LTW Newsletter 92

Welcome warriorz…

Tonight the clocks go back and we finally re-enter the daylight zone! It’ds like slipping from one dingy reality to a slightly clearer new one. One hour out of twenty four makes such a difference!

I’ve always hated the extra gloomy darkness of winter although I’ve always liked the soundtrack that goes with it but there is something about having a chunk of daylight after teatime that makes the world feel more civilised. Maybe it goes back to being a kid and having more time to ‘play out’ or those early punk gigs when you got the bus in your new wardrobe reflecting in the shivers of extra light in those endless hot summers of 1976 and 1977 that brings back all kind of shimmering memories. 

Of course it's still freezing but that’s to be expected!

It’s een a busy week here at LTW. I’ve been doing the last edits on my upcoming Oasis book whilst running around a few events at the BBC 6Music festival in Manchester. Last night I went to see a stunning Mogwai gig after reviewing the singles for 6music’s Roundtable. I was also down in London earlier in the week hosting an in-conversation with Kirk Brandon and Abbo from UK Decay to launch the upcoming Forever Now festival, which looks like being one of the highlights of this summer.

The big story on the site this week is this astute piece about the vinyl revival and all the highs and lows that it brings and also about Record Store Day which is great because it keeps the vital independent record stores in action with handy bonuses but also sees manipulation by the clumsy hands of the major corporate record labels. 

We are sorry to hear of the passing of Paul ‘Wags’ Wagstaff from Paris Angels and Black Grape. Wags was another of the great innovative guitar players from the Manchester scene his genial presence and his brilliant guitar playing will last long in our memories. 

We bagged an interview with the always entertaining of also always controversial John Lydon and found the now 69 year old punk elf in a surprising good mood in an interview that has been quoted far and wide across the internet. 

Tonight sees the great John Cooper Clarke headline the biggest ever poetry show in the UK at the vast cavernous space of Manchester’s Co-op arena. There is something remarkable about the bard of Salford and this is a great chance to celebrate his genius…so we did with this list of his top ten poems.

It was great to see the maverick Ed Tenpole Tudor get his memoirs out. One of the great things about punk was this unleashing of misfits and lunatics into the pop culture ether and Ed was simply one of those people you could never invent. The book is fascinating trawl through his eventful and off kilter life.

Our album of the week was Wolfgang Flür and his new release ‘Times’. Although his status as a former member of Kraftwerk’s classic line-up will forever mark him out, Germany’s Wolfgang Flür continues to travel to the beat of his own electric drum. Robert Plummer checks out this year’s model.

The coolest idea of this week was the Wedding Present announcing their own musical…is there nothing that David Gedge won’t attempt…and make an idiosyncratic success from!  

Last weekend we were at Peel Slowly and See festival in Leiden in Holland and were captivated by a whole new new wave of European bands who are breaking out of the underground. There were many real gems at the event and we caught most of them in our review…

Hibernation over for mother nature and now it seems also for My Bloody Valentine who announced a series of UK shows including one at Manchester’s great Aviva studios - perhaps the only place in the city with a PA that can capture their volume, textures and nuances…