From Uncut’s July 2023 issue, Uncut’s final interview with David Johansen, the New York Dolls frontman turned bouffant nightclub act, country-blues singer and more… Advertisement THE APRIL 2025 ISSUE OF UNCUT, STARRING LED ZEPPELIN, JASON ISBELL, BRYAN FERRY, MARIANNE FAITHFULL, THE WATERBOYS, DAVID BOWIE, MADDY PRIOR AND MORE, IS AVAILABLE TO ORDER NOW Sipping PG Tips from a dainty blue-and-white teacup, David Johansen considers the long, strange journey that has taken him from high-heeled frontman of the New York Dolls to bouffant nightclub act, country-blues singer and beyond. “There are certain phases in the history of New York, especially...
The last time Jack White was in the UK, it was a blitzkrieg tour of small venues to promote his stealth-released album, No Name. This European tour is a little longer and the venues are a bit larger, but the general vibe remains the same. On the first night of two at the Troxy, White pounds across the stage, strangling the guitar like a toy chicken while his three-piece band heroically try to keep up. Kudos especially to Raconteurs‘ drummer Patrick Keeler, who White goads into ever-escalating feats of kit-bashing to the point that Keeler eventually wrecks a cymbal...
About 10 years ago, we at Uncut started a collaboration with our friends at NME to release a series of magazines which would revisit the archives of New Musical Express and Melody Maker and present an unrivalled archive trip through rock’s golden years. Advertisement Times have changed, but the quality of the friendship (and the publications) remain very much the same, so we’ve agreed to re-issue the series, in a limited number, for anyone who missed them the first time around. The first couple of these issues are available from our shop now. In 1965, you’ll find The Beatles...
Taken from Uncut’s January 2020 issue Advertisement In an old church by the Thames, the “groop” put together an 18-minute track with a message – here they take Uncut through the creation of “Jenny Ondioline”. “This song is about shifting the perception…” The centrepiece of Stereolab’s second album, 1993’s Transient Random-Noise Bursts With Announcements, “Jenny Ondioline” has come in many forms: the 18-minute LP version, the snappy single version, and somewhere between those extremes on stage. In any variation, though, there are motorik rhythms, restless guitars, loping bass, droning organs, layered vocals and radical, politically charged lyrics. “We played...
The thunder lizards of classical and romantic music, from Haydn to Wagner, bestrode the earth for hundreds of years. They achieved musical domination by imposing a sense of form and narrative upon Western music, to express the warp and weft of human emotion and fate. Statement, development, recapitulation, climax, applause. A little over 120 years ago, music began to atomise, harmonies soured, familiar structures devolved into atonalism, spectral texture and formal experiments with microtones and alternative scales. Advertisement THE APRIL 2025 ISSUE OF UNCUT, STARRING LED ZEPPELIN, JASON ISBELL, BRYAN FERRY, MARIANNE FAITHFULL, THE WATERBOYS, DAVID BOWIE, MADDY PRIOR...
In the video for “Knowledge”, the first single from Edwyn Collins’ 10th solo album, the clan chief of Postcard Records stands like a monument in the wintery landscape around his home in Helmsdale, on the north-east coast of Scotland. It is a grey day. There is snow on the ground. The joyous gospel harmonies can’t disguise the note of disquiet that leaks from the song. “Knowledge” is about unease, the loss and recovery of fond memories. Knowledge, Collins sings, with a nod to Amazing Grace, “first was lost and now it’s found”. The chorus underlines the point, while the...
Luci Rain has crafted a bold intersection of ancient spiritualism and futuristic sounds with her latest music video for “Fong La.” The Amsterdam-based artist invites us into a visual and sonic journey deeply rooted in Chinese mythology, yet profoundly aware of Western and modern influences. With its intricate blend of house beats, Afrobeats rhythms, and evocative Chinese motifs, “Fong La” is not just a track—it’s an invocation. Luci Rain, inspired by her Buddhist grandmother’s teachings and her own transformative experiences, draws from the legendary tale of Chang’e, the Chinese moon goddess. The video portrays Rain as a Moon Princess,...
The latest headliner to be announced for London’s BST Hyde Park series is neil young and the chrome hearts. Young’s new, all-lower-case band – featuring Spooner Oldham (Farfisa organ), Micah Nelson (guitar and vocal), Corey McCormick (bass and vocal) and Anthony LoGerfo (drums) – will play the London park on July 11. Advertisement THE APRIL 2025 ISSUE OF UNCUT, STARRING LED ZEPPELIN, JASON ISBELL, BRYAN FERRY, MARIANNE FAITHFULL, THE WATERBOYS, DAVID BOWIE, MADDY PRIOR AND MORE, IS AVAILABLE TO ORDER NOW This is the first officially announced UK date of neil young and the chrome hearts’ previously advertised world...
LCD Soundsystem are returning to the UK for an 8-night residency at London O2 Academy Brixton. The run of shows will take place from Thursday, June 12 – Sunday, June 15 and from Thursday, June 19 – Sunday, June 22. Advertisement THE APRIL 2025 ISSUE OF UNCUT, STARRING LED ZEPPELIN, JASON ISBELL, BRYAN FERRY, MARIANNE FAITHFULL, THE WATERBOYS, DAVID BOWIE, MADDY PRIOR AND MORE, IS AVAILABLE TO ORDER NOW LCD previously played a sold-out six-night residency at O2 Academy Brixton in 2022, followed by last year’s shows at Glastonbury and All Points East. Tickets for the new dates go...
From Uncut’s November 2015 issue . Jaan Uhelszki visits ROD STEWART at home in Beverly Hills… Advertisement Rod Stewart was never, it seems, a natural songwriter. “I was too busy,” he says, “having a good time.” In autumn 2015, the good times continue unabated for British rock’s most storied playboy. On the eve of a new album and that long-awaited Faces reunion, Rod The Mod opens up his LA mansion to Uncut and, uncharacteristically, reveals all. About Jeff Beck, Britt Ekland and the rock giant who looks “a bit too much like Bin Laden”. About cancer, the old...