LTW NEWSLETTER 69

Welcome Warriors!

Damn, those January blues!

Those cruel, dark, and cold mystery cloaks of velvet darkness cloaking the deepest of deep winters. This is a time when sensible furry creatures hanker down in their burrows in smug and slightly murky furry warmth, waiting for spring's sweet caress to nudge them back into the rising sap of spring’s flickering release!

Yet despite the deepest of deep freezes, every day is getting lighter, and the dinge mornings are turning into sprightly mornings again. The world is slowly waking up, ready to scratch its fur and come out of its deep freeze hibernation.

Time is on our side, sisters and brothers!

Soon there will be an avalanche of gigs, and our brains will be fried by a high-decibel sensory overload. In the meantime, there are hints of the tsunami of sound that is coming our way….

It was fascinating to interview producer Nick Launay about his brilliant career. The first track he worked on was M’s ‘Pop Music’, and the first album that he actually produced was Public Image’s ‘Flowers Of Romance’ - that drum sound! those wild sonic vistas! What a start to a stunning recording career that he's replayed over the years working with Kate Bush, Killing Joke, Nick Cave, Yeah Yeah Yeahs and currently Amyl and the Sniffers - his signature sound is raw and yet uncluttered and that amazing drum sound. The interview was a fascinating deep dive into his techniques and his enthralling fascination for the music.

We were sorry to hear of the death of Luis Vasquez from The Soft Moon. The band were groundbreaking Dark Wave, and we had seen them play a couple of times. Their shows were immersive, detailed, powerful, and captivating. We also interviewed him in an in conversation a few years ago, which we posted on the site - the interview maybe be short, but it was a good guide to his career and his modus operandi.

A former mainstay with The Coral and renowned producer in his own right,  Bill Ryder-Jones returns with his fifth solo album, ‘Lechyd Da’ - it’s his most personal to date and a rumination on the strength that we can find when we look inside ourselves and also full of captivating songs and a brilliant release.

Always a marmite singer Liam Gallagher split the room as ever with his grand pronouncements on his new project with legendary Stone Roses guitar player John Squire. I doubt anyone even listened to the track before pronouncing their opinion on the song, which turned out to be a great meeting of Oasis and the Stone Roses with John Squire on brilliant form as he jammed around a nod to the Beatles ‘Rain’

Another sad loss this week was former Shangri Las singer Mary Weiss who died at the age of 75. We celebrated her extraordinary career from her signature song ’Leader Of the Pack’ which she sang lead vocals on and has become one of the key tracks in pop culture. The group were the cool, tough girls with their death disc songs full of the drama of the teenage opera. They were the girl group Stones to their girl group rivals more starchy Beatles. Yet their chewing gum teen gang swagger contrasted with an aching vulnerability that perfectly defined classic pop’s teenage angst core constituency.

Yard Act have returned and delved deep into the disco that was always a part of their No Wave sound. Their amusing cynicism and knowingness are still part of their pop deconstruction, and their smarts are part of the attraction as well as their deadpan, dry sense of humour.

Amy Jo is a UK New Country singer, and multi-instrumentalist, has released her new single, a cover of On Days Like These which featured on the opening credits of the classic British comedy The Italian Job.

We were sad to lose the great Annie Nightingale this week. The groundbreaking BBC Radio one DJ changed the media landscape by being a woman in a male world but carved out her own niche and was a breaker of so much music of many different forms. We met her many times, and she was as brilliantly rock n' roll as you would have hoped, but also a wonderful, warm woman with a deep knowledge of pop culture. She will be much missed.

Hardy perennials James are about to return with a new album and single. We were given a glimpse of the new single, and it was a perfect slice of poignant pop with a melt-your-heart melody and brilliantly poetic obtuse lyrics.

Prince Stanislas Klossowski de Rola or Prince Stash has led a life! The ultimate rock n roll dandy, son of the notorious French-Polish artist Balthus – he wooed Nico, Marianne Faithfull, Anita Pallenberg, saw Syd Barrett lose his mind on acid in the Welsh Black mountains, he was best friends with Brian Jones and the Beatles and got busted for drugs with the Stones. Stash is now a TikTok sensation! But who the hell is he? John Robb finds out…

Being part of the British music scene, we are always happy to help venues out, and it was great to spotlight FOIST - a Forest Of Dean gig collective with a great lineup of upcoming shows that you should support!

Forever moving forward, former Sonic Youth Kim Gordon’s new single is a brooding snapshot of the now and a brilliant slice of grime and trap colliding with the pop/noise and post-punk of her former band. Not running away from the future but embracing it and making it her own, this is quite a brilliant song and sounds like the now of 2024.