herself. You be the judge.


Patti Smith photographed at Jim Morrison's grave, the location where all true rock n' roll posers end up eventually.

Bitter Sweet

I thought I was on to a good thing when I got a chance to hear an advance copy of Bryan Ferry's new album of Dylan covers called, with great imagination, 'Dylanesque', but it's sad to report that it's a bit of a let down. Dylan covers are a tricky business at the best of times, for every moment of Hendrix like genius, the likes of U2 and Paul Weller have been tripped up. I've been a fan of Ferry, and especially Roxy Music, for as long as I've been listening to music so I'd normally be willing to give him the benefit of the doubt but this time it's just too smooth. We'd all be beter off waiting for the new Roxy album which is due later this year with Brian Eno back on board. If last year's show in Vicar Street was anything to go by, it'll be a cracker. In the meantime, check out one of Roxy's greatest, 'Country Life', their fourth album from 1974. "All I Want Is You' and 'Out Of The Blue' were highlights of the aforementioned show. And yes, it's the one with that sleeve, apparently two relatively innocent German peasent girls. They don't look it.

The hat is off to Chico over at Floodlit Footprint.