John Fogerty fronts Foo Fighters for Travelin' Band

Nice footage of Creedence Clearwater Revival legend John Fogerty fronting Foo Fighters.

Well, sort of.

Ahead of Fogerty’s Fortunate Son collaboration with the Foos on upcoming album Wrote A Song For Everyone, he joined Dave Grohl onstage at the Sundance Film Festival.

Grohl was unveiling his latest supergroup, the Sound City Players, with a three-hour set which boasted cameos from a host of rock luminaries.

As well as Fogerty, the Foomonster  was joined by Nirvana’s Krist Novoselic and Pat Smear, Slipknot’s Corey Taylor, Fleetwood Mac’s Stevie Nicks, Nate Mendel and Chris Shiflett, Alain Johannes, Chris Goss, Cheap Trick’s Rick Nielsen and Rage Against The Machine drummer Brad Wilk.

All the featured artists have recorded at the infamous Sound City Studios and appear in Grohl’s documentary about the recording studios in Van Nuys, California.

Fogerty and Grohl traded vocals on CCR classics Born On The Bayou, Bad Moon Rising, Proud Mary and Travelin’ Band, the video of which appears above.

Fogerty’s Wrote A Song For Everyone is due anytime now and features some big-name match-ups including Foo Fighters (Fortunate Son), Bob Seger (Who’ll Stop The Rain), Dawes (Someday Never Comes), Brad Paisley (Hot Rod Heart), Miranda Lambert (Wrote a Song for Everyone), Kid Rock (Born on the Bayou), Keith Urban (Almost Saturday Night), My Morning Jacket (Long as I Can See the Light), Alan Jackson (Have You Ever Seen the Rain), Jennifer Hudson (Proud Mary), and others.

Where’s Bruce, then?

Marianne Faithfull : Broken English back bigger and better than ever

Always been a sucker for songbirds with lived-in voices, ever since seeing Maggie Bell back in the day.

Since then I’ve been seduced by Mary Gauthier, Lucinda Williams and, lately, Gin Wigmore. But no-one comes close to Marianne.

And to Broken English in particular, the 1979 album which made us sit up and take notice again, re-establishing Faithfull’s credibility.

After a string of mediocre country-informed LPs, this mix of rock, punk and electronics, capped off by a wrecked vocal, was electrifying.

Now celebrating its 33 and a third birthday (the revolutions per minute at which vinyl long players used to spin, if you’re too young to remember), Broken English is back.

A Deluxe Edition double-CD comprises the original album, three songs on video, the original mixes – which had long been thought lost – and a handful of bonus tracks, too.

This was Marianne as she battled back from years of drink, drugs and disappointment, her voice ravaged by cocaine and laryngitis. She was angry at life, bitter about false friends.

And, boy, did it show.

The incandescent fury contained in brutal album closer Why’d Ya Do It, about betrayal by a lover, was so heated that EMI refused to handle it.

In some countries, the album had to be released without the song, which still seethes with jealousy and hurt all these years later.

The title track, inspired by the Baader-Meinhof terrorist attacks of the era, but rooted in her own experiences, sets out startling stall. Witches’ Song, Marianne’s version of the feminist sisterhood, eases up a little then Brain Drain rocks things up again.

The chilling Guilt revisits her Catholic upbringing and drug addiction, and What’s The Hurry? may sound like the pop-tempered rock of the time, but turns out to be about the junkie’s endless need to score.

The show-stealers are two unlikely covers. Dr Hook’s The Ballad Of Lucy Jordan is a heart-rending tale of regret which sounds light years removed from the original.

And John Lennon’s Working Class Hero, set in a chugging synth riff reminiscent of Pink Floyd’s One Of These Days, wears a knowing sneer still worthy of 21st century Broken Britain.

Add a bonus 12-inch mix of Sister Morphine, and this is an absolute essential.

The Who to play Quadrophenia in full on UK tour

It’s enough to leave you out of your brain on the 5:15.

The Who have announced that they’ll be performing their iconic album Quadrophenia in full on their upcoming UK tour.

The band are set to embark on a 10-date tour on June 8, kicking off with a show at Dublin’s O2 and finishing at the Liverpool Echo Arena on June 30.

The new concert version of Quadrophenia will be directed by Roger Daltrey and combines the music with - and I quote - ‘powerful imagery projected on an array of massive screens, designed to support, complement and propel the musical content of the work by setting it in the context of the history of the band’.

That's bloody awesome to the likes of you and me.

Original members Daltrey and Pete Townshend will be joined by Zak Starkey (drums), Pino Palladino (bass), Simon Townshend (guitar/backing vocals), John Corey (keyboards), Loren Gold (keyboards/backing vocals) and Frank Simes (musical director, keyboards/backing vocals) during the tour.

Quadrophenia was released in 1973 and featured tracks like The Real Me, 5:15 and Love Reign o’er Me.

It was later turned into a film starring Sting, Phil Davis and Toyah Willcox in 1979, and has been a successful stage show, too.

As well as Quadrophenia, Daltrey and Townshend are working up a setlist containing many of the band's greatest hits and some surprise rarities.

Tickets for The Who’s 2013 tour go on sale this Friday at 9am.

The Who’s UK tour dates are: Dublin The O2 (June 8), Belfast Odyssey (10), Glasgow SECC (12), London The O2 (15), Sheffield Motorpoint Arena (18), Newcastle Metro Arena (20), Manchester Arena (23), Cardiff Motorpoint Arena (25), Birmingham LG Arena (28) and Liverpool Echo Arena (30).

I Am Kloot : Let It All In review

Cast your mind back to January 23, 2001 to the late, lamented, Ronnie Scott’s club in Birmingham.

On a magical Songwriters Festival night Mancunian trio I Am Kloot were supporting their pop pals, a youthful and upcoming Elbow.

Fast-forward 12 years and the Kloot’s fourth album has just been produced by Elbow’s Guy Garvey and Craig Potter. They’re still best mates.

“We first met Guy about 17 years ago,” says frontman John Bramwell. “He and Craig have been our mates from long before Kloot started. They’ve probably been to more of our gigs than anyone else.

“When you’re recording, you often need to be able to stand back from the song to get a view on it. This is the key job of the producer – and the two of them are very uplifting in the studio.

“Guy also brings something else to the studio. Sandwiches. When we’re recording, you get a text from him asking what sandwich you want him to get for you on his way in. I can’t imagine Phil Spector doing this.”

There are no wall of sound productions on Let It All In, although the trio’s sound is fleshed out by some unexpected additions, Garvey’s backing vocal on one track among them.

Opener Bullets starts out bleak (Kloot aren’t known for doing happy): “I kept the note you never wrote and put it with the rest I never got...”

Musically it’s bare bones, stripped back to basics, until a sleazy rock guitar solo sashays across the stage like a stripper at the vicar’s tea party.

The bluesy Hold Back The Night pulls a similar trick, its Turin Brakes-style delivery suddenly pumped up by a strident string quartet.

Elsewhere, the set ranges from the simply sung Masquerade, a song which may put you in mind on Pete Atkin, to the raga-rooted These Days Are Mine, an Eastern swirl of which Richard Hawley would approve.

But comparisons don’t do half the trick because it’s the songwriting at the heart of the matter, making this an album to treasure.

Even The Stars, with its reverb guitar, is gorgeous; Some Better Day imbued with a Beatley beauty.

In less than 36 minutes, I Am Kloot serve up 10 songs, without a single weak link, proving that less can, indeed, be more.

And that’s the real sign of a classic album.

Hard Rock Calling and Wireless 2013 to be staged at the Olympic Stadium

THANK God someone has seen sense.

This year’s Hard Rock Calling and Wireless festivals will be staged in London’s Olympic Stadium instead of Hyde Park.

It finally brings the curtain down on the park’s dismal recent record as a major venue.

The Still Got The Fever blog started life last year to protest about the ludicrous decibel level limit set by the authorities, which meant thousands in Hyde Park struggled to hear Bruce Springsteen.

A council curfew imposed because of complaints about noise also meant that The Boss and Paul McCartney were silenced when some jobsworth ordered that the plug be pulled, sparking worldwide condemnation.

Well, the good news is that promoter Live Nation has secured an exclusive deal to host gigs at the Olympic Stadium in east London.

And first up will be Wireless and Hard Rock Calling in July.

Live Nation has struck the deal with the London Legacy Development Corporation, which is tasked with securing the future of the Olympic Park complex in Stratford.

“Our vision for the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park has always been as a destination for world-class sport as well as major cultural and leisure events,” said London mayor Boris Johnson.

“The confidence shown by one of the world’s leading live entertainment promoters to relocate two of its biggest music festivals from the centre of the capital is a ringing endorsement of out legacy plans.”

Live Nation will also host a number of big-name gigs concerts in the main stadium, with the first thought to be planned for early July.

The fantastic London 2012 opening ceremony showed just what could be done in the stadium.

So come, on Roger Waters. Bury the hatchet with the rest of the guys and let’s have the big Pink Floyd reunion.

“Live Nation is delighted to have won the inaugural contract for Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park,” says John Reid, president of concerts at Live Nation Europe.

We’re delighted, too. Cancel that order for hearing trumpets ...

Counting Crows announce UK tour dates

San Francisco rockers Counting Crows have announced their first UK tour in over four years.

The multi-platinum band will bring their live show to Birmingham, Bristol, London, Manchester and Glasgow in April, after touring in Australia and a string of European dates.

“All I could say when I saw the plans for a UK tour was ‘It’s about time’,” says Adam Duritz.

“It’s hard to explain to fans why bands occasionally let so much time pass between visits. The truth is sometimes life just gets in the way and, before you know it, it’s been a few years.

“Personally, I’m just glad we’re going back. I have a lot of great memories of past tours. Remembering where we’ve been always gets me excited about where we’re going.”

The tour follows the release in 2012 of Underwater Sunshine (or What We Did On Our Summer Vacation), a collection of more and less known songs ranging from the 1960s to the present.

It featured tracks written by artists such as Big Star, Gram Parsons, Tender Mercies, Kasey Anderson and The Faces.  A new live album recorded on the band’s acclaimed 2012 US summer tour will be released on Cooking Vinyl to coincide with the dates.

Counting Crows formed in 1991 in the San Francisco Bay area and they have sold over 20 million albums to date. They had five Top 20 studio albums in the UK (three of them charting in the Top 10 and all five hitting Top 5 on the Billboard 200)

The current line-up features Adam Duritz (vocals), David Bryson (guitar), Charles Gillingham (keyboards), Dan Vickrey (guitar), Jim Bogios (drums), David Immergluck (guitar) and Millard Powers (bass).

Widely remembered for their 1993 seven times platinum debut release August And Everything After – including hit single Mr Jones – Counting Crows more recently had a US No 1 with Accidentally In Love, featured on the Shrek 2 soundtrack, which was nominated in 2005 for a Grammy Award, a Golden Globe Award and an Academy Award.

Their most recent studio album, Saturday Nights & Sunday Mornings was released to critical and popular acclaim in March 2008 and charted at No 12 in the UK.

Here are the UK dates!

Friday April 19 : Birmingham O2 Academy    
Saturday April 20 : Bristol Colston Hall
Monday April 22: London Hammersmith Apollo
Thursday April 25 : Manchester O2 Apollo
Friday April 26 : Glasgow O2 Academy

Wilko Johnson announces farewell gigs after terminal cancer diagnosis

Wilko Johnson, guitarist and founding member of Dr. Feelgood, will perform four farewell concerts in the UK during March 2013.

The news follows last week’s official statement on Wilko’s Facebook page that he has been diagnosed with terminal cancer of the pancreas and has chosen not to undergo chemotherapy.

Says Wilko’s manager, Robert Hoy: “The four UK dates represent an opportunity for Wilko to express his sincere thanks to his fans for all the support he has had over his long career.”

He’ll be playing London Koko (March 6), Bilston Robin 2 (March 7), Holmfirth Picturedrome (March 8) and Glasgow 02 ABC (March 9).

Tickets will go on sale from Monday January 21. Box Office: 0844 478 0898, www.thegigcartel.com.

The four UK dates sady represent Wilko’s final farewell.

After returning from a tour of Japan, he plans to record a new studio album, and will also release a live DVD from 2012’s UK tour.

He is also planning a short tour of France.

In addition to pioneering Dr. Feelgood’s iconic mid-seventies, pre-punk British R&B sound, Wilko moved on as the guitarist for Ian Dury and the Blockheads.

Today, Wilko’s own band includes Blockheads members Norman Watt-Roy (bass) and Dylan Howe (drums).

In 2009 he featured in Julien Temple’s Oil City Confidential – a fascinating full-length feature film documentary about Dr. Feelgood. The film received many accolades, including the MOJO Vision Award at the MOJO Honours List 2010.

Dr. Feelgood originally formed in 1971 as a British pub rock band from Canvey Island, Essex. Their name derived from a slang term for heroin or for a doctor who was willing to overprescribe drugs.

It is also a reference to a 1962 record “Dr. Feel-Good” by the American blues pianist/singer Willie Perryman (nicknamed “Piano Red”), which Perryman originally recorded under the name of Dr. Feelgood & The Interns.

Free album download - Dropkick Murphys, Matt Costa, Holly Williams and more

Here’s a great free download from our pals at American Songwriter.

It’s a 12-track album featuring a host of great acts.

1. Matt Costa :  Good Times
   
2. Joshua James : Queen Of The City

3. Whitehorse : Peterbilt Coalmine

4. Dropkick Murphys : Rose Tattoo
   
5. The Lost Bayou Ramblers with Scarlett Johansson : Coteau Guidry

6. Spirit Family Reunion : I Want To Be Relieved
   
7. Lindi Ortega : Cigarettes and Truckstops

8. Holly Williams : Drinkin’

9. Ashley Monroe : Like A Rose
   
10. Night Beds : Even If We Try

11. Calvin Love : Magic Hearts
   
12. Matthew Ryan : She’s A Sparrow

Get it here

Dropkick Murphys : Signed And Sealed In Blood video and review

There’s a secret formula to Ken Casey’s songwriting – and it works every time.

But don’t get the idea that it’s some trite, tried and tested trickery from a hit factory studio.

No, it’s much more basic than that. And it lies at the heart of every good song.

“My songs aim to tell you a life story in four minutes,” says the 43-year-old founder, bassist and singer with Dropkick Murphys.

“It’s as simple as that. A good story makes a good song.”

It’s a philosophy borne out as the the Boston paddy punks return to their breathtaking best.

After more considered concept album Goin’ Out In Style, it’s a raucous set that’ll prove a barnstormer when they hit the road again.

“The boys are back and they’re looking for trouble!” they holler at the outset – and from there on in it’s a wild night out.

Rose Tattoo, chosen as the single and more traditional than the rest, is close to Ken Casey’s heart.

It’s a story based on one of his own tattoos. It appears on his arm and is a memorial to his grandad, who raised Casey after his father died.

“He taught me most things that make me who I am today,” he says. “He was a big union guy in Boston.

“I just catch the tattoo out of the corner of my eye and it changes my mood when I think of him, and what a strong individual he was.”

Bizarrely, for a January release, there’s a Christmas song – the deliciously irreverent The Season’s Upon Us. The tarnished tinsel tale of festive family feuding is every bit as good as The Pogues’ Fairytale Of New York.

Elsewhere, Out On The Town channels 70s pop-rock – imagine Mud’s Tiger Feet, The Faces Ooh La La and a ceilidh band – while Out Of Our Minds is all pipes, mandolin, power chords and post-punk punch.

This may just be the Murphys’ best album yet, although there’s not a song to really rival their hallmark I’m Shipping To Boston.

Catch them live at Nottingham’s Rock City tomorrow night (January 17).

Richard Hawley: UK tour and new single

Hotfoot from his album of the year success here at Still Got The Fever, Richard Hawley is on his way to a venue near you.

Hawley, also shortlisted in the ‘British Male Solo Artist’ category at this year’s BRIT Awards (I’m one of the judges and I voted for him) will also release Don’t Stare At The Sun, the fourth and final single from Standing At The Sky’s Edge.

Don’t Stare At The Sun is one of the more reflective tracks from the album, a keynote performance suffused with a sense of cosmic serenity.

It covers a huge distance: a meditation that took inspiration from, on one hand, a woozy morning shared by young son and sleep-deprived father flying a kite in the park and, on the other, the fate that met Isaac Newton when he decided to stare into the sun.

“He burned the retinas in his eyes,” explains Hawley. “From that moment on, everything he saw was gold.”
 
Don’t Stare At The Sun will be available on February 25 as a digital download, CD single, and limited edition 10” vinyl. It will be accompanied by a new and exclusive, as yet unannounced, track.

There’ll be more information available soon at www.richardhawley.co.uk
 
2012 proved to be Hawley’s most successful year yet. The Sheffield troubadour released his hugely acclaimed and highest charting album to date, played to sold-out venues across Europe and performed a one-off concert with the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra at former Sheffield steel works Magna.

He topped the Still Got The Fever albums of the year list, was shortlisted as ‘an album of the year’ at the Mercury Music Prize, and was included in best albums 2012 polls in Q Magazine, Mojo, Uncut, NME, The Sun and Shortlist.

All that, of course, has been topped off with the BRIT Awards nomination.

Here are the tour dates:

February 17: Buxton Opera House

February 18: Edinburgh Picturehouse

February 20: Colston Hall, Bristol

February 21: The Assembly, Leamington Spa

February 22: Cambridge Corn Exhange

February 23: London Troxy

February 25: Liverpool Philharmonic Hall

February 26: Hull City Hall

For tickets click www.gigsandtours.com/tour/RICHARD-HAWLEY/

Metallica : 3D movie Through The Never release date confirmed

It’s Metallica loud, proud and quite literally in your face.

The band have confirmed the release of their upcoming 3D movie spectacular Metallica: Through The Never.

It’ll be released through Picturehouse Films and make its cinema debut on August 9.

“Metallica’s way of doing things is to jump into unexplored creative endeavours with no safety net whatsoever,” says drummer Lars Ulrich.

“Putting this movie together for the last couple of years has been a pretty wild ride, and we’ve definitely done our share of flying without a net!

“Bringing the Picturehouse team in at this point provides us with a much needed level of security for the distribution of the film.

“Their spirit of independence and desire to work outside the box is something we can relate to in every way, and this makes them both a welcome addition and a natural fit in the Metallica family.”

Picturehouse is best known for two of the most successful independent films ever – My Big Fat Greek Wedding and The Passion Of The Christ, as well as many other cutting-edge movies.

Black Sabbath : new album 13, new drummer Brad Wilk

OKAY crossword fans.

Black Sabbath drummer ... two words.

B--- W---

Yep, that’s right.

Brad Wilk.

The Rage Against The Machine drummer has been shipped in to replace Bill Ward on the new Sabbath album, which will be titled simply 13.

News of the switch was released on the 13^th of January, as in 13.1.13.

And it’s unlucky for Bill who, you’ll recall, was locked in a bitter dispute with former bandmates Tony Iommi, Geezer Butler and Ozzy Osbourne when he was left out of the big reunion.

No doubt more legal letters will be flying.

But the good news is that Tony is back on track, still battling cancer but reportedly writing some of his best music ever.

Sabbath have recorded the new album primarily in Los Angeles and were joined at the sessions by drummer Brad, one of the best in the business.

And if you thought that his work with RATM doesn’t particularly suit Sabbath’s more bruising Brummie riffs, then listen again to the three albums he made as part of supergroup Audioslave.

Wonder if the Sabs might do a cover of Cochise when they hit the road?

Produced by seven-time Grammy winner Rick Rubin – who has a track record of reviving careers – 13 will be released on Vertigo.

That’s a nice touch because it was on the label that Sabbath first made an album, and remained with then until 1978’s Never Say Die.

Since they started, by the way, the Sabs have shifted more 70 million albums together.



In advance of the album’s release, Tony & Co will head to New Zealand, Australia and Japan for live performances, with more to be announced. Don’t be surprised to see them at a major UK festival.

The dates so far are:

April 20 & 22 – Vector Arena, Auckland

April 25 – Entertainment Centre, Brisbane, Australia

April 27: AllPhones Arena, Sydney, Australia

April 29 & May 1: Rod Laver Arena, Melbourne, Australia

May 4: Perth Arena, 
Perth, Australia

May 12: Ozzfest, Makuhari Messe, Tokyo, Japan

Red Shoes : All The Good Friends and an anthem for anti-hunt campaigners everywhere

Carolyn Evans is angry. She’s been watching the traditional Boxing Day hunt scenes on the TV news.

“Some people feel because of their status in society, they are beyond the law and in the name of tradition still illegally hunt,” she says.

“It is illegal in our country to hunt down the fox with hounds and barbarically kill it. But people with money believe they are beyond the law’s reach.

“Once, on an anti-hunt rally, I was forced against a hedge by a rider and was threatened with my life as he reared his horse up towards me.

“I have never been so scared in my life. I felt as if I was the fox.

“Over many years I have been verbally and physically threatened for my views on fox hunting.

“Even as a musician and writer I have been asked not to talk about or sing about it because it would not be good for my career.

“Sod that. No-one tells me what I should and shouldn’t write about.”

Hence the eye-catching cover of Red Shoes’ eagerly awaited return, and the damning album opener, Red Coat Ride, which takes no prisoners in its condemnation of cruelty.

Rooted in folk tradition but boasting a riff surely inspired by The Move’s Brontosaurus, it is an anthem for the anti-hunting lobby, its message delivered in Carolyn’s heartfelt vocal.

Not that this is simply a family affair. As the album title might suggest, Birmingham husband and wife Mark and Carolyn Evans get by with a little help from their friends, a veritable who’s who of Midland music.

From Fairport Convention come Dave Swarbrick, Dave Pegg and Chris Leslie; from ELO there’s Bev Bevan and Bill Hunt. Fiddler Ric Sanders also joins regular Red Shoe shufflers Bert Priest and Tony Kelsey.

Highlights there are many.

The heartbreaking Sunday Afternoon is a plea for one last lease of life; If This Is Life recalls early Matthews Southern Comfort; Swansong bids a bittersweet farewell.

But it’s an extraordinary cover version of The Move’s Blackberry Way which will have the hairs rising on the back of your neck.

Caressed by violin, the song is slowed right down, given a folk inflection and married to the James Bond theme.

  
Who needs Jimmy Choos? These home-made Brummie shoes are the perfect fit.